South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1835-01-03

CIV of the state, without forieiung the
character of patriot We babitual-
" speak of Roman virtue and Roman
patriotism as proverbial and they are
held up, throughout Christendom, TO
the rising generation, as models for Iml'
tation. And yet 10 every period OF the
Republic, with scarcely an interval,
these virtuous and patriotic citizens
were engaged 10 vexing the ocean and
desolating the earth by wars of plumber
and conquest. These are not mere alb
stract truths and barren speculations,
but they practically illustrate the pecu-
liar and perilous condition Of the ex.
porting and slavehoding States, as
members of the great North American
confederacy, and demonstrate the impe.
rious necessity of rallying all parties a.
round the standard of State sovereignty,
resolved in the spirit of our glorious
mo,to--"animisque, opibusque paratT
Ito maintain and preserve il untarnish-
ed, 10 every emergency and at every
hazard, as the last hope Of transmitting
to our posterity the blessings of cons.i-
tu,ional liberty.
The entire legislation of Congress,
on the conflicting interests Of the plant
ing and manufacturing States, has been
a war of communities agains. commu-
mites, carried on by making unjust and
unconstitutional laws, instead Of fight.
ing hazardous and bloody battles. In
this legislative warfare, 1 have seen the
truth OF all that have said as to the
injustice of communities acting as such,
most strikingly illustrated. | have
seen men of high honor and unblem.
ished integrity 10 all the relations of
private life, who would shrink with alb.
horrence from the preparation Of an
act of individual injustice, voting with
an undisturbed conscience for measures
Of legislative plumber; and though full
| Iy convinced of their unequal and OPP
pressive operation, it would have been
just as vain to think of restraining them
by shelving their injustice, as it wonld
have been to arrest the march OF Ro-
man army, by demonstrating the inJus'
tice of the war.
The rights and liberties of the min
GRITTY States, SO to speak, are in much
greater jeopardy from the injustice of
the majority States, acting through the
federal government, under an assumed
and practical omnipotence, than they
possibly could be, if there existed no
compact of union and each were sepa.
rate and independent. / do conscien-
tiously believe that the smallest State
on the continent Of Europe, amidst the
gigantic struggles of warning monarch
les, holds its rights & liberties by much
surer guarantees, under the law OF ma.
tons, than South Carolina now holds
her rights and liberties, under the fed
eral constitution, subject to construc-
ton which absolutely inverts lis opera
ton, rendering it a chain to the Cypress
ed and cobweb to the oppressor. Ii
is not to be doubted, for example, that
if a league of the mightiest potentates
of Europe, were to assume and exer-
else the power of prohibiting the trade
of the most Insignificant kingdom with
the other nations of the earth, or of i'm
posing restrictive duties upon that
trade, with the avowed purpose ofpro-
noting the interest of the confederated
powers, the whole commercial and civ
ilizad world would be animated by one
common sentiment ofindignation at the
outrage, not less vehement than that
which was excited, some half century
ago, by the Infamous partition Of Pc.
land. And yet strange and extraor-
binary as it may appear, this is precise
ly the outrage, with no circumstances OF
mitigation, but many OF aggravation,
which New York, Pennsylvania, Mas
sachusetts, and their associates, have
committed against the planting States
OF this Union, through the perverted a.
gency Of a government, created to pre-.
vent such outrages, and which that
government had deliberately prepared
to enforce against the sovereign State
of South Carolina, by the bayonets Of
mercenary soldiers, under all the pre-
tended sanctions of human authority.
|
Among the most sacred of the obi.
I cations which we owe 10 posterity, is
that of preparing the rising generation
TO &C, well their part on the great thea
ire of human affairs, according TO the
emergencies in which Providence may
place them and | am impressed with
solemn and painful conviction, that