The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-06-21
W A S HIN G TOT N.
FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 81. 1914.
PLANS OF THE DISTINGUISHES.

We announced to our readers some time ago,
that Mr.. McDufie had signified his intention of
resigning his seat in the Senate, with the purpose
Of taking one in the Legislature of South Caro-
lima and that his avowed object in SO doing was
to effect the passage of State excise law, levy
ing Tax upon Northern manufactures equivalent
to the impost duties of the Federal Government
upon foreign goods. He cav, he said, no other
way to accomplish the destruction of the Tariff
system, as every appeal which the South had
made 10 the magnanmity of the nation through
their representatives, in that behalf, had proved
Intellectual. We heard his startling announce
ment in the Senate, and took occasion the next
day to call attention to the REASONABLE purpose
thus openly avowed upon the floor of the Senate !;
aud we had expected to see the public indigna-
ton awakened by the atrocious wckedness it
displayed Contrary to our expectations, how
ever, the announcement created no sensation, and
seemed to attract no general attention from the
public.
But every day serves to develop, more and
more, the disafection of South Carolina towards
the Union, and settled purpose to dissolve it.
We hive, from day to day, furnished the evidence
of public sentiment in that quarter, as exhibited
at their public meetings, and every mail brings
us additional accounts of the feeling Of disloyay
to the Union which has been dlffused into the
minds Of the people by the Calhoune, McDufies
and Hamitons, who have been goaded by dis
appointed ambition to mediate the destruction of
a Government which withholds from their grasp
its highest honors and rewards.
C,llous as the public mind has hitherto been in
regard TO The reasonable avowal of Mr.. McDufie
in the Senate. we trust that proper feeling will
be awakened when steps actually taken to
carry out those designs. We learn from the
Spectator Of yesterday, that Mr.. McDufie has,
in conformity with his promise, resigned his seat
III the Senate, and that himself and Mr.. Pickens
will 20 into the Legislature of South Carolina,
where they are to effect the passage of law, in
direct vio:a ion Of the Constitution of the United
Staes, for laying a discriminating tax upon
N,rthern manufactures, in favor of foreign goods
The Spectator, the organ Of the Nullifiers, and
Of the Polk party. par erc1llence. expresses its
appreciation Of the course To be pursued, by South
car.lina, and evesy exertion is made, and will be
made, to induce their Polk friends throughout the
South, to adopt similar measures. We call upon
our Wing friends throughout the Southern coun-
try to bring their opponents to this test-we call
upon them to demand of the Polk party if dis
solution Of The Union 10 their alternative, in case
of failure in their efforts 10 abolish the tariff and
annex Texas. Circumstances would indicate that
such is the feeling among them-it was they who
who forced Polk down the Threats of the tame
spirited majorify-it was they who would listen
to no compromise in the Baltimore Convention,
and demanded candidate in favor of immediate
annexation and free trade and from other affini-
ties between the Polk party in general through
out the South and the Polk party in particular, in
South Carolina, we fear that universal feeling of
clsaffection to the Union prevails in the party.
The whole sum and substance of the declama-
ton about free trade and annexation amounts to
this that small minority of the people of the
United States have the right to control the ma
jority-and if the majority of the people of the
country should happen to be composed of sterner
stuff than the majority of the Locofoco Baltimore
Convention, and should refuse to yield to the die
taton of the minority, then the Union must bc
dissolved. and this nefarous excise scheme, to
be adopted in palpable and undisputed violation
of the Constitution, is merely designed to dissolve
the Union, as the authors of the scheme contem-
plate nothing else than that its execution will be
prohibited by the Federal Government In such
a contest South Carolina, with a population of
two hundred and sixty thousand free citizens
against seventeen millions, can only look for i'm
munify in her own insigni6cance But if this be
a Government of laws, and we have an Execu-
tive at it's head worthy of his station, we trust
that those laws will be enforced-aDd that trail