The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-07-09
sSee act Of Massachusetts,, March l1SS.
From the Charleston Mercury.
OUR DUTY.


Mrssrs. Editors-From yesterdays paper |
see that Mr.. Soue's Amendment has been re-
iected bv an overwhelming majority Of the SEN
ate. This amendment is the original Missouri
Compromise. 1t expressly excludes slavery
north of So deg. 80 min. without, at the same
time, expressly admitting at south OF that line
Neither of these provisions are III accordance
with the Constitution But the latter has been
proposed by the Southern Convention, as sim.
ple partition of the common territory, under the
conviction that the Constitution of the United
States, so far as we are concerned, is dead
letter. Yet it seems that even thus, with no
guaranty to our rights in the small fraction OF
territory on our side of that line, the Missouri
Compromise has signally and unequivocally
failed.
Here is fact, which, like the sound of the
last trump, should wake us, one and all, from
the death.like trance of imbecility so long in
dulged in to redeem our mou!dering liberties-
Here is fact that should plead, trumpet
tongued. to our common sense. 1t tells us in
tones which none can mistake, that hope Of re.
coucilaton is vain. 1t sounds the knel to all
expectation of satisfactory adjustment" tan
expectation long and ardenty cherished by
many honest men in the South, who, in spite OF
every indication, have continued to hope against
hope. Let it be known to our people; let it
sink into their heart of hearts; let them turn it
over and over in their minds; let the people see
what respect is paid to their voice-to the voice
of all the Southern States. Let them feel to
what depth Of humiliation their blind and in.
fatuated forbearance has lowered them. Long,
long has the South been suffering under pro-
gressive course of wrong. Injury upon injury
has been heaped upon her. She has remon-
strated, warned, threatened, pleaded. In an
swer, the cry of indignation has been raised: :
"Who so traitorous as to wish to uusettle this
beautiful system of things, by which we 1.-THE
North) are lighted to prosperity; (and you
why you aside) and the world at large bcholds
the spectacle of the most beneficial, free, and
blessed Government upon earth" The people
of the South, out of their love to the Union,
which has attained the force Of habit, have even
come down to propose TO receive f;ir less than
is their due, from the people of the North.--
"Judge, o you gods, how dearly we have low
ed them" A proposition coming from the
South, and more conceding than our " extreme
concession" has been unanimously rejected by
the North.
"Thus repulsed, our Gnal hope,
Is fat despair"
1t now becomes every Southern man. having
but Il small show of reason, let alone scl-rc-
spect, to despair of the Union. ltnow becomes
every freeman to prepare himself to maintain
Southern rights, to the disrupturc of the Union
-. at every hazard, and to the last extremity"
"Too long have we been lying supnely on our
backs and hnggng the drlusve phantom of
hope" and crying peace, peace. when there
is no peace. Its nigh time now-tor every man
of true heart and uncorrupted principles in the
South, to start up from this dstempered dream
of satisfactory adjustment" There is no
satisfactory adjustment, either to be, or to be
expected. The Union must fall or the South
must fall.
If. therefore, no reasonable man who has OBJ
served events can avoid seeing that we are Ill
this dilemma; ifevery Southern man must now
be an enemy to the South or Il Disunlonst--
not Disunionist per Sc, but by force Of circum-
stances, as an alternativc--it is time to begin to
"stiffen the snews, summon up the blood -
Let us not too soon think we are prepared
The South is not preparct--South Carolina is
not yet prepared South Carolina may be in
advance of her sister Southern States; but it
does not become a people preparing for great
things to be still If, indeed, the Union is to be
despaired Off we be, indeed, in the beginning
of n revolution, we need not be afraid to hear
revolutionary and inhaming speeches. We
want to hear the truth plainly spoken. Revo-
lutions require great determinations The time
is fast approaching when our determination is
to be put to the test. 1t is, therefore, time we
bepin to .sscrew onr courage to the sticking
point" :. -,
Nor in preparing ourselves for this crisis have
wc good reason to fear, that by giving assu-
rance to the TRUTH and freely expressing our sen.