The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-10-17
Free dom OF Opinion In south Carolina.

We copy from the Augusta (Ga.) Cironi-
Gle an article from which it appears that South
Carolina is determined to organize her own
citizens in opposition to the Federal Union.
Having failed to obtain the cooperation of
other States in their endeavors to dissolve the
Union, the malcontents now require every
man to sustain and support the action of South
Carolina, whatever it may be-" They seem
determined that every latent spark Of affection
for the Union, in the breasts of their fellow
citizens, shall be extinguished or suppressed.
The chivalry Of South Carolina seemed
some time since to have abandoned the charac-
ter of Bayard for that of Iago They sought
to stimulate the jealousy of other States by poi
sonous insinuations of the oppression of those
who were united by every tie of interest and
consanguinity. In seeking to array Mississippi,
Virginia, and Georgia in the van of disuniop,
they adopted policy which involved the de-
struction of the innocent and the ruin Of the
fairest fabric of human happiness.
The article which follows will show the
Union minority in South Carolina what they
may expect when no longer under the protec-
tion of the Union 1t will no doubt stimulate
them to resist the compulsory system which is
intended to force them into disunon.
"We have heard much of the alien and sedition
laws, and high wrought and bitter denunciations
of those who by that means sought to restrict the
freedom of speech which had been guaranteed by
the Constitution; but even they, with all their re-
strants upon that highest privilege of a freeman,
do not surpass, in atrocity, the scenes which
enacted in Columbia, S. c., if correctly in
formed What commentary the freedom OF
speech and opinion, TO sec majority of the citi-
zens in a community prescribe, by resolutions, a
code of action for the minority; and in the event
they do not yield their acquiescence, and pledge
themselves to the support Of measures they deem
most obnoxious, TO offer them indignites and pro-
scribe them in business to the extent of their
pacity and influence Such, We learn, is repub-
licanism in the chualric State of South Carolina
Aye in the capital, at Columbia, are assured
that a series of resolutions have been adopted,
curing every TO pledge himself to sustain and
support the action of South Carolina, whatever it
may be- in the present crisis, and those who refuse
are prescribed Some Of the merchants who
fused to sign the pledge had their signs blackened
and deiaced, and the actors in these scenes have
united to prescribe them in their business
What cay you, people of Georgia, 10 such
things' The spirit which justihes such law
less outrages upon the freedom Of opinion and
speech in South Carolina, is abroad in Georgia, and
only awaits a consciousness Of power to exercise il.
Are you, then, freemen of Georgia, ready to sub
NIT your necks TO the yoke, and amely suffer your
selves to be thus goaded by reckless set Of disor
gnnizes who seeking the destruction of the
Government? If not, It is necessary that you unite
in a common effort to PROSTATE those in Georgia
who affiliate with them"
We may ask those citizens who, according
to the Chronicle, have been prescribed in their
business" TO compare the alleged expressions
of the Union with the positive and actual inju-
ries inflicted by those who would destroy it.
Whilst it requires a metaphysical mind to ex-
plain, and jaundiced spirit to comprehend, the
evils which the Union inficts upon its citizens,
"blackened" name and deserted counter af-
ford palpable evidences Of political intolerance
which are not TO be mistaken. VIII the people
Of South Carolina submit longer to be directed
by politicians who abuse the representative
power confded to them, and then attempt TO
coerce obedience to their infatuated counsels7
VIII they consent TO the excelsior Of their State
from the Confederacy, that they may be ruled
| by those who punish attachment to the Union
as treason to the South, and difference Of opin-
ion as disqualification for social intercourse7
|