Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1850-07-05

oPS"ni'S W 70 ". e''S SiSosifSS'' ""A {, III ,
of our fathers, the spirit of the dead
comes upon us, the fire of re burns ir
our hearts and lightens in our eyes, and
we remember that we are the sons and
daughters of the brave and free.
Associated with these recollections
of the past, are all our aspirations for the
future, and remembering that it was the
birthday of our country's freedom, we
are inspired by its annual return to look
forward with the eye of prophecy into fu-
turity that we may behold the great, the
immeasurable fulness of our country s
fate; and then in the ages to come, we see
stretching from sea to sea the glittering
fields of her immortal triumphs, we be-
hold the myriads of her children basking
in the light of liberty and truth, and her
name, and her fame in its fulness we
know TO be filling the earth.
But while we rejoice in these holy recol-
lections, and are filed with such immor-
tai hopes, we should not forget there is
danger around us, and that the sun
which saw so glorious dawning may
set forever in clouds and darkness.
We should not, in admiration for that
lofty destiny which Providence holds in
reserve for the Anglo-American race,
slight our individual rights and duties,
nor should we guard the one with the
less anxious care, or be the less scrupu-
lous in the discharge of the other; for we
should remember that, while great ma
ton may in the main be prosperous and
happy, some one of it's members may be
suffering from the cruelties of injustice
an1 oppression, just as the body of the
man may be healthy and vigorous, while
some one of his fingers is full of pain and
disease. We should therefore remember
not only that we are citizens of the great
American Union, but that we are citizens
of South Carolina-citizcns of one of the
Southern States, living under peculiar in
stitutions and surrounded by peculiar cir
cumstances, imposing upon us many adj
ditional obligations. We should forever
that unless we stand up brave
ly in defence Of our rights, we will be
under foot by the millions who
are pressing against us, and while the
North will be spreading herself like
dcluging ocean, over the vast regions of
the West, we will become poor, wretch
ed and despised.
If we suffer her to exclude us from
participation in the territories, if we suffer
her longer to appropriate our resources,
if we fail to maintain our equality in the
Union, we will fall into the low and de-
grading state of vassalage, and thus,
while she through the ages to come, will
be growing rich, and more rich on the
spoils of our land, we and our children
will be falling farther and farther behind,
and still sinking into a deeper degrada-
lion.
Let us be up and active, then, and new
CT let us sacrifice to faction or fanaticism
one title of our rights; for there never
has been an age in which the powerful
did not tyrannize over those who would
calmly acquiesce, nor has the world at
any time seen a community of men in
which there was not to be found des-
potic spirit ever striving to forge chains
with which to shackle the the feet of the
free.
If there ever has been time when it
became necessary for the great mass of
the people to turn their attention to the
affairs of 'goecrnment, this is such time.
Of their leaders, of the men in whom
they have trusted, some are deserving
them and some are dead. One by one
the warders are leaving the hill, and
there are few remaining to warn them
of the approach of danger. The people
must sleep no longer then, confident in