The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-06-21

will be exacted--and when all are conquered,
will the evil be arrested! In fifty years, twenty
new non.slaveh"ldug States may be added to
the Union, whilst some which are now slave.
hclding may become -slaveholding States
There then will be no need as now openly to
put aside the Constitution to reach their object
If they will deign to do it, the non-slaveholdng
States will then have the power, by two-thrds
in Congress and three-fourths of the States, to
amend the Constitution, and then have its ex
press sanction to consummate their policy
Your condition is progressive
IF from the past transactions we have nara
ted we learn our condition in the Union, they
teach us also that our past policy Of non-acton
and submission to aggression cannot bring us
peace and safety. When the doors of Congress
were thrown open to agitation on the subject
of slavery, if the Southern States had moved
with energy to avert a state of things unconstl-
tutional ITSELF and surely tending to bring the
slaveholding and non.slayeholding States into
collision, although late, it might not have been
too late to stop subsequent encroachments upon
our rights But the Southern States were pas
sive, and their forbearance has had the effect OF
inspiring the Northern people with the belief
either that we value union with them more
than we value the institution of slavery, or that
we dare not move from conscious inability to
protect ourselves Youhave ungenerously stood
still, whilst your supporters and the defenders
of the Constitution in the Northern States, in
their efforts to protect you from the agitations
of slavery in Congress, have been politically an
initiated or have turned your foes. You have
tamely acquiesced, until to hate and persecute
the South has become high passport to honor
and power in the Union. You have unwisely
stood still, whilst year after year the volume of
anti.slavery policy and sympathy has swollen
into unanimity throughout all the henon-slavehold-
ing States, and the sections of the Union now
face each other in stern collision. You have
waited, until the Constitution of the United
States is in danger of being abolished, or, what
is worse, of becoming what the majority in Con-
gress think proper to make it. That great prln.
ciple on which our system of free government
rests-ofso dividing the powers of government,
that to common government only those pow
ers should be granted which must affect all the
people composing it equally in their operation,
whilst all powers over all interests local or sec.
tional, should be reserved to local or sectional
govenments-is in danger of being uprooted
from their Constitution. Local and sectional
interests absorb the time and business Of Con.
gress; and thus sectional despotism, totally
irresponsible to the people of the South, consti.
tuted of the Representatives in Congress from
the non.slaveholding States, ignorant of our
feelings, condition, and institutions, reigns at
Washington. These are the fruits of your past
forbearance and submission.
If we look into the nature of things, such re-
suits will not seem to be either new or strange.
There is but one condition in which one people
can be safe under the dominion of another peo.
ple--and that is when their interests are entire.
ly identical. Then the dominant cannot op-
press the subject people without expressing
themselves. The identity Of interest between
them is the security for right government But
as this identity can scarcely ever exist between
any two people, history bears but one testimony
as to the fate of subject people. They have
always been compelled to minister to the pros
perity and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of their masters. If
this has always been the case under the ordina.
ry difference ofiaterests and feelings which ex-
ist between States, how much more certainly
must the experience of history be realized be.
tween the people of the Northern and Southern
States. Here is a difference Of climate and
productions throughout territory stretching
along the whole belt of the temperate zone, af
fecting the pursuits and characters Of the peo-
pie inhabiting it. But the great diference-the
one great diference-the greatest which can
exist among a people, is the institution of sla-
very. This aloce sets apart the Southern States
as peculiar people, with whom independence
as to their internal policy is the condition of
their existence They must rule themselves, or
perish. Every colony in the world where AT:
ncan slavery existed, with one exception, has
been destroyed; and if this has been o,e case
under the old and effete governments ofEurope,
will it not prevail under the dominion Of the
restless people OF the Northern States? They
do not practically recognise the inferiority of
the African to the Caucasian races They do
not realize, because the circumstances of their
condition do not compel them to realize, the
inpossibility of an amalgamation between the
races. Exempt from the institution Of slavery,
it is not surprising that their sympathies should
be against us. whilst the dogma ons~hicb they
profess to build their system of free government
the absolute rule of the majority--leaves no
barrier to their power in the affairs of the gen.
eral government, and leads them to its consoli.
dation. Religion, too, false or real fires their
enthusiasm against an institution which many