The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-05-21


citizens from the North and the South, whose
names still ring in the echoes of their country,
and throb in the hearts OF their countrymen.
All these men thus selected from the great masr
with special reference to their talents, integrity
and patriotisn-whose names are ldentliled
with all that Is sacred and venerable in our
past history. it seems, set their hands and
seals to an instrument denounced by the
fanatical abolitionists as gross viola
ton of the, law of God, and the rights of
nature. So say William Lloyd Garrison, and
ABBY Folsom; and so say Senators Seward
and Hale; and so says Joshua Giddings- men
who, if their most impudent claims to wisdom
and virtue were conceded, are not worthy to
tie the shoe-strngs of Washington, a Madl-
son, and Franklin, Yet such are the insects
that buzz, and the reptiles that hiss their venom
| in the face of the Constitution and its trainers.
1t might have been nationally anticipated;
that having established the cdiice of freedom on
the great basis of liberty and equality, and tast
ed the blessings it has scattered so profusely on
our heads, we had done and experienced all
that was necessary to secure it at least from
acknowledgements, and perpetuate, through ages,
that Constitution, which is the ark OF our safety.
But there are two great enemies to human tree
dom-king- craft and priest-cratt. These are
always at work, in some way or other, under
mining or openly assailing the liberty of thought
and action, and under pretence OF curblng the
s'eel putting the'bit in his mouth, the saddle on
his back, and riding him till he either breaks
down, or tosses item over his head. Some
times they are engaged in III, struggle which
shall ride foremost, and then the people stand
some chance of escaping being trodden down.;
and sometimes, indeed generally, they combine
together, and hunt in couples, when they are
sure to be irresistible. Against church and
State, united there is no adequate defence since;
willie one appeals to the hopes and fears OF
mankind hereafter, the other applies them to
the present state of existence, in the shape OF
temporal rewards and punishment. Betwixt
the two there is no escape; the mind and the
bo ly are equally easlaved The chain is forged
by one, aud rivetcd by the other.
The American Revolution shook the thrones
of kings to the centre, and are now no longer
supported by opinion, but force. The Divine
right of kings, and the doctrines Of passive obe-
dience and non.resistance. have become ohso=
lete as maxims of state-that slavish devotion
to despots, which was disguised under the name
of loyalty, has been superseded by the more
free and manly principle ofpatriotism; and
what was before prosttuted to thrones, is now
devoted to our country. Thus, the fonnda-
tions of despotic power have hccn gradually
undermined, and It has been necessary to seek
new props to sustain the rocking fabric. The
monarchs of Europe have accordingly, one
and all, become models Of piety, and sought the
support Of the gown and the bayonet, to enable
them to Guel the rising spirit of liberty. I'm
mediatcly on the downfall of Napoleon, they
formed conspiracy against the freedom OF
mankind, called it {, The Holy Alliance and
violated the rights of almost every state of Eu-
rope "In the name of the Most Holy and un-
divided Trinity. they parcelcd out portions
of the pcopl !, as the Spaniards did the Indians
of South America into Encomenderos, and
placed them under what masters they pleased:
,hoy violated the territorial rights of one State,
to b,>t,w what was wrested from it on anoth.
er, and outraged every national feeling all in the
name of "lhe Most Holy and undivided Trin-
ty." Never were there such pious sovereigns,
so Jealous in the cause of religion; and never
were human rights more grossly assailed un-
der its holy sanction.
The cloak of hypocrisy proved so success.
full in concealing The encroachmeats oftyranny,
that it has ever since been worn. Every effort
has been made, and is still making to render
liberty and infdelity inscparable, and despotism
Synonymous with piety. The zeal Of the OPP
pressor for the church is on v equallcd by his
expressions of the people; and the most pious
of all monarchs is he who least studies the hap,
pipsss Of his subjects. What cannot now be
attained by open violence or political craft, is
sought to be gained by religious hypocrisy;
and what the State wants in strength, it bor-
rows from the church, which in return is rcmu-
neratcd by royal bounty and s,,bsewcncy.-
Thus they play into the hands of each other;
and thus, ecclesiastical ambition has been ava
kcned to perception of the possibility Of once
more reviying those ages Of darkuess, when the
dogmas of II priest superseded the authority Of
the State; and the decisions of Il council, or Il
text of Scripture perverted from its original ap-
plication, were paramount to all temporal laws,
all social institutions, aud all civil authority.
The people of the United States, when they
divorced Church and State, and placed all rcli-
gious denominations on a foo:ing of equality
in civil rights, believed they had done every
thing necessary to protect themselves from those
dangers WHICH are inscparable from union
of the two great influences that govern man.
kind-opinion and force. But though the air