Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1850-12-05


views on the subject, yet it is my deliber:
ate opinion, that the period has arrived
for the removal from the State of every
free colored person, who is not the owner
Of real estate or slave property. This
population is not only q non-productlve
class, but it is, and always has been, es-
sentially corrupt and corrupting. Their
longer residence among us, if the warfare
between the North and South is to contin-
ue, will eventually generate evils very dill
ficult of eradication. Possessing, in an un-
limited degree, the right of locomotion,
they can, in person, bear intelligence IN
day. from one section of the State to an
other, or, through the Post Office, mature
their own plans of villiany, as well as ex-
ecute orders emanating from foreign sour
ces. There is, indeed, too much reason to
believe that at this moment they are made
to occupy the situation of spies in our
camp, and to disseminate through the ell
tire body of slave population the poison
of insubordination, prepared in the great
laboratory of Northern fanaticism.
In every community, where the institution
of slavery is interviewer with its social sys-
TEN, the public tranquility and safety demand
the toleration of only TWO classes, white men
and coloured slaves The existence OF
third class, with many Of the most valuable
rights of the former, on q level with the lat
ter in repugnance to labour, and possessing
all their menial traits of character, unchecked
by the restraints of plantation discipline, The
colonred freeman lives q degraded and un-
ypitied being, q foe to public progress and un-
concerned in all that relates to the welfare OF
his fellow creatures. History attcsts that III
every servile war, or attempt at insurrectlon,
in our country, this unfortunate race have been
the chief actors or instgators. The dark and
bloody scenes in St. Domingo would have oc-
CURED, even if tile famous Decree Of the Ma
tional Assembly of France, of the 18th OF
MAY, 1871, had never become law.
In South Carolina, free negroes. mulattoes,
md meztizoes, possesses all the rights ofprop-
erty and protection to which the white inhab-
itants are entitled. They may purchase, hold,
and transmit, by descent, real estate. In des-
pite of these and other incstimable rights,
which they undisturbedly enjoy, there are few
of the 5000 in our limits who own property
beyond n very limited amount
In view of their early removal from the
State, | recommend that the Tax Collectors
be instructed to ascertain the number OF free
NEGROES, muattoes and mestizoes in the sew
erSl districts and parishes, and how many ot
each who own real estate or slave property,
and that they report to the Legislature, ut Its
next Session.
At nv recommendation, and in pursuance
of your own conceptions Of duty, it was re-
solved, at your last Session, that the Governor
be requested to convene the Legislature, II
not in Session, should the Wilmot Provlso, or
any kindred measure, be passed by Congress
As the contingency to which the resolution
had reference occurred in SEPTEMBER 4 pro.
found respect for the Executive Department
of the government, and the Honorable body
by whose mandate | WAS called to ill 1t, IN
duce me to say, in general terms, that pubic
considarstinns-Af-a> >fIr:lre and weighty char.
sinn 1srSaA4,o .Jr this relL, ntve
= -tSstGP tSSstSSoPo. plnlcated to our feilow-ciiizens
there were others that, could they have been
made generally known, would in my judgment
have entirely appeased the public feeling.
am gratitied in being enabled to assure YOU
that the correctness Of my decision has been
almost unanimously sustained by the people.
last meeting Of the Congress Of the
United States was the most eventful and dis
turbing that has been held since the establish
ment of the Federal Government After
many years of unwarrantable legislation by
that body, crisis HIS at length arisen in ou.
federal relations, affecting deeply and essen
TALLY the rights and interests of one half the
Union. Whether the endangered States
should longer hold an equality of rank with
sheir copartners, and iheir s'i:is'na be prolilb-
tied from enjoying all the advantages and
privileges constitutionally guaranteed to both,
were virtually, the momentous and to us hu-
initiating issues, which the Legislative branch
of the central authority was engaged in con-
sideriDg for about nine Of the ten months in
which it was in session. The "Compro-
MISE" ultimately adopted, l consider another
triumph over the South by the fell spirit Of
abolitionism.
The aggressive course Of our Federal ru-
lers, and the States and people Of the North,
had at an earlier period, assumed so alarming
an aspect that by invitation of Mississippi to
the slaveholding States, nine of tncir number
assembled at Nashville, in May last, for con-
sultatlon concerning the means Of saving the
Union by preserving inviolate the principles
and guarantees of the Constitution. Over tile
deliberations Of that august council, compo-
sed largely Of the talent and patriotism of
the land, the spirit of harmony presided. In
demanding the protection Of rights, jeopardi-
zed by the unfraternal acts of their own coun-
trymen, they appealed TO their sense of JUS
tice and the endearments Of family associa-
ton, the plain terms of bond that united
ted them. the ennobling and proud reeollcc-
tions of the past, and the glorious anticipa.
tons Of the future. The result has shown
that the authorities and people whom they
addressed, are, in feeling and sentiment. alien
to us their political allies. and that the North
have resolved on possessing the unlimited
and permanent control Of our civil institutions
To operate on the fears of the minority
section, and expose the supposed hopeless
ness Of its condition, the President had vol
unfairly promulgated, in advance, his fixed de-
termination to settle by the sword disputed
question between the General Government
and sovereign member of the Union. In
following the inglorious precedent established
by one Of his predecessors, the principle was
maintained, that State resistance to u Con-
gressional edict would by him be classed
among the unrefecting acts of mob; or the
i II.