Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1850-09-27

ITS stead there is strife and conten-
tions, wars and rumors of wars,
warnings UNDECIDED, rights disregard
ed, and the more than threatened
rule of factious majorities.
'Tis useless TO recount our wrongs,
numerous as they are, they are
known to every one, nor for them is
there any shadow of extenuation.
'Iis true religion and humanity
have been made the pretexts, but is
humanity cruel or religion unjustl
and is there not injustice in viola
ton of law and pGghted troth, and
cruelty in placing the lives and for
tunes of millions at stakel
The bonds of union have become
the bonds of subsection, the Consti-
tuition is reviled and trampled under
foot-the very spirit and characr er of
the Government has been changed,
and from a confederacy of sovereign
States, i, has become nation in
which the will of a factious majority
dictates the law, a majority which
has shown unmistakeable signs of a
fixed and unalterable determination
to bind us TO the wheel.
Under these circumstances it be-
hooves us to consider what is to he
done.
And first, Is there any safety in an
union which has been thus abused {?
The only guaranty which we can
have for the preservation Of our
rights in this Union, is the Constitu-
ton, but that has been violated BY
the majority, and if they disregard it
now, is there any likelihood That they
will pay more respect TO it in future,
when their numbers and their strength
increasing their usurpations will be
attended with less danger? viii
they be content with what they have
already done, and when they will
have The full power to destroy, grow
tender of our rights?
Ii we submit now, our acquiesence
in the present enormities will be a
sure guaranty for our future tame-
ness, and, as men ever tyranize over
those who calmly submit, they will
continue to rise higher and higher
above us, and we to fall farther and
farther from our first estate, until our
children will become worse than the
bondsmen OF slaves.
No folly is so great as that folly
which trusts to the forbearance of
usurping power Rome trusted its
Caesar with unlawful powers, and
Rome was enslaved; witness TIE
crime, The misery and the degrade
tion of the Italian Republics; the
voice of the majority was potent in
Paris, yet Robespierre sat like mil
dew on the destinies of France, and
the guillotine rested not from its
work, neither by night nor by day,
There is no folly so great as that
folly which trusts to the forbearance
OF usurplng power. For years we
have been retreating before the ag-
crossing North, and at every remove
we have been threatening -"Stop; or
we resist another step and we
strlke!" until at length, like the In
dian, we have been driven to the end
of the log where we must resist on.
forerertM Aye, we must, and we
'o'H resist, for the spirit Of The "olden
time," of the time when our fathers
did battle on an hundred fields, still
dwellsin the bosoms of their children.
o, yes We cannot bow us down,
for the fire of '76 still glows in our
hearts, and we have sworn TO live
and die as freemenl Our wiyesand
daughters shall not blush for our
shame, for our shame, who are call
ed the brave and free, but proudly
shall theirtrue hearts swell, and glad
ly shall their bright eyes beam as
trustingly they lean upon us, calling
us their own. With these who would
be our tyrants, ye may call us ultra
lists and mad eisnnionists, we care