Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-08-07
CHARLESTON COOPERATION MEETING,

take place, and we asked the question "Can il be
designed to drop Charleston below the tone of the
Southern Rights meeting of the preceding week =
Since then, full accounts of these proceedings
have reached us, and our question is answered by
them ailirmatively. Thank heaven the party.
now showing its head, is not Charleston-and
even if it were, yet Charleston is uot the STATE.
The people of South Carolina have ever regard.
cd their Metropolis with feelings of pride and pre-.
ference, as conrascd with any other City on GARTH
They have felt that when Charleston was com.
plimentcd, they were-when she was traduccd.
they shared the obloquy. Many of us have even
been taught to love what impartial strangers lool;
upon as her greatest blcmisll-tllc aniiquated and
sombrc hue of her streets and tcnemenls. \ sim
pie circumstance like this, tends 10 illustrate the
true nature Of that affection, which we are free o
say Carolinians have ever felt towards their hon.
ored Seaport. In further attesialion of the genu-
ineness and general prevalence of this feeling. il
is only necessary to point to the record Of our
Legislative enacnents, heartily approved as they
have been by the people. to show that ii has fully
exhibited itself by deeds well as words. But
this attachment and admiration have not been
calseless and senseless a long and interesting
history dating back at least from the year l777l.
proves that these hcart-ohcrings have been the
just awards of true worth. Whenever danger has
threatened our borders, Charleston has been the
first to sound the alarm and to meet that danger
ut the Threshold. She has presented at all times,
strong bulwark of defence. in the bold and
enthusiastic spirit of her citizens. We have
hitherto looked to her. from all parts Of the State
with confidence in peri!ous emergency, because
she has stood forth, promptly, tie unHmching
champion of our honor and sovereignty. We have,
it may be said. yielded her the honor of bearing
aloft the Palmetto banner, because we felt assured
it would never be lowered in her keeping. We
have been accustomed to cherish the nacmury OF
many scenes and occurrences, connected with her
past history, with peculiar reverence, because
they were chiefly marked by intrepid and nncal.
cula,ing devotion to high principle. She has
heretofore been the uncompromising enemy of
tyranny in every shape and the advocate of prompt
resistance to its unjust DEGREES, at every hazard
and this is the true secret of the influence she has
exercised over the destiny of South Carolina.
But if her course in 81 is TO contradict the tenor
of the last Is ycars-f she is now to set herself up
as the extinguishcr of Carolina enihusasm-ifs she
should now seek to Danish from the public mind
that firm faith in our single strength which has
given ms all the character we havc--if she now
come to us teaching HE doctrine that freemcn
should not resist oppression because forsoolh there
is danger in the undertaking. if she should think
proper to pronounce separate State action nulli-
ty and an absurlty-if she should attempt tc
force upon the State the adoption of united seccs-
sion IA constitutional soccism by the way rs the
ONLY means of defending ourselves and maintain
ing our civil privilcges-ifS she would seek to draw
us Off from the plain direct course Of resistance
now generally contemplated and expected, a course
distinctly blazed before us by the ancient land
marks of Truth Justice and Constitutional Right
If she recommend to us rather to turn aside in
to devious and uncertain path, in search of that
distant, underlined and intangible phantom of CO.
operatiOn-if, in word, she would have us SUBJ
init TO the wrongs Of the past and bear our bur-
dens tamely, then indeed will the sccpIrc have
departed from the "Quecn City, and her voice
will be no longer potent in tie councils of the
State.
Yet why should we indulge these unpleasant
suppoSiIions! The principles of the late ::Watcl
and Wait'' meeting, we trust, are not the prin.
ciplcs of Charleston There is Il strong and an
energetic party of Charlcstonans Of the old stamp
and, from all we can learn. they have more
than doubled their numbers in the last three
r.; r
success, and we await with confidence the forth
coming developments.