Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-05-22

Now you Will perceive, that it was as late a
the0th of September, before the very first 0
these Bills was perfected Into an Act, and
was not'untn the Goth of the same month, tha
the whole of them received the highest sane
istion of law. Allow then, at least, ten day
for their PRONUNCIATION, and you will see that w
could not have come properly into possession
them until the first of October. The election fol
Members to the Legislature took place on the
second Monday in October. What opportunity
then, did your Members have to advise with yon
relative to these recent inictions Of Federal ano
Legislative tyranny? None in the world. Ihe'r
sentiments were not even called for, through the
papers. You would, at that time, have deemed
it an act of supererogation. Your feelings and
. continents were so clearly made known, by every
word Won uttered, and by every look and ges-
turc, that your Delegates must have been blind
men not to have interpreted your wishes. Cen
tlemen, they did read you correctly, and they
did give in the Legislature, a true expression OF
YOUR honest impulses, and of the determined
resolution of your minds. All this stuff about
vour not being consulted, is an after-thought OF
men who seek to warp your judgments, and to
dstort the real issues presented for your con-
rs;deratiou. One Of your Members to the House,
refused to vote for the Convention Bill, at one of
its readings, because, in his estimation, it was
not q measure of sufficient strength, and his
purpose being misunderstood, he was met by the
consuming indignation of his constituents, until
he could explain the motive that governed his
conduct.
1t would be paltry in you, at this late date, to
affect not to have virtually counselled your Dele
gates to the Legislature to adopt some effeetual
mode of resistance to the usurpatons OF the
General Government You did this even before
the consummation of these last acts of tyranny,
by which you and yoar children have been re-
duced to the most absolute slavery-to vassal-
are yler than that of the serfs of despot, or OF
the slaves of the Sultan Of Turkey.
1 had the honor of being an invited lguest at
more than cue cf your dinners and public as
senb1iescf the &ast year, and if the excitement
Of the occasions did not overpower my senses,
every candidate in the field deliberately denoun-
ced the Union of these States as curse, and
when he would express his determination to de-
vote himself to its dissolution, the sentiment was
hailed with shouts Of enthusiasm. The cry rang
through the vast maatitudes-
sPeace is despair'd,
For who can think submission War then, war,
Open or understood, must be resolved.
Tie manner of conducting this war could not
then be determined upon, because the bitter cup
Of our wrongs had not yet been filled, and Con-
gress had not yet completed the full measure Of
its most moes~oas and wicked tyranny. The
candidates were net, aad could not be advised as
to the precise mode of redress, because the
Nashville Convention, and the Georgia Conven-
ton and the Mississippi Legislature were stillto
assemble, and no human foresight could predict
their ultimate action, with any degree of certain
sy. Bat it is necessary that oil Legislatures
shall be clothed with some trust, otherwise they
would be perfectly Insignificant and just as inefh-
eient, as would be the unwieldly democratic as
scmbies that ease met IN Gseeee It is imposs-
sible for -she people, in unorganized cohgegadeas
q @ BfsssFits. precise making and
administering the laws, unless you could suppose
every usan aiegnlaeor, and every voter a scholar
How then. did your Mernbefs and Jour Legis-
,ature discharge the trust reposed in thein'
Wien they met in solemn deliberat'oh, under
II, the sanctions of law and feligioni they knew
that your watcA-wotd was resistahee-that their
honor. and the hoaor Of the State, and the Safety
and the Interests Of posterity deThahded Of them
n resist. They felt, that if they tansesy sue;
cumbed to the greedy spirit Of avarfce and ia
naticisn, and steu,issivcly pTostrated themselves
-rder the wheels Of the car Of tile American
Jugcernaut, they and their children would be
doomed to perpetual infahy. They could al
most see in their minds, the diserhbodicd forms
of their fathers rebuking their foul degeneracy;
Hinder such circumstances, unless they were the
bascst Of men, they we're bound to act. There
sore, since they had not been able to learn the
exnress wishes of their constituents touching
the extent of their action, they considered it both
bold and prudent to put the State in defensive
attitude, and to call d Convention of the people
which means to call the people themselves to-
pettes-tlat they nigh. determine in their ca
pacity of severeigns, the course of policy which
duty, honor, and the safety Of themselves and
children required them to adopt
What else could the Legislature have done
What other path could they have trodden which
would have led to honor. It was truly wrong
either to fall short Of, OF, to transcend their in
structions in matter of so great delieacy, and
Of such fearful moment Virginia toe, had passed
the following resolutions in her General Assem-
bly,, which she had not yet repudiated, whereby
she had become pledged to resistance.
s.R.solpsd, That we regard the passage Of a
law by the Congress Of the United States, abol-
;shing Slavery or the Slave Trade in tile District
of Columbia, as direct attack upon the institu-
tons of the Southern States, to be resisted at
every hazard.
Resolued, That in the event of the passage
hy Congress of the 'Wimot Proviso,' or any
law abolishing slavery or the slape trade in the
District of Columbia, the Governor OF this Com
monwealth is requested Immediately to convene
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