Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-10-16
VOL. XVI..-NO. 80

may refuse to cooperate with us in council,
butlrresistible circumstances can compel them
to Cooperate inactioE. They may be deaf
to our warnings and our entreaties now.-
seek our own destruction if it pleaseth us.
But when we kndle our beacon fires, their
light will Hume their own hill-tops. When
the Government throws the firebrands of war
in our midst, they must soon and speedily
rush to extinguish conAagration, (which must
otherwise inevitably consume theiro own DWELL
ings. Y5
No, gentlemen, I cannot be mistaken inmy
confidence, that the State viii be united in
any possible emergency, which could com.
mand either the blood, the sacrifice, or the
treasure of her citizens. cannot but believe
that whatever apparent diversity may exist
among us, is more imaginary than real, anti
cilated rather than realized. have yet seen
no road diverging from the broad and liberal
course indicated in the proceedings of our
late Southern Rights Convention, which the
most captious, or conservative patriotism
could reasonably prefer. / know no party
who would not postpone secession to any
well-grounded assurance of cooperation.
know no sound Co-operationist who prefers
submission even to tine magnifed horTers Of
a separate independence. We have listened
in vain to the sagest and the ablest of our
counsellors of all parties, if there be aught in,
the consequences of secession, or the most
fruitless and abortive experiment of it (that
could be essayed) worse than the ills-past,
present and future-they have depicted US as,
bearing or having borne, as at oil comparable
to the horrors of that doom which they have
so solemnly presaged to impend over our In
stitutions in this Union. 81
The honor and the rights Of State are in-
separately connected. South Carolina having
taken the position that she has having as
serted her rights, rehearsed her wrongs, an
nounced her determination, and invoked the
highest elements ofsovereignty itself to affirm
them, would not fear to trust the question
ofher course, or her duty to the decision Of
any class of her citizens. Resistance or re-
dress with her, is certainly foregone conclu-
sion. She has called her Convention; she has
organized her resources; she has established
her encampments; she has erected her armo-
ries; she has lavished her treasure to prepare
for the issue; and when the unquestionable
import of these things comes to be consider
ed under tic solemn and official Responsible
ty of those to whom she has referred her des-
tiny, who among them can be insensihle to
the obligations which they impose9 He
would perpetrate bolder act than Caesar
himself, when he passed the Rubicon, who
could propose, in an assembly like that, to
ratify the dishonor or submission of the State.
Nor would he be actuated by an ambition less
insane than the Ephesian incendiary, who
would rashly plunge South Carolina into
needless and perilous contest to reap an har-
vest of fame, of glory, or of political spoils.
If secession, including as it does all rea-
sonable time, means and appliances, to pro-
cure cooperation be not the remed dy-what
then is! Let any one show safer, spec
dier, stronger or more practical eXpedient,
and for one will follow him. There may
be those among US seemingly, too impatient
of delay-too needless of consequences
Temper thei7 zeal kindly if you will; but do
not crush the principle-do not abjure the
cause. The spirit of resistance is already
we'll nigh extinguished in the South. 1t has
long since palsied under Federal triumph-
Georgia; it even now flickers with doubtful
light in Mississippi; and in Virginia, not
ray CLEANS through the darkness of her late
counsels. One more act Of dishonor submit
ted to; one more aggression unresisted ano-
ther wrong endured, and the whole South will
have become prepared to renounce its allegi-
ance to its own sovereigns and institutions.
As Carolinians, we will have become asham-
ed of our nativity, we will venerate Our op.
pressors as our superiors; we will 60 abroad
with shame upon our brow and carry our de-
iccted heads with the blush mantling suffu-
sion on our cheeks, of degraded and perse-
cuted caste.
Let us then not despond of unanimity in
the counsels of the State. Let us not do the
foul work for the Abolitionists of disarming
the State of its energies. Let US conciliate
every diversity Of opinion which tends to the
great point of resistance. And above all let
us resolve, that whether it be by secession or
cooperation, that our Southern institutions
must and shall be preserved.
Very Respectfully,
Your, Gentlemen,
JOHN P. RICHARDSON.
To Afcssrs. J. Galluchat, Daniel Brown, C.
Cauthcn, A. Goock, J. D. MeIlwain.