Semi-weekly Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1851-1852, 1851-09-16

political questions involving nothing less than
the existence and liberty of the commonwealth.
You need not apprehend that to enter into an
argument with them or any portion OF them
even the most humble, on questions OF such
grave import, will confer upon you 6 loath-
some notoriety," it will elevate you rather IN
your own proper estimate of yourself, and
magnify yon perhaps, not a little, in the gen.
eral consideration. They are people who
can very we'll perceive how one oftheir number
who had been preferred and honored above the
rest, either accidentally or by reason of his
superior merit, might suffer pain and mortifca-
ton on discovering that his views of public
evils, and of there proper remedies, were repu-
gnant to those of a respectable portion OF his
countrymen, and how an argument with them,
thus arising, might cause true and heartfelt
regret. But how public candidate, or pub
lie functionary, in this way, could acquire a
s'loathsomc notoriety," they are not able to
perceive -,
Your claim to the merit {" of modesty in all
things relating to public matters in this COM
munity," has never been controverted, that is
publicly known, by any man, or by any party /;
and the haste with which you seemed so anx-
ious, in your letter of the l4th Aug, to por-
ton of your fellow citizens, of Richland, to
vindicate yourself from the charge of 6 unduly
or Extensively thrusting yourself forward" by
interrogating them on that point, in advance of
the allegation, might, if they chose to resort
to very slight perversion Of your meaning,
be construed as self-acusatory Their dignity,
and their sincerity, however, alike protect you
C., e,oh colp opA than
from perpetrating an act of such injustice to-
wards their fellow-citizens Nor is it known
to any portion, or party, of this State, that a
disposition prevails to &C cutechise' you in any
offensive sense, concerning your political opin-
ions which &c have so often been expressed"
To cateehise, in the sense in which you employ
the term, is to interrogate impertinently, or
arrogantly and by way of censure or rdicule,
without a right, on the part of the interroga-
tor to do So 1t is hoped that such is not the
meaning you intend to convey in the use of the
phrase if it be, however, it is assuming a right
on your part to occupy platform as public
man, unapproachable by your fellow-citizens
who have confded to you high public trust,
and by whom you are seeking to he clothed
with still more imposing dignities' Generous
anu HS arc hLuNu w uc, duu SOu
will admit them to be, this is the assumption of
privilege to which they cannot submit, as it
is decidedly nj war with right On their part,
by which they firmly and sternly stand, as they
have always stood, the right to be fully and
frankly informed as to the political principles
and policy of those who place themselves in
the attitude of seeking political trusts. This
right, they hold to be fundamental right, ly-
Ing at the foundation of popular government,
the least denial of which is dangerous, ever
invasion of which is delinquency, and whose
subvcrsion would be fatal to all true liberty.
You inquire "wby you should be publicly
catecbscd :" If by this you meant to ask
why your fellow citizens did not seek the in
formation to which they felt themselves to be
unqucstionably entitled in more private way,
as by private interviews, as you seem to inmate,
the answer is that they sought it in the mode
(which long and uninterrupted usage had estab-
lished and consecrated, and against the perfect
propricty of which no fellow-citizen Of theirs,
either occupying, or seeking to occupy any
public trust whatever had ever been known to
rebel, and which obviously found favor origi-
nally because of its conformity with the radi-
cal principles controlling the relation of repre-
sentative and constituent under our republican
system of government. 1t is to be deplored,
sir, that you should have regarded it essential
to the complete discharge Of what you have
been pleased to denominate duty to your
SELF" to impeach the authority of such a time
honored custom, nestimably priced by the
great popular heart of South Carolina, and
whose sanctity she had thought no son of hers
born upon her soill, or having formed tnat re.
lation voluntarily, under her Constitution,
would ever have denied or invaded. Until
you refused to do so, that portion of your i'm
mediate fellow-citizens whom you have termed
catechisers " will certainly believe that you
will, on reflection, withdraw tho epihet, as
hastily and unworthily applied, and that you
will yield obedience at once to the substantial
and salutary princi Piles of true democracy,
which, until your disavowal shall appear they
will be reluctantly compelled to regard you as
having snecred, and repudiated. Nor are they
to be driven from this belief, notwithstanding
they are aware that you have not been educa-
ted in the great L" Democratic School" of pol
itics, and entertain, for some Of its teachings,
ut least, that contempt which is inculcated by
what, in the estimate of some, is lofticr and
more commanding creed, whose practices bet
ter become magnificent and splendid govern
ment They are the more desirous, too, that
their expectation in this respect should be
gIatifed for the reason that your public career
is but just in its dawn, for the conduct OF which,
according to sound aid acceptable doctrines,
they feel solicitude commensurate with an