Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-04-03

constrains them" to advise, that in all things
we initiate the example of our gallant ana
r;rtnous ancestry, and TINT we at once take
stems 10 aprovide new safeguards for our
fu ure security.
The historical statements submitted to
YOU, fellow-citizcns, prove that for series
of years the general governmental has refused
10 be guided by that chart which the compact
between the States demand should be its
only guide-that this refusal is in order the
more efectually to destroy your political
power in the confederacy, with view to the
determination of African slavery in your
midst. That the South "has been disposed
to suffer while evils were suffurable that
your section alone has exhibited forbearance
and long sufferancc for the sake of Union
and in the hope that these aggrcssions would
cease.
History maintains us in the assertion that
we have used every means to right ourselves
in the Union, without success. While Z" the
history of the present government is histo-
ry of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
having in direct object the establishment Of
an absolute tyranny over these States"-it
is equally true that in every stage of these
proceedings, we have petitioned for redress
in the most respectful terms-our repeated
petitions have been answered only by repeat
ed injury"
To continue the paraphrase of the Decla-
ration of Independence, so completely suited
to the expression of that similarity Of wrong
and general condition which exists between
the position of the colonies in l775 and that
of the Southern States in 1851" nor have
we been wanting in attentions to our North
ern brethren-we have warned them from
time to time, of attempts by their Legislation
to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over
us. We have reminded them of the circum-
stances of the revolution and the compact
made between us. We have appealed to
their native justice and magnanimity, and we
have conjured them by the ties of our COM
mon kindred, to cease those usurpations which
would inevitably interrupt our connexions
and correspondence"
We have appealed to the ballotbox thro'
our usual party organization, but to find that
every successive election has served to In
crease the power of our foes. And at last,
despairing of full and complete recognition
of our clearly defined constitutional rights,
we have proposed, in order to preserve the
Union, to yield 10 and abide, rs a final ad-
justment of this much vexed question, with
a faith that has never been sullied by single
act of perfdy, division of the territories
by the line of the Missouri compromise
line rendered unobjectionable to them by its
northern inception and its past success in
contributing to the power of that section, and
| 70 n,,sf
ment of no privilege of its citizens, while it
excludes the South from all territory north
of it. But vain have been these attempts
Like the British government, in the days of
our fathers, Z" they have been deaf to the voice
of justice and magnanimity." They have
scorned to compromise what, our own divis-
ions and dissensions showed, they had the
power to enforce.
Like our fathers, then, we are driven to
seek, not fora remedy for the past-that is
hopeless,--but for security for the Euture.
That is to be obtained, not by reliance on
faith that has proved worse than "Punic"-
not by reliance on written guarantees which
have proved worthless to restrain deter
mined and ruthless free-soil majority--not
by adherence to the forms of government,
to rob US of our rights and to bind US for
further sacrifice, but by brave and faithful
imitation of men who in former times, after
review Of all the wrongs done them by their
mother country, thus declared to the world,
their course, in that last line of the declara-
ton with which they close the statement OF
their sase-,SSVe must therefore acquiesce in
the Necessity which demands our-separation,
and hold theSsShs we hold the balance OF
mankind-enemies in war, in peace friends