The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-02-04
For the Southern Press.
Answer of South Carolina to Kentucky

Answer OF South Carolina to Kentucky
Mr. DEAR SISTER Your two letters are before
me- and in spirit quite as benevolent and kind
that which dictated them, proceed to answer
them. am happy to learn that though your
'nAme signifies bloody land, you are by no means
bloody minded" From certain declarations Of
your Oracle last year, was led to suspect. that
it would be quite agreeable TO you to break lance
with me on the field of batte---far better that we
meet upon the arena of amicabe discussion.
You inform me that "for some years past you
have suffered great vrong and loss from gangs Of
There's living on your sisters plantations beyond
the Ohio; and that you understand our sisters
Maryland, Virginia, and Missouri have suffered
in equal degree" You add: III am told that ma
ny of our sister s children, too little instructed
to legal and moral obligations, really think it
right to steal, and do not hesitate to conceal the
stolen property, IT, they do not profit by its sale
Sister Vermont, it is said, openly declares her in
tention to protect her children in their ihievish
propensities, regardless Of her written agreement
with her sisters not only to restore the stolen prop
ery, but to deliver up for punishment the thieves
who steal it.-These are griepou ,crongs, which
ought to be redressed and in future prevented
With these confessions on your lips do not
know which to admire most, your unexampled
indulgence to "thieves," your wonderful patience
under their depredations, or your marvellous
yearning for indissolubIe connection with them
You have been annoyed by them--not '.Jor
years p0a'-but for fioenfy years past and you
have not as yet uttered spirited complaint, m ich
less raised finger for the redress Of your wrongs.
Nay. in all controversies between them and me,
invariably find you, as now, on their side. You
have done more to encourage these "fhieres" your
language, not mine than all the Southern sister
hood put together. Your charity for them readi-
y excuse but your settled policy Of giving them
their plumber, upon condition that they will cease
their nroads upon you for time, is utterly mex
cusable; because it not only jeopards your inter
ests but the interests Of the whole Southern family
Had you stood up resolutely for your chIldren's
rights when these harpies first began to make their
dsscents upon them--had you pushed them out of
the council-chamber, when they came there whin-
ing with their insulting petitions for redress Of
grievances, you would have saved yourself
your 'grievous wrongs," the Southern sisters
from their present degradation, and the whole
family from their present agitation. But no, you
always had an indulgent for their pervertions
Of the social compact and misjudged, mscnsI
compromise, for all their lawless exactions; and
the consequence is, that they now dare any YER
sion Of the compact, and any usurpation that their
pampered, vitiated appetite makes desirable. You
have got credit for saving the Union several times
No, madam, no; you have hastened its dissolution
as certainly ms that you and | exist At the be-
ginning OF compromises, had we Of the South
stood firm rights, those restless dsorganizers
would have yield ed and had they net from the
northern line Of Missouri to the Pacific, would
now be ours. We would have been saved hun
dreds of millions, which have been extorted from
u.s. in the way Of tribute, TO enrich these very de-
SnoIlers. and up wouId have saved--What n
Rnitey more valuable than all--the character which
we inh srited from our noble ancestors. We put
the fattering JUNCTION to souls, that we have
saved our honor, whatever we may have lost. But
history will tell very different story. When she
with her truthful record, and notes
down your quiet submission to private thefts, and
your lamentsbe compromises with public robbie
ry---when she gathers up the noisy resolutions Of
the whole Southern eis,erhood, and behods their
ignominous retreats from ,hem-when she reads
the memorials of my protestatons against yield
ing inch 10 the wild fanaicisn Of my puritan
zeal siscrs--my predictions of the consequences
which would follow the slightest concession to
them (eIready ful6lIed) and my honest exertions
to unite the Southern family in bod resistance to
them, and failing here my readiness 10 meet them
angle anded and at all hazards, untcrri6ed by
the derision of friends or the threats Of foes.--
When history shall pronounce her irreversible
judgment upon these things, your honor" and
my "uitvsinn, /" Southern patriotism" and South
Carolina ntsdnsss, will take new names, which
am confident my children will not blush TO hear.
You admit your wrongs, that they are grievous,
and ought to be redressed, and, in future, pre-
vented. As you have grown grey under these
wrongs. and have not yet stirred muscle or tongue
TO redress or to stop them, one would naturally
'see the Tri.weekly Union Of Dec. ~, 1850