Semi-weekly Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1851-1852, 1851-05-09

presented to US, of submitting, or acting by
ourselves. And, reluctant as we are to sepa-
rate ourselves from our natural friends and al
lies, we have made up our minds. We cannot
submit. We know that South Carolina entered
this Confederacy as sovereign and indepen-
dent State, and that having been wronged, she
has the perfect right to withdraw from it. Her
sons must exercise the right and meet the con
sequences. If no other State will join us in
relieving ourselves from the wrongs already
inflicted, we see no hope in waiting for new
outrages to arouse higher spirit of resist
ancc. The new outrages, we are well con-
vinced, will come in due time !; but we feel no
assurance that the spirit Of theyassal will rise
in proportion tathe indignilies heaped upon
his head. OnEthe contrary, we see that the
South has already borne what it would not for
moment have sabmitted to ten years ago, and
what the North would not then have ventured
to perpetrate. We are not willing to try the
experiment how long it will be before our spirit
I is completely broken, by gradually and con-
tinually yielding to slow and gradual but uu.
ceasing encroachrnents And if the exercise
of the riskt;. of secession is to be followed by
the attemH on the part of the Government of
this Confeaeracy to subjugate South Carolina,
lit is Hetter that-we should meet that attempt
willie We still have some spirit and some power
of resistance left, If we are t. submit to the
condition of conquered people, we think it
less dishonorable not to do so lntil we have
first been conquered. And, if anything could
add to the necessity which we believe exists
for withdrawal from the existing Union, it
would be the denial of the right OF secession.
For the denial of that rightsindicates of itself
extreme danger. The right Of secession has
heretofore, and in better days, been regarded
as unquestionable by all Southern politicians,
with the exception of an inconsiderable num-
ber of censolidationists And if ever that right
can be denied without arousing The whole
South to sustain it, the South will be ripe for
the most miserable fate which has ever befalen
any people. 1t will then, us permanent Sec
tional minority, have no defence against the
tyranny of a Government combining all the
vices of the corruptest democracy and the most
oppressive foreign despotism.
We know the consequences which will fol-
low failure in our effort to maintain our liber-
ty. Wesee clearly that a triumphant exertion
of the power of the Federal Government, in
subjugating State, will vastly increase that
power, and greatly accelerate TIE change, al
ready far advanced, of our Federative system
into Consolidated central despotism. We
see, also. that South Carolina will not suffer
the consequences of this change alone, hut
that the rest of the Southern States must suffer
in an equal degree They will have no safe
guard against the Central Government, strength
ened by crushing opposition, and rendered, by
triumphant force, what our Northern enemies
have long been endeavoring to make it by frau
dnlent ,usurpatQn supreme Government
of a consolidated nation. The sovereignty of
one Southern State cannot be destroyed, with.
out the loss of their sovereignty by all the
others. We are aware Of the responsibility of
doing an act which may hasten these conse-
quences. We feel the respect which we owe
to States having common interest," threatened
by common danger, but not equally persuad-
ed with ourselves of the necessity Of action.
And nothing would induce us to take, without
their concurrence, a course which is to involve
them in its consequences, but a thorough con-
victon Of the necessity which urges US, and of
our right to do so.
Addressing citizens of Southern States, rs.
sociated to maintain the rights Of the South,
we cannot imagine it to be necessary to argue
about the right of secession. We hold it to be
the great State right, without which all others
are nugatory and incapable of being enforced
and your position assures US that your faith
cannot be different from ours.
Nor can we regard it as necessary any far
ther to discuss the wrongs which have been in.
flicted Oh the Southern States. They may be
denied by those who shut their eyes to them,
but you do not belongto that class. Southern
and State Rights men may differ as to the me-
cessity of exercising the right Of secession at
particular time, on account Of those wrongs.
But as certainly as the right exists each State
must possess the right Of Judging for herself, as
to the occasion and time for ITS exercise. If
South Carolina decides that honor and safety
require her to secede, she has the right to leave
the Confederacy peaceably and without moes-
tation. If the act Of secession is not permit
ted to be peaceable, it will be from usurpation
of power by the Federal Government not
from the nature Of the act performed by South
Carolina Accustomed as we have been to
Violations Of the Constitution, and of the rights
of the Southern States by the Federal Govern.
ment, we have to look forward to the probabili.
ty of another outrage by that Government, in
the attempt to force the State to remain in the
Union. We suppose the attempt will be made,
if the Other Southern States permit it. Those
States must decide for themselves whether they
will hermit If. South Carolina must decide for