The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-10-13

menl," including diplomatic agents, custom
house officials, an army and navy, and sundry
similar items of expenditure. The Mercury
pties all such notions, and proceeds TO set forth
their falsiiy.
| In the first place, according TO our contem-
porary, the assumption of nationality by South
| Carolina will be altogether very easy tame
affair. II will take place smoothly and quietly,
and without any "extraordinary transforma-
ton''-n fact, as mere matter of course.
There will not even be a change of name;
South Carolina will be still State-not Re
pubIic-and her first magistrate will be content
with the title of Governor, not President.
''The entire spheres of the Federal and State
authorities" will "melt together" and the
State government quietly absorb ''all the func.
lions of the Federal officers" Her foreign re-
lalions will be managed without difficulty,
through the agency of consus paid by fees,
| instead Of ministers paid by salaries. The
only expense that a state of independence will
entail in this direction will '|simply be ne
cessity for employing few more clerks
4
= few companies of regulars, trained as in
iantry and artillery" to garrison the forts; the
| rest can be done by the people themselves, who
are 50 essentially military that "all the ele-
ments Of defence" form part of their recreation
and ordinary habits" As for navy, why the
thing is absurd. Lines of steamships" will
be employed in the ordinary business inter
course of Charleston with Europe, and these
will furnish the material of an ample navy for
defence in case Of war" ut cost that is really
insignificant. Perfect freedom of trade will
| render unnecessary the employmentof ian army
of custom-house officers" and will be happy
contrast to the Federal system, which supplies
| its citizens with bad articles at an extrava-
| CANT price" The cost Of the whole land
armament may be counted Eat not more than
| $3.50, 900. and the State contributions for the
support of an ample steam marine' may be set
down sat the same sum-" Beyond these items
there will be no need but for ''the most trifling
] addition" to ordinary State expenses. These
estimates are based on what is deemed "a very
| liberal SCALE" and may be considerably re-
duced." Taking them at this rate, however,
tthe entire cost of separate State govern
| ment' will be drought to about $500, COOP
an insignificant amount, which can be annually
| met by "a duty of six per cent" on imports.
| Smile not, readerl We are not testing your
| credulity, or playing with your patriotism, but
| laying before you bona tide epitome of the
! rationale of independent government, PROFOUND
| ed by the Charleston Mercury to the secession
lists Of South Carolina. There is no joke about
it. The Mercury writes seriously, and we are
bound to believe that it is in earnest.
South Carolina, then, is to be ''the modern
Utopia perfection of Democracy-the
realization of all the golden dreams that have
fitted across mems minds for ages past She
will have no wars or rumors of wars her cit
zens will convert their swords into ploughs,
and their spears into pruning hooks; the can
non that she has ordered from Virginia will be
preserved as mementoes of human folly, or be
kept to fire a few rounds on saint days and holi
days. While other parts of the continent per-
sist in clingng tethe Union, and sacrifice their
prosperity, their freedom, and their happiness,
at shrine reared by the heroes and patriots of
the Revolution, South Carolina will continue
her career of fortune and of glory as an indie
pendent sovereign State, dreading neither in
ternal treachery nor foreign aggression, and
every day strengthening her title as the leader
and Regeneration of the world.
Go on, good Mercury 90 on