The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1851-07-02
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L Substance Of The

s% Substance of The
Remarks of the Hon. r. w. Barnwell
Delivered on the 7th May before the Con.
rention Of Southern Rights Associations
an Charleston.
Messrs. Editors: In preparing for
publication the views submitted be,
low, / have not conformed, with any
strictness, to the Address made by
me to the Convention of Southern,
Rights Associations assembled in
Charleston. In fact I could not do
30, for I am altogether without notes,
and my memory serves me very
badly in such matters.
I could have wished, Mr.. Presi-
dent, that this Convention had de-
sermined, after the free conference,
to refrain from the expression of any
decision in the form of resolutions, as
we'll, because in this way, differences
of opinions between those who have
heretofore acted together might not
have been precipitatcd into party d.
visions, as because the question Of
separate State action, which your
Address and resolutions assume to
determine, have already been rcferr-
ed by the Legislature to Convention
ofthe people; and I cannot but think
that your interference will diminish
rather than strengthen the moral
force of the Judgment which that tri.
bunal may pronounce. My expert.
ence teaches me that habit strength.
ems obedience, and that we submit
more certainly and checrfully to an
authority to which we are accustomed
than to that of extraordinary assem-
blies, convened for special purposes.
And I think it therefore unwise to
expose such assemblies to the suspi-
cion Of acting ander the control and
promptings Of voluntary party ussu'.
ciationss But I am aware, sir, that
q majority asks not counsels from q
minority as to its course Of proceed
ing, nor do I complain that those up.
on whom the responsibility Of
measure rests should determine for
themselves the mode by which they
may most surely secure its adoption.
| pass now to the consideration Of
The main subject which engrosses our
attention. It is with unfeigncd re.
luctance that I address you, for the
point upon which I differ from many
Of my dearest friends is of such mo.
ment, that I cannot be blind to tho
separation which impcnds its discus
sion before the people. If my wishes
could have controlled my convictions,
I should still be with them, and as
the issue of the contest brings to me
only that common veal or woe of
which every citizen Of the State must
partake, stroye to hope even against
hope, that the progress Of political
events might keep us in action, as I
sincerely believe we are in purpose,
entirely united. But the policy now
.avowed and zealously pressed into
execution, of exciting South Carolina
iEto separate nation, seems to me
SO wide q departure from our past
course, and so fraught with danger to
the institution which all desire to dc.
fend, that I cannot refrain from cx.
pressing, as briefly as I may, my car.
nest dissent from it..
I have endeayored, Mr.. President,
to keep steadfastly in view the essen.
tial element in the great sectional
conflict which now agitatcs and dis
tracts this country, the institution of
slavery, the dangers which menace
it, and the means by which they may
be averted. This institution of slave.
ry within the Southern States, con-
stitutes not only an interest, the mag
nitude of which cannot be easily over
estimated, being the worry basis of all
their industrial pursuits; hut it lies at
the very foundation of their ciyiliza-
tion, and is the law of the social rela.
ton of two deeply marked divisions
of the human race, permanently con-
Joined in local position. | do not hesi-
tate to assert that it binds together
the people of the slavcholding States,
by ties which are deeper and more to
be regarded than the artificial liga.
ments Of civil policy. l do not dis.
gulse to myself, cannot, if would,
conceal from you, that this institution
is now most dangerously menaced,
the danger not the less to be dreaded, 1,
because the mode Of its approach is
most insidious. The chief danger
which now threatens African slavery,
is the operation Of an almost uniyer.
sal sentiment of condemnation under
which it labors in all countries where
it does not exist. In its relation to
our position, it matters little from
what source of policy or feeling this
sentiment has sprung, and is now do.
pendent, It exists, it decpens, has