The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-03-25

menh were 20 thoroughly known TO the Legisla-
turc. yst each vas offered by Tat body more Of
public honor than he was willing 10 receive. Has
he done aught since TO forfeit their esteem? How,
them the choice of either or both these avorite
sons Of South Carolina be considered indication
of reaction" Will the editor. With the fair deal
ing for which have ever given him credit, so far
at least az 1t consists in intention, permit Mr. Barn
we'll to speak for himself through his columns?
Mr.. Barnwell closes his dignifed and manly
ply to Mr.. Clay, in the Senate, on the 9th June
last, at follows:
public sentiment of the States with which Of the
South associated; unless they can be induced TO
treat with fairness and justice those who their
equals and must maintain that equality; unless they
can restrain their citizens from the plumber Of
property, the invasion of our rights, incessantly
harassing US with malignant aspersions, subtle and
cruel devices to disturb peace and endanger our
safety, confess cannot tell what adjustment can
be effected. OF one thing. Mr.. President, feel Sc
cure: the aboltionst who hopes from the dissolu-
ton Of the Union the destruction of the South hop
ing and expecting that the institution of slavery
cannot be safely and wisely administered by pco-
pie who for a hundred years have made it subser-
Went to their interest and happiness utterly mis-
taken. There never has been any nation whose Sc
curity would be more assured than that of the south
ern States of this Confederacy. Forced into sep
arate government; linked together within by the
strongest ties Of community of interests and con-
gcniality Of sentiment; welded together from with
voted patriotism which inds its best nurture amid
difficulties, trials met and overcome; that great
eternal principle of national glory and national
strength would tower TO height far transcending
that which has over yet been reached among them.
have apprehensions for them. When, in the his
tory of the world has it been ever known that ma
ton possessing the wealth, intelligence, civiliza-
ton, and strength of the southern States of this
WA nd inc0 metz IN ifa
slaves? Ancient States stood secure, though SINH
larity Of races tended to confound the distinctions
Of conditions, and weaken and endanger the
thority of the masters. Greece enlightened, and
Rome conquered the world, resting their organiza-
ton polity upon this institution Of slavery We
are in no danger. We are fearless Of the result
and can, with unterriied front, look upon the com
ing danger, lower 1t ever 30 darkly OF this too,
am sure; If there are those who seek to retain in
this Union with purposes Of deadly hostility to
institutions, who cry aloud for its preservation in
my brother? smote him under the fifth rib; they,
too, are mistaken. They pronounce us accursed
and doomed; they bid US prepare for the change
that must come. hear the answer, not near, not
loud, but clear and firm: We are setting our house
in order, not to die, but to live.'
As to the venerable Judge Huger, the editor
could have selected no one whose views were less
in unison with his own. As a member of the COM
mittee Of safety he has more than once proclaimed
'that in his opinion the Federal Government had
failed TO the ends of its creation; that it had
ceased to protect our property and our honor, and
had become the object Of our greatest apprehen.
sions;" adding "that the design, as he conceived,
Of the Southern Rights Association, was to enable
moro effectualy to bear part in Kidding our
selves of an oppressive government"
Judge Frost and Chancellor Dunkin were select
ed, a. was announced upon their original nom-
nation, without any knowledge of the precise opn-
ions held by either in part because Of their official
position, and in accordance, in this respect with
precedent, but principally because it was supposed
that in their past history there was guarantee for
hepresent and the future. The editor however may
rest assured, that their vote would have been in
deed small if it had been imagined that there
was aught of sympathy between their sentiments
and the purposes Of the new Greenville paper.
As to Judge King, notwithstanding his long
residence, high position and great worth, it is,
think, saying moro than is generally under
stood here, that he owes his nomination chiefly to
the fact of public speech which he made at the
meeting addressed by Mr.. Rhett, upon the memo
rable occasion when Mr.. Rhett brought upon him
self the denunciations of Mr.. Clay in the Senate of
the United States. need only say that tho same
audience which received enthusiastically Mr..
Rhett's 'treason' interrupted the elder orator with
repeated plaudits If his views have changed, it is
unknown in Charleston.
Judge Butler 10 our Senator. Where is the evil
dence of change in him? Or, if he remains I'm
changed, at what period has he been dstasteful to
the people of South Carolina? The Buffers have
never distin guished themselves by conducting re-
the history Of tho family that the election of one of
the name has been considered a "signifcant in
dcation'' Of a "step backtcards." f
For myself, Messrs. Editors, Il stand last on the
list,) can most emphatically deny that my senti-
ments have undergone any reaction. On the con-
trary, though for some time have believed that
there redress the Union, it is of late that
/ have begun to loathe the tie which connects us
with our miscalled brethren of tho North. Not the
victims of Mezentius's tyranny could have shrunk
in more disgust from the unnatural union Of warm
and breathing life with tho rotting of what
once had been a brother man, than do from this
once cherished, but now abhorred and forced con-
nexion. The voters understood this In card,
under my own signature, few days before the
election, thus expressed myself
81 can say, in general terms, what in substance
have often said BEFORE that the action of the Fcde-
raj Government has convinced me that the limits
of the Constitution afford practical restraint
upon its powers; that the disposition the part Of
the majority to plumber and Cypress, is manifest;
while Il 10 equally clear that the minority have,
undor the forms Of the Constitution, no power of
self. protection. The late acts of Congress, mis-
called tho Compromise I condemn much more
AZ the unmistakable symptoms of fatally diseased
body polite, that on account of the many evils
with which they, in themselves, are fraught. The
slavcholding States have, as conceive, been al
ready degraded from their rightful position of
equality; and, for one, need no new development
to assure me that their continuance in the Union
it il can only bring further disgrace, dishonor,
and debasement as its immediate fruit, and, Imost
confidently believe, utter ruin and desolaton in
more distant future.
"Submission, then, ultimate acquiescence, is an
alternative which cannot consent to contemplate
in any conceivable contingency"
II is somewhat remarkable that, among those
specially named as affordng Significant indica-
tons of reaction" the Grecnvillc paper omits Mr..
Why this Mr.. Mcmminger
was well known, by the editor, to be opposed TO
separate State action in the in which he
the term. Was it because Mr.. M. had been heard
in Greenvie, for himself, and the readers of the
new paper knew the resistance he advocated, az
well as that which he opposcd3
He was the only one of the delegates elect who