Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-02-01

me persons 0f he czes-the only proper objects Of 20
eminent"
'If opposition to the National Government should ari
from the disordey conduct of refractory or seIous ind
vdusls, it could be by the same means which
daily employed against the evil under the State Go
enmens The magistracy. being equally the ministers
the law Of the land from whatever il might emana
would doubtless be ready guard the national as the oc
regulations from the nroads Of private iceniousness AS
those partial cootons and suyections ,oieh soetipa
squi society," from the nirgues of an inconsiderable a
ton from sudden occasional III humors that do n,
infect the great body of the community the General Govern
ment could command extensive resources for the sur
preston Of disturbances of that kind than would be in h
power of any single member" &c. a
"Among the advantages of confederate republic, emu
meraed by Montesquieu an important is that should
popular insunecfion happen ohe STATES the other
are able to queH it, Should abuses creep into one part
they are reformed by those that remain sound /"
Other passages scattered through the same work
which the narrowness of our limits prevents oul
copying, show how entirely those wise trainers O.
the Constitution realized the difficulties which this
Confederacy, though the most perfect Government
that ever came from the hands of man, was des.
tined to encounter 1t was under the influence OF
this sagacty and forecast of theirs, most obviously
that those imperative provisions were incorporated
in the Constitution which ordain that no State shall
enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation
grant letters Of marque and reprsa; pass any bill
of attainder, ex post facto law, or law mpairing
the obligation OF contracts nor without the con-
sent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep
troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter
into aUreen,pnf until, St.to
or with foreign Power, or engage in war, unless
actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as
will not admit of delay" Wise precautions
these, certainly, but which, with all their precision
would be Of little efficacy were any State to be
allowed, at pleasure or in anger, to overleap them
all at bound, and estrange herself from that Gov
ernment under which ninety-nine out of every hun
dred Of her people have been born, have suffered,
have prospered, and are doing well.
This is precisely what the State Of South Caro-.
lima is about to do assigning as motive for it dis
contents altogether vague-the gravest Of them
groundless-which, as a whole, if undeniabe,
would only go to prove that in the opinion Of those
who set them up to justify revolution all Govern
ment is (per Sc, as the Disunionists say) but a
pestilent restraint upon natural inclnations and
propensities.
fiction on the part of the State of South Carolina
has, indeed, been postponed for some months, but
avowedly only under the hope Of bringing about
atnion of the Southern States in her revolutionary
purposes. The remoteness Of her proposed period
Of action might encourage the hope that an abate.
ment of the present excitement is expected even in
that State, to such an extent as to enable its
rulers to retreat from their present position. There
are in South Carolina many noble spirits, who
would not contentedy rest in the false attitude in
which they have been placed by the Quixotes Of
the State. We look indeed, but we confess with
faint hope, to the possibility of patriotic effort yet
being made, throughout the State, by the conside-
rate portion of its citizens, to rally the intelligence
to the senses Of the masses, and restore the
State to her former elevated standing and character
Feeble, however, must be that hope, in the
face of the evidences of the entire subjection Of
the body Of the People of this State to the wilul
though ong-chershed designs of comparatively
small number Of citizens, whom their descent and
their alliances, their responsibility in private li(e
and the power and influence which wealth eonfers,
enable to look down opposition to their plans. and
even to bend to their purposes both the pulpit and
the press. Where the press TO say nothing more now
ofthe pulpit is perverted-as, with rare EXCEPTIONS
itnow is in South Carolina-from its proper office of
difusng light and intelligence to that of raging out
darkness, by concealing from the People every thing
that in reference to their present welfare and their
future destiny, it concerns them to know and
substituting for the wholesome aliment of truth and
reason the incoherent rawlings of diseased and dis
tempered minds, in the various shapes of sermons,
speeches. and epistes such as those which we have
lately given samples of to our readers-what hope
can be reasonably entertained Of salutary change
of sentiment within the few months which are to
intervene between the inception and the consum-
nation Of the array of the People of that State in
arms against the Federal Government!
Under these circumstances, if no moral restraint,
nor any apprehension of legal consequences, has
been sufficient to deter the public authorities of
South Carolina from hostile denunciations against
the National authority, we can conceive Of nothing
short of some signal interpostion of Providence
which can now save these Disunionists from the
consequences of their own misguided action. Con-
trary to the spirit if not the letter Of the Constu-
ton, the State Government without waiting for
even show of authority from the people, has al
ready resorted to military preparations, said to be