Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-05-31

ourselves from the wrongs already inflicted, We
see no hope in waiting for new ouTages 10 arouse
HIGHER spirit of resistance The new outrages
we are well convinced, will come IN due time; but
we feel no assurance that the spirit OF the vassa
will rise in proportion to the indignlues heaped
upon his head On the contrary, we see that the
south has already borne what 1t would not fora
moment have submitted to ten years ago, and
what the north would not then have ventured 70
perpetrate.
We are not willing to try the experiment how
LONG it will be before spirit is completely bro
KEN by gradual and continual yielding to slow and
gradual but unceasing encroachments.
And if the exercise of the right of secession is
70 be followed by the attempt on the part of the
Government of this Confederacy to subJugate
south Carolina, it is better that we should meet
that ATTEMPT while we still have some spirit and
some power of resistance left. If we are to sub
nit to the condition of conquered people, We
think it less dishonorabe not to do SO until We
have first been conquered. And If anything
could add to the necessity which we believe ex-
lists for a withdrawal from the existing Union, it
would be the denial of the right of secession. For
the denial of that right indicates of itself extreme
danger The right of secession has heretofore,
and in better days, been regarded as unquesuona-
BILE by all southern politicians, with the exception
of an inconsiderabe number of consolldatIonlsts.
And if ever that right can be denied without arous-
be ripe for the most miserable fate which has
befallen any people. 1t will then, a permanent
sectional minority have defence against the ty-
ranny of government combining all the vices Of
the most corrupt democracy and the most Oppres-
siye foreign despotism.
We know the consequences which will follow
!, failure in our effort to maintain our liberty We
see clearly that triumphant exertion of the power
of the Federal Government, in subjugatng State,
will vastly increase that power, and greatly
celerate the charge, already far advanced, of our
Federatiye system into consolidated centeral des
potism We see, also, that South Carolina will
not suffer the consequences of this change alone
but that the rest of the southern States must SUI
fer in an equal degree. They will have no safe
guard against the Central Government, strength
ened by crushing opposition, and rendered, by tn
] umphant force, what our northern enemies have
long been endeavoring to make 1t by fraudulent
/, usurpation-the supreme Government of a con-
soidated nation. The sovereignty of one southern
State cannot be DESTROYED by all the others. We
: are aware of the responsibility of doing an act
: which may hasten these consequences. We feel
the respect which owe to States having common
interest, threatened by a common danger, but
not equally persuaded with ourselves of the ne
: cessty of action. And nothing would induce us
: to take, without their concurrence, course which
e is to involve them in its consequences, but tho
rough conviction of the necessity which urges US
: and of right to do
it Addressing citizens of southern States associa-
ted to maintain the rights of the south, canno:
imagine it to be necessary to argue about the right
t 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 that your faith cannot be different from
= ours.
: Nor can regard it as necessary any farther
s to discuss the wrong which have been inflicted on
If the Southern States They may be denied by
those who shut their eyes TO them, but you do not
e belong to that class Southern and State Rights
n men may differ to the necessity of exercising
the right OF secession at particular time, on ac-
IS count of those wrongs But as certainly the
e right exists each State possess the right of
1t Judging for herself to the occasion and time for
/ Its exercise If South Carolina decides that hon
l. or and safety require her to secede she has the
g right to leave the Confederacy peacably and with
re out moestaton. If the act of secession is not
permitted TO be peacable will be from usurpa-
Of ton of power by the Federal Government, not
n from the nature of the act performed by South
is Carolina. Accustomed as We have been TO viola
g tons of the Constitution and of the rights of the
y Southern States by the Federal Government, we
have to look forward to the probability of another
y outrage by that Government, in the attempt 10
ID force the State to remain in the Union. We sup
pose the attempt will be made, if the other South
10 ern States permit It, Those States must decide for
y
lie Her sister States of the South will have no right
? to complain that she forces them into position
ID where they must either interpose to prevent her
l. subugatlon, or, by consenting it, abandon their
Of own sovereignty and lay themselves at the mercy
r, OF despotlc power In seeding, South Carolina
q will simply do an act which all Southern men who
n believe IN the existence of State rights at ALL must
e admit that she has perfect right to do and which
sc she regards as absolutely necessary. She will be
!; acting on her sacred right. She would be acting
n as she would have to act, if none of the other
of Southern States were in existence, and she were
l. the only object of aggression by the Northern
!, States and the Federal Government. She is not
is answerable for the usurpatons ard injustice which
n may be committed against her. And for her sis
> ter States of the South to ask of her to refrain
1t from an exercise of right which she regards as
r indispensable to selfpreservaton, would be an
r interference with her free action of far different
character from any with which she can be charged
l. towards them. Sovereigns are equals In sece-
a ding alone, South Carolina would be placing her
"a sister States of the South under no constraint-
l. 1t they should find themselves in a position of
/ constralnt, 1t would from the action of the
IS FEDERAL Government not of South Carolina But
l. they should insist upon her refraining from the
/ exercise of her right, and submitting to condi-
e ton which she records intoerable, they would
/, make themselves parties with the Government in
> placing an unjustifabe constraint upon sovereign
't and an equal.
We wish hot