Semi-weekly Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1851-1852, 1851-05-09
ADDRESS

....... ADDRESS
From the Delegates the Southern Rights Assocl-
ations, Of South Carolina, assembled in Charles
ton, to the Southern Rights Associations of the
other Southern States.
Having met to take counsel together, and
having agreed upon that course which we
think it right and necessary to pursue, we wish
to lay before you the considerations by which
we have been governed, with that trankness
which our respect for you, and our desire to
merit your good opinion, require. -,r
We regard the position OF the Southern
States in this Confe'leracy as degraded and
runous. The manifest tendency Of those sys-
ten,atic aggressions which they have suffered
for many years past, to subvert the institution
of slavery. Ii those acts of hostile domination,
which have been rendered more Insulting by
n,ockery of language, under the term Of a
COMPROMISE, were final in their nature, and
were not to be followed by any further agggres
SONS, we should still regard them as outrages,
to which sovereign States, possessing the spirit
Of freedom, ought never to submit. But those
measures only form part of u system, gradual.
" commenced steadily carried forward, gath
ering strength from development, and proceed
ing with fatal momentum to its end. That
end is the abultion OF negro slavery in the
Southern States, and the lowering Of The free
white population of the South ne lev
el with that agraran rabble h, already
strong and dangerous, seems G--..Ied, before
very long, to be controlling power in the North
kern States. We see no remedy and no safety
for the South in the present Union. But we
know that in this we differ from very many
citizens of the other Southern States, spirited
Naad intelligent, having the same interests, and
suffering under the same wrongs, with our
selves, aud cherish the hope that the rights of
the South may be vindicated and secured with
out dissolving the existing Confedcracy. In
this difference, it does not become US to as
sume to dictate, and we hope to stand free
from that charge. Up to this time, the citi-
zens Of South Carolina, aware that peculiarly
of political position, arising from past events
rendered certain reserve OIL their part prudent
and proper, have studiously disavowed every
thing which might look like assuming the lead
in the defence Of Southern Rights. They de-
sired to act because they believed that safety
and honor required action; but they hoped that
they might find leaders in other States, whom
they might follow in defence of the common
cause. When the ancient Commonwealth Of
Virginia, the proper leader Of the South, de-
clared her determination to resist, at all haz-
ards and to the last extremity, hostile measures
then threatened, South Carolina, with all alac-
rty, stood ready to support Virginia in carry
ing out her high resolution. When Georgia,
whose former resistance to Federal usurpa-
ton under her heroic statesman, TRoUp, gave
promise of unAnching frnness in any contest
in which she might engage. proclaimed her
determination to make stand for the rights
of the South, South Carolina rejoiced at the
prospect of rallyiug under the banner of Geor-
gia. And when her young and gallant sister,
Mississippi, proposed the wise measures Of a
Southern Convention, for the purpose of en-
deavorng to unite the Southern States in main
tanning their constitutional rights, and at the
same time preserving, if possible, the existing
Union, South Carolina heartily entered into
this measure; and she has carried out the COM
mendation of the Convention so assembled at the
instance of Mississippi, by providing for the
election of Delegates to Southern Congress,
to whose meeting she still looks with anxious
interest.
In all these proceedings, we think that the
citizens of South Carolin have evnced all pro-
per anxiety to avoid the appearance of AFRO
gance or dictation, to act in concert with the
citizens of the other Southern States, and to
do nothing separately precipitately. And
now, strongly as we have expressed our belief
that there is no hope for the South in the exis.
ting Union, we are prepared to give trial, fair.
ly and in good faith, to any sister State of the
South, for obtaining redress for the past and
security for future, without a dissolution of the
existing Union, if there be possibility Of such
q consummation.
But we find ourselves forced to consider the
ulterior question, what we are to do, if we fine
that there is 20 reasonable hope Of the CO.