The republic., 1851-08-14
From the Baltimore american.
oosfeivs Secession.

The language OF General Wallace, of South Car
olina, in a recent address, avows explicitly the
aims purposes and expectations of the secession
lists of that State. The following extract shows
the views deliberately entertained by the leaders
in that movement:
'Let US suppose that South Carolina has seeded
from the Union. If the General Government re-
there is an end forever of State sovereignty on this
continent. BY that act alone the character Of the
Government will be disclosed, and ii becomes at
once, TO all intents and purposes, consolidated
empire. If State sovereignty be thus crushed in
the of South Carolina, in our fate every south
State may read their What State south
of us would ever seek to defend themselves in any
way against the tyranny OF the General Govern
ment after South Carolina has been subugated
When that time shall arrive, the phantom OF
coniederated republic of independent States will
disappear forever, and we will be under the iron
rule of remorseless despotism. Do any suppose
that the people Of the South sufficiently blinded
not to see this9
"Whenever, therefore, South Carolina shall
make the practical issue of secession, the States
south of us, In order to save themselves from these
dire calamities, will be COMPELLED 10 co operate
toin herj they can't escape il. II he were told,
therefore, that he must wait for cooperation, he
would answer the only mode TO guaranty that
co. cooperation is to act-to make practical issue
and If we do not obtain cooperation then, all past
history is fiction. II is clear, from these PROPOSE
tions, that the secession OF single State must, in
the General Government, by placing it in the
power of State 10 check its tyranny by exercis-
ing the veto of secession, dissotpe the Union; and,
the Union once dissolved, Southern Confederacy
is inevitable. Let US not, then, hide from ourselves
the important fact that South Carolina holds in her
hands Me potDer 10 destroy The Union He had no
fears of being subjugated. The States having like
interests with hers cannot, will not, dare not per-
init her to fight the great battle of southern rights
alone"
We do not see how the enforcement of the Con-
stitution and the laws of the General Government
in any State can be properly said to involve the de-
structon of the rights of the States any one of
them. If South Carolina should secede for while,
putting herself in what Mr.. Rhett once denomi-
mated temporary secession" her situation would
be very uneasy one and not at all calculated to
enlist the sympathies of neighboring States nor
inspire them with any apprehension of general
calamity. We are here taking it for granted that
the just rights of the South guaranteed by the Con-
stitution will suffer aggression or infringement
on the part of sectional agitators, and that the
Union of the South can stand with confidence
on their platform side by side with the Union men
of the rest of the country. In that case we may
well agree with Mr. Burt, who told his fellow-citi-
of South Carolina that if she should attempt to
go out of the Union, urged by the immediate Sc
cessionists, not State would sustain her by aid
orsympathy.
Nor is it likely that the language of coercion,
such as General Wallace uses, will help her des-
perate cause. The South will hardly be disposed
to give the keeping of their interests into the hands
of a headstrong party that would put them in
jeopardy wantonly, capriciously, and unnecessa-
rily. Let the North stand true to the Constitution
and to the compact of fidelity which binds them to
observe the rights of their southern brethren, and
the South, we presume, will be quite able to take
care of itself from the incendiary attempts of
South Carolina secessionists.