The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-03
Reply OF General James Hamilton.
BOsToN, Feb. %. 1891.

TO BE ConTinUED.
Reply OF General James Hamilton
Bosros, Feb. %. 1881.
10 the Hon. Sam Houston, of the
Se'aae Of The United States:
SIR have just seen in the New York Her
aid Of the l4th inst, an article in which Won
have honored me and the State Of my birth and
allegiance, with notice certainly some what dis
tlngulshed. proceeding, as it Does from gem
tleman who occupies the position you do before
the country.
l can take no exception to the inoffensiye re-
ference which you make to myself; | have as
little desire as you express, to enter into any
personal controversy with you. Whatever NAV
have been our former relations, they are now
respectful and kind. By tacit, and hope.
mutual consent, we have buried the hatchet.
which is sanctifed in its interment by those
charities which belong to the best feelings of the
human heart. Therefore, If you had confined
your administrations either to the mischief or
lnutIlity OF my invocation to the State of Vir-
gna, Gin my recent letter to Mr. Cheves) to in
terpose her counsef and meditation in this
crisis in the affairs Of the South so full of peril
and anxiety, should have been silent, and have
allowed the letter which you addressed to your
relative, 10 have passed for exactly as much az
it was worth, without any attempt on my part
to depreciate its value. But you have thought
proper to assail the people Of South Carolina,
whom 1t IS far more easy to abuse than to con-
Wet OF dishonor, or of want of an enlightened
and courageous loyalty to the Constitution of
their country
In reply to your censorial structures, Twill do
better than affirm. willprove that South Caro-
lima has done as much towards the formation,
stability, and renown Of this Union, as any one
OF the States in the whole confederacy. This.
perhaps, is scarcely according to her the meas
ure OF justice to which she is entitled You
may regard these words as not lightly said /
will establish them before we finish this discus
sion. desire to indulge in no urmeaning gen
eralities. You will permit me now, in a sum
mary as compcndous as | can make it, to give
you brief recital OF what South c. rolina was
-ot what she is; d, recurring to that phi
losophy which teaches by experience, what she
will be, IT, Encourage devotion, and intelligence
of her sons afford any assurances for the future.
fear, as retentive your memory is known TO
be, that you have forgotten something of her
history, and your fervid aud gushing attachment
for the Union has made you 10 some degree in
sensible to some OF the lessons that history
teaches.
With these preliminary remarks, permit me to
recur, Tor few moments to what may best vim
"A
tive of facts will show what have been her SER
vices and sacrifices to this Union.
Gen. Houston, you grew up in a horse raising
country, and presume that you have some con-
fidence in blood. The people of South Caroljna
sprung principally from the Hnguenots Of France
and the Cavaliers of England. They have. from
that day to this, never lost one feature of their
cherished lineage. In the simplicity in the beauty
and herosm of his character our gallant Marion
was but the counterpart of that glorious Hugue-
not chief, Plessis de Normal, whom the setting
stars found upon his horse, and the rising sun
saluted on the battle field. II the English por-
ton OF the early coionsts of South Carolina re-
tanned the chivalry of the stock from which they
sprung, they exchanged the politics of their futh-
ers under the teachings of Milton, Hampden and
Sidney. The greatest and most gifted f her
sons the American revolution found fashioned
in the best schools of England, to the perform.
ance OF the high duties which that eventful
crisis had imposed on the country To the first
Congress which assembled at Annapolis, after
the passage OF the stamp act, no colony sent a
higher contingent Of public virtue and talent
than South Carolina. Although she had been
handled in the arms of the mother country. as
the most favored and petted of all the colonies,
she was among the first to strike heroicalIy for
liberty and independence
w neH 1uc ou cOiOny OF massachusetts, BAY
and Sagadahock meditated revolution, where
did she send her youthful, her chiyalrous. md
her gifted missionary, Josiah Quincy, stripping
OF twenty-five To South Carolina. Yes, old
Massachusetts sent her favored son TO South
Corona, to know if she would back her in stern
and resolved resistance to British tyranny. It
Is, perhaps, remarkable fact that on Mr.. Quin-
cy s arrival IN T. arleston, where he was received
with open arms, the most influential men in the
then colony met him at the house of Miles Bur.
ton, who was the largest merchant in South
Carolina, engaged in the ANlcan slave-trade,
than whom more sterling patriot the American
revolution never produced. Here, in the hos
ptable abode of this gcntlem IN, was held the
first federative concave Of rebellion. Here.
south Carolina, without one interest of her own
touched by the mother country, one oppression
to complain of, through her chiefs threw down
the gage of battle, and told young Quincy to go
back and tell John Hancock, Samuel Adams.
John Adams, and the whole retnue of the pa
trIots OF Massachusetts,, that South Carolina
would stand by her in the peril and The desola-
tion OF the coming storm. Let me pause for an
instant, to ask what has become of the descen-
dants of these men, They surely cannot bc
among those who seek now to fire the temple
of concord in this once happy Union.
This, Gen. Houston, is the first item to the
credit OF South Carolina in the history Of this
confederacy.
Let US now proceed. Where did she stand In
the war Of the revolution! What were her bat.
ties, her sacrifices, and her sufferings
The first victory Of that revolution was an
nounced from her own cannon-for Bunker's
Hill, although glorious struggle, was no vct8ry.
u the 18th of june l776, our gallnnt Moul-
the rePulsed one of the best appointed British
fleets that ever visited our coasts After this
event, South Carolina resisted the whole blan-
dlshments Of British diplomacy in the endeavor
10 WIN her from her alliance with the other colo
MES The only reply she made to these solicit
tations were made at Camden, the Cowpens, Eu-
taw, and the Hanging Rock
This is the second item, General Houston, to
her credit in the history of this confederacy.-
She fought for Independence and for uni, n.
After the termination Of this war, to the sue
cess of which she so powerfully contributed,