The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1851-07-29
N o.. a OI

SIMPLY tQ pursue ourtwcal and happi.
ness in the way in which We suppose
it may best be promoted, We arc told
that it cannot be. We are informed
that secession IS revolution, we are
assured the Union must be. preserv.s
ed, even by blood, we are made TO
feel that we are too precious a gem
in the federal tiara (not for orna.
ment, but for plundering uses) to BIZ
lightly parted With, Nay, it is said
that a prosperous independence would
enure to the injury Of the confedera.
cy, and that the peacea5le secession
of a sovereign State is as impracticaa:.
BILE and as unreasonable as a yoluI.
tary separation of slave from his.
master! aa. :s5ss. @
If these things, fellow citizens, be
80, can you give stronger definition
OF despotic government, than sec.
tional majority to tax, to plunder,,
and oppress- and free soil confed.
eracy to enforce them? Most eyils
have some mitigation, and it is seE
dom that rule can be established
(however stern or exacting) that
docs not work some corresponding
advantages. In submitting to endure
the oppression of the government, ws
might at least as reasonably hope to
enjoy its protection. But while itself
ngsressing, it toleratcs, nay it pro-
tccts, our eastern confcderates. not
only in their legal and Legislative
robbery of our property, but in i'm.
punity against our reprisals. Yes;
let Southern State enact a law Of
retaliation against Vermont and Ohioa
and we would readily experience how
soon the arm of this government
would be extended to avert It. Sss
We have all wondered, perhaps,
how spirited people in the 18th
century, in the midst of arts, science,
and letters, could have endured tho
tyranny of an unadjudicated doom in
the bastile, or the unanswerable des.
potism of a "lettre de catclsce ~ -, Bus
are our political relations to this sUf.
ion .amelioratea, either in feature oT,
comp!e.i6's? Il WAS -Fh6 frank and
extorted Acknowledgements of the
celebrated Mr.. Burke, in the British
Parliament, "tlat he know not how
to draw up bill of indictment against
o State or whole people''-that
"there were no terms in law, with
which he was acquainted, for such q
process But American ingenuity
it seems, has discovered a more sum.
mary mode Of enforcing, if not a moro
subtle manner to evade, the forms Of
criminal Jurisprudence. The can.
mons mouth, it seems, is to expound
the constitution, the sword is to ar.
raign, the fortress is to be the tribu-
nal, and mercenary soldiery tho
jury to render in the verdict, for
resistance to federal aggrcssions.
In this grave aud truthful aspect
Of our wrongs and our humiliation;
what are our duties, our obligations;
and our resourcesf Shall We sucs
cumb, ingloriously crouch and sue.
cumb, without hope and without q
struggle? Shall we think to appeass
the appetite of "A wolf fer gore BY
rendering it sop of our blood?
Why, it will but ''grow on the things
it feeds on" Do we think to satisfy
the miser's avarice, or the fanatics
lust, by compounding rights and
principles for forbcarance! Our his.
tory furnishes the most conclusive
reply. We have borne the exactions
of their protective duties on our ID.
come in all humility, and in the hopa
of enjoying our domestic Institutions
in peace: and now they arrogantly
demand that we shall render up The
very capital itself, by the profits Of
which we have alone been enabled to
pay tho duty.
Happily for US, the great, event
which has given worldwide interest
and renown to the day which ws
have thus assembled to celebrate Is
before us to initiate, as well as to
commemorate. The past points To
the future, and the very emotions Of
patriotism which VIC feel in contem.
plating the one herald the spirit and
the energy with which we are pre-
pared to participate in the other.
No man can; exdlt5in memories of am
epoch like this. no man can indulge
in the frrycr Of its all,glorious recoL
leeiions, no man can jubiiate in it's
Festivities, no man can he proud Of
ms ancestors or Of their sriurnphs
oyer oppression. without recurring.
like Esau, with shame aud indiena.
tion, to his lost inheritance. Lost.
did sayf ] trust not lost, but loo
long and too forbearingly neglected,
and destined soon to bo tegained un.
der brighter and more permanent