Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-10-16
Letter of Hon. j. r. Richardson.
CLARENDON, Aug. 25, 1851.

Genlcmer-I regret that circumstances be-
yond my control deprive me of the pleasure
Of accepting your kind invitation to attend the
patriotic festivity with which you propose to
honor one of your fellow-citizens.
Allow me to assure you gentlemen, that
the patriotic zeal which your District has man.
ifcsted for the preseryationofSo Southern Rights
and Institutions, has awakened q most graft
fying pride of recollection in those old party
and political associations, by which was in
other times and earlier life, so Interestingly
connected with you. / cannot be insensible
to the fact, that Jealous and ready as be-
lieye all her citizens are for her defence, yet
there is no portion of the people of South
Carolina, who have manifested 4 warmer or
more active sympathy for her wrongs, than
those imbued with the Union principles Of
1882.
Nor could it consistently be otherwise.
Who more hopeful ofa returning sense ofjus-
tice in this Union that they were! And whose
confidence has been more signally and mani
festly abused? Who, but IL distinguished
member of the Union party, in the very ear
lest stages af our then controversy, suggest
ed secession as the true, the only and legiti-
mate remedy ofan aggrieved sovereign Of this
Confederacy? Who but ourselves, gentle
men, the "echo" being still upon my lips
and the sanction of it coming then fresh and
warm from the bosoms of my party associ-
ates-profered our allegiance and our duty
to obey behests of South Carolina in such a
contingency, and asked only that she would
forbear its exercise until our domestic insti-
tuition became the subject of aggression;
when the whole South Gas we hoped) would
rise up rs one man, and in that man but one
heart, and in that heart but one throb, to re-
pei it! 1t has come; the contingency has
happened; the pledge is demanded; and we
at least, am happy to perceive, are ready to
redeem it.
It would certainly then, be strange des-
tihy-a peculiar accident in party position
and an extreme and obstinate persistence in
Federal conservatism, that would not only
array US against our own remedies, but in ev.
cry contest for her rights in perpetual oppo-
sition to the action and the measures of South
Carolina; and as in the present instance in
the very issue, in which we proposed that
they should be applied.
Neither can abandon the hope that in all
the essential elements of resistance, there is
really no discord or division among any class
or portion of her citizens. If the question be
one of ultimate secession, or ultimate SUBJ
mission to Federal interference with our in
stitutions-who is there that will differ with
us? If the expedient preferred be that ofco-
operation, who does not desire it? who does
not seek it? who are more earnestly striving
to obtain it, than those of our fellow-citizens
who, while they deem it "to be worth great
and many sacrifices, yet cannot consent to
purchase it with the sacrifice involved in SUBJ
mission?" On the other hand, if there be
those amongst us who would by rash and
precipitate course of action, repel any reason
able prospects of Southern Cooperation,
am sure that l would be doing no injustice
to the patriotism of the distinguished gentle
man, whose valuable public services the oc.
casion itself is intended to honor, to assert
that he would himself rebuke and come out
from among them" Buff after all other ex-
pedients have failed, secession should indeed
indeed prove the only ultimate mode of pro-
curing cooperation or redress, who is there
of any class or party among my fellow.cti-
zens, that dare accuse ola craven and trea-
sonable determination to barter the rights and
sovereignty of South Carolina, for peace OF
pelf, rather than resort to separate State ac-
ton
That secession may become necessary
precedent to cooperation, cannot reasonably
be questioned. We know that 1t is often ca.
sier for men to move than to think together
and that States as well as individuals, may
be induced to meet issues which they are re.
luctant to make. Our Southern Confederates