The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-02-17
The National Intelligenccr and south
Carolina

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Carolina.
The select few who are gifted with the pa
tience requisite to wade through the dull and
dismal diatribes of the National Intclligeneer.
must DO aware that the State of South Carolina
shonored with the especial hatred Of that ANTIQUE
organ. 1t is a hatred of long standing-one
that springs from fear--and being the only cor
dial emotion ever manifested by that most cal
culating and prudent of all the recipients of
public pap is therefore worthy Of note, though
the malignity is impotent for aught but to vent
harmless excavations. So far beyond this bounds
of its usual timid cunning has the feeling car
red the staid and sober Intelligencer, that men,
bers Of its own party have become disguised
with the pertinacious malice, which spares
neither the feelings OF the living nor even the
memory of the dead-but breaks even the re-
pose of the tomb, to unplumb the dead for bull
lets with which to assassInate the living.
What BENTos-the most vindictive and i'm
placable assailant of Mr.. Calhoun, shrunk
from as revolving to his own and the public
feeling-the moderate, courteous, aGabls Intelli-
gencer has volunteered to do. It has revived
and reiterated the calumnies which tracked the
footsteps OF JOHN G. CALHOUN, and sought to en-
grave on his tombstone, as his epitaph, an in
scrption like this: Here lies the man who made
his own State the tool of his ambition, and who
sought to build up his own greatness on the
ruin Of his country.
None can forget tie last scenes in the life of
that great martyr to duty, when in the United
States Senate irreverent hoofs were raised to
spurn the dying lion; nor how the voice of a
whole people visited condign punishment on
the heads of the assailants, by honors such as
never before accompanied the obsequies of o
private citizen. But even their offence was
less obnoxious, perpetrated against the dying
than this post mortem malignity, raking amid the
cold ashes Of the dead. The genius of ScoT1
has immortazed the labors Of Old Mortality
but his self imposed task was labor of love
ithas been shown that his example could be i'm
itated under the inspiration of " the study of
revengc-immortal hate"
Detracton ever loves shining mark! And
where could one be found more illustrious than
the name and fame of JOHN C.. CALHOUN
Some of the numerous aspersions ard misrep-
reservations of the Inteliigencer, in relation to
him, we have exposed, more for the purpose of
exhibiting its tactics, than from any apprehension
Of their rejecting upon his character--for the
public records of the country afford the proofs
of his patriotic devotion-his fame, like his
spirit belongs to eternity. We seek, therefore,
when responding to all imputations upon his
public career or private purposes, to vindicate
only the truth of history-not one who needs
any vindcation from such stale ISLANDERS. But
not satisfied with its mortuary labors in behal
of South Carolina, the Intelligencer has recently
turned its attention to the existing state O
things there-and with the aid of it's mcrosco
pic eye, has made most wonderful discoveries
On the 9th inst it contained an editorial o
three columns, headed
Movements in the South,
which South was comprised in South Caroline
mo reference being made therein to any Other
State, and the movements" referred to, being
the preparations for the election of members tl
the State convention.
Now, as this editorial is an average specime,
of the modus operandi of the Inteliigencer, il
manufacturing its facts and its assertions, W
shall briefly expose the solemn dogmatism, tn
elaborate triaing, and the shallow inconclusive
ness which constitute its staple.
1t sets out by announcing the fact of the ar
proach of the election of delegates to the Stat
convention, and then goes on to make the fo
lowing broad assertions:
The act for the organization of this Stat
convention was passed by the Legislature in
schi lpind Of passion; not indeed without de
bate and elaboration, such as it was, but unde
the influence of an excitement into which tn
Legislature was wrought by artful and stimulat
ing appeals to sectional pride and sectional feel
ing, by the Journalists of the State and thei
correspondents, by the able and artfully devise
opening message Of the governor, and by tn
speech Of Mr.. Cheeves, at Nashville, yet NOR
artful and infamatory. On the final passage o
the act combining the two measures "a" South
ern Congress" and State conventon) Their
were but few dissenting votes /; yet ii ,cas not
hearty assem- that II received, but MS far as on
might Judge from the indistinct and unsaiisfac
tory public accounts of the proceedings upon il
snas compromise betpeen the extremists an(
fho,e oho, differing from them, pere bent upon do
ing something or other, rather Than submit
For had not Mr.. Cheeves, on that point, wount
mp the chord Of passion TO its highest pitch in
the perontion Of his speech! " Unite" said he
UETTE, and you shall form one Of The most splen-
did empires on which the sun has erer shonc OF
the most homogeneous population, all of the
same blood and lineage, a soil the most fruitful
and climate the most lovely. But submit
SUBMIT! The very sound curdes the blood in
my veins But, o great God unite us "a South
crn CoHgressl and a tale Of SUBMISSION shall
1nrer be told !"
After this, Il was Of course out of the ques-
ton for the young gentlemen in the legislature
not 10 do something which should effectively re-
leve them from any suspicion of design to
submit
Now the passages italicised, and indeed tho