Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-07-24
VOL. xvI.--NO.2 81.

! sh' nave saved the Constitution and
avoided convulsion. Those two States act
Eng togetner then, could have controlled ths
south ana dictated terms. They have passed
IL Dy ana We now must make our own issues
ana save our own liberties. We were the
nrst State to put forth written Cohstitu!!
tlon ana form government independent of
great Britain, even before the Joint declara.
ton OF independence, and we also as a State
won glorious victory before that declara-
ton. And, If We are true to ourselves we
can stand alone again. do not stop to ask
the question. whether, We will have rendition
OF fugitive slaves secured perfectly, OF wheth-
or it will affect the value of that species of
property and its profits, if we move alone. I
scorn and despise this small view of great
question. 1t is question of chartered rights
of Constitutional liberty and rises far
above these small views. Gi
If they have a right to say that you shall
not 60 beyond certain line with your slaves,
they have a right to say you shall not 20
with any other species of property. If they
had declared in so many words that the peo-
pie of Mississippi, of Alabama, of Georgia
and OF South Carolina, shall not 20 above d
certain line into any of the public Territories
OF the Union-if they had named these States
the insult and degradation would have been
so palpable, that an army of Southern soldiers
would have taken the field at once to ayenge
the wrong And yet they have done precisely
The same thing in effect. If they have right
to exclude you with your slaves,t they have the
right to exclude you as citizens of the States
named. As far as constitutional power is
concerned in government, the ingenuity of
man cannot show why they should have tho
power in one instance and not in the
other.
If they can put the citizens, holding slaves in
certain states s,under the ban of the cUhfederacy
they can put the States themselves by name
and the citizens IS citizens. The Constitu-
tion declares that " the citizens of each State
shall be entitled to all privileges and iinmuni-
ties OF citizens in the several States" And
yet the government openly asserts that
that the citizens of near half the States Of
this Union, shall not be allowed to 90 above
Il certain line with the privileges of their pros
perty, but shall disposses themselves of tho
most valuable part of that property before
they can claim equality, in privileges, with
the citizens of Ohio or Massachusetts. They
make Compromise line of go 30'l when it
suits them to seize half the territory of Lou.
isiana, and then, instead of carrying out that
line in good faith, rs it was intended, in spirit
and substance to the Pacific, when it suits
them >seize territory below it. they do SO
without remorse and without siiame.I = 4l -
r.. Where IS sttIFeif Compromise q Where Is
their plighted faith? Are we to be cireum-
scrbed at their pleasure! Are We to
be encircled iii great penitentiary walls by
our masters and our keepers?
Mcrciful God are we born slaves or are
we born frccmcn? Are the descendants OF
Cavaliers to let the swords of their torefath-
ers hang around them, in their halls, to rust
forever? Do they dread to draw ther, be.
cause forsooth n nation of Yankee shoe.ma-
kers may let drive at them with their avis, or
a nation of wearers may threaten TO raise
their shuttles and spindlcs?
Mr.. Chairman! the firal result of all these
measures is TO abolish slavery in the States;
or to render it value!ess and thus to force
those who own them to abandon the country
or perish in its ruins. To establish the truth
Of this-bear with me while 90 back and
trace the history of events particularly for
the last twenty-five years. Look first ut its
rise and progress in England. When Will
bcrforce first proclaimed his doctrines of
emancipation for the British West India Is
lands, he had few or no followers, and be-
licvc he was mobbed in tlcsstrccts of Liver
pool, or at least treated with great indignity.
The productions Of those Islands and slave
labour were then of great Importance to
England, and the movement was looked upon
as 4 direct blow st her prosperity and COM
mercial wealth. The proposition for enamel.
patton was secuted, and received but slender
support in the British Parliament for years.
And yet WilbcrfoIce lived to see the day
when he bore down the common sense and
talent of England by mad fanatcism and wild
philanthrophy The deed was consummated
against the judgment of the thinking classes.
And the Prime Minister Of England, in the
same speech, by which he carried the Eman-
cipation Bill, congratulated the country that
he would thereby fisully be enabled to with
draw troops from these West India stations
and station them in Ireland ]! Emancipate
the black man of the West Indies and station
British bayonets to keep in slavery the white
man of Ireland What comment upon
British Philanthropy! And what has been the
result? Ireland under the British bayonet-
in chains and pershing with starvation
The West Indies free, yet poor-miserable
-wrctchcd, in degradation and ruin. And
this is what the world called humanity
The movements for emancipation in France
and England were then transferred to the
United States. And as short time ago, as
1884 and 49, when first entered Congress,
it was talked Of as belonging 10 few OBJ.
scure fanatics who were considered ma5men
and utterly unworthy of all kind of notice.
They were merely laughed at. ln'1S36 they
began to send in petitions quite frequently
to abolish slavery in the District of Colum.
bia, &c. Gen. Hammond and myself, al
though very young members, at that time,
mate the question of reception on those pc.
tiions. 1t produced great excitement, and
it was thought even by Southern members
that we were ultra and cxtravagant in our
views. rccollect well, in speech | then
delivered, denying the Constitutional right of
the Government to abolish slavery in the Dis
t.ict of Columbia without the consent of
Virginia and Maryland. said that there was
danger from this party of abolitionism, and
that The day would come when they would
hold the balance of power, and overrun both
parties st the North and endanger the exist
cncc of this Union. | was pronounced q
madman and it was gravcly put forth in a
New York paper that ought to be expelled