Semi-weekly Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1851-1852, 1851-09-23
LETTER FROM G. w. GAYLE, ESQ.
CsHAwnA. Ala, Aug. %, 1851.

me in behalf of those you represent, to address
public meeting 10 be holden in Charleston on
the l7th proximo, was received to-day. On
the day appointed for your meeting, shall be
on nv circuit, and forced therefore, by 4 duty
to my clients, to decline your kind invitation.
The determined spirit of resistance YOU ex.
press, through the medium of separate aud i'm.
mediate State Secession, gives me hope Des-
pair never could annoy me, il were certain
South Carolina would stand up to her profess
sions, her honor, and her integrity. Slavery in
the South is literally staked upon her, aud if
she retraces one step she has taken, all is lost,
and lost forever, save what relic of the South
-rn institution may be found amid the desola-
tions of civil war.
WHO can doubt that we have been driven to
the alternative of giving up our slaves to Nor
thern fa"atcism, or dissolving the Union!-
This is not debateable question, even among
the most crouching subnissonl,ts. All parties
in the South concede it. while they propose diff
ferent remedies. Hostility to slavery has grown
up with the Government, and year after year,
since l7S7, it has now reached maturity, and
is rs undomestcated and inexorable. as wild
hyena. 1t has succeeded in one of its grand
schemes of abolition -hemming III the insttu-
ton BY surrounding it with free States. lnso-
lent in its power, it refuses to allow the tugI
tive slave law enforced, and thus triumphs IN
another plan of emancipation, rendering the
slave property of the bordering States unsafe,
by open robbery, and forcing its owners to push
it upon tue interior South. Not content with
these, for the last three years they have, by
their irresistible power in Congress, increased
the Government debt millions upon millions,
with the view to exhaust the sources Of public
revenue, and reach emancipation through the
levy of a direct tax, perhaps of three hundred
dollars upon slave. Of this latter scheme,
think ,.an hardly be mistaken. Within the
time specified, appropriations have been unsPar-
inely made-t!.e, public lands given away to
every petitioner, and no effort made to raise
the duties on imports. They have the Consti.
tutional right to levy such tax, and am salts
fed it is looked to as al early means of aboli-
ton. t,, azz4s .s.-
When we are thus driven to the necessity of
giving up slavery or dissolving the Union, what
shall we dol 1t is true, the Northern argument
that g the U"ien is stronger than slavery has
had its influence in the South, even with slave
holders. But shall We give it up, although this
startling fact shall stare US in the face! {! No
never! We have the power to preserve it, and
we will do SO by the hest practicable means.
How shall we preserve the institution OF
slavery! By submitting to aggression until we
can get the cooperation Of the South When
will we ever get the cooperation OF the South!
Ask your Cheves, and your Butler, and your
Hayne, and your BarnweIl to tell you. They
may tell you we will get it when slavery is
abolished in the District of Columbia. This
cann 1t be, because, should that he done, we
will be told that the South voted for MIR. Van
Bcren for the Presidency when he had public
ly declared he believed Congress had the Con-
stitutona power to do so. They may tell you
too, we may get it when the fugitive slave law
is repealed. Let this be done, and it will be
defended in the South upon the ground -of its
uncoustitationality, and your noble Rhett will
be cited as authority. What then, is to pro-
duce the expected cooperation OF the South!
Nothing that Congress can be expected to do,
most certainly. When Southern Convention
of only six or seven States could be assembled
at Nashville, while the compromise bills were
upon their passage, the Union trembling under
an excitement upon the slavery question which
il never before experienced, it is vain to talk OF
co. operation for what the Government may
hereafter do. When subsequent Southern
Congress has been appointed to be held iii
Montgomery, Ala, in December next, and no
other State but South Carolina has appointed
Delegates to the same, is it not idle to talk of co.
operation9 We cannot, then, preserve slavery
by waiting for cooperation. If we wait for it.
we must wait until direct tax Of three or five
hundred dollars. is laid upon slave. This may
produce cooperation. But fear if we wait
so long, we will have become so accustomed
to submission, that we will "acquiesce" even
in that outrage.
There is one way. however, to preserve
slavery, and preserve it by cooperation. 1t is
by the separate Secession Of some one slave
state 1t is the only way to unite the South,
aud produce cooperation. When this occurs
should the General Government mterf-re) ifan.y
General Government remains) each slave State,
from interest and from sympathy, will rally to
hersupport. Should the General Government
not interfere, large majority Of them will Sc
cede to form slave.holding Confederacy
peaceably. 1t is cowardice that has made US
submit 50 long to Northern aggression. Dem.
agogues have frightened the people with the
craven cry Of war, bloodshed. instructions and
murders. Let some gallant State dare to throw
the gauntlet, and face the foe, and all will be
peace, and the South left to the enjoyment OF