Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-05-24
From the Richmond Examiner.
S0uth Carolina.


sented. and four hundred and fifty delegates were
nresent. An assembly SO constituted is naturally
respected as fair representation OF the people OF
South Carolina; and naturally looked to for de-.
finite and almost official expression OF thef deter
limitations in regard to their future conduct Inc
Convention which is to meet next year TO proclaim
the secession of that State, its acqulescence IN
the existing condition of the Union, thus F" casts
its shadow before - and if the coming substance
is like unto its eigy there is little doubt about the
destiny of the old Union of Thirteen States All
things in heaven and on earth proclaim that the
end draws nigh. If ever men had reason 10 eX-
pect with certainty an event Whlch oepehus oi
moral causes, we have cause to DeneVe lhaC oouth
Carolina will leave the Union. The people OF that
State appear to have weighed all consequences,
all the dangers, and all the benefits which may re-
suit from secession, and fully made their resoIu-
ton to stand the cast of the dice. They may not,
after ALL effect their determination butt proven
ted it will be by causes which are not toreseen.-I
He that in the present condition of things does not
anticipate their secession, does not reason with
common sense.
The party of Consolidation and their leaders,
threaten civil war. They declare that the powers
of the Federal Government shall be fully tested
when South Carolina shall declare her separation
from the rest of the Union. They promise to send
thither armies to ravage and despoil those fair
lands, to exterminate that brave people, to make
into wilderness that garden of the South; set the
fleets which guard our shores to the work of bonn
harding, burning and sacking her city. The
vaunt the vast munitions and myriads of men
which the President of the United States can
command to this business of hell and IN braggo-
docio triumph point to the inadequacy of force
which South Carolina must bring to such battle.
That they are inadequate, is a manifest fact
If all the men, and all the weapons, and all the
treasures of twenty nine large States, are brought
to bear on one small one it cannot be doubted that
in the long run, however brave and warllke and
clever that State may be, it will be crushed out OF
existence But then the question arises, whether
such an effort of the Federal Government, in a
cause so iniquitous, is possible thing? No char
acterstic of the Anglo-Saxon is so indellble
and so strongly marked, its love of fair play
1t is not one of those who side with the strongest
The sympathies of this will ever be with the
weaker side. In our revolutionary war, the colo
MES were not more unequal to a contest with the
whole British Empire, than South Carolina will be
to a war with the rest of the United States but
the powers of the British Empire, even in the hands
of prince nearly absolute, could not be, and
were not brought to bear upon US, because the
sympathy of the nation was always with u.s.
The same cause would deaden the arm of Federal
/ authority in contest with South Carolina. The
r sympathy of all the American people would be
with brave State, conending Valantly for its in
dependence.
Then the cost and nature of such contest must
. be taken into account End as the war might, ii
; would cost millions of money and oceans of blood
= What portion of the American people willing
- to be taxed for the destruction of their fellow
countrymen? What portion of the American PEG
pie will volunteer to go there and be shot dowr
by, or themselves shoot, people homogeneous
with themselves, speaking the same language, &C
- customed to the same life and occupations Can
no Oft
= them to these terrible lengths? If South Caron;
o is finally beaten in such battle she will be heater
n as Poland was All the narrowing scenes which
t, darken the pages of European history must be re
newed in this virgin hemisphere before she cal
be subiugated. Are the people of the Untet
States ready to be the actors of that tragedy 2
re Will they be satisfied and reoiced to hear of vic
IN tories in which thousands of their fellow citizen
= have been cut down at the route? Of cities pillag
ed and burning, in which many of them have ira
re ded-lived-and found endearing friendships ?
- Of lands laid waste whence came the riches ant
is the glory of the whole continent.
And for what For what are we to underg
all these labors, bear all these expenses, sem
- down our names to posterty spotted with CIV
blood, and harrow the sympathy of all the presen
., 81 world by tales of our butcheres? Suppose tn
y triumph of Federal power to be complete, and tina
nc South Carolina shall be perfectly broken down
u. what is gained ?-how we better off than
10 she was out of the Union? What good will it d
- :. to keep ruined, oppressed and exasperaed pee
~ pie IN such an organization ours 4? The yer
= Keystone of that organization is the equalit
y of the sovereign States They have equal power
y and rights, meet in a common parliament and de
~ eide all things by the majority of voices. The
- have no sovereign ruler above them all, who sha
III decide their disputes, chastise their faults and
IS ceive their fealty. Their existence as whole
d simply the concert of equal parts. How then wi
the existence of the Union be conserved by the dc
IL graduation and enslavement of one of those States
"a The Union is not more complete when one of til
a' States has become slave and captive of the res
ie than when one of the States has withdrawn frol
u the Union The result is the same. A limb thu
is paralyzed is not more valuable than limb tn;
au is cut off
Thus the Federal Union can gain nothing
ed the most complete triumph which can be conceived
r. But let us now look at the reverse of the medal
O. let us see what the Federal Union has to lose
Us has everything to lose-honor-power-exi
- itself These are her stakes in the game Can
he be supposed that the Southern States will eithe
aid or abet the Federal Union in the destruction
ed one of themselyes-in contest over rights an
lis injuries which the rights and injuries of the1
ct all-ar bring down on Carolina a doom whc
a they must see in store for all in succession? The
Id would not, while one grain of common sense, on
at spark of manly sympathy, or one relic of ideper
st dent character remain among their people The
r. would strive in the beginning to be mediators BE-
O. tween the contending powers; their Legislature
Id might vote the regular quotas demanded by Cor
of gress but the first tale of honor which woul
ke shudder along the electric wires to the mountain