The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-07
Address Of the Southern Rights Association
of the Eouth Carolina college,

and 10 The Young men, throughout me So"'"
ern STATES.
Friends and Fsllo,c- Students: We have beel
invited by tbs Southern Rights Association, or
canzed by students in the University oil Vrgi
| MIA. to form an association similar to their own
to protect the rights, liberties and institution
of the Southern States. We obey the INVITA-
ton, not merely because we deem IL wise ali'
patriotic, in the present condition OF the oouin
ern States, but because the invitation nsei
comes to us from source we nave ever pee'
accustomed to regard with the highest respect
Virginia has, in times past, led the counseis o
the South. II she is to lead the South no more
IF she has become the counsellor OF base
submission TO wrongs she taught us to DEFY anf
resist as uncomfortable, we mourn her position
and, turning from the humillating present, Iooh
to that past where she is all-glorlous. ny hei
wisdom and energy, TIE first brave struggle wa'
made for the rights and liberties secured oy the
Constitution against the usurping desPotism OF
consolidation. She first blew the bugle OF re-
sistance to the alien and sedtion laws. She
first indicated the rights OF the States by heI
mastery expostions in 1913 and l799, ana IN
terposed her power to rescue them IRON Ihe IN
solent federalism of those dark days. She gave
ma those great revolutionary Presidents, under
4
perity went hand in hand together and the love
of the Union, instead of inspiring that jealous
watchfulness, which all experience declare ne
cessary to check abuses in governments, and to
preserve liberty, grew up in the Southern mind
to be a blind and unreasoning passion.
Looking, then, to the past, we bow with
yeneration to all counses coming from Virginia
We obey the recommendations OF the Southern
RICH Association of her University, and ex-
tend to her students the right hand OF fellow
ship-not nerveless, we trust--to redeem our
pliohted faith to them, or the lost equality and
liberties of the South.
Young men of the South we are, indeed
fallen on evil days. That inevitable decay which
awaits all nations, or that redemption which so
seldom lifts up fallen liberty, is soon to be our
destiny. We have not, like our fathers
" scented tyranny in the tainted gale" Like
them we have not dsdained to permit even the
touch of its foul pollution. No petty tax OF
three pence pound on tea now arouses our re-
sistance. Even threats of military coercion, to
cement tyranny by blood-which brought from
our fathers but one response, the stern grasp OF
the sword-seem to fall stirringless on the
Southern heart. We have submitted 80 long to
Injustice and oppression, that neither submission
burns with shame, nor insult fires with an in.
tolerable sense of dishonor How else shall We
account for the long and passive endurance OF
the Southern States, to the oppression OF the
general government? For the last thirty years
it has heaped upon us, all hundredfold increased
in aggravation, the very oppression our fathers
resisted and vanquished by screen gears par
The people of South Carolna-the people O
Virginia, and of the other States, depied that il
was consistent with self-government and liberty
in taxation, that they should be taxed by any
power beyond themselves The claim OF tht
British Parliament to tax them, in all cases
whatsoever, was, in their view, IT submitted to
establishing tyranny over them. The mockery
of a representation in Parliament, which was mo-
strong enough to control or prevent any taxes
Parliament might propose to lay on them, they
disdainfully rejected Self-taxatlon alone gave
} them the power to protect their property
alone gave them liberty in taxation; and, will
this alone, would they be satisfied. And YET
/, what has been the nature of the taxes whic
every man in the Southern States opposed to tn
protective policy has been paying, by the law
8 of the general government, since he arrived a
4 manhood Neither he nor his representative
have assented to them. Our representation II
Congress, too feeble to protect us, has ONLY
. served to give the semblance Of constitutional,
to those robber lars, in the shape of protective
, tariffs. bv which the South has been taxed 70
, the benefit of the North-the Southern plante
and farmer for the benefit of the Northern manu-
facturer. BY this policy, millions of the pro
perty of the Southern people have been annually
} wrested from them, and transferred TO the peo
pie of the North. Congress claims to be Just a
omnpotent over US, in the power OF taxation
as the British Parliament whilst in the pur
poses for which we have been taxed, the Britsl
Parliament was far more just and LIBERAL i
roposei to tax us only to assist in paying thu
debt which Great Britain had incurred in de
Tending us, as her colonies, against common
foe. But Congress taxes us, so far as the pro
, tecive features of the tariff law are concerned
for no purpose in which we are beneiically in
tcrested We are simply pundered for tho
benefit of Others We are taxed to enrich IA
vored capitalists, engaged in manufactures, in {
favored section of the Union. There, also are
expended four-ffths Of the public revenue
there, also, monopoly to the navigation Interest
has been obtained.
In the free States, too, the effort has beer
] continually made to lavish the public domain
and to exhaust the treasury on works of inter
nal Improvement In fact, the whole govern
ment, from its foundation, in all its pecunary
operations has been perverted from its original
| design, oil Dclnp n common anu eVuai penent it
all sections of the Union, to build up and enrich
the North ut the expense Of the South. The
South has been re-coonzed to all intents anC
purposes by the North. We have not taxed
ourselves. We have not ruled ourselves. Boil
in the imposition and expenditure Of taxes, W,
have been ruled by the North, contrary to thu
whole spirit of the Constitution, and every die
tate of Justice and liberty. Under the forms o
free government, we have been practically la
boring under most oppressive despotism.
Now, it appears to us necessary to understand
this great feature of our condition, before W,
can account for the subsequent aggressions one
insults, which have been heaped upon u.s. Sub
4 mission to tariffs, which have all been protective
; in principle, has east us down from our origina
position or equality and freedom with the peo
pie of the Northern States. 1t robbed us o
that liberty in taxation, which the Revolution o
l776 aimed to secure. Is it at all surprising tina
after submitting to be plundered in our income
the North should see no obstacle but its owl
will, to our being plundered of any other pro
perty we may possess BY our submission t
the tariff laws, we practically surrendered d