The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-10


proper, and patriotic, Were condemned, simply
because they came from South Carolina ana
every bastard has justified his recreancy under
this preiudiced and slanderous condemnation
If South Carolina be wise, she will wait upor
her sister States yet long while. Let her bt
prepared to act, but leave other States time tc
deliberate and determine for themselves. Greai
changes must take place in the sentiments Of
the Southern people. or history is a fiction, anc
tile nature of man has changed. Let South
Carolina be prepared to join other States; but
she cannot 90 foremost without injuring her own
and the common cause.
There has been, | think, another error in the
management of our great controversy, (not Pc
culiar to South Carolina) I'VE have had too ma
ny conventions. Such assemblages are proper
and only proper, on great occasions--when the
sense Of the people is doubtful. In almost all
if not all occasions, The organized power OF go
vernment is the safest ground Of reliance. 1t liz
particularly so in this case which is a case OF
usurpaton and tyranny on the part Of the &C.
neral government and our wise ancestors, with
great jealousy, reserved and secured the indie
pendence of the States, as proper power to
control the ambition of the federal government
when it might arise and our great error and
misfortune has been, that we have allowed the
State governments to be virtually nullified, by
not calling them early and vigorously into ac-
ton. A concert between the State governments
is the great want of the South at this tine; and
this great object will best be attained by the
legislative and executive functionares of their
respective governments.
Col. Mickey Gregg, from the committee of 81,
submitted the subjoined resolutions and address,
which, on motion of Gen. Adams, was made the
special order Of the day forsWednesday morn
ing. The convention at 81 adjourned until 10
o'clock the following morning
L. Resolced. That, in the opinion of this
meeting, the State Of South Carolina cannot
submit TO the wrongs and aggressions which
have been perpetrated by the federal govern
ment and the Northern States, without dshonor
and ruin; and that it is necessary to relieve her
self therefrom, whether with or without the CO.
operation of othcr Southern States.
2. RESOLVED That concert of action with one
or more Of our sister States of the South,
whether through the proposed Southern Con-
gress, or in any other manner, is an object worth
many sacrifices, but not the sacrifice involved in
submission.
g. RESOLVED, That we hold the right of seces-
sion to be essential to the sovereignty and free
dom of the States of this confederacy; and that
the denial of that right would furnish to an in
jured State the strongest additional cause for its
exercise.
A. Rssolred, That this meeting looks with
confidence and hope to the convention of the
people, to exert the sovereign power of the
State in defence of its rights, at the earliest
practicable period, and in the most effectual
manner; and to the Legislature to adopt the most
speedy and effectual measures towards the same
end.
ADDRESS
From The Delegates Of The Southern Rights As
Sociations of South Carolina, assembled in
Charleston, 10 The Southern Rights Associa-
lions n The other Southern States
Having met to take counsel together and
having agreed upon that course which We think
it right and necessary to pursue, we wish to lay
before you the considerations by which we have
been governed, with that frankness which our
respect for you, and our desire to merit your
good opinions, require.
We regard the position of the Southern States
in this confederacy rs degraded and ruinous-
The manifest tendency of those systematic ag-
gressions which they have suffered for many
years past is to subvert the institution of slavery
If those acts of hostile domination, which have
been rendered more insulting by mockery of
language, under the term of compromise
were final in their nature, and were not to be
followed by any further aggressions, we should
still regard them as outrages to which sovereign
States possessing the spirit of freedom, ought
never 10 submit. But those measures only
form part of system, gradually commenced
steadily carried forward, gathering strength from
development, and proceeding with fatal momen-
tum 10 its end. That end is the abolition of ne
gro slavery in the Southern States, and the low
ering of the free white population Of the South
to the same level with that agrarian rabble which,
already strong and dangerous, seems destined
before very long to be the controlling power in
the Northern States.
We see no remedy and no safety for the
South in the present Union. But we know that
in this we differ from very many citizens of the
other Southern States, spirited and intelligent,
having the same interests, and suffering under
the same wrongs with ourselves, and who cher
ish the hope that the rights of the South may
be indicated and secured, without dissolving
the existing confederacy. In this difference, il
does not become us TO assume 10 dictate, and
we hope TO stand free from that charge. Up to
this time, the citizens of South Carolina, aware
that peculiarly of political position, ari sing from
past events, rendered certain reserve on their
part, prudent and proper, have studiousy avoid
ed every thing which might look like assuming
the lead, in the defence Of Southern rights
They desired to act because they believed that
safety and honor required action; but they hoped
that they might find leaders in other States
whom they might follow in defence of the com
mon use. When the ancient commonwealth
of Virginia, the proper leader Of the South, de.
clared her determination TO resist, at all hazards,
and to the last extremity, hostile measures then
threatened, South Carolina, with all alacrity
stood ready to support Virginia, in carrying out
her high resolution. When Georgia, whose
former resistance to federal usurpation, under
her heroic statesman, Troupe, gave promise Of
unhinching firmness, in any conquest in which
she might engage, proclaimed her determination
to make stand for tie rights of the South,
South Carolina rejoiced at the prospect Of rally
ing under the banner of Georgia.
And when her young and gallant sister, Mis-
sissipp, proposed the wise measure of South
ern convention, for the purpose Of endeavoring
to unite the Southern States in maintaining
their constitutional rights, and at the same tune
preserving IL possible, the existing Union, South