The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-03

a. IN the last ana only measuso y. 'o '
is lett They may have doubts OF it, success
as we have had Of their policy; but, w'tn their
consciousness Of the wrongs OF the south, ana
the dangers which environ US, and their high
regard for the honor of our State, can they
counsel N to submission |! viii they any lorger
divide from Us, and spread weakness throughout
our counsels Will they not rather JOIN US, and
make with Us one brave and united effort for
redress and independence, by the accession OF
South Carolina alone from the Union They
must and will soon be with US. They cannot
Join the Union party, which il soon to arise in
South Carolina.
Secession, then--secession by South Carolina
to be our policy. Let US look 1t fairly
in the face, and try to estimate justly its prob
able consequences Probability is all which ex-
lists for u.s. in the future Certainty is in the past
and present only.
In the first place, in seeding from the Union,
we would declare free-trade absolutely ~ it now
exists, with all the States South Of the Potomac
and Ohio rivers. There would be no change
whatever, 40 far AZ our action is concerned, In
any Of the relations we now hold towards these
States All their productions--cotton, wheat,
tobacco, live stock will enter our State as here
tofore, free of all charge or duty whatever,-
With respect to the productions Of the other
States now in the Union, and all foreign ma
tions we would lay small duty on importa-
ton, not exceeding ton per cent. advalorem,
(seven per cent was the first duty laid BY our
ancestors In putting the present government
into operation, with a heavy war debt to dis
charge) Thirty per cent. is the duty now ex-
acted by the general government in oil the ports
of the United States, on the chief articles OF I'M
portation. Our duty of ten per cent. will thus
be twenty per cent less than the duty exacted
in the ports of the Union. The effect must be
that goods in Charleston must be twenty per
cent. cheaper than in the ports Of the United
States.
To the agricultural interest of the State, no
one can doubt the benefit. Our planters and
farmers, and all other consumers in the State,
must be supplied with goods twenty per cent.
cheaper than they have heretofore obtained them.
1t is clear therefore, that to the great mass Of
the people of South Carolina, secession, under
such circumstances, must be advantageous
Property of all kinds must be more valuable,
because more profitable in South Carolina than
where the greater burdens exist There is but
one interest which may be injuriously affected,
and that is the mercantile interest. Trade 10
very tinid. 1t is liable to panics; and when
confidence is unimpaired, it is not easy to change
the channels of commerce without some loss,
although that change may be from less TO more
profitable channels. Our merchants will have
to change their importations from New York
and Boston to Liverpool and Havre, but they
will have their goods twenty per cent cheaper
than in the ports Of the United States. The
merchants in the interior Of our own State will
have no inducements to go to New York, as
they now do, to lay in their supplies. They will
make their purchases in Charleston. Here is a
certain demand on the commerce of Charleston,
which does not now exist. And out Of our
State, will not the merchants of other States
for the same cause, pursue the same policy! So
far as our importations from those States are
concerned, we would be exactly as we now are
The only difference in our trade will be, that
our merchants will be able to offer to those who
send us their productions from other States,
their suppliestwenty per cent. cheaper than here
tofore. Will this Interrupt: their trade? The
Northern manufacturers and producers, for
whose benefit the high discriminating duties in
the present tariff of the United States are laid.
will certainly object to such trade They will
be clamorous to enforce out of the people of
Georgia and North Carolina, and the other
Southern States, the collection of the thirty per
cent duty, they have laid by the general govern
ment on every Southern consumer for their ben
eft. They now control the general govern
ment, and suppose will endeavor, by their Gus
tom-house officers, to prevent the people of
other States from buying from US. But all such
efforts will fail, unless human nsture shall b.
marvellously changed by our secession. In the
opirion of a vast majority of the people of the
Southern States, the present tariff, in principle'
is utterly unconstitutional. 1t is only an expe-
dent by which tribute is exacted from the South
by the North. But, independently Of this, Ham,
burg lies opposite to Augusta, Purysburg is not
far from Savannah whilst We have common
right TO navigate the Savannah and Pee Dee
rivers, from their borders to their mouths.
Our trade with North Carolina is chiefly car
ried on by wagons. How long will custom
house officers on our North Carolina frontier,
continue to seize the wagons of the North Caro-
lima farmers and wagoners, on their return from
South Carolina with their usual supplies! How
long will the people of Georgia submit to a
standing army of tax collectors on their side of
the Savannah river, spying Selling, fighting them,
to enforce the collection of duties their abolition
brethren of the North have laid upon them
We will have nothing to do with spying or
fighting On our side Of the river we will have
ease and peace. No controversy with the people
Of Georgn-no controversy with the general
government or its officers We have goods to
sell, twenty per cent cheaper than they can be
obtained On New York, or in any port in the
Onion-that is all. We will neither force other
people to buv them, nor enter other States to
sell them. The trade, if it exists, will be at the
option of those who think proper to come to us
and buy our goods. Relations of entire amity,
and Of mutual benefit, not of hostility or injury,
will thus exist between us and the Southern
States. am inclined TO think the trade Of our
merchants, under such circumstances, will not
b come quite extinguished ] am inclined to
think that the same state of things which now
exists on our Canada frontier, under the skiful
address Of our Yankee friends, will also prevail
along the frontiers Of South Carolina. Twenty
per cent will not stop goods on an imaginary
frontier II gives immense activitv to bales and
boxes as well as 10 mans wits. II will not de-
stroy our merchants. II will make our trade
pretty nearly as free in going out as in entering
our State This is certainly the opinion of the
merchants in our Northern cities. They there
fore look upon the secession of South Carolina
from the Union with alarm and terror, antici
pa'ing the loss Of the whole import trade, which
is occasioned by Southern productions. 1t will