Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-05-08

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the fund commensurate with the above scale
of prices? The State has no public lands
or other sources of revenue except that Of
direct taxation. Will the body of the people
submit to an increase of taxes? l refer the
curious to our intelligent Tax Collector for
the general feeling in this District, relative to
the present rate Of taxation. But shonld the
people of the State, actuatcd by that senti-
mcnt of gallantry which pcrrades every class,
consent 10 an indefinite increase OF taxes,
will not that increase depreciatc the value OF
that very species of property which we are
so anxious to preserve? We have been told
that the odious Tariff of 40, was one Of the
instruments of Abolition, undermining our
institutions by reducing the value of the pro-
duets of its labor. Will not the heavy debt,
the State will be forced 10 incur i'll order to
place her in a condition of defence, and which
debt must in honor be paid, entail q burden
of taxation which will depopulate the State!
This last enquiry suggests another, and one
equally as important. Where would such of
our citizens 60, as desired to en,igrate! The
laws of the United States, and ] believe, Of
every civilized Nation, already prohibit the
introduction of slaves into their territories.
The master might leave the State but his
servants must be left. 1t is awell established
fact, that the negro increases more rapidly
than the white race, and as time rolls on
what in Gods name! is to become of the
weaker party in country crowded to excess,
without territory to coonize or ability for
conquest? The exclamation quoted by Judge
TUCKER, in his admirable speech at Nash
vile, rises involuntarily: Horresco re,erens.'
We will next examine the last proposition,
which is that an effort at secession will be
regarded at Washington but as the petulant
outbreak of an irritable temper, inro living no
more serious consequences, than the removal
of the officers of Customs, from the city Of
Charleston to Scventy-four outside the Bar,
and the landing of the cargoes of importing
vessels, at ono of the forts for inspection.
What then would be our condition? 1t will
not do to impose extra duties, for this is but
TO increase the price of goods intended for
our own consumption. Shall we attack the
Government officers on board their Vessels
of War! How is this to be done? We
have neither ships or heavy guns, nor the
material or artizans in our own borders, for
building, rigging and arming man of war
capable of contending with Navy which
has world renowned fame Would the Ad.
ministration permit implements of war to be
introduced into, what it may choose to term
refractory State? We are told that Con.
eress would interfere! To do what? To
abate its own Custom-house, established by
it under the Constitution! The President
may tell Congress, that his, removal Of the
, Officers of Customs, was peace measure
4 domain =HSnid- -htnod ,ahed.- and those oe-ita
members who call secession, treason, will
deem his measures mild. Full many men,
Der of Congress, sincerely believes that n
State has no more right to secede, than has n
freeholder in populous city to burn down
his house. And is it reasonable to suppose
that the same party in Congress Zone which
is daily increasing in strength and in infu-
euce,) which inflicted upon US the evils we
are seeking to remedy by secession, viii be-
come our champions and tender redress
The representatives of those States whose
sympathics might be excited in our behalf
are now and ever will remain helpless mi
noriiy, so long as they continue members OF
that Congress- or their States members OF
the Confederation it represents. Again VIC
are told that England will not allow her
Merchantmen to be stopped and revenue en-
acted upon their entrance into the Charles
ton harbor, when the State of South Carroll
M has declared it a free port. Is it fairly
presummable that Conservative England,
would recognize our independence upon n
bare declaration of Secession? or that she
would again engage in war with a Nation
which has twice successfully resisted her
power, in order to sustain principle and en-
ample which she has been combating and pun
ishing since the discovery of the American
Continent, and which she is now vitality in
terested to rcprove and repress? But this
intervention of England is to be effected by
the magic of Cotton! Now if the position
of England or France is to be determined by
their Commercial interests, we have only to
contrast the amount of the exports and i'm
ports of South Carolina and those of all the
other States in the Union, to learn which way
they will be inclined. In this connection, let
it also be remembered that Great Britain and
France must ultimately get the surplus cot
ton of South Carolina, and upon the same
terms that they get the crops of the other
cotton States, as certainly by not regarding
our declaration of Independence, rs if they
did and cndeavored to force a free trade with
us. Again, would not England rather rejoice
at a rupture of this Confederacy, towards
which she has ever looked with IN eye of
jealousy, and regard it Us the dawn of the
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