Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-05-01
South Carolina and her Sister States.

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sing the wrongs inflicted on her rights
and obtaining new and what she believes
better security against the aggressions Of
abolition on the institution of slavery
has attracted the attention of the people
of the United States in every section Of
the country. A large proportion of the
citizens Of the Northern States affect to
ridicule what is believed to be her con.
templated action; whilst in the States
identified with her in interests-in those
very interests whose destruction is threat.
ened-there are not few who regard
her people as clustering braggarts, un-
worthy of any sentiment save that Of
contempt or scom.
1t is not our purpose to return railing
for railing. The people Of South Carroll
ma must and do feel deeply the conduct Of
their fellow.citizens in the other States of
the South; but yet they have borne with
the unmerited taunts so abundantly pour
ed out on them, without title Of that ex-
presslon of resentment which the dictates
of human nature might be expected to in.
cite to. They are thus patient under
these uawarranted attempts to isolate
them from their brethren, from knowl-
edge that the period must shortly arrive
when their revilers will feel the full force
of their error, and promptly retrieve it
From Maine to Texas, from the Pacific
to the Atlantic, there is not State in the
Contederacy that has not within its limits
political adventures and debased party
prints, whose vocation for months past
has been varied and enlvened by every
species of satire, ridicule, and low wit
their store-houses Of scurrility could af.
ford, all expended on South Carolina
And for what? Is there anything in the
political movements of South Carolina to
justify this heartless course2
We admit at the outset that South Car
olina, in the political training of her peo-
pie, is now apparently in advancesof her
co.States Of ..heSouth. Honored bynur..
turing and rearing some of the master.
spirits of statesmanstip ], her people have;
,profted by their teachings, and have. been
lad 4osaHate jealousy the
first approaches of aggression, in whatev-
cr shape it made its appearance School
ed in the cardinal principles of republi.
canisn, they have learned that eternal
vigilance is the price OF liberty" and that
vigilance has been exercised by her states.
men and people in an especial manner,
when the institution of slavery was the
object of attack. That institution being
the foundation of her prosperity, the con-
servator of her social system, the devel-
oping power Of her resources, the system
which God and nature have peculiarly
adapted to the cline and soil of the South,
and without which her fertile domain
would be as worthless as the deserts Of
Arabia, it was their paramount duty to
guard it from the evil Vaccinations set on
foot to overthrow it; and this sensitive
ness, this untiring and necessary vigilance
over the institution which is the very life.
blood of the Southern States, is, before
Heaven to-day, the only charge that can
be justly brought against her people.
For this, they have been reviled and
abused; for this, they are hated at the
North and denounced at the South; for
this, the accusation Of treason has been
repeatedly written against them by flip.
pant hireling writers; and for this is the
charge of dis.union, for which she is now
arraigned before the country, brought
against South Carolina. If the folly and
besotedness which seem to have settled
like thick cloud upon the minds of the
Southern people should continue SO to
blind them as to cause them to leave
South Carolina to work out her own des.
tiny, and to enter the lists alone against
the enemies of their common rights and
institutions, the God of Truth and JUS.
tice will grant her safe deliverance.
The assailants and lbellcrs of South
Carolina prate with much seli:gratifica-
tinn about their devotion to "TuE UNION"
The work Of mems hands, they have made
it an idol, at whose shrine they would
sacrifice every principle Of liberty and ev-
cry honorable instinct their Creator en-
dowcd them with, and, like fanatics and
zealots in every age of the world, they
would compel others to join in their idol
worship by the use of brute force and the
iron goad Of persecution. Devotion to
the Union now by the Southern people
when, under its sanction and in the face
Of the plainest provisions of the compact
which sealed, as twas originally thought,
its perpetuity, the most direct assaults
upon their institutions are upheld and pal
liated-is an idol-worship, politically
speaking, worse than that practised in the
darkest regions of the earth. The Union
as it came forth from the hands of the
pure men who framed it was worthy of
admiration, and deserved the support of
all who enjoyed its blessings; but prosti.
tuted as it has been to the base work of
destroying that equality of rights upon
which it was founded, the price of its
maintenance is the forfeiture Of every
principle its trainers designed to per.
petuate.
These political honilies are irksome,
no doubt, to many of our readers; but
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