Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-07-24

make those. who now assume to be orr
masters, adopt it. They have asserted the
power 10 circumscrbn us-they have cncu-
scd Us in 4 great peEitentiary wall, and our
doom is inevitable. In the progress of Il
few years, and, by one quarter Of u million of
foreign cmigrants year, they will, nnder
their system, have new States sufficient to
make any law-or, il the letter Of the Con-
stitution should happen to stand in the way,
they will have ample power to make direct
amendment. Fifty years is but very short
time ir national existence, and fifty years
will fix US beyond the hope of a patriotic
and courageous struggle. No! now is the
day, and now is the hour-Ilise and rush to
the "Red Sea-" ard if the God of Hosts
will not save us; we NAV yet again praise
Him, who shall lead us safely out Of the
power of our enemies. But it is said there is
danger and difficulty in going alone. That
separate State action will be full Of disaster
and ruin Those who say so, admit that it is
ruin to stay. We have been denied equal
ity rs State-wc have been spurned and
contcmncd. Instead of conciliation and
kindness, our Institutions have been derided
and we have been held up for denunciation,
in our morals and social intercourse, before
the christian and moral world. Our coun-
iry is one constant scene Of bitter agitation
and painful anxiety. There is not n moth
or or father in our land that docs not
ask the question erery night,.what is to be-
come of us? Is this the fostering Fcare of
kind protective Government? This itself is
odious tyranny and intolerable degradation.
What though. there be difficulty and danger
in the State acting aonc Itcannot bew
than to stand and bear it. Better to move
like freemcn boldly for the independence
and rights of the country, fori it we should
even perish, we will fall with our honor saved
and name unstained Efor the admiration of
postcrity. But if we stand still, we shall
perish like mice under an exhausted receiver
with no consideration save the pity Of the
world.
Mr.. Chairman has any man thought scri-
ously of the terrible effects Of abolition when
brought to our homes and 10 our tire-sidcs !
Three millions Of black slaves, turned lose
upon the community, would present such
scene rs the world has never conceived.
They would come directly into competition
with the white mechanics-artizans and COM
mon laborers of the whole country. They
/ would work for little or nothing-a bottle of
ruin and twist of tobacco; what would be-
come Of the free artizans, cntcrprising me-
chanics, and industrious laborers of our
country? Brought down to degraded COM
petition with three millions of slaves made
free Now, they are regulated and labor in
an entirely different field. Who then could
live here! Now, the white man feels freedom
to be his privilege and rank-it separates him
from the caste below him. He will then
have the black man put Up as his equal, and
they will sink together Tito 4 common but
degraded level The wealthy man, if he is
mean enough and base enough to desert the
country, may be able to save something and
do so, but the poor man whose fate is fixed
from necessity in the doom and destiny of
the country is here and here forcvcr-thcrc
is no escape. Let no man hug to himself
the fatal delusion that he is too poor to feel
the whitening blight of that dreadful curse, if
it should ever come. There is none so high
and none so low, but he will shirer under
The bowling of that dreadful blast. There
will be no peasant cottage, that hangs upon
our hills, however humble, but will fall
before that midnight storm. There will be
no sign upon the door posts or lintels of any
chosen and elect, by which the destroying
angel may know to pass by.
Gcntlcmcn many suppose, because sla-
very has been extinguished in other coun-
tries,without conyulsion, that it can be done
here But the circumstances are totally df-
fcrcnt. In the Roman Republic, the slaves
were OF the same color and Of the same
race. Many of them were learned and re-
fined. They were taught those things that
were supposed to be efcminatc by their war-
like masters. They merely changed as the
government and laws and society changed,
and were gradually and finally lost in analga-
nation, the races all being the same. 80 III
England And although the followers of
WILLIAM the conqucror looked for ages In
contempt upon the Sa%ons, yet their color
and physical attributes were the same
True, when one of thci. Kings, at last, inter
married with Il Saxon, it produced i shock to
the conQucring race, yet it was the beginning
of that general ANAL ganlation, which finally
intcrminglcd the two races until the distinc-
tons were lost and forgotten, and slavery
gradually fell without a convulsion, and with
out even general law in relation to it. Not
so here. God himself has made such dis
tnctions of color and other physical as well
as moral attributes, as forever forbid the same
termination. No! no! 60 forward in this
wild scheme of mad fanaticism and whining
phlanthrophy, and you convert this land Of
happiness into scenes of universal blood, ana
then, finally, into barbarian wilderness. IL
will dry up all the sources Of prosperity anI
refinement, and we will have nothing but 4
melancholy aud deserted land with, pcrchance,
here anu there a solitary inhabitant to point
out the graves and the monuments Of our
once heroic race. And this is done i'll tar
shorter time than many of us imagine
Look at St. Domngo-the very name cur
dies ones veins-look a. all the West India
Islands of France and England Less than
twenty-five years ago-cultvation, refine
ment and the arts held their mingled sway
over those faircst regions Of Gods creation,
and where now are they! Laid low in ruin
and dcsoation. Vag:ant labor, set free,
stalks in lean and hungry ferocily through
out deserted land. And, we tco in like
manner, will pass into desolation if we sub
nit now to IN unscrnpulous AID IN unlimi-
ted government. Talk about the commercial
ruin to Charleston if we act! why sir, it is
nothing compared with our destiny il we Go
not net. Besides, when is it that any people
ever did tread the path that leads 10 lndc-