Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-06-28


entId and that il meet semi annually at SUCH place ss
rnsy be designated by The presiding officer the pesen oee
euscs continuing members until new appointment py INC
ga P.soIn,d That Central Committee for the Southern
RIGHTS Associations Of South Carons DO appointed the
President Of this body to consist Of nine nnper wnose
duty shall be- by correspondence by Puphnng ana ccu
atne sound documents and BY all proper 10
b and that any member ct any district
cisiOn il the State shall be eligible as member Of the said
committee
n annoin secretary and treasurer, and TO take all such
as may be proper to provide Tor all necessary eI
penditures."
Mr.. w. H. TaEscoTT moved to strike out the
first resolution; which was opposed by Mr.
WRroHr, of Laurens and, the question being taken,
the motion was rejected by great majority. The
report was then unanimously concurred in. From
this synopsis Of its proceedings, it will be seen that
..decisive action was had in the Convention,
aHrmatiyely, as follows:
i, That the State Of South Carolina cannot re-
main in the Union without dshonor. This was
the substantial proposition contained in the speech
of Mr.. CALHOUN in the Senate, who, it is
now known, Aad at the time in his portfolio
a form Of government prepared by himself for
g the United States South" in the event of the
proposed severance from the United States Of
America.
Q. That any concert of action with one or more
States of the South, of which subpsiss;on ITO the
laws should be feature, would be too great a
sacrifice for the " Southern Rights Associations Of
South Carolina to enter into. ReyoLttion is their
only remedy.
s. That the fact of Secession being denied to be
a State Right is the strongest additional reason
why 1t should be exercised.
4. That the Convention looks .with conf
dence and hope" to the constituted authorities to
exert the sovereign power Of the State" in this
work Of Disunion as speedily as practicable.
This last resolution, it is true, expresses conf
dence in both the State Legislature and the State
Convention; but the ertent Of the confidence and
hope in the Convention in the disposition of either
of these bodies to carry matters to extremtes, is
shown by the overwhelming majority" by which
the Hon. Mr.. ORR's proposition, to leave to " the
constitutional organs of the State, without dicta-
ton, the mode and measure of redress, &c., was
unceremoniously Ooted do,cn.
If any doubt could have existed of the object of
this Charleston Convention being to precipitate
Revolutionary measures and overawe and dictate
to the Legislature and the State Convention, that
doubt could not resist the force Of the demonstra-
ton by the supplementary report and its ac-
companying resolutions, embracing, with those al
ready adopted, all that the General Committee con-
sidered at present necessary for the action Of the
meeting" These resolutions erect the Conven-
lion which passed them into permanent body-a
Central Association effect, permanent Central
Revolutionary Club, under whose surveillance
hold their sessions. Any one to whose mind these
proceedings do not shadow forth such result,
must have read to little advantage the history of
Revolutions in general, and that of the French
Revolution of 1889 in particular.
So far from being surprised at what was actually
done by this Convention, however, it is easy to
perceive how much more violent and proscriptive
these proceedings would probably have been, had it
not been for the warning voices of BUTLER, BARN
WELL, ORR, HAYNE, and others, whose standing
commanded certain degree Of respect, even in so
irregular, multudinous, and excited an assembly as
that Convention.
With regard to the staple Of the Address to South
ernRights Associations in other States, which makes
part of the Official Record, it would be waste of
time to multiply proofs Of the error, not to say folly
and delusion, of the fundamental principle main
tanned by them all, that the State of South Carroll
ma Tor any other Southern State) cannot remain
in the Union without dishonor and ruin"
Whatever reasons Mr.. CALHOUN might have ina
gned for the similar declaration made in his great
Speech no ground is left for the pretenders to his
mantle to stand upon, when they at the present
day presume to occupy the same position. Mr..
CALHouN's affirmation was an hypothesis merely,
depending for its support wholly upon contingen-
cies, not one Of which has happened No one can
say, indeed, but that Mr.. CALHOUN himself had
his life been spared to the end Of the Session of
Congress in which he died, would have accepted
the Compromise measures Of that Session as sa-
tsfactory adjustment Of all the real grievances of his
State. Instead Of "dishonor and RUM attending the
" submission of the People of South Carolina to
the Laws of the United States-over which no
State, as State, has right to attempt to exercise
any control-the converse of the proposition would
be undoubtedly true, viz. that the attempt to secede
from the Union, for any cause now existing,
would, whether successful or not, cover the State
with dishonor, if it did not in its general conse-
quences involve the liberties and the property Of
the People in one common ruin. No friend of the |
People of South Carolina, out of the influence of
the vitiated atmosphere of Disunion which they
breathe, entertains opinion different from this.
Occasional letters are indeed written by persons