Washington sentinel., 1854-02-01
SPEECH OF HON. l.. M. KEITT,
OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
Delivered in the House OF Representatives
January l9, 1854.

The House being in the Committee of the
Whole on the state ofthe Union, and the motion
to refer the Presidents annual message being
under consideration
Mr. KEITT said:
Mr. CHAIRNAN: The recurrence on the part
of the executive to the great principles which
underle our republican polity is subject OF
sincere congratulation. For years cloud and
storm have wrapped our political skies in IN
broken gloom, save when the darkness was Int
up with occasional flashes of genuine elo,
quence, and in the pauses of the tempest the
utterances of true craftsmanship were heard.
Most fitting, then, is it that, in the lull of the
elements, the President should attempt to re-
store the government to its original simplicity.
In this patriotic purpose he will have the
hearty cooperation of South Carolina. Never
yet has she stopped down from her sovereign
estate to mingle in the strife for spoils, and
gamble away her rights and principles for
power and pelf;' nor will her delegation
here fling shadow across her bright historic
track, or weave ligament TO bind her help
less victim to the wheels of party.
Sir, South Carolina maintains the principles
of the old republican party; and whatever ad-
ministration supports those principles will re-
old republican platform, reared by the patriots
and sages of the reyoluton-a platform broad
enough to stand upon, but too narrow to
shuttle upon. Newspaper paragraphists may
interpret the votes OF members OF her delega-
ton in the election of officers connected with
the inferior organization of either house as
they please; from such paltry huckstering she
turns with disgust In war she has made her
Sacrifices and in peace she has borne her bur-
dens; and whenever the flag of the country
shall again demand the one, and the public in
terests the other, she will again make the one
and bear the other, and for doing her duty will
claim no share in the spoils Of office.
1t is not my purpose, Mr.. Chairman, to debate
the institution of slavery, thrust upon the notice
oft the committee at an earlyperod ofits session.
1t is true it is imbedded in the foundations of
our society, and interviewer with every fibre
and muscle of our policy; it is true its destruc-
ton would spread sirocco blight over splen-
did portion of this confederacy, and i'll blood
and blackness would extinguish all its hopes
in the future. But impregnable are these
reasons, we rest its defence upon still more
solid basis. Founded upon an inextinguisha.
BILE law of God, appointing an inferior organi-
zation to the African race, and also upon a
grave natural necessity, We believe it is the
cornerstone of republcanism, and that with it
a pure religion will culminate.
Government like all things material must
is tsindustrial class. Whenever that class rest
less and impatient, society is shaken by dis
turbance, and anarchy breeds despotism. AT
the south, society rests upon the basis of a
race, not n class. 1t is stable, because the
African is an enduring, not a conque,1ng race.
At the south, the difference is one of races.
and the government is that of the white man.
Stable and selfpoised society with her is not
disGgured by convulsions, and her records are
unsullied with popular violence. She has aris-
tocracy without exclusiveness, and democracy
without RIGHTEOUSNESS. Within her limits reli-
gion, too, prospers well. Whenever society
ttembles violently, the mind acquires morbid
activity, which has a tendency to harden into
skepticism; and whenever it rests upon brute
force, it produces mere bigotry. Society self
poised, harmoniously adjusted, educates in the
highest sense-blends reason Wi faith, making
both fruitful Thus the south has raised barrier
against popular violence on the one hand,
and, on the other against that audacious skep-
ticism which tramples upon everything settled,
and questions everything sacred.
But sir, as / have already said, will not
debate this question. ] merely wished to re-
deem it from that improper mode Of argumen-
taton which rests its defence upon mere hu-
man expediency. / wished to do this, because
the destiny of this institution is momentous
one !; for the coming conflict is between social
ism and slavery. Sir, the shameless fanatic,
in the fg.leaved garment of pharasaical right
eousness and hvpocritieal sanctity, ambitious
to win his way through buffoonery to butchery,
may wriggle on, and the fanatical demagogue,
the strolling actor, and the political mounte-
bank may pour the drivelling stream of their
imbecile ambition into the ears Of a betrayed
and credulous popuace; but when the fires OF
tanaticsm approach the borders OF the south,
she will burn it up in fires still hercer than its
own.
| may also, Mr.. Chairman, in connexion
with this subject, emphatically disclaim the au-
thority of the gentleman from Alabama Mr.
SMITH to speak the sentiments Of the State
rights party of the south--at least the senti
ments of my own State. South Carolina, sir
holds this to be q confederated republic Of
sovereign States and whoever denies her that
sovereignty, and hence her right, inherent in it,
to secede, or determine absolutely for herself
the "mode and measure Of redress" against any
grievance, cannot speak the sentiments of any
portion of her people.
Mr.. Chairman, the questions of territorial
lust and aggrandizement which have been
tossed into this debate do not propose to dis
cuss Iwould not violate international law, and
grasp even Cuba National faith is a national
panoply. But sir, if the Independent star Of Gu
ba wheeled upward into the sky, it would hoat
by natural political law, into our system, and
mngle its brightness with the blaze Of our fed
eral Constitution. Independently, however, of
this event, there are two contingencies, upon
either of which / would seize Cuba, even with
mailed hand. If England intervened in the
affairs Of the island. to acquire supremacy over
it, ! would take it by force if necessary. Stand
ing as the armed sentinel of Europe, frowning
upon our shores, with bay in whose waters
the navies Of every nation may ride in safety,
and with the guns of her castle ranging across
the track of our western trade, its possession
by England would be the harbinger Of disasters
to us. Occupying Cuba as a standpoint, she
will direct against us with more success her
nefarious abolition schemes. The twenty mil
lions which she has spent, to convert her West
= India possessions into pestilcnt and hideous
Jungle, will return to her, when she has covered