The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-11-20

lor to accept the Office of Secretary of State.
| Upon the death of the President, in July, 1850,
at the first interview with Mr.. Fillmore, he
placed letter of unconditional resignation in
his hands; and, after enlightening Mr.. Webster
in regard to the posture of the foreign affairs,
retired from Washington, intending to renounce
public life forever. This purpose was only re-
linquished at the urgent appeals of his old con.
stituents, and he was a third time returned to
the Senate, with the advent of the present AID.
ministration, his term expiring on the 4th OF
March, 1859.
R. BARNwKLL RHETT NOT SATISFIED.
"My Voice is still for War;"
Extract of a long Letter from R. Barnwe Rhstt printed
in the Charleston Mercury of November 9TH.
They are a great, but essentially
a domineering, fanatical, and avaricious people.
The basis of their institutions is utterly antag
onistic to the institution of Slavery. To have
the power of taxation in their hands, and to
use it to enrich and aggrandize their section OF
the Union at the expense of the South, was a
matter of course and once let it be understood,
they are responsible for the extension or exist-
ence Of Slavery, and their interference and hos
tility can hardly be condemned.
We should remember that they are a very
different people from ourselves. Difference in
pursuits and modes of industry makes marked
difference in the characteristics of people.
A mercantile or q manufacturing people are
very different from an agricultural people, Ac-
customed to live and act in crowds, the latter
are more exctable and fanatical. But the great
difference between the North and the South
results from the institution of Slavery. 1t is
this which has made North and South. 1t
is this which has made two sections in the Union,
and has raised up a bitter rivalry between them.
Sectional ambition has thus been added to in
terest and fanaticism in bringing the North
upon the South. 1t is very useless to endeavor
to ignore this rivalry. Wherever Republics
have been united in Confederacy, it has ex.
listed, and has been the grand cause of their
dissolution.
assert without fear of contradiction, that
never before has there existed, in any Confed-
eracy, ancient or modern, a more powerful
combination of rival interests and feelings than
those which now exist in the United States,
between the two great sections of the Union.
The combination of motives, thus resulting
from interest, fanaticism, and rivalry, must
work out their natural consequences. They
drive the North upon the South, with certainty
as unsrring as the lust for spoils and plumber
carried the northern hordes of Europe, in for
mer times, down upon the plains of Italy. \ y n
The late Presidential election might be ap.
pealed to as proving that we have power in the
Union which might yet reform it, and make US
free under its Government. 1t does show the
folly of our past submission. 1t does prove that
the manifestations of resolute spirit of resist
ance is, and ever has been, the only means of
checking the presumptuous aggressions of the
North.
But look to what we submitted before we
manifested this spirit. The Fugitive Slave Act,
nullified to all intents and purposes throughout
the North in its practical operations, and citi.
zens of the South beaten and murdered for at.
tempting to enforce it; majority of Adolf:
tonists electing the Speaker of the House of
Representatives in Congress-controlling all
Its committees-and bold enough to defeat the
Army Appropriation bill, unless their policy
shall be Incorporated with it.; emigrants armed
and paid to appropriate Kansas, and an army
raised to drive US out of it by force Slayery
made the grand element of all politics at the
North, on which turns all their elections. and
the election of the President of the United
States. When we made the Infamous surren.
der OF our rights, by submitting to the Compro.
mise OF 1850, who presumed to anticipate that
these things could be within six years after.
wards? Who foretold to the people that, within
this brief period of time, the Southern States
would endure the humiliation of allowing their
Representatives to sit in Legislative BODY con-
trolled by Abolitionists- citizens tn be
murdered or driven out of Territory-and
their institutions to be the common topic of
rlbald defamation and abuse in all elections
throughout the North How rapid and how vast
has been our descent from the high position of
honor, dignity, and strength, once occupied by
the South And can we look upon q retro
erosion from such gross and insulting deeds
by the North, as giving US any assurance that
they are prepared to surrender, at our bidding.
their long-desired power over US?
Admit that, by the Presidential election. we
shall win Kansas-will that put an end to Anti.
Slavery agitation in Congress or the Union !?
What produced the defeat of the abolitionists
in the North? Simply an apprehension that
the South would dissolve the Union If they were
successful. Interest mastered fanaticism, That
is all. The Constitution, or the rights it secured
to US, did not weigh q feather in the result.
The North still holds the mastery in Congress.
We have got no guarantee against future az.
gressions and agitations. The tariff, the grand
fundamentally for sectional domination. is
open tor renewed encroachments, the treasury
for plumber, and our vast Territories for their
limiteas expansion. They may be defeated
again and again on particular measures, but
until we have reconsideration of the Constitu-
ton, and distinct guarantees against future ap.
gressions, the South will have gained no peace.
Isolated concessions or temporary triumphs
are worth nothing, and are worse than nothing,
II they lull us into inactivity, in reaching after
the higher practical securities by which alone
we can be safe or free.
The next Congress will witness renewed Of
forts for the plumber of the South by their grand
alternative the tariff. They will strive to ex-
empt all imported commodities, necessary or
useful to their industrial pursuits from all taxa
ton, and thus make the tariff more unequal and
unjust In its operation on the South than ever
Even simple ad raloreps tariff, such as South
Carolina, by her resistance in 1893, wrung, at
least BY statute, from the reluctant North, will
hardly be possibility. The expenditures will
go on with increased lavishment and proAigacy,
in order that the high taxes of the tariff might
be sustained. The taxes will again be laid,
and will again be appropriated to the enrich.
ment and aggrandizement of the North. The
Presidential veto, since the late transactions in
Congress, may be considered as abolished
that last check on the omnipotence of q ma.
jority in Congress, which has hitherto 80 often
saved the Constitution from the grasp of power.
If such shall be the true state of our affairs,
what course should the South pursue?
In my humble judgment, all true statesman-
ship in the South consists in forming combine
tions, and shaping crents so as to bring about,
as speedily as possible, dissolution of the
present Union, and a Southern Confederacy
Let the South-formerly ! would have said,
let South Carolina-demand, in the approaching
notifications of the tariff, that it shall be reduced
at least to the standard and principles of the
year 1888. That tariff was the fruit of her en-
erpy and courage and WAS a contract with har