The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-12-04
Msssrs. Rayner, Bolts, and Other Leaders OF the
Opposition in the South, to be Driven Out, and
the South Compelled to Become Unit.
From the Charleston Mercury.

WHAT WILL THE SOUTH DO?
The Philadelphia Pennsylranian has the
following pungent reference to the part that
some politicians have taken in the recent Adolf
ton movements at the North:
What tciU the South do Our Southern
friends in Virginia and North Carolina are
aware that John Minor Bolts and Kenneth
Rayner electioneered, to the utmost extent OF
their influence, in favor of the Fremont fusion
ticket in Pennsylvania, knowing that the only
candidate to be benefited by that infamous bar
gain, was the sectional candidate of the Adolf
tionists. We have some little curiosity to as
certain what the South will do with her own
Abolitionists."
We repeat the question: What will the South
do? What will Virginia, what will North Car
DINA, do with these men who have been hon.
ored and trusted by their States, and with talents
that might be valuable to the public service,
who have turned their faces against the South,
and have exhausted it in giving aid and COM
fort to her enemies? What will the South do
with that small, but active and restless body of
men, within her own limits, who, in the spirit
of selfseeking, and with an inordinate love of
public notoriety, are perpetually opposing
themselves to every movement toward Southern
union, and arr. perpetually crying out, Trea-
son, treason" as the minions of King George
shouted at Patrick Henry in the Virginia House
of Burgesses, whenever honest voices and hon.
est hearts are reused in defence of the safety
and constitutional rights of their country? Who
are the real traitors Those who are indig-
nant at suffering wrong, or those who insist
that wrong is right, and attempt TO delude US
with sophistries that do not even deceive them
selves?
We lay no great stress upon the conduct of
Messrs. Bolts and Rayner. They have, both
of them, much talent, but it has been perverted,
throughout their political career, to the single
purpose of selfish advancement. They are
what is called in North Carolina, "peart men,"
quick of apprehension of things Immediately
before them, bright in discussion, indefatiga-
BILE in ambition, and unscrupulous as to the
means of gratifying it. But both of them, in
the game of overreaching it, have ended by
overreaching themselves. They have been
found out and we believe have been pretty eff
fectually disposed of by the people of Virginia
and North Carolina.
But they represent a class, small, but active
and mischievous, throughout the Southern
States a class, whose whole force is employed,
under the pretext of love for the Union, in de-
riding, belittling, and distracting every effort
of the Southern people to make united, con.
sistent, and therefore irresistible effort to de-
fend their rights, their institutions, and their
permanent safety. They live and have their
being by sowing the seed of discord and dis
trust. just to the extent that people believe
them, they doubt themselves. Their Office is
to make every man believe that his neighbor
will, in the moment of peril, betray him. That
our power is inadequate to selfprotection.
That we must cling to the very feet of hostile
people, and kiss the latchets of the shoes that
are ready to spurn us, in order to our selfpro-
lection. In short, these men teach us the per
petual lesson, that, in order to be safe, we must
be base. We repeat the question, what
will the South do with them %