Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-08-14
From the Charleston Mercury.
The Next Governor.

The approaching close of Gov. Adams admins
tration and the political events crowding upon the
South, admonsh the people of South Carolina of
the propriey of canvassng, with due deliberation,
the succession to this high and responsible office.
At no former time in the history of the State has
the future seemed pregnant with events more mo-
mentous than those which now impend on every
side. If we turn our eyes to Washington we see
the South in helpless minority, while her rights
and interests are exposed to the mercies of the
dominant section arrayed in hostility against her.
With the mad spirit which rules the House of Rep
resentatves-a spirit which, after desperate
struggle of two months, triumphed over the South
in the Speakers elcction-a spirit which has bro
ken out on all occasions in lawlessness and fanat-
csm, and which, even now, presents to the South
the alternative of abolitionising the Government
or overthrowing it. 1t is neither the language of
alarm nor of fantasy to say, that crisis Of peril
and responsibility may at any moment, be precip-
itated upon us.
And looking to Kansas, the battlefield of the
South, what do we see? In that distant Terrific
ry struggle is going on which involves the great
est question which can be addressed to any people
the right to enjoy the acquisitions of their COM
mon blood and treasure, and peaceably to spread
their institutions and civilization. This is the
question with the South. On the part of the North
it is n question of predomi aiGe, to be used for
the express and avowed purpose of destroying the
wealth, the character, and tho existence Of the
South, as people Already in possession of the
Government, and swollen with the spoils of repeat
ed aggressions, the North sweeps on to extinguish
Kansas, the born hope of Southern equality.
If we pass from Washington and Kansas to the
North itself, the spectacle presented is only inten
sifed. From one end Of this section to the other,
there exists party, daily growing in power and
insolence, devoted to the one idea of pluudering
and crushing the South; and which, rs if to taunt
the South with her doom, and point her weakness
to the treaehery of her sons, selecting rs its
banner bearer one who, but yesterday, was drag
sed in beggary from her streets, and raised to de-
cency and hope by the charity of that mother
whom he now reQuites with n matricidal hand
Scctionalism, against which the South and her
leaders have so long struggled dominates at last.
Parties are national only in name, while platforms
and principles are resolved into the simple issue
of North and South. The repeal of the Missouri
Compromise line, which, two years ago, and while
a mere statue, swept the Democratic party from
power in every Northern State, is thing of
practical and present results, intensifying every
feeling of fanaticism or Of sectional ambition.
The Presidential election swallows up, for a
time, Congressional agitation, civil war in Kansas
and even fanaticism. Result as it will, the South
is far from being secure. As party, the Democ-
racy of the North are not to be depended on for
the maintenance of their own deliberate and re-
peatcd pledges, still less for the defence of the
South against their own section. During the adj
ministration of President Pierce, the Democratic
party in Congress has exhibited recklessness of
principle which must shake the confidence Of its
blindest supporters. 1t hns denounced and tram
pied upon its own President, when his highest and
only crime was devotion to the principles of the
party. The success of Mr.. Buchanan, faithful
and firm as he may be, will prove but a fruitless
victory to the South and to the Constitution if the
Democratic party perseveres in its downward
course.
If, on the other hand, Black Republicanism tri-
umphs, what is left to the South? Will she-can
she-be patient, submissive dependant upon the
Union, administered by her enemies Will she
participate in Government which brands her
with inferiorty, and whose policy is her destruc-
ton? Will she consent to be calm spectator Of
the rejection Of Kansas, If she should apply as n
slave State? Will her people, while yet free to
choose between independence and submission, bow
down, the willing, cringing slaves of 90 vulgar
despotism"? These are the questions which the
people of the South, and of this State, may have
to answer on ''the Ides of March," 1857.
And if the election goes into the House-and it
seems now not lmprODaDle-the spectacle WHICH
will there be presented We can readily anticipate.
How nearly the same contingency before brought
US to disunion, is we'll remembered. But never,
in the history of this Government has there been
struggle which, in bitterness and intensity, in
the momentous issues at stake, in the desperate
game for power on the one side and for existence
on the other can be named in comparison with
lhat which will be enacted in the Present House
of Representatives, should the election of Presi-
dent deyolve upon it. Let the contest for the
Speakershp speak the prediction. 1t will test
every fibre of the Government the stubbornness
of the North, the spirit and patriotism of the South
Such are the prospects which meet the eye of tue
Southern men. ...-..-
What, lastly, is the spectacle at home If we