New-York daily tribune., 1858-11-20


most faithful bobbing, prctracted, perh,Ps'
through many weary hours, you 90 rot nOtice any
fsh in your basket The words OF the Hoo Mr..
Rhett are good words; his sentences are pretty
sentences; bis references to the Col sttrtion are
in the highest degree respectable. and give a. aP-
pearance of POLITICAL erudtou TO bis speculstions;
and be maintains throughout an ar OF gravity SO
profound that there has not been such case OF
false preteuses since Obadiah's bull But after
much puzzling and a conviction that be is con-
yinced-f we may BE- pardoned the penaasm-the
despt rate and exhausted reader gasPs out to him.
self: Convinced Of what" II is evident, to be
sure, that Mr.. E. BarIwel Rhett is act in very
amiable frame of nind. But then, although OF
high, that fact cannot be considered Of the highest
Importance. It would, indeed, be very nearly
absurd to dissolve the Union, 60 to war she'd each
Others blood and break each others heads because
Mr. Barnwell Rhett is uncomfortable.
To say the honest truth, although we have long
been convinced that our Southern brethren are far
from Jolly, we have never been able to obtain
from them a precise explanation Of what hurts
them. Here ia Mr.. r. Bsrnwel Rhett, who sighs
and sobs through four columns. He is plainly
unweIl but when We try to fird his disease, he is
so very indefinite in stating his symptoms, that
Abernethy himself would be puzzled By the case.
Generally We understand that, in his opinion,
which is not an humble one the Southern States
have been most shamefully treated. There is a
lachrym NOSE Iemarole the burden of which is, that
the South has not stood firm" "The South" has
been guilty Of "a long course OF submission"
The South 90 lsbors under one Of the most odous
"and dangerous despotisms that ever ruled
"people." Having gazed upon the Southern
agonies until he can stand them no longer,
Mr.. Rhett cries out I" On. let the contest come.
If true to ourselves, a glorious destiny awaits
"us, and the South will yet BE- a great free
"snd independent people All of which might
have been excellent in the mouths Of Har-
modiua, or Brutus, or Bruce, or James Otis; but
why Mr.. X. Barnwell Ri .tt should get into pas
sicn and spout ike tn-helmeted patriot arousing
six scay stage supernumeraries to red Ochre gore,
is more than We know. But if Mr.. Rhett is not
clear in respect Of the cause Of his agones he is
still in very bad way, and We hope that nobody
will laugh. This letter was written " from the
ucptub VI uls fcluVuCut, WIN thC VtoIhB Aibuee
" of experience before bim"-a position which We
do not accurately comprehend but which We can
easily imagine to be an uncomfortable one in warm
climate. Two years ago Nc. X. Barnwell Rhett
did not expect to 1--we great while. What We
"dO, Governor, We must do sOOn," says Mr..
Rhett To laugh at a gentleman in such a
melancholy frame of mind would BIZ barbarOus.
Two things in the unlucky year of 1856, brought
Mr.. R. Bsrnwel Rhett into this desperate and de-
clinpg condition. The Kansas Act which made
all his cOmpatriots jolly, drove Mr.. Rhett to the
borders of desperation. The present Tariff, un-
satisfactory ss it TO the workers and capitalists of
the North, was equally unsatisfactory to Mr.
Rhett. His section Of the country having OBJ
tanned about all it asked for, Mr.. Rhett is broken
hearted, and, to Ouse his own word, "exacerbated,"
so that he cries out Liberty, especially in Stare
"holding communities, is more precious than
" maine, fame or estate" for which inceadiary
sentiment he was not, as We are informed, con.
Quoted to the caabOOse, as We should have been if
we had uttered words of like import in Charleston.
Indeed, Mr. Rhett gets upon the highest kind Of
borse and hOwls: "Tyrrany is ever sateless. and
" usually goes on plunderng, torturing, or crush
ing its victims to the last" The people
of South Carolina, therefore, are "plun-
"dered, tortured and crushed" That, 30 far
as a certain portion-a majority OF them
is concerned, Mr.. Rhett is right will be readily
admitted. But Dir. Rhett's briny tears are for the
poor white folks. If Mr.. X. b. r. is right in bis
premises, he is right in his conclusions. If the
people-"whte folks of South Carolina are
"plundered, tortured, crushed" BY the North, all
that We have to cay is that In not riding, mounted
upon their injuries, at something less than q two
forty pace out of this Union, they are about the
meanest people in this lower sphere. The mig.
"gers" do better than their masters, for the
"niggers" do Iun away when they can, and resist
when they can. The chiyalry of South Carolina,
then, is bastard chivalry aud craven cbiyalry,
shrinking from the first onset of ibertys war, and
only fit to BE- fouted, and spit upon aud kicked.
They are meaner than the meanest ornament of the
plantation whippng-post They deserve to suffer
all that they think they suffer. More We cannot
say.
One hundred years hence men will read such
letters as this if they read them at all, with wor
der, amazement and incredulity. They will not
believe in such 'licentiousness OF folly" They
will lot believe that men of ordinary Intelligence
in common matters were so besotted in matter of
life and DEATH of right and wrong, of public pros
perity and of public adversity. Mr.. Rhett might
then have been forgotten, but for the mistaken
kindness of his friends. Now he will be giggled
at long after the last slave is emancipated in
America.