New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-11-26
sOUTH CAROLINA N THE PAs1

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sOUTE CAROLINA N THE PAST.
I'm tie very earliest days of the American
Union, South Carolina began to give evidence OF
that special regard for her own separate interests
in comparison with the general wishes and in-
terests of the Union, for which her political ca
reer has been distinguished ever since, and by
which. rs eyiuced in her separate secession
projects she is just now making herself so no.
toriOus.
One OF the principal measures adopted by the
Continental Congress in l774 for compelling Grea;
Britain to abandon her policy of taxing the colo
MES was the American Association, so called
This Association pledged the colonies to an entire
commercial nOn-ntercourse with Great Britain,
ireland. and the English West Indies, and the
non.consnmption of British goods; the nOn-inter-
course, thus agreed on to be extended also TO
such provinces of British North America as
should decline to come into the Association, and
10 last till the obnoxious acts of Parliament were
repealed. 1t turned out in practice that very
exaggerated importance was ascribed to the
effect which the colonies might in this way be able
TO produce upon the trade and public sentiment OF
the mother country. The colOnists were misled
upon this point by tho same oVerestmate OF
their own Importance in the commercial scale
which now teaches our enthusiastic tellOw-citizeus
of the South to believe that by means of COM
mercial noD-intercOurse they can coerce not
merely the Northern States, put for that matter
the whole civilized world. But the higher was
the estimate formed of the efficiency of this ex-
pedent, the stronger was the motive for adopt
ing it; nor did any Of the States, with the single
exception of South Carolina, hesitate for u
moment in giving their assent. The South Caro-
/ lima delegates m the Congress, with the single
exception of Christopher Gadsden, made a most
strenuous opposition to it, not, however, on the
ground of any apprehended inetiiciency in its
operation, nor for reasons common in their APP
plcation TO all the States. They alleged that
il would be difficult to find anywhere else
than in Great Britain a good market for
rice, which was then the principal product of
South Carolina. On this ground they declined to
follow the example of the other States in sacri-
fcing their own particular interests to the general
good and insisted that an exception should be
made in favor Of this article According to a
statement afterward made by Gadsden to the
South Carolina Legisature-ol which on account
may be found in DraytOn's Memoirs of the
Revolution in South Carolina this proposal of
a special exception in favor OF the South Carolina
rice planters occasOned great disgust in the Con-
tuental Congress, and led to a suspension OF
L.. g.. III. -, 4.
South Carolina delegates time to recollect them
selves. But neither delay nor circumstances
were of any avail, and at last, for the sake of
union, and, in order to procure the signatures of
the South Carolina delegates to the articles of
association, the special exception in favor of rice
Mas admitted.
1t was not in the Continental Congress alone
that this piece of se6shness and lack of
patriotism on the part of the South Carolina rice
planters gave occasion to disgust. The cultiya-
ton of rice was confined then, as now, to the
tide-water districts. The cultivation Of cotton
had not yet been introduced and indigo was at
that time the chief exportable product of tho
back country districts. The indigo planters com
planned most bittery-.ust as the up-country and
comparatively free-labor districts of South Caro-
limo might complain at this moment-that the
low-country planters thought of nobody but them
selves, and they insisted that the South Carolina
Assembly should instruct the delegates to the new
Continental Congress to cause this exception in
favor Of rice TO be stricken out of the articles of
association. But then, as now, the lower dis
trjcts though inferior in white population Ind n
prepondcroncy in the Assembly, on account of
the larger number Of their slaves. They defeated
this proposition, and by 80 doing greatly increased
the detection in the upper country, and thus con.
tributed to the British conquest AID the tempo
rary separation Of South Carolina from the
American Union which subsequently took place.
during a large part vi tho Revolutionary War