The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1860-11-29
95Hieh
Extract

Extract
From q Speech delivered By Hon. R. B
Rhett. at Charleston on the 18th inst, al
meeting of the citizens to endorse the ac-
ton of the Legislature in calling Con-
vention of the people Of this State.
Fellow-citizens, L have gone through
all this detail of the various sectional is
sues, which have arisen between the
North and the soath, that you might un-
derstand your true. position, and weigh
we'll your future destiny. After twenty
seven years Of steady and unscrupulous
effort to obtain the rule over you-will
the North surrender it when acquired
After the characteristics the Northern
people have developed, in all their sec
tional contests with you, what hope can
you have of any justice or safety under
their domination Selfshness, ambition,
avaricc, faithlessness, or fanaticism, have
marked their contests with you; whilst
on your part you have exhibited a gene
rosity, confidence, disinterestedness, and
a devotion to your compact of union with
them, not without weakness. The truth
is, the Northern people are not fit to live
with any other people in the world. They
have not the least conception of the prin-
ciples Of free government. Their idea Of
such government is, that majority
shall rule minority. If seven men
formed government, four has the abso-
lutte power over three. Of those wise
and delicate restrictions against absolute
power, whether in one man, or in many,
by which the rights and liberties of all
are secured, they know nothing and care
nothing. No regard, therefore, to the
great principles of free government will
restrain the exercise Of their brute pow
er for your destruction. Nor have they
for you, any of that respect, which is so
near akin to fear. You have submitted
so continually and habitually to their ag-
gressions and expressions, that they de-
spise you They believe, that they have
only to order, and you will obey. They
have only to threaten, and you will sub
NIT. You are clustering, weak, timid
people-demoralized and paralyzcd by
your institutions, just fit to serve, or to be
tortured or destroyed. And their igno-
rance of the operations of the Union in
their behalf is as great as their ignorance
of your characteristics. Their rapid ad-
vancement in wealth, prosperity and
power, they attribute to their superior in
telligence, civilization and worth. The
countless millions they have wrung out
of the South, by the operations of the
tarif-the vast expenditures of the Gov
ernment in their cities-the millions more
they earn out of us, by carrying our cot
ton to all parts of the world-the mighty
basis of their navigation, and of their
commercial exchanges merchants
and manufacturers may understand, but
the people are utterly ignorant of these
great causes of their prosperity. They
say, as the rich man in the Scriptures:
:'My arm has gotten mo this wealth" !"
Swollen with insolence, and stepped in
ignorance, sel6shness and fanaticism, they
will never understand their dependence
on the South, until the Union is dissolved
and they are left naked to their own re-
sources. Then, and not until then, they
will be able to appreciate the long for
bearance and endurance of the South.
Then, and not until then, they will real
ize what blessing the Almighty con-
ferred upon them, when he placed them
in union with the South and they will
curse, in the bitterness of penitence and
suffering, the dark day on which they
compelled us to dissolve it with them.
Upon asdissolution Of the Union, their
whole system of commerce and mannfac-
lures will be paralyzed or overthrown-
their banks, will suspend specie pay
ments--their stocks and real estate will
fall in price-and confusion and distress
will pervade the. North. Bread process
sions will walk the streets of their cities,
and gaunt hunger will look terror into
their palaces. In this state of things,
those'who have brought upon the people
of the North these calamities will be call
ed to a dire account The anti-slavery
party will be overthrown. A Union par
ty will arise on their destruction; and we
7s1stSned to reconstruct Union
7's5'r, terms. They