Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-11-21
THE SECESSION MOVEMENT.

I
citizen of South Carolina has sent to tht
w washington Constitution the following one
OF the proposed forms of declaration of indie
pendence, to be submitted to the Convention
which is to meet on the 18th of December:
PROPOSED DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE oP
SOUTH CAROLINA.
When, in the course of human events, it be-
comes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the pow.
ers OF the earth the separate and equal station
to which the laws of Nature and Natures God
entitle them, decent respect to the opinions
OF mankind requires that they should declare
the causes which impel them to the separation
/ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
although all men are created wholly unequal
| mentally, morally, and physically, yet they
are equally entitled, under every civilized GO
Vernment, to the full protection of their lives,
persons, and property, for which protection
governments are solely instituted among men,
| deriving their just powers solely from the con-
| sent OF the governed that whenever any form
| OF government becomes destructive OF these
ends, it is the right of the people to alter, or
| to abolish it, and to institute a new govern
ment, laying its foundation on such principles,
! and organizing its powers in such form as to
| them shall seem most likely to effect their
| safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will
| dictate that governments long established
1
causes; and accordingly, all experience hath
| shown that mankind more disposed to sui
fer while ills are sufferable, than to right them
selves by abolishing the forms to which they
are accustomed. But when long train of d.
buses and usurpGtions, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute despotism, it is their right, it
is their duty, to throw off such government,
| and to prrvde new guards for their future Sc
| curlty. Such has been the patient sufferance
| OF the Southern States of this Union, and such
| is now the necessity which constrains them to
| alter their present system of Federal Govern
| ment. The history of the present Northern
States is history of repeated injuries, insults,
and usurpations, and having direct object in
the establishment of an absolute tyranny over
the Southern States. To prove this, let facts
be submitted to a candid world:
1st. The Northern States of this Union have
for many long years warred against our pecu-
liar institution of slavery, instigated by the
dictates of relentless fanaticism, which de-
clareS that institution to be moral sin, whilst
we hold it Divine institution, established by
God himself, in the following decree enuncia-
ted to Moses on Mt. Sinai ssBoth thy bond
men and thy bondmads which thou shalt have
shall be of the heather that are around about
you of them shall ye buy bondmen and bond
maids; moreover, of the children of the stran-
gers that sojourn among you, of them shall
ye buy, and they shall be your possession !;
ye shall take them an inheritance for your
children after you, to inherit them for pos
session they shall be your bondmen forev-
er." And we further hold that this Divinely
established institution was always sanctified
by our Savior and his Apostles.
I'd. A large number of n Northern States have
nuilified the Constitution of the present T.
mon by passing laws to prevent the fulfill
ment of that Constitution, which declares
that fugitive slaves shall be delivered up to
their owners, the principle of which fugitive
slave law has the express and sacred sane
tion of st. Paul the Apostle.
3D.. The Northern States of this Union have
declared that the people of the Southern States
shall net emigrate with their property into the
Territories, which rightfully belong to them E.
qually with the North; and that the people of
the South shall not have their property pro-
tected by the Federal Government, when such
protection is Gas above declared) the sole end
and object of all government.
4th. Those Northern States have. by re-
lentiess and INSCRIPTIONS majority, constantly
imposed heavy taxes, not simply without, but
directly against our representation and our
consent in the general Congress. by levying
onerous and excessive duties upon goods i'm
ported in return for, and purchased by, our
cotton, rice, and tobacco, and in order to ex-
pend vast sums at the North in improving
and fortifying their own harbors, towns and
cities, at the evident and direct expense of the
products and labor of the South.
5th Those Northern States have elected by
an overwhelming sectional vote President
and Vice President, both from their own Sec
tion of the country, in direct opposition to our
wishes and our protests, neither of whom have
received one single vote from our section, and
whose express creed is that ssthere is an ire
pressible conflict against slavery, which can
never cease until slavery is extinguished.'
We have for long years, in vain, appealed
to their sense of justice and of common right
we have conjured them by the ties of our COM
mon kindred to disavow and abandon these
usurpations which would interrupt and inevl-
tably destroy our connections and our Union.
But they have been deaf to the voice of JUS
tice, of honor, and of consanguinity. We
must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity
which denounces our separation and hold
them, as we hold the rest of mankind, ene-
mics in war--in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the
people of the State of South Carolina in con-
vention assembled, appealing to the Supreme
Judge of the World for the rectitude of our
intentions, do, IN the name and by the author
ity of the good people of this State, solemn
ly publish and declare that the State of South
Carolina is, and of right ought to be, free
and independent State and that all political
connection between it and the Northern States
is, and ought to be totally dissolved; and that
as free and independent State, we have full
power to levy war, conclude peace, contract
alliances, establish commerce, and to do all
other acts and things which an independent
State may of right do. And, for the support
of this declaration, with firm reliance on the
the protection of Divine Providence, we mu-
tually pledge to each other our lives, our for
tunes, and our sacred honor.
The Kent county, Delaware, Court has sem