The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1860-11-08

Ol CHo CouIh' stuu lne lSucIdtlVo cHditCteI,
of our system Of government. 1t is
waged upon the right Of a State peaceably
to secede from theUnion. The Guberna-
torial candidate of the Southern States
Rights party maintains the affirmative,
and the candidate Of the submission party
the negative OF this great question-the
one, that tile right necessary results from
the reserved sovereignty of the State and
the nature of the Confederacy; and the
other, that it exists only as q night ofrev-
olution. ~
The former insists that the General
Government has no,right to coerce a Sc
ceding State; and the latter that such a
seeding State must depend for the main
tenance of its position, "upon the stout
hearts and strong: arms Of free people"
The one unhesitatingly and boldly avows
that if a Southern State were to secede,
he would not obey requisition by the
federal government made upon him as the
Executive of Georgia for troops to force
her back into the Union and the other
declares he "would convene the Legisla-
ture OF the State, and command them to
call convention of the people" to in
struct him in an emergency in which the
impulses of a true Southern heart should
be sufficient guide.
The great issue, then,I repeat, is the
right of State to secedefom the Union,
and the correlative absence of any right
on the part Of the federal government to
force such State back into the Union.
1t cannot be cvaded by the senseless
clamor of Union this glorious Union
The integrity of the Union is not assailed
by the Southern Rights party in Georgia.
Its true friends are those who insist up
on maintaining the rights resulting from
the sovereignty of the States. It's real
enemies are those who, from behind it, as
"masked pattery," leveltheir destruc-
tive artillery against its strongest out
posts, by counseling submission to ag-
gression, injustice and robbery, because
like "a wolf in sheep's clothing they
come under the hypocritical guise Of com
promise. Then let vigilant people look
well to the true and only issue involved
in the pending campaign-the right of q
State peaccably to scccde from the Union
I would not, if time and space justified
enter into an argument in favor of tho
affirmative of this issue. [ believe it i:
understood by the people 1t has been
cardinal tenet of the Republican Greco
from 1893 down to the present day, main
tained by Jefferson, and Madison, ane
Macon, Lowndes and Troup, and all tho
distinguished statesmen of that school
who properly understood the theory ofom
government, and whose hearts beat re
sponsively to the great American senti
ment which is at once the parent and Tho
soul of constitutional liberty. Argument
is not needed TO qlucidatc and enforce it
IF the people. shaking off the trammcs o.
party. and siarning the linid counsels ol
tcmporizing sabmissiouists and selfish
tradcsmcn in t.e :sreat mart of political
bartering, will obey the honest impulses
of true Southern sentiment, they will re-
.quirc no argument 10 array them on the
Isside of truth, their hearth-stones, and the
Constitution.
To detract from the Importance Of the
issue in public estimation, it is insisted
that it is mere abstraction-that it will
be time enough for Georgia to determine
it when she shall be called upon to exer-
else the right of secession. This is but
one of the hundred subterfugcs of those
who man the amasked battery. The is
sue is vital Ithas not been made by the
State of Georgia, nor by the Southern
States. 1t has been forced upon us by
federal a.ggressions. 1t has been been
distinctly rendered by high authority.
1t was rendered by denry clay III Ills
great speech upon "the compromise bills"
He said ''if rsistance is attempted by
any State, or by the people of any State,
he will lift his voice, his heart and his arm
in the support of the common authority
of this government" Through Mr.. Web
ster, the Secretary of State, it has been
rendered by the rotten dynasty Of the
Fillmore Administration for he has dis
tinctly proclaimed the policy of the Cabi-
net to be coercion, if any State should at
tempt secession. The issue, then, is upon
us. Shall we meet it? Shall we inglori-
ously shrink from it's decision? 1t is
+l,.,4 "a ,aact acsocrascio1as Gaor1cin Il as