Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1860-11-23
R. 3. Rhett on Disunion.

est We understand the constitution. We
understand free government. Like all
the great nations of antiquity, We are
shareholders. and understand free gov
ernmenls. The North does not. They
are a people wrapped Up in selishness.
They have no idea of free government.
Their idea of free government is this,
that when three men get together the
two are to rule the one when FIVE men
get together. the thee are to rule the
other two; when seven men come TO-
gether, the fou- are to rule the other
three, and make slaves Of them.
But of a constitution Of checks and
balances, under which all are to be free,
they have no conception; and they have
therefore, flung the constitution, by
which our rights and property were
guaranteed 10 Us, to the winds, and in
tend to rule you by means Of vulgar
Yankee majority. Ny friends, | am glad
am rid OF them. We have dissolved
this Union-lor we might As well say
its done And never, with my consent,
will we 90 oack into the hands Of our OPP
pressors again. They will beseech US,
10y what they will call the ties of fraier-
nal bloody the blood Of our ancestors,
shed for common country-in a COM
mon cause. They will welcome US back
10 what they call their fraternal embraces.
But never, as long as l am citizen Of
South Carolina, will consent that any
other flag than Palmetto banner, with
the lone star upon it, shall wave from
the top Of Fort Mouluie. Never will
/ consent that the Notifications built for
our defense shall be ia the hands Of any
government to be used for the purpose
Of menacing a people who dare to claim
their rights. And, when the cotton
States have formed a Southern confed-
eracy, never, with my consent, shall any
Yankee be admitted into it. 1t shall be
a .confederacy of slaveholding States
none but slaveholdiug States shall come
into il.
Another thing, too, my friends, and !
am done. At the coming session Of Con-
gress, if a Southern confederacy be form
ed, OF if South Carolina secedes alone,as
she will, force bill will be moved by
the North and ! would not be at all sur
prised should a force bill be attempted,
that before the next Spring flowers, you
will sec the whole South come out Of
Congress, just as they came out of the
Charleston convention. Already can we
see the signs of fear creeping over the
Nroth. Those who have read the papers
know what say. But sooner or later
the other slayeholding Stares must come
10 US. If they do not come Immediately,
il is well. They will act as the media
tors in this great cause. They will say
10 their brethren Of the South, come be
be quiet and they will turn TO the North
and say come, let there be peace, and
we of the Southern Confederacy will
deal with the North as any other foreign
power. We shall hold them as enemies
in war; in peace, friends. And the his
torian of these times shall hereafter re-
count with what patience a free people
clung to the constitution of their fathers,
with what carnestness they pleaded for
the constitutiOn-how, again and again,
they demonstrated, and they were an
swered by insult and renewed contempt;
until, wearied out by concession upon
concession, they were at last driven 10
resistance, aud rising in their Indignation,
their majesty and their might, they put
at defiance the Yankee pretensiOn Of CO.
ercion. They threw of the chains Of
their oppressors, and established for
themselves a government they could call
their own. And extending their empire
across this continent to the Pacific and
down through Mexico to the other side Of
the great gulf, and over the isles Of the
sea, established an empire and wrought
out a civilization, which has never been
equaled or surpassed--a civilization TEEN
ing with orators, poets, philosophers
statesmen and historians, equal TO those
Of Greece and Rome, and presented to
the world the glorious spectacle Of free
prosperous and illustrious people"
II all that is going to be did, we are
afraid that the north by eleciing Lincoln
and Hamlin has been and gone and put
her foot in it!
The above extract Is a sample o
southern Rdea-oric and southern sense
which all no doubt sounds very finely +,
them, but we are Of the opinion tina
about the time Mr.. Rheit with bis cray
eompeers shall say in real earnest, "heavC
no, cast Off" and attempt notification
treating the rest Of the Union as a for
eign power" he will find that ours is re
ally, as he says it Is, "a constitution O
checks and balances" under the whole
some provisions OF which such as he vii
be checked" in their headlong career
and if their policy is persisted in, al
and singular" as the lawyers say, vii
balance" themselves between heaveI
and earth on the end of a rope.
check" not very healthy to those recei
wing it.
II tie south is in earnest in the cours,
she is king, if her orators and her pres
truly represent the state Of southern feel
ing, as we hope they do not, she is fxin.
herself for large crying spell hereafter
when her great staple, cotton, will b.
largely in demand to sop up the plentiful