Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-01-02
SOUTH cARoLINA!
THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INCIDENTS AND COMMENTS

south carolina from the Federal Union, reported
by the committee appointed to prepare and address
TO the people Of The Southern States, is as follows:
The State of South Carolina having determined to
resume her separate andequal place among nations
deems It due tc herself to the remaining United /
States of America, and to the nations of the world
that she should declare the which hare led to
this act.
In the year l765, that portion of the British EN-
pre- embracing Great Britain, undertook to make !
laws for the Government of that portion composed
of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for
the right of self-goYernment ensued which resulted
on the 4th of July, I7T6, in declaration by the
Colonies that they are, and Of right ought to be,
FREE AND 1NDEPENDENT STATES and that, as
free and independent States. they have full power
levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances. estab-
Ish commerce. and to do all other acts and things
which independent States may of right do.n
They further solemnly declared that whenever
any form OF government becomes destructive of
the ends for which it was established it is the right
of the people to alter abolish it and to institute
new government Deeming the Government of
Great Britain TO have become destructive of these
ends they declared that the Colonies fare absolyed
from the British Crown, and that all political con-
nection between them and the State of Great Bril-
tain is, and ought to be- totally dissolved"
In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence
each of the thirteen States proceeded TO exercise
its separate sovereignty adopted for itself Con-
stitution and appointed officers for the adminisra-
ton of government in all its departments
tive, Executive and judicial Fer purposes of de-
tense. they united their arms and their counses;
and IN lI1S, they entered into League known as
the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed
to entrust the administration Of their external rela
tons to a common agent, known as the Congress of
the United States, expressly declaring, in the first
article. Nthat each State retains its sovereignty,
! freedom and independence and every power jurls-
diction and right which is not by this Confedera-
ton, expressly delegated to the United States in
| Congress assembled
Under this Confederation the war of the Revolu-
tion was carried on, ard the Sd September, 1883,
the contest ended, and defntive treaty was signed
/ by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the
independence of the Colonies in the following
ARTICLE /. His Britannia Majesty acknowledges
the said United States, viz: New hampshire Massa-
chusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Planta-
tons, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey Penn,
sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia North
i Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. to be FREE
] SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATES; thai
he treats with them such; and for himself, ms
heirs and successors, relinqushes all claims to the
government, proprietary and territorial rights CT
the same and every part thereof
Thus Were established the two great principles
asserted by the Colonies, namely the right of
State to govern itself; and the right of people to
abolish Government when it becomes destructive
of the ends for which it was instituted And CON
current with the establishment of these principles
was the fact, that each colony became and was re-
| cognized by the mother country as FREE, SOVER-
In 1877, Deputies were appointed by the States to
revise the Articles of Confederation, and on 18th
September, 1887, these Deputies recommended for
the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union,
known as the Constitution of the United States
The parties to whom this Constitution sub
mitted the several sovereign States; they
to agree disagree, and when nine of them agreed,
the compact was to take effect among those con-
curing and the General Government. as the COM
mon agent was then to be invested with their
| authority.
If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred,
I the other four would have remained as they then
were-separate sovereign States. independent of
any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact
two of the States did accede to the Constitution
until long after il had gone into operation among
the other eleven; and during that interval, they
each exercised the functions OF independent ma
| ton.
By this Constitution, certain duties were charged
on the several States, and the exercise of certain
of their powers restrained, which necessarily i'm
piled their continued existence sovereign States.
But to remove all doubt. an amendment was added,
| which declared that the powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution prohibited
by it to the States reserved TO the States
! spectiyely, to the people. On 23d May. 1888,
! South Carolina, by a Convention of her people,
passed an ordinance asserting to this Constitution,
and afterwards altered her own Constitution, to
| conform herself to the obligations she had under
| taken.
Thus was established. by compact between the
/ States, a Government, with defined objects and
powers, limited TO the express words of the grant,
| and TO so much more only necessary to exc
cute the power granted. This limitation left the
whole remaining of power subject to the clause
reseryiug 1t to the States to the people, and rem
| dered unnecessary any specification of reserved
] rights. We hold that the Government thus estab-
ished is subject to the two principles asserted in the
Declaration of Independence; and we hold further.
that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third
fundamental principle namely the law of compact.
| We maintain that every compact between two or
more parties the obligation is mutual: that the fail
ure Of one of the contracting parties TO perform a
material part of the agreement entirely releases
the other and that where arbitrator is provided,
each party is RENTED to his own Judgment to de-
trmine the fact of failure. with all its
! In the present case, that fact is established with
certainty We assert that fifteen of the States have
deliberately refused for years past to fulfill their
constitutional obligation and refer to their own
SO SdnsrtGItn Of me United States in its 4th
| Article, provides follows:
no person held TO service or labor in one State
undeS the laws thereof escaping into another, shall
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be
discharged from such service labor but shall be
delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such
service or labor may be due"
This stipulation material to the compact
that without 1t that compact would not have been
made. The greater number of the contracting par
ties held slaves and the State Of Virginia had pre-
viously declared her estimate of its value by
making it the condition of her cessiOn of the Terri
| tory which now composes the States North of the
| Ohio river.
The same article of the Constitution stipuates
also for rendition by the several States of fugitves
| from justice from the other States.
The General Government, the common agent.
passed laws to carry into effect the stpulations of
! the States For many years these laws were exc
cuted. But increasing hostility on the part of
the Northern States the institution of slavery has
led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws
| of the General Government have ceased to effect
the objects of the Constitution The States of Maine
| New Hampshire Vermont. Massachusetts, Connec-
| ticut Rhode Island New York, Pennsylvania, Hi
nois Indiana, Ohio, Michigan. Wisconsin, and Iowa
have enacted laws which either nulllfy the acts OF
Congress, render useless any attempt to execute
| them In many of these States the fugitive Is dis
charged from the service or labor claimed and In
| none of them has the State Government complied
with the stipulation made in the Constitution The
State of New Jersey, at early day, passed law
for the rendition of fugitive slaves in conformity
with her constitutional undertaking. but the current
of antslavery feeling has led her more recently TO
enact laws which render imperative the remedies
provided by her own law, and by the laws OF Con
| gress In the State of New York, even the right
of transit for slave has been denied by her tribu
mails; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused
to surrender justice fugitlves charged with muir
der and with melting servlle 1nsurrectl0n IN the
State of Virginia. Thus the constitutional compact
| has been deliberately broken and dlsregarded by
| the nen-saveholding States, and the consequence
follows that South Carolina is released from its OBJ
| legation.
! The ends for which this Constitution was framed
are declared by itself to be to form more perfect
Union establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense promote the general
welfare and secure the blessings of liberty TO our
selves and our pOsterity."
These ends it endeavored to accomplish by Fed
eral Government in which each State was recogni-
zed as an equal andSEad separate control over Its
own institutions. The right of property in slaves
was recognized by giving to free persons distinct
political rights by giving them the righs to repre-
sent, and burthening them with direct taxes Tor
three-ffths of their slaves by authorizing the I'M
portatlon of slaves for twenty years, and by spu-
iating for the rendition of fugitives from labor
We affirm that these ends for which this Govern
ment was Instituted have been defeated, and the
Government itself has been made destructive OF
them by the action of the nonslavehoding States
Those States have assumed the right OF deciding
upon the property of domestic institutions and
nave denied the rights Of property established IN
fifteen of the States and recognized by the Oonsutu
ton they have denounced sinful the institution
of slavery they have permitted the open establish
ment among them of societies, whose avowed OBJ
ect is to disturb the peace and to purloin the pro
pit tcf They have