Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1861-06-29

descendants OF his revoted subjects. "Be-
fore will hear," writes GeorEo III in I7T9,
OF any mans readiness to como into Office, I
will expect to see it signed under his own
hand that he is determined to keep tho EN-
pire entire, and that no troops shall conse-
qucntly be withdrawn from America, nor in
dependence ever allowed" "The thought
OF a dissolution of the Union, pcaccably or by
FORCE" writes Mr.. Seward to Mr.. Dayton,
has never entered into the mind of any
candid statesman here, and it is high time
that it be dismissed by the statesmen in Eu,
rope" Woprofess That We think tho language
of the King the more moderate and reasonable
of the two, for George III. only refused to
admit to his councils any one who would not
sign a declaration against that independence
which ho was forced to admit himself three
months afterwards, while Mr. Seward not only
refuses to admit the possibility of that object
for which one half of the Union is in arms
against the other, but issues an inhibition to
all European statesmen to allow such thought
to cross their minds. This is, indeed, high
strain OF prcrogativc, and one to which none
of the Anticipated dcspotisms of Europe could
for moment aspire. The truth is, American
statesmen do Mt last know their own minds.
After six months of the most pitiablc vacilla-
tion and uncertainty, they have at last heard
the voice to which they pay implicit conf
dcncc. State after State went on seeding,
Senator after Senator took long farewell of
the Capitol, a Government was formed, Con-
stitution drawn up, President elected the
arsenals of the United States were seized, and
batteries thrown up for the attack of Forts
Sumter and Pckens, yet the people of the
North made no sign they went about their
business MS usual, and left the Southern States
to do exactly as they pleased AS long as
this lasted tho Government of Mr. Lincoln
had really no policy-at least none to which
it dared to give any practical effect. But the
cannon which singcd the defenders of Fort
Sumter awokc The people of the North from
their lethnrgy II soon became evident that
they were not prepared to permit the secession
OF the South without struggle. The will of
Democracy, US unused to, and as inpatient
OF contradiction as any eastern monarch, was
distinctly expressed. From that moment,
Mr.. Seward and his fellows became the most
rcsolutc and decided of men. They brcathed
nothing but war and slaughter, and occupied
themselves, after an uneasy slumbcr of six
weeks, with the most vigorous preparations
for campaign in Maryland and Virginia
In all this there is nothing to complain of.
The voice of the American people is the voice
of the Deity who is worshippcd under the
| forms Of the American Constitution, and VIC
have no right severely to criticise men who
have shown themselves ready to give effect to
the popular will as soon as they have discov-
| cred what the popular will is
But we think that his own experience might
teach Mr.. Seward n little more charity and
liberation for the doubts and difficulties of
European statesmen. Let him remember his
own uncertainties till within the last two or
three weeks; nor let him altogether forget
that, if VIC have not the same confidence that
he has, neither have we the advantage of the
same uncrring Mentor to guide us. The voice
of the American people is, after all, only the
voice of q local divinity, whose oraclcs do not
pass current on this side of the Atlantic Mr..
Seward may believe and tremblc; we are not
| disposed either to do the one or the other.
We have had occasion to point out the utter
lnadcquacy, and even the ignorance of the
real nature of the quarrel, which characterized
Mr. Stewards proposition for conGni..;on, and
we have remarked how precious time had been
allowed to steal by, the loss of which can never
be compensated by efforts of the most spas
modic energy. We must entirely decline to
recognize in Mr.. Seward that gifted seer to
whom the future is as the present, and who
has the power of informing us not only of the
event OF civil war, between two Confcdern-
cics, which may possibly shivcr to pieces in
the very first moment of direct impact but
who can tell us, in language i'll suited to the
present condition of his country, that in
America there will be only one nation and
one Government, the same republic and the
same constitutional Union that have already
survived dozen national changes, and changes
OF Government in almost every other country
This is the message which, through Mr.
Dayton, the American Secretary of State,
sends to the Government of France--a mes
sage, if not of defiance, certainly one of which
sounds very like an insult. What good pur-,
pose can be served by rcproaching France
with long and tragical history of her revo-
luton at the moment when America is about
to plunge into civil war without one of the
excuses which lend SO thrilling an interest to
the catastrophes of Lyons, Toulon and La
Vcndee? There is no Duke of Brunswick
on the frontier; there is no Coblcntz there
is no Pretender to the Crown--nonc of those
things which make men cruel by appealing to
their fears. At any rate, we have undergone
no violent change since the Declaration of
Independence, and have, therefore, on Mr.
Stewards principle, right to give an opinion
on the subject on which he pronounecs so
dogmatically. The opinion which we incline
to-though, we confess, with the very greatest
regrct-that, whatever be the result of the
civil war now pending, the result least likely
to occur is the one so confidently predicted by
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