Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-03-01
Montgomery Correspondence of the Charleston Mer-
curry.
The COnstitution-Its Imperfections.
MONTGOMERY. Feb. IA. 1861.

The Constitution-Its ImperfectiOns.
| MONTGOMERY, Feb. IA. 1861.
| Upon one point there appears to be fixed
| determination and straight forward action
Here. Reconstruction is dead. A Southern
| Confederation IS fstaS lishs3 J; and the South
ern COnfederacy is fxS, spP.s'fnut VIVA.
sort of Confederacy? H cEs2g .nyention
| is at sea; and vague dreaI3 OF 80 future,
and terrors of the people, aud in somsdegree
a want of craftsmanship, paralyze all useful
and essential reform, and weaken men into
inaction. Let your people prepare their
minds for failure in the future Permanent
Southern Constitution. For South Carolina
is about to be saddled with almost every
grievance except Abolition, for which she
has long struggled, and just withdrawn from
the late United States Government. Surely
McDufie lived in vain, and Calhoun taught
| for nought, if we are again to be plundered,
| and our commerce crippled, destroyed, by
| tariffs-even discriminating tariffs. Yet this
| is the almost inevitable prospect. The fruit
| of the. lahors of thirty odd long years, in
strife and bitterness, is about to slip through
| our fingers.
| But is this all we are about to be called on
| to enuct and heart 1t is only the beginning.
1 The three-fifths rule of representation Tor
| slaves was one of the many Yankee swindles
put upon us ia the formation of the old Con-
L
fairly dwarfs the power of some of the States
| in any federal representation. The proper
| ton of her black to the white population, is
| very much larger than that of any other
slave State. By the old swindle, her fair
proportion of representation was cut down
upon all her slaves in proportion as 3 is to
5. The black population, being in a
majority in our State, two ffths of more
than one half of the people of the
Il ..al
| Just the degree that the proportion of the
black population in South Carolina predom-
mates over the proportion of the blacks to
| the whites in any other State, is the swindle
| augmented-and aggravated. South Caro-
| lima is small enough without again iinging
away what legitimate power she possesses.
| That power is in her slayes-socially, politi-
cally, economically. The proportion of the
three-fftbs rule calls upon her not only to
| stultify herself, but to dwarf her powers.
Is this all? Is it not. She is probably to
be called upon to brand herself and her in
| stitutions.
The old Constitution of the United States
/ merely grants to the Congress the power to
| prohibit by law the further introduction of
| slaves from Africa or elsewhere outside of the
| United States. Terrorism here is about to
make its perpetual prohibition fundamental
provision of the Constitution ITSELF A stig
ma is thus broadly stamped upon the whole
institution before the whole world and sealed
| by ourselves. That Congress should have
| power to prohibit the trade is a legitimate
| provision. 1 should not object to such pro-
| vision. It is matter of trade, business and
general economy. There may, or there may
not, be sufficient supply of African labor
| now in America. OF this it is for the peo-
| pie of the several States to decide, through
| their representatives in the general Congress.
| But to brand it by fundamental article of
| the Constitution itself, is to cast an Infamous
slur upon the whole institution-the lives
and the properties of every STAKEHOLDER in
| the land.
For what have we cast off the North as
rotten incubus If we are thus to re-enact
| all of their swindles, outrages, and insolences
upon ourselves? To be plundered and man.
| acled with discriminating tariffs-to stultify
| ourselves with halfway representation-and
| to endorse all the ISLANDERS and insolence of
| the Northern Statess
| All this is not encouraging to our hopes
| But there remains two methods of retrieving
ourselves The first is, in our Convention
| We may have to follow the example of 1888.
The second is, by providing in the Constitu-
ton, for the present, an easy way of amend
ment; and South Carolina may insist upon
amendments upon these points being made.
Doubtless public spirit will advance. Many
men here want information. They are ig-
| norant and Impractical in this matter. There
| is still room for much hope in the end-with
| the exercise on our part of much frmness.
| 1t is greatly to be regretted that the de-
| bates upon the Constitution will probably not
be public. 1t seems to me that they will be
| very important as guides in the future, where
| by we may be enabled to comprehend its
meaning-the proper Interpretation of its
language.