The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1861-01-17
From the Newark Evening Journal, Dec. %.
The southern Cause our Cause.

no has awakened the lveliest feelings of sympathy
in other States, and at many important Southern
centres the beginning of the revolution, which the
South believes is to end in Southern independence,
is hailed with such joyful demonstrations as only
follow the Inauguration of great political and moral
achievements. Not only in extreme Southern
States is the independence of South Carolina open
ly recognized and applaudcd, but in the border
States of Delaware and Virginia the news of the
first step in secession is received with joy, and
welcomed by the explosion of gunpowdcr and the
plaudits of the ladies.
The South are terribly in earnest in this secession
movement 1t is no fancifu freak of hair-brained
fanatics striving to realize some abstract theory OF
morals, social perfection, political economy, but
the result of long series of aggrcssions upon the
property, the rights and the liberties of the South
by political party in the North, which has now
obtained the power make good its threats against
them, and either ovcrwhclm them in ruin or make
them submissive subjects of sectional anti-slavery
government. To submit to one or the other alter
native would show our Southern brethren to be
either unworthy of the blessings of civilization or
weak towards, unable to appreciate their position
or to save themselves from the fatal grasp of their
enemies.
Nearly all classes of people in the North are na-
turally inclined to regard the action of South Car
ona as unadvisedly prccpate. 1t may be so.
Many of the people of the South so regard it, There
arc doubtless, not few individuals in South Car
ona who might have desired to pause and reflect
before seyering he relations existing between that
State and the other members of the Confcderacy.
No great popular movement ever received the stamp
of entire unanimity. Our Revolution of lndcpen-
dcnee, which the world has admitted to be as just
cause as ever people engaged i'll, is high IN
stance that no cause can be so sacred as to exempt
it from foes. The Bostonans who consigned the
British taxed tea to the waves were disguised rs
Indians, and there were those who did not hesitate
publicly to dcnounce this destruction of property.
1t required the eloquent tongue Of Patrick Henry
to convince the trembling doubtcrs of his day that
war had actually commenced from which there
was no escape hut degrading and cowardiy sub
mission.
South Carolina may be liable to the charge of un-
due haste in declaring her independence But who
is to be the judge of her movements? With re-
markable unanmy she has thrown herself into
the breach, declaring that she will no longer re-
main within a Union where she cannot have her
rights and be recognized rs an equal. She has de-
clarcd her independence, resumed her sovereignty
and with her rests the responsibility. We, who
recognize the principle of State rights, and admit
that the wrongs of which the South complains are
neither chimcrira or ritling, surely join our
execrations with those of the Tribune and the
Mercury against the action of South Carolina II
that State has erred, must regard it rs an error
of judgment policy, but by no means as an net
of treason to the Constitution, the Northern viola
ton of the provisions of which had already pract-
cally dissolved the Union.
Nor can we doubt that most if not all Of the 9TH
er Southern States will not be found agging behind
South Carolina in giving practical effect to the pre-
vailng ideas of Southern rights and Southern in
dependence There will be occasion shortly for
those whose vocabulary is stored with epithcs for
the Palmetto State, enlarge their treasury of ex-
plctycs in order to include seven or eight addition
al rcbellous sovcrcigntics. If Abe Lincoln the
would be- -prcsicn, of the United States, is inclined
to cocrcc these seven or eight States into the ati-
tudc of subjects to his Abolition dynasty, he will
find the fifteen Southern States acting rs unit in
Il common defence of their homes and fircsidcs 10
say nothing of the Northern difficulties in the way
of such programme.
Nothing short of practical assertion of Southern
independence can now save this distracted country.
1t may be called secession, revolution, treason if
You please but let those who characterize the posi-
ton of South Carolina rs rebcllious, remember that
the Tories of the Revolution were not rebels, but
ahiect submissionists and that the country was
rescued from Great Britain in spite Of these friends
of coercion.
We see now that the Black Republican abolition
fabric is tottcing and rccling like Il drunken man,
in spite of the efforts of its nnatcal leaders TO stay
the rcactonary tide, and to keep their columns i'll
close order until they can reap the fruits Of their
i'll gotten and sectional victory, by the employment
of force against the Southern rebels. Daily the
rank and file Of their army are leaving them, dis
guscd with present disaster with present disasters,
and foresccng nothing but ruin and misery in the
future The lcfections from abotionsm have al
ready been so extensive that the panic in the
Black Republican party is assuming fearful pro-
portions. Whatever is to happen to the country,
the sectional party which elected Mr. Lincoln is in
the last throes of dissolution, and by posi-
bility ever again become controlling power in the
land.
Nothing but the firm and determined stand taken
by the South in sclf-dciencc could have brought
about this speedy and gratifying result. For this
work, we in the North, who have ever boldly sup
ported our Southern brethren against Aboiiionism,
should cordially thank the South, whose prompt