Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1864-08-24
For the Yorkville Enquirer.

CHAFIN' s FARM, VA, August IL, OF.
| Mr.. Editor: Permit me, through your
paper, to return my thanks for the compli-
mentary manner in which my name has
been presented to the voters of York Dis
trict, as candidate, to represent them in
the next Legislature. And, in compliance.
With the solicitation of friends, whilst, at
the same time,. holding to the opinion that
at all times. but more peculiarly so now
when not only our national life is at stake,
but also, those great civil and religious
rights, handed down to US from the past,
and made doubly dear and sacred by the
blood and sacrifices of more than two gene
rations-when, in short, every right aud
privilege which belongs to freemen, are in
jeopardy, the services of the citizen are, in
large measure, due to his country, and
should as far as practicable, be unmixed
with selfish aims and partisan purposes
accept the nomination, and will, if elected,
endeavor to do my duty fully and faithfully.
Engaged in severe AMI exacting service,
and isolated from large portion of the
voters of the District it may not be amiss,
that should say one word in reference to
the struggle in which we are engaged, and
present some views which may, with prOprie-
| ty, be demanded by the electors during the
present canvass. The war has now ragged
with unabated fury for more than three
years, and for ferceness and obstinaey of
conflict for magnitude of preparation and
numbers engaged; for the interest at stake
and the wide field upon which the contend
ing hosts have been marshalled in battle
array, has few parallels in history. And
whatever may have been the contrarlety of
opinion at the outset, as to the origin and
those first causes supposed to be underlying
the whole movement, all intelligent and
patriotic men, must now come to the con-
clusion thatfor the South, it involves the
fate, either of conquest and provincial de-.
pendence, or complete and entire political
separation and National Independence.
At the commencement and during the
progress of the war, many minor issues and
questions were supposed to be concerned,
either wholly or in part. This unquestion-
ably was true. But they were 80 many ri7-
ulets and brooks flowing into the great ocean
of conquest on the one hand, or Ibdepen.
dence on the other. Besides, it would have
been an anomaly in the annals of our race,
we're it otherwise. Revolutions Of radical
political changes rarely ever 60 backwards.
The questions discussed yesterday are acted
on to-day, and tomorrow are swallowed up
in the cess-pool of agitation. The various
questions arising out of the liberation of
negro slavery in the south-the constitu-
tionality of tariffs and the various construc.
tions of the constitution in reference TO-
many political measures-sesved to mark a
difference Of thought and interest between
the two sections-but he must be politically
blind, or poorly read in human nature, who
can fail to see that our failure in the present
contest will seal our fate as a race of free
men. That this is the case, we have only
to reour to the various edicts and proclama-
tiops of the present ruler of the United
States, sustained and supported by the al
most unlimited supply of men and meanson
the part of large majority of the whole
population, the character of the contest
our desolated fields and demolished home
steads, our affairs desecrated and our women
insulted with the coarsest brutality, and the
employment of our negro slaves, once
peaceful and happy; but now the victims of
ignorance, converted, by the cunning and
Vaccinations of superior race, into ennis
saries and instruments of war and destruc.
ton. The sensitive, but ill-fated Polander,
smarting under the iron rod of the Czar,
the Henitian under the House of Hapsbmy,
or the Greek under the turbuned Turk,
would but family illustrate our condition as
provincial dependents of the Yankee. 1t
would be far better for the South, if the
sacrifice were necessary, that one genera.
ton should entirely perish rather than that
they should survive and leave for their chill
dren the heritage of bondage and abject
woe, which failure and their submission
would entail Apart from considerations of
mere safety or the fear of conquest, many
other reasons might be assigned, as indica.
ting that politically our separation from the
Northern States, should be entire and COM
plete. The different national and social Pc
cularities, the wide gulf flowing with the
blood shed in the present contest, and the
necessities of civilization and the age, de-