Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1866-07-25

WnOle OOuIn, iFoW tho AANSSSuuS0s W 49,
people, and their absolute poverty, and mad
as the Black Republicans are, they will be
only too glad to exterminate the last vestiges
of slavery, by annulling and modifying the
contracts for slaves themselves. This lis
perfectly admissible for them to doas we think
it is for MS, for there is no clause in the Con-
stitution forbidding Congress to "impair the
obligation of contracts" and party who,
from motives Of policy, could set at naught
the Rabsas Corpus, and roll up the Constitu-
lion for Eve years, would have no scruples
about the performance of enact, which would
alike benefit both North and South, and
doubly strengthen the probabilities OF the
Northern merchants obtaining the demands
due him by the Southern people.
By the enactment of some such measures
as those indicated, by the enactment of a
short law, admitting negroes to their civil
rights in Court, and by the repeal of the Ne
gro Code, which, with its thirty-odd Judges,
| and their Satraps scstteredover each District,
| their eternal Courts, and innumerable Juries,
would keep up an endless commotion in the
community, and entail an expense upon the
public calculated to bankrupt any State, and
by magnanimous exercise of forbearance,
| on the part of our citizens, our beloved Com
monwealth may yet be redeemed, and may
arise from the desolation of her ashes, re-
newed, reinvgorated, and disenthralled.
But the first four measures, I have proposed,
are deemed, by many, to be liable 70 the
same Constitutional objections as the Stay
Law. They may be construed by the Court
of Errors, as repugnant to that clause in the
10th Sec. /. Art. of the Constitution of the
United States, which prevents State from
passing any law "impairing the obligation
of contracts" These words 60 are exceeding,
ly vogue that it is doubtful whether there
is scholar in christendom, who, by simply
reading the text, and without consulting the
decisions of the Courts, and the proceedings
OF the Convention that adopted the Consti-
tuition, could arrive at the same conclusion
concerning them our Judges have done.
Nevertheless it has been decided by the Su-
prene Court of the United States that the
"obliralion of contracts" and the remedies
for the enforcement thereof, are convertible
terms. In other words, it has been deter
mined, that your remedies, and the means
afforded you by the law, to compel the full
fillment of your contracts, are the obligations
thereof, and any Law, destroying, retarding'
or obstructing the same, so as to materially
diminish the value OF such contracts is in
conflict with the Constitution. It is not con-
tended, that the remedy may not be modified
or altered in conformity with existing circum,
stances, even after the. ratification of con-
tract or agreement, but that it must not be
done to the essential injury of the Creditor
or beneficiary of such contract. But, in q
crisis full of horror like the present. we are
enabled to look beyond the mere language OF
the decisions, and the abstruse terms of the
Constitution, TO the true intent and meaning
of that instrument, and to the objects had in
view by its immortal trainers. Their purpose
was to protect tho Creditor against State
laws, which might SO thwart him in the col
lection of his demands against his Debtor,
as to render them, in measure, yalueless
and Improbable. 1t never entered into their
conceptions though that they were adopting
q clause, that should be so whimsically con-
strued as to prevent State, in times of great
peril and unexampled pecuniary embarrass-
ment. from passing any laws whatever, regu
lating the collection of existing debts, which
might reasonably be supposed to rebound to
the benefit of both Creditor and Debtor. II
any one had doubted the correctness of this
position, they would have replied to him as
our Lord said to the Jews, Of the Sabbath
the Constitution was made for man, not man
for the Constitution. If that sacred instru
ment is too inhexible in its provisions to meet
the wants and relieve the necessities of the
country, it is unworthy Of preservation-it is
not worth the parchment upon Thich it is
engraved, and future ages of advancement
will supersede aud annul it in all its parts.
Even at the conclusion of the Revolutiona-
ry war, child's play as it was, compared with
our late terrible conflict, our ancestors in
many of the States, were compelled to pass
STAY Laws and Installment Laws for the pro-
lection of the people. And what were their
necessities; considered with the necessities Of
the present times? South Carolina alone, in
our late struggle, furnished nearly as many
men, lost nearly as many men, expended
nearly as much money, sacrificed nearly aa
much property, and when We contemplate
the loss of her Slaves, lost nearly as much
property, as the whole Thirteen Colonies in
fighting the battles of the Revolution. The
view take then, is that the interests of the
Creditor as well as Of the Debtor, demand
the passage of aome such laws as have sug-
gested, to prevent the useless sacrifice o.
property, and to save both parties from ire.
trievable injury, and the State itself from con
fusion and depopulation. When the subjec
is contemplated in this light-in the light o.
humanity and true statesmauship,-I can SEE
no impossible barriers, no Constitutional pro
hibitions intervening. We are SO situated
now as to be constrained to act or perish, ant
what is worse than all, to see our women ono