The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-12-11
The Intelligencer Job Gfice.

beg In all cases, the money will be required
upon delivery of the work. Orders, accompanied
with The cash. will receive prompt attention.
pies of justice and honor on the popular
mind, and by the most scrupulous fidelity
to all our engagements of every sort. Any :.
serious breach OF the organic law, persis-
ted in for considerable time, cannot but
create fears for the stability of our insti-
tutions. Habitnal violation of prescribed
rules, which we bind ourselves to observe,
must demoralize the people. Our only
standard of civil duty being set at naught,
the sheet.anchor of our political morality
is lost, the public conscience swings from
its moorings, and yields to every impulse
of passion and interest. If we repudiate
the Constitution, we will not be expected
to care much for mere pecuniary obliga-
tions. The violation of such pledge as
we made on the 22d day of July, 1851,
will assurcdly diminish the market value
of onr other promises Besides, if we
now acknowle5 ge that the national debt
was created not to hold the States in the
Union, as the taxpayers were led to SIP
pose, but to expel them from it, and hand
them over to be governed by negroes, the
moral duty to pay it may seem much less
clear. say it may seem so; for l do not
admit that this or any other argument in
favor of repndiation can be entertained as
sound; but its influence on some classes of
minds may well beapprehended. The finan.
cial honor of great commercial nation,
largely indebted, and with republican
form of government, administered by
agents of the popular choice, is thing of
such delicate texture, and the destruction
of it would be followed by such unspeak-
able calamity, that every true patriot must
desire to avoid whatever might expose 1T
to the slightest danger.
The great interests of the country re-
ouire immediate relief from these enact
mcnts. Business in the South is paralyzed
by sense of general insecurity, by the
terror of coniscation, and the dread of
negro supremacy. The southern trade,
from which the North would have derived
so great profit under government of
law, still languiShes, and can never revive.
until it ceases to be lettered by the arbita-
ry power which makes all its operations
unsafe That rich country the richest in
natural resources the world ever saws
worse than lost if it be not soon placed un-
der the protection OF free Constitution.
Instead of being, as It ought to be,
source of wealth and power, it will be-.
come an intolerable burden upon the rest
OF the nation.
Another reason for retracing our steps
will doubtless be seen by Congress i'll the.
late manifestations of public opinion upon
this subject. We live in country where
the popular will always cnforces obedience
to itself, sooner or later. 1t is vain to
think of opposing 1t with anything short.
of legal authority, backed by overwhelm-.
ING force. 1t cannot have escaped your
attention that from the day on which Con.
grcss fairly and formally presented the;
proposition to govern the Southern States
by military force, With view to the ultl-
mate establishment OF negro supremacy,
every expression of the general sentiment
has been more or less adverse To 1t. The
affections of this generation cannot be de-
tached from the institutions OF their an.
cestors. Their determination to preserve
the Inheritance Of free government IN
their own hands, and t"ansmit it undivided
and unimpaircd to their own posterlty, is
too strong to be successfully opposed.
Every weaker passion will disappear be-
tore that love OF liberty and law tor which
the American people are distinguished
above all others III the world.
How far the duty Of the President, s'to
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu-
tion," requires him to GO in opposing an:
unconstitutional act of Congress, Is very
serious and important question, on which
I have deliberated much, and felt extreme
ly anxious to reach proper conclu-
sion. Where an act has been passed
according to the forms o. the Constitution
by tie supreme legiSlati &c authority, and
is regularly enrolled among the public
statues of the country, Executive resist
ancc to it, especially in times of high
partv excitement, would be likely to pro-
duce violent collision between the respec-
tive adhercnts of the two branches of the
Government. This would be simply civil
war; and civil war must be resorted to
only as the last remedy for the worst of
evils. Whatever might tend 30 provoke
it should be most carefully avoided. a
faithful and conscientious Magistrate will
concede very much to honest error, and
something even to pcrverse malice, before
he will endangcr the public peace; and he
will not adopt forcihle measures, or such
as might lead to force, as long as those
which are peaceable remain open to hlm
or to his constituents. 1t is true that
/. cases may occur in which the Executive
!. would be compelled to stand on its rights,
and maintain them, regardless of all con-
SEQUENCES. If Congress should pass an
ll vet which is rot only in palpable conflict
with the Constitution, but will certainly,
# carried out, produce immediate and ire
parable injury to the organic structure of