The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-01-06

of the State of South Carolinaf That
; Record can never perish And whatever
may be the fate of South Carolina, the
name of Francis Wilkinson Pickens will
be forever and aye enlwined with the de-
cisive initiatory steps which she took in
armed defence of those principles of Tree
Government, and theories of States
Rights, for which he had contended with
unswerving fidelity from youth to age ;
for it was his fortune as her Executive
Chief to illustrate in action her opinions
and creed, at time and under circum-
stances which can never bo forgotten.
The vicws which Governor Pickens
pressed upon the Confederate Govern
ment as to the management of it's For
eign relations, differing 80 widely from
those which the Richmond Cabinet adop-
ted, have not been, and perhaps never
will be published. Suffice it to say that
his views were based upon an attentive
study of our Diplomatic history; upon
the actual condition of the Foreign rela-
tions of the United States Government
then existing; upon his personal knowl-
edge of the policy of the different Pow
ers, partially developed, and partially
foreshadowed, by the Corps of able Am
bassadors ever present at the Russian
Court, almost the Head Quarters of the
Diplomacy of Civilization,-and upon his
profound and enlightened conviction that
neither formal recognition nor moral aid
could be relied on Mt any early period OF
the gigantic struggle between the States,
from the great Powers, whose favorable
action was so confidently expected by the
Confederate Executive and the people of
the South. In his opinion, no considerations
based on the diminished supply of that
mighty plant (which keeps steam OK
panding, machinery in motion, and the
| lightning traversing the wires," or any
other material interest likely to be seri-
ously affected by the war between the
States, would be found sufficiently potent,
in the brief time so generally supposed,
to,induce the English or French Cabinet
to interfere for the repression of the as
saults made by the spirit of the age
upon the Chinese wall maintained by the
South against the public opinion of the
civilized world, the Areopagus of modern
times. He thought that wise direction
of the Foreign relations of the Confede-
rate Government would rather seek 10 in
terest in its favor those great nations
whom similarity of institutions might
admonish that their interests and fate, in
that regard, were to q certain extent
bound up with the South. But Dis alter
visum, and when long afterward views
somewhat similar to those of Governor
Pickens were presented to the Spanish
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, it was too
late. Mr.. Seward had anticipated tho
Richmond Cabinet. During the admins
tration of Governor Pckens there arose
an excited controversy growing out OF
the continued existence of the Conven-
ton. the Executive Council, and its acts,
involving questions as to the nature of
Sovereignty, the power of Legislatures
calling Conventions OF tho People, and
the power of those Conventions when
called and in existence, which had been
discussed in the Notification Convention
and tho Legislatures of that day, about
which tho Doctors of the States Rights
Party had then differed, which had not
then been definitely settled, and which
now in the midst of raging war, awoke
and stirred themselves from their Daedal
Couch. Arguments in favor Of the legal
itv of the Council and it's acts were ably
and elaborately presented by its advo-
Gates, and Gov. Pickens ably, firmly, and
zealously defended his views OF the Exec
utiye prerogative, and the Constitutional
PARTITION of powers between the different
Departments of the Government. The
voice of the people, as evinced in tho fall
elections of 1862, and the acts of the Leg
islature then elected, was avcrse to what
thew regarded as an emporium in lnperlo."
But the action of the Convention, provi
ding for the dissolution of itself and the
Council, soon withdrew the question from
the domain of practical, TO that of specu-
lative politics, and all excitement on the
subject ceased. AS u practical question it
seems not probable that it will speedily be
resurrected again; as n speculative qucs-
ton "sub jadicelis est" and is likely so to
remain.
Gov. Pickens, at tho expiration of his
term of Office, retired to private life, after
two wears of excitement which would
haye tried nerves of iron. From this re.
tiremcnt he emerged but once again into
public view as member of the Conven-
tion in 1865, called by Provisional Gov
ernor Perry, under President Johnson's
Reconstruction programme. He took a
prominent part in the debates on some OF
tho leading provisions of tho Constitution
then adopted, and consistent and logical
in his States Rights theories and princi-
pies TO the last, moved and carried an
Ordinance for the Repeal Of the Secession
Ordinance of 1S60,-tho Repeal affirming
the past validity OF that which is repealed.
E After his retirement ho returned, with
the beartincss of boy lot free from
school, to agricultural pursuits, the favor
i CLl-. 4 L.,