Year: 1860

| single purpose-that of declaring South Carolina
no longer one Of the States of the Union. That
such will be her action sometime during the pre-
sent week, we are not permitted to entertain a
shadow of doubt.


| Thus, then, one Of the pillars which sustains the
| national edifice is about to be removed to be
| quickly followed by others. South Carolina only
precedes, by few weeks five or six Of her former
sisters in the Confederacy. What Sonth Carolina
does to-day will be done, very soon, by every one
of the Gulf States and eventually in all probabil-
ity by every Southern State.


| What makes the circumstance more significant
| is the fact that the State which to-day makes her
preparations to leave the Union, is one of the ori
| ginal thirteen. She of those which helped
| to form the Union, when the Union was frst de-
| yised. Naturally, she would be regarded as more
attached to it than State subsequently admitted.
| She does not leave the Union now because she is
any the less attached to the Union which faith
| ers made, than she was in the beginning. 1t is
because the present Union is not the Union that
our fathers made. 1t is because the Union has
| been perverted from its original purposes be-
cause it has become an engine of oppression in
stead of dispenser of blessings because it is
| Union of force instead of one of friendship and
love. It is for this that South Carolina determines
| to seek that safety and security and peace out
| side Of the Union, which she has vainly at
| tempted to obtain within it. 1t is appropriate,
then, that the first State to leave should be one
which was an original party to the compact -
| that the lead Of her Southern sisters should be
| taken by Commonwealth which was also one of
the leaders in the formation of the original Union
| From thirteen States, comparatively small in
| population and weak in resources, we have grown
ba r,r
| States, extending from the Lakes of the North to
the Southern Gulf, and from one ocean to the
other, across the whole North American Cont
nent. We have become great nation and we
had the prospect, under a peaceful and just Gov
ernment, Of becoming one Of the greatest if not
the very greatest, upon the face of the globe.
That these prospects should have TO be given up,
| is something which no patriotic American can
| think of without a feeling Of sadness and sorrow
but that they will be given up, firmly and unnci-
| ingly there remains rot yestige of doubt. The
Southern people, drivento the wall, have no remedy
but that Of political independence. Forbearance
has not only ceased to be virtue, but has become
absolute cowardice. And that forbearance has
even been interpreted as cowardice by the very
people for whose sake we have so long forborne.


The nation, indeed may have grown too fast. 1t
|
powers Of the earth. In the physical world, that
which soonest reaches maturity soonest decays.
| Our free institutions, broad and smiling land,
our great natural advantages, have made mighty
nation Of us too soon, perhaps. Less than cen
| tury is short life, even for Republic. But the


causes that underlie the destruction of all Govern
Inents-the discomfort and the reluctant obedience


and loyalty of large masses of the people-have
| been operating among US for many years. From


the time that the central Government Of all the
States began to usurp powers not delegated to tin
the common bond Of the -legislating
for the benefit Of classes and sections and the con-
seqNent oppression and injury of the rest-taking
upon itself the supervision of the respective States
as to their domestic institutions all pow


ers that the most latitudinous construction Of the
Constitution could ggest-from this time the seeds


of dissolution and decay were planted. And their
first fruits we shall to-day in State which was


one of the battle fields of the Revolution and which


is as determined now to resist tyranny at home as
she was to repel the tyranny which came across the
| ocean, when we were colonies of Great Britain.


The sort of liberty which South Carolina wants, she
| helped to wrest from the mother country, and is


equally ready to wrest from the oppressor at home.


The events of this week, then, will satisfy those
| at the North who have been blind to Southern



sentiment, how great an error they have made.


They thought at first that South Carolina was blus-


terng, and would soon get over her sacred passion.


After a while they concluded that South Carolina


was in earnest-but that she would be solitary and


alone in leaving the Union. Presently they dis
| covered that the same causes which impelled one
Southern State to withdraw, We're operating in all


of them. And when popular manifestations, legis-


latiye assemblies the public press and the voices


Of leading statesmen told them that the Southern
1 States had cause, and that while one only might


lead others would eagerly follow, the North then
| awoke from her dream, and the whole truth now


flashes upon them. Commissioners may be sent to
the south--as New York city proposes-men like
Fillmore and Bronson, whom the South loves and
/ respeGts-but it is too late. The North had fair
warning before the election. The evil cannot be
repaired now that the warning has been unheeded


and the threat of Northern domination insolently
i flung in faces. Louisiana, in common with
the other Gulf States, to-day sends greeting to her
Palmetto sister, and will be but little behind her in
| the new struggle for political equality and indie.
| pendence which our manhood and our honor com
| pei us to make.