Year: 1861

South Carolina is dissatisfied with the provis
ional Constitution adopted by the seeding
States. From a leader in the Charleston Mercury
we clip the following ominous reflections


We regret that any provisional government
was formed at all, and in one or two important
particulars confess disappointment and surprise
at the Government and laws enacted. 1t seems


that the United States protective tariff OF '57 has
been adopted, and that positive condemnation
of the institution of slavery. through the slave
trade, has been inserted into the Constitution
itself Neither of these did we expect We did
not suppose that any Southern Government
whether for month or year, would sanction
the policy of protective tariffs. The tariff of '57
is odous and oppressive in its determinations.
1t was made to favor Northern enterprise at the
expense of the people of the South-a huge free
list of them-the burden of taxation for us to
bear, and we maintain is adverse to revenue,
unjust in principle and oppressive in practice"





ave deem it also unfortunate and NAL dprop0s
that the stigma Of illegitimacy and illegality
should be placed upon the institution of slavery
by fundamental law against the slave trade
In our opinion it is a matter of policy, and not
of principle, to be decided now and hereafter
from sound views Of the necessities and safety of
our people"


Thus South Carolina tears away the thin gauze
of past pretext- equal rights in the Territories,
and the unconstitutional passage of Personal
Liberty Bills by the Northern States-and boldly
proclaims her real motives the reopening of the
Slave Trade, and the adoption Of the Free Trade
policy. South Carolina had no real or practical
interests involved in the issues of the last Prcsi-
Dental canvass, and only made an abstraction
the excuse for proclaiming her treason to Gov
ernment she has hated for the last thirty years
The policy upon which she has set her heart, can
which she has helped to make, than it could by
the Union which she has so long disgraced as
rebellious member. But for South Carolina no
disafiectiUn would have ever occurred in her sis
ter Southern States her imaginary wrongs
have, for thirty years, filled her newspaper col
umns, and been piteously walled forth in our
National Legislature, until species of sympa-
thetic mOnomania seized the brightest intellects
that ever graced the halls of Congrcss-giant
brains, who loaned all their logic and eloquence
to prove distractions realities. AS long as the
history of our country shall be read, will the
fervent, eloquent appeals of Davis, Benjamin,
Hammond and Toombs be admired, and cited as
what genius and intellect may do in mistaken
cause. They but followed the instincts of a
misplaced sympathy-they have by the magic of
eloquence and fiery oratory nfamed the whole
South-they have consummated their ends and
South Carolina, the viper whom they have taken
into their bosoms and warmed into power, has
already commenced her Kissing, and will soon
strike her poisonous fangs of States rights
sovereignty" into the vitality of the " Confeder
ate States" and anarchy and ruin will be the end
of the new government. We cannot say, " we
wish the Southern Republic joy at the accession
of South Carolina - we have too much real
sympathy for the honestly misled of the other
Southern States, but can only say have no
grain of allowance for that infatuated traiiorous
to the Union, false TO her benefac
tors, and accursed in her policy.