Year: 1860

by the following letter from one fher most pro-
minent men the time for her to secede has been
set


LETTER FROM GOVERNOR HAMMOND.


REDct1FFE, Nov. 81, 1860.


GENTLEMEN Il have just received your dis
patch. 1t is impossible for me to reply with
your flattering request. South Carolina will
certainly secede from the Union on the 18th or
18th of December next. She intends to try it
fully at all costs. No more compromises of
any sort. She will take no guarantee, but will
go out high and dry and forever Ii Georgia
will back her, there will be but little or no
trouble only wish she had called her Con-
vention for the day before, and gone out first.
We don't want to lead We will gladly give
Georgia the lead and all the honors Let her
put forth her hand and grasp them. She is,
and must be, the Empire State of the South,
and South Carolina will have, perhaps, hard
time without her sustaining arm.


Your obedient servant,


]. II. HAMMOND.


COMMITTEE OF THE Mass MEETING, Columbus.
Now we ask is North Carolina ready or willing
to take up arms in defence of South Carolina du-
ring the present month, or will she wait until
she arm herself and go with the united
maoUement which all the other Southern States
invites


Delay, if it does not serve to arrest the dread
calamity altogether will at least give us an op-
portunity to prepare ourselves to meet IT.
Twelve months ago, soon after the Virginia
raid, we advocated the arming of the State, and
called upon our rulers to move in the matter.
They did not move, but now when there is
cause to apprehend danger there is a party in
the State that seem eager to precipitate us
without preparation


If men with wisdom equal to this crisis
should rise up and stay this storm-men able
to preserve the Union on the principles of the
Constitution, which guarantees to every State
equal rights their names will be venerated by
the generations who are to come after us as we
now venerate the names of Washington and his
compatriots. God grant that such men may
be found ere it be too late


If South Carolina goes out of the Union alone
and is permitted to stay out alone it will not
be twelve months before her people, those of
them in moderate circumstances especially,
will be running from the State to escape from
the intolerable burdens which her attempt to
support government will impose. They must
have an army and navy; fortifications and
light houses along the coast; an internal
postal system, and all the other machinery Of
an independent confederacy. How is she to
obtain the money? She cannot raise it, nor
support a separate government, and hence her
attempt at self-government, if permitted to go,
and stay out, will be miserable failure.
Be it understood then that while we favor
united action and atnited resistance to further
oppression from the North, we oppose separate
State action as reckless, uncaled for, suicidal
and ruinous and we shall insist that North
Carolina keep her hands clear of any movement
which does not look to u11ited front. I" Unl-
| ted we stand, divided we fall" fSouth Caro-
lima chooses regardless of our protestations and
the protestatonS of her other sister States to
90 out alone and conflict should ensue be-
tween her and Mr. Buchanan, we are for leav-
inr them to settle their own difficulties while
the other Southern States should move on quiet
iy in their preparations for final demand upon
the North for a redress of grievances. W c arc
not willing to surrender this Union without a
final st1rcglc to save it. Call us Il s7Ib3aisSi0n-
ist for advising this temperate but decided
course if YOU please, but. we feel as tens OF
thousands feel North, South, Eas5 and West,
that if we tear down the present temple we
| shall never construct another Ike lt-that Ii we
| lose the present Union and destroy the present
! Constitution the light of freedom and free in
! stitutions goes out for tilne, if not forever.
| We appeal to our counhymen, is not this
| Union worth preserving? We appeal to our
| Northern fellow citizens, who are our aggres-
sors and oppressors-had you not rather do US
Justice and forever hush the voice of fanaticism
and mock philanthropy in your own demlnlons,
than lose all that you enjoy under the present
| Union? If so then pause; repeal your obnoA-
ious local laws which are violative OF the Con-
stitution of your Country and which rob us OF
our property. Do this-do it speedily, and all
may vet be well. If you do it not there IS not
a man in the whole South but is ready to take
the fatal leap though he knew certain and sud
| den destruction awaited him. The North may
now save the Union; the South cannot. Her
resolve has been made and from it she will
not recede, though many of US may deplore
the Incorporate haste of South Carolina and
other of the Cotton States. We all love ou1
nronertv in negroes much, and we love ou1
honor more, and we tell the Northern people
that the Rubicon has been passed; 1t IS the
! last feather that breaks the cameIs back and
as we are loaded down we can bear no more
Ave, not only So we demand retraction, apollo
| gy and satisfaction for the past


We repeat, it is alone in the power OF tho
North to preserve the Union-the South can
not-will she do it? We shall see.


Really we fear this is the great turning pom
in the worlds history-times that make the
stoutest heart tremble.


Geo. p. HsIsseIl a. Co.


Mr.. Editor Your notice of the impertlnen