Year: 1859

dauctory answer, for it does


YH.astion with that clearness and


"a statement which seems to us


"A hessssrticle begins with an exposition of the
liine of State Sovereignty,-a doctrine
& drlich we maintain always, and which seems
to us more seriously imperilled by the national
fuence whatever. We agree with the Mercu-
ry, that the federal government is govern
ment of clearly specified and limited powers,
that the federal Constitution should be strictly
construed, and that State Sovereignty must
not be ignored nor trodden under foot by those
in power at Washington. The statement in
regard to State Rights is followed by a sketch
of the political behavior of the Democratic
party, which, according to the Mercury, has
not served "the South i" with that self-sacri-
fcing devotion which is demanded. There
fore that journal, (which .hRs -;nce 1887 sup
ported every Dem 4tzssGdate for the
Presidency advocz flor the South ga sepa-
rate sectional party Organization as the most
effective method of acting for Southern
Rights. That portion of the article which
directly touches our question is as follows.


eve come now to the last misapprehenson
of the Louisiana Courier respecting us-our
Disunionism. He says, setting forth, as he
supposes, the contrary of our policy, "disunion
as an end--as thing LoUeiy in itself, has never
found lodgment in the bosom OF our party
We assent heartily to the position of the
Courier. We have never anticipated dsso.
luton of the Union, 'as a thing lovely in it
self We are not so ignorant of the position
of the United States in the world, as not to
understand its external grandeur, its prospec-
tive glory, its mighty example for good
amongst the despotsms of the world Give
US the Union of the Constitution in its plain
simple truthfulness, with the rights and pro-
lection it would afford-just and equal in its
taxation, and in its expenditure observing the
limitations the Constitution prescribes-letting
us alone with our Institutions, excepting
to fulfil its plain duty in protecting
them-securing to us equality with our CON
federated States, in Washington, in our Ter
ritories-eyerywher as our rights and their
obligations demand, and there is none in the
broad expanse of the broad lands which stretch
from ocean to ocean beneath the Union, who
will more devoutly pray and fight for its con-
tinuance. Such was the Union our fathers
supposed they had bequeathed to U.S. Is this
the Union which now prevails over the South
Turn to the North and see the angry section
alism which lifts its head in stern and deadly
menace OF our institutions. Listen to their
pulpits, prescribing us as unworthy of Chris
tian fellowship and association. Read their
papers, pouring out bitterness and scorn upon
our pretentions of equality with them. Look
at the General Goyernment-cheated-st
ped of common participation III our Terrific
ries-plundered by tariffs and expenditures
vilifed, baited, bullied, degraded. We are no
longer equals with the North. We are no
longer one people. The people of the Slave
and Free States are as distinct and separate
peoples as exist on the globe. 1t is not possi-
BILE, in our judgement, to keep them together
under one government on terms of equality.
One of them must be the master. The inev-
liable course of things proclaims that the mas.
terry must be with the North. The mastery
of the North in the Union must be the
ruin of the South. Not cnly every prin-
ciple of liberty and of manhood, out the
brute instinct of selfpreservation, places be-
fore the South the stern alternative-reform
the Union or dissolve it. For ourselves, we
have despaired of reforming it. For thirty
years this paper has struggled to make its re-
formation consistent with the rights of the
South. The Constitution is now weaker, and
sectionalism more potent and furious than ever.





sealed. 1t must be dissolved. We bow to the
necessity, and may mourn the catastrophe, but
cannot prevent a certainty as inevitable as the
rolling of the seasons. 1t is only question
of time. We have not done it. When impair
tial history comes to write its epitaph, it will
say: "KilIed by the aggressive injustice of the
North, and the ignoble submission of the
South" Although the injustice of the North
did beat upon its proud barriers, they would
l,ox, e. ~.
of the South in not using her power to protect
her rights and enforce the Constitution until it
was too late-too late for the Union-but not
too late, we trust for her own salvation. Upon
which section of the Union will rest the deep
est scorn Of future generations, it is not for us
to anticipate"


This statement Of the case shows us the
prevailing mood Of the Mercury, and of all
those in South Carolina who agree with that
journal. But it does not show US the reasons
which justify such mood. 1t seems to us, as
it will doubtless seem to our readers, more
like the outcry of settled monomania than
the utterance of calm reason. We mean no
disrespect in saying this our aim is to give
an exact statement of our thought. 1t ap-
pears to us that nothing short Of monomania
could seriously put forth such a wild misrep-
resentaton of the actual relations between the
North and the South. Feelings and purposes
are attributed to the Northern people which
they do not cherish. There is nobody in this
part of the Republic who would find pleasure
in running the South" There is no politi-
cal party here which menaces Southern well
fare; none that seeks to abolish slavery in
South Carolina, or claims that there is a
power to abolish it existing anywhere outside
the government of that State. We at the
North feel that in all this hot controversy over
the slavery question, we have acted only in
selfdefence, and sought merely to repel ag-
gression without much success. When you
at the South began to force the extension of
slavery, we began fight against slavery ex-
tension; and the battle has gone on to this day
slavery being generally triumphant And SO
Of other points in this controversy


The truth is, you in South Carolina accuse
the North when you should accuse the ineyi.
table tendencies of modern civilization. As a
general thing, all the enlightenment of our
time, all the strong aims Of sef-respecting
manhood, as well us the sympathies and inn
pulses of the finest culture, are unfriendly to
chattel slavery. Modern civilization does not
encourage and bless that institution, but, on
the contrary, considers it barbarism. You,
of course, do not accept this judgment; but
Won feel the general hostility which surrounds