Year: 1860

ANDERSON, S. c.. Aug Is.
Ny Dear Sir: have received your favor of
the 9th inst. Your age, experience and abli-
ty, entitle your opinions to great wei ght on ev
cry rejecting mind, and | regret to learn from
your letter that you dissent from my recon-
mendatiOn that the honor and safety of the
the South require its prompt secession from the
Union, in the event of the election OF black
republican to the Presidency. You say your


"mind is equally clear that the South has long
had a peaceful remedy within her own reach
and has it still, though impaired by the recent
conduct of some of her sons" You would
greatly oblige me by full exposition of your
opinions upon that point, well as the remedy
to be resorted to by us, should the government
in November, pass into the hands of party
whose declared purposes is to destroy our prop
erty amounting in value at the present time to
not less than three billions one hundred and
fifty millions of dollars.


Can it be prudent, safe manly in the South
| to submit to the domination OF party whose
declared purpose is to destroy such an amount
of property, and subvert our whole social and
industrial policy?


In glancng at the evil and remedy, | invite
specially your attention:


1. To the persistent refusal of many of the
free States, and to large bodies of men in all
of them, to execute the fugitive slave law.


3. To the untiring efforts of fanatics who
come to the slave States under the guise OF
preachers, teachers, &c, in inveigling away our
slaves and to the general sympathy with their
nefarious purposes. evinced by the facilities
furnished them by the underground railroad in
spriting away our slaves beyond the reach Of
their owners.


s. To the raid of John Brown, and the sym
pathy which his we'll merited execution evoked


4. To the recent insurrectionary movements
in Texas-projected and carried out by aboh-
ton emiSsaries, where the incendiary torch OF
the slaves, lighted by abolition traitors has re-
duced to ashes one million of dollars worth of
property, and where the timely discovery of
the hellish scheme alone saved the lives oftl1ou-
sands of men, women and children.


These are the natural and necessary results
of the teachings of black republicanism !; and if
| we have such developments under admins
tration which profess to guard our constitution
al rights. in the name of Heaven what may we
not expect when great party takes the gov
ernment and its machinery under its control,
avowing openly its purposes to be the extirpa-
ton of African slavery wherever it exists


Is it wise, five do not mean to submit to
| such consequences, to allow black republican
President to be inaugurated and put him in


possession of the army the navy, the treasury,
the armories and arsenals, the pubic property
in fact, the whole machinery of the government,


with its appendants and appearances? 1t
the South should think upon this subject as |
do, no black republican President would ever
execute any law within her borders, unless at
the point of the bayonet, and over the dead
bodies of her slain sons.


In your letter you say that you have not
taken me to be of that class of men in the South
who for years past have been making and seek
ing pretexts for destroying the Union. You
have not miSjudged me nor my designs. |
have profound and abiding effection for the


Union of our fathers, and deeply deplore the
existence ofthe causes which are rapidly tend
ing to its destruction During the whole of
my Congressional career, I sought to tranquil
lie sectional strife. When I first entered the
House, the abolition party, headed by Glddlngs
rolled away, and now the party is majority
of the whole House. Is it not time that the
South should begin to look to her safety and
independence


trust that the impending storm may be
averted; that our rights and the Union may be
saved that faternal regard may be restored