-r/*-' THE ADDRESS OF TIIK PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA ASSEMBLED IN CONVENTION, TO THK PEOPLE OF THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES OF THE UNITED STATES. PKINTED BY ORDKR OF THE CONVENTIOX. C^H A R L E S T O N : EVANS &. roCiSWELL, PRINTERS TO THE CONVENTION, No. 3 Brond and 103 East Bay Streets. ISGO. THE ADDRESS PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, ASSEMBLED I\ CONVENTION, PEOPLE OF THE SLAVEHOLDIKG STATES OF THE LTXITED STATES. PRINTKO 15Y OKDER OF THE CONVENTION. CHARLESTON: EVANS & COGSWELL, PRINTERS TO THE COXA'ENTION, No. 3 Broad and 103 East Bay Street. 18G0. Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2010 witii funding from Duke University Libraries littp://www.arcliive.org/details/addressofpeopleoOOsout THE ADDRESS OF THE PEOPLE OF SOITTH CAROLmA, ASSEMBLED IX C0^t\7-exTI0X, TO THE PEOPLE OF THE SLAVEHOLDD^G STATES OF THE UNITED STATES. It is sevcnty-tliree 3-cars, since tlic Union between the United States was made by tlie Constitution of the United States. During this time, their advance in wealth, prosperity and power, has been with scarce!}- a parallel in the histor}' of the world. The great object of their Union, was defence against external aggressions; which object is now attained, from their mere progress in power. Tliirty- onc millions of people, with a commerce and navigation which explore every sea, and with agricultural productions which are necessary to every civilized people, conmiand the '•friendship of the world. P)Ut .unfortunately, our internal peace has not grown A\itli our external prosperity. Dis- content and contention have moved in the bosom of the Confederacy, for the last thirty -live years. During this time, South Carolina has twice called her people together in solemn Convention, to take into consideration, the ag- gressions and unconstitutional wrongs, [>erpetrated by the people of the North on the people of the South. These wrongs, were submitted to l)y the people of the South, under the hope and expectation, that they would be final. But such hope and expectation, have proved to be vain. Instead of producing forbearance, our acquiescence has only instigated to new forms of aggressions and outrage; and South Carolina, having again assembled her people in Convention, has this day dissolved her connexion with the States, constituting the United States. The one great evil, from which all other evils have flow- ed, is the overthrow of the Constitution of the United States. The Government of the United States, is no longer the Government of Confederated Republics, but of a consolidated Democracy. It is no longer a free Govern- ment, but a Despotism. It is, in feet, such a Government as Great Britain attempted to set over our Fathers ; and which was resisted and defeated by a seven years' struggle for independence. The Kevolution of 1776, turned upon one great prin- ciple, self-government, — and self-taxation, the criterion of self-government. Where the interests of two people united together under one Government, are different, each must have the power to protect its interests by the organization of the Government, or they cannot be free. The interests of Great Britain and of the Colonies, were difi:erent and antagon- istic. Great Britain was desirous of carrying out the policy of all nations towards their Colonies, of making them tributary to her wealth and power. She had vast and complicated relations with the whole world. Her policy towards her ISTorth American Colonies, was to identify them w^ith her in all these complicated relations; and to make them bear, in common with the rest of the Empire, the full burden of her obligations and necessities. She had a vast public debt ; she had an European policy and an Asiatic policy, which had occasioned the accumulation of her public debt ; and which kept her in continual w^ars. The North American Colonies saw their interests, political and commercial, sacrificed by such a policy. Their interests required, that they should not be identified with the bur- I dens aud wars of the niotlier country. They hud been settled under Charters, which gave them self-government; at least so far as their property Avas concerned. They had taxed themselves, and had never been taxed by the Govern- ment of Great Britain. To make them a part of a con- solidated Empire, the Parliament of Great Britain determ- ined to assume the power of legislating for the Colonies in all cases whatsoever. Onr ancestors resisted the preten- sion. They refused to be a part of tlie consolidated G^iovern- nient of Great Britain. The Southern States, now stand exactly in the same posi- tion towards the Northern States, that the Colonies did towards Great Britain. The Northern States, having tlu' majority in Congress, claim the same power of omnipotence in legislation as the British parliament. "The General ^ Welfare," is the only limit to the legislation of either; aiid the majority in Congress, as in the British parlia- ment, are the sole judges of the expediency of the legis- lation, this " (U'lieral Welfare" requires. Thus, the Govern- jnent of the Ignited States has become a consolidated Government; and the people of the Southern States, are compelled to meet the A^ery despotism, their fiithers threw off in the Ilevolution of 1776. The consolidation of the Government of Great Britain over the Colonies, was attempted to be carried out l)v the taxes. The British parliament undertook to tax the Colo- nies, to promote British interests. Our fathers, resisted this pretension. They claimed the right of self-taxation throuqii their Colorrail Legislatures. Thev were not represented in the British parliament, and, therefore, could not rightly be taxed by its legislation. The British Government, how- ever, offered them a representation in parliament ; but it was not sufficient to enable them to protect themselves iroiii the majority, and thc}- refused the offer. Between taxation without any representation, and taxation Avitliout a representation adequate to protection, there was no dif- ference. In neither case woukl the Colonies tax them- selves. Hence, they refused to pay the taxes laid by the British parliament. And so with the Southern States, towards the i^orthern States, in the vital matter of taxation. They are in a minority in Congress. Their representation in Congress, is useless to protect them against unjust taxation ; and they are taxed by the people of the North for their benefit^ exactly as the people of Great Britain taxed our ancestors in the British parliament for their benefit. For the last forty years, the taxes laid by the Congress of the United States, have been laid with a view of sub- sei'ving the interests of the ]!!Torth. The people of the South have been taxed by duties on imports, not for reve- nue, but for an object inconsistent with revenue — to pro- mote, by prohibitions, iTorthern interests in the productions of their mines and manufactures. There is another evil, in the condition of the Southern towards the Northern States, which our ancestors refused to bear towards Great Britain. Our ancestors not only taxed themselves, but all the taxes collected from them, were expended amongst them. Had they submitted to the pretensions of the British Government, the taxes collected from them, would have been expended in other parts of the British Empire. They were fully aware of the effect of such a policy in impoverishing the people from whom taxes are collected, and in enriching those who receive the benefit of their expenditure. To prevent the evils of such a policy, was one of the motives which drove them on to Revolution. Yet this British policy, has been fully realized towards the Southern States, by the ITortherii States. The people of the Southern States are not only taxed for the benefit of the Northern States, but after the taxes are col- lected, three-fourths of them are expended at the North. This cause, with others, connected with the operation of the General Government, has made the cities of the South provincial. Their groAvth is paralyzed ; they are mere suburbs of Northern cities. The agricultural productions of the South are the basis of the foreign commerce of the United States; yet Southern cities do not carry it on. Our foreign trade, is almost annihilated. In 1740, there were five ship yards in South Carolina, to build ships to carry on our direct trade with Europe. Between 1740 and 1779, there were built in these yards, twenty-five square rigged vessels, besides a great number of sloops and schoon- ers, to carry on our coast and West India trade. In the half century immediately preceding the Revolution, from 1725 to 1775, the population of South Carolina, increased seven-fold. No man can for a moment believe, that our ancestors intended to establish over their posterity, exactly the same sort of Government they had overthrown. The great object of the Constitution of the United States, in its inter- nal operation, was, doubtless, to secure the great end of the Revolution — a limited free Govefnment — a Govern- ment limited to those matters only, which were general and common to all portions of the United States. All sectional or local interests, were to be left to the States. By no other arrangement, would they obtain free Government, by a Constitution common to so vast a Confederacy. Yet by gradual and steady encroachments on the part of the people of the North, and acquiescence on the part of the South, the limitations in the Constitution have been swept 8 away; and the Government of the ITiiitcd States has become consolidated, with a chiim of limitless powers in its opera- tions. It is not at all surprising, such being the character of the Government of the United States, that it should assume to possess power over all the institutions of the country. The agitations on the subject of slavery, are the natu- ral results of the consolidation of the Government. Responsibility, follows power ; and if the people of the ISTprth, have the power by Congress " to promote the gene- ral welfare of the United States," by any means they deem expedient, — ^^vhy should they not assail and overthrow the institution of shivery in the South ? They are responsil)le for its continuance or existence, in proportion to their power. A majority in Congress, according to their inter- ested and perverted views, is omnipotent. The induce- ments to act upon the subject of slavery, under such circum- stances, were so imperious, as to amount almost to a moral necessity. To make, however, their numerical power available to rule the Union, the E'orth must consolidate their power. It would not be united, on any matter com- mon to the whole Union — in other words, on an}^ constitu- tional subject — for on such subjects divisions are as likely to exist in the IS'orth as in the South. Slavery was strictly, a sectional interest. If this could be made the criterion of parties at the ISTorth, the ISTorth could be united in its power ; and thus carry out its measures of sectional ambi- tion, encroachment and aggrandizement. To build up their sectional predominance in the Union, the Constitu- tion must be first abolished by constructions ; but that being done, the consolidation of the l!forth, to rule the South, by the tarift' and slavery issues, was in the obvious course of things. 9 The Constitutiou of the United States, was an experi- ment. The experiment consisted, in nniting under one Government, peoples living in different climates, and hav- ing different pursuits and institutions. It matters not, how carefully the limitations of such a Government he laid down in the Constitution, — its success must at least depend, upon the good faith of the parties to the constitutional compact, in enforcing them. It is not in the power of human language, to exclude false inferences, constructions and perversions, in any Constitution ; and when vast sectional interests arc to he subserved, involving the ap- propriation of countless millions of money, it has not been the usual experience of mankind, that woi-ds on parch- ments can arrest power. The Constitution of the United ^States, irrespective of the intei-position of the States, rested on the assumption, that power would yield to faith, — that integrity would be stronger than interest ; and that thus, the limitations of the Constitution would be observed. The experiment, has been fairly made. The Southern States, from the commencement of the Government, have striven to keep it, within the orbit prescribed by the Constitution. The cxi:)eriment, has failed. The whole Constitution, by the constructions of the Northern people, lias been ab- sorbed by its preamble. In their reckless lust for power, they seem unable to comprehend that seeming paradox — that the more power is given to the General Government, the weaker it becomes. Its strength, consists in the limita- tion of its agency to objects of common interest to all sections. To extend the scope of its power over sec- tional or local interests, is to raise up against it, oppo- sition and resistance. In all such nuittcrs, the General Government must necessarily be a despotism, because all sectional or local interests must ever be represented l)y a 10 minority in the councils of tlie General Government — having no power to protect itself against the rule of the majority. The majority, constituted from those who do not represent these sectional or local interests, will control and govern them. A free people, cannot suhmitto such a Government. And the more it enlarges the sphere of its power, the greater must he the dissatisfaction it must produce, and the weaker it must become. On the con- trar}^, the more it abstains from usurped powers, and the more faithfully it adheres to the limitations of the Consti- tution, the stronger it is made. The I*^orthern people have had neither the wisdom nor the fiiith to perceive, that to observe the limitations of the Constitution was the onl}- way to its perpetuity. Under such a Government, there must, of course, be many and endless "irrepressible conflicts," between the two great sections of the Union. The same faithlessness which has abolished the Constitution of the United States, will not fail to carry out the sectional purposes for which it has been abolished. There must be conflict ; and the weaker section of the Union can only find peace and lib- erty, in an independence of the- ISTorth. The repeated efforts made by South Carolina, in a wise conservatism, to arrest the progress of the General Government in its fatal progress to consolidation, have been unsupported, and she has been denounced as faithless to the obligations of the Constitution, by the very men and States, wdio were.. destroying it l\y their usurpations. It is now too late, to reform or restore the Government of the United States. All confidence in the ISTorth, is lost by the South. The faithlessness of the North for a half century, has opened a gulf of separation between the ISTorth and the South which no promises nor engagements can fi.ll. 11 It cannot be believed, tliat our ancestors would liave as- sented to any Union wliatever with tlie people of the oSTorth, if the feelings and opinions now existing amongst them, had existed when the Constitution was framed. There was then, no Tarifl:^ — no fanaticism concerning negroes. It was the delegates from i^cw England, who proposed in the Con- vention which framed the Constitution, to the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia, that if they would agree to give Congress the power of regulating commerce hj a majority^ that they would support the extension of the African Slave Trade for twenty years. African slavery, existed in all the States, but one. The idea, that the Southern States would be made to pay that tribute to their I^orthern confederates, Avhicli tliey had refused to pay to Great Britain; or that the institution of African slavery, would be mad^ the grand basis of a sectional organization of the J^orth to rule the South, never crossed the imaginations of our ancestors. The Union of the Constitution, was a union of slaveholding States. It rests on slavery, by prescribing a Representation in Congress, for three-lifths of our slaves. There is nothing in the proceedings of the Convention which framed the Con- stitution, to shew, that the Southern States Avould have form- ed any other Union ; and still less, that thc}^ would have form- ed a Union with more ])owerful non-slaveholding States, having majority in both l)ranchcs of the Legislature of the Government. They were guilt}- of no such folly. Time and the progress of things, have totally altered the rehi- tions between the jSTorthern and Southern States, since the Union was established. That identity of feelings, interests and institutions, which once existed, is gone. They are now divided, between agricultural — and manufacturing, and commercial States ; between slaveholding, and non-slave- holding States. Their institutions and industrial pursuits. 12 have made tliem, totally dilFerent peoples. That Equality in the Government between the two sections of the Union which once existed, no longer exists. "We hnt imitate the policy of our fathers in dissolving a union with non-slave- holding confederates, and seeking a confederation with slaveholding States. Experience has proved, that slaveholding States cannot be safe, in subjection to non-slaveholding States. Indeed, no people can ever expect to preserve its rights and liber- ties, unless these be in its ovv'n custody. To plunder and oppress, where plunder and oppression can be practiced with impunity, seems to be the natural order of things. The fair- est portions of the world elsewhere, have been turned into wildernesses: and the most civilized and prosperous commu- nities, have been impoverished and ruined by anti-slavery fanaticism. The })eople of the ISTorth have not left us in doubt, as to their designs and policy. United as a section in the late Presidential election, they have elected as the exponent of their policj-, one who has openly declared, that all the States of the United States, must be made free States or slave States. It is true, that amongst those vdio aided in his election, there are various shades of anti-slavery hos- tility. But if African slavery in the Sonthern States, be the evil their political combination affirms it to be, the re- quisitions of an inexorable logic, must lead them to eman- cipation. If it is right, to preclude or abolish slavery in a Te^Titory, — why should it be allowed to remain in the States ? The one is not at all more unconstitutional than the other, according to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. And when it is considered, that the ISTorthern States will soon have the power to make that Court what they please, and that the Constitution never has been anv barrier whatever to their exercise of. power — wliat clicck can there be, in the unrestrained counsels of the ISTorth, to emancipation ? There is sym- pathy* in association, which carries men along without principle ; hut when there is principle — and that prin- ciple is fortified hj long-existing prejudices and feelings, association is omnipotent in party influences. In spite of all disclaimers and professions, there can he hut one end by the submission of the South, to the rule of a sectional anti-slavery government at Washington ; and that end, directh- or indirectly, must be — the eman- cipation of the slaves of tbe South. The hypocrisy of thirty years — the faithlessness of their whole course from the commencement of our union with them, shew that the people of the non-slaveholding North, are not, and cannot be safe associates of the slaveholding South, under a common Government, i^ot only their fanaticism, but their erroneous views of the principles of free governments, render it doubtfnl whether, if separated from the South, they can maintain a free government amongst them- selves. Numbers with them, is the great element of free government. A majority, is infallible and omnipotent. "The right divine to rule in kings," is only transferred to their majority. The very object of all Constitutions, in free popular Government, is to restrain the majority. Con- stitutions, therefore, according to their theory, must be most unrighteous inventions, restricting liberty. None ouglit to exist ; but the body politic ought simpl^^ to have a political organization, to bring out and enforce the^will of the majority. This theory may be harmless in a small community, having identity of interests and pursuits; but over a vast State — still more, over a vast Confederacy, having various and conflicting interests and pursuits, it is a remorseless despotism. In resisting it, as applicable to our- 14 selves, we are vindicating the great cause of free govern- ment, more important, perhaps, to the world, than the existence of all the United States. Nor in resisting it, -do we intend to depart from the safe instrumentality, the system of government we have established with them, requires. In separating from them, we invade no rights — no interest of theirs. 'We violate, no obligation or duty to them. As separate, independent States in Convention, we made the Constitution of the United States with them ; and as sepa- rate independent States, each State acting for itself, we adopted it. South Carolina acting in her sovereign capa- city, now thinks proper to secede from the Union. She did not part with her Sovereignty, in adopting the Consti- tution. The last thing, a State can be presumed to have surrendered, is her Sovereignty. Her Sovereignty, is her life. ITothing but a clear express grant, can alienate it. Inference is inadmissible. Yet it is not at all surprising, that those who have construed away all the limitations of the Constitution, should also by construction, claim the annihilation of the Sovereignty of the States. Having abolished all barriers to their omnipotence, by their faithless constructions in the operations of the General Government, it is most natural that they should endea- vour to do the same towards us, in the States. The truth is, they, having violated the express provisions of the Constitution, it is at an end, as a compact. It is morall}' obligatory only on those, who choose to accept its perverted terms. South Carolina, deeming the com- pact not only violated in particular features, but vir- tually abolished by her Northern confederates, with- draws herself as a party, from its obligations. The rigli^t to do so, is denied by her ]!^orthern confederates. They desire to establish a sectional despotism, not only omnipotent in Congress, but omnipotent over the States ; and as if to manifest the imperious necessity of our seces- sion, they threaten us with the sword, to coerce submission to their rule. Citizens of the slaveholding States of the United States! 15 Circumstances beyond our control, have placed us in tlie van of the great controversy between the Northern and Southern States. We would have preferred, that other States should have assumed the position we now occupy. Indei)endent ourselves, we disclaim any design or desire, to lead the counsels of the other Southern States. Provi- dence has cast our lot together, by extending over us an identity of pursuits, interests and institutions. South Car- olina, desires no destin}^ separated from yours. To be one of a great Slaveholding Confederacy, stretching its arms over a territor}- larger than any power in Europe pos- sesses — Avitli a population, four times greater than that of the whole United States, when they achieved their inde- pendence of the British Empire — with productions, which make our existence more impoi-tant to the world, than that of any other people inhabiting it — with common institu- tions to defend, and common dangers to encounter — we ask your sympathy and confederation. "Whilst constituting a portion of the United States, it has been your statesman- ship which has guided it, in its mighty strides to power and expansion. In the tield, as in the cal)inet, jjou have led the Avay to its renown and grandeur. You have loved the Union, in whose service your great statesmen have labored, and your great soldiers have fought and conquered — not for the material benefits it conferred, but with the faith of a generous and devoted chivalry. You have long lingered in hope over the shattered remains of a broken Consti- tution. Compromise after compromise, formed by your concessions, has been trampled under foot, b}' your North- ern confederates. All fraternity of feeling between the North and the South is lost, or has been converted into hate ; and wo, of the South, arc at last driven together, by the stern destiny which controls the existence of nations. Your bitter experience, of the faithlessness and rapacity of your Northern c(nifederates, may have been necessary, to evolve those great principles of free government, upon which the liberties of the world depend, and to prepare you for the grand mission of vindicating and re-establish- 16 ing them. We rejoice, that other luitions should be sat- isfied with their iustitiitions. Contentment, is a great element of happiness, with nations as with individuals. We, are satisfied with ours. If they prefer a system of industry, in which capital and labor are in perpetual con- flict — and chronic starvation keeps down the natural increase of population — and a man is worked out in eight years — and the law ordains, that children shall be worked only ten hours a day — and the sabre and bayonet are the instruments of order — be it so. It is their affair, not ours. We prefer, however, our system of industry, by which labor and capital are identified in interest, and capital, therefore, protects labor — by which our population doubles every twenty years — by which starvation is unknown, and abundance crowns the land — by which order is pre- served by an unpaid police, and many fertile regions of the world, where the white man cannot labor, are brought into usefulness, b}^ the labor of the African, and the whole world is blessed by our productions. All we demand of other peoples is, to be let alone, to work out our own high destinies. United together, and we must be the most independent, as we are among the most important, of the nations of the world. United together, and we require no other instrument to conquer peace, than our beneficent pro- ductions. United together, and we must be a great, free and prosperous people, whose renown must spread through- out the civilized world, and pass down, we trust, to the remotest ages. We ask you to join us, in forming a Con- federacy of Slaveholding States.