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 Copy 1 
 
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 ORATION 
 
 m;i.iVHUEn ox thk 
 
 FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 oath fl^HrDliUit ^ifjioijiciil ^atictji, 
 
 HIBERNIAN HALL, IN CHARLESTON, 
 
 WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 18G0, 
 
 THOMAS M. HANCKEL. 
 
 PtTBLlSUED AT THE REQUEST OF THE SOIMETV. 
 
 CHARLESTON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WALKER, EVANS & CO.. 
 
 3 Broad and 101 East Bay Streets. 
 
 18G0. 
 
f 
 
ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED OX THE 
 
 FIFTH A]^:N^iyEESARY 
 
 ^outh (3t;Hri)IinE giBt^nicHl ^acictg, 
 
 HIBERNIAN HALL, IN CHARLESTON, 
 
 AVEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 1860. 
 
 THOMAS M. HANCKEL. 
 
 30 b 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE SOCIETV. 
 
 CHARLESTON : 
 
 STEAM POWER PRESSES OF WALKER, EVANS tc CO., 
 
 No. 3 Broad and 101 East Bay Streets. 
 
 1860. 
 
50451 
 
ORATION. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: 
 
 Although the human mind is an organism so nicely adjusted, 
 that, I suppose, it would be impossible to deprive it of even the 
 least of its powerS without crippling the whole intellectual man, 
 yet of all the faculties which compose its wonderful structure, I 
 think there is no one so necessary to its healthful life, and its 
 vigorous action, as the power of memory. And this not only 
 because without any memory at all, the immediate and momen- 
 taiy percejDtions of our senses would be the whole sum of human 
 existence, and we would stand ujjon a narrow strip of life, 
 speechless, thoughtless, and almost soulless, while each passing 
 moment would di'aw behind us an impenetrable veil of oblivion, 
 cutting us off from all knowledge of the past, and, in conse- 
 quence, from all expectation of the future, and leaving us the 
 miserable slaves of accident and the rudest mechanism of the 
 senses ; not only because without a vigorous memory, there 
 could be no accurate perception of differences, and therefore no 
 analysis, and no correct comparison of ideas, and no clear knowl- 
 edge of their relations, and, therefore, no process of reasoning, 
 and no swift deduction from premises to conclusions; not only 
 because, under the system of philosophy taught by the inductive 
 science of modei'n times, it is ft'om the storehouse of a laboi-ious 
 experience, and a full and abundant memory, that we draw all 
 that wealth of knowledge which is the magnificent endowment 
 of our age 3 but because memory entei'S into the essential ele- 
 ments of our existence, and wields an influence over the life, the 
 character, and the affections, which may not be So obvious, but 
 is of incalculable importance. For, while it is from the memory 
 
that we derive our knowledge of duration, it is through the mem- 
 ory also that our human life is grafted upon eternity, and by its 
 vital power that this life progresses with the infinite. And as the 
 highest evidence we possess of the soul's immaterial existence 
 is, I think, to be found in the memory, and memory is, I believe, 
 a true spiritual sense, corresponding to the senses of the body, 
 and attests to our consciousness the presence of the ideal world, 
 as full}' and as truly as do the bodily senses attest the existence 
 of the world of matter, so it is memory which defines our indi- 
 viduality, and determines our identity, and is the native region 
 and the genial atmosjjhere of our ideal and sjiiritual life. Mem- 
 ory is also the source of all moral responsibility, and a necessary 
 element of all moral character, and the foundation of all our 
 bodily and mental habits; and with the loss of memory, the 
 soul would lose its sense of accountability, and its appreciation 
 of moral beauty, the mind would lose all its habits of jjercep- 
 tion and thought, the tongue would cleave t?o the roof of the 
 mouth, and the right hand would forget its cunning. 
 
 But in nothing is the power of memory displayed in a higher 
 degree than in its control over the affections — the highest and 
 the noblest portion of our nature. JSTothing which is not long 
 remembered affects us deeply. For that which is easily forgot- 
 ten is never incorporated with our inner life, and is never 
 grasped by our sympathies, and the fleeting smiles and tears of 
 childhood's brief memories are a proverb. That, therefore, is 
 a false and shallow philosojohy, which exclaims, "Let the dead 
 past bury its dead." How can that be called a dead past, which 
 is quick with the vitality of our spiritual life, and with the 
 strength of our individual natures and attections, which deter- 
 mines our identity, and defines our individuality, and b}' whose 
 fruitful power memories have formed themselves into habits, 
 and habits have become consolidated into character. This en- 
 grossing devotion to the present may, indeed, bring a flushing 
 of the blood and an energy of the nerves, resulting in a restless 
 activity. But if actions which go freighted with thoiight and 
 an earnest purpose, find a surer haven and bring a larger bless- 
 ing, and words, and thoughts, and deeds, spoken and done with 
 fitness, like seeds sown in their native soil and in a genial 
 season, yield a larger and a better harvest, then may we well 
 look to the past for its lessons and its guidance. 
 
 And what thoughtful and earnest man would forget or neglect 
 
the past? Who would forget liis pure, and peaceful, and happy 
 hours, and all the glory of his life? He would as soon close his 
 eyes to the glad sunshine and rejoicing nature. Who has not 
 known the griefs and the desolations of life? Who has not felt, 
 with Tennyson at the sea-washed grave of his friend, 
 
 "And the stately ships go on 
 
 To their haven under the hill; 
 But oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, 
 And the sound of a voice that is still. 
 
 Break, break, break, 
 
 At the foot of thy crags, oh sea ! 
 But the tender grace of a day that is dead 
 
 Can never come back to me." 
 
 Yet who would forget his sorrows? For our sorrows flow 
 from our affections; and our affections are our nohlest and most 
 precious life, and as dear as life itself. And we would as soon 
 destroy our bodies, because they are the sources of pain as well 
 as of pleasure, as commit the spiritual suicide of forgetfulness. 
 Who does not feel that his griefs have linked him with the ideal 
 and the immortal ? Who will not say with the poet, 
 
 "Ah ! sweeter to be drunk with loss, 
 
 To dance with death, to beat the ground, 
 
 Than that the victor Hours should scorn 
 
 The long result of love, and boast, 
 ' Behold the man who loved and lost, 
 
 But all he was is overworn.' " 
 
 Who would forget his errors and his follies, his humiliating 
 errors and his sad mistakes, if he remembers them with a brave 
 spirit and an intelligent purpose? Who would forget them, 
 unless he is willing to forfeit the moral endowments of his na- 
 ture, and forget that he is a responsible being, capable of appre- 
 ciating what is noble, and pure, and holy? What lessons may 
 they not teach us — lessons of humility, lessons of caution, les- 
 sons of mercy, lessons of an abiding faith in the inflexible laws 
 of life, and the moral government of heaven. 
 
 Indeed, so great and inestimable is the power of memory, 
 and so close and intimate the connection between the past and 
 the present, that I think there can be no healthful or valuable 
 development of our mental and moral nature and activity, 
 which is not the logical sequence of the past ; in which the offi- 
 ces of life are not assumed with a due regard to the training of 
 
. 6 
 
 the past, in whicli the duties of life are not performed with a 
 just consideration of the relations of the past, where a great 
 benefit does not receive an overflowing measure of gratitude, 
 and a great wrong is not followed by a great repentance and a 
 great conquest over evil, and so on through all the expressions 
 of our nature. 
 
 And the great and crowning work of the Christian fa:^h has 
 been this : that it has enabled sorrowful, erring, and guilty 
 men to face the past; to face it, indeed, with bowed heads and 
 stricken hearts, but still to face the irrevocable past, with the 
 light of its truths interpreting its lessons, with its offers of par- 
 don dispelling its gloom, with its supernatural strength giving 
 life and energy to the present, and with its wonderful promises 
 controlling the future. 
 
 Memory then, is, indeed, that golden bowl which gathers the 
 precious drops of life, and which carries and pi-eserves forever, 
 the essential qualities of our intellectual and moral character. 
 It is, indeed, that silver cord, as slight as fancy, but as bright as 
 thought, and as strong as life, which, beginning with the first 
 look of love which the nursing infant lifts to its mother's face, 
 entwines itself with the whole growth of existence and the pro- 
 gress of time, binding together thought with thought, feeling 
 with feeling, action with action, in the indestructible unity of 
 an individual life, in the complete development of an individual 
 nature, in the inextricable responsibility of an individual char- 
 acter, until, to human eyes, it is lost in the grave,' and " the 
 silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl is broken," and the 
 spirit returns to its Maker. 
 
 And what memory is to the individual, history is to a nation. 
 That a people should have any history at all, that there should 
 be acts and events, passions and agitations, social interests and 
 political powers, whicli reach, in their influence and eftects, to 
 the limits of a cei'tain country, and there sharply cease, pow- 
 erfully aflecting this people, yet touching no other, is the high- 
 est evidence they can have of their national existence. And it 
 is equally true, that a people without a history — without an}' 
 record of their civil organization and political action, whether 
 this record be in oral traditions, or in written documents — can- 
 not be said to have any national life whatever. They would 
 represent but a noisy, thoughtless and aindess rabbk^, or at 
 best, a fluctuating and capricious band of savages ; for the 
 
bond of all society is sympathy. And the thoughts and the feel- 
 ings of men live in their actions more than in language itself — 
 more than in anything else. United action becomes, therefore, 
 the highest source of sympathy. And the history of a people 
 is both the record and the evidence of their united action, and, 
 therefore, the true representative of their national life. The 
 construction of society and government is not a work of human 
 choice and wisdom, but is the result of historical necessity. 
 And the people who should lose their history, would either 
 soon lapse into barbarism, or soon submit to a conqueror. Or, 
 should they willfully forget or destroy their history, they must 
 pass through a great political and social convulsion before be- 
 ginning again to build the fabric of their national life and 
 strength. 
 
 The strength of Eoman greatness was sapped when the men 
 of Eome began to forget the story of her power, her wisdom, 
 aud her glory, and the Eoman nation perished when Eoman 
 history was ended, and her barbarous conquerors thronged the 
 Forum and crowded the banks of Tiber, with a race who knew 
 nothing of her heroic legends, and had never heard of her Con- 
 suls, her Tribunes, her Senate, her great Eepublic, and her 
 mighty Csesars. New and great nations were to spring from 
 the loins of the invaders, but though her people aud her seven 
 hills still remained, old Eome was dead forever. And when the 
 people of France, fiercely desperate, and drunk with excess of 
 philosophical liberty, madly demolished in a day the work of 
 centuries, tore down the throne of Henr}- IV, and Louis XIV, 
 obliterated all the land-marks of their social and political his- 
 tory, and launched the State upon a treacherous sea of consti- 
 tutional theories and political experiments, France laj^ faint 
 with weakness, and gasping in the convulsive struggles of a 
 mortal agony, until her First Consul, gathering in his hand the 
 broken powers of the State, led her through a new history of 
 bloody conquest, martial fame, and national power and glory, 
 and, as the Great Napoleon, established his imperial dynasty. 
 And to this dynasty the France of our day, after other experi- 
 ments, and other failures, has again turned for refuge as to the 
 only representative of history she has left, for the ancient his- 
 tory she can never recall. 
 
 As memory, therefore, is to the individual a true witness of 
 his spiritual existence, so is history the true witness of a na- 
 
tional life. It is a witness to whose testimony we must care- 
 fully listen, if we would understand not only the origin of a 
 people, but the development of their national character, and 
 the sources of their national institutions. For, it would be 
 strange, indeed, if history, which laid the foundation, should 
 take no part in raising the superstructure. 
 
 I have endeavored, on a former occasion, to show that all 
 government is based upon individual power, and that nature, 
 society and history are the great sources of power. If we ex- 
 amine the records of history, we will, I think, discover endless 
 illustrations of its truth ; and will find, in the striking language 
 of Paschal, that " if the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, 
 the whole face of the world would have been changed." But 
 we must never forget that, as two great contending hosts are 
 hung in sj^ace, waging a deadly warfare, whose conflicts are 
 told in the sublime music of Milton's glorious epic, or in the 
 still more awful words of inspired Scripture, so among men two 
 great classes contend for the mastery in society — the defenders 
 of wholesome law, and the champions of selfish and unbridled 
 license. And as the powers of evil present themselves in the 
 brawny muscles, the fierce passions, and the hoarse clamors of 
 depraved, selfish and ignorant men, so they can onl}^ be suc- 
 cessfully encountered by the courage, the strength, the intelli- 
 gence, and the energy of individual men — by the simple and 
 the positive power of an actual presence. It is between these 
 two contending forces that the moral law interposes, and by 
 the instinctive awe of its presence, by its appeal to the reason, 
 and by its control over the conscience, throws the weight of its 
 authority and its strength into the scale of right, and assures a 
 triumph to the advocates of truth and justice. Now, this of- 
 fice and power of the moral law is represented by institutions. 
 And history is the source and evidence of custom ; and custom 
 is the strength of institutions. When the renowned John Selden 
 was asked on what principle and maxim of the English Consti- 
 tution did he rest the right to resist tyranny, "on the immemo- 
 rial custom of Englishmen," was the reply. In this brief and 
 pithy answer, he not only announced a fundamental inaxim of 
 the constitutional law of England, but a great principle of all 
 constitutional history. For the autlioi-ity of custom is of uni- 
 versal application, whether it is reduced to the form of written 
 
9 
 
 law, or whether it stands only in history. That which has 
 been once done, and well and successfully done, carries with it 
 the intrinsic weight of precedent and example ; and precedent 
 and example repeatedly followed, acquires the force of custom ; 
 and customs, well known and long established, settle down into 
 fundamental law; and fundamental law, of necessity, developes 
 itself into institutions. For, what are institutions but law in 
 action, law in habitual action ? And it is because institutions 
 are the representatives of unquestioned law, that they become 
 the defences behind which the better, the higher, and the purer 
 elements of society are rallied and organized, and from this 
 vantage ground are able to repel the assaults of folly, ignorance 
 and evil. As memory, therefore, is the source of habit to the 
 individual, so is history the foundation of custom and the 
 strength of institutions; and no wise or thoughtful man will 
 overlook and undervalue this gi-eat boon of the past. The in- 
 stitutions of a people are like the language of a people, which, 
 in itself, is nothing but a collection of articulate sounds, but 
 which, by the force of custom and common consent, confirmed 
 and established by the authority of genius, not only gives utter- 
 ance to the thoughts and the feelings of one generation, but pre- 
 serves and perpetuates the thoughts and the feelings of many 
 ages. They ai*e like the atmosj)here, with no light in itself, but 
 distributing light through all the spaces of nature. But, as the 
 noble monuments which the genius of Greece has reared over 
 her dead language may remind us that even the most exquisite 
 language m which the speech of man was ever uttered, may 
 die ; and as the rising and the setting sun may admonish us 
 that the light is not in the atmosphere, but that when the great 
 fountain of light is withdrawn it shrivels into darkness, and 
 all its brilliant power is gone, so may those grand themes of 
 history, which treat of the rise and fall of empires, teach us 
 that the essential life of nations is not in institutions, but in 
 something higher, and deeper, and wider. And as the anato- 
 mist takes away limb after limb, which, as a physician, he would 
 nurse and heal, and cuts his way through bone and muscle, 
 down to the throbbing heart and the quivering brain, that he 
 may find and explore the very seat and sources of physical 
 health and life, so must we not undervalue institutions, but we 
 must find our way beyond them to the vital powers of govern- 
 
10 
 
 ment as they exist in all the simplicity of au individual intelli- 
 gence, in all the dignity of an actual presence, and in all the 
 warmth and sympathy of an actual humanity. 
 
 The Common LaAv of England, and the administration of jus- 
 tice in her courts, affords so striking and condensed an illustra- 
 tion of M'hat I have been last saying of the power of individual 
 men, the conflict of the social forces, the authority of the moral 
 law, and the great office of history, that 1 cannot refrain from 
 dwelling upon it for a moment. For what is the Cora«ion Law — 
 that noble system of laws so wide and so strong in its power, 
 so plastic in its structure, so pliant in its adaptation, so com- 
 prehensive in principle, so minute in detail ; which invests the 
 throne of the monarch with its prerogatives, and the imperial 
 parliament with its privileges, and yet guards the meanest hut 
 of the subject so that the king cannot enter it ; which equally 
 protects the liberties of the city of London, entrenched behind 
 the battlements of ancient charters and immemorial usage, and 
 shelters the humblest flower that blooms in the widow's garden 
 and is watered by her hand ? AVhat is this Common Law but a 
 priceless treasure, which has been amassed by the authority and 
 power of English Judges, who have gathered the great princi- 
 ples of justice and law, as they lay like native ore in the in- 
 stincts, the consciences and the customs of the English people, 
 and stamjjing them with the royal image and superscription of 
 judicial genius, have sent forth their judgments as the current 
 justice of the realm, and the established standards of 'social and 
 political riglit? The power of the English Judges is a power 
 which has not only interpreted law, but in what is known to 
 lawyers as judicial legislation, has made law, and in the notable 
 instance of the fictions of " a fine and common recovery" for 
 cutting oft' entails, actuallj^ repealed the Act, and defied the 
 authorit}' of parliament itself And how do the questions arise 
 whic-h these judges decide, but in the conflict between right 
 and wrong, justice and injustice, truth and error in society, as 
 they are represented by their advocates within the bar, each the 
 champion of his cause, and each with sul)tle power and unspar- 
 ing determination grappling witli liis opponent, and hotly strug- 
 gling foi- the victory ? And, aside from tlicir individual genius, 
 what has given to the judges of England tlieir ])ower to ex- 
 pound and to make law, hut her judicial institutions, that 
 organization of her courts which preserves the in(lei)endence of 
 
11 
 
 the English Judiciary — that " immemorial custom of Eiiglish- 
 men," to defend the sanctity and the independence of the Eng- 
 lish Bench? And what has preserved and transmitted to us the 
 knowledge of this law, as it was expounded by its oracles, but 
 the records of the court, writing when each new truth was 
 questioned and by the ordeal rendered certain, each new prin- 
 ciple of justice was ascertained, each new question of disputed 
 right was decided, and each new rule of social and political 
 conduct was determined ? And this record is history. 
 
 These, then, are some of the great offices of history, and even 
 from this partial and inadequate view, we may well conclude 
 that history is truly the life of nations ; that it is, indeed, that 
 magnetic influence, passing from individual to individual, 
 through all the limits of the State, which concentrates the en- 
 ergies and attracts the affections of a peojjle, and with a power 
 higher than the mountains, deeper than the rivers, sterner 
 than the ocean, binds them together in the close ties of an 
 active, national life, in the complete development of national 
 institutions and national power, in the unavoidable responsibil- 
 ity of national character, to last as long as their history lasts, 
 and to end when their history is closed. 
 
 And here arises a beautiful harmony between our individual 
 and our social life. In the material world, the objects of our 
 senses all deeply engage the affections, attracting and fascinat- 
 ing us, exciting our wonder and our admiration, stimulating 
 our eager curiosity and our laborious care. The sweet face of 
 woman, the beautiful play and the winsome ways of children, 
 the fair scenes of nature, '' the bright flowers and the glad 
 grass," the cloudy grandeur of the mountains, the solemn arch 
 of heaven, and the majestic progress of the stars, all mysteri- 
 ously stir the heart, and declare that the moral office of the 
 senses is to call us out of ourselves, and to fix our thoughts and 
 affections on some outward object of care and interest. They 
 all attest that even in the world of sense, keen desire, and pro- 
 ductive energy, and self-forgetfulness, and protecting care, and 
 engrossing affection, are the genial and exhilarating atmos- 
 phere of a pure and elevated spiritual life. To this office of 
 the senses do we owe the rise and progress of all the physical 
 sciences; to this do we owe the pale enthusiasm and the gen- 
 tle graces of the students of nature; to this the uncalculating 
 heroism which has stormed the battlements of the icy king, 
 
12 
 
 where he holds his court amid the frozen twilight of the fur- 
 thest pole. 
 
 Now, what is done for us by the senses in the world of mat- 
 ter, is done by memory in the world of thought. For memory 
 can weave a spell over the heart from which neither the lapse 
 of time can carry us, nor all the fascinations of novelty nor all 
 the wiles of beauty can allure us. Before 
 
 " Its soft and summer breath, whose tender power 
 Passes the strength of storms in their most desolate hour," 
 
 the thoughts and the passions are bowed like reeds before the 
 gale, and the spirit owns a despotic master. And as between 
 sons of the same household 
 
 "there blossoms up 
 From out a common vein of memory, 
 Sweet household talk and phrases of the hearth," 
 
 and all the gentle bonds of brotherhood ; as from out the blend- 
 ed memories of parent and child there springs up the noble 
 harvest of parental and filial love; as it is when we recall our 
 own experience of Heaven's mercy and goodness, and rise on 
 the wings of memory, along the heights of the inspired records, 
 through " the years of the right hand of the most high," up to 
 the very throne of God, that there steals over the spirit the 
 ineffable light of the love of God ; so it is by the bl;ending our 
 individual memories with the memory of our native land as 
 preserved in her history, that there is born the generous love of 
 countr}^ — an emotion which stands next to the love of God, and 
 is in perfect harmony with it. 
 
 Thus have I endeavored to present a brief and inadequate view 
 of a portion of the Philosophy of History. But the history of the 
 world is a bewildering study. \Yhat mind can grasp its vast 
 compass or explore its endless i-amitications 't The triangular 
 survey of our single coast has nearly consumed the lifetime of 
 its distinguished chief. Who shall undertake to make such a 
 survey of the boundless coasts of the globe ? The imagination 
 faints, the power of conception fails, and philosophy is exhaust- 
 ed when wo undertake the theme of universal history. Rather 
 may each one tui'u to the histor}^ of liis own country to find 
 sul)jects enough foi- useful research and intelligent investigation. 
 So hit us turn to the history of South Carolina. 
 
13 
 
 In that wonderful palace, where was held the exhihition of 
 the industry of all nations, South Carolina occupied but an 
 obscure corner of the splendid structure, and contributed little 
 else that was worthy of note but a plain and simple bale of 
 cotton. And yet as that familiar object greeted the eyes of the 
 thoughtful traveler from our shores, not onl}^ was his spirit 
 refreshed by gentle memories of the frugal life and the simple 
 habits of our plantation homes, and by inspiring thoughts of 
 the pure women and the noble men Avho have been gathered 
 around their hearths, but he was also reminded of that con- 
 servative energy of our institutions and that admirable organi- 
 zation of our labor which has given to the world that great 
 staple which has been crowned king of commerce, peace and 
 plenty, whose saffron flower might well rank with the rose of 
 England and the lilies of France, in the extent of its dominion 
 and the potency of its sway, and the daily bulletins of whose 
 royal progress are flashed on the wings of lightning, and hur- 
 ried on the eager stej^s of steam to the remotest quarters of the 
 civilized world, while anxious thousands crowd the marts of 
 commerce and .throng the world's exchanges, waiting to hear 
 the tidings they shall bring. So may we find in the brief his- 
 tory of our State the development of great principles of national 
 life and constitutional law, which may well engage our thoughts 
 and arrest our earnest attention. 
 
 One reason, I think, why the early history of the State has 
 not received a larger share of our interest and attention, is to 
 be found in the fact that the most of those institutions which, 
 as members of the Anglo-Saxon family, we chiefly value and 
 cherish, are an inheritance from our English forefathers, and 
 have been developed and elaborated upon English soil, and that 
 on a grander theatre of action, and a larger scale of experiment, 
 than could be embraced in the limits of our State histories. 
 And hence English history has to a large extent engrossed the 
 interest and the investigation of our scholars and statesmen. 
 
 But there are three great institutions, which have been the 
 peculiar result of our history as a State, which will well reward 
 a careful investigation. These are the Republic, the Institution 
 of African Slaver}^, and the Sovereignty of the States which 
 compose the American Union. 
 
 The history of the two first have been frequently and ably 
 treated. Permit me, this evening, very briefly to investigate the 
 
14 
 
 history of that Sovereignty of the States, which forms so striking 
 a feature in the structure of our government, and one so little 
 understood beyond the limits of our country, and to examine 
 some of the causes which have produced it. In using the term, 
 the Sovereignty of the State, I do not intend to suggest any 
 question of controvers}^ ; neither is it necessary, nor is this 
 the occasion to insist upon the technical accuracy of the lan- 
 guage, in its political aspects. 
 
 By the Sovereignty of the State of South Carolina, I liere only 
 mean to designate that political individuality of the State for 
 which she is indebted to the favor of no earthly power whatso- 
 ever, but which was the growth of her history and the conquest 
 of her strength. I mean that political individuality which f nee 
 existing and established, could only cease to exist b}'- her volun- 
 tary action, or be lost by her conquest, and which there is no 
 line of her history to show that she has ever voluntaril}' surren- 
 dered, or has ever been torn from her l)y the arm of the con- 
 queror. I mean that political individuality which conti'ols us in 
 our nearest and dearest rights, and which wields the awful 
 power of life and death over its citizens. I mean that political 
 individuality which impersonates the august principles of social 
 order and civil authorit}^ so that the elementary processes of 
 justice proclaim themselves the guardians of the peace and the 
 dignity of the State of South Carolina. I mean that political 
 individuality which alone exercises the wide and comprehensive 
 power of eminent domain and territoi^ial possession, so that the 
 soil of the State is sacred from the footstep of the intruder, be- 
 cause her natural landmarks and her topographical monuments 
 are inscribed with the name of the State of South Carolina. I 
 do not disguise my own perfect conviction that the political 
 individuality I have thus described is what the expounders of 
 international law, from the time of Grotius to this day, have 
 been pleased to designate by the name of the Sovereignty of the 
 State. But I do not wish now to insist upon it. It is sufficient 
 for my purpose if such a political individuality is admitted to ex- 
 ist, as has essentially aided to mould the face of society in the 
 several States, and has exerted a powerful influence upon the 
 administration of the Federal Government and the constitu- 
 tional history of the country. 
 
 What, then, were the historical causes which led the colon 
 
15 
 
 which, nearly two centuries ago, was planted upon the banks of 
 the Ashley, to the position and the power of a Sovereign State? 
 First, then, I think it may be safely asserted, as a general 
 truth of all the first emigrations to the various American Colo- 
 nies, that they came emphatically to found States. They 
 adopted naturally, as a matter of choice and necessity, the 
 main body and the general features of the laws of the countr}- 
 from which tney came. But still the States they came to found 
 were to be States with new policies and new laws, vitall}^ affect- 
 ing the interests of society and the powers of government ; or, 
 if States with no essential modifications of the laws and the 
 policy the)' left behind, at least States which, as distinct politi- 
 cal communities, were to be rather the political appendages of 
 the mother-country than its subject colonies, adding to her 
 fame, her power and her commerce, but not subject to the full 
 measure and the minute detail of her domestic law — owing her 
 aid and allegiance, but expected from their position and their 
 circumstances to exercise a large share of the privileges, and to 
 feel a large share of the responsibilities of self-government. In 
 most instances, this was either manifest on the face of the _ 
 charter of each colony, or was the immediate motive of the 
 emigrants themselves, or the direct policy of those who sent 
 them. Even where this was not so clearly the case, the in- 
 dividual character and the exclusive policy of the neighboring 
 settlements, confined the less distinctive colonies to their own 
 limits, and compelled them also to develope and pursue an indi- 
 vidual course of action. And the separate and independent 
 origin of each settlement was calculated to increase and confirm 
 this tendency to form individual communities and indej^endent 
 colonies. They came at different times under separate charters, 
 to occupy separate grants made to separate men or combina- 
 tions of men, with difterent motives, objects, policies and ambi- 
 tions. Unless, perhaps, the evangelization of the heathen must 
 be considered an object held in common, as it was certainly a 
 motive universally and sanctimoniously professed, but a motive 
 whose practical operation might well excite our merriment, if its 
 h3'pocrisy — we hope its unconscious hypoeris}^ — did not make 
 us sad. For the practical conversion of the Indians seems to 
 have been prosecuted very much after the fashion recommended 
 by the Eev. Jonas Stockham, a zealous missionary in Virginia, 
 
16 
 
 who wrote to the Council in England : " I am persuaded if Mars 
 and Minerva goe hand in hand, they will effect more in an houre 
 than those verball Mercurians in their lives ; and till their 
 priests and ancients have their throats cut, there is no hope to 
 bring them to conversion." 
 
 The territorial grants, too, Avhich defined the limits of the 
 several colonies, were made to parties who stood between the 
 colonist and the crown, and who were charged with the power 
 and responsibility of conducting the settlers to their new homes, 
 pi'oviding for their welfare, and prescribing the laws and the 
 organization of each distant community. 
 
 The letters patent issued to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, for the 
 settlement of Virginia, and repeated to Sir Walter Ealeigh, 
 "Vest in him, his heirs and assigns forever, the lands so to be 
 discovered and possessed, with the rights, royalties and juris- 
 dictions, as well marine as other, within the said lands and 
 countries, and the seas thereunto adjoining." "And further 
 grants to Sir Humphrey, his heirs and assigns forever, full 
 power and authority to correct, punish, pardon, govern and rule 
 as well in causes capital or criminal as civil, all such the subjects 
 of the Queen, or others who should inhabit the said countries, 
 with power to constitute such statutes, laws and ordinances as 
 should by him, his heirs or assigns, be devised or establislied for 
 the better government of the people." 
 
 What language could more clearly convey a coijumand, and 
 bestow authority to found and establish a State? And this first 
 charter to Sir Humphrey (Jilbert is a type of nearly all the 
 charters subsequently granted; which, if they did not employ 
 entirely tlie same language, were conceived very much in the 
 same spirit. A spirit of independent action as States was thus 
 infused into the organization of the colonies from their very 
 origin. 
 
 But, to appreciate the full force of this idea, Ave must go l)ack 
 to the time of the first discovery of America, and realize for a 
 moment the wonder and amazement, the eager curiosity and 
 the intense excitement with which the people of the old worhl 
 must have first heard the startling announcement, that a new 
 continent had been discovered — a continent rich in gold, fertile 
 in soil, and genial in climate, and so vast that innumerable 
 States, like those they knew, might be carved out of its limits — 
 that a new world was opened to enterprise and adventure. 
 
17 
 
 How must their imaginations have revelled in dreams of the 
 wealth and poAver such a land would bring to its possessors. 
 How instinctively must they have felt that this wonderful land 
 was to be the cradle of new States, the home of new nations, 
 the seat of new empires. 
 
 We must also, to some extent, recall the condition of Europe 
 after America was discovered. Ancient learning- had just been 
 revived; the art of printing had been discovered; the Eeforma- 
 tion had begun; a higher and a better philosophy had been in- 
 augurated ; thought and iuquiiy had received a fresh impulse ; 
 the minds of men had been stimulated, their consciences had 
 been aroused. The feudal system had been broken up, and its 
 wrecks still strewed the face of Europe. Government was thus 
 centralized, and its power established. The period of national 
 segregation was sloAvly progressing, and the limits of States 
 were, by degrees, being painfully ascertained with labor, with 
 commotions, and with war. Governments were still rocking on 
 their bases, and gradually settling down into their foundations. 
 The consciences of men had not only been aroused by the Eef- 
 ormation, but were often arrayed against the governments 
 which sought to control them. The powers of government and 
 the duty of its subjects were everywhere debated; and every- 
 where, the State — its rights, its powers, and its duties — was the 
 great idea which tilled the minds of men, and agitated their 
 thoughts. But, especially, must we recall the condition of Eng- 
 land at this time. We must go back to the reign of her wise 
 and heroic Queen, who gave the key-note to her court, when to 
 her counsellors, who urged her to marry, she exclaimed: "I am 
 married already, and England is my husband." We must catch 
 the spirit that burned in the bosoms of that true knight of his- 
 tory, Sir Walter Raleigh and his kinsmen, those brave and gen- 
 erous soldiers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Richard Grenville, 
 as the}^ took counsel how to found an empire for their queen 
 amidst the wealth and the wonders of the new world, which 
 might check the power and balance the splendid conquests of 
 the hated Spaniard. We must recall all that eventful period 
 between the beginning of the Great Rebellion and the Revolu- 
 tion of 1688, with all its persecutions and its suifering, its 
 social disoi'ders and its political convulsions, and its great ques- 
 tions of liberty of conscience and constitutional right, when the 
 blood of Englishmen was poured out like water, and men staked 
 2, 
 
18 
 
 their lives upon their political opinions and their religious 
 creeds. 
 
 We must recall all these great elements of European and Eng- 
 lish history, if we would realize the spirit of the age which sent 
 forth the men who founded the colonies of America, and gave 
 them the character of States. It was an age of amhitious 
 achievement and daring adventure, an age in which the minds 
 of men had been deeply agitated, and society had been violently 
 broken into parties representing every shade of political opin- 
 ion, and into sects holding every variety of ecclesiastical doc- 
 trine. AYell might the unbroken silence and the deep repose of 
 the distant shores and the boundless forests of the new world, 
 attract the thoughts of such an age. Its vastness gave assurance 
 that there was room enough for all opinions and all creeds. 
 Well then might the men of that day seek to settle, far away 
 from the turmoil, the violence, and the opposition which har- 
 rassed them at home, new States with whicli they might iden- 
 tify their names and their fame ; new States in which they 
 might try their political theories, or at least hold them in peace; 
 new States whore the fanatic might find. the power he so wildly 
 craved, and the persecuted might tind the rest he so ardently 
 longed for. 
 
 And it is from this estimate of the spirit of that age, that I 
 am led to believe that, under whatever charter they might be 
 collected, under whatever leaders they might be sent, it would 
 be the instinctive conviction of every colonist as he left the 
 shores of the old world, that he went as one of the tbunders of a 
 State; and his first impulse, as it was his first necessity, would 
 be to lend his aid to the construction of a new and distinct po- 
 litical community. And hence we may understand ami account 
 for the tenacity with which the colonies, in the very first days 
 of their existence, clung to that simplest element of a State, the 
 integrity of their territorial limits. It was the source of 
 frequent disputes, jealousies, and contentions, and sometimes 
 almost led to a conflict of arms. 
 
 Nor did South (-arolina i'orm any exception to this law of 
 their emigration, which controlled the settlement of her sister 
 colonies. 
 
 When the great soul of Coligny, ()p})ressed witli sad forebod- 
 ing and prophetic anxiety, meditated a refuge foi- his Protest- 
 ant countrymen, it was to some new State founded by them in 
 the New Worhl, that Ins thoughts turned for their asylum, and 
 
19 
 
 it was to the shores of Carolina that he sent his first colony. 
 Although Eibauld and Laudoniere have left no ti'ace behind 
 them but a name for the soil and a romantic fame for them- 
 selves, 3^et their expedition affords too correct an illustration 
 of the spirit and the objects of the earliest settlements of the 
 country, to be entirely overlooked. And, as if no earnest effort 
 was to lose its reward, as if no generous prayer, no deep yearn- 
 ing of the human heart, was to go unanswei-ed by Heaven, 
 here, at last, after long years had passed, did tlie children of 
 Coligny's beloved Huguenots find a refuge, and here have their 
 children's children won honor and wealth, and the praise of a 
 pure and unselfish life. 
 
 And when, at last, after the lapse of near a century, the 
 English colon}' came to the shores of Carolina, under William 
 Sayle, they, too, came emphatically to found a State, with pe- 
 culiar laws, with a local government and a recognized territory, 
 and they came with a written constitution in their hands. The 
 charter to the Proprietors of Carolina granted as ample powers 
 as that to Sir Humphrey Gilbert I have already quoted. And 
 they seem not to have been indisposed to exercise them to the 
 fullest extent. Although it may be true, therefore, as has been 
 so pithily and admirably stated by one, the clear philosophy of 
 whose mind ever flows in a bright, and deep, and graceful 
 stream of earnest thought, that " the settlement of South Caro- 
 lina was begun as an investment,"* I think it is equallj^ clear 
 that it was an investment in a State, and that the profits of 
 that investment were to accrue from the value which the pros- 
 perity, the population, the power, the social order, and the po- 
 litical success of the new State was to give to the wide domain 
 of its proprietors. 
 
 The characters of the men who composed the comjiany of her 
 founders, is itself a still further guarantee that sordid gain was 
 not the only motive of her settlement. It may have had its 
 influence, and that a large one, as the desire of gold and of gain 
 moi'e or less mingled with the other elements of the emigration 
 to all the colonies; but it was not the sole motive, and there 
 was also something higher and better. Every one of the pro- 
 prietors were men of talents, of great consideration, and com- 
 manding position. Two of them, especially, occupy a very 
 prominent place in histor3^ Shaftesbury and Clai-endon were 
 
 *See Oration of W. H. Trescot before Historical Society, 19th May, 1859. 
 
20 
 
 both scholars, philosophers and statesmen. The one was the 
 author of the Habeas Corpus Act, the other was the author of 
 the History of the Great Eebelliou. Both had borne the bur- 
 thens and the responsibilities of office. Both had experienced 
 the embarrassments, the imperfections and the inadequacy of 
 all existing government. The minds of both had, doubtless, 
 long dwelt on conceptions of a more perfect government, and 
 theories of a more perfect constitution. In the characters of 
 both, then, I think we have ample assurance that, in the settle- 
 ment of our State, its founders did not only engage in a com- 
 mercial adventure, but also undertook a philosophical achieve- 
 ment. They not only sent their colonists to America with the 
 fundamental constitutions in their hands, but in the obstinacy 
 with which they persisted in requiring the colony to adhere to 
 them, we have abundant evidence that these constitutions were 
 not merely dictated by a capricious whim, or a passing fanc}', 
 but were part of a well-considered and deeply-cherished project, 
 and one which was not to be lightly abandoned. They finally 
 so disgusted the people of Carolina with their unreasonable de- 
 mands, in this and in other particulars, that the colony rose in 
 rebellion, and got rid of " fundamental constitutions," " new 
 regulations," and proprietors themselves, all at a stroke. So 
 our State, which in later days has been reproached as the land 
 of 2>olitical abstractions, was thus, in her earliest settlement, 
 the scene of a political experiment. The experiment/ fiiiled, and 
 these famous constitutions were never observed, but they no 
 less clearly demonstrate the proposition I have endeavored to 
 maintain, that in common with the founders of all the other 
 colonies, the proprietors of South Carolina undertook to estab- 
 lish a State. And this was the first cause of what we are con- 
 sidering, the present sovereignty of the State. 
 
 Another cause which contributed to the political individual- 
 ity of the several colonies in their early history, is to be found 
 in their " local circumstances;" a phrase which became well 
 known afterwards in the disputes with England. It is not my 
 purpose to investigate the "local circumstances" which led to 
 our separation from the mother country. It is with the inde- 
 pendence of the States of each other, and not with their in- 
 dependence of England, that we are now concerned. But as 
 the local circumstances which separated us from the Bi'itish 
 empire might nearly all be embraced in the words " the broad 
 
21 
 
 Atlantic," so might the local circumstances of their early his- 
 tory, which separated one State from another State, be com- 
 prised in the words " the trackless forest." 
 
 Each separate colony when it reached the wild and desolate 
 coast, had to cut a space and foothold for itself out of the dense 
 primeval forest — a forest which had already swallowed up more 
 than one band of hardy emigrants, with the power and the 
 silence of the sea, and leaving no more trace behind. On the 
 side of the land this trackless forest, filled with scattered bands 
 of cruel, fierce and treacherous savages, encompassed the colony 
 on every side, and for a long time shut it up in a complete and 
 absolute isolation. While on the side of the sea, ships were few, 
 the coast was unknown, and navigation was dillficult. Each 
 colony, therefore, was compelled by necessity to pursue its own 
 individual and peculiar policy, to follow the dictates of its omhi 
 judgment in the administration of its public afftiirs, to look to 
 its own courage, strength, prudence and vigilance to avert the 
 dangers which menaced it, and to its own industry, frugality and 
 enterprise, to provide the supplies which were necessary. So 
 important do I consider the difficulty of communication between 
 the colonies, as an effective cause in shaping the political in- 
 dividuality of the States, that I am inclined to believe that if 
 this age of scientific invention had commenced two centuries 
 ago, and the power of steam, crushing the strength of the forest 
 under its iron heel, and dashing the grasp of the waves from 
 its crest, had accompanied the first settlers to their new homes, 
 we should never have witnessed that system of independent 
 States which we now possess. And if our country, as the home 
 of one section of the great Anglo Saxon race, is to play that 
 great part on the theatre of history and in the progress of the 
 world, which we sometimes, perhaps, too boastfully claim for 
 her, then possibly it may not be irrevei-ent or presnm])tuous to 
 believe (I say it with hesitation) that in the wise providence of 
 Heaven, these wonderful powers of modern science were with- 
 held until the scheme of our confederated government was com- 
 pleted, and then given to the world to aid our progress and 
 crown our career. 
 
 But a third, and perhaps the most i^owerful and efficient 
 cause of the political individuality of the States, will be found 
 in the distinct and independent history through which each 
 colony was conducted. It bound the people of each colony 
 
more closely among themselves, it separated them more entirely 
 from their neighbors. Taking, for example, the history of our 
 own State: it begun with the first hour in which they spread 
 their sails for their long and dangerous voyage. And Avhen. 
 they had found their haven and reached the shore, they were 
 met b}' the uplifted tomahawk of the savage, and the deadl}' 
 diseases of an untried climate, more fatal than the Indian's 
 hatchet. They found themselves in a wilderness, far from 
 home, surrounded by savage enemies, in a strange climate, on 
 an unknown soil, with the giant forest before them, and little 
 else to help them but the axes on their shoulders and the weap- 
 ons in their hands. How quickly and sharply must the bonds 
 of brotherhood have been welded? How much were they to 
 each other, how little was all the rest of the world to them ? 
 And this was but a type of that wdiich was to follow\ For as 
 the settlement was begun in loneliness, in difficulty, privation, 
 anxiety and danger, so was it continued amidst weary labors, 
 deadly sickness, sharp suffering, harrassing conflicts and inces- 
 sant wars, encountered with the energy of a desperate courage, 
 and borne with the patience of a necessary fortitude. These are 
 the necessities which develope the powers of government, and 
 these the circumstances which 2)lant that government in the 
 soil, and give to it a local life and character. And the government 
 which these necessities brought into life and action, was called 
 upon to exercise all the highest powers of sovei'cignty. They 
 punished crime and aduainistered justice, they im])0sed taxes 
 and regulated trade, they made war and concluded peace with 
 the Indians, they raised armies and fought battles Avith the 
 Spaniards, tliey armed ships and captured prizes from the pi- 
 rates, they made laws and created offices. All this, it is true, 
 was done on a very narrow scale of action, but it was done with 
 dignity and earnestness, with energy and persistence, and 
 chiefly on their own responsibility and from their own resources. 
 Thus the history of the colony went on, growing wider in 
 its extent and stronger in its power to unite and harmonize its 
 people, up to the time when the proprietary government was 
 abolislied, and it entered upon a new career of activity, enter- 
 prise and prosperity under the immediate auspices of the Crown 
 and Parliament. But the Crown and Parliament found a pe()])le 
 dee])ly imbued l)y their history with the spii'it of self-govern- 
 ment and self-reliance — a people led by veterans in the perfor- 
 
23 
 
 mance of public service, and in the administration of public 
 law, who had borne the brunt of many a conflict and carried 
 the scars of an honorable warfare — a people who would do them 
 homage and pay them allegiance and give them affection, but 
 would give them little of submission besides. Their firm tem- 
 per and determined w411 — the life of a commonwealth within 
 them — soon developed itself in another revolution, wider and 
 deeper than the last, in which the rule of Great Britain was 
 shaken off forever, the independence of the thirteen colonies 
 was declared, and they stood before the world, both technically 
 and practically, each a sovereign and independent State. As 
 sovereign States they entered into mutual alliance. As sove- 
 reign States they waged the unequal conflict of the Eevolu- 
 tion. As such they triumphed and came out of the conflict, 
 with, indeed, a warmer affection and a broader sympathy for 
 each other, with a higher sense of their obligations, and a 
 better knowledge of their historical relations to each other, but 
 with a consciousness of individual life, and a self-centered 
 strength, decider and stronger than before. 
 
 To state, then, in a few words, the result of this enquiiy into 
 the history of the sovereignty of the States, we may say that 
 to these three great elements of our history — 1. The original 
 purpose of the founders of the colonies. 2. Their own local cir- 
 cumstances. 3. Their separate, distinct and independent histo- 
 ries — are we to trace this remarkable feature of our political 
 structure. Minor causes will, upon examination, doubtless be 
 found to have contributed to the same result ; but these are the 
 chief and the most important. As the result of these united 
 causes, as I have endeavored to portra}^ them, and as the spe- 
 cial fruit of colonial times, do we have that rich product of our 
 political history and that peculiar form of our national strength, 
 the sovereignty of each confederate State, Avhich is, I believe, 
 the best, the most conservative, and the strongest institution we 
 possess. 
 
 When the American Eevolution was ended, and peace had 
 begun, then came those august Conventions, those solemn delib- 
 erations and anxious debates, which issued in the adoption of 
 the first Articles of Confederation and afterwards in our present 
 Federal Constitution. And the establishment of the American 
 Confederacy is the great epoch of our history.- It threw a flood 
 of light on the 2)ast ; it sent its beams far into the future. As 
 
24 
 
 the great Cathedral of modern Rome consumed, in building, 
 many long years of weary toil and painful effort, and on some 
 Carnival night a light is seen to glimmer at some dim point of 
 the shadowy structure, and then another light flashes out, and 
 another, and another, and now the swift flashes spring from 
 point to point, from angle to angle, from arch to arch, fi-om 
 wall to roof, from roof to dome, from height to height up to 
 the topmost ridge, and at last the wondrous pile stands grandly 
 out, a living glory of sculptured light, so are there passages in 
 history which seem to illuminate whole centuries of the past, 
 and to bathe them in the gloAv of a mighty purjjose ; so, do I 
 think, does the establishment of the American Confederacy on 
 the basis of the sovereignty of the States seem to illuminate all 
 the weary years of our early settlements and our colonial his- 
 tory, as years of which the grand conception of a powerful yet 
 conservative confederation of sovereign and independent States 
 is the sublime result. 
 
 And this law of our Colonial development has not only con- 
 trolled the history of the original thirteen States, but like the 
 law of crystalization in chemical substances, has been the law 
 of our territorial accretion and our national expansion. After 
 the Eevolution, Maine, and Vermont, and Tennessee, and Ken- 
 tucky, are soon admitted into the Union, with all the rights 
 and privileges of the original States. When Virginia cedes her 
 vast domain to the Federal Grovernment, she annexes to her 
 grant an express condition that it shall be formed into Eepubli- 
 can States. When Texas is acquired by treaty, it is divided 
 into vStates. When California is annexed b3' conquest, the flag 
 of a State soon waves over its golden sti'eams and its mines of 
 treasure. And now, from the broad Atlantic to the bright Pa- 
 cific, the crystal cleavage is fast shooting its lines of growth 
 and power, across the dark spaces that intervene, is fast tracing- 
 out the limits of new States, and carrying Avith it the brillumt 
 light of wholesome knowledge, individual intelligence, social 
 strength, conservative institutions and a generous civilization, 
 is fast shaping for the brow of the New World on its most fer- 
 tile plains and amid its grandest scenes, a noble crown of wise, 
 prosperous, and powerful States. 
 
 I have said that perhaps we might find in the brief history 
 of South Carolina, the development of great principles of na- 
 tional life and constitutional law, which may well engage our 
 
25 
 
 thoughts, and arrest our attention. And in the history of the 
 sovereignty of the State, we find an illustration. 
 
 There is no more curious and instructive feature of the geo- 
 graphy of the Avorld, than its division into countries, kingdoms, 
 states and empires, which are the homes of political communi- 
 ties, differing from each other as distinctly as one man differs 
 from another, governing themselves according to their peculiar 
 laws, and by their own social strength, and permitting no stran- 
 ger to intrude into the administration of their affairs, or to 
 violate the sanctity of their soil. 
 
 Now the law of social life which has developed the sovereignty 
 of the States, is the same as that which has caused this segre- 
 gation of nations and their self-government. 
 
 Leaving out of view the strong arm of conquest, they both 
 proceed upon the great law of human sympathy. The sympa- 
 thies of men do not reach beyond the pale of their common 
 knowledge, their common welfare, and their common histories. 
 Mankind have instinctively felt that it was not safe to take into 
 their counsels those who could not sj^mpathize with them, nor 
 to entrust the powers of government to those who could not 
 feel with them. And this instinct is based upon the broadest 
 principles of a true philosophy. For the great qualification for 
 counsel and for government is wisdom. And wisdom is the 
 result of a comparison of knowledge. And there are large and 
 precious stores of knowledge, which can only come by actual 
 contact, and through the instincts and affections. As only he, 
 therefore, who has actually stood upon the soil of a country, 
 has traversed its plains, has followed the course of its rivers, and 
 climbed its mountains, who has felt the breath of its climate, 
 has walked under its suns and slept under its nights, can ever 
 understand the true geography of a country, the character of 
 its surface, the aspect of its scenery, and the qualities of its cli- 
 mate ; so onl}' he who has been rocked in the cradle of a coun- 
 try's institutions, who has had his hopes revived, his fears al- 
 layed, and his confidence established by their presence and their 
 strength, can ever know their value ; so only he who has stood 
 in the actual presence of a people, has come into actual contact 
 with their social condition, and has stood under the influence 
 of their social agitations and their political movements, can 
 ever understand the aspect of their affairs, the bearing of their 
 progress, or the necessities of their history. As only the moth- 
 
26 
 
 ei* can ever know the eager joy and unfatliomable j-earnings of 
 a mother's love, so only the chikh^en of the soil can ever feel 
 the mysterious magic of home and fatherland. As only ho 
 whose life has been strengthened and ennobled by the love of a 
 mother, upon whose shoulder he has leaned his weary head for 
 comfort and for counsel, and then gone to his work and to his 
 duty, with his energies refreshed and his motives higher and 
 purer, can ever understand the sheltering affection, the jealous 
 carefulness and the holy wisdom of the heart of such a son. So 
 only he who has strained his countr}^ to his bosom in a close 
 and strong embrace, who has felt the throbs of her great 
 heart, has held it so close that he could feel its slightest flutter 
 and hear its softest murmiir, has felt it beat fully and fi-eely 
 against his own, has felt it beat wildly and tumultuously with its 
 unbridled impulses and its stormy passions, has felt it beat 
 slowly, solemnly and grandly, with its wants, its hopes, aiul 
 its affections, can ever know how to protect and serve and 
 honor her. When strangers undertake the task their very 
 kindness is cruelty, and their most elaborate wisdom tlie su- 
 premest folly. 
 
 It is this which makes the liberty of self-government, within 
 the limits of our sectional interests, our social sympathies, and 
 our political fellowship, the most precious of all liberties — that 
 elementary liberty to which all nations have instinctively clung, 
 and in whose sacred name so many crimes have been commit- 
 ted, so many follies have been perpetrated. This 'it is which 
 makes the idea of " the solidarity of human rights," so vaunt- 
 ingly proclaimed by the Hungarian orator, who not long since 
 preached through our land a political crusade against the estab- 
 lished governments of Europe, the craziest notion that ever 
 troubled the brain of a dreaming enthusiast, or was coined into 
 the phrases of a specious rhetorician. It is this which lifts the 
 doctrine of non-intervention among nations, from the position 
 of a mere maxim of political prudence, to the place of a great 
 principle of historical law and international justice. And it is 
 this which makes the sovereignt}^ of the State so valual)le an 
 inheritance to us. 
 
 Thus, then, have 1 endeavored to trace the origin of the sov- 
 ereignty of the State, and to suggest its importance. And as 
 we arc having a long talk together about the dear old Common- 
 wealth, let us dwell for a moment upon two characteristics, 
 
27 
 
 which I think may be jnstty claimed for her. One of these I 
 would discuss for her defence ; the other, I would mention for 
 our own profit as an admitted fact of history. When in the 
 political controversies wdiich have arisen in the country, the 
 arguments of the State, as represented by the advocates of her 
 principles and the defenders of her interests could not be an- 
 swered, she has been met by the easy sneer that she deals in 
 abstractions. And yet if there is any quality more prominent 
 than the rest in her histor}^, it is her strong common sense. I 
 do not mean to insist that this quality has been displayed in all 
 the details of her minor legislation, for this would lead to end- 
 less dispute ; but I mean that in all the great questions of con- 
 stitutional law, political organization and social policy, which 
 have arisen out of her domestic government and her federal 
 relations, this quality of a strong common sense has been most 
 strikingly manifested. For what is common sense ? It is called 
 common sense, not because it is a common possession of com- 
 mon men ; not because it appeals to the vulgar motives and the 
 meaner rules of conduct, which, with a biting sarcasm, such a 
 definition would imply are the common motives of mankind. 
 But it is so called, because as it refers to statesmanship, it is the 
 application of the modes of reasoning, and the rules of conduct 
 which we apply to the affairs of common life — to the solution 
 of the great problems of political action and social law. It is 
 that faculty of the mind which with the swiftness and power of 
 an electric current reduces a question to the original elements 
 which enter into its construction, examines with searching tests 
 their nature and their affinities, and promptly returns the an- 
 swer which solves the difficulty. It is the endowment of a 
 mind of such width and strength, as to be able to carry in its 
 thoughts the complicated and comprehensive principles of pub- 
 lic law and national action, as easily and as steadily as we carry 
 in our minds the rules and the maxims of common life. It is 
 the habit of a mind which is so constantly and clearly familiar 
 with the great laws and principles of moral and political 
 science, that it instinctively flashes through the intricacies of a 
 question of pi-actical legislation or public conduct, and with 
 scarcely the consciousness of a process of reasoning, forms its 
 judgment and decides its course. It resembles the poetic fac- 
 ulty in the swiftness and power of its analysis and the clear- 
 ness of its perceptions, but it differs from it in this : that while 
 
28 
 
 the poet constructs the conceptions of his genius by the stand- 
 ards of his ideal world, the statesman of common sense builds 
 with the rude and imperfect materials of practical life. The 
 poet builds as he wills, the man of common sense builds as he 
 can. They both employ the same powers, but they are occu- 
 pied with different subjects. They both analyze to the same 
 principles, but they use them for different purposes. As in 
 common life not one, but many considerations and many mo- 
 tives combine to determine our daily conduct, so the statesman 
 of common sense views every question in its concrete com- 
 binations and its varied relations, and determines his action with 
 a wise and liberal regard to every element which should occupy 
 his attention and receive his care. The short-sighted in com- 
 mon life, and the sciolist in politics, are constantly governed by 
 motives of temporary expediency and a casual convenience 
 and profit. The man of strong common sense, both in jirivate 
 and in public life, perceives the more remote as well as tiie im- 
 mediate consequences, and will not sacrifice the benefit and the 
 blessing of a great principle for a momentary gain. 
 
 The term "mere abstractionist," as commonly understood, is 
 another name for ignorance and prejudice. The statesman of 
 common sense, is a man of comprehensive thought and liberal 
 knowledge. His mind is full of abstractions, but he combines 
 them and applies them to the purposes of a practical wisdom 
 and a large benevolence. In short, common sense in public life 
 is that political sagacity which has given to us the great names 
 of history, and achieved for us the great triumphs of national 
 power and constitutional liberty. It came down to us fi-om our 
 English ancestoi'S, and there is no feature of English pliilosophy, 
 literature and jiolitics, wliich stands out more boldl}^ than that 
 strong common sense which permits and requires active, vigor- 
 ous, profound, and, above all, earnest, thought and sjieculation, 
 but which confines these within the limits of our knowledge 
 and our comprehension, and applies them to the purposes of a 
 practical wisdom. It is this admirable quality thus understood, 
 which, notwithstanding the sneers of her opponents, I claim for 
 the political action of South Carolina from the time when her peo- 
 ple obstinately set aside the phih)soj)hical intricacies of Locke's 
 Fundamental (constitutions, and wouUl have nothing to do with 
 them, to the time wlien she established the Avise and conserva- 
 tive compromises of her State Constitution, which have been 
 
29 
 
 so eminently sueceasful ; to the time when she engrafted uj^on 
 her society the wholesome strength of the Common Law, and 
 secured the independence of her judiciary, to the time when she 
 maintained the practical wisdom and the common justice of free 
 trade, and insisted upon the historical fact of the sovereignty of 
 the States. 
 
 The other characteristic of the State, to which I have alluded 
 as an admitted fact of history, which it would be profitable for 
 us, especially at this time, to remember, is the testimony of her 
 whole history, that no statesman has won fame, and honor, and 
 power, in South Carolina, who has not only been distinguished 
 for the commanding powers of his intellect, and the unblemished 
 integrity of his public life, but also by a calm and selt-respectful 
 dignity, and a simple and unsophisticated earnestness, neither 
 contaminated by a restless vanity, nor disfigured by an intem- 
 perate violence ; and all this relieved and adorned by a frank 
 courtesy and a generous forbearance, which can encounter the 
 honest blows of a brave adversary without loss of temjjer, as 
 Avell as without loss of strength, and which recognizes in his 
 opponents, not the enemies of himself, but the advocates of their 
 principles and the champions of their cause, and refuses to cross 
 swords with them on any other terms, or to permit the conti'o- 
 versy to be brought down to any lower level. Men of other 
 natures may, at times, have acquired a temporary notoriety and 
 a local reputation, but they have never won the heart of the 
 State, nor gained her loyal confidence. Look at the long list of 
 her worthies — I need not repeat their familiar names — they will 
 all bear the test. 
 
 But in order that we may receive a fuller and a clearer im- 
 pression of these rare qualities which I have claimed for the 
 public men of South Carolina, let me select two names, not be- 
 cause they are pre-eminent, but because I have felt es2)ecially 
 drawn towards them, and because their memory will be gi'ate- 
 ful to you. They both belong to a generation that is fiist fold- 
 ing its arms to rest in the grave. One of them has long slept 
 the sleep of the just; the otlier has just gone to his honored 
 rest. Let us recall the names of Eobert Y. Hayne and William 
 C. Preston. 
 
 1 need not say to you, that Mr. Hayne was a bright example 
 of all the best qualities of our public men ; that his life was 
 pure, and his intellect clear, vigorous and commanding; that as 
 
30 
 
 he was energetic, firm, and enthusiastic, so was he frank, gen- 
 erous, patient and courteous. His public life comprises a period 
 of the most intense political excitement in the State, yet through 
 all its storms, these great qualities shone brightly out. His 
 mind and his character were both eminently practical; and as 
 the most prominent feature of his character was an "ardent, 
 zealous and uncalculating" devotion to duty, so Avas he able to 
 present the reasons and the considerations which had satisfied 
 his own mind with a clearness and a force of argument which 
 carried conviction to others, and with a beauty of language, an 
 eloquence of expression and a gallant enthusiasm, which warmed 
 and delighted his lieai*ers. He was one of the handsomest men 
 of his day, and no one who has seen him will easily forget the 
 bright and beautiful smile which beamed from his eye and 
 played in the lines of his lips, nor the outlines of that noble 
 brow marked with the lines of jjatriotic anxiety, but with no 
 trace of unworthy passion or selfish care on its lofty front. 
 Long will I remember the last time I saw him in life, sitting 
 among our professors on the platform of the old college chapel 
 His presence that daj' among the youthful students of the State, 
 seemed to me like the cool evenings of spring, and the memory 
 of his life like the fruitful showers of summer, which bring the 
 glad harvests of autumn. His memorj^ should, I think, be pecu- 
 liarly dear to the people of South (^^arolina; for he was her 
 faithful representative and her loyal champion in the hour of 
 her sorest trial and her greatest need. It should be proudly 
 cherished by the city of Charleston, not only because he was 
 her own son, but because in his declining years he put ott' the 
 robe of the senator, and the honors of the executive, to become 
 her first mayor, and lent a dignity and a grace to the ofiice, 
 whicli it has never since lost. His menior}' shouhl be es])ecially 
 grateful to the women of vSouth (Jarolina, not only for the pure 
 and gentle graces oi' liis (h)mestic life, but because all who re- 
 member to have heard liim speak, must remembei" witii w hat 
 graceful eloquence and knightly tenderness it was his wont to 
 appeal to " the fair daughters of Carolina." It was a favorite 
 passage in all his ])ublic addresses, and it seeme(l as if \\v (h'sired 
 to invoke the purity' and the gentleness of woman to pnsidr 
 over the ruder conflicts of political life, and to attest that the 
 bearing of ever}' combatant was the l)earing of a true knight, 
 that every blow was fairly- delivered, and ever}- lance was gal- 
 
31 
 
 lantly broken. I have paused to pay this tribute to the mem- 
 ory of Robert Y. Ilayue, because his name was blended with 
 ni}' earliest dreams of the hero and the orator; the thought and 
 the experience of maturer years has not dimmed the pure and 
 soft light which siirrounds his memory. 
 
 And looking up from the grave of Hayne, our eyes but yes- 
 terday might have rested ujion the noble form of William C. 
 Preston, bowed, indeed, with the infirmities of age and the in- 
 evitable sorrows of life, but still recalling the daj's of his power, 
 when the listening Senate hung upon his words, and the multi- 
 tude was swayed hy his eloquence. To-day he lies in the majesty 
 of death. He, too, during a life which has just come to its close, 
 was a noble representative of the highest qualities of Carolina 
 statesmanship. I think we are apt to underrate his powers of 
 argument in our admiration of his vivid imagination and his 
 brilliant rhetoric. His reasoning was not conceived according 
 to the forms and the methods of an elaborate analysis and a 
 strict logical deduction, but he drew such vivid pictures of 
 things, men and events, in their natural order and according to 
 their true relations, that his hearers for themselves caught the 
 idea upon which he wished to insist, and arrived for themselves 
 at the conclusion to which he wished to bring them. But it is 
 as her great orator that the State is justly proud of him. And 
 to estimate his power as an orator, we must not confine our- 
 selves to his powers of argument; but we must recall, also, the 
 nervous magnetism of his nature, and all the elements of his 
 unrivalled action ; we must recall the quivering muscles, the 
 tremulous lips, the cloud and the sunshine of his brow as his face 
 was swept by the " shadowy gust " of passion ; we must recall 
 that noble form, now lifted to its majestic height and swayed 
 l)y emotion, like some gi-and oak with its branches rocking in 
 the gale, now bending with the pliancy of the willow, to the 
 attitudes of eager po'suasion and jjathetic appeal, until it seem- 
 ed as if '' his very body thought;" we must recall that glorious 
 voice, now clear and strong as an organ's swell, now full and 
 soft as woman's gentlest speech, while every word was wrapped 
 and penetrated by a tone like the rich clash of stricken silver, — 
 the tremulous agitation of a deep and fall emotion. We must 
 recall all these physical gifts, as well as his intellectual endow- 
 ments, if we would renlize the power of his oi-atory in the day 
 of its strength and in the hour of its inspiration, when it was 
 
32 
 
 borne forward on some wave of thought, which, reaching deeper 
 and rising higher than its fellows, gathered energ}- and power 
 as it rose, flashed with a snowy crest of gorgeous language, and 
 broke in a glorious burst of eloquence, which swept all lighter 
 objects from its path, and thundered against the bulwarks of the 
 stoutest opposition, and hotly wrestled for the mastery, and 
 tried all the strength of its material. But though his concep- 
 tions were bold, his thoughts earnest and vigorous, and his lan- 
 guage passionate and almost impetuous, he never, for a moment, 
 lost the beauty and the grace of a courteous, frank and gene- 
 rous nature. And now, in the solemn chamber of death, what 
 generous heart will remember aught but his gi-eat gifts and his 
 noble seiwices, what voice will not be lifted to crown him with 
 the State's honor and affection, and to ask for peace and bless- 
 ing upon his name and memory ! 
 
 Such, then, have been some of the characteristics of the sov- 
 ereignty of the State, and such the men by whom they have 
 been illustrated. And now, if this sovereignty of the State has 
 been of any value to us in the past, if it has been that institn 
 tion which has made the successful government of this confed- 
 eracy possible at all, and if we look to it in the future as a 
 safeguard of our rights, and as the strongest bulwark of our 
 interests and our institutions, we must iiiake ourselves masters 
 of our State history, we must fill our minds with the knowl- 
 edge of its details, we must become deeply imbued with its 
 spirit of independent responsibility and self-reliant strength. 
 
 The most interesting passage of prophecy, is that which re- 
 veals the destiny of the scattered tribes of Israel, and the most 
 wonderful fact in the history of races is the wide dis2)crsion and 
 yet the complete unity of the Jewish people. And when 
 Heaven wouhl employ a human agency to work this miracle of 
 modern times, and would set apart a people to be the ark of its 
 prophecies and the ])riests of its crowning promise, who shoidd 
 be scattered among all nations, yet mingling with none, he con- 
 ducted them through a long and eventful national life, and gave 
 them a magnificent hod}' of history, which was to be the bond of 
 their union and tlie badge of their race. And at this day the 
 sublime history which recounts the meek wisdom of Moses, the 
 uncalculating courage, the devoted faith and generous loj-alty 
 of Joshua, the glory of her Judges, the story of her Ark, and the 
 splendor of hei" ancient Temple, the awful utterances of her 
 
83 
 
 Prophets, and the sok-inn rliaiits ol' her Royal Poet, is still the 
 spell over seuttored Israel, which has made them citizens of 
 the world, yet one nation, which has kept the purity of their 
 race unblemished by contact with other nations, and their blood 
 uncorrupted by admixture with any people, waiting for the ap- 
 pointed time, and for the work they were chosen to do. While 
 the Christian Church, too, feels this bond of union, and she, too, 
 draws a full tide of inspiration from the grand memories of her 
 elder sister, and with a higher and a purer faith, she too, waits 
 for the time when the elder branch, which was cut off that 
 she might be grafted in,, shall swell with the sap of new life, 
 shall lift its branches to heaven and spread them wide over the 
 world, and shower down upon the earth the lavish fruits and 
 blessings of restored Israel. And so must our State history be 
 the strength of our State life, and the bond of its citizenship. 
 It is an inheritance which has come doAvn to us, either to 
 squander and ncgject, or to cherish and preserve. If it is of 
 any worth to us, we must accept it heartily and understand it 
 thoroughl3^ 
 
 But there is a result of historical study which reaches deeper 
 and touches us more nearly as individuals. I suppose there is 
 no thoughtful man who has not at times been oppressed by a sense 
 of the feebleness and insignificance of his individual life. The 
 warring elements of nature overwhelm him, the upheavings of 
 evil dismay him, and the commotions of society and the convul- 
 sions of governments confound and bewilder him; while from 
 all the voices of nature and fi'om all the stories of life comes the 
 sad refrain, " We are passing away." The work before us is 
 boundless, our life is brief, and our strength is as nothing. But 
 when we go back to the sources of our history and the origin of 
 our country's life ; when we watch the march of events as they 
 first begin their feeble progress, and then look as they recruit 
 their ranks, and stretch their lines and crowd the spaces, and 
 listen as the steps of their progress arc heard quicker and firmer, 
 and the music of their movement first faintly reaches the ear, 
 and then louder and clearer swells upon the breeze, and the 
 whole army of events is upon us, with their banners floating on 
 the Avind and their arms gleaming in the sun, and we stand in 
 the present amidst the results of the past — results of civiliza- 
 tion, results of philosophy, results of science, results of war, re- 
 sults of peace, results of civil commotions and constitutional 
 3 
 
34 
 
 triumphs — it is theu tliiit we feel ourselves but eompiiuious of 
 the might}' hosts of the servants of Heaven, and the sense of 
 our insiguitlcanee is gone, and we turn to the duties of the day 
 and tlie Avork of the hour with enei-gy and with cheerfulness, 
 with a brighter hope and a higher and purer faith. And as, 
 amidst all the violence of the elements, amidst desolating storms 
 and burning heats, and blasting cold, man, by the prerogative 
 of his reason and the power of his intellect, stands next to the 
 Creator and master of nature by his knowledge of nature ; so 
 does the reverent student of history, by his submissive percep- 
 tion of the laws of life, and by his intelligent sympathy with 
 the great Arbiter of destiny, stand master of fate by his knowl- 
 edge of Providence. 
 
 In view, then, of ail these considerations affecting ns as citi- 
 zens and touching us as individuals, who will not join us in 
 studj'iug and preserving the history of our State ? Who will 
 not sit down with us at the feet of our venerable mother, and 
 listen, as from her records she tells of her trials and her 
 triumphs, and recalls the noble deeds that were done and the 
 wise words that Avere spoken in the olden time — as with linger- 
 ing memories she recounts the names, and with fond affection 
 shows to us the life-like portraits of those favored sons who 
 have been to her the croAvn of her honor and the right arm of 
 her strength, and who, without passing the limits of truth or of 
 modesty, we may say have made her histoiy illustrious, inas- 
 much as America has occupied no mean place among the nations 
 of the earth, and the State of South Carolina, through the 
 genius of her statesmen and the activity of her sovereignty 
 has exercised no mean influence over the liistory of America. 
 
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