COMMON SENSE.
NO. I.
The Frozen Drop of "Water;
Tlie Wisp of Cotton;
The G-old Dollar.
THE EIGHTS AND WRONGS OF THE SOUTH.
NO. 2.
The Political Cyclone;
The "Irrepressible" Nigger;
King Stork and the Frogs.
THE DURABILITY OF THE CONFEDERACY OF STATES.
NO. 3.
The Tight Honse;
The Waves;
The Docks.
THE FATE OF CORMORANTS AND GULLS.
BY F A -RIITS.
REPUBLICAN BANNED OFFICE,
NASHVILLE:
NOVEMBER,
1860.
EMORY UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
Purchased from the
funds of
The Lewis H. Beck Foundation
COMMON SENSE.
IP -A. 3rL T I.
The Frozcu Drop of Water.
The Wisp of Cotton.
The Gold Dollar.
the; rights and wrongs of
the soejth.
The good Ship of State, after so many noble
exploits—after so long and glorious a voyage
—at last lies amongst the breakers. The tem¬
pest is thickening overhead, and the alarmed
crew, thoroughly cognizant of the danger at
length, are now clamoring for orders, or ask¬
ing, "What shall be done?" The gouty old
Captain lies asleep or dozing in his cabin; the
fair-weather Lieutenant, whom so many trust¬
ed, is paralyzed and can do nothing; and under
these untoward circumstances, mayhap a
mere Boatswain's whistle, from the forecastle,
may do something to restore order, and so
save the good ship, freighted "with all our
hopes—with all our fears."
To drop allegory. You men of the South
—not the demagogues—not the political trick¬
sters—do you know the secret of that mighty
power, North, which now threatens your de
struction? It may be illustrated by a drop of
frozen water! Listen.
The gold mine of Massachusetts—that which
has been, amongst other resources, the origin
of its weighty influence upon the Great Con¬
federacy of States—is "Wenham Pond." A
drop from this, frozen, is shipped, at the proper
time, from Boston to Charleston, to Mobile, or
New Orleans. On its arrival, it is "swapped
off" for a small wisp of cotton. The recipient
thereof hurries aboard of his ship as if he had
"swapped" for Aladdin's Lamp. He goes back
to Boston, and this same ship owner has, may¬
hap, a share in a cotton factory at Lowell. He
has the wisp manufactured into a bit of calico
or domestics. He puts the fabric aboard of
the same ship, this time for a voyage around
Cape Horn; and on the coast of Chili, may be,
he swaps again to some miner, and this time
he gets in return a little piece of silver. Then
he sails for Canton or Calcutta. Here he
swaps again. He gets a big piece of silk. He
now speeds homeward. He lands his silk at
New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia, and
along comes the Charleston, or Mobile, or New
Orleans man, the very one, perhaps, who in
the first instance swapped him the wisp of cotton
for the drop of frozen water—the ice—and this
time gives him a gold dollar for it. And now,
you will conjecture, the transmutation is com¬
plete. T/ifi drop of water has become a golden
dollar.
But listen further. He is the modern Bosi-
crucian—this Boston man. He will not stop
at that. He will put the gold dollar away
in some snug corner, and upon that
basis he will constitute himself an Insurer
against fire, or the sinking of ships laden
with other wisps of cotton, bound from
Charleston or other Southern cities for Europe.
The dollar aforesaid is now lying in his
pocket, awaiting company, and it soon gets if.
The Southerner is naturally afraid of losing his
other precious wisps of cotton, and whilst the
gold dollar is pledged for their safety, nothing
happening to jeopardise them, other dollars in
4r oo^ris^roisr seistse:.
the shape of "insurance fees" wend their way
to the before solitary one, and cluster around
it. And this process goes on. Like ava¬
lanches of snow that gather as they roll adown
his own frozen hills, treasure accumulates treas¬
ure. He builds palaces and furnishes them.
He makes Nahant a small Paradise; and after a
while, the very man who ate or drank the drop
of frozen water, and gave his gold dollar in this
roundabout way, therefor, goes some fine sum¬
mer day to look at and enjoy this new Elysium
of Nahant, and there he pays tribute once
more, by leaving some more of his gold dol¬
lars. But now—alack—he sees how this thing
was done—sees how the palaces were' built—
that he was an involuntary contributor from the
first to their erection, and he grows first en¬
vious, then angry. It is natural. He has been
dreaming on a summer's day, half asleep under
the shade of a Palmetto, and he has suffered
liis pocket to be picked. The grievance lies
within the compass of a nut-shell! Don't you
see it ?
But—-the Palmetto man—the ice-eater—now
wakes up, thoroughly. He will drop all dealings
hereafter with so shrewd a customer, and all
his relatives and friends shall do so too. And
if they won't, he will quit them, will have no
more dealings with them, even if no one else
follows. He will get sword and gun to keep
any of his kith or kin from keeping up any
semblance of trade or partnership with those
who so overreach him, so he wrathfully con¬
siders it, forgetting that this is a world of com¬
pensations. Listen to a friend's advice, 0!
Palmetto man ! You have been dealt sharply
with—it is too true. But let me show you a
"trick or two," worth all the swords and guns
you will ever muster (under present circum¬
stances) wherewith to fully compensate your¬
self. This trade of transmuting bits of ice, and
then wisps of cotton, into gold dollars, has
become enormous. And so it happens, at last,
that this shrewd Massachusetts chemist, this
gold maker, is at length at your mercy—if you
knew it. He has come at last to manufacturing
"forty millions" of dollars worth of yours and
your neighbor's cotton in a year, into various
fabrics ; and to pay for this immense amount
of raw material what is he compelled to do ?
This ice—much as he makes out of it—is com¬
paratively nothing. So he gathers up hay, and
butter, and cheese, and fish, and lumber; he
makes ploughs, and hoes, and carriages, and
shoes, and hats ; he goes forth to "swap." But,
with all his shrewdness, he does not like to
have too many gold dollars lying idle in his
vaults; so, less than eight millions of specie
represents his banking capital. You see he has
been expending as well as yourself, 0 ! Pal¬
metto man. He has bought ships, built factories,
palaces, and the outside world had to be paid.
Silks and satins from England and France;
spices from India; precious woods from Brazil,
all have abstracted his gold and silver; and now
you have gotten him—if you know it—right by
the throat. Shall I tell you how ?
Well, then, tens of thousands of his people
have beep engaged in nothing else but manu¬
facturing this same cotton, and so have gotten
no corn fields, no potatoe patches, no bacon
manufactories, to run to, in a pinch, whilst
Southern workers have these advantages almost
always. Eight millions of specie—suppose he
emptied the vaults of every bank in the State
—won't buy forty millions of dollars worth of
cotton yearly—so, now is your time ! Tell him
you won't take his ice, his hay, his ploughs,
shoes, carriages, nick-nacks—that you will
hereafter make them for yourself, or do with¬
out, You must have the gold dollars back
again he has been so quietly picking out of
your pocket. And noting his recent jubiliant
attitude over the election, and his present de¬
monstrations, don't you see he's badly scared ?
It is his weak point—-giant as he is. Put down
your swords and guns—your cannon, too—if
yovfve got any ! A fortress might stand the
attacks of an army of the bravest of the brave,
for years that would fall in a week, cut off even
their supply of water. And they know this,
I tell you. The old "cradle of liberty," now be¬
come "a cage of unclean birds," can stand any
attack but the one I have indicated, and as it
is with "Faneuil Hall," so it is with kindred
spots everywhere North. [I have taken the most
ultra States, North and South, to illustrate my
meaning, and the reasoning that bears upon
cotton, applies in its way to every other article
needed from the North.]
But Massachusetts—for we must consider
both sides of the question—is not without its
revenge. The spirit of Evil reacts upon all.
She sees the Palmetto State at one blow, in it3
attempt to avenge itself by violence, shorn of its
credit in the world of finance and of trade, and
in the position of an insane man trying to lift
himself over a fence by taking hold of the tops
aojvriMiON SENSE. a
of his boots. It can't be done. A State tax list
of three hundred thousand dollars—in ordina¬
ry times—force it as you may, is ludicrously
small for all purposes of successful revolution
by force of arms. The State couldn't equip
and keep afloat two frigates for a year, without
confiscation of estates or "forced loans," and
the poor people who take for Delphic ora¬
cles the utterances of the Charleston Mercu¬
ry, who make that office the citadel and
head-quarters of their projected changes, will
be considered by the people of the other
great States South, to be as little excusable
as |those who cling to Wendell Phillips, or
look to the Boston Liberator as to a fountain
of wisdom.
But right here, do not mistake me. The
South—the moderate reasonable South,has been
grossly wronged; and as I have intimated
above, now is the time for her to obtain her
rights. But to accomplish this great purpose,
6he must go to work in the right way. As
the old lady said to her husband at the com¬
mencement of the oft repeated family quar¬
rel—"Old man, 'taint no use for us to quar¬
rel, for you know We've got to make it up at
last."
Now, it is a truth, too trite almost to bear
repetition, that the Southern ultras in this
quarrel, South Carolina and Alabama, are not
honest in stating their causes of quarrel. The
pretexts are, the "enactments in the North
against the fugitive slave law," and "the elec¬
tion of Lincoln!" But with a majority against
Lincoln in both houses of Congress, rendering
him powerless for mischief—(supposing he at¬
tempted it)—for half of his Presidential term,
and a chance to make a splendid fight in the
Union, for concessions from the extremists,
North, where does it place the South ? The
enlightened world knows all this; and a State,
or a Confederacy, that commences a fight upon
a mere pretext, and that a weak one, loses
much of the sympathy and aid which a more
honest and manlycourse would have obtained
for it. And let me assure the best friends,
the true friends of the South, that this " pre¬
cipitating" the South "into a Revolution," will
never—never do. In regard to the real griev¬
ances—not the pretexts—the border States
have at least fifty for one to those of the Gulf
States or South Carolina ; a proportion that
may be exactly measured, if called for, by the
relative losses of negroes by escapes to the
free States or Canada. Then let the case be
stated fairly, honestly, I say. Let the South¬
ern States acknowledge what all reasonable
men here feel to be so, that the true griev¬
ance consists in the determined front of
hostility to slavery, now exhibited by the
sectional party, North : and that nothing
short of an entire revolution in sentiment there,
ar>d an exhibition of this, by well defined enact¬
ments and concessions, sustaining the South in
its demands for fugitives, and its rights in Ter¬
ritories purchased by its quota of its best blood
and treasure, will ever satisfy the South. And
I would repeat again and again, now is the time
for the South to make the demand; and when
all "Constitutional" means, such as remon¬
strance, non-intercourse and starvation of the
North have failed to obtain redress for the
South, then a general revolution, not "Se¬
cession "—no creeping out singly, to excite
the pity or contempt of the whole civilized
world.
Tennessee is for the Union, I repeat, and
will never yield up her claims upon it, so long
as they can be maintained with honor. In the
words of the veteran Chief Magistrate who
was its staunch defender, and whose remains,
resting at the Hermitage, consecrate the soil
which received them:
"Without Union, our independence and lib¬
erty would never have been achieved; without
Union, they can never be maintained. Divided
into twenty-four, or even a smaller number of
separate communities, we shall see our internal
trade burdened with numberless restraints and
exactions; communications between distant
points and sections obstructed or cut off; our
sons made soldiers, to deluge with blood the
fields they now till in peace; the mass of our
people borne down and impoverished by taxes
to support armies and navies; and military
leaders, at the head of their victorious legions,
becoming our law-givers and judges. The loss
of liberty, of all good government, of peace,
plenty and happiness, must inevitably follow a
dissolution of the Union. In supporting it,
therefore, we support all that is dear to the
freeman, and the philanthropist.
"The time at which I stand before you is full
of interest. The eyes of all nations are fij;ed.
on our Republic. The event of the existing
crisis will be decisive, in the opinion of man¬
kind, of the practicability of our Federal sys¬
tem of Government. Great is the stake placed
in our hands; great is the responsibility which
must rest upon the people of the United States.
Let us realize the importance of the attitude
in which we stand before the world. Let us
exercise forbearance and firmness. Let us ex¬
tricate our country from the dangers which
e ao:MEM:o:isr sense.
surround it, and learn wisdom from the
lessons they inculcate. Deeply impressed
with the truth of these observations, and un¬
der the obligation of that solemn oath I am
about to take, I shall continue to exert all
my faculties to maintain the just powers of
the Constitution, and to transmit unimpair¬
ed to posterity the blessings of our Federal
Union."
Such was the language of the honored pa¬
triot; and could we summon once more amongst
us the great dead—could the sleeping dust at
the Hermitage be so moved—how would his
frown silence at once the puny upstarts, who
now that he is no more, have ventured to assail
the Ark of our Safety—the very Citadel of
our Liberties. As if it was spoken only yes¬
terday—let it arouse once more the citizens of
the State he so much loved; let it cause them
to renew once more the oath of allegiance to
their common country.
Why—look at it. One windy orator of the
Mercury school of politics, proposes a South¬
ern Confederacy, with an "obliteration of all
State lines." Will Tennessee, or Kentucky, or
Virginia, or Maryland, or Missouri, stand this ?
Does New Orleans wished to be rubbed out for
the benefit of Charleston, and will Louisiana
abide such a prospect for her metropolis ? Are
the "States Eights" issues nothing, either, after
all the fuss kicked up over them by these same
ultras for the last thirty years ? Does any one
want a Military Despotism established over
them, the commanders to be nominated at
Charleston? Will the people of South Caroli¬
na, far removed as they are from all power
themselves, stand this additional extortion or
assumption from the politicians proper ? No,
not they. No American, having a drop of Bev-
olutionary blood in his veins, would, for an in¬
stant, abide it; and were the great Confederacy
once broken up, no one of the more moderate
border States could stand the arrogance of the
Palmetto leaders for a single week.
The South united, and with its causes of
grievance fairly stated, is good against the
world; but the South, paying tribute to the
North—contentedly walking in leading strings
spun by Massachusetts cotton factories, will
only be laughed at for its voluntary^subservian-
cy, its abjuration of real independence. Starve
the Northern garrison now affecting to exult in
what they consider the impregnable fortress of
their commercial and manufacturing success—
starve,;thcm, .J,$ay.. to, pour selves, and
you can make the grass grow in the streets of
the Northern cities in a single year. Quit pass¬
ing resolutions—act! Vou have rights in the
Union—a territory now extending from the
Ohio river to the Gulf of Mexico. "Secede'r
in detail (for that must be the mode, if seces¬
sion is insisted upon now) and in a few years,
the triumphant outside world will crowd the in¬
stitution of slavery to the shores of the Gulf
of Mexico, and into its grave.
To the positions taken in this regard there
can be no successful denial. The organs of
the sectional party, North, have already, in
effect, "caved in." A brief period ago, and
these fanatics fancied they had "the world in a
sling"—they exulted, they dictated conditions,
they madly laughed over the " helplessness,"
as they called it, of the South. And even yet,
they feebly affect this in their political homi¬
lies. But read their late money reports—
glance at the account of stock transactions con¬
tained in the same sheet.
"Like damaged clocks whose hands and tongues
dissent,"
they have demonstrated in the compulsory
truthful market report, their just fears of im¬
pending commercial ruin, whilst in a higher
key, the shameless political falsifier of the-
print, makes a feeble, though swashing show of
gasconade. The South, I repeat, has got them
fast by the weazand; and united upon just
grounds, can hold them there. But it must be
^oras,within the Union. And any "retaliatory"
measures, constitutionally right, Tennessee will
stand up to—to the last. Tennessee recog¬
nizes the wrongs of the South, as fully—ta
say the least—as South Carolina or Georgia, or
Alabama! In fact, the late sectional triumph
was more distasteful to her. No cheers over
the success of Lincoln—as in South Carolina—
made horrid discord in all her borders, for she
was not seeking mere pretexts to leave that
Union,the glory of enlightened men throughout
the whole earth. Her sorrow was deep, was hon¬
est ; and she like Kentucky and Missouri, and
Virginia and Maryland, will be consistent even
to the bitter end. She- will never leave the
Union on a false issue, but if go she must, she
will state the true causes, ignoring utterly the
political tricksters who jump at Lincoln's elec¬
tion as a mere excuse. She will retire with
her political escutcheon, her noble name,unsul¬
lied ; and upon the North, as the aggressor^
co:M::M:o:isr szektse.
7
will forever rest the fearful responsibility of
the movement. No "amendments to the
Constitution," no tampering with or muti¬
lating that sacred instrument, a monument
to those of whom the Age is not worthy. If
we sink, let it flutter in its glory from the
masthead,
"Like a flag floating when the barque's en-
gulphed."
If we stay in the Union, we must insist upon
its plain requirements being observed; and this
we will have, if the South is at last in defence
of her rights, driven into the Gulf of Mexico;
and it is high time the fanatic North compre¬
hended this—and what is more to the purpose,
heeded it. Why, it is very lunacy—the "mad¬
ness of the moon " itself, for her to attempt to
bear down, as she has been doing, upon a
region which has been to her what the Indies
have been to Great Britain, decking her in pur¬
ple and gold and fine linen, by the marvellous
wealth of its raw material. Let her throw
overboard then, without delay, her political
hypocrites. Let her compel the Sumner's and
Seward's, et id omne genus, to take the back
track. Let her, if she is honest, cease to touch
cotton, the product of slave labor, as "an ac¬
cursed thing," or cease demonstrating from her
own premises, that " the partaker is as bad as
the thief," if she would gain credit for one iota
of moral honesty even; and this, too, if she
would have the world cease to believe that
canting hypocrisy is the strongest growth
of her soil—the darling characteristic of her
people.
And finally, let the outside world depend
upon one thing: and that is, that upon the
basis here laid down, the moderate men, the
lovers of the Union, South, will stand and-fight
this great battle. Party lines will for once be
rubbed out in this issue, more completely than
Massachusetts Black Republicans in the late
election, obliterated those which formerly
separated them from their veritable black allies,
the negro "Wide Awakes" of Boston. And
woe be to those, North or South, who persist
in treating with disdain the issues so deliber¬
ately presented by the great border States of
the South. Supported by these States, and on
the honest issues at hand, even the faction ot
ultras, South, would be elevated into respecta-,
bility—into power,—frowned upon by these
great States, the vital interests of the North
must suffer, and in the end—perish.
II.
The Political Cyclone;
The "Irrepressible" Nigger;
"King Stork and the Frogs."
the: durability of the cow
federacy of states.
In the terrible cyclone, or whirlwind, that
swept over, and nearly destroyed Natchez,
many years ago, a man was picked up by the
storm, carried a mile or so, and left unharmed,
bodily, in the top of a tree on the banks of
the Mississippi river. It was a magnificent
storm, grand, terrible in its coming and its going,
—it was an American storm, and what is
more, a Southern storm. I do not believe-
such an one is often gotten up in England, or
the North, and so, bad as was the result, I'
must confess I felt admiration of its power, as
I surveyed the remains of the tall forest, swept,,
as by the scythe of some gigantic mower,-,
who didn't trouble himself much about a sharp-
blade. It was a splendid specimen of "main-
strength and awkwardness."
Well, a good deal such a storm as that, has
just swept the political horizon—North and
South. Unlike the Natchez cyclone, too, it
seems to have left nearly the entire population
up in the tree tops ; and what is worse, so con¬
fused and bedeviled them by the debris, the
trash, leaves and dirt that accompanied them
in their wild ride, that they are hardly yet in a>
condition to comprehend the nature of the-
calamity, and to listen to reason. Come down,.
my friends, and listen to "common sense," a
commodity you are not likely to get from the-
present race of political orators, because, in¬
stead of advising you how to get down from*
your unnatural and uncomfortable elevation,
and counselling you how to repair the mis¬
chief,—now that the storm is over, the last
one of them occupies his time in telling you-
how you got up there, and in raving at the
storm.
And worse than that—most of them are-
busied in throwing more dust in your eyes, in¬
stead of aiding you to clear them of that left
in them by the whirlwind through which you
have just passed. But, I repeat, come down
from your high perch—somehow—and let us-
talk "common sense" together!.
8 CJOIMIiMIOKr SE1STSE.
And in the first place, our case is not with¬
out its parallel in the history of nations. The
Republics of Greece, our great and shining
prototypes, went through the same kind of po
litical whirlwinds, in their day. But, when the
storm was over, they didn't do as we are doing.
They, at once—in general—so history tells us,
gathered together their scattered senses, and
instead of still sitting up in the tree tops rav¬
ing and cursing about the storm, and the mis¬
chief it had done, or might do, at some future
visitation, possibly, why, as in the case when
they were carried away so as to destroy Socrates,
they came down and hanged the orators, or
otherwise, put to death those who had gotten
up the cyclone, or political whirlwind. [By
the way, and sub rosa, is 'nt it well for Sumner,
Yancey, and some others I could name, that
the old Athenians are not their clients or con¬
stituents now ? Their lives wouldn't be worth
an hour's purchase.]
And yet with such brawlers to infest the
States of Greece, (for the same breed of politi¬
cal maggots were begotten of the corruptions
incident to government in those days,) they re¬
tained their liberties, their unity, and shone in
all the glory of freedom many a hundred years;
and they live yet on the pages of the great
past, to delight the scholar and the historian in
his day-dreams over what Liberty can achieve,
even when imperfect in its organization, and
betrayed by its pretended votaries.
And now, listen a little further, if you
please. "The devil is never so black as he is
painted;" and for the great Southern section of
this mighty Confederacy, with its magnificent
domain, its eight millions of people, and the
splendid resources at its command—for it, I
say, to stand shaking in its sandals, because
any man is elected over it, is a pitiable specta¬
cle to the civilized world. Why, if we were
hall rubbed out and over-run by an implacable
foe, our hearths desolated and our altars over
thrown, is there any man who would dare say,
even then, to our people—that our case was
desperate—was hopeless ? Would they not do
as did La Rochejaquelin, the glorious and im¬
mortal young hero of La Yendee, when once
—(and he a mere boy, too)—caught in a storm
at sea, slay the cowardly commander, if need
be, for merely telling him with white lips, that
"All was lost." Rouse up, I say, and if need.
be, pitch the whole troop of white livered and
scheming orators into the Gulf of Mexico, and
come forward, like true men, to do your duty
in a crisis like this. Can it be, that in abject
fear of Lincoln, or of what he may do in any
event, that we, the citizens of sovereign States,
are to be counselled to give up our share of
the richest public domain in the world, the
cotton lands of the West, the Gold of Califor¬
nia—to take our galligaskins in our trembling
hands, and crawl away in deadly fear from
the portals of our own splendid heritage ?
Again, I say,—fight out this great battle
within the Union; vindicate your rights to that
territory your blood has purchased, your valor
so far aided in maintaining intact. Do it for
the sake of your children and your children's
children, if not for your own selves, if you
would not have them, in the madness of ir¬
remediable grief, spit upon your dishonored
graves in after years.
And now, I repeat, let us look this great
"danger"—if it is one—right in the face—this
"danger," which, manufactured to order, has
furnished so much chaff to the accursed dema¬
gogues of the day. "Mystery magnifies dan¬
ger, as a fog the sun." In the very outset, I
affirm—and am ready to maintain—that this
"danger," faced up to by a brave people, is
nothing I But, you tell me, that Abraham
Lincoln has been elected President of the Uni¬
ted States. "Vel, vot of it?" I don't like, as
Mr. Mantilini would say, to see a "demnition"
big cockroach, or any other object of intense
disgust, marching about my premises; but, al¬
though I may feel my gorge rise at his pres¬
ence, so repugnant to all my senses, shall I va¬
cate the place? Or, is this long legged Ken-
tuckian, transplanted to the Sucker State, the
very archangel who is to blow the last trump,
that the Southern people should be so moved ?
Come down out of the trees, mv friends, let us
rub the dust out of our eyes, and let us care¬
fully examine this Kentucky Sucker—some¬
thing that I must confess, with shame, I did not
do during the progress of the late political whirl¬
wind. On all hands he was proclaimed a rank
abolitionist, and I believed it Let us see.
I have before.me a speech made in Virginia
just before the election, and in that speech,
and on the great principle already enunciatod
by me in the outset, of "giving the Devil his
due," even the Virginia gentleman, Mr. Seegar,
thus exhibited Mr. Lincoln's record:
But there is a conclusive reason against dis¬
rupting the Union on account of Mr. Lincoln'*
COiMilVCOlSr SEISTSE. 9
election, and it is this—that he will be as help¬
less for haiming the South as the new-horn in¬
fant is to harm the brawny giant. Most proba¬
bly, indeed, it is now almost absolutely certain
that there will be a majority against him in both
Houses of Congress—the Senate is already decis¬
ively against him. Then suppose him actually
elected, what danger would there be to Southern
rights, even if it were certain he would invade
those rights if he could? Suppose, for example,
a bill were introduced to repeal the fugitive slave
law—could such a bill become a law?
Nor do I think we are altogether without hope
of some conservatism in Mr. Lincoln, should he
be elected. On many points even connected with
the slavery question, he is not a little conserva¬
tive. Against certain obnoxious anti-slavery re¬
solves which had passed the Illinois Legislature
he entered a written protest, in which ne main¬
tained that the "promulgation of abolition doc¬
trines tended rather to increase than abate its
evils."
In the same protest he declared that "Con¬
gress has no power to interfere with the institu¬
tion of slavery in the States."
He maintained in the same paper, as he has fre¬
quently since, that slavery ought not to be abol¬
ished in the District of Columbia, except on the
application and with the consent of the people of
the District, and then not without compensation
to the'owners of the slaves.
In his celebrated canvass with Judge Douglas
he declared that the "slave States are entitled to
a fugitive slave law from Congress, and that he
would not be the man to introduce, by a proposi¬
tion to modify it, a new subject of agitation on
the general subject of slavery."
In the same canvass he said that if the people of
a Territory, when they came to form a State con¬
stitution, should choose tt> put slavery into it,
and 6hould ask admission into the Union, "he
saw no alternative, if we owned the country, but
to admit them into the Union."
On one point, I admit, he is not with the South.
He is opposed to the extension of slavery into
Territory now free. And this was the opinion of
Mr. Clay. Besides, if climate and soil and pro¬
duction control slavery, as they certainly do, and
if Mr. Lincoln holds that States ought to be ad¬
mitted with slavery constitutions, if their people
choose, of what practical import are his views on
this latter point? None earthly.
I make this vindicatory statement, of course,
from no political sympathy with Mr. Lincoln or
his party, for I abhor sectionalism, whether it be
at the North or at the South, and my own views,
it is well known, are extreme pro-slavery. But!
venture the vindication to correct ? misappre¬
hension, and with the view—a patriotic one, I
hope—of reconciling the people to his election,
should he be chosen, and inducing them, by ex¬
hibiting whatever conservatism redeems his po¬
sition, to hold fast to the Union until he is tried.
I trust I have made good the position with which
I started, that there is no necessity for destroying
the Union, either on account of any thing con¬
nected with the slavery question, or on account
of Mr. Lincoln's election. And if it be so, what
should be the doom of him who, with no suffi¬
cient necessity to prompt him to the deed, should
undertake to snap the cords that bind together
this matchless confederacy of free and nappy
States?
Now, I say, 'take the case at its worst—and
is all that, anything to scare a Southerner out
of his boots ? To be sure, in the political
cyclone aforementioned, when Old Abe was
flying through the air borne on the wings of
the tempest, he is said to have uttered some
clap-trap, genuine, dirty abolition sentiments,
to the effect that "this conflict of freedom with
slave labor" and so forth, would be "perpetu¬
ated." But, let us remember that better men
than he have, in the rush for such a prize, or
even for those of less value than this one of
the Presidency of the United States, the first
office on earth, said any thing almost to gain
that prize, who afterwards would have laughed
at any one credulous enough to think of hold¬
ing them responsible for the heated or hasty
declaration, when the goal was once reached.
Go back along the path of conquest marked
by the rubbish of past political combats. Be¬
hold every where the debris of good, solemnly
given pledges, broken; and let this justify us
in hoping and believing, that if other men,
some of them eminent for public services,
have thrown overboard their pledges, under the
pressure of national or political necessity, even
Old Abe may disregard the clap-trap senti¬
ments, pitched in perhaps, to gull the more
rabid of his supporters to renewed exertions
in the pinch of the game.
Now, then—if having the courage to look
this thing in the face, we find all this to be
true, I repeat that the South can make a
splendid fight for her rights within the Union.
But on the other hand—and mark what I say
—if, with the votes of both houses against any
abolition policy of this new, long-legged de¬
stroying angel for two years, and he, thus
thoroughly check-mated for all purposes of
real mischief,—if with all these advantages,
held by the South, enough Southern members
who "have eaten of the insane root" resign
from the "Secessipn" States to give up the
game, why a more cowardly and—excuse me
my hearers—a more contemptible and damna¬
ble surrender of rights was never consummated
since the demagogues of the other States of
Republican Greece, surrendered all to that
limping old Seward of his day—Philip of
Macedon. Worse than all, it is a treacherous
betrayal of trust—a betrayal of the other
States, South—too bad to be contemplated;
and one which should be anathematized to the
end of recorded time,
Why, the dirty philosopher of the Tribune
office is already chuckling over the prospect of
this surrender of power, and although we may
well hate Abolitionism, as good men all hate
the devil, or as the devil—it is said—hates holy
water, there is a hatred for such political cow¬
ardice as is exhibited in this thing, for which
language has no name.
I have intimated already that in the States
lO COMMON SENSE.
of Republican Greece, Demagoguism, the slang-
whanging of public talkers, was the curse of that
age. But Greece had a remedy, fortunately for
her—or she would not have lasted so long—
that has never come into vogue here yet,
though, like Patent Medicines, it is to be hoped
that when needed it will come along ; and that
remedy, as I have said, was a general hanging
of or banishment of these plagues, who worse
than small pox or other pestilence, have proved
the public bane by stirring up public strife.
Every community has its unfledged aspirant to
oratorical fame who must try his powers at
pulling down, although powerless to build up.
As for the " irrepressible " nigger, let him
alone. He has been the whole stock in trade
of one of the great political parties of the
country, for lo, these many years; and now the
thing is utterly played out. As Tom Benton
said of the Wilmot Proviso, "I'd as lief any
one would bring a dead dog from off the com¬
mons, and hold him up before me," as the
seemingly everlasting " irrepressible " nigger;
and the country at large is beginning to feel
this, too. As a political " infernal machine,"
thank God the whole nigger question must
soon be settled, as it is to be hoped by common
consent. The Democratic party might well
take this for its epitaph :
Died of too much darkey;
and even Abolitionism itself has already taken
to its embraces and fatally poisoned Black Re¬
publicanism. In connection with the first
mentioned—the Democracy—I can only think
of their two rival candidates for the Presidency
in the late struggle, as of two boys I once saw,
who were appointed to head a funeral proces¬
sion with the corpse of a defunct child. They
went to fighting for the reins, to determine who
should drive on the way to the grave! That's
about all the leaders have done over the de¬
funct carcass of the Democratic party, in the
late struggle.
I have said that Abolitionism has killed
Black Republicanism—and why ? Because a
success upon such a basis, must speedily be
fatal to the winners; their very, dupes, the
poor operatives—whom they have urged on
to the fight, having imperiled their very bread.
And think you these leaders will escape blame¬
less and unscathed ? Don't you remember
that the bloody "Reign of Terror" in France
was "precipitated'' by that terrible initiatory
| strife, worse than any other in all countries—
the strife for "bread !" "Bread or Blood" is
j the hoarse yell, that like the blasts from the
horns of the leaders of Israel, topple the strong¬
est walls into dust and ruin : and such a visi¬
tation, terrible in its retributive justice, is now
staring the Black Republican leaders, North,
in the very face ; yes, gaunt Famine, with its
bony hands, is already clutching at their throats
as the consequence of their political triumph;
and before the coming winter, with its fierce
snows and bitter frosts, has come and gone,
the condition of the thousands who have
wrought evil through fanaticism, may well ex¬
cite, perhaps, the pity of the fiercest of those
political foes to whom their success has been
so distasteful. I have said that the spirit of
Evil will react upon all; and the head might as
well laugh at the hands, in the human system,
at the sight of a malignant gangrene attacking
the stomach, as for one portion of this great
country to exult at the misery and prostration
of the other; and before the fearful financial
visitation now sweeping both North and South,
as with the besom of destruction, let the dema¬
gogues keep silence and behold the hand of
God, and the carrying out of his decrees of
retributive justice. "Jeshuran waxed fat
and he kicked," is the history of this great
and exceedingly blesssed land, told in one sin¬
gle line of Divine Inspiration, for our evils
are of our own fashioning. They were not
brought upon us by kingly tyranny, by crush¬
ing taxation, by war, pestilence, or famine—by
any of those awful visitations, so common in
other lands as causes of human suffering. ,
And let no one North suppose— let
them not flatter themselves—that out of all
this controversy, or as a consequence of it
either, that the condition of the negro will be
benefitted. Between the upper and the
nether millstone, he will, in the course of time
—if this contest goes on—be ground in pieces
—be exterminated! All this time he has been
the sufferer, in a degree—his bonds have been
tightened, his little rights and privileges ne¬
cessarily curtailed; and yet, in his present po¬
sition on this continent, he is the bond that
holds peoples together—that keeps down Revo¬
lution in Europe,—the laborer who almost
clothes the world; but no hot-headed mock
philanthropy can take him out of the position
in which he is placed by the God of Natious
—by the wants of civilization.
aonrmonr sense. 11
I have spoken of the consequences of this
sectional conflict upon the interests of the
North—let me recur for a fews moments to
the extremists, South. And to begin with,
how humiliating is the step taken by Secession
in the outset—how fatal to her future as one
element of success! She has commended her¬
self to the outside world, by ann'ouncing that
"no Northern claims will be collected."
Is that on the principle long ago understood
or practiced upon in desperate enterprises?
We have it in Holy Writ, that those who fled
to David in his desperate struggle with Saul,
were men "in debt." In Ancient Rome, too,
the Revolutionists, or would-be-Revolutionists,
who followed Cataline were the same class.
Maybe, from present appearances, a large army
may be collected; but won't it be with the
"sinews of war" lacking ? Another instance I
have so often exemplified of trying to lift
oneself without any fulcrum. If this is so, 0,
Palmetto man, let me ask—how, in your dis¬
tress for the loan of a war fund, will you ap¬
proach the purse holders—the "outside barba¬
rians" of Prance or of England, with the prin¬
ciple of "repudiation" sticking out? It can't
be done. We are told that Exeter Hall and
Abolitionism generally, over the big pond—that
spirit which, in its own family, has deliberately
destroyed the people of Jamaica, Demarara,
&c.—will fork over because they can't do with¬
out cotton ! They will buy it—it is true !
But as for loans, 0, Palmetto man—has it mol¬
lified even Fanueil Hall, close at hand, when it
saw its bread and butter threatened ? Quit
fighting windmills, my friends, and after this
question is settled by the majority of the South,
you and Sancho forget the ideal island of Bara-
taria, and go to work.
In this connection, don't do as you, in your
unwise fears, are doing at present,—don't send
back the ingenious mechanics, the skillful arti-
zans who land within your borders to aid in
lifting you over that fence, of which I have so
often spoken. Be sturdily independent by
legitimate means. Keep them with you and
make them behave. Go out with drums beat¬
ing and colors flying to welcome these men,
that so you may achieve your own proper inde
pendence. And if you don't do this, the en¬
lightened men elsewhere, will never have faith
in your statesmanship. Don't you remember,
0, Palmetto man, the history of that European
Revolution of the long time ago, which—
Spanish like—driving away the active artizans
of Flanders, gave them to England as the foun¬
dation and corner stone of her commercial
prosperity? Don't you remember the folly of
"Louis le Grand," of France, in the same line?
If you can catch a s?i/p-buider especially, even
from Massachusetts, do it by all means. Tou
might exchange an old darkey for the mechan¬
ic, or swap off any of those kidnapped by
Massachusetts abolitionists even, to some ad¬
vantage, and at once set the white artizans to
work. Do this, even if you take two young
Sawbones's of those who recently revolted at a
New York Medical College to watch him, and
you'd make money by the operation. But to
turn from your doors the skill and industry of
the civilized world, will never achieve your
"independence." It is idle to think it. The
French Emperor—if you should call him
in, and even if he should forget to apply
the pith of the old fable of "the Frogs
who wanted a king," and shouldn't be tempted
to eat the bulk of you as his fees for "protec¬
tion,"—could'nt aid you to any real indepen¬
dence, like that you might acheive by getting
hold of some of these fellows—the clever ones
I mean, who at home, out of drops of frozen
water make gold dollars. In fact, if in the
course of even the present year you should
catch a few of them, don't turn them loose,
but try to make a good use of them in the way
I have indicated. It is an old axiom in State
affairs, that
"Fear admitted into public counsels,
Betrays like treason."
Do you recollect the story told by Sir Walter
Scott of the wife of the Scotch laird ? Her
husband, in some "border raid," had captured
a goodly youth, the son of his inveterate—his
hereditary foe. " Take his head off on the
block in the court yard of the castle," was the
order to the retainer who brought the unfor¬
tunate foe into his presence. But woman's wit
—woman's cleverness—saved him. "That will
be a poor use to put him to," quoth she! "In¬
stead of doing that, let us marry him to our
daughter, "muckle mouth Meg;" and the lassie's
husband he forthwith became, by a turn in the
matrimonial noose tied by the jolly chaplain
of the castle; and lived and thrived, his father-
in-law's trusted friend and follower for many a
long year thereafter.
And now, having shown how this whole
Southern question stands—though in a desul-
12 COMMON SENSES.
■*
tory, way to be sure—having tried to take a
"common sense" view of it—let every conser¬
vative man in the Nation swear upon the altar
of his common country that this question
shall be banished forever from the public
debates. Let the people, you and myself,
Tom, Dick and Harry, Patrick, Hans and An¬
tonio, yell down to the very gates of Oblivion,
the man who dares insult the common sense
and patriotism of any audience by attempting
to stir up strife on this question. The country
wants quiet, it must have it, or red Anarchy
will light those fires never to go out until
quenched in the blood of the negro.
And for the future of this glorious Con¬
federacy, I believe it will be preserved, saved
intact—that the great work of our fathers will
come out of this controversy, like "gold tried
in the fire." If I did not believe this, I should
have long since lost my faith in the Almighty
Ruler of the Universe, as the setter up and
puller down of principalities and Nations. The
Refuge of the oppressed of all the Earth,—it
must stand. I believe, too, that the States will
be more secure in their rights, all the stronger
where strength is most needed by them, after
this conflict—the more secure, that late events
are demonstrating to each section its weakness,
when deprived of the strength of the other.
It is true that I hear—I am told—it is on
every tongue—that South Carolina is "out of
the Confederacy." But whilst she is "out"—
she is in. She has not cut loose from the con¬
tinent—has not sailed away into the great un¬
certain ocean that washes her borders—she is
there still; and going out, on paper, unaided,
discountenanced by the world, she must, in
self-defence, and on the strength of the "sober
second thought," which always follows such
excitements, return a sober and a wiser State.
Her "wrongs" redressed, she will have no good
excuse for remaining out.
And finally—with Abolitionism starved out
at the North—with its devotees bankrupted,
and its vital interests crumbling before the hot
breath of popular indignation from the South,
things everywhere will finally come "all right,"
and we shall once more, I trust, be a united
and a happy people. Patriotism in the ascen¬
dant again, these things which have divided us
will be considered only as the rocks, which once
our danger, may serve as foundations for those
beacon lights, the guiding stars to the Temple
of Liberty, for all the nations of the earth.
E^. E, T III.
The Light-Honse;
The Waves;
The Racks.
THE FATE OF CORMORANTS AND
GULLS.
On a gray rock which lifts its massive head
out of the deep sea, and in the pathway of all
the commerce of the world, stands a magnifi¬
cent Light-House. For centuries, it has been
the wonder and admiration of all observers, for
its stupendous strength, its ingenious construc¬
tion, and its glorious beneficence as a beacon
light to the storm-tossed mariners of all nations.
In the long wintry night, when the gigantic and
angry waves,thunder at its firm base, as well as
in the calm summer time, it lifts its serene
light on high, to warn reckless seamen of their
danger, as well as to encourage others to make
a new reckoning, who are tossing in uncertainty
on the waves around. Constructed of huge
rocks, "dove-tailed" into each other, and fast¬
ened to the solid base by iron clamps, it has
outlasted the prophecies of thousands who have
come and gone; and to-day, is as likely to
stand the shock of wind and wave for centu¬
ries more, as it was the hour it was delivered
perfect from the hands of its wondrous and
bold constructors. And what—amongst other
remarkable things about it—would seem curi¬
ous, too, upon any bright morning, after the
storm has done its worst, and the ocean spray
has flown over the very top of its lofty brow,
all around it may be seen the bodies of cormo¬
rants, gulls, and other birds, which, dazzled by
its light, or reckless of its power of resistance,
have dashed themselves in their blindness
against its massive lantern, to fall dead, or to
perish in the waves below. Who has not
heard of the famous Eddystone Light-House
on the coast of England ?
Need I explain to my readers this symbol
of glorious beneficence, of massive strength,
of untold permanence ? Shall I tell them of
the beacon light of millions—the Union of the
States ? And shall I explain the nature of the
waves which through the long years have cease¬
lessly threatenened it ? who are the cormo-
bants, and who the gulls, who in vain foolishly
dash themselves against it—who defy its power?
OOIS^lS^rOKr SE3STSE. 13
Listen, then, demagogues and people—cormo¬
rants and gulls!
The " keepers" of this glorious Light-House
of ours, have not, of late years, done their duty.
Some lights have been obscured, and even
dashed out, on the Northern side ; some weak
ened and injured on the South ; and it now
needs a meeting of the "Light-House Board,"
to determine the nature of needed repairs. And
moreover, a Keeper has been lately appointed,
who is considered as partial to devoting his at¬
tention to the protection of ships which cruise
upon the Northern side, to the neglect or det¬
riment of those on the Southern; and there¬
fore it is proposed by some to defy him—to
throw down the noble edifice, and let ourselves
and the world do without its light! This must
not be done. A monument to its great build¬
ers, not less than of inestimable value as the
beacon light of the Nations, let it stand there
for ever, like the "Cloud by day and the Pil¬
lar of Fire by night;" and let its blaze be ab¬
sorbed and lost, only in that conflagration
which is to mark the end of all things and of
the world.
I have spoken of its ingenious architecture;
and now let us see how far this is so. Like the
rocks which enter into the construction of the
other famous light-house, the whole edifice is
dove-tailed and interlocked, foundation stone
with foundation stone, tier by tier, to the very
top. And is it not so ? Is not the great rocky
base, our Country, and is not the foundation of
the structure the intelligence and patriotism of
the people? Building upon this foundation,
have we not seen the wonderful architects rais¬
ing it, piece by piece, interlocking its various
parts as they progressed, each State a rock,
until now, nothing short of an earthquake, ter¬
rible enough to topple down a continent into
the Sea of Anarchy, can ever destroy it, and
with it the hopes of the world?
And now—what of the waves—what of
those surges which idly threaten it ? We hear
much of the "waves of Secession," of the
surges of Northern Nullification and fanati¬
cism, and it is true that they make noise
enough; but will they—can they overthrow
the glorious structure I have described?
In a former paper, I have dealt with the
causes adduced by the secessionists, for their
attacks on the Union, as it exists. I propose
now, to show the futility, the weakness of all
such attacks, by calling attention to a few points,
upon which these waves must in vain expend
their fury.
It will be observed, or remembered, that the
one great horror of South Carolina, has always
been the excessive power of a central govern¬
ment—of the Federal Union. The doctrine of
"States Rights," the denial of power to the
General Government, has been the very key¬
note of all her howlings against the existing
state of things for the last twenty years, or
more; and this being emphatically remem¬
bered, let us see where "States Rights" intoler¬
ance is leading the wave of secession, now
surging against the light house of our strength.
In stark horror at all centralization—a late
writer in the Charleston Courier says: "The
Constitution and all its brood of pagan ad¬
juncts must be pulled down, and not built up;"
and he goes on to compare it to "Austrian Na¬
tionality," as the offspring of "that arch Fed¬
eralist, Alexander Hamilton."
Mr. Rhett, in a speech made in Charleston
recently, proposes to establish a "Southern Con¬
federacy," without "universal suffrage"—be¬
cause, he says—"it is an experiment to main¬
tain a free government with universal suffrage,
and the whole population to control the gov¬
ernment."
And, the Hon. L. H. Keitt says—"Let us
unfurl the flag, and with the sword of State,
cut the bonds of this accursed Union."
Softly, gentlemen secessionists—softly—be¬
cause why ? Almost in the same breath, we
have the Hon. Mr. Bartow, a co-laborer with
you, whilst attempting to break up the present
Union, providing for building up another, more
obnoxious in its strength, by a thousand fold,
than this one, the work of the sages of the
Revolution. Why, look at the stupendous
folly and inconsistency of the whole thing.
The very first feature in their programme for
breaking up the Union, is based upon the as¬
sumed "right," proclaimed as by the blast of a
trumpet, for a State to " secede " from the
Union.
And now, suppose the right granted ; and a
Convention of the Southern States called, to
construct Mr. Rhett's "Southern Confederacy!"
With each State going into it with this right to
"secede" granted, what is to insure the dura¬
tion of such a "Confederacy" for twenty-four
hours, even; supposing any of the States to
fancy or frame a new grievance, and so wish to
"secede" once more.
14 ooiurimoxsr sense
Following up this absurdity, a little further,
let us see what remedy is proposed. Nothing
less than to discard, once and forever, the en¬
tire doctrine—the darling doctrine of "States
Rights;" as I have said, the key-note of all
their howls for twenty years; and by an "ob¬
literation of State lines," form a central South¬
ern power, a Federal Government at the South,
a thousand times more absolute than the most
ntolerant of the "Old Federalists," Alexander
Hamilton, or any one else. Verging in its
nature to a complete military despotism, we
should have a strong central, a consolidated
government, sitting on high to crush all who
might, in a State sovereignty, as at present or¬
ganized, have had some power of resistance left.
To sum up the case—these men, the seces¬
sionists, whilst cursing the Federal Union as
an intolerable tyranny, propose to establish one
on the ruins of the present, infinitely worse :
and whilst granting now, for present purposes
the right to "secede," they propose, once en¬
trusted with power, to put the iron heel of
a Central Despotism on this same assumed
"right," and to tread it out forever.
I have shown, then, that on this very rock
of "States Rights," the waves of "secession"
must expend their power in vain; and this
amongst other reasons for it, because South
Carolina has herself been teaching the rest of
the South, too well, the value of their rights,
to allow of their surrender, at her final behest,
to a Central Despotism; a power so much worse
than the one she now so violently assails.
I have shown, therefore, that so far as indi¬
vidual State "secession," and a general cen¬
tralization afterwards, are concerned, they
must, in the very nature of the existing rela¬
tions betwixt the States, neutralize the powers
of each other; that there is no reconciling the
two, so as to put them in good working order
—in harmony with each other. The barrier to
success in this direction, is as high as the high
heavens; for one might as soon expect the
great States of Tennessee and Kentucky to
back out of the Union and surrender their
powers as States to New Mexico, as to yield in
this way and so to destroy their identity. Does
not every citizen of Tennessee feel and know
this to be so !
Let us examine another feature in this Light
House of ours, and so reassure the timid of its
power to last the centuries for which it was de¬
signed.
Sometimes, the Secession wave, provoking
no active resistance from the great beacon, be¬
comes rather fantastic in its assaults, proclaim¬
ing a purpose to get aid from abroad, in achiev¬
ing its purposes. Let us see, once more.
Suppose South Carolina to declare Charleston
a free port, or the port of an Independent
Sovereignty 1 and so invite the trade and com¬
merce of the world ! Without recognition by
any of the great Governments, of what value,
or avail, would be a ship's "clearance" sent
out of her port under such auspices? With
the first Republic in the world frowning upon
the movement, what nation with whom the
United States were at peace would venture to
recognize such a clearance—what shipmaster—
not a fool—would risk ship and cargo, so
cleared—on a voyage to other lands? Before
this could be effected, does'nt -every school-boy
know that she must first establish her "Inde¬
pendence" of the Union?
Even now, whilst loudly proclaiming herself
"out of the Union"—whilst laboring in vain to
make the other States realize such a condition
of things—we see her, the daily beneficiary of
the General Government—we see her the
grumbling recipient of postal advantages and
the many other benefits common to all the
States, benefits which hundreds of thousands
of dollars, expended by herself, would not
procure for her ho the same extent. She's
"out," but she's in!
This theme might be pursued much further,
until it touched upon every grievance, real or
fanciful—upon every remedy, peaceable or vio¬
lent—but it is hardly worth while. "Seces¬
sion," as I believe I have in a brief space
demonstrated in these articles, is no justifiable
or available remedy for any wrong suffered;
and as a "right"—claimed, is utterly fallacious
—is self destroying, in the end, to every State
seeking it. Admitting and insisting upon the
wrongs of the South—the general attitude of
hostility exhibited by the North—we must, I
repeat, fight the battle for redress within the
Union; and failing to get redress, even then,
no consolidated Southern despotism, with the
State lines rubbed out, but a Confederacy es¬
sentially upon the same basis as the present,
with the sovereignty of the States fully recog¬
nized and maintained. We want no military
Government, South—no frontier girdled with
bristling fortresses—no Canada line brought
down to the Ohio river! We want no timid
aoMiMioisr sEisrsE. is
surrender of our rights of property in the
Federal metropolis, no giving away to the
North of our share of the naval armament, or
forts, or arsenals, anywhere—no "Southern
Confederacy," except as a dernier resort. We
want the Beacon Light of the world, to blaze
in its glorious effulgence to the end of record¬
ed time.
i I have dealt with the practicability—and
now as to the right of Secession so vociforously
claimed by the hot-heads who are seeking to
lead off in '■'■precipitating the South into a rev¬
olution." Remember that I am claiming the
right to take [a "common sense" view of this
thing,and never was a term more felicitously put
in the whole range of the English language than
that used by the restless Alabamian—Yancey—
for it is nothing more nor less, than an endeav¬
or to push the Southern people over the brow
of a precipice, to utter destruction! Why,
look at the whole movement in South Carolina
—look at the hot-haste with which the leaders
there, have rushed forward, and at the intoler¬
ant—the tyrannical mode adopted to make pub¬
lic sentiment there a unit. Mr. Orr, a man
high in public estimation, the late Speaker of
the House of Representatives at Washington,
who proposed some delay in regard to a mat¬
ter so momentous—who sought for some
chance for deliberatiug upon these issues of
life and death, these greatest issues ever com¬
mended to the attention of any people, was
lashed into the traces by the Charleston Mercu¬
ry so quickly, that he hardly knew—I doubt
not—how it was done; and to-day, in a commu¬
nity where it is known to the world outside,
that there are conservative men like Ex-Gover¬
nor Aiken, Hon. Mr. Perry, and others, the
fierce tornado of secession intolerance has
swept them all under, and no one can or dare
aise bis head, at present, to make a show of
resistance. In other words, all honest public
>entiment is in "subjugation" as the South
Carolinian well expressed it, to the fierce be¬
hests of a few men like Rhett and Keitt, who
direct the whirlwind at present sweeping over
the State.
And is this the " road to Byzantium "—to
empire—to success? Will it be believed by the
intelligent people of the South, that Washing¬
ton and his immortal co-laborers in the noblest,
the holiest cause that ever claimed the blood
of a brave people—will it be believed, I say,
after the lapse of seventy years and more, and
these great men in the graves hallowed by the
tears of the votaries of Freedom every where,
that all their toils and sacrifices went only to
construct a " rope of sand ?" Is this the com¬
pliment so flippantly paid them by Rhett & Co.,
and must we, repudiating the teaching of
Washington and Jefferson and Madison, for¬
getting all the blood shed at Camden and York-
town, at Guildford Court House, at the Cow-
pens and Kings-Mountain, bow down to this
new idol—this golden calf, set up by disap¬
pointed and reckless Ambition? Forbid it,
Heaven.
In taking a "common sense" view, of the
case, I will not so insult the understandings of
my readers as to attempt to argue the right of
tearing up this Great Confederacy of States,
for the causes assigned. As well might I stand
in front of our splendid State Capitol, and tell
the stranger who was paying it the tribute of
his admiration, that it was made merely to
take to pieces again, whenever some insane poli¬
tician should say the word! And yet, what is
that material structure, strong, grand in its im¬
pressive beauty, the pride of our people, the
Council House of Freedom, compared to that
mighty Confederacy of States, that came from
the hands of Washington and his compeers to
astonish and regenerate a world ? And must
we hang our heads when assaults are made up¬
on it by unhallowed ambition under false pre¬
texts? Has patriotism, love of country—that
passion deified by Greece and Rome, arid made
the very symbol of Glory with the great and
good of all time—must it succumb here without
a struggle ?
But we are told of the "wrongs of the South!"
Admitting these, "wrongs," I say—what sort of
counsel is that, which claims a right to split the
South into fragments by way'fof giving success¬
ful battle to the North ? *
Thank God this can never be done. Already
I see the dawning of a better day—the deter¬
mination to pitch overboard these would-be-
counsellors and leaders, in favor of better men.
They have not been able to "precipitate"
Revolution—and they feel it, despite their blus¬
ter—their tyranny 1 The great speech of Mr.
Stephens of Georgia, and the firm stand taken
recently by the Governor of Virginia, has
brought to a dead halt this Revolution, manu¬
factured in South Carolina "by the piece
and with time for reflection, it will never go
down with the patriotic American people.
16 coivris^oisr sense.
Why, the whole doctrine of " Secession" is
but a rehash of Nullification, become "stale
that nauseous compound, upset and scattered
in better days by the heroic Chief Magistrate
who sleeps at the Hermitage ; and shall Rhett
and his co-laborers be allowed again to present
it for acceptance to the sensible—the patriotic
people of Tennessee ? Maintain your rights,
as againt the North; but let no one counsel
you to divisions, in hopes to conquer. Let such
counsellors guide us, and our " subjugation" is
indeed sealed. The province of Gascony is'nt
allowed to lead France.
But what of the cormorants and gulls ? Do
you know the nature of a cormorant ? The
most greedy and rapacious of birds, it is ever
on the wing around the glorious old Light
House, striving to fill its famished maw; and
living in the very turmoil of the waves which
beat at its base, they may well typify the disap¬
pointed and madly ambitious aspirants who are
continually dashing themselves against the tall
lantern, to fall at length powerless into the
waves below. What if their fierce screams
ring out in wild discord through the storm,
startling the listeners protected within its
walls, or guided by its light ? What if—as the
morning dawns around—we see the carcases of
these dead politicians drifting about upon the
angry waves?
And if a gull, 0 dear people, is occasionally
seen to have shared their fate, in the fierce tur¬
moil of the wild waters, shall not the rest of
the gulls take heed ?—will they not try to re¬
member the strength of the massive Light
House—the folly of flying against it ?