THE 
 
 LIFE AND TIAES 
 
 OF 
 
 C. G. AEAAINGER 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY D. CAPERS, A. A., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "BELLEVUK," "HISTORICAL SKETCHES IN NORTH CAROLINA," ETC. 
 
 man among a thousand I^awc % found. 
 
 Ecclcs. mi., 28. 
 
 ^^^> ^- " ^ 
 
 RICHMOND, VA. : 
 EVERETT WADDEY CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 
 1893. 
 
r 3 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1893, by 
 
 EVERETT WADDEY CO., 
 In the office of Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
 Electrotyped, printed and bound by 
 Everett Waddey Co. 
 
r 3uniar: 
 
 wfyose er\couragenr\ei\t ar\d ger\erous support I 
 \\avQ beei\ enabled to corr\pile th\is record of a lor\g ar\d 
 Useful life; wt\o, as a strong lir\k ir\ tl^e cJ\air\ tt\at bir\ds 
 tl\e present to th^e past, preserves r^ar^y graces of cfyar- 
 acter wl^icl\ descend to posterity as a priceless legacy; 
 ar\d tl\roUgl-\ tyrr\, to tt\e yoUt^ ar\d th^e rr\ar\l\ood of rr\y 
 country, do I respectfully dedicate tfyis work, ar\ Offer- 
 ir\g at tt\e Sl^rii\e of Patriotisrr\. 
 
 HBHRY D. CAPERS. 
 
 96031 
 
Y7 1 f HE period immediately succeeding the recognition 
 *** of the United States as a government in the family 
 of nations, was one of active emigration to the land an 
 nounced as the abiding place of 
 
 The genius of our institutions of government had been 
 thus represented and declared among the people of Europe 
 in the aphorism above quoted. Whether this declaration 
 was but the proclaimed theory of the French Jacobin, or 
 whether it was more of a fact than a fancy, I will not at 
 tempt to discuss. Nevertheless this is a fact. As in the 
 early Colonial days, so at this time thousands from one 
 consideration or another moving them, left the plains, the 
 hills, and the mountains of the Continent and the King 
 dom of Great Britain, to find new homes in the land of 
 promise beyond the great Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 From among these emigrants the States forming the 
 New Confederation received some of their best citizens: 
 men and women who have left their impress upon our 
 civilization and who, by their works, are declared to the 
 living and to the generations yet to learn of their vir 
 tues and to honor their memories. 
 
 South Carolina received to her generous bosom many 
 of these worthy people, and has in the record of their his 
 tory for the past century, reason to be grateful to the 
 Providence that made them her sons and daughters. 
 
Introductory. 
 
 The history of the State cannot be written without 
 detailing their virtues of manhood and womanhood. 
 Among these, none have become more illustrious, none 
 have served their country more faithfully, none have lejt 
 a better record for the careful study of posterity than he, 
 whose history I am endeavoring to preserve. 
 
 History is, at best, but a well stated narrative of facts 
 It is not fiction, however much these facts may have as 
 sociated with them the circumstances of romance. To 
 gather the facts of a personal history running through a 
 half century of active public life, is by no means an easy 
 task, even to one ivho may have been the contemporary of 
 the person whose history he would write ; but when one 
 is dependent upon the records of a public kind, that have 
 been scattered or destroyed, and upon the kindness of those 
 ivho were actors in the scenes of so long a drama, the 
 difficulties that embarrass his undertaking become so 
 great that lie is at times almost in despair. It is much 
 to be regretted that our great men do not leave to posterity 
 at least an autobiographical sketch, a journal, if you 
 please, containing the leading events of their lives ; for 
 the saying of Doctor Samuel Johnson is, to an extent, true, 
 
 "!&. man s life fs best mtritten by f^tmsclf." 
 
 These lives are so active, and their engagements so 
 exacting, that there is but little time for this. Fortunately 
 the writer has been enabled to gather the facts of this his 
 tory from the most reliable sources. Whenever he has 
 only a tradition, it will be so stated, and whenever he 
 makes a statement as a fact, the reader may depend 
 upon this statement being supported by the most undoubted 
 authority. 
 
LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 parentage aijd Qtyildtyood 
 
 [N the ninth day of January, one thousand eight 
 hundred and three, was born in the town of Nay- 
 hingen, in the Dukedom of Wiirtemberg, Ger 
 many, CHRISTOPHER GUSTAVUS MEMMINGER, only son of 
 Christopher Godfrey Memminger, Quartermaster of the 
 Prince-Elector s Battalion of Foot Jaegers, or Riflemen, and 
 Eberhardina Elisabeth Memminger, whose maiden name 
 had been Kohler. 
 
 The following certificate of the birth and baptism of the 
 remarkable man whose history I am writing, is taken from 
 the Register of Baptisms and duly signed by the Deacon in 
 charge at the time it was executed. The certificate, in the 
 German language, is as follows: 
 
 $ a it f f rf) e i|n . 
 
 <en 9. Sanuar, 1803, rcurbe fc,ter efjeltdj yieboren unb ben 10. teffelben SKonotS gttauft: 
 
 GfyHftopl) uftaw. 
 <Dte Gltern finb: 
 
 >crr (Sfyrtftopb, (Sottfrteb 9J2 1 m m ing er, duavtter 9D?ctiler bep bem (^urfurfttic^en 5 U ^ 
 3io;er SBataUton, unb gr. (iber^arbtna CSltfabet^ a cjeb. S?o f)Iertn. 
 
 SEaufjeugcn warcn: 
 
 , v J{at^oenT)anbter unb 2Betger6er, unb beffen G^efra 
 
 abtna SJJagbalena, ro|eltern, unb gran abtna (Saugerin, (SoIbarbeiterS i 
 gart (iljefrau. 
 
 CDajj ovftel;enbe Slngabe bem ^tefigen Xaufbudje conform fty bejeugt. 
 W a \) i) i n g e n, b. 16. ^anuac, 1803. 
 
 (etaneb) 
 
 W. 1) u 1 1 e n $ o f f e r, 
 
8 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Wratt station. 
 
 On the 9th day of January, one thousand eight hundred and three, was 
 born in this town, and on the tenth day of the same month was baptized, 
 Christopher Gustavus. His parents are Herr Christopher Godfrey Mem- 
 minger, Quartermaster of the Prince-Elector s Battalion of Foot Jregers 
 (or Riflemen), and Mrs. Eberhardina Elisabeth Memminger, whose 
 maiden name was Kohler. 
 
 The sponsors of the child were his grandparents namely, Mr. John 
 Michael Kohler, a member of the Town Council, and by trade a tanner, 
 and his wife, Mrs. Sabina Magdalena Kohler, together with Mrs. Sabina 
 Gauger, wife of Mr. Gauger, a goldsmith at Stuttgart. 
 
 The foregoing is a true extract from and conformable to the Register 
 gf Baptisms. In witness whereof I have signed these presents with my 
 name. 
 
 (Signed) M. DUTTENIIOFEE, Deacon. 
 
 Nayhingen, 1ft January, 1803. 
 
 His father was stationed at the time at Heilbronn, which, 
 he informs us, was a garrisoned town some twenty-seven 
 miles from the home where he had left his wife, for the dis 
 charge of a soldier s duty. In anticipation of this most im 
 portant social event to him, the gallant officer had obtained 
 a furlough and was at home with his precious loves. The 
 following letter, written by him to his sister, is so admirable 
 an expression of the father s natural joy, that I give it place 
 here, the only and sufficient evidence of his worth as a man 
 which could be asked for. The letter is in the German lan 
 guage and in the handwriting of one who was evidently a 
 good pensman as well as an accomplished gentleman. While 
 the translation may not convey the elegance and force of the 
 German language, it will express, without being too liberal, 
 the congratulations of the good father, and plainly indicates 
 that Godfrey Memminger was a man of education, while the 
 tender solicitude and respectful address to his sister evidence 
 a refinement of feeling characteristic of the gentleman every 
 where. Indeed, it could hardly have been otherwise, since 
 his father was an official of no mean rank in the University 
 of Babenhausen 
 
HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 9 
 
 To MADAME GOLDSMITH GAUGER 
 
 (Maiden name Memminger), at Stuttgart : 
 
 Dear Sister, I am at present for a few days on furlough and with my 
 dear wife, therefore I answer your kind letter received just before leav 
 ing my post. 
 
 I now have the pleasure to inform you with the agreeable news that 
 we have born unto us on the 9th of the month, between the hours of 10 
 and 11 at night, a fine healthful son. . . . He was christened in my 
 absence by the name of Christoph Gustav; his sponsors were father and 
 mother-in-law and yourself by proxy. ... I hope and trust that you 
 will excuse me with the confidence I have in you and of the friendship 
 and sister s love which you will bring to the responsible situation of 
 sponsor. 
 
 To-morrow morning I shall return to our garrison in Heilbronn (27 
 miles from Kayhingen). In my next furlough I intend to ask for four 
 teen days and intend to see you. . . . 
 
 We salute you and your dear husband affectionately and remain 
 Your true brother, 
 
 GOTFRIED. 
 
 This letter is dated at Nayhingen, January 16, 1803. 
 It will be noticed that it is signed with the christened name 
 of the writer; a custom, I am informed, that prevails in 
 Germany among the military and well-born. Alas! the gal 
 lant officer of the Prince-Elector s battalion was not destined 
 to secure another leave of absence, but met the fate of a 
 brave soldier. Within one month from the time that he re 
 turned to his post of duty, a grave at Heilbronn became the 
 resting place of Christopher Godfrey Memminger, and the 
 soldier was off duty forever. 
 
 The name Memminger appears to be not only well known 
 in the kingdom of Wiirteinberg, but several members of the 
 family have at different times reached distinction there and 
 elsewhere in the German Empire. 
 
 Johann Friedrich Memminger, the grandfather of Chris 
 topher Gustavus, was at one time an officer of rank in the 
 ? University of Babenhausen. 
 
 Henri Memminger, the son of Gustavus, and the first 
 cousin of our Mr. Memminger, appears to have achieved 
 
10 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 considerable distinction in letters. The following notice of 
 his death appeared in the Independence Beige, a newspaper 
 published at Brussels. I find it attached to a letter from 
 Mr. Memminger s uncle, addressed to him at Charleston, 
 and dated at Verdun, 1st of December, 1855. 
 
 " M. Henri Memminger, I un des directeurs du ceUebre 6stablissement de 
 Seraing, est mort a Jemappes le 4 fevrier dernier. M. Memminger n6 ;! 
 Mayence en 1791 habitait la Belgique depuis 1853. A cette epoque, il etait 
 directeur des bateaux a vapeur de Mayence a Cologne, les premiers qui 
 aient te etablis sur le Rhin. C est alors que M. Cockerille le fit venir a 
 Liege, ou il dirigea la construction des premiers bateaux a vapeur en 
 Belgique. 
 
 " M.^Memminger possedait toutes les langues de 1 Europe et les parlait 
 avec facilite; il pouvait ainsi diriger toute la correspondance de Petablisse- 
 inent sans jamais recourir a. un interprcte. 
 
 " Malgre see nombreuses occupations, M. Memminger trouvait encore des 
 loisirs pour s occuper de 1 etude des beaux-arts et des lettres. Verse dans 
 la connaissance des auteurs anciens, il ne se contentait pas de parler les 
 divers langues de 1 Europe, il en possedait la litterature d une manicre re- 
 marquable." 
 
 M. Henri Memminger etait neveu d un de nos concitoyens, M. Mem 
 minger. 
 
 I am informed that there is a handsome monument in 
 the city of Brussels to the memory of Mr. Henri Memmin 
 ger near La Gare du Nord. 
 
 The years immediately following the death of Godfrey 
 Memminger were eventful in Europe. Napoleon was waging 
 his wonderful wars of conquest and carrying his victorious 
 armies through the German States to leave in their rear the 
 ruins of once happy homes and the wretchedness that fol 
 lows the tramp of contending hosts. Thousands, who could 
 secure the means, were leaving their fatherland and through 
 many adversities were seeking release from their woes in 
 the land of Washington. 
 
 Among these was John . Michael Kohler, who, with his 
 family, emigrated to America, and reached, first, the city of 
 Charleston, then among the most prominent seaports of the 
 
HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 11 
 
 United States. Accompanying Mr. Kohler was his daugh 
 ter, Eberhardina Memminger, and her only son, Christopher 
 Gustavus. Shortly after reaching Charleston the gentle 
 mother, worn with her long and exhausting voyage, suc 
 cumbed to disease, and left her bright boy, the sole repre. 
 sentative of his name in America, to join her gallant hus 
 band beyond the stars. 
 
 Of this mother I am not informed, except in a single sen 
 tence in a letter written to Mr. Memminger in 1837, by an 
 aunt, the sister of his father, who speaks of her as a lovely 
 woman. The reader will pardon me here for expressing a 
 regret that I cannot give more information as to the history 
 of the mother. It may be readily conjectured, however, 
 that she possessed a decided character, transmitting by a 
 law of heredity almost invariable in its action, her mental 
 endowments and moral graces to her only son. Great and 
 good men are only the offspring of great and good mothers. 
 So well established is this fact that I apprehend it would be 
 difficult to find in the history of the human family a marked 
 exception to the general rule. Natural laws, ever acting to 
 produce the evolution of man, remain the same with the 
 human family as they are recognized to exist and to act 
 among inferior animals. The mother of Memminger the 
 infant, was also the mother of Memminger the man of earn 
 est purpose, commanding ability, and a strong physical con 
 stitution. 
 
 Our higher nature whether we are pleased to consider it 
 the expression of intellectual endowments alone, or whether 
 we would associate with it a " supervising deity," called the 
 soul is but a gem held within a casket, not alone, but so 
 intimately associated and directly connected with the casket, 
 that the frailty of the latter is the imperfection, the injury 
 and ultimately the destruction of the other. 
 
 Mr. Kohler, the grandfather, does not appear to have re 
 mained long in Charleston. He removed to Philadelphia, 
 
12 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEVMINGER. 
 
 and his family, with the exception of his grandson Mem- 
 minger, shortly after followed him there. A most impor 
 tant event in the history of Mr. Memmino-er occurred at this 
 
 t> O 
 
 time an event which was even at his tender age of infancy 
 to turn the current of his life, and to prove, in the end, the 
 providential means of securing to him a career of great 
 honor and usefulness, while it gave to Charleston and to 
 South Carolina one who was to he among the worthiest of 
 citizens. When he was hut four years old, the orphan boy 
 of Wiirtemberg was entered formally at the " Orphan s 
 House " of Charleston, and there found, with noble men 
 and women to direct his course, the initial point from which 
 we may begin to trace his remarkable and noble career. 
 The entry of this important event in the life of Mr. Mem- 
 miriger is distinctly made in the records of the institution. 
 It is in these words: 
 
 THURSDAY, 29th January, 1807. 
 
 Present : John B. Holmes, Nathaniel Russel, Daniel Hall, John Par 
 ker (Commissioners) 
 
 Took into consideration the application of Magdalena Kohler for the 
 admission of her grandchild, Christopher Gustavus Memminger, aged 
 four years, and agreed thereto. 
 
 One of the most beneficent institutions among the many 
 that have long evidenced the spirit of the citizens of Charles 
 ton is the Asylum for Orphans, founded more than a century 
 ago, and for all this period fostered by the genius of a noble 
 people, who make the good city by the sea a type of Chris 
 tian civilization. As a home for worthy children bereft of 
 parents, and a place where the care and solicitudes of a 
 father and mother arc substituted by a generous Providence, 
 there are but few the equals and none superior to the Or 
 phans Home of Charleston, either in Europe or America. 
 From the tenderest age of infancy, until the youth is pre 
 pared to enter upon some useful and honorable vocation, the 
 watchful care of excellent matrons and the tutorage of ac- 
 
HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 13 
 
 complished men and women, supervised by a Board of Com 
 missioners selected from among the representative men of 
 the city, guide the tottering steps of infancy, and furnish 
 every appliance for a thorough common school education. 
 
 I am much indebted to Miss Agnes K. Irving, the accom 
 plished Principal of this noble institution, for a beautiful 
 volume containing the proceedings of the Centennial cele 
 bration held October 18, 1890. From its interesting pages 
 I extract the following salutatory address, written by Thomas 
 M. Hanckle, Esq., and delivered by Master J. Elliot Alex, 
 a little orphan boy of nine years. 
 
 This address well expresses the character of the institu 
 tion and the spirit of the people who, for more than a cen 
 tury, have kept a sacred fire burning upon its holy altar. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 That is a beautiful and touching custom of happy families which 
 celebrates the birthday of each loved child of the household, and by 
 smiles and gifts and gentle words, and merry sports, loads each passing 
 hour with the beauty and the fragrance of domestic affection. 
 
 On such a day, father and mother unite their thanks, as they recall 
 the hour in which they received the sweet, bright gift of God. 
 
 On that day the happy child feels a dignity in his little life, and year 
 after year learns to value more and more, the tender love which has 
 followed him all his days, and with anxious yearnings, has watched for 
 his growth in wisdom as he grows in stature. 
 
 Most fitting and grateful then is this Centennial celebration of the 
 day on which the noble city of Charleston, adopted as her own, the poor 
 and forsaken orphans of the city and gathered them for all time within 
 the merciful arms of her love and protection. 
 
 It is the Orphan s Birthday the day of his adoption. 
 
 Nearly one hundred years ago, the last blow was struck which com 
 pleted the venerable pile around which with generous pride, the warm 
 affection, and the benevolent interests of Charleston were clustered so 
 long. 
 
 Her people, still staggering under the shock of the Revolution, found 
 time to conceive the plan of this noble charity; and her citizens, still 
 impoverished by a wasting war, found means, with frugal zeal and will 
 ing hands, to build the home of the fatherless. 
 
 On that day more than one hundred children orphaned, helpless, 
 
14 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 destitute and friendless, were gathered within its walls, and the Or 
 phans Home began its career of mercy and usefulness as an Institution 
 of the city. 
 
 On that day the event was honored with public rejoicings, with mu 
 tual congratulations, and with thanksgiving to God. 
 
 And to-day we celebrate, not only the Orphan s Birthday, but the 
 day-spring of a wise and liberal charity. 
 
 Anniversaries like these are the resting places of memory. 
 
 As the revolving years tell the age of the world, and record its his 
 tory, so do anniversaries like these, mark the progress of each lesser life 
 and preserve its memories. Well may we celebrate this day, then, with 
 solemn procession, with the swelling strains of music, with songs of joy, 
 and hymns of praise. 
 
 On this bright festival day of commemoration and rejoicing, kind 
 and respected friends, do the adopted children of the city bring you 
 greeting. They greet you with congratulations that health and pros 
 perity have been the portion of our city and our Institution. 
 
 They would rejoice with you, that each passing year has but served 
 to make the foundations of our " House " deeper and stronger to give 
 new energy to its mission of mercy, and to lend a new grace to the 
 peaceful annals of its walls. 
 
 They are glad to greet those whose generous aid supports our Insti 
 tution, and the children, and the children s children of those who laid 
 its foundations. 
 
 And they are happy to say that they bring with them the testimo 
 nials of their teachers and guardians, that they have endeavored to 
 profit by the many advantages by which they are surrounded. 
 
 We greet you, children of happy families, who have come to unite in 
 our festival, with our youthful sympathy. Like you. we, too, are endeav 
 oring to fit ourselves for the life that lies before us, and we trust that 
 we shall one day meet you in the fields of labor, or wherever else our 
 duty shall call us, ready to do our city and our State true and unselfish 
 service, and to express our gratitude by our acts. 
 
 We greet you, Mr. Mayor, and gentlemen of the Council, with our 
 thanks for the liberal supplies you have so cheerfully voted for our sup 
 port; for the interest you have always manifested in our welfare, and 
 for your presence to-day to give dignity and importance to this occasion. 
 
 We greet you, gentlemen of the Board of Commissioners, with our 
 congratulations on your wise and successful administration of this no 
 ble charity, and with our warmest gratitude for the untiring zeal and 
 tender care with which you have watched our comfort, our improvement 
 and our happiness. To you, Reverend Sirs, who from Sabbath to Sab 
 bath break to us the " Bread of Life," we bring our heartfelt greetings 
 and thanks. 
 
HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 15 
 
 We bring our warmest greetings to you, our beloved Principal, Teach 
 ers and Matrons, and to you, our dear and kind Physician. 
 
 We have no words to express all we owe to you. 
 
 In your wise and gentle hands the cold charity of the world has been 
 warmed into the melting tenderness of home and household. The God 
 of the Fatherless alone can give you your wages. 
 
 Again, we greet all that are present here to-day, with the prayer that 
 this day, so eagerly anticipated and so keenly enjoyed by us, may be to 
 them, a day of mingled peace and blessing in all their happy homes. 
 
 It was at this Home that the orphan boy of Nayhingen 
 found a sweet solace for the woe that had deprived him of a 
 father s care and a mother s love, and it was here that the 
 impress of manly virtues became fixed in his mind. Here 
 it was that the foundation was laid upon which the youth 
 and the young man afterwards erected the splendid super 
 structure of his character. Here that he found a friend in 
 Mr. Thomas Bennett, who took him, at the age of eleven, 
 into his own family, and became to him in every sense a 
 foster-father. There is somewhat a parallel in the child 
 hood life of Mr. Memminger and that of Sir Michael Fara 
 day, the great English scientist and successor to Sir Hum 
 phrey Davy. Both of these eminent men were the recipients 
 of benefactions at an early age, and both were led to their 
 benefactors by a chain of circumstances that I am not dis 
 posed to consider accidental. " There s a divinity that 
 shapes our ends," says Shakespeare in Hamlet, who would 
 thus account for the moral forces constantly at work in our 
 humanity and inciting us to action. "There is a fatality in 
 being," says another; and yet another, greater than all, 
 whose teachings Mr. Memminger accepted in his mature 
 age, who assures us that even the "sparrows " have the super 
 vising care of a great Creator who, in the appointments of 
 his Providence, is not alone the Author, but who is the 
 Director of all the issues of life. It is immaterial whether 
 we accept the explanation of the one or the other, the fact 
 still remains as a fact long observed that men often fail in 
 
16 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 life with the most promising and propitious circumstances 
 investing them, while others, with none of these environ 
 ments, appear to be Fortune s master and Fortune s favor 
 ites. Whether found " drawing at a ivcll," or "grinding at a 
 mill" the one is chosen and the other is left. 
 
 The reader will pray indulge me while I present another 
 thought suggested by the study of these remarkable lives. 
 Judicious labor and earnest zeal, the persistent purpose of a 
 determined, positive nature, are the essential conditions on 
 which one is permitted to receive the smiles of Fortune. 
 "The gods help them who help themselves," is not alone a trite 
 maxim, older than M sop s philosophy, but quite as true as 
 it is old. Those are most apt to succeed in life who deserve 
 success, and to be deserving one must conform to the exact 
 ing conditions upon which bread was promised to our re 
 creant parents in Paradise; he must learn to labor, to watch 
 and wait. Nothing is or can be denied to well-directed 
 labor, and nothing worth the having can be secured without 
 it. Again, those men who have been the most useful in 
 life, whether in Church or State, or in directing the indus 
 trial pursuits of society who have left behind them a his 
 tory that only brightens as the ages go by are those who, 
 in a slow and careful development of the powers of the mind 
 and a uniform practice of the virtues of true manhood, have 
 preserved their individuality, while they have adhered to 
 the principles, recognised the precedents and profited by the 
 experiences of those who had preceded them on the stage of 
 life. It is not the most brilliant intellect that is the least 
 erratic, nor is it he who has a birth-right that for this reason 
 alone must become the great man and the good citizen. 
 " Honor and shame from no conditions rise." It is a weak 
 ness of our humanity to regard what we are pleased to call 
 misfortunes, and especially those which deprive us of wealth 
 and the caste in which that possession sometimes expresses 
 
HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 17 
 
 its power, as being disgraceful and of necessity humiliating 
 to the spirit of a proud man. "While the possession of 
 wealth brings a certain degree of independence, and may add 
 dignity to the surroundings of those w r ho properly use it, by 
 no means does it follow that poverty is a badge of disgrace. 
 
 This is especially true with the young, who, though incon 
 venienced and often made to suffer through the improvi 
 dence or misfortunes of their parents, are yet without the 
 experiences of turpitude, the essential precursor of disgrace. 
 It is only a very vain and very weak person who would seek 
 to hide away in oblivion or to obscure with falsehood an 
 humble origin, or an association with those who had been 
 the recipients of so noble a charity as that of the Charleston 
 Orphan House. 
 
 I have taken up my pen to write the history of a great 
 man, whose character and achievements are not dependent < 
 upon the suppression of a single fact of his history, as it 
 cannot be added to by the mere platitudes of eulogy. Mr. 
 Memminger, not even when he had acquired fortune, when 
 his fame as a great lawyer was well secured, and his name 
 had become a household word with the people of the South 
 ern States who delight to honor their statesmen not only 
 when as a Cabinet officer he sat at the Council Board of 
 President Davis, recognised as his most trusted adviser, did 
 he ever boast of, or in any manner deny, the fact of his 
 orphanage or the benefaction he had received in his child 
 hood. Whenever occasion required him to make reference 
 to this period in his history, it was never that he did so with 
 the boasting spirit of the so-called " self-made" man, nor 
 w r as it with the mean evasion that the vain person alone 
 evidences, but always with a manly frankness and a great- 
 ful sense of a kindness bestowed, that could but exalt him in 
 the estimation of all right-thinking people. In after years, 
 when as an alderman and a citizen of wealth and influence 
 
18 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 in Charleston, he was in position to do so, he not only be 
 came a Commissioner to guard the institution that had been 
 his childhood s home, but with a solicitude which could 
 only have come from his experiences, he would watch the 
 education and minister in the gentlest manner to the com 
 fort of the children who were, as he had been, the wards of 
 the city. As his biographer, I consider that it would not be 
 just to the character of my noble friend, nor would it be 
 more than a partial discharge of the duty I owe to posterity 
 should I omit this most interesting period of his life. A 
 gentleman of high character, now residing in Charleston, 
 informs me that he, in a public speech of Mr. Memminger s 
 long, long ago, remembers only this sentence: 
 
 . . . "Not that I would object to have any son of mine sit by the 
 side of the poorest boy in the land, for I have not forgotten that I was 
 once a poor boy myself." 
 
 Leaving the nursery, the play-grounds, the school-room 
 and sympathies of the Orphan House at the tender age of 
 eleven years, young Memminger found himself a part of the 
 family of an excellent gentleman whose many graces of 
 character were to infuse themselves into the plastic nature of 
 a clever boy, while his ample fortune enabled him to secure 
 for his protege the best facilities that the country offered for 
 securing an education. At the time that young Memmin- 
 ger was adopted into his family, Mr. Bennett had not only 
 reached distinction, but was recognized in Charleston and 
 throughout the State of South Carolina as a representative 
 man among the men who in that day made the peculiar vir 
 tues of Carolina civilization admirable even in the courtly 
 circles of Europe. Around the fireside or in the counsels 
 of the nursery, at the dinner table or in the drawing-room, 
 there were no associations but those of the Christian gen 
 tleman, the devoted patriot, and the upright citizen. The 
 refinements of a cultured family were there to inculcate the 
 virtues of a true manhood. 
 
HIS PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 19 
 
 From boyhood to manhood is but a short period in the 
 evolution of character, but it is a most important and inter 
 esting one. It is then that the boy needs the constant care 
 of one whose disinterested love and experiences are to lead 
 him in the right way, and are to secure to him the facilities 
 for mental training and proper physical as well as moral 
 cultivation. The germs or elemental principles of charac 
 ter may have, and undoubtedly do come through laws of 
 heredity, but it requires patient watchfulness and good train 
 ing to educe possibilities which otherwise may remain dor 
 mant or become perverted to base ends and ignoble purposes. 
 
 At the home of Governor Bennett, young Memminger 
 was made to feel that he was at his own home, and without 
 a word or an act to indicate a distinction, he was treated in 
 every sense as a son and a brother. The best training that 
 tutors could give was provided for him, while on his young 
 mind and aspiring nature a lofty ambition and determined 
 purpose was fixed by one who took him gently by the hand 
 and lead his thoughts into deep channels of truth, and who 
 strengthened his spirit by a noble example of manhood. It 
 was in such an elemental school that destiny had ordained 
 that the future statesman was to be tutored, and not in the 
 home of his good Aunt Frederica at Stuttgart, in Germany. 
 In after years, when her nephew was fast coming into promi 
 nence as a public man, and was winning his first laurels in 
 his city and State, this noble kinswoman sends across the 
 Atlantic this message of love: " It was my intention to raise 
 you in my family, and if I had what would I have done? 
 May be I would have deterred you from your destiny de 
 creed to you, as I believe, by the Almighty Creator." 
 
 This " destiny" was preparing her " lovely Gustavus," as she 
 endearingly addresses him in her letter, for a life of usefulness 
 and for a chaplet of honor in far away America, just as it is 
 to-day 
 
 " Shaping our ends, rough-hew them how we will." 
 
20 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The letter of his aunt, Madame Frederica Gauger (for 
 merly Memminger), above referred to, is a beautiful ex 
 pression of a woman s tender regard for a relative of whom 
 she evidently had lost trace, but whom she yet held dear 
 in her memory. It is dated at " Blumenmacherci in der 
 Hauptstrasse, Stuttgard, Wiirtemberg." I extract from it 
 the following sentence: 
 
 . . . When I consider the emigration of your honorable grandfather 
 and your beloved mother, the great persuasion I used to deter them from 
 such an uncertain project in a far distant part of the world, I am, by 
 your achievement, reminded that there is an All-wise Dispenser of hu 
 man events who governs the affairs of His children better than they are 
 at times disposed to believe. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Jlis Qollecje Cif<? apd /}d/r\issior; to Bar, Etc. 
 
 JITH the thorough preparation that his academic 
 course in Charleston gave to him, Mr. Memminger 
 was entered as a student in the South Carolina 
 College in the year 1815, before he had reached his thirteenth 
 birthday. He came well equipped for the trials which all 
 must undergo who enter an institution of so high a grade, 
 and desire to enjoy its benefits and to contend for its honors. 
 His class in the Freshman year was a large one, and em 
 braced through his college course a number of young men 
 who were his seniors in years, and a few who in after life 
 became distinguished citizens of South Carolina and of other 
 States. At this period in its history the South Carolina Col 
 lege took high rank among the institutions of learning in 
 the United States, and was in fact the leading college of the 
 Southern States. Here, young men came from all sections 
 of the South, and from its classic shades and well-appointed 
 halls were sent out men who for near a century have im 
 pressed their virtues upon the civilization of all sections of 
 our country. Appreciating fully the importance of a liberal 
 education for her sons, and not yet distracted by the politi 
 cal discords that in after years wasted her resources, and 
 which to some extent appear to have alienated the sympa 
 thies of her people, South Carolina made ample provision 
 for the maintenance of this college; and in fact, by the judi 
 cious expenditure of these appropriations made it a great 
 fountain of knowledge, whose pure waters were liberally dis 
 pensed to make useful men of those who were disposed to 
 
 (21) 
 
22 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 drink deep at its Pierian spring. At the time of which I 
 am writing the college had just undergone a severe trial in 
 the enforcement of such discipline as the Faculty were then 
 authorized to execute. The students appear, from the ac 
 count given by Professor La Borde, in his history of the In 
 stitution, to have resorted to violence in resenting what they 
 were pleased to consider grievances, and for some time after 
 the great riot of 1813 they appear to have remained in a 
 state of more or less disorder, if not in open rebellion against 
 the constituted authorities. Dr. Jonathan Maxey, the phi 
 losopher and eminent divine, was the President; Robert 
 Henry was Professor of Moral Philosophy; the great Doctor 
 Cooper, of Chemistry; Thomas Park, of Languages, and 
 George Blackburn of Mathematics and Astronomy. The 
 tutors were Timothy D. Porter, of Languages, and James 
 Camak, of Mathematics. 
 
 The classmates of Mr. Memminger were Henry Campbell, 
 John Campbell, Ulrick B. Clark, Wm. R. Clowney, Charles 
 James Colcock, Mark A. Cooper, John M. Deas, Franklin 
 H. Elmore, James A. Fleming, Benjamin Green, Samuel M. 
 Green, Ezra M. Gregg, James A. Groves, John S. Groves, 
 John M. Harris, Samuel J. Hoey, Benjamin F. Linton, Thos. 
 Jefferson Means, Henry G. Nixon, John A. H. Norman 
 Edward G. Palmer, James S. Pope, Wm. Porcher, John M. 
 Ross, Napoleon B. Scriven, Samuel P. Simpson, Joseph 
 Stark Sims, James E. Smith, Thomas House Taylor, Wm. 
 H. Taylor, and Edward Thomas. 
 
 From a circular issued by the President in 1819, the fol 
 lowing I find to be the requisite in order to enter the Fresh 
 man class: 
 
 A candidate must be able to sustain a satisfactory examination upon 
 Arithmetic and Elementary Algebra and English Grammar; upon Cor 
 nelius Nepos, Coesar, Sallust, and the whole of Virgil s JSneid in Latin ; 
 and in Greek upon the Gospels of Sts. John and Luke, the Acts of the 
 Apostles, and the Greek Grammar. . . . The studies to be pursued 
 
HIS COLLEGE LIFE, ETC. 23 
 
 in the Freshman year are Cicero s Orations and the Odes of Horace in 
 Latin, Xenophon s Cyropredia and Memorabilia in Greek, Adam s Ro 
 man Antiquities, Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, the Equations and Ex 
 traction of Roots, English Grammar and Rhetoric. 
 
 What youth of twelve summers, even in this day, would 
 have passed the ordeal of such an examination, and held not 
 only a respectable place in his class, but have led it as did 
 young Memminger. 
 
 The writer was privileged to know, in the maturity of 
 their lives, and to an extent was intimate with, the Hon. 
 Mark A. Cooper and Rev. John S. Groves, citizens of Georgia, 
 who entered college with Mr. Memminger, and during the 
 entire course knew him as only* class-mates and room-mates 
 can know each other. From these gentlemen I have gath 
 ered all that I present of the college life of Mr. Memminger, 
 beyond that he has preserved in the form of essays and 
 orations which appear in the Appendix to this volume. I 
 am especially indebted to my excellent friend, Rev. John S. 
 Groves, of Oxford, Georgia, for the pleasure he has afforded 
 me in going over these happy days of his youth, and for the 
 entertainment he has given me as with that zeal which 
 only a loving nature can manifest he would live over his 
 college life, and with song and with story recount the inci 
 dents that made the college boy then, as he always has been 
 and must ever be, a peculiarly interesting character. 
 
 " Memminger," says Mr. Groves in a sketch made by him 
 for me, "was the smallest in stature, as he was the youngest 
 in years, of the boys who entered with me the South Caro 
 lina College in 1815. His appearance, when I first saw him, 
 was that of a mere child. In those days boys were not per 
 mitted to assume the roll of grown men, and in dress, as 
 well as in behavior, were less precocious than in these later 
 days of Young America. This was especially so with the 
 boys from our seaboard city of Charleston. With his back 
 to you, and dressed as he was in a neat-fitting round-about 
 
24 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 or jacket, you would have thought him to have been one of the 
 children of Columbia who had wandered into the campus, 
 so small was he and so childlike in appearance, but let him 
 turn and face you, and then enter into conversation with 
 him, and you would be at once undeceived. His manner 
 was all earnestness, w r hile his facial expression was that of a 
 person far his senior in age. His most attractive feature 
 w r as his eye a blueish-gray and always at perfect rest when 
 he was speaking to you. He seemed to be looking into your 
 mind, and if he was interested or seeking to impress you 
 with his discourse, you would be held as if by a magnetic 
 force. His face was lean, complexion very fair, nose very 
 prominent, chin rather an oval termination of a strong, well- 
 formed maxillary, with a mouth rather large, and thin, com 
 pressed lips so much compressed at times that his mouth 
 appeared but as a line. His hair was a dark brown, almost 
 black. Memminger had an expression under all circum 
 stances of earnestness; I cannot say it was an expression of 
 melancholly, but it was more that of care, of serious delib 
 eration. He was the student of our class. We had not been 
 ten days on our course before he was in the lead. His reci 
 tations were prepared with the utmost care, and while at 
 times he would enter heartily into the sports of the campus, 
 yet I never knew him charged with an indiscretion that 
 would necessitate an apology to a class-mate or a rebuke 
 from a Professor. 
 
 " I soon learned not only to like him, but to have for the 
 Charleston boy/ as we called him, a great respect. He was 
 very laborious and never an idler. For some time we were 
 room-mates. Often have I been rebuked by finding him at 
 work with his text-books when I would come in late from 
 some social entertainment. Mr. Memminger was born for 
 a leader. Young as he was, in years a mere child, yet in 
 the debating society or at our class-meetings, whenever there 
 
HIS COLLEGE LIFE, ETC. 25 
 
 was a doubt about a course of procedure, and we were, as all 
 college boys will be, at our council board, Memminger s 
 opinions were very apt to be our rule of action; especially 
 was it so towards the close of our college term. He would 
 wait until all had delivered their wisdom, and then come 
 with a statement of the case that was clear and convincing. 
 I cannot say that he was regarded as having a mind of flash 
 ing brilliancy in the sense that General Toombs or Ben Hill 
 are by some regarded; but he had, in my opinion, a more 
 judicial mind than either of them. There was no meteoric 
 light about it, but the clear, steady light of a planet. I was 
 much impressed with his strict adherence to rules and his 
 devotion to principles while he was in college. These rules 
 for the conduct of his life were prepared for him by some 
 sincere friend, and he had them written upon a tablet, and 
 ever before his mind as the inflexible law of his college life 
 which no possible temptation could lead him to forget. 
 
 " While he was not a member, as I now remember, of any 
 religious society, yet he always attended upon the services 
 at the chapel, and was scrupulously careful in observing his 
 morning and evening devotions. 
 
 "After graduation our lives diverged. He remained in his 
 loved Carolina while I moved elsewhere. I have followed 
 his course in public life with much pleasure, and would only 
 have been surprised if he had not made the record he has 
 among the great men of the country. His orations in the 
 Junior class, and one while he was a Senior in 1819, on the 
 Influence of Popular Opinion, were well received at the 
 time and gave evidences then of a fact, now assured, that 
 nature had cast his mind in no ordinary mould. He pos 
 sessed to a degree I have never known surpassed the fac 
 ulty of concentration. I have known him when surrounded 
 by a troup of boisterous college boys to continue his studies 
 amid every kind of interruption. 7 
 
26 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 I extract from a letter written by the Hon. Mark A. 
 Cooper, a United States Senator, and among the ablest and 
 most honored citizen of Georgia, the following: 
 
 I am not unmindful of my promise to you, made some time ago, to 
 prepare a sketch of the college days of my old friend, Mr. Memminger, 
 of South Carolina. I have only delayed because at my advanced age I 
 find it by no means as easy to handle a pen as in the days gone by 
 alas, gone by forever ! . . . My delay has at least given me the plea 
 sure of reading a letter from you which be assured is highly appreciated. 
 . . . From the first time I met him, a mere boy, when we matriculated 
 at the South Carolina College, to this moment, I have had for C. G. Mem 
 minger the utmost respect. I well remember him, a delicately framed 
 boy, who appeared to be too young to be away from home influences, and 
 by several years the youngest of those who entered the Freshman class 
 of 1815. There was in his childish appearance that which to a stranger 
 might have detracted from the dignified personnel of a collegiate, yet 
 there was in his intellectual eye and impressive face the undoubted ex 
 pression of a mind that would command respect from those who were 
 larger in physical proportion or who were older in years. 
 
 At college he was very attentive to his duties, a close and critical stu 
 dent, and in every sense of the term a clever youth. There were others 
 in our class who were thought to possess more brilliant intellects, but 
 none who were more earnest in their labors or more direct in their 
 methods. I can recall several who have never reached a place of note, 
 or became at all distinguished, who were regarded in their college days 
 as being more talented than Memminger; . . . but none who were 
 superior to him in that painstaking labor and thorough analysis so essen 
 tial to the acquisition of knowledge, and to its judicious application in 
 the affairs of life. We were members of the same debating society 
 the Clariosophic. I have often listened to him in debate with great sat 
 isfaction, and have found him by no means an antagonist to be lightly 
 considered. Mr. Memminger s success in life was all foreshadowed in 
 his college days. That he should have reached the eminent position 
 among our great men that now renders his name distinguished is no 
 matter of surprise to me. . . . 
 
 Some of the orations referred to by Mr. Groves are printed 
 in the Appendix to this volume. They plainly indicate the 
 strength of the youth s mind. For these papers I am in 
 debted to Mr. Edward Memminger, of Flat Rock, a worthy 
 son, as I am for others that have been long treasured as 
 familv heirlooms. 
 
HIS COLLEGE LIFE, ETC. 27 
 
 The prescribed college course has been finished, and the 
 time comes when the Freshman has matured into the digni 
 fied Senior, who, in the presence of the august guardians of 
 his alma-mater and before the assembled populace, is to 
 receive the official certificate of his proficiency and be ush 
 ered into the arena of life to meet its duties and to engage 
 in its combats; to go down before these in the ignominy of 
 failure, or to acquire fame and the emoluments of victory, 
 the honors of men, and more than all the approval of his 
 own conscious manhood, and the esteem of his fellow-citizens. 
 The merit and demerit marks have all been counted by the 
 professors, when it is announced that the gray-eyed boy 
 from Charleston has by his proficiency won the second 
 place of distinction in a large and talented class, and has 
 been awarded the honor of delivering the salutatory address 
 at the " Commencement " exercises. The young gentleman 
 who contended with Mr. Memminger for the " First Honor " 
 was Mr. Thomas House Taylor, who won it by so small an 
 advantage that the Faculty were for some time in doubt. A 
 few years later brought about a change in the rules of the 
 college, making the " First Honor " graduate the salutato- 
 rian, and awarding to the " Second Honor " the valedictory 
 address, and such is the custom to~day. When young Mem 
 minger, proud of his triumph, was presented by the venera 
 ble president, there was not before him in that happy au 
 dience the beating heart of a father, or was there awaiting 
 him the loving embrace of a mother. The gallant officer of 
 the Prince-Elector s battalion and the patient, proud-spirited 
 mother could only have been near their loved boy in some 
 spirit form, some sweet relation of affinities, that some tell 
 us bring, even from the infinite world, the loves that have 
 left us in this world. Who shall say that it was not so! 
 There was one there, however, to press the hand of his boy, 
 whom he had taken into his own household and to whom he 
 
28 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 was not only disposed to express his congratulations, but 
 about whom he was ready to place the strong arm of his 
 protecting care in the future struggles of life. This was Gov. 
 Thomas H. Bennett, the foster-father, in every sense of the 
 word, of the deserving graduate. 
 
 I do not consider that it would be just to the spirit of my 
 honored friend, whose history I am writing, should I not 
 present more prominently than I have done the character 
 of Governor Bennett, for whom Mr. Memminger always en 
 tertained the greatest respect and a love engendered by the 
 noble nature of his generous friend and benefactor. 
 
 Returning to Charleston from his successful college course 
 with his well-earned honor, Mr. Memminger entered the law 
 office of Mr. Joseph Bennett, the brother of the Governor. 
 In those days admission to the privileges and emoluments 
 of the legal profession was only possible in South Carolina 
 after a course of study that would in these latter days of 
 rapid evolution be considered in some sections as amount 
 ing to a qualified interdiction. It was well that it was so. 
 
 The youth of Mr. Memminger was in his favor, while the 
 training that his superior mind had received the better pre 
 pared him to grasp the subtle realities of the logical science 
 he had determined to master. In the year 1820, when he 
 formally began his law course, the Bar of Charleston was, 
 as it has ever been, noted for the number of eminent lawyers 
 who were practising there in the State and Federal courts. 
 There could have been no better standards of professional 
 ethics, as there were no higher expressions of the learning 
 and the eloquence of the lawyer and advocate; no better 
 school in which to absorb by the contact of association, as 
 there was no better forum for the exhibition of the noblest 
 expressions of true manliness. It was then that Stephen 
 D. Miller, Hugh S. Legare, Henry L. Pinckney, James L. 
 Pettigru, Eobert Y. Hayne, Henry Bailey, Daniel and Alfred 
 
HIS COLLEGE LIFE, ETC. 29 
 
 Huger, B. F. Hunt, Richard Yeadon, W. G. Dessassure, 
 Alexander Mazyck, were among the master spirits of the 
 court-room; when, at the General Sessions, the Court of 
 Common Pleas, or at Chancery, Johnston, Harper, O Neal, 
 Butler, Dunkin, Richardson, Wardlaw, Earle, and Evans 
 presided with a grace that would have done honor to West 
 minster or the King s Bench in the palmiest day of English 
 jurisprudence. It was then that Calhoun, McDuffie, Cheves, 
 and Hayne were statesmen expressing thoughts that were to 
 outlive the centuries and " wander through eternity." 
 
 Among the young men just then coming to the Bar was 
 Edward McCrady. For him Mr. Memminger formed an 
 attachment, which was warmly reciprocated, and which con 
 tinued an unbroken friendship during more than the aver 
 age life of men. It has recently been my pleasure to con 
 verse with Mr. McCrady, who, at this writing, is still in life, 
 and at the advanced age of ninety-three retains to a remark 
 able degree the faculties of his mind and a physical strength 
 which I hope will prolong his useful life far into the " serene 
 and solemn beauty of old age." Mr. McCrady describes his 
 then young friend Memminger as being a man of untiring 
 energy, a close, careful student, who lost no opportunity to 
 acquire an accurate knowledge of the principles and the 
 practice of his chosen profession; sincere in his convictions 
 and devoted in the discharge of duty. " He possessed," said 
 Mr. McCrady, " to an extent I have never known surpassed 
 the ability to state a proposition and- lay a case before a 
 judge or a jury as clearly as it possibly could be done. 
 There was nothing superfluous, no redundant expression; 
 but stripped of all extraneous matters the proposition or 
 case would be stated by him so clearly that there could be 
 no mistaking it." 
 
 At this time there was an association among the men of 
 letters in Charleston, known as the " Conversational and De- 
 
30 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 bating Society" to which Mr. Memminger was introduced, 
 and of which he became an active member and regular at 
 tendant. The object of the association appears to have been 
 " for the improvement of the mind and the cultivation of 
 the amenities of life." It was in fact a social club, some 
 what similar to the "Kit-Kat" and old October Clubs of 
 London in the days of Johnson, Goldsmith, Reynolds, and 
 other worthies of their day. The current topics of the day 
 were informally discussed, essays were read, and occasion 
 ally such subjects as were of special interest were debated 
 to the great pleasure and profit of those who were present. 
 This institution was established at an early period in the 
 history of Charleston, as I am informed by Judge George S. 
 Bryan, and numbered among its members those who were 
 prominent in all the pursuits of life clergymen, lawyers, 
 doctors, men of letters, and those engaged in commerce or 
 the business pursuits of the city. The writer can well un 
 derstand that while Mr. Memminger was preparing himself 
 for the duties of his profession, the associations of this club 
 were of great benefit to him. Among the gifted and accom 
 plished men he met there any young gentleman possessing 
 the natural abilities of Mr. Memminger must have received 
 valuable suggestions, as he must also have been impressed 
 with that imprimatur of manhood that made this era in our 
 State s history one of peculiar attractiveness. This club 
 was in existence for near a century. It was reorganized in 
 1842, but appears now to have suffered the fate of other in 
 stitutions of our ante-bellum civilization, and to have gone 
 into that wretched tomb which an unsuccessful revolution 
 prepared, not alone for our material interests, but, alas! for 
 the spirit and, to too great an extent, the sesthetic culture of 
 a gallant people. 
 
 I find among the papers of Mr. Memminger the reported 
 proceedings of another club, which I apprehend was formed 
 
HIS COLLEGE LIFE, ETC. 3} 
 
 among the young lawyers of Charleston. The name, as 
 given in our English participle " The Lying Club " is not 
 so classic as it might have been made, but it is none the 
 less suggestive. This club met, as it appears from the pro 
 ceedings, in general sessions, at the Charleston Coffee-House, 
 a temple whose fame in that goodly day was as great in the 
 old city by the sea as was that of Mercury in ancient Athens. 
 From the old and well-authenticated records of this club it 
 is clear that Mr. Memminger s was one of those happy tem 
 pers which varied at times the stern realities of life with the 
 genuine good humor of a merry soul. 
 
 He had the sweet humors of a happy disposition moving 
 as a deep undercurrent in his strong and manly nature. 
 There was no element of -the cynic, no asceticism in his 
 character. Under no circumstances did he ever display the 
 solemn phariseeism of a Uriah Heap. 
 
 In after years, when he was burdened with the cares, the 
 responsibilities, and many vexing annoyances of a Cabinet 
 officer, the writer was brought into intimate official rela 
 tions with him as the chief clerk and disbursing officer of 
 the Confederate Treasury Department, and was admitted 
 into his confidence as his private secretary and executive 
 officer for at least one year of his term of service. I never 
 knew him to lose control of his temper; never at any time, 
 even when annoyed, as but few officials could be, and 
 always found him re ady at the proper time and place to en 
 joy a good joke, and to relish, with a keen sense of apprecia 
 tion, a genuine witticism. 
 
 In his infancy his grandparents, who were then his guar 
 dians, did not realize the advantage of having him made an 
 American citizen under the provisions of the naturalization 
 laws then of force. He could not be admitted to the Bar as 
 an attorney and counsellor-at-law until this step had been 
 taken. Under the auspices of Mr. Van Buren, an act of 
 
32 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Congress providing for such cases was passed, and under its 
 provisions Mr. Memminger became an American citizen. 
 The following is a copy of the certificate issued by the United 
 States District Court: 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA SOUTH CAROLINA DISTRICT. 
 To all to whom these presents may come greeting: 
 
 Whereas at a Federal District Court, held in the city of Charleston, 
 under the jurisdiction of the United States of America, on the 22d day 
 of June, Anno Domini, 1824, and in the 48th year of the Independence 
 and sovereignty of the said States, Christopher Gustavus Memminger, 
 late of the Duchy of Wurtemberg, in the electorate of Suabia, came into 
 the said court and made application to be admitted a citizen of these, 
 our said States, and having complied with all of the conditions and re 
 quisites of the acts of Congress in such case made and provided for estab 
 lishing a uniform rule for naturalization ; and the oath to support the 
 Constitution of the United States of America, and to renounce all alle 
 giance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, State, or 
 sovereignty whatever, being administered unto him in open court before 
 the Honorable Thomas Lee, District Judge, he, the said Christopher 
 Gustavus Memminger is, by virtue thereof and the premises, declared 
 and enrolled a citizen of the said States. 
 
 In testimony whereof, I have fixed the seal of the said court to these 
 presents, at the city of Charleston, in the district aforesaid, the day and 
 year above written. 
 
 [Signed] JAMES JERVEY, 
 
 District Cleric, S. C. D. 
 
 It is fact of note that two of the most prominent and 
 trusted officers of the Cabinet of President Davis were for 
 eign born Judah P. Benjamin and Mr. Memminger. It 
 does not appear that Mr. Benjamin was ever a citizen dejure 
 of the United States. He moved on in his remarkable 
 career, reaching eminence as a lawyer and distinction as a 
 Senator; became famous as a brilliant expounder of consti 
 tutional law; championed the cause of the Southern States, 
 and subsequently throughout the administration of Presi 
 dent Davis, became his trusted counsellor in the Law De 
 partment, the War Department, and finally, as Secretary of 
 State, without ever having renounced his allegiance to the 
 
HIS COLLEGE LIFE, ETC. 33 
 
 British Government. Not so with Mr. Memminger, the 
 equal in many respects of the gifted Englishman from 
 Louisiana, and, as the writer believes, his superior in those 
 characteristics that mark the upright man who feared God 
 and worked righteously. 
 
 The delay incident to securing the privileges of a citizen 
 of the United States was improved by Mr. Memminger in a 
 close application to the text-books of his profession. It was 
 at this time that he began the preparation of "A Digest of 
 the Decisions of the Court of Appeals, with Notes on the 
 same, and on Leading Cases referred to in the Authorities. " 
 I find only one of the note books among his papers in which 
 this digest i"s commenced. It is in his hand-w T riting, with 
 marginal references to many authorities, clearly indicating 
 the painstaking, methodical work of a careful student. Thus 
 was he laying broad and deep the foundation upon w T hich, 
 in after years, he was to erect the superstructure that will 
 remain for years to grace the judicial walks in which the 
 great men of Carolina lived and made their immortal his 
 tory. 
 
 Admitted to practice in the several courts of South Caro 
 lina, Mr. Memminger at once entered upon a successful pro 
 fessional career. .While he did not make any single depart 
 ment of law a specialty, yet it becomes apparent to those 
 who follow his long and laborious professional life, and read 
 his many cases as of record in the State Reports, that com 
 mercial and constitutional law in all their bearings was his 
 favorite branch, and in these he was eminently successful. 
 The order of - his mind would naturally lead him in this 
 direction. 
 
 When Mr. Memminger came to take his place among the 
 
 lawyers of the Charleston Bar, political affairs were in an 
 
 excited condition, and became more so as each session of 
 
 Congress brought before the people the discussions of ques- 
 
 3 
 
34 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 tions that were fast arraying the Northern and Southern sec- 
 tions of the country against each other, and that ultimately 
 provoked the dissolution of the Union. For years the dis 
 cussion of the rights of the States, under the provisions of 
 the Constitution, had "been growing more and more bitter. 
 These discussions became more excited when the tariff 
 measures, instituted during the administration of John 
 Quincy Adams, were enforced during the presidential term 
 of Andrew Jackson. Public meetings were being held all 
 over the country to protest against the tariff as an iniquitous 
 system of legislation made to advance the interests of the 
 manufacturing States of the North, at the expense of the 
 agricultural sections of the Union. Mr. Clay s great speech 
 in support of "An American system for the protection of 
 American industry," delivered in the House of Representa 
 tives in March, 1824, had called forth the eloquence and logic 
 of Robert Y. Hayne, Mr. Calhoun, Judge Harper, James 
 Hamilton, Langdon Cheves, Henry L. Pinckney and a host 
 of others in opposition to his doctrines; while in Virginia 
 the ringing eloquence of AVilliam B. Giles endorsed the reso 
 lutions reported to the General Assembly of that State pro 
 testing " against the claim or exercise of any power whatever 
 on the part of the general government to- protect domestic 
 manufactures as not being among the grants of power to 
 that government specified in the Constitution of the United 
 States, and also against the operations of the act of Congress 
 passed May 22, 1824, entitled an act to amend an act im 
 posing duties on imports generally called the tariff laws, 
 which vary the distribution of the proceeds of the labor of 
 the community in such a manner as to transfer property 
 from one portion of the United States to another, and to 
 take private property from the owner for the benefit of an 
 other person, not rendering public service, as unwise, unjust, 
 unequal and oppressive." 
 
HIS COLLEGE LIFE, ETC. 35 
 
 In South Carolina, as in Virginia and in other States of 
 the Union, this matter of the " unwise, unjust, unequal and 
 oppressive " character of the tariff led to the formation of two 
 parties, not so much because there was a denial, among any 
 very considerable number, of the unrighteousness and op 
 pressiveness of the measure, but because of a difference of 
 opinion as to the proper remedy to relieve the agricultural 
 sections of the unjust and unconstitutional burdens. Mr. 
 Calhoun presented the right of nullification as a remedy 
 authorised by the Constitution of the United States, and 
 sustained his position with masterly arguments which will 
 rank him among the great reasoners and statesmen of 
 
 O O 
 
 America as long as our institutions of government endure. 
 
 Nullification as a peaceful remedy was opposed by those 
 who believed that it was revolutionary, unauthorized by any 
 provision of the Constitution, and if exercised by the State 
 that every bond of Union existing between the States would 
 be broken and civil war would be the certain result. Both 
 parties claimed to be advocating the doctrine of State 
 Rights the one being known as the " Union State Rights 
 Party," and the other as the party of " Free Trade and 
 State Rights." With the masses they were distinguished 
 as the "Union" and " Nullification" parties. 
 
 Prominent among those who opposed nullification, and 
 among the leaders of the Union party were James L. Peti- 
 gru, William Drayton, Joel 11. Poiiisett, Daniel E. linger, 
 John S. Richardson, Hugh S. Legare, Richard Yeadon, Jr., 
 B. F. Hunt, Richard I. Manning, Henry W. Dessassure, John 
 Belton O Neal, and many others I might mention among 
 the best citizens and truest patriots of the State of South 
 Carolina. 
 
 With the "Union State Rights" party Mr. Memminger 
 early identified himself, and though but a young man, he 
 brought to its service the sincere convictions of his good 
 
36 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 judgment and the earnest zeal of an unselfish patriotism. 
 The great debate in the Senate of the United States be 
 tween Mr. Webster and General Hayne in 1830 had gone 
 far beyond the previous discussions which had been con 
 fined to the right of nullification. Although this debate 
 w r as provoked by a resolution inquiring into the expediency 
 of selling the public lands, it ended in a heated discussion 
 of the sovereignty of a State, and the right of the State to 
 resume that sovereignty under the provisions of a " con 
 tract" or a " compact." Never before in the history of the 
 country was there so much excitement in political affairs. 
 From Washington city this excitement was transferred to 
 the several States, and more of it possibly reached South 
 Carolina than was brought to any other of the Southern 
 members of the sisterhood. Party lines were drawn with 
 distinctness, and partisan feeling rose to a degree never be 
 fore known in the history of the State. To use the language 
 of Mr. Calhoun in his address to the people of South Caro 
 lina, made through the Pendleton Messenger, July, 1837: 
 f< The country is now more divided than in 1824, and then 
 more than in 1816. The majority may have increased, but 
 the opposite sides are beyond dispute more determined and 
 excited than at any other period." Meetings were held in 
 every district, parish and beat in the State, at which the 
 doctrine of nullification was advocated and opposed with all 
 the vehemence incident to such occasions among an excit 
 able people who were appealed to by eloquent and earnest 
 orators. 
 
 The Legislature of 1831 authorized the Governor to call a 
 convention of the people to take into consideration their re 
 lations to the Federal Union. It was to meet at Columbia 
 in the month of November of the following year, and to it 
 delegates were to be selected by the people of the several 
 districts and parishes of the State. The Union party put 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 37 
 
 forth its strongest men and best endeavors to secure their 
 election as the delegates to this convention, and were op 
 posed by the representative men of the nullifiers. I can 
 best portray the state of the public mind, and will, at the 
 same time, preserve a valuable historical paper, for the use 
 of which, I am indebted to the Hon. E. M. Seabrook, of 
 Charleston, by inserting here a copy of the proceedings at 
 a " Celebration of the Fifty-fifth Anniversary of American 
 Independence by the Union State Rights party" at Charles 
 ton, July 4, 1831. 
 
 Celebration of the Fifty-fifth Anniversary of American Independence. 
 
 At a meeting of the " Union and State Rights Party," convened at 
 Seyle s Hall, agreeably to notice, the Hon. Daniel E. Huger was called 
 to the chair, and Robert B. Gilchrist, Esq., appointed secretary. 
 
 The objects of the meeting having been stated, the chairman, on 
 motion, appointed Messrs. J. L. Petigru, S. H. Dickson, C. J. Steedman, 
 A. S. Willington and Joseph Johnson a committee, who reported the fol 
 lowing preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: 
 
 "The Union and State Rights Party, zealously attached to the prin 
 ciples of the Revolution, would celebrate the approaching anniversary 
 of American Independence in the very spirit which animated the illus 
 trious men who fought and bled for American liberty : therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, That a committee of arrangements, consisting of thirteen, 
 be appointed by the chair, to adopt such measures as may be necessary 
 to effect the purposes contemplated by this meeting. 
 
 "Resolved, That a committee of five, of which the chairman of this 
 meeting shall be one, be appointed by the chair, to request the Hon. 
 William Drayton to deliver an oration on the Fourth of July next. 
 
 "Resolved, That twenty-four stewards be appointed by the chair, to 
 aid the committee of arrangements in ordering and conducting such 
 entertainments as may be thought appropriate for the occasion. 
 
 " Resolved, That the committee of arrangements be specially in 
 structed to invite the surviving patriots of the Revolution. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Hon. James R. Pringle be requested by the com 
 mittee of arrangements to preside at the dinner." 1 
 
 The following gentlemen were appointed a committee under the 
 second resolution: Hon. D. E. Huger, B. F. Hunt, Thomas Bennett, 
 Simon Magvvood and J. H. Read. 
 
 It was then unanimously resolved, that the thanks of this meeting be 
 returned to the chairman for his services on this occasion. 
 
 1 In the adoption of these resolutions, the party considered that they were only imitating 
 the example which had been set them by their political opponents. 
 
38 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The following gentlemen were nominated by the chairman as the 
 committee of arrangements and stewards: 
 
 Committee of Arrangements John Stoney, George Warren Cross, Rene 
 Godard, Dr. Francis Y. Porcher, John Strohecker, Dr. James Moultrie, 
 Jr., Dennis Kane, James Adger, Dr. S. Henry Dickson, J. Harleston 
 Read, William Kunhardt, Dr. John Wagner, Edwin P. Starr, C. G. Mem- 
 minger. 
 
 Stewards Robert Pringle, James H. Smith, L. G. Capers, Randell 
 Hunt, William Patton, Abraham Moise, J. Harleston Rutledge, James 
 Marsh, Jr., Charles Lowndes, John B. Legare, William Newton, E. S. 
 Duryea, Augustus Follin, George Buist, Albert Elfe, Cornelius Burck- 
 myer, Charles R. Carroll, Ogden Hammond, Thomas Corbett, Jr., J. B. 
 Thompson, William C. Ilichborn, Juls. Tavel, Daniel Horlbeck, John B. 
 Robertson. 
 
 ASSEMBLY AT THE MARKET AXD PROCESSION. 
 
 The day having arrived, the dawn of it was ushered in in the usual 
 way, by the firing of cannon, ringing of bells, and the parade of the 
 militia. 
 
 At 10 o clock the party began to collect in the market, between 
 Meeting street and the Bay this being the place designated by the 
 committee of arrangements for that purpose, in the morning papers. 
 In a short time the vast multitude which had assembled so much ex 
 ceeded expectation, that it became necessary to call in the assistance of 
 two additional marshals to assist those who had been already selected, 
 and Messrs. Edward M Cready and Thomas Corbett, Jr., were accord 
 ingly added to Messrs. Henry Ravenel, Philip Porcher and Theodore 
 Gaillard. The procession being organized, between 11 and 12 o clock, 
 moved onward to the First Presbyterian or Scotch Church, at the corner 
 of Meeting and Tradd streets, (which was found too small to admit the 
 numerous assemblage, the galleries having been reserved for the ladies,) 
 where they opened in a double line extending at the same moment over 
 a greater portion of the intermediate distance, and were received by a 
 voluntary on the organ by the venerable and accomplished Professor of 
 Music, Mr. Jacob Eckhard the whole moving through the lines from 
 the rear. 
 
 ORDER OF PROCESSION TO THE CHURCH. 
 
 1. The Twenty-four Stewards, corresponding with the twenty-four 
 States, bearing each a banner of blue silk, with the name of a State in 
 scribed on it, and a suitable device. 
 
 2. The Standard of the United States, supported on the right and left 
 by Col. Jacob Sass and Mr. Solomon Legare, two Revolutionary soldiers, 
 both of whom \vere at the siege of Savannah. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 39 
 
 3. Sixty Youths, who having hastily organized themselves, and re 
 quested to be admitted into the procession, were received by the mar 
 shals. 
 
 4. Seventy Ship-Masters and Seamen, with banners on which were 
 inscribed the names of distinguished nautical commanders and naval 
 victories. 
 
 5. Union and State Rights Party: The younger in front, the elder in 
 the rear. This was composed of the industrious and independent of all 
 classes, comprising the moral and political energies of the body politic. 
 They were very numerous, exceeding 1,200 souls. They also carried 
 banners on which were inscribed the names of the battles of the Revo 
 lution and the last war Fort Moultrie and Bunker Hill being in front, 
 and others, Northern and Southern, conjointly following in the rear. 
 
 6. Committee of Arrangement : Thirteen in number, conformably to 
 the thirteen original States. 
 
 7. Foreign Consuls, with their badges and ensignias of office. 
 
 8. Distinguished Guests, invited from various parts of the State. 
 
 9. The Conscript Fathers of the Revolution : A patriotic band, who 
 by their presence in goodly numbers, and the animation with which 
 they joined in doing homage to the day, reminded us of the blood and 
 treasure it had cost, and the duty imposed to transmit it unsullied to 
 posterity. 
 
 10. The Clergy. 
 
 11. The Twenty-four Vice-Presidents : Each representing a State of 
 our Federal Union. 
 
 12. Gen. Daniel Elliott Huger, Reader of Washington s Farewell 
 Address, sustained by Dr. Win. Read, first Vice-President of the Day, 
 and Vice-President of the Cincinnati Society of South Carolina. 
 
 13. The Hon. James R. Pringle, Intendant of the City, and President 
 of the Day; and the Hon. Wm. Drayton, Orator. 
 
 14. The Secretary of the Committee of Arrangements, with the beau 
 tiful blue silk standard of the party, inscribed in golden capitals with 
 the words "Union and State Rights, July 4, 1831," and surmounted by a 
 very splendid eagle. 
 
 Two Bands of Music, placed at proper distances along the line of the 
 procession. 
 
 The whole formed a sublime and imposing spectacle, the moral gran 
 deur of which it would be difficult to give an adequate idea of in words. 
 It was the spontaneous movement of a vast multitude, assembled in the 
 presence of their God, to sacrifice at the altars of their country, and to 
 vow, before Him, their unalterable determination to defend her institu 
 tions and her laws against the attacks of all her enemies, whether they 
 exist in her own bosom, or come against her from abroad. 
 ORDER OP CEREMONIES AT THE CHURCH. 
 
 Prayer by the Rev. Mr. Rodgers. 
 
40 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 AN ORIGINAL ODE. 
 
 Sung by a Choir, accompanied by the Organ. (Air " The Star-spangled Banner.") 
 
 I. 
 
 We will gather, in pride, to the glorious rite, 
 
 In the faith of the free, from our sires that descended; 
 And who shall resist us, when thus we unite. 
 For the Union they won, and so nobly defended, 
 To hallow the hour, 
 When freed from the pow r 
 Of Britain, our eagle first taught her to cow r? 
 We w r ill gather in triumph, in gladness and mirth, 
 And bless our free nation free st nation of earth. 
 
 II. 
 
 With a people unmatched with a freedom, that now, 
 Even now, while all Europe is wrapt in commotion, 
 And the brave bleed or conquer, refusing to bow, 
 Shines forth like a beacon across the broad ocean 
 And with rapture they turn, 
 Where our altars yet burn, 
 
 Their chains are all broken, their tyrants they spurn, 
 And at the pure altar, and round the glad hearth, 
 They bless our free nation free st nation of earth. 
 
 . III. 
 
 Where else is the temple of freedom oh, w r here 
 
 If not in the broad land, our sires have given ; 
 For destiny s self brought our forefathers here, 
 And here was the chain of the tyrant first riven. 
 And to conquer or die, 
 First appealing on high, 
 
 They dared, in his might, the fell monster defy ; 
 While Europe, astonished looked on at its birth, 
 And bless d our free nation free st nation of earth. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Forget not that time of commotion and toil, 
 
 And the glory that sprung from it, cherished forever, 
 Shall guard our freedom and shall hallow our soil, 
 And the foot of the tyrant shall trample them never: 
 For what folly would dare, 
 When our flag is in air, 
 
 And imbued with one spirit, we join in one prayer 
 For the altar that hears it for our home for our hearth 
 God save our free nation free st nation of earth. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 4\ 
 
 Washington s Farewell Address to the People of the United States, 
 was read by Gen. Daniel Elliott Huger. 
 
 This was received with strong and repeated emotions particularly 
 those parts of the Address which are admonitory as to the causes that 
 may threaten disunion and the attempts that would be made to effect it. 
 SECOND ORIGINAL ODE. 
 
 Composed at the Request of the Committee 9^ Arrangements for the occasion. Sung by two 
 voices, accompanied as before. (Air "Scots wha hae wi Wallace bled.") 
 
 I. 
 
 Hail, our country s natal morn, 
 Hail, our spreading kindred-born ! 
 Hail, thou banner, not yet torn, 
 
 Waving o er the free ! 
 While, this day, in festal throng, 
 Millions swell the patriot-song, 
 Shall not we thy notes prolong, 
 
 Hallo w d jubilee! 
 
 II. 
 
 Who would sever Freedom s shrine? 
 Who would draw the invidious line? 
 Though, by birth, one spot be mine, 
 
 Dear is all the rest. 
 Dear to me the South s fair land, 
 Dear, the central Mountain band, 
 Dear, New England s rocky strand, 
 
 Dear the prairied West. 
 
 III. 
 
 Ey our altars, pure and free, 
 By our law s deep-rooted tree, 
 By the past dread memory, 
 
 By our WASHINGTON ; 
 By our common parent tongue, 
 By our hopes, bright, buoyant, young, 
 By the tie of country, strong 
 
 We will still be ONE. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Fathers ! have ye bled in vain? 
 Ages ! must ye droop again? 
 MAKER ! shall we rashly stain 
 
 Blessings sent by THEE? 
 No ! receive our solemn vow, 
 While before Thy throne we bow, 
 Ever to maintain, as now, 
 
 " UNION LIBERTY !" 
 
42 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 In the choruses of both odes, the audience joined with a good deal of 
 enthusiasm ; but at the repetition of the four last lines of the last verse 
 of the second, they simultaneously arose, and thus manifested the deep 
 and swelling emotions with \vhich their bosoms had been inspired. 
 
 This being ended, the orator of the day advanced to the rostrum, which 
 had been occupied by his predecessor, and delivered an able, patriotic, 
 and exceedingly beautiful oration. 
 
 At the close of these ceremonies th*e party adjourned. 
 
 PROCESSION TO AND DESCRIPTION OF THE BOWER. 
 
 The hour of dining having arrived, the party again assembled in aug 
 mented numbers at the market, and at the hour of 4 o clock moved off, 
 in an order the reverse of that which had been adopted in the morning, 
 to the Union Bower at the corner of Meeting and George streets, where 
 dinner was in waiting to receive them. 
 
 The very extensive building, erected by the party for this especial pur 
 pose, covering a space of forty-five feet in width by one hundred and 
 fifty feet in length, was found inadequate to accommodate all who had 
 assembled, and from two hundred to three hundred persons were obliged, 
 notwithstanding the erection of an additional table the whole length of 
 the building on the outside, to stand up and exchange places, alternately, 
 with those who were seated. The entertainment was abundant, and for 
 so numerous a company served up in superior style. The wines were 
 excellent, and the whole company enjoyed " the feast of reason and the 
 flow of soul." About 10 o clock the party retired, highly pleased at the 
 manner in which they had passed the day. 
 
 The lot and building in which the party dined were decorated with a 
 taste at once showy and becoming. Festoons of evergreens encircled 
 the pillars, which, though we cannot exactly consider or designate them 
 as "Corinthian columns," were, nevertheless, very neat and substantial. 
 The hickory, entwined with the palmetto and the pine, were conspicuous 
 as appropriate emblems in illustrating the pride and strength of our 
 country; and from the archways, one of which being appropriated to 
 each individual, were suspended shields bearing the names of Moultrie, 
 Warren, Lafayette, Manning, Sumter, Hampton, Lincoln, Motte, Pu- 
 laski, C. C. Pinckney, Thomas Pinckney, De Kalb, Pickens, Putnam, 
 Marion, Rutledge, Lee, Laurens, Steuben, AVayne, William Washington, 
 Starke, Morgan, Knox, B. Huger, Shepherd, Isaac Hayne, Montgomery, 
 Jasper, Kosciusko, Wilkins, Gist, Peter Horry, Gadsden, R. Lowndes, and 
 many others who had distinguished themselves in the cause of liberty in 
 the fields and on the shores of Carolina. Transparencies of Washing 
 ton, Hancock, Franklin and others, encircled with boughs and luxuriant 
 foliage, hung at the upper end of the vast hall. In front of the build 
 ing the eye was attracted to the novel appearance in our streets of a 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRA TE. 43 
 
 palmetto and hickory tree, transplanted in full bloom from the soil in 
 which they originally grew, and waving in that of their adoption as 
 freshly as they ever did before. The front of the building was decorated 
 with two full-rigged frigates, manned and armed, mounting each fifty- 
 two guns, and one rakish-looking and elegant tender all perfect models 
 of naval architecture. These were each surmounted by a broad trans 
 parent archway, over the centre of which appeared illuminated the 
 words, " Don t give up the ship ! " Three other transparencies, allegori 
 cal and emblematic, directly beneath the archway completed the deco 
 rations in front. 
 
 CEREMONIES AT THE DINNER. 
 
 The viands and other eatables being removed, the president of the 
 day called the assembly to order, when the following toasts were drank, 
 accompanied by the reading of letters, and the delivery of suitable 
 speeches. 
 
 REGULAR TOASTS. 
 
 1. The Day Consecrated to American Liberty by American Patriots: 
 May this return of it revive American feelings in every American 
 bosom. [Air Hail Columbia.] 
 
 2. The Memory of Washington : May his farewell advice be engraved 
 on our hearts, and his whole life illustrated in our conduct. [Solemn 
 Dirge.] 
 
 3. The Patriots of the Revolution : United they stood divided u-c fall. 
 [Ye sons of Columbia who bravely have fought.] 
 
 4. The President of the United States : He will fill the measure of his 
 glory, by preserving the Union, without impairing the rights of the 
 States. [The President s March.] 
 
 5. The Yice-President of the United States: His political intimates 
 have declared their sentiments of Nullification will he shrink from an 
 open exposition of his own? [Let every Pagan muse be gone.] 
 
 6. The Congress of the United States: Wisdom to their councils, 
 harmony to their measures, and the happiness of the people for their 
 only object. [The breeze was hush d, a star was prone.] 
 
 7. The Governor of South Carolina: "The union of this confederation 
 is the key-stone of the whole fabric of our political and national great 
 ness, our civil and social prosperity. Let this sentiment enter with re 
 ligious solemnity into all our public relations with our country, and 
 form a theme of domestic instruction at our altars and fire-sides." Ora- 
 tion Fourth July, 1821, by James Hamilton, Jr. [Governor s March.] 
 
 8. The People of South Carolina: They will preserve the Union 
 peaceably, if they can. [Home, sweet home.] 
 
 9. The Union: The foundation on which rests American Liberty 
 Destroy the one, and the other must fall. [Yankee Doodle.] 
 
44 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 10. The People of the United States : Let them never forget that an 
 injury to one State, is an injury to all; and that the power which shall 
 crush one, may destroy all. [Meeting of the waters.] 
 
 11. The American System : The offspring of a wily ambition which 
 would corrupt the people at their own expense. [ Tis all but a dream.] 
 
 12. The Government of a Majority States and People : If this will 
 not do, what will ? [Garry Owen.] 
 
 13. The Senate of the United States The Palladium of State Rights : 
 They have a veto on the proceedings of the representatives of the people. 
 [As a beam o er the face of the waters.] 
 
 14. The House of Representatives of the United States The Palla 
 dium of Democracy : They have a veto on the proceedings of the Senate. 
 [See from ocean rising.] 
 
 15. The Judiciary of the United States : Nominated by the President, 
 the agent of the people and States; and confirmed by the Senate, the 
 agents of the States, to settle all differences under the law and the Con 
 stitution. [The Light-House.] 
 
 16. The Law of Nations The Guide of Sovereign Powers : Better ad 
 ministered by a court arranged by the parties than by conflicting armies 
 or artful diplomatists. [The Legacy.] 
 
 17. The Declaration of Independence : " If governments do not answer 
 the ends for which they were intended, they ought to be changed, but 
 not for light and transient causes." [Jefferson s March.] 
 
 18. State Sovereignty: If one State has the right to change the gov 
 ernment, the others have a right to prevent it. [Ye mortals whom fancy 
 and troubles perplex.] 
 
 19. "State Rights and Free Trade": Preserve the Union and both 
 are safe. [America, Commerce and Freedom.] 
 
 20. The Tariff: A tax upon all a benefit to but few; it must soon be 
 smothered in its own accumulations. [The day is departed.] 
 
 21. The Memory of William Lowndes: A patriot pure for power lie 
 never sought; from duty he never shrunk. [A Solemn Dirge.] 
 
 22. "Nullification," "Secession," and "Putting the State upon its 
 Sovereignty": Revolution in disguise. [Black Joe.] 
 
 23. The Honorable William Smith Proscribed in 1830 by the Prose 
 lytes he made in 1825: May the day not be at hand when he may say in 
 the language of Milton 
 
 " I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs 
 By the known rules of ancient Liberty 
 When straight a barbarous noise environs me ; 
 They brawl for Freedom in their senseless mood, 
 And still revolt ; when truth would set them free, 
 License they mean, when they cry Liberty. 
 
 [Keen blows the blast.] 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 45 
 
 24. Charles Carroll of Carrollton The last Surviving Apostle of In 
 dependence: In the morning of life, he beheld his country ushered into 
 existence; God forbid that the evening of his days should be clouded 
 by her destruction. [The last Eose of Summer.] 
 
 The Honorable William Drayton : Who with more than Roman virtue, 
 sacrificed the dearest ties of personal and family friendship for the good 
 of his country. 
 
 LETTERS AND SPEECHES. 
 
 As soon as the applause with which the fourth toast was drank had 
 subsided, Col. G. W. Cross, a member of the committee of arrangements, 
 rose and begged leave to read for the gratification of the people the fol 
 lowing correspondence with the President of the U luted States, inviting 
 him to participate in the celebrations of the day, which was received 
 with loud and reiterated cheers : 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. C., June 5. 
 His Excellency Andrew Jackson, President of the United States: 
 
 SIR, The undersigned, on behalf of their fellow-citizens of " The 
 Union and State Rights Party," have the honor to invite you to a 
 dinner given on the approaching Fourth of July, in celebration of the 
 anniversary of American Independence. 
 
 Had we regarded this return of the birthday of our nation as an era 
 of merely ordinary import, we should not perhaps have taken the liberty 
 to present ourselves to you. But the case is far otherwise. 
 
 As a native of the State of South Carolina, and one whom she has 
 always delighted to honor, we do not doubt, sir, that you have felt such 
 interest in the expressions of sentiment and opinion, which have been 
 elicited during the progress oi affairs among us, as to be fully aware of 
 the great lines of distinction draw.n between the several parties in the 
 State, as well as of the portentous omens which threaten us with civil 
 convulsion. It is well known to you and to the world, that the late po 
 litical discussions and events have tended to loosen those bonds of fra 
 ternal affection which once united the remotest parts of our great em 
 pire. Geographical limits are familiarly referred to as connected with 
 separate and disjoined interests, and too many of our youth are growing 
 up, as we fear, and deeply lament, in the dangerous belief that these 
 interests are incompatible and conflicting. 
 
 We conceive it, sir, to be a matter of infinite importance to our coun 
 try, that these fatal errors should be promptly corrected, and the feel 
 ings which they engender thoroughly eradicated, that the ancient ties 
 of friendship may once more knit closely together the several members 
 of our happy confederacy. It is our special aim to revive in its full 
 force, the benign spirit of Union to renew the mutual confidence in 
 each other s good will and patriotism, without which the laws and 
 
46 LIFE AND TIMES OF C, G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 statutes, and forms of government of these States, will exist in vain. 
 We disclaim from the bottom of our hearts, all political or party pur 
 poses of local nature or circumscribed extent. We esteem as brethren 
 and associates all who cordially unite with us in devotion to our com 
 mon country, and in the firm resolution to defend her institutions, and 
 transmit them unimpaired to the generations that shall succeed us. 
 Your sentiments in relation to this subject are well known, and have 
 been repeatedly announced, and we are proud to regard you, sir, as one 
 of our fathers and leaders. 
 
 In this spirit, and with these views, we request the honor of your pre 
 sence on the approaching occasion. The citizens of Charleston have 
 flattered themselves with the hope that you would be able, without in 
 convenience, to comply with their invitation, urged some time since 
 through the municipal authorities. May we be permitted to indicate 
 the period of your visit so far as that it shall include the anniversary of 
 the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 With the most respectful consideration, sir, we have the honor to be, 
 your Excellency s obedient servants, 
 
 Jontf STONEY, GEORGE WARREN CROSS, 
 
 RENE GODARD, FRANCIS Y. PORCHER, 
 
 JOHN STROIIECKER, JAMES MOULTRIE, 
 
 DENNIS KANE, JAMES ADGER, 
 
 S. HENRY DICKSON, J. HARLESTOX READ, 
 
 WILLIAM KUNIIARDT, JOHN WAGNER, 
 
 EDWIN P. STARR, Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 The letter from Gen. Andrew Jackson, in reply to the above, was read, 
 from the centre right by Col. Cross, from the left by Capt. E. P. Starr, 
 and from the great extent of the Bower and assemblage, it not having 
 been heard at the extreme ends, it was there read severally by the Hon. 
 Thomas Lee and the Hon. Thomas S. Grimke. 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY, June 14, 1831. 
 
 Gentlemen, It would afford me much pleasure, could I at the same 
 time accept your invitation of the 5th instant and that with which I was 
 before honored by the municipal authorities of Charleston. A neces 
 sary attention to the duties of my office must deprive me of the gratifi 
 cation I should have had in paying, under such circumstances, a visit to 
 the State of which I feel a pride in calling myself a citizen by birth 
 
 Could I accept your invitation, it would be with the hope that all 
 parties all the men of talent, exalted patriotism, and private worth, 
 who have been divided in the manner you describe, might be found 
 united before the altar of their country on the day set apart for the 
 solemn celebration of its independence independence which cannot 
 exist without Union, and with it is eternal. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 47 
 
 Every enlightened citizen must know that a separation, could it be 
 effected, would begin with civil discord, and end in colonial dependence 
 on a foreign power, and obliteration from the list of nations. But he 
 should also see that high and sacred duties which must and will, at all 
 hazards, be performed, present an insurmountable barrier to the success 
 of any plan of disorganization, by whatever patriotic name it may be 
 decorated, or whatever high feelings may be arrayed for its support. 
 The force of these evident truths, the effect they must ultimately have 
 upon the minds of those who seem for a moment to have disregarded 
 them, make me cherish the belief I have expressed, that could I have 
 been present at your celebration, I should have found all parties con 
 curring to promote the object of your association. You have distinctly 
 expressed that object " to revive in its full force the benign spirit of 
 Union, and to renew the mutual confidence in each other s good will 
 and patriotism." Such endeavors, calmly and firmly persevered in, can 
 not fail of success. Such sentiments are appropriate to the celebration 
 of that high festival which commemorates the simultaneous declaration 
 of Union and Independence and when on the return of that day, we 
 annually renew the pledge that our heroic fathers made of life, of for 
 tune, and of sacred honor, let us never forget that it was given to sus 
 tain us a United, not less than an Independent people. 
 
 Knowing as I do, the private worth and public virtues of distin 
 guished citizens to whom declarations inconsistent with an attachment 
 to the Union have been ascribed, I cannot but hope that, if accurately 
 reported, they were the effect of momentary excitement, not deliberate 
 design ; and that such men can never have formed the project of pursu 
 ing a course of redress through any other than constitutional means; 
 but if I am mistaken in this charitable hope, then in the language of the 
 father of our country, I would conjure them to estimate properly "the 
 immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual 
 happiness"; to cherish " a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment 
 to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palla 
 dium of your political safety and prosperity, watching for its preserva 
 tion with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest, even 
 a suspicion, that it can, in any event, be abandoned; and indignantly 
 frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any por 
 tion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which 
 now link together the various parts." 
 
 Your patriotic endeavors, gentlemen, to lessen the violence of party 
 dissension cannot be forwarded more effectually than by inculcating a 
 reliance on the justice of our National Councils, and pointing to the fast 
 approaching extinction of the public debt, as an event which must nec 
 essarily produce modifications in the revenue system, by which all in 
 terests, under a spirit of mutual accommodation and concession, will be 
 probably protected. 
 
48 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The grave subjects introduced in your letter of invitation have drawn 
 from me the frank exposition of opinions which I have neither interest 
 nor inclination to conceal. 
 
 Grateful for the kindness you have personally expressed, I renew my 
 expressions of regret that it is not in my power to accept your kind in 
 vitation, and have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient and 
 humble servant, 
 
 (Signed) ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 To JOHN STONEY and others, Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. T. R. MITCHELL. 
 Dr. William Read, the first vice-president, gave the following : 
 
 " The Hon. Thomas R. Mitchell : The uniform and consistent advocate 
 both of State Rights and of the integrity of the Union." 
 
 To which Mr. Mitchell made the following reply, during which he was 
 frequently interrupted by highly approving acclamation. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, I know not how to thank you for the kind 
 sentiment which you have just expressed. The approbation of so large 
 a portion of my fellow-citizens of Charleston, the great capital of the 
 South and of our beloved South Carolina, is a boon given by your kind 
 ness, not due to my merit. 
 
 When I look around me and consider those who compose this meeting 
 and its objects, I am overwhelmed with sadness and with joy with sad 
 ness at the occasion of the meeting, the distractions of our once united 
 and harmonious State ; with joy at beholding such an assemblage of in 
 telligence, of virtue, of firmness, and of patriotism. We have truly met 
 under the most interesting circumstances: not only to celebrate the 
 most sublime and momentous event of our history, the Declaration of 
 Independence, but to declare before God and our country, that we and 
 ours will maintain, to the utmost of our power, the Union of the States, 
 the Constitutions of the United States and that of our own beloved State, 
 in their perfect integrity. These are the objects of our meeting; these 
 form the bond of our Union. Differing, as many of us do, on important 
 points of policy and constitutional construction, the magnitude of these 
 objects is paramount to them all suppresses every discordant senti 
 ment, and unites us as a band of brothers by ties stronger than those of 
 blood. 
 
 We have been charged; and it has often been repeated, with harbor 
 ing imaginary fears on these subjects. Imaginary fears! When we 
 have been gravely told by a high dignitary of the State, on a most sol 
 emn occasion, that it is time to calculate the costs of the Union ! When 
 the Hartford Convention, the only blot in our history, and which has 
 hitherto called forth the execration of every Carolinian, is held up to the 
 people as an example for their imitation and emulation ! When one of 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 49 
 
 our representatives, in and out of Congress, in the back country and 
 the low country, has been endeavoring by misstatements and sophisms, to 
 prove the utter incompatibility of the interests of the North and South; 
 to disaffect our people towards the general government, and to present 
 in the most deceptive colors the advantages of a separation of our State 
 from the confederacy ! When the general government has been called, 
 in an official communication by the highest authority of the State, a 
 foreign government! Finally, when we daily and hourly hear the raven 
 sounds of disunion and civil war rung in our ears in changes on the 
 word nullification. Are not these signs? signs, not of political peril, 
 not of the destruction of our constitutions of government, not of the 
 conflagration of our towns and of the devastation of our fields for, 
 could we suppose that these misguided people had the will, they surely 
 have not the power to effect their objects ; but sure and veritable signs 
 of the loss by our State of the sympathy and good will of the rest of the 
 Union, more especially that of the South ; of her degradation to the low 
 estate of Massachusetts, when, under a similar influence, she refused to 
 muster her militia at the call of the President, and convened her Hart 
 ford Convention. And signs of the fall of our State from that high and 
 prominent stand in the confederacy which she once held, when her sons 
 gave proof of the utter nothingness of wealth and numbers, when op 
 posed to virtue and talent; when, though small in representation and 
 still smaller in physical force, she stood in the National Councils in 
 point of influence equal to Virginia and superior to New York. Oh, had 
 you witnessed the noble bearing of our little State in the government at 
 Washington when her chosen son, William Lowndes, guided and gov 
 erned her councils. William Lowndes ! Name most cherished, most 
 dear to every Carolinian. Spotless patriot ! In thee we beheld the rare 
 rivalry between goodness and greatness. These are the effects of what 
 has been miscalled the Carolina doctrines as the pernicious theory of 
 Henry Clay has been called the American system when it is well 
 known that before its adoption freedom was the living principle of our 
 commercial policy. Where and by whom have these doctrines been re 
 cognized and adopted? By Georgia? No; she has solemnly disclaimed 
 them. By North Carolina? Her legislature has put them down by a 
 vote of 5 to 1. By Alabama a cotton State, and the youngest of the 
 Southern sisterhood? They have shared there a like fate. By Virginia, 
 the leading State of this great Southern equinoctial region the land 
 of genius and liberty the first and most strenuous advocate of State 
 Rights? No; her legislature has passed them by with studied neglect, 
 while she has not a newspaper of any character which is not levelled 
 against them. Where then and by whom, I ask, have they been recog 
 nized and adopted? Shall I say by the one-half of our people? If I 
 were to tell you that they were recognized by the one-fourth or the one- 
 4 
 
50 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 twentieth of our population, you would charge me with exaggeration. 
 I sincerely and honestly believe and this belief is founded on laborious 
 researches, extended as far as I could that if the nature and tendency 
 of these doctrines were fully explained and developed to all the people, 
 that its advocates would in a very short time be reduced to a handful of 
 factious and disorganizing politicians. 
 
 Do not mistake me when I speak thus of the Carolina doctrines. I 
 am, and have ever been, through good report and through evil report, 
 without change or deviation, openly and above-board, an advocate of 
 State Kights as understood and explained by Jefferson and Madison. I 
 was proud to be an humble disciple in that school when the majority of 
 the delegation, with which I then served, denounced them as radical; 
 and Calhoun and M Duffie stigmatised them as the worst and most 
 stupid of all heresies. But the faith of the Christian is not more differ 
 ent from that of the Turk than the doctrine of State Eights is different 
 from that of the Carolina, as it is termed. The doctrine of State Eights 
 opposes only the abuses of the Constitution ; the Carolina doctrine op 
 poses the Constitution itself. The doctrine of State Eights considers 
 the Constitution, when administered according to its legitimate end and 
 design, as the best of all governments. The Carolina doctrine con 
 siders the Constitution under any circumstances as the worst, and sneers 
 at it as a mongrel half horse, half alligator half national, half Federal. 
 The doctrine of State Eights considers the action of the Constitution on 
 the people of the States as a new and beautiful idea as one of the great 
 inventions and improvements of the eighteenth century. The Carolina 
 doctrine considers this action as a fungus, as an excrescence, and in all 
 its reasonings and conclusions, places the State in the same attitude in 
 w r hich she stood under the articles of the old Confederation. "Were I to 
 be asked what is necessary for the preservation of State Eights, I should 
 say a strict and literal interpretation of the Constitution. State Eights 
 admit of no constructive powers but what are essentially necessary to 
 the execution of the enumerated powers and the word necessary is here 
 understood in a strict philosophical sense while the Carolina doctrine, 
 to sustain its favorite theory of nullification, is compelled to resort to a 
 latitude of construction which will make any and every thing of the Con 
 stitution. Can this new light then be true light ? The doctrine of State 
 Eights is as old as the Constitution itself. It was the foundation of the 
 first division of parties. It has been investigated, analyzed, and dis 
 cussed by patriots of transcendant minds who revered State sovereignty 
 as the palladium of liberty and property. Yet who among them ever 
 imagined, much less affirmed, that a State had a right to put her veto 
 on the proceedings of the general government. This discovery was re 
 served for Mr. Calhoun, who, his most consistent friend, M Duffie, has pro 
 claimed to be the father of the great system of internal improvement ; 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 51 
 
 and who, when at the head of the War Department and in expectation of 
 the Presidency, was the zealous and uncompromising advocate of high 
 taxes, conscription, and the most lavish expenditure of the people s 
 money. But I will tire you no longer with a discussion so dry. 
 Brothers of South Carolina, supporters of the Constitution, under the 
 banner of the thirteen stripes, the sacred emblem of the Union of the 
 twenty-four States, which waved triumphantly over Washington in our 
 war for political independence, and over Jackson in our war for com 
 mercial independence under those glorious stripes, which have been to 
 our country, by sea and by land, a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by 
 night under those glorious stripes, whose political influence is now 
 operating on the continent of Europe from the Borysthenes to the Medi 
 terranean under those sacred stripes which floated over the dead and 
 mangled bodies of our fathers of the Eevolution we are celebrating the 
 Fourth of July. What sentiment, in accordance with this scene, and 
 with the feelings it calls forth, can I better give than the following : 
 
 " The Union The Constitution Liberty : The true and natural order 
 of things for without the Union we can have no Constitution, and 
 without the Constitution no Liberty." 
 
 SPEECH OF HUGH S. LEGARE, ESQ. 
 
 The Hon. Thomas Lee offered the following volunteer toast: 
 
 "Hugh S. Legare: An enlightened jurist and sound constitutional 
 lawyer a friend to the Union, and an able and efficient advocate of 
 State Eights." 
 
 On which Mr. Legare rose and addressed the meeting in the sub 
 joined admirable speech: 
 
 Mr. Legare said he was obliged to the meeting for the opportunity 
 offered him, according to an established usage, of saying what he 
 thought and felt upon the momentous occasion, for so it seemed to 
 him, that had brought them together, and would gladly avail himself 
 of it to speak very much at length, were it not physically impossible to 
 make himself heard in so vast an assemblage. lie thought it due to 
 himself and to those who were cf the same way of thinking, that their 
 sentiments should be fairly and fully expressed for he had no doubt 
 that they were such as would meet the hearty concurrence of a great 
 majority of the people of South Carolina. He felt the less regret, how 
 ever, at the self-denial he was obliged to practice, because the able 
 speech of the orator of the day had maintained the doctrines which he 
 (Mr. L.) professed, and for which, as the representative of the people of 
 Charleston, he had strenuously, and he flattered himself, not unsuccess 
 fully, contended in the Legislature of the State during several succes 
 sive sessions. These doctrines they had heard expounded and enforced 
 that morning by a man and in a manner worthy of the proudest days of 
 
52 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 this proud city, nor did he think that any one could have listened to 
 that discourse without being the wiser and better for it. 
 
 It has been frequently thrown out of late, in the language of com 
 plaint and censure, said Mr. L., and on a recent occasion, very emphati 
 cally, by a gentleman for whom on every account, I entertain the 
 profoundest respect, that there is a certain party among us who seem 
 much more intent upon correcting the errors of some of our states 
 men" (as they are said mode&fly to express it) than upon putting their 
 shoulders to the wheel along with the rest of their fellow-citizens, in an 
 honest and manly effort to relieve the State from the burthens under 
 which it is thought to be sinking in plain English, that their pretended 
 hostility to the tariff acts is all a sham. Sir, this would be a severe re 
 buke, if it were deserved. I, for one, should be very sorry to think that 
 the part I am taking in the proceedings of this day were open to that 
 construction. God knows it was with extreme reluctance that I made 
 up my mind to take this step. But what was I to do ? "What alterna 
 tive has been left us by those who have the constructive majority of the 
 State, that is to say, the majority of the Legislature at their back ? 
 They have chosen to narrow down the whole controversy concerning the 
 American system to a single point. They have set up an issue and 
 demand a categorical expression of opinion upon the expediency of 
 immediately interposing the sovereign power of the State, to prevent 
 the execution of the tariff law. That is to say, according to Mr. M Duf- 
 fie s reading (the only sensible reading) of that rather ambiguous phrase, 
 to raise the standard of the State, and to summon her subjects, by the 
 allegiance which they owe to her, to gather around it in order to resist 
 a law of Congress. Sir, if I do not misunderstand all that we have re 
 cently heard from men in high places (and if I do misunderstand them, 
 it is not because I have not most anxiously and patiently examined 
 whatever they have said and done), this, and this alone, is the question 
 now before us. In such a question all minor considerations are swal 
 lowed up and lost. Upon such a question, no man can, or ought to be 
 no man in the face of a community, excited and divided as this is, dare 
 be neutral. It is propounded to us after the fashion of the old Roman 
 Senate : You who think thus, go thither you who are of any other opinion 
 stay here. The country calls upon every individual, however humble he 
 may be, to take his post in this mighty conflict. Sir, I obey that para 
 mount command, and be it for weal, or be it for woe, be it for glory, or 
 be it for shame, for life and for death, here I am. 
 
 But, sir, I repeat it, I should most deeply regret that what we are 
 now doing should be thought to give any countenance to any part of 
 the "American system." It is known, I believe, to everybody present, 
 from various publications which have been long before the community, 
 that I think that system unconstitutional, unjust and inexpedient. This 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 53 
 
 Opinion I did not take up hastily for with regard to the tariff, I, in 
 common with everybody else in the State, once thought it within the 
 competency of Congress. But more mature inquiry has resulted in a 
 change of my opinion upon that subject, and although I dare not ex 
 press myself so confidently in respect to it as it is the habit of the times 
 to do, I must be permitted to say that I am more and more strengthened 
 in that conviction by every day s experience and reflection. Sir, if I 
 had any doubt about the matter, the proceedings of this day would be 
 sufficient to dispel it. It is melancholy to think of the change which has 
 been made in the feelings and opinions of some of the best and ablest 
 men among us, by this pernicious system to reflect that alienation and 
 distrust, nay, in some instances, perhaps, that wrath and hostility now 
 possess those bosoms which were but a few years ago warmed with the 
 loftiest and the holiest enthusiasm for the government of their own and 
 their fathers choice. The authors of this policy are indirectly responsi 
 ble for this deplorable state of things, and for all the consequences that 
 may grow out of it. They have been guilty of an inexpiable offence 
 against their country. They found us a united, they have made us a 
 distracted people. They found the Union of these States an object of 
 fervent love and religious veneration ; they have made even its utility 
 a subject of controversy among very enlightened men. They have 
 brought us not peace, but a sword. It is owing to this policy that the 
 government has to bear the blame of whatever evils befall the people, 
 from natural or accidental causes that whether our misfortunes spring 
 from the barrenness of the earth, or the inclemency of the seasons, or 
 the revolutions of commerce, or a defective system of domestic and rural 
 economy or, in short, from any other source, they are all indiscrimi 
 nately imputed to the tariff. The decay and desolation which are in 
 vading many parts of the lower country the fall in the price of our 
 great staple commodity the comparative unproductiveness of slave 
 labor are confidently declared to be the effects of this odious and tyran 
 nical monopoly. Sir, firmly convinced as I am that there is no sort of 
 connection (or an exceedingly slight one) between these unquestion 
 able facts and the operation of the tariff law, yet I do not wonder at the 
 indignation which the imposition of such a burthen of taxation has ex 
 cited in our people in the present unprosperous state of their affairs. I 
 have sympathized and do sympathize with them too deeply to rebuke 
 them for their feelings, however improper I deem it to be to act upon 
 such feelings, as recklessly as some of their leaders would have them do. 
 Sir, it is not only as a Southern man that I protest against the tariff 
 law. The doctrine of free trade is a great fundamental doctrine of civ 
 ilization. The world must come to it at last if the visions of improve 
 ment in which we love to indulge are ever to be realized. It has been 
 justly remarked that most of the wars which have, for the last two cen- 
 
54 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 turies, desolated Europe, and stained the land and sea with blood, 
 originated in the lust of colonial empire or commercial monopoly. 
 Great nations cannot be held together under a united government by any 
 thing short of despotic power; if any one part of a country is to be ar 
 rayed against another in a perpetual scramble for privilege and protec 
 tion, under any system of protection, they must fall to pieces, and if 
 the same blind selfishness and rapacity animate the fragments which 
 had occasioned the disunion of the whole, there will be no end to the 
 strife of conflicting interests. When you add to the calamities of public 
 wars and civil dissensions, the crimes created by tyrannical revenue 
 laws, and the bloody penalties necessary to enforce them, the injustice 
 done to many branches of industry, to promote the success of others, 
 the pauperism, the misery, the discontent, the despair, and the thousand 
 social disorders which such a violation of the laws of nature never fails 
 to engender, you will admit, I think, that the cause of free trade is the 
 great cause of human improvement. Sir, I can never sufficiently de 
 plore the infatuation which has brought such a scourge upon this 
 favored land which has entailed, so to speak, the curse of an original 
 sin upon a new world, and upon the continually multiplying millions 
 that are to inhabit it. Most heartily shall I co-operate in any measure, 
 not revolutionary, to do away with the system which has already become 
 a fountain of bitter waters to us which threatens to become to another 
 generation a source of blood and tears and I heartily rejoice at the 
 dawn, of hope which has opened upon us in the proposed convention at 
 Philadelphia. Not that I am sanguine as to the immediate results of 
 such a meeting; but if it be filled, as it ought to be, with leading and 
 enlightened men from all parts of the country, which think as we do 
 upon this great subject, it will awaken the attention of the people, it 
 will lead to general discussion, it will give scope, if I may so express it, 
 for the operation of those momentous truths on which we rely, and I 
 cannot, and will not despair of the Republic, as it came down to us from 
 the most venerable band of sages and heroes that ever laid the founda 
 tion of a great empire, until I become satisfied by much better evidence 
 than any I have yet seen, that it is in vain to appeal to the good sense 
 and kindly feelings of the American people. Meanwhile, to the measure 
 which is now under consideration, and which, by whatever name it 
 may be called, is, in my opinion, essentially revolutionary, I am, as I 
 ever have been, decidedly opposed. I regarded it, when it was first 
 mentioned in 1828, as an ill-omened and disastrous project calculated 
 to divide us among ourselves, to alienate from us the minds of our nat 
 ural allies in such a struggle, the agricultural States in our neighbor 
 hood, and to involve us in difficulties from which we should not be able 
 to retreat without dishonor, and in which we could not persevere with 
 out inevitable and irretrievable ruin I might have been wrong, but I 
 
tJNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 65 
 
 acted upon deep and solemn conviction, and I thank God, from the bot 
 tom of my heart, for being permitted to indulge in the consoling per 
 suasion, that my humble labors on that memorable occasion did con 
 tribute in some degree to avert these calamities. 
 
 Sir, this is no occasion for going into a detailed analysis of the doc 
 trine of nullification, a doctrine which, as taught in The Exposition, 
 I undertake to say, involves just as many paradoxes and contradictions 
 as there are topies relied on to maintain it but I cannot refrain from 
 presenting a single view of it, which is of itself entirely conclusive. You 
 will observe, Mr. President, that the difference between us and the ad 
 vocates of this doctrine, is not as to the question how far a State is 
 bound to acquiesce in an unconstitutional act of Congress ; or (which 
 is the same thing) how far it has a right " to interpose to arrest the pro 
 gress "of such legislation. We admit this right in the most unquali 
 fied manner; for if the law be unconstitutional, it is no law at all. So 
 far there is no difference and can be no difference between us. The 
 question is not as to the right, nor even as to the remedy, but as to 
 what shall ensue upon the exercise of the right, or the application of the 
 remedy. The advocates of nullification insist upon it, that the interfer 
 ence of the States in such a case would be a peaceful act we say it 
 would be, even upon their own showing, an act of war a revolutionary 
 measure a remedy derived from a source above all law, and an au 
 thority which bows to no arbiter but the sword and this is susceptible 
 of as rigorous demonstration as any point within the whole compass of 
 public law. 
 
 For the sake of argument, I concede all that the most extravagant 
 writers in our newspapers have ever assumed, and a great deal more 
 than the most able of them can prove I will grant that the government 
 of the United States is no government at all that it is not only a com 
 pact between independent States, but that it is a compact of no peculiar 
 solemnity or efficacy conveying no powers not usually granted by in 
 ternational treaties, establishing no intimate relations between the dif 
 ferent parts of the country, not subjecting the citizen, in the least, to 
 the jurisdiction of the federal courts, not binding upon his conscience, 
 not imposing upon him the obligations of allegiance, not making him 
 liable in any case to the penalties of treason. I will put the case as 
 strongly as possible for the advocates of the doctrine. I will suppose 
 that this constitution, of which we have been boasting so much for near 
 half a century, is found out to be a league between foreign powers, and 
 that every question that can arise under it, is in the strictest sense of 
 the word, a merely political question. What then, sir? Did you ever 
 hear of one party to a league having a right not to judge for himself 
 of its meaning, mark the distinction ; but to bind the other party by 
 his judgment? I admit that there is no common arbiter that each of 
 
56 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 the parties is to judge for himself does that mean that he shall judge 
 for the others, too ? A compact between States is as binding as a com 
 pact between individuals it creates what is called by text writers " a 
 perfect obligation " there is no doubt but that a sovereignty is obliged 
 before God and man scrupulously to fulfil the conditions of its agree 
 ments. But sovereignties with regard to each other are in a state of 
 nature they have no common superior to enforce compliance with 
 their covenants; and if any difference arise as to their rights and lia 
 bilities under them, what says the law of nature and nations ? Why 
 what can it say, but that each shall do as he pleases or that force shall 
 decide the controversy? Is there any imaginable alternative between 
 the law and the sword, between the judgment of some regularly con 
 stituted umpire, chosen beforehand by the common consent of the con 
 tracting parties, and the ultima ratio regum? Sir, we have been told 
 that State sovereignty is and ought to be governed by nothing but its 
 own "feelings of honorable justice" it comes up in the declamation of 
 the day, to the description of that irrascible, imperious and reckless 
 hero, whose wrath and the woes it brought upon his country are an 
 admirable theme for an epic or a tragic song, but would not, I suppose, 
 be recommended as the very highest of all possible examples in morality. 
 
 Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer 
 
 Jura negat sibi nata, mini non arrogat armis. 
 
 Yet strange to say, the very men who paint to us the sovereignty of the 
 States in such colors, and would cavil about the ninth part of a hair 
 where their own rights and interests are concerned, forget entirely that 
 there are any other parties to the compact but South Carolina, or that 
 those parties have any rights to exercise, or any interests to maintain ! 
 "We have a right to judge for ourselves," say they, " how far we are 
 bound by the Constitution, or how far we shall comply with it." Grant 
 it. But what of the other twenty-three parties? Are they bound by 
 our decision? Shall they not think for themselves, because we say that 
 an act, which they have all declared (or the great majority of them) to 
 be within the meaning of the treaty and binding upon us, is not so? If 
 our opinion is just we are not bound. Admit it. But if their s is just 
 we are bound. Now the whole fallacy of the argument on the other 
 side consists in coolly taking for granted the very matter in dispute in 
 blotting out this if in denying to others the very right of judging which 
 we claim for ourselves and in expecting them, exacting it of them, to 
 act upon our convictions instead of their own. 
 
 Sir, it may be that they will do so. Instances upon instances have 
 been laboriously compiled of late by a writer in one of the leading 
 journals of the country, to show how often the government has been 
 forced, right or wrong, to yield to the resistance of the States. I shall 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 57 
 
 say nothing of these examples except that some of them have never 
 been mentioned until recently but with scorn and indignation. But I 
 maintain that not one of them no, not one goes to show that the 
 other parties to the compact might not, if they had been so minded, 
 have rightfully insisted upon enforcing their construction of the con 
 tract, I will only remark as to Georgia and the Cherokees, that as that 
 State was clearly right in her pretensions from first to last, so she main 
 tained her rights by open force, and made no scruple about professing 
 to do so. 
 
 Mr. President, the argument which I now advance is too clear for 
 controversy. It addresses itself to the common sense of mankind, and 
 the bare stating of it is sufficient to show how incongruous and absurd 
 the doctrine of the veto is, so far as it rests upon general reasonings 
 and the law of nature the only law acknowledged by sovereigns. But 
 if any authority be wanted to confirm it, then is abundance of it at hand. 
 Look into the writings of publicists they are all full of it. By the estab 
 lished law of nations, eacli party construes a treaty for itself; but then 
 it allows the other to do the same, and if the difference between them 
 be deemed important enougli that other has the option either of rescind 
 ing the whole treaty (in the case before us, putting the State out of the 
 Union,) or making war to enforce it. "If one of the allies fails in his 
 engagements (says Vattel), the other may constrain him to fulfil them; 
 this is the right derived from a perfect promise. But if he has no other 
 way but that of arms to constrain an ally to keep his word, it is some 
 times more expedient to disengage himself from his promises and break 
 the treaty. He has undoubtedly a right to do this; having promised 
 only on condition that his ally shall accomplish on his side every thing 
 he is obliged to perform. The ally offended or injured in what relates 
 to the treaty, may then choose either to oblige the perfidious ally to 
 fulfil his engagements or declare the treaty broken by the violation." 
 Vatt. Sec. 200. This civilian then proceeds to lay down the rule that the 
 violation of one article of the treaty is a violation of the whole. He admits 
 that it ought not to be rashly done, and says that the sovereign deeming 
 himself aggrieved " is permitted to threaten the other to renounce the 
 entire treaty a menace that may be lawfully put into execution if it 
 be despised. Such is, doubtless, the conduct which prudence, modera 
 tion, the love of peace and charity would commonly prescribe to 
 nations. AVho will deny this, and madly advance that sovereigns are 
 allowed suddenly to have recourse to arms or only to break every treaty 
 of alliance for the least subject of complaint? But the case here is 
 about a right, and not about the steps that ought to be taken besides 
 the principle upon which such a [contrary] decision is founded, is abso 
 lutely unsupportable," &c., and he goes on to demonstrate this more at 
 large. He quotes Grotius to show that the clause is sometimes inserted, 
 
58 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 " that a violation of some one of the articles shall not break the whole in 
 order that one of the parties should not get rid of the engagement on 
 account of a small offense." See Sec. 202. 
 
 Now it would be mere cavilling to say that Vattel allows of this ap 
 peal to arms only where the party that has recourse to such measures 
 is, in fact, injured; for the question recurs who is to judge of that? 
 Each party judges for itself at its peril, and war alone can "arbitrate 
 the event," or if a peaceful course be preferred, the whole compact is at 
 an end. 
 
 Shall I be told, in answer to this reasoning and the concurring opin 
 ions of all publicists of respectability, that Mr. Madison and Mr. Jeffer 
 son did not think so in 98 ? Sir, if they taught any other doctrine, I 
 leave it to those who have better understanding than mine, to explain 
 what they meant. But if it be affirmed that the purport of their resolu 
 tions was, that by the inherent attribute of sovereignty, any single party 
 to the Federal compact may interpose in order to prevent the execution 
 of a law passed by the rest, and that the others may not maintain their 
 construction of the Constitution, either by coercing that single State 
 into acquiescence, or shutting her out of the Union altogether, at their 
 option, then I have no hesitation in declaring it, as my* opinion, that 
 they advanced a proposition, inconsistent with every principle of public 
 law, without a shadow of foundation in the Constitution of the United 
 States, and utterly repugnant to the common sense of mankind. And 
 what, if they did advance such a paradox, so novel, so singular, so in 
 comprehensible ? Are the opinions of two men however respectable 
 and distinguished speculative opinions, too, for neither Virginia nor 
 Kentucky made a case by acting upon these notions are the adven 
 turous and speculative opinions of two individuals, conceived and put 
 forth in a time of great excitement, to settle the public law of this 
 country, every thing in our Constitution, and our books, and our com 
 mon sense to the contrary, notwithstanding ? Why, sir, even under the 
 feudal system a scheme of organized anarchy, if I may use the ex 
 pression the most that an injured feudatory ever claimed was the right 
 to make war upon his lord, who denied him justice, without incurring the 
 penalties of treason. But it was reserved for the nineteenth century to 
 discover that great secret of international law and to deduce it, too, by 
 abstract reasoning, upon the fitness of things a right of war in one 
 party out of twenty-four, whenever the mood prompts, or of doing what 
 amounts to an act of war, accompanied by the duty of implicit acqui 
 escence in all the rest ! But the truth is, that neither Mr. Jefferson nor 
 Mr. Madison had any such wild and chimerical conceits ; as, I think, 
 perfectly demonstrable from the very text cited, to maintain the op 
 posite opinion. 
 
 I have had occasion, frequently, to examine this subject, and I speak 
 with confidence upon it. And, assuredly, that confidence is not dimin- 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 59 
 
 ished by the emphatic declaration of Mr. Madison himself by the con 
 temporaneous exposition of the resolutions in the Virginia Assembly 
 by the disavowal of the doctrine by all the leading members of the Dem 
 ocratic party, with Mr. Livingston at their head and by the unfeigned 
 surprise which the whole country, Virginia and Kentucky included, ex 
 pressed upon the first propounding of this extraordinary proposition in 
 1823. The Virginia resolutions talk of the right to interpose do they 
 say what is to ensue upon the exercise of that right? No, sir, they 
 thought that intelligible enough they were asserting no more than 
 what has been so expressively and pointedly designated as the "right to 
 fight," and they meant, if they meant anything, no more than a declara 
 tion of opinion, to back their declarations by 100,000 militia, as I under 
 stand the phrase of the day to have been. This is the plain English of 
 the matter and one ground of objection to the "Carolina doctrine," as 
 it has been called (though I doubt, not very accurately), is, that it is not 
 in plain English that the people may be led by a fatal deception to 
 do what they have never seriously contemplated, and what no people 
 ought to do, without a solemn self-examination and a deliberate view 
 to consequences. 
 
 Sir, we have heard of " nursery tales of raw head and bloody bones." 
 I am sorry that such an expression escaped the lips of the distinguished 
 person who uttered it, and I lament still more that he gave it to the 
 world in print. I am sure when he comes to reconsider, he cannot 
 approve it unless, indeed, he means to declare that the rest of the 
 States are too cowardly or too feeble even to attempt to enforce their 
 construction of the compact. This may be so, but for my part, I cannot 
 consent to act upon such a calculation. If we do what we firmly believe 
 it is oar duty to do, let us make up our minds to meet all consequences. 
 If there is any feature of the American Revolution more admirable than 
 another, it is that our fathers had fully counted the costs before they 
 took a single step. The leaders of the people were at great pains to 
 inform them of the perils and privations which they were about to 
 encounter. They put them upon their guard against precipitate deter 
 minations. They impressed it upon their minds that a period was at 
 hand which called for " patience and heroic martyrdom " they had not 
 as yet a country to save, or a government worth to be transmitted to 
 posterity, or how much more anxious would their deliberations have 
 been ! The language of a great, popular leader at Boston, before the 
 first overt act of resistance, has made a deep impression upon my mind, 
 and deserves to be repeated here. " It is not the spirit that vapours 
 within these walls (said Mr. Quincy) that must stand us instead. The 
 exertions of this day will call forth events which will make a very dif 
 ferent spirit necessary for our salvation. Look to the end. Whoever 
 supposes that shouts and hosannas will terminate the trials of this day 
 entertains a childish fancy. We must be grossly ignorant of the impor- 
 
60 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEH. 
 
 tance and the value of the prize we are contending for; we must be 
 equally ignorant of the power of those who are contending against us ; 
 we must be blind to that malice, inveteracy, and insatiable revenge 
 which actuate our enemies, to hope we shall end this controversy without 
 the sharpest, sharpest conflicts ; to flatter ourselves that popular resolves, 
 popular harangues, popular acclamations and popular vapour will van 
 quish our foes. Let us consider the issue. Let us weigh and consider 
 before we advance to those measures which must bring on the most try 
 ing and terrible struggle this country ever saw." 
 
 To this complexion it must come at last, and the only question now 
 submitted to the people of South Carolina is, Are you ready to absolve 
 yourselves from your allegiance to the government of the United States, 
 and to take and maintain your station as a separate commonwealth 
 among the nations of the earth? 
 
 I have confined myself, in the discussion of this subject, to a single 
 point in one branch of it. I have said nothing about the extent of our 
 grievances, so enormously exaggerated by the Exposition. Even in 
 regard to the proposed remedy by nullification, I have chosen to take 
 up the question as it is presented by the warmest advocates of that doc 
 trine and I submit that I have made it plain that, even on their own 
 showing, it is necessarily an act of war a revolutionary measure. But 
 in doing so I have conceded a great deal too much I have allowed 
 them to treat our elaborate and peculiar polity, which we have been 
 taught to regard as one of the master-pieces of human invention as if 
 it were the coarsest and loosest of those occasional expedients to pre 
 serve peace among foreign powers, leagues, offensive and defensive. If 
 their argument is wholly inconclusive, and indeed manifestly incon 
 gruous and absurd even in this point of view, what shall be said of it 
 when it is thoroughly and critically examined with reference to a true 
 state of the case ? Sir, I have no language to express my astonishment 
 that such a doctrine should have found any countenance from the able 
 and enlightened men who have given in their adhesion to it. 
 
 AVe have been taunted as submissionists I am not afraid of a nick 
 name " Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil." It would 
 be easy very, very easy to retort but I prefer accepting our own 
 denomination and putting my own interpretation upon it. I give you, 
 sir 
 
 <; The Submission Men of South Carolina: 
 
 They dare do all that maj become a man, 
 Who dares do more is none/ " 
 
 SPEECH OF JAMES L. PETIGRU, ESQ. 
 
 By James Adger, Esq., one of the Vice-Presidents : 
 "James L. Petigru : Enlightened able faithful fearless. His coun 
 try looks to him in the hour of need and she will not be disappointed." 
 This toast was most cordially received. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 61 
 
 Mr. Petigru rose and addressed the meeting in an eloquent, patriotic 
 and fearless speech, and was frequently interrupted by the cheering 
 enthusiasm of the company. The following is the speech : 
 
 Fellow-Citizens, I receive with deep sensibility this expression of 
 your approbation, perfectly conscious that the sentiment is due not to 
 any merit of mine, but to the cause in which I am devoutly engaged 
 with so many better and abler men. In defence of the Uriion, Constitu 
 tion and Liberties of the country, my fellow-citizens may indeed count 
 upon me to the full measure of all the aid that I can bring. I will be 
 excused for saying a few words on the subjects connected with our party. 
 
 To love our country in the most extended acceptation of the word, 
 and to honor her free institutions, was till very lately the character of 
 every one aspiring to the praise of a good citizen. Those institutions 
 are now the subjects of reproach and obloquy to that degree that we 
 are from certain quarters daily urged as a matter of duty to resist the 
 laws of the Union. 
 
 And why should we resist ? Because, it is said, that the tariff of pro 
 tecting duties is unconstitutional and ruinous to the South. These are 
 grave charges; but we ought to be clear in our own minds that we pro 
 ceed on sure grounds before we take a step by which we put at stake 
 our honor and the peace and happiness of our country. That the tariff 
 of protecting duties ought never to have been passed that it is contrary 
 to the spirit of amity and mutual concession in which the Constitution 
 was conceived, and in which the government ought to be executed, I 
 freely admit that it is injurious to the South I firmly believe ; but, that 
 it is unconstitutional, I wholly deny; and that it is ruinous in its ope 
 ration on the South is no more than a rhetorical nourish. In such an 
 address a very brief view is all that can be attempted. 
 
 Passing over the power of imposing duties, which is granted exclu 
 sively to Congress though I never can concede that the enumerated 
 objects of this power refer to anything more than the purposes to which 
 the revenue arising from these duties is to be applied or that Congress 
 have no discretion to make a difference between the objects of taxation 
 on account of the resulting and incidental effects of imposts in their 
 operation on the country, I will place the question on the power to reg 
 ulate commerce. This power is given exclusively and absolutely. Now, 
 although we may justly condemn the mode and manner in which it has 
 been done, all my dislike to the measure itself, all my unfeigned defer 
 ence for the opinions of some who think differently, cannot shake me 
 in declaring as my settled conviction that the obnoxious laws are to all 
 intents and purposes regulations of commerce, and such regulations, 
 too, as all commercial nations have invariably made. Let it be admitted 
 that these regulations were made expressly with a view to their effect 
 on manufactures. The resulting and incidental effect of such regula 
 tions is within the discretion of Congress. The intent of commercial 
 
62 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 regulations is not to benefit the merchant only, but to consult the 
 interests of all, and the lawgiver must take into consideration the 
 resulting consequences as well as the direct effect of the law. Where 
 there is discretion, it may, from the nature of things, it must be fre 
 quently badly exercised ; and in the late .revenue laws I firmly believe 
 that it has been much abused. But take away the supposed inequality 
 of these laws, in the unequal burthen imposed on the South, and the 
 constitutional objection vanishes. Suppose the benefits of them to be 
 equally felt in this and in every other State, and it is incredible that 
 any man would believe they were not within the province of the general 
 government. 
 
 Then, admitting that the tariff presses unequally on the States, and 
 imposes a greater burthen on the South than on the rest of the country, 
 will this prove it unconstitutional ? Such a state of things is highly 
 improper; but the constitutionality of a law cannot possibly be deter 
 mined on this ground. We can draw no other line than the Constitution 
 has drawn : that imposts shall be equal in all the States, and no prefe 
 rence given to the ports of one State over those of another. If from 
 extrinsic causes some States pay more than others, or pay with less facil 
 ity, it is a difficulty, in a great measure, inseparable from the nature of 
 the thing ; and a risk of which our forefathers were neither ignorant nor 
 regardless when they entered into the Federal compact. While we take 
 the benefits of that compact, we must stand to its terms and abide by 
 it like men. I have great repugnance to the idea of construing a writ 
 ten instrument one way to-day and another way to-morrow, as interest 
 predominates. The construction, I maintain, is not new; it is the same 
 that was placed on the instrument by those who made it, and was sanc 
 tioned again and again, and even recently by the voice of South Caro 
 lina. It is certainly an unpleasant thing, after giving a deliberate 
 opinion in a matter, in which one either is or thinks himself disinter 
 ested, to find that with the discovery of his interest comes the discovery 
 of new light, and a total change of opinion. Let us place our opposition 
 on the true ground, on the excess and impolicy of the protecting duties, 
 and abide by our bargain. When the evil becomes enormous, the rem 
 edy lies in the principle of self-preservation, and the resort to revolu 
 tionary force. 
 
 But is the evil of that magnitude as to induce us to give up all the 
 advantages of a stable government all the ennobling associations of 
 our common history, and the endearing ties of blood, as the price of 
 relief from its pressure ? On this point I appeal with confidence to the 
 true sons of America, native and adopted. They will not weigh their 
 allegiance against dross, nor calculate for how much money their coun 
 try may be sold. The monstrous exaggerations of the State Bights 
 and Free Trade Party have been exposed to-day by a master s hand. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 63 
 
 Our orator has abolished the flimsy theory of nullification, and poured 
 a flood of light on the mysterious darkness that filled the land of the 
 producer with baleful images of ruin and tyranny, and boundless exac 
 tion. I rely on the republican virtue of our countrymen. Stripped of 
 the prejudice arising from the supposed unconstitutionality of the mea 
 sure, notwithstanding all the exaggeration with which the subject has 
 been surrounded, the amount of the protecting duties would never jus 
 tify in their hearts the contemplation of disunion and fratricidal dis 
 cord. In this hope I shall rely, with the assurance that supported our 
 countrymen in the darkest day of our history. But if the worst must 
 come, if this Union, formed by the wisdom and cemented by the blood of 
 the patriots of the Revolution, must be torn asunder, and its fragments 
 given to the winds, my earnest prayer shall be that before the fatal day 
 that sees America a divided people, I may sleep in the silent grave, far 
 from " the dissonance of that wild rout " that shall announce the triumph 
 of misrule and the downfall of my country s glory. 
 Mr P., being called upon for a sentiment, gave: 
 
 " The Constitution of the United States : May it continue to the latest 
 ages a monument of the truth that mankind are capable of self-govern 
 ment." 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. DANIEL ELLIOTT HUGER. 
 
 By Dr. James Moultrie, Jr., one of the Vice-Presidents: 
 " The Hon. Daniel Elliott Iluger : Honor to the man, and success to the 
 principles of him who seeks to save the State, and not rule it." 
 
 In this toast the company recognized a compliment to one they knew 
 to be highly deserving of it, and accordingly it was received with the 
 warmest manifestations of their approbation. 
 
 General Huger, after acknowledging the compliment with which he 
 had been honored, said : 
 
 It was not the less gratifying that I am obliged to attribute it to your 
 partiality and not to any merits of my own. If, gentlemen, I am au 
 thorized to claim any merit, it is that in which you all participate the 
 merit of loving oar country our whole country that country which 
 the fathers of American liberty and independence had won with united 
 swords, and cemented into one people with their united blood. It is the 
 benefit of such an Union we have been called upon to calculate. We, 
 gentlemen, cannot calculate the benefits of loving our country, it must 
 be left to such as are more cool, more dispassionate, more or less of men 
 than we are, to apply the rules of geometry to our love of country ; 
 nor am I disposed to sympathize, on this great national day, with such 
 as are hunting out the lines which once divided British provinces, but 
 now obliterated with the blood of our patriot fathers, in the hope of find 
 ing some flaw in the title of the American people to that Union which 
 the father of our country had so emphatically recommended to us as 
 
 \. 
 
64 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MElfmNGER. 
 
 essential to the existence of our liberty and independence. In the 
 earlier days of the Revolution, these lines were more visible, as well as 
 those nice distinctions between British power and American rights; but, 
 as the Revolution advanced, these differences and distinctions faded, 
 and at its close, when that proud banner (the American flag) waved over 
 the heads of the conquerors of Europe, and more, conquerors over 
 themselves, no other claim to Union, liberty and independence was pre 
 tended, than the will of our fathers, and their ability to enforce that 
 will. 
 
 As yet, we have had no cause to resort to such distinctions, to sustain 
 our rights or defend the honor of South Carolina. What the Constitu 
 tion of our common country will not afford, the Declaration of Indepen 
 dence will. These are the muniments of our title to liberty and inde 
 pendence, and by these, and these alone, are we willing to be governed. 
 To these our fathers subscribed; and by these we are in honor bound. 
 These, too, are the great charters of this great confederated republic. 
 As long as we all North, South, East and West resort to these com 
 mon sources of our rights and faith, we shall be united and free; but if 
 new lights are followed, if schismatics are encouraged, the unity of our 
 faith must be destroyed, and all the confusion and evils which sectarian 
 zeal and rage have produced in religion, will be experienced in our 
 political concerns. We are now equal with all; but will continue so no 
 longer than our great charter shall be preserved. It is not enough that 
 we feel inconveniences, and are dissatisfied with the measures of gov 
 ernment, to authorize its destruction. With no government can we 
 be always satisfied, as long as we are free. When all are permitted to 
 think, and to act as they think, differences of opinion and action must 
 follow. For this, the first and best care is a submission to a majority 
 of the people. If this will not do, republicanism is a cruel fallacy. If 
 the minority cannot submit to a majority, by whom are they to be gov 
 erned? Themselves? How? Still a majority must govern, or all must 
 be governed by a despot. There are evils against which the wisdom of 
 man cannot provide. We must meet them when they come. When 
 this or any other government shall so oppress the minority as to render 
 it insupportable, that minority must break off but this will be an evil, 
 come when it may. No people yet have ever changed their government 
 by virtue of their sovereignty, without great privations and sufferings. 
 Let the Constitution be changed in the mode prescribed by the Consti 
 tution, and no civil war can follow; but to force a State from the Fed 
 eral Union, must shake society to its foundation life, liberty and pro 
 perty must be put at hazard. This may become necessary; but has 
 that necessity occurred? When it shall occur, Carolinians will not look 
 to metaphysicians for their rule of conduct ; they have a better in the 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 65 
 
 Could I believe, with a much respected representative of the State, 
 that of our bales we are robbed by forties out of hundreds to enrich 
 the Northern manufacturers, I too would be for " putting the State on 
 her sovereignty." I love his boldness he says what he thinks, and 
 would do what he says. He thinks we are robbed, and should " at 
 every hazard" defend our property. But has the robbery been proved? 
 This is a question for the country ; and if they are not adequate to the 
 decision of this question, they should be despoiled of their liberty. 
 The people can and ought to decide this question ; and if the robbery 
 be found, my voice will be for war. As one of the people, I will never 
 abandon my right to understand our statesmen. The only security for 
 freedom is jealousy. Let the people be indifferent as to their rights, 
 and they will soon have a guardian. There are always kind, generous, 
 chivalrous men enough to carry on government, and take good care of 
 the people, without the smallest disposition to ask for advice, or ex 
 plain their conduct. Sufficient proof has not been given of the robbery 
 charged. I shall now endeavor to show that no robbery has been com 
 mitted; and if I succeed in this, as I hope to do, my friend must be by 
 my side. 
 
 That a tax on imported cotton goods may lessen the price of cotton 
 wool, is not denied; this effect, however, will only follow when the tax 
 lessens the consumption of the goods. If the price of goods be so much 
 advanced by the tax as to diminish the consumption, this must neces 
 sarily diminish the demand for cotton wool and the price of cotton, 
 like everything else, must depend upon demand and supply. If the 
 supply is the same, and the demand be lessened, the price of cotton 
 wool will fall ; and so if the demand be the same, and the supply be in 
 creased, the price must fall. If the consumption of cotton goods be 
 diminished, and the price of cotton wool consequently falls, this fall 
 will affect equally all the cottons in the general market. Liverpool is 
 the general market of all cottons that compete with ours. A fall in the 
 Liverpool market must affect, not only American cotton, but the cot 
 tons grown in Europe, the Indies, and South America. Whatever in 
 jury, therefore, is done by this supposed reduction in consumption of 
 cotton wool, must be divided between all the cottons in the general 
 market. If the reduction in consumption be 10, 20 or 30 per cent, in 
 America, where are consumed from 250,000 to 300,000 bales, the 10, 20 or 
 30 per cent, on these 300,000 bales must be divided between all the cottons, 
 the price of which is regulated by the Liverpool market, which is sup 
 posed to be from 1,750,000 to 2,000,000 bales. Our duty, therefore, can 
 affect but slightly the price of American cottons. How much, Mr. Say 
 is of opinion, it is difficult to decide, and I, therefore, shall not attempt 
 to do so. I have said that the price of cotton wool cannot be affected 
 but by a diminished consumption of cotton goods. I shall now attempt 
 
66 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 to show that so far from the consumption of cotton goods having been 
 diminished since 1824, the date of the first objectionable tariff, it has 
 increased probably one-third. On reference to the reports of the Secre 
 tary of the Treasury, it will be seen that no diminution has taken place 
 in the importation of cotton goods since 1824. At the nominal or money 
 value of cotton goods, the average importations since 1824 are equal to 
 the average importations before ; but taken at their exchangeable or real 
 value, the quantity of cotton goods imported since 1824 is greater than 
 it was before ; that is, as cotton goods sell much cheaper now than be 
 fore 1824, the quantity of cotton goods valued at $8,000,000 now, is 
 greater than the cotton goods valued at $8,000,000 before 1824. If this 
 statement be correct, the importation of cotton goods has not dimin 
 ished since the adoption of the present protective system. 
 
 But on reference to the speech of the distinguished statesman already 
 alluded to, it will further appear that $16,000,000 of cotton goods are 
 now manufactured in the United States, which, in conjunction with the 
 $8,000,000 imported, makes the present consumption $24,000,000. The 
 production of our manufactures has probably doubled since 1824. If 
 so, the consumption then must have been $8,000,000 imported and $8,000,- 
 000 manufactured at home, making in all $16,000,000 ; the present con 
 sumption being $24,000,000, leaves an increased consumption of one-third, 
 or $8,000,000 in the last six years. This increased consumption is at 
 least equal to the increased population of the United States. It does 
 not appear then that the protective system, as far as we can follow it, 
 has diminished the price of cotton. The price of cotton has been dimin 
 ished by other and adequate causes. In the last few years we have 
 nearly doubled our production ; probably 450,000 have been added to 
 our former production, and the increased production elsewhere has kept 
 pace with ours. It is probable that 750,000 bales have been added in 
 the last few years to the former supply in the Liverpool market; so 
 great an increased production must have diminished the price of cotton 
 wool. If the consumption had not also increased, the price would have 
 been still more diminished. The consumption has been increasing 
 everywhere, and must be forever checking the effects of over-produc 
 tion ; the lower cotton is, the cheaper cotton goods become ; the cheaper 
 cotton goods become, the greater the consumption; the greater the 
 consumption, the greater the demand for cotton ; the greater the de 
 mand for cotton, the higher the price. This is the circle in which it 
 must move, and if it be true that the consumption had been diminished 
 by our protective system, and thus lowered the price of cotton in Liver 
 pool for a moment, it would soon be met by increased consumption else 
 where, which would in turn raise the price of cotton wool. If we suffer 
 no more from the protective system than do the consumers throughout 
 the United States, can we, ought we, to complain of burthens imposed 
 
UNION PA RTY CELEBRA TE. 67 
 
 by the representatives of all upon all? It may be impolitic to encour 
 age manufacturers at the expense of the consumers, the great body of 
 the people ; but to the discretion of Congress, as to every other legisla 
 ture, much must be trusted; they may abuse the trust; so will others; 
 the only security we can have is the responsibility of the representa 
 tive to his constituents, and a common interest between them. Are we 
 to enlist in a crusade against the people of the United States for per 
 mitting their representatives to conform to their wishes?- or are we to 
 submit to such laws as are common to all and affecting all in like de 
 gree? I am disposed to leave Carolina where she is, the equal, not the 
 superior of other States. When she shall be oppressed, when unequal 
 burthens are imposed upon her, then, and not till then, let her be forced 
 from the Union. It cannot be for the honor of South Carolina to claim 
 for her more than an equal share in the government; and if she some 
 times suffers in common with the people of the other States, we must 
 submit, or resort to the right of revolution ; one or the other is de 
 manded by the honor of Carolina. 
 
 Honor of Carolina! who now ministers at thy altar! Who is it that 
 points to Carter s Mountain, w T hen to Mount Vernon we ought to go? If 
 this must be, then have the days of her chivalry gone by ; then are we 
 recreant to the glory of our fathers. 
 
 Judge Lee being called upon by the meeting to address them, obeyed 
 the call, unexpected as it was. He begs us to say that the call being 
 made at a late hour, he submitted some desultory observations, which 
 he thinks it quite unnecessary to publish. In all that he may have said 
 he considers himself as completely forestalled by the able and eloquent 
 orator of the day, and by many of his distinguished friends who pre 
 ceded him in their addresses to the meeting at the dinner. What they 
 said was, he thinks, so much better said by them than by himself, that 
 he declines the publication of his speech. 
 
 SPEECH OF COL. B. F. HUNT. 
 
 Col. B. F. Hunt having been called on, without premeditation, said: 
 Fellow- Citizens, -I feel this to be the proudest day of my life. The 
 friends of Union and State Rights have on this day, unawed by the de 
 nunciations of political adversaries, and with feelings high above the 
 distractions of party discord, assembled to lay upon the altars of liberty 
 the pure sacrifice of unfeigned thankfulness for those national blessings 
 which the valor and devotedness of our fathers have secured by their 
 toils and hallowed by their blood I have on this day seen the men of 
 Charleston the republican citizens of Carolina without distinction of 
 birthplace, or the adventitious differences of rank or fortune, assem 
 bled together as a band of brothers, and bowing before that only throne, 
 to which a freeman pays his homage, devoutly thanking God that we 
 
68 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 still continue a free, united and prosperous people. In all this vast as 
 sembly I see none, no, not one, who has ever "bent his knee before 
 created man " not one whose blood would leave his manly cheek amid 
 the embattled hosts of his country s foes. Yet the foul brand of " sub 
 mission " has been attempted to be impressed upon such men. Does this 
 assembly, these banners, our proud aspiration, savor of submission? 
 Let not our adversaries calculate upon our submission. We know and 
 appreciate the distinction between that obedience which is due to the 
 government of our choice and what would ensue if the foundations of 
 that government were undermined and all the securities of regulated 
 liberty crushed under its ruins. All the licentious passions of the hu 
 man breas.t, unrestrained and kindled to very madness by deluded lead 
 ers, would leave to our people no alternative but to submit our lives, our 
 homes, our altars, and our little ones, to the tender mercies of a heart 
 less, irresponsible mob. We are resolved to submit to no tyrant, 
 whether he be a crowned emperor or a lawless demagogue. We now 
 feel all that security for our rights which an established government 
 affords, and contrasted with any other people on earth, we know that 
 the career of our beloved country has been one of unexampled prosper 
 ity and we know, too, that we owe all to that proud submission to the 
 laws and Constitution of the Republic, without which every free gov 
 ernment is powerless and inadequate to its ends. 
 
 We know that our federal government, like every human govern 
 ment, is liable to be badly administered ; and when its evils overbalance 
 its benefits, we are prepared to encounter all the vicissitudes of revolu 
 tion still to be free. Experience, however, teaches us to beware how 
 we hastily throw off a government which has been fruitful of so many 
 blessings, to listen warily to those who .would excite our jealousy 
 against a friend that has stuck to us closer than a brother in the hour of 
 our utmost need. The Constitution of the United States is wholly un 
 like treaties between independent sovereign nations. It is a frame of 
 government, and it acts not on the sovereign bodies of the States, but 
 upon the people of the United States. A. treaty or compact between 
 sovereign nations may be abrogated, and it still leaves each with its 
 form of government entire its executive, its naval, military and diplo 
 matic establishments in perfect organization, according to the ancient 
 constitutions of the respective countries, and recognized in the list of 
 nations. Not so the United States of America. Their ancient general 
 government was the monarchy of Britain, and once loose the bonds of 
 the Constitution, and twenty-four new nations must be organized. All 
 history warns us of the blood and misery which it would cost. And for 
 what causes are we urged to the fearful experiment certain abstract 
 theories insisted upon by enthusiastic speculators, whose title to implicit 
 confidence rests upon the facility with which they can " change sides and 
 argue still." 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRA TE. G9 
 
 "We do not believe that the duties are paid by any but the consumer 
 of the articles on which they are imposed. We know that if incidentally 
 high duties are injurious to free trade, and we admit the fact, they have 
 been adopted upon the very principle of latitudinary construction, 
 which owe their success to those politicians who now so strenuously 
 inveigh against them. We know that the tariff lias not effected any one 
 quarter of the Union exclusively, and that it was forced upon those who 
 are now calumniated for its existence. Yet we will never cease, light 
 as its evils are compared with the distractions and miseries of a revolu 
 tion, to struggle to bring back our national legislation to the safe, sim 
 ple and democratic rules of the old republican school. We trust to the 
 virtue of that people which has hitherto been found capable of appre 
 ciating the value of our Union, without our aid of translantic arith 
 metic, and we shall not misplace our confidence ; we will trust our whole 
 country. 
 
 The enjoyments, the recollections and the hopes which this day brings 
 with it we owe to the united sacrifices and the combined valor of the 
 patriots of the Revolution from every section of our extended Republic. 
 On this day we bear on our banners the emblems and the names of all 
 that was profound in council, great and heroic in the field, in " those 
 days which tried men s souls." Nor are the achievements of the second 
 war of Independence forgotten. We see the oak of New England, the 
 palmetto of Carolina, and the hickory of New Orleans, interwoven in 
 that bright wreath which binds together the North, the South, and the 
 West ; long, long may they flourish in unfading verdure, affording to the 
 aged patriot the cheering emblems of the great results of all his toils 
 and sacrifices, and impressing on our generous youth the deep sense of 
 gratitude which they owe to those sires who, under God, have secured 
 for them such a rich inheritance. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, long may the services, the feelings and the resolves 
 which we have this day performed, and experienced, and made, be pre 
 served in our memories. They will enlighten our understandings justly 
 to value and strengthen our hearts firmly to support the laws and the 
 Constitution, and hand down, unimpaired, to our children, the inestima 
 ble blessings of regulated liberty. 
 
 Being called on for a sentiment, he gave 
 
 "Fort Moultrie, the glorious compeer of Bunker Hill: The uncon- 
 certed and almost simultaneous offerings of the North and the South in 
 the great cause of National Independence." 
 
 SPEECH OF E. YEADOX, Jr.., ESQ. 
 
 R. Yeadon, Jr., Esq., having been called on to address the meeting, 
 said: 
 
 That he had observed, with regret, strong indications that we were 
 about to split on the very rock against which the immortal Washington, 
 in his parting admonition, had prophetically warned us. That geo- 
 
70 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 graphical distinctions were now the watchwords of parties, distracting 
 our once pe aceful country and causing our Union to totter on its base 
 That the South seemed now prepared to put on its armor against the 
 North, and the East might soon be ready to hurl its thunderbolts against 
 the West. That feelings so dangerous to the harmony of our Union and 
 the durability of our institutions were to be seriously deprecated, and 
 a more generous and enlarged patriotism ought to animate the bosom 
 of every American. He said that he had observed, with equal pain? 
 that it had become the familiar custom of,those who arrogated to them 
 selves, exclusively, the principles and feelings of Carolinians, to heap 
 opprobrium upon the name of Yankee, and that our youth were even 
 taught to lisp it with execrations; that it was strange, indeed, that 
 while in Europe the name of Yankee is identified with everything great 
 in action and sublime in liberty, here it should be the subject of con 
 tumely and reproach. That the people of the South should remember 
 that those who unfurled the virgin flag of liberty, and fought her first 
 battles at Lexington and Bunker Hill were the inheritors of a common 
 glory with those who achieved her victories at the Cowpens and the 
 Eutaw. He added, that in language partly borrowed from the beauti 
 ful anthem composed by a minister of the gospel for this day s celebra 
 tion of the holy festival of the Union, those who inhabit the " fair plains " 
 of the South those who dwell in the " central mountain " region those 
 who people New England s rock-girt strand, and those who roam " the 
 prairied west " are all one people and let them come from what 
 quarter of the Union they may, when once they touch the sacred and 
 hospitable soil of South Carolina they should be hailed and welcomed 
 as brothers. He concluded by saying that as appropriate to these 
 remarks and to the occasion which had brought so great and patriotic a 
 concourse together, he would offer the following sentiment: 
 
 "Our Country Our Whole Country: Not circumscribed within the 
 narrow confines of a single State, but co-extensive with the broad ex 
 panse of our glorious confederacy." 
 
 A call having been made for the editor of the Gazette, W. Gilmore 
 Simms, Esq., rose, and after observing to the assembly that enough of 
 prose having been already spoken, he should take leave, with the aid of 
 the muse of patriotism, to offer them some little verse. He delivered 
 the National Ode which follows : 
 
 OUR UNION A NATIONAL ODE. 
 
 I. 
 
 " Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself hath said, 
 
 This is my own, my native land" [SCOTT. 
 Who, gazing on each valley round, 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 71 
 
 Exults not in that daring band, 
 Which made it consecrated ground ! 
 Who, drinking in the generous air 
 That feeds the freeborn spirit here, 
 Climbing the mighty rocks that gird 
 
 The rich profusion of our soil, 
 Fruits, flowers, that spring but a word; 
 
 Delights not in that hardy toil, 
 Which, in defiance, stern and dread 
 
 Of wanton steel and felon tree, 
 Unfearing fought and bravely bled 
 
 To break its chains and make it free ! 
 
 II. 
 
 Beneath whose heaven-directed stroke, 
 Pour d forth in streams the fetter d rock, 
 While gathering nations came to bless, 
 
 As freely of its waves they drank, 
 The waters of the wilderness ! 
 Though many a spirit died to gain 
 That land of promise seen afar 
 
 And, worn with fell fatigue that sank 
 Unburied on the desert plain, 
 Still God and nature press d the war, 
 And where they perished in their place, 
 
 With treble strength, and spirit turn d 
 
 To the same state, for which they burn d, 
 And died sprung up a mightier race; 
 With eyes, whose wide, unblenching glance, 
 
 Far, from the moral Pisgah, saw 
 The land in whose deliverance 
 
 They drew the sword and brought the law. 
 
 III. 
 
 Not in the vain pursuit of power, 
 The conquest of some fleeting hour, 
 
 They marshalPd forth in might 
 No idle foray for revenge, 
 No lust of rule, no love of change 
 
 Impell d them to the fight. 
 They came as comes the ocean wave, 
 When gather d navies find a grave, 
 And fiercely-mounting billows rave. 
 
 While humbled man grows dumb ; 
 
72 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 They sought the fight as in the skies, 
 The lightnings flash, the tempests rise, 
 
 And rolls heaven s thunder drum. 
 Not theirs, the panoplied array, 
 The skill of Europe s better day 
 
 With sling and stone they stood ; 
 And well heaven s blessing prosper d those 
 That hour who fought against Nature s foes, 
 And cheered their hearts, and nerved their blows, 
 
 While Lexington run blood. 
 
 IV. 
 
 There Freedom drew her battle blade ; 
 There blazed her living beams, which made 
 
 Amidst the darkness gathering round, 
 Her stars, resplendent, shine through all 
 
 In glory o er that battle ground. 
 Whilst chafing at his fearful fall, 
 Robed in his dark funeral pall, 
 
 The tyrant howl d in shame; 
 A thousand lights are kindling fast, 
 And, at the wildest of the blast, 
 The crescent orb, that deign d to smile, 
 
 Gave light unto the deadly aim 
 
 That hurl d its fierce and fatal flame 
 In triumph from our Moultrie s Isle ! 
 Nor there alone our country yields 
 
 A thousand well-contested fields, 
 
 Where Freedom, in her mood, 
 From Cowpens to the Hanging Rock, 
 At every nameless acre took 
 
 Large toll of traitor blood. 
 Still, in her youth protracted long 
 The war, against repeated wrong ; 
 
 Each spot of land in time became 
 A theme for Freedom s choral song : 
 
 A monument of Britain s shame. 
 
 V. 
 
 Whence came that band, the brave, select, 
 The shores of Freedom to protect, 
 Or clothe her streams in blood? 
 What prurient soil of olden time, 
 Whose deeds are chronicled in crime, 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 73 
 
 Pour d forth the generous flood ? 
 Meet for that virgin land, they came 
 Obedient to her matron claim, 
 
 When Liberty awoke ; 
 When, sickening at old Europe s guilt, 
 The chains she wore, the blood she spilt, 
 She bared her faulchion to the hilt, 
 
 And dared the deadly stroke. 
 Her signal banner waved in air, 
 And, from all climes, the brave repair, 
 
 Rich in the heritage of thought ; 
 Far, in our western forests deep, 
 Their shrines to build, their faith to keep ; 
 
 And, as their fathers taught 
 Free as their native winds to own 
 No foreign potentate or throne 
 To scorn among all other things 
 That fain would clip the spirit s wings, 
 
 That dogma of the slave : 
 Who, in the " right divine of Kings," 
 
 Digs his own villein grave ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 No isolated spot sent forth, 
 That argosie of human worth, 
 
 That, to thy well-found land, 
 Old Genoese ! the treasure brought, 
 Of noble soul and giant thought, 
 
 And firm, unyielding brand. 
 Spirits, with freedom s self impress d, 
 And, by her pray r and presence, bless d, 
 Could neither be enslaved nor bought 
 Whom no example could mislead 
 To wrongful lust, or shameful deed ; 
 No rank enticement win astray 
 From truth and reason s better way; 
 No Capuan luxury beguile, 
 
 Though rough the path they else pursue, 
 By license sweet, and harlot smile, 
 
 From the all-glorious goal in view. 
 
 VII. 
 
 What boots it now, though lofty stands, 
 Among earth s high and living lands, 
 
74 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The country of our pride, 
 To tell each tale of triumph o er; 
 The fields we fought, the blows we bore, 
 
 And how the gallant died! 
 The world shall be their chronicle 
 And myriads, yet unborn, shall tell 
 
 How, in the western sky, 
 Our banner of bright stars, became 
 A cheering ray, a guiding flame, 
 
 For Europe s chivalry ! 
 The gallant Pole Heaven bless his cause I 
 The victim of unequal laws, 
 
 To do it honor, bled 
 Our Southern bulwarks, still retain, 
 The rich, and yet impurpled stain, 
 
 The brave Pulaski shed 
 Oh, let it not be shed in vain ! 
 Then came the high-soul d brave of France, 
 And Erin s generous sons advance, 
 
 And England s cavalier 
 And, in the choice of every land, 
 Thus gather d in one sacred band, 
 We see and honor God s own hand, 
 
 And who shall then despair ! 
 Though dark the night, our planets shine 
 A DRAYTON leads th embattled line 
 
 Our banner, bears HUGER 
 And, cheering all our dauntless crew, 
 Comes the frank-hearted PETIGRU, 
 
 The talented LEGARE. 
 Well may the tyrant, in his sway, 
 Dread to behold* the approaching day, 
 When, gem by gem, thus torn away, 
 
 His coronet is bare 
 When Valor breaks his sword in twain, 
 When Genius flies his despot train, 
 And casting off their spirit s chain, 
 
 They seek for freedom here. 
 A glorious hope for every clime, 
 Unfolded in the march of time, 
 
 When men their might shall know 
 When Portugal and Spain, alike, 
 Shall lift their thousand "hands, and strike, 
 
 And freedom, have no foe ! 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Our conquest made let him, who looks 
 
 This day upon its glories wide; 
 To whom its vallies, cities, brooks, 
 
 Are sources of an honest pride 
 Who sees its waters stretch afar, 
 
 Their swollen billows, where the West 
 Peers forth, beneath a kindred star, 
 
 With giant form and golden crest 
 Who, glancing o er th extended whole, 
 Surveys its mighty rivers roll, 
 
 In vallies of the sun 
 With spirit, large enough to scan, 
 The triumphs of his fellow man, 
 
 And own them, every one 
 All glories of that rule, which makes, 
 
 The nations near, the world around, 
 Impatient, of each step it takes, 
 
 And heedful of its every bound: 
 Who sees our flag s extended folds, 
 
 Sweep proudly in the easterner, 
 Among the Pirate s crescent holds, 
 
 A thing of more than mortal fear 
 Nor, to such humble sway, confined, 
 
 Who views it, out on ocean, spread, 
 Stream, like a meteor to the wind, 
 
 That freemen love and tyrants dread 
 Let him, whose eye, not wholly blind, 
 Survey these triumphs let him hear, 
 The voice of myriads, far and near, 
 Forever, in his listening ear, 
 
 In honor of his land 
 And longing for the approaching hour, 
 When they, too, shall assert the pow r, 
 
 And, for themselves for nature stand 
 United, like ourselves awake, 
 The race to run, the prize to take, 
 
 Despite the tyrant s ban 
 Let him who sees all this the fruit 
 From our proud Union s glorious root 
 The offspring of whatever state 
 Let him come forth and calculate 
 
 Its value if he can ! 
 
76 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. JOHN HARLESTON READ. 
 Mr. Smith offered the following sentiment : 
 
 " The Hon. John Harleston Read, the Senator from Prince George, 
 Winyaw: He has borne the brunt of persecution, may he reap the 
 reward of perseverance." 
 
 Upon the delivery of which, Mr. Read rose and spoke in language 
 nearly as follows : 
 
 Fellow- Citizens, I should be wanting in candor did I not acknowledge 
 my high sense of obligation for the friendly notice taken of me in the 
 toast which has just been given. This unexpected attention meets me 
 unprepared to respond to it in a manner that would be satisfactory, 
 either to you or to myself. Yet I cannot but feel deeply sensible to the 
 sympathies you offer me, under the trying circumstances to which allu 
 sion has been made. It adds another consolation to that of being con 
 scious that I have suffered in a just cause, and in the vindication of 
 those principles which I am proud to profess. But, as these are matters 
 which interest another district, I will not occupy your attention with 
 them further than to assure you that I rely with confidence upon those 
 good feelings which have always characterized the constituents whom I 
 have the honor to represent, and which they are ready to evince in be 
 half of those who have suffered in their service. 
 
 The subjects which the present situation of our State, in relation to 
 the general government, forcibly suggests to the consideration of every 
 true lover of his country, have been so ably and amply dilated upon by 
 those distinguished statesmen who have already addressed you this day 
 as to leave me nothing further with which to engage your attention. 
 
 I will, therefore, only say on the present occasion that while I am 
 opposed to a law so partial in its operation (in this land of equal rights) 
 as is the present tariff law for the protection of domestic manufactures 
 while I cannot but regard such a law as conferring privileges upon the 
 North, in which we of the South cannot, from the nature of things, par 
 ticipate; while I regard that law as injuriously affecting our commerce, 
 and consequently also our agricultural products, yet I cannot approve 
 of the remedy prescribed by our political opponents. I cannot hold to 
 the monstrous doctrine that any single State has the right under the 
 Constitution to put her veto upon a law of the general government, 
 passed under all the prescribed forms, and yet remain a member of the 
 Federal Union ; that one of a confederacy of twenty-four States can by 
 her sole voice check the action of the government, and stay its arm in 
 the vital operation of collecting its revenues. This doctrine seems to 
 me to lead to consequences which threaten anarchy and misrule; it 
 puts the State in direct opposition to those constituted authorities 
 which are sworn to enforce the laws, and sets at defiance the very powers 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 77 
 
 which were appointed to settle differences. To such a doctrine it is im 
 possible for me to assent; nay, I feel bound utterly to reprobate a 
 scheme which, unless arrested by the intelligence and patriotism of the 
 people of this State, will bring ruin upon our happy institutions; for I 
 see in it the rising tempest which threatens to overthrow the altar con 
 secrated to Liberty and Union by the immortal Washington himself. 
 
 In conclusion, I offer you the following sentiment, which touches that 
 subject which is nearest our hearts at the present time : 
 
 " The American Constitution: The ark of our National Covenant; it 
 will be preserved by the combined exertions of the Union and State 
 Rights Party throughout the State from the profane influence of delu 
 sion and of faction." 
 
 SPEECH OF ABRAHAM MOISE, ESQ. 
 
 Abraham Moise, Esq., having been called upon to address the meet 
 ing, rose and said: 
 
 Being requested, Mr. Chairman, unexpectedly andwithout notice, to 
 address my fellow-citizens, I propose with your leave to offer a few brief 
 remarks. 
 
 Previous to this festival, one of the journals of the city anticipated 
 great and alarming excitement from such an assemblage. It was said 
 that the consequences might be dreadful to relate father would be set 
 against son, and brother against brother, even unto blood; for such was 
 the meaning of the dark forebodings, if any meaning could be attached 
 to them. Thank God, sir, the period has arrived, and no such dreadful 
 consequences have ensued. I see around me an overwhelming band of 
 brothers, sacredly attached to the Union, and determined to maintain 
 it at all hazards. The bone and sinew of the country constitute this 
 great party. Sir, it is animating in the highest degree to witness the 
 old and the young citizens from all parts of the community from all 
 sects and denominations, assembling around the altars of their common 
 country to preserve, by all virtuous means, the institutions of that 
 country; and if ever there was a period when it was expedient and 
 necessary that every good citizen should join in the performance of a duty 
 so solemn and important, that period has arrived ; it is a duty conse 
 crated by the love we bear our country, by the blood and treasure that 
 country has cost us and our forefathers for more than half a century. 
 In what bold relief stands all this to the condition of France, the distrac 
 tions in England, and the waste of life and the pouring out of blood in 
 Poland. If this be excitement, as an American citizen I glory in such 
 excitement; as a native Carolinian I rejoice to behold it; it is a whole 
 some excitement, it serves to purify our political atmosphere it is an ex 
 citement worthy of those engaged in it, worthy of the great occasion, wor 
 thy the effort to maintain regulated liberty, and put it beyond the reach 
 of those who would innocently or wickedly impair the smallest part of it. 
 
78 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Sir, this is no ordinary struggle it is a contest in which all we have 
 to boast of is concerned, and indeed all that the world has to boast of: 
 Our bright example to suffering humanity, our invaluable institutions; 
 it may be our homes and our firesides. The value of our Union can 
 only be known by the benefits it has conferred. It has furnished an 
 asylum to all nations; to every inhabitant of the world, whether he be 
 an Englishman, an Irishman, or a follower of Moses, the moment he 
 sets his foot upon these shores, he is free as the freest, lofty as the lofti 
 est; w r hen he lifts his voice and claims the title of American citizen, he 
 is inferior in civil and political rights to no being on the habitable globe. 
 
 And shall we yield up all these invaluable blessings upon a mere ex 
 periment, for a doubtful evil? Are we quite sure that while we lay the 
 axe at the root of one evil, we are not opening an avenue to greater 
 evils. A new form of government may, perhaps, bring upon us oppres 
 sions and errors in legislation far greater than those we suffer ; for if 
 we are to draw our lessons from history, we shall not always find that 
 the successful party are most competent for self-government, or that 
 the conqueror is the most generous of enemies. 
 
 But, sir, if I mistake not very much the temper of the times and the 
 indignation of our citizens, the true cause of much of the excitement 
 now pervading our city, may be traced to a matter differing very widely 
 from this festival. Sir, much has been said of oppression, of imposition, 
 of the abuse of power. Has not the Speaker of the House of Represen 
 tatives refused to the people their writ of election? Have they not 
 asked for it and been refused? Have they not demanded it, and has 
 not their demand been treated with contempt and scorn? And shall 
 the organs of the Mercury party complain of excitement, with this pal 
 pable and unquestionable act of oppression, imposition and abuse of 
 power fastened upon them? Sir, it cannot, it will not, be denied that 
 many of our citizens, equally distinguished for private worth and public 
 duty, will be deprived of the privilege of voting, by a scheme of party 
 management and manceuvering. Can oppression be greater than this to 
 those who value this great privilege, and whose only crime it has been, 
 that they opened not their eyes south of the Potomac, or that a south 
 ern sun burned not on their heads? Sir, I will dwell no longer on a 
 subject so painful to those who love justice, and who, I persuade my 
 self, would equally dispense it to all classes and condition ; nor will I 
 offer any comment upon other topics already so ably and eloquently 
 disposed of. Let the advocates of nullification only read and honestly 
 digest the sentiments of Washington and all their visionary schemes 
 must vanish like mists before the sun. 
 Permit me to offer you a sentiment: 
 
 "General Jackson and the Disunionists General Washington and 
 the Whiskey Insurrection." 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 79 
 
 * 
 
 SPEECH OF MAJOR PAUL S. H. LEE. 
 
 Maj. Paul S. H. Lee being called on for an expression of his senti 
 ments, rose and observed : 
 
 Gentlemen, I have been called on for an expression of my senti 
 ments. I am unaccustomed to public speaking, and unprepared. But 
 on an occasion like this, when we are assembled to celebrate the birth 
 day of our country, and particularly to show our devoted attachment to 
 the Union of these States, I will obey the call. 
 
 I sincerely believe that the measures of the opposition party, how 
 ever pure their motives, have a direct tendency to destroy the Union of 
 these States. "\Ve were told about twelve months ago, by a leading 
 member of that party, to " tremble not at disunion." However high and 
 respectable the source from which this expression emanated, in my 
 humble opinion there is not a word in our whole vocabulary that should 
 make an American citizen tremble, if it is not that word disunion. 
 
 " Tremble not at disunion ! " Shall we see that noble edifice which 
 has been the pride of our country, and the admiration of the world, torn 
 to the ground, crushing in its fall so many votaries at the shrine of lib 
 erty, and we remain unmoved spectators? 
 
 " Tremble not at disunion ! " Shall we see the torch of civil discord 
 lighted, and our land fertilized with the blood of its citizens, shed by a 
 son s, a father s or brother s hand, and our own not become palsied? 
 
 "Tremble not at disunion!" Is there a curse under Heaven that 
 could more effectually blight our happy land, destroy our fairest pros 
 pects, and convert this blooming Eden into a howling wilderness, than 
 the besom of destruction disunion. 
 
 " Tremble not at disunion ! " The nations of the earth who are now 
 struggling for freedom, would tremble, if that beautiful constellation 
 which is lighting them to the blessings of civil religious liberty, were 
 extinguished. 
 
 " Tremble not at disunion ! " The Goddess of Liberty, who had left 
 the glaciers of Switzerland, the last abode of freedom, and was return 
 ing to her native skies, but beholding the struggles and devoted patriot 
 ism of the heroes of our Revolution, descended on our happy land, would 
 tremble at the disunion of these States, and wing her flight from the 
 world forever. Gentlemen, our fathers, to achieve the glorious work of 
 American Independence, pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their 
 sacred honor. Shall we hesitate, in order to perpetuate the work of their 
 hands, to give a pledge less solemn? No ! I, therefore, with the fullest 
 confidence give you 
 
 " The Union of the States : We will protect it with our lives, our for 
 tunes, and our sacred honor." 
 
80 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 LETTER FROM GENERAL BLAIR. 
 
 RED OAK CAMP, June 15, 1831. 
 Samuel II. Dickson, J. Harleston Head, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I thank you for the polite invitation to dine with you and. 
 your fellow-citizens of the Union and State Eights Party, in Charleston, 
 on the approaching Fourth of July, and regret that the delicate and 
 precarious health of my family, the hazard of so long a ride through 
 the low country at this time of year, and a variety of other circum 
 stances, will prevent my attendance. However, if my presence were of 
 any importance, my absence will be compensated, no doubt, by a brief 
 disclosure of my political views. 
 
 You obligingly express a belief " that a community of sentiment in 
 relation to the great political questions which now agitate our beloved 
 State and a common feeling of devoted attachment to our country unite 
 us closely together." Of this you can judge more correctly when I pre 
 sent you a synopsis of my opinions in relation to the topics which now 
 agitate the public mind. 
 
 I view a protecting tariff as not only unconstitutional, but highly 
 injurious to our best interests. Indeed, I am willing to regard it in as 
 bad a light as the most violent nulliiier can place it ; yet it is not a whit 
 worse than the national system of internal improvement. If it is possi 
 ble for me to dislike one branch of the American system more than the 
 other, I bear a greater hatred to the internal improvement than I do to 
 the tariff, but I regard the two as one. Indeed, a distinguished indi 
 vidual of our State, who claimed to be " the father of internal*improve- 
 ment," not many years ago coupled it with the tariff and advocated both 
 with the utmost zeal as the " true policy of the country ! " To prove the 
 alliance between the tariff and internal improvement would be super 
 fluous. They are as inseparably connected as the Siamese twins. I am, 
 therefore, surprised that while some of our ablest orators are pouring 
 out such vollies of invective upon the tariff they have not one word to 
 say about internal improvement; while they darken our vision by the 
 flight of their arrows against the former, they throw not a single shaft 
 at the latter. They would move heaven and earth and hazard the integ 
 rity of the Union to suppress the tariff, while they seem to regard inter 
 nal improvement as a harmless thing ! Every one must draw his own 
 inference; but it seems to me if I was not deeply committed in favor of 
 the one I could not confine my raillery exclusively to the other branch 
 of the American system. 
 
 To this system, I take it for granted, we are all opposed, and that our 
 most anxious inquiry is, How and when shall we resist it ? Is nullifica 
 tion the proper remedy ? It seems to me a. political axiom, that whilst 
 South Carolina remains a member of the federal family she must refer 
 
, UNION PARTY CELEBEA TE. 81 
 
 every controversy between herself and the general government to the 
 adjudication of the supreme federal court. When she objects to the 
 intervention of that tribunal, provided by the federal compact, decides 
 the question for herself; declares this or that law of Congress inopera 
 tive within her limits, and endeavors to carry her views into operation, 
 it is virtually a resumption of all her former sovereignty, and she is 
 "ipso facto" out of the Union at least she may be so considered and so 
 treated by the federal government. But if South Carolina should under 
 take to arrest the operations of a law of Congress, without a formal act 
 of secession, the general government has the option of another process, 
 and one that would most probably be resorted to. It would have the 
 right to say to South Carolina, " You seem to have forgotten that our 
 government was founded in the spirit of compromise and concession. 
 You must remember that every law cannot be made to suit your particu 
 lar interest, and you must bear in mind that while you remain under 
 my protection and avail yourself of the benefit of such laws as you deem 
 advantageous and constitutional, you must submit to those that are 
 inconvenient, and which you may even think unconstitutional, or refer 
 the disputed law to the decision of the constituted tribunal. Should 
 that tribunal decide against you, and you refuse to acquiesce, I must 
 use all the power vested in me by the Constitution to enforce obedi 
 ence." And it does appear to me that, under such circumstances, the 
 President of the United States would be bound by his oath and by every 
 consideration of official duty to carry the law into full operation, be the 
 consequences what they may. 
 
 While, therefore, South Carolina remains in the Union, I can imagine 
 no mode of procedure by which she can defeat the tariff laws without 
 bringing her militia in conflict with the troops of the general govern 
 ment. But suppose we could, by any civil process, enable our merchants 
 to elude the payment of the duties, what measure would then be 
 resorted to by the general government ? It would either require the 
 duties to be promptly paid in cash and establish a sufficient military 
 force in our seaports to ensure their collections, or our harbors would 
 be blockaded by a detachment from the federal navy, prohibiting 
 entirely the import of foreign goods or the export of our produce. What 
 then would be our remedy ? Either unconditional and disgraceful sub 
 mission or a foreign alliance. And I doubt whether Great Britain or 
 any other European nation would think the commerce and friendship 
 of South Carolina of sufficient importance, under such circumstances, to 
 induce them to encounter the hazard and expense of such relations. 
 
 Thus I have tested the doctrine of nullification by what I think would 
 be some of its natural and unavoidable operations, and I am bound, 
 therefore, to reject it as impracticable and dangerous, and must discard 
 it as an absurdity. 
 6 
 
82 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 But those of us who object to nullification are asked by the nullifies 
 with an air of triumph, " What remedy do you propose ? " 
 
 Were I an absolute federalist of the National Republican School, 
 ready to " sacrifice the substance to the shadow," to permit the vital 
 interests of my country to be destroyed under the forms of the Consti 
 tution, while the spirit of that instrument was disregarded, I might 
 deem it a sufficient answer to refer to the provisions of the federal com 
 pact, and in ordinary cases this would be the correct reply, but in a case 
 like the present, supposed to involve an ultimate extremity similar to 
 that of life and death, I would be guilty of no such mockery. I should 
 say that when the public debt is paid, and all pretext for a high tariff 
 thereby destroyed ; should the American system still be adhered to with 
 stubbornness ; should the tariff still be regarded as absolutely intoler 
 able and all hopes of relief from Congress be entirly annihilated, we 
 should then redress our wrongs in our own way. How would that be ? 
 Let all the anti-tariff States, or at least the Atlantic portion of them 
 south of the Potomac, make common cause ; as they have a common 
 interest, they should be actuated by the same political impulse and 
 feeling. Let, therefore, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, 
 Mississippi, Alabama, and as many of the adjacent States as choose to 
 join us, assemble in convention, if you please, and, acting in concert, 
 present to the federal government the alternative of receding from 
 its unjust and oppressive legislation or submission to our separation 
 from the confederacy. I am fully aware of the hazard of such a pro 
 ceeding. Should Congress adhere to its iniquitous policy, and we are 
 driven to the necessity of pursuing the last and worse branch of the 
 alternative, it is easy to imagine many dangers, difficulties, and expenses 
 we should have to encounter. In such event I can readily conceive the 
 necessity we should be under of keeping up a large navy to protect our 
 commerce, a formidable chain of military posts to protect our inland 
 frontier, together with a powerful standing army to repel invasion and 
 suppress insurrection. It is also obvious our^ liberty would be endan 
 gered by such powerful armaments, nor can I hide from my mental 
 vision the certainty that even in this little Republic a rivalry of interest 
 and a struggle fcr political predominance would soon arise that would 
 shake our newly-formed government to its centre. I say, therefore, the 
 experiment will be dangerous, and it is only to be resorted to in the last 
 extremity. Yet, I would resort to it rather than we should become the 
 mere stewards and overseers of Northern monopolists and manufac 
 turers, and entail slavery upon our posterity. But for South Carolina, 
 divided within herself, to attempt such an enterprise, not only without 
 the aid or co-operation of any of her adjoining sister States, but under 
 the rebukes of all, would be madness and folly in the extreme. It 
 would, indeed, be a species of political insanity that could only be ex- 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 83 
 
 ceeded by the absurd idea of a single State arresting the laws and ope 
 rations of the general government with impunity, and still remaining a 
 member of the federal family. 
 
 But, after all, may we not ask who were the authors of this infamous 
 American system ? and who they are that have mounted " the rider on 
 the pale horse ?" that bringeth in his train all the ills of prophecy. 
 
 I am unwilling to wound the feelings of individuals by a minute 
 enquiry as to who are most culpable, or were the most efficient advo 
 cates and zealous agents in fixing this ruinous policy upon us. Fortu 
 nately, no such enquiry is necessary. It is universally known, and tis 
 as strange as true, that the leaders of that party called the nullifiers 
 of that party who have stolen from us the appellation of " State Rights," 
 and have modestly arrogated to themselves all the courage and patriot 
 ism of the South yes, the very men who now wish South Carolina, 
 single-handed and alone, to run a premature, dangerous, desperate tilt 
 with the federal government on account of its oppressive legislation, 
 are the self-same men who have done more than any others to bring 
 those evils upon us. They have introduced the robbers into the house ; 
 and, because we object to the instant burning of the building, we are 
 charged with all the plunder committed Satan like, they would first 
 seduce and then mock us; they involve us in a ruinous and dangerous 
 dilemma, then point out what they call a mode of escape, but which we 
 consider certain destruction ; and when we refuse to pursue their mad 
 and hopeless scheme, they denounce us as fools, cowards, and traitors. 
 Great God, how much longer are the people to be thus gulled and de 
 luded ! 
 
 But perhaps you are desirous of knowing whether I have any hope 
 the alternative to which I have alluded will not be forced upon us. I 
 have no hesitation in saying, even at the hazard of a sneer, I do enter 
 tain such a hope. 
 
 It seemed to be conceded on all sides that the duty on sugar, as well 
 as several other items of the tariff, would have been reduced or repealed 
 if there had been time at the last session to obtain the final action of 
 Congress on those propositions. But the session being limited to the 
 4th of March, and much of its scanty time unavoidably taken up by the 
 trial of Judge Peck, no proposition of that kind could be definitely acted 
 upon. Beside we still had in Congress the same old materials that con 
 stituted it the twelve months before ; and, therefore, not much was to 
 be expected from them more than had been done at the preceding ses 
 sion. In the next Congress I trust the case will be somewhat different; 
 several changes have already been made for the better in the represen 
 tation of some of the States, as you are no doubt aware. In addition to 
 this, it is the opinion of older and more experienced members than my- 
 seirthat " the monster" is staggering with its deformity, and tottering 
 
84 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 under the weight of its own iniquity. They speak of the downfall of 
 the system with absolute certainty, and say that its final overthrow 
 cannot be postponed much, if any, beyond the payment of the public 
 debt. The friends of the system themselves look to the extinction of 
 the national debt as the grand crisis of their favorite policy they look 
 to it " with fear and trembling"; and with a view to keep off their evil 
 day as long as possible, they vote for every appropriation of the public 
 money, no matter how large, regardless of the object, or from whence 
 the application. 
 
 I have thus briefly presented you some of the reasons on which my 
 expectations of a change for the better is founded. I have done it 
 frankly, and have addressed you throughout in a spirit of candor, not 
 only because I regard equivocation on these subjects unwarrantable, if 
 not criminal, but because I consider you my political friends. I would 
 not thus descant upo-n these topics were you an assembly of nullifiers ; 
 were I to hold out hopes and favorable expectations concerning the 
 tariff, to that class of politicians, and my predictions (as they would 
 call them) should not be promptly and literally fulfilled by Congress, 
 the nullifying gentry w^ould be disposed to " nullify" me for the disap 
 pointment. They would be ready to visit upon me all the penalties due 
 to the original sins of their own favorite politicians. Therefore, al 
 though I neither make nor regard threats, I do not wish to be understood 
 as promising or predicting what the future operations of Congress may 
 be upon the tariff. The State which I in part represent is composed of 
 reading and intelligent freemen, as capable of judging for themselves 
 as I am; and I wish all my fellow-citizens, and especially the nullifiers, 
 to make their own calculations of " the prospect before us." 
 
 About President Jackson, and the prospect of his re-election, I have 
 but little to say; I consider that event to be as certain as it is indis 
 pensable to the welfare of our common country. Some blame him for 
 doing too little to overthrow the American system, others blame him 
 for doing too much in that way; perhaps the best evidence of his hon 
 esty and patriotism is that he is a little blamed by all parties. All 
 know, whatever they may say to the contrary, that Gen. Jackson will 
 do what he believes to be right and no man is blessed with a more 
 infallible judgment or a more fearless spirit. The great body of the 
 American people know this, and they know, besides, that no other man, 
 under existing circumstances, could hold this confederacy together five 
 years longer. They are aware that the crisis demands the re-election 
 of Andrew Jackson as President of the United States and they will 
 be "faithful to themselves and to him." Let no one suppose me desi 
 rous of flattering General Jackson character and disposition apart, I 
 have no motive for such sycophancy. To say nothing of my want of 
 qualifications, I do not wish, nor am I in a situation to accept, any office 
 in the gift of the President, neither would I beg office at his hands for 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 85 
 
 my best friend. I wish, indeed, the Constitution prohibited every mem 
 ber of Congress from taking any appointment under the federal govern 
 ment. It is a slander on the American people to say that competent 
 men cannot always be found, except among their representatives. A 
 representative of the people should have no motive to court the smiles 
 or dread the frowns of any but his constituents. 
 
 Pardon me for troubling you with such a long letter, and allow me 
 to conclude by proposing to your meeting the following sentiment: 
 
 " General Jackson and the People of Carolina : They cannot be di 
 vided while he continues honest and they remain free." 
 Very respectfully, your obedient humble servant, 
 
 JAMES BLAIR. 
 
 After reading the above, the following toast was offered : 
 
 "By Colonel Steedman. General James Blair: A man of the peo 
 ple a firm and consistent advocate of their rights and interests ; he has 
 this day portrayed the true connection between the Union and his na 
 tive State." 
 
 LETTER FROM THE HON. R. J. MANNING, LATE GOVERNOR OF THIS STATE. 
 
 FULTON POSTOFFICE, June 30. 
 Samuel H. Dickson, /. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, You have kindly invited me in the name of the Union 
 and State Rights Party, to partake of a public dinner, and to join in the 
 celebration of American Independence, in the city of Charleston, on the 
 approaching Fourth of July. Accept my thanks for the respectful re 
 membrance of me on the occasion, and be pleased to convey them to 
 those whose organ you are, with my regret that the season of the year, 
 and the sufferings of a sick family forbid me to attend. 
 
 In the conflicts and war of opinions which have unhappily divided 
 our beloved State, the character of my own opinions, has placed me in 
 the ranks of the Union and State Rights Party. In taking this position 
 with a party, I find myself, in opinions, at variance with the dearest and 
 best friends of my youth and manhood. The political separation from 
 these is decidedly among the most painful circumstances of my life. 
 However much we may differ in public matters, nothing but unkind- 
 ness shall ever cloud the recollection of my past life, or impair my ad 
 miration for those good and talented men, from whom I am now politi 
 cally separated. I rejoice that over the affections of the heart, neither 
 parties, nor laws, nor constitutions, have any control. These are the 
 free and blessed and eternal gifts of God to man. 
 
 The doctrine that the majority shall govern, with all the evils that 
 appertain to it, is better and safer (especially in an age of light and 
 knowledge), as a fundamental principle of government, than the other, 
 where the minority shall control and govern the majority. The ad- 
 
86 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 mirable operation of this is, that when the majority who govern are 
 wrong, their errors will produce evils ; these, as soon as they begin to 
 act extensively, will sink under the influence of an enlightened public 
 opinion, and the irresistible power of the press will bring up the 
 minority into the ranks of the majority, and thus evils will be corrected 
 and the government again be restored in practice to a sound and healthy 
 action. 
 
 I am one who very much rely upon the power and final triumph of 
 truth, and on the purifying influence of an enlightened public opinion 
 and its dissemination by the press. By the operation of these on Euro 
 pean countries, abuses which have been tolerated for ages will shortly 
 be corrected, and liberal principles and regulated liberty will modify 
 the frame works of all the governments in Christendom. 
 
 It was a profound remark of Talleyrand when he said " that there is 
 something which has more wisdom than even Bonaparte or Voltaire 
 which is public opinion." On this we can rely for the final triumph of 
 truth. 
 
 The tariff must be modified in a short time. There are causes which 
 will work out this result. The American system must go down, the evil 
 be corrected, and the government be again placed on its sound and 
 solid foundation. Tyranny cannot exist in this country, nor can it under 
 the march of events and the power of existing causes much longer exist 
 in the old world. The doctrine of nullification in the present under 
 standing of it is destructive and ruinous. That one State, moved 
 perhaps by faction, at the head of which may be placed even one 
 designing and talented man, should have power to arrest the opera 
 tion of the whole government of the Union, is paradoxical and ruinous. 
 However well this might answer in ordinary times of peace, the govern 
 ment could never sustain and hold itself together* at other and difficult 
 times. An extensive government like our own, when it shall be shaken 
 by foreign or internal convulsion, will fall to pieces under the operation 
 of this doctrine. 
 
 We hold with the doctrines of the United States Constitution. We 
 hold that existing evils must either be corrected under that sacred 
 instrument or according to the republican doctrines of Jefferson con 
 tained in the Declaration of American Independence viz., " That when 
 ever governments shall fail to answer the ends for which they were 
 instituted among men it is the right and duty of the government to 
 establish such other forms as seem most likely to secure their safety and 
 happiness." 
 
 I beg leave to offer the following: 
 
 "The Doctrine of Nullification: Unsustained and unsustainable." 
 I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 
 
 RICHARD J. MANNING. 
 
UNTON PARTY CELEBRATE. 87 
 
 LETTER PROM HON. CHANCELLOR DESAUSSURE. 
 
 COLUMBIA, June 18, 1831. 
 Samuel H. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I had the honor of receiving your polite letter inviting 
 me to dine with our fellow-citizens in Charleston of the Union and State 
 Rights Party on the Fourth of July. 
 
 You do me no more than justice in believing that I am greatly at 
 tached to the Union of the States, as the solid foundation of the national 
 greatness and prosperity ; as the sure guarantee of our internal tran- 
 quility and of our external peace, as well as of the public liberty. These 
 were the sentiments of Washington, the father of his country, who, in 
 his farewell address, warns his fellow-citizens " that the unity of gov 
 ernment which constitutes us one people, is a main pillar in the edifice 
 of our real independence ; the support of our tranquility at home, our 
 peace abroad, of our safety, of our prosperity, and of that very liberty 
 we so highly prize." To which he adds : " That it is of infinite moment 
 that we should properly estimate the immense value of our national 
 Union to our collective and individual happiness; and that we should 
 cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable attachment to it ; accus 
 toming ourselves to think of it as of the palladium of our political safety 
 and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; dis 
 countenancing whatever may even suggest a suspicion that it can be in 
 any event abandoned." These opinions and this solemn advice from 
 him, who acted the greatest of all parts in the great drama of human af 
 fairs, is entitled to the profoundest veneration from his fellow-citizens ; 
 for his experience was great, his sagacity instinctive, and his patriotism 
 unbounded. The history of all confederations proves the truth of his 
 maxims and the wisdom of his advice. They have been always destroyed, 
 and the country ruined for want of attention to these maxims. They 
 have my entire concurrence; and I rejoice in the belief that this senti 
 ment pervades the minds of a vast majority of the citizens in all parts 
 of the United States. And the Union well deserves the affection of the 
 citizens, for it has preserved our country in peace and prosperity during 
 a longer period than is usual in the annals of the human race, at a time, 
 too, when almost all the nations of the earth have been disturbed by in 
 ternal commotions, or distressed by foreign wars. 
 
 It is not, however, to be dissembled, that this inestimable Union is 
 now put to a severe trial. A series of the acts of Congress, operating 
 most injuriously on the interests of the South, for the protection of 
 Northern manufacturers, have produced deep dissatisfaction in the minds 
 of the citizens of a large section of the United States. The evil is so 
 great, and the injustice is so gross, that the attachment of the South to 
 the Union is gradually weakening, and ere long will be almost_oblite- 
 
88 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 rated, unless relief be obtained. Yet Congress does not seem to have 
 discovered that the affections of the citizen is the best support of all 
 governments. It has denied most pertinaciously the relief sought by 
 the South. How long the pressure will be endured cannot be foreseen. 
 Many ardent spirits, impatient of the wrong, are prepared for strong 
 action to throw off the yoke. On the other hand, many of our citizens 
 cannot yet give up the Union, so precious for the past time. They con 
 tinue to hope, almost against hope; and in this state of mind, they are 
 not prepared to act with their brethren. This difference of opinion, 
 honestly felt and consciously expressed on both sides, has produced 
 most unhappy effects. It has divided the citizens into violent parties, 
 gradually producing bitter animosities. This is most deeply to be re 
 gretted, not only as it disturbs the harmony of society, even in members 
 of the same families, but as weakening our efforts to get rid of the op 
 pression of which we complain. The ablest, wisest and best men of 
 our country are as much divided in opinion, as to the right course of 
 conduct, as those of inferior endowments. Would to God that they 
 could be united in common counsels, and in a common plan, to obtain 
 redress, without hazard to the Union. Could not all our citizens be in 
 duced to unite together in one grand celebration of the ever-memorable 
 Fourth of July ; and could not the leading men on both sides, who have 
 the confidence of the country, meet in friendly counsel, and devise some 
 plan which would obtain the support of the whole State? I most siri* 
 cerely and anxiously wish this could be done. Without it, nothing can 
 be done. 
 
 My public duties will carry me into the upper country immediately, 
 so that it will not be in my power to accept your polite invitation to 
 the public dinner. Permit me, however, to offer you a toast for the oc 
 casion : 
 
 " The Union of the States : May it never be dissolved by unjust, op 
 pressive and sectional legislation ; or by rash and violent measures of 
 resistance to the laws of our country." 
 
 I am, gentlemen, with great respect, your most obedient servant, 
 
 HENRY WM. DESAUSSURE. 
 
 LETTER FROM THE HON. JUDGE RICHARDSON. 
 
 MANCHESTER, June 26, 1831. 
 
 Samuel H. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E, P. Starr, Committee of Invitation : 
 GENTLEMEN, Your invitation to a dinner on the Fourth of July, to be 
 provided by the Union and State Rights Party of Charleston, is received. 
 The season of the year, and the distance of my residence, alone prevent 
 me from attending a celebration so just, patriotic, and praiseworthy; 
 and rendered, in my judgment, necessary at this time, from circum 
 stances attending the political parties in Charleston. I beg your accept- 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE: 89 
 
 ance of the following sentiment, which exhibits my conviction of the 
 correctness of your political principles: 
 
 " The State principles of Moses, that made Agriculture the basis of 
 national stability ; and the policy of Solomon, that ingrafting Commerce 
 on the stock of the farmer, left the Domestic Arts to their natural ali 
 ment, found in free trade and tillage." 
 
 With great respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. S. RICHARDSON. 
 
 LETTER FROM THOMAS WILLIAMS, JR., ESQ. 
 
 YORK DISTRICT, June 18. 
 Samuel H. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, JE. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 favor of the 10th instant as a committee on the part and behalf of the 
 Union and State Rights Party of your city, inviting me to dine with 
 them on the Fourth of July next. 
 
 I am bound to acknowledge it as one of the highest honors of my 
 life to be identified with that party whose wisdom and patriotism have 
 constantly induced the course best calculated to save our country in her 
 times of greatest peril. Of late I have thought the evidence to estab 
 lish one of the so much hooted "eight points" is not of that doubtful 
 character which was once supposed, for language is now used, and in the 
 most public manner, and by our most distinguished men, which at one 
 time would haveabeen thought disgraceful and treasonable, but which 
 is now held by gentlemen as not only correct and proper, but even 
 praiseworthy. Yet I trust the Union and State Rights party, guided by 
 such men as Drayton, Smith and Iluger, will, w T hile they always point 
 to every encroachment on national and constitutional liberty, also point 
 to the proper remedy without endangering the safety of the Union I 
 regret extremely the particular season will not allow me to join with 
 you in celebrating the day so sacred to our liberty. You have my 
 earnest desire for the full and triumphant success of the doctrines main 
 tained and insisted on by the Union and State Rights Party. Believing 
 they are essential to our safety, for their zealous and steady defense 
 our fellow-citizens will yet bless us. 
 
 Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 THOS. WILLIAMS, JR. 
 
 LETTER FROM ALEXANDER SPEER, ESQ. 
 
 ABBEVILLE, June 27, 1831. 
 
 Samuel II. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 GENTLEMEN, I have this moment received your kind invitation to 
 join the " Union and State Rights Party " of the city of Charleston in 
 celebrating the returning anniversary of our country s independence. 
 
90 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 For this act of attention and kindness permit me to return my 
 thanks, and at the same time to assure you, and through you the party 
 with whom I am proud to act, that although distance and season will 
 prevent my personal attendance, yet my heart and best wishes are with 
 you. I rejoice that Charleston has not yet determined to " calculate the 
 value of the Union," and that a goodly number of noble spirits are yet 
 found who are unwilling to place our beloved State in a situation from 
 which it will be "legal and constitutional treason" in her citizens to 
 take sides with or support that federal government, to establish which 
 cost our ancestors so much blood and treasure. 
 
 Be assured, whatever you may hear to the contrary, that whenever 
 the curtain is fully raised so as to make the question of union or dis 
 union fully and fairly, the people of Abbeville will not be found want 
 ing, and nullyism, with all its et ceteras, will fall to rise no more. In con 
 clusion, gentlemen, permit me through you to offer a toast, which I 
 flatter myself will meet with your entire approbation. 
 
 " The Hon. William Drayton, who with more than Roman virtue, 
 sacrificed the dearest ties of personal and family friendship for the good 
 of his country." 
 
 With the highest respect, I remain, gentlemen, your obedient and 
 humble servant, 
 
 ALEXANDER SPEER. 
 
 LETTER FROM THE HON. JOHN L. WILSON. 
 
 CHARLESTON^ July 2, 1831. 
 
 Samuel II. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 GENTLEMEN, I have received your kind and polite invitation to join 
 the procession of the Union and State Eights Party, enclosing a ticket 
 of admission to dine, for which polite attention permit me to return you 
 my thanks. After a public service of more than twenty years I have 
 determined to devote myself entirely to professional engagements and 
 domestic retirement. With this resolution taken, I admit the principle 
 that the Republic has a right to demand at all times the services of her 
 citizens, and whenever such a crisis shall arrive, and I am called upon 
 to act, I shall obey the summons with promptitude and zeal. Although 
 for the last two years I have taken no part in the political excitement 
 which now agitates and convulses my beloved State, I have not been in 
 sensible to passing events. To me it is a source of deep regret to witness 
 this unhappy division, which, at the same time it serves to weaken our 
 just influence in the national councils, arrays in hostile ranks the same 
 family, breaking asunder former political friendships and connections 
 and poisoning the foundations of social and domestic happiness. Not 
 withstanding the present array of contending parties, my confidence in 
 the intelligence and virtue of the people remains undiminished; and, I 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 91 
 
 confidently hope, by mutual forbearance and free and friendly discus 
 sion, the prosperity and political happiness of our State may be the ulti 
 mate result. 
 
 The political sentiments I have heretofore with more than usual 
 ardor advanced and supported I still cherish and maintain. In other 
 situations they have been frankly and freely avowed, and the public are 
 in possession of them. They are briefly these : 
 
 The perpetuity of the Union in the spirit and terms of the national 
 compact. 
 
 The sovereignty of the States and the inviolable security of their 
 reserved rights. 
 
 If these cardinal points are observed with scrupulous integrity by the 
 confederate and State authorities, I shall have no fears for the Repub 
 lic, and we may all yet live to witness the prosperity and happiness of 
 the people of these United States; the temple of liberty will be unde- 
 filed by the demon of discord, and our beloved country, which has been 
 emphatically styled the refuge of the oppressed, shall still continue to 
 be the sacred sanctuary of all who seek the inestimable rights of man. 
 
 The day you are about to celebrate is sacred to liberty. In your com 
 memoration of the great events to which it gave birth I most heartily 
 unite in feeling, and tender you the following sentiment as appropriate 
 to the occasion : 
 
 * The Patriotism that engendered, the Firmness that resolved, and 
 the Wisdom that planned the Declaration of 1776: May the same Patri 
 otism, Firmness and Wisdom forever animate, nerve and direct the peo 
 ple of these United States." 
 
 Be pleased to present my respectful consideration to the Union and 
 State Eights Party, and at the same time receive for yourselves the 
 assurances of the regard with which I am, gentlemen, your fellow-citi 
 zen, etc. 
 
 JOHN L. WILSON. 
 
 LETTER FROM HON. HENRY MIDDLETON. 
 
 CHARLESTON, June 10, 1831. 
 
 Samuel II. Dickson J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 GENTLEMEN, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 polite invitation to dine with the Union and State Rights Party on the 
 Fourth of July next. 
 
 Few circumstances could be more gratifying to me than assisting at 
 the celebration of that anniversary surrounded by my friends and fel 
 low-citizens. But considerations relative to the health of my family 
 (long estranged from our climate) force me to seek a more mild tem 
 perature during the summer months, and our embarkation for the North, 
 fjxed for the middle of this month, will necessarily prevent my accep 
 tance of the invitation. 
 
92 LIFE AVT) TIMES OF C. 0. MEMMINGER. 
 
 I, therefore, pray you, gentlemen, to convey to my fellow-citizens of 
 the Union and State Eights Party the expression of my regret on this 
 occasion, and to accept for yourselves my most friendly salutations and 
 good wishes. 
 
 HENRY MIDDLETON. 
 
 LETTER FROM HON. JOHN B. O NEALL. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, June 28, 1831. 
 Samuel II. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I received on my return from Columbia your invitation 
 to participate with the Union and State Rights Party in commemorating 
 the Fourth of July in Charleston. 
 
 I regret that it is out of my p*ower to unite with my friends in 
 Charleston in doing honor to the day which, above all others, should be 
 honored by every citizen of the United States. On that day I am com 
 pelled, in the discharge of my official duties, to be at the extra court 
 ordered then to commence its session at Newberry courthouse. 
 
 You thought, truly, that my sentiments accorded with those of your 
 party. I regard the Union of the States as essentially necessary to the 
 preservation of the liberty and happiness of this, as well as all the other 
 States. Anything which is calculated to destroy it, or weaken the 
 attachments of our citizens to it, has, and I trust always will, meet with 
 my decided disapprobation. 
 
 .Permit me to give you a sentiment: 
 
 " Our Country, our whole Country, and nothing but our Country." 
 
 Accept, gentlemen, the assurances of the great respect and conside~ 
 ration with which I subscribe myself, your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN B. O NEALL. 
 
 LETTER FROM MR. STEPHEN THOMAS, A REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER. 
 
 CHARLESTON, June 17, 1831. 
 
 Samuel II. Dickson, J. Ilarleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 GENTLEMEN, I have to acknowledge the receipt of your kind commu 
 nication of the 4th instant, informing me that you are instructed to in 
 vite me to partake of the feast to be given by the Union and State 
 Rights Party on the Fourth of July next. As I am entirely of the same 
 opinion with my fellow-citizens who compose that very respectable party, 
 I feel myself highly gratified to have the honor of associating with the 
 real and true friends of our beloved country in celebrating that ever-to- 
 bc-remembered national anniversary. I accept with great pleasure their 
 very polite invitation, and shall attend (if a kind Providence please to 
 spare my life and health) wherever they have appointed to meet. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 93 
 
 Be pleased to present to that honorable body my sincere thanks for 
 their kind favor, and to you individually, gentlemen, permit me to offer 
 my grateful sense for the very polite manner with which you have been 
 pleased to communicate the invitation, 
 
 I am, with real esteem and regard, very respectfully yours, 
 
 STEPHEN THOMAS. 
 
 FKOM MB. MORTON WAKING, A REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER. 
 
 CHARLESTON, June 10, 1831. 
 
 Samuel H. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 GENTLEMEN, It would indeed, gentlemen, be peculiarly gratifying to 
 me to unite with so respectable a portion of my fellow-citizens in cele 
 brating the anniversary of our country s independence ; but in obedience 
 to the admonitions of age, I have long since withdrawn myself from the 
 society of large and crowded assemblies. For this reason alone I most 
 respectfully decline your very polite and nattering invitation for the 
 approaching Fourth of July. In doing this, I cannot but avail myself of 
 the opportunity which it affords of assuring you that I reciprocate most 
 heartily with you and " the Union and State Rights Party " all the feel 
 ings and sentiments which should animate Americans on every recur 
 rence of their glorious anniversary. Permit me, gentlemen, to offer a 
 sentiment, in which I hope all will accord. 
 
 "The Principles and Spirit of 76: We will cherish and perpetuate 
 them." 
 
 With great respect, gentlemen, I remain your obedient servant, 
 
 MORTON WARING. 
 
 FROM MR. B. LANNEAU, A REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER. 
 
 CHARLESTON, June 25, 1831. 
 Samuel II. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, Were it not for the infirmities of extreme old age, 
 which now confine me to the precincts of my own habitation, it would 
 give me unfeigned pleasure to accept, through you, the very polite invi 
 tation of the Union and State Rights Party in the proposed celebration 
 of the approaching anniversary of American Independence a day which 
 you have proudly recalled to my recollection by alluding to the feeble 
 services I may have rendered our common country in her glorious strug 
 gle for independence and liberty. 
 
 The remembrance of the eventful Fourth of July, 76, will not, can 
 not, fail to awaken the warmest gratitude of a nation of enlightened 
 freemen and although denied the privilege of uniting with you in per 
 son on the return of that memorable day, I shall, nevertheless, be with 
 you in spirit. 
 
94 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMHINGER. 
 
 Permit me, however, gentlemen, in conclusion, to assure you of my 
 honest attachment to the interests of the cause you are engaged to pro 
 mote and to offer through you, on the approaching celebration, as the 
 sentiment I feel, in the words of the motto you have adopted as desig 
 nating your party 
 
 " Union and State Right." 
 With sentiments of respect, I remain your obedient servant, 
 
 BAZILE LANNEAU. 
 
 LETTER FROM THE HON. STARLING TUCKER. 
 
 LAURENS COURTHOUSE, S. C., July 6, 1831. 
 
 Samuel H. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation : 
 GENTLEMEN, Your kind invitation of the 4th June last, I received at 
 Laurens courthouse on the 4th instant. It would have afforded me 
 much pleasure to comply with your kind invitation, but I never received 
 your letter until the day you invited me to attend. In regard to the 
 great political question, etc., I very much regret that there is so great 
 a difference among us. I believe, however, if we act prudently and re- 
 elect General Jackson President, and, I think, Judge Smith Vice-Presi 
 dent, that our beloved country will yet be saved. I am for State Eights 
 and the Federal Union. I am for General Jackson s re-election to the 
 Presidency, and Judge Smith Vice-President. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, in haste, your obedient, humble servant, 
 
 STARLING TUCKER. 
 
 LETTER FROM JOSEPH KOGER, JR. 
 
 ST. GEORGES, July 6, 1831. 
 
 Samuel II. Dickson, J. Harleston Read, E. P. Starr, Committee of Invitation: 
 GENTLEMEN, Your invitation to dine with the Union and State 
 Rights Party in Charleston, on the Fourth of July, has this moment 
 come to hand. It would have afforded me much pleasure to celebrate 
 the day with you had your invitation been received in time ; but as I 
 have been, through unavoidable circumstances deprived of that pleas 
 ure, permit me to offer the following sentiment, nunc pro tune: 
 
 " The Union and State Rights Party of South Carolina : Nothing is 
 lacking but unity of action. Let our motto be measures, not men. Let 
 us take a pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, and with the bless 
 ings of Providence the victory will be ours. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, your friend and servant, 
 
 Jos. KOGER, JR. 
 
 VOLUNTEER TOASTS. 
 
 By the Hon. William Drayton, the Orator of the Day. The Counsels 
 of Washington : The observance of them their highest eulogy. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 95 
 
 By J. R. Pringle, President of the Day. South Carolina: Our affec 
 tion to her is best evinced by our attachment to the Union. 
 
 By Gen. Daniel E. Huger, reader of Washington s Farewell Address, 
 and one of the Vice-Presidents. The States and People : The deposito 
 ries of reserved power the only constitutional check upon federal leg 
 islation. One of the States can no more apply this check than one of 
 the people ; a majority of either may. 
 
 By Col. Jacob Sass, a Revolutionary officer, and one of the Vice-Presi 
 dents. The Union of these States: Devised by the wisdom of Franklin, 
 cemented by the blood of patriots, and enjoined in the Farewell Address 
 of our beloved Washington ; may the prayers of the few survivors of 
 our Revolutionary struggle be heard, that God may forever preserve us 
 a free and united people. 
 
 By Thomas Corbett, one of the Vice-Presidents. The Union, Popular 
 and Federal : We know its cost, perceive its wisdom, and feel its value. 
 We will cherish it with patriotic devotion. 
 
 By Judge Lee, one of the Vice-Presidents : The City of Charleston : 
 True to the Union, she has always "frowned indignantly on the first 
 dawnings of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from 
 the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the va 
 rious parts." 
 
 By Dr. Philip G. Prioleau, one of the Vice-Presidents. The Farewell 
 Address of Washington, the Father of his Country: May it be remem 
 bered with reverence, and its precepts held sacred. 
 
 By William Bell, one of the Vice-Presidents. My Country, my whole 
 Country, and nothing but my Country. 
 
 By R. Godard, one of the Vice-Presidents. To our political oppo 
 nents we have neither enmity or ill-will ; we join and concur with them 
 in reprobating the system that weighs upon us, and only differ as to the 
 means of redress. 
 
 By James L. Petigru, Esq., one of the Vice-Presidents. The Memory 
 of Abraham Nott, an able and upright Judge : His mind was enlight 
 ened by knowledge, and his judgment equally free from the disturbing 
 influences of passion, or the blind admiration of theory. 
 
 By the Hon. Thomas Bennett, one of the Vice-Presidents. Our Dele 
 gates to the Anti-Tariff Convention to be held at Philadelphia: May 
 their measures vindicate the motives of those who send them, appease 
 the political strife that affects us, and secure the permanent interests of 
 our beloved State. 
 
 By the Hon. Thomas Lowndes, one of the Vice-Presidents. The 
 Union : Its friends may differ as to the expediency of measures, but 
 never as to its value or preservation. 
 
 By James Marsh, one of the Vice-Presidents. May the excitement of 
 political opinion in South Carolina be moderated to a healthful state by 
 the zephyrs of Wisdom and Patience. 
 
96 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEXMINGER. 
 
 By the Hon. Thomas S. Grimke, one of the Vice-Presidents. The 
 Union : We will calculate its value when we have forgotten its founders. 
 
 By the Hon. James Lowndes, one of the Vice-Presidents. The Union 
 of the States : Nothing short of insufferable oppression actually felt, and 
 not inferred from false or doubtful premises, should make a wise man 
 wish for its dissolution. 
 
 By M. King, Esq., one of the Vice-Presidents. Agriculture, Manu 
 factures and Commerce: Equal protection to all; exclusive privileges 
 to none. 
 
 By Dr. James Moultrie, Jr., one of the Vice-Presidents. The Memory 
 of General Washington : The man who was " among the first to discover 
 the cause and point out the remedy" for the following evils: 
 
 "From want of vigor in the Federal head, the United States were 
 fast dwindling into separate sovereignties," etc. Ramsay s Life of Wash 
 ington, p. 216. 
 
 " Requisitions are actually little better than a jest and bye-word 
 throughout the land. If you tell the Legislatures they have violated 
 the treaty of peace, and invaded the prerogatives of the confederacy, 
 they will laugh in your face." George Washington (Ramsay s Life, p. 219.) 
 
 By George Edwards, Esq., one of the Vice-Presidents. The Federal 
 Constitution : Conceived in wisdom, may it be preserved in its purity, 
 and all its provisions executed with firmness true guarantees of Union 
 and State Rights. 
 
 By Dr. V. Le Seigneur, one of the Vice-Presidents. The Hon. "Win. 
 Drayton, Orator of the Day: May the force of his arguments, backed by 
 the splendor of his eloquence, gather under one banner the chivalric 
 sons of the South. May internal dissensions never compel them to call 
 upon others for that assistance which they once so generously extended 
 to the unfortunate exiles of St. Domingo, and may that banner be 
 forever unchanged and undimmed the brilliant stars and stripes which 
 now so proudly float over our heads. Liberty and Union forever ! 
 
 By Col. Simon Magwood, one of the Vice-Presidents. Our Country, 
 the seat of Happiness : May we long continue to appreciate its blessings 
 and keep at bay new doctrines that might bring on premature decrepi 
 tude. 
 
 By Col. Cross, one of the A r ice-Presidents. Agriculture, Commerce, 
 Manufactures : Even-handed Justice to them all. 
 
 By Col. B. F. Hunt, one of the Vice-Presidents: The enlightened 
 patriot trembles with holy fear for his country at the ill-boding word 
 disunion, for it implies an exchange of a government of the majority of 
 the representatives of an enlightened and virtuous people, restrained 
 by a written Constitution and their own responsibility, for revolutionary 
 tribunals, which in every age and in every country have been " gov 
 ernments practically without limitation of powers." 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 97 
 
 The following letter from Nicholas Harleston, Esq., one of the Vice- 
 Presidents, was read : 
 
 Bossis. July 1, 1831. 
 To the Committee of Arrangements: 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I much fear that the indisposition of one of my sons, 
 who is at this time in the country with me, and whose situation claims 
 my immediate attention, will deprive me of the pleasure that I fully had 
 in expectation of dining with the Union and State Rights Party to com 
 memorate our National Independence, on a day that should have met 
 all true Americans united as they were heretofore in support of the laws 
 of their common country. 
 
 You will, therefore, sir, have the goodness to excuse me before the 
 Committee of Arrangements, and to say to them that although I shall 
 be unavoidably absent, yet my heart will beat in perfect unison with 
 those sentiments that the TJnion and State Rights Party have ever main 
 tained in support of the honor and prosperity of our happy country as 
 yet it stands. Should a toast be expected from me, which is sometimes 
 the case, I beg the favor of you to offer those which I shall enclose, but 
 by no means to push them forward, as undoubtedly there will be an 
 over-sufficient number of superior merit. Wishing you all, on the great 
 day of rejoicing, much pleasure, good humor and friendship, I remain, 
 dear sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 NICHOLAS HARLESTON. 
 
 By Nichplas Harleston, Esq., one of the Vice-Presidents : A perpetual 
 confederation of these United States and a speedy downfall to all 
 intriguing and ambitious demagogues who would insiduously or openly 
 mislead the virtuous citizen from his contented and happy State. 
 
 By Col. Cross, in behalf of the Committee of Arrangements. The Con 
 stellation of the American Union : May its brilliancy never be dimin 
 ished by the occultation of a single star. 
 
 By the President of the Day. Our Respected Guests: Consuls from 
 France, Portugal, Prussia, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the Nether 
 lands, Brazil, and the two Sicilies. 
 
 Mr. Trapmann, Consul of Prussia, rose and said: 
 
 " Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Union and State Rights Party, In 
 the name of my respected brother Consuls, and for myself, I thankfully 
 acknowledge the honor you have just conferred upon us, and beg leave 
 in return to offer the following toast : 
 
 " The Constitution and Government of the United States : May they 
 continue undisturbed what they have now been for more than half a 
 century the admiration of the world." 
 
 By M. Hersant, the French Consul. The Union of the States : May 
 that beautiful fabric, whose corner-stone was laid on the Fourth of July, 
 4776, whose construction was afterwards cemented by American and 
 7 
 
98 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 French blood, and completed on the 19th October, 1781, stand forever to 
 serve as a beacon for the lovers of National Liberty. 
 
 By Jacob R. Valk, Consul of the Netherlands. The Farewell Address 
 of the great and good Gen. Washington : May its admonitions be cher 
 ished with filial veneration by and engraven on the hearts of every 
 American, as the rock of their political peace, happiness, and prosperity. 
 
 By Jas. H. Ladson, Vice-Consul for Denmark. The United States of 
 America the admiration of Foreigners: The Union of its parts and har 
 mony of the whole are best appreciated at a distance. 
 
 By Judge Jolfnson. The New Cabinet: It commands the confidence 
 of the people; the old Republicans look to it with anxious expectation. 
 
 By W. Hasell Gibbes, Esq., a soldier of the Revolution. The memory 
 of Major Charles Shepheard and others of the Charleston militia who 
 fell in the attack on Savannah ; also, of Lieut. Wilkins and others, who 
 fell in the attack of the enemy on Beaufort Island. 
 
 By Isaac Course, a citizen soldier of 76. The real Patriots of the 
 present day: Emulating their illustrious sires of old in perpetuating 
 the blessings bequeathed the American family, and nobly sustaining 
 their existing government, founded on equal representation and Union. 
 
 By Col. Steedman. The Memory of Thomas Jefferson, the Apostle of 
 Liberty and of State Rights : Pie declared for the first, and steadfastly 
 supported the last. 
 
 By N. Harleston, Esq. The memory of the brave Count Pulaski: 
 He died contending nobly and generously for our liberties; let us, then, 
 do honor to his name by sympathizing with his gallant countrymen, at 
 this time struggling for their own freedom. 
 
 By Dr. F. Y. Porcher, of the Committee of Arrangements. The two 
 great Political Parties in our State: Let the contest be conducted with 
 open, manl^y, and honorable feelings; and the question decided by the 
 prudence, intelligence, and good sense of the people. 
 
 By Capt. Thos. H. Jervey. Charity to those who differ from us. 
 
 By Col. William Lance. Disunion : The Forbidden Tree in the Eden 
 of Liberty. " In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." 
 
 By "VV. G. Sims. The State of our Union and the Union of our States : 
 What God hath put together let no man put asunder. 
 
 By Dennis Kane, of the Committee of Arrangements : The Union and 
 State Rights party will yield to none in attachment to the Constitution, 
 the rights of South Carolina, and in a firm and zealous opposition to the 
 present mischievous, illegal and unjust tariff. 
 
 By F. Isley, Jr. Freedom of Opinion : The greatest blessing we enjoy 
 in this free, this happy republic without it in 1830 we should indeed 
 have been submission men to the " Exclusives " of the South in 1831. 
 
 By Richard Yeadon, Jr. Our Country, Our Whole Country: Not 
 circumscribed within the narrow limits of a single State, but co-extern 
 sive with the broad expanse of our glorious confederacy. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 99 
 
 By Bartholomew Carroll : Let Government cherish and protect the 
 agricultural and mechanic arts. Would we be commercial ? Would we 
 oe rich ? Would we be great and powerful? These are their true ele 
 ments. 
 
 By Moses Abrahams. South Carolina: A bright star in our land of 
 Liberty: May she never forget that her sons are freemen, and may the 
 Union be preserved, even at the expense by which it was obtained our 
 lives and fortunes. 
 
 By James Smith Colburn. The Union of the States: There will 
 always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter 
 may endeavor to weaken its bonds. 
 
 By W. Wall, a soldier of the Revolution : Distracted be the brain and 
 palsied be the hand that would separate the Union and destroy the Lib 
 erty of this happy land. 
 
 By Dr. Wagner, one of the Committee of Arrangements. The Poto 
 mac : On its Yv^estern banks the ashes of our Vv r ashington, on its Eastern 
 the monument to his glory. Who dare make its consecrated waters the 
 division line of these United States ? 
 
 By Arch d Brown : Free Trade, and such of its advocates as are for 
 submission to -the laws of their country, though they may want faith as 
 to their expediency. 
 
 By Mr. J. X. Barillon, Deputy Secretary of State. The Union Party 
 of Charleston and the People of the up-country : Alike bound by prin 
 ciple and love of country ; any assertions of the nullifiers to the contrary 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 By Mr. Willington. Lafayette: The early, devoted, and efficient 
 friend of American Liberty May his last days not be embittered by the 
 nullification of that national glory for which he contended in the days 
 of his youth. 
 
 By J. AY. Sommers of St. Paul s Parish. The City of Charleston : The 
 abode of intelligence, "patriotism, and valor though torn by party dis 
 sension, still steadfast to the Union. 
 
 By J. II. Head. The American Constitution : The ark of our national 
 covenant it will be preserved by the Union and State Eights Party 
 throughout our State from the profane touch of delusion and of faction. 
 
 By Col. Thomas D. Condy. The Union of the States: Like Ccesar s 
 bridge, the greater the pressure, the firmer it stands. 
 
 By Dr. A. V. Toomer. The United States of America: Blest with the 
 best form of government, they have set an example which is stripping 
 royalty and aristocracy of their robes and revolutionizing the world. 
 Let not Carolina throw an obstacle in the way. 
 
 By Thomas W. Mordecai. William Drayton : The wise and fearless 
 statesman ; the American patriot ! The cause he advocates is his coun 
 try s; the temple he defends is the palladium of her liberty! Millions 
 of freemen yet unborn will bless his name. 
 
100 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 By Capt. Alexander M Donald. The United States of America : The 
 last refuge of the persecuted patriot May her Spangled Banner be 
 handed down to future generations without one star obscured, one 
 stripe erased. 
 
 By Dr. De La Motta. The present state of the Union: A compound 
 of opposite principles, cast in the crucible of political dissension should 
 the fire of patriotism be insufficient to produce permanent amalgama 
 tion, may a Congress of refiners devise such process as will ultimately 
 succeed in an abundant supply and equal distribution of the pure metal. 
 
 By Col. Eichard Yeadon. The Union : In the language of our orator, 
 " He who could calmly contemplate its dissolution, must be either more 
 or less than man." 
 
 By Charles E. Rowand, Esq. Col. William Drayton: Integer vitx, 
 scelcrisque purus. 
 
 By N. Harleston Rutledge. The States of the Union : They are " the 
 feathers " which " adorn " it, and power which " supports " it in its "flight" 
 to glory; shame, shame, eternal shame to him, who would "strip it of 
 its plumage," and thus hurl it into the gloomy sepulchres of empires 
 that were. 
 
 By Joshua Toomer. The 40 per cent, sophistry of a distinguished 
 Politician : Too highly sublimated to impose long on Carolinians. 
 
 By Dr. Horatio S. Waring. The sound Religious Virtue of Washing- 
 tion : The true basis of government ; the guarantee of a nation s safety. 
 
 By William Robinson, Esq. The Freedom of the Press : An enlight 
 ened people, jealous of their liberties, will frown with indignation upon 
 him who would r are to violate its sanctity, even under the influence of 
 party excitement. 
 
 By Col. William H. Wilson The Crisis " : " Dat Deus immiti cornua 
 curta bovi." 
 
 By Theodore Gaillard, one of the Marshals of the day. The true Re 
 publican Party : Who evince their regard for State Rights by the love 
 of the Union, and, relying upon the good sense and virtue of their fel 
 low-citizens, combat error with reason. 
 
 By James II. Smith, one of the Stewards. Nullification : That slough 
 of despondency Who would not be glad to get out of it when he once 
 has got in ? 
 
 By William B. Pringle. The People of South Carolina : They repro 
 bate alike the principle and the operation of the tariff; but in their op 
 position to it, they will beware of the delusion of those politicians who 
 would confound revolutionary with constitutional resistance. 
 
 By B. F. Pepoon. The State of South Carolina : She is not repre 
 sented by those who breathe the spirit of disunion. 
 
 By John Phillips. The Palmetto: Unsullied honor and chivalrous 
 courage made it South Carolina s laurel. It was regenerated into glory 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 101 
 
 by the patriot s blood, not the serpent s slime. It was impregnable 
 when o er it waved its country s standard, not from being intertwined 
 with subtility and poison. 
 
 By Randell Hunt, Esq., one of the Stewards. The Federal Union : 
 The source of our national existence, of our prosperty, our strength, and 
 our glory the best security for State independence and individual 
 freedom. 
 
 By H. Trescot. The twenty-four United States of America : Drawn 
 together by a bond of Union and love too strong to be broken by the 
 efforts of any demagogue, whether he assume the name of Brutus or of 
 Phcecion. 
 
 By James Haig. The Doctrine of Nullification : Learned lawyers and 
 political agitators do well to seek its exposition and defence in musty 
 records and rebellious precedents. Our common sense patriotism ac 
 knowledges no such authority. 
 
 By John L. Strohecker. The Hon. William Drayton : A stumbling 
 block to the disunion party. 
 
 By Edward J. Pringle. Our differences with the General Govern 
 ment: May they end like the quarrels of lovers, in the renewal of love. 
 
 By Major Clark. The Yankee : However grossly villified, whenever 
 the sound sense and solid patriotism of South Carolina shall require his 
 services, by the spirits of Greene and Lincoln, he will not be found 
 wanting. 
 
 By S. Chapman. The Youth of South Carolina : May they look to the 
 welfare and glory of their common country, and not be led astray by 
 deluded, ambitious, and disappointed politicians. 
 
 By Tristam Tupper. Union, Liberty, and Peace: Are they worth 
 preserving ? 
 
 By J. B. Thompson, one of the Stewards. The Confederated Re 
 publics of America: When the empires of European despotism shall 
 have crumbled into dust, may they stand unshaken, the home and the 
 refuge of liberty. 
 
 By John W. Brisbane. South Carolina: May she always be all she 
 ought to be. 
 
 By R. Y. Livingston. A true citizen of the United States should have 
 no other party prejudice than enmity to the foes of his country. 
 
 By Mr. Morris. Our Sister State Virginia: The first to assert her 
 rights, the last to submit to their infringement. "Where the ball of the 
 Revolution received its first impulse, there also is felt that oppression 
 which dictates to South Carolina to calculate the value of the Union." 
 Virginia resisted then to establish liberty and Union, she suffers now 
 that they may be preserved. 
 
 By Col. Memminger. The Virginia Resolutions of 1798: The true 
 exposition of the doctrines of State Rights; they have once prevailed 
 
102 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 over the advocates of implied powers they reject the proffered alli 
 ance of nullification. 
 
 By Jeremiah Murden. The Constitution : Our best bower cable. 
 
 By Capt. Isaac S. Coffin. The Union and Independence of these 
 United States : The legacy of our forefathers, the price of their blood. 
 Esto perpetua. 
 
 By F. G. Rolands. The Union Party of Charleston : A grand moral 
 spectacle, presenting patriots of all parties laying aside their minor 
 differences, to co-operate in the holy task of preserving that great work 
 American Liberty. 
 
 By E. S. Duryea, one of the Stewards. The United States of America: 
 While united under our present form of government always happy ; once 
 divided, no matter under what flag, worse than miserable. 
 
 By .Paul Eooney. The Hon. William Drayton : The political doctor, 
 who has dissected the monster called nullification, and saved the deluded 
 and ignorant by administering the constitutional balsam of restoration, 
 which brings them back to thsir allegiance. 
 
 By Henry V. Toomer. The revolutionary Demons, Convention and 
 Nullification : Turned out of Pandora s box to create civil war, with all 
 its attendant horrors, may the voice of Carolina hurl them far into the 
 ocean. 
 
 By Samuel W. Doggctt. To the memory of Charles Cotesworth 
 Pinckney: May his political views check the mad career of our political 
 opponents; we offer for their consideration his own words: "All at 
 tempts to weaken the Union by maintaining that each State is sepa 
 rately and individually independent, is a species of political heresy 
 which can never benefit us, but may bring on the most serious dis 
 tresses." 
 
 By Wm. S. Blain. The Patriots of France, Poland, Belgium, and 
 Ireland: Their sufferings, devotion and example in the cause of human 
 liberty, admonish the emigrant citizens not to hazard lightly the bless 
 ings they enjoy. They aro bound by their oath of citizenship, by grat 
 itude, by the hopes and miseries of their native land, to unite with the 
 man of the people, the illustrious Jackson, in preserving forever the 
 integrity of the only free nation on earth that has the power and the 
 will to give an asylum to the oppressed. 
 
 By J. W. Bouse. Wm. Drayton, Daniel E. Huger, James R. Pringle, 
 James L. Petigru: Luminous stars in our country s constellation; pa 
 triots and statesmen, who will defend with their eloquence and energy 
 the rights of their State, and still preserve the Union. 
 
 By C. Cassin. If the people are educated, if the Press is free, if the 
 friends of order be firm and united, the institutions of Washington, the 
 last citadel of human liberty, will continue for ages to be the glory of 
 the new world, and the envy and admiration of the old. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 103 
 
 By Mr. Yinyard. The spread Eagle, the emblem of the United States ; 
 the Palmetto Tree, the emblem of the State of South Carolina : May the 
 eagle ever rest in its top. 
 
 By Philip S. Cohen. Liberty and the Union : The watchword of free 
 men. We will maintain the one by duly appreciating the value of the 
 other. 
 
 By H. S. Tew. South Carolina : The Union is the ark of her political 
 safety. 
 
 By X. L. Toomer. South Carolina: May she avoid the strife and 
 bloody struggles of Columbia, Mexico, and Buena Ayres, excited by a 
 few monarchists for the benefit of the few. 
 
 By J. Cook. Youthful mechanics in the day of this political excite 
 ment, let us follow the precepts of our cool and deliberate advocate, Col. 
 William Drayton. 
 
 By Jackson M Clelland. Perpetuity to the principles on which alone 
 republicanism is based Destruction to those which constitute the char 
 ter of monarchy. 
 
 By C. R. Brewster. The United States : May they never lose so fair 
 a sister as South Carolina, and may she never be so utter reckless of 
 consequences as to wish to be separated, nor so wayward as to desire the 
 nullification of her rulers. 
 
 By Hugh McDonald. General Daniel E. Huger : More of the Roman 
 than any man living, except Andrew Jackson. 
 
 By Richard Geurry. The Constitution of the United States : Like the 
 magnificent firmament of Heaven, under which we live and move and 
 have our being, it inspires light and love and liberty ; like it, too, the 
 clouds of ambition and the tempests of faction occasionally obscure its 
 glory and disfigure its beauty. But these things past, the eternal azure 
 and the stars immortal shine on more bright and calm and glorious. 
 
 By George S. Bryan. Nullification : Anarchy reduced to system.. 
 
 By John J. Radford. Nullification, Disunion : If our adopted broth 
 ers must not assist to preserve the Republic, surely a violation of sacred 
 duty will disgrace it themselves the land of their birth, posterity. 
 
 By Edward Lowndes. Judge D. E. Huger : Long may he live for the 
 Nation s defense, and his principles flourish a thousand years hence. 
 
 By George Buist, one of the Stewards. The Patriots of the Revolu 
 tion : A splendid galaxy of glory; we will protect and defend there- 
 publican fabric which they reared against the rash assaults of the 
 ambitious and the deluded. 
 
 By Jacob Kemnit. General Andrew Jackson: The friend of the 
 Union, the Democrats of America will support his re-election, nor will 
 the children of dear Erin forget him who chastised their Saxon tyrants. 
 Notwithstanding, he may be opposed by the whole order of well-bred 
 gentlemen and by the dreamers of a Republic south of the Potomac. 
 
104 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 By Thomas L. Jones. The Union: Consecrated by the bloodof our 
 forefathers, it must receive the support of their offspring. 
 
 By John L. Poyas, of Daniel s Island. The Federal Union and 
 Andrew Jackson: The one must be preserved; the other must be re- 
 elected. 
 
 By J. Haliday. J. L. Petigru, Hugh S. Legare and Benjamin F. 
 Hunt: How consistent and bright is the track of patriotism; the gene 
 rous advocates of Catholic emancipation on the 26th of September, 1828, 
 have been found true to their country and their oath, defending the 
 Fourth of July, 1831. Honor and gratitude to the friends of the Republic. 
 Children of Erin, will you desert the cause of that America for which 
 Montgomery and Warren and Jasper, and so many of your countrymen 
 fought and bled ? 
 
 By George Oxford Pcmberton. The Orator of the Day, Hon. William 
 Drayton : An able and efficient artisan toiling for his country s good, 
 which he has deeply at heart. 
 
 By Daniel Horlbeck, one of the Stewards. Nullification: "None but 
 a recreant knight would shiver a lance in so inglorious " a cause. 
 
 By J. B. Clapp. The hickory and the palmetto planted together : 
 Their Union must be preserved. 
 
 By S. Kneply. Here is to all true Americans : May they prosper in 
 all their undertakings, and stick to the Union. United we stand, di 
 vided we fall. 
 
 By S. J. Cohen. The Union : Achieved by the valor of the patriots of 
 76; as descendants of those patriots, we will cling to it as long as rea 
 son shall have its sway. 
 
 By Thomas Crbett, Jr., one of the Stewards. Our Fair Experiment 
 of Republican Government : The pride of patriotism, and the boast of 
 freemen. Without Union, without hope with it, the world s best hope. 
 
 By J. B. Thorp. Disunion : Suicide ! 
 
 By L. J. Crovat. The Principles we Celebrate : They may disunite 
 for the present, but eventually they must consolidate. 
 
 By P. Cantwell. Ireland : It is as natural for her sons to hate aristo 
 crats and their mercenaries, as it is a national virtue in them to love 
 light and liberty. Her history is frequently adduced to show how much 
 evil may be inflicted upon a nation in the form of law, by an interested 
 majority. It, however, proves that the triumph of a good cause is cer 
 tain. 
 
 By Capt. William Nowton, one of the Stewards. The Hon. William 
 Drayton : The able supporter of our rights. May his present friends 
 never forsake him, nor posterity ever fail him. 
 
 By Thomas Tennant. The Hon. William Draytonj One of the 
 brightest stars of South Carolina; the faithful sentinel on the watch- 
 tower of the Union; the man in whom we can confide. 
 
UNION PARTY CELEBRATE. 105 
 
 By Henry. F. Faber. The Tariff: Acknowledged by many to be 
 unconstitutional or impolitic, few will acknowledge nullification a con 
 stitutional remedy for its modification. 
 
 By Joseph W. Faber. The Federal Constitution : The rich inheri 
 tance left to us by its founders/ may the present generation entail it to 
 their latest posterity as the only ark of our political safety. 
 
 By Robert Pringle, Chairman of the Stewards. Col. Drayton : If men 
 of his abilities, integrity and patriotism continue to influence our public 
 councils our country will forever enjoy the blessings we this day cele 
 brate. 
 
 By Legrand G. Capers, one of the Stewards. The Constitution : Like 
 the firmament of Heaven, it sprang originally from contending influ 
 ences. The doom of fate would seem to rest upon it; by conflict and 
 contention can it alone be preserved. We must do our duty. 
 
 By G. Brush. The Patriots of the Revolution : A splendid galaxy of 
 glory. The Republican fabric which they erected will be protected from 
 the rash assaults of the ambitious and the deluded. 
 
 By a Member. General Morgan: A patriot who immortalized the 
 "Cowpens" in sending Tarleton to enjoy a "Pavilion." 
 
 By Abraham Motte. Col. Pringle : The patriotic President of this 
 our really National Festival. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 j-li5 public Life ^le^ted ai? 
 
 HILE these proceedings do not indicate that the 
 opposing parties were arrayed against each other 
 in hostile attitude, yet this was unhappily the 
 case. Mr. Poinsett, who was sincerely attached to the 
 Union, urged the necessity of organization among the mem 
 bers of his party, and at an early stage of the excitement 
 was credited with being in collusion with the Federal au 
 thorities at Washington and their selected agent to suppress 
 any revolutionary proceedings on the part of the Nullifiers. 
 Whatever of truth may be in this, it nevertheless is a fact 
 of history that the Union party were better organized than 
 the Nullifiers. 
 
 I find in the Charleston Year Book for 1887 a sketch of 
 the life of Mr. Poinsett, from which I extract the following: 
 
 The superior organization of the Union men under the management 
 of Mr. Poinsett was never more apparent than when the two parties 
 came face to face one night after each one had attended a public gath 
 ering in a different part of the city, and, to the surprise of the un 
 initiated, the Union men as they halted were found to be in military 
 formation, while the other party were without order or discipline. 
 
 This was at the commencement of the agitation, and the only arms 
 the Union men had were clubs. They were provided with these because 
 there were threats that their meetings would be broken up, and it was 
 to prevent any such attempt that they were thus prepared. Later on 
 the Nullifiers \vere uniformed as State troops, and frequently drilled, 
 and their infantry and artillery were often seen in the public streets. 
 It was then found necessary to give an equally efficient organization to 
 the Union men, but this could only be accomplished by doing it se 
 cretly, as the Nullifiers were in possession of the State government, 
 and would have prevented any open drilling of their opponents. 
 
 In the city of Charleston it was doubtful at first which party was in 
 the majority, and it was not definitely settled in favor of the Nullifiers 
 
 [106] 
 
HIS PUBLIC LIFE. 107 
 
 until the annual election in 1831 for Intendant. Great efforts were 
 made on both sides and much excitement prevailed. The successful 
 candidate was Henry L. Pinckney over Mr. James R. Pringle, who had 
 been the incumbent the year previous. 
 
 It can thus be seen that the situation was a most serious one. The 
 division of families, on account of the various members holding differ 
 ent political opinions, was one of the painful features of the agitation, 
 and many of those who remember the period look back with horror at 
 the extreme probability there was of bloodshed when the passions w^ere 
 at their height. 
 
 Early in the year following the anniversary celebration 
 above reported, and before the election for delegates took 
 place, a satire on Nullification appeared in pamphlet form, 
 written in biblical style, which attracted much attention by 
 its caustic wit and well-directed sarcasm. It was entitled 
 the Book of Nullification. For some time the author was 
 not discovered, but before the election he was found to be 
 Mr. Memminger, who had thus brought himself promi 
 nently before the people, and by his excellent humor aided 
 the cause that had so warmly enlisted his sympathies. 
 
 I have secured a copy of this unique production, and em 
 body it in this volume as a specimen of my honored friend s 
 wit. (See Appendix.) 
 
 The Convention was held at the time and place appointed. 
 
 In spite of every remonstrance and effort on the part of 
 the Union men, a majority of the delegates elected were 
 Nullifiers. Of the acts of this body, and of the historic 
 Ordinance of Nullification, the reader is referred to the 
 voluminous Journal of the Convention. 
 
 I am reminded that I have not set out to write a history 
 of politics in South Carolina, and only refer to these mat 
 ters as they become a part of the history of Mr. Memmin 
 ger. He was not a member of the Convention, nor did he 
 seek to be such. In order, however, that the reader may 
 have an idea of the relative strength of the Union and Nul- 
 
108 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 lification parties at the time, I extract from the Journal the 
 vote as recorded on the final passage of the " Ordinance to 
 Nullify Certain Acts of Congress/ etc. 
 
 THOSE VOTING AYE ARE: B. Adams, James Adams, Ayer, James 
 Anderson, Robert Anderson, Arnold, Baker, Ball, Bee, Boone, Barn- 
 well, Bardwell, Blewett, Butler, J. G. Brown, John Brown, Bauskett, 
 A. Burt, F. Burt, Barton, Bowie, Black, Belin, Cohen, Cordes, Colcock, 
 Charles G. Capers, Clifton, Caughman, Counts, Chambers, Campbell, 
 Dubose, Dawson, Douglas, Elmore, Earle, Evans, Felder, Fuller, T. L. 
 Gourdin, P. G. Gourdin, Goodwin, Gaillard, Griffin, Glenn, Gregg, J. 
 Hamilton, Sr., Heyward, Hayne, Harper, Harrison, Hatton, Harllee, 
 Huguenin, I On, Jeter, Johnston, James, Jacobs, Keith, Key, King, La- 
 Coste, Legare, Lawton, Long, Lipscomb, Logan, Littlejohn, Lancaster, 
 Magrath, Markley, Maner, Murry, Mills, McCall, Means, Mays, McDuf- 
 fie, Monroe, S. D. Miller, J. L. Miller, J. B. Miller, McCord, Novell, 
 O Brannon, Philips, Parker, Porcher, Palmer, C. C. Pinckney, W. C. 
 Pinckney, T. Pinckney, Quash, Rivers, Rowe, Rogers, Ray, J. G. Spann, 
 J. Spann, Simons, Shand, J. M. Smith, G. H. Smith, W. Smith, S. Smith, 
 Stringfellow, Scott, Symmes, Sims, Singleton, Stevens, Screven, Turnbull, 
 Tyler, Tidyman Ulmer, Vaught, Vanderhorst, Wilson, Walker, Williams, 
 Williamson, Woodward, Wardlaw, Whatley, Whitfield, Watt, Ware, 
 Waties, Warren, Young, and the president of the Convention (James 
 Hamilton, Jr.) 136 ayes. 
 
 THOSE VOTING No ARE : Brockman, Burgess, Crooke, Cureton, Chestnut, 
 Cannon, Clinton, J. R. Ervin, R. Ervin, J. P. Evans, Gibson, A. Huger, 
 D. E. Huger, Levy, Lowry, Manning, Midleton, O Neal, P. Phelps, Perry, 
 John S. Richardson, J. P. Richardson, Rowland, Shannon, Whitten, and 
 Wilkins 36 noes. 
 
 Those voting against the ordinance refused to sign the in 
 strument, protesting against it as being unwise and inexpe 
 dient. 
 
 The vigorous measures enforced by President Jackson to 
 collect the revenues of the government, and the mediation of 
 the State of Virginia, through her Commissioner, the Hon. 
 Benjamin Watkins Leigh, and the act of Congress "reduc 
 ing and modifying the duties on foreign imports," passed 
 after the action of the Convention, induced this body to pass 
 an ordinance in March, 1833, rescinding the Ordinance of 
 Nullification. The dissolution of the Convention on the 18th 
 
HIS PUBLIC LIFE. 109 
 
 of March, put at res t the question of Nullification, and al 
 layed all apprehensions of a conflict with the general gov 
 ernment or of civil war. 
 
 In the meantime, the course pursued hy Mr. Memminger 
 had not only brought him prominently before the people of 
 Charleston, but had made him quite popular there; so much 
 so, that at the next city election he was made an alderman 
 of the city by a decided majority. He had previously wooed 
 and won the love of Miss Mary Wilkinson, a lovely lady of 
 Georgetown, South Carolina. Her parents were from among 
 those good people of Virginia who, from the earliest history 
 of that great State, have transmitted through generations 
 the graces and virtues of their own peculiar civilization. 
 There is no single act of a man s life more important, or 
 that must affect his future life for weal or for woe more de 
 cidedly, than the association of marriage. In this union of 
 hopes and aspirations, this hazard of happiness, Mr. Mem 
 minger was certainly blessed. Life was now, to him, worth 
 the living. With the sweet influences of his own home-altar 
 ever with him, new aspirations and holier loves made the 
 labors of the day lighter and the joys of the evening s shade 
 sweeter than ever before. 
 
 His most important act as an alderman became perma 
 nently fixed in the great shopping street and thoroughfare 
 of Charleston. The great fire of 1838 presented the oppor 
 tunity, which he was quick to perceive, of widening King 
 street. Accordingly he brought forward and had passed an 
 ordinance condemning a few feet of the lots on either side 
 of the street in the burnt district, which, when that part of 
 the city was rebuilt, made King street, from Society, south, 
 near ten feet wider than it had formerly been, thus adding 
 not only to its appearance, but to the comfort of pedestrians 
 and the convenience of the many vehicles that would in 
 former days almost block this highway. He also drafted a 
 
110 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 memorial to the Legislature praying the aid of the State to 
 enable persons whose houses and stores had been destroyed 
 to rebuild the same; which, through his active co-operation 
 with his colleagues, assumed the form of an act of the Leg 
 islature known as the " Fire Loan/ lending the credit of 
 the State to the unfortunate victims of the fire on such very 
 liberal terms as to enable them to restore the city in better 
 form than before the disaster. 
 
 It was at this time that Mr. Memminger first began to 
 study the public or "free" schools of Charleston and the 
 State, to which in subsequent years he brought the energies 
 of his mind in devising the system now so popular, and 
 which, in this respect, meets so admirably the need of the 
 people. In the year 1834, co-operating with Mr. W. J. Ben 
 nett, the noble son of his benefactor, Mr. Memminger under 
 took to reform the whole public school system of the State. 
 Especially did he seek to elevate the standard and make 
 more efficient the system in vogue at Charleston. With this 
 object in view he traveled extensively, with Mr. Bennett as 
 his companion, through the Northern and New England 
 States studying their common-school systems, and gathering 
 such practical information as to their administration as 
 enabled him when he returned to devise, with Mr. Bennett, 
 a plan which, with subsequent modifications and improve 
 ments, continues to this day an enduring monument to the 
 honor and memory of these good men a monument more 
 imperishable than bronze or marble. 
 
 In no sense of the word was Mr. Memminger a selfish 
 person. While the noble impulses of a generous nature 
 warmed his soul, he was never guilty of that injudicious 
 expression of this high trait of character which would lavish 
 gifts and bestow favors without regard to the individual, or 
 the results to follow upon his act. However well meant and 
 however noble may be the impulse, it is, alas! for poor hu- 
 
W. JKFFKKSOX P.KNNKTT. 
 
HIS PUBLIC LIFE. Ill 
 
 inanity, too often the case that a benefaction proves to be a 
 curse rather than a blessing. 
 
 Into his counsels and confidence he received Mr. "W. Jef 
 ferson Bennett as a younger brother, who had grown into 
 manhood about the same hearthstone and in the same family 
 circle that had received him as a member. There was a 
 very strong attachment existing between these noble men 
 one that was never broken by any estrangement, but con 
 tinued to grow in strength and to increase in reciprocal 
 affection until the death of Mr. Bennett, in 1874, left only 
 with Mr. Memminger sweet memories of his friend and 
 adopted brother. 
 
 The benevolent character and considerate philanthropy 
 of Mr. Bennett is thus described in an oration delivered at 
 the centennial celebration of the Charleston Orphan House 
 in 1890 by Rev. Charles S. Vedder, D. D. Dr. Vedder 
 quotes from Mr. Montague Grimke, embodying in his own 
 admirable remarks, those of this estimable gentleman. 
 
 It will not be invidious to name Mr. Wm. Jefferson Bennett, to whom, 
 after John Robertson, the Orphan House is more indebted than to any 
 other man. He was a second father to the institution, giving himself to 
 its service with a fervor which never knew respite, and a practical wis 
 dom seldom or never at fault. It was not the privilege of the present 
 speaker to know this estimable gentleman, but he has long known the 
 history of his relation to this institution, and feels fully warranted in 
 this tribute to his memory. " He was," says Mr. Grimke, " the truest 
 patriot and philanthropist I ever met, and few of the present generation 
 have any conception of the extent and value of his labors in behalf of 
 education and charities in this city." 
 
 Such was the intimate, life-long friend of Mr. Memmin 
 ger, who loved Jefferson Bennett from an intuition of his 
 own nature that made him a kindred spirit. From the 
 same eloquent address I extract the following tribute to Mr. 
 Memminger: 
 
 Nor was that eminent chief magistrate (Hon. William A. Courtenay) 
 content with rehabilitating in honor the men and memories of the re- 
 
112 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 mote past. Under his administration, the Council Chamber of the city 
 became in its measure a gallery of monumental tributes to the great 
 and worthy of more recent days. AVe may well signalize this fact to 
 day because one of those whose lineaments are thus preserved in im 
 perishable marble was once an Orphan-House boy, rising by dint of his 
 own industry, energy, and ability to exalted places in the State and in 
 the Confederate Cabinet ; his achievements in behalf of education in this 
 city were deemed worthy by his fellow-commissioners of the public 
 schools of an abiding recognition in the city s capital. 
 
 As a practical result of the visit of Mr. Memminger and 
 Mr. Bennett to the public schools of the northern cities and 
 States we have the present excellent system of graded 
 schools in Charleston, second in efficiency to none in the 
 United States. In this work Mr. Memminger was also ably 
 assisted by the Hon. A. G. Magrath, who became a member 
 of the Board of School Commissioners, and brought to the 
 w r ork of these good men the resource of his accomplished 
 intellect and his devoted patriotism. An act of the Legisla 
 ture was passed authorizing the municipal government of 
 Charleston to levy a special tax for educational purposes. 
 This measure was opposed, with surprising zeal, by those 
 whose want of knowledge of the system, or whose prejudice 
 against " free schools," caused them to go to great extremes 
 in manifesting their disapproval. From an official circular, 
 issued by the " Bureau of Education of the United States," 
 Hon. N. H. R. Dawson, Commissioner, published in 1889, I 
 extract the following condensed statement: 
 
 The commissioners in Charleston had seen the intent of the original 
 act, and had set to work to carry it out. Public schools had succeeded 
 in Nashville and New Orleans, and why not in Charleston ? This is 
 what Mr. Barnard pointed out when he had prepared a communication 
 on public schools at the request of Governor Alston and others. The 
 schools in Charleston had followed the general course of the others in 
 the State. Under the law, five houses had been erected and furnished 
 by the teachers, on a salary of nine hundred dollars. The attendance 
 had been in 1812,260; in 1818, about 300; in 1823, about 320; in 1829, 
 about 467; in 1834, about 525. 
 
HIS PUBLIC LIFE. 113 
 
 But the Charleston commissioners, especially C. G. Memminger, A. 
 G. Magrath, and W. Jefferson Bennett, roused from their lethargy, and in 
 the face of bitter prejudice revolutionized the system. They worked on 
 a totally different plan. Their aim was to provide schools for all, and 
 not for pauper pupils only. In 1855 they built a house on St. Philip s 
 street at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars, to accommodate eight 
 hundred pupils. Three years later they erected another on Friend 
 street at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. A kind of normal school for 
 teachers was formed to meet every Saturday under the direction of the 
 superintendent of public schools. They also built a high school for girls 
 at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars, of which the State paid ten 
 thousand dollars and the citizens of Charleston the remainder. The 
 expenses of its maintenance were ten thousand dollars annually, of 
 which the city paid half and the State guaranteed the other half on con 
 dition of being permitted to send ninety pupils. A normal department 
 was attached to this. 
 
 The whole system was inaugurated with appropriate ceremonies on 
 July 4, 1856, when Dr. S. IT. Dickson delivered an address. It was 
 modelled on the "New York" plan, and the heads of the schools were 
 brought from the North, so that teachers thoroughly acquainted with 
 the system would direct the management 
 
 In a short time the number of children in attendance was one thou 
 sand four hundred, and there were more applications than could be 
 granted. In 1860 the attendance was four thousand. 
 
 This was done in the face of strong opposition. "Fair Play" openly 
 charged that the change had been made in order that the new board 
 might get the benefit of the " spoils," and claimed that they had over 
 stepped their limits in setting up common schools, when the act only 
 called for free schools. He also called attention to the resolutions of 
 the last session of the Legislature, which had " re-announced the fact 
 that the free schools are for the poor." He concluded by confidently 
 venturing the prediction " that the new system, unsupported as it is by 
 law, will not succeed." But it did succeed, and, according to a writer in 
 Barnard s Journal, " revolutionized public sentiment in that city, and 
 was fast doing it for the whole State when the mad passions of war con 
 summated another revolution." 
 
 The public schools of Charleston are handsome structures, 
 admirably adapted to the purpose for which they were 
 designed, and well equipped with all the necessary appli 
 ances for instruction from the kindergarten to the high 
 school, from which the youth of either sex may go with 
 8 
 
114 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 much better educations than some receive from institutions 
 of more pretentious claims. The buildings bear the names 
 of those who have been most deeply interested in their con 
 struction and in the blessings they bestow upon the commu 
 nity in which they are so well maintained. 
 
 The Bennett school for Mr. Wm. Jefferson Bennett; the 
 Memminger school perpetuates the name of the one whose 
 history I am writing; the Crafts school in honor of Hon. 
 William Crafts; the Courtenay school for Hon. Wm. A. 
 Courtenay, while others quite as well equipped bear the 
 names of the streets on which they are located as the 
 Meeting-street or Mary-street schools. Mr. Memminger did 
 not confine his interest in public education to the city of 
 Charleston alone. No one of our public men did more 
 towards aiding the institutions of the State designed to fur 
 nish to its citizens the advantages and benefits of an educa 
 tional system that would reach all classes and conditions. 
 As early as 1841 we find from an examination of the Jour 
 nal of the House of Representatives that as a member of that 
 body he introduced the following resolution: 
 
 Mr. Memminger submitted a resolution, which, after a few remarks 
 from him, was unanimously agreed to and ordered to the Senate, direct 
 ing the commissioners to provide for the education of the deaf and dumb 
 children of this State, and to appropriate one-half of the amount for the 
 education of the deaf and dumb to the education of the blind of this 
 State at institutions specially to be provided for the education of the 
 blind. 
 
 Thus was commenced the noble charity of the State which 
 gives to those unfortunates who have been deprived of sight, 
 who have no sense of hearing, and are dumb, the means of 
 acquiring an education of other faculties, by which means 
 many are now enabled to make comfortable livings. 
 
CHAPTER 1Y. 
 Cau/yer 
 
 ability displayed by Mr. Memminger at the 
 Bar of Charleston, the earnest and faithful man 
 ner in which he discharged the duties imposed 
 upon him as an alderman, added to his popularity. So 
 much so, that at the fall elections of 1836 he was chosen one 
 of the members of the House of Representatives from the 
 parishes of St. Philips and St. Michaels, in which was situ 
 ated the city of Charleston. His election may be also con 
 sidered as a triumph of the Conservative or Union State 
 Rights Party, which from the reaction that followed the ex 
 citement and alarm engendered by the discussions of the 
 Nullification measure, became stronger at this time than it 
 had been before, or has since been, in the goodly city by the 
 sea. 
 
 While the earnest spirit and logical mind of Mr. Mem 
 minger had been made manifest in the debating society, the 
 court-room, and in his public addresses; and while these all 
 gave great promise of a future career of distinction and of 
 usefulness, he was yet to evidence those wonderful powers of 
 analysis, and that remarkable sagacity which made him so 
 prominent as a statesman and ranked him among the ablest 
 lawyers of the country. The great political economist and 
 wise legislator, the jurist and the advocate, v/as yet to be 
 come a demonstration, and take his place among the repre 
 sentative men of his time. 
 
 Mr. Memminger s introduction into public life was at a 
 most opportune time for the display of his natural endow 
 ments, and furnished many occasions for the exercise of the 
 
 [ 115 j 
 
116 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 talents committed to his keeping by the Creator of all men. 
 We do not fail to achieve success in life for the want of op 
 portunities. These come to all men, and are just such as 
 their abilities enable them to perceive, and their energies 
 enable them to properly improve. It is indeed true that 
 "there is a tide in the affairs of men/ and it is also true 
 that this tide must be taken at its flow. It will not take you 
 forward or backward against your will or your wish, but you 
 must take it. It will not rise to some height, where your 
 vanity may have taken you to wait in listless apathy and 
 dream away life in the seductive shades of inaction, where 
 you have allowed yourself to become fixed above the highest 
 water-mark of all opportunity, but it. surely comes to " lead 
 on to fortune " those who are willing and active in the judi 
 cious improvement of every occasion, however small, to meet 
 its " flood." Such an one never fails to find an occasion, 
 and is sure to meet with an opportunity. Mr. Memminger 
 well understood this, and no one more fully appreciated 
 than he did the value of time and the necessity for decision 
 and prompt action. His remark to a gentleman with whom 
 he was once conversing, that " one often lost more time in 
 deciding what to do, than was required to do it in," is but 
 an expression of his active nature. 
 
 In order that the reader may have a clear conception of 
 the general condition of the country at the time that Mr. 
 Memminger entered upon public life as a legislator, I will 
 endeavor here to outline this, and measure, if possible, the 
 " tide " that bore him and others on to fame and fortune. 
 
 The great McDuffie was then Governor of the State; he 
 whose prescience was but the intuition of a great mind, and 
 whose record remains with us to-day among the glories of 
 the past a splendid chapter in the history of South Caro 
 lina whose name and face, with that of the great Hayne, 
 is carved upon our State House as the synonym of patriot- 
 
MR. MEMMINGER 
 
 :it :>>() years. 
 
THE LA WYER. 117 
 
 ism. Governor McDuffie s message to the legislatures of 
 1835 and 1836 so clearly state the condition of public affairs 
 at that time, and the subjects that were brought to the con 
 sideration of the legislators are so distinctly set forth that I 
 reproduce them in the Appendix to this work, and ask the 
 reader s reference thereto. These State papers will not only 
 grace this Memoir, but are deemed by the writer the best 
 means of presenting a just conception of the momentous 
 questions that for years after engaged the attention and in 
 voked the thoughtful consideration of the best and wisest 
 men of the entire country, and are yet forming, to a certain 
 extent, subjects for discussion that excite in the minds of 
 the patriot the gravest apprehensions. 
 
 The session of the House of Representatives in which Mr. 
 Memminger first took his seat as a legislator was remarkable 
 in that it brought to this Council Chamber of the State a 
 number of young men who have since become distinguished 
 in the history of this State, and whose names are familiar 
 to thousands throughout the country. 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, NOVEMBER, 1836. 
 
 St. Michael s and St. Philip s Parishes. Kerr Boyce, Otis Mills, C. G. 
 Memminger, Richard Yeadon, Jr., Joshua TV. Toomer, John Phillips, 
 Samuel P. Ripley, Charles Edmondson, Edward H. Edwards, R. W. Sey 
 mour, John C. Ker, George Gibbons, James L. Petigru, Wm. Cross, 
 Edward Frost, John Huger. 
 
 Williamsburg. Joseph Scott, W. J. Buford. 
 
 Lancaster. Wm. Reed, J. P. Crockett. 
 
 Horry. John W. Durant. 
 
 Prince William. J. B. Ellis, James S. McPherson. 
 
 St. James, Santee. John A. Wigfall. 
 
 St. John s, Berkley. Peter P. Palmer, F. A. Porcher. 
 
 All Saints. Joseph Alston. 
 
 Laurens. John H. Irby, Henry C. Young, Thomas F. Jones, John F. 
 Kern. 
 
 Marlborough.C. W. Dudley. 
 
 Prince George, WinyawJohn W. Coachman, T. P. Carr, A. H. Belin. 
 
 St. Mathews. Thomas J. Goodwin. 
 
118 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Fairfield. David. McDowell, David II. Means, John Buchanan, John 
 J. Myers. 
 
 Union. Wm. M. Glenn, M. A. Moore, A. N. Thompson. 
 
 Marion. Wm. W. Harllee, Samuel F. Gibson. 
 
 Richland.E. F. Elmore, J. II. Adams, D. J. McCord, B. L. McLaugh- 
 lin. 
 
 Pendleton.F. W. Symmes, O. R. Broyles, John Maxwell, John Mar 
 tin, Joseph T. Whitfield, Joel H. Berry, Bailey Barton. 
 
 Clarendon Wm. R. Burgess, James P. Richardson. 
 
 Claremont.-IsB.ac Lenoir, James W. English, R. R. Spann. 
 
 Lexington. Henry Arther, Samuel Boozer. 
 
 Newberrij John P. Neel, James MoiTett, P. C. Caldwell. 
 
 York. J. D. Witherspoon, Samuel Rainey, James Moore, A. Hardin. 
 
 /St. Luke s. James A. Strobart, William F. Colcock. 
 
 St. Bartholomew s. John D. Edwards, J. Murdough, Hugo Sheridan. 
 
 St. Andrew s. W. T. Bull. 
 
 Barn-well. John M. Allen, John B. Bowers, W T . M. Duncan. 
 
 Kcrsliaw. John Murry, Lewis J. Patterson, M. M. Levy. 
 
 Abbeville. David L. Wardlaw, James Fair, A. B. Arnold, James Gil- 
 lam, Donald Douglass. 
 
 Chester. John Douglass, William Woods, F. W. Davie. 
 
 Spartanburg.John Crawford, H. H. Thompson, A. Barry, John H. 
 Hoey, S. N. Evins. 
 
 Edgefield. John S. Jeter, James Tompkins, John Hunt, Tilman Wat 
 son, Abner Whatley, M. Laborde. 
 
 St. James, Goose Creek. John Wilson. 
 
 St. Helena. Thomas I. Fripp, A. M. Smith, Charles W. Capers. 
 
 St. Paul s. Benjamin Perry. 
 
 Greenville. Benjamin F. Perry, Spartan Goodlet, T. B. Brockman. 
 
 Orange. W. D. V. S. Jamison, Elisha Tyler. 
 
 St. George s, Dorchester. David Gavin. 
 
 St. Peter s. W. G. Roberds, William W. Gavin. 
 
 Darlington. George Huggins. 
 
 From among these representatives David L. Wardlaw, of 
 Abbeville, subsequently eminent in the history of the State 
 as a jurist, was chosen " Speaker." There is no more im 
 portant duty imposed upon the presiding officer of a legis 
 lative body than that of forming the committees, to whom 
 are referred for special investigation and report such matters 
 as may come before the body for consideration. In making 
 these appointments he is supposed to be selecting from 
 
THE LAWYER. 119 
 
 among the members those whose experiences and abilities 
 best qualify them for the discharge of the special duties as 
 signed to them. I find upon an examination of the Journal 
 for this session that the following members composed the 
 Committee of "Ways and Means" (or Finance): F. W. 
 Davie, C. G. Memminger, Benj. T. Elmore, F. W. Sy mines, 
 Charles Edmondson, Ker Boyce, Otis Mills, F. A. Porcher, 
 A. B. Arnold, Thomas E. Powe, John Wilson, and Lewis J. 
 Patterson. 
 
 On "Federal Relations" the following were appointed: 
 Richard Yeadon, Jr., M. Laborde, James L. Petigru, C. G. 
 Memminger, Benj. F. Perry, F. W. Davie, J. H. Irby, John 
 S. Jeter, A. II. Belin, D. J. McCord, J. T. Whitfield, John 
 D. Edwards, H. H. Thompson. 
 
 On "Education": C. G. Memminger, W. F. Colcock, V. 
 D. V. Jamison, James A. Strobart, M. Laborde. 
 
 It will be seen that upon three of the most important com 
 mittees of the House, Mr. Memminger, at this, his first 
 session, was appointed to serve, and was made chairman of 
 one that on Education. This unusual distinction is sel 
 dom, if ever, conferred upon a new member unless he has 
 manifested his abilit} r , and is recognized in a body composed 
 of such representative men as being fully adequate to the 
 discharge of the duties imposed. He does not appear to 
 have engaged, to any great^extent, in the debates of this ses 
 sion. Beyond the work of the committees to which he was 
 assigned he was doubtless engaged in studying the rules of 
 the House and mastering the precedents and formulas of 
 parliamentary practice, in which he became a great profi 
 cient in after years, and through the knowledge of which he 
 was enabled in many subsequent sessions to become, in fact, 
 the leader of the House, and a most useful member of this 
 body. He was preparing himself for that long term of public 
 service which, beginning with this year, was only inter- 
 
120 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 rupted in 1860, when his abilities and experiences were 
 transferred to the Cabinet of President Davis and the ser 
 vice of the Confederate States as Secretary of the Treasury. 
 The careful study of the financial policy of the State and 
 of the banking system then authorized by law, claimed his 
 special consideration, in connection with public education, 
 and formed the chief subject matters of his thought. In 
 the next session these subjects brought from him such ex 
 pressions of his statesmanship as led in the end to the ad 
 justments which secured for South Carolina her high finan 
 cial standing, and kept her securities and her bank currency 
 at par with the best in the United States. The only meas 
 ure of consequence originating with Mr. Memminger, and 
 that took the form of law at this session, was an act to pre 
 vent the circulation of mutilated bank bills; mentioned here 
 from the fact that it was the first bill he introduced and the 
 first law he ever framed. He also introduced a bill to regu 
 late the lien of decrees in equity, but it failed to pass at this 
 session as it did in the session of 1837; but with a perti 
 nacity characteristic of its author, it was reintroduced at 
 succeeding sessions until finally it became a statute of the 
 State. 
 
 The year 1837 brought to the country one of those revul 
 sions which at different periods have evidenced the insta 
 bility of our financial systems in the United States and 
 brought great disaster upon the people. 
 
 This special one grew out of the hostility of the Republi 
 can or Democratic party to the United States Bank, which 
 was regarded as being only a feature of consolidation the 
 cardinal principle of the old Federal or Whig party. Proxi- 
 mately it was occasioned by the withdrawal of the deposits 
 of the United States Government from the United States 
 Bank and placing them with local banks in various sections 
 of the country a measure of President Jackson. The result 
 
THE LAWYER. 121 
 
 was a widespread depression in all business matters, pro 
 ducing bankruptcy among merchants and business men 
 unparalleled before in the history of our country. 
 
 The effect upon the industrial interests of South Carolina 
 is well presented in the message of Governor Butler to the 
 Legislature of 1837, from which I make the following ex 
 tracts. The reader will be thus better prepared to under 
 stand the legislation that followed and was rendered neces 
 sary to establish a solvent banking system in South Caro 
 lina, and in which Mr. Memminger was not only an active 
 participant, but in which he established Iris reputation as a 
 leading statesman. 
 
 GOVERNOR BUTLER S MESSAGE. 
 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, November 28, 1837. 
 Fellow-citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: 
 
 At the time of your last adjournment the country was apparently in 
 the enjoyment of unparalleled prosperity. Subsequent events have only 
 developed the true state of things which then existed, and which has re 
 sulted in great political confusion and commercial embarrassment. The 
 change w r as so sudden and unexpected that even the wisest and most 
 prudent were not prepared for it. Although you meet in the midst of 
 difficulty and confusion, and under circumstances seemingly more un 
 favorable than when you adjourned, I cannot but regard the country in 
 a. better situation now than it was then. As our distresses have, in some 
 measure, arisen from the money-making spirit of the times ; and as they 
 address themselves to our individual interests, I feel confident that we 
 will profit by the enquiry and discussions that have ensued. The people 
 have been excited to the consideration of subjects which have heretofore 
 too little attracted public attention ; and I am satisfied that the coun 
 try will go through and rise from the severe trial of the times, with im 
 provement and ultimate advantage. Our calamities have proceeded 
 from the passions, contrivances, and imprudences of the people them 
 selves and their federal rulers. In a time of profound peace, and while 
 at liberty to follow the pursuits of our own choice, we have brought 
 about the evils of which we complain. Under the influence of a kind 
 Providence, we have just cause to be happy and thankful for the many 
 blessings we are permitted to enjoy ; and should manifest our gratitude 
 to the great Ruler of events for the present prosperous condition of the 
 jState. The harvests have been sufficiently abundant to satisfy all rea 
 sonable demands. The country enjoys uninterrupted peace and general 
 good health. 
 
122 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 I have no disposition, as Governor of the State, to interfere with 
 questions that are committed by the Constitution to the exclusive juris 
 diction of Congress. But where our State has deeply participated in 
 the evils which Congress is called upon to remedy, I hope it will not be 
 deemed improper to make a few suggestions concerning the remedies 
 to be applied to a common misfortune. The condition of the monied 
 affairs of the country is deplorable, and form a subject of the deepest 
 and most profound consideration. The derangement and confusion of 
 the currency have produced much embarrassment and suffering in 
 every grade of society, and in every species of business. This general 
 and wide-spread distress has arisen not so much from a want of money, 
 as a want of confidence in what is used as money. Much of this disorder 
 in the currency owes its existence to the unfortunate experiments made 
 upon it by the late Federal Executive. The war which was begun by 
 him upon the United States bank was the commencement of the con 
 fusion and embarrassment in our monetary affairs. Until that time we 
 had a perfectly good and sound currency. The government deposits 
 were taken from the United States bank, where they were safely kept, 
 and placed in State banks selected for that purpose; these deposit 
 banks were urged and stimulated to excessive issues to make profitable 
 the money furnished them by the government; the facility of borrow 
 ing money from them and other banks tempted and encouraged wild 
 and extravagant speculations. This fever for speculation became so con 
 tagious and contaminating as to threaten the country with general 
 bankruptcy. After the country was thus flooded with a redundant de 
 preciated currency, the late President of the United States (who had 
 contributed so largely the means for this overtrading) was the first to 
 excite alarm and create suspicion and distrust in the deposit banks by 
 the issue of the Treasury circular. A general feeling of distrust and 
 fear extended itself through the country; a run was made upon the 
 banks, and they, from necessity, suspended specie payments. IIow r ever 
 necessary the measure may have been on the part of the banks, it is very 
 much to be regretted, as it has not only served to embarrass the govern 
 ment, but to cast odium on the country generally. Any legislative action 
 of a single State, without the co-operation of others, to attempt to coerce 
 the banks to resume cash payments, would be impolitic and unjust. So far 
 as to the Federal government belongs the constitutional right of regu 
 lating and controlling the currency, we may indulge the hope that her 
 wise and deliberate councils may devise some means to extricate the 
 country from its present embarrassed and deplorable condition. But I 
 have no confidence in any remedy for the existing evil, except in the 
 enterprise of our people, and the abundant natural resources at their 
 command. 
 
 The important object for consideration at present is to give healthful 
 action to the banks, and get them in operation again by redeeming their 
 
THE LA WYER. 123 
 
 notes with specie. Every inducement and encouragement should be 
 afforded to the banks to resume specie payments by discriminating be 
 tween the notes of banks which pay specie and those that do not. "What 
 ever may be the evils occasionally resulting from a currency principally 
 composed of credit in the form of convertible bank paper, it is now too 
 late to speculate upon the possible advantages of returning to a cur 
 rency exclusively composed of the precious metals. In the existing 
 state of the currency of the commercial world, and particularly of the 
 United States, it is utterly impracticable, and would be absolutely ruin 
 ous, if it were possible to effect it. In point of fact, four-fifths of the 
 actual currency of the country consists of bank paper, which is received 
 as money, not because it is the representative of specie (for such cer 
 tainly it is not), but because the public have confidence in the solvency 
 of the banks, and of their ability to redeem in specie such portion of the 
 bills as the state of the exchange, foreign and domestic, may cause to be 
 presented for payment. The interest of the banks, not less than their 
 duty, prompts them to be prepared to redeem their bills in specie. In 
 such a state of things, and unless they have been tempted by extraor 
 dinary causes to issue excessively, their ability will be equal to their 
 obligations. But no bank or system of banks that ever existed could 
 meet the demands produced by a general loss of the public confidence. 
 The existing currency, therefore, is neither specie nor the representative 
 of specie, but credit so regulated as to be of equal value to specie for all 
 the purposes of trade. Such being the actual condition of our currency, 
 to withdraw suddenly from circulation all that portion of it which con 
 sists of credit, would be to reduce all the property of the country to one- 
 fourth of its present value ; and to compel all persons who are in debt, to 
 pay four times as much as they contracted to pay. Credit is the reward 
 of honesty and integrity, and to attempt to destroy a currency founded 
 upon it, in this advanced state of civil society, would be contending 
 against the lights of experience and civilization. Our country has ad 
 vanced to her present high and prosperous condition by the use of bank 
 ing establishments. The wants of the commercial world in its mutual 
 dealings and transactions, are far beyond what the existing amount of 
 the precious metals can possibly supply, and paper money is absolutely 
 necessary as the representative of the credit which mercantile people re 
 pose in each other. Commercial credit is based on the assumption that 
 it is the interest, as well as the duty, of every man to be an honest man, to 
 perform punctually his promises and contracts. By means of this system 
 of mutual credit, we embark confidently in enterprises and undertakings 
 which no procurable amount of gold and silver could be obtained to sup 
 ply, and which, in the actual enterprises of modern days, would not be a 
 tenth of the sum required. To cherish credit, public and private, is to cher 
 ish honor and honesty as the actual basis of human dealings. By so doing 
 we exalt the national character, by expecting and enforcing the habit of 
 
124 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 punctuality between individuals; and each man, under the protection 
 of public opinion, as well as of the law, is enabled by means of this mutual 
 confidence to embark in projects useful to himself and the public, which 
 gold and silver do not exist to stimulate. Public credit may then be 
 regarded in the present day as the parent of all useful enterprise; as 
 the great source of mutual honor and honesty, and of mutual respect in 
 society. People risk their property with feelings of perfect safety under 
 its protection, and by means of it, the modern character of civilized 
 society is adorned and ennobled far beyond the standard of ancient 
 times, though pictured as the gold and silver age. But if public 
 confidence be established as the great moving power of modern enter 
 prise, it is absolutely necessary that some written memorandum 
 should be taken at the time of the extent to which it is re 
 posed. By making these memorandums negotiable, we are driven 
 into a system of paper money; to render this safe to the holder 
 it must be convertible into the common currency adopted in part 
 throughout the world into metallic coin. The more perfect the system 
 of public credit and mutual confidence, the less is the amount of gold 
 and silver necessary to sustain it. That evils may arise from the defec 
 tive construction of this part of our commercial machinery; that 
 stricter regulations may be necessary to repress dishonest or imprudent 
 speculation and afford additional safeguard to the creditors, may well be 
 allowed, for experience has shown this to be the case. No revolution 
 recorded in history has produced so great a change of property as such 
 a change in the currency would produce if suddenly brought about, and 
 even if effected by a very slow process, though the intensity of the suf 
 fering would be diminished, it would be more protracted. All that can 
 be safely accomplished by Federal or State legislation should be 
 attempted to regulate the existing currency so far as to preserve its 
 credit by preventing extravagant and redundant issue on the part of the 
 banks. In my opinion indulgence might be afforded to these institu 
 tions to the extent that prudence will allow. This State should not be 
 behind any of her sisters in promptly resuming specie payments as soon 
 as practicable. Good faith and justice to herself require it. In saying 
 all this I mean only to point out the general principles of future action 
 which prudence and caution render evident to myself. 
 
 It will be satisfactory to our citizens to know the present condition 
 of the various banks in our State. I, therefore, applied to the presidents 
 of these institutions and received from them, with commendable prompt 
 ness, the information I requested, with the exception of the Bank of 
 Georgetown, which received my communication too late to be able to 
 furnish its return in time for this message, but which has been promised, 
 and is hourly expected a proof of their readiness to satisfy the public 
 that the bank credit of the State will bear examination. I have caused 
 
THE LAWYER. 125 
 
 the annexed abstract and summary to be drawn up from the documents 
 transmitted to me, from which it appears that the liabilities of the banks 
 of this State to all others than to their own stockholders are as follows : 
 
 Circulation of their notes as stated therein $5,011,656 56 
 
 Deduct held by them of each other s notes, and of course 
 
 not in circulation 622,571 14 
 
 Whole circulation -. $4,389,085 42 
 
 Individual deposits 3,221,270 74 
 
 Due the United States 88,058 34 
 
 Due public officers 74,130 35 
 
 Whole liabilities 7,772,554 85 
 
 To meet these the banks have- 
 Specie $1,436,315 12 
 
 Public stocks 1,068,130 02 
 
 Treasury notes of United States .... 94,500 00 
 
 2,598,945 14 
 Debts due them by individuals on notes and 
 
 bills discounted arid other securities . . 16,657,217 64 
 
 Whole assets $19,256,162 78 
 
 In addition to this, under their charters, the 
 individual liabilities of their stockholders 
 to double the amount of their stock, ex 
 clusive of the Bank of the State of South 
 Carolina, amounts to 15,182,202 00 
 
 Whole security to the holders of the notes of and deposi 
 tors in our banks . . . $34,438,364 78 
 
 To this must be added the pledge of the State for the liabilities of 
 the Bank of the State of South Carolina. 
 
 As further security to the public, I hope in future no bank will be in 
 stituted without rendering the individual stockholders liable in at least 
 twice the amount of the stock they hold for the debts of the institution, 
 and that all proceedings against banks by their creditors shall be rather 
 of a summary than a dilatory character. As a future provision, I am 
 strongly of opinion, also, that no bank should be permitted to go into 
 operation till at least three-fourths of the capital subscribed shall have 
 been actually, substantially and availably paid in; also, that the direc 
 tors should be prohibited from all discounting of stock notes. The 
 public will become satisfied with these institutions in proportion as they 
 see real and effectual provisions enacted to secure the due performance 
 of the contracts which banks enter into for their own benefit. 
 
126 LIFE AND. TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 So much of Governor Butler s message as related to 
 currency and the financial condition of the country was re 
 ferred to a special committee, consisting of Messrs. Davie, 
 Memminger, Yeadon, Rhett, Colcock, Jones, and H. H. 
 Thompson. This committee, after mature deliberation, re 
 ported to the House of Representatives the following resolu 
 tions : 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of this Legislature it is expedient that 
 the revenues of the Federal government be so collected as ultimately 
 to sever the government from all connection with the banks. 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of this Legislature the revenue of the 
 Federal government should be so deposited, kept and disbursed as not 
 to be connected with or used in banking operations. 
 
 Resolved, That it would be unconstitutional, inexpedient, and dan 
 gerous to incorporate a National Bank for managing the fiscal opera 
 tions of the government. 
 
 Subsequently, Mr. Rhett offered an additional resolution, 
 " that it is not intended to reflect any discredit upon the 
 banks generally of the United States, nor, least of all, upon 
 our own, of whose sound condition, as compared with the 
 other parts of our banking system, the Legislature is fully 
 satisfied." 
 
 The debate which took place when these resolutions were 
 brought- to the consideration of the House called forth the 
 first expressions of Mr. Memminger s ability as a statesman, 
 and at once placed him in the front rank of the political 
 economists and debaters who were arrayed for and against 
 the National Bank. On the 10th of December, as a substi 
 tute for these resolutions, Mr. Memminger introduced the 
 following : 
 
 1. Resolved, That this Legislature is of the opinion that the public 
 moneys of the United States ought not to be subjected to the casualties 
 and fluctuations of banking operations, but should be gradually and 
 ultimately entirely separated therefrom. 
 
 2. Resolved, That in the opinion of this Legislature such a separation 
 ought not to impair the public confidence in well-regulated banking 
 institutions, but would rather tend to promote their stability and credit. 
 
THE LA WYER. 127 
 
 3. Resolved, That as the trade and business of the country and the 
 fiscal concerns of the United States have been for a great length of time 
 conducted by means of banks, and as any great and sudden change in 
 the channels of business may tend to injure the most important inter 
 ests of society, it is the opinion of this Legislature that the dues of the 
 general government, or a portion thereof, ought to be received and paid 
 away in the notes of specie-paying banks, until sufficient time should 
 be allowed for the course of trade to accommodate itself to the separa 
 tion proposed. 
 
 4. Resolved, That this Legislature considers it essential to a proper 
 administration of this policy that the government should accumulate in 
 the Treasury no moneys beyond its actual immediate wants, and that 
 the gold and silver which may be collected for dues shall immediately 
 return by payments into the circulation of the country. 
 
 5. Resolved, That a bank of the United States, chartered by and 
 conducted under the auspices of the government, is unconstitutional 
 and inexpedient. 
 
 These resolutions were, in fact, a minority report, Mr. 
 Memminger presenting and alone advocating them before 
 the committee, in lieu of those heretofore referred to as the 
 majority report. 
 
 The debate on these resolutions as a substitute was pro 
 tracted through several days of the session. Mr. Petigru, 
 who was not alone in theory but in conviction an unqualified 
 Federalist of the Hamilton school, led the opposition to the 
 resolution and the substitute, and was ably seconded by 
 Messrs. Perry, Yeadon, Toomer, Irby, Means, Adams, 
 Thompson and Strobhart. The substitute was finally 
 defeated and the debate renewed on the original resolutions 
 as reported by the committee. It was in this debate that 
 Mr. Davie of Chester, Messrs. Seymour, Porcher and 
 Laborde, in advocacy of the resolutions, made themselves 
 distinguished and began a career that justly associates them 
 with the great Carolinians of that day. The resolutions were 
 passed by a very large majority vote, but not without 
 decided opposition, as I have heretofore shown. Men of 
 great ability and sincere convictions championed the 
 National Bank cause from motives which were undoubtedly 
 
128 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 free from even a suspicion of corruption. A few were Fed 
 eralists, as decidedly and as sincerely so as was ever John 
 Knox or Alexander Hamilton. This measure was the chief 
 concern of Mr. Memminger at this session, and in its discus 
 sion he at once moved into the orbit of great minds that 
 have made the galaxy of our intellectual firmament in Caro 
 lina resplendent for the past century. There were other 
 matters of minor importance with which I find him inter 
 ested, especially with regard to the public and private inter 
 ests of the city and the constituency he so well represented. 
 Indeed, there is scarcely a page of the Journal of the House 
 of Representatives that does not bear witness to the earnest 
 spirit with which Mr. Memminger discharged the duties 
 entrusted to him as a legislator. I select from among the 
 many measures he brought forward only such as/becauseof 
 their importance and bearing upon public interests, make 
 them not only illustrative of the philosophic cast of Mr. 
 Memminger s mind, but historic and of general interest to 
 the reader. It was at this session of the Legislature that 
 Mr. Memminger was elected one of the trustees of the South 
 Carolina College, a position of honor and of responsibility, 
 which he continued to fill with great benefit to his alma- 
 mater for many succeeding years. 
 
 Upon the organization of the House of Representatives in 
 1838, Mr. Memminger was made chairnian of the Committee 
 of Ways and Means, and also of a special committee to 
 revise the rules of the House. It was at this session that he 
 succeeded in having enacted a bill prepared by himself to 
 amend the act previously passed for rebuilding the city of 
 Charleston. The great fire of this year swept as a besom of 
 destruction over the devoted city, laying in ashes many 
 hundred houses and reducing to comparative poverty hun 
 dreds of citizens. Without the means of rebuilding, and 
 without a credit upon which to secure the means, these 
 
THE LA WYEE. 129 
 
 unfortunate people were in almost a helpless condition. 
 South Carolina has always sustained a maternal relation to 
 her children, and was- e ver ready in the golden era of her 
 history to aid those who were hy such calamities reduced to 
 a necessitous condition. This amendment to the original 
 bill enabled the unfortunate owners of lots in the burned 
 district to obtain a loan from the Bank of the State on such 
 easy terms as greatly facilitated the work of rebuilding their 
 houses and restoring the city with even more attractiveness 
 than it possessed before the great fire of April. 
 
 As chairman of a special committee to whom was referred 
 so much of the message of Governor Butler as related to the 
 resumption of specie payment, Mr. Memminger reported a 
 series of resolutions similar in substance to those reported 
 by him at the previous session of the Legislature. The re 
 solutions provoked a long debate one calling out the high 
 est expressions of forensic effort on the part of Messrs. 
 Memminger, Wardlaw, Colcock, Bellinger, and Philips in 
 support of the resolutions, and Messrs. Perry, Irby, J. P. 
 Read, Thompson, and Petigru in opposition. The discus 
 sion continued through several days, when finally the ques 
 tion was ordered and a vote taken, which indicated 103 for 
 the resolutions and 10 opposed. These proceedings were 
 but making more emphatic those of the preceding Legisla 
 ture, and clearly indicated the increased opposition to the 
 United States Bank and the methods adopted by the gen 
 eral government of depositing the federal revenues with the 
 State banks. I have singled out the legislation had at this 
 particular time on the subject of banks and banking, not 
 because Mr. Memminger confined his energies of mind as a 
 legislator exclusively to this important branch of the public 
 service, but that I may prepare the way for the reader to 
 fully comprehend all of the circumstances, both Federal and 
 State r which led to the institution of proceedings in the 
 
 9 
 
 1 f t ft i 
 
130 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 courts against the Bank of the State by the State of South 
 Carolina a celebrated suit, which, while it forms a part of 
 the history of this period, will present the great legal abili 
 ties and knowledge of Mr. Memminger, as the Journals of 
 the House of Representatives preserve the record of his 
 sagacity as a legislator. As heretofore stated, there are but 
 few pages of the Journals of the House of Representatives 
 that do not record his name in some way connected with 
 the legislation of that body upon almost every question of 
 any importance brought before it. For two decades, as 
 chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, there was 
 no bill reported for providing the revenues of the State that 
 did not pass the scrutiny of his investigation; while as the 
 chairman, or a member of many standing and special com 
 mittees, he appears among the most active and earnest of 
 the sons of Carolina in the unselfish service of his fellow- 
 citizens. It is apparent that Mr. Memminger was opposed 
 to a National Bank, as it existed in that day, and for rea 
 sons so clearly stated in the resolutions presented by him to 
 the House of Representatives, that I do not deem it neces 
 sary to add a word to their significance. 
 
 He did not oppose the maintenance of a State Bank under 
 proper restrictions, and for the uses of the whole people, 
 under such legitimate relations of commercial exchange as 
 the experience of all reputable political economy would 
 sanction, but he opposed any and all deviation from well 
 established principles that would set up an artificial stan 
 dard of values or limit the bank s privileges to compara 
 tively a few persons. He believed that banks were public 
 institutions, and were not to be recognised by the law-mak 
 ing power as mere agencies for speculation; that they were 
 designed for the convenience of the people, and not author 
 ized for mere money-making purposes; that as public in 
 stitutions they had never been invested with the right or 
 
THE LAWYER. 131 
 
 the authority to take advantage of circumstances, and ad 
 vance the interests of stockholders to the damage of the 
 general community. Hence he sought in every way possi 
 ble to guard the funds of depositors, and to make and to 
 keep the banks solvent by limiting their powers and guard 
 ing their issues of bills and other liabilities against the pos 
 sibility of an improper and illegitimate relation to a univer 
 sally recognised and normal standard of values. 
 
 His wisdom and integrity of purpose was recognized by 
 the constituency, who honored him with their confidence 
 and by the legislative body in which he held a seat, the 
 active, able and earnest exponent of sound financial philo 
 sophy. 
 
 In 1840 Mr. Memmiiiger prepared and introduced a bill 
 entitled "An act to provide against the suspension of specie 
 payments by the banks of South Carolina." It was under 
 the provisions of this bill that proceedings were instituted 
 by the State against the Bank of South Carolina to vacate 
 the charter of the bank on the ground of its having sus 
 pended specie payment, and the payment of deposits on 
 demand. I desire to present this case in full, as with a few 
 others I may select, it will be the best evidence I can lay 
 before the reader of the ability of Mr. Memminger as alawyer, 
 and of his sagacity as a statesman. 
 
 "The Bank Case," as it is known among the lawyers, but 
 more properly the case of the State versus the Bank of South 
 Carolina, was an issue joined on a scire facias sued out of the 
 Court of Common Pleas for the District of Charleston, to 
 vacate the charter of the bank on the ground that the bank 
 had suspended specie payments of its bills and of deposits. 
 The declaration recites the writ, then sets forth and alleges 
 that the persons named therein, and their successors, were 
 incorporated by an act of the General Assembly of the State 
 of South Carolina, ratified on the 19th of December, 1801, 
 
132 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. > 
 
 and recites the several acts amending the charter. The 
 scire facias recites the privileges and franchises of the bank, 
 and the use of the several liberties, privileges and franchises 
 given to it by the act of incorporation, and then further 
 alleges " that the president and directors, for the time being, 
 of the said Bank of South Carolina, resolved to suspend the 
 payment of gold and silver, legal current coin of the said 
 State, as well as of all promissory notes and bills of credit 
 in the nature of a circulating medium put forth and issued 
 by the said Bank of South Carolina, and of all moneys re 
 ceived and held by the said Bank of South Carolina on de 
 posit, as of all other debts, dues, obligations and liabilities 
 whatsoever of the said Bank of South Carolina, and then and 
 there declared the determination of the said Bank of South 
 Carolina to suspend and refuse the payment of gold or silver, 
 legal current coin of the said State, of the promissory notes 
 and bills of credit in the nature of a circulating medium of 
 the said Bank of South Carolina, and of all moneys received 
 and held by the said Bank of South Carolina on deposit; 
 and that the said Bank of South Carolina from the 18th day 
 of May, 1837, until the 1st day of September, 1838, . , . 
 continually did refuse, on demand made at the banking 
 house of the said Bank of South Carolina, ... to re 
 deem or pay in gold or silver, legal current coin of the said 
 State, the promissory notes and bills of credit in the nature 
 of a circulating medium of the said Bank of South Carolina, 
 which had been put forth and issued by the said Bank of 
 South Carolina, and did then and there refuse to pay, in the 
 said coin, the moneys received and held by the said Bank of 
 South Carolina on deposit," etc. 
 
 The scire facias then, in the same manner, alleged a sec 
 ond suspension of specie payment on the 14th of October, 
 1839, and from that day to the 21st of July, 1840, during 
 which time the bank continued to do business, receive de- 
 
THE LAWYER. 183 
 
 posits, discount notes and issue bills paying out only its own 
 notes and the notes of other suspended banks. 
 
 i." The scire facias lastly set forth that by an act of the Gen 
 eral Assembly of said State, ratified on the 18th December, 
 1840, entitled An act to provide against the suspension of 
 specie payment by the banks of this State/ it was provided 
 that the provisions of the said act should be and become a 
 part of the charter of every bank already incorporated 
 within the said State which had heretofore suspended the 
 payment of its notes in legal coin, or which had declared 
 its determination to refuse or suspend such payment, and 
 that every such bank should, on or before the first day of 
 March next, after the ratification of the said mentioned act, 
 notify the Governor of said State of its acceptance of the 
 provisions of the said act, and in case any such bank should 
 neglect to give such notice, the said Governor should forth 
 with cause legal proceedings to be instituted against such 
 bank for the purpose of vacating and declaring void its 
 charter. The scire facias averred that the bank did not ac 
 cept the said act within the time specified," etc. 
 
 To this declaration the defendants pleaded first, not 
 guilty; second, that the bank at or between either of the 
 times mentioned in the declaration did not, on demand 
 made, refuse to redeem or pay in gold and silver, etc. a gen 
 eral denial ; third, that the bank did not continually refuse 
 to pay its depositors in gold or silver on demand ; fourth, 
 "nul tiel record" as the charter alleged in the declaration; 
 and, fifth, a special plea to-wit : 
 
 The Bank of South Carolina saith that before the 18th of May, in the 
 year 1837 that is to say, on the 1st day of May, in the year aforesaid 
 the banks in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Fay- 
 etteville had suspended specie payments ; by reason whereof an extra 
 ordinary scarcity and appreciation in value of gold and silver coin took 
 place, whereby the payment of the notes of the Bank of South Can> 
 olina, and of the debts due and owing by the said bank for deposits in 
 
134 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 gold and silver without delay became impossible; and the said, the 
 Bank of South Carolina, in common with all the banks in Charleston, 
 did resolve to suspend the ordinary redemption of their bills and the 
 payment of their deposits in gold and silver until such time as the same 
 could be done by solvent banks in good credit with safety to the coun 
 try, as well they might. And that on the first day of September, in the 
 year 1838, the said Bank of South Carolina resumed the ordinary pay 
 ment of gold and silver, in satisfaction of their debts and liabilities 
 without delay, until the 14th day of October, in the year 1839; and that 
 before the last-mentioned day another general suspension of the banks 
 in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and in the States of Virginia and North 
 Carolina, as well as of the banks to the south and west of Charleston, 
 with like effects, took place; that in consequence thereof the demand 
 for gold and silver, in payment of bank notes and deposits in bank, be 
 came and were extraordinary and irregular, having no reference to the 
 quantity of paper in circulation or unto the credit or solvency of the 
 banks on whom such demands were made, but solely to the drain of 
 specie for foreign markets, and for the traffic in gold and silver carried 
 on by persons trafficking in the precious metals; that the said Bank of 
 South Carolina, on both the said last-mentioned days and years was, 
 and from thence continually has been, a solvent company, having suffi 
 cient means for the payment of its debts without any diminution of its 
 capital stock; but by reason of the confusion of commercial affairs and 
 extraordinary demands for coin, the said bank was not able to pay its 
 dues and liabilities in gold and silver coin without making oppressive 
 and ruinous exactions of its own debtors, and that under these circum 
 stances the president and directors of the said bank, in common with 
 divers other good and solvent banks of the city of Charleston, resolved 
 to suspend the payment of gold and silver coin, etc. 
 And that afterwards to-wit : on the 21st day of July, in the year 1840 
 the said Bank of South Carolina, having all along kept in view the duty 
 of paying their debts and liabilities in gold and silver coin, according 
 to the law of the land, made their arrangements to accelerate, as far as 
 in them lay, the day when the resumption of specie payments might be 
 made, without great and material injury to all persons indebted to 
 them, did resume the ordinary payment of specie in discharge of their 
 dues and liabilities, and from thence have continued so to do, etc. 
 
 The State joined issue on the first and fourth pleas and 
 demurred specially to the second and third, on the grounds 
 that each was pleaded in bar to the whole action and yet 
 answered only a part of the matter charged in the declara 
 tion; that they did not answer any part of them with cer- 
 
THE LAWYER. 135 
 
 tainty, and that the substance of the matters charged in the 
 declaration were neither confessed and avoided, traversed or 
 denied, by either of the pleas, which were evasive, uncertain 
 and wholly insufficient. The replication to the fifth plea, 
 protesting that the matters contained in that plea were 
 wholly insufficient in law, traversed the allegation therein; 
 that the notes of the bank and its deposits were not depre 
 ciated in value and lost to the holders and owners during the 
 suspension. To this replication the bank demurred gener 
 ally. 
 
 The cause was argued upon the demurrers before Justice 
 Butler at Charleston, during the May term of 1841, by Mr. 
 Memminger, Mr. Burt and Attorney-General Bailey for the 
 State, and by Mr. Petigru, Mr. Legare and Mr. Walker for 
 the defendant. 
 
 Judge Butler in an elaborate opinion delivered his judg 
 ment in favor of the defendant, whereupon the Attorney- 
 General, in behalf of the State, appealed from the judgment 
 of the court. 
 
 The writ of error in this cause sets forth eighteen grounds 
 of exceptions to the judgment of the circuit court. I do not 
 deem it necessary to place these several grounds of excep 
 tion before the reader, as the argument of Mr. Memminger 
 which follows will enable him to gather the points embraced 
 in each of these. The appellate court consisted then of the 
 several judges of the circuit courts, conformably to the pro 
 visions of the act of 1831. The case was referred to the 
 " court for the correction of errors," composed of all the 
 chancellors and law judges. It was argued before that tri 
 bunal in Charleston at the sittings in February, 1842, by 
 Mr. Memminger, Mr. Hunt and Attorney-General Bailey for 
 the State and Mr. Petigru and Mr. Walker for the defendant. 
 
 No judgment was pronounced by the court, but a re* 
 argument was ordered, which was had in Columbia at the 
 
136 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 May term of 1843, when the case was again argued by Mr. 
 Memminger, Mr. Hunt and Attorney-General Bailey for the 
 State, and Mr. Walker and Mr. King for the defendant. 
 
 I am enabled to present the argument of Mr. Memminger 
 as it is printed in a volume of reports by special act of the 
 Legislature in 1844. It is as follows: 
 
 Mr. Memminger, on behalf of the State, opened the argument by 
 stating that it became the duty of the counsel for the State, in the first 
 place, to extricate from the pleadings on the record, the questions which 
 are to be decided by the court; and in doing so, they must premise that 
 they have desired to meet these questions fairly; that they have an 
 swered the special pleading of the defendants with replications intended, 
 merely, to keep them to the real issue; and that if, as they believe, it 
 will be found that the defendants themselves have become entangled 
 by these pleadings, the counsel for the State design to make no further 
 use of their advantage, than to bring back the court to the question 
 raised by the scire facias, and to ask judgment only upon the broad 
 proposition, that by suspending specie payments, the bank has forfeited 
 its charter. 
 
 The allegations of the declaration on the scire facias, then, must 
 make out, by proper averments, a sufficient cause of forfeiture of the 
 charter. In point of fact, the declaration sets forth what is usually 
 termed a suspension of specie payments by alleging four distinct facts: 
 
 1. That the Bank of South Carolina having received a charter as a 
 bank, and having issued a large amount of notes as a circulating me 
 dium, payable in gold and silver, and accepted a large amount of de 
 posits payable also in gold and silver, afterwards resolved to suspend 
 the payment of these notes and deposits in gold and silver coin. 2. That 
 tlie said bank publicly declared this its determination. 3. That it 
 actually refused to pay its notes and deposits in current coin for a long 
 space of time ; and, 4, that during such space of time it nevertheless 
 continued to do business under its charter as a bank, making discounts, 
 receiving deposits, issuing notes and declaring dividends among its 
 stockholders. 
 
 The declaration then charges a repetition of the same acts, after a 
 temporary resumption of specie payments. And the simple question of 
 law raised by these allegations is whether these acts make out a cause 
 of forfeiture, or in other words, whether such a suspension of a bank, 
 confessedly without actual fraud, is a sufficient ground in law to declare 
 the charter forfeited. In any view of the pleadings which may be taken, 
 coming up as they now do before the court upon a general demurrer, 
 
THE LAWYER 137 
 
 tho sufficiency of the first pleading must necessarily be the first ques 
 tion. This presents the very point which the counsel for the State desire 
 to have adjudged; and if the court shall be of opinion that such sus 
 pension is not cause of forfeiture, the other pleadings need not be inves 
 tigated. But if, as our case undertakes to prove, the court should think 
 that it is cause of forfeiture, it then becomes our duty to proceed fur 
 ther, and show to the court how the remaining pleadings have affected 
 the form in which the question is presented. 
 
 The first plea of the defendant is not guilty, and seems to be predi 
 cated upon the idea of a general issue. It would not be difficult, per 
 haps, to show that such a plea is inconsistent with this form of action, 
 and cannot be sustained. But proceeding upon the rule above stated, 
 the counsel for the State conceived that as the plea could do no more 
 than refer the facts averred to the verdict of a jury, and left the ques 
 tion of law precisely where it stood, they should make no objection to 
 the plea, and they have, therefore, joined issue upon it. This plea, 
 therefore, stands for trial by a jury, and is not involved in the present 
 argument. 
 
 The second and third pleas each profess to answer the whole declara 
 tion; but the second avers only that the bank did not continually refuse 
 to pay their notes in current coin ; and the third avers that they did not 
 continually refuse to pay their deposits in current coin. 
 
 It is a rule of pleading, that where a plea is offered in bar to the 
 whole action, it must answer the whole allegation, except only in those 
 cases where the allegation passed by is wholly immaterial or of matter 
 of aggravation merely. Stephen s PI. 215-217. 1 Chitty s PL 554. 1 Now, 
 the allegations of the declaration are : First, that the defendants resolved 
 to suspend; second, that they published this resolution ; third, that they 
 refused to pay both notes and deposits; and, fourth, that they still con 
 tinued to do business and divide profits as a bank. The second plea, 
 therefore, which merely avers that they did not refuse to pay their notes t 
 denies only a part of the third allegation, and gives no answer whatever 
 to the other allegations ; and vice versa, the third plea, while denying a 
 refusal to pay deposits, says nothing as to the notes or any of the other 
 allegations. The allegations thus left unanswered cannot certainly be 
 considered immaterial, for they constitute the very foundation of the 
 action. 
 
 So, too, it is anoth er rule of pleading that whatever is not traversed 
 or avoided is confessed. Stephen, 217. The second plea, therefore, 
 
 1 As there are various editions of Chitty and Stephen, each differing both in matter and 
 arrangement from the other, it will be as well to mention that the editions cited in thi.* argu 
 ment are of Chitty the Gth American from the 5th London edition, printed in Springfield iq 
 1833; and of Stephen, the 3d American from the 3d London edition, printed in Philadelphia 
 in 1837. The references are to the English or marginal paging. 
 
138 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 which traverses only the refusal to pay notes, virtually admits the re 
 fusal to pay deposits; and the third plea, on the other hand, by travers 
 ing only the refusal to pay deposits, confesses the refusal to pay notes; 
 and so it follows that taking both pleas together, all the allegations in 
 the scire facias are confessed by the defendants pleading. 
 
 Besides these objections, the word continually inserted in the pleas 
 makes them both bad. It is no answer to an allegation that A owes B 
 one hundred pounds, to aver that B does not owe the said one hundred 
 pounds, but the plea must add, " or any part thereof." The allegation 
 is, that the bank suspended during the whole time stated: the answer 
 is, that they did not suspend during the whole time; thus making the 
 time and not the suspension, the matter put in issue. This traverse, 
 therefore, comes within that class of traverses which are said in law to 
 be too large; and they are bad according to all the authorities: 1 
 Chitty, 647. Stephen, 224. Colborne v. Stockdale, 1 Str. 493. Cro. Eliz. 
 84. 3 Bos. and Pul. 348. 
 
 To have suffered these pleas to remain would have been to entangle 
 the question and divided the issues to the detriment of the State; and 
 the counsel for the State have, therefore, demurred specially to them, 
 and it is conceived that this demurrer has disposed of both of them, and 
 that no further notice need be taken of either. 
 
 The fourth plea is substantially a plea of nul tiel record, and as it 
 does no more than to bring the charter under the judicial inspection of 
 the court, the purpose of the State is accomplished, by making no ob 
 jection to the plea. 
 
 The fifth plea seems to be that upon which the defendants intend to 
 rely, and it will, therefore, require a more minute examination. It ap 
 pears to have been conceived in the nature of a special traverse, one of 
 the most subtle and technical forms of pleading. It alleges: 1. That 
 before the suspension of specie payments in Charleston the banks in 
 .New York and elsewhere had suspended, and thereby created an ex 
 traordinary scarcity of specie, whereby the payment of notes and deposits 
 by the defendants became impossible. 2. That the two suspensions by the 
 Northern banks, as well as by banks elsewhere, rendered the demand for 
 gold and silver extraordinary and irregular, having no reference to the 
 quantity of specie in circulation or to the credit or solvency of the banks, 
 and that the defendant was solvent, but unable, by reason of this extra 
 ordinary demand for coin, to pay in gold and silver without ruinous 
 exactions of its own debtors. 3. That during the suspension the notes 
 issued by the defendants were not greater in amount than was allowed 
 by the charter or than it was ordinarily prudent to issue. And 4, that 
 neither the notes nor deposits were lost or depreciated to the holders or 
 owners of them. The plea then concludes w r ith an absque hoc that the 
 said suspensions are in violation of any rules or conditions in the char- 
 
THE LAWYER. 139 
 
 ter, or to the perversion of the ends, objects and purposes of the corpo 
 ration. 
 
 To ascertain the proper mode of replying to the multifarious allega 
 tions of this plea it becomes necessary to examine into its nature, and in 
 this inquiry the court will have reason to thank Mr. Stephen for the very 
 clear elucidation which his work on pleading affords of this intricate and 
 perplexed form of pleading. All pleas in bar must be by way of traverse 
 or by way of confession and avoidance. Stephen, 137. To which of these 
 does the fifth plea belong ? Its matter would seem to place it among 
 pleas of confession and avoidance, but its form is technically that which 
 is termed a special traverse. The absque hoc at the end of it fixes its 
 character and compels us to consider it in that form, in which the 
 defendants have chosen to put it; and the result, to which our exami 
 nation into it as a special traverse will conduct us, would be substan 
 tially the same if it be treated as a plea of confession and avoidance, for 
 in this latter case the matter of avoidance could be replied to in plead 
 ing precisely as we have replied to the special traverse. 
 
 A special traverse consists of two parts the inducement and the 
 alsque hoc, or denial. The inducement is an allegation of new affirma 
 tive matter indirectly denying the adverse pleading, but amounting, in 
 fact, to a complete denial. The absque hoc is intended to deny in form 
 that which the inducement has substantially but only indirectly denied. 
 See the instances put in Stephen, 165, 168, 172, 174 ; 1 Chitty s PL 655. The 
 formal denial contained in the absque hoc is intended to avoid that rule 
 of pleading which would condemn the inducement as a mere argumenta 
 tive pleading on account of its inferential and indirect character. The 
 design of a traverse is to put the parties at once at issue, for it is a rule 
 that to a special traverse well pleaded there can be no further pleading, 
 either by way of confession and avoidance or by way of traverse, but the 
 adverse party is compelled to join issue. Stephen, 188. 
 
 And this renders obvious the reason why the law has laid it down as 
 an essential rule in relation to these traverses that the inducement must 
 be a complete denial of the allegation on the other side. Stephen, 189. 
 Is this rule complied with by the fifth plea ? Which of the four allega 
 tions in the declaration does this plea deny ? Is it denied that the bank 
 refused payment of its notes, or deposits, or resolved to suspend specie 
 payments, or published their resolution, or carried on business as a bank 
 while in this state of suspension ? These allegations are, in fact, admit 
 ted, and it is pleaded in extenuation, or by way of excuse, or justifica 
 tion, that a certain state of things existed which excused the default. 
 This is the precise character of what would be held a plea of justification, 
 and not a traverse at all, and the plea is therefore a direct violation of 
 the distinction which the law makes between traverses and pleas of con 
 fession and avoidance. It also conflicts with another positive rule of 
 
140 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEU. 
 
 law, which declares that the traverse is bad if the inducement be in the 
 nature of confession and avoidance. Stephen, 185. 
 
 But let us consider whether the inducement is substantially any ans 
 wer to the declaration, even if the defendants be allowed to waive the 
 form in which they have chosen to present it. Surely it cannot be gravely 
 contended that because the banks elsewhere suspended specie payments 
 that furnishes a justification for suspensions here. If the plea had 
 averred positively, what it avers arguendo, that it became impossible to 
 pay, then an inquiry might have been instituted as to such impossibility 
 by joining issue upon it as a fact. 
 
 The second matter of excuse urged by the inducement is that gold 
 and silver became so much appreciated in relation to paper that it could 
 not be paid without ruinous exactions upon the debtors of the bank. If 
 this be urged as a legal defense it would change the whole character of 
 courts of justice. How, as a matter of law, is it to be ascertained whether 
 gold and silver had appreciated, when they are themselves the only meas 
 ures of value. In fact, the question as to this appreciation involves the 
 whole political question as to suspensions and will be considered whp.n 
 the main question is discussed. And in what manner would the court 
 proceed to ascertain whether the exactions from the debtors of the bank 
 are ruinous or not ? Supposing that such an inquiry could lead to anv- 
 thing approximating legal certainty, can it be gravely urged that 
 because the fulfilment of its contracts by the bank would lead to its 
 injury, therefore it is excused from its performance ? And yet that is 
 the substance of this portion of the plea. 
 
 Take the next fact alleged in this plea, and let us ascertain how f&r 
 it affords an answer to the declaration. It is said that the bank issued 
 no more notes than it was allowed by its charter to issue, or than it was 
 ordinarily prudent to be issued. If the bank issued no more notes than 
 the charter allowed, then it is unnecessary to plead that fact at all as a 
 defense, because the scire facias undertakes to prove that they violated 
 their charter. But if it be intended to offer this allegation as a defense 
 for their refusal to pay their deposits, or for their continuance to make 
 profits and pay dividends while in a state of suspension, it is obvious 
 that it cannot avail as a plea, as it leaves these material charges entirely 
 unanswerable. 
 
 The next fact asserted in this plea is that neither the notes nor deposits 
 in bank were lost, or depreciated, to the holders. This assertion alone, 
 of all the others, the counsel for the State deemed of any importance ; 
 and but for the admission of its truth, which would be implied by a de 
 murrer, they would have filed a general demurrer to the whole plea. 
 But not being willing to concede so important a fact, which they could 
 readily disprove, they have availed themselves of the departure of the 
 defendants from technical rules, to bring them back to the real issue. 
 
THE LA WYER. 141 
 
 For it is laid down as one of the leading rules in relation to special 
 traverses that the absque hoc must be a denial of the/aci alleged in the 
 opposite pleading. Stephen, 184, 187. And if it be taken upon matter 
 of law, it may be passed by, and a new traverse taken upon the induce 
 ment. Stephen, 191, 188. Now the absque hoc of this plea traverses no 
 fact at all ; it says absque hoc that the said suspensions are in violation 
 of any rules, etc., in the charter, or to the perversion of the ends, etc., of 
 the institution. This is a traverse purely of matter of law. It ought, 
 in terms, to have denied the four special allegations of fact in the dec 
 laration ; but instead of taking that course, it has undertaken to tra 
 verse the conclusion which the law would draw from those facts. The 
 result is, that under the rule above cited the State is at liberty to pass 
 by the traverse, and to take issue upon the inducement, or such part of 
 it as is deemed material. This has been done by the replication to the 
 fifth plea, and the defendants have demurred to that replication. If 
 this demurrer be sustained, the court must then pronounce upon the 
 legal efficacy of the plea itself; and, if overruled, as the counsel for the 
 State insist that it must be, then there is added to the allegations in the 
 declaration an admission, on the record, that the notes and deposits of 
 the bank were depreciated or lost in the hands of the holders. 
 
 The State has, therefore, by its pleading secured, at all events, the 
 trial of the main question, and what has been gained, in addition thereto, 
 by the failure of the defendants pleading, the counsel for the State 
 freely waive, conceiving that they will better discharge their duty to 
 the country by fairly trying the main issue, rather than by insisting 
 upon any technical advantage in this particular case. We are, there 
 fore, brought to consider the main question, without being trammelled 
 in any degree by the pleadings. 
 
 I proceed, then, to the great question in this case, whether an incor 
 porated bank forfeits its charter by a suspension of specie payments; 
 and, in arguing this question, I propose to establish, consecutively, the 
 following propositions: 
 
 1. That to every charter of incorporation there is annexed a tacit 
 condition that such charter becomes forfeited whenever the corporation 
 ceases to perform the trusts for which it was created, or abuses the 
 powers or privileges conferred upon it. 
 
 2. That banking corporations, as they exist in this country, embrace 
 three essential elements, constituting the primary objects of their for 
 mation : first, discounting bills and making loans; second, receiving 
 and paying out deposits; and, third, issuing notes in the nature of cur 
 rency. 
 
 3. That a suspension of specie payments defeats two of the primary 
 objects or ends for which banks are created, and indirectly perverts the 
 third; that it destroys the character of a bank as an institution for 
 
142 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. NEMMINGER. 
 
 receiving and paying deposits ; removes the only barrier against abuses 
 of currency; imposes upon the community an unsound, depreciated, 
 and inconvertible paper medium, and re-acts upon the discounts of the 
 bank by compelling them to be made in the same depreciated medium. 
 
 4. That the primary objects or ends for which banks were chartered 
 being thus defeated, and the franchises and powers granted being thus 
 misused or abused, the condition implied for the protection of the pub 
 lic is broken, and the charter becomes forfeited. 
 
 1. But for the strenuous effort made on the other side to establish 
 that a bank charter is no franchise, I should have deemed it unneces 
 sary to do more than state the proposition from which our argument 
 starts, that corporate existence is itself a franchise, and that every 
 charter of incorporation, whether of a banking company or any other 
 association, is the grant of a franchise, and subject to the condition im 
 plied in all such grants. We do not mean by a franchise, neither does 
 the law intend by the term, merely that class of franchises which are 
 placed in the text-books in the same category with waifs, wrecks, or even 
 escheats; but we include every grant from the government, through 
 any of its branches, of a privilege which gives to one citizen, or one set 
 of citizens, rights or immunities which vary their position from that of 
 the general mass. Our position is, that government is instituted for 
 the good of the public, and is, therefore, a public trust ; that a distinc 
 tion created between the citizens can only be legitimately made when 
 its object is the public benefit ; and that a grant, therefore, which creates 
 such distinction must assume that the grantee is to furnish to the public 
 the consideration in some form. The grant of a charter of incorporation 
 to certain individuals has, usually, the effect of exempting them per 
 sonally from those actions to which, without such charter, they would 
 have been liable. They cannot be held to bail; their bodies cannot be 
 arrested ; nor can their estates be charged in execution. They have a 
 perpetual existence, under their newly created form, and may sue and 
 be sued, without any of the embarrassments to which their unchartered 
 neighbors are exposed. They thus have certain privileges and. exemp 
 tions which are derived from their charter ; and this is precisely what, 
 according to our view of the matter, the law means by a franchise or 
 privilege. 
 
 This view of the subject is not only sustained by elementary writers, 
 2 Bl. Com. 37, 3 Kent s Com. 459, but it has the support of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States in the celebrated case of Dartmouth College 
 v. "Woodward, 4 Wheat. 657. In that case a charter of incorporation is 
 expressly declared to be a franchise, and is put upon the footing of a 
 contract executed between the public and the corporators, and protected 
 as a contract by the Constitution of the United States. In this contract 
 the public are one of the parties; and the consideration to be furnished 
 
THE LAWYER. 143 
 
 by the corporation is, therefore, to the public. It is generally some 
 great public advantage which it is proposed to afford; such as the ad 
 vantages to traveling and intercommunication offered by a railroad or 
 bridge ; or to education by a college ; or to commerce and currency by 
 a bank. The corporation undertakes to afford to the public these ad 
 vantages as the consideration for the privilege of being made a corpora 
 tion, and consequently becomes, as it were, a trustee of this considera 
 tion for the use of the public. Hence, in Comyn s Digest, Franchises, 
 G. 3, it is distinctly called a trust; and Lord Holt and Mr. Justice Bul- 
 ler placed corporations upon the same footing in the cases hereafter to 
 be cited. 
 
 It follows, from the law in relation to all franchises, that if the cor 
 poration abuse this trust, or fail to perform the objects for which it was 
 created, its franchise of being a corporation may be forfeited. The con 
 sideration has failed, or the trustee has abused his trust, and so the con 
 tract may be rescinded, and the privilege which the public had granted 
 may be resumed. 
 
 This proposition has been asserted, in terms, by every elementary 
 writer who treats of the subject ; and it has the sanction of every court 
 before which it has been brought in judgment. Com. Dig. Franchises, 
 G. 3. Bac. Abr. Corporations, G. 1 Bl. Com. 485. 2 Kyd on Corp. 474, 
 512. 
 
 In the courts it was established by the great case of the city of Lon 
 don, which, although open to condemnation on other accounts, is good 
 authority on this the more especially as it was confirmed after the Rev 
 olution by the case of Sir James Smith, 8 Cobbett s State Trials, 1343, in 
 note and in Rex v. Amery, 2 T. R. 515; in Rex v. Pasmore, 3 T. R. 199; 
 and in Colchester v. Seaber, 3 Burr. 1866. 
 
 So, too, the authorities in the United States are equally conclusive. 
 In the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Terrett v. Tay 
 lor, 9 Cranch, 43, it is distinctly laid down that a private corporation 
 created by the Legislature may lose its franchises by a misuser or non- 
 user of them ; and that they may be resumed by the government under 
 a judicial judgment to enforce the forfeiture. This, says Mr. Justice 
 Story, is the common law of the land, and is a tacit condition annexed 
 to the creation of every such corporation. This doctrine is repeated in 
 the same court in the case of Mumma v. The Potomac Company, 8 Pe 
 ters, 281. 
 
 In our own State the same doctrine is announced in White v. City 
 Council, 2 Hill, 576. In New York it has been repeatedly asserted : 
 Slee v. Bloom, 5 Johns. Ch. R 380, 19 Johns. 456; The People v. Bank of 
 Niagara, 6 Cowen, 209; and in two other cases in the same book, pp. 
 216, 219. In Massachusetts it is affirmed in two cases in 5 Mass. Rep. 
 230 and 420. In Vermont, in The People v. The Society for Propagating 
 
144 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER., 
 
 the Gospel, 1 Paine C. C. Rep. 656. In Maryland in the Canal Company 
 v. Railroad Company, 4 Gill. & Johns. 122. And in Indiana, in the case 
 of the State v. The State Bank, 1 Blackford s Rep. 267. 
 
 It is then clear that a charter of incorporation may be forfeited 
 whenever the corporation abuses the trust upon which it was created, 
 or the powers and privileges with which it is invested, or fails to accom 
 plish the ends and purposes for which the public granted the franchise 
 of being a corporation. 
 
 The question then which we are discussing becomes changed in form 
 and resolves itself into an inquiry, whether the Bank of South Carolina 
 has thus abused its powers, or failed to fulfil the ends or purposes for 
 which it was created. 
 
 2. And this inquiry leads us directly to ascertain in the next place 
 what are the ends or purposes contemplated and intended by the grant 
 of a bank charter. 
 
 These may be ascertained in this case with sufficient distinctness 
 from the various clauses of the charter. But it is not at all necessary 
 that the charter should say a word on the subject. Usage and common 
 understanding ascertain these points with a reasonable certainty. 
 Thus in the grant of the charter of a ferry, or bridge, or church, no one 
 would be at a loss to declare what public objects were contemplated; 
 and, with equal certainty, a mere charter for a bank would imply the 
 objects intended by the grant. 
 
 In the work of Angel & Ames on Corporations, this principle is con 
 firmed at page 59, 145. And in the same work at page 132, the ends or 
 purposes implied in a bank charter are stated. But in the case of the 
 New York Firemen Insurance Company v. Ely, 2 Covven, 711, these ends 
 are more authoritatively declared. In that case it is expressly declared 
 that a grant of banking powers implies that the bank is to exercise 
 three functions or powers: 1, to discount notes and bills; 2, to re 
 ceive deposits; and 3, to issue bank notes in the nature of currency. 
 
 Upon examining the charter of this bank it will be found in the va 
 rious clauses that all three of these powers were distinctly expected by 
 both parties to be exercised by the bank. 
 
 They are all of great importance to society, and are absolutely neces 
 sary to a commercial community; and the fact that no bank has ever 
 existed in this country without exercising them all, would seem to be 
 conclusive in establishing the intention of the parties, and the usual 
 meaning of a bank. No institution in this country which should 
 merely discount paper should ever be called a bank; neither would 
 such a term be applied to a mere place of deposit. In fact, a deposit 
 bank merely would be an anomalous institution, in which expense 
 must be voluntarily incurred for the benefit of the public without any 
 compensation ; a thing unknown in the present circumstances of man- 
 
THE LAWYER. 145 
 
 kind. It is in connection with the power to issue notes in the nature of 
 currency, that the other functions become valuable; and it is this last 
 power which offers the chief inducement to every bank, and without 
 which their charters as banks would never have been asked or accepted. 
 
 3. We will be enabled then to advance our argument by considering 
 thirdly, the effect of a suspension of specie payments upon each of these 
 great functions which the bank has undertaken to perform, and by as 
 certaining whether the trust confided to the bank has been abused or 
 fulfilled in each or any of them. 
 
 And first, as to making discounts. A suspension of specie payment 
 is a confession by the bank that specie is more valuable than its notes. 
 Before a suspension specie is exchanged on demand for these notes . 
 After the suspension they refuse to pay specie in exchange for their 
 notes. An individual then who receives a discount from a bank in si- 
 state of suspension delivers to the bank his own note, which, by law, is 
 payable in coin, and receives from the bank its notes in exchange, with 
 out any diminution for their depreciated state. Throughout the whole 
 course of the suspension the banks paid out their notes upon discounts 
 at precisely the same rates as though they were exchangeable for coin; 
 and the individual who received them had at once to submit to a loss of 
 from three to ten per cent, to convert them into a legal currency. 
 This, according to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United^. 
 States, was a usurious transaction, and a plain violation of their char 
 ters. See Gaither v. Farmers Bank, 1 Peters, 41. Bank of the United 
 States v. Owens, 2 Peters. 527. 
 
 The only measure of value which can be applied to money transac 
 tions is coin; and a party making a loan, and paying in depreciated 
 paper, as though it were at par, actually receives, in addition to the legal 
 interest, the difference between coin and the depreciated paper. Dis 
 counting in this manner by a suspended bank, therefore, not only vio 
 lates its charter, but holds out the strongest inducement to the bank to 
 continue such violation of the trust confided to them. If the bank be 
 solvent, and capable of acting otherwise, it is a wilful perversion of tha 
 power entrusted to it, to make discounts for the accommodation of the 
 public; and if the bank be insolvent, then it is a fraud upon the public 
 to make discounts, or to continue to do any business, which increases 
 its liabilities, and more especially where dividends are paid to the 
 stockholders. In either case it comes clearly within .the rule of for 
 feiture. 
 
 But, further, so completely is this public trust perverted by a suspen 
 sion of specie payments, that what, under other circumstances, would 
 be a public benefit, is converted into a nuisance. The admitted proxi 
 mate cause of all suspensions is a redundant paper currency; and the 
 obvious remedy is, to prune this redundancy; to reduce the over issues 
 
146 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 to the legitimate standard; to stop new business; and diminish the old. 
 In this state of things, if the bank make a discount, an addition is 
 necessarily made to the already redundant issues; and new poison is 
 thus sent forth into the body politic, through the very organ which was 
 created to give life and health to its action. 
 
 Secondly, let us next proceed to consider the effect of a suspension of 
 specie payments upon the objects contemplated in the function of re 
 ceiving deposits. 
 
 By the law of the land, as established in The Bank of Kentucky v. 
 Wister, 2 Peters, 318, every deposit is payable in gold and silver. But 
 the first effect of a suspension, it is plain, must be the depreciation of 
 bank notes below the standard of coin ; and the individual, therefore, 
 who is paid by the bank with depreciated notes, for a deposit, which he 
 is entitled to receive in coin, is actually subjected to a loss of the differ 
 ence in value between the notes and the coin ; whilst the bank makes a 
 profit of that difference at his expense. 
 
 It is said, that the individual is not bound to submit to the loss, but 
 may, by an appeal to the laws, receive his payment in legal coin. This 
 answer is mere mockery of a most disastrous condition, and, when ex 
 amined, evinces still more strongly the necessity of public interference. 
 By force of the charters of the banks themselves, and of the privileges 
 which they enjoy, the business of the country becomes concentrated in 
 them. All other currency disappears ; and while these institutions ex 
 ist, all the specie in the country becomes absorbed in their vaults. No 
 one finds it an object to undertake discounts, or receive deposits; and 
 the accumulation of capital, caused by the grant of the bank charters, 
 in the banks themselves, drives every other competitor from the market. 
 They thus become the sole channels, through which the circulation is car 
 ried on, and, in virtue of the public confidence, become possessed of all 
 the circulating medium, either as depositaries, or as issuers. In this 
 state of things, to propose to the individual, to leave with the bank his 
 deposit, or to hold their notes until they are sued, is virtually to bid all 
 business cease, and to paralyze every limb in the body politic. The bank 
 has got the advantage, and the individual is compelled to submit to its 
 terms. And this is the very case which calls most loudly for the inter 
 vention of public justice. For the Stats itself has been the innocent 
 cause of the mischief, by creating such institutions, and giving them 
 power to produce such a condition of things ; and the State alone is able 
 to cope with them. The individual, for the time, particularly amidst 
 the confused and disastrous trials which accompany a suspension, is 
 bound hand and foot, and must yield to the necessity of the case. Under 
 these circumstances, it is a moral necessity which controls the depositor. 
 The law is too slow to help him, and he is in fact so hemmed in by cir 
 cumstances, as to be glad to get his deposit upon any terms. 
 
THE LAWYER. 147 
 
 But how stands the case between the bank and the public ? Is this a 
 discharge of the trust reposed in the bank ? Is this a just exercise of 
 the power confided to it, of providing for the country a proper place of 
 deposit for their money ? Is it not, in fact, a perversion of the end of the 
 institution? And consider the effect during a state of suspension. 
 Would any individual venture to deposit coin in a bank, which had pub 
 lished a declaration that it would no longer redeem its obligation in 
 coin? As a place of deposit, then, the bank no longer exists; and the 
 merchant is left suddenly to seek elsewhere, that safe place of deposit 
 for his moneys, which the bank undertook to supply, as a consideration 
 for its charter. If it be said, that the bank continues to receive notes 
 on deposit, the answer is, that this is but a portion of its duty, and fur 
 nishes no excuse for the failure as to its other duty. 
 
 But even as to receiving notes on deposit, this is a fallacious defense. 
 So long as there is some standard of value every one is able to proceed 
 upon certainty. A note for one hundred dollars means one hundred sil 
 ver dollars. But when that standard is rejected and a deposit is received 
 by a bank of one hundred dollars in paper, according to what rate shall 
 that deposit be paid out ? The notes of the bank itself fluctuate from 
 day to day. So also do the notes of other banks. In fact, they are no 
 longer currency, but have become articles of commerce, and the deposi 
 tor must now take the hazard of a speculation in which of these articles 
 it may please the bank to return him his deposit. Is this the state of 
 things which the public intended by granting the charter for a bank of 
 deposit ? Is this a fulfilment of the end of its institution ? Is this a per 
 formance of the trust upon which the bank was created ? Most assuredly 
 it cannot be so regarded. 
 
 I come now, in the third place, to consider the last and most impor 
 tant end for which banks are created by public authority. 
 
 The Bank of South Carolina was chartered as far back as the year 
 1800, while the country was yet fully mindful of all those evils which 
 had been inflicted upon it by a disordered currency. The extreme 
 suffering which had been undergone from continental money, bills 
 of credit and paper medium had opened the eyes of all to the great 
 advantages of a sound currency. It had been found, after all trials, that 
 none could be relied upon unless immediately convertible into gold 
 and silver. The inducement, therefore, which banks held out, of 
 supplying so important a want, drew at once, from the public, cor 
 responding grants of privileges; and in every section of the Union, 
 a bank-note currency, immediately convertible into coin, became the 
 established medium of trade. Such a currency was found more 
 convenient even than coin, and its regulation and management was 
 yielded up to the banks, and became a great public trust in their hands. 
 This view of the subject is taken by Mr. Justice Spencer, in deliver- 
 
1 48 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 ing his opinion in the case of the TJtica Insurance Company, 15 Johns. 386, 
 and he expressly calls this power to issue notes a great public trust. 
 
 In South Carolina it is placed by the law upon the high ground of 
 a special privilege. By the act of 1814, all corporations are prohibi 
 ted from issuing notes in the nature of currency, except where such 
 power is given to chartered banks. 8 Sts. at Large, 33, 4. And the 
 result is, that the banks enjoy a right, which is denied to every other 
 corporation; amounting in precise terms, to what we have termed 
 a franchise, or privilege, for the exercise of which the bank is responsi 
 ble. And so it was adjudged, under the New York banking law, in the 
 case already cited of the TJtica Insurance Company. 
 
 The nature and value of this bank-note currency may still further be 
 shown by considering the footing which it had acquired in law. 
 In Miller v. Race, 1 Bur. 457, Lord Mansfield declares bank notes to be 
 money as much so as a guinea, and to the same effect is the declaration 
 of Lord Ellenborough in Knight v. Criddle, 9 East, 48; so in New York 
 in Handy v. Dobbin, 12 Johns, R. 220; and the same view of the subject 
 is taken in United States Bank v. Bank of Georgia, 10 Wheat, 346. In 
 the case, too, of Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky, 11 Peters, 258, so high is 
 the footing upon which Mr. Justice Story in his dissenting opinion puts 
 them, and so near to actual coin, that he considers the banks unconsti 
 tutional which exercise the right of issuing them. 
 
 Again there is another class of cases which declare that bank notes are 
 a legal tender in payment of debts, unless specially objected to at the 
 time a privilege which has never been allowed to individual notes. In 
 fact, the whole course of trade had established it as the understanding 
 of all that payments between individuals were always expected to be 
 made in bank notes, and thus has placed them upon the footing of an 
 acknowledged currency. 
 
 Such being the rank which bank notes held in the affairs and busi 
 ness of the country, the undertaking to furnish them as a currency, was, 
 manifestly, the grand object at which the public aimed in creating 
 banks. Few persons are aware of the great expense to which the coun 
 try willingly subjects itself for the attainment of this most desirable 
 end; and as the inquiry is germain to the main argument before us, it 
 is proper to bring this point, although a political subject, to the view of 
 the court. It will enable them to measure the magnitude of the inter 
 ests involved. 
 
 In the issue of bank notes, a bank changes its character from being 
 a lender, to becoming a borrower, of money. Every bank note in the 
 pocket of an individual is, in fact, a loan by him of its amount to the 
 bank, until he passes it to some other person ; and then it becomes in the 
 same manner, a loan from him to whom it is passed. The result is, that 
 the whole amount of notes, issued by the banks, is so much borrowed by 
 
THE LAWYER. 149 
 
 them from a part of the public at large, and without interest ; and this 
 amount the banks lend to another portion of the public at the rate of 
 six per cent, interest. 
 
 These two portions of the public, it will be perceived, stand entirely 
 in different relations to the bank; and inasmuch as the borrowers from 
 the banks are much fewer in number than those who hold their notes, 
 the latter constitute much the largest portion of the community. Those 
 who borrow from the bank, too, it may be fairly assumed, make, from 
 some source of profit, the interest which they pay for the loan, and so 
 receive a compensation. But that larger portion of the community, 
 which hold the notes of the banks as a currency, are losing the interest 
 thereon, without any return, and therefore bear the whole burthen of 
 this currency. The banks themselves reap a profit upon the whole, the 
 sole consideration for which is, the soundness of the currency which 
 they undertake to furnish. 
 
 It is this profit which furnishes the inducement to banking. At the 
 time of the suspension, the issues of the banks in Charleston amounted, 
 together, to about $3,700,000, the annual interest of which is $222,000. 
 If to this be added the issues of the country banks, the aggregate is 
 about $6,000,000, bearing an annual interest of $360,000. And thus an 
 amount nearly equal to the whole general taxes of the State is paid by 
 the community to the banks every year, for which no sort of equivalent 
 is received, but the benefits which the State is supposed to derive from 
 them as banking corporations. 
 
 Even to this large sum should be added something more for the 
 deposits which stand in each bank ; for, in relation to the community, 
 the banks are also debtors for the deposits; and as they pay no interest 
 on them, they stand in the same relation with the issues under another 
 name. The statements furnished upon which these calculations are 
 based do not enable us to ascertain how much of the issues of one 
 bank are included in the deposits in another. I have, therefore, not 
 undertaken to unite this uncertainty with what is certain upon the other 
 calculation. But it is plain that as at the time of the suspension these 
 deposits amounted to three million of dollars, something more should 
 be. added; and the total profits which the banks in South Carolina were 
 actually deriving from the community at the time of the suspension 
 must have amounted to at least $400,000. 
 
 Surely, then, the State must have set a high value upon this pub 
 lic trust when they were content to pay more for its discharge than 
 for the whole machinery of the State government. The benefit expected 
 in return from the banks consists in maintaining a sound currency, 
 and removing the evils which had been suffered under the system of 
 bills of credit. It is true that by no process could the State free itself 
 from every part of this burthen ; for, if the currency were specie alone. 
 
150 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. Q. MEMMINGER. 
 
 still there must be a loss of interest on the amount of coin in actual cir 
 culation. And so in a bank which maintains specie payments, there 
 must be an offset for the coin necessarily kept on hand to meet de 
 mands for specie. But a bank in a state of suspension declares that it 
 has no such offset to offer; and the suspension itself releases them from 
 the necessity of holding such unproductive capital. 
 
 It would seem demonstrated, then, that the great end and purpose/ 
 contemplated by the public in granting a bank charter, is the attain 
 ment of a sound, convertible bank-note currency ; and that to create 
 and preserve such a currency is the great public trust which the bank 
 has undertaken to furnish as a consideration for the grant. What then 
 is the chief, in fact, the only means of keeping such a currency sound? 
 It is answered on every side, immediate convertibility into coin. This 
 presents the only test of soundness; the only check to over issues; and 
 while it continues to be applied, a bank-note currency so entirely satis 
 fies the public demands that it displaces every other; and all specie of 
 the country becomes either absorbed by the banks, or, if they are tempted 
 to over issues, it is driven from the market of the country. 
 
 "When the banks, therefore, suspend payment in specie, they volun 
 tarily put aside the only means of preserving the very currency which 
 they undertook to keep sound; and they compel the public, from the 
 necessity of the case, to receive and circulate the currency which they 
 have thus impaired. If they have any coin on hand, and refuse to pay 
 it, they refuse to apply the very remedy needed; for, by paying coin 
 they would at once apply two means of cure : they would thereby with 
 draw some of the redundant paper, and at the same time supply the 
 demand for coin. Indeed, it is affirmed by very competent judges 
 that the second suspension in Charleston could easily have been pre 
 vented by the banks paying out freely from the coin which they then 
 had on hand. The actual demand was so small that it could easily have 
 been met. But the refusal to pay, of itself, created a factitious demand 
 by impairing confidence and deranging anew the whole course of 
 trade. 
 
 This is not the place to enlarge upon the evils which a suspension of 
 specie payments inflicts upon the country. The experience of the last 
 six years has written these evils in characters too deep to be easily for 
 gotten ; and it is only necessary to ask the questions, whether a suspen 
 sion of specie payments does not entirely pervert, or destroy, the end 
 which the State contemplated in creating a bank of issues? and whether 
 the failure to preserve a sound currency is not a breach of the trust 
 upon which the bank was created ? There can be but one answer to 
 these questions. 
 
 The bank, then, by a suspension of specie payments, is shown to have 
 failed in all the essential ends for which it was created. It has perverted 
 
THE LA WYER. 151 
 
 and abused the power to discount; it has failed to perform the trust of 
 furnishing a place of deposit for the moneys of the country ; and instead 
 of a sound convertible currency, it has visited the community with all 
 the evils of an irredeemable paper currency. It has, in fact, plunged 
 the country back into the very evils, from which it was intended that 
 the banks should relieve them. 
 
 4. The last of the four propositions which I proposed to establish in 
 the argument of the main question in this case, follows, as a necessary 
 consequence of the delinquency, which has thus been made out. The 
 charter of incorporation has become forfeited; the tacit condition is 
 broken ; and the State, by the law of the land, may now resume her 
 grant under a judicial judgment upon this scire facias. 
 
 Objections. 1. But it is objected that the charter in express terms has 
 placed the notes of the bank upon the same footing with those of indi 
 viduals ; and, therefore, that no other remedies can be used against the 
 bank, but those which the law allows against individuals. 
 
 This objection rests upon a fallacy which confounds the State remedy 
 with the individual remedy. The clause of the charter which is referred 
 to merely contemplated the liability of the bank to individuals. At 
 the date of this charter the law was settled that a corporation must 
 contract under seal; and when the charter allowed the corporation to 
 contract by bills, under the hands of its officers, it created a new kind 
 of obligation, the character of which it became necessary to define. 
 The clause which created this new species of obligation, is the one now 
 under consideration, and it merely declares, that under such an obliga 
 tion, the bank should be liable in the same manner as an individual 
 upon a note of hand. 
 
 It would be contrary, then, to every rule of sound construction to 
 imply that such an enactment thus made was intended to deprive the 
 State of a great political power; nay, more, to renounce a paramount 
 public duty. The contract between the State and the corporators in 
 the charter, is a totally different contract from any which is formed, 
 afterwards between the corporation and strangers. The remedies for 
 their breach are altogether different. The charter does not attempt to 
 prescribe the public remedy. It leaves that to the common law. It did 
 not need to be prescribed, as by the very words of the law the charter 
 is held upon a tacit, not an expressed condition. 
 
 In fact, it would amount to a tyranny intolerable, under our institu 
 tions, for the State to create great moneyed corporations, and surrender 
 its governing and controlling power over them. Under the decisions 
 of the Supreme Court, upon the Constitution of the United States, a 
 charter cannot be annulled otherwise than by judicial authority, en 
 forcing this tacit condition of forfeiture. If the General Assembly, 
 ^then, should, by construction, be held to have surrendered this right, 
 
152 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 the individual is left single-handed to cope with a great moneyed power, 
 which must necessarily overwhelm him. 
 
 Besides, it may well be doubted whether, by any law, the General 
 Assembly could surrender this right of government and control the 
 legitimate functions of those who might succeed them in office. But, in 
 any event, it is clearly the duty of the State which creates such an insti 
 tution to hold it accountable and see that it discharges its duty to the 
 public. Such was Mr. Burke s opinion in his speech on the East India 
 bill as to the duty of the British Parliament, and the duty of our Gen 
 eral Assembly is rendered stronger by the paramount intangibility 
 secured to charters by the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 
 These views furnish an answer to the case from Alabama of The 
 State v. The Tombeckbee Bank, 2 Stewart s Rep. 30, which will be relied 
 on upon the other side so far as it has any bearing on this case ; for 
 although the circuit judge has laid much stress upon it, yet upon exami 
 nation it will be found that for the purposes of an authority a clause of 
 the Constitution of Alabama subjects it to a principle which entirely 
 separates it from the case now before this court, and as an obiter dictum 
 it is based entirely upon the three cases in 6 Cowen s Reports, 196, 211. 
 217, which have already been cited, and which are very erroneously sup 
 posed to decide the point. 
 
 There is another fallacy pervading this reasoning which confounds 
 together the remedies against individuals and corporations. It consists 
 in overlooking the consequences arising from that rule of the law which 
 declares that corporations can exercise no power but such as is actually 
 granted by the charter. 4 Wheat. 636; 2 Cowen, 711. An individual 
 may issue as many notes as he pleases, without any grant from the 
 State; but a corporation, without such grant, can issue none. The indi 
 vidual, therefore, is under no liability for his exercise of the right; 
 whilst the corporation, on the contrary, is fully responsible. By revers 
 ing the picture, the differences are made yet more obvious. As regards 
 .the right of the individual to issue notes, the State may restrict or take 
 it away, at any time, by a simple enactment ; but when once the right 
 has been granted to a corporation, by a charter, it cannot be divested 
 by any legislation, and no control remains to the State but the exercise 
 of its judicial power on a question of forfeiture. 
 
 2. It is further objected, that the bank is authorized by its charter to 
 issue notes to three times the amount of its capital; and, consequently, 
 cannot be subjected to a forfeiture for suspending, if its issues be within 
 that limit. This objection is founded upon a mistaken view of the ob 
 ject of the clause. A bank, alone, of all corporations, has authority 
 to create debts without any definite object. A railroad or a bridge com 
 pany could only borrow money to be applied to the purposes of their in 
 stitution ; and those purposes would necessarily limit the extent of such 
 
THE LAWYER. 153 
 
 loans. But from the nature of a bank, there is no limitation of this sort ; 
 and nothing short of a limitation in the charter would restrain a bank 
 from contracting debts or making issues to any extent, however large. 
 It was indispensably necessary, therefore, to prescribe a limit in the 
 charter; and it accordingly does provide that the total amount of all 
 the debts (not issues alone) should not exceed three times the capital. 
 
 By what process of reasoning can it be maintained, however, that 
 within this limitation the bank is released from the obligation to pre 
 serve its issues sound? Is it contended that the State designed to re 
 move all the checks which prudence might suggest, and let the bank 
 run wild within this limitation? For it must be admitted, on the other 
 side, that if this clause can bear the construction which is contended 
 for, it would sustain the bank in any course of management within the 
 limitation, however wild and speculative ; and thus a measure of secur 
 ity and precaution would be converted into a license for the wildest ex 
 travagance. Upon every just principle of construction, the clause must 
 be regarded as analogous to those laws which subject the accounts of 
 certain public officers to a scrutiny, merely, as an additional security to 
 the public. The sureties of such officers have again and again endea 
 vored to excuse their liability, on the ground that the accounts had not 
 been examined as the law provided; but the courts have as uniformly 
 held that a mere precaution, prescribed for the security of the public, 
 should not be construed to affect any other right which the public had. 
 United States v. Kirkpatrick, 9 Wheat. 720. 
 
 In the nature of things, one limitation already existed to restrain 
 the over issues of a bank. It was in that paramount law of the Consti 
 tution which makes every obligation payable in gold and silver. To 
 this was added, by the charter, the limitation of the amount of indebt 
 edness. The General Assembly may be presumed to have said to the 
 bank: Though you pay coin, as the law requires, you shall not exceed 
 three times your capital; to that amount you may go, but take care 
 that even within this amount you preserve the currency sound. If you 
 fail to do so, you will become a public nuisance, and we must abate 
 you. 
 
 In proof that this is the correct view of the subject, stands the fact 
 that the amount of the indebtedness of a bank has nothing to do with 
 the soundness of its currency. For a bank with a very small circulation 
 may be utterly worthless, while on the other hand a bank with a very 
 large issue might, for the whole amount, have in its vaults dollar for 
 dollar. Take the case of a bank with $100,000 of issues and a capital of 
 a million of Mississippi or Ocmulgee stock, or any other unavailable as 
 sets ; and suppose, on the other side, a bank with a million of issues and 
 a million of dollars in its vaults. The safety of a bank does not depend 
 upon the indebtedness, but upon the relative proportion between its 
 
154 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMM1NGE&. 
 
 debts and available assets ; and it is the keeping these proportions true 
 which constitutes prudence in their management. 
 
 3. Certain cases will be cited from 6 Cowen, 196, 211, and 217, in sup 
 port of the positions relied on upon the other side. These cases all arose 
 upon certain statutes of New York, and when examined, will be found 
 to stand entirely clear of the propositions involved in the present case. 
 They belong to that class of cases where a special remedy has been pro 
 vided by the charter, for the particular case; and that remedy, it was 
 held, must be strictly followed. 
 
 But they have no relation to the common law remedy, where it stands 
 unimpaired by legislation; and, indeed, the opinion of Mr. Justice 
 Woodworth implies, that but for the protection which the statute afforded, 
 the forfeiture at common law must have ensued. 2 Cowen, 215, 216. In 
 fact, these cases give the only just idea which can be applied to a sus 
 pension per se, as it has been termed: they treat it as perfect slumber of 
 the bank; an entire suspension of all its functions. So that when it 
 ceases to discharge its duty, it must cease also to make profits, or to do 
 business for its stockholders. 
 
 The case of Alberti v. The Bank of the United States, in Philadelphia, 
 of which a report has appeared in the newspapers, is the only case in 
 which a distinct declaration is made, as it certainly was made by the 
 judge, who delivered the opinion of the court in that case, that a sus 
 pension is not a cause of forfeiture at the common law. But this opinion 
 was not necessary to the judgment in the case, inasmuch as it went off 
 upon another ground. Still, however, the point was argued, and an 
 opinion expressed; and as far as that goes, it is against the action in this 
 case. But we apprehend, that Pennsylvania is not the region from 
 which this court will introduce new law as to banks, either for the use 
 or the instruction of South Carolina. 
 
 The stupendous frauds which have been practiced in that region, and 
 that most disastrous of all bank failures, the failure of the Bank of the 
 United States, have there shaken loose the moorings of public virtue. 
 We may set off with confidence against this case the honest and straight 
 forward judgment and reasoning of the court of Indiana in the case of 
 The State v. The State Bank, in 1 Blackford s Reports, 267, in which alone, 
 of all the cases, a judgment of the court is given directly upon the point 
 of suspension. 
 
 The result of all these cases is to leave the court free to take such 
 course as its own judgment may dictate, unfettered by any direct 
 authority upon the point. The issue is fairly joined between the parties, 
 and it remains for the court to determine whether the stern morality of 
 the common law shall form the standard of commercial probity with us, 
 or whether the failure to comply with obligations shall be decked with 
 new names and established as the fashion of the day in this State also. 
 
THE LAWYER. 155 
 
 South Carolina has throughout the late financial crisis stood upon a proud 
 eminence. Her probity and honor have given character to everything 
 upon which her name was stamped, and it is a fact, be it spoken to her 
 honor, that the notes of her State institutions were received as a cur 
 rency throughout the Union, during the w r hole of the late disastrous 
 times. It may fairly be assumed, that this confidence was mainly owing 
 to the high tone of public virtue, which her General Assembly exhibited, 
 and to the steady hand with which she at once checked the downward 
 tendency of her banks. But if her courts of justice shall recognize the 
 suspension of specie payments as a right in the banks ; if the sternness 
 of judicial integrity shall be perceived to estimate a failure to redeem 
 obligations by another standard : then the whole pitch of public senti 
 ment must be lowered, and the suffering, which has been undergone in 
 the supposed attainment of a great public good, will have been endured 
 in vain. May that God, who holds in his hands the hearts of rulers and 
 judges, guide this court into all truth, and direct it to such judgment 
 in this cause, as shall best promote the ends of public justice and the 
 virtue and happiness of our people. 
 
 The arguments of the other counsel in this celebrated 
 case are all reported in the volume referred to. If the 
 scope of this work permitted I would not feel that I was 
 wearying the reader, especially if he be an appreciative 
 lawyer, by inserting them in this Memoir. As a companion 
 for that of Mr. Memminger and a fine specimen of his ad 
 mirable diction, the writer regards the argument of Mr. 
 Petigru, as reported, among the ablest expressions of legal 
 acquirement he has ever met with, while that of Attorney- 
 General Bailey is exhaustive of the subject, and in its finish 
 worthy of the Bar of which he was so distinguished a mem 
 ber. In closing his argument, which covers one hundred 
 and fifty pages of the volume, Mr. Bailey uses the following 
 language : 
 
 The judgment in Mr. Hampden s case destroyed not the rights of the 
 people but the monarchy it attempted to render absolute ; and that in 
 the case of the city of London only produced a revolution and a bill of 
 rights. And so, too, the several efforts made by the Supreme Court of 
 the United States to enlarge the powers of the general government by a 
 subtle and perverse construction of the Constitution have practically 
 but rendered that government weaker; whilst they have almost entirely 
 
156 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 destroyed the confidence of the people in the judiciary and filled the 
 land with jealousies, fears and heart-burnings, which have loosened the 
 bonds of the Union itself. If I have any apprehensions as to the results 
 of this case it is only for consequences of the character I have last ad 
 verted to. The people of South Carolina will not submit to be governed 
 by banks, and they cannot be compelled to submit whatever else may 
 be the result of any effort to enforce submission. They never will en 
 dure arbitrary government of any sort, and least of all that meanest, 
 most odious, and most degrading of all, the domination of an irresponsi 
 ble moriied oligarchy. 
 
 Lord Morpeth, afterwards the Earl of Carlisle, was visit 
 ing Columbia at the time these arguments were being heard 
 before the Appellate Court. He became deeply interested 
 in them, as he was with the conduct and proceedings of our 
 Legislature. To one who is now a venerable member of the 
 Columbia Bar (Hon. J. D. Pope), he declared the argu 
 ments in the bank cases the finest that he had ever lis 
 tened to. In his forcible style of delivery and directness of 
 method, he compared Mr. Memminger to Sir Robert Peel, 
 the great leader of the English House of Commons. 
 
 Justice Richardson delivered the judgment of the court. 
 His review of the case and opinion is justly regarded among 
 the ablest judicial utterances of the Bench, which in South 
 Carolina, for purity of purpose and comprehensive knowl 
 edge of the law, had, in these days, no superior in the 
 United States. The opinion is a valuable law treatise in 
 itself one that not only all accomplished lawyers should 
 be familiar with, but worthy the consideration and careful 
 study of those who properly appreciate the great funda 
 mental principles of political economy, whether lawyer or 
 layman, jurist or man of business affairs. 
 
 Concurring opinions were delivered by Chancellors Har 
 per, Dunkin, and Johnston, and Justice Wardlaw. Chan 
 cellor Johnson delivered an able dissenting opinion, which 
 was concurred in by Justices O Neal, Evans, and Butler. 
 The judgment of the circuit court was thereupon reversed. 
 
THE LA WYER. 157 
 
 The scire facias being sustained by the decision of the 
 Court of Appeals, vacated the charter of the bank, which 
 was renewed by an act of the Legislature passed at the ses 
 sion of 1844. 
 
 The effect of these proceedings was to bring the banking 
 system of the State to that normal state of legitimate finan 
 cial exchanges which preserved the currency of the banks 
 in South Carolina from speculative fluctuations in intrinsic 
 value, and held the notes of the Bank of the State, and all 
 other reputable banks in the State, at par with the gold 
 standard recognized throughout the commercial world. It 
 was in consequence of the proceedings in these cases that a 
 bill of the Bank of South Carolina was accepted every 
 where in commercial transactions as the representative of so 
 much gold and commanded a large premium over the bills 
 of the banks in other sections, which were being conducted 
 upon a more speculative plan. Security took the place 
 of mistrust, and actual value that of a mere printed asser 
 tion. 
 
 It was not until the War of Secession, beginning in 1860, 
 disturbed the system thus inaugurated, and until the march 
 of armies and the chaos of revolution took the place of 
 peaceful occupations, that the currency of South Carolina 
 ceased to represent on the face of the bank bills their full 
 gold value. 
 
 Dr. McGuffey, for many years a distinguished Professor of 
 Political Economy at the University of Virginia, in a lec 
 ture to his class on the subject of banking, declared this ar 
 gument of Mr. Memminger to be the soundest and most 
 exhaustive treatise on banking he had ever met with. 
 
 I trust that no apology is due the reader for having led 
 him into alcoves that may, to some extent, be barren of that 
 more enticing literature 
 
 " Where sports the warbling muse and fancy soars sublime." 
 
158 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Biography would be but poorly written if it did not pre 
 sent truthfully and without the gloss of rhetorical exagge 
 ration or excuse the character and the thoughts and the acts 
 of the individual. 
 
 Following the case of The State versus The Bank of South 
 Carolina came that of The State versus The Bank of Charles 
 ton. This case was in some respects similar to that of the 
 Bank of South Carolina so much so that I deem it unneces 
 sary to refer to the pleadings or to the arguments of coun 
 sel. Before dismissing the subject of the bank cases, and as 
 an evidence of the sincere and patriotic motives that influ 
 enced Mr. Memmiiiger to attack with such earnestness the 
 State Bank, allow me to call the reader s attention to the 
 proceedings of subsequent legislatures with regard to this 
 matter. 
 
 The charter of the Bank of South Carolina was about to 
 expire by limitation, and in anticipation of this Mr. Mem- 
 minger introduced in the House of Representatives during 
 the session of 1848 the following resolutions: 
 
 1st. Eesolved, That it is unwise and inexpedient for a State to engage 
 in banking or to subject its resources to the casualties of banking opera 
 tions. 
 
 2d. That the Bank of the State is founded on this erroneous policy and 
 exposes the public treasury and the public faith to the hazards incident 
 to banks. 
 
 3d. That it is inexpedient to re-charter the Bank of the State, and that 
 measures ought now to be taken to wind up its concerns during the 
 period of its present charter. 
 
 4th. That a special committee of each House be appointed to devise 
 and report at the next session the proper measures for carrying into ef 
 fect the last resolution. 
 
 These resolutions were adopted after a protracted debate, 
 in which Mr. Memminger presented his objections to the 
 State entering upon a banking business in speeches of 
 great power. He was made chairman of the joint committee 
 raised by the resolutions, and as such reported to the House 
 
THE LAWYER. 159 
 
 in the session of 1849 a bill to provide for winding up the 
 affairs of the bank. This bill was under discussion for a 
 length of time during this session, and called out the full 
 force of the friends of the bank, who were ably represented 
 in the discussion, and, as I am informed, by strong and influ 
 ential agents, who remained at the capitol until the decisive 
 vote w^as taken. This vote was taken on a motion of Mr. 
 Irby to indefinitely postpone the bill, reports, resolutions 
 and amendments. Those voting to indefinitely postpone 
 the whole subject numbered sixty-two, and those voting in 
 the negative, sixty. 
 
 The spirit displayed in the debate, and the methods 
 resorted to by the friends of the bank, greatly incensed Mr. 
 Memminger. On his return to his constituency he pub 
 lished a series of articles in the Charleston Courier, over his 
 signature, in which he presented his objections to the re- 
 charter of the bank. I do not deem it necessary to publish 
 all of these articles, as the last, which is a recapitulation, 
 will be sufficient to present the matter clearly to the reader. 
 In the opening sentences of his first article he uses the fol 
 lowing language: 
 
 At the last session of the Legislature the debate on the Bank of the 
 State was suppressed by the friends of the bank before they allowed me 
 the opportunity to reply to them. As the chairman of the committee 
 which reported the bill under consideration, and, moreover, as chairman 
 of the Committee of Ways and Means, I was entitled to be heard in 
 reply. This right was still more manifest because I had been personally 
 assailed by two champions of the bank, and the South Carolina Legis 
 lature had never before refused, to the humblest representative, an 
 opportunity to defend himself. This result was brought about by a bare 
 majority of two votes, and when you are informed that the two cham 
 pions who had assailed me personally voted in the majority, and that 
 one of them actually harangued the House in favor of cutting off the 
 debate, and with it my reply, you will agree with me that pursuit of 
 such adversaries would be superfluous. I have no disposition to tear 
 them from the horns of the altar; but the privilege of the sanctuary 
 is altogether personal, and, while I redeem the pledge which I made at 
 the opening of the debate, to decline all personal controversy, I cannot 
 
160 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 permit the friends of the bank to shut me out from laying before you, 
 fellow-citizens, the information and arguments which I had collected in 
 Jeply. 
 
 Before presenting to the reader the concluding article 
 of Mr. Memminger, which is a review of the whole contro 
 versy between himself and Mr. F. H. Elmore, the president 
 of the bank, I deem it proper to call the reader s attention 
 to the answer of Mr. Meinminger to the charge made against 
 him as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means in 
 the House, and against Mr. Jefferson Bennett, a prominent 
 senator, of conspiring together to secure the appointment of 
 a joint committee of which each were to be made chairman, 
 with hostile designs against the bank. The following reply 
 by Mr. Memminger, is taken from the Charleston Mercury of 
 March 8, 1850. 
 
 To the People of South Carolina: 
 
 I had supposed that I was near the land in the sea of charges on 
 which I have been launched by the president of the bank. I had 
 reached the year 1846, and expected to dispose of that period in the 
 present number. But the last number of the president of the bank car 
 ries us back to the year 1833, and renews one of his charges of that year 
 in a new form. The charge, as originally made, was, that Mr. Bennett 
 and myself, between whom the most confidential relations subsisted, 
 and who were occupying the most responsible positions on the floor of 
 each House, had taken advantage of that position, and by concerted ac* 
 tion had contrived the appointment of a joint committee, of which each 
 was to be chairman, with a hostile design against the Bank of the 
 State. 
 
 The whole force of the charge lay in the allegation of concert and 
 conspiracy. This I proved to be utterly without foundation, by ex 
 hibiting the original proceedings as certified by the clerks of the Senate 
 and House, which showed that these proceedings originated with others, 
 and that neither of us had anything to do with them. 
 
 Having thus refuted the charge made, I should have rested there," 
 But I went on to affirm that I had never made a motion for the appoint 
 ment of such a committee, and that I was incapable of so gross an indeli 
 cacy. The president of the bank having procured information that 
 this assertion was " inaccurate," abandons his original charge of com- 
 
THE LAWYER. 161 
 
 bination and presents a new one, charging me with having separately 
 offered such a resolution, as that which I have censured as a gross in 
 delicacy. In order to give him the full benefit of what can be made of 
 the charge, I quote his own language. Speaking of me, he says : " The 
 journals show that he offered the resolution, and the resolution, in his 
 own hand-writing, is conclusive of the fact. Even in the extremity (he 
 continues) of an utterly desperate case like this, he cannot fly to the 
 miserable and quibbling subterfuge that his appointment was under the 
 Senate resolution, for by offering his two days before, parliamentary 
 usage would cause his appointment as chairman. His only escape was 
 in denying the fact. That he offered such a resolution, and that fact 
 he did deny, but the records settle it conclusively against him. Where 
 will he fly to now ? " 
 
 Answer. Truth and integrity never fly. They stand fast together 
 and sustain each other. When I asserted that 1 had never made the 
 motion, I did so upon the highest proof which could be procured. I did 
 not venture to rely upon memory, but applied to the officers who had 
 the keeping of the journals of both Houses for all the information which 
 they could furnish. Their certificates I have published. I also wrote 
 to the then Speaker of the House (now Judge Wardlaw), and have 
 since received his reply, in which he says : k< You had no agency in pro 
 curing the appointment which, as Speaker, I made of you, to be chair 
 man of the Committee of Ways and Means, beyond such agency as is in 
 volved in the opinion which, from previous acquaintance with you, I had 
 formed of your fitness for the place, etc. Nor had you any more direct 
 agency in your being appointed upon the committee to investigate the 
 bank." I had not intended to publish Judge Wardlaw s letter, but this 
 new matter makes it proper to do so. I therefore subjoin a copy of it. 
 
 The concurrence of all these witnesses proves the sincerity with 
 which I affirmed that I made no such motion. 
 
 But it seems, however, that we are all mistaken, and that such a mo 
 tion was made by me. I have not the least recollection of it, but if it 
 be so, I do not hesitate to pass the same censure upon it which I pro 
 nounced before I knew I had any connection with it. I consider it an 
 indelicacy which I should certainly not commit now; and I am glad 
 that the lapse of twelve years since it occurred has so far improved my 
 perception as to enable me to condemn and avoid the error into which I 
 fell in 1838. 
 
 2. We are next carried back, by the president of the bank, to the his 
 tory of my bill to reduce the public debt in 1841. As I understood his 
 original charge, it was that he Jiad been excluded a hearing before the 
 committee, lest perchance he might expose the insidious design of the 
 bill. Now we are told that he was absent from Columbia when the bill 
 was before the committee, but that as soon as he returned, upon express- 
 
162 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 ing his complaint that he had received no notice of it, he says: " On the 
 next day Mr. Memminger assembled his committee, and I was called 
 before it, when I was informed that I was at liberty to state my views 
 on the bill." After some objection made on his part, he goes on to say : 
 "The chairman said the committee desired, as I was present, to hear 
 my views, that they might affect the course of its members in the 
 House, or they could get the bill re-committed, if my views convinced 
 them the bill ought not to pass. I then gave my views, and exposed 
 the ruinous operation of the measures it proposed." 
 
 The president of the bank would have saved us much trouble if he had 
 made this statement at the first, instead of charging, as he did, " that 
 this measure taken up in the Committee of Ways and Means, decided on 
 and reported to the House without calling the president of the bank 
 before the committee, or giving him an opportunity of explaining its 
 effects on the bank. And that this was omitted, although it had been 
 made, ever since 1823, the duty of the president of the bank to attend 
 the session of the Legislature, for the purpose of giving information 
 regarding the bank." 
 
 Although upon a critical analysis of the language, it may be made 
 out that the original charge merely affirms that he was not heard by 
 the committee before they reported, while the new statement admits 
 that he was heard after they reported; yet to every reader the idea 
 was conveyed that he had not been heard at all ; no one could imagine 
 that the time only was in issue and not the thing. This difference 
 exhibits most strikingly another of those concealed back doors, with 
 which the bank abounds. But even the difference, thin as it is, has 
 been removed by the other admission of the president of the bank, viz. : 
 that the chairman said that the committee would have " the bill recom 
 mitted if the views of the president of the bank convinced them that the 
 bill ought not to pass." 
 
 What the effect of his views was can only be inferred from the fact, 
 that no one proposed to recommit the bill, although some of the ablest 
 friends of the bank, and two of its then leaders in the House were on 
 the committee. 1 
 
 3. At this point, however, I am met by a renewal of the allegation 
 that the bill was dropped on account of the exposure which it thus un 
 derwent, and that as it was not discussed before the House proves that 
 the original design was a surprise upon the House. 
 
 Answer : I have no doubt that the public are somewhat surprised with 
 the prominence which the president of the bank has given to a bill of 
 
 1 Much complaint was made of the facility of this committee. The best answers to it 
 is in the character of its members. The following is a list of their names : C. G. Memminger, 
 F. W. Davie, A. IT. Bclin, S. M. Earle, L.J.Patterson, Albert Rhctt, E.G. Palmer, Joel 
 Smith, A. T. Darby, and Henry Gourdin. 
 
THE LAWYER 163 
 
 which few of the people have ever heard. But he is right. The various 
 facts and statements made by him, and a reference to the journals, 
 have refreshed my memory, and enables me to speak of details, which 
 are now brought to my recollection. This bill, although never passed 
 or even discussed before the House, produced most important results, 
 and saved the State from being absolutely infolded in the coils of this 
 bank, as I shall proceed to show. 
 
 By referring to the journals of 1841 it will be seen that a member 
 from Richland, a friend of the bank, introduced a bill to remove the 
 Bank of the State from Charleston to Columbia, and to establish a 
 branch at Charleston ; that petitions had come up to establish branches 
 at Aiken and Hamburg. A leading member of the House, a friend of 
 the bank, offered, at the same session, the following resolution: 
 
 Whereas, the Bank of the State of South Carolina was established for 
 the benefit of the whole State, and the city of Charleston has had its 
 full share of the benefits of the fire loan, and a surplus of the same re 
 mains on hand; and whereas, from the petitions of the towns of Aiken 
 and Hamburg, it is evident that a portion of the funds of the bank 
 might be usefully employed in establishing agencies in those places; bo 
 it, therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That the balance of the fire-loan bonds remaining unsold 
 in the Bank of the State, be considered, according to the third section 
 of the fire-loan act, a portion of the capital of the Bank of the State of 
 South Carolina, and that the president and directors of the said bank 
 be authorized, whensoever they may deem it expedient, to establish agen 
 cies at Aiken and Hamburg, or to increase the capital of its branches at 
 Columbia and Camden. 
 
 It must also be borne in mind that at this time the State was in the 
 midst of her contest with the private banks in relation to the suspen 
 sion of specie payments, and the scire facias to vacate their charters was 
 then pending before the courts. Tlie excitement against the private 
 banks was at its height, and the Bank of the State had now the oppor 
 tunity, which many of its friends desired, of making itself a great cen 
 tral money power, with branches extended over the State, and these 
 various propositions were merely various developments of this scheme. 
 My position at the head of the Committee of "Ways and Means was a most 
 diuicult one. I had felt it my duty to condemn the suspension of specie 
 payments, and to advise the Legislature to issue legal proceedings 
 against those banks who would not come to terms. On the other hand, 
 I disapproved still more the measures proposed for extending the power 
 of the Bank of the State, and it was obvious that unless prompt and 
 decided measures were taken, the excitement of the hour would fasten 
 upon us a policy from which we could never be disentangled. Public 
 debt was to be its ailment. I, therefore, determined to strike at the root 
 
164 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMM3NGER. 
 
 of the evil, by taking away the borrowed money with which the bank 
 project could alone be effected. The fire-loan bonds, then in the hands 
 of the bank, were the primary object, and I appealed to the just public 
 sentiment which had grown up, by proposing to reduce the public debt. 
 
 The result showed that I judged aright. The public opinion re 
 sponded to my bill it check-mated all the propositions to increase the 
 power of the bank. But it came in too late in the session to stand any 
 chance of being passed, except it were pressed with the greatest energy. 
 It was, therefore, reported as speedily as possible by the committee, and 
 by a vote of the House, made the special order for Friday, the ICth of 
 December. Friday was occupied in voting upon amendments of the 
 Constitution, which much engaged attention then, and it could not be 
 reached. It fell back into the general orders, and as the Legislature 
 had only a week more to sit, it was impossible to pass it in the form of a 
 bill. I, therefore, put its leading proposition, namely, the rescue of the 
 fire-loan bonds, in the simpler and more speedy form of a resolution. 
 This underwent an angry and boisterous discussion ; but even in this 
 simple form, I could not get a vote until the day before the adjourn 
 ment, and that vote was not direct, but a side-wind to lay the resolu 
 tion on the table. 
 
 One great point, however, was gained the country was awakened. 
 The discussion had set the matter before the people. Public opinion 
 was enlightened ; the bank itself, in two years more, was made to give 
 up what was left of the pay, and the State was rescued from the toils of 
 a great moneyed combination. Eescued? No, not yet. The managers 
 are again collecting all their strength for another struggle, and it ro- 
 mains for the people at the next election to say whether the State shall 
 yet again be free. Certain it is that at present no one can say a word 
 against this bank, even though it be said at the command of the Legis 
 lature and in the discharge of public duty, but it is on peril of such per 
 secution as most men would seek to avoid. 
 
 4. I have now reached the point at which I had intended to commence 
 this number, but having occupied space enough for one morning in dis 
 posing of this episode, I will defer what I had to say for another number. 
 Eespectfully, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 JUDGE WAEDLAW S LETTER. 
 
 ABBEVILLE, 25th February, 1850. 
 
 My Dear Sir, I am very loth to connect my name with a public con 
 troversy; but as you think that my testimony is important for your 
 defense against unjust imputations, I will give it to you; and, in doing 
 so, will depart from the course of silence concerning my own conduct, 
 which I had resolved upon. 
 
THE LAWYER. 165 
 
 My remembrance of the events of 1838 is not exact, and I have not 
 now access to papers that might refresh it. In answer to your questions I 
 can, however, speak as follows: 
 
 1. You had no agency in procuring the appointment which, as Speaker, 
 I made of you to be chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, 
 beyond such agency as is involved in the opinion from previous acquaint 
 ances with you I had formed of your fitness for the place. The partic 
 ular reasons why, in considering what was best for the public interest, 
 with due regard to the rights of individuals, I determined to put you at 
 the head of this committee, and another gentleman, now deceased, at 
 the head of the Military Committee, it is impossible for me to recollect. 
 I am sure that no feeling of unfriendliness towards that gentleman, or 
 towards the Bank of the State, or any of its officers, had any influence 
 in the matter. 
 
 2 and 3. Nor had you any more direct agency in your being appointed 
 upon the committee to investigate the bank. I have no distinct remem 
 brance that after your appointment on this committee you brought to 
 my notice the circumstance that you were a director in another bank, 
 and that my reply was : " That circumstance is rather in favor of than 
 against the appointment." Yet this matter does not strike me as new, 
 and I recall something either of the original occurrence or of subse 
 quent conversations about it. I am satisfied that I knew you were a 
 director of the Planters and Mechanics Bank; and I think it not at all 
 unlikely that I made the reply which has been mentioned, for it is con 
 sistent with the opinions I entertained. I believed that the bank was, 
 in the main, well managed, and that its interest would be promoted by 
 searching investigation. I felt that any mismanagement ought to be 
 detected and exposed. I believed, too, that the considerations which 
 demanded publicitj 7 to be given to the pecuniary transactions of the 
 State were superior to, if in conflict with those which were said to re 
 quire secrecy with regard to the business of banking, in which the State 
 was engaged, and that the best committee-man for investigation was 
 one who was predisposed to blame rather than commend; but intelli 
 gent, temperate, and fair enough to perceive and acknowledge the truth. 
 Your prominence in the House, thorough acquaintance with the finan 
 cial affairs of the State, proximity to the principal bank, business habits, 
 clear-headedness, and candor, induced my selection of you. The expe 
 rience in banking accounts and transactions, which, as director of an 
 other bank, you might be supposed to have acquired, I thought increased 
 your qualifications. To any suggestions of unfair practices which ad 
 verse interest might lead to, my opinion of your integrity would, in your 
 case, have given no heed; but in the case of any known enemy of the 
 bank, according to my opinion, there was but little ground for appre 
 hending harm to come to the bank in the proper course of its operations 
 from his investigations. And the objections on this score seemed to me 
 
166 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEH. 
 
 no greater against a director than against a stockholder of another bank, 
 or even any person connected with another institution in any of the va 
 rious ways that might induce a preference of its interests to those of this 
 bank ; and no greater against a director of another bank examining this, 
 than against a director of this being transferred to another bank. 
 
 4. Concerning the bill to authorize a subscription in behalf of the 
 State to the Southwestern Railroad Bank, I remember no conversation 
 between you and myself, but I recollect the following particulars: 
 
 A great effort was necessary, and was made to induce a majority of 
 the House to confirm the subscription which Governor Butler had made. 
 After the assent of the House to the main proposition had been obtained, 
 an attempt was made to add to the clause, which required the bank to 
 pay the instalments of the* subscription, a proviso that if the president 
 and directors of the bank should be of opinion that they could not pay 
 without embarrassment to the operations of the bank, or, without in 
 volving the faith of the State pledged for redemption of State stocks by 
 the act of 1821, and subsequent acts, then the Comptroller-General 
 should issue stocks to pay the instalments of the subscription. The pro 
 viso was rejected in the House, and the bill passed a second reading, I 
 voting for it on the call of the ayes and noes. The bill was returned 
 from the Senate with the proviso in it; and thus altered, it passed a 
 third reading in the House. As the ayes and noes were not then called, 
 and no opportunity had been afforded to me of making known the 
 change which the insertion of the proviso had produced in my disposi 
 tion towards the bill, after I had announced that the bill was again or 
 dered to the Senate, I said, by leave of the House, that I felt it due to 
 myself, to prevent misconstructions of my opinion, by declaring that, 
 if the ayes and noes had been called on the bill as amended, I would 
 have voted against it. 
 
 I had then a decided opinion that it was better for the State to make 
 no subscription even to let the establishment of the Southwestern Rail 
 road Bank fail than to borrow money for banking. To the substance 
 of the alternative measure, authorized by the proviso, I was then 
 strongly opposed, and the form, too, seemed to me objectionable. 
 Besides that, a result was attained which had not been contemplated by 
 the especial friends of the bill; the proviso, I thought, exhibited a 
 studied array of pledges that might embarrass the State in future deal 
 ings with its funds; and, moreover, erected the president and directors 
 of the bank into a tribunal to decide what the faith of the State required. 
 It was said in debate that the proviso was only a measure of extreme 
 caution, intended to guard against unforeseen contingencies, but I 
 thought that I had seen, in the course of the transaction, evidences that 
 it would be made available if it passed. 
 
 With great respect, yours truly, 
 
 D. L. "\VAHDLAW. 
 C. G. Afemminger, Esq. 
 
THE LA WYER. 167 
 
 [For The Mercury.] 
 
 Messrs. Editors, In your paper of yesterday Colonel Elmore alludes 
 to a certificate which I had furnished Mr. Memminger, respecting the 
 appointment of the committees of examination for the Bank of the State 
 of South Carolina and its branches in 1838, and my remarks which accom 
 panied the certificate. 
 
 It is proper to state that Mr. Memminger applied to me to know how 
 the committees were appointed at the annual session of 1838 and if he 
 had had any agency in the appointment. "When he wrote I had only the 
 rough journal of that year before me, without an index, and finding that 
 the appointment was made on a concurrence by the House with a mes 
 sage from the Senate, it did not occur to me to look further, nor had I 
 any recollection that a resolution was also introduced for that purpose. 
 I did not speak from memorj 7 , but from that portion of the proceedings 
 then before me, and in that I was correct. It is no cloubc true, as Col. 
 Elmore states, that Mr. Memminger before submitted a resolution on 
 the subject, but the action of the House on the message from the Senate 
 superseded the necessity of considering Mr. Memminger s resolution, 
 and the appointment of the committees was certainly not made on that 
 resolution, nor, as far as I know, by the agency of Mr. Memminger. How 
 far the fact that he had submitted such a resolution influenced the 
 Speaker in the appointment of the committees I have no means of know 
 ing. Very respectfully, 
 
 March 6th, 1850. T. "W. GLOVER. 
 
 The following is the summing up of the whole matter, 
 and presents clearly the reasons why he opposed with such 
 earnestness the re-chartering of the bank. 
 
 To the People of St. Philip s and St. Michael s Parishes: 
 
 FELLOW-CITIZENS, I propose now to sum up the various matters 
 which I have submitted to your consideration. 
 
 I have endeavored to satisfy your judgments that the Bank of the 
 State ought not to be re-chartered, for the following reasons: 
 
 1. Because it is an institution not consistent with the character of 
 popular governments inasmuch as it is so complex in its machinery 
 and relations that few can spare the time and attention necessary to 
 understand them. 
 
 2. Because it is unconstitutional, and can only be judiciously sus 
 tained by the same evasion of the Constitution of the United States by 
 which a protective tariff is sustained. 
 
 3. Because its charter violates the spirit of our State Constitution, 
 in the following particulars: 
 
16R LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 I. In that it confers on a body of thirteen men, sitting in secret, and 
 bound to each other by an oath of secrecy, the power to appropriate, at 
 pleasure, the public money ; when, by the Constitution of the State, no 
 such appropriation can be made but by an act of the Legislature, which 
 must first be read three times in the Senate and three times in the 
 House of Representatives, on three successive days, before it can 
 become a law; and, as a further security, the Constitution requires each 
 House to keep a journal of its proceedings and to record the yeas and 
 nays for public information ; while the proceedings of the bank are per 
 formed secretly and studiously concealed from the public eye. 
 
 II. The State Constitution gives to the Legislature alone the power 
 to tax the people, and guards this power with so much jealousy as not 
 even to permit the Senate to originate a tax bill, whereas the bank 
 directors have power at any moment, by a mere order issued in secret, 
 to tax the people to the extent of millions by contracting debts or issu 
 ing notes, which the people are bound to pay. 
 
 III. Because the State Constitution require the treasurers of the 
 people s treasury to go out of office every four years so that their 
 accounts may be passed upon by successors, whereas the bank officers, 
 who hold ten times as much of the public money, and have in their 
 hands all the treasury of the State, continue in office for a life-time. 
 
 IV. Because the State Constitution confines the legislative authority 
 of South Carolina to the General Assembly alone, whereas the board 
 of bank directors, sitting in secret, have undertaken to exercise many 
 of the most responsible functions of the Legislature ; such as subscrib 
 ing to and patronizing railroad companies, banks, and manufacturing 
 corporations, without any public discussion and without its even being 
 known to the public by whom, or for what reasons these acts of the 
 bank legislature have been passed. 
 
 4. Because this State has, with an almost unanimous voice, repeatedly 
 condemned the connection of bank and State as unwise and inexpedi 
 ent, and as involving the public revenues in all the casualties of bank 
 ing; and because the extension of this system to the borrowing of 
 money upon the public faith, to lend out to individuals by bank accom 
 modation as has been done for this bank is fraught with still more 
 disastrous consequences to the public. 
 
 5. Because the tendency of such a bank is to mislead and swerve 
 from their duty, not only its own officers, but the public authorities 
 themselves, by the influence it exerts over them; and if the president 
 of the bank be a politician, it gives a master to the State. 
 
 6. Because the experience of the Bank of the United States, of the 
 Alabama and other State banks has proved all banking institutions 
 which are connected with governments to be uniformly injurious to the 
 public interests. 
 
THE LA WYER. 169 
 
 7. Because the history of our own bank is fraught with similar les 
 sons. It has, on every occasion in which its interests or wishes are con 
 cerned, from the fire loan down to the present time, swerved the State 
 from her true policy, plunged her into debt, and involved her in compli 
 cated and embarrassing transactions, with which she would otherwise 
 have had no connection. 
 
 8. Because the power exercised by the bank directors to issue bills 
 and other obligations, which the people are pledged to redeem, and the 
 distribution of the money thus raised among the bank directors and 
 their friends, is a partial system of favoritism in which each citizen of the 
 State is virtually converted into an indorser of the notes of a favored 
 few, whether the citizen will or no. 
 
 These reasons having clearly established that the bank ought not to 
 be re-chartered, I then proceeded to examine the objections urged by 
 the friends of the bank against any interference with it. 
 
 I. First objection : The chief of these was, that the pledge of the 
 funds of the State and of the profits of the bank to the foreign creditor 
 under the fire-loan act, stood in our way. 
 
 To this, it was answered, that we did not propose to remove any of 
 the funds of the State from the obligation imposed upon them. They 
 were to be preserved for the foreign creditor until his debt should be 
 paid. Whether the funds were in the hands of a bank, or any other 
 agent, they were equally the funds of the State and equally secured to 
 the foreign creditor his debt. 
 
 II. It was answered, that a pledge of the funds of the State did not 
 prevent a change of investment any more than when trust funds are in 
 vested for a private trust; otherwise, all the substitutions of railroad 
 stocks in the upper country, which the State had lately made for its 
 South Carolina railroad bonds and stock, were unlawful. 
 
 III. It was answered, that as to the bank itself the creditor when he 
 loaned his money, had before him the bank charter, which on its face 
 declared that the charter would expire in 1856; and he had, therefore, 
 no right to count on its existence beyond that time. 
 
 IV. It was answered, that so far as the profits were concerned, the 
 creditor would be benefited by discontinuing the bank, inasmuch as the 
 returns of the bank itself showed that during the last ten years the 
 average profit on the capital was less than six per cent, per annum; 
 whereas the money loaned out without any banking risk would bring 
 seven per cent. 
 
 Second objection : That this was a bank for the accommodation of 
 planters ; and to destroy it would be injurious to the agricultural com 
 munity. This objection was answered by showing that the officers and 
 directors of the bank itself had among them $1,091,118 which left of the 
 actual capital of the bank only $31,344 for all the rest of the State. 
 
170 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 That so far as the borrowed capital was concerned, $727,000 of it was 
 loaned in Charleston under the fire loan ; and that of the other money 
 in the bank, thirty individuals had out upwards of $700,000; that in 
 Charleston, Columbia and Camden alone, near two millions were loaned ; 
 so that the planters in the State at large would find no greater relative 
 surplus for their accommodation from the borrowed than from the real 
 capital. That in fact the bank was administered for the benefit of the 
 directors and a few favorites, and not for the planters. 
 
 The argument having been advanced to this point, and the objections 
 answered, it followed, as a matter of course, that the bank s charter 
 ought not to be renewed ; and this brought up the inquiry, "When should 
 we commence measures of preparation ? 
 
 I maintained that it was necessary to begin now 
 
 1. Because in a small community like ours, it would necessarily take 
 many years to call in so large an amount of money as is employed by 
 this bank; and, if we did not begin before the end of the charter, a re 
 newal of it would be forced upon us by necessity. 
 
 2. Because the sooner we begin the more time could we take for dis 
 tributing the payments to be made by the debtors. 
 
 3. Because the country is now in so excellent a financial condition 
 that no danger was to be apprehended from commencing the change now. 
 
 4. Because the analogies of private business established the wisdom 
 and prudence of changing the mode of conducting any large concern 
 when a period was fixed upon for its termination. 
 
 Objection : At this point it was objected that our relation* with the 
 general government rendered it unwise to interfere with the bank, or to 
 divide the State into parties. 
 
 Reply: To this we replied that, extended as this bank always has 
 been with its assets beyond its control in times of panic or difficulty, 
 it never could assist the State. It w r ould be a source of weakness, in 
 stead of strength, and would be more likely to need help from the State 
 to sustain itself rather than to afford any to the State ; and, so far as 
 any measures of protection for such a crisis were to be taken, the best 
 that could be advised were to call in the assets of the bank, and place them 
 in an available form, instead of leaving them at large, as they now are. 
 
 It was further replied, that whatever division existed in the State was 
 the act of the bank and its friends. They had attempted to get a re- 
 charter eight years in advance, and when the State authorities had 
 decided against their charter, instead of conforming themselves to that 
 decision, they had set every engine at work, at home and abroad, to coun 
 teract the decision of these authorities ; and that the whole division, 
 therefore, was of their own instigation. 
 
 Having thus established that a change was proper, and that now is 
 the time for commencing it, it remained to inquire, What should this 
 change be? 
 
THE LA WYEH. 171 
 
 The plan which we proposed embraced four leading features, set 
 forth in a bill, and the fifth embraced in a resolution ; all of which were 
 before the Legislature at the last session. 
 
 1. The board of directors was reduced to a president and four direc 
 tors, with a salary of $1,000 to each director, and no privilege to borrow; 
 agencies were substituted for the branches, and officers and expenses 
 reduced. 
 
 2. The chartered powers and privileges of the bank were continued, 
 in all respects, except that no new loans of money were to be made. 
 
 3. The business paper and bills of exchange, and the convertible 
 property of the bank were to be applied to meet its engagements, and 
 on all other paper an extension of time, not exceeding ten years, is 
 given to all debtors who would give unexceptionable security to pay 
 an annual interest of seven percent, on the whole debt, and at least one- 
 tenth of the principal. 
 
 4. All surplus collections were to be applied to pay the foreign debt 
 of the State. 
 
 5. To these was added a proposition to employ an agent to treat with 
 the foreign creditor and see upon what terms his debt could be transfer 
 red home. 
 
 These various details were shown to be reasonable and proper, and, 
 in the expectation that the bank would obey the solemn determination 
 of the Legislature, they were supposed to be such as would be accepta 
 ble to the bank itself. 
 
 But, instead of that, the plan was met with open war, and instead of 
 the assault being made upon its reasonableness or expediency, the cam 
 paign was transferred back to the old ground, and the friends of the 
 bank recurred to the question of re-charter and renewed the argument 
 on that score. 
 
 I did not think it necessary again to refute their arguments, but 
 merely to take up the new matter which was brought forward since the 
 decision against the re-charter in 1848. 
 
 This new matter classed itself under two heads 
 
 1. The facts reported by the investigating committees appointed in 
 1848, and 
 
 2. An appeal made to the Governor by Messrs. Baring, Brothers & 
 Co., claiming a renewal of the charter as a matter of right. 
 
 1. As to the investigating committees, I showed that, so far from their 
 helping the bank, they had proved all the substantial charges made 
 against it. 
 
 I. They stated that the money of the bank was most unequally dis 
 tributed, and that four districts in the State had out two millions of dol 
 lars ; that the funds had been monopolized by a few individuals, and 
 chiefly by the officers and directors. 
 
172 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 II. That not a single bond had been taken by the bank according to 
 the spirit of the charter. 
 
 III. That many of the debts have continued for years, without reduc 
 tion, in the hands of the same individuals. 
 
 IV. That the accommodation is partial in its character some being 
 required to pay and other notes lying over for years. 
 
 V. That a large debt due by the Nesbitt Manufacturing Company 
 has stood for many years without one cent of principal or interest paid, 
 and that not even an account of the establishment was required of those 
 in whose hands it was entrusted after the bank had gratuitously pur 
 chased it. 
 
 VI. That the sum of $485,084 had been lost by bad debts to the bank, 
 which, it otherwise appeared, was chiefly occasioned by the directors 
 themselves. 
 
 2. As to the suspended debt, which it was said the committees had 
 reported favorably upon, it was answered that we never denied that 
 much of it would probably be collected ; but we affirmed that experience 
 had proved that in such concerns an equal amount would be found 
 amongst the debts now current to go to the suspended debt, and that 
 the whole estimate of loss on this score made by us was not more than 
 six per cent, on the whole assets of the bank a sum which we conceived 
 would certainly be consumed in expenses and losses. 
 
 3. The next particular in which it was contended the committee had 
 exhibited new light was as to the stocks held by the bank. We admit 
 ted that they showed that at the present prices the losses which we 
 expected on one set of stocks would be made up by gains on others, but 
 we contended that this afforded one of the strongest reasons why the 
 bank should realize on them at once. 
 
 4. It was urged by the friends of the bank that the investigating com 
 mittees had proved us to be in error in 18X8 in charging the bank with 
 resorting to shifts to raise money by issuing bills payable. 
 
 In reply, we showed that the transaction reported upon by the inves 
 tigating committee was a bona fide sale by the bank of northern ex 
 change ; whereas, those to which we excepted were cases where the 
 bank, to raise specie or stave oil demands which they were not prepared 
 to meet, drew bills upon a bank where it had no funds, paying double 
 the usual rates of interest ; and that, when these bills became due, they 
 renewed them by again drawing where they had no money, and again 
 submitting to a usurious rate of interest; and that the excuse which 
 was offered by them for the transaction was an admission of their weak 
 ness in any time of trial all which, we insisted, proved the weakness 
 either of the bank or of its debtors, and established the charge made. 
 
 The only remaining new matter urged was the appeal to the Gov 
 ernor made by Baring Brothers & Co., claiming a right to have the bank 
 re-chartered. 
 
THE LA WYES. 173 
 
 The appeal was proved to bo a contrivance of the bank, whereby 
 they had induced their foreign brokers to father their own suggestions 
 for the purpose of saving their charter. It was made to appear that the 
 Barings never had the least idea of taking the ground now taken until 
 after the bank had urged it upon them, sent them the materials, and 
 even put the very argument in their mouths; that all this took place 
 after the Legislature had expressly directed the bank to make arrange 
 ments for an earlier adjustment of these bonds, and after it was sol 
 emnly decided by the constituted authorities of the State that a con 
 tinuance of the bank was injurious to the public welfare. 
 
 As to the matter of the appeal, it was shown that there was no foun 
 dation for any imputation on the faith of the State. 
 
 1. Because it was a mere afterthought to say that the bank had 
 helped the credit of the State in procuring this loan, inasmuch as the 
 bank had suspended specie payments at the time it was contracted, and 
 had stood dishonored for upwards of a year before on the London Ex 
 change; that the loan itself was contrived to help the bank, and, but 
 for the money over which it gave the bank command, could not have 
 resumed specie payments. 
 
 2. Because the guaranty endorsed on these bonds by the bank was a 
 perfectly gratuitous act, not required or authorized by the law, and 
 must have been done for some such purpose as that for which it is now 
 used. 
 
 3. Because, since the loan, the State has increased the funds pledged 
 as a security to nearly five times the amount originally pledged, and 
 that, besides this, the amount borrowed is itself secured, most of it, on 
 mortgages guaranteed by the city of Charleston. 
 
 4. Because the plan submitted proposes to the foreign creditor either 
 to pay off his debt or to do the very thing lie himself proposes substi 
 tute an ample equivalent security to that which he has. 
 
 5. Because the price which our State stocks maintain, without any 
 guaranty of the bank, show that the holders of those guaranteed by the 
 bank could as easily realize every dollar due on them without the 
 guaranty of the bank as with it, and would suffer no kind of injury 
 from its withdrawal. 
 
 6. Because the charter of the bank was before the creditors, and they 
 knew, as well as we do, when it would expire, if they considered it of 
 any value ; and that the whole of this clamor about good faith is a mere 
 after-thought, suggested and repeated by the bank itself. 
 
 I have thus, fellow-citizens, laid before you the whole subject. You 
 will perceive that although it covers so much ground, it all bears upon 
 a single issue, to-wit: the separation of bank and State; the same issue 
 which was fought with the United States Bank, the pet banks, and the 
 government banks in other States in this Union. The issue is now be 
 fore the people; and you are to determine whether, in South Carolina, 
 
174 LIJTE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMX1SGER. 
 
 you will still maintain that the public faith and the public funds shall 
 be separated from the casualties of banking. As your representative, I 
 have been contending for this principle for years, and you have con 
 tinued to honor me with your approbation. The experience of fourteen 
 years of service in the Legislature has convinced me most thoroughly 
 that the Bank of the State is an institution dangerous and injurious to 
 the public interests. A very large majority of the last Legislature has 
 expressed the same opinion, and but for the powerful influence which 
 this bank exerts, would have embodied that opinion in the form of law 
 
 Our agency, fellow-citizens, as your representatives, is now to be 
 accounted for, and you are to determine whether we have been faithful 
 servants. In passing judgment, permit me to warn you that false 
 issues will be offered to mislead you. Some of us will be accused of 
 seeking personal ends, or of having our own interests to subserve. So 
 far as I am concerned, I am content, fellow-citizens, to leave my charac 
 ter in your hands. I have no fears on that score. Others will accuse us 
 of hostility to all banks. Believe them not, fellow-citizens. The simple 
 issue which we make is with a government bank. We say that it is 
 unwise and inexpedient to subject the public moneys and the public 
 faith to the casualties of banking. As for private moneys and individ 
 ual capital, that may as legitimately be employed in banking as in 
 commerce and manufactures, and it would be as absurd to refuse to 
 charter banks as to refuse to charter manufacturing or insurance com 
 panies. All these companies should of course be regulated by law, and 
 with banks in particular measures should be taken to restrain their cir 
 culation within proper bounds. But as regards the State itself, I can 
 see no reason why she should not as well undertake to buy and sell cot 
 ton, as to buy and sell bills of exchange, or engage in other banking 
 operations. 
 
 In conclusion, fellow-citizens, permit me to add that I have deliv 
 ered my counsel with an honest conviction of its being to the interest 
 of the community to which we all belong. To that community, under 
 Providence, I owe every blessing I enjoy, and in its service I am willing 
 to spend every energy I possess. So long, therefore, as you see fit to 
 entrust me with your public interests, I shall most cordially strive to 
 promote them to my utmost ability. And if at any time I should be so 
 unfortunate as not to gain your approbation for the views which I may 
 entertain, I shall still endeavor to do what I can for your good, in any 
 humbler sphere to which Providence may assign me. 
 Respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 I might be content to rest the claim of Mr. Memminger 
 to a high place among the great lawyers of his time upon 
 
THE LA WYKR. 175 
 
 the manner in which he conducted the bank case, but there 
 are other lights quite as brilliant to be thrown upon his 
 character, and other causes that brought forth the expres 
 sions of his acquirements as a lawyer, the strength of his 
 mind, and his great resources, which I think it proper to 
 consider before I turn to consider Mr. Memminger as a 
 statesman and in the humbler, but by no means none the 
 less interesting relations of a private citizen. 
 
 A lawyer in full practice, with such a reputation as Mr. 
 Memminger had acquired, not only in his metropolitan city, 
 but throughout his State, would have many important causes 
 to engage his attention, to call forth the energies of his 
 strong mind, and to bring into practical application the 
 knowledge and the experience he had acquired through 
 years of patient research. It would require more than a 
 single volume were I to report in full all of these cases. 
 From among the great number I have selected but a few 
 which, for the purposes of this Memoir, will be sufncient to 
 illustrate the distinctive characteristics of Mr. Memminger 
 as the advocate and jurist. 
 
 About the same time in which he was engaged in the 
 bank case, his services were employed by the older mem 
 bers of the Jewish synagogue in Charleston to represent 
 them in a suit which, because of its novelty and the respec 
 tability of the parties litigant, created considerable comment 
 at the time, and was of deep interest at least to the Israel 
 ites of Charleston. The members of this synagogue were 
 among the wealthy, and, in some instances, among the in 
 fluential and respected citizens of the good old city, who, as 
 it will be seen, were divided in their opinions on the con 
 struction of the charter which had for a long time united 
 them in their forms of religious worship. 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. Levin, one of the oldest and most 
 respected members of this synagogue, for the following 
 statement of the facts in this case: 
 
176 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The synagogue chartered under the title " Kahal Kadosh Bete Elo- 
 him" ("Holy Congregation of the House of God") is among the oldest 
 in the United States, having been organized in the year 1750. Its mem 
 bership was then small, and its place of worship changed from time to 
 time until the year 1781, when its present site was purchased and a 
 handsome structure erected. The building committee awarded the 
 contract to Messrs. Steedman & Horlbeck, and upwards of $20,000 was 
 paid to the contractors. It was dedicated on the 19th day of September, 
 1794, and Governor Moultrie, with the civil and military officers of the 
 State and city, honored the occasion by their attendance. In the disas 
 trous fire of April, 1838, this synagogue was totally destroyed. 
 
 Having realized a sufficient sum from the insurance and individual 
 subscriptions, the board of trustees issued proposals for the erection of 
 the present edifice in the year 1840. The estimate of Mr. David Lopez, 
 for $40,000, was accepted, and his contract was faithfully executed; not 
 only with respect to the materials used, but also for the superior work 
 manship and good taste displayed by him. When the building was in 
 progress of erection a petition was presented to the board of trustees 
 (July 8, 1840), signed by thirty-eight members of the congregation, 
 praying " that an organ be erected in the synagogue to assist in the 
 vocal part of the service." The petition was regarded as a direct viola 
 tion of the first article of the constitution, as the form of service was 
 in accordance with the " Minhag Sephardim," or " Portuguese Custom," 
 as practiced in this city, and one of its provisions declares that " to 
 guard against innovations, it shall not be in the power of any president 
 or administration to introduce any alteration in the mode of service 
 except such as may be specified in this constitution." 
 
 The board of trustees by a vote of four to one decided that the petition 
 was an innovation upon the established and immemorial usage of the 
 Jews, and a violation of the fundamental law, and it was laid on the ta 
 ble. The petitioners, highly incensed and dissatisfied with the action of 
 the board, demanded that a general meeting of the members should 
 take place, and on the 26th of July, 1840, eighty-seven members an 
 swered to the roll-call. 
 
 The proposition to allow the introduction was renewed, and after the 
 resolution had been read the presiding officer declared that it was a 
 constitutional question in direct conflict with the first and twelfth arti 
 cles of the constitution, and would require a vote of three-fourths of the 
 members present to alter or amend. 
 
 From this decision an appeal was taken and the decision of the pres 
 ident overruled by a vote of forty yeas and forty-seven nays. 
 
 A long, animated and exhaustive discussion then ensued, and the 
 resolution that an organ be erected in the synagogue to assist in the 
 vocal part of the service was adopted by a vote of forty-six yeas to 
 
THE LA WYER. 177 
 
 forty nays. After this action about forty of the most pious and exem 
 plary members withdrew from the congregation and established a sepa 
 rate place of worship. 
 
 As soon as this disruption occurred the members of " Bete Elohim " 
 changed the constitution, and several stringent provisions were enacted 
 for the express purpose of excluding the seceders and making radical 
 changes in the creed and service. These innovations were sanctioned by 
 the minister, and a most intense excitement prevailed in the Jewish 
 community, causing divisions in family circles, bitter feuds among 
 relatives, and an estrangement among life-long friends. Many of those 
 who had voted for the introduction of instrumental music now saw that 
 the innovating party were frequently making radical changes in the ser 
 vice, and in order to stop their progress solicited the seceders to return 
 and be restored to their privileges. The application for a renewal of 
 membership was made by letter to the president and board o trustees, 
 four of whom were favorable, but the president (under legal advice) 
 refused to convene the board for this or any other business. In conse 
 quence of this illegal action twenty-five additional members withdrew 
 from the corporation, united with the forty original seceders, and erected 
 a place of worship in "Wentworth street, between Meeting and Anson 
 streets, the name of the congregation being " Shearit Israel," or " Kem- 
 nant of Israel." 
 
 Many of the corporators who had contributed liberally to the build 
 ing fund of the synagogue took active steps to conciliate, but these ef 
 forts proved fruitless, and the members of " Bete Elohim" having deter 
 mined to submit the matter to the civil tribunal, the seceding mem 
 bers in the year 1843, retained the "services of Messrs. Memminger & 
 Jervey, who represented them in a truthful and eloquent return to the 
 rule for an information of quo warranto in the case of The State ex-rela- 
 tionc A. Ottoleregui v. G. V. Ancker and others. 
 
 It is a source of great pleasure to state that soon after the close of 
 the civil war the excitement was allayed, harmony restored, and a 
 union of the two congregations happily accomplished by the conserva 
 tive element in both bodies. 
 
 In this case Mr. Memminger declined to accept a fee or 
 other compensation for his services. I am informed that 
 he stated to the gentlemen who, as the representatives of 
 their congregation, waited upon him, that he felt it to be his 
 conscientious duty as a believer in their God, to devote 
 himself to their service without compensation. As a testi 
 monial of their esteem, and of their appreciation of his ser- 
 
 12 
 
178 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 vice, the congregation presented to Mr. Memminger an ele 
 gant service of silver. From the Charleston Courier of that 
 date I extract the following description of this handsome gift: 
 
 We had the pleasure yesterday of examining a beautiful and muni 
 ficent present intended by a portion of the Israelites of Charleston, for 
 C. G. Memminger, Esq., their able and gifted counsel in the great 
 Hebrew cause now pending in our courts, in token of their grateful 
 sense of his arduous and valuable professional services in their behalf, 
 he having generously declined a fee for the same. It consists of an ele 
 gant and richly chased silver pitcher of the Rebecca pattern, near two 
 feet in height, and a massive silver waiter, eighteen inches in diameter. 
 The pitcher bears in front the following inscription : 
 
 FROM THE JEWS OF CHARLESTON, So, CA., 
 
 Professors of the Ancient Faith of the House of Israel, as received from 
 
 THEIR FATHERS 
 
 TO 
 
 In testimony of his disinterested, zealous and able services in defense of Rights, 
 
 Founded upon that Faith, 
 Before the Judiciary of South Carolina, 
 
 ANNO MUNDI, 5604. 
 
 [Hebrew inscription, with the following translation :] 
 
 " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : 
 They shall prosper that love thee." 
 Psalms cxxii. Verse 6. 
 
 The following are the beautiful and appropriate devices: 
 
 RIGHT. 
 
 View of Jerusalem, with the fruit-bearing Palm. 
 
 LEFT. 
 
 The Palm of the Desert. 
 
 Rebecca at the Well, stooping to draw water. 
 
 Abraham s servant, with his camels in the distance. 
 
 The pitcher is finished and adorned with an elegant scroll handle, 
 resting on a cherub, and at the foot it is richly chased with the fruits of 
 the Holy Land the olive, the date, the prickly-pear, and the melon. 
 
 The waiter is chased with a rich oak border of leaves and acorns, and 
 is decorated centrally with a beautiful wreath of roses and rose leaves. 
 
 This valuable memento, with other personal property, 
 was taken from the residence of Mr. Memminger when it 
 was plundered by the invading soldiers of the Federal army, 
 and, notwithstanding its well-marked and unmistakable evi 
 dences of ownership, is still held somewhere at the North 
 as a " trophy," or has been converted into bullion and sold 
 by some remorseless thief. 
 
THE LAWYER. 179 
 
 Another remarkable case which came before the equity 
 courts at this time was that of Pell and Wife versus Elias 0. 
 Ball and others. This case was then remarkable not alone 
 because of the melancholy circumstances attending the 
 death of Mr. Ball and his estimable wife, well-known and 
 highly respectable citizens of Charleston, but it was of great 
 interest to the legal profession because of the then novel 
 question of survivorship which their tragic death raised be 
 fore the courts. There were no very abstruse principles of 
 law involved ; but as a case requiring a thorough knowledge 
 of the rules of evidence., none that had occurred in the his 
 tory of the Charleston bar occasioned at the time more 
 comment or was of more general interest. The case belongs 
 to a highly interesting branch of law, upon which at that 
 time there were but very few positive decisions, particularly 
 in the common law courts; to that class of cases where some 
 right is made to depend on the question, which was the sur 
 vivor of two or more persons who have perished by the same 
 calamity? The facts of the case, as presented in the testi 
 mony, are about these. 
 
 The steamer Pulaski left Savannah, Georgia, 011 Wednes- 
 day, 13th June, 1S33, with many passengers, and arrived at 
 Charleston that evening. The next morning Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 o & 
 
 Ball, with their adopted daughter and servants, having gone 
 on board, the vessel departed for the North and pursued her 
 course until midnight, when, most of the passengers having 
 retired, the boiler on the starboard side exploded. By this 
 explosion an extensive breach was made in the side of the 
 vessel. Her main deck was blown off, thus destroying all 
 communication between the forward and after part of the 
 steamer. The forward part of the upper deck, known as the 
 hurricane deck, was entirely blown off, carrying with it the 
 wheel-house and killing the captain, Dubois, and many pas 
 sengers. The gentlemen s forward cabin was greatly in- 
 
180 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 jured, its floor ripped up and bulk-head driven in. Major 
 Twiggs, a passenger, testified that his berth was there, and 
 that many perished in that part of the vessel by the explo 
 sion. 
 
 The vessel careened to the larboard and soon began to fill 
 with water. In a very short time the hold was filled and 
 the water gained to the level of the floors of the gentlemen s 
 cabin. Finally the vessel parted amidship (the forward and 
 after part). There were several passengers in the forward 
 part of the vessel, nearly all of whom, speedily perished, but 
 the greater portion were in the after part. Of these as many 
 as could do so climbed to the promenade deck, but there 
 w r ere many mostly ladies, among whom were Mrs. Ball and 
 her adopted daughter who remained on the main deck. 
 Of Mrs. Ball nothing is known beyond the fact that she was 
 seen on the main deck and recognized by at least one wit 
 ness who knew her. She is described by this witness, who 
 heard her calling in piteous tones for her husband, and who 
 last saw her there on the main deck just before that portion 
 of the vessel sank. - Of Mr. Ball, all that would indicate that 
 he was not killed by the explosion was the discovery of a 
 dress coat in a boat having a collar in the pocket bearing 
 his name. 
 
 Mr. Ball was the possessor of a large estate, and had 
 before this calamity made a will, which disposed of tho same, 
 making his wife his heir, in the event of his death without 
 issue, and providing several contingent legacies. 
 
 The question before the court was to determine the fact as 
 to whether Mrs. Ball survived her husband, even for a 
 moment, or whether she perished before he did, or whether 
 both perished at the same instant of time. 
 
 The very large estate, real and personal, would be dis 
 tributed under the provisions of the will and the rules of the 
 common law accordingly as the question of survivorship 
 should be determined by the court. 
 
THE LA WYER. 181 
 
 In this cause the complainants were represented by 
 Messrs. Petigru, Legare and Seldler, while the respondents 
 were represented by Mr. Memminger, Mr. Dessaussure and 
 Mr. Mazyck. 
 
 No pains were spared by the counsel on either side to 
 have the circumstances of the appalling calamity brought 
 clearly before the court. An exact model of the vessel was 
 prepared and every minute circumstance brought to the at 
 tention of the chancellor who heard the case. In the review 
 of this testimony, as I am informed by a lawyer who heard 
 the argument, Mr. Memminger brought into play his pecu 
 liar characteristic as a lawyer, a direct approach to the sub 
 ject-matter under consideration, by " brushing away the cob 
 webs of rhetoric," and reaching by a process of intellectual 
 analysis, rapid and perfect, the main point he desired to es 
 tablish in the investigation. There could have been no bet 
 ter case in which to deduce conclusions from hypothetical 
 reasoning, none that brought out more fully all the law then 
 established by decisions, or that was to be found in the text 
 books on circumstantial evidence. The model of the unfor 
 tunate steamer, presenting every peculiar feature of con 
 struction, was brought before the court. This was so ar 
 ranged that the wreck after the explosion could be perfectly 
 demonstrated. The location of Mr. Ball and his wife was 
 established by the testimony, and in this every minute cir 
 cumstance was presented with that clearness and particular 
 ity which was always characteristic of Mr. Memminger in 
 his searching scrutiny of the evidence for and against his 
 client. The case was under consideration for several days 
 during which the interest of the public constantly in 
 creased. Finally the arguments were closed and Chancel 
 lor Johnston delivered his opinion and judgment. 
 
 This was an elaborate review of the testimony in the case, 
 the weight of which the chancellor determined was in sup 
 port of the theory that Mrs. Ball survived her husband and 
 
182 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEU. 
 
 did not perish, until after lie had ceased to exist. The fol 
 lowing is the concluding portion of his judgment : 
 
 I have from all these considerations formed the opinion that Mrs. 
 Ball survived her husband. The legacies must be disposed of as pro 
 vided for in the contingency which has happened, of the death of the 
 testator without leaving issue. Such as have lapsed must be distributed. 
 
 In closing this judgment;, continues the chancellor, I cannot suffi 
 ciently testify my respect for the honorable disposition manifested by 
 all parties. An appeal to the law was made only because the minority 
 of some of the parties at interest rendered a compromise difficult if not 
 impossible. It is not a case for costs. Let the costs be paid out of the 
 estate before distribution and deducted from the amounts coming to 
 the parties ratably. 
 
 The case was appealed by the complainants and before 
 the Appellate Court again argued by Mr. Mcrnminger for 
 the heirs of Mrs. Ball and Mr. Petigru contra. 
 
 The unanimous judgment of the Appellate Court sus 
 tained the judgment of the chancellor in the court below. 
 
 In other forms this case came before the Courts of Equity 
 at several subsequent sittings, but only with the view of de 
 termining the equitable rights of the several parties who 
 were claimants under the provisions of the will of Mr. Ball. 
 These several cases will be found fully reported in the 
 Equity Reports of Cheves, Spear and 1st Richardson. 
 
 There is no case in which Mr. Memminger appeared as 
 counsel among the many reported in the South Carolina de 
 cisions, in which his remarkable facility for stating con 
 cisely and with the utmost clearness the propositions in 
 volved, is more conspicuously set forth than in the case of 
 The State ex-relatione Shiver and others versus the Comp 
 troller-General, reported at length in the fourth volume of 
 Richardson s Reports, 1872. 
 
 This was a petition praying for a writ of mandamus com 
 manding the Comptroller-General to give notice to the audi 
 tors of each county in South Carolina of the rate per 
 centum of three mills on the dollar on the assessed value 
 
THE LA WYEE. 183 
 
 of all of the taxable property in the State for the redemp 
 tion of certain treasury certificates, known as the " Blue 
 Ridge Railroad Revenue Bond Script." 
 
 Under the provision of an act of the Legislature passed 
 when the negro and " Carpet-hag" government was domi 
 nating the State, the Comptroller was authorized to issue 
 one million eight hundred thousand dollars of Treasury 
 certificates to be exchanged for the bonds of the Blue Ridge 
 Railroad Company, held by the financial agent of the State 
 in New York, as collateral security for advances made to the 
 said railroad company. In this cause Mr. Memminger, with 
 Mr. J. D. Pope, Mr. Haskell and Attorney-General Melton, 
 represented the State. The argument of Mr. Memminger, 
 as embraced in the report of the case, is a perfect illustra 
 tion of all that has been heretofore presented with respect 
 to his peculiar characteristics as a lawyer. I would ab 
 stract fully from these and present his clear statement of 
 the law in the case, but do not deem it necessary to dwell 
 longer on this interesting branch of my most interesting 
 subject. 
 
 As an advocate Mr. Memminger never attempted the art 
 and mannerism of an orator of the schools. While he 
 was often eloquent, his eloquence was the expression of 
 strong thought, logically conveyed, convincing the mind 
 and demolishing all opposition by the earnest manner in 
 which it was delivered. His diction was always that of 
 unexceptionably good English, but at no time did he revel 
 in the fancies of a mere rhetorician. He dealt in no 
 epigrammatic alliterations, no hyperboles, no tropes or daz 
 zling figures with which to enrapture the sentimental and 
 to obscure his reasoning. He has been thought by some to 
 have been devoid of sentiment, but only by those whose 
 temperaments and mental structure made them more poetic 
 than philosophic. While the drill of his faculties, and 
 
184 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 indeed his intellectual endowments, caused Mr. Memminger 
 to take a practical view of life, yet there was a profound sen 
 timent pervading his nature. If this did not find expression 
 in ditties of love and in songs of praise; if it did not come in 
 the form of measured verse or in the well-rounded periods 
 of the rostrum, it nevertheless was moving in his soul, 
 responsive to every touch that reached the chords of a well- 
 strung harp, whose sweet music brought joy to many a weary 
 pilgrim in life s desert way. His sentiment never took the 
 form of gushing enthusiasm, or w r as it ever found on a spas 
 modic parade, but it moved quietly as a great undercurrent 
 in his serene and appreciative nature. His mind was emi 
 nently logical. In his orations, or addresses, he always 
 sought to convince his hearers by argument and not to lead 
 them by appeals to their emotions. Those who knew him 
 well, and were long associated with him at the Bar and in 
 the legislative councils of the State, testify that he possessed 
 to a remarkable degree the power of stating his propositions 
 with such clearness, and presenting them with such an 
 earnest manner, that he brought conviction of their truth 
 even before they were supported by an argument. 
 
 It was this peculiar characteristic that made him so effec 
 tive before a jury. From his contemporaries I learn that 
 his statement of a case to the jury was always so lucid, so 
 direct and so earnest that there was but little left to be done 
 after it had been made but to support it with evidence. Mr. 
 Memminger had no ideal in oratory. He had studied at no 
 particular school the arts or the formulas of a master. 
 Hence in his delivery and in his discourse there was noth 
 ing that appeared as a borrowed garb either in his thought 
 or action. As in his composition, so in his elocution there 
 was the constant reflex of the personality of the man, find 
 ing expression in simple and therefore forcible terms, and 
 under no circumstances disguised in the toggery of a " green 
 room," or by the strut of a stage performance. 
 
THE LA WYER. 185 
 
 In his discourses Mr. Memminger never carried his hear 
 ers on an excursion through the air. You might rest secure 
 upon the earth, for he was no intellectual aeronaut, and never 
 ventured to risk his own or the comfort of his audience by a 
 voyage among the clouds. He sought to convince their 
 rninds, and would build before them a pyramid of reasoning 
 whose finished apex was the conclusive induction of his own 
 lucid mind, warmed into an intense glow by the fervor of his 
 earnest spirit. 
 
 Hence it was that Mr. Memminger was so painstaking and 
 careful in laying the foundation of his arguments. His 
 premises were established in the most adroit and skillful 
 manner, bringing with them fact after fact, with no redun 
 dant terms or superfluous drapery to arrest the attention of 
 his audience or to weaken the force of their array. He 
 marshaled these as a skillful general would his advanced line 
 of battle, holding as a strong reserve, to be thrown at any 
 weak point, a well-prepared, concise and clear statement of 
 the propositions he desired to sustain. His argument was 
 the energetic advance of his columns in a phalanx of reason 
 ing compact as the legions of Caesar. In support of this 
 argument he brought forward authorities and cited prece 
 dents selected with great care from his large park of legal 
 artillery. 
 
 Thus prepared, either for attack or defense, he was invinci 
 ble before a jury, and was seldom reversed by the courts of 
 last resort. 
 
 He was an excellent counsellor. To use the language of 
 the Hon. Joseph D. Pope, a most competent judge: 
 
 Mr. Memminger was one of the best of our lawyers in consultation 
 in a law case of any intricacy, in determining what should be put for 
 ward and what should be kept back, and hence he was a superb exami 
 ner of witnesses. 
 
 In a case of purely a business character involving the details of com 
 mercial transactions, Mr. Memminger was superior to Mr. Petigru or of 
 any lawyer I have ever known. He was not an orator in the Cicero- 
 
186 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 man sense, and yet he was possessed with the power of convincing his 
 hearers to a marvelous extent. Chancellor Johnston once said that 
 when Mr. Memminger had finished the statement of his case there was 
 little need for an argument. It was this peculiar gift that enabled Mr. 
 Memminger to have sucli power everywhere; in the Cabinet or in the 
 Legislature, before a board of railroad directors, at a bank meeting, or 
 at a meeting of citizens to consider any public enterprise; in the coun 
 cils of the church or of the bar, he was always a controlling spirit and 
 an irresistible power. 
 
 Mr. Petigru s superiority consisted in the manner in which he would 
 discuss the philosophic principles on which the law rested and the elo 
 quence with which he would present these views, particularly if he had 
 any personal feeling in the matter or his sympathies had been appealed 
 to. Mr. Petigru was a great humorist and a remarkable wit. His 
 argument would be at times bristling with glittering shafts of satire, or 
 sparkling with the most pungent witicisms. On the contrary, Mr. 
 Memminger would in the statement of his cases and in the marvelous 
 skill of his analysis, build up his logical arguments so strongly that not 
 even the chaste diction and eloquence of Mr. Petigru or the sparkle of 
 his wit could overcome the impression he had made. If Mr. Memmin 
 ger had been an English barrister he would have been a great leader in 
 Parliament. The soundness of his judgment and great practical sense, 
 which seems always to have governed the English Parliament, would 
 have given him great prominence there. He would never have gov 
 erned the House of Commons as did Lord Chatham, but he would have 
 led it like Sir Robert Peel, whom he greatly resembled in many re 
 spects. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 of 1852. 
 
 |HE partial estrangement between the people of 
 South Carolina and the Federal government, which 
 had been brought about by the tariff measures and 
 Nullification proceedings of 1832, had not been entirely 
 removed before the formation of abolition societies at the 
 North, and the sympathy expressed for them in Congress, 
 produced a new cause of ill-will between the Northern and 
 Southern sections and a new danger to the stability of the 
 Union. 
 
 The acquisition of the immense territory west of the Mis 
 sissippi river and its rapid settlement at once brought about 
 the agitation of the slavery question, with all the fanatical 
 zeal of the abolitionists and the determined opposition of the 
 people of the slave-holding States. The measures adopted 
 and the means employed by the abolition societies of the 
 North, especially those of the New England States, had pro 
 voked in the appeals they made to the slaves and in the 
 denunciations of their masters, the people of the Southern 
 States, and had called forth the most earnest protests from 
 their legislatures and public assemblies. 
 
 While this had been going on for some time and was con 
 stantly irritating the minds of the Southern people, it was 
 not until the aggressive spirit of the over-zealous philanthro 
 pists of the North and their fanatical coadjutors attempted 
 by legislation to restrict the rights of the slave-owner in the 
 use of his property, and to limit the area in which slavery 
 should be permitted to have even a legalized existence, that 
 resistance to their procedures and demands came from the 
 
 Southern States. 
 
 f is? ] 
 
188 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Unless one becomes familiar with the peculiar energy of 
 the Puritan spirit, and has a knowledge of the impudence 
 and self-conceit of these most aggressive people, it will be 
 difficult to conceive the inspiration that has moved them to 
 assume the guardianship of American morals, or to compre 
 hend the length to which their zealots have gone in assert 
 ing the whims of their social leaders. An illustration of 
 this is to be found in the case of one Samuel Hoar, of Mas 
 sachusetts, who came to South Carolina as the agent of his 
 State in 1844, and formally presented the object of his mis 
 sion in a letter addressed to the Governor, in which he 
 stated that he had been commissioned by the State of Mas 
 sachusetts to test by legal proceedings the constitutionality 
 of the act of the Legislature of South Carolina, passed in 
 1835, which prohibited the landing of negro seamen or 
 " persons of color " employed as sailors at any of the ports 
 of the State. 
 
 The letter and mission of Mr. Hoar was referred to the 
 Legislature of South Carolina, then in session, by the Gov 
 ernor, while Mr. Hoar remained at one of the hotels in 
 Columbia, shielded by the presence of his daughter, whose 
 sex would command the respect of the people who despised 
 the spirit that had prompted the mission of the father. 
 
 The report of the Committee on Federal Relations of the 
 House of Representatives, who had considered the letter of 
 Mr. Hoar, was made on the 5th of December, and at once 
 provoked a discussion which was remarkable in that the 
 recommendations of the committee were opposed by only 
 one member of the House, who, with all the earnestness of 
 his nature and the dispassionate logic of his sound reason 
 ing, advocated the policy of allowing the case to be made in 
 the courts. This single member of the House of Repre 
 sentatives was Mr. Memminger. He maintained, with great 
 force of reasoning, that when the argument was properly 
 submitted to the Supreme Court the right of South Carolina 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 189 
 
 to adopt such police regulations as were, in the judgment of 
 her legislators, necessary to maintain the peace, and to se 
 cure the rights of her citizens in property, recognized as 
 such by the Constitution of the United States, would be 
 sustained by this highest court of adjudicature, and that in 
 this manner the question of the citizenship of free negroes 
 would be set at rest. He held that the act of 1835 was con 
 stitutional, and that South Carolina had nothing to fear in 
 meeting the challenge sent to her by Massachusetts to join 
 an issue on the question before the Supreme Court. I re 
 gret that I have not succeeded in finding a full report of the 
 argument of Mr. Memminger as made before the House of 
 Representatives in opposition to the report of the committee. 
 Gentlemen who heard it assure me that it was among the 
 ablest delivered by Mr. Memminger during his career as a 
 legislator, and called forth expressions of commendation 
 even from those who disagreed with him. 
 
 The following extract from the Journal of the House of 
 Representatives gives in full the report of the committee 
 and of the action taken by that body. Single and alone Mr. 
 Memminger appears upon the record, the only vote in oppo 
 sition to the resolutions as reported by the committee. There 
 is not such another record in the history of the legislation 
 of South Carolina. It expresses more of moral heroism, the 
 sterling character, and firm adherence to the honest con 
 viction of a sincere man than his biographer could present 
 in terms of the English language: 
 
 The Committee on Federal Relations, to whom was referred the com 
 munication of his Excellency the Governor, transmitting a letter ad 
 dressed to him by Samuel Hoar, an agent of the State of Massachusetts 
 for certain purposes, submit the following report : 
 
 By an act passed on the 19th day of December, 1835, the General As 
 sembly endeavored to guard against the introduction of free negroes 
 and persons of color into this State, upon principles of public policy 
 affecting her safety and her most vital interests. The right of excluding 
 from their territories conspirators against the public peace, and disaf- 
 
190 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMM1NGER. 
 
 fected persons whose presence may be dangerous to their safety, is es 
 sential to every government. It is everywhere exercised by indepen 
 dent States, and there is nothing in the Constitution of the United 
 States which forbids to South Carolina the right, or relieves this Legis 
 lature from the duty, of providing for the public safety. 
 
 Massachusetts has seen fit to contest this right, and has sent an 
 agent to reside in the midst of us, whose avowed object is to defeat a 
 police regulation essential to our peace. This agent comes here, not as 
 a citizen of the United States, but as the emissary of a foreign govern 
 ment hostile to our domestic institutions, and with the sole purpose of 
 subverting our internal police. We should be insensible to every dic 
 tate of prudence if we consented to the residence of such a missionary, 
 or shut our eyes to the consequences of his interference with our domes 
 tic concerns. 
 
 The Union of these States was formed for the purpose, among other 
 things, of ensuring domestic tranquility and providing for the common 
 defense ; and in consideration thereof, this State yielded the right to 
 keep troops or ships of war in time of peace without the consent of Con 
 gress; but while thus consenting to be disarmed, she has, in no part of 
 the constitutional compact, surrendered her right of internal govern 
 ment and police ; and, on the contrary thereof, has expressly reserved 
 all powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited by it to 
 the States. 
 
 The State of Massachusetts denominates as citizens those persons for 
 whose protection her tender solicitude has devised this extraordinary 
 mission. Yet if it were admitted that they are citizens of that State, 
 your committee cannot suppose that she will challenge for them greater 
 rights, immunities and privileges within our territories than are en 
 joyed by persons of the same class in South Carolina. But your com 
 mittee deny that they are citizens within the meaning of the Constitu 
 tion ; nor did Massachusetts herself treat as citizens persons of this class 
 residing within her limits, either at the adoption of the Constitution or 
 since ; but, on the contrary, they were subjected to various disabilities, 
 from which her other inhabitants were exempt. 
 
 Your committee cannot but regard this extraordinary movement as 
 part of a deliberate and concerted scheme to subvert the domestic in 
 stitutions of the Southern States, in plain violation of the terms of the 
 national compact, and of the good faith which ought to subsist between 
 the parties thereto, and to which they stand solemnly pledged. 
 
 Your committee recommend the adoption of the following resolu 
 tions: 
 
 Resolved, That the right to exclude from their territories seditious 
 persons, or others whose presence may be dangerous to their peace, is 
 essential to every independent State, 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 191 
 
 Resolved, That free negroes and persons of color are not citizens of 
 the United States within the meaning of the Constitution, which con 
 fers upon the citizens of one State the privileges and immunities of 
 citizens in the several States. 
 
 Eesolved, That the emissary sent by the State of Massachusetts to 
 the State of South Carolina, with the avowed purpose of interfering 
 with her institutions and disturbing her peace, is to be regarded in the 
 character he has assumed, and to be treated accordingly. 
 
 Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to expel 
 from our territory the said agent, after due notice to depart; and that 
 the Legislature will sustain the Executive authority in any measures it 
 may adopt for the purpose aforesaid. 
 
 The question was then put, Will the House agree to the report ? and 
 it passed in the affirmative Yeas, 117 ; nays, 1. 
 
 The yeas and nays were requested, and are as follows : 
 
 THOSE wno VOTED IN THE AFFIRMATIVE ARE : Hon. William F. Colcock 
 (Speaker) and Messrs. J. A. Alston, W. J. Alston, Barnes, Bauskett, 
 Beckham, Bedon, Bethea, Joseph A. Black, Wm. C. Black, Blakeney, 
 Brooks, Brown, Broyles, Bull, Burrows, Calhoun, Cannon, Carew, Cam, 
 Chandler, Chesnut, Cooper, Crawford, Dessaussure, Dickinson, J. G. W. 
 Duncan, P. E. Duncan, Ellerbe, English, Ervin, Fair, Fraser, Gowin, 
 Gary, Geddes, Geiger, Gibbes, Giles, Griffin, Grimball, Haigler, Hardee, 
 Hardin, Edwd. Harleston, John Harleston, Harlee, Herbert, Henry, 
 Herndon, Heyward, Holland, Hough, Huger, Hunt, Irby, Jamison, John 
 son, J. II. King, H. S. King, Lartigue, Littlejohn, Lucas, McCarthy, 
 McCully, McMichael, McMullan, Manning, Maxwell, Mayes, Means, 
 Middleton, Miller, Mills, Moody, Mordecai, Noble, Northrop, O Hanlon, 
 Orr, E. G. Palmer, P. P. Palmer, Perrin, Phillips, Pinckney, Pope, Porter, 
 Poyas, Pressly, Read, Rodgers, Sebring, Seymour, Shingler, W. Gilm. 
 Simms, Simons, E. P. Smith, Henry Smith, Joel Smith, Snowden, Strob- 
 hart, Stuart, Torre, Traylor, Jas. M. Walker, Tandy Walker, Wallace, 
 Ware, Watson, Whaley, Chas. Williams, G. W. Williams, Wilson, Win- 
 gard, Yates, and Zimmerman. 
 
 IN THE NEGATIVE : Mr. Memminger. 
 
 The report was then ordered to be sent to the Senate for concur 
 rence. 
 
 In 1846, pending the discussion in Congress with regard to 
 the negotiation of peace with Mexico, David Wilmot, a Dem 
 ocratic member from Pennsylvania, brought forward his 
 celebrated proviso, that " as an express and fundamental 
 condition to the acquisition of any territory from the re 
 public of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any 
 
192 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 treaty to be negotiated between them, neither slavery nor 
 involuntary servitude shall ever exist except for crime, 
 whereof the party shall be first duly convicted." The 
 " proviso" was defeated by a small majority in the United 
 States Senate. Yet on the termination of the Mexican war 
 the practical question involved in the Wilmot proviso, 
 whether the introduction of slavery should be allowed or 
 prohibited in the territories acquired from Mexico, became 
 of prominent interest. 
 
 The attention of the people of South Carolina was drawn 
 to these matters year after year in the messages of the Gov 
 ernors of the State to the General Assembly, and as often a 
 report from the Committee on Federal Relations would bring 
 a protest in the form of resolutions against these procedures 
 as being in flagrant violation of the provisions of the Fed 
 eral Constitution and insulting to the dignity of the State. 
 The same feeling of indignation pervaded each of the slave- 
 holding States and manifested itself in varied forms of pub 
 lic expression. In Mississippi where the zeal of the aboli 
 tionists had introduced emissaries who induced the negroes 
 to leave their masters and seek an asylum in the free States, 
 public meetings were held, and finally a convention of the 
 people assembled in 1848 to consider what measures to 
 adopt in order to protect their property and secure the 
 rights of the slave States. This convention issued an ad 
 dress to the people of the several Southern States and in 
 vited them to send delegates to a convention to be convened 
 at Nashville " to consult in common upon common rights 
 with the view to unity of action." Accordingly a conven 
 tion of delegates from a few of the States did assemble at 
 Nashville in the autumn of 1849, and issued an address to 
 the people of the several slave-holding States, calling upon 
 them to meet through delegates in a congress with the view of 
 adopting such measures as would arrest further aggressions, 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 193 
 
 and if possible restore the constitutional rights of the South, 
 and to recommend some provision for their future safety 
 and independence. 
 
 The people of California had framed a constitution pro 
 hibiting slavery which was presented to Congress early in 
 the session of 1850, with a petition praying the admission 
 of that territory as a State. This petition at once provoked 
 an exciting debate in both Houses of Congress. The South 
 ern or slave-holding section demanded the rejection of Cali 
 fornia and an amendment to the Constitution that should 
 equalize the political power of the free and slave States. 
 The question became still more complicated by a claim 
 brought forward by Texas to a boundary line that would in 
 clude a large part of the territory of New Mexico, and also 
 by the application of New Mexico for admission into the 
 Union as a State. After a stormy debate a compromise was 
 proposed by Mr. Clay in the Senate, which, after a long dis 
 cussion, was finally adopted. Under the provisions of this 
 compromise California was admitted as a free State, terri 
 torial governments were framed for New Mexico and Utah 
 without excluding slavery, but leaving its exclusion or admis 
 sion to a popular vote of those residing in these territories. 
 The boundary line of Texas was established, and the slave 
 trade prohibited in the District of Columbia. A stringent 
 law was also enacted for the arrest and return of fugitive 
 slaves. This compromise was by no means satisfactory to 
 the people of the South, nor was it quietly acquiesced in by 
 their representatives in Congress. Ten of the senators from 
 the Southern States, including Senators Mason and Hunter, 
 of Virginia, Soule, of Louisiana, and Jefferson Davis, of Mis 
 sissippi, published a protest against the admission of Cali 
 fornia after the vote was taken. The "Free-Soil" or aboli 
 tion party at the North, appeared to be equally dissatisfied. 
 
 In convention they denounced the concessions to Texas and 
 13 
 
194 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 the refusal to prohibit slavery in New Mexico and Utah, 
 and declared the fugitive slave law " unconstitutional, im 
 moral and cruel" The excitement which these proceedings 
 in Congress provoked in Washington city spread through 
 out the country. The manifest intention of the Free-Soil 
 party to inaugurate a crusade against slavery, and the ani 
 mus evidenced by their representatives in Congress, had 
 caused the Legislature of South Carolina, at the session of 
 1849, to request the Governor to convene the Legislature, if 
 not in session, in the event that any measure should be 
 passed by Congress containing the provisions of the Wilmot 
 proviso. 
 
 Such was the condition of the public mind when the Gen 
 eral Assembly of South Carolina convened on the 25th of 
 November, 1850. At the opening of this session Governor 
 Seabrook, in his message calling attention to these matters, 
 uses the following language: 
 
 At my recommendation, and in pursuance of your own conceptions of 
 duty, it was resolved, at your last session, that the Governor be requested 
 to convene the Legislature, if not in session, should the Wilmot proviso 
 or any kindred measure be passed by Congress. As the contingency to 
 which the resolution had reference occurred in September, a profound 
 respect for the Executive Department of the Government, and the hon 
 orable body by whose mandate I was called to fill it, induce me to say 
 in general terms that public considerations of a grave and weighty 
 character forbade me from acceding to the wish of the Legislature. 
 Independent of the semi-official reasons for this refusal, which have been 
 communicated to our fellow-citizens, there were others that, could they 
 have been made generally known, would in my judgment have entirely 
 appeased the public feeling. I am gratified in being enabled to assure 
 you that the correctness of my decision has been almost unanimously 
 sustained by the people. 
 
 The last meeting of the Congress of the United States was the most 
 eventful and disturbing that has been held since the establishment of 
 the Federal government. After many years of unwarrantable legisla 
 tion by that body, a crisis has at length arisen in our federal relation 
 affecting deeply and essentially the rights and interests of one-half the 
 Union. Whether the endangered States should longer hold an equality 
 pf rank with their co-partners, and their citizens be prohibited from 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 195 
 
 enjoying all the advantages and privileges constitutionally guaranteed 
 to both, were virtually the momentous, and to us humiliating, issues 
 which the legislative branch of the central authority was engaged in 
 considering for about nine of the ten months in which it was in session. 
 The "compromise," ultimately adopted, I consider another triumph over 
 the South by the fell spirit of abolitionism. .... 
 
 Although the mind of our community has not been prepared by pub 
 lic discussion, or perhaps private interchange of views on the subject, yet 
 it is my deliberate opinion that the period has arrived for the removal 
 from the State of every free colored person who is not the owner of real 
 estate or slave property. This population is not only a non-productive 
 class, but it is, and always has been, essentially corrupt and corrupting. 
 Their longer residence among us, if the warfare between the North and 
 South is to continue, will eventually generate evils very difficult of 
 eradication. Possessing in an unlimited degree the right of locomotion, 
 they can, in person, bear intelligence in a day from one section of the 
 State to another, or through the post-office mature their own plans of 
 villainy, as well as execute orders emanating from foreign sources. 
 There is, indeed, too much reason to believe that at this moment they 
 are made to occupy the situation of spies in our camp and to disseminate 
 through the entire body of our slave population the poison of insubordi 
 nation prepared in the great laboratory of Northern fanaticism. 
 
 The aggressive course of our Federal rulers, and the States and peo 
 ple of the North, had at an earlier period assumed so alarming an aspect 
 that by invitation of Mississippi to the slave-holding States nine of their 
 number assembled at Nashville in May last for consultation concerning 
 the means of saving the Union by preserving inviolate the principles 
 and guaranties of the Constitution. Over the deliberations of that au 
 gust council, composed largely of the talent and patriotism of the land, 
 the spirit of harmony presided. In demanding the protection of rights, 
 jeopardized by the unfraternal acts of their own countrymen, they ap 
 pealed to their sense of justice and the endearments of family associa 
 tion, the plain terms of the bond that united them, the ennobling and 
 proud recollections of the past, and the glorious anticipations of the 
 future. The result has shown that the authorities and people whom 
 they addressed are, in feeling and sentiment, alien to us their political 
 allies, and that the North have resolved on possessing the unlimited and 
 permanent control of our civil institutions. 
 
 To operate on the fears of the minority section, and expose the sup 
 posed hopelessness of its condition, the President had voluntarily pro 
 mulgated, in advance, his fixed determination to settle by the sword a 
 disputed question between the general government and a sovereign 
 member of the Union. In following the inglorious precedent established 
 by one of his predecessors, the principle was maintained that State re- 
 
196 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 sistance to a congressional edict would by him be classed among the un 
 reflecting acts of a mob, or the more deliberate opposition of a band of 
 organized individuals to admitted lawful authority. 
 
 It is foreign to my purpose to speak elaborately of matters that have 
 of late been so painfully brought to your notice. California created a 
 State by Congress, was admitted into the confederacy against all prece 
 dent, and in violation of the laws and Constitution of the country. It 
 was a premeditated insult and injury to the slave-holding States, and a 
 wanton assault upon their honor. In the act abolishing the slave trade 
 in the District of Columbia, the right of punishing the owner by manu 
 mitting his slaves is prominent among its provisions. By this bold and 
 successful attempt to engraft abolitionism on the principles of our polit 
 ical system, a power has been assumed, which, by expansion, may yet 
 clothe the entire federal community in the habiliments of mourning. 
 These and other willful perversions of a high trust have virtually abro 
 gated the powers necessary to the safety of the sovereignty of the States. 
 The whole authority of the Federal government, granted and usurped, 
 which is now concentrated in the will of an absolute and interested 
 majority, is hereafter to be wielded for the exclusive benefit of the 
 Northern or stronger interests. To its ambition and cupidity fifteen 
 .members of the Constitutional compact, by whose wealth the govern 
 ment is supported and our confederates enriched, are to be compelled 
 jgnominiously to minister. In a word, the Congress of the United 
 States is no longer to be the executor of the will of co-sovereign States, 
 but of a party banded together by the two-fold incentive of sectional 
 aggrandizement and public plunder. If the fundamental objects of our 
 federative system have been designedly perverted, there is no remedy 
 in the ordinary checks on power. The ballot-box is ineffectual, and 
 the press powerless in its appeals to an oppressor deaf to entreaty, 
 to argument and the admonitions of humanity and patriotism. In 
 Federal council it is certain that the voice of the minority will never 
 again be heeded. By a slow, cautious, but regular process, the rights 
 of the people and the sovereignty of the Southern States will be 
 curtailed until their total extinguishment is effected. By multiply 
 ing the number of free States, resisting all attempts to enlarge the 
 area of the slave-holding community, and discriminating between the 
 rights of Northern and Southern persons and property, another de 
 cade will not have passed before the general government will enforce 
 edicts, greater in their results on human liberty and the progress of 
 political enlightenment, than ever emanated from the worst forms of 
 despotism. Before that period arrives, the existence of South Carolina 
 as co-partner in a great commonwealth will have ceased. Merged in 
 the limits of contiguous provinces, the truthful memorials of her history 
 will lie scattered over her hills and valleys. On the printed page the 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1853. 197 
 
 tale of her origin and progress may be found, but the real causes and 
 manner of her political extinction will never there be read. 
 
 The North and South differ fundamentally in institutions, and from 
 the frame-work of their social organization, they need different laws. 
 While a strong government with all the appliances of extensive patron 
 age is necessary to the former, a mild and equal system of legal re 
 straints is required by the latter. The restriction on foreign commerce 
 is a policy of the one, free trade that of the other. The North is from 
 necessity a commercial and manufacturing people, the South an agri 
 cultural community. While the former seeks an enlargement of the 
 powers of the Federal government, in order to enable it to profit by the 
 wealth of the producing States, the latter, impelled by the principle of 
 self-preservation, strives to confine the common agent within well de 
 fined and narrow bounds. 
 
 In the one section capital and labor are theoretically equal, but from 
 influences perhaps incapable of controlment, they are practically antag 
 onistic; in the other, capital is superior to labor, and the relation be 
 tween them is a moral one. The character and interests of each insure 
 the harmonious action of both in all their operations. These discordant 
 materials in our federal structure are mainly, if not exclusively, refera 
 ble to the positions respectively assigned the parties by nature. Such 
 is the adverse tendency of that position in relation to one of them the 
 larger section that it seems to be an imperative duty on its part to 
 promote, under the pretence of the general welfare, the success of meas 
 ures purely sectional in their application. 
 
 This obstinately perverse proclivity is in reality in strict obedience 
 to a political law, the offspring of the moral obliquity of the human 
 heart. The lesser, numerically, and richer interests, has always been 
 the subject of plunder by the greater and poorer interest. It is his 
 torically true, moreover, that in every confederacy where the principle 
 of the concurrent majority is not practically recognized, the centri- 
 petral is stronger than the centrifugal tendency of the parties; fur 
 ther, that in the legislative branch of the government all usurpa 
 tions generally commence and are ultimately acquiesced in by the 
 other departments. In relation to our Federal institutions, the Con 
 stitution in its most important provisions, has in effect been so es 
 sentially changed, that the Union created by it no longer exists. Its 
 guaranties from the revolution which has been practically accom 
 plished over us have been overthrown, and a consolidated govern 
 ment having its discretion and will as the measure of its powers, is now 
 the government of the Union. Every compromise too into which 
 the South has entered, including the compromises incorporated yi the 
 great charter of the public liberties, has been utterly disregarded. By 
 legislative devices, our people now, as heretofore, are not only in effect 
 
198 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 despoiled, of the profits of their industry, but their contributions to the 
 public purso continue to be expended in unjust proportions, to further 
 the interests of their revilers and sappers of their domestic altars. 
 While by congressional enactments the North in the various branches 
 of industry have been forced into a condition of unexampled wealth 
 and power, the advancement of the South, so prodigally furnished by 
 nature with all the elements of prosperity and greatness, has occupied 
 a position far below that it would have reached had the confederation 
 been composed of one people in interest and feeling. The North and 
 South, in the palmy days of the Republic, both reverenced and loved 
 the Union for the immeasurable blessings it insured. Unhappily it is 
 now maintained by the former to effectuate its long-cherished design 
 the disfranchisement and degradation or the latter. 
 
 If asked for the evidence of these grave accusations against the gov 
 ernments and people, whose support and friendship we once so dearly 
 valued, I point with grief of heart to the often perpetrated or attempted 
 encroachments by Congress on the reserved rights of the States; the 
 incendiary resolutions of State legislatures; the sweeping denuncia 
 tions emanating from different associations, formed for the special end 
 of carrying throughout our borders the torch of insurrection ; the bit 
 ter and vindictive feelings of the press, the bar, and, I may add, the 
 pulpit; the inflammatory harangues at popular meetings; the actual 
 robbery of millions of our slave property by emissaries, not only with 
 out an effort by the Northern State governments to enforce the prcH 
 visions of the Constitution concerning fugitives "held to labor," but by 
 the authority of law and the force of public opinion encouraging and 
 sustaining these fanatical exhibitions of public sentiment; the annihi 
 lation, at a blow, of the principle of State equality, by the exclusion of 
 one-half the citizens of the confederacy from all participation in the 
 newly-acquired domain ; the violation of a great sectional compromise 
 by the dismemberment of a Southern member of the Union, in order, at 
 a convenient season, to carve from its bosom a free and hostile State; 
 in fine, the unceasing assaults upon the character of the slave-holder by 
 all classes, in public and in private, as an enemy to God and man as 
 unworthy of a seat at the table of the Lord, or to enjoy as co-partners 
 the noblest bequest ever inherited by freemen. The ultimate object of 
 this consentaneous movement, in which governments and people are 
 the actors, is the emancipation of the negro throughout the region in 
 which he is constitutionally held as property, although its execution 
 may consign to the same grave the master and the slave, and spread 
 desolation over their common home. 
 
 "While I rejoice in the conviction that a large number of individuals 
 at the North do entertain conservative opinions on the matter of slave 
 property, and whose voice is occasionally heard in the uproar of the 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 199 
 
 waters of strife, yet, overawed by the impetuosity df the torrent which 
 is perhaps destined to overwhelm the land, they involuntarily shrink 
 from the task of attempting to stay its progress. The instances are 
 rare in which, where the effort has been made, deprivation of office, or 
 other mark of displeasure and rebuke, did not quickly follow. This of 
 itself, if proof were needed, proclaims the deep-seatedness and all-per 
 vading character of the disease which affects the body politic of that 
 extensive and populous region. 
 
 For about one-third of her political existence South Carolina has 
 presented an almost uninterrupted scene of disquietude and excite 
 ment, under the provocation of contumelies and threats poured from a 
 thousand tongues and in forms the most offensive. During that period 
 it may with truth be affirmed that the public mind has not for a year 
 been free from the most painful solicitude. Peace indeed has long fled 
 from our borders, and discontent and alarm are everywhere present. 
 Better, far better, it would have been, for the South to engage in deadly 
 conflict with the North, than to have endured the torturing anxiety of 
 an anomalous struggle, the consequences of which are beyond the ken 
 of human prescience. An open war is limited by the causes which pro 
 duce it, but the further continuance of such a war political, religious, 
 and social as has been waged by one party against the other, and in 
 which a strictly defensive attitude has unwaveringly been preserved by 
 the weaker, would falsify and dishonor the history of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race. Whatever may be said by the demagogue and the fanatic, it is 
 our pride and high privilege to declare that the unexampled forbear 
 ance of the South is referable solely to its unaffected devotion to the 
 compact of 89 and the principles of constitutional liberty. 
 
 As soon as the message of Governor Seabrook had been 
 read to the House, Mr. Memminger offered the following 
 resolutions, which were ordered to be considered imme 
 diately, and were agreed to: 
 
 Whereas, it becomes a Christian people at all times to look to the 
 King of kings for guidance, but more especially in seasons of trial and 
 difficulty; and, whereas, the enactments of the last Congress of the 
 United States have destroyed the equal rights of the Southern States, 
 have invaded the peace and security of our homes, and must lead to an 
 overthrow of the existing order of things; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we recommend to the people of South Carolina to set 
 apart Friday, the 6th of December, as a day of fasting and humiliation, 
 and that the reverend clergy throughout the State be invited to assem 
 ble their respective congregations on that day to unite in prayer to 
 Almighty God that He may direct and aid this General Assembly in 
 
200 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 devising such means as will conduce to the best interests and welfare of 
 our beloved State. 
 
 2. Eesolved, That religious services and a sermon appropriate to the 
 occasion be had in the hall of the House of Representatives, and that 
 a fitting clergyman be invited to officiate. 
 
 3. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed on the part of 
 this House, and that a message be sent to the Senate proposing the 
 appointment of a like committee to meet the committee of this House, 
 for the purpose of carrying into effect these resolutions. 
 
 No one could have more fully appreciated the momentous 
 character of the proceedings, which Mr. Memminger knew 
 would make this session of the Legislature the most impor 
 tant of the many in which he had served as the faithful 
 representative of an intelligent constituency. He was not 
 recognizing a mere form, or was he simply respecting a cus 
 tom among Christian people, when he offered the foregoing 
 preamble and resolutions. As a sincere Christian believer 
 one who all through his life feared God, who accepted the 
 Bible as His revealed will, and who trusted in His omniscient 
 care and mercy, he desired His divine guidance under cir 
 cumstances which manifestly threatened the peace of the 
 country and the happiness of his people. 
 
 The sermon referred to in these resolutions was delivered 
 by the Rev. Whiteford Smith, D. D., an eloquent and learned 
 clergyman of the Methodist Church. It must have been a 
 discourse of great power, so fully meeting the suggestions of 
 the occasion that by a resolution of the House twenty-five 
 thousand copies were ordered to be printed. 
 
 At no time in the previous history of the State, unless it 
 be that in which the Nullification measures were under dis 
 cussion, was there a more wide-spread or a deeper feeling of 
 resistance to the action of Congress and the procedures of 
 the abolitionists, as the adherents of the Free-Soil party were 
 generally known. 
 
 Secession from the Union was not only freely discussed 
 as a right, but it was now demanded by its advocates as the 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 201 
 
 only remedy for existing grievances. The large majority of 
 the people did not deny the right, and were only divided 
 among themselves as to the expediency of asserting it by the 
 separate action of the State. Those who were the advocates 
 of immediate and separate State action, from the vehement 
 and fiery appeals made by them to the people, came to be 
 known as " Fire-Eaters. " They wished to dissolve at once 
 all connection with the Federal Union and declare South 
 Carolina an independent republic. There was a larger and 
 more conservative class of citizens, who, while they admit 
 ted the grievances complained of and did not deny the right 
 of the State to withdraw from the Union and assume at 
 pleasure a sovereignty, which had only been delegated, yet 
 they were opposed to the policy of separate State action as 
 being inexpedient and unwise. They desired the Southern, 
 or slave-holding States, to act together, united in a common 
 cause and impelled by a common interest. There was also 
 a small party who were for preserving the Union of the 
 States under any and all circumstances men, who, like 
 Mr. Petigru, believed that the Union was stronger than 
 slavery, and that there could be no remedy for the evils 
 they recognized to exist outside of the compromise legisla 
 tion of Congress. These had generally been Federalists and 
 Whigs, but were now known as Unionists. 
 
 The address to the people of the Southern States issued 
 by the Mississippi Convention, and the call for a Southern 
 Congress made by the convention at Nashville, produced a 
 great excitement throughout the country. There was scarcely 
 a meeting of the people held for any purpose but reference 
 was made to the action of Congress, and the secession of the 
 State either advocated or opposed. It may be readily in 
 ferred that much of this excitement was brought from the 
 hustings into the legislative assembly of 1850, the delegates 
 to- which being chosen under the influences of the debates 
 
202 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 upon this all-absorbing subject. Mr. Memminger was, from 
 the deliberate convictions of his judgment, opposed to sepa 
 rate State action, and was among the leaders of the " Co-ope 
 ration Party," who hoped that in a general Congress of the 
 Southern States there could be such action taken as would 
 remedy the grievances of which the South had just reason 
 to complain, and who deprecated secession as the sure means 
 of provoking civil war. He held, with Mr. Calhoun, that 
 the relations existing between the several States were de 
 fined in the Constitution of the Union as a compact of agree 
 ment, which one or more might have the right to withdraw 
 from; but that the other States, as parties to this compact, 
 had the right to determine for themselves the question as to 
 whether the seceding State or States had sufficient grounds 
 to withdraw from the compact of association, and by coer 
 cive measures, if deemed necessary, to force the seceding 
 State to remain a party to the co-partnership or confedera 
 tion in the event that they should determine that the com 
 pact had been broken without just and sufficient cause. In 
 other words, that while secession from the Union was a right, 
 it was a revolutionary right, and, under the circumstances 
 then investing the State of South Carolina, would result in 
 war. Assured of this, the question of grave consideration 
 with Mr. Memminger was, is the State ready to meet the 
 consequences of secession? is South Carolina prepared in 
 resources to maintain her right of secession if it should be 
 resisted? 
 
 Believing that in a Congress of the Southern States such 
 measures could be instituted as would bring about either an 
 adjustment of the causes of complaint or secure the co-ope 
 ration of all of the Southern States in the act of secession, 
 Mr. Memminger, at an early period in the discussion of the 
 bill to call a convention of the people, introduced the fol 
 lowing preamble and order: 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 203 
 
 Whereas the convention of the slave-holding States lately held in 
 Nashville hath recommended the meeting of a Southern Congress; and, 
 whereas, the State of Mississippi hath taken such action thereupon as 
 will necessarily postpone the meeting of said Congress beyond the day 
 appointed by the Constitution for the reassembling of this General As 
 sembly in November next; and, whereas, it is proper that the meeting 
 of the Southern Congress should precede any action of a convention of 
 the people of this State; therefore, it is ordered, That the further con 
 sideration of the bill before this House providing for the call of a con 
 vention of the people of this State, be postponed until the Monday next 
 ensuing the first day of the session of this General Assembly in Novem 
 ber next. 
 
 This order was not agreed to, the vote being forty-seven 
 to seventy-four. It now became manifest that the House 
 was determined to call a convention. Several bills having 
 this object in view and providing for the election of delegates 
 to a Southern Congress were introduced and discussed at 
 length. Finally these were all embodied in a substitute 
 presented by Mr. James H. Campbell, providing for the 
 appointment of a certain number of delegates by the Legis 
 lature, and the election of others by the people, who should 
 represent South Carolina in a convention or congress to be 
 held at such time and place as the States desiring to be rep 
 resented may designate; and, furthermore, providing for a 
 convention of the people of South Carolina, at Columbia, at 
 such time as the Governor may appoint. 
 
 Upon the adjournment of the Legislature the all-absorbing 
 subject brought before the people was that of secession. 
 Candidates were soon announced for the office of delegate to 
 the Southern Congress, and the issue fairly made as to 
 whether South Carolina should withdraw from the Union 
 alone, or wait until she could secure the co-operation of her 
 sister Southern States. There had never been known so 
 great an excitement among the people of the State. Mass 
 meetings of citizens were held in the several districts, and 
 the people addressed at length by speakers who were either 
 secessionists or co-operationists. At the solicitation of the 
 
204 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Conservative party at Greenville and at Pendleton, Mr. 
 Memminger visited these places in the spring and summer 
 of 1851, delivering at each place an address, which was con 
 strued by the extreme Secessionists as being in advocacy of 
 separate State action. Considering that the reports of these 
 addresses were misrepresentations of his real convictions, on 
 his return to Charleston, in the month of September, Mr. 
 Memminger delivered an address at a public meeting of the 
 friends of Co-operation, called for the purpose of nominating 
 delegates to the Southern Congress. This address was one 
 of great force, and had much to do in arresting the tide of 
 passion which appeared to be bearing on its flood the desti 
 nies of the State. Many copies of it were printed by the 
 Executive Committee of the Co-operation Party, and widely 
 distributed throughout the State. I reproduce it here as 
 presenting the state of feeling not only, but as giving to the 
 reader the argument, which was then strong enough to over 
 come the advocates of separate and immediate State action. 
 
 Fellow Citizens, I rise to move the adoption of the address and nomi 
 nation which has just been submitted. I rejoice that the committee 
 have united in recommending two gentlemen, so well known to us, by a 
 life of public service and of devotion to the public interest. In the stake 
 which they have in the community, and in their common sympathies 
 and opinions, we feel they are thoroughly united with us, and to their 
 integrity and zeal for the public good, we can safely entrust our dear 
 est interests. 
 
 It may not have occurred to all who hear me that this election is of 
 great importance to our State. Casual observation might lead to the 
 belief that inasmuch as this Congress will probably never meet, it is 
 useless to make any selection as to the men who are to be its nominal 
 members. But let it be borne in mind that a convention of the people 
 of this State has been ordered by the Legislature, which will probably 
 meet before any further expression can be had of the public voice. The 
 delegates to this convention have been elected by a mere fragment of 
 the people, at a time when they were not aware of the momentous 
 issues before them. This convention will undertake to decide the 
 gravest question ever brought before a people, namely the change of 
 the whole frame-work of government ; and not only this, but the equally 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 205 
 
 grave, if not graver question, whether a new nation shall take her place 
 among the nations of the world. Upon these great questions, which of 
 you fellow-citizens had made up your minds when you voted for dele 
 gates ? Nay, how many of you voted at all ? The delegates elected 
 represent about one-fourth of the voters of our district, and many of 
 them do not represent more than three or four hundred voters out of 
 three thousand. 
 
 The same small minorities elected delegates in nearly every district 
 in the State, and a convention thus created is about to seal our destiny. 
 The present election furnishes the only probable opportunity before the 
 meeting of this convention for the people to declare their will. It has 
 been loudly asserted that a majority of our people are in favor of imme 
 diate secession from the Union, and both parties have turned to this 
 election to assertain the fact. You will perceive then at once that if 
 the advocates of secession elect the members to the Southern Congress, 
 it will confirm this assertion and in all probability will induce them to 
 carry out their measure as speedily as the convention can be assembled. 
 You are, therefore, in fact now determining the question whether South 
 Carolina shall at once secede alone from the Union. 
 
 In deciding this question it is important that all barriers should be 
 removed, which prevent you from looking directly into its whole merits. 
 One of the most formidable of these barriers is an impression that the 
 State stands committed by pledges to take separate action, which as 
 men of honor her citizens are bound to redeem. Let us, therefore, in the 
 first place examine the facts, and see how and to what extent the State 
 stands committed. 
 
 TVe will go back as far as 1848, although that date is two years ahead 
 of the late action of Congress. At the session of the Legislature in 
 December, 1848, the following report and resolutions contain the action 
 to which the State was pledged : 
 
 [Extracts from the Reports and Resolutions, 1818, p. 147, Joint Committee on Federal 
 
 Relations.] 
 
 In the House of Representatives, December 12, 1848, the Joint Com 
 mittee of the Senate and House of Representatives upon Federal Rela 
 tions, to whom were referred so much of the Governor s message as re 
 lates to the agitation of slavery and sundry resolutions upon the same 
 subject, beg leave to report the following resolutions as expressing the 
 undivided opinion of this Legislature upon the Wilmot proviso, and all 
 similar violations of the great principle of equality, which South Caro 
 lina has so long and so ardently maintained should govern the action of 
 the States and the laws of Congress upon all matters affecting the 
 rights and interests of any member of this Union., 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That the time for discussion by the slave- 
 holding States as to their exclusion from the territory recently acquired 
 
206 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEM. 
 
 from Mexico has passed, and that this General Assembly, representing 
 the feelings of the State of South Carolina, is prepared to co-operate with 
 her sister States in resisting the application of the principles of the Wil- 
 mot proviso to such territory at an^ and every hazard. 
 
 Kesolved, unanimously, That the Governor be requested to transmit 
 a copy of this report to the Governors of each of the States of this Union 
 and to our Senators and Representatives in the Congress of the United 
 States. 
 
 Mark the words : " South Carolina is prepared to co-operate with her 
 sister States." This is the whole extent of our pledge in 1S4S. 
 
 In 1849 the subject was brought before the Legislature by the Gov 
 ernor, and each house had a report from its own committee, and it is 
 quite remarkable that in each separate report separate State action is 
 not once alluded to, but each recommends concert of action with the 
 other States of the South. Read the reports for yourselves, which, for 
 your information, I have copied verbatim from the record. 
 
 [Extracts from the Reports and Resolutions, 1849, pp. 312, 313, 314.J 
 In the Senate, December 13, 1849 : The Committee on Federal Rela 
 tions, to whom was referred so much of the message of his Excellency 
 the Governor as relates to the recommendation of the people of the 
 State of Mississippi for a convention of the people of the Southern States, 
 to be held in Nashville in June next, and also so much of the message as 
 relates to convening the Legislature of this State in the event of the pas 
 sage by Congress of the AVilmot proviso, or any kindred measure, beg 
 leave to report that they cordially concur with the views expressed by 
 his Excellency the Governor as to the necessity on the part of the South 
 ern people of a united action against the encroachments upon their 
 domestic institutions and their condition of equality in this confederacy 
 by the people of the North and by the Congress of the United States, and 
 rejoice with him in the lofty and dignified position assumed by the peo 
 ple of the State of Mississippi against any such infractions of the compro 
 mises of the Constitution, and the appeal which she has made to the peo 
 ple of her sister States of the South to unite with her in common counsel 
 against common aggression. The committee are of the opinion expressed 
 by this Legislature, at its last session, that the period of decisive action 
 has arrived, and that the authorities of South Carolina should be pre 
 pared promptly to take such steps as the other States of the South shall 
 recommend and her own position demands. The committee, therefore, 
 in conformity with their own opinions, and, as they believe, with the 
 expressed and understood wishes of this Legislature and of the people 
 of the whole State, recommend for adoption the following resolutions: 
 Resolved, That in the event of the passage by Congress of the AVilmot 
 proviso, or any kindred measures, that his Excellency the Governor be 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 207 
 
 requested to forthwith convene the Legislature, in order to take such 
 steps as the rights, interests and honor of this State and of the whole 
 South shall demand. 
 
 Eesolved, That the Senate do agree to the report. 
 
 Ordered, That it be sent the House of Representatives for concur 
 rence. 
 
 By order. W. E. MARTIN, C. S. 
 
 In the House of Representatives, December 19, 1849: 
 
 Resolved, That the House do concur in the report. 
 
 Ordered, That it be returned to the Senate. 
 
 By order. T. W. GLOVER, C. II. R. 
 
 In the House of Representatives, December 18, 1849 : The Committee 
 on Federal Relations, to whom was referred so much of the Governor s 
 message as relates to the recommendation to the Southern States, by a 
 convention of the people of Mississippi, to send delegates to meet at 
 Nashville to consult in common upon common rights, with a view to 
 unity of action. 
 
 And, also, so much of the message as relates to the convening of the 
 Legislature upon the Wilmot proviso, or any kindred measure, becom 
 ing a law of Congress, report that the people of this State entertain an 
 ardent desire and fixed determination to resist the lawless and unjust 
 encroachments of Congress on the rights of the South, and have pledged 
 themselves, through their legislatures, to co-operate with the other 
 Southern States in opposition to all such measures. They, therefore, 
 concur with his Excellency in the belief that South Carolina hails with 
 delight the proffer by the people of Mississippi of meeting, by delegates, 
 in common counsels, at Nashville, and will heartily and promptly send 
 delegates there to represent them; that they concur, also, with his 
 Excellency in the propriety of calling together the Legislature should 
 any such contingency occur, as is alluded to by his Excellency, and 
 therefore recommend the adoption of the following resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That should the Wilmot proviso, or any kindred measure, 
 become a law of Congress, the Governor is hereby earnestly requested 
 to call together the Legislature, should it not be in session at the time 
 of the passage of such law. 
 
 Resolved, That the House do agree to the report. 
 
 Ordered, That it be sent to the Senate for concurrence. 
 
 By order. 
 
 T. W. GLOVER, C. H. R. 
 
 In Senate, December 19, 1849 : 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate do concur in the report. 
 
 Ordered, That it be returned to the House of Representatives. 
 
 By order, 
 
 W, E. MARTIN, C. S, 
 
208 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 It is important to observe how carefully the Senate insist upon "the 
 necessity, on the part of the Southern people, of a united action against 
 the encroachments of the North," and declare this State to be prepared 
 " promptly to take such steps as the other States of the South shall 
 recommend." With equal care the House of Eepresentatives declares 
 that " the people of this State have pledged themselves, through their 
 legislatures, to co-operate with the other Southern States in opposition 
 to all such measures." 
 
 Here, then, are all the pledges of South Carolina. They are distinct 
 and definite for co-operation with our sister States of the South. Not 
 one word is there of separate State action or secession. 
 
 The proceedings of the session of 1850 strengthen this view of the 
 subject. At this session no resolutions were adopted, but several lead 
 ing measures distinctly evince the position of the State. The first of 
 these measures was the act calling a convention and Southern Congress. 
 The preamble to this act, as well as its provisions, manifestly speak the 
 views of the Legislature. 
 
 The act is entitled, an act to provide for the appointment of Depu 
 ties to a Southern Congress, and to call a Convention of the people of 
 this State ; and here is its preamble : 
 
 "Whereas, the convention of the slave-holding States, lately assem 
 bled at Nashville, have recommended to the said States to meet in Con 
 gress or Convention, to be held at such time and place as the States de 
 siring to be represented may designate, to be composed of double the 
 number of their Senators and Eepresentatives in the Congress of the 
 United States, entrusted with full power and authority to deliberate 
 with the view and intention of arresting further aggressions, and, if 
 possible, of restoring the constitutional rights of the South; and, if not, 
 to recommend due provision for their future safety and independence." 
 
 And what is the declared object of this convention ? By the terms of 
 the act itself, it is assembled " for the purpose, in the first place, of tak 
 ing into consideration the proceedings and recommendations of a Con 
 gress of the slave-holding States, if the same shall meet and beheld; 
 and for the further purpose of taking into consideration the general 
 welfare of this State, in view of her relations to the laws and govern 
 ment of the United States, and, thereupon, to take care that the Com 
 monwealth of South Carolina shall suffer no detriment." 
 
 Is it in the power of human ingenuity, with these proceedings open 
 before you, to persuade you now that South Carolina is pledged to seces 
 sion? Nay, is it not most clear that she is pledged exactly to the re 
 verse to concert and union with her sister States? 
 
 If there were any doubt remaining, it would be dispelled by the fact 
 that when the Legislature elected, at the last session, the delegates who 
 were to represent the State at large in this Southern Congress, they 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 209 
 
 elected R. W. Barnwell, Langdon Cheves, Wade Hampton, and John P. 
 Richardson, all of whom, at the time, were supposed to be opposed to 
 separate secession, and three of whom still maintain the same opinions. 
 
 While we have before us these same records of the action and pledges 
 of our State, let us examine another of the statements by which the 
 secession party have misled the people. Those who oppose secession are 
 continually traduced as insincere in their professions of resistance ; the 
 people are told everywhere that the Co-operation party are mere time- 
 servers, disguised submissionists, and that Secessionists alone are the 
 real active movers of resistance. Let us test the professions of both 
 parties by their practice, and we shall arrive at more just conclusions. 
 At the last, session of the Legislature three practical measures were 
 brought forward which were deemed necessary to resistance in any form. 
 The first of these was the raising of money by increase of the taxes ; 
 the second, the formation of a board for judiciously expending the 
 money; and, the third, the building of steam-packets for creating a 
 direct trade with Europe, and providing the State with armed steamers 
 to assist in defending her coast. 
 
 You are, of course, prepared to expect that these measures were 
 introduced and urged by the secession leaders ; what will be your sur 
 prise to learn that, they were all introduced by co-operation men, and 
 two of them were actually opposed by several of the most prominent 
 secession men ; and if this opposition had been successful, the third 
 would have failed, because it depended upon one of the others. 
 
 The increase of taxes was proposed by myself, and in and out of the 
 House it was urged as incumbent on South Carolina, where alone the 
 resistance party had possession of the government, to provide arms and 
 munitions of war, not only for herself, but for the confederates which 
 we expected soon to have from the South. It had been urged by the 
 Union party in several of our sister States that in case of conflict with 
 the general government, there was not powder enough in the whole 
 South to supply a single engagement. Nay, some of you may remember 
 that even in South Carolina the Governor had replied to a company at 
 Walterborough that he was unable to supply them with arms. To meet 
 these exigencies, to encourage our friends in the South, and to exhibit 
 to our enemies at the North a spirit of determination which could not be 
 put down, we urged an increase of the taxes. Let the record speak what 
 followed. I have copied the following from the Journal (page 221) : 
 
 " Mr. Harrison moved to reduce the tax on lands from fifty-three to 
 twenty-five cents. Mr. Memminger moved to lay the amendment on the 
 table yeas 74, nays 38. Among the nays are the following names- 
 Messrs. Abney, Easley, Evins, Harrison, Hutson, Ingram, Lyles, Moor 
 man," etc. Those acquainted with the names will recognize among the 
 nays the active legislative leaders of the secession party. 
 
210 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 You will see still further into these matters by examining the legis 
 lative action upon another practical measure of the last session. This 
 was the bill for aiding in establishing a direct trade by steam-packets 
 with Europe, in which was a clause giving the aid of the State to this 
 enterprise on condition that the steamers should be so built as to be 
 available to the State for war purposes, and should be sold to the State 
 in case they were required. This measure was introduced by Colonel 
 Chesnut, of Camden, who is now the Co-operation candidate for the 
 Southern Congress from the Third Congressional District. It was re 
 ported by the committee of which I have the honor to be chairman ; and 
 when it came before the House the following proceedings took place. 
 
 House Journal, p. 163 : " B. F. Perry moved to strike out the nine 
 teenth clause and those following (which granted the aid of the State 
 and required the steamers to be so constructed as to be made available 
 for war purposes). Yeas 41, nays 60. Among the yeas are the following 
 Messrs. Abney, Hutson, Keitt, Moorman, Sullivan," etc. 
 
 Now when it is considered that these were the practical measures 
 which clearly exhibited to all the world our determination to provide 
 for our defense, and that the establishment of a direct trade with Europe 
 by steamers was in every aspect an effective measure of resistance, it is 
 not surprising that Mr. Perry, of Greenville, should have opposed it, but 
 to find the secession leaders joining with him to oppose the first nucleus 
 of maritime defense, the first beginnings of practical resistance, will 
 doubtless surprise you as much as it did us. 1 
 
 I have thus laid before you, fellow-citizens, the highest evidence pos 
 sible; and if anyone shall again speak to you of the pledges of the 
 State, or of the submissive temper of the Co-operation men, you can 
 reply that the State is indeed pledged, but that the pledge is to co-ope 
 ration and against separate action ; and as to the comparison between 
 the active zeal of the two parties, you can safely appeal to the acts of 
 those who represent your views ; the record will speak for them, and will 
 
 1 NOTE. The other practical measure, appointing a Board of Ordnance, was introduced 
 by Mr. Torre, of Charleston, one of the firmest advocates of co-operation, and opposed to se 
 cession. The yeas and nays not appearing on this measure in the Journal, I made no note of 
 it, and it thus escaped my attention in my speech. I also omitted to notice that I had myself 
 submitted to the House the following resolutions to indicate my view of the course to be pur 
 sued by the State : 
 
 " In the House of Representatives, December 10, 1850, Mr. Memminger submitted the fol 
 lowing resolutions : 
 
 "1. Resolved, That the proposal of the Nashville Convention that the slave-holding 
 States shall meet iii a Southern Congress, is accepted by South Carolina, and this General As 
 sembly will forthwith provide for the appointment of deputies to the same. 
 
 "2. Resolved, That two hundred thousand dollars be appropriated for the purpose of 
 arming and defending the State. 
 
 "3. Resolved, That a police system be established for protecting our people, bond and 
 free, from the evil designs of Northern emissaries and abolitionists." 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1853. 211 
 
 relieve you from the necessity of being heralds of your own achieve 
 ments. 
 
 While engaged in this task of clearing away cobwebs, allow me to 
 ask your attention for a moment to a matter personal to myself. I am 
 sorry to detain you upon so humble a subject, while matters of so much 
 more moment await our consideration ; but as the opposite party have 
 thought it worthy of their attention, it becomes needful to set it right. 
 I observe that the Secession party have done me the honor to publish 
 my speech delivered at Pendleton last fall, as one of their tracts, and 
 thereby inferentially to claim my sanction to their measures. I pre 
 sume this honor to have been procured by the last short paragraph of 
 the speech, in which it is declared that if all the South shall refuse to 
 unite with us, and we be left to choose between submission and resist 
 ance, I, for one, would prefer to secede from the Union. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind that I was speaking of the action of States 
 in whose history years are but as days to individuals that the whole 
 drift of the speech is to commend resistance, and to show that a South 
 ern Confederacy is the true and practicable and desirable mode. The 
 example of the revolution is then held up for imitation, in which, be it 
 remembered, that more than ten years were consumed in procuring con 
 cert of action ; and then it is declared that if such concert cannot be 
 had, I would prefer martyrdom to self-destruction. By what reasonable 
 interpretation could this justify an abandonment of the effort at co-ope 
 ration in a single year, and that too when the Secessionists have them 
 selves prevented the steps necessary to procure it. 
 
 You yourselves know, fellow-citizens, that in a speech delivered be 
 fore you upon hearing of the death of Mr. Calhoun, I urged you to ac 
 cept the legacy which he had left us of resistance according to his views, 
 and strongly urged upon you the example and measures of the Ameri 
 can Revolution. If in my speech at Pendleton I was unguarded in not 
 including the element of time, it was because I spoke as many of our 
 friends, the Secessionists, still do, under the impulse of deep-felt wrongs. 
 I was urging on the mountain population to resist injustice, the pres 
 sure of which was less realized where few slaves existed; and under 
 these feelings words were not carefully weighed, nor possible miscon 
 structions guarded against. But now that the matter is under sober 
 consideration, now that I am told what use is made of the language, I 
 unhesitatingly declare that be the language what it may, my deliberate 
 judgment is against the separate secession of South Carolina. I have 
 an abiding confidence that the slave-holding States will co-operate with 
 each other, and that a union of the South will be formed in spite of 
 every obstacle ; and these views I urged upon the last Legislature when 
 I opposed the call of a convention. I have no sympathy with that con 
 sistency which adheres to an opinion merely because it has been once 
 expressed; the only consistency which I aim at,. is that of right 
 
212 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Be all this, therefore, as it may, the true inquiry now to be made, is 
 as to the fitness and expediency of the policy to be pursued by the peo 
 ple of South Carolina. Shall we secede alone from the Union and set 
 up as an independent nation, or shall we adopt measures to bring about 
 a union of the South ? 
 
 To determine this question we must examine what are the existing 
 evils for which these measures are proposed as remedies. It is agreed 
 on all hands that the true evil pressing against us, is that the Federal 
 government has been perverted from its original foundation to become 
 an engine of attack upon African slavery, and thus threatens destruc 
 tion to the civilization and social institutions of the South. The first 
 blow has been struck in despoiling us of our equal share of the territory 
 conquered by our united arms and purchased by our common funds; 
 and the object intended by the Wilmot proviso of hemming in slavery 
 and preventing any increase of the slave power, has been in fact con 
 summated in California. It has been long foreseen by our wisest states 
 men, and by none more clearly than by that great and faithful cham 
 pion of the South whose ashes repose in our city and whose counsels 
 should be engraven on our memories, that there exists an irreconcilable 
 difference between the North and the South, which soon or late must 
 come to issue. The area upon which their respective institutions should 
 be developed, has hitherto been the field of battle. New States were 
 formed from this area, and upon their introduction on one side the other 
 endeavored immediately to bring forward a counterpoise. In this way 
 the issue has been postponed as it were by repeated truces, and it was 
 hoped by many that the Missouri compromise would form a line of per 
 manent peace. And so it would have done with the South. The North 
 would not abide by it. But power and fanaticism are always aggressive; 
 and the Wilmot proviso was devised as a means of finally overpowering 
 the South. It simply provided that slavery should be excluded from all 
 newly acquired territory ; and the result must follow that every new 
 State would belong to the North. Thus they would acquire the entire 
 control of the government, and according to their views of the Constitu 
 tion, over the destinies and fortunes of the South. 
 
 The stupendous fraud by which the whole Pacific coast was included 
 in a single State, was compensated to the North by a second fraud, 
 whereby slavery was excluded from all this region, and California was 
 admitted into the Union with precisely the same result as would have 
 followed had the Wilmot proviso been originally adopted. Of course 
 the North was content; they can divide it at their leisure into other 
 States, and with the aid of new votes in the Senate, can dispose of the 
 remaining territories of the United States at their pleasure. The evil 
 is accomplished it is indeed of fearful magnitude. But where is the 
 remedy ? 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 213 
 
 The Secessionists say leave the Union and set up for ourselves the 
 independent nation of South Carolina. How will this give us back our 
 right in California? Plow will it give us our portion of Utah, or New 
 Mexico, or any new territory to be acquired ? How will it enable us to 
 expand in Texas and send our surplus population or our slave institu 
 tions to increase the area and power of slavery? And more than all 
 this, how will it give peace and security in future to the institutions and 
 civilization of the South ? 
 
 On the other hand, the Co-operationists propose to unite the South in 
 a common cause, and to demand for themselves equality in the Union or 
 independence out of it. They propose to demand a restoration of their 
 equal share of California, a participation in the remaining territory of 
 the Union, and security from their co-States for the peaceful enjoyment 
 of their rights; and if these be refused, as they have reason to fear they 
 will be, then that the whole South should form an independent confed 
 eracy and protect and defend themselves as best they can. 
 
 The mere statement of these two plans so completely determines the 
 mind in favor of the latter that the Secession party itself is forced to 
 defend secession as being the best means of producing a union and co 
 operation of the South. Therefore, the first inquiry we shall make is, 
 whether this be so? Will the separate secession of South Carolina 
 conduce to the union and co-operation of the South ? 
 
 What is secession from the Union ? It is departing from the Union ; 
 leaving the company of the States which compose that Union ; and as 
 the Southern States form part of that company, we abandon them in 
 common with the rest. Secession is, therefore, the opposite of co-opera- 
 tfon, and yet we are told that to leave a society is the best mode of pro 
 ducing concert with those who are thus abandoned. The mere state 
 ment of such a proposition seems to decide it. 
 
 But let us examine it more in detail. Secession must either be 
 peaceful or attended with war. Suppose it peaceful. Suppose the gen 
 eral government to withdraw all objection and South Carolina to be 
 peacefully established as a separate nation. How will that conduce to 
 the union of the South? I will hereafter consider how such a condition 
 will affect South Carolina herself. Our present inquiry is limited to its 
 effect upon the other Southern States. 
 
 Each one of the Southern States has definitely evinced its determina 
 tion not to leave the Union for existing grievances. Although some of 
 them are deeply discontent, yet have they all determined to remain in 
 the Union in preference to leaving it now and establishing a new con 
 federacy. What is to change this determination? Are we to suppose 
 that they entertain so high a sense of the wisdom of South Carolina that 
 her judgment will over-rule their own ? Let any man cross the Savan 
 nah river, and if he ever entertained so high a conceit of his own State, 
 
214 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGE&. 
 
 he will soon find that Georgia at least does not concur fti it. Test the 
 matter by seeing how far the opinion and judgment of the State of 
 Georgia has influenced us. She has determined, by an overwhelming 
 vote in a convention solemnly called, that she deems it wisest to remain 
 in the Union. Has this decision convinced us or induced us to adopt it ? 
 How then are we to expect that our convention will produce a greater 
 effect upon them ? 
 
 Is the measure of secession itself, if peaceably carried out, calculated 
 to overcome the repugnance of Georgia or the other Southern States ? 
 The secession leaders gravely propose that our ports shall be opened to 
 free trade, and that South Carolina shall become a great den of compe 
 tition for smugglers from the adjacent States. How is such a scheme 
 likely to be received by all those engaged in fair trade in the Southern 
 States ? Would it not rouse every honest trader throughout the South ? 
 Could Savannah, and Augusta, and Wilmington, and Mobile, and New 
 Orleans allow such a condition of things to continue, and would those 
 who endeavor to force it upon them be regarded by the sufferers as 
 friends with whom they are to join in concert ? Human nature must 
 change before measures of this kind can have any other effect than to 
 deepen hatred and widen breaches. 
 
 But let us take the other alternative the alternative which is far 
 more likely to occur. Suppose secession should not be peaceful, and that 
 war, or measures of quasi war, should be adopted, would co-operation 
 and union of the South be more likely to occur? 
 
 We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the United States govern 
 ment is in possession of the forts which command our harbor. There 
 they are, and the flag which floats over them contains the stars and the 
 stripes which Georgia, and Alabama and Mississippi yet claim as their 
 flag. When South Carolina secedes and becomes an independent nation, 
 I do not doubt that the valor of her sons will not permit a foreign flag to 
 wave over her territory. The forts will be attacked. They will be sub 
 dued at a cost, however, of many of her valued sons a cost the more 
 dear, as unfortunately it will bring us no relief. The flag which now 
 floats over these forts will trail the dust ; but whose flag will that be ? 
 Georgia, and Alabama, and Mississippi, and North Carolina, and 
 Virginia, and Tennessee, and Kentucky, and Florida, and Louis 
 iana and Arkansas each claim one of those stars ; each has a com 
 mon pride in that flag; each has her honor floating in its stripes; each 
 feels a wound when that banner has been struck. And you are told that 
 a blow like this will lead to sympathy and co-operation. Georgia is to 
 call a convention while smarting under the shame of wounded pride, 
 and follow a lead which in her kindliest moments she has distrusted. 
 Alabama and Mississippi are to come alongside of us then, and to take 
 part in defending, by force of arms, those schemes which at present even 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 215 
 
 the suspicion of favoring has caused them to repudiate their most trusted 
 and popular leaders. 
 
 But, it is said, that no sooner will South Carolina have moved than 
 thousands of volunteers will come to her aid from the adjoining States. 
 Suppose that to be true, what we are now considering is not the main 
 tenance by South Carolina of her separate nationality, but the like 
 lihood of the union of the South. What we need is the concert of the 
 State governments in forming a new confederacy. The fact that some 
 thousand volunteers would come to our aid, no more advances this end 
 than did the volunteers under Lopez prove that the States from which 
 they came would go and join with Cuba. The State of Georgia has in 
 convention solemnly determined to adhere to the Union. Suppose the 
 State of South Carolina shall in convention, with equal solemnity., de 
 termine to leave the Union. According to our doctrine, every citizen of 
 South Carolina would be bound by this decision, and would be guilty of 
 treason in opposing it by any overt act. Does not the same conse 
 quence follow in Georgia ? Every Georgian in arms against that Union 
 to which his State has determined to adhere would by the same reason 
 be a traitor to his own State, and consequently every man who would 
 march to the aid of South Carolina must be content to abide all the con 
 sequences of treason to his own State. And this is the position in which 
 we are to place our friends and supporters in the other States. Is it not 
 obvious that such a course must lose them all? While we are with 
 them in .the Union we can meet and counsel and act together as friends. 
 When we leave the Union we are foreigners to them; and counsel or 
 co-operation with us against the voice of their own State is treason, and 
 could not be entertained by honorable men. 
 
 I think, then, it is clear, beyond a doubt, that the secession of South 
 Carolina will not effect the union and co-operation of the South. 
 
 This brings us to the only remaining inquiry. "Will secession by 
 South Carolina alone remedy the evils of which we complain? Will it 
 give us redress for the past or security for the future ? 
 
 1. W T ill it restore our rights in California ? 
 
 Secession abandons the whole property of the Union to the States 
 which are left in possession. It is physically impossible for South Caro 
 lina alone to recover any part. A union of the whole South, either in or 
 out of the Union, could compel a reparation of California, and the estab 
 lishment of the Missouri Line. The friends of Southern rights in other 
 States are still insisting upon this line; it was laid down as the demand 
 of the South by the Nashville convention, and we intend to insist upon 
 it. United action by the South can influence California herself upon 
 this question ; and for South Carolina to retire from the Union alone is 
 not only to withdraw our support from our friends, and thus to weaken 
 the common cause at it s very crisis, but to abandon the whole prize to 
 our enemies. 
 
216 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 2. Will secession relieve us from the injuries, present and future, 
 growing out of the adoption of the Wilmot proviso ? 
 
 I have shown in my speech at Pendleton and Greenville that the 
 Federal government have practically adopted the AVilmot proviso; that 
 it is a mere evasion to put the exclusion of slavery from California 
 upon the people of that State. In my opinion, the government at Wash 
 ington is responsible for it, and I consider it a practical victory obtained 
 by the North, which gives them the mastery over the civilization of the 
 South. They have now the control of the whole government. They 
 have so adjusted the area upon which our institutions are to expand 
 that their political power must increase and ours remain nearly sta 
 tionary. In such a condition of things the final struggle cannot long 
 be postponed. Truces are nearly at an end ; the Missouri treaty has 
 been set aside ; the fugitive slave law is the only olive branch remain 
 ing, and fanaticism will soon wither it with its breath. The great con 
 test must come on which wise statesmen have long foreseen, and the 
 institutions of the South must come in conflict with" the fanaticism 
 and self-interest of the North. At such a time we are invited to divide 
 to separate ourselves from the Southern phalanx to introduce dis 
 sension and discord in the slave-holding camp, and to withdraw from 
 the main body what we believe will prove its Tenth Legion in time of 
 trial. 
 
 In what possible \vay will secession remedy the existing state of 
 things? At present we are excluded from California. But we have 
 Texas and the Indian Territory open to us. By a union of the Southern 
 States we have at present the prospect of extending our institutions in 
 and around the Gulf of Mexico, still farther to the South, and possibly 
 of making that gulf to us what the great lakes are to the North. Cuba 
 lies open before us. Yucatan has once actually called us to their aid. 
 But secession extinguishes all these prospects, and brings the Wilmot 
 proviso close up to the banks of the Savannah river. Our slaves, which 
 now can go to any part of the South, will then be shut up in South Caro 
 lina, and cannot even cross the Savannah river or the North Carolina 
 line. For by secession we become foreign to the other States of the 
 Union, and by their laws it is piracy to introduce slaves from abroad. 
 
 And is it supposed that by leaving the Union w r e escape the dangers 
 which the government of the United States may offer to slavery? Im 
 agine for a moment slavery to be abolished in Georgia and North Caro 
 lina, and what would be its condition in South Carolina? Must it not 
 fall there too? The truth is, that the institution in the United States is 
 a unit, arid every blow dealt upon it in one part must be felt in every 
 other. And it is mainly this which makes our abandonment of the rest 
 of the South so unwise. We have more thoroughly considered this sub 
 ject for it must be confessed that the horror of disunion has in other 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 217 
 
 States prevented them from examining it in all its bearings. We then, 
 instead of instructing, encouraging, supporting, are to abandon our col 
 leagues in the moment of danger, and to leave them weakened and dis 
 pirited by our loss to the machinations of a subtle and uncompromising 
 foe. 
 
 Failing, then, in all these arguments, and driven to the conclusion 
 that their scheme promises neither redress for the past, nor security for 
 the future, as a desperate resort the Secessionists are forced to become 
 prophets, and in this character they assure us that a separate national 
 existence would prove so fortunate to South Carolina that the spectacle 
 of her prosperity would of itself invite and induce the other States to 
 leave the Union and join her. 
 
 It is difficult to foresee the consequences which are to result from any 
 radical change of government. England did not anticipate the rule of 
 Cromwell, nor the return of Charles II. ; nor did France anticipate the 
 despotism of Napoleon, or the iron yoke of the Holy Alliance, at the 
 commencement of their revolutions. Nor can we, accustomed as we 
 are to our free institutions, realize \vhat will be the state of things in a 
 small State like ours, under rulers who must have at their command a 
 standing army, and, perhaps, a navy. It would be no bold prediction, 
 however, to affirm that our liberties would not be increased under the 
 sway of those passions which have lately been exhibited in our State. 
 Where the counsel of a veteran statesman, who had given his whole soul 
 and energies to the common cause, like Langdon Cheves, is listened to 
 only as an act of courtesy in their own leaders, it is not likely that hum 
 bler expostulation would be even tolerated ; and it has already been 
 surmised that to dispute by argument even the measures of those who 
 for the time constitute the State, is a political crime. Men who, at the 
 beginning of a revolution, can associate their peaceful fellow-citizens 
 with the horrors of Moscow, are not likely to become more temperate by 
 the increased excitement of its progress. 
 
 But passing this by, and assuming that a second Washington will be 
 raised up for us to restrain all extravagancies, let us enter upon the ex 
 amination of this separate nationality of South Carolina. 
 
 The declarations of the officers of the government, together with the 
 activity now manifested at the forts, assure us that secession will not be 
 a peaceful remedy. They intend to hold these forts, if they can, and 
 they intend to consider us as in the Union, notwithstanding our seces 
 sion. The experience of the past shows that Congress will confirm these 
 views, and will confer on the government all the power necessary to 
 carry them out. 
 
 A disturbance of the trade of Charleston, and a removal of its active 
 capital, will be the first visible result. The city of Savannah will com 
 plete, in a few months, its connection by railroad with Augusta, and it 
 
218 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 is already in full communication with the interior by Macon. The bulk 
 of our business at Charleston is with Greorgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. 
 It is a fact no less lamentable than true, that South Carolina contributes 
 a small proportion comparatively to the import trade of Charleston. 
 The merchant, therefore, will meet his customers and supply their 
 wants with just as much facility at Savannah as at Charleston . The 
 distance to the interior is the same, the facilities equal ; and the advan 
 tage to Charleston now is, that the capital dwells here. A blockade, 
 however, of Charleston, if it be merely on paper, with the port of Savan 
 nah wide open, would at once transfer the whole of this trade. Com 
 merce is always timid, and at Savannah no difficulty would exist; at 
 Charleston the ingenuity of our adversaries would create many; and 
 the first act which Congress would pass would fill the Savannah river 
 with our trade. 
 
 What, then, would be the condition of our railroads and other public 
 enterprises? In the outset, the transportation of all the trade trans 
 ferred to Savannah would be lost ; and whatsoever should go by railroad 
 to Augusta must stop at the frontier and be entered at some custom 
 house on the other side, as from a foreign port ; and passengers and 
 goods must become subject to all the vexation incident to such visita 
 tion. 
 
 2. The next effect visible would be upon all the trades and business 
 which depend upon commerce. The occupations of many must abso 
 lutely cease within the city ; and the business of all must be greatly 
 diminished. And in regard to the country the extent of injury done 
 must depend upon those over whom we have no control. If Congress 
 should choose to take away from Charleston the privileges of a port of 
 entry, or even without doing this should make other ports more advan 
 tageous, the rice and cotton of the planter would have to bear these 
 burdens or find their way to Savannah or Wilmington. The distur 
 bance which would thus be produced between banks and factors, be 
 tween debtors and creditors, would be of a character which I cannot 
 pretend to foresee. A general result, however, of injury and ruin must 
 follow. 
 
 3. An immense immigration would take place of all those who 
 would prefer to remove their slaves into the extensive territory of the 
 other States, before the final consummation of the secession scheme 
 should prevent them; and afterwards a corresponding depreciation of 
 slave property from the inability to remove them to the other States, 
 which secession would produce. The foreign demand even now is con 
 sidered by the brokers as increasing the price to nearly one hundred 
 dollars a head. The destruction of that demand is a proportionate 
 destruction of value to the whole State. For after secession is consum 
 mated no negro can be removed from South Carolina to the other States 
 of the Union. 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 219 
 
 All these difficulties, great as they are, and many more might be 
 cheerfully encountered, were they compensated by the promotion of 
 the public welfare. But when it shall appear that the state of things 
 from which they arise must involve the country in still deeper distress, 
 they become wholly intolerable. 
 
 4. For the next evil which we will bring to view, as incident to seces 
 sion, is one of the greatest and most fatal. We shall have left the Union 
 because of slavery. We shall, therefore, stand out before the world as 
 the great exponent of that institution. At present, as we too well see, 
 the public opinion of the world is hostile to it; and nations are almost 
 banded together for its destruction. By secession we isolate ourselves 
 from those having the same interests; we divide and weaken the South 
 and we stand out alone before that hostile opinion, exposed by our posi 
 tion, and defenceless from our size. Suppose the philanthropists of 
 Europe should undertake to school us by that same schoolmaster who 
 taught the Chinese that opium-eating was no bad thing, provided the 
 opium came from British Colonies or who taught Kossuth and his 
 companions to learn the principles of government from a Prussian horn 
 book what would be our condition? The great object cf all govern 
 ment is protection; and where the government itself is too feeble to 
 protect from wrong, it falls into contempt; and to us who have hitherto 
 enjoyed the proud privileges of American citizens, no government could 
 command our own respect which could not command the respect of other 
 nations. 
 
 5. And if to secure our extensive coast from invasion, or our com 
 merce from insult, or our slaves from capture, we undertook to keep up 
 an army and navy, this would involve us in still more serious difficul 
 ties. I am unable to say what amount of expenditure would be re 
 quired for us under such circumstances. But, judging by other coun 
 tries, four millions annually would probably be required. Where could 
 even half that amount be procured ? At present our taxes are $300,000. 
 If the remainder is to be made up by direct taxes, we can at once see 
 where that would lead. It could not be made up by commerce while 
 the Federal government was disputing our right to secede. As this 
 state of things would certainly last for several years, whence during 
 that time would the means be derived for carrying on the government 
 of South Carolina? According to the plans of the Secessionists we 
 should have hosts of volunteers from other States to assist them. As 
 guests these must be supported, and that too with no stint. According 
 to the army estimate it takes an average of $400 per man to support the 
 establishment, and at this rate 5,000 of these guests would cost us the 
 moderate sum of two millions a year, without any allowance of the 
 proper douceurs and rewards which such defenders might reasonably 
 expect, or might feel entitled to help themselves to; and should we 
 succeed in mastering the power of the United States and establishing 
 
220 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 our independence, whence would be derived the revenues necessary to 
 maintain the independent nation of South Carolina? The Secessionists 
 answer, by duties on imports. Then, of course, they do not propose that 
 South Carolina shall be the flourishing emporium of free trade, which 
 others of the Secessionists picture to the people. 
 
 If duties are levied on goods imported into South Carolina, only such 
 goods will be imported as will be consumed in South Carolina; for if 
 goods thus imported should attempt to cross the line into the other 
 States the laws of the United States would stop them and exact the duty 
 which is required there. Hence goods imported into Georgia or North 
 Carolina through South Carolina would pay a duty twice, when, if im 
 ported by Savannah or Wilmington, they would pay but once. It fol 
 lows, then, that the whole expenses of our separate nationality must 
 come out of the goods consumed by ourselves, and consequently would 
 bear upon the people exactly as if they were raised by direct taxes. 
 The only difference is the disguise. 
 
 But this is not all. A very large portion of the goods consumed by 
 the people of this State pay no duties at all. The tariff operates to raise 
 prices only where there is competition between domestic and foreign 
 supply. But where domestic competition entirely excludes the foreign 
 article and reduces the price below that at which the foreign article 
 could be imported, clear of duty, it is manifest that the duty is a dead 
 letter. Now a very large portion of the consumption of the South is of 
 this character. Shoes, hats, butter, hay, coarse cottons, horses, mules, 
 and thousands of other articles consume millions of dollars of the annual 
 income of the South, and are imported at present into South Carolina 
 without any duty. Do the Secessionists propose to tax these articles ? 
 And if not, a very small remnant is left for the operation of their system 
 of duties; so small that it would be hazarding little to say that not a 
 tenth part of the government expenses could be raised by any duty 
 which has been proposed. And if they propose to tax our hats and 
 shoes, and the other thousand articles of daily consumption, which are 
 now free, the beautiful prosperity of their fancied state of secession will 
 have vanished; and they will find, besides all this, our whole frontier 
 converted into smuggling ground to bring into our taxed domains the 
 free goods of the Union which we should have left behind. 
 
 But a far more serious difficulty from the army and navy would be 
 the danger already alluded to, which would be offered to the public lib 
 erty. In a small State like ours the temptation to use military power 
 would be very great, and it is hardly to be expected that the great offi 
 cers would all be Washingtons. History has proved that Syllas an$ 
 Marii and Catilines can always be found. A small State must have a 
 strong government to be efficient, and in so limited a territory the presi 
 dent or lieutenant-general could easily mark that political decimation 
 would become part of the regular system of government. 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 221 
 
 6. Finally, let me bring to your view that all history concurs in prov 
 ing that liberty cannot long be preserved in a consolidated republic. 
 The great balance wheels in our system is the check of the State and 
 Federal governments. All our statesmen and none more earnestly 
 and energetically than that great and good man, Mr. Calhoun whom 
 South Carolina has so long followed with confidence, have urged upon 
 us the dangers of consolidation. The great outcry in South Carolina 
 against the Federal government for the last twenty years has been its 
 tendency to consolidation. The real cause of its great power for evil, 
 on the subject of slavery, is that it has, in a great degree, become a con 
 solidated government. And here, in the face of all this, we are advised 
 by the Secessionists to set up an actual consolidated government over a 
 small area of 30,000 square miles, without check or balance with the 
 whole Federal and State powers of the present ggvernment in the same 
 hands. If we secede alone we can, of necessity, have but one Legisla 
 ture and one Executive. Domestic and foreign policy must be guided 
 by the same hands. Patronage and power the sword and the purse 
 must all be delivered to the same chief magistrate ; and if, under these 
 circumstances, liberty can be preserved in South Carolina, it must be 
 that every public man is an Aristides, and every citizen a Phocion. 
 
 "What, then, is the course which South Carolina should pursue, and 
 what is the counsel which the Co-operationists offer? 
 
 We ask our people to study the history of the American Revolution, 
 and we recommend them to follow its example. Then, as now, a people 
 foreign to our interests and feelings, assumed the right to govern us. 
 The colonies did not break forth into individual action. But they had 
 the constancy and firmness to wait for each other. For more than ten 
 years the zealous and spirited champions of liberty checked their ardor, 
 until even the most tardy had reached conviction. And let not South 
 Carolina forget that so late as the 1st of July, 1776, she was herself not 
 ready for the final blow. It is a historical fact that when the Declara 
 tion of Independence was brought up for action on 1st July, it was post 
 poned at the instance of one of her own deputies, in the Congress of 1776> 
 to give him time to persuade some of his colleagues into the measure. 
 That time was given, and South Carolina, with all her representation, is 
 found in her place in that noble company. So, now, let us have the same 
 consideration for our brethren in the South let us cease our tauntings 
 respect their feelings, even though they be prejudices, and remember 
 that nullification has done thus much, at least, for South Carolina: it 
 has enabled her to calculate, with unprejudiced eyes, the value of the 
 Union. In all such enterprises as the present, where a great people are 
 called upon to re-model existing institutions, there must be time al 
 lowed. There must first be concert of opinion ; next concert in council ; 
 then follows concert of action. This is the order of nature, and it can 
 not be reversed. True wisdom counsels us now to take the proper meas- 
 
222 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. NEMMINGER. 
 
 ures for a concert of opinion at the South. Then let a common council 
 meet, and the result will soon follow in united and efficient action. 
 Then will the South, with her honor untarnished and her institutions 
 secure, stand erect before the world; and if this Union shall still refuse 
 to protect our rights, or acknowledge our equality, then shall w r e have 
 the will and the means to declare ourselves their enemies in war, in 
 peace their friends; and that declaration will be maintained. 
 
 Iii February of this year, Bishop William Capers, of the 
 Methodist Church, having completed his Episcopal tour 
 through several of the Southern States, returned to his home 
 in Charleston, to find his people in Carolina much exercised 
 by the political discussions then going on. As one devoted 
 to the best interests of his State, he beheld with alarm the 
 progress of a revolutionary spirit, which, in his judgment, 
 threatened the destruction of the State, the ruin of her com 
 mercial prosperity, and the social peace of a people to whom 
 he was allied by the holiest and strongest ties of relation 
 ship. Under these circumstances he felt it his duty to issue 
 an address to the people of South Carolina. This he did 
 through the Charleston papers. 
 
 His address was extensively circulated and republished by 
 the journals in South Carolina and throughout the South. 
 I reproduce this letter here as a companion for the admira 
 ble and statesmanlike address of Mr. Memmmger, and as a 
 part of the history of these stirring times. The address is 
 taken from the Charleston Mercury of February 7, 1851 
 
 To my Fellow- Citizens of South Carolina: 
 
 I take the liberty of addressing you, through the newspapers, on a 
 subject of a different character from what has hitherto employed me, 
 and I do so the more readily, as my life guarantees my sincerity, and on 
 your part personal good will. It is the first time that I have ever felt it 
 my duty to express publicly an opinion on any matter of State policy. 
 Once, indeed, during the extreme excitement which prevailed in 
 Charleston on the subject of nullifying a law of Congress, I met with the 
 clergy of ths city apart, at the instance of some venerable citizens, to 
 consider whether there was anything which we might possibly do, in our 
 sacred character, to promote peace. But it resulted in nothing. We 
 found nothing in our power but our prayers for the people. Ministers of 
 
SECESSION MOVEMENT OF 1852. 223 
 
 religion have little to do, at any time, with matters of State, more than 
 to pray for God s guidance and blessing on the people. Nevertheless, 
 ministers are men are citizens and it may be expedient once in a life 
 time of three-score years and more for a minister to appear in his char 
 acter as a citizen and not as a minister. Suffer me, then, for this one 
 time, to assert my citizenship and commune with you freely on the state 
 of public affairs. I am a citizen, a son of a citizen, born on the soil of 
 South Carolina not long after it had been won in part by the sword of 
 my father. 
 
 After an absence of about five months on my sacred duties in Ten 
 nessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia, I cannot express 
 how painfully it has shocked me to be told, on my return home, that the 
 great State measures now on foot look solely to secession from the United 
 States by this State alone ; that the convention shortly to be held is in 
 order to accomplish this end, and that the only question to be open then 
 is one of time whether to secede at once, or await the issue of the South 
 ern Congress and then secede. 
 
 To secede at once, or at a future time, alone, must be to secede from 
 the other Southern States no less than from the Northern. It must be a 
 putting of the other Southern States in fault a sort of branding them 
 as deficient in knowledge, or courage, or patriotism, or all these 
 together. They are involved in all respects as we are, touching the 
 injustice of the late acts of Congress. We may not hold ourselves wiser 
 nor better than they are, but as equals only; and they are many, while 
 we are comparatively few. . And what, in such circumstances, will be 
 the probable judgment of mankind, respecting our action, should we 
 secede ? 
 
 If I may place any reliance on what has come under my observation 
 during my long journey through five of tho principal Southern States, it 
 is not probable that a Southern Congress, representing the Southern 
 people, can be had at all ; nor, if it could be had, that it would do much, 
 if anything, more than the Georgia convention did. As to secession, I 
 have no doubt that three-fourths of the people would oppose it at the 
 present time. The reason of this opposition, I have understood to be, 
 that they do not consider the acts of Congress to be a violation of the 
 Constitution, and, in their opinion, nothing less should justify secession. 
 I understand it to be the opinion of our people of South Carolina that 
 Congress has violated the Constitution. At most, then, it is a mooted 
 point and not a settled fact, we entertaining one view of it, while the 
 majority of the wise and virtuous of other States, greatly outnumbering 
 us, hold the opposite. Do we owe them nothing ? Is it not even due our 
 own self-respect to review the matter ? Surely we should know that we 
 are right, beyond dispute, before we should proceed to a final act of the 
 most fearful import. 
 
224 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 And ought we not to consider consequences ? Patriotism demands of 
 us not to run madly on to our country s ruin, and secession by our State 
 alone must prove ruinous. What, though no hostile army may invade 
 our soil, the United States must and will oppose us. Charleston will be 
 shut out from the rest of the w r orld ; her commerce perish ; her merchants 
 leave her in despair; while from her very suburbs our rice and cotton 
 shall be carried to Savannah and Augusta for a market. Even now the 
 rivalry of Savannah is not to be contemned, but let our State secede 
 from the Union and Charleston must become a desolation. Nor will the 
 blight fall on Charleston only, but on all the State ; while our taxes 
 increased seven-fold, and the heat of the present agitation cooling off, 
 our very leaders, if they should prove too proud to be found knocking at 
 the door of the Union for admission, shall join the many thousands of 
 our poverty-stricken people in their flight from their ruined homes to 
 more favored parts. Can patriotism demand the sacrifice ? Patriotism 
 demand the sacrifice of the State! No; never! 
 
 Let us then, fellow-citizens, review our ground. If a convention we 
 must have, let it not be a convention of boys and half-made men, but of 
 the wise and sober-minded. There is no battle to be fought for glory by 
 secession, but a fearful struggle with poverty, high taxes and hard 
 times, without hope of improvement, and great and sore humiliation. 
 And may God grant us deliverance. 
 
 (Signed) WILLIAM CAPERS. 
 
 Charleston, February 6th, 1851. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 of 1852. 
 
 |N pursuance of the act of the Legislature authoris 
 ing the same, elections were held in October of the 
 year 1851 for delegates to the proposed Congress 
 of the Southern States, and also for delegates to the Con 
 vention of the people when the same should be called. by the 
 Governor. The Legislature of 1851 fixed the time for the as 
 sembly of this Convention on the fourth Monday in April, 
 1852. In looking over the list of the delegates elected to 
 this most important Convention, it is apparent that the peo 
 ple had selected their " wise and sober-minded " men. It 
 was indeed a notable body, composed of men who, in the 
 State s service, had established their characters for wisdom 
 and moderation, and % were honored with the confidence and 
 respect of their fellow-citizens. This Convention is most 
 notable in the history of the State for having very wisely 
 done nothing. Shortly after being convened, on motion of 
 the Hon. Langdon Cheves, a Committee of Twenty-one was 
 raised, to whom was referred the act of the General Assem 
 bly entitled " An act to provide for the appointment of Depu 
 ties to a Southern Congress, and to call a Convention of the 
 people of this State," with instructions to consider and re 
 port upon the same. The president of the Convention an 
 nounced the following as the Committee of Twenty-one pro 
 vided for in the resolution: 
 
 1. Langdon Cheves. 8. J. J. Evans. 15. J. Buchanan. 
 
 2. J. P. Richardson. 9. D. L. Wardlaw. 16. F. W. Pickens. 
 
 3. W. B. Seabrook. 10. Edward Frost. 17. E. Bellinger, Jr. 
 
 4. A. P. Butler. 11. B. F. Dunkin. 18. I. W. Hayne. 
 
 5. D. E. Huger, 12. F. H. Wardlaw. 19. W. W. Harlee. 
 
 6. R. W. Barn well. 13. B. F. Perry. 20. Henry Arthur. 
 
 7. J. N. Whitner. 14. Maxey Gregg. 21. Samuel McAliley. 
 
 IS- [ 225 ] 
 
226 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Pending the deliberations of this committee, several reso 
 lutions were introduced and debated, and votes taken which 
 clearly indicated that the Conservative or Co-operation party 
 were largely in the majority. On the fourth day of the ses 
 sion the Committee of Twenty-one submitted, through the 
 Hon. Langdon Cheves, the following report: 
 
 The Committee of Twenty-one, to whom was referred an act to pro 
 vide for the election of Deputies to a Southern Congress, and the call of 
 a Convention, with instructions to report thereon, respectfully report 
 that they have considered the subject referred to them, and have con 
 cluded to recommend to the Convention the adoption of the accompany 
 ing resolution and ordinance: 
 
 Resolved by the people of South Carolina in Convention assembled, 
 That the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States 
 by the Federal government and its encroachment upon the reserved 
 rights of the sovereign States of this Union, especially in relation to 
 slavery, amply justify this State, so far as any duty or obligation to her 
 confederates is involved, in dissolving at once all political connection 
 with her co-States, and that she forbears the exercise of this manifest 
 right of self-government from considerations of expediency only. 
 
 An Ordinance to declare the right of this State to secede from the Federal 
 
 Union. 
 
 We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assem 
 bled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, 
 That South Carolina, in the exercise of her sovereign will as an inde 
 pendent State, acceded to the Federal Union, known as the United 
 States of America; and that in the exercise of the same sovereign will 
 it is her right, without let, hindrance or molestation from any power 
 whatever to secede from the said Federal Union ; and that for the suffi 
 ciency of the causes which may impel her to such separation she is re 
 sponsible alone, under God, to the tribunal of public opinion among the 
 nations of the earth. 
 
 To this report there were two minority reports one by 
 the Unionists, submitted by Hon. Benjamin F. Perry, and 
 one by the Secessionists, submitted by Hon. Maxey Gregg. 
 Mr. Memminger asked leave of the Convention to read a 
 statement of his own opinions, and of those agreeing with 
 him, and moved that it be printed and laid upon the table. 
 Objection was made to printing, but the document was re 
 ceived and laid upon the table. 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 227 
 
 This statement was in the form of an. argument to show 
 that while secession was a right which a sovereign State 
 had, that its exercise was not necessarily one that would not 
 be resisted. He quoted from Mr. Calhoun, claiming that 
 the only just consequence of the State s accession to the 
 Federal Union as a sovereign, was in her right to resume that 
 sovereignty, with all the attributes and all the responsibili 
 ties of a sovereign ; and that as a sovereign and independent 
 State South Carolina had entered into a compact with other 
 sovereign States, and that there was a mutual obligation which 
 all were bound to observe and to perform in respecting the 
 rights of each other. He held that the State was the judge 
 of the sufficiency and the justness of the cause which would 
 lead her to abrogate the compact of association, but that the 
 other States, as sovereign parties to the compact, were not 
 of necessity bound or concluded by her judgment, having 
 an equal sovereign right to judge for themselves and that 
 the justice of the cause alone can make the abrogation of 
 the compact right. There being no rule or law of infalli 
 bility, the other States might conclude that the cause was 
 insufficient ; however South Carolina might determine the 
 matter, and if they should so hold, there being no tribunal 
 among sovereigns to which resort might be had for judg 
 ment, the other States might, and in his opinion would, re 
 sort to means to enforce her to an observance of the com 
 pact and to hinder her from abrogating it if they could do 
 so. For these reasons secession to Mr. Memminger, and to 
 those who thought with him, meant war/ and he was unwil 
 ling to move until the State was ready in her resources for 
 such a contingency. The report of the Committee of Twenty- 
 one he approved with this amendment, in lieu of the decla 
 ration that the State had the right " without let, hindrance 
 or molestation" to secede from the Union. He did not be 
 lieve, in fact he was assured, that South Carolina was not 
 prepared to meet the consequences of the act, and that the 
 
228 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 object desired to be accomplished by secession could only 
 be attained by the united action of all of the Southern 
 States in sympathy with the movement. 
 
 This view of the consequences of separate State action is 
 substantially the same as that heretofore placed before the 
 reader in the address delivered at the " Co-operation" meet 
 ing in Charleston. 
 
 The Secessionists in the Convention were much disap 
 pointed by the report of the Committee of Twenty-one. Sev 
 eral amendments and substitutes were offered, but the con 
 servative members of the Convention were largely in the 
 majority, and voted these down in the order in which they 
 were submitted. As an illustration of the temper that per 
 vaded the Secession delegates, I extract from the Journal the 
 following: "Mr. John Bellinger moved to amend the ma 
 jority report by adding thereto the following ordinance: 
 That the Legislature of South Carolina shall have the 
 power, by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses in joint ses 
 sion, accompanied by a notification to the other States, to 
 withdraw the State of South Carolina from the Federal 
 Union." 
 
 On motion of Langdon Cheves, this amendment w r as laid 
 upon the table by a vote of 96 ayes to 60 noes. Mr. Robert 
 Barnwell Ehett moved to amend the report of the committee 
 by declaring " that the first clause, second section, of the 
 fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, where 
 by it is provided that the citizens of each State shall be en 
 titled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the 
 several States, should be rendered null and void within the 
 limits of South Carolina so far as regards the citizens of 
 Massachusetts and Vermont, and it should be the duty of 
 the Legislature by suitable and effective provisions and pen 
 alties to debar and exclude the citizens of those States from 
 entering, abiding or holding property within the State after, 
 the ratification of this ordinance." 
 
CONVENTION OF 1853. 229 
 
 This amendment was rejected by a vote of 112 ayes to 44 
 noes. 
 
 Mr. Adams, as a substitute for the report of the committee, 
 offered the following resolution: 
 
 Resolved, That this Convention having been called to secede from 
 the Union on account of the past aggressions of the Federal govern 
 ment, yielding to the popular vote of October last against that remedy, 
 and not agreeing on any other, do now adjourn sine die. 
 
 Laid on the table. 
 
 Finally, the report of the Committee of Twenty-one was 
 adopted as the action of the Convention by a vote of one 
 hundred and thirty-six to nineteen. 
 
 On motion of the Hon. Langdon Cheves, the Convention 
 then adjourned sine die, and was declared dissolved. 
 
 Thus ended the Secession Movement of 1850, memorable 
 only as the advance storm-cloud of the revolution that was 
 to burst upon the country in another decade. 
 
 At the session of the Legislature for the year 1852, Mr. 
 Memminger was appointed one of the electors for President 
 and Vice-Presideiit of the United States, and as such he cast 
 his vote for Franklin Pierce and AVilliam R. King. It was 
 at this session that a bill was introduced by Mr. Edward 
 McCrady to charter the Blue Ridge Railroad Company, an 
 enterprise designed to open a more direct communication 
 between Charleston and the Northwestern States. This en 
 terprise received the approval and active co-operation of 
 Mr. Memminger, who was at all times ready to advance any 
 public movement that would, in his judgment, promote the 
 business interests of Charleston and advance the general 
 material interests of the State. In after years he watched 
 with great concern the progress of this railroad, which he 
 justly regarded as a most important commercial highway, 
 bringing Charleston nearer by many miles to the great 
 trading centres of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys than any 
 
230 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 railway that had as yet been projected. He advocated 
 granting State aid to the road under such restrictions as 
 would secure the State against loss, and as would enable the 
 management, by prudent administration, to obtain the means 
 necessary for the expensive and difficult work of crossing 
 the Blue Ridge mountains. Unhappily, Mr. Memminger was 
 not permitted to witness the completion of this great enter 
 prise. Either from mismanagement, a want of energetic 
 action on the part of the directors, or deficient engineering 
 skill, or from the disastrous results of the civil war most 
 probably all of these operating as causes the road has never 
 been completed beyond the mountains. The great tunnel 
 beyond Walhalla seems to have exhausted all resource of 
 money and energy, and to have proven the grave of this 
 great highway, which at one time promised to make Charles 
 ton the great seaport of the South Atlantic. There it ends, 
 amid the wilds of an unproductive mountain region and in 
 a silent recess of the great Appalachian Chain. 
 
 Mr. Memminger declined to stand for re-election to the 
 House of Representatives in 1853 and 1854, but was returned 
 as a member for the session of 1855, and resumed his place 
 as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means a post 
 of honor and of usefulness he had filled with great credit to 
 himself and benefit to the State for many years. It was at 
 this session that bills were introduced to alter and amend 
 the constitution of the State so as to give the election of the 
 Governor and Lieutenant-Governor to the -people, and also 
 to allow the people to vote directly for President and Vice- 
 President of the United States. These officers, by a con 
 stitutional provision of the State, thought by some to have 
 been undemocratic, were elected by the Legislature, a meas 
 ure which caused Mr. Clay once to remark that South Car 
 olina was in form a Republic, while the other States were 
 Democracies. "While these measures were under consideration 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 231 
 
 in the House, Mr. Memminger presided as chaiman of the 
 Committee of the Whole. 
 
 The year 1857 is memorable in the history of the United 
 States as one of great financial depression, the result of 
 wild speculations, following upon the discovery of gold in 
 California and the rapid settlement of the Western territo 
 ries. It was during this year that the word " Panic " came 
 to be applied to the action of the banks and other financial 
 institutions, as well as to those persons who alarmed at cer 
 tain unforeseen events suspended specie payments, and 
 who in many instances were found to be insolvent when 
 called upon to respond to the demands of their depositors 
 and creditors. This " panic " became widespread, reaching 
 to every section of the country and affecting all branches 
 of business. So general was the feeling of mistrust and so 
 great the depression of trade that the intervention of the 
 Federal and State governments was sought to remedy if 
 possible the cause of the evil and to give relief to the coun 
 try. In South Carolina, as elsewhere in the United States, 
 some of the banks suspended specie payments, notwithstand 
 ing the penalties fixed by law for such an act, and in many 
 instances business establishments were closed and their 
 proprietors forced into bankruptcy. Referring to this un 
 happy state of affairs, Governor Alston, in his message to the 
 Legislature used the following language : 
 
 Regarding the recent revulsion in finance and the currency, I will 
 not attempt to enumerate its causes, but will venture to direct your at 
 tention not so much to the banks as to the system of banking. A sys 
 tem which sanctions the issue of paper money to so large an amount, 
 leading to inflated credits, inflated prices, extravagant habits of living 
 and reckless speculation, may be supposed calculated to produce a crisis 
 sooner or later. The unhappy sinking of a ship with bullion from Cali 
 fornia, or any event sufficiently exciting to create a momentary panic, 
 was enough to precipitate it. It has had the effect to paralyze the arm 
 of honest industry wherever labor is opposed to capital to depress the 
 opening market for produce and to impair the confidence between man 
 
232 LIFE AND TIMES OF C.^G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 and man. The banks in this State were effected by the common panic, 
 and felt the pressure severely some of them yielding to its influence, 
 have suspended specie payments. The suspension of specie payments 
 by a bank is a failure to redeem its notes on demand a forfeiture of its 
 promise to pay in gold or silver, current coin, the full value of every 
 bill issued from its counter a promise, on which is based .the privilege 
 granted by the State to issue bills and to circulate them as currency. 
 However, it may be supposed to afford present relief to the business in 
 terests of the country, which, unfortunately are so wound up with the 
 banks as to suffer inevitably from the contraction of their credits and 
 their stringent demands, it is demoralizing in its tendency. 
 
 The banks of this State with which I am at all familiar, are well ad 
 ministered. Several of them have bravely withstood the shock, and are 
 prepared to do a legitimate business as usual. All it is believed are 
 solvent. If, however, there be some so dependent on the banks and 
 brokers of New York as to fail in their pledges to the public, when the 
 Northern banks fail, it is their misfortune to have to answer for the sins 
 of others as well as for their own mismanagement. The consequences 
 to the quiet, uninitiated and the laboring community, are alike distrust 
 and loss, leading to want and suffering, too often to moral ruin and 
 crime. 
 
 The matter of the suspension of specie payment by the 
 banks being under consideration by the House of Represen 
 tatives, Mr. Memminger offered the following resolutions : 
 
 1. Resolved, That the issue of notes as currency is a privilege granted 
 to the banks upon the implied condition that they will redeem such 
 notes with coin, at the pleasure of the holder ; that the failure to per 
 form this condition justly forfeits the privilege, and should deprive the 
 banks of the profits arising from such issues; that the act in relation to 
 suspension of specie payments simply contemplates such privation in 
 the form of a penalty of five per cent, per annum upon the circulation of 
 each suspended bank, and the State should insist upon payment of the 
 same so long as the banks shall continue to refuse payment in specie. 
 
 2. That the paying out by the other banks of the notes of the sus 
 pended banks is in effect the issue by them of a depreciated currency 
 instead of their own notes, redeemable in coin, and is a plain violation 
 of law, for which proper proceedings should be instituted by the Attorney- 
 General and Solicitors. 
 
 3. That the supposed convertibility of bank-notes into coin at the 
 pleasure of the holder has hitherto been relied upon to secure their use 
 as currency, but the suspension now in existence exhibits the failure of 
 this security and renders necessary a resort to increased securities. 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. . 233 
 
 4. That one of the chief causes of these convulsions is to be found in 
 the power to expand and contract the currency, which is exercised at 
 pleasure by every bank of issues, and that the first step towards preven 
 tion should be to limit or withdraw this power. 
 
 5. That a withdrawal of the power would involve the adoption of an 
 entire metallic currency, or a circulation of the bank notes of other 
 States; both of which schemes being obviously impracticable or inexpe 
 dient, we are brought to the alternative of providing some efficient 
 checks and limitations to a proper currency. 
 
 6. That among these checks one of the most salutary is to foe found 
 in a reduction of the amount of paper circulation by filling the channels 
 of trade with the smaller coins, and inasmuch as paper of the same 
 denominations will always displace coin, it becomes necessary to with 
 draw from circulation bank-notes of the smaller denominations ; that to 
 this end all the banks of this State should be required to withdraw from 
 circulation within two years all notes under five dollars, and within 
 three years all notes under ten dollars. 
 
 7. That to make this measure more effective it should be proposed to 
 the neighboring States of Georgia and North Carolina to place a like 
 restriction on the issues of their banks. 
 
 8. That the proper limitations to a paper currency are such as would 
 attach to it, as early as possible, the essential features of a currency in 
 coin, amongst which the most important are ajctual exchangeable value 
 and comparative freedom from fluctuation. 
 
 9. That the first feature, to-wit, an actual exchangeable value, may 
 be secured by requiring each bank, in addition to the provision requisite 
 to redeem its issues in coin, to deposit as collateral security for their 
 redemption an equivalent amount of public stocks ; and the second 
 feature may be secured by limiting the total amount of bank-notes 
 issued to that sum which experience has settled to be the circulation, 
 which, under any circumstances, will remain current in our State ; that 
 each bank should be permitted to issue no more than its ratable part of 
 this sum in proportion to its capital, except upon the deposit of coin to 
 an equal amount set apart for the redemption of such increase. 
 
 10. That to carry into effect the last mentioned measure, the mini 
 mum circulation of the State shall be ascertained as nearly as practica 
 ble, and each bank shall substitute for its present issues a new circula 
 tion to the extent prescribed by the last resolution, to be countersigned 
 by a proper officer upon the deposit with him of stocks or bonds of this 
 State or the United States, or of the city of Charleston or Columbia, to 
 an equal market value with the new circulation by the bank entitled to 
 the same, which deposit shall be applicable to the redemption of the 
 issues of each bank in addition to the securities already provided by 
 law; and that .further issues of bank-notes shall be allowed to any bank, 
 
234 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 to be contersigned as above, upon the deposit of an equal amount of coin 
 or bullion with the same depository, pledged for the redemption of such 
 additional issue. 
 
 11. That a free competition for the use of money is the proper means 
 for placing at their just value the rates of interest and exchange; that 
 to this end the restrictions now imposed upon the rates of discount and 
 interest charged by the banks should be removed from all actual specie- 
 paying banks, saving that each bank be required to advertise its rates 
 and to charge them uniformly upon all dealers; and also that no bank 
 shall divide more than seven per cent, per annum among its stock 
 holders, reserving besides, if it see fit, a fund not exceeding ten per 
 cent, upon its capital to pay losses and to provide for regular divi 
 dends. 
 
 These resolutions were subsequently embodied by Mr. 
 Memminger in a " Bill to regulate the issue of bank-bills "; 
 which became a law of the State at this session of the Leg 
 islature. 
 
 The conservative course pursued by the Convention of 
 1852 did not in the least check the aggressive spirit of the 
 abolitionists of New England and some other of the North 
 ern States. On the contrary, if it had any perceptible effect, 
 judging from their proceedings, it was but to increase the 
 energy with which they assailed the institution of slavery. 
 The " Free-Soil " Party had not only been formed as a polit 
 ical organization, but year after year it continued to grow 
 with surprising strength, absorbing the old " Liberty Party," 
 and, in fact, uniting in its energetic organization all other 
 political factions having the abolition of slavery as their 
 chief end and determined purpose. The " American Anti- 
 Slavery Society," at Philadelphia, and the "American Abo 
 lition Society," at Boston, were used as powerful auxiliaries. 
 Extensive publishing houses, under the auspices of these 
 societies, were sending out an immense number of anti- 
 slavery documents containing the most sensational, and, in 
 the majority of instances, the most exaggerated accounts of 
 the cruelty to which the slaves were subjected, and appealing 
 to the religious sentiment of the people in the most inflam- 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 235 
 
 matory terms of fanaticism. Under the influence of emis 
 saries sent in various guises from these societies insurrec 
 tions were encouraged, and a great number of slaves induced 
 to leave their owners and homes to risk the hospitality and 
 benevolent sympathies of their alleged friends amid the 
 snows of New England and Canada. It is estimated that 
 up to 1860 more than thirty thousand slaves had in this 
 way found an asylum in Canada. If pursued, the master 
 was not only maltreated and baffled by the officers of the 
 law, but in more than one instance lost his life, while his 
 slave became the hero of some romantic novelist. Resolu 
 tions condemning the institution of slavery as a relic of bar 
 barism, insulting in the extreme to the owners of slaves and 
 to the States who recognized the legal or moral right to hold 
 persons in slavery, were passed by the legislatures of Ver 
 mont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and by others of the 
 free States. These resolutions, with an audacity which none 
 but a New England fanatic could evince, were sent to the 
 governors and legislatures of the slave States, and scattered 
 broadcast throughout the country. Petitions, by the scores, 
 were sent to Congress from almost every town, village and 
 hamlet in the Northern States bewailing the sinfulness of 
 slavery, and praying Congress to interpose by legislation 
 for its suppression. Governor Adams, in his message to the 
 Legislature of 1855, referring to the resolutions sent to him, 
 says : 
 
 I herewith transmit resolutions from the States of Rhode Island and 
 Connecticut. I received certain resolutions from the State of Massa 
 chusetts, which I returned to the Governor of that State. Had Massa 
 chusetts confined herself to resolutions expressive of her feelings and 
 purposes in relation to slavery, impertinent as I may have regarded 
 them, I would have received them with indifference and transmitted 
 them without comment; but I consider the acts of her late Legislature 
 as an insult and an outrage upon every member of the confederacy, who 
 has a right to demand the enforcement of the fugitive slave act. A 
 State whose Legislature deliberately, unblushingly, impiously violates 
 
236 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 her constitutional obligations, and whose people resist the execution of 
 law, even to the shedding of blood, is not entitled to comity from us, and 
 I feel that I would have betrayed the dignity of my trust had I hesitated 
 to affix on such conduct the seal of official condemnation. The inter 
 change of civilities with a people who feel it to be no dishonor to pre 
 vent the recovery of stolen property, will hardly reclaim the faithless, 
 and is incompatible with the respect which honesty owes to itself. 
 
 The agitation in relation to slavery continues to increase and is 
 rapidly tending to its bloody termination. Measures which it was hoped 
 by some would give quiet to the country, and dignity to its delibera 
 tions, have served but to redouble the efforts and augment the power of 
 abolition. Civil war is a direful calamity, but its scourges are to be 
 endured in preference to degradation and ruin. The people of South 
 Carolina are alive to the issue and are mindful of their obligations. 
 They are calm because they are prepared and self-reliant. They have 
 not forgotten their history and they will not fail to vindicate its teach 
 ings. The right " to provide new guards for their future security " has 
 been sealed by the blood of their ancestors and it will never be surren 
 dered. Come what may, " they will do their duty and leave the conse 
 quences to God." 
 
 Again, in his message to the Legislature of 1856, he says: 
 
 I have received " resolutions of the Legislature of New Hampshire in 
 relation to the late acts of violence and bloodshed perpetrated by the 
 slave power in the Territory of Kansas and at the National Capital." In 
 the exercise of a discretion which I think rightfully appertains to the 
 Executive department, I decline to lay these resolutions before your 
 honorable bodies. I care not what may be the theory of State inter 
 communication, I will not submit to be made the medium of transmit 
 ting from any quarter an insult to my own State. The Constitution 
 imposes no such duty on the Executive. The usage of the better days 
 of the republic commands my respect, but it cannot reconcile me to acts 
 of courtesy to those who would gloat in seeing the torch applied to our 
 dwellings and the knife to our throats. 
 
 Later on, in the year 1859, referring to the resolutions 
 sent to him, Governor Alston uses the following language: 
 
 Herewith I transmit resolutions from the Legislatures of certain 
 States of the Confederacy. Those from New York and New Jersey relate 
 to the Lighthouse Board and to certain provisions for the relief of per 
 sons and property shipwrecked on the coast; those from Texas, ex 
 pressing sentiments of common interest to our citizens, will command 
 your attention ; those from New England denounce, as usual, OUT sys- 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 237 
 
 tern of domestic slavery, together with the late decision of the Supreme 
 Court. This species of agitation, sectional and disorganizing, proceeds 
 from persons who seem to be incapable of entertaining just sentiments 
 towards their neighbors, the people of the Southern States. True lib 
 erty consists in the will and the power to perform our duty to God and 
 to our neighbor. His service is only perfect freedom. The members of 
 a Legislature who can thus resolve to desecrate the name of free 
 dom and pervert its meaning, by harboring such feelings towards 
 their neighbors who sanction and cherish African slavery as a domestic 
 institution, inherited from their fathers, expose themselves to the 
 imputation of being faithless to the Constitution from the preamble of 
 which they quote. The resolutions do not merit a response on your 
 part. " One of the expedients of party to acquire influence in their par 
 ticular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other dis 
 tricts." 
 
 In the meantime the celebrated case of Dred Scott versus 
 Sanford was before the Supreme Court of the United States 
 OD appeal from the Circuit Court of Missouri. Dred Scott, 
 who was held as a slave in Missouri, brought suit to recover 
 his freedom, claiming this freedom on the ground that he 
 had been brought into territory made free by the act of 
 Congress, commonly known as the " Missouri Compromise." 
 No case that had been brought before the Supreme Court 
 created more comment at the time, or produced more excite 
 ment, when the decision of the court was announced. Chief- 
 Justice Taney, in an elaborate opinion, reviewed the whole 
 question raised by this case. He held " that for more than 
 a century previous to the adoption of the Declaration of 
 Independence negroes, whether slaves or free, had been re 
 garded as being of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to 
 associate with the white race either in social or political re 
 lations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which 
 the white man was bound to respect." The court also, in 
 this case, considered the question as to whether Congress 
 had the right to exclude slavery from the territories of the 
 Union, and denied the power. This decision exasperated 
 the abolitionists and excited them to greater extremes than 
 
238 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 ever before in their fanatical zeal. The fugitive slave law 
 was made practically a nullity. No court at the North would 
 enforce it, and no man s life was safe from mob violence 
 who would attempt by force to recover his fugitive slave. 
 
 Thus, as the years passed by, the estrangement between 
 the sections, North and South, grew more and more decided. 
 The discussions in the Senate on the Kansas-Topeka Con 
 stitution served only to increase the bitterness of feeling 
 between the sections, while the partisan collisions in the 
 Territories greatly inflamed the passions of the people at the 
 North and in the South. Following the desperate attempt 
 of John Brown, a zealous abolitionist, to incite the negroes 
 to insurrection at Harper s Ferry, in Virginia, came the con 
 ventions of the several political parties to nominate candi 
 dates for the Presidency of the United States. Thus had 
 the aggressive spirit of the abolitionists aroused the spirit 
 of the Southern people, and thus had they been stimulated 
 to resist the encroachments made upon their rights of prop 
 erty by an open and declared foe when the season arrived 
 for the assembling of their legislatures. 
 
 Referring to the Federal relations of the State of South 
 Carolina, Governor Gist, in his message to the Legislature 
 of 1859, thus presents the state of affairs : 
 
 Admonished by the action of the Legislature in relation to certain 
 resolutions which were returned without comment to the State from 
 whence they came by one of my predecessors, I herewith transmit cer 
 tain resolutions from the State of Vermont, affirming the right of Con 
 gress to exclude slavery from the territories of the United States, and 
 expressing the opinion that it is the duty of Congress to exercise this 
 right; and that Vermont will continue to resist the admission of new 
 slave states into this Union, and will seek the abolition of slavery at 
 the National Capital. Also asserting that the decision of the Supreme 
 Court in the Dred Scott case, has no warrant in the Constitution, and is 
 not binding upon Vermont or the people of the United States. These 
 resolutions not only embody the opinions of Vermont, but of all the 
 non-slave-holding States ; and the signs of the times clearly indicate an 
 approaching crisis in the destinies of the South. The war so relent- 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852: 239 
 
 lessly urged against our institutions has assumed a form so menacing 
 that none but those who are willfully blind can fail to see the dangers 
 that surround us, and the perils to which we are exposed. A small 
 party at the North, numbering at first only a few fanatics, has assumed 
 gigantic proportions; and with very few exceptions, the entire Northern 
 people are arrayed against us, and pledged to our destruction. Not 
 satisfied with the slow but certain measures in progress to reduce us to 
 worse than colonial vassalage, by refusing to admit slave States into the 
 Union by the establishment of underground railroads to assist our 
 negroes to escape from our service by prohibiting us from carrying our 
 slaves into the common territories, and by every other conceivable 
 means, they have actually crossed the Rubicon attempting to instigate 
 our slaves to insurrection, and furnished them with arms to murder us 
 on Southern soil. Harper s Ferry is the truthful illustration of the first 
 act of the drama to be performed on a Southern theatre, and if the South 
 does not now unite for her defense, we will deserve the execration of 
 posterity, and the blood that has been shed will bear a disgraceful and 
 humiliating record against us. The intention of the North is as clearly 
 evinced by the action of the few, and more especially when that action 
 is ratified and approved by the press and people of the non-slaveholding 
 States, as if they had sent forth their multitudes in the treasonable and 
 incendiary attack upon the South. Can we then any longer talk about 
 moderation and conservatism, and statesmanship, and still hug the de 
 lusive phantom to our breast that all is well, and that the Democratic 
 party, upon whom we have too confidently relied, will work out our sak 
 vation by platforms and resolutions ? As well might we rely upon 3 
 paste- board barque to protect us from ocean storms. South Carolina 
 should be careful not to commit herself, directly or indirectly, to any 
 presidential aspirant and be forced by party trammels to support a 
 party nominee. An open and undisguised enemy is infinitely prefera 
 ble to a pretended friend, and we should scorn the alternative of a 
 choice of evils, as being but the poor privilege of a slave to choose a 
 master. We have sunk very low, indeed, if our liberties are to depend 
 upon the fortunate selection of a candidate for the presidency, who on 
 account of his popularity or his mysterious manner of expressing his 
 opinions, makes himself acceptable to both sections, or is \vhat is gen 
 erally termed available. 
 
 It is unbecoming a free people to stake their liberties upon the suc 
 cessful jugglery of party politicians and interested office-seekers, rather 
 than a bold and determined resolution to maintain them at every haz 
 ard. In the eloquent language of our own McDuflie, to whom were uni 
 versally accorded honesty, patriotism and disinterestedness, "Let us 
 cherish and preserve the reputation we have nobly acquired, as the Ro 
 mans did their vestal fire. Let no statesman of South Carolina tarnish 
 
240 LIFE AND . TIMES, OF, C.^ G.MEMMINGER. 
 
 her glorious escutcheon by enlisting as a partisan under the banner of 
 any of those political chiefs who are grasping at the Presidential scepter. 
 The political principles and peculiar institutions of the State may be 
 sold and sacrificed, but most assuredly they can never be preserved by 
 such degrading partisanship. South Carolina, and all the States having 
 similar institutions, must not put their trust in presidents; but look to 
 their own power and principles for the security of their rights and insti 
 tutions. They are in a permanent minority on all questions affecting 
 those rights and institutions, and whoever may exercise the powers of 
 the Chief Magistracy, they will be exercised in obedience to the will of 
 the adverse majority." What, then, it may be asked, should South Caro 
 lina do in view of the crisis now approaching (and, in my opinion, fear 
 fully near), to save her institutions from destruction and afford safety 
 and security to her people? Would to God I were able to give a satis 
 factory answer to this momentous question, and thus be the humble in 
 strument to avert the impending danger; but I must confess my utter 
 inability to point out the path of honor and safety, in the midst of the 
 difficulties that surround us. With an united South our course would 
 be clear, and our future glorious; we could enforce equality in the 
 Union, o*r maintain our independence out of it. If, as I solemnly be 
 lieve, we can no longer live in peace and harmony in the Union not 
 withstanding the associations of the past and the remembrance of our 
 common triumphs (being treated as enemies and aliens, rather than 
 brethren of the same family, and heirs of the same inheritance, by the 
 North), w r e can form a confederacy with ability to protect itself against 
 any enemy, and command the respect and admiration of the world. 
 This proud position is only to be obtained by a strict adherence to law 
 and duty; and while South Carolina insists on the other States carrying 
 out their constitutional obligations, she should be careful to do her 
 whole duty, and carry out in good faith all her obligations to her sister 
 States and the Federal government, by discouraging all attempts to 
 evade the laws, under any pretence whatever. While in the Union we 
 should comply with all the laws of Congress until they are pronounced 
 unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, or our people are released from 
 their binding obligations by the constituted authorities of the State; 
 and it would be an arrogant assumption on the part of individuals to 
 set up their opinions of the constitutionality of a law as their rule of 
 action. We should not imitate the example of the North in setting up 
 a "higher law," but retain the proud position we have always occupied, 
 and it will give self-satisfaction, an approving conscience, and moral 
 power to achieve victory. In preparing for any emergency that may 
 arise, I would respectfully recommend you, at an early period, to take 
 such measures as, in your wisdom, you may deem proper and expedient 
 to obtain the co-operation of the Southern States in concerted action 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 241 
 
 in defense of our institutions, whenever they may be put in jeopardy by 
 all the departments of the government passing into the hands of our 
 enemies. The election of a black Eepublican President will settle the 
 question of our safety in the Union ; and although the forms of the Con 
 stitution may be complied with, its vital principle will be extinguishedj 
 and the South must consent to occupy an inferior and degrading posi 
 tion, or seek new safeguards for her future security. Let South Caro 
 lina exhaust every means to get the co-operation of the Southern States 
 in this vital and important movement, yielding everything but princi 
 ple for that purpose, prepared to follow any lead in resistance, but she 
 should never forget that she is a sovereign and an equal that by her 
 sovereign act she created the relationship of the State that now exists 
 in the Federal Union, and that she has a clear and unquestionable right 
 to resume her position as a sovereign in the family of nations. 
 
 Relying confidently upon a just God, who has hitherto dealt so kindly 
 with us as a State, to sustain us in the trying emergency we may be 
 called to pass through, let us in all sincerity invoke a continuance of 
 His favor and support. 
 
 Several resolutions and reports from special committees 
 were presented with regard to the Federal relations of the 
 State, and were for some time under discussion. As a sub 
 stitute for them all, and as embodying in substance their 
 general sense, Mr. Memminger offered the following resolu 
 tions : 
 
 Whereas, the State of South Carolina, by her ordinance of 1852, 
 affirmed her right to secede from the confederacy whenever the occa 
 sion should arise justifying her, in her own judgment, in taking that 
 step ; and in the resolution adopted by her Convention, that she forebore 
 the immediate exercise of that right from considerations of expediency; 
 and, whereas, more than seven years have elapsed since that Conven 
 tion adjourned, and in the intervening time the assaults upon the insti 
 tution of slavery, and upon the rights and equality of the Southern 
 States have unceasingly continued with increasing violence, and in new 
 and more alarming forms : be it, therefore, 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That South Carolina, still deferring to her 
 Southern sisters, nevertheless respectfully announces to them that it is 
 the deliberate judgment of this General Assembly that the slave-hold 
 ing States should immediately meet together to concert measures for 
 united action. 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That the foregoing preamble and resolutions 
 be communicated by the Governor to all the slave-holding States, with 
 16 
 
242 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 the earnest request of this State that they will appoint deputies 
 and adopt such measures as, in their judgment, will promote the said 
 meeting. 
 
 Eesolved, unanimously, That a special committee be appointed by 
 his Excellency, the Governor, to communicate the foregoing preamble 
 and resolutions to the State of Virginia, and to express to the authori 
 ties of that State the cordial sympathy of the people of South Carolina 
 with the people of Virginia, and their earnest desire to unite with them 
 in measures of defense. 
 
 Eesolved, unanimously, That the State of South Carolina owes it to 
 her own citizens to protect them and their property from every enemy, 
 and that, for the purpose of military preparation for any emergency; 
 the sum of one hundred thousand dollars be appropriated for military 
 contingencies. 
 
 The resolutions were immediately considered and unani* 
 mously adopted; the vote being 119 to 0. 
 
 In compliance with the provisions of these resolutions, 
 Governor Gist appointed Mr. Memminger as Commissioner 
 from South Carolina to the State of Virginia. 
 
 The selection of Mr. Memminger was universally approved 
 in South Carolina. His conservative views, dignified and 
 conciliatory spirit, thorough knowledge of the questions to 
 be considered, and the universal respect for his spotless 
 personal character, gave him an approach to the people of 
 Virginia, through their General Assembly, that but few men 
 from the extreme South could have secured. As an evi 
 dence of the appreciation of Mr. Memminger s worth as a 
 statesman and a citizen, I present the following extract 
 from the Richmond Examiner of January 3, 1860, with this 
 remark, that an editorial endorsement of a leading metro 
 politan journal in those days was nearer the highest stand 
 ard of social and intellectual values (erected in Southern 
 journalism) than it has been known to be since, unhappily 
 for the ethics of the press: 
 
 Pursuant to these resolutions, Governor Gist, of South Carolina, has 
 appointed Col. C. G. Memminger a Commissioner on behalf of that State 
 to express to the authorities of this State the cordial sympathy of the 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 243 
 
 people of South Carolina with the people of Virginia and their earnest 
 desire to unite with them in measures of defense. The resolutions in 
 question have evidently and prominently for their object the speedy and 
 united action of the slave-holding States for concert of action and mutual 
 protection against Northern aggression. Such resolutions, emanating 
 from the Legislature of a chivalrous, noble and gallant State like that 
 of South Carolina, will doubtless receive the most respectful and earnest 
 attention from the Governor and Legislature of Virginia. 
 
 The Commissioner selected by the Governor of South Carolina to 
 carry out the important duties assigned to him by the above resolu 
 tions will reach Richmond, in a few days, and merits, as he will doubt 
 less receive, the most distinguished attention of the Legislature. He 
 should, as a matter of course, be received as the guest of the State, and 
 an invitation extended to him to address the Legislature upon the impor 
 tant object of his mission. 
 
 Colonel Memminger has for many years been esteemed the most 
 accomplished and able member of the South Carolina Bar, and, although 
 avoiding political office, has for nearly thirty years played a conspicuous 
 part in the politics of South Carolina. He has, since the days of nullifi 
 cation, been regarded as the leader of the Conservative party of his 
 State, and his career as a politician is briefly and correctly stated by the 
 Charleston Courier, \\liQn it says that Colonel Memminger "has been a 
 champion foremost among those who, advocating resistance and 
 effectual remedies for the evils too long endured by the South, have yet 
 Steadily opposed and rejected secession." He is, we learn, the author of 
 the above resolutions, which show that the most conservative of South 
 Carolina s statesmen are now rife for resistance to the violence and law 
 less fanaticism of the free States. Colonel Memminger is the fourth 
 instance of the appointment of an ambassador by a Southern State to 
 consult with the authorities of a sister State. Kentucky, many years 
 ago, appointed Henry Clay and Chancellor George M. Bibb Commission 
 ers to Virginia, pending certain disputes between Kentucky and Vir 
 ginia, and Virginia sent Benj. AVatkins Leigh to South Carolina as a 
 Commissioner pending the great excitement during the days of nullifi 
 cation. 
 
 No one could have more highly appreciated the honor 
 conferred upon him by the Governor of South Carolina, or 
 have realized more fully the responsibility of the high trust 
 delegated to him, than did Mr. Memminger. His mission 
 to Virginia being made publicly known, at once excited the 
 deepest interest throughout the entire country. The " grand 
 old mother of states and statesmen " was justly regarded, 
 
244 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 in the chivalric spirit of her citizenship and in the philo 
 sophic cast of her statesmen, as the source from whence 
 sprang the noblest sentiments of patriotism, and the wisest 
 and truest expressions of the political relations existing be 
 tween the Federal and State governments. 
 
 " What course will Virginia pursue?" was the question 
 every one asked, and the answer was awaited from Maine to 
 Texas with the greatest interest. The representatives and 
 senators from South Carolina in the Federal Congress, and 
 many persons prominent in the public service, and yet 
 others of equal virtues, who were but private citizens, ad 
 dressed letters to Mr. Memminger urging him to pursue 
 such a course as in their several judgments were believed by 
 them to be the most apt in bringing about the results they 
 desired. I find quite a number of these letter preserved 
 among the private correspondence of Mr. Memminger, but 
 as they were never written with the view of being made 
 public, I do not consider that even his literary executor 
 should invade the confidence that has held them so long in 
 the quiet of an honorable resting place. I prefer to leave 
 such piracy to the Trentian taste of that class of publicists 
 who are at best but the jackalls of our American literature. 
 
 Before leaving his home for Virginia, Mr. Memminger 
 addressed the following letter to the Governor of that State: 
 
 CHARLESTON, January 9, 1860. 
 His Excellency, John Letcher: 
 
 DEAR SIR, The Governor of the State of South Carolina has appointed 
 me Special Commissioner to communicate to the State of Virginia cer 
 tain resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of South Carolina in 
 consequence of the recent outrage upon the soil of Virginia, and to ex 
 press the cordial sympathy of the people of South Carolina with the peo 
 ple of Virginia, and their earnest desire to unite with them in measures 
 of common defense. 
 
 I take occasion respectfully to inform your Excellency that, in dis 
 charge of this duty, I shall immediately proceed to Richmond, where I 
 hope to arrive on Thursday evening the 12th instant. 
 "With much respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
CONVENTION OP 1852. 245 
 
 The Richmond Dispatch, in publishing this letter, says: 
 
 The Southern train, which arrived at half-past six o clock last night, 
 brought Colonel Memminger and his daughter, for whom rooms had 
 been taken at the Ballard House. Colonel Memminger was met at the 
 cars by the joint committee of the General Assembly appointed to re 
 ceive him as the guest of the State, and conducted to the hotel. He 
 will, we learn, address the Legislature in the hall of the House to-night 
 on the subject of his mission. 
 
 Arrived at Richmond and escorted to his elegant domicile 
 at the Ballard House, his first official act was to address the 
 following letter to Governor Letcher: 
 
 RICHMOND, January 14, 1860. 
 
 His Excellency John Letcher, Governor of the State of Virginia : 
 
 DEAR SIR, I have the honor to communicate to you the accompany 
 ing resolutions which were unanimously adopted by the General As 
 sembly of South Carolina on the 22d day of December last. 
 
 The State of South Carolina has felt with the deepest concern the 
 indignity offered to the State of Virginia, and regards it as a blow 
 aimed equally at herself. Her people desire to express fheir cordial 
 sympathy with the people of Virginia, and to unite with them in meas 
 ures of common defense ; and they have honored me with the charge of 
 communicating their sentiments. 
 
 Permit me, therefore, respectfully to request of your Excellency to 
 indicate the manner in which it will be most acceptable to the authorities 
 of Virginia that I should proceed to discharge the duties entrusted 
 to me. 
 
 With highest consideration and respect, I am your obedient ser 
 vant, [Signed] C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 This official communication was at once brought to the 
 attention of the Legislature of Virginia, then in session, by 
 the Governor. In answer Mr. Memminger was invited to 
 address the General Assembly of Virginia upon the subject 
 of his mission. In every way that the thoughtful discretion 
 of a cultivated people could suggest he was made the recip 
 ient of the most delicate attention, and of that unstinted 
 hospitality for which Virginians have been always distin 
 guished. 
 
246 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The address of Mr. Memminger to the General Assembly 
 of Virginia fully met the expectations of those who had 
 delegated to him the honorable and responsible duty of 
 representing South Carolina, and was equally pleasing to 
 the Virginians, among whom the high character and abilities 
 of Mr. Memminger was now fully known and appreciated. 
 
 I present this address in full. It is a state paper of great 
 interest, worthy to rank with the best efforts of our most 
 illustrious statesmen. 
 
 RICHMOND, January 21, I860. 
 
 Sir, We have the honor to enclose to you the accompanying resolu 
 tion, unanimously adopted by both houses of the General Assembly. 
 
 Permit us to add our personal solicitation for a compliance, on your 
 part, with the wishes of the General Assembly. 
 
 We have the honor to be, with high consideration, your obedient ser 
 vants, 
 
 Eo. L. MONTAGUE, President of the Senate. 
 
 0. M. CRUTCIIFIELD, S. H. D. 
 Hon. C. G. Memminger. 
 
 Resolved by the General Assembly, That the Hon. C. G. Memminger, 
 Commissioner from the State of South Carolina, be requested to furnish 
 for publication the address delivered by him to the General Assembly 
 on his reception by them, and that ten thousand copies be printed for 
 circulation among the people of the State. 
 
 Agreed to by House of Delegates, January 20, 1860. 
 
 WM. P. GORDON, JR., C. II. D. 
 Agreed to by Senate, January 21, 1860. 
 
 SHELTON C. DAVIS, C. S. 
 
 RICHMOND, January 27, 1860. 
 
 Gentlemen, In pursuance of the request of the General Assembly, I 
 herewith respectf ally communicate to you, as nearly as I can recall the 
 same, the address delivered by me before the Assembly on the 19th inst. 
 I would ask leave to tender to the Assembly my respectful acknowl 
 edgments of the honor done me in making the request, and to your 
 selves, gentlemen, my assurance of high consideration. 
 With much respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER, 
 
 Commissioner of the State of South Carolina. 
 lion. R. L. Montague, President of the Senate. 
 
 Hon. 0. M. Crutchfield, Speaker of the House of Delegates of the General 
 Assembly of Virginia. 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 247 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the General Assembly of Virginia .% 
 
 "When the Athenian orator ascended the bema, before the constituted 
 authorities of his country, it was his custom to invoke the blessing of 
 the gods upon the deliberations of the assembly. If those who wor 
 shiped an unknown god so anxiously sought his aid, how much more 
 earnestly should we, to whom that God has been revealed as a Son of 
 Righteousness, with healing in his wings, invoke his assistance upon so 
 momentous an occasion as the present. Most humbly, therefore, do I 
 now beseech His presence in this Assembly, that He may condescend to 
 aid the speaker to discharge aright the important trust confided to him, 
 and to guide the hearers to that result which will advance the best in 
 terests of our Southern country. 
 
 Before I enter upon the important matter which we are this day to 
 consider, permit me, in the name of the State which I have the honor to 
 represent, to return to his Excellency, the Governor, and to all the now 
 assembled authorities of Virginia, my profound acknowledgment of the 
 courtesy and kindness with which I have been received. The public 
 demonstration of respect and consideration which you have been pleased 
 to exhibit could only be exceeded by the courteous hospitality with 
 which I have been welcomed in private. If my mission should attain 
 no higher results, it w r ill at least show to the world that the States of 
 this Union have a separate and distinct vitality ; that they realize the 
 great fact that they may confer with each other to maintain their mu 
 tual rights and interests; and, besides all this, I can confidently affirm 
 that such an interchange of kindly feeling as you have exhibited cannot 
 fail to bind together the hearts of our people in closer ties of sympathy 
 and fellowship. 
 
 The objects of my mission are set forth in the resolutions of which I 
 am the bearer to this Commonwealth. I respectfully ask leave to have 
 them read : 
 
 " Whereas, the State of South Carolina, by her Ordinance of A. D. 
 1852, affirmed her right to secede from the confederacy whenever the 
 occasion should arise justifying her, in her own judgment, in taking that 
 step; and in the resolution adopted by her convention declared that 
 she forebore the immediate exercise of that right from the considera 
 tions of expediency only; 
 
 u And, whereas, more than seven years have elapsed since that con 
 vention adjourned, and in the intervening time the assaults upon the 
 institutions of slavery, and upon the rights and equality of the Southern 
 States, have unceasingly continued with increasing violence and wider 
 and more alarming forms; be it, therefore, 
 
248 LIFE AND TINES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 "1. Resolved, unanimously, That the State of South Carolina, still 
 deferring to her Southern sisters, nevertheless respectfully announces 
 to them that it is the deliberate judgment of this General Assembly that 
 the slave-holding States should immediately meet together to concert 
 measures for united action. 
 
 " 2. Eesolved, unanimously, That the foregoing preamble and reso 
 lution be communicated by the Governor to all the slave-holding States, 
 with the earnest request of this State that they will appoint deputies 
 and adopt such measures as in their judgment will promote the said 
 meeting. 
 
 "3. Resolved, unanimously, That a special commissioner be appointed 
 by his Excellency the Governor to communicate the foregoing preamble 
 and resolutions to the State of Virginia, and to express to the authori 
 ties of that State the cordial sympathy of the people of South Carolina 
 with the people of Virginia and their earnest desire to unite with them 
 in measures of common defense." 
 
 Three distinct objects are presented by these resolutions. They 
 direct me 
 
 1. To express to the authorities of Virginia the cordial sympathy of 
 the people of South Carolina with the people of Virginia in the trial 
 through which they have lately passed. 
 
 2. To express our earnest desire to unite with you in measures of 
 common defense. 
 
 3. To request a conference of the slave-holding States and the 
 appointment of deputies or commissioners to the same on the part of 
 Virginia. 
 
 The expression of our sympathy is most grateful to our own feelings. 
 Whilst in common with the rest of the Union, we feel our obligation for 
 the large contribution of mind and effort which Virginia has made to 
 the common cause; we of South Carolina are more largely indebted to 
 her for manifestations of particular concern in our welfare, which I 
 shall presently notice. We had supposed that her large contributions 
 to the Union had secured to her the respect and affection of every State 
 of the confederacy. Certainly there is no State to whom more kindly 
 feelings are due. Her statesmen and soldiers had devoted their lives to 
 the service of the country, and their honored remains now hallow her 
 soil. There was the tomb of the Father of his Country. There lay the 
 ashes of Patrick Henry, and of Jefferson, and of Madison, and of a host 
 of others, whose names had given lustre to our country s glory, and the 
 fruit of whose labors was the common inheritance of North and South; 
 and yet all this could not preserve her from the invasion of her soil, the 
 murder of her citizens, and the attempt to involve her in the horrors of 
 servile and civil war. That very North, to whom she had surrendered a 
 territorial empire who had grown great through her generous confi- 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 249 
 
 dence sent forth the assassins, furnished them with arms and money, 
 and would fain rescue them from the infamy and punishment due to 
 crimes so atrocious. 
 
 To estimate aright the character of the outrage at Harper s Ferry we 
 must realize the intentions of those who planned it. They expected the 
 slaves to rise in mass as soon as the banner of abolition should be 
 unfurled. Knowing nothing of the kindly feeling which exists through 
 out the South between the master and his slaves, they judged of that 
 feeling by their own hatred, and expected that the tocsin which they 
 sounded would at once arouse to rebellion every slave who heard it- 
 Accordingly they prepared such arms as an infuriate and untrained 
 peasantry could most readily use. 
 
 They also expected aid from another element of revolution. They 
 did not believe in the loyalty to the government of Virginia of that part 
 of her population which owned no slaves. They seized upon the armory, 
 and they expected help from its operatives, and from the farming popu 
 lation ; and to gain time for combining all these elements of mischief, as 
 they conceived them to be, they seized upon a pass in the mountains 
 well adapted to their purpose. For months had they worked with 
 fiendish and unwearied diligence, and it is hazarding little to conjecture 
 that the banditti, who had been trained in Kansas, were in readiness to 
 obey the summons to new scenes of rapine and murder as soon as a 
 lodgment were effected. 
 
 Is it at all surprising that a peaceful village where no sound of war 
 had been heard for half a century should be overcome for the moment 
 at midnight by so unexpected an inroad? The confusion which ensued 
 was a necessity; and it can only be ascribed to the superintendence of a 
 kind Providence that so few innocent lives were sacrificed. It is indeed 
 wonderful that none of the hostages seized by these banditti should 
 have suffered from the attacks which their friends were obliged to 
 make, and that at so early a period the inhabitants recovered from their 
 amazement and reduced their assailants to the five who were entrenched 
 within the brick walls of the engine-house. 
 
 The failure to accomplish their purpose cannot lessen its atrocity ; 
 neither can their erroneous calculations as to the loyalty of their citi 
 zens of the State, or of the slaves to their masters, lessen the crime of 
 these murderers; and they have justly paid the forfeit of their lives. 
 But such a forfeit cannot expiate the blood of peaceful citizens, nor re 
 store the feeling of tranquil security to the families which they have dis 
 turbed. The outraged soil of Virginia stands a witness of the wrong, 
 and the unquiet homes which remain agitated along her borders, still 
 call for protection ; and as an affectionate mother, the State feels for 
 her children, and is providing that protection. The people of South 
 Carolina cordially sympathize in all these feelings. They regard this 
 
250 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 outrage as perpetrated on themselves. The blow that has struck you 
 was aimed equally at them, and they would gladly share in all its con 
 sequences, and most of all in the effort to prevent its recurrence in the 
 future. 
 
 In this desire they are influenced not only by a sense of common 
 danger, but by the remembrance of former kindness exhibited towards 
 South Carolina by the State of Virginia in a day of trial. 
 
 In the year 1833 when South Carolina had nullified an unconstitu 
 tional tariff imposed by the Federal government, and was taking meas 
 ures to maintain her position at every hazard, the State of Virginia 
 actuated by the kindliest and most honorable feelings, adopted the fol 
 lowing resolutions : 
 
 " Resolved by the General Assembly in the name and on behalf of the 
 people of Virginia, That the competent authorities of South Carolina be, 
 and they are hereby, earnestly and respectfully requested and entreated 
 to rescind the or dinance of the late Convention of that State, entitled An 
 ordinance to nullify certain acts of the Congress of the United States, 
 purporting to be laws laying duties and imposts on the importation of 
 foreign commodities; or at least to suspend its operation until the 
 close of the first session of the next Congress. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Congress of the United States be, and they are 
 hereby, earnestly and respectfully requested and entreated so to modify 
 the acts laying duties and imposts on the importation of foreign com 
 modities, commonly called the tariff acts, as to effect a gradual but 
 speedy reduction of the resulting revenue of the general government to 
 the standard of the necessary and proper expenditures for the support 
 thereof. 
 
 " Resolved, That this House will, by joint vote with the Senate, pro 
 ceed on this day to elect a Commissioner, whose duty it shall be to pro 
 ceed immediately to South Carolina and communicate the fpregoing 
 preamble and resolutions to the Governor of that State, with a request 
 that they be communicated to the Legislature of that State, or any con 
 vention of its citizens, or give them such other direction as in his judg 
 ment may be best calculated to promote the objects which this Com 
 monwealth has in view; and that the said Commissioner be authorized 
 to express to the public authorities and people of our sister State, in 
 such manner as he may deem most expedient, our sincere good will to 
 our sister State, and our anxious solicitude that the kind and respect, 
 f ul recommendations we have addressed her, may lead to an accommoda 
 tion of all the differences between that State and the general govern 
 ment." 
 
 Mr. Leigh repaired to South Carolina, and on presenting his creden 
 tials was informed by the Governor that the ordinary authorities of the 
 government had no jurisdiction of the subject of his mission, inasmuch 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 251 
 
 as the ordinance of nullification had been passed by a Convention of the 
 people. The following extracts from the correspondence will exhibit 
 what took place : 
 
 [Extract from letter of Hon. B. W. Leigh, Commissioner of Virginia, to His Excellency 
 Robert Y. Hayne, Governor of South Carolina.] 
 
 " CHARLESTON, February 5, 1833. 
 
 " I have now therefore to request your Excellency to communicate 
 the resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia, and this letter 
 also to the president of the Convention, confidently hoping that that 
 officer w r ill not refuse or hesitate to re-assemble the Convention, in order 
 that the resolutions of the General Assembly may be submitted to it, 
 and that the Convention may consider whether and how far the earnest 
 and respectful request and entreaty of the General Assembly shall and 
 ought to be complied with." 
 
 [Extract from a letter of James Hamilton, Jr., to His Excellency Robert Y. Hayne, Gov 
 ernor of South Carolina.] 
 
 CHARLESTON, February 6th, 1833. 
 
 " In reply to the reference which you have made to me, as president of 
 the Convention of the people of South Carolina, consequent on the ap 
 plication on the part of that gentleman for the meeting of that body, I 
 beg leave to communicate to him, through your Excellency, that, appre 
 ciating very highly the kind disposition and the patriotic solicitude 
 which have induced the highly respectable Commonwealth which he rep 
 resents to interpose her friendly and mediatorial offices in the unhappy 
 controversy subsisting between the Federal government and the State 
 of South Carolina, I should do great injustice to those dispositions on 
 her part, and, I am quite sure, to the feelings of the people of South 
 Carolina, if I did not promptly comply with his wishes in reference to 
 the proposed call." 
 
 In compliance with Mr. Leigh s request, the Convention was reassem 
 bled. The mediation and request of Virginia was communicated. Her 
 interference with the Federal government, the other party to the con 
 troversy, had led to the modification of the tariff, and the result with 
 South Carolina was a repeal of the ordinance of nullification, and the 
 adoption by the Convention of the following resolutions : 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the president of this Convention do 
 communicate to the Governor of Virginia, with a copy of this report 
 and these resolutions, our distinguished sense of the patriotic and 
 friendly motives which actuated her General Assembly in tendering her 
 mediation in the late controversy between the general government and 
 the State of South Carolina, with the assurance that her friendly coun 
 cils will at all times command our respectful consideration. 
 
252 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the president of this Convention like 
 wise convey to the Governor of Virginia our high appreciation of the 
 able and conciliatory manner in which Mr. Leigh has conducted his 
 mission, during which he has afforded the most gratifying satisfaction 
 to all parties, in sustaining towards us the kind and fraternal relations 
 of his own State." 
 
 The other incident in the relations of the two States, to which I would 
 ask your attention, occurred in 1851. Four years before both States had 
 passed resolutions declaring that they would not submit to the Wilmot 
 proviso. In 1849 Virginia had added to her declaration of 1847 that she. 
 would also resist the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Col 
 umbia. South Carolina concurred entirely in the sentiments of Vir 
 ginia, and prepared to defend the position which had been taken, and. 
 which she supposed was the common position of the whole South 
 
 The compromise measures adopted by Congress in 1850, so far from 
 being satisfactory, in her judgment aggravated the injury. She re 
 garded the admission of California, with a Constitution prohibiting 
 slavery, as in effect an enactment of the Wilmot proviso; and the slave 
 trade in the District of Columbia had been expressly prohibited by one 
 of the compromise acts of Congress. With these views South Carolina 
 proceeded to arm her people, and made the requisite arrangements for 
 calling a Convention to secede from the Union, or to adopt such other 
 measures as the safety and welfare of the State might require. 
 
 In December, 1851, the Legislature of Virginia adopted the following 
 resolutions : 
 
 " Whereas, the Legislature of the State of South Carolina has passed 
 an act to provide for the appointment of delegates to the Southern Con 
 gress, to be entrusted with full power and authority to deliberate with 
 the view and intention of arresting further aggression, and, if possible, 
 of restoring the constitutional rights of the South, and if not to recom 
 mend due provision for their future safety and independence, which act 
 has been formally communicated to this General Assembly : 
 
 " 1. Be it therefore resolved by the General Assembly of Virginia. 
 That whilst this State deeply sympathizes with South Carolina in the 
 feelings excited by the unwarrantable interference of certain of the 
 non-slave-holding States with our common institutions; and whilst di 
 versity of opinion exists among the people of this Commonwealth in 
 regard to the wisdom, justice and constitutionality of the measures of 
 the late Congress of the United States, taken as a whole, and commonly 
 known as the Compromise measures, yet the Legislature of Virginia 
 deems it a duty to declare to her sister State of South Carolina that the 
 people of this State are unwilling to take any action in consequence of 
 the same calculated to destroy the integrity of this Union. 
 
 " 2. Resolved, That regarding the said acts of the Congress of the 
 United States, taken together, as an adjustment of the exciting ques- 
 
CONVENTION OFJ852. 253 
 
 tions to which they relate, and cherishing the hope that if fairly exe 
 cuted they will restore to the country that harmony and confidence 
 which of late have been so unhappily disturbed, the State of Virginia 
 deems it unwise, in the present condition of the country, to send dele 
 gates to the proposed Southern Congress. 
 
 " 3. Kesolved, That Virginia earnestly and affectionately appeals to 
 her sister State of South Carolina to desist from any meditated seces 
 sion upon her part, which cannot but tend to the destruction of the 
 Union, and the loss to all of the States of the benefits that spring from it." 
 
 I have introduced this history in no spirit of fault-finding, and with 
 no intention to reflect in the least degree upon the action of Virginia. 
 She had a perfect right, as a sovereign State, to accept the Compromise 
 of 1850; and having accepted it, she was not bound to justify herself 
 except at her own pleasure. South Carolina had an equal right to refuse 
 the Compromise and to take action to make good such refusal. But the 
 kindly feeling which existed between the two States induced Virginia 
 to pass the resolutions of 1851. A reciprocal feeling influenced South 
 Carolina ; and many of her citizens, influenced by the action of Virginia, 
 proceeded to canvass the State, and persuaded the people to abandon 
 the idea of separate secession. The South Carolina Convention met in 
 1852; and although a majority had been elected of those who w T ere in 
 favor of secession, that majority gave way to the popular will, and all par 
 ties united in asserting the right, but desisting from the act of secession. 
 
 Thus a second time did a Convention of the people of South Carolina 
 accede to the request of Virginia. Seven years have since elapsed, and 
 instead of that returning sense of justice among the Northern people 
 which you doubtless expected, "the assaults upon the institution of 
 slavery and upon the rights and equality of the Southern States have 
 unceasingly continued, with increasing violence, and in new and more 
 alarming forms," until now at length the voice of a brother s blood cries 
 to us from the ground; and South Carolina, moved like yourselves by 
 that cry, offers her sympathy and proposes a conference ; and " earnestly 
 requests of Virginia that she will appoint deputies, and adopt such 
 measures as in her judgment will promote the said meeting." 
 
 South Carolina, however, does not expect, neither would she desire 
 you to do what your judgments do not approve. She feels well assured 
 that under existing circumstances, such a conference is the best step 
 which can be taken; and I cannot better discharge the duty entrusted 
 to me than in presenting to your consideration the reasons which lead 
 to this conclusion. To an audience so intelligent as that which now 
 honors me with its attention, I can scarcely advance anything new ; but 
 it will lead to a just conclusion if we refresh our memories as to some 
 material incidents of the past. 
 
 The great question which underlies all action on this subject, is, 
 whether the existing relations between the North and the South are 
 
254 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 temporary or permanent; whether they result from accidental derange^ 
 ment of the body politic, or are indications of a normal condition? In 
 the one case, temporary expedients may restore soundness; in the other 
 the remedy is either hopeless, or it must be fundamental and thorough. 
 
 In these respects, the invasion at Harper s Ferry is a valuable expo 
 nent. It furnishes many indications by which we may ascertain the 
 actual condition of things. It is sort of a nilometer by which we can 
 measure the height of the flood which is bursting over the land. By the 
 Providence of that God who preserved your people from the knife of the 
 assassin, you were enabled not only to defeat and capture your enemies, 
 but to get possession of arms and documents which expose the design 
 and plan of the assailants. You find that months must have elapsed in 
 maturing their plans ; that arms were manufactured, the design of which 
 could not be mistaken ; that large sums of money must have been col 
 lected. It is certain, therefore, that many persons must have known 
 that such a blow was intended ; and yet who spoke? Who gave a single 
 friendly warning to Virginia? One voice indeed indistinctly uttered to 
 the Federal government a warning, but that voice was disregarded, and 
 the catastrophe burst upon us as a thunder storm in midwinter. 
 
 The loyal sons of Virginia rush to her defense, and the military arm 
 bows to the majesty of law, and delivers the murderer to a just and im 
 partial trial. A new incident in the history of crime is developed. 
 Learned counsel from a distant city, once styled the Athens of America, 
 proceed to a distant village to offer their services to defend the mid 
 night assassin. Political offenses have sometimes found voluntary de 
 fenders, but the moral sense must be absolutely perverted when it is 
 deemed a virtue to screen the murderer from punishment. The excite 
 ment grows, and your courts of justice cannot proceed as in ordinary 
 cases of crime. You are compelled to surround them with military 
 power; and when the law has pronounced its sentence, you are com 
 pelled to guard the prison-house and the scaffold, to keep at bay the 
 confederates and sympathizers with crimes heretofore execrated by 
 every civilized people upon earth. 
 
 The indications of this implacable condition of Northern opinion do 
 not stop here. The sentence of death upon the criminals and their exe 
 cution are bewailed with sounds of lamentation, such as would now fol 
 low a Ridley or a Latimer to the stake, and public demonstrations of 
 sympathy exhibit themselves throughout the entire North. To the great 
 discredit of our institutions and of our country, motions are entertained 
 in bodies exercising political power to honor the memory of a wretched 
 fanatic and assassin, and in one body the motion failed only for want of 
 three votes. These are indications which you cannot disregard. They 
 tell of a state of public opinion which cannot fail to produce further 
 c-vil. Every village bell, which tolled its solemn note at the execution of 
 Brown, proclaims to the South the approbation of that village of insur- 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 255 
 
 rection and servile war, and the ease with which some of the confederates 
 escaped to Canada proves that much of the population around are will 
 ing to abet the actors in these incendiary attempts. 
 
 To view this matter in its just proportions we must set it at a little 
 distance from us. Familiarity accustoms us so much to things near that 
 we lose the perception of their magnitude. A daily observer of the 
 Falls of Niagara may be brought to look upon them as the ordinary 
 descent of water down a river. Let us, therefore, suppose that the 
 attempted assassination of Louis Napoleon at the Opera House in Paris 
 had been followed by developments showing the contribution of arms 
 and money in England; that upon the arrest of the detected assassins 
 learned counsel had crossed the channel to volunteer a defense before 
 the French courts; that upon his condemnation threats of sympathy 
 compelled the government to surround the scaffold with arms ; and upon 
 his execution bells were tolled in many English villages; and as a con 
 summation of the whole, a motion were entertained to adjourn the Par 
 liament in honor of the memory of the assassin, and that this motion 
 had failed in one house only by three votes. Does any man suppose that 
 under these circumstances the peace of Europe could have been pre 
 served for a day ? Unless prompt disavowal and punishment had been 
 offered, every Frenchman would have been ready to cross the channel as 
 an enemy, and the civilized world would have regarded the English peo 
 ple as a nation of outlaws. 
 
 In our country, so far from there being any proper indication of dis 
 avowal, the indications are the other way. Elections have taken place 
 at the North since the Harper s Ferry invasion, in which the public sen 
 timent has been exhibited. Those who maintain the abolition views 
 have proved stronger than they ever were before. In New York they 
 have triumphed over the other parties combined together, and in Bos 
 ton, notwithstanding an attempt to stay the tide, the same result has 
 followed. In Congress the same lamentable exhibition is afforded. 
 More than one hundred members prefer to keep the government disor 
 ganized, rather than abandon a candidate whose recommendation of a 
 book, inviting a combined effort to introduce anarchy and servile war at 
 the South, makes him obnoxious to the South; and of these some sixty 
 have signed a recommendation of the same book; and there they stand, 
 and have stood for more than six weeks, with unbroken front, refusing 
 any kind of concession to the outraged feelings of the South. Can any 
 Southern man believe that these representatives do not represent the 
 feelings of their constituents, and that they would venture upon the 
 measure of keeping the government disorganized against the public 
 opinion that is behind them ? 
 
 Here, then, we have before us the North and the South, standing face 
 to face, not yet as avowed and open enemies, but with deep-seated feel 
 ings of enmity rankling in their bosoms, which at any moment may 
 
256 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 burst forth into action. Is it wise, when we see flame shining through 
 every crevice, and ready to leap through every open window ; is it wise 
 to close the window, and fill up every gap, and shut our eyes to the fact 
 that the fire is raging within the building? It is not wise. We must 
 examine the premises and determine whether the building can be saved 
 or whether it must be abandoned. 
 
 We have now reached this point in our inquiry. The Harper s Ferry 
 invasion, with the developments following it, and the now existing con 
 dition of the country, prove that the North and the South are standing in 
 hostile array the one with an absolute majority, sustaining those who 
 meditate our destruction and refusing to us any concession or guaranty, 
 and the other baffled in every attempt at compromise or security. 
 
 The inquiry which must naturally follow would be into the causes 
 which have led to this result, and whether these causes are transient in 
 character, or must continue to operate until they result in the final 
 overthrow of our institutions. 
 
 To determine this question, it becomes necessary to review a portion 
 of the history of our country. 
 
 At the termination of the Revolutionary war there were six slave- 
 holding States and seven non-slaveholding. The Northern section had 
 no territory but that from which has since been formed the States of 
 Vermont and Maine. The Southern owned the Northwest and the 
 Southwest; and had in its possession the means of expanding itself into 
 the numerous States which have since been formed out of this territory. 
 The local law of slavery in the parent State would have followed in the 
 offspring, and the result must have been that the power of the South 
 would have had the vast preponderance. At that time, too, the com 
 merce of the South was equal to that of the North; and occupying a 
 more favorable position, both as to soil and climate, there was every rea 
 sonable prospect that she would be in the advance in all the elements of 
 national strength. 
 
 How different a result do we this day realize? The North has grown 
 to a degree of power and grandeur unequalled in the history of the 
 world. They have taken possession of the magnificent inheritance of 
 the South, and on the fertile plains which should have been ours, they 
 gather their thousands, and utter voices of .denunciation against those 
 who bestowed upon them the power and wealth which they enjoy. What 
 are the causes of these results? How has it come to pass that the South, 
 having in its hands the means of unlimited progress and certain pre 
 ponderance, has been reduced almost to the condition of a suppliant, 
 whilst the North has grown into such proportions that it assumes to give 
 law as a master? 
 
 The more perfect union of the States was an object of great interest 
 to the Revolutionary patriots. In 1784 Virginia led the way by ceding 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852, 257 
 
 to the United States her magnificent domain North of the Ohio river. 
 The terms of Virginia s act of cession required that the States to be 
 formed from this territory shall be " admitted members of the Federal 
 Union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and indepen 
 dence as the other States." Shortly after the cession a committee of the 
 Congress of the Confederation was raised to frame an ordinance for the 
 establishment of the territory. This committee, of whom Mr. Jefferson 
 was one, reported an ordinance excluding slavery after the year 1800. 
 This restriction on slavery, however, was struck out by the Congress on 
 the motion of North Carolina, every Southern State and every Southern 
 delegate except Mr. Jefferson voting for striking out, and the ordinance 
 was adopted without the restriction. During the several subsequent 
 sessions of Congress other propositions were moved, and, finally, on the 
 13th of July, 1787, just two months before the adoption of our present 
 Constitution, the ordinance was adopted, with the restriction clause as 
 follows : 
 
 " ART. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in 
 the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof 
 the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, That any 
 person escaping into the same from whom labor or service is lawfully 
 claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully 
 reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or ser 
 vice as aforesaid." 
 
 Three things are apparent from this statement. The first is that Vir 
 ginia and the South made this great concession for the sake of the Fed 
 eral Union ; the second is that the concession was made upon the express 
 condition that fugitive slaves escaping into this territory should be re 
 stored to their owners, and the third is that at this early period, long 
 before fanaticism had mingled in this controversy, and before the South 
 had any apprehension as to her equal rights, the North, with far-reach 
 ing craftiness, secured to itself a predominance of eventual power in the 
 Union. The generous and confiding character of the South overlooked 
 these considerations. Her statesmen were then in possession of the 
 government. General Washington was at the head, surrounded by gen 
 erous and noble spirits, and the slave-holder and the non-slave-holder had 
 so often stood side by side in conflict with their enemy that they still 
 deemed each other brethren. 
 
 But what has been the effect of these cessions upon the relative con 
 dition of the North and the South? From this ceded territory nine 
 States have grown : Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ken 
 tucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. These States, added to the 
 six original slave States, would have increased their number to fifteen. 
 The Northern States, having but two new States to add to their original 
 seven, would have numbered nine in all. Hence it would have followed 
 
258 t LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER; 
 
 that the South would now have had 30 senators and 122 representatives 
 in Congress, whilst the North would have had only 18 senators and 92 
 representatives. The effect of the cessions, however, has been to give to 
 the North 5 out of these 9 States, whilst the South retained but 4. The 
 Northern States have, therefore, added these 5 to their original 7, which 
 12 being added to Vermont and Maine made their number 14, against 10 
 Southern States, and the distribution of power according to the present 
 basis gives to the North, as the effect of these cessions, 28 senators and 
 140 representatives in Congress, while the South has only 20 senators 
 and 74 representatives. 
 
 History does not afford a parallel for so magnanimous and voluntary 
 a surrender. Virginia, which contributed the largest portion, was per* 
 haps more independent than any of her sisters. With a climate and 
 soil the most favored by nature with an extended commerce with fine 
 ports and noble rivers with somewhat of a navy, and with a well-tried 
 militia, she was quite able to stand alone. But she gave up all for the 
 sake of union. Nay, more the whole produce of the sales of all the 
 lands ceded by the South, amounting to some one hundred and fifty 
 millions of dollars, was thrown into the coffer of the Union whilst the 
 sales in the northern portion of the Union was reserved to themselves. 
 Surely if there could be created a sentiment of gratitude and brotherly 
 love in States, that sentiment should have existed in the Northern 
 States toward the people of the South. 
 
 The next event of importance in this history was the purchase of 
 Louisiana. This acquisition was made in April, 1803, under the treaty 
 with France, and was approved by the whole Union. The territory ac 
 quired was all slave-holding. The rights of the inhabitants were ex 
 pressly guaranteed to them by treaty ; and the local law being that of 
 a slave-holding country, of course attached throughout its entire ex 
 tent. Ten States have been or are about to be formed from this pur 
 chase. At the date of the treaty there were eight slave-holding and 
 nine non-slave-holding States; and from the territory then belonging to 
 the Union, the slave States could add to their number but two, to-wit : 
 Alabama and Mississippi whilst five remained to be added to the 
 North, namely: Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine. 
 When these should all have been admitted, the North was to have four 
 teen States the South but ten. The purchase of Louisiana by extend 
 ing the local law of slavery over all its territory, added to the South 
 this whole area, making in all twenty States; and the acquisition of 
 Florida, under the treaty of Spain added one more State, making twenty- 
 one Southern States against fourteen Northern. 
 
 Such was the condition and prospects of the Union when Missouri 
 applied for admission. Maine had just been admitted without objection, 
 and the Union stood at its old position the North having one more 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 259 
 
 State than the South. The admission of Missouri would only have made 
 them equal for the time. The opposition, therefore, to the admission of 
 Missouri was induced, not by any existing preponderance of the South, 
 but by one that was anticipated. Just as they did in 1787, the North 
 made use of the attachment of the South to the Union to effect their 
 scheme, and insisted that all of the territory west of the Mississippi 
 should be given up by the South. It is highly instructive to us, in our 
 present circumstances, to notice that the only motive to this refusal to 
 admit Missouri must have been to secure power to the North. Fanati 
 cism had yet exercised no controlling power. Hatred had not yet been 
 excited. The many bonds, social, commercial and religious, which 
 bound the country together were yet in full vigor. 
 
 Again the adoration of the South for Union prevailed. A voice from 
 its midst, in an evil hour, proposed what it called a compromise, and the 
 North eagerly seized and urged it forward. The Missouri Compromise 
 took its place on the statute book, and graved in the soil of the Union a 
 geographical line between the North and the South. It was called a 
 compromise; but unfortunately it differed from the usual acceptation 
 of the term, in that it gave all on one side of the line to the North, and 
 secured nothing on the other side to the South. By it the North gained 
 territory for six additional States, namely: Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, 
 Nebraska, Oregon and Washington. The South reserved but two Mis 
 souri and Arkansas with the chances of a third from the Indian Terri 
 tory. The disastrous consequences of this compromise are portrayed 
 with the pen of a prophet by Mr. Jefferson, and I respectfully ask to 
 have his words read in your hearing : 
 
 [Extract from a letter of Mr. Jefferson to John Holmes.] 
 
 "MoxTicELLO, April 22, 1820. 
 
 " I thank you, dear sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send 
 me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question. It is a 
 perfect justification to them. I had for a long time ceased to read news 
 papers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident that they were 
 in good hands, and content to be a passenger in oar barque to the shore 
 from which I am not far distant. But this momentous question, like a 
 fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered 
 it at once as a knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. 
 But this is a reprieve only, not the final sentence. A geographical line, 
 coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived 
 and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated, and 
 every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. 
 
 " I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice 
 of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and 
 
260 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and 
 unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be, 
 that I shall not live to weep over it." 
 
 We will now pass down to the period when a new element was brought 
 into this unfortunate controversy. In 1835 petitions for the abolition of 
 slavery in places subject to the authority of the general government, 
 began to be presented to Congress. This form of proceeding was adopted 
 merely to adjust a lever which might reach the institution of slavery 
 within the States; and it is hazarding little to affirm that such was dis 
 tinctly understood to be the design of the movement. Such an attempt 
 should have been met by the prompt and stern rebuke of the common 
 government of all the States. For it would seem to be an axiomatic 
 truth, that where several States had entered into an alliance, there was 
 an obligation on each to respect the institutions of the other; and that 
 any attempt to use the alliance for the purpose of assailing the institu 
 tions of any one of the parties, was a breach of faith, and must ensue in 
 the dissolution of the alliance. Stern rebuke and unyielding resistance 
 should have been offered by Congress to all these attempts ; and such 
 was the course advised by Southern statesmen. As far back as 1838 the 
 dangers which are now around us were clearly foretold by Mr. Calhoun, 
 and it may serve to convince us that the final result is not far in the 
 future, if we see before us the antecedents which had been distinctly 
 traced. I ask leave, therefore, to have read an extract from a speech 
 made in 1838 : 
 
 "This was the only question of sufficient magnitude and potency to 
 divide this Union ; and divide it, it would, or drench the country in 
 blood if not arrested. He knew how much the sentiment he had uttered 
 would be misconstrued and misrepresented. There were those who saw 
 no danger to the Union in the violation of all its fundamental princi 
 ples, but who were full of apprehension when danger was foretold or 
 resisted, and who held not the authors of the danger, but those who 
 forewarned or opposed it, responsible for consequences. But the cry of 
 disunion by the weak or designing had no terror for him. If his attach 
 ment to the Union was less, he might tamper with the deep disease 
 which now afflicts the body politic and keep silent until the patient was 
 ready to sink under its mortal blows. It is a cheap, and he must say, 
 but too certain a mode of acquiring the character of devoted attach 
 ment to the Union. But, seeing the danger as he did, he would be a 
 traitor to the Union, and tlftse he represented to keep silence. The 
 assaults daily made on the institutions of nearly one-half of the States 
 of this Union institutions interwoven from the beginning with their 
 political and social existence, and which cannot be other than they are 
 without their inevitable destruction will, and must, if continued, make 
 two people of one by destroying every sympathy between the two great 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 261 
 
 sections, obliterating from their hearts the recollections of their com 
 mon danger and glory, and implanting in their place a mutual hatred 
 more deadly than ever existed between two neighboring people since 
 the commencement of the human race. He feared not the circulation 
 of the thousands of incendiary and slanderous publications, which were 
 daily issued from an organized and powerful press, among those in 
 tended to be vilified. They cannot penetrate our section. That was 
 not the danger; it lay in a different direction. Their circulation in the 
 non-slave-holding States was what was to be dreaded. It was infusing 
 a deadly poison into the minds of the rising generation, implanting in 
 them feelings of hatred, the most deadly hatred, instead of affection and 
 love, for one-half of this Union, to be returned oil their part with equal 
 detestation. The fatal, the immutable consequences, if not arrested, 
 and that without delay, were such as he had presented. 
 
 " The abolitionists tell you, in so many words, that their object is to 
 abolish slavery in the District of Columbia as but one step towards 
 final abolition in the States. With this object avowed by the abolition 
 ists, what do duty and policy demand on our part? We see the end, 
 and that, if it can be effected, it would be our destruction. Shall we 
 yield or stand fast ? That is the question. If we yield an inch we are 
 gone. The very ground on which we are asked to make the first conces 
 sion will be urged on us with equal force to make the second, the third, 
 and every intermediate one, till the last is consummated. ... At 
 every step they would become stronger and we weaker, if we should be 
 so infatuated as to make the first concession. . . . There never was 
 a question agitated where the most unyielding opposition was so neces 
 sary for success. 
 
 " He ought not, perhaps, to be surprised that Senators should differ 
 so widely from him on this subject. They did not view the disease as he 
 did. He saw working at the bottom of these movements the same spirit 
 which two centuries ago convulsed the Christian world and deluged it 
 in blood that fierce and cruel spirit of persecution, which originated in 
 assumed superiority and mistaken principles of duty, that made one man 
 believe that he was accountable for the sins of another, and that he was 
 the judge of what belonged to his temporal and eternal welfare, and 
 was bound, at the peril of his own soul, to interfere to rescue him from 
 perdition. Against this fell and bloody spirit it was in vain to interpose 
 this amendment. . . . An inflexible adherence to our principles and 
 our rights, and a decided and emphatic tone, equally remote from vio 
 lence or concession, only can save us. The deluded agitators must be 
 plainly told that it is no concern of theirs what is the character of our 
 institutions, and that they must not be touched here, or in the Territo 
 ries, or the States, by them or the government ; that they were under 
 the guardian protection of the Constitution, and that we stood prepared 
 
262 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 to repel all interference or disconnection, be the consequence what it 
 might." 
 
 Unfortunately for the South, concession became again its policy. It 
 was virtually admitted that the North had a right to assail the institu 
 tion of slavery when Congress agreed to receive their petitions. Logi 
 cally this admission demanded a consideration of the matter of the peti 
 tion. But with singular inconsistency a rule was made that the peti 
 tions should be laid upon the table without further action. So violent a 
 separation of premises and conclusions satisfied no one, and the result 
 was that the agitation continued with unabated zeal. The political par 
 ties into which the country was divided made their court to this fanati 
 cal element, added to its strength, and gave direction to its blindness. 
 
 Its first fruits were developed in the severance of Christian fellow 
 ship in the churches. Inflamed with zeal by imaginary wrong, and as 
 suming as an article of the faith that slavery was a sin, they denounced 
 their brethren of the South as unworthy of meeting with them at the 
 table of their common Master. The professed followers of that meek 
 and gentle Saviour who, from the hills of Galilee and from the moun 
 tains of Judea had looked down without censure upon thousands of 
 dwellings inhabited by slaveholders of that Saviour, one of whose first 
 miracles was the healing and restoring to a Roman master his slave 
 sick with the palsy, and commending that master, by declaring that he 
 had not found faith like his in all Israel ; these Northern professors of a 
 new Christianity cannot hold communion with slave-owners ! 
 
 The great apostle of the Gentiles could compass the Roman world, 
 and preach to the thousands and tens of thousands of slaveholders 
 around him without one word of reproach. He could convert to the 
 faith the fugitive slave of one of his friends, and send back to him that 
 slave without the smallest imputation upon his faith or practice. Nay, 
 more as though the spirit of God had prepared beforehand the means 
 to enlighten every Christian upon this very subject the church of God 
 is inspired to place in the canon .of Scripture the noble and respectful 
 letter written by St. Paul to this slaveholding master. The whole Ro 
 man world, from the Euphrates to the Pillars of Hercules, from the 
 Danube to Mount Atlas Goths and Ostrogoths, Vandals, Huns, Gauls 
 and Britons all can hold communion with each other, through the one 
 common Lord, when professing the common faith ; yet, here in the same 
 nation, under the same Constitution, with the same Bible, professing 
 one faith, the North cannot hold fellowship with the South. The great 
 leading denominations Methodist and Baptist have entirely severed 
 their connection with each other. The Presbyterian and Episcopalian 
 still meet together, and are yet preserved from this fanaticism. But in one 
 portion even of Presbyterian and in many of the smaller denominations 
 the cords are chafed and worn so as to be incapable of further stress; 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 263 
 
 and so it results that the North acknowledges no fellowship with the 
 South. They practically have added a new article to the Christian 
 creed, and in all these cases the tidal wave of persecution has set in 
 from the North, and at each flow it surges higher and higher upon the 
 South without any interval of ebb. 
 
 The next step in our history, to which I must allude, is the admission 
 of Texas into the Union. At this period there were twenty-six States in 
 frhe Union, evenly divided between the North and the South. Southern 
 development had been exhausted; but in the Territory remaining five 
 States were yet to be added to the North. The World s Convention 
 which met at London in 1843 had taken into its consideration the aboli 
 tion of slavery in Texas. In this Convention were delegates from New 
 England; and it is matter of history that the Convention waited on the 
 British Minister and urged upon him a government loan to Texas to be 
 applied towards the abolition of slavery. What took place in the secret 
 conclave of the Ministers can easily be conjectured from the following 
 outline of a debate in the British Parliament, extracted from the Lon 
 don Times : 
 
 "TEXAS. In the House of Lords, on Friday, the 18th of August, Lord 
 Brougham introduced the subject of Texas and Texan slavery in the fol 
 lowing manner: 
 
 " Lord Brougham said that, seeing his noble friend at the head of the 
 foreign department in his place, he wished to obtain some information 
 from him relative to a State of great interest at the present time, 
 namely, Texas. That country was in a state of independence, de facto, 
 but its independence had never been acknowledged by Mexico, the State 
 from which it was torn by the events of the revolution. He was aware 
 that its independence had been so far acknowledged by this country 
 that we had a treaty with it. 
 
 " The importance of Texas could not be underrated. It was a coun 
 try of the greatest capabilities, and was in extent fully as large as 
 France. It possessed a soil of the finest and most fertile character, and 
 it was capable of producing nearly all tropical produce, and its climate 
 was of the most healthy character. It had access to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 through the river Mississippi, with which it communicated by means of 
 the Red river. . . . The markets from whence they obtained their 
 supply of slaves were Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia; which States 
 constantly sent their surplus slave population, which would otherwise 
 be a burden to them, to the Texan market. No doubt it was true, as 
 has been stated, that they treated their slaves tolerably well, because 
 they knew that it was for their interest to rear them, as they had such 
 a profitable market for them in Texas. This made him irresistibly anx 
 ious for the abolition of slavery in Texas ; for if it were abolished there, 
 not only would that country be cultivated by free and white labor, but 
 
264 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 it would put a stop to the habit of breeding slaves for the Texan market. 
 The consequence would be that they would solve this great question in 
 the history of the United States, for it must ultimately end in the aboli 
 tion of slavery in America. He, therefore, looked forward most anx 
 iously to the abolition of slavery in Texas, as he was convinced that it 
 would ultimately end in the abolition of slavery throughout the whole 
 of America. He knew that the Texans would do much, as regarded the 
 abolition of slavery, if Mexico could be induced to recognize their inde 
 pendence. 
 
 " If, therefore, by our good offices, we could get the Mexican govern 
 ment to acknowledge the independence of Texas, he would suggest a 
 hope that it might terminate in the abolition of slavery in Texas, and 
 ultimately the whole of the Southern States of America." 
 
 The Earl of Aberdeen, in his reply, stated that " he need hardly say 
 that every effort on the part of Her Majesty s government would lead 
 to that result which was contemplated by his noble friend. He was 
 sure that he need hardly say that no one was more anxious than him 
 self to see the abolition of slavery in Texas; and if he could not consent 
 to produce papers, or give further information, it did not arise from in 
 difference, but from quite a contrary reason. In the present state of 
 the negotiations between the two countries in question, it would not 
 contribute to the end they had in view if he then expressed any opinion 
 as to the state of those negotiations; but he could assure his noble 
 friend that by means of urging the negotiations, as well as by every 
 other means in their power, Her Majesty s ministers would press this 
 matter." 
 
 Lord Brougham observed that " nothing could be more satisfactory 
 than the statement of his noble friend, which would be received with 
 joy by all who were favorable to the object of the Anti-Slavery So 
 cieties." 
 
 At this important period, the Providence of that God who holdeth in 
 His hand the destinies of nations, set aside the powers which man had 
 placed in authority over us, and raised up two Virginia patriots in their 
 stead. John Tyler and Abel P. Upshur men of sterling character and 
 far-seeing statesmanship were put in charge of the ship of state. They 
 saw through the schemes of England. With consummate skill and 
 earnest zeal they undertook to rescue Texas, and had so far succeeded 
 that a treaty was ready for signature between Texas and the United 
 States, when the explosion on board the Princeton deprived the coun 
 try of the valued life of Judge Upshur. Mr. Calhoun was then put in 
 requisition by Mr. Tyler, and the unanimous vote of the Senate called 
 him to the post of Secretary of State. In a fortnight ie treaty was 
 completed, and once more equality between the North and the South 
 was on the eve of being restored. 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 265 
 
 But here intervened one of those unfortunate canvassings for the 
 presidency, which are the bane of the South. Mr. Van Buren and Mr. 
 Clay, the candidates of the two great parties, each fearing to offend the 
 abolition party, or to throw it into the scale of his antagonist, simulta 
 neously published letters against annexation ; and at the ensuing ses 
 sion of Congress the treaty with Texas was defeated. The good sense of 
 the country, however, assisted by that appetite for territory which 
 seems to belong to the Anglo-Saxon race, put aside the trammels of 
 political machinery and declared in favor of annexation. The unfortu 
 nate managers were overwhelmed in the catastrophe, and the Southern 
 patriots had the satisfaction of consummating the admission of Texas 
 three days before they surrendered the reins of government to their suc 
 cessors. 
 
 The condition upon which Texas was admitted into the Union, pro 
 vided that from her territory five States might be created in the future. 
 Inasmuch as at least five remained to be admitted for the Northern sec 
 tion, the admission of Texas gave to the South merely an equilibrium 
 in the Senate. The majority in the House was already gone from the 
 South forever. The Electoral Colleges if arranged sectionally, would 
 give a majority also to the North. So that all that the South acquired 
 by the admission of Texas was the power to check a negative power. 
 Positive power had already departed from them. 
 
 At this era the Mexican war occurred. The country rushed into it 
 with an eagerness which blinded it to all consequences. North and 
 South freely contributed its blood and treasure, and freely shared its 
 glories and its dangers. But before the paeans of victory had yet sub 
 sidedbefore the lamentations for the dead had yet ceased before the 
 country could yet see through the clouds of the future the North sum 
 moned together its forces to seize for themselves the entire spoils of the 
 war. The Wilmot proviso was brought forward during the war, in Au 
 gust, 1846, and so far as the House of Representatives in Congress was 
 concerned, was adopted. By this proviso it was declared that slavery 
 should be excluded from all territory to be acquired from Mexico. The 
 Southern States were informed that although their blood and treasure 
 had contributed to the result although the bones of their slain lay en 
 tombed before the fortresses and among the mountains of Mexico 
 although Monterey and Churubusco and Buena Vista and Chapultepec 
 were names sacred to the glories of North or South, yet no Southern 
 man should stand upon the conquered territory upon the same footing 
 with the Northern. The institutions of the North, whether Mormon or 
 Infidel, might attend them the Chinaman or the Lascar, or the Sand 
 wich Islander or the Zambo all might have equal protection and right, 
 but the most valuable property of the Southern man must be left 
 behind. 
 
266 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEK. 
 
 It is not surprising that the Southern States should have been fired 
 with indignation at this attack. But what availed that ? Although in 
 1846 the Senate checked the proviso by a mano3uvre, yet in 1847 it was re 
 newed upon the expanded basis of excluding the South from all terri 
 tory on this continent. This also passed the House of Representatives, 
 and was again defeated by the management of the Senate. 
 
 Forbearance could sustain no more. The Legislatures of the South 
 ern States began to speak their deep and settled indignation. 
 
 Virginia in March, 1847, thus announced her purpose : 
 
 [Extract from Virginia resolutions of 1847.] 
 
 " 2. Resolved, unanimously, That all territory which may be acquired 
 by the arms of the United States, or yielded by treaty with any foreign 
 power, belongs to the several States of this Union as their joint and 
 common property, in which each and all have equal rights, and that the 
 enactment by the Federal government of any law which should directly 
 or by its effects prevent the citizens of any State from emigrating with 
 their property of whatever description into such territory, would make 
 a discrimination unwarranted by and in violation of the Constitution 
 and the rights of the States from which such citizens emigrated, and in 
 derogation of that perfect equality that belongs to the several States as 
 members of this Union, and would tend directly to subvert the Union 
 itself. 
 
 " 3. Resolved, That if in disregard alike of the spirit and principles of 
 the act of Congress on the admission of the State of Missouri into the 
 Union, generally known as the Missouri Compromise, and of every con 
 sideration of justice, of constitutional right and of fraternal feeling, the 
 fearful issue shall be forced upon the country, which must result from 
 the adoption and attempted enforcement of the proviso aforesaid as an 
 act of the general government, the people of Virginia can have no diffi 
 culty in choosing between the only alternatives that will then remain 
 of abject submission to aggression and outrage on the one hand, or de 
 termined resistance on the other, at all hazards and to the last ex 
 tremity. 
 
 " 4. Resolved, unanimously, That the General Assembly holds it to be 
 the duty of every man in every section of this Confederacy, if the Union" 
 is dear to him, to oppose the passage of any law for whatever purpose, 
 by which territory to be acquired may be subject to such a restriction. 
 
 " 5. Resolved, unanimously, That the passage of the above mentioned 
 proviso makes it the duty of every slave-holding State, and of all the citi 
 zens thereof, as they value their dearest privileges, their sovereignty, 
 their independence, their rights of property, to take firm, united and 
 concerted action in this emergency." 
 
 South Carolina uttered the same language in December of the same 
 year; and the other Southern States responded in such a manner as to 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 267 
 
 produce a pause. The treaty with Mexico was signed in May, 1848, and 
 an attempt was then made in Congress to arrange the territory acquired 
 to the satisfaction of the North and the South. The South asked no 
 more than that their rights and property, as guaranteed by the Consti 
 tution, should be respected. The North, on the other hand, demanded 
 the total exclusion of Southern institutions. With a view to some pro 
 per adjustment, a committee was raised in the Senate consisting of an 
 equal number of Northern and Southern men. The chairman was Mr. 
 Clayton, from the neutral State of Delaware. Hear his account of the 
 proceedings of the committee : 
 
 "As soon as we assembled, a proposition was made by a member 
 from the South to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific. 
 The vote upon it stood, four Southern members for it, and four Northern 
 members against it. We renewed the proposition in every conceivable 
 form; but our Northern friends rejected it as often as it was proposed. 
 We discussed it we entreated them to adopt it. We did not pretend 
 that it was a constitutional measure, but that it had been held by many 
 as a compact between the North and the South, and was justified as a 
 measure of peace. We argued to show the justice of extending the line 
 to the Pacific. I obtained a statement from the Land Office, showing that 
 by such an extension of the line the North would have the exclusive oc 
 cupation of one million and six hundred thousand square miles in the 
 Territories outside the States, and the South but two hundred and sixty- 
 two thousand square miles, in which, observe, slavery could only be 
 tolerated in case the people residing there should allow it. The propo 
 sition being rejected by the North, there was, indeed, as the Senator 
 from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) has described it, a solemn pause in 
 the committee. All hope of amicable settlement for the moment van 
 ished, and unnatural contention seemed likely to prevail among us. It 
 was then proposed to rest the present hope of settlement on the Supreme 
 Court as the ark of our safety. We came into the Senate with three- 
 fourths of the committee in favor of it, and the other fourth not fixed 
 against it. An appeal was provided in the bill from all decisions of the 
 territorial judges in cases of writs of habeas corpus, or other cases 
 where the issue of personal freedom should be presented. The South 
 agreed in the Senate, with extraordinary unanimity, to submit the 
 validity of their claims to the Supreme Court ; but the North were by no 
 means so unanimous. There was, however, a majority in favor of the 
 bill embracing this principle. Having passed the Senate, it was sent to 
 the House, where, on the twenty-eighth day of July, 1848, it was defeated 
 by a vote of one hundred and twelve to ninety-seven five-sixths of the 
 opposition to it being from the North." 
 
 The failure of this scheme left the Territory without government, 
 and in August, 1848, the Oregon Territorial Bill was passed ; by the 26th 
 
268 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 section of which, it was enacted that the inhabitants of the said Terri 
 tory shall be entitled to all the privileges granted by the ordinance of 
 1787, and " shall be subject to all the conditions, and restrictions and 
 prohibitions in said articles of compact imposed upon the people of said 
 Territory." Here, then, was an enactment of the Wilmot proviso; but 
 as it only covered territory north of 36 30\ the President approved it 
 on that ground. And the South acquiesced again. 
 
 The conflict was still continued as to the remaining territory; and in 
 1849, Virginia repeated and confirmed her resolutions of 1847, and added 
 another as to the slave trade in the District of Columbia The following 
 are the resolutions : 
 
 [Extract from resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia, adopted January 29, 1849.J 
 
 " 5. Resolved, unanimously, That the passage of the above mentioned 
 proviso makes it the duty of every slave-holding State, and all the citi, 
 zens thereof, as they value their dearest privileges, their sovereignty, 
 their independence and their rights of property, to take firm, united and 
 concerted action in this emergency. 
 
 " II. Resolved, That we regard the passage of a law by the Congress 
 of the United States, abolishing slavery or the slave trade in the District 
 of Columbia as a direct attack upon the institutions of the Southern 
 States, to be resisted at every hazard. 
 
 " III. Resolved, That in the event of the passage by Congress of the 
 Wilmot proviso, or any law abolishing slavery or the slave trade in the 
 District of Columbia, the Governor of this Commonwealth is requested 
 immediately to convene the Legislature of this State (if it shall have 
 adjourned) to consider of the mode and measures of redress." 
 
 South Carolina again responded in December, 1849, and declared that 
 the time for action had come; and she was not mistaken, for immedi 
 ately thereafter the President of the United States sent out his military 
 Governor to organize the Territory of California. At his word election 
 districts are formed and electoral rights conferred, and the promiscuous 
 horde whom war and the spirit of adventure had collected in California 
 are invested with authority to make a Constitution, and by it exclude the 
 entire South from any participation in the wealth of that whole region. 
 
 In 1850 this Constitution came before Congress and was adopted with 
 the other measures, known as the Compromise of 1850. South Carolina 
 regarded these measures as a mere aggravation of the injuries before 
 heaped upon the South. She considered the Constitution of California, 
 when sanctioned by Congress, to be a virtual enactment of the Wilmot 
 proviso. Even the Missouri Compromise line had been disregarded by 
 that Constitution ; and the entire Pacific Coast had now, by the opera 
 tion of the Oregon bill and this Constitution of California, been closed 
 to Southern emigration. One of these Compromise measures enacted as 
 follows: 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 269 
 
 " It shall not be lawful to bring into the District of Columbia any 
 slave whatever for the purpose of being placed in depot to be subse 
 quently transferred to any other State or place to be sold as merchan 
 dise; and if such slave be brought into the said District by its owner, or 
 by the authority or consent of its owner, contrary to the provisions of 
 this act, such slave shall thereupon become liberated and free." 
 
 This law raised the issue upon which Virginia had pledged herself to 
 act; and South Carolina, in going forward, considered herself merely as 
 the front rank in the advancing column of her sisters. I refer again to 
 these incidents merely as facts, with no intention to censure or impute 
 wrong. They must be mentioned to explain and to justify the course of 
 South Carolina, and they show that in each stage of her progress she 
 had, as she thought, the concurrence of her sister States. 
 
 In her judgment the other compromise measures of 1850, which 
 changed the boundary of Texas, was equally exceptionable. It with 
 drew territory from the State of Texas for no other apparent purpose 
 than to convert that Territory into free soil, and brought close upon the 
 flank of the Southern States the very instrument for their destruction 
 which Lord Brougham had sought in 1843 ; and for all this the equiva 
 lent offered to the South was a fugitive slave law, which, we believed, 
 would be as persistently eluded by the Northern States as the obliga 
 tion which the constitution and the previous laws of Congress had al 
 ready imposed on them. 
 
 Entertaining these opinions, South Carolina proceeded to arm her 
 people. Desiring to act in concert with the South, she first sent dele 
 gates to a Southern Congress, and next prepared herself to secede from 
 the Union. At this stage of her progress she was met by your resolu 
 tions of 1851, in which you declared your acceptance of the compromise 
 of 1850, and your request to us to desist from our purpose of secession. 
 We did desist. We restrained our gallant coursers, although with great 
 straining upon the reins of State. We have stood still from that day, 
 and almost mute. We have waited as you desired, and what have since 
 been the results ? 
 
 Kansas next came upon the stage of action. A strong effort is made 
 in Congress by those who yet believed in the virtue of reasoning with 
 fanaticism, and of persuading the demagogue to remove the \vhole sub 
 ject of slavery from the halls of Congress. The Kansas-Nebraska act 
 is passed, the Missouri compromise is repealed. At the same time the 
 Supreme Court lends its aid by the Dred Scott decision, and the South 
 is congratulated that now she is to have that peace for which so many 
 sacrifices had been made. 
 
 No sooner is this done but the contest assumes a new and more 
 alarming character. Throughout the North societies are organized for 
 taking possession of Kansas. Emigrants are sent out armed to the 
 
270 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 .teeth, and the arms are furnished by the pulpit and the press. The 
 South can do no less than defend itself, and thus civil war is waged in 
 the Territory between North and South; and nothing but its distance 
 in the far West prevented it from involving the entire country. That 
 war was crushed out by the forces of the Federal government ; but the 
 blood-hounds whom it trained were kept in leash to break forth upon 
 Harper s Ferry. It has ended in the complete delivery of Kansas to the 
 North. And now the two sections stand front to front the North elate 
 with victory, in possessio n of both houses of Congress, and only awaiting 
 the Presidential election to seize upon the purse and the sword of the 
 nation. 
 
 Heretofore each section of the Union was represented in either camp. 
 But now both camps are sifted, and no familiar voice from either section 
 is lifted to stay the sounds of angry vituperation. A broad geograph 
 ical line is ploughed into the soil, and none may cross it but with sword 
 and buckler. Compare this state of things with the period when a few 
 fanatical followers rallied around Birney as their leader. Look at the 
 struggle made at the last Presidential election, and consider how nearly 
 we had reached the crisis. The Delilah of the North had already cried 
 out, " The Philistines be upon thee, 0, Samson." And although on that 
 occasion he burst asunder the withes and gave us respite for four years, 
 yet now again are new bonds in preparation, and this time we have 
 reason to fear that the locks of our strength have been shorn ; and, made 
 blind beforehand, we are about to be driven to the mill-stones to grind 
 meal for our enemies. 
 
 We stand now in the Union, fifteen States to eighteen ; and of these 
 fifteen we must consider at least one as neutral. The constitutional 
 barrier which we have always had in the Senate is, therefore, gone, and 
 with it all power to check the appointments to office. The House of 
 Representatives has been lost to us for years. The Electoral College, 
 when combined sectionally, must, of course, elect a sectional President; 
 and in a few years even the judicial arm, with its slender protection, 
 must follow the appointing power. As matters stand, we are virtually 
 excluded from all the territory of the Union ; and even the Territorial 
 Legislature of Nebraska has ventured to pass an act excluding slavery 
 from that Territory. At every point, therefore, we are fairly at bay. 
 
 Arid what is the prospect before us ? Is it likely that the torrent 
 which is in motion will be stayed in its course? A few moments con 
 sideration of its causes will inform us. The generation which now has 
 possession of the political power of the North has been regularly trained 
 from childhood to the course which they are now pursuing. At their 
 mother s knee they were taught that slavery was a sin. The school then 
 surrounded them with pictures and books, in which the lash was repre 
 sented in every Southern hand, and the groans of the slave as the music 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 271 
 
 of every Southern household. Horrid spectacles of mothers separated 
 from their children ; descriptions of brutal violence and savage disre 
 gard of the kindliest feelings of humanity have been set before them, 
 and the generous sympathies of youth have been turned against their 
 brethren of the same blood, as oppressors of the weak and ignorant 
 African. 
 
 To these teachings the pulpit adds its religious sanction. The utter 
 ance of anathemas from the minister clothes the sentiment with the 
 solemnity of religious truth. Slavery is denounced as a sin, and the con 
 science is misled to assume jurisdiction over Southern conduc-t. The 
 press then advances, with its thousand tongues, and nothing is heard 
 but the continuous cry of wrong, and the earnest appeal for means and 
 votes to extinguish that wrong. And here the party leader, with his po 
 litical craft and skill, intervenes and gives directions to the one-sided 
 energy, which, without him, would soon exhaust itself. Thus we have 
 every element of opinion and every power which operates on mind 
 brought into requisition to effect one result. That result is as certain 
 as that effect follows cause, and that effect must remain permanent, for 
 the reason that the causes are permanent and ever acting. 
 
 We are brought then to this conclusion : The South stands in the Union 
 without any protection from the Constitution, subject to the government 
 of a sectional party, who regard our institutions as sinful, and whose 
 leaders already declare that the destruction of these institutions is only 
 a question of time. The power of this party must increase from the con 
 tinued operation of the causes which have given them their present 
 strength. Thus, with the forms of the Constitution around us, we are 
 deprived of all the benefits to secure which the Union was formed. 
 
 The preamble of that Constitution sets forth these objects in the 
 following terms : 
 
 " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
 union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the com 
 mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of 
 liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con 
 stitution for the United States of America." 
 
 Where is that more perfect union ? The answer is given by the shout 
 which hailed as a hero the murderer and assassin. As the ancient 
 Greeks had no name for the parricide, and imposed no punishment for an 
 unknown crime, so the fathers of the Constitution provided no means for 
 repressing the unimagined invasion of a sister State. Nay, they actually 
 disarmed the State, giving up to the Federal government the army and 
 navy, and making no provision for protection of a State from invasion by 
 a neighboring State. This gave rise to the anomaly exhibited at Har 
 per s Ferry in the laws of the Federal government affording no aid to 
 the government of Virginia to protect her from invasion. This more per- 
 
272 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEHMINGER. 
 
 feet union is more strikingly illustrated in the spectacle now exhibited 
 in the array of one-half the Union against the other, urged on (as one of 
 the speakers at a meeting in Boston most truthfully declares) by a "re 
 ligion of hate," which is ready " to break down all laws, human and 
 divine." 
 
 But the Constitution was also made to establish justice. The estab 
 lishment of justice is evinced in the protection and security of life and 
 property. The blood that cries from the ground at Harper s Ferry is 
 witness to the security of life, and doubtless the spotted region on Brown s 
 map would in due time have added their solemn voices but for the utter 
 failure in Virginia. And if these voices do not convince, let the ease 
 with which some of the confederates escaped through sister States into 
 Canada add its testimony. Nay, more. Suppose jurisdiction of the crime 
 had been surrendered to the Federal government, and judgment had 
 been delayed until the fourth of March next, how think you that the cul 
 prits would have fared with a black Eepublican President entrusted 
 with pardoning power ? 
 
 And what protection has the Union afforded to the most valuable 
 property of the South that which was chiefly in view when the Consti 
 tution was made ? " Thou shalt not steal," says the word of God. 
 "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor s slave," says the same authority. 
 The Constitution and the " higher law " were therefore in agreement 
 when it recognized property in a slave and stipulated to return him to 
 his owner. But what is the condition of things in this Union ? Eight at 
 least of the States, and I am told as many as sixteen, have enacted laws 
 to defeat the rendition of the slave to his master, and at this moment a 
 controversy is pending in which even the transit of the slave with his 
 master through a free State is declared unlawful. Associations are 
 openly formed for the purpose of stealing and receiving the slave when 
 stolen, and in one State the owner reclaiming his slave does so on peril 
 of an indictment for felony. The high priest of this new religion, occu 
 pying a high place in the government, and a probable successor to the 
 Presidency, announces to his followers that they must defend these fugi 
 tive slaves as they would their "household gods." 
 
 And how does the Union insure domestic tranquility? Let the ne 
 cessity under which this State now is to arm her people let that neces 
 sity answer. Let the sounds of war which are yet resounding through 
 the streets of this capital answer. Let the restless and uneasy feeling 
 throughout the entire South answer. But against whom are we com 
 pelled to arm? Who are they that threaten us with coercion and vio 
 lence? It is they who are called our brethren ; they who are our rulers ; 
 they who formed with us a Constitution for common defense. They or 
 ganize in their midst societies to destroy our peace, and to arm the slave 
 against his master; they preach a crusade against our institutions; they 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 273 
 
 train up their children to hate and distrust; they abuse to our destruc 
 tion the power which the government has confided to them. We have 
 surrendered to that government our arms and our fortresses; our army 
 and our navy ; our sword and purse ; and soon we may find, to our cost, 
 that they are in the hands of an open enemy. 
 
 Time does not permit the further elucidation of this portion of our 
 enquiry. Enough, however, has been said to prove that we have a Union 
 without a Constitution. The Union indeed stands, but it has ceased to 
 effect for us at the South the great objects for which it was formed. It 
 is but the carcass of its former self the body without the soul. The 
 blessings which it once conferred have departed the glories which once 
 surrounded it have been dimmed; and its burdens remain, pressing 
 down upon the South without compensation. History is not without its 
 illustrations on this subject to teach us wisdom. Republics have, be 
 fore ours, been enslaved under all the forms of free institutions. It was 
 in the Roman Senate that Sylla sat while the soldiers were butchering 
 the citizens of the Republic. It was in the Roman forum that Antony 
 thrice offered unto Caesar the kingly crown, which, in deference to the 
 forms of the Constitution, he thrice refused; and it w r as in a vain effort 
 to restore that Constitution that Brutus and his confederates put Csesar 
 to death. Long after the extinction of all liberty, the edicts of the Sen 
 ate professed to be in the name of the Roman people, and the Emperor 
 himself exercised his absolute authority under the republican names of 
 Consul and Imperator. 
 
 Are we then to be misled in the same manner by deceptive appear 
 ances? Is it not clear to the Southern people, that w r hen the North have 
 banded themselves together, and are in possession of the government, 
 the South has become a province of the North? Are they not really in 
 a worse condition than they were in 1775? Then, as now, a sectional 
 line (wider indeed in extent, but not more so in effect,) separated the 
 rulers from their subjects; then, as now, the government was in the 
 hands of one section, the other having a choice only between submission 
 and resistance. But now, the Southern colonies must bear these addi 
 tional aggravations: 
 
 1. Our rulers have been educated from childhood to denounce us and 
 our institutions ; so that instead of the kindly sympathy with which a 
 government should respond to the feelings of those whom it governs, 
 our government is our enemy. 
 
 2. That government being composed of a sectional party, it is the in 
 terest of its leaders to keep alive all the elements of sectional strife; 
 and the future, therefore, offers to us no prospect of relief. 
 
 3. The immense patronage and spoils of the government, and the 
 large interests involved in the public expenditures, and in discriminat 
 ing tariffs, bring to the aid of the dominant party every selfish interest, 
 
 1 8 
 
274 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 and enable it to rivet its fetters upon the South, while the hope held out 
 to Southern aspirants for office is used to corrupt our leaders and con 
 found our people. 
 
 4. The Southern States are degraded from their position of equality 
 by the open announcement that they shall have no further expansion, 
 while the North, flushed with victory, are seizing the whole territory of 
 the Union, and give us plainly to understand that our institutions are 
 already doomed, and merely await execution of the sentence. 
 
 5. And finally, we are graciously informed that the arrangements of 
 Southern capital and labor do not please our masters, and that an irre 
 pressible conflict has commenced which must end in the overthrow of 
 Southern civilization. 
 
 Even the Autocrat of Russia feels a sympathy with his Siberian serfs, 
 and would never allow his government to be regarded as the instrument 
 of their ruin. If we are to be provinces, better a thousand times bet 
 ter to have in our rulers at least the prestige of an illustrious line of 
 noble ancestry ; to be governed by nature s noblemen, instead of the 
 scum which the surges of party roll up on its surface. 
 
 But we are told that we are not in so hopeless a condition ; that there 
 are good men and true at the North who will break down this sectional 
 tyranny; and we are referred to the meetings lately held in some of 
 our Northern cities. I honor the magnanimity and courage of those 
 noble spirits who have ventured to stem the torrent of prejudice and 
 fanaticism. But their efforts have proved vain. They cannot fail to be 
 vain, because they give up the citadel to the enemy. Even the presi 
 dent of the Boston meeting declares that not an inch more is to be yielded 
 to the extension of slavery. Every speaker, save one, (and that one I 
 honor for his patriotic firmness and sagacity Mr. O Conor, of New 
 York,) admits the justness of the Northern condemnation of slavery. 
 This germ contains the logical sequence s which the North have followed 
 out into action. There can be no peace until they either change their 
 opinions, or cease from taking any cognizance whatsoever of slavery. 
 They must respect it as they would marriage, parental authority, or 
 any other legitimate institution of a sister State, and until oar defend 
 ers take this position, they build upon the sands. 
 
 But why waste our time in surmise when realities are thrust openly 
 before us ? Can any one mistake the roaring of the storm at Washing 
 ton ? Has the column of the Republican party there shown any sign of 
 wavering ? Was ever such a spectacle presented to this country be 
 fore ? There are plainly exhibited the dire results of this array of sec 
 tions; and there in that conflict for the mastery is foreshadowed that 
 real conflict between the States to which we are soon to be summoned. 
 
 Will you undertake that conflict singly, or shall we act in concert ? 
 That is the great question which I am commissioned to ask. In 1817 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 275 
 
 and again in 1849, your judgment pronounced in favor of "concerted 
 action." We have adopted your judgment and we come now to pro 
 pose the conference. From the Federal government as it stands we can 
 expect nothing. From the Northern States we have been repelled with 
 denunciation. Our only resource then is in ourselves, and among our 
 selves union is strength. 
 
 The great and leading argument in favor of a conference is, that it is 
 the proper step in any contingency. It is a measure which will preserve 
 the Union if it can constitutionally be preserved; and if it cannot, it is 
 the proper preparatory step for Southern defense. Those who desire 
 the maintenance of the Union must perceive that nothing is more 
 likely to drive back the aggressions of the North, and to restore us to 
 rights, than the exhibition of a united and determined purpose of re 
 sistance. And those who believe that the Union cannot be preserved, 
 will equally perceive that a Southern conference is a necessary step to 
 effective Southern defense. This measure ought, therefore, to unite all 
 parties excepting alone that (if there be any such) which favors uncon 
 ditional submission. 
 
 And what shall be the advice which may reasonably be expected from 
 such a conference ? Certainly they will require a restoration of the Con 
 stitution and the perfect equality of the Southern States. Could any 
 measure be more likely to effect this result than the united demand of 
 the whole South? Say to the North, repeal at once all your enactments 
 against the just rendition of our slaves; break up your underground 
 railroads; perform towards us your constitutional obligations, and re 
 store to us all those rights which the comity of nations as \vell as the 
 Federal Constitution guarantee to us. We insist that nations bound to 
 each other as we are cannot agitate and form societies to impair the in 
 stitutions recognized by the laws of either, and we demand the immedi 
 ate suppression of such societies and the return of tranquility to oar 
 borders. If we are to remain united, we must no longer have our prop 
 erty stolen from us, and the 1 thieves and stolen property protected by 
 your laws; neither will we hear ourselves denounced as criminals and 
 evil-doers w r hile obeying our own laws. Surely the South may unite in 
 declaring anew her bill of rights, and it is not yet treasonable to add that 
 she must have equality in the Union, or she will seek independence out 
 of it. 
 
 It is obvious to every one that if it be possible to procure these de 
 mands and to remain in the Union, the united voice of the whole South 
 is the only mode of effecting it; and if there be a more forbearing party 
 Still, who desire to try in the Union measures of retaliation and non- 
 intercourse, or others who hope to prevail upon the North to give us new 
 guarantees by amendments of the Constitution of the United States, a 
 conference of the South offers the best mode of carrying out their plans. 
 
276 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The wisest and best men of the South will be brought together to con 
 sider them, and the" wisest and best measures may reasonably be ex 
 pected. 
 
 I would be wanting in the frankness and candor due to this august 
 assemblage, if I did not plainly declare the opinions which we entertain 
 in South Carolina. We have no confidence in any paper guarantees 
 neither do we believe that any measures of restriction or retaliation 
 within the present Union will avail. But with equal frankness we de 
 clare that when we propose a conference, we do so with the full under 
 standing that we are but one of the States in that conference, entitled 
 like all others to express our opinions, but willing to respect and abide 
 by the united judgment of the whole. If our pace be too fast for some, 
 we are content to walk slower; our earnest wish is that all may keep 
 together. "We cannot consent to stand still, but would gladly make 
 common cause with all. We are far from expecting or desiring to dic 
 tate or lead. 
 
 There are indeed material guarantees which Southern statesmen 
 have proposed, and which, if added to the Constitution, might restore to 
 the South its equality in the Union. Among these may be mentioned 
 Mr. Calhoun s suggestion of a dual executive; and although attempts 
 have been made to detract from this suggestion as impracticable, it may 
 be answered that the Roman Republic, with its two Consuls, so far from 
 proving an impracticable government, lasted five hundred years, and 
 under this dual executive conquered the world. 
 
 Another suggestion has been offered of dividing the Senate into two 
 sectional classes, and requiring a concurrence upon all sectional ques 
 tions, somewhat after the plan established in the conventions of the 
 Episcopal Church of America. This plan has the advantage of actual 
 existence in their midst. 
 
 The Governor of this State has proposed that a Convention of the 
 United States should be called to determine whether amendments may 
 not be made to the Constitution to save the Union ; and if they cannot, 
 then that such division be made of the governme-nt property as would 
 tend to a peaceful and just arrangement. Such a measure would most 
 naturally and properly be preceded by a Southern conference to agree 
 beforehand upon such amendments as should be proposed, and such de 
 mands as should be made by the South. If such a body should ever 
 meet, it would be indeed unfortunate for the South to enter it with 
 divided counsels. 
 
 Unquestionably the South is entitled to demand, as already stated, 
 an equal share of the territory of the Union ; and the repeal of all laws 
 obstructing the return of fugitive slaves; and it would seem to be 
 equally unquestionable that she has a right to demand the disbanding 
 of every society which is agitating the Northern mind against Southern 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 277 
 
 institutions. These, with a surrender of the power to amend the Con 
 stitution of the United States in regard to slavery, would be proper sub 
 jects for the consideration of a Southern conference, and would all come 
 within the purview of the measure recommended by his Excellency. If 
 any of them shall be demanded of the proposed Convention of the United 
 States, they would at least serve to test the sincerity of the profession 
 of the Northern Unionists. 
 
 On the other hand, those who believe in the efficiency of measures of 
 restriction and commercial independence, must perceive that such 
 measures would be far more effective if taken in concert. What benefit 
 would result from non-importation into Richmond and Norfolk, if Eden- 
 ton and Newbern and Beaufort received Northern goods as before ? 
 and what good effect would restrictions at Charleston serve, if Savan 
 nah should decline concurrence ? The commercial independence of 
 the South is certainly an object greatly to be desired. Is it possible to 
 advance it more effectually than by the concerted action of the whole 
 South ? 
 
 And if a conference should do no more than to turn the eyes of the 
 South from presidential elections and Federal office, and stir up our 
 leading men to seek position at the South, and to advance and develop 
 the resources of our own country, we shall have made a great advance 
 towards the solution of our difficulties. And finally if the worst must 
 come, and we must take our destinies into our own hands, a Southern 
 conference is the necessary step to such arrangements as are requisite 
 to take our place among the nations of the earth. 
 
 It is this last consideration that doubtless retards many from yield 
 ing to it their support. Such a meeting in 1775 led to the Revolution; 
 and it is objected that the meeting of 1860 may lead to the same result. 
 To this objection I answer that a similar meeting in 1765 led to the re 
 peal of the stamp act; and if the mother country had acted with jus 
 tice and moderation, they might have preserved to this day their union 
 with the colonies. The meeting of 1775 led to Revolution because 
 tyranny and oppression could no longer be borne, and they only can 
 object to this result who will maintain that the Revolution was wrong, 
 and that America should have crouched beneath the paw of the British 
 lion. So also now, if just and moderate counsels shall prevail over 
 fanaticism and tyranny if the North shall follow the wise and saga 
 cious advice of Pitt and Camden, then the same results will follow as in 
 1765. But if they move forward to their unholy purposes with the ran 
 corous blindness of Lord North and his associates, then the precedent of 
 1775 is the fitting example for the South and the same catastrophy will 
 be the fitting end of the drama. If such a result were right then, it 
 would be right now; and if it be certain thafcthe North will insist upon 
 ruling us as subjects, when they have extinguished our constitutional 
 
278 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 guarantees and refused our equal rights, then it is true we should at 
 once seek our Washington to guide us through the new conflict that 
 awaits us. 
 
 Unquestionably there is risk, but that risk is from the perseverance 
 of our enemies in wrong. If they will do right all will be well. Must 
 we then accept the alternative of unconditional submission because 
 there is risk of revolution ? Was there ever a prize to be attained with 
 out risk ? It is the law of God that everything valuable must be at 
 tained by effort. " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread;" and 
 this sentence is inwrought in all human possessions. Free institutions 
 are among the most valuable of these, and they can only be maintained 
 by constant and untiring effort. 
 
 " Oh, freedom ! thou art not, as poets dream, 
 A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, 
 And wavy tresses, gushing from her can. 
 
 " A bearded man 
 
 Armed to the teeth art thou ; one mailed hand 
 Grasps the broad shield ; and one the sword ; 
 
 Thy brow, 
 
 Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred 
 With tokens of old wars." 
 
 Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen, I have done. I have executed my 
 commission. I have discharged as faithfully as I can the high trust 
 confided to me by South Carolina. I have delivered into the keeping of 
 Virginia the cause of the South. You" who occupy the seats of Wash 
 ington and of Henry cannot decide this as an ordinary question of 
 legislative duty. In your keeping is the glory of those noble spirits 
 who have consecrated the soil upon which we stand. You cannot, you 
 will not, dim the lustre which surrounds this capitol by extinguishing 
 any of the lights which they have kindled; and may that God whose 
 blessings we invoked at the beginning of this deliberation, now attend 
 you to the end, and guide you to such a conclusion as will secure the 
 welfare and happiness of our Southern country. 
 
 Following the address, the General Assembly of Virginia 
 adopted the resolutions we have heretofore presented. 
 
 Mr. Memminger remained in Richmond for several days, 
 awaiting the action of the General Assembly on the subject 
 matter of his mission. 
 
 He was accompanied to the good old city on the James 
 by his daughter, Miss Lucy, then in the bloom of lovely 
 young womanhood. Her beauty and grace threw a pecu 
 liar charm around the social life of South Carolina s Com- 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 279 
 
 missioner, while she became the recipient of the most deli 
 cate attentions from the noble men and women of this old 
 metropolis of elegant courtesies. Thus were formed those 
 charming social attachments, which in after years made the 
 home of the Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate 
 States, in Richmond, among the most attractive of the many 
 that illustrated the graces of our Southern civilization at the 
 capital of " Dixie." 
 
 Uncertain as to what action the Legislature of Virginia 
 would take with reference to his mission, and assured that 
 his presence in Richmond could not affect the ultimate action 
 of the body, Mr. Memminger addressed the following letter 
 to Governor Letcher, and returned to South Carolina : 
 
 RICHMOND, February 7, 1860. 
 His Excellency John Letcher, Governor of the State of Virginia: 
 
 DEAR SIR, Having discharged the duties of my mission to the State 
 of Virginia, I have been waiting in expectation of bearing back the ans 
 wer of the General Assembly. But as that honorable body is not yet 
 prepared to respond, and may desire still further time for deliberation. 
 I have concluded to return home, and to request your Excellency to 
 communicate to the Governor of South Carolina the final answer of the 
 Assembly. 
 
 In taking leave of your Excellency, permit me to express the grateful 
 remembrance which I shall bear with me, of the regard and respect 
 which have been exhibited toward the people of South Carolina, and of 
 the kindness and hospitality to myself. Whatever may be the issue of the 
 present mission, I earnestly hope that it may serve more closely to unite 
 our respective people in the bonds of mutual affection and good will. 
 
 "With much respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER 
 
 "While there was no immediate result following upon the 
 mission of Mr. Memminger such as was hoped for by those 
 who desired the withdrawal of the Southern States from the 
 Union yet it was far from being a failure. The logical and 
 eloquent appeal made by him to the Virginia Legislature, 
 reached the thinking men of the country, and prepared their 
 
280 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 minds for the events which were soon to convulse the Union 
 of States with the throes of a mighty revolution. 
 
 On reaching his home in Charleston, Mr. Memminger sent 
 the following report of his mission to Governor Gist : 
 
 CHARLESTON, February 13, 1860. 
 His Excellency Wm. H. Gist, Governor of the State of South Carolina: 
 
 DEAR SIR, I respectfully report to your Excellency, that upon the 
 receipt of your appointment to the office of Commissioner to the State of 
 Virginia, I proceeded to the city o*f Richmond. On my arrival there I 
 was received by a committee of the General Assembly as the guest of 
 the State of Virginia; and every attention which the most courteous 
 and refined hospitality could suggest was exhibited toward me during 
 my whole stay in Richmond. 
 
 The Governor of Virginia with considerate forecast, had prepared the 
 way for my introduction to the General Assembly, and promptly com 
 municated my credentials and the object of my mission ; and I was in 
 vited by the General Assembly to explain at large the views of South 
 Carolina before the assembled authorities of Virginia. This invitation 
 I accepted, and the Governor and the Judges of the State, together with 
 both branches of the General Assembly, met together at the Capitol to 
 do honor to the State of South Carolina, and to evince their high respect 
 for her message. 
 
 I herewith submit to your Excellency a summary of the address 
 which I had the honor to deliver on that occasion, as the same was sub 
 sequently printed by order of the General Assembly. 
 
 After the delivery of this address, I remained in Richmond, in the 
 expectation of bearing back to your Excellency the answer of the Gen 
 eral Assembly of Virginia. That honorable body, however, was not pre 
 pared to make so speedy a response, and, under the circumstances, it 
 seemed to me best that I should return home and await the result of 
 their deliberations. Accordingly I addressed to the Governor of Vir 
 ginia a final communication, of which a copy is enclosed, and on the 9th 
 instant took leave of his Excellency and returned home. 
 
 Whatever may be the result of the mission in relation to the confer 
 ence proposed, its effects cannot fail to be beneficial in other respects. 
 The warm and kindly feeling which was exhibited to me, was, of course, 
 the expression of that feeling towards the State which I represented, 
 and every South Carolinian may justly share in it. On every occasion 
 of public festivity or private intercourse, where our State or people were 
 named, the demonstrations of kindness and respect were so marked as 
 to evince the warmest sympathy and fellow-feeling. And although the 
 extent of this great State, and the diversity of sentiment which yet pre- 
 
CONVENTION OF 1852. 281 
 
 vails among her people as to proper remedies may impair her unity and 
 promptness of action, yet her high tone and the manly spirit of elevated 
 patriotism manifested by her sons ensure her eventual support of the 
 equal constitutional rights of the South. 
 
 These rights most of her people still think can yet be secured by 
 measures within the Union; and the apprehension that the proposed 
 conference must lead to disunion has hitherto been the hindrance to its 
 adoption. This apprehension, I have endeavored to show, can only be 
 come serious incase the North shall refuse justice to the South. If the 
 constitutional rights of the South be set at naught if her security be 
 disregarded if a sectional party takes possession of the government 
 and delivers up the South without any constitutional protection to the 
 combined hatred of fanaticism and faction, then the Union becomes an 
 instrument of tyranny, and the South its victim. In that case, truly, 
 the apprehension of disunion from a conference would be just. But if, 
 as many in Virginia believe, there is yet fraternal feeling enough exist 
 ing at the North to stay the tide of fanaticism and to do justice to the 
 South, then the apprehension of disunion from a conference is without 
 foundation. On the contrary, a conference becomes, in fact, the very 
 best instrument to assist the supposed fraternal feeling of the North. 
 It would bring to its aid the united action of the South, and by present 
 ing a bold and manly front would compel the adversary to respect their 
 rights and yield to their demand. 
 
 This view of the subject seems so just that I cannot doubt but that 
 it will finally prevail in Virginia. The defenders of Southern rights 
 there are firm and elevated patriots. They will not be deterred by pres 
 ent difficulties; and even should they fail at present in carrying a 
 Southern Conference, I have an abiding conviction that they will be 
 sustained by their people, and that Virginia will assuredly take her 
 place in the united council of the South. With much respect, 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The following is a copy of the reply of Governor Gist: 
 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
 UNIONVILLE, S. C., Feb. 30, 1860. 
 Hon. C. G. Memminger: 
 
 DEAR SIR, In acknowledging the receipt of your report on your mis 
 sion to the State of Virginia, accompanied with a copy of your address 
 before the Legislature, it affords me great pleasure to say that the views 
 presented and arguments advanced seem to me unanswerable. And 
 although Virginia may hesitate or refuse to act at present, the power of 
 truth will ultimately prevail, and she wall take her proper place as a 
 
282 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. , 
 
 leader of the South in maintaining our rights and redressing our wrongs 
 in or out of the Union. 
 
 Whatever may be the result of your mission in other respects, Vir 
 ginia has certainly given evidence, in the courtesy and kindness ex 
 tended to you, and in the respectful consideration of the resolutions, of 
 her high regard for South Carolina, and of a proper appreciation of her 
 motives, for which she is entitled to our respectful acknowledgments. 
 
 Allow me to congratulate you, sir, upon the faithful and able manner 
 in which you have discharged the high trust committed to you, and to 
 thank you, in the name of the State, for your distinguished services. 
 
 WILLIAM H. GIST. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 $<?e<?5sioi? of Soutl? Qaroli^a jroft tye Urjioij. 
 
 (HE approval thus made by the Governor of the 
 State, which Mr: Memminger had so well repre 
 sented, was but the just appreciation of his peo 
 ple who had read with great satisfaction the reports of his 
 mission to Virginia made through the daily press. 
 
 No people have been more ready, at all proper times, to 
 applaud a worthy achievement, and none have done so with 
 more becoming grace, or with a more sincere appreciation 
 of merit than those who had entrusted the dignity of their 
 State and the righteousness of their cause to Mr. Memmin 
 ger as their ambassador to Virginia. The editorial comments 
 of the leading journals of South Carolina not only, but 
 throughout the South, were tributes to the excellency of the 
 man, and of congratulations to the people, just to the one 
 and a grateful recognition of obligations on the part of the 
 other. 
 
 This was especially the case in Charleston, where Mr. 
 Memminger had grown into the full stature of a great man; 
 where from infancy to mature years he had lived and 
 labored, and where he had evidenced the virtues of a noble 
 citizenship in a life that had been an open book, "read and 
 known of all men." 
 
 The hope that had been entertained and at times encour 
 aged by the action of the few conservative members of the 
 Free-Soil party, that the Supreme Court of the United 
 States would set at rest the questions growing out of the 
 annexation of the Western Territories, proved to be ill- 
 founded and delusive. 
 
 [ 283 ] 
 
284 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGE&. 
 
 The decade from 1850 to 1860 was one continued period 
 of excitement in which the aggressive spirit of the aboli 
 tionists aroused the people of the Southern States to a full 
 realization of the danger that not only jeopardized their 
 material interests, but threatened their peaceful homes 
 with the horrors of internecine war. 
 
 The great Calhoun had appeared for the last time in the 
 Senate, and had made his last logical protest against the 
 encroachments which prejudice and passion h*ad made and 
 were making upon the chartered rights of the States. In 
 vain had he sought to amend that charter so as to provide 
 for a permanent settlement of all questions growing out of 
 the institution of slavery, and to bring tranquility to his 
 distracted country. The great Webster had for the last 
 time condemned the fanaticism of the abolitionists, and 
 with the earnestness of sincere convictions had opposed 
 all congressional legislation designed to regulate the insti 
 tution of slavery as being unwarranted by the Constitution. 
 The great Clay had made his last effort at pacification. 
 
 This mighty triumvirate of American statesmen had 
 been gathered to their fathers, and with their warnings, 
 their forebodings and appeals, to the patriotism, the modera 
 tion and the wisdom of the people, they had honored in 
 their long service, lingering as echoes of the forum, they 
 had left to other spirits and to other minds the welfare of 
 the States. 
 
 Year after year the zeal of the abolitionists had made 
 their purpose more and yet more evident, and as the aggres 
 sive spirit of this party gathered strength with increasing 
 numbers those who were the most zealous became unscru 
 pulous in the methods adopted to give expression to their 
 fanaticism. The struggle for Kansas, under the influence 
 of the " Squatter Sovereignty " doctrine of Senator Doug 
 las, had brought about sharp and bloody conflicts between 
 the slavery and the anti-slavery factions in that Territory, 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 285 
 
 John Brown had made himself notorious and had become 
 among the abolitionists the eulogized type of their fanatical 
 partisans. Not content v\dth his bloody deeds in the West, 
 he had organized a band of kindred spirits, and without 
 warning, had made an invasion of Virginia, at Harper s 
 Ferry, with the avowed purpose of liberating the slaves and 
 inciting an insurrection among them. Finally the Free- 
 Soil party, the several abolition societies of the New Eng 
 land and Northern States, with the ambitious and dissatis 
 fied among the Whigs, and from other political organiza 
 tions, had united themselves into an organization known as 
 the National Republican Party. 
 
 The Democratic party, which for many years had con 
 trolled the administration of the Federal government, had 
 become dismembered. The Convention of 1859 forced the 
 issue upon which this great political organization divided 
 into two factions the one known as the National Demo 
 cratic party, lead by Stephen A. Douglas, and the other 
 State Rights Democratic Party, and lead by John C. Breck- 
 inridge. 
 
 The election for President and Vice-President of the 
 United States was about to transpire when the Legislature 
 of South Carolina convened in extra session on the fifth of 
 November, 1860, in compliance with the proclamation of 
 Governor Gist. This extra session was called ostensibly for 
 the purpose of appointing electors of President and Vice- 
 President, in conformity with the act of Congress, which 
 fixed the time when these electors were to be appointed on 
 a day when the legislature of the State was not in session. 
 In his message to this Legislature, Governor Gist uses the 
 following language : 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances your duty could be soon discharged 
 by the election of electors representing the choice of the people of the 
 State; but in view of the threatening aspect of affairs, and the strong 
 probability of the election to the Presidency of a sectional candidate by 
 
286 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 a party committed to the support of measures which, if carried out, will 
 inevitably destroy our equality in the Union, and ultimately reduce the 
 Southern States to mere provinces of a consolidated despotism, to be 
 governed by a fixed majority in Congress, hostile to our institutions* 
 and fatally bent upon our ruin, I would respectfully suggest that the 
 Legislature remain in session and take such action as will prepare the 
 State for any emergency that may arise. 
 
 That an expression of the will of the people may be obtained on a 
 question involving such momentous consequences, I would earnestly 
 recommend that in the event of the election of Abraham Lincoln to the 
 Presidency, a convention of the people of this State be immediately 
 called to consider and determine " the mode and measure of redress." 
 
 The success of the Republican party in electing Mr. Lin 
 coln to the Presidency, although by a minority vote, as 
 compared with that received by the other candidates jointly, 
 having been announced, resolutions were introduced into 
 the House of Representatives and also in the Senate, declar 
 ing it to be the duty of South Carolina to at once withdraw 
 from the Federal Union, and that for this purpose a con 
 vention of the people should be called to assemble at an 
 early day. 
 
 These several resolutions were embodied in the form of 
 " A bill to provide for the calling of a convention of the 
 people of the State," which passed both Houses of the 
 Legislature by so large a majority as to be practically 
 unanimous. 
 
 In compliance with the provisions of this bill, delegates 
 from the several districts and parishes of the State were 
 elected who assembled in Convention at Columbia, on the 
 17th day of December, 1860. 
 
 No more important or more representative assembly had 
 ever before met to pass in judgment upon the welfare of the 
 people of South Carolina. The great object had in view 
 had been distinctly set forth in the act of the Legislature 
 calling the Convention, and hence following not alone a 
 time-honored custom, that had from colonial days evidenced 
 their wisdom, but impressed with the responsibility of the 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 
 
 287 
 
 act, the people had selected their best men to represent 
 their spirit and to execute their deliberate judgment. The 
 following list embraces the names of the delegates chosen 
 to this Convention. Among them are many who had be 
 come distinguished for their virtues of manhood, and in the 
 service of the State: 
 
 D. F. JAMISON, Delegate from Barnwell, and 
 Thos. Chiles Perrin, George W. Seabrook, 
 Edw. Noble, John Jenkins, 
 
 J. H. Wilson, R. J. Davant, 
 
 Thomas Thomson, E. M. Seabrook, 
 
 David Lewis "Wardlaw, John J. Wannamaker, 
 Jno. Alfred Calhoun, Elias B. Scott, 
 John Izard Middleton, Joseph E. Jenkins, 
 
 Benj. E. Sessions, 
 J. N. Whitner, 
 James L. Orr, 
 J. P. Reed, 
 R. F. Simpson, 
 Benj. F. Mauldin, 
 Lewis M. Ayer, Jr., 
 W. Peronneau Finley, 
 J. J. Brabham, 
 Benj. W. Lawton, 
 John McKee, 
 Thomas W. Moore, 
 Richard Woods, 
 A. Q. Dunovant, 
 John A. Inglis, 
 Henry Mclver, 
 Stephen Jackson, 
 Jos. Daniel Pope, 
 C. P. Brown, 
 John M. Shingler, 
 Daniel Da Pre, 
 A. Mazyck, 
 William Cain, 
 P. G. Snowden, 
 
 Langdon Cheves, 
 George Rhode, . 
 A. G. Magrath, 
 Wm. Porcher Miles, 
 John Townsend, 
 Robert N. Gourdin, 
 H. W. Conner, 
 Theodore D. Wagner, 
 R. Barnwell Rhett, 
 C. G. Memminger, 
 Gabriel Manigalt, 
 John J. Pringle Smith, 
 Isaac W. Hayne, 
 John II. Honour, 
 Richard De Treville, 
 Thomas M. Hanckel, 
 A. W. Burnett. 
 Thomas Y. Simons, 
 L. W. Spratt, 
 Williams Middleton, 
 F. D. Richardson, 
 
 B. H. Rutledge, 
 Edward McCrady, 
 Francis J. Porcher, 
 W. Pinckney Shingler, James Chesnut, Jr., 
 Peter P. Bonneau, Joseph B. Kershaw, 
 
 John P. Richardson, Thomas W. Beaty, 
 John L. Manning, William J. Ellis, 
 
 President Convention . 
 T. L. Gourdin, 
 John S. Palmer, 
 John L. Nowell, 
 John S. O Hear, 
 John G. Landrum, 
 B. B. Foster, 
 Benj. F. Kilgore, 
 Jas. H. Carlisle, 
 Simpson Bobo, 
 Wm. Curtis, 
 H. D. Green, 
 Matthew P. Mays, 
 Thos. R. English, Sr., 
 Albertus C. Spain, 
 J. M. Gadberry, 
 J. S. Sims, 
 Wm. H. Gist, 
 James Jefferies, 
 Anthony W. Dozier, 
 John G. Pressley, 
 R. C. Logan, 
 Francis S. Parker, 
 Benj. Faneuil Dunkin, 
 Samuel T. Atkinson, 
 Alex. M. Forster, 
 Wm. B. Wilson, 
 Robert T. Allison, 
 Samuel Rainey, 
 A. Baxter Springs, 
 A. I. Barron, 
 A. T. Darby, 
 Simeon Fair, 
 Thomas W. Glover, 
 Lawrence M. Keitt, 
 Donald R. Barton, 
 
288 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 John J. Ingram, 
 Edgar W. Charles, 
 Julius A, Dargan, 
 Isaac D. AYilson, 
 John M. Timmons, 
 Francis H. Wardlaw, 
 R. G. M. Dunovant, 
 James P. Carroll, 
 Wm. Gregg, 
 Andrew J. Hammond, 
 James Tompkins, 
 James C. Smyly, 
 John Hugh Means, 
 William S. Lyles, 
 Henry C. Davis, 
 John Buchanan, 
 James C. Furman, 
 P. E. Duncan, 
 W. K. Easley, 
 James Harrison, 
 W. H. Campbell, 
 
 R. L. Crawford, 
 W. C. Cauthen, 
 
 D. P. Robinson, 
 H. C. Young, 
 
 H. W. Garlington, 
 John D. Williams, 
 W. D. Watts, 
 Thomas Wier, 
 H. I. Caughman, 
 John C. Geiger, 
 Paul Quattlebaum, 
 W. B. Rowell, 
 Chesley D. Evans, 
 Wm. W. Harlee, 
 A. W. Bethea, 
 
 E. W. Goodwin, 
 William D. Johnson, 
 Alex. McLeod, 
 John P. Kinard, 
 Robert Moorman, 
 Joseph Caldwell, 
 
 T. J. Withers. - 
 
 Wm. Hunter, 
 Andrew F. Lewis, 
 Robert A. Thompson, 
 William S. Grisham, 
 John Maxwell, 
 John E. Frampton, 
 W. Ferguson Hutson, 
 W. F. De Sassassure, 
 William Hopkins, 
 James H. Adams, 
 Maxey Gregg, 
 John H. Kinsler, 
 Ephraim M. Clarke, 
 Alex. H. Brown, 
 E. S. P. Bellinger, 
 Merrick E. Cam, 
 E. R. Henderson, 
 Peter Stokes, 
 Daniel Flud, 
 David C. Appleby, 
 R. W. Barnwell, 
 
 Attest : BENJ. F. ARTHUR, Clerk of the Convention. 
 
 It is not my purpose to give in detail the proceedings of 
 this Convention, ever memorable in the history of South 
 Carolina and of the United States. This has already been 
 done to a great extent by others; and in this work I desire 
 to avoid, as much as possible, the repetition of a history that 
 can be readily obtained in another form. 
 
 Conspicuous among these representative men of his State 
 in this Convention was Mr. Memminger. If there had 
 ever been a doubt of his extraordinary abilities, his integ 
 rity of manhood or of his statesmanship, this had been set 
 at rest by his course of procedure and his masterly address 
 before the Legislature of Virginia. When the great emer 
 gency at last came and his people were called upon to select 
 their representatives in a convention that was to resume for 
 their State a position of sovereignty among the nations, 
 they called to their service the man who, under every or- 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 289 
 
 deal of trial, had for more than three decades proven his 
 fidelity and evidenced his devoted patriotism. Upon the 
 organization of the Convention Hon. David F. Jamison was 
 chosen president a citizen, who, in the graces of an accom 
 plished gentleman, and in his chivalric spirit, was a type 
 of the men who had made the history and who illustrated 
 the civilization of his State. 
 
 Without unnecessary delay such committees were ap 
 pointed by him as were necessary to formulate the work of 
 the Convention. Most important among these was the 
 committee to which was entrusted the duty of preparing an 
 address setting forth the causes which induced and justified 
 the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union 
 and of preparing an Ordinance of Secession. 
 
 The committee to draft a statement of the causes which 
 justified the secession of South Carolina was composed of 
 the following delegates: C. G. Memminger, F. H. V/ardlaw, 
 R. W. Barnwell, J. P. Richardson, B. H. Rutledge, J. E. Jen 
 kins, P. E. Duncan. 
 
 To draft an Ordinance of Secession: John A. Inglis, R. 
 B. Rhett, James Chestnut, Jr., James L. Orr, Maxey Gregg, 
 B. F. Dunkin, W. H. Hutson. 
 
 In anticipation of the action of the Convention, and as a 
 part of the preliminary proceedings of that body, Mr. Mem 
 minger prepared the following "Suggestions for the Declara 
 tion and Ordinance of Secession to be proposed to the Conven 
 tion," which were printed for the use of that body: 
 
 The State of SoutlTCarolina, having determined to secede from the 
 Union of the United States of America and to resume her separate and 
 equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the United States, 
 and to the other nations of the world, that she should declare the reasons 
 which have led to this result. 
 
 In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire which embraced 
 Great Britain undertook to make laws for the government of that por 
 tion which embraced America. A struggle for the right of self-govern- 
 
 19 
 
290 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 ment ensued, which resulted, on the fourth July, 1776, in a declaration, by 
 the thirteen American colonies, " that they are, and of right ought to be, 
 free and independent States; and that, as free and independent States, 
 they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, 
 establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which indepen 
 dent States may of right do." 
 
 They further solemnly declared that whenever any " form of govern 
 ment becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is 
 the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute a new gov 
 ernment." Deeming the government of Great Britain, to which they 
 were then subject, to have become destructive of these ends, they de 
 clared that the Colonies " are absolved from all allegiance to the British 
 Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of 
 Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 
 
 In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thir 
 teen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty, adopted for 
 itself a constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of gov 
 ernment in all its departments Legislative, Executive and Judicial. 
 For purposes of defense they united their arms and their counsels, and 
 in 1778 they entered into a league known as the Articles of Confedera 
 tion, whereby they agreed to entrust the administration of their exter 
 nal relations to a common agent known as the Congress of the United 
 States, expressly declaring, in the first article, " that each State retains 
 its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction 
 and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the 
 United States in Congress assembled." 
 
 Under this Confederation the War of the Revolution was carried on, 
 and on the 3d of September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definitive treaty 
 was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the indepen 
 dence of the Colonies in the following terms : 
 
 "ARTICLE I. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United 
 States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl 
 vania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina 
 and Georgia, to be free, sovereign and independent States ; that he treats 
 with them as such ; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes 
 all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the 
 same, and every part thereof." 
 
 Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colo 
 niesnamely, the right of a people to govern itself, and the right to 
 abolish a government which becomes destructive of the ends for which 
 it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these prm<- 
 ciples was the fact that each Colony became and was recognized by the 
 mother country as a free, sovereign, and independent State, 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 291 
 
 In 1787 deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles 
 of Confederation, and on the 17th of September, 1787, these deputies 
 recommended, for the adoption of the States, new articles of union, 
 known as the Constitution of the United States. The parties to whom 
 this Constitution was submitted were the several sovereign States; they 
 were to agree or disagree, and when nine agreed, the compact was to 
 take effect among those concurring; and the general government, as 
 the common agent, was then to be invested with their authority. 
 
 Duties were charged on the several States by this Constitution, and 
 the exercise of certain powers restrained, which necessarily implied 
 their continued existence as sovereign States. But, to remove all doubt, 
 an amendment was added, which declared that the powers not delegated 
 to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the 
 States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. On 23d 
 of May, 1788, and the 20th of January, 1790, South Carolina, by conventions 
 of her people, passed ordinances --assenting to this Constitution and its 
 amendments, and, shortly afterwards, altered her own Constitution to 
 conform herself to the new obligations she had undertaken. 
 
 Thus was established by compact between the States, a government 
 with defined objects and powers, limited to the express words of the 
 grant, and to so much more only as was necessary to execute the power 
 granted. Th-at government, like every other, was subject to the two 
 great principles asserted by the Declaration of Independence, but the 
 mode of its formation subjected it to another fundamental principle. 
 Like every other compact or agreement between two or more parties, 
 the obligations of this Constitution were mutual, and the failure of one 
 party to perform a material undertaking, entirely releases the obliga 
 tion of the other. In cases of admitted failure, the right of the other 
 party to set aside the compact is perfect ; and where the fact of 
 failure is disputed, unless an arbiter is provided, each party is remitted 
 to his own judgment, to determine the fact with all its consequences. 
 
 The state of facts upon which South Carolina is now called to act, is 
 disembarrassed of this uncertainty, and makes perfect her right to se 
 cede from the Union. The Constitution of that Union expressly pro 
 vides that fugitives from justice and fugitives from labor, shall be de 
 livered up by the State into which they may escape, the former to the 
 public authorities, and the latter to the private owner. These stipula 
 tions were such material elements to the compact that it could not have 
 been made without them ; and, so important was that in relation to 
 labor, that it had previously been made a condition, by the State of Vir 
 ginia, for the surrender of that territory which now composes the States 
 north of the Ohio river. 
 
 The general government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry 
 into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws 
 
292 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the Northern 
 States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obli 
 gations, and the laws of the general government have ceased to effect 
 the objects of the Constitution. Fifteen of the States have passed laws 
 which either nullify the acts of Congress, or render useless any attempt 
 to carry them into effect. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Ver 
 mont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, 
 have each placed such laws on their statute book. In the State of New 
 York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribu 
 nals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to jus 
 tice fugitives charged with murder and inciting servile insurrection in 
 the State of Virginia. Thus the constitutional compact has been delib 
 erately broken and disregarded by the non-slave-holding States, and the 
 consequence follows that South Carolina is released from its obligation. 
 
 The ends for which this Constitution was framed are declared by it 
 self to be to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domes 
 tic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general 
 welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos 
 terity. 
 
 These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal government, in 
 which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control 
 over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recog 
 nized by giving to their owners political rights, and burthening them 
 with direct taxes for three-fifths of their number; by authorizing the 
 importation of them for twenty years, and by stipulating for the rendi 
 tion of fugitives. 
 
 But the ends for which that government was instituted have all been 
 defeated by the people of the non-slave-holding States. The institution 
 of slavery has been denounced by them as sinful; societies have been 
 established among them, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace 
 and eloign the property of their Southern neighbors. Thousands of 
 slaves have been encouraged and assisted to leave their homes ; and 
 those who remain have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures 
 to servile insurrection. 
 
 For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until 
 it has finally secured to its aid the powers of the common government. 
 The last election for President has advanced to that office a man who 
 has distinctly and deliberately declared that States with different 
 domestic institutions some free labor, some slave labor cannot exist 
 together in the Union. The party which has elected him is altogether 
 sectional. It has drawn a geographical line across the Union, on one 
 side of which are the ruling majority, and on the other the subject mi 
 nority. That party is united together by a sectional question, and is 
 urged on by sectional interest and religious animosity. It has an- 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 293 
 
 nounced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory ; 
 that the judicial tribunals shall be sectionalized and that a war must be 
 waged against slavery until it shall cease to exist throughout the United 
 States. 
 
 The election gives to this party possession of the government on the 
 4th of March ; the guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer 
 exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost, and the government 
 will have become destructive of the ends for which it was created. The 
 South will no longer have the power of self-government or self-protec 
 tion ; and the hope of remedy within the Union is rendered vain, by the 
 fact that Northern opinion has invested a great political error with the 
 dangerous sanctions of a more erroneous religious belief. 
 
 We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates in Con 
 vention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
 rectitude of our intentions, do hereby solemnly declare, that the Union 
 heretofore existing between this State and the other States of America, 
 is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina resumes her position 
 among the nations of the world, as a free, sovereign and independent 
 State ; with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, 
 establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independ 
 ent States may of right do. 
 
 And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the 
 protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our 
 lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 
 
 1. Be it, therefore, ordained, By the people of South Carolina, by 
 their delegates, now met and sitting in Convention, that the Ordinances 
 adopted by us in Convention, on the 23d of May, 1788, and 20th January, 
 1790, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was rati 
 fied and amended; and, also, all acts and parts of acts of the General 
 Assembly of this State, ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, 
 be and they are hereby repealed; that the Union now subsisting be 
 tween South Carolina and the other States united in the Union, hereto 
 fore known as the United States of America, is hereby dissolved; and 
 that the citizens and inhabitants of South Carolina are released from all 
 obligation of obedience to the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 And be it further ordained, That all acts of the Congress of the 
 United States shall cease to have any force or effect in South Carolina, 
 saving, that any criminal under sentence, shall suffer the penalty of his 
 crime, under the charge of the proper State officers, unless pardoned by 
 the Governor of this State. 
 
 3. Be it further ordained, That all judgments and decrees of the 
 courts of the United States heretofore rendered and entered of record in 
 this State shall have the same force and effect in South Carolina as they 
 had before the passing of this Ordinance, and may be enforced in the 
 proper courts of Stfuth Carolina having jurisdiction of the like cases. 
 
294 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 4. And be it further ordained, That all treaties now of force between 
 the United States and any foreign power shall continue to have the 
 same force and effect in this State as they had before the passing of this 
 Ordinance, until the same shall have been disclaimed, or lawfully al 
 tered or abrogated. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 1. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Convention that the State 
 of South Carolina should forthwith secede from the Union of the United 
 States of America. 
 
 2. Resolved, That a committee consisting of be appointed 
 
 to draft the Ordinance of Secession. 
 
 3. Resolved, That a committee of members be appointed 
 
 to draft an address to the slave-holding States. 
 
 4. Resolved, That a committee of members be appointed 
 
 to draft an address to the people of the United States. 
 
 5. Resolved, That a committee of members be appointed 
 
 to report what amendments are proper to be made to the Constitution 
 of the State, including therein the proper measures in relation to citi 
 zenship and naturalization. 
 
 6. Resolved, That a committee of members be appointed 
 
 to report such measures as may be necessary and proper for the imme 
 diate defense of the State. 
 
 7. Resolved, That a committee of members be appointed 
 
 to report the proper measures to be adopted for carrying on the trade 
 and commerce of the State. 
 
 8. Resolved, That a commission, to consist of three persons, be elected 
 by ballot of this Convention to proceed to Washington to negotiate with 
 the United States, acting through their general government, as to the 
 proper measures and arrangements to be made or adopted in the exist 
 ing relations of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity 
 between them. 
 
 9. Resolved, That five persons be elected by this Convention by ballot* 
 who shall be authorized to meet such Deputies as may be appointed by 
 any other slave-holding State, for the purpose of organizing or forming a 
 Southern Confederacy, with power to discuss and settle a Constitution, 
 or plan of Union, to be reported to the said States for their ratification, 
 amendment or rejection. That the said Deputies shall invite a meeting 
 at Columbia, or at such other place as may be agreed upon among the 
 Deputies of the several States, and shall report to this Convention such 
 Constitution or Articles as may be agreed on by said Deputies. 
 
 In connection with these suggestions, which were submit 
 ted at an early day in the proceedings of the Convention, I 
 present the Declaration and Ordinance of Secession as the 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 295 
 
 same was adopted by the Convention on the twenty-fourth 
 of December, I860, and printed by order of the same. 
 
 By comparing these the reader will readily recognize the 
 ""suggestions" of Mr. Memmiiiger embodied in the Declara 
 tion of the Convention. Hence he has been reputed to have 
 been the author of the Ordinance of Secession. 
 
 DECLARATION OP THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES WHICH INDUCE AND JUSTIFY THE 
 SECESSION OP SOUTH CAROLINA FROM THE FEDERAL UNION. 
 
 The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, 
 on the twenty-sixth day of April, A. D., 1852, declared that the frequent 
 violations of the Constitution of the United States by the Federal gov 
 ernment, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, 
 fully justify this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union ; but, 
 in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slave-holding States, 
 she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time these en 
 croachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases 
 to.be a virtue. 
 
 And now the State of South Carolina, having resumed her separate 
 and equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the remain 
 ing United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she 
 should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act. 
 
 In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great 
 Britain undertook to make laws for the government of that portion com 
 posed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of 
 self-government ensued, which resulted, on the fourth of July, 1776, in a 
 declaration, by the Colonies, " that they are, and of right ought to be, free 
 and independent States, and that, as free and independent States, they 
 have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish 
 commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States 
 may of right do." 
 
 They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of govern 
 ment becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is 
 the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute a new gov 
 ernment." Deeming the government of Great Britain to have become 
 destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies " are absolved 
 from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connec 
 tion between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, 
 totally dissolved." 
 
 In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thir 
 teen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty, adopted for 
 itself a constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of gov 
 ernment in all its departments Legislative, Executive and Judicial. 
 
296 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 For purposes of defense they united their arms and their counsel, and in 
 1778 they entered into a league, known as the Articles of Confederation, 
 whereby they agreed to entrust the administration of their external re 
 lations to a common agent, known as the Congress of the United States, 
 expressly declaring, in the first article, " that each State retains its sov 
 ereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and 
 right which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the 
 United States in Congress assembled." 
 
 Under this Confederation the War of the Revolution was carried on, 
 and on the third September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definitive 
 treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the inde 
 pendence of the Colonies in the following terms : 
 
 "ARTICLE I. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United 
 States, viz : New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Pro 
 vidence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and 
 Georgia, to be free, sovereign and independent States; that he treats with 
 them as such ; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all 
 claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same 
 and every part thereof." 
 
 Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colo 
 nies, namely: The right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a 
 people to abolish a government when it becomes destructive of the ends 
 for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of 
 these principles, was the fact, that each Colony became and was recog 
 nized by the mother country as a free, sovereign and independent State. 
 
 In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles 
 of Confederation, and on the 17th September, 1787, these Deputies 
 recommended, for the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union, 
 known as the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 The parties to whom this Constitution was submitted, were the sev 
 eral sovereign States ; they were to agree or disagree, and when the 
 nine of them agreed, the compact was to take effect among those con 
 curring; and the general government, as the common agent, was then 
 to be invested with their authority. 
 
 If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, the other four 
 would have remained as they then were separate, sovereign States, in 
 dependent of any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact, two of 
 the States did not accede to the Constitution until long after it had 
 gone into operation among the other eleven; arid during that interval, 
 they each exercised the functions of an independent nation. 
 
 By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed upon the several 
 States, and the exercise of certain of their powers was restrained, which 
 necessarily implied their continued existence as sovereign States. But, 
 to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 297 
 
 powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
 prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, 
 or to the people. On 23d May, 1788, South Carolina, by a convention of 
 her people, passed an Ordinance assenting to this Constitution, and 
 afterwards altered her own Constitution, to conform herself to the obli 
 gations she had undertaken. 
 
 Thus was established, by compact between the States, a government, 
 with defined objects and powers, limited to the express words of the 
 grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power subject 
 to the clause reserving it to the States or to the people, and rendered 
 unnecessary any specification of reserved rights. 
 
 We hold that the government thus established is subject to the two 
 great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence ; and we 
 hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third funda 
 mental principle, namely : the law of compact. We maintain that in 
 every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; 
 that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material 
 part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other: and 
 that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own 
 judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences. 
 
 In the present case that fact is established with certainty. We assert 
 that fourteen of the States have deliberately refused for years past to 
 fulfil their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own statutes 
 for the proof. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States, in Article IV., provides as fol 
 lows : 
 
 " No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws 
 thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regu 
 lation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be de 
 livered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be 
 due." 
 
 This stipulation was so material to the compact that without it that 
 compact would not have been made. The greater number of the con 
 tracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their esti 
 mate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the 
 Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which 
 now composes the States north of the Ohio river. 
 
 The same article of the Constitution stipulates, also, for rendition by 
 the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States. 
 
 The general government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry 
 into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws 
 were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slave- 
 holding States to the institution of slavery has led to a disregard of their 
 obligations, and the laws of the general government have ceased to ef 
 fect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hamp- 
 
298 LIFE AND TINES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, 
 Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa have 
 enacted laws which either nullify the acts of Congress or render useless 
 any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is 
 discharged from the service or labor claimed, and in none of them has 
 the State government complied with the stipulation made in the Con 
 stitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in 
 conformity with her constitutional obligation ; but the current of anti- 
 slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render 
 inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of 
 Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a 
 slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and 
 Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder 
 and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the 
 constitutional compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by 
 the non-slave-holding States, and the consequence follows that South 
 Carolina is released from her obligation. 
 
 The ends for which this Constitution was framed are declared by 
 itself to be " to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
 domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the gen 
 eral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
 posterity." 
 
 These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal government, in 
 which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control 
 over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recog 
 nized by giving to free persons distinct political rights by giving them 
 the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three- 
 fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for 
 twenty years, and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from 
 labor. 
 
 We affirm that these ends for which this government was instituted 
 have been defeated and the government itself has been made destruc 
 tive of them by the action of the non-slave-holding States. Those States 
 have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic 
 institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fif 
 teen of these States and recognized by the Constitution ; they have de 
 nounced as sinful the institution of slavery ; they have permitted the 
 open establishment among them of societies whose avowed object is to . 
 disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other 
 States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to 
 leave their homes; and those who remain have been incited by emis 
 saries, books and pictures to servile insurrection. 
 
 For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, un 
 til it has now secured to its aid the power of the common government. 
 Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 299 
 
 frithin that article establishing the Executive Department the means of 
 Subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn 
 across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in 
 the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States 
 whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be en 
 trusted with the administration of the common government because he 
 has declared that that " government cannot endure permanently half 
 slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that 
 slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. 
 
 This sectional combination for the subversion of the Constitution has 
 been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship persons who 
 by the supreme law of the land are incapable of becoming citizens ; and 
 their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy hostile to the 
 South and destructive of it? peace and safety. 
 
 On the fourth of March next this party will take possession of the 
 government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from 
 the common territory; that the judicial tribunals shall be made sec 
 tional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease 
 throughout the United States. 
 
 The guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the 
 equal rights of the States will be lost. The slave-holding States will no 
 longer have the power of self-government or self-protection, and the 
 Federal government will have become their enemy. 
 
 Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all 
 hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion at the 
 North has invested a great political error with the sanctions of a more 
 erroneous religious belief. 9 
 
 We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates in Con 
 vention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
 rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that the- Union 
 heretofore existing between this State and the other States of North 
 America, is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed 
 her position among the nations of the world, as a separate and indepen 
 dent State; with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract 
 alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which 
 independent States may of right do. 
 
 AN ORDINANCE TO DISSOLVE THE UNION BETWEEN THE STATE OF SOUTH 
 CAROLINA AND OTHER STATES UNITED WITH HER UNDER THE COMPACT 
 ENTITLED " TlIE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." 
 
 We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do 
 
 declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained: 
 
 That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twenty-third 
 
 day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
 
 eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America 
 
. -V 
 
 300 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEll. 
 
 was ratified, and also, all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly 
 of this State, ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby 
 repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina 
 and other States, under the name of " The United States of America," is 
 hereby dissolved. 
 
 It is not my purpose to refer any further, in this work, to 
 the action of this memorable Convention. A full history of 
 its proceedings would make in itself a volume, which I regret 
 to say has not yet been placed among the records of South 
 Carolina. I have now in mind a duty to perform, as the 
 biographer of Mr. Memminger, which requires me to leave 
 the proceedings of this Convention for another compilation, 
 which if not undertaken by the writer will doubtless at some 
 time engage the attention of another quite as capable. I 
 might have followed the course of Mr. Memminger in the 
 Convention at considerable length, and in so doing would 
 have but added to the many evidences already given of his 
 faithfulness in the discharge of duty, his untiring energies ; 
 of his disinterested patriotism, and of that earnest spirit 
 which carried the logic of his discourse with irresistible force 
 to the minds of his hearers. Suffice it now to say, that be 
 fore leaving the Convention and transferring to another body 
 the honorable trust of service confided to him, he had form 
 ulated much of the new legislation necessary to conform 
 South Carolina to her changed relations to the United 
 States and to the nations of the world. 
 
 The secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union 
 was followed in rapid succession by the States of Florida, 
 Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. In 
 anticipation of this action by the Southern States, and in 
 order to meet with them through delegates who would prop 
 erly represent their sovereignty in a Congress, the Con 
 vention proceeded to elect eight delegates, two being chosen 
 for the Senators, and six for the members of the House of 
 Kepresentatives who had heretofore represented the State in 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 301 
 
 the Federal Congress. Mr. Memminger and Judge Thomas 
 J. Withers were elected for the - Senators, and Robert AY. 
 Barnwell, R. B. Rhett, W. AY. Boyce, James Chestnut, Wm. 
 P. Miles and L. M. Keitt, for the Representatives. This 
 Congress assembled at Montgomery on the 4th of February, 
 1861, with the object in view of devising the best means for 
 preserving the sovereignty of the several seceded States in 
 an association of general government, for the mutual pro 
 tection and benefit of each other. The following list con 
 tains the names of the delegates from the several States who 
 presented their credentials in form and were duly enrolled 
 as members of the Congress: 
 
 Alabama H. AY. Walker, R. II. Smith, J. L. M. Curry, 
 AY. P. Chilton, S. F. Hale, Coling. T. McRea, John Gill 
 Shorter, Daniel R. Lewis, Thomas Fearn. 
 
 Florida James B. Owens, J. Patton Anderson, Jackson 
 Morton. 
 
 Georgia Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, E. A. Nisbet, A. 
 H. Stephens, Benj. H. Hill, Thomas R. R, Cobb, F. S. Bar- 
 tow, M. J. Crawford, A. H. Kenan, A. R. Wright. 
 
 Louisiana Charles M. Conrad, John Perkins, Jr., A. L. 
 DeClouet, D. F. Kenan, Henry Marshall, G. S. Sparrow. 
 
 Mississippi. AY. P. Harris, Walter Brooks, N. L. AA r ilson, 
 A. M. Clayton, AY. S. Barry, J. T. Harrison. 
 
 Texas. Louis T. AYigfall, J. H. Reagan, J. Hemphill, T. 
 N. Waul, AY. B. Ochiltree, J. Oldham. 
 
 South Carolina. Delegates heretofore named. 
 
 The delegates from Texas were not present at the organi 
 zation of the Congress, but appeared shortly thereafter, and 
 were duly admitted to seats, upon qualifying, as required 
 by the rules previously adopted 
 
 The Congress was temporarily organized by the selection 
 of the Hon. Robert W. Barnwell, of South Carolina, as 
 chairman, and Mr. Albert R. Lamar, of Georgia, as secre- 
 
302 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEIt. 
 
 tary. Subsequently a permanent organization was effected 
 "by the election of the Hon. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, as presi 
 dent, and Mr. J. J. Hooper, of Alabama, as secretary. The 
 deliberations of this Congress were not interfered with by 
 any outside influences beyond those sought by the mem 
 bers, as the daily sessions were held with closed doors. 
 Whatever that legislation was, good or bad, wise or unwise, 
 it was formulated by the several committees appointed by the 
 President, or at least met their sanction before being acted 
 upon by Congress. 
 
 The following names are those of the chairmen of these 
 committees, who, to a large extent, were responsible for the 
 enactments of this Congress and for the general policy pur 
 sued in the organization and conduct of the several depart 
 ments of the Confederate government: 
 
 Executive Department. A. H. Stephens. 
 Military Affairs. F. S. Bartow. 
 Finance. Robert Toombs. 
 Judiciary. A. M. Clayton. 
 Commerce. C. G. Memminger. 
 Naval Affairs. C. M. Conrad. 
 Public Lands. Henry Marshall. 
 Postal Affairs. W. P. Chilton. 
 Foreign Affairs. -E. B. Ehett. 
 Territories. James Chestnut. 
 Indian Affairs. Jackson Morton. 
 Printing. Thomas E, E. Cobb. 
 Accounts. James B. Owens. 
 Patents. Walter Brooks. 
 Engrossment. John G. Shorter. 
 
 To these chairmen, and certainly to the reports and 
 recommendations of their committees, can be traced the 
 initial legislation which subsequently, and of necessity, di 
 rected the course of the Executive Departments of the gov- 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 303 
 
 eminent. The earnest spirit and harmony that character 
 ized the action of this Congress is evidenced in the fact 
 that on the eighth of February, on the fourth day of the 
 assembly, a Constitution for the Provisional government of 
 the seceded States was reported and unanimously adopted. 
 Indeed, before leaving the convention of each State, the 
 consideration of the subject of confederation with the other 
 States had been under consideration by the delegates, and 
 their opinions freely expressed. Under all the circum 
 stances of his public life, Mr. Memminger was found to be 
 ready for emergencies. He would assume no position, nor 
 would he undertake an obligation of responsibility without 
 due consideration, but never with that vacillating judgment 
 of the weak, which is always considering and never acts 
 with promptness or decision. His forecast, as with all great 
 men, was not mere guess work, nor was it made under the 
 impulse of an intuition, but it was the careful conclusion 
 of a process of reasoning, that reached a logical effect from 
 a knowledge of causes that were uniform and active in their 
 
 o 
 
 operations. Hence ho was always preparing for an emer 
 gency, and was found ready to meet it, unless his plans 
 were altered, or circumvented by the action of others, 
 whose course he could not control. 
 
 Anticipating the adoption of a constitution by the provis 
 ional Congress, to which he had been elected a delegate, he 
 freely exchanged opinions with regard to its provisions with 
 those who for many years had been associated with him in 
 the Legislature of his State, and whom he met in the con 
 vention of his people, desiring, as he did, to secure the co 
 operation and united sympathies of the States having a com 
 mon cause with South Carolina. Among the few of these 
 worthy men who have survived, and who yet in strength, and 
 with the graces of a gentle manhood, wear the old man s 
 crown of glory, is the Hon. Joseph D. Pope, of Columbia, 
 
304 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 South Carolina. It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the 
 kindness of this excellent gentleman and distinguished jurist, 
 whose detail of the incidents and of the acts of the Secession 
 Convention of South Carolina have greatly entertained me. 
 
 Mr. Pope informs me that in a candid debate in the State 
 Convention, concerning the organization of the Confederate 
 government, and as to the machinery with which it was to 
 he run, the question under consideration being, should the 
 Montgomery Convention refer the constitution adopted by it 
 back to the people for ratification, and for the election of 
 delegates under its provisions, or should the delegates at 
 once proceed to organize among themselves, after adopting 
 the constitution, a provisional Congress, elect a provisional 
 President, and in this way create an initial or provisional 
 government ? Mr. Pope informs me that Mr. Memminger, 
 adopting his motion in this behalf, urged the organization of 
 the provisional government, and carried it through the State 
 Convention, as a matter of recommendation to the Mont 
 gomery Convention, and also urged with success the adoption 
 of this plan in the Convention at Montgomery. 
 
 There is, and for some time has been, a tradition ascribing 
 the authorship of the provisional Constitution of the Confed 
 eracy to Mr. Memminger. I can find no records among the 
 papers of Mr. Memminger that would justify me in claiming 
 for him the authorship of this Constitution, and the records 
 of this Congress have either been destroyed or are beyond 
 my reach. It has been stated, however, in an editorial 
 sketch of Mr. Memminger, I find in the Charleston Courier 
 of March 8th, 1888, that as chairman of the special commit 
 tee appointed to draft a constitution for the provisional gov 
 ernment of the Confederacy, he submitted the same in his 
 own handwriting. Just here I desire to make the record of 
 a fact which has impressed me as I have examined the pri 
 vate papers of Mr. Memminger, placed in my hands by his 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 305 
 
 executors. It is the modest manner in which he refers to 
 himself, where reference is made at all. With the single 
 exception of his answer to the unnecessary and vain attack 
 made upon his administration of the Confederate Treasury 
 by General Joseph E. Johnston, there is nowhere to be found 
 among his papers a single claim to any act of merit, to any 
 honor, or achievement. These have all been gathered by 
 me in a diligent and patient search among the records of 
 his State and of his country, where he wrote his name and 
 his merit of manhood in deeds that will live with the ages of 
 our civilization. 
 
 In many respects the Constitution of the Confederacy was 
 similar to that of the United States, differing especially in 
 the use of such terms as would clearly express the confeder 
 ated relations of sovereign and independent States. It is 
 worthy of note that nowhere in this instrument do the words 
 "Confederate States" or "Confederate States of America" 
 occur. The association of the States under a provisional 
 government was styled a "Confederacy," and the act of asso 
 ciation a "Confederation between the States." 
 
 In following the history of Mr. Memminger to this period, 
 I have been dependent entirely upon the recollections of 
 others, and upon the records of his acts, as these are pre 
 served in the libraries of his State or are to be found among 
 his private papers. It was not until I met him at Mont 
 gomery in the month of February, 1861, that my official 
 relations with him began. From that time until the provis 
 ional government of the Confederacy expired by the limita 
 tion fixed in the Constitution, and the permanent govern 
 ment was inaugurated at Richmond, Virginia, I was honored 
 with his confidence, and held the position of Chief Clerk in 
 his department of the public service. I can, therefore, write 
 of him from a personal knowledge which no one could have 
 secured through a closer or pleasanter official connection. 
 
 20 
 
306 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Upon the assembly of the Confederate Congress, the city 
 of Montgomery at once became a center of attraction for all 
 who were in sympathy with the Secession movement, and 
 thither came many visitors, young and old, ladies and gen 
 tlemen, attracted by the stirring events of the times. As 
 the capital city of one of the most prosperous of the cotton 
 States, Montgomery -had long been the seat of elegance, and 
 in the social caste of its citizens, reflected the noblest char 
 acteristics of our peculiar Southern civilization. To these 
 local expressions were now added the surroundings of a 
 government established by the gentry of the South. Amid 
 these surroundings the writer found himself on the day 
 when the election of Mr. Jefferson Davis and Mr. Alexander 
 H. Stephens, as President and Vice-President of the Provis 
 ional Confederacy, was formally announced. The interval 
 between the election of these distinguished men on the 9th 
 of February, and their inauguration on the 18th of that 
 month, was employed by the Congress in providing a reve 
 nue system, the organization of an army and a navy, and in 
 such other legislation as they were enabled to undertake by 
 the provisions of their temporary establishment; while a 
 joint committee, composed of members of the Confederate 
 Congress, members of the Alabama Legislature and of the 
 City Council were arranging the details of the inauguration, 
 which was to be made as imposing as possible. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 18th, the good people of Mont 
 gomery were astir preparing for the ceremonies of the day, 
 The weather could not have been more auspicious. Brightly 
 the sun shone, while the soft, southwesterly winds, had 
 brought out the first smiles of spring to gladden the many 
 warm hearts that were waiting to greet the first President 
 of the new-born government. The ringing noise of the ham 
 mer had ceased, while busy fingers and the strong arms of 
 noble women and gallant men had transformed the front of 
 
CONFEDERA G Y FORMED. 307 
 
 the stately capitol building into a grand amphitheater, whose 
 huge columns were wreathed with festoons of laurel and 
 of magnolia, making a fit stage for the presentation of the 
 first scene in this greatest ,drama of modern history. 
 
 Notice that the inaugural ceremonies would take place on 
 Monday, the 18th of February, had been sent by telegram, 
 printed and posted everywhere throughout the country, 
 North as well as South. As early as the Friday before the 
 time fixed, the streets evidenced the growth of the crowd who, 
 from adjoining States, far and near, had come to witness the 
 natal day of this new government. 
 
 Promptly at 10 o clock Col. II. P. Watson, of Montgomery, 
 as chief marshal, appeared in front of the Exchange Hotel, 
 accompanied by the following aids, appointed by the Con 
 vention to represent the several States : Florida, Hamilton 
 AVright ; Georgia, Daniel S. Printup ; South Carolina, Henry 
 D.^ Capers ; Louisiana, Robert C. Wood ; Mississippi, Joseph 
 P. Billups ; Texas, Preston H. Roberts. 
 
 The procession was formed on Montgomery street, the 
 right, or escort, being composed of the following military 
 companies, under the command of Captain Semmes, of Co 
 lumbus, Georgia : Columbus Guards, Lieutenant Ellis com 
 manding ; Independent Rifles, Captain Farris ; Eufaula 
 Rifles, Captain Alf. Baker ; German Fusileers, Captain 
 Scheussler. 
 
 Following the military came the special committees from 
 the Convention of Delegates, the State Legislature, and the 
 City Council, in open carriages ; the President-elect followed 
 in an open carriage drawn by six beautiful gray horses. To 
 the left of Mr. Davis sat the Vice-President, Mr. Stephens, 
 and in his front Rev. Dr. Basil Manly, of Montgomery. 
 Next came the .members of the Provisional Congress, Gov 
 ernors of the several seceded States, and other distinguished 
 citizens in carriages, folloAved by a division of civic societies, 
 and many hundreds who had left their homes and varied 
 
308 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 business occupations to do honor to the occasion. The citi 
 zens of Montgomery never before, and, in all probability, 
 will never in the future, witness a more brilliant pageant ; 
 certainly there cannot occur in the history of any American 
 city an event so full of interest. 
 
 Arrived at the Capitol, Mr. Davis ascended the steps of 
 the portico with Mr. Cobb, followed alone by Mr. Stephens 
 and the Rev. Dr. Manly. The spacious platform in their 
 front was occupied by the Congressional delegates, and mem 
 bers of the Alabama Convention, and other distinguished 
 persons, while beyond these and on either side there were 
 thousands eagerly securing every available spot to see and 
 hear what was to take place. As the last gun from a section 
 of artillery finished a salute, the ceremony of the inaugura 
 tion was begun with an impressive prayer from the vener 
 able Doctor Manly. Never can I forget the scene that at 
 that moment presented itself, and while my mind retains its 
 faculties, I will recall the pleading eloquence of the aged 
 man as he invoked the blessing of God upon the President 
 elect and upon the cause he was chosen to maintain. The 
 great concourse of people seemed to have been similarly im 
 pressed, and were awed into silence so complete that, seated 
 on horseback near the outskirts of the assembly, I heard, 
 with great distinctness, nearly every word of this most im 
 pressive prayer. At its close, Mr. Cobb formally announced 
 that the President-elect, Mr. Davis, had arrived, and was now 
 ready to take the oath of office. Mr. Davis came forward 
 amid a storm of applause. As soon as it was quieted, in a 
 clear and measured tone of voice he gave a distinct utterance 
 to his inaugural address. This address appears in full in 
 some of the histories of that period. Its insertion here I do 
 not deem necessary. At the close of his address, turning to 
 Mr. Cobb, Mr. Davis declared his readiness to take the oath 
 of office as President of the Confederacy, which was accord 
 ingly administered by Mr. Cobb. 
 
CONFEDERA C Y FORMED. 309 
 
 In uttering the words, " So help me God/ Mr. Davis, 
 turning his eyes towards the heavens, in a most impressive 
 manner repeated the words, " So help me God, in a tone of 
 voice so loud and distinct that he could have been heard to 
 the extreme outskirts of the immense assembly. 
 
 Thus ended the ceremony of this historic occasion, one 
 never to be forgotten by those who were present, and that 
 must mark for all time to come an important era in modern 
 history. At night there was a reception, followed by a bril 
 liant ball at Estell Hall. Here the beauty and chivalry of 
 the South, from Texas to Virginia, was assembled, and amid 
 a wealth of flowers, emblematic decorations, and all that a 
 cultivated taste could suggest or that wealth could furnish, 
 the first hours of the Confederacy were ushered in. 
 
 The next morning I was informed by Mr. Keitt, of South 
 Carolina, that Mr. Memminger had been nominated by the 
 President as Secretary of the Treasury, and that he desired 
 to see me as soon as possible. . I found Mr. Memminger at 
 his room in the Exchange Hotel. Without much ceremony 
 he made known to me his appointment, and desired that I 
 should serve him in the capacity of Private Secretary. The 
 selection of myself for this responsible position, doubtless 
 grew out of the long-established friendship existing between 
 my father and the distinguished Carolinian, rather than 
 from any experience I had acquired either as an accountant 
 or a secretary. Requesting me to call upon Colonel Clan- 
 ton, of Montgomery, for information as to the location of the 
 building to be used for executive offices, he directed me to 
 publish a notice in the morning papers stating where his 
 office was to be found, and to remain there between the 
 hours prescribed by him. With that earnest expression 
 which all will remember who have seen Mr. Memminger 
 when he was interested, he remarked: " The world must 
 know at once that we are at work, and that we are in earn 
 est." 
 
310 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 If the architect had anticipated the organization of a gov 
 ernment at Montgomery on short notice, he could not have 
 planned so small a building and have arranged its rooms more 
 conveniently for the use of the several heads of departments. 
 On the lower floor, with entrances from two streets, was a 
 large banking office, with a vault attached, and rooms in the 
 rear for executive offices. The keys to these apartments 
 had been delivered to me by Colonel Clanton With them 
 in my hand, I was at an early hour the next day to be found 
 the sole occupant of one of these rooms, upon the door of 
 which had been placed a card designating it as the office of 
 the Secretary of the Treasury. Upon entering this room I 
 found it without furniture of any kind; empty of all it had 
 ever had in it of desks, table, chairs or other appliances for 
 the conduct of business. Nothing met the surprised self- 
 importance of the dignified youth but bare walls and a dusty 
 floor, [Realizing that within one hour the time would arrive 
 for the Secretary s office hours to begin, I started out in 
 haste to find a furniture store. Fortunately this was close 
 at hand, and just being opened for the day s traffic. Intro 
 ducing myself to the gentleman I found in charge, who 
 proved to be the energetic son of Mr. John Powell, I stated 
 the emergency of my case to him, and in a few moments 
 had the satisfaction of seeing him on his way to the Com 
 mercial buildings with a neat walnut table, a small desk, and 
 a set of office chairs. When nine o clock arrived I had swept 
 out the dust and cob-webs of my predecessor s office, placed 
 the furniture in position, and was receiving through an im 
 provised office boy, the first invoice of stationery for the 
 government, from Messrs. Pfister & White, excellent gentle 
 men, whose book store, in the Exchange building, was known 
 to me as a pleasant stopping place. Ten and eleven o clock 
 had passed, and I was yet alone in iny glory. ^Pens and ink 
 stands were in place. Legal cap paper presented unwritten 
 pages, and still no one had called upon the Secretary, nor 
 
CONFEDERA C Y FORMED, 311 
 
 had the Secretary called upon his clerk. I had re-adjusted 
 everything time and again, gone to the door opening on 
 Commerce street, read and re-read the announcement in the 
 papers, instructed my green office boy a dozen or more times 
 as to the proper mode of receiving a visitor at the front door, 
 when, at last, a messenger arrived with a note from Mr. 
 Memminger informing me that he would be detained with 
 Congress during the day. Another visit to Mr. Powell re 
 sulted in a neat matting for the floor, and other conveniences, 
 which made the Secretary s office, by the next morning, 
 quite comfortable. 
 
 These details are given to illustrate the small beginnings 
 of the Confederate government, and as they unfold them 
 selves, the reader will see how great emergencies were met 
 from the most limited resources. 
 
 While thus remaining the sole occupant of the executive 
 building, and passing the short interval between the organi 
 zation of the cabinet and the avalanche of work which im 
 mediately thereafter bore upon every resource of mind and 
 body, in arranging the appointments of the department, I 
 had the seclusion of my dignity disturbed by a visit, which, 
 while it brought my energies into play, uncovered the then 
 limited resources of the Confederate Treasury. 
 
 I had just entered upon the routine duties of the morn 
 ing, when a brisk, firm step in the hall, and a sharp, de 
 cided rap at the door, evidenced the presence of some one 
 on an earnest mission. To the provincial reply " Come 
 in " which supplemented the absence of my office boy, 
 there entered a tall, soldierly-looking person, whose whole 
 bearing indicated one accustomed to command. This per 
 son at once inquired for the office of Secretary of the Treas 
 ury. When informed that he was then in the place ap 
 pointed as such, he scanned the room in a half skeptical 
 manner and informed me with some emphasis that he de 
 sired to see the Secretary at once and on very urgent busi-- 
 
312 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 ness. I elated to my visitor that Mr. Memminger was en 
 gaged at the Capitol, with Congress, and that he would not 
 be at the office during the morning. To the further sug 
 gestion that I might possibly serve him, as the Secretary s 
 representative, he at once unfolded his mission. " I am 
 Captain Deas, sir, late of the United States army," was the 
 formal announcement of himself. Handing me a note he 
 proceeded about in this manner: " I have been instructed, 
 sir, by the President, whose letter of introduction to the 
 Secretary I have handed to you, to provide blankets and 
 rations for one hundred men, who have reported to him for 
 duty in the army. I want the money, sir, to carry out the 
 instructions of the President." 
 
 Returning the President s note to Captain Deas, " late of 
 the United States army," I assured him that nothing could 
 give me more pleasure than to comply with the President s 
 request; " but, Captain," said I, drawing a lean purse from 
 my pocket and opening it, " I have been on a considerable 
 frolic in Montgomery for the past two weeks, and my finan 
 ces at this moment are somewhat demoralized." Ascertain 
 ing that I had a sum amounting to not more than five or 
 ten dollars, I continued: "This, Captain, is all the money 
 that I w r ill certify as being in the Confederate Treasury at 
 this moment." 
 
 At first the dignified Captain appeared provoked at my 
 humor, which to him may have appeared impudence, but 
 when informed that I was with but two days experience in 
 a department service that began its operations with my 
 presence, his frowning brow relaxed, and he seemed to ap 
 preciate my position and to enjoy the joke. Something had 
 to be done, however, to meet this first requisition on the 
 Treasury, as the gallant Captain was determined to execute 
 his order. We w^ere soon at the Capitol to interview Mr. 
 Memminger. Congress was in secret session, but I was en 
 abled to communicate with my chief, who gave me a note of 
 
CONFEDERA C Y FORMED. 313 
 
 introduction to Mr. Knox, president of the Central Bank of 
 Alabama, that enabled me to open a credit for the Confed 
 erate Treasury, based upon the personal obligation of the 
 Secretary. The relief of Captain Deas was as much a mat 
 ter of pleasure to me as it could possibly have been to him. 
 We parted with each other at the bank with the understand 
 ing that he would make the purchases and send the bills to 
 me for payment. In the evening I visited the troops, in 
 whose behalf this first exercise of executive authority had 
 been made, and ascertained them to be a company of one 
 hundred men from Georgia, who had tendered their ser 
 vices to President Davis. They were under the command of 
 an officer selected from among their number, who bore the 
 historic name of George Washington Lee. Captain Lee was 
 fromDeKalb county, Georgia, and his company was the first 
 body of troops who had enlisted to maintain the cause of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 Within a week from the date of his appointment as Secre 
 tary of the Treasury, the legislation necessary to establish a 
 credit for the Confederacy had been completed, and Mr. 
 Memminger, with the earnest devotion which had charac 
 terized his history in private and in public life, was a Cabi 
 net officer, executing the provisions of the enactments of the 
 Provisional Congress. If, from the necessity growing out 
 of the incomplete character of this legislation, I had found, 
 for the first day or two of my official life, but little to do, 
 there were no moments of leisure when the Secretary trans 
 ferred his energies and business experience from the delib 
 erations of Congress to the executive branch of the govern 
 ment over which he had been selected to preside. 
 
 It is recorded, by one of his biographers, that the great 
 Bonaparte possessed such a wonderful vitality, and was so 
 minute in his elaborate details of office work, that he would 
 exhaust the physical powers of more than one secretary 
 when formulating the plans and arranging the methods of 
 
314 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 his military and civil administration. I know of at least 
 one secretary who would often leave the office of the Secre 
 tary of the Confederate Treasury after midnight, utterly 
 worn out with labors that had begun in the early morning, 
 and who would leave his weariless chief absorbed in some 
 one of the many problems incident to his most important 
 office. 
 
 To organize a Department of Finance for a government 
 formed amid revolutionary surroundings, that would con 
 stantly derange normal conditions of political economy and 
 disturb the established basis of credits ; to meet promptly 
 the financial demands of such a government, growing as 
 these were, day after day, into colossals proportions, required 
 not only the machinery of organization, but the utmost 
 skill ; the resource of the best judgment, and a sagacity 
 which could anticipate events yet to occur. 
 
 To meet all the emergencies of the government, the Pro 
 visional Congress had provided a loan of fifteen millions of 
 dollars. To the work of preparing and of securing the 
 representatives of this credit and negotiating loans, trie 
 Secretary of the Treasury had his attention drawn immedi 
 ately upon assuming the duties of his office. 
 
 It will appear strange to one who follows the history of 
 subsequent events, that the Congress should not have anti 
 cipated the gigantic w^ar in which the cradle of the Confed 
 eracy was not only rocked, but which was in the end to ex 
 haust its powers. The reason for this is to be found in the 
 declaration of right upon which the secession movement 
 was based. Granting the right, secession was believed by 
 some to be a peaceable remedy for the wrongs which the 
 Southern States had so long endured. It never entered 
 into the minds of the very large majority of the Southern 
 Democrats, and was only entertained by a minority of the 
 North, called "National Democrats," that the States had 
 not the right to resume their sovereignty at pleasure. Even 
 
CONFEDERA C Y FORMED. 315 
 
 among -those at the North who held contrary views, there 
 was a prevailing opinion that the Federal government, or 
 more properly the Federal party, would not attempt to co 
 erce the seceded States by a resort to arms. 
 
 While the " National Democrats," at the North, were mani 
 festing their opposition to coercive measures on the part 
 of the Federal government, there was also a very respecta 
 ble minority among the Whigs and the Eepublicans in that 
 section who had declared against the policy, if, indeed, they 
 had previously advocated the right of coercion. Mr. Sew- 
 ard, in addressing the Senate of the United States, January 
 12th, of this year, declared his principles to be the " Union 
 before Republicanism." He urged not only the repeal of 
 the personal liberty bill, and the enforcement of the fugi 
 tive slave law, but urged the Federal government to prevent 
 the invasion of one State by the people of another. The 
 bitter mariner in which this conservative address of the 
 New York Senator was denounced by the radical wing of 
 the Federal party clearly evidenced that it was not the great 
 constitutional question involved in the act of secession, but 
 just such a fanatical zeal as John Brown had shown in his 
 pretended opposition to the institution of slavery, that was 
 forcing the Federal authorities to over-ride the Constitution. 
 The position taken and earnestly maintained in the New 
 York Tribune by Mr. Greeley, was in direct opposition to the 
 spirit of the majority of his party. While he considered 
 the secession of the Southern States an error, he emphati 
 cally urged that the " erring sisters be allowed to go in 
 peace." In accord with the expression of the leading Re 
 publican journal of the North, the New York News pub 
 lished at the time the names of seventy newspapers, re 
 ceived as exchanges from the different Northern States, op 
 posing all coercive measures on the part of the government 
 as being both unconstitutional and impolitic. Even Mr. 
 Lincoln, the President-elect of the Radical Republicans, in 
 
316 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEK. 
 
 Ms Springfield, Illinois, speech, delivered in January, 1861, 
 did not, in more than equivocal terms, indicate a conviction 
 that the Federal government had, or would exercise, the 
 right of forcing a State into submission to the will of his 
 party. He ended this meaningless address by frankly 
 admitting that he had asserted nothing, and had asked a 
 few questions very difficult to answer. 
 
 Thus it was that from the assembly of the Provisional Con 
 federate Congress, on the fifth of February, until the deliv 
 ery at Washington city of the inaugural message of President 
 Lincoln, on the fourth of March, there was nothing to indi 
 cate a clearly-defined policy on the part of the Federal gov 
 ernment or of the political party that had accidentally come 
 into the possession of its machinery. For these reasons, 
 taken in connection with the further fact already mentioned, 
 that the seceded States were exercising a right of sovereignty 
 asserted and maintained in the highest courts of adjudication 
 known to our government from the foundation of the Union 
 of States, the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States 
 made no further provision for the exigencies of the revolu 
 tion than was necessary to maintain the government on the 
 basis of a peace establishment. 
 
 As soon as the act providing for the loan had become a 
 law, Mr. Memminger began the work of preparing the rep 
 resentatives of our Confederate credit. So exclusively agri 
 cultural had been and were the pursuits of the people of the 
 South, and so long accustomed to depend upon the Northern 
 manufacturers, and upon the resources of European nations, 
 that at the very outset of his labors the Confederate Secre 
 tary found serious difficulty in providing the coupon bonds, 
 certificates and treasury notes which were to represent the 
 financial resources of his government. In none of the 
 Southern cities could engravers on steel or stone be found. 
 Under these circumstances resort was had to the facilities 
 offered through the active co-operation of Mr. G. B. Lamar, 
 
CON FED ERA C Y FORMED. 317 
 
 president of the Bank of the Republic, in New York city. 
 Acting as our agent, Mr. La-mar entered into a contract with 
 the American Bank-Note Company for engraving and print 
 ing the bonds and treasury notes authorized by act of Con 
 gress. The work was handsomely executed on the best of 
 bank-note and bond paper, but, with all the precaution taken 
 by Mr. Lamar, the entire issue fell into the hands of the vigi 
 lant servants of the Federal government and was seized as 
 being contraband of war. Hence we were driven to the ex 
 pedient of importing engravers from abroad, and were com 
 pelled to resort to the use of such appliances and machinery 
 as could be improvised at home. 
 
 The few paper-mills in the South were manufacturing 
 only an ordinary grade of newspaper or the common wrap 
 ping paper used in the shops. For some time we had to 
 rely upon the bank-note paper that could be obtained through 
 partially closed ports, or that was brought across the frontier 
 of the Confederacy by our trusted agents. The enterprise 
 and skill of Messrs. Evans, Cogswell & Co., of Charleston, 
 S. C., supplied the coupon bonds, but the difficulty of en 
 graving and printing the treasury notes was not solved until 
 after the removal of the Executive departments of the gov 
 ernment to Richmond, Ya., in the summer of 1861. Here 
 Messrs. Hoyer & Ludwig, skilled engravers, were established 
 by the Secretary of the Treasury, and under the supervision 
 of an officer, specially appointed for the purpose, the first 
 treasury notes were engraved upon old and inferior stones 
 used formerly for common placards, and printed upon paper 
 brought from Baltimore by agents employed in the special 
 service cff the Treasury Department. There was a paper- 
 mill at Richmond, but heretofore it had been manufacturing 
 no better grade than the ordinary newspaper used by the 
 local press and printers. It became obvious to Mr. Mem- 
 minger, at an early day in his administration, that this want 
 of facilities for producing the material upon which to express 
 
318 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 the evidences of credit authorized by acts of Congress would 
 have to be supplied either by the Confederate government 
 or by individual enterprise. Without delay he called to his 
 aid Mr. Montague, president of the Richmond paper-mills, 
 and at once began, with his active co-operation, arrange 
 ments for the manufacture of linen and the best quality of 
 bank-note paper possible under the circumstances. In his 
 report to Congress, March 14, 1862, Mr. Memminger thus 
 refers to these difficulties : " At this stage of our progress 
 we were brought to a stand by the difficulty of preparing 
 treasury notes in the Confederate States. We had become 
 so entirely dependent upon the North that but a single bank 
 note engraver could be found in the Confederate States, and 
 none of the material necessary for a bank-note was manu 
 factured amongst us. AVe were, therefore, compelled to sub 
 stitute lithographs for steel engravings, and to create the 
 manufacture of bank-note paper. The delays incident to 
 such a state of things produced many difficulties, and ren 
 dered it impossible to furnish an amount in notes adequate 
 to meet the daily requisitions of the departments. The banks 
 were applied to for a loan of their notes to meet the exigency. 
 They promptly responded, and the balance due them is set 
 forth in one of the schedules accompanying this report." l 
 
 This statement will also explain why the Confederate 
 treasury notes were at first so objectionable in appearance. 
 Until the Richmond mills had secured the necessary ma 
 chinery and stock for the manufacture of bank-note paper 
 our supply was obtained entirely from Northern cities, 
 through friends in Maryland, whose expedients to secure the 
 safe delivery at Richmond of the much-needed paper have 
 furnished to me a story abounding in ingenious device and 
 thrilling adventure. 
 
 In perfecting the organization of the several divisions and 
 sub-divisions of the Treasury Department, the system devised 
 
 J See Appendix for Reports. 
 
1. ALEXANDER ] ,. CLITHERALL, Resist* 
 3. EDWARD (J. ELMORE, Treasurer. 
 
 2. HOLLINd RAKER, Auditor. 
 I. Treasury Department, ( . S. A. 
 
CONFEDERACY FORMED. 319 
 
 by Alexander Hamilton, and still in use at Washington 
 city, was with some modifications adopted by Mr. Memmin- 
 ger. At the commencement of his administration the Sec 
 retary was fortunate in securing the valuable services of a 
 number of gentlemen, whose sympathies with the cause of 
 the Confederacy prompted them to resign prominent posi 
 tions in the United States Treasury Department and to ten 
 der their services to the Confederate government. Mr. 
 Philip Clayton, who had been assistant secretary under Mr. 
 Ho well Cobb, at Washington, was appointed Assistant Sec 
 retary of the Confederate Treasury. Having a knowledge 
 of the forms, and of the general working of the system at 
 Washington, he rendered valuable services in the organiza^ 
 tion of our department. Accompanying Mr. Clayton to 
 Montgomery from Washington, was Mr. Charles T. Jones, 
 who for years had served in the United States Treasury, and 
 who possessed an accurate knowledge of the business formu 
 las. He brought with him copies of all of the forms in use 
 in all of the several bureaus. To the willing spirit and in 
 defatigable labors of Mr. Jones we were more indebted than 
 to any single individual for the rapid and perfect organiza 
 tion of the department in all of its details. Mr. Jones was 
 a native of Indiana, a gentleman of many excellent social 
 virtues, and as a careful and systematic business man, su 
 perior to any I have ever known. On the 10th of March, 
 less than one month after the appointment of the Secre 
 tary to office, the Treasury Department of the Confede 
 racy was thoroughly organized, with the following officers on 
 duty: 
 
 Executive Office C. G. Memminger, Secretary; Philip 
 Clayton, of Georgia, Assistant Secretary; PI. D. Capers, Chief 
 Clerk and Disbursing Officer; J. A. Crawford, Warrant 
 Clerk; Henry Spamick, Edmund Randolph, H. Kermer- 
 worth, J. II. Nash, J. P. Stevens, J. W. Anderson, Thompson 
 Allan, Clerks, 
 
320 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Comptroller Lewis Cruger; John Ott, Chief Clerk. 
 
 First Auditor Boiling Baker; W. W. Lester, Chief Clerk; 
 J. W. Robertson, M. F. Govan, J. F. Ezell, Clerks. 
 
 Second Auditor W. H. S. Taylor; J. C. Ball, Chief Clerk. 
 
 Register A. B. Clitherall; Chas. T. Jones, Chief Clerk; J. 
 C. Thayer, James Simons. 
 
 Treasurer Ed. C. Elmore; T. T. Green, Chief Clerk; 
 Thomas Taylor, Cashier. 
 
 I regret that I have not the memoranda with which to re 
 fresh my recollection of the names of all the clerks who were 
 at this date assisting in the several bureaus of the depart 
 ment. I have given above only such names as I am enabled 
 to recall from memory after a lapse of many years. Excel 
 lent gentlemen and superior business men were among 
 others whose names have been lost among the multitude I 
 have since met with in the varied associations of the past 
 years. 
 
 The terms under which the clerks and employes held their 
 offices in the Executive departments of the Confederate gov 
 ernment were such as to secure the best of service from com 
 petent persons, and to inspire a sense of personal self-respect 
 by investing the employe with such security in his tenure as 
 would naturally provoke fidelity in the discharge of his duty, 
 while at the same time the government had the benefit of 
 his efficiency. Cabinet officers were, of course, appointed by 
 the President, who held their offices for six years, but all other 
 executive and judicial appointments were for life, or during 
 good behavior. 
 
 An officer, once appointed, could not be removed unless it 
 was shown that he was intellectually incompetent, negligent 
 in the discharge of his duties, or dishonest, or unless the office 
 held by him had been abolished by the authority creating it. 
 
 In the service of the several departments of the govern 
 ment, each Secretary was the judge of the number of clerks 
 ne9essary to perform promptly and efficiently the work of 
 
CONFEDERA C Y FORMED. 321 
 
 the several divisions and sub-divisions of his department, 
 and was expected to make such rules and such appointments 
 to office as in his judgment the exigencies of the public ser 
 vice required. 
 
 While the assistant secretaries and chief bureau officers 
 were confirmed in their appointments to office by the Senate 
 on the recommendation of the President, they were by no 
 means independent of the executive head of the department 
 to which they belonged, and could be removed from office 
 for cause or suspended at his pleasure by the consent of the 
 President. 
 
 Mr. Memminger very wisely allowed the several chiefs of 
 the divisions into which his department was divided to nomi 
 nate the clerks for appointment who they desired to serve un 
 der their supervision to him. Upon this nomination being 
 made and approved by the Secretary, the clerk received a 
 temporary commission in these words 
 
 SIR, You are hereby appointed a clerk of the class in the 
 
 Treasury department of the Confederate States on trial for the period of 
 
 six months, and are assigned to duty with , to whom you will at 
 
 once report. At the expiration of the time prescribed herein, if a favor 
 able report is made on your character and efficiency, you will receive a 
 permanent commission should the exigencies of the public services ren 
 der it necessary to employ you." 
 
 The very correct opinion of the Secretary was that, as the 
 bureau officers were held responsible for the proper discharge 
 of the work in their several branches of the public service, 
 and in several instances were under bond in large sums, that 
 they should be allowed to select largely their own assistants. 
 The probation prescribed would be sufficient to develop the 
 fitness of the appointment and to give sufficient time in 
 which to investigate the antecedent history of the clerk. 
 
 The worthy Secretary had spent his active life as a com 
 mercial lawyer, among the best business men of a seaport 
 city, famous for its orthodox methods in America anddn 
 
322 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Europe, and viewed the whole matter of appointments to 
 office strictly from a business standpoint. 
 
 The gentlemen who had entered the Department of the 
 Treasury from Washington were evidently much surprised 
 at the surveillance under w r hich they were kept, and were 
 frequently comparing the lax methods of a clerk s life in 
 that Capitol City with what some of them were pleased to 
 call the banking-house service of Mr. Memminger. If there 
 was a sinecure s place in his department, the Secretary of 
 the Treasury was not aware of its existence. 
 
 It was my honor (and I use the word here to express its 
 fullest import) to have had the confidence of Mr. Memmin 
 ger. I understood then, and from him, the reason why he 
 sought from the first to place his department under the reg 
 ulation discipline, which, with a few exceptions, appeared to 
 excite the disgust of those who had resigned clerkships in 
 the department at Washington to accept the service of 
 patriotism in Montgomery. It was as far from the mind of 
 Mr. Memminger as it was in antagonism with his social 
 spirit to play the role of a martinet or to be a tyrant. Of 
 all public functionaries I have ever known, he was the most 
 scrupulously conscientious. He believed that an officer of 
 the government, who received pay for his services, should 
 render a quid pro quo for the same just as completely and 
 for the reason, in all honesty, that the same would be de 
 manded in any properly conducted business establishment. 
 
 Hence, he fixed regular business hours, from 9 o clock 
 A. M. to 3 P. M., and if the exigencies of the public service 
 required it, the working force was ordered back to their 
 desks in the evening, to remain there until the pressing 
 business was finished. As an example to his subalterns, the 
 Secretary was the most punctual and devoted among all of 
 the officials. Unless he was called to a Cabinet meeting or 
 was engaged in the Senate, where, upon all questions affect 
 ing the financial interests of the government he had a voice, 
 
CONFEDERA C Y FORMED, 323 
 
 you could find him with certainty at his office, where he was 
 generally among the first to arrive and last to leave. 
 
 The reader ne.ed not infer that we were exempt from the 
 annoyances, if you please to call them such, incident to the 
 life of all officials who have the appointing power vested in 
 them, but there was not in those days the immodest pressure 
 brought to bear which, we are informed, is the most dis 
 agreeable feature of the public service at Washington city 
 and elsewhere in the country. 
 
 At an early day I was required by the Secretary to ad 
 dress the following circular letter, enclosing a copy of rules, 
 to the several bureau officers of the department. These 
 rules were ever afterwards rigidly adhered to, as embodying 
 the general regulations of the service in his department: 
 
 SIR, I am directed by the Secretary of the Treasury to call your at 
 tention to the accompanying rules respecting the general service and 
 the appointment of clerks in your bureau. The necessity for the prompt 
 dispatch of the public business, and the Secretary s desire to have none 
 but worthy and efficient employes in the department, require that these 
 regulations be strictly enforced. 
 
 Respectfully, H. D. CAPERS, Chief Clerk. 
 
 REGULATIONS. 
 
 First. Persons desiring appointment to office in the Treasury Depart 
 ment must present to the Secretary, through his Chief Clerk, their ap 
 plications written in their own handwriting, stating their names, place 
 of nativity, their present place of residence and past business experi 
 ence. This must be accompanied with such references as they are en 
 abled to give. The endorsements of well-known business men in the 
 community in which the applicant resides are preferred to any others. 
 
 Second. The Secretary requires that a report shall be made to him on 
 the first day of every month, setting forth the number of clerks on duty 
 at that date, their particular assignment to duty and their efficiency ; 
 also, the additional number of clerks necessary to meet the require 
 ments of the service in each division of your bureau, with the character 
 of the work they are expected to perform. You will accompany this 
 report with the nominations of such persons as may have had their ap 
 plications referred to you from this office, or such other persons as you 
 are led to believe are better qualified to perform the duties required 
 than those who have formerly applied. Upon the receipt of your report 
 
324 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. 
 
 temporary commissions for six months will be issued to those you may 
 nominate for appointment. At the expiration of this time, if it should 
 be discovered that they are in all respects qualified as competent busi 
 ness men for the position of clerks in this department, permanent com 
 missions will be issued over the signature and seal of the Secretary. 
 
 iThird. In assigning clerks to duty you will keep in mind that promo 
 tions are to be made alone from among those who, by fidelity and effi 
 ciency in the discharge of duty, have fairly won the right to distinction. 
 This is the only rule by which you will be governed in the promotion of 
 clerks in your bureau from one class to another. 
 
 Fourth. Your attention is called to the necessity of observing the 
 business hours as fixed by the Secretary viz. : From 9 o clock A. M. to 3 
 p. M. If the exigencies of the public service, in your judgment, should 
 require it, you will, at your discretion, order the clerks on duty in your 
 bureau back to their business places in the evening, to remain until the 
 business of the day has been fully brought up. This is especially neces 
 sary in the bureaus of the Auditors and the Comptroller. While no im 
 proper haste is to be allowed, yet there must be no unnecessary delay 
 in advancing the business of the department. 
 
 Fifth. All loitering on the part of the clerks, employes or visitors 
 about the offices of the department is strictly forbidden during office 
 hours. The offices of this department are considered as much places of 
 business as the counting-rooms of merchants or bankers, and are not 
 the places in which to entertain guests. The janitors and messengers 
 will extend all proper courtesies to visitors, but this will in no wise ex 
 tend beyond the civilities of a business establishment. Clerks or em 
 ployes desiring leave of absence must apply in writing for the same to 
 the head of the bureau in which they are serving, stating the time for 
 which this absence is desired. If the application is approved, a copy of 
 the leave of absence must be filed with the Chief Clerk of the bureau 
 before the person leaves, who will at once forward the copy to this 
 office. 
 
 Sixth. The pay-rolls of the several bureaus in this department must 
 be approved by the Chief Clerk and filed with the Disbursing officer of 
 the department on the 25th day of each month for inspection. All 
 requisitions for office furniture, stationery, etc., must be made in the 
 form prescribed, and certified to as required, by the chief of the bureau 
 in which the same is to be used, and filed with the Disbursing officer of 
 the department for consideration. While ail the necessary conveniences 
 for office work will be allowed, no extravagance will be permitted. 
 
 Seventh. Officers, clerks, or employes in the departments are strictly 
 forbidden to correspond with newspapers or to furnish any information 
 or abstract from the files or the records without special permission from 
 the Secretary in writing. Any violation of these rules will subject the 
 offender to prompt suspension or discharge. 
 
CONFEDERA C Y FORMED. 325 
 
 An inflexible adherence to these rules and the prompt 
 enforcement of the prescribed penalties, secured, in connec 
 tion with the willing spirit of excellent officers, the most 
 efficient service. It is likewise true that their enforcement 
 subjected Mr. Memminger to the harsh and unmerited criti 
 cism of a class of politicians who were not disposed to con 
 sider an official as a public servant, on duty under a public 
 trust, and who had for some reason, best known to those 
 who had held office in Washington city, been disposed to 
 regard appointments to office as an immunity from labor ; 
 that the treasury was a kind of public . depository to be 
 drawn on as a right of political partisanship under the guise 
 of compensation for services rendered, and which, if ren 
 dered at all, are generally so at a cost to the government far 
 in excess of the salaries paid at well regulated banking 
 establishments. Mr. Memminger, very probably, took a 
 strict business view of the matter, and was in the Treasury 
 Department enforcing only such regulations as a business 
 man would expect to see enforced among the representative 
 commercial men of the country. There were not the diffi 
 culties in his way incident to the existence of rival political 
 parties. Even if there had been, his high sense of duty 
 and conscientious regard for the obligations he had as 
 sumed would have readily indicated this course to the Sec 
 retary 
 
 Among the few who did not hesitate in my presence to 
 express, in unmeasured terms, their dissatisfaction with 
 the rules of the Secretary, and especially with the rigid 
 manner in which they were enforced, was the Assistant Sec 
 retary, Mr. Philip Clayton. Accustomed to the easy meth 
 ods of the department service in Washington city, and as 
 an Assistant Secretary there, to use his convenience in meet 
 ing the wishes of an indulgent Secretary, whose training 
 had been with politicians or on the judicial circuits of 
 Georgia, Mr. Clayton soon began to manifest opposition to 
 
326 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 "restraints" and "exactions," as he termed them, of the 
 Carolina Secretary, not alone in his remarks to the Chief 
 Clerk, hut in a form of inuendo addressed to third persons 
 in my hearing, the evident intention being that these re 
 marks should reach the Secretary through his confidential 
 clerk. I do not attribute Mr. Clayton s objection to the 
 discipline of Secretary Memminger to an indisposition on 
 his part to discharge the duties of his office, but to an ultra 
 democratic spirit which rebelled against all impositions of 
 restraint. He was social in his nature and very fond of 
 company, and never happier than when with congenial as 
 sociates, he was discussing the philosophy of politics or 
 religion, or some one of the abstract sciences. It would 
 happen at times that some one or more of his friends would 
 call upon the Assistant Secretary during office hours. To 
 remind them that a social visit at that time, and at a busi 
 ness office, was contrary to the rules of the department was 
 to admit that he was under the subordination of a law he 
 had no authority to suspend at his pleasure. Hence, he 
 was brought, through his real good nature, into a position 
 which ultimately provoked a reprimand and alienated the 
 official confidence of his chief. No one could have regret 
 ted this unhappy result more than myself. Mr. Clayton 
 possessed rare intellectual endowments, to which, if there 
 had been added more of nervous energy and the systematic 
 habits of a business man, the Confederate Treasury Depart 
 ment would have had in him an invaluable officer. His 
 wonderful mathematical intuition, by which, at apparently 
 a glance, he could make almost any desired combination in 
 figures, was really phenomenal. He has been known, for 
 example, in reviewing an Auditor s report, embracing five 
 and six columns of figures, to add the whole, page by page, 
 by taking the columns of figures together, and to announce 
 the result before an expert accountant could determine the 
 
CONFEDERACY FORMED. 327 
 
 aggregate of a single column. His accuracy in figures be 
 came so well established that no one for a moment, would 
 question the result with the endorsement of his signature 
 to the statement. It may be readily inferred that the want 
 of sympathy between the Secretary and his assistant would, 
 if permitted to continue, become a source of annoyance to 
 the Secretary and derange also the work of the department. 
 There was no attention paid at first to the disaffection of 
 Mr. Clayton by the Secretary, who expressed to me the hope 
 that his assistant would yield his peculiar whims and meth 
 ods when he, in common with others, was served with a 
 copy of the department regulations. In this the Secretary 
 was disappointed. It was not until about this time that the 
 Secretary ignored the presence of his assistant, and would 
 refer directly to me business matters of a confidential char 
 acter which should have been properly entrusted to Mr. 
 Clayton. 
 
 At length there was an open rupture. Mr. Clayton s 
 .friends were not strong enough in their influence, with 
 either the President or Congress, to maintain the Assistant 
 Secretary in his position. He resigned his office on the de 
 mand of the inflexible Secretary, and shortly thereafter 
 issued a publication in which he made an attack upon the 
 administration of the Secretary, which savored more of the 
 spirit of insubordination than of either patriotism or self- 
 control. 
 
 An examination of the regulations found above, will fail 
 to convince anyone at all accustomed to the systematic order 
 of business affairs, that there was a single exaction made 
 which would compromise in the least particular the personal 
 dignity of an official, or that would place a restraint upon 
 the employe not demanded by the best interests of the pub 
 lic service. The opposition to the enforcement of these regu 
 lations was, in my opinion, not from a disposition on the 
 
328 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 part of any official to avoid the performance of duty, but 
 simply from the fact that the habits of the objector, formed 
 among the associations of a people who, from their infancy, 
 were accustomed to freedom from all restraint, were such 
 that he rebelled at the very suggestion of a master, how 
 ever appointed. This peculiarity of our people was notice 
 able, not only in the civil service, but in the volunteer mili 
 tary organizations of the Confederacy. 
 
 To command was so much a habit that it became the 
 nature of our people, and it was most repugnant of all 
 things to this nature to be commanded. Obedience to law 
 as an abstract virtue, might have been, and was, frequently 
 eulogized by those spirits who were ready to defy the constitu 
 ted authority of the law at the least provocation. Hence, the 
 Confederate army was once styled by a foreign officer, serv 
 ing with General Stuart s cavalry, " a grand assembly of 
 officers." 
 
 Once having announced his regulations to the subordi 
 nates of his department, Mr. Memminger not only con 
 formed his official life to them but was inflexible in their 
 enforcement. No political or social influence could save a 
 negligent or recalcitrant official. This was made manifest, 
 and with emphasis, in the case of a gentleman from Vir 
 ginia, who held a clerkship in the Secretary s office. Shortly 
 after the announcement of the Secretary s rules this gentle 
 man gave expression to his criticism in a communication to 
 a Richmond newspaper, in which he very imprudently, but, 
 as I believe, not willfully, made public certain business 
 transactions of the department. As soon as the name of 
 the offending clerk was ascertained he was at once notified 
 that his services were no longer required. In vain did re 
 pentant requests and the appeals of influential friends reach 
 the Secretary or importune the intervention of the Presi 
 dent. 
 
C OXFEDERA C Y FORMED. 329 
 
 It is by no means a necessary inference, that in the rou 
 tine of our official duties we were denied the pleasures of 
 such social interchange as always must serve to make the 
 spice of what might otherwise become an insipid and prosy 
 life. On the contrary, there were times when our -social 
 contact brought out the finest expressions of wit and a fund 
 of good humor which I often recall with the greatest pleas 
 ure. It seldom ever occurs that so large a number of men, 
 having the accomplishments of thorough classical educa 
 tions, and natural gifts far above the average, are drawn to 
 gether in the discharge of duties that w^ould appear to the 
 uninformed prosaic and mechanical. 
 
 It will be readily perceived by the reader who has thus far 
 followed me that as the Confederate government crystalized 
 I was of necessity brought in contact with, the Cabinet offi 
 cers, and those placed in charge of the several subordinate 
 divisions of the departments, in such a manner as to have a 
 knowledge of each, whose wants, to a certain extent, it w r as 
 my duty and my pleasure to meet. The Treasury Depart 
 ment was organized and some of its branches actively at 
 work before all of the members of the Cabinet were appointed 
 and installed. Mr. Memminger, with his characteristic 
 urbanity, extended through his executive officer such cour 
 tesies as the circumstances investing these would readily 
 suggest. It w r as in this way that I had the pleasure of meet 
 ing with these distinguished gentlemen, who were to direct 
 the several departments of the government. 
 
 When it is remembered that their offices w r ere at the out 
 set in the same building, and that this structure was of such 
 ordinary dimensions as its original commercial character 
 would indicate, the reader can understand that there were 
 in this formative period of administration but few barriers, 
 other than a sense of propriety would suggest, surrounding 
 the official dignity of the several executive offices. The dia- 
 
330 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEU. 
 
 gram below will illustrate the arrangement of the offices on 
 the second floor of the executive building and exhibits their 
 proximity: 
 
 MARKET STREET. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 COMMERCE STREET. 
 
 OPEN COURT. 
 
 7V 2 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 1. Chief Clerk State Department. 
 
 2. Secretary of State. 
 
 3. President s Office. 
 
 4. Private Secretary of President. 
 
 5. Secretary of Treasury. 
 
 6. Assistant Secretary of Treasury. 
 
 7. Chief Clerk Treasury. 
 
 7%. Commerce Street Entrance. 
 
 8. Register of Treasury. 
 
 9. Secretary of War. 
 10. Adjutant-General and Chief Clerk. 
 11. Attorney-General. 
 12. Secretary of Navy. 
 
 On the 26th of May, 1861, in obedience to an act of the 
 Provisional Congress providing for the removal of the seat 
 of government from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va., 
 orders were issued for a suspension of work in the several 
 departments and every one put to packing up records, office 
 furniture, etcetera, and away to " the Mother of States and 
 Statesmen " we sped our way as fast as the special rail 
 way trains could take us. The preamble to the act of Con 
 gress changing the seat of government, stated that "the 
 exigencies of the public service " rendered this move neces 
 sary in the judgment of Congress. This may have been the 
 
CONFEDERA C Y FORMED. 331 
 
 case, and possibly it was a necessity in the opinion of a ma 
 jority of our statesmen, but it was only so with a majority. 
 There was a respectable minority in Congress who thought 
 that his experiences eminently qualified the President to 
 assume command of the armies of the Confederate States in 
 person, and desired that he should do so, making Richmond 
 his headquarters, while the capital of the Confederacy should 
 remain permanently at Montgomery, with Vice-President 
 Stephens in charge of the government. 
 
 The secession of Virginia at once made her territory the 
 battle-field of a struggle which was no longer problematic, 
 either as to its spirit or magnitude. To support the gallant 
 people who recognized their allegiance to the State superior 
 to that of a conditional fealty they had in no ambiguous 
 terms expressed when they entered the federal compact of 
 association; to meet the armies being organized rapidly to 
 invade the territory of the mother of sovereign States who, 
 in the deliberate act of secession, stood with drawn sword 
 and " shield before her heart to fight with heart more proof 
 than shield;" in the defense of the great principles upon 
 which, with her children, she had acted, was the leading, the 
 paramount and sufficient reason for this change of the seat 
 of government. There were regrets sincerely felt and warmly 
 expressed by the officers of the government at leaving the 
 beautiful city where a characteristic hospitality had been so 
 generously and elegantly dispensed. 
 
 Montgomery had, from the early history of the place, been 
 the home of culture and a true type of Southern social life. 
 Surrounded for many miles by the fruitful fields of cotton 
 planters, it drew from this source an immensely valuable 
 commerce, and had become at the outbreak of the revolution 
 one of the wealthiest cities of its population in the United 
 States. Its leading citizens, those who gave tone to its so 
 ciety, in elevating the sentiment that inspired all public and 
 private social expressions, were gentlemen and ladies who, 
 
332 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 in the educational associations of their early lifo in Virginia 
 or Carolina, had inculcated the noble virtues of the old Cav 
 alier and Huguenot stock to whom we of the South owe all 
 that we have ever had that was distinctive, in either moral 
 or physical graces. No place in all of Dixie could have been 
 selected as a capital for the Confederacy that was more 
 thoroughly typical, more perfectly representative of the 
 genius of our civilization. The social amenities of the good 
 people had captured especially the large number of gentle 
 men who came into our service from the army and the 
 navy of the United States, and those who, in department 
 service at Washington city, had found the social temperature 
 much lower among the snow-drifts of a more northern lati 
 tude. Among these there was certainly a murmur of dis 
 satisfaction at the order taking them from Montgomery. 
 
 At Richmond superior facilities were found for the con 
 duct of the business of the several departments of the gov 
 ernment. But a short time had elapsed since the United 
 States government had completed a very handsome and 
 commodious fire-proof building, used as a custom-house and 
 post-office. The vaults and offices of the first floor of this 
 building were appropriated by the Secretary of the Treas 
 ury, while the President and Secretary of State found elegant 
 and convenient offices in the story above. The War and 
 Navy Departments were located in a capacious building on 
 Ninth street near by, while Postmaster-General Reagan was 
 established in very comfortable quarters at the corner of 
 Bank and Twelfth streets. 
 
 When Virginia withdrew from the Federal Union, Rich 
 mond was not only the capital of a great State, but for years 
 had been a metropolis whose traffic extended through all 
 the great avenues of commerce. . The leading tobacco mar 
 ket in America, it was also conducting a very large export 
 business in flour and grain, while its foundries, many work 
 shops and factories made it among the prominent manufac- 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 333 
 
 turing cities of the Atlantic seaboard. At the wharves could 
 have been seen the flags of all nationalities floating from the 
 masts of vessels whose tonnage ranged from the famous 
 clipper and ocean steamship to the schooner and sloop of 
 the inland and coast trade. Main and Gary streets, from the 
 "Rocketts" to the famous basin of the James river canal, a 
 distance of at least one mile, was a busy scene from morn to 
 night of all that makes the active life of the merchant or the 
 manufacturer. As distinct from all this as the picturesque 
 falls of the James river from the bay to whose bosom it car 
 ried the treasures of hill and dale, was all that part of the 
 city about the beautiful park that surrounded the Grecian 
 capitol building, both as to the character of the occupation 
 in which the people were engaged, and the social character 
 istics of the people themselves. While the genius of com 
 merce presided over the valley, the favorite resting places 
 of science, literature and art was among the shaded walks of 
 the grand old park, in the alcoves of the great State library, 
 or among the more secluded retreats furnished by the club 
 rooms or the snug offices and elegant homes of men whose 
 cultur^ and goodness had been transmitted from the early 
 colonial days, with the treasure of a history and the lore of 
 traditions unequalled, save in England or in France. This 
 spirit rested upon the whole city in these golden days; it 
 made every man and woman who dwelt there, whether white 
 or black, bond or free, rich or poor, more or less a gentle 
 man or a gentle-lady. 
 
 . A Virginia gentleman of the old school may not have been 
 produced alone in Richmond. Far be it from me to locate 
 the virtues of the old Commonwealth exclusively at this 
 place, but I do say that they were to be found in this glorious 
 old city in 1861, in the fullest expressions of the highest type 
 of civilization America has ever seen. I do not know how it is 
 to-day in the "City by the James." Many of the noble men 
 and women who illustrated the period of which I am writing 
 
334 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 have left the weal of the " Old Dominion " into other hands, 
 have passed over the dark river and are " resting in the 
 shade of the trees," in a lovelier park than Richmond can 
 ever have ; but, far above material considerations, a thousand 
 times greater than all the wealth destroyed by the war or 
 that may have been accumulated since, would I value the 
 character of a Virginia gentleman or lady as I knew these 
 in my young mantiood. In later days, as I have seen the 
 easy grace and simplicity, the ingenuous frankness, the sin 
 cere amenities and uncalculating generosity of our people 
 farther south, corrupted by the material spirit and borish 
 manners of those who have come among us to fatten on 
 misfortune and to purchase preferment as they would the 
 meat of the markets, I have wondered how it was in the 
 old metropolitan cities of the South : if the sora of the 
 " Eastern Shore " and the rice bird of our Southern sea 
 board, the Madeira of Charleston and the Sherry of Rich 
 mond, the oysters of York river and the rice of the Waca- 
 maw, with the spirit of Christ and the cavalier in and over 
 all, still produce the men and women of yore. I must not, 
 however, digress, let the reverie be ever so pleasant. 
 
 Unprepossessing in appearance, uncertain in the promise 
 they expressed, with no surer guarantee than the courage 
 of a brave people, and no more substantial basis to rest upon 
 than the confidence of a devoted patriotism, Confederate 
 treasury notes, like the old continental bills of 1780, were,, 
 with the money changers, considered at best but the expres 
 sions of a metaphysical faith "the substance of things 
 hoped for, the evidence of things unseen." 
 
 Not so with our good people throughout all of the Confed 
 eracy. It was their money; the representative of the highest 
 value they chose to recognize; the success of a cause for 
 which they were struggling, and for which life and all mate 
 rial considerations were pledged and freely offered. 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 335 
 
 It may not be generally known, but it is nevertheless a 
 fact, that Confederate money was at par with gold and for 
 eign exchanges in several seaports of the Confederacy for at 
 least a month after its first appearance. As late as the first 
 of August, 1861, it was at only eight per cent, discount for 
 gold in Richmond, and at par in New Orleans, Mobile and 
 Charleston. This may not have been through the operation 
 of any legitimate principles of political economy I will not 
 undertake to say it was but rather a result brought about 
 by the financiering skill of Mr. Memminger, and the patriotic 
 co-operation of the leading bankers in these commercial cen 
 ters. At any rate, several large bills of exchange on London 
 and Paris were bought by our agents at each of the cities 
 named above and were paid for at par with our home-made 
 money. As far as the government of France was concerned, 
 the exchange was within the rule of values as these are fixed 
 in the purchasing power of money. This government, mak 
 ing a monopoly of tobacco in its domain, could purchase as 
 much with a Confederate dollar from our agents in Richmond 
 as with an assignat or a gold dollar, so- that until this commod 
 ity was virtually made contraband of war by the Federal block 
 ade of the James river, we were enabled with our treasury 
 notes to increase very largely our gold credits. With our ports 
 closed, and having no means of maintaining an uninterrupted 
 foreign commerce, the golden period of Confederate finance 
 was, of course, limited. First one and then another of the 
 few banks that had aided us suspended payment of coin, 
 until finally, when the month of August, 1861, arrived, the 
 Canal and the Citizens Banks, of New Orleans, were the only 
 ones receiving Confederate money on deposit and paying it 
 out at par with gold. 
 
 Among the first official duties that engaged my thought 
 on reaching Richmond, in the early days of June, was to 
 execute the order of mv chief for the establishment of a 
 
336 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Bureau of Engraving and Printing in connection with the 
 Treasury Department. As stated in a preceding chapter, 
 the resources of the cotton-producing region, in which we 
 were first established, were so exclusively agricultural that 
 skilled engravers, either on wood, stone or metals, were not 
 to he found. The loss of the treasury notes, engraved and 
 printed through the kindness of Mr. G. B. Lamar, by the 
 American Bank-Note Company of New York, necessitated 
 that we should become our own printers, and not rely upon 
 the contingencies of running through the blockaded ports 
 notes that possibly may have been much better executed in 
 Europe. After much inquiry I found a clever German res 
 ident in Richmond who was engaged in a small way in the 
 business of lithographing, but who had as yet essayed no 
 better class of work than the cards and posters of business 
 men. The discovery was a great relief to me, and a matter 
 of much congratulation with the Secretary, especially as it 
 was ascertained that Mr. Hoyer could induce the necessary 
 assistants to come to his aid from Baltimore. In a few days 
 thereafter the firm of Hoyer & Ludwig had been established 
 in convenient rooms 011 Main street, and were at work under 
 special contract with the Confederate States to engrave and 
 print the treasury notes, their establishment being under 
 such regulations and surveillance as was deemed necessary 
 by the Secretary of the Treasury. After many experimental 
 trials, the first approved proof-sheet of eight one hundred 
 dollar bills was taken in to the Secretary for his inspection. 
 While there were defects, palpable to even a superficial crit- 
 cism, yet these, under the circumstances, were not deemed 
 great enough to condemn the work. The demand for our 
 promises to pay was imperative. To wait under these cir 
 cumstances until another stone could be engraved, without 
 the assurance that the work would "be more satisfactory, was 
 more than the Secretary s patience could stand. In approv 
 ing this first proof-sheet, now in my possession, Mr. Mem- 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 337 
 
 ininger wrote on its back these words: " When the money 
 changers become more familiar with the peculiar features of 
 these uncanny bills, it will be as difficult to pass a counterfeit 
 as if they had been engraved on steel by an expert; may be 
 more so." At once the presses in Hover & Ludwig s estab 
 lishment were put to work, using at first bank-note paper 
 brought from Baltimore by our special agents, who were so 
 expert in passing the Federal picket lines that they kept us 
 supplied not only with bank-note paper, but with the daily 
 newspapers from all the northeastern cities. The Herald, 
 published in New York in the morning, I had on my desk 
 in Richmond the next morning, not for a day or so, but for 
 weeks at a time. 
 
 Mr. Thompson Allan, of Georgia, was placed in charge of 
 the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, under whose careful 
 supervision it remained until removed to Columbia, South 
 Carolina, in 1863. The first issues were of one hundred, 
 fifty, twenty, and ten-dollar notes. As the printing had to 
 be done entirely by hand, and the impression taken from 
 more than one stone, the " money-mill," as the bureau was 
 facetiously called, was very slow in furnishing the desired 
 notes. It was manifest at the outset that it would be impos 
 sible for the Treasurer and Register each to sign the im 
 mense number of bills that would soon be waiting their 
 autographs before being numbered and made ready for issue 
 To meet this difficulty such of the gentlemen in the depart 
 ment who were rapid in the use of a pen, and whose signa 
 tures were the most unique, were specially detailed and 
 placed in charge of Mr. John Ott, representing the Treasurer, 
 and Mr. J. C. Thayer, representing the Register. It was 
 not long before the clerks under these -gentlemen, signing, 
 numbering, assorting, counting, packing, and verifying 
 " Confederate money," were as numerous, and, the feminine 
 division of them, far nioro interesting than in any other 
 branch of the public service. 
 
 22 
 
338 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 From the small beginnings at Montgomery, the Treasury 
 Department, in all of its divisions and sub-divisions, had as 
 sumed proportions far beyond all expectations. From the 
 unfurnished room I had entered at Montgomery, the day 
 after the inauguration of President Davis, the office of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury at Richmond had become a great 
 center to which many subordinate officers were reporting 
 daily, and to which came in person or by letters the bankers 
 and business men of the whole South. To meet promptly 
 the responsibilities of his position and to dispatch the rou 
 tine business growing more voluminous each day, Mr. Mem- 
 minger adopted at an early day a systematic order of arrange 
 ment to which he adhered, placing on duty in charge of di 
 visions gentlemen whose willing spirits and efficient service 
 greatly aided him. Mr. Thompson Allan was transfered 
 from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and placed in 
 charge of the " Tithing or Tax Bureau," while Mr. J. C. 
 Thayer and James Simons, of Charleston, were placed in 
 charge of the " Treasury Note Bureau.". To the " Cotton- 
 Tax Office " was assigned Mr. A. Roan. These excellent 
 gentlemen brought to the discharge of their duties the care 
 ful attention of experienced business men, and were of great 
 service in relieving Mr. Memminger of the anxiety he had 
 with regard to the rapid and efficient discharge of the duties 
 entrusted to them. The clerks of the departments were now 
 numbered by hundreds, and more than one building besides 
 the Custom-House was necessary for their accommodation 
 and the conduct of the business of the several bureaus of the 
 department. 
 
 Whatever may have been the reasoning that influenced 
 Congress to provide at the outset for a loan of only fifteen 
 millions of dollars, as being sufficient for the wants of the 
 Confederacy, it became apparent after the inauguration of 
 Mr, Lincoln as President of the United States, that a much 
 larger amount would be needed to meet the exigencies of a 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 339 
 
 war whose magnitude the most sagacious could not foresee. 
 Accordingly another loan, known as the " one hundred mil 
 lion loan," was authorised by an act of the Confederate 
 Congress, called the "War Tax Act." 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the demands made on the 
 Treasury, when reference is made to the reports of Secretary 
 Memminger appended to this volume. The expenditures of 
 the government in its several departments had reached, on 
 the 20th of November, 1SG1 eight months from the inaug 
 uration of Mr. Davis over seventy millions of dollars; on 
 the 14th of March, 1SG2, to over one hundred and sixty 
 millions, and on the 10th of January, 1863, to over four hun 
 dred and forty millions. 
 
 To provide for these enormous requisitions Mr. Memmin 
 ger had his financial abilities taxed, as but few, if any min 
 isters have ever had. The difficulties surrounding him 
 have, to a certain extent, been referred to. The reader who 
 will examine his reports with care, finds these difficulties 
 clearly stated in his own language, but he can scarcely real 
 ize how embarrasing to the Secretary was the absence of the 
 necessary machinery to execute his plans or to provide the 
 bonds and the treasury notes authorized by his government. 
 These annoying details, once arranged, then came the 
 further tax upon his mind of preserving the credit of the 
 government in the midst of a war which was constantly in 
 creasing in its proportions, and was exhausting, day after 
 day, the resources of the Confederacy. 
 
 In order that the reader may have a clear idea of the 
 financial system adopted by the Confederate government, I 
 deem it advisable to give a brief history of the same, which, 
 in connection with the Secretary s reports, will show the 
 plan adopted to meet the enormous expenses incident to a 
 great war; and also to maintain the credit of a Confederacy 
 seeking to secure a place among the nations of the world. 
 
340 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The sources of income to all governments is either in the 
 revenues from custom duties or that derived from direct tax 
 ation. Having no adequate revenue from duties on imports 
 or exports, and the proceeds to be derived from a direct tax 
 being wholly insufficient to meet the expenses of a war, re 
 sort was had to loans and treasury notes. The first of these 
 loans was for fifteen millions of dollars, to run for ten years, 
 and bearing an interest of eight per cent, secured by an export 
 duty of one-eighth of a cent per pound on cotton. At the 
 same time thai this loan was authorized an issue of one mil 
 lion dollars in treasury notes was provided for, made pay 
 able in one year, and bearing interest at the rate of 3.65 per 
 cent. This first loan was successfully negotiated, at par 
 with specie, and was taken chiefly by the banks and com 
 mercial houses of the Southern cities. As the war enlarged 
 its proportions a demand for much larger sums was made, 
 and necessitated another issue of twenty million dollars in 
 treasury notes and another loan of thirty million dollars in 
 eight per cent, bonds. The act of Congress authorizing this 
 issue of treasury notes, was passed 16th May, 1861. The 
 holder of these notes had the right to fund them at pleasure 
 in eight per cent, bonds. The certainty of a long war being 
 evident, and its dimensions having greatly increased, 
 another loan was provided for by act of Congress, in August, 
 1861. This loan was for one hundred millions of dollars, 
 and the issue of treasury notes was extended to one hundred 
 millions, convertible, as before, into eight per cent, bonds. 
 In order to provide still further against a redundant cur 
 rency, it was provided that the holder of these treasury notes 
 might exchange them for bonds payable in ten years and 
 bearing seven per cent, interest. To secure the payraent of 
 the bonds, principal and interest, a war tax of one-half of one 
 per cent, was imposed upon the chief articles of property in 
 the Confederacy. It was at this time, August, 1861, that in 
 compliance with the recommendation of the Secretary, treas- 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 341 
 
 ury notes were made receivable for the war tax and for all 
 public dues except the export duty on cotton. On the 24th 
 of December, 1861, a further issue of fifty million dollars in 
 treasury notes was authorized. Thus it will be seen, that as 
 the exigencies of the war increased the issue of treasury 
 notes were rendered necessary, and the debt of the govern 
 ment greatly increased. To preserve the value of these notes 
 as a currency, it was apparent to the Secretary that provi 
 sion must be made for funding them in bonds bearing a 
 reasonable interest, and maturing at a long time in the fu 
 ture. In discussing the several plans for raising money to 
 meet the expenses of the government, Mr. Memminger, in his 
 "Report to Congress, March 14th, 1862, " thus refers to 
 treasury notes: 
 
 Experience has also established that this is the most dangerous of 
 all the methods for raising money. The danger arises from the fact that, 
 borrowing money in this form, the government interferes with the 
 measures of values. The amount of currency usually circulating in a 
 country forms its measure of value. While this consists of gold and sil 
 ver, it cannot become redundant, because any excess would be immedi 
 ately exported to other countries. But when a currency has no value, 
 except in one country, this security against excess is lost and every 
 addition becomes permanent circulation. Every money value must re 
 adjust itself to this increase, and the result is that to obtain a compara 
 tively small amount of money, the values of the entire property of a 
 community are changed. The government, in time of war, becomes the 
 greatest sufferer. Being the largest purchaser of commodities, it buys at 
 the inflated prices, which it has itself produced, and loses more in its 
 payments than the amount it has attempted to raise by its currency. 
 The relations of debtor and creditor are disturbed by every successive 
 issue, and the result is a prostration of public credit and private confi 
 dence. The facility with which a government paper currency may be 
 issued offers strong temptations to resort to it at difficult times. But 
 the disastrous consequences, which have always attended its over-issue, 
 warn us to mark with the greatest care the boundaries within which it 
 should be confined. 
 
 An aversion to internal taxation was manifested so de 
 cidedly among the people that when Congress assembled in 
 February, 1862, it was discovered that the enforcement of 
 
342 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMNINGEE. 
 
 the tax laws, enacted at a previous session, had to a large ex 
 tent proven a failure. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury again presented this matter 
 to the attention of Congress, urging the necessity of the en 
 forcement of the collection of the taxes, and also recommend 
 ing another mode of taxation in the nature of the old tithing 
 system, levying a per cent, upon all products needed for the 
 supply of the army. This was subsequently known as the 
 " Tax in Kind/ He recommended still another expedient 
 to reduce the volume of the currency by dispensing with the 
 use of treasury notes as much as possible in the purchase of 
 produce, and using bonds in exchange for all articles needed 
 as supplies for the government. This was known as the " Pro 
 duce Loan." Every effort to induce the holders of treasury- 
 notes to fund them in the bonds of the government was 
 made, and every legitimate device used by the Secretary to 
 dispense with their use in meeting the expenses of the gov 
 ernment, but with only partial success. In the meanwhile 
 the exigencies of the war permitted no delay. Money of 
 some kind must be had. So it was that the increase in the 
 issue of treasury notes continued, until on the first of Janu 
 ary, 1863, the currency in circulation amounted to over six 
 hundred millions of dollars, or to more than three times the 
 actual amount needed for the business of the country. 
 
 The effect of this great redundancy in the currency on 
 the general business interests of the country and the proper 
 remedy for it, is all clearly set forth in the report of Mr. 
 Memminger and his recommendation to Congress of Janu 
 ary 10, 1863. To remedy the evil, the Secretary suggested 
 that a period of limitation for the funding of treasury notes 
 should be fixed, and after the lapse of this time, all treas 
 ury notes issued prior to December 1, 1862, should cease to 
 be currency. This plan, if it had been successfully exe 
 cuted, would have forced the funding of a large portion of 
 the currency, quite sufficient to have reduced it, in the 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 343 
 
 opinion of the Secretary, to one hundred and fifty millions 
 of dollars, which he considered the extreme limit re 
 quired by the business wants of the country. To secure 
 the prompt payment of the interest and principal of the 
 bonds in which the holders of treasury notes were required 
 to invest, the Secretary called for an ample and permanent 
 tax which he states is the " corner-stone of the whole fabric. . . 
 and without it the scheme has no foundation, and secures nei 
 ther public confidence nor success." It was just at this vital 
 point in the whole system, as recommended by the Secre 
 tary, that Congress disagreed with him. Influenced more 
 by a popular clamor against the imposition of taxes than by 
 the financial logic of the wise Secretary, Congress failed to 
 provide such means for collecting the tax, urged by the Sec 
 retary, as w^ere effective. Under the provisions of the Con 
 stitution the amount required to be raised by taxation was 
 to be divided among the several States, and a pro-rata assess 
 ment made upon each, to be paid to the general government 
 by the Governors when collected by the officers of the 
 States. So much opposed to taxation were the people that 
 of the assessments made, only three States South Caro 
 lina, Mississippi and Texas collected the tax from the peo 
 ple in Confederate treasury notes ; the other States paying 
 theirs in State treasury notes, and thus really increasing, 
 instead of diminishing, the general public debt. 
 
 In his report to Congress, December 7, 1863, Mr. Mem- 
 minger again called the attention of Congress to the 
 necessity of reducing the currency, and again urged 
 the necessity of a tax to assure the payment of the in 
 terest on the bonds in which the treasury notes were 
 to be funded. The delay and uncertainty of returns 
 from the tax act of February, 1863, left the Secretary 
 no resource but to continue the issue of treasury notes to 
 meet the constantly increasing demands of the government 
 and to sustain them as far as possible by funding them in 
 
344 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 bonds. Referring to the " only legitimate source of supply, 
 taxes and loans" the Secretary clearly shows that taxes alone 
 have never been able to sustain a nation engaged in a great 
 war ; that loans are necessary ; but in order to maintain the 
 credit on which these loans rest, a tax must be levied suffi 
 cient to meet the interest of the loan "in specie or. its equivo- 
 lent, whenever this interest becomes due." In accord with the 
 recommendations made in his report 17th of February, 
 1864, Congress passed an act authorizing the reduction of 
 the currency and a new issue of bonds and treasury notes. 
 All treasury notes, not bearing interest and above the 
 denomination of five dollars, were made fundable in regis 
 tered bonds bearing four per cent, interest, and maturing in 
 twenty years. These notes were to be offered in six months 
 or thereafter and not to be received as currency. A new 
 issue of notes was authorized, made receivable for all public 
 dues, except customs, at the rate of two dollars for three of 
 the old issue. This new issue, intended to absorb all other 
 issues of treasury notes, was limited to two hundred mil 
 lions of dollars, and the faith of the government was pledged 
 not to increase it or make any other issue of treasury notes. 
 To meet the expenses of the government an issue of five 
 hundred millions of six per cent, bonds was authorized, and 
 for the payment of the interest all import and export duties, 
 payable in specie, was pledged. The provisions of the act 
 of Congress appears to have had the effect desired by the 
 Secretary, of bringing the currency within the limit fixed 
 by him, as necessary to adjust it to a normal standard of 
 values. Referring to the effect of this act, in his report of 
 May 2, 1864, the Secretary says : " The financial measures 
 adopted at the last session of Congress have given the 
 country a new starting point. The currency is once more 
 brought within bounds and it is most earnestly urged 
 upon Congress to so fence around those bounds that they 
 cannot be passed. This can only be done by a careful re- 
 
FIN A NO LA L POL 1C Y. 345 
 
 vision of every appropriation, and by admitting only such 
 as are absolutely necessary ; by a steady refusal to increase 
 the volume of the currency, and by providing sufficient 
 other means to meet the appropriations which shall be 
 made." 
 
 The " sufficient other means " the Secretary found in taxa 
 tion the "foundation of all sources of supply," as he goes on 
 elaborately to show, in this his last report and recommenda 
 tion to Congress. There can be no doubt but that the plans 
 of the Secretary were wise, and that the expedients he re 
 sorted to were, under the circumstances, the best pos 
 sible means he could employ to keep the currency of the 
 Confederate States in a proper relation to the universally 
 recognized standard of values and to the legitimate business 
 wants of the country. But what could he or any one else, 
 however wise, have done to prevent the depreciation of a 
 paper currency, unsupported by the foundation upon which 
 rests all credit; a certain and permanent income in specie, or 
 its equivalent, adequate to pay with promptness the interest 
 of the debt, and also to provide for a sinking fund that would 
 in time discharge the principal? 
 
 Notwithstanding the Secretary had urged upon Congress 
 the necessity of providing this fund by the imposition of a 
 tax on all property and on incomes, his recommendations 
 were not acted upon in the manner desired by him. Provis 
 ion was made for consolidating the debt and for reducing the 
 volume of the currency to the limit desired, but after a pro 
 tracted discussion Congress again declined to make the 
 money taxes payable alone in treasury notes, as urged by the 
 Secretary, but allowed the tax-payers to pay their taxes in 
 four per cent, bonds, or certificates, in which the notes had 
 been previously funded. Thus it was that the only certain 
 means of keeping the currency within the limit prescribed 
 in the act was defeated by its own provisions. Referring to 
 this in his report to Congress, May 2, 1864, the Secretary 
 
34*8 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 says: " Payment into the Treasury of treasury notes is a neces 
 sary instrument to their proper circulation. Without the 
 aid of such an instrument the currency of the notes depends 
 entirely upon consent. They are deprived of one of the 
 essential elements of value namely, general demand. After 
 demonstrating the necessity for making the taxes payable in 
 treasury notes, the Secretary makes an argument clearly 
 showing the provisions of the tax act of Congress to be in 
 adequate to meet the objects had in view when recommended 
 by him in a previous report. He shows the system of taxa 
 tion adopted to be " so cumbersome and intricate that delay and 
 disappointment will be its inevitable result" He urges that 
 another tax bill be framed providing " a simple tax on prop 
 erty and on incomes " and the repeal of the following pro 
 visions in the objectionable act: 
 
 That which allows the value of the tax, in kind, to be deducted from 
 the tax of five per cent, on agricultural property. 
 
 2. That which repeals the income tax on incomes derived from prop 
 erty taxed as capital. 
 
 3. That which discriminates as to the date at which assessments are 
 to be made. 
 
 No argument could be made .clearer or more convincing 
 than that to be found in the Secretary s report urging the 
 repeal of this tax act and the adoption of another to meet the 
 demands of the government and to support its credit. In 
 stead of aiding him to keep the currency within the limit 
 prescribed, the act was in itself an inseparable barrier to the 
 accomplishment of this object as long, as it permitted taxes 
 to be paid with certificates, in which the currency had been 
 funded. To use the language of the Secretary, "This pro 
 vision of the tax bill, instead of reducing the volume of the 
 currency, maintains its redundancy, if it does not in reality 
 increase it. It makes the whole funding system a mere sham, 
 and gives to unmatured bonds the functions of treasury 
 notes/ Nevertheless, the urgent recommendations of the 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 347 
 
 Secretary were not acted upon as he desired. The majority 
 in Congress appear to have been seeking more to maintain 
 their popularity with an uninformed constituency by yield 
 ing to a demand for more money than to conform their leg 
 islation to well-established principles of finance. Failing 
 again to secure such a system of taxation as in his judgment 
 was essential to protect the credit of the government, discov 
 ering that his recommendations were either ignored, or when 
 acted upon were so changed as to be wholly inadequate to 
 accomplish the ends desired, Mr. Memminger withdrew from 
 what he knew to be a hopeless task, and resigned the burdens 
 of a thankless office. 
 
 While it is not my purpose to enter into an argument with 
 the object in view of vindicating Mr. Memminger from 
 charges made by some that his want of sagacity and proper 
 administrative ability caused the unnecessary depreciation 
 of Confederate securities, or failed to provide a credit in 
 Europe, which was either offered or that could have been 
 secured by his action, the legislation of the Confederate 
 Congress and Mr. Memminger s reports to that body are his 
 own proper and complete vindication. 
 
 It is proper, however, for me to call attention to the fact 
 that Mr. Memminger was but an executive officer. 
 
 At no time was he given an unlimited authority to act as 
 his judgment alone would dictate in the management of the 
 Confederate finances, either at home or abroad. On the con 
 trary, he was never more than an officer executing the will 
 of Congress. It is true that he had the right to appear be 
 fore that body and advocate his recommendations, and to 
 suggest such enactments as in his judgment were necessary, 
 but beyond this he could not go. The financial legislation 
 of Congress was, in the most vital points, opposed to his 
 judgment and contrary to his often-repeated and strongly- 
 urged recommendations. So embarrassing to the Secretary 
 was this disagreement with the law-making power, that on 
 
348 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEU. 
 
 more than one occasion he made this the reason, in commu 
 nications to the President, why he desired to retire from the 
 thankless task of attempting to execute what were to him 
 financial absurdities or impossibilities. Carlisle says that 
 " the opinion of one man who sees a thing is worth more than 
 that of a million who do not see it." Well would it have 
 been for the Confederate cause if the Congress had simply 
 followed the sound and carefully digested financial plans of 
 the Secretary, instead of forcing on the country a policy, if 
 such it may be called, which was a jumble, resulting from 
 confusion of ideas, and at best but a compromise between 
 opposing factions. 
 
 In this connection I present the reply of Mr. Memminger 
 to certain strictures made on his administration by General 
 Joseph E. Johnston, and the comments of a contributor to 
 the Charleston Courier, who is supposed to have been Mr. 
 Trenholm. The substance of General Johnston s charge is 
 that the failure of the Confederate cause was due to the fail 
 ure of its finances; that the government failed to adopt the 
 true financial policy which was easy enough to see and 
 " generally understood in the country! " Having made this 
 very remarkable charge the General proceeds to unfold his 
 plan as follows. 
 
 The government was organized in February, and he states 
 that the blockade of the Southern ports, though proclaimed 
 in May, was not made " effective " until the end of the fol 
 lowing winter a period of twelve months in which "it 
 would have been easy" to ship and to convert into money 
 four or five million bales of cotton, etc. 
 
 It must certainly surprise the reader when he looks into 
 this grave proposition that the four or five million bales of 
 cotton had no existence except in the fancy of the General. 
 The total crop of 1860- 61 was officially reported at 3,849,- 
 000 bales. Of this 3,000,000 bales had been exported up to 
 February, the month when the Confederate government was 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 349 
 
 organized; and 600,000 bales in the hands of the New Eng 
 land spinners, the seed for the next crop (1861- 62) not be 
 ing yet in the ground. It is needless to examine into the 
 merits of this scheme any further. Granting that the cotton 
 did exist in the Southern States, it would have been impos 
 sible, as Mr. Memminger clearly shows, to have shipped any 
 large quantity of it. So that the whole charge of failure of 
 the financial policy by General Johnston resolves itself into 
 a fleet of phantom ships loaded with phantom cotton. This 
 singular charge has only been noticed on account of the 
 high source from which it emanates, and because of the cur 
 rency which the idea has obtained among a class of critics. 
 The following answer to General Johnston s criticism ap 
 peared in the Charleston Courier, March 28, 1874 : 
 
 CHARLESTON, March 27, 1874. 
 To the Editor of the News and Courier: 
 
 I observe by your paper of yesterday, which extracts a passage from 
 General Johnston s book, that he follows the ancient example of our 
 forefather Adam, in casting the fault of a general calamity on some 
 other person. He attributes the failure of the Southern Confederacy to 
 the blunder of the government, at its first institution, in not possessing 
 itself of the cotton crop then in the hands of the planters. This cotton 
 (according to the General) should have been shipped in anticipation of 
 the blockade, and it would then have furnished a basis for future credit. 
 As I was at that time in charge of the Treasury Department, the respon 
 sibility of this failure would rest chiefly on me; and you will therefore 
 not consider it out of place that I should correct misapprehensions 
 which seem to have misled yourself as well as General Johnston. 
 
 The Confederate government was organized in February, the block 
 ade was .instituted in May, thus leaving a period of three months in 
 which the whole cotton crop on hand, say four millions of bales, ought, 
 according to the military financier, to have been got into the hands of 
 the Confederate government, and to have been shipped abroad. This 
 would have required a fleet of four thousand ships, allowing one thous 
 and bales to the ship. Where would these vessels have been procured 
 in the face of the notification of the blockade? and was not as much of 
 the cotton shipped by private enterprise as could have been shipped by 
 the government? When so shipped, the proceeds of the sale were in 
 most cases sold to the government in the shape of bills of exchange. 
 
350 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEHMIXGER. 
 
 The superior advantage of this plan is evinced by the fact that, through 
 out the year, the government exchanged its own notes for bills on Eng 
 land at par, with which it paid for all its arms and munitions of war. 
 
 Of course this vast amount of cotton could only have been procured 
 in one of three ways by seizure, by purchase or by donation. 
 
 Certainly no one, at the first inception of the Confederacy, would 
 have ventured to propose to seize upon the crop then in the hands of 
 the planters, and which furnished their only means of subsistence. 
 
 Could it not, then, have been purchased? 
 
 At the commencement of the government the Treasury had not funds 
 to pay for the table on which the Secretary was writing; and the first 
 purchases of the government made abroad were made on the private 
 draft of the Secretary. There was not to be found, in the whole Confed 
 eracy, a sheet of bank-note paper on which to print a note. Forecasting 
 this need, the Secretary had ordered from England a consignment .of 
 note paper and lithographic materials, the vessel containing which was 
 captured on the high seas; and many of the friends of the late Colonel 
 Evans, of our city, will remember that he nearly lost his life in the at 
 tempt to bring across the lines a single parcel of note paper. It is within 
 the memory of the printers of these notes, that months elapsed before 
 bonds or notes could be engraved and printed; and these constituted 
 our entire currency. How, then, was the cotton to be paid for? 
 
 And when the mechanical difficulties were overcome, the financial 
 presented an equal barrier. The scheme for raising money, adopted by 
 Congress, was to issue Confederate notes, funding the redundant notes 
 in interest-bearing bonds ; and all payments at the treasury were made 
 with these notes. The daily demands on the Treasury exceeded greatly 
 the means of supply. Now, if instead of applying the notes to the daily 
 payments required at the Treasury they had been used to purchase cot 
 ton, the Treasury would have found itself filled with cotton, without any 
 money to meet the wants of the government until that cotton could be 
 shipped abroad and sold. 
 
 If instead of payment in notes the bonds of the government had been 
 used to purchase the cotton crop, those bonds would have been thrown 
 in the market to meet the necessities of the planters, and their value as 
 a means of funding the surplus currency would have been destroyed. 
 It is obvious to any one acquainted with finance that this would have 
 broken down the Confederate currency within the first year of its exist 
 ence, whereas the plan pursued sustained the credit of the Confede 
 racy until broken down under calamities by which no credit could sur 
 vive. 
 
 The only remaining mode in which the cotton could have been pro 
 cured by the government was by donation from the planters. So far 
 was this donation from being possible that the Treasury actually had to 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 351 
 
 issue a circular in response to applications to the government for aid to 
 the planters in making loans to them, and not a bale of the crop of that 
 year was contributed to the government. An effort was made to get 
 pledges of the next year s crop in exchange for bonds of the govern 
 ment. To accomplish this it was deemed necessary to allow the plant 
 ers to get their own price through their own factors without allowing the 
 government to fix its price, and the whole amount thus pledged did 
 not reach fifty millions, or about two months expenses of the govern 
 ment, of which perhaps one-third was never received. 
 
 Every one conversant with the politics of the day knows that it was 
 the current expectation that the blockade could not be continued for a 
 year. The Confederate Congress were so informed when they adopted 
 the international agreement as to privateers. The government of the 
 United States equally supposed that the war would be of short dura 
 tion, as is apparent from President Lincoln s proclamation calling for 
 troops for ninety days. There could therefore be no motive to induce 
 the Confederate government to store up cotton as a basis of credit. 
 When it became apparent that the blockade and the war would con 
 tinue the government then made arrangements for using cotton as the 
 basis of a loan ; and the large foreign cotton loan negotiated in Europe 
 by Messrs. Erlanger furnished abundant resources to the government 
 for its supplies from abroad. But even to the last its power over the 
 crop was restricted by the large quantities held in private hands which 
 could not be purchased at all. At no time that I am aware of was it in 
 the power of the government to get possession of the cotton crop, unless 
 it had seized the same by force, and by the same force compelled pay 
 ment in a depreciated currency; a high-handed course which could 
 never receive the sanction of the statesmen who administered our gov 
 ernment The only approximation to it was in the shape of a tax in 
 kind when the currency failed to command supplies, and which was 
 made as just and equal as any other tax. 
 
 The truth is, that if General Johnston s recollections of history were 
 as vivid as his knowledge of military tactics is great, instead of censur 
 ing the financial administration of the Confederate government, he 
 would have discovered no instance on record where a war of such di 
 mensions, in a constantly decreasing territory, has been sustained for 
 four years by mere financial expedients, without the aid usually derived 
 from taxes for in the whole Confederate war but one general war tax 
 was levied, and a great portion of that was never collected. 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 I append, as part of the history of the times, one of the 
 circulars of the Treasury Department on this subject. 
 
352 LIFE AND TIMES OF (7. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
 
 EICHMOND, October 15, 1861. 
 
 The Commissioners Appointed to receive Subscriptions to the Produce Loan: 
 GENTLEMEN, Inquiries have been made from various quarters 
 
 1. Whether during the continuance of the blockade, effort should be 
 made to procure further subscriptions. 
 
 2. Whether the government will authorize promises to be held out of 
 aid to the planters, as an inducement to such for further subscriptions. 
 
 The first inquiry seems to imply a misunderstanding of the scheme 
 of the subscriptions. Many persons have supposed that the govern 
 ment was to have some control of the produce itself; others that the 
 time of sale appointed by the subscription was to be absolute and 
 unconditional. The caption at the head of the lists, when examined, 
 will correct both these errors. The subscription is confined to the pro 
 ceeds of sales, and contains an order on the commission merchant or 
 factor of the planter to pay over to the treasurer the amount sub 
 scribed, in exchange for Confederate bonds. The transaction is simply s 
 an agreement by the planter to lend the government so much money; 
 and, in order to complete the transaction, a time and place are ap 
 pointed when and where the parties may meet to carry it out. The im 
 portant point is, that it shall certainly be completed at some time, and 
 that is secured by the engagement of the planter. Whether that time 
 be December or June is simply a question of convenience, and works no 
 injury to either party. The government is sure of the eventual pay 
 ment, and derives from that certainty so much credit ; and it loses noth 
 ing, because it gives its bond only when the money is paid. 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that the subscriptions are quite as valuable to 
 the government during the blockade as after it. The blockade simply 
 suspends the completion of the engagement. It becomes the interest of 
 both parties to wait for a good price, and the government will readily 
 consent to a postponement of the sale. 
 
 You perceive, therefore, that it is desirable to continue your exertions 
 to increase the subscriptions, and you are authorized to say that the 
 government will consent to a reasonable extension of the time appointed 
 for sales. 
 
 2. The next inquiry is as to a promise of material aid from the govern 
 ment to the planters. 
 
 In answering this inquiry I am to speak in advance of any action of 
 Congress. What that body may see fit to do, it is not for me to deter 
 mine. I can express merely the views of this department, and these 
 must govern your action until reversed by a higher authority. It would 
 be a sufficient answer to the inquiry to say that the action of the govern 
 ment is settled by the Constitution. No power is granted to any depart 
 ment to lend money for the relief of any interest. Even the power of 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 353 
 
 Congress in relation to money is confined to borrowing, and no clause can 
 be found which would sanction so stupendous a scheme as purchasing the 
 entire crop with a view to aid its owners. But it may be said that the 
 Constitution of the Provisional government may be altered by Congress, 
 and that it is the duty of this department to prepare the way for such 
 alteration, if in its judgment the financial necessities of the country de 
 mand the change. 
 
 I am not disposed, then, to close the inquiry with the abrupt answer 
 thus made by the Constitution, and will proceed to consider the subject 
 upon its intrinsic merits. 
 
 Two plans of relief have been proposed. The one is that the govern 
 ment should purchase the entire crop of the country ; the-other that an 
 advance should be made of part of its value. In either case the payment 
 is to be made by the issue of treasury notes, and, therefore, if we put 
 aside for the present the many and serious objections to the possession, 
 transportation and management of the crop by the government, it be* 
 comes simply a question of amount. To purchase the whole crop would 
 require its whole value, less the amount of the subscriptions made to the 
 government. If we estimate the whole crop of cotton at two hundred 
 millions and the subscriptions at fifty millions, the purchase would then 
 require one hundred and fifty millions of treasury notes, and, if to this 
 sum be added the amount of values for other agricultural products, 
 which would certainly claim the same benefit, the sum required would 
 probably reach one hundred and seventy-five millions. 
 
 The amount called for by the other plan of making an advance would 
 depend upon the proportion of that advance. Few of the advocates of 
 this plan have put it lower than five cents per pound on cotton, and at 
 the same rate on other produce. It may, therefore, be very fairly set 
 down at about one hundred millions. 
 
 If we consider first, the least objectionable of these plans, it is cer 
 tainly that which requires ^the smallest sum ; and if this be found im 
 practicable, the larger must of necessity be rejected. Our inquiry, then, 
 may be narrowed down to a proposal that the government should issue 
 one hundred millions of treasury notes, to be distributed among the 
 planting community upon the pledge of the forthcoming crop. 
 
 The first remarkable feature in this scheme is that it proposes that a 
 new government, yet struggling for existence, should reject all the les 
 sons of experience and undertake that which no government, however 
 long established, has yet succeeded in effecting. The " organization of 
 labor" has called forth many ingenious attempts, both speculative and 
 practical, among well-established governments, but always with disas 
 trous failure. With us, however, the experiment is proposed to a new 
 government, which is engaged in a gigantic war, and which must rely 
 on credit to furnish means to carry on that war. Our enemies are in 
 
354 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 possession of all the munitions and workshops which hav& been collected 
 daring forty-five years of peace their fleets have been built up at our 
 joint expense. With all these on hand, they yet are obliged to expend 
 nearly ten millions of dollars per week to carry on the war. Can we ex 
 pect to contend with them at less than half that expenditure? Suppos 
 ing that it may require two hundred millions of dollars ; then the pro 
 posal is that at a time when we are called upon to raise this large sum 
 for the support of the government, we shall raise a further sum of one 
 hundred millions for the benefit of the planting interest. 
 
 For it must be observed, first, that the government receives no bene 
 fit whatever from this advance. The money is paid to each individual 
 planter, and in exchange the government receives only his bond or 
 note or, if the cotton be purchased, the government receives only cer 
 tain bales of cotton. That is to say, the government pays out money 
 which is needful to its very existence, and receives in exchange planters 
 notes or produce, which it does not need and cannot in any way make use 
 of. It mast be observed, in the next place, that treasury notes have now 
 become the currency of the country. They are, therefore, at present 
 the measures of value. In this view it is the duty of the government to 
 limit their issue, as far as practicable, to that amount which is the limit 
 of its currency. Every person acquainted with this branch of political 
 science, is aware that if the currency passes this point it not only be^ 
 comes depreciated, but it disturbs the just relations of society precisely 
 as th ough an arbitrary authority should change the weights and meas~ 
 ures of the country. If the currency of a country should be suddenly 
 extended from one hundred to two hundred millions of dollars, that 
 which was measured by one dollar is now measured by two, and every 
 article must be rated at twice its former price. Of course all con 
 tracts are disturbed. The debt incurred before the increase is discharged 
 by paying one-half its former value ; and each article purchased must 
 be paid for at double its former price. Thegovernment from the neces 
 sities of war, is the largest purchaser, and thus, by a kind of suicidal 
 act, compels itself to pay two dollars for what one would have formerly 
 purchased. And at this rate of advance, two hundred millions of dol 
 lars can effect no more than one hundred millions of dollars would have 
 effected before ; or, in other words, one hundred millions of dollars are 
 actually sunk in the operation. 
 
 Such a condition of the currency the government has anxiously en- 1 
 deavored to guard against. The war tax was laid for the purpose of 
 creating a demand for treasury notes, and a security for their redemp 
 tion. The redundancy has been carefully guarded against by allowing 
 them to be funded in eight per cent, bonds. If necessity shall compel 
 the government to issue for the defense of the country and to keep out 
 two hundred millions, it is plain that every accession must impair and 
 may defeat all these precautions. 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 355 
 
 If the government should undertake for the sake of private interest 
 so large an increase of issues it may hazard its entire credit and stability. 
 The experiment is too dangerous, and relief for the planters must be 
 sought in some other direction. And may not the remedy be found ? 
 
 In the first place let the planters immediately take measures for 
 winter crops to relieve the demand for grain and provisions. Let them 
 proceed to divert part of their labor from cotton and make their own 
 clothing and supplies. Then let them apply to the great resource pre 
 sented by the money capital in banks and private hands. Let this capi 
 tal come forward and assist the agricultural interest. Heretofore the 
 banks have employed a large part of their capital in the purchase of 
 Northern exchange. Let them apply this portion to factors acceptances 
 of planters drafts secured by the pledge of the produce in the planters 
 hands. An extension of the time usually allowed on these drafts would 
 overcome most of the difficulties. The ex-tension could safely reach the 
 probable time of sale of the crops, inasmuch as the suspension of specie 
 payments throughout the entire Confederacy relieves each bank from 
 calls for coin. The banks are accustomed to manage loans of this char 
 acter, and will conduct the operation with such skill as will make them 
 mutually advantageous. The amount of advance asked from the banks 
 \vould be greatly less than if advances were offered by the government; 
 and all the abuses incident to government agencies would be avoided. 
 
 It seems to me, therefore, that it is neither necessary nor expedient 
 that the government should embark upon this dangerous experiment. 
 It is far better that each class of the community should endeavor to 
 secure its own existence by its own exertions, and if an effort be at once 
 made by so intelligent a class as the planters, it will result in relief. 
 Delay in these efforts occasioned by vague expectations of relief from 
 the government, which cannot be realized, may defeat that which is yet 
 practicable. 
 
 Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER, 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 A contributor to the Charleston Courier, of the same date 
 from which I extract the foregoing, presents a statement 
 which I append to the answer of Mr. Memminger as conclu 
 sive on the point made by General Johnston. 
 
 To the Editor of the News and Courier: 
 
 The News and Courier, quoting from the forthcoming work of Gen 
 eral Johnston, gives us the views of the author as to the cause of our 
 failure. Those who ascribed it " to the superior population and greater 
 resources of the Northern States," and those who attributed our defeat to 
 
356 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 " a want of perseverance, unanimity and even of loyalty on our own part, 
 " are, in my view," says the General, " both far wrong." We are inclined 
 to believe there is now a third party "wrong." The Confederate gov 
 ernment, the General thinks, had the means of filling its treasury, but 
 the " government rejected those means." The necessity of actual money 
 in the treasury, and the mode of raising it, were generally understood 
 in the country. It was that the government should take the cotton 
 from the owners and send it to Europe as fast as possible, to be sold 
 there. This was easily practicable, for the owners were ready to accept 
 any terms the government might fix, and sending to Europe was easy 
 in all the first year of the Confederacy s existence. Its government 
 went into operation early in February. The blockade of the Southern 
 ports were proclaimed in May, but was not at all effective until the end 
 of the following winter, so that there was a period of about twelve 
 months for the operation of converting four million or five million bales 
 of cotton in money. The sum raised in that way would have enabled 
 the War Department to procure at once arms enough for five hundred 
 thousand men; and after that the Confederate Treasury would have 
 been much richer than that of the United States." 
 
 Let us examine the facts upon which this theory rests, and without 
 the support of which it must necessarily fall to the ground. The crop 
 of cotton available for this scheme must necessarily have been that of 
 1860-61. It could not have been the crop of which the seed w r as not yet 
 put in the ground when the government was formed in Montgomery. 
 What- was then the crop of 18GO-61 ? Was it 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 bales, 
 and was it accessible for immediate exportation ? 
 
 The crop of 1860-61 was officially stated at 3,849,000 bales. Of this 
 quantity the consumption of the Southern States took off 193,000 bales. 
 Leaving for exportation 3,656,000 bales. 
 
 Let us now see what proportion of this quantity was available in the 
 way described by General Johnston. 
 
 Up to the 28th of February, the month that gave birth to the infant 
 government, 3,000,000 bales had been received at the seaports, and the 
 ^reat bulk of it had been exported to Europe or been sold to the New 
 England spinners. By the 1st of May 586,900 bales more had been re 
 ceived and sold. England and the Continent took 3,127,000 bales. The 
 New England spinners 654,000 bales. 
 
 It will thus be seen that before the new government was fairly or 
 ganized, the entire crop was already beyond its reach. Another crop 
 followed, it is true, but no part of it was ready for market before the 
 month of September ensuing. This all will agree in ; and they will also 
 agree that exportation in any quantity was an absolute impossibility. 
 There were no vessels in the ports of the Confederacy; the last had left 
 before the expiration of the sixty days allowed to foreign tonnage under 
 the blockade proclamation. The only vessels that took out cotton after 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 357 
 
 that time were the foreign steamers that ran the blockade to procure 
 cargoes of cotton for the owners. They came in small numbers, and 
 one or two at a time. Had the government seized one of them for its 
 own use, or prevented them from leaving with cotton, they would have 
 ceased to come. T. 
 
 Thus we readily perceive with what facility a theory can 
 be established upon mere conjectures, and how quickly it 
 vanishes before the statement of real facts. 
 
 For sometime there has been a statement circulated 
 among the critics which, in substance, amounts to charging 
 Mr. Memminger with a failure to increase the credits of the 
 Confederate Treasury in Europe, when the opportunity was 
 offered him to do so by Baron Erlanger, a prominent banker 
 of Paris. Ascertaining that this statement originated with 
 Mr. James G. Gibbes, of Columbia, South Carolina, I called 
 upon him, and in reply to my inquiry, received the follow 
 ing letter, which distinctly sets forth the charge and names 
 the author: 
 
 COLUMBIA, S. C., July 4, 1892. 
 Colonel Henry D. Capers: 
 
 DEAR SIR, In reply to your request for information with regard to 
 the sale of Confederate securities, I would say that I was sent to Europe 
 in December, 1862, by the Treasury Department of the Confederate 
 States, then under the control of Mr. Memminger, to assist Mr. James 
 Spence, Financial Agent, in disposing of $15.000,000 of Confederate 
 bonds, known as " Cotton Loan Bonds." These bonds being redeemable 
 at the expiration of six months after the termination of the war at the 
 option of the holder either in cotton at sixpence a pound, or in specie. 
 The bonds were taken over by me. After several weeks of negotiation 
 we found Erlange r & Co., of Frankfort and Paris, more disposed to aid 
 us than any other important house. When Erlanger found, however, 
 that the amount of the proposed loan was limited to $15,000,000 he was 
 very urgent to extend it to a very much larger amount ; very properly 
 taking the ground of the great benefits that would accrue to the Con 
 federate cause by enlisting European capital in their success. The in 
 structions, however, being positive, neither Mr. Spence or myself had 
 any power to increase the amount proposed for negotiation. Mr. Erlan 
 ger was so decided in his views on the matter that he determined to go 
 to Richmond and see the Confederate authorities on the subject, which 
 he did, but returned having utterly failed in inducing any increase of 
 
358 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 the proposed loan ; Mr. Memminger emphatically declaring that $15,- 
 000,000 would cpver all that was then actually needed. Mr. Erlangef 
 returned to Paris about the middle of February, 1863, supremely dis 
 gusted at his failure to convince our authorities of the importance of 
 interesting European capital in our cause. It was at last arranged that 
 Erlanger would take the bonds at ninety-five cents. Pie then adver 
 tised for proposals for the loan, to be received up to March 1st, 1863, no 
 bids to be considered less than ninety-five cents. On opening the bids 
 it was found that the aggregate bid amounted to 105,000,000, or $525,- 
 000,000, at prices from ninety-five cents to par, mostly about ninety-seven 
 cents, which gave a clear profit of from five to seven cents on the dollar 
 to the firm of Erlanger & Co. 
 
 Comment is unnecessary. If the Confederate authorities had secured 
 this large amount of French, English and German capital in their cause 
 there is no earthly doubt but that their efforts would have forced a rec 
 ognition of the Confederacy and brought about a peaceable solution of 
 affairs. 
 
 It has been a matter of surprise to me that so little has been said of 
 the facts of this matter. A few years ago Mr. Barnwell Rhett, now of 
 Pluntsville, Alabama, applied to me for the details, but I do not know if 
 he has ever published them. 
 
 Mr. Erlanger informed me that after his interview with Mr. Memmin 
 ger, the Secretary of the Treasury, he tried to induce President Davis to 
 use his influence in the matter. Mr. Erlanger told me that President 
 Davis was indisposed to take any positive action in the matter, as he en 
 trusted the whole matter to the Secretary of the Treasury, but that he 
 privately agreed with his views, and thought that it would be a great ad 
 vantage to extend the loan as much as possible. 
 
 (Signed) Yours, very respectfully, 
 
 JAMES G. GIBBES. 
 
 I nave no means of investigating the charge made by 
 .Baron Erlanger in his statement to Mr. Gibbes other than 
 by an examination of the records of the Treasury Depart 
 ment and a reference to the official repojts of the Secretary 
 of the Treasury to the Confederate Congress. From these it 
 "Would appear that Baron Erlanger s statement, as reported 
 by Mr. Gibbes, is not in accord either with the letters of the 
 Secretary to Mr. John Slidell, our Minister to France, or with 
 the official reports and recommendations of the Secretary to 
 the Confederate Congress. 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 359 
 
 I find in the record Look of the Secretary s correspondence 
 the following letter to Mr. Slidell, which directly contradicts 
 the statement of the Paris banker, as far as this represents 
 the personal or official views of Mr. Memmingcr on this sub 
 ject. 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Richmond, Va., Nov. 7, 1862. 
 
 Hon. John Slidell : 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, Your communication to the President, and in answer 
 to my letter of inquiry, with regard to the negotiation of our cotton 
 bonds under the provisions of the act of August, has been referred to me 
 and read with much interest. By the same dispatch I have a letter from 
 Mr. Mason on the same subject. 
 
 It is not surprising to me that our securities as authorized by the act 
 of Congress are in demand among the bankers and capitalists of Eng 
 land and on the continent. The provisions of the act, however, does not 
 give to me the authority to do so, or I would avail myself of this oppor 
 tunity to place the greater part, if not the entire amount of the bonds 
 in foreign markets provided this can be done at par, or near the par 
 value of the bonds in specie. It is now evident that our struggle 
 for independence is to be protracted through at least another year, 
 and in anticipation of the "uncertain future," to which you refer, it 
 would be well for us to increase the credit of our government in Europe 
 to the largest possible sum. Granting that I should be mistaken, and 
 that the next year or six months, should bring to an end our struggle by 
 a recognition of the independence of the Confederacy, a surplus to our 
 credit in Europe would greatly aid in an adjustment of our finances. 
 
 The act of Congress authorizing the loan evidently provides for fund 
 ing a part of our outstanding indebtedness in these bonds. This will 
 absorb so much of the loan that I fear I will not be authorized to offer 
 more than fifteen or twenty millions in the markets of Europe. Congress 
 will soon be in session, and then I will endeavor to have the act so 
 amended as to relieve all doubt as to the authority of the Secretary of 
 the Treasury in the premises. 
 
 A special messenger will take over the bonds to our financial agent, 
 who will doubtless confer with you on the matter of their negotiation. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 (Signed) C. G. MEMMINGER, 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 In his official report of January 10, 18G3, addressed to 
 Hon. T. S. Bgcock, Speaker, House of Representatives, C. 
 
360 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 S. A., referring to these cotton loan bonds, Mr. Memminger 
 uses the following language : 
 
 It is in my judgment advisable that we should improve the present 
 opportunity to largely increase our specie credits in Europe. As a step 
 in this direction I have sent a large amount of the cotton loan bonds, 
 authorized by the act of the last Congress, to our financial agent at Paris, 
 for negotiation, and am advised that they are in demand at the monied 
 centers of Europe. The provisions of the act authorizing this loan are 
 somewhat ambiguous. It is not clear as to whether Congress intended 
 that these bonds should be used in funding treasury notes, or that they 
 should be used in making a foreign loan. I recommend that the act be 
 so amended that the bonds provided for may be used for largely in 
 creasing the amount of our specie deposits; also that the rate at which 
 cotton shall be taken, in payment of the coupons of these bonds, when 
 due, shall be reduced to sixpence, and that the option remain as now 
 provided, with the holder to receive cotton at the price per pound, or 
 coin, as he may elect. AVith this amendment to the act I am assured 
 that purchasers for a large amount of these bonds can readily be found 
 in the markets of Europe. 
 
 Again, in his report to Congress, December 7, 1863, refer- 
 ing to these bonds, Mr. Memminger says : 
 
 It is not clear what was the design of Congress in authorizing these 
 bonds. The first law passed was in connection with the funding act, 
 and the coupons were thereby made payable at the option of the holder 
 of the bond in coin, or cotton valued at eight pence sterling per pound. 
 The object of this law was obviously to provide means for raising money 
 abroad, and after it was passed, I recommended that the rate at which 
 the cotton was to be taken should be reduced to six pence, or the aver 
 age price at Liverpool before the war. At this rate purchasers could 
 have been procured at any time before the fall of Vicksburg. 
 
 The amendment, which was made to the law by Congress, reduced 
 the price, as proposed, but shifted the option of being paid in cotton 
 from the purchaser to the government. This converted the bond, in the 
 view of an European purchaser, into a single six per cent, money bond, 
 with the interest payable here. The absence of the right to require 
 cotton for the bonds took away their availableness in the foreign 
 markets, etc. ...... 
 
 [See Appendix.] 
 
 I deem these records the highest evidence of what Mr. 
 Memminger s views of the financial policy of the govern- 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 361 
 
 ment really were, and of his actions, as the financial ex^ 
 ecutive of that government, Baron Erlanger, the banker 
 and broker, nevertheless to the contrary. 
 
 There is scarcely anything easier for some to do than to 
 criticise the acts of others, after an emergency has transpired, 
 and to censure is, unhappily, so much a characteristic of our 
 humanity that we readily find those who can fix upon some 
 one the responsibility for a failure so disastrous as was the 
 war between the States. A true history of the facts is the 
 best criticism of measures or of statesmanship. Before this 
 tribunal C. G. Memminger may safely appear. 
 
 While it is not my purpose to discuss the financial policy 
 of Mr. Memminger with the object in view of adding to the 
 strength of the vindication made by his own words and acts 
 against criticisms made designedly by some, or through 
 ignorance by others, I deem it but an act of simple justice 
 to the worthy Secretary, and due to the truth of history, that 
 I should here notice a reflection which is apparently made 
 by President Davis in his work, "Rise and Fall of the Confed 
 erate Government." Referring to the condition of the Con 
 federate finances in 1863, Mr. Davis, on page 491, Vol. I., 
 uses this language : 
 
 The evil effects of this financial condition were but too apparent. In 
 addition to the difficulty presented to the necessary operations of the 
 government and the efficient conduct of the war, the most deplorable of 
 all its results was undoubtedly its corrupting influence on the morals of 
 the people. The possession of large amounts of treasury notes led to a 
 desire for investment, and with a constantly increasing volume of cur 
 rency there was an equally constant increase of price in all objects of 
 investment. This effect stimulated purchase by the apparent certainty 
 of profit, and a spirit of speculation w r as thus fostered, which had so de 
 basing an influence and such ruinous consequences that it became our 
 highest duty to remove the cause by prompt and stringent measures. 
 
 I, therefore, recommended to Congress in December, 1863, the com 
 pulsory reduction of the currency to the amount required by the busi 
 ness of the country, accompanied by a pledge that under no stress of 
 circumstances would the amount be increased. I stated that if the cur 
 rency was not greatly and promptly reduced, the existing scale of inflated 
 
362 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 prices would not only continue, but, by the very fact of the large 
 amounts thus made requisite in the conduct of the war, these prices 
 would reach rates still more extravagant, and the whole system would 
 fall under its own weight, rendering the redemption of the debt impossi 
 ble and destroying its value in the hands of the holder. If, on the con 
 trary, a funded debt, with interest secured by adequate taxation, could 
 be substituted for the outstanding currency, its entire amount would be 
 made available to the holder, and the government would be in a condi 
 tion beyond the reach of any probable contingency to prosecute the war 
 to a successful issue. 
 
 The effect of this language is to convey the impression that 
 there was a radical defect in the financial policy of the gov 
 ernment, which, besides threatening the destruction of the 
 Confederate credits, was " corrupting in its influence on the 
 morals of the people," and that the President, perceiving 
 this to be the case, by his unaided intervention, in the form 
 of recommendations to Congress, unsuggested by the finan 
 cial officer of the government, had induced the legislation of 
 February, 1864, which remedied the evil. 
 
 I cannot believe nor do I charge that Mr. Davis would at 
 tempt to add to his own reputation as a financier, or to his 
 fame as a statesman, by depriving a self-sacrificing Cabinet 
 officer of the credit due him, or that he would designedly 
 seek to make of him a scape-goat for the errors of his admin 
 istration. I prefer rather to believe that the weakness of 
 the President, a pardonable egotism, captured- his pen in 
 this instance, and gave a form of expression to his thought, 
 which with the Secretary s reports before him he would have 
 at least modified to the extent of recognizing the source 
 from whence his suggestions were derived. 
 
 Upon an examination of the reports of the Secretary in 
 the Appendix to this volume, it will be seen that he not only 
 anticipated the difficulties to which Mr. Davis refers, but had 
 repeatedly called the attention of Congress to them. From 
 his report of January 10, 1863, I take the following : 
 
 By a law as invariable as any law of physical nature, prices rise or 
 fall with the actual volume of the whole currency. Neither skill nor 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 363 
 
 power can vary the result. It is in fact a relation existing between two 
 numbers, the one representing the total values of property and the 
 other the total circulating medium. The nature of that medium can 
 not change it. It would exist with a currency of gold with as much cer 
 tainty as with one of paper, if the gold were kept within the country by 
 restraints equal to those which retain the paper. Prices will 
 reach the height adjusted by the scale of issue, and they can only be re 
 stored to their usual condition by a return to the normal standard of 
 currency. In other words, the only remedy for an inflated currency is a 
 reduction of the circulating medium. Is this reduction prac 
 
 ticable ? Before answering the question it is important that we should 
 be fully assured of the excessive issue of paper currency. If the coun 
 try was open to foreign intercourse, the difference in value between 
 coin and paper money would at once afford a test. But in the present 
 condition of trade coin cannot be imported and gold and silver have be 
 come articles of commerce like iron and lead. They cannot, therefore, 
 take their usual place as absolute measures of value. 
 
 After proceeding to show that other tests such as bills of 
 exchange, commodities in general use, and of which there 
 was a scarcity, and even real estate could not, under the 
 existing state of affairs, be made a standard of values; and 
 as such a test by which to determine the excess of the paper 
 currency of the country, the Secretary proceeds to state, in 
 his usual clear and concise manner, that "the remedy which 
 is required, in order to be effective, must therefore withdraw 
 two-thirds of the entire volume of the currency. 
 At the last session of Congress an effort was made by me to 
 attain this result by the proposal for a loan of one-fifth of 
 all gross income, to .be paid in treasury notes, in exchange 
 for bonds. The adoption of this measure would have retired 
 a large amount of treasury notes at an early period, and 
 would have checked the advance of prices. It is the mis 
 fortune of every such failure that it leaves the evils increas 
 ing at a double ratio, and subsequent remedies must be so 
 much the more stringent. All the causes of excess continue 
 in full operation. The conditions, then, which 
 any sufficient remedy must fulfil, are, first, prompt, and sec 
 ondly, effective reduction." 
 
364 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Again, in his report December 7, 1863, the month and 
 year referred to by President Davis, in referring to the enor 
 mous sum expressed in the several estimates of expenses 
 made by the several departments of the government, he 
 says : " If these estimates are to be supplied by new issues 
 of currency prices must again increase, and large additions 
 must be made to the figures which represent both currency 
 and estimates. * * It is obvious that some other mode 
 of raising supplies must be devised, and the necessity is 
 equally obvious of reducing the volume of the currency. 
 . . In a former report it was shown that one hundred 
 and fifty millions of dollars was probably the amount of 
 currency which could be put in circulation, under existing 
 circumstances, in the Confederate States, without material 
 derangement of values. The currency in circulation when 
 the estimates for the ensuing year were made up was very 
 near four times that amount ; and it may be fairly assumed 
 that the prices were then nearly four times what they would 
 have been if the currency had been restored to its original 
 condition. A reduction of the currency, then, should be a 
 preliminary measure." .... Continuing, he says : 
 " Thus are we fairly confronted with the three difficulties to 
 be surmounted : 1. The currency must be reduced ; 2. The 
 supplies must be raised ; 3. The measures to attain these 
 ends must be prompt and certain." 
 
 These extracts are sufficient to show to the reader the real 
 source from whence emanated the financial policy mentioned 
 by President Davis. I commend the careful study of the 
 reports of the Secretary to those who would thoroughly 
 comprehend the system adopted by him of issuing treasury 
 notes, and funding, in interest-bearing bonds, a sufficient 
 amount of these to keep the currency at a normal relation 
 with a legitimate measure of value. This plan of Mr. Mem- 
 minger s was adopted, some time after he had successfully 
 followed it, by Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury of the 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 365 
 
 United States. The advantages which Secretary Chase had 
 of open ports and free commercial exchanges with European 
 powers enabled him to accomplish results which were only 
 impossible to Mr. Memminger because of the absence of 
 conditions essential to the maintenance of the Confederate 
 credit. If the writer may be permitted to do so, he would 
 also suggest to certain political economists, who are now 
 advocating an indefinite expansion of the currency of the 
 United States, that the study of the reports of Mr. Mem 
 minger to the Confederate Congress will give them an answer 
 to their theories, not only logical and perfect, but which has 
 been approved by the experience of ages. 
 
 I do not deem it necessary to give in more extended de 
 tail than I have presented the incidents or facts connected 
 with the administration of Mr. Memminger, as Secretary of 
 the Confederate Treasury. These I could not give from 
 any personal knowledge of or relation to them, later than 
 the expiration of the Provisional government on the 18th 
 of February, 1862, when I resigned my office as Chief Clerk 
 and entered the army. Nor would it be other than redun 
 dancy with the reports of the Secretary appended to this 
 work. The almost superhuman work which he had under 
 taken continued to increase with its burdens of responsi 
 bility, and in many instances, with its vexatious annoyances. 
 Finally, Mr. Memminger could stand these no longer, and 
 on the 14th day of June, 1864, addressed the following let 
 ter of resignation to the President : 
 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, RICHMOND, June 15, 1864. 
 His Excellency, the President: 
 
 SIR, You have been aware for several months past of my desire to 
 withdraw from my present official position and of the reasons which re 
 strained me from so doing. With an earnest purpose to devote to the 
 service of my country during the perils which surround her, whatever 
 faculties I may possess, I had nevertheless perceived that the enormous 
 burdens imposed on the Treasury by a war on so vast a scale, and the 
 difficulty of sustaining them had given rise to discontent and to distrust 
 
366 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 in the abifcty of the officer administering the financial department. To 
 the elements of dissatisfaction was added another more grave, and 
 arising from essential differences in the plans submitted by the head of 
 the Department and those adopted by Congress. 
 
 In this condition of things it would seem to have been proper to 
 have resigned my office as soon as Congress had passed its judgment 
 against the plans which I had submitted. 
 
 Two considerations, however, prevented. The first was a repug 
 nance to any act which could be construed into an abandonment of 
 a post of duty assigned to me during a struggle in which I felt that 
 every citizen owed to his country whatever sacrifice or service was de 
 manded of him. The financial plan, which was finally adopted by the 
 last Congress, had been uncertain until the end of the session. It was not 
 matured until the two Houses had referred the matter to a committee of 
 conference, and it became a law only on the last day of the session. The 
 machinery which was required for its operation was complex and exten 
 sive, and by the terms of the law, just forty days were allowed to carry 
 it into complete effect. No new head of the Department, however com 
 petent, would have been able to acquire sufficient knowledge of office 
 details in time to have carried out the provisions of this act. The public 
 good, therefore, demanded that I should not leave my post during this 
 period. 
 
 The second consideration which prevented was the unwillingness I 
 felt to leave you in opposition to your desire, while you honored me 
 with such confidence as you have manifested, and while your whole 
 energies were still taxed by the great and varied responsibilities attend 
 ant upon the office in which Providence has placed you. These consid 
 erations now no longer govern. The first is at an end. The funding of 
 the currency has been nearly completed and the entire machinery re 
 quired by the plans of Congress for taxes and finance is now in full 
 operation. No public interest will suffer by my now giving place to a 
 successor. The second consideration must yield to the conviction that 
 justice to myself and the public, requires me to insist on your acceptance 
 of the resignation which I now tender in the hope that you will be suc 
 cessful in choosing a successor whose views shall harmonize with those 
 of Congress, and who may, on that account, be better able (none can be 
 more earnestly desirous) than I have been to do valuable service 
 to our country. 
 
 I confess, sir, that I cannot, without deep emotion, separate from you 
 and my colleagues in the Cabinet. Neither can I do so without bearing 
 testimony that never in the utmost freedom of confidential intercourse 
 have I heard one word or suggestion indicating aught else but a consci 
 entious and disinterested desire to do what was best for the country. It 
 had, been my hope that ere our official connection terminated our coun 
 try would be in full fruition of the peace and independence for which she 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 367 
 
 has paid so costly a price, and that you, sir, would have enjoyed in the 
 spectacle of her happiness and prosperity the only reward you seek for 
 the ceaseless cares and labors devoted to her service. Though this may 
 not now be, I shall not cease in private life to give my warm co-operation 
 in whatever may conduce to the consummation so ardently desired. 
 
 I need scarcely add, Mr. President, that while desiring to be relieved 
 at as early a period as may be practicable, my services remain freely at 
 your disposal until you shall have selected my successor in office. 
 
 With heartfelt wishes for your health, happiness and prosperity, I re- 
 main, with the highest respect and esteem, 
 
 (Signed) Your obedient servant, 0. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 To this letter of resignation the President replied as fol 
 lows : 
 
 RICHMOND, VA., June 21, 1864. 
 
 To Hon. C. G. Memminger, Secretary Confederate States Treasury, Pdch* 
 
 mond, Va. : 
 
 DEAR SIR, I have received your letter of the 15th instant stating the 
 grounds on which you deem that justice to yourself and to the public 
 requires you to urge my acceptance of your resignation. 
 
 Some months since you expressed a desire to retire, for the reason 
 that in your belief the public service would be promoted by the appoint 
 ment of a successor whose views of financial policy accorded better than 
 your own with the legislation then lately adopted. I knew the extreme 
 difficulty of conducting the Treasury Department during the pending 
 struggle. I was aware that any officer, however competent, must prob 
 ably fail to escape the animadversions of those who are ready to attri 
 bute to inefficient administration the embarrassment due to legislation 
 not adapted to the existing circumstances. The experience acquired by 
 you in the organization and management of the Department could not 
 be immediately replaced, and for these reasons I was satisfied that the 
 general welfare would be injuriously affected by your withdrawal at that 
 time. You have now at least the consolation and satisfaction to know 
 that your personal wishes were surrendered to a conviction of public 
 duty. Recent events do not warrant me in refusing your renewed re 
 quest that I should accept your resignation. The regret you express at 
 the prospect of our official separation is sincerely shared by me. From 
 your entrance on the duties of your office, I have observed and appreci 
 ated the cheerful and unremitting devotion of all your faculties to the 
 public service, and do not fail to remember that it was at the sacrifice of 
 your private inclinations that you continued to fulfil the arduous duties 
 of your post. 
 
 The offer you make of your services until your successor can assume 
 office is in the same patriotic spirit and is accepted as thankfully as it 
 
368 LIFE A$D TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 is generously tendered. At as early a period as practicable I will en 
 deavor to comply with your request to be relieved. 
 
 With my grateful acknowledgment for your past assistance and 
 for your very kind expressions of personal regard be assured of the cor 
 dial esteem with which I am your friend. 
 
 (Signed) JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
 
 When Mr. Memminger s resignation became known he 
 not only received many letters cordially expressing regrets 
 and the high esteem in which he was held, from the lead 
 ing public men and financiers of the South, but with a re 
 markable unanimity the press especially of Richmond, Va. ; 
 Charleston, S. C., and Montgomery, Ala. were without stint 
 in the expressions of high encomiums upon his merits as 
 a man and his devotion to the duties of his office. I extract 
 the folio wing from the Richmond (Va.) Sentinel, among the 
 many, I find with Mr. Memminger s private papers : 
 
 The following correspondence gives confirmation to what has been 
 for some time generally understood, that Hon. C. G. Memminger had 
 asked to be relieved from the duties which for more than three years he 
 had so faithfully, diligently and ably discharged as Secretary of the 
 Treasury. The tributes mutually paid by the parties to the correspond 
 ence show the high regard and the just estimate which they have always 
 entertained each for the other. Mr. Memminger has had a most labo 
 rious and difficult position to fill one which demanded the sympathy 
 and generous support of every patriot. He has been in a considerable 
 measure, however, the target of factionists and determined fault-finders, 
 and has been impeded in his public duties by the clamor which they 
 have excited. But those wlio know him best will say, as history will 
 say, that no Republic ever had a more faithful public servant, or one 
 who more diligently devoted his high capacity, regardless of sacrifice 
 and of personal comfort, to the service of his country. He has well 
 earned the cordial thanks of the Confederacy. 
 
 No one was more ready to appreciate a sincerely expressed 
 criticism of his public course than Mr. Memminger, and 
 when assured in his own mind of his rectitude and approved 
 by his conscious sense of self-respect, no one was less affected 
 by either the adulations of a sycophant or the captious ob 
 jections of mere fault-finders. 
 
FINANCIAL POLICY. 369 
 
 There were thousands of these latter people to be found all 
 over the South, who would offer no suggestion for the remedy 
 of evils, but who believed these to result from an unwise ad 
 ministration, without a knowledge of the facts with which 
 the executive had to contend. 
 
 It may be readily inferred that but few men capable of 
 filling the office Mr. Memminger had resigned would have 
 the temerity to assume so grave a responsibility and under 
 such trying circumstances. The faithful Secretary was per 
 fectly sincere in the expressions made in his letter of resig 
 nation. He was then, as he had ever been, a patriot, ready 
 to devote his energies to the service of his country; and, as a 
 patriot, he would not attempt to perform an office, when, in 
 his judgment, the service required of him was not such as he 
 believed would redound to the public good. Perfectly un 
 selfish, and free from a vain ambition that would prompt him 
 to maintain a position when he knew the ends desired by 
 Congress could not be reached by the methods adopted, he 
 cheerfully resigned his office, hoping, even against hope, 
 that some one could be found who would be wise enough to 
 maintain the credit of the Confederacy in spite of the vicious 
 policy forced upon the Treasury Department by the legisla 
 tion of Congress. In the conduct of the Treasury Depart 
 ment, especially in devising the general financial policy in 
 augurated by him at the outset of the government, Mr. 
 Memminger had freely conferred with the leading business 
 men of the South. With none had he consulted more fully 
 than with Mr. George A. Trenholm, of the great house of 
 Fraser, Trenholm & Co., of Charleston, S. C. Mr. Tren- 
 holm s reputation in the sphere in which he had been en 
 gaged was widely known, and his skill fully appreciated by 
 Mr. Memminger, who knew him to be among the best of the 
 financiers of Charleston. Under the circumstances, his 
 selection as the successor of Mr. Memminger was to a great 
 24 
 
370 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 extent an endorsement of the general policy pursued by the 
 Secretary, which, if possible, made more emphatic the com 
 pliment of the President in his letter accepting his resigna 
 tion. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Trenholm was properly installed in office 
 and was made familiar with the general details of the depart-. 
 ment, Mr. Memminger retired to his inviting country seat at 
 Flat Rock, North Carolina, to enjoy a release from the official 
 cares that had long* burdened his mind and taxed his physi 
 cal strength. While his residence in Richmond was a cen 
 ter of social attraction, and in its circle he found a degree of 
 release from his official duties, it was not until these respon 
 sibilities had been transferred entirely to another, and he 
 was free to enjoy a well-merited rest from his almost super 
 human labors, that he experienced that happiness which is 
 the reflex of duty well discharged the "mens sibi conscia 
 recti" 
 
 Mr. Memminger had been among the first of the seaboard 
 gentlemen to perceive the natural beauties and attractive 
 ness of the Flat Rock region of western North Carolina. 
 There was much to attract him among the grand mountains, 
 in the limpid streams, the clear skies and charming land 
 scapes of this section, and here, with Judge King, of Charles 
 ton, he was among the pioneers who as far back as 1835 or 
 1840 began the establishment of summer homes, as places 
 of refuge from the heat and malaria of the sea coast. Here 
 he improved " Rock Hill" and made it a place of rest, and 
 for many years it became bis loved mountain home. To its 
 natural attractions he had added year after year the elegant 
 adornments of a cultivated taste, until " Rock Hill " became 
 an estate and a sweet home, of which he was justly proud, 
 and to which he was much attached. To this home he 
 brought with him the anxious solicitude of a patriot, who 
 plainly saw coming, with the certainty of a doom he was 
 powerless to prevent, the overthrow of his country s hopes, 
 
RETIRES TO HIS COUNTRY SEAT. 371 
 
 and here, with the loves of his hearthstone about him, he 
 waited the inevitable result. 
 
 " Rock Hill " must be seen by the appreciative to be en 
 joyed in all of the loveliness of its many attractive features. 
 Its lake of pure water, its green sward, its beautiful hills 
 and grand forest trees, among which graveled walks and 
 carriage drives led up to the seat of a noble hospitality, to 
 a home where all that a refined taste and a cultured mind 
 could gather of adornment or secure of comfort. Such was 
 " Rock Hill," an earthly Paradise to Mr. Memminger, a 
 sweet retreat from all the clamor and clatter of the world. 
 
 " How blest is he who crowns in shades like these, 
 A youth of labor with an age of ease." 
 
 The last scenes in the terrible drama of war were now 
 being enacted. 
 
 Laocoon was at last in the toils of the serpent. 
 
 Richmond was being invested by an army immensely 
 superior to the Confederate forces in numbers and in equip 
 ment, and Sherman was marching with his unopposed 
 legions to the rear of General Lee. Under these circum 
 stances, Mr. Memminger did not deem it prudent to take 
 his family to his home in Charleston, which had welcomed 
 his coming in the past with each return of the winter s 
 frost. He remained at " Rock Hill," and was there informed 
 of the surrender of General Leo s decimated army, and the 
 triumph of Sherman at Bentonville. Here he received the 
 decree of a fate he knew to be coming, but which as far as 
 his personal security was involved, he could only surmise. 
 
 For some months after the cessation of hostilities every 
 section of the South was more or less overrun with Federal 
 troops, who were in their organizations the evidences of the 
 power that had brought the States of the Confederacy to the 
 humiliation of defeat. In the majority of instances these 
 detachments would support the most arbitrary exactions of 
 their commanding officers and were the means by which a 
 
372 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 system of military government was instituted, which was 
 only withdrawn when the vindictive spirit and ill-advised 
 policy of the political party in power at Washington city hac( 
 transferred the government of the conquered States to adT 
 venturers, to unscrupulous local politicians, and to ignorant 
 negroes. 
 
 The peaceful seclusion of " Rock Hill " did not escape the 
 visits of these soldiers. While subjected to the annoj^ances 
 incident to their presence, Mr. Memminger escaped the 
 arrest and imprisonment of others who had taken an active 
 part in the administration of the Confederate government. 
 He was made, however, to suffer in other respects. His res 
 idence in Charleston, furnished, and at the time occupied 
 by his representatives, was seized, under the pretext of being 
 abandoned, by the agent of the " Bureau of Refugees, Freed- 
 men and Abandoned Lands." As if to add insult to in 
 jury a grim satire was perpetrated by the Commissioner 
 of this Bureau in Charleston, who converted this elegant 
 home into an "Asylum for negro orphan children," who 
 were gathered there in troops irrespective of their claims to 
 a legitimate orphanage, and made at home in a mansion 
 that had known only the care and the presence of a family 
 now ruthlessly denied its many comforts. These evils Mr. 
 Memminger bore with a spirit of resignation characteristic 
 of the Christian philosophy that had been his stay under all 
 circumstances of trial. Without yielding to childish re 
 grets, he bowed with grace to the inevitable, protesting with 
 manly firmness to the government at Washington against 
 the action of their agent. 
 
 In the midst of the general gloom that settled upon the 
 South and that awakened forebodings of evils to come, 
 more serious than had yet overtaken this devoted land, Mr. 
 Memminger remained the sincere and earnest patriot. He 
 did not cease to exercise his mind in suggesting such a 
 course of procedure as he believed would restore prosperity 
 
RETIRES TO HIS COUNTRY SEAT. 373 
 
 to the country, by preparing the recently liberated negroes 
 to assume intelligently the rights of citizenship. It is one 
 of the highest evidences of his patriotism that Mr. Memmin- 
 ger should under the circumstances surrounding him, have 
 forgotten his personal interests and safety in seeking to re 
 lieve the distress of his people. While others had sought 
 safety for themselves in flight, and remained in security 
 under the protection of foreign flags, he not only remained 
 to share the fate of his people, but he volunteered in their 
 behalf the wisdom of his counsel, which even his enemies in 
 the light of a sad experience, must admit to have been as 
 philosophic as the motives inspiring them were unselfish 
 and patriotic. On the 4th of September, 1865, while the 
 political status of the negro was under discussion in Con 
 gress he addressed the following communication to Presi 
 dent Johnson : 
 
 FLAT ROCK, September 4, 1865.; 
 To His Excellency Andrew Johnson, President of the United States : 
 
 Every Southern man is so deeply interested in the great questions 
 of public policy which are now under your consideration that it w r ill 
 scarcely be deemed officious in one of them to offer you some suggestions, 
 if made solely with a view to the public good. Although I am not per 
 sonally known to your Excellency, and at present am under the ban of 
 the government, yet I feel assured that your judgment can easily dis 
 cern the ring of truth, and will justly appreciate any effort to relieve 
 the immense responsibilities which are now pressing upon you. 
 
 I take it for granted that the whole Southern country accepts eman 
 cipation from slavery as the condition of the African race ; but neither 
 the North nor the South have yet defined what is included in that eman 
 cipation. The boundaries are widely apart which mark on the one side, 
 political equality with the white race, and on the other a simple recog 
 nition of personal liberty. With our own race ages have intervened 
 between the advance from one of these boundaries to the other. No 
 other people have been able to make equal progress, and many have not 
 yet lost sight of the original point of starting. Great Britain has made 
 the nearest approach; Russia has just started, and the other nations of 
 Europe, after ages of struggle, are yet on the way from one point to the 
 other, none of them having yet advanced even to the position attained 
 by England. 
 
374 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The question now pending is as to the station in this wide interval 
 which shall be assigned to the African race. Does that race possess 
 qualities, or does it exhibit any peculiar fitness, which will dispense with 
 the training which our own race has undergone, and authorize us at once 
 to advance them to equal rights ? It seems to me that this point has 
 been decided already by the laws of the free States. None of them have 
 yet permitted equality ; and the greater part assert the unfitness of 
 the African by denying him any participation in political power. 
 
 The country, then, seems prepared to assign this race an inferior 
 condition, but the precise nature of that condition is yet to be defined; 
 and also the government which shall regulate it. I observe that you 
 have already decided, and I think wisely, that the adjustment of the 
 right of suffrage belongs to the State governments, and should be left 
 there. But this, as well as most of the other questions on this subject, 
 rest upon the decision which shall be made upon the mode of organ 
 izing the labor of the African race. The Northern people seem generally 
 to suppose that the simple emancipation from slavery will elevate the 
 African to the condition of the white laboring classes, and that con 
 tracts and competition will secure the proper distribution of labor. 
 They see on the one hand the owner of land wanting laborers, and on the 
 other a multitude of landless laborers without employment; and they 
 naturally conclude that the law of supply and demand will adjust the 
 exchange in the same manner as it would at the North. But they are 
 not aware of the attending circumstances which will disappoint these 
 calculations. 
 
 The laborer, in the Southern States, with his whole family occupies 
 the houses of his employer, built upon plantations widely separate. 
 The employment of a laborer involves the employment and support of 
 his whole family. Should the employer be discontent with any laborers 
 and desire to substitute others in their place, before he can effect that 
 object, he must proceed to turn out the first, with their entire families, 
 so as to have houses for their successors. Then he must encounter the 
 uncertainty and delay in procuring other laborers; and also the hostil 
 ity of the laborers on his plantation, which would probably exhibit 
 itself in sympathy with the ejected families and with combinations 
 against his interests. Should this occur at any critical period of the 
 crop its entire loss would ensue. Nor would his prospects of relief from 
 other plantations be hopeful. On them arrangements will have been 
 made for the year, and the obstructions of laborers from them would 
 result in new disorganizations. The employer would thus be wholly at 
 the mercy of the laborer. 
 
 It may be asked why the laborer is more likely to fail in the per 
 formance of his contract than his employer? The reasons are obvious. 
 The employer, by the possession of property, affords a guarantee by 
 which the law can compel his performance. The laborer can offer no such 
 
RETIRES TO HIS COUNTRY SEAT. 375 
 
 guarantee and nothing is left to control him but a sense of the obliga 
 tion of the contract. The force of this remedy depends upon the degree 
 of conscientiousness and intelligence attained by the bulk of a people. 
 
 It is well known that one of the latest and most important fruits 
 of civilization is a perception of the obligations of contracts. Even in 
 cultivated nations, the law must be sharpened at all points to meet the 
 efforts to escape from a contract which lias become onerous; and noth 
 ing short of a high sense of commercial honor and integrity will secure 
 its strict performance. It would be vain under any circumstances to 
 count upon such performance from an ignorant and ungoverned popula 
 tion. But when that population is, from constitution or habit, pecu 
 liarly subject to the vices of an inferior race, nothing short of years of 
 education and training can bring about that state of moral rectitude and 
 habitual and self-constraint which would secure the regular performance 
 of contracts. In the present case to these general causes must be 
 added the natural indolence of the African race, and the belief now uni 
 versal among them, that they are released from any obligation to labor. 
 Under these circumstances the employer would have so little induce 
 ments to risk his capital in the hands of the laborer, or to advance 
 money for food and working animals in cultivating a crop which when 
 reaped would be at the mercy of the laborers, that he will certainly 
 endeavor to make other arrangements. The effect will be the abandon 
 ment of the negro to his indolent habits and the probable relapse of 
 large portions of the country into its original forest condition. The two 
 races, instead of exchanging mutual good offices, will inflict mutual evil 
 on each other; and the final result must be the destruction or the 
 removal of the inferior race. 
 
 The appropriate remedy for these evils evidently points to the 
 necessity of training the inferior race; and we are naturally lead to 
 look to the means which would be employed by our own race for the 
 same purpose. The African is virtually in the condition of the youth, 
 whose inexperience and want of skill unfit him for the privileges of 
 manhood. He is subjected to the guidance and control of one better in 
 formed. He is bound as an apprentice to be trained and directed; and 
 is under restraint until he is capable of discharging the duties of 
 manhood. 
 
 Such, it seems to me, is the proper instrumentality which sho uld 
 now be applied to the African race. The vast body are now substan 
 tially in a state of minority, and are incapable of assuming the position 
 of proper self-regulation. They have all their lives been subject to the 
 control and direction of another, and at present are wholly incapable of 
 self-government. Alongside of them are their former masters, fully 
 capable of guiding and instructing them, needing their labor, and not 
 yet alienated from them in feeling. The great point to be attained is 
 the generous application by the one of his superior skill and resources, 
 
376 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 and their kindly reception by the other. This can be effected only by 
 some relation of acknowledged dependence. Let the untrained and in 
 capable African be placed under indentures of apprenticeship to his 
 former master under such regulations as will secure both parties from 
 wrong, and whenever the apprentice shall have obtained the habits and 
 knowledge requisite for discharging the duties of a citizen, let him then 
 be advanced from youth to manhood, and be placed in the exercise of a 
 citizen s rights and the enjoyment of the privileges attending such a 
 change. I have no means of procuring here a copy of the laws passed 
 by the British Parliament on this subject for the West India Colonies. 
 They are founded on this idea of apprenticeship. Such an adjustment 
 of the relations of the two races would overcome many difficulties, and 
 would enable the emancipation experiment to be made under the most 
 favorable circumstances. The experience of the British Colonies would 
 afford valuable means for improving the original plans ; and, no doubt, 
 the practical common sense of our people can, by amending their errors, 
 devise the best possible solution of the problem, and afford the largest 
 amount of good to the African race. 
 
 The only question which would remain would be as to the govern 
 ment which should enact and administer the laws. Unquestionably the 
 jurisdiction under the Constitution of the United States belongs to the 
 States. This fact will most probably disincline the Congress to an early 
 recognition of the Southern States upon their original footing under the 
 Constitution, from the apprehension of harsh measures towards their 
 former slaves. The difficulty would be obviated if a satisfactory adjust 
 ment could be previously made of the footing upon which the two races 
 are to stand. If, by general agreement, an apprentice system could be 
 adopted in some form which would be satisfactory as well as obligatory, 
 it seems to me that most of the evils now existing, or soon to arise, 
 would be remedied, and that a fair start would be made in the proper 
 direction. The details of the plan could be adjusted from the experience 
 of the British Colonies, and if it should result in proving the capacity 
 of the African race to stand upon the same platform with the white 
 man, I doubt not but that the South will receive that conclusion with 
 satisfaction fully equal to that of any other State- 
 All of which is respectfully submitted, in the hope that laying aside 
 all passion such an adjustment of this most important matter may be 
 reached as in the end will be to the mutual good of both races, and 
 advance, rather than retard, a return of prosperity to our country. 
 
 I am not aware that this communication was answered by 
 President Johnson at least I can find no record of the fact 
 among the papers of Mr. Memminger. The fact of history 
 is that the Republican party, then in power, inflamed in 
 
RETIRES TO HIS COUNTRY SEAT. 377 
 
 passion and controlled by a fanatical sentiment, not only 
 prepared articles of impeachment against President John 
 son for his alleged treasonable sympathy with the South, but 
 passed the civil-rights bill, conferring all the rights of citi_ 
 zenship upon the liberated slaves, irrespective of their fitness 
 for the exercise of these functions, or of their " past condi 
 tion of servitude." 
 
 "With the cheering presence of his loved family circle, the 
 entertainment of his library, and in correspondence with 
 friends, there was at " Rock Hill " enough to engage the 
 mind of Mr. Memminger and to bring a sweet solace to the 
 disappointed hopes of the patriot. When not engaged with 
 the details of his farm, he could always find about his 
 hearthstone the superior joys of a noble, true life, and in 
 the sympathies of his friends a consolation appreciated by 
 him because of the sincerity of their expressions. 
 
 Among his letters received during the fall and winter of 
 1865, I find the following from General Lee, which gives a 
 beautiful illustration of the character of the great chieftain, 
 while it evidences his personal regard for Mr. Memminger: 
 
 LEXINGTON, 27th November, 1865. 
 Hon. C. G. Memminger : 
 
 MY DEAE SIR, Your letter of the 7th instant only reached me a few 
 days since and has given me sincere pleasure. I have often thought of 
 you in your distant home, with the prayerful hope that a kind Provi 
 dence would shield you and yours from all evil, and I am truly glad to 
 know that our merciful God has kept you under the shadow of His wing 
 and has returned to you unharmed your brave sons. 
 
 Although our losses have been great, we have yet much to be grateful 
 for, and since they have been permitted by Him who ordereth all things 
 for our good, so I am assured it will be proved in this instance if we be 
 but patient and faithful to the end. 
 
 Your kind sympathy and continued friendship are very cheering to 
 me, and I trust I may be enabled to fulfill here the same purpose which 
 has governed me in my previous life to do the good I could to my State 
 and country. If I can accomplish this it matters but little in what posi 
 tion I may be. 
 
 I hope your house at Charleston may soon be restored to you and 
 that a new field of usefulness be opened to you and your sons theresto- 
 
378 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 ration and advancement of the South. May your efforts be abundantly 
 blessed. I have been unable as yet to have my family with me, but I 
 hope to accomplish it next month, at least so far as Mrs. Lee and some 
 of my daughters are concerned. We are much scattered. My son Cus- 
 tis is one of the professors at the Virginia Military Institute, and is, 
 therefore, near me. He joins me in kindest regards to yourself and 
 family, and I send my special remembrances to Mrs. Memminger and 
 your daughters. 
 
 With great respect and undiminished esteem, 
 
 I am most truly yours, 
 (Signed) R. E. LEE. 
 
 It was some time before the devoted city of Charleston 
 could resume her commercial relations with the interior of 
 the United States and with the seaports of the world. Be 
 yond and far in excess of the terrible damage to the city, by 
 a long bombardment and a demoralizing war, was the pres 
 ence of those in her midst, who, following the successful 
 armies, were seeking in every possible manner to humiliate 
 the proud spirit of her citizens by subjecting them to the 
 government of their former slaves, and who, under the sanc 
 tion of forces impossible then to resist, were administering a 
 State and municipal government that destroyed every legiti 
 mate basis of credit in the extravagance of the most licen 
 tious legislation. Mr. Memminger longed to return to his 
 home in the stricken city. His friends there were needing 
 his advice and required his legal experience to direct them 
 in their troubles. To his natural desire to resume the duties 
 of citizenship, which he had to an extent suspended when he 
 entered the Confederate service, was added the necessity of 
 providing a better income than could be secured from the 
 wreck of his former fortune. 
 
 He had applied to the Federal authorities for the restora 
 tion of his home, which in no sense had been abandoned by 
 him, and for this reason was not subject to the unrighteous 
 sequestration law under which it had been appropriated by 
 the "Frecdmen s Bureau/ 1 He had also applied for a " par- 
 
RETIRES TO HIS COUNTRY SEAT. 379 
 
 don," under the provisions of the act of Congress requiring 
 all persons who were the owners of twenty thousand dollars 
 worth of real and personal property, "and who had engaged 
 in the rebellion against the United States," to receive, upon 
 the approval of the President, a pardon, without which they 
 were incapable of engaging in business transactions or exer 
 cising the rights of citizenship. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 to privat<? Life J-lis D<?atl?. 
 
 |HE memorial of Mr. Memminger, praying to be 
 admitted to the benefits of the amnesty procla 
 mation of President Johnson, distinctly sets forth 
 the reasons that induced him to enter the service of the 
 Confederate States, and why he now desired to be restored 
 to the rights of a citizen in the United States. It is in these 
 words : 
 
 To His Excellency Andrew Johnson, President of the United States : 
 
 The memorial of C. G. Memminger, of South Carolina, respectfully 
 showeth 
 
 That your memorialist is excluded from the benefit of the amnesty 
 proclamation of the President of the United States under two of the ex 
 ceptions made therein namely, that which excepts persons who held 
 office under the late Confederate government, and that which excludes 
 persons whose property exceeded twenty thousand dollars in value. 
 
 Your memorialist engaged in the late war with the United States 
 under the conviction that his duty to the State of South Carolina, of 
 which he was a citizen, required him to do so. That State in the year of 
 1834, by a convention of her people, asserted thQ doctrine that paramount 
 allegiance was due to her, and by an amendment of her Constitution re 
 quired a corresponding oath from her citizens, which oath your memo 
 rialist has been repeatedly required to take as a public officer. In 
 1851 another convention asserted the right to secede from the Union, 
 and in 1860 that assertion was practically put in operation by an ordi 
 nance of secession. In 1865 the State by another convention has re 
 pealed this ordinance and resumed her place in the Union, and by a 
 change of the State Constitution has receded from the position taken in 
 1834 and in 1851, and thereby relieves her citizens from the conflicting 
 duties of obedience to the Federal and State authorities. Under these 
 circumstances your memorialist, with the same sincerity and conviction 
 of duty which has hitherto governed him, respectfully proffers his sub 
 mission to the authorities of the United States, and hereby declares 
 
 [ 380 ] 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 381 
 
 his readiness to discharge the duties of a citizen of the United States. 
 He has accordingly taken the oath required by the amnesty proclama 
 tion, a copy whereof is hereunto annexed, and respectfully prays that 
 the benefits of the said amnesty may be extended to him, and that he 
 may be admitted to all the privileges of a citizen of the United States; 
 and your memorialist will ever pray, etc. 
 
 Pending the consideration of this memorial the home of 
 Mr. Memminger in Charleston continued to be occupied by 
 the Freedmen s Bureau. Time and again he had applied 
 for its restoration without avail. Finally, and as the result 
 of an appeal to the President and to his Secretary of State, 
 Mr. Seward, orders were issued to the Commissioner at 
 Charleston to provide another place for the negro "orphan" 
 children and restore Mr. Memminger to his property " at a 
 reasonable rental until the decision of the President shall be had 
 with regard to his pardon." This " pardon " finally came, 
 and Mr. Memminger was fully restored to all of his " rights, 
 immunities and privileges " as a citizen of the United States. 
 
 I give the order of the Commissioner restoring him to the 
 possession of his home as one of the curiosities of that period. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER 
 BUREAU REFUGEES, FREEDMEN AND ABANDONED LANDS, SOUTH CAROLINA, 
 
 Charleston, S. C., January 7, 1867. 
 
 C. G. Memminger, an applicant for the restoration of house and lot, 
 corner of Wentworth and Smith streets, Charleston, S. C., held by the 
 "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands," having con 
 formed to the requirements of Circular 15, of said Bureau, dated Wash 
 ington, D. C., September 12, 1865, the aforesaid property is hereby re 
 stored to his possession; it being understood that such restoration does 
 not include the rents or other profits that may have accrued to the 
 United States government during the time the said property has been 
 in his possession, and that the aforesaid C. G. Memminger relinquishes 
 all claims against the United States government for damages. 
 
 By direction of the War Department this property is restored subject 
 to the present occupancy of the premises for military purposes. 
 (Signed) R. K. SCOTT, 
 
 Brevet Major-General, Assistant Commissioner. 
 
 If the presence of this order from one who was notorious 
 in South Carolina for his method of filling his purse should 
 
382 LIFE AND TIMES Off C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 mar this page, it is nevertheless a historic document, and 
 will give to the reader one of the many "forms of law" by 
 which our helpless people were deprived of their property, 
 &nd in some instances, were reduced to actual want. 
 
 It was not long after this order was issued before the lib 
 eral application of disinfectants with the painter s brush 
 and the mechanic s skill had made the dear old home again 
 to look as in days of yore, and the happy family were once 
 more gathered together at its fireside altars. 
 
 Mr. Memminger rejoined his faithful partner, Mr. Wil 
 liam Jervey, and commenced again the active practice of 
 law. Returning to the responsibilities which, for some 
 time, he had to a great extent, transferred to his faithful 
 partner, Mr. Memminger found him at his post of duty 
 ready to aid him in labors inseparable from the proper dis 
 charge of professional obligations. Beyond the friendly 
 regard, which a long and pleasant relation had engendered, 
 Mr. Memminger was much attached to Mr. Jervey. His in 
 tegrity as a man, and many manly virtues, had, by a moral 
 law of affinity, drawn these good men together in relations 
 that had assumed the closest friendship. Mr. Memminger 
 was not one of those whose confidence could be easily won, 
 and was seldom mistaken in his estimate of character. As 
 his respect for the revealed character of an individual grew 
 his friendship slowly, but certainly followed ; the one pre 
 ceded the other as a cause goes before an effect. I can best 
 give the reader an outline of the character of Mr. Jervey 
 by extracting from the proceedings of the "Bar Associa 
 tion " of Charleston, the address of Mr. Memminger, as re 
 ported in the Charleston Daily News, of September 15, 1870, 
 It is as follows : 
 
 Colonel C. G. Memminger introduced the following preamble and 
 resolutions, and spoke in the most glowing terms of Mr. Jervey. His 
 words were beautifully chosen, and showed that he keenly felt the loss 
 of his friend and colleague of thirty years, during the whole of which 
 
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RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 383 
 
 time he had been intimately associated with him in all of the most try 
 ing relations of life, and had never once known him to use an unkind tone 
 or word. Like a ripe shock of corn he has been gathered. It grieves me to 
 lose so true a friend, yet I would not call him back for one moment. 
 The eminent characteristic of this good man was purity. He honestly 
 used all the means God gave him to cultivate his intellect. Those who 
 come hereafter may point to his record and say, "This is the man to im 
 itate." Another one of the ancient and most highly revered members 
 of our brotherhood has been taken from us, and we are here met to de 
 plore our loss and to record our estimate of his worth. William Jervey, 
 who has moved among us for more than thirty-five years, the pattern 
 of professional excellence and the example of private virtue, has fin 
 ished his course, and was called to rest on Friday last, the 9th instant. 
 The loss is ours, the gain is his. 
 
 The influence and example of such a man are of inestimable value. 
 Every member of our profession who has been brought in contact with 
 him will bear testimony to the parity of his character, his unfailing 
 courtesy and watchful kindness. His motives of action were so trans 
 parent that no single spot obscured their beauty ; perfectly single-minded 
 and sincere, his straight-forward integrity impressed all that had busi 
 ness relations with him, and his high-toned truthfulness inspired entire 
 confidence. To all this were added a mildness and readiness to impart 
 knowledge, which drew to him his younger brethren, and there are 
 many around me who will deplore his removal as the loss of a friend 
 and a brother. 
 
 Although well qualified by position, attainments and character to 
 take part in public life, he steadfastly avoided all public office and de 
 voted himself to the duties of his profession. Nevertheless, as an indi 
 vidual citizen, he was always ready to take his place wherever duty 
 called, and although not obtrusive, was ever firm and consistent. His 
 integrity was combined with that generosity of nature, which, while it 
 soared entirely above the region of wrong, was always ready to make 
 allowance for and to forgive the weakness of others. Kindness and 
 charity were his daily companions, and the symmetry of his character 
 was completed by Christian consistency : therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of William Jervey the Bar of Charles 
 ton has lost one of its most cherished and respected members. 
 
 Resolved, That the purity, integrity, and excellence of character of 
 the deceased stand forth a conspicuous monument of the virtues of the 
 Charleston Bar. 
 
 It may be assumed that a law firm, having at its head one 
 possessing his knowledge and experience, and who was so 
 widely known and respected as was Mr. Memniinger, would 
 not be without a good clientage. 
 
384 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 For many years preceding the revolution that had drawn 
 him into its vortex, he had been in the front rank of the 
 many eminent men who had made the Bar of Charleston 
 and of South Carolina distinguished for its high character, 
 and was justly regarded as authority on all questions of com 
 mercial law. The deranged condition of all business 
 affairs, and especially the changed relations between master 
 and servant, brought about by the unwise and vindictive 
 legislation of the Federal Congress, had brought to ruin many 
 large estates, while the local and State governments had so 
 depressed the commerce of Charleston that the good lawyer 
 found more than ever to engage his mind, to tax his sympa 
 thies, and to consume his time. 
 
 In order to meet these increased labors, Mr. C. C. Pinck- 
 ney, Jr., the son-in-law of Mr. Memminger, who had just 
 been admitted, was added to the firm on January 1, 1887. 
 
 Between him and Mr. Memminger there always subsisted 
 the warmest relations of sympathy and admiration on the 
 part of the junior, and confidence and affection on the part 
 of the senior. 
 
 The active mind and energetic spirit of Mr. Memminger 
 were not to be confined to the routine duties of a lawyer in full 
 practice. There were other avenues of enterprise opening 
 about him, into which he was drawn by circumstances which 
 often bring the lawyer into other relations with the business 
 world than those of counsellor and client. 
 
 Immense beds of calcareous nodules, containing numerous 
 fossil bones, had long been known to exist in the vicinity of 
 Charleston. "While Agassiz, Tuomey, Holmes and other 
 geologists had called attention to these deposits, it was not 
 until the year 1867 that Dr. N. A. Pratt, of Georgia, then 
 resident at Charleston, discovered the large per cent, of 
 available phosphate of lime which they contained. He at 
 once sought to enlist the capitalists of Charleston in an en 
 terprise of manufacturing from these nodules, or "phosphate^ 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 385 
 
 rock/ ac he first denominated the deposit, a commercial fer 
 tilizer. The history of the great phosphate industry of South 
 Carolina is one of the many instances in the history of 
 great enterprises where the positive knowledge of science has 
 had, for a time, to seek in vain for recognition among those 
 whose lack of faith was as great as was their unwillingness to 
 use the power of money in the execution of what they believed 
 to be no more than a commercial venture. For a time Dr. 
 Pratt, despite the positive demonstration of his analysis, met 
 only with such objections and skeptical criticisms as evi 
 denced a want of confidence in the value of his discovery. 
 It was not until May, 1868, that the Doctor brought the mat 
 ter to the consideration of Mr. Memminger, whose business 
 sagacity, enterprising spirit and well-known integrity in 
 duced the formation of a company for the manufacture of 
 sulphuric acid and super-phosphates. This company com 
 posed of Dr. Pratt, Mr. W. C. Bee, Robert Adger and Mr. 
 Memminger; was chartered as the Sulphuric Acid and Super- 
 Phosphate Company, which name was later changed to the 
 Etiwan Phosphate Company, Mr. Memminger being made 
 president and Dr. Pratt the chemist. On the 14th of De 
 cember, 1868, the first acid chamber ever built south of Bal 
 timore was in full operation. In an interesting article con 
 tributed by Dr. Pratt to Dixie, an industrial magazine 
 published at Atlanta, Ga., he says that " this was the first 
 company in the South to manufacture acid on a commercial 
 scale to-wit, 15,000 pounds per day/ and that the manufac 
 ture " has continued from that time without interruption." 
 
 The operations of the Etiwan Company, thus launched as 
 the pioneer of a grand industry, met with immediate and 
 great success. Under the stimulus of this example, many 
 others, upon the same plan, sprang rapidly up in its wake. 
 
 Thus was inaugurated, through the sound judgment and 
 enterprising spirit of Mr. Memminger, in co-operation with 
 25 
 
386 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 the skill of an eminent chemist, an enterprise which was but 
 the forerunner of the many that have added immensely to 
 the wealth and commerce of Charleston, while they have 
 conferred a great boon upon the planting interests of the 
 whole country. From this initial mill of the Etiwan Com 
 pany there are now twenty-two companies in active operation 
 in the vicinity of Charleston, manufacturing fertilizers and 
 employing an aggregate capital of $4,500,000, while others, 
 giving employment to many hundred hands, are mining and 
 exporting the crude phosphate rock to foreign ports, the 
 mines of South Carolina being the leading source of supply of 
 phosphate for the world. 
 
 While the cares of his law office and the general supervis 
 ion of the company, whose success was to be the precursor 
 of a return of prosperity to his loved city, occupied his 
 mind, Mr. Memminger was deeply concerned for the welfare 
 of his State. Under the provisions of the " civil rights" 
 act of Congress and of the fifteenth amendment to the Consti 
 tution of the United States, the recently liberated slaves 
 were not only enfranchised, but were encouraged to assert 
 the rights of citizenship thus conferred upon them in a man 
 ner that was constantly provoking the white citizens of the 
 State to acts of violence. Under the administration of offi 
 cers appointed from a recently victorious army, and who 
 were supported in their authority by troops garrisoned 
 throughout the State, a government was inaugurated, which 
 in every feature was a disgrace to the power that sustained it 
 and an outrage on the civilization of the age. 
 
 The vindictive spirit of the party in control of the gov 
 ernment of the United States seemed to be exercised in 
 order to heap upon the devoted people of South Carolina 
 every indignity which malice or passion could suggest. 
 
 Ignorant negroes, inflamed by appeals to their impulsive 
 natures, and misled by false arid ridiculous promises, 
 elected to every office, from governor to constable, men who 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 387 
 
 were either unprincipled adventurers, seeking only to better 
 their fortunes, or the debauched native whose licentious 
 ness was among the least of his vices, or the ignorant, the 
 conceited or reckless among their own race. The capi 
 tal of the proud old Commonwealth, where from the ear 
 liest colonial days had been reflected the virtues of the Cava 
 lier and the Huguenot, hard become the focal point of all 
 that was mean, servile, and corrupt. The gown that had 
 once been the recognized symbol of dignity, and the vest 
 ment of an incorruptible integrity, was unblushingly worn 
 in the courts of the State by men whose claim to citizen 
 ship dated no farther back than to the coming of an army 
 of invasion, and whose highest conception of duty was to 
 enforce the measures of the political party in power. The 
 College of the State, grand old alma-mater of statesmen, 
 jurists, scholars and divines, a nursery in which wisdom 
 and virtue had impressed their great truths upon the youth 
 of the State through generations, was made a hot-bed in 
 which to nourish the weeds of passion, prejudice, and 
 spleen, and from which was disseminated among ignorant 
 negroes, a false philosophy and a perverted history. School- 
 houses and academies, under State patronage and State 
 supervision, were presided over by imported teachers, who, 
 between the spelling-book and the black-board, would sup 
 plement their professed missionary work by endeavoring to 
 fix in the young negro s mind a bitter hatred of the white 
 people who were once their masters. Under varied pretexts 
 the public treasury had been plundered and the public 
 debt increased to such an extent that complete bankruptcy 
 seemed to be the inevitable fate of the State. 
 
 Such was the condition of South Carolina in 1876. Re 
 volting as it may be to every honest person, this picture is 
 not overdrawn. 
 
 Aroused by these outrages, the people of South Carolina, 
 to whom had come by right of inheritance, a duty of citi- 
 
388 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEK. 
 
 zenship more sacred than any obligation they could possi 
 bly owe to so corrupt a government, appealing to the vir 
 tuous everywhere, by a concerted action and manly courage, 
 worthy of their sires, threw off this infamous government 
 and organized one whose representatives were native-born 
 citizens of known integrity and patriotism. This bloodless 
 revolution has made the year 1876 as memorable in the an- 
 nals of South Carolina as any in her eventful history. It 
 restored the State government to those to whom it right 
 fully belonged, and who were worthy of the high trust. It 
 was the trium.ph of virtue over vice, the courage of truth 
 over the cowardice of falsehood, and the spirit of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race applauded the achievement even amid the 
 snows of New England. 
 
 The meeting of the Legislature of 1877 brought to Co 
 lumbia many members, who in the golden period of the 
 history of South Carolina, had maintained the honor of the 
 State and kept bright her fair escutcheon. Among them 
 was Mr. Memminger, returned from the goodly parish of 
 St. Philips and St. Michaels, and by a constituency he had 
 represented in this body from his early manhood. He was 
 assigned to duty at his old post of honor, and as chairman 
 of the Committee of Ways and Means, brought all the 
 energies of his mind to w r ork to try, if possible, to restore 
 the lost credit of the State. 
 
 It would extend this work far beyond the scope intended 
 were I to attempt to give in detail the disgusting revelations 
 which were made when committees proceeded to investigate 
 the affairs of the State and to ascertain the extent to which 
 the public money had been appropriated to private uses, 
 and the credit of the State compromised. At least two 
 large volumes of reports, setting forth in detail the most 
 disgraceful transactions, are to be found among the records 
 of the State, and will no doubt give to some future histo 
 rian ample material for a narrative of knavery unparalleled 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 389 
 
 in the annals of legislation. Let it now suffice to say that 
 following these investigations all that it was possible to do 
 was done to bring the most culpable of these offenders to 
 a well-merited punishment. When men of honor at the 
 North, irrespective of their political affiliations, ascertained 
 that South Carolina was redeemed and the affairs of state 
 restored to the management of men whose public and pri 
 vate characters were known to be beyond reproach, a new 
 life was infused into all business enterprises, and in every re 
 spect the future of the State became more auspicious, promis 
 ing a return, at no distant day, of prosperity to her citizens. 
 
 It was at this session of the Legislature that Mr. Memmin- 
 ger brought forward a bill to reorganize the South Carolina 
 College. No one of her sons was more attached to his alma- 
 mater and none more active or devoted in her service. 
 
 While he was willing to recognize as a fact that education 
 was necessary in order to fit the negro for the proper appre 
 ciation of his functions of citizenship, and he was disposed 
 to make the experiment and to urge the Legislature to make 
 a liberal provision for this purpose, his knowledge of human 
 nature assured him that it was best for both races that this 
 training should be conducted at separate institutions. 
 
 I regret th.at I have not been able to secure a report of his 
 speech made in the House of Representatives upon this 
 most important subject. Those who were present inform 
 me that it was among the most logical and eloquent of the 
 many that had been delivered by him in this body and had 
 heretofore given direction to its legislation. 
 
 With this session of the Legislature the public life of Mr. 
 Memminger, to a certain extent, was brought to a close. 
 With the adjournment of the House of Representatives he 
 had appeared for the last time in this council chamber of his 
 State, and as a legislator had rendered his last service to a 
 constituency who had long honored him with their confi 
 dence. 
 
390 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Having done all that it was possible for him to do in aid 
 ing his countrymen to bring back to the State the prosperity 
 she had once known, he closed his long record of service in 
 her behalf, leaving it to posterity, unsullied by a single rep 
 rehensible act, and as clean as the motives that inspired his 
 patriotism were pure and unselfish. 
 
 It was at this time that a shadow fell across the hearth 
 stone of Mr. Memminger a chilling shade that sooner or 
 later pales the brightest lights of the happiest home a 
 shadow coming from far in the infinite future, and reaching 
 across the horizon of life, to envelop the form of some loved 
 one in the mysterious veil of death. She who had been the 
 love of his youth, the companion of his matured years, and 
 the mother of his children, was now before him still and cold 
 in death. The chord that had so long and so sweetly made 
 perfect the harmony of his home was broken, and mute was 
 the harp whose glad refrain had given joy to his soul as the 
 years with their burdens of care went by. 
 
 The death of Mrs. Memminger could not but deeply affect 
 one who had the manly nature of her husband. At the 
 grave of his wife he w r as, as in all things and under all cir 
 cumstances, a sincere Christian. The faith of his religion 
 gave to him an assurance that the severed ties- of his loves 
 would again be united in an immortal state of existence, to 
 which the grave was but a gateway, and with this assurance 
 he moved on to meet the duties of life with the spirit and 
 the manly courage that had always characterized his ac 
 tions. 
 
 One whose whole life has been one of labor, whose mind 
 is yet active in its normal functions, whose physical 
 strength remains to bless his old age, cannot live long with 
 out some employment. To work has become a law of being 
 which cannot be suspended without hastening the end of 
 physical existence. He well knew that " absence of occu 
 pation is not rest." Whether this fact in the history of 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 391 
 
 intelligent men had become known to Mr. Memminger, or 
 whether he desired employment, without a consciousness of 
 the operations of the law, it is not at all necessary to discuss 
 here. His experiences could not have been exceptions to a 
 general rule, in this respect; and he worked on to the end 
 of a life protracted through more than four-score years. 
 Full of honors, and held in the highest esteem among his 
 fellow citizens; blessed with fortune, which always comes to 
 reward the judicious labor of the prudent, he might have 
 retired to the dignified seclusion of his charming home at 
 Flat Rock, or spent the evening of his life with the loves of 
 his "City by the Sea," 
 
 It was about this time that the enterprise of uniting the 
 commercial centers of the West to the seaboard at Charles 
 ton, by a more direct line of railway than was then existing, 
 was revived in the project of the Spartanburg and Asheville 
 railroad. The route surveyed was deemed more practicable 
 than the one located by Rabun Gap, and that had burdened 
 the State with the attempted construction of the Blue Ridge 
 railroad. Always ready to advance the interests of the 
 State and to add to the commercial facilities of her leading 
 seaport, Mr. Memminger accepted the presidency of this 
 railway company, and brought to the discharge of this duty 
 the earnest spirit and honest purpose which had always been 
 his leading business characteristic. He held the office but a 
 short time; long enough, however, to have made the con 
 struction of the road an assured fact. He then resigned the 
 presidency and transferred its responsibility to other hands. 
 
 In the discharge of the routine duties of his extensive law 
 practice, in the fostering care of the public schools of 
 Charleston, with the loves of his elegant city home, or in the 
 summer at Rock Hill, his well-spent life found a beautiful 
 evening of entertainment and rational repose. He still con 
 tinued to take a lively interest in public affairs, especially in 
 such matters as affected the interests of the city in whose 
 
392 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 welfare he had labored and spent the best years of his life. 
 Charleston was visited by a calamity on the 31st of August, 
 1886, unprecedented in the history of the cities of the United 
 States. To the demoralizations of a long and unsuccessful 
 war; to the wreck and the ruin of a protracted blockade of 
 her port and bombardment, was now added the indescriba 
 ble horrors of an earthquake that shook the devoted city to 
 its foundations. While there have been many descriptions 
 given of this appalling disaster; while in the shattered walls 
 and marred features of many historic buildings the artist has 
 made pictures to exhibit the effect of the terrible force that 
 well nigh wrought the complete destruction of the city, no 
 pen or skill of art can convey an adequate idea of the con 
 sternation that overwhelmed the good people who, amid 
 every disaster and under every circumstance of misfortune, 
 remained to share the fate of their loved home. This mem 
 orable event was not without those features of good that are 
 more or less connected with all evil. Great calamities never 
 befall individuals or communities but that there is aroused 
 a sympathy which overcomes all ill-will, and in acts of gen 
 erous kindness give expression to the best traits of our hu 
 manity. Charleston contemned by those who only knew of 
 the good city as the " Birthplace of Secession," and who were 
 embittered against her citizens by the misrepresentations of 
 malignant enemies the city that had been traduced by her 
 rivals in commerce, and had been ridiculed in her misfor 
 tunes of war, even by those she had once fostered, now re 
 ceived good words of cheer from every section, and substan 
 tial evidences of the fact that behind all censures and all 
 jealousies, there was a respect for the historic place, and an 
 admiration for her gallant citizens stronger than passion and 
 superior to all prejudices. 
 
 Among the many of her citizens who came to the relief 
 of the stricken city, and whose energies were freely spent 
 in meeting the greatest emergency in her history, none were 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 393 
 
 more devoted than her worthy mayor. Without delay he 
 organized every force at his command for the restoration of 
 the city, and in a few months had the satisfaction of seeing 
 Charleston restored, at least in appearance, to as good, if 
 not better, condition than before the earthquake filled her 
 streets with shattered walls and broken columns. In this 
 work the city administration met with so much opposition 
 to the plans adopted as to threaten with delay the restora 
 tion of the city. At this juncture of affairs Mr. Memmin- 
 ger published the following " open letter," which had the 
 desired effect, and the city administration continued its 
 great work without further molestation : 
 
 To the Hon. Wm. A. Courtney, Mayor of Charleston : 
 
 The writer of this article is a reader of history, and he has in his 
 reading frequently been called to notice the fact that every important 
 achievement has been the work of some one man. This man has 
 planned, and really been the efficient agent of the work, and if he had 
 never lived, the work would probably never have had existence. 
 
 It seems to me, therefore, that where in any community, an individ 
 ual takes hold of an enterprise, which it is evident that he completely 
 understands and is eminently fitted to promote, that it exhibits great 
 unwisdom in that community to check his zeal or to tie his hands. 
 
 We need some such person to come to our aid at this time, when so 
 many calamities have fallen upon our unfortunate city, and I am one of 
 those who think that you have the qualities which can help us to over 
 come our difficulties. I am, therefore, much concerned to see that there 
 are persons among us who are endeavoring to discourage your efforts, 
 and I have thought it might repress their action, if they knew how 
 much a single individual has been able to effect under like, or even 
 more untoward, circumstances. 
 
 In 1755, about 130 years ago, the earthquake occurred which de 
 stroyed the city of Lisbon, with 60,000 of its inhabitants; this catastro 
 phe occurred at a most unfortunate time, for an unwise King had just 
 wasted the entire contents of his treasury in erecting a useless and very 
 expensive building, and when he died could not command money 
 enough for the expenses of his funeral. 
 
 With his capital in ruins, his people disheartened, and every public 
 institution in a state of destitution, the Marquis of Pombal, one of the 
 statesmen of Portugal, had the courage to take in hand the reins of 
 government. The people had the good sense to trust him, and in 
 twenty-seven years the capital was rebuilt, and under the judicious 
 
394 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 management of the minister, the army and navy was restored, the pub 
 lic institutions all set in healthy action, and with one hundred and sixty- 
 six millions of money collected and deposited in the treasury, he re 
 signed his office, and delivered up his country to the prosperity which 
 followed him. 
 
 Now there is no reason why, in some other country, another statesman 
 with equal zeal and less resources, may not at least come within sight 
 of like achievements; and with the success which has attended what 
 you have accomplished, it seems to me that these fault-finders had 
 better stay their hands, but above all, that you should disregard their 
 complaints, and go on, according to your own judgment, and follow the 
 noble example which I have cited. There are many of us, your fellow- 
 citizens, who are looking on, and who will most cordially receive the re 
 sults, which we believe will follow your exertions here, as they have 
 followed the very successful fire department of Charleston. 
 
 (Signed) C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 With increased years came the failure of the strong physi 
 cal constitution of Mr. Memminger, and to such an extent 
 that the active duties of his law office were transferred to his 
 junior partner. 
 
 There is nothing that brings more satisfaction, that gives 
 a more substantial joy to old age, than the realization of a 
 successful and a well-spent life. Add to this the respect of an 
 appreciative people, their proper recognition of his merit, and 
 the good man s cup is full. 
 
 Mr. Memminger lived to realize all of this; to receive in 
 public and in private the sincere expressions of a grateful 
 people s regard, and finally to pass the dividing line between 
 time and eternity with their blessings as a most gracious 
 benediction. 
 
 In recognition of his services to the city and to the State, 
 the Legislature of South Carolina authorized the Board of 
 Education in Charleston to erect a suitable memorial of the 
 work that had so long engaged the mind of Mr. Memminger, 
 and to which he had devoted himself in the most unselfish 
 manner. I can give no better description of the memorial, 
 and of the handsome manner in which it was placed among 
 the treasures of Charleston, than by transferring to these 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 395 
 
 pages the report of the ceremonies on the occasion of its re 
 ception by the mayor and city council. 
 
 The following report of these proceedings is taken from the 
 Charleston Courier of March 1, 1888: 
 
 The unveiling of the marble bust of the Hon. C. G. Memminger, in 
 the city council chamber yesterday afternoon, was a significant event. 
 The ceremonies took place in the presence of quite a large assemblage of 
 the friends and supporters of education in this city, and, considering the 
 shining worth of the man whom they were designed to honor, they were 
 of that impressive character that befitted the man and the occasion. 
 
 Something of the origin of the ceremony will not be inappropriate at 
 this time. On November 4, 1885, Mr. Memminger s advancing years in 
 duced him to withdraw from his wonted activity as chairman of the pub 
 lic school board, which position he had held for nearly the third of a cen 
 tury. The first proposition of the board from which he had retired was 
 tohave his portrait painted and hung in the parlor of the Memminger 
 School. It was, however, subsequently deemed more suitable by the 
 board that his gratuitous services for thirty-three years in the cause of 
 education merited a more formal and public recognition. But having 
 no authority for any considerable expenditure of money, the board laid 
 the matter before the General Assembly of South Carolina, and by an 
 act of the Legislature they were authorized to expend such a sum as in 
 their judgment would secure the execution of a suitable public memorial 
 of Mr. Memminger s able and highly appreciated work. The commis 
 sioners thought that public expectation would be satisfied and pleased 
 with a memorial embracing a marble bust and pediment, and sent a 
 commission to confer with Valentine, the distinguished Virginian sculp 
 tor. This was in 1886, the committee consisting of Messrs. Julian Mitch 
 ell, G. W. Dingle, Dr. II. Baer and Judge Simonton, ex-officio chairman 
 of the board of commissioners. As a result of their arrangements the 
 bust was received last fall, but owing to some necessary delay the pedi 
 ment was not received until later. 
 
 The bust has been inspected by Mr. Memminger and his immediate 
 family, who have expressed themselves as much gratified with the like 
 ness and general truth to nature of the admirable work of art. As a 
 work of art, indeed, it has been pronounced by competent judges who 
 have traveled abroad, to be as fine as any sculpture that may be found in 
 Westminster Abbey. 
 
 It was also decided that the most suitable place for the memorial 
 was in the council chamber, and upon application to that body the 
 council unanimously granted the position which it now occupies along 
 the south wall adjacent to Trumble s full length portrait of Washington 
 and Valentine s bust of Robert Y. Hayne. 
 
396 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 The following is the inscription on the pediment: 
 
 OT.hrisfoph.rr (Btisf nuns Hlcwminrjcr, 
 
 Founder 
 of the Present Public School System in Charleston. 
 
 The City Board of School Commissioners, 
 with the Approval of the Legislature of South Carolina, 
 
 Erect this Memorial, 
 
 In Grateful Appreciation of his Services for 
 Thirty-three Years. 
 
 * Heaven doth with us as we with torches do : 
 Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 
 Did not go forth of us, twere all alike 
 As if we had them not." 
 
 1887. 
 
 Upon the organization of the new board of school commissioners the 
 committee who undertook the arrangements for the memorial were 
 continued in their office and Ex-Mayor Courtenay was added to the 
 number. 
 
 It was this committee that arranged all the details for the unveiling 
 yesterday afternoon. Owing to the limited space in the council cham 
 ber it was found absolutely necessary to issue invitations to only such a 
 number of ladies and gentlemen as could be comfortably seated in 
 the chamber. There were present the teachers in the public schools, 
 the trustees of the College of Charleston, of the High School, the aca 
 demic board of the South Carolina Military Academy, members of Mr. 
 Memminger s family, the senators and representatives from Charleston 
 and a few distinguished guests, among whom was Dr. Green, of Boston ; 
 a member of the board of trustees of the Peabody fund, and Col. J. PI. 
 Rice, State superintendent of education. 
 
 Five o clock yesterday afternoon was appointed as the hour for the 
 unveiling ceremonies. At that time the council chamber was well 
 filled by the invited guests and the members of the city council, for all 
 of whom chairs were provided. 
 
 On the rostrum were Mayor Bryan, Judge Simonton, Ex-Mayor 
 Courtenay, the Rev. A. Toomer Porter, D. D., D. M. O Driscoll, C. F. 
 Panknin, G. W. Dingle, II. Baer, Julian Mitchell, the Rev. Dr. G. R. 
 Brackett, the Rev. R. N. Wells, the Hon. James Simons, Mr. H. P. Archer, 
 Dr. Samuel A. Green, of Boston ; Col. J. PI. Rice, State superintendent 
 of education; Miss Simonton, principal of the Memminger School; Miss 
 Daisy Smith, Judge Magrath and Ex-School Commissioner L. E. Cordray. 
 
 At a few minutes after 5 o clock the folding doors of the clerk s room 
 parted and forty young ladies of the Memminger School filed into the 
 chamber and took position on the east side of the hall, where they sang 
 "My Country, tis of Thee." At the request of Mayor Bryan, Dr. A. 
 Toomer Porter then offered up a prayer, which was as follows : 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 397 
 
 DR. PORTER S PRAYER. 
 
 Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom and knowledge : We 
 thank Thee that Thou didst make man in Thine image, and though 
 greatly marred by his fall that he still possesses faculties for acquiring 
 the knowledge of things temporal and eternal. We thank Thee that 
 Thou hast endowed some of Thy creatures with strength of mind and 
 largeness of heart by which their ability and interest are given for the 
 welfare of their fellow-men. We thank Thee that among us one was 
 raised up whose zeal for the improvement of his kind led him to give 
 his great intelligence to the improvement of our schools and to the ele 
 vation of the standard of general education. We have come to dedicate 
 to his honor, and thereby to perpetuate his memory, this marble bust 
 that future generations, appreciating the reason of this distinction by 
 his fellow-citizens, may hold him in grateful remembrance, and that this 
 tribute may stimulate others to give their talents for the welfare of so 
 ciety. May we all learn that it is righteousness which exalteth a 
 nation, and that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 
 
 But, vanity of vanities, all is vanity, aye, infirmity, death and the 
 grave are the lot of all. Into these Thy servant, whom we would honor, 
 is now passing. We commend him to Thy love and mercy, and pray 
 that his good work may be remembered in that day when we shall all 
 be judged for the deeds done in the body, and shall be rewarded as 
 they be good or evil. We commend our schools, children and teachers ; 
 these to whom the interest of education are entrusted, our city, our 
 State, our country, to Thy guidance and protection, and offer all our 
 petitions through the mediation of Thy only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, 
 our Lord. Amen. 
 
 The young ladies then sang " Old Friends and Old Times," during 
 which the bust and pediment were unveiled. 
 
 Miss DAISY SMITH S ADDRESS. 
 
 Upon the conclusion of the song Miss Daisy P. Smith, a graduate of 
 the Memminger School, delivered the following introductory address, 
 with much feeling and grace : 
 
 l/>. Chairman and Gentlemen of the City Board of School Commis 
 sioners, To me has been accorded the privilege of voicing the sen 
 timent of all our citizens on this interesting occasion, the unveiling of 
 the image of him who for three eventful decades has been the guiding 
 spirit in our educational interests. 
 
 There are times when words are incompetent for the expression of 
 the heart s emotions and when the voice is too feeble to call an echo 
 from the recesses of feeling which nature guards most jealously. Es 
 pecially true do we find this now that we have the privilege of express 
 ing our appreciation of one who has fought so nobly for the youth of 
 
398 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 Charleston, who took up the children s cause and concentrated all his 
 energies on the establishment of a system of public schools, where the 
 young might cultivate their minds and hearts and fashion them in the 
 mould of which he unconsciously furnished so bright an example. 
 
 In 1855, Colonel Memminger and Messrs. Bennett, Bee, Bryan, 
 Magrath, Lebby, Russell, Furman, Richards, Buist, Jervey and others 
 remodelled the old system of State free schools and established the 
 graded-school system, which to-day signalizes our State and city as a 
 great source of public education and advancement. When the sun of 
 their lives had reached its meridian they consecrated heart and hand to 
 their noble work, and " pressed forward toward the mark of the high 
 calling " assigned to them, with only the aid of hope and faith. 
 
 But there is one amidst this group of honored men whose name is 
 engraved most deeply on the hearts of the pupils and graduates of the 
 Memminger School, whose love and patronage have been especially 
 theirs, and whose life has for long years been blended with theirs as the 
 patriarch of one large family. His name is graven at the portals of 
 its halls; he is held in grateful remembrance by us all, but especially 
 by those who have had the good fortune to come beneath his guidance 
 and protection. Colonel Memminger fully comprehended the depth of 
 woman s nature, and realized the fact that the world cannot rise by 
 man s elevation alone; that in accordance with Divine law, the intellec 
 tual (as well as the material) world is held in its true orbit by the com 
 bined influences of two varied but equivalent forces. 
 
 With the spirit of a knight, he fought for woman s elevation, buildv 
 ing, with the granite blocks of a thorough education, from the founda 
 tion, slowly, but surely upwards to the position of his ideal, a basis 
 worthy of all noble women. He loved his ideal and wrought to mould 
 it perfectly. He became her friend and the protector of her rights, but 
 not such rights as we hear demanded from the rostrum; not these, for 
 by her endeavor to fill such offices, woman loses her characteristic privi 
 leges, those of being the gentle influence in the chaos of violent force 
 and will, the loving sister, gentle wife and tender mother, calling forth 
 the softer side of his nature. For these he worked and opened to them 
 the doors of an advantage which is all too sadly neglected while the 
 opportunity lasts. 
 
 Could the girls of our State realize the value of the privileges offered 
 them by these institutions of learning; could they appreciate the lustre 
 which education gives to woman, our halls would ring with triple the 
 number of voices that quiver through them now, and the image which 
 stands unveiled before us to-day would be the object of a purer devotion 
 than that which inspired the pagans of ancient days. 
 
 Many are and have been interested in us, and many have furnished 
 as great pecuniary assistance as Colonel Memminger, but none beside 
 him have labored for thirty long years to influence public opinion, with- 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 399 
 
 standing the storm of opposition in two sessions of the Legislature, and 
 meeting and defeating all obstacles with an indomitable will. He fal 
 tered before no foe but age. We reverence the silvery head which, un 
 til lately, bent faithfully and lovingly o er its task. 
 
 We cannot realize how hard it must be for the once active brain to 
 be no longer busied in the interests it loved so well, or for the hands to 
 lie idle while their work becomes that of others ; but it seems as if it 
 must be like unto the sadness of the mother when she sees her child go 
 forth from her care and watchfulness, and feels that the silken cords 
 which bound mother and child as protector and dependent are loosened 
 forever. But through the halls of affection and gratitude his spirit 
 shall walk a welcome guest, and every lineament of his countenance 
 shall be graven, not only on thy chaste stone, oh, statue ! but on the 
 tablets of loving hearts. 
 
 JUDGE SIMONTON S ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the City Council^ This occasion is full of 
 interest, yet mournful, for we stand within the shadow of the grave. 
 You crown the effort we have made in recognition of the merit of a 
 most \vorthy and most venerable fellow-citizen. 
 
 In November, 1885, Mr. Memminger, pressed by the infirmities of age 
 terminated his connection with the city board of school commissioners. 
 For more than the life of a generation he had filled the post of chair 
 man, and had led the board by his counsels. His associates could not 
 permit the occasion to pass without an expression of the value of his 
 long and arduous service to the community in this important position. 
 On the motion of Mr. Mitchell, it was resolved that a bust of Mr. Mem 
 minger in marble be procured to be placed in some conspicuous loca 
 tion. The General Assembly of the State, without a dissenting voice, 
 sanctioned this use of the public money. Mr. Memminger gratified the 
 wish of the board. The services of Mr. Edward V. Valentine, of Rich 
 mond, whose genius had illustrated the tomb of General R. E. Lee, were 
 secured. This exquisite work of art which has just been unveiled is the 
 result. We have before us the living, speaking, characteristic likeness 
 of Mr. Memminger. 
 
 If any man in this community deserves this marked expression of 
 public gratitude for public service, that man is the Hon. C. G. Memmin 
 ger. Himself a conspicuous example of the great advantage of early 
 and careful intellectual training, he has more than repaid his debt to 
 them by becoming the educator of this community. 
 
 From the earliest period of her colonial history, this Commonwealth 
 has realized the necessity for public and free education. By private 
 munificence and public bounty it was sought to supply this necessity. 
 Free schools were founded when the colonists were contending for exis 
 tence with foes without and foes within our borders. And so all along 
 
400 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 her progress South Carolina kept up her care for the education of the 
 masses. But, for the want of a proper system and of needed discipline, 
 these efforts did not produce the success they deserved. Our free schools, 
 even in the more dense population of towns and villages, reached no 
 high standard. They were resorted to only when it was impossible to 
 secure private instruction. In 1855 a board of commissioners was se 
 lected for this city, filled with men of more enlightened and progressive 
 views on the subject of education, among these were Mr. Memminger 
 and Mr. W. J. Bennett. It must always be remembered that to Mr, 
 Bennett also must be accorded full praise as a pioneer in the new work 
 of the board. These two gentlemen realized that a change of system 
 was needed in the schools. With great earnestness and care they inves 
 tigated the whole subject. By personal visit and examination they be 
 came satisfied w r ith the education of the public school system which has 
 done so much for New England. They induced its introduction into our 
 schools. Their active energy inaugurated the system. Their watchful 
 care fostered, encouraged and established it. 
 
 Mr. Memminger,. at that time, was one of the leaders of the Bar, and 
 was enjoying a very large practice. Notwithstanding the absorbing 
 cares of the most absorbing profession, he entered with his whole soul 
 into the work of the schools. He devoted much of his valuable time in 
 promoting, maintaining and finally in placing on a permanent basis our 
 present admirable system. He achieved wonderful success. His influ 
 ence has extended beyond the limits of this city. All over South Caro 
 lina are springing up graded schools based upon the same system. Ev- 
 rywhere is felt the reviving breath of new life in our public schools. 
 
 Our Board, Mr. Mayor, have signified by this marble bust their appre 
 ciation of Mr. Memminger s work as their leader and associate. His 
 real monument, more enduring even than this beautiful and perfect 
 marble, is the admirable schools, the pride and ornament of this city, 
 erected, aided, improved and established by his energy, and the thou 
 sands and tens of thousands of children educated and to be educated 
 within its walls. 
 
 This is not the time nor is this the occasion for any eulogy upon Mr. 
 Memminger. Your thoughtful kindness has given us a place for our 
 testimonial. It is most proper that he should occupy a niche in this 
 hall, filled w r ith memorials of our distinguished men. A great lawyer, 
 he was the contemporary and no unworthy rival of Petigru. 
 
 He realized the hope of Hayne, to which that great man sacrificed 
 his life. He pierced the mountain ranges of Western North Carolina, 
 and opened a passage for the iron horse to the ocean. 
 
 He gave of the wealth of his intellect, and many valuable hours to 
 .the public weal, and ranks with Enston among the public benefactors. 
 
 In behalf of the City Board of School Commissioners, I now leave 
 this bust in your custody. No more appropriate place can there be for 
 
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE. 401 
 
 it than in the people s palace ; no better guardian of it than this honor 
 able body, which cedes, mores, juraque nostra curat. 
 
 The next thing on the programme was " Music, Sweet Music," which 
 was sung by the young ladies. 
 
 MAYOR BRYAN ACCEPTS THE BUST. 
 
 The last address was by Mayor Bryan, who said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Board of School Commissioners, and 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, I count it a great privilege as the official repre 
 sentative of the people of Charleston to be permitted to say a brief 
 word in the proceedings of this most interesting occasion. We are here 
 to take part in a ceremony and render a tribute most fitting in a com 
 munity and country like ours where the will of the people is law, and 
 where government to be a blessing must be enlightened and governed 
 by law. It is, indeed, a truism to say that education, diffused and uni 
 versal, is the foundation of free institutions ; but it is to recognize and 
 emphasize that vital truth, and to do honor to the friend of popular ed 
 ucation that we have assembled here to-day. The inborn instincts of 
 mankind pay unstinted homage to the great rulers of the world the 
 soldier, the statesman, the orator, and as well to the poet, the painter, 
 the sculptor, the musician. 
 
 Monuments, statues, busts, marbles and bronzes everywhere abound, 
 land tell of the admiration that waits upon excellence in these re- 
 fnowned fields of achievement. These favorites of nature can take care 
 of themselves. They* need not the thoughtful care of their kind. It is 
 our especial duty to bestow that thoughtful care upon a worker in a 
 very different field remote from the crowd the truest friend and bene 
 factor of the people, and chiefest conservator of their liberties and their 
 free institutions. It is in recognition of such a benefactor and to make 
 enduring memorial of such services that we have unveiled the bust 
 which reveals to us and will reveal to the most distant posterity the fea 
 tures of C. Gustavus Memminger, the author of the present common 
 school system of Charleston. You have had from the distinguished gen 
 tleman who has preceded me the story of his work, and it only remains 
 for me to say that the city council of Charleston accepts the care of this 
 memorial. 
 
 The exercises of the occasion were concluded by the singing of " Auld 
 Lang Syne," a very appropriate selection, to the spirit of which the 
 young ladies did ample justice. The accompaniments to all the songs 
 were played by Prof. T. D. Euddock, teacher of music in the city public 
 schools. 
 
 The benediction by the Rev. R. N. Wells, pastor of Trinity M. E. 
 Church, closed a most eventful and interesting occasion. 
 
402 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 While his fellow-citizens were paying this deserved tribute 
 to his worth; while they were in this enduring form preserv- 
 -ing the features of the man who had so well honored himself 
 in their service, he was at his home, wasted with the suf 
 ferings of a malady that in a few days was to end his life. 
 His accomplished son, Dr. Allard Memminger, with the 
 counsel and the experience of Dr. Middleton Michel aiding 
 him, had brought to the relief of the suffering patriot and 
 statesman all that the solicitude of love, or the skill of 
 science could suggest or devise; but neither love nor skill 
 could mend the cord which, long fretted with the cares of 
 life, at last was broken, and on the night of the 7th of March 
 the life of the good and the great man went out 
 
 As fades the morning star, 
 Which goes not down behind a darkened west, 
 Nor sets obscured amid the tempest of the skies ; 
 But melts away in the light of Heaven. 
 
 The death of Mr. Memminger, although not unexpected, 
 brought an unfeigned sorrow to the community of Charles 
 ton, and to many throughout the country. To him it was a 
 release from suffering, an end of all care; to his stricken 
 family it was stilling forever the great heart of love that had 
 so long cherished them; to many it was breaking the cord 
 that had bound them to the good man in sincerest friend 
 ship, and to his country, it was the removal of one whose 
 greatest honors had been found in his devotion to her wel 
 fare. Death is by no means the greatest misfortune that 
 can befall a good man. To one who has faithfully served 
 his generation, who has no remorse of soul to cloud the re 
 ceding horizon of life, who has lived to a noble end; who 
 in deeds of generous kindness, and with words of cheer, has 
 lit the weary way of many a sorrowing one with the light of 
 his love; to whom great age and honors and wealth had 
 come, the blessings of a well-spent life death comes " with 
 friendly care " and brings, even in its gloom, the hope of 
 
HIS DEATH AND FUNERAL. 403 
 
 another and an immortal life of bliss. It was thus with Mr. 
 Mernminger. 
 
 In compliance with a request made by him, when con 
 scious that he was dying, his body was taken to his lovely 
 country home at Flat Rock, North Carolina, and buried 
 amid the peaceful shades of its cemetery. 
 
 I extract from the Charleston Courier the following account 
 of the services held at St. Paul s Episcopal church, of which 
 he was a member: 
 
 The funeral services of the late Hon. C- G. Memminger took place at 
 St. Paul s church at four o clock yesterday afternoon. The attendance 
 at the church was very large. Besides many citizens, there were in at 
 tendance the members of the Charleston Bar, commissioners of various 
 city boards, teachers of the public schools, members of the city council 
 and a number of our most prominent citizens, among whom were Mayor 
 Bryan, Ex-Governor Magrath, Mr. A. C. Kaufman, president of the Van- 
 derbilt Association, and others. The funeral cortege, consisting of fifty 
 carriages, reached the church promptly at four o clock. The casket was 
 borne into the church by the following pall-bearers: 
 
 Seniors. Mr. Montague Grimke, Hon. W. A. Courtenay, Hon. Edward 
 McCrady, Dr. Middleton Michel, Mr. Julian Mitchell, Mr. H. P. Archer, 
 Mr. J. Grange Simons, Hon. C. H. Simonton, Mr. C. F. Hanckle, Mr. B.F. 
 Whaley. Juniors. General Ed. McCrady, Mr. L. G. Trenholm, Mr. B. F. 
 Alston, Mr. C. S. Burnett, Mr. A. Mazyck, Hon. James Simons, Mr. C. A. 
 Chisolm, Mr. W. S. Hastie. 
 
 The floral offerings were many and elegant, made of the choicest 
 flowers from the private gardens of the city, and yet others of French 
 immortelles. Of the latter, one in the form of a large anchor, in white 
 flowers, bore the initials " C. G. M." on the cross-piece, and on the curve 
 of the anchor below, the inscription, "Public Schools," in purple flowers. 
 This offering was from the City Board of School Commissioners. 
 
 The services were read by Rev. W. H. Campbell, rector of St. Paul s, 
 and the Rev. C. C. Pinckney, D. D., rector of Grace church. The music 
 was very solemn and impressive, being feelingly rendered by the large 
 choir. There was no sermon or eulogy. At the close of the services, the 
 casket, preceded by the officiating ministers, was taken out of the church, 
 the choir chanting the Lord s Prayer. The remains were then taken to 
 the Line-street station of the South Carolina railroad, where the casket 
 was enclosed in a box of solid oak, bound with nickel, and was placed on 
 the outgoing train and taken to Flat Rock, the summer residence of the 
 deceased, under an escort of honor. The family accompanied the remains 
 in a special car. 
 
404 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 In no city of America are the deeds of her worthy citizens 
 more highly appreciated, their virtues more applauded, and 
 their renown better preserved than in Charleston. No 
 Roman ever pointed the youth of his country to the achieve 
 ments of her great men with more pride, or with a higher 
 sense of their virtues; none honor themselves better in the 
 respect they pay to their illustrious dead, than do the good 
 people of this city, the "Nice of America." Many tributes 
 have been paid to the worth of Mr. Memminger, but none 
 have been more sincerely expressed or more worthy of the 
 dead statesman, lawyer and patriot, than those which came 
 from the Bar of Charleston when his death was formally an 
 nounced to the court in session. 
 
 The following report of the proceedings had on this occa 
 sion is taken from the Charleston papers of that date: 
 
 At the opening of the Court of General Sessions yesterday morning. 
 Judge Pressley, presiding, Solicitor Jervey arose, and said: "May it 
 please your Honor, it is with sorrow and sadness that I announce the 
 death of the Hon. CHRISTOPHER GUSTAVUS MEMMINGER, the oldest mem 
 ber of the Bar, who died at his residence, in this city, evening before 
 last, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. I move that a commit 
 tee be appointed who shall prepare and submit resolutions appropriate 
 to this occasion." 
 
 This motion was seconded by Judge A. G. Magrath, and being unani 
 mously adopted, Judge Pressley appointed the following committee : 
 Messrs. "YV. St. Julien Jervey, A. G. Magrath, James Simons, C. R. Miles, 
 B. H. Rutledge, Ed. McCrady, Jr., and W. H. Brawley. 
 
 Mr. J. K. Blackman, the court stenographer, was appointed to act as 
 secretary of the meeting. 
 
 The committee then retired to prepare its report. In the court-room 
 at the time were the following members of the Bar: Messrs. H. E. 
 Young, Theodore Barker, G. II. Sass, J. P. Lessens, J. M. Bacot, Lang- 
 don Cheves, A. D. Cohen, Julian Mitchell, H. A. M. Smith, G. Lamb 
 Buist, Henry Buist, A. G. Magrath, Jr., John F. Ficken, Isaac Hayne, 
 W. M. Fitch, G. W. Dingle, J. E. Burke, A. T. Smythe, A. M. Lee, W. H. 
 Parker, Jr., E. "W. Hughes, Arthur Mazyck, L. DeB. McCrady, Clement 
 S. Bissell, J. Ancrum Simons, B. R. Burnet, Mathie Gourdin. 
 
 The committee, after a short absence, returned into court, and Mr. 
 Jervey announced that they were ready to report. 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 405 
 
 In submitting the resolutions Mr. Jervey spoke as follows : In the 
 general routine and progression of our duties as members of our hon 
 ored profession, we are naturally so occupied and engrossed in the 
 mimic warfare in which we are engaged, that we are apt to lose sight 
 of, an^L temporarily forget those of our brethren, who having served 
 their time and fought their battles, have turned aside from the path of 
 contention, and sought peace and rest in the evening of their day. 
 Naturally then there is a shock to each of us, when suddenly we are 
 arrested in our career, and when we are aroused from our absorption of 
 interest and occupation by the announcement that one of our eldest 
 brethren, one of the leaders and exemplars of our craft, has paid the 
 last tribute to nature and departed from us forever. In the presence of 
 these, his friends, who are here for the purpose of doing honor to his 
 memory, I need say nothing in his praise. They are here moved and 
 actuated by their admiration of the man, and by their affection for 
 their friend. They came here, many of them, equipped with the expe 
 rience of a longer acquaintance, and with far greater ability than I can 
 claim, to express their admiration of his qualities and their grief at 
 his loss in fitting terms of eloquent speech. But while the official duty 
 which devolves upon me, in place of the Attorney-General, is discharged 
 in simply making the announcement of his death, I would not be true 
 to the sentiments of personal regard, which I have always held for Mr. 
 Memminger, unless I paid personal tribute to the high qualities and 
 characteristics, which we are here to honor. I shall not speak of him as 
 the statesman that page of his life is written in the proceedings of the 
 General Assembly of the State he so much loved, for twenty-five years; 
 in the brief and checkered history of the Confederate States. Nor shall 
 I speak of him as the friend of education; beautiful and enduring monu 
 ments of his labor and success in this department of his life, exists now 
 in the schools which have been erected throughout this city, and the 
 system of their government, and in the life-like bust, which has within 
 the last few days, been unveiled in the council-chamber amidst the en 
 dowments of a grateful community, and the sweet smiles of those who 
 illustrate the success of his work. I shall not speak of him as the pro 
 moter of commerce and manufactures. Monuments as enduring as 
 brass will ever remain in the iron road-way, binding us to the great 
 West, and in the humming wheels of our factories. 
 
 Nor yet shall I speak of him as the financier. There, again, history 
 has made him immortal. As the Christian gentleman he was pre-emi 
 nent, and his name appears in the annals of his Church as being always 
 in the front rank of those who gave their time and their talent for the 
 advancement of an enlightened and progressive Christianity. His chari 
 ties will make him long remembered and lamented by the poor and 
 needy, and the widow and the orphan will rise up and call him blessed. 
 
406 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 But I shall speak of him in that relation in which he was nearest to us; 
 that relation in which, as members of the Bar, we were most brought 
 within his influence and admired him as the lawyer. He filled the va 
 rious requirements of this complex and difficult character 1 with great 
 faithfulness. He was possessed of great astuteness in analyzing a com 
 plicated case; almost by intuition he would put his finger tip on the cru 
 cial point of controversy, and oftentimes before- the anxious client would 
 conclude his tale the real difficulty was discerned and the remedy pro 
 posed. He was never idle. I have heard him say that more time was 
 wasted in deciding what to do very often than was necessary for the do 
 ing of it. He was a student. When not engaged on some living ques 
 tion of his practice, he was always, while in the office, reading the latest 
 decision of the courts or the latest books of authority. Perhaps his 
 greatest attribute as a lawyer was his clearness, terseness and force of 
 expression. He would say more in a few words than any man I have 
 ever heard. He seldom indulged in figures and warmth of speech, but 
 would follow his subject closely, and by syllogistic argument eliminate 
 matter extraneous to the question at issue. He was brief and to the 
 point ; clear and emphatic. When, after working in his office I was ad 
 mitted to practice, he gave me the following advice : Never speak unless 
 you have something to say, and when you have said it sit down. This 
 explains the brief terseness and clearness of his own utterances. With 
 all these qualities of the great lawyer, Mr. Memminger was the kind and 
 patient preceptor; the forbearing and indulgent chief. During the 
 two years in which I read law under his direction, and the eight years 
 during which I had the honor to practice with him, I remember no occa 
 sion in which he set down aught of failure or want of success in any 
 matter or case entrusted to me, to anything which would reflect on my 
 care, ability or attention to the duties assigned. He was ever ready 
 with counsel and advice in matters in which I was interested, and even 
 after the dissolution of our business relations, I never in vain sought his 
 counsel. During the period of his greatest ascendancy as a lawyer, 
 when he made his greatest reputation, I did not know him; that being 
 before my time, and I will leave it to those who are here, and who then 
 knew him, to speak. We of my generation have but seen the. reflec 
 tion of his mighty past. 
 
 THE RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of the Hon. C. G. Memminger, while we 
 recognize with grateful hearts that he has been blessed with many days 
 of usefulness more than the span of three score years and ten we, his 
 brethren of the Bar, feel deeply afflicted and grieved at his removal. 
 
 Resolved, That while in his death the country has lost a statesman, 
 the State a patriot, the community a benefactor, this Bar has lost one of 
 the most profound jurists, one of the most powerful advocates, one of the 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 407 
 
 most exemplary practitioners, whose name has ever been inscribed upon 
 our rolls and each one of us a friend. 
 
 Eesolved, That we deeply sympathize with his family in their afflic 
 tion, and that a copy of these resolutions be sent to them. 
 
 Resolved, That his Honor be requested to direct these resolutions to 
 be entered upon the minutes of the court and be published in the daily 
 papers of this city. 
 
 JUDGE MAGRATH S REMARKS. 
 
 Judge A. G. Magrath seconded the resolutions and very beautifully 
 alluded to the high qualities of the deceased at the Bar and in all the 
 walks of life. He spoke of the high standard which Mr. Memminger 
 held, a lawyer should always maintain, and said that in his relations with 
 him, whether associate or adversary, he had always found in him the 
 same high-toned example of what a practitioner at the bar should be. 
 It was not strange that with such lights as were before him he should, in 
 regard to the tone of his profession, have pitched it in its highest key. 
 There were then Thos. S. Grimke, Hugh S. Legare, Benj. F. Dunkin, Jas. L. 
 Petigru, Harper, David Johnson, Judge King, and many others, who 
 illustrated the highest standard of professional honor. Inferior to them 
 only so far as years were concerned, Mr. Memminger, even with those 
 gentlemen, was marked not only as an able disputant, but a formidable 
 adversary when they were brought in collision with him. They, contin 
 ued the speaker, are all gone, their light has faded away, and now, with 
 but one exception one whose name (Mr. Edward McCrady, Sr.) will re 
 cur to you at once one whose name it would be too painful for me to 
 mention in that connection with but that one exception, the lawyers of 
 that time and generation have passed away forever. When you lay your 
 tribute on the tomb of Mr. Memminger, you have closed that book and 
 chapter of the legal professional history of the State. For honor, learn 
 ing, power in debate, in so far as he could at the Bar advance the cause 
 and truth of justice, he was the equal of any of the best that preceded 
 him. He may well be exhibited to us as a worthy example. 
 
 REMARKS OF MR. SIMONS. 
 
 The Hon. James Simons next seconded the resolutions. He said: 
 May it please your Honor, in seconding the resolutions before you, I feel 
 that this is, indeed, a solemn occasion. We are here to pause in the rest 
 less activity of life; to contemplate the death of one of the most distin 
 guished lawyers who has ever occupied a place in the ranks of our pro 
 fession of one of the most eminent of our fellow-citizens. Having 
 known Mr. Memminger from my earliest recollections, and, coming to the 
 Bar when he was in the zenith of his remarkable career, I had the oppor 
 tunity of appreciating to the fullest extent those characteristics which 
 
408 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGER. 
 
 earned him the reputation which, living, he enjoyed, and which, now he 
 is dead, will preserve his name in the history of the State. 
 
 Many able men who have occupied prominent places in our calling; 
 who in their day and generation, in this court-house, have commanded 
 the admiration of the Bench, their brethren, and the public, by their 
 power, their learning, their ability, or their eloquence, have gone to their 
 long rest, and are covered by the mantle of oblivion. The names of some 
 are preserved, perhaps, in the traditions of the Bar. Few, very few r , con 
 tinue to be known beyond this. Such is the fate even of the most dis 
 tinguished in the profession. 
 
 Mr. Memminger, however, has impressed himself upon the times in 
 which he lived as few have done. With the great intellectual gifts with 
 which he was endowed, he united a singular force of character and won 
 derful judgment. He was essentially a practical man. During his ser 
 vice as a representative of the people, he carried with him into the halls 
 of the Legislature, as a law-maker, the ability, learning and experience 
 for which he was so remarkable as an expounder of the law. That mar 
 velous lucidity of statement ; that clear, calm, convincing faculty of rea 
 soning peculiar to him, made him as powerful there as in the forum. 
 His strength was the result of his intellectual force and his industry in 
 mastering the work he undertook. 
 
 During his long service there was scarcely a measure of any impor 
 tance which did not bear his impress. No one acquainted with the leg 
 islative history of the State can fail to be struck with the great in 
 fluence he exercised, not only upon legislation, but upon legislative 
 procedure. He was chairman of the special committee, consisting of him 
 self and Messrs. William F. De Sassussure and William F. Colcock, 
 appointed at the session of 1838, to report rules for the House of Repre 
 sentatives of the State, and which committee reported the rules, 
 prepared, as he himself has informed me, by the then Speaker, David 
 L. Wardlaw, and which, with very few changes, still govern that body. 
 His important public services are too numerous to mention here. They 
 are known to all here assembled. 
 
 In his own home, the city of Charleston, he continued his services to 
 his fellow-citizens, almost to the last of his long and useful life, in the 
 administration of that system of public education which his enlightened 
 wisdom founded, and which has conferred, and will continue to confer 
 its blessings upon generations of our people. His grateful fellow-citizens 
 have but a few days since publicly testified their appreciation of this 
 great work, and the evidence of their gratitude stands a lasting memo 
 rial. 
 
 His brethren of the profession of which he was a conspicuous mem 
 ber a shining light offer their tribute to this great jurist, this valued 
 citizen, this good man, who now goes to his rest full of years and full of 
 honors. 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 409 
 
 REMARKS OF MR. MILES. 
 
 Mr. Chas. R. Miles next seconded the resolution. He eloquently 
 alluded to the distinction attained by Mr. Memminger in the various 
 walks of life, but confined his remarks mainly upon the shining qualities 
 of the deceased as a lawyer. Admitted to the Bar nearly sixty years 
 ago, and connected with the profession actively up to within a very few 
 years, his career is almost without a parallel in the history of the Bar of 
 the State. 
 
 Mr. Miles referred to the beautiful friendship, which for sixty years 
 had existed between Mr. Memminger and the only surviving member 
 of the Bar of his day (Mr. Ed. McCrady), a friendship as true and warm 
 at the end as at the beginning. Mr. Miles then went on to describe the 
 high qualities of Mr. Memminger as an attorney at law in all the courts 
 of the State, and especially in the court of equity, where he shone re 
 splendent, and gave several illustrations of his untiring zeal in preserv 
 ing, as far as in him lay, the high standard of the Bar. 
 
 MR. MCCRADY S REMARKS. 
 
 May it please your Honor : I ask, too, that I may be allowed to join 
 in the request that the resolutions proposed be spread on the minutes of 
 the court. 
 
 Mr. Memminger s has, indeed, been with me a household name from 
 my earliest youth. The close relation between Mr. Memminger and my 
 senior brought me in contact with him even before my admission to the 
 Bar, and in later years circumstances have thrown me personally more 
 with him. In this intercourse with Mr. Memminger I have often been 
 struck with the fact that though he had attained such great age he was 
 living in the present, and not in the past. 
 
 His life had been one full of interest. He had been the compeer of 
 many great men of the Bar, whose names with his now added to them 
 are our heritage and lustre. He had been a part, indeed a great part, 
 of the history of our State for half a century. In the great convulsion of 
 the country he had been a conspicuous figure. But it was not of these 
 things he talked ; it was not of what he had done, or what he had seen 
 and heard during his earlier and middle life that he spoke, or seemed to 
 think. He dwelt not on these. "With him it seemed to be the rule to 
 " let the dead past bury its dead." It was in the present that he lived. 
 And so it was that to the last the city and State had the benefit, not 
 only of his great sagacity, but of his varied and enlarged experience. 
 
 So it was that after he had obtained more than a middle age, he had 
 yet thirty years to give to the education of his people ; that after three 
 score years he was pushing new railroad enterprises and inaugurating 
 new commercial and manufacturing enterprises ; that after seventy-five 
 years of life he Returned to the legislative halls of the State, in which he 
 
410 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 had been so long, and so long ago; a leader to take part with those 
 thirty, forty and fifty years his juniors in rearranging and settling her 
 finances, in reviving her institutions of learning, and in restoring the 
 equitable procedures in the court. 
 
 So, too, he had been for fifty odd years in the councils of his Church 
 m this diocese ; had been the constitutional adviser of its chief pastor 
 through three bishoprics, and so it was that his last appearance in public 
 was in its convention. Mr. Memminger s contemporaries at the Bar 
 were great lawyers, and he was a great lawyer among them "VVe, who 
 came to the Bar thirty years ago, may say with Lord Mansfield : If we 
 can arrogate nothing to ourselves, we can boast the school we were 
 brought up in, and can challenge past ages to show us their superiors; 
 and among them there was not his own. 
 
 REMARKS BY MR. YOUNG. 
 
 It is to me a personal gratification to join in the tribute to Mr. Mem- 
 minger. After all that has been said, and so well said, it is certainly 
 unnecessary for me to say anything further in his praise. Considering 
 how he performed his part to his State and country, his friends and his 
 family, I have known no one to whom the words used by Dean Stanley 
 to Arnold apply more truly. When you consider his work for his coun 
 try, he lived as if he had neither friends nor family. When we consider 
 his fidelity to his friends and zeal in their behalf, it would seem as if he 
 had neither country nor family to occupy his mind. And when we con 
 sider him in his family relations, he lived as if neither friends nor State 
 existed; as is shown by the fact that he leaves children well equipped 
 and moving rapidly forward to high positions in the community. 
 
 It is a gratification to me to recall my relations with him for the last 
 twenty odd years; when I had been associated with him very closely in 
 a certain class of cases, he as director and senior counsel, and I as 
 solicitor. 
 
 When these relations began twenty years ago I ranked as a junior at 
 the Bar, and he as among the oldest members, yet with no one were con 
 ferences freer and more frank, nor any one quicker to adopt the ideas 
 suggested. Pie seemed absolutely devoid of pride of opinion, and when 
 once adopted he gave as hearty support to the suggestions of others as 
 to his own, and when success was achieved no one could possibly have 
 been more generous in attributing that success to his juniors. 
 
 When one so ripe in years and in works, whose one work alone will 
 hand down his name to posterity, and whose assurances of the future 
 was so firm, succumbs to the common fate of man, there can be no 
 grief; still we must feel sorry that such lives must end, and when the 
 end comes there is said to the survivors : 
 
 " Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail, 
 
 Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt 
 
 Dispraise or blame; nothing but well and fair.* 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 411 
 
 JUDGE PRESSLEY S REMARKS. 
 
 There being no further remarks Judge B. C. Pressley spoke as follows : 
 Brothers of the Bar, it very greatly gratifies me to hear so many noble 
 tributes to the memory of our distinguished brother of the Bar, and yet 
 were it not for the irresistible impulse to give utterrance to our own 
 feelings and to incite others to remember so noble an example, all that 
 we could do to pay tribute to the memory of Colonel Memminger, would 
 be a superfluous work. His is a memory that takes care of itself. It cannot 
 die. For though the law was his mistress, it was not to him a jealous mis 
 tress. His versatility of talent fitted him for anything, and he gave his 
 heart to every noble work, and especially to that noblest of works: the 
 elevation of the masses by an equal, free, common education. That 
 seemed to be the great desire of his life, and to it he devoted very much 
 of the time of his life ; and now around us and amongst us are the 
 scholars and teachers and the mothers of future generations who will 
 teach their children to reverence and love him. 
 
 All along through the future ages, in the long vista of years, you will 
 see now in advance down that avenue the mothers teaching their child 
 ren to love, honor and remember the name of Colonel Memminger, and 
 recounting to them what he has done for them. So I feel, gentlemen, 
 that nothing we could say would add one leaf to the amaranth crown 
 that he wears. His name must live. Of all our fellow-citizens that we 
 have been accustomed gladly to greet with a hearty hand-shake, there 
 is not one less likely to be forgotten than Colonel Memminger. People 
 who know anything of the history of our revolution \vill never ask why 
 the statue of William Pitt stands in our city hall square ; people who 
 know anything of the struggle for truth, justice and the constitution will 
 never ask why the statue of the great Calhoun stands in Marion square, 
 nor will any one who knows anything of what has been done, w r hat is do 
 ing, and what will be done for the elevation of the masses of our com 
 munity by free education, ever ask why the marble bust of Memminger 
 stands in the city hall. It stands there of right; of acknowledged right, 
 and while it will be a memento ever to remind us like other signs that 
 hang around our walls telling us of those departed we need no such re 
 membrance so long as the monuments which he himself reared in this 
 community last. It gratifies me to join in your tribute, and we are now 
 ready for the question. Those in favor of the resolutions will say " aye." 
 The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 
 
 Judge Pressley: The clerk will enter the resolutions upon the 
 minutes of the court. 
 
 A volume containing the tributes paid to the worth of Mr. 
 Memminger by the press of the Southern States might be 
 
412 LIFE AND TIMES OF C. G. MEMMINGEE. 
 
 readily prepared. The author does not deem it necessary 
 to reproduce these here. An editorial found in a leading 
 Charleston journal conveys so just a conception of his merit 
 that I extract from it the following sentences : 
 
 Men who serve gallantly on the field of battle generally live to get 
 their reward, whether or not the success of their arms is secured. Men 
 in civil office, who organize victory or bear the brunt of the support of 
 armies and of a government, are rarely praised by the masses, who more 
 surely applaud military glory. Washington s name lives the world over, 
 and yet Chauncey M. Depew declared on the 22d of February that 
 Alexander Hamilton s was the commanding genius of the Revolution, 
 which revived the hopeless credit of the colonies and carried through the 
 war. " With few precedents to guide him, he created a fiscal system for 
 the United States, which was so elastic and comprehensive that it still 
 controls the vast operations of the Treasury and the customs." Grant 
 and Lincoln s are the names which have grown illustrious with the suc 
 cess of the Union armies, but Salmon P. Chase s was the mind which 
 framed the national banking system, revised the tax schedules, and ne 
 gotiated the loans which supplied the sinews of war. 
 
 So the heroes of the Confederacy were numerous. Any school boy in 
 Europe or America can spell their names, and while General Wolseley 
 has declared that the Southern Confederacy has given to history the 
 greatest soldier of his age, how few outside of South Carolina to-day are 
 familiar with the tireless, patient, masterly policy of C. G. Memminger, 
 who on last Friday was laid quietly to rest ? 
 
 Modern warfare means money. Its success is a pure matter of busi 
 ness after all. The picture of the barbarian king, who threw his sword 
 into the balance to support the ascending scale in which the coins had 
 been placed, would be reversed to-day. The sinews of war would out 
 weigh the sword, and the men who support governments, and who put in 
 motion great campaigns, are the Hamiltons, the Chases and the Mem- 
 mingers. 
 
 In bringing to a close the labors which have engaged the 
 writer for several months in the preparation of this biogra 
 phy, he would commend its study to the youth of his coun 
 try. The student will at least find the causes which have 
 produced great results set forth, and in following the history 
 of a great man, from his humble childhood to his honora 
 ble old age, he will learn that nothing is denied to well- 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 413 
 
 directed labor and that nothing substantial and enduring 
 can be obtained without it. 
 
 I desire also to express my grateful acknowledgments to 
 the many who have lightened the burden of my work by 
 their kindness, and w r ho have extended to me facilities at 
 their command without which I could not have gathered 
 the facts I have bound together in this memoir. Through 
 your good offices, my friends, I have been enabled to gather 
 the fair flowers grown by his own hands, and in the beauti 
 ful garden of a good man s life ; " and nothing but the 
 thread that binds them is my own." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
REPORTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, 
 
 FINANCES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 
 
 TKEASUKY DEPAETMENT,.C. S. A., 
 
 MONTGOMERY, ALA., May 10, 1861. 
 Hon. Howell Cobb, President of Congress : 
 
 SIK, I respectfully submit the following report in relation to the 
 finances of the Confederate States : 
 
 Since the inauguration of the Provisional Government there has been 
 received into the Treasury : 
 
 From the State of Louisiana for customs turned over ... $ 147,519 66 
 
 Bullion fund 389,267 46 
 
 Customs at New Orleans to May 1 332,772 49 
 
 " Charleston to April 20 84,344 38 
 
 " Mobile to April 27 67,818 52 
 
 " " Savannah to April 24 . 100,00000 
 
 1,121,722 51 
 The amount expended by the government to May 1 ... 993,308 32 
 
 Balance. . . . 128,414 19 
 
 To which must be added 
 
 Proceeds of loan, estimated at 8,500,000 00 
 
 Balance in Treasury 8,628,414 19 
 
 The appropriations already made by Congress amount to . . 17,683,370 00 
 Of which have been paid 993,309 00 
 
 Yet to be paid 16,690,061 00 
 
 Unexpended appropriations > 16,690,061 00 
 
 27 [ 417 ] 
 
418 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 New estimates: 
 
 War Department $35,930,403 00 
 
 Navy Department 278,500 00 
 
 Treasury Department interest on loan 500,000 00 
 
 Civil and miscellaneous 230,500 00 
 
 Postoffice Department 500,000 00 
 
 54,129,464 00 
 This payable as follows : 1st July, 1861 
 
 War Department 9,931,084 00 
 
 Navy Department . . . 800,000 00 
 
 Civil Department 728,626 00 
 
 Postoffice Department 170,000 00 
 
 11,629,710 00 
 
 October, 1861 
 
 War Department 15,641,207 00 
 
 Navy Department. 800,000 00 
 
 Civil Department 650,000 00 
 
 Interest on loan 400,000 00 
 
 Postoffice Department 170,000 00 
 
 17,661,207 00 
 
 18th February, 1862 
 
 War Department 23,186,547 00 
 
 Navy Department. ..--..... 700,000 00 
 
 Civil Department 682,000 00 
 
 Postoffice Department 170,000 00 
 
 Interest on loan 100,000 00 
 
 24,838,547 00 
 The assets to pay the amount payable_lst July are as follows: 
 
 1. Balance in Treasury 8,628,414 00 
 
 2. Balance of loan 6,500,000 00 
 
 3. Treasury notes 1,000,000 00 
 
 16,128,414 00 
 To pay 11,639,710 00 
 
 4,498,704 00 
 
 On 1st October there is payable 17,661,207 00 
 
 Assets 1st July 4,498,704 00 
 
 Deficit 13,162,503 00 
 
 Payable 18th February, 1862 24,838,547 00 
 
 Total deficit . $38,001,050 00 
 
APPENDIX. 419 
 
 From these statements it appears that up to the first day of October 
 ensuing, Congress must provide additional means to place in the Treas 
 ury $13,162,503; and for the remainder of the year of the Provisional 
 government, a further sum of $24,838,547 is required, making in the 
 whole, $38,001,050. This sum will, in all probability, be increased by the 
 increased dimensions which the war is assuming; so that the provision 
 to be made should be full. 
 
 No material assistance can be had from duties for the amount re 
 quired on the 1st of October. Even should the threatened blockade of 
 our ports fail, the imports and exports are limited at the Southern ports 
 to the period at which the crop begins to move foward. Other sources 
 of revenue must therefore be sought; and these are chiefly to be found 
 in loans and direct taxes. 
 
 The fifteen million loan will probably absorb all the money which, 
 before the coming in of the next crop, could be borrowed on a long in 
 vestment in bonds or stocks. Treasury notes offer, therefore, the most 
 probable means of raising money at the required period. To what ex 
 tent they can be made available can only be ascertained by experiment, 
 but it may be assumed that this extent will greatly depend upon the 
 use which can be made of them in paying debts. If, therefore, a basis 
 be laid by the government in dues to it, which can be paid in treasury 
 notes, they can be issued freely, and obtain general circulation. But it 
 is apparent that at first they only anticipate other revenue, and by in 
 creasing confidence in them, they can ultimately be kept in the hands 
 of the people as a more permanent loan. It results from this reasoning 
 that the government, as a first step, must create a direct and certain 
 revenue; and that before the first of October. This can only be done 
 by a direct tax. We are, therefore, shut in to that source of revenue by 
 a financial necessity, and the next inquiry is, how much must be raised 
 by this means ? Assuming as a basis for this inquiry that Congress will 
 pass the tariff law reported by the Committee on Finance, we are first 
 to estimate what amount of revenue this tariff will produce. As a 
 general rule the value of the exports of a country adjusts the value of 
 the imports. 
 
 The exports of cotton may be valued at $ 200,000,000 
 
 The exports of tobacco may be valued at 30,000,000 
 
 The exports of other articles valued at, say 5,000,000 
 
 235,000,000 
 
 Deduct from this for contingencies in crops and values, say 
 10 per cent 23,500,000 
 
 $211,500,000 
 
420 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 The new tariff may be averaged at, say 12% per cent . . . $26,437,500 
 Expenses, say 5 per cent 1,321,875 
 
 Amount from tariff 25,115,625 
 
 Of this amount probably one-half only will be collected up 
 
 to the 18th of February 12,557,312 
 
 Which being deducted from the total required at that time 38,001,050 
 
 Leaves this amount to be otherwise provided $25,443,738 
 
 It has been already shown that $13,162,503 of this amount must be 
 raised before the 1st of October; and that the portion which can be 
 raised by the issue of treasury notes before that time can only be con 
 jectured. I would respectfully suggest that a sum, not exceeding fif 
 teen millions, be raised by direct taxes as a war tax. This tax, after 
 deducting the expense of collecting it, would probably pay the amount 
 required on the 1st of October ($13,162,503), and leave to be provided 
 between the 1st of October and ISth of February, the sum of $24,838,547. 
 
 Against this as already shown may be set down the amount of duties 
 to that date, $12,557,312. 
 
 It is obvious that for so large a sum it would be desirable that the 
 notes issued should not return immediately upon the Treasury; as in 
 that case they would absorb revenue wanted at a later period of the 
 year. I would, therefore, suggest the expediency of issuing notes at 
 three years, of two kinds; one of a small denomination, without inter 
 est, say tens and fives, and denominations of twenties and upwards, at 
 eight per cent, per annum. It is believed that those bearing this inter 
 est will, as soon as the crop begins to come in, be relieved from circula 
 tion as a sort of savings fund, by each holder, while the smaller will be 
 held as a resource, which can, at any moment, be commanded. If the 
 Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to try the market with these 
 issues experience will determine to what extent they may be used. 
 
 It should also be considered that there is a possibility that money 
 may be borrowed at home or abroad upon resources which the govern 
 ment or our citizens may offer. It would be well to authorize the Treas 
 ury Department to take proper measures to that end. Experience may 
 show that a larger amount of treasury notes may be issued than that I 
 have estimated for; and if, in either of these contingencies, less money 
 should be required from direct taxes than fifteen millions, the Presi 
 dent may be authorized by proclamation to diminish the amount called 
 for. 
 
 In relation to the mode of collecting a direct tax I would respectfully 
 suggest that a more simple method could be adopted by calling in aid 
 the State machinery for collecting taxes. The citizens of each State 
 would, in all probability, be satisfied with the assessments and modes 
 
APPENDIX. 421 
 
 of collection established by their respective States. If Congress should 
 direct the quota of each State to be assessed upon its citizens upon the 
 basis of the last State tax paid by them, to be collected by the State 
 tax collectors, at the rates of commission allowed by the State, the cum 
 brous system, heretofore pursued, might be abandoned, and a still fur 
 ther modification might be made in offering a discount to each State 
 which may pay down immediately its whole quota. 
 In conclusion, I would recapitulate the plan herein recommended: 
 
 1. To enact a tariff on imports at a rate averaging at least 12J per cent. 
 
 2. To impose a war tax not exceeding fifteen millions. 
 
 3. To authorize the issue of treasury notes to such extent as the Sec 
 retary of the Treasury may find available not exceeding in the whole 
 twenty millions; said notes to be of the denomination of five dollars, 
 and over, redeemable in three years, with interest from date of issue, 
 not to exceed eight per cent, for all denominations of twenty dollars 
 and over. 
 
 4. The Secretary of the Treasury to be authorized to take up a loan 
 at home or abroad for an amount not exceeding fifty millions, at an in 
 terest not exceeding eight per cent., and to this end, to be -authorized 
 to accept from citizens who may tender any resources which can be 
 made available as a means of credit, upon such terms as he shall deem 
 for the public interest. 
 
 5. In case by any of these means funds should be received in suffi 
 cient amount to dispense with part of the war tax, that the President 
 be authorized by proclamation to diminish the quotas called for. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 (Signed) C. G. MEMMINGEK, 
 
 Secretary of Treasury. 
 
422 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 CONDITION OF TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMEEICA, 
 TKEASURY DEPARTMENT, Richmond, November 20th, 1861. 
 Hon. Howell Coll>, President of Congress: 
 
 SIE, I have the honor to submit the following report of the condition 
 of this Department. 
 
 The receipts at the Treasury from all the various sources of income 
 up to the 16th of November are as follows : 
 
 From customs .$ 949,612 84 
 
 Miscellaneous sources 792,717 90 
 
 Export duty on cotton 1,311 65 
 
 Loan of February 28th, 1861 14,989,726 65 
 
 Loan of May and August 3,053,300 00 
 
 Treasury notes under act of March 9 2,021,100 00 
 
 " May 16 17,347,955 00 
 
 " August 19 12,830,400 00 
 
 Interest and premium 33,963 67 
 
 52,020,147 71 
 Temporary loan from banks 9,850,576 68 
 
 $61,870,724 39 
 The expenditures and outstanding warrants are as follows : 
 
 For civil, &c $ 1,745,670 18 
 
 For war 66.018,740 03 
 
 For navy 2,902,305 55 
 
 $70,666,715 76 
 
 Balance not yet paid $8,795,991 37 
 
 This balance exists in the form of treasury warrants which are in 
 transitu, and will be paid bj the issues of treasury notes whenever they 
 are presented. 
 
 This large amount of warrants in transitu arises from the fact that the 
 payments are all made by treasury notes issued at one point, and their 
 transmission to distant places consumes much time. This difficulty will 
 be diminished whenever the number printed shall be sufficient to exceed 
 the daily requisitions. They can then be forwarded on deposit to the 
 various assistant treasurers and depositaries. 
 
 The amount set forth in the receipts as borrowed from banks em 
 braces two items. The first consists of the balance due the banks, on the 
 
APPENDIX. 423 
 
 loan of their notes, made in advance of the issue of treasury notes, and 
 reported at the last session of Congress. The second item was taken up 
 under the following circumstances : Long before the passage of the act 
 of last session, directing the issue of an additional number of treasury 
 notes, this Department attempted at each of the principal cities in the 
 Confederate States to make arrangements for preparing them. A con 
 tract was made in Xew Orleans in May last and inducements were offered 
 to others to import facilities. An active agent was also sent by the De 
 partment to bring on workmen and machinery. But, with every exer 
 tion, it was found impossible to meet the requisitions upon the Treasury. 
 These requisitions so far exceeded the supply, that on the 24th October 
 the supply of notes fell behind the requisitions by the sum of $11,892,- 
 815.98. The daily requisitions upon the Treasury continued to exceed 
 the supply by nearly lifty per cent., and the difficulty, therefore, became 
 greater every day. The only relief expected was from a further supply 
 of printers and presses, which could not be had for at least four or five 
 weeks. The arrearages covered the pay of troops and their subsistence, 
 and threatened serious injury to the credit of the Treasury and to the 
 public interest. Under these circumstances it was deemed best to ac 
 cept the tender of ten millions of their notes, which the banks of South 
 Carolina and Georgia had made, at an interest of five per cent., on a pre 
 vious occasion, when delays in preparing engraved notes were expected. 
 The arrangement made with the banks was a return of the amount as 
 soon as treasury notes could be prepared ; so that the interest to be paid 
 by the Treasury will be relieved at the earliest practicable time, and is 
 amply compensated by the relief of pressure to that extent upon the 
 Treasury. This relief may be measured by the fact that, notwithstand 
 ing all the efforts since made to increase the supply of treasury notes, 
 there is now a large arrear of requisitions lying over, amounting to about 
 five and a half millions of dollars. 
 
 The loan taken from the banks appeared to me to be in substance, 
 though not in form, the same as that authorized by law, and at a less 
 rate of interest. The law authorizes any holder of treasury notes to fund 
 those notes in bonds at eight per cent., payable in two years, and these 
 bonds are re-exchangeable at the will of the holder for treasury notes. 
 The bank notes borrowed were used in payment of public dues as a sub 
 stitute for treasury notes, and if an exchange had taken place instead of 
 a substitution, the treasury notes could immediately have been funded 
 in bonds or stock at eight per cent. The transaction, which actually took 
 place, effects the same result, excepting that it is at a less rate of inter 
 est, and I respectfully ask its sanction by Congress. I have the satisfac 
 tion to add that our efforts to procure at home the notes and paper have 
 raised up three home manufactories of bank-note paper and an estab 
 lishment for engraving bank note?. 
 
424 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 The preliminary arrangements for the collection of the war tax have 
 been made according to the directions of the law. Chief collectors have 
 been appointed in all the States, and the States divided into districts. 
 It has been found that the limited compensation allowed to the district 
 collectors has compelled the districts to be made smaller than is desira 
 ble. It would have been better to increase the allowance, particularly 
 in cities, and give the collector a larger jurisdiction. It is a subject of 
 doubt whether the salary of the chief collector was intended to include 
 office hire and all contingencies. I have interpreted the law as includ 
 ing within the salary every expense, except books, stationery, advertis 
 ing, postage, and the like. 
 
 On examining the clause relating to the tax on money, it will be found 
 that a doubt is created as to the extent of the exception. Congress in 
 tended, unquestionably, to tax cash on hand and on deposit, and I think 
 that intention is expressed by the act. But the failure to insert a semi 
 colon, and the use of the conjunction "and," has given occasion to inter 
 ested parties to raise a question, and to claim that the conjunction places 
 the cash among the excepted, instead of the taxed property. It would 
 be well to settle the question by a clause in any supplementary act which 
 may be passed. 
 
 The great extent of our country, together with the condition of the 
 times, has rendered it impossible to comply with the requisitions of the 
 act fixing a time for making assessments. This time was fixed at as 
 early a day as the first Monday in November, chiefly with the view to en 
 able the State Legislatures to determine whether they would assume the 
 payment of the tax. But it has been found impracticable to accomplish 
 this end within the time. I recommend, therefore, that the time for 
 making the assessments be extended to the first day of January next. 
 This will involve an extension of time for the subsequent proceedings, 
 but it will not affect the date at which the collection of the tax is 
 directed to be made. 
 
 The treasury notes issued under the act of May 16th, 1861, amount to 
 nearly twenty millions, and the authority given by that act Is exhausted. 
 One of the provisions of this act was an experiment, which has been 
 found to work well. It allowed these twenty millions of notes to be 
 funded in ten-year bonds or stocks, which should be re-exchangeable for 
 treasury notes. A large amount of these notes have been thus funded 
 and the bonds and stocks are quite in demand. Almost the entire loan 
 first taken from the banks has been funded by them in this stock, and it 
 seems to me advisable to extend the privilege to all the treasury notes 
 allowed by law. The act of May 16th gives the privilege to the two-year 
 treasury notes issued under that act, and, until the experiment was 
 tried, it was not deemed advisable to include the issue under the act of 
 August 19th. It has since been found that the treasury notes have de- 
 
APPENDIX. 425 
 
 rived additional currency from the freedom with which they can be con 
 verted into an interest-bearing security, which, at any moment, can be 
 reconverted into currency. The advantage to these securities is so great 
 that I think they could be made to bear a less rate of interest. I recom 
 mend, therefore, that the holders of any issue of treasury notes be 
 authorized, under such regulations as may be issued by the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, to fund them in bonds or stock, bearing a rate of interest 
 not exceeding seven per cent., which bonds or stock shall be re-ex 
 changeable for treasury notes. It seems to me probable that six per 
 cent, interest will be sufficient for these securities, and I propose to try 
 that rate ; but, as it may not prove so, it would be well to give the power 
 to issue at seven per cent. I would prefer attempting the lower rate for 
 another reason. It is desirable to hold out inducements for investment 
 in the permanent funded debt. A difference of two per cent, interest 
 would furnish that inducement; but so long as the convertible bonds 
 bear an interest nearly the same as the permanent, the former will be 
 preferred, and will bring a higher market price. Still, as there is some 
 uncertainty what difference is requisite to effect the result, I respectfully 
 recommend that a discretion be confided to the Secretary of the Treasury 
 on this point. 
 
 The whole fifteen million loan of February 28, 1861, has been taken up. 
 Upon the loan of August 19th a large amount has been subscribed from 
 the proceeds of the sale of produce. As the value of produce is uncer 
 tain, no absolute estimate can be made of the avails of the proceeds. 
 Eeasonable conjecture rates the amount at between forty and fifty mil 
 lions. 
 
 The treasury notes already issued amount in the whole 
 
 to $ 32,199,455 00 
 
 The bonds exclusive of the loan of February 28th .... 3,053,300 00 
 
 The amount of temporary loan from banks, for which 
 
 treasury notes must be issued 9,850,576 68 
 
 And the balance of treasury warrants outstanding, for 
 
 which treasury notes must also be issued, is 8,795,991 37 
 
 Total 53,899,323 05 
 
 Which, being deducted from amount authorized, say . . . 100,000,000 00 
 
 Leaves authority to issue only $ 46,100,676 95 
 
 This sum being not more than the amount probably required for the 
 bonds for the produce loan, it is clear that authority must be given for 
 extending the issue of treasury notes. The amount of this increase must 
 be determined by the period which Congress shall see fit to provide for. 
 This .period, it seems to me, must extend at least to April next, because 
 
426 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 the new Congress could scarcely make new arrangements before that 
 date. The expenditures for the last two months have averaged about 
 twenty millions per month. At that rate, from first November to first 
 April, will require one hundred millions for current expenses. It is not 
 probable that any considerable amount will be realized within that pe 
 riod from the produce loan, and, therefore, the whole sum must be raised 
 by treasury notes. 
 
 It has been already shown that the existing laws only authorize a 
 further issue of both bonds and treasury notes to about forty-six mil 
 lions, and that the produce loan will probably exhaust this amount. 
 
 Authority is, therefore, required to issue bonds for further loans, to be 
 subscribed by the citizens, or to be used in the purchase of army sup 
 plies, and the amount of these bonds, added to the one hundred millions 
 additional for treasury notes, will furnish the extent of additional 
 authority required of Congress. When these treasury notes shall have 
 been used, the whole issue of treasury notes will amount to about one 
 hundred and fifty-four millions. It is hoped that a considerable portion 
 of these notes will be funded, and in that way reduce the amount of cir 
 culation, and to that end it is advisable to make the funded debt as se 
 cure and as acceptable to the public as may be practicable. 
 
 1 propose to issue the bonds and stock authorized by the act of August 
 19th upon the plan suggested by Mr. Holmes, of South Carolina, and 
 adopted by the city of Charleston. The principle of the plan is the semi 
 annual payment of a part of the principal, and the appropriation of a 
 fixed amount sufficient to pay the whole interest, together with the 
 portion of principal proposed to be paid off. Every year the amount re 
 quired for interest becomes less and adds to the amount applicable to the 
 principal. 
 
 It will be seen that, by this method, the entire debt can be extinguished 
 in twenty years by raising annually the interest and one-twentieth of the 
 principal. I have assumed that after the expiration of two years from 
 the first January ensuing, payments of principal may be commenced; 
 and as the law limits the bonds to twenty years, I propose to issue them 
 in semi-annual periods, extending over eighteen years, from first Janu 
 ary, 1864, and paying semi-annually one-thirty-sixth of the principal. 
 
 It seems to me that the varying periods at which the bonds become 
 payable will recommend them to the public, and especially to the sub 
 scribers to the produce loan. In time of peace the distant bonds would 
 be preferred, but I think that at this time the short bonds will be in 
 greatest demand. Every subscriber to the produce loan who has debts 
 to pay will prefer the short bonds, as they may be made available for that 
 purpose. So, too, persons funding treasury notes will probably prefer 
 short bonds. Moreover, the different dates will suit guardians, trustees, 
 and other persons who make investments with a fixed purpose, and it is 
 
.1 PPENDIX. 427 
 
 believed, therefore, that this plan will suit the wants of all better than 
 any other, while the advantage to the government in having its debt 
 gradually and steadily diminished is a full compensation for the addi 
 tional expense and inconvenience of such an issue. 
 
 As soon as the estimates of additional appropriations required by the 
 various departments shall be received, I shall submit the further finan 
 cial estimates and recommendations which they shall call for. 
 
 I have further to report that under the provisions of the act of Con 
 gress, an assay office has been established at Dahlonega; and that no 
 application has yet been made for the office at Charlotte. 
 
 I have also to report that under the provisions of the act of Febru 
 ary 28, 1861, I have extended the ports of delivery at Memphis and 
 Nashville into ports of entry; and for the convenience of disbursing 
 officers in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri, I 
 have, under the provisions of the act of Congress of 6th August, 1861, 
 made the collectors of these ports depositories of public moneys. 
 
 All which is respectfully submitted. 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER, 
 Secretary of Treasury. 
 
428 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 Statement exhibiting the Receipts and Expenditures of the Government, from 
 its organization to, and including, November 16,1861. 
 
 Receipts to June 30, 1861, inclusive : 
 
 From Customs $ 797,960 43 
 
 Miscellaneous sources 629,165 51 :NS 
 
 Subscriptions to loan of Feb ry 28, 1861, 7,450,749 65 * 
 
 Interest on ditto 1,044 57 
 
 Premium on ditto 4,187 62 
 
 Treasury notes issued under act of 9th 
 
 March, 1861 1,116,40000 
 
 $9,999,507 78 
 
 Receipts from July 1st to November 16, 1861, inclusive, 
 
 as per statement furnished by the Treasurer: 
 
 From Customs 151,652 41 
 
 Export duty on cotton 1,311 65 
 
 Miscellaneous sources 163,612 39 
 
 Subscriptions to loan of Feb ry 28, 1861, 7,538,977 00 
 Subscriptions to loan of May 16, 1861 . 2,702,100 00 
 Subscriptions to loan of August 19,1861 351,20000 
 
 Temporary loan from banks 9,850,576 68 
 
 Interest on loans . . . 27,563 14 
 
 Premium on loans 1,168 34 
 
 Treasury notes issued under act of 
 
 May 16, 1861 17,347,955 00 
 
 Treasury notes issued under act of Au 
 gust 19, 1861 12,830,400 00 
 
 Treasury notes issued under act of 
 
 March 9, 1861 904,700 00 
 
 51,871,216 61 
 
 Total receipts $61,870,724 39 
 
 Expenditures to September 30, 1861, inclusive : 
 Civil, miscellaneous, foreign intercourse and public debt, 
 $1,506,548.72; War, $39,507,440.10 ; Navy, $1,962,928.79. . 42,967,917 61 
 Expenditures from October 1st to November 16, 1861, 
 inclusive, as per statement furnished from office of 
 the Secretary of the Treasury: 
 
 Civil, miscellaneous, foreign intercourse and public debt, 
 $239,121.46; War, $26,511,299.93 ; Navy, $939,376.76 . . . . 27,689,798 15 
 
 Total expenditures $70,666,715 76 
 
 ROBERT TYLER, Register. 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, REGISTER S OFFICE, November 19, 1861. 
 
APPENDIX. 429 
 
 REVIEW OF THE FINANCIAL MEASURES OF THE 
 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 14, 1862. 
 
 Hon. Thos. S. Bocock, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Confed 
 erate States : 
 
 SIR, At the first meeting of the Congress of the permanent govern 
 ment, it seems proper to present to its members a review of the finan 
 cial measures of the Provisional government, and of the position in 
 which they now stand. 
 
 At the commencement of the government a revenue system was 
 adopted, which was deemed adequate to its support, had peace contin 
 ued. The tariff was greatly reduced, and all discriminating duties on 
 ships and cargoes were abolished. The free navigation of the waters 
 of the Confederate States was offered to all the w r orld, and the Missis 
 sippi river was recognized as a great highway of the States upon its 
 waters. 
 
 The action of the United States government admonished us to pre 
 pare for war. The presumed dimensions of that war are exhibited by 
 the financial measures which Congress adopted. They authorized an 
 issue of one million of dollars in treasury notes, of denominations not 
 less than fifty dollars, payable in one year, at an interest of $3.65 per 
 cent. They also authorized a loan of fifteen millions of dollars, for ten 
 years, at an interest of eight per cent., secured by an export duty of 
 one-eighth of a cent per pound on raw cotton, and directed the Secre 
 tary of the Treasury to devise a plan for its redemption. 
 
 The plan adopted by the Secretary provided that the annual produce 
 of the export duty should be applied first to pay the interest, and then 
 to purchase from the lowest bidders so much of the principal as the 
 surplus would reach, reserving a discretion to the Secretary of the 
 Treasury as to the acceptance of bids where they demanded more than, 
 the face of the bonds. 
 
 Considerable difficulty arose in disposing of this loan, from the fact 
 that in some of the Confederate States the banks had suspended specie 
 payments, while in others they were paying out coin. The suspended 
 banks, however, by a joint and patriotic effort determined to make their 
 notes, when paid in, for the loan, equivalent to coin, and thereupon the 
 loan was successfully negotiated. 
 
 The war had now so much enlarged its proportions as to demand 
 sums of far greater magnitude. On the 16th of May, authority was 
 given to issue twenty millions of dollars in treasury notes of smaller 
 denominations, payable in two years, without interest, and intended to 
 
430 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 circulate as currency ; and a further sum of thirty millions in eight per 
 cent, bonds. The holders of the treasury notes were allowed to fund 
 them in the bonds of the Confederate States, payable in ten years ; and 
 as an experiment, these bonds were allowed to be reconverted into 
 treasury notes at the pleasure of the holder. 
 
 At this stage of our progress we were brought to a stand by the diffi 
 culty of preparing treasury notes in the Confederate States. We had 
 become so entirely dependent upon the North, that but a single bank 
 note engraver could be found in the Confederate States; and none of 
 the material necessary for a bank note was manufactured amongst us. 
 We were, therefore, compelled to substitute lithographs for steel en 
 gravings, and to create the manufacture of bank-note paper. The de 
 lays incident to such a state of things produced many difficulties, and 
 rendered it impossible to furnish an amount in notes adequate to meet 
 the daily requisitions of the departments. The banks were applied to 
 for a loan of their notes to meet the exigency. They promptly re 
 sponded, and the balance due them is set forth in one of the schedules 
 accompanying this report. 
 
 The increasing dimensions of the war induced the Congress at its 
 next session, to expand the issue of treasury notes to one hundred mil 
 lions, and to authorize a loan on bonds or stock for one hundred mil 
 lions more. The notes were made payable six months after the ratifica 
 tion of a treaty of peace with the United States; and in order to pre , 
 vent their redundancy, it was provided that any holder might fund 
 them in eight per cent, bonds; or, to the extent of twenty millions, 
 might exchange them for bonds payable in ten years, at an interest not 
 exceeding seven per cent., re-exchangeable for treasury notes. 
 
 Throughout the Confederacy the banks and people promptly re 
 sponded to these measures of the government, and everywhere the 
 treasury notes were accepted as currency. These notes thus became 
 part of the regular circulating medium, and furnished the government 
 with a large and available loan, free of interest. In return, the govern 
 ment owed a duty to take all proper means to prevent an over-issue, 
 and the depreciation consequent thereupon. It was therefore provided 
 that the notes might be funded at the pleasure of the holder in Confed 
 erate bonds at an interest of eight per cent.; and to secure the punc 
 tual payment of the principal and interest of these bonds, a war tax of 
 one-half of one per cent, was imposed upon the chief articles of prop 
 erty in the Confederate States. 
 
 The fifteen million loan was taken up chiefly by the banks and by the 
 commercial community. It was deemed proper to bring this second 
 loan more particularly to the attention of the planters. Measures were 
 taken to canvass the cotton region for subscriptions, payable from the 
 proceeds of the growing crop. These subscriptions amount to about 
 
APPENDIX. 431 
 
 twenty millions, and had our ports been open, would at this time have 
 furnished available means for the support of the government. But, in 
 the present state of things, they stand only as a basis of credit, and are 
 realized from time to time as sales of the crop are effected. These sales 
 are sufficiently extensive to require the appointment of agents at the 
 principal places of delivery to collect the subscriptions; and they have 
 accordingly been appointed. I herewith communicate a copy of the 
 instructions given to them. 
 
 THE ONE-HUNDRED-MILLION LOAN. 
 
 The bonds for this one hundred million loan were authorized to bo 
 issued for any period less than twenty years. The interest being at 
 eight per cent., it was deemed best to make the period as short as possi 
 ble. The war tax had been adjusted to raise a sufficient amount to pay 
 part of the principal as well as the whole interest of the debt; and as 
 soon as peace might be restored, a judicious economy would enable the 
 government to pay off the debt, if distributed over a series of years. 
 And even should it not be found convenient to pay off the instalments 
 as they became due, the improved credit of the government in time of 
 peace would enable it to raise money at a less rate of interest, where 
 with it could discharge its obligations. 
 
 These considerations induced me to arrange the debt upon the plan 
 of Mr. James G. Holmes, of South Carolina; the principle of which is 
 the distribution of the debt into instalments, w r hich call for the pay 
 ment annually of a fixed sum for principal and interest, so adjusted as 
 to extinguish the whole in twenty years. This is accomplished by mak 
 ing the first instalment of principal payable in two years, and the last 
 in twenty, and distributing the payments into thirty-six semi-annual 
 periods. This constant diminution of the principal annually dimin 
 ishes the interest, and leaves a larger portion of the fixed payment 
 applicable to the remaining principal, until the whole debt is dis 
 charged. 
 
 This scheme of public debt, it is believed, will be found more suitable 
 to the wants of our community, particularly at the present time. The 
 planting community will more readily be induced to take bonds which 
 they can use in payment, or which will be paid up at short periods, and 
 which from the small amount of money-capital usually seeking in 
 vestment in bonds, they can expect to realize promptly by the usual 
 method of sale. 
 
 THE RESULTS OF THE MEASURES. 
 
 I now proceed to exhibit the results of these measures and the pres 
 ent condition of the Treasury. 
 
432 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 The receipts into the Treasury from all sources during the existence 
 of the Provisional government, say from the 17th of February, 1861, to 
 18th of February, 1862, are as follows : 
 
 Customs $ 1,270,875 48 
 
 Miscellaneous 988,888 2Q, 
 
 Fifteen million loan 15,000,000 00 
 
 Bank loan 9,813,545 49 
 
 One hundred million loan 16,152,660 02 
 
 Interest and premium . .*.. 33,785 13 
 
 Treasury notes 95,790,250 00 
 
 $139,051,004 32 
 
 The total amount of expenditures is as follows : 
 Civil, miscellaneous, foreign intercourse and public 
 
 debt $ 5,045,660 82 
 
 War 152,844,430 20 
 
 Navy 7,600,485 89 
 
 $165,490,576 91 
 
 The difference between these two aggregates, to-wit : $26,439,572.59, 
 exhibits the balance remaining in the Treasury to the credit of disburs 
 ing officers throughout the Confederacy. This balance will be paid in 
 treasury notes as the same may be called for, and when paid will add 
 that amount to the issue ; making for the whole issue under the Provis 
 ional government the sum of $122,229,822.59. 
 
 The Provisional Congress has extended its appropriations for the sup 
 port of the government as far as the first of April, ensuing. The total 
 amount of appropriations made up to that period is $249,285,086.26; 
 from which deduct those already paid as above, $165,490,576.91, leaves 
 yet to be paid, $83,794,509.39. 
 
 The means which have been provided to pay this amount are : 
 
 1. The remainder of treasury notes authorized to be issued. 
 
 Whole amount authorized $ 150,000,000 00 
 
 Amount absorbed by expenditures of the Provisional 
 
 government 122,229,822 59 
 
 Balance . . . . $27,770,177 41 
 
 This balance is subject to further abatement on account of the tempo 
 rary loan made by the banks, which they have the right to call for in 
 treasury notes. 
 
 This loan amounts to $ 9,813,545 49 
 
 Leaving the amount of treasury notes, which may still 
 
 be issued 17,956,631 92 
 
APPENDIX. 433 
 
 2. The next item of means provided by the Provisional Congress is the 
 remainder of the one hundred million loan authorized by the war tax act. 
 
 Whole amount authorized $100,000,000 00 
 
 Amount already issued 16,152,660 02 
 
 Balance .$83,847,339 98 
 
 Add the balance of treasury notes authorized 17,966,631 92 
 
 Total means .... $101,803,971 90 
 
 Balance of appropriations as above 83,794,509 35 
 
 Surplus $18,009,462 55 
 
 From this abstract it appears that it will require about sixty-six mil 
 lions more of the one hundred million loan, together with all the treas 
 ury notes authorized by law, to pay the appropriations already made. 
 It is not probable, however, that all these appropriations will be required. 
 Several of them are made upon contingencies ; and, in no event, is it 
 likely that they will all be called for within the period for which they 
 were appropriated. Continual accession to the means of the Treasury 
 is already had from the produce loan. The subscriptions to this loan 
 are portions of the one hundred million loan, and are therefore applica 
 ble to the current expenditures. Treasury notes, too, are deposited 
 every day with the treasurer and assistant treasurers, upon the ar 
 rangement which authorizes their deposit on call. And if we can pre 
 serve the confidence of the country, these deposits will absorb a large 
 portion of the bank deposits and much of the domestic exchanges of 
 the country, as soon as it is understood that they can be drawn or 
 transferred from place to place at the pleasure of the holder. 
 
 It is obvious, too, that these call-deposits will assist in relieving any 
 redundancy in the currency, by withdrawing a part of the circulation ; 
 and it is hoped that, with the aid of funding in the permanent debt, 
 this dangerous method of raising money will be rendered safe. To en 
 able the Treasury to use the whole amount deposited, it would be well 
 to give that department authority to hold in reserve and issue a certain 
 surplus, in case of sudden and unexpected calls by depositors. 
 
 The next matter in order is the consideration of the estimates for ex 
 penditures and supplies, for the period designated by Congress, say to 
 the first of December next. The estimates of expenditure furnished by 
 the different departments are as follows : 
 
 Civil List $ 617,572 74 
 
 Miscellaneous 2,466,223 49 
 
 Foreign intercourse 60,000 00 
 
 Public debt 1,500,000 00 
 
 War . 199,799,725 58 
 
 Navy 9,560,905 29 
 
 $214,004,427 10 
 
434 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 The only means already provided, to supply these demands con 
 sist of 
 
 1. The balance of the one hundred million loan, above stated, which 
 when realized, would amount to $17,847,339.98. 
 
 2. And the net proceeds of the war tax. The amount of this item is 
 rendered uncertain by the occupation of some of our territory by the 
 enemy. It must be set down at a conjectural amount, say, at twenty 
 millions. 
 
 The remainder of the supplies must be obtained by one or more of 
 the following methods : 
 One. Taxes. 
 Two. Treasury notes. 
 Three. Loans. 
 
 1. Taxes. Experience has fully established that the expenses of mod 
 ern war cannot be maintained by the taxes to be levied during a state 
 of war. The utmost that can be obtained by taxes, at such a time, is 
 the establishment of a solid basis for loans, and the pledging a suffi 
 cient amount of annual income to discharge the principal and interest 
 of such loans, as they become payable. The war tax, levied by the Pro 
 visional Congress, stands upon this basis; its proceeds are too small for 
 any other purpose. 
 
 2. Treasury Notes. Experience has also established that this is the most 
 dangerous of all the methods of raising money. The danger arises 
 from the fact that, in borrowing money in this form, the government 
 interferes with the measures of value. The amount of currency usually 
 circulating in a country forms its measures of value. While this con 
 sists of gold and silver, it cannot become redundant, because any excess 
 would immediately be exported to other countries. But when a cur 
 rency has no value except in one country, this security against excess 
 is lost, and every addition becomes permanent circulation. Every 
 money-value must re-adjust itself to this increase, and the result is, 
 that to obtain a comparatively small amount of money, the values of 
 the entire property of the community are changed. The government 
 itself, in time of war, becomes the greatest sufferer. Being the largest 
 purchaser of commodities, it buys at the inflated prices which it has 
 itself produced, and loses more in its payments than the amount it has 
 attempted to raise by its currency. The relations of debtor and creditor 
 are disturbed by every successive issue, and the result is the prostra 
 tion of public credit and private confidence. The facility with which 
 a government paper currency may be issued, offers strong temptations 
 to resort to it in difficult times. But the disastrous consequences 
 which have always attended its over-issue, warn us to mark with care 
 the boundaries within which it should be confined. 
 
 With this view the Provisional Congress have anxiously sought for 
 appropriate checks and absorbents. They began with an issue of twenty 
 
APPENDIX. 435 
 
 millions, which has been gradually extended to one hundred and fifty 
 millions. Feeling their way with each successive issue, they have pro 
 vided two means of relieving redundancy. One is the permision to fund 
 in permanent securities of the government at eight per cent.; the 
 other is a deposit on call at six per cent. It was supposed that any re 
 dundancy would be absorbed by one or the other of these outlets, and 
 that the remainder would justly measure the actual wants of the com 
 munity. Within this limit a government currency may be safely and 
 even beneficially used. 
 
 In a former report it was shown that the actual currency of the Con 
 federate States, before the present war, might be estimated at eighty- 
 five and a half millions, and it was suggested that it might safely be 
 enlarged to one hundred millions. Since that period it has been deemed 
 necessary to extend the issue to one hundred and fifty millions. At the 
 date of the statements above referred to the actual issue amounted to 
 only $95,790,250; but since that period they have been increasing daily, 
 until at present they amount to $107,988,855. The evidence of redun 
 dancy begins to appear in the freedom with which call deposits are 
 made, and the high prices of specie and foreign exchange are partly the 
 result of that same cause. But on the other hand, the freedom with 
 which treasury notes are circulated at par with bank notes, indicates 
 an equal confidence in both; while the capacity they have of being 
 funded, gives them a superior claim on public confidence. 
 
 The fact that so large an issue can thus be supported, while at the 
 same time the States are increasing the circulation by their issues of 
 treasury notes, seems to prove that the treasury notes of this govern 
 ment perform some function which was not foreseen; and that function 
 is probably their agency in supplying domestic exchange for the Con 
 federacy. So long as the public confidence can be preserved, this effect 
 would attend a currency receivable at all points at par. And while it 
 affords a larger field of circulation, it admonishes us to use the utmost 
 caution, lest the credit of the government should be impaired. Under 
 existing circumstances, it seems to me that Congress might venture to 
 authorize an issue of fifty millions more, if they will provide means for 
 absorbing redundancy similar to those already provided for existing 
 issues. This will raise the issue to two hundred millions, an amount at 
 which we should pause in this direction, until we can see the effects 
 upon the country. 
 
 3. A large balance of supplies remains to be provided, and this must 
 be procured from the third resource, namely: Loans by means of 
 funded debt. There is no limit to this resource short of the ability of 
 the nation to pay. And the just measure of this ability is the amount 
 which it can raise by taxes or revenues to refund such loans. So long 
 as the interest of a debt can be secured with certainty, together with 
 go much of the principal as will discharge the debt in a reasonable 
 
436 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 time, that debt may be made available. The first step then to be taken 
 by the government towards enlarging its loans, is to enlarge the means 
 of repaying them; in other words, the taxes must be increased. 
 
 The war tax has already put in motion all the machinery requisite 
 for levying a tax. It has selected those articles which can best bear the 
 burden, and it levies on their value the very moderate rate of one-half 
 of one per cent. The simplest of all plans, therefore, would be an in 
 crease of this tax to a sufficient amount to pay the loan required upon 
 the principles already adopted. 
 
 The permanent constitution requires that this plan be modified. It 
 differs from the constitution for the Provisional government, in re-en 
 acting the clause which provided for an apportionment of direct taxes 
 among the States. The arrangement of the tax is thus made more com 
 plex. But as soon as Congress shall declare the aggregate amount to 
 be raised, the assessments already made may be assumed as a basis for 
 its distribution, and will materially aid the further details. 
 
 A sufficient tax will secure the lenders. But the enquiry naturally 
 arises, where are these lenders to be found ? Our people have property 
 in abundance, but they have no surplus capital in money. Our plans 
 must be modified to meet this difficulty. We must accept products in 
 exchange for the bonds wherever they can be made available for the 
 wants of the government. The farmer has supplies for the army; 
 the manufacturer has clothing or other commodities ; the railroad com 
 pany has transportation ; the miner has coal and iron ; all of which the 
 government needs. If these supplies can be obtained in exchange for 
 Confederate bonds, a loan in kind is effected on credit, to the satisfac 
 tion of both parties. An exchange of treasury notes for the same arti 
 cle is a purchase for cash, inasmuch as treasury notes are now money 
 like bank notes. The issue of such notes must, of necessity, have nar 
 rower limits than the issue of bonds; and, like all cash assets, they are 
 more readily exhausted. The whole amount of treasury notes which 
 the government can put in circulation will be required for the pay of 
 the army, for the wages of mechanics, and for other expenditures, which 
 cannot be paid with bonds. To use them, therefore, for other purposes 
 is to leave these necessary items unpaid and thereby to discredit the 
 government. 
 
 There is also another method to be considered, in which the bonds of 
 the government may be made available. Large sums must be paid 
 abroad for purchases of arms, munitions of war, and army and navy sup 
 plies. The cotton and tobacco crops have usually furnished the means 
 of making foreign payments, and they can probably now be used with 
 advantage for the same purpose. The holders of cotton have already, to 
 a large amount, agreed to accept bonds for the sales of their cotton. They 
 may be induced to close their subscriptions at once by delivering to the 
 
APPENDIX. 437 
 
 government in kind, at the market or some equitable rate, the produce 
 which they have subscribed. If arrangements can be made by which 
 this produce may be used by the government, either as a remittance or 
 as a means of making remittances for the purchases required, it would 
 enable the government to make available, as cash, a large amount of its 
 bonds. The extent to which this operation could be carried can only be 
 determined by actual experiment. It certainly would not exceed the 
 amount of the produce loan. There would be considerable difficulty in 
 the administration of the details, and a large confidence must be reposed 
 in the agents. But if Congress should see fit to attempt the experiment 
 due efforts will be made to carry it into execution. 
 
 These various considerations may be reduced into form in the follow 
 ing suggestions: 
 
 1. That authority be given to increase the issue of treasury notes to 
 fifty millions more. 
 
 2. That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to keep a reserve 
 of treasury notes not exceeding ten millions, and that he be authorized 
 to issue the same to holders of deposit certificates upon any sudden and 
 unexpected call the issue to be reduced within the reserve fund as soon 
 as possible. 
 
 3. That an additional issue of bonds or stock to the amount of $164,004,- 
 427.10 be authorized upon the plan already adopted. 
 
 4. That subscriptions in kind be taken for this loan of all articles re 
 quired by the government to be exchanged for the said bonds. 
 
 5. That cotton and tobacco, and other agricultural products subscribed 
 to the produce loan, may be accepted at a valuation in exchange for the 
 bonds to such extent and under such regulations as may be determined 
 by Congress the Secretary of the Treasury to have authority to ship, or 
 Bell, or procure advances upon such produce for the use of the govern 
 ment. 
 
 6. That Congress impose an additional war tax for such amount as will 
 sustain the additional loan which they may authorize, and that the said 
 tax be collected at as early a day in the present year as may be practi 
 cable. 
 
 7. And, finally, to provide the machinery required for these plans, let 
 the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to employ such agents as 
 may be necessary to carry out these plans, and direct the employment 
 of such additional clerks by the assistant treasurers, and in the Treasury 
 Department, as may become necessary. 
 
 The various schedules and estimates to which reference is made in the 
 above report are herewith submitted in detail for the information of 
 Congress. 
 
 All of which is respectfully submitted by your obedient servant, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER, 
 
 Secretary of Treasury. 
 
438 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 CONDITION OF TREASURY JANUARY, 1863. 
 
 TKEASURY DEPARTMENT, C. S. A. 
 RICHMOND, January 10, 1863. 
 
 Hon. T. S. Bocock, Speaker House of Representatives, C. S. A.: 
 
 SIR, I have the honor to submit the following report of the condi 
 tion of this Department : 
 
 The statements for the last year were made up to the 18th of Febru 
 ary, 1862, the termination of the Provisional government. From the 
 commencement of the Permanent government to the 31st of December, 
 1862, the receipts and expenditures were as follows : 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 
 Patent fund $ 13,920 00 
 
 Customs 668,566 00 
 
 Miscellaneous 2,291,812 00 
 
 Repayment of disbursing officers 3,839,268 00 
 
 Interest on loans 26,583 00 
 
 Call-loan certificates 59,742,796 00 
 
 One hundred million loan 41,398,286 00 
 
 Treasury notes 215,554,885 00 
 
 Interest-bearing notes 113,740,000 00 
 
 War tax 16,664,513 00 
 
 Loan 28th February, 1861 1,375,276 00 
 
 Coin received from Bank of Louisiana 2,539,799 00 
 
 $457,855,704 00 
 
 EXPENDITURES. 
 
 War Department , $341,011,754 00 
 
 Navy Department 20,559,283 00 
 
 Civil, miscellaneous, foreign intercourse and customs . . 13,673,376 00 
 
 Interest on public debt, (loans) $ 5,892,989 
 
 Payment of treasury notes, act 9th 
 
 March, 1861 principal $545,900 
 
 Interest 20,860 
 
 566,761 
 
 Redemption of 6 per cent, certificates 11,516,400 
 
 liedemption of treasury notes called in for can 
 cellation and reimbursement of principal, 
 
 under act of May 16, 1861 23,751,172 
 
 41,727,322 00 
 
 $416,971,735 00 
 Add balance against Treasury on Feb. 18, 1862 . 26,439,572 00 
 
 $443,411,307 00 
 
APPENDIX. 439 
 
 Amount of receipts $457,855,704 00 
 
 Deduct amount of expenditures 443,411,307 00 
 
 Balance $ 14,444,397 00 
 
 This balance consists in part of the coin on hand, received from the 
 Bank of Louisiana, and the remainder in interest-bearing treasury notes. 
 
 The appropriations made by Congress and not yet drawn from the 
 Treasury are as follows : 
 
 Civil and miscellaneous $10,925,049 00 
 
 War Department 57,865,879 00 
 
 Customs 396,612 00 
 
 Navy Department 12,692,373 00 
 
 Amount $81,879,913 00 
 
 The estimates for the support of the government to first July, the 
 end of the fiscal year, are as follows : 
 
 Legislative 231,600 00 
 
 Executive (salary of President, etc.) 13,47100 
 
 Treasury Department 29,929,697 00 
 
 War " 242,977,067 00 
 
 Navy 16,948,870 00 
 
 State " 150,253 00 
 
 Department of Justice 172,632 00 
 
 Postoffice Department 60,123 00 
 
 Miscellaneous 10,000 00 
 
 $290,493,713 00 
 
 In order to ascertain the amount to be raised by Congress, we must 
 add: 
 
 1. The estimates $290,493,713 
 
 2. Undrawn appropriations 81,879,913 
 
 $372,373,626 00 
 
 And deduct the balance in the Treasury of 14,444,397 00 
 
 Leaving amount to be raised $357,929,229 00 
 
 The debt of the government at the same date was as follows : 
 BONDS AND STOCK. 
 
 Under act of February 28, 1861 $14,987,000 
 
 " " May 16, "...,,.... 6,414,300 
 
 August 19, " 67,585,100 
 
 Deposit certificates under act of De 
 cember 24, 1861 issued $69,005,370 
 
 Redeemed 12,516,400 
 
 56,488,970 
 
 $145,475,370 00 
 
440 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 TREASURY NOTES. 
 
 3-65 notes $ 992,000 
 
 2-year notes . , 10,919,025 
 
 General currency 272,022,467 
 
 7-30 notes 120,480,000 
 
 $1 and $2 notes 6,216,200 
 
 410,629,692 00 
 
 $556,105,062 00 
 
 In the above statement is contained a large amount of bonds and in 
 terest-bearing notes, which are on hand in the various depositories not 
 yet issued. It is important to bear this in mind in estimating the 
 effect of the act of the last session upon funding treasury notes. The 
 loans in which such notes are funded are those mentioned in the sched 
 ule as loans of May 16th and August 19th. The amount of those loans 
 as reported at the last meeting of Congress was on the 1st of August, 
 $41,577,250. 
 By the statement now reported, the total amount of these 
 
 bonds is $73,999,400 00 
 
 From which should be deducted amount on hand not yet 
 
 disposed of, say 8,000,000 00 
 
 $65,999,400 00 
 
 And in order to ascertain the amount of treasury notes 
 funded, there must be deducted for the bonds issued for 
 produce, say ". 7,000,000 00 
 
 $58,999,400 00 
 Deduct amount reported 1st August . 41,577,250 00 
 
 Balance $17,422,150 00 
 
 This balance shows the amount of treasury notes funded in five 
 months, the average being about 3) millions per month. 
 During the same period the interest-bearing treasury 
 
 notes have increased from $ 22,799,900 00 
 
 To 120,480,000 00 
 
 Increase $ 97,680,100 00 
 
 From which deduct notes on hand 11,004,600 00 
 
 Real increase $ 85,775,500 00 
 
 This large increase of interest-bearing notes affords satisfactory evi 
 dence that the issue of them was a judicious measure ; and for any ordi 
 nary war, the bonds and interest notes, amounting together to a 
 monthly sale of twenty and a half millions, would have sustained the 
 
APPENDIX. 441 
 
 government without any resort to paper currency. But the estimates 
 call for more than twice the amounts furnished by these resources ; and 
 we are compelled to resort to the treasury notes to supply the de 
 ficiency. It becomes, then, a most important inquiry whether the issue 
 of such notes can be continued, and, if it can, then to what extent? 
 
 In a former report it was shown that the circulation of the Confeder 
 ate States before the war might be estimated at one hundred millions 
 of dollars. In the existing state of things, it is probable that a larger 
 amount of currency is required. In time of peace, money passes rap 
 idly from hand to hand, and the same money, in a single day, will dis 
 charge many obligations. A large portion, too, of the operations of 
 business are performed by bills of exchange and bank checks. In the 
 present stagnation of commerce and intercourse, larger amounts of 
 ready money are kept on hand by each individual, and the Confederate 
 treasury notes and call certificates are- used as a substitute for bills and 
 drafts to a considerable extent. If this view be just, we may venture to 
 add as much as fifty per cent, to the usual amount of currency, and this 
 would raise the sum total at which it might stand, to one hundred and 
 fifty millions. The difference between this sum and the actual circula 
 tion will show the redundancy. The actual circulation embraces not 
 only treasury notes, but bank notes and State emissions of treasury 
 notes. In ordinary times, coin would also form a part; but at present, 
 not only the coin but a large portion of the bank notes have been with 
 drawn from circulation. 
 
 The issue of treasury notes on the last day of December amounted 
 to $290,149,692, exclusive of interest-bearing notes. By adding to this 
 sum a sufficient amount to cover the State treasury notes and the bank 
 notes in circulation, we can arrive at the sum total of the currency. 
 Twenty millions added to the treasury notes would probably represent 
 the whole. 
 
 It is this aggregate w T hich must be kept in view w r hen we deal with 
 the currency as a measure of values. It is the whole mass as it is ac 
 cepted by the community in exchange for its various commodities, 
 which, by its proportional relation to those commodities, determines 
 their prices. By a law as invariable as any law of physical nature, these 
 prices rise or fall with the actual volume of the whole currency. Nei 
 ther skill nor power can vary the result. It is, in fact, a relation subsist 
 ing between two numbers, the one representing the total values of prop 
 erty, and the other the total circulating medium. The nature of that 
 medium cannot change it. It would exist with a currency of gold with 
 as much certainty as with one of paper, if the gold were kept within the 
 country by restraints equal to those which retain the paper. 
 
 Assuming, then, that entire confidence exists in our currency, the mere 
 fact that its actual volume has been increased threefold would lead us to 
 expect a corresponding increase in prices. Such increase, although eventu- 
 
442 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 ally certain, does not usually appear at the same moment with the expan 
 sion. Like the moon s attraction upon the ocean, the time of high water 
 is postponed for a certain period beyond the moment at which the influ 
 ence has been exerted and the length of the interval is affected by ex 
 ceptional causes. But although there may be delay, the event is certain. 
 Prices will reach the height adjusted by the scale of issues, and they can 
 only be restored to their usual condition by a return to the normal stand 
 ard of currency. In other words, the only remedy for an inflated cur 
 rency is a reduction of the circulating medium. Is this reduction 
 practicable ? 
 
 Before answering this question it is important that we should be fully 
 assured of the excessive issue of paper currency. If the country were 
 open to foreign intercourse, the difference in value between coin and 
 paper money would at once afford a test. But in the present condition 
 of trade, coin cannot be imported, and gold and silver have become arti 
 cles of commerce like iron and lead. They cannot, therefore, take their 
 usual place as absolute measures of value. 
 
 Difficulties, somewhat of the same kind, attend other tests, such as 
 bills of exchange, real estate or commodities in general use, and of which 
 there is no scarcity. Ordinarily, the average price of wheat, grain and 
 other like articles of prime necessity would furnish a guide. But the 
 want of transportation causes a fluctuation of demand and supply from 
 day to day and thus deranges prices. Making all due allowances for 
 fluctuation we find that the present prices of such articles range at 
 nearly three times the usual peace prices. Notwithstanding the inter 
 ruption of commerce, we find, also, that the foreign exchanges, and even 
 coin, stand at nearly the same rate. Eeasons of a different character, 
 but of equal force, apply to real estate and prevent its price from being 
 "a proper guide. The general increase, however, in its nominal value con- 
 firms the conclusions deduced from the other tests. These facts unite in 
 establishing beyond doubt both the actual redundancy of the currency 
 and its probable rate of excess. 
 
 The remedy which is required, in order to be effective, must, therefore, 
 withdraw two-thirds of the entire volume of the currency. 
 
 The measures already adopted by Congress were intended to act in 
 this direction. The treasury notes were all made fundable originally in 
 eight per cent, securities, and it was supposed that the holders of notes 
 would prefer investing them in bonds, rather than hold them when de 
 preciated. To stimulate investments the holders have been notified by 
 the act of last session, that, after the 22d April, they can no longer invest 
 in eight per cent, securities. These measures, although judicious and 
 well-timed, are overpowered by the necessity which compels the govern 
 ment to increase its issues. Notwithstanding the large and daily invest 
 ments in bonds, the currency continues rapidly to grow in quantity. This 
 increase causes a daily advance in prices, and the necessities of the gov- 
 
APPENDIX. 443 
 
 eminent compel it to purchase at these prices. The payment of en 
 hanced prices again compels a further increase in the issues, and an as 
 cending series of action and re-action is thus established between prices 
 and issues, which, if not arrested, must result in consequences disastrous 
 to the best interests of the country. 
 
 These effects are hastened by the injurious operations of the excess of 
 currency upon the bonds of the government. These bonds are offered as 
 absorbents of the treasury notes, and the high rate of interest which 
 they bear is the inducement to take them. In our present circumstances 
 this interest must be paid in treasury notes. By depreciating these 
 notes the interest suffers equal depreciation ; and an eight per cent, 
 bond becomes, in effect, a four or three per cent., according to the scale 
 of issues of treasury notes. The inducements to take the bonds is thus 
 destroyed, and the bonds themselves cease to afford relief to the cur 
 rency. They offer still less inducement to any foreign purchaser, because 
 he is informed by the rate of exchange that his interest will be paid in 
 a currency which must be exchanged for his own at the rate of three 
 dollars for one. It is plain, therefore, that the change required is a 
 prompt reduction of the currency to its normal condition. The question 
 recurs, is this practicable ? 
 
 At the last session of Congress an effort was made to attain this result 
 by the proposal for a loan of one-fifth of all gross income, to be paid in 
 treasury notes in exchange for bonds. The adoption of this measure 
 would have retired a large amount of treasury notes at an early period, 
 and would thus have checked the advance of prices. It is the misfor 
 tune of every such failure that it leaves the evils increasing at a double 
 ratio ; and subsequent remedies must be so much the more stringent. 
 All the causes of excess continue in full operation. 
 
 Prices increase; the government is c&mpelled to purchase, and the 
 purchase must be paid by new issues. Each new operation aggravates 
 the disease, and hesitation or delay is ruinous. 
 
 The conditions, then, which any sufficient remedy must fulfil, are first 
 prompt, and secondly, effective reduction. To be effective, the currency 
 must be reduced at least to the one hundred and fifty millions already 
 shown to be its extreme limit ; and this reduction must be so prompt as 
 to take effect before prices can undergo further increase. 
 
 To meet these conditions, I would respectfully propose that after the 
 lapse of a reasonable time, the issues of treasury notes bearing date 
 prior to the 1st December, 1862, shall cease to be currency. This can be 
 done with the least possible injury by following up the action of Congress 
 at the last session, and fixing a period of limitation for funding these 
 notes. 
 
 As the law now stands, these notes are receivable for government dues ; 
 and the holder is entitled to fund them in eight per cent, securities, until 
 the 22d April next, after which date he can fund in ?even per cent. I 
 
444 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 propose simply to fix a period of limitation for the exercise of this last 
 mentioned privilege, by enacting, that after the 1st July next the privi 
 lege of funding these notes shall cease. Six months have already been 
 allowed for investment in eight per cent, securities, according to the 
 contract on the face of the note. Two months more will be allowed for 
 investment in seven per cent., and if, after so long a notice, the holders do 
 not choose to avail themselves of their privilege, the good faith of the 
 government will stand clear of imputation. 
 
 But it is essential to good faith that ample means should be provided 
 by the government, to secure and pay the principal and interest of the 
 securities in which the holders are required to invest. This can only be 
 effected by an ample and permanent tax. Such a tax is the corner-stone 
 of the whole fabric. Without it, the scheme has no foundation, and can 
 secure neither public confidence nor success. The proper extent of this 
 tax will hereafter be considered. It is sufficient for the present to affirm 
 that it must, at least, pay the interest on the entire public debt. 
 
 To give completeness to the plan, it would seem proper to provide 
 measures for any future redundancy. We are happily relieved from this 
 necessity by the patriotic proposal of several of the States to guarantee 
 the whole, or a large portion of the war debt of this government. If all 
 the States can be induced, promptly to adopt this measure, means will 
 thereby be furnished to absorb any excess of the new issues over the 
 proper amount of currency. The guaranty of the States will enable* this 
 government to reduce the interest of its bonds to six per cent., and if the 
 States can be prevailed upon to extend the guaranty so as to cover the 
 whole war debt, or at least four or five hundred millions thereof, the sav 
 ing in interest will be so great as to enable the government, in due time, 
 to extinguish the whole principal of its debt. Upon a debt of five hun 
 dred millions, this saving will be just ten millions. The ability to apply 
 this amount to the principal, instead of the interest, affords such obvious 
 advantages, as to ensure the favorable consideration both of Congress 
 and of the States. 
 
 An analysis of the scheme proposed will reduce it to three essential 
 features : 
 
 1. A limitation of the privilege of funding the notes issued, prior to 1st 
 December. 
 
 2. A war tax. 
 
 3. A guaranty by the States. 
 
 I. In considering the first of these features, the first inquiry which 
 suggests itself is, what will be the effect of this limitation ? Will it 
 arrest the circulation of the notes and lessen the volume of currency ? 
 
 Its first effect will certainly be to add another stimulant to investment 
 in bonds. It was unfortunate that the act of the last session postponed 
 the change of interest for six months. The delay has deprived the 
 remedy of much of its efficacy, and good faith requires that at least sixty 
 
APPENDIX. 445 
 
 days should be allowed for its operation. Otherwise, I would have pro 
 posed to limit the funding privilege to 1st May, instead of 1st July. The 
 effect of the stimulant is thus retarded. Still the fact that there is a 
 period of limitation will induce holders to come in before it expires. 
 Those who desire to secure eight per cent, securities will come in before 
 the 22d April, or hold up until near that day, the notes which secure that 
 right, and all who can, will come in before the 1st July, to save the final 
 exclusion. It is probable, therefore, that throughout the entire period 
 an amount will be wit drawn sufficient to check any rapid advance in 
 the total amount of circulation. 
 
 But when the final date of limitation approaches, the notes will not 
 pass readily from hand to hand ; and the result will be that they are 
 thrown out of ordinary circulation and relieve the currency to that ex 
 tent. The comparatively small amount then left in the hands of indi 
 viduals, will cease to have a purchasing power. They will pass only by 
 special contract, and their chief value will consist in their being receiv 
 able for government dues. If, at this point, the government will collect 
 a tax sufficient to absorb the whole remnant, the relief afforded to the 
 community and the currency will be made complete. 
 
 Hitherto the policy of the government has sought to absorb the circu 
 lation by inducements alone. Bonds at a high rate of interest have been 
 offered ; but the inducement has been abated by the depreciation of the 
 currency in which the interest is paid. It is proposed now to supply the 
 deficiency by a small portion of constraint. We see on every side of us 
 indications of the abundance of money. Large sums are everywhere 
 held on deposits ; but the holders propose for themselves more profitable 
 investment securities. The ability to keep unemployed these sums, and 
 to hold them for an indefinite time, proves that no serious damage will 
 be suffered by requiring their conversion into bonds. The large amount 
 of money which is shown by the war tax returns, to be invested at interest 
 in private hands, confirms the belief that there is no want of capital among 
 our people. It does not seem to be a rash conclusion, therefore, that at 
 least three-fourths of the currency outstanding on 1st December, may 
 be funded without substantial damage to private interests. If the re 
 maining fourth could be absorbed by a tax, the solution of the problem 
 would then be complete. The people are fully prepared for the payment 
 of a high tax. It may not be practicable to place it at so high a rate aS 
 to absorb one-fourth of the entire currency to be called in, but it may 
 approach so nearly as to leave unabsorbed only that portion which will 
 remain outstanding, in spite of all efforts to call it in. 
 
 I will not venture to assert that grave objections may not be made to 
 this scheme. Such objections will be found in the way of every plan. 
 They are necessary results of the proportions of the war which is waged 
 against us, and of the enormous sums of money required to carry it on. 
 But it appears to me that upon due examination, these objections, if not 
 
446 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 entirely obviated, will be found to be counterbalanced by equivalent 
 advantages. 
 
 The first and modi obvious objection to the scheme is that it is an 
 infringement of the contract. The notes have been accepted upon the 
 promise of the government that they may be invested in interest-bear 
 ing public securities, and that promise is not fulfilled after the 1st July 
 next. 
 
 It might be answered that Congress has already settled this principle 
 by the act of last session, which reduced the interest from eight to seven 
 per cent. A still better answer will be found in the reasons which led to 
 that act, and which makes necessary the one now proposed. A limitation 
 of time for the performance of contracts has never been considered an 
 infringement where sufficient opportunity is given to claim performance. 
 Justice is satisfied by giving to the party full opportunity to receive the 
 benefit of his contract. Upon this principle rests every change in stat 
 utes of limitation. Examples of the same principle are afforded in pri 
 vate matters by the laws of partnership and for the administration of 
 assets. In public matters the history of every nation affords like prece 
 dents, which will probably find support in the laws of every State in our 
 Confederacy. 
 
 The modification of the contract is substantially for the benefit of both 
 parties. The object in view is to increase the value of the whole remain 
 ing currency. This object it effects by increasing the purchasing power 
 of each note in proportion to the reduction of the whole. Assuming this 
 reduction to be two-thirds, it follows that every holder of only one-third, 
 in proportion of the new issues, will have the same value in money left 
 after he shall have invested the other two-thirds in bonds. In other 
 words, he will make a clear gain of those two-thirds. If he shall have in 
 his possession none of the new issues, he will, nevertheless, gain in the 
 reduced price of every article of consumption. 
 
 2. Next it will be objected that after the lapse of the period of limita- 
 tation the value of the note as money is taken away. It is true that the 
 note will lose its function as money, but its intrinsic value is unimpaired. 
 
 It is still receivable for public dues, and it still has the faith and property 
 of the Confederate States pledged for its payment. It will even have a 
 modified circulation. A great public exigency has arisen which compels 
 a change, and all that the government can do is to make the change with 
 as little injury to private rights as possible. This it endeavors to do by 
 avoiding any direct interference with the contract, and by giving to the 
 holder ample opportunity to reap all its advantages. The time for the 
 enjoyment of these advantages was no part of the contract, and every 
 holder was bound to know that such an incident has always been consid 
 ered within the control of the law-making power. 
 
 3. It will be urged that the calling in the circulation as proposed will 
 Cause too large and sudden a contraction. An examination of the proba- 
 
APPENDIX. 447 
 
 ble state of the currency at the date of limitation will show this objec 
 tion to be unsound. The new circulation to be issued after the l&t De 
 cember will on 1st July probably be upwards of two hundred millions. 
 It will be issued gradually, and will fill up the channels left by the fund 
 ing of the old issues, and, so far from producing contraction, the new 
 issues will probably be in excess at too early a date. The danger at all 
 times to this kind of currency is in that direction. 
 
 4. A fourth objection will be found in the probable effect on the price 
 of bonds. The large amount of currency turned into bonds will cause 
 the supply to outrun the demand, and the usual consequences of such a 
 condition of the market will follow. It cannot be denied that the price 
 of bonds will probably fall. But this fall will in truth be merely nomi 
 nal, and will find a fall compensation in the increased value of the cur 
 rency for which they are sold, ^ind in which the interest will be paid. 
 Those classes of the community which sell bonds from necessity or for 
 the means of living will probably gain more in the reduced market prices 
 of the articles which they purchase than they will lose in the reduced 
 market value of the bonds which they sell. Those who hold the bonds 
 on speculation \vould gain or lose according to their ability to hold them, 
 while all those who have taken them as investment will escape injury by 
 simply holding them according to their original purpose. The contrac 
 tion of the currency will increase the value of the interest paid them 
 during the war ; and at the end of it they will have a security which will 
 command a price which will amply repay their confidence. 
 
 The most conclusive answer, however, to this objection is to be found 
 in the fact that whatever may be the amount of depreciation on tho 
 bonds, it cannot exceed the depreciation in the value of the curv 
 rency. If the government must issue an obligation in the shape ot 
 currency to pay twenty-one dollars for a barrel of flour, which in a 
 normal condition of the currency could be purchased with seven, it 
 is actually selling its paper at one-third of its face. At the same time, by 
 excessive issues, it is disturbing all other values, and all the commercial 
 relations of society. The depreciation in the bonds could never reach 
 this high rate ; neither would it affect the prices of commodities or com 
 mercial relations. If, then, we are reduced to a choice between evils, the 
 reduced value in the bonds is manifestly the less. 
 
 II. We come now to the consideration of the next great feature in the 
 scheme, namely : The war tax. What shall be the subjects of that tax, 
 and what amount shall it raise? 
 
 The subjects upon which a tax may be levied are many, and the expedi 
 ency of each involves questions which it is not proposed at present to dis 
 cuss. It seems to me that a tax upon property and income is so much to 
 be preferred to stamp duties, excises, licenses, and other like taxes, which 
 call for a machinery vexatious in its character and expensive in its oper 
 ation, that there will be little hesitation on the part of Congress in its ac- 
 
448 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 ceptance. The direct tax heretofore levied has set in operation all the 
 machinery necessary to levy another ; and an income tax could be col 
 lected by the same means. It seems to me that both these forms of tax 
 should be adopted. To lay a sufficient tax upon property alone would re 
 quire too large an. increase in the rate of last year= Such an increase 
 would operate with peculiar hardship upon property producing no in 
 come. On the other hand, a tax upon income is so easily evaded, that of 
 itself it would furnish an insecure resource. It is proper, however, that 
 incomes should be taxed ; otherwise the whole profits of speculation and 
 trade, together with those resulting from skill and labor, would escape 
 contribution. I propose, therefore, that a. tax be imposed upon property, 
 and upon the gross amount of incomes of every kind, excepting those be 
 low some minimum to be adjusted by Congress. 
 
 The next enquiry is as to the rates of these taxes, to adjust which, it 
 must first be ascertained what amount ft is necessary to raise. It has al 
 ready been shown that up to the first July next, the treasury notes in 
 
 circulation will exceed $500,000,000 00 
 
 Deduct the circulation proposed to be left, say 150,000,000 00 
 
 Eemaining funded $350,000,000 00 
 
 The annual interest on this sum at 8 per cent. is. .....$ 28,000,000 00 
 
 To this must be added the interest upon about 120 millions 
 
 of 7-30 notes ,760,000 00 
 
 And upon 60 millions of 6 per cent, certificates 3,600,000 00 
 
 Also the interest upon 8 per cent, bonds and stock, say 
 
 about 100 millions 8,000,000 00 
 
 $ 48,360,000 00 
 
 This amount shows the lowest figures which should be raised by the 
 tax. The soundest considerations of policy would add as largely to this 
 sum as the people of our country can bear. If the tax be made payable 
 in all kinds of treasury notes, it would absorb so much of the first issues, 
 and by reducing the amount to be funded, would abate the force of the 
 objections to the scheme. If sixty millions of notes could be thus called 
 in, the benefits resulting would fully counter-balance every possible hard 
 ship. The currency would promptly recover its value, the bonds would 
 become an object of investment, instead of being thrown on the market, 
 and a sure and steady system of finance would be established. 
 
 A tax of one per cent, on property, if it could be made as productive as 
 last year s, would raise twice the amount of the last war tax, say forty 
 millions. But inasmuch as portions of the States are in the hands of the 
 enemy, it would be proper to make a deduction of probably one-tenth, 
 which would leave the amount at only thirty-six millions. 
 
 This sum would be subject to still further abatement, so long as the de 
 cision of the Confederate Court of South Carolina as to the power of Con- 
 
APPENDIX. 449 
 
 gress to tax State bonds remains unreversed. The very large amount of 
 money invested in this form was included in the war-tax act of the last 
 year, and the tax thereon was paid everywhere, except by those who 
 raised the question in South Carolina. For the ensuing year the case 
 would be different. If the same tax were laid by Congress it is probable 
 that the holders of State bonds would claim exemption under this decis 
 ion, and Congress itself might be unwilling to re-enact in the same form, 
 a law which has been declared unconstitutional by the co-ordinate branch 
 of the government, until that decision is reversed. The question is of 
 such magnitude and involves such great interests, that an appeal was 
 taken. But this appeal cannot be decided until a Supreme Court shall be 
 organized. It may be worthy, therefore, of the consideration of Congress, 
 whether the question should not be raised in another form, by taxing the 
 income of the bonds in the hands of the citizens. The taxing power over 
 income in the hands of the citizens for consumption may be distinguished 
 from that over State bonds, specifically as property. In my view, both 
 are constitutional, and the public interests demand that every proper ef 
 fort should be made to ensure consideration of the question in all its as 
 pects. In either case, however, the tax would probably prove unproduc 
 tive, until the question shall be finally decided. It is necessary, there 
 fore, to estimate for an abatement on the tax of last year. Assuming one 
 hundred millions as the probable amount invested in State securities, a 
 tax of one per cent, would amount to one million of dollars, and so much 
 must, therefore, be abated from the estimate. 
 
 In estimating the rate of a tax on incomes, the only basis to which I 
 can refer, is the value of the entire property in the eleven Confederate 
 States. It may be assumed that the net income of this property is meas 
 ured by the average rate of legal interest of the money which represents 
 its value. If the tax were laid upon net income, and that income were 
 faithfully returned, it could, in this way, be estimated with some degree 
 of accuracy. But the devices are so many by which a return of net in 
 come can be evaded, as to make such returns unreliable. A resort to 
 gross income is, therefore, more expedient. The difference between the 
 two must be at least 25 per cent., but, under existing circumstances, and 
 for the purpose of an estimate, it would be prudent to disregard the dif 
 ference and assume that the returns of gross income will be about equal 
 to the average rate of legal interest. It is believed that even the pro 
 ceeds of skill, speculation and labor which may be returned where no cap 
 ital is involved, will not materially vary the result. 
 
 The estimate formerly made to Congress of the value of all the prop 
 erty in the eleven Confederate States, in which taxes have been collected, 
 was 4,632 millions. If we leave out the odd numbers in these figures, on 
 account of such property as is now beyond the reach of taxation, and for 
 other contingencies, we have in round numbers, 4,000 millions, The av- 
 29 
 
450 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 erage of interest in the Confederate States maybe set down at seven per 
 cent., which would make the total income equal, to say, 280 millions. A 
 tax of ten per cent, on this sum would produce, in the gross, about 28 
 millions. And this added to the property tax of 35 millions, would raise 
 a sum total of 63 millions of dollars, or in round numbers, 60 millions 
 after deducting expenses and contingencies. 
 
 It will probably be insisted that there is no occasion for the imposition 
 of so heavy a tax ; and many will contend that it is sufficient that the 
 government pay the interest alone of the public debt. I ask leave most 
 earnestly to dissent from this doctrine, and to urge upon Congress a 
 continuance of the policy already adopted by this government, of mak 
 ing portions of the public debt payable every six months after the prob 
 able termination of the war. The sinking funds devised by Mr. Pitt and 
 the great statesmen of his times, have proved deficient, not in principle, 
 but in administration. The principle upon which they rest is the annual 
 raising of an amount beyond the interest for the purposes of eventually 
 discharging the principal. The punctual investment of these surplus 
 sums at compound interest by the mere operation of numbers, would be 
 certain to discharge the debt in a given time. The failure of this plan, in 
 its effect upon the public debt of England, arose from the defects in its 
 administration. As the invested fund increased in amount, it offered 
 constant temptation to the government to make use of it, and the party 
 in power often preferred inventing pretexts to seize upon it, or to court 
 public favor by calling off unpopular taxes required for its increase 
 rather than continue or augment those taxes. Besides, the neglect to 
 make punctual investments as the interests accrued, had a constant tend 
 ency to reduce compound interest to simple ; and thus it was found im 
 possible, in a long course of years, to preserve the fund inviolate, or to 
 maintain the constant supply from taxes, w r hich the plan demanded. 
 
 These defects are believed to be remedied by the plan upon which the 
 one hundred million loan of this government has been issued. It resem 
 bles the sinking-fund plan in requiring an annual surplus of taxes beyond 
 the amount of interest on the public debt. But it differs from it, in ap 
 plying this surplus to the immediate reduction of principal. The ma 
 chinery of a fund is dispensed with, together with all its attendant offi 
 cials. The best practical investment is made by paying off so much of 
 the public debt ; and the temptations and waste, incident to a fund, are 
 avoided. The full benefit of a sinking fund is thus secured without its dis 
 advantages. All that is required is the original adjustment of the pay 
 ments of principal through an entire series of years, and the steady de 
 termination of Congress to raise annually a fixed sum sufficient to make 
 these payments in addition to the yearly interest. The number of years 
 in which the debt will be paid, will depend upon the amount of this fixed 
 sum. In proportion to its excess over the annual interest will be the 
 shortness of the period. The first payments of principal will be compar- 
 
APPENDIX. 451 
 
 atively small. But each will diminish the interest of the succeeding 
 year, and will thereby set free a larger sum annually to be applied to pay 
 the remaining principal, until the debt be finally discharged. 
 
 The act of Congress of 12th April, 1862, departed from this plan, and 
 made the next issue of bonds payable in thirty years, subject to redemption 
 at any time after the expiration of ten years. The whole subject neces 
 sarily comes up for consideration in adjusting the tax now to be laid by 
 Congress. 
 
 The fifteen-million loan carries an interest of eight per cent. ; it is payable 
 in ten years, but may be redeemed at any time after the 1st of September, 
 1866. The one-hundred-million loan is also an eight per cent, loan, and is 
 made payable in instalments which fall due every six months for eighteen 
 years from 1st January, 1864. The first instalment of principal of $1,288,7QO 
 is payable 1st of January, 1864; the second of $1,340,100 is payable 1st of 
 July, 1864. The third loan is under the act of April, 1862 ; it is also an eight 
 per cent., payable as above stated, at the pleasure of the government at 
 from ten to thirty -years. 
 
 If Congress should approve the application of the plan of the one-hun 
 dred-million loan to the whole debt of the government, then a change 
 should be made in the loan of April, 1862. No bonds have yet been issued 
 under that act, and the matter is yet within the control of Congress. A 
 modification of the law must be made at any rate to meet the reduction 
 of interest required on notes issued subsequent to 1st of December. If 
 the scheme of finance, hereinafter proposed, in relation to the debt guar 
 anteed by the States shall find favor with Congress, a further modifica 
 tion of the loan of 12th of April, 1862, should be made by reducing the 
 period for redemption from ten years to five. This change will enable 
 the proceeds of the sale of the six per cent, bonds guaranteed by the States, 
 to be applied in discharge of the eight per cent, at the end of five years, 
 in case they cannot be purchased in the market sooner. 
 
 III. We come now to the third feature in the scheme, namely : The 
 guaranty of the States. 
 
 The State of Virginia led the way and proposed that Congress should 
 devise a plan for a loan to be guaranteed by the States. Congress did 
 not see fit to take any action on the subject at its last session. It was 
 probably deemed best that the proposal shall come from the States. An 
 offer of their guaranty is certainly more beneficial to the credit of the 
 government than a request for aid. The delay has given the opportunity 
 to the States to make the offer. The State of Alabama has offered a guar 
 anty of her quota of the whole war debt upon certain conditions. The 
 State of South Carolina has offered to guaranty a quota of two hundred 
 millions upon certain other conditions. A copy of the action of their re 
 spective Legislatures is herewith submitted. 
 
 The varying action of these two States evinces the importance of set 
 tling a definitive plan by Congress. It is probable that every State will 
 
452 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 cordially respond to such plan ami sustain the~credit of this government. 
 The great advantages to be derived from this guaranty have already 
 been somewhat developed. It is only necessary now to give prominence 
 to two of them : First, the opportunity which it affords of converting an 
 eight per cent, into a six per cent, debt; and, secondly, the premium 
 which can be realized on the sale of the bonds. The former will enable 
 the government to establish a loan on the principle already explained, 
 and the latter will place in its hands ample means to call in the redun 
 dancy of treasury notes after the 1st of July next, and to sustain the 
 credit of its eight per cent, securities or to purchase them. 
 
 Assuming that the States may be induced to extend their guaranty to 
 five hundred millions, I propose to adjust the debt upon the plan of the 
 hundred-million loan so as to insure its discharge within a given period. 
 The length of this period depends upon the sum which Congress will de 
 vote to the annual payments. The commencement of the period or the 
 date at which the first payment is to be made is, of course, within the 
 control of Congress, and involves the same inquiry as to the amount now 
 to be raised by taxes. A postponement of this first payment of princi 
 pal would seem to allow a diminution of the tax. But it must be ob 
 served that some considerable time must elapse before the guaranty of 
 the States can be had; and further time must then be consumed in car 
 rying the plan into execution and in procuring returns of the sales. 
 During all this period the eight per cent, and 7.30 notes are outstanding, 
 and will absorb nearly as much more money as will afterwards be re 
 quired to meet the first annual payments on the principal. Besides this 
 it cannot be too strongly urged that the present is the appropriate mo 
 ment at which to commence a proper system of taxes. The patriotism of 
 the country is now fully aroused. The duty of contributing largely to 
 the support of the government is generally recognized. The large 
 amount of money in circulation will make the payment easy, and the pay 
 ment itself will aid the tax-payer by reducing prices to their proper con 
 dition. 
 
 Before leaving this subject, I would respectfully submit that there is 
 another plan for arranging the debt in instalments, which would produce 
 the same results. It is by issuing all the bonds in the usual form paya 
 ble at the same date, and attaching to them a condition that the Secre 
 tary of the Treasury shall annually or semi-annually by lot designate a 
 certain portion to be paid off. If these annual payments were arranged 
 on the same principle which governs the one-hundred-million loan, and 
 were made equally obligatory upon the government, the result would be 
 the same. 
 
 A reference to a few details will conclude all I have to say on this sub 
 ject : 
 
 With my last report was submitted a report from the war-tax office, to 
 which I request your attention, particularly to the observations in rela- 
 
APPENDIX. 453 
 
 tion to a uniform tax on slaves. It is proper, also, to make provisions for 
 a more equal assessment of property in each State. A commission of a 
 certain number of the tax collectors from the various portions of each 
 State should be appointed to meet and adjust the rate at which the vari 
 ous kinds of property should be assessed. 
 
 It seems to me, also, that the entire machinery of assessors provided by 
 the last act can be dispensed with by charging the duties of the assessors 
 on the district collectors, and increasing their salaries. Exceptions may 
 be made in case of large cities. This defect in salaries attaches to the 
 entire arrangement of the last act. It is not a wise policy to confide large 
 money arrangements to officers who are badly paid. The patriotism of 
 the officers induced them, during the last year, to accept the offices with 
 the small salaries allowed. But it would be neither wise nor just to ask 
 a repetition of the sacrifice. 
 
 The issuing of treasury notes and the transfer of them to the various 
 depositories with the arrangements at those depositories for their receipt, 
 custody and disposal, have grown into some of the most important func 
 tions of this department. The engraving, printing, and preparing the 
 notes involve great responsibilities and still greater expense, and I must 
 again urge upon Congress the expediency of creating for this branch 
 a separate bureau. The necessities of the times compelled a transfer 
 of the printing establishments to Columbia. It seems a better policy to 
 encourage private competition and enterprise, rather than undertake to 
 carry on mechanical work by the government. The engraving and print 
 ing, together with the manufacture of paper, having all been done by 
 contract. But the handling of the notes after they are printed, and the 
 trimming, numbering and signing them require a large number of clerks. 
 I have been obliged greatly to increase the number under the authority 
 of the act of March 7, 1861, and the whole number is now two hundred 
 and sixty-two, of whom one hundred and thirty-nine are ladies. I ven 
 tured upon the employment of tho latter, under the belief that they 
 would be found diligent and efficient, and that Congress would approve 
 the relief which was thereby extended to a large portion of the most 
 loyal, suffering and deserving of our country-women. In arranging their 
 duties, I reduced the time and work required below the rate required of 
 the men, and made a proportionate reduction of salary. The plan has 
 been found to work well. When it is considered that this very large 
 branch of the business of the Treasury is without an appropriate head, 
 and must be superintended in all its details as matters now stand by the 
 Secretary himself, it will, I trust, be deemed reasonable to establish a 
 separate bureau for its administration. I am bound by a sense of public 
 duty again to say, that it would conduce more to the public interest to 
 dispense with most of this agency, and have the signatures to the notes 
 engraved and printed. Experience proves that any signature is readily 
 imitated that the signatures of the same writers vary so much as to af- 
 
454 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 ford no adequate guide, and, that where so many signers are employed, 
 it is impossible to inform the community either as to their names or sig 
 natures. The written signatures, therefore, furnish no better security 
 than the engraved. 
 
 The issue and deposit of treasury notes, and the very large disburse 
 ments now made for the war, have changed the entire character of the 
 treasuries and depositories. Those at Eichmond, Charleston, Montgom 
 ery and Jackson have become large banks, and the number of clerks and 
 the salaries of both officers and clerks are wholly inadequate. The As 
 sistant Treasurer at Charleston has a salary of $2,500, and the clerks at 
 each office are limited to $1,200. The teller in a bank receives as much 
 for his salary as is now paid to the Assistant Treasurer at Charleston. 
 That officer has, for some time, desired to resign, and for two months I 
 have been seeking, without success, a proper successor. I have also been 
 unable to procure competent clerks at the salaries prescribed, and have 
 been obliged to add to the sum. Congress may judge of the importance 
 of these offices when they are informed that five or six millions of dollars 
 are frequently in their hands on deposit. These officers, moreover, are 
 made responsible for the acts of the clerks under them, a liability which, 
 under present circumstances, no responsible party is willing to take. 
 Unless these difficulties are corrected, it will be difficult to retain the 
 present incumbents, and almost impossible to procure proper successors. 
 
 The collection of the produce loan, together with the purchase of pro 
 duce under the act of April 21, 1862, has been prosecuted with vigor. The 
 total amount of subscriptions to the loan valued in money is about twen 
 ty-five millions of dollars ; of which $7,631,044 have been collected at an 
 expense of one-third of one per cent. The purchases of cotton, thus far 
 reported by the agents, amount to 69,507 bales, costing $4,474,400. These 
 purchases, at the present moment, have probably reached 250,000 bales, 
 including those of which reports are on the way. In order to dispose of 
 the cotton, two forms of certificates have been devised. By one, the spe 
 cific parcel of cotton is identified and disposed of. By the other, the gov 
 ernment obligates itself to deliver certain quantities at certain points, at 
 a fixed price. By the advice of our Ministers abroad, some of the latter 
 certificates, covering about 30,000 bales of cotton, have been placed as an 
 experiment in the foreign market ; but sufficient time has not elapsed to 
 hear from them. The details of this branch of the department are set 
 forth in the report of the clerk in charge, to which your attention is in 
 vited. The important and responsible duties entrusted to this clerk, ren 
 der it proper that his office should be placed on a level with other branches 
 in the department. I would, therefore, respectfully recommend that the 
 office be raised to the grade of a chief clerkship. 
 
 The collated returns of the war tax have not been completely made in 
 all the States. The report of the chief clerk in charge of this bureau, is 
 so full and distinct upon the several points to which attention is due, that 
 
APPENDIX. 455 
 
 I cannot do better than refer you to a copy thereof, which is herewith 
 presented. The question that has arisen between the Governor of Ten 
 nessee and the Department is a mere question of estimate ; but as it in 
 volves a large sum, the Secretary would respectfully ask the direction of 
 Congress as to some proper mode of adjusting the difference. The liberal 
 manner in which the State has acted under the circumstances, may in 
 duce Congress to adopt an estimate which the Secretary would not feel 
 himself empowered to accept. 
 
 The suspension of the collection in several parts of other States is also 
 submitted specifically to the attention of Congress, in order that further 
 instructions may be given. In relation to the State of South Carolina, it 
 should be remarked that the Governor has directed the tax to be collected 
 by the State tax collectors, wherever practicable, and the amount to be 
 paid over to the Confederate Government. 
 
 It is in my judgment advisable that we should improve the present op 
 portunity to largely increase our specie credits in Europe. As a step in 
 this direction, I have sent a large amount of the cotton-loan bonds au 
 thorized by the act of the last Congress to our financial agent at Paris 
 for negotiation, and am advised that they are in demand at the monied 
 centers of Europe. The provisions of the act authorizing this loan are 
 somewhat ambiguous. It is not clear as to whether Congress intended 
 that these bonds should be used in funding treasury notes, or that they 
 . should be used in making a foreign loan. I recommend that the act be 
 so amended that the bonds provided for may be used for largely increas 
 ing the amount of our specie credits ; also that the rate at which cotton 
 should be taken in payment of the coupons of the bonds, when due, shall 
 be reduced to six pence, and that the option remain, as now provided, 
 with the holder, to receive cotton at this price per pound, or coin, as he 
 may elect.. With this amendment to the act, I am assured that pur 
 chasers for a large amount of these bonds can readily be found in the 
 markets of Europe. 
 
 The legislation which will be required to carry into effect the several 
 matters recommended in this report, is the following : 
 
 1. An act limiting the period for funding the treasury notes, bearing 
 date prior to 1st December, 1862. 
 
 2. Authority to issue a sufficient amount of treasury notes, to pay the 
 appropriations required for the support of the government to 1st July 
 next. 
 
 3. Authority to issue bonds and stock sufficient to fund the notes already 
 issued, entitled to be funded at eight per cent. ; and those hereafter to be 
 funded at seven per cent. 
 
 4. A call upon the States to guaranty the war debt, upon a plan to issue 
 six per cent, bonds, payable in instalments, in twenty-five years, upon the 
 plan of the one-hundred-million loan. 
 
456 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 5. A modification of the loan act of April, 1862, by reducing the time to 
 five years, within which the government may redeem the bonds. 
 
 6. A war tax upon property and income. 
 
 7. The appropriation act. 
 
 8. The organization of a bureau in charge of the issue of treasury notes. 
 
 9. Increase of the salaries of the Assistant Treasurers and depositaries 
 and their clerks. 
 
 All of which is respectfully submitted, 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGEB, 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
APPENDIX. 457 
 
 CONDITION OF TREASURY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1863. 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Richmond, December 7, 1863. 
 
 Hon. T. S. Bocock, Speaker of the House of Representatives: 
 
 SIR, I have the honor to submit the following report of the condition 
 of this Department : 
 
 RECEIPTS FROM JANUARY IST TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1863. 
 
 For eight per cent, stock $107,292,900 70 
 
 For seven per cent, stock 38,737,650 70 
 
 For six per cent, stock 6,810,050 00 
 
 For five per cent, call certificates 22,992,900 00 
 
 For four per cent, call certificates 482,200 00 
 
 Cotton certificates, act April 21, 1862 2,000,000 00 
 
 Interest on loans 140,210 11 
 
 War tax 4,128,988 97 
 
 Treasury notes -. 391;623,530 00 
 
 Sequestration 1,862,550 21 
 
 Customs . . . 934,798 68 
 
 Export duty on cotton 8,101 78 
 
 Patent fund - . . . 10,794 04 
 
 Miscellaneous, including repayments by disbursing offi 
 cers 24,498,217 93 
 
 Total $601,522,893 12 
 
 EXPENDITURES DURING SAME PERIOD. 
 
 War Department $377,988,244 00 
 
 Navy Department * 38,437,661 00 
 
 Civil, miscellaneous, etc , . . . 11,629,278 00 
 
 Customs 56,636 00 
 
 Public debt 32,212,290 00 
 
 Notes cancelled and redeemed 59,044,449 00 
 
 Total of expenditures $519,368,559 00 
 
 Total of receipts 601,522,893 00 
 
 Balance in treasury $ 82,154,334 00 
 
 From which is to be deducted the amount of treasury 
 notes which have been funded and brought in for can 
 cellation, but have not yet been regularly audited, esti 
 mated at 65,000,000 00 
 
 Total $ 17,154,334 00 
 
458 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 Public debt (exclusive of foreign loan) at same period was as follows: 
 
 FUNDED. 
 
 Eight per cents $207,128,750 00 
 
 Seven per cents 42,745,600 00 
 
 Six per cents 41,006,270 00 
 
 Six per cent, cotton interest bonds 2,035,000 00 
 
 Total $292,915,620 00 
 
 UNFUNDED. 
 Treasury notes : 
 
 General currency . $603,632,798 50 
 
 Two-year notes 8,477,975 00 
 
 Interest notes at 3.65 627,450 00 
 
 " " 7.30 122,582,200 00 
 
 Under $5 4,887,095 50 
 
 Five per cent, call certificates 26,240,000 00 
 
 Total $766,447,519 00 
 
 Deduct amount of treasury notes funded and cancelled, 
 
 above referred to 65,000,000 00 
 
 $701,447,519 00 
 
 In order to estimate the amount of treasury notes in circulation at the 
 date of this report, there must be added the further sum of one hundred 
 millions for the two months which have elapsed since the date of the above 
 schedules. The balance of appropriations already made by Congress, and 
 not drawn on 30th September, stood as follows : 
 
 War Department $395,502,698 00 
 
 Navy Department 24,413,645 00 
 
 Civil, miscellaneous, etc 56,240,996 00 
 
 Customs 294,460 00 
 
 Total $476,451,799 00 
 
 The estimates submitted by the various departments for the support of 
 the government are made to 1st July, 1864, the end of the fiscal year, and 
 are as follows : 
 
 Legislative Department $ 309,005 00 
 
 Executive Department 52,350 00 
 
 Treasury Department 25,583,359 00 
 
 War Department 438,078,870 00 
 
 Navy Department 13,624,945 00 
 
 State Department 544,409 00 
 
 Justice Department 222,587 00 
 
 Postoffice Department 82,968 00 
 
 Total $475,498,493 00 
 
APPENDIX. 459 
 
 If these estimates be extended to embrace the remaining six months of 
 the calendar year, they must be doubled ; and that sum added to the un 
 drawn appropriations would make an aggregate of $1,427,448,788, which 
 Congress is formally called upon to provide. It is obvious, however, that 
 the amount to the credit of undrawn appropriations cannot be called 
 for, inasmuch as there remain but three months of the present calendar 
 year to be provided for, and the expenditures are limited to fifty millions 
 per month. So, too, as to the estimates. Any measures which will 
 promptly reduce the currency will act upon prices and thereby materially 
 reduce the estimates. But the larger figures exhibit to us in a distinct 
 and tangible form the problem which we are now required to solve. The 
 currency has, by this time, attained dimensions of five times its proper 
 size. The estimates are based upon prices fixed by this condition of the 
 currency. If these estimates are to be supplied by new issues of cur 
 rency, prices must again increase and large additions must be made to 
 the figures which represent both currency and estimates. It is obvious, 
 therefore, that some other mode of raising supplies must be devised, and 
 the necessity is equally obvious of reducing the currency. We are thus 
 distinctly presented with these two conditions as necessary elements of 
 the problem to be solved namely, reduction of the existing currency and 
 a supply of means from some source other than treasury notes. 
 
 In a former report it was shown that one hundred and fifty millions of 
 dollars was probably the amount of currency which could be put in circu 
 lation under existing circumstances in the Confederate States without 
 material derangement of values. The currency in circulation when the 
 estimates for the ensuing year were made up was about four times that 
 amount, and it may be fairly assumed that the prices were then nearly 
 four times what they would have been if the currency had been restored 
 to its original condition. A reduction of the currency should, therefore, 
 be a preliminary measure. It is substantially the most efficient means of 
 raising supplies far more so than either taxes or loans. These last serve 
 only to provide the amount which they nominally raise, but a reduction 
 of the currency by reducing prices furnishes three or four times the 
 amount of such reduction. It may be fairly assumed that a reduction of 
 the currency to two hundred millions would enable the government to 
 sustain itself with an expenditure of only four hundred millions in money, 
 and if our problem be then stated in figures, it requires the apparently 
 opposite conditions of raising four hundred millions of supplies and of re 
 tiring an equal amount of currency. 
 
 But there is also one further condition involved. The support of the 
 government requires continued supplies. Any delay in the action of 
 measures to relieve the currency aggravates all the difficulties. In the 
 interval other issues must be made, and those issues react on prices and 
 increase the government expenditure. Promptness and certainty in the 
 
"460" REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 reduction are, therefore, as important as the reduction itself. Thus we 
 are fairly confronted with the three difficulties to be surmounted. 
 
 1. The currency must be reduced. 
 
 2. The supplies must be raised. 
 
 3. The measures to attain these ends must be prompt and certain* 
 I. The currency must be reduced. 
 
 In the present expanded state of the currency it would not be expedi 
 ent to reduce the circulation to its proper normal standard. In order to 
 effect the results demanded by the public interests, the contraction must, 
 of necessity, be great and sudden. But it is presumed that a reduction of 
 the entire volume to two hundred millions will be sufficient. After the 
 war, measures may be adopted for such further reductions as may then be 
 proper. The excess of currency over this proposed standard is now about 
 five hundred millions. The reduction of prices which would follow the 
 retiring of this excess would, in all probability, so reduce the expenses of 
 the government that four hundred millions of money would be a sufficient 
 supply. Thus we have before us a demand for nine hundred millions in 
 the course of the ensuing year. 
 
 In the present state of the country it is manifestly impossible to raise 
 this large sum by taxes alone, and we are, therefore, compelled to resort 
 to the only other resource presented by experience namely, a loan. 
 
 In the voluntary form loans have already been tried by the government, 
 and have succeeded to the extent of upwards of three hundred millions 
 since the commencement of the war. For an agricultural country like 
 ours, this, under the unexpected pressure upon our people, would justly 
 be deemed a large contribution. At the commencement of the war no one 
 foresaw the extent to which it would be carried. It was not expected that 
 we would be called upon to check the advance of half a million of men, 
 supported by the whole outer world, while we were shut into our own soil 
 and resources. Our products were thought essential to the rest of man 
 kind, and it was believed that they would come and buy them. Our finan 
 cial measures were commenced with these views and were founded upon 
 the basis of specie values. We issued treasury notes without interest, and 
 then offered to exchange them for bonds whose interest was paid in coin. 
 This interest was made as high as eight per cent., because the legal rate 
 of interest in the greater number of the original Confederate States was 
 at and over seven per cent. 
 
 This system was based upon sound principles, and if we could have ex 
 ported our produce and thereby have procured specie, or its equivalent, 
 the plan would have effected the objects intended. Unfortunately, the 
 blockade was accepted by neutral powers, and our just expectations were 
 disappointed. The specie of the world could not flow in upon us, and, 
 when ours was exhausted, we were compelled to pay interest on our 
 bonds in treasury notes. The foundation of the system was thus lost. 
 Paper money rested on other paper, and as both accumulated they acted 
 
APPENDIX. 461 
 
 and re-acted on each other, until both have been reduced to the rate at 
 which they now stand. 
 
 The obvious mode of recovery is to restore the specie foundation or to 
 obtain a substitute approaching specie values: This was attempted at 
 the last session of Congress by the issue of cotton interest bonds, and by 
 the proposal to obtain the guaranty of the States on the bonds of the Con 
 federate States. These bonds, if negotiated in Europe, it was expected 
 would provide funds for the redemption of the currency and thus replace 
 it upon a firm foundation. As late as the fall of Vicksburg the credit of 
 the Confederacy was so good in Europe that it is believed that bonds with 
 such a guaranty could have been negotiated at a rate which would have 
 enabled the Secretary of the Treasury to control both the currency and 
 the foreign exchanges. Unfortunately, some of the States refused their 
 concurrence and the measure failed. While these various measures were 
 in progress efforts were made by the government to put in action the only 
 other mode of raising money namely, taxes. The first tax was laid in 
 August, 1861, and although not collected until 1862, yet so little were the 
 people prepared to respond that the fcax was actually collected from them 
 in only three States. In the rest the States themselves advanced the 
 amount due by their citizens and aggravated existing evils by issues of 
 their own notes and bonds. 
 
 The small avails of this tax left the government no resource but to con 
 tinue the issue of treasury notes, and to sustain them, as far as possible, 
 by funding them in bonds. Efforts were made by inducements and 
 limitation of privileges to promote funding. These efforts, added to those 
 which had preceded them, led to the funding of upwards of three hundred 
 millions, as already stated a sum which would have been deemed satisfac 
 tory in any ordinary war, but which is wholly inadequate for the present. 
 
 At the last session Congress passed another tax bill, which is now in the 
 course of being executed. But the large increase in prices, and the con 
 sequent increase of demands on the government, clearly show already 
 that the tax, if even now realized, would be wholly inadequate to supply 
 these demands. A further issue of treasury notes is, indeed, a necessity, 
 until other measures can be adopted ; but the public mind has at last be 
 come awakened to the stronger necessity of devising such measures, and 
 seems prepared to adopt any remedy, however sharp, if it can be satisfied 
 that such a remedy will be effective. 
 
 I have already stated that there are but two legitimate sources of sup 
 ply to-wit : taxes and loans. No nation engaged in a war like the present 
 has ever been able to sustain itself by ta^xes alone. Loans, also, are neces 
 sary, but in order to negotiate them an assurance must be given that the 
 interest will be paid in a medium of certain value. The departure from 
 this principle has undermined our credit, and our first effort should be to 
 recover our first position. We must make the interest of any loan which 
 is to be offered payable in specie or its equivalent. 
 
462 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 The fifteen-mflKoir loan has taught us a mode of effecting, at least in 
 part, this desirable result.*. A duty, payable in coin, is allowed to be dis 
 charged by the coupons of this loan, and the result is that the bonds have 
 maintained a steady value, their market price being nearly twice that of 
 other public securities. If, then, a loan were established, the interest 
 coupons of which would be available to pay specie dues, a foundation in 
 the nature of a specie value would be secured, and upon it might be re 
 constructed the sound financial policy with which we started. To effect 
 this it is not only necessary to levy a tax payable in coin, and as such a tax 
 would not be required to pay more than the interest, its amount would 
 obviously be within the power of the government to collect. A loan of five 
 hundred millions would be sufficient to reduce the currency to two hun 
 dred millions, and would require a tax of not more than thirty millions 
 annually. Such a tax could be readily borne by the country, and if this 
 were all that is required the remedy would be easy. But a simple reduc 
 tion of the currency, while it would abate the existing evils, would not 
 preserve the country from their recurrence. In twelve months the cur 
 rency would again become redundant. It is necessary, therefore, that an 
 absolute limitation shall be fixed upon issues. A guaranty must be given 
 that the two hundred millions left in circulation shall in no event be in 
 creased ; or, in other words, that whatever supplies may be necessary shall 
 be raised by other means than by issues of treasury notes. 
 
 II. And this brings us to the consideration of the second point of our in 
 quiry to-wit : the raising of the necessary supplies. 
 
 It has already been stated that, if the currency could be reduced to 
 two hundred millions, the annual money expenditure of the government 
 could probably also be reduced to four hundred millions. This amount 
 is proposed to be raised partly by taxes, and the remainder by an exten 
 sion of the loan already proposed, say one hundred millions by taxes and 
 three hundred millions by the loan. The returns to the tax act of 
 August, 1861, have been completed for nine States ; two more have been 
 partly completed and can be estimated. The total values of property in 
 these eleven States amount to four thousand two hundred and twenty 
 millions of dollars. If we deduct from these values the conjectural value 
 of property lost and in possession of the enemy, and add the increased 
 rate of present prices, the valuation upon which a tax could be rated may 
 be fairly set down at three thousand millions. A tax, ad valorem, of five 
 per cent, on this value would nominally produce one hundred and fifty 
 millions. Allowing an abatement of twenty per cent, for evasions, fail 
 ures to make returns, expenses and contingencies, there would remain 
 one hundred and twenty millions. A loan of one thousand millions 
 would be sufficient to absorb the currency, and to furnish three hundred 
 millions for supplies ; and the interest of this loan would require one-half 
 of the amount raised by the tax. This would leave the other half, or 
 sixty millions, for the supplies ; and to this would be added the proceeds 
 
APPENDIX. 463 
 
 of the income and profit tax, payable after 1st January. A tax of this 
 kind is so uncertain and so easily evaded that it cannot be "estimated be 
 forehand. It will, in no event, however, be sufficient to induce any 
 change of other measures ; and, therefore, we must rely for any deficiency 
 upon that portion of the treasury notes which will be substituted for the 
 old issues. The sixty millions, or one-half, which is to support the loan, 
 if made payable in coin or in the interest coupons of the loan, will furnish 
 the means as well for the interest for the seven hundred millions re 
 quired for the currency, as of the three hundred millions to be applied 
 for expenditure. In the same manner, by making further additions to 
 the tax, the loan can be increased from time to time so as to consolidate 
 the whole public debt ; or, as the war continues, to obtain further sup 
 plies for carrying it on. By these means the credit of the government 
 will be firmly established, confidence will be restored, and the embarrass 
 ments which now oppress us will be removed. 
 
 But, III., the measures to be adopted must be prompt and certain. 
 
 Delay in retiring the currency would aggravate all the evils which are 
 in existence, by adding new issues to the mass already in circulation. 
 Uncertainty as to the effect of the measures in withdrawing the excess 
 would be equally injurious. No one would be willing to accept a loan 
 which might again be depreciated by a redundant currency. Even with 
 all the inducements which may be offered, and the caution which may be 
 observed, the loan itself may not be taken in sufficient portions to secure 
 the result. Voluntary loans have already been offered and have not been 
 taken. It is, therefore, necessary to provide some mode which will abso 
 lutely secure the final result in any event ; and this can only be done by 
 providing compulsory measures for use as a last resort. The measures 
 may be adjusted so as not to press upon the willing, while they merely 
 compel the unwilling to take their just portion of the burthen. With 
 these explanations, I respectfully submit the following measures as those 
 which I would recommend for adoption : 
 
 SCHEME PROPOSED. 
 
 1. That Congress forthwith authorize a loan of one thousand millions in 
 six per cent, bonds, the principal payable in twenty years, the interest 
 semi-annually ; to be extended hereafter, from time to time, so as to con 
 solidate the whole public debt. 
 
 2. That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to sell at par as 
 many of the said bonds as will be sufficient to take up the outstanding 
 currency, and to pay the appropriations made by Congress. 
 
 3. That deposits of treasury notes on account of the said loan may be 
 received at the treasury or any of its depositories, or by commissioners to 
 be appointed ; said deposits to be in sums of one hundred dollars, or of 
 which one hundred is a perfect divisor. 
 
464 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY., 
 
 4. Certificates shall be issued for such deposits, which shall entitle the 
 holder to bonds for the amount, with interest from the date of deposit. 
 If the deposit be made in the month of January, the bonds issued for the 
 same shall be exempt from the tax of five per cent, for the present year, 
 hereinafter mentioned ; if made in the month of February, they shall be 
 exempt from one-half of the tax, and if made in the month of March, they 
 shall be exempt from one-fourth of the tax. Officers, soldiers, and sea 
 men, in service, shall be entitled to exemption from the whole tax for 
 sums paid at any time before the 1st of April, 1864. 
 
 5. A tax of five per cent, shall be imposed on all property and credits 
 (other than the new issue of notes hereinafter mentioned) which may be 
 held on the 1st April next, to be paid on the 1st July ; one-half in treas 
 ury notes, and one-half in coin or in the coupons of the bonds issued for 
 this loan. 
 
 6. In case the coupons should advance in the market to a premium ex 
 ceeding twenty-five per cent., any tax payer shall be permitted to pay his 
 tax in treasury notes of the new issue, with twenty-five per cent, added. 
 
 , 7. Within six months a new and improved issue shall be made of two 
 hundred millions of treasury notes in substitution for that amount of old 
 issues, and all the old issues shall be cancelled, and the faith of the gov 
 ernment is pledged not to increase said issues. 
 
 8. Notice shall be given to the holders of treasury notes (other than the 
 said two hundred millions) requiring them to present their notes at the 
 Treasury, or at some of its depositories, on or before the first day of April 
 next, and receive payment thereof in bonds of the said consolidated loan ; 
 or, in default thereof, the notes not so brought in shall cease to be current 
 or receivable at the Treasury for dues, but shall remain evidences of debt, 
 payable by the Confederate States according to their tenor. 
 
 9. In the States beyond the Mississippi the time mentioned in the last 
 clause shall be extended until the first day of July. 
 
 10. Six months more shall be allowed all holders of treasury notes to 
 come in and register and verify their notes as demands against the 
 Treasury and exchange the same for a certificate of debt ; or, if they pre 
 fer to keep the notes, the name of the holder shall be endorsed thereon, 
 after which the said notes shall be negotiable only by special assignment, 
 arid all notes not so registered within the said time shall be barred from 
 any further claim on the government., 
 
 11. Any holder of a bond of the Confederate States may convert the same 
 into one of the bonds under this loan the eight per cent, bonds at par and 
 the others at a proportionate rate and the loan shall be extended so as to 
 absorb all bonds which may be offered in exchange. 
 
 12. The interest coupons of this loan shall be held equivalent to specie 
 in all future dealings of the government and shall be accepted in payment 
 of any tax hereafter made payable in coin. 
 
APPENDIX. 465 
 
 13. The faith of the government is pledged to make adequate provision 
 for the payment of the principal and interest of the said loan,, by the con 
 tinuance of the tax mentioned in article five, until a census shall be taken, 
 after which like provision shall be made by direct taxes or by duties on 
 imports and exports. 
 
 14. The notes of denominations under five dollars shall not be affected 
 by the provisions of this scheme. 
 
 It will be perceived that the measures proposed naturally divide them 
 selves into two distinct characters the one voluntary, the others involun 
 tary. The former are deemed adequate to induce the voluntary aid of 
 every good citizen. It cannot be considered a just objection that the 
 others are added when such addition merely gives unity to the plan, and, 
 like a tax execution, affects only those who are negligent or delinquent in 
 performing a public duty. 
 
 The first class of measures, or those which induce voluntary action, are 
 the following : 
 
 1. The offer of a loan on bonds, with interest coupons, receivable as coin 
 or its equivalent. 
 
 2. The means by which this is effected namely, a tax upon all values 
 to be paid in coin or in the " interest coupons of the said bonds. 
 
 3. The exemption of the bonds from the tax for one year in considera 
 tion of a prompt advance of the purchase money in anticipation of their 
 delivery. 
 
 4. The reduction of the prices of all articles of subsistence and the per 
 manent restriction of the volume of the currency. 
 
 The measures which are involuntary are chiefly two, which will be con 
 sidered under the following heads : 
 
 5. A limitation of time beyond which treasury notes now in circulation 
 shall cease to be receivable as currency and for public dues. 
 
 6. The registration of the notes as evidences of public debt. 
 
 1. And first as to the character of the proposed loan. It is intended to 
 consolidate all the various forms of the public debt. Every holder of a 
 bond, call certificate, or treasury note, may exchange his security for 
 bonds under this loan. The treasury-note holder, for reasons applicable 
 only to that kind of security, is required to make the exchange within 
 three months from the 1st January. The bondholders are allowed their 
 own time, or, if preferred, they may retain their own securities. It is 
 hoped that the inducements offered will bring them all in. 
 
 The necessity which will be on each tax payer to find specie or the cou 
 pons of these bonds will induce him to invest part of his means in them. 
 And the fact that the whole of the coupons will be required to pay the tax 
 will create a demand which will impart to them a fixed value approxima 
 ting to specie. 
 
 2. The means adopted to effect this result are the laying a tax upon all 
 values, to be paid in coin or in the interest coupons of the said bonds. 
 
 .-30 
 
466 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 A loan of one thousand millions would require a tax of sixty millions to 
 pay the interest, and if such a loan could be relied on to supply all de 
 mands for money for the current year, no larger tax need be imposed. But 
 it will be found that at least sixty millions more in addition to the exist 
 ing taxes will be required. It is, therefore, proposed to levy a tax of one 
 hundred and twenty millions, and to allow one-half to be paid in treasury 
 notes, while the other half is made payable in coin or in the coupons of 
 the said bonds. To raise this amount it has already been shown that a tax 
 of five per cent, on all values will be required. This tax is laid at a date 
 just twelve months subsequent to the tax of the present year. It is pro 
 posed to lay the tax equally upon every object of value, so that each per 
 son will contribute in exact proportion to his means. 
 
 The existing taxes, it is assumed, have been enacted with just relation 
 to the income arising from real and personal property. The new tax, 
 therefore, imposes a uniform duty ad valorem on all property. In doing so 
 it encounters the objections which have been raised under the provisions 
 of the permanent constitution against such a tax upon lands and negroes. 
 It is contended that the provision which declares that no direct or capita 
 tion tax shall be laid unless in conformity with an enumeration which, by 
 a previous clause, is directed to be actually paid within three years, pre 
 vents the imposition of any tax upon lands and negroes until the enumera 
 tion shall be made. The land and negroes in the Confederate States con 
 stitute two-thirds of taxable values, and if this objection prevail it would 
 establish the surprising conclusion that all the States which ratified the 
 constitution, while engaged in war which put at hazard the lives and for 
 tunes of all their citizens and their own independence, excepted from the 
 contribution to maintain that war the very property for which they were 
 contending. Such a construction is manifestly erroneous and could never 
 have been intended. The more consistent interpretation is that a princi 
 ple was established which should operate as soon as the basis for its action 
 was obtained. As soon as the enumeration could be taken there was to be 
 an apportionment. But if an enumeration became impossible, then the tax 
 must be laid according to the other rule of uniformity declared by the con 
 stitution. There is a general power to lay taxes which becomes subject 
 to a special limitation as soon as an enumeration can be had. That enu 
 meration is ordered to be taken within three years, but it is prevented 
 from being taken by the presence of the public enemy. Under such a 
 state of things the limitation must be considered as in suspense and the 
 general power may be exercised. It seems to me, therefore, that the ad 
 valorem tax is no infringement of the constitution. 
 
 In the present condition of the country, such a tax is more equitable 
 and beneficial than any apportioned tax would be. The occupation of 
 large portions of the States by the enemy would cast the whole quota of 
 any State upon the unoccupied portions. The States which are in this 
 condition would have the largest quotas to pay on account of their larger 
 
APPENDIX. 467 
 
 representation, and thus the burden of the tax at present would be in 
 verted. The greatest sufferers would be required to bear the heaviest 
 burden. In either view, then, the ad valorem tax is greatly to be 
 preferred. 
 
 The requirement to pay one-half the tax in coin or in the coupons of 
 the consolidated loan will create in every tax payer a desire to possess 
 these bonds. Just in proportion to the extent of his property will he 
 have occasion for the bonds, and universal demand for them will be 
 created by making the tax universal. Those who have small amounts to 
 pay will purchase the coupons, as is now done with the fifteen-million 
 loan. And an exemption being given to small property holders, there is 
 but little danger from speculation or inability to procure a supply. All 
 uncertainty on this point, however, is removed by the provision which 
 authorizes payment in treasury notes, if the market price of the coupons 
 should advance twenty-five per cent, premium. It is necessary to allow 
 some advance in order to furnish inducement to purchasers of the bonds. 
 It is believed that the range proposed will secure this object, while it 
 afford sufficient protection to the tax payer from any combination of 
 capital. The tax, therefore, while it induces large purchases of bonds by 
 large property holders, is adjusted to the wants of those who are unable 
 to purchase the bonds. It also offers the strongest inducements to hold 
 ers of commodities to offer them for sale instead of hoarding for higher 
 prices. They will perceive that, if they retain their commodities until 
 the currency becomes contracted, it will require a much larger quantity 
 of them to be afterwards sold in order to pay their quota of the tax. 
 
 3. The next subject of consideration is the exemption offered for an 
 advance of the purchase money of the bonds. 
 
 The five per cent, tax is proposed to be laid upon all values held on 1st 
 July, 1864, excepting the two hundred millions of new currency. The 
 bonds to be issued for the consolidated loan are, therefore, included with 
 all other bonds and securities. But the advantage to the public is so 
 great from retiring the circulation promptly, that an offer of an exemp 
 tion for one year from the whole tax on these bonds, is niade to any per 
 son who will pay in treasury notes on account of the loan in the month 
 of January ; an exemption of one-half is offered those who will make 
 such payment in the month of February, and of one-fourth to those who 
 will pay in the month of March. It will not be practicable to deliver so 
 large an issue of bonds within this period of time, and the exemption, 
 therefore, not only compensates for the advance, but for the delay in fur 
 nishing the bonds. The officers and soldiers in the army being prevented 
 by their duties from attending promptly to their private business, are 
 allowed the privilege of the entire three months for profiting by the ex 
 emption. Any payment made by them before the 1st of April will en 
 title them to exemption from the tax on the bonds thereby purchased. 
 On the 1st of April the privilege of conversion is taken away on this side 
 
468 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 the Mississippi river, but it continues for three months more on the other 
 side. 
 
 These measures, it is believed, will be sufficient to procure a prompt 
 and active reduction of the currency. Each person in the possession of 
 currency will thus be enabled to convert into bonds, based on specie 
 values, notes, which at the time, cannot command more than one-fourth 
 of those values. Those who hold commodities are in a still better condi 
 tion to profit by the loan. A farmer may sell his grain for five times the 
 ordinary price, and invest the whole amount in a bond payable, in 
 twenty years, in specie, the interest coupons of which are available to 
 discharge a liability to pay in coin. 
 
 4. There remains one other -inducement to voluntary subscription yet 
 to be considered namely : the reduction of the price of subsistence, and 
 the permanent restriction of issues of treasury notes. 
 
 The parties who are most likely to be the largest contributors to the 
 loan are banks, manufacturers, railroad companies, and persons of capital. 
 To all these in an especial degree, the establishment of the currency 
 upon a permanent footing, is of the utmost value. No such permanence 
 can be had if new issues are continued. A restriction which keeps the 
 currency within just bounds increases the value of every railroad fare ; 
 adds to the rate of interest ; reduces the price of all labor and subsist 
 ence, and restores confidence and stability to all transactions. The 
 amount at which the currency is to stand is set down at two hundred 
 millions. This is about twice the amount required before the war. It is 
 supposed that the large amounts which are suspended in the hands of 
 public officers and in transit, will call for a much larger amount of cir 
 culation than in time of peace. Moreover, after so large an expansion, it 
 would be unwise to contract the currency in a compass as small as its 
 natural bounds. In order, also, to prevent the evils incident to too rapid 
 a contraction, it is proposed that the two hundred millions of new cur 
 rency shall be issued from time to time during the period of contraction, 
 and only in substitution of that called in ; so that when the 1st of April 
 shall arrive, at which time the old circulation shall become uncurrent, 
 there may be a new currency to take its place. It may be added that if 
 the contraction should become too stringent the banks will be able, and 
 will probably find it expedient to relieve the pressure by the re-issue of 
 their own notes. 
 
 Such are the inducements which are offered to recommend the consoli 
 dated loan to public favor. They are so large and beneficial that they 
 will, in all probability, secure its success. Unfortunately, the conse 
 quences of failure are so perilous to the public welfare that nothing can 
 be left at risk. Even the time which will be consumed in the effort to 
 procure voluntary subscription cannot be recovered in case of failure. 
 The measures of prevention must, therefore, accompany the invitation to 
 
APPENDIX. 469 
 
 voluntary action. They will be harmless and inoperative if not required ; 
 absence of them would be ruinous, if the occasion for them should arise. 
 
 5. We come, therefore, next to consider the measure which limits the 
 time within which the notes must be brought in for redemption, or be de 
 barred the privilege of being circulated as currency or received for public 
 dues. 
 
 It cannot be denied that this provision infringes upon two of the rights 
 which are created by the contract. The note itself is a simple promise 
 to pay a sum of money two years after a ratification of a treaty of peace. 
 The promise being to bearer, the note, by operation of law, became nego 
 tiable by mere delivery. Its currency as money is, therefore, not a part 
 of the express contract, though it was clearly implied; and Congress has 
 constantly refused to make the currency of the notes obligatory by re 
 jecting every proposal to make them a legal tender. Interference, there 
 fore, with this portion of the contract, affects no right of the people as 
 between each other ; it is, without doubt, however, a direct interference 
 with the contract implied between the government and the holder, when 
 the note was taken. Besides this, there is a direct infringement of the 
 express contract of the government to receive the notes in payment of 
 public dues. 
 
 These positions being clear, upon what ground is it justifiable to pass 
 them by? 
 
 Let us consider the measure which it is proposed to adopt. The gov 
 ernment has provided a fund as nearly equal to specie as is within its 
 power. It advertises that it will pay every treasury note from this fund, 
 if presented within ninety days ; and it is only in case of default, that it 
 postpones the acceptance of the notes until after the war. Test the prin 
 ciple by supposing the payment was actually to be made in coin. Sup 
 pose the government should advertise in the same form, and should ac 
 tually pay every holder who came in. Would it be deemed unjust to 
 postpone those who refused to come in and accept payment? Could the 
 government in such case be justly charged with the want of good faith ? 
 and, if not, then the question becomes one not of good faith, but of the 
 difference of value between bonds payable in specie with interest cou 
 pons received as specie, and specie itself. In the worst possible view, it 
 is only an offer by a debtor, to pay down his debt in the best securities 
 he has, or to postpone the actual payment until better times ; and such 
 an offer has never been deemed inconsistent with justice or honesty. 
 
 The reasons which induce the measures proposed, will, it is believed, 
 present a complete justification of them. 
 
 1. The first which will be considered is that unless the action proposed 
 or something similar to it be immediately taken, the value of the notes 
 will be extinguished. The country is engaged in a war which involves 
 the security of all property and the safety of every family. To carry it 
 
470 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 on it has been obliged to issue notes, and unless a substitute is imme 
 diately found, the continuance in this course will destroy the value of 
 every note already issued. The measures proposed are intended to save 
 the notes, and nothing short of them will have that effect. If some other 
 mode could be devised, if a tax, or any other means of relief could be 
 found, it would be preferred. But they are all inadequate, and the gov 
 ernment finds itself unable to comply with the letter of its engagement. 
 It endeavors, then, to comply with .its spirit. It tenders the creditor 
 payment of its debt before it is due in a security of greater value. It 
 gives him time to accept the payment, and, if he should prefer to retain 
 the obligation, it allows the alternative upon the simple condition that 
 he shall forego the privilege of demanding payment until after the war. 
 It does exactly what an honest debtor in distress is bound to do, it recog 
 nizes its debt, offers the best security for payment in its power, and asks 
 for time. This, in plain terms, is the proposal of the government ; and if 
 it were the case of an individual, his creditors would meet, and, as a body, 
 would accept his offer. In the case of the public the creditors cannot 
 meet. But they have representatives who can. The Congress represents 
 the people as well as the government, and, although it may be difficult to 
 act for both parties, yet it is not difficult to ascertain the claims of jus 
 tice, and Congress is the proper tribunal to adjust them. Their judg 
 ment in the matter should stand as a compromise between the parties, 
 
 2. The next reason which will be considered is, that the continuance 
 of the notes as a circulating medium to their present extent, involves the 
 ruin of public and private credit, and will deprive the government of the 
 means of defending the lives and property of its citizens. If the currency 
 remains in its present expanded state, no measure of relief can be made 
 effectual. Prices must advance, and the means of the government to 
 pay these prices must daily loose efficiency. Taxes become fruitless, by 
 reason of the depreciation of the money. The army can neither be paid, 
 clothed nor fed ; arms and munitions of war can no longer be supplied ; 
 the officers of the government cannot be supported, and the country 
 must succumb. Calamities so disastrous must certainly be averted by 
 every means within the power of the government. No contract, how 
 ever solemn, can require national ruin ; and, in such case, the maxim 
 must prevail that the public safety is the supreme law. 
 
 The objection to these measures of compulsion is greatly modified by 
 the certainty that but a small portion of the notes will be brought under 
 their influence. The inducements to the loan are so many that the 
 greater part of the currency will be voluntarily converted ; and the true 
 question is, whether the fraction which remains shall be permitted to 
 gain an undue advantage over the rest, and to defeat the greater public 
 interest, which are involved in the withdrawal of the entire amount. 
 
 These measures, it will be perceived, contemplate a permanent finan 
 cial policy, capable of expanding to suit the future wants of the govern- 
 
APPENDIX. 471 
 
 ment. It is obviously, therefore, of the utmost importance that the ulti 
 mate payment of the bonds now issued, and of those which may be added, 
 should be completely secured. Confidence is one of the largest elements 
 which enter into public credit, and in this case the means are at hand to 
 secure it. The South is in possession of products which are desired by 
 the whole world. 
 
 For at least five years after peace, the demands for these products will 
 probably so far exceed the supply, that a duty on exports would fall upon 
 the consumer. For the five years following, the usual contest between 
 producer and consumer will possibly divide the burthen ; but the neces-- 
 sities of the country offer a controlling reason for the continuance of the? 
 duty. To this may be added a certain portion of the duties on imports"; 
 and the two together, if now pledged to a sufficient extent, would provide 
 an adequate security for the payment of the debt. Assuming that, when 
 trade is re-established, we shall have the same products to export, and, 
 in a few years thereafter, the same quantity to sell, our exports and im 
 ports may each be set down at three hundred millions. Any export duty 
 of ten per cent, on all products of the field and forest would, upon this 
 assumption, produce thirty millions annually ; and, if an equal portion 
 of the duties on imports be added, the aggregate would be sufficient to 
 pay the whole interest of the debt. If Congress would now pass a law to 
 tl^s effect, as it is perfectly competent to do, the public credit would in 
 stantly revive, and probably to such a degree as to render inoperative 
 the measures of constraint which have been recommended. 
 
 The guaranty which it would afford to the bonds of the consolidated 
 loan, would induce a prompt exchange for them of all other securities, 
 except, probably, the fifteen-million loan, which is already protected by a 
 similar pledge. An exchange of the one-hundred-million loan will, of it 
 self cause an annual saving of $2,000,000, and, if to this be added the sav 
 ing which would be made on other portions of the public debt, the sum 
 total will be about five and a half millions. The annual saving of this 
 sum certainly presents another strong inducement to the immediate en 
 actment of the proposed law. 
 
 Such a law would still leave unpledged such other taxes and import 
 duties as it may be found expedient to levy, and which will furnish a suf 
 ficient and appropriate means of supporting the government, and of dis 
 charging the principal of the public debt. 
 
 Thus a system of properly adjusted measures would be set in action, 
 which would secure the public credit, and enable us to carry on the war 
 with energy and success. 
 
 In case, however, there should be any doubt as to the efficiency of the 
 plan in raising the supplies required for the ensuing year, two further 
 measures of relief may be added. It is possible that the severe contrac 
 tion attending a reduction of the currency to two hundred millions, may 
 limit the sale of the bonds after the effect of such contraction shall be 
 
472 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 fully felt. It may, on that account, be necessary, for a time, to sell the 
 bonds below par, to supply any deficiency in the means of the Treasury. 
 I would, therefore, suggest as a measure of precaution, that such a power 
 should be granted to the Secretary of the Treasury. Another measure 
 of similar character could be provided by authorizing certificates of in 
 debtedness, payable after the war, to be issued in part payment of sup 
 plies necessary for the army. It is not probable that either of these 
 measures will be required. Still it is a wise precaution that they should 
 be provided for any case of necessity. 
 
 The large issue of bonds which is called for by these measures, together 
 with the new issue of treasury notes, present a field of labor amply suffi 
 cient to occupy the attention of another bureau officer. I would respect 
 fully renew the recommendation heretofore made of establishing a sepa 
 rate bureau for the issue of bonds and notes, and for taking charge of all 
 the arrangements connected with such issues. 
 
 The number of coupons which will be required is so great that unless 
 they are allowed to be prepared by machinery the delay in getting out the 
 bonds will be very great. The same difficulty attends the notes issued as 
 currency. The number of persons who are necessarily employed to sign 
 notes renders the signatures of no value in detecting counterfeits. No one 
 can become acquainted with all the signatures, and but few of the officers 
 know even the names of the signers. The genuineness of each note must 
 be determined by the plate and not the signatures. I renew, therefore, 
 my recommendation that the notes and coupons may be issued with en 
 graved signatures, under such precaution as experience may advise. 
 
 In connection with this subject I would respectfully bring to the atten 
 tion of Congress the inequality which has arisen between the bonds and 
 registered stock of the fifteen-million loan An export duty on cotton was 
 imposed to pay the principal and interest of this loan, and the coupons of 
 the bonds were authorized to be received in payment of that duty. The 
 registered stock, having no coupons, did not enjoy this advantage, and the 
 result has been a difference of as much as fifty per cent, between the two 
 portions of the same loan. This inequality can be remedied by authoriz 
 ing the Secretary of the Treasury to cause checks to be issued for the in 
 terest as it accrues semi-annually upon the stock, and allowing these 
 checks to be received for the duty in the same manner as the coupons. It 
 will be necessary to add a few precautions for preventing the frauds and 
 forgeries to which such checks would be exposed, all of which could be 
 adjusted by regulations of this department. 
 
 The report of the Commissioner of Taxes, herewith submitted, will ex 
 hibit the details of the war tax of August, 1861, and of the taxes the pres 
 ent year, as far as progress has been made. The tax of 1861 had been 
 actually collected from the people in only three States South Carolina, 
 Mississippi and Texas. In the other States the tax was paid by the State 
 governments. Assessments were actually made in only ten of the States, 
 
APPENDIX. 473 
 
 and the results are exhibited in the schedules annexed to the report. The 
 total value of the property assessed is four thousand two hundred and 
 twenty millions, of which real estate is set down at one thousand three 
 hundred and ninety-three millions, and slaves at one thousand four hun 
 dred and eighty millions. The total amount of the tax assessed is 
 $21,142,662, of which $19,418,393 have, been collected, leaving a balance un- 
 collected of $2,044,275. Of this balance $705,233 is absorbed by an unad 
 justed difference in assessment claimed by the State of Tennessee, and a 
 large portion of the remainder is due in counties overrun by the public 
 enemy. The amounts actually collected have been paid over by the col 
 lectors with commendable exactness and punctuality. 
 
 The tax imposed at the last session of Congress is now being rapidly col 
 lected. From present "appearances the Commissioner estimates its prob 
 able collections at one hundred millions in money, and he reports that it 
 is paid with general cheerfulness and alacrity. The novelty of many of the 
 provisions of the law has given rise to questions which are presented in 
 detail in the report of the Commissioner, to which I respectfully invite 
 your attention. 
 
 The report of the chief clerk for the produce loan and agency for the 
 purchase of cotton and tobacco, herewith submitted, will exhibit the de 
 tails of that branch of the department. 
 
 The general results are, that the whole amount of subscriptions real 
 ized from the produce loan is $32,758,875, and that there yet remains 
 uncollected about $12,268,080. This is a large proportion of the whole 
 amount, and the greater part is probably due from persons whom the 
 calamities of war and the destruction of property have deprived of the 
 means of meeting their engagements. There are many others, however, 
 who may have been tempted by the high prices to neglect their engage 
 ments, and to reach these it is proposed by the chief clerk to publish the 
 lists in the neighborhoods where they were subscribed. The measure is 
 submitted for the consideration of Congress. 
 
 The purchases of cotton made under the act of April 30, 1863, amount to 
 399,753 bales at the date of the reports last received at a cost of $30,314,- 
 769. The average price paid was $16.85 per pound, exclusive of Sea 
 Island cotton ; the lowest price being 6)^ and the highest 3Q% ; and five- 
 sixths of the entire purchase money have been paid in bonds. The diffi 
 culty of procuring reports in detail from the agents in Louisiana, Missis 
 sippi, Arkansas and Texas, has prevented a precise return of the cotton 
 which has been destroyed; but from the estimates made by each of 
 them it may be assumed that the entire loss is not more than 30,000 
 bales. To this must be added several thousand bales used for military 
 and naval defenses ; and also several thousand more turned over to the 
 ordnance and quartermaster s departments to fulfil contracts for sup 
 plies, and also for shipments made by the Treasury Department. The 
 whole of these deductions may be set down at 70,202 bales, leaving on 
 
474 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 hand an aggregate of about 329,500 bales. Of this amount about 30,000 
 bales are stored in warehouses in cities, and the remainder in cotton 
 houses on the plantations where they have been purchased. 
 
 The time which has elapsed since much of this cotton was purchased 
 has damaged the rope and bagging of a portion thereof ; and the aid of 
 Congress is asked in procuring the means of renewing it. I had hoped 
 that the skill of our people would discover a substitute for rope and bag 
 ging, and probably an offer of a reward for the best plan would produce 
 beneficial results. If resort must be had to foreign supplies, the plan, 
 which may be adopted to ship the cotton, will furnish the means of im 
 porting the rope and bagging, and in either view, it will be necessary to 
 make an appropriation to cover the expense. 
 
 The amount of tobacco purchased is two thousand and ninety hogs 
 heads, costing $772,846, at an average of twenty-nine cents per pound. 
 These various purchases have nearly exhausted the appropriation of 
 thirty-five millions made by the act of 20th April, 1863. In order to meet 
 the objects stated in other reports, if these objects are approved, it will 
 be necessary to increase the stock in the hands of the government by an 
 additional appropriation of at least the same amount heretofore 
 appropriated. 
 
 The collection of the tax in kind on cotton and tobacco has been 
 deemed so germain to the business of this branch of the department, 
 that I have made arrangements for uniting them. Wherever cotton is 
 collected it is to be turned over to the chief agents already ap 
 pointed in each of the cotton States. The same plan is pursued 
 with tobacco, and I have appointed chief agents in the States of Vir 
 ginia and North Carolina, at a commission with a maximum limit of four 
 thousand dollars per annum. These agents are to appoint subordinate 
 agents in each county for the purpose of receiving, sorting, prizing and 
 preparing the same for market. The details of these processes require 
 much care and attention, and the .constant supervision of a competent 
 officer. It appears also that the parcels should not be delivered as early 
 as the month of March, as now required by law, and it will be, therefore, 
 proper to extend this period. The compensation of these subordinate 
 agents has not yet been adjusted, owing to the department not having 
 sufficient information as to their duties. 
 
 The cotton interest bonds will naturally fall within the management of 
 this division of the Treasury Department, and it is proposed that they 
 shall take that course. It is not clear what was the design of Congress 
 in authorizing these bonds. The first law passed was in connection with 
 the funding act, and the coupons were thereby made payable at the 
 option of the holder of the bond in coin, or cotton valued at eight pence 
 sterling per pound. The object of this law was obviously to provide 
 means of raising money abroad ; and after it was passed I recommended 
 that the rate at which the cotton was to be taken should be reduced to 
 
APPENDIX. 475 
 
 six pence, or the average price at Liverpool before the war. At this rate 
 purchasers could have been procured at any time before the fall of Vicks- 
 burg. 
 
 The amendment which was made to the law by Congress reduced the 
 price as proposed, but shifting the option of being paid in cotton from the 
 purchaser to the government This converted the bond in the view of a 
 European purchaser into a simple six per cent, money bond, with the in 
 terest payable here. The absence of the right to require cotton for the 
 bonds took away their availableness in the foreign market. On the other 
 hand, the option which they allowed the holder to receive cotton at six 
 pence, when it was selling at three or four times that price, made the ope 
 ration very unfavorable for the government, unless the bonds were sold 
 at a large advance. For this reason I deemed it my duty, after due ex 
 planation of the nature of the bonds, to advertise for bids ; and as an ex 
 periment I accordingly offered five millions. The bids ranged at various 
 rates from par up to one hundred per cent. 
 
 I accepted all the bids at and over fifty per cent, premium, and issued 
 a second advertisement. The bids which were offered in both cases, 
 were far beloXv the amount of bonds offered for sale. But those bids 
 which came from persons of known intelligence and patriotism, indicated 
 that fifty per cent, was the probable value of the bonds. I, therefore, 
 adopted that rate, and authorized sales to be made accordingly. These 
 sales have been made to a very limited extent, chiefly because it was be 
 lieved that the blockade would prevent the shipment of any cotton to be 
 received in payment. This impediment was so serious, that, in the judg 
 ment of men of business, even a reduction of the price of bonds to par 
 would not induce large sales. 
 
 The scheme of finance hereinbefore proposed, will, if adopted, render 
 unnecessary any other effort to call in the currency. These cotton bonds 
 will, therefore, not be required for that purpose, and, as they are not 
 available to raise funds abroad, I recommend that the law authorizing 
 their issue be repealed. 
 
 I must again ask your attention to the necessity of increasing the 
 compensation of the treasurer, assistant treasurers, depositaries and 
 clerks attached to each of them. Each of thes^e officers discharge the du 
 ties of a bank, and its officers must have qualifications which would fit 
 them to discharge like offices in banks. Such qualifications cannot be 
 commanded unless at the same rate of compensation paid by banks. 
 Congress has limited the salary of a teller in these offices to $1,200, 
 where $3,500 is paid for like services. The result is, that the government 
 cannot procure competent men to do its work. "With the higher officers 
 the difficulties are greater. Several of those in office desire to retire, and 
 it has been found impracticable to procure competent successors. These 
 embarrassments are greatly increased, when we come down to the rank 
 and file of the clerks. The amount of their salaries does not furnish 
 
476 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 them with support, and it is distressing to know the suffering which 
 some of them encounter. I trust that the measures recommended for 
 the relief of the currency will remedy the evil ; but, until these measures 
 can be brought into action, these clerks will be sadly straightened to sup 
 port themselves and their families. I would, therefore, respectfully 
 recommend, as a temporary means of relief, that they be allowed 
 to draw from the commissary s stores in the same manner as if they 
 were detailed on duty in the army. 
 
 The various estimates and schedules, which contain details of the gen 
 eral statements above made, are hereunto appended, together with a re 
 port of the proceedings of a convention of banks at Augusta, Ga., which I 
 have been requested by it to submit to your consideration. 
 
 All of which is respectfully submitted. 
 
 C. G. MEMMINGER, 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
APPENDIX. 477 
 
 CONDITION OF TREASURY, APRIL 1, 1864. 
 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, Richmond, May 2, 1864. 
 Hon. Thomas S. Bocock, Speaker of House of Representatives: 
 
 SIR, I have the honor to submit the following report of the condition 
 of this Department on the 1st of April, 1864 : 
 
 The receipts into the Treasury for the two quarters ending on that day 
 are as follows : 
 
 4 per cent, call certificates, act March 23, 1863 $ 1,343,000 00 
 
 4 per cent, coupon bonds, act March 23, 1863 40,473 90 
 
 4 per cent, registered stock, act February 17, 1864 250,000,00000 
 
 5 per cent, call certificates, act March 23, 1863 38,812,500 00 
 
 6 per cent, bonds and stocks, act March 23, 1863 12,043,000 00 
 
 7 per cent, bonds and stocks, act February 20, 1863 .... 2,361,300 00 
 
 8 per cent, registered stock, act May 16, 1861 190,100 00 
 
 8 per cent, bonds, act August 19, 1861 26,650 00 
 
 8 per cent, bonds and stocks, act February 20, 1863 .... 2,194,600 00 
 6 per cent, cotton interest bonds, act April 30, 1863 .... 6,160,000 00 
 
 Premium on same 2,815,000 00 
 
 War tax 59,406,724 01 
 
 Treasury notes 265,690,928 50 
 
 Sequestration 3,000,787 37 
 
 Repayments by disbursing officers 42,772,222 42 
 
 Customs . . . 441,094 32 
 
 Overseers exemption and tax on non-combatants 595,036 95 
 
 Export duty on cotton 14,322 50 
 
 Patent fund 26,957 00 
 
 Interest on loans 4,208 71 
 
 Deposited under 12th section act Feb y 17, 1864, by States, 471,300 00 
 Deposited under eighteenth section act February 17, 1864 . 367,600 00 
 Miscellaneous 2,615,475 55 
 
 Total $691,393,281 23 
 
 The expenditures during the same period are as follows : 
 
 War Department $238,572,374 25 
 
 Navy 10,853,723 27 
 
 Customs 26,325 93 
 
 Civil, miscellaneous, and foreign intercourse 5,611,299 00 
 
 Public debt 128,046,836 59 
 
 $383,110,559 04 
 
 Balance in Treasury $308,282,722 19 
 
478 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 This balance is made up as follows : 
 
 Notes funded and on hand for cancellation $250,000,000 00 
 
 Notes returned by disbursing officers 42,000,000 00 
 
 Balance cash in hand, about 16,000,000 00 
 
 The public debt on the 1st April, 1864, was as follows : 
 
 FUNDED. 
 
 Act February 28, 1861, 8 per cent $15,000,00000 
 
 Act May 16, 1861, 8 per cent 8,891,70000 
 
 Act August 19, 1861, 8 per cent 100,000,00000 
 
 Act April 12, 1862, 8 per cent 3,182,850 00 
 
 Act February 20, 1863, 8 per cent 95,763,700 00 
 
 Act February 20, 1863, 7 per cent 66,318,550 00 
 
 Act March 23, 1863, 6 per cent 11,646,200 00 
 
 Act April 30, 1863, 6 per cent 8,393,000 00 
 
 To which must be added the following call certificates 
 outstanding, to-wit : 
 
 Act December 24, 1861, 6 per cent $40,439,170 00 
 
 Act March 23, 1863, 4 per cent 1,825,000 00 
 
 Act March 23, 1863, 5 per cent 72,074,100 00 
 
 114,338,270 00 
 
 7.30 interest-bearing treasury notes 99,996,400 00 
 
 Total $523,530,670 00 
 
 UNFUNDED. 
 
 Act March 9, 1861, interest notes $3.65 $ 534,500 00 
 
 Act May 16, 1861, two-year notes 8,204,575 00 
 
 Act August 19, 1861, general currency 154,356,631 00 
 
 Act April 17, 1862, denomination $1 and $2 4,516,509 00 
 
 Act October 13, 1862, general currency 118,997,321 50 
 
 Act March 23, 1863, general currency 511,182,566 50 
 
 Total $797,792,103 00 
 
 From this is to be deducted the amount of repayments of 
 old currency by disbursing officers, and also the amount 
 of notes received for 4 per cent, certificates, which are in 
 the Treasury awaiting cancellation 292,000,000 00 
 
 $505,792,103 00 
 
 The balances of appropriations not drawn on 1st April, 1864, were : 
 
 War Department $502,329,110 21 
 
 Navy Department 33,046,775 79 
 
 Civil and miscellaneous, including customs 72,865,683 39 
 
 Total $608,241,569 39 
 
APPENDIX 479 
 
 The estimates submitted by the various departments for the support of 
 the government to the end of the calendar year, say 31st December, 1864, 
 are as follows : 
 
 Legislative $ 245,625 00 
 
 Executive, salary of President, etc . . . 37,350 00 
 
 Treasury Department . . 22,508,462 50 
 
 War Department 483,131,598 00 
 
 Navy Department 10,059,923 78 
 
 State Department 44,914 00 
 
 Department of Justice 347,991 58 
 
 Postoffice Department .... 165,583 40 
 
 Total $516,541,448 26 
 
 The foregoing statements show that the estimates in December last for 
 the six months ending July 1, 1864, are greatly beyond the requirements 
 of the government. It appears from them that the whole expenditure for 
 all branches of the government for the six months ending April 1, 1864, 
 amounted to $255,563,722, and that the unexpended balance then standing 
 to the credit of appropriations was $608,241,569. The anticipated tax upon 
 the currency, which was to accrue on the 1st of April, doubtless kept back 
 requisition for debts accruing since the 17th of February, when the tax 
 act was passed. It would be proper, therefore, to add, for this item, about 
 seventy-five millions to the expenditure. The total expenditure for the 
 six months would then be about three hundred and thirty millions, and 
 the balance to the credit of undrawn appropriations would be about $523,- 
 000,000. 
 
 These figures establish the conclusion that the money appropriated for 
 the six months ending July 1, 1864, will not be required, and that the ex 
 cess may be applied to diminish the appropriations required for the six 
 months ensuing the 1st of July, 1864. It appears that the monthly ex 
 penditures, at the outside, average about fifty-four millions, and conse 
 quently for the three months to ensue from April 1 to July 1, 1864 
 
 The proper expenditure of those three months would be ... $162,000,000 
 But to this must be added the item already explained of 
 amount of debts suspended on account of the anticipated 
 tax on the currency, say .... 75,000,000 
 
 This aggregate $237,000,000 
 
 Deducted from the total balance of undrawn appropriations . 608,241,569 
 
 Leaves this balance , $371,241,509 
 
 available for expenditures for six months beyond July 1, 1864. 
 
 It should further be observed that the estimates submitted by the de 
 partments are made with relation to the present rate of prices. If that 
 rate can be reduced a corresponding reduction could be made in themselves. 
 
480 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 The first and most important inquiry, therefore, is as to the probability 
 of a reduction of prices. All the financial measures proposed to and 
 adopted by the last Congress looked to this result. The scheme offered by 
 the Secretary of the Treasury and that adopted by Congress both sought by 
 different means to effect the same object. Which of the two would have 
 proved most successful it would serve no useful purpose to consider. It 
 is the plain duty of the government to execute the scheme adopted by 
 Congress, and every effort has been directed to its successful prosecution. 
 It is yet too early to perceive all the results which it will effect, but it is 
 quite clear already that the reduction of the currency which it will pro 
 duce is great and decided. 
 
 On the 1st of April, when the reduction was to commence, the whole 
 issue of general currency (represented by the treasury notes bearing 
 no interest) amounted to about eight hundred millions. Of this amount 
 fifty millions were probably at the credit of the different disbursing offi 
 cers throughout the Confederacy, leaving seven hundred and fifty mill 
 ions as the actual circulation. Of this amount, about two hundred and 
 fifty millions have been funded east of the Mississippi ; and it may fairly 
 be presumed that fifty millions more will be funded west of the Missis 
 sippi ; thus leaving in circulation four hundred and fifty millions. The 
 depositaries were directed to discriminate in their reports between the 
 notes of one hundred dollars, and those under one hundred which have 
 been funded. Only a few of them have made reports in which this di 
 rection have been complied with, most probably from want of time to 
 separate notes. But those few are in the cities where the hundred dol 
 lar notes would be likely to accumulate. They disclose the remarkable 
 fact that less than one-half, in some cases not more than one-third, of 
 the notes funded are one hundred dollar notes. It may be assumed, 
 therefore, that not more than one-half of the whole amount funded con 
 sists of one hundred dollar notes. By the terms of the currency act, 
 these notes are thrown out of circulation after April 1st, and are taxed 
 ten per cent, per month until extinguished. It is important, therefore, 
 to ascertain the amount of those now outstanding. 
 
 The whole amount of one hundred dollar notes, issued to the 1st of 
 April, 1864, was three hundred and eighteen millions. It is probable that 
 of the fifty millions of dollars remaining at that date to the credit of dis 
 bursing officers, a large proportion is represented by these notes, say 
 forty millions, thus leaving two hundred and seventy-eight millions of 
 them in circulation. Deduct from this sum one-half of the total amount 
 funded, which, as already stated, consists of one hundred dollar notes to 
 wit: one hundred and fifty millions, and there are left unfunded one 
 hundred and twenty-eight millions of these notes. This sum, therefore, 
 constitutes that remainder whose amount we have been seeking, and is 
 to be deducted from the four hundred and fifty millions left as the entire 
 circulation after the funding. The result is that the whole currency 
 
APPENDIX. 481 
 
 would then stand at three hundred and twenty-two millions. Deduct 
 from this balance the tax of one-third which is imposed by the currency 
 act, and the actual currency left in circulation is two hundred and four 
 teen millions and a fraction. 
 
 It is only necessary for the public mind to apprehend fully this state 
 of things, and it would seem impossible to avoid a great and sudden fall 
 of prices. This fall has been checked by the unfortunate feature of 
 leaving the five dollar notes current. Sellers, particularly of necessary 
 articles, have had the excuse of demanding an indemnity for the future 
 tax on these notes ; but the time is at hand when they will share the 
 fate of other notes, and the entire old currency must disappear. An 
 other reason which has checked the reduction of prices of articles of 
 prime necessity is the exoneration of the planting and farming classes 
 from taxes. They have thereby been enabled to retain their products. 
 But when the whole scheme of Congress shall go into full operation, say 
 1st of July, the reduction of currency will be so great that it is scarcely 
 possible that prices can be maintained at existing rates. 
 
 The conclusion, then, seems fair, that if the currency can be restrained 
 within the limits to which it has been reduced the estimates called for 
 by the departments may be greatly reduced. This result will depend 
 upon the extent to which the new issue of treasury notes is carried. 
 The law directs the issue of two dollars of new notes for every three dol 
 lars held in private hands, with the exception of one hundred dollar 
 notes and notes under five dollars. It also authorizes the Secretary of 
 the Treasury to issue in the same manner two dollars for every three 
 dollars received at the Treasury, under the provisions of the currency 
 act. Assuming the figures above stated as probable estimates of the re 
 sult of funding, the amount of new currency to be issued for exchanges 
 with private parties will be $214,000,000 ; arid the issues authorized to be 
 made for the use of the government would amount to two-thirds of 
 $300,000,000, or $200,000,000. The aggregate of these two would carry up 
 the currency again to $414,000,000. This amount is more than twice the 
 sum which in previous reports I have shown to be requisite for the en 
 tire circulation. "With such an expansion prices could not be expected 
 to fall to the proper standard, and the conclusion seems inevitable, that 
 one or other of these sources of expansion must be restrained. The cur 
 rency act has distinctly guaranteed to the holders of currency the right 
 to receive new issues upon the abatement of one-third from the old, and 
 this right cannot justly be impaired. It should only be dealt with, 
 therefore, by offering to the holders of these notes a security which they 
 might prefer to the new issues. Possibly, this might be done by giving 
 them an option to exchange their notes for four per cent, bonds free from 
 taxation. This freedom from taxation would be an equivalent for the 
 reduction of one-third, to which their notes had been subjected, and if 
 3 
 
482 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 this plan were accepted equality between these holders and those who 
 had already funded their notes in four per cents, might be restored by 
 granting them the privilege of exchanging their per cent, taxable bonds 
 for untaxable at a reduction of one-third. The compensation to the 
 Treasury would be found in the amount which would thereby be paid in 
 money, instead of four per cent, bonds, for the taxes of the present year. 
 
 This arrangement, however, with individuals, if left as it should be, to 
 their choice, would be beyond the control of the government. The other 
 source of issue namely : that by the government, is the one which is 
 under its complete control. It is the restraint of this alone which will 
 enable it to prevent a new redundancy of circulating medium. It, there 
 fore, becomes an inquiry of vital importance to ascertain how far this re 
 straint can be carried. Obviously, it depends upon the extent and avail 
 ability of the other means furnished by Congress for supplying the de 
 mands of the government. 
 
 The means w r hich have been already provided by Congress (over arid 
 above the issue of new treasury notes) are three namely: The sale of 
 $500,000,000 of six per cent, bonds, certificates of indebtedness and taxes. 
 
 1. The six per cent, bonds authorized by Congress offer so desirable a 
 security, that it may be reasonably expected that they will be taken 
 up to the full extent of the available capital of the country. The me 
 chanical arrangements required for the issue of bonds with so many cou 
 pons will delay their issue until the month of May. In the meantime, to 
 support the government during the month of April, and to pay off the 
 accumulation of public indebtedness, which arose from the indisposition 
 to accept payments in old currency, since the passage of the currency 
 act, it became necessary to exercise the authority to issue new treasury 
 notes. At the date of this report, $38,000,000 have been issued, and 
 $10,000,000 in $500 notes are prepared for issue, and this issue must be 
 continued until the bonds can be sold. They have already been adver 
 tised, and will be offered for sale early in May, and it is hoped that the 
 proceeds of their sale will supply means for supporting the government, 
 without resorting to the authority to issue treasury notes. 
 
 2. The next means of supply provided by Congress is through certifi 
 cates of indebtedness. These certificates offer another desirable security, 
 and would seem to be peculiarly available for making purchases. They 
 are payable in Specie two years after peace, and bear six per cent, inter 
 est. It is of the utmost importance that the various purchasing officers 
 of the government should use these certificates instead of calling upon 
 the Treasury for new issues of notes. It is so much easier, however, for 
 both buyer and seller to deal in notes, that the temptation to call for them 
 is invincible, and can only be restrained by an absolute refusal to furnish 
 them. The experience of this department has shown that an authority 
 given to it to issue treasury notes as an alternative for bonds, results in 
 compelling it to furnish the notes, whatever may be its own opinion as to 
 
APPENDIX. 483 
 
 the inexpediency of the issue. It is in this way that the late redundancy 
 of the currency was produced. As far back as May, 1861, when the first 
 issue of bonds and treasury notes jointly was authorized, the Secretary 
 used every effort in his power to induce the various purchasing officers 
 to make use of bonds instead of treasury notes. This effort was contin 
 ued under the act of August, 1861, and he even ventured upon the com 
 pulsory method of holding back his warrants on requisitions, unless 
 bonds would be accepted instead of treasury notes. The pressure, how 
 ever, for the notes became so great that he was unable to resist it. In 
 these circumstances, he distinctly presented to Congress the evils which 
 must follow the expansion thus produced, and during the session of Sep 
 tember, 1862, urged upon them to take immediate measures to absorb 
 the redundant currency. Embarrassed, as Congress then was, with sup 
 posed constitutional difficulties in the way of levying a tax, a large 
 forced loan was the only alternative which could be offered. Tish alter 
 native was rejected* and it was not until April 24, 1863, that a tax ade 
 quate to the wants of the country could be imposed, and this tax was so 
 complex and intricate, that its collection could not be fairly set in action 
 until the following October. The only tax laid before this was the war- 
 tax of August, 1861, of one-half of one per cent, on property ; and small 
 as this was, all the States except three intervened, and paid the amount 
 due by their respective citizens by the issue of their own securities. 
 Even under this pressure, the government succeeded in effecting a for 
 eign loan of $15,000,000, at a time when the Northern government, with 
 ail its resources, and with a commerce open to the whole world, was un 
 able to effect one. If the Treasury Department had been permitted to 
 apply this money to the support of the currency, its excessive issue and 
 consequent depreciation would have been postponed, if not prevented. 
 But the pressing demands of the government for munitions of war, and 
 for expenditures abroad for the army and navy, consumed the entire 
 proceeds of the loan. An effort was then made to combine the credit of 
 the individual States with that of the government, with a view to procure 
 further means to call in the circulation. That effort failed to receive the 
 support of some of the States, and before that support could be propi 
 tiated by further efforts, military reverses put an end to all hope of pres- 
 sent relief from foreign loans In the meantime, many of the States en 
 tered upon the same field of credit, issued large amounts of bonds and 
 treasury notes, and the result was that expansion which has just been 
 remedied, and which ought not to be permitted to recur. 
 
 The financial measures adopted at the last session of Congress have 
 given the country a new starting point. The currency is once more 
 brought within bounds, and it is most earnestly urged upon Congress so 
 to fence around those bounds that they cannot be passed. This can only 
 be done by a careful revision of every appropriation, and by admitting 
 only such as are absolutely necessary, by a steady refusal to increase the 
 
484 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE" TREASURY. 
 
 volume of the currency, and by providing sufficient other means to meet 
 the appropriations which shall be made. 
 
 3. This brings us to the consideration of the remaining means of supply 
 which have been supplied by Congress namely : taxes. This source of 
 supply is in fact the foundation of all the others ; without it they cannot 
 be sustained. Two kinds of taxes have been provided, those in money 
 and those in kind. The money taxes to be paid during the current year 
 have been devoted by Congress almost entirely to the support of the cur 
 rency. The tax-payers are allowed to pay their taxes with the four per 
 cent, bonds and certificates, in which the currency has been funded. It 
 is presumed that every taxable party has supplied himself with bonds to 
 the estimated amount of his tax ; and if there be cases of deficient pro 
 vision, doubtless they will be supplied from surplus amounts funded by 
 others, and offered for sale in the market. It is probable, therefore, that 
 no material aid will be" derived by the Treasury during the present year 
 from any taxes but those in kind. 
 
 This seems to be an unfortunate feature in the tax act. Payment into the 
 Treasury of treasury notes is a necessary instrument to their proper cir 
 culation. Without the aid of such an instrument, the currency of the 
 notes depends entirely upon consent. They are deprived of one of the 
 essential elements of value namely : general demand. The new notes, 
 not being required to pay taxes until next January, lose this valuable in 
 cident during all that interval, and must obtain currency entirely from 
 the good will of the community. Another equally serious difficulty 
 arises from the same cause. The planting interest, whenever it is beyond 
 the reach of the enemy, is prosperous and can contribute to the public 
 wants as largely as any other. The tax law requires from it a tax in kind 
 of ten per cent, on its annual produce, and of five per cent, on capital ; 
 but it allows the tax on the produce to be set off against the tax in money, 
 and it ensures the extinguishment of the money tax by valuing the pro 
 duce at its present price, while the capital is valued at prices of 1861. It 
 follows that the planters are relieved from any necessity to provide them 
 selves with treasury notes, and may withhold from the market their pro 
 duce at pleasure. It follows, also, that the prosperous are favored with 
 a discount, while the unfortunate, whose farms have been desolated, are 
 required to pay upon the value of their capital without any relief from 
 crops. It would seem more just to reverse such a rule, and to require a 
 larger contribution from those whose property has been protected at the 
 expense of the others. 
 
 Proceeding on the same general grounds, the tax act further exoner 
 ates from the income tax of the present year, all property upon which a 
 capital tax shall be paid ; but it makes no such discrimination in assess 
 ing the capital, as is made in favor of agricultural property. All property 
 and income, not agricultural, is assessed at present rates. In another 
 connection, I will invite your attention to the injustice of these inequali- 
 
APPENDIX. 485 
 
 ties. My object now is to induce a reconsideration of this portion of the 
 tax act. 
 
 It has already been shown that, as the act now stands, no pecuniary 
 aid is afforded to the Treasury during the present year, and that unless 
 sufficient supplies shall be derived from sales of bonds and from certifi 
 cates of indebtedness, there will be nothing left but a resort to new issues 
 of treasury notes. It is therefore of the utmost importance to call into 
 requisition every possible means of preventing such a calamity. The 
 taxes offer the most appropriate and efficient means, and can be made to 
 contribute largely by simply repealing so much of the tax act as allows 
 income taxes, whether in kind or in money, to exonerate from the tax on 
 capital. The tax of ten per cent, on the planter s income leaves him an 
 abundant surplus for his support, and, if justly considered, is greatly less 
 than the tax which other interests are required to pay on capital. Let 
 the tw r o be compared, and this will at once be manifest. As a general 
 rule, the interest of money represents the usual income of capital. A 
 tax of ten per cent., then, on the income of one hundred dollars would 
 amount to sixty cents, while a tax of five per cent, on the capital would 
 be five dollars. It will be said, however, that the tax in kind, being upon 
 gross products, must be rated at more than the net income or interest on 
 other property. Let this be admitted, and assume that the tax on gross 
 income is double the amount of a tax on net, and \ve still have the in 
 equality of five dollars against one dollar and twenty cents. But when to 
 this inequality is added that produced by assessment, at the two rates 
 already explained, the inequality amounts to injustice. The proper rem 
 edy for the whole is to be found in an equal tax upon all capital and 
 upon all income at the same basis of assessment. The present system of 
 taxation is so cumbrous and intricate, that delay and disappointment 
 will be its inevitable results ; and whenever another tax bill is framed, I 
 w T ould renew my former recommendation, and urge that it be a simple 
 tax upon property and incomes. At present I will limit my recommen 
 dation to the repeal of the following provisions of the last act : 
 
 1. That which allows the value of the tax in kind to be deducted from 
 the tax of five per cent, on agricultural property. 
 
 2. That which repeals the income tax for the present year on incomes 
 derived from property taxed as capital. 
 
 3. That which discriminates as to the date to which assessments are to 
 have reference. 
 
 The taxes in kind, levied by the last tax acT, appeared to me to em 
 brace (and with much propriety) another subject matter namely: gold 
 and silver in the form of coin, gold dust or bullion. Some embarrassment 
 in reaching this conclusion was experienced from apparently conflicting 
 provisions of the tax and assessment acts. The latter directed coin to be 
 assessed at its value in Confederate treasury notes, unless otherwise pro 
 vided in the law imposing the tax. The former act placed in one and the 
 
486 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 same class, coin, gold dust and bullion, and imposed a tax of five per cent. 
 upon the " amount." The word " amount " as to coin was susceptible of 
 two meanings namely : the sum stamped thereon, and the actual quan 
 tity of metal. The other members of the class were free from this am 
 biguity, and could only be rated by quantity. It seemed to follow that 
 the same meaning must attach to all the members of the same class. 
 This conclusion was strengthened by the direction to rate sterling ex 
 change (which is usually treated as a correlative of coin) at its value in 
 treasury notes, and by the further direction, already noticed in the assess 
 ment act, to assess coin in the same way. It was obvious that the holder 
 of coin would suffer no injury by contributing such portion of his coin in 
 kind, as under any circumstances he was bound to furnish sufficient treas 
 ury notes to purchase. It was thought probable that the tax in kind was 
 intended by Congress to relieve the government from the obnoxious duty 
 of depreciating its own currency. The tax levied in this form is also 
 more beneficial, as it will secure to the government a portion of those 
 large amounts of coin which have fled from the plundering hand of the 
 enemy and have found its protection ; and further, as it will enable the 
 government to meet such demands for coin as occasionally arise. 
 
 There is another portion of the tax act to which I would respectfully 
 direct the attention of Congress. A tax is imposed upon the capital 
 stocks of all banks and other corporations, and another is laid upon all 
 solvent credits. 
 
 The effect of these two enactments is to tax the capital of any corpora 
 tion as stock, and then again to tax the securities in which the capital is 
 invested. Banks of issue would be taxed even beyond this. Their issues, 
 like their capital, are invested in securities. If these issues should be 
 extended to twice the capital (as many of them are permitted by their 
 charters to do) the bank would have to pay a tax of five per cent, on its 
 capital, and then of five per cent, more on the total amount of credits in 
 which its issues have been invested, amounting together to fifteen per 
 cent, on its capital. This result is so manifestly unjust that I concluded 
 that Congress could not have intended it. It probably was supposed that 
 banks came under the exception in favor of any registered business. But 
 this exception does not include banks of issue. I have, therefore, directed 
 the assessors to make assessments in such form as will enable Congress 
 to remedy the difficulty before the tax becomes payable. Several of the 
 banks have applied for relief, and I respectfully commend to your atten 
 tion a memorial which they have presented to this department, a copy of 
 which is herewith submitted. 
 
 Another embarrassment in administering the tax act has been encount 
 ered in that portion which directs the tax in kind of farmers to be de 
 ducted from the tax of five per cent, on their capital. If the deduction 
 intended was of the tax in kind of last year, then the planting interest 
 will be entirely relieved from the taxes of last year whilst all other in- 
 
APPENDIX. 487 
 
 terests have duly contributed. If the reference is to the tax in kind of 
 the current year, then as the money tax is payable in June, and the tax 
 in kind cannot be realized until later in the year, it is impossible to de 
 duct the latter from the former. Some explanatory act is respectfully 
 asked. 
 
 I cannot leave this subject without specially invoking your attention 
 to the inequality made by the tax bill in the assessment of agricultural 
 and other property. While the latter is assessed at its value in treasury 
 notes, which are acknowledged to be depreciated at least to one-third 
 their face, the former is assessed at values which prevailed when treasury 
 notes were nearly at par with specie. This inequality creates discontent 
 in the public mind, and cannot be maintained as just and equal. In all 
 public as well as private transactions it is dangerous to depart from the 
 great principles of justice with a view to effect present expediency. 
 Doubtless it was supposed that legislation of this kind would reach the 
 speculator and extortioner. But it w r ill be found that most of these 
 classes have escaped the tax by taking refuge in agricultural invest 
 ments ; while thousands of widows and orphans and loyal citizens, who 
 have invested their all in stocks and securities, are deprived of their 
 means of support. I would respectfully recommend a revision of this 
 section and the establishment of a uniform rate of assessment. 
 
 The report of the Commissioner of Taxes will present the results of 
 the collection of taxes, as far as progress has been made. The amount 
 collected is $82,262,349.83. The difficulties which are encountered in the 
 collection can only be estimated by any one who will inspect the mass of 
 papers which are required for each return, and the enquiries necessary 
 to be made of each individual tax-payer. The results of the tax will 
 probably confirm the recommendation already made of a resort to a more 
 simple system of taxation The frauds and evasions, which cannot be 
 discovered under the present system, are a perpetual drain upon the tax, 
 which is necessarily increased by the number of officers who must be 
 employed in its collection. And after all is done by the government 
 which is possible, the result is that the most cunning in devices will es 
 cape, whilst only the honest and conscientious pay the full and just de 
 mands of tire law. 
 
 In the process of collection, various amendments to the law have been 
 found necessary, which will be brought to your attention in the report 
 of the Commissioner of Taxes, to which I respectfully invite your atten 
 tion. 
 
 The act imposing restrictions on the export of cotton, tobacco, and 
 naval stores, and that prohibiting the importation of articles of luxury, 
 have received the attention which they demanded. Under the first act 
 certain regulations, issued by the President, of which a copy is herewith 
 submitted, will fully exhibit what has been done ; and, under the second, 
 this Department has executed the duty imposed upon it as to the limita- 
 
488 REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
 
 tion within which importations shall be made of articles to be used for 
 wearing apparel. A copy of the instructions issued to the collectors of 
 customs on this subject is herewith submitted. 
 The customary estimates in detail are hereunto appended. 
 Eespectfully submitted, 
 
 C. G. MEMMIXGER, 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 MAKING TREASURY NOTES A LEGAL TENDER. 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES AMERICA, 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Richmond, March 13, 1862. 
 Hon. L. J. GartreH, Chairman Judiciary Committee: 
 
 SIR, I have received your note of this morning, requesting my views 
 upon the expediency of passing an act making treasury notes a legal ten 
 der in payment of debts. 
 
 I presume the enquiry, addressed to this Department, is directed to 
 considerations of finance, and not of law, and I shall accordingly confine 
 myself to these. 
 
 I. Treasury notes are now the accepted currency of the whole country, 
 and circulate at par with bank notes. They, therefore, need no assist 
 ance at present to enable them to perform the function of legal tender. 
 
 A law of Congress making their acceptance compulsory, will immedi^ 
 ately induce the enquiry into the reasons for such a law. It will be asked 
 Why enforce^ by penalty that which is freely done by every one? And 
 it will be difficult to escape the conclusion w T hich will be drawn, that the 
 law-makers anticipate an expected refusal ; and this anticipation involves 
 suspicion of the notes. I need not comment upon the extreme sensitive 
 ness of credit. It is obvious that the endeavor to force the notes upon 
 the community will operate to shake the public confidence, and must de 
 preciate their credit. 
 
 II. In any other view than an effort to prevent depreciation, the law 
 would be useless, for it is plain that no law is necessary to produce a 
 voluntary act. Assuming this depreciation as a fact, the next enquiry is, 
 Will such a law repair or diminish the injury? 
 
 There are two classes of persons to whom the notes will be tendered 
 creditors and sellers. The first are required to accept in payment less 
 than they contracted to receive. However unjust this may be, they have 
 no option. The law to them is in nature a bankrupt law, and the interest 
 
APPENDIX. 489 
 
 of the whole creditor class of the community is thrown against it. As to 
 sellers, they are at liberty to decline accepting the notes, unless an addi 
 tional price is added to cover the depreciation. The law, therefore, can 
 not reach them. On the contrary, the apprehension of still further 
 depreciation induces this class to raise their prices or to decline sales 
 altogether. 
 
 III. If the government should attempt to constrain the receipt of the 
 notes by penalties, they have before them the experience of all nations 
 as to its utter failure. A reference to the laws of Virginia will show that 
 after a vain attempt to secure the currency of her bills of credit by pen 
 alties in May, 1779, she repealed those penalties ; and the subsequent ex 
 perience of France is equally, if not more, instructive. 
 
 Extreme pressure may compel our government to adopt in the future 
 extreme measures, but it seems to me that at present it is our best policy 
 to avoid every possible shock to public credit, and to legislate in the other 
 direction, namely, to increase taxes, and by every possible means to pro 
 mote confidence in the integrity and solvency of the government. 
 
 My judgment is against the passage of the law at the present time. 
 Eespectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 (Signed) C. G. MEMMINGER, 
 
 Secretary of the Treasurer. 
 
COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 ON THE "LOVE OF COUNTRY." 
 
 WRITTEN AT THE AGE OF FOURTEEN, WHILE IN THE SOPHOMORE 
 CLASS, SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE. 
 
 To delineate the character and to portray the virtues of illustrious per 
 sonages has ever been considered the proper province of panegyric and 
 elogium. The greater the quantity or the more superior the degree in 
 which those virtues which characterize a great and noble mind are com 
 bined in the same person, the more worthy is he deemed of such distin 
 guished marks of admiration and respect. But panegyric has frequently, 
 however, exhausted her store and eulogium has lavished all her praises 
 on him who possesses one alone of these virtues. He, who when surrounded 
 by difficulties and encompassed with dangers, when overwhelmed by dis 
 astrous calamities and threatened with impending ruin ; when property, 
 friends, everything dear or desirable is swallowed up in the vortex of de 
 struction ; he, who in this situation, can preserve his equanimity and dis 
 regarding with manly indifference the storms of fortune, deviates not 
 from the course at first laid down, has always been deemed a character 
 worthy of the most attentive imitation. He, who with heroic magnan 
 imity and exemplary valor, has led his armies to battle, when victory de 
 scending from her car alights upon his arms and extending her wings 
 over the field drives from before her the hostile legions and dazzles their 
 sight with her aegis ; when prosperity presents to her favorite hero the 
 cup of ambition and encircles his brow with the distinguishing laurel ; 
 when in this situation he dashes from his lips the intoxicating draught 
 and returns to his former station with an unsullied and an untainted 
 reputation, has always been held forth as a remarkable instance to man 
 kind. With equal justice may the pen of eulogy trace the character of 
 him who shrinks not, when adverse fortune frowns upon his prospects ; 
 when the dark and lowering cloud of destruction, which threatens his 
 horizon, bursts forth with resistless impetuosity and rends the air with 
 peals of thunder ; when havoc, issuing from its bosom on the wings of the 
 
 [4901 
 
APPENDIX. 491 
 
 wind, releases from their gloomy caverns the fiends of war and urges 
 them to satiate themselves on the blood of his soldiers. Then is the time 
 to try his soul, but they " strive in vain " ; he descends from the throne 
 of prosperity in awful majesty and shrinks not from the horrid aspect of 
 misery and despair. Like the archangel, fallen from his high estate, he 
 sinks, but not in crime ; his soul, though bleeding, is unsullied ; his mind, 
 though bent down by suffering, is not turned from its integrity. Like 
 the splendid lamp of heaven he will soon reappear from behind the clouds 
 which obscure him, to strike with more dazzling brilliance the astonished 
 world. Thus does it appear that there are virtues, the possession of one 
 alone of which is capable of ennobling and immortalising a name. Among 
 these virtues Love of Country holds no inconsiderable place ; to delineate 
 then the influence and the effects of which upon the actions of mankind 
 is the object, which will, I hope, on the present occasion attract your 
 attention. 
 
 In order to a better representation and more complete conception of 
 the present subject, it will be necessary to point out those qualities and 
 .properties which are essentially requisite to a genuine love of country. 
 That attachment which mankind have in common to the place of their 
 nativity, is nothing more than a mere natural regard arising from local 
 circumstances and confirmed by habit, but which long absence and better 
 advantages in a foreign country may eventually eradicate. Even the 
 savage Indian has an attachment to those unbounded forests where he 
 has been accustomed to roam from the earliest dawn of recollection, and 
 where in maturer years he has with unceasing vigilance traced the path 
 of the light-footed antelope ; and, like a lion watching for his prey, has 
 spent hours of patience, waiting the approach of the timorous and unof 
 fending stag. But patriotism, instead of arising from local partialities, 
 increases with knowledge ; instead of being confined to a little spot, com 
 prehends in one vast view nations, dynasties, empires. It rageth in the 
 breast an inextinguishable flame, and burns unceasingly and forever. 
 
 To produce a virtue of so pure a nature, civilization and science must 
 lend their powerful aid. It is not from the impulse of nature that we 
 learn to sacrifice self-interest at the shrine of public welfare. Principles 
 must be instilled into the mind of man to induce him to love his country, 
 lie must be taught to consider himself not his own, but his country s 
 property ; he must be made sensible of what he owes to her fostering care ; 
 that before he was able to render himself any assistance, like a second 
 mother, she took him by the hand, placed him " under the shadow of her 
 wing," and tendered to him all the blessings of life. He must be taught 
 to view with abhorrence and detestation the man who possesses not this 
 love, and to consider him an enemy to his country. Happy is the na 
 tion among whom education thus takes up her abode ; happy are the peo 
 ple who could thus entice her. With them shall Patriotism delight to 
 dwell j there shall she fix her lasting habitation and shed her genial in- 
 
COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 492 
 
 fluence on all around. There shall she raise a new Leonidas, who with 
 his faithful countrymen, will part with liberty only with life, and the 
 enemy shall only enter their country by making their bodies a threshhold. 
 But the usefulness of any virtue is only to be determined by its practical 
 influence on the actions of mankind. Theories and hypotheses may be 
 heaped upon each other and successively overturned without ameliorat 
 ing or injuring the condition of any nation. It is when these theories are 
 reduced to practice that they influence the fate of nations, and it is only 
 when this influence is beneficial that they can with justice be termed 
 useful. 
 
 In order, then, to show the usefulness of love of country, we will trace 
 the character of him upon whom it exercises its greatest influence. Called 
 to an honorable station by the suffrages of his countrymen, he is indefat 
 igable in the pursuit of one object his whole mind is turned thither. 
 The good of his country is his glory, her prosperity his boast, her pros 
 pects are his prospects, her views his. If any measure injurious to her 
 welfare should be proposed, he exerts himself to the utmost to thwart it, 
 and rests not day nor night till his wishes are crowned with success. If 
 he sees any prospect of aggrandising his country, he urges his whole in 
 fluence to propagate his scheme, and although defeated in his attempt, 
 yet will he not be discouraged. But his view is not confined to external 
 objects alone ; he considers the situation of his own countrymen, and en 
 deavors to alleviate their misfortunes and comfort them in their calam 
 ities. He revolves the consequence of all his measures in his mind before 
 he proposes them. His soul, not made callous by the chilling touch of 
 power, bleeds at the afflictions of others. He knows that individual hap 
 piness is one of the grand objects of government, and that a government 
 can only be strong when its subjects are attached to it. Thus the good 
 of his country is his only object ; her welfare his only care. As a ma 
 jestic stream which glideth along 
 
 Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge, 
 He overtaketh in his pilgrimage ; 
 
 and though rocks and rapids may obstruct his course, yet at length shall 
 he empty his tributary waters in tranquility and calmness into the im 
 perious ocean. 
 
 But if some insult from a foreign nation ; if some injury be done to his 
 country ; if honorable advances be made and be rejected with scorn and 
 disdain, the soul of the patriot then burns with honest indignation ; then 
 is he ready to sacrifice all the prospects he before had in view ; all the an 
 ticipations of a laudable ambition, everything dear or desirable on earth, 
 even his very life, to the honor of his country. The lion is roused from 
 his den ; he rushes forth, and the forest trembles at his roar ; the moun 
 tains re-echo the sound and all nature shudders. Princes and potentates 
 start from their thrones, for the rage of the patriot is excited ; his coun 
 try is insulted ; she is struck by the impious hand of despotism and dared 
 
APPENDIX, 493 
 
 to the encounter. He girds on the destroying sword ; he rushes amid the 
 danger and the din of war. Who can oppose, who can withstand him? 
 The coward sword of his enemy falls from his hand, and he shrinks from 
 the encounter. Despotism calls in vain for his slaves ; the keen edge of 
 the patriot falchion cleaves his crest, and he falls prostrate from his 
 throne. The Goddess of Liberty descends and hurls him to destruction ; 
 his servile train desert and leave him, and he sinks headlong into the 
 vortex of oblivion. 
 
 "THE ART OF PRINTING." 
 
 AN ORATION DELIVERED BEFORE THE CLARIOSOPHIC SOCIETY, SOUTH 
 CAROLINA COLLEGE, 1818, AT THE AGE OF FIFTEEN YEARS. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT, We are assembled this evening not to repeat the 
 plaudits of victory, or to utter the triumph over the laurels of a conqueror ; 
 not to bend the knee at the altar of adulation, to court the power, or to 
 solicit place of some capricious master ; but, clothed in the vestments of 
 peace, we are here unanimously to offer up a sacrifice at the shrine of sci 
 ence. Remote from the noise and tumult of a busy world, the pomp of 
 blood-stained victory and the paeans of eulogy disturb not the sacred 
 silence. This is the object of our meeting an object dear to us as free 
 men, dearer as the future props of our country, and, oh, how dear as vota 
 ries of immortality. 
 
 In a country situated as ours it is almost exclusively our duty to culti 
 vate science. Ignorance is the foster parent of slavery; science the 
 nurse of freedom. To know is to secure our rights. In all ages ignorance 
 has been considered the deadliest foe to liberty. With this the despot 
 arms himself ; by this he bends the necks of his subjects to submission, and 
 in this he finds his surest defense. In vain do his enemies combine against 
 him ; in vain do they attempt to overturn his throne. Ignorance and super 
 stition stand by his side and guard him from their attacks. But when the 
 sun of science rises upon their horizon and spreads his genial influence 
 around them, how are these mists dispelled, and with what a tremendous 
 crash does this huge fabric fall. In its animating ray the patriot gathers 
 strength ; the tyrant only it dazzles, bewilders and blinds. Ignorance, like 
 a vapid dream, from whose putrid exhalations arise pestilence and death, 
 oarries ruin in its train ; while science, like the majestic Nile rolling over 
 huge cataracts and spreading prosperity and plenty all around, diffuses 
 universal happiness. 
 
494 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 To analyze the human mind has called forth the greatest exertion of 
 talent and intellect. Theory upon theory, and hypothesis upon hypothe 
 sis, has engaged the attention of philosophers of all ages. Vibrating from 
 extreme to extreme, at one time we have been amused by the beautiful 
 disquisitions of Quintilian, the deep and discriminating talents of Locke, 
 and the glittering visions of Helvetius. Now we eye a picture on which 
 the pencil of hope has scarce touched a ray, and now we turn to one on 
 which imagination has lavished all her charms the eye is dazzled by its 
 splendor and its faults concealed. But nature, equal and uniform in all 
 her works, has neither shut us out from the acquirement of knowledge 
 nor endued us with such talents as will spring to maturity and ripeness 
 without due care and attention. On the contrary, she has given each a just 
 allotment, and has proportioned the fruit to the means taken to procure 
 it. She has made industry and application auxiliary to our wants ; that 
 by using these means we may on eagle pinions soar above the vulgar 
 crowd to mansions of eternal fame and glory. The span of time allotted 
 to each of us is by far too short for the attainment of universal science. 
 Soon shall the clay-cold sod cover the philosopher, and no longer shall his 
 voice be heard among the living. Like wave succeeding wave, generation 
 succeedeth generation, and man withereth and falleth to decay like the 
 grass of the field. But his works live after him, and although he be in the 
 valley of death, yet is he able to instruct, amuse and entertain. At the 
 distance of two thousand years we can listen to the song of the immortal 
 Homer ; we can hear the thunder of his battle and attend to the majestic 
 strain of his verse. We can sport with the playful Horace or weep with 
 the solemn Virgil. We can ascend with the sightless Milton into man 
 sions of eternal bliss and view angels robed in light, making melody upon 
 their harps. 
 
 But though we derive advantages of the last importance from the 
 labors of others, still are we indebted to other sources for the distribu 
 tion and equalization of science. The knowledge of the wisest would 
 avail but little were they heard only while speaking, or were they to in 
 struct only while living. The wisdom of Socrates and Plato enlightened 
 a few, who, by the splendor of their fortune, were enabled to attend their 
 discourses, while the surrounding multitude continued enveloped in 
 their former ignorance. And when the destructive rapacity of Northern 
 barbarians destroyed and overturned the civilized world, science, unable 
 to stand the shock, fell beneath their rude hands unsupported and un 
 known, and mankind relapsed into their original state of ignorance and 
 superstition. Eloquent and impressive was the silence that for ages sat 
 upon the world; she seemed to weep because her children were not. 
 The thunders of the Vatican heard at distant intervals rendered the 
 gloom more awful, while the light, which like the faint coruscations of 
 an exhausted cloud, ever and anon shot its pale ray across the horizon, 
 was the only monitor that other times had ever been. At length the 
 
APPENDIX. 495 
 
 exertions of Peter, the Hermit, followed by those stupendous monuments 
 of human credulity and superstition, the Crusades, by opening the com 
 munication between nations, happily dispelled the mists, which envel 
 oped the world, and cleared the way for the glorious assertors of the 
 rights of man. The Reformation, in all its splendor, burst forth with 
 dazzling brilliance upon the benighted world. But soon would it have 
 disappeared like the effulgent meteor of heaven, which after illuminat 
 ing the horizon with its rays, bursts into myriads of stars then disap 
 pears, had it not been for the accidental discovery of an art which shook 
 all Europe to its centre. Laurentus, of Harloem, a name dear to the vo 
 taries of science, while amusing one of his children by carving letters 
 on a tree, was impressed with the idea that by cutting a number of let 
 ters on wood and arran-ging them in syllables and then into words, they 
 might from thence be impressed on paper ; accordingly having cut the 
 Lord s Prayer, the Creed and such other things as conformed to the 
 fanaticism of the times on a berchen plank, he stamped it on paper, and 
 thus produced the first rude essay of the ART OF PRINTING. 
 
 This piece is now preserved in one of the museums of Europe in proof 
 of this. But wood was soon too soft to answer his purpose entirely ; lead 
 was therefore tried, but this also baffled his endeavor. At length by a 
 mixture of lead and tin he formed a composition which exceeded his most 
 sanguine expectations. Thus was invented an art which changed the 
 whole nature of things, and effected an important revolution in the his 
 tory of man. But soon was it destined to feel the persecutions of bigotry 
 and superstition. Princes and kings, urged on by fanaticism, conspired 
 against its existence ; it was decried as the offspring of malice and the ve 
 hicle of opprobrium; but armed with herculean power it crushed, even 
 in its infancy, these serpents sent to destroy it. The thunders of Rome 
 were hurled at its root, but like the hydra of old it gathered strength from 
 opposition. Thus was invented the art of printing an art from which we 
 have derived advantages of the last importance. 
 
 We will now briefly review its influence upon science in general, relig 
 ion and political happiness. To make the labors of any one in particular 
 subservient to the general good of the community, the medium of inter 
 course by which every individual may partake of the fruits of this labor, 
 must be open to all. The slowly moving pen was but little adapted to facili 
 tate this intercourse ; the labor was immense, the span of time allotted to 
 man would be entirely consumed, and the community would eventually 
 derive but little advantage perhaps one copy added to the general 
 stock. In Greece and Rome, although much has been said of their fame 
 in literature, yet we find a few, for whom the hand of power or the finger 
 of affluence had prepared the way, enjoying the pleasures of science, 
 while the surrounding multitude were still enveloped in the grossest ig 
 norance and superstition. This was the state of science when the heavy 
 hand of the fell Goth struck at its extinction. Can we wonder that she 
 
496 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 sunk into obscurity resting on such a basis as this? Can we wonder that 
 she slept so long when we consider the character of these barbarians? 
 To wield the sword and hurl the lance was their only amusement the 
 ablest warrior was the wisest man. War was their only employment ; the 
 arts of peace they left to women and children. Their minds had attached 
 the idea of slavery to every thing relative to science ; they saw how ener 
 vated were the people they had conquered. This they attributed to their 
 passion for the arts, and on this account they despised them and every 
 thing appertaining to them. But when the genial climate of Italy, at 
 tended by the influence of the mild religion of the Redeemer, had softened 
 the ferocious spirit of its conqueror, science was sometimes seen weeping 
 in a cloister. The art of printing, with a ray as resplendent as when 
 " God said let there be light and there was light, " burst forth on the 
 world, and extended the blessings of science to all around. Like a ma 
 jestic stream it glideth irresistibly along, bringing prosperity and happi 
 ness to the door of every man. You, my hearers, are yourselves instances 
 of it ; say, has it been of immense advantage to you? Were it not for this 
 where would now have been these institutions which send forth annually 
 rich streams to water our beloved country? 
 
 If this art has been of so much advantage to science, how can we esti 
 mate its influence upon religion that mild religion which comforteth us 
 under all difficulties, which supports us under all calamities, and which, 
 when all earthly friends fail, smooths our pillow and prepares us for 
 death. In vain would Luther and the other assertors of the rights of man 
 have strove to overturn the fabric of superstition which enthralled the 
 world had not Laurentius of Harloem prepared the way. Their works 
 circulated with the rapidity of lightning, and the eyes of man were at 
 length opened that he should see his folly. Although kings and priests 
 combined against them, yet armed with omnipotence they overthrew all 
 obstacles and gained the desired object. Like a tempest the reformation 
 spread and triumphed over dynasties and empires in its victorious ca 
 reer, and now for the first time were the thunders of Rome heard without 
 dismay. That mankind have certain imperceptible rights is a position too 
 well known to need any proof ; it is not less known that among these 
 rights are the equality of all men, and civil and religious liberty. In 
 the formation of a government each member of the community sacrifices 
 a portion of his personal liberty at the altar of civil liberty. Thus 
 it appears that the good of the community is the object for which all 
 governments are formed ; hence it follows that the moment this ceases 
 to be the object, from that moment the people have a right to shake off 
 this government. Again, since all power springs from the people, the 
 people have a right to give their opinion on every subject ; and thus in 
 small communities the people enjoy the greatest portion of liberty. But 
 wljen a country becomes so populous that this cannot be done, then an 
 other plan must be resorted to, and this is by a representative govern- 
 
APPENDIX. 497 
 
 ment ; by these representatives other officers are appointed for the better 
 regulation of the government ; still are all these officers responsible to 
 the people, the source from which they derive their power. From this it 
 appears that the people have a right to canvass their opinions and exam 
 ine into their conduct. To do this effectually the art of printing has 
 opened an extensive field. The freedom of the press is the chief guard of 
 liberty ; by this can the patriot extend a shield over the liberties of his 
 country and rouse the latent springs of government into action. 
 
 In England the people have struggled for ages to obtain this great 
 engine of freedom, and although they possess it in some degree, yet have 
 they no positive law in its favor. But in our happy country, not satisfied 
 with this negative freedom, our fathers were determined to affect this 
 right the guardian genius of our civil and religious liberties. It is our 
 glorious privilege to examine the conduct of our rulers and scan their 
 views. The press guarantees to us these privileges, and affords us an in 
 strument to exercise them. On its bright surface the tyrant looks and is 
 turned to stone ; the patriot sees his image reflected and is urged on to 
 virtue. But it has been alleged as an argument against it that licentious 
 ness is but too often attendant on the liberty of the press. True it is, in 
 some degree, but shall we condemn the whole because a part is tainted? 
 Shall we destroy the whole tree because a branch bears bad fruit? Who 
 would have any confidence in that physician who, to cure a gangrene, 
 would top off a limb, of which he knew death to be the consequence? 
 The remedy would be worse than the disease. The communication be 
 tween licentiousness and the freedom of the press is too nice to be dis 
 criminated, and since the bad effect of the one is more than counter 
 balanced by the good produced by the other, it would be better to let it 
 remain. Thus is the liberty of the press the bulwark of freedom, the 
 shield of liberty, and the guardian of our rights ; in a word, we may truly 
 say that it is the source from which we derive all our present happiness 
 and prosperity. 
 
 " IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL." 
 
 OIIATION BEFORE 1 HE " CLARIOSOPHIC SOCIETY," SOUTH CAROLINA 
 COLLEGE, DELIVERED 1819, AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN YEARS. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT, The analysis of the human mind is the proper study 
 of man. Engaged in the contemplation of the works of creation the 
 natural philosopher retires from society and seeks some solitary place 
 where he may in silence pursue his meditations. Fired with a zeal to 
 examine the grand objects of creation, and urged on by a resistless curi- 
 
498 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 osity to enquire into the causes which produce the regularity and order 
 which he observes throughout the universe, he now opens the bosom of 
 the earth and attentively observes the various productions of the min 
 eral kingdom ; views nature forming in endless succession those gems, 
 which sparkle on the crowns of kings, and traces the seeds from which 
 shall arise volcanic eruptions, which shall shake the solid globe to its centre. 
 Gradually elevating his observations he now views the various forms 
 and systems of matter which prevail upon the face of the earth, pene 
 trates into the astonishing phenomena of vegetation and displays the 
 regular gradation which exists throughout these works of nature. And 
 now the azure sky, decked with those countless myriads of constellations 
 which hang like immortal lamps of effulgent splendor, round the throne 
 of heaven, appears in full glory before him. Gliding on an embodied ray 
 of light, he walks amid thousands of worlds, which marks their regular 
 orbits around the central sun and is astonished at the harmony and order 
 which prevails throughout. Like the fallen Archangel, traversing the 
 newly-created regions, illumined by the lamp of day, he gazes, admires 
 and is compelled to reverence the Author of all. But the contemplation 
 of the human mind exerts a, more powerful influence in increasing our 
 admiration of the wisdom of the Almighty. Matter, inanimate matter, 
 actuated only by external causes, cannot have the power of presenting 
 itself in forms calculated to inspire veneration and delight. The most 
 beautiful prospect in nature becomes insipid by repetition of enjoy 
 ment and the grandest object ceases to affect the senses when made 
 common to their view. Not so the human mind. Always presenting 
 something new, always affording something before unheard of and ever 
 capable of receiving new impressions and producing new ideas, an end 
 less field lies open before it. Imagination, that powerful source of pleas 
 ure and enjoyment, can always afford delight and present new means to 
 please an immortal soul. Eeason, that never deceiving guide, can 
 always discover new objects on which to exercise itself, and memory, 
 that enchanting source of fascination, can always reproduce former im 
 pressions. The understanding is ever prepared to perform its duty and 
 the passions ever ready to be excited. An emanation from the very es 
 sence of the deity, it must partake of his qualities. A stream from the 
 very fountain of perfection, it must possess some of its properties, and 
 though tainted by extraneous matter in its course, yet must it be some 
 what like the original. Such is the human mind and can anything be 
 more instructive than to consider such a being ? Can anything be so 
 pleasing as to contemplate its qualities ? 
 
 Hence, then, if the study of the mind is the proper province of man, and 
 if this mind is so pre-eminent, it is of no less moment to consider whether 
 it is to be annihilated and pass into non-entity or to exist forever 
 whether we must entertain the debasing idea that this ornament of crea 
 tion, this lord of the universe, is to be hurled to a level with the brutes or 
 
APPENDIX. 499 
 
 
 
 to exist co-eternal with those intelligencies who are above him in the 
 scale of creation, and vie with them in adoration of their common Author. 
 To establish the probability of the immortality of the soul by the light 
 of nature and reason, the passions and sentiments of the soul itself afford 
 a ground of conclusion. Let us for a moment suppose that we are to be 
 annihilated let us image that non-entity is to receive us from the hand 
 of death. What dreadful idea rushes upon the mind what chilling an 
 guish seizes the soul. What ! am I to be destroyed forever am I to sink 
 within the grave and lie there to eternity? Oh, dreadful, tremendous sug 
 gestion ! Imagination, at its view, starts from its situation, and a univer 
 sal horror seizes the soul. Fancy shrinks back from the prospect, and 
 despair, with her gloomy attendants, usurps the mind. The blood rushes 
 back to the heart and refuses to perform its circulation. Nature stands 
 appalled at the sight of the anguish of her lord. But is it really so ; are 
 we really to pass into this state of non-existence? Can an all-good, all- 
 wise and all-just Creator implant misery in his creatures? can he instil 
 into us principles merely to make us pass a miserable and wretched ex 
 istence*? Heaven forbid; justice and humanity condemn the thought; 
 reason and mercy decry such a suggestion. No ! ages upon ages shall roll 
 away, heaven and earth shall be destroyed, but we shall exist. How does 
 imagination grasp at the idea, how quickly does she now pass the field of 
 time. The dark cloud of futurity cannot bound her vision, the obscure 
 vale of eternity cannot impede her career. Immortal pleasures rise to 
 her view, and immortal honors lie thick around her. Charmed at the 
 sight, the soul is released from anxiety, and beholds the fascinating pros 
 pect both in boundless admiration and delight. 
 
 When the final cause of any doctrine or opinion is to instil into the 
 mind principles of humanity and virtue, to strengthen the bonds of love 
 and friendship and to improve the morality of mankind, the rational 
 conclusion is that this opinion is grounded on a firm basis, and that the 
 doctrine itself is true and consistent with reason. If, then, a belief of 
 the immortality of the soul has this effect upon society, we must con 
 clude that this belief is rational. That it has this effect will be evident 
 by supposing the belief for a moment to be removed. That excellent 
 systems of ethics which is founded on the basis of a state of future 
 rewards and punishments, would immediately crumble and fall to the 
 dust. Mankind released from the constraint of virtue and conscience, 
 would perpetrate every act which would suit their own particular ends. 
 The wicked, no longer restrained by any principle of remorse, and no 
 longer fearing future punishment, would prey upon the property of 
 their neighbors, and the virtuous, feeling no inward principle of self- 
 approbation and seeing no prospect of future reward for temporal 
 suffering, would, in self-defense, take those same means to which others 
 had resorted. Ambition, attended by her concomitant train of passions, 
 now looses from their fetters the fiends of war and destruction. The 
 
600 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIOK&, 
 
 voice of desolation is heard crying havoc, and he is seen urging on his 
 hell-hounds to satiate themselves with the blood of man. Alarmed at 
 the tremendous confusion, which shakes all earth to its center, justice 
 and humanity fly to their original abodes and cruelty usurps their 
 place. Mercy, for a moment, strives against the mighty tumult, but as 
 when a river impeded in its course acquires accelerated power, and rush 
 ing from its wonted channel destroys and desolates everything in its 
 impetuous career, so do the exertions of mercy avail, and finding all 
 endeavor fruitless she returns to her Olympic abode. Creation is 
 rendered a scene of interminable confusion, and chaos resumes his des 
 potic sway. 
 
 But let us turn from this disgusting picture and consider the subject 
 in another point of view. The force of arguments drawn from analogy 
 is always proportionate to the points in which the analogy holds good, 
 and if it corresponds in all points, the evidence thence arising amounts 
 to moral certainty. Universal experience has attested that the human 
 mind is progressive. Improvement upon improvement and addition 
 upon addition has been made and is constantly making to every branch 
 of science, but the goal of perfection is still as far distant as ever. The 
 road thereto is as capacious as ever and the travelers thereto have not 
 ceased from their labor. As when some solitary bark pursues its course 
 over the trackless ocean, leaving behind it a world of waters, the hope 
 ful mariner anxiously seeks a limit to his vision, but in vain, an inter 
 minable prospect still appears before him, so is the progress of the mind. 
 Is it not rational to suppose that if we have gradually progressed thus 
 far, the severing hand of death will not obstruct our career? Does not 
 analogy confirm the supposition ? Is it not probable that death will 
 only by removing all contaminating matter from our purer spirit, 
 approximate us to the source of our existence ? How pleasing is the 
 idea; how consistent is it with the goodness of our Maker, that we 
 shall constantly advance in our journey and add knowledge to know 
 ledge and perfection to perfection. May imagination stamp it on the 
 tablet of memory and may she cherish the idea forever, even when 
 time is no more. 
 
 "INFLUENCE OF POPULAR OPINION." 
 
 AN ORATION AT THE EXHIBITION OF THE SENIOR CLASS APRIL 22, 
 1819, AT THE AGE OP SIXTEEN YEARS. 
 
 To develop the secret causes which influence mankind to the exercise 
 of virtue has ever been deemed an object worthy the attention of the phil 
 osopher. So accustomed is the human mind to the pursuit of vice, that 
 
APPENDIX. 501 
 
 none but the most powerful inducements can stop its impetuous career. 
 The path to virtue is so intricate and the dangers attendant so apparent, 
 that the votary of vice discouraged from every attempt to enter, turns 
 back to his former engagements. The pleasures spread before his view, 
 the enjoyments which are constantly displayed to his fancy, captivate 
 his soul and exhibit to his superficial eye more allurements than the dis 
 tant prospect of future joys. Experience has therefore suggested that 
 motives of a powerful nature must be used to obstruct the channel of 
 former pursuits and change the course of inclination, that incitements 
 must be held forth as rewards to his endeavor and punishments to deter 
 him from a return to his former life. He, who when called to a station 
 above his fellow-creatures and to the enjoyment of the affluence and the 
 power of kings, when the sunbeams of prosperity dart their animating 
 rays upon his head and a propitious noon-day scatters fragrance on every 
 side, when no rising cloud threatens to obscure his horizon, but a never- 
 ceasing spring adds zest to every enjoyment, he who can in this situation 
 preserve his equanimity and retain his character unspotted and his mind 
 uncontaminated by the intoxicating touch of power has ever been 
 deemed worthy of emulation, and the motives which actuate his soul have 
 ever been held worthy of attentive observation. But when the rude 
 storms of winter drive every vestige of happiness from before him ; when 
 the pestiferous arm of calumny hurls him from his exalted station and 
 exposes his shame to the world ; when the envenomed shaft of envy 
 strikes his defenseless bosom and malice with her ten thousand fangs 
 pierces the vitals of his existence and saps the very foundation of his 
 reputation ; when the torrents of heaven spend their utmost rage upon 
 him ; when no friend appears to direct his footsteps to a place where he 
 may lay his weary head, and no refuge but the clay-cold sod on which he 
 stands is ready to receive him he who can in the dignity of his mind rise 
 from the midst of these congregated evils and continue in the pursuit of 
 virtue must be influenced by a motive powerful indeed. Not long shall 
 he remain contemned and despised, the Goddess of Virtue descends from 
 her abode and sheds her genial influence upon his heart. Majestic and 
 glorious shall he appear to the world, like the full-orbed moon arising 
 from her bed of waters. Thus does it appear that there are motives and 
 inducements capable of inciting man to actions which otherwise would 
 have overcome all his boasted resolution and courage. Among these pop 
 ular opinion holds a distinguished rank ; to delineate the influence of 
 which upon the actions of mankind, is the object which will, I hope, on 
 the present occasion, attract your attention. 
 
 It is a maxim which the universal experience of ages has attested, that 
 great causes invariably produce great effects. The ambitious mind of an 
 Alexander, aspiring at the possession of universal power and dominion, 
 astonished the world by the greatness of his actions and the unbounded 
 extent of his ambition. No power of nature or art could obstruct his 
 
502 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 rapid career ; to such a mind actuated by such a motive nothing appeared 
 impossible. Like the portentous comet of the north, he would have ex 
 tended his view over the whole race of man, while his miscreated front; 
 penetrated the recesses of heaven. The arm of a Brutus plunged the 
 murderous poniard into the breast of a benefactor and delivered his un 
 grateful country from an ignominious thraldom. From such a noble 
 mind none but the most powerful of motives could have erased the mem 
 ory of past kindnesses ; none but such a cause could have destroyed the 
 ties of gratitude and friendship. Hence, then, if popular opinion can be 
 shown to have an eminent rank among motives of this kind, we must in 
 fer that it exercises as powerful an influence upon the actions of man 
 kind. 
 
 The sceptered monarch who wields the destinies of nations and bal 
 ances the ponderous scales of justice ; whose mighty power extends over 
 millions of people, and before whose view every enjoyment which can 
 captivate the fancy or charm the soul is displayed ; whose every wish is 
 gratified and every desire satiated, is compelled to appear at the dread 
 tribunal of popular opinion. If cruelty and vice have held a despotic 
 sway over his mind ; if he has sacrificed human life at the shrine of pas 
 sion ; if the contaminating touch of tyranny has subjected him to its con 
 trol, and ambition has urged him to loose from their adamantine chains 
 the fiends of war and desolation, to whose iron reign he has subjected 
 millions of his fellow-creatures and whom he has caused to gladden at the 
 right of mankind the enemy of man if these have been his actions, the 
 arm of popular opinion shall exhibit to the world his atrocious deeds and 
 his people shall curse his name. Infamy and disgrace rush upon his view 
 and seizing his now impotent arm, hurl him headlong to the dust, and a 
 more worthy competitor is exalted to his place. But if, on the contrary, 
 the strong shield of virtue shades his footsteps ; if the genius of mercy, 
 like the genial sun of heaven, sheds her influence upon his mind and 
 directs him in the road to virtue ; if the loud voice of ambition is heard 
 with contempt, and the touch of power instead of contaminating, adds 
 fresh lustre to his actions, then shall popular opinion exalt him to the 
 sky, his deeds shall he proclaim to after ages, and history, in justice to 
 his merits, will record on her brightest page his illustrious name. 
 
 But mark the philosopher engaged either in the contemplation of his 
 own mind or in the development of the causes of the phenomena of na 
 ture. Gratified at the object displayed to her view, reason, quickly dis 
 persing the mists of obscurity which had before enveloped her in dark 
 ness, dives into the profundities and penetrates the inmost recesses of 
 nature. The revolving planet is traced in its orbit, and the forked light 
 ning is plucked from the spheres ; the earth opens its bosom to disclose 
 to his enquiring eye her darkest mysteries. As when the whole animated 
 creation passed in review before our great first sire to receive their ap 
 propriate appellations, so does the universe pass successively before the 
 
APPENDIX. 503 
 
 eye of the philosopher. Imagination, bursting the fetters which had long 
 kept her in thraldom, seizes the wings of the wind and bounds beyond 
 the field of space. The vault of heaven cannot impede her resistless ca 
 reer, but with winged impetuosity she darts into its most hidden recesses. 
 Seizing in one hand the Promethean fire, with the other she grasps at the 
 bright tablet of immortality, displayed to her view by the arm of popu 
 lar opinion. Animated by her voice, and urged on by the high prize she 
 holds forth, with renovated vigor he pursues his meditations, and at 
 length by diffusing the inestimable blessings of science among mankind, 
 he receives the great rew r ard of merit. A talisman against every danger 
 which may encompass his path, it raises his name among those who have 
 been crowned with the same laurel and have done equal honor to it. 
 Respect and reverence attend him through life, and the page of history 
 shall tell his fame to ages yet to come. 
 
 The labors of a Homer and a Milton have justly obtained from an ad 
 miring world the due tribute of immortal honor and renown. But it is 
 to actions, which in their general tendency ameliorate the condition of 
 millions, that we are to ascribe the greatest praise and to affix the stamp 
 of immortal fame. The man whose comprehensive mind reviews the con 
 dition of nations, and whose province it is to provide for their welfare and 
 security, their happiness and prosperity, he it is upon whom popular 
 opinion exercises her greatest influence. Guided by her resistless arm, 
 he sets at defiance the congregated power of the world. Potentates and 
 princes, dynasties and empires, may exert their utmost force against him, 
 but he stands firm and invincible. The segis of his protector is held over 
 his head ; on its bright surface the tyrant looks and is turned to stone ; 
 the patriot sees his image reflected and is urged on to virtue. As when 
 the four winds of heaven, issuing from their stormy caverns, rush with 
 tremendous fury upon each other, and drive old ocean from his watery 
 couch, disclosing to the eye of man his lowest profundities and discover 
 ing to the face of day the secrets of Pluto s realm, when mountain upon 
 mountain is urged forward in terrible succession against some devoted 
 rock, which looks in stern defiance upon their vain attempts, so stands 
 the patriot shielded by the invincible arm of POPULAR OPINION. 
 
 " EULOGY ON PRESIDENT MAXEY " 
 
 BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE CLARIO- 
 SOPHIC SOCIETY, 1819. 
 
 Fellow Members of the Clariosophic Society : 
 
 We are met together this day not to repeat the plaudits of victory nor 
 to utter the triumphe over the laurels of a conquerer ; not to offer up in- 
 
504 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 cense at the altars of adulation, or to bow ourselves down in homage to 
 power. But clothed in the vestments of peace we are here met to cele 
 brate the virtues of departed merit; here in the sight of heaven we 
 are assembled to proclaim the triumph of virtue and to perpetuate the 
 memory of a votary to science and to truth. 
 
 Panegyric hath been exhausted in the service of greatness. The ex 
 ploits of the valiant ; the chivalry of the brave engross men s praise and 
 enlist in their train the talents and efforts of the wise and the learned. 
 Why lives the memory of Homer and of Ossian ; but because the themes 
 of their verse were the valor of Achilles and the daring of Fingal. Fitz 
 James and Suwarrow have given scope to the imagination of Scott and 
 the wild terseness of Byron. In the history of nations how much is de 
 voted to narration of conquests. The philosophic Plutarch feels himself 
 a Greek in describing the glory of Alexander and checks not his admira 
 tion of Epaminondas and Emilius. Even Hume himself, observant and 
 sceptical, is fired by the chivalry of the third Edward ; and Monk and 
 Montrose are fixed in our esteem by the eloquence of his description. In 
 our own country, the deeds of Putnam, Warren and Greene are heard 
 from the very mouths of babes ; while Morris no less useful, and as pa 
 triotic as he was useful, is known only to him who has carefully exam 
 ined the records of his country. Mankind seem universally susceptible 
 only to the splendor of war. Neglected is the harp of the peaceful and 
 the soft voice of Addison and of Metastasio is hushed in the stillness 
 which is the charm of their muse. To see a leader like Frederick of 
 Prussia discomfited and forsaken rallying suddenly his energies and 
 compelling resources distant and unexpected ; to see him rush upon his 
 unsuspecting enemies and scatter them before him, has always dazzled 
 men and gained their applause. 
 
 The visionary blaze illumines his whole character and conceals his 
 faults. His life is a picture of brilliant eminences, amid whose shining 
 peaks the eye seeks not for the dark precipice or the fathomless chasm ; 
 but, pleased and bewildered, is content to gaze upon the gems which 
 sparkle before it. But do no objects darken the prospect ? Is no sound 
 heard but the shout of victory and the adulation of admirers ? Me- 
 thought there was a voice w r hich moaned along the air like the sighing of 
 the night wind among the leaves of the forest. It was the moan of the 
 widow and the orphan who knelt over the corpse of a husband and a 
 father ; " it was Rachel weeping for her children because they were not." 
 With uplifted hands and in agony of soul they imprecate the justice of 
 heaven upon the destroyer and the ambitious. And shall not the voice of 
 the widow and the orphan check the praises of him whom men call brave ? 
 
 Is he a fit subject of panegyric whose path is thus marked, whose name 
 thus deprecated ? Shall man yet be so lost to himself as to do homage at 
 the monuments of Timour and Caracalla, or will he yet commemorate 
 Austerlitz and Waterloo ? Shall Pisistratus and Lysander still live in the 
 
APPENDIX. 505 
 
 same page with Harmodius and Timoleon, or shall Marlborough and Nel 
 son still sleep beside Chatham and Howard ? Shall the historian and the 
 poet still expect to find virtue amid conquest and war, or rather shall they 
 not seek other subjects of praise ? 
 
 If, then, among this class so much worshipped there be so little real worth ; 
 if amid the history of conquerors none can be found of exemplary virtue, 
 where are we to seek for lights and examples to mankind ? Shall we look 
 to the statesman the politician to him who leads his country s councils, 
 who lavishes in her service his time and his talents, urging onward as 
 though his whole aim were to be useful, his whole soul intent to accom 
 plish that purpose ? 
 
 He seems perfect, but at some unfortunate hour the mask is with 
 drawn, and ambition appears directing every action to the aggrandize 
 ment of self. That virtue which before struck with its brilliancy is now 
 but the faint coruscation of an exhausted cloud, which ever and anon 
 shoots its pale ray across the horizon. The charm vanishes and we are 
 disappointed. Where, then, shall we seek for purity of motive? where 
 for subjects proper for emulation ? It must be where man is undis 
 guised in private life ; where the soul appears in simplicity, self-col 
 lected, self-moved ; among the unpretending few who make no claim 
 to dignity or power. It is to such a scene the events of this day 
 invite us. 
 
 But a short period has passed since we were together within the walls 
 of this our alma-mater, happy and rejoicing in the society of each other. 
 The remembrance of those days comes upon us peaceful and sweet as 
 the tales of former times it is the sun of the morning upon the tranquil 
 waters of a lake. Here, in the academic groves, we wandered cheerful 
 and content, without a thought to harrass, or care to cause us pain. 
 With each want supplied, we had only to seek for science and we were 
 offered all its stores. The earth was searched, the heavens examined, the 
 mind laid bare nay, the very elements were compassed to bring before 
 us the discoveries of science and of art First in the ranks of those who 
 labored for us, was he whose memory we are this day met to perpetuate, 
 the good, the inuch-loved Dr. Maxey. Although our father, our instruc 
 tor, he became one of our brotherhood and united us to him by the 
 strongest ties. Under his guidance we marched to the attainment of 
 our ends with confidence and with zeal. 
 
 How often has our emulation been excited, our exertions stimulated 
 by his kindness and encouragement. ! it was pleasant to sit down at 
 his feet and to hear the wisdom which flowed from him. Persuasion 
 dwelt upon his lips, and on his countenance sat benevolence and good 
 will to all men. Metliinks I see him with fervid and impassioned eloquence 
 exhorting us to industry, virtue and perseverance and now he is 
 expounding the mysteries of knowledge. Is it not wonderful with what 
 rapidity he leads the mind step by step to perceive his conclusions ; how 
 
506 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 entirely engrossed he is by his subject; behold his audience riveted in 
 attention; fixed and mute by the influence of eloquence and of reason, 
 till at length with one accord they rise satisfied and convinced. To 
 drink inspiration from the lips of such a man were pleasant it were 
 indeed delightful. In the sunshine of those days our garden was a 
 paradise, and in the exuberance of enjoyment we fancied our happiness 
 perpetual. But in an instant a wind from the desert reached our para 
 dise and laid low its luxuriance. Death appeared amongst us and pros 
 trated our greatest and our best. The guide of our youth, the father of 
 his children was taken from their presence. The cold sod of the valley 
 now covers his head and he rests from his labors. 
 
 " Sweet is the grave where angels watch and weep ; 
 Sweet is the grave and sanctified his sleep. 
 Rest, O ! my spirit ! by this breathless form, 
 This wreck that sunk beneath death s awful storm," 
 
 But though the grass withereth and the flower fadeth, yet from the 
 dust thereof arises the green germ which shall disclose beauties still 
 more exquisite. Though the virtuous and the wise must yield to mor 
 tality, yet do they live in their works, and the result of their labor 
 remains. Posterity ask not what a man was or in what estimation has 
 he been held. They demand, what hath he done, and few, very few, 
 have wherewithal to make answer. But, on the present occasion, which 
 of you is not prepared with the answer ? 
 
 A few years ago, and what was the literary condition of our State ? To 
 seek education we were compelled to migrate to other countries, and as 
 this migration was expensive and inconvenient, merely the rich and those 
 near the sea could avail themselves thereof. In the interior it was im 
 practicable, but at very great sacrifice to procure a liberal education. The 
 people of the State, being educated in manners so variant, and having no 
 intercourse until interest led them to meet, became jealous of each other. 
 In early life alone is it that those attachments arise which cement hearts 
 throughout the vicissitudes of life. Connections from interest are at best 
 but temporary, for when the interest ceases or becomes adverse the tem 
 per of mind must undergo a concurrent change. But early recollections 
 are permanent. Who does not dwell with rapture on the days of his boy 
 hood or feel a strong predilection to the participants of those scenes ? The 
 generous sympathy, the disinterested and zealous friendship which char 
 acterize those days, impress themselves upon the mind, and those impres 
 sions often withstand even the shocks of after life. Men of opposite par 
 ties, of adverse interests, are frequently seen interchanging good offices 
 impelled by the recollections of early union. In the absence of such mo 
 tives men are linked together by fortuitous circumstances, and where they 
 meet but seldom attachments must be rare. But when interest inter 
 poses, when it meets no check by opposing interest, the consequences 
 
APPENDIX: 507 
 
 must be far from happy. ILence it ensued that the people of the State 
 were split into factions ; that inequalities existed, and that jealousy was 
 predominant on every side. 
 
 To remedy some of these grievances this college was instituted. Its 
 stability and usefulness would depend upon the talents of the men who 
 directed it. The presiding officer must be one in whom the learned 
 would find a brother, the virtuous a preceptor, the young a parent, and 
 the old a guardian for their children. He must be one who could com 
 mand at the same time the veneration and love of his pupils, the confi 
 dence of the State and the first rank in the republic of letters. And 
 such a man was Dr. Maxey. Who but he could restrain the aberrations 
 of feeling, which may have led to the destruction of the institution ? Who 
 else could so entirely control the passions, turn their course and lead 
 them to promote the welfare of those whom they would otherwise have 
 ruined. Look around the State and see what has been affected since he 
 assumed the chair ! Is science enquired for ? Lo ! she points to an altar 
 in every section of the country and proudly numbers votaries where be 
 fore she had been despised. The names of Locke, Bacon, and Newton, 
 are heard from the lips of children, and studies, the most abstruse, have 
 become common and familiar. In every corner of the State, Hume is 
 known and consulted and the mysteries of Smith and of Say are solved 
 ex-cathedra. Indeed, the people have assumed an aspect entire]y new. 
 So much is their intelligence increased that to be distinguished among 
 them requires talents and industry the most eminent and persevering. 
 The graduates of foreign institutions are met without reserve by the 
 alumni of our college, and the acquirements of the one fully equal those 
 of the other. Those jealousies which once prevailed are softened and 
 ameliorated, and men from all sections meet with emulous good will. 
 
 Amidst this general propagation of science the arts too have made a 
 proportionate advance. Agriculture has enlisted in her service the best 
 exertions of science and combined to her aid the powers of the wisest and 
 most enlightened. The State is more honored, her officers more respect 
 able, and the people more happy ; and although many causes have con 
 spired to produce this result, who will not admit that by far the most 
 efficient is the change apparent in the present generation. 
 
 Is he not then to be admired, is he not worthy of all praise who has de 
 voted the whole force of his character, who has spent the best years of 
 his life in the promotion of such an end an end the most honorable, 
 the most important. Why else have the names of Socrates and Plato, of 
 Aristotle and Seneca, of Franklin and of Lancaster descended to poster 
 ity accompanied by the blessings of millions of their fellow-beings? The 
 victories of Trojan and the miseries of Belisarius have been made im 
 mortal by the pen of the historian, but the same page commemorates the 
 virtues of Pliny and the efforts of . Ulpian. So long as there is moral 
 beauty in virtue and so long as good actions shall attract the respect of 
 
508 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS: 
 
 men, those who have been eminent in the advancement of human happi 
 ness will receive evidences of their veneration. 
 
 On this occasion then do we not feel proud that we have this day laid 
 the foundation whereon shall stand a monument sacred to virtue and to 
 intellect that we have sent forth the herald who shall proclaim to future 
 ages the worth of our lamented president and brother, and shall enroll 
 his name among those who have been called the ornaments and the ben 
 efactors of mankind. 
 
 And who are they who thus perpetuate his worth? Are they men 
 united to him by consanguinity or connection, who would fain flatter their 
 own pride by a monument to their family? Are they those who have re 
 ceived from him some gratification of self-love, or been bound to the act 
 by obligations of duty? Are they men disposed to sacrifice to power or 
 to flatter the unworthy? No ; they are men who have known him for 
 years ; who have been his pupils and his friends unconnected by any per 
 sonal ties ; men, who like St. Paul, have sat at the feet of Gamaliel, and 
 many of whom are honored by their country s highest estimation. In 
 fluenced only by respect for his virtues, love of his character and admi 
 ration of his talents ; they, with one accord, offer this testimonial of es 
 teem, and would tell to after ages that in his life Maxey was respected 
 and in death was he deeply lamented. Lamented not by them alone, but 
 by his country ; lamented by the learned and the unlearned, by the phil 
 osopher and the patriot, by the citizen and the stranger. 
 
 Who can imagine the loss to his family? To them he was a kind and 
 indulgent parent a father the most affectionate and mild. He was their 
 never-failing friend ; their all in all. Snatched from amongst them, they 
 find no consolation to their sorrow ; save in what we this day offer. Their 
 o ershadowing oak has been torn down by the tempest the spring has re 
 turned with its showers, but, alas ! no green leaf has arisen to them. 
 
 In the character of Dr. Maxey there was much to admire and to imi 
 tate. Unassuming and unpretending he sought not to thrust himself on 
 the notice of the world, but was content with the stand which his attain 
 ments necessarily gave him. As a theologian and metaphysician he was 
 profound and discriminating. His reasonings upon the doctrines of re 
 ligion have often forced conviction upon the most sceptical. His posi 
 tions were so firm, his deductions so clear and the conclusions so demon 
 strable, that it were impossible to resist. With all this, the ardour with 
 which his mind glowed, the eloquence of his manner chained the atten 
 tion of his hearers. So clear, too, were his conceptions, that the darkest 
 and most obscure ideas of Locke, Kaimes and Reid were rendered ap 
 parent to all who heard him. Their errors were exposed and their doc 
 trines examined with a perspicuity and precision the most accurate. 
 
 To these unusual powers Dr. Maxey united a faculty of entirely com 
 manding the passions of his pupils. Their most violent ebullitions he has 
 controlled by appeals to their better feelings ; and at the same time that 
 
APPENDIX. 509 
 
 they feared his justice, they regarded him with affection. No voice was 
 heard save in his praise ; veneration of his character swallowed up all 
 other impressions. We lived beneath his eye loving and respecting him, 
 and the remembrance of his kindness made our departure from him more 
 grievious. To such a man, fellow-members, we have this day paid a tri 
 bute of respect his memory we have consecrated by an act now regis 
 tered in the archives of time. Peace to his ashes, and to his fame we all 
 unite in proclaiming " Esto perpetua. " 
 
 "INFLUENCE OF FICTION ON THE MIND." 
 
 SALUTATORY AND ORATION DELIVERED AT COMMENCEMENT SOUTH 
 CAROLINA COLLEGE, DECEMBER 6, 1819. 
 
 Senatores Illustrissimi, Legumque latores spectatissimi, salvete: 
 
 Civium vestrorum, inempta suffragia vos ad summam, in hac civitate, 
 potestatem provexerunt. Illorum felicitatem omnibus numeris explere 
 atque stabilire, illorum libertatem legesque domi militiaeque, defen- 
 dere, vestrum est. Ad hunc finem tarn pulchrum tamque laudabilem at- 
 tingendum, nulla sane inveniri possit res aut utilior, aut certior aut 
 blandior quam Scientia longe lateque per patriam diffusa. Nullum un- 
 quam aliud vel magis suse domination! aptum fundamentum optavit et 
 exquisivit Tyrannus immanis, quam ignorantiam : nunquam vera Liber- 
 tas sine doctrina bonarum que artium cognitione, extitit vel perduravit. 
 Crudelis aspicit Tyrannus segida Palladis fulgentem et seipsum in lapidem 
 exiturum sentit ; contra autem unusquisuue fautor atque patrise cultor 
 sincerus, intemerato corde, horribilem Gorgonis imaginem intuitur, et 
 glorias, virtutisque spem novam in mente renascentem invenire videtur. 
 Jura novisse id demum est jura servasse. Quae cum ita sint, non aliter 
 potest esse, quin hanc scholam atque domicilium musarum intenta atque 
 benevola mente intueamini. Vestra munificentia has sedes excitavit: 
 Haec quies,hoc otium prudentise vestrse debetur. Non solum resnecessa- 
 rias sed amsenitates quoque suppeditastis. Nee irritos labores, sicuti 
 speramus, inistis. Non est locus ambigendi, Senatores optimi, dum ante 
 oculos tot excellentes viros, tantis animi dotibus pollentes, maximisque 
 Beipublicse muneribus fungentes video quorum adolescentise hie etiam 
 adsunt vestigia. Fructus autem solicitudinis vestrae hodie cernitis. 
 Venit hora qua his umbris, hique gaudiis renunciandum est. Faxit be- 
 
510 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 nigne Deus, ut curse vestrse recentiores, seque ac priores, vestris votis sat- 
 isfaciamus. 
 
 Consul supreme, hujusce Reipublicc^ Gustos atque Gubernator excel- 
 lentissime, salveto ! 
 
 Senatores utriusque ordinis, nomine et auctoritate populi agentes, te 
 ad summam dignitatem ap sud nos appellarunt. Alii jactant imperia non 
 meritis sed hsereditate, non consensu civium sed vi et armis adepta, gau- 
 dentes omnia proprio arbitrio atque libidine prosequi. Sortem longe no- 
 biliorem tu, vir eminentissime, nactus es. Liberorum hominum per 
 corda regnas ; patriam non tricis inanibus sed virtutibus moribusque ex- 
 ornas; gravitate animi, sedulitate, vigilantia atque constantia propugnas. 
 Perge, vir optime, ut facis, omnia officia amplissimi muneris tui excolere ; 
 et si inter tot tantaque negotia quibus implicaris, possis nonunquam 
 Musis vacare, hanc quoque earum sedem fovere atque confirmare, dig- 
 neris precor. 
 
 Curatores Academire Carolina Meridionalis, viri omni amore atque ven- 
 eratione digni/ salvetote ! 
 
 Hoc inter se commune habent ingenui animi, ut iis suave sit laborum 
 feliciter peractorum meminisse. Miseri-s succurrere dulce et decorum 
 est tristium ab oculis lachrymas abstergere et illarum in locum risus 
 lostitiamque sufficere baud sane levis aut spernanda voluptas. Attamen 
 si in hominum corporibus sublevandis adeo magna existit jucunditas, qui 
 quseso, debent esse animi affectus cum de mente ipsa solanda et ejusdem 
 calamitatibus auferendis agitur : Facultates scilicet sopitas expergisci ; 
 ignes setherios suscitare, erroris umbras discutere, et ubi olim caligo reg- 
 navit, ibi lucem veritatis infundere divinum certe opus, quod etiam vos, 
 viri egregii, erga nos absolvistis. Vestro hortatu, vobis adjuvantibus pax 
 benigna salutiferaque Sciential undique per terrain hoesitantibus et 
 offendentibus porrigitur. Cura vestrane nostrum quidem Collegium 
 cum aliis alibi uspiam existentibus, conferri formidet. lam olim uberri- 
 mos proventus solicitudinum demum messuistis. Hac de sede manant 
 quasi Helicone altero rivuli, quos juvat Dia Libertas accedere, gaudens 
 reficere alas, quibus altius in coelum vehatur. Ob tanta in nos cumulata 
 beneficia, ex imo corde, gratias agimus. 
 
 Hujusce Collegii Pncses venerande atque carissime Salveto! Ubi 
 cor maxime afficitur, ibi solent verba plerumque destitui. Praclariora 
 sunt tua merita quam quod nostro egeant praseconio. Sit nobis saltern 
 permissum hie in memoriam revocare placidum vitse cursum quern sub 
 tua benigna tutela degimus, iiorentes studiis otii nequaquam ignobilis. 
 Te duce, te monente,prseeunte, hortante, prsestolante, nil per longos Scien- 
 tiarum tractus, aut nimis arduum aut ineluctabile, vel nostree tenuitati 
 desperandum, obvenimus. Collegium nostrum, te, exempto vitae tuee 
 eximiae, illustrantem vidimus ; vidimus prudentia moderantem ; ingenii 
 perspicacitate luminibusque undique collatis erudientem atque susteri- 
 tantem. Heus ! hgec oblectamenta_ fuerunt ; in posterum heus ! nun- 
 
APPENDIX. 511 
 
 quam reversura. Vocem istam tuam patris ex die in diem animi arcana 
 detegentis et ad visum exponentis ; elegantias literarum monstrantis ; 
 viamque virtuti honoribusque indicantis ; posthac nulla felix auscultandi 
 occasio redibit. Recordatio autem praeceptorum seque ac beneficiorum 
 quoe a te excepimus, dies nullus, nisi supremus, delebit. 
 
 Bonarum artium apud has ^Edes Professores, dilectissimi Preeceptores, 
 Salvete ! 
 
 Dies Comitiorum in hac nostra Academia habendorum iterum revertitur. 
 Nobis omnino faustus esset futurus, si non secum duram attulisset neces- 
 gitatem a viris adeo amatis atque existimatione dignis discedendi. Labo- 
 res, quos in nostrum mentibus erudiendis larga manu expendistis, debent 
 certe nostram reminiscentiam commovere. Quamdia vitales auras car- 
 pamus, imagines vestri nostris pectoribus infixoe, manebunt, ubique 
 habitemus, quibus in negotiis versemur, utilitas institutionum vestrarum 
 eminenter elucebit. Talibus magistris in omni genere doctrinse, tantis 
 omnium vitutum exemplis perfructi, si parentum, si patrise, si vestrum 
 votis expectationibusque minus respondebimus, nobis erit dedecori non 
 vobis. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF FICTION UPON THE HUMAN MIND. 
 
 The prosecution of virtue and the consequent attainment of happiness 
 are the true objects for which man was formed. To enable him to over 
 come the temptations which surround him and the difficulties which 
 arise in successive view before him, the principles of passion were im 
 planted in his nature. Directed by their voice and instigated by their 
 impulse, he is urged to the performance of actions, from which the fee 
 ble eye of reason would turn w r ith dismay, and the pow r ers of understand 
 ing would shrink back with horror. To awaken such principles and by 
 reiterated exercise to breathe into them an habitual aspiration after vir 
 tue, requires the continuous action of some powerful excitement. But 
 alas ! for man truth alone is not always sufficient to produce this effect 
 and the genius of virtue without any foreign aid would droop and perish 
 forever, like the chilled flower of autumn. The page of experience has 
 portrayed to our view the patriot struggling to support his country 
 through the stormy billows of contention, and elevating her to the high 
 est pinnacle of grandeur. The influence of power has been unable to 
 contaminate his generous breast and his character has stood unassailed 
 by the shafts of envy and uninjured by the furious attacks of calumny. 
 Prosperity, as if conspiring to reward his virtue, has extended her wings 
 
512 COLLEGE ESS A YS AND ORA TIONS." 
 
 over his head and the voice of opinion proclaims aloud his merits. But 
 in an instant the thunder of popular frenzy hurls him from his station 
 and prostrates him to the earth. The demon of detraction now seizes 
 his character and the envenomed arrows of malice pierce his bosom. The 
 vortex of destruction swallows within itself every thing dear or desirable 
 to him on earth, and the stroke of despair leaves him desolate and miser 
 able. The pitiless storms of adversity open their rage upon his de 
 fenceless head, and exhausted and overcome he sinks a persecuted wretch 
 into an untimely grave. Such has been the melancholy reward of un 
 spotted virtue such the sad recompense of generous patriotism But 
 the page of truth present a yet more discouraging picture to our view. 
 We have seen the wretch whose soul is contaminated by every cruelty 
 which can pollute, and every crime which can defile the human charac 
 ter, exalted to the very summit of prosperity. No means which vice can 
 invent, or hell itself devise, to attain the object of his ambition can ap 
 pal his undaunted soul. The cries of the dying infant and the heart 
 rending shrieks of the supplicating mother to him are familiar. Eivers 
 of blood flow around him and he looks upon their progress with savage 
 delight. Destruction and death have prepared his way, and misery and 
 ruin follow in his footsteps. And such a wretch has received the reward 
 due to the most unexampled virtue. Such a monster has been exalted 
 to the highest pinnacle of human greatness. Is not this sufficient to 
 damp the ardour of the most intrepid soul ? Is not this enough to destroy 
 all hope of inculcating virtue by the relation of truth ? Where, then, 
 is the human mind to found its expectations ? Where are the vota 
 ries of merit to find encouragement for their exertions ? The voice 
 of nature directs to the extended arms of fiction ; the finger of expe 
 rience points to her happy mansions, and the instigations of reason urge 
 on to their fruition. 
 
 In order to a more complete elucidation of the nature and effects of 
 fiction, it will be necessary to consider the means by which it operates 
 upon the passions. The human mind, though engaged in the contem 
 plation of subjects which call forth the whole energies of the soul, 
 though guarded by all the powers which reason can summon to its aid, 
 can never secure itself from the inroads of imagination. The philoso 
 pher may bend down his faculties to the abstruse speculations of general 
 science, he may endeavor to confine himself wholly to the abstract pur 
 suit of metaphysical knowledge ; but with all the powers of his under 
 standing here necessarily called forth, he cannot resist efforts of fancy. 
 Ever vigilant and attentive, she seizes the moment when a partial lassi 
 tude overcomes his frame, and with unremitting exertions she at length 
 subjects him to her dominion. The Indian savage is not more patient 
 or more watchful for his prey; the ardor of his pursuit not more cease 
 less or more triumphant. No sooner does the ever-active memory bring 
 to the mind some fascinating object but she improves the opportunity 
 
APPENDIX. 513 
 
 and prostrates her victim at her feet. Eeason, overcome by her power, 
 flies from the contest and leaves her votary at the mercy of the con 
 queror. Painted by her hand, every object which remembrance offers 
 to his mind assumes the glowing colors of reality, and animated by her 
 influence, every incident passes in actual review before him. Uncon 
 scious of the perceptions of his senses and impervious to the operation 
 of external matter, he is wrapt up in the feelings of his soul and rushes 
 down the stream of imagination. Borne away by a resistless impulse* 
 he sees the past present before him and views as in reality objects which 
 are immeasurably distant. Transported by enchantment, he becomes a 
 spectator of every scene and an agent in every occurrence. The veteran 
 soldier, who has spent his life in all the dangers of war, whose resting- 
 place is the barren rock and whose canopy the heavens, forgets the 
 hardships which he is suffering and passes in pleasing transition to the 
 exploits of his youthful days. 
 
 The battles of his early fame rise up before him and he views with eager 
 delight the field on which he gathered the brightest laurel which deco 
 rates his brow. The prospect animates his soul and he is prepared to 
 meet the foe. The contending warriors, like two mighty torrents from 
 the mountains, rush upon each other and mingle in the bloody strife. The 
 clangor and the din of arms resound from every side; the inspiring 
 trumpet sends forth its war-like accents, urging on to deeds of valour. 
 The engines of destruction pour their thunders thick around ; the blazing 
 flashes, like the faint coruscations of an exhausted cloud which ever and 
 anon shoots its pale ray across the horizon, pierce the darkness which is 
 gathering upon the view. The clashing of the swords of hosts innumer 
 able, the shouts of the combatants arid the groans of the dying, sound upon 
 the ear, and at length all is lost in the loud triumph of victory. If such, 
 then, be the power of imagination, and that it is experience cries aloud; 
 and if reason and reality be so lost in the agitation of the moment if the 
 emotions excited by a particular remembrance and a vivid description of 
 facts be of the same nature can ,there be any difference whether this de 
 scription is really true or depicted by the pencil of fiction? If the action 
 of the senses can thus be destroyed though for an instant by the influence 
 of truth upon the passions, is it to be supposed that with the same kind of 
 excitation, reflection will offer its assistance to detect the fallacy of fic 
 tion? 
 
 But fiction has a yet more extensive power over the human mind. The 
 narrator of facts is confined within certain limits beyond which he can 
 not pass ; he has before him but a single page of the book of nature, and 
 it cannot excite surprise if in this fragment the dispensations of Provi 
 dence should appear unjust. Restrained, however, by this semblance of 
 inconsistency genius forgets its powers and sinks in despair. But the 
 writer of fiction has before him the universe he can select, vary and 
 complicate his plan so as to embrace any object which he deems worthy 
 33 
 
514 COLLEGE ESSAYS AND ORATIONS. 
 
 of pursuit. The experience of mankind, the faculties of his own nature, 
 the whole creatioji offer materials to his work. The passions of the soul 
 are at his command and he can mould them at his pleasure. He is able 
 to awaken their energies to deeds of valour, draw forth their sympathy 
 for the sufferings of the unfortunate and allure them to the path of rec 
 titude. The streams of Pieria roll along their gentle currents to waft 
 their beauties to the throne of fiction. The muses of Parnassus decked in 
 the garlands of spring convey their choicest flowers to adorn her altars. 
 
 Like the morning beam, breaking from the lofty summit of a craggecl 
 mountain, and shedding a beauteous resplendency upon the vale below^ 
 so does the approach of fiction illumine the far-extended fields of poetry. 
 Blossoms and flowers spring up from beneath her feet, and the mantle 
 of pleasure covers every object around. Enlightened by the splendor 
 of her presence and released from the shackles of darkness which had 
 hitherto enthralled him, the genius of eloquence bursts forth in all his 
 native effulgency, and astonishes the world by the vastness of his power. 
 Fostered by her smiles and cherished in her bosom, the goddess of virtue 
 raises her drooping head and again shines in all her original majesty. 
 Her votaries, who had almost revolted from her impotent dominion, nov- 
 receive encouragement from her lips and she urges them on to their 
 destined course. The voice of fiction is heard exciting them to action; 
 in one hand she displays happiness and honor as rewards to their exer 
 tions, while from the other she hurls the thunders of infamy upon the 
 enemies to their progress. The mansions of never-ending peace appear 
 before them, and no enemy dare impede them. The dark clouds of 
 adversity, which seemed only waiting for their approach to pour down 
 their torrents upon them, are no longer to be seen. The monsters of 
 destruction and misery, which ever and anon had thrust forth their mis. 
 created fronts to intimidate them in their course are prostrate at 
 their feet, and the insuperable difficult ties which before obstructed 
 their path are now levelled to the earth. A serene and beauteous pros-* 
 pect, bounded only by the blissful mansions of felicity lies extended 
 before them, and, like a gentle stream, rolling in tranquillity along 
 its fragrant banks, they pursue their way to the ocean of enjoyment, 
 
 "TO AFFORD AID TO THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD." 
 
 SPEECH OF C. G. MEMMINGER IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 OF SOUTH CAROLINA, DECEMBER SESSION, 1858. 
 
 MR SPEAKER, In discharging the duty which is incumbent upon me as 
 chairman of the committee which has reported the bill on your table, I 
 acknowledge myself to be oppressed with a weight of responsibility. 
 
APPENDIX. 515 
 
 Four years ago the State embarked with the city of Charleston in the en 
 terprise of scaling the Blue Ridge by a railroad. Each embarked one 
 million of dollars, and the State (to encourage the work) undertook to 
 guaranty a million more. Private individuals added two hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars, and the work has steadily progressed, until over 
 one-third of it is accomplished. Of the great tunnel through the Blue 
 Ridge, more than one-half is finished ; of the whole grading in South Car 
 olina, three-fourths are completed, and nearly one-half of the mountain 
 grading in Georgia ; of the great tunnel in Georgia, more than one-fourth 
 is completed; one-half of the bridge masonry in South Carolina is done, 
 and many thousands of dollars have been expended upon the culverts 
 and other work. More than two millions of money have been laid out in 
 this great work, and must now be irrecovably lost, if you abandon the en 
 terprise, and with it the character of the State for constancy and perse 
 verance. 
 
 Other nations have spent millions in rearing monuments to their en 
 ergy and skill. Even now, the Egyptian monarchs who reared the colos 
 sal structures at Karnac and Philae live in our imaginations as some 
 gigantic race. Cephrenes, as he silently slumbers in his pyramid, and 
 Rameses, as he sits in serene majesty upon his gigantic throne in the 
 desert, elevate our conceptions of the power and skill of man. And when 
 we turn westward, among those nobler monuments of art and science 
 which bear witness to the genius of Greece and Rome, we bow in rever 
 ence before these master workers of our race. Amidst the ruins of Greece, 
 the Parthenon and the temple of Theseus still exhibit themselves as the 
 fitting abodes of the magnificent creations of Phidias and Praxiteles ; 
 and the structure which we are now rearing for our capitol, borrows its 
 choicest decorations from the genius of Athenian artists. And to descend 
 still further down to the absolute utilia, no one who approaches Rome 
 upon the Appian Way, can withhold his admiration from that noble race 
 which graved its name and its institutions upon every spot of earth which 
 it visited, and which, amidst all its ruthlessness and its crimes, stamped 
 the nations into civilization, and encircled them with a wreath of peace 
 and good order. 
 
 Modern nations, too, have one and all sought to rear monuments to 
 their genius and enterprise. Amidst all his schemes of conquest, Napo 
 leon had never forgotten the example of the Romans, and one of his no 
 blest monuments still stands at the Pass of the Simplon. The very soil 
 of Holland is a monument to her ancient perseverance and energy, while 
 England, in every part, from the Menai strait to the Caledonian canal, is 
 a rich mosaic of enterprise, the living witness of her constancy and skill. 
 
 Our own country, although the latest to enter these lists of noble dar 
 ing, has not been found wanting. Everywhere, from Canada to the Mis 
 sissippi, have noble works been undertaken and accomplished. The 
 teeming valleys of the West have been the great prize in view. Each 
 
516 SPEECH ON THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD. 
 
 State, in turn, has put forth a mighty effort to gain it. Massachusetts, 
 New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, 
 each and all have entered this great arena, and each and all have ac 
 complished what they attempted. South Carolina, also, has entered 
 the lists. With a seaport superior to many of the others with ad 
 vantages far beyond her neighbors young, vigorous and unencum 
 bered by debt, she boldly put in for the prize; she commenced the 
 race, she had half finished her course, but, alas! the courage of part 
 of her sons has failed, and they would compel their more ardent 
 brethren to rein in their gallant coursers, and, by a sudden change of 
 purpose, to overturn and break in pieces the noble chariot which has 
 already half-scaled the mountains. Other nations have reared monu 
 ments to their skill and perseverance, but in the half-finished tunnels, in 
 the crumbling bridges and ruined cuts through hills and mountains, 
 South Carolina is to leave a monument of inconstancy and feebleness. 
 Other States had undertaken and accomplished the passage of the moun 
 tains. South Carolina, if she now abandons, is to show that she had zeal 
 and energy to begin, but wanted constancy and perseverance to accom 
 plish. 
 
 For one, I can never consent that such a page be written in her history. 
 I would rather take the money which we are lavishing so wastefully on 
 the capitol before us I would rather submit to any increase of taxation 
 to avert so degrading a result. I shall presently show that the work 
 can be accomplished with a very small addition to the taxes ; but when it 
 is proposed to abandon a work which has already cost more than two mil 
 lions of dollars, at such a loss of fair fame to the State, surely every one 
 of her sons will be ready to make some sacrifice. How else can we, in 
 times to come, give an answer to our children, when they shall ask us, 
 what means this half-bored tunnel? these gaping clefts in the hills? these 
 bare and wasting embankments? Will it not humble us to the dust to be 
 obliged to answer : These are the monuments of our folly ; we coveted a 
 great prize we started in the race we began to build, but we had not 
 the courage to go on. 
 
 I appeal, then, to every section of the State to come up to the aid of this 
 great work, and avert so dire a calamity. Let us take counsel together, 
 and see if there be not some way of avoiding the loss and discredit in 
 volved in the abandonment of this work. If, indeed, the enterprise be be 
 yond our strength, if it would involve the State in hopeless embarrass 
 ment, if the objects proposed by a Western connection have ceased to be 
 Valuable, then abandonment may be both wise and necessary. But, if (as 
 I am prepared to show) the objects still remain the same, and the enter 
 prise can easily be accomplished with the means at our command, why 
 should not every son of South Carolina unite as one man and urge for 
 ward its accomplishment. 
 
APPENDIX. 5X7 
 
 I perceive with regret that many of our friends from the eastern part 
 of the State are opposed to its prosecution. May I not claim their sym 
 pathy for the city of Charleston, which has, as it were, embarked her 
 whole fortunes in the enterprise. That city and its representatives gen 
 erously aided the Wilmington and Manchester railroad, although they 
 knew it would carry away a large amount of travel from their own doors. 
 The same city has, almost single-handed, opened another avenue to them 
 by the Northeastern railroad. They have done what they could to aid the 
 Cheraw and Darlington railroad. As the great centre of trade for the 
 State, the whole State is interested in the welfare of Charleston. Is it not 
 wise and judicious that the parent should extend a helping hand to a 
 child who has exhausted his strength in an effort to promote the general 
 welfare of the whole family? 
 
 And to the southern section of the State, may we not also appeal? Our 
 friends from Barn well, Colleton and Edgefield, surely have not forgotten 
 that Charleston alone (and I may say unaided) constructed to their doors 
 the Hamburg railroad, which has more than doubled the value of their 
 lands, and given to them all the facilities which they now enjoy. The 
 Charleston and Savannah railroad owes its existence also to Charleston 
 capital, and the city corporation has encountered a heavy debt to insure 
 its completion. 
 
 Our treasure has been freely brought out, and thrown broadcast over 
 the land. The Charlotte and Columbia railroad, the Greenville and Co 
 lumbia railroad, the Laurens and the Spartanburg and Union railroads, 
 have all been nurtured by it. We have done what we could for your 
 benefit from the very commencement of internal improvement. When 
 you brought forward your schemes of canals and river improvements, we 
 freely voted you our money. I say our money, because we pay nearly 
 one-fourth of the taxes of the State. When, therefore, you spent the mil 
 lions on your Rocky Mount canal and other public works in the middle 
 country, we hesitated not to come to your aid; and from the Saluda 
 Mountain road to the Columbia canal, Charleston \vill be found to have 
 been a fast and continuing friend of every projected improvement. Are 
 we not entitled, then, to claim your sympathy and co-operation in this 
 Blue Ridge enterprise, which we have undertaken together, and into 
 which we would not have embarked our means but for the encourage 
 ment and aid which your co-operation had promised. 
 
 It is true that the State did not directly pledge herself to its accomplish 
 ment. She did not say, in so many words, that she would undertake and 
 carry out the work, but she certainly did so indirectly, and she is bound 
 to go forward upon the same principle which requires every man of honor 
 to fulfill expectations which he has created and fostered. It is true that 
 you prescribed certain conditions to the guaranty of the bonds of the 
 Blue Ridge company, but you were informed a year ago that, by the fail- 
 
518 SPEECH ON THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD. 
 
 ure of Bangs & Co., those conditions had become impracticable, and you 
 were then invited to express your determination not to go on if you in 
 tended to insist. You declined any such expression, and in consequence 
 of that individuals have subscribed two hundred and thirty-five thousand 
 dollars additional. Since then more than a million of your money and of 
 the city s has been expended upon the road. You have, yourselves, en 
 couraged the expectation that you would not abandon, and you are equi 
 tably bound to fulfill this expectation. Every consideration of national 
 character, of elevated morals, and of kindly feeling, unite to prevent the 
 abandonment of this great Avork. 
 
 The bill on your table, Mr. Speaker, merely proposes to dispense with 
 the condition attached to the aid already agreed to be afforded. In 1854, 
 when the State engaged in this work, she subscribed one million of dollars 
 in stock, and agreed to guarantee one million of the bonds of the company 
 whenever they could give reasonable assurance that additional means 
 could be procured to make the road in North Carolina, Georgia and Ten 
 nessee. The State of Tennessee had agreed to furnish additional means 
 in that State, and by a contract, made with persons who were represented 
 to be good by the highest authority, sufficient additional means were 
 offered to comply with the terms of the condition. The work accordingly 
 was prosecuted with vigor, but the failure of the contractors disappointed 
 the expectations of all parties, and compelled the president of the road to 
 appear before the Legislature at the last session and to make the appeal 
 already alluded to. The Legislature left the whole matter as it then 
 stood and allowed the company to make use of the million of dollars of 
 subscription already made. This sum they have expended in a vigorous 
 prosecution of the work, and they now ask that the million of bonds may 
 be guaranteed without insisting on the condition which the failure of the 
 contractors has rendered it impossible for the company to fulfill. 
 
 The bill, therefore, asks no new subscription ; it simply seeks to make 
 effective the aid already granted. It is due to candor, however, to say 
 that this really involves a grant of such further aid as will be necessary to 
 complete the road with such assistance as may be had from Tennessee, for 
 it is plain that Georgia, so far from aiding the road, would prefer its aban 
 donment. It passes through a mere corner of her territory and is a com 
 peting route with her great State road. North Carolina, too, lias her 
 own plan for reaching the AVest, and as this road would materially affect 
 her schemes, it is not reasonable to expect aid from her. Tennessee and 
 South Carolina alone are interested in the road, and it is clear that if the 
 road be made at all they must make it. In no part of the Union has indi 
 vidual capital been able to undertake a road passing through a mountain 
 region like this. The undertaking is too extensive and the profit too re 
 mote to induce individual subscriptions It is, therefore, of necessity, a 
 State work. Georgia so considered it when she expended five millions to 
 make this single link in her State. She began her road in what was then 
 
APPENDIX. 519 
 
 an Indian wilderness and carried it forward with a constancy which is 
 worthy of imitation. While engaged in the work she actually had to sell 
 her State bonds at sixty, and even at fifty cents in the dollar ; yet she 
 never faltered, and the Georgia State road now stands as her Appian Way 
 to the valley of the great West. Virginia has scaled the mountains with 
 her characteristic vigor at two points, and the road from Petersburg, 
 through Lynchburg to Bristol, is already reaping a golden harvest for the 
 means invested in it. North Carolina has carried forward her State road 
 entirely by State funds, and it is clear that this road of ours must be ac 
 complished in the same way. 
 
 This point, it seems to me, was settled here four years ago, when the 
 State agreed to put two millions of her money in this road. It had, in 
 fact, been settled twenty years before, when, under the counsel of the 
 greatest men in our State, we chartered the great railroad to Louisville 
 and Cincinnati. The akj granted to that road is almost identical with 
 that asked now. The State subscribed one million of dollars, and guar 
 anteed the bonds of the company for two millions more. And although 
 that great work was abandoned, from causes beyond our control, yet it 
 has been the mother of all our interior railroads, and has not cost the 
 State a single dollar of her money. In fact, although the guaranty yet 
 continues, the State has well-nigh forgotten it, because the South Caro 
 lina railroad company is so well able to discharge it. This Blue Ridge 
 railroad proposes the same objects which were proposed by the Louis 
 ville and Cincinnati road. Like that, it asks State aid, and the same 
 three millions which were given to the former, is precisely what is 
 required for the latter. That was voted under the sanction of Hayne, 
 Hamilton, Blanding, McDunie, Elmore, Davie and a host of other true 
 sons of the State ; and surely there are as many of her true sons now 
 willing to hazard as much of their future earnings for her welfare. 
 
 It surely will not be said that the objects to be attained by a Western 
 connection are less desirable now than they were in 1836. Is Southern 
 commercial independence less desirable now than it was then ? Is a 
 band of iron, connecting together the Southern and Southwestern States, 
 less desirable now than was one between South Carolina and Ohio in 1836? 
 
 The Blue Ridge railroad has taken the precise change of direction 
 which events have shown to be most desirable. It substitutes a con 
 nection with Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky, for one 
 farther North, with Ohio and Indiana. It takes the very route which 
 Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Poinsett and General Gadsden, as far back as 1836, 
 pronounced to be preferable to that by the French Broad. 
 
 And is Southern commercial independence no longer an object worthy 
 of effort ? If we will but review the history of the last two years, we will 
 see that a release from the trammels which bind our commerce to 
 Northern cities, would, by the savings of that period alone, have sufficed 
 to build this road. 
 
520 SPEECH ON THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD. 
 
 We may all remember that in the summer of 1857, our whole Southern 
 country was in the enjoyment of tranquillity in its business. Cotton 
 bore a good price and ready sale. Our customers in Europe had met 
 with no disasters, and were steadily working up our products. Suddenly 
 a blast from the Northern banks blew over the continent and overturned 
 commercial credit. It reached across the ocean, involving our foreign 
 customers, and along with it were involved our own banks. Then came 
 a sudden fall of Southern produce, and the result was a loss to the 
 entire Southern country of nearly one-third of the value of the whole 
 crop. The sole, the entire cause of this disaster, was Northern specula 
 tion and irregular business. Our business was free from convulsion, our 
 finances were involved merely by our connection with the North. And 
 if we had been dealing directly with our customers in Europe, both 
 they and we would have escaped from disaster. "Where is the necessity 
 of employing a third party to intervene between us and our customers ? 
 We need their manufactures and they need our products. Why should 
 we not manage the exchanges ourselves ? 
 
 It was the noble effort to effect this result that induced our master 
 minds to undertake these Western connections. It was observed that 
 since the age of conquest, commerce and maritime importance depend 
 upon internal communications. The Erie canal and the Hudson river 
 had given the start to New York. Boston had secured herself by reach 
 ing across with a railroad to the Hudson. Philadelphia had been joined 
 to Pittsburg by a magnificent chain of public works; and Baltimore 
 had doubled and trebled her commerce by the Baltimore and Ohio rail 
 road. Richmond and Petersburg had stirred up the ancient Dominion to 
 open lines for them to the great West ; and Savannah on one side of us 
 and Wilmington on the other, had by the vigorous and well directed ef 
 forts of their respective States, extricated themselves from their original 
 condition of isolation ; and if any one would desire to realize the value 
 of such efforts, let him remove in imagination Charleston and these other 
 cities from their connection with railroads, and picture to himself the sol 
 itude and desertion which their streets would exhibit. 
 
 In respect to Charleston, the inducements to this Western connection 
 have within the last four years been greatly increased. By judicious ef 
 forts directed to her bar, ships of much increased draught can enter her 
 port, and there is every reason to hope that a continuance of these ef 
 forts will give her one of the best ports at the South. Within the last 
 twenty years (since the great fire of 1838) the city has almost been en 
 tirely rebuilt in a style and upon a scale that does credit to her taste 
 and good judgment. Instead of a hamlet of wooden structures, she is 
 now a city of brick, and if by the mercy of God, she can find means to 
 exclude the pestilence which has recently so sadly afflicted her, she may 
 take her place as the true emporium of Southern commerce. 
 
APPENDIX. 52P 
 
 A great and unnecessary link in the chain of second causes to her ad 
 vancement, and with her s to the advancement of our whole State, is this 
 great railroad communication. Shall it be abandoned? Shall the chain 
 which has already cost us two millions of dollars be broken and the whole 
 be cast into the sea ? This is the great question now before us ; and to 
 its proper solution it is necessary to pursue the following inquiries : 
 
 1. What will it cost the State to go on and complete the work ? 2. Are 
 her resources competent to pay this additional cost ? 3. Will the road 
 compensate for such outlay or is it more to the advantage of the State 
 to abandon what has been paid ? 
 
 1. What will it cost the State to go on and complete the work ? 
 
 In pursuing this inquiry, I assume that no additional aid is to be de 
 rived from any other State. Although I think there is a reasonable cer 
 tainty that Tennessee will increase her contribution whenever she is sat 
 isfied that the road will reach her borders, yet I admit that at this point 
 of the inquiry, it is proper to confront the whole difficulty, and assume 
 the least favorable view. 
 
 The estimate of cost for the road as settled by Colonel Gwynn, has 
 been proved to be reliable by the work already done. It is based on con 
 tracts for the most substantial kind of work and sets down the whole 
 cost at $7,725,677. The work already done has cost $2,126,539, so that 
 there remains to be done $5,599,138. 
 
 To meet this balance the company proposes that the State shall release 
 the condition attached to the one million of bonds, authorized to be guar 
 anteed by the act of 1854. These bonds, with the funds in hand, will en 
 able the road to be prosecuted vigorously during the coming year ; at 
 the end of which they propose that the State shall subscribe one million 
 of dollars to the stock of the road. With this subscription the road can 
 be vigorously continued for another year; and such will then be the con 
 fidence in the final completion of the road, that there will be little or no 
 difficulty in disposing at fair prices of the mortgage bonds of the com 
 pany. Similar bonds have already built all the roads in our State, as well 
 as elsewhere. The outlay on the road would then be sufficient to secure 
 both the mortgage bonds and the guaranty of the State, both of which 
 are already protected by a mortgage on all the roads. The means of the 
 company would then stand thus : 
 
 1. Resources of company yet on hand, per president s report, $ 945,178 
 
 2. State guaranty . 1,000,000 
 
 3. State subscription . 1,000,000 
 
 4. Tennessee subscription 640,000 
 
 5. First mortgage bonds 1,308,000 
 
 Total 4,893,178 
 
 To pay 5,599,138 
 
 Deficiency : .... $ 705,960 
 
522 SPEECH ON THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD. 
 
 This deficiency, it is believed, can be met by increasing the mortgage 
 bonds to that extent, inasmuch as they would constitute a lien upon a 
 work then certainly worth its cost, say, $7,725,677. 
 
 According to this programme, the whole amount of additional subscrip 
 tion required of the State will be one million of dollars, to be subscribed 
 at the end of next year. The one million of guaranty, which is now to 
 be given, is secured by a mortgage upon the road already executed in 
 conformity to the act of 1854. If the road progresses, this guaranty is 
 fully secured, and will call for no money from the treasury. The bonds 
 guaranteed are the company s bonds, and the company must provide for 
 the interest. The interest on the State bonds, issued for the first sub 
 scription, has been hitherto paid by the bank, and will continue to be 
 paid ; so that the only payment which will be required from the State 
 treasury will be the interest on the million of subscription proposed to be 
 asked for next year. The whole interest of the State in the road com 
 pleted on this plan, will then be 
 
 1. The subscription already made and spent $1,000,000 
 
 2. The second subscription asked for 1,000,000 
 
 3. The State s guaranty of the company s bonds, secured by 
 
 mortgage 1,000,000 
 
 Total $3,000,000 
 
 Suppose, in the worst aspect of the case, the deficiency of $705,960, ex 
 pected to be raised, as above stated, from mortgage bonds, should be cast 
 upon the State ; it surely would not be equivalent to throwing away the 
 million of dollars already actually spent upon the road. So that the just 
 and fair aspect of the whole extent to which the State is to be involved, 
 is for one million of additional subscription and one million of guaranty. 
 
 I have not taken into account the money requisite for what is called the 
 rolling stock of the road, for the reasons assigned in the president s re 
 port. These can be purchased from the current income whenever the 
 road is in operation, and in the same manner as is common with other 
 railroad companies. In the inception of the road the amount required 
 will be small, and can be increased from time to time as the business of 
 the road increases. 
 
 2. This brings us to the second enquiry : Are the resources of the State 
 competent to meet these demands ? 
 
 The assets of the State of South Carolina consist of 
 
 1. Sundry railroad stocks, set down at par, at $2,142,000 
 
 2. Bank capital, sinking fund, and fire loan 4,132,098 
 
 $6,274,088 
 
 The railroad stocks, above set down, would not be available to pay off 
 debt at the present time ; but in estimating the actual resources of the 
 
APPENDIX: 523 
 
 State, they are to be considered with a view to their prospective value 
 some twenty or thirty years hence, when the bonds of the State become 
 payable. 
 The actual debt of the State consists of three items : 
 
 1. The balance due upon the fire loan of Charleston ..... $1,239,000 
 
 2. Debt for new capitol 1,050,000 
 
 3. For Blue Ridge 1,000,000 
 
 4. Some small items not sufficient for present consideration. 
 
 The first item becomes payable at intervals, so arranged as to be met 
 by the bank, which, in fact, has loaned out the money. Arrangements 
 have been made by the bank to pay off $400,000 of this amount from its 
 income on the 1st January, 1860, and the balance when it becomes pay 
 able ; of course every payment upon this debt leaves so much more of 
 the future income of the bank free for other uses. Consequently, the 
 available income of the bank will reach from two hundred thousand to 
 three hundred thousand dollars annually ; and the debt of the State, if 
 made payable in instalments not to exceed those sums, can, therefore, 
 be paid from the income of the bank without diminishing its capital. 
 Thus, in twenty years from 1860, the bank could be able to pay, in this 
 w r ay, from six to eight millions of dollars. All that is requisite is to leave 
 its income free. This involves the payment of interest by the State. In 
 other words, if the State treasury will pay the interest on any debt 
 created for the Blue Ridge railroad, or for the capitol, the bank can pay 
 the principal, if you give it time ; the time must be in proportion to the 
 extent of debt incurred. Six millions can be paid in twenty-five years ; 
 nine millions in about thirty years. 
 
 The result of this examination is, that if the State subscribe one mill 
 ion more to the Blue Ridge railroad, the treasury will be called on to 
 pay the interest, amounting to sixty thousand dollars, which is equiva 
 lent to an increase of an eighth upon the taxes of the last year. And 
 so, if the State shall embark two millions, the taxes will be increased 
 one-fourth, or just about nineteen cents a head on each negro ; and so in 
 proportion on lands and other subjects. Every man can measure, there 
 fore, the additional burthen which this great work will impose upon 
 him, in any event, by calculating what is one-fourth of his tax paid in 
 1858. When this figure is ascertained, there will be but one opinion as 
 to the perfect competency of the State to meet this demand upon her 
 treasury. Surely, no citizen will hesitate to pay this small additional 
 sum to save her from the loss and discredit of abandoning this great 
 enterprise. 
 
 3. We come, now, to the third enquiry : Will the road compensate for 
 this outlay ? or shall the State abandon the amount already spent ? 
 
 I have already presented to your view the first great consideration 
 which has led to these western communications. I have shown you that 
 
524 SPEECH ON THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD. 
 
 all the statesmen to whom South Carolina has looked for 
 during the last twenty years, have united in advising her to attempt that 
 connection. Even here, the opponents of the relief now asked for, are 
 obliged, indirectly, to sanction the scheme of a western connection. 
 One of our leading opponents said, that when the bar of Charleston was 
 further deepened, it would be the proper time to open this connection. 
 Another, in a speech on a former occasion, opposed this scheme, but ad 
 vised a new one, to start from Port Koyal, which was to absorb both the 
 South Carolina and the Blue Ridge railroad. The honorable member 
 from Union has actually introduced a bill, proposing that the State shall 
 indorse one million of bonds for the French Broad railroad. All these 
 antagonists thus pronounce a definite judgment in favor of the connec 
 tion. They merely differ as to time and circumstance ; and thus leave a 
 mere fragment of the State in opposition to the project of western 
 connection. 
 
 We are, therefore, warranted in saying that, for twenty years past up to 
 the present moment, the judgment of the whole State has been in favor 
 of a railroad connection with the West. This judgment is a considerable 
 advance to our third proposition, which affirms the road to be worth all 
 that it will cost the State. 
 
 But it is said that this judgment may be erroneous. We will, there 
 fore, test its correctness by consulting the judgment of others fully com 
 petent to the task. It is generally considered a fair means of testing 
 the value of any article, to ascertain what others have paid or are will 
 ing to pay for it. Our nearest neighbor, Georgia, has furnished us with 
 her judgment by constructing the State road from Atlanta to Chatta 
 nooga. This road cost between five and six millions of dollars, and has 
 been built entirely by the means of the State. For many years it paid 
 nothing. But the Georgians never faltered on that account ; and after 
 years of struggle, the road now pays a full return upon the investment 
 and can actually be sold for all that it has cost. At each end of it a nour 
 ishing town has arisen, and many villages along the route. And to the 
 honor of Georgia, let it be said, that she hesitated not to lay out her 
 money, although she knew that at one terminus her seaport would have 
 to divide the profit with Charleston ; and at the other Tennessee would 
 reap to herself the entire advantage of the new city which now must 
 spring up there. 
 
 On the other side of us, Virginia has evinced her estimate of the value 
 of this connection by a railroad across the mountains from Lynchburg 
 to Bristol, and thence by Tennessee to Knoxville. This road has been 
 constructed by the State at a cost far exceeding the amount paid by 
 Georgia, and is now in successful operation, and it has already brought 
 to Richmond and Petersburg a goodly portion of that harvest which is 
 really ours if we will put in our sickle. 
 
APPENDIX: 525 
 
 North Carolina has aroused herself, and, like a giant refreshed with 
 wine, has set about her work with a vigor which has despised all pruden 
 tial considerations. Her sole object has been to develop her own State 
 resources, and she has laid down a splendid railroad from the sea-coast to 
 the very foot of the mountains, passing through the greatest length of her 
 State, and she is preparing to advance it to the western valleys. The 
 whole work has been done and is supported at the expense of the State 
 alone. 
 
 It would be wearying your patience to go over the beaten track of the 
 Baltimore and Ohio, the Pennsylvania, and the New York railroads. I 
 will merely refer you to the more recent efforts of Alabama, Mississippi 
 and Louisiana, all of which States have encountered heavy debts to con 
 nect themselves with the region which the Blue Ridge railroad reaches. 
 Each and every one of the States referred to have laid down much larger 
 sums than that which the Blue Eidge railroad will require at our hands, 
 and each and all are quite content with their bargain. In fact, their suc 
 cess has extinguished the voice of opposition. 
 
 If, then, this connection is found to be so valuable by other States, why 
 should it not be equally so to South Carolina ? 
 
 From Knoxville to Richmond the distance is four hundred and fifty-six 
 miles ; to Charleston by the Blue Ridge road via Columbia it is also four 
 hundred and fifty-six miles, but by New Market it is only four hundred 
 and ten miles. But Richmond is one hundred and sixty miles from the 
 sea, and about thirty-eight miles from its shipping port on York river. 
 Charleston, being directly on the sea, has then an advantage of 46 + 38 = 
 or 84 miles over the land transportation to Richmond, and, as seaports, she 
 has an advantage of nearly two hundred miles. 
 
 But when the comparison is made as to freights from Chattanooga, 
 which is the true point of comparison, then Charleston receives on her 
 side all the difference in distance which proposed communications will 
 make between Chattanooga and Charleston. The shortest route between 
 these points will be four hundred and five miles ; between Richmond and 
 Chattanooga it will be five hundred and sixty-eight miles difference one 
 hundred and sixty-three miles. The other and longer route to Charleston 
 still makes a difference in her favor over Richmond of one hundred and 
 two miles ; so that in any event the competition with Richmond is greatly 
 in our favor as to distance. 
 
 But when it is considered that the products of the Tennessee valley are 
 the same which reach Richmond from Virginia and other quarters, it is 
 evident that the carriage thither is, as it w T ere, taking " coals to Newcas 
 tle." While, on the other hand, at Charleston there is no competition, the 
 market is clear, and the proximity of the sea, and of the West Indies par 
 ticularly, furnishes an open door to the produce which will come there for 
 sale or shipment. 
 
526 SPEECH ON THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD. 
 
 So, too, with respect to those supplies which are consumed in South 
 Carolina, the Blue Ridge railroad will be without a competitor. Bacon, 
 instead of taking the present circuit by the sea from Baltimore to Rich 
 mond, and going up by railroad to Columbia, Newberry, Camden and 
 other interior towns, will make but a short trip direct from the Tennessee 
 valley to the same points. In fact, it must follow that these very points, 
 with probably Anderson, and Greenville, and Unionville,and other towns, 
 will form entrepots, from which these products will be distributed. It 
 will only be one hundred and ninety-six miles from Knoxville to Ander 
 son, and about three hundred and thirty to Columbia, which is actually 
 less than the railroad transportation from Wheeling to Baltimore, over 
 which the bacon which reaches us from Baltimore is now brought. 
 
 If we institute a comparison with Savannah we will find the following 
 results : From Knoxville to Savannah the distance is five hundred and four 
 miles. From Knoxville to Charleston it is by one route four hundred and 
 fifty-six miles, by another four hundred and ten miles. The difference 
 either way is in our favor from this point. But, as has already been said, 
 I consider Chattanooga the true point of comparison. And here, inde 
 pendent of distance, Savannah has a decided advantage in the control 
 which the State of Georgia has over the State road. 
 
 It follows from the very nature of things that this control will be ex- 
 erted to give her every advantage. The daily experience of our mer 
 chants proves this ; and it constitutes one of the principal inducements 
 to open a new route under our own control. The entire Blue Ridge route 
 will be under own management, and will, of course, be so governed as to 
 give us a fair competition. By the present railroad routes the distance 
 from Chattanooga to Savannah is four hundred and thirty miles; to 
 Charleston four hundred and forty-six miles. By the Blue Ridge road on 
 the shortest connection, it will be four hundred and five miles to Charles 
 ton ; but upon the route now under consideration it will be four hundred 
 and sixty-six miles. So that until the most favorable connection be made 
 Savannah will have the advantage of thirty miles in distance to Chatta 
 nooga over Charleston. 
 
 Against this advantage must be laid the superior advantages of the 
 port of Charleston, and the large amount of capital in that city. The 
 skill and enterprise of its merchants, and the large amount of produce 
 which will seek for markets, will, no doubt, give to Charleston its full 
 share. Every mile towards the interior of the State gains in the dimin 
 ished distance of transportation of the western products consumed by 
 them ; and the whole country gains precisely as though Providence had 
 introduced a new navigable river into the geography of the State. 
 
 Few things could evince more strikingly the value of this railroad than 
 the earnestness of the people in the valley of the Tennessee to unite with 
 it. Before the road has passed the mountains, no less than five connec 
 tions have already been projected towards it. One of these exhibits both 
 
APPENDIX: 527 
 
 the zeal and the perseverance of the Georgians. A charter was applied 
 for by them, to reach Chattanooga by a direct route from Clayton. The 
 legislature of Georgia refused the charter. A second time the Georgians 
 applied, and then it was granted. The governor of Georgia, deeming this 
 connection disadvantageous to the State road, put his veto upon the char 
 ter. The persevering applicants again applied to the legislature, and, to 
 the honor of that body, it was granted by a majority sufficient to overrule 
 the veto of the governor. 
 
 Are we to suppose that a persistent constancy like this is blind and 
 senseless? That the Georgians, who urged their claims to an outlet with 
 a zeal and energy like this, were so ignorant as to imagine that they could 
 make a railroad without transportation to sustain it. The truth is, that 
 along the line of the projected route, copper mines of very great value 
 had been found, and were pouring their ores down the routes of the other 
 roads, and they knew that they would find a better route to the sea by 
 the Blue Ridge road. 
 
 The other connections which this railroad opens, place us in a position 
 to carry the produce of Kentucky, and part of the Northwest. From 
 Knoxville a road has been projected to Danville, in Kentucky, and thence 
 another goes to Louisville and Covington. So, too, if we indulge in fur 
 ther speculation, it is easy to see that the nearest route from St. Louis to 
 the sea is by way of Charleston ; and that all those connections with the 
 Northwest, which are brought to a point on the Ohio at Cairo and Evans- 
 ville, are opened up to us by the extension of the routes which centre 
 upon Knoxville. But as I desire to keep upon what all will admit to be 
 practical, instead of speculative advantages, I will not pursue these 
 topics. 
 
 AVhat has been urged seems to me to give a most decisive answer to 
 the third enquiry, and to respond that the State will receive ample com 
 pensation for the outlay she is called upon to make for this road. 
 
 This conclusion will receive still more convincing support by consider 
 ing some of the objections which have been urged against the road. 
 
 1. There are some who think another route, by the French Broad, to be 
 preferable to this ; and, as I have already said, a bill has actually been 
 introduced into this house to grant to this scheme State aid to the ex 
 tent of a million of dollars. I am afraid some gentlemen from the middle 
 districts may find their judgments disturbed by this temptation. I can 
 sympathise with them ; for neither they nor their constituents could de 
 sire this road more warmly than myself. It would pass by my own door 
 in the mountains, and give me facilities which I would prize very highly. 
 But I am sorry to be obliged to confess that we have lost the prize, and 
 that we cannot now regain it. 
 
 If this question were open it could be demonstrated that the Blue 
 Ridge scheme is the better. The French Broad route goes entirely too 
 far to the north and eastward for the present condition of things. It has 
 
628 SPEECH ON THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD. 
 
 been shown that the competition of Eichmond, Petersburg and Norfolk 
 is more serious, the further up the Tennessee valley you meet it. The 
 existing charters of the French Broad route require it to join the Ten 
 nessee road at Greenville, some seventy miles nearer to Eichmond than 
 Knoxville. But the French Broad route has another and an insuperable 
 difficulty. The gauge of road adopted by North Carolina differs from 
 ours., and the charter granted by that State insists upon her gauge. Our 
 road, therefore, cannot unite with it. Moreover, North Carolina stipu 
 lates that she shall have the privilege of purchasing so much of our road 
 as is in her State, whenever she pleases. And, finally, the only practica 
 ble passes in her mountains for a railroad are so far to the eastward that 
 by a few encouragements the North Carolina State road, with the same 
 gauge as the Mountain road, could easily induce the trade not to dis 
 charge itself upon another road where new arrangements must be made, 
 and thus exclude our road from all participation in the trade. 
 
 Then the Blue Eidge route has better grades ; the pass at Eabun Gap 
 is only two thousand and seventy-three feet high, while that at the Butt 
 mountain is two thousand one hundred and sixty-eight ; and the differ 
 ence of distance to Knoxville is, at last, only three miles in favor of the 
 French Broad route. 
 
 If the comparison be turned towards Chattanooga, which is the true 
 center of this western trade, the French Broad route would have to bear 
 the added disadvantage of all the distance between Knoxville and Chat 
 tanooga ; and this seems to put an end to the comparison. 
 
 But it appears to me that this question between the two routes was 
 closed in 1854. Since then we have expended upwards of two millions of 
 money ; and the question really is, whether the French Broad route is 
 two millions better than the other. He who thinks it is must have modes 
 of reaching conclusions which other minds cannot pursue. 
 
 2. It is objected that the trade of the Chattanooga and Knoxville region 
 is not sufficient to support the road. The income of the road, from Knox 
 ville to Chattanooga, is assumed as the measure of the transportation, 
 and as that is about two hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars, it is 
 argued that it is not sufficient to pay this road. 
 
 The answer to this objection is twofold. First, the income of the road 
 to Chattanooga is not the proper measure. The Tennessee river is navi 
 gable from Knoxville to Chattanooga ; and the produce on.board a steamer 
 at Knoxville seeking a market, will not be discharged at Knoxville to take 
 the railroad down to Chattanooga, but will continue in the steamer to that 
 place. This latter mode of transportation offers so many advantages 
 that at least two-thirds of the produce must take that course. Therefore, 
 if two hundred thousand dollars worth goes by railroad, at least twice 
 that amount keeps the river. 
 
 Again, a considerable portion of the produce at Knoxville takes the 
 other end of the road and goes to Lynchburg, Eichmond and Petersburg. 
 
APPENDIX. 529 
 
 The measure of transportation assumed, therefore, is defective at both 
 ends. 
 
 The other answer to the objection consists in the united experience 
 which all railroads have afforded of the amazing increase of trade and 
 travel which they create. I have lived long enough to have been a pas 
 senger in the stage which use to run from Charleston to Augusta. It ran 
 three times a week, and considered itself fortunate to have six passen 
 gers. Two entire days and a night did we jolt through the swamps and 
 pine barrens of Colleton and Barnwell ; and it was a great achievement 
 when Buckhead Causeway was surmounted without injury or delay. Let 
 a person go this day and count the passengers and the produce which 
 enters Charleston by railway between the same points, and he cannot be 
 made to believe that a single life-time witnesses so amazing an advance 
 ment. 
 
 For many years this railroad scarcely paid expenses, and threatened 
 its proprietors with ruin. Its stock actually sold in the market for fifty 
 cents in the dollar, and now r its income is a million and a half of dollars. 
 
 The same history may be written of many other railroads. "Were not 
 the same mournful prophecies uttered to deter the enterprise of Colum 
 bia from subscribing to the Greenville and Charlotte railroads ? Fortu 
 nately, there were men here who refused to listen to such prophets. 
 They induced the town to subscribe liberally, and their enlightened fore 
 cast is now exhibited in the improvement and advancing fortunes of our 
 seat of government. Let these prophets tell us what Columbia would 
 have been if the Greenville railroad had kept on the other side of the 
 Congaree to Branchville ; or, if the Charlotte railroad had gone down by 
 Camden to Kingsville. 
 
 3. It is objected that the investments made by Charleston, in making 
 these western roads, have proved failures. 
 
 This objection is founded upon a radical error. The two roads to the 
 west, which have been assisted by Charleston, are the Memphis and the 
 Nashville railroads. Both the:,o roads are well situated, and are doing 
 good business. In fact, the Memphis road promises to be one of the most 
 productive roads in our country. The failure has not been in the value 
 of the investment, but in its effects on trade. We hoped, and expected, 
 that they would bring trade to the city. But it has turned out that the 
 clashing interest of the various companies over whose railroads pro 
 duce must go, have so raised freights, that it finds a cheaper outlet by 
 the Mississippi river. 
 
 It was the apprehension of this very difficulty that has led to the 
 effort to make the Blue Eidge road. It is confidently believed, that if 
 the produce at Chattanooga, or Stevenson, could be placed under one 
 direction, it would take its natural course to the Atlantic. Every natu 
 ral advantage is in favor of that route, and it is contrary to every law of 
 34 
 
530 SPEECH ON THE BLUE RIDGE RAILROAD. 
 
 trade that the produce of Alabama and eastern Mississippi should go 
 westward. Even now, although Charleston has by no means the share 
 which she ought to have, yet a considerable commerce subsists between 
 her and the line of these roads, even as far as Memphis. As products 
 increase, and New Orleans becomes more crowded, the share of the At 
 lantic cities must necessarily increase. The diminished freight, insur 
 ance, and length of voyage from Charleston to Liverpool, together with 
 her better currency and command of capital, must, in the end, produce 
 their legitimate results in favor of Charleston. The already protracted 
 length of these remarks prevents my noticing more than one other of the 
 objections which have been urged against this scheme. 
 
 4. It is objected, in various forms, that this is not legitimately a work 
 in which South Carolina should engage in as a State. Some urge the 
 objection in the form of a willingness to aid private capital, but an un 
 willingness to assume this road as a State work. Others take a position 
 somewhat conflicting with this, and say that they cannot vote public 
 money towards an enterprise which individuals would not undertake for 
 gain. And again, others object that part of the State s money is to be 
 expended beyond its limits, in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. 
 
 All these objections appear to me to rest upon an "erroneous view of 
 the objects and duties of government. It is quite a mistake, to suppose 
 that the duties of a State government embrace no wider range than the 
 profitable employment of its resources. Fortunately for mankind, the 
 Christian religion lias widely extended the cares of human governments. 
 That vast and noble system of benevolence which has reared so many 
 asylums for the unfortunate, which has opened so many fountains of 
 knowledge for the ignorant, and which has spread a mantle of charity 
 over our whole State, sweeps away the entire objection. And if you de 
 sire a precedent still more conclusive, I will point you to the noble and 
 generous help which the State, with one voice, extended to the city of 
 Charleston when in ruins. Two millions of money were placed at her 
 disposal, and with generous sympathy her children were nurtured into 
 that state of advancement and prosperity which they now enjoy. 
 
 There are times and occasions upon which a State, just like an indi 
 vidual, should come forward and assume responsibilities. The only ques 
 tion really is, whether such an occasion actually exists. 
 
 That question is identical with the one which we have already been 
 discussing. Shall the State go on with this great enterprise, or shall she 
 abandon ? r A negative response to the bill on your table is abandonment. 
 After such a response it would be a breach of duty in the directors of the 
 company to go on. According to their statement lying before us, they 
 have issued mortgage bonds amounting to two hundred and seventy 
 thousand dollars. An abandonment of the road destroys the value of the 
 mortgage. It is the first duty of the company to pay its debts, and as the 
 security becomes worthless, by abandoning the road to ruin, they must 
 
APPENDIX. 531 
 
 pay the debt from the assets of the company in their hands. This will 
 absorb all the available funds and add so much more to the general loss. 
 
 Besides this, they have contractors at the tunnel with seven steam en 
 gines and the necessary implements. They have collected some fifteen 
 hundred workmen from all quarters of the country ; they have able and 
 worthy engineers. All these must receive some satisfaction for injury, 
 or at least some aid to make good their removal, and all this must be 
 added to the general loss. 
 
 In the face of all this, it is vain to expect any further contribution 
 from private capital and it would be vain to attempt to coerce pay 
 ments. A continuance of the work is, therefore, hopeless, and unless we 
 grant the aid required, utter ruin must involve the whole enterprise. I 
 cannot permit myself to believe that South Carolina will submit to such 
 a catastrophe. I cannot think that any of her sons will permit that 
 gaping tunnel to stand with open mouth proclaiming to the world our 
 weakness and instability. 
 
 And if timid counsels shall prevail here to withhold the relief now 
 asked for, I will still entertain a hope that the people of our gallant State 
 will themselves come to the rescue, and urge their representatives to a 
 second and better thought. I cannot believe that they will consent to 
 retire from lists into which they have entered, or abandon a field upon 
 which their colors have been planted. National character is of more 
 value than even material wealth. Earnest and self-relying effort is the 
 mainspring of individual success ; it is the stay of national enterprise. A 
 great ancient poet has well said 
 
 "Possunt, quia posse videntur." 
 And an equally great modern has translated it 
 
 "For they can conquer, who but think they can." 
 
 To loosen this spring is to lower the tone of a nation s character. Let us 
 beware how we tamper with it. Let us go on and finish what we have be 
 gun. To go on will cost no more than to stop. The road, when finished, 
 will certainly be worth what it will now cost to complete it. Either way 
 we can lose no more than the amount which will be now lost by an aban 
 donment. 
 
 But how vastly different will be the results. In the one. case we shall 
 have accomplished a great work. We shall retain our own self respect, 
 and the respect and esteem of other States. We shall encourage and 
 foster that spirit which gives to our State its strength and consideration, 
 and we shall have brought about those great results which are the fruits of 
 a western connection. In the other event, we shall cast away both our 
 money and our reputation we shall sink into a state of isolation we 
 shall have graven with our own hands, our epitaph, upon our own moun 
 tains, and shall acquire the pre-eminence of being the only instance of a 
 State in this Union which had opened a path to wealth and fame, but had 
 neither the courage nor the constancy to construct the way. 
 
532 SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY. 
 
 AN ORATION ON THE BIBLE. 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE EUPHRADIAN AND CLARIOSOPHIC SOCIE 
 TIES, DECEMBER, 1842. 
 
 In the wide range of learning there is no study which addresses itself 
 to the youthful mind in a garb more attractive than history. To trace 
 back the nations which surround us to the untutored tribes from which 
 they have descended ; to follow up the stream of time until the rise and 
 progress of these tribes are obscured in the dimness of the past and their 
 manhood and vigor are made known to us only by the ruins which bear 
 witness of their decay ; to ascertain what hand has fashioned those works 
 of genius, which ages have trodden in the dust, and thus to reach to the 
 very source and spring of human existence, present objects alike inviting 
 to the curious, the philosophic, and the devout. The traveler who stands 
 at the foot of the Pyramids, or upon the banks of the Nile, where lie 
 buried in the dust of centuries the noblest monuments reared by human 
 art, cannot but feel an irresistible impulse to inquire by whose hand these 
 works were fashioned, and what changes in the polity of states, or in the 
 annals of the world, have caused silence and desolation to reign where 
 teeming millions must have lived in peace. The solemn note from Mem- 
 non s statue seems to reverberate even in our ears, far removed as we are, 
 and to enlist our sympathies for the races of our fellow-men who have 
 heard its breathings and have passed as a shadow through the vale of ex 
 istence. And when we hasten down the vista of time to epochs of greater 
 certainty, the realities in the life of a Cyrus, a Themistocles and an Alex 
 ander arrest our attention, and excite sentiments changed in character, but 
 not in interest. Minuteness of detail now supplies incident to enliven the 
 picture, and in the impulses of human ^passion and human motive which 
 are now developed, we recognize that identity of sentiment and feeling 
 which bring them into the common species and unite them to us in one 
 common lot. 
 
 Interesting and inviting, however, as history certainly is, yet there is 
 mingled with its study a certain feeling of disappointment which sub 
 tracts from its enjoyment. The analyzing and inquiring mind would fain 
 ask for the end and purpose of those great events which are pictured 
 forth. An Alexander has led his army from one continent to another, has 
 reduced nation after nation beneath his sway, until satiated with the pur 
 suit, he has wept that nothing more remained for conquest. Like wave 
 succeeding wave, empire has succeeded empire, and to mere human vision 
 their effects upon the great mass of human existence have been as ephe 
 meral as the rush of the tempest upon the bosom of the ocean. Assyrian 
 
APPENDIX. 533 
 
 and Mede, Persian, Greek and Roman now sleep alike in the dust of the 
 earth, and but for the pen of the historian and the scattered ruins which 
 occasionally meet the eye of the traveler, it could scarcaly be known that 
 most of them had even existed upon our earth. And yet in their day each 
 in his turn had ruled the destinies of the world, and was as powerful and 
 terrific as Napoleon with his thousands advancing upon Moscow. "What 
 purpose have they all answered ? What end have they accomplished ? 
 Was their existence a mere scene in the great drama of human action, 
 without object or design, or have they all moved forward under the direc 
 tion of a master mind to the accomplishment of some great and stupen 
 dous plan ? The inquiring mind most anxiously seeks for light. But in 
 vain is turned over page after page ; it is but a succession of the same 
 events, seemingly without system or final cause, and every student must 
 be familiar with the feeling of disappointment and occasional disgust with 
 which he rises from his meditations. 
 
 A class of historians arose, who proposed to remove this embarrass 
 ment. They undertook to assign causes and objects to the great events 
 which they related ; and the avidity with which the public received their 
 labors strongly illustrates the want of which all were conscious. The" 
 Philosophic Historians (as they were termed) acquired a popularity which 
 remained long unshaken. But the common sense of mankind at length 
 ascertained that their histories were utterly fallacious. Those who stood 
 nearer the point of action perceived that the whim of a courtier, or the 
 idle passions of some parasite, had produced events which the philoso 
 pher in his study had attributed to the sound judgment of statesmen, 
 acting upon enlarged considerations of public policy. They who moved 
 the springs of action saw but too well that nations, like individuals, were 
 impelled as well by the impulses of passion as by the promptings of 
 reason ; and that these impulses, often the true causes of events, were, 
 from their very nature, concealed from the observation of the historian. 
 His pages were therefore handed over to the credulous and the uniniti 
 ated. The attempt thus proved a failure. The key to events was not yet 
 found, and the same disappointment as to the causes and movements of 
 human action must remain, unless it can find relief elsewhere. 
 
 It is in the confident expectation that this relief can be found ; it is 
 in the hope that a new stimulus may be added to historical research, and 
 new pleasures derived from its pursuit ; and more than all this, it is with 
 an earnest desire to inspirit you with a zeal for the best of all studies, 
 that I propose to bring to your attention the Bible as a means of reflect 
 ing light upon Profane History ; as in fact affording that very key to 
 events which is sought in vain from other quarters. It cannot be doubted 
 that if we were admitted into the presence and counsels of those states 
 men who rule the destinies of a nation ; if we could read their hearts, 
 and see the motives which govern their actions, we would understand 
 better the causes and design of events, than any historian who might 
 
534 SACKED AND PROFANE HISTORY. 
 
 undertake to relate them. And scarcely any object more captivating to 
 the inquiring mind can be offered than an admittance behind the scene 
 of action, where would be exhibited the preparation and the springs of 
 all those events, at which the world without is gazing with astonishment. 
 To them it is a mystery ; to us it would be a solved and open problem. 
 To them it is dark and confounding; to us open, bright and cheering. 
 They know not where next the wild and seemingly ungoverned tempest 
 may burst ; we see it ruled by wisdom, intelligence and design. 
 
 In the limited space, within which must be confined remarks upon an 
 occasion like this, more cannot be done than to bring to view some of the 
 instances in which this light is reflected, and thereby to show, that if the 
 subject be pursued, the disordered pages of history will range themselves 
 into a system. That w r hich seems a chaos without rational cause or 
 clearly designed effects, becomes a regulated plan, operating under the 
 direction of all-seeing intelligence, and tending to one great result. 
 
 The Bible affords us the earliest history w r hich exists of the human 
 race. It takes man from the cradle of his existence, and relates the rise 
 and fall of the most ancient empires of which history speaks. In this 
 respect it occupies ground common in some degree with other histories. 
 But there is one ground which it occupies entirely distinct from any 
 other book. It is that wherein it develops the counsels and plans of the 
 Creator and Almighty Governor of the Universe. It represents Him as 
 actually taking charge of the affairs of the world, and ruling them 
 according to His will. Nations and empires rise and fall as He com 
 mands ; and every living man is occupying the post assigned him, and is 
 part and parcel of a grand system, organized and directed by the great 
 Architect of all. Starting from this point as a beginning, the Bible 
 answers precisely those questions which Profane History cannot fathom, 
 and develops so much of the purposes and plans of this "Great Being, as 
 to range into its appropriate part of the system those events which other 
 wise seem without purpose or object. 
 
 The page of history presents to our view a multitude emerging from 
 the desert towards the fair plains of Palestine. Men, women and children, 
 with flocks and herds, and all the appendages of a nation, seeking a new 
 home, are seen in the promiscuous throng, but moving forward with that 
 order and system which indicate the leading of some trained and expe 
 rienced Captain. The inhabitants of the land are scattered before them, 
 and they settle down into their new habitations, at once an established 
 and organized nation. The idols and graven images which had defiled 
 the land are thrown down, their worshipers are exterminated ; and from 
 every side is now heard rising upon the evening winds the hymn of praise 
 and adoration to tlie One Great Being who had delivered them; to Him 
 who " spake and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast." 
 
 They who are thus happy in their new abodes (we are informed by the 
 Bible) are the Children of Israel, now led forth by God to the land which 
 
APPENDIX. 535 
 
 ho liVd promised as a possession to their fathers ; a people whom the Al 
 mighty had selected as his chosen witnesses on earth, to exhibit to the 
 world His Justice and His Truth. With terrific majesty, he had at Mount 
 Sinai delivered to them the keeping of the Law and the Commandments, 
 and among them was laid the Corner-Stone of His Church on earth. 
 
 From age to age the lamp of Truth was to be re-kindled at their altars ; 
 they alone were entrusted with the sacred fire. Their eventful history 
 was to be held up to mankind as proof of the just government and special 
 Providence of God. His visible presence was vouchsafed among them, 
 and they had his express promise of continual prosperity as a nation, so 
 long as they obeyed His commandments ; while on the other hand they 
 were to stand as living monuments of Divine vengeance to future ages, 
 in case they rejected His law or despised His statutes. And more than 
 all this, from among them was to arise that Sun of Righteousness with 
 healing on his wings, who was to consummate the great design of the 
 Deity, in repairing the ruin of the human race, and restoring man back 
 to his Maker. 
 
 Behold this people now established by their Almighty Helper in their 
 new possessions, happy, contented, brave and prosperous. They have 
 been rescued from Egyptian bondage ; they have passed through the deep 
 waters of affliction ; they have been on a probation of forty years ; and 
 now, schooled by adversity, and confident of the promises of their Maker, 
 they are walking in his ways, and are reaping the full enjoyment of those 
 promises. 
 
 But the tide of time sweeps on, and behold another host, vast in its 
 array, but altogether differing in its practices, is seen hovering about the 
 hills of Palestine. Those bright hills themselves are sadly changed. No 
 longer do they resound with anthems of praise to the great Jehovah, but 
 profane and horrid rites have usurped their place. The incense which 
 had formerly arisen to Israel s God, is now seen smoking to the honor of 
 Baal and Ashtaroth, and the false gods of the heathen. Ten of the tribes 
 of Israel have utterly forsaken the worship and even the knowledge of 
 the Most High, and have returned to Apis, and to Isis, and to all the 
 abominations of Egypt. In this condition they are found by the hosts of 
 Assyria, who are now seen sweeping over the land. Desolation and ruin 
 are spread around. Cities and villages are laid in dust, and the misera 
 ble inhabitants are in chains, led away to hopeless slavery in a distant 
 land. Samaria, their capital city, is subjected to horrors before unheard 
 of, and the ten tribes of Israel disappear from among the nations of the 
 earth. 
 
 But, why this scene of death and ruin ? why are wretchedness and 
 misery permitted to brood over plains where plenty had been smiling, 
 and why are those weeping millions led away in chains to bear their sor 
 rows in a distant land ? Why is the Assyrian permitted to extinguish 
 this nation from its sisterhood on earth ? The Bible answers the inquiry. 
 
536 SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY. 
 
 It tells us of their favored race, whom God had blessed with his special 
 presence and protection. He had filled up their cup to overflowing, while 
 they obeyed His law. When they had forgotten Him, he had sent pro 
 phets to recall them ; when they had set up idols in opposition to Him, 
 he had condescended to commission an Elijah to reprove them, and by a 
 manifest and striking miracle, to convince them of their errors, and force 
 them to declare that " the Lord only, He is the God." Time after time, 
 he had sent his messengers of mercy and of chastisement, and with pa 
 tience and long suffering he had borne with two centuries of unmitigated 
 crime. But vain alike has proved every visitation of anger or of mercy, 
 and the king of Assyria is now sent forth as the final messenger of ven 
 geance. 
 
 But why does the tempest stop short in its fury ? Why are two of the 
 tribes left as a people, while their brethren disappear from among na 
 tions ? Why does not Jerusalem share the fate of its sister of Samaria ? 
 The thirst of the Assyrian monarch for conquest has not yet been sati 
 ated. His army, flushed with victory, is ready to extend his sway ; and 
 surely the thousands of Jerusalem and its two tribes, cannot arrest the 
 arms which have just prostrated the hundred thousands of the adjacent 
 ten tribes. But there is a Protector watching over the safety of Jerusa 
 lem more potent than the king of Assyria, and that Protector is yet pro 
 pitious. 
 
 The Bible tells us that God had promised centuries before, that the 
 sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his 
 feet, till Shiloh come. In the counsels of the Most High, therefore, it was 
 determined that the tribe of Judah should be preserved as the Church on 
 earth, and that, although subjected to affliction for its perverseness, yet 
 its unity should continue until the Redeemer of the world should appear. 
 The Assyrian, therefore, is turned aside from his purpose ; the kingdom 
 of Judah is spared a little longer, and her history adds another proof to 
 the truth and long-suffering of God. 
 
 And now, the Assyrian too is gone. His empire, cumbered with its load 
 of crimes, and ripe for destruction, is crushed beneath the might of the 
 Chaldean, and we again behold the vallies of Palestine trampled beneath 
 the tread of a foreign foe. It is now the day of reckoning with the tribe 
 of Judah. Jerusalem lies smouldering in her ashes her magnificent 
 temple is levelled to the dust and the remnant of the Jewish nation is 
 now lead in chains, surrounded by enemies, and on their march to the 
 plains of Babylon. What means this change? Why this swift destruc 
 tion upon thos e who have been so long spared? The Bible again answers, 
 and tells us that another century of crime and idolatry, in defiance of 
 every warning and entreaty, had exhausted the long suffering patience 
 of Heaven, and Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah must now be chast 
 ened for their rebellion. But as a key to subsequent events, the Al 
 mighty Governor informs us of his determination not to destroy themut- 
 
APPENDIX. 537 
 
 terly, but that he will preserve them in the land of their captivity, as the 
 remnant of his visible Church, and after they shall have suffered the chas 
 tisement due to them as a nation, and shall have repented of their evil 
 ways, it is His purpose to restore to them their homes and that sceptre 
 which he had promised should remain with them, till the coming of the 
 Messiah. 
 
 Again we look down the vista of time, and the historian exhibits to us 
 the trained legions of Persia, surrounding Babylon, the great city the 
 magnificent, the impregnable, the wonder of the world. The king of Ba 
 bylon exhibits, at the same time, his sense of security, and his supreme 
 contempt of Cyrus and his Persians, by feasting a thousand of his lords 
 within his palace, while the invaders surround his splendid and seemingly 
 secure domain. But in the midst of the feast, in the depth of midnight, 
 the Persian has entered the impregnable fortress. Its river, which 
 seemed its protector, has been made the means of destruction its streets 
 are now deluged with blood its king and its nobles lie prostrate in the 
 dust, and the sun of Babylon has set, never to rise again. " Its palaces 
 are become a desolation, and its streets the possession of the bittern and 
 pools of water." 
 
 The pen of the historian is laid aside with awe, and he inquires why 
 this utter destruction and ruin. How happens it that the Persian, with 
 his inadequate resources, has been enabled to accomplish these great re 
 sults, and to sweep from existence a nation so much more powerful than 
 his own? And why should not the policy of the Persian State have spared 
 and preserved a city so magnificent and beautiful, as to have excited the 
 desire, and gratified the vanity of the most prosperous and mighty poten 
 tate on earth? Why have the scorpion and the bittern become the sole 
 possessors of this mighty seat of empire, this most splendid of the master- 
 w r orks of human skill? Profane history retires from the question. There 
 stands the fact ; and, as though to make its eventful history more strik 
 ing and well known to all future ages, no monarch of ancient times has 
 been more particularly brought to our acquaintance than Cyrus, the in 
 strument whom God had prepared for this great work. Among so many 
 cotemporaneous writings which have been lost, Xenophon s history of 
 Cyrus has come down to us, as though it were intended to fasten upon 
 our minds the knowledge of one of the most signal acts of God s justice, 
 and of him who was honored with the high commission of executing his 
 Maker s design. But neither Xenophon nor Herodotus, nor any other 
 profane historian, is able to satisfy us as to the means, or purpose, or final 
 cause of the great revolution which Cyrus effected. 
 
 But the Bible opens its pages in answer to these inquiries. There we 
 are told that the empire of Babylon had been weighed in the everlasting 
 balance, and found wanting; and that God had given it over to the 
 Medes and Persians. About two hundred years before the event, He, to 
 whom a thousand years are as one day, had declared His will that Jeru- 
 
538 SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY. 
 
 sale m should be restored, and that Babylon, the guilty city, should be 
 overthrown with a destruction commensurate with its utter wickedness. 
 Listen to the memorable words in which God had declared his judgment 
 more than a century before the birth of Cyrus, by the mouth of one of 
 his holy prophets: 
 
 " Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard 
 silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows, also, shall 
 dash the young men to pieces ; and they shall have no pity on the fruit 
 of the womb ; their eyes shall not spare children ; and Babylon, the glory 
 of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, shall be as when 
 God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, 
 neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation ; neither 
 shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make 
 their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall He there, and 
 their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, 
 and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry 
 in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. For I 
 will rise up against them, saith the Lord of Hosts, and cut off from Baby 
 lon the name and remnant. I will also make it a possession for the bit 
 tern and pools of water, and I w r ill sweep it with the besom of destruction, 
 saith the Lord of Hosts. 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have 
 holden to subdue nations before him. And I will loose the loins of kings 
 to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut. 
 I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight ; I will break 
 in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron. And I will 
 give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, 
 that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am 
 the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant s sake, and Israel, mine elect, 
 I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though thou 
 hast not known me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known me, 
 that they may know, from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that 
 there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. 
 
 " I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heav 
 ens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; that saith to 
 Jerusalem, thou shalt be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah, ye shalt 
 be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof; that sayeth of 
 Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure ; even saying 
 to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple, thy foundation shall 
 be laid." Isaiah 44 and 45. 
 
 And now this edict which had gone forth from the King of kings more 
 than two centuries before the event, is registered in the chancery of*he 
 Medes and Persians. Cyrus having finished his mission of conquest, and 
 having under his command both the Babylonians and the Jews, whom 
 
APPENDIX. 539 
 
 they had led into captivity, issues his decree for the restoration of Jeru 
 salem. At the appointed time, the artisan is again heard in her streets, 
 and a joyful band of her children have arrived to re-people its dwellings. 
 The temple arises again upon Mount Moriah in all its fair proportions, 
 and the children of Judah gather around its sacred precincts once more 
 to hear the law of their God. They fondly suppose that the hour of their 
 entire establishment as a nation is at hand. But they have not yet 
 passed through the vale of trial. The period appointed by God for their 
 entire deliverance, wants many years yet for its accomplishment. The 
 earthly monarch, therefore, is content to permit the temple to be re 
 stored, and the city to be rebuilt, but her walls must still remain in ruins, 
 and the Jews must still remain a province of the Persian empire. Cyrus 
 is now dead, and the neighboring nations represent to the Magian, his 
 successor, the impolicy of permitting the Jews to rebuild the walls of 
 Jerusalem, that rebellious and bad city, as they call it. It is represented 
 to him that such a fortress and nation interposed between Persia and the 
 Mediterranean sea, might, upon emergency, interrupt his communica 
 tion, and do serious mischief to the empire. New counsels prevail, and 
 the work thereupon was interrupted. The restoration of the nation can 
 not take place until a change comes over the councils of Persia. If the 
 course of events should so turn as to make it an object of State policy to 
 the Persian monarch to build up that which he now desires unbuilt ; if 
 he could see advantage from the interposition of an independent nation 
 between him and the sea ; if, for example, hostile nations, whose courage, 
 strength and hatred he had reason to fear, should threaten his own safety 
 from that quarter, then he might desire Jerusalem and a friendly 
 and brave people throughout Judea, to stand as a barrier between him 
 and such an enemy. But to produce such a change of counsels, the pride 
 of Persia must first be humbled and her fears excited by nations whom, 
 at this period, she knew but to despise. 
 
 When the legions of Xerxes precipitated themselves upon Greece, and 
 this vain and presumptuous monarch determined to wreak his vengeance 
 upon Athens, no human eye could have discerned in the movements of that 
 countless throng any motive of action, save to execute the mad vengeance 
 of a self-willed tyrant. Could we have stood at the pass of Thermopylae 
 and seen the gallant band of Leonidas arresting this thronging multitude, 
 little could we hav^ supposed that the terror and dread of Grecian arms, 
 which their bravery and heroism created, were elements at work to 
 operate part of the great plan of the Most High in behalf of His church 
 and chosen people. The plains of Marathon and Platcea are green with 
 the laurels due to Grecian patriotism and valor, and the names of Milti- 
 ades, Aristides and Themistocles will live in the human heart so long as 
 virtue and the love of country find a resting place on earth. But the 
 Bible connects into a plan their victories and enterprises, which the pro 
 fane historian leaves isolated and disjointed. The invasion of their soil 
 
640 SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY. 
 
 and the destruction of Athens had created in the minds of the Greeks ati 
 inextinguishable hostility against the Persians, and the victory of Salamis 
 had taught them the most effectual means of meeting the Persian power. 
 Year after year of struggle had followed. The Persian had ceased send 
 ing armies beyond his empire, but his fleets were continually on the watch 
 to strike a blow or ward off incursion. The active and enterprising Greek, 
 bred upon the seas, knew his advantage and lost no opportunity of using 
 it. At length the valor and conduct of Cimon, the son of Miltiades, suc 
 ceeded on two several occasions in capturing the whole Persian fleet and 
 in destroying their army. These disasters humbled the pride of Persia, 
 and led to a peace between the Greeks and Persians, in which was exacted 
 from Persia that remarkable stipulation that no Persian commander should 
 come with an army within three days journey of the sea. The effect of 
 this was to expose to the mercy of an enemy the whole sea-coast of Syria 
 and Palestine and to afford from that quarter a safe landing and an easy 
 approach to the capital of the Persian empire. The dread of Grecian valor 
 and enterprise now made it obvious to Artaxerxes that as he could not 
 establish a Persian barrier within three days journey of the sea it would 
 be well to interpose some other brave and friendly nation between. And 
 there stood ready, at the appointed time, the leaders of the Jewish nation 
 to suggest to him their readiness to execute his policy. At once the 
 scheme moves on ; the monarch is now as earnest as the Jew ; the walls 
 of Jerusalem, which had remained prostrate for seventy years, now rise 
 again in their strength ; the inhabitants return to their homes, and once 
 again the Jewish nation resumes its place among the established nations of 
 the earth. Greek and Persian and Israelite had each performed his separate 
 part ; Cyrus at the walls of Babylon, Leonidas at Thermopylae, Themisto- 
 cles at Salamis, Miltiades at Marathon, Cimon at Cyprus and the Eury- 
 medon, Esther at the Palace of Ahasuerus, and Ezra and Nehemiah at the 
 walls of Jerusalem, had each performed his assigned part each acting 
 freely and of his own separate will, but the acts of all combined into one 
 grand and harmonious whole, by the Supreme Governor of all, and made 
 to effect, at the appointed moment, the plans which He had declared as 
 His purpose centuries before their consummation. 
 
 But we sweep down the course of time, and once again the student of 
 the Bible is admitted to see the spring of events in the counsels of the 
 King of kings. Vain have been the solemn warnings uttered in the fate 
 of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. The Persian has followed in the 
 same course of crime ; its measures of iniquity is now full and the sword 
 of vengeance is now unsheathed. We perceive an Alexander marching 
 forward with a mere handful of men to encounter this mighty power. Be 
 hold him in the Granicus reeling beneath the battle-axe of the Rhodian ; 
 but he is safe, for he, too, is the instrument and messenger of the Most 
 High. His high behest he must first accomplish, ere his reckless and bru 
 tal passions can master the springs of life. See him struggling against the 
 
APPENDIX. 541 
 
 countless myraids of Issus and Arbela, but he will prevail, for the Bible, 
 long, long before the event, had so declared it to be God s purpose. 
 
 And now the Conqueror is advancing towards Jerusalem, flushed with 
 victory, and burning with indignation at the presumption of the Jews in 
 refusing him aid while laying siege to Tyre. His purpose is to inflict 
 condign and exemplary punishment upon the nation and rulers. The 
 terrified people leave their occupations and form themselves in solemn 
 procession behind their venerable High Priest, to deprecate the ven 
 geance of the Conqueror. At length the Macedonian legions are in 
 sight their General and King, the victorious and impetuous Alexander, 
 suddenly arrests their progress, alights from his horse, and he to whom 
 the world was yielding its homage, advances to the High Priest with 
 humble demeanor, and bowing low before him, salutes him with reli 
 gious veneration. The startled attendants who had. expected a scene of 
 blood and carnage, stand amazed at the spectacle, until one of them ven 
 tures to inquire its cause. Alexander answered, that when in Macedo 
 nia he was deliberating as to the Persian war, this very Priest, in the 
 same garb in which he was now attired, had appeared to him in a dream, 
 had encouraged him to proceed, and had promised him the assistance of 
 God in overthrowing the empire of Persia. The Monarch then proceeded 
 to embrace the High Priest, accompanies him to Jerusalem as a friend 
 and protector, and increases the privileges and immunities of his people. 
 Such a result under such circumstances, is entirely inexplicable to the 
 profane historian but a glance at the Bible explains the whole mystery. 
 The designs of the Most High are there declared, and Alexander, with 
 all his power, was the humble instrument by \vhich they were executed. 
 The chosen people are made the special objects of the Conqueror s pro 
 tection, and Alexander proceeds on his mission to extend the Grecian 
 name and the Grecian language, in every quarter of the globe. With 
 the rapidity of the tempest, he passes along and prepares the soil for the 
 great events which are about to follow. 
 
 But the Grecian sway is now subverted by a mightier and more endur 
 ing power. The Eoman eagles are advancing from the plains of Italy, 
 and with stern and steady progress, are bowing the nations to their iron 
 rule. The historian in vain seeks for causes why a city without com 
 merce or local advantages, built upon a turbid stream, which modern civ 
 ilization would deem unfit for any maritime use with none of those ele 
 ments of national wealth or strength, which would seem to fit it for em 
 pire why such a city should acquire an ascendancy over the whole world, 
 and subject to its dominion every civilized nation. For six hundred years 
 it had been struggling almost for existence, and the time had now ar 
 rived, when its agency was required for higher purposes. The Bible af 
 fords the key to what otherwise seems inexplicable. The grand event in 
 the scheme of Providence was now about to happen. The time appointed 
 for the appearance of the Son of Righteousness was at hand, and even the 
 
542 SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY. 
 
 Pagan nations themselves were in expectation of the advent of some great 
 personage to bless the nations. To pave the way for all the benefits of 
 his mission, it seemed well that the civilized world should be subjected 
 beneath one rule ; that freedom of communication should subsist between 
 all nations, and that they should be united under one polity and one sys 
 tem. The arts and sciences of Greece, combined with the conquests of 
 Alexander, had spread the Grecian language, and made it the efficient 
 means of communicating in writing with the whole world. The Hebrew 
 Scriptures had been translated under the Ptolemies into the same lan 
 guage, and were thereby opened to the knowledge of the civilized world. 
 The Roman power now stepped in to consolidate what the Grecian had 
 commenced, and there exists no period in history, in which all nations 
 have been brought into closer contact under one head, and under circum 
 stances of more perfect civilization and intercourse, than under the first 
 Roman emperors. The final cause and object of all this, are developed 
 by the Bible ; and the unparalleled and miraculous spread of Christian 
 ity in the first and second century, affords the most conclusive proof that 
 every thing had been prepared for it by a Master hand. When Augustus 
 Csesar caused the Temple of Janus to be shut, he little knew the purpose 
 he was effecting by universal peace ; nor could any of the men of genius 
 who ornamented his court, discover by what human agency his arms had 
 been made to triumph over every obstacle, and to lay the foundations of 
 such universal and lasting empire. Even they themselves referred it all 
 to the Supreme God, and called the emperor his favorite and the univer 
 sal expectation of the arrival of some extraordinary Being to bless the 
 nations, is beautifully painted in the memorable verses of Virgil : 
 
 Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis setas 
 Magnus ab integre sscclorum, nascitur ordo, 
 Jam Redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna 
 Jam nova progenies cselo demittitur alto. 
 
 Could the eyes of the Bard of Mantua have been opened to behold in 
 reality the personage whose coming was expected ; could he have seen 
 Him laying aside the glories of Heaven and the ineffable happiness of 
 the Godhead, to assume the form of man, and that too as a servant of 
 servants ; could he have observed His meek and patient and lowly de 
 meanor throughout a life of toil and suffering ; could he have seen Him 
 voluntarily enduring the scoffs and blows, and finally the excruciating 
 death of a malefactor, and all that he and we, and all our fellow-men 
 might be saved from everlasting destruction, and be made partakers of 
 that same glory from which He had descended ! Oh ! into what a nobler 
 strain would his muse have burst ; how must his soul have glowed with 
 fires now indeed made sacred, and how he would have hymned forth 
 rapturous and immortal anthems of praise, for love so transcendent, for 
 goodness so divine. 
 
 But we hasten down the course of time to the last point at which we 
 intend to pause. The grave has now mastered the constellation of genius 
 
APPENDIX. 543 
 
 which surrounded the throne of Augustus, and he and all his kinsmen 
 are asleep in dust. We perceive the busy and thronging multitudes 
 again alive with action in the streets of Rome ; and lo ! the gates of 
 the Temple of Janus, so long closed in peace, now stand open wide. The 
 legions are in full advance towards the land of Palestine, fraught with 
 the mission of the whirlwind. The self-willed and blinded Jews have, 
 by repeated acts of rebellious violence, aroused the fury of the Roman 
 power, and there it advances, with slow and measured tread, to burst 
 upon their land. Fortress after fortress has fallen before the invader ; 
 and the cool and determined Titus has now sat down before the walls of 
 Jerusalem. With settled purpose he has cast a bank around the devoted 
 city, and hemmed in the wretched inhabitants on every side. But amid 
 all their wretchedness there is among them no faltering resolution ; and 
 he who would dare propose submission to the Roman, must suffer instant 
 death. Blinded and infatuated, they seem devoted to destruction ; they 
 see death without and around, and yet their furious passions are not 
 checked ; for, a mid the cries of the famished, may be heard the clash of 
 arms, and the groans of brethren slain by a brother s hand. Enormities 
 the most horrid and revolting are perpetrated within the walls, so horrid 
 as to excite the hatred and indignation of the sanguinary Roman sol 
 diery. They break down the walls, burst into the city, and, in defiance 
 of the benevolent and urgent commands of their w T ell-beloved General, 
 they burn down the magnificent temple and lay it in ruins, literally leav 
 ing not one stone upon another. The city is demolished ; its very founda 
 tions are ploughed up, and as though to devote it to utter desolation, the 
 earth which supported the walls is sowed with salt. Thousands of the 
 miserable people are nailed to crosses, and the millions that remain are 
 led away captive and scattered among the nations of the earth. From 
 that hour the Jewish nation has ceased to have a country or a home. 
 Near two thousand years have since rolled on, and they still present the 
 unparalleled phenomenon of a nation, with all the elements of unity, 
 yet without power to unite ; scattered throughout the world and exposed 
 to every circumstance of trial, yet preserving their identity as a people 
 where every other people have been destroyed, or have been melted into 
 the mass around them. 
 
 Even the reckless Pagan soldiers, who looked upon the ruin of this 
 people when Jerusalem fell, attributed the events which they witnessed 
 to the direct interposition of the gods. But we, who stand two thou 
 sand years behind them, and see the still more wonderful history that 
 succeeded ; we, who behold the present state of their nation, and the 
 remarkable events which are now discovering their lost ten tribes, and 
 which are combining to restore them all to their former country ; we, 
 with the Bible in our hand, can read at once the design and the solution 
 of the mystery. In this wonderful book their fate is declared by God, 
 fifteen centuries before the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
544 SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY. 
 
 "If it shall come to pass," says he, "that thou wilt not hearken unto 
 the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandments and 
 his statutes which I command thee this day, then all these curses shall 
 cotne upon thee, and overtake thee. The Lord shall bring a nation 
 against thee from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle 
 flieth a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand a nation of 
 fierce countenance, who shall not regard the person of the old, nor show 
 favor to the young. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy 
 high and fenced walls wherein thou trustest, come down throughout thy 
 land. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy 
 sons and of thy daughters, in the siege and in the straitness wherewith 
 thy enemies shall distress thee. And ye shall be plucked from off the 
 land. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end 
 of the earth even unto the other. And among these nations shalt thou 
 find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest ; but the Lord 
 shall give thee there a trembling of heart, and failing of eyes,,and sorrow 
 of mind. Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus 
 unto this land? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the 
 covenant of the Lord God of their fathers ; for they went and served other 
 gods, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, and the 
 Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great 
 indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day." 28 and 
 29 Deut. 
 
 Awful denunciation ! and yet those to whom it was uttered dared to 
 encounter it. They ventured to rebel against the Great Being, of whose 
 truth and power they had seen so many manifestations ; rejected his 
 every message of reconciliation ; and finally, when, as a consummation 
 of Almighty goodness, the Lord of the vineyard sent to them his own 
 Son, they cried, " Crucify him ! crucify him ! his blood be upon us and 
 upon our children." Blind and infatuated men ! Eighteen centuries of 
 humiliation and of woe, have been the burthen of this dreadful impreca 
 tion. The sole of your foot has yet found no resting place on the earth. 
 The fair daughter of Zion still mourns her desolation ; and Jerusalem is 
 yet trodden down of the Gentiles, and so must continue, until the times 
 of the Gentiles shall be accomplished. 
 
 Could some gifted hand be permitted to draw aside the veil, and ex 
 hibit to us the period when these times shall have been accomplished, we 
 should then see how the plan of Omnipotence had combined into a whole 
 the stirring events which our own times have witnessed. Even with our 
 limited vision, we can perceive how the wild incursion of Napoleon, with 
 his legions upon the plains of Egypt and Syria, has paved the way for 
 that most extraordinary change, by which the nations of the east have, 
 as it were, been brought westward, and made to become an integral part 
 of the political system of Europe. Our own eyes are beholding the Otto 
 man power actually crumbling in pieces, without external pressure or 
 
APPENDIX. 545 
 
 design ; or, as the Bible expresses it, " breaking without hands." Behold, 
 on the one side, the blind fury of the Sultan, lopping off at Constanti 
 nople the right arm of his own power by butchering the Janizaries and 
 destroying the national pride of his people. See, on the other, the 
 fleets of England, his professed friends and allies, sinking at Navarino 
 the entire navy of Turkey, in a battle so repugnant to the wishes and 
 policy of the British Government, as to compel them to lament and dis 
 avow their own victory, and brand it as an undesigned and " untoward 
 blunder." Behold that same England, when the armies of Mehemet Ali 
 are in full advance upon Constantinople, and are about to plant a new 
 dynasty and infuse new life and vigor into the Turkish monarchy ; be 
 hold her arresting their advance, and again inflicting upon Turkey the 
 very wound which it was their design to avert, leaving her powerless and 
 broken, by the very act which they intended should secure her strength. 
 
 Could we but raise the curtain one moment longer, with what deepen 
 ing interest would we consider the novel incident of yesterday, when 
 after so many centuries of persecution and hate, the Christian world 
 united to rescue the Jews within the walls of Damascus ; and the mere 
 voice of Christendom shook loose the grasp of the Turk, and gave new 
 courage to the dispirited and forsaken Jew ! And deeper still would be 
 the interest with which we should view the struggle now going on for the 
 independence of Syria and Palestine and the discovery which is even 
 now being developed of the remnant of the long lost Ten Tribes of Israel, 
 found at last, fenced in among inaccessible mountains, upon the very spot 
 whither the Bible tells us they were led captive twenty-five centuries 
 ago pressed upon and hemmed in by hostile and superior strength, yet 
 safe under the protection of Almighty promise. 
 
 Then, indeed, would every heart be opened, and every tongue confess, 
 as in the days of Elijah, the Lord, He is God. His providence is over all 
 His works Not even a sparrow falleth to the ground without His hand, 
 and His truth endureth from generation to generation. The great, the 
 mighty truth, would be fastened upon every mind, " that the Lord is 
 King ; the earth may be glad thereof." " Tell it out among the heathen 
 that the Lord is King, and that it is He w T ho hath made the round world 
 so fast that it cannot be moved, and how that He shall judge the people 
 righteously." 
 
 "In His hand are all the corners of the earth," and the whole system 
 of the universe is, through Him, combined into 
 
 "One stupendous whole, 
 Whose body nature is, and God the soul. 
 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees ; 
 Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent. 
 To Him no high, no low, no great no small, 
 He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all." 
 S5 
 
546 SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Euphradian and Clariosophic Societies: 
 
 The time will soon arrive when you will leave the care of this our 
 Alma-Mater, to take your places upon the stage of human action. Many 
 of you will be called upon to yield your talents to the service and coun 
 cils of our country. It is when the active duties of life shall make their 
 demands upon you that you will perceive and exhibit the value of the 
 principles with which your minds are imbued. Their truth or error will 
 produce results fraught with blessing or with evil, to yourselves and to 
 others, within your sphere of influence. It is of the last importance, 
 then, that you should search well your foundation, and plant yourselves 
 upon those great principles of Religious truth, which, like the never- 
 failing laws of nature, ever point to the same great centre from which 
 they all do emanate. 
 
 In Physical Science, as well as in mere Mental Philosophy, it has 
 pleased the great Creator to place us in the midst of facts, and leave us 
 to build up systems from these facts by the operations of inductive reas 
 oning. As the truth or error of these systems involve no moral agency, 
 we are not held accountable for them, but are left free to admit or deny 
 their reasonableness, accordingly as they impress our minds. But when 
 we step further, and reach the point of action, philosophy has become 
 changed to duty, and the wisdom and benevolence of God now intervene 
 to guide us. Revelation now presents us with positive commands, and 
 the facts of the moral world are no longer kept at large to be arranged 
 into system by our finite intelligence, but are adjusted by infinite wisdom 
 into so simple and well-contrived a scheme that he who runs may read 
 it. Thus, in the events of history, to which I have been directing your 
 attention, God does not permit us to look unon the prosperity and upon 
 the ruin of nations as a mere spectacle to be gazed at ; but He tells us 
 distinctly of the object and causes of that prosperity and of that destruc 
 tion. Behold this nation, says He ; it shall flourish because it obeys my 
 laws. Look at this other ; it hath filled up the measure of its iniquities, 
 and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction. The great principle 
 is announced, " The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, and shall 
 spread abroad like a cedar in Lebanon ; while the wicked shall be cut 
 down like the grass, and be withered even as the green herb." And as 
 we follow down the course of events we behold nation after nation sub 
 jected to this rule, and suffering its consequences with that undeviating 
 certainty which is the element of every law of God. 
 
 Thus are we taught that we, too, must be subjected to this same unva 
 rying law. Our people and our nation must, like those whose fate has 
 been exhibited to us, be weighed in the everlasting balance. See, then, 
 to what point you are brought ! Behold how important it is that you, 
 who must soon take our places in directing the destinies of South Caro 
 lina, should feel your dependence upon the Almighty Governor of the 
 universe, and should strive to secure this favor and obey His laws. 
 
APPENDIX. 547 
 
 Behold His blessing or His curse awaiting the course which you may 
 pursue. See what may be done by the efforts of even a few, when, for 
 ten righteous men, even Sodom would have been spared. But not only 
 will the land be spared, but it will be refreshed by the favor of the King 
 of kings if you will but keep in that land a remembrance of His statutes, 
 and an earnest desire to walk in the same. 
 
 There is also another great practical principle announced in the events 
 which we have been considering, to which I desire to invite your atten 
 tion. It is, that man is not held accountable for ultimate consequences. 
 The immediate act before him is that which he must conscientiously 
 do. Duties are ours, results are in the hands of God. We are not 
 charged to concern ourselves about possible results, further than as they 
 are part of the present act. The providence of God cares for the future ; 
 our business is with the present. We are to see that our next step is in 
 the straightforward path of truth that our next act is prompted by an 
 enlightened sense of right ; and all fear, lest in doing right now, we may 
 suffer evil hereafter, is to be banished from the mind. On no occasion is 
 the conscience to be beguiled by the snare that one false step may be 
 taken to retrace or avoid evil, or to procure future, good. If we move 
 steadily forward in the path of right, God has given us his promise that 
 no evil shall befall us, however much it may seem to impend. 
 
 " On the lion vainly roaring, on his young thy foot shall tread, 
 
 And the dragon s den exploring, thou shalt bruise the serpent s head." 
 
 Such a course of action creates a noble, manly, Christian character 
 unfaltering in its resolution, brave in action, and strong of purpose fear 
 less, never daunted, and always moving onward in the path of duty. Con 
 fident of the support of the Supreme Lord of all, he is relieved from all 
 fear of human opposition, and is discharged from every feeling of morti 
 fication at defeat, or exultation at success. Flattery cannot pervert, 
 scorn or ridicule cannot move him, for the approbation which alone he seeks 
 is that of the Great Being who has never failed those who seek His favor. 
 
 It is true that occasionally the path may be beset with danger. Dark 
 ness may obscure the distance even clouds may lower, and threaten to 
 burst, if we pursue our way. But there is the test of principle ; there is 
 to be exhibited the force of that truth which should fill our souls the 
 truth to be deduced from every page of revealed religion. " The eyes of 
 the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." 
 Let him who is beset with danger, stand firmly at his post, and the path 
 will soon be clear. Let him who fears the bursting of the storm, advance 
 in the direction whither duty calls ; let him breast even the billows, and 
 they will subside before him ; for he has the sure word of promise from 
 Him, of whose truth heaven and earth bear witness : 
 
 " Fear not, I am with thee ; oh ! be not dismayed, 
 I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid ; 
 I ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, 
 Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand." 
 
MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 GOVERNOR McDUFFIE S MESSAGE. 
 
 On Tuesday, at 12 o clock, His Excellency Governor McDuffie commu 
 nicated to the Legislature by Beaufort T. Watts, Esq., Executive Secre 
 tary, the following message, which was read by him : 
 
 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, November 28, 1836. 
 Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives : 
 
 About to bid adieu to the cares and responsibilities of public life, and 
 meeting you for the last time to unite with you in deliberations for pro 
 moting the welfare of South Carolina, I am incapable of expressing the 
 gratification I experience in contemplating the spectacle of unexampled 
 prosperity, which now crowns the hopes and blesses the labors of all 
 classes of our fellow-citizens. 
 
 At no former period have they enjoyed such abundant pecuniary means 
 of fulfilling their destinies as a community of enlightened freeman, and 
 of discharging the obligations which they owe to the world and to their 
 posterity, by promoting the great cause of human improvement, and by 
 laying deep the foundations of liberty in a well-educated population, and 
 a w r ell-organized system of social and civil polity. And while it becomes 
 us to be devoutly thankful to an overruling Providence for these ample 
 means of happiness, we cannot be too deeply impressed with the convic 
 tion, that we are responsible to that Providence for their proper use and 
 improvement. Nor can we, thus highly favored as a people, neglect our 
 advantages with impunity. We must improve the talent entrusted to 
 our care, or pay the penalty denounced against the unprofitable servant. 
 We must give a public spirited and patriotic direction to the resources of 
 the State, and move forward in the career of improvement, civil, military, 
 moral, intellectual and social, or sink down into that state of sordid sel 
 fishness, in which even avarice will be finally overcome by indolence and 
 the love of luxurious indulgence. If it be true as history but too im 
 pressively teaches us that communities are less capable of bearing pros 
 perity than adversity, it should admonish us of the dangerous eminence 
 on which we now stand, where one false and downward step may precip 
 itate us from our envious height into the ignominious gulf below, which 
 yawns ready to receive us. 
 
 I wish I could persuade myself that these are mere barren specula 
 tions, drawn from the experience of other countries, but inapplicable to 
 our own. But I cannot be blind to the threatening premonitions of a 
 premature national degeneracy, which are visible in all directions, and 
 not least conspicuous at the centre of our Federal empire. 
 
APPENDIX. 549 
 
 It belongs appropriately to you, fellow-citizens, as the legislators of 
 South Carolina, and the selected guardians of her welfare, to counteract, 
 by all the means in your power, these fearful and downward tendencies, 
 and to give such a wise and salutary direction to the moral, intellectual, 
 and physical energies of the people, as will expand every selfish feeling 
 into patriotism, and impress it upon the mind of every citizen, that his 
 first and greatest interest is the general prosperity of the State, and the 
 security of her institutions, her rights, and her liberties. 
 
 To build up the solid fabric of the prosperity of a State by develop 
 ing the elements of her wealth and power, and organizing systems of 
 public instruction, calculated to elevate the standard of popular morals 
 and popular intelligence, is the noblest employment that can excite the 
 ambition, or task the faculties of legislators and statesmen. In com 
 parison with this, the miserable schemes of petty and selfish ambition, 
 scrambling for office through all the filthy mazes of intrigue and corrup 
 tion, sink into contempt and insignificance. South Carolina has achieved 
 an enviable reputation by her noble and successful struggle for the 
 essential interests and the constitutional rights of the Southern States. 
 Her success in that unequal contest, and the high character with which 
 she came out of it, were principally owing to the apparent and acknowl 
 edged fact, that her statesmen and her people, were actuated exclusively 
 by a patriotic spirit of resistance, directed against a system of unconsti 
 tutional oppression, without any ulterior purpose of selfish ambition. 
 Let us cherish and preserve the reputation we have thus nobly acquired 
 as the Romans did their Vestal fire. Let no statesman of South Carolina 
 tarnish her glorious escutcheon by enlisting as a partisan under the ban 
 ner of any of those political chiefs who are grasping at the presidential 
 sceptre. The political principles and peculiar institutions of the State 
 may be sold and sacrificed, but most assuredly, they can never be pre 
 served by such degrading partisanship. South Carolina, and all the 
 States having similar institutions, " must not put their trust in Presi 
 dents," but look to their own power and principles, for the security of 
 their rights and institutions. They are in a permanent minority on all 
 questions affecting these rights and institutions, and whoever may ex 
 ercise the powers of the Chief Magistracy, they will be exercised in obe 
 dience to the will of the adverse majority. So long as this state of things 
 shall continue ; so long as the executive government of the United States 
 shall be conducted by an administration holding principles incompatible 
 with the full security of our institutions and rights, no statesman of South 
 Carolina can become associated with that administration without justly 
 incurring the imputation of becoming an accomplice in overthrowing the 
 essential guarantees of her vital interests. He cannot worship the sun 
 of federal power and offer up the homage of a devoted heart on the altars 
 of the State. 
 
550 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 If the politicians of all the planting States would act upon these obvious 
 principles, our rights and institutions would be speedily placed upon a 
 foundation which nothing could shake in future. The whole of those 
 States would be united upon principles essential to their very existence, 
 and standing upon the ramparts of the constitution, in defense of their 
 sacred rights, would present a phalanx which no assailing power could 
 overcome. 
 
 But, however other States may think on this subject, I trust these will 
 always be the principles of South Carolina, and that they will be sacredly 
 regarded and faithfully observed by all her public functionaries. I sin 
 cerely believe that they constitute the talisman of her political strength, 
 and that, if maintained, they will throw around her institutions a magic 
 circle, which neither ambition nor fanaticism will venture to overleap. 
 Leaving then the Federal government to run its fated career, and stand 
 ing proudly aloof from all those intriguing combinations and " entangling 
 alliances " by which politicians may natter themselves that they are serv 
 ing their constituents, when they are only promoting their own agran- 
 disement, let us dedicate all our faculties and all our efforts to the im 
 provement of our beloved State, in all that can contribute to her intelli 
 gence, wealth, power and security. 
 
 For the accomplishment of these patriotic ends, too much attention 
 cannot be bestowed on the subject of education in all its stages, and in 
 all its branches. And I beg leave, most respectfully, to refer you to the 
 views contained in my last annual message in relation to the schools of 
 elementary instruction. It is in these humble seminaries that the rising 
 generation receive those early impressions which exercise a permanent 
 and decided influence upon their conduct and character in future life. 
 
 They are, emphatically, the nurseries of freemen, and the wisdom of 
 the State can in no way so effectually provide for the perpetuation of our 
 free institutions, as by measures calculated to elevate their character, by 
 securing competent instructors and furnishing for their use such elemen 
 tary school-books as will imbue the minds of our youth with sound and 
 practical views, religious, moral and political. 
 
 No constitutional charter, however wise its provisions, can give freedom 
 to a people. We must have free men before we can have a free government; 
 and we cannot be too deeply impressed with the conviction that the es 
 sential qualifications of a free man are intelligence to comprehend his 
 rights and interests with the spirit and the military skill which are neces 
 sary to defend them. The fatal experience of but too many nations and 
 communities around us conclusively demonstrates that where the great 
 body of the people are destitute of these qualifications, every attempt at 
 self-government must end in some new form of despotism. In my opin 
 ion our systems of school instruction should be made to assume a more 
 practical character, having a more direct reference to the business and 
 the duties of active life. The common reproach against a classical edu- 
 
APPENDIX. 551 
 
 cation, that it tends to disqualify our young men from performing these 
 duties is not without some foundation. It is not uncommon to meet with 
 scholars well versed in the systems of ancient polytheism in the fables of 
 the ancient poets, and in the scarcely less fabulous narratives of the an 
 cient historians, who have scarcely a smattering of the history and con 
 stitutions of their own country. The effect produced on the minds of 
 young men by a too exclusive attention to such a course of reading in our 
 schools and colleges is similar to that which is produced on the minds of 
 young females by reading sentimental novels It introduces them into 
 a world of fancy entirely different in all respects from that in which they 
 are destined to act a part, and evidently tends to disqualify them from 
 acting that part amidst the rugged realities of life. To counteract this 
 tendency a concise popular history of our own country, written in a pure 
 and simple style, and a clear exposition of the great fundamental prin 
 ciples of our system of government should be introduced into all our 
 grammar schools. For the purpose of effecting this desirable result, 
 means should first be adopted for obtaining these works, and to secure 
 their introduction into our schools it should be provided in the regula 
 tions of the College that no young man should enter the sophomore class 
 who could not stand an examination on the historical narrative, nor the 
 senior class who could not stand an examination on the political expo 
 sition. 
 
 With the same view of giving a more practical bearing to our system of 
 popular instruction, I suggest the expediency of establishing in our col 
 lege a professorship of civil and military engineering. The works of in 
 ternal improvement, which are now in progress, and will probably continue 
 to be projected for many years to come in South Carolina and the neigh 
 boring States, will require the services of a great number of civil engi 
 neers, and it is in all respects desirable that we should have citizens of our 
 own well qualified in this highly-important department, whose services 
 we can at all times command. So great is the demand for this kind of 
 service all over the Union, and the rate of compensation is becoming ex 
 travagantly high, that as a measure of economy alone the establishment 
 of the proposed professorship would be well worthy of consideration. 
 
 The department of military engineering will, of course, be made to in 
 clude instruction in the use of artillery, and to this may be usefully 
 added the practical instruction of the young men, at certain hours, in the 
 elements of infantry tactics. My observation and reflection during the 
 present year have confirmed the opinion I expressed in my last annual 
 message as to the expediency of combining in our general system of school 
 instruction the use of arms and the elements of military tactics with the 
 common branches of education. There is no other mode, in my opinion, 
 by which such important results can be produced with so small an ex 
 penditure of time and money. Indeed, I have great doubts whether it be 
 not the only practicable mode in which the elementary principles of mill- 
 
552 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 tary movements can be scientifically imparted to the great body of our 
 citizens. It will supply the great desideratum now experienced in effec 
 tually training the militia competent officers to command and instruct 
 the militia companies and I feel a perfect assurance that if generally 
 pursued in our schools, the very next generation that comes upon the 
 stage of active life will be an army of citizen soldiers, better qualified to 
 defend their rights than any standing army in the world after a peace of 
 ten years duration. I suggest, therefore, that the young men of the col 
 lege be organized into one or two corps of cadets, by law or by the regu 
 lations of the institutions, and, though permitted to elect their own offi 
 cers, that they be required to devote certain hours to the exercise of 
 drilling, under the superintendence of the military professor, who should 
 be required to act as their instructor. The establishment of such a sys 
 tem in the college would, upon very obvious principles, cause it to be ex 
 tended to the grammar schools, as every young man in preparing for col 
 lege would naturally desire to qualify himself not only for performing his 
 military exercises, but for aspiring to the honor of a military command. 
 In one of the most distinguished grammar schools of the State a company 
 of cadets was formed almost under my own eye, and while their improve 
 ment in tactics was striking to every observer, the intelligent gentleman 
 at the head of the institution assured me that he derived great advantage 
 in its government from the manliness and sense of honor imparted to the 
 young men by the change in their mode of recreation. 
 
 I also recommend the establishment of a professorship of modern lan 
 guages, the want of which has been seriously felt ever since the estab 
 lishment of the college. I believe there are very few graduates of the 
 institution who have not had occasion to deplore the defect in their edu 
 cation which has resulted from the absence of such a professorship. In 
 the present state of science and of social and commercial intercourse, a 
 knowledge of the modern languages is scarcely less important than that 
 of the ancient. A great many of the most scientific and literary works 
 now extant are written in foreign languages, and having no English 
 translations, are sealed books to those who are ignorant of the languages 
 in which they are written. It is an object of the first importance to have 
 a class of well educated native merchants, capable of conducting our 
 immense and increasing foreign commerce, who will save to the State the 
 large percentage which the Northern merchants receive as a commission 
 for exchanging our productions for those of other countries. Circum 
 stances are now highly favorable to the accomplishment of this patriotic 
 purpose. Let us, then, provide for our young men the means of becom 
 ing accomplished merchants ; and not the least important accomplish 
 ment is a knowledge of the continental languages, and particularly the 
 French. 
 
 These two additional professorships will complete the literary organi 
 zation of our college, and enable our youth to obtain so complete an 
 
APPENDIX. 553 
 
 education at home that they will no longer have a motive for going to 
 the Northern colleges. I need not add that this is an object of the utmost 
 importance, in the present state of public opinion in the United States, 
 relative to our domestic institutions. 
 
 The state of the college discipline is now excellent, and the conduct of 
 the students for the present year has, with a few exceptions, been highly 
 exemplary. Most of the irregularities that have occurred have been 
 traced to the shops where wines and ardent spirits are retailed in the 
 town of Columbia, and it has been found impossible to break up entirely 
 the communication between them and the young men of the college. 
 These wretched haunts of dissipation and intemperance do more to mar 
 the prosperity of the institution than all the other causes united. They 
 thus become nuisances to the whole State, and ought, in my opinion, to 
 be abated by its authority. The evil is not at all diminished by the sys 
 tem of licensing. The revenue derived from it is but a poor compensa 
 tion for the privilege of diffusing the elements of moral pestilence 
 amongst those who are to be the future rulers and legislators of the 
 State. 
 
 The flourishing condition of the college must be eminently gratifying to 
 every patriotic citizen in the State of every denomination, religious or po 
 litical. And however obvious the truth, we cannot too habitually impress 
 it upon our minds that the usefulness of this institution, so intimately 
 connected with the character of the State and the welfare of the genera 
 tions that are to follow us, will greatly depend upon the degree in which 
 the spirit of party, religious and political, shall be excluded from its gov 
 ernment. Let this at least be a temple dedicated exclusively to science 
 and literature, where all the citizens of the State can mingle their devo 
 tions in harmony and peace. 
 
 The number of students has so greatly increased since the new organi 
 zation that they cannot even now be tolerably accommodated in the rooms 
 provided for them, and when we look forward to the probable increase at 
 the commencement of the ensuing year, it is evident that the existing 
 means of accommodation will be wholly insufficient. The erection of an 
 additional edifice for this purpose, therefore, has become a measure not 
 only of expediency, but of absolute necessity, and I recommend that the 
 necessary appropriation be made as soon as the proper estimates shall be 
 obtained. 
 
 The college library also requires a very considerable enlargement to 
 make it correspond with the character of the institution, and I suggest the 
 propriety of making an appropriation of a few thousand dollars for this 
 purpose. As I propose to visit Europe during the ensuing year, it will give 
 me great pleasure to execute any commission with which I may be charged 
 in accomplishing this object. I cannot conclude this interesting topic 
 without earnestly commending the college to your enlightened patronage 
 and fostering care as the guardians of the rising generation. 
 
554 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 I herewith communicate a copy of an act >f the Congress of the United 
 States providing that the surplus revenue which shall be in the Federal 
 treasury on the first day of January next shall be distributed among the 
 States of the confederacy, in certain specified proportions, to be depos 
 ited in their respective treasuries, without bearing interest, until the fis 
 cal wants of the Federal government shall render it necessary that the 
 States should refund it. I also communicate a letter from the Secretary 
 of the Treasury of the United States desiring to be informed at the ear 
 liest practicable period what disposition he shall make of that portion of 
 this fund which shall fall to the share of South Carolina. As it appropri 
 ately devolves upon you to determine what that disposition shall be, I 
 have delayed answering this inquiry until you shall have given me the 
 necessary authority. 
 
 It may be important, therefore, that you should act upon the subject 
 with as little delay as possible, and it does not appear to be one which 
 requires much deliberation. None certainly can be required to decide 
 upon the expediency of receiving the money. We find a large surplus 
 of revenue accumulated in the Federal treasury, which has been uncon 
 stitutionally levied upon the productions of our own industry by a sys 
 tem of oppressive taxation enacted in opposition to our solemn protesta 
 tions ; and attempted to be enforced by the military power of the United 
 States. The money is there without any agency of ours, and the act of 
 distribution involves the question whether it shall remain deposited in 
 certain banks, to constitute a part of their banking capital, or to be 
 transferred to the treasuries of the respective States, for the use of the 
 people to whom it appropriately belongs, and from whom it never 
 should have been taken ? It is impossible to doubt on such a question ; 
 but while the justice and necessity of this measure of distribution are 
 equally obvious, under the existing circumstances, let it not be disguised 
 that no proceeding can be more absolutely fatal to the interests of the 
 exporting States than that of habitually raising revenue by duties on 
 imports for the purposes of distributing it among the States. It is to be 
 hoped, therefore, that this hazardous but necessary measure will not 
 continue a single day beyond the necessity which gave rise to it, but that 
 the Federal treasury will be reduced within constitutional dimensions, 
 by the regular process of reducing the duties, as soon as this can be done 
 consistently with the plighted faith of Congress, implied in the act of 
 1833. 
 
 As to the disposition which it may be expedient for the State to make 
 of this fund, it appears to me, that regarding it as a deposit, the obvious 
 course will be to place it in the Bank of the State, which is practically 
 the treasury of the State. It will there be used like all other deposits, 
 as a portion of the capital of the bank for the time being, and will justify 
 an extension of its operations in proportion to the amount and probable 
 continuance of the deposit. If you should concur in this view of the 
 
APPENDIX. 555 
 
 subject, it will be proper that you should confer a special authority on 
 the president or cashier of the Bank of the State of South Carolina, to 
 receive the sums that shall be payable under the aforesaid act of Con 
 gress, and to sign the obligations and acknowledgments therein pre 
 scribed, pledging the faith of the State to refund the money on the requi 
 sition of the Secretary of the Federal treasury. It will then be only 
 necessary to request this latter officer to place the sums to which the 
 State may be entitled, as they successively fall due, in the bank, and to 
 the credit of the State of South Carolina. 
 
 I lay before you, in compliance with the request of the president of the 
 convention which assembled at Knoxville, on the fourth of July last, to 
 consider the subject of a railroad between Louisville and Cincinnati and 
 the city of Charleston, a copy of the proceedings of that body. 
 
 In one of the resolutions which you w 7 ill find among these proceedings, 
 an appeal is made to the legislatures of the States through which the pro 
 posed railroad is intended to pass, for liberal appropriations from their 
 public treasuries in support of this great work. 
 
 An enterprise so gigantic in its nature and extent, and so magnificent in 
 its promised results to the prosperity of South Carolina, pre-eminently 
 deserves, and will doubtless receive your favorable consideration. If suc 
 cessfully conducted to its final accomplishment, it will be a monument 
 worthy of the age, and of which the greatest empire might justly be 
 proud. 
 
 It will produce the greatest revolution in commerce ever effected by an 
 artificial channel of communication, and not less important than that 
 which was produced by the discovery of the passage round the Cape of 
 Good Hope. With other causes, now fortunately co-operating, it will en 
 able Charleston to reclaim her lost advantages, and to become the empo 
 rium of the vast and increasing foreign commerce which is founded upon 
 the agricultural productions of the South Atlantic and Western States. 
 Nor will the advantages of this change be confined to Charleston. Every 
 part of the State wall enjoy its due portion of them. A flourishing com 
 mercial emporium, like the heart in the animal economy, diffuses life, 
 energy, and health through the whole system. It is the city of New York 
 communicating w r ith the world by the ocean, and with the interior by her 
 numerous channels, natural and artificial, that imparts wealth and pros 
 perity to the remotest extremities of that great State. Make Charleston 
 the New York of the South, and corresponding advantages will result, not 
 only to the interior of this State, but to the entire region connected with 
 that city by the ties of commercial intercourse. 
 
 Within a certain sphere, according to a well-known principle of politi 
 cal economy, the benefits of commerce cannot be localized. - Its benefi- 
 cient effects are essentially diffusive. 
 
 If these views are just, and were properly impressed upon the minds of 
 our fellow-citizens, they would tend greatly to do away that local spirit, 
 
556 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 which, by seeking to accomplish mere local purpose s, might embarrass 
 the progress, and mar the symmetry of the noble structure we are about 
 erecting. 
 
 I have too firm a reliance upon the patriotic spirit of our citizens to be 
 lieve these narrow and mistaken views will be permitted to sway the 
 councils by which it is to be planned and erected. . It is too mighty an 
 undertaking, will involve too great an expenditure, and is destined to en 
 counter too close a competition, to allow any sacrifice to be made to such 
 views, without exposing the whole enterprise to imminent hazard. That 
 route which is decidedly the best, within the limits of the charter, if there 
 be such a route, should undoubtedly be adopted. As a citizen of the State, 
 without reference to my local position, I sincerely hope that the central 
 route may be found to have that unequivocal claim to preference. I even 
 think it should be adopted, unless some other route shall appear to have 
 a decided superiority over it. But I am sure that no public-spirited citi 
 zen, anxious for the success of the work ; no stockholder, reasonably re 
 gardful of his own interest, will be disposed to go farther. To insure suc 
 cess in scaling these mountain barriers which have so long made stran 
 gers of kindred communities an achievement surpassing in sublimity all 
 that Xerxes and Hannibal and Bonaparte ever accomplished united 
 councils are indispensably necessary. The only mode of effecting this de 
 sirable result will be to have all the proposed routes and mountain passes 
 actually surveyed by scientific engineers, before any comparison is at 
 tempted. When this is done, it is extremely probable that the preferable 
 route will be so clearly indicated as to supersede all doubt on the sub 
 ject. 
 
 How far it may be expedient for the State to aid in the prosecution and 
 completion of this work, by subscribing to the stock of the company which 
 has been incorporated, I think the time has not yet come for deciding. 
 The charter has already been saved by our public-spirited fellow-citizen, 
 Colonel Wade Hampton, who being one of the central commissioners at 
 Knoxville, subscribed the whole sum which appeared from the returns 
 then received, to be wanting to make up the four millions. Until the 
 route shall be definitively selected, and active operations commenced, 
 the emergency does not seem to call upon the States interested to em 
 bark in the work as stockholders. Moreover, there are some considera 
 tions growing out of the mode of constituting the board of directors, pre 
 scribed by the charter, as amended by Kentucky, and the relative sums 
 subscribed in the different States, which render it a measure of obvious 
 prudence on the part of South Carolina either to procure a modification 
 of the charter before she subscribes, or to make accurately a conditional 
 subscription. 
 
 The act of incorporation passed by this State, provided that three of 
 the twenty-four directors should be chosen from qualified stockholders 
 residing in each of the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennes- 
 
APPENDIX. 557 
 
 see, Kentucky and Ohio, and that nine should be chosen indifferently from 
 all the stockholders. The amendment interpolated by Kentucky pro 
 vides that six of the directors shall be chosen from stockholders residing 
 in that State, while only three shall be chosen from each of the other 
 States, leaving but six to be chosen indifferently from all the stockhold 
 ers. This very exceptionable claim of undue power, on the part of Ken 
 tucky, becomes absolutely revolting when we advert to the fact that the 
 entire subscription in that State amounts to less than $200,000, and that 
 no one person there has subscribed a sufficient number of shares to qual 
 ify him to be chosen a director ! In this state of things, a board of direc 
 tors cannot be organized ; and if it could, Kentucky with less than a 
 twentieth part of the stock, would wield one-fourth part of the power of 
 the company. On the contrary, South Carolina owning five-sixths of the 
 stock, could in no event have more than nine directors. I can perceive 
 no equitable principle upon which the stockholders of five-sixths of the 
 stock in South Carolina shall have only nine directors, while the holders 
 of one-sixth of the stock out of South Carolina shall have fifteen. This is 
 certainly an unprecedented anomaly in the organization of corporate 
 powers, and I think the people of South Carolina have been sufficiently 
 admonished, by bitter experience, of the fatal consequences of having 
 their interests controlled by a foreign and irresponsible power, to make 
 them very cautious in placing the power on one side, while the interest to 
 be effected by it is on the other. 
 
 If we look to the questions that will probably arise, at the very com 
 mencement of the proposed work, the danger of this separation of power 
 and responsibility will be obvious. Upon every principle, the roads hould 
 commence at Charleston, and proceed continuously on towards its west 
 ern termination, at least until the money contributed in South Carolina 
 shall be expended. And yet it will be in the power of directors out of the 
 State to reverse the operation, and expend the whole sum subscribed by 
 the citizens of this State, in Kentucky, where so small a sum has been 
 subscribed. 
 
 This pretension to unequal power on the part of Kentucky becomes 
 still more intolerable when we advert to the causes that gave rise to it. 
 By the charter as passed by this State, and all the others except Ken 
 tucky the road was to run from Charleston to Cincinnati. The clause in 
 terpolated by Kentucky, requires that the company, at the same time 
 that they carry the road from the Cumberland mountain to Cincinnati, 
 shall carry a branch to Louisville. It also requires that a branch shall be 
 carried from Lexington to Maysville. The company are thus required to 
 construct two branches, making together some 150 miles of railroad, ob 
 viously against their own interest, and merely to accommodate two towns 
 in Kentucky ; and to secure the performance of these most unrea,SQH8.ble 
 conditions, they are moreover required to give Kentucky three directors 
 gratuitously. 
 
558 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 There is no practical view of the subject that can make it the interest 
 of the company, or the great public concerned, in the contemplated work, 
 to cover Kentucky with railroads for the privilege of passing through the 
 State. 
 
 If the road goes to the Ohio river, some one point on that river should 
 be selected. This will command nearly all the trade, that would be com 
 manded by the three that are proposed. If either Cincinnati or Louis 
 ville should be selected, it will insure as much commerce as the road will 
 probably be able to convey. And as Ohio has contributed almost nothing 
 to the stock of the company, it would be much the wiser course to carry 
 the road directly to Louisville, leaving Cincinnati out of the scheme al 
 together, if a Louisville branch is the only consideration upon which we 
 can obtain the privilege of passing through Kentucky. 
 
 There is another alternative, preferable, in my opinion, even to this. 
 It is to make the mouth of the N olachucky the western termination of the 
 road, which, according to the estimates, would reduce the cost of it from 
 twelve to five millions of dollars ; while it would still yield to North Ca 
 rolina, Tennessee and South Carolina, a very large portion of the advan 
 tages that would result from the completion of the original scheme. The 
 work to this extent could be almost completed with the stock already 
 subscribed, and would be clearly within the means of these three States. 
 A flourishing town would spring up at the western termination of the 
 road, wherever that might be, whether at Nolachucky, Ashville, or even 
 at the northwestern border of our own State, which would attract to the 
 road a great portion of the western trade, probably as much as it could 
 carry. 
 
 I have suggested these views, because I believe that South Carolina 
 will be restrained, not less by a sense of self-respect, than by a just re 
 gard for her own interest, from subscribing anything to the stock of the 
 " Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company," so long as its 
 charter shall contain the highly objectionable provisions to which I have 
 alluded. 
 
 As it now seems evident that the principal part of the funds by which 
 the road is to be constructed will have to be contributed by South Caro 
 lina, we must take care that the control of these funds shall not pass into 
 other hands, and that the scale of operations be not disproportioned to 
 the means of effecting them. And it is gratifying to perceive that so 
 much can be done by North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina 
 alone, even if it should be found necessary to act without the concur 
 rence or co-operation of Ohio and Kentucky. 
 
 A scheme has been suggested, as you are doubtless aware, of conferring 
 upon this railroad company the privilege of banking. I have given to 
 this project the most deliberate and anxious consideration, and have been 
 brought to a very decided conviction that it would be a measure preg 
 nant with danger to our general system of credit and currency, and in all 
 
APPENDIX. 559 
 
 respects inexpedient. Our banking system has already been carried to 
 the extremest limit which prudence and sound policy will justify, and we 
 have but too many indications that our local currency, in common with 
 the general currency of the United States, is upon the eve of that fatal 
 career of depreciation of which we had such a melancholy experience 
 during, and for some time after, the late war with Great Britain. Nor 
 are the reasons for indulging these gloomy apprehensions at all weakened 
 by the common allegation that more good paper is offered to the existing 
 banks than they are able to discount. In 1816, when the country was al 
 most literally flooded with a redundant currency, this allegation was ha 
 bitually made, and with as much truth as it is now. 
 
 Of the spirit of banking and borrowing, it may be said with more phil 
 osophy than poetry, that it is a monster which derives " increase of appe 
 tite from what it feeds on." The very act of throwing out excessive issues 
 of bank paper by depreciating the value of current money, creates, to the 
 full extent of that depreciation, an increased desire and necessity for 
 borrowing, because an increased quantity of money becomes necessary to 
 effect the exchanges of society. The constant and progressive apprecia 
 tion of all kinds of property which is but another form of expressing a 
 depreciated currency gives moreover a universal stimulus to the spirit of 
 overtrading. During this downward progression, every man finds it to 
 be his interest to borrow money and purchase property ; because money 
 will be less valuable and more easily obtained when the day of payment 
 comes, than it was when he obtained the loan ; the price of property, in 
 the mean time, rising in proportion. 
 
 The trading community, and indeed almost all classes of society, be 
 come intoxicated with the spirit of gambling speculation in stocks, in 
 land, and in everything else, and continue to move on under this high 
 pressure system until, awakened from their delirium by an explosion, 
 w r hen he may be deemed singularly fortunate who escapes unhurt from 
 the general wreck. No state of things can be more unfavorable to the 
 regular pursuits of honest industry, more corrupting to the public morals, 
 or finally, more destructive to the prosperity of an agricultural commu 
 nity. In the final catastrophe in which it must inevitably terminate, pro 
 perty becomes depreciated, money becomes more difficult to obtain, and 
 in this state of things, all those who are indebted to the banks, have to 
 sacrifice their property to discharge their obligations. And in the scene 
 of general ruin which follow r s, the banks alone flourish amidst the dis 
 tress and bankruptcy of the great body of the people. It is devoutly to 
 be hoped that the spirit of stock-jobbing will not spread from New York 
 and Albany to Charleston and Columbia, and above all, that the system 
 of mutual bribery which has produced such fearful and demoralizing re 
 sults in other quarters, will never pollute the sanctuary of our legislation. 
 
 A very strong, if not a conclusive reason against giving banking privi 
 leges to this railroad company, will be found in the fact that the capital 
 
560 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 of the Bank of the State of South Carolina will be increased during the 
 ensuing year to the extent of something like a million and a half of dol 
 lars by the sums which will be deposited in that bank from the Treasury 
 of the United States. This will enable it to increase its discount opera 
 tions at least to the same extent, and will certainly supply all the additional 
 wants of the community for bank accommodations, beyond what can be 
 supplied by the existing bank capital. And as the profits of the Bank of 
 the State redound to the benefit of the people at large, it would be very 
 unwise to diminish these profits at the present conjuncture by the grant 
 of banking privileges to a company of individual stockholders ; even if 
 this could be safely done upon sound banking principles. 
 
 It is not easy to perceive upon what plan this railroad company can be 
 transformed into a banking corporation, consistently with its original 
 purpose. It is certain that the same capital cannot perform two incom 
 patible functions. It cannot be paid out and expended in constructing 
 the railroad, and at the same time remain in the bank to redeem its pa 
 per. Such an attempt as this would inevitably end in a mere paper bank, 
 as it would be utterly impossible that it could redeem its bills on de 
 mand. If to obviate this objection it should be proposed to have a sepa 
 rate and distinct capital to sustain the operations of the bank, the plan 
 would still be liable to very strong objections. It would be substantially 
 forming the same body of persons into two distinct corporations, essen 
 tially different in their character and objects, and requiring entirely dif 
 ferent qualifications for the conduct of their affairs. 
 
 It is not reasonable to suppose that this confusion of purposes and com 
 plication of duties would facilitate or expedite the completion of the un 
 dertaking for which the company was organized. On the contrary, there 
 is too much ground to apprehend that this noble enterprise would be de 
 graded into a mere concern of speculation and stock-jobbing. When it is 
 recollected that the charter of this company positively prohibits it from 
 all banking operations, it is to be presumed that some very cogent rea 
 sons will be required to induce you to repeal that prohibition. The only 
 reason entitled to consideration which has been suggested, is the effect 
 of this banking privilege in securing the requisite subscription of stock. 
 But it is now apparent that as far as we can see our way clear for making 
 the road, the means are already secured, if we add to the stock already 
 subscribed the subscription which the Legislature will doubtless author 
 ise to be made in the name of the State at the proper time. 
 
 I will remark, finally, on this subject, that the constitution of the direc 
 tory, as the charter now stands, would be a conclusive objection on the 
 part of the South Carolina stockholders to the granting of banking priv 
 ileges to the corporation under its present organization. 
 
 Your predecessors have been at all times so justly sensible of the 
 importance of having uniform an4 equal laws, administered by enlight 
 ened and impartial judges, that the organization of the judiciary system 
 
APPENDIX. 561 
 
 has occupied a due share of their attention. It seems, however, that 
 something yet remains to be done to complete that organization. The 
 constitution of the Court of Appeals, by the act of 1835, has rendered 
 what was before merely expedient almost a matter of necessity an act 
 providing that the sessions of that court shall be held exclusively at 
 Columbia for the trial of appeals from all parts of the State. 
 
 I am also of the opinion that the great improvement which has been 
 made in the intelligence of the people since the abolition of the county 
 courts renders it highly expedient to re-establish that system now, though 
 it may then have been wise to abolish it. In England, and in all the 
 older States of this Union, it is as justly popular as it is extensively useful, 
 having the high merit of administering justice without delay, " without 
 money and without price." There is no district in the State in which an 
 enlightened body of magistrates could not be obtained amply qualified to 
 superintend the general police of the district, and exercise a civil and 
 criminal jurisdiction limited to certain amounts, and to a certain class of 
 offenses. 
 
 By transferring the powers now exercised by the ordinaries to those 
 courts the fees of office would yield so liberal a compensation that per 
 sons of the very best qualifications could be obtained to act as clerks. 
 Though the justices would receive no compensation but the conscien 
 tiousness of " rendering the State some service," patriotic citizens of the 
 highest standing would, I doubt not, very cheerfully perform their several 
 tours of duty in these posts of honor and usefulness And in the course 
 of a few years the circuit courts would be relieved of so large a portion 
 of the business they now have to perform that the number of the judges 
 might be gradually diminished to a considerable extent, thus promoting 
 a just and wise economy, without impairing in the slightest degree the 
 efficiency of the general system, or the character of the court of final 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 The recent organization of the militia is in the progress of realizing all 
 the benefits which were anticipated from it. As schools of instruction 
 for the officers, the brigade encampments have been found to be of ines 
 timable value. I am thoroughly satisfied, from my observation and 
 experience, that without these the whole system of militia musters and 
 drills would be worse than unprofitable. They would be mere bungling 
 pageants, calculated to bring all militia exercises into contempt and ridi 
 cule, and all militia officers into disrepute. When the colonels of regi 
 ments and captains of companies are thoroughly competent to drill their 
 respective commands, there is but little difficulty in preparing the body 
 of the militia to defend their rights. With such officers, I believe the 
 most inexperienced troops I mean militia, not enlisted troops could be 
 well prepared to take the field in six weeks. Everything depends upon 
 the officers, and most upon the captains of companies, on whom it devolves 
 36 
 
563 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 to teach the elementary principles and movements by which all the com 
 binations of military tactics are effected on the field of battle. 
 
 But it is absolutely essential to the utility of a drill that it be conducted 
 or superintended by a competent officer. According to the true theory 
 and original design of the office of adjutant and inspector-general, that 
 officer should be the chief drill officer of the State. He should be required 
 to attend the muster of every regiment in the State once a year, and con 
 duct the drill himself as the instructor. He should also be required to 
 attend every brigade encampment, and to drill the officers in the same 
 character, and be vested with the necessary authority without reference 
 to his nominal rank. As a compensation for these laborious, expensive, 
 and most useful services, his salary should be raised to at least twenty- 
 five hundred dollars. This would enable you to command the services 
 of a young man of military pride, thoroughly master of his duties, and 
 who would devote his whole time to their performance. Such a man 
 would be worth more to the State than any officer in it, civil or military ; 
 whereas, an incompetent officer, without the proper energy and military 
 spirit, would be a positive nuisance. 
 
 The improvement of our militia has been as much retarded heretofore 
 by the want of a suitable and uniform system of tactics and regulations 
 as by its want of organization. The officers of many of the regiments 
 cannot procure books of any kind, and all the copies of infantry tactics 
 provided by the authority of your predecessors, are exhausted. The 
 United States have recently adopted a new system of infantry tactics, 
 embracing all the recent improvements of the French, prepared by Major- 
 General Scott, to whom the country is greatly indebted for the means of 
 acquiring a scientific knowledge of the military art. This new system is 
 a very decided improvement upon anything previously published, and 
 Major-General McComb has prepared from it a very judicious abstract, 
 to which he has added artillery and cavalry tactics and the army regula 
 tions, embracing the whole in the compass of a small and cheap volume. 
 As we are under a constitutional obligation to conform to the system of 
 the United States, and as the system they have now adopted is likely to 
 be permanent, I have purchased five hundred copies of this work out of 
 the appropriation of the last session, and I recommend that a sum be ap 
 propriated sufficient to supply all the officers of the State with one copy. 
 The cost will be very inconsiderable in comparison with the object, as 
 this small volume, costing only fifty cents, is in itself a very tolerable 
 military library. 
 
 Out of the sum appropriated for that object, I have purchased a suita 
 ble site and caused an arsenal to be erected, in this place, capable of con 
 taining six to eight thousand stand of arms. When the magazines and 
 barracks are completed, the whole will be as creditable to the liberality 
 and forecast of the Legislature, as it will be conducive to the public 
 safety. 
 
APPENDIX. 563 
 
 I feel it to be my duty to bring to your view some measures for improv 
 ing the condition, elevating the character, and extending the usefulness 
 of the chief executive department of this government, which I have been 
 restrained, by very obvious considerations, from suggesting at an earlier 
 period. There is no reform in the practical operation of our system of 
 confederated sovereign communities, and in the state of public opinion 
 connected with it, more important to the security of our civil institutions 
 than that which shall restore the lost equilibrium of that system, by 
 raising up the State governments from that low point of depression to 
 which they have been carried by the adverse political currents of the 
 last twenty years, to their primitive dignity and power. The steady pro 
 gress of Federal encroachment, while undermining and carrying away 
 the constitutional barriers of our safety, has given a false direction to 
 the public opinion of our people and the ambition of our statesmen. The 
 latter must be thoroughly corrected, before the former can be success 
 fully resisted. It will be in vain that we struggle to maintain the great 
 conservative doctrines of the South, while the chief magistrates of high- 
 minded Southern States the representatives of their sovereign dignity 
 shall descend from their lofty elevation, prostrate the insignia of their 
 offices at the very foot-stool of the Federal executive, craving at his 
 hands the miserable honor of a mission to the Indian tribes, or a perma 
 nent agency among them, and moving off upon this degrading errand, 
 without encountering the scornful and indignant hisses of the people, 
 whose sovereign honor he has betrayed and tarnished. 
 
 With a view of counteracting these degrading tendencies, as well as 
 of increasing the respectability and usefulness of his office in other 
 respects, I recommended that the salary of the Governor be increased to 
 five thousand dollars ; that he be required to reside habitually at the 
 seat of government, and that a suitable house be erected for his accom 
 modation. This is almost the only State in the Union where a mansion, 
 corresponding with the dignity of the office, is not provided for the resi 
 dence of the Chief Magistrate, and where that officer is not required to 
 reside permanently at the seat of government. 
 
 In practice, the chief executive department of this State is now 
 either the private residence of the Governor, often on one extremity of 
 the State, or a sort of traveling headquarters. In this state of things 
 the people are exposed to great inconvenience, and the unfortunate often 
 fail to receive the benefit which they would otherwise derive from his 
 exercise of the prerogative of mercy, by the difficulty of ascertaining or 
 of reaching the place of his residence for the time being. 
 
 I also suggest, as a measure of obvious expediency, the repeal or modi 
 fication of the provision of the constitution, which renders the Chief 
 Magistrate ineligible for four years after serving one term. As he is 
 almost entirely destitute of patronage of any kind, there is no conceiva 
 ble reason why the people should impose this jealous restriction upon 
 
564 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 themselves, by which it must frequently happen that they will be de 
 prived of services which they would be very anxious to retain, to the 
 serious detriment of the public service. As the constitution now stands, 
 no system of policy, depending upon the Chief Magistrate and requiring 
 a series of years for its execution, can be successfully accomplished. 
 
 I have received from the governors of the several confederate States, 
 resolutions on the subject of the proceedings of certain abolition socie 
 ties organized in the non-slave-holding States, and I now lay these reso 
 lutions before you in compliance with the request by which they were 
 accompanied. Most of them, as you will perceive, are from the legisla 
 tures of slave-holding States, and are characterized by a- patriotic spirit, 
 an enlightened comprehension of our common rights, and firm determi 
 nation to defend them, worthy of the high sources whence they ema 
 nated. 
 
 I am constrained, however, to express my sincere regret that notwith 
 standing the solemn appeal made by South Carolina and other slave- 
 holding States, to the States in which those abolition societies were 
 formed, invoking them to interpose their legislative powpr for the pur 
 pose of suppressing these seditious machinations against our peace and 
 safety, which were openly carried on under the protection of their laws 
 and sovereign jurisdiction ; but three of these States have even conde 
 scended to notice this appeal, and not one of them has taken any steps 
 towards suppressing the injurious practices of which we so justly com 
 plained. 
 
 Considering the fraternal spirit in which our application was conceived, 
 and the respectful language in which it was expressed, I cannot but 
 regard the entire neglect with which it has been thus generally treated, 
 as a silent but significant indication of the alarming state of public opin 
 ion which already prevails amongst the great body of the people in the 
 non-slave-holding States, and a solemn admonition to the slave-holding 
 States to guard their institutions with sleepless vigilance, and be at all 
 times prepared to defend them, by all the measures and all the means 
 which the emergency may demand. After what has occurred, it will not 
 comport with the dignity of South Carolina, as a sovereign State, deeply 
 aggrieved by the practices to which I have referred, to hold any further 
 correspondence on the subject with those States that have treated our 
 complaints with this total neglect and silent indifference. 
 
 It is now time that discussion should cease. " The argument is exhaus 
 ted," and though we may not be called upon to " stand by our arms," we 
 should be prepared to adopt efficient and decisive measures for our own 
 security, as soon as it shall be ascertained that the combined guarantees 
 of international law, and of our constitutional compact of Union, are in 
 sufficient to restrain the ferocious spirit of fanatical interference, which is 
 now waging war against our institutions. It is no longer to be endured 
 that the Federal compact, which should be a covenant of eternal peace 
 
APPENDIX. 565 
 
 among the States, and a shield to protect their respective institutions 
 from every species of mutual intermeddling, should be used as the con 
 stant pretext for this conspiracy against our lives, our property and our 
 character. 
 
 We must be permitted not only to enjoy our rights of property, but to 
 enjoy them in peace and security. It is a gross outrage for one commu 
 nity to attempt to overthrow the institutions of another, even by discussion. 
 If committed by a foreign State it is a just cause of war ; if by a confed 
 erated State, it is a just cause of separation. In either case it is a simple 
 question of expediency to determine where the evil has assumed a charac 
 ter to warrant a resort to the ultimate remedy. 
 
 Such is the rapid progress of the spirit of abolition in the non-slaveholding 
 States, that no human sagacity can tell how soon that period may arrive. 
 We fatally deceive ourselves, if we suppose its fury has abated. On the 
 contrary it appears from the annual report of the American Anti-Slavery 
 Society, which assembled at New York in May last, that the abolition 
 societies had swelled in number from 200 to 523 since the report of the 
 preceding year. 
 
 The society triumphantly boasts of its progress, declares its reliance on 
 those whom it denominates " bone and muscle of society," the " hard- 
 handed, clear-headed, free laborers and mechanics of the North," and 
 that the opposition to the abolitionists is confined to " the heads and 
 tail of society purse-proud aristocrats and pennyless profligates." It 
 then proceeds with unfuriated zeal, without the piety of Peter the Hermit, 
 to rally its partisans for a crusade against the slave-holders, by exclaim 
 ing : "Friends and fellow-laborers, the enemy stands openly before us. 
 His foot is on the neck of 2,500,000 of our fellow men. He asserts the right 
 to maintain his position and increase the number of his victims. He 
 begs no longer favors from the circumstances of the case; he boldly 
 avows slavery to be the best condition of the laborer. Such is the ene 
 my we find rampant amidst our free institutions." In this strain of inso 
 lent assumption, the American Anti-Slavery Society continues, through 
 some fifty pages, to denounce the slave-holders, for the obvious and 
 avowed purpose of holding them up to the abhorrence of the Northern 
 people, confidently affirming that " the yeomanry of the land will unite 
 on this question, and identify their interests with those of the slave." 
 That " they will throw away political and sectarian predilections, and 
 stand forth on the broad ground of human rights." And that from this 
 class the cause will always gain, and never lose, " till slave-holding shall 
 be synonymous with robbery in public opinion, as it is in fact." 
 
 I have long believed that while a large portion of the men of intelli 
 gence and property in the North were opposed to every species of inter 
 ference with the institutions of the slave-holding States, the great body 
 of the people, headed by that class of desperate politicians, who hold 
 that no charters are sacred, would finally rally under the banners of the 
 
666 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 abolitionists and carry everything before them in the elections. "When 
 this crisis shall arrive, those who now claim for Congress the constitu 
 tional power to emancipate the slaves in the District of Columbia, will as 
 boldly claim the same power in regard to the States. Their whole course 
 demonstrates that this is the consummation at which they are aiming. It 
 is neither calculated nor designed to convert the slave-holders, but to 
 unite people of the non-slaveholding States in favor of the emancipation 
 of our slaves. And it is evident that this would not conduce in any res 
 pect to the accomplishment of their object, unless by a resort to legisla 
 tive power or physical force. Such being the apparent tendency and de 
 sign of these discussions and proceedings, it devolves upon you to decide 
 what measures shall be adopted to arrest them. 
 
 In many of the popular meetings at the South assembled to consider the 
 subject of the incendiary proceedings of the abolitionists, the States in 
 which those proceedings were carried on, were called upon to -suppress 
 them by penal enactments, and it was declared that if this redress should 
 be refused, it would be expedient for the slave-holding States to meet in 
 Convention, to consider the means of protecting themselves. In alluding 
 to these proceedings at the South, the American Anti-slavery Society ex- 
 ultingly declares that no legislative body in the non-slave-holding States, 
 and but one popular meeting, had dared to propose penal enactments 
 against the abolitionists, and yet that the slave-holding States shrunk 
 from the execution of their threatened call of a Convention. 
 
 This the society sets forth as one of its grounds of encouragement and 
 adds : " The threat is grown stale, and its terror can never be restored." 
 The intention is finally declared of urging upon Congress the immediate 
 abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and the hope is expressed 
 that the tables of that body will " groan with a tenfold weight of pe 
 titions." 
 
 It is quite apparent that as long as the halls of Congress shall be open 
 to the discussion of this question, we can have neither peace nor security ; 
 and it is still more apparent that whenever the Federal Legislature shall 
 usurp the power of emancipating the slaves in the District of Columbia, 
 the only security of the Southern States will consist in promptly and 
 peaceably withdrawing from the Union. With a view, therefore, of warn 
 ing the people of the North of the consequence of such an usurpation, 
 that they may be restrained from longer agitating a subject so deeply 
 involving our very existence as a people, I suggest to you the expediency 
 of making a solemn legislative declaration, that Congress has no right to 
 abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and is under no constitutional 
 obligation to receive the petitions of the people of any of the States pray 
 ing for such abolition ; and that whenever Congress shall emancipate the 
 slaves in the said District, or in any of the Territories of the United 
 States, South Carolina, in common with the other slave-holding States, 
 will be absolved from all constitutional or moral obligation to remain any 
 
APPENDIX. 567 
 
 longer in the Union, and may, rightfully and peacefully, withdraw from it. 
 While South Carolina is thus indignantly repelling all foreign attempts 
 to violate the sanctuary and endanger the existence of her domestic in 
 stitutions, it becomes her, in a peculiar manner, to abstain from every 
 sort of interference with the domestic concerns or domestic controversies 
 of all other States, foreign or confederate. The doctrine of non-interfer 
 ence is one of the most important in the code of international law, and 
 there are no communities on earth who should hold it so sacred as the 
 slave-holding States of this Union. If, by their example, in giving coun 
 tenance to the unlawful enterprises of their own citizens against a neigh 
 boring and neutral power, they should weaken the influence of that 
 principle among nations, they would commit an offense against their own 
 institutions by impairing the sanctity of their surest guarantee against 
 foreign intrusion. 
 
 Entertaining these opinions, I have looked with very deep concern, not 
 unmingled with regret, upon the occurrences which have taken place 
 during the present year, in various parts of the United States, relative to 
 the civil war which is still in progess between the Eepublic of Mexico 
 and one of her revolted Provinces. 
 
 It is true that no country can be responsible for the sympathies of its 
 citizens ; but I am nevertheless utterly at a loss to perceive what title 
 either of the parties to this controversy can have to the sympathies of 
 the American people. If it be alleged that the insurgents of Texas are 
 emigrants from the United States, it is obvious to reply, that by their vol 
 untary expatriation under whatever circumstance of adventure, of spec 
 ulation, of honor, or of infamy they have forfeited all claim to our frater 
 nal regard. If it be even true that they have left a land of freedom for a 
 land of despotism, they have done it with their eyes open and deserve 
 their destiny. There is bwt too much reason to believe that many of them 
 have gone as mere adventurers, speculating upon the chances of estab 
 lishing an independent government in Texas, and of seizing that immense 
 and fertile domain by the title of the sword. But be this as it may, when 
 they became citizens of Mexico, they became subject to the constitution 
 and laws of that country ; and whatever changes the Mexican people may 
 have since made in that constitution and these laws, they are matters with 
 which foreign States can have no concern, and of which they have no 
 right to take cognizance. I trust, therefore, that the State of South Car 
 olina will give no countenance, direct or indirect, open or concealed, to 
 any acts which may compromit the neutrality of the United States or 
 bring into question their plighted faith. Justice stern and unbending 
 justice in our intercourse with other States, would be paramount to all 
 the considerations of mere expediency even if it were possible that these 
 could be separated. But they cannot. Justice is the highest expediency, 
 and I am sure South Carolina is the last state in theUnion that would 
 knowingly violate this sacred canon of political morality. 
 
568 MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 If any consideration could add to the intrinsic weight of these high in 
 ducements to abstain from any species of interference with the domestic 
 affairs of a neighboring and friendly State, it would be the tremendous 
 retribution to which we are so peculiarly exposed on our Southwestern 
 frontiers from measures of retaliation. 
 
 Should Mexico declare war against the United States, and, aided by 
 some great European power, hoist the standard of servile insurrection in 
 Louisiana and the neighboring States ; how deep would be our self re 
 proaches in reflecting that these atrocious proceedings received even a 
 colorable apology from our example, or from the unlawful conduct of our 
 own citizens ! 
 
 There is one question, connected with this controversy, of a definite 
 character, upon which it may be proper that you should express an opin 
 ion. You are, doubtless, aware that the people of Texas, by an almost 
 unanimous vote, have expressed their desire to be admitted into our con 
 federacy, and application will probably be made to Congress for that pur 
 pose. In my opinion, Congress ought not even to entertain such a propo 
 sition in the present state of the controversy. If we admit Texas into our 
 Union, while Mexico is still waging war against that province, with a 
 view to re-establish her supremacy over it, we shall, by the very act itself, 
 make ourselves a party to the war. Nor can we take this step without 
 incurring this heavy responsibility until Mexico herself shall recognize 
 the independence of her revolted province. 
 
 We have no official information of the precise state of our relations with 
 Mexico Enough is known, however, to satisfy us that the conjuncture 
 is eminently critical. Let us be scrupulously careful that we do nothing 
 to countenance, and all we can to prevent, the calamity of a war. We are 
 now engaged in a fearful and doubtful struggle to reform our Federal sys 
 tem of government, by throwing off the corruptions under which it is 
 rapidly sinking. 
 
 In this state of things a war with any country would be the greatest of 
 calamities, for we could scarcely hope to come out of it with anything but 
 the mere wreck of a free constitution and the external forms of a free 
 government. 
 
 But may heaven avert these inauspicious omens, and direct all your 
 measures to the advancement of our true glory and lasting happiness as 
 a free and a favored people. 
 
 GEORGE McDurriE. 
 
APPENDIX. 569 
 
 THE BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1. Now it came to pass that in those days John of Quincy reigned over 
 all the land of America. 
 
 2. And in the third year of his reign, John commanded to gather to 
 gether the governors, and the captains, and the rulers, and all the coun 
 sellors of the realm. 
 
 3. And the governors, and the captains, and the rulers, and the coun 
 sellors of all the land were gathered together, and they stood before 
 John, in the city called Washington. 
 
 4. Then stood forth a counsellor from the provinces of the East, and he 
 spoke aloud, and said : 
 
 5. " O, men of the East, and of the West, and ye from the provinces 
 towards the middle ; verily the land wherein ye dwell produceth abund 
 antly the fruits of the earth, and your flocks yield increase, and your 
 laborers are weary with toil. 
 
 6. " Yet ye prosper not, neither do you partake of the abundance of 
 the earth ; that which ye have, your neighbor also hath, and that which 
 ye want ye must send for afar off ; and ye exchange not with your neigh 
 bor, but with the stranger that is without your gates. 
 
 7. " Wherefore, let us take counsel together, and make to ourselves a 
 statute, to be ordained by John, the King, even an ordinance to shut out 
 the stranger and his merchandise, and let us make to ourselves all that 
 is needful to the body." 
 
 8. And the name of this counsellor was Mallary ; which being inter 
 preted is, "That which causeth pestilence." 
 
 9. And his voice was sweet to the ears of the rulers, and the captains, 
 and the counsellors from the East and from the West, and from the 
 provinces down about the great city, and they hearkened unto his 
 counsel. 
 
 10. But the rulers and the counsellors from the provinces of the South 
 would not hearken thereto, but they rent their raiment in vexation, and 
 were made sorely wroth. 
 
 11. And the rulers, and the captains, and the counsellors from the East, 
 and from the West, and from the central provinces, bowed before John, 
 the King, and besought him to ordain the statute which Mallary had de 
 vised ; and John commanded that it should be so. 
 
 12. Now, it came to pass, that before those days, a certain great Pro 
 phet had arisen in the South, and his name was called George. 
 
570 BOOK OF NVLLIFICA TION. 
 
 13. And in the reign of James, of Virginia, the word was proclaimed 
 by George, that lo ! a time should come when the Kingdom of America 
 would be unable to give sufficient honor, and distinction, and power, to 
 all the rulers, and the captains, and the counsellors of the land. 
 
 14. And that certain men should strive to rend in twain the realm, and 
 to set over each portion thereof another chief governor, and other rulers 
 and captains. 
 
 15. Now, when John had commanded the statute to be ordained, the 
 men of the South remembered the words which George had prophesied, 
 and they had faith, and believed that the fulfilment thereof was at hand. 
 
 16. And the rulers, and the captains, and the counsellors of the South, 
 gathered together, even in the city called Washington, and George, the 
 Prophet, was in the midst of them. 
 
 17. Then George stood forth and said : " Ye men of the South, if ye be 
 minded to fulfil all that is written in the book of my prophecies, even 
 the book called One of the People] this day shall ye see made manifest 
 the truth therof. 
 
 18. "Arise, now, and go straightway to your people, and cry aloud 
 against the statute which John hath ordained; and say that ye have been 
 betrayed, and oppressed, and ruined, and undone. Declare that ye must 
 break the yoke of the King, and lo ! I will give you a King to reign over 
 yourselves, even John my kinsman, the Magician from the South." 
 
 19. Now the words of George seemed good unto many of the wise men, 
 and the rulers, and the captains of the South ; and they took counsel to 
 gether to rebel against the power of John of Quincy, and to render asun 
 der the provinces of the South from the provinces of the East and West. 
 
 20. But a certain wise man, a ruler of the people, called William, pur 
 posed in his heart to do that which was just in the sight of Heaven, and 
 he gave no faith to the words of George, and he refused his counsel. 
 
 21. And Thomas, of Winyaw, would not bow down before John, the 
 Magician ; but he turned aside, and he opened his mouth and spake to 
 the people of the South the whole counsel of George, and all the words 
 which the evil counsellors from the South had uttered. 
 
 22. Then the wise men, and the rulers, and the captains, who had heark 
 ened to the words of George, took counsel together to slay Thomas be 
 fore the people, and they sent up to destroy him one of their captains, 
 even Robert, who was afterwards surnamed " THE NULLIFIER." 
 
 23. Now, Robert stood up before the people, and with many words de 
 clared the saying of Thomas to be false, and he besought the people to 
 cast stones at Thomas, so that his voice might no more be heard. 
 
 24. But Thomas had the fear of the Lord before his eyes, and his heart 
 was strengthened. 
 
 25. Then called he aloud on William the Just, to verify the words 
 which he had spoken of Robert, and of George, and .of John the Sor 
 cerer, and of the other evil rulers and counsellors from the South. 
 
APPENDIX. 571 
 
 26. And William being a just man, had respect unto the truth, and 
 verified the words of Thomas which he had spoken, and set before the 
 men of the South the design which their evil counsellors had in their 
 hearts against the Union of the realm of America. 
 
 27. So Robert, the Nullifier, was put to manifest shame before all the 
 people. 
 
 28. And it came to pass that James, the son of James, was a captain 
 over the provinces of the South, and was one of those who had conspired 
 with George, the Prophet, and with Eobert, and with John, the Sorcerer, 
 in the plot which they had devised against the people of the South. 
 
 29. Now when Thomas, of "Winyaw, had spoken to the people the coun 
 sel of George, James was sorely troubled, and his heart smote against his 
 breast, because it was he of whom the word had been given by the mouth 
 of the prophet George, "that ONE Government over all the land of 
 America would not be sufficient for the ambition of all its princes and 
 rulers and captains." 
 
 30. And James rose and stood before Eobert and said to him : "Verily, 
 O Robert, we are in great peril ; we have in the days which are past caused 
 to be made statutes and ordinances like unto those which now spare not 
 the people of the South, and which cleave asunder their rights. 
 
 31. "We have given counsel to John, and to the King before him, even 
 to James, of Virginia, to eschew the voice of the wise captain from the 
 South, even of William, from the province of Georgia, and we have turned 
 into outer darkness the men who are called radicals. 
 
 32. "Wherefore, Robert ! the people of the South may not put faith in 
 the cry which we must raise against the statute of John, of Quincy, and 
 against the words of Thomas, of Winyaw but be not cast down, Robert ! 
 
 33. "For I,even I, James, will forthwith put from me for a time all honor 
 and distinction and power, and I will return to the people of the South 
 and will say unto them, Lo ! I have laid aside all power and might, and 
 have become as one of the most humble of these my countrymen. 
 
 34. "And I will declare to them that the counsel which we gave to 
 James the King was evil, and that in those days I, James, was under a 
 natural delusion; and I will say that I have repented thereof ; and then 
 we will cry aloud against the ordinances of John of Quincy, and spare not. 
 
 35. "Then, Robert ! the people who have hearkened unto the words of 
 Thomas will again put their trust in us, and they will make me a Gov 
 ernor to rule over them, and then we shall have wherewithal to slay 
 Thomas before the people, and to cast out William the Just, and to make 
 John the Conjuror to reign over the land." 
 
 36. And Robert hearkened unto the counsel of James, and his soul was 
 confronted and his countenance was lighted with joy. 
 
 37. And in the fourth year of the reign of John of Quincy, James, the 
 son of James, performed the promise which he had made to Robert the 
 Nullifier, and returned home with fear and trembling to his people. 
 
572 BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1. Now when James, the son of James, had returned to his people, he 
 gathered together the captains, and the wise men, and the rulers of hun 
 dreds, and the rulers of tens in all the land of Colleton, which is hard by 
 Charleston. 
 
 2. And he cried aloud against John of Quincy, and against the statute, 
 and against the tariff which he had ordained. 
 
 3. And he opened his mouth and said, "Ye men of Colleton ! lo, the peo 
 ple of the East, who are called Yankees, have smote your land with a 
 scourge ; they have despoiled you of your substance and put chains upon 
 your members ; they have robbed your fields of their increase, and "the 
 fox peeps forth from your ruined chateaus." 
 
 4. And the men of Colleton turned their eyes to the East and to the 
 West, for they knew not the thing which is called a "chateau ;" they felt 
 their arms for chains, but they were free. 
 
 5. And they looked forth on the fields, but they were fresh with ver 
 dure, and the land was without scourge ; and they marveled greatly at 
 the words of James. 
 
 6. But James called aloud on the name of George the Prophet. 
 
 7. And George answered in a voice like the rushing of many waters and 
 said unto the people, "Awake, stand up, O men of Colleton, who have 
 drunk at the hands of the Yankees their cup of fury." 
 
 8. "Verily, I say unto you, that although your fields are green and your 
 hands free, yet desolation and destruction and famine shall surely come 
 upon you, for by the spirit of John, the Conjuror, I swear that great and 
 inconceivable are the evils which the tariff of John of Quincy shall bring 
 to pass. 
 
 9. "Wherefore, men of Colleton, let not your hearts be faint, but 
 hearken to the works of James and wax stronger in the faith for lo I I 
 will show unto you a hidden secret." 
 
 10. Then George waved his hand before the eyes of the men of Colleton* 
 and they beheld in the air a host of Yankees bearing from the fields of 
 the South "forty of every hundred parts" of the increase thereof. 
 
 11. And he gave them to drink of certain liquor, which James and his 
 companions had procured from the kingdom beyond the great waters, 
 even from the land of Champaigne, and they waxed warm, and they felt 
 the chains and the shackles whereof James had spoken. 
 
 12. And the men of Colleton were astonished at the power of George 
 and of James, the son of James, and they bowed down to them and wor 
 shiped them. 
 
 13. So the words of James, which he had spoken, were made manifest to 
 them, and they gnashed their teeth and shouted aloud. 
 
 14. On that same day James departed from among them and went down 
 by the sea to the city called Charleston. 
 
APPENDIX: 573 
 
 15. Now it came to pass that John of Quincy was gathered to his fathers 
 and Andrew sat upon his throne. 
 
 16. And John the Conjuror, and Robert the Nullifier, and George the 
 Prophet, and James, the son of James, feared in their hearts the power of 
 Andrew, for he was a just man, and had the fear of the Lord before his eyes. 
 
 17. And they bowed before his throne, and spake in a loud voice to the 
 people, saying : " We, even we, are the faithful servants of Andrew, and 
 will do honor to his name." 
 
 18. But the heart of John the C onjuror, was in secret turned against 
 Andrew, and he was greatly wroth against him, and his countenance 
 fell for his soul coveted, strongly, the throne whereon Andrew sat. 
 
 19. Now when John the Conjuror had seen the power of George the 
 Prophet, and of James, the son of James, made manifest upon the men 
 of Colleton, he gathered unto him all the wise men, and the rulers, and 
 the captains of his faction to take secret counsel together. 
 
 20. And George the Prophet was in the midst of them ; and Robert and 
 James, the son of James, were not afar off. 
 
 21. Then John opened His mouth and said : " Men and brethren, verily 
 we have cried aloud against the Tariff ordained by John of Quincy, and 
 my servants, George and James, have made ready the men of Colleton 
 and of Edgefield, and we have sought to prepare all the provinces of the 
 South. 
 
 22. " So that if it should come to pass that John of Quincy should con 
 tinue to sit upon the throne we could rend from him the provinces of the 
 South, and place a King to reign over them. 
 
 23. " Then should we all have honor, and power, and distinction, and 
 glory ; and my servants, George, and James, and Robert, would be set in 
 high places. 
 
 24. "But now, men and brethren, behold, the people give more honor 
 and love to Andrew than to me, and they bow down with veneration be 
 fore him, and if we cry aloud against Andrew, as we did against John of 
 Quincy, they will cast stones at us. 
 
 25. " Wherefore let us go forth to all the provinces of the South, and 
 let us confound the understanding of the people, and let us, with one ac 
 cord, declare to them that the King s counsellors at the great city are 
 seeking to despoil them. 
 
 26. " And we will arouse them to vengeance, and we will send forth 
 George the Prophet, and Robert, and James, and there will be a mighty 
 commotion. 
 
 27. " And we shall have meetings and feasts, and meat offerings, and 
 drink offerings over all the land of the South ; and when the hour shall 
 come, then shall we cause the people to NULLIFY the statute which was 
 ordained in the reign of John of Quincy." 
 
 28. " And peradventure Andrew the King will wax wroth thereat, and 
 Will send forth a power to enforce the statute and the ordinances of the 
 
674 , BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 realm ; but we~shall rejoice the more, for the South will become as a 
 fiery furnace for Andrew, and the people will be as tigers when their gar 
 ments are stained with blood. 
 
 29. " Then shall we be able to send forth a multitude against Andrew 
 the King, and we will do battle with him, and we will rend asunder his 
 dominions, and we will take to ourselves the rich provinces of the South, 
 and set over them another King and other Princes and Governors. 
 
 30. " And I, John, will cast for ye all a Graven Image, which shall be 
 endued with great power to blind the eyes of the people, and to shut 
 their ears, and ye shall set it up in a high place, and ye shall bow down 
 before it and worship it. 
 
 31. "And the name of the Graven Image shall be called NULLIFICA 
 TION/ which being interpreted is DISUNION, and the place wherein ye 
 shall set it up shall be called CONVENTION. " 
 
 32. And the counsel of John the Conjuror seemed good to all the chief 
 men, and the rulers, and the captains, who were gathered before him, and 
 they departed straightway every man to do his allotted part. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1. Now in the second year of the reign of Andrew, he commanded the 
 governors, and the rulers, and the captains, and the wise men of all the 
 land of America to gather together at the city called Washington. 
 
 2. And the commandment of Andrew was hearkened to throughout the 
 land, and the governors, and the rulers, and the wise men stood before 
 him ; and Robert the Nullifier was among them. 
 
 3. Now Eobert, in the beginning, was upright, and feared the Lord, and 
 eschewed evil ; and he increased in substance and in honor before his 
 people. 
 
 4. But he hearkened to the voice of John the Conjuror, and his heart 
 became changed in the sight of Heaven, and prudence departed from 
 him. 
 
 5. And he arose before all the rulers, and the captains, and the wise 
 men, who were gathered together in the city called Washington, and he 
 set up before them the graven image which John had made, even the 
 image NULLIFICATION, and he commanded them to bow down before it 
 and worship it. 
 
 6. Then John the Conjuror became sorely troubled, and his spirit was 
 disquieted within him, and he rent his garments in vexation because 
 Robert had neglected to hide the graven image in the place called Con 
 vention, and had openly brought it forth before all the people. 
 
 7. And he feared greatly lest the graven image should be cleft asunder, 
 and lest the enchantments and sorceries which he had placed therein 
 should be destroyed by the wise men who stood before him ; and his fears 
 were not vain. 
 
APPENDIX. 575 
 
 8. For a certain Daniel arose and smote the graven image, and threw it 
 upon the earth in sight of all the rulers, and captains, and wise men of 
 the realm. 
 
 9. But Robert straightway arose and set it up again, and he placed 
 around it a palisade of osiers, and beyond the same he erected a patch 
 work, gathered together from the East and from the West, and from the 
 North and from the South. 
 
 10. xlnd over the whole he caused to be written a superscription in 
 letters of English, " THE CAROLINA DOCTRINES." 
 
 11. Then Daniel girded up his loins, and stood forth before all the rulers, 
 and the captains, and the wise men ; and he tore into fragments the patch 
 work which Robert had made. 
 
 12. And he overturned with his feet the palisade of osiers, and he smote 
 a second time the graven image, and he cast it down before the people, 
 and he struck from it the head, and broke the body into pieces. 
 
 13. Now Robert was greatly wroth at the act which Daniel had done, 
 and he seized upon the pieces of the idol, and endeavored to set them 
 together before the people. 
 
 14. But a certain wise man named Edward, a ruler over the province 
 of Louisiana, and an elder of the people, arose and stood before Robert, 
 and said unto him : 
 
 15. " Peace be unto thee, O Robert ! let not thine anger arise within 
 thee against Daniel, for I say unto thee, thy path leadeth to error. 
 
 16. " The graven image which "thou hast set up is made of sorceries and 
 enchantments, and is evil in the sight of God and man ; and though per- 
 adventure Daniel hath dealt hardly by it, and by thee, yet I, even I, 
 Edward, who hath stood by thee in good report and in evil report, must 
 say unto thee, of a surety this thy NULLIFICATION is but emptiness and 
 vanity. 
 
 17. " Wherefore, Robert ! deliver to me the fragments thereof, that I 
 may cast them forth upon the face of the earth." 
 
 18. So Edward took the pieces which Robert had gathered, and scat 
 tered them as dust before all the people. 
 
 19. And all the rulers, and the captains, and the wise men of the land, 
 departed from the presence of Andrew the King, and returned to their 
 homes. 
 
 20. And Robert the Nullifier departed in sorrow, and would not be 
 comforted ; and he went down by the sea to the city called Charleston, 
 and sought out James, the son of James. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1. Now when Robert was come to the city called Charleston, the peo 
 ple had compassion upon him, and no man opened his mouth against 
 him. 
 
576 B00.fi: OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 2. And the elders and the chief men of the city sought to comfort him, 
 for they verily believed that he had repented him of his evil ways, and 
 had hearkened to the voice of Edward, and had eschewed the worship of 
 the graven image called NULLIFICATION. 
 
 3. But when Robert saw the elders and the chief men, that they yielded 
 honor to his name, his heart waxed bold, and he was puffed up in his 
 own conceit. 
 
 4. And he called upon James, the son of James, who is surnamed " the 
 Deluded/ and said unto him, " Verily the men of Charleston know not of 
 the shame we have been put to at the hands of Daniel, neither have they 
 heard that our graven image hath been broken in pieces, and hath been 
 exposed before the rulers of the land. 
 
 5. " Wherefore, James, let us again put together the pieces, and let 
 us cause it to be set up in a high place before the men of Charleston, 
 even in the City Hall ; and let us make a great feast, and let us gather 
 together all the people, and let us say unto them : 
 
 6. "0 men of Charleston ! lo, this is the cunning device which hath been 
 contrived by John, the great Conjuror, whereby to destroy the Yankees, 
 your enemies, and to put off from you the evils which George the Prophet 
 hath declared will surely come from the ordinance of him called Mallary. 
 
 7. " And its name is called NULLIFICATION ; and behold it has great 
 power and dominion over the hearts of men, for when it shall speak unto 
 Andrew the King, he shall tremble with dread, and the ordinance, even 
 the Tariff, shall straightway become null and void." 
 
 8. And the counsel of Robert seemed good in the sight of James, and he 
 trusted that the people would believe, and he did as Robert had spoken. 
 
 9. Now there was a certain man of Charleston named Henry, a ruler 
 of the people, and he had a " Grandfather" 
 
 10. And he was the High Priest who stood before the altar of the false 
 god of the heathen, even of him called MERCURY, to whom the thieves 
 and the liars and the evil speakers of the nations offer sacrifice. 
 
 11. Now Henry bowed down day by day before the altar of the strange 
 god, and offered sacrifice thereat, large sheets of paper, stamped and writ 
 ten upon in characters of ink ; and afterwards he gave the sheets to his 
 kinsmen and his friends, and they read the characters,and believed in them. 
 
 12. And the sheets of paper found favor with the false god, for they 
 were acceptable unto him, and he put upon them a superscription, even 
 his own name, " THE MERCURY." 
 
 13. Now when Robert and James saw the daily sacrifice of Henry, and 
 that much people received at his hands the sheets of paper, and believed 
 in all that was written upon them, they rejoiced greatly, for they put 
 their trust in Henry. 
 
 14. And they besought Henry to set up Nullification in the temple of 
 Mercury, and to offer incense thereto, and to find it favor in the sight of 
 the people. 
 
APPENDIX. 577 
 
 r 15. And Henry the High Priest hearkened unto their request, and he 
 gave unto the people hundreds and thousands of the sheets of paper, 
 which were daily sacrificed, and he caused to be written thereon praises 
 unto the graven image, which John the Conjuror had made, and he pro 
 nounced it a good thing to give honor and adoration thereunto. 
 
 16. And he desired his followers and all the multitude to come down 
 to the feast which Eobert the Nullifier had counseled to be made, and he 
 said unto the people, that lo ! it was a feast of peace offering, and that 
 thereby they should do honor to all their rulers, and even to William the 
 Just, whom they loved. 
 
 17. So the people of Charleston listened to the words of Henry, and 
 many of them gathered together to the feast ; and Eobert the Nullifier, 
 and James, the son of James, who is also called the " Deluded," were in 
 the midst of them. 
 
 18. Now it came to pass that William the Just had returned to his peo 
 ple, and Robert and James entreated of him to come unto the great feast, 
 for they knew the favor which William had found in the sight of the men of 
 Charleston, and they desired under the shadow of his wing to profit thereby. 
 
 19. And they concealed from William the secret purpose which they 
 had in their hearts, to make the feast in honor of the graven image Nulli 
 fication ; and they vowed that it was a meat offering of respect from all 
 the people to William, and to the elders, and to the rulers of the land. 
 
 20. So William did even as he was entreated, and went up to the feast ; 
 and many of his kinsmen and friends also gathered together, for they 
 verily believed that where William was, there might they be also. 
 
 21. And Henry the High Priest also called unto the feast LANGDON. 
 
 22. Now Langdon was a man of humble condition, whose lot had been 
 cast among the lowly, and he could not like Henry the High Priest, point 
 up to a grandfather, and claim his station as an inheritance. 
 
 23. But Langdon eschewed evil, and was earnest in well doing, and he 
 made himself a name throughout the land, and the people honored him 
 for his virtues, and gave unto him riches and distinction, and power. 
 
 24. And they made him a ruler over the land, and sent him up as a 
 counsellor before the King, at the great city ; and the King had respect 
 unto him, and set him in high places. 
 
 25. Then Langdon became puffed up, and his heart was filled with pride, 
 and he forgot his former condition of humility ; and he forsook the peo 
 ple who had elevated him, and departed from amongst them. 
 
 26. And he put his trust in the fame which had gone before him from 
 the provinces of the South, and from the great city, and he sought a 
 larger kingdom, wherein he might obtain greater riches and power than 
 could be had in the land whence he had departed. 
 
 27. And he pitched his tent in the land of Pennsylvania, and he made 
 to himself a great tabernacle in the city called Philadelphia, and he spake 
 
 37 
 
578 BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 kindly to the people, that they should hold him as a brother, even as he 
 had been held among the men of the South. 
 
 28. But the men of Pennsylvania hearkened not to the words of Lang- 
 don, and they put no faith in him, for they saw that his heart was set 
 upon the high places of the land ; and they yielded unto him neither 
 favor nor distinction, but looked upon him as a stranger and sojourner 
 among them. 
 
 29. Then Langdon was greatly vexed, and his soul was disquieted within 
 him, and in his wrath he swore vengeance against the men of Pennsylva 
 nia, and he departed from amongst them, and wandered among the pro 
 vinces, without any fixed habitation or abiding place. 
 
 30. Now it came to pass that James, surnamed the " Deluded," and 
 Robert the Nullifier, knew of the discontent which overshadowed the 
 heart of Langdon, and they believed that the name of Langdon was still 
 great in the provinces of the South, and they imagined that the hour was 
 come in which they could prevail upon him to bow down before John the 
 Conjuror, and to serve him. 
 
 31. And they gathered together around Langdon, and they comforted 
 him, and they promised to avenge him of the despiteful treatment of the 
 men of Pennsylvania ; and James led him to a far country, and showed 
 unto him the rich fields of the South, and said unto him : 
 
 32. " Behold, O Langdon ! here is abundance of the fruits of the earth ; 
 rice and sugar doth the land yield forth freely ; wherefore pitch thou 
 here thy tent, and thou shalt increase in riches and power, and thy sons 
 shall receive honor and distinction at the hands of the people of the 
 South." 
 
 33. And Langdon was comforted by the words of James, and he did 
 even as he had counseled ; and he pitched his tent amongst the fertile 
 lands near the great river, even the Savannah ; and he went down with 
 James by the sea, to the city called Charleston. 
 
 34. And the friends of John the Conjuror, and of Kobert, and of James, 
 took Langdon by the hand, and they gave unto him meat offerings, and 
 drink offerings, and feasts, and his name became great among the lords 
 and princes of the land. 
 
 35. But when the men of low degree who are called Republicans, and 
 who were the ancient friends of Langdon, came near unto him, Langdon 
 turned another way, and he knew them not. 
 
 36. And the people marveled greatly at Langdon ; and they saw that 
 he was a deserter from the faith, and they looked upon his face, and 
 behold it was greatly changed, and they knew not what manner of man 
 he was, and they feared greatly that he was given over to the enemy. 
 
 37. So they held their peace, and every man went his own way with his 
 heart awakened to suspicion against Langdon, and some called him the 
 Disappointed. 
 
APPENDIX. 579 
 
 38. Now the same Langdon it was, whom Henry the Chief Priest, and 
 James, the son of James, and Robert the Nullifier, had bidden unto the 
 great feast at the city called Charleston, even the FEAST OF NULLIFICA 
 TION. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1. Now there was a certain man of large stature and of weak sight 
 who dwelt in the city of Charleston, and he was a scribe, and his name 
 was called Robert. 
 
 2. And the heart of Robert yearned towards the men who dwelt in an 
 Island beyond the great waters, and he loved them with all his soul, so 
 the men of Charleston called Robert, " the Englishman." 
 
 3. And Robert in his heart hated Andrew the King, who reigned over 
 the realm of America ; for the same Andrew it was, who slew near the 
 great river Mississippi, thousands of enemies, who came from the distant 
 Island which Robert loved. 
 
 4. And John the Conjuror, saw into the heart of Robert the English 
 man, and he wrote letters unto him, giving praises unto the graven image 
 called NULLIFICATION, which John had made, and saying, that it was 
 mighty, to make the provinces of the South one realm with the distant 
 Island, towards which the heart of Robert yearned. 
 
 5. Now, Robert the Englishman had faith, and believed in the words of 
 John, and he came also to the great Feast of Nullification, to do honor 
 thereunto. 
 
 6. Then the rulers, and the elders, and the wise men, and all those who 
 came unto the feast, gathered together, and were seated around the tables 
 in the Great Hall of the city, and they did eat. 
 
 7. But James, who is surnamed " the Deluded," and Robert the Nullifier, 
 feared much, lest the eyes of William the Just, should alight upon the 
 graven image, NULLIFICATION, for they knew he would expose it to all 
 the people. 
 
 8. So they set the Idol in a high place, and covered it over with a Cloth 
 of Stripes and of Stars, and William saw the cloth, and believed it was 
 the banner of the nation, and he knew not what was beneath. 
 
 9. And all the people did partake of the feast, for they nothing doubted 
 but that they thereby made manifest their love and their veneration for 
 the name of him whom they delighted to honor. 
 
 10. And they called aloud on William the Just, and gave praises unto 
 him, " as a cherished son of the South, disciplined in her best schools of 
 chivalry and honor." 
 
 11. Then William arose before all the people, and gave thanks for the 
 love wherewith they had honored him, and he opened his mouth and said, 
 
 12. "Verily, O men of Charleston, ye have heard much clamor against 
 the statute of John of Quincy, even the Tariff, and ye have been en- 
 
580 BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 treated to resist the same, even though Andrew the King had sworn to 
 enforce all the statutes of the realm. 
 
 13. "And ye have been told by certain men, if ye will but take into 
 your hands a cunning device called NULLIFICATION, ye will thereby be 
 enabled to overthrow the power of the King, without peril to your lives 
 or to the realm. 
 
 14. "But I say unto you, Men and Brethren, this saying is vain; of a 
 surety Andrew the King will perform the oath which he has sworn ; and 
 if ye set at nought the statutes of the realm, Andrew will send a power 
 against ye to enforce obedience. 
 
 15. " And ye must then do battle with Andrew, and if ye be subdued, 
 then will ye be put to shame ; and if ye gain the victory, then will ye 
 have stained your raiment with the blood of brethren, and ye will have 
 rent in twain the realm, and ye must make to yourselves another King. 
 
 16. "These, Men and Brethren, are the fruits of NULLIFICATION; and 
 they were made manifest when Daniel and Edward broke the same in 
 pieces, and held it up before the people, and those who made the cunning 
 device have repented them of their work, and will peradventure confess 
 the error of their ways." 
 
 17. And when William had thus spoken, the people shouted aloud with 
 a great shout, and the Great Hall shook thereat ; and the cloth of stripes 
 and stars which had been placed before William was blown aside, and 
 the graven image, Nullification, stood manifest before all the people. 
 
 18. Then AVilliam turned his eyes upward toward Heaven, and he saw 
 the graven image which had been set up on the high place, and he was 
 greatly wroth, and he took in his hand the broad banner which had been 
 used to conceal it. 
 
 19. And he waved the banner and cried aloud, " Behold, men of Charles 
 ton, the graven image Nullification has been again set up to deceive you ; 
 the idolaters have not repented of their evil ways, and they yet bow 
 down before strange gods. 
 
 20. " Wherefore let us arise and declare before all the world that this 
 our banner shall no more give shelter to the offspring of the Sorcerer, 
 but shall " ever wave, with undiminished lustre, over free, sovereign, and 
 UNITED STATES." 
 
 21. And the people arose with one accord and did as William counselled ; 
 and instantly the graven image fell from the place whereon it stood, and 
 passing near the head of Robert the Englishman, struck upon the earth 
 and was broken into fragments. 
 
 22. And Robert was stunned but not crushed, and from that day he 
 went about the city like one possessed of a Devil, and many believed that 
 Nullification had entered his brain. 
 
 23. But the people who were, gathered together at the feast, were 
 greatly wroth when they saw how Nullification had been set up before 
 
APPENDIX. 5S1 
 
 them, and they began to turn their eyes upon Robert the Nullifier, for 
 they grievously suspected him. 
 
 24. Then Robert the Nullifier stood forth and said, " Of a surety O men 
 of Charleston, I repose not on a Bed of Roses/ for I am but as a mes 
 senger of defeat and disaster ; and although William had spoken to you of 
 the evil which I have sustained at the hands of Daniel, and of the man 
 of Louisiana, 
 
 25. " Yet, O friends ! I have suffered and been humbled in the cause of 
 State Rights, and although our enemies have told ye that we bowed 
 down before Nullification, and that we have here set up the graven 
 image to be worshiped by you all, yet I beseech ye, put no faith in their 
 words : 
 
 26. " For I swear unto you that the Nullification to which we bowed 
 down, is not that which hath been crushed here before you, but it is the 
 same Nullification which was set up in the distant country called Ken 
 tucky, by Thomas, whom ye all know, and who is surnamed Jefferson. 
 
 27. " "Wherefore, O men of Charleston, be not wroth with me, for the 
 work which was done by Thomas, for I am but an humble follower of his 
 path ; and if Nullification be evil in your sight, visit not the sin thereof 
 upon my head." 
 
 28. And Robert the Nullifier said many words to the people, to blind 
 their eyes to the error of his ways, and they held their peace, but their 
 hearts were kindled against him, for they saw manifestly, that though his 
 courage failed him, yet he repented not. 
 
 29. And they treasured up his words in their remembrance for a future 
 day of reckoning, when he should be called to account for his steward 
 ship. 
 
 30. And they were yet the more angry with Robert, because he laid his 
 own sins at the door of Thomas, surnamed Jefferson, for the people knew 
 that Thomas was a man without guile, and would not bow down before 
 any Graven Image. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1. Now it came to pass that while the people hearkened to the speech 
 of Robert the Nullifier, James, who is called the " Deluded," caused cer 
 tain men privily to gather together the fragments of the graven image 
 NULLIFICATION. 
 
 2. And he sent the same to John the Conjuror, to be set together again 
 by the power of his sorceries and enchantments ; and he also sent mes 
 sengers to John, to beseech him to hide the graven image until the hour 
 should come when it could be elevated in the place that is called CON 
 VENTION. 
 
 3. For that the men of Charleston were greatly wroth against NULLI 
 FICATION, and would not bow down before it ; but he trusted that they 
 
582 BOOK OF NULLIFICATIONS 
 
 might be~made to believe that CONVENTION was a good thing and worthy 
 of all praise. 
 
 4. So when Robert the Nullifier had seated himself again amongst the 
 people at the great feast, James the " Deluded " sought to withdraw the 
 eyes of men from the ruin which had overtaken Nullification, and he 
 arose, and with a great shout uttered praises to the name of William the 
 Just, and to the other counsellors of the South. 
 
 5. And the people with one accord joined in the shout, for their hearts 
 overflowed with love towards William the Just, and towards a certain 
 other William, who was a Senator from the provinces of the South. 
 
 6. And these were the counsellors to whose names the people gave 
 praises, but the deeds of Robert the Nullifier were set apart in their 
 hearts for the day of reckoning. 
 
 7. Then Langdon arose and spake in a loud voice to all the elders, and 
 the rulers, and the wise men, and the people who were gathered together 
 at the feast, and said : 
 
 8. " Ye men of Charleston ! behold, I have pitched my tent amongst 
 you, for I heard when I was afar off, that ye were afflicted, and that ye 
 mourned in sackcloth and ashes over the Tariff of John of Quincy. 
 
 9. "And lo ! I have come amongst you in this your day of tribulation, 
 to give unto you succor and consolation. For verily ye are bowed down 
 to the earth with grievous oppression. 
 
 10. "And the land wherein ye dwell is but as a Colony to the realm, 
 and ye bear on your necks a yoke of bondage, weightier than that where 
 with ye were oppressed in the days which are passed, when George the 
 King, beyond the great waters, had dominion over you. 
 
 11. " Behold, your fields yield abundantly the fruits of the earth, yet 
 ye prosper not, neither do ye flourish ; for that which ye pay in tribute 
 draineth you of your substance. 
 
 12. " Moreover, when ye complain, your voice is as the voice of babes 
 and sucklings, the counsellors of the King hearken not thereunto, neither 
 do they yield unto you respect. Ye have cried unto them for succor, but 
 to your prayers have they turned a deaf ear. 
 
 13. " Wherefore, men of Charleston ! call no more upon Andrew the 
 King, nor upon his counsellors, but call ye upon those who have the like 
 feelings, and the like passions with yourselves, even upon the men of the 
 South. 
 
 14. " And the men of the South will hearken unto your voice, and they 
 will join with you to resist the-men of the North ; and then will ye com 
 pel Andrew the King to give way to your prayers. 
 
 15. " Peradventure it shall come to pass, that Andrew the King will 
 send a power against you to enforce the statutes of the realm, and ye 
 may do battle with him, and thereby ye may be brought to rend in 
 twain the provinces of his Kingdom : 
 
APPENDIX. 583 
 
 16. " But be not dismayed, for I say unto you, the evils which ye suffer 
 are not to be borne, and they ought to be resisted at ANY AND EVERY 
 HAZARD. " 
 
 17. Now when Langdon had ceased speaking, the people marveled 
 greatly at his words, seeing that he had been an indweller for many 
 years among those of whom he now spake bitterly, and had not, during 
 all that time, opened his mouth to convince them of the error of their 
 ways. 
 
 18. And they were yet the more astonished at his speech wherein he 
 said, that he had come amongst them to share their sorrows ; for they 
 saw that he lived upon the fat of the land, and that the lords and the 
 princes of the city offered unto him daily sumptuous feasts, and that he 
 partook thereof. 
 
 19. And they w r ere confounded at his words, so they held their peace, 
 and waited patiently to see what time would bring forth. 
 
 20. Now when James, who is called the" Deluded," perceived that Lang 
 don had said not a word giving praise to NULLIFICATION, or to its abiding 
 place CONVENTION, he began to fear lest the heart of Langdon was in se 
 cret turned against the followers of John the Conjuror, and that he 
 would not bow down before the work of John s hands. 
 
 21. And James became sorrowful thereat, and his spirit sank within 
 him. But a certain Richard called upon him in a loud voice before all 
 the people, and declared that he, James, should be made a Governor to 
 rule over them, and the words of Eichard gave comfort to his soul. " 
 
 22. Now Richard was a man of great riches, but his stores of knowledge 
 were not abundant ; and he desired greatly to be made a ruler and a Sena 
 tor over the province called Carolina, and he believed that James the De 
 luded had great power, and could minister unto his desire, and he became 
 a faithful follower of James. 
 
 23. Then James the Deluded opened his mouth and said, " Verily, O men 
 of Charleston, I give thanks unto you all, and more especially unto Rich 
 ard (whose name shall dwell in my remembrance) for the favor ye have 
 this day shown forth in setting me up to be made chief Governor over this 
 province. 
 
 24. " Ye all know that in the days which are past I (James) did join with 
 the counsellors of the North in ordaining statutes which you now declare 
 do bow you to the dust, and which despoil you of your substance. 
 
 25. " But when it was made manifest that the path which I pursued 
 would lead me far from your favor, and that ye would take from me all 
 power and honor, I saw the error of my ways and turned from the weaker 
 to the stronger side. 
 
 26. " And, rather than suffer for conscience sake, I confessed unto you 
 my sins, and declared that I had been under a natural delusion, to 
 which my eyes are now open. 
 
584 BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 27. " And I will now pronounce openly before you all the creed 1 in which 
 I now believe, and ye shall see that I am strong in faith. 
 
 28. " I believe the Tariff of him called Mallary to be a palpable, deliber 
 ate and dangerous violation of the ordinances of the realm, and that it is 
 a device of cunning men to despoil you of the fruits of your labor. 
 
 29. " I believe that ye are oppressed and ruined by the statutes which 
 have been ordained by the great council of Andrew the King, and that 
 desolation will soon cover your land, even as the waters do the great deep. 
 
 30. "And I say unto you, O men of Charleston, that ye may cry aloud 
 for relief, but ye shall find none at the hands of the Yankees, your ene 
 mies; wherefore, arise at once, and stand forth in your might: ye ought 
 and MUST RESIST/ 
 
 31. " Peradventure some of you shall say how can we resist without do 
 ing battle with Andrew the King, who hath sworn before Heaven to en 
 force the ordinances of the realm. 
 
 32. " But I say unto you, fear nothing ; and if Andrew the King shall do 
 that which he hath sworn, upon his head be the blood which shall be 
 spilt for it is his fault, and not ours. 
 
 33. " And if he send forth a power to enforce the statutes of the realm, 
 assuredly his reign will be a Sanguinary Despotism, against which our 
 fathers have taught us to rebel. 
 
 34. " And we will defend ourselves with our own right arm, and in the 
 heat of strife we shall spill blood, or rend asunder the realm ; of a surety 
 this is not DISUNION OR CIVIL WAR/ but it is that which is called GLORIOUS 
 
 REVOLUTION." 
 
 35. Then all the people were astonished at the words of James, and they 
 arose with one accord to cast him out ; but when they came near unto 
 him they saw manifestly that he was still under " a natural delusion," and 
 they had compassion on him. 
 
 36. For behold his eyes shot forth a lurid glare, and a thick vapor 
 descended from his nostrils, and, passing upwards before his eyes, caused 
 him to see as through a glass darkly. 
 
 37. And it was now made manifest to all the people that James, the son 
 of James, saw not as other men saw, and that all things were visible to 
 him through a false medium, and they all cried aloud, " Of a surety this 
 man is well called TPIE DELUDED. " 
 
 38. And the elders, and the wise men, and the counsellors of the South, 
 now remembered the words which Thomas, of Winyaw, had spoken in the 
 days that were past ; and they feared in their hearts that the fulfilment 
 thereof was at hand, and they secretly resolved to set their faces against 
 " THE DELUDED " and his followers. 
 
 39. And they saw manifestly that the heart of James was hardened, and 
 that Eobert the Nullifier had conspired together with him, and they 
 feared greatly lest Langdon was given over to them, but they all held their 
 peace. 
 
APPENDIX. 585 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 1. Then a certain man from the multitude, a faithful follower of James 
 " the Deluded" arose, and called aloud upon Eobert, who is surnamed the 
 Englishman. 
 
 2. And he gave praises to the name of Eobert, and because his brain had 
 become disordered by the evil spirit, NULLIFICATION, and by the enchant 
 ments of John the Conjuror, he likened Robert unto a certain madman, 
 who dwelt among the Gentiles in the days which are past, whose name 
 was called Brutus. 
 
 3. And Robert, the Englishman, rejoiced to hear the sound of his praise, 
 even from the mouth of an humble follower, and he arose from the earth, 
 and gnashed his teeth, and grinned horribly, and shouted aloud. 
 
 4. Now, when William the Just and his companions saw how that one 
 possessed of the evil spirit, NULLIFICATION, prepared to speak to the mul 
 titude, and how that James, " the Deluded," and Robert, who was called 
 " the Nullifier" and all their followers made ready to hearken unto him, 
 
 5. They were greatly astonished, and they said unto one another, " Is 
 not this man the same Robert who is called the Englishman, and who 
 hath long hated, in his heart, Thomas, who is surnamed Jefferson, and all 
 his house ? 
 
 6. " And is not this he who reviled and spake despitef ully against our 
 rulers, and who sought to make us bend beneath the yoke of the King, 
 beyond the great waters, who had taken from us sailors, and who despoiled 
 us of our ships and our merchandise upon the great deep ? 
 
 7. "And is this not he who laughed to scorn our strength, and who 
 made a jest, and a bye-word, of the power which we sent forth against our 
 enemies, and who turned pale, at the glad tidings of the battle which 
 Andrew, the King, had gained over them on the great River ? 
 
 8. " And is he now a counsellor and a ruler over us, that we should 
 hearken unto him ? Shall we sit beneath the outpouring of his words ; 
 verily, can a man touch pitch and not be defiled ? " 
 
 9. So William, the Just, and all his followers, arose, with one accord 
 arid departed from the presence of Robert, and from the feast, and every 
 man went to his own home. 
 
 10. But Robert, the Englishman, shouted yet the more loudly, and the 
 shouts were echoed back by the walls of the great hall, and Robert be 
 lieved that the echoes were new shouts from the people and his heart 
 was made glad, for the sound was new to his ears. 
 
 11. Then opened he his mouth, and said, " Ye men of Charleston ! unto 
 you I render thanksgiving for the shoutings wherewith you have greeted 
 me, and I rejoice that ye have likened me to him of the Gentiles, who is 
 called Brutus. 
 
 12. " But think not, O friends, that I am mad now, for I say unto you, 
 my heart is changed within me, and I love Thomas, who is called Jeffer- 
 
586 BOOK OF NULLIFICA TION. 
 
 son, with the same love wherewith ye have loved him, and I am not a 
 stranger, but a native of the land wherein ye all dwell. 
 
 13. " And I am THE MIRROR wherein ye may see reflected the princi 
 ples of Thomas ; and I have placed them anew before the admiring eyes 
 of his disciples ; and I have illustrated their truth ; and, behold, I have 
 awaked from A NATURAL DELUSION/ like James, the son of James. 
 
 14. " But ye are not to believe that I am ashamed to be called the 
 Englishman ; for even as De Kalb is dear to the German, and as the 
 sons of the Shamrock give honor to him called Montgomery, even so 
 panteth my heart after the Island across the great waters. 
 
 15. "And now, men and brethren, care not ye for these things, but turn 
 your eyes to the desolation of the land, whereof ye have heard so much 
 this day, and behold, at once, ye may see the ruin, wherewith the ordi 
 nances of the King s council have overwhelmed you. 
 
 16. " Wherefore, tarry ye no longer, but arise, buckle on your armor, 
 and smite your oppressors ; be ye prepared for the worst, whether it be 
 
 DANGER, DEATH OR DISUNION. " 
 
 17. And when Robert had said the word " DISUNION " (which is NULLI 
 FICATION interpreted), his brain became dizzy, for he had thereby invoked 
 the evil spirit, and he was given over to the power of its enchantments. 
 
 18. And he turned around to the right hand, and to the left, and he 
 gnashed his teeth, and shouted aloud: "Tremble not, ye men of the 
 
 South ; TREMBLE NOT AT THE WORD DISUNION." 
 
 19. Then Robert was overcome by the power of the evil spirit, which 
 he had again invoked, and he fell backwards upon the earth, and NULLI 
 FICATION had dominion over him, and he was reserved as a burnt offering 
 for the day of CONVENTION ; and from that hour his name became changed, 
 and he was called "THE DISUNIONIST." 
 
 20. Now the people marveled greatly, when they heard praises to the 
 name of Thomas, surnamed Jefferson, from the lips of Robert, and how 
 that Robert had called himself " THE MIRROR " of him whom, in days past, 
 he had grievously reviled and persecuted. 
 
 21. But it was now made manifest that Robert, the "Disunionist," was but 
 a painted sepulchre, and that he sought to beguile the people with the name 
 of Thomas, and to persuade them that he was " a disciple " of the true faith. 
 
 22. Now, it came to pass, that when Henry, the chief priest of Mercury, 
 saw all that had been done, and how that the followers of James the Delu 
 ded, and of Robert, the Nullifier, tarried at the feast and were waxing 
 warm from the wine which was set before them, 
 
 23. He thought, in his heart, that the hour was surely come wherein 
 without much peril, he could stand forth as a great champion, and claim 
 to himseif the name of a bold and valiant warrior. 
 
 24. So Henry arose and cried aloud against the statute called the 
 Tariff, and against the counsellors who had ordained it, and against all 
 the rulers of the land. 
 
APPENDIX. 587 
 
 25. And he opened his mouth and said, "O men of the South!; of a 
 surety your degradation is abject ; and the words which ye have this 
 day heard from the mouth of James, and of Robert, are the words of 
 truth. 
 
 26. " Your enemies, the Yankees, have encompassed you round about, 
 and will destroy you ; wherefore, ye must straightway arise, and go forth 
 to meet them. 
 
 27. " And if you will hearken unto my voice, verily I say unto you, 
 
 UNFURL AT ONCE THE BANNER OF THE STATE." 
 
 28. And when Henry, the High Priest, had thus spoken, all his followers 
 shouted aloud, for they rejoiced greatly that he was now ready to buckle 
 on his armor, and that no man could again gainsay his valor. 
 
 29. Now w r hen all the rulers, and the elders, and the counsellors at the 
 feast, had declared the whole counsel which they had devised, it came to 
 pass that their disciples and followers, began to give loose to the feelings 
 within them. 
 
 30. And they made a great clamor ; for they were inflamed with the 
 wine which had been set before them, and with the words which they 
 had heard. 
 
 31. And some uttered curses against the men of the North, called 
 Yankees and some called them leeches, and threatened them with poi 
 son ; and many spake of chains, and of shackles, and of ruin, and of des 
 olation. 
 
 32. And one cried aloud, "DISUNION, OUR ONLY PRESERVATION;" and 
 another spake of " A REPUBLIC SOUTH OF THE POTOMAC," and a third called 
 for " action, action, action" 
 
 33. And they all shouted aloud and they continued eating and drink 
 ing until the eleventh hour of the night ; and as many as had strength to 
 do so, departed to their own homes. 
 
 34. But when the people heard of all that had come to pass, they were 
 greatly wroth against James the Deluded, and Robert the Nullifier, and 
 the other rulers and counsellors and they looked upon them as stumb 
 ling blocks in the path of those to whom they should have been as burn 
 ing lamps. 
 
 35. And they treasured all these things in their remembrance for a day 
 of reckoning, when they should all give an account of the deeds that 
 were done at the FEAST OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1. Now when the Feast of Nullification was ended, it came to pass 
 that the fragments of the graven image, called Nullification, which 
 James, the " Deluded" had sent away, were safely delivered into the 
 hands of John, the Conjuror. 
 
 2. And John, by his sorceries and enchantment, put them together 
 again, and he caused the graven image to be put into a mould of clay, and 
 
588 BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 he cast from the mould many likenesses thereof, and sent the likenesses 
 over all the land, but the graven image itself, he reserved to be set up in 
 a place called CONVENTION. 
 
 3. And one of the liknesses of the graven image was set up before the 
 men of Coosawhatchie, and another was seen upon a certain island, called 
 Edisto, and yet another was placed on high, in a certain village called 
 Stateburg. 
 
 4. And much people of the land of Coosawhatchie, and of the island, 
 called Edisto, and from the village, that is on the high hills, came up to 
 see the likenesses; and they heard tidings of their great power, and 
 they bowed down to them, and worshiped them. 
 
 5. Then John, the Conjuror, gave the graven image, which is called 
 NULLIFICATION, into the hands of George, the Prophet, and commanded 
 George to set it up for time in the land of Edgefield, and of Abbeville ; 
 and George the Prophet did even as he had commanded, and he uttered 
 loud praises to its name. 
 
 6. Now, when William the Just, and certain others of the righteous, 
 heard all these things, they sent messengers, with letters, to all their 
 followers, and they called upon the people to forsake the strange gods, 
 and they told them all the evil fruits which Nullification would bring forth. 
 
 7. And throughout all the land the people began to commune, one with 
 another, and they saw made manifest the error of their ways, and they 
 resolved with one accord to forsake the worship of Nullification. 
 
 8. Then John the Conjuror became sorely troubled, for he saw that the 
 hearts of the people were turned against him, and he was grievously 
 afraid lest his soceries and enchantments should all be made manifest. 
 
 9. So he called together unto him the powers of darkness, over whom he 
 had dominion, and he commanded them to move over the whole face of 
 the South, and to seek out the graven image NULLIFICATION, and all the 
 likenesses thereof. 
 
 10. And he commanded them to. gather them altogether, and to chain 
 them with a great chain around their necks, and to hide them from the 
 sight of the people until the hour wherein they should assemble in CON 
 VENTION. 
 
 11. So the evil spirits did even as John had commanded, and NULLIFI 
 CATION was no more seen upon the earth. 
 
 12. Then John the Conjuror sent messengers to James the Deluded, 
 and to his other followers, giving tidings of what he had done, and be 
 seeching them no longer to give praises to the name of NULLIFICATION, 
 but instead thereof to fill their ears with the sound of CONVENTION. 
 
 13. And he assured them that CONVENTION would seem beauteous to the 
 sight of the people, and that they would gladly hear tidings of the good 
 things which could be wrought at his hands. 
 
 14. Then James the Deluded, and Robert the Nullifier, and Henry the 
 High Priest, and Robert, who is also called the Disunionist, did even as 
 
APPENDIX. 589 
 
 John had entreated; and they sought to beguile the people with the 
 praises of CONVENTION. 
 
 15. But when the men of Charleston had shut themselves in their 
 closets, and had meditated upon all which had come to pass at the Feast 
 of Nullification, and when they had seen the other signs of the times, their 
 souls were disquieted. 
 
 16. And many of them began to be sorely troubled, and they rent their 
 garments, and they mourned in sackcloth and ashes the evil days which 
 were come upon them. 
 
 17- And they feared lest the rulers and the chief men of the city had 
 conspired together with James, who is called the Deluded, and with John 
 the Conjuror, and with Robert the Nullifier, against William the Just, 
 and all his people, to deliver them into the hands of Nullification. 
 
 18. And they said one to another, " Verily the shepherds have taken 
 counsel together, to lead the sheep to the slaughter ; but our trust is in 
 the Lord, and we will seek other shepherds who will turn away the wolves, 
 and, peradventure, we shall find them." 
 
 19. So they hearkened not unto the words of Eobert, and of James, and 
 of Henry, for they knew that these men purposed evil in their hearts ; 
 and it was made manifest that Convention was the tabernacle and the 
 abiding place of Nullification. 
 
 20. Now, when James the Deluded saw that many of the men of 
 Charleston would not hearken unto him, he began to wax wroth, and he 
 called together his followers ; and when he saw that these were many, he 
 hardened his heart and became puffed up. 
 
 21. And he commanded the people who had murmured against him 
 straightway to yield obedience, and to go up before Henry the High 
 Priest, and to accept his sacrifice, and to bow before him, as a ruler over 
 the city. 
 
 22. Then the hearts of the people became kindled, and they resolved to 
 do battle with James, who is called the Deluded, and with all his follow 
 ers, and to drive from before them Henry the High Priest and his evil 
 counsellors. 
 
 23. And they took counsel together to set up a captain who should lead 
 their array into battle, and they pitched upon James, whom men call the 
 Courteous. 
 
 24. Now James was a man who feared the Lord and walked in the path 
 of righteousness, and he found favor in the sight of Andrew the King 
 over the realm. 
 
 25. And Andrew the King appointed him to gather the revenues of the 
 kingdom ; and he dealt justly by Andrew and the people. 
 
 26. And the people also loved James the Courteous, for he was fearless 
 in well doing ; and when they entreated him to be captain of their host, 
 he meekly besought them to choose another captain more skillful to guide 
 their counsels. 
 
590 BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 27. But they entreated him yet more earnestly, and they showed unto 
 him the snares with which they were encompassed round about ; and 
 they called aloud upon James to stand forth as the shield and buckler of 
 the good cause. 
 
 28. And they made manifest unto him the perils which overshadowed 
 the realm, and he saw that of a surety the dominions ef Andrew the 
 King were about to be rent in twain, and that Disunion and Civil War 
 were not afar off. 
 
 29. So James, whom men call the Courteous, arose, and he buckled on 
 his armor and stood forth as captain of the host, and he led up to do bat 
 tle with the idolaters. 
 
 30. And he displayed on high the " Banner of the Nation," " with its 
 Stripes and its Stars," and upon the banner was a superscription, em 
 broidered in characters of gold, " State Rights and the Union" 
 
 31. And all the people who believed in the true faith, and who loved 
 Andrew the King, and who eschewed Nullification and the evil doers, 
 gathered together and marched beneath the banner. 
 
 32. Now when James, who is called the Deluded, and Robert the Nulli- 
 fier saw that the followers of the true faith had set up a captain for them 
 selves, and had stood forth to do battle with all the worshipers of strange 
 gods, 
 
 33. They bethought them that Henry the High Prest had dominion over 
 the minds of the people by reason of " his Grandfather" and by reason of 
 the daily sacrifice which he offered up unto " Mercury" the god of the evil 
 speakers, and which the people received at his hands. 
 
 34. So they made Henry the High Priest the captain of their host, and 
 appointed him to do battle with James, the captain of the host of " Union." 
 
 35. And they uplifted their banner, and behold the device thereof was a 
 tiger, tearing the limbs of a youth asunder from his body, and a vulture 
 was stooping to divide the prey, and beneath the whole was an inscription, 
 stained with blood which seemed to flow from the body of the youth. 
 
 36. And they who stood beneath the banner could not read the inscrip 
 tion, but to those a little removed it displayed in characters of English the 
 words " Disunion and Civil War." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1. Now, when the banners of the hosts were uplifted, it came to pass 
 that the trumpets sounded, and the men of Charleston put themselves in 
 array against each other beneath the captains whom they had chosen. 
 
 2. And the host which bore aloft the banner of " THE UNION " was led by 
 James, who is called the Courteous, and Henry the High Priest was captain 
 of the host of " DISUNION." 
 
 3. And when they drew near to each other, Henry the High Preist 
 offered up his daily sacrifice to the strange god called MERCURY, and he 
 distributed the sheets of paper amongst all the multitude. 
 
APPENDIX. 591 
 
 4. And upon the sheets were written revilings and slanders against the 
 rulers of the realm, and against James the Courteous, and scoffings and 
 bitter sneers at all the host which followed the banner of " THE UNION." 
 
 5. And the followers of Henry read the writings, and they found favor 
 in their sight, and they shouted for joy. 
 
 6. But when the host of " THE UNION " came near unto their adversaries, 
 James, the captain of the host, commanded them to pause, and he opened 
 his mouth and spake unto his followers, and said : 
 
 7. " Men and brethren ! behold the idolaters and evil workers have set up 
 a captain to lead them up to battle with you, and to slay all who are faithful 
 to Andrew the King, and who strive for the peace and unity of the realm. 
 
 8. "And lo ! they have uplifted a banner, w r hich is terrible to the sight, 
 and they trust to smite your hearts with fear ; behold, they liken you and 
 the people of the whole realm to the youth from whose body they will 
 tear the limbs. 
 
 9. " And they are the ferocious beast, even the tiger, which shall deliver 
 you as a prey to the vulture ; and verily the inscription is just, for of a 
 surety their banner leadeth to DISUNION AND CIVIL WAR. 
 
 10. " Yet fear not, O men of Charleston ! but put your trust in the Lord, 
 and he will deliver your enemies into your hands that ye may smite and 
 utterly destroy them. 
 
 11. "But be ye not over zealous, for behold the multitude which Henry 
 the High Priest hath gathered together are your countrymen, and, perad- 
 venture, many just men amongst them have been beguiled by the snares 
 of James, who is called the Deluded, and the great Nullifier. 
 
 12. "Wherefore, before ye smite them, let us send unto them messen 
 gers, who shall bear with them the olive branch of peace, and it may come 
 to pass that we shall yet live together in unity and concord." 
 
 13. Then all the host of James the Courteous hearkened unto his voice, 
 and they kneeled before Heaven, and they earnestly prayed that strifes 
 should cease between brethren, and they besought a blessing on the 
 righteous cause ; and they arose, and their hearts were strengthened. 
 
 14. And James, who is called the Courteous, did even as he had said, and 
 he sent up messengers unto the host of Henry the High Priest ; and when 
 the messengers were brought before Henry, and before all the leaders and 
 captains of his host, they opened their mouths and said : 
 
 15. " men of Charleston ! ye are our brethren ; verily, we have eaten 
 and drunk together in the days past, and we have loved one another ; 
 wherefore, let us not spill each other s blood in the strife of battle, but 
 rather let us mingle together in peace. 
 
 16. " Behold, we may yet appease the enmity between us. Let us put 
 off armor, and let us gather together all the elders, and counsellors, and 
 wise men, and people of the city, and let them take counsel together, and 
 let them declare which is the more worthy to rule over us, thy captain or 
 our captain. 
 
592 BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 17. " And if the greater number of the elders, and of the counsellors, and 
 of the wise men, and of all the people, shall say that Henry the High 
 Priest is more worthy than James, then let Henry be made the ruler over 
 us, and we will bow before him. 
 
 18. " But if the greater number shall declare in favor of James, our 
 captain, then shall ye overturn your banner and forsake your strange 
 gods and render obedience unto James and to the statutes of the realm." 
 
 19. And when the messengers had thus spoken, it came to pass that 
 Henry the High Priest, and the leaders, and captains, and officers of his 
 host, took counsel together to devise what answer they should make unto 
 the messengers of the host of " THE UNION:" 
 
 20. And James, who is called the Deluded, looked forth upon the multi 
 tude which was gathered beneath the banner of " DISUNION," and when 
 he saw their numbers his heart was filled with pride, and he said unto 
 the captains and leaders who stood around him : 
 
 21. "Behold ! our enemies have delivered themselves into our hands ; see 
 ye not that our host greatly exceedest in number the host which hath come 
 up against us lo ! their array is scattered and their battalions are but few. 
 
 22. " Wherefore let us straightway render answer unto the messengers 
 of James, our adversary, and say that their words are acceptable to our 
 ears, and have found favor, and that we have agreed to that which they 
 have set forth." 
 
 23. So Henry, the captain of the host of Disunion, did even as James, 
 the Deluded, had counselled, and the messengers returned to James, the 
 Courteous, who had sent them ; and all the multitude of the one host 
 and of the other, put off their armor and made themselves ready for 
 the day of gathering. 
 
 24. And in the ninth month of the second year of the reign of Andrew, 
 the King, and on the sixth day of the month, the elders and the counsel" 
 lors and the wise men and all the people of the city, were commanded 
 to gather together to judge between Henry and James, even as it had 
 been agreed between them. 
 
 25. And the day whereon they were commanded to assemble, is called 
 the day of election. 
 
 26. Now, when the day of election was near at hand, James, who is 
 called the Deluded, sent forth spies over all the city privily to hear all 
 that w r as said amongst the people, and to bring to them tidings of all 
 those in whose sight Henry, the High Priest, had found favor. 
 
 27. And when the spies had brought their tidings, the chief leaders -in 
 the host of Henry, the High Priest, sent forth men with shekels of gold 
 and shekels of silver, to wager the same, that Henry would be made 
 ruler over the city. 
 
 28. And a certain man of small stature put forth five thousand shekles 
 of silver ; and many weak: men were led over to become followers of the 
 host which was made to seem the stronger. 
 
APPENDIX. 593 
 
 29. And they also caused the young and the unthinking to be gathered 
 together at the feast throughout the city, and when they became heated 
 with drinking, they kindled their hearts against James, the Courteous, 
 
 30. Now Henry, the High Priest, was himself not slack in his own be 
 half for day by day he offered unto the people hundreds and thousands 
 of the sheets which had been sacrificed at his altar ; and the sheets were 
 filled w r ith praises to himself, and with slanders against James the 
 Courteous. 
 
 31. And James was reviled as a Publican and a Sinner, and his follow 
 ers were called Tories and Yankees, and they were said to be in league 
 with the enemies of the South. 
 
 32. And John, the Conjuror, sent to the aid of Henry, the High Priest, 
 a certain devil called Asmodeus, who went about the city taking off the 
 coverings of the dwellings, and exposing the inmates thereof. 
 
 33. But when Asmodeus saw that James, who is called the Deluded, 
 was the chief counsellor of Henry, the High Priest, he returned unto 
 John, the Conjuror, saying that Henry, the High Priest, had no occasion 
 for him. 
 
 34. And it came to pass that the followers of James, surnamed the 
 Courteous, began to be sorely troubled when they saw all that James, the 
 .Deluded, had done, and when they heard the boastings and the clamor of 
 their adversaries. 
 
 35. So they assembled together at a place called Seyle s, and they 
 pitched upon certain men who should guide their counsels, and called 
 aloud upon their countrymen to stand forth on the day of election as the 
 shield and buckler of union and peace. 
 
 36. And when they had taken counsel together and had seen the mul 
 titude of just men who had assembled with them, their hearts were 
 strengthened, and they went forth confiding in the might of the Lord. 
 
 37. Now when the day of election was come it came to pass that the 
 elders, and the counsellors, and the wise men, and all the people of the 
 city, were gathered together, and it was commanded that each man 
 should put into certain boxes of wood the name of him who desired to 
 rule over the city. 
 
 38. And certain of the elders had charge of the boxes, and were com 
 manded to open them, and to number the names which were placed 
 within ; and they all did even as they were commanded. 
 
 39. Now James, the Deluded, trusted in the spies whom he had sent 
 forth, and in all the arts which he had used, and he boasted aloud that 
 victory certainly belonged to Henry the High Priest. 
 
 40. And he commanded the great feast to be prepared and made ready 
 the cornets, the flutes, the harps, the sackbuts, the psalteries, and all 
 kinds of music. 
 
 41. And when all the names which were in the boxes should be counted 
 he commanded that a note of triumph should be sounded, and that all 
 
 38 
 
594 BOOK OF NULLIFICA TION. 
 
 \ 
 
 his followers should march to the sound of the music to the dwelling of 
 Henry, the High Priest, to partake of the feast. 
 
 42. Now so great was the multitude of names which had been put in 
 the boxes of wood, that it was the twelfth hour of the night before the 
 whole were numbered; and when the elders had finished, behold the 
 numbers of James, the Courteous, was greater than those of Henry, the 
 High Priest, 
 
 43. So the elders declared that James, whom the men called the Cour- 
 te-ous l was chosen ruler of the city ; and the people of the host of the 
 Union gave thanksgiving to the Lord and returned every man to his own 
 home. 
 
 44. But when James, the Deluded, heard what had come to pass, he 
 went out and lifted up his voice and AVEPT ALOUD. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1. Now on the morrow, after the day of election, it came to pass, that 
 the elders conducted James, who is called the Courteous, to the great hall 
 of the city, and they arrayed him in the robes of office, and all the people 
 shouted for the good cause of "State llights and Union." 
 
 2. But when James, surnamed the Deluded, and Robert, the Nullifier, 
 and Henry, the High Priest, opened their eyes upon the discomfiture 
 which they had received, they shed tears of bitterness, and they rent 
 their garments. 
 
 3. And they swore vengeance against James the Courteous, and against 
 all who had followed his banner, and they refused to overturn their own 
 banner, or to fulfil the treaty which had been made between the hosts of 
 "Union" and of "Disunion." 
 
 4. Then they took secret counsel together how they should overcome 
 the followers of "State Eights and the Union "; and they remembered the 
 words of John the Conjuror, wherein he besought them to sound praises 
 in the name of Convention. 
 
 5. So they strove, with one accord, to beguile the people to put their 
 trust in Convention, so that they might be enabled to bring forth Nullifi 
 cation again, to slay, utterly, all those who had set their faces against 
 them. 
 
 6. And they wrestled earnestly to enkindle the hearts of all their fol 
 lowers against the men of " the Union " ; and they sent forth multitudes 
 into the streets of the city in the night time to strike terror into the 
 breasts of the peaceful. 
 
 7. And they went forth into the highways uttering threats and revil- 
 ings against all their adversaries; but the men of "the Union" pitied 
 them and held their peace. 
 
 8. Then the heart of James sunk within him, and he feared lest the 
 people should* refuse to make him chief governor over the province, and 
 he began to see the error of his ways, but he repented not. 
 
APPENDIX. 595 
 
 9. For he was filled with pride, and when he looked upon his followers, 
 and saw they were yet many, he hardened his heart and resolved again 
 to lift up the banner on which is written the inscription, "Disunion and 
 Civil War." 
 
 10. And he commanded to be made ready a great supper, and he sent 
 forth messengers to call thereunto Henry the High Priest, and Robert 
 the Nullifier, and to "rally " all the multitude which had gathered be 
 neath the banner of Disunion. 
 
 31. And there was a certain man named KEATING, who dwelt in the 
 city, and he was a just man and walked uprightly. 
 
 12. And Keating was old and stricken in years, and his eyes were dim, 
 so that he could not see with clearness ; and he mistook his path and 
 went with the followers of James, the Deluded, to the great supper. 
 
 13. And when James the Deluded, and Robert the Nullifier, and Henry 
 the High Priest, and Keating, and all the multitude were gathered together, 
 they set themselves down, and as many as could find meat did eat thereof. 
 
 14. Then James, who is called the Deluded, arose and said: "Verily, O, 
 friends, we will yield to no party whatsoever ; in the love which we bear 
 towards the ordinances and the union of the realm. 
 
 15. "And we pity the delusion which hath blinded the eyes of our 
 enemies, to call Robert the Nullifier, and Robert the Disunionist, and 
 ourselves, other than true disciples of Thomas, surnamed Jefferson. 
 
 16. " And, verily, we mourn that the efforts of our adversaries have 
 opened the eyes of men, and have brought down upon us an awful dis 
 comfiture at the hands of miraculous converts. 
 
 17. " Moreover, we mourn that it hath been discovered that we cannot 
 well be called the friend of Andrew the King, since we oppose the sta 
 tutes which he hath sworn to maintain ; and that these our adversaries 
 are, truly, the friends of Andrew. 
 
 18. "And, verily, we fear lest the glory hath departed from our house, 
 and lest all the truths which have come to light, will despoil us, your 
 rulers, of our power : Wherefore, let us now turn to the inhabitants of 
 the hill country, and to all without the city, and let us kindle their rage 
 against our adversaries. 
 
 19. "And we will send unto the Parishes and to the interior, and 
 gently give them tidings of our overthrow, and we will ascribe our dis 
 comfiture to any cause but the true one. 
 
 20. " And the men of the interior will stand by us, and they will 
 make me Governor of the realm, and I will then revenge you on your 
 enemies." 
 
 21. Then some of the multitude shouted, and gave assent to that which 
 had been spoken ; and James wrote the letters, and sent them even as he 
 proposed. 
 
 22. But when he sat down at the supper, and looked around, carefully, 
 and saw that many who were present were boys and beardless youths, 
 
596 . BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 and when he perceived the faces of many of his ancient friends, his spirit 
 sank within him, and ho became sorrowful. 
 
 23. And his followers feared that their hour had come, and they took 
 no pleasure in the supper ; so they returned to their homes, disconsolate 
 and unhappy. 
 
 24. And the supper was named the Supper of Disappointment. 
 
 25. Now in those days there came tidings that there was a famine in an 
 island beyond the great waters, called Ireland. 
 
 26. And many of the men of Ireland dwelt in the city, and the people 
 had respect unto them, and for their sakes desired to send succor to 
 their countrymen, and the rulers of the city commanded to be assembled 
 the elders, and the wise men, and all the people, to take counsel to 
 gether. 
 
 27. And when James, who is called the Deluded, heard all these things, 
 he shook off his sorrows, and bethought him that the hour was come- 
 wherein he might surely draw to his banner all the men of Ireland who 
 dwelt in the city. 
 
 28. So he sent for Henry the High Priest, and certain others of his fol 
 lowers, and entreated them speedily to come up and make a stir in be 
 half of the land of Ireland, before the rulers, and the elders, and the 
 wise men, could gather the people together. 
 
 29. And Henry and his followers did even as James the Deluded had 
 entreated, but the men of Ireland saw into the hearts of Henry and of 
 James, and they knew that they sought to beguile them, and they turned 
 aside and were greatly wroth. 
 
 30. But James the Deluded was nothing abashed ; so he stood forth 
 again at the assembly of the rulers, and the elders, and the wise men, 
 and the people of the city. 
 
 31. And he strove to seem learned, and he spoke unto the men of Ire 
 land, of the length and breadth of their country, and of the fertileness 
 of the soil, and of many other things which are written in the book 
 which is called Bees Cyclopaedia. 
 
 32. And he gave praises to the men of Ireland, and said he was their 
 kinsman, and he spoke of his Grandmother, and how that she had come 
 from the same land with themselves, but the praises of James the De 
 luded were to the men of Ireland as burning sulphur beneath their 
 nostrils. 
 
 33. And it came to pass that Robert, whose name is called the Disunion- 
 ist, was in the midst of the assembly, and he bethought him that it would 
 be well to speak to all the people the praises which John the Conjuror had 
 sounded to Convention. 
 
 34. So he uplifted his voice ; and when he had spoken the word, and 
 the people saw that he was the Disunionist, they refused to hearken unto 
 him and they thurst him under their feet, and with one accord they de 
 parted, every man to his own home. 
 
APPENDIX. 597 
 
 35. And about the same time there also came tidings of a great revolu 
 tion in the kingdom called France ; and the men of France who dwelt in 
 the city assembled together to make rejoicings. 
 
 36. And James, the Deluded,was also in the midst of them seeking to draw 
 followers after him ; and he said unto the men of France that he was their 
 kinsman, for he had another "Grandmother" who had come of their nation. 
 
 37. But the men of France were wise, and they saw through the arts of 
 James, the Deluded, and they passed him by in silence, and they joined 
 themselves to the host of "State Rights and the Union" 
 
 38. So James, who is called the Deluded, was discomforted on every 
 side and his soul was disheartened, and he now saw the error of his ways, 
 but he would not yet repent. 
 
 39. Now when the letters which had been sent forth by James the De 
 luded, at the "Supper of Disappointment," had reached Columbia, it 
 came to pass that all his friends who dwelt in that city were greatly 
 enraged against the men of Charleston. 
 
 40. And they called the men of Charleston " Kecreants and Yankees, 
 and Men of Clay," and they gathered together all the followers of John 
 the Conjuror, and of James the Deluded, and of Robert the Nullifier, at 
 the city called Columbia. 
 
 41. And they took counsel together what they should do, to save James 
 the Deluded and Robert the Nullifier, and their followers, who dwelt in 
 Charleston, from utter discomfiture. 
 
 42. And they sounded forth praises to Convention, even as John the 
 Conjuror had counselled, and they set it up as a " Sovereign Remedy" for 
 all the evils under which they said the people groaned. 
 
 43. And they cried aloud against the tariff and against the other 
 statutes of the realm, and they " put off their allegiance " to Andrew the 
 King, and they denounced the men of Charleston and all the adversaries 
 of Convention. 
 
 44. And they summoned up a great army from all the country round 
 about, and a great multitude came up, even two thousand men. 
 
 45. And in the midst of the friends of James the Deluded, and of John 
 the Conjuror, and of Robert the Nullifier, stood a certain man named 
 Thomas ; and he was the wise man to whose care was entrusted the youth 
 of the realm, and he was at the head of what is called "The College" 
 
 46. Now Thomas, from his youth upwards, had been a lover of discord 
 and a fomenter of strife, and his heart took delight in scoffings and 
 slanders, and some called him "Tliersites." 
 
 47. And dissensions and controversies were his study by day and revi- 
 lings and back-biting were his meditation by night ; and he smiled at the 
 ruin which evil passions brought down. 
 
 48. And he openly set at naught the statutes of the realm, and he taught 
 that what men call "The Union" was but an "unequal bargain" to the peo 
 ple of the South, and that the hour was come "to calculate its value" 
 
598 BOOK OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 49. And he poisoned the minds of the youth throughout all the realm, 
 and he insinuated doubts even as to the commandments of the Most 
 High, and he instilled into their hearts hatred and rancour towards "the 
 Union of the States." 
 
 50. Now the same Thomas sounded praises to Convention, and he 
 counselled the people to rejoice in it ; for that it was powerful to save 
 them from the evils whereof James, the Deluded, and Robert, the Nulli- 
 fier, and Langdon and all their followers had complained. 
 
 51. And he said by the might of a Convention they could suspend the 
 ordinance which is called habeas corpus, and then they should have power 
 over all the men of the Union to cast them in prison and to slay them 
 utterly. 
 
 52. And Thomas said many other things to beguile the people to their 
 own destruction, and many good men believed that he proved himself a 
 viper to the land which warmed him. 
 
 53. But the multitude hearkened to his voice, for he was held up as 
 "an apostle" by James, the Deluded, and by John, the Conjuror, and by 
 all their counsellors and friends. 
 
 54. Then a certain ruler called James, who was a Chancellor of the 
 realm, and a leader in the host of James the Deluded, arose, and being a 
 careless man, he forgot the counsel of John the Conjuror, wherein he 
 entreated that none of his followers should yet say aught of Nullification. 
 
 55. And he opened his mouth, and gave honor to the name of Conven 
 tion, and he spake these words and said, "Convention for any purpose but 
 Nullification is unmeaning fallacy" 
 
 56. So it was made manifest to all the people that James the Deluded, 
 and Henry the High Priest, and Eobert the Nullifier, and all their fol 
 lowers, still worshiped in secret the graven image Nullification, and that 
 for its sake they set their hearts on Convention. 
 
 57. Then a certain elder and Judge of the Province, w r hose name was 
 called John, and who was a follower of the truth, arose before all the 
 multitude and said : 
 
 58. " Men and Brethren ! verily, ye have this day heard praises to the 
 name of Convention, but since James the Chancellor hath set forth its 
 object, ye cannot remain in doubt what ye shall do. 
 
 59. " Behold ! if ye be persuaded to Convention, now, ye will bring down 
 civil strife and disunion, for how can ye set at naught the statutes which 
 Andrew the King hath sworn to maintain, and yet expect to escape his 
 vengeance? 
 
 60. " Is Andrew the King one who quails at danger, or think ye that he 
 will shrink from that which he hath sworn to execute? Verily, no. 
 
 61. "Wherefore, Men and Brethren! be not deceived; ye are on the 
 verge of a precipice your ark of safety is in peril, ye are rushing on to 
 civil strife with brethren, and if ye turn out, ye will quench the flame of 
 freedom in the blood of your countrymen. 
 
APPENDIX. 699 
 
 62. "Awake, then, and open your eyes to the light ; behold you may see 
 before you the dark valley of Disunion and Anarchy ; on this side you 
 have time for argument ; beyond all must be action or dishonorable 
 submission. 
 
 63. " Now, therefore, I say unto you, depart hence and give no counte 
 nance to the evil doers, and strive not by your numbers to intimidate the 
 men of Charleston ; for they are strong in the faith, arid will eschew 
 Convention, for they have seen it leadeth to Nullification and Disunion" 
 
 64. And while John was yet speaking, the multitude departed as he had 
 counselled ; but the devoted followers of James remained in waiting to 
 give encouragement to their leaders. 
 
 65. And in that same day Convention became Nullified, and all the wor 
 shipers of Nullification mourned in sackcloth and ashes. 
 
 66. Now these are the chapters of the BOOK OF NULLIFICATION ; and the 
 scribe who hath written them is an humble follower of the TRUTH, and 
 his name is not great, for it is not found in the book, and he shall be 
 translated hence to a far country, and no man who loveth the truth shall 
 seek to find him out. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adger, Robert 384 
 
 Abrahams, M 99 
 
 Abney 210 
 
 Adger, James 38, 46 
 
 Adams, John Q 34 
 
 Adams, Governor 235 
 
 Anderson, J. W 319 
 
 Alston, Governor 231 
 
 Arthur, Henry 225 
 
 Arnold, A. B 119 
 
 Allen, T 319 
 
 Alex, Master J.E 13 
 
 Barn well, R. W 209, 289, 301 
 
 Bailey, Attorney-General 135 
 
 Baker, Boiling 320 
 
 Ball, J. C 320 
 
 Baker, Alfred 307 
 
 Bell, William 95 
 
 Bennett, Thomas, Gov 15, 18, 28, 37, 95 
 
 Benjamin, J. P 32 
 
 Bank of South Carolina 131,158,232 
 
 Bartow, F. S 302 
 
 Belin, A. H 119 
 
 Bee, W. C 384 
 
 Bellinger, John 227 
 
 Bennett, W. J 110, 111, 114 
 
 Boyce, W. W 301 
 
 Boyce, Ker 119 
 
 Bocock, Thomas S 359 
 
 Brown, John 238 
 
 Blain, W. S 102 
 
 Brooks, W 302 
 
 Billups, J 114 
 
 Brisbane, John W 101 
 
 Brewster, C. R 103 
 
 Barrillon, J. N 93 
 
 Bryan, George S 30, 103 
 
 Bryan, Mayor 401 
 
 Blue Ridge Railroad 38, 183, 229, 515 
 
 Brown, Archibald 99 
 
 Blair, General 80 
 
 Burt, A 135 
 
 Bible Oration 532 
 
 Butler, Governor 121 
 
 Butler, Judge 156 
 
 TAGE. 
 
 Brush, G 105 
 
 Bank United States . 119 
 
 Buist, George 103 
 
 Buist, Henry 404 
 
 Buist, G. L. 404 
 
 Bar, Proceedings of 404 
 
 Barker, Theodore 404 
 
 Bacot, J. M 404 
 
 Calhoun, John C 36 
 
 Capers, William 222 
 
 Capers, L. G 38 
 
 Carlisle, Earl of 156 
 
 Carroll, Charles 38,45 
 
 Carroll, B 99 
 
 Campbell, James H 203 
 
 Cassin, C 102 
 
 California, Admitted 193 
 
 Cantwell, P 104 
 
 Chilton, W. P 302 
 
 Cheves, Langdon 34, 226, 229, 404 
 
 Chapman, S 101 
 
 Chestnut, James 289, 301, 302 
 
 Clitherall, A. B 320 
 
 Classmates 22 
 
 Clay, Henry 284, 34, 193, 230 
 
 Clayton, A. M 302 
 
 Clayton, Philip 319, 325 
 
 College Days 21 
 
 Cobb, Howell 302,308 
 
 Cobb, Thomas R. R 302 
 
 Constitution,C. S. A 303 
 
 Commissioner to Virginia. ...... 242 
 
 Cohen, P. S 103 
 
 Cohen, A. D 404 
 
 Convention, Secession 226 
 
 Cooper, Mark A 26 
 
 Clark, William 101 
 
 Course, Isaac 98 
 
 Condy, T. D 98 
 
 Coffin, J. S 102 
 
 Colburn, J. S 99 
 
 Co-operation, Address 204 
 
 Conrad, CM 302 
 
 Congress, Provisional, C. S. A 301 
 
 Crawford, J. A 319 
 
602 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cross, G. W 38, 45, 96 
 
 Cruger, Lewis 319 
 
 Crutchfield, O. M 246 
 
 Dawson, N. H. R 112 
 
 Davis, Jefferson . . . 193, 306, 309, 361, 364, 368 
 
 Davie, F. W 119, 126 
 
 Deas, Captain 312 
 
 Delegates to Secession Convention. . . . 287 
 
 De La Motta, Dr 100 
 
 Declaration, Cause Secession 295 
 
 Desassure, H. W 35, 87 
 
 Deaf and Dumb Asylum 104 
 
 Dickson, Samuel H., Dr 37, 38, 46 
 
 Drayton, William 35, 45, 94 
 
 Doggett, Samuel W 102 
 
 Dred Scott 227 
 
 Duncan, P. E 289 
 
 Dunkin, B. F ; . 156, 289 
 
 Duryea, E. S 38, 102 
 
 Earthquake 392 
 
 Elmore, Edward C 320 
 
 Elmore, F. H 160 
 
 Elmore, B. T 119 
 
 Elfe, A 38 
 
 Edmonson, Ch 119 
 
 Edwards, J. D 119 
 
 Essays and Orations 491 
 
 Erlanger Baron 357 
 
 Edwards, George 96 
 
 Evans, Judge 156 
 
 Evans, Cogswell & Co 317 
 
 Exell, J. F, 320 
 
 Etiwan Phosphate Company 384 
 
 Faber, H. F 
 
 Faber, J. W 
 
 Fire Loan . . . 
 
 Financial system C. S. A. 
 
 . . . 105 
 
 .... 105 
 
 .... 128 
 
 .... 340 
 
 Financial depression 1857 235 
 
 Follin, A 38 
 
 Free Soil Party 234 
 
 Freedmen s Bureau 372 
 
 Flat Rock, N. C 371 
 
 Frost, Edward 225 
 
 Gaillard, Theodore 38, 100 
 
 Gist, Governor 238, 280, 285 
 
 Gilchrist, R. B 37 
 
 Giles, William B 34 
 
 Govan, M. F 320 
 
 Godard, Rene 38, 46, 95 
 
 Groves, Rev. John S 23 
 
 Grimke, M Ill 
 
 Grimke, T. S 46, 96 
 
 Greeley, H 31* 
 
 FAGE. 
 
 Green, T. T 320 
 
 Gregg, Maxey 226, 289 
 
 Guerry, R 103 
 
 Harlee, W. W 225 
 
 Hayne, R. Y 34 
 
 Hampton, Wade 209 
 
 Hammond, 38 
 
 Harlston, N 97, 98 
 
 Haig, J 101 
 
 Harper, Chancellor 156 
 
 Hamilton, James 43 
 
 Hanckle, T. M 13 
 
 Holiday, J 104 
 
 Horlbeck, D 104 
 
 Hoar, Samuel 188 
 
 Hoyer & Ludwig 317, 376 
 
 Hughes, E. W 404 
 
 Huger, Daniel E 38, 41, 63, 91 
 
 Hunter, R. M. T 193 
 
 Hunt, B. F 35,67,96,136 
 
 Hunt, Randall 38, 101 
 
 Hutson, W. H 289 
 
 Inglis, John A 289 
 
 Isley, F 98 
 
 Irby, J. H 119, 159 
 
 Irving, Miss Agnes 13 
 
 Inauguration President Davis 308 
 
 Jackson, Andrew 45, 48 
 
 Jamison, D. F 289 
 
 Jamison, V. D. V 119 
 
 Jervey, Wm 382 
 
 Jervey, Thos. H 98 
 
 Jervey, James 32 
 
 Jervey, W. St. J 404 
 
 Jenkins, J. E 289 
 
 Jeter, John S 119 
 
 Jewish Synagogue 175 
 
 Johnson, Andrew 373, 380 
 
 Johnston, General J. E 305, 348 
 
 Johnson, Judge 98 
 
 Johnston, Chancellor 156 
 
 Jones, T. L 104 
 
 Jones, Ch. T. . 319, 325 
 
 Kane, D 38, 46, 98 
 
 Keitt, L. M 209, 301, 309 
 
 King, M 96 
 
 Kennerworth, H 319 
 
 Kemnit, J 103 
 
 Kneply, S 104 
 
 Kumhardt, William 38 
 
 Lamar, G B 316 
 
 Laborde, M 119 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Lance, William 98 
 
 Ladson, J. H 98 
 
 Laneau, B 93 
 
 Lee, General R. E 371, 377 
 
 Lee, Paul S 79 
 
 Lee, Thomas 46, 67, 95 
 
 Leigh Benjtimin W 108 
 
 Law Student. 29 
 
 Letcher, John 244,279 
 
 Legare, John B 38 
 
 Legare, HnghS 51,3^,135 
 
 Legare. Sol. M 38 
 
 Legislature, 18:56 117 
 
 Lee, GeorsteW 313 
 
 Le Signeur, l>r 96 
 
 Livingston. R. Y 101 
 
 Loundes, Chnrles 38 
 
 Lpundes, James." 96 
 
 Lotindes, Thomas 95 
 
 Loundes, William 49 
 
 Lowndes, Edward 10?, 
 
 Manning, R. J 38, 85 
 
 Marshall. Henry 302 
 
 Marsh, James 38, 95 
 
 Magwood, S 27, 96 
 
 Martin, W. E 207 
 
 Manly, Rev. B 307, 308 
 
 Magrath, A. G .112,113,407 
 
 Melton, Samuel 138 
 
 McGuffey, Professor 157 
 
 McDonald, H 103 
 
 McDuffie, Governor 518 
 
 McDonald, A 100 
 
 McCrady, Edward 29, 38, 229, 409 
 
 McCrady, Edward, Jr 404, 409 
 
 Mills, Otis 119 
 
 Miles, W. P 301 
 
 Miles, Charles R 400 
 
 Mitchell 48 
 
 Middleton, Henry 91 
 
 Moultrie, Thomas D 99 
 
 Moorman 210 
 
 Morton, Jackson 302 
 
 Motte, A 105 
 
 Michel, Dr. W. M 402 
 
 Mordecai, Thomas D 99 
 
 Morris, Edward 101 
 
 Montague, R. L 246 
 
 Moise, A 38,77 
 
 Murden 102 
 
 Newton, William 38, 104 
 
 Nullification Convention 108 
 
 Nullification, Book of 569 
 
 Naturalization Proceedings . . . 32 
 
 PACK. 
 
 Ott, John 319, 337 
 
 Ottolengue, A 177 
 
 Orphan Asylum 12 
 
 Orr, James L 289 
 
 O Neal, Judge 35,92 
 
 Owens, J. B 302 
 
 Perry, Ben F 119,210,226 
 
 Patterson, L. J 119 
 
 Patton, William 38 
 
 Petigru, James L 35,60,95,119,186 
 
 Pepoon, B. F 100 
 
 Pemberton, G. O 104 
 
 Pell rs. Ball case 179 
 
 Powell, John 810 
 
 Porcher, F. A 119 
 
 Poyas, J. L 104 
 
 Porter, Rev. T 397 
 
 Porcher, Dr. F. Y 38, 48, 98 
 
 Pope, Joseph D 156, 183, 303 
 
 Powe, Thomas E 119 
 
 Porcher, Philip 38 
 
 Philips, John 76 
 
 Pickens, Governor F. W 225 
 
 Pinckney, C. C., Jr 384 
 
 Pinckney, C. C 42 
 
 Pinckney, Thomas 42 
 
 Pinckney, H. L 34, 107 
 
 Pringle, James R 39, 95, 107 
 
 Pringle, Robert 38, 105 
 
 Pringle, W, B 100 
 
 Prioleau, Dr. P. G 95 
 
 Poinsett, Joel R 35, 106 
 
 Printup, Daniel 307 
 
 Presley, Ben C 411 
 
 Pratt, Dr. N. A 384 
 
 Provisional Congress, C. S. A 301 
 
 Ravenell, Henry 38 
 
 Radford, J. P 103 
 
 Randolph. E. . 319 
 
 Read, Dr. William 39 
 
 Reed, J. H 37,38,46,76 
 
 Regulations Treasury Department. ... 331 
 
 Returns to Private Life 380 
 
 Rhett, R. B 126. 228, 289, 301 
 
 Richmond made Capital C. S. A 330 
 
 Roberts, Preston H 307 
 
 Roland, F. G 102 
 
 Rouse, J. W 102 
 
 Robertson, J. W 320 
 
 Robinson, William 100 
 
 Rooney, Paul 102 
 
 Rutledge, Ben. H 289 
 
 Rutledge, J. H 38,100 
 
 Reports, Secretary Treasury 418 
 
604 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Sass,* Jacob 38, 95 
 
 Seward, William H 315 
 
 Secession of South Carolina 281 
 
 Secretary, Treasury 301 
 
 Scott, Died 237 
 
 Simonton, C. H 399 
 
 Simons, James 320, 407 
 
 Shorter, John G 302 
 
 Schools, Public 110, 114 
 
 Simms, W. G 70, 98 
 
 Symmes, F. W 119 
 
 Scott, R. K 381 
 
 Stephens, Alexander H 302,306 
 
 Steadman, C. J 37, 98 
 
 Starr, E. P 38, 46 
 
 Speer, Alexander 89 
 
 Strohecker, J. L 38, 46, 101 
 
 Stevens, J. P 319 
 
 Slidell, John 359 
 
 Seabrook, E. M 37 
 
 Smith, J. H 38, 100 
 
 Soule, P 193 
 
 Strobart, J. A. 1 119, 
 
 Stoney, John 38, 46 
 
 Seabrook, Governor 194 
 
 Taylor, Thomas 320 
 
 Taylor, Thomas II 27 
 
 Taylor, W. H. S 320 
 
 Tew, H. S 103 
 
 Thorp, J B 10. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Thomas, F 93 
 
 Thompson, H. H 126 
 
 Thompson, J. B 101 
 
 Tennent, Thos 104 
 
 Toomer, N. L 103 
 
 Toombs, R 302 
 
 Thayer, S. C 320, 337 
 
 Trescott, H 101 
 
 Trapman, M 97 
 
 Trenholm, Geo. A 369 
 
 Tucker, S 94 
 
 Tupper, T 101 
 
 United States Bank 119 
 
 Union States Rights Party ". 6.5 
 
 Van Buren, M 
 
 31 
 
 Wagner, Dr. John .......... 38, 46, 99 
 
 Wardlaw, D. L ........... 118, 156, 164 
 
 Wardlaw. F. H .............. 289 
 
 W 7 aring, M ................ 93 
 
 Waring, Dr. H. S ............. 100 
 
 Wilson, John .............. 91 
 
 Williams, Thos ............ 89 
 
 Willington, A. S. . t .......... 37, 99 
 
 Withers, Thos. J ............. 301 
 
 Wilson, John .............. 91 
 
 Wright, H ................ 307 
 
 Wood, R. C ................ 307 
 
 White, Joel .... ........... 310 
 
 Young, H. E ............... 410 
 
LOAN DEPT 
 
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YC 50593 
 
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