LETTER OF THE HON. LANGDON CHEVES,
To The Editors of the Charleston Mercury, Seft. 11, 1844.
The appearance of the following letter in the Mercury, excited an extraordinary
interest in Charleston, and from all sides came demands that it should be republished
in a form more convenient for circulation, perusal and preservation, than the columns
of a newspaper. The calm, earnest, deeply-reasoned work of a retired statesman,
whose past life has been signally illustrated by rare ability, and a still rarer self-
denial, consistency and stern integrity—this letter commends itself to the study and
reflection of all good men. It is full of matter, manfully and eloquently handled—-
great questions opened, and lighted up to their lowest depths, by a great mind. We
trust the Press will unite in giving it general circulation among the people.
Messrs Editors:—
I have been informed, to my surprise, that, in consequence of a short note,
addressed to my fellow-citizens of the neighborhood in which I live, on the 4th of
July last, I am supposed to be in favor of rbsistance by the action of South-Carolina
alone. Such an impression is entirely erroneous. I expressed, a dozen years since,
the same sentiments, almost in the same words, and was, at the same time, as is well
known, decidedly opposed to resistance by a single State. But I shall now, with
your permission, leave no doubt of the position in which I wish to stand, and, in doing
so, I shall mingle my opinions and counsels with those of my fellow-citizens, to be
weighed for what they are worth, in "this great argument."
The TarifFI consider an act of insufferable and insulting oppression, which ought
to be borne only until it can be judiciously resisted. But this resistance, in my
opinion, to be effective, must unite the efforts of, at least, a large portion of the suf¬
ferers. I do not think one State ought to resist alone. There will be neither confi¬
dence nor certainty in such a course. The people of one State, standing alone, would
not be heartily united among themselves. It might be different if the State were
alone in the suffering; but standing in the midst of common sufferers, much more
numerous than themselves, whose arms were folded, the presence of these would
operate like a moral condemnation of their act, and chill the warm blood, though ani¬
mated in so good a cause, and enfeeble the strong arm just raised to strike.
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But, it is asked, if our fellow-sufferers will not unite with us in resistance, shal we
basely submit? We have no right to anticipate that event. In my opinion, if t ey
do not, they will be insensible to honor and to shame, and equally so, to their interests
and their danger But we dare not cast this reproach upon thern merely because
they do not think fit to adopt our measures and our time. If we think they are tardy,
we must entreat them, with brotherly zeal, to quicken their step. If our measures
be not acceptable to them, let us modify them, or adopt theirs if they lead to the same
end. Resistance will be a very solemn act. If it be rashly attempted and fail, it*
will rivet our chains and bring on us new burdens and insults. Success in such great
enterprizes is not usually the result of a sudden thought or the fruit of a single day,
but of wise and sober deliberations and protracted action. We are speaking of the
movement of nations—a successful resistance will probably cost some years. The
circumstances in which we are placed, cannot fail to remind us of our first great act
of resistance to oppression. Let us then boast less often and less idly of the deeds of
our ancestors, and more faithfully imitate them. They did not jump in a single breath
to their conclusion, and talk of single handed resistance. They deliberated long, and
they wisely united all who were under common suffering and in common danger.
Let us do as they did. Let associations be4 formed in every Southern, and, if possible,
in every South Western State, and let them confer together and interchange views
and information; let leading men, through committees and private correspondence,
collect, compare and concentrate the views of like men in the respective States, and
when ripe, for it, and not before, let representatives from these States meet in Con¬
vention, and, if circumstances promise success, let them then deliberate on the mode
of resistance and the measure of redress. If not, still persevere; let neither delay
nor first failures, should they happen, create despair or faint heartedness. Inflexible
perseverance rarely fails in a good cause, and ours is one that must never be aban¬
doned. Continue to enlighten the public mind, rouse the public feeling, excite the
public shame for the degradation to which we have been brought; let your exertions
be not occasional and desultory, but organized and incessant; avoid especially all
blustering, and put in the place of it sound sense and forcible reasoning. Your
appeals to your fellow-citizens may, nevertheless, be as impassioned as your sense of
injury and shame and danger may inspire, but they ought to be chastened by a regard
to the moral sense of an enlightened compaunity. Add to the proper functions of the
newspaper press, the circulation of able ahd well chosen tracts, and let them be found
in every hamlet and house in the South and South West. Carry your exertions into
the camp of the enemy. Thus did the colonies in their preparation for resistance to
the mother country. During that struggle, we had among our friends the Burkes
and the Chathams, and others of the greatest names that ever adorned humanity.
There are in every country virtuous men who hate injustice and detest oppression,
though they be the acts of their own country and government; and their influence,
though they may not be able to carry a vote, has often great moral and political
weight. Their approbation will have great effect in sustaining your own resolution.
But in this case you may appeal to your interest as well as their justice; for the mass
of the people, no where, derive any advantage from the oppression you suffer, and
have great and honest interest put at hazard by the resistance you maybe obliged to
make. Manufactures should be the last resort of industry in every country, for when
forced as they are with us, they serve no interests but those of the capitalists who set
them in motion, and their immediate localities. Commerce is the proper hand-maid
of agriculture, and agriculture the blessed employment of man. Already both are
languishing under the intriguing power of manufacturing capitalists. Without the
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agriculture of the South and South West, the grass would grow in the streets of your
great Northern cities. What, comparatively, would Boston, New-York, Philadelphia
and Baltimore be, were the South and South West, or even the South alone, obliged
to retire from the Union? What, if our intercourse with these cities were transferred
to Liverpool and Havre? A moment's reflection will be sufficient to show how little
difficult this transfer would be, especially when we consider the present and growing
celerity of steavn power. These and like ports are the ultimate points of our present
commerce, though we are contented (good, easy people as we are, when not trampled
to the earth by oppression) to bear the charges of a double transit, and to employ these
Northern cities as our factors. What, if the unhappy event of separation shall be
provoked, is to prevent us from doing our own business, as we have done before, and
reaping the profits which we now bestow on others, and which have made the com¬
mercial men of the North and East ''Merchant Princes?" Charleston and Savannah
would then be great and flourishing cities. New-Orleans would speedily swell into
the present magnitude of New-York, and every town and interest connected with
them would increase and flourish in proportion. These may be called by the inter¬
ested and unreflecting, idle dreams, but those acquainted with the nature of commerce,
"and who have reflected on the concentrating power of the union which now builds
up and sustains the great Northern and Eastern cities, well know that they are sober
truths, and that, in the event deprecated, the result is certain and inevitable. Rouse
then the proper enquiries, and you will have numerous friends within the enemy's
lines, and these, too, will be the best friends of their own immediate countries.
Renounce absolutely and unreservedly, during this contest, all pretensions to the
high honors of the union. Fill no office under the General Government, except in
the Legislative Halls. This will be no sacrifice, for no son of yours will, whatever
be his merits, ever fill the Executive Chair until your wrongs are righted; until you
shall be respected as equals in the Government; and until the withering scorn of the
Legislative Assemblies shall banish from their floors your calumnious accusers.
I do not say that you ought not to join, even zealously and with all your might, in
the choice of a chief magistrate of the Union; but let it not be in support of a
Southern aspirant, which, at this time, will weaken, distract and mislead you.
Support always the candidate most likely to sustain your own and your country's
interest. I speak not of Carolina alone, but of all the Southern States—give your
whole and undivided weight to the men ar(d the party opposed to your oppressors, and
claim no office for yourselves* By this unambitious course you may gain some
weight in the national councils—at present you have none. The people of the
West, notwithstanding some little apparent alienation, which has depended vastly
more'on the movements of men than on principles, and which therefore cannot last
long, are your natural allies. Let the South and the West combine with the demo¬
cracy of the other parts of the Union. The West have at present abundant cause
to open their eyes to the evils they suffer from Tariff* and Abolition combination, for
these powers are closely united, and together have wrought out the lamentable result
to which I allude. If Providence had enabled the West to possess themselves of the
Greatest blessing that God could grant them; of what would give them wealth and
security and power; they ought to have desired Texas. But they see themselves by
these unholy combinations entirely and heartlessly deprived of these great bless-
ino-s. All the South Western States (by which I mean all South and West of the
Ohio River) are of our blood and lineage; their Institutions are more or less Southern,
and their interests are really the same as those of the South. There is reason,
therefore, to hope ere long we shall stand, as we were wont to do, in our country's
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more liberal and palmy days, side by side in our political movements. By this natu¬
ral alliance in former times was the high handed power of that same people which
now oppress you, put down. This was the policy of Jefferson, and this alliance
formed the great Democratic party of the Union. That great bond is now fearfully
shattered and almost severed by tariff and abolition combinations, and will soon alto¬
gether perish, if these combinations be not resisted. Look at the great Democratic
family of the North and East, how it hobbles along in a spiritless paralytic movement,
like that of the halt and lame! Look at the great and good Old Dominion, how7 it has
sunk and fallen, how its glory has gone down! Look at your own shameless Southern
desertions! What is the cause of this deplorable condition of our politics? What
is the cause of that general gloomy discontent and uncertainty which prevail among
the people concerning their political movements; of the infidelity so shamefully
exhibited by their representatives, who have substituted the little schemes offaction and
personal resentment, for the great interests of their country? You see Southern Sen¬
ators voting for a tariff which they have themselves repeatedly condemned and repro¬
bated, and Western Senators against the annexation of Texas, which their constitu¬
ents, to a man, anxiously wished to acquire. What is the cause of those gloomy
clouds which lower in the political sky; o,f that fearful dread which all good men
suffer, of a fatal disruption of our noble Institutions ? Dark as this picture may be
and certainly is, exclude but a single group of the numerous dramatis persona; let
but the scene change so as to exclude from the stage a few hundred overgrown capi¬
talists, the governors of power looms and spinning jennies, and a very small number
of reckless fanatic abolitionists, and all will be light and life. We shall immediately
see the sky brighten and the clouds disperse—we shall discover a free, profitable
and increasing commerce, feeding and sustaining a prosperous agriculture; high
prices for the produce of the soil, and cheap supplies for its cultivators; with union,
harmony and fraternal love binding together the whole people of the whole country;
the good old Democracy triumphant, and the motley band of Whigism—"here a bit
of blackstone and there a bit of white,"—hiding its head in feebleness and defeat;
the whole Union flourishing, and the South loyal, contented and happy; Texas
rounding and strengthening our borders, and increasing our wealth and greatness.
In the name of God, what fatuity has come over the people, that they do not discover
the petty and odious thraldom in which t|iey are bound, and by which the greatest
boons and blessings of Providence are thfeatened with entire subversion, and even,
in effect, turned into curses. But to return from this too long but interesting digres¬
sion, in which we have looked with a kind of prophetic vision, we think, on what
we hope to see realized at no distant day. When three or four States shall arise
with unblenching front, and unite heartily and resolutely, others will speedily join
them, and our relief will, in all likelihood, be peaceably accomplished, and the Union
preserved. Yet let not this blessed hope be relied upon with confidence, but anti¬
cipate a worse result, and be prepared to meet it.
But shall we put at hazard that Union which we so much love and honor, in which
we purchased a partnership with so many sacrifices, and be forced out of it by that
very people against whom we have heretofore defended it? It is, in my opinion, a
lamentable truth, that that hazard must be met, and it is idle and even dangerous to
hesitate in avowing it as the possible result, however much we may deprecate it.
There are worse evils than disunion, and we can hardly doubt that we have been
long suffering under them. But, if the dissolution ofthe Union be a great evil—and
it certainly will be so to the American people, and would be so to us if we were per¬
mitted to enjoy its benefits—the guilt and the reproach will rest upon those who wan-
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tonly provoked it, and those who will as wantonly have suffered it to take place. Yes,
wantonly, for the historian must record the fact, that "the sacrifice of that glorious
Institution which might have secured and perpetuated, to a distant posterity, the
happiness, prosperity and greatness of twenty millions of people, at the time, and
of more than an hundred at no very remote futurity, was made to gratify the inordi¬
nate avarice of a few score (not more) of great capitalists, in a small section of the
country, and the furious madness of a much smaller number of fanatical abolitionists,
who combined together to oppress the interests and to destroy the peace and happiness
of the people of the Southern States, who, to the honor of humanity, resisted and
overthrew their wicked designs."
Before God, we do not wish disunion. Let the government be justly administered,
and we will glory in the Union, and give it our whole hearts and strength, in peace
and war, as we have done before, when some of its most noisy eulogists, at the pre¬
sent time, were not in the ranks with us,—when they were almost in the ranks of a
foreign enemy. But who has heretofore spoken of disunion ? whence did the odious
term originate ? Not certainly at the South. It came in the chill blast of the North
and East. By what description of persons has the idea, at any time, been put forth
at the South ? what man of note, what great .public assembly of the South has hereto¬
fore spoken of disunion? But among those who have recently taken it under their
peculiar guardianship, the greatest men they boast, have repeatedly and flippantly
uttered it. When the great and invaluable acquisition of Louisiana was made, did
not one of their most distinguished men on the floor of Congress declare, that it
would be followed by their severance from the Union, "peaceably, if they could,
forcibly if they must?" When the Treaty for the Annexation of Texas, (not less
important than valuable) was announced, their greatest men rushed forward, with
breastless haste to utter equivalent language. Recently one of their greatest, wisest
and gravest Legislative bodies modestly proposed to expunge from the Constitution
the most sacred article in it, by which we were wooed into the compact, and without
which we would have had nothing to do with it; and what would this have been but ac¬
tually and faithlessly perpetrating disunion ? Yet these are the people who vocifer¬
ously accuse you of the desire of disunion, 'when "the head and front of your
offending" does not amount to a tithe of their own guilt—if, indeed, there be the
shadow of guilt on your part in complaining of the great abuses of it, and if, under
the sore afflictions you suffer through its forms, you propose to calculate the value
of it and the dangers of it too; for the threatened dangers of it are more alarming
than all we actually suffer, great as that may be.
The Tariff is only an exponent of the power and the disposition to abuse and
oppress us under the" forms of the Constitution. Do not the halls of Congress ring
daily with their unfraternal and insolent homilies on our morals and humanity; and
are we, a free people, who are their equals in every moral and intellectual quality, to
bear this? Do we not hear ominous threats of their interposition in our domestic
concerns and with our tenderest interests, as if we were dependant or conquered
provinces? Do we not know that those who thus raise their voices under the privi¬
leges of the Constitution, are the mouth-pieces of foreign fanatic associations with
> whom they correspond? Yet, these people eat the bread, taken from your own
mouths, of that labor which they reprobate, and stint the comforts of that class of
persons of whose condition they affect to be so fastidiously tender; for among the very
highest duties which they impose to increase their extravagant gains, is that on the
clothing of the slave. The heart of their humanity is in their strong box, and in the
balance sheet of their profit and loss account. They are, Lea amis des noirs, with
6
less motive of virtue than the Furies, whom the National Convention of France
vomited upon St. Domingo, to scatter death among their white brethren, and ever¬
lasting desolation and misery among the blacks. These were honest, erring and
unhappy enthusiasts who knew not what they were doing, but our assailants are cold
blooded calculators, with this awful example before their eyes, stealing upon their
victims, under the forms of the Constitution which guarantees the rights which they
seek to destroy. Remember!—On the inviolability of the Institution which is thus
threatened and assailed, depends, not our prosperity alone, but evefy blessing under
heaven, which we enjoy. Every thing Southern must necessarily perish with it.
Houses, lands, stocks, monies at interest, and other species of property, must go down
with it and share a common fate. Let these people be unchecked, and we shall have
nor country, nor home, nor fire-side, nor civilization, nor social charities, nor life
itself. We shall be blotted from the face of the earth. The beautiful and prolific
South will exhibit nothing but scathed and blackened ruins, with a remnant of the
African race wandering amidst thern in all the misery of desolation and hopelessness.
The interposition we deprecate will be worse than the plague, pestilence and famine;
worse than all the horrors of war, if waged by a civilized people.
The bayonets of our assailants pointed/against our breasts would be more harmless
than their counsels. On this subject, the Methodist Episcopal Church of the South
have set us a noble example, which, if our opponents persist, we shall be obliged to
imitate, were the Tariff out of the question. Yet they invoke the Constitution, appeal
to the sacred name of Washington, and call upon you in his words to frown upon the
man who shall endeavor to weaken its ties. Would it not be enough to return the
chalice, with its poisoned ingredients, to their own guilty lips] But let their guilt be
what it may, we are not and never have been the enemies ofthe Union. What union
did that great and good man venerate? It was the Union as it came from the hands
of the Patriots who framed it. It was the Union we consented to. An union of equal
rights and equal burdens. An Union in which we were to be equally respected and
honored with our brethren, and our peculiar institutions sacredly protected. Not a
Union of strife, and tribute, and insult, and slavery, on our parts. But would he, all
just and wise, under the forms of the Constitution, have recommended submission to
the unconstitutional oppression, insult and injury under which we groan? General
Washington was a sincere christian, apd would have called upon his fellow-citizens
to frown upon the man who should endeavor to subvert the holy religion, in accord¬
ance with whose principles he had formed his own, and under whose influence he
walked during the whole of his good and glorious life. But if its Professors, regard¬
less of its truth and fearless of their God, had introduced The Inquisition into the
Land, would we have looked with approbation on an auto da. fe, and called upon the
people to support and venerate it? It was a righteous government which he sustained,
and not one of guilt and oppression. He would, according to the whole tenor of his
life, have been among the first to resist it; and so ought we, while, like him, we ven-,
erate it, in its truth and purity. No, our crime is not disloyalty to the Union, hut our
Error is, too great a veneration for it, and, if we carry that veneration ymuch further,
it will be an evidence of unparalelled stupidity or unblushing baseness. Preserve
the Union, if you can—appeal to the great Democratic party to save the Union, whicfal
it can do, if it will. That party, though shattered, and confounded, and betrayed,
embraces a large majority ofthe people, almost the whole conservative class, almost
all of every sound class, opposed only by manufacturing capitalists and their defend¬
ants, abolitionists and their deluded followers, and the adherents of personal cabals
and unprincipled factions. Let them unite in "a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull
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altogether, ^ and the Union will be safe, and not only safe, but purified. But, if they
will not, neither the preservation of the Union nor any other consideration under
heaven should induce you to continue your submission to the spoliation, ignominy,
and danger of which under the abuses of the Constitution, you are now subject. This
language may be new and strong, but it is not the language of violence. There is
a wide difference between earnestness, and decision, and violence. The last is
folly and weakness, the first is the sublimation of truth and sober reason. I warn
you that anything short of what this language intimates will be trifling with the sub-
ject. Do not deceive yourselves by supposing that the only struggle before you, or
the greatest, is that of the Tariff*. That of Abolition is at hand (how near, we cannot
distinctly see) and of ten times the importance and danger. The Abolitionists aim
directly at your destruction, and indirectly at the subversion of the Union, That
neither our destruction, nor the misery and desolation of the Race they pretend to
save, much less the preservation of the Union, will restrain them in their endeavors
to establish their principles, is but too clear. Theirs is not a work of love, but of
hate. They hate you more than they love the African Race. But what I mean to
say is, that they aim at speedy abolition, and to force it upon you. Nov/, is there any
sober man of common sense in the nation, fvho can believe if they advance one step
further, but that the Union must be dissolved. They cannot advance one step fur¬
ther without entering your territories and controlling your laws. This, I think, will
appear by stating the advances they have already made. They have not indeed
actually exchanged credentials and entered into a Treaty in diplomatic form, with
foreign nations, but they are most directly co-operating with foreign associations,
and, at least, one great Foreign Government, all pledged to universal emancipation.
The proofs are among others, 1st. The existence of Abolition Societies of great
weight and numbers in Great Britain. "2dly. The co-operation of the Government
of Great Britain with their own Societies. 3d. The co-operation of our Abolition¬
ists with these Foreign Societies. 4th. That these Foreign Societies have their
agents and orators, with whom they correspond on the floor ofCongress. 5th. That
they have a political party in many States, organized and distinctly designated. 6th.
That this party forms one great element of the great Whig party of the Union—at
least in power, if not in name—so much so, that if the Whig candidate for the Presi¬
dency be successful, he will owe his success to abolition votes; because in some
States, whose votes are necessary to his success, New-York for example, the Whigs,
without the votes of the Abolitionists, will be in the minority. These Foreign Soci¬
eties will thus, if that result happen, have had great influence in the election of our
Chief Magistrate. 7th. Great Britain has already interposed with our own Govern¬
ment in a manner to countenance the American Abolitionists, by declaring to it
views in coincidence with theirs, and which our Executive Government has very
properly protested against. 8th. There is the hostile Act of the Legislature of the
State of Massachusetts, which in itself would, if executed, be a subversion of the
Union. 9th. The temper of Abolitionists, evincive of the consciousness of their
power, of which I shall give but one proof. That is a letter of the Anachartis
Clootes of the United States. In this letter, after abusing in the grossest terms, the
* President of the United States, the present Secretary of State, and several of his pre-
decessors, and denouncing generally the conduct of the Government of his own
country, and showing himself in heart and soul devoted to the unfriendly views of a
foreign country, he comes down to the late letter of remonstrance of Mr. Calhoun to
the British Minister, and says, "we are yet to learn with what ears the sound of the
trumpet of slavery was listened to by the British Queen and her ministers. We are
8
yet to learn whether the successor of Elizabeth on the throne of England, and her
Burleighsand Walsinghams, upon hearing that theiravowedpurpose to promote uni¬
versal emancipation and the extinction of slavery, is to he met by the man robbers of
our own country with exterminating war; will, like craven cowards, turn their back
and fee, or eat their own words, or disclaim the purpose and object which they have
avowed."*
I now ask, if the abolitionists can go one step further without entering your terri¬
tories and controlling your laws? Whether they do not now shake the Union, and.
whether, if they can proceed any farther, they will not destroy it? These are the
allies of the Whigs and the manufacturers. May it not now be asked, with some
hope that the people will have opened their eyes, who are the enemies of the Union?
And what will stop the abolitionists from going on? Not certainly their discretion,
nor their fear of scenes of horror, nor their love of their white brethren, nor of their
country;—nothing but their want of power will stop them; and yet you have seen a
great array of strength which they control. Beware! the tariff is a trifle to this
danger. But I have forgotten, in the exhibition of the power and progress of the
abolitionists, to mention the greatest of all their successes—the rejection of the treaty
for the annexation of Texas, in which thpy have triumphed over the interests of the
whole Union, and the will and power of all the Southern and all the Western States.
But we must pass on. All admit our wrongs, all acknowledge our danger, but as
often as the tongue lisps resistance, you are met by the eternal cry of the Union! the
Union! the dangers of the Union! and you are subdued by it. Until you can throw
off this thraldom, and cherish the vital truths, that your first and holiest allegiance is
due to your State Institutions—that the Union ought to be altogether secondary in
your thoughts and hearts—that all governments ought to be loved and sustained only
for their virtues, and that their vices should be watched with jealousy, and resisted at
the threshhold, you are unprepared for resistance. Ifthe Union must be imperishable,
though established on the usurpation of your rights, the insecurity of your social peace
and your insignificance as a people, away with all thoughts of resistance.
In fine, it is my humble opinion, that if we are to resist at all, we must surrender
this trembling fear ofthe dangers of the Union, to other fears and dangers much more
important, involving interests still dearer to us, and which immediately "come home
to our business and bosoms." That no effectual resistance will be made without the
union of three or four States. That therefore, the great object of exertion is to effect
that concurrence; and that as often as you shall attempt separate action you will fail,
and more and more weaken the moral power of resistance, to which the physical will
always be obedient. Nevertheless, I advise no Hotspur rashness, no immoderate
haste, though unnecessary delays are dangerous. You sleep on a volcano. The
figure no more than expresses your danger. But that danger, unlike the great natu¬
ral phenomenon with which I have compared it, may be controlled by human power;
you may extinguish it, but if you wait till it explodes and covers you with its lava,
the mataphor again becomes expressive, and indicates the awful ruin in which you will
be involved.
There are some incidental matters on which I propose to dwell for a short
time.
There is one measure frequently recommended, which I think decidedly wrong,1
and therefore dangerous. I mean the call of a State Convention. I think it wrong
for the following reasons, among many others :
* For this letter, see the Pendleton Messenger of the 23d August last, taken from the Georgia
Constitutionalist,
9
1st. This is proved in the very outse, by the fact, that many, perhaps all, propose
it under the supposition, that a Convention possesses some power applicable to the
question, which the Legislature does not possess, which is a gross mistake. The
Legislature possesses all the power of the sovereign people, except where it is
expressly restrained by the Constitution. Now, there is no restraint upon it in the Con¬
stitution, which bears on.any measure that has been, or that can be, imagined for the
■ redress of our grievances. 2d. The value, efficiency and power of Government, is
mainly founded on stability, uniformity, and even the established forms with which its
powers are executed. It presents a well known legal person to the people of State
and to the whole world, acting under just responsibility and with the greatest wisdom
y the country can supply, if the representatives be properly chosen, as they ought always
to be, and probably will be, at the present crisis especially. 3d. A Convention has
the character, more or less, of a revolutionary measure. It more or less shakes the
foundation of Government. It is a comparatively clumsy machine, substituted for
one of great skill and appropriateness, instituted by the wisest men in the State, with
great deliberation, in the absence of all excitement, for the express purposes of all
the powers granted to it by the Constitution. A Convention cannot be called, under
the Constitution of this State, for a special purpose. When convened, it has all the
power of the people, virtually supercedes the Government, and if it chooses, may
dissolve it. Such a body ought not to be constituted unless absolutely necessary. It
is not enough to say, it will now do no harm. The example of convening it, is itself
an evil. Though there be now no danger of the abuse of it, it may hereafter become
a terrible instrument in the hands of a faction or a demagogue. 4th. The action of
the State, whatever it may be, must immediately or ultimately, look to the co-opera¬
tion of other States, and, for the reasons I have mentioned and others, it may have a
forbidding aspect in the eyes of those States. If this State shall only act jointly with
other States, that action will probably be more harmonious and homogeneous, if we
employ the same authorities which they, in all likelihood, will employ.
There is another incidental subject which seems to embarrass the writers of the
day, and yet it is extraordinary that it should do so. It is said, the State is pledged
to resist. If that pledge ought to be redeemed, it will be only because it is right and
proper that we should resist. I shall not stop to enquire what the precise terms of
the pledge are, because it is impossible that the State can be pledged to any course
inconsistent with its true interests, among whjch, and the head of which, I- admit will
rank its untarnished honor. Pledges of a State, like those of an individual, must be
to itself or to others. Pledges of the last kind must be inviolably performed, however
disadvantageous or impolitic, unless they involve moral guilt. Pledges of the State
to itself, however, are very different. They can never mean more than what is
always required, independent of any pledge—that she shall act with wisdom, firmness
and consistency, according to the circumstances of the time and the occasion when
she is called to act. If the pledge be rash or unwise, will it be argued that she is
' bound to act? The question will always be, pledge or no pledge, what is wise—what
is expedient, unless it be dishonorable. When the pledge is not to a third person,
surely it cannot be obligatory or reputable to do a thing which is unwise, rash, inex¬
pedient, and perhaps destructive of the very object which the pledge was intended to
^advance. A pledge to one's self is no more than giving publicity to the thought or
opinion of the moment. Having given publicity to it, if it be wise and proper
and honorable, not to execute it, shows weakness and instability, and therefore
it is disreputable not to do so. On the other hand, it would display weakness
or obstinacy to do what was unwig^^sfc^dig^onorable, because one had pledged
10
himself to do so. -It, therefore, seems to me, that the question before us is entirely
free from any embarrassment of pledges. But there seems to be a difference between
the pledge of an individual and that of a State by its representatives. The pledge
of these cannot involve the free deliberations of future functionaries, where there is
no third party concerned. If the pledge be wise and proper, it is the duty of the
successors to redeem it, but surely not otherwise. The question then seems to me
as free as if no pledge had ever been made; and is—ought the State to resist, and
what shall be the mode and time of that resistance?
Much has been said about a leader. You will be much better without one. Such
a leader may be a fit instrument to dictate the movements of a faction, but not those
of a people or a nation. Resistance, to be effective and reputable, must not be dema¬
gogical, but national. It is paltry and feeble, in this great question, affecting so
many States, to talk of a leader. The nation must move, and you must have many
leaders. No people prepared for a great achievment will ever want leaders. You
want a due preparation of the national mind and spirit for a great movement;—you
want also, a settled principle and a determinate object of action, which no individual
should be permitted to dictate. The people acting implicitly under the dictates of a
leader, debase themselves, resemble a mdb, and exclude from their ranks all the sober,
deliberate, steady, good sense of the corpmunity, which cannot be expected to follow
the authoritative dictates of a leader. The principle and object of action should be
established by the people themselves, (who should not surrender the character of
thinking beings,) by the advice and assistance of the leading men in their respective
States. If the States unite, this will be best done in a Convention of the States;
and, if they act separately, by their Legislatures. When the principle and object of
action shall be thus established, it will be national, and you will have leaders enough;
and they will be fit and appropriate leaders, embracing all the good sense, talent a.nd
character of the country. The Congress which declared the independence of the
United States, was not governed by a leader. The Congress which declared the late
war against Great Britain, was not governed by a leader. But these acts were
brought about by leading men, who knew and spoke the will of their constituents.
The last incidental circumstance which I shall notice, is the servile adulation which
is paid to the Union, at a time it would be natural and, I think, just, to feel resentful.
It does, indeed, excite my special wonder, to see Southern men bowing down before
the idol and shouting hosannasto it, as i(it were in the act of showering blessings upon
us. These are, I confess, a music hateful to my ear. I could as much respect the
spirit of a man who had fallen under the blows of an adversary, and who should choose
that moment to eulogize his virtues, his humanity and his benevolence. I blame no
just respect to the Union. I have loved the Union as much as any man in it; I still
respect it, and wish to preserve it; but it is not in my heart, while my country is
smarting under its lash, to pour out my devotions to it. I should consider it a moral
defilement. In a nation, it is a sign of a dark and feeble mind and a pusillanimous .
spirit. f
No man, with such a spirit, can duly love his nearer and dearer institutions; no
man, with such a spirit, will be ready to resist the wrongs done to them. Reflect on
the purposes of a good and beneficent Government. Such a Government is fre-,_
quently described by figures, significant of benefits received and love returned, which
our hearts, rather than our minds, suggest, and which are, therefore, more emphati¬
cally just.—It is called a parental protector and a kind nursing mother. Now, name
a single blessing of such a Goverm lent that you enjoy. Does it make you (the
South) great—does it enshrine you in Ij^onor—does it make you rich and prosperous
11
-does it secure your property—does it protect the peace of your slumbers—does it
shield you from the fanatic incendiary, or does it not hold up his torch and enliven its
flame, and invite him to apply it to your most combustible material ? Name, if you
can, one single benefit of a good and beneficent Government which you enjoy under
it. Thanks to a sturdy nature, we still live and breathe in spite of its inflictions.
Even this we owe to our neglected and forsaken State institutions. But your assail¬
ants tell yau plainly, that even this, the bare breath of life, which they have left in
you, you enjoy merely under a short reprieve, until their plans are ready for the exe¬
cution of that doom of desolation and ruin which they have pronounced against you,
and which they are hastening on with all their zeal and power. In the Halls of
Legislature they are already permitted to tell you, that your presence there is pollu¬
tion of their pharisaical purity; and are you, proud freemen, (do you not so call your¬
selves ? with what truth I shall not decide;) humbly to solicit their lorborn embrace ?
Surely, I may say, let us have no more of this servile adulation of the Union, while it
is what you (not enjoy, but) suffer. On the contrary, examine freely and fearlessly
its value and the dangers with which it threatens you, as well as the suffering which
it already inflicts. Despise the clamors raised against you as enemies of the Union.
It is false, absolutely false, that you are the tenemies of it, in its truth and purity, and
it were base and cowardly not to be the enemies of its abuses. As it is practically
administered, call it by what name you please, it is a gross and oppressive tyranny,
and much the worse because it is many headed. "A popular tyranny is more terri¬
ble and debasing than the tyranny of a monarch; in its appetites more inappeasable
and gross, ana in its duration more lasting. It never dies. The gloomy expanse of
time which it covers is never irradiated by a Trajan or an Antonius. There is an
eternal duration of its vicious qualities and its rapacious reign." That there are any
among us that can pour out this crouching adulation, I must lament, and 1 can pity
the mistaken devotion. But the Southern man who can join our assailants bitterly
and acrimoniously, in the slanderous cry of our enmity to the Union, for the purpose
of weakening the resolution and.paralyzing the efforts of his own countrymen, in re¬
sistance to its abuses, I am obliged to think justly chargeable with the most unnatural
feelings, with a hideous want of patriotism, with a most guilty moral treason, which,
though the laws do rtot touch, the public scorn will not allow to go unpunished.
Finally, I say, do no rash or sudden act: wait yet longer. There are some favora¬
ble signs in the political heavens. There are, I think, hopes, that your grievances
will be redressed by constitutional and peaceable means, and the dangers of the Union
averted. The Democratic party see how profitless and debasing it is to serve men
instead of principles. I think it may be predicted (the darkest hour usually precedes
the dawn) that before very long, perhaps within the coming year, there will be a
re-action which will establish the Democratic party in its ancient power and purity,
and unite, in a faithful and fraternal band, cemented by their best interests and their
best feelings, all the members of that great conservative body, throughout the Union,
whether North, South or West. The incongruous and unpatriotic combinations of
Whigism cannot long cohere. The sacrifice of Texas, if nothing else, must make
it odious to all the sound part of the nation, and particularly to the South and West.
They cannot they will not forgive it. The commencement of this re-action will
probably be more or less advanced or retarded by the result ofthe ensuing Presiden¬
tial election, in which, instead of beftig luke-warm, the whole South and West should
put forth their whole zeal and strenght.
But this hope is not a reason why the remedial movements of the South should not
commence, at farthest, with the close of the present year, when the turmoil^of all the
12
elections will be over. You ought by sober, regular and deliberate steps, to deter¬
mine the general principles of' your action—to organize thq means of union and
concert among the States, and to watch the movement of the times.—
The Southern States ought now to assume, and afterwards keep up. as long
as their oppression and danger last, an armour of defence prepared for contin
gencies. I do not, of course, mean an array of physical force, but a moral armour
under which they may be ready, speedily to act, with union and concert, as circum¬
stances may require.
I have already adverted to the subject of Texas. The rejection of the Treaty of
Annexation I regard as a measure (if not of wickedness) of egregious folly, sacri¬
ficing interests of great value and importance to the whole Union, but particularly to
the South and West; and more especially in connexion with the claim of Great
Britain, which, I fear, is '-ell founded, to the free navigation of the Mississippi, and, as
a consequence, perhaps of its tributaries. This right, if it exist, will give her uncon¬
trolled access to your territories, and carry, alike, her commercial agents and her
emissaries of abolition, through the midst of your towns and plantations into the very
heart of Texas, all which would have been averted for ever by the ratification of the
Treaty of Annexation. But when we look*, through the vista of futurity, at the advan¬
tages to commerce, to navigation, to manufactures, to agriculture, and, above all, to
the national security, and power and greatness which would necessarily have resulted
from the acquisition, we can hardly estimate the immense value of the boon, not to
us alone, but to the whole Union, whicli was providentially put in our power, and
which we have wantonly thrown away. But the evils of the rejection of the Treaty
do not end with its direct effects. The time of the negotiation was eminently pro¬
pitious, and the President deserves, and will yet, and speedily, receive the abundant
thanks of the country for the promptness, wisdom and patiiotism with vvnich he seized
and improved it. In the language of an able Senator, ( VIr. Buchanan, of Pa.,)
whose speech ought to occupy the columns of every patriotic press in the country:
"Had the Treaty been ratified by the Senate—had the union between the Republics
been completed, the subject would have passed away without producing a ripple upon
the surface of public opinion throughout the world." -But, excited and emboldened by
the rejection of the Treaty, you already behold the two greatest powers of Europe
obtrusively passing their just political limits, taking footing upon a portion of the
continent so appropriated, that except in^a hostile spirit, according to national usage,
they were forbidden to interpose, and projecting their schemes of intrigue, as if you
were in the heart of Europe. They have crossed the Rubicon. England has
already had her emissaries in Texas. Cuba will next be seized, under some pretext or
other, as a fair field for Abolition. She will then command the Gulf and the Mis¬
sissippi. To speak of no other danger, what will then be the condition of New
Orleans, without which, the whole West could not breathe; or, if at all, like an
asthmatic patient ? Thus we see laid open the clear sighted and patriotic wisdom of
this glorious union of Whigs, Manufacturers and Abolitionists, by which the Treaty
of Annexation was rejected.
Even this is not all, or the worst evil of the rejection of this wise and excellent
Treaty. Should Santa Anna be able (which God forbid, though we know not what
foreign intrigues and foreign funds may enable Inm to do,) to conquer Texas, what a
spectacle will be presented to the eyes of the American people! A people of your
own blood, who, worn out by barbarous, desultory invasion and war, as brethren,
threw themselves into your arms, sought your fraternal embrace, and entreated your
protection, which, by all the ties of nature, of honor, and of interest, you should have
13
granted them, will be slaughtered before your eyes, and their noble country, which
ought aheady to have been yours, ruined and desolated. We know from the char¬
acter and past history of .heir assailant, that they will receive no mercy, no quarter.
The bloody Ampudia, (so much so as to be utterly out of the pale of civilization,) the
.Gazettes inform us, has been put at the head of the army of invasion. People of the
|South, people of the West, nay, people of the whole United States, if your morals be
those ot Christianity, it you be not utterly bereft of the "natural touch" of human
beings, with what feelings must you think of the abominable intrigues and combina¬
tions in your own councils, which will have brought on this bloody and barbarous
tragedy! The people ot Texas have been slanderously called "vagabonds and out¬
laws." You know ibis to be utterly false. We all, know, their slanderers know,
that, with very few exceptions, which will characterize all new settlements, a better
and braver people never were the pioneers of the Anglo-Saxon blood and fame. Far
from being vagabonds and outlaws, there never was a new settlement on this conti¬
nent, which, for their numbers, embodied as much cqirifortable independence, (not. to
speak of wealth, though tht re are among them wealthy men,) as mucli worth of cha¬
racter, as much improvement and intelligence, and above all, as much energetic
enterprize and generous bravery.
Tiie battle of San Jacinto would be a prhud distinction for any nation, and still
more, the conduct and bearing of the victors, after their triumph. The civilization
of any country would he illustrated and adorned by it. With the blood of the Alamo
still reeking from the ground, instead of a merciless retaliation upon the Mexican
tyrant and his miserable followers, the softening influence of civilization on the hor¬
rors of war, was never more conspicuous. Future times will scarcely ciedit the
notorious fact, that under such horrible provocation, not a hair of their heads was
touched; that they were treated with kindness and humanity while prisoners, and
permitted, unharmed, to return to their country and homes. And shall these brave
and benevolent men perish under the hands of the bloody tyrant, whose life they
spared, when forfeited by all the laws of God and man—a tyrant, who has no more
claim to their submission than Carolina has to that of Georgia. Texas is, by national
law and right, as free of Mexico as Mexico is of the United States. She was never
subject to any power but that of Spain. Under that she was perfectly independent of
Mexico.* She united as an Independent Sovereign State in forming the Republic of
Mjxico. B it where is that Republic now? Is th; dictator, (we should say usurper,)
ofa subjugated people, Texas not included, that Republic? And, if he were, as an
independent sovereign member of the confederation, she was no longer bound than
the duration of her will and pleasure.f A Sovereign State can be no longer bound
by any compact whatever. He may, indeed, make war upon her, and so may any
tyrant upon any free State, but on no other ground of national law than he could on
the United States, or any other Sovereign State.
We have talked of purchasing his right to Texas, but be has no right of which he
can dispose. We might have bought his unfounded pretensions to make the acqui-
sition peaceable, but no more. How idle, then, has been all the pathos of our pharisaicsl
brethren, about the invasion of the rights of Mexico by the Treaty of Annexation. But,
I ask again, shall these brave and generous men perish under the hands of the mon-
grel breed of Mexico? Two-thirds of them are the children of the great West. The
benignant sun of our own dear South shone on the birth of the other; and will ;he
*Humbold; Malte-Brun; Poinsett's Notes, Appendix, project ofa Constitution; Mr. Bucharan's
Speech. fVattel p. 59.
14
people of these regions stand by, fold their arms, and with cold blood, behold the
massacre! for such it would be, if they be vanquished? Forbid it humanity, forbid it
honor; let the holy ties of kindred blood forbid it. Bui, it may be asked, what can
be done? The Union has abandoned them. I humbly suggest that the power is indu¬
bitable. The will only is wanting. It is very plain what can be done, and what
ought to be done. There is nothing in the Constitution of the Union to forbid the
Stales loaning them money. Tney want nothing else. Aid them liberally in this
way, and volunteers enough will be found to unite with them to furnish other fields
of San Jacinto, on which "the lone star" shall again shine in triumph.
If this suggestion shall be thought worthy of adoption,(and I cannot doubt that it is,)
there is probably no time to be lost. Let active and able men of the South and West,
who feel interested in the cause, communicate with each other as soon as possible,
particularly on the mode qf approaching the Legislative bodies of the States,
and in arranging details. Can it be doubted, that if properly brought before
the people, (I mean through their Legislative bodies,) they will respond like
men and brethren to this ssfcred call? It is an occasion on which they shouid
stretch a point, and be liberal. It is an occasion of lite and death to fellow
beings and kindred blood. It is an occasion of the utmost national interest, inde¬
pendent of the claims of humanity, j There is no depending. interest of the
United States of half as much importance as the prevention ofJthe subjugation of
Texas. It is a country absolutely essential to our security and Interest, and it must,
sooner or later, become a part of our Union, at whatever cost. By this aid you will
bind the peopleof Texas to you forever. Let the threatened in\^isio§ be repelled by
your aid, and you need afterwards entertain no fears of foreign intrigue. The
union with Texas will be consummated in the very act of this brotherly assis¬
tance. You will run no risk, if the invasion be thus repelled, of the re-imbursement
of your pecuniary advances. Let her independence and peace be thus secured, and
your claims will speedily be converted into stock of the United States. If it shat! be
said, and it will probably be so said, to defeat this benevolently measure, that this in¬
vasion is only an impotent threat—all will rejoice if it be true; but the rule of war is
to deem everything that is possible, to be probable; an:l here the event deprecated is,
not only possible, but much more than probable. Be, therefore, not deterred by any
such suggeston, from the good work. Let the aid be afforded under regulations of
prudence which shall make itapplicable only on the contingency of its being necessary
and which shall secure its due application. The money need not be drawn from
your treasuuries, (which may not be supplied,) but may be raised on stocks author¬
ized by the respective States. Men of the South and West, if there be political dif¬
ferences between you, lay them down for a moment at the shrine of patriotism and
humanity, and do this great service to the interests of your country, and at the same
time prevent this awful sacrifice of your own kindred; which, should it happen, your
hearts will bleed to behold, and which your consciences will ever afterwards reproach
you for having suffered.
It has not been without some hesitation and reluctance, that I have at all entered
irtto this discussion. I considered my day of activity as by gone, and was reposing
inthe most absolute retirement, in which I desired to remain for the rest of my life, ;
when the incident mentioned in the beginning of this paper, drew from me,
as an act of civility, a short expression of my opinions; and I should have said
no more, but for the misconception of my views on a point on which I am most
anxjous not to be misunderstood. But, being about to correct this error, and feeling
as strongly and indignantly as any man can do, the oppression, disgrace and danger
15
under which my country suffers, although no one is more sensible of the little import¬
ance of my opinions and counsels than I am, I have felt it to be the duty of a citizen,
on my part, to throw them into the mass of deliberation on the subject of the great
crisis which hangs so awfully over us Besides, I have always had an uttpr.abhor¬
rence of oppression, by whatever hands it may be inflicted. It is now a third of a
century, since when, in the prime of life, with some share of popular favor, and
ambitious of more, I did not hesitate to hazard .all that I possessed and all that I hoped
for, in defending the rights and interests of that people who are now the oppressors
of my own immediate country, and who threaten daily, not only its prosperity, but
its social peace. I held up, with a few noble associates, the flag of their gallant but
then-unpopular little na*Qr; I vindicated their glorh^s»commercial enterprize—an
enterprize which, while it .enriched them, made^lt. one popr; and I defended, (not
without success,) their pecuniary rights, t "wh^d. considered, the hand of
rapacity and unjust power, though it was the*hs#)d%P tne political men with whom I
Nyas associated. It would ill become me then, I thought, to close my life by declining
to offer my counsel for what it was worth, and to rEelrhy^voice in the assertion of
the rights'and the reprobation of the wrongs of "mj own, my native land."
LANGDON CHEVES.
PRINTED BY WALKER & BURKE,
No. 3 Broad-street.