I \ THE FBJ? PEE SS. S ? , ; ?TOS3ICB ?TQ AM/ MEN, REGARDLESS OF RACE, COLOR, OR PREVIOUS CONDITION, YOL. I ^^^^^^^M^^^^^, APRIL ^^ ^^^ :====^T Witt Mm mm. A WEEKLY JOURNAL, devoted to the interests of the REPUBLICAN PARTY QF south carolina. T. HURLER - - - - - - Publisher, So. 68 Meeting Street. COL. C. D. DUVAL,- Editor. TERMS, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. One copy one Year, - Ten Copies to one address, - - ??.W Twenty copies to one address, - 50.00 Fifty copies, - 100.00 KATES OF ADVERTISING For one Square of Ten Lines, one inser tion,.1? 1, for each subsequent insertion, 75 cts. A liberal discount made to yearly, half yearly, and quarterly advertisers. Adver tisements conspicuously displayed by spe cial agreement. AUTHORIZED AGENTS. S. M. PetingiE k Co., 37 Park Bow, N. Y. and 6 State St, Boston : and Evene k Lincoln, 119 Nassau St. . 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Mr. President : I am extremely anxious that the measure which we are now consid ering, should receive the approval of a very large majority of the Convention, and it is with the hope that I may say something to add to that majority, that I take the time of the Convention. Let me say at the outset that I am not a repudiationist, that I am as far as any man here, as far even, to say, asfar as my friend from Fairfield, from having any sympathy with any meas ure that looks either in principle or ia fact towards repudiation ; and when my friend from Fairfield yesterday took occa sion to call us who favor the present meas ure repudiationists, and charged that this was but the initial step, the entering wedge of repudiation, he made a statement which every friend of this ordinance denies, and which neither the gentleman from Fairfield, nor any other gentleman has proved. I am neither in favor of repudiating nor scal ing, nor staying by so much as one hour, any honest and just debt. I do not believe that this community, nor any community can ever reach sound and substantial finan fai! prosperity, until it abandons, utte"rly and finally, all attempts to obstruct, delay or forbid the speedy collection by due pro cess of law, of any and all just legal claims of one citizen upon another. It was upon this principle and in this spirit that 1 re corded my vote against the stay measure which passed this body a week ago, and it is with this principle in view and in this spirit, that I now approach this question. If I thought that the existing claims for slaves fell within the category of just, legal debts, ? know that I have no prejudice against the system out of which they sprang so strong, as to lead me to favor any meas ure which would impaired their validity or delayed their collection, and it is only be cause I am persuaded that the nature of the debts, and the circumstances in which they now stand, are such as to take them out of the catalogue and companionship of just, legal claims ; upon high considerations I say of justice and of law, not at all from feeling or prejudice, that I favor the present measure which forever extinguishes and bars such claims. My friend from Fair field, told us yesterday that this measure grows out of our prejudice against slavery, which led us to forget and overlook the legal merits of the case. I desire for one to say to my friend that it is precisely upon the legal aspects of these claims, that I fa vor the ordanance before us. Mr. President, the existing claims for slaves, of which there are thousands in this community, grew out of the peculiar insti tution of slavery. ^ By special legislation, by positive municipal law, human beings were considered property in this State. They were not property naturally and with out law?God and nature, the common, un written laws of human society, made them men. It was solely by^the force of positive, enactments against natural justice and the law of nature, by virtue only of a positive, artificial code that they become property, wherever such a code did not exist, men were not property; or wherever having once existed, it ceased to exist, men ceased to be property and assumed their natural condition. ? The nature and tenure of slave property, was consequently at all times and under all circumstances peculiar 'and pre carious. It rested not like other property upon nature and the original constitution of human society, but unlike any other pro perty, it rested solely and exclusively on written, positive, special, municipal regula tions. Such was the case in the slavehold ing states of the Union, and while I do not deny or seek to evade the fact that slaves were by the statues of South Carolina pro perty, and that this property was tolerated and even recognized by the General Govern ment, yet I do claim that from its very na ture, property in human beings* was a pecu liar, limited, uncertain nature, liable to dan gers to which no other property was exposed and held by whomsoever it was held, at a peculiar risk and by a tenure liable to be broken by the same process by wiich it was created. This, therefore, is my first observation ; that at all times, even in its palmy days, when the mountain of slavery stood strong, when the dogmas of Calhoun and Hammond passed unchallenged, and South Carolina in t a e insolent frenzy of her madness was ready to throw down the gauntlet to the world, even then human beings were only a iimit ed; peeunar, defacto property, held by a pe -u?tar ?QUre and at Peculiar risks. It re w ~> lacu> this position that such property, property in human beings, could8 never claim the same sanctity, the same ?i- ' Tiolability, the same legal consideration at our bands which we universali/ accord to other property. But, Mr. President, a controversy arrose touching this same property, one section of the Union sought its universal recognition ; the other sought at first only its restriction, but at last its destruction. The controversy waa not a sudden one. It did not burst, with sudden surprise, upen those who bad invested m that property. The storm, the crisis, were foreseen by the blindest. It was to every man's vision a struggle which should settle this precise question, "shall human beings continue te be property ?" Both parties recognized and admitted the issue. Like a great suit at law the plead ings on either, siae had at last narrowed the entire controversy to this single and vi tal ?3sue, "ifiall human beings be property fn That JsB?? Wae joined. Every man knew that he held his slave property subject te the decision of that issue. Every man had due notice that any investment he might make or had made in, any claim he might acquire to property of that sort, was sub ject to that decision ; that is was good or bad, valid or invalid, according as victory should re*t on the banners of Lee and John ston, or of Grant and Sherman; according as the hateful symbol of a slave-holding con federacy, or the glorious banner of a free Republic, should finally float from the bat tlements in yonder harbor. That was the whole question. It was taken out of the courts. It was referred to the dread arbi trament of war. Do 1 need to appeal to native South Caro linians aroned me to attest the fact which I state, that every man felt and knew that his slaves were property, that his slave bonds and'slave securities were good or bad according as the confederacy stood or fell ; who imagined that if the fortunes of war went against South Carolina it would ever be so much as a question anywhere whether any claim based on slave property would be valid? No, Mr. President, the whole controversy, the whole issue, was then and there decided. A tribunal from which there is no appeal, then and there, recorded its decision that human beings were not property in South Carolina ; and in whatever condition slave property stood, then and there, I contend, it must forever stand. The confederacy fell and with it fell slavery ; with it fell proper ty in man; with it fell every claim and every obligation which rested on the basis of slavery. I say, then, that the strictly legal effect of the success of the arms of the Union under the President's Proclamation, was to finally extinguish slavery and to in validate all titles and claims based on slave property. These, then, Mr. President, are my two positions: 1st. That property in human be ings was originally a peculiar, defacto prop erty, entitled to no consideration, outside of the force of the positive, municipal laws which created and upheld it. 2nd. That the precise question of its validity, after long argument and all due notice* was sub mitted to decision in the struggle of South Carolina against the Union; that when South Carolina yielded to the arms of the republic, slavery, as a legal consequence, with all its incidents, all its obligations, all its concomitants, became finally extinct. We are not, therefore, Mr. President, re pudiating any debt. The war settled'the debt. We are not staying any debt. The war satisfied the debt. The rude hand of revolution swept the docket, stayed from every action, quashed forever every pro ceeding, and forever arrested every judge mtnt. And I state it here to day, as a le gal proposition, fully capable of defence, that this ordinance is no more than a mere declaration and announcement of the strict ly legal consequences of the failure of South Carolina to maintain the issue which was submitted to the tribunal of war. Now, Mr. Pr?sident, if these principles 1 are correct, I do not need to meet any spec ial objection to this ordinance, if this or dinance rests on good and sufficient legal grounds, the incidental hardships it may work to individuals cannot change onr ac tion. But I maintain that no hardship will arise from the ordinance which was not the necessary result of emancipation. It is true that slave bonds are worthless, and so are the slaves. Suppose the widows and orphans who$e slaves were sold for bonds, had kept them until the closeof the war, would they not have lost them ? It is said that many wid ow's and orphans and minors are to be ru ined by the invalidation of these bonds. Are there not many, I ask, of the same classes who were ruined by the setting free of their slaves ? But do we propose to re munerate them for slaves set free ? No, Mr. President, when slavery went down, every thing based on slavery, deriving its force and obligation from slavery went down with it, as a legal, inevitable consequence, and that in future no doubt may rest on this question, no further litigation may be wast ed upon this iss?e, we declare and ordain by this ordinance that all such controversies shall cease, that the doors of our courts, shall not be open to contest claims which a war of four years has proved, in the face of the world, to be invalid. For myself, Sir, I do rejoice, I confess, that my moral abhorrence of that institu tion in which these claims originated, is also expressed in the ordinance before us ; that while the ordinance rests on safe, suf ficient, legal grounds, it also enables us to fasten the stigma of our moral reprobation upon human slavery. The day has at last cotne when law and morality' join in saying with Lord Broug ham that it is a wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold property in man. I remember, Sir, with my friend from Darlington, when the slave hunter bore away his property from the streets of Bos ton, which we had fondly called free : but there were even those that day who swore by the living God, that they would leave no stone unturned till Anthony Burns could walk the streets of Boston with his name on his forhead and defy the Carolinas to come and take him. That day has come. That institution, by force of which alone, Antho ny Burns was property, staked its existence, its validity, its life on the issue of the strug gle which began seven years ago in this very city. The decision was made against South Carolina, and now, Mr. President, I do desire that through the mouth of the first legal assembly of South Carolina since that act of December I860, it should be announ ced to the world, that in that great suit, slavery was defeated, and, as a legal consequence, everything which rested for iti force and validity upon slavery, fell with it; and that, henceforth, no issue arising out of slavery shall be joined in our courts, and no judgement for claims based upon property in human beings shall be enforced by authority. **> SPEECH J?fcF MB^ ^ILLSB?^Y. . Bem?rks of Hon. f?lbert Pillsbury^ deliver?d'?t tae Mass M?efing held at the Club House-on Monday evening, Maren 30th. ^ . Thjis State has passed through many and terrible vicissitudes since 1860. The smoke of the first gun fired upon Sumter has not yet cooperated. It arose, and spread like a pail over this, and all the other unreconstructed States settling down by degreess, till it buried them all in total defeat, and utter finan cial ruin. Since that time, there has been to this people but one period of promise, and of hope ; and tnat was when they were humble, and subdued, by the surrender of the last Confeder ate army to the Federal forces. If was then that they scarcely dared ask, or expected to receive favor from their exulting conquerors. It was then that any terms which might spare their for feited lives would have been entertain ed with alacrity. It was then also, that the North, having exhibited its power to quell rebellion against the govern ment, and after having vindicated its right to re-establish that government wherever it had been destroyed, offered most magnanimous terms to the fallen enemy. These terms would then have been - joyfully accepted, and this desolated country would by this time have advanced far upwards from the ru- " ins in which it still lies prostrate, had not the traitor at Washington, joined hands with the traitors of the South, to demand everything just as though they had never sinned. Following his lead, they have offered every measure of rea sonable reconstruction, till now they are about to see their ignoble leader banish ed from his high position and doomed to an eternal, disgraceful retirement. Still, their enmity does not in the least abate. They gloat over tbe defeat of the Constitution in Alabama ; exult in ad vance over our reported disconiforture in Arkansas ; boast of what they intend to do in Virginia ; and now here in South Carolina, are trying to move heaven antP earth to squelch the new Constitution which has been formed with the utmost care, and generosity, and is soon to be submitted to the peo ple for ratification. Strange infatuation? Should they succeed, what can they ex pect but a future still more gloomy than the past ? If they succeed in smothering this new born hope, I see nothing be fore them but the desolation of despair. For their sakes, if for nothing else, we must not suffer them to commit such wanton suicide. They may not at pres ent accord to us cither philanthropy or patriotism, but if we sueceeed for them and in spite of them, the day will come when they will rejoice that their own madness has been overuled, and they have been saved in spite of their very selves. Sometimes resistance to an evil is mora painful, and disastrous than would be the endurance of it. If the former ruling classes of the South re gard it'asan evil that anarchy, confusiou and misrule be displaced by well regula ted government ; if they regard it as an evil that millions of chattels have be come citizens, it is useless for them to resist it. The decree of the people has gone forth, recorded by the feat of the Almighty. And whereas in this case, Vox Popoli est Vox Dei, the \'oice of the people is the voice of God, for a distracted, impoverished minded people to resist, would be worse than "kicking against tho pricks/^ it would be butting out their brains against the eternal, adamantine walls of justice and right. It is true that the changes through, which this people have passed are great. The whole system of their former gov ernment has been supplanted ; and for them to become reconciled to the new order of things requires effort, requires sacrafice, did we see them inclined to make that effort, and sacrafice, we should thank God, and take courage. But the reverse of this is true. They seem to have plunged headlong into the slough ; and instead of making manly, determined efforts to regain the solid land, they pitch, and flounder right where they are, utterly declining any assistance from those who stand upon the bank, sinking all the while deeper in the mire. But they must be rescued at any hazard. We have farmed a good Constitution, and we must spare no effort to secure its rat ification. Then we must select such men to make and execute the laws as shall be firm, undaunted, but yet, generous and just. We must move straight for ward in the work which has been inau gurated, without fear or favor, and then the result will be victory to ourselves, and eventually blessings untold to our enemies. 1 We shall make South Carolina ere long, prosperous and happy, in spite of any, and every suicidal measure upon which, in her madness and blindness she is so terribly intent. We must niscthe flag on high and boldly follow its lead. We must not abate one jot of faith or hope, till our work is fully accomplished, till South Carolina shall again shine forth among tire galaxy of States, beau tiful because she is prosperous and hap py, but thrice beautiful becauses he is, really, and forever will. The Late King of Bavaria refused to marry the Princess Sophia. Charge, a hasty temper. Specification, she b< xed her maid's ears with a saucer. - PUBLIC SPIRIT. There is nothing that helps a place along so rapidly as a proper exhibition of public spirit on the part of its citizens ?especially of that portion of them who from their wealth or the magni tude of their business operations are in a position to make their influence felt for good or ill in the community. A man may be born, grow up, pass through life and die in a place, and yet that place never receives one particle of ben efit from his existence. He might as well never had lived. A turnip or cabbage would exert just as favorable an influence on the public mind as he does. He exists, breathes, vegetates.? makes money, perhaps, invests it where it will pay the best,?and dies at last, and leaves his wealth, and that is all, to remind any one that he ever lived. He did nothing to help build up the place he called his home, he suggested no im provements, nor made any himself, and only thought how he could add a dollar to his bank account, or make his invest ments pay better than they had done before. On the other hand, there are men who realize that life is given for some better purpose than the mere hoarding of money. They believe they have pub lic as well as private duties to perform, and a portion, at least, of the wealth which they accumulate belongs, in sofcie sense, to the community among whom it is accumulated. With this end in view, they seek investments at home in stead of going abroad ; they purchase laud and improve it ; they erect dwell ing houses and thus encourage immigra tion from other places ; they enlarge their own busiuess as fast as good judg ment would seem to dictate, and give employment toas many mechanics a; possible ; they encourage others to en. large their operations by loaning them means, or furnishing increased accom modations in the way of buildings or machinery. In these and many other ways they contribute to the growth and prosperity of the community to which they form a part. They give liberally in aid of the charitable and religious or ganizations of the place, and do it cheer fully, as .thpugh it were a pleasure rath er than a mere duty. Such men are a blessing in the community, Their in fluence is like that of the sun and rain upon vegetation. Everything seems to smile all about them ; their path is marked with beautv, and flowers seem to spring up beneath their very feet. And the influence of such men is not confined merely to what they do them selves. Man is an imitative creature. He is always seeking for models, and apt to follow them, be they good or bad. Genuine original men are scarce. There fore he who sets a good example not only benefits his race by what good he does himself, but he stimulates ot hers to do good likewise, and the influence thus set in motion goes on extending until it compasses the whole earth, perhaps. No man can tell when or where his influ ence will end, nor what form it will eventually put on. Now a public-spir ited man becomes a motive power, to propel those around him wTho are capa ble of any motion at all. Some men are not. They are born to fill a small circle, and they cannot fill a large one. Public spirit is not to be expected of such. They are mile-stones on the road to point the way they never travel them selves. Thus they serve their purpose, doubtless, but their position is not to be envied by live men, who have higher ideas of life. We have known some such men, of whom it may be said they are fifty years behind the age. They are contented in the possession of per sonal comfort and ease ; their thoughts are never troubled about public improve ments, except it be the fear that they may be taxed to pay for them. What was crood cnouirh tor their fathers is good enough for them. One can conceive what a place would be if entirely controlled by such men? a Sleepy Hollow kind of a paradise, de voted to the past, untroubled about the present, and never even dreaming of the future. If such men ruled the world, railways, telegraphs and labor-saving machines would be unknown, and we should eventually relapse into barba rism, It is a duty men owe to themselves and their fellow men to encourage a lib eral public spirit. It is the opponent of selfishness, enlarges the heart, and makes the world better and more fit for the residence of beings with souls. It increases the great sum of human hap piness, and promotes the best good of the community and the world. A pub lic-spirited man is generally a safe guide to follow iu matters affecting the tempo ral as well as spiritual good of the hu man race.?Reporter. IMPEACHMENT MEANS. 1. To vindicate the laws. 2. To preserve the authority of the Constitution. 3.. To prevent a cc-ordinatc branch of the Government from violently trans cending its true powers. 4. To defeat usurpation. 5. To insure domestic tranquility. G. To strengthen public order. 7. To still further define what consti tutional government means. S. To prevent the wresting of power from the people by refusing to recog nize the le?a? acts of their repr?senta ti ves. THE DEMOCRATIC PA KT Y IN OPPOSI TION. * A political party fits itself for power in opposition. That is to say it works itself clear from many trammels and complications, which inevitably beset a party in power, and has the inestimable advantage of disowning all responsibili ty. Every party in power must by the laws of its existence and the frailty of human nature, commit many blunders and mako many mistakes, "it always has to take the initiative in the most important questions, whose right solu tion can only be ascertained by experi ment. The party in opposition can" and should oppose everything it considers to be injurious to the country, but it fails to show itself a truly great party, if it does not put forward some definite plan, which it offers as wiser and better than the one it opposes. The Democratic party has failed to do this. It is at present merely an element of negation in the body politic. It asserts that the Republican party has done everything wrong, yet itself proposes no plan where by things could be made right. As somcfone has said, the Democratic party is only the Republican party of six years ago, meanina\ of course, that it has accepted the issues of the Republi can party of that time, while the present Republican has prog?csscd as farbcyend them. It cannot be denied as a general fchimz that were there is least education, the Democratic party is the strongest, in the purlieus of great cities, in the wilds of thinly inhabited sections, in States where there is a lar country. The true Moses "endured'7 t<> the end ; our Moses lias betrayed and abandoned the cause to which he swore allegiance. The trae Moses led an op pressed people out of bondage j our Moses promised to do it, but left them to their foes. The true Moses labored to save the people ?rom the bite of fiery serpents ; our Moses has sought to have all the people bitten by them i. e., Cop perheads, When the true Moses died, the children of Israel wept lor him 30 days; when our Moses shall leave the White House for Tennessee, all the people w 111 sa amen. The man who reeled into ofiicc ought to be ruled out. The Rev. James Lynch, a colored preacher of Mississippi, and well known in Baltimore, challenges any one in the State to discuss the question of suffrage with him before the voters of the State. He remarks: My color alone should be no objection to an acceptance of this challenge, inasmuch as it will take no part in the task. I will only use my heartj my brains and my tongue/'' A missionary among the frcedmen in Tennessee, a.-ter relating to some little colored children the story of Ananias and Saphira, asked them why God did not strike even bodv dead who tells a lie : when one of the least in the room quietly answered, "because there would't be anybody left',"