University of South Carolina Libraries
..*- 4 . . 44 % Dtmwratit 30urna, iOte t0 ilje South an Svutjern tRigyts, t ie, atet flews, Citeratutre, %*hraliti, ~Euperance, agiulUnr & "We wil. clnU to the Pillars of the Temple. of .Libertes, and If It must fall -" SUMEMlI DURISOE & CO., Proprietors. MARCH~1L1) 17 1858VL.4lh-O * SPRER OF RON. J. R. HAMOND, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. In the Senate of the United States, Thursday, March 4, 1858, the bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union being under consid eration. Mr. HAMMOND addressed the Senate as fol lows: Mr. President, in the debate which occurred here in the early part of the last month, I un derstood the Senate from Illinois [Mr. Douglas] to say that the question of the reception of the Lecompton constitution was narrowed down to a single point. That point was, whether that constitution embodied the will of the people of Kansas. Am I correct ? Mr. DoUGLAS. The Senator is correct, with this qualification: I could waive the irregulari ty and agree to the receptionof Kans into the Union under the Lecompton constitution, pro vided I was satisfied that it was the act and deed of that people, and embodied their will. There are other objections; but the others I could overcome, if this point were disposed of. Mr. HAMMoND. I so understood the Senator. I understood that if he could be satisfied that this constitution embodied the will of people of Kanss, all other defects and irregularities could be cured by the act of Congress, and that he himself would be willing to permit such an act to be passed. Now, sir, the only question with him is, how is that will to be ascertained? and upon that point, and that only, it is probable we shall differ. I think the Senator fell into a funda mental error in his report dissenting from the reportof the majority of the territorial commit tee, in saying that the convention which framed this constitution was a creature of the Territo rial Legislature; and from that error has pro bably arisen all his subsequent errors on this subject. How can it be possible that the con vention should be the creature of a Territorial Legislature ? The convention was an assembly of the people in their highest sovereign capaci ty, about to perform their highest possible act of sovereignty. The Territorial Legislature is a mere provisional government; a petty corpo ration, appointed and paid by the Congress of the-United States, without a particle of sover eign power; and yet, shall that interfere with a sovereignty-inchoate, but still asovereignty? Why, sir, Congress cannot interfere; Congress cannot confer on the Territorial Legislature the power to interfere. Congress is not sovereign. Congress has sovereign powers, but no sover eignty. Congress has no power to act outside of the limitations of the Constitution; no right to carry into effect the supreme will of any people if it has not been expressed in their con stitution; and, therefore, Congress is not sov ereign. Nor does Congress hold the sovereignty of Kansas. . The sovereignty of Kansas resider it resides anywhere, with the -sovereign St. of this Union. They have conferred upou C gress, among other powers, the authorit;. administering such sovereignty to their s: to make needful rules and regulations reg ing'the Territories; and they have given t gresspower to-admit a State. Under'these sovereign powers, Cangress may first estal a provisional territorial government morel, municipal purposes; and when a State; grown into sovereignty, when that sovereif which has been kept in obeyance demands.re cognition, whena community is formed there, a social compact created, a sovereignty born as it were upon the soil, then Congress is gilted with the power to acknowledge that sovereign ty; and the Legislature, only by mere usage, oftentimes neglected, assists at the birth ot it by passing a precedent resolution'assembling a convention. But, sir, when that convention assembles to form a constitution, it assembles in the highest known capacity of a people, and has no superior in this Government but a State sovereignty ; or rather the State sovereignties of all the States alone can do anything with the act of that con vention. Then, if that conventi-m was lawful, if there is no objection to the conveintion itself, there can be no objection to the action of the convention ; and there is no power on earth that has a right to inquire whether the conven tio represented the will of the people of Kan sas or not. I do not doubt that there might be some cases of such gross and palpable frauds committed in the formation of a convention, as might authorize Congress to investigate themi, but I can scarcely conceive of any; and I do not think that Congress .has any other power, when a State knocks at the door for admission, but to inquire if her constitution is republican. If what I have said be correct, then the will of the people of Kansas is to be found in the action of har constitutional convention, and it is not safe to look for it anywhere else. It is immaterial whether it is the will of a majority of the people of Kansas now, or not. The con vention was, or ought to have been, elected by a majority of the people of Kansas. A conven tion, elected irn April, may well frame a consti tution that would not be agreeable to a majori ty of the people of a new State, rapidly filling up, in the succeeding January; and if Legisla tures are to be allowed to put to a vote the acts of a convention, and have them beaten down by a subsequent influx of emigrants, there is no finality. If you were to send back the Le pomliton Constitution, and another was to be framed, in the slow way in which we do p~ulic business here, before it would reaclh Congress, in anothor year, perhaps the majcority would be turned the other way. Sir, whenever you go outside of the regular forms of laiw and constitutions to seek for the will of the people, you are wandering in a wil derness-a wilderness of thorns. If this was a ni nority conistituitionl I do not know thmat that would be an objection to it. Constitutions are made for minorities. Perhaps minorities ought to have the right to make constitutions, for they are administered by majorities. The Constitu tion of this Union was made by a minority, and as late as 1840, a minority had it in their hands, and could have altered or abolished it ; for in 1840, six out of the twrenty-six States of the Union held the numerical majority. The Senator from Illinois has, uppn his view of the Lecomuptonl Constitution and the present situation of athliirs in Kansas, raised the cry of pplar sovereignty. The Senator from New York [Mr. Seward] yesterday made hiimself faceti.ms~ about it, anmd called it "squatter sov ereignty." There is a popular sovereignty which is the basis of our Government, and I am unwilling that the Senattor should have thme benefit of uniting squatter soveruignty wit~h popular sovereignty. Sir, in all countries and in all time, it is well understood that the nu merical majority of the people could,- if they chose, exercise the sovereignty of the country ; but for want of intelligence, and for want of leaders, they have never -yet been able success fully to combine and form a popular govern ment. They have often attempted it, but it has always turned out, instead of a p~opular sovereignty, a populous sovereignty ; and deina gogues, placing themselves upop the movement, have invariably led them in mnilitary despo I think that the popular sovereignty which the Senator from Illinois would derive from the acts of his Territorial Legislature, and fronm the information received from partisans and partisan I presses, would lead us directly into populous ( sovereignty, and not popular sovereignty. The t first organization of popular sovereignty on a t proper basis, took place in this country. The t first gun of the Revolution was a salute to a t new organization of popular sovereignty that i was embodied in the Veclaration of Indepen- f dence, developed, elab ted, and inaugurated i forever in the Constton of the United States; t and the true pillars o it were representation I and the ballot-boi--'4 legland constitutional I ballot-box ordained byhe jkople. In the divi- I sion of power, in distri~uting the sovereign powers among the various departments of-the a Government, the people retained for themselves v the single power of the ballot-box ; and a great r power it was. Through that power they were t able to control all the departments of the Gov- r ernment. It was not for the people to be ex- v errising political power in detail ; it was not for a them to be annoyed with the cares of govern- 1 ment; but, from time to time, through the bal- t lot-box, to exert their power to control the v whole organization, and sovereignty remained s with them. This is popular sovereignty, the n popular sovereignty of a legal, constitutional s ballot-box ; and when spoken through that box, p the voice of the people, for all political pur poses, t is the voice of God; but when it is outside of p that, it is the voice of a demon, the tocsin of r the reign of terror. t Permit moe to say, that in passing, I omitted a to answer a question that the Senator from Illi- fi nois has, I believe, repeatedly asked; and that V is, what were the legal powers of the Territo- a rial Legislature after the formation and adoption o of the Lecompton Constitution? That had f( nothing to do with the Territorial Legislature. ti They moved in totally different spheres. The b Territorial Legislature was a provisional govern- i ment, almost without power, appointed and paid o by this Government. The Lecompton Consti- rd tution was the act of a people, and the sover- [ eign act of a people. They moved in different spheres and on different planes, and could not ti come in contact at all without usurpation on I1 the one part or the other. It was not compe- iy tent for the Lecompton Constitution to overturn it the Territorial government and set up a govern- p ment in place of it, because that Constitution, N until acknowledged by Congress, was nothing; ri it wis not in being. It could well order the g, pe4-ople of Kansas to pass upon it; it could do al whatever was necessary to perfect that consti- k tution, but, nothing beyond that, until Congress s( had agreed to accept it. In the mean time the A territorial government, a government ad interim, t< was entitled to exercise all the sway over the tl Territory that it ever had been entitled to. The li error of assuming, as the Senator did, that the g convention was the creature of the territorial sZ government, has led him into the difficulty and d confusion of uniting and disuniting these two +1 Ai e inls* tI tory of Kanhas is a disgusting one from the be- w giuning to thend. I have avoided reading it a as much as I could. Had I been a Senator be- a fore, I should have felt it my duty, perhaps, to T have done so; but not expecting to be one, I al aMili ignorant, lortunatejy, in a great measure, oi of detail; and I was glad to hear the acknowl- a edgment of the Senator from Illinois, Aince it of excuses me from the duty of examining it. tl I hear, on the other side of the Chamber, a b great deal said ab1out gigantic and stupendous 81 frauds; and the Senator from New York, yes- I terday, in portraying the character of his party 1 and the opposite one, laid the whole of those ti frauds upon the pro-slavery party. To listen to t" him, you would have supposed that the regi.. t mnents of emigrants recruited in the purlieus of g; the great cities of the North, and sent out, armaed t and equipped with Sharpe's rifles, and bowie t( knives and revolvers, toconquer freedom for Kan. P sas, stood by, meek saints, innocent as doves, and tI humble as lambs brought up to the sacrifice. t~ Think of them: General Lane's lambs! They ii remind one of Col. Kirke's lambs, to whom theye have a family resemblance. I presume that there were frauds; and that if there were" frauds, they were equally great on all sides; P and that any investigation into themn onsthis a floor, or by a comnmission, would end in noth. ai U ing but inflicting almost uniendurable disgrace i on the United States. But, sir, the true object of the discussion on aa the other side of the Chamber, is to agitate the et -question of alavery. 1 have very great doubts tI whether the leaders on the other side of the ha House really wish to defeat this bill. I think og they would consider it a vastly greater victory to crush out the Democratic party in the North, la and destroy the authors of the Kransas-Nebraska am bill; and I am not sure that- they have not tI brought about this imbroglio for the very pur- sl pose. How strange is it that they tell us that, ta year after year, the majority in Kansas is bea a ten at the polls ! They have always had a ma- is jority, but they always get beaten !lIowv could in that be ? it does seem, froni the nlost reliable t sources of informatorg, tlist themy have a ma- a jority, and have had a majority for some time. he Why has not this majority come forward and s, taken possession of the government, and made 0] a free State constitution, and brought it here ? sI We should all have voted for its ;adnilgsion hj cheerfully. There can be but one reason: if s they had brought, as was generally supposed at ei the time 'the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed would be the case, a free State constitution here, there would have been no difficulty among the Northern Democrats; they would have ~ been sustained by their people. The statementt made by some of them, as I understood, that Y that act was a good free State act, would have been verified, and the Northern Democratic party would have been sustained ; but its comi mug here a slave State. it is said, will kill that0 party, and that is the'reason they havo refrain ed from goinig to the polls; that is the reason they have retrained from making it a free State ! when they had the power. T'hey intend to make it a free State as soon as they have effect- ! ed their purpose of destroying the Democratic party at the North, and their true reason here d is to agitate slavery. For one, I aim not dis posed to discuss that question here in any ab- t stract forum I think the time has gone by for b that. Our minds are all made up. 1 am wil ling to discus~s it-and that is time way it should* be and must be discussed-.as a practical thing, as a thing that is, and is to be ; and to discuss ' its efl'ect uon our political institutions, and tot ascertain how long those political institutions will hold together under its effects. n The Senator from New York entered very re fairly into this field yesterday. I was surpris ed, the other day, when he so openly said the el battle had been fought and won. Although I - knew, aiid had long known it to be true, I was e surprised to hear him say so. I thought that vi he had been entrapped into a hasty expression g by the sharp rebukes of the Senator from New a -lampshire; and I was glad to learn that-yester lay he had come out and shown that it is a ma-* ured project of his; that these words mean all , hat I thought they meant; that they mean: hat the South is a conquered povince, and 4 hat the North intends to rule it. He said that I t was their intention to take this Government i rom unjust and unfaithful hands, and place it i a just and faithful hands; that it was their in- I ention to consecrate all the Territories of the nion to free labor; and that, to effect their urpqses, they intended to reconstruct the Su reme Court. Yesterday, the Senator said, "Suppose we dmit Kansas with the Lecompton constitution: rhat guarantees are there that Congress will ot again interfere with the affairs of Kansas?" ieaning, I suppose, that if she abolished slave y, what guarantee there was that Congress i rould not force it upon her again. Sir, so far I s we of the South are concerned, you have, at I Mst, the guarantee of gaod faith that never has I een violated. But what guarantee have we, 1 rhen you have this Government in your pos- 1 3ssion, in all its departments, even if we sub iit quietly to what the Senator exhorts us to I abmit to-the concentration of slavery in its I resent territory, and even to the reconstrue- t ion of the Supreme Court-that you will not c lunder us with tariffs; that you will not bank upt us with internal improvements and boun- % es on fish; that you will not restrain us with t avigation laws, and other laws impeding the Lcilities of transportation to Southern produce ? I Vhat guarantee have we that you will not cre- 1 te a new bank, and concentrate all the finances t f this country at the North, where already, I ir the want of direct trade and a proper sys m of banking in the South, they are ruinous- i concentrated? Nay, sir, what guarantee I ave we that you will not emancipate our slaves, r r, at least, nake the attempt? We cannot c fly on your faith when you have the power. s Ihas been always broken whenever pledged. U Now, sir, as I am disposed to see this ques- L on settled as soon as possible, and am perfect- t , willing to have a final and conclusive settle- a ient now, instantly, and after what the Senator s om1 New York has said, I think it not unim- ii >rtant that I should attempt to bring the F orth and South face to face, and see what il tsources each of us might have in the contin- L mncy of separate organizations. If we never :quire another foot of territory for the South, ok at her. Eight hundred and fifty thousand , ittare miles; as large as Great Britain, France, ustria, Prusia, and Spain. Is not that terri- Il ,ry enough to make ai empire that shall rule ie world ? With the finest soil, the most de zhtful climate, whose productions none of those -cat countries can produce, we have three thou- e ad miles of continental shore-line, and so in- i nted with bays and crowded with islands, a mt. when their shore lines are allbl wn wh-, ke acknowledged seat of the empire of the orld. The sway of that valley will be as great ever the Nile knew in the earlier ages of 9 ankind. We own the most of that valley. he most valuable part of it belongs to us; aid though those who have settled above us are >w opposed to us, another generation will tell different tale. They are ours by all the laws P nature; slave labor will go over every foot of U is great valley where it will be found profita- U e to use it, and those who do not use it are on to be united with us by such ties as will ake us one and insoparable. The iron horse ill soon be clattering over the sunny plains of c e South to bear the products of its upper ibutaries to our Atlantic ports, as it now clat h rs over the ice-bound North. There is the -c Mississippi, a boud of' union made by na re's law. She will forever viiidicate her right C the Union. On this fine territory we have a >pulation four times as large as that with which 0 ese colonies separated from the mother coun- b y, and a hundred, I might say a thousand, Id as strong. Our population is now sixty per nt. greater than that of the whole United ates when we entered into the second wvar of dependence. It is as large as the whole >pulation of the United States was ten years e ir the conclusion of that war, and our exports -e three times as great as those of the whole nied States then. Upon our muster-rolls we ive a million of men. In a defensive war, upon f iemergency, every one of them would be ailable. At any time, the South can raise, ~ uip, and maintain in the field, a larger army. ian any Power of the earth can send against J r, and an army of soldiers-men brought up ihorseback, with guns in their hands. U If we take the North, even when the two rge States of Kansas and Minnesota shall beU maitted, her territory will be one hundred " Lousand square miles short of ours. 1 do not. ak of' California and Oregon ; there is no an gonism between the South and those countries, c id never will be. The population Qf the~ ?orthl fifty per cent. greater titan ours. I have noth- a g d say in disparagernent either of tho soil of s C North or the people of the North,, who are 1 brave, intelligent, energetic race, full of intel- ej t, but they produce no great staple that the t uth does not produce ; while we produce two JI -three, and those are the very greatest, that el e can never produce. As to her men, however ti gh they miay be, they have never proved them- te ves to be superior to those of the South, e ther in the field or in the senate. ti But, sir, the strength of a nation depends in a -eat measure upon its wealth, and the wealth P -a nation, like that of a man, is to be estima- ' d by its surplus production. You may go to ur trashy census books, all of which is perfect nsense, and they wvill tell you that in the a mate of Tennessee the whole number of house a riants is not equal to one half those in miy V vn house, and such things as that. You mayt certain what is made throughout the country t m these census books, but it is no matter how 'J uch is made if it is all consumed. If a man worth millions of dollars and consumes his b come, is he rich? Is lie competent to embark any new enterprise ? Can he build up ships di railroads ? And could a people in that con- li tion build ships and roads or go to war ? All o e enterprises of peace and war depend upon ii me surplus p~roductions of a people. They may y happy, they may he comfortable, they may a ijoy themselves in consuming what they make ; a at ther are not rich, they are not strong. It si ems, 'hy going to the reports of the Secre- y ry of the Treasuryywhich are authentic, that t at year the United States exported in rounde unbers $279,000,000 worth of domestic pro ace, excluding gold and foreign merchandize .ta -exported. Of this amount $158,000,000 e 'orth is the clear produce of the South ; arti- i es that are not and cannot be made at the a orth. Hero are also $80,000,000 worth of a iports of products of the forest, animal pro-t sions, and breadstuffs. If we assume that thee outh made but one third of these, and I think ia sa low calculation, our exports are $185,- i )00,000, leaving to north less than 695, )01000. In addition to thisw-je sent to the' North ;30,000.000 worth ofcotton, which is not xounted in the exports. We sent to her $8, )00,000 worth of tobaceg, which is not counted n the'exports. We seat naval stores, lumber, ice, and many other nor articles. There is io doubt that we sent the North $40,000,000 n addition; but s tpoithe amount to be$35, )00,000, and it will giyedus a surplus production >f $220,000,000. The recorded exports cf the south now are reater .han-the whole exports >f thoUnited tates i'an year before 1856. rhey are greater t;m e whble egge ex orts of the United Sttes for the last twelve rears including the two extraordinary years of 856 and 1857. They . nearly double the mount of the avem '-"exports of the twelve >receding years. If -im right in my calcula ions as to $220,000,000 of surplus produce, here is not a nation'-nithe face of the earth, ith any numerous popijation, th# can compete ith us in produce peqGaptL: It amounts to ;16.66 per he suppo g that we have twelve aillion people. Engla., with all her accumu ated wealth, with herjoncentrated and intel ectualized energy, makes.under sixteen dollars If surplus production .i head. . I have not made a ca lationas to the North, rith her $95,000,000 'urplus; but, admitting hat she exporte as m as we do, with her ighteen millions of 'IAtion, it would be but ittle'over twelve dollars Lhead at the outside. he cannot export to d abroad exceeding en dollars a head agai our sixteen dollars. I :now well enough that e. North sends to the uth a vast amount f he productions of her adustry. I'take .it bgrianted that she, at east, pays us in that waj forthe thirty or forty uillion dollars worth otc-tton and other arti les we send her. I- a*4,wlling to admit. that lie pays us considerabl re; but to bring her 1p to our amount of us production, to bring er up to $220,000 0 f surplus production, lie South must take -' m-her $125,000,000; nd this, in addition to ur share of the con uiption of the $330, 000 worth introduced ito the country from road and paid for in art by our own export The thing is absurb; is impossible; it can ever appear anywhere ut on a census statistic k; With an export of* ,000,000 under the resent tariff, the Sou torganized separately ruld have about- ,000 of revenue. Vith ope fourth the ^ t.tariff she would ave a revenue adequa all her wants, for he South would never to war; she would ever need an army or aay, beyond a few arrisons on the fronti ad a few revenue utters. It is commi , at breeds war. It in anufactures that reo 'o be hawked about ver the world, that. . -ise in nnvias nnl on mak e war on cotton? Without lii'ing a uj, without drawing a sword, when they make -ar on us we can bring the whole world to our et. The South is perfectly competent to go iu, one, two, or three years, without planting a %ed of cotton. I believe that if she was to ant but half her cotton, it would be an iu iense advantage to her. I am not so sure but it after three yeairs' cessation she would come lit stronger than ever she was before, and bet .r prepared to enter afresh upoi her great ca ,er of enterprise. What would happen if no itton was furnished for three years? I will ot stop to depict what every one can imagine, ut this is certain: Old England would topple edlonig and carry the whole civilized world ith her. No, sir, you dare not make war on tton. No power on earth dares make war pon it. Cotton is King. Until lately the Bank tEngland was king, but she tried to put her :rews as usual, the fall before last, upon the, ytton crop, and was utterly vanquiishe~d. The t power has been conquered. Who can doubt that has looked at recent events? Wheni the buse of credit had destroyed credit and anni ilated confidence, when thousands of the strong t commercial houses in the world were -comning own, and hundreds of millions of dollars of ipposed property evaporating in thin air, when ou came to a dead lock, and revolutions were reatened, what brought you up? Fortunately r you it was the commencement of the cotton ~ason, and we have poured in upon you one iillion six hundred thousand bales of cotton 1st at the crisis to' save you from sinking. 'hat cottoui, but for the bursting of your spec latie bubbles in the North, which produced e whole of this convulsion, would have brought s $100,000,000. We have sold it for $65,000, D, and saved you. Thirty-five million dollnrs e, the slave-holders of the South, have put ito the charity box~ of yoiwr magniticent fluan ers, yrour catton lords, your umorohaut princes. But, sir, the greatest strength of the South rises from .the harmony of her political and eial institutions. This harmony gives her a ame of society the best in the world, and an itent of political freedom, combined with ea r'security, such as no other people ever en yed upon the face of the earth. Society pre des government; creates it, and ought to con oh it; but as far awe can look back inl1.is yric times, we find the case different; for gov ement is no sooner created ~than it becomes )o strong for society, and shapes and moulds, a well as controls it. In later, centuries the rogress of civiliz.ation and of intelligence has inde the divergence so great as to produce civil rars and revolutions; and it is nothing now ut the want of harmony between governments nd societies which occasions all the uneasiness ud trouble and terror that we see ab'road. It as this that brought on the American Revolu on. We threw off a Government not adapted >our social system, and made one for ourselves. 'he question is, how far have we succeeded'? 'he South, so far as that is concerned, is satis ed, harmonious, and prosperous. In all social systems there must be a class to o the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of' fe. That is, a class reguiring but a low order I intelligence and but little skill. Its requis es are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class ou must have or you would not have that ther class which leads progress, irefinement,' nd civilization. It constitutes the very mud i of society and of psolitical government ; and ou might as well attenipt to build a house in he air, as to build either the one or the other, xcept on this mud-sill. Fortunately for the outh, she found a race adapted to that purpose her hand. A race inferior to her own, but minently qualified in temnper, in vigor, in docii ty, ini capacity to stand the climate, to answer 1 her purposes. We use themfor our purpose, nd call them slaves. Weare old fashioned at he South yet; it is a word discarded now by rs polite; butlI will not characterize that class t the North with that term; but you have it; is there; it is everywhere; it is eternal. The Senator from New York said yesterday that the whole world had abolished slavery. Aye, the name, but not the thing; and all the powers of the earth cannot abolish it. God only can do it when he repeali the flat, " the poor ye always have with you;" for the man who lives by daily labor, and scarcely lives at that, and who has to put out his labor in the market and take the best he can get for it; in short, your whole class of manual laborers and opera tives, as you call them, are slaves. The differ ence between us is, that our slaves are hired for life and well compensated ; there is no starva tion, no begging, no want of employmentamong our people, and not too much employment either. Yours are hired by the day, not cared for, and scantily compensated, which may be proved in the most deplorable manner, at any hour, in any street in any of your large towns. Why, sir, you meet more beggars in one day, in any single street of the city of New York, than you would meet in a lifetime in the whole South. Our slaves are black, of another, inferior race. The staias in which we have placed them is an ele vation. They are elevated from the condition in which God first created them, by being made our slaves. None of that race on the whole face of the globe can be compared with the slaves of the South, and they know it. They are happy, content, unaspiring, and utterly in capable, from intellectual degradation, ever to give us any trouble by their aspirations. . Your slaves are white, of your own race; you are brothers of one blood. They are your pquals in natural endowment of intellect, and they fiel galled by their degradation. Our slaves do not vote. We give them no political power. Yours do vote, and being the majority, they are the depositaries of all your political power. If they knew the tremendous secret, that the ballot-box is strongei than an army with bayonets, and could combine, where would you be? Your society would be reconstructed, your government recunistructed, your property divided, not as they have mistakenly attempted to initiate such proceedings by meeting in parks, with arms in their hands, but by the quiet pro cess of the ballot-box. You have been making war upon us to our very hearth-stones. How would you like for us to send lecturers or agi tators North, to teach these people this. to aid and assist in combining, and to lead them? Mr. W z.soN and others. Send then along. Mr. ILa.xiioNi). You say, send them North. There is no need of that. They are coming here. They are thundering at our doors for homesteads of onc hundred and sixty acres of land for nothing, and Southern Senators are supporting it. Nay, they are assembling, as I have said, with arms in their hands, and de manding work at $1,000 a year and six hours a day, Have you heard that the ghost of Men doza is stalkine in) thm streets of -our bie cities: U.. oue uunur-u ann nity nzon aouiars ot our money passes annually through your hands. Much of it sticks; all of it assists to keep yo'r machinery together and in motion. Suppose we were to discharge you; suppose we we.-o to take our business out of your hands; we should con sign you to anarchy and poverty. You complain of the rule of the South; that has been another cause that has preserved you. We have kept the Govermnent conservative to the great purpose of the Govermnent. We have placed her and kept her upon the Consti tution, and that has been the cau.,e of your peace and prosperity. The Senator from New York Mays that that is about to be at an end; that you intend to take the (overnnent from us; that it will pass f-rm our hands. Perhaps what ie says is true; it may be ; but do not forget it cani never be fogotten; it is written on the brightest page of human history-that we, the slaveholde3r5 of the South, took our country m her infaoncy; and, after ruling her lhr sixty out f the seventy yea.-s of her exietence, we shall surrender her to yin without a stain upon her honor, boundless in prosperity, incalculable in hier strength, the wonder and admiration of the orld. Time will show what you will make of her ; but no time cani ever diminish our glory r your responsibility. AN\W YORK LETTER. Nmew Yong, March 1st 1858. Before I " go downi to the sea in ships,'' may [ not again conmmnune with the gallant old Ad ertisr / Such communion is to mec, in the midst of strange scones and faces, like a familiar ht with an old and loved friend. A stray num ber reached me a few days since, of which I left not even an advertisemenat unscanned, and from wichi I learned that all with you goes well. So may it ever be I To-day in old Edgefield is the first of the Spring Session, and all will be business and bus tle, the old "square"' will be as thronged as Broadway-but how different the throng. All there will be of one heart and mind, South Caro linians and Christians; no freedom-shriekers nor sentimental nigger worshippers; no free-lover, o spiritualist, no Mormon, no garoter. Charles Lamb never lived in New York ; if he had, he would never have sung "the sweet security of streets I' 'Tis appalling to contemplate the poisonous doctrines, in all sorts of hideous shapes, whih are dissemminmated and prevail through ut the North, and especially in New York City. And this is to be found principally among the rabid anti-slavery factions ; free-love and its ait tendant abominations extend pari pos with abolition fanaticism, and it may be safely as serted that where we find an inveterate hater of negro slavery, we find something still worse. But better things must now be looked for, all New York being under the influence of a relig ious revival. A religious revival in New York is certainly an exception to the general truth, " nothing new under the sun I," In the City there are twelve daily public prayer-meetings, attended, it is estimated, by ten or twelve thousand souls; and the Lenten services in the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Churches arc crowded as never before. I see these meetings and hear and read a grat deal thereof, but as yet the good seems bidden in such a large field of tares, it is diill cult to discern the goodly wheat heads. A de scription of a down-town prayer meeting might lead me into unbecoming levity, therefore I for ear. Sufic it to say, that these meetings do not exceed an hour in length, and one sees such notices as this posted upon the walls, " prayers, exhortations, experiences and confessions not to consume mere than five minutes, that all may have a chance to speak," and hears such re. quests from the leader as this, " the prayers of the congregation are desired for a withered branch of the tree of life." Five minutes for a confession I they must acknowledge their sins, to use a piney woods phrase, " in the lump." For ten days back people and papers seem to be suddenly quiet concerning " bleeling Kan. sas " and the Lecompton Constitution, and I think Old Buck is no longer in danger of a five hundred-parson-power " remonstrance." The de fection of Walker from his hostile position to wards the Lecompton Constitution, seems also to have stopped the mouths of a certain mongrel democratic clique. There has been a prodigious attempt to get up a grand anti-Lecompton and anti-Administration row like Forney's in Phila delphia. This demonstration was advertised with a flourish of trumpets to come off at the elegant and spacious Academy of Music, but the prjet maafgique turned up a magnificent fail. ure, and the leaders, Historian Bancroft and Ex Secretary Stanton, came ont at the little end of the liorn. When tl6 crowd assembled, on one of the colilest nights conceivable, before the Academy, they found the doors closed. in their faces, the management refuing to let their gor geous theatre to a political mob. The meeting was perpetrated a week after in the narrow and obscure Chinese Assembly Rooms, hitherto de voted to negro minstrelsy and jugglery, but hav ing been nipped in the bud, it never became a beauteous fluwer. New York at present is pining for some violent local excitement, some exploit after the fashion of the Burdell murder; such things seem quite necessary here, and the papers are often laid down with expressions of disgust at the unim portant character of the murders, &c. Beck Cotton, as a candidate for immortality upon the score of great wickedness, would here be consid ered quite an impostor, and stand no chance of lodging in elegant style up town as does the im perishable Mrs. Burdell Cunningham. The long expected Turkish naval dignitary, Mohamed Pasha, is not yet arrived, but still ai vertised. . arm grvmng the slip to street-sweepers, who pursue you at all points, crying out " a penny, good sir, for sweeping the crossing." Some of the dear, delightid "profane stage actors" are gone while others have come in. Matthews, Broughani and Waleot, have departed, but Dion Bourcicault and Agnes Robertson, which twain are one flesh, draw throngs nightly t Wallack's little bM'on of a play-house. Bour iCauLlt has added to his already blooming bays, noher branch, a play called " Jessie Brown, or The Lelief of Lucknow," and this it is,which is now turning all theatre-goers mad. it is founded upon the following incident : Just before the re lief of Lucknow by the flighlanders, a young Scotch girl, Jessie Brown, starts from her pallet, where she is lying delirious from starvation and watching, screaming out "diuna ye hear it, din na ye hear it ? The slogan of the McGregor, the grandest of them a' They attempt to si lence her, thinking her raving, but her Scotch ears are true, and soon " The Campbells are coing ", is heard upon the breeze, and in a few minutes the walls are covered with the gallant Scotchmien. This is woveni into a tale or drama, thrilling and exciting to the last degree, and treated in a most masterly m~anner. 'Tis put up. n the stage most gorgeously, the nu.'c en scene and tableaux baffling description, all the splen ours of Eastern scener-y and costumes of High land plaids and uniforms. Bourcicault himself personates the atrocious Nana Sahib. Agnes Robertson as an actress is far more natural, easy, fascinating, than any one I have ever seen, and beautiful too she is. Her voice is perfect, and [ would desert the grandest Italian Opera any night to hear her sing'Scotch songs, especially when incidental to such scenes as aire portrayed n the glorious "Belief of Lucknow." Let me give you a little scandal. The daily papers in New York always chronicle divorce, nd will you believe that they are just as nu erous as births, marriages or deaths ? Lately there have been three among dramatic stars. The beautiful Lizzie Weston Davenport was sev ered from her lord, and married next day to harles Matthews the comedian, he having been previously, so says the injured husband, her "gay deceiver." And Jordan, of Laura Keene's Thea tre, the handsomest man in New York, parted ompany with Mrs. Jordan, an ex-danseuse, she allgigthat he " bobbed round " too much and "led captive too many silly women." He also arried again next day. As a third case, Madame Ponisi, for several years leading tragic ctress at the Broadway Theatre, put away her better half, he being " no better than he should be," and the next day (1) married a scene painter r costumer of thme establishment. Alas, that theso disciples of the buskin should so forget in private life all the beautiful morality they speak upon the boards!i Ah, I must wind up my chat with the old Edgefield Adm'ertiser," and my next confab will probably be from across the Atlantic. To all who deign to east an eye over my idle nothings, I now say, '' a smile and kind word when we meet, and a place in thy memory dear." J. T. B. THE LoxoER the saw of contention is kept in motion, the hotter it grows. 'Do you play by the ear!l' inquired2 a pupil of a dancng school fidler. "No, mny dear, 1 play y the ,tigl." ERITACTS FB OUR 00CiAR'STN JITY. Through the carelessness of some officer' of "Uncle Sam's" Post Office Department, we failed to receive " Cruan' " ever interesting letter until Wednesday, after the last paper was out. But as it pontains many readable parm. graphs we have concluded to publish it entire, with the exception of the markets, and two or three other items that would have been rather stale for this issue. CHiarEMoN, March 6th 1858. The " Lenten Season" has at last somewhat, frightened our gay young men and women out of the pasive relation which they have so stout ly maintained towards its dreaded approach, and some who were decidedly of the "fat" .orde, while balls and kickups were the order of the day and night, are now disposed to playPhari see and make clean the outside of the cup and platter, "by paying tithes of mint, anise and cummin," at the expense of "the weightier mat ters of the law." The ladies are looking out with great interest for the Spring Fashions. Our intelligence from the Northern Cities holds out very little encour agement to the economically disposed. Every lady must of course dress fully up to, if notbe yond the mark of her neighbors, cost what it may. This is one of those ancient and venera lle maxims in the Philosophy of Dress which no caviller, however antediluvian, will dare to con trovert in this enlightened age. Many beautiful varieties,of Moire Antiqueh ave been imported for the Spring season. Queen Victoria having shewn her royal preference for I this material. Silk dresses are not to be worn plain but flounced, the flounces having a border f flowers edged with fringe, ii deference to the inereasing mania for ornamental decorations. Lace, tulle and thin tissues are prepared for ball Iresses, with rose colored elvet and blonde, and olden leaves upon white dresses. An entirely ew sack cloth has been brought out from Paris, (an old style of material revived) which is said to be very novel and costly. It is black silk, very heavy, and woven so as to appear quilted, in small diamond or octagon patterns. A dregr Df it costs as much as MnW . . 'elvet. The - loak is the plain sack in shape, with ..downg ollowing are the names of the leading artistes:A Signora Marietta Gazzaniga, the celebrated Prima Donna; Miss'Adelaide Phillips- Sigiora vogado; Signor Brignoli; Signor Tagliaheo; ignor Stecchi Bottardi; Signor Amodio; Sig.. nor Assoni; Signor Coletti; Signor Muller; Sig or Quinto. With a powerful Chorus and aug. ented Orchestra. A Course of Lectures is in progress before the Jerantile Library Association by Dr. Charles Jackay, on " The Ballad Poetry of England." Our believers in Phrenology have been enter ained by several illustrated Lectures on very cu rious subjects by Prof. 0. F. Fowler of New Vork. He is said to be a very pleasant Lecturer, nd draws good houses. A portion of this week has been occupied in ~he examination of the Senior Class of tlie Col-. Lge, with a view to graduation at the approach ig commencement. Last evening was assigned or the public exercises of the Crestomathic So iety connected with the Institution. One or two robberies, fires, and Rail Road ac idents in a small way, have occurred since my Lat, but it is not particularly pleasant to your :rrespondent, nor creditable to the fair fame of ~ur City to blazon such events to the world, so I ill endeavor to entertain your readers with itente f more general interest and importance. Commissioners are now engaged in receiving ubsriptions for the contemplated Port Royal ail Road. By the way, " Port Royal" is des ~ined to become a Royal 1brl, if the Beaufort ~oys are not out in their reckoning. Active pre arations are being made for a fearful competi ion with the "Ancient City," for the enviable istinction of " the commercial emporium of the outh East." Our brethren below who have ken the lead in this great enterprise are ex eedingly sanguine, and brag over us so much iready, that our dreams have become fearfully isturbed with visions of a new and magnilent ity rising in majestic pride over the ruins of oor "Old Charleston." Rumor says there is oing to be a big new Custom House built down ere, from which Sea.Serpents and Devil-Fish will constitute an important article of Export. Two large ships drawing each 17 feet water ere towed to sea over our Bar a few days sine y steamers, The ?ilots did not seem to like is ltogeter, and came out with a manifesto in one i the papers, denying that there was so much ater on the Bar, but their statement *as met na refuted by the Captain of the Dredge Boat mnd others, to thme satisfaction of the doubting na incredulous. So look out Port Royal, or we ill pluck back a feather or two from your plume, efore you know where you are. The suspended Cadets of the Citadel Academy ae published their statement of the recent ~meute in that Institution. Its tone and temper - re more moderate than might have bgen ex eted under the circumstances, and their de-. - nce looks plausible enough, but it is impossible o form a proper judgment in such matters from. x-parte statements, either from prosecutor er efendant. The impression gains groundthat Lhere are faults onc both sides, but until both are efinitely heard, public opinion shoud 4u cndd as well as the offending Stednt Men are like bugles ;the mare brassthey con ain, the furher you can bearthem. o!mlenre. ike tulips; the more modest and retiring. they ppear, the better youdove them.