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all the restraints of political responsibility, and we should have the best CONVENTION security which human wisdom has yet devised against oppressive legislation.

But the fact is precisely the reverse of this. The majority in Congress, in imposing protecting duties, which are utterly destructive of the interests of South Carolina, not only impose no burthens, but actually confer enriching bounties upon their constituents, proportioned to the burthens they impose upon us. Under these circumstances, the principle of representative responsibility is perverted into a principle of absolute despotism. It is this very tie, binding the majority of Congress to execute the will of their constituents, which makes them our inexorable oppressors. They dare not open their hearts to the sentiments of human justice, or to the feelings of human sympathy. They are tyrants by the very necessity of their position, however elevated may be their principles, in their individual capacities.

The grave question, then, which we have had to determine, as the Sovereign Power of the State, upon the awful responsibility under which we have acted, is, whether we will voluntarily surrender the glorious inheritance, purchased and consecrated by the toils, the sufferings and the blood of an illustrious ancestry, or transmit that inheritance to our posterity, untarnished and undiminished. We could not hesitate in deciding this question. We have, therefore, deliberately and unalterably, resolved, that we will no longer submit to a system of oppression, which reduces us to the degrading condition of tributary vassals; and which would reduce our posterity, in a few generations, to a state of poverty and wretchedness, that would stand in melancholy contrast with the beautiful and delightful region, in which the Providence of God has cast our destinies.

Having formed this resolution, with a full view of all its bearings, and of all its probable and possible issues, it is due to the gravity of the subject, and the solemnity of the occasion, that we should speak to our confederate brethren, in the plain language of frankness and truth. Though we plant ourselves upon the Constitution, and the immutable principles of justice, and intend to operate exclusively through the civil tribunals and civil functionaries of the State; yet, we will throw off this oppression, at every hazard. We believe our remedy to be essentially peaceful. We believe the Federal Government has no shadow of right or authority, to act against a sovereign State of the Confederacy, in any form, much less to coerce it by military power. But we are aware of the diversities of human opinion, and have seen too many proofs of the infatuation of human power, not to have looked, with the most anxious concern, to the possibility of a resort to military or naval force on the part of the Federal Government-and in order to obviate the possibility of having the history of this contest stained by a single drop of fraternal blood, we have solemnly and irrevocably resolved, that we will regard such a resort as a dissolution of the political ties which connect us with our confederate states; and will, forthwith, provide for the organization of a new and separate Government.

We implore you, and particularly the manufacturing states, not to believe that we have been actuated, in adopting this resolution, by any feeling of resentment or hostility towards them; or by a desire to dissolve the political bonds which have so long united our common destinies. We still cherish that rational devotion to the Union, by which this State has been pre-eminently distinguished in all times past. But that blind and idolatrous devotion, which would bow down and worship

DOCUMENTS. 1832.

DOCUMENTS.

CONVENTION Oppression and Tyranny, veiled under that consecrated title—if it ever 1832. existed amongst us-has now vanished forever. CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY is the only idol of our political devotion; and, to preserve that, we will not hesitate a single moment to surrender the Union itself, if the sacrifice be necessary. If it had pleased God to cover our eyes with ignorance-if he had not bestowed upon us the understanding to comprehend the enormity of the oppression under which we labor-we might submit to it without absolute degradation and infamy. But the gifts of Providence cannot be neglected, or abused, with impunity. A people, who deliberately submit to oppression, with a full knowledge that they are oppressed, are fit only to be slaves; and all history proves that such a people will soon find a master. It is the pre-existing spirit of slavery, in the people, that has made tyrants in all ages of the world. No tyrant ever made a slave-no community, however small, having the spirit of freemen, ever yet had a master. The most illustrious of those states which have given to the world examples of human freedom, have occupied territories not larger than some of the districts of South Carolina; while the largest masses of population that were ever united under a common Government, have been the abject, spiritless and degraded slaves of despotic rulers. We sincerely hope, therefore, that no portion of the states of this Confederacy will permit themselves to be deluded into any measures of rashness, by the vain imagination that South Carolina will vindicate her rights and liberties, with a less inflexible and unfaltering resolution, with a population of some half a million, than she would do with a population of twenty millions.

It does not belong to freemen to count the costs, and calculate the hazards of vindicating their rights, and defending their liberties; and even if we should stand alone in the worst possible emergency of this great controversy, without the co-operation or encouragement of a single State of the confederacy, we will march forward with an unfaultering step, until we have accomplished the object of this great enterprise.

Having now presented, for the consideration of the Federal Government and our confederate states, the fixed and final determination of this State, in relation to the protecting system, it remains for us to submit a plan of taxation, in which we would be willing to acquiesce, in a spirit of liberal concession, provided we are met in due time, and in a becoming spirit, by the states interested in the protection of manufac

tures.

We believe, that upon every just and equitable principle of taxation, the whole list of protected articles should be imported free of all duty, and that the revenue derived from import duties, should be raised exclusively from the unprotected articles; or that whenever a duty is imposed upon protected articles imported, an excise duty of the same rate, should be imposed upon all similar articles manufactured in the United States. This would be as near an approach to perfect equality as could possibly be made, in a system of indirect taxation. No substantial reason can be given for subjecting manufactures, obtained from abroad, in exchange for the productions of South Carolina, to the smallest duty, even for revenue, which would not show that similar manufactures made in the United States, should be subject to the very same rate of duty. The former, not less than the latter, are, to every rational intent, the productions of domestic industry, and the mode of acquiring the one, is as lawful and more conducive to the public prosperity, than that of acquiring

the other.

DOCUMENTS.

But we are willing to make a large offering to preserve the Union; CONVENTION and with a distinct declaration that it is a concession on our part, we 1832. will consent that the same rate of duty may be imposed upon the protected articles that shall be imposed upon the unprotected, provided that no more revenue be raised than is necessary to meet the demands of the Government for Constitutional purposes; and provided also, that a duty, substantially uniform, be imposed upon all foreign imports.

It is obvious, that even under this arrangement, the manufacturing states would have a decided advantage over the planting states. For it is demonstrably evident that, as communities, the manufacturing states would bear no part of the burthens of Federal Taxation, so far as the revenue should be derived from protected articles. The earnestness with which their representatives seek to increase the duties on these articles, is conclusive proof that those duties are bounties, and not burthens, to their constituents. As at least two-thirds of the federal revenue would be raised from protected articles, under the proposed modification of the Tariff, the manufacturing states would be entirely exempted from all participation i hat proportion of the public burthens.

Under these circumstances, we cannot permit ourselves to believe, for a moment, that in a crisis marked by such portentous and fearful omens, those states can hesitate in acceding to this arrangement, when they perceive that it will be the means, and possibly the only means, of restoring the broken harmony of this great confederacy. They, most assuredly, have the strongest of human inducements, aside from all considerations of justice, to adjust this controvery, without pushing it to extremities. This can be accomplished only by the proposed modification of the Tariff, or by the call of a general Convention of all the states. If South Carolina should be driven out of the Union, all the other planting States, and some of the Western States, would follow by an almost absolute necessity. Can it be believed that Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and even Kentucky, would continue to pay a tribute of fifty per cent, upon their consumption, to the Northern States, for the privilege of being united to them, when they could receive all their supplies through the ports of South Carolina, without paying a single cent of tribute?

The separation of South Carolina would inevitably produce a general dissolution of the Union; and as a necessary consequence, the protecting system, with all its pecuniary bounties to the Northern States, and its pecuniary burthens upon the Southern States, would be utterly overthrown and demolished, involving the ruin of thousands and hundreds of thousands in the manufacturing States.

By these powerful considerations connected with their own pecuniary interests, we beseech them to pause and contemplate the disastrous consequences which will certainly result from an obstinate perseverance on their part, in maintaining the protecting system. With them, it is a question merely of pecuniary interest, connected with no shadow of right, and involving no principle of liberty. With us, it is a question involving our most sacred rights-those very rights which our common ancestors left to us as a common inheritance, purchased by their common toils, and consecrated by their blood. It is a question of liberty on the one hand, and slavery on the other. If we submit to this system of unconstitutional oppression, we shall voluntarily sink into slavery, and transmit that ignominious inheritance to our children. We will not, we cannot, we dare not, submit to this degradation; and our resolve is fixed and unalterable, that VOL. I.-45.

DOCUMENTS 1832.

CONVENTION a protecting tariff shall be no longer enforced within the limits of South Carolina. We stand upon the principles of everlasting justice, and no human power shall drive us from our position.

We have not the slightest apprehension that the General Government will attempt to force this system upon us by military power. We have warned our brethren of the consequences of such an attempt. But if, notwithstanding, such a course of madness should be pursued, we here solemnly declare, that this system of oppression shall never prevail in South Carolina, until none but slaves are left to submit to it. We would infinitely prefer that the territory of the State should be the cemetery of freemen, than the habitation of slaves. Actuated by these principles, and animated by these sentiments, we will cling to the pillars of the temple our liberties, and if it must fall, we will perish amidst the ruins.

RESOLUTIONS

RESPECTING THE PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

ADOPTED, DECEMBER 17, 1832.

(See Pamphlet Laws, Reports and Resolutions of 1832, p. 37.)

In the House of Representatives, December 17, 1832.

Whereas, The President of the United States has issued his proclamation, denouncing the proceedings of this State, calling upon the citizens to renounce their primary allegiance, and threatening them with military coercion, unwarranted by the Constitution, and utterly inconsistent with the existence of a free State; be it therefore,

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested, forthwith, to issue his proclamation, warning the good people of this State against the attempt of the President of the United States to seduce them from their allegiance, exhorting them to disregard his vain menaces, and to be prepared to sustain the dignity, and protect the liberty of the State, against the arbitrary measures proposed by the President.

Resolved, That the House do agree to the preamble and resolution. Ordered, that it be sent to the Senate for their concurrence.

By order of the House.

Resolved, That Senate do concur. House of Representatives. By order

R. ANDERSON, C. H. R.

In the Senate, December 17, 1832. Ordered to be returned to the of Senate.

JACOB WARLEY, C. S.

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