A VOICE FROMSouth CarolinaTwelve Chapters Before Hampton and Two
Chapters after Hampton |
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A VOICE FROMSouth CarolinaTwelve Chapters Before Hampton and Two
Chapters after Hampton |
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| CHAPTER FIRST - INTRODUCTORY South Carolina can proudly point to a galaxy of historic names, who have illustrated her fame in every period of her past history. Through these her voice has already been heard in tones which will reach the latest posterity. In the dark days of the Revolution, this voice could be heard in such clarion notes as her Moultries, her Sumters, and her Marions could utter, to electrify to new life her people, though overrun and all but conquered. In the formation of the government, it has been heard, in no faltering accents, from her Pinckneys, her Laurenses, her Rutledges and her Heywards— equals among equals—statesmen, who were jealous of her liberty so dearly purchased. These only consented to her association with her sister colonies, when they thought this liberty was hedged in by every safeguard which human wisdom could devise. It has been heard in the halls of State and Federal legislation, from the tongues of Calhoun, Hayne, McDuffie, Preston, and a long list of worthies, whose names will ever adorn the annals of the past. Giants in intellect, who could embellish profound and ennobling statesmanship and patriotism, with unsullied integrity, and the purity of the high-toned gentleman. But this potent voice has long been hushed, and her approaching " centennial year " will find her in habiliments of mourning—silent and sad. Most of her sisters who began the race with her, and very many of those younger ones, who are but of yesterday, and who owe so much to her sacrifice of blood and treasure, will then be rejoicing in their prosperity, and have already invited the whole world to witness their progress and their greatness. She, almost alone of the " Old Thirteen," will turn her face to the wall, and will feel no responsive throb to the rejoicings over this national jubilee. UJi one short century, she seems to have run her whole career of rise, progress, decline and fallr, She has the same bright sky above her, as in her palmiest days; the same broad rivers flowing from her mountains to the seaboard; the same fertile soil and genial climate; but "Tis Greece; but living Greece no more," yet, unlike ancient Greece, how short-lived has been her glory! Her most bitter enemies must admit that her, so-called, leaders have maintained a dignified silence since her fall. Even those who watch so assiduously to catch up and pervert every chance expression of Ex-President Davis, have found nothing to report from them. These gentlemen show that it is the part of true manhood to endure what is unavoidable, as well as to dare; and that fortitude is, in many respects, a higher virtue than bravery. This " Voice from South Carolina," comes from one of her humble sons, whose earnest desire is to cling but the closer to her side in the day of her humiliation. He feels irresistibly impelled to publish to the world that the grand old Slate, declared to be free, sovereign and independent, an hundred years ago, is now deposed, gagged, and trampled in the dust. Her seat and name has been usurped by a brazen-faced strumpet, foisted upon her "high places" by the hands of strangers; her proud monuments of the past, all begrimed and vandalized; her sacred treasury thrown wide open to the insatiable rapacity of thieves and robbers; and her bright escutcheon blackened by every crime known to the decalogue. All these, too, have been the legitimate fruits of deliberate legislation on the part of her sister States, in Congress assembled; peopled, like herself, by the descendants of that glorious old Anglo-Saxon race, whose achievements on this continent have filled the world with amazement and admiration. Could our common ancestors ever have foreseen this? Can posterity ever account for the " madness of the hour," in States, having the same lineage, combining to drive one of the number from the folds of civilization into the dark despotism of African rule? And yet, South Carolina today presents the terrible picture of a great American State abandoned to the tender mercies of her former slaves, exasperated and maddened by the teachings and guidance of foreign mercenaries and native desperadoes. Her living sons, whom she once delighted to honor, and whose hearts still throb with undying love and devotion, are powerless and voiceless. For them there is no arena amid scenes like these, and no tribunal to which they can appeal. The indications now are, that the grand old type of the " Southern gentleman" will soon pass from the stage of active life to the dark mausoleum of the great Past. Hereafter he is to be associated with the "Patriarchs," the "Areopagites," and the " Conscript-Fathers," who have, from age to age, illustrated the higher and nobler qualities of our common humanity. With him, State-pride was his idolatry, and honor was his life. Born to command, he was ever too high above the venal place-man and office-seeker, ever to stoop to the low arts of the mere politician and demagogue. What Webster said of Calhoun, in his noble eulogy over that great statesman, might be said of the whole class, of whom Mr. Calhoun was the honored exponent : " Nothing low or selfish ever came near the head or heart of Calhoun. Those who carped at this type of character, mainly from natural want of appreciation, disguised their envy or their fear under the cant phrases of " Southern chivalry," " Slaveocracy," &c. . But to this class is mainly due all the statesmanship and dignity which have adorned our government. Since these have been excluded from the councils of the nation, congressional legislation has become little more than the registering of party edicts. Railroad rings, Credit Mobilier rings, back-pay grabs, &c, had already nauseated the public, when the recent investigations bid fair to bring bribery, fraud and corruption to the very threshold of the Chief Executive of the Republic. In the days of the sway of " Southern chivalry," such mortifying and disgusting exhibitions in our high places would have been moral impossibilities. And what have these reconstructionists given us in the place of a civilization so ruthlessly destroyed? What type of citizen, in the once proud old commonwealth of South Carolina, can now look for place or preferment ? The phrase used to be, to " aspire" to posts of profit and trust, but in this complete revolution, the aspirant must learn to stoop to the very lowest arts of the demagogue. He must so debase himself in political pollution that he can never again look his former associates in the face, or claim the smallest remnant of self respect." Dirt eating in regular and constantly increasing rations, is the only diet to change his nature, and fit him to become a loyal citizen of this mongrel Dahomey. And what hope is there for the rising generation, in a civilization like this ? The land-marks of the fathers all obliterated, and the teachings of history, as well as of the fireside, all reversed. What can all these avail, when he sees vice rolling in wealth, and virtue covered with rags; the liar and thief clothed in the regalia of the highest offices, and the true and patriotic happy if only they can escape the dungeon ; and he who can stoop the lowest in infamy, reaping the largest pecuniary rewards, while the pure and the noble are worn down by daily toil for their daily bread. There is a terrible weight of responsibility somewhere for this horrible state of things in a Christian land and in the full light of the civilization of the nineteenth century. The true-born son of the soil feels that it is not on him. In the great national conflict, of which this was the direful sequel, he was only carrying out the teachings of his Revolutionary sires, and the promptings of his own manhood. To avert these very calamities he has sacrificed all, save his honor, and voiceless and powerless, he can only endure. The " bills of mortality " tell a sad tale of many of these who had passed the meridian of their powers; reminding us, mournfully, of what is so often sung thoughtlessly: "For Freedom now so seldom wakes,. The only throb she gives, Is when some heart indignant breaks, To tell that still she lives." In all the grief and mourning of our stricken State over her " Lost Cause" there are found no tears of penitence. She still proudly points to the records of i860; and it is her chief solace that she has attempted all in her power to avert these very calamities, which she then believed to be inevitable. . It is not the design of this little book to undertake a vindication of the right of secession. This has already been done by far abler pens, and the verdict of impartial history may calmly be awaited on that point The writer, however, must be pardoned for giving his testimony against the charge that the act of secession in South Carolina was the work of political leaders. On the contrary, it was one of the grandest spectacles of the unanimous up-rising of a whole people, the world has ever seen. The " leaders" hesitated at the bold step; the people pushed them aside and came squarely up to the issue. The high and the low, the rich and the poor, the male and the female, the clergy and the laity, the brave and the timid, all, all were of one accord in the " Rebellion" of 1860. The tories in 1776 who still adhered to the British crown, were as one hundred to one, when compared to the " Union men" in 1860, in point of numbers; and in character and standing, were vastly superior. When the passions of men shall have had time to cool down, and the deadly hate so long cherished shall have died out with the generation who have fomented it, the course of South Carolina, in what is called her secession mania, will not appear so reckless and mad as our present (Northern) school histories represent it. The moral mania on the other side will then come more prominently forward, and even their posterity will wonder at the madness that ruled the hour. Slavery was the occasion of all this mania on both sides, and posterity will know the facts of the case, without being distempered by morbid sentiment. A calm review of these facts will show, that as long as slavery and the slave-trade continued to be sources of profit, the conscience of the majority slept quietly enough over their great enormities. After a more full development of their appropriate industries, it was found that the slave was an incubus, and he was quietly shipped and sold where his services were regarded as still indispensable. Being thus happily relieved of his presence, and reimbursed for his pecuniary value, they abolished the institution in their own States; and these same consciences then became most painfully sensitive to the sins of their neighbors, on whom they had palmed their whole load of fancied guilt. It will not then be forgotten, that, at the time of the adoption of the constitution, all the States were slave-holding, with a single exception; that slavery was fully recognized and gauranteed in the fundamental law of the land, and that all efforts at its abolition were really acts of disloyalty to the government. Yet an anti-slavery sentiment did spring up, at first confined to those despicable and troublesome spirits to be found in every country, who attempt to draw off public attention from their own misdeeds by a great outcry against the faults of others for which they are in no sense responsible. But this little cloud, at first no bigger than a man's hand, afterwards darkened and blackened the whole political sky. A generation arose who had imbibed with their mother's milk this moral prejudice, and had been incessantly taught from their earliest infancy, in the home-circle, in the school, in the public prints, in every harangue before the people, and even in the Sanctuary of God, to regard slavery as the sum of all iniquities, and a blot upon the body politic, which it was their mission to remove. Is it to be wondered at that a generation thus indoctrinated should early begin a crusade against this, the greatest of national sins? And when they themselves became the actors upon the public arena, what limit could be fixed to their moral mania? Every political question became subordinate to this, and no aspirant for popular favor could hope for success without adopting as his own the watchword— carthago est delenda. This tornado of fanaticism overspread whole States, and soon controlled the public sentiment of the dominant section of the Union. Already was a President elected by a strictly sectional vote, and there was every probability that a majority in Congress would soon be secured, which, by its omnipotence in controlling every other department of government, would leave no ground for hope. A mighty revolution was thus effected, and the government of the United States, based on a written constitution, was to be changed into a huge party engine, to carry out hostile sectional policies. The constitution had already become a dead letter, and the will of the majority was to become the supreme law of the land. Congress, so jealously checked by the fathers, through the co-ordinate branches of the executive and judiciary, was henceforth to exercise the omnipotence claimed by the Parliament of Great Britain. This was not the union for which South Carolina had made such sacrifices, neither was this the government for the maintenance of which she had plighted her faith and her sacred honor. She had unanimously entered into a solemn league and covenant with homogeneous States and allies, in solemn convention assembled; again, in solemn convention assembled, she as unanimously withdrew from this union, when it was revolutionized into a consolidated government, controlled by a hostile party. And yet this solemn and formal expression of the sovereign will of the whole people of a State, has been branded as a "Rebellion"; and the secession of ten States from a revolutionized Union, has been stigmatized as an" Insurrection!" Twice before, since the formation of the government, had the State gone into convention from her jealousy of oppression and zeal for States' Rights; but on each of these occasions her people were nearly equally divided. This was not owing to any difference of opinion as to the wrongs complained of, but on the question whether the remedy would be best found within or without the Union. In 1860, those who hoped for any redress within the Union were the merest handful, held back more from pride of opinion than from any real love to the government as it then was. As to the convention itself, take the following sketch of it, drawn by a master pen. The Rev. Dr. Thornwell stood too high in public estimation ever to stoop to flattery; and was too great a devotee to truth ever to exaggerate in the smallest particular. In an article written for the "Southern Presbyterian Review" of 1860, and headed, "The State of the Country," he said: " That there was a cause, and an adequate cause, might be presumed from the character of the convention which passed the Ordinance of Secession, and the perfect unanimity with which it was done. The convention was not a collection of politicians and demagogues. It was not a conclave of defeated place-hunters, who sought to avenge their disappointment by the ruin of their country. It was a body of grave, sober and venerable men, selected from every pursuit in life, and distinguished, most of them, in their respective spheres, by every quality which can command confidence and respect. It embraced the wisdom, moderation and integrity of the bench; the learning and prudence of the bar; and the eloquence and learning of the pulpit. It contained retired planters, scholars and gentlemen, who stood aloof from the turmoil and ambition of public life, and were devoting an elegant leisure to the culture of their minds, and to quiet and unobtrusive schemes of Christian philanthropy. There were men in that convention utterly incapable of low and selfish schemes, who, in the calm serenity of their judgments, were as unmoved by the waves of popular passion and excitement, as the everlasting granite by the billows that roll against it. There were men there who would listen to no voice but the voice of reason; and would bow to no authority but what they believed to be the authority of God. There were men there who would not be controlled by uncertain opinion nor be betrayed into sudden counsels; men who would act from nothing, in the noble language of Milton, but from mature wisdom, deliberate virtue, and the dear affection of the public good. That convention, in the character of its members, deserves every syllable of the glowing panegyric which Milton pronounced upon the immortal Parliament of Great Britain which taught the nations of the earth that resistance to tyrants was obedience to God. Were it not invidious, we might single out names, which, wherever they are known, are regarded as synonymous with purity, probity, magnanimity and honor. It was a noble body, and all their proceedings were in harmony with their high character. In the midst of intense agitation and excitement, they were calm, cool, collected and self-possessed. They deliberated without passion, and concluded without rashness. They sat with closed doors, that the tumult of the population might not invade the sobriety of their minds. If a stranger could have passed from the stirring scenes with which the streets of Charleston were alive, into the calm and quiet sanctuary of this venerable council, he would have been impressed with the awe and veneration which subdued the rude Gaul, when he first beheld, in senatorial dignity, the Conscript-Fathers of Rome. That in such a body there was not a single vote against the Ordinance of Secession; that there was not only no dissent, justified by the clearest and sternest necessities of justice and of right. That such an assembly should have inaugurated a radical revolution in all the external relations of the State, in the face of acknowledged dangers, and at the risk of enormous sacrifices, and should have done it gravely, soberly, dispassionately, deliberately, and yet have done it without cause, transcends all the measures of probability. Whatever else may be said of it, it certainly must be admitted that this solemn act of South Carolina was well considered. |
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