572 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



act, however atrocious, and every person, how- 

 ever covered over with "multiplying villainies," 

 that may promote its diabolical ends, or worship 

 at its infernal altars. By its unholy creed, murder 

 itself becomes a labor of love and charily, and the 

 felon renegado who flies from the justice of his 

 country, finds not only a refuge, but becomes a 

 sainted minister in the sanctuary of its temple. 

 No error can be more mischievous, than to under- 

 rate the danger of such a principle, and no policy 

 can be more fatal, than to neglect it, from a con- 

 tempt for the supposed insignificance of its agents. 

 The experience of both Fiance and Great Britain, 

 fearfully instruct us, from what small and con- 

 temptible beginnings, this ami des noirs philan- 

 thropy may rise to a gigantic power, too mighty 

 to be resisted by all the influence and energy of 

 the government; in the one case, shrouding a 

 wealthy and flourishing island in the blood of its 

 inhabitants; in the other, literally driving the min- 

 istry, by means of an instructed Parliament, to 

 perpetuate that act of suicidal legislation and co- 

 lonial oppression, the emancipation oi'slaves in the 

 British West Indies. It may be not unaptly com- 

 pared to the element of fire, of which a neglected 

 spark, amongst combustible materials, which a 

 timely stamp of the foot might have extinguished 

 forever, speedily swells into a sweeping torrent of 

 fiery desolation, which no human power can ar- 

 rest or control. In the opinion of intelligent West 

 India planters, it is because the local authorities, 

 from a sense of false security, neglected to hang 

 up the first of these political missionaries that 

 made their appearance on the British islands, that 

 they are doomed to barrenness and desertion, and 

 to be the wretched abodes of indolent and profli- 

 gate blacks, exhibiting in their squalid poverty, 

 gross immorality, and slavish subjection to an iron 

 despotism of British bayonets, the fatal mockery 

 of all the promised blessings of emancipation. 



Under these circumstances, and in this critical 

 conjuncture of our affairs, the solemn and respon- 

 sible duty devolves on the legislature of "taking 

 care that the republic receive no detriment." 



The crime which these foreign incendiaries have 

 committed against the peace of the state, is one 

 of the very highest grade known to human laws. 

 It not only strikes at the very existence of society, 

 but seeks to accomplish the catastrophe, by the 

 most horrible means, celebrating the obsequies of 

 the state in a saturnial carnival of blood and 

 murder, and while brutally violating all the chari- 

 ties of life, and desecrating the very altars of reli- 

 gion, impiously calling upon heaven to sanction 

 these abominations. It is my deliberate opinion, 

 that the laws of every community should punish 

 this species of interference by death without ben- 

 efit of clergy, regarding the authors of it as "ene- 

 mies of the human race." Nothing could be more 

 appropriate than for South Carolina to set this ex- 

 ample in the present crisis, and I trust the legisla- 

 ture will not adjourn till it discharges this high 

 duty of patriotism. 



It cannot be disguised, however, that any laws 

 which may be enacted by the authority of this 

 state, however adequate to punish and repress of- 

 fences committed within its limits, will be wholly 

 insufficient to meet the exigencies of the present 

 conjuncture. If we go no farther than this, we 

 had as well do nothing. These outrages against 

 the peace and safety of the state are perpetrated 



in other communities, which hold and exercise so- 

 vereign and exclusive jurisdiction over all persons 

 and things within their territorial limits. It is 

 within these limits, protected from responsibility to 

 our laws by the sovereignty of the states in which 

 they reside, that the authors of all this mischief, 

 securely concoct their schemes, plant their batte- 

 ries, and hurl their fiery missiles among us, aimed 

 at that mighty magazine of combustible matter, 

 the explosion of which would lay the state in ru- 

 ins. 



It will, therefore, become our imperious duty, 

 recurring to those great principles of international 

 law, which still exist in all their primitive force 

 amongst the sovereign states of this confederacy, 

 to demand of our sovereign associates the condign 

 punishment of those enemies of our peace, who 

 avail themselves of the sanctuaries of their re- 

 spective jurisdictions, to cany on schemes of in- 

 cendiary hostility against the institutions, the safe- 

 ty, and the existence of the state. In performing 

 this high duty, to which we are constrained by the 

 great law of self-preservation, let us approach our 

 co-states with all the fraternal mildness which be- 

 comes us as members of the same family of con- 

 federated republics, and at the same time with that 

 firmness and decision, which becomes a sovereign 

 state while maintaining her dearest interests and 

 most sacred rights. 



For the institution of domestic slavery we hold 

 ourselves responsible only to God, and it is utterly 

 incompatible with the dignity and the safety of 

 the state, to permit any foreign authority 1o ques- 

 tion our right to maintain it. It may nevertheless 

 be appropriate, as a voluntary token of our respect 

 for the opinions of our confederate brethren, to 

 present some views to their consideration on this 

 subject, calculated to disabuse their minds of false 

 opinions and pernicious prejudices. 



No human institution, in my opinion, is more 

 manifestly consistent with the will of God, than 

 domestic slavery, and no one of his ordinances is 

 written in more legible characters than that which 

 consigns the. African race to this condition, as 

 more conducive to their own happiness, than any 

 other of which they are susceptible. Whether we 

 consult the sacred scriptures, or the lights of na- 

 ture and reason, we shall find these truths as abun- 

 dantly apparent, as if written with a sunbeam in 

 the heavens. Under both the Jewish and chris- 

 tian dispensations of our religion, domestic slavery 

 existed with the unequivocal sanction of its proph- 

 ets, its apostles, and finally its great Author. The 

 patriarchs themselves, those cbosen instruments 

 of God, were slave-holders. In fact, the divine 

 sanction of this institution is so plainly written, 

 that "he who runs may read" it, and those over- 

 righteous pretenders and Pharisees, who affect to 

 be scandalized by its existeuce among us, would 

 do well to inquire how much more nearly they 

 walk in the ways of godliness than did Abraham, 

 Isaac and Jacob. That the African negro is des- 

 tined by Providence to occupy this condition of 

 servile dependence, is not less manifest. It is 

 marked on the face, stamped on the skin, and 

 evinced by the intellectual inferiority, and natural 

 improvidence of his race. They have all the 

 qualities that fit them for slaves, and not one of 

 those that would fit them to be freemen. They 

 are utterly unqualified, not only for rational free- 

 dom, but for self-government of any kind. They 



