And ought we not to consider consequences? Patriotism demands of us not to run madly on to our country's ruin, and secession by our State alone must prove ruinous. What, though no hostile army may invade our soil, the United States must and will oppose us. Charleston will be shut out from the rest of the world; her commerce perish; her merchants leave her in despair; while from her very suburbs our rice and cotton shall be carried to Savannah and Augusta for a market. Even now the rivalry of Savannah is not to be contemned, but let our State secede from the Union and Charleston must become a desolation. Nor will the blight fall on Charleston only, but on all the State; while our taxes increased seven-fold, and the heat of the present agitation cooling off, our very leaders, if they should prove too proud to be found knocking at the door of the Union for admission, shall join the many thousands of our poverty-stricken people in their flight from their ruined homes to more favored parts. Can patriotism demand the sacrifice? Patriotism demand the sacrifice of the State! No; never

Let us then, fellow-citizens, review our ground. If a convention we must have, let it not be a convention of boys and half-made men, but of the wise and sober-minded. There is no battle to be fought for glory by secession, but a fearful struggle with poverty, high taxes and hard times, without hope of improvement, and great and sore humiliation. And may God grant us deliverance.

(Signed)

Charleston, February 6th, 1851.

WILLIAM CAPERS.

CHAPTER VI.

Convention of 1852.

N pursuance of the act of the Legislature authorising the same, elections were held in October of the

year 1851 for delegates to the proposed Congress of the Southern States, and also for delegates to the Convention of the people when the same should be called by the Governor. The Legislature of 1851 fixed the time for the assembly of this Convention on the fourth Monday in April, 1852. In looking over the list of the delegates elected to this most important Convention, it is apparent that the people had selected their "wise and sober-minded" men. It was indeed a notable body, composed of men who, in the State's service, had established their characters for wisdom and moderation, and were honored with the confidence and respect of their fellow-citizens. This Convention is most notable in the history of the State for having very wisely done nothing. Shortly after being convened, on motion of the Hon. Langdon Cheves, a Committee of Twenty-one was raised, to whom was referred the act of the General Assembly entitled "An act to provide for the appointment of Deputies to a Southern Congress, and to call a Convention of the people of this State," with instructions to consider and report upon the same. The president of the Convention announced the following as the Committee of Twenty-one provided for in the resolution:

1. Langdon Cheves.
2. J. P. Richardson.
3. W. B. Seabrook.
4. A. P. Butler.
5. D. E. Huger,
Barnwell.

6. R. W.
7. J. N. Whitner.

15

8. J. J. Evans.
9. D. L. Wardlaw.
10. Edward Frost.
11. B. F. Dunkin.
12. F. H. Wardlaw.
13. B. F. Perry.
14. Maxey Gregg.
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15. J. Buchanan.
16. F. W. Pickens.
17. E. Bellinger, Jr.
18. I. W. Hayne.
19. W. W. Harlee.
20. Henry Arthur.
21. Samuel McAliley.

Pending the deliberations of this committee, several resolutions were introduced and debated, and votes taken which clearly indicated that the Conservative or Co-operation party were largely in the majority. On the fourth day of the session the Committee of Twenty-one submitted, through the Hon. Langdon Cheves, the following report:

The Committee of Twenty-one, to whom was referred an act to provide for the election of Deputies to a Southern Congress, and the call of a Convention, with instructions to report thereon, respectfully report that they have considered the subject referred to them, and have concluded to recommend to the Convention the adoption of the accompanying resolution and ordinance:

Resolved by the people of South Carolina in Convention assembled, That the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States by the Federal government and its encroachment upon the reserved rights of the sovereign States of this Union, especially in relation to slavery, amply justify this State, so far as any duty or obligation to her confederates is involved, in dissolving at once all political connection with her co-States, and that she forbears the exercise of this manifest right of self-government from considerations of expediency only.

An Ordinance to declare the right of this State to secede from the Federal Union.

We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That South Carolina, in the exercise of her sovereign will as an independent State, acceded to the Federal Union, known as the United States of America; and that in the exercise of the same sovereign will it is her right, without let, hindrance or molestation from any power whatever to secede from the said Federal Union; and that for the sufficiency of the causes which may impel her to such separation she is responsible alone, under God, to the tribunal of public opinion among the nations of the earth.

To this report there were two minority reports-one by the Unionists, submitted by Hon. Benjamin F. Perry, and one by the Secessionists, submitted by Hon. Maxey Gregg. Mr. Memminger asked leave of the Convention to read a statement of his own opinions, and of those agreeing with him, and moved that it be printed and laid upon the table. Objection was made to printing, but the document was received and laid upon the table.

This statement was in the form of an argument to show that while secession was a right which a sovereign State had, that its exercise was not necessarily one that would not be resisted. He quoted from Mr. Calhoun, claiming that the only just consequence of the State's accession to the Federal Union as a sovereign, was in her right to resume that sovereignty, with all the attributes and all the responsibilities of a sovereign; and that as a sovereign and independent State South Carolina had entered into a compact with other sovereign States, and that there was a mutual obligation which all were bound to observe and to perform in respecting the rights of each other. He held that the State was the judge of the sufficiency and the justness of the cause which would lead her to abrogate the compact of association, but that the other States, as sovereign parties to the compact, were not of necessity bound or concluded by her judgment, having an equal sovereign right to judge for themselves and that the justice of the cause alone can make the abrogation of the compact right. There being no rule or law of infallibility, the other States might conclude that the cause was insufficient; however South Carolina might determine the matter, and if they should so hold, there being no tribunal among sovereigns to which resort might be had for judg ment, the other States might, and in his opinion would, resort to means to enforce her to an observance of the compact and to hinder her from abrogating it if they could do So. For these reasons secession to Mr. Memminger, and to those who thought with him, meant war, and he was unwilling to move until the State was ready in her resources for such a contingency. The report of the Committee of Twentyone he approved with this amendment, in lieu of the declaration that the State had the right "without let, hindrance or molestation" to secede from the Union. He did not believe, in fact he was assured, that South Carolina was not prepared to meet the consequences of the act, and that the

object desired to be accomplished by secession could only be attained by the united action of all of the Southern States in sympathy with the movement.

This view of the consequences of separate State action is substantially the same as that heretofore placed before the reader in the address delivered at the "Co-operation" meeting in Charleston.

The Secessionists in the Convention were much disappointed by the report of the Committee of Twenty-one. Several amendments and substitutes were offered, but the conservative members of the Convention were largely in the majority, and voted these down in the order in which they were submitted. As an illustration of the temper that pervaded the Secession delegates, I extract from the Journal the following: "Mr. John Bellinger moved to amend the majority report by adding thereto the following ordinance: 'That the Legislature of South Carolina shall have the power, by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses in joint session, accompanied by a notification to the other States, to withdraw the State of South Carolina from the Federal Union.""

On motion of Langdon Cheves, this amendment was laid upon the table by a vote of 96 ayes to 60 noes. Mr. Robert Barnwell Rhett moved to amend the report of the committee by declaring "that the first clause, second section, of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, whereby it is provided that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States, should be rendered null and void within the limits of South Carolina so far as regards the citizens of Massachusetts and Vermont, and it should be the duty of the Legislature by suitable and effective provisions and penalties to debar and exclude the citizens of those States from entering, abiding or holding property within the State after the ratification of this ordinance."