ultimately succeed in it. The energy with which, for years past, she has been propagating, through her abolition presses, and through the instrumentality of her abolition agents and lecturers, the most disorganizing and incendiary doctrines, proves that her object is, to create a false state of public opinion, to array not only the North against the South, but, if possible, to array even the South against itself. All these exertions are prompted, in the first instance, by a miserable jealousy of the power, influence and wealth of the South. Every sensible citizen, who reflects at all, is fully aware of this. There is but little conscience in the matter, or a very unenlightened one,-unless the politicians of Massachusetts are wiser and more honest than the sages of the Revolution who formed the Constitution, or have a higher standard of morality for the government of their actions than the Christian Religion itself. If there is any instruction to be gathered from moral sources, it is this, that neither States nor individuals are bound, but, on the contrary, prohibited, by religion, from officiously intermeddling in the concerns of each other; and Massachusetts,-religious Massachusetts,--Puritan Massachusetts,-should not forget the lesson. Something may be attributable to the wild and fanatical doctrines respecting the equality of the human race, which have latterly turned the heads of dreamy reformers, wily and ambitious priests, and silly women, not allowed by the laws to be constables, jailers and voters at the polls;-but these opinions must be taken at their real value, and they certainly are no better than counterfeit coin. They are visions which vanish when man awakes from his slumbers, and looks around him in the full possession of his faculties. The agitation of unnecessary topics, dangerous to the peace of the Union, we ask,-Is it kind, is it patriotic, is it what the South ought to expect from the North,-two sections bound together by the ties of common memories, common trials, and common glories? Is it consistent with the compromises of the Constitution? Did we come together, the North and the South,not for peace, not for prosperity and joy,-but for the sake of one long and bitter struggle, proclaiming our union and friendship to the world at large, only that we might exhibit the ferocity of the tiger, when we meet on common ground and pursue the same path? Was this the aim of the government we formed? Was this the general welfare and domestic tranquillity that we expected to result from its formation?

Was this the union for which our fathers fought and prayed, and which they vainly supposed they had established for themselves and their posterity;-a union that is the fruitful cause of discord at home, and the laughing-stock of the nations of Europe? Massachusetts talks of treaties,—but we have never entered into a treaty for our own destruction. She clamors about law, as if we did not respect law,-but there is no law, we believe, higher or more binding than the law of nature; we must preserve ourselves. She is the special advocate of humanity, and yet she would prevent us from taking steps to guard ourselves against murder, insurrection and the conflagration of our cities! If we attempt to do so, she condemns us for the act as monstrous, and talks of war as a remedy, which she would declare at once, if she were not prohibited by her engagements with us. Let her not be embarrassed by such scruples. The issue of force, for the protection of our privileges, may come sooner or later, and, perhaps, sooner than is expected. War is always frightful, always to be deprecated, especially among brethren; but if these disturbances are to be eternal,-if our rights, under the Constitution, are to be trampled upon without mercy,let the sword be raised, and the sooner, perhaps, the struggle comes, the better !

Of one thing the North may rest assured, that we shall never recognize the descendants of the African race as citizens.* There is no offence in a black skin. That is an idea of the poet Cowper, who was half his life the victim of hallucination. But the black race and the white cannot mingle, and associate together on terms of equality. They are not our equals, either in intellectual power or moral position. God and nature have constituted a difference between us. All history proves it. We know not why it is so. Some say, it is a judgment for ancient disobedience; others insist, that some are born to command, others to serve. There is a mystery about the providence ;-doubtless wisdom is at the bottom of it, but we only recognize the fact of a clear, broad, palpable difference, clear as the noon-day sun;colour, mental power, moral temperament, past achievements, present position,-all are different. We are not to be turned

* Under a law of the United States, passed in 1792, establishing an uniform militia system, no negro, or other colored person, can be enrolled as a soldier, and if he cannot, by law, perform the duties, he cannot, by law, exercise the rights, of a citizen,

aside by fancies, when facts are with us. It is too late in the day to indulge in idle speculation. Let Massachusetts carry out into practice, if she choose, her imaginary theory of a perfect equality. Let her take the African into her councils, allow him to pass judgment upon the qualifications for office of her citizens; suffer him to fill offices of distinction in her proud and ancient commonwealth ;-instruct,-if instruct he may, the rising generation in the arts and sciences; teach theology from her pulpits; intermarry with the fair daughters of New-England, and thus send down the fame of Northern theories to the latest generation ;-but the South will be guilty of no such folly; she will not so disgrace herself; she will not force civilization and Christianity into such unnatural and untenable positions. She will take things, in this connection, as they are, and as all past history proves that they should be. She will respect the law of gradation which the Supreme Being, for his own wise purposes, has introduced into the moral as well as the physical creation. The wise are to be honored and the powerful obeyed, but where there is neither wisdom nor power, the struggle for place and distinction is vain labor. The African does not claim precedence for himself, nor would he be happier or greater or better than he now is, if the claim were allowed. Why, then, should the white man hold out to him the vain prospect of advantages which he is never to realize, and which he would not be able to appreciate, even if he possessed them? Our fellow-citizens of the North are doubtless very liberal and very condescending, but every day's observation proves, that the condition of dependence, which the African occupies at the South, and with which he is perfectly satisfied, is a far better boon, than the liberty, with its concomitants of poverty, degradation and crime, which they would give him. This condition, therefore, must not be disturbed by the fanciful reformers of the Northern regions, or their African emissaries, and if the attempt be renewed, it must be met and repelled, as it heretofore has been, by the strong arm of the law.

W.

ART. VIII.-CAROLINA POLITICAL ANNALS.

1. The Statutes at Large of South-Carolina; Edited, under authority of the Legislature, by THOMAS COOPER, M. D., L.L. D., (continued and completed by DAVID J. MCCORD) 10 vols.

2. History of the Revolt of the American Colonies; derived from the State Papers contained in the public offices of Great Britain. By GEORGE CHALMERS. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1845.

By Sames Dunu oody Brownson Ie Bow. STEMMATA quid faciunt? is the caustic interrogatory of the Roman satirist ;--but, after all, we are much concerned about these questions of pedigree, and "Ponticus" might well be justified in not esteeming so lightly the pictos vultus majorum, as our poet would have had him. It is the part of the man, as of the nation, to trace out with peculiar care his origin and descent. The "golden grasshopper" on the Grecian's head, gave expression to a law universal. We claim no exemption from the law.

Our Legislature, in 1827, proposed a search of the English colonial offices for the documents of the State's early history. The search was not made, to be sure, but then the principle was at work in the suggestion. We might be pardoned for wishing a double portion of this spirit infused into our people. It would kindle up in them a higher zeal for digging down into the treasuries of past experience. There are spaces in our history yet to be touched with rays of light, and sombre outlines to be filled up with life and colour.

When the suggestion we have mentioned was made, "darkness" indeed "prevailed over the great deep." If SouthCarolina knew any thing of her pristine days, the knowledge was confined to her favorite few. It was a kind of State secret, concealed from the people, or existing only in confused legends. But, thanks to some generous spirits, there has dawned a new era on the progress of historical research. In 1834, the first volume of Bancroft's History of the United States was issued from the press, lavishing upon the early chronicles of our State many an admirable chapter. Two years afterwards, Mr. Carroll published his "Collections," bringing to the public eye not a few antique and almost forgotten historical records, pamphlets, essays, et cetera, on the

same interesting subject. In 1840, Mr. Simms presents himself as the historian of South-Carolina. Something has been done,-much is yet to be done. The disposition to do it is sufficiently general. With proper legislative and popular encouragement, the result must be in the last degree gratifying. That Vandal spirit which buries in oblivion, or destroys, the monuments of the past, can no longer have a place. The "light of other days" is being, and must of necessity be, shed upon us. We can meet and brave the future, when we anticipate it from an enlightened experience of the past. It is here that History performs her proper mission, and merits the magnificent panegyric of Cicero,Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriæ, magistra vitæ, nuntia vetustatis, qua voce alia, nisi oratoris, immortalitati commendatur.†

Leaving, however, the general history of our State,-the records of its progress in wealth,-in population,-in arts and in letters,-in agriculture and in commerce,-in deeds of arms and martial prowess,-we come to a department, interesting, important, and but partially explored,-its political, legal or constitutional history. About this only shall we concern ourselves at present. A wide field opens itself here, a field, into which, whatever the intrepidity involved, we have determined to hazard an entrance. We would gather up the elements, as they lie strewn and scattered about, condensing them into a whole, sufficiently clear, brief and popular. We anticipate much more than our pains, too, for the difficulties which must be surmounted. The article must have interest for the general reader, and it is for him that we particularly intend it. Nor only this; the interest. cannot be local in a matter which relates to one of the oldest and proudest of the "Confederated Thirteen." The Southern Review will give us circulation; let the merits of the subject ensure the rest. We deprecate as a motive the mere insanabile scribendi cacoëthes of Juvenal. We look higher. The homo sum of Terrence rather stimulates us, or what Bacon has often said as to every man's obligation to advance and elevate his profession.

Among the writers included in this "Collection," are Hewit, Chalmers, Wilson, Oldmixon, Milligan, Governors Archdale and Glen, etc. There is also an introductory part by Mr. Carroll, and a map.

+ Cic. De Or. lib. ii., sec. 9.