THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF SECESSION 5 
 
 A SOUTHERN VIEW, 
 
 Presented in a Letter addressed to the Hon. Mr, Perkins of 
 
 Louisiana, in criticism on the Provisional Constitution adopted 
 
 by the Southern Congress at Montgomery, Alabama, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 HON. L. W. S!PPiA/rT, 
 
 Editor of the Charleston Mercury, \3th February, 1861. 
 
 The South is now in the formation of a 
 Slave Republic. This, perhaps, is not ad- 
 mitted generally. There are many content- 
 ed to believe that the South as a geographical 
 section is in mere assertion of its independ- 
 ence ; that, it is instinct with no especial 
 truth— pregnant of no distinct social nature ; 
 that for some unaccountable reason the two 
 sections have become opposed to each other ; 
 that for reasons equally insufficient, there is 
 disagreement between the peoples that di- 
 rect them ; and that from no overrulling ne- 
 cessity, no impossibilty of co-existence, but 
 as mere matter ot policy, it has been consid- 
 ered best for the South to strike out for her- 
 self and establish an independance of her 
 iriwn. This, I fear, is an inadequate concep- 
 tion of the controversy. 
 
 The contest is not between the North and South 
 as geographical sections, for between, such sections 
 merely there can be no contest ; nor between the 
 people of the North and the people of the South, 
 for our relations haoe been pleasant, and on neu- 
 tral grounds there is still nothing to estrange 
 us. We eat together, trade together, and 
 practice, yet, in intercourse, with great re- 
 spect, the courtesies of common life. But 
 the real contest is between the two forms of 
 society which have become established, the 
 one at the North and the other at the South. 
 Society is essentially different from govern- 
 ment — as different as is the nut from the bur, 
 or the nervous body of the shell-fish from the 
 bony structure which surrounds it ; and within 
 this government two societies had become 
 developed as variant in structure and distinct 
 in form as any two beings in animated nature. 
 The one is a society composed of one race, 
 
 the other of two races. The one is bound to- 
 gether but by the two great aocal relations of 
 husband and wife and parent and child ; the 
 other by the three relations of husband and 
 wife, and parent and child, and master arid 
 slave. The one embodies in its political 
 structure the principle that equality is the 
 right of man ; the other that it is the right of 
 equals only. The one embodying the prin- 
 ciple that equality is the right of man, ex- 
 pands upon the horizontal plane of pure de- 
 mocracy ; the other, embodying the principle 
 that it is not the right of man, but of equals 
 only, has taken to itself the rounded form of 
 a social aristocracy. In the one there is hire- 
 ling labor, in the other slave labor ; in the one, 
 therefore, in theory at least, labor is voluntary; 
 in the other involuntary ; in the labor of the 
 one there is the elective franchise, in the 
 other there is not : and, as labor is always in 
 excess of direction, in the one the power of 
 government is only with the lower classes ; 
 in the other the upper. In the one, therefore, 
 the reins of government come from the heels, 
 in the other from the head of the society; in 
 the one it is guided by the worst, in the other 
 by the best, intelligence ; in the one it is from 
 those who have the least, in the other from 
 those who have the greatest, stake in the con- 
 tinuance of existing order. In the one the 
 pauper laborer has the power to rise and ap- 
 propriate by law the goods protected by the 
 State — when pressure comes, as come it 
 must, there will be the motive to exert it — 
 and thus the ship of State turns bottom up- 
 wards. In the other there is no pauper labor 
 with power of rising ; the ship of State has 
 the ballast o f a disfranchised class : there is 
 
no possibility of polilieal upheaval, therefore, 
 and it is reasonably certain that, so steadied, 
 it will sail erect and onward to an indefinitely 
 distant period. 
 
 Such are some of the more obvious differ- 
 ences in form and constitution between these 
 two societies which had ccme into conlact 
 within the limits of the recent Union. And 
 perhaps it is not the least remarkable, in this 
 connection, that while the one, a shapeless, 
 organless, mere mass of social elen.ents in no 
 definite relation to each other, is loved and 
 eulogized, and stands the ideal of the age, 
 the other comely and proportioned with labor 
 and direction, mind andmalterin just relation 
 to each other, presenting analogy 1o the very 
 highest developments in animated nature is 
 condemned and reprobated. Even we our- 
 selves have hardly ventured to affiim it-- 
 while the cock crows, in fact, are ready to 
 deny it ; and if it shall not perish on the cross 
 of human judgment, it must be for the reason 
 that the Great Eternal has not purposed that 
 still another agent of his will shall ccme to 
 such excess of human ignominy. 
 
 Such aie ihe two forms of society which 
 had come to contest within the structure of 
 the recent Union. And the contest lor ex- 
 istence was inevitable. Neither could con- 
 cur in the requisitions of the clher; neither 
 could expand within the forms of a single 
 government without encroachment on the 
 other. Like twin lobsteis in a single shell, 
 ii such a thing were possible, the natural 
 expansion oi the one must be inconsistent 
 with the existence of the other ; or like an 
 eagle and a fish, joined by an indissoluble 
 bond, which for no reason of its propriety 
 could act together, where the eagle < oukl 
 not share the fluid suited lo the fish and 
 live, where the fish could not share the fluid 
 suited to the bird and live, and where one 
 must perish that the other may survive, un- 
 less the unatural Union shall be severed — 
 so these societies could not, if ihey would, 
 concur. The principal that races are un- 
 equal, and that among unequals inequality 
 is right, would have been destructive to the 
 form of pure democracy at the Noith. The 
 principle thai all men are equal and equally 
 right, would have been destructive of slavery 
 at the South. Each requited the element 
 suited to its social nature. Each must strive 
 to make the government expressive of its 
 social nature. The natural expansion of the 
 one must become encroachment on the other, 
 and so the contest was inevitable. Seward 
 and Lincoln, in theor)' at least, whatever be 
 their aim, are right. I realized the fact and 
 g o declared the conflict irrepressible yean: 
 ^efore either ventured to advance that pro- 
 
 position. Upon that declaration I have af- 
 '■ ways acted, and the recent experience of my 
 j country has not induced me to question the 
 - correctness of that first conception. 
 
 Nor is indignation at such leaders becom- 
 | ing the statesmen of the South. The ten- 
 dency of social action was against us. The 
 speaker to be hea'd must speak against slav- 
 ery ; the preacher to retan his charge, must 
 preach against slaver) : the aulhor to be 
 ; read, must wrile against slavery ; the can- 
 ' didate, to attain office, must pledge himself 
 I against slavery; the office-holder, to con- 
 tinue, must redeem tl e pledges of the can- 
 \ didate. They did not originate the policy, 
 ! but ihey pandered to it : ihey did not start 
 . ihe current, but they floated on it ; and were 
 as powerless as driii-wciri to control its 
 course. The great tendency lo social con- 
 ' flict pre-existed : it was in the heart of the 
 I Nonh — it was in the veiy structure oi Ncith- 
 ' ern society. It was not a matter of choice 
 lut of necessity that such society should 
 disaffirm a society in contradiction of it. It 
 was not a matter of choice tut <.f necessity 
 . that it should approve of ads against it. in 
 possession of power, it flowed to political ac- 
 i tion on the South, as fluids flow to lower 
 ' levels. "I he acts of ir dividual* were unim- 
 poitant. If I had possessed the power to 
 change the mil d of every Republican in 
 j Congress, i would not have been at pains to 
 | do so. They would have fallen belore an in- 
 dignant constituency, and men would have 
 been sent to their places whose minds could 
 never change. INor in fact, have they been 
 without ii eir vte. As ll e conflict was irre- 
 pressible, as Ihey were urged on by an inex- 
 orable power, it was imjcilant we should 
 know it. Our own political leaders lefused 
 [ to realize ihe iact. The zealots ot the North 
 alone could force the recognition ; and I am 
 bound to own that Giddings, and Greely, and 
 ! Seward, and Lincoln, parasites as they are, 
 I pandereis to popx-lar taste as they are, the 
 instruments, and the mere mstiuroer ts, of 
 aggression, have done more to louse us to the 
 vindication of our rights than the bravest and 
 the best among us. 
 
 Such, then, was the nature of this contest. 
 
 It w as inevitable. Jt was inaugurated with 
 
 the government. It began at the beginning, 
 
 ! and almost at the stait ihe chances of the 
 
 game were turned against us. If th( fomgn 
 
 slave trade had never' been supprissed, slave society 
 
 | mutt hove triumphed. It extended to the limits 
 
 ' of New England. 
 
 Pari passu with emigrants from Europe 
 
 I came slaves from Africa. Step by step the 
 
 two in union marched upon the West, and it 
 
 ! is reasonably certain, had the means to fur- 
 
 
3 
 
 ther union been admitted, that so they would 
 have continued to march upon the West, that 
 slave labor would hnve been cheaper than 
 hireling labor', that, transcending agriculture, 
 it would have expanded to the arts: and that 
 thus one homogeneous form of labor and one 
 homogeneous form of society, unquestioned 
 by one single dreamer, and cherished at home 
 and honored abroad, would have overspread 
 the entire available surface of the lite United 
 States. But, the slave trade suppressed, dem- 
 ocratic society has triumphed. The States of 
 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
 Delaware found an attractive market for their 
 slaves. They found a cheaper pauper labor 
 to replace it ; that pauper labor poured in 
 from Europe ; while it replaced the slave,- it 
 increased the political power of the Northern 
 States. More than five millions from abroad 
 have been added to their number ; that addi- 
 tion has enabled them to grasp and hold the 
 government. That government, from the 
 very necessities of their nature they are forced 
 to use against us. Slavery was within hs 
 grasp, and forced to the option of extinction in 
 the Union or of independance out, it u'ares to 
 strike, an.il it'asseils its claim to nationality and its 
 right to recognition among the leading social 
 systems of the world. 
 
 Such, then being the nature of the contest, 
 this Union has been disrupted in the effort of 
 slave society to emancipate itself ; and the 
 momentous question now to be determined 
 is, shall that effort be successful ? That the 
 Republic of the South shall sustain her inde- 
 pendance, there is Jittle question. The form 
 oi our society is too pregnant of intellectual 
 resources and military strength to be subdued, 
 if, in its products, it did not hold the bonds of 
 amity and peace upon all the leading nations 
 of the world. But in the independance of the 
 South is there surely the emancipation, of domestic 
 slavery 1 That is greatly to be doubted. Our 
 property in slaves will be established. If it 
 has stood in a government more than half of 
 which has been pledged to its destruction, it 
 will surely stand in a government every 
 member of which will be pledged to its de- 
 fence. But will it be established as a normal 
 institution or society, and stand the sole ex- 
 clusive social system of the South % That is 
 the impending question, and the fact is yet 
 to be recorded. That it will so stand some- 
 where at the South I do not entertain the 
 slightest question. It maj be overlooked or 
 disregarded now. It has be>n the vital agent of 
 this great controversy. It has energized the 
 ' arm of every man who acts a part in this 
 ' great drama. "VVe may shrink from recogni - 
 
 > tion of the fact ; we may decline to admit 
 
 > the source of our authority ; refuse to slavery 
 
 *-» *-~ a*— 
 
 . ,~ 
 
 an invitation to the , table which .she herself 
 | has so bountifully spread ; but not for that 
 will it remain powerless... or .unhonored. It 
 | may be abandoned by Virginia^ Maryland, 
 < Missouri ; 'South. Carolina herself may refuse 
 ' to espouse it.. The hireling laborer from the 
 I North and Europe may drive it from the sea- 
 | board, As the South shall, becoiile the cen- 
 • tre of her own trade, the. metropolis, of hei 
 I own commerce,, the pauper population of the 
 [world will pour upon u§. It may replace 
 ! our slaves upon'the seaboard, <is i_fhas.replaced 
 them in the Northern States ; but concentrat- 
 ed in the States upon the Gulf it. wijd make 
 I its stand, condensed .to the point at which 
 I the labor of the slave .transcends 7 the want of 
 agriculture, it ."w.i.ll _, ffow Jo other objects ; it 
 will lay its giant grasp upon still other de- 
 I paitments of industry ; its every step will be 
 j exclusive ; it will be unquestioned lord of 
 each domain on which it -enters. .. With 
 I that perfect economy of. resources, that 
 just application of power, .that concentration 
 of forces, that security of order which results 
 to slavery from the permanent direction of 
 ils best intelligence, there is no other form of 
 human labor that can stand "against it, jarid it 
 will build itself a home and erect .for itself, 
 at some point within the present limits of the 
 Southern States, a structure of imperial power 
 and grandeur— a glorious Confedracy of States 
 that will stand aloft and serene for ages 
 amid the anarchy of democracies that, will 
 reel around it. .. 
 
 But it may be thai to this end. another ? evolution 
 max, be necessary. It is to he apprehended that 
 this contest between democracy and slavery 
 is not yet over. It is certain that both forms 
 of society exist within the limits of the South- 
 ern States ; both are distinctly, developed 
 within the limits of Virginia ; ; and there, 
 whether we perceive the fact or not, the war 
 already rages, in that State there are about 
 500,000 slaves to about 1 .000,000 whites ; 
 and as at bust as many slaves as masters are nec- 
 essary to the constitution of slave society, about 
 500,000 of tiie white population are in legit- 
 imate relation to the slaves, and the rest are 
 in excess. Like an excess of alkali or acid 
 in chemical experiments, (hey are unfixed 
 in the social compound. Without legitimate 
 connection with the slave, they are in com- 
 petition with him. They constitute not a 
 part of slave society but a democratic, so- 
 ciety. In so far as there is this connection, 
 the State is slave ; is so far as there is not, 
 it is democratic ; and as States speak only 
 from their social condition, as interests, not 
 intellect, determine their political action, it 
 is thus that Virginia has been undecided — 
 that she does not truly know whether she is. 
 
of the North or South in this great move- 
 ment. Her people are individually noble, 
 brave, and patriotic, and they will strike for 
 the South in resistance to physical aggresion ; 
 but her political action' is, at present, paralyz- 
 ed by this unnatural contest, and as causes 
 of disintegration may continue — must con- 
 tinue, if the slave trade be not re-opened — 
 as there will still be a market at the South for 
 her slaves ■ — as there will still be pauper 
 labor from abroad to supply their places, and 
 more atmndant from industrial dissolutions 
 at the North, ~and the one race must increase 
 as the other ts diminished— it is to he feared 
 that there the slave must ultimately fail, and 
 that this great State must lose the institution 
 and bend her proud spirit to the yoke of 
 another democratic triumph. In Maryland, 
 Missouri, Kentucky, and even Tennesse, 
 and North Carolina, the same facts exist 
 with chances of the like result. 
 
 And evefi' fh this State (South Carolina) 
 the tiltimate result is not determined. The 
 6lave condition here would seem to be es- 
 tablished. There is here an excess of one 
 hundred and twenty thousand slaves, and 
 hfire is fairly exhibited the normal nature of 
 the institution. The officers of the State are 
 slave-owners, and the representatives of 
 slave-o'vvn'ers;' 1ft their public acts they ex- 
 hibit the consciousness of a superior position. 
 Without unusual individual ability , they ex- 
 hibit the elevalion'of tone and composure of 
 public sentiment proper to a master class. 
 There is no' appeal to the mass, for there is 
 no' mass to appeal to ; there are no dema- 
 gogues," for" there is no populace to breed 
 them ; judges are not forced upon the stump ; 
 governor's are not dragged before the people ; 
 and whe'n 'there Is'cause to act upon the for- 
 tunes of our social institution, there is perhaps 
 an unusual readiness to meet it. The large 
 majority of our people are in legitimate con- 
 nection with" the institution-- in legitimate 
 dependance on the slave; and it were to be 
 supposed that here at least the system of 
 slave sociefy'would be permanent and pure. 
 But' even here the process ol disintegration 
 has 'commenced. In our larger towns it just 
 begins' to be apparent. Within ten yeaas 
 past as many as ten thousand slaves have 
 been drawn away from Charleston by the 
 attractive' prices of the West, and laborers 
 from abroad* have come to take their places. 
 These laborers' have every disposition to work 
 above the slave,and'if there were opportunity 
 would be glad to do so ; but without such 
 opportunity ihey ' come" to competition with 
 him ; they Are necessarily resistive to the 
 contact. Already there is the disposition to 
 exclude him; from the trades, from public 
 
 works, from drays, and the tables of hotels 
 he is even now excluded to a great extent 
 And when enterprises at the North are broker 
 up ; when more laborers are thrown from em- 
 ployment ; when they shall come in greater 
 numbers to 'the South they will still more in- 
 crease the tendency to exclusion ; they will 
 question the right of masters to employ their 
 slaves in any works that they may wish for : 
 they wiil invoke the aid of legislation ; they 
 will use the elective franchise to that end ; 
 they may acquire the power to determine 
 municipal elections; they will inexorably 
 use it ; and thus this town of Charlestion, at 
 the very heart of slavery 7 , may become a 
 fortress of democratic power against it. As 
 it is in Charleston, so also is it to a less extent 
 in the interior towns. 
 
 Nor is it only in the towns the tendency 
 appears. The slaves, from lighter lands 
 within the State, have been drawn away for 
 years for higher prices in the West. They 
 are now being drawn away from rice culture. 
 Thousands are sold from rice fields every 
 year. None are brought to them They 
 have already been drawn from the culture of 
 indigo and all manufacturing employments. 
 They are y r et retained by cotton and the cul- 
 ture incident to cotton ; but as almost every 
 negro offered in our markets is bid for by the 
 West the drain is likely to continue. It is 
 probable that more abundant pauper labor 
 may pou-r in, and it is to be feared that even 
 in this State, the purest in its slave condition, 
 democracy may gain a foothold, and that 
 here also the contest for existence may be 
 waged between them. 
 
 It thus appe irs ihat the contest ii not ended with a 
 dissolution of the Union, and that the agents of that 
 contest still exist within the limits of the Southern 
 States. The causes that have contributed to 
 the defeat of slavery still occur ; our slaves 
 are still drawn off by higher prices to the 
 West. There is still foreign pauper labor 
 ready to supply their place. Maryland Vir- 
 gina, Kentucky, Mtssouri, possibly Tennessee 
 and North Carolina, may lose their slaves, as 
 New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey 
 have done. In that condition they must re- 
 commence the contest. There is no avoiding 
 that necessity. The systems cannot mix ; 
 and thus it is that slavery, like the Thracian 
 horse returning from the field of victory, still 
 bears a master on his back ; and, hiving achiev- 
 ed one revolution to escape democracy at the North, 
 it musi still achieve another to escape it a' the South. 
 That it will ultimately triumph none can 
 doubt. It will become redeemed and vindi- 
 cated, and the only question now to be deter- 
 mined is, shall there be another revolution to 
 thai end 1 It is not necessary. Slavery 
 
within the seceding States at least is now 
 emancipated if men put forward as its agents 
 have intrepidity to realize the fact and act 
 upon it. It is free to choose its constitution 
 and its policy, and you and others are now 
 elected to the high office of that determina- 
 tion. If you shall elect slavery avow it and 
 affirm it ; not as an existing fact, but as a 
 living piinciple of social order, and assert its 
 right, not to toleration only, but to extension 
 and to political recognition among the nations 
 of the earth. If, in short, you shall own 
 slavery as the source of your authority, and 
 act for it, and erect, as you are commissioned 
 to erect, not only a Southern, but a Slave Re- 
 public, the work will be accomplished. Those 
 States intending to espouse and perpetuate 
 the institution will enter your Confedracy ; 
 those that do not, will not. Your Republic 
 will not require the pruning process of ano- 
 ther revolution ; but, poised upon its institu- 
 tions, will move on to a career of greatness 
 and of glory unapproached by any other na- 
 tion in the world. 
 
 But if you shall-not ; if you shall commence 
 by ignoring slavery, or shall be content to 
 edge it on by indirection ; if you shall exhibit 
 care but for a Republic, respect but for a de- 
 mocracy ; if you shall stipulate for the toler- 
 ation of slavery as an existing evil by admit- 
 ting assumptions to its prejudice and restric- 
 tions to its power and progress, re-inaugurate 
 the blunder of 1789; you will combine 
 States, whether true or not, to slavery ; you 
 will have no tests of faith ; some will find 
 it to their interest to abandon it ; slave labor 
 will be fettered ; hireling labor will be free ; 
 your Confederacy is again divided into antagonist 
 societies; the irrepressible conflict is again com- 
 menced ; and as slavery can sustain the struc- 
 ture of a stable government, and will sustain 
 such structure, and as it will sustain no structure 
 but its own, another revolution comes — but whether 
 in the order and propriety of this, is gravely to be 
 doubted. 
 
 Is it, then, in the just performance of your 
 office, that you would impose a constitutional 
 restriction against the foreign slave trade ? 
 Will you affirm slavery by reprobating the 
 means of its formation ? Will you extend 
 slavery by introducing the means to its ex- 
 tinction ? W ill you declare to Virginia if she 
 shall join, that under no circumstances shall 
 she be at liberty to restore the integrity of her 
 slave condition l that her five hundred thou- 
 sand masters without slaves shall continue 1 
 that the few slaves she has shall still be sub- 
 ject to the requisitions of the South and West 1 
 that she shall still be subject to the incursions 
 of white laborers, without the slaves to neu- 
 tralize their social tendencies 1 and thus, 
 
 therefore, that she must ceitainly submit to 
 be abolitionized, and when so abolitionized, 
 that she must surely be thrown off, to take 
 her fortunes with the Abolition States 1 W:ll 
 you say the same to Maiyland, Kentucky, 
 Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee 1 
 Will you declare to the State of South Caro- 
 lina that, if the canker of democracy eats 
 into her towns and cilies ; if her lighter lands 
 are exposed, her forms of culture are aban- 
 doned, she must still submit to it 1 To Texas, 
 that to her imperial domain no other slaves 
 shall come than those she may extort from 
 older States ; and that she must submit to be 
 the waste she is, or else accept the kind of 
 labor that must demoralize .the social nature 
 of the State l Will you do this, and yet say- 
 that you erect slavery and affirm it, and, in 
 your ministrations at its altar, own it as the 
 true and only source of your authority 1 Indi- 
 vidually, 1 am sure you will not. I am too 
 well assured of your intelligent perception of 
 the questions at issue, and of your devotion to 
 the great cause you have espoused, to enter- 
 tain a doubt upon that subject ; but others 
 may, and that I may meet suggestions likely 
 to arise, 1 will task your indulgence further. 
 
 Then why adopt this measure ! Is it that 
 Virginia and the other Border States require 
 it 1 They may require it now, but is it cer- 
 tain they will continue to require it ? Vir- 
 ginia and the rest have never yet regarded 
 slavery as a normal institution of society. 
 They have regarded the slave as property 
 but not slavery as a relation. They have 
 treated it as a prostitution, but have never yet 
 espoused it. Their men of intellect have ex- 
 hibited enlightened views upon this subject, 
 but their politicians who have held the pub- 
 lic ear have ever presented it as a thing of 
 dollars, and to be fought for, if need be, bul not 
 to be cherished and perpetuated. And is it 
 certain that when better opinions shall pre- 
 vail ; that when they join, if they shall join, a 
 Slave Republic, a Republic to perpetuate the 
 institution, when there shall be less induce- 
 ment to sell their slaves, and the assurance 
 that when they shall sell them they will fall 
 under the rule of a democracy which must unfit 
 them for association in a slave Confederacy — the 
 people of these States may not solicit an in- 
 crease of slaves. And is it policy to preclude 
 the possibility of such an increase? But ad- 
 mit the change may never come, yet against 
 all the evils to result from the slave trade 
 these States are competent to protect them- 
 selves. The failure of the General Govern- 
 ment to preclude that trade by constitutional 
 provision by no means precludes them from 
 such a prohibition. If they may never want 
 them, they may keep them out, without the 
 
6 
 
 application of a Procrustean poLcy to all the 
 other States of the Confedracy. It may be 
 said that without such general restriction th j 
 value of their slaves will he diminished in 
 the markets of the West. Tkfy hvve no right 
 to ask that there slaves, or any other products, skull 
 be protected to unnatural value in the markets of 
 the West. If they presist in regarding the 
 negro but as a thing of trade— a thing which 
 they are too good to use, but only can pro- 
 duce for others' uses — and join the Confed- 
 racy, as Pennsylvania or Massachusetts 
 might do, not to support the structure, but to 
 profit by it, it were as well they should not 
 join, and we can find no interest in such as- 
 sociation. 
 
 Is it that the Cotton States themselves re- 
 qrire it ■' If so, each for itself may adopt the 
 prohibition. But they do not. The political 
 leaders of ihe country are not ready for the 
 proposition, as they were not ready for the 
 measure of secession. Many leaders of the 
 South, many men who meet you in Conven- 
 tion, have been forced to that position by a 
 popular movement they had never the politi- 
 cal courage to direct ; and so, perhaps, in any 
 ■case the whole machinery of society must 
 start before the political hands upon the dial 
 plate can indicate its progress ; and so, there- 
 fore, as this question is not moved — as the 
 members of this Congress are charged to 
 perfect the dissolution of the old government, 
 but have not been instructed as to this per- 
 manent requisition of the new —they may be 
 mistaken, as they wordd have been mistaken, 
 if by chance they had met six months ago 
 and spoken upon the question of secession. 
 And they are mistaken, if, from any reference 
 to popular feeling, they inaugurite the action 
 now proposed. Thk people of the Cotton States 
 Want labor ; they knoiv that whites ani slaws can- 
 not wo<-k together. They have no thought of 
 abandoning their slaves that they may get 
 white labor ; and they want slaves, therefore, 
 and they lotil have them - — from the Seaboard 
 States, if the slave trade be not opened, and 
 they cannot heartily embrace a policy which, 
 while ii will tend to degrade the Seaboard 
 States to the condition of a democracy, will 
 compel them to p.ry double and treble prices for 
 their labor. 
 
 It may be said in this connection that, 
 though the Cotton States might tolerate the 
 slave trade, it would overstock the country 
 and induce a kind of social suffocation. It 
 is one of the most grievous evils of the time 
 that men have persisted in legislating on do- 
 mestic slavery with what would seem to be 
 an industrious misapprehension of its requi- 
 sites. It is assumed that it is ready to ex- 
 plode while it is in an ordinary state of mar- 
 
 tial law, as perfect as that which, in times 
 of popular outbreak, is the last and surest 
 provision for security and order. It is as- 
 sumed that the negro is unfit for mechanical 
 employments, when he exhibits an imitative 
 power of manipulation unsurpassed by any 
 other creature in the world ; and when, as a 
 matter of fact, we see him daily in the suc- 
 cessful prosecution of the trades, and are 
 forced to know that he is not more generally 
 employed for reason of the higher prices of- 
 fered for him by our fields of cotton. It is 
 assumed that he cannot endure the cold of 
 the Northern States, when he dies not more 
 readily in Canada than Domingo, and when 
 the finest specimens of negro character and 
 negro form to be met w'th in the world are 
 on the northern borders of Maryland and 
 Missouri. It is assumed that whenever he 
 comes in contact with free society we must 
 quail before it, when it is evident that the 
 question which shall prevail is dependant on 
 the question which can work the cheapest ; 
 and when it is evident that with slaves at 
 starvation prices — slaves at prices to which 
 they will be reduced by the question whether 
 we shall give them up or feed them — at 
 prices to which they will be reduced when 
 the question comes whether they shall starve 
 the hireling or the hireling the slave, the 
 system of domestic, slavery, guided always 
 by its best intelligence, directed always by 
 the strictest economy, with few invalids and 
 few inefficients, can underwork the world. 
 And it is assumed that, hemmed in as we 
 will be, but a slight addition to our slaves 
 will induce disastrous consequences. But it 
 is demonstrable that negroes are more easily 
 held to slavery than white men ; and that 
 more in proportion, therefore, can be held in 
 subjection by the same masters : and yet in 
 the Republic of Athens of white slaves there 
 were four to one ; and in portions of the Ro- 
 man Empire the proportion was greater still ; 
 and upon this ratio the slaves might be in- 
 creased to forty millions, without a corre- 
 sponding increase among the whites, and 
 yet occur no disaster ; but on our rice lands, 
 isolated to a great extent where negroes are 
 employed in thousands, there is often not 
 one white man to one hundred slaves. Nor 
 is there greater danger of an overcrowded 
 population. Slaves may be held to greater 
 density than freemen ; order will be greater, 
 and the economy of resources will be greater. 
 Athens had seven hundred to the square 
 mile, while Belgium, the most densely pop- 
 ulated state of modern Europe, has but about 
 three hundred and eighty-eight to the square 
 mile ; and with a population only as dense 
 as Belgium, South Carolina could hold the 
 
population of the Southern States, and Texas 
 three times the present population of the 
 Union. 
 
 Is it that foreign nations will require it 1 
 As a matter of tasle they might perhaps. 
 There is a mode upon the subject of human 
 rights at present, and England, France, and 
 other States that are leaders of the mode, 
 might be pleased to see the South comply 
 with the standard of requirement, and, pro- 
 vided only no serious inconvenience or injury 
 resulted, would be pleased to see the South 
 suppress not only the slave trade, but slavery 
 itself. But will our failure to do so make 
 any greater difference in our relations with 
 those States 1 Men may assume it if they 
 will, but it argues a pitiable want of intelli- 
 gence and independence, an abject want of 
 political spirit, to suppose it. France and 
 England trade in coolies, and neither will 
 have the hardihood to affirm that between 
 that and the slave trade there is an essential 
 difference, and practising the one they can- 
 not war with us for practising the others. 
 Nor, in fact, do they wase war upon the 
 slave trade. Spain permits the trade in Cuba, 
 though she acknowledges the mode by pro- 
 fessing to prohibit it. ' Portugal and Turkey 
 do not even so much. Even England lends 
 her ships to keep the slave trade open in the 
 Black Sea ; and almost every slave bought 
 in Africa is paid for in English fabriccs, to 
 the profit of the English merchant, and with 
 the knowledge of the British government. 
 In view of these facts, it were simple to sup- 
 pose that European States will practice senti- 
 ment at the expense of interest. And have 
 ithey interest in the suppression of the slave 
 trade l Three years ago in my report to the 
 Commercial Convention at Montgomery, I 
 said that European States are hostile to the 
 Union. Perhaps " they see in it a threaten- 
 ing rival in every branch of art, and they see 
 that rival armed with one of the most potent 
 productive institutions the world has ever 
 seen : they would crush India and Algeria to 
 make an equal supply of cotton with the 
 North ; and, failing in this, they would crush 
 slavery to bring the North to a footing with 
 them, but to slavery without the North the}- 
 have no repugnance ; on the contrary, if it 
 were to stand out for itself, free from the con- 
 trol of any other power, and were to offer to 
 European States, upon fair terms, a full sup- 
 ply of its commodities, it would not only not 
 be warred upon, but the South would be 
 singularly favored — crowns would bend be- 
 fore her ; kingdoms and empires would break 
 a lanee to win the smile of her approval ; and, 
 quitting her free estate, it would be in her 
 option to become the bride of the world, ra- 
 
 ther than as now, the miserable mistress of 
 the North." 
 
 This opinion seemed then almost absurd, 
 but recent indications have rendered it the 
 common opinion of the country 5 and as, 
 therefore, they have no repugnance to slavery 
 in accordance with their interests, so also 
 can they have none to the extension of it. 
 They will submit to any terms of intercourse 
 with the Slave Republic in consideration of 
 its markets and its products. An increase of 
 slaves will increase the market and supply. 
 They will pocket their philanthropy and the 
 profits together, Jlnd so solicitude us to the feel- 
 111$ of foreign States upon this subject is gratuit- 
 ous : and so it is that our suppression of the slave 
 trade is warranted, by no nee ssity to respect Ike sen- 
 timent of foreign States. We may abnegate 
 ourselves if we will, defer to others if we will 
 but every such act is a confession of a weak- 
 ness the Jess excusable that it does not exist, 
 and we but industriously provoke the con- 
 tempt of States we are desirous to propitiate. 
 Is it that we debase our great movement by 
 letting it down to the end of getting slaves? 
 We do not propose to re-open the slave trade ; 
 we merely propose take no action on the 
 subject. I truly think we want more slaves. 
 We want them to the proper cultivation of 
 our soil, to the just development of our re- 
 sources, and to the proper constitution of 
 society. Even in this State I think we want 
 them ; of eighteen million acres of land less 
 than four million are in cultivation. We 
 have no seamen for our commerce, if we had 
 it, and no operatives for the arts ; but it is not 
 for that 1 now oppose restrictions on the slave 
 trade. 1 oppose them from the wish to eman- 
 cipate our institution. I legird the slave, trade 
 as the lest of its in/eg? ity. If that be right , then 
 slavery is right, hut not without; and 1 have 
 been too clear in my perceptions of the claims 
 of that great institution — too assured of the 
 failure of antagonist democracy, too convinc- 
 ed the one presents the conditions of social 
 order, too convinced the other does not, and 
 too convinced, therefore, that the one must 
 stand while the other falls, to abate my efforts 
 or pretermit the means by which it maj be 
 brought to recognition and establishment. 
 
 Believing, then, that this is a test of slav- 
 ery, and that the institution cannot be right 
 it the trade be not, I regard the coast itulional 
 ■prohibition as a great calamity If the (rade be 
 only wrong in policy it would be enough to 
 leave its exclusion to the several States that • 
 would feel the evils of that policy; but it is only 
 upon the supposition that it is wrong in prin- 
 ciple, wrong radically, and therefore never to 
 be rendered proper by any change of circum- 
 stances which may make it to our interest, 
 
8 
 
 that it is becoming in the general government 
 to take organic action to arresr. The action 
 of the Coniedracy is, then, a declaration of 
 that fact, and it were vain to sustain the in- 
 stitution in the face of such admissions to its 
 prejudice. 
 
 It will be said that at the outset of our 
 career it were wise to exhibit deference to 
 the moral sentiment of the world ; the obli- 
 gation is as perfect to respect the moral sen- 
 timent of the world against the institution. 
 The world is just as instant to assert that 
 slavery itself is wrong, and if we forego the 
 slave trade in consideration of the moral feel- 
 ing of the world, then why not slavery also ? 
 It were madness now to blink the question. 
 We are entering at lust upon a daring {novation 
 upon tke sociil constitutions of the world. Wf 
 are erecting a nationality upon a union of 
 races, where other nations have but one. We 
 cannot dodge the issue; we cannot disguise the 
 issue ; we cannot sttjtly change our front in the 
 facz of a vis.ilar:t adversary. Every attempt to 
 do so, every refusal to assist ourselves, every 
 intellectual or political eVasion, is a point 
 against us. We may postpone the crisis by 
 disguises, but the slave republic must forego 
 its nature and its destiny, or it must meet 
 the issue, and our assertion of ourselves will 
 not be easier for admission"? made against us. 
 And is not in fact from a sense of weakness 
 there is such admission 'l Is there a man 
 who votes for this measure but fiom mis- 
 givings as to slavery, and as to the propriety 
 o f its extension ? Therefore is there not the 
 feeling that the finger of scorn will be point- 
 ed at him without ; and is he who doubts the 
 institution, or he who has no higher standard 
 of the right than what the world may say 
 about it, the proper man to build the structure 
 of a slave republic 1 The members of that 
 Convention are elected to important posts in 
 the grand drama of human history. Such 
 opportunity but seldom comes of moulding 
 the destiny of men and nations. If they shall 
 rise to the occasion, they 6hall realize their 
 work and do it, they will leave a record that 
 will never be effaced ; but if they shall not — 
 of they 6hall shrink from truth, for reason that 
 it is unhonored ; if they shall cling to error, 
 for reason that it is approved, and so let down 
 their character, and act some other part then 
 that before them, they will leave a record 
 which their successors will be anxious to 
 efface — names which posterity will be de- 
 lighted to honor. 
 
 Opinions, when merely true, move slowly ; 
 but when approved, acquire proclivity. Those 
 
 J as to the right of slavery have been true 
 i merely so far, but they came rapidly to cul- 
 : mination. I was the single advocate of the 
 slave trsde in 1S53 ; it is now the question of the 
 I time. Many of us remember when we heard 
 j slavery first declared to be of the normal con- 
 ! stitution of society : few now will dare to dis- 
 j affirm it. Those opinions now roll on ; they 
 I are now not only true but are coming to be 
 j trusted ; they have moved the structure of the 
 State, and men who will not take the impulse 
 and advance must perish in the track of their 
 ; advancement. The members of your Con- 
 ! vention may misdirect the movement — they 
 may impede the movement — thtymay so divert 
 lit that another revolution may be ne i essary ; but 
 if necessarily that other revolution comes, 
 slavery will stand serene, erect aloft, un- 
 questioned as to its rights or its integrity at 
 some points within the limits of the Southern 
 States, and it is only for present actors to 
 determine whether they will contribute or be 
 crushed to that result. 
 
 1 hope you will pardon this communica- 
 tion ; it is too long, but I have not had time 
 to make it shorter. I hope also you will 
 j find it consistent with your views to urge 
 ' the policy I have endeavored to advance. 
 ; 1J the clause be earned into the permanent govern- 
 ment, ou7 whole movement is defeated. It will 
 abolitionize the Border Slave Stales — it will 
 i brand our institution. Slavery cannot share 
 I a government with democracy — it cannot 
 bear a brand upon it ; thence another revolution. 
 | It may be painful, but we must make it, The 
 Constitution cannot be changed without. 
 The Border States, discharged of slavery, will 
 oppose it. They are to be included by the 
 concession ; they will be sufficient to defeat 
 it. It is doubtful if another movement will be so 
 peaceful; but no matter, no power but the 
 Convention can avert the necessity. The 
 clause need not necessarily be carried into 
 the permanent government, but I fear it will 
 be. The belief that it is agreeable to popu- 
 lar feeling will continue. The popular mind 
 cannot now be worked up to the task dispelling the 
 belief; the same men who have prepared the 
 provisional will prepare the permanent con- 
 stitution ; the same influence will affect them. 
 It will be difficult to reverse their judgment 
 in the conventions of the several States. 
 The effort will at least distract us, and so it is to be 
 feard this fatal action may be consummated ; but 
 that it may not is the most earnest wish I 
 now can entertain. 
 Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 L. W. SPRATT.