In this perilous condition of the country it would scarcely be believed, were it not demonstrated by the record, that Congress deliberately refused, throughout the entire session, to pass any act or resolution either to preserve the Union by peaceful measures, or furnish the President or his successor with a military force to repel any attack which might be made by the cotton states. It neither did the one thing nor the other. It neither presented the olive branch nor the sword. All history proves that inaction in such an emergency is the worst possible policy, and can never stay the tide of revolution. On the contrary, it affords the strongest encouragement to rebellion. The sequel will prove the correctness of these opinions.

SLAVE-HOLDING STATES.

All we demand of other peoples is to be let alone to work out our own high destinies. United together, and we must be the most independent, as we are among the most important of the nations of the world. United together, and we require no other instrument to conquer peace than our beneficent productions. United together and we must be a great, free, and prosperous people, whose renown must spread throughout the civilized world, and pass down, we trust, to the remotest ages. We ask you to join us in forming a Confederacy of Slave-holding States.

III.-DECLARATION AS TO SECESSION. THE people of the State of South Carolina, in II.—SOUTH CAROLINA'S ADDRESS TO THE convention assembled, on the 26th of April, a.d. 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States by the Federal government, and its encroachments upon the reservthen withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in ed rights of the states, fully justified this state in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slave-holding states, she forebore at that time to ex ercise this right. Since that time these encroach ments have continued to increase, and further for

Citizens of the Slave-holding States of the United States! Circumstanees beyond our control have placed us in the van of the great controversy

between the northern and southern states.

We

of South Carolina having resumed her separate and equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the

immediate causes which have led to this act. . .

We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligations of the other; and where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure with all its consequences. In the present case the fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the United States have deliberately refused for years past to fulfil their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own statutes for the proof.

would have preferred that other states should have assumed the position we now occupy. Independent ourselves, we disclaim any design or desire to lead the counsels of the other southern states. Provid-bearance ceases to be a virtue. And now the State ence has cast our lot together, by extending over us an identity of pursuits, interests and institutions, South Carolina desires no destiny separate from yours. To be one of a great slave-holding confederacy, stretching its arms over a territory larger than any power in Europe possesses-with a population four times greater than that of the whole United States when they achieved their independence of the British Empire--with productions, which make our existence more important to the world than any other people inhabiting it--with common institutions to defend, and common dangers to encounter-we ask your sympathy and confederation. Whilst constituting a portion of the United States it has been your statesmanship which has guided it in its mighty strides to power and expansion. In the field and in the cabinet, you have led the way to its renown and grandeur. You have loved the Union, in whose service your great statesmen have labored, and your great soldiers have fought and conquered-not for the material benefits it conferred, but with the faith of a generous and devoted chivalry. You have long lingered in hope over the shattered remains of a broken Constitution. Compromise after compromise formed by your concessions, has been tramp.ed under foot by your northern confederates. All fraternity of feeling between the North and the South is lost, or has been converted into hate, and we of the South are at last driven together, to the stern destiny which controls the existence (f nations.

We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates in convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this state and the other states of North America is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world, as a separate and independent state, with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.

END OF VOL. III.