LETTER FROM HERMANN, то CONDY RAGUET, Esq. CHARLESTON: No. 121, East-Bay. 1833. Dear Sir: SINCE I last had the pleasure of addressing you, far more auspicious times I trust are likely to dawn on the destinies of our country than could have been reasonably predicted from the gloomy and unpromising aspect of affairs. Six months ago, the rash career of the champions of the Tariff was rapidly hurrying our liberties to the grave, but thanks to kind Providence! that dreaded event has been averted by the returning sense of justice, which influenced the minds of Statesmen; who in sacrificing their prejudices on the altar of concord, to preserve the peace of the Union, have not only exhibited wisdom and true greatness, but have gained a triumph which has rendered their fame imperishable, and will transmit to posterity their virtues for imitation. What a contrast with the sordid and grovelling spirit that would do homage to Mammon, and offer up to Moloch a magnanimous people, (struggling to maintain their rights,) as victims to foul ambition, and a lust of power. The present prospect is certainly cheering, compared with the retrospective view of our late position, which could not have been surveyed without exciting mingled emotions of disgust and indignation at the repeated encroachments made by the friends of despotism and consolidated Government, upon the rights of the citizen. The Tariff of 1828-the offspring of combined plot and corruption-the Idol of visionary Politicians and selfish speculators, was held out as a lure to wealth, for such persons, who were willing to embark in the schemes of the monopolists; and rich spoils were promised to their partisans, each of whom was led to imagine he possessed a power equal to Midas. The plan, too, of freely drawing money from the Public Treasury for sectional purposes, and to further their mercenary views, was secured by Legislative sanction, and under the specious title of the "American System;" they determined it should be considered as the settled policy of the country, and arrogated the right of calling it so. It is the settled policy of the Government of an absolute monarchy to enforce the edict of a Tyrant by the sword and bayonet against his oppressed subjects, and impiously to declare it only inferior to the Fiat of Heaven. It is the settled policy of a Turkish Divan to inflict the bowstring on mere suspicion, or by false accusations, to dispossess some un happy victim of his life and property. I thank God, however, that the free, sovereign and independent States of this great Federal Republic are composed of a population, of which, the majority are too enlightened ever to submit to be made the instruments of the myrmydons of power, and to be rendered subservient to the will of a faction. They will I trust, never consent to perpetuate their own infamy, by assisting to degrade the character of the country, which it is their pride and ambition to exalt and protect. 66 In the late contest with the General Government, for the repeal of the odious Tariff, the Southern States endured with a patience and forbearance almost unprecedented in the annals of the history of Republics, evils which were gradually annihilating their agriculture and commerce, exhausting their resources, and compelling them to be tributary to the North. South-Corolina, in particular, after more than ten years of remonstrance and unavailing petitions, was spurned by that very arm which should have been raised for her protection-after finding every avenue to relief closed against her, she at length assumed an attitude worthy of the days of ancient Greece, confiding in the rectitude of her cause, and under the protection of a merciful Providence, she called on her gallant sons to rescue themselves from a most humiliating thraldom, and the same spirit which inspired their ancestors in the days of the Revolution with undaunted courage and led them to victory, now protected the Palmetto Banner, with more than twenty thousand brave volunteers, who faithful to the State, were prepared to peril their lives and property in her defence. When the new Bill of Abominations" was enacted in 1832, by both Houses of Congress, and all prospect of redress became desperate, did she seek to dissolve the Union, or to disturb the peace of the community by violence and anarchy ? The people of South-Carolina disdained so disgraceful a course, for their cause was too sacred to be thus dishonored-they conceived it to be due to their dignity to proceed, "consilio et animis," and having in their sovereign capacity by their Delegates in Convention, solemnly declared the Tariff laws of 1828 and 1832, null and void within the limits of the State, they resolved to defend their liberties against Federal usurpation and aggression, at any and every hazard. Nothing daunted by the ill judged menaces of the Federal Executive, our little Sparta moved on in the even tenor of her course-scorning the vindictive and slanderous abuse of her political enemies-unmoved by their pitiful arts to intimidate her, she steadily pursued the path of truth and honor. I will not soil my paper by repeating the opprobrious language which issued against her from a variety of the most impure channels. In short, nothing could exceed the venom of malignant tonguesno words were deemed too caustic, or too gress with which to assail the Friends of "State Rights and Free Trade;" they produced no discord in our ranks, but on the contrary served to unite us more closely, and excited only contempt and derision. I do not address you with the intention of acting as the encomiast of our party; we leave it to posterity to judge of our conduct, and to determine if we have not been actuated by the purest motives of patriotism: time will prove how shamefully we have been ca |