Georgia lawmaker Tommy Benton demoted after slandering John Lewis.
- Thread starter Lexx Diamond
- Start date
Geesh,
I am sorry that my comment has sparked so most vitriol between black folks. This was definitely not my intention. I am hopeful that we can engage in a mature discussion without resulting in name-calling etc.
The fact is, and this is researchable, both the north and south borrowed money from the same entity. Literally, the exact same entity. Because this one entity was loaning money/ notes to most of the country, the U.S. government was convinced that establishing a single currency produced by this entity was in everyone's best interest. In 1863, the National Banking Act of 1863 was passed during the middle of the civil war. Crazy!!!!!
Your statement is correct on many levels. Slavery was the source. But not just physical slavery, economic, and financial slavery as well.
The U.S. tried very hard to maintain slavery to appease the southern states. Unfortunately, the bankers played a game of baddest man hit my hand.
I am not belittling slavery nor am I discounting the impact the war had on slavery. I am a proud descendent of slaves on both sides of my family and can trace my family to the emancipation. However, we know for a fact that other than the reconstruction period, black folks have still been catching hell at the hand of this country which is rooted in evil and transgressions against American black people.
I am sorry that my comment has sparked so most vitriol between black folks. This was definitely not my intention. I am hopeful that we can engage in a mature discussion without resulting in name-calling etc.
This is a valid statement.
The MAIN reason for the war was for the establishment of a centralized banking system. For this to happen, two things needed to take place. First, everyone in the country had to start using the same form of currency. Up until the civil war, every bank had its own currency note. There were over 8000 banks in the U.S. at that time. Second, the U.S. had to become indebted to some entity (bank) which would then force the government to show favor to the said entity for fear of having the loans called in. remember, the U.S. was barely 100 years old and still struggling to gain financial footing. The was, thanks to Andrew Jackson, the U.S. had little to no debt. Anyone who knows anything about banking and the financial system knows that this is the opposite of what banks would want. Yes, slavery was the major economic driver in southern states. In fact, in no other time in history had more millionaires been made. However, the southern states were not interested in war. They did not want to spend the money nor did they have any established military presence. However, with the help of bankers (I am using a generic term here), they were loaned money using their land and other tangibles as collateral. The north was also stretched financially. They attempted to sell bonds, but this was not nearly enough needed. So, they relied on the bankers to finance the war efforts.
Slavery was used as a catalyst for the war, but it was not the reason the war was started. Dumb southerners were coaxed into believing that war was the only way to save slavery and not fall into economic disarray.
The fact is, and this is researchable, both the north and south borrowed money from the same entity. Literally, the exact same entity. Because this one entity was loaning money/ notes to most of the country, the U.S. government was convinced that establishing a single currency produced by this entity was in everyone's best interest. In 1863, the National Banking Act of 1863 was passed during the middle of the civil war. Crazy!!!!!
Nothing I said and have every said is remotely close to white nationalist propaganda. I am just someone who doesn't ignore fact no matter how vial and disgusting it may be. Additionally, the fact that you triggered by someone providing truth which is in contradiction to the lies you have been taught your whole life is troubling.
Absolutely, and Lincoln said this numerous times. The north did not want war. The south initially did not want war. One could argue that the only people who truly benefited from the war were bankers. Black folk were still be enslaved in multiple other fashions. People are still enslaved now.
Your statement is correct on many levels. Slavery was the source. But not just physical slavery, economic, and financial slavery as well.
I know you find it hard to believe, but there are a number of us black men who are free thinkers and do by into the BS taught by Republicans or Democrats.
That guy is an idiot and a self-identified racist. The poor whites were tricked into thinking it was about states' rights. However, it was all economically driven. And yes, slavery was the main economic driver.
The U.S. tried very hard to maintain slavery to appease the southern states. Unfortunately, the bankers played a game of baddest man hit my hand.
I am not belittling slavery nor am I discounting the impact the war had on slavery. I am a proud descendent of slaves on both sides of my family and can trace my family to the emancipation. However, we know for a fact that other than the reconstruction period, black folks have still been catching hell at the hand of this country which is rooted in evil and transgressions against American black people.
Sure my guy
Lmaooo. Wow. Such a "free thinker" man! Your bloviating, self-important posting style reminds me of someone... is that you @Heist?
Regardless, you could have spared yourself all that typing. Some of us have an actual education beyond 4chan or whatever retarded sources you're using to inform your cartoonish view of history where secret bankers and globalists "khazars" are in the shadows performing hexes on humanity... directing every world event from behind the shadows. There is a legitimate conversation to be had about how economics and slavery were intertwined to the point that any meaningful analysis of the causes of the Civil War will be an economic critique by definition but pretending there isn't a consensus amongst most American historians that slavery was the primary cause as an institutional driver of this conflict is retarded af.
Who cares if its not your intention to platform and promote white nationalist talking points if you end up saying the same dumb shit they do?
Apparently not since this his 2nd demotionBet that'll learn him. A lawyer "labeled" demoted, that has to be a career ender.
Good information that I’m going to research.
The Confederacy had an interesting way of showing they didn’t want war. They had state militias acting on the orders of state governors seizing US military bases before the Battle at Ft. Sumter.
It's amazing. It didn't use to be this way. There were political discussion threads that went dozens of pages and there were trolls but the discussions didn't get derailed as they so often do now. Am I misremembering? If not, what happened?
"The Civil War was about reimplementation of a private central bank" is as dumb as saying you should drink bleach or inject yourself with it to protect against a virus.
A discussion is various points of view articulating why or why not their point is valid. What you want is an echo chamber. You want everyone to agree with your points. If someone does not disagree and not fall in line with what is expected of a black man, then that black man is called a coon, a cac, white pundit, etc.
We live in a world that is not exactly as it seems. People refuse to believe that men would be so evil that they would start a war. Yet, we know men are evil enough to kidnap, rape, buck break, hang, feed to alligators, burn, decapitate, castrate, and hundreds of other things because of skin color.
We all know that I could go into any city that any of you live in and find someone within 1 hour that would bust your head for $1000.00. Realistically, what do you think people would do for a million dollars? How about a billion? Everyone on this board would consider killing someone they had no relation to for a trillion dollars. What if you didnt even have to see the killing? Just set it in motion? This is real.
The senate just went on freaking vacation without giving you your $600. Why? Because you are insignificant. This is the world we live in. Wake up. Realize who runs the world and who is pulling the strings.
You think the middle east wars are about peace??
You think wwi and wwii were about peace??
You think the American revolution was about freedom.
Every last one was about money. Money is power. And power will drive men to do evil things. Look at police? Some get that little bit of power and go crazy. They don't even realize that they are the bad guys.
I am all for civil discussions. No pun intended. However, we can just keep it about "pussy and bitches" if some topics are going to cause people's minds to explode and act like damn kids on a playground.
Cot damn, I really worry about the state of black people and our ability to think, read, and draw logical conclusions.
What I'm disputing is not a point of view. The issue is a matter of facts. You're entitled to your own point of view but you're not entitled to your own facts. The civil war and civil rights movement being about race are facts and if someone says "the civil rights movement wasn't really about race," my unwillingness to engage in a conversation stems not from a lack of tolerance for disagreement but a lack of tolerance for utter foolishness and at least slight regard for my own time and energy.
The claim that slavery was not the cause of the U.S. civil war is as worthy of debating as the efficacy of drinking bleach to kill a virus. You can disagree all you want, that isn't the issue. The topic is not too hot for BGOL. It's just too dumb for Rembrandt Brown.
The thing that bugs me the most about this new batch is how self righteous they are while peddling the most ridiculous fucking bullshit imaginable. It used to be tons of brothers clowning these types of characters. Nowadays it's a few half-hearted dismissals and a whole buncha slow dudes nodding along. Shit is lame.
I hate these dumb ass cacs..
What I'm disputing is not a point of view. The issue is a matter of facts. You're entitled to your own point of view but you're not entitled to your own facts. The civil war and civil rights movement being about race are facts and if someone says "the civil rights movement wasn't really about race," my unwillingness to engage in a conversation stems not from a lack of tolerance for disagreement but a lack of tolerance for utter foolishness and at least slight regard for my own time and energy.
The claim that slavery was not the cause of the U.S. civil war is as worthy of debating as the efficacy of drinking bleach to kill a virus. You can disagree all you want, that isn't the issue. The topic is not too hot for BGOL. It's just too dumb for Rembrandt Brown.
"The Civil Rights movement was about energon cubes... debate me!"
I've provided facts regarding the economic and financial motivations for the war. Facts. At this point, you can either dispute them with contrary facts or except what I am saying to be true, which it is.
You are conflating issues while making up statements that I never said.
First, I clearly said that slavery wasn't the "main" reason for the civil war. Which means that slavery was "a" reason, but not the main reason. However, people refuse to read and comprehend.
Second, I never said anything about the civil rights. So, your made up analogy regarding disregarding race in the civil rights movement is a false equivalency. Not to mention that as I stated before, I never said slavery had nothing to do with the civil war. Never said that.
However, since I am providing additional information that shakes the foundation provided by your cracker masters, its make people nervous.
"Oh, no. Massa would not lie to us." Although these same crackas used the Bible to keep us obedient. Same crackas denied us basic human rights.
And if my original statement pissed people off, this one is going to really get under your skin. We are still slaves. But now its everyone. However, that concept is too difficult to grasp for some people.
Bet that'll learn him. A lawyer "labeled" demoted, that has to be a career ender.
That asshole is 70 and an open racist. He's been getting away with that shit and a mere demotion is just him getting away with it again.
@bussyvillethug, this is your king?
Are We Still Slaves?
Slavery 2010 Think you’re free? Take a close look at the choices you don’t have. By Jon Jeter “I freed a thousand slaves,” Harriet Tubman famously said. “I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” With a black man occupying the White House, and the nation...
www.bgol.us
C'mon Tito you're just trolling now.
Just think how many old politicians, judges, CEO's, doctors, police chiefs and sheriffs who are like him.
You're so intelligent and "different" bruh!
I promise your posts don't just sound like some broken down, coon reflections of a Clarence Thomas type nigga.... keep typing bro!
The historical consensus on this stuff is clear as day. I hate all of you dumb fuck, "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge!" ass niggas... may all your dreams turn into ashes in your mouth.
Oh lord...
Ok, just so we have it here in print. This is the confederate declaration of independence. It spells out what South Carolina and the other states were beefing with the U.S. government about. As you can see, by the number of times, slave, slavery, etc are mentioned as the reason for them leaving the union, the shit is undeniable. This is primary source material... not what someone thinks today about what happened back then... this is what the people who did the shit were thinking at the time.
Confederate States of America - Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union
The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day 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 reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
And now the State 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.
In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, "that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."
They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."
In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of government in all its departments-- Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For purposes of defense, they united their arms and their counsels; and, in 1778, they entered into a League known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed to entrust the administration of their external relations to a common agent, known as the Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first Article "that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."
Under this Confederation the war of the Revolution was carried on, and on the 3rd of September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definite Treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the independence of the Colonies in the following terms: "ARTICLE 1-- His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof."
Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely: the right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles, was the fact, that each Colony became and was recognized by the mother Country a FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATE.
In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles of Confederation, and on 17th September, 1787, these Deputies recommended for the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union, known as the Constitution of the United States.
The parties to whom this Constitution was submitted, were the several sovereign States; they were to agree or disagree, and when nine of them agreed the compact was to take effect among those concurring; and the General Government, as the common agent, was then invested with their authority.
If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, the other four would have remained as they then were-- separate, sovereign States, independent of any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact, two of the States did not accede to the Constitution until long after it had gone into operation among the other eleven; and during that interval, they each exercised the functions of an independent nation.
By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed upon the several States, and the exercise of certain of their powers was restrained, which necessarily implied their continued existence as sovereign States. But to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people. On the 23d May , 1788, South Carolina, by a Convention of her People, passed an Ordinance assenting to this Constitution, and afterwards altered her own Constitution, to conform herself to the obligations she had undertaken.
Thus was established, by compact between the States, a Government with definite objects and powers, limited to the express words of the grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power subject to the clause reserving it to the States or to the people, and rendered unnecessary any specification of reserved rights.
We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. 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 obligation of the other; and that 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, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the States have deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own Statutes for the proof.
The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."
This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio River.
The same article of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition by the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States.
The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.
The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal Government, in which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor.
We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.
For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.
This sectional combination for the submersion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety.
On the 4th day of March next, this party will take possession of the Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory, that the judicial tribunals shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States.
The guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their enemy.
Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion at the North has invested a great political error with the sanction of more erroneous religious belief.
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 to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.
Adopted December 24, 1860
Ok, just so we have it here in print. This is the confederate declaration of independence. It spells out what South Carolina and the other states were beefing with the U.S. government about. As you can see, by the number of times, slave, slavery, etc are mentioned as the reason for them leaving the union, the shit is undeniable. This is primary source material... not what someone thinks today about what happened back then... this is what the people who did the shit were thinking at the time.
Confederate States of America - Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union
The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day 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 reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
And now the State 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.
In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, "that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."
They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."
In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of government in all its departments-- Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For purposes of defense, they united their arms and their counsels; and, in 1778, they entered into a League known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed to entrust the administration of their external relations to a common agent, known as the Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first Article "that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."
Under this Confederation the war of the Revolution was carried on, and on the 3rd of September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definite Treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the independence of the Colonies in the following terms: "ARTICLE 1-- His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof."
Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely: the right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles, was the fact, that each Colony became and was recognized by the mother Country a FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATE.
In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles of Confederation, and on 17th September, 1787, these Deputies recommended for the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union, known as the Constitution of the United States.
The parties to whom this Constitution was submitted, were the several sovereign States; they were to agree or disagree, and when nine of them agreed the compact was to take effect among those concurring; and the General Government, as the common agent, was then invested with their authority.
If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, the other four would have remained as they then were-- separate, sovereign States, independent of any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact, two of the States did not accede to the Constitution until long after it had gone into operation among the other eleven; and during that interval, they each exercised the functions of an independent nation.
By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed upon the several States, and the exercise of certain of their powers was restrained, which necessarily implied their continued existence as sovereign States. But to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people. On the 23d May , 1788, South Carolina, by a Convention of her People, passed an Ordinance assenting to this Constitution, and afterwards altered her own Constitution, to conform herself to the obligations she had undertaken.
Thus was established, by compact between the States, a Government with definite objects and powers, limited to the express words of the grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power subject to the clause reserving it to the States or to the people, and rendered unnecessary any specification of reserved rights.
We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. 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 obligation of the other; and that 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, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the States have deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own Statutes for the proof.
The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."
This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio River.
The same article of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition by the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States.
The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.
The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal Government, in which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor.
We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.
For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.
This sectional combination for the submersion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety.
On the 4th day of March next, this party will take possession of the Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory, that the judicial tribunals shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States.
The guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their enemy.
Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion at the North has invested a great political error with the sanction of more erroneous religious belief.
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 to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.
Adopted December 24, 1860
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Not soon enough.