Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention:

It is one of the most agreeable incidents of my life that the Convention of the people of South Carolina -- my native State -- should have elected me a Commissioner to the State of Alabama, for many years my adopted

one. South Carolina could doubtless have sent an abler son to represent her, but she could not have sent one whose heart was filled with more kindness and attachment, or one who would extend the hand of fellowship with greater sincerity or regard. It was during the many years I sojourned among you, I learnt how to appreciate the intelligence and energy of your citizens, and how properly to estimate the vast and varied resources of your State: a State second to but one as a cotton producer; to none in mineral wealth, especially in coal and iron; so potent to the world, either in the mission of peace or war: a State that instructed her Governor to call a Convention in the event of the election of a Black Republican for the presumed purpose of meeting the great issue: To such a State, South Carolina would willingly have assigned the position of leadership in the great drama of events that are pressing to a rapid solution. But by a combination of accidental causes, the initiation of the contest devolved upon South Carolina. The Governor of South Carolina called an extra session of the Legislature to elect Electors to cast the Presidential vote of that State. Continuing in session for a few days, the election of a Black Republican or sectional candidate, was declared; and feeling that submission would be both degradation and annihilation, she called a Convention forthwith of the people to assemble on the 17th of December. At once the State fired up. It was an up-heaving of the people. No leader or leaders could have resisted it, or stemmed its impetuosity. The wave of public opinion swept over the lower, the middle, and leaped into the recess of the mountain districts. The result was, the Convetion assembled with unprecedented unanimity. Some time was lost in consequence of a loathsome epidemic raging in Columbia, that forced the Convention to adjourn to Charleston. On the 19th a cheering voice from Alabama was heard. Your esteemed Commissioner [John A. Elmore of Montgomery], who so ably represented your State, and was so acceptable to the one to which he was accredited, presented a telegram from your patriotic and popular Governor, that carried an electric thrill through every heart -- "tell the Convention to listen to no proposition of compromise or delay." The next day, the 20th, came the Ordinance annulling the compact which South Carolina had entered into in 1788 with twelve other sovereign States, and resuming all delegated power, she became a free, sovereign, and independent commonwealth. At this point, the accumulated aggressions of the third of a century fell like shackles at her feet, and free, disenthralled, regenerated, she stood before her devoted people like the genius of Liberty, beckoning them on to the performance of their duty.

The argument closes here so far as Federal aggressions in South Carolina are concerned. But may we not pause in reverence and admiration before the vast monument built up by Southern genius and eloquence, in defending and warning a persecuted section of the measured approach of despotism, and that, too, in the face of the frowns and blandishments of power; and there were some who, braving the imprecations of the enemy, and the importunities of friends, persisted in performing their sacred duty to their section at all and every sacrifice.

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Revised 3/7/01