Southern Convention at Vicksburg, Part 2 [pp. 205-220]

SPEECH OF MR. SPRATT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 211
this, they would crush slavery to bring the North to a footing with them but to
slavery without the Nolth, they have no repugnance. On the conrtrary, if it
were to stand out for itself, free from thie control of' any other power, and were
to offer to all a fair and open trade in its commodities, it would not only not be
warred upon, but the South would be singularly favored; crowns would bend
before her; kingdoms and empires would enter the lists to Ain her favors; and,
quitting her free estate, it would be in her option to become the 1ri,le of the
world, rather than to remain, as now, the miserable mistress of the North. The
repugnance to southern slavery, therefore, is not due to its nature, but to the
relations only in which, by the accidents of its history, it has been placed; and if
there be a measure which will teach the North that the South is to be no longer
the passive subject of oppression-which will teach the world that the North is
not the Uinion, and which, therefore, will not only shock the world, but will in spire a feeling of respectful consideration-it is that which declares that the
South will thenceforthl be supreme upon the questions which aflect her own pe culiar institutions.
[s it that this measure would not advance the material interests of the South?
We have at the South the precepts of experience upon this subject, and they would
seem to be conclusive With one section of the southern seaboard I am ac quainted, and upon the effects there I speak with confidence. When foreign
slaves were introduced, the rural parishes of Charleston district were the bright est spots in all America. Slaves, taken from the martsof Charleston to the
lands atdjacent, gave to everythiiing they touched the spring of progress. From
the labor of one sear came as many the next. They gave drainage to the land,
cultivation to the soil, and provisions in abundance to the artisans and operatives
of the city. These, in turn, with labor and provisions cheap, struck boldly out
upon the field of competition. Leather was tanned, cloth was manufactured,
shoes, hats, clothes, and implements were made for consumption alnd for export.
The town aldvanced: the country prospered; swamps were reclaimed; mansions
rose; avenues were planted; pleasure grounds laid out; commerce started; ships
sailed to every quarter of the world; parish churches, in imposing styles of architecture, were erected, and spots maore progressive and more true to the precepts of
religion, and more warmed by hospitality, were never seenii than the town and
parishes of Charleston district. But upon the suppression of that trade, their
splendors waned, their glories departed; progress left them for the North; cultivation ceased; the swamps returned; mansions became tenantless and roofless;
values fell; lands that sold for fifty dollars per acre, now sell for less than five
dollars; trade was no longer prosecuted; of twenty tan yards not one remains;
of shoes hats, and implements of industry, once put upon the trade of foreign
towns, none now are put upon our own, and Charleston, which was once upon
the line of travel from Europe to the North, now stands aside, and while once
th, nmetropolis of America, is now the unconsidered seaport of a tributary province. Such have been the effects of the foreign slave-trade, as exhibited in the
history of Charleston.'The experience of that district, to a greater or less extent, has been the experience of other sections of our southern seaboard, and
these results would seem to be con(',sive upon the question whether that trade
will once again give progress to the South.
I have said this is the only vital and efficient measure. With that, slavery will
be safe within the Union or without it; without it, it will be safe in neither
state; and despite of men who deprecate side issues, we have no option but to
raise the standard of a slave-trade party. It is said we mus: not divide the
South. All that is vital to the South is slavery, and that South will not be divided on this question. It is said we lose the aid of those who will stand upon
that nmeasure, but will they stand on any other vital measure l Or is it to be
hoped that, in the crisis of our action, they will ever do more than lay expostullating hands upon us l It is said we will insure the election of a Northern. President. The North elects at present, and whether she elect a northern man or
southern man obsequious to the North, can little matter. From a Black Republican we might have at least the hope that the spirit of an outraged South would
find again expression in the Senate chamber, but from such a southern man as