the protecting system," they
say "that it remains for us to submit a plan of taxation in which we
would be willing to acquiesce in a liberal spirit of concession,
provided we are met in due time and in a becoming spirit by the States
interested in manufactures." In the opinion of the convention, an
equitable plan would be that "the whole list of protected articles
should be imported free of all duty, and that the revenue derived from
import duties should be raised exclusively from the unprotected
articles, or that whenever a duty is imposed upon protected articles
imported an excise duty of the same rate shall be imposed upon all
similar articles manufactured in the United States."

The address proceeds to state, however, that "they are willing to make a
large offering to preserve the Union, and, with a distinct declaration
that it is a concession on our part, we will consent that the same rate
of duty may be imposed upon the protected articles that shall be imposed
upon the unprotected, provided that no more revenue be raised than is
necessary to meet the demands of the Government for constitutional
purposes, and provided also that a duty substantially uniform be imposed
upon all foreign imports."

It is also true that in his message to the legislature, when urging the
necessity of providing "means of securing their safety by ample
resources for repelling force by force," the governor of South Carolina
observes that he "can not but think that on a calm and dispassionate
review by Congress and the functionaries of the General Government of
the true merits of this controversy the arbitration by a call of a
convention of all the States, which we sincerely and anxiously seek and
desire, will be accorded to us."

From the diversity of terms indicated in these two important documents,
taken in connection with the progress of recent events in that quarter,
there is too much reason to apprehend, without in any manner doubting
the intentions of those public functionaries, that neither the terms
proposed in the address of the convention nor those alluded to in the
message of the governor would appease the excitement which has led to
the present excesses. It is obvious, however, that should the latter be
insisted on they present an alternative which the General Government of
itself can by no possibility grant, since by an express provision of the
Constitution Congress can call a convention for the purpose of proposing
amendme