The consul was censured by the
press in several of the slaveholding States, because he dared to
bring the matter before the local legislature. We are bound to say
that Consul Mathew, knowing the predominant prejudices of the
Carolinians, acted wisely in so doing. First, he knew the tenacious
value they put upon courtesy; secondly, the point at issue between
South Carolina and the Federal Government, (and, as a learned friend
in Georgia once said, "Whether South Carolina belonged to the United
States, or the United States to South Carolina;") and thirdly, the
right of State sovereignty, which South Carolina held to be of the
first importance. To disregard the first, would have been considered
an insult to the feelings of her people; and if the question had
first been mooted with the Federal Government, the ire of South
Carolinians would have been fired; the slur in placing her in a
secondary position would have sounded the war-trumpet of Abolition
encroachments, while the latter would have been considered a breach
of confidence, and an unwarrantable disregard of her assertion of
State rights. The Executive transmitted the documents to the
Assembly, that body referred them to special committees, and the
Messrs. Mazyck and McCready, reported as everybody in South Carolina
expected, virtually giving the British consul a very significant
invitation to keep his petitions in his pocket for the future, and
his "black lambs" out of the State, or it might disturb their
domesticated ideas.
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