Thus was the right clearly reserved to
themselves, and the question settled, so far as the State
Legislature was concerned. The next course for Mr. Mathew was to
appeal to the Judiciary, and should redress be denied, make it the
medium of bringing the matter, before the Federal courts.
We cannot forbear to say, that the strenuous opposition waged
against this appeal of common humanity arose from political
influence, supported by a set of ultra partisans, whose theoretical
restrictions, assisted by the voice of the press, catered to the
war-spirit of the abstractionists.
The British consul, as the representative of his government, knowing
the personal suffering to which the subjects of his country were
subjected by the wretched state of the Charleston prison, and its
management, sought to remove no restriction that might be necessary
for protecting their dangerous institutions, but to relieve that
suffering. He had pointed the authorities to the wretched state of
the prison, and the inhuman regimen which existed within it; but,
whether through that superlative carelessness which has become so
materialized in the spirit of society--that callousness to
misfortune so strongly manifested by the rich toward the industrious
poor and the slaves-or, a contempt for his opinions, because he had
followed out the instructions of his government, things went on in
the same neglected manner and no attention was paid to them.
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