borrow money, and the moment a blow is struck negotiations should be set on foot for straining our credit to the utmost at once, when it will be best. In the meantime the private resources of the Whigs should be taken into consideration. On this point, I wish to speak for myself at once. I hold my property, all of it, as much at the service of the state as my life; but to calculate on something short of extremities I think I can furnish you next year with the proceeds of an hundred bales of cotton. I did think of making a large provision crop, but reflecting that I was on the frontier of Georgia and flanked on all sides with Union men I thought perhaps it would be safer to plant cotton and furnish the state with the proceeds. If the seasons are ordinary I can afford to give at least one hundred bales without depriving m3rself of the means of meeting the contingent expenses of my official situation. For this I will take the state's certificate, or no certificate if the times require it. If it should be preferred, I would cheerfully turn over to the service of the state, from the time the first movement is made, all my efficient malè force to be employed in ditching, fortifying, building, etc.—of course not to bear arms, which would be dangerous policy to be justified only by the greatest extremities....I trust no resort will be made now at least to increased taxation; the people would not bear it whatever our descendants may have to do.[1]
- ↑ Hammond Papers: Hammond to Hayne, February 7, 1833. Here was a young planter, but lately married, willing to give not merely his services but his whole means of support to the cause of the state. A most bitter and intense spirit of hostility to the North was being developed, which may well be taken into account in con--
