Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/369

350 representation belonged to the test oath party and this party might again gain control by such a narrow margin.

Great efforts were made by the Union party to convince the people that theirs was no common warfare; it was one of defense against "wanton oppression and implacable tyranny," aimed immediately at the Union party in South Carolina, but having for its ultimate object the destruction of the national Union. Let none be deluded by the artifices of the Nullifiers; they would "sing the siren song of peace and try to charm and cheat the Union party into the belief that they were as harmless as doves"; they would fain persuade the Union men that the proposed oath of allegiance required no pledge inconsistent with the Union men's cherished opinions; but all this was only a mask assumed to influence the pending elections and to be cast aside as soon as it should have served the purpose. Their object and their fixed resolve was to pass the oath in the meaning of the ordinance of the convention and thus render it in effect an abjuration of allegiance to the Union, "a severance of the hallowed tie of American citizenship." Their meditated assault upon the independence of the judiciary, "the most