The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

388 In discussing the philosophy of the subject Mr. T. H. Gladstone observes :-- It is strange that men should fight so hard to introduce so bad a thing as slavery into a land. We have been so accustomed to dwell on the moral evils of slavery, the essential enormity of the system, and the wrongs which almost of necessity arise out of it, that we are apt to overlook that which otherwise we should not be slow to recognise, namely, how baneful the system is in its influence upon the white race, and how seriously it im poverishes a country, and retards the progress of its people. The celebrated Jefferson, himself a slaveholder, has left in his writings a strong testimony against the system in its reflex influence upon the masters, when he said, that " the man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved " whilst living in the midst of such a system. " The whole commerce," he writes, "between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions—the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submission on the other." As one of the chief founders of the republic, Jefferson, — in common with Washington, Franklin, Madison, Henry, and all the leaders of his time,—regarded the abolition of what he calls " this great political and moral evil," as essential to the prosperity of the Union. Bat slavery is as great an economical, as it is a political or moral evil. The day on which I first set foot in a slave State, and a few hours before I crossed the border-line, I was conversing with a gentleman residing in Pennsylvania, whose views appeared to be Southern, but who expressed them in a tone of candour and moderation. " Well," said he at length, " this afternoon you will be in our Southern States. You expect, I dare say, to find the difference the moment you cross the State•line. Whichever way you look, you will calculate on seeing nothing but what is bad. should like very much to know, whether you find it as bad as it is most likely you expect." In illustration of the proof that slavery is anti-economical and anti-social, the author continues : By all unprejudiced witnesses the fact is acknowledged, that slave labour in any temperate climate cannot hold its ground when brought into fair competition with free labour. As a system, slavery ever brings with it a heavy entail lof disorder, slovenly negligence, stereotyped ad hesion to old methods, disregard of all improvements, costly and unnoticed expenditure, and general impoverish ment in all that pertains to the cultivation of the soil. This is not a matter of controversy. It is sufficient to see the " thrown out " or "turned out " lands of Virginia, —thousands of acres now no longer cultivated, naturally far richer than the soil of Massachusetts, enjoying a more genial climate, adapted to the growth of more remunera tive products,—and in a State colonised at an earlier period,—and to compare the poverty of the one with the wealth exhibited in the other State, to be convinced of the terribly pernicious influence of the slave system on the agriculture of a country. Whether we illustrate the con trast between a slave State and a free State, in the market price of the land, in the difference of population, or in the relative extent of unimproved soil, we arrive at the same conclusion, and gain sure indices of the prejudicial econo mic results of slavery. To cross the border from Pennsylvania to Virginia, is to cross from land at fort)-nine dollars, to land at twentyone dollars per acre, as shown by the Government returns. All that is quite true ; but the author stops short at the point where a useful general reflection might be made. Adopting his phraseology, we might say, "It is strange that " men should fight so hard to introduce so bad " a thing as tyranny into a land "; yet the history of any country shows that cruel acts of despotism, and fierce acts of power, have often found their warmest supporters in large popular classes. The policy of the French Court towards the Huguenots, of the Crom wellians in Ireland towards the Celtic popula tion, of the Spanish nation towards " heretics," of certain civilised States towards Poland—all found multitudinous approvers. Vicious in stitutions have often been popular, and men have had a desire to propagate them. The " strange" thing that men should be pro slavery advocates in America can be referred to the general social law, according to which the deeply-seated instincts of ascendancy re fuse to be coerced even by a democratic equality of condition and privilege. That in a country like Kansas there should be this " border-ruffianism" on which Mr. Gladstone writes, does not surprise us. Class feeling of the grossest kind is a potent gene rator of the pro•slavery passion which burns so fiercely in Kansas. Mr. T. H. Gladstone writes : Of political parties in -Kansas, the two main divisions are, of course, the free-state and the pro-slavery parties ; but the latter exhibits a further distinction, according as its adherents are moderate and constitutional in their main tenance of Southern views, or endeavour to force their principles upon the territory by powder and shot. The latter policy is known as " border-ruffianism." He gives us several pictures of the latter class which look remarkably like nature. Ho writes I had just arrived in Kansas city, and shall never forget the appearance of the lawless mob that poured into the THE PRESS. place, inflamed with drink, glutted with the indulgence of the vilest passions, displaying with loud boasts the " plunder " they had taken from the inhabitants, and thirsting for the opportunity of repeating the sack of Lawrence in some other offending place. Men, for the most part of large frame, with red flannel shirts and im• mense boots worn outside their trousers, their faces un• washed and unshaven, still reeking with the dust and smoke of Lawrence, wearing the most savage looks, and giving utterance to the most horrible imprecations and blasphemies, armed, moreover, to the teeth with rifles and revolvers, cutlasses and bowie•knives,—such were the men I saw around me. Some displayed a grotesque inter mixture in their dress, having crossed their native red rough shirt with the satin vest or narrow dress coat pillaged from the wardrobe of some Lawrence Yankee, or having girded themselves with the cords and tassels which the day before had ornamented the curtains of the Free•state Hotel. Looking around at these groups of drunken, bellowing, bloodthirsty demons, who crowded around the bar of the hotel, shouting for drink, or vented their furious noise on the levee without, I felt that all my former experi ences of border men and Missourians bore faint compari- SOD with the spectacle represented by this wretched crew, who appeared only the more terrifying from the darkness of the surrounding night. The hotel in Kansas city where we were, was the next, they said, that should fall ; the attack was being planned that night, and such, they de dared, should be the end of every place which was built by free•state men, or that harboured " those rascally abolitionists." And he gives us a specimen of their style of conversation : A general rush to the bar ensued. Already maddened with whisky, each would treat his fellow in arms : " Step up, and liquor here, you air. A heap finer this stuff than that there rot•gut ashore. Here, you sir; don't he askeard. One of our boys, I reckon? All right on the goose, eh? No highfalutin' airs here, you know. Keep that for them Yankee Blue•bellies down East. If there's any of that sort here, I reckon they'd better make tracks mighty quick, and that's a fact, while I'se on board, unless they want to make a quicker roa , l out than they came in. Yes, sir, this yere tool of mine [handling a pistol], it isn't the first time it has seen a Blue•belly. If there's any of that 'ere sort aboard, I say they'd better clear out, that's sartin. We ain't agoin' to stand them coming here, we ain't. Isn't their own place down East big enough for them, I should like to know ? We ain't agoin' to stand their comin' and dictatin' to us with their nigger. worshipping, we ain't. I reckon we'll make the place hot enough for them soon, that's a fact. Here, boys, drink. Liquors, captain, for the crowd. Step up this way, old boss, and liquor." The laws of Kansas in relation to fugitive slaves are extremely severe. As a matter of course, any one opposed in opinion to slavery is not permitted to act on a jury where " black property " is involved. We hear and read much of King Bomba's misrule, but the fol lowing extract from a Kansas statute shows to what lengths a Republican despotism may go : If any free person, by speaking or writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory, or shall introduce into this territory, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause to be introduced into this territory, written, printed, published, or circulated in this territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labour for a term of not less than two years.—!Statutes, cap. 151, sec. 12.) The darkly repulsivo phases of life in Kansas, with its hideous coarseness, are contrasted with peculiar phases of character in its society. Cooper, the American novelist, might have given some spirited pictures of the sort of life that Mr. T. H. Gladstone describes. There is power and freshness in the following de scription : It is impossible, however, rightly to comprehend life in Kansas without taking into consideration the natural characteristics of the Western borderer. Take him at his best, and the pioneer of the New World possesses a noble character. There he stands, in his rough woollen shirt of yellow or red, his big boots forming a large circumference around his leathern hose, a buffalo•skin upon his back— at once his covering by day and his bed, sheet and blanket all combined, by night—his coonskin cap, or slouched felt hat, covering a face which hot suns and keen frosts have made brown as an Indian's, his rifle across his shoulder, powder•honi and shot•pouch hanging from his neck, his belt stuck full of twine and knives, and hatchets and ammunition, and all the minor necessaries of his life —the produce of his last shot perhaps upon his shoulder, his visage the fiercer for uncombed hair and thick bristly beard : there he stands, ready for the widest river, or the thickest forest, or the broadest prairie, or the wildest Indian, or the most savage beast that it may be his lot to light on, ready to do or die. Tbat there is a charm in all this, at least to " those whose hearts are fresh and simple," and who are sick of the luxury and display, the hollow pretence and unmanly refinements of the Eastern cities, will be understood by every one. There is romance about the unheeded perils and unthought-of hardships, there is attraction in the manly genetosity of these brave pioneers of civilisation. They are the men to conquer the wild woods and stern nature that is before them • and they do it. Step by step, not gradually, but rapidly, ihey have carried forward the SATURDAY, outposts of civilised life ; the rcd man has receded before them; the waste wilderness has been transformed into a fruitful field ; hundreds, thousands of miles have sub- mitted to the steady march of their conquest ; population has followed to fill up from behind the lands they have cleared ; and hating, as " crowded up like a city," the place where they can see in the distance the smoke of another man's log-hut, or cross another man's claim, they ever move on, loving only the act of conquest, and the pride of giving to the world new lands for its enjoyment. Open-hearted, hospitable, manly, enterprising, reckless of danger, careless of comfort, full of cool courage and determination as the Western pathfinder is, it may readily be supposed he holds in most hearty contempt the delicately raised Yankee, that is, inhabitant of the North eastern States. To him the Yankee appears the embodi ment of all that is stiff and cold, caiculating and selfish. He would not exchang,e the " rough and ready" welcome to one of his own Western log•huts for all the gorgeous saloons and costly display of the most brilliant receptions in the Eastern cities. And well it is that in some part of the Union the manly strength of its first founders is thus perpetuated. With all his faults, there is life and vigour in the Western borderer, and although capable of being transformed into the worst of ruffians, because the most reckless and determined, yet there are elements of character, as it has been my object to show, in this rough population of Missouri and other border lands, which are noble in themselves, and of the highest value to the inte rests of the States. The variety of life to be seen in that country and its bordering States is extremely singular. The author gives us some graphic " interiors " of steamboats. After describing in one of his sketches the Missourians and border ruffians on deck, he goes on and presents us with the following picture : Further, there were on board Spaniards belonging to New Mexico, filthy as to their persons, disgusting in their manners. These also form a part of the transient popula tion of Kansas. Moreover, there were several nuns going up to one of the Roman Catholic missions, and some adherents of the Mormon faith, making their way probably across the plains to Utah. Besides these were Jews, for the most part of German origin, of whom a large class carry on the trade and storekeeping in the towns of Kansas. There were Germans also—called by the Americans " Dutchmen "—who, intent on making a livelihood, have settled so thickly in Kansas, as they have done in all the Western lands, that there are more German than English names upon the shops and warehouses, and they almost bid fair to monopolise the commerce of the country. Then there were others intent on making gain, but not the honest gain of the German—namely, the professed gamblers. These were men who played a trick with cards, well known on the Western waters, which occupies but a single minute. They never accepted a stake of less than one hundred dollars. They began their work late at night, and left the boat about daylight, carry ing with them many hundreds of dollars which they had got from the drinking, maddened ruffians, fresh from the spoil of Lawrence. These unfortunately are too nume rously represented also in the territory. Again, there were of our number agents of the Federal as well as the Territorial Government, and officers in the United States' army ; and, lastly, the African race was represented, not only by the waiters and others employed on the boat, but also by a poor slave, who, for safety's sake, was handcuffed, and sat ordinarily in a corner, where the black barber found for him a seat, dropping only his wrists between his knees when a stranger approached, to hide, apparently, the shameful shackle from his gaze. This is, indeed, a wild variety of life. Nuns and Jews, Mormons and New Mexicans, Ger mans, officers, gamblers, and slaves, all crammed together into one boat ! An amateur legislator, ambitious of " colonising Eutopia," would have grand elements for working upon in such raw materials. Of the denial of free dom of speech in that society, a significant instance is related by Mr. Gladstone : The word " abolition " had unguardedly dropped from the lips of the clerk of the boat, not with the customary oath, but with a laugh. " Shut up," was the instant rejoinder, proceeding from a gruf, hoarse voice ; "reck'n we're in a section now, where you can't say that there word, not even in jest; so don't crowd on so mighty powerful. You'll have to allow to respect the wishes of the sovereign people ; it's them that's to rule;—d'ye hear, Mister? " Several passages might be quoted from this volume which teach the conclusion, so often dwelt on by ancient and modern philosophers, that laws without. manners and morals can do little for a people. There can be no real liberty without order; and the history of the United States in our own times repeatedly shows that ultra-democracy, with its ballot box and universality of suffrage, has a tendency to exaggerate some of the worst passions. We admit that there are many dark plague-spots in parts of our own population congregated in our large towns ; but it is only after reading descriptions of other states of society, where white men, speaking the tongue of Shakespeare and Milton, exhibit degeneracy of nature, that wo come to see how the vices of England are better than the virtues of some communities. 6....