Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-16 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN .TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MARCH K, 1859

YOUNG AMERICA ON
SLAVERY.

(After reacting Thos. Colley Grrattau's "CirilisedAmerica.")

NUMBER THIRTEEN

The, good-natured lecture which " Non-Prejudice "
delivered to " Young America," in the Xorthern
Times of Monday, deserves a passing notice.
Agreeing with me in so many things—admitting

the strength of my facts on slavery, if not accepting
all my opinions —he falls back upon the time-worn
argument of the equality of all men. That equality
I deny. There is no equality in mankind. As one
brain is larger than another brain, so one race will
command and govern another race._ Let me quote a
paragraph from his letter':

" Young America" says, " The Africans have been, and
always mast be, servants; tiature's laws are indestructable."
Certainly nature's laws are indestructable ; but a dogmatic
statement like that does not prove that it is ono of nature's
laws that Africans must always continue servants, Our
natural sense of justice and the constitution of the 'United
StUtes, tell us thatitis one of nature's indestructable laws,
that all men are 'born free and equal. And "Young
America" knows very well that if he, instead of having
been born a smart, go-a-head Yankee, had come into the
world a miserable, helpless fellow, with no self-reliance,
fit only to do what he was told, that lie would not have
considered that a sufficient justification to his neighbour
for taking him and making him his slave,, even, though his
neighbour might assert "that he rervired some stronger

mind to guidehim," and it was entirely for his good

Let "Non Prejudice" change, the word slave to
servant and'it will sound less harshly.
Servitude like happiness is only compm ative,—
good is comparative,—so is evil,—so is:light, heat, air,
—all are comparative. Liberty when mistaken for
licence—servility when mistaken for civility, is as
bad as to .place the servant in the master's chair.
The Creator made the world to suit • himself,—not
Exeter Hall. His tenants were of his own choosing.
Having a taste for "colours, as shown in the rainbow,
the dolphin, the flower-garden, and the forest, he
carried out his fancy in the colour, shade, and ca-
pacity of man. In nature, large ,fish swallow little
fish,—large trees draw their sap from little trees,
large oceans drink up the rivulets—so that race that
possesses most governing power, rules. . The negro
never was governor. American slaves sing psalms,
quote scripture, and have fewer crimes than any
other race,-!--but mark the contrast in Africa
What have missionaries accomplished there ? The
example, and constant intercourse with the white
man, has improved the negro's life in America, but
no such result has followed Dr. Livingstone.
A black hen may lay .a, white egg, and a black
phimb may be as sweet as .a white one, but' no such
analogy applies to the African. A wild horse will

dica ; your arguments, iflltoperly arranged, would
be overpowering. I.!,ut you lack system ; an argu-
ment, to be effective, must be built up like a
pyramid. -Drive your nail straight home."
110;w strange it is—this fancy which some have of
ei:ideavouring to re-model others. One man snubs
me for doing what another recommends. Those
who prefer that pulpit style of firstly, secondly and
thirdly, better adopt it. My style is my own,
and as I have not written on my forehead, This
is a lunius—and as these letters have been thrown
off, without elaborate preparation, from day to day,
as the subject extended, I did not expect to be
criticised as an essayist. A young English plan-
ter, long a resident of the Southern States—
recently from Manchester—after mature delibera-
tion, in the following letter assumes to have razed
my argument to_ the ground. I copy his comments
entire :

not breed a tame colt. I remember hearing Drum-
mond or Thompson, I do not remember which, say in
Parliament, in debate on the slaVe question, with
Were a man to attempt to make
me a slave I would kill him ! " Now that is all
buncome—who would try ? Can any one make the
honourable member's hair curl ? face black ? nose
flat ? Of course not, and it is equally absurd to
speak of making a negro slave out of an Anglo-
Saxon. As the churning of milk maketh butter,—

great emphasis,

as the wringing of the nose bringeth blood,

such Parliamentary nonsense on the slave question
breedeth contention with the Americans.

tilS-11e,ar°,12,91,i,5.t.y ea'AjapSll6uYeiru 1?)C:Kt112
the way of a ship in the waters of the sea," before
they try to raise the Negro above the kitchen.

The African has been and will continue to be a
one-masted frigate.
" Non-Prejudice" must not expect to raise a
breed of short tailed kittens by cutting off the tail
of the old cat !

A candle lights others, but consumes itself: the
anti-slavery party reverse the proverb. They ex-
pect to reap grapes by sowing thorns. When two
Sundays 'meet—when a frog has hair—then the mist
of slavery can be dispelled with an abolition fan !
Since Ham rejoiced at Noah's intoxication—since
Judah dishonoured his child—since Moses broke the
Commandments on the mountain—the negro race
has swept the house—made the fires—done the
cooking—and always gone out to service. Tribula-
tion worketh patience
—experience bringeth hope

—patience maketh experience

Edward Everett believes " that American slaverY
is to be the ultimate civilization of Africa." The
slavocrat presents his compliments to the negro-
pho-bian, with this Scriptural advice : ", With-
draw thy foot from thy neighbour's house, lest he be
weary of thee, and so hate thee."
British statesmen know as little of America as
Macaulay's New Zealander does of London bridge.
Members of Parliament seldom allude to the United
States, but when they do, they are groping in the
dark. Roebuck would show more force in his Anti-
American feeling, if more accurate in his statements;
Last year I corrected him in the Times as to the
number of states in the union, and the other day I
found him equally wild in his information, and
consequently sent this letter :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES

Waterloo Hotel, Liverpool, January 21, 1859.
—Observing the. following inaccurate
statement on my arrival in the Asia yesterday, I am
emboldened by your courtesy on a former occasion, again to
ask permission of•you to correct Mr. Roebuck's statistics
on the United States :

My Dear Sir,

" Extract from his speech at Sheffield.
" Times " report, lan. 14

"I am told to look at America. Look at America, sir.
Are there not six millions slaves in America ? and does not
the Declaration of Independence of the Republic state,
that all men are born free ? "

The " American Almanac" of last year gives the slave
population at different periods :

give you some

AN HEREDITARY SLAVEOWNER

In 1790, under Washington 697,897
„ 1800, under Adams 893,041
„ 1810, under Madison .. 1,191,364
„ 1820, under Munroe.... 1,538,064
„ 1830, under Jackson 2,009,031
„ 1840, under Van Bruen 2,487.355
„ 1850, under Fillmore .. 3,204,089
And taking the same ratio of increase, in round numbers
there are in 1859, under Buchanan, 4,000,000 slaves in the
United States, or thirty-three per cent. less than stated by
Mr. Roebuck !—Yours, &c." " YOUNG AMERICA."

"Don't you think you had better wind up your
letters on slavery ?" writes a friend to-day. " The
cream of the last was not quite so thick as usual--
with allopathic words you are administering homceo-
pathic ideas—your tight rope is getting slaek ;
your brandy has a watery flavour. lam afraid you
are running the thing into the ground. That is just
'exactly what I have been trying to do ; but into
English, not American ground:" My words may; be
soft, but arguments based on fact are hard, to
withstand. I should have wound up before, but
letters, like the above, put a writer on his metal..
Let me open one this morning from Paris. This
time " B•gle Britton" assumes to lecture me :

Your le gers on slavery 43,,re incoherent and rhapso-

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TERMS-CASH

My dear Young America, --You ask me_ as a slaveholder,
what are the weak points in your " slave papers." I will

Why, my dear fellow., the whole idea is a weak one
eui Bono ? what do yon expect to accomplish by them ?
Surely not to convert John Bull ? Are you not a sufficiently
keen observer of character to know that this amiable
individual is by nature and education not open to argu-
ment? Logic passes him by like the idle wind ; satire
enrages but does not convince him, and the to Toque
style of which he accuses you, ballads from the density of
his mental epidemics like musket balls from the back of a
hippopotamus. You are fighting a windmill.

This is the yew, a uha yc of Weitknesa againat you --
Speccation the first: You attempt to prove the
rectitude of slavery from the Bible

You ar(

very far behind the tactics, and ignorant of the position of
the -enemy, if you do not know that the anti-slavery party
have long since thrown the Bible overboard. This was
done some six years ago, when the divine origin of slavery

was most clearly proved by some distinguished minister of
the Christian Church in the south. It was announced to
disciples of the new schOol, by one of their high priests,
the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, from his pulpit, in words
like these—" The Bible has been proved to uphold slavery—
granted—then I say, perish the Bible, but perish slavery !"
This was the inauguration of the "higher law." Hear also
what the arch-angel of anti-slavery, the Rev. (!) Theodore
Parker said in his pulpit (God save the mark), "If the
Saviour of mankind himself, (not however denominating him
quite so reverently) were to issue a warrant for the rendition of
a slave fleeing from his master, and send St. Paul to execute it,
he (Theodore Parker, Minister of God's Holy Word) would
resist it ! ! You see, therefore, that what the Bible says is of
no sort of consequence.

Specification 1-lie second
What's the use of telling the Englishmen that they
inflicted this curse (or blessing) upon us ? Slavery does not
exist in England now (by that name), therefore it cannot be
right. It does exist (in name) in America ; therefore it
must be wrong. _ _ _ _ _ _

Don't you know that to some minds nothing is harder to
_forgive than a 4.nefit conferred.
Leaving out of notice the Episcopal See' of Manchester,
built, nourished, and enriched by the profits of slave
labour, because all that is comparatively new ;
why recall to the placid minds of some of the portly
and philanthropic gentlemen who roll solemnly
through Castle-street, Lord-street, Bold-street, and
so out into the country, in their stupendous coaches,
remind some of the dignified merchants who discuss Cotton
and Consols on the London, Bristol, and GlasgoF Exchanges,
that the foundation of their fortunes was the African slave
trade ? They do not own slaves now, —they make atone-
ment every day for the sins of their fathers by abusing us
who do own them now,, and who have christianised, fed,
and. clothed four millions of them. Their consciences are
as immaculate and unwrinkled as their cravats. Why
disturb them ?

See how much better an example is set you by the
Manchester Magnates. Mr. - M.P., who buys from
me Sea Islands cotton at two to three shillings a pound, and
never asks me whether the length of staple he so much
prizes js or iso not produced by using_ worn-out n9grße§x;
Quaker, Philanthrophist, and Reformer, whom 1 am proud
to reckon among my very best customers for short-stapled
kinds. He never lectures me about my antecedents.
There are several other specifications of my charge against
your articles which I may bring forward hereafter, if you
are not, as I anticipate already, demolished by these.

The moment a Northern speaks of slavery, some
Southern planter is sure to find fault with him--
admit that you are right on some points, on others
you are wrong.

First, wrong in taking such clever men as Parker
and Beecher at, their word, when said word was
spoken in the moment of anti-slavery excitement---
spoken earnestly, it is true---but I can but think
without reflection. The Bible is the base of all
human knowledge, and to speak lightly of its divine
precepts, is to disavow them.
• Second, wrong in supposing that John Bull is not
open to conviction--once prove to him that you
cannot crowd two quarts into a pint pot---that
two and three do not make seven--I say, the
moment, by fair argument, you convince him, John
Bull is every inch a gentleman.

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