The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-03 00:00:00

THE GORDIAN KNOT.

All reform must grow ; it cannot safely be made.
To lecture a man upon the nastiness of chewirg
tobacco, while taking a pinch of snuff, seems to
him unreasonable and impertinent. We in the
Free States must treat the blank as a man before
we have any right to ask the Slave States not to
treat him as a chattel. It is this inconsistency
which makes the South look upon our anti•slavery
feeling as the simple arrogance of the pharisee, and
indisposes it to give that respectful attention to our
opinion which it would otherwise receive. The
Southerner points to that unerring index of con-
tent and wellbeing, increase of population, as a
proof beyond declamation or assertion that the
black face is more happy in its state of slavery
than in its condition of freedom. It points to the
record of crime in the Free States, which shows the
white race with a far larger average of criminality
than the black race, and asks us if that condition
is to be preferred which brings such results. It
points to the legislature of States which exclude
the free blacks from their soil, and asks why it
should be subjected to that curse which other
States so sedulously guard themselves from. What
honest answer is there to such questions ? The idea
of the Tribune is to make all the blacks of the
United States American citizens, but is the notion
practicable ? Before entering upon so vast an ex-
periment would it not be advisable to make the
experiment upon a small scale ? Can it get the
State of New York to look upon the black as a man
equally entitled and equally capable as the white
to exercise the right of self-government ? We very
much doubt it. It will not do to say that the negro
is considered inferior in New York because his
race is slave in the South. No white race would
have remained slave at the South. That this is
true can be seen from our treatment of the Indian.
That race is a noble race, a far superior animal to
the negro, and yet the common sense of this
country sets them apart. Since the whites
landed they have murdered and cheated the
Indian eternally, and will do so until not a
red skin remains. As the Indian cannot be
white, he dies. He will not serve. Yon can as
easily yoke a lion. But the basis of the negro's
mental characteristics is self •enjoyment, and con-
sequently he serves and finds not much aspiration
beyond comfort. He does not long for liberty,
except as synonymous with exception from stated
toil. That the negro is capable of improvement,
that in the course of time, by contact with the
white, his physical nature and consequently his
moral nature will be changed, is inevitable. When
that change is effected his social condition and po-
litical status will be changed also. This, however,
is the work of geverations, and will be the result
of natural laws as slow but as certain as those
which govern the formation of coral islands in the
sea. From not perceiving this great truth, from
too eager aspirations that the good whicera-
tions are needed to effect be completed in h thgeienr day,
men are abolitionists, and have inoculated the
people of the North with their unreason. There is
slavery at the South, not because men there differ
from men here, but because the South has an im-
mense black population, which it fears to keep in
It has seceded.cobmecpaeulsethiet
any other condition.
the ques-
believed that the North attempted, through the
vindi-
ta agencyidoosp.
tio
Inonbf
by the
thhceeormswmoouortndhs
,go
ifot ebtsrenivimie.
views
believes
that
upon
po o
it
s
principle ofself-government. With
ca
thitsingbtehlieefgrietaits idle to suppose that the war will
be ended either by the taking of strongholds or the
beating of armies alone. Such is the intense love
of liberty in the American nature that all physical
power will have to be completely crushed before
Itb isut notthe the
convictions will
ofthe
oeuvtihl
opposition ohsai
have
t o ceases. s
übdue,
which we have to dissipate,.--New
York World.