The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-23 00:00:00

Representative Government.

The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of the Anglo-American Times :
SIR,—In theory the Southern States were blessed
with representative Gpvernments, but practically
they were ruled by the iron will of a slaveholding
oligarchy. The members of the Slave State
Legislatures and the Southern members of Congress
represented the slaveholding interest, and no other.
Who for thirty years before the war were governors
of the respective Slave States ? Slaveholders I

Who were Senators and Representatives in the
Slave State Legislatures? Slaveholders! Who, in
both Houses of Congress, represented the South ?
Slaveholders! And the one object which they
steadily kept in view was to strengthen, extend,
and perpetuate slavery—witness their legislation.
The four millions of slaves, from the beginning
to the end of slavery, were never represented.
If some Douglass, or Martin, could have been
elected to a State Legislattue by their fellow-slaves,
and in the present slaveholders could have depicted
slave-life, slavery would
Slaveholders would have
tnhoet
hmaivs
ee rbye
eann
edo
na
tgi on nuye
do. f
trembled in the presence of such advocates, and an
enlightened and aroused community would have
demanded
,the abolition of slavery.
ground-work of the
ttheltat the people are
reprepresentative
s principle,
Ito right to vote, but that
the source of power, and contended that the
In the whole history
choelohlairdednomrainghhtadtonoptetoitniloyn.
of American slavery whoever heard of a petition
from slavfere as much property
as the lowing ox and
neighing horse ; they
could not petition.
lvoei In law theythe
But what of the six millions of poor white non-
slaveholders in the Slave States ? Were they repre-
sented ? Certainly not. Their interests were op-
posed to the interests of the slaveholders ; but they
spoke and voted under the reign of terrorism.
Instead of regarding a representative Government
ttoheselcivuerse
etfhethe
rights and protect the
eeorsfitgyGnaoel('lvdernment was a slaveholding oligarchy,
mipdr
idea
apd people, their highest
such as prevailed throughout the South. They
had lost their own rights, and knew it not. Nay,
they deemed it an honour to go forth in hordes at
the beck of the slaveholders, and at the peril of their
lives extend to other countries the same absolute
despotism which ruled the South.
To attempt to promote their own interests as
non-slaveholders, had they been so far enlightened,
would have . been to incur political and pecuniary
ruin, and in many cases death itself. As illustra-
tive of the power wielded by slaveholders, and of
the helplessness of non-slaveholders, I will refer to
the treatment received at the hands of the former
by Mr. Clay, Dr. Malcolm, and Mr. Helper.
By a law of Kentucky, slaves could not be in-
troduced into that State for sale. The slave-
traders made a determined attempt to repeal this
law. Mr. Clay, the American Ambassador to
Russia, was then a member of the Kentucky Legisl-
ature, and had not emancipated his slaves. But
he successfully resisted the attempt to repeal the
above law on the ground of the immorality of the
slave trade. For this, by the management of the
slaveholders, he was thrown out at the succeeding
election, and a slave-trader returned in his stead.
From that day Mr. Clay was never returned to the
Kentucky Legislature.
The following, in regard to Dr. Malcolm, from
the Kentucky Georgetown Herald, of August 15,
1849, speaks for itself :—" The Rev. Dr. Malcolm,
who has presided over Georgetown College for the
last nine or ten years with such distinguished
ability and general satisfaction, felt it his duty to
vote for the emancipation candidate at our election.
The storm of disapprobation was so violent that it
was plain he could no longer be of use to the
college, and he resigned his office. The office has
not yet been filled, and we fear that the trustee of
the College will find it difficult to fill the vacancy
occasioned by the resignation of an officer so faith-
ful and so devoted to the interests of the College
as President Malcolm has been."
By birth and marriage Mr. Clay was connected
with the first families in Kentucky, and Dr. Mal-
colm was distinguished as a scholar and a preacher ;
yet both were stricken down at the command of
the slaveholding oligarchy. From this may be in-
ferred the extent of their despotism over the poor
white working classes.
The crime of Mr. H. R. Helper differed from
that of Mr. Clay and Dr. Malcolm. He belonged
to the poorer middle classes in North Carolina, and
having visited the Free States, so far sinned against
the slaveholding oligarchy as to write a book en-
lightening the non-slaveholdets of the South as to
their servile condition, and urging them to attempt

to remove slavery by the use of the same means
they were using to prevent intemperance. Several
members of the United States Senate had recom-
mended this work. The slaveholding members of
the Senate resolved that to recommend Mr. Helper's
book was a disqualification for the office of Speaker.
So while Congress assembled at Washington,
December 5, 1859, they attempted to carry out
this resolution ; and parties were so balanced that
this book during eight weeks blocked the business
of the Senate, as every attempt to elect a Speaker
f ailed.

If the slaveholders would do this when face to
face with the representatives of the Free States,
what would they not do in the Slave States?
The civil war in Kansas revealed the demoralised
condition of the non-slaveholders in the South.
Missouri represented the other Slave States in its
constituent elements. It was certain that Kansas,
governed by a majority of its citizens, would be-
come a Free State. But the non-slaveholding
Missourians, led by slaveholders, entered Kansas,
and by terror, fraud, forgery, and murder, at-
tempted to extend to that territory the reign of the
slaveholding oligarchy.

As clay in the hands of the potter, so were the
non-slaveholders in the South moulded by slave-
holders. The former joined the latter in seven ex-
peditions within two years after the Pro-Slavery
President Pierce had entered upon his office—one
to make Sonora, against her will, an independent
republic ; one to rescue Tamaulipas from the control
of her own inhabitants ; one to aid imaginary revo-
lutionists in Cuba ; one to give undesired succour
to Ireland ; one to occupy a grant of land in Costa
Rica, which Costa Rica denied ever having made ;
one to help foreigners to overthrow the national
Government of Nicaragua ; and one to perform the
same office to Lower California. All of these
paraded the American flag, and declared them-
selves missionaries of freedom, and every one of
them was made up mainly, if not wholly, of the
defenders and extenders of slavery.
I close with a short extract from a speech made in
Congress, Feb. 4, 1833, by John Quincy Adams.
He said :—" Not three days since, Mr. Clayton, of
Georgia, called that species of population (viz.,
slaves) the machinery of the South. Now that
machinery had twenty odd representatives in that
hall, not elicited by the machinery, but by those
•who owned it. And if he should go back to the
history of this Government from its founda-
tion, it would be easy to prove that its deci-
sions had been affected in general by less
majorities than that. Nay, he might go
further, and insist that that very representation
had ever been the ruling power of this Govern-
ment." How terribly has the South been cor-
rupted—how deep has been its degradation ! But
the darkness is passing away ; slowly but surely it
is being regenerated ; and it will yet leap for joy,
because slavery and its evils, which rested like an
incubus on all its energies, have been removed no
more to return.--Yours very truly,
Bristol, Feb. 19, 1867. EDWARD MATHEWS.