The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-06-01
Unprecedented Literary Baseness.

Unprecedented Literary Baseness.
The character of man of letters belongs to his
country and to mankind We are not among the
devotees oil that department of literature to which
our present secretary ofthe Navy has been chiefly
devoted. But his claims to be considered one of
the llterati OF our country must be questioned.
The number and popularity of his writings, and
especially the fact thai Messers. Harpers are now
engaged In publishing uniform edition of his
works, more volumnous, probably than those of
any living writer among US, establish his standing,
and give to the American peoplea more than ordi-
nary interest in any charge of literary delinquency
which may be brought against them. 1t is, NOR
over, generally supposed that he is indebted, in no
small degree, to his literary reputation for his pres
ent political advancement. What will the world
say then, and how will honorable minded Ameri-
cans feel, at the Development made by Judge Jay,
in regard to bare-faced and literary fraud in
which Mr. Pauldng has allowed himself to be en-
gagged for the purpose of securing SLAVERY from
the rising tide OF reprobation I'VE do not know of
a case that is parallel to it, And taking it on all
bearings, we must say, it affords at least colorado
for the singing interrogatory with which our en-
tract closes. Has it come to this! What new
sacrifices will Moloch exact, when it has constran-
ed Pauding to lay on its bloody altar his literary
integrity? Are there to be no limits to our nation
al degradation We fully believe the idol him,
self to be Unsuitable as Juggernaut, and that he
will 60 on increasing in his exactions, unless the
public mind can be reused TO throw off the Serrilo
yoke,
a. X. Paulding, the present Secretary of the
Navy, gives the following picture ola scene he
witnessed in Virginia ;---
1.-THE sun was shining out very hot, and in
turning an angle in the road we encountered tho
following group: first, little cart drawn by ono
horse, i'll which five or six half naked black chill
dren were tumbled in like pigs together. The
cart had no covering, and they semed to have been
actually broiled 10 sleep. Behind the cart march,
ed three black women, with heads, necks and
breasts, uncovered and without shoes or stockings;
next came three men, bear-headed alfnaked, and
chained together aeith an or chain. Last of all,
came white mana white man, Frank ON
horseback, carrying pistols in his belt, and who.
las we passed them, had impotence enough to look
US in the face without blushing. | should like
to have seen him hunted by blood-hounds, At
a house where we stopped little further on, we
learned that he had bought these miserable beings
in Maryland and was marching them to some Of
the more southern States. Shame on the State
of Maryland | say-and shame on the State of
Virginia and every State through which this
wretched cavalcade was permitted 10 pass Do
they expect that such exhibitions will not disLoner
them in the eyes of strangers; however they may
be reconcied to them by education and habit! @
[" Letters from the South written during an ex,
curson in the Summer of 1916" New York,
1917. Vol l. Letter XI. p. 1l7.]
1t may be thought by some that the elevated
seat in the cabinet of gentleman who expresses
himself with so much warmth aud earleSsness
against one of the peculiar Institutions of the
South initiates against our idea that the inAu-
ence of the Federal Government is exered in be-
half of slavery. Singular as it may appear, the
appointment of Mr.. Paulding is nevertheless
strongly corroberative ofthe opinion we have ad-
vanced; and the explanation is at once easy and
amusing. The Letters from the Sonth' were re-
printed in 1885 and from the fifth & sixth volumes
Of an edition of Pauldings Works. The letter
from which we have quoted consists of fourteen
pages, devoted to the suiect of slavery. On turn
ing to the corresponding letter in the recent ed.
ton we find it shruni to three pages, containing
no ausion to the internal trade nor any thing else
that could offend the most sensitive southerner,
In the nnteenth letter printed IN 1917, there is
not a word about slavery, In the same letter
as published in 1885, we meet with the following
most wonderful prediction; prediction that has
lately been cited in the newspapers as proof Of
the sagacity and foresight of the Secretary of the
Navy -
1.-The second cause of disunion will be found in
the slave population of the South heuerer the mis-.
guided, or wilfully malignant zeal of the advocates
ofemancipation, shall institute as al one dan doubt
less 'cW, crusadeagainst the constitutional rights
OF the slave owners, by sending amoung them ia.
natical agents and fanatical tracts, calculated ia
render the slave disafected, and the situation of
the master and his family dangerous; when apSl
peals shall be made under the sanction of religion
10 the passions of these ignorant and excited blacks
calculated and intended to rouse their worst and
most dangerous passions, and 10 place the verH
lives of their masters their wives, and their chilli
dren in the deepest peril when societies are f0rm4
ed in the sister States for the avowed purpose az
virtually destroying the value ofths principle item
in the property of a southern planter; when it bel
comes question mooted in the legislatures of the
States, or the general government, whether tho
rights OF the master his slave shall any onrep
be recognized Or maintained, and when it is at lasd
evident that nothing will preserve them but secesI
sion then will certain Of the Stars of our beautil
iull constellation start mady from their sphcresy
and jostle the others in their mad career"