Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1844-01-20

the spirit of Freedom, and is carried to the most oppressive ex-
tremc. To be satisfied of this, let any one examine the appor-
tionment laws of South Carolina, which give the Represent
alive majority to Il snail minority in the planting counties.
These laws arc aided by others requiring property q~uali6ca-
ency to inspire the laboring whites with an interest in public
affairs. They do not go to the polls as we of the North do.
Examine the returns of the votes at the last Presidential election
if you doubt this, and compare them with the census returns
You will find the number of white males in the slave States and
Territories over 20 years. of age, was, l~,Ol7,S07, while the vote
these $50, 593 votes the South elected l2G Presidential electors;
that is, one eIector to $685. voters. H@
The Free States gave 1926, 1877 votes, and chose 1G8 oIcetafs
that is, one elector to 1928 voters, Two northern yoteIsabHa
a very liile more political power therefore, than one SouthHrns
About 500, 900 Southern whites should have voted who did not.
To what cause can you attribute this, if not to those we assignk
The natural consequence of the exclusion Of the laboFing
whites of the South from opportunities of education and from
political privileges, is their social degradation. They are little
esteemed by their lordIy %neighbors, and are known among
slaves by the name of "poor white folks" Those of them whose
n0nliness of spirit is broken down by years of endurance ofcon-
tempt and insult, speak and act more like the seris of Russian
mobiles than free born sons Of America. To aid this class ofour
fellow citizens to recover their lost rights, is one object we stand
pledged to accomplish. The non-slaveholders of the South will
be, in a few years, the strongest wing Of the Liberty party
They have wrongs
"To stir a fever in the blood Of age,
And make an infants sinews strong as steel"
Southern newspapors teen with abuse of white men who la
Dor for their subsistence. Robert Wickii1e, IL prominent Ken
lucky politician, and a member of a large and Influential fam
lily, says in a speech published in the Louisville Advertiser, Gen
tlenen want to drive out the black population that they may OBJ
tain WHITE NEGROES in their place. White Negroes have this
advantage over black negroes, they can be converted into voters;
IllH lHC Ulcu II i've upUu tHC sweat - LICI "d ly
them but a dependent and scanty subsistence, can, if able to
keep ten thousand of them in employment, come up to the
polls and change the destiny of the country.
Chow improved will be our condition when we have such
tChie negroes as perform the servlIe labors of Europe, of old
England, and he would add now. of Nav ENGLAND, when our
body servants, and our cart drivers, and our street sweeperS are
ephue negroes instead of black. Where will be the independ-
ence, the proud spirit, the chiUahy of KENTUCKY Their? p
For these vaporing, Boabdil speeches, the 'White negroes about
Lexington refused to vote for Mr.. Wickiffe at the ensuing cleo
ton, aud he was left at home to nurse the "chivalrous" spirit.
Benjamin Watkins Leigh, long u prominent Wing said in
the Virginia Convention Of 1920: "Those who depend on THEN
daily labor for their daily subsistence, can never enter into polit
icaI affairs; they never do, never will, never cam"
Mr.. Pickens, of South Carolina, in a Congressional speech Of
January 81, 1886, said, in support ofthe proposition that the cap
italists Of a country should always own the laborcrs, {. If la.
borers ever obtain the political power of a country, it is in fac
in a state of revolution"
Gov. McDuffe, in his celebrated antrfrce-lahor message o.
1886 said, "where these offices ii. e.. hard work are perform
ed by members Of The political community, a dangerous elemen
is obviously introduced into the body polite"
Chancellor Harper, in the work before quoted, opposes thu
education of loborers, and asks riumphantly, "Would you do
benefit to the horse or OK by giving him a cultivated understan
ding, a fine ~feelng?"
This, then, is the spirit of the "Slave Power;" arrogant, ov
erbearing and cruel, the deadliest foe to our free institutions
and the genius of RepubIicanism. Heaven protect them from
its inroads!