Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1845-01-02

That even the best classes oil English Agricul-
tural laborers can obtain for their support but |
seven pounds Of bread and four ounces oil
meat per week, and when sick or out Of en-
ployment must either starve or s,tTsist OH
charity, we cannot but look with satisfaction
to the condition Of our slave laborers, who |
usually receive as a weekly allowance, fifteen |
pounds of bread and three pounds Of bacon
have their children fed without stint and |
properly attended to-are well clothed, and
have comfortable dwellings, where, with their
least industrious, more than realize for them
selves the vain hope of the great French King,
that he might see every peasant in France
have his fowl upon his table on the Sabbath
who, from the proceeds of their own crops,
purchase even luxuries and fnery who labor
scarcely more than nine hours day, on the
average Of the year and who in sickness, in
declining years, in infancy and decrepitude,
are watched over with tenderness scarcely
short Of parental. When we contemplate the
known condition of your operatives, of whom
that of your agricultural laborers is perhaps
the least wretched, we are not only not ashan-
ed OF that o! our slaves, but are always ready to
challenge comparison, and should be highly
gratihed to submit To a reciprocal. investigation
by enlightened and impartial judges
You are doubtless Of opinion, that all these ad-
vantages in favor Of the slave, if they exist are
more than counterbelanced by his being deprived
| Of his freedom. Can you tell me what freedom
is! who possesses it, ahd how much Of it is re-
/ quisite for human hapPness9 Is your operative,
existing in the physical and moral condition
which your own official returns depict-deprived,
too. of every political right, even that of voting
at the polls; who is not cheered by the slightest
hope OF ever improving his lot or leaving his
children to better, and who actually seeks the
| four walls OF prison, the hulks, and transporta-
ton, as comparative blessngs-is he free sufi-
GENTLY free! Can you say that this sort Of Free
dom-the liberty 10 beg or steal-to choose be-
tween starvation and a prison-does or ought to
make him happier than our slave, situated as
have truly described him, without single care or
gloomy forethought!
But you will perhaps say, tits not in the Thing,
but in the Name, that the magic resides-tha,
there is a vast difference between being called a
slave and being made one, though equally enslav-
ed by law, by social forms, and by immuable
necessity. This is an ideal and sentimental dis
tnction which it will be difficult to bring the
African race TO comprehend. But if it be true,
ard freedom is name and idea, rather than reali-
~, how many are there then entitled even to that
name, except by courtesy and how many are
able to enjoy the idea TO perfection? Does your
!, operative regard it as a sufficient compensation
Tor the difference between four ounces and three
pounds of bacon! If he does he is rare philo-
Is as thoroughly established and acknowledged as
Military Rank. Your commonality see among
themselves series of ascending classes, and,
rising above them all, many more, composed OF
men not whit superior to themselves in any OF
the endowments Of nature, who yet, in name, in
Idea, and In fact, possess greater worldly privi-
ieges. To what one of all these classes does ge-
nuine freedom belong! To the Duke, who fawns
Upon the Prince-to the Baron, who knuckes to
the Duke-or the Commoner, who crouches to
the Baron?
Doubtless you all boast of being ideally free /:
while the American citizen counts your freedom
slavery, and could not brook state of existence
in which he daily encountered fellow-mortas, ac-
knowledged and privileged as his superiors, sole
ly by the accident of birth. He, too, in turn,
will boast of his freedom, which might be just as
little TO your taste. will not pursue this topic
farther. But l think you must admit, that there
is not so much in name; and that ideal or i'm
Puted freedom is very uncertain source of hap
piness.
You must also agree, that it would be bold
thing for you or any one to undertake to solve the
great problem of good and evil-happiness and
misery, and decide in what worldly condition man
enjoys most, and suffers least. Your profession
calls on you to teach that this true happiness is
seldom found upon the stormy sea of politics, or
| in the mad race of ambition-n the pursuit of
mammon, or the cares of boarded gain; that, in
short, the wealth and honors of this world are to
be despsed and Stunned. Will you then say
that the slave must be wretched because he is de-
barred from them !--or because he does not in.
dulge in the dreams of philosophy, the wrangling
OF sectarans, or the soul-disturbing speculaiions
of the scePtic Tor because having never tasted
OF what is called freedom, he is ignorant of its
| ideal blessings, and is contented with his lot,
such as it is, as most men are with theirs?
| You and your Presbytery doubtless desire, as
we all should, to increase the happiness of the
human family. But since it is so difficult if not
| impossible, TO determine what earthly state
man may expect to enjoy most Of it, why can you
not be content 10 leave him in that respect where
God has placed him; to give up the ideal and the
doubtful, for the real-to restrict yourselves to
| the faithful fulflment of your great mission of
preaching "the glad tidings Of salvation" to all
classes and conditions; at the very least. sa-
crediy abstain from all endeavours to ameliorate
the lot OF man by revolution, boodshed, massa-
ere, and desolation. to which all attempts at aho-
lion In this country, in the present, and, so far
| as can see, In any future age, must inevitably
lead
BE satisfied with the improvement which slave
ry has made, and which nothing but slavery could
have made to the same extent, in the race of Ham.
Look at the Negro in Africa-a naked savage
almost Cannbal, ruthlessIy depressing and de.
stroyiDg his fellows-idle, treacherous dolatrous,
and such disgrace to the image of his God, in
which you declare him to be made, that some of
the wisest philosophers have denied him the pos
session of a soul. See him here-three millions
at least of his rescued race-civilized contribut-
| ing immensely to the subsistence Of the human
family, his passions restrained, his affections cuI-
tyated, his bodily wants and infrmties provided
| for, and the true Religion of his Maker and Re-
deemer taught him. Has slavery been curse to
him? Can you think God has ordained il for no
| good purpose ?-or, not content with the bless
iDgs it has already bestowed do YOU desire TO in