Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1845-09-04

ultimately paid, unless the abolition of szaUe-
ry oUerUhelm us all In one common ruin
But have no other nations failed to pay?-
When were the French assignats redeemed?
How much interest did your National Bank
pay on its immense circulation from 1897
to 1921, during which period that circula-
ton was inconvertble, and for the time re-
pudiated9 How much of your national debt
has been incurred for money borrowed to
meet the interest on it, thus avoiding deln-
quency in detail, by insuring inevitable bank
rupicy and reputation in the end And
what sort Of operation was that by which
your present ministry recently expunged a
handsome amount of that debt by subsliut-
ing, through process just not compulsory,
one species of security for another? am
we'll aware that the faults Of others do not
excuse our own, but when failings are
charged TO slavery, which are shown to oc-
cur to equal extent where it does not exist,
surely slavery must be acquitted of the &C
cusation.
1t is roundly asserted, that we are not so
we'll educated nor so religious here as else
where. will not go into tedious statisti-
cal statements on these subjects. Nor have
! |, to tell truth, much confidence in the de-
tails of what are commonly set forth as
statistics. As to education, you will pro-
badly admit that shareholders should have
more leisure for mental culture than most
people. And believe it is charged against
them that they are peculiarly fond of power,
and ambitious of honors. this be so, as
all the power and honors Of this country
are won mainly by intellectual superiority,
it might be fairly presumed that slavehold-
ers would not be neglectful of education.-
In proof of the accuracy ofths presumption
| point you to the facts, that our presiden-
tal chair has been occupied for forty-tour
out of fifty-six years by shareholders; that
another has been recently elected to fill it for
four years more, over all opponent VINO was
STAKEHOLDER also, and that in the federal Off
ces and both houses of Congress, consider
ably more than due proportion of those
acknowledged to stand in the first rank, are
from the south. In this arena the intelects
of he free and slave States meet in full and
fair competition. Nature must have been
unusually bountiful to us, or we have been
at least reasonably assiduous in the cultiva-
ton of such gifts as she has bestowed-un-
less indeed you refer our superiority to mo-
raj qualities, which am sure you will not
More wealthy we are not; nor would mere
wealth avail in such rivalry.
The piety Of the south is unobtrusive.-
We think it proves but little, though it is a
confident thing for man to claim that he
stands higher in the estimation of his Crea-
tor, and is less a sinner, than his neighbor.
If voci(eratIon is to carry the question of re-
ligon, the North and probably the Scotch
have it. Our sects are few, harmonious,
pretty much united among themselves, and
pursue their vocatons in humble peace. In
fact, our professors of religion seem to think
whether correctly or not-that it is their
duty ''to do good in secretn and TO carry
their holy comforts TO the heart of each in
dividual, without reference to class or color,
for his special enjoyment, and not with a
view to exhibit their zeal before the world.
So far as numbers are concerned, believe
our clergymen, when called on TO make a
showing, have never had occasion to blush,
| if comparisons were drawn between the free
and slave States. And although our press
es do not team with controversial pamph-
lets, nor our pulpts shake with excommu-
nicating thunders, the daily walk Of our re-
Iigious COMMITMENTS furnishes apparently
as little food for gossip as is TO be found in
most other regions. 1t may be regarded as
mark of our want of citability-though
that is quality accredited to us in an emf
nent degree-that few Of the remarkable re-
ligious Isms of the present day have taken
root among us. We have been SO irrever-
ent as to laugh at Mormonism and Miller
ism, which have created such connections
farther north; and modern prophets have no
honor in our country. Shakers, Rappists,
Dunkers, Socialists, Fourrierists, and the
like. keep themselves alar of. Even Pusey-
ism has not yet moved us. You may attri-
butte this TO our domestic slavery If you
choose. believe you would do SO justly.
There is no material here for such charac-
ters to operate upon.
But your grand charge is that licentious-
ness in intercourse between the sexes is a
prominent trait in our social system, and
that it necessarily arises from slavery. This
is favorite theme with the Abolitionisis,
male and female Folios have been written
on it. 1t is a common observation, that
there is no subject on which ladies of emf
nent virtue SO much delight 20 dwell, and
on which in especial learned old maids, like
Miss Martineau linger with such an insati-
able relish. They expose it in the slave