Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-08-04
Selection MS.
Slavery from the Sunny Side.
To the Editor Of The Tribune:

TO the Editor Of The Tribune:
However much / may differ with YOU po-
litically. | have ever believed in your earnest
sincerity and candor, and shall continue so
to believe until ] have the strongest possible
proofs to the contrary. Now, in the spirit of
all Kindness, | ask you why, in your COM
ments on the proceedings OF the Georgia De-
mocratlc State Convention in Yesterdays
Tribune, you attribute TO the gentlemen COM
posing that Convention, sentiments of the
most fragrant hypocrisy! Is it reasonable to
suppose-can you believe that men occupy
ing such exalted social and political d~isiinc-
ton can be guilty of thus putting forth senli-
menis they know 10 be false, and that this
universal and earnest movement throughout
the whole South is based upon a conscious
lie! 1t seems TO me that the most that could
be said by the most violent opponent would
be, that they were mistaken and misguided,
and such indeed are the sentiments OF nine
tenths of the South toward the Abolition agi-
tators of the NorIh-they believe them 10 be
honest but misguided.
But tell you the South is sincere and ear
earnest. She has the frmest convictions
that her most sacred rights are invaded, and
10 consequently often beirayed-iato-exPses-
sions of perhaps undue violence and indiu-
nation, and il is the, as | think, uncalled.fo for
comments, such as yours; that have been re-
iterated by the various presses and public
speakers OF the North that have tended 10 eli.
cit them.
Great allowance should be made for imper-
feet humanity, and il seems 10 me a soul OIL
ly partially pnancipated from the convention
al errors Of The age, could afford 10 speak
kindly and deal gently with his erring breth-
rem.
This question of Slavery has never been
properly treated by the different sections Of
the country. Instead Of sitting down and
kindly saying "Come, let US reason togeth-
en-" it has grown into an extensive family
quarrel, characterized by mutual recrimina-
ton. attack and defense. Both parties have
assumed a hostile attitude, and though they
would not destroy each other, (their interests,
and even their affections are too much idenli-
fed for that) yet they are ready to make
mouths. say naughty things, and pull each
others hair, and scratch each others faces.
The truth is that, at bottom, both parties
agree in believing that Slavery is an abstract,
even a real, evil, and the only difference is,
as 10 the mode Of getting rid Of it. The
North, having nothing to lose and impelled
by that surplus philanthropy which sends
missionaries TO the heather abroad, in
stead of amelioraling the condition Of the
heather at home, have made frequent, violent,
and direct, attacks upon it, and desire 10 an
initiate it by immediate legislative enact
ment, without preparing the Slave for the re-
sponsibilities Of freedom or remunerating the
owner for loss Of property. The South have
Indignantly, and as they believe Justly, re-
PEELED this invasion of their dearest rights,
inherited from their fathers, guaranteed by
the Constitution, and associated with their
tenderest recollec,ions, and justly view it as
an ~oficious intermeddling with their domes-
tic and family relations. Hence, the bickeI-
ing, the strife, the exaggerated tales of negro
suffering, the magnifed horrors Of Slavery,
and the Indignation meetings of both North
and South, which the good and moderate
men Of all parties should strive to allay, at
al events not seek to perpetuate by invidious
and unkind remarks.
Slavery like all human institutions, has its
evil and its good. AS Feudalism was an adj
vance on savageism, so Slavery in the Uni
Ted States is an advance on the Savageism
Of the wandering hordes of Africa. And as
Feudalism was only a transitional period of
human progress and yielded 10 an advancing
civilization; so Slavery will be superseded
by higher social condition, when the PROGRESS
oi'mechanlcal invention, of scientific knowl-
eoge, ana hnmanliary reform, shall render il
obsolete, and no longer conducive, as il now
is,t 10 m happiness where it exists.
believe il is a fact, well known by men
Of observation, that the nearest approach TO a
Social Democracy in the world is to be found
in the Slave States Of this county, where the
distinction Of color annihilates all other dis
tinctions, and where the slaves are better
clothed and fed, and are really happier than
the same class anywhere else in the wide
range of civilization. Between The master
and his slave there lie a kindness, a sympathy,
a social unity, that puts to shame the slarched
sristocracy Of the North, that scarcely deiRn
70 finga look of recognition at the many.ca.
ped coschman that drives them through The