The southern press., 1850-10-29

manly Independence of thought cannot hourish
In s,ich q community the greediness OF office,
and the love of power, take their place there Is
an eager courting Of popular favor, feyerish rear
of differing In opinion from the majority, making
haste TO leave the few, and join the many. Hence
the politicians Of the free States have always been
wanting in the comprehensive views, necessary to
found Governments or parties, and IN the moral
courage, the energy and the administrative talent,
requisite to codpct them with success. his 10
ACKNOWLEDGED by Theodore Parker, one OF the best
writer's Of New England, 10 hs discourse on .ns
the superiority Of Southern statesmen, IN this
respect, to their slave institutions. These accus-
tom them early to deal with men, and they learn
to act " as those having authority s; the manage
ment OF the little commonwealth or the plantation
is an excellent training for the administration OF
larger state. Hence il is that the North has al
ways had 70 look TO the South for Generals and
Presidents. No one will deny that this, like all
general rules has had brilliant exceptions, espe-
cally In military life, where the nature OF the call
ing, and the tenure Of the Office beset more lnde-
pendence Of character.
But the North has never produced statesman,
who has durably stamped the impress or his
mind upon the legislation Of the country, and
made his thought, the thought of his own genera
tion and Of posterity. There is no great measure
ofpublic policy, which was originated by North
ern lawgiver. Not even such men as Adams, or
Webster, have been able to associate their names
with the authorship, or development, OF any far
reaching. abiding acts of legislation. The union
OF wisdom, in the highest scripture sense, with
moral and pbysicai boldness, with frmness and
prudence. which made Washington the leader Of
our Revolutionary armies, and the appropriate
guardian Of our infant federation, was eminentiy
Characteristic OF the Southerner and the slayer
holder; il was the degree only, not the kind, that
were miraculous. Such were the chief leaders OF
the Convention, the men:.to whose suggestions the
Constitution owes its essential features--Madlson
and Mason, Randolph and Pinkney, all OF the
South The founders Of the two great parties
were neither from the North; Hamilton was
West Indian, and Jefferson, who breathed his
soul into the Republican party, and Madison,
who gave it shape, were both Virginians. In
the war of 1912, two Virgnans, Scott and Harri-
son, drove back our foes in the North, while
Caronan led the Southern rifles to victory at
New Orleans. a the great measures which have
Independent Treasury, the Internal Improvement
system, the American system, and free trade,
have been brought forth or shaped by the minds
OF a Calhoun or Clay, or carried into practice by
the iron will of u Jackson. The only Northern
Presidents we have ever tried have been failures.
The elder Adams, who came into power on the
popularity of Washington, in two years broke
down, and every vestige of his administration
was swept away by the popular voice. His son
fared no better, and Van Buren, who mistook cum
ming for wisdom, was politician instead OF a
statesman The prestige of Jackson S favor could
elect him, but nothing could save him after u sill
gle trial.
Whatever of greatness our country has attained,
has been chiefly due to the administrative talent
Of Southern men, and above all to the Southern
vote, which, while it was yet strong enough to be
heard, restrained the disposition of the North TO
convert this Federal Union into grand consolida-
ted State on the French model where the numerical
majority might have absolute sway. II the free
States were to form a separate confederacy, II
would soon assume this character. The measures
which, as section, they have advocated in the
present Union, all have that tendency. The forms
Of their State goyernments--their political theo-
ries-all conspire to make such result certain.
The small States would be deprived of their equal
vote in the Senate, and speedily absorbed by their
the several State Legislatures, as well as Of pri-
vate enterprise, would be thrown on the central
government the States would become mere PROV
inces, and Congress National Assembly. In
such State, there would be no safety for proper
ty. The number Of those who want property is
always greater than that of those who have 1.-THE
poor are more numerous than the rich and they
will certainly use their acknowledged sovereign
right, as majority, to crafty that want, and take
what they please. The Northern plan of meet
ing this danger has ever been to create strong
moneied interest by class legislation, by large
Northern Statesmen know that the aristocracy Of
birth is impossible, they hope to substitute the
aristocracy Of money by means Of the funding and
paper system, and by the yet more potent empire
of the manufacturing system. In other words,
the plan is to govern the masses by the power o f
money and corruption. The evil day may be thus
delayed, but the remedy increases the inequality
of fortunes and the difficulties Of the Iaborng poor.
Their sufferings are aggravated and their charac-
ter degraded and when the outbreak comes-as
come it ultimately must, with accumulated force
of pent up waters-it is the outbreak, not of men,
but of demons.
France is the living and unhappy proof of all
our reasonings. The reaction against the tyranny
of the numerical majority, as public opinion pro-
duces the multitude Of false doctrines, heresies,
and schims," the growing infdelity of the Gra-
hamites and Fourierites, the Mormonism and Mil
lerism, and all those wild vagaries of fanaticism,
to which the people of the free States are so
prone, but which cannot live beneath our South
ern sun. The reaction against the tyranny of the
numerical majority, as government, begets the
proclvity to mobs and tumults, the instability Of
all constitutions and laws, which we see manifest
ing itself in the free States. The only rebellion
ever known in the United States against the exer-
else Of undsputed constitutional authority was in
Pennsylvania. In Rhode Island, the Dorrites
would have waged civil war, (if their leaders,
ouragehad not failed him at the crisis, not for any
great principle, but merely to determine, by trial
ofactua physical force-a most rational and logical
test--which party was the sovereign numerical
majority. Fede al authority had to be invoked;
when has Southern State ever had to call in for
eign aid to settle her domestic dificulties' The
Legislature at Harrisburg had to be brought to
order by military force; and the Senate of Ohio,
after one or two hundred ballottings lately elected
Speaker, who has since been forced to resign for
bargain and corruption; the State was near being
thrown into an anarchy last year by the inability
of the Legislature to determine who were its
members In the chief cities, mobs dispute the
right Of private citizens to consult their taste
in play actor; they set fire to converts of help
less females, and tear down the house Of God, be-
cause it shelters the wretched emgrants from their
brutal fury. And yet when citizen soldier has
the nerve to fire upon them and vindicate the ma
esty Of the law AN example Of moral courage,
alas too seldom found at the North,--nstead of
receiving the thanks of the whole community, his
house is the mark of the midnight incendiary, and
all the avenues of public honor are forever closed
TO his approach.
From all these dangers the conservative inhu-
ence of the South has hitherto preserved the free
States. Her tributes Of slave grown wealth have
kept up the wages Of their labor and the profits
of their csntaI have DELAYED the war between