The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-10-11
Laboring men ct tho south.

The Columbus (Ga Times publishes the fol-
lowing letter from subscriber, who, with three
or four others, discontinued that paper OH account
Of its support Of the Nashville Convention, while
200 were added to the list. The letter is dated
FoRr MIrcHELL, Russell, Ala, July 25, 1850
JOHN FORSYTH, EsQ--SIR: am poor labor
ing man, dependent on my own labor for the sup
port of my family. have long been a subscriber
to your paper, but the present tone of your paper
does not suit the class to which | belong; you
viii, therefore, erase my name from your list Of
subscribers. Enclosed you will find three dollars,
the receipt of which, you will please acknowl-
edge. Yours, ~
Upon which it makes the following comment:
Our reply to this letter was TO send the writer a
number Of the "Times, I" containing our second
article " The Future of the South, in which we
undertook TO show how poor men would fare, if
fers to our " tone" on the slavery question. He
stops paper that is advocating policy to defend
him and his labor, and the safety of his wife and
| children from state of horrors that he has never
dreamed of. Is he SO silly as to permit airy one
to poison his mind with the belief that his cond-
ton T" aborng man" will be bettered by
turning loose 100000 Of free negroes to compete
with his labor' Why, free labor in Ohio is
oppressed by the presence of only thirty thousand
blacks, and is now demanding their removal to
| Africa. G f
| Let the author of this letter-or the man whose
name il bears-ggo the North and try what Free
| Labor" is---try New England, where the conflict
between capital and labor is already being acrimo-
niously waged--where the wages Of labor are be-
ing pressed to point that has driven laborers into
strikes, and combinations, and trades-unions and
other absurd and remediless measures to sustain
| the unequal war with capital Let him 60 to any
country that boasts the dignity of free labor if
he wants to see ,chte serritmdeif he wants to see
white men the slaves and dependents Of their EN-
| ployers. Look at the needle women in northern
cities, who, by incessan toll, night and day, are
scarcely able to earn enough to keep soul and body
together, and where thousands Of females are dri-
| ven to the brothel to escape starvation Witness
| the hundreds of thousands Of laborers pouring
from the hives of European over-population where
labor is free, and famine freer. All these countless
competitors rushing to the Free States to ug-
gravate the evils of Northern labor.
And from all these evils, the white laborine
man Of the South is exempt 1T is the institution
Of slavery that exempts him. 1t is African slave
| ry that makes every white man in some sense
] lord--it draws broad De of distinction between
the two races, and color gives caste. A poor white
man in free labor countries, is the mere tool O
capital--there, society is divided into the rich and
| the poor-are the slaves Of the rich in all bu
name. Here the division is between white free
men and black slaves, and every white is, and
/ feels that he is MAN. Slavery here protects hin
4 from excessive competiton-it makes the wealth
out Of which his substantial wages are paid
creates the demand for his work--it elevates HIN
in the abundant means OF subsistence, in return
for industry--in the dignity of his personal posi-
uon-n the inward appreciation of his sef-respect
and in the hopes Of his future rise in wealth ant
character, the infinite superior of the laboring mar
on any other spot on the whole earth.
| The laborng man who wars on slavery rs los
| tile TO his interests, qaarres with his bread and
| butter, and in the blind instrument Of catastro
phe whose direst blows will fall on his own fool
| ish head