The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-12-24
For The Southern Press.
NEw YORK, Dec. I9th, Is5l

Ill 6 New York, Dec 10th, 1850
a Heretofore, in the course Of this correspon.
dence, have principally addressed myself to
J, the feelings and interests of the people of the
South In The following letter shall change
. my ground and appeal to those of the North.
t They-at least vast portion of them-will
2 never see it but | will cast my bread upon the
waters, and perhaps a crumb may float not into
y the foaming NAV of fanaiicism, but be caught
: by some we'll meaning, though mistaken philan-
Y thropst, who, in the honest but too eager pur-
! suit of an imaginary good, is drawing down
> upon his own head and those of his posterity, a
l train of evils of that class which are never felt,
until it is too late to remedy them
: The disciples of the British school of philan-
thropy in the North thus far, have stood on vel
vet in playing their game They have staked
, nothing of their own, and all they risk is the
property of others They imagine, therefore,
that if they win they gain all, if they fail, they
lose nothing. Such games are exceedingly
pleasant and refreshing, irasmuch as great
} proportion of the more ferocious and noisy pro-
fessors Of philanthropy are profoundly devoted
to that species Of charity which is exclusively
exercised at the expense Of others, and costs
them nothing. But my object in this letter is
to show, that if the Abolitionsts of the North
should ut length win the game it will not be
entirely at the expense Of the South; the former
will pay its full proportion in the future conse-
quences that will most assuredly result from
their victory
shall not here appeal to any sordid principle
Of pecuniary loss or gain to any section of the
Union, though aware of the potency of such an
argument; nor shall stop to enquire which
will suffer, or which suffer most from that sepa-
ration, which at some future, and no distant Pc
riod, fear, is inevitable. propose to stir the
waters deeper than this, by pointing out the Ill
timate consequences of emancipation, not to the
South, but the North, and thus bring the sub
ject home to our own ire-sides and our own
! affairs. | shall show, if | am not greatly mis-
taken, that the bull which has gored our
ncighbors OK, will shortly turn on our own, and
that we shall then too late discover that it will
alter the case very materially.
All observing minds must see that the rela.
tons of the white and black races, both in the
North and the South have undergone great
change since the agitation Of the subject of
emancipation. Previous to that, they lived in
peace with each other, and the domestic and
social ties which subsisted between them, if not
equal, operated tremendously. There was no
conflict between them, and no occasion for re-
I sistance or contention, because there was nei-
Their oppression on one hand, nor discomfort on
the other. In the South the master was not
afraid Of his slave, nor the slave disaffected to
, his master. The latter was contented and hap
py as far as is compatible with the nature of
man; and if sometimes he sighed to be free, he
only INDUCED that universal propensity which
prompts us to seek an increase of happiness by
change. If those alone are happy, who envy the
position of none of their fellow creatures, then
there is no such thing as happincs in this
world.
In the North, the black man. though free, still
retained his accustomed habits of Difference,
while his old master at the same time cherished
for him kind, benevolent feeling, founded on
those relations which in most cases had sub
sisted for generations. They never came in
conflict with each other, nor was the pence Of
society ever disturbed by insolent mobs of ne
groes, collected together for the purpose Of de-
flying the laws of the land, or asserting their
claim to the privilege of murder and bloodsllcd
speak of what know, My grandfather, and
my father citizens of this State both held
slaves, and neither Of them would suffer by a
comparison with the most noisy advocates Of
the higher law" They were honest men and
chrstinns and read their Bibles, though they did
not get them for nothing. When that arbitrary
and illegal outrage on the property of citizens,
the law emancipating slaves without the con-
sent of their owners, went into operation, they
submitted to it without murmur, and gave the
ter roaming about awhile, enjoying the bles-
sings of freedom they all, one after the other,
returned to the old patriarcha homo, and there
they lived, and there they died under the wing
of their ancient master, or his descendants.
This was almost universally the CASE whenever
their old master would receive them But their
liberty was the prelude to n gradual dimnution
of their numbers they wthered away imper-
ceptibly like dollhouse plants suddenly exposed
to the wintcrly winds, and notwithstanding the
influx of fugitive slaves, there is probably not
one-fifth of the number Of blacks in the county
to which refer, there at the time Of their
emancipation They have mouldercd away like
the Indian tribes of New York, and New Eng
land.
, Such, in few words, was the relation between
the white and the black man, and the position
of the latter as member of the community In
which his lot had been cast And what is il
now! The contrast is Notifying as it is
terrible. Instead of body Of peaceful, well
disposed, and moral agents, such they
{ were at the period to which | refer, what
$ have we now .? An ignorant, debauched
md f.rocious rahhle filthy TO the eve