The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-27
The Northern Infuenoe at the South.

ence at the South. II is, in the eyes of these gen.
try, legitimate, right, and proper, that imported
editors should abuse Southern men who go for
the maintenance ofSouthern rights on Southern
soil, as Southern Hotspurs" -"disunionists" and
'traitors"-sheuld Witty, denounce and misrep-
resent them in every shape and form, and cx-
haust the vocabulary of abuse upon them. But
when the natural impulse of indignation
prompts tie obvious response, and it is intina-
ted, however mildly, that those who make the .
South their residence, should acknowledge their
allegiance to her, or at least be modest enough
not to denouncc those who, bred and born there,
have at least an equal interest in her welfare as
these interlopers, the cry of intolerance" pro-
scription!" is straightway raised, and the wekin
| resounds with lamentations over such narrew-
ness Of spirit. Now we disdain the Liberal
prejudices founded solely on the fact of the
place OF birth, and would scorn to deny that the
South can number among her most devoted
citizens many men of Northern. origin-fully
Identified with her in sympathy and in feeling,
and who will shoulder their muskets in her de-
fence, as readily as any of her sons We also
know, that there is another large and respect
able class, whose carly associations and preud
ces render them indisposed to acknowledge the
aggressions of the North, or actively to assist in
repelling them. But there does exist, like a
cancer, in the very heart ofsour population, a
class of men who, as HORACE says, Sin changing
their cline, have not altered their allegiance
Iuth h,y ~
ing aiso-who as the early colonists looked to
England as home, and deemed loyalty to her
edlcts paramount, even, to nearer and dearer
nterests-will uphold and sustain every act of
Northern majority in Congress, and denounce
as traitorous," all opposition to. the edies they
may cause, by force or fraud, to be registered
as the law Of the land.
We may expect that hireling Hessians," at
Washington and elsewhere, who eater for
Northern appetites, should sweep the sewers Of
their impure maginations, and cudgcl their dull
brains to malign the motives and falsify the acts
OF men, whose great sin in their eyes is their
lmpracticabiity" CHAT is, who will neither sell
their convictions, nor pay for a national repu-
tation) --for washington himself was once
called, "a hoary headed inccndiary, by vagabond
of almost unequalled mendacity and insoIence"
but that such poisoned shafts should be
hurled from those near our own hcarth-stones,
may well excite surprise and Indignation.
We, therefore, feel that every riehtminded
man, North or South, must own the Justice and
the truth of stern admontions to those men
who are only domiciliated with us, and repay
with detraction and insults the hospitality and
true kindness with which they have been re-
evil for good receiving
bread and pelting their benefactors with stones
in return. At the close of a long editorial, the
Natchez Free Trader says:
Let Washington city letter writer start q
Islander against the South, or the defenders OF
Southern institutions; or let the correspondent
Of the Natchez Courier taunt us with cowar1ice.
charge the great Southern movement as buster
ing and staggering, and that he always thought
We would not fight and hundreds of Yankee
presses throughout the South take up the note
and chaunt 1t In full chorus; and, strange to say,
Southern men applaud the strain.
But let a Southern man say ANYTHING about
the Yankees, or attempt to place Southern char
acter or valor on footing with this resplendcrt
people, and suddenly the whole host of Yankee
editors bristie up their ire is aroused, and they
are astonished at the unhcard Of audactv Of so
outrageous thing as to say anything against
Yankeedom. Their columns are filled with
glowing statements Of the manifold blessings
they have heaped upon us they have built our
cities, made our wharves, paved our streets, car
ried on our commerce, instructed our ignorance,
and, by their intelligence and enterprise, re-
deemed us from barbarism. And having shown
what great BLESSING they are, then they open
the phials of wrath on the offending wight Who
dared to offend so good and so useful people.
At once, several hundred Yankee presses in our
midst, pour out their indignant denunciations
against the devoted victim; no matter what
may be the purity Of his life, his integrity Of
character, his stern patriotism, or his long and
brilliant public services, he will be attacked, and
assaed, and belittlcd, and belied, with inccssant
rancour, in every form which ingenuity and mai.
ice can dictate.
How was it with Gov. Quitman He made q
remark as to the courage and conduct Of the
Southern troops in Mexico, as illustrated under
his own eye, and legitimately compared it with
that OF some of the Northern troops, and the
whole Yankee press, headed BY the Nutchez
Courier, at once pounced upon him, and even to
this day the most abusive, insulting and false
paragraphs are publishing and rcpublishug and
going the rounds of the whole South, and re-
echoed by the Abolitionists of the North hold
ing up Governor Quittnan as one of the weakest
and ttlest and most unworthy men that ever
disgraced public station. Even Yankee pro-
fessor of the Centenary College, who edits n
paltry little paper, lays aside the primer and The
teru'e, to lay the terrible weight of his indigna-
ton on the Governor of State. he who stormcd
Aontery and Mexico, for daring to compare
Southern courage and gaantry with that of the
free North. And how was it with Senator
soule tie dared to allude TO the deleterous
influence of the Yankee. bought press Of New
Orleans; and never before was such a howl and
yell raised IS this imprudent act called FORTH
The whole Yankee pack opened upon the IN
fortunate Senator, and the tidings spread, five
hundred Yank ee pens were dipped in gall Sen
ator Soule might have aided in the miserable
trckery and iugglery by which the South his
been deprived of all participation in the terrific
ries of the United States he might have birth