The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-02-21

in Philadelphia, "proclaiming liberty TO the
captivep We do not know which end to touch
of this monstrous meanness. We may as well
dismiss all fastidiousness about our hands, and
| take hold boldly. And so Grace Greenwood
! has gone off from that cover "where it her
namel was placed nominaly as editor, she mo-
| en- hauiay had The least control oveT Us eoiunsnS."
All, dear Grace, We are all glad with you for this
confession and shall love you better for it as long
as we live.
Not to have uttered word for freedom for
twenty years is sterling virtue with this fellow.
| To have spoken word against the gulf stream of
denominations that deeply and darkly flows all
around the Southern shore, is food for repentance
The very report Of it is more than he can bear.
haze not seen the article IA your paper alluded TO,
end should Ike 10 receire ~ The very suspicion
of being manly WAS not to be endured. Down he
goes on his knees, begging pardon for everything
possible in lump, and ready for special contri-
tion whenever the "paper alluded to" should
come to hand
Why do not Hope H. Slater, or Bruen, or
HILL stop their dangerous trick Of Kidnapping
black men at the peril of prisons and fines, and
come little farther north and take men with
white skins and livers whittier yet? The slaves
so got would be much more docile and obsequious
and there would be little or risk Of courts and
sheriffs. The fellow that wrote that line about
Grace Greenwood, and about Sartain's rival M0g-
azine, might be kidnapped without violating any
statute which forbids the enslsving Of Men. He
might prosecute under the act for sheep-stealing
but the penalty is light, if the fleece is worth the
trouble of stealing
The publisher says " / have been publishing
the Ladys Book for twenty years, and If IA thai
time one line can be found 0spsrsiag IN any 'rdy
Southern Institutions, am willing tel fall under your
censureD If in that long period he has spoken
Uhe-wotd OF hd1nfuity--if ne has uttered one
sentiment of jussice-if he has contributed one
spark to the FIRE of patriotism--if there has
breathed one stanzs Of poetry for Right-if he
has had in his Magazine one word in favor Of
love, of the family, of the sacred relations of pa
rent and child, husband and wife, mother and
sster-then he has sspersed Southern institu-
tions whose very foundations are laid in the ne
cation of all these Is this the Magazine for our
sons and daughters to read?
Where is Box Brown? He ought to draw out
chart Of every step by which he escaped from
the meanest depths of Slavery, and send it to
this Magazine, that the infamous crowd of pill
grims seeking to become slaves, may have some
thing to steer by.
We are becoming acquainted with the strug-
giles of slaves to become freemen we are also to
learn how easily freemen become slaves without
struggle. Every rood of ground from the Poto-
taught, who, without book or teacher, yindicates
by his irrepressible aspirations for freedom, his
title to be man. The slaves darkened eye has
never read word in cur noble Declaration or a
line in that Book from which it sprang but the
law of Nature and of God, written on his hsaxs,
he has deeply pondered. All the rubs and grind
ings Of poverty and oppression have not effaced
one letter of it, BY this sacred instinct they have
burst all restraints-turned to the north-star and
to God for guidance and protection; and cropping
by night and hidden by day, or half smothered in
ships holds, and boxed up in cubic inches not
enough for a child with WEAKNESS, hunger, fear
and faintness, they have sought place of free
dom. The fear Of bondage swallowed up all
other fear-as did Aaron's serpent-rod all other
rods. Gods blessing on every such fugitive
They are worthy of liberty. A slave who knows
his rights and is determined to be free, is more q
freeman and more man than his master who de-
MES his rights and clutches at him for Slavery.
This same road is now thronged with motley
crowd travelling southwark as anxious for the
shame Of supple servility as the slave is for the
in the shambles of every Southern market They
trust the plant good nature of the North, and
are only fearful lest they shall fail to be mean
enough to please the South.
Are these the men who are to direct the read
ing of our children2 Are their Magazines to
lie upon our tables Are our publishers to emas-
culate every transatlantic book until it will pass
current at the South? Are our school-book
publishers timidly to weigh every word, and let
our children grow up ignorant how to spell the
words STARE, oppression, tyrem, lest the South
should be offended
We do not say that the North should stand up
for Northern rights; for there is no such thing
as Northern rights But we do say that every
man, North or South, should stand up for the
rights Of Men and that trucking fellows in high
places shonld met the rebuke and buffet Of ev-
cry one who has an instinct to scent the approach
of meanness, or heart with which to rell indig-
nation upon it.-N Y. Independent.