Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1850-05-24
Mrs. SyyissheIm's idea of Constitution,
Compromise, &c.

SolHe miserable, ueCreplu Ola creature tnat was
no longer able TO totter on crutches, but must
needs be held up on every side, and dragged
along like a drunken loafer, on his road to the
lock up"
have some considerable respect for the con-
stituton, and am sorry those who should best I'M
dersland it think it so weak as to require such
continual bolsteri up, propping AMI defend
ing, a clustering, a staggering, blowing, a
Dragging.
Strength should bring calmness The
consciousness of integrity should set folks a.
their ease; and the nervous eagerness with
which these gentlemen haste to defend the Con-
stituon, when no one is attacking il, looks as if
they thought it very vulnerable AS admins
tered and generally understood, there is no doubt
but it is so. Those compromises it is said to
have made, do really require some defence -.
For instance, in going from Pittsburg to Gin
cinnati, few weeks ago, there was a woman
on board our boat, who had been purchased by
the man who had her in charge, for five hundred
and fifty do!lars-as much as would pay Con-
CHEESEMAN'S salary sixty-eight days. She had
been sold ''for no fault" but because her mas
ter was in debt. She has left her father, moth
er, bo,her, sisters, husband and three small
children, one of them an infant.
looked Oh her face with its haggard grief,
Where "Cumprumiscs' were written in brief;
counted her tears as they fell anain,
Say ing "Compromises" a-ain and again.
thought of babe AT cabin door,
Where a mothers shadow shall fall no more
thought of the wisdom of this great land
Assembled ogether-a mighty band,
With armies and nayies at its command,
With Numbering cannon and cleaning swords
And praying chaplans, and learned boards,
With their pompous words about Freedoms charms
As they tore the babe from its mothers arms,
The tears might have moved them. They were but men,
But what of the Compromises thenI
looked upon her paiiid cheek again
On her sunken eyes with their scaldng rain,
And thought of The husband far away,
She should meet no more at the close of day:
OF The Ell hearts all tom and the hearth laid waste
And like David of old II said in mine haste"
Some thin Is that lan would repeat below,
But the Compromises say plainly, NO"
Forgive my rhyming, Mr.. Greeley. | did
net mean TO do it; but the case of this poor wo-
man affects me much and sadness seeks rhyme
for expression. 1t was locking on this poor
mother weeping for her children that determin-
ed me to come TO Washington. WANTED to see
what the descendants of our Revolutionary ia
theirs looked like when in Congress assembled
to devise ways and means for extending the area
OF such deeds of Chivalry. | go now into their
great marble wonder, and wander through its
magnificent rotundas and halls, its labyrinths of
stairs and passages, gaze ON its wonders of art,
and before me at every turn fits up the shadowy
apparition of that sorrOw-strcken face. | see
the humble form of that ant-woman skulking
hither and thither as though she would escape
to her children. At every turn an impeachment
prevents Here there is dead, cold wall
There, in the open passage, stands group OF
sentinelS strange looking sentinels, too-chll-
dren and plying men, and beautiful kind hearted
women. There are many of them who would
scarcely kill worm, who would weep that a
poor bird should have been taken from her nest
hngs; but they will all form themselves into
phalanxes, with bristling bayonets and naked
swords, to prevent the stricken mother flying &c
her child Why is it so? Why is the voice of
Nature and of God suppressed within Us, and
hidden to be silent! Ii is that we may hear
what the compromisers say; and how honorable
gentlemen talk about few more compromises.
You, with the rest, Mr.. Greeley, indulge ga gen
erouS spirit of compromise" 1t Is considered
very praisewOrthy TO do so; and no doubt you
are a very clever man; bat III this matter your
geHer0sity does rot cost you much. 1t is very
easy for you or any other Northern gentleman,
to make a bow to Southern gentleman, and, in
the spirit of the most generous compromise
agree that he may tear mother from her babes
and set her up on an auction-block to get money
to buy a race-horse or gold chain, and Danish her,
forever, from all she has known or loved. You
are nothing the poorer when the deed is done.
1t is the mother and her children who are called
upon to foot the bill and it not unfrcquently
costs one of them the last remnant Of life your
former generosity had made scene of saf-riug
and toll,
am little thick in the skull, and never could
understand nice distinctions in etiquette or eth
les. When Mr.. Harris of Tennessee rose the
other day, and with all his powers of oratory-
a burning eloquence that required three glasses
of water TO prevent its bursting out into flame
pleaded for "the rights of the South it Just
sounded 10 me as if he had been saying, Cen
tlemen, we have a right-a natural and nalena-
bic right, to whip women and sell babies. Gu,
Revolutionary fathers died on the battlefield to
establish the glorious principle of women-whp
ping and bahy-seing. Our immortal Consitu
ZION was founded to secure TO US the exercise o.
these inestimabIe privileges; aud ], sir, /, Mr.
Harris of Tenn. do now proclaim myself the val
orous champion of American mountaineering
1t is our privilege, sir. We of the South, here
on the floor of this House, claim the right to sci
our children with our sheep and oxen. We, sir
it is, can and do and lO-i-t-i sell our daughters
TO infamy and traffic in the bodies and souls O
our brethren.-Yea, of our brethren sir,-o
those for whom a common Saviour has shed his
/ blood-of those who with us are joint heirs Of
immortality We, sir, ps will carry them to the
| shambles. remembering that, lnasmuch as We
do ii unto the least Of these His brethren, we de
it unto him. We will there barter for gold tht
very Son of GOO himself! We, it is, sir, whC
sell upon the auction block the image of God
! for hands-full of silver coin! We are the fear
less champions who viii dissolve this Union
all union between ourselves and the spirit of Free
dom abroad in the earth--the favor of HEAVIER
and the approval of all good men, for this on
privilege Of selling men and whipping women.
could make nothing else of it, Mr.. Greeley
l know these are the rights for which the Soutl
contends know it is quite as common and re
spectacle for Southern gentleman to horse
whip his washerwoman as to smoke cigar.
know this for | have lived there, and all the ell
oquence and gasconading about Southern right
and constitutional compromises resolve them
selves TO this one point-the right to borsewhil
a woman and sell her baby. Every concession
YOU make about guarantees is just that much o
4 yielding to this clamor.