The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-23

the suffering is stern reality. And shall we
of the South doom this class among ourselves,
now comfortable and we'll cared for by their
white protectors, to the tender mercies OF the
North-to sympathies as cold as the cutting east
winds of Boston Shall we drive them forth
from their happy homes, to become plague and
scourge to the North, as an atonement for sins,
not of their commission We answer ernphati-
cally NO--not unless there exists an overriding
necessity for such an act. For any other cause
it would be equally eowardly and cruel 1t may
be said that we have exaggerated the condition
of the colored population of the North. We
speak Of that which we have seen and know.
We institute contrast which, born bred and
nurtured in the midst of slayeholding commu-
nifty, we have tested by personal observa-
ton, during repeated and protracted visits to
various parts of the North. Is it not notorious
that the liberated slaves of RANDOLPH were re-
pulsed from the hospitable shores of abolition
Ohio! Is not the hostility of the foreign Ia
borer to the Blacks also equally known? Are
they not oftener "panting fugitiyes" from North
ern mobs, than from Southern slave hunters,
animated by purposes far more fell in the former
than in the latter case Are not many Of the
Northern States even now, with wolfIsh selfish
ness, closing the door to the ingress of the CO.
lored race, on the ground oftheir antagonism with
white labora These things are notorious and
that few insolent and pampered negroes, like
Fred. Douglass, may be pointed out-decoy
ducks for Northumberland a handful more ind
profitable employment as BARRIERS and walters,
are but the exceptions proving the general rule
Even of those who have fed from their mas
tiers, not year elapses that some do not return
like the prodigal son, to their homes-and but
for shame and dread of punishment hundreds
more would do so. Instances have fallen under
our own observation, of free colored men re-
turning from the North-although they knew
the stringent law which rendered them liable to
be sold into slavery for doing so-and openly
declaring that they would prefer being slaves at
the South to enjoying such freedom as the North
could or would allow them. They said they
nerer fell safe at the North-and good reason
had they for their fears.
Another impediment also stands in the way
of the execution of such law. Those, only,
reared in the South, understand the relation ex-
listing between the old family servant and his
masters descendants-it is tie of the strongest
kind Many of these are nominally manumitted,
although really enjoying the protecting and min
istering care of master. They, with their
families, constitute large proportion of our
free negroes at the South. Others, born free,
have always felt the spot in which they were
born to be their home. Shall these too be BAN
ished from the old homestead, the old familiar
faces, and eat the bitter bread of Northern task
masters? How can the discrimination be made
between the profligate and idle, and the sober
clusion, if the proposed law be engrafted on the
policy of the Southern States.
Colonization, whether to the frozen region OF
Canada, or to the pestilentai coast of Africa, is
but milder name for transportation for the
crime of color-the dainty phianthropists of
the North believing that distance lends en-
chantment to the veW"-of the negro.
For these reasons (and for many others) the
idea of this legislation is repugnant to us, and
we believe to the great majority of Southern
men, who have considered it in all its consequent
ces If this stern purgaton should be forced
upon us, the sin and the shame must fall upon
the guilty heads of the Northern agitators-
" whose blessings" like those of the Genii,
" are curses" Whose malevolence is only
equalled by their hypocrisy.
AS regards the policy of the proceeding-it
strikes US that at present, at least there is no
necessity for it. We confidently believe that
now, as in the days of the Revolution, the blacks
at the South, both bond and free, would aid
their masters friends and neghbors in defending
their common homes against any aggressors-
The same inducements which might now be
used to ALLEVIATE them, were employed by the
British how vainly history records, and the I'M
written though often repeated legends of that
time, current now at many Southern fireside.
That there might be ingrates among them in
such contingency-that there are now mis-
chievious and wicked blacks, as there are whites,
among our population, no one can doubt
Where such can be detected as medtating mis-
chief, they can be promptly disposed of, either
by deportation, or some other mode Of punish
ment 1t would be prudent also to expel all
colored interlopers, who have sneaked in from
abroad-but further than this, we believe neither
policy nor necessity require us to go-while hui
mainly urges us not to punish the innocent for
the sins Of the guilty.
The South has the power if she has the WILL
to protect herself from all aggression from
without She is not, and never was in any dam
ger from internal causes, until the dissensions
of her sons threatened to cripple her strength
and suicidal hands sought to throttle and par
ayze her.
If we feel that VIC have wrongs to avenge
upon the North, let us take the open and the
manly mode The torturous path of indirec "