Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1850-02-26
THE SOUTH AND THE NORTH.

Of applying the proviso, or something
equivalent TO i, is TO be done at the North
The fortress of slavery is here, III Nor
thern heads and hearts; in the selfish III
difference we feel towards distant evil {;
in the vulgar prejudice still rife, in regacI
to the proper humanity of the negro in
the commercial conservatism that deads an
agitation, or any change that endangers
its own regular business; and above all.
lin the general apathy TO moral considera-
tons and spiritual truths and principles.
The country is rot half as much alive TO
the glory of freedom, as it was twenty
years after the revolution. a disposition
to distrust the value Of the privileges pur-
chased b, our fathers blood, is not infre.
quenty to be traced in the covert sheer
with which the defences of popular rights
are received by the prosperous and the es.
tablished. Let US not allow The slupor of
of national prosperity to overtake the
North at time when the battle of human
liberty is pending upon the Congresslon-
al floor. One great note Of warning <hould
summon the Northern conscience TO lis
senses We must concede nothing TO the
newIy-inhamed thirst of laveholders
for the extension and added security OF
their accused institution. If we yield
anything now, the slave is LOST for anoth,
er half-century, and the country sinks to
an utterly degradation in the eyes OF the
! civilized world, TO position inviting the
Jirect chasusements of an outraged God
&c justice"
| We extract the foregoing from the col
umns Of The New York Christian Inqui-
rer, wherein it forms the concluding part
of an article on the Slavery debates in
Congress. The Inquirer is paper we
always open with pleasure, for we never
fail to find in it food for the intellect, emo
tons for the heart, stimulus and purgatlon
for the conscience. It's one ofthe ables.,
most elevating and genuinely progressive
publications of our day. Sill, to our
taste, it sometimes betrays forgetiulness
of the fine old maxim festina iente; and
we think this is particularly the case with
the present article.
The Inquirer, with fearfully great pro-
portion of sincere Northern thinkers and
speakers on the subject OF Negro Slavery,
has permitted itself to be carried away by
its zeal for what it believes 10 be good
cause, so as to forget that in the prosecu-
ton Of this cause some means might be less
Unsuitable than others. Now il is the dis
position on the par! Of the North TO use
improper means in gaining their end
that has, in part, inhamed the feelings and
alarmed the fears Of HE South, and brought,
matters to their present pass. The North
processes 10 look at Slavery principally in
the light of moral wrong, but with an
inconsistency fatal to It's OVID success IN
procuring similar convictions at the South,
| it leaves the only legitimate system OF
remedy, and appeals to such means Of
force q, the current Of circumstances has
put into its hands. If the North wishes
the South to have done with the "instl-
.ution," lie, it rest its cause upon suasIon
alone. Let moral evils be met by cores
ponding moral correcnves, and let not the
political power Of majority be brought
to bear upon question really and prop
erly out of its province and beyond lis con-
troll. We are sometimes almost led TO
believe that the North has less cool sturdy
faith in the righteousness Of its anti-slave-
~ principles than it processes to have, or
it would not pursue the headlong and in.
consistent course it has elected.
If you think us wrong, pour out into our
midst argument, eloquence, persuasion,
entrea,y, but do not seek TO carry out Your
moral dogmas by cldpping upon cur wrists
the odious and intoleraole manacles Of
Congressional majoriiies. But you say
you have tried en,reaty and all that, and
The thing is no better. but rather worse.
In saying SO you say wrong. Twenty
years ago, nay less. broad and deep
feeling was entertained all over the South,
but especially in Maryland, Virginia and
kentucky, that left to itself would have
by this time produced great effects
Northern busybodies saw this, and in or.
der to gain notoriety as well as to put
money in their purse, they began to preach
crusade against the South. UnhaPpily
these minders of other mems affairs met
with the very encouragement and dissinc-
ZION they mos, desired from Southern he