The southern press., 1851-09-03
The spirit Of Abolition.


example of the Inconsistency and hypocrisy OF
the abolition spirit 1t forbids any free negro
coming into aud settling within its boundaries
1t denies to man, whom it pretends to regard
as the equal Of any white man, right to gel
his living by his own honest efforts 1t will
not tolerate even the presence of a free black
so much and so sincerely does il love it's pro-
teges.
The negro has either the full rights of a free
man, the right to settle where he will, the right
TO labor where and how he chooses, the right
IN short OF honest existence. 80 long as he con-
forms to the laws regulating human rights among
men pretending to freedom and equality, or he
has no rights at all--being an inferior being,
who requires to be managed, directed, and pro-
tected by an intelligent and more comprehensive
mind.
The decision of the State of Indiana is to the
latter effect. 1t has condemned the negro whom
it has hitherto, with Northern Abolitionsts, pro-
fessed to regard as having rights like the white
man. rnt
There is no escaping from this dilemma. Abo-
litionism is condemned by this enactment in
terms more cutting and severe than by all the
wel-merited lasbings its hypocrisy has received
from the indignant pens of Southern writer's.
If all other self-styIed Christian States should
follow in the wake Of Indiana, we may be per-
mtted to ask in what portion of the United
States the free negro is to be driven since free
negroes there are, and free negroes there must
be, under our present laws.
Does Indiana and its conductors suppose that
new State is to be formed composed exclu-
sively of free blacks! Would they consent to
its being next door to them! Or, do they con
template the possibility Of driving the whole Of
them to Liberia? This project is not one iota
less impossible than the former.
No one is ignorant of the fact that the negroe,
almost unanim ously refuse to go from this. Their
native land, they are pleased to style it.
There is no reason why they should be less at
tached to the country of their birth, than the
white man; moreover, when well treated, they
evince strong feeling towards their masters.
The upshot of the business will be the ex-
pulsion of them across the frontier into the
British territory, and the rearing up, in that land
of questionable freedom, of considerable po-
pulation, untitled for SO severe climate, and
miserable from inability to contend with the
white man in the scramble for existence.
There are many in the South who would
gladly see the free blacks transported to Africa,
and we have had instances of masters liberating
their slaves on that condition. But such in
stances only occur in States where slave labor
is not so profitable, or 80 necessary, as in those
growing cotton, rice, and sugar.
There is one good to be derived from these
evidences of the Northern spirit. Men of re-
Election will weigh in the just balance of the
groe's friends. The slave question will come to
be better understood; and the slave agitation
will entirely subside, at least, political ques-
ton in the North. Slavery will be allowed to
take its own course and il will be left to those
who are interested in it, to work it out for the
common good.
The fanatics will not be silent, but they will
be without power to produce direful mischief
and revolution. Perhaps the scene will change
altogether, and the public mind, more fully en-
lightened in the North, give to the Southern
the name of the negro's friend, and to Abo-
ltionists their truer epithet of kidnapper and
deceiver.
There certainly can be hardly anything more
cruel than the trick played upon the mex
perienced negro. Magnificent representations
of the blessings of liberty are held out to in.
duce him to run away from home. Glorious is
the prospect presented to him. Liberty is for
tune-liberty is money-liberty is power-lib-
erty is entire freedom of action, entire self-con.
troll and dindependence-ac contented mind, plenty
of dollars, nice house, abundance of food and
drink, lots of dancing and music, and privilege to
sleep all day as well as all night.
He rushes. poor deluded wretch, TO the out.
stretched arms of his dear friends, and finds, to
his great horror, that liberty means-shift for
yourself-get on if you can--ve by pulling
your neghbor down-mount up on the should
ers of your brothers--crush wi hout hesitation
any benevolent or romantic feelings of fairness
or Observation-Disclosures all charity and JUS
tice-grind the face of the poor-give an addi-
tional kick to every man going down hill--run
spokes into the wheels of the prosperous-in
short, put yourself in fighting attitude against
every body and everything, use false weights,
poison and adulterate the good things of the
earth, and then, poor negro man, you will have a
chance, II your color is not an obstacle among
whites, of living by competition, or liberty to
injure others.
When white man, bred in luxury or de-
pendent for support fixed income, finds
himself for the first time in actual contact will
the rude realities Of life, with scarcely penn
10 bless himself with, he feels about mucl
perplexty and terror at such an unexpected po
sition poor negro. He looks anxiously +
his friends; he feels that 10 depend upon tn
charity Of strangers IL rather an ugly business
likely to get him more insults and rebuffs tina