The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-28
THE SOUTHERN PRESS.
The two Paroles North.

NewYOrk, because the extracts express the views
OF two classes Of people into which the North is
divided on the subject of slavery. The party to
which the Tribune belongs is for immediate
abolt'on-the party Of the Courier and En-
quirer is for gradual emancipation and coloniza-
ton.
According to the theory Of our Constitution
which both Of these papers and all parties in the
North support, the federal government may in
terfere in various cases in the slavery question:
because they think that Congress has an ann 10
jurisdiction over all questions affecting the gen.
eral welfare, and that therefore the North, as
well as the South, is responsible for the national
effects of slavery: Hence the Tribune agitates
for abolition, and the Courier for colonization.
Both of these papers agree in calling slavery
a curse: and the Courier says that the great mass
Of the Southern people so regard it. Now, this
is not the fact. 1t is true that Mr. JEFFERSON,
and other distinguished statesmen Of the South,
under the illusion Of French philosophy and
French Revolution, dreamed of the immediate
advent of a period of universal equality, reason,
virtue and liberty. "That bright dream is no
more" 1t has been ascertained, both in France
ard the United States, that forms of government
do net materially affect the moral and social
character of man; not merely forms of govern
ment have failed in changing the essential moral
condition of mankind, but science, and learning
and art, manufactures Commerce, improvements
canals, railroads, the press, the post, the tele-
graph have failed
"For all these trophied arts,
And triumphs which beneath them sprang,
Healed not passion pang
Entailed on human hearts,"
Man still remains of the same physical and
. moral stature as before. The law promulgated
on the day of original transgresson, that toll
WAS the consequence of sin, the law proclaimed
on the first transgresson after the flood, that
the children of the transgressor should serve
those of his brethren, after running through the
whole special dispensation of Moses, continues
unrepeaed and uncont addicted to this dav: ex-
sept that it il said, both under the old and the
new dispensations of that religion which we
profess, that whatsoever should repent and re-
turn to a state Of obedience, shall be released
| from the penalties inflicted on their ancestors,
or themselves
So long, therefore, as il remains law of mans
moral being, that those who are morally in
ferior must serve their brethren, il is in vain for
forms of Cover lment, or laws, or sections 10 at.
tempt to counteract it. And to pronounce the
relation that results from moral inequality OF
races or men to be curse, is to rebel against
The moral government of the world
There i, however, large class of men who
reject what they call distractions and metaphys-
les, and these men pretend to be peculiarly prac-
teal. They did not understands they de-
ride moral laws, ard priori reasoning. They
profess to be inducttye reasoners, and to be gov
erned by experience and results. We'll, the
Southern States present 10 these men the unex-
ampled spectacle of whole people of equal in
telligence, of more wealth, and of its more equal
distribution than any other, ofless crime Of less
vice, of less pauperism than any other, of longer
life, of greater increase, and better health And
they show also that the slaves are superior in
health, in fecundit', in intelligence in morals,
and in comfort, to any other class Of the same
race. Where is the evidence 10 all this that
slavery is curse If slavery is curse, Unequal
ity of property is curse for that evitably sub
jects the poor TO the necessity Of laboring for
the rich. And yet such is the fcrcc of moral,
compared with political law, that, although prim-
ogen ure is abolished everywhere in the United
States, and African slavery everywhere in the
Northern States, there is in the latter greater
of prmogeniture, and a much greater inequal-
~ than exists II the Southern States In Mas
sachusetts one-half ofthe white population has
no tangible property whatever.
If slavery is curse all luxury and superiority
are curses, and they prevail more in the North
than the South. If slavery is curse, as polit-
ca, social or moral institution or relation, CON-
pared with those which exist in other commune
ties, 1t is the duty and interest Of the South in
dividually, socially, and politically, to abolish it
with the least possible delay. In this we cos
cur with the Tribune and Courier. Ifany State
or any person in the South, believes that slavery
is curse or an evil, we think it folly or wicked
ness in him or her to delay its abolition. The
time has now fully come for the people of the
South, as men, as Christians, as patriots. TO stand
by their institutions or to desert them. A pre-
popderant section of their own people, and the
mass Of the civilized world, are opposed to their
|
And any man who believes as n practical man.
or philosopher, or citizen, that slavery is
sin, or an error, or an evil, in the existing cond-
ton Of society, ought to abandon and oppose IT,
Those who think otherwise, those who think its
adjustment would injure both races, would
externlinato one Of them in the South, would re.
duce that lovely region TO desolaiion and bar
barisn, must prepare TO snstaiu j., at sacrifice
only less than its dcstmtion NO I'D produce.