The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-23


NewYork, because the extracts express the views
of two classes Of people into which the North il
divided on the subject of slavery. The party t.
which the Tribune belongs is for immediat,
abolition--the party of the Courier and En-
quirer is for gradual emancipation and COLOMBIA
ton.
According to the Theory of our Constitution
which both of these papers and all parties in tn
North support, the federal government may in
terfere in various cases in the slavery question
because they think that Congress has an ampl
jurisdiction over all questions affecting the gen
eral welfare, and that therefore the North, a.
well az the South is responsible for the nationa
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 period of universal equality, reason
virtue and liberty. "That bright dream is no
more' II 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 iele-
graph have failed
"For all these trophied arts,
And triumphs which beneath them sprang,
Healed not passion nor 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 transgression, that toll
WAS the consequence Of sin, the law proclaimed
on the first transgression 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
unrepealed and uncontradicted to this day: ex-
eept that it is said, both under the old and the
new dispensations of that religion which we
profess, that whatsoever should repent and re-
turn to state of obedience, shall be released
from the penalties inflicted on their ancestors,
or themselves.
So long, therefore, as it remains law of mans
moral being, that those who are morally in
ferOr must serve their brethren, it is in vain for
forms of government, or laws, or sections to at
tempt to counteract it. And to pronounce the
races or men to be a curse, is to rebel agains
the moral government of the world.
There il, however, a large class of men VIII,
reject what they call distractions and metaphys
les, and these men pretend to be peculiarly prac
teal. They did not understand-so they dc
ride moral laws, and priori reasoning The
profess to be inductive reasoners, and to be gov
erned by experience and results. Well, TIL
Southern States present TO these men the unex
ampled spectacle of whole people of equal in
telligence, Of more wealth, and of its more equa
distribution than any other, ofless crime of les
vice, of less pauperism than any other, of longe
iiC, vi SiShtCi luClesSc, anu UettcT Htuill. AM
they show also that the slaves are superior il
health, in fecunditr, in intelligence, in morals
and in comfort, to any other class of the SAM
race. Where is the evidence in all this tina
slavery is curse? If slavery is curse, Unequal
ity property is curse, for that inevitably sub
jects the poor TO the necessity of laboring 70
the rich. And yet such is the force of mora
compared with political law, that, although prm
ogeniture is abolished everywhere in the Unite
States, and African slavery everywhere in tn
Northern States, there is in the latter create
inequality of property than existed in the day
of primogeniture, and much greater inequali
ty than exists in the Southern States In Mas
sachusetts one-half ofthe white population ha.
no tangible property whatever.
If slavery is curse, all luxury and superfuity
are curses, and they prevail more in the Nortl
than the South. If slavery is a curse, as polit
ical, social or moral institution or relation, com
pared with those which exist in other communi
ties, it is the duty and interest of the South in
dividually, socially, and politically, TO abolish
with the least possible delay In this we cor
cur with the Tribune and Courier. If any State
or any person 10 the South, believes that SLAYER
is a curse or an evil, we think it folly or wicked
ness in him or her to delay its abolition. TIL,
time has now fully come for the people of th,
South, as men, Christians, patriots, TO stanc
by their institutions or to desert them. pre-.
ponderant section of their own people, and the
mass of the civilized world, are opposed to their
institutions individually, morally and politically
And any man who believes as practical man
or philosopher, or citizen, that slavery is
sin, or nm error, or an evil in the existing condi
ton of society, ought to abandon and oppose it
Those who think otherwise, those who think il
adjustment would injure both races, would
exterminate one of them in the South, would re
duce that lovely region to desolaton and bar
barism, must prepare to sustain it, at a sacri6c,
only less than its destruction would produce
Now we assert on the other part, that the grea