The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-02-08

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1851.
Lowing Darkness Better than Light.
The Mobile Advertiser, the Georgia Journal
4 Messenger, the Montgomery (Ala.) Journal,
and sundy other Southern papers edited by
Northern men, are exceedingly indignant at the
pertinacity with which the Southern Rights pa
pers persist ia snIightsning the people as to the
abolition movements ut the North Some Of
them are getting so desperate, as to make the
stupid declaration that such prints are amenable
70 the statutes made and provided for the pun
ishment Of those circulating ncendiary docu-
ments. Now, this ia consistent in those prints,
and in perfect consonance with the course and
the policy they have adopted
The safety Of the Southern ultra ubmissionists
their escape from the righteous Indignation Of a
people they have aided to blind and to deceive,
depends on suppression Of the truth, by hiding
from the public eye the damning evidences Of
their own treschery and desertion Of duty as
public sentinels-and hence the resort to this
desperate attempt Of appealing to the prejadices
and passions Of the more ignorant among their
partizans. Their own peculiar function has
been to = ray oM darknsss"--no wonder that
they shrink, owi-like, screaming with pain, from
the food Of light which the conductors of the
Southern presses, true to themselves and TO their
section, have poured upon this subject-kept in
obscurity too long, from mistaken policy, as
events have proved,
The olitionists-fanatical or political--are
too daring and too dangerous now to be treated
with contempt, as they too long have been.
The despised faction has swelled its numbers,
and increased its power until it controls Con-
gress, and dictates the terms on which new
States shall be admitted into this Union. Nay
not content with this, it is striding to the con-
summation of its fell purposes--the Gordon has
been drawn round the slave States, and enamel
patton is to be the browning triumph.
In this state of affairs, how fatal is it in
any Southern sentinel to fail in giving the alarm,
and to cry "All's well" while the enemy are
sapping and mining the foundation Of the cita-
del, without deigning to conceal their purposes
or their approaches And yet f giving this
Warrington laying before the Southern people
the plan Of operations, and the movements of
these their deadly foes--for refusing torstifle or
conceal them from those whose lives and
fortunes are jeoparded by them-a howl is
raised by the fathless few, that they are
the incendiaries who give the warning, and
urge preparation to avert the danger.
Desperate and deluded indeed must such
poor echoes of the Northern taskmasters be, to
suppose for one instant that they could thus de-
lude the people of the South, or conceal their
own sins under this cloak of affected apprehen-
sion. No, they are neither such fools as to
credit, nor such knaves as to countenance such
sham patriotism, such shallow stage trick, re-
sorted to only in the blind bewilderment Of con-
victed criminality.
The wisdom Of the ostrich is proverbial
and the fate of its imitators will be similar to
its own, though they may with hortsighted
cunning hide their heads in the first bush that
offers covert.
The course of the {" ultra" submission pres ses
has been 90 suicidal throughout, that we cannot
be astonished at an absurdity emanating from,
OF any trick resorted to by them, and as the hour
of their retributio comes, their tribulation must
increase.
Their whole policy is condensed in the lines
of the poet:
- L. Il
Let him not know it-and he - not robbed at all. "
The spolation of the South is nothing-so long
as her people can be hoodwinked into "acqui-
escence" under pretexts as frivolous as false.
The movements of the Aboitionists-thei Or
ganizaton for the peri ction of designs most fell
and monstrous--their open avowals Of purpose
their rapid strides towards the consummation
Of their designs--all these are nothingl no dan
ger in them, ercept chen the Southern people are
notified and thus forearnled against them
The Waterman who gives the warning is to
be consi cred the accomplice Of the incendiary
the witness who skulks quietly away, and al
lows the midnight marauders, to work unde-
tected, to receive the rewards of patriotic de-
votion, and the plaudit of well-done faithful
servant! And danger, dread, imminent and
impending, to be ayerted by sedulously sealing
the eyes, the lips, and the ears off people to its
approaches!
Such is the policy, and such the position Of
those lovers of darkness rather than light, who
(fortun tcly but few, and daily diminishing in
number) will not rest satisfied with neglecting
their own duty but have the audacity to arraign
those more watchful or Independent than them
selves, for the performance of those very duties
which hey through partizan prejndices, perver-
sity, or imbecility, have 30 shamefully evaded
The cause of the South is high and holy--the
designs Of her enemies fell and diabolicaI-and
the broader and brighter the flood of ligh which
is poured on all the acts and sentiments Of the
two contending forces-the more speedy and
more signal the triumph which awaits the right
eous cause