The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-11-13
From Ms Boston 1yanse,;D,
from Ms b0slon IFanscTtpt.
The Peace and Dignity of the Commons
Wealth.-No. xiv.

OF thirty years of sheer mischief, perpetrated
very conscentiously and with the best inten-
tions, must be rather unpleasant. Some error
of calculation, at the outset, may land us far
away from the haven where we would be, as
it betell the mortified mariner who was destined
for the coast of Africa, and came very unex
pectedly upon the maelstrom of Norway.
For many years have contemplated, in the
laboratory Of Garrison and company, an extern
sive smithy, in which the letters of the slave
have been roughened and frightened from year
to year. fancy that see Garrison and Park
er Pillsbury and Perjury Parker, sweating like
so many Cyclops at their anvils-
'Brontesque, Steropesque, etnudus membra Pyrac-
mon."
If slavery can be abolished by no other n.odts
Operandi than such as Garrison proposes, God
grant Of His infinite mercy that Il may last for
eUer This modern ".uesentius, contenlptor
Deorum," would plant his sacrilegious foot upon
the Bible itself, he would abolish the holy Sab
bath, annihilate all human government, and
''break up the Union as speedily as possible in
his hot haste for immediate emancipation
Let us look calmly at his mad and most
mischievous career. Ii is neither denied nor
doubted that the comparatively recent appre-
citation of cotton lands has tended in some de-
gree 10 retard the work of emancipation. There
was a time, however, before our fellow citizens
of the South had become goaded to desperation
by every species Of evaporation and abuse,
when the policy and justice of emancipation
were the spontaneous suggestions Of their own
heads and hearts. To be sure no plan of eman-
cipation had been fully developed, but the desire
in some judlcious way of Kidding themselves OF
slavery and all its ills was deeply cherished by
the wisest, and the ablest, and the best men of
the South. During this favorable condition of
the public sentiment the northern abolitionists
poured in their offensive and irritating missiles
upon the slaveholding States. 1t was impossi-
BILE for southern men to measure the extent of
this abolition phrenzy, or to ascertain who or
how many among their northern fellow. coun-
trymen were the authors of those outrageously
abusive attacks which were made upon their
characters and upon the peace of their fresdes,
from week TO week, for the incendiary tracts
discovered in the possession of free blacks and
elsewhere had taught the Shareholders to APP
prehend lnsurrection among their slaves.
The abolitlonlsts, OF course, magnified their
numbers; and, in the printed reports of their
meetings, gave an air Of the utmost impor-
lance to all their proceedings. In the mean
while, Garrison, while he breathed nothing but
fire and fury, subscribed his name to docu-
ment after document, emanating from the soce-
ties of which he was member, solemnly de-
claring his intention to be guided by no other
principle than that of light and Iove. At one
moment the stakeholder would find the name
of Garrison by the side of the names of the
Rev. Amos A. Phelps, and hundred other
worthy clergymen, expressing their entire re-
spect for the constitutional compact, and their
reliance on moral suasion alone; at another
moment they discovered the name of this very
a. tal nd
oned for malicious libel. 1t is not surpris-
ing that southern men, finding this fanatic,
apparently SO soon again on such excellent
terms with his clerical and other associates, in
the work of immediate emancipation, should
have firmly believed that, Notwithstanding their
professions about light and Loyc, and moral sua-
sion, his outrageous and insulting language,
and demeanor, and incendiary course, were by
no means disagreeabe TO his clerical and other
associates, and that they were therefore quite
as much the enemies of the South as himself.
Is it wonderful, under such circumstances, that
southern men should cling more tenaciously to
slavery, rather than surrender it, under what
might be thought to be northern dictaton, and
the influence of fear2
In the month of May, 1910, accompanied by
General Cooke, of Fluvanna, visited Bishop
More at his residence in Richmond A large
portion OF our conversation was upon the sub
ject of slavery. | understood the Bishop to
say that he confidently believed measures
more effectual than any already proposed for
the emancipation of slaves would, in all proba-
bility, have been presented to the world by
shareholders themselves, but for the change in
the popular feeling produced by the exaspe-
rating insults lavished upon shareholders by
northern abolitionists. In support of this
opinion, he stated that regular meetings had
been held for that express object in the city of
Richmond, which were attended by several of
the most distinguished citizens of Virginia,
and at which the presiding genius was no other
than Chief Justice Marshall. These meetings
were continued until they were rendered of
no avail, in consequence of the outrageous
course adopted by the aboltionists of the
North. Day after day incendary pamphlets,
tracts, newspapers, and handbills were scat
tered over the slaveholding States, designating
the owners of slaves as pirates, thieves, muir
derers, and man-stealers. Slaves were excited
to instruction by assurances of their right to
rebel, and of the sympathy Of the free States,
and of an asylum at the North in the last re-
Sort The conduit for the conveyance of this
infammatory matter to the slaves was, most
commonly, the free colored population. The
shareholders themselves were also continually
uiuSBOu1 " "hohJ ihOuo PHidutiioPiotoJ WIN
tracts, whose influence was utterly destroyed
by their goading accusations and vulgar phrase
ology.
A strong and exceedingly natural sense of
resentment and Indignation spread from man 10
man, and became at last universal among the
people of the slaveholding States. The strong
est of all the natural rights of man is the right
of selfdefence. To prevent their own and the
Threats of their wives and children from being
cut, through the instrumentality of northern
philanthropists, laws of unusual severity were
enacted. If they bore upon the slave and the
free colored population, those laws, with some
exceptions, were absolutely necessary to the
safety of the whites, and the palpable result of
the northern abolition crusade.
1t was indispensable, for the carrying out of
any plan like that referred to by Bishop More,
to influence the planters and impress them in
favor of the measure. Already those master
spirits who had assembled together, under the
presiding influence Of Chief Justice Marshall,
IL