The Yazoo Democrat., 1854-03-22
From the Neso York citizen.
To the Rev. Henry w. Beecher


self on having had the good fortune to draw forth
so fine burst of that species of composition.
1t is not, however, what looked for. In re-
ply to two vehement attacks of yours, one in
your Abolition Lecture, and one in your news
paper, did myself the honor to address to you
certain arguments. really thought they were,
in some sort, arguments; and supposed that if
you vouchsafed me reply you would try TO an
swer or to invalidate them The course you
have taken makes me admire your prudence
more than your eloquence.
! 1t was required of me to show how my decla-
ration that slaveholding is not crime consists
with any attempt to abolish English dominion
in Ireland. For answer. pointed to some of
the greatest leaders of this Republic, who being
shareholders, rose to abolish English dominion
in America. Do you see the unprincipIed folly
of this? Can your reverence contemplate with
out horror an American colonist exacting the
whole labor of his own slave; yet declining
himself, to he the slave of the British Parla-
ment; buying negroes bodily for his own prof.
erty, yet indignant because English statesmen
presumed to levy three pence per pound upon
his tea? l need not ask, for you will not an
swer. You dare not say before an American au-
diepce that George Washington was an impos-
| tor and had no principle" Yet that is what
you mean, if you mean anything. Therefore,
you wisely let the subject alone and by way of
answer, you build me up sentences like this:
Once you stood like some great oak, whose
wide circumference was lifted up above all the
pastures, the glory Of all beholders and covert
for thousand tinid singing birds. Now you
lie at full length along the ground with ruptured
roots, ragged and upturned to heaven with bro
ken boughs and despoiled leaves. Never again
shall husbandmen predict spling from swelling
buds! Never again shall Gods singing birds of
! liberty come down through all the heavenly air
to rest themselves on your waving top Fallen !
Uprootedl Doomed to the axe and the hearth p
almost feel the edge of the hatchet. Wood
man, spare that tree Your imagery is so vivid
that am ready to raise my hand to my head to
ascertain whether, like Pheton's sisters. / bear
foliage and birds nests; theprophecy is terrific
and the effect, the one of Mr. Barnum's effects,
! is " thrilling"
| You have dislike to Moses, at which I do
not wonder. You say i" let Moses sleep" Then
why did you cite that legislator in your Lecture
1t was your reverence who awakened him. In
order to make people believe that American sla-
very is more barbafous than ancient slavery, YOU
told the Tabernacle that Moses imposed restric-
tions upon the institution, and surrounded ii
with difficulties and inconveniences, tending to
produce abolition at length. | followed you in
to the Pentateuch and showed that you did not
read those five books Alright. demonstrated
that there were no restrictions at ALL and no ten
dency to abolition, and no intention of it, either
rapid or gradual
/ So Moses has become tedious TO you You
beg me mott keep " stumbling over the records
of rude society four thousand years ago. But
pardon me, it was your reverence who stumbled;
aud you are not sufficiently grateful to me for
picking you up.
You say snake the Bible lie; (whatever
that means , but you have not shown me where
or how. 1t seems to me, too, that your avoid
ance of thesubject is an admission that you did
really misrepresent the Mosaic law to support
your abolition ticket. Is it not shame? Do
you think such deed can be atoned for by a IT,
rade like the following addressed to me, thrill
ing as it is?
''I cannot hide from myself that there yet re
mains for you dismal age, desolate and cheer
less solitude Of infrmities. Time that would
have carried you onward, garlanded with achieve
ments worthy of man living for men, and sur
rounded by the genial sympathies of loving
hearts, now, will drift you to a polar solitude
without love, or sympathy, or pity, or honor
Yon will sweep coldly on upon dark current
like an ever rolling iceberg, that rolling and re
sounding ever SO much, gain no rest by changins
place"
Bsuedicite! It does man good to hear you
in rhetorical, melodramatical. and merely Bar
numistic point of view But where is ths
sensea Who has taught you to call names a
this outrageous rate? Another time you com
pare me to Hercules spinning threads and agair
good Heaven! what is this:
ssSorrowfuIIy, we must leave you, like som
false and hideous image, around which, for th
moment, chattering priests of oppression hav
burned incense, but soon to be cast out, even b
them detested and desecrated idol, forgotten Q
men, and remembered only of vermin lizard
) tha crawl darkling beneath the twilight of poi
sonous weeds that grow and twine about it.
Now also could find comparisons in the va
rious kingdoms of nature for you, Mr. Beechei
And Ihave mind even to try your own styl
} and SHOW that l have taken lesson from you
as thus: am rolling and resounding iceber
Of the polar seas-very well you are Geyse
or boiling spring, copious enough to keep tn
world in hot water. / may be like dead tree