The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-07-13
THREE CHAMPIONS OF SLAVERY.


THREE CHAMPIONS OF SLAVERY
1t is somewhat remarkable that there art
no journals in the South so jealous, thorough
and extreme, in their advocacy of Slavery, a.
the three leading papers in Richmond, Vir
ginia.
The old doctrine, that it is to be tolerated
and excused as necessary evil, they Scout
as a senselcss prejudice. They contend for it
in the concrete and in tho abstract; not only
as convenience, but blessing; not as thing
good under the circumstances of Southern So
ciety alone but under all circumstances as
an institution founded in Nature, sanctioned by
Revelation, and to be cherished and extended
by Human Law. No subject is so much dis
cussed in their columns; no interests are SO
Wgilantly guarded, as those of Slavery. All
questions of Literature, Philosophy, and Poll
tics, are tried, first, by their relations to this
system, and decided in the affirmative or mega
tive, just as they may favorably or unfavorably
affect its peculiar claims.
They concur in opinion that the Southern
States, owing to the existence of Slavery, are
the most prosperous, most intelligent, most
wealthy, most refined, best governed, and, in
proportion to their population, mightiest COM
munities in the world. They look down upon the
free States as degraded by their system of
free labor, styling them, "hireling," or free
negro" States plying their lack of spirit, their
sordid tastes, their shop-keeping vices, their
low cunning, and shocked at the poverty, H.
subordination, and rOwdyism, everywhere prev
alent in them. They are panied by their ire
ligion, afraid Of their infdclity, and vehement
ly denounce the iSmS which are driving tho
People to madness and misrule.
AS for the Old World, they have given it
over to Satan. England and France arc ire
covcrably degenerate, wherever the experiment
of freedom has been tried on tho Continent
tho result has been dsastrous-the only Power
they regard with tolerant eye il, Russia
which, in its serfdom, has made about as ample
provision for the benefit of its laboring People,
as the Southern States have made in their Sla-
very Gree Society" they pronounce fail
ure; the abolition of Slavery has always proved
calamity; the only hope for the Peace of
Europe and the Salvation of the free negro"
States, is, tho Redistribution Of Slavery. The
time, they say, will come, when "a the poorer
classes" of the North, like Dives in He'll, will
pray in agony for the happiness and plenty in
which slaves Of the South fatten and revcl."
They have very ingenious way of disposing
of all objections to their idolized system. Tell
them their model States have no commerce
and they reply, that is owing to the unequal
action Of the Federal Government. Point to the
greater growth of population in the free States
that is owing, they say, to the hordes Of for
eigners that ere overwhelming them, whom
the flaming sword of Slavery, turning every
way, keeps out Of our Paradise and besides,
by careful analysis Of the census tables, you
will find that, to say the loast, we are as pro-
Life as the North
AS to the creator number of newspapers
published at the North, that signifies nothing;
they live on our patronage. They do the
drudgery, and We the reading Our way is,
to keep other people working for us. II is
true, too, that you have more common schools
at the North, and moro of your people have
tho elements of common school education;
but in the knowledge of men, and of the high
art of government, you are far behind u.s.
But look at Northern cities Well great
cities are great evils: the moro closely you
pack men together, the more you debauch
them
What say you to their manufactures? A
community is o corrupt and
feeble one. The operatives, by close confne
ment and the infinite division of labor, grow
weak, physically and mentally. Our agricul-
tural people are always most virtuous robust,
and manly.
As the mailman fancied all the world was
insane but himself, 60 they denounce all who
question the soundness Of their views as fanat-
leg. Doubt tho right of one man to make
another work for him, without wages and that
is fanaticism. Say it is not fit to deny legal
TO any class of human beings Of mar
riageablc age, while you allow them to herd to-
gether like brutes, and you arc fanatic"
Tell them it is not decent to put man or wo-
man up on the auction block, to be sold to the |
highest bidder, and you are "fanatie.n Re.
peat the declaration of Mr.. Jefferson, call men |
are created equal" &c., as if you believed it
and you are . fanatic" Say that man, in |
virtue of his manhood, by the charter of the |
Great Creator, the Common Parent of man. |
kind, has title to himself and his earnings
against the world, that no one hes 80 GOOD q |
right to child as the father who begat him,
and the mother that nursed him, and that he |