Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-01-21
THE CITIZEN

we IopIIut poIbsoh VI VIC NHt@eW a. ciOAo,
copied into the Era few days ago, for the
purpose of few additional comments
eve are not Abolitonists--no more Alb
olitionists than Moses, or Socrates, or Jesus
Christ. We deny that it is crime, or a
wrong or even peccadillo, to hold slaves, to
buy slaves to sel slaves to keep slaves to
their work by fiogging or other needful coer-
con.
cry your silence says Mr. Haughton, you
will become participation in their wrongs
But we will not be silent when occasion calls
for speech; and as for being participation in
the wrongs, zoe, for our part, wish zoe had a
good plantation, ioeii stocked pith healthy
IN alabama. There, now-is Mr.. Haughton
contents
@What right has he to call upon Mr.. Mitchell,
the moment he sets his foot in America to be-
gin crusade for cause which, as Mr..
Haughton knows, was always d;stasteful to
him in Ireland? Are we Jonah, that we
should do this thing-that we should take up
whether we will or not Mr.. Haughton's outcry
against Nineveh. that great city? Have we
escaped out Of the whales belly for this!
These remarks are said to have been writ
ten by MI. Mitchell co-editor OF the paper, one
Of the Irish patriots who have recently escaped
from exile in Van Dieman's Land, and found
refuge in this country. That they are flip.
pant, vulgar, and inhuman, even welLbred
shareholders admit They stamp his preten.
sions to patriotism and love Of liberty, with ny
pocrisy. All his defamation in Ireland
against oppression, was the offspring of selfish
ness, not principle.
When man resists a Tyranny attempted
against himself he simply does his duty; he
deserves no more praise for his conduct than
one who tries to save himself from drowning,
or burning or starving He acts from an in
stinct Of selfpreservatioD. When he unites
with others in resistance against Tyranny
weighing them all down, the same instinct is
at work, but other motives are superadded--
such as fondness for excitement envy Of supe-
riority, ambition for distinction, indignation
against injustice, sympathy with associates in
adversely. ALI Of these may be operative, and
the result Of the mixed forces is, what Is or.
dinarily called patriotism, which approaches
pure selfshness, or noble disinterestedness, just
az the selfish or the social motives may have
the ascendency.
The highest form Of Patriotism is that in
which its resistance 10 Tyranny is dictated and
regulated, not so much by sense Of personal
grievance as by sense Of stern justice--where
the patriot demands equal rights and equal
laws, not chiefly, because he is TO be the gain
er, but because Justice demands their recogni.
ton, and his countrymen and mankind arc to
be benefited. This was the Patriotism, in an
honorable degree, Of many Of the Revolution
airy Fathers Of this country, who, when they
asserted their Independence Of Great Britain on
the fundamental ground Of natural rights saw
the inconsistency Of Slavery, and instituted at
once q system Of policy for It's limitation and
extinction, This was the patriotism, TO Ger.
tain extent, Of the French People, when they
dethroned Louis Philippe and established Re
public: in the hour Of their own enfranchise-
ment, they gave freedom to their oolonists, who
had been suffering under q worse Despotism
than that which afflicted them.
This is not tho patriotism Of the @CitisenD
editor IL has no element Of humanity in il.
The fact that he shamelcssly sanctions sys-
tenn which strips human beings Of every politi-
cal right subjects them to perpetual social
degradation, and leaves them not single
natural right save that Of life, and even that
without adequate legal security; and that 40
cording TO his own account, he would, If he
could, become an actual participator in the
Despotism created by such system, demon
strates, conclusively that his opposition in Ire
land, TO British supremacy, was simply strife
for the mastery. II is impossible that such q
man can believe in the doctrine Of Natural
Rights, in Humanity, in Democracy. He can
not DO just man, . sincere hater Of oppres.
sion, a friend Of mankind. Let him be assured
that he has brought his brutality and bias
rhcmy to the wrong market Intelligent Slave
holders generally make no parade Of devotion
10 Slavery, but plead for 10 as, under existing
circumstance the only relation in which two
different races can co-exist; and those who are