The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-07-26
VIRGINIA DEMOCRACY.

Jefferson to the present moment, has been re
garded as the standard of political orthodoxy
not only in the slaveholding South, but by tn,
| Old Line Democracy of the North. 1t is i'm
portant, therefore to give a wakeful attention Il
the oracles which from time to time it utters, fo
| the guidance of its followers. But, in order Il
understand its utterances it is first necessary t.
learn that the Virginia Democracy for the time
being is infalhble, however inconsistent with
itself at other times, and however antagonist
cal, in point blank, with the teachings of the
great apostle, Jefferson, or of his cotemporary
disciples, Madison, Monroe, and others.
Hear what the Enquirer now lays down a.
the true theory of Democracy:
CAT the North, and in Western Europe. b,
attempting to dispense with natural and ne
cessary, and hitherto universal limb, element
or institution of society, you have thrown every
thing into chaotic confusion. In dispensing
with domestic Slavery, you have destroyed or
der, and removed the strongest argument tc
prove the existence of Deity, the author of thai
order. The discord, the confusion, the wars
the revolutions, the rivalries, excessive compe
tition and antagonism of free society, beget in
fidelity as naturally and inevitably as order and
subordination produce faith. Hobbes's philos
ophy, that man is in state of continued wal
with his fellow man, could only have arisen in
free society, where all being theoretically equal
all are rivals, competitors, and enemies. Hobbies
differs from the political community only in be-
ing more able and honest than they. He de
plores, as an evil, what they recommend as a
virtue. They inculcate competition, as the life
of trade and essence of morality. The good
order, the peace, the protection and affectionate
relations Of society at the South, induce the be-
lief in Designer and Author of this order, and
thus lift the soul from nature up to Natures
God The chaotic confusion of free society
has the opposite effect. Hence, infidelity and
universal liberty have been co-extensive in time
and in space. There are few or no infdels in
slave countries. The newspapers, the public
meetings and discussions, and the books pub
lshed, in free societies, TEEN with infdeities and
skepticisms of every hue.
"The vile superstitions springing up every
day at the North, furnish as strong evidence of
the want of fixed faith of any kind as it's open
infidelities Men must wear their religion very
loosely about them who are ready to believe in
the isms of the day, or to become Shakers, or
Millerites, or Mormons, or Oneida Perfectionists.
There is little faith in law or government where
luc l1lSuCl Law uOCuiiCo plCFdu, ebIlu dutl-Tcut-
ism sometimes rules. There can be little conf
dence in the existing order Of society," but little
attachment to that order, and less patriotism, in
country where people are ready to join Owen,
or Fourier, or Stephen Pearl Andrews, or Mr.
Greeley, in,their onslaughts upon all existing
institutions, and to rush at their bidding into
Phalansteries, and New Harmonies, and Trial.
villes, and their sister villages. But the sue
cess, the popularity, and the influence of the
Tribune, is of itself abundant evidence of the
alarming prevalence of moral, social, and reli-
gious skepticism at the North"
What say ye, Hunkers, Doughfaces, and
Northern men with Southern principles" to
these teachings of the great Southern oracle {?
IF you doubt them in the slightest particular,
you become fanatics and Higher Law men,
and will be kicked neck and heels out of the
party. True, these are hard sayings they utter
ly repudate and deny the principles of the Dec
laration of Independence, of the Bills of Rights,
and of the Constitutions of the country; but, be-
ing spoken by the oracle of Virginia Democra-
cy, they cannot be controverted by trucking
Northern allies, whose place it is to believe and
obey.
To men who retain the faculty of walking
erect in the presence of stakeholder, we need
not offer arguments in refutation of the pitiable
philosophisms of the Virginia oracle. Tie ed
itor declaims flippantly about Northern infdeli-
ty, and Northern isms, as the most wicked
things in the world but we have never seen
phase of inGdelity half so wicked, or an ism
half SO absurd, as that which the Enqxirer ex-
hibits above. The theory which denies to
Gods intelligent creatures the most sacred
rights-which treats them as british beasts.
disregards the ties of family and kindred, and
for pecuniary profit permits them to be bought
and sold and worked at the pleasure of any
sordid master, is itself the foulest infidelity.
the most criminal denial of the supreme and
benefcent Ruler of the Universe. 1t not mere.
ly dethrones the Almighty, but enthrones in his
place Demon of cruel selfshness, pride, and
lust. 1t is thousand times better to believe
in no God, than in a God who is made to sane.
ton the wickedness of Slavery. And what ism,
in the North or elsewhere, is so contrary to
reason, so preposterous, so ridiculous, as the
diabolsm above laid down, that Slavery is the
natural condition of mankind, the condition
ordained of Heaven for perpetual preserva-
ton q?
The complacent Enquirer, after denouncing
free society as failure, and the effort to abol-
ish Slavery as crime, proceeds to berate the
modern Anti-Slavery men, as if they were re
sponsible for the Freedom which prevails It
xvoulJ ha far IN v,oinf IN
vilify the patriots of the Revolution for the sin
of establishing Freedom or to go beyond Them
and pour out anathemas upon our English an
cestors, for giving birth to Magma Charta, the
Petition of Right, and the Revolution of 1888.
Every reader of history knows that these re-
mote events in English history are the real
basis and origin of American Freedom-that is
to say, of civil liberty; and that the great prin-
ciples which they embody were reiterated and
re-established on a far broader basis by the
American Declaration of Independence and
the American Constitutions. Instead of abusing
Greeley, Seward, Chase, and Sumner. there.
fore, the Enquirer should direct its thunder
against the memories of Washington, Jeffer.
son, Franklin, Adams, and Henry. These end
their contemporaries were the agitators of their
day, who turned the world upside down with
their new dogmas; and the modern agitators
are only endeavoring to help forward the pro-
gressive motion which they commenced on this
continent.
Though every intelligent reader is aware
that the spirit of modern Virginia and Nation.
al Democracy is very different from that which
prevailed in the times of Jefferson, still it is
we'll to render the change palpable to the dull