Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1855-10-18
lis Negro Slavery State or Nation
al Institution?

Another Gree soil' article made its ap-
pearance in yesterdays Atlas, headed by
the above interrogatory. We reply to the
Atlas that it is boh-or it is neither 1t Is
Il natural relalion-a normal condtion-the
only condition where whites and negroes can
exist together without decentralization and
ultimate social destruction to both. ltnecds
no Congressional or Territorial or State leg
islalion to establish it, for it exists in the ma
ture and necessity of things There is moth
ing to be found in any of the legislative rec
ords of the so called slave States establishing
it, for we repeat, it is inherent and nclden-
tal-a fundamental necessity Of human cX-
istance wherever and whenever whites and
negroes are in juXtapositlon. Ignorant, how
ever well meaning men "abollshed' slavery
in this and other northern States-that Is,
they removed these negroes from the proiec-
ton of their masters and told them TO look
out for themselves. Well, what has been
the result of this bogus humanity? Why,
these negroes have died out, or are dying
out, and were it not for the constant INCREASE
Of runaways from the South, they would be-
come utterly extinct. On the contrary, the
negro turned loose in Jamaica and Hayt,
and where they predominant and are left to
their own tendencies, they 60 back to Atr-
canism.
These facts stare the Atlas in the face
How will it explain them? Is that the true
condition Of the negro which kills him ? or
that any better which carry's him back to
savageism At the South, in that natural
subordnation eternally fixed by the hand Of
God, the negro is happy-has plenty to eat
- multiphes-in short, is UNNECESSARILY and
expressiby better off than in any other con-
dition ever occupied by the race.
But, we repeat, Legislation has nothing to
do with it except to regulate ito provide
that the control of the master shall not be
abused-thal the relation of superiority and
lnferio,;.y or master and slave, shall not be
pervcrted-for this relation, like any other
natural relation has its reciprocal duties
and the negro who gives his physical labor
is entitled to his share of happiness or en-
ioyment as well as the master whose mental
power guides and controls his labor.
AS regards Slavery in the territories,
why it exists par Sc and of necessity, where
yer it is not prohibited by the ler loci or pos
tive law.
Ignorant and deuded men, utterly de-
bauched and bewldered by British and Eu-
ropean writer's, actually believe that the 'or-
dinance' of 81 saved the great North West
from Slavery and the Atlas man grows ell
oquent on this shadowy and bottomless delu-
sion. Why, ifthe whole wordwere to combine
together they could not whiten the face or
straighten out the wool Of one single negro
but that feat would be just as practicable as
negro producing population Northwest OF
the Ohio. The negro is creature of the
tropics, as absolutely so as the orange or
banana, and fthe Atlas man will abandon
his miserable distractions and consult hlsto-
ry-all human experlence-he will find that
such thing as a producing negro popua-
ton has never existed, as it never can eX-
list, IN Northern attitudes. The climate and
industrial law governs and will govern the
whole question, and why, in the name of
common sense and common deccncy, Should
this Atlas clique continue to embarrass the
action and disturb the progress of the Dem
ocratic party ?
A few hundred negroes may be taken into
Kansas or Nebraska, but when their annual
labor is worth 5000 in Texas or on the Gull