Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1855-01-31
Russian and American Slavery.

The Washington Congressional Globe, the
official paper of Congress, lately made the
following reflections upon Gar Nicholas =
"He is an able man, well-instructed, saga
cious, and far seeing and a pity it is that
instead of making war upon his neghbors, to
get from them all The territory he can, he does
not, like his ancestor, Peter the Great, dedi-
cate himself more to the developing of his ex-
tensive empire, IN hamanizing and enlighten-
ing his subjects, first deiioering them from
serfdom; in hberalizing the public institu.
tons, and in promoting the great cause of hu-
man progress. OF this he does but little, not
withstanding the show that is made about his
capital and the adjacent provinces. His
thoughts are mostly bent on war, and con-
quest, and annexation. He always wants
more land, and upon this head he is insatia-
ble."
That Nicholas is the prominent representa-
tive of political absolutism, of aggressive war,
and of theological unity in Europe, is true
1t is true that war, conquest, and the aggran-
dizement of his empire. occupy much of his
attention, and absorb great amount of his
resources; but, when all the truth is told, he
does more for the humanizing and enlighten-
ing of his serfs, than the United States does
for some of its immediate serfs in the District
of Columbia, or than some of the united
states do for three millions of their subjects
who are held in hopeless bondage. The EN-
peror of Russia permits his own serfs, and
those of his mobiles, to learn to read and write
He does not inculcate the doctrine that slave
~ exercises holy influence upon those who
are slaves, and upon those. also, who hold
them in slavery, and that it is, therefore, the
true Christian life neither does he make it a
penal offence for his serfs to acquire intelG-
gence and education.
Western Europeans, who have sojourned in
Russia for several years, tell us that Nicholas
gives his serfs encouragement and offers them
the opportunity not only to purchase their
own freedom but also to purchase the soil on
which their ancestors We're born and have
toiled for generations. If family of serfs are
industrious and sober he permits them to de-
posit certain amount of their earnings in his
bank, until they have discharged the sum
originally estimated as the price of their free
dom. They then receive, under the imperial
hand and seal, the certificate of their emanci-
patton and of the ownership of their farm
But this is not all if noble, as they call an
owner of serfs in Russia, should become so
reduced as to be compelled to sell his estate
the serfs, by recent ukase, have the first
chance to buy themselves and lands, the en-
peror acting as their guardian and advancing
the purchase money to the reduced aristocrat
For, be it recollected, the Russian serf cannot
be dragged from his family, nor his family
from him. as slave families are separated in
the Southern States; neither can he be taken
from the place where he was born.
There are three millions Of Americans, in
the United States who can be be sold, barter
ed, kicked, battered dragged from their ma
tive homes, sent to the rice swamp, the cotton
field, the lechers foul den, or the grave, Just
as their owners choose, who dare not learn
to read, ard whom nobody dare teach to read
who cannot own one cent, who cannot earn
anything for themselves, who cannot buy
themselves or their families, unless the master
pleases to permit them to do 50; and many of
whom dare not, after such purchase, remain
in their native States under the pain and PEN
atty of being sold again into slavery.
The emperor Nicholas is despot and an
invader Of the rights ofnations-a cold blood
ed, callous, cruel murderer of freemen-but
he nevertheless can put our government to
shame so far as his action towards his serfs is
concerned. Russian serfdom is a much more
humanized and enlightened" state of socie-
ty than American Slavery. 1t would be well
if the Globe would look at home instead of
going over to Russia to air its humanity, about
delivering men from serfdom