The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-06-28
BY GEORGE BANCROFT,
Former Secretary of the Nary.
From Bancroft's Miscellanies. ]


When Tiberius Sempronius Gracious, on his
way to. Spain to serve in the army before NJ
mantia, travelled through Italy, he was led to
observe the impoverishment of the great body
of citizens in the rural districts. Instead of lit
tie farms, studding the country with their pleas
| ant aspect, and nursing an independent race, he
beheld nearly all the lands of Italy engrossed
by large proprietors and the plough was in the
hands of the slave. In the early periods of the
State, Cincinnatus at work in his field was the
model of patriotism agriculture and war had
been the labor and Office of freemen but Of
| these, the greater number had now been exclu.
ded from employment by the increase of slavery,
and its tendency to confer the exclusive posses
sion of the soil on the few. The palaces of the
wealthy lowered in the landscape in solitary
grandeur; the plebeians hid themselves in mis-
cradle novels. Deprived of the dignity of free
holders, they could not even hope for occupa-
ton; for the opulent land owner preferred rather
to make use of his slaves, whom he could not
| but maintain, and who constituted his family.
| Excepting the small number of the immeasur-
| ably rich, and feeble but constantly decreas.
| ing class of Independent husbandmen, poverty
was extreme. The King of Syria had reverence
| ed the edicts of Roman ENJOYS, as though they
had been the commands of Heaven; the rulers
of Egypt had exalted the Romans above the i'm
ern Africa, Masinissa had sent word that he was
but Roman overseer. Yet a great majority of
| the Roman citizens, now that they had become
conquerors of the world, were poorer than their
foretathers, who had extended their ambition
only to the plains around Rome.
INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON FREE LABOR.
Philanthropy, when it contemplates a slave
holding country, may have its first sympathies
excited for the slaves but it is a narrow be-
nevolence which stops there. The needy free
man is In a worse condition. The slave has his
task, and also his home and his bread. He is
the member of wealthy family The INDECENT
freeman has neither labor nor house nor food !;
and, divided by broad gulf from the upper
class, he has neither hope nor ambition. He is
so AFFECT that even the slave despises him. For
the interest of the STAKEHOLDER is Numerically
opposite to that of the free laborer. The slave
holder is the competitor of the free laborer, and
by the lease of slaves takes the bread from his
mouth. The wealthiest man in Rome was the
competitor OF the poorest free carpenter. The
patricians took away the business of the sandal
maker. The existence of slavery made the op-
ulent owners of bondmsn the rivals of the poor
greedy after the profits of their labor, and mo-
nopolizing those profits through their slaves. In
every community where slavery is tolerated, the
poor freeman will always be found complaining
of hard times.
INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON DOMESTIC LIFE.
The great servile insurrecton was designed
to effect the emancipation of slaves and both
were unsuccessful. But God is just and His
laws are invincible. The social evil next made
| its effects apparent on the patricians, and began
with silent but sure influence to corrupt the vir-
| tue Of families, and even to destroy domestic
| life. Slavery tends to diminish the frequency
Of . o al e L O.
where emancipation is forbidden, the slave pop-
ulation will perpetually gain in relative mum
bers. We will not stop to develop the three or
four leading causes of this result-pride and the
habit of luxury, the facilities of licentious graft
| fcation, the circumscribed limits of productive
| industry-some of which causes operate exclu-
| sively and all of them principally on the free.
| The position is certain, and is universal: no.
where was it more amply exemplifed than in
| Rome. The rich preferred the dissouteness of
indulgence to marriage; and ceibacy became
80 general, that the aristocracy was obliged by
law to favor the institution which, in society
where all are free, constitutes the solace of labor
and the ornament of life. A Roman censor, in
an address to the people, stigmatized matrimony
as a troublesome companionship, and recon-.
mended it only as patriotic sacrifice of private
| pleasure to public duty. The depopulation of
| the upper class was 80 considerable, that the
waste required to be supplied by emancipation /;
and repeatedly there have been periods when
| the ma ority of the Romans had once been bond
men. 1t was this extensive celibacy and the
| consequent want of succession that gave a DE-
cnliar character to the Roman laws relating to
adoption.
| INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON CIVIC VIRTUE.
1T mass of slaves could, at any moment, on
breaking their letters, find them. elves CAPABLE
of establishing liberal Government: if thew
could at once on being emancipated, or on eman.
clpating themselves, appear possessed of civic
virtue, slavery would be deprived of more than
half its horrors. But the institution while it
binds the body, corrupts the mind. The outra-
| ges which men commit when they first regain
their freedom furnish the strongest argument
| against the condition which can render human
nature capable of such crimes. Idleness and
treachery and theft are the vices of slavery.
| Inc followers OF Spartacus when the pinnacles
| OF the Alps were almost within their sight. turn.
ed aside to plumber; and the Roman army was
able to gain advantage when the fugitive slave
was changed from defender of personal liber
ty into plunderer.
INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON PUBLIC MORALS
In like manner, the effect of slavery became
visible on public morals Among the slaves.
there was no such thing as the sanctitv of mar.
rage; dissouteness was almost as general as
the class. The slave was ready to assist in the
corruption of his masters family. The virtues
OF self-denial were unknown. But the picture
OF Roman immortality is too gross to be exhibit
ed. Its excess can be estimated from the ex.
travagance of the reaction. When the Christian
religion made its way through the oppressed
classes OF society, and gained strength by acguir
| ing the affections of the miserable whose woes
| 1t solaced, the abandoned manner of the cities
excited the reproof of fanaticism. When do
nestle life had almost ceased to exist, the uni
versal lewdness could be checked only BY the
most exaggerated eulogies of absolute chastity
Converts and nunneries grew up at the time
when more than half the world were excluded
from the rites of marriage, and were condemned
By the laws of the Empire to promiscuous indul
gence. Vows of virginity were the testimony
which religion bore against the enormities O.
the age. Spotles purity could alone fifty rebuke
the shamefulness of excess. AS in raging dis
eases the most violent and unnatural remedie.
need to be applied for season, 80 the trans
ports of enthusiasm sometimes appear neces
sary to stay the infection of moral pestilence
Thus riot produced asceticism; and monks, anc
monkish eloquence, and monastic vows, were
the protest against the general depravity o
manners.
, The MoRMoNs IN UTAH-The Mormon in
| huence in Utah is growing to be subjec
worthy of the most serious attention. Brigham
Young, although ignorant and vulgar, is yet ,
man of great cunning and shrewdness. HI
has already given evidence of his determine
ton to have bis own way, in spite of the mac mas,
mates at Washington. Their theory of belief i
entirely at variance with the spirit and charac
ter of our Government. Their religion is no
; only a union of Church and State Init Ia q das