Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1855-07-04
Firm liz New York Tins,
HASCR0Fr ON SLAvERy.


nASCRUFr ON SLAvERY.
The new volume Of Bancroff's Miseeiid-
Mrs. iusr published by the liarpcr's, y
hook which has been sometime eagerly await
ed by the literary world. With severa OF its
articles, we venture to predict, the admirers
of the h;asorian will he srierausiy disap-
nointsd. Yet there IS in the volume one es-
saw worth, in our view, all the rest, which
ma historical scholar and no man interested
in the morals of politics can read without
the nrofoapdes, interest. We refer 81 the ar
ticieswh:eh depicts the influence of Slavery
in undermining the Roman Empire. To
those ho have sometimes, perhaps unrcason-
ably. doubted of Mr.. Baneroft's sense OF the
evil Of ciattel-slavery to our own political
progress, and who have feared for his bold
ness in expressing his convictions, we COM
mend these chapters. They are clear, down
right and explicit; and gathering togetherthe
best of modern invest ,.etions IN Roman his
tory, those Of Niebuhr and Arnold, they have
presented what, so far as we know, no other
narratives have done, boldly draw, consist
ent sketch of Roman Slavery and its conse-
ouences. Mr.. Bancroft has NOT drawn the
parallel, but it ispatent on every pags. One
feels, with some mitigating exceptions, that
he is reading the history and the doom OF
American Slavery. He shows us in the time
of the Gracchi, the ssani reformers in Italy,
the Roman Republic upheld by three classes,
the opulent aris,ocracy; the shareholders:
the poor free laborers and the slaves.
philanthropy" SAYS MIR. b. "when it con-
templates slaveholding community, may
have it's first sympathy excited for the slaves;
but it is narrow benevolence which stops
there. The needy free man is in worse
condition.
The attempts of the reformers to improve
the coutlition of free laborers failed, they
became more degraded than before; the State
became divided between masters and slaves;
bondage continued to weigh severely on the
slaves, mostly of foreign birth, until 1t length
under the guidance of leader, who appeal
ed to their religious superstitions as well as
to their love of liberty, they burst forth into
fearful revolution. The Roman State was
shaken to its base, and the most frightful
atrocities which history records were commit
ted. "The outrages" Mr.. 3. we'll remarks,
switch men commit when they first regain
their freedom, furnish the strongest argument
against the condition which can render hu-
man nature capable of such crimes" These
and the succeeding outbreaks were put down
for the weak and enslaved foreigner was
pitticd against the even vet vigorous aud
warlike Roman. 1t was then the Italian, as
now the Anglo Saxon 'sdcstiny," everywhere
to govern the weak. But the weak and the
oppressed had terrible revenge; or rather
the laws of the moral world worked out to
their natural result. Slavery threw the pow
or ard lands of the State into the hands Of
few; it crushed the free middling class; it
introduced luxury and idleneSs, and so sap-
ped the energies of the governing claescs; it
diminished the relative numbers Of the slave
owners and the nrisocracy for, in the words
of the essay. ssSlavery tends to diminish the
frequency of marriage among masters. In
State where emancipation is forbidden, the
slave population will perpetualy gaiu in rel
alive numbers" @ s5dt
Attic time of Caesar, tn. sspeculiar insti-
tuition" of Rome had come to have full sway
The slaves numbered some three times both
the masters and free laborers. The slave
trade extended to every sea, aud commerce.
and wars kept the markets full. The code of
slavery was somewhat like that Of our South
ern States, except that in Rome the slave
could beinstructed; and genius or accom-
plishmcnts were valued Mt the market, as now
are piety and muscles at the block in New
Orleans. There was no ef!ician. protection
to the chastity of Roman slave girl; the
family relations were never protect ed, and no
slaves testimony could be received. except
upon the rack. On the remote plantations,
they were completely at tho mercy of their
masters, and probably cruelties were com
mitted commonly, of which our Southern
States only see occasional instances. Slaves
filed all the mechanics places, and even be-
came the instructors and men of science of
the State. The prices varied much, as they
would now if slaves were thoroughly trained.
A common iaborer was worth from S75 to
500: a play actor $4,000; q grammarian
81, 900; beautiful actress even as much as
$4,000 per annum, and physician was le-
gally valued at 81, 400.
Slavery prepared the way for the further
dcbasement OF Rome, by introducing an ex-
sravagant luxury, and everywhere degraded
public morals by violating the sanct,y Of
marriage. Chastity among the young men
Of the upper classes became almost unknown.
With the chatstl bondage terrible vices and
terrible diseases set in over the whole Of So
ciety. At length despotism and submission
to foreign authority was the natural course
to a society so rotten ana diseased; for. us
our historian wisely observes, "Despotism,
IN the regular order of Providence, is the
punishment of nation for the institution of
Slavery.o 4 .,..s.r s.-
The land Of Italy, as begins now to be
seen in Virginia and Others Of the Southern
States OF America, was exhausted by Slave
ry. The fields of the Campagna were once
rich as the lands on the slopes of the Ale
ghanies, or in the Kentucky prairie bottoms.
They were dotted with beautiful homcsteads
and plantations. But the wasteful system of
cultivation Ivy bond>mcn first turned them
from fertile grain fields to pastures, and then
left them, rs they are now, solitary and mi
asmatic plains, where hardly man can dwell.
Even in Virgil's time. ehave labor hardly
wrung from italy return one third so great
as free labor gets from the hills and wales Of
New England"
cit is calumny,' says Mr. Bancroft.n to
charge the devastation of Italy upon the bar
barlans. The large Roman plantations till
ed by slave labor were its ruin. Slavery had
wasted the band before Scythan or a Sean
dinavian had crossed the Alps"
A State holding such an Institution within it
mustrest on weak foundations. The laws of
the whole moral system of things are against
it. Integrity, morality, industry and thrife
are Slapped by it. The ruin may come appar-
emily from without; it may be DELAYED for
centuries; but its cause is there, always
working. Who shall guard the South from
the fate traced in these nervous words of
Mr.. Bancroft: "Slavery had destroyed the
Democracy. had destroyed the aristocracy,
had destroyed tho empire, ard at last it left
the tt aces of its ruinous power deeply furrow-
cd on the face of nature herself.o
i 49,
He "CouLpN'r STAND THAr.-A young gen.
tleman Of our acquaintance, who had been
paying his devours,' Gas Mrs. Partington
would say, to- young lady for so ne time,
and suddenly left her. We asked him the
reason, and be told US in the following
words: 81 had been with her you know a
Il ,.,b,l oel a.