Western Reserve chronicle and weekly transcript of the times. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1854-1855, 1855-02-07
WHOLE NO 5000.

against food, but against famine. It is
the northern sentiment, and justly deduc-
ed from the Christian theory of man, tina
society should redeem all its own children
from ignorance, should secure their
growth, equip them for citizenship, and
make all the influences of society inure
to the benefit of the mass of men. The
southern sentiment is the reverse of this.
1t holds that all men are not born free and
equal; that men have not an inalienable
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness; and that men are not in their
very constitution fitted for liberty, and
benefited by it. They hold that liberty
is an attribute of power; that it is blos-
som, which belongs to races, and not to
mankind that part were born to rule,
and part were ordained TO serve; that
liberty is dangerous to many; that servi-'
tude, the most rigorous, is blessing; that
it accords with the creative intent of God,
and with his revealed institution; that a
nation cannot be homogeneous, and should
not aim at it !; that there is a law and
scale of graduation, on which the top it
privilege and authority, the bottom labor
and obedience. These are the radical the
cries Of the respectiUs sections Of tie land.
Men often are profoundly ignorant of the
principles which control their policy, as
ship is unconscious of the rudder that
steers her. Many are found, both North
and South, whose conduct oVer-rules their
theory, and who are better or worse than
their belief. There are Southern men
who are more generous than their theory,
and there are Northern men who are
grossly untrue to the northern theory,
which with their lips they profess. There
are southern men with northern con-
sciences, and there are northern men with
southern consciences. But, in the main,
these respective theories reign and regu-
late public procedure. There is not
man so poor in the North, or so ignorant,
or so useless, as not to be regarded as
Man by religion, by civil law, and by
public opinion. Sel6shness and pride,
avarice and cunning, anger or lust may
prey upon the heedlessness or helplessness
ofmany. Society may be full of evils
But all these things are not sequences of
northern doctrines, but violations of them-
If sharks in great cities consume the too
credulous emigrants, if usurers, like
moths cut the fabric of life with invisible
teeth, if landlords sack their tenements
and pinch the tenant-all these results
are against the spirit of our law, against
public feeling, and they that do such
things must stink and burrow. They are
vermin that run in the walls, and peep
from hiding holes, and we set traps for
them as we do for rats or weazels. But
in the South, the subordination of man
to man, in his earnings, his skill, his time
and labor-in his person, his affections,
his very children-is part of the theory
ofsociety, drawn out into explicit statutory
law, coincident with public opinion, and
executed without secrecy. A net spread
for those guilty of such wrongs against
man would catch States, and Legisla-
lures, citizens, Courts, and Constitutions!
In the North the most useless pauper
that burdens the Aims House-the most
uncombed foreigner that delves in the
ditch-the most abject creature that begs
morsel from door to door is get man.
and that not in theory only, but in the
public sentiment, sacredness of rights
which no man, except by STEALTH can VI
olate with impunity. There is no other
law for the Governor of New-York or of
Massachusetts, than for the beggar in your
streets. That which protects the dwell
ling and the property of the rich mar,
belongs just as much to the howell of the
beggar. God sends but one sun, and it
is the same light that kindles against the
roof of the mansion, that dawns upon the
thatch of the hut. The same air comes
to each, the same showers, the same sea-
sons, summer and winter. And as is
Nature, so in the North is law, and the
distributive benefits of society. They
bathe society from top to bottom! The
rich, the learned, the refined, the strong,
may know how to make better use of
the air, but they have no more air of priv
ilege to breathe, than the poorest wretch.
In the South, exactly the reverse IS
true, not by stealth, not by neglect of a
recognized principle, but as the result of
mems ideas, and by organized arrange
ments. Touch hireling's wages in the
North, and the Law stands to defend
him and beat you down Take the la
borer's wages in the South, and the Law
stands ready to defend you, and beat
him down.
Beat man in the North for private
wrong done, and the law will strike you.
But in the South. it is the right of the
white, unquestioned and unquestionable
to beat every third person in the commu-
nifty.
Let the proudest mill owner break but
the skin of the poorest operative in Lowell
or Lawrence. and both law and public
sentiment. alike, would grasp and pun
ish him