The Union and eastern journal. [volume] (Biddeford [Me.]) 1854-1858, 1856-10-03

FRANCIS p. BLAIR TO MS NRIGuBoRHooD.
At q Buchanan meeting, held few days
since in Maryland, near tho residence Of
Francis p. Blair, one Of the Buchanncer
spcikers took occasion to denounce that gen.
tleman rs an "arch traitor" and to invoke
q " fash Of lightning" to destroy him. lie
has noticed this occurrence in long letter
to his neighbos, in which he unmasks the
purposes Of the Buchanan party. Hoshows
from their own record that the Southern
leaders Of that party are aiming not only
to spread slavery, but also to transform into
slaves oil the poor white people. The letter
closes as follows:
"My neighbor know that my DECLARE
tions against sweeping abolition are sincere.
They know that / own slaves, some Inherit
ed and some that have begged their way in
to my house from the slave pen !; and while
they know that my course in submitting to
this encumbrance is characterized by hui
manity, they have proof in my conduct, that
80 far from using It to degrade my own flesh
aha blood in the persons Of those who toll
wiz their hands for living, and TO bring
them to q condition to which the democracy,
speaking through the Richmond press, would
assign them, that my best efforts have been
to counteract this tendency Of tho system.
Ny strongest sympathies are for tho labor
ing white man. Under this feeling, and bc.
lieving it the best mode Of gradually super
ceding slavery in the cultivation Of the soil,
l have employed free labor for the most part
in my farming and with tho happiest conse-
quences.
OF the neighbors whom employed to as
sist me in opening and in the cultivation
and improvement Of my farm. ten, who held
no land, now possess little farms and COM
Portable homcstcads of their own In fee SIM
pie. IL instead of free labor, had pur-
chased and employed negroes in my cultiva-
ton, might added from the profits, all
these homestcads to my own domain, and
exhibited widespread scene of wasting AZ.
rican agriculture. Now the whole neigh
borhood Is dotted with neat and thriving
farms and cottages, and the land which sold
for ten, fifteen and twenty dollars an acre
when began to open my farm thirteen ycas
ago, now sells for, from sixty to one hum
dred and sometimes more. | do not men,
ton this to assert my claims on my neigh
bors. They have done more for rue, than |
have for them. state facts TO recommend
a system. The general benefit every one nd.
mitsx One OF the orators who came from
the City to dcnounce me under the crown of
Old Bucks horns, set up to overlook my
precincts, complimented my neighbors on
the great improvement Of the scene around
him, but said, fixing his eye on my home,
that his heart sank within him when he re-
aected that 1t belonged to IAN arch traitor
and then 1t was that he summoned the light
ming to blast me.
The system of small tenements and free
labor can alone confer beauty and strength
on an impoverished region. Even the rich
soil of Kentucky, tho beautiful luIuriance
Of which 1t Is almost impossible TO destroy,
cannot prevent the comparative weakness
that awaits State which turns away free
labor, and sends II to build up rival free
States in the West. Example will illustrate.
have three relatives in Kentucky, honest,
benevolent, most estimable men, who, when
left the State, were farmers on limited
scale. Within twenty years one Of them has
bought up ten of the farms around him, an
other twelve, another fifteen, in the heart of
Woodford and Fayettc. Handsome ediGces,
once the homes of families numbering
multitude, scattered over tho country, arc
now occupied as granaries, small one here
and there inhabited by an overseer. The
population is gone, tho school houses are
deserted, the churches have no congregations,
and yet tho country Is beautiful, clothed
with grass, covered with herds Of tho finest
cattle, mules, and horses in the world. The
corn fields, for the support Of this quadruped
population in winter, are worked by slaves.
The rain and sunshine that makes the grass
grow provides for them in summer as It does
in the pampas Of South America that create
the living wealth of those solitudes. Tho
white population banished by this species of
engrossing cultivation have right to the
territories reserved by the compact for free
labor. And are not the people further South
who have no hold on the soil there, also TO
be secure of homo somewhere? On null
titude of tho great plantations in the South
free labor is entirely dispensed with. They
have not only their blacksmith, but their
black carpenter, weelwright, plasterer and
painter; and where are oil tho white me-
hanics to 60? and where the white laborers
who ore already driven to the hills to live
by hunting, ishing and robbing-as Gov.
Hammond Of South Carolina. tells US
where are they to 80 IL slavery in the new
territories is to pursue them with the same
fate? hope my ncighbors will pardon me
when proclaim 1t, that my feelings and
Judgement alike aotuatc me TO fight the bat
lie for the rights Of the white caltivator Of
soil and the white mechanic, against all who
would pursue him into tho new territories
with the institution which drives them out
from those +" little communities" at the
head ofwhich relgns master, who with
his fellows, the organs Of Democracy In the
South tell us constitute the State.
vo,,r faIIoxw- c;k,,on T. ID nT AID