New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-12-25

Seems sui W Ictudln e1Ccculngy doubtful
whether the alarm of instruction on the part of
the negroes lately excited, and not yet subsidized,
through many different portions of the Southern
States, had or had not any other basis except ap-
preheniion on the part Of the masters and feel
ing On their part Of what they themselves should
be likely to do were they in the same situation with
tie negroes. However that may be, whether the
the unessness of the slaves or spring solely from
the excited imagination of the masters, or whether
as is perhaps most likely to be the case both causes
combine in different proportions in different lOca
ties, still on either of these suppostions the abi.
ty Of all savehOldDg communities to this disagree
able kind of social earthquake might, We should
think, serve to raise some doubts in even the most
enthusiastic admirers of Slavery as to whistler it
be in fact the most solid and satisfactory basis on
which the social fabric can rest.
1t is very true that these slave instructions
rarely turn out anything very serious. 1t is also
true that it is only now and then that city is swa
lowed up by an earthquake. Even in those regions
of the earth most subject to these dsagreeable
shocks, the greater part Of them occur without any
serious loss of life or destruction Of property.
Nevertheless, the inhabitants of such countries are
kept in q chronic state Of alarm, and having no
means to tell when the catastrophe is to come, are
liable at any time to be thrown into paroxysms of
terror upon what subsequently turns out to have
been very insufficient reason. The same is the case
in all slavehOldiDg communities, which, in one re-
spect at least, are still worse off. The only dam.
age likely to be produced by the false alarm Of an
earthquake is the momentary misery of the terror
thus occasiOned; whereas the false alarm of an in.
surrectOn may occasion horrible tragedy, bloody
sacrifices of innocent lives OutDursts Of atrOciOus
passion, still more lamentable than the losses Of
property and interruptions Of business OF which
they are the occasion.
Some of the Southern prints, indeed, are attempt.
ng to represent the present alarms in the South at
the suspected plots Of the negroes as an exceptional
case-the whole gravamen of the alleged insurrec.
tona1y movement being thrown, not upon the
slaves, who it is alleged, if let alone, would be
happy and contented enough, but upon certain in
cendiary white men, whO it is said, stimulated the
negroes to disorder and blood 1t is not necessary
to stop now to inquire how far these supposed in
cendary white men are realities, or how far they
are inventions; it is sufficient to remark that they
have at all times and places played conspicuous
partn almost all our American negro plots, Ofwhich
the story never seems to be sufficiently alarming
to suit the demands Of the popular Imagination until
q certain proportion of treacherOus white men are
mixed up with the negroes to give energy and d.
rectiOn to the plot. In such cases there is never
wanting some abhOrred class Of whites upon whom
the antipa,hy of the public seizes to make Of them
fellow conspiratOrs with the negroes.
New.York was once slaveholding city. We too
have had our amentable experiences Of these slave
Instructions real or imaginary. Take, for in
stance the bloody tragedy Of which New York was
the scene in 1879, occasiOned by supposed plot of
the slaves to burn up the city-an alarm which had
its origin in the same suspicious sort of testimony
which seems to form now the sole basis for the sup
posed existence of negro plots in different parts of
tie Southern States Then, as now, the plot was
not complete without the introduction of white
nen to take part in it. There were then, TO be
sure no AbOlitonists, but there were not wanting
other objects Of equal popular antpathy to put into
the places which AbOitiOnists are now made to
occupy. 1t was said that the Papsts were plotting
with the negroes to burn down the town; and be.
side eighteen negroes burnt at the stake, eighteen
hanged, and twenty.One transported, the public
alarm demanded also the trial, condemnation and
execution Of an unhappy non,juring schoolmaster,
suspected to be Jesuit in disguise, who had come
to New-York on purpose to stimulate the negroes
to rise in insurrection and burn the city. That We
are not now subject here in New-York 10 the same
sort of panics, and that we are not driven by them
to the preparation Of similar outages, il less to be
ascribed, we apprehend, to any increased enight.
eminent than to the single circumstance that the
abolition of Slavery has withdrawn us from the
sphere of such excitements.