The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-24
(jS
Tcoxrrvrrn rpoN yIRsr PAGE. I

.
intrigue and united force all attacks upon it.
There is noone alLabsorbing influence amongits
enemies to combine adversaries in opposition.
The consequence is, that the 347 900 masters,
forever animated by the same instinct, can
always vanquish partial and desultory oppos-
ton. as standing armies In absolute Govern
Ioents keep millions of people in subugation.
The monopoly which near four millions of
black men give TO the united authority which
commands them, makes il impossible that any
single-handed competitor in the field Of labor
can, in cultivaiing the products of the soil, en-
Der the market with the staple OF the South on
equal footing with men who WELD the force of
ten, twenty, and thirty, and hundreds Of slaves,
in companies. The owners of slaves command
the markets-they put down individual COM
pettors-they buy out the little plantations
winch Ia the earlier settlements surround them,
and in the end the rich lands all become the
domains of rich planters. Hence we see in the
older Southern States the poorer classes are
either tenants at will, or, banished TO the poor
lands of the hills take to the life Of idlers hunt
trs, or fishermen; or, at best, the more indus
triOus among them become day laborers, living
from hand TO mouth-in a word, they are strip
ped by the oligarchy Of slave-owners, who com
msnd their wages, their tenements, and, of
course, everything. The class who hold mo-
nopoly of the soil can command everything
g He takes my life, who takes the means where
by live" Hence, in the South, the monopo-
lists Of the land and black labor of the country,
although numbering but BAT 600 out of pop
ulatlon of six millions, in virtue of their power
over near four millions of slaves, are absolute
IN all the State Governments. They are the
Governors, the Legislators, the Judges, justices,
shenffs-they are all In all.
The power which combined action gives to
the slaveholding class over the whole South, is
welded with equal effect to obtain control over
the North. The machine II moves there is on
large scale, and the fundamentally Of its ac-
lion visible to the least discerning eye. Every
Northern aspirant for the Presidency may be
looked upon as power in the hands of the
South, 10 move the machine OF the Federal
Government according to Its will. We in
stance the experiment before our eyes. Mr.
Pierce is a candidate for reelection TO the Pres
idency; Mr.. Douglas, Mr.. Cass, Mr. Blu
chanan, are hopeful rivals; each have their
parisans in the different sections of the North
some forty or fifty thousand office holders and
dependents on Executive favor rely upon theone
or the other OF these, TO make them secure in
their posts. Ii is known to all these people,
that not one OF the rivals can command ma
lority Of the Northern vote against the other
nor, indeed, against an opponent of any other
party. For either of them. the vote of the
South decides the question of nomination and
then the possibility of election depends abso-
lutely upon united Southern support. The
Southern Shareholders, therefore, have the fate
Of all these seekers Of the Presidency, of the
so-caled Democratic party, entirely in their
hands.
And here we find in what consists that
which is now Wanted 10 he the Democratic
Party par excellence. II is composed of the
office holders under the present Administration,
headed by those chiefs who are looked to to
continue them in office, through the united
vote OF the South, and the chance vote of some
Northern State, obtained by plurality-the re-
suit OF the division of their opponents, grow
ing out OF personal preferences or party dissen-
SONS. The Democratic party, which the Ad-
ministration calls its own, has no basis but in
the oligarchy of the South-we might well
call II the BLACK oLIGARCHY, returning to IL
the appellation which it is so willing to give to
others, because 1t most appropriately belongs
10 Itself. The leaders OF this party in the North
have proved themselves entirely worthy of It's
confidence, by abandoning every principle of
Democracy once their boast They have
abandoned the principles Of the Fathers of the
Republic. who considered il as the first altri-
butte OF the new order OF things established by
the Revolution, that il would arrest the spread
oil Slavery throughout the Continent Ii did
lead 10 us immediate extinction In MANY of the
States, and the first act under the Constitution
was TO exclude it from the whole territory of
the Union. The Democratic leaders OF the
new order, al the bidding of the Southern null
liners, have broken all the compacts and com
promises designed TO establish free Republics
IN the Territories from which Slavery was ex-
cluded. In doing this, they have put under
he rny,r JoG LII
of their immediate constituents, on receiving
instructions TO repeal their acts have refused TO
obey, and in this have given the most striking
example oil an utter abandonment Of the car
dInal doctrine or the Democracy. The spread
of Liberty, not Slavery, is its distinctive prin-
ciple.
They have shown that the will of 347 900
slaye-owners in the South is more to them than
that of twenty millions Of freemen in the
North. The leaders of this spurious Democ-
racy are but the satraps Of Southern masters.
The late which awaits people afflicted with
Democracy which grows up under the gov
eminent OF slave-owners, may be seen in the
testimony which We give in the words of the
most distinguished men of that party, which
we find collated in pamphlet by Mr.. Yves
ton.
Mr.. Sarver, of Missouri, in a paper on
Domestic Manufactures in the South and
West" published in lS47, says:
The free population of the South may be divi-
ded into two classes-the stakeholder and the non
saveholder. am not aware that the relative
bers OF these two classes have been ascetancd
IN any Of the States. but 1 satisfied that tho
non shareholders far outnumber the SHAREHOLDERS
perhaps by three to one In the more southern
portion of this region the non olders possess
generally, but very small means. and the land which
they possess almost universally poor and so sterile
that scanty subsistence all that can be derived
from its cultivation; and the more fertile SOIL be-
ing IN the possession of the stakeholder must ever
remain out oil the power OF those who have none.
Thus state of things is a great drawback and
bears heavily upon and depresses the moral en-
of the poorer classes. The aeouisition of
respectable position in the scale Of wealth appears
so dihcuit that they decline the hopeless pursuit
and many Of them settle down into habits Of idle
ness and become the almost passive subjects of all
its consequences. And lament to say that have
observed Of late years that evident deterioration
is taking place in this part of the population the
younger portion of it being less educated less in
dastriOus and in every point of view less respecta
lie than thoir ancestors"
In the January number, 1850, Of De Bows
Rerie,c. in an article on " Manufactures in
South Carolina" we have an exhibition of the
fears entertained of bringing together masses Of
nOn-slaveholdIng Southern white population
even for manufacturing purposes:
$50 long these poor but industrious people
could see no mode of living, except by degrading
operation of work with the negro upon the planta
tion, they were content to endure life in its most
discouraging forms, satisfied that they were ab0U,
the slave, though often faring worse than he. But
the progress OF the world is onward and though
in some sections il is slow still il is onscay6 = and
the great mas of our poor white population begin
10 understand that they have rights and that they
too, sre entitled to some of the sympathy which fails
upon the suffering They fast learning that there
is almost infinite world of industry opening be