The Feliciana Democrat. (Clinton, La.) 1855-186?, 1856-04-12
From the Charleston Mercury.
STATE EQUALITY.

licve that our institutions are In themselves
just and provident; that they insure us q whole
people who are industrious, social and well Of
fectcd; and that they secure us against the
evils Of paupcrism, thievcry and outlawry
They also establish lasting peace between labor
ana capItal-thc point prominently brought
forward by our correspondent.
VIRGINIA, March 81, 1850.
Messrs. Editors: am sure you will be pleased
to learn that the slavery doctrines held and
promulgated by the statesmen aud press ef
South Carolina thirty years ago, have become
the doctrine of oil parties in Virginia. am
acquainted with no native Virginian who does
not consider domestic slavery natural rightful
aud legimatc institution-with but few, who,
looking to the famncs and revolutions Of West
ern Europe, and the isms, forcboding like events
in our north, do not consider it normal and
necessary. Within twenty years, distinguish
ed Virginian declared from his scat IN the
Senate Of the United States "that he held
slavery to be moral, social and political evil /"
The sentiment did not then crate harsly on
Southern ears, and the Senator continued to
rise III public estimation. He Is still admired
and esteemed by the south, for no one suspects
that he cntcrtains such opinions now. sup
pose Inc would be the last man in America to
countcnancc them; for he had the best oppor.
tuntics OF witnessing the instructions Of labor
against capital in Europe in 1913, and intoler-
able snlferlngs of the laboring classes that pre-
ccdcd and justified those instructions. He
well knows that slavery is good, because it
relieves the laboring class from the greatest Of
cvls-thc hcartlcss grinding and exacting dcs-
potlsm Of Capital a dcspotism which even our
-Aboitlonists have pronounced to be intolerablc,
for know no Abolitlonist who is not social
ist, and prepared to modify or to destroy the
right to private property
But Ito not mean to congratulate your State
for mere originality of thought and speculative
acumcn. She has Il much higher claim to ma
tional regard and admiration. The ensuing
Presidential canvass. which will probably de-
terminc the fate of the Union, will turn almost
solely Oh the question of state equality. None
can consistently or effectively contend for state
equality, who do not hold that the institutions
OF the south, and the social forms of the south
are equally rightful, legitimate, moral and pro-
motive Of human happiness and well-bcing of
the North II slave society he Inferior in these
respects to free society," We of the south are
wrong and criminal in proposing to extend it
to new territory, and the North is right in cx-
erting itself to the utmost to prevent such ex-
tention. Nay more if slave society, be an in
feror social organization We should all become
at least gradual emancipationists. We must
contend that ours is the best form of society;
for social organisms, 50 opposite as those of
the north and the south, cannot be equally well
suited to people in all other respects so exactly
alike. We must surrender the doctrine of state
equality and of slavery extension, unless we
are prepared to meet the attacks of Black Re-
publicanism Oh our institutions by making
equally vigorous assaults on theirs. The Pres
ident, in his annual message, has clearly irdica-
ted this as the proper mode of defence, the true
answer to the Abolitionist.
Let not the south longer rely on the half
way apologize of negro slavery or of constitu.
tional slavery. We may thus excuse or extern
natc the temporary continuance OF slavery but
cannot justify its cxteas ons. fall other forms
OF slavery but negro slavery be wrong then is
the Bible untrue, and the history and experience
OF mankind worth nothing. Besides by such
admission We offer premium to amalgamation
that in q few generations might change the
Ethiops skin. We condemn, to our own laws,
nliiNh Twain III HUI WHoac ShlIlS
winter than the Spaniarls or Italians, simply
because they are of distant negro extraction.
Far worse will it be for US to rely on the Con-
enthusiastically admitting that all slavery
is immoral, unjust, and inexpcdient but con.
tending that the constitution is bargain or
contract between the North and South, which,
although it violates the laws of God and the
ordinary notions of right and wrong, justfcs
us not only in holding our slaves, but inhcting
the institution on new societies. The constitu-
ton will not be respected when those who in
vokes its protection admit that it is guarantee
of iniquity and crime. We have abundant
materials in the history of all emancpatcd
slaves or scrfs, in the famines and revolutions
of Western Europc-in the prevalence of So
cialism.an infdelity in Europe, and all kinds of
isms in our north, and in the better moral and
physical condition of the south exhibited by
the census, to enable us to yindicate and
justify our institutions. The north will be sure
to continue to dcnouncc slavery, and hold up
theirs as model and pattern social forms, al
though their politicians, their clergy their phi
losophers, their mobs, and their women, are
equally busy with "assiduons wedges" in knock,
ing those forms to pieces,
If our common agent, the Federal govern
n I Al. ,afs ~, oti