Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-04-26
R oMEARA GsoDRI

| fox tail, and broomsedge he will see the moss
growing on the mouldering walls of once thrift
ty villages, and will find one only master
| grasps the whole domain that once furnished
happy homes for dozen white families. In
deed, country in its infancy, where fifty
years ago scarce a forest tree had been felled
by the ak of the pioneer, is already exhibit
ing the painful signs of senility and decay, ap-
parent in Virginia and the Carolinas."
| This gentleman is distinguished as zealot
for the extension OF the blessings of Slavery
to the Free Territories The above extract
from his eloquent speech is a picture drawn
from the life, and exhibiting to the eye the
charms of Slavery, which the small free-hol-
ders of the North and West, who cultivate
their farms with their own hands, well know
how to appreciate from contrast.
| We would not have adyerted to the dis
franchisement of the mass of the white popu-
lation in South Carolina and other Southern
States, by property qualification for Office and
the defeat of the right of suffrage by the rot
ten borough system, had we not seen with what
contempt of every principle of free govern
ment the attempt is now made to carry Kan
sas for Slavery A usurpation, put up with
force and arms by Gen. Atchison, has already
established Slavery in that Territory, has guar
ded it with test oaths and denounced the death
penalty against all who oppose it. The Presi-
dent of the United States is pledged by his
proclamation to maintain the usurpation, and
if he is reelected, or any other nominated by
the South to succeed him, the army of the
United States will be employed to rivet Sla-
very on Kansas under the laws passed by Gen.
Atchison's followers from Missouri The
North must unite to defeat this attempt by
the election of President who will maintain
the rights of the people of the North in the
Territory, or a Gordon of black republics will
stretch from Missouri west to the Pacific
The consequence will be that no free white re-
public will be permitted to arise south of the
tier of Slave States The free settlers from
the North on their way to Kansas are now
obliged to turn away from Missouri to reach
their destination with their property and means
Of defending it.
What will result from the creation of cor
don Of Slave States across the continent p
| 1t Surrenders all south of it to Slavery. And
what will be the condition of the slaveless
| white population which must spring up in this
vast region We see in the fate of the poor
! free population of Mexico to what complex
| ion it must come at last" whenever slave mo-
|
over the SOIL Slavery nominally is abolished
throughout the Republic of Mexico, but ex-
lists, in fact. under the name of peonage. The
owners of the soil feed and clQthe those who
work for them they charge their laborers
more for their supplies than they agree to pay
them for wages, and the result is that the la
borer is constantly falling more and more in
debt, and the law subjects him to his creditor
1 I'll IL
of the system is to compel man to sell him
self and his family.
| And this, taken in connection with the con-
dition of the poor white population in the
South-as shown in the passages we have ta-
ked from the address of Gov. Hammond of
South Carolina, tho Hon. c. c. Clay of Ala
bama and other leading Southern statesmen
explains the recent article in The Richmond
Enquirer, the oracle of Southern interests
which eaborately argues the right of subject
ing whites, as we'll as blacks, to Slavery
| Nay, it goes SO far as to insist that this right
of making white slaves is inalienabe." The
article thus presses this point:
'" They (those holding Mr.. Jeffersons doc
trine) begin to reason, by assuming Slavery
to be morally and religiously wrong and the
South hithero has granted their premises, and
attempted to justify negro Slavery as an ex-
ception to general rule, or, if wrong, as a
matter of bargain between the North and the
South. The idacs of God and nature are TN
mutdble, and man cannot bargain them array
While it is far more obvious that negroes
should be slaves than whites-for they are on
ly fit to labor, not to direct-yet the principle
of Slareryis itself right, and does not depend
on difference Of compleraom.
Under this doctrine it follows that here q
more direct enslavement of the white race may
| be insisted upon than that obtained in Mexico
under the contrivance of debtor vassalage.-
The doctrine is positive sanction to the bon
dage of the white race, and asserts that the
| laws of God and nature are immutable" in its
support, "and man cannot bargain them
away" 1t is practically illustrated now in the
Utah Territory, where a man holds multi
| tude of women as slaves, calling them his
wives. What is there in Mr. Ritchie's princ-
pie to prevent Brigham Young from helding
ninety white men as slaves under bills of sale,
as well as ninety white women under pretense
of the bonds of matrimony?
| Mr. Ritchie's explanation of the Southern
doctrine of Slavery, together with Mr.. Doug
lass act for the Territories, which leaves
the people perfectly free to form and regu-
late their domestic institutions in their own
way, subject only to the Constitution of the
United States, certainly authorizes the Nor
mon State to come into the Union with the
Turkish system full blown, which makes slaves
of all colors, and wives without number. 1t
is sad commentary on our progress, that at
the moment when the news arrives of the Sui
tsn's irman putting an end to the traffic in
slaves in his Empire-of the Cars steps for
the liberation of the serfs in Russia, and of
their actual enfranchisement in the Danubian
Principalities should have negro Slavery
forced on one Territory by an usurpation set
up by the sword, and the right of the Nor
mons recognized in another to hold a multi