Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1857-03-11
For the Spectator.
Abolition.

cluSiOnS which are often erroneous. but facts are
positive they speak for themselves, and tell the
tale of consequences, and with these our concern
is at present. Were we disposed to attempt
what We would desire to be considered q learn
ed exposition of the matter We have in hand,
we might fail for want OF such repositories OF
knowledge and of reference as we had access to
in our younger days, but which are foreign to
the wilds of nature whereunto our latter years
have been consigned. To these we can no long
er appeal for circumstance or confederation, to
sustain us in the position we may assume, or to
refresh memory crowded with matters apper-
tanning to the present, and obscuring, If they
lave not obliterated, our early requirements in
knowledge Of the worlds that have preceded us,
and of the motives and incidents that governed
and agitated them. But we have no such in
tention, and will only endeavoi tcs Z cidate our
subject by reference to such circumstances as re-
quire no elaborate research to reproduce them,
and which common notoriety has impressed on
all who have given the least attention to such
matters. Fortunately for us, the chart OF the
past is as plain, in its leading features, as the
map of the present, and the destinies of nations,
as recorded on the former, as familiar to the
least instructed mind as the geographical divis-
ions of modern countries, delineated on the lat
ter. are to the vision. Events are as prominent
on the one, as boundaries on the other, and 1t
would be as little to our present purpose to seek
tor causes, where we only design to call atten-
ton to results, as it would be to look for coun-
ties, in defining the limits of States
We repeatedly ask ourselves what is to be the
effect of such abolition doctrine as is becoming
the agtating topic of the day; how this is to
terminate, and what would be the consequence
of such general emancipation of the African
race, as now domiciliated among US, admitting,
for argument sake, that this could be accomplish
ed, as is proposed by those who advocate 1t /;
and we find our answer, not in the philosophy,
or the philanthropy of history not in the abstrac-
tions of vsionaries, or in the deusions OF fanat-
les; but in facts, as recorded in the volumes we
have read as exempfed in instances within
our own knowledge, and co-temporaneous with
our own existence. We have yet to be told by
the one, or to learn from any, that there is
middle State, between subugaton and exter-
mination, in which two races, distinct in origin,
character, and capabilities, may occupy the same
territory coalesce under the same government;
enjoy and exercise equal rights, and feel them
selves admitted to equal rank, privileges, and
consideration. We find it not in that tirst,great
Book wherein is described the conquests of the
Israelites, and which, if it does not justify, pas
ses over without condemnation, the oppression,
expulsion, we might almost say snnihilation OF
the aboriginal possessors Of territory they were
too week to defend, and too opposite in nature
to their conquerers, to hold in common with
them. Nay, we may even 60 behind this in
stance, and observe these very conquerers them
selves, exied from like causes, from the land OF
their adoption, which the exactions Of different
and more powerful people had made intolerable
to them, and leaving them no alternative but
subjugation, if they remained, or of extermina-
ton if they resisted. Confning ourselves only
to memorable examples, we see these same Is
raelte., after various vicssitudes of fortune al.
ternately masters and slaves, finally excluded
from the pale of nations, and ceasing 70 exist as
people; while their successors have in their
turn, passed away, and yielded up name, nation
ahty and country to foreign invasion and for
eign ascendency The Greeks, conquerers OF
the Helots, held them, as bondsmeD, until the
Roman legions reduced this fair country to q
province; its population to colonists, and Rome
herself, once mistress of the world, has dwindled
to a hierarchy existing only, politically, through
the toleration and policy Of moro potent tenn
poralities; subdued, if not subjugated, and hav-
ing no weight in the scale of nations. Were
the Sayons, we would ask, admitted to equality
in political, or social privileges, by their Nor
man conquerers, until centuries OF strife and ad-
mixture had, in some measure, incorporated
them as one people, and even now the lustre OF
England dates from foreign achievement, whlie
her mobiles boast of their descent from ancestors,
who regarded the aboriginal possessors OF their
island as Saxon churls. Did the Picts and the
Scots live in amity, and unite under one rule OF
dominion, until Kennett had subjugated the
former and made them as vassals to the latter !
When Spain was wrested from the Moors, dld
these amalgamate with their conquerers or was
it not deemed more polite to expel than to ma
tionalise them following, in this, the example
set them few centuries before by the Maho-
medans, who, in conquering Constantinople, ad-
mitted not its former masters, the christians 70
the commonest rights of citizenship or religion
; Are the natives of the East regarded as COM
patriots by their British rulers, or the Indians
, , of the West as other than outcasts by theli
Spanish and American invaders2 Did Whte
and Black mingle in harmonious nationality IN
Saint Domingo when supremacy was lodged III
|, the latter and are not many yet living who car
vouch for the horrors consequent upon tha'
monstrous and unnatural peryersion OF author'
ity, and if England were not aware OF the prop
) ability of similar abuse of power in her eInah'
cipated colonies, why should she deem 1t pru'
dent to maintain in them large military lorce
to keep her sable freemen in subJectlon Ano
why, in our own country, while Northern aa,
vocates of freedom to the Blacks are using ai
efforts to accomplish it, are Southern master:
who it is to be supposed, are best acquainted
with their temperaments and propensltles, com
pelled to hold them in stricter surveillance, aiio
to deny them many privileges in when they
were indulged before the mere prospect o! eie'a
ton to equality with the whites impossible a.
this would appear, and monstrous az this wouit
be- had rendered them impatient OF controi, ant
= dissatisfied with condition which best comporI
= with their well-being, and our own saiety:
the mere intimation of freedom prompts tneh
to insurrection and riot, to what VIII tne ac'u'l
possession lead If such outrages as we Se'
augnenting in number, with every SERMON .na
is preached, every pamphlet that Is issuea' ever.
speech that is made in behalf OF African el!aii
cpation, filling our daily papers with horrIol'
details, and the hearts of our wives ana childrei
> with fearful forebodings, be but the consequen
|, ces. as we think they are, OF what Is SAID IL
promotion of this object, what will be the eHec
when something is DONE for it2 We shudder
tbe hare contemplation of such contingency
for we see in it worse than civil, servlle war
where our enemy is o member OF our ho'senopa
:, having access to our property ana persohs' any
control of our lives, through means more secre
and insiduous. but not less fearful and fatal thal
: the the instruments of open warfare We dare no
{ nresent this subject in its worst and trutnlui
features lest we should excite the apprehension,
{ of the timid. but we would have it to be wei
considered by its advocates and instlgators, Ina
tbav may pause ere it be too late to arrest tii'
nroyress of crime. rs yet in its infancy, anu coi
. fnaI to individual cases. but for whose grown
and collected mischief they will be held responS
ible M to that God, who has seen proper, in al a.
ages, countries aud conditonsto make the nafi t
race race 'subservient to the White and to endow th'
is..on iii snnerority in physical, moral, an(