Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1857-06-16
ARE 1'TIE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH LESS
NlRrUOUS THAN THOSE OF THE NORTH

I AXE JIlE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH LES
I VlRruOUS THAN THOSE OF THE NORTH
Some Of OUR Democratic contemporaries are dispose
occasionally 10 Dear down pretty hard on this aurna
'ecnus-, AS they charge, 1t is too extreme in it's views
md by its open and undisguised support of the right
md interests and morality of the Southern peopl
| md Ut Southern society, that II embarrassss an
seaken. the Democratic psriy in th. North. IL thi
,o or there any or justice in this charge :
Ia it possible that half the people, that the peopl
OF half the States of this great proud Republic ~
wing in such contradiction to the laws of morality
that journal which holds that they are as good q
their neighbors, should be slencedi Is the daily
cial life of eight millions OF people so vile and 80 il
contradiction to the canons of modern cvzatio
that cannot be defended without bringing down th
condemnation Of the world upon the head OF It's un
lucky defender ! Is Democracy itself such thing a
shreds aud patches that that which passe. for such il
one section is condemned in another as in total con
| tradcrion to its plainest principlesl
Well, let Us See. And first and foremost, will an,
one, any sane man or zane woman in all this grea
North, presume to say dare 10 say tina, the womel
Of the South less chaste or womaniy than thei
| Northern sisters! Will they dare tu charge tina
Southern wives and mothers have feebler perception
| Of their domestic duties and ra0ublg cations, o
that they less faithful their wifely and maerna
responsibilities than the wives and mothers of tn,
| SOrthl Can single person be produced who's,
opinion or character 10 worthy OF the slightest regard
| who will venture To ASSERT that Southern women ar.
ever in those essential virtues which constitute The
glory of true wonanhood! No, indeed-even tht
wild ranters Of tho Abolition conven;icss, who ct
udicrously d-piore the Imaginary trials and suffer
n2s OF negrodom are not utterly lost TO truth aud
| d,cency as TO charge that Southern women are any
less pure or womsnly than those of the North They
doubtless believe or try 10 believe that the wives
| and mothers of the South living in the shadow OF
such fearful evil as slavery" are ess happy, and
that their condition is really dcploraoe one, but IN
Ill. arAth
extensive, we have met with an instance where
| q white American Abolitionist, man or womsn has
presumed TO place the women ut the South on any
lower level than that generally accorded to our lalr
countrywomen in the sO.called free States OF the
Union.
And in respect to the men of the South, are they
less brave, less high minded honorable or honest
than those of the Northl Will any risk his char
acter for fair dealing and candor by asserting tnat
Southern man have less integrity or lower standards
of morality than Northern men havel Are the in
stances OF dishonest mercantile transactions more
numerous in the South than in the North! Will any
ono have the temerty to declare with the history Of
the country open before him, that Southern msn are
less patriotic less attached TO the great principles Of
liberty or that they have done less to support these
principles than the men OF the North! Or taking
the clergy tho eIponents Of public morality, will
any ons presume 10 say that those Of the South
preach an inquirer faith Or practice from lower
standard than helr Northern br.,hrenl On the con.
v,
tiuns Of the Union recognize tbs SANS general stan
dards of morality, and contemplated in the sggre-
gate, there ia probably little or no difference in the
moral culture of those great populations OF which
i. composed, there some virtues which have al
ways been most highly developed at the South. In
view Of these things, the at least equal moral worth
of the people at the South whai means the charge
that they are gu Try Of practicng wrongl
That their daily social life is Ia such direct conflict
with the received standards of morality, that our
htph halt IN n sh,,Ik
the moral feeling of the North! L. there not some
| strange mistake soma deep, wide spread mi,concep
ton Of this matter! Is it possible that people or
society who, when anlned IN drfA ], nre moral
aud truthful and just and patriotic their neishbors,
are Yet in the aggregate living in the daily practice
of All enormous wrJngl Can right and wrong, mo-
rslity and immortality, truth and fasehood, thus lie
down together and become part and parcel Of each
otherl Can individual man he rogue and al
honest man IN the same mon-n! Can a woman be-
| pure aud w0manly and live in the midst aud in the
daily practice of an enormous wickedness!
Nations, or aggregates of men, are made up OF IN
dlvidHas-if the latter moral aud pure those
of other communities then OF course the aggregate
| is 80. If the men Of the South brave and
| truthful and the women as pure and womany as
those of the North then it follows of necessity that
Southern society is equally 81, and the system or
principle. which that society rests must be true,
in accord with the natural order of things. IL so
called slavery was, in point OF fact what the civil
1ed world has 80 long assumed it To be, why every
thing, truth and honor and morality and purity,
would long since have disappeared from the South.
Such sup6ndous crime against nature or the naiu'
raj order of thing. would nave so de'noral'zed the
men and corrupted the women that scarcely hon.
est man or a single pure woman ~ouid DC ietf 10 Tel
the tale OF their fall or TO deplore the crimes of their
progbntors. Dut' as we move sao' even the mort W
decent among the Aooi'ioh'ss nave YET me grace u
say that Southern women are as pure aud good ss
their Northern sisters and it would be ensy demon
sirafs that the men ot the ooutn-the siaveh"i.
ers themselves W Glass; a'e the hooies' poay VI
Inen ever known IN human experiences.
| Washington, Jefferson Nfthanirl Macon Jackson,
and M innun-rnbIe host scarcely less worthy. hav
not only Illustrated out tiey nave 'haue Ai-ri'
can history what u isi LOT p Lteoru ~ mess n'eh
stricken out there would De nothing e't' ana yet &C.
cordlng To tbs lhenrie5 or assumptions 81 Inc evil
z-d world, these iilusf"us si ihese glorious types
OF all that is grand and eievang or that ID possible
in our race, were living Ill 1he'r ives IN the daily
practice OF an quo. wrong, III the soh.Ins anu
nour'y s.'a'lo" W. s,mnnJ,. ;nn au ha
ordrr VI mug; VIVA. ,,pos.u.e l'As
oeti plh'''eea vI We 70 80; h 49, 40. 81; "ns
auu "r w aoniai Whst dant,a pnI ,;.u'
ln''lt'ne W Jul poJ;po ,ha N,r,hI ano.a aIi 'ns,
Gep'oi no" an;n, $1,000 IS H. " '"
l'ginon,ui' 'nueou aJo -; -, ~ '"o yuunI
a"u LaS "a I',nrsI;..d vnrn,nt
anu nocaassriIv a"nrsn, Of ,h
m ~, hnt bis bisck .tin Inv really tbi"t him
a 80, a - 80, w.rv So;sn,fo mon .mn,
,hsm Nv smnnnSs This black skin An sccidant q
go. ,h;ng NJ ,ims of climate mr. othsr chenc. and
"ie.e '''"s VI .;''.e' W 49, ;I,, IS ,s 80,
on t''as or,S nnt ,hst wa onrssl,es ~ ,bs, snv
W.. aoiie u o,ia shonId snc.r, ri. aay
portion y. our peHp'' ra sas ,I
assu'hp'o, va 49, 10, ta'1 uanJ
eV'uehce OF our sen'es anu a.su.e ''' oa S 40
Hnme, .na! nrh.oGs ,. IL; eu i'a' .ue 'ou'
., SIoof ,". ,I ,ha, y, go, ,,, 40
uray tqua 10 H"u .na. W a',e
posa'I VI ,I ;,o.;r, ua. "
"e ,bnr' 40. cond,;nn "f sIav.yvtbs, ,b.
w snoi'' "ns . y, n,; ,"n az en-
can i,uu' vi .nat aay ,hms n,nos' n ,h " "e
G ,nna r,srv .h,, in ,h.;r rpn,sl sni.c ~
LSr. ,nuv ,;.,.y,;o :; ,ha nn,,
nI Of mental Ssnrad,ou svsr witnessed sncs ihs
PIC " 'ou."' O's'0N"''" '' "'eN '""0 VIC
WIN ui', oeg s t 80. nooor.,o ~, oo,0,,,o-.- =,
,ha N,h sn 81 s.n, r;.n ~. ,"- ,,,;r Ss ,r a,
. he 'uc .'a., wa" 10 M i. e ' d, W.
.hn, "d , upe a' u'
'hat ohFey 10 'sh'i o,u '"ey ~ e'uho w COY ln"'