The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-08
SWEET WATER AND BITTER-UNIoN AND
DISUNION

From the Richmond (va) Enquirer, May Is 1856
We would ask the Charleston Mercury wheth-
er, in the absence of the Union, under the op-
Grafton of free trade, New York might not have
attained her present wealth, power, and popu-
lation, and ace Of the South been equally aiding
her progress? But suppose our trade and
travel had been directly with Europe should
not have promoted the growth of cities
there, more ieim icaI because less dependent on
as than NcW York; Should lce not haze inl-
ported from Europe opinions and modes Of
thought as much 1T ioGr nth oar institutions
as those ace too often dsrjre from the North?
Since the days of the Crusades, has not one
public opinion governed Europe? Is not that
opinion now manufactured in Paris Look at
the revolutions from 1892 to l848, and see the
sympathy Of thought and action which fit
evinces. Hungary, Poland, aud Austria, we're
the last to come within its influence; but they,
too, have felt its effects and are but heaving
volcanoes. Even Russia acknowledges its
power, and Is, from time to time, liberating
her serfs-hberating them to ctarve like Eng
lish liberated millions and the French Prole
tariat. But the revolutions of l848 were all
social, not political, revolutions brought about
by men who held that free society, as now Or
ganized in Europe, was an utter failure, and
that society must be wholly recognized. More
over, they all take issue with political econo-
my, the principle or philosophy on which such
society is founded. They all maintain that it
is not sufficient to let alone F" the poor They
must be protected and controlled. Such was
the doctrine of Lamartine and his associates,
and such IS the doctrine and practice of Louis
Napoleon. They have unconsciously recog-
Missed and adopted in practice the Slavery prin-
ciple.
80 have the poor in France, for they demand
employment, not charity; and instead of the
political Marseillaise hymn, chant that horrible
social dirge, beginning
sou vivre travsillant, or MOURN en- combatant.n
They ask to be made slaves, and to be taken
care of as slaves. 1t is a great advance towards
Slavery, to admit that free society is failure
and who in Europe or our North does not
The only debatable question now is, free soci-
ETY. as constituted being out of the question, J
Shall the world recur to some tried form of do
nestle Slavery, or go forward to Oweniteism,
Fonrierism, Mormonism, or Free Love?
For more than a century, all Europe thought
the Crusades she nOblest and hottest of enter
prises. Hew completely and suddenly did that
opinion change! May not such a woeful ex-
perience in like manner heal the Abolition
mania? Again we say to South Carolina, stay
in the Union, build up, by means of Southern
schools and colleges, Southern books and a
Southern press, Southern thought and opin-
ion. Challenge the North and Western Eu-
rope to comparison of the evils of free and
slave society, as deduced from history and sta
tistics, and to weigh the authority aud usages
of mankind 10 favor of each.
Free socisy is getting into so intolerable a
state, moral, religious, political, and physical,
that it will soon be ready to thank any one who
can point to an exodus from its embarrassments.
III Lr,o,,:.au I J --:.tz. :.zalc 80 -. -
stacy of admiration for slave society 1t was,
doubtless, looking forward to the hour when
| the oppressed white slaves of the North would
seek escape from starvation in the embraces of
| loving masters. So supremely blessed were
negro slaves, in the privasion of all rights, it
could not but believe that Fourieris s, Socialists,
Phanthropists of all sorts, would soon come
to inculcate the expediency of general slave
! system for white " Workies." 1t did not then
expect to have the tables so soon turned against
it, to see all its miserable. fctions about free
and slave society exploded in q manner at once
painful and humiliating.
We suppose the Ney York Courier and En-
| quirer must have taken occasion lately to bring
this matter to its notice-how or in what spirit
we do not know, butt has provoked the ire of our
Southern cotemporary beyond all bounds. For
ourselves, we are not sectional in spirit, or in
our style of discussing the Slavery question /;
but it is impossible that the Nelc York Con-.
rier and Enquirer should have displayed a
more bitterly sectional spirit than pervades the
| following article, from its Southern namesake
\ tbo ID Nv,
THE VALUE OF THE UNION.
The Ner York Courier and Eaquirer never
displays generous or just disposition, in its
discussion of the issues between the North and
! the South but we were not prepared for such
an exhibition of meanness and maliguity as
that paper betrays in its comments on the
| prevalent rumors of negro Instruction.
1t is not by probable conjecture, but from
the reliable evidence of fact and testimony.
that we ascertain that the partial insubordina-
ton of our slaves is due to the instigation of
Abolition emissaries. The timid and INDECENT
nature of the negro is averse from any hazard
Gus enterprise; and he would reluctantly dis
turb the drowsy tranquility of his life, under
| the Influence of even the strongest stimulus
to rebellion. In the secure enjoyment of every
comfort, happy to the full measure of his mar
| row capacity, and insensible to the more re-
| nneu auu 6leNdtcu FEELINGS vi Tue MASTER race,
no desire for another state of existence can
originate in his own bosom. Every inteli-
| gent and impartial observer from abroad bears
testimony to the content and quiescent char
1 acter of the Southern slave. With US, who
know his instincts and habits, there is no need
|. of such attestation. Abundance of food apd
protection against the inclemency of the wealth
| er, constitute the acme of the negros ambition.
| These the slave enjoys in redundant supply !;
| these the negro possesses in no other condition.
| Hence the proverbial contentment of the slaves
| of the South.
But, though the slave has neither motive nor
inclination to revolt against the normal and
humane rule of the master, yet he is of cred
ulous aud susceptible nature, and may easily be
seduced into an evil way by the instigations of
white men, In every instance of imminent
outbreak among the negroes, it has been dis
covered that they were exssperated by the poi
sonous whispers of abolition emissaries.
1t is not for the New York Courier and En-
quirer, then, which, as much as any other paper
is committed to the seditious schemes of the
Abolitionists, and whose party employs miscre-
ants to stimulate an insubordinate spirit among
our slaves-it is not for the Courier and En-
ouirer to reproach the South with the iusecu-
rity of its social system. 1t is the stale artifce
of the villain who affects to lament the conse-
quences of the conhagration which he himself
has kindled. You have applied the torch to
our dwelling, and now you reprimand the i'm
providence which neglects to insure against
the incendiary
Suppose the people ofthe South should, by the
stimulus of brides and plumber, induce the hun
bred thousand vagabonds of n. York to make
foray upon the exorbitant wealth of the Fifth
A he u