Kanawha Valley star. [volume] (Charleston, Va. [W. Va.]) 1856-1861, 1857-06-30

lAAsu5S0IIne GnIo4l TSe95lliLE lHG SdHls
general standards of morality, and
contemplate ii tho aggregate, there
is probably little Or noadifferenceI
III the moral culture Of those great
populations of which IL is composed,
there are some virtues which have
always been most highly developed
at the South. In view of these
things, the at least equal moral worth
of the people OF tile South, what
means the changethat they are guilty
o practicing all enormous wrong2
That their daily social life IS in such
direct conflict with the received
h billiards of morality That \ %j5onrnal
(Which holds ii to be right shocks and
faisensts the moral feeling Of the
fNortha Is there not sons strange
mistake. some deep, widespread
nlisconception of this matter Is ii
possible that apeople Or society who
when examined in detail, are as
moral and truthful and inst and pa
F%triotic. as theirneishbors, are yet in
the aggregate living in the daily
practce Of an enormous wrong? Can
right and wrpag, morality and immor-
atty, truth and falsehoodsfthas lie
down ogetherand become part. and.
uareel ofeach other Can an indi7
lidaal man be i rogue and ann honest
IMAM in the-same moment Gan d
woman De pare and womanly and live
in The midst ahd in the dailypFactiee
of alb enormous wiekedness
Nations or aggregates Of men are
Efnade up Of indiyiaaals-if the latter
are asb moral and pure as those Of
other cetIimain mites, then, of course,
tho aggIegate is So, III the men Of
the South are as brave and truthful
and the women as pureland womanlY
those ofthe North, then ii follows
OF necessity that southern society is
iequalY SO, and4the system or prinei-
IpleslonWhiet that society rests must
betrue and III aeeord with the natural
order ofthingsE Ii soseallad slavery
was, in point of fact what Tstlle
cIgi Hzed world las so long assumed
il toll Why Il everything, truth, honor,
morality and purity, wouldlongsince
have disappeared from the South
Such 4 stuIendous crime against ma
ture az the natural order of things
wouldlaave SO d~emoralizea the men
land corrupted the women lat scarce
Ily one honest man or a. single pure
woman would belief to tell the tale
of their fab or to deplore The crimes
Of their progenitors. But as we
have said, even the most indecent
among the Abolitionlsts have yet the
Grace tosap that solitllle women are
as uure and cool as their northern
sisters. and it would be easy TO de-
nonstrate that the men Of the South
the Shareholders themselves as
a class, are the noblest body of men
I ever known in human experience.
Washington, Jefferson, Nathaniel
Macon, jackson and an innnmer7
able3host scarcely less worthy, have
nof only illustrated but they have
made American history what is it,
for the record of these men sticken
out, there would be nothing left, and
vet according to the theories OF as
sumptions of the civilized world, !
these illustrious men, these glorious
Types of all that is grand and eleyat-
singo n that Isl possible in our race,
were Hying all their lives in the daily
practice OF an enormous wrong, IN the
constant and hourly violation OF the
laws Of God and the natural order OF
things. What a ~stupendous impos-
ture has been practiced on the Ameri-
can mind! What astrange and unac-
countable delusion has taken posses
sion Of millions Of, our people! What
i deplorabIe m~isconception now pre-
walls at tile North! above all, what
disgracethul, indeea abject
of theyonpg and vigorous intelleetot
America, to Old, crippled, aeb2uched
and demoralized wornsout Earope!
European writer's are necessarily g
norant of the negro, and lin all but
his black skin they really think him
d white man, and except 4 very few
scientific men amonSthem, they sup
/ pose this black skin an accident, a
mere thing ofdme, of climate or 9TH
er chance, and on this assumption
rests tue Judgment OF the civilized
world. But that We ourselves, On
that any portion -four people should
accept this European assumption :
should tfample on our reason the
daily evidence Of onf senses, and as
sume that black was white, that me-
groes were white men, that the -four
millions of subordinate beings in our
lmidst. were naturally equal to them
selves; and that toIetain them in a
position OF social snberdination cor
res spending to their natural and ac-
ftual inferfority was wrong, a sin, in
short, was d condition OF slavery
1 thatithe American minds OF that any
considerable portion Of the American
people can bethns imposed on, thus
deiaded, films. utterly abject IN their