The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1858-12-28

Senator Crittonden, Ii recent opeech Is |
il political hiends IN this city, announced
hat "hs was sick Of the negro quession."
|snator CritsendeD d . man for whom just
low the American people would be willing
Q do good turn. de u . respectable gen
lsman Of more than average abilities, with
N excellent social position, and now adding
o the distinction gained BY conspicuous Of
lcial position: the dignity Of the age Con-
when such . man gives out that
10 10 sick, the good-natured public are ready
10 put their heads together to find out what
will send him the speediest relief.
The negro question, we are willing TO cen
Tess, 10 formidable question: puaxling |
question; . question it were well to ges rid |
d, if that could bs DONE That men sicksn |
Of it We do met wonder. Humanity sickens
Of il The tender compassion Of Heaven
sickens at its long history Of tragic horrors
We do not wonder that the complaints Of
sickness proceed from the quarter they do
If Mr. Crittenden's negro 1--WE suppose he
has them, or, if he has not, his neighbour
say nothing, We think he should not Have
not these gentlemen had the easiest part OF
it2 Their crops planted, harvested and
marketed for them without doit Of wages to
pay, themaelves assiduously waited upon,
% that no mental toll has soiled their patri-
clan escutcheons; every want anticipated
by assiduous service; every caprice needed.
under peril of the overseers whip And yet
Mr.. Crittenden is sick Of the negro question
Not 30 sick but that he can travel. make
speeches, and do justice to the excellent fare
OF frst-class hotels but sick enough to call
for the public COMMUNICATION.
Senator Crittenden seems to imagine that
the whole discussion of this unpleasant
subject is . chronic habit which certain
people have fallen into, but which they
might just as well forget as not He looks
ut all the oratory, poetry, literature, sympa-
thy, indignation, which the investigation of
the condition Of the enslaved has called forth
as 90 much smoke, which few fanatics who
had foregone purpose to insult him have
been putting in his face He has ridden
along in the same coach, and has born the
annoyance with gentlemanly forbearance as
long as the highest toned chivalry required,
and is at last forced to appeal to common
civility in terms like these: Messieurs, Uith
your disgusting philanthropy you hare at
last made me sick, aud unless you can obhge
M by putting out the pipes Of your ayita-
ton, 1 shall be compelled to take seat upon
the dricers boz.
Who can resist such an appeal? We can
not no pood.natured persons can. As much
a. we loved agitations, we would not agitate
to annoy Senator Crittenden. Howe.s r con.
6rmed in us was the habit of philanthropy,
We would not be philanthropic for the pur-
pose Of making a man sick, whose stomach
turned at philanthropy. o, no; we must
not disabuse the mind Of our distinguished
guest, and convince him that courtesy is not
the peculiar growth Of Kentucky and that
. man can be gentleman, who never fog
ged or sold negro.
If the distinguished Senator had ever an
alyzed this negro question, our disclaimer
would not be necessary. Your enthusiastic
chemist in the pursuit Of an analysis is not
turned back midway by the nauseous gases
which are generated in the process. He
pushes to results in spite OF his olfactory
martyrdom The negro question, however
always sickens Governor Crittenden, and he
has abstained from it wholly from hygienic
considerations. Let us tell him then tina,
zee do not agltate, we have not agitated. Ii
ayitates itself The conversion Of men to
chattels is by force that works constantly
against that natural and divine law that
makes them men, Men develop normally
as men; it takes force to make them slaves
The disposition to remain men begets indo.
lence insoldnce, resistance, sagacity Behold
your inevitable Anti Slavery, and the nui
sance Of your negro question in its simple
FORM But to make and keep race Of men
slaves, private force is feeble instrument
Hence public force, as expressed in laws
State and national, must be appealed to
tho opinion must be suborned that 1t is RICH,
to make men slaves fugitives must be sent
back or paid for Territories must be &C.
quired to extend Slavery; the foreign slave.
trade re-opened to feed it; policies and
measures adopted to favor it, perpetuate it,
and make it popular and powerful This
transfer of the restraint of shareholders
upon third parties, neither slave holders nor
slaves, provokes resistance, as the natural
sentiments ofmankind lead them to pity and
befriend, and not to betray the weak. Be
hold, again, your eternal negro question in
its complex and political form
To get rid of this question 1t becomes nee
essary to reorganize society, and reconstruct
the human heart We believe in the juridi-
cal language the legal torture ofcriminal.
upon the rack to induce confession was
called the question. Whoever dreamed tina,
the first person to complain of that question
would DO one Of the inquisitors weary with
turning the screws
Let our honorable Senator look at what i.
transpiring at the present writing: Tn,
other day brace of speeches, by Senators
Seward and Hammond, everybody reading
them, all on the same subject But yester-
day Jefferson Davis and Mr.. Orr gave the
views of the negro question. All last sum
mer political joust in lllinoise, the nation
looking on, pertaining to the negro mainly
The last Congress debated the fortunes ant
fate of the African ,and his adjunets. Til
next will do the same
Who can help it History is providential
A power mightier than we throws these ques
tions upon us, and we cannot eyade them n,
man raised this storm; no men and Crane
conventions can settle it. These Statesmen
who have believed that the whole subjec
arose in the uneasy minds Of few enthusi-
asts have believed that it could be settled b,
some expedient or compromise, and have
more than once proclaimed it settled. TIL,
overgrowing greatness of the question ha
Knocked their sagacity. Parties have not tn,
choice Of issues They are forced upor
them bv the exigencies OF the times
and the providence Of history. 1t is nears
the truth to say that issues make parties
than that parties make issues. A party
must have relations to the public feeling anc
embody that or else it has no vitality
After our Revolution the people were iounc
to constitute two classes. Wealth, birth, anc
patrician manners, in Virginia principally
but more or less all over the country, al
aristocfacy. The ideas Of the Revolution
and the pecuniary disasters that accompan
led it, did not displease that aristocracy.-
The mass of the people envied it, were jeaou
Of it, and sought to level it to their owl
grade The mutual jealousies in these classe
gave birth to the FIRST political parties in thi
country. The wealthy, educated men o
family and their dependents became Federal
lists, the rest of the citizens, Democrats. II
the struggle between these parties measure
and policies huctHated, but the feelings tina
divided them gave tone to each. TIE Dem
ocrats succeeded; the result was the abroga
CATION OF those social distinctions which pre-
vailed in the colonial periods. After tn
Democratic influence. had effected the equal
cation Of ranks, the Democratic party ha
no farther function to perform. 1t had n
antagonist no body Of men to resist its de