The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-29
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON D. C, APRIL 90, 1853

neuC, force the literary talent 10 tne worm,
the home of hireliDg operatives" to find, not
only publishers, but readers also.
OF the authors mentioned in Duyckinck's
/" Cyctopedid Of american Literature" eighty
seven were natives of slave States, and four
| hundred and three were natives of the free
North-the land of the {" hireling laborers."
4 Of the poets mentioned in Griswold's Poets
and Poetry of America" seventeen were natives
of the land where they have that other class
which leads progress, civilization, and refine
ment;" and one hundred and twenty.three
were natives of the land of hirelng opera
tives," the "mud-sills {" of society. Of the
poets, whose nativity is given by Mr.. Reed, in
his Female Poets of america" eleven are
from the South, seventy-three from the North.
Nine-tenths of all the books written in Ameri-
ca fit to be read-pine tenths of all the books
published in America, fit to be published-are
written and published, not in the land of that
privileged class of which the Senator boasts,
but in the free States, unblesaed by that priv
eleged class. Nearly all the authors, whose
names grace and adorn the rising literature of
America, whose names are known in the lite
erary and scientific world, find their homes in
the free States of the North. Irving, Ticknor,
Sparks, Bancroft, Prescott, Hildreth, and Mot
lev, whose contributions to the historical ltera-
ture of America are recognised by the literary
world Dana, Bryant, Halleck, Longfelow,
Sprague, Whittier, Lowell, and Willis the rec
ognised poets of our country Hawthorne, EN-
erscn, Curtis, Melville, and Mitchell, whose
names grace the light literature of our times
and Silliman, Agassiz, and PIERCE, names asso-
ciated with American science, find their homes,
not in the land of the privileged class that the
Senator from South Carolina tells US leads
"progress, civilization, and refinement but
they dwell 10 the land of small listed farmers,
i Al
+" mud.s is " of society. The sculptors, and the
painters, and the artists--thsy too find their
homes, not in the sunny South, but in the free
land of the North. In literature, in science, in
the arts, the superiority of the North 10 beyond
all question. Men who have been. or who now
are, hirelirg laborers," in some forms, in the
North, have contributed more to the arts, the
science, the literature of America, than the
| whole class of shareholders now living in the
South.
| would not, Mr.. President, underrate the in.
hnence of the slave States in the councils of the
Republic. Bound together BY the cohesive at.
traction of q vast interest, from which the civ
ilization of the age averts its face, the privileged
class have won the control and direct the poll.
| cy of the Government. In the council and in
the field, the representatives of this privileged
class have assumed to direct aud to guide. But
in accommodating capital, in commerce, in man.
| ufactures, in the mechanic arts, in educational
institutions, in literature, in science, in the
arts, in the charities of religion and humanity,
in all the means by which the nation is known
among men, the free States maintain position
of unquestioned pre-eminence. In all these,
the South is a mere dependency of the North
India and Australia are not more the depend.
encies of England, than are the slaveholding
States the dependencies of the free States
| f+nax ala it, -
suburban wards of our great commercial city
of New York. Beyond the political field, this
dependency is everywhere visible, even to the
most blind devotees of King Cotton" Mr..
Perry, in address before the South Carolina
Institute, in 1856, says of the State represented
by the Senator: The dependence of South
Carolina upon the Northern States, for all the
necessaries, comforts, and Injuries, which the
mechanic arts afford, has drained her of her
wealth, and made her positively poor"
Mr.. Helper, of North Carolina, in a work
entitled The Impending Crisis of the South"
describes in this graphic language this humili-
ating dependency of the South upon the North:
"In infancy we are swaddled in Northern
muslin; in childhood we are humored by
Northern gewgaws; in youth we are instruct.
ed out of Northern books; in old age we are
drugged with Northern physic and when we
: die, our inanimate bodies, shrouded in North.
ern cambria, are stretched upon the bier,
borne to the grave in Northern carriage,
entombed with Northern spade, and memo.
rized with a Northern slab
"Reader, would you understand how abiectly
shareholders themselves are ensaved 10 the
products of Northern industry If you would,
hx your mind on Southern gentleman, a
save-breeder and human. Aeshmonger, who
processes to be a Christian Observe the
routine of his daily life. See him rise in the
morning, from Northern bed, and clothe
himself in Northern apparel; see him walk
across the floor on Northern carpet, and
perform his additions out of Northern basin
and ever. See him uncover box of North
ern powder, and cleanse his teeth with a
Northern brush; see him reflect his physioe-
nomy in Northern mirror, and arrange bic
hair with a Northern comb; see him dosing
himself with indictments of Northern quacks,
and pertaining his handkerchief with North
ern Cologne; see him referring TO the time in
a Northern watch, and CHANGING at the news
IN Northern gazette; see him and his family
sitting in Northern chairs, and singing and
praying ont of Northern books see him at
the breakfast table, saying grace over North.
ern plate, eating with Northern cutlery, and
drinking from Northern utensils; see him
charmed with the melody of Northern piano,
or musing over the pages of Northern novel
See him riding to his neighbours in North
ern carriage, or furrowing his lands with
Northern plough see him lighting his cigar
with Northern match, and hoggiDg his ne
groes with a Northern lash see him with
Northern pen and ink, writing letters on
| Northern paper, and sending them away in
Northern envelopes, sealed with Northern
wax, and impressed with Northern SEAL"
| Passing, Mr.. President, from the considera
ton of these startling contrasts between the
effects Of intelligent free labor on the North.
and unskilled slave labor on the South, pro-
coed to the contemplation of the blighting and
crushing effects of Slavery, not upon the poor
bondmen, but u pon the non. slaveholdinp poor
whites of the South. Putting out of view alto
gether the sad lot of nearly four millions of
hapless bondmen, doomed to a DESTINY 90 raw
less, so cherries, so hopeless, that the Senator
from South Carolina vsuntingly tells US that
they are unaspiring," and win never give any
trouble to us by their aspirations" here
and now declare that the five millions of non
slaveholdiBg whites of the South live in meaner
houses, consume poorer food, wear poorer
clothes, have less means of mental and moral
instruction, less culture, and less hope for the
| future for themselves and their posterity, than
| the five millions of the poorest people of the
seventeen millions of the North. / include,
| sir, in this declaration, the millions of emf.
grants from western Europe, from the banks of
the Thames, the Shannon, and the Rhine-men
characterized by the Senator from South Caro-
lima as semi barbarians." will demonstrate
the truth of this declaration by abundant quo
tations from Southern authorities.
The first witness / put upon the stsnd is the
honorable Senator from South Carolina him.
self. In an address before the South Caroline