The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-29

hhN ZIG eoSAai oho pOitlChh lacob IcpfQuuCou
by the Senator from Sonth Carolina hsys at
taiaed a complete ascendency.
We all remember-for who could forget p
the assaults, in 1856, of the Southern Democrs-
tic orators upon everything free in America.
Slavery" was pronounced ~the natural and
normal condition of the laboring men, white or
black" "The experience of universal liberty"
was pronounced by the Richmond Enquirer
"a failure" and "free society insufferublel"
"Free society" was denounced by Dem ocrat-
ic organ in Alabama, "a eonglomerat on of
greasy mechanics, filthy operatives, and small
listed farmers!" And the Seuth.Side DEMO
crat, edited by q gentleman noN one of ths Pub
lie Printers of Congress, denounced o. hate
tlf Stree farms, free labor, Free socie !, free
will, free thinking free children, free scho, a.
they all belonged "to the same brood G dam
nsble ismsl"
Sir, these social and political ideas, 1 ow re-
produced by the Senator from South CO yolins,
go unrebuked in these Halls by the sup ,orters
of this Administration. No Democrat, Sena-
tor, no supporter of the policy of the A. minis
tration, has yet questioned the assumps ons or
dissented from the views of the Senator The
supporters OF the Lecompton Conatitutie /, from
Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, Iowa, and California, have not sntur-
ed to even dissent from the doctrines .,Yowed
by the Senator from South Carolina-dt Grimes
which would not pass unrebuked ON the banks
of the Danube or the Vistula. / meas to ex-
anime these assumptions In the light 81 facts.
mean to take issue with these unsu ported
declarations, and mean to brand these 1ranton
insults to the free laboring men of the es,untry.
To listen, Mr.. President, to the word of the
Senator from South Carolina, we shot d sup.
pose that the white men of the South ere all
men of wealth and culture and refine nent-
that they were all lords and mastery hat Ia
Dor was all performed by bondmen--thSN mud
stills" of society. We should imagine tb L these
white men "were leading progress, civl5zation,
and refinement" We should imagine hat the
sunny South was the seat of power, the chosen
abode of commerce, manufactures, and he me-
chanic arts; of literature and the fnerSYrts; of
schools and libraries We should also Imagine
that the free North was the home of ig Drance,
poverty and vice, and organized ANARCHY.
Sir, the Senator has placed the Meth and
the South, the free and the slave States,
freedom and Slavery, " face to IAce." II meet
him on that issue. / make no assault 81 make
no war upon the South. This Gontes which
now stirs the nation to its profoandest depths,
is no contest between the North and 8, 18th. 1t
is a contest between the rights Of man ind the
privileges of an aristocratic, oligarchic lass.
Mr.. President, the Senator points iumph-
antly to eight hundred and fifty thousaIassquare
miles of slave soil; to the finest natural yoi and
the most genial climate. We of thsz North
confess to the extent of Jour territosg, your
naturally fine soil, and your genial climate.
We make no claim to equality of extet,ts Of eli
mate, or of soil. When The foot of ivilized
man first pressed the sods of the Ney. World,
your section sbounded in spill so rich, Is Seemed
exhaustless; ours was hsrl, cold, and rugged.
Freedom took the rugged soil and 81 n more
rugged cline of the North, and now thasrugged
soil yields abundance to the willing ..ands of
free labor. Slavery took the sunny les.ds and
the sunny cline of the South, and n y it has
left the traces of its ruinous power de ply fur.
rowed on the face of your sammy land IN 1912,
before the foot of the bondnsn had pr used the
soil of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale, in speaking
of that Commonwealth, said "Take fo of the
best kingdoms of Christendom, and Eat them
altogether, they may no way compare nth this
country, either for commodities or 90 $dness of
8 soil" s.
At an earlier period, Lane, Govern of Ra-
leigh colony, says Of Virginia and Care ina: at
is the goodliest soil undes the cope of saven-
the most pleasing territory in the ID"
Says "A Perfect Description of Virginia"
published in London in l64s: New England
is to Virginia as Scotland is to England.
There is much cold, fross, and snow; cir land
is barren; except a herring be put INTO the
hole you set the corn In, it will not g me up"
Two hundred years have passed 81 ce those
words were penned, and we 40 not nc "put q
herring in the hole we see the corn in - on onr
barren soil, yet 1T comes up, Milo of the
acres of "the goodliest soi under the~ cope of
heaven" in old Virginia are now so Dor, that
a herring put in the hols they set thaleorn in "
would not bring it up. =
Washington, in lettef to Arthur ,soung, in
1897, says: "Our LANDS, as / mep4oned 10
You, were originally very good buSnse and
abuse have made them quite otherwise"
James Madison tells gs, in 1919, tsat much
Of the rich soil of Virginia had been exhausted.
Governor Wise said of the sgricultus,5 of Vir.
ginia, in 1855: Yos Ill own plentr of land;
but it is poverty added to poverty, Eoor land
added to poor land; and nothing sadded to
nothing makes nothing. ~ You
have the owners skinning the negroes, and
the negroes skinning the land, AM you all
grow poor together. You have relied alone
on the power of agriculture; and sach agri-
turei our sedge- patches outshinedhe sun
your inattention to your only sourcsSof wealth
has scared the bosom of mo her EARTH Instead
having to feed cattle OH thousand ehills, you
have to chase the stump tailsd steer Though the
sedgepatches to procure 8 tough beefsteak"
Mr.. g. s. Sullivan, of; Lii coin county, North
Carolina, says, in the Pateit Office seport for
1851: We raise no stock of any kisd, except
for home consumption AID Aot ha.f enough
for that; for we have cow WORN out our lands
so much that we do not grow food snough to
maintain them"
Mr.. N. B. Powell, of Alal'ap,a, ia tse Patent
Office report for the same year, DAY /: ave
are the most dependent paople il Union,
relying mainly, as we DO, Npen our leighbors
of the West for nearly all bur supp ,s"
The Senator from Alabs ms Mr. LAYl has
described, in sad accents, the desolat IN of DOR
tions of his own native State. In reversing
his own native county of M ldison, til Senator
says: "One will discover numer ,us farm.
houses, once the abodes of indusi fous and
intelligent freemen, now occupied " slaves.
or tenantless, deserted, nd dilap. lated he
will observe fields once FERTILE, now nnfenced.
abandoned, and covered NTH thos evil har
bingers, fox tail and broom l-sedge; q will see
the moss growing on the houlderi, I walls of
once thrifty villages; an6 will fnd one only
master grasps the whole domain, that once
iurnished happy homes TO dozen Ihite fam
lies. Indeed, county i / its infa, ", where.
fifty years ago, scarce forest tree had been
felled by the axe of the pj oneer, is ready ex
hibiting the painful signs " senility md decay
aPparens IN virginia and the Care mas the
freshness OF It's agrieultur gloryI gone the
ylgor Oh It's youth is exti ct, and Il spirit of
dissolution seems broodiug over it
Inc senator from Alabs ma is de, ted to his
native State, of whose cofdition b, thus vor
rowfully speaks. Yesterday he we even to
the verge of 6sunion in ia FOR of tbs expansion
OF Slavery to "virgin lands," wh ID it will
"despol and impoverisb, as it ha ,despoiled
and impoverished the State he ,presents
!" The lands Of South Carolina I've re told by