The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1858-03-19
MUDDY PHILOSOPHY.

sis on which the institution of slavery rests"
and proceeded to philosophers as follows:
"Just so long as men are organized as they
are, physically and mentally, one having
more brains and more intellectual power
than a1other, there will be different classes
in society. Take the physical man alone,
without reference TO the intellectual, and
force him in contact with the principles of
production, and yol will see that under GER
tain circumstances, oneis enabled to produce
more than another. This results from our
organic structure.
"Let me illustrate my meaning by an cx-
ample. Here are two men one Of whom has
double the physical strength of the other
Let us talk about things plainly and homely.
know this may be considered in bad taste
by some, but sometimes the simplest SMILES
best explain subject. Take.these two men,
the one having twice the physical strength of
the other, and put them TO making rails. |
know that is not Senatorial term, but it
is common thing in this country. The
man of double physical strength will make
twice as many rails in the course of day as
the other. Is not that difference between
men. The man of double the physical
strength will increase in wealth, in anything
to which you apply his labor, twice as rapid
ly as the other man. So il is with the ex-
ercise of his brain. This grows out of the
organic structure Of mankind.
"When you form n community out of indi-
viduals, they commence the work of produc-
ton, intellectual and physical; and, as society
moves on through time, we find some occupy
in lOtrar ,,locoo and m ba
higher places. do not care whether you call
it slavery or servtude; the man pho has me-
niaI Offices TO perform is the SLAVE or the SER
rant, care not waether he is White or black.
Servitude or slavery grows out of the organ
&c structure of man."
This [says the Nashville Patriot is mud
dy philosophy, to make the best of it; but it
is not merely muddy, it is unsound wher-
ever lucid enough TO be comprehended.-
The idea that all men who perform mental
services are slaves, is abhorrent. is worse
"a gross libel upon hundreds and thousands
of industrious, Woodworking men, in all
sections of the country: in the South as well
as in the North-in Tennessee ms well as in
Ohio. Mr.. Johnson has worked his way up
gradually from what he affects now to con-
slider a servile condition in others, to an emf
nent position, by pandering to the passions
and prejudices of the class whom he denomi-
mates "slaves." By the votes of these
"saves" he has been placed in high office,
and il i'll becomes him now to stigmatise
them. The day aborcr on the farm, though
he may own no land, though he may not be
able even to rent, and is compelled TO per-
form mental labor for paw, is not the slave
of his employer, or any one else. He is the
peer, if he be honest and vrtuous, of any
man in the State-aye, of the proudest
aristocrat that sneers at his title to manhood
or Of Andrew Johnson, the Philosopher
and Senatorl So also ale those humble men
and women, who fill other posi- tons, in
which mental services are performed. They
have neither wealth, nor any great degree of
power, but they have control over their own
actions, have the same rights and are as es-
sentialiy free, as the Senator who disgraces
his robes by making such ungenerous filings
at them; or who debuses his intellect to the
serfdom and slavery o! party. Elevation be-
yond his deserts has been unfortunate for
Andy. If this is the way he is to attempt to
make character in the Senate, he will cover
his best friends with shame and humiliation.
SENSIBLE AT LAsT.-A number of citizens
Of Philadelphia have pe!itioned the Legisla-
ture to pass law prohibiting free negroes
from coming into that State. They say that
they are subjected to trouble, Inconvenience