The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1859-12-22
The Disgrace Of Slavery.

w- If any one at the North has failed,
heretofore. to feel the epdisgrace which
Slavery is inlicting upon our country,
and upon Republican institutions, we
certainly think the events OF the last few
months must open his eyes to the fact.
Look, for instance. at the pitiable specta-
Gle now presented by the present Con-
gress. For over two weeks hat body has
failed of an organization because one diyi-
sion Of the national representatives have
insisted upon consuming the time in de-
nuncialion Of the candidate Of the ma
jority, because he had pleased to recon-
mend the circulation of a work express.
ing the views Of the founders Of the
government. Think of it. For years
Slavery has had a censo at the publica-
ton Offices of several of our religious So
%rieties. who has emasculated every work
that has dared to breathe a word against
the most s%tupendous wrong, the most
hideous sin, that has ever cursed the
earth. And now the Congress of the
United States is called upon to prescribe
the man, however honest, virtuous, able
Or honorable he may be, who dares to
recommend the perusal of a work which,
by facts and figures from the census re-
turns Of the nation, demonstrates the de-
grading tendencies of slave labor, and
calls upon the millions Of -slavehold-
ers to throw off the incubus placed upon
their energies by two or three hundred
thousand aristocrats. This is what MI.
HELPERS work does. The author is a
native of the South, born and reared in
North Carolina, acquainted by personal
observation with all the workings Of the
infamous system and the common objec-
ton to the denunciation Of anti-slavery
men-that of non-familiarity with the
institution of slavery-does not hold good
Ms to his testimony. AS a native OF a
sIaye state he had a direct interest in the
subject. and as a non STAKEHOLDER he pro-
tested against the tyranny under which
his class was laboring. He went to the
record. and demonstrated. by the ~irresis-
lible logic of figures. the demoralizing,
Tie destructive, the anti democratic ten
denotes Of slavery. And he appealed. as
he should have appealed, to the six mil
iion uon-slayeholders whom it degrades,
against the three hundred thousand slave
owners whom it exalts.
And for recommending this work Re-
publicans are denounced in the halls Of
Congress by the whole Democratic pack.
as traitors, as cut-throats, as every
Thing vile, and declared to be unworthy
10 preside over a nation whose mission,
AS declared by its founders, is to diffuse
the blessings Of freedom. The slave
has crushed out almost every ves-
ij.e of freedom at the South. Freedom
ii speech is not to be dreamed of, nor is
of action. or even of thought
Tor not only have men suffered loss of
property and personal injury for reflect.
upon slavery by speech. or for hav-
,ng in their possession anti-slavery books,
,ut they have suffered violence even be-
:ause they came from the North. And
IS If this is not sufficient degradation for
country Boosting Of its freedom, its re-
,ard for mans natural rights, the Con.
,rcss Of the United States is required to {
las the censor, and declare what books
or may not be recommended and cir I
And yet as debasing as is this :
the whole troop Of Northern ]