New-York daily tribune., 1859-05-19
Of the States 10 less than OF Congress and the Ter
r;tories. TO pass laws for its prohibition.
GOOD OUT OF Evil.

The contest now going on in Virginia between
Messrs I.etcher and Goggin turns. as our readers
are aware, mainly on the question which candidate
is the most thoroughly devoted To the interests oil
the shareholders and to the extension and perpe-
tuity Of the institution of Slavery. The welfare OF
the lab@ring white is left totally out Of the ac
count, the great effort Of Mr Letcher. the Demo
cratic candidate, being to excuse himself for hav-
ing formerly in view Of their interests, regarded
Slavery as social and political evil But this
ectioneerng struggle diseraceful as il Is alike to
the candidates and the State, has at least the adj
vantage Of giving & wide circulation to some views
on the subject Of Slavery. which. however guber-
Material candidates may now find it etpedient TO
turn their backs upon them, ara not less just nov
than they were when those SAME candidates sp-
plsuded and reechoed them. The pamphlet of Dr.
RufDer originally printed in l5i7, and which Cog
gins friends claim that Letcher ndorsed, speaks OF
Slavery a. "a curse more destructive in its effect
than war, pestlence or oppression of rulers, civil
cor ecclesiastical" consuming plague,
black vomit and yellow fever" This very just
description Of Slavery, together with number oi
other selections from the Ruifner pamphlet, en-
bracinp. no doubt, all the most pungcnt parts of
il. has been printed in tract by Goggin's state
Central Committee" with the injunction on the
first page "Read aud circulate" and by the efforts
os tbst Committee has been Gown broadcast over
the State. Some Of this seed we trust, may fall
On GOOD ground, where it viii bring forth hum
dredfold
Nor is Mr. Letcher himself wanting in the same
good work. He insists indeed, that ne was convert
ed to the doctrine that Slavery is political and So
ca good as long ago a. 1917 and he most strenuous
" denies having had hand in circulating theRufner
pampblet: but in an address which he has just pub
lishcd. 10 the people of Virginia, he excuses his
heresies of l8i7 by quoting from an agricultural
address delivered about the same time by Mr.
Bruce of Halifax County, himself large slave
holder, and from the stin later declarations OF
Robert T. Scott, another distinguished Viz
pina Shareholder, in which Slavery is
treated with quite as little ceremony as in
the Ruffner pamphlet. "It," says Mr. Bruce,
"the slaves we're removed from Virginia
"and North Carolina, We should soon have dense
"population which would give schools to our chill
"dren, market to our farmers, and those rail-
roads which we now clamor for, but which our
poverty and sparse population place far beyond
"our reach Now that all other avenues are 80
seduousy closed through which the people of
Virginia can be addressed on the true character OF
Slavery, it looks almost Proyidential to see the
Goggin Central Committee employed in circulating
the Ruancr pamphlet, and Mr.. Letcher simulta-
neously occupied in bringing to notice tho just and
sound suggestions which Mr. Bruce could no longer
himself utter without danger of being lynched.