The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1859-11-09
Effects OF Northern Philanthropy Up
on Its Objects.

The principal topic employed by the anti
slavery orators of the North to keep together
and stimulate the zeal of an Abolition party
consists in details Of the individual acts oi
cruelty and injustice perpetrated upon one
and another of the negro population of the
South. Did dt ever occur to any body to at
| tempt to estimate how much additional suffer.
ing inflicted upon that class had been the di-
reot effect Of a Southern reactionary feeling
against Northern agitationf Our conscientious
philanthropists have undoubtedly been, and
are now, the cause of woes innumerable both
TO the slave and the free negroes; and it is
more than probable that at this moment more
real suffering falls upon the colored population
of the South through their means than from
all other causes put together.
The statute laws of the various slave States,
in respect to the servile relation, against which
so much has been said and written, are all, or
nearly all, of date subsequent to the inter-
ference of Northern philanthropy. Before
their enactment the master and slave lived to-
gether by mutual consent-the former neither
afraid of losing his property, nor the latter un-
easy and mutinous. lntermeddling from with
out occasioned fears and jealousy within.
The laws are probably mistake, but one that,
under the circumstances, was perfectly natur-
al. That, in great many cases, they are in
convenient and CALLING to both parties, is un-
questionable.
Before the Intervention of Northern philan-
thropy the Judiciaries of the slaveholding
States were remarkable for their tenderness
| toward individual liberty. In this respect, the
Courts of Louisiana, especially, were an ex-
ample to the world. Presumptions were al
ways in favor of freedom, and all claims of
right in shat behalf were listened to, and fac
ilities afforded for their presentation. Now
the case is different: Courts, as if impelled by
the instinct of social selfpreservation, lean to-
ward slavery, and the constructions and pre-
sumpiions are the reverse of what they were of
old. That the effect of this change is slavery
in thousands of individual cases can not be
disputed.
Before attempts were made to perpetuate
slavery by statute laws, emancipation was easy,
and, therefore, frequent. Now the laws dis
courage it, and ha,e made the process as ex-
pensive and troublesome as possible. For
this Northern philanthropy has also the right
to claim the credit; and there are, at this mo-
ment, without question, thousands of slaves,
"groaning in chains" who are prevented from
becoming freemen by this cause alone.
The stringent and hard-hearted laws which
are, from time to time, enacted, and the still
more stringent ones that are threatened,
against free negroes in the Southern States,
have their origin in the same fruitful cause of
danger and disturbance. Their cause is in
fear: just, but perhaps extreme, and seeking
the only means that suggest themselves to
gain the desired security. The negroes are the
sufferers. and their wrongs figure in the Abol-
ition journals as arguments against slavery.
when, in fact, their origin is in no other cause
than the interference of these very journals
and their patrons in matters in which they
have no concern. In short, it is any thing
but gratitude that the negroes owe to the eff
forts of Abolitionists, the only effect of which
has been to increase their burdens, rivet their
chains, and render their bondage more severe
and uncomfortable.-Cin. Enquirer.