The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-13
NORTH AND SOUTH.


agogues to create the impression that the Re
publican party is hostile to the South, and that
its whole aim and object is TO Cypress and in
jure that section of the Union We have habit
ually protested against this cunning effort to
identify the Black Democracy with the South,
as if the terms were Synonymous. The Republi-
cans wage war, not upon the South, but upon
the party, North and South, whose only fixed
principle is the extension and perpetuation Of
Slavery. Republicanism is the deadly foe of
this party, and aims at its overthrow by all
honorable means. We desire to crush the spirit
of Slavery propagandism and we feel conf
dent that, when once overthrow, it viii never
rise again. One defeat will be fatal to it. Let
the Republican party once be invested with the
control of the Federal Government, with men
of ordinary intelligence and prudence at its
head, and it viii be impossible ever after to
rally party in this country on the diabolical
platform Of Slavery extension.
Four years of Republican rule, besides bring
ing in two or three free States, and fixing the
destinies of all the Territories forever on the
side of Freedom, cannot fail to build up power
full and controlling emancipation parties in the
eight Northern slave States. The tendency
towards emancipation in these States is now
strong. The feeling on the subject is not out
spoken, but latent and pervading. 1t is sort
of halfconsciousness which the people have of
their position. They feel that change is COM
ing over them--that Slavery is receding from
them by slow and barely perceptible degrees.
They find new customs, new occupations, new
life, coming into the social fabric with the in
gress of white population from the North and
from Europe, and the egress of the slaves south
wardly. On the Northern border the transform
alton has gone so far as to be recognised, and
it is well understood by all classes that Slavery
has but brief lease of life. The destiny of
Delaware, Maryland, and Missouri, are already
fixed No rational man, who examines their
history and present condition, will fail to see
that in a very few years these States will take
rank as free States. But the contiguous States
of Virginia and Kentucky are beginning also to
recognise their destiny. Richmond, Peters
burg, Norfolk, Wheeling and Lynchburg, the
principal towns in Virginia, are beginning to
throw off their lethargy, and to enjoy unwonted
prosperity Men ask themselves, Why is this
They cannot attribute it to the increase Of Sla-
very, for they see too clearly that Slavery is de-
Ginning They see the slaves transported south
wardly by thousands and tens of thousands !;
and at the same time they find their wharves
and workshops, even their long-neglected fields,
thronged with new and strange faces, white as
their own. In word the Virginians are forced
to confess that their prosperity and progress
are caused By the eflux Of slaves and the in
hux of white freemen from abroad.
A similar state Of things has produced SIM
liar result in Kentucky, where the impression
has become general that the State is eventually
to become free. In North Carolina and Ten
nessee the same causes are operating slowly
and silently, but effectually. 1t begins to be
understood by the people in those States that
Slavery is only a transient phase of their ex-
istence; that it has no permanent abiding
place among them, but is passing, passing
awayl This impression viii every year grow
stronger, and the triumph of the Republican
party in the Presidential contest would Fix the
idea in the minds of the people, and hasten its
realization.
Here, then, is a noble incentive to effort on
the part of Republicans. We shall strengthen
the hands of the friends of Freedom Az oE
pressive yoke Of Federal tyranny, and in place
of it extend to them the helping hand of Federal
influence and patronage.
But the Republican party meditates no inva-
sion of the constitutional guarantees of State
sovereignty. 1t proposes no Congressional or
other unwarranted Intervention against Sla-
very, which, while it would transform our ad-
mirable Federal system into consolidated
despotism would at the same time rally the
friends of constitutional liberty against it, and
thus strengthen instead of weaken Slavery.
Those demagogues who assert the contrary, and
Insist that the Republicans, if successful, will
break down the barriers of the Constitution in
their efforts to abolish Slavery are the worst
enemies of the South. 1t was Just such false
hoods as these which produced the instruction
airy spirit among the slaves of the South in
1856. Southern newspapers which have no
sympathy with the Republican party freely
stated that the negro instructions were pro-
dnced by the exaggerated accounts of the Re-
publican party and its aims, which the Pro-Sla-
very stump orators made in the presence of the
negroes. This charge, made By the opposition
papers in Virginia aud Tennessee, against the
" Democratic orators, that they were respon-
sible for the instructions, was meyer contro-
verted.
We have recently been grati6ed to see to
some extent, in the journals of both parties at
. the South, different spirit, and disposition
manifested to represent the Republican party
truly. They do we'll to take this course. For if,
by persisting iii falsehood and misrepresenta
ton, they bring about another series of insur.
reetions during the coming Presidential con-
test, they will have no one to blame but them
selves. The Southern people should look to
this matter, and keep sharp eye upon the fire.
eating demagogues who are prone to indulge
is denunciations of Republicans as incendia-
Tes, with torch in hand, ready to light the fires
of instruction in every Southern household.
by the people of the South, for they have no
worse enemies. Democratic demagogues were
the incendiaries, who, by false representations
of the objects and character of the Republican
party, in the presence of slaves, induced that
unfortunate class to hope for speedy and
bloody deliverance as the fruit of Fremont's
{ election, and to attempt realization of their
hopes by commencing the work of slaughter
when they learned that he was defeated. IF