The Yazoo Democrat. [volume] (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1858-18??, 1859-02-19
CORRESPONDENTS OF THE DEMOCRAT.
LEBANON, Tenn, Feb 3D. 1859


injury lately on account Of the misrepres ntation
in many Southern papers, of the position Of the
members OF its faculty on the subject Of slavery
Judge Green, particularly, has been the target
against which the darts were directed. You re-
member that some time ago he wrote letter to
the American Tract Society, in which he said that
in one sense, slavery was a social, moral and
political evil. Judge Yancey, of Alabama, gar
bled this part Of the letter, and, without taking
time to compare ii with other portions of the
same communication, his heated imagination soon
magnifed it into a monster. Judge Green's own
able exposition of his sentiments, in an article
subsequently written and published, is think
sufficient to exonerate him from the charge OF
unfaithfulness to the South and her institutions.
But the charge, false and unfounded as it is, still
obtains circulation i'll some Of the papers of the
Union, and increasing as is usual with such
rumors, in geometrica progression, the faculty Of
the Lar School, at large, are now held to be the
culprits of the South and the pets of the North.
The Students who are connected with this
School-who listen daily to the instructions Of
almost every subject of Importance that the mind
can conceive of, both in conversations on the
street. ana at their private board, have the best
opportunity, and consequently are best enabled to
form correct conclusion of the opinions of the
faculty on any subject whatsoever. have there
fore thought it not improper if ia fact it was not
my duty, to endeavor to disabuse the minds of
those who have suffered the Southern alarmist,
Judge Yancey, to brighten them into the belief Of
so improbable a story MS that men so high in pub
lie confidence, and welding such an amount of
influence, as the Professors Of Law in Cumberland
University, are tinctured with abolition or free
soil principles. will not allude to Judge Green's
well-known letter, and the yels of alarm raised
by Judge Yancy after its publication, nor to the
decisions of Judge Green while on the Supreme
Bench of this State, in which he had ample OPP
portunities to display his enmity. if any he had.
towards the rights, dignity and fair name of the
south, but which nevertheless uniformly show an
unwavering devotion TO them all. will merely
present you with synopsis, taken as well could
could from memory, of some remarks made before
the students of the Law School on yesterday, at
the opening of the new session, by Judges Caruth'
rrs aud Green. in which they incidentally touched
upon the comparative standing of the North and
South, in respect of education, talents and power.
Judge Caruthers was of opinion that the South
was as much superior to the North IN the talents
Of her men, a. the North was to the South in
population. 1t was universally admitted he said,
that superiority of intellect gives sovereignty to
nations, as it does to inyiduas; that the educated
must rule The uneducated. And if this be true
it is gross but common error to suppose that the
North Is better educated than the South, for the
men Of the South have directed the councils Of
the nation almost from its birth If we turn our
eyes towaris the Executive department we find
that of the y years of our constitutional exist
ence-including the administration of Mr.. Buc1-
anan-48 have been administered by Southern
Presidents, and according to southern policy, and
only "a by Northern Presidents and that all but
8 years Of these n we're directed by Southern
policy.
lie remarked that our ascendlncy in the Judi
cial department was not les striking. When had
the North produced such legal prodigy as Chief
Justice Marshall of Virginia? 1t is true that
Northern lawyers have written the books, but it
was after Southern lawyers had expounded the
law for them that Marshall came to the Supreme
Bench about 1901, and both before and after
Story reached the same position, in 1872, he was
the acknowledged oracle of the Court; that Mar
shall reasoned out every case from the funda-
mental principles of the law, without labored
search for previous adjudications to guide him.
1t was Story's work to support Marshals argu-
ment by cases, and to write the book that if
SOuther lawyers had as much of that cursed
hunger for pernicious god' as those of the North,
they would find little difficulty in chrystalizing
their thoughts into Books, aud exposing the
products of their minds to sale. In a later day,
MarshalPs place almost supplied by Chief
Justice fancy, son of the South, whose learning,
as evinced in recent case which attracted the
attention of the whole nation, places him far
above his Northern brothers on the bench.
Judge Caruthers then adverted to the Legisla-
tive department of the government, and showed
that nearly all the important and valuable politi
cal measures ever adopted we're the product of
Southern brains that although we we're greatly
in the minority in both houses, we have been able
to rule by the superiority of Southern intellect
and education that the North was constantly
shifting its representatives, but those of the South
generally remained, the venerated Nestors of our
National Council.
He observed that the South had ooncusively
proven that she was able to take care of herself
by having for so long time taken care Of the
whole Union; that if the North was cut loose
from the South, she would be like a ward who
had lost his guardian He said that our superior
ity was derived partly, perhaps, from our climate
but principally from the peculiarities of our
institutions; that in every progressive govern
ment there must be an arist6cracy of come kind J;
that the North had none. but that of the South
was an arstocracy Of color; that it was this case
between the white man and black man, which,
while it did not degrade the negro below his orig
nal level, infinitely exalted the white man in his
feelings. his resolutions, his thoughts, his nspira
tons that it gave his imagination boldness to