The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1859-10-05

Tvs AiH'OJ 40 SSAhdlilH, NIIibC "NlhSh
and these, as a rule, are our mothers, sisters,
wives and daughters. Such are the odious
and demoralizing facts
A GALLANT PEoPLE--sCRUB ANGELS.
We are proud people We arc gallant
sagacious and powerful people. But while
boasting our gallantry, sagacity and power,
we voluntarily suffer most detestabie and
pernicious lack of menial servants. Such a
spectacle; the spectacle Of such people suf-
fering such privation, and yet enjoying the
means of relief, has in history nowhere par
allel, no, not in the blushing annals Of ancient
Roman provinces or modern British colonies
As if toaggravate it, the priyation is horne too,
not because we think it ought tn be, but be-
cause the deluded, despotic and meddling mob
Of another section fast growing into an over
pewering and aggressive majority, tell us in
insult to our sacred honor that relief is wrong
and that while our negro labOr-system is Il
moral evil soon to be ended, our negro labor
supply is malignant felony never to be be-
gun. And yet we are proud people. But
what will not proud people suffer rather
than resist How long will not proud and
daring people be wronged rather than right
themselves But our history will show our
priyations and patience. Our history IL
the spirit of the last ten shall be the spirit Of
the next ten years, we will have no history, or
if we have, it shall he by the new and puSil-
luminous historian, who from abject sympathy
with craven, compromising, submissive and
turnkey nations will write the Decline Of the
Roman Empire the Conquest Of Greece and
the Downfall of Poland. And yet we are a
gallant people; we adore woman; to us she
is next to divinity our woman worship is
Just above our hero-worshp and Just below
our God worship We treat the true lady
not as a subordinate, like the Asatics nor as
coordinate, like the people of Europe and
the United States North, but as a super-ordi-
nate, a superior being, a little lower than the
Angels, and crowned with glory and honor
But yet in sixty-nine out of every seventy
families we make our household angels, cook
and scrub. That is hardly the Caucasian wo-
mans mission Her mission is hero making
or since hero is nothing more than great
and good citizen, woman's angel mission as
some think, is to breed heroes, and this divine
duty is but to inspire citizens to be as great
and good as possible. Yet if our hero-makers
are nothing more than drudge-angels, cook
angels, and scrub-angels what must our he
roeS be
MENIAL MOTHERS AND SUBMISSIVE SONS.
We are gallant people, but are we gallant
enough to relieve our ladies If we can
honorably procure menials, can we honorably
refuse We Of course cannot. But perhaps
honor is not State consideration. Yet if it
were, as it should be, the only State consider
alton; then ours would never be the lickspit-
tie policy Now, however, it is, and although
we are a proud people, chivalric, magnani-
nous and impetuous, our past policy has been
to lick the spittle squirted on our boards and
kiss the polluted boot which kicks our cring-
ing bodies, and thus to doubly dishonor by the
acting of the kiss and the suffering Of the
kick even the disguised leather Of a vile and
coward calf. But perhaps the mothers of such
submissive, such servile sons, ought to be me-
malls; and perhaps such servility, such sub
miSsiyeness as our sections citizens have
shown would too deeply disgrace even mental
mothers. Perhaps we have been so yielding,
so compromising so hopeful, so patient as
scarce to be fit sons to craven cooks, or fit
bridegrooms to mean and filthy chambermaids.
Yet after all, are we servile because our moth
ers are mental or are our mothers mental, be-
cause we are servile There can scarce be
cool doubt; the facts are the proofs, and the
principle is true; mental mothers make servile
citizens. But our servility is doubly base, be-
cause we are submissive not to sage and sol
der king worthy of our loyalty, nor to breed
of noble bloods worthy of our homage, but to
an insulting, usurping and ravenous rabbe,
who are our fellow-citizens in all but fellow
ship and our brothers in all but brotherhood.
Let US remember that there is a communion
without unity, fellowship without equality,
,fpo fbo
Northern majority our brothers Cain was
Abels. Are they worshipers of our Christ :?
So was Judas Iscariot. Are they our friends !?
Brutus was Caesars. Are they our fellow
citizens So was Benedict Arnold. Their
communion is a conspiracy, their amity is en-
nifty, their philanthropy is misanthropy, and
their fraternity is fratricide. Let then the
great argument for the African Labor Supply
be the argument against the servility and for
the nobility of our citizens. And let us hope
that when our ladies, no longer household
drudges, have been exalted to more dignitied
and inspiring offices, and when stout and will
ing negro wenches to whom our kitchens in
sixty-nine out of every seventy families
would be hotel where they might fatten, a
school where they might learn and a church
where they might worship, shall scrub our
noS ScraPe go Sc pts and rinse our linel,
and e our wives but look well to the ways
of tho household, and our gray mothers in
old ann chairs beside the fire, bring the light
of other days around them; then when our
States are driven to despair, and our young
girls not house scullions and scavengers but
muses. for lore, graces for health and furies for
pluck, shall have rapturously crossed their
spirit, blood and beauty upon our young and
patriotic desperadoes Drawn and brain then
may be born and trained to camp and capitol,
the breed of golden mouths and iron back
bones, takers at once and fighters, but never
compromisers. And if the mothers of such
sons would make them masters of their coun-
try's emergency and defenders against their
country's ruin, let the babies whose blood is
thin and face is white, be sweetly and piously
smothered with wet towels, or strangled be-
tween the thumb and finger for such pale imps
make compromises, but let all such as slapt,
slap back all gallant brats whose crow is like
the cocks shrill clarion and whose look is like
the lions, have flags for wrappers, powder
boxes for cradles, drums for rattles, and for
common playthings, pistols, pompoons, ram
rods and scabbards, and let them play most
with the rod that they may long for the rifle,
and most with the scabbard that they may
prize the sword Soon swords only can save
us and if the spirit of compromise still is
the spirit of our citizens, soon the sword will
be no saviour.
EVERY MAN A MASTER. THE RESTRICTED La
Dor SUPPLY.
What then is the objection that the African
Labor supply will injure us the poor citizens?
The objection is groundless. The fact is that
every poor family in our community needs
negros for menials sixty nine out of every
seventy families need household drudgeS.
This need is general, active, pressing, crush
ing, degrading and ruinous. 1t is such that
the true statesman in order to supply only
poor citizens and relieve their ladies, would &C
accept the African labor supply SO restricted
that none but menialS should be introduced.
The true statesman would do this, because a res
tricted labor supply is better than no supply.
If not single cotton hand is introduced if
none but the descendants Of our present force
should ever be cotton hands, still menialS are
such relief te our poor citizens and their
families as to authorize the lawful supply
Our maidens and mothers must not be meni-
ais; evory man master a servant for every
citizen; cheap cooks cheap chambermaids
worthy work for worthy wives the white
bows brain and the black boys brain; the
negroes good will and the masters good skill;
the masters interest, the test of progress
such should be the notices and the brave
battle cries of the worthy war, the eloquent
campaign which our citizens ought now to
wage.
REsTRICTIoN-THE PROVIso.
But is restriction practical measure p
Can the African Labor Supply be so restricted
that only menials shall be introduced and our
cotton force not directly or indirectly increas-
ed? Nothing is easier. Trade restriction,
regulation of employment, limitations of labor
ers have again and again been the standing
practice of governments. Only judicious leg |
islation is needed. A statutory proviso that !
all Africans and their descendants, here, shall !
he restricted to menial service or extra labor, |
and shall not directly, indirectly or by sub |
stitution become cotton hands, will prevent |
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