The Yazoo Democrat. [volume] (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1858-18??, 1859-02-26
TIE North AND SLAVERY.

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THE NORTH AND SLAVERY.
Never was there a greater mistake than that
which obfusoates the vision of Northern men in
their views of African slavery. Of course the
masses there are entitled to some respect for the
honesty of their belief but the politicians cannot
be too strongly reprobated. They must be aware
of the fallacy and the criminality of abolition
doctrine, but they have become so corrupted as to
feel no conscientious qualms in sacrificing truth
and principle upon the altar of personal aggran.
dizement. The common people of all countries
as a whole are never actuated by other than pat
rotic impulse and real sentiment. But those Of
the North have been taught erroneous doctrines
with regard to.slayery, and as all people are fond
of excitement, their politicians have successfully
labored to arouse a UrtuouS Indignation against
slavery in free country. The people stop not to
examine tic logic and reason of their representa-
TONS but greedily receive for truth all falsehoods
which keep up the fires of passion and excitement.
Hence are they profoundly convinced that slavery
is a blot upon our flag and a disgrace to our
national fame. Politicians see that emoument
and place reward the error they knowingly pro-
mugate, and they allow their ambition to rear its
colossal form above the ruins of their virtue.
These, "who know the right, yet still the wrong
pursue" alone deserve the reproach and the
hatred of the South But, it matters not to this
section whethert be wilful malice or fanatic error
which actuates the people of the North if they
both equally tend to the destruction of its institu
ton or its equality in the Union. 1t behooves the
South to defend herself alike from the injurious
effects of frenzy or premeditated evil, and to
shatter the Union into atoms before she yields
one jot or title of her rights to either.
The people of the North, besides the mistaken
impression which they have received of the treat
ment of Southern negroes by their owners, have
arrived at an erroneous conclusion by neglecting
to take caste and capacity into their reflections
upon slavery. The reading men of all countries
who have given the subject anything like unpre-
JUDGED attention must by this time be convinced
of the black mans incapacity of self-government,
or the enjoyment of freedom. 1t is incontestibly
shown that the normal condition of the African
is barbarism, and that wherever he is his own
master he is in, or rapidly tending to, the savage
state. He has no conception of political freedom
or the magnanimity Of patriotism nor is he capable
of any. The extent of moral and mental devel-
opement to which he can attain is in state of
slavery, and in that condition can he enjoy the
greatest amount of happiness which his inferior
organization will allow.
In fact, as a slave, taking his natural instincts,
his morals and his bluntness of perception into
consideration, it is question if the African is
not really in better condition, so far as personal
comfort and happiness is concerned, than any
other race. 1t is true that he is not allowed to
act fully in accordance with his own wishes and
desires but he has no appreciation of freedom,
nor has nature given him any of that spirit of
independence and resistance to oppression which
make his letters CALLING, An Anglo Saxon would
be perfectly wretched were his actions confined
by another's will, but the negro was intended to
fall under the dominion of superior, as is clearly
shewn from the fact that he has never accom-
plished anything to his own or the advantage of
mankind except in servitude. Nature does
nothing without purpose and she never purposed
that the African should always continue naked
denizen of his native glades useless to himself
and to the world. 1t was intended that he should
fall under the dominion of the whites, and this is
clearly indicated by his utter unftness for any
other situation, and the utter impossblity of eUer
fitting him for any other situation
He is found to be very useful on our Southern
plantations. ana nearly useless anywhere else.
The Southern plantation is clearly the place, then.
for which he was intended and it is good sense
and good morals to keep him there If the North
ern people think it unbecoming our national
character the let the MOI thern people cut loose
from us-we have no objections. But while they
do stay with US let repel the idea of their self
assumed guardianship over our morals. Let them
answer for their own sins and we will answer for
the institution of slavery But if they still persist
in attempting to undo this section by cramping
and combining slavery with the hope of its eventual
emancipation, then let US quit them, and see if
we cannot subsist without Brother Jonathan and
at the same time preserve and protect our institu
ton.
Yankee surveillance over the conscience of
Southern freemen ought to be more prom pity re-
sented than it appears likely to be-more espe-
eially since the success of their avowed efforts
would inevitably involve the entire destruction of
the prosperity, the wealth and the independence
Of this section.