The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-12-15

| production of the State. The immediate cause
of danger soon passed away and was forgotten
in the uninterrupted and unprecedented career
of prosperity which the institution has enjoyed
The noble and patriotic aspirations of the en-
| lghtened few were either repented of and
atoned for by subsequent labor in the cause OF
Slavery propagandism, as in the case of Mr..
Faulkner, or else were permitted to subside
into oblivion, amid the victorious shouts of tri-
umphant Democracy and Slavery.
But again, in the midst of the highest pros
perity, the South is startled as by fre-bell in
the night, with the cry that all is not well. The
former alarm was caused by an actual insur-
rection of slaves, and yet, great as was the ter
ror of the people, we believe that it was not
equal to that which brings unrest to every pill
low in the Old Dominion at the present time,
when the attack on the institution is made by
twenty white men, with no apparent concert
with the slaves. What other State under heaven,
which is free from the curse of Slavery, could
be so completely alarmed and agitated by such
cause? 1t is equally unjust to the Virgin
ians, and unreasonable, to attribute their alarm
to cowardice. They have reason for a degree
of vigilance which to the outside world seems
ridiculous and that reason lies in the inherent
weakness and danger of state of society which
tolerates Slavery. The immense clamor which
has been made by the Virginians over this
seemingly Insignificant affair at Harpers Fer
~, the large military force which has been
called out to insure the execution of the Of
tenders, and the extensive and thorough prepa-
rations which are in contemplation for the de-
fence of the State, all proclaim to the world, in
the most emphatic manner, the consciousness
of the Governor and people of Virginia that
Slavery, to borrow the language used by Mr..
Faulkner in 1882, is the bitterest drop from
the chalice of the destroying angel"
Then, why does not Governor Wise have the
manliness to say so, and recommend the only
certain remedy, viz measures preparatory to
emancipation? Why has he not recommended
important ameliorations of the slave code, such
as the legalzation and guaranty of the mar
rage relation 1t is said that the South will
not be driven by the North into any policy re-
garding her domestic affairs. By no means /;
but she should be driven by reason and justice,
and the demands of a sound policy. These con-
siderations should move her, without the slight
est reference to the opinions prevalent in the
the free States; yet, it is simple fact, that the
adoption of the policy we have indicated would
do more to conciliate Northern hostility to Sla-
very, and restore Southern politicians to the
confidence which their predecessors enjoyed
north of Mason and Dixon's line, than all the
compromise schemes which have been project
ed during the last forty years.
1t is the essence of folly to persist in refusing
reforms demanded by reason and justice, and
dictated by an imperative regard to the public
safety, because such measures would be graft
flying to the North, even allowing the people of
that section to be hostile to the South, which
we are far from doing. If the North be in re-
atty hostile to the South, is it not the highest
dictate of policy that the latter should strength
en- itself at home, by conciliating and attaching
the negro population?
The civilized world is against Slavery as it
exists in the South. England, France, Ger
many Italy, the Northern States of Europe,
including Russia, the Northern States of this
Union, together with the British provinces are
all sternly against Slavery. Are not these rea-
sons why the South should soften the lot of the
negro, and give him an amor patrie, of which,
as Mr.. Jefferson says, Slavery has deprived
him? In the present crisis of the South, we
call the especial attention of her statesmen to
the following eloquent passage in Mr.. Jeffer-
sons Notes on Virginia With what execra.
ton should the statesmen be loaded, who, per.
hitting one-half of the citizens thus to trample
on the rights of the other, transforms those into
despots and these into enemies, destroys the
morals of the one part and the amor patriG
of the other; for, if slave can have a country
in this world, it must be any other in prefer
ence to that in which he is born to live and la
Dor for another; in which he must lock up the
faculties of his naturc-contribute as far as de
ponds on his individual endeavors, to the
evanishment of the human race or entail his
own miserable condition ON the endless gener
atoms proceeding from him." Oh, Mr.. Wise
never invoke the name of Jefferson again, Will,
this load of execration rests upon you. i
it not prophecy? and are you not now fulfilling
it by your apostacy to the principles of thu
| great dead of the Old Dominion