Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-12-16
The South Enraged.

Y The South Enraged.
# "Whom the gods would destroy they fir
8 make mad" The idea advanced in th
f provcrb, that destruction is the result {
' madness, is in the main true. We fear it
e true of our brethren at the South. The
are mad, and they are bringing certai
{ destruction upon themselves. And like othe
madmen, they imagine that every other perso1
, who is not mad is foe, deadly foe. The.
have been shown the curse Of slavery
thousand times--they have looked upon it
hideousness in a thousand different FORMS
and yet they hug it closer and closer to theil
bosoms. They call it blessed institution
an institution recognized by divine law-and
hold their own sons and daughters in bondage
They cry with one voice, "Traitor!' if Q
Northern man dares to utter word in pro.
testation; and a Northerner's life is not safe
if he ventures upon Southern ground, (unless
he be "Northern man with Southern prin.
ciples,") because, forsooth, they fear his
errand may be to secure passengers for the
Underground Railroad, or because he may
venture to assert in quiet way that he thinks
slavery is damaging institution.
But the crowning act in their madness, AZ
yet, has been the execution of Old John
Brown. In their frenzy, they indicted him
for treason, murder, and melting insurrecton,
and tried, convicted and executed him on
these charges, when he was really guilty of
neither. He led twenty men down to Harper's
Ferry-he took possession of the U. S. Arsenal
Gas Gov. Wise had threatened to do in the
contingency of Republican President being
electcd); took number Of prisoners; and,
when forced to fight, he and his band killed
few Virginians. Yet he avowed himself
altogether averse to the shedding of blood.
lie treated his prisoners with the greatest
possible courtesy and kindness, and they were
constrained to acknowledge that they received
neither insult nor injury at his hands.
Throughout the whole tragic affair, he was
the only party who maintained his dignity.
His speech before the Court in Charlestown
was the only calm and sensible thing in the
whole trial; the jurors who rendered the
verdict were wild with excltement-the Judge
and the bar were crazy for the time. He was
consistent till death. He made no compro-
misses with the sworn enemy Of his life
slavery-and, when in its power, bore all its
tortures unhinchingly as martyr. And, in
the words of the New York Tribune, slavery
killed him. He firmly believed that he was
right--he died in the belief-what but this
constitutes martyrdom? So he was, after all,
a martyr to his opinion IN a free country.
But one victim will not appease the wor-
shippers of the black god, Slavery. They
desire to have more. And where else should
they look but to the North for fresh victims?
A common citizen is not now acceptable
they want gray-headed old Congressman
nothing but the head of Joshua R. Giddings
will serve as their next sacrifice. They want
his head because the tongue in it has been
powerful weapon to sceurge Slavery and its
worshippers. The North has heretofore
yielded assent to the wishes Of the South, and
is expected to do so hereafter. Why not,
then, furnish other John Browns for the
halter and the altar?
But the free people Of the North are deter
mined to maintain their own rights, and leave
the wrongs of our country to those who are
responsible for them. If the South will not
have the corruption removed from her borders,
she must suffer the consequences, and the
North must see that she does not spread it
over the free domain of the nation. The
"signs of the times" show that the South is
becoming more and more exacting, while the
North is becoming stronger in the determine
ton to restrict slavery to its present limits.
The time has come for Northern men to
think because it may be that the time is
near when they will have to act. If the
advance of free institutions Is checked by
slavery, it will be only when freemen have
ceased to be freemen-it will only be when
they prefer slavery to freedom.
Republicans only claim that slavery shall
be restricted to its present limits; they deem
it great wrong, which should cease; but
they would scorn to meddle with the ''insti.
tuition" except by legal and fair means. Re.
publicans, be cool and calm; think right, and
prepare to act right; and if the South, in hel
madness, seeks self-destruction, you may
then wash your hands of it.
The DEPORTATION ScHBME-Senator 7ru'a
bulls Nieacs.-In the Senate, on the Sth inst.
, Mr.. Trumbull, of ILL.,, made a lengthy speech