The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1859-11-02
The Abolition Demonstration at Har'
per's Ferry.

t The Abolition Demonstration at Har
per's Ferry.
! We continue to-day the publication of de
tails OF the recent hostile demonstration Of Alb
| clifton incendiaries in Virginia
Ehey reveal but too truly the fact that tn,
pot was the premeditated work Of prominen
leaders Of the anti-Southern organization
which We regret to know has obtained supre
MACY IN nearly every Northern State, and il
pushing forward its columns with unparal
telled energy for fastherconquests
the movement shows that the chiefs o.
that Organization, who have heretofore boast
ed Of their reliance upon speculative philoso-
ply ior;success, have at length resorted to
physical agencies. The appeal is now to
bloody passions and to strong arms; to pew
der and bal, and bayonet. -
yThe same so-called "Enigrant Aid Socie-
ties which were osgpnized at the inszance of
the Sexards, and Tkayers, and Greely's who
control the Abolition party, to overrun Kan
ooo WIN VI GluottNCIo diiA
drive off unoffending Southern men, furnish
ed the materials which were.employed to pre-
cipitate and to carry forward this insurrection
to its bitter end. And this affair, it is now
demonstrated beyond the possibility of a
doubt, is part of the general system of war
fare which has been commenced upon the in
stitutions, the peace and the safety of the
Southern States. This is the word of COM
mand which Seward, the generalissimo of his
party, has given:
" = \ 1t Slavery can and must be abolish
ed, and you and | must do it X Correct
your own error that slavery has constitution
al guarantees which may not be released, and
ought not be relinquished. + You will
soon bring the parties of the country into an
effective aggression upon slavery
The response to this order is heard in the
midnight deed at Harper's Ferry.
But are we told that the organs in the inter-
est of the anti-Southern party, do not approve
the conduct of Brown and his immediate fol :
lowers? We might content ourselves with
the reply that they themselves have taught
the doctrine which the Harper's Ferry out
laws have sought to put in practice. They
have taught that African slavery is blot up
on the page of American civilization-that it
ought to be eradicated-and have ncuicated
lessons of disobedience to the constitution
and laws that were designed to give it protec-
ton. But not all of those journals so far dis
guise the real feelings of their conductors as
to pursue with reproach the unfortunate vic
tins upon the affairs which they have raised.
The New York Evening Post, second to no
other journal of its ilk in ability and infu-
ence, finds ready apology for their deed
This is the style of comment in which it in
dulges
Passion does not reason; but if Brown rea-
soned and desired to give public motive to
his personal rancors, he probably said to him.
self that "the slave drivers had tried to put
down freedom in Kansas by force Of arms,
and he would try to put down slavery in Vir-
ginia by the same means Thus the bloody
which they taught return to
plague the inventors. They gave, for the first
time in the history of the United States, an
example Of the resort to arms to carry out po-
Iitical schemes, and dreadful as the retaliation
is which Brown has initiated, must take their
share of the responsibility. They must re-
nemuer tnaJ tney accustomed men, IN Jnelr
Kansas forays, to the idea Of using arms
against political opponents, that by their
crimes and outrages they drove hundreds to
madness, and that the feelings of bitterness
Il tbYr, bovo
kled in the heart Brown has made himself
an organ Of these in fearfully significant way.
No one can think of the possible results OF
an outbreak Of this kind, should it become
general, without shuddering, without calling
up to his imagination the most terrible scenes
Of incendiarism, carnage and rape. In nearly
all the Southern States the negroes greatly
in number; many of them, it is
true, are too ignorant and stupid to take any
effective part in an insurrection; others, too,
are profoundly attached to their masters or
their families; but these excepted, there are
yet thousands able and willing to strike for
their emancipation. 1t has been impossible to
keep them in entire ignorance of the blessings
of freedom, and Of the possibility of attaining
it by force Of arms; the fugitive slaves OF the
North have found means Of communicating
with their old comrades; the abolitionists
have spoken to them by pictures if not by
language; Democratic orators have told them
falsely that the entire North was engaged in
crusade against the South for the sake of the
slaves; and as servants in the cities, they have
heard the talk of the parlor and bar-room, and
in innumerable other ways have been made to
think and to desire. When the hour comes,
they will not be found either so in
capable OF so docile as the slave holder seems
to suppose.
But what condition of society is that in
which one half the population constantly me-
1aces the other half with civil war and murder
in which the leading classes 90 to sleep ev-
cry night, carelessly, it may be, over the cra-
ter of volcano, and in which the dangers do
not lessen, as in other societies, with time,
1ut grow with its growth, until an explosion
becomes as inevitable as the eruptions Of Etna
" Vesuvious! What a condition of society,
o be extended over the virgin territories of
he West-the seat of our future empire-and
or which politicians should clamor and scar
heir consciences and desperadoes should fight.
Thus is the leader of the movement held up
" an influential Black Republican Journal as
prosecuted avenger of his wrongss and
rain Of Misrepresentation (not argument) is
ndulged to justify his acts! But what else
ould hare been anticipated by those who are
cquainted with the language and temper of
he Black Republican agitators? The truth
tares us boldly in the face, and we dare not
ook away from it. that they have sown the
;eeds of disaffection, rebellion and disunion-
md the harvest is almost ready for the scythe.