Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1859-12-20
sTAUNTON, VIRGINIA. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20 1859.

mssacres, the merciless tortures, the abomina
tions not to be named by Christian lips in the
hearing of Christian ears--some OF which, TOO
unutterably atrocious for the English language,
are Of necessity veiled in the obscurity OF the
Latin tongue Allow me to read you few SEN
teDces from the historian of these eyents:-
SIN the town itself the general belief for some
time was that the revolt was by no means an
extensive one, but sudden and partial insur
recton only. The largest sugar plantation, on
the plain was that of Mons Gallifet situated a.
bout eight miles from the town, the negroes be-
longing to which had always been treated with
such kindness and liberality and possessed so
many advantages, that it became proverbial ex-
preston among the lower white people, in speak
ing of any mans good fortune, to say, 1t est heu
reuc CONNIE un negre de Gallifet, Che is as happy
as one of NJ Gallifet's negroes.) NJ. Odeluc, an
attorney or agent for this plantation, was o
member of the General Assembly, and being
fully persuaded that the negroes belonging to it
would remain firm to their obedience, determin-
ed 70 repair .hither to encourage them in OPP
posing the insurgents; to which end he desired
the assistance of q few soldiers from the town
guard, which was granted him. He proceeded
accordingly, but on approaching the estate, to
his surprise, he found all the negroes in arms on
the side of the rebels, and (horrid to telD their
standard was the body of white infant, which
they had recently impaled on stake Mr.. o.
deluc had advanced too far to retreat undiscov-
cred, and both he and friend who had accom-
panied him, with most of the soldiers, were
killed without mercy. Two or three only OF
the patrol escaped by flight, and conveyed the
dreadful tidings to the inhabitants of the town.
'.By this time, ALL or most of the white per-
SONS who had been found on the several plants
tions being massacred or forced to seek their
safety in flight, the rufians exchanged the sword
for the torch. The buildings and caneields
were everywhere set on fire, and the conhagra-
tions which were visible from the town in q
thousand different quarters, furnished prospect
more shocking and reflections more dismal than
fancy can paint or the powers of man describe"
Such, sir as q matter of history, is servile
insurrection. Let Us take glance at the state
of things in the Southern States, co-members as
they are with us in the great republican con-
federacy. Let US consider over what sort OF q
population it is that some persons among Us
think it not only right and comnendable, but 10
the highest degree heroic, saint-like, God-like
to extend the awful calamity which turned St.
Domingo into heap of bloody ashes in 179l 81
There are between three and four millions OF the
colored race scattered through the Southern and
Southwestern States, in small groups, in cities,
towns, villages, aud in larger bodies on isolated
plantations; 10 the house, the factory and the
field; mingled together with the dominant race
in the various pursuits fife; the latter amount
ing in the aggregate to eight or nine millions, II
rightly recoect the numbers. Upon this COM
munity, thus composed, it was the design OF
Brown to let loose the hell hounds OF servlle
insurrection, and to bring on q struggle which
for magnitude, atrocity and horror, would have
stood alone in the history of the world. Zap
plause.) @
And these eight or nine millions, against
whom this frighttul war was levied, are our fell
low.citizens, entitled with US to the protection
of that compact of government which recognizes
their relation to the colored race-a compact
which every sworn officer of the Union or of
the States is bound by his oath to support. A
mong them, sir, is fair proportion OF men and
women of education and cuture-or moral and
religious lives and chsracters-yirtuous fathers,
mothers, sons and daughters, persons who would
adorn any station of society, in any country i;
men who read the same Bible that we do, and in
the name of the same Master kneel at th Q throne
of the same God, forming class of men from
purest characters which adorn our history
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Mar
shall. These are the men, the women, for whose
bosoms pixies and rifles are manufactured in New
England, to be placed in the hands of an igno :
rant subject race, supposed, most wrongfnlly, as
recent events have shown, to be waiting only
for an opportunity SO use them. Applause. i
Sir, | have Oh three or four different occasions
in early life and more recently visited all the
Southern and Southwestern States, with the ex-
ception of Arkansas and Alabama. / have en-
joyed the hospitality of the city and the coun-
try; have had the privilege before crowded
and favorlng audiences to Eold up the character
of the Father of his Country and to incucate the
blessings of the Union, in the same precise terms
in which have done it here, at home, and in
the otherspo rtions of the land. as
have been admitted to the confidence of the
domestic circle, and have seen there touching
manifestations of the kindest feelings, by which
that circle, in all its members, high and low,
master and servant, can be bound together, and
when contemplate the horrors that would have
ensued had the tragedy on which the curtain
rose at Harpers Ferry been acted out, through
all its scenes of fire and sword, of lust and mur
der, of rapine and desolaton, to the final castro
phe, am filled with emotions to which nc
words can do justice. There could of course be
but one result, and that well deserving the
thoughtful meditation of those, if any such there
be, who think that the welfare of the colored
race could by any possibility be promoted by the
success of such movement, and who are will
ing to purchase that result by so costly q sacri-
fee. The colored population of st. Domingo
amounted to but little short of half a million
while the whites amounted TO only thirty thou
sand. The white population of the Southern
| States alone, in the aggregate, outnumbers the
colored race in the ratio of two to one; in the
Union at large in the ratio of seven to one, and
if (Which Heaven avsr) they should be brought
into conflict, it would end only in the extermin
alton of the latter after scenes of woe for which
language is too faint, and for which the livelies
! fancy has no adequate images of horror. Such
being the case, sume one may ask, why does moi
the South fortity herself against the possible oc
currenoe of such catastrophe by doing away
with the one great source from which alone il
eau spring2 This is a question easily asked
and am not aware that it is our duty at the
| North to answer it; but it may be observed
that great and radical changes in the framework
of society, involving the relations OF twelve mil
lions of men, will not wait on the bidding of an
impatient philanthropy.
They can only be brought about in the lapse
of time, by the steady operation OF physical, 9.
economical. and moral causes. Have those, who
rebuke the South for the continuance of slavery,
considered that neither the present generation
nor the preceding one is responsible for its ex.
istence2
The African slave trade was prohibited by &C;
Of Congress ffty-one years ago, and macy years
earlier by tue separate Southern States. The
entire colored population, with the exception
perhaps, of few hundreds surreptitiously intro.
duced, is lative to the soil. Their ancestors
were conveyed from Africa in the ships of Old
England and New England Loud applaus