Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-04-15
A SOuth-Side View of Slavery, and
Am Answer.
MOBILE, March oath, 1859.

MOBILE, March oath, 1859.
Mn. JOHN MAHIN "A friend of mine sends
your paper to me. am much pleased with
it, but object to the little paragraphs about
slavery. | think that part is out of place.
If you could convince the people Of the slave
States that negroes would be more happy free
than in slavery, you would be looked on as
being a great man. l have considered the
institution thoroughly, and am of the opinion
that the majority of the slaves are happier
than white persons. They are generally
treated well, and have plenty of leisure have
but little care on their minds, cared for when
sick, and in every respect NOR, prosperous in
the United States than in Africa. There are
no slaves brought to the United States except
those that were slaves before coming here,
and the American master is more humane
than the African master. They are bought
in Africa for bushel Of salt, plug of
tobacco, or piece Of calico, each. Some of
the Africans own one, two or three hundred,
cultivate large fields, and, when they take a
notion to sell, they sell half or all, and let the
crop go to destruction. In Africa, they are
not half so well-fed or clothed as they are
here. Taking it altogether, am Of the
opinion that they could not be civilized in
Africa, but in the United States they may be
taught economy, and learn to be Of use to
themselves and to the whites. II. w.
We omit the name Of our Mobile reader, lest
he should meet the fate Of the lady whom we
saw by one of our exchanges, few days
since, was warned to leave her residence for
daring to write letter to one of her Northern
friends scarcely more abolition in character
than this letter Of our correspondent. As
this letter contains about the whole of the
argument of our Southern friends in favor of
-the peculiar institution" we propose to say
few words in reply, hoping they will be
received by our unknown friend in the same
kind spirit in which we have considered his
letter.
First, then, as to the happiness view of the
subject. Admitting, for the sake of argument,
what we know from personal observation in
some Of the Southern States is not the fact
that the bodies of the negroes are always well
cared fort seems to US that that is a very
poor compensation for sitting the soul. 1t
seems to US that one of the worst of all the
bad influences Of slavery is that it can taxi
men with God-made souls, Qor, be it under
stood, We have no sympathy with that view
of our race which assumes that the Devil is
the maker Of everybody since Adam, } and, as
compensation for deliberately effacing all
likeness to the image of their Father-in
whose image He makes them-give them
bodies as fat and as sleek, if you please, as
were those of the fat kline which Pharaoh saw
in his dream, and keep the miserable victims
satisfied with this transformation. If our
friend will look into that Book which is by
many in his section thought to be the best
authority existing for slavery, he will find in
the last verse of the first chapter of Ecclesi-
astes this great general truth-"For in much
wisdom there is much grief, and he that
increaseth knowledge increaseth SORROW"
From this we learn that the true mission of
men in this world is not to be happy in the
sense of our correspondent. A hog is a
happy animal, viewed from this stand-p point
much happier than the happiest slave of
the South. Hasn't hog as much leisure, to
say the least Of it, as the slave who has most +?
Whoever knew man who loved pork to treat
a hog otherwise than we'll ?-and then, as to
care on his mind, who is more careless than
he? But does it follow, from these indis.
putable facts, that it were better that all men
were hogs.
So much for our respectable friends logic
Now for his facts. When he tells us about
the slaves in Africa, and about all that are
brought here having been first slaves there,
he shows US his profound unacquaintance
with the most everyday facts of modern
travel in Africa. We would urgently recon-
mend to our friend the perusal of Barth or
Livingstone, as means of correcting his
knowledge Of Africa, but from the considera-
ton that we know he would be in danger of
spending a few years in the penitentiary if
there were found in his possession book
containing such remark as this, which we
quote from Livingstone, page 80, Harper's
edition: 81 can never cease to be most
unfeignedly thankful that 1 was not born in
a land of slaves. No one can understand the
effect Of the unutterable meanness of the slave
system on the minds of those who, but for
the strange obliquity which prevents them
from feeling the degradation of not being
gentlemen enough top pay for services rendered,
would be equal in virtue to ourselves. Fraud
becomes as natural to them as paying ones
way is to the rest Of mankind" We beg our
worthy correspondent to remember that this
is Livingstone's language, and we quote it
here as warning to him not to be found with
his Book in his possession within the bounds
Of the States where the peculiar institution"
exists, lest he should find himself suffering
the penalties enacted against "incendiaries'
and ''incendiary publications." We trust,
however, that our good friend will come to
Iowa, or some other State, where it is not a
crime to read and circulate the Bible or any
other book, and post himself up little better
than he seems to be posted now on Africa.
Meanwhile, we hope he will continue to read
the Journal, and let the light that shines from
its columns have full course. We will, more
over, be very happy to hear again from our
in Mobile, whose manner
appears to be that of frank and candid gen.
tleman, and to lay before our readers fully
and fairly the South-side view of the subject,
as it appears to his eyes down in Alabama.
ANOTHER LEAK IN THE TREASURY. On the
eve Of the adjournment of Congress, (says
the Louisville Journal,) Senator johnson,
Arkansas, succeeded in fastening upon the
Indian Appropriation Bill an amendment
$4,000 for the purpose of
Gonna ch;lJrav, 10 kLo,.