Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-02-18
THE PECULIAR INSTITUTION.

n correspondent VI 'hc wa N"''N
signing himself c. G. n writes to that
paper from Florida as follows
1--WE can't help such things. Missus'
Poor Simon, to whom we had been indebted
for many a strong pull at the oar and choice
fruit from the orange grove, had just return
ed from journey of two hundred miles to
visit his wife during the Christmas holidays,
but without his cheerful smile and jovial
laugh. A lady of our company rallied him
on his looking so sober, and soon learned
that the poor fellow had lost his journey.
His wife had been taken to Louisiana. 10
the lady's expression Of sympathy, he replied
ave can't help such things, Missus;" but
days after she was singled out as the object
of such little attentions as Simon could bes-
tow The fact speaks for itself.
A few weeks since, family of our ac-
ouantance, to rcplenish an exhausted purse,
sent of young women to Charleston in
the expectation, it is supposed, of fancy
price The notice week ago in one OF the
Charleston papers of a girl Of fourteen, sold
for S2050, shows that such an expectation
was not unfounded. Such instances of sale
are not uncommon, such separation OF famil-
les, and the breaking up of home ties, be-
long to the necessities of the system.
Southern apologists. the abominatlons of the
slave-system are not being done away. Some
few Christian minds may have been aroused
to livelier sense of the Importance of rell-
gious instruction for the blacks, some few
resolutions discussed by clerical synods in
regard to the separation of families, and the
greater sanctity THE marriage relation; but I,
persisted in against all the best instincts of
our moral nature, the spirit Of Christianity,
and the light which northern agitation has
thrown upon it, the evil is only waxing
worse and worse. With some exceptional
cases of kinder treatment. and a regard Tor
their religious wants, based often purely on
economical grounds. and carefully paraded
before the public, the bondage of the slaves
is becoming more and more severe, possibly
from the greater infusion of white blood a.
mong them. Since the utmost care is taken,
and often with success, by interested persons,
to conceal from Northern visitors the
grosser features of the system lit requires time
to understand and in any Just degree appreci
ate its enormity. Yet what better than low
vices can be expected of a people in whom
every sentiment of enterprise and independ-
ence is stihed, and all hope of lettering their
condition done away; who studiously
kept in ignorance and superstition, and ex-
posed to the greatest temptations, to lie, to
steal, deceive, and the indulgence OF sensual
passion 1t is in view of facts like these,
and when hear it complained on the part
of some of the best Christians, that it is next
to impossible, under the most favorable cir
cumstances, to guard their servants from il
licit intercourse, and sec that marriage when
contracted among them is SO lightly observ-
ed,-the colored woman in many instances
= ..( 10 .,,1, Gt.Nr
years of degradation as mstress-that be-
gin to apprehend something of the moral
condition of the colored race, and the hor-
rid blasphemy that pirates of slavery as a
great Christian institution and wonder at
the grace that gathers it's trophies even from
such an horrible pit and miry clay.
But it is upon the whites, that the evil re-
coils, with even greater and more terrible
force, in Just retribution it would seem, upon
their voluntary blindness, and the impious
attempt to Justify such system by the
Bible We might fairly expect, that all
genuine religious sentiment, even the suscep-
tibility to religious emotion. would be eaten
out and nothing be left but an outside show
of decencyand morality.
sneak not of the thousands of poor whites
called Crackers, many of them so degraded
as to be the contempt Of the save-strangely
preserved asa witness to the falsity of the
charge of native inferiority made against
the colored race-nor of the better class of
poor whites, obliged to depend on slave labor
without owning slaves, ruinous as is their
condition in social or economical point Of
view, but Of the Shareholders themselves.
They are really to be pitied next to the slaves,
as placed in circumstances so untavorable to
the culture of the better instincts OF humani-
ty, and the formation of true Christian
character either in society as whole, or IN
the individual. The temptation thrown in
the way of the young, especially of the
passions, are simply frightful The number
scathed, is fearfully small. Dissolute, lcen
tious young men, meet you at every
turn. And these are the young men
whom virtuous and highly educated ladies
must marry if they marry at all. These are
the men to constitute happy households OF
all classes, black or white, the condition OF
the women in the family of the STAKEHOLDER is
the most deplorable. One cannot help hon
oring Jessie Fremont for her earnest remon-
strances to save the homes of California from
the pollutions of slavery
There are yet some in the South who have
not bowed the knee to Baal, some earnest
Christian men and women, who long TO De
rid of the burden that is crushing them in
ruin, who rebel against the tyranny OF the
laws forbidding instruction and emancipa-
ton, and against the the theories OF politi-
clans. But when the church through its ap-
pointed leaders defends the system from the
Bible, and artiul demagogues take up the
weapon thus offered them, shall we wonder
that so many are becoming blinded into a
conscien tious defence of a system that thus
ministers to their selfshness. The process
of Generalization is rapidly going on. But
the confusion of moral ideas, of the service
of God and Mammon, is not yet so complete
but that the conflicting elements can easily
be distinguished.
The letter closes with an article from the
Augusta Despatch OF the 18th Jan, in which
the editor rejoced over the recent inporta-
ton of Slaves direct from Africa. in defiance
of the laws of the L. States. We gave that
article to our readers soon after it appeared.
RECIPROCITY TREATY SKIP CANAL'-lhe
Boston Board of Trade have made an elabo-
rate report upon the effects of the Reclproci-
ty Treaty on trade between the United States
and Canada. The Report argues in favor
of Free Trade between the United States and
British North America.
According to the Report of the Secretary
of the Treasury, on the finances for the year
ending June 80, 1858, we have exported to
the British provinces great deal more than
we have imported from them during the last
seven years.
Exports from 1852 to 1858 inclusive are
as follows
Domestic, SlO7 ,S59,739
Foreign, 45,606,357
Total, Sl52, 9G6 ,O96
Imports, 96,S06,5 l7
Excess Of Exports $50 1854