The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-08-18
A GOOD SIGN IN THE SOUTH.

The following appeal to the white working
classes of Tennessee was made on the eve OF
the late election, by the Nashville Banner, the
leading Opposition paper:
woRKINGNEN, READ AND HAND TO YOUR
NElGHBOR!
! We have shown that there is a fanaticism
prevalent among the Southern Democracy de-
grading to FREE WHITE LABORING
MEN-that they have been characterized as
"GREAsY," "FILTHY," and "sMALL-FIsTED."
as /" struggling to be genteel," as " unfit for as
ISOLATION qcib gentlemanS 6odg-Sercant."
The opinion has been proclaimed by South
ern Democratic journal, that " SLAVERY Is
THE NATURAL AND NORMAL CONDI-
TION OF THE LABORING MAN,
WHETHER HE BE WHITE OR BLACK"
There is a pregnancy in these facts which
should arrest the attention Of every working
man in the South. He should reflect before he
votes to sustain this Democratic party whether
he is not encouraging a sentiment whose tend
ency is to degrade him to THE LEVEL OF
THE NEGRO SLAVE.
We present this morning an extract from
another prominent Democratic paDer in the
South, which should confirm these apprehen-
sons. The sentiment of this last extract
blazes out a path which, if followed, might
L
BORING CLASSES to what these aristocratc
Democrats consider their natural and normal
condition." viz SLAVERY"
POOR MEN, ATTENTION
Hear the Richmond Examiner. This paper
during the Presidential election of 1856, said (:
awe have got to hating everything with. the
prefix FREE, from free negroes down and up
through the whole catalogue farms,
FREE labor, FREE society, FREE WILL FREE
thinking, FREE children, and FREE Schools
all belonging to the same brood of damRaGie
iSnlS. But the worst of all these denominations
is the modern system Of FREE SCHOOLS.
The New England system Of free schools has
been the cause and prolific source Of the inf
delities and treasons that have turned her cities
into Sodoms and Gomorrahs, and her land into
the common nesting places of bowling Bedlam-
ties. We abominate the system, because the
SCHOOLS ARE FREE"
Down with the FREE SCHOOLS, says this
Southern Democrat. WhaHare the free schools
of the country? They are the means by which
the children of the poor man are enabled to OBJ
tain an education, and fit them for liberty, and
teach them how to oppose insdiOus assaults
which would reduce them to Slavery. Educa-
ton and intelligence are the landmarks of civil
liberty and free institutions. 1t is "a system of
free schools by which the POOR MANS CHILD
acquires these blessings. Ignorance is the bane
of liberty. and the effectual bar to emancipation
from the shackles of Slavery.
The promotion of the former among the la
boring classes will preserve their social and pc
Htical equality, and their rights as freemen.
The abolition of free schools would deprive
them of these inestimable privileges and fit
them to be the dupes of demagogues and the
slaves of the rich.
Beneath the benefcent operation of a liberal
system of free schools, the son of the humblest
man in the country may rise to rank with him
who has been nursed in affluence he can
aspire to the high places in the land. He can
become the champion of the class from which
he sprung. be can vindicate their rights and
privileges, and extend the influences of Gov
eminent and of society to the amelioration of
their condition.
Shut him out from this privilege, and he is
all his days toiling drudge. developed in the
darkness of ignorance, he is fit material to SUBJ
ject into Slavery. When it becomes necessary,
in order to avoid the evils of free society, he viii
then be in condition to make slave Of