New-York daily tribune., 1859-12-27
HELPERS CRISES.

Il there anybody simple enough to believe that
one person len Of those who are clamoring against
this book ever looked between its ids What is
this book; whence did il originate; to whom is it
addressed; and what are its drift and object Be-
fore answering these questions it may be well to
state that there are two issues of the wOrk-the
original, containing 42o pages, and compendium
of pa pages. II is the latter which has been
recommended for circulation by members of Con-
gress ard others.
]. Mr.. Helper, the author of this work, was
born and bred in North Carolina He belongs, BY
origin and sympathy, to that class of Southern men,
numbering some five millions, upon whom the three
hundred and fifty thousand shareholders are wont
to shower such opprobious epithets as " Poor
Whites" "White trash who don't own mig
GERS" &c.
ii. His book is addressed exclusively TO this
elass Not line of ii is intended for negroes,
bond or free; lot single paragraph is adapted to
their condition. Whoever ssserts the contrary has
either not read the work. or, if he has, fool and
can't understand it, or knave and willfully misrep-
resents it.
Iii. The main drift of this production is all eab-
crate and careful comparison between the effects Of
free labor and slave labor as exhibited in the past
and present condition of the Northern and South
ern States in regard to Agriculture, Manufactures,
Mechanic Arts, Commerce, Education, Newspa-
pers, and cognate matters 1t is largely made up
of tables and statistics compiled from the last
tonal csnsus. In demonstrating the superiority
of free labor to slave labor it rarely trenches upon
the moral aspects of the subject but confines itsef
chiefly TO the politcO-econOmica bearings of the
question, making it pretminently a compilation of
facts and figures, with which quarrel would be
as bootless as with the nine digits or the mutpca-
tion table.
" Its main object is to arouse the non-save-
holding whites to a sense of their depressed con-
dition and to the assertion of their proper moral
intellectual and numerical weight in shaping the
destiny of the Southern States. Despairing of aid
from the small, aristocratic slayeholdng class in
throwing off the incubus that retards the prosperity
of that section of the Union, the author calls upon
the greet mass Of the whtes-the non.slaveholders
the real demOcracy-to arise and consummate
the good work by making Southern communities as
free industrious, intelligent and wealthy, as their
Northern neighbors.
Now, it ia these appeals to the non-slaveholders
which baye aroused the bterest ire and the greatest
claInor agnst the book, its author and its readers
Doubtless Mr.. Helper has used some sharp words,
and recommended some stringent measures
Among other modes Of breaking down and bringing
10 their senses an odious oligarchy, which has SO
long crushed aud despised and used him and his
class, he advises the non-slavehoders not to vote
for Shareholders buy their wares, resd their
newspapers, nor hear their sermons, but to set up
candidates and shops and journals and preachers of
their own. And he recommends his brethren 10
organize for this purpose Undoubtedly his
plan of operations would prove to be more
eiectusl than charitable; embodying more of the
sharp practice OF this world than of the liberal
spirit Of Christianity. But, it must be remembered,
that the writer belongs TO and is addressing those
who have long been under the financial, political,
social and educational ban OF their naughty neigh
bors; who have always been systematically e1.
clrded from posts Of honor and emoIument; who
are prevented, by public opinion stronger than
law, from owning and cultyating the soil, because
they cannot or will not buy and work negro sIayes
Whether the modes which this work proposes for
throwing of the domination of the ruling class OF
the South are the best that can be devised we do
not care Eow to inquire. We are explaining rather
than advocating the authors plan. He and those
whom he addresses are the sufferers, and they are
entitled to a candid hearing. They are Southern
men, who look at the evil from their own stand
point know precisely where the pressure is severest
ond win be apt ultimately to discover the weak
links in the chain that gals them. Let them write
read reflect, and act in their own way.
That the aristoerscy of the South fear such an
uprising Of the white democracy as this book sug-
gcstS, Is apparent in every shrek Of terror uttered
in Congress, sad through the slavehoding journals
sDd the seryile echoes in the North. As "the pen
- is mightier than the sword" 30 Rowan Helper,
armed with lsets and figures, calling upon the FIVE
millions Of non-slayeholders TO Iise and take pos
ession OF the Southern ballot boxes, is far more to
be dreaded BY the Slavery PrOpsgsndists than
thousand John Browns, armed with pixies and rifles,
urging ignorant negroes TO escape into the Free
States This s an insurrection which the laws are
impotent to supprcss-the insurrection of the mind
and eonscience-s rising in which the insurgents
viii not eat their masters throats nor FIRE their
dwellings, but ia the guiEe OF accepted sutors win