Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-09-03

o'yio " uEess ana architecture, as there does De
tween Scotland and Portugal, England aud Nag
las, Wales and the Ionian Islands. The cities in
the free "Far West" double, treble, aud quadruple
their population in twenty, sometimes in ten years.
The cities Of the Slave States and The Slave States
themselves, either remain stationary or increase
disproportioually. 10 the Free States all 10 hustle
and activity in the Slave States there is elegant
and drowsy stagnation. The railways in the
North are well conducted. Populous towns, vii
lagos and manufactures swarm and glitter along
the line but in the South the railways are for
the most part observed and illl Regulated. The
land is imperfectly cultivated, and the primeval
forest is more extensive than the farms and plan
tations. The great rivers Missouri and Mississippi
pi run for nearly two thousand miles through a
comparative wilderness ; the reclaimed land on
either side occupies but a very marrow belt and
border Of the illimitabie dominion that man has
yet to rescue from the wild animals. and from the
superexuberant forest and the deadly swamp.
Even in Virginia, ancient enough to have been
called BY the same name when the empire now
known as Russia was called Muscovy, and whence
the swamp and the wilderness have long since dis
appeared, there is an air OF non.progressiveness, if
not decay and desolation.
The traveller from New England and tho other
free states no sooner penetrates into the slave-land
than he sees all around him the proofs that Slave
~ is omnipresent not in the mere appearance Of
negroes at every turn and in all places, for they
are to be found everywhere 10 America. but in the
slovenly cultivation, the want of drainage, the alb
sence of towns and villages in the rural districts,
and the paucity of population even in the largest
cities. Competition-tbe very soul of progress
is scarcely to be found. Where it exists at all it
is only among the retail tradesmen. Thought is
not free. You may talk Of the dissolution of the
Union rs desirable and probable. abuse the Presi-
don't and his ministers, speak i'll of Congress col
~lectively and individually, be prOfane and immor,
al in your speech or life, but you must not say
a word against the %sauctity Of the domestic In
stitution." Rome itself, with its Iader Erpurga-
to'ius, does not act with an effect more blighting
and deadly upon intellectual activity than the
South does when it forbids the expression of opin-
ion on this subject. No Doubt would DO dam
gerous to allow Of free discussion ; as dangerous
as it would be 10 Rome to allow Protestant divines
to dispute publicly with priests and cardinals on
the vital truths of Christianity, or the comparative
merits of Luther and Pope IIildebrand. Slavery
being an admitted fact and an established institu.
ton, it is not to be supposed that those who are
educated in the belief that they profit by it can do
otherwise than forbid, within their own juris lie
ton, the calling of 1t in question, either by zeal
GUS and malignant philanthropists among them.
selves, or by interlopers from New orOld England,
but The fact remains that thought is not free. Con-
sequently, the wings of the Angel of knowledge
are clipped, so that he cannot soar into the empy-
rean or sit upon the clouds. Literature which
cannot attain its full. development under any sys-
TEN of restriction or impeachment whatever, wheth-
er it be theological. political or social, attains but
a stunted and imperfect growth. It loses lite most
generous inspiration, the sense Of absolute liberty.
Il becomes conventional inetead of natural. 1t
gives up to party what was meant for mankind
and. as o necessary consequence Of its thraldrom,
finds it impossible to compete with the universal
literature which knows no such restrictions, and
appeals to the wider audience of oil humanity.
The Slave States have produced some excellent
lawyers, some admirable orators, and come con-
summate politicians and statesmen, but they have
produced no great poet. no great novelist, no
great historian, no great philosopher or metaphys-
ician ; nay, as far as my knowledge extends, they
have not brought forth even one great or eminent
preacher. They have produced a few pleasant
and f%anciful rhymcr, and v~ersifers, both male and
female, and one or two novelists and e~ssayists oil
some ability, but no writer In any walk or depart
ment of literature whom the most adulatory part
izanship or local preference can conscientiouslJ
compare with such names as Bryant, Longfellow
Whittier, Holmes and Lowell in poetry such
historians as Prescott, Bancroft, and Motley
such novelists as Washington Irving and Hsw
thorne or such a philosopher as Emerson-all o
whom are Northern, and the greater number New
England men or Yankees. The leading spirits il
the Slave States are aware of the deficiency with
3 out being aware Of the cause, and cannot as ye
see that there are many things which can be OBJ
tanned without liberty but that a great, anc
wholesome, and fructifying literature which cor
speak trumpet-tong ued to all mankind, and NOV,
the universal heart Of nations, is not among tn
num6er.