New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-03-12
sLAVK-BURNiNGs.

worth while to set them right when 10 error. Two
mistakes. however, as matters of history, were
made in the debate in the House on Wednesday,
both of which it is as well to correct. Tbs first
was an admission by Mr.. Van Wyck Of this State
that witches were once burned at the stake 10 New
England. New-Epgland, we beg leave 70 inform
the House, never did any such thing. She hanged,
and possibly drowned, about two hundred years
since, Soho of those wretched persons whom she
relisously believed possessed of the devil. But she
long ago. fortunately gave over that habit other
WISE as Mr.. Van Wyck might have retorted upon
his opponent Boston or Salem would at this day
be an unsafe visiting place for some Southern Mem
bers of Congress
The second mistake was that of Mr.. Davis OF
Mississippi and was Of grayer character, nasmuch
az it referred to the present century about which
is to be supposed he knows something, rather than
to a remote period, concerning which slight mac
curacy is pardonable. He denied with much warmth
that slaves were ever burned TO death at the South
Nor Was the statement allowed to 60 forth upon bis
| una!ded testimony. Mr.. Gaftrell of Georgia con-
sdered the assertion that such acts were ever per-
petrated libel upon the South, and pronounced il
false and uniounded. We have to set both these
gentlemen right, regrettng at the same time that
we cannot give them the benefit Of the qualification
we admit in the other case for while we acknow-
edge that New England hanged her witches, we
maintain that she has pretermitted that custom.
But the South, we shall show, has not only quite
recently burned her slaves at the stake, but we
have no doubt, under similar proyOcation che will
| do so again.
We may further premise by saying that we are
surprised AZ the excitement and indignant denial of
this fact by the Southern members Burning nn-
dOubtedly is a terrible death, but in the course Of
human affairs it often happens that individual SUI
fering is necessary to the general good. These
gentlemen would seem to admit by the warmth OF
their resentment that an acknowledgment Of the
| charge would be confession of the wrongfulness
of Slavery. Impatient men are apt to be illogical.
1t is not that Slavery is wrong because of such
atrocities, but such acts are atrOcious because
Slavery is wrong These are the necessary az
cessories of the SYSTEM and are to be defended as
such, like any other proper though severe, penalty
which attaches to every wel-ordeIed and legitimate
organization of human society. Our objection to
cruel, though the fact of the uniform cruelty which
is needed TO sustain it is subsidiary argument
against it. We are not the less gratifed, however,
to see this disposition of Southern members to test
the rghtulness of the system by its humanity, and
we proceed to facts.
Our first witness is a Mr.. Poe native Of Rich
mond, Va, and alterward resident of Hamilton
No ,bara ha I'D rutn
elder in the Presby terrain Church In a letter,
written about twenty years since, upon the subject
of Slavery, he says: " In GoOchland County, Vir-
" ginia, an Oyerseer tied slave to tree, logged
" him again and again with great severity, then
"piled brush around him. set it on fire, and burned
" him to death. The overseer was tried and in
"prsoned. The whole transaction may be found
on the records Of the Court"
The late John Parrish OF philadelphia, an eminent
minister of the Society Of Friends, travelled through
the Slave States, on religious mission, early ia
this century, and on his return publisheda pamphlet
entitled Remarks on the Slavery of the Black
"Peope." Among other instances of cruel punish
ment he states that a slave was burnt to death at
"a stake in Charleston, surrounded by multitude
"of spectators, some of whom were people of the
"frst rank; the poor object was heard 10
"cry, as long as he could breathe, not guity-nOt
"guiltJ?
| In the year 1885, man of color was arrested in
| st. Louis for some ofense bu. was rescued by one
Nacklntosb, free man of color, asteward on board
| steamboat. On his way to the jail, in order to
effect his escape, he stabbed and killed one Of his
| captors. The wife and children Of the murdered
man excited the rage of the people by their lamen-
talions the Jail was surrounded the murderer de-
handed, and given up. He was led into the woods,
on the then outskirts of the city but near the spot
where the Court-H alterward built, brush
wood and green wood was piled about him, and fire
ct TO the heap in presence Of a concOurse of two
or three thousand of the citizens of st Louis The
DOR wretch was from twenty minutes to half an
hour in dying, during which he was praying or
singing hymns in calm voice. When his legs
were consumed, the trunk disappeared in the baz-
Dg pile. "Therer said bystander, sit is over
with him; he does not feel any more now" "Yes
Z" do" answered steady voice from out of the
flames.
A correspondent Of The Cincinnati Herald, in
July, ls45 writes to thatpapert that not long BEFORE
some slaves near Oakland Cottage, Mississippi,
were emancipated by the will Of their master. Fol
some reason, the will was not carried out aud the