The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-03-08
Senator Davis Reply 70 Senator Seward
upon Nerthern and Southern Society.
IExfractal

uPOn Nerthern and S0uthern Society.
lExtracta.l
There is nothing, Mr.. President, which has
led men to greater confusion Of ideas than this
term Of "free States" and "slavs States - and
l trusted that the Senator, with his dis:rimi-
mating and logical mind, was going to give M
something tangible. instead Of dealing in
but what was his phrase! 'Capital States
and Labor States" And where is the STATE
in which nobody labors! The fallacy upon
which the Senator hung adjective after adjec.
tive WAS, that all the labor of the Southern
States was performed by negroes Did he not
know that the negroes formed but a small part
Of the people Of the Southern States Did he
suppose nobody labOred there but a negro,
If so. he was less informed than l had pre-
viously believed him to be. Negro slavery ex.
lists in the South, and, by the existence Of ne.
gro slavery, the white man is raised to the
dignity OF freeman and an equal. Nowhere
else Will you find every white man superior to
menial service. Nowhere else will YOU find
every white man recognized 50 far as an eu uaI
as never to be excluded from any mans house
or any mans table Your own menial who
blacks your boots, drives your carriage, who
wears your livery, and is your own in every
sense or the word, is not your eq ual and such
Is society wherever negro slavery is not the
suDstratum on which the white race is ele.
waited to It's true dignity. We, however, have
no tneory 70 press upon you; we leave you
to such institutions as you may prefer; but
when you assail ours, we come to the vindica-
frss%sn f1s yosP phrases are false that we are the
But the Senator in his zeal depicts the negro
slave Of the South as human being reduced
to the condition of mere chattel. Is it pos
slble that the Senator did not know that the
negro slave in every Southern State was still
Il person, protected by all the laws which
punish crime in other persons Could the
senator nave failed to know that no master
could take the life of or MAIN his slave with
out being held responsible under the criminal
laws OF any Sou thern State and held to a re-
eponsibitty as rigid as though that negro had
been white man ! How then, is it asserted
that these are not persons in the eve of the
law, not protected by the law as persons! The
venerable Senator from Kentucky knows very
well That this is not law in any State Of the
Union where slaves are held, but that every
Where they are protec ted: that the criminal
law covers them as perfectly AS il covers the
white man. Save in the respect of credibility
as witness, there is nothing
MT Crittenden.-lh have not made any par
tcular examination as to the laws Of all the
slave States but believe they all con tain the
provisions for the protection of slaves that
are alluded to. In my own State of Kentucky,
am glad TO say, they 60 much further; and
the slave there, who is cruelty treated by his
master, may make an appeal to the court Of the
county In which be lives, and upon proof of
the cruelty with which he has been treated
the court may take ham from MS maste, and
sell him to a more merciful one. That is the law
of my State.
Mr. Davis.-Several Southern Senators
around have spoken to me to the effect that in
each of their States the protection is secured.
ana suit may be instituted at common law
Tor assault and battery. to protect negro rs
we'll as white man. The condition Of slave
ry with us is, in Il word, Mr.. President moth
ing but the form of civil government institu-
ted for a class of people not fit to govern them
selves. 1t IS exactly what in every State exists
in some form or other. 1t is that kind Of con-
troll which is extended in every Northern
State over ITS cOnvicts, lunatics, minors, and
It's apprentices. 1t is but a form of civil gov
eminent for those who are not fit to govern
themselves We recognize the fact OF the in
teriority stamped upon that race Of men by
the Creator, and from the cradle TO the grave,
our Government, as civil institution, marks
that inferiOrity. In their subject and depen-
dentstate, they are not the objects OF cruelty
that they would be if left TO the commission Of
crime, lncarcerated in penitentiarieS and
work houses, and put under kind overseers,
having no interest in them and no relation to
them, no animation, growing out of the assoca-
tions Of Childhood and the tender care of age.
Is there nothing of the balm needed in the
Senator's own State, that he must needs 20
abroad to seek objects for his charity and
philanthropy What will he say of those
masses in New York now memOrialiZng for
something very like an agraran law! What
will he say to the throngs of beggars who crowd
the streets OF his great commercial emporium!
What Will he say to the multitudes collected
IN the penitentlarles and prisons of his own
o.
licy and propriety of the institutions of other
States; assume not to judge of their fitness.
1t belongs to the community 20 Judge and
know not under what difficulties they may
have been driven to what l cannot approye
but never, sir, in all my life, have seen any,
thing that so appealed to every feeling of hui
manlty and manliness, as the suffering OF the
poor children imprisoned in your Juvenile
penltentiaries-l imprisoned before they were
old enough to know the nature Ofcrime-there
held to such punishment as we never iufiict
save upon those of mature years. l arraign
you not for this; know not what your crowd
ed population and increasing wants may de-
mand l know not how far crime follows in
the footsteps OF misery; know not how far
the parents have become degraded, and how
far the children have become outcast, and how
far it may have devolved on the State to take
charge of them butI thank my God, that in
the state OF society where l reside, we have no
scenes SO revolving as these.
Why. then, not address yourselves to the
evils which you have at home Why not con-
fine your inquiries to the remedial measures
which will relieve the suffering and stop the
progress OF crime among your own people b
the mote in your brothers eye, is it to be
wondered that we turn back and point out the
beam in your eyesl'
TERRIBLE TRAGEDY IN ARKANsAs--Two
Men and a Woman hung by a Mob.-The Mem
phis Enquirer gives the particulars of most
bloody tragedy, which was enacted in Court
land county, Arkansas, near ST. Francis river,
on Thursday and Friday Of last week The
Enquirer says:
On the night of the 2lst ult., a man named
Robinson was shot through the window and
instantly killed by some person on the outside
of the house. When the diabOlcal deed was
committed, as was erwards ascertained, no.
body was in the house with him but his wife