The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1860-02-24
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
NUMBER 9.

judgment Of the shareholders. / have been
familiar with this class Of people all my life.
Born and reared among the farmers Of Ken
lucky, deriving all my early notions Of do
mestic relations from q race exclusively Vir-
ginian, while my public life has been deyo-
ted to Missouri, and that Of my father with
whom feel that have always lived, al
though apart from him) spent between tho
two great slave States of the Potomac, can
not be ignorant Of the character and views
of the most prominent and important Glars
of the commanding slave States. The deca-
dence Of those great States is not to be as.
cribed to the character OF its principal citi-
zens, but to the fault of the institution with
which they have labored. The worlds his
tory does not show better racc Of men than
the farmers Of the States to which l have al
luded. They are of the best stock Of that
middle class that built up the glory Of the
country from whence they came. They in
herit the sterling common sense, tho beneyo-
lent feeling, the firm temper, the lofty spirit
that led the way TO the civilization Of this
Continent. They have never, and do not
now, look upon slavery rs a good to DO
sought by rapine, aud dragged by cruelty to
our shorcs-but rs an evil thrust upon us,
producing the difference in the prosperity Of
the North and South visible to every eye
They are not the disturbers of the peace Of
the Union. They do not wish to abandon
the fertile regions Of the South which now lie
open to slave labor, tho greater portion yet
untouched, TO force II on Territories which
should be reserved for the free white race
among them, deprived Of occupations, and
the means of maintaining foothold in their
native soil, from which slavery, II it contin-
ues, must ultimately remove them. They do
not favor fresh importations, q policy which
must hasten this exile OF the FREQ white race,
reduce the value of slave and landed proper
ty, rendsr II more difficult TO dispose OF, or
TO retain adantagcously. Least OF oil do
they desire to dissolve the Union, either to
extend slavery, or Us an experiment to make
more sure the institution where 1t now exists
in peace.
The non-slavcholdcrs areof the same strain,
vigorous in mind and body, brave, law-abld-
ing and patriotic more disposed to suffer
while evils arc suficrlblc, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which
they are accustomed. They will continue to
endure the oppression that the presence Of
slavery obliges them to encounter. while
bare subsistence is attainablc; ; while "hunt-
ing, fishing, and occasional jobs" or little
tenements held ut will on wasted field, or
the wilderness among the hills, supply food,
they may submit to their fate like stoics in
despair but when they are driven generally
to the other alternative. which Mr.. Ham,
mond, the most distinguished Senator Of tho
South, pointed to rs the last, but not un-
usual, resource in South Carolina, that Of
"seducing the slaves to steal for their sup
port" | think there will bc danger Of con-
vulson. A class already driven to the cx-
tremities by slavery, which have been 80
depicted by Southern men OF the highest
distinction, and which have recently, in
Louisiana, led to the appointment OF Vigil
ance Committees and Lynch law, to drive
them from neighborhoods to which they had
become offensive, would hardly bear the in
nux OF new hordes Of negroes from Africa.
This would make the price of labor 80 low,
that the utmost industry of the white laborcr
would not yield bread to family. IL would
compel them oil to take refuge in the Peon-
age system Of Mexico, where the whole Ia
boring population receive food and raiment
from the landholder, and, as debtors, bind
themselves and families to his estate, TO work
out constantly accumulating debt, making
the bondage hereditary; or drive them at
once from their native land to the Territories
for now homes, where il is proposed to follow
up the kings colonial system for the South,
and pour in successive cargoes Of Africans to
swarm in the Territories ~ create new slave
States, and subject the white laborcrs there
again to the alternatives already described
by their own members Of Congress. The
non.slayeholders OF the South, constituting
nine-tenths of the population, excluding
slaves, cannot, when they undertand Ii,
consent to the policy Of propagatng slavery
with such fatal results to themselves much
less would they, knowing il, contribute to
severance of the Union TO effect this object,
by lending themselves to the attempt to drive
n Republican President from station, the
influence of which he will exert to give them
and their children homesteads in the rich
regions of the West, thus securing them
from the cncroachment of slavery.
The shareholders are combined toa man
under the leaders who undertake tho cham
pionship of their cause. They arc we'll
aware, however, that the maniacs who made
the late foray at Harpcr's Ferry, and those
who approve it, consist Of mere handful.
Proof that the shareholders themselves, while
the Abolition concOcton has been bubbling
up in its efierycscencc constantly, have never
felt an apprehension, is found in the fact that
slave property has been always rising in
value in the face of false alarms. The mine,
and all. its underground preparations, the
work Of years Of cloquencc and stcalthy effort
on the part of the very few who favor such
schemes, arc ut last laid open by an ex-
plosion. Old Brown, the First Consul Of
the embryo Republic, is sent to Elba in a
condition never to return the rest OF tho
grand army have found Beresina in tho
Potomac, and now, after the obsequies, sol
ders are springing up from dragon's teeth
along the Southern borders, and consterna-
ton is in every countcnance looking out for
the ghosts Of enemies. Docs any man believe
that this terror, in tho hitherto unterrihcd
commonwealth, is real9 IL Is nothing but
n niece of fine acting-Kean in the Tart Of
Richard on the field OF BoswOrth. Tic
dramntic efforts work wonders on tho igno-
r,nt and. while the dcclaimcrs continue 10
apnall the ear with the outcry that the Black
Republican party Of the North are in tho
Mot. that they will elect President TO stir
up the negroes to instruction, and that they
propose to wrap the South in the flames Of
civil and servile war, tho value of all the
property OF this doomed region continues to
increase, and tho STAKEHOLDER knows and
feels that his falsely accused party adverse
ries at the North, with their President IN
power, would move down, ir necessary, tho
whole force Of its millions OF frcemcn, 70 put
down insurrcction at home, or invasion from
abroad. There needs no better testimony
to this fact than the trumPct-mouthed pro-
clamation Of Southern men 10 congress, that
tLa eommnndino party in the FREQ States