The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-12-19


nay occur among the races which are now
snacting the great drama Of history all such
inquiries are totally irrelevant because no pro-
phetic vision can pierce the darkness of that
luture. II this question should ever arise.
the generation to whom it is RENTED viii
doubtless have the wisdom to meet it, and
Providence will furnish the lights in which It
is to be resolved. All that We claim Tor them
and for ourselves is liberty to work out TINS
problem. guided by nature and God, Without
Intrusive interference from abroad Ihese
great questions Of providence ana HISTORY
must have free scope for their solution !; ana
tha raca whose fortunes are distinctly lmpilca-
,tasl =, The same Is alone authorized, as It IS
siS,,s .on,netent To determine them. 1t Is
;netsstbis impertinence of human Legislation, |
sstf;,o haands TO what God only can regulate
tb 49, he South is called this day to resent and
res;st The country is convulsed simply be-
eanse ..the throne of iniquity frameth mischief |
hv a law Without, therefore, determining
the ouestion of duty for future generations,
s;mpiy say. that for US, as now situated, the
duty is plain of conserving and transmitting |
the system OF slavery, with the ireest scope |
for its natural development and extension
Let US, my brethren, look our duty IN the
face. With this institution assigned.to our
keeping, what reply shall we make to those
who say that its days are numbered? My
own conviction is, that we should at ones lift
ourselves, intelligently, to the highest moral
ground and proclaim to all the world that we
hold this trust from God, and in its occupancy
we are prepared to stand or fall as God may
appoint. If the critical moment has arrived
at which the great issue is Joined, let us say
that, in the sight of all perils, We will stand
be our trust and God be with the right!
The argument which enforces the solemnity
of this proyidential trust is simple and con-
densed. It is bound upon US, then, by the
principle of selEpreservatior, that first law"
which is continually asserting its supremacy
over others. Need pause to show how this
system OF servitude underlies and supports
our material interests That our wealth
consists in our lands and in the serfs who till
them That from the nature of our products
they can only be cultivated by labor which
must be controlled in order to be certain
That any other than tropical race must
faint and wither beneath a tropical sun Need
/ pause to show how this system is interwo-
ven with our entire social fabric That
these slaves form parts of our households,
even as our children and that, too, through
relationship recognized and sanctioned in
Must pause to show how it has fashioned
our modes of life, and determined all our
| habits of thought and feeling, and moulded
| the very type of our civilization How then
can the hand of violence be laid upon it with
out, involving our existence The so-called
| free states of this country are working out
| the social problem under conditions peculiar
/ to themselves. The conditions are sufficiently
/ hard, and their success is too uncertain, to
excite in US the least jealousy of their lot.
With teeming population, which the soil
cannot support-with their wealth depending
upon arts, created by artificial wants-with
| an eternal friction between the grades of their
society-with their labor and their capital
grinding against each other like the upper
and neither mill stones-with labor cheap
ened and displaced by new mechanical in
| yentions, bursting more asunder the bonds of
brotherhood amid these intricate perils we
have ever given them our sympathy and our
PRAYERS and have never sought to weaken
the foundations of their social order. God
grant them complete success in the solution Of
all their perplexities We, too, have our
responsibilities and trials but they are all
! bound up in this one institution, which has
been the object of such unrighteous assault
through five and twenty years. Ii we are
true to ourselves We shall, at this critical
iuncture, stand by it and work out our des-
tiny.
This duty is bound upon us again as the
constituted guardians Of The slgues themselves.
Our lot is not more implicated in theirs, than
is their lot in ours in our mutual relations
1 we survive or perish together. The worst
foes of the black race are those who have in
termeddled on their behalf. We know better
than others that every attribute of their char
actef fits them for dependence and servitude.
By,Lature the most affectionate and loyal of
all races beneath the sun, they are also most
helpless and no calamity can befalf them
greater than the loss of that protection they
enjoy under this pstriarchal system. Indeed
the experiment has been grandly tried Of
precipitating them upon freedom which they
know not how to enjoy and the dismal re-
suits are before US in statistics that astonish
. the world. With the fairest portions of the
earth in their possession and with the advan-
tage of a long discipline as cultivators of the
SOIL their Las-sA..s>--
4 ted the most beautiful islands of the sea into
bowling waste. 1t is not too much to say
that if the South should. at this moment,
surrender every slave, the wisdom of the en-
tire world, united in solemn council, could not
solve the question of their disposal. Their
transportation to Africa, even if it were FEAST
bic, would be but the most refined cruelty
they mast perish with starvation before they
could have time to relapse into their primitive
barbarism. Their residence here, in the
presence Of the vigorous Saxon race, would
be but the signal for their rapid determination
| before they had time to waste away through
listIessness, fifth, aud vice. Freedom would
be their doom and equally from both they
call upon US, their providential guardians, to
be protected. I know this argument will be
seoffed abroad as the hypocritical cover thrown
over our own cupidity and selfshness; but
every southern master knows its truth and
feels its power. My servant, whether horn
in my house or bought with my money,
stands to me in the relation of child.
Though providentially owing me service,
which, providentially, am bound to exact,
he is, nevertheless, my brother and my friend;
and am to him q guardian and father. He
leans upon me for protection, for counsel. and
for blessing and so long as the relation con-
tinues no power but the power Of almighty
God, shall come between him and me. We're
} there No argument but this, it binds upon US
the proyidential duty Of preserving the rela-
worse than death.
1t IS duty which we owe, further, to tic
civilized World 1t is remarkable fact that
during these thirty years of unce asing war
fare against slavery, and while lying spirit
has inflamed the world against us, that world
has grown more and more dependen. upon It
for sustenance and wealth. Every tyro
knows that all branches of industry fall back
upon the soil. We must come, every one of us,
to the bosom of this great mother for nour-
ishment. In the happy partnership which
has grown up in providence between the
tribes Of this !tonfederacy, our industry has
been concentrated upon agriculture. To the
North we have cheerfnlly resigned all the
profits arising from manufacture and COM
merce. Those profits they have, for the most
part, fairly earned, and we have never be-
| grudged them. We have sent them our
sugar and brought it back when refined we
have sent them our cotton and brought it
| back when spun into thread or woven into
4 cloth. Almost every article we use, from the
| shoe lachet to the most elaborate and costly
article of luxury, they have made and we
have bought; and both sections have thriven
by the Partnership, as no people ever thrived
before since the first shiRing of the sun. So
literally true are the words Of the text, adj
dressed by Obadiah to Edom, "An the men
Of our confederacy, the men that were at
peace with US, have eaten our bread at the very
time they have deceived and laid around under
| u.s." Even beyond the enriching COM
merce, which has built the splendid cities and
marble palaces, of England as well as Of
America, has been largely established upon
the products of our soil and the blooms
upon southern fields gathered by black
hands, have fed the spindles and looms of
Manchester and Birmingham not less than of
Lawrence and Lowell Strike now blow
at this system of labor and tho world itself
totters at the stroke Shall we permit that
blow to fall Do we not owe it to civilized
man to stand in the breach and stay the up
| lifted arm ? If the blind Samson lays hold
OF the pillars which support the arch of the
worlds industry, how many more will be
buried beneath its ruins than the lords of the
PhiIistines 'sWho knoweth whether we are
aot come to the kingdom for such time as
this"
Last of all, in this great struggle sre defend
the cause of God and religion. The abolition
spirit IS undeniably atheistic. The demon
which erected its throne upon the guillotine