St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1860-09-20
Equality Of the States.

+ i = E, 4 ~u.
Southern men and Northern doughfaces
keep Up a hue and cry about tie equality,
Of tho States; and lbs ist that cvcty DO.
maud Of the South must be complied with
in order to preserve this equality Letus
see how it works. The North has a vast
preponderencc Of the wealth and popula-
ton. Northern physicians have always
been in the habit Of ordering patients to
pass their winters in the South, while
Southern doctorsEEseud their people North:
to spend the summers. Thus very prot
liable business has been created for hotel
keepers and hack drivers in both sections
Of the Union, but as the North has vast
y larger number Of wealthy people it is
fair to infer that the South has made more
by Northern travellers and visitors than
the North has by those from the South.
How docs this principle of equality bear
upon this trade? A Northern invalid goes
South to spend the winter. Some one
whispers he is an abolitionist. A public
meeting is called in which the leading
men of. the place take an active part, A
Mob Committee wait on the stranger, find
their way into the private rooms of ladies'
and invalids, break open trunks, take what
they please and leave what they have a
mind to: read private letters, insult the
owners with tho grossest language, play
rufian and rowdy to the top Of their bent,
and if certain portions Of the writings Of
George Washington, Thomas jefferson,
Patrick Henry, or of most Of our standard
English authors, or any one of about half
the newspapers published in the North
should be found in possession of the stran-
ger, he is thrown into prison, PERHAPS
tarred and feathered and driven out of the
country. This and more is often endured
by Northern citizens while on visits down
South, without their having broken any
law Of the State they are in, or of the
United States. The Constitution guaran-
tees liberty Of speech and of the press in
every State Of the Union; but it is not
even expected that Northern man while
visiting the South, shall dare to express
his honest opinion Of the Declaration of
Independence, provided that opinion cor
responds with that of the man who signed
it. The Northern man who goes South
oges at his own personal risk as amongst a
den Of wolves. Our Constitution and laws
afford him no protection against the great
est possible outragcs. But when South
ern man comes North the laws of the State
he honors with his presence, are to be null
and void during his stay just in so tar as
it may suit his pleasure to set them aside.
The citizens of the State are to set about
dancing attendance on his lordship. His
wishes and property and prejudices are to
be had in special demand. Hack drivers,
hotel keepers, peanut vendors, etc. etc:
form themselves into phalanxes Of ready
drilled white niggers, ready to take the
places Of the blacks left on the plantation;
and this is. what they call eqality. Our
own State has given two specimens Of it
this last summer, where man who claimed
his freedom in accordance with our laws
was kidnapped by a: band of these white
niggers and robbed of his own body, and
where another band of them volunteered
in open day, and in the Court House, to kid
nap a woman who had just been legally
adjudged to be free. This was in Mime
apolis. After Judge Vanderburgh had
pronounced Eliza, formerly the slave of
Col. Christmas, free by the act of her mas
ter in bringing her to our State, promi-
nent hotel keeper stepped up and offered
to take her by force. tits thought he and
his assistants would have disgraced our
State and violated her laws by this pro-
posed mob violence, if it had not been for
the prompt courage of Mr.. King Of the
State atlas, who became 50 cnraged at the
proposed insult to our laws that he stepped
before the imperiled woman and frig htened
her cowardly assailants off with resolute
words when her friends were totally un-
armed and the rowdies fully prepared for
adcsperate struggle with deadly weapons
But our State is still disgraced in this mat
ter, for we have not been able to protect
this woman in the enjoyment Of the free
oom our laws have bestowed. 1t was found
necessary to send her, in close disguise,
1o1rn %hronrb tho oop%ro ~ %ho C+oAo h.,