New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-03-19
NUMBER II.
LETTER FROM sOUTHERNRR TO NORTHERN
FRIEND.
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1860.

some days ago, the extract Of communication
written BY me to q Washington paper, Suggesting
the idea thst the question Of Union or Disunion had
been transferred to the North az an idea Of great
gravity, and one on which a whole treatise might
well be written. In that published cornmunica-
ton adVerted to the work written by me- entitled
Black Diamonds and pleaded by the RepubIi.
can members of Congress as a set-ofr to the
Helper book, and even denounced as ten ti,aes
teorse.n and then suggested that the true seton
to Helpers book, and the twin atrocity Of Seward
ism, was rather to be found in the developments Of
the idea referred to above.
Will yon allow me to follow mp little further
the interest Of this subject, by appealing to the
lesson Of the Harper's Ferry outbreak
You are no doubt sensible that this unhappy and
tragical outbreak has developed some curious
moral facts. Not the least important Of these de-
velopments is the advances of AboIitionism in the
North and the necessity, the part Of the South,
Of executing her laws and maintaining the defenses
of her domestic institutions.
The times that have required the death Of ossa-
wattomie Brown called for d terrible example
not indeed, to assure the peaceful disposition of
the slaves, but to deter the mad fanatics, already
prepared to follow in the bloody footsteps OF their
gladiatorial hero. Speaking Of the Harpers Ferry
outbreak, we find leading Abotionist declaring
from the pulpit the New England sentiment as to
that emeute, and as to the termination of Browns
career, in the following unequyocal and menacing
words:
His scheme is no failure, but solemn success.
From the martyrdom of Brown dates
new era Of the Anti-Slavery cause. To moral agi-
tation will now be added physical-to argument,
action. Other devoted men will follow in the
wake Of Brown, avoiding his error and will carry
Onto its full results the work he has begun.
Nothing Gear O., could more powerfully attest
the necessity Of terrible SzampIes Of punishment,
in cases such as Browns, than this threat pro-
claimed from New England pulpit. This threa.
il not the exclamation Of one man it is the echo
Of public sentiment it what we might naturally
expect after the lavish of sympathy in the North
upon the wretched hero of Harper's Ferry, and
the parade Of the british G grit with which he
did his work of blood as admirable and heroic
courage. His cold assassinations have been ex-
plotted as evidences Of !" courage; - and in every
quarter Of the North have been heard expressions
Of sympathy that one Of such heroic traits should
die on the vulgar gallows.
The appeals made for the life of Ossawatomie
Brown are understood to have been of the most ex-
traordinary character They were not only prose-
by the desperate and despised earnestness of
fanaticism they also enforced by the petitions
Of plant men Of all parties, who had conceived
weak and dangerous sentiment of mercy for mur-
derer, who, is too often the case with public as
sassins, had managed to conceal malignant and
imbruted heart beneath poor parade of martyr
dom. 4ss
1t is unfortunate, indeed, that such appeals for
the life Of murderer, 50 cool and fendish in his
bloody work as Brown, should have been joined in
by parties in the North who claim to be outside the
circles Of fanatacism for they attest deepseated
sympathy in that section with Abolition -militants
| that cannot fail to excite and alarm the South. X
it not, indeed sufficient to the feelings of all
patriotic men in the Union, when staid Democratic
presses could have been found recommending that
the life of the donble-dyed murderer of Harper's
Ferry should be spared for fear that death NIGH
elevate him to the honors of martyrdom with the
opposite political party? Has it, indeed, come to
this, that Northern men will parade as martyr g
| common murderer, whose crime had merited death
| under every code of laws in the world? Has il
come to this, that they will crown and glorify d
wretch with the blood of Southern citizens smoking
| on his garments? Let them do it, if they dare
The attempt to make martyr Of SO vile and re-
pulsiye thing assassin will never fail to re-
coil upon itself; and the party that devotes the
name of Ossawatomie Brown to immortality and
| writes it upon its banners, however it may succeed
in its reasonable designs will only be sunk more
deeply, by such efforts, in the moral sloth Of in
fanny and loathsomeness.
TRUST dear O., you will not regard the reflections
have made as to the execution Of the law in case
such as that of Brown as uncharitable. trust
ri afra tn ha n
| mercy. Standing in need, in my own poor, sinfn
human nature of the forgiveness of Him who seetl
the thoughts Of our hearts, feel my duty to exer
| else charity and mercy towards my fellow men.
But there is limit to mercy it is not license it il
thing beautiful, when it is dispensed within the
boundaries of Justice, but despised when lavished
without distinction or degree. It is twice blessed
gift to the weak and penitent but it is but foolish
ness to the hardened wretch, and encouragement
only to the impenitent to go on in crime. For the
wholesale murderer, for the man who was no
| driven to particular crime, but wantonly sough
to assassinate whole people-for the unfeeling
unrepentant, defiant assassin, with the red signs
his craft scarcely faded his garment still athirs
for murder and still preaching to his fanatical fol
lowers the baptism Of blood there could be no suc
beautiful word on earthas mercy.
But dismiss personal dscusslons OF the onfbreal
of John Brown; dismiss any canyassing of hi
character or of the justice of his fate. The subjec
and the sequel of this outbreak are too grave to b
treated on such issues. The events taking plac,
around us have a deep, abiding significance, sur
passing all personal and local interests and involy
ing, as believe, the near fate Of the Republic.
We of the South, have seen, my dear friend, tina
the event of the Harper's Ferry outbreak, ha
clearly placed the responsibility Of the maints
nance of the Union with the North. We have bee
looking to the North for efforts to maintain thu
Union We have been looking to it to put dow
the murderous fanaticism that frowns down upo
us
Io where the Giant on the mountain stands,
4 His blood.red tresseH deepening in the sun,
With death shot glowing in his fiery hands,
And eye that scorches ait glares upon
Il Restless rolls, now hxed and anon j;
Flashing, afar. And at his iron feet
4 Destruction to mark what deeds are done.
Instead Of Witnessing, however, patriotic effo
on the part of the North in this terrible crisis,
find an outpoaring of sympathies for the heroes
the intersectional war, and new kindling of |
fires of civil strife. The crisis is indeed, terrh
The question of the preservation of our Consti
tional Union, is, we repeat, transferred to
North; and when, in this new situation of thin
: we find the terrible excess of Brown, instead
I.l MAJ