Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-01-23
A WARNING.
From the Mobile Registe


IL aw warning were needed To impress on our
4 e immunity the truth which all history proves
{ that in times Of excitement and agitation more
thsa at any other there is great need of q calm
aud deliberate administration of Justice that
warning is afforded by the case of DR. Palmer
hose alleged completely with Brown has been
The futile theme OF newspaper paragraphs and
whose innocence appears only when his death
fastened by the infamy that hung over
q him. has placed him beyond the reach Of
human reparation. We confess that we could
1eY r see the propriety of the proceeding.
against DIR. Palmer, and therefore have never
m this journal gwen any prominence to his
>ease, mentioning it only so far as our duty as
Jurveyors Of news required. If anonymous
letters picked up in railway cars were legal
evidence 10 inculpate individuals, the liberty,
nay the life of the best citizens would be ut the
mercy OF every unprincipled villain, and we
would be degraded TO a state of society worse
than that during the reign of terror in the
French revolution. These remarks are elected
by the following which we clip from the Nash.
vile News of the Sth inst
lHE THATCHER LETTER.-The ATTEMPT made
by cid John Brown at Harper's Ferry. SCARCELY
excited more Indignation among Southern peo.
PIE, asaIns. their Northern brethren, than the
fabricated letter which led to the arrest of DR.
Palmer, In Memphis. And many of those well.
meaning southern men who are now institu.
ung vigilance committees, and through them
"nerlnS needless insult to men from the North
owe 'heir perturbation of mind to that 8nony-
Lious raseali'y. even more than to Browns ad
vent INTO Irginia. We have never been Will
Ing To believe it anything but a fabrication
hot because we are shrewder than any of Our
heI8hoOrs, but because We thought when we
hrst read 1t, that we could see great white lie
Srlnnlng across the entire face of it,
Attcr representing Dr. Palmer as q hold
Shre"d man, and conscientious one the letter
mSde hlm say, that he - could guarantee | OO0
armed slaves, who would be ready to spring To-
Setner ut moments call, =" &c This appeared
Z" "a very gross lie for a conscientious man IN
tell, and very stupid one for shrewd man.
ioF we teit sure no such disafection existed
among the saucy negroes of Tennessee and
Arkansas. But this slander upon the honest
unsuspecting darkeys did not impress Our mind
- much as another damnable calumny which
the paper contained, because we knew that the
negroes masters would soon find out that thew
were all right; and an tnSWH cannot long affict
Sambo and Dinah, if they can get plentv of
bacon to grease their wounded spfirifsI
Inc writer perpetrated sin against light
anu knowledge, which can hardly be forgiven
either In this world or in the world TO come
And his groundless insinuations NAV vet. by
lingering In the Southern mind. retard the
progress of education for many wears. 1t
sometimes requires centuries of labor by honest
men to dig up one lie, especially if it be buried
IN the tough SubsOil of prejudice The inyisi-
Die thatcher makes one invisible Il
school teacher, say, There is no evOcation in
which man can do do so muuh good for the cause
,abolltiOn and insurrectiOn) as that of school
teaching" And in another place he makes
the same teacher say, I'VE must send out
more well qualified men to the South as school
teachers, and work them in everywhere y
The letter was no sooner published, than we
heard forty wonderful surmises against teach
ers who are above suspicious with all good
Judges OF human nature. And we have heard
ever since tremendous talk through the
south about Northern teachers Our rehec
ton might have saved much Of this troubIe tn
<our dear brethren of the South: there is NOTHING
60 indispensable in the composition of a real alb
9oiltlonlst, as fanaticiSm. Are educated men
7generaIly disposed TO be fanatical! We ven
sure, that 1t statistic accounts could be made
out, Of ali the fanatics in these United Statas
or In any civilized country, there would he
2 lound a less proportion among teachers of
sIetters, than among any other class of men.
sihoSe who would poison the Southern mind
seegainst good teachers, made All attack unon
Dur southern interests, more deadly than that
ttof old Brown. He who cOnspires against edu
<catIon cOnsplres against liberty itself We
sshould give preference to teachers reared
among Us, when they are qualified: but if we
<cannOt be furnished at home, let us have good
~Dnes from the North
Dr.. Palmer, most of our readers know. is
dead