New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-01-23
AN EMBARGO ON GHOSTS.

So it seems that the precautions OF Southern
Legislatures do not stop at the frontiers of their
States OF even at the brink of the grave Not sat-
isiied with sending malefactOrs guilty Of opinions
not colored like their own into baniShment, or put
ting them to the torture or to DEATH by statute law
or lynch law, they prohibit, under heavy penalties
the return of spirits from the Vastly deep to yex the
survivors We told our readers day or two ago
how DR.. Redman of this city, gentleman engaged
in the ghOst-trade as distinguished from the spirit
business, had his business cut up at Montgomery,
the capital of Alabama, by the action of the Legs-
ature then-happily for the peace of Southern
nstitutiOns--in session. This worthy gentleman, 1t
seems, was in the full tide of prosperity having
lively demand for the articles of his traffic, when
the Conscript Fathers of Alabama took the alarm,
and, though Free-trade State, imposed pro-
hbitOry duty on the importation of ghosts, whether
assorted or otherwise, which we fear must put an
end to all legitimate dealings in them. They may
be smugged, and probably will be, but can hardly
be publicly disposed Of when $500 must be paid for
every time they are exposed in market overt. We
think that the most stringent opponents of the Spirit
trade never suggested asking $500 for license for
single day! The Maine Law is merciful in the
comparison.
But we stand by the legislators of Alabama.
They knew perfectly well what they were about.
If free negro, native of the State, becomes so
tainted by transient visit to the North, that the
public safety demands that he be forbidden ever to
return, how much more dangerous to her peace
must be ghostly visitant who has actually re-
turned from the other world, and whose opinions
may have been damaged by the company he has
been keeping there, and who, at any rate, can be
neither logged, tarred and feathered, nor hanged
If an Aboltionst, or Free Negro, be such fearful
adversares that too laws cannot be devised to
eliminate or extirpate them, how much more terri
BILE must be dsembodied spirit, for whom the Sc
vtrest laws have no terrors, and who might have
very unpleasant way of speaking its mind If
shadows struck more terror into the heart of Rich
ard Crookback than could the substance of ten
thousand men, we cannot see that the SOlOns of
Montgomery are justly chargeable with cowardlce
for suffering under the same PneHmdtopho6ia
we may borrow a word of our friend Mr. Byles's
invention, signifying the fear of ghosts. Indeed,
the shareholders, generally have been so long afraid
of their own shadows, that it il no wonder that
they should be afraid of other peoples.
Indeed, We can hardly imagine a man more
formidable to the Domestic Institutions of the
South, than necromancer like this new Cornelius
Agrippa, who bears the cabalistic name and style
Of Doctor Redman. Can he be the Red Man
whose counterfeit presentiment used to strike terror
into our hearts, as it stood rubric OF the corners Of
the streets, a few years agol We know not, but
We can imagine how terrible the feats Of such an
adept must be in the Slave States. 1t would DO
bad enough if he should content himself with sum
moning to the presence as they lived or died, tn
slaves who have persisted under the scourge, or
the stake, who have been starved in canebrakes or
throttled by blOOdhounds, or shot with rifles in
CHASTITY crowds, defying their murderers to harm
them further. This sight could not be pleasant,
but it could be borne by men who had looked on the
cruel deaths which had divorced those wretches
from their bonds of flesh and iron. But should this
sorcerer see Git 10 evoke another order of spirits
and compel them to speak their sense Of present
things the consequences might be too dreadful to
be endured Imagine him describing his magic
circle around the Capitol at Richmond, and calling
upon the awful shade Of Washington. or the mer-