The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1860-06-09
fprpn ~ Clncinnsti Gazette
aNhe rlasure ~ Msnro 0Avspy. u

ksme ne pslaiJUs Of men re cs'IeAy IN demand.
Time vas in the history OF our country, when
Afr;c.n slavery was admitted on MI hands 70 be
! legitimate subject ofcriticism time Was, when
Inc greatest minds found their uoblest employ
ment il tracing the annals Of enslaved Faces,
and tcducing, from admitted facts, the elements
of 4 solution Of the problem Of slavery IN the
tinted states: ard II Ii remarkable that the
boldess ii. ocates or emancipation, the men who
demanded most sternly the ultmAte extinction
III the peculiar ilstitti0n, were those whose
Knowledge ot the negro WAS most extensive, and
Who sacrificed their lives, their property, every
thing but honor upon the altar Of their country
III The latter days Of tho American Colonies,
there MAS but one prominent opinion in regard
ia slavery as IN abstraction: that opinion vas
adverse toi IT. Statesmen, idiers, pnefs, clergy.
men. men Of every creed and profession united
with the historian and abstract philosopher, in
condeunipc il As On evil VI stnpendons msgni-
tudc -onc which threatened 70 reverse the prac-
ticsl operation OF that very law Of Providence
which seems designed - restore the human race,
after the lapse Of long ages Of SORROW, to some
thing like primitive putty and happiness The
only question in the oldcn time was that Of erpe-
d;e.ry. The few who pr5fesscd 70 consider ne
gro slavery positive blessing comprehended
about the following classes: y.
Those directly engaged in the foreign trade;
Tnose ignorant Of the practical history Of sla-
very in other countries and earlier ageS;
Those incapable. from organic disability, OF
reasoning BY comparison or from cause 70 effect;
The Idle. eisspa.ed, and the vicious.
+ We present this classification for the purpose
of showing that the mind and heart Of the Amer
lean of the eighteenth century regarded the
/ bondage Of the African as an original wrong
| the shareholders themselves considering the slave
| an unnatural estate, which they had inherited
| from misguided ancestors, and Of which it Was
| their duty TO divest themselves at the earliest
possible hour All the efforts of the great states
men of the latter part of the last century we're d.
| rected toward the limitation of the boundaries Of
domestic seryitude. II they had regarded slave.
| nv rs blessing, they would have labored to ex-
| tend its area, and to transmit IT, unimpaired to
their postcrity; they evidently viewed 1t as a
nonstrous evil, and fondls looked forward to the
| bright day which should witness its absolute cx-
/ tirpation.
Is il pos sible that the principle Of human bond
age has acquired stronger hold upon the aft G
tons Of men than that which it maintained a
hundred years ago? Is it possible that the very
children Of those who placed their seal OF con-
domination upon the foreign slave trade, sincere
" desire to reopen it, Is it possible that while
even the fountains of the great deep of Russian
despotism are breaking up, and descendant Of
PETER THE GREAT-aeting under necessity no
less imperlous than the operation OF the impre-
seriptibla. i,nperjshahe, and irreversibe laws Oi
human progress--is liberating millions OF mssera-
Bile scrfs. zoe Of America furnish the only example
70 the world of people sending moral truth in
the tab-rnacles Of falsehood, and political light
in the realms Ut chaos!
We are not willing to admit that We are ebbing
back 10 the dark estate Ut A-atic de-potisn; that
CHRISTIANITY has been preached eighteen hundred
Il years in vain. We believe the American Saxon
lis no exception to the general rule; IRE, too, arc
4 tending tDward a nobler civilization; we are
ma ching side by side with the common race q
man. the hay Of our political redemption i ye
distant-a long and gloomy road remains to b
trayersed--yet, step by step, we are emerging
from long night Of sorrow and ignorance, anf
vice AND crime into the clear sunlight OF plilo
sophie dsy; we are only, it i true, on the hrs
rounds Of the ladder which JACOB saw, yet it i
our privilege to wrestle with the angel. and VIII
the laurels the patriarchs won; we are still crop
ing in the mli.ts which surround the base of tn
mountain OF political knowledge; but may it no
be the destiny Of grand procession of genera
tons vet TO live to scale the rugged sides, an,
breathe the air Of that republic Of true liberty
which has been she dream OF the best ana eil
ligltened men Of every age and climes
The apparent paradox is susceptible of an cas-
explanation The sentiment Of free government
is far stronger in the Southern States to-day thai
it was twenty years ago At no former period
however, was so much written and s4id in fay %
Of the institution Of slavery The rapid progres
of the cause of emancipation first alarmed th'
heavy property holders of the South, and the
fears have been appealed TO BIZ reckless, selfsi
demagagues, who have almost succeeded in con
Tiucing them that the masses in the Mort herr
st ties are eternity plotting their pecaniary po
litcal and social ruin
We can assure our Southern friends they know
little of the North if they suppose any considera
bic portion OF our people, in Congress or ont OF
it, desire to disturb the relations between the
master and his servant in the States where s!a-
| very exists. 1t j. our earnest wish to live In
peace with our Southern neighhors, and permit
them to solve in their own chosen way, and in
their own good time, the mono ntnus problem IN
their hatas No Norlnera PENCIL Is npcded to
id terror TO the horizon Of the white communi-
ties Of the Southern and Southeastern portions
of the Confcieracy II histor. beindeed phos-
ophv teaching by example, the philanthropist
must picture a day darker than that of England
after the triumph Of WILLIAM the Conqueror-
more gloomy than that of France when the last
bow was drawn on the field Of Agincourt The
organic laws cannot be observed without reward.
nor violated Without punishment. History tells
ns that the working classes in almost every
try and era Of the world have advanced more rap
,dls in numbers. and in all the elements OF phys
ical greatness, than the classes exempted BY birth
Or fortune from daily toll.
Every great empire, whose ghastly ruins stand
as landmarks on the monrnfu track Of time, was
swept away by the servants of its oHn aristocra-
CIV. The descendants Of the wretchcd masses
that built the Pyramids rose and wreakcd their
vengeance upon the degenerate successors Of the
PHAIoAIIs, the ruling classes of Greece yielded
to the democratic myriads that clamored for lib
crty and power; the patficisns OF Italy were
throttled BY the pebians, and they in turn, over
whemed by the subject nations Of the North
The forefathers Of all the great peoples Of mod
ern Europe were once the -siaTes of the Roman
Empire; they we're dragged 10 the '.seven.hilied
city," and compelled 70 fight as glaaiators, till
the SOIL and discharge the duties Of the most me.
came, and the master took the place Of the ser
want,
Human slavery was never more fairly tested,
perhaps, than in the case Of the Helots Of Lace
demon The Helots constituted the third rank
OF the Spartan inhabitants; they were serfs, or,
Technically a.scrIA gssSts ali, ,eheJ to che soil,
they could not be sold away. Their numbers in
creased with ~, b rapdty. tina, after the Mes-e-
nai' War II became necessary to encourage rs
sassination; the hor ibe Or pteia, ostcasibly in
s'ituted for the purpose OF accnstnming the
| so"tn " A1patii " Wds teally Il
to reduce the number of the II lots BY foul play
Thucydides, the historian, ,estifes directly on
this point large number Of Helots, who had
perie meg great service for the State, were Of
efed BY their masters iipr the paSppss Of trying
theml their liberty. Two thousand Gelots step
ped forward to embrace their reward and were,
OF course, trcacheronsiy put 70 death.
The laboring Masses blacks--of the extreme
South are gaining in numbers at a rate far ex-
ceeding that ofthe increase Of the whites; the
same phenomena are observed along the Gulf OF
Mexico that historians chronicled two thousand
years ago around the Mediterranean; the idle
and 4isso.a'e Young men on the cotton and sugar
plantations, who sahsist upon the labor Of ot,,-
ers, are the legitimate representatives, Of the lat
ter-day Spartans, who, in due time, and in the
natural course OF events, yielded their paternal
homes, their country, and their country's glory
TO the hardy races ofserfs, who had been permit.
ted to copy Spartan virtues, 6ut who had not
been allowed TO practice Spartan vices
In The face Of the awful lessons Of history,
Southern Statesmen insist upon the reopening Of
4 the African trada In huma. hn;nue f1bc