White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1860-08-30
Tar and Feathers.

fence OF her Institutions; and where q Pc
culisr application Of those products an
swsrs as q more forcible and irrefutable
argument than all the elOquence and logic
that can be brought into requisition.
Emphatically such country is the Son
thern section Of the American Union.
Their cherished Institution is Slavery.
aud two leading products Of the labor of
that institution are tar and cotton. the
latter making an excellent substitute for
feathers, where the article is scarce.
Tar and 1--WE will call it) feathers are
made to do ample service in defence OF
that institution, and to stand as the unan-
swerable argument as to its justice and
righteousness.
Does q man in the South sssail that
peculiar institution? He is met, and
speedily subdued. by invincible tar and
feathers. Does he mildly suggest that
Slavery is wrong. and that free labor is
more enrolling and profitable? Potent
tar and feathers overcome his reasoning.
Does be contend that Slavery has de
basing influence upon the white popula-
ton ? Tar and feathers decide the point
against him. Does he intimate that it
is degrading to a white laborer, to be
compelled to work beside slave? Tar
and feathers convince him otherwise. Is
he even suspected Of entertaining senti-
ments inimical to the sacred institution
He must answer to tar and feathers.
Thus it goes. We hear of it from Vir-
ginia to Texas, from Missouri to Flori-
da. If any man has the temerity, by
word, deed or insinuation, to say or do
aught against the patriarchal institution,
or il there is slight cause to suspect that
he does not sufficiently venerate it, vigi-
liant, argus eyed. energetic tar aud fsath-
ers call him to speedy atonement. And
the most gratifying fact of all is. that
these potent and peculiar instruments Of
justice. like the peculiar institution which
it is their peculiar Office to defend, are
articles for which the South is under no
obligations whatever to the North.
But we may be little too fast. We
believe it is claimed that Northern mer-
chants originally forced Slavery upon
the unwilling Southerners. So it may
have been with the peculiar application
of tar and feathers. 1t is not, we be-
lieve. a discovery of our day and genera
ton. So far as our limited historical
research has extended, we are forced to
confess that the first experiment upon
record, to our knowledge, was made in
the North. But the institution still pre-
serves its original character. In the in
stance referred to, tar and feathers melted
ont punishment to fanatics who protested
against obnoxious institutions and tyran.
nical laws. So they do now. Tar and
feathers then summsrily dealt with sxs.
poets. The same in our day. The in
stance we allude to, was on the eve oil
the American Revolution, when the Col
ony of Massachusetts Bay was overruu
with British soldiery, and when a Yam
kee enjoyed about as much peace and
safety as a free man now does in the
South; when each person was required
to give an account OF himself for every
thing be did, and every movement that
he could not account for by explanation
as clear as the MONDAY sun, was adjudg-
ed to be an act Of rebellion against Brit
ish institutions and laws, and punish
ment awarded accordingly. AT that pc
Rod, history tells us, it was ascertained
that a poor countryman had purchased
an old, rusty musket of somebody at the
village of Billerica, for which act be was
strongly suspected of being rebel. He
was arrested by the sOldiery, stripped Of
his clothing, covered with tar and feath-
ers, placed on cart, and hauled through
the streets of Boston, amid the jeers and
yells Of the populace. Some of the his
tories used to give a picture representing
this scene; and we can imagine that it
was q fair picture of the similar perform
ances now almost daily enacted in the
South, by the jealous champions Of in
situations and laws, which large major.
ity of them understand about as well as
Hottentot does Squatter Sovereignty.
And the history of that affair is substan.
tally the history Of frequent horrors in
the South, where murderous plots are
pronounced to be in contemplation, from
the fact of q musket or revolver being
found in the possession of some person
who is suspected of being not exactly
fright on the goose"
The Southerners do well to preserve
this practice. originating from 30 worthy
a source. Tar and feathers aided in pre-
cipitating the American Revolution; and
II, as many believe, We are shortly to
witness another great revolution in our