The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1860-12-12

nounce what changes may or may not occur
'ia De distant fotare. II the grand march
ofeyents Providence nay work out solution
updiscosernble BY us. Xhat notifications
Of soil aud climate nay hereafter be pro
daced, what consee uent changes in the pro-
cacts on which we depend, what political
revolutions may -oceur among the races
which are now enactiag the great drama of
history all such inquiries are totally irrcl,
eysnt because hojppophetic Sision-can pierce
the darkness of that future. If this question
should ever arise, the generation to whom it
IS Hmfted 'pilp Doubtless have the wisdom
TO hecs il md Providence win furnish the
-hghts- in -Khieh.it Is to be resolved. Al that
we claim for them and for ourselves is hber-
ty to work out this problem guided by ma
turc and God, without obtrusiye.. Interference
from abroad. These great questions Of prov
idence and history must have free scope for
their solution; and the race whose fortunes
are distinctly implicated in the same Is alone
authorized, as it Is aleno competent 10 de-
ternine them. 1t is just this impertinoncc
of human legislation setting, bouns to what
God only can regulate, that the South is
called this day to resent and resist. The
country is convulscd simply because "the
throne ofiniquity franeth mischief by law"
Without, therefore determining the question
Of duty for future generations, / simply say.
that for Us, as now situated, the duty Is plain
of conserving aud transmitting the system Of
slavery, with the freest scope for its natural
Development and extension. Let us, my
brethren, look our duty in the face. With
this institution assigned to our keeping
what reply shall we make to those who say
that its days are numbcredl My own cou-
viction Is, that we should at once lift our
selves, inteligently, to tho highest moral
ground and proclaim to all the world that
we hold this trust from God, and in its oc-
cupancy we are prepared 10 stand or fall as
God may appoint. If the critical moment
has arrived at which the great issue is joined,
let us say that, in the sight of all perils, we
will stand by our trust; aud God be with
the right! ......tt ..t.,. ..., .-.
The argument which enforccs the solemn
ty Of this proyidental trust is simple and
condensed. 1t is bound upon US then, by
the principle Of seLffresereation, that "first
law which is continually asserting its srpre
NANCY over others. Need pause to show
how this system Ct sevitule uuierlics and
supports our material interests That our
wealth consists in our Lands and in the serfs
who till themi That from the nature of our
products they can only beeutivated by labor
which must be controlled in order TO be GER
tain? That any other than a tropical race
must faint and wither beneath tropical sun
Need pause to show how this system is in
tcrwoven with our entire social fabricl That
these slaves form parts of our households,
even as our children; and that, too, through
a relationship recognized and sanctioned in
the scriptures of God even as the other
Must pause to show how it has fashioned
our modes of life, and determined all our
habits of thought and feeling, and moulded
the very type of our civilization How then
can the hand of violence be laid upon it
without involving our existenccl The So
called free States Of this country are working
out the social problem under conditions pc
culiar to themselves. These conditions are
sufficiently hard, and their success is too un-
certain, to excite in US the least jealousy of
their lot With teclning population,
which the soil cannot support--with their
wealth depending upon arts, created by arti-
fetal wants-with an eternal friction between
the grades of their society-with their labor
and their capital grinding against each other
like the upper and neither mIl-stones-with
labor cheapencd and displaced by new me-
chanical inventions, bursting more asundcr
the bonds of brotherhood; amid these in
tricate perils we have ever given them our
sympathy and our prayers, and have never
sought to weaken the foundations of their
social order. God graut them complete sue
cess in the solution of all their prcplexities |!
We, too, have our responsibilities and trials (;
but they are all bound up in this one institu-
ton, which has been the object Of such un-
righteous assault through five and twenty
years. five are true to ourselves we shall,
at this critical juncturc, stand by it and
work out our destiny. ftH s it
This duty is bound upon rs again as tie
constituted guardians ofthe shares Themselves.
Our lot is not more implicated in theirs, than
is their lot in ours; in our mutual relations
we survive or perish together. The worst
foes Of the black race are those who have in
tcrlneddled on their behalf. We know better
than others that every attribute Of their
character fits them for dependence and SER
vitude. BY nature themost atfectionate and
loyal of ali races beneath the sun, they are
also the most helpless: and no calamity can
bsfall them greater than the loss Of that pro-
lection they enjoy undcr this patriarchal
system. 1ndecd the experiment has been
grandly tried of prccipitating them upon
freedom which they know not how to enjoy (;
and the dismal results are before us in statis-
tics that astorish the world. With the fair
est portions of theearth in their possession
and with the advantage of a long discipline
as cultiyators of the soil, their constitutional
Incidence has converted the most beautiful
Islands of the sea into bowling waste. 1t
is not too much to say, that if the South
should, at this moment, surrender every slave,
the wisdom of the entire world, united in
solemn council, could NOT solve the question
of their disposal. Their transportation to
Africa, even if it we're feasible, you'll be bat
the most refined cruelty; they must perish
with starvation before they could have time
to relapse into their primitive barbarism.-
Their residence here, in the presence of the
vigorous Saxon race, would be but the sig
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