New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-12-15
"A HOAX.

"A HOAX.
The venerable aud Ingenious Sidney T. Mors,
well known in this community ne AN ;nvantor
has recently, We regret 10 saw devoted b;u.a,e
10 the crnei sport of hoaxinR our verdant and
unsuspect.ng coten porary, Horper's Beekiv. He
has beeuiied that - Journal OF Civilization" bv n
cock'and-bul story OF conversation in Paris. in
1853, between himself ard certain Quaker
VINO at Mexico, many years before, had talked
Win certain Commissary General of the Brit
IAN army, who gravely assured the Quaker that
the English aristocracy had abolished Slavery in
their West India colonies, well knowing that
abolition would totally ruin those colonies and
destroy their commercial value to England but
hoping by this sacrifice to create an ant-Slav-
cry sentiment in this country that would ulti-
mately dissolve the Union, and destroy denoc-
racy in both the Old aud New Worlds.
The credulous Journal of Civilization" swal-
lows this canard with great complacency, forget
ting What the sly Sidney 4. Morse doubtless well
remembers, and VIVA. every intelligent person
also knows, that the Enei.h aristocracy opposed
to the last the abolition Of Slavery in tho West
Indies the slaves ard the states there being in
fact mostly owned b. them. Emancipation was
carried in England by the liberal and Democratic
middle classes, and not by tho arstocracy, who,
even if they had favored it, would hardly have
been so silly as to suppose that the ruin of their
colonies would have been a spectacle calculated
TO entice the American people to follow in the
same course. The notion with which Mr.. Morse
has imposed on Harpers Weekiy can only be
Parnlleled in absurdty by suppOsing him to have
persuaded the publishers of the Journal of Civ
" ilization" TO set fge to their printing-house in
the hope that their rival, Frank Leslie, ON see
Ing tie smoking ruins, would at once proceed to
burn his own establishment.
But the worst part OF the joke perpetrated by
Dir. Morse is yet to be told. HarPer's Weekly
is in constant terror OF the censorship of the
South, and has been trying for several weeks to
apologize and atone for inserting soon after the
election, q portrait Of Mr. Lincoln among its
Illustrations. MIR. Morse, who is an Anti-Slavery
man of fifty years standing his first newspaper
effort being series oi letters in Boston journal
in 1911 to warn the North against the danger of
admitting any more Slave States into the UniOn
being no doubt disguised with the subserviency
of the Journal Of Civilization" malciously
makes it give currency and sanction to the fol-
lowing statement: "All who are acquainted with
% the history Of the Anti-Slayery movement here,
" know that prior to the abolition of Slavery in
" the British colonies, The american ARti-Siarery
" Increment ras emiHentiy kind considtrGte, ra-
" tional and Christian." Now, Slavery was
abolished in the british West Indies, August
], 1899. More than seven years before, Jan. j,
$780, William Lloyd Garrison issued the first
number Of The LiberatOr, and began the agitation
which soon made him notorious. So great was
the uproar he created that in Der, 1881, the
Legislature Of Georgia passed al act Offering
reward of S5,O 90 for his apprehension. On jan.
], 1882, the New-Erglaud Anti-Slavery Society
was founded upon the principle OF Immediate
emancipation In the following year the Amer
lean Auti. Slavery S"ciety was organized upon the
SEINE principle, with Messrs. Garrison, Birney and
Arthur Tappan for its leaders. In 1884, George
Thompson the English AboIitonist came to this
countrv M the invitation of Mr. Garrison, and
for the next three or four years the Slavery agl-
tation was greater aud fercer than 1t mas ever
been since. The Abolitionists were moobed ID all
the principal cities Of the North, and terrible
outrapes committed on them and on the Tree
negroes At Alton, Lsvejoy was murdered IN
1887. ard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Hall was
burned in 1888, the very year previous TO which,
accordirg TO the journal of Civilization, 1.-THE
.sAmerican Anti-Slavery movement was emlnently
kind considerate, rational and Christian" We
acceut the admission, however, ANONYMOUSLY
made. But what will our friends at the South
sny TO such an estimate of the a6ors OF MesSr''
Garrison and TapI ian?