New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-03-23
THE DIFFERENCE.
From The EzPress.

NECRO-BURNING VS.. CHILD-kILLlNG.
Assinst the slsvebunirg accusations OF TaE TRIBUNE
,pains the South The HsraLS IT Joins by saypg thas
There is no crime more henous, commo, In this
city, than nfapcde We read that In this city In one day ire
tSs Streets While such evidences social evils at the North
presented before eyes every oay ooss II nos seem
There would be quite much justice in charging New Workers
with being community child killers there is IN charsus tue
South with burning Ard yet this last act what Mr. Van
wyck did the House Of Representatives and what iR
UsH has Endorsed.
So much for The Herald and The Express.
Now hear The TRIBUNE:
Mr.. Van Wyck simply stated in the House the
fact that slaves were sometimes burned to death at
the South. For this he was called liar, villain
and other sueh epthets, by Mr.. r. Davis of Mssis'
sippi The Constitution made the lntilctlon OF such
opprobrous terms on Mr.. Van WICK reason for
treating him as out of the pale of gentlemanly con-
alteration. TIE TRIBUNE thereupon took issue
with Mr.. Davis on question of taet. Promising
that Mr.. Van Wyck had been mistaken in admitting
that New England ever burned witches, we gave
chapter and verse of Southern slaye-burnings in
different States, at different times, down TO and
including 1859 We proved this mainly by citations
from Southern Pro Slavery journals of ndisputable
existence and authority. Mr. Davis has not uttered
word in response; nor has he called any fellow
member liar and villain for an entire week.
But The Herald responds for him. and how! 1t
says that infanticde is committed in our City, and
that infants are abandoned in our streets. True,
Srs very true A great many poor weak, g-
norant girls are seduced here by libertine villains,
and, having no other means of hiding their shame,
they are driven to the crimes Wanted by The Her
aid. Moreover: if they were slaves, like the
drudges of the South they would do nothing of the
sorts for, every live infant born OF slave mother
being worth hundred silver dollars to her master,
no female slave ever thinks of abandoning or de-
st1oyiDg her illicit offspring. The more children
she has, whether with or without benefit of clergy,
the better her master is pleased and the higher tue
price he sets upon her. So infanticlde, If South
ern crime at all, is rarely or never crime OF
Southern slaves. They have nos the least tempta-
ton TO commit it.
But, though infanticide, like other crimes, is I'M
happily not rare n this community, it is secret,
private, individual crime, reproduced and abhorred
by the whole community, including even its perpe-
traitors Slave. burning at the South, on the other
hand was, in every cited by us, the act OF the
assembled community itself-Open, public defiant OF
judicial reProbation punishment 1t is not the fact
that slaves have been burned to death at the South
but that they have been so burned within sight Of
iails, court. houses, and churches, with the whole
population of the vicinage assembled to approve
and uphold, that made the crime and cruelty re-
markable. Show us case of Northern infanticide
under like circumstances, and we admit the accu-
racy and force Of the parallel. Otherwise, why
should We