Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-01-10
A srINGING REBUKE.
The ServiIe States.
TPrOn the New York POSt.l

Mr. Mason, u Senator from Virginia,
who is chiefly remarkable tor his feeble
ness. has contrived new designation for
the States in which free labor PREVAILS
He calls them the servile States,-mean-
ing. doubtless, to characterize the whole
body of northern working men as class
of ..serviles. just As his brother Senator.
Hammond. had already spoken of them rs
''the mud-sills of society" 1t is true, he
afterwards explains that lie referred only
to servants but his definition of SER
wants, and the entire spirit of his remarks,
points to the numerous cluss of northern
working menas '.servile men, ThenOrth-
ern States, he said, are
-"not the free States They might possibly I've call
ed the servant States, States where is Clnss in bond
age. class oI bondmen- do not mean, im any OF
fensNe as bondmen, hut as men whose Will IL
subjected to the will Of others as servile men 1ou
have all heard OF them From the necessity "f their
condition, there is serving class in the Tree States
ns there Is serving class in the slave STATES Iose
who subjected by contract to the will OF others
are servants, and always called But, cir, the
term servant States does exactly express the idea
of their unhappy condition. That very class of ser
wants by their masters .i.ado servile. have seen
them. and dare say others have, weIrinS their mas
ter's livery. have it in this city. clISs OF
servants wearing the badge of scrvitudo the livery
| Of their masters, the degradation of scrvitude"
Masons explanation of his phrase is
extremely silly; quite as silly rs the origin
al phrase was insulting and arrogant
When he spoke of the free States as ser
vile States, he unquestionably desired to
place the Iahorers of the North on level
with the slaves Of the South hy represent
ing them both as II scrvile class. But in
the meantime his northern Democratic CO.
adiutors have probably advised him that
the expression was imprudent, and he at
tempts to explain it away. IL meant" he
SAYS, 'sthat there is class of servants in
the North. and therefore the Northern
States may be properly called servile
States" So they raise tobacco in Con-
necticut, but the Northern States are not
tobacco States. and cotton grows in our
lighthouses, although cotton is not a char
ncteristic production of ours.
The servants" of the Northern States,
or those who are engaged in household Ia
bors. are not as one to ten compared with
other laborers, and cannot be taken as a
representative class, Our mechanics. ship
! builders, masons, carpenters, mill-wrights,
farmers, Eand others, are the real repre-
sentative men of our societies. But even
if the SERVANTS were moro numerous
and more influential than they are, they
arc in no sense of the word Il "servile'
class. There is something OdiOus or de-
! grading III the word, which does not
attach to their condition. They labor at
the bidding of others, according to an
implied contract. as Senator Mason says;
but so does every free man who labOrs at
all, while they do it of their own choice
| The contract implied is a contract they
adopt voluntarily, and it is in most cases
tcrminahle by themselves at any moment.
NlaSOn's real object. however. was to APP
| ply his degrading epithct to the workmen
of the North, and to embrace them in the
same category with slaves, from whom pri-
marily the term servilc is derived. lie
supposed that he might break the force
of the odium that the civilized world
showers upon slavers, by suggesting Il
! similarity between bond and free labor
crs. Many of his Observation-Disclosures have
often rcsurtcd to the same fetch; but they
have never accomplishment much by IL
while. politically, they have exposed then
party at the North to the indignation which
such comparisons naturally excite. Our
| free laborers know that they are not slaves;
| know that there is nothing servile in their
condition; know that they are the masters
of their own limbs, and lives, and means
! know that all the avenues to wealth and
distinction are open to them; ana sugges-
tions of any analogy between their state
and that Of the poor nbjcct bondmcn o
! the South produces only disgust and scOrn,
! 9lT. husOH HlIlScll NOUiI HUI AN'A ~
travel far in the workshops of the North
to find his equals in intellectual capacity
and his supcriors in moral instincts
There are, indeed, on the benches beside
F.! him, several who have been graduated
! from these same 'servile'' establishments
and we venture to say that the Senator has
never had to gropplc with them in debate
without feeling that n ''scrvile" may some
times become u master.
| Tie phrase which Mason so incautiOusly
uttered betrays the rcal feelings of the
slaveowncrs. They despise labor and AL
who live by labor. Labor is n scrvile nj:
fair in their eyes, and they cannot get rid
of the impression, no matter what the kind
of labor Laborers are II seryile class in
their eyes, and they do not discriminate
among laborers. Muson's awkward at.
tempt to limit his unhappy expression tc
those who perform domestic functions only
places in clearer light his original 0Him"'
! lie meant to aiix an .opprobriOus name to
the free states, and but for the expoItula-
tions of democrats, who represent these
| states. he would, doubtless, have stuck to
/ hia