The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1860-02-23
Emancipation Of the Russian
SgGVes.


Shares.
"In St.srduI q village of the district of Kas-
! chirU, Il very remarkable event mas takenpla
The proprietor Of the village. Herr Nicolal
! IurSentew. has entered into a voluntary con-
tract with the scTts On his estate for their eman-
! cipatiOn. The village has an area of 562 Gess-
tat'assla Russian term ofland measurel of land
| and population OF Isl males, so that there
are TO each male 81 JdesslGtiaes. BY the effect
/ OF this contract the proprietor relnquishes to
/ tne community or parish 4 third part of the
| SOIL that i5to say lo7 deSStatiaeS and reserves
! to himself two-thirds. The dwellings of the
! peasants, with land appertaining to them,
I become the entire property of the occupants
! The peasants bind themselves to paw the can
ttatIon taxes and all subsisting impOsts The
homestead can only pass to an heir, who shall
come under the same obligations rs his pre-
deceSSor, and purchase the consent of his
| co-helrs nor can they be sold, except to peas
ants of the same village. The land not per
| tanning TO the several dwellings belongs to the
community. The community binds Itself to
pay bonus Of 1920 silver roubles The pon-
u!ar Herr Iurgenicw formally declares, ut the
end OF the Contract, that the peasants are at
liberty to Withdraw from the arrangements as
soon as the negotiations between the govern
mert and the nobility shall offer them more
favorable conditions. The civil authorities of
the village, on their part, engage not to intiict
corporal punishment, and only to sentence Of
tenders TO fines, compulsory labor. and i'm
prisonment."
We appeal 70 every candid honest mind
in these United States tc COMPARE the con-
duct Of Russia with that Of our slave States
and ask himself, Which is the despotic
government?
Here we see a nobleman emancipating
hisserfs, and distributing to them one-third
of his landed possessions in their own right
and no government law interdicts his act
on the contrary the Emperor approves and
commcnds the measure but what does
our own country exhibit?
1t stands before the world supreme in
lntamy. 1t processes to regard liberty as
the inalienable right of all, yethoids in ad-
iect bondage nearly four millions of men,
women and children, designating them as
ProPcrty, devoid ofall rights. Not content
with this, several States have passed laws
banishing persons, innocent Of all crimes,
from their territory, under penalty of being
sold into perpetual slavery, and their pos
terity after them!
Nor yet satisfied with this, they threaten
to disrupt and destroy the union of these
States if Congress refuse to pass a slave
code for the Territories, whereby they may
be secured in holding their slaves in ter
ritory which our fathers, forty years ago,
devoted to freedom,
Yet further, they demand that no restric-
ton nor punishment shall attach to the
importation of persons direct from Africa,
to be enslaved in this land of pretentious
freedom, and doomed to the condition of
brutes, to toll for any one able to buy and
hold them rs property
Furthermore, they threaten to overturn
the Government, defy the Constitution,
and the laws, if majority of the people
should elect to the Office of President any
man who shall assert that " man cannos
righteously hold property in man" Such
is the picture which the United States at
this day presents of itself to the world.
Can anything be imagined more revolt
ing to the moral sense Of right-minded
persons than this exhibit of the action of
our Shareholders, who yet profess to be
civilized and christianizcd?
Compared with cur slave State dcspot-
isms, Russia becomes a free, noble, gener-
Gus government, and her people might, ike |
the Chinese, designate us as being "outer
barbarians' indeed-Statc Journal