Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-01-03
Nottiltaniratel.
Ale, to the Edi5or.
AoINE, Dec. n. 1859.
Editor of tie Tlegraph!

Editor of the 1elegraPHs
DEAR SIR have observed that, for
several weeks past, you have been,
through the columns of your paper,
holding up the acts of the people of the
slave States toward their fellows of the
free States, to the severest apprehension,
No criticisms have seemed too keen and
pungent, no invectiyes too strong to be
used against the people Of the slave
States for driving citizens of other States
from their midst. In addition to this,
you have often attempted to excite a
prejudice against the Democratic party
of our country, because these persons
have been expatriated from DemocrBtic
States, by Democratic hands, and because
Democratic presses in all parts of the
country have tacitly if not expressly ap-
proved of these acts.
Now all this may seem perfectly right
and proper to you, but to plain and nm
sophisticated man like myself, it has a
very different appearance. You poIiti-
clans, however, and especially you Re
publican politicians, have some SO ex-
ceedingly strange ideas about a great
many things, that I am not so much as
tonished at your course as would be,
but for these idiosyncracies. In the
course of this letter [ hope to be able
to show you the true source of all your
errors and misconceptions. Whether
youseeft, then, to change your course or
not, my duty viii have been discharged,
and no responsibility for your ultimate
destruction can be attached to me.
In the first place, sir, as kind of
ground work for your superstructure,
you assume that slavery, as it exists in
the United States, is moral and politi-
cal aorong and eva. When put to the
proof upon this point you evince quite
fondness for quoting the Bible, the
Declaration of Independence, the say
ings of Washington, Madison, Jeffer-
son and great many other old docu-
ments and old men, too numerous for me
here to mention. Thisis all very plaus-
ible, and might answer for your purpose
well, were it not that these. books and
men belong to an age past and gone, and
of course the pages of the one, and the
minds of the other could not be illumi-
mated by the meridian blaze of Highland
knowledge which SO pre-eminently dis
tinguishes this, the monday of the nine
teenth century. Had they, to whose
writings and sayings you SO frequently
refer, been permitted to behold the hu-
monitarian and. c1ristianizany influences
of slavery as it 'mo,o eeists in our coun-
try instead of bestowing upon it SO
much denunciation, they would, un-
doubtedly, have hailed it as one of the
grandest and most benefcent auxiliaries,
which wise Providence ever ordained
to aid in the regeneration of mankind
but, conceding, for the argument s
sake, that such chang onld da have
been wrought by witnessing the present
benign effects of slavery, doesit follow,
in consequence, that we are to be forever
bound by such authorities as these?
Let us examine this for a moment. The
Bible, it is now admitted, was writtenby
men; and although they were undenia-
bly, inspired, yet numerous passages
show, unmistakably, that they were fire.
quently influenced by spirit of a.nmiitii-
gated AJolttionisne! For instance, take
the following: aAnd he that stealeth a
man, and selleth him, OR IF He BE FOUND
IN HIS HAND, he shall surely be pat to
death. /" Exodus 21, Chap. 16 1t is
well known to every intelligent person,
that ignorant and uneivilized men, such
as those of whom we make slaves, are sd
exceedingly peryerse and SO totally in
different to their own good, that they
almost invariably refuse to be enslaved;
and, consequently, their brethren who
are more enlightened and, therefore, able
to see what really is for their benefit,
are compelled to use force or stratagem
in order to subject them to the eleva-
ting and ennobling influences of slavery.
This, the Bible, almostin its first pages,
most unfortunately denominates eman-
stealing;" which is sufficient of itself to
consign it to that endless catalouge of
abolition and incendiary publications.
But, to put the matter beyond contro-
versy wequote again: "Thou shalt NOT
deliver unto has master the servant which
is escaped from Ais maostermuto thee: He
shall d,oeN ,eith thee, even AMONG YoU,
in that place which he shall choose, in
one of thy gates where it liketh him
best: thou shalt not oppress him Deu-
teronomy 23d, l5-16 verses. l say in
all honesty, that VIM. II. Seward or
Joshua r. Giddings never did and
never can utter more reasonable and
abolition sentiments than are contained
in the above extract. Not only does
this book command you not to return
the fugitive slave or servant to his
master, but it obliges you to give him
whatever place he may choose" among
you, and above all, will not permit you