Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1861-08-31
The Skeleton in the Southern Closet.

The Hon. Mlllard Fillmore has re-
ceivcd from South Carolina most sin-
gular paper. which We print below from
Buffalo journal. This, remarks the
y. Y. Post is savage proposition.
which this South Carolinian makes. TO
murder in cold blood one or two mil
lion of black men. Regarded from a
Southern standpoint, as a waste of
property. it is bad enough; but the
DESPERATION which can lead men even
to suggest such Wholesale murder is
something worse. 1t shows that. how
ever they would talk of the virtues and
peace of the patriarchal relation
these men believe in their hearts that
they really stand upon the verge of Il
fri@htlul mine. The first thought of Il
slavc-holdcr, whenever the liberation
of slaves suggest itself to him, is ra-
pine, murder, and violence. Whatev-
cr they may tell us, or DR.. Russell,
they themselves are pursuaded that
their slaves are hi ighIy dangerous
class. Mr.. Fillmorc's correspondent,
however, makes two mistakes. No
Northern man has ever expressed a de-
sire that the slaves should be stirred
up to murder their masters. And if
the white men of the South should
ever be so crazcd as to attempt Il mas
sacrc of the adult black population,
they would find their hands very full.
Here is the document in question:
READ, PONDER AND DIGEsT.-1t is
thought by many-at the North that we
at the South are standing over mag
azine of stupcndous magnitude, that
only wants the application of a match
to spread ruin, disaster, and death,
throughout the whole length and
breadth of the contcdcmcy. Northern
papers of widespread popularity, that
may be supposed to reflect public sem
timent, to some extent at least, arc sug-
gesting in unmistakablc terms Tie pro-
pricty of applying the match. Men Of
the North, beware. Yoa who would
spare the shedding of oceans of blood,
stay your ruthless hands, hold in check
your envcnomed tongues, restrain your
satanic press. For whenever the at
tempt is made to carry out the ficndish
suggcstion---a suggestion worthy the
lowest, meancst, the most sncaking,
and at the same time, bloodthirsty de-
mon that ever butfettcd the pillows of
hell-in the manner indicated, the
combustiblc material of which that
magazine is composed will be so satu-
rated with blood that all the fires of
hell itself could not ignite them. In
other words, whenever the slaves in
the border slave States are melted to
escape from their owners by hundreds
and thousands for the purpose of hav-
ing Sharps rifles and Colts revolvcrs
placed in their hands and marched
back to butcher white men, women,
and children; whenever the slaves in
the Gulf States are melted to sclvilc
instructions, and the prospect bids
tair for their being converted into de-
mons incarnate, then the slave owners
in the South will be found ready to
sacrifice every slave when danger may
be apprchcndcd, even though it involve
the destruction, by concerted and
Simultaneous movement, of every male
slave over the age of fifteen years, or
even younger than that, if the neccssi.
ties of the case seem to require 1t; and
willing hands will certainly be found
ready to execute the bloody deed. BE-
fore Southern men will suffer them
selves. their wives and little ones to be
butchcrcd, and their daughters worse
than 6utchered by ticnds in human
form, before they will suffer TO any
considerable extent the horrors of SER
vile instruction, the gulf streams will
will be crimson with their gore. and
every Southern river choked with the
fostering carcasscs of slaves. Men of
the North, YOU hold in your hands the
lives of half n million of slaves; tor as
sure as there is God in heaven, ifthis
war continues, and they, through your
/ instrumemtality, become unmanagca-
bic. the last one of them will perish.
Attempt, if you dare, to convert por-
ton of our population into vipers, and
before they get ready to strike their en-
venomed fangs into our vitals, their
heads will be crushed beneath our
heels. Never will they be permitted
to become instruments in your hands
for our attempted subjugation.
n1- Mrs. Part,ngton having heard it
said that there was q great many
anecdotes in the new almanac, begged
Ike to cut them all out, she heard that
when anybody was poisoned. nothing
was necessary but to give him an All
| aoInto orI II vould curo him.