Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-27

The protest of l.. w. Spratt, of South |
Carolina, against the prohibition of the |
African slave.trade, is altogether the most
bonest and candid expression of the real
designs of the Secessionists that has yet |
appeared. Mr.. Spratt expressly declares that |
South Carolina, in inaugurating the rebellion
against the Federal Government, did so for
the purpose Of establishing what he calls a
stdve ReppbHc-if there can be such thing, |
and the title be not misnomer. l.' "a
a SLAVE Repubic,--There are many con- |
tented TO believe that the South, as geo.
graphical section, is in mere assertion Of its |
independence; that it is instinct with no
especial truth, pregnant of no distinct social
nature; that for some unaccountable reason
tho two sections have become opposed TO
each other that for reasons equally insult
fcient, there is disagreement between the
people that direct them, and that from no
overruling necessity, no impossibility of Co
existence, but as a mere matter of policy, 1T
has been considered best for the South to
strike out for herself and establish an inde-
pendence Of her own. This, fear, is an
inadequate conception of the controversy.
The Contest Betgesn THO Forms of Society.
The contest is not between the North and
South as geographical sections, for between
such sections merely there can be no contest
nor between the people of the North and
the people Of the South, for our relations
uhht pttll pltd6hul, Anu On .u6ukEdl
| there is still nothing to estrange US. We eat
| together, trade together, and practice yet in
intercourse, with great respect, the courte-
! sizes of common life. But the real contest is
bettoeen the t,go forms Of society 1ghich have
| become established, the one at the North and
the other at the South. Society is essen
TALLY different from government; as differ
| ent as is the nut from the burr, or the nervous
| body of the shell. fish from the bony struc-
| fI1ra W hinb c11rrounda ~. and within this
! government two societies had become devel-
| oped, as varied in structure and distinct in
| form, as any two beings in animated nature.
The one is a society composed of one race,
the other of two races. The one is bound
together but by the two great social rela-
tions of husband and wife, and parent and
child the other by the three relations of
husband and wife, and parent and child, and
master and slave. The one embodies in its
political structure the principle that equality
is the right of man; the other that it is the
| right of equals only. The one embodEing
the principle that equality is the right of
man expands upon the horizontal plane Of
pure democracy; the Other. embodying the
principle that it is not the right of man, but
of equals only, has taken to itself the
rounded form of o social aristocracy.
In the one there is hireling labor, in the
other slave labor; in the one, therefore, in
theory at least, labor is voluntary; in the
other, involuntary; in the labor of the one
there is the elective franchise, in the other
there is mott and as labor is always in ex-
cess of direction, in the one the power of
government is only with the lower classes;
in the other the upper. In the one, there
fore, the reins of government come from the
heels, in the other from the head, of the So
ciety; in the one it is guided by the worst,
in the other by the best, intelligence; in the
one it is from those who have the least in
tba al f,np fbnoa hn tba
stake in the continuance of existing order.
In the one the pauper laborer has the
power to rise and appropriate by law the
goods protected by the STate--when press
ure comes, as come it must, there will be
the motive to exert it-and thus the ship of
state turns bottom upward. In the other
there is no pauper labor with power OF
rising; the ship Of state has the ballast of a
disfranchised class; there is no possibility oil
political upheaval, therefore, and it is reason
ably certain that, so steadied, it will sail
erect and onward to an indefinitely distant
period.
The Republican doctrine of an irrepressa-
BILE conflict between these rival systems is
right, says Mr. Pratt. And he adds:
The principle that all men are equal and
equally right would have been destructive OF
Slavery at the South. Each required the
element suited to its social nature. Each
must strive to make the Government ex-
pressive of its social nature. The natural
expansion of the one must become an en-.
croacbment on the other, and so the contest
was inevitable. Seward and Lincoln, in
theory at least whatever be their aim, are
right. / realized the fact, and so declared
the conflict irTepressible years before either
ventured to advance that proposition. Upon
that declaration have always acted, and the
recent experience of my country has not in
, duced me to question the correctness of that
, first conception. .r..
i proportion in slaves will be established
{ If it has stood in Government moro thar
a half of which has been pledged to its destruc
4 ton, it will surely stand in Governmen
f every member of which will be pledged Il
its defense. But will it be established as
: normal institution of society and stand tn
e sole exclusive social system of the South
: That is the impending question, and the fac
Y is yet to be recorded. That 1t will SO stant
v some where at the South l do not entertain
: the slightest question. 1t may be overlooked
!. or disTegarded now. 1t has been the vita
J, agent of this great controversy. 1t has ener
i gized the arm of every man who acts par
e in this great drama.
We may shrink from recognition of tn
fact; we may decline to admit the source O
= our authority; refuse to slavery an Invitation
:, TO the table which she herself has 50 bounti
poweriess or unhonored. 1t may be aban
1t doned by Virginia, Maryland, Missouri
j. South Carolina herself may refuse TO espous
j. it, The hireling laborer from the Mort
% and Europe may drive it from our seaboart
O. As the South shall become the center of he
o own trade, the metropolis of her own com
+ meIce, the pauper population OF the Worl
l. will pour upon us.
" 1t may replace our slaves upon the see
| Il hao rap1oaa1 fbar, IN ha Nortk
j. e1n States, but concentrated in the State
IS upon the Gulf it will make its stand, cor
d aensed to the point at which the slave
ID labor transeends the want Of agriculture,
r, will flow to other Objects it will lay i;
y giant grasp upon still other departments
r Industry its every step will be exclusive;
D. will be unquestioned lord of each domain @
re which it enters. With that perfect econom
IN of resources, that just application Of powe
that concentration of forces, that security
order which results to slavery from the pc
IN manent direction of its best intelligenc
d. there is no other form of human labor thi
4. can stand against it, and it will build itse
OF a home and erect for itself, at some poll
's, within the present limits of the SoutheI
US States, a structure of imperial power an
Sc grandeur-a glorious Confederacy of State
IN that will stand aloft and serene for ag
Id amid the anarchy Of democracies that wi
OF reel around it.
Nv TIE Slave- Trade the Test-We do n
II | propose to reopen the slave-trade; v
AZ | merely propose 70 take no action on Il
he | subject truly think we want more slave
1e We want them to the proper cultivation
IN our soil, to the just development of o,
AL resources and to the proper constitution
he society. Even in this State think we wa
them of Is 200, 900 acres of land, less thl
4,0O0, 600 are in cultivation. We have
T. seamen for our commerce, if we had it, al
IS no operatives for the arts; but il is not 4
n that / now oppose restrictions on the slay
rs trade, / oppose them from the wish
Ia, emancipate our institution. 1 regard d
ct sldve trade as the test of It's integrity. I'm
lg be right then slavery Is right but not 'OithoH