New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-03-20
Reply.

Miss, March ~, 1901 o. VI. hANhiNc.
Reply.
Mn Dear Sir. You complain Of misrepresenta.
tons of each others views pervadiug the North
aud the South. Allow me to say that your lead
ING Journals and your public speakers have free
conrSe and are welcomed at the North. Messrs.
w. L. Yaucey, II. V. johnson. Albert G. Brown,
Howell Cobb, G. A. Henry, and scores of 9th
ers, have spoken from city to city throughout
the Free States, aud been everywhere heard with
quist attention by thousands of all parties. Most
Of them were so heard last Fall. / am often
asked to designate Southern Journals for Republic
can clubs and individuals, and l always com.
mend the ablest and most characteristic organs
of Southern opinion. There is not village in
the Free States, however overwhelmingly RePub-
lcan, in which any Southern orator may not
secure al earnest hearing at any time for the
most extreme PrO-SlAyery sentiments; there is
not A Post Office at the North where any ono
who chooses TO do 30 is not free to receive any
Southern Journal even though it reek with Slave
nv aud Secession. You know it is otherwise
generally ut the South that those who would
gladly take The TRIBsNE are In most cases de-
TERED from so doing by well-grounded fears OF
personal violence; that such OF our journals a.
misrepresent and stand opposed to Northern
sentiment are exclusively allowed free course
among you; and that these systematically belle
us by quoting as Republican the utterances Of
the Garrisonian Oracles which habitualy denounce
and reye us. You know that while Yancey re-
Gently made the tour of this State. speaking to
crowds of quiet Republican auditors wherever
he chose. | could not make o similar tour through
Mississippi without losing my lfe-would not be
allowed to make it at all. If, then, the North
and the South misunderstood each other, Is II
not clear that the mistake is not on this side,
and that we have done everything, you nothing
toward correcting it
You strangely intimate that We are deluded
with regard to Slavery. Allow me to assure you
that we hold no peculiar opinions on that sub
ject. Our view Of Slavery is substantially that
entertained by the whole civilized and Christian
world, the small minority of Shareholders and
their local following excepted Ia it not odd that
we should be deemed fanatics for holding Slavery
nounces it--what the Bulls of several PoPes
throughout the last three centuries have declared
it-what the great majority Of nearly every
Christian sect has proclaimed it, Fandtisism
should be local. temporary, fitfu special: We
hold with nearly every great poet from Homer
to Bryant, with the great majority Of eminent
historians, diyines, publicists in all ages--wth
what may be fairly pronounced the unanimous
Judgment OF those TO whom mankind look up "a
teachers and leaders Of opinion. If there be
fauatcism eyinced in this controversy, must 1t
not be- by our adyersaries !
Allow me N remind you that TO Slavery in
the concrete we are no strangers. or the men
who abolished Slavery in this State, the slave
holders aud the slnves OF New York, many sur
vive. myself within the last thirty-fye Year,
have seen New .York slave chased and hunted,
according to law, in free Vermont. (Of course,
he was not tsken.) We have had our mobs,
our prescriptions our eIeitement,, respecting
Slavery, not in the South, but among ourselves
Aud allow me to assure you that, whatever men
uay say TO subserVe purpose, Slavery was
voted out Of New York, not because il was in.
convenient or improbable 10 the dominant race
not because our climate was unsuited or our In
dustry i'll adapted 20 it, bat because, upon full
consideration, our people adjudged It TO be
morally ierong. individuals, including most slave
holders, upheld it, justified it, chung TO IT. but
the majority condemned il az unjust and 1t had
to be given up. II was while We still held slaves
that John Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards, aud
George Whteheld Numbered against il, and John
Jay, and Alex Hamilton, aud most Of our Revo-
luntionary patriots, demanded and secured its
Abolition IL was while kcwYork was n Slave
State that she FIRST followed the lead Of Thomas
Jefferson in insisting that the Federal Territories
should be shut against it and opened to Free
Labor alone, ....
Allow me 10 add that the Northern people do
not believe that you habltually beat, famish, or
otherwise abuse your slaves. II is lot customary
TO abuse valuable horses; why should men be
treated worse than horses' We do not suppose
that slaves az q class are oserworked or under
fed. We know that there are instances Of gross
abuse OF slayes-your journals aud your Law re-
ports reveal them. We are confident, however,
that these are exceptions, not the rule. II you
were TO tell me that as many slaves IRE spoiled
by unwise indulgence az subjected to uDdeserved
cruelty, l should not wish TO contradict you.
II is not the occasional abuse but the essential
fact Of Slavery that reyolts me. That one man
should DO the absolute owner OF another mans
wife and children seems to me the master out
rage, beside which all casual freaks Of malevo-
lence or tyranny shrink into insignifcance