The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1861-02-13
4 Demagogues and their Doings.

~ DemagOgues and their DOings.
As the richest SOILS out of the superalnn-
dance of their prolific energies, produce the
most nOxious and deadly plants, so ii is found
that the atmosphere of the best governments
those in which the least restraint is imposed up
on the will of the individual citizen, and in
which the popular will controls the action of the
government itsef-invarably engendersa multi
tude Of demagogues, who seek to acquire for
themselves by artfuly operating upon the Gre
dulity, the passions, the prejudices or the igno-
rance Of the people, fictitious importance out
of all proportion to their real merits. These
creatures, it is true, are never able permanently
to fasten any delusion upon the popular mind
for there is, in the mass of the people, an in
stinctive sagacity which pcnetrates through all
DISCUSSES, and defics every attempt to palm of
the false upon it for the true This intutive fac
ulty Of distinguishing truth from error does not,
however act with instantaneous promptness.
The honest multitude, who take no personally
active part in public affairs, but daily occupy
themselves in the duties Of their ordinary call
ings, have no desire, in connection with those
affairs. except to promote the common welfare.
Strangers, themselves, to the promptings of am
bition, and scorning all that is mean and base,
they are prone to repose too generous conf
dence in those who come forward and declare
themselves to be the friends of the people
Through this confidence they may be, and they
often are, deluded and betrayed into hasty and
injudicious action but, sooner or later, the pub
lie judgment discovers the imposition that has
been practised upon it and the error of the
moment is repaired Mr.. Van Buren,, when he
uttered the memorable sentiment-"The sober
second thought of the people is always right
declared weighty truth and he is, himself, at
this day, living illustration of its verify, in the
long obscurity to which an outraged people have
consigned him, who once stood as high, in their
confidence and favor as any other statesman in
the land The dcmagogue however, looks only
to the passing moment So that he can but
achieve present success, he cares not how tran
sient that success may prove. Conscious that
his Maker designed him for no high position he
would be content if he might emerge, but fora
single instant, from his unnoted normal state,
to relapse again, clothedw as much infamy as
could be heaped upon his head into his former
and native nothingness. Reckless as to what
must be the issue of such contest, he actually
seeks to engage in a struggle with his Creator,
in order to make of himself what He has never
contemplated.
Times of copmotion, when the public mind
is occupied with subjects of absorbing interest
are especially those in which the demagogue
most assiduously plies his trade. Eager for
Office or emincnce, orsimply aspiring to the hon
ors which he supposes to be annexed to notori-
ETY., heis utterly inscriptions as to the means
by which his object is to be attained. To roast
his own pig, he will not hesitate to fire his neigh
boris dwclng-if he thinks he will not be visit
ed with punishment for the act If he could
thereby elevate himself into position of inllu-
encc or profit, he would willingly betray his
country, and consign his fellowctizcns to all the
unimOginabe calamities involved in their sub
lection by pitiless invader.
The foregoing remarks were suggested by the
information, received through different channels,
that, in the midst of the present crisis when the
hearts of all our people, like the heart of one
man. should beat responsive to the same common
impulse of patriotic sentiment, there are those
to be found among us who are endeavoring to
SOW the seeds of dsaffection and arrangement
between different classes of our people, by art
ful suggestions and covert insinuations, which
are designed to create the impression that our
nonslaveholding citizens have no community Of
interest with those who are proprietors Of slaves
The number of such dcmagogues, according to
the best information we have been able to obtain,
is very small: indeed we have heard of only
three or four, in all and they are not persons
who are likely to weld a very powerful influence
over men of ordinary intelligence. Still, they
are preaching one of the dogmas of the Black
| Republicans and they should be watched since
it is more than likely that they are Black
Republicans at heart and that they are secretly
engaged in disseminating the darker doctrines
of their internal creed wherever they fancy that
they can operate without danger of detection.
1t is momentous truth and it was never
more important than at the present time that it
should be comprehended, that all classes and
portions of the Southern people are equally and
vitality interested in the maintenance of the po-
sition which has been assumed by the seeding
States. Beginning with the lowest rank-the
slave-who does not perceive that the success Of
the Black Republicans, eliminating in the des-
truction of slavery, would bring down upon the
freed African horrible curse, instead of
blessing? And the white man, who lives by his
labor; how would it be with him? To say
nothing of his being degraded, like the white la
borer of the North to an equality with the free
negro, it is manifest that the negro would enter
the market with his labor, in competition with
the white laborer, and wages would be reduced
to the starvation standard. Moreover, when the
mass of those who are now wealthy shall have
been beggared by abolition, who is going to fur
nish employment to those who will be anxious
to labor? No The interests of all are insep-
arably associated. Every portion of the social
edfce is essential to the integrity Of the whole.
The body polite, like the physical man, has
many diverse members; but no one of them,
from the greatest down to the very least, can
suffer. or be mutilated without detriment to ALL
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