Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-06-12


british view OF the Claims OF slavery Ia
Americh-A sfiHsins RebuISe Of its AS
sumptiOns. 4r...a 81 s..-r.-.. .ns ..-s
The London NewS, Of late date, has the
following ........t.., 3. ...-....
There must be something very intoxicat-
ing about the pleasure of driving, beating
and selling a fellow. creature, when people
who were never In a position TO hold a slave
in their lives. out Of mere hatred Of the prin-
ciples Of civil and social equality stretch
their sympathies over a thousand leagues of
ocean 10 meet the slave.owners OF Georgia
and South Carolina. When this Secession
movement broke out, we felt quite sule that
the friends of reaction at home would not be
able to restrain themselves from pr6claiming &
il movement on behalf of freedom. They
have forborne longer than we expected, but
il seems they can hold no longer.
Without stopping to inquire by what mis-
erable process an Englishman could 90 per-
vert and muddle his traditional notions OF
liberty, we will look at what the Secession
lists are deinR, and inquire what are the prin-
ciples and institutions of that Government
which they have .earnedlso much praise for
setting up.
1t certainly seems strange that the section
of the American community of which the
world never hears, save when it tars and
n
sionary, or traveller from the North, il may
be, accused of Abolitionism, should suddenly
conceive a passion for Liberty. It is only
partially Ineligible when we remember q
certain sense of the word which our race has
left some five hundred years bshiud.
We must 60 to feudal time, when high
spirited BarOns flew to arms to vindicate,
against too humane and inQuisitiye cen.
tral power, their liberty to harry helpless
lak, x-sk Ill q. 4
geoD, to find any ything like the ideas of Free
dom which the Secessionists profess. Per-
haps the nearest approach to an assertion OF
the same principle in our own times was the
well known demand of great English Duke
during the agitation of the Reform bill who
said Of his tenants and their votes: MAY |
not do what like with n,y otpR?" This was
thought at the time very revolting but it is
! the faintest echo of the old spirit once
deemed chivalrous and gentlemanly.
Yet the old and modern claims are the
same. Once let one portion of society re-
| solve to build up itself-whether in wealth
and luxury or in liberal culture, makes nc
moral diference-by the deliberate sacrifice
of another section, consigned on system to
perpetual degradation, and its character is
made, no matter whether its Government is
| called republican or monarchical, whether
| its victims are black or white. Formerly the
/
| sition without complacency, as one fol
which they were not responsible, and which
they were simply to make the best Of unit
dior of escape was open.
/ Such is still the feeling of the better men
Of the class. But it is a state Of mind inim.
ical to the entire theory of the new Govern
ment set up at Montgomery. In the neN
Confederation slavery is sacred, blessed mys
teIious, ineffable. Modern civilization ha
! l..
seeeders of the South will correct its aber
rations. TO accomplish this the basis Of thu
institution is laid deep in the Fundamental
laws of the Confederacy. 1t is part of tn,
new Southern Constitution that no law
shall be made denying or impairing the righ
of property in slaves; the General Govern
meht is in all its jurisdictionrequired to pro
tect slavery. ~,
Relieved from the necessity of toll, tn
Southerpers are to show the world what tn
Anglo Saxon race is capable of becomino
"Onr prospects for the future are great. w
shall be a benefit to all the nations of tn
earth and be ourselves, The radical element
which hups ~ a weight to impede our pro
gress, we have eut off and left. We shal
have the greatest improvement of our race
and constitute the most elegant society o
earth. We shall have society that wi
charm the world by its elegance-all ou
white population educated and intelligent
with peace and plenty smiling over our hap
py land" And all this, glory. and bliss vii
be due to Slavery as protected and develops
under the new Constitution. The results +
humanity, of course, will be proportionate
great. Such grand spectacle must tell upo
the outer world. Compulsory labor is no
and can not become sufficiently productiv
i to supply for all the white men in the societ
where il prevails those wants which moder
civilization inspires.
And if it could be done affrighted Christ
endom would recoil with horror before th
spectacle of State founded on principle
essentially Pagan. But as a scheme it
ineligible to transparency, and it is far lie:
astonishing that it should be proclaimed i
the slave States than that anybody reare
amid institutions Of popular freedom shoul
bail its proclaimers as champions Of libert,
When we read that the Seceders of to-ds
are but carrying out the principles Of Wasl
ipgton, Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, IL
explanation is at hand, that man may i
: woke those venerable names without know
ing very accurately what those who boz
them thought of slavery.
But Englishmen who doIiot write can tel
without the aid of Pinnock, the different
between liberty and arrogant lawlessnes
: and we ask our friends in the free States
America not to believe that because the
struggle is here and there misrepresentt
for party purposes in England, the Englii
people do not thoroughly understand Il
} nature Of the contest in which they are el
gagged ' fi.