The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-01-22
Thuriow Weeds Dis~yowai or Helpers
Book.

Thuriow Weeds Dis@yowai or Helpers
Book.
Under the date December 7, 1869, il appears
that the sagacious editor of the Albany Evening
Journal addressed letter q to distinguished
gentleman in Washington" ia which he couples
the acknowledgment of having subscribed one
hundred dollars to aid in publishing a large
edition Of Mr.. Helpers Compend," in order
"to assist in forming public sentiment upon
the relative value and effect of free and slave
labor" with very humble pecoavi, palliated
by an "if'' painfully characteristic of the
school to which he belongs. Had known"
he says, that this compend would counsel
severance of the business, social and religious
relations existing between slaveholding and
non.slaveholding citizens, or that the book it
self invites or counteAances servile insurrec-
ton, certainly should have withheld both my
approval and my money, for my opposition to
slavery rejects all such teachings" After
lapse Of thirteen months the objections Of Mr..
Weed to the publication OF his letter have dis
appeared, and 1t is laid before the public.
Meanwhile the Presidential campaign has been
carried on, and, thanks to this very work Of
Mr.. Helper, and kindred speeches and docu-
ments, Mr.. Abraham Lincoln has been elected
to the chief magistracy of the country. What
a pity that this disavowal of the most incen-
diary doctrines that ever were promulgated in
America was not permitted to have its full
effect six months agoI
We have no reason TO doubt the sincerity Of
tho menv rapu h1icapa whn row that ia oficis,,,
has triumphed and widespread revolt in the
Southern States threatens to dissolve the Union
and engulf our national prosperity, shrink
from the consequences of the means they have
employed to bring about SO deplorable re-
suit. But how huge, colossal and Internal in
dimensions must have been the hypocrisy of
the Stewards, Weeds and others,who silently
permitted the very vitals of the country 10 be
corroded by poison, the fatal tendency of
which they understood, and were prepared, at
a convenient season, to repudiate. For two
whole years previous to the 5th of NOvembe
last the cities, towns, villages and hamlets of
every Northern State were infested by republi-
promulgated the rankest and most ultra aboli-
ton incendiarism. Slavery was described as
the sum Of villanies, the worst of crimes, the
objectionable sin of the nation, crying per-
petually to Heaven for vengeance, and sure to
bring down temporal disaster and eternal
wrath upon all who tolerated it. The Canaan
ties were not depicted in blacker colors by
Moses than owners of human beings were by
the wide mouthed blatants who, from Maine to
California and from Pennsylvania to Oregon,
roamed restlessly through the land, honey
combing every square mile of it with treason.
Mr.. Weed tells his distinguished friend in
Washington" that he ''never cherished feeling
riously the property, the rights or the safety Of
the citizens of the slaveholding States"
"Northern men," he continues, 'who invade
Southern State either to run off slaves or excite
insurrection, deserve the punishment they re-
ceive." Yet upon the receipt of the news of
the John Brown invasion, two months prior to
the composition of his letter, the Albany Euen-
ing Journal declared that 'ssuch outbreaks we're
inevitable" adding III a man builds his house
over volcano, il is not those who warn him
Of his danger that are to blame for its erup-
tions.' Political partisanship was all tinged
with crimson foreshadowings at that period.
"The slave system" said Mr.. Seward, at Ro-
chester, "is intolerant unjust and inhuman to-
wards the laborer, whom it loads down with
chains and converts into merchandise. 1t Is
system of constant danger, distrust suspicion
and watchfulness. 1t debases the owner to the
lowest degree of which human nature is capa-
BILE to guard against mutiny and instruction.
The two systems of slave and free labor are in
congruous; they are more than homogeneous
they are incompatible. So incompatible are
they that every new State makes its first politi-
cal act the choice Of the one and the exclusion
of the other. even at the cost of civil war If ne
cessary. They are continually coming into
closer contact, and collision results. Shall l
tell you what this collision means? II
is an irrepressible conflict between OPP
posing and enduring forces and il means
that the United States must and will,
sooner or later, become entirely
nation or entirely free labor
nation Carefully examine the Specification
of those portentous sentences. The Helper
book is but their paraphrase. The principles
they enunciate are the same and il the Ian
guage is different the sense is identical. It
was the key note Of republican electioneering
from the beginning Of 1865 until the end Of
1860.
A portion oil the republican press have
falsely attributed the notoriety which was OBJ
tanned by Helpers book to the notice which
was taken of it by the conservative journals of
the North No charge could he more untrue
or unfounded. If the grave and serious warn
ings which were uttered by the HERALD and
other papers to the fanatics who distributed it
from their depots in Wall and Nassau streets
had been properly needed, the dark clouds,
pregnant with tempest which darken the hori
ION, would never have obscured our political
horizon. Week after week, and month after