The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-03-01
Tllr 9aiig gnnruaI.
EVANSVILLE. IND.
FRIDAY MoRNINe..........................MARCH /
The south Carolina idea.

from the speech of Hon. NJ. Clayton of Mis-
sissippi, arguing that all foreign born citi-
zens should be deprived of the elective fran
chise. We have now before US a long arti-
Gle entitled GA Protest from South Carroll
ma against Decision of the Southern Con-
gress." It is from the pen of Mr.. L. W.
Spratt, philosophical advocate of slavery
and the opening of the slave trade. Mr.
Spratt-to use popular proverb, stakes the
bull by the horns" While admitting that
there is no contest between the North and the
South as geographical sections nor between
the people of the North and the South, for
their relations have always been pleasant,
he insists that the real contest is between
the tlco forms Of society which have be-
come established, the one at the North the
other at the South" He then proceeds to
enlarge on this idea. We call the especial
attention of our mechanics and laboring
men, both of native and foreign birth-for
Mr.. Spratt, unlike Mr.. Clayton, makes no
distinction, owing to the fact that he is a
philosopher while the other is but politi-
cian-to the argument. 1t seems to US it is
so pregnant with meaning that they cannot
misunderstood it. In commenting on the
existence of these two forms of society he
says
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 and principle that
equality is the right of man, the other that
it is the right of equals only. The one en-
bodying the principle that equality is the
right of man, expands upon the horizontal
plane of pure democracy; the other, en-
bodying the principle that it is not the right
of man, but of equals only, has taken to it
self the rounded form of social aristocra-
CIV. 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 not; and, as labor is always
in excess of direction, in the one the power
of government is only with the lower
classes in the other the upper. In the
one, therefore, the reins of government
come from the heels in the other from the
head of the society; in the one it is guided
by the l0orsk in the other by the best intel
ligence in the one it is from those who
have the least in the other from those who
have the greatest stake in the continuance
of existing order In the one the PdupeT
Zqborer has the power to rise and approprl-
ate by law the goods protected by the State
when pressure comes, as come it must,
there will be a motive to exert it-and thus
Il
In the other there is 10 pauper labor with
power of rising; the ship of State has the
ballast of a DISTINGUISHED class; there is no
possibility of political upheaval, therefore,
and it is reasonably certain that, so stead
led we will sail erect and onward to an in
definitely distant period.
Having thus skatched the difference be
tween the two forms of society, Mr.. Sprat
proceeds to argue that the Southern Repub
lie must of necessity be a slave Republic
What he means by " slave Republic" may
be gathered from his assertion " that a
least as many slaves as masters are necessary
to the constitution of slave society, and al
the whites in excess of the negroes like
an excess of alkali or acids in chemical ex
perinents--are unfxed in the social CON-
pound" The inference is, that they can
only become fixed by an increase of the ne
gro element. This increase can only bt
brought about by re-opening the African
slave trade. Mr.. Spratt expresses thi
thought most emphatically. He says;
Many leaders of the South, many mer
who meet you in Convention, have beer
forced to their present position by popu
lar movement they had never the politica
courage to direct and so perhaps in any
case the whole machinery of society mus
start before the political hands upon thu
dial plate can indicate its progress and so
therefore, as this question is not moved--a!
the members of this Congress are charged
to perfect the dissolution of the old Gov
eminent, but have not been instructed as tC
this permanent requisition of the new
they may be mistaken, as they would have
been mistaken, if by chance they had mel
six months ago and spoke upon the question
of secession. And they are mistaken, if
from any reference to popular feeling, they
lnaugurate the action now proposed. Thu
people Of The Cotton States 1ca1t labor; thea
hR01CR that 1rhites and slaves cannot lcorh
together. They have no thought of aban-
doning their slaves that they may get white
labor; and they want slaves, therefore, ana
they 1ciH haze them from the Seaboard
States, if the slave trade be not opened, and
they cannot heartily embrace a policy
which, while it win tend to degrade the
Seaboard States to the condition of a de-
mocracy, aoiU compel then, to pay double ana
treble prices for their labor
Such is the theory of the master minds
in the Southern Republic; and Mr. Sprat
unhesitatingly AYERS that if th0- e"'0'
-, convention fail to compre-
bend the logic ofthe secession movement, and
insert any clause in the permanent consti-
sutton Of the Cotton Republic prohibiting
the introduction of slaves from the coast Of
Africa, the whole movement is defeated,
and, however painful it may be, there toi7
be a second reco'qtion, with doubts as to its
being so peaceful rs the first.