The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1861-01-23
Having Their Eyes Opened, at Last.

"
We have long been convinced that the Nor
thern people, as mass, areprofoundy ignorant
alike of the institutions, character. sentiments,
and feelings, Of their brethren of the South. II
Is true that vast number of Southern travel
ers have annually visited the Northern States
for purposes Of business or of pleasure; but
they did not afford to the people of the North
the requisite materials for the study of Southern
character. In order thoroughly to kRow a peo-
pie, the investigator must mngle with them in
/ their homes, and be admitted to familiar inter-
course with them in the unreserved communion
/ Of their inner and social life To form a iudg.
ment of a people from slight knowledge of a
few Of its members. hastily CLEANED while they
were fitting through foreign country, is GER
tainly TO misjudge. He would act Just as sen.
sibly, who, having merely seen flock of wild
geese on the wing should undertake, with no
other means Of information on the subject, to
give scientific description of the bird. with q
full accoant of its habits and pcculiarities =
Very few travellers from the North have been in
purely business missions, and these have gener.
ally confined themselves to the greater thor
oughfares of travel, while their associations
have been chiefly with our merchants. They
have seen, therefore. only a single phase ol
Southern life. OF our educated agricultural
population. Of that social element which gives
direction, tone, and character, to public senti
mcnt among us they know absolutely nothing.
The present generation Of Northern people has
grown up under a delusion. The South, from
/ their very infancy, has been constantly and sys-
! tematcally traduced and vilified to them,
! through al. the agencies of anti-slavcry malign
ty, until they have at last received it as dogma
that the Southern States are the abodes of bar
barism, occupied by dcpraved and inferior race
Of whites, who exc out wretched existence by
cxtorting superhuman labors from the poor AZ
rican, who--rather superior. on the whole, as
they believe, 10y nature, toany other race Of men
on earth-is daily subjected, wherever slavery
| prevails, to crueties and sulIerings of the most
soul-harrowing description. Moreover they
have been trained to believe that this deplorable
state of things exists only by their sufTcrance,
and that they are, indirectly, at least RESPONSE
bic for its existence. They think that "the poor
slave" if he were not restrained by his knowl
edge Of the fact that the power of the North is
! pledged to put down scrvile Instruction, would
rise upon his master and make the whole South
second San Domingo. When, therefore,
! Southern men have complained of Northern az
gressions upon their rights, as connected with
the institution of slavery the Northern mind
has found itself unable to conceive how any
thing Of riyht can be pre- Heated of system SC
utterly at war with all its ideas of recttudc. II
is but natural, then, that when we point them
! to the compromises of the Constitution, and
claim the fulfllment of its stipulations, they
should reply that that instrument is but "a
league with Death a covenant with He'll. II
was just as natural, too, that when We warned
them that their policy would end in a disruption
of the Union, they should have treated the in
timation with cool dcrision. They were pcnc
| tratcd with The conviction that the Union was
so all-csscntial to our very existence that we
would never dare to separate from them, ever
/ though th:y should consent TO the separation
and they regously believed, moreover that
should we ever make the attempt to secedc so
great would be found TO be the diSproportion be.
tween our weakness and their might, that We
would speedily return to our duty" and evcr
afterwards allow the North, without murmur
of rcmonstrancc on our part, to work out fol
us, in its own way and time, that regeneration
| Of which VIC so sorcly stood in need. When
the long series of their wrongs and insults had
| eliminated in the election of Lincoln to the
Presidency and the gallant Palmetto State
thsreupon declared that the bands which had
connected her with the Federal Union were for.
ever loosed, the North for moment, was star,
tied from its propriety, and began to inquire
whether this movement did not augur some.
thing of peril to the Union. Not long, however
was the North disquicted 1t took heart again
when it remembered how South Carolina had
| talked in 1892, about notification, and it was
confidently believed that secession was only a
bolder effort to ntimidatc the North, and needed
only to be rcsolutcy met, to be eflectually put
down. The leaders, and orators, and presses
of the Black Republican school, waxed firmer
and more ard more defiant and contcmptuous
as they assured themselves that no other South
ern State would follow the example of South
Carolina. When, at length, they learned that
Mississippi, and Florida, and Alabama, had de
clared for secession, and that the other cottor
States were likely soon to join the movement
they were compelled to acknowledge that the
affair was assuming serious proportions Still
they consoled themselves in the belief that only
! the cotton States would think of seeding: thu
| border slave States, they were certain, woult
never think of such thing, and the cottor
States, alone, were entirely too weak to max,
head against the colossal power of the Union
Therefore, they sternly rejected every PROPOSE
/ ton that savored of compromise and doggedly
determined to carry out to the bitter end tn,
programme laid down in the Chicago platform
But their eyes are now opening little, and they
begin to catch an occasional glimmer of tn,
! truth of things. A correspondent of thu
Charleston Mercury, writing from Washington
on the 18th inst, says: ....
1.-THE report of the select ''crisis" committed