New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-04-02
PALsnPYING HISTORY.

We MAKE the IoHOWlnB quotaton hohh WIN
known speech recently delivered by the Hon. Alex.
II. Stephens:
The foundations Of our Government laid Its corner
stone rests upon the great truth tha. the negro not equal to
the white that Slavery subodnson to the superior race
Il his natural and moral condition This Government
Is the first the history fthe world based upon'hn sePnS
scal philosophical and moral truth"
Mr.. Stephens, in this efusion, shows him.
self to be either ignorant or knavish, and per-
haps BOTH 1t is time TO declare the truth, and
to show that these silly assertions, reiterated so
often by Doctors of Divinity and Pot-House Pro-
fessors, are utterly bottomlesS. All Slavery IN
all ages, has rested upon On assumed ethnograph'
ical superiority; and, preceded as 1t has been In
most ages by military conquest, it is difficult to
see how it could be based upon any other idea
If we examine Greek Slavery, we lind the very
foundation Of the institution In the arrogance
which considered all barbarians to be BY nature
inferior TO the Greeks Plato, while he admitted
Slavery into his ideal Republic, justified 1t upon
dhe ground of the inferiority OF the slave. Ihere
we're anti Slavery men even in these early and
pagan times; and in answer to these we ma
Aristotle defending the relation, in language
verify of Dr. Fuller himself" The soul rules
/" ever the body" he SAYS 81 the husband over
tie wife; and the master over his slave Inc
Romans, go far as they cared, or rather deigneo
TO defend the brutalities of their social system
reasoned in the same way.
Nothing but this sense Of superiority could
have produced the terrible cruelty with which
the ancients treated their slaves. The Lacede-
morians made no scruple TO butcher them In
! great numbers Beating slaves with sticks,
thorgs, and whips was frequent, and letters,
especially for field hands, were in common use,
to prevent running away, which was common
ol,o, RebeIlions were continual. Concubinage
| of the master and female slave was matter OF
| course; and Just as the Hon. Mr.. Paddle OF
! South Carolina has children by his slave Betty,
| and sells them, so the Athenian or Roman bar
tered away his own offspring. The barbarian
! faint In the blood could never be ersdicated'
! The freedman never held up his head like one
horn free. 81 was free.born," says st. PAU
when he wished to give the most conclusive proof
Of his citizenship.
Perhaps Mr.. Alexander II. Stephens does not
know that there is such country as Russia
and as that wicked thing called Emancipation is
in progress there, perhaps he will deny that
Slavery has ever existed there OF aIl-that 1t was
ba,ed upon a distinction Of race, and that the
power of the lord over his serf was as unre-
strained, not many years ago, as the power OF the
droyer over his beast. Perhaps Mr.. Alexander
II. Stephens may not have heard of Algers,
where. as in all Moslem lands, Christians were
, led as Of on inferior race and were treated
accordingly, after the most orthodox South Coro'
Ina fashion, as Il they we're Of no human race at
all. But we need not multiply examples. As we
have already said, Slavery implies natural inferi-
or;ty, and wherever it has existed, Il has been
defended explicitly upon that score.
In one respect, indeed. our Southern Slavery
is unlike any which has heretofore existed for
neither at Athens, nsr Rome, nor Agiers, was
| this institution regarded as the cornerstone
of tho political edifce. The Greek or Roman
would have been willing to acknowledge that he
owed his slaves TO his power, but not that no
owed his power to his slaves; Tor 1t would have
been utterly inconsistent with the selfcompla-
| cency of the first or the turbulent arrogance OF
the other, to have admitted that the political
! fortunes Of those great Commonwealth rested
upon so gnobe a superstructure; to say nothing
Of the logical absurdity of ayowmg that to be
the cause which was only one Of several effects.
II Mr. Alexander III. Stephens viii borrow
schoolcopy of Rollins Ancient History-or
Peter Parley's simple treatises, which may better
serve hm-and viii faithfully read the same, he
will find much about Slavery, but hs will not
find that il was considered az sheer and simple
salvation by any nation therein portrayed. Sup
nose Pharaoh had been told by one Of his phi.
! Iosophers-of whom he had a great number,
most of them slayes--that his kingdom owed all
ia greatness 10 lcsei scum OF Ieraelitlsh brick
makersl Would not that philosopher fnNs met
with the hempen fate Of the chief baker But
tbs founders of the Southern Coafederacy, lost
to all sense of self-respest, substantially soy 70
all tho world: with negroes We rise; without
"uegroes We fall; grsat are negroes. To
negroes we owe eur rights, liberties,
immunitieb our public property and our
:" social happiness. In negroes we hive
"apd move and have or being" What con-
fession What IN admission to 10 made IN tn,
first days Of a nation! POmpey 10 our pillar O
strength and Cuffee is cur corner stone. With
out Uncle Tom we starye-do not, for swee
charity's sake, take away our Uncle Thomas
No u. T., no Confeaeracy! No Congress, nj
Constitution No "nigger, no nothing ~ n
they whine and whmper, like Digger Indian
over a rihed watermelon patch 1t ia not ii
agreeable spectacle to contemplate The South
ern Coniederacy is " the first in the history