Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-09-25
arfsisl1 Philanthropy.

British philanthropy.
AN EXTRACT from LETTERs on SLAVERY, by
JAMES WILLIAMS, -Esq., now in press in this
city:
In estimating the SUN of real philantbro-
py and regard for the rights OF man. which
may be accorded to British Abolitionists for
their efforts to eradicate the siu of African
slavery firm America, the Unbiased mind
naturally institutes q comparison between
their practice in regard to India, and their
precepts in regard TO America. BY what
right does England hold India in suhjugation!
By what law of morals can England lay
claim TO that extensive territory, on TAR
distant sea, and in another quarter of the
globe? Has India ever menaced the iutpgri-
ty of the British Empire. or injured hair of
the head of any Englishman, who bad not
first entered its territory as a master and
conquerer? Did she make the conquest from
any feeling of benevolence towards the hui
man family? She found the Inhabitants in
the enjoyment of great degree OF. ciViliza
ton, and she has reduced them to barbarian;
the African slave has been elevated from the
most brutal barbarism to civilization. Eng
laud found the Inhabitants of Inflated Iudia
rich and prosperous, and she has reduced
them to beggary and want. All Britain has
been enriched by tie spoiis which have been
! ruthlessly robbed from these helpless
Asia.ics. Their bodies have not been abso
lutely reduced to slavery. for that would
have been not only impossible, but unpfofit-
able. But she has taken away all their sub
stance, and as admitted in Parliamentary
Reports she has, by fortunes almost uuheard
of in the annals of civilized nations, COM
PEELED the miserable Inhabitants to pay the
assessments which were imposed upon them.
What is this but the worst aud most cruel
form of servitude? for tue master does not,
in this case. leave even a crust of bread tor
his more than slave. IT the enslavement of
comparative handful of Africans in Amer
lea is q crime of such enormous magnitude.
where can you find words to express the
enormiiy of England's wrong to India.
But is England now to be excused by the
moral law which is Invoked against America.
because it was the crime of her ancestor!
| MOI for she does not surrender back to India
her long lost liberties. She sill clutches
with vulture's grasp, the dry bones OF that
carcass, from which she has torn the flesh;
| and shall not humanity bold her amenable
| to the same laws which she desires to impose
upon the STAKEHOLDER in America?
What are the means which she has employ
| ed to maint lin and consolidate her power
O, er India? The veins of every African,
| now a slave in the United States do not con-
| tam as much human blood as has been shed
| FOR the accomplishment of this purpose. The
| fed that Southern planter should "place
an African in the cot on.f~ld, whip in hand.
to drive his fellow slave to his toilsnme
task" At this very moment of tim, during
a period of prOfound aud uubrOken peace
England has nearly three hundred thousand
| of the wretched Inhabitants OF India armed
with sword and bayonet, and musket and
cannon, paid out of the assessment upon the
native races, who are employed to shed their
hrofhurss blood If ehnuI0 he
made, or murmur escape them, which might
indicate a wish to shake off the chains in
which they are bound. Is it for humanity's
sake that Englishmen seek the emancipation
of the slaves of America? The history of
one day, according to the statements ot the
most reliable British authorities, would fur
nish record of more misery. more destitu-
ton, more utter, hopeless, Implied wretched-
ness. among the subugated inhabitants of
Iudis, than would the history of an entire gen
grafton of all the African slares, which their
pseudo philanthropy would set free. Here
again the tracts" and the ''songs," sent
over for 1.-THE American congregations" are
silent. No moving story, or plying verse,
recounts the cruel fate of the poor Asiastic.
No American pulpit resounds with eloquent
denunciations of the damning crime and sin.
No fierce and bloody minded clergymen of
New England, subscribed and forwarded the
famous Sharp's ride to the Iudiamen, in their
last great struggle against the wrongdoer.
Alasi here again the unfortunate lndaman's
skin is not dark enough to entitle him to
sympathy or assistance
4 do not wish to constitute myself an arhi-
ter or judge between England and India. 1t
is not my province even to decide whether
more benefits than evils have resulted TO
mankind from the subsection of India by
England. Whatever may be the abstract
rights or wrongs involved in the issue. it is
practical fact, that to-day, as well as in all
other times past, powerful nations and supe-
rior races. subject and hold IN dependence
weaker nations and races; and il may be fairly
assumed that such will be the Case in all
time to come 1t is. and always will remain.
an unsettled question. how far civilized ma
tons may go, in compelling indolent or wick
ed barbarians to change their brutal habits
of life, and contribute their due proportion
to the necessities or she luxuries of the civ-s
iljzed world. But British emancipatienists
may not justly complain if they are held
amenable to the requirements of the MORAL
Law, by which they profess TO be governed,
and which they seek to enforce upon others.
They may be Justly brought to trial under
the rules which they have instituted in their
assaults upon the planting States of Ameri-
ca; and by these they stand condemned, be-
yOnd the hope of a reversal, upon an appeal
to any enlightened and unparalleled tribu-
nal.
However this may be, India is the field
this class of British politicians hope will al
the proper moment rise to increased impor-
lance, upon the ruins of the American plan
tations Would it be too uncharitable in
''kinsman born" to intimate the existence
of an impression upon his mind, that it is
chiefly to this cause, that the African slave 10
America is indebted for their sympathies?
May it not be that the eager interest with
which they are now watching the progress of
their battle in America, is stimulated prima-
rily, or at least incidentally, by this hope of
gain? Is it not possible. that behind the pro-
fuse protestations of purely philanthropic
which has had its influence upon the British
emancipaiionists who, according to recent
declaration of the London Times, ''have come
up to the aid of Abolitionism, 10 the present
struggle between the North and the South?'