The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-03-09

and Dr. Ross, DR.. Th0rnwell ana the rest VI sueM
should come to be owned and worked by some OF
che black members Of their churches, the dark.
les could quote their own arguments for 1t, and
be Just a Mosaic, just as Pauline, just a. ChIls-
tan. lust a. mush part of the great divine
plsn Of the universe, with Dr.. Ross and Dr..
Thornwell on the plantation, bending to the hoe,
and Scip and Uncle Ned in the pulpit and par
lor, as it is now. And, just for the sake OF Gu
ring these men of some of their logical and the
illogical nonsense on the subject, We should rath-
en- like to see positions changed for while
Republican.
--O----------
The Apostle to the Afficans.
It il not often, especially in this country, that
one meets with a thoroughly consistent man
onessnot afraid Of his principles, but willing to
follow them just where they naturally and logic.
ally lead him. Revolutionary times, 1t is well
known, are more fertile in such men than the
more even days Of vulgar prosperity. South
Carolina has produced, out OF the lamentations
OF her political elements an eminent specimen
of this rare phenomenon. He bears name not
in itself euphonious, nor suggestive Of histori-
cal or aristocratic associations. 1t is not Pick
ney, nor Rutledge, nor Laurens-in short, 1t IS
SrRArr But what of that What's in name?
Spratt may make his as harmonious in the ears
though not musical in the ear, have long been
illustrious in the memory.
Sprstt certainly has, the gemlike virtue OF con-
sstency Of the purest water, of the most spark
ling brliancy. Indeed, he reminds US Of that con-
cientious actor who, when he was to play Othei
10, blacked himself all over that his consistency
might be perfect and entire. In the discharge
of his mission as the Apostle of the African
Slave.trade, he goes forward without finching
whithersoever the gospel given in his charge
may direct his steps. His orthodoxy is beyond
cavil. He gives in neither to right hand ex-
tremes nor to left hand defections. He is stern
in his rebuke of the halfway covenants of the
tmd shareholders as he is of the open blasphe-
mics Of the hardened Abolitionists. Indeed, a
little more SO, inasmuch as he makes allowances
for the misleading influences of Northern mists,
which they cannot claim who dwell in the full
effulgence of the Southern sun. And he re-
proves the lukewarmness Of those Southern
saints who are slow to confess the full divinity
Of Slavery by an allusion which We fear would
have been thought to SAVIOR Of profanity had We
used it in behalf of Liberty. "Even we our
Selves" he expostulates with the shortcomers,
''have hardly ventured to affirm this. While the
cock crows, In fact, we are ready to deny it, and
if shall not perish on the cross Of human judg-
ment, it must be because the Great Eternal has
are ours) of his ,rH should come to such excess
of human ignominy r.
We find the words of this text in the Episte
of Spratt unto Pickens, a member of the Con-
gress of the Confedera ed States at Montgomery,
Its occasion was the incorporation of prohibit
ton Of the African slave trade into the Consti
tuition of the Provisional government This the
Apostle Spratt Justly reprobates, as tainting the
very lile-blood of the young Republic with the
virus of heresy. With unanswerable logic, he
argues that if the slave-trade be wrong, Slavery
cannot be right; and conversely, if slavery be
right the slave trade cannot be wrong. He
therefore complains that by making the prohibit
ton Of the African trade cardinal principle of
the new Constitution, instead of leaving it among
the reserved rights of the single States the Con-
stitution has virtually condemned slavery as an
immoral institution, and that it is in vain to ex-
pect to maintain the institution in the face of
such an admission to its prejudice. He intrepidly
scouts at the idea Of its being wise to defer in
this particular to the moral sentiment of the
world against the slave-trade, declaring, with
perfect justice, that it would be just as wise to
be guided by the moral sentiment of the world
against slavery itself. Every such admission is
a point against themselves. "The slave-trade is
the test Of the integrity Of slavery This can
not be blinked. "Truth must prevail, and the
OOufeutloI has W CuoOSe DetWeeH cOntTlDuIlnR
and being crushed to it."
We must do our apostolic Spratt the Justice
to say that he does not shrink from taking any
number of bulls by the horns. No matador or
pcador was ever more ready for such taurine
encounters. He does not quail even before the
rush of "the fercest democrat" itself, but lays
it rolling in the dust of the arena. This portion
of his homilv we commend especially to the care
full consideration Of those men at the North who
have rejoiced in calling themselves National
Men" and exulted in belonging to a party that
embraced the South as we'll as the East and the
West. They will there find exactly what their
Southern confederates thought of them, and how
the present state of affairs approves the political
sagacity of John Randolph, when he said to the
North, "You hope to govern us by our black
Slaves; but tell you we will govern you by
"your ,hite slaves!" As long as the white
slaves at the North gave the slave holders the
government of the nation, they were content
with the status quo; but soon as the white
slaves became uneqal to that work, they repealed
and broke the Government in pieces. Mr.. Spratt
tells the Northern Democrats just how they
were esteemed while they were useful tools
He says that the fatal error of the Montgomery
Convention is that they have assumed Democ-
racy to be right, a proposition from which it is
logical deduction that Slavery is wrong. The
principle of the Equality of Man, and its practi-
cal mischief arises from the Government of a
Democracy proceeding from the aboring class
"from the heels to the head" instead of the
head downward. Mr.. Spratt cannot void his
rheum on more deserving objects than his some
time coadjutors
He tells his friends at Montgomery the simple
truth that the business of that Convention is to
form Slave Republic. A Republic rejecting
the wild and guilty phsntasy of the Equality Of
Man as its basis, for the sound doctrine of the
equality of equals only-taking to itself s'the
grounded form of a social aristecracy." All at
tempts to make Southern republic rather than
Slave one must fall. For this eEd, Democracy
must be made to give way to Slavery in the
South. The morbid conditions of Virginia, Mis-
souri,, and Kentucky, spring not from Slavery,
bus from Democracy-from the growth of Free
Labor there. Even South Carolina is not as
sound as she should be in her political morals.
Slaves are selling off westward from the lighter
lands, from the rice.swamps, and from Charles.
ton itself, and free white laborers are replacing
them. As long as this state of things lasts, the
conflict must continue. Another revolution NAV
be needed to restore peace and prosperity, but
it may be avoided by the new Republic recos.
nizing Slavery as the living principle of social
order. No States should be admitted to the Con.
federacy that would not accept this vital princi.
pie. Therefore no implied censure should be
cast on Slavery over the back of the slave trade
1t need not be recognized by the Confederacy;
but should be left to the action of each State
For the temptation to get rid of Slavery for
cheaper white labor must be removed to save
the Seaboard States from being degraded to
democracy" Mr. Spratt sees no danger, but
contrariwiee safety and strength. in the multiple
cation of Slaves. Forty millions of them would
not overstock the future, when Free Labor has
been carefully elmated, and the negro blessed
With the monopoly of all employments Out of
this paradise of political economy will proceed
an abundance of all manner of things needed by
all men which will conquer the prejudices Of
mankind, and bring all nations to sue for the ia
vor of the new Republic.
We have thus endeavored to give brief anal
ysis of the substance of the elaborate Epistle of
this new apostle of the Amcricanization of