The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer. (Bel Air, Md.) 1862-1864, 1862-12-06

TO tens OF millions OF white slaves, held
in abject hereditary bondage by proud
and cruel aristocracy. To save his crown
he would not do ito save his noble and
perishing army, he would not do ito
save France, he would not do it. He sac
ri6ced all to principle and humanity
He had DO right to overthrow the social
and domestic institutions of the Russian
people. He knew, furthermore, that the
Russian slaves, though belonging to the
white race, were not prepared to profit by
the freedom which they desired. He
shrank before the contemplation of the
awful horrors of the servile war that he
could provoke-he, the iron man, who
had ordered 1900 Turkish prisoners of
war to be shot at Jaffa, because he had
nothing to feed them on
History is philosophy teaching by ex-
ample. Cannot we pause in our mad ca
reer and profit by its lessons? The judg-
ment of the world approves the conduct
of Napoleon. Have we any right to abol-
ish slavery in the Southern States p
Have we any right to emancipate their
negro slaves and arm them against their
masters? Where do we derive such right?
Not from laws that govern foreign nations
at war with each other. Not from the
Constitution, to maintain which in the re-
volted States we profess to be making
war upon them for that very Coustitu-
ton recognizes their right to hold slaves,
and guarantees to them that right in the
most solemn manner. 1t is against the
Constitution that they have rebelled,
claiming to have the right to frame a
form of government that suits them bet
ter. Can we, on our part, fight them for
it, and claim the right to enforce the ODE
dience to one part of the Constitution,
while we ourselves nullify and destroy
another part? Mr. Lincoln has no more
rightful authority to abolish slavery in
South Carolina, than Jefferson Davis has
to abolish the marriage contract, or the le-
gal relations between parent and child, in
Massachusetts.
But assuming that the right existed,
ought not such considerations as are sug-
gested by humanity and policy, weigh
with us somewhat? The whites of the
South are not responsible for this institu-
ton of Slavery. The people of New Eng
land, who imported the negroes froa, AT
RIGA, and for whose benefit the African
slave trade was perpetuated for series of
years by the trainers of the Constitution,
are more Immediately responsible for the
existence of Slavery in this country
Whose mind does not shudder at the con-
temptation of the servile war through the
South, which this emancipation scheme. of
the Administration, successful, would ne
cessarily produce? The guilty and the
innocent would be involved in common
destruction. But for whose benefit and
for what purpose are we about to under
take this tremendous social and political
revolution? Not the negro's benefit,
certainly. The war, if it has produced no
other satisfactory result, has demonstrated
one great truth. 1t has shown the aboli-
ton idea of "impartial freedom" is de-
plorable delusion. 1t has shown that the
Southern negro is not entitled to the free
dom of the white man, because he has
neither the inclination or the capacity to
achieve or enjoy it. 1t has shown that
it would be an act of atrocious cruelty to
himself to trust liberty upon him. He
has neither the nature, the feelings, the
aspirations or the hopes of the white man.
He is happy in the humble sphere which
Providence has allotted to him, and all
the efforts of false and prurient philan-
thropy to elevate him above his natural
state and condition, will only serve to re-
duce him to lower level in the scale of
being.
The war has demonstrated another fact,
and that is, that the Southern people can
not be coerced into submission to the Re-
publican idea of simpartial freedom" and
negro equality. They may be extermi-
mated, but while fifty thousand of the eight
millions live, they will fight against this
hideous theory Of New England Adolf
tionism. 1t was against it that they re-
belled.> 1t was not the lust of power that
drove them into revolution. 1t was not to
defend slavery that they rushed to arms.
1t was to preserve their civilization from
the moral pestilence of Abolitionism, and
to save their posterity from a forced ANAL
gamation with the descendants of 4,000,-
900 negro slaves. AS Mr.. Stephens, of
Georgia, said in speech in the House of
Representatives: ",With us of the South,
African slavery is necessity because il