The weekly mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado County, Calif.) 1861-1862, 1862-06-07

pOScS Tue corresponding OOHkullOu upOn
it to commit no act by which an insur-
rectionary spirit may be excited. The
same provision which enjoins it on the
Federal government, to guarantee to each
State a republican form of government,
and to aid and protect each State against
domestic violence, evidently implies the
cOrrelative obligation to take no step Of
which the direct and inevitable tendency
would be to overthrow the State govern
ments, and to involve them in widespread
scenes of misery and desolat:on. In one
word, if it be the duty Of Congress, as it
most clearly is, to support and preserve
the Constitution and the Union, then it is
manifest that it is bound to avoid the
"~',cI"';;a7 If any legislation whJt& may
lead to their destruction. Your committee
consider these posuons too obvious to
require argument of illustration. They
consider it equally manifest, that an at
tempt to AZ osixaI slavery ia tbs District,
would necessarily tend TO the deplorabIe
consequences to which they have adver-
ted Congress, therefore, is bound, by
every principle of duty which forbids it
to interfere with slavery in any Of the
States, to abstain from any similar inter
ference in the District Of Columbia.
I'VE have said that the scheme of
general emancipation is impracticable.
The slightest reflection must satisfy every
candid mind of the truth of this assertion.
But even if the scheme were practical
BILE, what would be gained by effecting il?
Suppose that Congress could emancipate
all the slaves in the Union, is such re-
CV)t desirable? The question is addressed,
to the sober sense OF Inc people Of
America. Would it be polite or advan-
tageous Would it contribute to the
wealth, or grandeur, or happiness of our
country? On the contrary, would it not
produce consequences directly the re-
verse? Are not the slaves unfit for free
dom? VIGOROUSLY ignorant, servile, and
depraved? and would any rational man
have them instantancouslv transformed
into freemen, with all the rights and pri-
vileges of American citizens? Are they
capable of understanding correctly the
nature Of our government, or exercising
judiciously a single political right or
privilege? Nay! would they even be
capable of earning their own livelihood,
or rearing their families independently by
their own ingenuity and industry? What,
then, would follow their liberation but
the most deplorable state Of society with
which any civilized country was ever
cursed? How would vice and immortality
and RIGHTEOUSNESS overrnn the land p
How many jails and penitentiaries that
now seldom hold prisoner, would be
crowded to sutfocation? How many fer
tile fields that now weld regular and abun-
dant harvest would lie unoccupied and
dcsolate? How would the foreign COM
merce of the south decline and disappear?
How many thousands of Seamen, Of whom
southern agriculture is the life, would be
driven for support to foreign countries :?
And how large a portion of the Federal
revenue derived from foreign commodities
exchanged for southern products would be
lost forever to this government? And in
addition to all this, what would be the
condition Of southern society were all the
slaves emancipated Would the whites
consent that the blacks should be placed
upon full footing of equality with them?
UnGuestionably not Either the one class
or the other would be forced to cmigrate,
and, in either case, the whole region Of
The South would be scene Of poverty and
ruin; or, what is still more probable, the
blacks would everywhere be driven before
the whites, as the Indians have been, un-
til they were cXterminated from the earth.
And surely it is unnecessary to remark
that decay and desoation could not break
down the South without producing a cor
responding depression upon the wealth
and enterprise of the Northern States. -
And here let US ask, too, what would be
the condition of the non nslaveholding
States themselves, as regards the blacks !?
Are they prepared TO receive myriads OF
negroes, and place them upon an equality
with the free white laborers and ME.
chanics, who constitute their pride and
strength? Will the new States consent
that their territory shall be occupied by
negroes instead of all enterprising, intelli-
gept, and patriotic white population that
is daily seeking their borders from other
portions of the Union?
"Shall the yeomanry of those States be
surrounded by thousands Of such beings,
and the white laborer forced into cOmpe-
tition and association with them ? Arc
they to enjoy the same civil and political
privileges as the free white citizens of the
North and West, and to be admitted into
the social circle as their friends and COM
panions?
Nothing less than this will constitute
perfect freedom, and the principles now
maintained by those who advocate eman-
cipation would. If carried out, necessarily
produce this state Of things! Yet, who
believes that it would be tolerated for a
moment? Already have laws beenpassed
in several of the non-slavehOiding States
to exclude free blacks from a settlement
within their limits, and prospectof gen.
eral and immediate abolition would compel
them, in self.defence, to resort to system
of measures much more rigorous and ef-
fective than any which have yet been
adopted.
"Driven from the South, then, the
blacks would find no place Of refuge in the
North and as before remarked, utter ex-
termination would be the probable, if not
the inevitable, fate of the whole race
Where is the citizen, then, that can desire
such results? Where the American who
can contemplate without etnOtiOns Where
the Abolitionist that viii not pause, in
view of the direful consequences of his
scheme, both to the whites and the blacks,
to the North and the South, and to the
whole Union at large?"
-4-SSS$-
EXAMINATION OF A MUSICIAN. is
a slur almost any remark one singer
makes about another.
What is rest ?-Going out to take re-
frcShments between the acts.
What is called singing :" with an under
standing H"-Marking time on the floor
with your feet.
What is,n staccato movement ?-Leav-
ing the choir in hut; because one is dis
satisfied with the leader.
What is a swell? "A professor Of mu-
sic, who pretcnds to know everything