The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1862-11-07
An English View of Colonies, Re-
publics, and Slavery"


The following is the most splendid tri-
butte to the valor, consistency, patriotism
and proves of the Southern people that
has yet appeared in any of the foreign
journals. 1t is taken from the London
Dispatch Of the 2lst ult.:
There is no form of mendacity more
pernicious in its consequences, or more
insidious in its temptations, than that
which imposes pious frauds on society,"
The sanctification of means, by consider
alton of their ends, is vice inherent in
religious people; and no offenders have
been more shameless in their regard than
ti.slavery ("Clapham Sects") persuasion
in England. Their lectures, their travel
lers, their takers and tourists, their his
torians and moralsts, have seen in slave
countries, and as the effect OF slavery,
phenomena which the slightest reflection
would contradict and belle. Every man
at all well read-any one, indeed, who can
but read his Bible-knows that slavery
has been the normal condition of human
society, and that it has been found COM
patible with, to have been even promo
tive of power, wealth, civilization, nay,
even humanity. The Scriptural nations,
the very patriarchs all were shareholders.
Sparta, in the glory of its purity and vir-
ture; Athens, in the zenith of its glory in
arts, arms and literature, had a vast ma
jori.y of their subjects "held to labor
The Jewish law Of Moses is full of pro-
visions for the making, transfer and man.
omission of slaves. The Tenth Com
mandment tells us not to covet our
neighbours man-servant, or his maid-ser
want, in the very same category as his OK
and his ass. Rome conquered the world.
and civilized il, under a dispensation of
slavery. The West India Colonies -four
ished while slavery prevailed. They
went to ruin, both of white man and
black, the day they were emancipated.---
All the experiments that have been tried
of the self elevation of the colored races,
or indeed, of even white races of aborigi-
nal savages, by manumission or coloni-
cation, have been conspicuous failures -
King Lincoln calls the negroes together
, to tell them that their contiguity is odo-
. rous to his subjects, and that they must
I clear out for Central America. He as
: sures Horace Greeley that if the Union
, can be saved by riviting the chains of the
slave, he will rvit them.
S As for the slaves themselves, crushed
D with the wrongs of bred and Uncle Tom
e most provoking-they cannot be brought
:. to "burn with revenge" They are spies
: for their masters. They obstinately re.
= fuse to run away to liberty, outrage, and
= starvation. They work in the fields as
8 usual when the planter ard the overseel
are away, and only the white women are
!. at home. The black regiments of insur
e gent Unionists have proved failure anc
i been abandoned. We wonder how "Pro
It lessor" (0 Olmstead and Horace Greeley
q look. now that their tours through tn,
!, slave States are compared with facts ant
n laid alongside the dispatches and the tel
O grams of the belligerents. Stowe, Wen
o dell Phillips, Garrison, insured us ser
e vile war the moment an army of liberia
If ton was marched into the South; bu
= the soda powder wont fzz; the lucife
v match has been rubbed, but obstinatel,
refuses to fare up. We were assured thu
Southerners were indolent, and their sol
stricken with hopeless and growing pow
II erty. They have sustained for nearl.
II two years the shocks of a war to which
n those of Napoleon were skirmishes, rolled
l. back the tide of battle, and are now
e laundering at the gates of quaking en-
9 thousand warriors into the field, and
}. equipped, paid, fed and furnished them
J. as never army and navy were sustained
v before. We were told the Southerners
were sunken in listless luxury and selfin.
t dulgent sensuality; they were deprived
v by self will and RIGHTEOUSNESS below the
:. capacity for administrative government
!. What are the facts? Never, we assert
II with the utmost confidence was there
known people SO able in public affairs
g So heroic, so brave, so prudent, so devo
v ted. Whatever may be the issue of thi
war, planters and slaveowners have RAISED
> up by their deeds an imperishable monu
is ment Of their greatness and magnanimity
= In little more than a mouth they ex
d temporzed ard matured Government
r Constitution, Legislature, social au
It thority, that have stood the test of tn,
d most critical experiment with triumph
= ant success, and are more workable, con
1t sistent, stable, and free, than the inst
e. tutions they disowned. The Borde
Slave States have left them to their fate
have armed against them. Twenty mil
lions of Unionists have attacked six mi
le lions of 'rebels," and the free States me
have been beaten back to their yer
II. trenches by less than one third of the
u number of slave drivers The latter la
., - no navy, and had to fight in every rive
~ and struggle in every town against DO,
o. erful fleet. They had not the nucleus
a. a regiment, company, a kauadro
scarcely piece of artillery. They ht
a. to raise regiments withop.o any gre
in centres of population-tbey had no DO,
in der mills, no foundries, no paper for ca
ar tridges. leather for shoes and harne,
lis clothng-industry End production we
paralyzed, and their intercourse with h
q. world shut out by blockade. They h,
ty to destroy their produce, abandon the
ir- cities to The invaders, and their villae
tn to the hanles--they were menaced wit
"a and have had to provide for the cont
sy gency of a servile war-they have be,
IT. left without the countenance of Eus
= ard opposed by the border planters; y
behold the result of slavery as again
equality and fraternity. 1t is quite e.
to- dent that the resources of the Sou
ear must be prodigious-that the state of &
iii ciety must be at least up to the standa
in of the greatest and most enlightened n
Mt tions--that the culture of the peor
PIX. must be severe, selfdenying, and refin
mi to produce such fruits as these. 4
Tn. these proofs of wealth, strength, intel
ma gence and virtue are more than Dor
out by the decennial census made by t
,on Federal Government, when no disturb
I'm. causes threw suspicion upon the retur,
,at In 1850 the breadstuffs of the free Sta,
HE were given at 1874 ,000 900 of bushels, al
,at. of the "rebels" at 383,000,000; potato
~N ~, tba Mouth G0 000 000 nj, =. a.