The Jeffersonian Democrat. [volume] (Chardon, Ohio) 1854-1865, 1862-08-22
WHOLE NO., 65S.
Catholic Testimony.-o. A. Brownson
on Slavery and Confiscation.


In the last number of his Quarterly Re-
view DR.. Brownson discusses some aspects
of the present rebellion. Ono question he
summariy disposes Of But emancipation
will terribly irrtato the rebels, and rendor
their future reconciliation impossible--
Nonsense. They are already as irritated 40
they can be. You cannot increase their
hatred or malignity. Human nature will
bear no more than they have, evon with the
assistance of Satan to boot. As for Union
men in the soceGing States. save in few To-
calities, they do not exist Our armies
have not found them. and wherever they 20
in rcbe!dom, meet only sullenness, hatred or
insult. Even the wounded rebel prisoners
in our hospitals, though unable to deny the
care and tenderness with which they are
treated cannot conceal, and do not attempt
! to conceal, their bitter hatred of Yankees"
There need be no fear OF irritating the reb-
oils, aud the only way possible of conciIiatng
them is to treat them ss they treat their
own negroes when spteful or sulky, that is,
to fog them, and fog them soundly. They
will then begin to respect US, finally come
to love and honor US. The mass of the
Southern people arc not like US at the North.
We arc addicted to mammon worship, no
doubt, but we do at least recognize q moral
! powor and confess that we ought to wor-
ship God. The SOu;hern people as BODY
worship only force, and to gain their love
| and respect. you must prove that you are
the better man, that you can whip them.
Leniency, forbearsnco, concliatiou, arc
thrown away upon them, for they take them
as evidence of weakness. or a craven or an
overreaching spirit. The Government has
from the first mistaken their character. IL
has been too lenient, too conciliatory, and,
in endeavoring to conduct the war on hu-
mane principles, has been guilty of great
inhumanity. Nothing would 80 much COM
mand the respect of the rebels, and SO dis
pose them to live hereafter in peace and
| friendship with US under one and the same
Government, as the immediate emancipa-
tlon of tho slaves. They know our princi-
pies, require us 20 do it and they despise US
for not having the courage to oct up to our
! principles. The measure would be q bold
and manly one; it would mako them think
| all the bctter of US for daring to adopt it.
With regard to the expodiency Of emanci-
patton, Brownson expresses himself with his
usual dlrectuess and force. "Some say lot
it alone, why bring constantly the eternal
niger upon the tspis : Do leave Slavery
to take care of itself But in aaswer to
these we add the Government has now
power over the question; in a few months
it may have none. The life and death OF
the Republic are suspended in the balance,
and the solution we give and give now to
the Slavery question, may turn the scale and
save the life or seal the doom of the nation.
1t is not a question, therefore, to be post
poned. The eternal nigger,' as you ex-
press it, will not down at the bidding, any
more than would Banquos Ghost. We can
no. rilenra the slave question. or stop it's
| agitation. We we're to do il with the Com
promise measures of 1850, and, after that,
with Kansas. Nebraska Territorial bill, and
we have as the result the present civil war;
There is a moral law in the Universe strong
er than legislative enactmen:s, against
which neither the devices of our politicians
nor the strategy of our Generals can avail
neither armed hosts, nor newly invented
artillery. They war in vain who war against
opinion. No despot, even though backed
by million of bayonots and ten thousand
guns of the heaviest caliber and the most
cunnDgiy devised projectilesi can prevail
against tho laws OF God, or against the
moral convictions of mankind.
You might as we'll point your artillery
against the red lightnings of heaven, as
against the spirit that moves and sgi:ates
the country on the Slavery Question. ST.
lonce, in any way you please, the voices of
those you call Abolition fanatics, and YOU
have done nothing to suppress agitation.
Were these to hold their peace the very
stones would cry out The spirit would
pervade your camps, seize upon your sold
iers, and turn the heads of your sedatest
Generals. 1t can no more be confined or
restrained than one of the elemental forces
of nature. The time for ii in Gods Provi-
dence has como, and you have no alterna-
! tive but TO accept and obey it as freemen,
as men who believe in God, who derive from
HIM the courage to do justice, to tighten the
load of the oppressed, and to let the bound
go free.
You may as well attempt to silence the
ceaseless agitation of the waves, to stop the
ebb and flow of the ocean tides, or arrest
the course of the yewless winds, as to stop
in the American people the agitation of the
Slavery Question, SO long as there is a sim
gle negro slave left in the land. Il is not
the wild or silly fanaticism of your Abolition
men or Abolition women, your GarrisoEs,
your Philipses, your Kelleys, your Westons,
or yOnr Chapmans. that convulses the ma
ton, for these are poweiless, save in tho
Idea they represent 1t is God, the moral
laws of the universe, the awakening power
of justice. the logic of your own Repub-
public, thai keeps up the agitation.