Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-10-03
Mhat s1nveholders Fear.

Rebellion has declaredwar against the Bal
timore & Ohio railroad. every bridge, tun
nell and culvert should be forthwith demolish-
ed, every embankment levelled, every cut
filed up, and every tie and rail removed"
The alleged cause of this hostility is that it
has 'Yankeeised the region through which
1t passes, and along the whole line the faint
of disloyalty and treason is to be seem"
The rebels are undoubtedly consistent in
thus destroying railroads. They are the out
growths and instruments of civilization
which promote travel and intercommunica-
ton between men of different localities, thus
tending to the increase of knowledge, and
the elevation of the masses of society. This
Is adverse to the interests of slavery. Every
railroad crossing the border and establishing
channel of intercommunication with free
states, is an avenue through which light may
enter into the darkness which is essential to
slavery. 1t is a ''Yankeeizing" institution,
and as such must be destroyed.
Free schools are also ''Yankeeizing" insti-
tntions, shareholders have always been OPP
posed to them. Their papers have always
teemed with abuse of Yankee schoolmasters
and schoolmistresses. Now and then they
have imprisoned them, and some have suffer-
ed death in the attempt to educate the south.
The desired result has been secured. They
have not only been able to keep their slaves
In ignorance, but the great mass of ''poor
whites" are kept upon the same level. Upon
these two classes the Shareholders depend for
the support of their rebellion. The slaves
till their fields aud find them food, while the
''poOr whites, ignorant and brutal are pressed
into their armies. Let the masses of the
south be educated and slavery and rebellion
would become impossible. Gen. Butler is
right, if he has done as reported, in sending
for a company of Yankee teachers to instruct
the children of New Orleans. After the re-
bellion is subdued, school will be worth as
much in a southern city as a regiment of fed
eral soldiers. We shall be obliged to garr-
son the south, only till we have educated it,
The Bible has had a great deal to do in
making the Yankees what they are. The in
situations of New England were established
by men who walked in the light of its pre-
cepts, and were ready to seal their devotion to
it by the sacrifice of ease, comfort, and even
life itself 1t is, consequently, natural that
Shareholders should fear the Bible and should
forbid its general circulation, and punish
those who would teach the poor and ignorant
to read its sacred pages. 1t would have alto
gether too "Yankeeizing' an effect None
m no tI,o+
accordance with its teachings, and that slave
holders are right in keeping it away from their
slaves, as dangerous to their beloved institu-
ton.
As shareholders are hostile to railroads, tel
egraphs, schools, the Bible, and whatever
else tends to true progress, so it is natural
that these men in the free states, who instinc-
lively hate what is good and elevating to the
race, should be their allies and sympathizers.
And we find them to be so. Men who have
grown old in selfishness, young men who have
learned to sneer at the elevating influence of
religion, and at those who profess to be gov
ernedby conscience and humanity, men with
out hearts and without intellect, are the only
ones to be found at the north, so false to their
ancestry and to the privileges they have en-
joyed as to sympathize with the shareholders
and hope for the perpetuation of slavery. But
the number Of them is not great in proportion
to the whole people Every day weakcns their
position and lessons their number; and it is
to be hoped that the north will possess suni-
cient strength and vitality after overcoming
all these hostile influences at home, to extend
railroads and schools over the south also, and
thoroughly ''Yankeeize" it, by filling it with
those institutions to which we owe our own
social elevation and happiness.