The Shasta courier., 1863-05-02

ard consequences SO perilous and alarming,
and In all circumstances rely on the wisdom,
temper, and virtue of their constituents which
(guided by an all-wise Providence) have ever
interposed to avert impending evils and mis-
fortunes"
Such were the views of Virginia, as ex-
pressed by her representative men in Con-
gress, prior to the era of g King Cotton" and
"slave pens"-in the time of the history of
our country, when the patriots of that then
great State spoke against the peculiar and
cherished institutions, through whose power
and resources traitors are attempting to over
throw our Government. and dissolve the Union
which our fathers cemented with their blood
and formed to be perpetual-when in the Con-
tinental Congress, in IVA, the voice Of Ma.
ryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South
Carolina, as well as other colonies, pro-
claimed their edict against the slave trade in
the following Languages
ave will neither import nor purchase any
slaves imported after the first day of Decem-
Der next; after which time we will wholly
discontinue the slave trade, and will lueither
be concerned in it ourselves, nor willfwe hire
our vessels, nor sell our eommoditias1,r man.
ufactures to those who are concernsd in it'i
in the days when their patriot statesmen
viewed the system with disapprobation and
dislike-and it was not by many of the South
ern Shareholders themselves denied, among
whom there were some of the best and wisest
citizens of the South, that slavery was
a political and social evil. The people of
Virginia, South Carolina, and other slave
States were not secessionists, but in favor of
freedom and the Union. But, sir .he days
when Washington, Jefferson, Ma on and
Marshall denounced the system as involving
the most unjustifablo and wicked violations
of human rights, and foretold its most terri
BILE consequences to the republic and our lib
critics, the leaven of its evils has been work
ing out the results which the nation is now
experiencing in the shareholders rebellion.
In this accursed thing the sins of the fa-
theirs are being visited upon the sons to the
third and fourth generation"
Jefferson, the father of American Democ-
racy, truthfully and wildly described this
peculiar Institution when he said of it ''We
have the rolf by the ears, and we cannot
hold on, but we dare not let go. When
l consider that there is just God, trem-
BILE for my country"
But what change has come Ger the spi-
rt of her dreams. While Massachusetts,
having corrected the error of her views in
regard to matters of policy, still adheres to
the great principles for which our fathers of
the Revolution fought, and upon which they
established the republic, Virginia has repu-
dated those principles, and has joined in
rebellion to crush them out, and overthrow
that Government. While Massachusetts is
fiourishing in all the elements of great
State, owns more substantial manufactures
than all the South, possesses fleets of eoms
merce that whiten every sea, has free schools.
free presses, free speeches, free men and free
labor, with population highly 'Hte ligent
and yirtuous, abounds in patriotism, and is
furnishing thousands of brave soldiers and
heroes to fight the battles of our country, in
order to save the Union and perpetuate our
free institutions, Virginia. oeenpying ter
ritory four times as large, with soil and
is degenerate in point of wealth and popula,
ton, without agriculture or manufactures,
with hardly mast or sail on the ocean, with
out schools. OF freedom in any department of
life or affairs; with slavery and slave marts,
"slave- producers" and slave merchants,
whose business has. for over a quarter of
century, produced the staple If her trade and
revenues and the legitimate consequence
is, that the former mother of States and of
Presidents" has become demoralized, poor
and degenerate. and has been metamorphosed
into the home of traitors and ..Golgotha" of
patriots her intelligence has gone out in the
night of ignorance and madness, and her
patriotism has been consumed in the lnrid
fires of secession and it wonld seam that the
moral, social and political condition and fate
of the sold Dominion" once the pride of
the Union, is appositely portrayed by the
words of the holy prophet of God. uttered
four thousand years ago: +" In that day the
Lord with his sore, and great, and strong
sword shall punish leviathan that piercing
serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent;
and shall slay the dragon that is in the sea" "
Again: " Has he smitten him as he smote
those that smote him? or is he slain accord
ing to the slaughter of those that are slain
by him p Again g Yet the defensed city
shall be desolate, and the habitation forsa-
ken, and left like wilderness there shall
the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and
consume the branches thereof Anon:
- Woe to the crown of pride. to the drunk
ards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is
fading flower which are on the head of the
fat valleys of them that are overcome with
wine." F" The crown of pride, the drunkards
of Ephraim shall be troddsn under feet"
But the history of the condition of that ILL
starred State shows that her miserable, de
moralized internal condition induced her to
believe lie that she might go to perdition.
She held in her own hand the die on the cast
of which depended the prosecution and pros
poets of the rebellion, and she was in no
manner necessitated, in any rational view of
State policy or interest. to join in the rebel
lion. But her pampered appetite, which had
recently (since the ''Abolitionists" have OBJ
tanned place. not been sufficiently fed on the
sweets of Office and honor-an overweening
political ambition without proper merit, Sc.
duced her into the embraces of treason and
| revolt.
And again the words of Holy Inspiration
seem applicable to her condition and charac-
ter: g But they who have erred through
wine, and through strong drink, are out of
the way; the priest and the prophet have
erred through strong drink; they are swal-
lowed up of wine, they are out of the way
through strong drink; they err in vision,