The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1863-04-03
Slavery at the North or Freedom
at the South.

Slavery at the North or Freedom
at the South.
As the war goes on, and the temper and
designs of the leaders of the rebellion are
! made plain, it becomes certain that the cause
which the 60 ernment of the Union and the
people of the Free States are upholding
involves not only the defence of the Union
and the existence of free institutions in
America. The question of the emancipation
of the slaves at the South is less important
than that of the free laborers Of the North
and it is only by giving liberty to the blacks
that the freedom of the whites car be secur-
ed. For the profitable iniquity of slavery
has SO corrupted the masters who form the
ruling oligarchy of the South, that, no long
er content with owning slaves of another
race, they desire, and proclaim their desire
with audacious frankness, to bring the white
laborers of their own race under the yoke OF
! servitude. Let the rebellion succeed, let a
compromise be patched up by southern trail
tors and tn northern allies, and the poor
white trash " of the Southern States shall
be brought under the lash of the overseer' s
whip while the mudsills of the North, the
honest, intelligent free laborers of the Free
States will learn that they have no political
rights, and no equality with the lords of the
SOIL
Or if, giving up the idea of compromise,
the rebels succeed in their enterprise of
wrestling from the Federal authority the
Southern half of these United States, there
is an end of free government in the region
they will have acquired, and of its peaceful
enjoyment in that from which they have sep
arated. They will neither allow their own
people to be free, nor allow US to be free in
peace. They will have established an en-
plre tonnded as they boast. on slavery, and
since the maxim which they have laid down
as the basis of their institutions is, that
capital should own labor" that is TO say
"the laborers in other words, that the
rich should own the poor-the result will be
despotism which will be no respector Of
of persons on account of complexion, but
will reduce to one level of disfranchisement
and servitude all who are not of the slave.
holding class.
There is no exageration in this language
"Slavery is the natural and normal condition
of the laboring man, white or black said a
paper of South Carolina, in 1886 SLAVERY
black or white," said George Fi,zhugh OF
Virginia, echong the words, " Slavery black
or white is right and necessary" The Rich
mond Enquirer enlarges on the theme
Until recently" it says, The apollo sists
for slavery took half way grounds. They
confined the defence of slavery to negro sla-
very, thereby giving up the slavery principle
/ and admitting other forms of slavery to be
"iOiiS. Inc South now mdln-
'alns that slavery IS right, natural and neces-
sary. While ii is far more obvious that ne.
groes should be slaves than whites,-for they
are only fit to labor, not 20 direct,-ye; 'he
principle of slavery is itself right, and does
not depend on difference of complexion"
/ Nor are these Mere hasty expressions oi
iconsidered opinions. They are the delib.
crate conclusions from carefully formed theo-
ries. All the powers of ingenious mind:
havesbeen perverted and degraded to the
shameful task OF arraying false but spe-
cious arguments for the denial of the. equal
ity and rights of man. "The real CON
test" said Mr.. L. w. Spratt of South Caro-
lima, in 1861. " The real contest is between
two forms Of society which have been estab
lished, one at the North the other at the
South; =" the one embodying the principle
that equality is the right of man :" this
says Mr. 81 ratt, expands into democracy,
and this is the power that exists at the
North; the other embodying the principle
that it is not the right man, but of equal.
only" and this is the form existing at tht
South, which, he says, has taken to itsel
the form of social aristocracy.
In an essay written by J. Quitman Moor,
of Mississippi, and published by De Bow
Review in 1861, the author says: "Thos,
pestilent and pernicious dogmas, The great
est good of the greatest number" The ma
Jority shall rule" are in their practical appli
cation the fruitful source of disorders new
to be quieted, revolutions the most radica
and sangulnary, PHILOSOPHERS the most false
and fashions the most wild, destructive an(
ungovernable." Such are the doctrine
avowed by the outhern leaders and witt
! such doctrines, the existence not only of fire.
institutions but of personal freedom is in
compatible. ave have got to hating every
: thing with the prefix free is the last declar
> alton Of the South Side Democrat of Virgin
la.
And how shall free men answer such ques
tlons as these, coming from the enemies Q
their country, and of civilization? Shall
not be with resolved, persistent. indomita
BILE determination to destroy the root of sue
doctrines, and to establish free institution
so firmly in all the United States that thos
who believe not in them shall be silence
forever? How shall the free and independ
ent laborer of the north, the mechani
sneered at as a mudsil-how shall he NEE