Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1863-02-13
InconpatibIIity Of slavery win Free
Government for whites.

peICelFe cleatly tndt tne ultinlat0 Jenoency Ot
African slaveryis to destroy the freedom Of the
white population wherever Il is established. -
Colonel a. J. Hamilton is one Of these. Mr..
Lorenzo Sherwood, long domcilliaied in Texas,
is another, This gentleman, In October last,
made at chnmplain, in this State, a speech in
which he not only showed this to be the inevit-
able consequence ofth institution of slavery,
but cited the authority ofthe slaveholding poll
ticians themselves, to show that they both saw
The ineompatibility Of slavery with popular
government, and desired TO hasten the time
when they could restrict political rights to an
hereditary order of men. Mr.. Sherwood quoted
Mr.. Spratt, the noted South Carolina sccession-
ist, in the following passage 'a. ai -e
"He assumed that there was no man in the
South who deserved the name ofstatesman who
would pretend that secession was caused by any
aggression of the North upon the rights of the
South'--that ftwas still less the result Of any
act ofoppression on the part Of the United States
government'-'it was because in the non slave
holding states, from the very fact that every man
wac a freeInen, the North was naturally demo-
cratc'-'every man being freeman, the result
was that the aboring class in the non -slavehold-
ing States had the power Of government and it
was the case, government, instead Of being in the
head, was in the heels ofsocety.' Mr. Sprptt
further assumed that mo greater truth was ever
uttered than that uttered by Mr.. Seward, when
he said, there was an irrepressible conflict be-
tween the two systems of society"
On the Sd of May, 1861, M. R. II. Garnett, of
Virginia, wrote letter to William II. Trescott,
of South Carolina, which YVES captured not long
ago among other papers on Barnwell's Island
by General Hunter. In it he says f., b s.,..i
"I must acknowledge, my dear sir, that / look
to the future with almost as much apprehension
as hope. You well object to the term democrat.
Democracy, in its original philosophical sense,
is, indeed, incompatible within slavery and the
whole system of southern society" i1i
Mr., Sherwood quotes from speech made in
the yicksburg Secession Convention Of 1882
y" While our population has advanced, there
has been proportionate advancement in the
number of slaves. The widening w est has made
demand of slaves upon the older states--the old
er states have been compelled to yield to such
exaction. With every transportation there was
hirelng laborr ready to supply its place; with
hireling labor came the form and spirit of de-
mocracy. 1t made its way across the border
it overspread the States of Delaware and Mary
land--it extended in the States of Kentucky,
Missouri and Virginia. it entered into southern
ciiies-it glded into schools and pulpits-it crept
about the halls Of legislation; and so it is, that
we are not alonein the contest with the North,
which bears the banners of democracy, but with
the democracy itself within the states, the cities
and demonstrations of the South The speaker
assumed that, if this democracy could not be
got rid of the separation from the North would
merely adjourn the contest that 'as this south
ern democracy grapples slavery in its homes,
and on its hearthsOnes, slavery was like the
Thracian horse that bore its rider from the field,
and that, escaping enemies abroad, it would be
forced to wage a still more deadly contest with
its enemies at home" W bs...- ..,... --. -.-..
Here is sanother testimony of the same sort:
+" In an essay written by J. Quitman Moore,
of Mississippi, and published in the Charleston
4horcurg and republished in De BOws RepieW in
1861, thoauthor, in revilement of the Democrat
ic principle says I i.a
@'Those pestilent and pernicious dogmas--
+" The greatest good ofthe greatest number" "-"the
majority shall rule are, in their practical APP
plicaton the frightfil source Of disorders never
to be quieted--philosoph the most false, and
passions the most wild, destructive and ungov-
ernable. In America, says this author, by rea
son of the operation of causes wholly extraneous
to the considerations of government and society,
the republican experiment has been prolonged
beyond recorded precedent; but, painful as the
reflection must be to all such as subscribed to
the Uiopian philosophy and have an abiding
faith in the capacity Of man for enlightened self
rule, it must be confessed that the experiment
of the democratic Republic of America has fail
ed The author concludes that the institution
of an hereditary State and Executive in the po-
litical form best suited to the genius and most
expressive of the ideas of the South" q"
Mr. Sherwood proceeds 10 argue strongly against
conciliation as one gross delusion, to point out
thenccessity DISCRIMINATING slavery as the only
safeguard to the liberty Of the whites, to show
that we cannot, with any safety tothe free states,
allow a separation Of the Union, and to dwell
upon the importance ofresolution and united ef-
fort in the cause in which we are engaged.
The speech is an excellent tract for the times
and we are glad to hear that it is to be republish
ed in a cheap form and widely distributed.