Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-10-09
AbOlitiOniSty
From the Catholic Telegraph 1

than the y anticipated. W.. F. D.
AboIItionist.
From the Catholic Telegraph
There are many persons who think that to
cal! man an Aboliiionist is suffic ent to es-
tablIsh their claim to be considered of superior
intellect. 1t is with them kind OF logic
made easy, and comp nsates for the absence
Of argument, and removes the necessity and
fatigue of proving a proposition. IL is good
wOd when properly used man may be
an Aboitionist when he is jealous for the re-
movals of evils of any kind. 1t is good as
app pplied to drunkenness or profanitv-but it
has no Specification when app led to slavery
That great nuisance is already abated the
slave owners have left far behind them the
emancipators of the North.
This word has been often applied unjustly
to the editor of this papsr. We never de-
served it. Always devoted to the cause of
order, We never felt that we could justly
assail what The law protected But things
are changed. Slavery is abolished by the
action # its friends. The stakeholder, in his
mad attempt to destroy the North, has only
destroyed himself There is no parallel case
in history where the very cause for which a
war is undertaken. becomes, in the progress
of events, the most fatal encmy to itself. We
have seen the scorpion when surrounded by
enemies and unable to escape, bury its fangs
in its own body and sting itself to death. So
has slavery acted not, however, by compul-
sion, but voluntarily. We never raised hand
against it; no word If ang Catholic editor
assailed it so long as it would be unjust and
illegal to do so-but now that it is dead
dead by the act Of it's admirers-we will not
consent to see its body fostering on the high
ways. Let it be buried out of sight forever.
Let it rest with all its horrors in the grave
let it's memory fade from the recollection of
men. 1t was an outrage against humanity
such as the history of no other people could
exhibit. There was something manly in the
old custom Of reducing to slavery him whose
sword hld been beaten down By stronger
artn on the battle field; there was show of
justice in reducing to bondage the debtor who
could no. pay his creditor, but for American
slavery there was no ex use! 1t was mon
ster crime-from the seizure of the African
in his own land to the moment of his DEATH
when hs body was wasted by toll, rather than
disease, to Uphold the luxury of a master!
Well it has fallen, and we are called Abo-
ltionist because we refuse our consent to its
resuscitation We are proud of being so,
under circumstances so creditable to the mind
and heart. May we never desert the name
We will bear it' stigma joyfully through life
and carry it into eternity With honor. We
struggle In hoy cause.-the cause Of relig
isn AID of the human race. We mant lin the
$ nctitg Of the marriage tie the fidelity of
the husband and wife to each other; we
maintain the cause of justice, denying the
right Of any man to anoth RS lahors without
his consent or compensation We MAINTAIN
the right of the parents to the dispos.l of
their children, and that no man, through the
exercise of his power as master, shall de-
prive human beings of instruct ions in the
Christian religion, and of the means to save
their souls Can any man be a Catholic "a
believer in the hris,ian faith-and consider
the qu stion otherwis =? With the long and
shining list of names, from the earliest period
of Chs stianity to the present day. of Popes,
Confessors and Doctors to sustain our posi-
ton, we cannot be driven from our ground
r rather we should say, the ground main
tanned by the Catholic Church in every age
# her exls ence. If the question of Ameri-
can slavery was to be subm tied tomorrow
to a gener | counci of the church, the insti
tut on would peri ,h-sink deep than ever
pummet sounded The voices in it's favor
would be as few and SIN II as those which
hesitated to speak out boldly with Catholic
faith. when the do trine Of the Immaculate
Conception was discussed
1t IS mons:rous that cause so just as hu
man liberty sh uid be assaled as it is at the
pres ut day, without show of reason to de-
fenl he asgres ion. We have never vet
see FL argument which could raise doubt
as o he prop iety # suppressi and abo-
isliing American sl,very-much less of re-
st ring the hing to life. Notwithstanding
this, crowd of thoughtess men, filled to the
utmost capacity of the h -art w tn prejudices
the most insane, cry out day and night
against any one who dares to say word in
favor of its suppression. The very men who
would profit most by the removal of slavery
the viii e working men, whom the slave
power has shut out from the cotton and sugar
fields of the South-are the loudest and the
fierces: in their support of slavery! Who
has ever seen white laboring man with a
oale of cotton or hogshead of sugar of his
own raising? No one. 1t is impossible so
long as slavery exists. He may dig on
levee or drive mule team, or sweep the
wharves of Southern town, but there his
ambition must stop. The land belongs, or
belonged to the aristocracy, and however
generous, accomplished, refined and hospita
bic that arist"cracy might have been, the
poor white laborer must contemplate from
afar the elegance in which he can never par
tcipate There is, then, no reason on earth
why he should clamor for the restoration of
We can readily understand the
strong sympathy which binds the nobility Of
England and France to the Confederacy. 1t
is natural-the result of the same ideas-the
concord of hearts beating to the same emo
tons the helping hand of the throne stretch
ed forth to bring back the repentant children
of democracy to the pride and pomp of Great
Britain. We can understand all this, and
can fully appreciate the cordial regard with
which England has cherished the South in
this disastrous war; but why the poor white
man should hold up the skirts of the aristoc
racy in cause which helps to crush him to
the earth, is one of those mysteries of life
WI ich battles the wi-dom of the phi l2sopher.
We have carefully confined our remarks
since the subject Of slavery engaged our atten-
ton, to the mere moral question, avoiding at
all times the n ,lj,ical points With the lat