The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-09-26

/ For thirty years the professional Philan-
thropists have said this:
1.-THE blacks are so barbarously treated
some day they will rise upon their mas
1 ters.'
In opposition to them the political meni.
ais Of the Breeding Interest have said this
1ne blacks are SO exasperated by abo-
lltion lncendiaries that some dav thev will
renew in the South the horrors of st. Do.
mingo.'
i The first assertion is an abolition absur.
dity. The next one is Calhounite inven.
ton. Both OF them are seen to be entirely
unfounded. NO lnsurrection has been heard
OF among the blacks. No men ever behay.
ed better than they. The huxterinc politi.
clan and the professional philantropist''
are themselves the slaves of a word. They
talk about the negro of to-day, and think ali
the while about the bloody African savage
his ancestor of two hundred years ago!-
They forget that the American negro has
five generations of civilization behind him
4 that he is one of the family, and has less
l inclination to throat-cutting than his mas.
ter. Besides he has been brought up to see
white men fight and to let them alone,-
/, Now, the first assertion has been the pre.
tense for much unskillful meddline. The
second has been an excuse for much intol.
erable bullying. And the event shows tina,
neither the meddler nor the bully knows
litcal power. '4"stTsss
Another opinion steadily insisted on by
the whole Breckenridge party, is that the
North has broken a constitutional compro.
mise relating to slavery, while the South
kept its faith. This opinion is sometimes
though not always, concealed under the
phrase of the Constitution as it isl
| When Wing uses this phrase he com
monty means that he does not wish the
| Ctit 1oH Tho
means what have told you. In his mouth
it is plain fabrication. The North has
never broken any compromise of the Con-
stitution. The exDemocrat knows that
the Fugitive Slave Bill was congressional,
not a constitutional, compromise. He
knows aswell as we do, that it was not hall
so sacred a compromise as the Tenth
Amendment which was broken in order to
pass it. He knows by his own principles
that the Independent and sovereign State OF
Massachusetts had as much right to pass
Personal Liberty Bills and imprison man
thieves, as the independent sovereign State
Of South Carolina had to pass Personal Sla.
very Bills, and sell our colored citizens
We were all Slave States when the Consti-
sutton was adopted. There was no divis-
ion about slavery then. All thought alike
of it who thought of it at all, and very few
thought anything about it. The Compro-
misses, so much better known than the in.
strument supposed to contain them, were
not about slavery at all, except in the mos,
incidental manner. They were made about
taxes and commerce and votes; and the
planters gave up two-fifths Of their votes tc
save taxes, not slavery. The whole glib
berish about the Constitutional guarantee
of slavery is an after-thought. Slavery aca,
from the first expected to die, not to gro,O
This was the original understanding. This
was the cOntempOraneOus exposition. TC
1><,e,, u ,,~A L. Il, j.
strument for its exposition. But the ex.
democrat does-and to him that is a reply
To that original understanding the North
adheres. But slavery has grown, instead
of dying, and the South meanly take ad.
vantage of the unexpected growth, for the
sake of political power. In fact they have
always broken the Constitution, whenever
it. They broke it to acquire Louisiana
They broke it to war upon Mexico. They
broke il to steal Texas. They broke it tc
steal California. They broke it to pass the
Fugitive Bill, against the rights of the
States; and the difference between them anG
us is that they manfully acknowledged the
breach, and we as party pusillanimously
whined over it, after helping them to do it
and after extracting all the prof out of il
we possibly could! Now they deny theil
own boast, and say they never broke it a
all! And the mean whites OF the North, al
usual, swear in the words of their masters
wish it distinctly understood that l d'
not blame the South for breaking the Con
stitution. / blame them for denying tina
they broke it. In my opinion free people
in time Of difficulty can dispense with thei
Constitution, just as man can hold hl'
breath when he wants to dive. Mr.. Sew
ard abandons the Constitution whenever h'
pleases for what he calls the Higher Law
Since I knew how to read have had th'
honor of despising Mr.. Seward for his wan
of comprehension. / do not believe in th'
Higher Law because the individual con
science on which it is founded may be ig
norant or fanaticized-that is, insane. Blu
do believe in the Higher Law which is th'
public safety-"S0IuS p0puli sun,n10 lee. ,
1t has been the fashion for a long time t.
talk about Yankee impudence, Yanket
cheating, even in New England. And the
people of New England-the best naturec
people on the face of the earth-have laugh
ed at it and let it go. But the outrageou:
impudence of the lie that we had broker
our faith, and that the pious South hac
kept theirs, induced me to investigate thell
claims to several things, and among Other
things to the reputation of honor and the
title of gentlemen. If the title of gentle
men springs from birth, the fountain O.
Southern aristocracy ought not to ooze as il
does from the sewerage OF Newgate anC
the drainage of the Hulks. If it springs
from wealth they ought to pay and not re:
pudiate their debts. If it springs from gooc
education and good manners they shoulC
not form theirs as they o,upon negro pub
lie opinion. For love of appreciation find:
its food in unsuspectedl quarters. Ano
when man living on a plantation finds
that his negroes mistake the strut Of cocl
turkey for the manners of gentleman, ht
will adopt it unconsciously, just as be
learns from them to say dO-dh instead o
door, and fo-a oh instead Of floor. And if i
springs from good morals they ought tt
give up the practice of amalgamation.-
And lastly, and if they are men Of honor
why did they go into an election and vote
and refuse to abide by the result wher
they lost?, 1t is exactly like playing
game of cards and refusing to pay the los
ses-conduct which may be respectable
enough for Southern politicians, but which
less chiyaous countries % Would S1saS srinE M
Here again we have lived under the tyran
nv of Words. When we talked of "sou::
t6ern gentleman" we thought OF the Crane
4 figure of George Washington, with the
| hair-powCer, ee-buckles, and queue O.