The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-03-07
The Literature Of New England

s 4 -- ~ rs II |
We extract the following from an ad-
dress delivered before the Keystone Club,
of Bedford, Pa, by james F. Skunk, Esq,
of York, on the Goth Of November last,
and which has been published at the re-
quest Of the club: 1z& 81 s:
2 There is an idea which these people 1.-THE
abolitionists) have carefully fostered. and
which has gained a certain prevalence
through the agency Of their political allies
in this State, that they are naturally the m
tellectual superiors of our own citizens
especially that they are born to a preemi-
hence in the world of letters. This idea 10
as destitute as anything can be OF founda-
ton in truth, / admit freely that they read
more books, write more books than are
read, written or produced by. all the rest
|of country besides; and we must concede
to them, therefore a greater amount OF ac-
I ivity with the pen and with the press than
we claim for ourselves. l1Hq ,g8i
But that is all that We concede. Tell
me how many kits Of mackerel, or pounds
of Goldfish, were caught last year on the
Yankee coast under the stimulus Of the
enormous government, bounty; how many
| of calico and bales of shoddy were thrown
out by the mills of Lowell, how many
chooses came from the diaries, Of Connecti-
cut, and how many. CLAIMS from the shores
of Rhode Island and | can form some idea
| of how much the country owes New Eng
land for her annual contribution to the COM
mon stock of wealth. But books belong
to class of merchandise widely different
from all these. Their qualify is the meas e!
ure of the debt we owe the people who give
them to us. Their bulk, their weight thelr
number, avail nothing toward an estlmafe
of the minds from which they emanate. A
pocket copy of Shakespeare is worth all the
trash under which the presses Of New Eng
land ever groaned, all the millions OF pages
which her diligent scribblers ever fastened
between covers. To thank nation OF ut
tering literary hacks simply for giving you
plenty ofbooks, is to rate poetry along with
cheese and Goldfish. a2iliit''lt err
! The tin-ware, the splt-feather, the clock
businesses have all passed away. The gen.
tlemen who yended those valuable commo-
dities have retired upon their fortunes,
Some of them have become saints, and are
preaching the gospel; some Of them sena-
tors and are doctoring the Constitution;
some of them contractors, and have set
their squadron in the field armed with cas-
tiron sabres, mounted on skeleton horses,
and clad in picturesque raggs Of shOddy;
some of them poets, and are turning their
Tyres in praise of John Brown and the no
bic block; but ell of them senator, saint,
Ishoddy contractor and turned warbler alike
are simply clock and the peddlers in new
disguise. 49, y.s-zrlr ..s.4.
4 Their lyrics and their essays are OF q
piece with their kettles and their shoe lea
Their. They are a sham. The artist who
has spent his early years in the contrivance
of mechanical cheats is not likely, when he
turns his attention to poetry, to forsake
bis old tricks, or establish any very close
correspondence with the MUSES.. His sauce
pans and his SMILES, his shoe-pegs and his
metaphors, are equally ingenious frauds
He is alike dishonest tinker, whether he
Yields the pen, or holds the lapstone.
i Hence, the abolition literature is not the
out-cropping Of spontaneous genious, OF
even the result Of honest and patient labor
1t is made to SELL to cheat to deceive, not
to improve or instruct. Its histories are
|artful and malicious inventions, designed to
!. varnish the infamies which have blackened
, the whole history of the party of negro
emancipation, and to defame the party o.
the Constitution, which. these States in
firm and glorious union as long as the
reigns of power were in their hands Its
theology has nothing in it Of the spirit o.
I Christ and the Apostles, or the long line O
worthless of all ages, of which each sect ane
, subdivision Of the church can claim iii
share, whose patient, innocent, prayerfn
lives were given to seeking clearer knowl
edge of God and bringing aliens and wan
derers into closer communion with him
On the contrary; it is o kind Of mixed, mat
nonsense, made up of series of mcoher
; ent interpretations of the Gospel, or stric
, lures upon it, by insolent exhorters WHIT
rate their own bellowings higher than tn,
; thunders Of Sinia. No two Of them pre-
) cisely agree in the portions Of the Sacred
/, Book which they scout and defy; in the ex
! act texts which are to be cast out and re
: jected but they are beautifully united il
scorning and sneering ct oil of it which
: does not accord with the schemes, the pas
sion or the aggrandizement Of each.
: The songs Of the abolition literature ar
by no means suggestive of the trill of bird
D which sing because song is their natura
0 speech, The nasal pipe of the Puritan ha
9 nothing of the warble Of the woods abou
lit. His attempts to chip after the fashion
of Natures born Ministries afford US pleas
!, ure of downright, hearty, shaking laugh
! at the ludicrous failure Of the poor devil
!, who fancies, because he has counterfeite'
g nutmegs with success, he can manipulate
; melody, and cheat you as readily in song
<
As children grow older, histories, geog
raphies" and READERS" are provided 70
them, all issuing from the same mint ant
craven with the same device Historic
Of the United States are stuffed full Of pic
. lures Of the "Pilgram fathers" the Bun
1ker Hill monument and Boston, as seel
q from all points of the compass, while tn
E letter press is devoted to the work of mag
! nifying the piety of the Pilgrims" and til
D patriotism Of their descendants. The ''rea
-Iders" contain selections from the Yanke