Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-23

century could not have been added to the
preceding one; but o, why not have left the
great problem, how and when the anomaly
of African SLAVERY should disappear from the
scheme of free government devised by the
sages who formed the constitution adopted
in 1889, to work out its own solution in
peace, as they confidently believed it would
in due and reasonable time; and as assuredly
it would have done, but for the Ill timed in
reference Of those fanatics and narrow
minded men who, unwilling to bide the ope-
ration of the laws of progress, insisted on
precIpitating the march of affairs. The great
experiment to which / allude, the elements of
| which it was formed, together with the re-
suits as far as developed, may be summarily
described as follows:
Scarcely a noticeable number of wild
Africans, prior TO the middle Of the seven
teenth century, (l650) and not more than
three hundred and thirty Thousand alto
gether previous to the year 1903, when the
| importation ceased, were caught up, trans
ported, landed upon the Atlantic coast of
America, and reduced to slavery. The
Africans were sdUages in their habits, giving
no manifestation of any higher grade of rea-
son than the instincts and the wants which
| they felt in common with the wild beasts of
the forest from which they were taken.
Such was their character then, and such
their numbers Now, or Just before the late
war began, after all the losses occasioned by
disease and the exposure necessarily incl
dent to their change of climate, and their
new employment in a country but partially
improved and cleared of its primitive for
ests, they have, in little more than two CEN
turtles, grown TO be great people, numbering
upwards of four millions of SOULS suf-
ficiently skilled in all the arts essential to
their subsistence, and to that extent civilized,
abandoning the superstitions of their fore
fathers, many Of them members of Christian
churches, they may all be said to be chris
tanned The simple fact of the great in
crease of this people, while in a state of
| bondage, is of itself the most convincing
proof that their yoke has been easy-that
| in the main they have been well fed, well
clothed, and well housed. Mr.. III. G. Carey,
an author of works of celebrity on political
economy, in his book on the Slave Trade,
domestic and foreign states, that in 1858,
eight years before the war, if the slaves
in the United States had been no better
treated than they were in the British Island
| of Jamaica, there would not have been a
greater number at the date of his writing,
then in the United States than one hundred
and fifty thousand, instead of the four
millions that were actually found there; and
that instead of more than ten to one of those
| imported from Africa into the United States,
according to Mr.. Carey, the proportion of
slaves remaining, or rather surviving, of all
those imported into the British Islands,
slave colonies) there were not more than
two to five, and, perhaps, not more than
one to three to be found. These facts,
and the legitimate deductions from them,
are such, that no sophistry can pervert or
distort them, and no amount of malignant
calumny, however vouched or propagated
from high official position, or station, or
credited in high circles can refute. They
form a singular commentary upon the SIN
certify, consistency, and philanthrophy ofthe
talent, rank, and fashion, that's said to ordi-
| narily grace the meetings at Exeter Hall,
representing British love of liberty, and their
detestation of the atrocious system of slavery
lately upheld in America, and where honest
John Bull is taught to blubber over the
wrongs and expressions of four millions of
the African race in America, and to forget
or go fast asleep over the story of the still
| greater expressions degradation, and misery
| of more than ten times the number of SUI
dras or Hindoos upheld by British power,
or connived at by British authority in the
East Indies.
The principal fact above stated of the
great increase of the slave population while
in state of bondage does not imply, and
| ] by no means mean TO state that there was
not at any time in any large locality, indi-
vidual cases to be found among the Southern
people of atrocious crelties such as were
sometimes found among the white population
ofthe North; and in some districts or localities
| in which the slaves were sometimes in seasons
of scarcity half famished by the insufficient
supply of wholesome food. These instances,
| however, of both descriptions were excep-
tional, but still often so offensive in their
character that they might be wrought by
genius into every variety of tragic circum-
stances necessary to the plot of a telling
dramatic narrative and in the hands of ordi-
nary capacity to furnish the richest mate
rial of cheap novels; and made to pay
WELL as the ground work of pretty stories
for some popular monthly or weekly.
| These stories with the smallest amount of
truth in them, are often embellished and
magnified into monstrous iniquities by
those engaged in pandering TO the eager
appetite of the fanatics of the North, for the
latest discoveries of revolving cruelty to the
freedmen at the South. They can always
add cheaply TO their value by affirming that
! lneY are Oh COIllOH
they are characteristic of the Southern
people. The work of scandal and misrepre-
sentation has been often materially aided by
disappointed adventures in the South, who
resolved to revenge themselves for their
failure, by slandering the people who rejected
their claims TO q position which they did
not deserve There have been many
Helpers in diffusing these errors at the
| North. 1t was by the success of such misre-
presentation persistently persevered in for
wears, that old John Brown and his follow
ers were deluded into the belief that such
was the horrible character of negro slavery
in the South, that so grievously was it felt
by the slaves themselves that nothing more
was necessary 10 excite them to rebellion
against their oppressors than tofurnish them
with arms and TO assure them of protection
near at hand. Old John Brown--whom
| / respected as an honest fanatic, and | have
degree of respect for all men who dare to
maintain their sentiments or opinions, sim
cerely entertained upon any subject, sealed his
faith in the creed he protested by his blood.
The corps of correspondents or of travelling
inspectors for the enlightenment of the
Northern people upon the danger of
trusting power in the hands of the late
rebels, one would suppose are earnestly
engaged in studying the arts by which
their predecessors in their vocation sue
ceeded in getting up the late war, if we
| are to Judge by the number of ingenious
falsehoods which many of them have manu-
featured for the use of their patrons. But
there is no danger that they will ever be
called upon TO initiate. old John Brown in
the proof he gave of his truth and sin
cerity. 1t is, in truth, a bitter mockery of
the depressed condition and sufferings of the
Southern people to gravely assert that there
are just grounds to apprehend any danger
from the hostile feelings of the South against
the Government of the United States. 1t is
OF course to be expected that the emotions
and thoughts of the mind cannot be suddenly
changed or overcome by any punishment or
tortures that can be inflicted. The follies
Of youth, will often exhibit themselves in
idle vaporings of what their feelings prompt
them to utter rather than to do but have
never met but one man of mature age who
was in the war, since the close of ii, who ex-
pressed any decided determination or dispo-
: sition TO resist any expressions, to which
the South may be said to be exposed, real or
imaginary; and that not by resorting to
arms bat by seeking an asylum beyond the
Rio Grande.
How utterly old John Brown, of Harpers
Ferry notoriety, and his followers were mis-
taken in the opinion they had formed Of the
rebellious temper and disposition of the
slaves of the South was demonstrated, l
| presume in Virginia "a elsewhere aoon