The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1866-01-24
The literature Of the Yankee 4

delivered before The Keystone Club of Bed
ford, Pa, by James Skunk, Esq.s of York,
on the 2Olh of November last, and which
has just been published, at the request ol
The Club. We regret that our space will
not permit us 70 give the address in fGll.
MIR. Skunk said:
f There is an idea which these people Che
Yankee Abolitionisisj have carefully foster.
ED, and which has gained a csrsaingpfeva-
Ience through the agency of their political
allies in. this, Stale, that they are naturally
! the intelleciual superiors OF our own ci!i--
zens; especially that they are born TO a
pre-eminence in the world OF letters. This
! idea is as destitute as anything can be of
! foundation in truth. | admit freely that they
read more books, write more books than are
read, written, or produced by all the rest Of
the cCuntfy besides and we must concede
10 Them greater amonnt of activity with
the pen and with the press than we claim
| for ourselves. But that is all we concede.
Tell me bow many kius Of mackerel, or
! pounds OF cod6eh were caught last year on
the Yankee coast, under the stimulus of The
enormous government bounty ;,how many
yards of calico and bales of shoddy were
thtown out by the mills of Lowell, how
many bushels of onions WeabersfieId and
her fragrant sister towns cast uron the mar
kei, how many cheeses came from the dai-
| ries OF Connecticut, and Sow many claus
| from the shores of Rhode Island, and can
! form some idea of how much ths country
owes New England tor her annual coniribu-
;ion TO the common stack of wealth. But
| books belong 10 a class of merchandise
widely different from all these. Their bulk,
their weight their numbers avail nothing
toward an estimate of the minds from which
they emsnae. A pocket copy o: Shakes
peare is worth all the trash under which the
! presses OF New England ever groaned, all
the millions of pages which her diligent
scribbIers ever fastened between covers. To
thank nation OF untiring literary hacks
simply for giving you plenty of books, is to
| rate poetry along with cheese and Goldfish.
The tin-ware, The split-iealher, the clock
businesses, have all passed away. The
/ gentlemen who Vended those valuable COM
motities have retired upon their fortunes
S,me of them have become saints, and are
! preaching The gospel; some OF them Sena-
Tors and are docloring the Constitution !;
some of them contractors, and have set their
squadron in The field armed with cast iron
sabres, mounted on skeleton horses, and
clad in picturesque rags OF shoddy; some of
I them poets, and are tuning their Tyres in
praise oil John Brown and the noble black
but all of !hem-senstor saint, shoddy- con-
tractor and tuneiuI warbler alike, are simply
clock and tin-peddIers in new disguise.
Their lyrics and their essays are of a
piece with their kettles and their shoe
leather. They are sham The artist who
has spent his early years in The eonlrivance
Of mechanical cheats is not likely, when he
turns his attention 10 poetry, TO forsake his
old tricks, or establish any very close cor
respondence with the Muses.. His sauce
pans and his SMILES, his shoe pegs and bis
metaphors, are equally Ingenious frauds.
He is alike dishonest tinker, whelher he
wieIds the pen, or holds the lap-stone.
Hence the Abolition Literature is not IL 9
out-croppiug Of spontaneous genius, or even
the result o! honest and patient labor. 1t is
made tn sell, 20 cheat, 10 deceive, not TO i'm
prove or instruct. It's histories are ar:ful
and malicious inventions, designed to var
nish The iufamies which have bIackened
the whole history of the party of negro
emancipation, and to defame the parry Of
the Constitution, which held these States in
! firm and glorious union as long as The reins
of power were in their hands. lis theoo-
gy has nothing in it OF the spirit OF Christ
and the Apostles, or of the long line OF wor-
lhies of all ages, OF which each sect and
! sub division OF the Church can claim it's
share, whose patient, innocent, prayerful
lives were given 10 seeking clearer knowl-
edge Of God and bringing aliens and wan
derers into closer communion with him.
On The contrary, il is kind OF mixed, mad
nonsense, made uP OF series OF incohe-
rent interpretations OF the Gospel. or siIic-
lures upon it, by insoent exhorers who
rate their own bellowTngs higher than the
lhunders of Sinai. No two of them pre-
cisely agree in the portions Of the Sacred
Book which they scout and DEFY; in the
exact tex,s which are 10 be cast oul and re-
jecied but they a:e beautifully united in
scorning and sneerins at all of it which
does not accord with ;he schemes, the pas
sions, or the aggrandizemeni OF each.
The songs Of this Abolition Literature are
by no means suggestive of the iriIl of birds
which sing because song Is their natural
speech. The nasal pipe Of the Puritan has
nothing OF The warble of the woods about
it. His attempts 10 chirp after The fashion
Of Nature's born minstfefs afford US pleas