Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-04-14
IFrom the southe ern Home Journal. ]
a RETROSPECT,
THE TREE AND ITS FRUITS. x

our D0rQerS. 1ne same feelings continued
to prevail which, in 1775, had caused the
Southern States to hasten their quotas of
troops to the aid of Massachusetts,, in response
to the stirring words of Patrick Henry:
"Our chains are already forged; their clank-
ing may be heard on the plains of Boston,"
Universal feelings of kindness and good
will prevailed. Whatever injured one part
of the country was held to be grievance to
all. Whatever benefited one locality was es-
teemed by all as general good. They had
fought and bled together, they had won their
liberties together; and now they were enjoy
ing them together No tie that imagination
could devise was wanting to bind all Ameri-
cans together as nation of brothers. The
Union was then union indeed; one grand
heart gave its life-pulses to all the Republic.
A citizen of one State was received not only
in law but in love, as citizen Of every other
State.
Such was the generous and unseifish con-
dition of the public feeling that the citizens
of one section often thought more Of the good
of another section than of that of their own.
While a majority of the Northern States OPP
| posed protective tariff, majority Of the
| Southern States supported it as wise policy
whose aim was to make US independent of
foreign manufacturers by encouraging our
own. The same spirit Of generosity all over
the country willingly paid bonus to the
! cod>fsheries of New England, on the plea
that they were nursery for seamen to man
our national fleets. There were no petty
| jealousies then.
All the while, however-aye even with the
settlement of the country-an evil seed was
terminated into an evil tree to bear evil
fruit
The chivalrous Cavaliers had settled in
Virginia and Maryland. The pure hearted
and devoted Huguenots had found an asylum
in the Caroinas and Georgia. The Quakers
had secured quiet and pleasant homes in
Pennsylvania. The industrious Dutch had
opened their prosperous trade with the lndi-
ans along the Hudson and in the Jerseys
But-alas for the happiness promised =
the evil spirit that was destined to change
this prospective Eden into pandemOnium
had already entered the land.
ga band of exies moored their bark
On the wild New Eng gland shore"
Selfexpatriated men they were. No real
persecution from earthly governments drove
them to the shores of the New world. The
demon that had filled their hearts with the
love of ruling brought them here. They had
been too few to govern in England; and they
moved to Holland They could not make
themselves masters of the people about them
there; and they came to America. On the
borders of Massachusetts, Bay they at last
found fitting home and perfect "fceedom to
worship" their god. Here they were masters
of the situation, and "monarchs Of all they
surveyed"
The Indians, who had received them with
kindness and hospitality, were exterminated
by their cruel wars, which spared neither
man. woman, nor child. The Quakers and
Anabaptists, attracted to them by their boast
of religious freedom, were driven into exile,
or scourged with whips, hung, and burnt at
the stake.
The descendants of these Pilgrim Fathers
continued to be alike to their ancestors.
The revolutionary war-begun by the other
colonies to defend them from wrong-oblged
them for very shame to hide their domineer>
ing spirit for while But that spirit was not
gone 1t still animated their individual lives,
and at length began again to show itself in
public acts 1t manifested itself in various
ways but its strongest exhibition was-and
had been, and is, and always will bc-after
the manner of him who, taking no note Of the
beam in his own eye, is always searching for
a mote in his neighbor's, and Of him who
approaching with profane effrontery the very
steps of the altar, cries, ~ thank thee, Lord,
that l am better than other men"
Not only did they love to govern, but they
also loved money-oue OF the most efficient |
agents for obtaining power; and some of
them-after the strictest of the sects, phari- |
sees-entered into the African slave-trade |
and, in a worldly sense, prospered in it. But,
when the profits of that trade from various
causes ceased, they began to envy very much |
the Southerners, who they thought, were
making money out of the slaves whom they |
had sold to them. And this envy-yes, and |
malice, and all-unc itableness-germinated |
here and there into anti>slavery societies.
At first these associations were like little |
clouds no bigger than mans hand. But at |
length more and more of the godly descend
ants of the 'Pigrim Fathers" began to be-
come aware that these organizations would |
give them at least the power to do harm, by |
creating unhealthy excitement in the national |
mind and weakening the bands of brother
hood that bound the Northern and Southern |
people together.
Why should we pursue this part of our |
subject further? What lover of his country |
does not bear in fiery characters upon the |
tablets of his memory the dreadful record of !
the last few years? What patriot has for
gotten, or can ever forget, the evil craft by |
which these incarnate tiends infaned against |
each other the hearts Of the sectionr, and were |
foated into power upon the tide of Northern |
rage which they had themselves created.
They found land overfowing with happi-
ness and prosperity, and looking forward to a |
future still brighter and more blessed; but |
under their demon influence all was changed. |
They plunged innocent hands into seas Of
gore; they filed the land with fratricide.-
The rains the tears of heayen-have scarce
ly yet washed out the blood from the red |
aceldamas which they have left in their fiend-
ish track The bones of the old and the |
young-of the father. the husband, the son,
the brother, the lover-still bleach upon the |
heights and in the forests and the crops in
the valleys and along the open hillsides still |
grow rank by fattening on the mouldering
hndins of the slnin |