Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-17

We find, in one Of our exchanges, no
tice Of lecture recently delivered bsfOre
the Cincinnati Literary Club, on "Early
Southern Anti-Slavery Sentiments" By Mr..
VIM. i. Poole, formerly librarian Of the
Boston Atheneum. Mr.. Poole denies that
TIE political anti-sSvery agitation was forced
upon the South by the North, and contends
that the anti-slavery movement was spon-
tsneous at the South. He declares that
even as late as 1927, of the one hundred
and thirty abolition societies in the United
States, ooe hun ired and six were in the
Southern slave-holdiDg States, and only
four in New England and New York. He
saws that of these socieI les eight were in
Virginia, eleven in Maryland, two in Dele
ware, eight in Kentucky, twenty-five il
Tennessee and Fifty in North Carolina, with
an active membership Ia the latter State Of
5000 persons.
We are unable to say where Mr.. Poole
obtained his facts, or to answer for theT
correctness.
While the question of American slavery
is forever dead, it is well that the history
of its agitation should be properly under
stood. We all know that MIR. Jefferson
was opnosed to The institution, and has
l6kb us AuLt-sldFGIS SolIIilACi1Jo c4 ACSO1N
We also know that many persons Of his
day in the South conceded in those opin-
long. But neither lie or they, nor the
abolition societies" Of which Mr.. Poole
speaks. held the violent opinions enter
tanned by the New England school of
sboitionists. The former did not &C
knowledge the power of the Federal
| Government over the subject. They
Al. M
erty of the Southern people, and held
thst the power of emancipation was con-
fined to the States in which slavery existed.
Some who regarded the Institution as an
| evil, and desired to get rid Of it, yet held
| that no convent on or Legislature could de-
| prive the owner of his slave property with
out his consent. Those in the South who
| favored emancipation we're for edecting it
| gradually. If Northern fanatics had not
| interfered, The probability is that many, if
| not all, of the Southern States would have
! adopted measures locking to gradual eman-
! cipation. Some Of tie best, abiest and
! most influential men in Virginia were in
! favor of such measures,
Northern, especially New England, abe
! lition was q very different thing. The
! fanatics of that school denied that slavery
could lawfully exist, and went so far as to
pronounce the constitutional warrant for
! il "a league with death and covenant
with beh." They demanded the sboli-
ton of slavery by Congress and organized
associations to prevent the delivery OF
fugitive slaves 10 their owners. They got
up what were called underground rail-
roads for the purpose Of running off slaves
! from the South. They established news
papers, in which the slave owners Of the
South were sssailed as tyrants and bTutes,
and in which the slaves were melted to
! instruction. This fury Of the Northern
sbolitionists checked the spread of the anti
slavery movement in the Southern States
and led to more stringent laws than had
before existed--laws prompted by the ne
cessity for self-protection.
No one doubts that the late civil war
grew out of the slavery question; nor can
! Snv one who reads history aright doubt
that. if the Northern fanatics had held their
peace, the Southern people would, of their
own accord, have satisfactorily solved the
slavery problem. These fanatics are re-
sponsible for the war.--RtchniOnd Wing.