The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-05-17
-COLUMBIA,S. &C.
Sunday Morning,s Hay Il. 1874.
call Not Kettle Black.

O0t very 8oO0 AtIle0O5 Oh 0O6tO0,
who turned upon their idol Sumner,
whom, in view OF the wreck he had
caused, he wavered in his fanaticism,
and sought by an expiatory sacrifice OF
some OF his prejudioes to repair the
wrongs he had inflicted upon the
South, still harp upon the alleged evils
OF our society in the past; still find it
luxury to hurl at us the opprobrious
epithets OF ohattel slavery, oligarchy,
slave power, go. According to the
Boston Journal, the evils of which we
have made complaint, the principal
one being that OF the roguery OF our
State officials, are but the penalties
which follow law of abuses. South
Carolina was model slave State. the
majority of it's people were chattels
hold by little oligarchy-these, ac.
oordiDg to this sapient journal, are the
causes OF the present trouble. Boston,
the hub, reasons like it revolves, in q
circle. From the snug position to
which it has attained from tho eyrie
where it broods and matches its med
dlesome progeny, it looks forth upon
tho distress of communities which it
has helped to produce with high
moral satisfaction. It's language being
interpreted, means sin your troubles
the consequences of your sin are upon
you, but in my prosperity the evi-
dences of my virtue may be read"
Boston will excuse us under the cir
cumstances for reminding it of the hole
out of which it was dug. Slavery could
not have been planted on this CONT
.nent, but for the direct efforts of Old
and New England. The slave trade
was favorite and profitable business
with the Eastern States. The ship
'Desire." from Salem, sachusetts,
vas the first colonial slave ship, and.
nccordiDg to DR.. Belknap, the rum
distilled in Massachusetts was "the
handspring OF this traffic." It is an
instructive fact, too, that this first en-
private, individual speculation. "It
was the enterprise Of the authorities of
the colony"
This bad pre- eminence was sustained
at later era by the first positive le-
gislation on the subject of human
bondage in America, being statute
establishing slavery, and found in the
Code of Fundamentals or Body of
Iiberties ~ of the Massachusetts Co.
lony. It reals: "There shall never be
any bond slaverie, villanage or Gap
tivitie amongst us, unless it be lawful
csptives taken in just wares, and such
strangers as willingly selle Themselves
or are sold to u.s. This statute was
never expressly repealed. A fair
minded anti-slavery Northern writer
says OF it: "It sanctions the siuye
trade and the perpetual bondage of
Indians and negroes, their children
and their ohildren's children, and en-
titles Massachusetts to precedence
over any and all the other colonies in
similar legislation. It anticipates, by
many years. anything of the sort to be
found in the statutes of Virginia, or
Maryland, or South Carolina, and no
thing like it is to be found in the con-
temporary codes OF her sister colonies
in New England" But this is not all.
The original OF the fugitive slave law
provision in the Federal Constitution
is to be traced to similar one to be
found in the articles of confederation
OF the united colonies of New Eng
land, OF which Massachusetts, was the
ruling colony. We are very far from
reproaohing the men of Massachusetts
of the olden time.
We only make the point against
those Of the more modern and of the
present era, that their claims TO supc-
rior virtne are without justification
They must not set up the pretension Of
the Pharisee, that they are better than
others. AS long as New England
found it profitable to import and deal
in slaves, and to work them, it did it.