The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-08-05

sided question in the world you Will say
it is the slavery question. That men and
women should be bought and sold like
sheep, that they should be denied all
chance for mental and moral elevation,
that they should be treated worse than
we treat our cattle-no such thing as vlr-
tuous wedlock, yet the common instinct
of parentage-fathers and mothers divi-
ded, children separated and scattered
the twin devices of the master and the
overseer for making profit out OF
wretchedness and sqnalor, uniting them
selves to the british passions of absolute
authority-could any picture of despot-
ism and depravity 60 further or excite a
deeper feeling of detestation? Certainly
not; and you visit all the sin and blame
upon the beaten party in sectional con-
hict, wherein many issues were involved,
failing totally to see the other side OF the
case.
What was the Africans condition in
his native country? How came he, by
Gods providence, to come to America? ?
Who brought him here? Why you in
the North are equally responsible with
us in the South for the sum total of the
wrong, if, indeed, as to the final account
the balance be really on the side of the
wrong. Originally slaves were owned in
the North as well as in the South. The
North found that negro labor was not
profitable, and so it sold its slaves where
they could be put to the most advanta-
eeous uses. never have heard it stated
that the North failed to put the money
it received for it's slaves in its pocket to
be invested in better yielding stock. The
South, on the other hand, utilized Its
slave labor as best it could, according to
it's own notion, and doubtless did deal
which no. morality can approve. 1t is
not slavery that I defend when l ask you
whether it is yet determined that the
joint sin of the North and South against
humanity in the person of the African
had no redeeming feature, and may not
be legitimate spoke in the Almighty
wheel of destiny, whose evolutions are
directed by the Divine hand under the
inspiration of the Divine law? The
desideratum of success, mere physical
incident having no abstract moral force,
would have made every Southern soldier
patriot and a hero, whereas the event
which came about prescribes very diff
ferent label. In short, do we not allow
our moral nature to be bullied as we do
not allow our outer man to be, by the
idea that he who is in the ascendant is
always right? I think we do, and it is
from such source that popular troubles
spring, the children of narrow-minded-
ness and hot-headedness, artfllly manip-
ulated by unscrupulous demagogues. DO
you suppose there ever could have been
sectional war in America if the people
of the North and South could have un-
derstood themselves and the issue little
in advance? They would have hanged
a dozen fanatical and unprincipled agi-
tators on either side, have settled the lr-
repressible conflict between slave labor
and free labor by system of gradual
reform toward final emancipation, have
averted the war, and the baleful period
of reconstruction following the war, all
by the interposition of tolerance, which,
like our good nature, is national char
acteristic when left unexcited and undis-
turbed by the politicians. For the
American people are homogeneous
people, there being no reason why the
Ohio, or any other water line separating
your homes and mine, should make us,
sprung as we are from the same ancestry,
the representatives of two or more races.
What mean, in short and in fine, is
this, that the world habitually dupes
itself to its images and its passions; the
extremist sets an idea going, and the
demagogue seizes on this as soon as it
can be made effective for his purpose;
the poor fanatic, simple and honest, is
not rewarded for his pains; lie is left far
in the rear and out Of sight. The shifty
manager takes up the cue at the oppor-
tune moment, turns it to shape, and
gives to an ideal theory local application
and utility. The North is made afraid
of the slave power through its detestation
of slavery; the South is frightened into
secession through its property interest;
and there proceeds thence war of Sec
tions to nobody's profit and everybody's
loss except the lucky adventures whom
chance, and the waves of civil commo-
ton, throw upon the surface. AS soon
as this is over fresh set of issues, based
upon the fermentation Of partisan passion,
are precipitated upon the people, derang-
ing and dividing and befogging, all to
the advantage of the demagogue. 1t is
not history that repeats itself; it is hu-
man nature. The country must be torn
asunderto please existing cliques. There
must be a war to please the military.
Peace must be made on terms that will
please only those who command the stu
alton. 1t is a game of hazard ever, in
which those laugh most who laugh last,
abstract questions of right and of wrong
having little to do with the thing that is
done. No thought is given to justice,
the parent of all sound policy, either as
a concrete agent or as principle. We
laugh at the philosophy Of Berangcr and
disregard it; yet his lines embrace the
beginning and the end of it, and only
wish the sentiment contained in them
were universal:
"If were Queen of France,
Or, still better, Pope of Rome,
I'd have no fighting men abroad,
No weeping maids at home.
All the world should be ut peace,
And if kings must show their might,
Let those who make the quarrels
Be the only ones to fight"