Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-06-01

but the evidence and expression of
what is going on in the earth's Interior
Ask the same schoolboy to tell you the
history of the United States, and he
will tell you the history OF the wars
which have darkened our national life.
Brilliant in achievement, to be sure.
yet dark indeedi Ask the modern his
torian. and he will tell you the story of
a people whose origin was in hardship
land sacrifice. whose founders started
out to make home on an unknown
shore. of their hopes and their prayers,
their successes and their disappoint-
ments. what they did and how they
lived. He will go into the minute de-
tails of their religion and their laws;
and from all these he will show you the
motives which moved and the princi-
pies which governed the people we so
lreverently call our forefathers.
1t is a very commonplace remark, and
you have heard it time and again, that
two distinct civilizations We're planted
in this country irrecOnciliably opposed
to each other, one at jamestown and
the other at Plymouth Rock, one for
slavery and the other for freedom.
This is true, but it is only a half truth.
Slavery in one form or another has ex-
listed in almost every civilized country
in the world. 1t is an institution as
old as civilization itself. With the ad-
vance of civilization slaves rose in
VALUE. In the latter part of the seven
teenth century and all through the
eighteenth, men and ships were en-
gagged in the African slave trade. 1t SO
happened that in 1919 one of these vtnd-
ers in human flesh landed from
Dutch brig twenty negro slaves at
jamestown, on the soil of Virginia, the
home of Washington and Jefferson.
What did Virginia do? Did she smile
upon this new commerce? No; she
sternly set her face against the ne
farious traffic and levied a tax of ten
dollars a head upon every slave i'm
ported. Georgia prohibited it by law.
South Carolina protested against it for
a hundred years. Every Southern
states enacted some law against it.
| Other slaves We're brought to New
England The first slave ship in
, America was fitted out by the
Plymouth Colony A cargo of negro
boys and girls from the indies was
brought to Boston, advertised and sold
at a public auction. In New England
slavery met the same cold reception
| that it did in the South but no colder.
| Now let us see what the God of Ma
| lions has to do with the principles
| which govern men. For nearly two
hundred years the climatic and indus
| trial conditions had prevented the
growth of slavery on the soil of North
America. When Jefferson Davis was
born there was no considerable num-
Der of slaves in this country, except on
the large cotton plantations of South
Carolina. And it is a strange coinci-
dence in American history that those
plantations were for the most part sup
piled by the lucre-loving slave dealers
of the North.
| Nowhere in the world is there
finer example of what climate and the
physical conditions of country will do
towards forming the principles which
govern it's people. In the South the
tropical sun warmed with a gracious
smile the soil of boundess acres. Those
were inviting fields to the wealthy
| landlords of England. Could they but
harness to the teeming soil the feudal-
ism or serfdom of the old world, for
tune. comfort and ease were theirs.
Such prospects. attracted lords and
barons. Patents of immense tracts
We're issued. And so the idea of the
English landlord was transplanted upon
the American continent But feudal-
ism was not brought to nourish it. Nor
did the English serf ever seek our
shores.
The slave trader supplied the need.
Il r,l
kind requiring little thought and no
skill. The burning sun fell naturally
unon the back of the untutorcd Afri-
can. And on those fertile plains was
work which the negro could perform.
The laws of political economy for the
| time oVercame the laws of state and
| the laws Of Justice Large numbers of
slaves soon filled the South. And that
| alone sent the European who wanted
| to found a home rather than to make
fortune to the ruggeder climate of the
North.
Before reaching the unsOunded har-
bors of the new country natural causes
land natural incinations divided the
newcomers. The inhospitable soil of
New England, with her rugged noun
tains. her wooded forests. and her
swift rapid rivers. turned the settler
from pursuits of agriculture. Our
cold winters were not inviting to the
English gentleman of ease. The
pioneer who sought a home in the
North came with a sturdy heart and
willing hand. With his AK he fellcd
the forest and damned the rivers. He
Iclcared small tracts of land, raised his
own food and built ships to carry the
commerce of the colonies. He erected
mills and began to compete with the
English manufacturer in supplying the
goods which this modest people needed.
The blacksmith and the carpenter
worked by day and prayed by night.
BY the dim freight they read their
Bibles and taught their children. The
richest We're poor and the poorest lived
in abundance"
Among such people what place was
there for the African slave? The
negro is slow, lazy, indolent, and his |
rude labor was Improbable to a peo-
pie engaged in commerce and the me- |
chanic arts. In the South the land |
owners were growing rich in cotton |