Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-11-03

| dS well DIS Ills OWL, SHOW CudC LII
Curry not only studied the best bu
was actuated by the wisest and mos
philanthropic motives in the absorb
ing issues of those times. He dis
! liked slavery as much as Jefferson
but a solution, he saw, was not iI
| the immediate and universal eman.
cipation of the slaves. A higher
| and greater aim was his. Gradual
emancipation with an education fit
ting them for their preservation
when free. Not so much an educa-
tion of books, as that of refined
manners, softened natures, and ac-
quirement of useful trades and oc-
cupations, all Of which they were
learning a thousand times faster
here, than in their jungles through
missionaries, though they might be
legion. He saw that on the one side
there was little but fiery denuncia-
tiOn of slavery in the abstract. Gar
rison, Phillips and Lovejoy were the
blast furnaces from which the de-
nunciations poured. Over against
this was the logic, the reason, the
wisdom of men like Calhoun who
spoke often, more as oracles than as
men; Certainly Calhound did when
he said:
ITO destroy the existing relations
would be to destroy the prosperity
(of the Southern States), and to
place the two races in state of con-
fict, which must end in EXPULSION or
extirpation of one or the other. No
other can be substituted compatible
with their peace or security. The
difficulty is in the diversity of the
races. So strongly drawn is the line
between the two in consequence, and
so strengthened by the force of habit
and education. that it is impossible
for them to exist together in the
community, where their numbers are
so nearly equal as in the slavehold-
ing States, under any other relation
than that which now exists. Social
and political equality between them
is impossible. No power on earth
can overcome the difficulty. The
causes lie too deep in the principles
of our nature, to be surmOunted.
But without such equality, to change
the present condition of the African
race, were it possible, would be but
to change the form of slavery"
The "old" negro of the South is
passing away. The new one Great
ed by Garrison, Phillips and Lovejoy
has taken his place. With the old
one, died the race, as race in
America. No more do such charac-
ters as 'Old Uncle Ned'' live save in
memory. Down on the Suwanee
Riyer"is sung for it's perennial beauty
and as an "Auld Lang Syne" of by
gone days. In it's stead is the "coon
song dropping each time into deeper
vulgarity; a reminder of Calhoun's
sequel to slavery subscribed to by
Curry. 1t depicts the decline in the
pathos, indeed in the lives, of those
people, as to the crowded jails,
penitentiaries and resort to lynch
law, tell in what contempt their Ii
berty and lives are held by them
selves, and among many. Their de-
cline from the standard of their
emancipated progenitors, and their
inability to stand on the same foot
ing as those of the white race, finds
new emphasis every day, and marks
the depth of the wisdom of those of
the South who knew them, and how
they were advancing under what was
called slavery, but who knew and
saw how they would recede when
they undertook their own salvation
or when their quondam friends sent
them to seek their own fortunes.
The biography is peculiarly inter-
esting in the Dawn of the War;"
peabody and His Trust" and '"The
Land of the Alhambra" periods. 1t
is pleasing to know that men of the
South may be made thus to live after
they have been called to their faith
ers. So negligent has the South been
in this, that it would seem that her
men worthy of mention were few
and far between. But it has been
her abundance that has made her
careless. One imaginary Barbara
Fritchie, one tabled ride of North.
ern solder, will be made to live
longer than thousand real deeds by
Southern women, or a thousand real
acts of heroism of Southern men,
because there were those who wrote
of them. DR.. Curry, himself, guard
ed his life well, his family have
guarded it for him also, now that
he has passed away, the guards set
over it as biographers, have faith
fully kept vigil, and told us of the
happenings.
r. S. Turk.