Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1913-07-31
Continued from last week.


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Continued from last week.
| On the 23rd of March. 1900, Mr..
Spooner said in the Senate, They 1.-THE
slaves) were left in charge of the plan
tstions; they were left in charge of
the wives and daughters as well as the
property there, and believe it is true
that during all those years, there was
nothing on their part but solicitude for
their master and mistress, and loving
care for the children. When we hear
the vitriolic reyilings of alleged cruel
ties practiced by Southern Masters
upon Southern Slaves, poured in such
volume by Garrison and Wendell
Phillips (who said nothing memorable
as to the lash totes QUOTES for negroes
in Massachusetts,, this speech of
Spooner is the answer to which replica
| ton is vain.
Lincoln's proclamation of September
3, 1862. assured the slaves, that the
military and naval force of the United
States would do nothing to repress any
efforts they might make t.for their ac--
tual freedom i" He must have intend
ed, one wrote in the North British Re
view Of November 1862, to turn the
arms of 1000, 600 half barbarous Afri-
cans against their former masters.
He must have hoped this; he must have
been prepared for massacre, rapime
and devastation. :" An English Bishop
bearing the name of Wherefore said
of it: They call for the extermina-
ton of one race to liberate the other"
But to Lincoln as to John Blown the
negro was not responsive. In March
1863, the Springfield Republican was
moved to say: 1t is more than five
months since the President announced
his intention to proclaim emancipation
and two months since the proclamation
was made, and the negroes still remain
quiet on the Southern plantations.
In this case the master was a hero to
his own valet. Although invited 80 to
do, the negro could not free his heart
from his masters. The masters in
lterest remained his interest; his service
return for protection-a true protec-
ton of the weaker by the stronger.
II have seeD, = said John Randolph,
'the dissolution of many friends. such
at least as were so called, but | have
seen that of the master and slave
endure as long as there was drop Of
the blood of the master to which the
slave could cleave.' The problem Of
power, that of real higher over real
lower was recognized by the slave
(Whose song rose above his tolD to
have been fifty solved; he feeling above
him source of higher life and light.
To the armed force which said, you
need abide no longer in involuntary
servitude his actions said: "Then |
will make it voluntary" Today, toilers
who have no song in them, submit
more precarious problem. There is an
audible insurgence boding i'll to a
supremacy, not felt to be source Of
higher life or kinder light; submitting
Q menacing issue between toiling and
spelling classes; the antithesis of
wealth to Commonwealth. What was
then the bond between capital and
labor in the South? Plainly the bond
of mutual helpfulness. What today is
the bond between capital and labor in
the North? The bond of dynamite!
Should the latter day followers of John
Brown once more seek the destruction
of property, by them deemed illegiti-
mate, whittier will the riches of pros
perity be hurled? His ideal instructs
the anarchist to take the law into his
own hands with dynamite or dagger,
as may be most convenient. Charles
Town has no need to desire informa-
ton Of John Brown from a visitor to
her midst. It may be worth your
while to bear in mind, that the soul
of this apostle of the abyss; this cham
pion Of chaos, still is marching on.
The SO called higher law" was and is
law, which respects no man and fears
no God,
The emotion of the North toward the
negro, as displayed prior to 1861, re-
sembled that described by sydney
Smith, as the feeling A experiences,
when he thinks that B. should do some
thing to relieve the miseries of C.
By the side of the danger menacing
the South the tea tax seemsa bagatelle.
If separation from alien and hostile
rule exercised by geographical domi-
nation, be held by this generation to
have been justified. what vindication
is offered to Lord North and George III
by the Sons of the Revolution. AS the
matter shaped itself, the South saw be-
tween liberty and union an irrepressible
conflict. THE issue presented to the
South was union without liberty or
liberty withslt union. For the South
the more serious menance was not that
of putting slavery, but that of putting
freedom in course of ultimate extinct
ion. - For the South the cry of slavery
was the convenient fail wherewith to
beat down freedom.
In paroxysm of wrath the States of
the North were willing to lay waste
their own liberties to destroy those of