Year: 1861

conclusion would not follow. Women are


generally supposed inferior in intellectual


as wen as physical strength to men yet
tnIs iact Is not presumed the rightfu Iness


OF chatteilzing women. The history of
India and China abundantly proves the in
feriority OF their native races 10 Europeans.


yet who argues thence the. right of the lat.
| ter to make the former for their slaves9 n
q rich and powerful citizen of apy truly
civilized community were to make return
to ha6eas corpus sued out in behalf of one
be restrained of bis liberty-I SO hold him
because / am strong and wise, while he is
weak and simple it would be difficult to
| protect the trnYerser from the Indignation
of his neighbors.


But it were idle.to imagine that single
wrong SO fundamental and go lagrant as
slavery could be cherished by o people
without involving them in others still more
revolving to the unbribed, uDdrngged con.
sciences of the Christian world The man
who dooms the playmates of his boyhood
to work for him without wages throughout
long lives, aud to surrender their children
as they reach maturity to the auction block
and the cofle must have bis moral sense
q
plieations Of that far reaching Divine man
date, Thou shalt not steal Hence Whit
ney was deliberately swindled out of his cot
ton gin by those which it had suddenly raised
from squolid poverty to boundIess wealth,
but who could not realize that THE lahorer
is worthy of his hire so long as their whole


social polity was based on primary denial


of that truth. Hence, while other states


have been stained with the guilt of reuu.
diation, none beside have plunged into il
so deeply, SO persistently, so shamelessly,
as have those which now rally around the
black flag of the Southern Confederacy
and have committed their fortunes into the
keeping of Jefferson Davis.


The sacredness of pecuDiary obligations
is nowhere so generally, so profoundly reali.
zed as it should be. In every community,
men are found who make loud professions
of religion and would be shocked by a sug-
gestion that they are knaves, yet who prove
themselves such by the treatment of their
creditors. To be unable to pay an honest
debt is a misfortune that may befall any
! one but to contract debt under repre-
sentations of solvency which Time proves
uhfounded ; to leave debt unpaid, vet
live in elegant comfort on the property
thus beguiled from conGding creditors, this
is to commit theft whereof the crimiuali.
ty is aggravated by its immunity from legal
punishment. Yet how many are to-day
living on property thus acquired and held
who imagine themselves honest men and
Christians


But of all forms Of reputation that of
refusal to make due provision for the dis
charge of public Indebtedness is the bascst
because the safest. Here is a state, a
county, city, whose people suppose that
they can promote their own welfare by bor-
rowing the money wherewith to improve a
river or harbor, or construct canal or
railroad so they borrow a round sum and
construct the work, or half construct it,
fail in either case to realize their sangune
expectations The work does not pay so
they follow its bad example. They might
/ pay their debt if they would, but that
would subject them to heavy taxation
perhaps to the privaton of some things
deemed essential TO their comfort or enjoy
ment so they let the debt go unpaid, in
terest and principal, and try to fancy them
selves honest and even pous. But they
deceive themselves only, net their Maker
mot one single uncorrupt, dsinterested
intelligence. They betray their knavery
under less provocalion and with less excuse
than the private debtor who could pay his
creditor 10 part, and does not because to
pay would divest his family of comfort and
home. .....-..


But to err is human, therefore ptiable,
not excusable to exalt villainy into a
principle and glory in systematic wrong


doing, is the acme of hardened guilt If
the subjects of President Davis who have
felt constrained to let their notes 60 to pro-
test and thus whelm thousands of our con-
fding merchants in the abyss of bankrupt
cy, had evinced any regret for the ruin they
were calling down upon honored aud inno-
cent heads, their sin might have been re.
garded with compassion. But, as general
rule, those who have wantonly plunged into
rebellion have seemed to exultin their abili


ty to ada the guilt of swindling TO that oi
treason. Their letters to their betrayed
and ruined Northern creditors have teemeC
with insult TO their dupes, and in glee al
aggravating fraud by iudignity. They
were rObbing those dupes of the savings
Of lives of honorable industry-that the!
were suhjecting their gray hairs to dishono
aud their children TO want-has seemed t


yield 6endish joy to these crusaders q


gainst public loyalty and private faith. L


inform their northern creditors that the


had invested the amount Of their sever,


obligations in the war-lOan of the soulher


confederacy-(usually a most superAuOt
, falsehoOd has been the standing joke
these pattern rascals, who would not hay


deemed their villainy perfect had they nc
: volunteered the supererogatory assuranc
that it was wholly unnecessary. The fac
I that most of the northern merchants thu
f swindled have been devoted champions O
4 the south throughout the past years:
a sectional controversy has pleaded 10 vain
), they were northern in location thereiot
to be robbed, no matter how southern Il
!. principle and political action, Never DC
. fore was reputation sO'general or so glorIe'
X in as by the Southern debtors of Northern
u merchants since the formation Of the south
4 ern confederacy,


>. Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida %er
q among the earliest, the most inexcusable
"a the most impude6t repudators of publ
:. debts. The fact that a leader in that moi