GENTLEMEN OF THE ASSOCIATION: As
we are organized for the object, especially, of protecting our
slave institutions, it is proper that we should hold frequent
counsel together, and carefully consider the modes by which it
might be assailed.
the crisis is fast approaching,
and a few brief weeks will decide ,whether we are to drag out a
few years more of dishonored existence,—under a Black
Republican rule, which has openly declared their purpose to
destroy us—or whether, casting all unmanly fears to the
winds, we shall stake our destiny under our own control, and
with, God to help us, resolve that we will be ruled only by
ourselves.
from all present indications,
Lincoln will be elected by the Electoral College; but if not by
that mode, then by Congress afterwards. With the whole North
thoroughly sectionalized and given over to Abolitionism (a very
small and uninfluential party only excepted), every Douglas
Democrat, and every Bell and Everett supporter, in all that
populous region, may be classed, as between Breckinridge and
Lincoln supporter of the latter. In opinions and feelings they
affiliate with the party which sup port him, as against the
South; and when the day of trial shall come, when they shall be
required to indicate their preference, it will be found that they
will be governed by their Abolition proclivities, and give their
support in Congress to the nominee of the Black Republicans. The
principles, then, of that dangerous party may be considered as
those which are to control the Government after the 4th March
next.
I know there is, with some, a
feeble hope entertained that, if the election goes into Congress,
Breckinridge, or Bell, or Lane, by some skillful management or
good luck, might be slipped into the Presidency instead of
Lincoln. But this hope, feeble as it is, must be regarded as a
mere delusion; or more probably, it is the resort of the timid,
to postpone, and after wards avoid, timely and manly resistance.
But admitting it might be so, let it be considered that Mr.
Buchanan with all his high claims to enlarged statesmanship, and
with all his skill as an experienced politician, has been unable
to conduct the Government upon the principles of justice and
equality which the Constitution contemplates. Nor has he been
able to protect even himself, as the Chief of the Executive
Department of the Government, from the rude and aggressive
assaults of the overbearing and Irresponsible Black Republican
majority, which has, now, control of the House of
Representatives, and will soon have control of the Senate of the
United States. How vain, then, and fallacious, is it to expect
that either of the distinguished individuals above named
(Breckinridge, Lane or Bell) will be able to accomplish what Mr.
Buchanan has failed to achieve.
NO PRESIDENT CAN
PROTECT THE SOUTH
We cannot, then, too soon
realize to ourselves the impressive fact that, constituted as the
Government of the United States now is, of two hostile parties,
in which the Black Republicans have an overwhelming majority in
the House of Representatives, as they will soon have in the
Senate, a President becomes powerless
to en force the just obligations of each under the Constitution;
and that he, as well as every other interest in the country, must
expect to be brought under subjection to that ravening majority.
In this view of the subject, how futile is it in the people of
the South to place their dependence upon a President for their
protection, no matter how devoted to their interests that
President may be; whilst the thought irresistibly springs up in
the mind—how degraded they must be in their own
self-respect, when a whole people would flee to a single man at
Washington to receive from him shelter and protection, when they
have organized State governments of their own, which they might
interpose, if they had only the courage to rouse up their
slumbering energies.
The contingency, however, of
either of the individuals just alluded to, filling the
Presidential office, is so remote that it is scarcely worthy of
the passing glance which we have given it. The pregnant,
indisputable, momentous fact, which the South has now to deal
with, is, that our enemies are about to take
possession of the Government, that they intend
to rule us according to the caprices of their fanatical theories,
and according to the declared purposes of abolishing
slavery; and that in Working out these plans
for our ruin and degradation, we must expect just that sort of
leniency which is shown by the conqueror over a subjugated and
craven people, who are the objects of his contempt and disgust,
because they have proved themselves too cowardly to defend their
honor, their families, and their property. Mr. Lincoln must be
considered as the representative of these principles; and as soon
and as long as they have control of the Government, it matters
not to the South who fills the office of President. They have now
so far the control, as to give to every Act of Congress a
sectional character, and to defeat any measure of legislation
friendly to the South. Upon the election of Mr. Lincoln they will
take complete possession of the Government; and then they will
carry out those schemes of hostility against our property and
domestic peace, which they have long threatened us with, but
which they have not had heretofore the power to accomplish.
Will the South remain a passive
victim, and , like the timid sheep, allow itself to be
bound—whilst the butcher is preparing the knife for its
destruction; or will she not rather throw off, at once, her
degrading sloth and cowardice, and , summoning up her ample
powers, throw off a government which is about to be taken
possession of by her deadly enemies? If she decide this question
according to the wisdom of courage,
a long career of prosperity is before her, to be attained,
perchance, through a sharp but brief conflict, which may call for
much personal and pecuniary sacrifices; but if, on the contrary,
she decide it according to the folly of a
timid submission, her doom will be short as
it will be dishonored;—a few brief years of besotted
indulgence, whilst their enemies are perfecting their
plans:—then emancipation of their slaves; then poverty,
political equality with their former slaves, insurrection, war of
extermination between the two races, and death, and expatriation,
to fill up the picture.
HOW CAN CONGRESS
ABOLISH SLAVERY IN THE STATES?
But it is asked, and that, too,
sometimes, by intelligent men,—how can Congress abolish
slavery, when the States alone in which it exists have control
over it? The confidence with which this question is generally
asked, would seem to imply that it can be answered only in the
negative; and that it can be abolished only with the consent of
the owners of that property. Hence the indifference they manifest
at the declared purposes of the Abolitionists to "
extinguish it in every State of the Union." This dangerous
mistake requires to be considered, and the modes by which that
stupendous evil might be brought upon us, carefully reflected
upon.
THE TWO MODES
What, then, are the modes by
which our enemies intend to abolish slavery in the South? there
are two modes by which this is to be done. The first is by violence,
insurrection and bloodshed.
The second is "constitutionally,"
as they term it; that is, through the operation of law, and a
change of the Constitution, as soon as they get possession of the
law-making power of the Government. The first is represented by
the Garrisonian wing of
the great Abolition party, of which Giddings, and Hickman, and
Lovejoy, are the types, and such men as John Brown, and the
miscreants who were lately hanged in Texas, are the agents. The
second represents the Black Republican
wing of the party, over which Seward is the master mind. Although
differing in their modes of operation, the two wings of that
great party are thoroughly identified in the mischievous object
which they both aim at; and that is, the
entire abolition of slavery in the whole South!*
[ See Appendix, A.]
the policy of the first, or Giddings and Garrisonian wing of the
party, is to make slavery unpopular
and unprofitable, by
sending emissaries amongst our slaves, to excite them to
insurrection and bloodshed, to burn down our towns and buildings
of agriculture, to destroy our property, and lay waste our crops;
and by the agitation and excitement which must accompany these
measures, and by the poverty which it will spread over the whole
South, to compel the slaveholder himself to emancipate his
slaves. Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, many years ago, disclosed, in
part, the programme of their operations, when, with the keen
appetite for Southern blood which a fiend only could feel, he
exclaimed: " I look forward to the day when there shall be a
servile insurrection in
the South; when the black man, armed with British bayonets, and
led on by British officers, shall assert his freedom, and wage a
war of extermination
against his master; when the torch of the incendiary
shall light up the towns and cities of the
South, and blot
out the last vestige of slavery. And though
I may not mock at their calamity, nor laugh when their fear
cometh, yet I shall hail it
as the dawn of a political millennium."
This man, let it be remembered, in passing, is the warm personal
and political friend and supporter of Mr. Lincoln. Since he
enunciated this scheme of assault upon our peaceful homes, his
party have made additions to the instruments of our destruction.
To fire, and murder, and the devastation of property, they have
added rape, and poison; and if they be permitted to accomplish
their designs, we can expect from them in future nothing but the
foulest indignities and the most atrocious cruelties.* [See Appendix, B]
But, gentlemen of the Association, these evils can be arrested by
vigilance and firmness: by vigilance in detecting every vile
intruder upon our peace; and by firmness, in bringing the
miscreant to condign and summary punishment, as soon as his guilt
shall be established. In performing this duty to your families
and to the State, I have the utmost confidence that the laws will
be respected, and that nothing but even-handed justice will be
dealt out to every one. Whilst we remain in the Union, our
annoyances from these emissaries we may expect to be frequent,
from the aid and sympathy which they will receive from a hostile
government at Washington, and from the privileges they now have
of travelling amongst us, as people under the same government.
The time, however, I hope, is not distant, when they shall be
deprived of these privileges and excuses, and they shall appear
among us only as aliens and foreigners.
THE PEACEFUL AND
CONSTITUTIONAL MODE OF MR. SEWARD.
The second mode, by which
slavery is to be abolished, is that which Mr. Seward and his
followers designate as "peaceful and constitutional."
This is immeasurably a more dangerous scheme than that of open
assault upon our institution, in the mode of insurrections; and
nothing can save the South from the successful accomplishment of
this scheme of our enemies, but her speedy separation from them;
now that she has the; power, and there are so many favorable
circumstances to aid her in doing so.
the danger with which this
scheme is loaded, is so quiet and unobtrusive in its nature, that
its advances will create little excitement or alarm in the South.
It will possess itself stealthily of its victim. In the meantime,
its cancerous roots will be spreading themselves over the whole
system; causing the South daily to grow weaker, whilst the North
is daily becoming stronger, by their exactions upon the South,
and by the filling up of the Territories with an abolition
population. And when, at the end of a few years, the South shall
be waked up out of her drowsy lethargy, it will be to find that
her power is gone, that the North has become her master, and can
alter the Constitution to suit her own abolition purposes.
In anticipation of a Black
Republican President, Mr. Seward already begins to exult at the
domination of the North, and over the impotency of the South. In
a speech delivered by him on the 18th September, at St. Paul,
Minn., in allusion to the warfare which has been waged upon
African slavery by Black Republicanism he boastfully exclaims:
"the battle has been fought and the victory has been won.
Slavery to-day is, for the first time, not only powerless,
but without influence,
in the American Republic." This, it must be admitted, is a
sober and humiliating fact, if the South were bound to remain in
the Union, with a Black Republican and hostile government to rule
over, degrade, and impoverish her. But with the right and the
power to establish a government of her own (if God would only
give her the wisdom and the courage so to determine), she might
stand before the world, as proud a Republic as the sun now shines
upon.
Regarding the South with the
contempt which he and his followers have long learnt to indulge
towards her, that under no circumstances of humiliation and
injury can the South be kicked out of the Union," Mr.
Seward knew well what he
said, when he declared that slavery would be abolished, and that
"constitutionally." To soothe the apprehensions of the
South, to amuse them with delusive expectations, into a state of
undisturbed confidence in the stability of their slave property,
Mr. Seward seems to take particular pains, on all occasions, to
make it known that the Black Republican party, which he controls,
have no intention to disturb slavery in the States where it
exists. An opposite declaration to this, he well knew would have
alarmed the South, and perhaps driven some or all of them, out of
the Union, and then he would have lost the game. Not
anticipating, apparently, that the Government at Washington could
ever be turned over to the dominion of Abolitionism, and that
slavery in the States could ever be overthrown, by any
interference from that quarter, the people of the South generally
regarded this annunciation of Mr. Seward, that it was to be
abolished "constitutionally," with that sort of
indifference with which men usually contemplate an impossibility.
But the recent developments of the power of the Black Republican
party, entertaining as it does, such deadly hostility to slavery,
and hatred of slaveholders: with the certainty that it will soon
control the whole power of the Government is well calculated to
disturb this equanimity, and stir up the inquiry, How can slavery
in the States be "constitutionally
abolished."
The South, heretofore, has never
had occasion, seriously to consider so momentous a question.
Acting with the great Democratic party of the country (of which
she has been, for several years past, the main support), and
which has hereto fore been constitutional and conservative in its
aims she has been able to protect her great institution of
African slavery against the raging assaults of Abolitionism, so
far, at least, as against any action coming from the General
Government. The nomination of Fremont, four years ago, as a
purely Northern and sectional
candidate, was calculated to interrupt this serenity, as it
indicated—the advancing boldness of her enemies; and the
very small majority by which he was defeated, was a proof how
rapidly their power had increased. Since then, squadron after
squadron of Northern Democrats have turned traitors to the
Constitution and their obligations to the South, and have
deserted over to the enemy.
This gives to our enemies the
victory—a victory which will be followed by a general
stampede of the bulk of the Douglas Democrats, and of the Bell
and Everett men, at the North (all at heart, Abolitionists), to
take shelter within the enemy's camp, with a view to share with
them in the spoils of the Government, and in the robbery of the
South.
THE SOUTH IN A
HOPELESS MINORITY IN THE GOVERNMENT.
Let the South, then, face the
reality, with such feelings as she may; that she is now in a
MINORITY, in the Federal Government; a minority
which will be largely increased
with the result of the approaching Federal elections, which will
leave the whole North banded with her enemies; a minority
which will be permanent,
and increasing year by year; a minority
in a Government which is soon to be controlled by a
party—one wing of which have sent, and are now sending among
our people fire, and murder, and the sword, and rape, and poison,
to desolate our land; whilst the other wing ]s preparing and
perfecting measures by the Government, to effect legally, and
constitutionally, the "entire extinction of slavery in all
the States." Let the South realize to herself, in all its
dark and lowering aspects, the fact which Mr. Seward so
triumphantly exults in—" That slavery is now not only powerless
but without influence in
the American Republic."
Taking along with us in our
minds this fact that the
South is powerless to protect herself in the Federal Government,
and that after the 4th March next she will be at the mercy of her
enemies—the mercy of the Abolitionists—we are now
prepared to consider intelligently the question: How Congress can
abolish slavery in the States legally and constitutionally at
least according to the forms
of law and the Constitution—which is all that the most
lenient of our enemies will think it necessary to wait for. In
the first place it may be answered—this dire calamity cannot
be inflicted upon the South if she withdraw
from the Union—whilst it can be, and inevitably will be,
visited upon her, in all its horrors, if she continue connected
with a Government which has both the will and the power to
accomplish it. An eloquent writer in Virginia has so forcibly
presented the argument on this question, under the signature of
"Python," in the March number of De Bow's excellent
Review, that I make no apology for here availing myself of large
extracts from it, and as also strengthening the views which I
have previously expressed:
THE MANNER IN
WHICH "PEACEFUL AND CONSTITUTIONAL" ABOLITION, (AS IT
IS CALLED) WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED.
"Abolition
proper is founded on moral frenzy and
religious fanaticism; and negating all law save that of a morbid
imagination, all science save that of a diseased fancy, and all
government save that of a prejudiced and infuriated mob, looks
forward to the social and political equality
of the negro with the white man, at whatever sacrifice of life
and the industrial interests of the world, amidst rape, rapine,
conflagration, robbery and murder. They have no statesmanship.
They ignore the Constitution of the United States and all State
Constitutions; and they declare the Union to be a 'compact
with hell and an agreement with the devil.'
Woe unto the South! Woe unto the whole land , North as well as
South, if the leaders of abolitionism, Giddings, Smith, Chase,
Sumner, Wilson, Hale, Garrison, Phillips, Wilmot, Banks, Adams,
Greeley, Bryant, and the 'three thousand
Puritan preachers,' should succeed in
grasping the reins of Black Republicanism to guide that powerful
organization in the line of their purposes. They would be
governed alone by a blind rage in the subversion of the social,
political and industrial systems of the South, whether
the South remained in the Union, or went out
of the Union, accompanied by the total loss of the cotton crop,
thereby leading directly and inevitably to general starvation and
anarchy through the destruction of manufactures. To the beastly
horrors of the French Revolution in St. Domingo would be added
the ghastly massacres of the French Revolution, and the squalid
miseries of the great famine in Ireland.
BLACK
REPUBLICANISM: WHAT IT IS.
"Black
Republicanism, embracing and controlling
Abolitionism, on the other hand , professes
to entertain due regard for law, government and constitutions.
Mr. Corwin but repeats what Seward had previously said, even in
his celebrated "irrepressible conflict" speech at
Rochester, that what ever shall be done in reference to the
subject of negro slavery, whether as the question affects the
States or Territories, must be constitutionally
done* [*The present leaders of this party claim to
respect the New York Herald thus substantiates this position in
an article headed "The Issue before Congress and the
country," viz:
"The
issue before Congress and the country is the abolition of slavery
in the slave States. We know that Mr. Seward
pleads the plea of a constitutional crusade; but
we know that constitutions and laws can be twisted into any shape
by designing and reckless men. Helper and Brown are the true
interpreters of the irrepressible conflict. It means an
aggressive conflict against slavery, a conflict of abolition
forays from the free States, of servile revolts, of agrarian
conspiracies, and the subjugation and suppression of slavery and
the slave power by terrorism, and by fire and sword."] The
present leaders of this party claim to respect all existing
rights, political, real and personal. They all negate, orally and
through their journals, the doctrines of the abolitionists
proper. But they assert the constitutional supremacy of Congress
over the territories, for the purpose of excluding negro-slave
institutions, and thereby deny the right on the part of
slaveholders to take to the territories, and hold therein,
property in negro slaves. They moreover look forward with
exultation and gratulation to the time, not very distant, when,
through amendments to the Constitution constitutionally made, the
slaveholding States themselves may be reached and controlled by
Congress in the line of their real designs. As constructed and
directed by Seward, their organization is political, and separate
from religious fanaticism and moral frenzy; and so long as it
remains political, is only potent for evil while the South
shall continue in the Union. Nor are they
destitute of policy and statesmanship. They have not only evolved
a broad and profound policy, but have mentally eliminated a
comprehensive and far-reaching statesmanship which contemplates,
by the constant accession of 'free States' from 'free
Territories,' and by a continually
accumulating and preponderating population, generating an
overwhelming and all-controlling majority of
senatorial and popular representatives, the
gradual consolidation of, the Government
through amendments to the Constitution thus to be wrought, and the
conversion of the confederacy into empire,
as necessary to the suppression of rebellion
and anarchy, while preserving the forms
of a representative republic, through clothing the President with
dictatorial powers as aforetime was in Rome.
"Abolitionism, as we have
said, governed by moral frenzy and religious fanaticism, has no
stopping point; and Black Republicanism, in the hands of the
abolition leaders, would pursue its objects at the South with all
the fury of prejudice and rage of war after disunion. But Black
Republicanism, as a political organization in control of
abolitionism, has a stopping point, and ceases its power for mischief
in regard to the South, at least with disunion. On one point
alone, is there absolute agreement between the two, and that is
the ultimate property robbery of the South in respect to both
real and personal estate; and even here the
means the one would resort to are different from those the other
would pursue, as will presently appear.
INSECURITY OF
PROPERTY AT THE NORTH AGAINST THE AGRARIANISM OF THOSE HAVING NO
PROPERTY.
"A profound and thoughtful
student of the annals of Tacitus, in their striking parallelism
and application to our social and political condition, during
that transition period when the old republic was passing into the
empire of the Caesars, without the alteration of a name or form
that belonged to the ancient constitution—as may be readily
ascertained from his extraordinary speeches—Mr. Seward set
himself to the task of Marius and the great Julius, and under a
liberal, generous, and magnanimous banner that equally appealed
to every mass-element throughout the non-slaveholding States,
attracted their regard, and with a solitary
exception hereafter to be honorably mentioned,
combined them all into that concentrated and powerful agrarian
organization, called by themselves the Radical Democratic party,
but better known as 'Black Republican,' with himself as its apex.
Long before this the property interests of the North had become
alarmed at the daily increasing and overwhelming numbers and
powers of the non-property holders enjoying the right of suffrage
with property holders, and consequently, directing State
legislation, so that all the burdens of government, civil and
municipal, together with all the expenses of a general system of
education, should be fastened upon property,
in itself unrepresented and without a voice in its own protection.
This had led to the earlier struggles in the national councils at
Washington for the possession of the Territories by the North,
and , finally, to that system of agrarian enactment, parceling
out the public domains into 'free' farms for the multitude. These
movements were intended by the representatives from the North to
diminish danger at home, to secure their own doors, and to divert
the hordes of agrarianism by supplying those necessities their
will demanded. Regarding these facts, Seward, with the Black
Republican party, now fully organized and returning a majority to
Congress, resolved to hold, with an iron grasp, the Territories
as against the South, and to close in the
slaveholding States until the time should
come when they would be demanded as a prey to feed the Northern
vulture. Hence he encouraged the Emigrant Aid Societies in their
treason; hence he smiled approvingly upon
Beecher, holding the Bible in one hand
and Sharp's rifle in
the other; hence his ceaseless diatribes concerning the
aggressions of the South; hence his fervid denunciations of the
Lecompton Constitution; and hence his studied defence of the
Topeka outlaws in Kansas. He saw that, with
the securement of Kansas as a non-slaveholding State, the doom of
the South was sealed in the Union; that the slaveholding States,
through the natural and constitutional flow of events afterwards,
would necessarily become, first provincialized in a government
they had contributed everything to form and sacrificed everything
to maintain; and next, be driven, in some instances to relinquish
their domestic institutions, and in others to submit to such
changes as might be dictated by the North holding the Government,
exercising its authority, and wielding its
power. It was in view of all these designs
of Black Republicanism and consequences to the South, that, two
years ago, in January, 1858, during the pendency of the Kansas
question, and while the South might yet have been rallied as a
unit to prevent the threatened catastrophe, I addressed to their
representatives in Congress the following appeal, to wit:
CONSEQUENCES OF
THE LOSS OF KANSAS TO THE SOUTH.
"The surrender of Kansas to
the operation of the Majority Rule
in the Territories, under the cry of popular
sovereignty without the Constitution, and
her absorption by the non-slaveholding power of the country, will
make the evil of the times no longer prospective, but instant
and imminent. By the fact of this surrender
the South will become subordinate and the North predominant in
the Union. Never again in the Union, could the equilibrium of
State-sovereign representation between the South and the North be
either maintained in or restored to the Senate. Never again in
the Union, could the equality of the South with the North be
either maintained in, or restored to the House of
Representatives. No further barrier could be constructed between
either the aggressive Territorial, or the political rapacity of
the North and the weakened and diminished South. The South, like
the dead body of Hector bound to the car of Achilles, will soon
be dragged by the triumphant North around a ruined possession,
quickly to be followed by the erasive ploughshare of the
subverting conqueror."
LOSS OF MISSOURI.
"The loss of Kansas to the
South will involve the loss of Missouri, and the loss of Missouri
will destroy the moral, as well as the political prestige of the
South, and invade the integrity of their institutions. The moral
prestige of States, like that of individuals, once destroyed, no
earthly power can restore; and the integrity of State
establishments, like the chastity of woman, once subjected to
invasion, continues at the will of the despoiler. With
abolitionized Iowa stretching along the northern boundary of
Missouri, and abolitionized Kansas covering the western boundary,
while through Kansas and Iowa there poured into her bosom, from
the more inhospitable lake and northern Atlantic regions, a
continuous stream of agrarian Radicals, alike determined to
obtain control of her government and to assert the rule
of the majority in the line of emancipation,
slave property in Missouri will soon become too precarious in its
tenure to be holden, and the necessity for its sale or removal
will at once arise. It may be confidently asserted that, in a few
years, Missouri, under these circumstances, will cease to be a
slave-holding State. Already, in view of the anticipated result,
Abolition journals have been started in Missouri, and some of her
candidates for Congress have boldly unfurled the banner of
emancipation.* ["One of these Abolition candidates has
since been elected from the St. Louis district of Missouri. Such
is the rapid advance of Abolitionism in that State."]
LOSS OF THE
INDIAN TERRITORY.
"Now, the loss of Missouri
to the South will involve the loss of the Creek and Cherokee
domain, the Chocktaw and Chickasaw domain, New Mexico and
Arizonia, which otherwise could be saved to the slave-holding
interests of the country and the harmonious equilibrium of the
Union. It is known that the Creeks and Cherokees
number from thirty to
forty thousand free inhabitants, holding at least ten thousand
negro slaves. The facts as to the Choctaws and Chickasaws stand
in a similar ratio. The white man's blood predominates in
both nations, strongly coloring each with the mental forms and
expressions of the white race. They have each a regular
government, with distinct legislative, executive and judiciary
departments; with a common school system; with Christian churches
established in many directions; and with the arts of Agriculture
considerably developed. Each is gradually preparing to enter the
Union as a slave-holding State. But with Abolitionized Kansas and
Missouri (both being now subject to the North) along their
northern limits, the flood gates will be thrown open through
which the abolition tide will sweep with resistless energies,
driving before it, or overwhelming in its deluge, alike the
hybrid Indian and the negro slave, thus ultimately adding both
domains to swell the colossal power of the North.* ["If the New York Tribune
issued on November 7, the day of the last State election in New
York, be referred to, it will be seen that that journal
congratulates its own party upon the forcible seizure of
Kansas," and urges the same thing to be done with the creek,
Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw country and New Mexico. The
preachers of New England are now actively engaged in the Indian
country striving to produce between the Indians bloody and
exterminating strife; by exciting their congregations against the
slaveholders among them as "God abandoned, doomed to hell,
and unfit to live." If blood could be once shed,
extermination would be the result under the lex taliocis that
prevails, and thus the country would be left to the occupation of
the Emigrant Aid Societies."]
New Mexico and Arizona will now be thrown between the
'free soil' States formed out of the
territories of the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws and Chickasaws, on
the east, the 'free soil'
States of California on the west, and the free
States of Mexico on the South. Negro-slave property in neither
could be held for a day, and they too will inevitably become
incorporated in the monstrous proportions of the North.
LOSS OF ARKANSAS
AND TEXAS.
"In the next place, the
loss of Kansas, of Missouri, of the Creek and Cherokee domain, of
the Choctaw and Chickasaw domain, of New Mexico, and of Arizona,
being a loss of six States rightfully belonging and legitimately
attached to the slaveholding interest of the South, will involve
the loss of Arkansas, another slaveholding State, and of Texas,
warranted by the law of annexation, to be divided into five
slaveholding States, thus making a positive loss to the South of
twelve States, which in justice, as well as through a wise and
politic statesmanship, should be saved to the slaveholding
interest, looking to the future prosperity and welfare of the
whole country, North as well as South, and subjecting to
Abolitionism the entire western shore of the Mississippi river,
reaching beyond the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and
down to the Rio Grande, and convulsing Louisiana with servile
war, saturating her soil with blood. With Kansas and Missouri
abolitionized, and lying on the north and northwestern boundaries
of Arkansas, and with Abolition States formed out of the Creek
and Cherokee domain, and that of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, on
her western limits, Arkansas will be circumstanced precisely as
Missouri had been previously circumstanced, and negro slavery
will be lost to Arkansas, in the same manner it had been lost to
Missouri. No obstacle will now exist to the progress of the
Abolition agrarian horde of the North, through Texas to the line
of the Rio Grande. The great State, in point of geographical
extent, is divided into three parts. Beginning on the shores of
the Gulf of Mexico, the first division is a vast coast prairie,
extending four hundred miles in length, from the Sabine to the
Rio Grande, with an average width of forty miles. In addition to
the two rivers mentioned, the Brazos, the Colorado, the
Guadalupe, the Trinity, the San Antonio, and the Nueces, make
their exit to the Gulf across this region, and within its bounds
their waters may be said to be navigable. The soil is a black
alluvial, the deposits of unnumbered ages, formed by the
recession of the waters of the Gulf, and , for productiveness,
equal to any in the world. Under a just expansion of the
slaveholding, with the non-slaveholding interests of the country,
here alone would be garnered as much c6tton and sugar as are now
obtained from the entire Union. The second division extends along
the Red River and its streams, covering a space as large as that
occupied by Virginia, and consists of a chocolate colored soil,
well adapted to tobacco and the cereals, and favorably comparing
with the richest grain-growing and tobacco lands of the earth.
The third
division embraces the remainder of the State, in extent, four
times the magnitude of Virginia, reposing on the upper waters of
the rivers mentioned, and consisting, for the most part, of an
elevated, rolling, and perfectly salubrious country.
there is not to be found a
region more productive in the natural grasses than this, and ,
consequently, it is not excelled for stock-raising purposes.
Thus, in this magnificent State, spread out on the map, beneath a
temperate sun, and in the midst of a genial clime, a glory and a
blessing to the family of man, if left to legitimate and unforced
settlement. But under the progress of precedent events and
results, it must be seen that, with non-slaveholding States,
formed out of the Indian Territory on her north, and out of New
Mexico and Arizona on her west, while Mexico occupied her south,
the second and third
divisions will rapidly fill up with a free
soil population, controlling the
slaveholding population of the first
division, and impelling and precipitating the negro slaves of
that region into the Mean.* ["Western Texas is already seriously
threatened with being formed into a non-slaveholding State. The
representatives of Texas entertain decided apprehensions of the
fact, and the Brownsville affair simply grows out of the fact
that the Americans on the line of the Nueces, and between that
river and the Rio Grand e, chiefly from the North, have driven
out the original Mexican inhabitants, now citizens of the United
States, in order to get possession of their lands. I have had
ocular demonstration, that a non-slaveholding population
throughout that country are seeking to cut out a non-slaveholding
State in that direction, south of slavery." ]
CONDITION OF
LOUISIANA.
The situation of Louisiana will
now be deplorable indeed. Surrounded on all sides save the east,
by emancipated States, and with the negro slaves of Missouri, of
Arkansas, of the Creek and Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw
domain, and of Texas, all massed down upon her as they were sold
out, and placed beyond due restraint, because of the facilities
afforded them to escape punishment by fleeing into the adjoining
"free" States, and because of the magnitude of their
number over that of her white citizens, Louisiana will inevitably
fall a prey to internecine servile wars, so terrible that to live
in their midst would be worse than to die, at the bare
contemplation of which the mind shudders with horror.
Nor are we permitted, yet, to
rest our pen, in tracing the sequences that will follow to the
South, from the loss of Kansas as a negro slaveholding State.
"While events are progressing to the fatal issues described,
on the west of the Mississippi, others no less disastrous will be
concomitantly evolved to the east, of that river. An extensive
journey recently made through the Southern States, has enabled me
to observe ocularly the fact, that a
non-slaveholding population, chiefly from the North,
entertaining, for the most part, undisguised Abolition
sentiments, predominates in the States of Delaware and Maryland ;
and that a numerous body of Northern born men inhabit the
northern and western counties of Virginia, the eastern and
northern counties of Kentucky, the western counties of North
Carolina, the eastern and middle counties of Tennessee, and are
to be found among the merchants of the cities of the Gulf coast,
among the managers and employees of the Southern railroads,
steamboats and hotels, and among the corps editorials a majority
of whom are Northern men holding, at present, suppressed
sentiments, adverse to negro slavery, but ready, so soon as they
attain to a popular majority, to speak out openly, in cooperating
with the Abolitionists of the North.
LOSS OF MARYLAND
AND DELAWARE.
"But it is my province here
to look to facts as they are, rather than as I would they were;
and looking to the facts before us, it is obvious that both
Delaware and Maryland , in a few years, must yield to the
abolition demon. The prestige of the South and the integrity of
their institutions being invaded and destroyed in the manner
indicated, the constant accumulation of Northern population,, and
concomitant accretion of abolition sentiment, in Delaware and
Maryland , will compel them both to emancipation. Delaware, now,
is only in name a slave State, and negro, slavery in Maryland is
almost confined to two congressional districts, at the same time
that she numbers an immense mass of free negros, as a fruitful
source of future
insurrectionary trouble.* ["There are ninety thousand free negros in
Maryland , and an immense number of Northern men filled with
abolition sentiments. The City of Baltimore, in a the hands of
'Know Nothings', and represented in Congress by such men as Davis
and Harris, who cooperate with the Black Republicans, may be made
the grand centre, at any moment, of the most bloody and terrible
foray on the part of the Abolitionists, against the counties of
the eastern and western shore that are slaveholding, for the
purpose of expelling slavery from the State. If John Brown had
made Baltimore the seat of his operations, and directed his
movements against the country south of Baltimore, on both sides
of the Bay, we are not prepared to say what the consequences and
results would have been. Filibustering raids
for the acquisition of additional Southern territory. Let them
firmly hold that which is now theirs, and boldly strike for that
which should be theirs. Above all, let them never abandon Kansas
as a negro-slaveholding State and as their last
barrier, their last
bulwark, and their last
outpost against Northern encroachment and aggression. Then,
perhaps they may save the sixteen States
they will otherwise lose through the loss of Kansas and the continuation
of the Union and thereby be enabled to
advance with equal strides with the North. A course of firmness,
of decision, of resisting determination and courageous action, yielding
nothing either to the spirit of peace or the demon of war,
is the only course by which the South may win or hold territorial
rights, en force the observance of the Constitution and the laws,
erect a party on which they may repose with safety, and maintain
their interests in the Union. Any other course is an abandonment
of principle to false expediency, is an abnegation of
self-respect, is the course of weakness and cowardice, of folly
and poltroonery, and will court danger to pursue them, to
overwhelm and to destroy them. Think not that Kansas can be lost
to the cause of the South, and the South be saved from absorption
by the North in the Union. If effect harmoniously follows cause,
if the sequents of a mathematical problem flow consequentially
from their antecedents to their ultimate conclusions, all the
Southern States mentioned, one by one after the other, and all
the deplorable results indicated, step by step in regular
gradation, will march in funeral procession along the line of
destiny, attendant upon the obsequies of the South, depleted by
the leach of 'Compromise,'
and then struck dead by the galvanic shock of
'popular sovereignty and the majority rule.'"
But we wrote and spoke in vain. In vain we endeavored to lay bare
the issues between the North and the South, in their whole
magnitude, in a speech delivered at Mobile during the fall of
1857, addressed to the "Slaveholders of
Alabama with out distinction of party."
The leaders of the South continued absorbed
in schemes of personal ambition, and were
circumscribed in their vision by the prospect of a mission to
France, or a seat in the Cabinet, or the shadowy chance of a
Presidential nomination in 1860. The comprehensive mind of Seward
alone became impressed with the full aspect of the times. He not
only saw that Kansas was the great turning point of the
future—and hence countenanced and
defended the seizure of that territory by abolition outlaws
through force of arms—but also
perceived that all the sequences detailed would constitutionally
follow, and there fore, that the South, if
the abolitionists proper proved wise, would
never be furnished legitimate ground or legal justification for
disunion.] With the
loss to the South of Kansas and Missouri on the west,
and of Delaware and Maryland on the east,
while the abolition States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois occupied the north,
Virginia and Kentucky on the west, east and north, will become
the recipients of an overwhelming non-slaveholding population,
quickly swelling the numbers of non-slaveholders in those two
States, into a ruling majority, and changing, as if by magic,
their present deeply-felt, but only whispered, sentiments adverse
to negro slavery, into loud thunders of indignation at the
existence of the institution, and stern notes of defiance to the
slaveholders. Virginia and Kentucky will thus be compelled to
send out, or sell out, their slaves to the planting States, and
surrender to the Moloch of abolition. To say nothing as to the
effects of these things on the eight remaining slaveholding
States, although it is evident they Could be but as smoking flax
in the fire, it must be seen that, through
the present loss of Kansas to the interests of the South, and the
after-continuance of the Union, the South will lose sixteen
States, legally, geographically and legitimately, their own, be
shorn of their strength and glory and reduced to a cypher, with
the whole burden of Resistance to Black Republican tyranny,
wielding all the powers of an immense empire, resting on the
planting States alone—a load so onerous that the combined
powers of Europe, then in alliance, could hardly enable them to
bear successfully.
"Nor yet are these all the
bitter fruits of the Union that the South will reap from the loss
of Kansas, the more especially if the Black Republican party
shall come to grasp the government
with Seward as President. The North will be acquiring yearly new
States from the territories, all of which are subject either to
the law of popular sovereignty, or the simple majority rule, the
local Mexican law, or to the Wilmot Proviso, as we have shown in
the Territorial Status,
so that before all the sequences described are wrought out, the non-slaveholding
power in the government will become sufficiently great to amend
the Constitution, under the terms of the instrument itself,
investing Congress with full control over the subject of general
emancipation. Already with a majority of
States in the Senate, and a preponderating voice in the House of
Representatives, Minnesota, Oregon and Kansas are presented for
admission as 'free States.' Others of similar character will
rapidly follow from Washington, Dacotah, New Mexico, Arizona,
Nebraska and Superior. In a single lifetime,
the constitutional requirements as to amendments will be met.
"The mind accustomed to
trace premises to their consistent conclusions, and to consider
lines of causation with an analytic eye, cannot fail to see this
to be no exaggeration. The Black Republican party, now in full
possession of the North, declare themselves to be crusaders
in the cause of negro emancipation; and I
have heard leading Democrats even, men of character and renown at
the North, assert, that they had carefully
traced out the question with the map before them, and that in
fifteen years there would be seventy non-slaveholding States to
not more than ten slave holding States in the Union.
And a distinguished gentleman of this party, a recent
representative in Congress, from the city of Philadelphia, on
Independence square, within the echoes of that hall where the
declaration of our rights and the Constitution of the United
States both had their birth, pandering to the general sentiments
around him, asseverated, in allusion, we presume, to the
ordinances of 1784-'7, the Missouri Compromise of 1819-'20, the
Wilmot Proviso of 1848, the Compromises of 1850, and the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, that every
abolition triumph under the government had been achieved by the
Democratic party. With the Black Republican
party thus powerful, and the Democratic party thus demoralized,
where may the South look for safety, friendship and support in
the Union? Let them, for the future, look
only to themselves. "Who would be free,
themselves must strike the blow." Let them listen no more to
the serpent voice of Compromise,
neither trust to.
SLAVERY CAN BE
ABOLISHED "CONSTITUTIONALLY" IN TEN YEARS.
Presuming the Union
to continue, the thoughtful questioner of
events cannot doubt that, in ten years,
the North will hold, sectionally,
the requisite constitutional number of States,
senators and representatives, to enable them to propose and adopt
amendments to the Constitution as they may
please. The language of the Constitution upon the subject reads:
" the Congress, whenever two-thirds
of both Houses may deem
it necessary, shall
propose amendments to this Constitution, which shall
be valid to all intents and purposes, as
parts of this Constitution, when ratified
by the legislatures of three-fourths
of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths
thereof." Considering Kansas as already admitted, and
Delaware as already attached to the Northern section, the Union
stands composed of twenty
non-slaveholding to fourteen
slaveholding States, giving the first forty and the latter twenty-eight
senators, and the first one hundred and
forty-nine and the latter eighty-nine
representatives. The gain of two
free States by the North, and the loss of two
slave States by the South, will increase the first twenty-four
States with forty-eight senators, and reduce
the latter to twelve States with twenty-four
senators which, at once, secures the
requisite majority in the Senate to propose
amendments. With a start of sixty
majority in the House, and a white population in the proportion
of eighteen millions to six millions,
it cannot be long before the North shall obtain the requisite
vote in the House. But three-fourths
of the States are necessary to ratify
proposed amendments. Will this be so difficult for the North to
secure out of the immense territories altogether and exclusively
at their disposal, through a large majority in both Houses or
under the auspices of a Black Republican President? Would it not
be an easy task for Seward, under these circumstances, to cut up
the territories into from twenty to fifty
States, and to bring them
into the Union with fractional populations, even, so as to
procure the constitutional number required? the question presents
a fact too plain for argument, and the treasons of Kansas and
Harper's Ferry do not permit the mind to halt in its conviction
because of the immoral
nature of the proceeding. But without this, recurring to our
argumentative appeal above quoted, as submitted to the senators
and representatives from the South during the Kansas issue, it
must be seen that the ceaseless accumulation
of Northern population, and the
legitimate accessions of Northern States from the territories,
combined with the rapid subversion of
Southern States in the Union, will surely
accomplish, in this respect, within the time designated, all the
aspiring anticipations of Seward, and chain the South to the
triumphant car of his ambition.* [See Appendix, C.]
It is only necessary to give to these extracts the careful
examination which the profound importance of the question is
entitled to, for any reflecting mind to be convinced that the
Abolitionized States will have the power, within a very few
years, to alter the Constitution in any way
they please; and so fulfil the intentions of
Mr. Seward and his Black Republican colleagues of
"abolishing slavery in all the States in a constitutional
manner." Whether this shall be allowed to be done at all,
will depend upon the South: or whether it shall be done within
the time indicated by this Virginia writer, (ten years,) or
whether it be delayed some five or ten years longer, does not
affect the question of their power, sooner or later, to do it.
That they will do it within the shortest practicable time, we may
certainly expect, when we consider that it has been for years the
object of their earnest labor and ardent desires; and when it is
considered that we are regarded by them as powerless in their
hands and as too cowardly to resist.
SLAVERY MAY BE
ABOLISHED BY "LAW," IN THE FORTS, DOCKYARDS, &C.
But, if we consent to submit to
a hostile government to make laws for us, there is a measure
which does sot require an alteration of the
Constitution, to be put in force against us,
but within any five days after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration into
office, may be passed through its three readings and its
committees, and stand out upon " the statute book a duly
enacted "law," bristling with the most formidable
armory of mischief encouraging discontent and insubordination
among the slaves, and entailing incalculable losses upon their
owners. I allude to a law "to abolish slavery in the forts,
arsenals, dockyards, and other places in the South where Congress
has exclusive jurisdiction." This has long been a cherished
scheme of the Abolitionists for annoyance and injury to the
South, but they have hitherto never had the power to carry it
into effect. What does it mean? their aim is not, surely, limited
to the emancipation of the few slaves who may be found in those
places, in the capacity of body-servants to the officers and
their families, amounting in numbers, at most, only to a few
dozen negros. Their scheme is much deeper, more mischievous, and
fraught with infinite danger to the South. It is, by abolishing
slavery in those places,—to impart to them the
character of free soil territory—to
make our forts, arsenals and dockyards, the asylums and harbors
of refuge to every disaffected slave who may retreat to them, and
who, being within the jurisdiction of a free
soil territory, may claim his freedom in the
same manner as is now done in free soil Massachusetts or Vermont.
Cast the eye over the map, from Baltimore to Galveston, in Texas,
and note the forts, navy yards and arsenals which dot the whole South, and
then contemplate the consequences of making all these the asylums
for deluded or disaffected slaves, and where papers of
emancipation were to be had 6nly for the trouble of going there
to receive them. What subordination could be preserved among the
slaves within the cities of Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston,
Savannah, Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, or upon the plantations
for a hundred miles around, of which each of these was a
focus—if the slave, for any fancied grievance, could leave
his master and find security, and release from his service,
within the, walls of a fort. Any sudden petulance occasioned by
some mild, but well-deserved rebuke or punishment, would be
resented upon the master; and a walk of twenty minutes to some
contiguous dockyard, or a voyage of a few miles in a paddling
canoe, to some fort within sight, would take him to free
soil, where the master would be powerless in
retaking him.
SLAVE COULD NOT
BE RECOVERED.
But some innocent might say, he
ought to be given up. By whom? Is it expected that it will be
done by Abolition officers, commanding Abolition soldiers, all
selected by an Abolition President and Commander-in-Chief, for
the express purpose of en forcing the policy of the law, and not
giving him up.
Another innocent may urge that
he must forcibly be arrested and returned to his master. By what
process? the Fugitive Slave law (that delusion and snare,) will
have been repealed; for who believes that it will be allowed to
remain upon the Statute book, six months, after the Black
Republican shall have got possession of the Government. The only
remaining civil process is that through the State Courts of the
South. But the very purpose of the law was to emancipate
the slave, and deprive the master of his
use; and there stands the fort which shelters him, manned with
Abolitionists to carry out this purpose, and bristling with
cannon frowning upon the Sheriff and his posse. The State now in
her capacity of a sovereign, must interpose; or make the
humiliating confession before the world that she is incompetent
to protect her own citizens from insult and injustice. How
immeasurably better for her, had she taken this step from the
outset, by throwing off the authority of that hostile Government,
before it had made these dangerous lodgments within her
boundaries, or before she had conferred upon it the right, by
having submitted to its rule, to pass laws so ruinous to our
safety and honor!
NO STATE OF THE
SOUTH CAN PERMIT THIS.
But no State of the South could,
consistently with her own dignity, and with the duty she owes of
protection to her citizens, permit such a law to take effect
within her bounds. To allow these nests
of Abolitionism to be established within her population, from
which, as radii from so many centres, "under-ground
railroads" (so called) might diverge to every city, town,
and plantation within a hundred miles or more around, bearing our
deluded slaves to these dockyards and forts; then to be made
free, and thence to be transferred to the free soil North, where,
after the fugitive slave law is abolished, concealment and
"under-ground railroads" would, then
no longer be necessary, but the absconding slave would walk
abroad in open day—to allow such a law (to be followed by
such consequences,) to operate
within the boundaries of any Southern State, would, I say, be
equivalent to a
declaration on her part, that she was unable or unwilling to
protect the slave property of her citizens, and that they were at
the mercy of every daring spoliator and fanatic. Abolition of
slavery would, in such cases, already have begun by this law
of an Abolition Congress; and it would not be necessary to wait
the brief respite of ten years
to do it "constitutionally." That the Abolitionists do
not limit their views (as some might try to persuade themselves,)
to the paltry effects of emancipating the few slaves before
alluded to, which may now be found in these forts and
dockyards—on which supposition ", the play would not be
worth the candle"—but that they intend to extract from
that law the ruinous consequences, such as I have described, is
sufficiently proved by the earnest zeal with which they have
always pressed for the passage of such a law. Let the South,
then, with equal earnestness, be prepared to meet this formidable
danger.
HOW CAN THE
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE FORTS, DOCKYARDS, &C. BE AVOIDED?
How can this be most wisely
done—in the Union, or out of; the Union? If in the Union, it
is not too much to say, that no matter, through which several
processes the controversy may pass, (and it will be venturing
little to predict that our Abolition enemies will be triumphant
in all), it must, in the last resort, terminate in a collision of
force between the governments;—that is,
if the Southern State really intends to protect her citizens in
the possession of their slaves. Thus will come upon us the
"collision" which is so much dreaded by the timorous,
that they seem willing to postpone, or avoid it altogether, by
every unmanly delay or suicidal compromise;—a
"collision" which, if we remain in the Union, may be
precipitated upon us within, any brief period
after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration into office, allowing only time
enough for such a law to be prepared and enacted; and lastly a
"collision" which we shall have to meet in the worst
form, in which we can join battle with our enemies—that, in
which a State, after having submitted
to the detestable rule of her enemies, is afterwards found in
armed resistance of that government;—under which
circumstances, the words "treason," and
"rebel," and "rebellion," have an
intelligible and very ominous signification.
But if we consider the
consequences of such a law, in its effects upon us, as sovereign
and independent States, having no connexion
with the abolitionized government which has passed it, all these
dangers instantly vanish. Having withdrawn from their government,
they have no right any longer to make laws for us, having
withdrawn the authority which we imparted to them over certain
territory, for friendly
and federal purposes and
having, in the exercise of our undoubted right as a sovereign,
spread our jurisdiction over every inch of ground within our
territorial limits, they have no longer any territory within
our boundaries over which they can execute
their laws. We stand to them, then, in all political
relation's,—as France does to England—independent and
sovereign; in which coercion and armed collision may mean war,
but in which the words" treason" and "rebel
lion" cease to have any application or meaning.
If, then, the South would escape
the dire effects of the abolition of slavery, whether it is to be
inflicted upon us by the comparatively tardier course of a change
of the Constitution, or may be begun within
a very few months by law, abolishing it in the forts, dockyards,
&c, the best attitude in which she can meet the danger is
that of a separate and independent government and as having
control of the subject, and ready, to deal with it a friendly and
not hostile spirit.
And to those who are so timorous
lest the secession of one or more States of the South might
provoke collision, it would be well to suggest the inquiry
whether such collision would not arise more certainly, and just
as soon, within the Union,
from the necessity of defending our citizens against a law so
ruinous as the one for abolishing slavery in our forts magazines
and dockyards. Considered, then, in the light of a mere timid
policy, nothing can be gained, whilst numberless advantages will
be lost by postponing
the time of vigorous resistance; especially as the question must
be decided within a very few years, whether
we shall secede and fight for our rights, or allow slavery
to be abolished by an alteration of the
Constitution.
THE ABOLITION OF
SLAVERY! CONSIDER THE WORDS!
The abolition of slavery in all
the South, with all its unspeakable calamities, and its
incalculable losses! What a price the cowardly submissionist is
willing to pay for a few years of ignoble sloth, vouchsafed to
him by his enemies! And how stupendous is his folly,
which; after having paid such a price, finds that he has
obtained, not a release, but only a brief
respite; and that he must, at last,
encounter "secession," "collision," and
"coercion," under much worse circumstances, or give up
his slaves to emancipation, his family to degradation, his
property to ruin, and himself to poverty.
The abolition of slavery! Have
any of you, Gentlemen, deliberately
reflected upon the import of the thing, and run it out, through
all its saddening consequences? I ask the question because I have
seen so many people speak of it as a thing which is to come, but
with a species of torpid insensibility, as if it was to come without
consequences. Let us, then, bestow a few
thoughts upon what the "Abolition of Slavery" means.
LOSS OF ALL
AGRICULTURAL SLAVE LABOR
In the first place, it means the
annihilation and end of all negro labor (agricultural especially)
over the whole South. I mean that regular, steady, continuous
labor from the beginning to the end of the
year, and year after year, without which agriculture in the South
cannot be carried on successfully, if it can be carried on at
all. I am now, gentlemen, addressing an association of planters,
who know that this proposition is true without dispute.
Plantation work is; you know, composed of a succession of
employments, each depending upon the other, like the several
links of a chain;—the neglect of any one of which
employments (like the breaking of one link in the chain); renders
useless all the work which has previously been per formed, and
entails a loss of the whole crop. As planters, no one knows
better than you, how useless it would be to plough, to dig, and
to prepare your land, if
you had not labor afterwards to plant
it—how useless, again, to prepare the land , and plant it,
without the labor necessary afterwards to hoe
and cultivate it; and
how useless it would be to do all these several works if there
were no labor at command to gather the crop.
It is the absurd notion of the pragmatical, conceited
Abolitionist, who thinks he knows more of other people's business
than they know themselves,—to fancy that agriculture, at the
South, can be carried on as well with hired
(and there fore irregular) labor, as with compulsory
labor. It is from acting upon this senseless theory, that all
negro labor has been destroyed in the British West Indies, in
Peru, and everywhere else, where the theory has been tried, and
that those colonies are reduced to poverty and worthlessness.
"It is a fact," says the London Times,
in reviewing the late work of Mr. Trollope, on the British West
Indies,—"it is a fact that half the sugar estates and
more than half the coffee plantations have gone back into a state
of bush, and a great portion of those who are now growing canes
in Jamaica are persons who have lately bought the estates for the
value of the copper in the sugar boilers, and of the metal in the
rum stills." Such is the enormous depreciation of real
estate in the West Indies, by the emancipation of the slaves, and
by substituting in the place of compulsory
slave labor, the irregular, hired
labor of the freed
negro, which, from its uncertainty, is no labor at all suitable
to the planter. What would your condition be with such laborers,
if, in mid-valley of your summer work when the crop, and the
grass too, were in vigorous growth, your hired,
freed-negro-gang (your
"equals" and "fellow-citizens," by the
"grace" of law and the Abolitionists should throw their
hoes upon their shoulders, and say to you that they would work no
longer, except you trebled or quadrupled their wages? Why, the
only wise thing which you could do, would be, at once to give up
the crop, which perhaps would not pay the: expense. And so it
would be at any other stage of its cultivation.
It is undoubtedly true, then,
that the abolition of slavery at the South means the annihilation
of all negro labor, and with the loss of that labor, the end of
all crops—and with loss of crops, the end of all income to
the planters.
LOSS OF
9,000,000,000 OF PROPERTY TO THE WHITES.
It means, next, a lose to the
planters of the South of, at least, ($4,000,000,000) four
thousand millions of dollars, by having this labor taken from
them; and a loss, in addition, of ($5,000,000,000) five thousand
millions of dollars more, in lands, mills, machinery, and other
great interests, which will be rendered valueless by the want of
slave labor to cultivate the lands, and the loss of the crops
which give to those interests life and prosperity.
THE REIGN OF
NEGRO SLOTH AND IDLENESS.
It means, again, the turning
loose upon society, without the salutary restraints to which they
are now accustomed, more than (4,000,000) four millions of a very
poor and ignorant population, (as the peasantry of most countries
are,) to ramble in idleness over the country until their wants
should drive most of them, first to petty thefts, and afterwards
to the bolder crimes of robbery and murder; or until their
excesses, their imprudence, their filth, and starvation, shall
bring pestilence amongst them and sweep them off by thousands.
Improvident to the last degree, as they are, and accustomed to
have all their wants carefully attended to, day by day, would
find them without provision; which night by night, they must
supply by the plunder of stock, and of every other thing which
they could carry off; until the country would be laid waste and
impoverished by their interminable aggressions.
THE EQUALITY OF
THE NEGRO WITH THE WHITE RACE.
But the abolition of slavery
means, further, that the negro is not only
to be made free, but equal
also to his former master, in political and civil rights; and ,
as far as it can be done, in social privileges. The planter and
his family are not only to be reduced to poverty and want, by the
robbery of his property, but to complete the refinement of the
indignity, they are to be degraded to the level of an inferior
race, be jostled by them in their paths, and intruded upon, and
insulted over by rude and vulgar upstarts. Who can describe the
loathsomeness of such an intercourse;—the constrained
intercourse between refinement reduced to
poverty, and swaggering vulgarity suddenly elevated to a position
which it is not prepared for? It has hereto fore resulted in a
war between the races, and the extermination of one or the other;
or it has become so intolerable, that expatriation has been
preferred as an evil more easily to be borne.
THE ABOLITION OF
SLAVERY, WITH "COMPENSATION" FOR THE SLAVES
I have considered that the
abolition of slavery, when it shall be inflicted upon the South,
by a change of the Constitution—whether it is to take place
in ten, or twelve, or fifteen years—will be done absolutely,
without anything to mitigate it, and without any
compensation to the owners of the slaves.
There is nothing to encourage the expectation that it will be
done in any other way. "Python," however, in the
article in De Bow's Review,
from which we have already made extracts, thinks that they will
be "bought" (or rather taken) from the planters, by the
Government, at a hundred dollars per head; retained by the
Government for ten years, as "apprentices," and hired
out, to "pay back their purchase money." Under this
more mitigated form of abolition (in which, however, I think he
will find himself mistaken), he never the less portrays, with his
graphic pen, the, gloomy consequences, in language following:
"In a pecuniary point of
view, the Southern planters are, for the most part, in a similar
condition to the planters in the British West India Colonies,
prior to the British act of emancipation. That is to say, almost
every estate at the South, now valued at two hundred thousand
dollars, equally divided between land and machinery on the one
side, and negro slaves and live stock on the other, is incumbered
with a debt, by way of mortgage or otherwise, of at least twenty
thousand dollars. The average price of one
hundred dollars per head allowed by the
Government for the slaves, being only one-tenth
part of their real value, will reduce the one hundred thousand
dollars of personal estate to ten thousand dollars; and as this
sum would not be payable in cash, but only in Government bonds,
bearing legal interest, and could not be made available as cash,
except at a great sacrifice, the real sum derived to the planter,
for practical purposes, would be simply the annual interest on
ten thousand dollars, or an income tax of six hundred dollars per
year. The indebtedness or incumbrances of the planter will now
fall entirely on his real estate and machinery;—and how will
they be effected? The planter being alike unaccustomed to the
apprentice system, and unwilling to hire as apprentices, those
whom he had owned as slaves, will be loathe to engage from the
agents of the Government the requisite force for the cultivation
of his lands and the employment of his machinery. Least of all
could he, grounded as he must necessarily be in the mild morals
of the patriarchal system of slavery and labor subsisting at the
South, reduce himself to countenance and practice a harsh code
and procedure like that eliminated by Great Britain and France
from the driving system
of labor, associated with that worse than Egyptian bondage, the
Apprentice system His lands and machinery will thus be,
unavoidably and immediately, with the fact of emancipation,
reduced in a similar ratio to his personal estate, and sold under
the sheriff's hammer, as was the case in the British Colonies.
His estate of two hundred thousand dollars enabling him to live
in affluence and to educate his children in mental and physical
refinement, will thus be curtailed to twenty thousand
dollars, one half of which
will be unavailable, leaving his indebtedness to swallow up his
last dollar. Or if; perchance, he should be free from
indebtedness, he will never consent to the new order of things,
but will rather sell his land 3 and machinery for anything to be
obtained for them, and fly from the graves of his ancestors to
some unknown spot in the wilderness, where his susceptibilities
cannot be wounded. But whether his lands and machinery be sold
out by the sheriff, or he shall voluntarily sell them, the end to
him will still be the same; from wealth he will be reduced to
want, and his children to beggary. His family will become
dispersed; the places that once knew him will know him no longer;
and his memories, even, will perish, save as future ages may
darkly divine them, from the page of history." To the above,
"Python" adds the following note:
"The author has
now in his possession a vial of laudanum, which he took from the
oldest son of a former Governor of the Island of Barbadoes, in
order to prevent him from committing suicide, by reason of the
poverty to which he had been reduced by the British act of
emancipation. His father was Governor of the Island of Barbadoes
at the time the act of emancipation went into effect. At that
time he was the wealthiest planter in the Island. His estate was
somewhat encumbered, but the encumbrance was not felt until
emancipation. Then suddenly it swallowed up the whole estate,
except a mere remnant. He died broken-hearted, and his, son came
to Philadelphia in search of employment. His little means failed
him before he succeeded, and with his last dime he determined to
seek consolation in death. Being at the same boarding house with
him, I prevented the catastrophe, and got himself back to
Barbadoes through the aid of several kind-hearted merchants, who
traded with the Island , and knew his father well. This case
directly illustrates the condition to which the planters of the
South and their children "will be reduced by Black
Republicanism, after its designs shall have been fulfilled."
This, then, gentlemen, is the sad import of the abolition of
slavery" in the South the end of all negro labor; a jubilee
of idleness, and a reign of sloth; until famine shall drive them
to robbery, or scourge them with pestilence: nine thousand
millions of property destroyed, belonging to the white race, in
return for negro equality conferred upon the black race: a war of
races; the subjection of one or the other; certain poverty to the
whites; degradation, want, expatriation.
THE EFFECTS OF
ABOLITION IN LOSS OF INCOMES—TO THE PLANTER, MERCHANT,
FACTOR, &C.
Viewed in its merely pecuniary
aspects, we have seen that it makes an end of crops and the
incomes of planters. And as this is the great treasure-house from
which all other interests draw their supplies, it may be
inquired, without crops what becomes of the factors, the
railroads, the shipping, and all the interests dependent upon
these. Without incomes to the planters, what becomes of the
merchant, the machinist, the mechanic? the planter would be too
poor to buy the goods of the one, or to need or employ the
services of the other;—but all would sink into one common
ruin. In speaking of these, we have allusion only to those who,
whether native born or adopted citizens, have cast in their lot
with the South; who are bound permanently to the soil by their
property or the ties of family, and who have made it the
permanent home of their choice.
We allude not to those Northern
merchants from Abolitionized States who leave their Northern homes
for the winter merely to do business at the
South, intending, with the return of the
swallows, to go back to their Northern homes,
taking with them all they have gleaned at the South, and spend
these copious profits among their abolitionist
friends and neighbors.
We allude not to those adventurers who annually come on to the
South from those regions of fanaticism, merely rent a room or
store for a few months, in one of our towns, and : then,
from the sign of a "Little Shoe," or "Big
Boot," or under the firm of "Sumner Brother," or,
"Seward, Giddings & Lincoln," spread out their
goods upon the counter to extract money from our people, whilst
they are spreading Abolitionism in the back room by lectures
and pictures.
We allude to none of such people
among our merchants as being likely to be injured with
us by the Abolition of slavery. They
have no sympathies in common with us—no ties which bind them
to the South except the most fragile threads of making
money out of us. They are indifferent to the
honor, the safety, the permanent welfare of the South. All that
they concern themselves about is to prevent anything from being
done which may interrupt their business
of making money out of us. Accordingly,—upon every effort of
the South to breast the dangers which beset us, and break the
fetters with which we are bound, we find them at all elections
banded with the submissionists, multiplying the alarms of the
timid, and pulling the South down to nonresistance and dishonor.
Abolition of slavery (if they do not at heart desire it) affects
them very slightly. Whilst the merchant, the mechanic, the
machinist whose home is
the South, must sink
into the common ruin which Abolition of slavery will bring upon
the South, this Northern
merchant has nothing to do but to gather up his profits, pack up
his boxed, take himself to some steamer, and in five days, or
less, he is at home
among his Abolition friends,
but our bitter enemies!
THE EFFECTS TO
THE NON-SLAVEHOLDER.
We forbear to notice the effect
of the abolition of slavery upon the Banks, Insurance Companies,
Railroads, and al; other corporations, depending upon a rich a ad
flourishing country for their own prosperity. But in noticing its
effects upon the different classes and: interests in the South,
we should not omit to notice its effects upon the non-slaveholding
portion of our citizens.
Accompanied as that measure is
to be, by reducing the two races to an equality—or,
in other words, in elevating the negro slave to an equality with
the white man—it will be to the non-slaveholder, equally
with the largest slaveholder, the obliteration of caste
and the deprivation of important privileges. The color of the
white man is now, in the South, a title of nobility in his
relations as to the negro; and although Cuffy or Sambo may be
immensely his superior in wealth, may have his thousands
deposited in bank, as some of them have, and may be the owner of
many slaves, as some of them are, yet the poorest
non-slaveholder, being a white man, is his superior in the eye of
the law; may serve and command in the militia; may sit upon
juries, to decide upon the rights of the wealthiest in the land ;
may give his testimony in Court, and may cast his vote, equally
with the largest slaveholder, in the choice of his rulers. In no
country in the world does—the poor white man, whether
slaveholder or non-slaveholder, occupy so enviable a position as
in the slaveholding States of the South. His color here admits
him to social and civil privileges, which the white man enjoys
nowhere else. In countries where negro slavery does not exist,
(as in the Northern States of this Union and in Europe,) the most
menial and degrading employments in society are filled by the
white poor, who are hourly seen drudging in them. Poverty,
then, in those countries, becomes the badge of inferiority, and
wealth, or distinction.
Hence the arrogant airs which wealth there puts on, in its
intercourse with the poor man. But in the Southern slaveholding
States, where these menial and degrading offices are turned over
to be per formed exclusively by the negro slave, the status and color
of the black race becomes the badge of
inferiority, and the poorest non-slaveholder may rejoice with the
richest of his brethren of the white race, in the distinction of
his color. The poorest non-slaveholder, too, except as I have
before said, he be debased by his vices or his crimes, thinks and
feels and acts as if he was, and always intended to be, superior
to the negro. He may be poor, it is true; but there is no point
upon which he is so justly proud and sensitive as his privilege
of caste; and there is nothing which he would resent with more
fierce indignation than the attempt of the Abolitionist to
emancipate the slaves and elevate the negros to an equality with
himself and his family. The abolitionists have sent their
emissaries among that class of our citizens, trying to debauch
their minds by persuading them that they have no interest in
preventing the abolition of slavery, But they cannot deceive any,
except the most ignorant and worthless, the intelligent among
them are too well aware of the degrading consequences of
abolition upon themselves and their families (such as I have
described them), to be entrapped by their arts. They know that,
at the North and in Europe, where no slavery exists, where
poverty is the mark of inferiority; where the negros have been
put upon equality with the whites, and "money makes the
man," although, —that man may be a negro;—they
know, I say, that there the white man is seen waiting
upon the negro;—there he is seen obeying
the negro as his ostler, his coachman, his servant and his
bootblack. Knowing, then, these things, and that the abolition of
slavery, and the reign of negro equality here, may degrade the
white man in the same way as it has done in those countries,
there is no non-slaveholder with the spirit of the white race in
his bosom, who would not spurn with contempt this scheme of
Yankee cunning and malice.
THE EFFECT OF
ABOLITION UPON THE SLAVES—THEMSELVES.
the abolition of slavery over
the South well deserves to be considered, also, in its effects
upon the slaves themselves. And here it may be confidently
predicted (what future history will certainly verify that, should
it ever take place, it will bring to them none of the advantages
which our enemies so insanely anticipate. It has not benefitted
them yet in any country in which it has been tried; except their
relapsing into their native barbarism, sloth and besotted
superstition and ignorance, may be considered as an advantage. It
has been a failure in Peru, in St. Domingo, in the British
Colonies in the West Indies than which no places on the globe
could have been selected more favorably for the
experiment;—a tropical climate, requiring little expense for
clothing, and affording, all the year round, a season for growing
food; an immensely fertile soil, abounding in fruits of
spontaneous growth, and yielding abundance of food with little
labor; a powerful government giving them protection, and
preventing any interference from without in their progress in
civilization and the useful arts. Having entire control of the
country, by a ratio in numbers of twenty-five, to one, over the
whites, and , there fore, with nothing within, to arrest their
improvement, if there were in the nature of their race any
self-acting principle for improvement;—and yet what has been
the result? In things praiseworthy,
nothing; absolutely nothing.
A CRIME AGAINST
THE SLAVE AS WELL AS THE MASTER.
What, then, can we expect from
the emancipation of the slaves at the South, with not one of
these advantages; and with all the natural imbecility of the race
still inherent in them? With a climate comparatively harsh and
ungenial, and with a soil yielding no food spontaneously, and
from which food and the means of clothing are to be extracted
only by toil; with no intelligence to stimulate their industry
and to direct their labor, the consequences flowing from their
idleness and improvidence will be such as have been
described,—starvation and disease. With the restraints of
the mild, but ever-acting plantation police
withdrawn from them; slothful, thriftless and without
forethought, a very few years would find them a sottish,
thieving, ragged lazzaroni—a
nuisance to the country, and the pests of every neighborhood. The
swaggering insolence of their new-born equality would soon make
them intolerable, to even the poorest white man; and when to this
is added the festering irritation which shall have been kindled
by their numerous vices and their crimes, there will be a general
uprising among the whites of all classes to drive them out of the
country. This will commence that war between the races, which
every reflecting, mind perceives to be "inevitable, where an
inferior and degraded race has been forced up,
by foreign interference, to an equality
with their former master race. In such a war, with the whites
well armed, and acquainted with their use, and double in number
to the blacks, who doubts the result? Horrible, tragedies may be
enacted in a few neighborhoods; but it must soon culminate in the
indiscriminate slaughter of the negros, by tens of thousands and
hundreds "of thousands, until they shall be either
exterminated, or driven out of the country. The late insurrection
in British India comes in here as an illustration, and proof of
two things: 1st, that an inferior and superior race cannot live
together in the same country on terms of equality; and 2d, that
in the struggle for ascendancy, although the inferior race was,
perhaps, fifty times more numerous, they were in due time
completely subdued by the superior intelligence and courage of
the white man. And such will be the doom of the negros of the
South, in any war with the whites. How stupendous, then, is the
folly and crime of the Abolitionist, who, under pretence of
benefitting the slave, would plunge him down into so miserable a
doom!
See the folly and crime
of such intermeddlings. He finds a slave population, who, he
works himself up to believe must be very miserable; but who, in
fact, are as comfortable and free of care as any laborers in the
world. He carries fire, and poison, and pikes, and fire-arms,
stealthily among them; and tries to persuade them to terminate
their miseries by rising up and murdering their masters. But they
cannot be persuaded that they are miserable. A few sullen or
credulous ones may be reluctantly persuaded to receive the arms
or the poison; and as long as the crime which they are incited to
commit may be at a distance, they may, with a troubled
conscience, consent to keep them. But the slaves are not the
brutes and savages which the Abolitionists suppose them to be.
God has placed consciences in their bosoms; hey have the common
feelings of humanity in their hearts; many of them are governed
by the holy precepts of Christianity, and understand the duties
of "obedience" which God has enjoined that the slave
show to their masters. Many of them, again, have been brought up
in the families of their masters; have been the companions of
their childhood and youth, and have acquired a sincere friendship
and attachment for them; whilst there is scarcely one of them
who cannot recall to mind
many faults forgiven, and numerous favors conferred. No one,
then, in the South, at least, is surprised that when the day
draws near, when the dark and bloody deed is to be committed
that some faithful friend among the slaves repudiates the plot,
and discloses the treason; and that even those who have, lot the
beginning consented to receive the arms, now, with a stricken
conscience, shudder to make use of them. It is only the
Abolitionist who is surprised at such a termination of his
diabolical plans. He thought that in dealing with slaves, he was
dealing with brutes; he now finds that they are men, having in
their hearts the feelings of humanity.
But the deed has been done, and
now the melancholy consequences are at hand! The plot has been
concocted, and the Abolitionist has involved in it many a poor
slave who has thoughtlessly consented to join in it, and who has
not afterwards withdrawn himself from it. The Abolitionist is
arrested and hung; and with him, unhappily, the poor, deluded,
ignorant slaves also, whom he has entrapped in his plot. Whilst
their doom is but just, the slaves of the South, under the artful
temptation of the Abolitionists, are now, real objects of
commiseration to the white race of the South. If let alone they
would live with us all the days of their life in harmony, and
with the kindliest good offices. I have not a distrust of them if
left to, themselves. The Abolitionist is the enemy of the master;
but he is the more deadly enemy to the poor, slave who listens to
his artful persuasions. The late insurrections in Texas prove
this. Whilst in that State, perhaps fifteen Abolitionists have
been hung for planning these insurrections, perhaps eighty, if
not more, negros, who foolishly agreed to join them, have already
also been hung; whilst not a slaveholder in Texas has had a hair
on his head injured. The deaths and the misery have then fallen
chiefly upon the deluded, unfortunate slaves who have joined the
Abolitionists; and this is the melancholy fact in every other
place where the Abolitionists have attempted
insurrection,—the negros only have been the victims.
The fact, then, is indisputable,
that the abolitionist, whether he intends it or not, ism the
greatest enemy of our slaves, and they cannot too soon be warned
of their danger, so as to avoid his temptations, and escape being
entrapped by him.
INSURRECTION NOT
SO MUCH TO BE DREADED AS THE ACTION OF A HOSTILE GOVERNMENT
HAVING THE POWER OF MAKING LAWS FOR THE SOUTH.
Let us, then, gentlemen of the
Association, endeavor to protect our slaves, as well as
ourselves, against those diabolical schemes of the abolitionist.
Ordinary vigilance, followed by prompt punishment when the guilt
is plain, will effect this. With this vigilance I have no serious
apprehensions for the safety of our institutions, from insurrection.
My apprehensions spring from the operation of laws, and the
alteration of the constitution, which will steal upon us so
gradually as to shear us of our locks, before the Philistines
come upon us. The policy of Mr. Seward is that which is most to
be dreaded,—that cautious policy which will do nothing to
startle the South (ever too prone to temporizing) and which may drive
her from the Union; than which, nothing
would carry more disappointment and dismay to Mr. Seward and the
Black Republicans; for then, the South would be safe, and the
abolitionized North have lost their victim.
THE PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION OVER, A GREAT SOUTHERN PARTY MUST BE FORMED, TO SAVE THE
SOUTH.
Let us congratulate ourselves,
gentlemen, that the Presidential election will soon be over, and
the miserable scramble about men be at an end.
What is Mr. Bell, or Mr.
Breckinridge, or Mr. Douglas, with all the offices and honors
which they might have to bestow upon their partizans (if they had
any to give), compared to those great interests of the
South—her safety, her honor, her thousands of millions of
property, which are all in imminent peril, in which every
Southern man has so vital a concern. According to every principle
of enlightened reason, every patriotic Southern man may now
expect that the old, and past, and worthless issues will be
ignored:—that the Bell man, and the Breckinridge man, and
the Douglas man will, now that their favorite candidates are off
the stage, cease their party divisions, and all unite in forming
a great Southern party in defence of their Southern homes; in
opposition to that great Northern party of Black Republicans who
are banded together for our overthrow. Surely there are weighty
interests enough, in common,
to induce every Southern man not absolutely insane to forego and
forget his bickerings with his neighbor, and joining with him in
heart and hand, and every faculty, lay their united offering on
the altar of the South. The result of this Presidential election
will determine that t there can be in future but two great
parties in the United States—the Northern Abolition party,
to overthrow the South, and the Southern anti-Abolition party, to
protect the South from these inroads. Upon the triumph of Black
Republicanism, in the person of Lincoln,, there can be,
consistently with our safety, but one party at the South.
Democratic, Whig, Union, American, Douglas, Bell, Breckinridge,
will all cease to be parties having any sensible meaning. They
will be regarded as fossils of a past age, and will be swept off
the field to make room for the one great Southern party which
must now be organized to save the South. Let every patriotic man,
then, in the South take his position in this party, and whether
as Douglas, Bell or Breckinridge man, labor in behalf of the
redemption of the South. If there be one, or a dozen, or
perchance a thousand , scattered among these broken up parties,
who are found: still stupidly growling over their party grudges
and refusing to lend their aid in rescuing their native South,
let their late party associates leave them in their morbid
selfishness, and all unite and work together in this our great
Southern anti-Abolition party.
ALAS! " THE
UNIONIST."
If the Unionist, with all the
evidence before him of the hostile designs of the Abolitionists,
and the extreme dangers now hanging over the South, never the
less refuses to aid, or, perhaps, even opposes the movement, let
this great Southern party, with its true and earnest men, move
on, without him, and save the South, in spite of him, for him and
his family, as well as
for themselves. In this great turning point in the destiny of the
South no man can remain neutral. The aid of every loyal son is
now needed to defend the rights and honor of his political
mother, where nestles the home of his wife and children, and
where is deposited all his property for their support. He who is
not for her, in this hour of her extremity, is, without being
conscious of it perhaps, against her, to the last end of her
existence Knowing, as he ought to know, the extreme dangers which
are about to fall upon his
country, THE "UNIONIST" OF THE SOUTH IN 1860, IS THE
"SUBMISSIONIST," NOW, AND EVER WILL BE, HENCE FORTH AND
FOREVER; AND WILL BE AN ABOLITIONIST OF THE NORTH IN 1870! To the
honest but misguided "Unionist" (and not to those of
that name who are conscious and premeditated traitors already to
the South), this judgment may appear harsh and opprobrious. And
in the unfeigned resentment which may spring up out of his
present honest intentions,
he may exclaim with Hazael of old, "But what! is thy servant
a dog that he should do this great thing?"
But men do not know themselves,
nor of what they are made; nor what they will do, under the force
of circumstances. This man, who broke f6rth in this virtuous
expression of earnest deprecation, may have been seen, "on
the morrow," standing by the bedside of a confiding master,
whom, in his feebleness and sickness, he had just smothered to
death, and a short time after, fulfilling, upon a defenceless
people—their innocent little ones, and their feeble
mothers—the very atrocities which had been foretold by the
prophet, and which make the heart shudder to think of.
Ominous condition of the
South!—and of the part which; the "Southern
Unionist" is enacting! He plays now into the hands of a
hostile government by his submission;
and will be found, in the end, acting,
with the Northern Abolitionists, and aiding them in bringing down
upon his country and his neighbors calamities which his soul now
loathe at. In the one brief sentence in which the character of
the Southern Unionist" is just delineated, he may read, not
a prediction (which implies uncertainty) of what he is to be, but
the record which faithful history has already got her pen in hand
, and is about to register concerning him.
THE VAIN REGRETS
OF THE "SOUTHERN UNIONIST"
Who, alas! will be able to
comprehend the feelings of remorse which will take possession of
such a man (I mean the honest
but misguided
"Southern Unionist," and not the conscious traitor who
marches under that flag), when, at some future period, he looks
back upon the issues of 1860, and realizes the condition to which
his country has been brought through his agency, supposing that
his policy should prevail over the South! How humiliating will be
the confessions which his honest candor will compel him to record
against himself!
THE
SOUL-CONFESSIONS OF THE " SOUTHERN UNIONIST" IN 1870.
"I was," he may say,
"earnestly importuned in 1860 by my friends and my
neighbors, to join with them in delivering the South from the
heavy calamities which they saw impending over her, from the
Black Republican rule which was to come over them by the election
of Mr. Lincoln. They entreated and they urged me, by every motive
which could be addressed to an intelligent mind—by duty, by
patriotism, by honor, by interest, by the love which I bore for
my wife and children, by the regard I had for their safety, and
the sanctity of my home, to strike then and
without delay, and boldly,
for our rights, before our enemies should take possession of the
government, and with the treasury, the army, and the navy, which
they would then have at command to obtain such fearful
odds against us. But their
entreaties and their arguments were in vain. I was timid.
I was afraid the General
Government would coerce the State, that it might bring on a
"collision of arms," perhaps "civil
war,"—and that if my State should secede alone, that
Georgia, or South Carolina, or Alabama, or North Carolina, would
meanly take advantage of our difficulties, and basely entice away
our commerce, and ruin our trade, whilst we were fighting in the
common cause of the South. I was afraid
that in this commotion my business might be interrupted: I might
not be able to plant as much cotton, or sell as many goods, nor
make as much money, nor show off at Saratoga the next year and
pass among the Northern snobs as some great "wealthy
Southerner," who had gone there to show them how willing he
was to be fed upon by every Northern blood-sucker. I did not wish
to have my ease at home
interfered with, nor my luxuries
curtailed; and although I was willing to spend thousands to show
off" among the snobs, and submitted, with the lavish grace,
befitting a "wealthy Southern gentleman," to the
enormous exactions of land lords and tradesmen, and every body
and thing else, at the North, with which I came in contact; and
although I squandered my money profusely, to show the
"liberality of the Southerner,"—yet I was
unwilling, when I returned to my Southern home, to pay a dime to
the State in way of taxes, to defend her liberties or protect my
family or property. I opposed
every effort at resistance,
although that resistance was urged on by very many of our best
citizens, and for causes which I could not but regard as having
very great weight. I could not distrust their judgment because in
everything else they had my confidence; nor could I doubt their
sincerity, because they were willing to trust their all upon the
issue. But their resistance, it was plain to me, would lead to
"disunion"; to the breaking up of this "great
government at Washington," and the "dissolution of our
glorious Union." And as I had always belonged to the "
Union" party, and as a Unionist who should always oppose the
Disunionist, I opposed these Resistance men, eminent in wisdom
and sincere in their designs, as I believe them to be. I tried to
persuade myself (and at last succeeded), that the dangers to the
South were not so great and imminent as the Resistance men made
them out to be; and with the aid of the Yankees in the community,
I succeeded in persuading every timid and indolent man (ever too
ready to grasp at any excuse for submission), that resistance
might be postponed for a
time; that we should "try Mr. Lincoln"; wait for him to
"commit some overt act"; that the Black Republicans
would not do what they had threatened"; and that there was a
great " conservative party at the North," who were
going to do great things for us, and put down the Abolitionists.
By these persuasions, I succeeded in gathering together a strong
anti-Resistance party, and tied the South down to submission.
"But I must here say, in
these the secret confessions of my soul, that I never went to the
polls to cast my vote as a member of this "Union"
party, without having my sensibilities as a Southern man
painfully disturbed. There, on the one hand , were to be seen the
earnest Resistance men urging on the people, by appeals to the
noblest principles of their nature, courageously to come forward
and vindicate the honor and rights of their native South, by resisting
our enemies: whilst on the other side were to be seen herded
together among the Union men, the selfish, the craven, and the
indolent, mixed up with every Yankee adventurer who had left his
Northern Abolition home to sojourn here for a short time, 'doing
business'—each, encouraging the other, to submit
to our enemies, by appealing to the most sordid motives of fear,
and money-making. It was with much humiliating misgiving,
whether I was in the right place for a Southern man, when I found
myself at all elections in close association with these Northern
men—having no harmony of feeling with the South—no
permanent home, or fixed property amongst us, and claiming to be
citizens of distant and hostile communities. But if these were my
party associates; to whom, was I opposing myself? To the natives
of the soil, who had the deepest interests at stake—to my
near neighbors, and most cherished friends, in whose wisdom and
integrity I had every confidence."
"But I yielded myself up to
the principles of Unionism. I and my party opposed
resistance; we preached and encouraged
submission; and our counsels prevailed; and
now, at the end of ten years, I look around me, and find these to
be fruits of my work:
"The South is fettered,
spiritless, reduced to poverty and imbecility; whilst the North
has fattened by her submission; has become rich and powerful, and
is raging with the fierce spirit of abolition aggression. My
counsels, alas! I have become fatal to her. She has submitted
too long: she is now, indeed, too feeble to resist; I realize
now, for the first time the stunning import of the words:—I
SUBMIT TO THE EMANCIPATION OF MY SLAVES."
Such, resistance men of the
South, must be the unhappy reflections, not of the "Southern
Unionist" merely, but of every man, no matter under what
name, or party banner, he may act, who opposes prompt, vigorous,
decided action against the hostile rule of the Black Republicans.
Disguise it as he may, to deceive his conscience, postponement
of effectual resistance now, to some future period of "overt
acts" of further aggression, is submission,
now;—submission forever! If these
Procrastinators do not see, in the FACT which, like some tall
giant, stalks abroad before their eyes, to
wit: that we are soon to be ruled over by our deadliest enemies,
enough of motive, to throw off that government, and rule
ourselves,—then it must be because they would think it
preferable to wait for the "overt act" of being well
kicked and trodden under foot,—before they took any measures
to prevent it; although they had been threatened with these
indignities by certain associated bullies who had both the ample
power and the thorough good will to fulfil their threats.
EVERYTHING TO BE
LOST BY POSTPONEMENT: NOTHING TO BE GAINED BY IT.
And if, with all the favorable
circumstances in which we now find ourselves, which an overruling
Providence seems to have brought together especially to aid us,
and which we may never expect again to concur in our future
history,—these "procrastinators" are too timid
to strike for their country, and shrink now
from the danger, what may we expect from them in future, when,
our enemies having got possession of the Government, with all its
mighty engines of oppression, shall riot in their strength; and
when we, with each day of our subjection (or rather subjugation)
to them, shall become weaker and less able to resist? If fears
unman them now, when is manhood
and courage to take
their place? If ever, when? and under what possible conjuncture
of circumstances? Let them tell us, or cease to delude us with
ghostly hopes, to which they can assign neither "local
habitation or a name." Let every true man, then, of every
party in the South, ruminate well this question. Let him examine
it on this side and that, above and below, and all around, and
see whether postponement
of resistance now is not submission now—submission
forever—with all its disastrous
consequences. If no other conclusion but this can be arrived at,
then procrastination is ruin; and with this conviction the
resistance party will find its ranks soon thronged with most
valuable allies; for the procrastinator
is not a submissionist from principle, but only by mistake.
That the destiny of the South is
to be decided by the craven submissionist,
is a verdict which would carry dismay to every Southern house
hold, and would blister with endless shame the manhood of her
sons. That she should submit, without a
struggle, to have all her priceless
advantages taken away from her, (which is the counsel of the
submissionist), at the demand of her insulting enemies, is a
thought which is not to be tolerated. How utterly demoralized
must that people be, who, when everything that is dear to them on
earth is at stake, shrink back
from its defence, from the most ignominious of all motives, the
fear of danger and of mere animal sloth! That the South should
servilely bend her neck to her enemies, and submit to have her
millions of slaves emancipated, her thousands of millions of
property taken away from her, her citizens reduced to poverty and
want, a servile and debased race elevated to an equality with her
citizens, and their families degraded by such an inter
course—and that she should submit to all this, with the
utmost loathing, merely because she was too cowardly,
and too indolent, and
too selfish, to make the
proper sacrifices to protect herself, is to suppose an intensity
of baseness on her part which would consign her to everlasting
infamy. History would be unable to find words to record the
hissing scorn which such pusillanimity would deserve. And yet
such is the despicable condition to which the submissionist
would reduce her.
I call upon you then, men
of the South, (not the poltroons of the South) true men of the
South, (not traitors of the South), to rally to the rescue of
your cherished, native land. Suffer not the counsels of the
submissionist to prevail. Honor and duty call upon you for
resistance,—undying resistance,—to
defend your country against the ready purposes of her enemies.
And never before have honor and duty been more surely the path of
true wisdom, leading to permanent safety. Falter not then, either
as individual, or State, because your neighbor may, perchance, be
a submissionist; but go on without him, and leave him to his
infamy. The honor of neither State, nor man, is in the keeping of
his neighbor. Each must protect his own, and leave to impartial
history to record how manfully he has guarded it. What would it
avail to South Carolina if Georgia, or any other Southern State,
acting under the noble impulses of a manly courage, should throw
down the gauntlet of defiance to her enemies, and declare before
the world that a Black Republican government should not rule over
her citizens,—what would it avail, I say, to South Carolina
in rescuing her name from the contempt of mankind, and the
execration of her own children, if she were found submitting to
the degrading bondage! Would the gallantry of her Southern sister
atone for the infamy she will have brought upon herself; or
sponge from the record the "dastard" and
"poltroon" which history will have written against her
name!
Let each man (and each State)
then act out for himself according to the impulses of his own
high duty and honor, and without being influenced by the
pusillanimity of his neighbor. And as the cause of the South is
common to all, and as the interests at stake are too stupendous
to be given up without ruin to each—we may rest assured that
when the day
of decisive action shall arrive, they will be found all moving in
concert, without any previous agreement having been formed,
pledging them to that purpose. Among the States thus moving on
earnestly for their deliverance, I think, gentlemen, you know
what place South Carolina will occupy in the picture.
APPENDIX
A.
People at the North, where the
movements of the Abolitionists are duly chronicled in the daily
prints, are fully aware of these hostile purposes, and
contemplate with amazement the doltish sloth and apathy which
pervade the South, whilst their deadly enemies are industriously
sapping and mining under their very citadel,
and will be soon ready to blow it up into fragments. What we fail
to see, is plainly manifest to them; and among the few who are
there not under the sway of abolitionism, and have given
expression to their thoughts in a public form, there are some,
(such as Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Cushing and Mr. Barnard,) seeing, as
they do, the awful calamities which these schemes of the
abolitionists will entail upon the South, who express the opinion
that the South, as a matter of course, will not, and cannot,
submit to such a government without utter ruin and dishonor. Nor
do I think the South would submit, even for an hour, if they were
properly in formed of the designs of the party which will soon,
with Mr. Lincoln at its head, have the control of the government
from prudential considerations, which, however, I think they have
carried to a mistaken extreme, the newspapers of the South have
failed to keep their readers in formed of these dangerous
measures; and facts, which they who are most deeply interested in
knowing but are yet ignorant of, are known only to those at a
distance, who have but little concern in the matter. What
Southern man, whether the owner or not the owner of slaves, would
consent to live under the government of Abolitionists, when he
knew that the settled purpose of that government was the
emancipation of all the slaves, and making the slave ( the
inferior race) equal to the white man. The poorest white man in
the South (except he be already utterly debased by his vices or
his crimes,) would spurn such a thought, and would rise up with
indignation against a government who would thus attempt to
degrade him and his family to the level of the Negro. And yet
such is the undoubted, indisputable design of the Black
Republican party when they shall take possession of the
government and have power over the South. In proof of this, fact
might be piled upon fact, until the most incredulous would be
satisfied. These proofs will not here be repeated; but if any be
desirous of satisfying himself on this point, he will find the
facts accumulated (a few only out of many more which might have
been added) in one of the Notes to a pamphlet lately published in
Charleston, entitled " the South Alone should Govern the
South, and African Slavery should be Controlled by those only who
are Friendly to it."
[Appendix]
B.
Some months before the Abolition
raid in Virginia, old John Brown, H. Kagi, and others, had put
forth at the North a "Plan for the Abolition of
Slavery," for the purpose, as they stated, of " forming
Associations throughout the country of all persons who are
willing to pledge themselves publicly to favor the enterprise,
and render support and assistance of any kind." the late
insurrection in Texas was a development of this improved
scheme of diabolical ingenuity, as well as an exemplification of
the intense hatred which
is cherished by the Abolitionist against the Southern
slaveholder. This "Plan," as well
as the "Plan of the Abolitionists for secret
circulation," may be found also in a
Note to the pamphlet just referred to, (" the South Alone
should Govern the South;") and by comparing the occurrences
in Texas, until the plot was discovered and arrested, with these
plans concocted by John Brown, we will be at no loss to
understand the mode in which the Giddings and Garrisonian wing of
the party intend, in future, to carry on this warfare. The
following letters from Texas are taken from the New York Day
Book of September 8th, and give in formation
as to the manner in which the Abolition plot was conducted there,
which should operate as a warning to us to be vigilant and
resolute:
THE ABOLITION
PLOT IN TEXAS.
IMPORTANT LETTER
FROM JUDGE REAGAN. INJURY TO NEW YORK MERCHANTS.
Hon. John H. Reagan, M. C., has
written a letter to his brother Morris Reagan, which is published
in the Austin Gazette.
Here is the letter:
PALESTINE, Aug. 18, 1860.
Dear Brother:
I was called to the court-house yesterday, When writing to you,
to attend a meeting in relation to the negro disturbances, and
did not write to you what is going on in that respect.
A plot has been discovered in
Tennessee colony, and extending out from there, between some
white men and negros, similar to that in Dallas, Ellis and
Tarrant counties. Indeed, it is regarded as a part of the same
plot to poison as many people as they could on Sunday night
before the election, and on the day of the election to burn the
houses and kill as many of the women and children as they could
while the men were gone to the election, and then kill the men as
they returned home.
On last Sunday two white men,
who lived up near Catfish Bayou, were hung as the ringleaders of
the plot in this county. Our vigilance committees and patrol have
been active here in guarding against other dangers and in
investigating this matter.
One negro has been hung in
Henderson and one in Cherokee county, and we are in formed that
the town of Henderson has been burned—supposed by
incendiaries—but no particulars yet.
I am strongly persuaded, from
all I can learn, that these things must be the result of an
abolition plot arranged elsewhere than in Texas, and
that its execution has
been committed to the desperate set of Kansas outlaws or similar
men. And I do not think one of them ought to be permitted to
leave the State alive where his complicity can be clearly shown.
Your brother, JOHN H. REAGAN.
The New
Orleans Picayune says that
the burning of towns in Texas will fall heavily upon New York
merchants, they having enjoyed the greater part of the trade of
the State.
THE ABOLITION
RAID IN TEXAS.
[from a Special
Correspondent.]
FORT WORTH, Texas, Aug. 12,
1860.
By the last mail the Secretary
forwarded you a copy of the proceedings of perhaps one of the
largest meetings ever assembled together on a similar occasion in
northern Texas. I propose to give you a short history of the past
few weeks, the state of public sentiment, as far as I have been
able to appreciate it, ( the feelings of those present are
portrayed in. The fourth and fifth resolutions sent you,) and to
make a few observations on the state of parties here, the
necessary consequences which must follow the election of Lincoln
to the presidency.
About five weeks ago the town of
Dallas was burned; on the same day Denton shared the same fate,
and several other towns in northern Texas were fired. In quick
succession there were a number of country residences set on fire.
Quite a number of our citizens had all they had on earth burn up
wheat, corn, rye, oats, fencing, &c., &c. A few weeks
before these things occurred, a fire had been discovered about
12, M., in the store of Messrs. Field and Kennedy, of this place.
These circumstances led to the formation of Vigilance Committees
in almost every county in northern Texas. In the county of Dallas
the discovery was made that the negros had fired the town of
Dallas and the residences and farms of its citizens; that there
was in each county a leader who was a white man, whose name was
kept secret from most of the negros, and that slow matches were
furnished by him to the negros, which they applied to the houses
which they determined to destroy. There was also found a large
quantity of poison in the possession of the negros, which, when
gathered together, would have filled a half barrel. It was also
discovered that these Abolition incendiaries had been sent here
by Abolition Aid Societies.
In fort Worth, a suspicious character, recently from the State of
Minnesota, was carefully watched. He was betrayed by one of the
negros, detected, and hung without an hour's warning. He had told
that he expected a large number of six shooters on every day, and
since he was hung, the revolvers, three
hundred in number, have come to his address, marked
"clocks," in three separate boxes, one hundred in each.
These discoveries are not confined to Dallas and Tarrant
counties, but extend to a very considerable portion of northern
Texas. The 1st Monday in August (election day,) was the day of
general revolt. I will add that the man hung in fort Worth was
not the only one who shared the same fate, and there has been a
general stampede among the suspicious, several of whom could only
save their necks by flight. The Vigilant Committees have
determined to order no one to leave, but to hang every man who
puts his feet on Texas soil, avowing the "doctrines"
of the Free Soil party.
To appreciate the feelings of
our citizens, you would have to be in our
midst at this time. Our
houses, &c., were not only to be burned and our citizens
murdered, but the young women
and little girls were to
be saved to become the wives or concubines of these fiends of
hell.
Our citizens look upon a
Free-soiler alone, as a murderer and incendiary—as one who
advocates principles which must necessarily lead to every species
of iniquity known in the catalogue of crime. They know their is
an Abolition Aid Society forwarding six shooters here with which
to murder us. and then commit every species
of enormity on the mothers, sisters, wives and daughters of
Southern citizens. The scene is too
revolting to contemplate. I would to God it was untrue. And be
not surprised when I tell you that we will hang every man who
does not live above suspicion. Necessity now reverses the rule,
for it is better for us to hang ninety-nine innocent (suspicious)
men than to let one guilty one pass, for the guilty one endangers
the peace of society, and every man coming from a northern State
should live above suspicion. Such is the universal sentiment of
this community, and soon must and will be of the entire South.
The great heart of
the people here is with Breckinridge and Lane. They look upon
Douglas' "Popular Sovereignty" doctrine as "Free
Soil" in tendency and practice, and consequently destructive
of the rights of the South, incendiary in practice if not in
principle. They believe that Lincoln is the head and
representative of this Abolition Society, which sent John Brown
to Virginia, and which is now giving us so much trouble here; and
I believe I am not in the dark when I say that if Lincoln is
elected, it will take five hundred thousand troops to inaugurate
him President of the United States. To believe that the South
would submit to it, with the train of calamities which must of
necessity follow, is to believe that we are paltroons, and
destitute of every sentimental patriotism. The history of every
revolution which has occurred on earth, shows that it never was
left to a popular vote; but outraged humanity commenced
resistance, as our forefathers did at Boston, and a whole people
rushed to their relief. We desire to preserve the Union, but we
want a Union of free, equal and sovereign States, with that
protection which the Constitution guaranties to us; just such a
Union as is represented by the party which nominated Breckinridge
and Lane, and in no other way can this Union be saved.
Yours,
respectfully, J. W. S.
FURTHER ACCOUNTS
OF THE ABOLITION RAID.
[from an Old
Correspondent.]
MARSHALL, TEXAS, Aug. 12, 1860.
Editors of the Evening
Day Book:
The wildest excitement prevails
throughout the north-western, northeastern, and the central
portions of Texas, in consequence of Abolition
incendiarism. I have no doubt but you have
seen, ere this reaches you, the burning of Dallas, Denton, Black
Jack Grove, and quite a large number of stores and mills.
Loss—estimated at between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000. Since
then the Abolitionists have
been detected in attempts to fire a number of other towns South
of the above, and in an extensive plan of insurrection among the
negros, headed by these demons of hell.
On some plantations the negros
have been examined, and arms and ammunition in considerable
amount have been found in their possession; they all admit they
were given to them by these Lincolnites.
Every day we hear of the burning of some town, mill, store, or
farmhouse. Henderson was burnt to ashes on the 6th
instant, being the general election day for State and county
officers. We hear of two or three other towns burnt on the same
day. Women and children
have been so frightened by these burnings and threatened
rebellion of the negros, that in several instances they have left
their homes in their fight, and when found were almost confirmed
maniacs! Military companies are organized
all over the State, and one-half of our citizens do constant
patrol duty. But unfortunately up to this time Judge Lynch has
had the honor to preside only in ten cases of whites, (northern
Lincolnites) and about sixty-five of negros, all of whom were
hung or burnt, as to the degree of their implication in the
rebellion and burning. The plan was to burn all of the towns,
thereby destroy the arms and ammunition, also country stores,
mills, farms and corn cribs, &c. Then on election day they
were to be headed by John Browns, and march South for Houston and
Galveston city, where they would all unite, and after pillaging
and burning those two cities, the negros were promised by these
devils incarnate, that they would have in readiness a number of
vessels, and would take them forthwith to Mexico, where they
would be free. The credulity of the negro
is so great, that he can be induced to
believe almost anything, no matter how
impossible it may be, particularly when he is in formed by a
shrewd white man that the thing can be done, and that he will
lead them on and accomplish the object. But the end is not yet. I
believe that the northern churches are at the bottom of this
whole affair—in fact the fanatics have already acknowledged
it. They say that this Texas raid is in revenge for the expulsion
of some of their brethren of the Methodist church from Texas,
about twelve or eighteen months ago, for preaching and teaching
Abolition incendiarism to the negros in northern Texas. Unless
the churches send out new recruits of John Browns, I fear the
boys will have nothing to do this winter, (as they have hung all
that can be found,) the school boys have become so excited by the
sport in hanging Abolitionists, that the schools are completely
deserted, they having formed companies, and will go seventy-five
or one hundred miles on horseback to participate in a single
execution of the sentence Of Judge Lynch's Court. It has now
become a settled conviction in the South that
this Union cannot subsist one day after Abe Lincoln has been
declared President, if God, in his infinite
wisdom, should permit him to live that long; for they, ( the
people of the South) have made up their minds that they had
rather die, sword in hand , in defence of their homes, their
wives, their children and slaves, in defence of the Constitution,
the laws, and their sacred honor, than tamely
submit to an organized system of robbery, a degraded and
loathsome scheme of amalgamation, a breaking
up of the compromises of the Constitution, and a total exclusion
of the South from the common Territories of the country won by
their blood and treasure.
W. R. D. W.
Citizens of the South, do not
delude yourselves with the opinion that none of these emissaries
have crawled in among you, and are even now lurking within your
respective States. The spear of an Ithurial would start up many
from their present disguises. Alabama and Georgia, and more
recently, Virginia and North Carolina, and South Carolina, have
been polluted by their
presence, and have been compelled, for their crimes to help them
to the cheap martyrdom which they sought.
And now,
Husbands,Fathers,
Brothers,
reperuse certain sentences in
those letters, which, from the horror which they inspire, deserve
the emphasis with which they are distinguished.
Ponder the unutterable
degradation which is there designed for you, and then say, what
union can we have with a people who can devise such enormities,
and what perils and sacrifices should we not rather endure than
submit to the government of a party which encourages, promotes,
and presses on such outrages!
[Appendix]
C.
From the beginning of the war in
Kansas, arising out of the attempt of the Northern Abolitionists
to drive out the Southern Slaveholder from that territory, the
writer of this, became profoundly impressed with the importance
to the South of getting possession of it from its geographical
position, he considered that it was worth thousands of millions
of dollars to the South, as a fortress which would guard all the
territories laying back of it; from Missouri on the North, to
Texas on the South; all which would ultimately become Slave
States, if the barrier of Kansas were not broken down. The
possession of all those States then, being dependent upon the
possession of Kansas, he considered that no ordinary
efforts should be made by the South, to secure Kansas, as a State
favorable to our institutions. The abolitionist North, with that
far-seeing sagacity which they always exercise when their interests
are at stake, immediately organized societies to aid
"Emigrants" in going to Kansas and occupying it; and
with great energy and liberality provided large funds to
accomplish their purpose. The South was appealed to, for the
purpose of furnishing aid, also, to her emigrants. The writer was
applied to, by the Kansas Association of Charleston, composed of
some of our most distinguished and public spirited citizens; and
in March, 1556, nearly four years before the article of
"Python" was published in De Bow's Review, lie
addressed a letter to Wm. Whaley, Esq., the Chairman of the
Executive Committee of that Association; in which (whilst he
asked the privilege of joining them in their contributions) he
expressed his views somewhat fully, upon the very great
importance to the South of the issue then made in Kansas.
In allusion to the extraordinary
efforts which were made by the abolition "Emigrant Aid
Societies," to send men and money into Kansas to
abolitionize and take it from the South, he urged corresponding
exertions to be made to save that territory, as rightfully
belonging to us, and as being worthy of very great sacrifices to
be made, for its possession.
Without having followed out the
disastrous consequences, to which the loss of Kansas would
legitimately and inevitably lead, as "Python" has done,
the writer contented himself with merely pointing out the
immediate effects; which he thought were quite sufficient to wake
up every Southern man of ordinary forethought to exert himself to
save that territory to us. He spoke of Kansas, "as the
Malakoff" fortress, the taking of which, would decide our
victory, in this battle with abolitionism in that quarter of our
Republic;—a battle, in which from three to five States,
were the prizes, to be won
or lost, to the South, and her cherished institutions." But
the writer laments to say, that, like "Python," he
"wrote and spoke in vain." the citizens of the South
could not be induced as at present to look at, and provide
against a danger which appeared so remote. They were slumbering
and idle, whilst their enemies were actively at work: and whilst
the Abolitionists contributed their hundreds of thousands of
dollars to equip and send out, and colonize their emigrants in
Kansas—a few scanty thousands only, were all that were
parsimoniously doled out by the whole South; which was utterly
inadequate, to encourage any emigrants to leave their homes, or
to aid the few who went there. The "pennywise,"
chuckled over the cunning, by which he escaped making his
contribution to the common cause; and the meanness of his avarice
which saved him a few dimes has been rewarded, by the loss of a
territory which, judged by the consequences which will flow from
it, is worth thousands of millions of dollars, and will result in
the "constitutional" emancipation of his slaves! It is
but justice however to say, that Kansas was left unaided by the
South, not so much from penuriousness, as from the poverty
of the great bulk of our people. The whole course of Federal
legislation has tended to divert money from the South;—which
leaves her scanty of funds for any public-spirited
purpose;—and for the same reason has accumulated abundant
capital at the North and in the abolition States; which enables
that section to subscribe largely for any scheme of public
policy—even if it be, to hire the loafers of their cities,
to drive the slave-holder from the common territories.
Thus does our union
with them, cut us both ways, like a two-edged sword. We are first
impoverished, by Federal laws which make them rich and powerful,
and us feeble and poor; and then they use that very power and
riches, of which we have been drained by them, to swoop down upon
us, farther to rob and oppress us.
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