On this page
-
Text (2)
-
84 The Leader andSaturday Analyst. [Jan....
-
RE-ENSLAVEMENT. WE see no reason to ques...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Coxmmercial Treaty. Amongst The Many...
But man was then a savage , and the use of luxuries is one attribute of civilization . To impede the use of them is to check progress . A tax on wine is not quite as bad as a-tax on bread , tout ' vcry nearly ; and when imposed or- maintained . to keep alive political enmities / is as detestable as ' a corn law . From the earliest ages till now wine has been , and wherever it can be obtained , still is in common use , and is only a luxury if clothing be a luxury . It gives enjoyment , and , iised with discrimination , prolongs life . .
If the reduction of our wine duties be one part of a general remodifi cation of our taxation , so much the better . It will equally let in the wines of all countries , and negative completely the idea of subserviency to France . There are other things besides wine which should be released from the tax collector ' s grip . Our cumbrous and complicated system needs simplifying as well as reducing ; but the task of making it what it ought to be seems gigantic to the dwarfs who are paid for managing the affairs of the nation . We must be content , therefore , we are afraid , with such a reduction of the wine duties as will be acceptable to the French , rather than seek for such a reform of our system as would be just to ourselves . The vants of the State are said to stand in the way : but the State exists only for the people ,
and the revenue , which crushes enjoyment ,, impedes progress or cuts short life , is utterly at variance with the sole purpose for which the State exists and revenue is levied . Vast quantities of stuff manufactured out of apples , rhubarb , gooseberries , whisky , & c . are sold for wine , and therefore we decline to believe that a considerable reduction of the duty will injure the revenue . When it is cheaper to import wine than to manufacture it , the fraudulent manufacture will be given up , and no wine will be drunk which lias not paid duty . The instant the reduction of the . duty is announced , too , preparations will be made to meet the expected consequences . Store goods will be manufactured for the foreign market , more will be exported , and there will be increased importation . There will be more revenue from other sources . 3 Uit if the fear of loss
to the revenue be not unfounded , the high ground on which alone this commercial treaty , can be justified puts an end to the pretext for levying our wine duties .: They stand in the ¦ wh y of peace and of progress , and are . contrary to . the welfare -of society . " . . . ' ' " Undoubtedly it would be preferable to get rid of them , for our own sakes without any commercial treaty . Every nation , like every individual , - must take care of itself . To make its policy dependant on the policy of another nation is to sacrifice independence . But all treaties equally do this , and free-trade politicians ,
in making a commercial treaty , only conform to an old custom . It binds contracting nations by other obligations than those of trade , which arise at all times from , and are always enforced by , their mutual interests . At present , there is a tendency to ' union between nations—rubbing ofT . their political peculiarities . Trade makes them averse from angry contests , and ¦ uin ' tes them in one common community . This is a natural progress which the treaty may promote . Strange to say , tho present general armament of our people , from s \ resolution to resist all attack from abroad , has the same tendency : it keeps brutal force in awe , and keeps the paths of trade and amity open .
84 The Leader Andsaturday Analyst. [Jan....
84 The Leader andSaturday Analyst . [ Jan . 28 , 1860 .
Re-Enslavement. We See No Reason To Ques...
RE-ENSLAVEMENT . WE see no reason to question the authenticity of the curious document which has lntely' ~ been published as a memorial addressed to the Legislature of Maryland . On the contrary ; its insolent inconsistencies nnd absurd injustice reproduce with photographic fidelity the present feelings and temper of the South . jje nan 4 verd 6 ben trovato will scarcely apply to it . It is much too truthful to have been invented ; and those who doubt its genuineness can have little knowledge of the attitude which iiluvery bus now assumed in the United States . The logic of the memorialists is not one whit more halting and monstrous than that employed by all tho other defenders of Slavery , even by politicians who aspire to tho Presidenoy ; and the measures it
demands have been already carried out in more than one Slave State . It is , of course , a stupid contradiction to complain that tho free negro population is of " idle and depraved habits , " and immediately afterwards denounce . it bittorly as doing the work which the " poor but worthy white citizens" are entitled to ; but all this proamblo of reasoning is merely tho compliance with American custom , which requires a wordy " whereas" beforo © noh resolution , and no more needs to bo based upon roason and justice than . did the arguments of the wolf who intended to devour the luckless lamb . Tho whites have tho power in Marylaud , ami can as well get rid , of free negroes i \& their brethren in Arkansas , who , by u law passodin the last . session of their Legislature ) , gave tho poor creatures tho option of emigrating before tho 1 st January , . 1800 , or of becoming slaves . Any diversity of
action will arise from , the difference in the relative position and strength of the two States . Maryland is small , and borders upon ° free States ; its free population is , also larger than that of Arkansas , and , in the present temper of the public mind , any measure of this kind might lead to a serious collision . If thisapprehension does not act upon the Legislature , we entertain , little doubt—the more especially as the governor of the State has- in his recent message recommended legislation with respect to the coloured population—that the prayer of the memorialistswill be granted so far as to give the free negroes the option of emigrating or becoming slaves . At present , the poor whites of Maryland , even rejoicing , as they do , in the support of the farfamed Baltimore " rowdies , " cannot hope to find representatives prepared to prevent the free negroes from quitting the State , reduce them to slavery , and divide them amongst the worthiest
claimants . If similar measures are not asked in the other Slave States it is from no repugnance to the injustice involved in them . The whole of the Southern States are now in a condition in which noproposition intended for the defence of their pretended rights appears absurd , much less unjust . We have the legislatures of nearly all of them passing most stringent laws against the free coloured population , and voting the most outrageous resolutions against their Northern confederates . We have the Governors , the legal representatives of their States , Avriting messages almost diabolical in their character , and then we have speeches outcapping : the wildest flights American oratory ever before attained . Nothing :
is too" wild or ridiculous for the Southern " gentlemen . The Virginian students at the Medical College in Philadelphia lately held a meeting , at which they resolved that their duty ! to their native State required them to eschew Free State teaching , and went back in pomp to Richmond . ; where the Governor received them , and delivered an oration to the crowd gathered to receive them , which although superlatively ridiculous , is yet bepraised throughout the whole South , and even by its partisans in tlie North , as a magnificent oration , the genuine emanation of a statesman ' s mind . Governor Wise started then what has now become a great - " craze" of the South—isolation from , and independence ^ of the North . No more Northern manufactures or Northern teachers for him . The South
is . to use only ¦ manufactures of her own make , including philosophy , medicine , and religion . And this stupid idea is seriously taken , up , so far at least , that it has been solemnly determined in some places that only those New York merchants and bankers should be dealt with who are thoroughly sound upon the " goose '" question . There \ is another Southern " craze" which afflicts us more particularly , although we can well afford to laugh at it . England , which in the eyes of a genuine Continental politician isalways engaged in stirring up peoples against their rightful masters , and provoking squabbles from which she makes a . large profit , is almost as useful a bugbear to the American politician . She has by her infernal arts provoked the " irrepressible
conflict . " Canada is the seat of a , plot against Southern peace-, and it is only by completely crushing her that the gentlemen of tho South will be able to live in comfort , and thrash their niggers just as they please . So a war with England is preached , and the cry is caught up with avidity by the democratic newspapers ' of tlic North , which haye Irish readers to tickle . The Southerners , however , wild as they now are , are too wideawake to quarrel with us . If it is important for us to get '¦ their cotton , our purchase of it is absolutely essential to them . If wo left them one year ' s stock on hand , one half the planters would be bankrupt . But that , knowing this so . well , the South should now , for the first time , preach war with England ,
proves the state of excitement to which it has been lashed . It must recover speedily frdm its frenzy , or its ruin is sealed . Passive resistance is tho only way to prolong the maintenance ot the "domestic institution , " and a sensible , gradual manumission alone will avert its violent overthrow , Slavery proptigandism , or even the effort to vindicate the justice and legitimacy of t \\ o institution , is a gross absurdity . The only justification of Slavery is force , and that is not proved by blasphemous perversions of Soripture , or historical sophistries , but by a quiet determined attitude . When the force departs , the poor justification it gave goes too , and slavery , itself censes . No sophistry would over
persuade a mail of sound mind to become a slave himself , and none , therefore , can make him admit tho justico of shivery , unless ho is already n slave-owner in possession , or ono in heart . The " poor whites , '' t | io great curse of the South , require no arguments to incluoo them to believe in Slavery , because the great object of their lives is to have a couple of blacks to work for thorn , and allow them to load in comfort a lazy , useless liui , shared between bar-rooms and political " caucuses ; " and tho iri . ih boliovers of tho North are so readily . convinced , only because t hey aro jealous of tho free negroes , who are much better workmen and servants , and would themselves like to have niggers to knock about ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28011860/page/8/
-