"As a Louisiana parent, I reflect with terror, that our beloved children, reared to become one day honorable and useful citizens, may be the victims of these votaries of vice and licentiousness. Without some powerful and certain remedy, our streets will become butcheries, overflowing with the blood of our citizens!"
While the slaveholders are terrified at the idea of the "great democratic rabble," and rejoice in human bondage as superseding the necessity of an "order of nobility, and all the appendages of a hereditary government," they have established a reign of terror, as insurrectionary and as sanguinary in principle, as that created by the sans culottes of the French revolution. We indulge in no idle declamation, but speak the words of truth and soberness.
A public meeting, convened in the church!! in the town of Clinton, Mississippi, 5th September, 1835—
Resolved, "That it is our decided opinion, that any individual who dares to circulate, with a view to effectuate the designs of the abolitionists, any of the incendiary tracts or newspapers now in the course of transmission to this country, is justly worthy, in the sight of God and man, of immediate death; and we doubt not that such would be the punishment of any such offender, in any part of the State of Mississippi where he may be found."
It would be tedious to copy the numerous resolutions of similar import, passed by public meetings in almost every slave State. You well know that the promoters of those lawless and sanguinary proceedings, did not belong to the "rabble"—they were not "mean whites," but rich, influential slaveholders. A meeting was held in 1835 at Williamsburgh, Virginia, which was harangued by no less a personage than John Tyler, once Governor of the State, and since President of the United States: under this gentleman's auspices, and after his address, the meeting resolved—
"That we regard the printing and circulating within our limits, of incendiary publications, tending to excite our slaves to insurrection and rebellion, as treasonable acts of the most alarming character, and that when we detect offenders in the act, we will inflict upon them condign punishment, without resorting to any other tribunal."
The profligacy of this resolution needs no comment. Mr. Tyler well knew that the laws of Virginia, and every other State were abundantly sufficient to punish crime: but he and his fellow lynchers wished to deter the people from receiving and reading anything adverse to slavery; and hence, with their usual audacity, they determined to usurp the prerogative of courts and juries, and throw down all the bulwarks which the law has erected for the protection of innocence.
Newspapers are regarded as the mirrors of public opinion. Let us see what opinions are reflected in those of the South.
The Charleston Courier, 11th August, 1835, declared that "the gallows and the stake" awaited the abolitionists who should dare to "appear in person among us."
"The cry of the whole South should be death, instant death to the abolitionist, wherever he is caught."—Augusta (Geo.) Chronicle.
"Let us declare through the public journals of our country, that the question of slavery is not and shall not be open to discussion; that the system is too deep-rooted among us, and must remain for ever; that the very moment any private individual attempts to lecture us upon its evils and immorality, and the necessity of putting means in operation to secure us from them, in the same moment his tongue shall be cut out and cast upon the dunghill."—Columbia (S.C.) Telescope.
This, it will be noticed, is a threat addressed, not to the Northern abolitionists, but to you, fellow-citizens, to the great majority of the white inhabitants of the South; and you are warned not to express an opinion offensive to your aristocracy.