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I
Wisdom, Justice, Moderation.”
VOL. I.
ALBANY, BAKER COUNTY, GEORGIA, JUNE 18,1815.
NO. 10.
THE PATRIOT,
;; rrBUSHED EVTRT WEDNESDAY HORSIER, BT
NELSON TIFT & SETH N. BOUGHTON,
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UTAH Utters on business must be post paid.
was induced to turn them over to the Rev. j c<irth, and commanded us to subdue and
Mr. Weems, as a man of letters, to put| and govern it ? and for food he bus expess-
thcin into proper form. The Maj. was an | ly allowed us to choose from the whole
honest, plain-sailing, matter-of-fact son of; range of animated nature,
a man, and you may judge of his horror, j It is not in regard to beasts and vermin
when he learned by letter front his clerical j alone, that these writers of fiction inculcate
friend about the time of publication, that he , a spurious tenderness ; if that were all, we
had worked his documents into the shape I would laugh at them and let it pass, but
of a military romance to suit the taste of the j they have poisoned the whole-stream of
age ! The old soldier was shocked at the j learning with their false and unscriptural
thought, that his veracious hisiory was to'doctrines about slavery. They have infu-
Fnr the Albany Patriot.
FICTION.
Jtpurs. Tift Boughton :■—
It is, perhaps, a vain attempt for one
inin to endeavor to slay the flood of fiction,
which threatens this age with all the evils
in ihc moral world, which the great deluge
of Noah accomplished in the physical;
nevertheless, I am resolved, in imitation ol
that good man, to preach common sense to
this generation for a testimony against it.
To such a degree does the taste for it pre
vail, that there is reason to fear, that the
period is drawing near, when a relish for
sober truth will be reckoned decidedly vul
gar. Even now, nine pages of every ten
in the library and rending room, arc filled
with foolish and idle fancies. Look over
that splendid collection of magazines on
the centre tnbic, and you will find in each,
fora frontispiece,a female figure ten times
is pretty as a woman ever was, and half
naked at that. Oh! it would’nt suit the
public taste, if it should be clothed up to
the neck and down to I be ankles as every
docent female in real life ought to be.—
One lag and bosom nl least, must be bare
to animate the chaste desires of this flow
ery age. Turn them over page after page,
be turned into a romance, and complained
bitterly, but all to no purpose—the taste of
the age prevailed. Some allowance, I sup
pose, ought to be made for Homer, Virgil
and other ancient writers, as being heath
ens, for the extravagant stories which they
tell about their wars, the marvelous ex
ploits of their heroes, and the rascalities of
their Gods; butfor a good Christian, such as
Mr. Weems should have been, to mix up
the idle spumrings of his own brain with
the honest old Major’s authenticated facts,
in order to make up a .Military Romance to
suit the taste of the age, was indeed inex
cusable.
My observation teaches nie, that those
whose studies, (if it be not a desecration of
the word to use it in ditch a connexion,)
lie principally in works of imagination, are
seldom of any use, either to themselves or
others. Judging of every thing by the
false standards of the fantastical world in
which they have “had their conversation
in times past,” they arc the victims of per
petual mistakes. The novel-reader lan
guishes too for want of excitement, amidst
the common incidents and accidents of this
prosing world. He must engage in some
adventure, plunge into some love intrigue,
addict himself to gaming, duelling, or pi
racy, in order to strike a chord that will
vibrate in unison with his fevered pulse.
Much, if not all, of that mawkish ben
evolence and tender-heartedness, now so
fashionable, have their origin in the same
source. Take an illustration from that
curious and celebrated novel of ‘Tristram
Shandy.’ “ Go—go poor devil,” quoth
uncle Toby to the fly that had buzzed
about his nose nil dinner time,—“why
should I hurl thee ?—This world is surety
sed thrin into every school book, down to
the primer, so that the child sucks in their
hcresicscotemporancously with his mother’s
milk. I will trouble you with one extract.
“ I would not have a slave to till my soil,
To fan me while I sleep, and tremble when I wake,
For all the wealth which blood and sinews bought
and sold,
1 las ever made. ” Coxrper.
and ilfv have nothing but the most im- . . , ,, i . „
, ■ . , , s . , , wide enough to hold both thee and me.”
probable and absurd stones about love, and , .. . .
rdl that. Their Dramatis Persona: do not
act like people of ibis world at all. They
arc cvetlastingly in some dreadful scrape
or other, and always get out of each and
all of them, by some fortuitous and most
improbable conjuncture, and by extraor
dinary means. A tragical occurrence hap
pens to real people, perhaps not more than
once in their lives, but these heroes of fan
cy lire in the midst of a perpetual scries of
catastrophes. Nor do they talk like peo
ple of sense. The lover will wander over
the dreary mountains, his passion,
“ Now rolling, boils in his tumultuous breast,
And like a develish engine, bock recoils
Upon himself,”
delivers his soliloquy in regular heroic
measure, beats his breast like Milton’s de
vil in despair, and anon prostrates himself
upon some hoary cliff, and there complains
to the senseless moon, as if she was some
teal divinity, about the faithless or hard-
heartedness of his lady-love. Forgers,
rogues and murderers, by a few touches of
valor, generosity and the like, and by art
fully creating an interest in their misfor
tunes, arc set up as models of imitation.
Rob Roy McGregor is an example of this
sort. Where is the inexperienced youth,
who, upon reading his exploits, would not
wish to be just such a scoundrel as he was
It is with such stufT the public palate is de
lighted. I scarcely know of a greater ob
ject of pity, than that of an artless girl,
full of sensibility and kindness, who ought
'o be relieving the real woes of her fellow
creatures, or darning her own stockings,
weeping, till she is blear-eyed, over the
made up misfortune* of the heroes of ro
mance. But it is said, that no one is de
ceived by this kind of writing—all know
that it i* fiction, and that it is an elegant
recreation; what harm can come of it?—
Much every way. The poets and novel
ists have vitiated the public taste, given us
tt disrelish for the sober realities of truth,
erected false guides to human action, and
created false standards of excellence.—
The following anecdote, in relation to
‘Wceme’s Life of Marion,’ is in point.—
Maj. Horry, a compatriot of this distin
guished partisan officer, after the death of
the latter, collected together a large mess
of authentic documents, intending to write
the life of his friend and fellow-soldier, but
tracts from the poets, in which they have
bewailed, in terms I he most lachrymose,
the misfortunes of these contnnkcrous ver
min. I should place a low estimate upon
any man’s sense—lie must be soft-headed
as well as tender-hearted, who will not
kill a fly in self-defence. For my own
part, I live in perpetual hostility with these
creatures, and have long since carried the
war into Africa. And yet, 1 flatter myself,
that no one, not even uncle Toby, can
sympathize more sincerely than myself,
with every proper object of pity. The ab
surdity, not to say wickedness, of indulging
such feelings of misdirected tenderness, is
strikingly illustrated, in the pity which
uncle Toby feels for the destiny of the
Great Enemy of all good. “I declare,”
quoth my uncle Toby, “ tnv heart would
not let me curse the devil himself with so
much bitterness.”—“He is the father of
curses,” replied Dr. Slop.—“ So am net
replied uncle Toby.—“But he is cursed
and damn’d already to all eternity,” replied
Dr. Slop.—“I am sorry for it,” quoth uncle
Toby.”
This same uncle Toby was a soldier by
profession, performed great exploits, ac
cording to his own showing, at the siege of
Namur, where he received a wound ; could
hew, hack and murder his fellow creatures
without mercy; and yet, he had a tear ev
er ready for the misfortunes of a fly or the
devil
Take another example from Thompson
the Poet.
“—0 And the plain ox,
■fhat harmless, hooeat, guileless animal,
Inwbat has he offended ? He whose toil,
Patient, and ever ready, clothes the land
With all the pomp of harvest; shall he bleed,
And struggling groan beneath the cruel hand,
Even ofthe clown he feeds T and that perhaps,
To swell the riot of the aotnmnal Heart,
Won by his labour T "
Notwithstanding all this fustian, this Mr.
Thompson was a beet-eating Englishman,
and I venture it as my opinion, that he was
os subject to hunger, and as fond of a good
beef-steak, as the poor clown whom he abu
ses. For my own part, I think a man may
both destroy flies and eat beef, arid yet be
a very good Christian, the opinion of the
poets to the contrary notwithstanding.—
Has not our Maker created us lords of the
This poet must have been a man of unu
sual fortitude, to lake his siesta in comfort,
whilst a swarnt of flics were drinking up the
juices of his lips and nostrils. I suspect,
however that the truth is, that his fortune
gave him the advantage of a dark cool
chamber to sleep in; and, that if it had
fallen to his lot to hoe cotton under a vcrli-
cle sun, all this sublimated sentimentalism
would have evaporated, and he would have
called louder than ever, for “a boundless
contiguity of shade.”
The age is thoroughly infected with this
nonsense. Old and New England, their
hands still dripping with the blood of Africa,
have united in a long, loud, deep and pier
cing cry about the sin of slavery. With
the rage and fury of demons, they denounce
us as men-stealers. The charge is false.—
They stole the slaves,sold them tons, and
warranted the title, and now,forsooth, they
turn about and tell us, the transaction was
illegaland thccontrnct a nulity. Let them,
in the name of common honesty, pay back
he purchase money. Nay, they are too
mercenary for that; for, of all the schemes
of abolition, this, the only honest one, has
never been attempted. They make pretty
preachers of righteousness with the wages
of iniquity in I heir pockets. Oh no ! they
cannot buy them from us, that would be ad
mitting the validity of our title, which they
by no means allow. It accords better with
the code of morals of these new lights, who
pronounce the Bible an imposture if it sanc
tions slavery, to provide means and organ
ize societies to steal them again. They
are seeking to carry out, on a grapd scale,
the system which Murrell, the celebrated
land-pirate, practised in a small way. His
method was, to steal slaves and sell them,
reslcal and sell them several times, under
a pledge to place them at last in a free
State and divide the profits with them.
It would seem that the intellect of even
the illustrious Jefferson, was biased by these
poetical fancies about slavery; for, in the
Declaration of Independence, he advances
the absurd dogma, that all men arc created
free and equal—a doctrine wholly at war
with scripture, hisiory, and observation.—
Nevertheless, it embodied in a plausible ad
eaptandem form, the dreams of the crack-
brained poets ; and wonderful have been
ils effects. It flashed across the Atlantic
like a meteor, and kindled the fires of the
French Revolution that swept over Europe,
desolated the fairest portion of the earth,
and left that Continent a smouldering ruin
It is constantly read in every grove and
temple in the the nation, upon the recur
rence of our great political festival, until it
has waked up the demon of abolition, who,
summoning Envy, Fanaticism, Bigotry and
Intolerance as his ministers, is battering
down the fabric erected by our ancesters,
at so great a cost of blood and treasure, and
threatens to make our beloved land,
desolation and an astonishment; a hissing
and a curse.” O! for an interregnum of so
ber thought—one age in which man might
listen to the voice of reason and the voice
of God. Does not observation teach us,
us, that from the Deity down to insensate
matter, there is a regular graduation of
spiritual and animated existence, with pow
er and authority on one band, and subor
dination and dependence on the other ? In
the beginning, God gave Adam authority
over his wife, and upon her enjoined obedi
ence. When the Abolitionists have suc
ceeded in their present designs, consistency
will require, that they shall next coll their
Maker to an arcouut for this. Surely, if
the rough and hardy slave ought not to
serve and obey his master, neither ought
the tender and gentle wife her husband.—
And still they have but entered upon their
task; for I am credibly informed, that the
birch is still in uso, both by parents and
school masters, in the very pimctwn salient
of abolition, and I would respectfully sug
gest to these reformers, whether the chil
dren of this enlightened generation should
not be allowed to flog those grey-headed
oldtyrants, their fathers and mothers, with
in an inch of their lives, as some atonement
for the many ages of oppression under
which they have groaned. And where is
the pedagogue that will escape ? Not one
of them will have a whole skin. But until
such time as their case conics up regularly
for trial, as an earnest of what is in reserve
for them, and by way of recreation for the
reformers and diversion for the boys, the
little urchins ought to be encouraged to turn
them out every Easter, tie their hands be
hind them, and duck them in the horse
pond.
All these reformations being accomplish
ed, I suppose the next measure will Ire, in
raise some of the quadrupeds to an equality !
with us ; for, where is the reason why an
ass should serve and obey liis master if the
slave should not l It is apparent, front the
foregoing quotations, that Thompson thot’
thqjpx, “that honest, harmless, guileless
animal,” a very clever gentleman ; and I,
myself, heard an enthusiast say, that he
believed his horse would participate with
him in the resurrection, and that he never
prayed for himself in wichh ho did not also
pray for Old Bald.
In what respect arc men bom equal? Not
in intellect, goodness, form, size, strength,
or beauty. Not in rank and privilege ; for
sonic arc born kings, others earls, dukes,
counts, gentlemen, citizens, subjects and
slaves. There is no practical sense in which
men are now, or ever have been equal; and
it follows that this notion of equality, which
the poets inculcate, is altogether hypothet
ical—a mere abstraction. Perhaps they
mean that God ought to have made them
equal. “ But who art thou, O ! man, that
repliest against God ? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, why hast
thou made me thus ?” Were Moses, Saul,
David, Solomon, and an host of others,
whose lives are given in the Sacred Wri
tings, created to a mere equality with their
brethren ? Were Esnu and Jacob born
equal 1 “ For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil,
it was said unto her, the elder shall serve
the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have 1 hated.” This
dogma of the equality of all men, is set up
by the abstractionists as fundamental—a
great truth by which all our conduct is to
be regulated. Had this doctrine jrecn true,
would ottr Creator have failed to tell us so,
in the abundance of his revelations ? On
the contrary, He did, Himself, set up many
distinctions, such as kings, law-givers,
judges and slaves; defined their several
duties and prerogatives, and enjoined obe
dience upon all. Nql looking through po
litical spectacles, but with my natural eyes,
1 cannot perceive why the arguments a-
gainst slavery, may not be urged, with sim
ilar, if not equal force, against nil subordin
ation and all authority, conjugal, parental,
majcsterial, civil, military, regal, imperial
and divine. It is yet a mooted question,
wlial is the best form of government, and
the truth doubtless is, that no one form is
adapted to all men, but that they require
modifications according to their manners,
customs, religion, modes of thinking and
degree of civilization. Our government is,
no doubt, the best that could be devised
for us, because we are a people of piety, in
telligence and good sense ; or rather, wc
should be, could wo only cut ourselves
loose from the leading-strings of the poets
and novelists; but how does such an one
suit the half-civilized Spaniards of Mexico
and South America t Let their perpetual
civil wan, their ensanguined plains and
blood-dyed rivers answer. How does shell
a form of government suit the sable propri
etors of St. Domingo, or how would it suit
the Savagesof Dahomey, Ashante, and the
Golah country, or their half-civilized de
scendants in the United Slates 1 Slavery
is strictly a question of government, and the
main point to be settled, so far as we are
concerned, is, whether it is, A is not best
adapted to to the condition ofthe Africans
in the United States. What other form,
let me ask, could have wrought so great
an improvement in their condition in so
short a time ? Compare the state of our
slaves, in regard to order, intelligence and
piety, with that of those left in their native
country, and con any man lay his hand
upon his heart and deplore the day
however he may abhor the “cause, man
ner and instrument” of it, in which the
African became the slave of a Christian
master ? In his own country, he not only
endures all the miseries which attend up
on the lowest state of barbarism, but he is
not even charmed and flattered with the
name of freedom. Mongo Park, who tra
velled over Africa, about half a century
ago, for (lie purpose of exploring the couise
ot the Niger, declares that “ the slaves in
Africaare nearly in iheproportion of three to
one to the freemen.” They nre divided into
petty kingdoms, and blood and rapine ore
the order of the day. They have no secu
rity of life or properly. War is the general
rule, and peace the exception. How supe
rior is their condition here. Blessed with
all the sacred ministrations and consola
tions of the trite religion, they worship their '
Maker as Conscience impels , blessed with
peace, they sleep secure ; relieved ofoli the
care of government, exempt from all the
hardships and privations ot the soldier, and
from all the horrors of war, their persons
protected front injustice and their little pro
perty from violence, fed, clothed, and n r-
sed in infancy, sickness and old age , vhat
■nan in his senses, will rise upand say, they
have gained nothing bv exchanging black
& savage, for while and Christian masters 1
And what is the price which the slave pays
for all these blessings ? 1 answer, moder
ate labour. But the poets say, they are
purchased at the expense of liberty. And
wlial is liberty ? In its broadest sense, it is
the right to do, without restraint, whatever
one pleases. The world will be in a nice
pickle when universal equality and univer
sally prevail.
sal liberty shall universally prevail. Uni
versal ruin will be the result. The restric
ted freedom which wc enjoy, is purchased
at the expense of many of our natural rights;
and, so also, it is by the sarmficc of many
of the natural rights of the slave, that
these blessings are secured to him. Liber
ty is a relative ictm. The English call
theirs a free government, but it is a tyran
ny compared with ours, and our slaves arc
in n state of freedom, compared with that
of the English operative and miner. That
instnnccsof cruelty and oppression frequent
ly occur, I both admit and lament; hut
Mint they nre more frequent than in coun
tries where voluntary servitude exits, I de
ny. One of the most eminent of the Brit
ish poets, in a lucid moment, has truly said.
“ For just experience tells, in every soil,
That those who think must govern those that toil.”
Goldsmith.
In every country, it is in the power of
those who think to govern those wno work;
and in every nation, wicked men niny be
found who oppress and grind the faces of
the poor without mercy. Hunger and na
kedness nre tyrants who often drive the
peasantry of other countries, to submit to
exactions and cruellies which our slaves
are strangers to. The English operative,
doomed to live on bread ana water, whilst
lie labors to the utmost extent of human
endurance,cither in the crowded, dork and
unwholesome factory, or in the coal mine,
a thousand yards deep in the bowels of the
earth, where neither the light of Heaven
nor the warmth of the sun can ever visit
him may boast the empty name of freeman,
but he certainly eats tne fruit of the bitter
est slavery.
Slavery has already done much for the
poor children of Canaan, who have been
transplanted in this country, and it would
have done much more ere‘this, but forlho
silly intcrei ference of their exclusive friends
the Abolitionists, who have madly essayed
to pluck their destiny out of the hands of
the Deity. The Christian slave-holder
would gladly promote, and rejoice to sen
a constant improvement in the intelligence,
the morals and the piety of his slaves.—
But how nre these great ends to be attain
ed, whilst both master nnd slave arc beset
with such enemies as the abolitionists? I
am no octogenarian, and yet I can well re
member, when openly, and without rebukp,
slaves were taught to read. But their mis
chievous friends have made it necessary'to
draw tighter and tighter the cords of slave
ry, ond'to shut the door upon all mental
improvement. The gradual relaxation of
those cords, nnd the continued application
of those means which were in use thirty or
forty years ago, coupled with the benevo
lent scheme of African Colonization, would
have d ine infinitely more, in one century,
to elevate nnd bless the children of that
burning clime, than has been achieved
through all the dreary ages since God said,
“ cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants
shall lie be to his brethren.”
But I will not allow myself to discuss
thisquestiori further: It is unnecessary for
us, and should it meet the eye of .an Abo
litionist, it would, I fear only moke him
gnash his teeth and curse the louder. I
have already digressed much further than
1 intended, ns my only design in the outset
was to call your attention to some of the
evils which we were threatened with, and
ethers which we were alreadv suffering,
from the deluge of fiction in v bich we aro
drowning, ana, lest I should fatigue you I
will notice, very briefly, only one other evil,
viz., the waste of lime. If the hours; days,
months and years, that are now squander
ed upon novels and poetry, were devoted to
solid learning, who can compute the accel
eration that would be given, to all. those
arts and sciences that promote the perina-