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W ftOWERS COUECriflff
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Georgia tele graph- Extra, dot'll
Col. S. T. Bailey's Letter.
We call aMentjon to the following correspond"
encc between Messrs. Huoter and others, and Col
S. T. BaiJey. We trust the Whigs of Georgia who
congratulated themselves on the victory obtained,
toe other day in Vermont, will peruse it with care
Col Bailey is well known in this District and
Circuit, as a prominent and talented lawyer of the
Bar, and has hitherto been'a member of the Whig
party t
■;•••* -
MACON, 30th Sept., 1844.
Dear Sir,—We learn that you have re
cently returned from a somewhat protracted vi
sit to the North, and while there, met with som>
difficulty in reclaiming a fugitive slave ! May
we trespass upon your attention for a brief state
ment of the embarrassments under which you
laborfed, and a history of the personal peril
you encountered in the reclamation of your
properly. You will readily perceive that our
object in addressing you this note, is to ascer
tain, from a reliable source, the true position
of the Whig and Democratic parties at the
Nonh, in regard to the great and absorbing
question of Abolition. .
A Georgian by adoption, arid identified as
you are with the South, in all the interests of
a permanent citizen, and so extensively known
throuobout our limits,-your statement, cannot
fail ttTcarry with it a most salutary influence,
Respectfullv, your friends, •
F SAMUEL B. HUNTER.
WILLIAM SOLOMON.
A. P. POWERS.
.V H. K. GREEN.
D. C. CAMPBELL.
!■ ROBERT COLLINS.
Col. S- T. Bailee, Vineville.
< r -
Vineville, 1st Oct. 1814.
Gentlemen,—Your note reached me last
night, requiring a
statement of the trials and
penis’which I encountered this summer at the
North attd the position of the two great polit
ical partiesthere, touching abolition. It woo'd
require too much time and space to detail half
the striking incidents which occurred in the
aff <if to which vou allude. Briefly—toy ser
vant was seduced away from my sick family
durog mv absence in Canada ; I having left
them in Vermont. I ascertained on my return,
in what part of thfe country she was conceal
ed- I went with a friend and retook her, and
conveyed her to Baltimore. I was pursued
through Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Con
necticut, by the Abolitionists, with the ener
gy of blood hounds, but was saved by a cor
responding energy and vigilance of a fbvv faith-
ful friends. On. my return to my family m
Vermont, myself and friend were arrested on
a charge of kidnapping,, punishable in that
State, with ten years imprisonment in the Pen-
■ itentiarv. Demons from He]l cotilfl noj have
manifested more ferocious malice than the
gang who arrested us, and yet tjife majority
of those Who had aided and took a part m
that prosecution, did not pWess to be Aboli
tionists. After a tedious trial, we were dis
charged, and on the ground that it was not pro
ven that my servant was forced away against
her'will, and 'therefore rib kidndppmg. In this
affair, the difference in the cbnduct ofMhe
Whigs arid Democrats was most striking: The
Dortocrats gathered in from a distance, even
from New Hampshire, although most of them
Strangers to me, and gave utterance loud and
deep to their abborrenceand detestation of the
infamous proceeding. Those from N. ilamp-
shire, swbte thatiio Southern gentleman could
he treated thus in their State, while the Whigs
frith but few honorable exceptions stood cold.
1$ aloof dt directly aided in the prosecution—
bnfe of my relatives, a member of the Pres
byterian church, informed me that whenevei
he attempted to vindicate me to the members
of his church, they would utter ““' Ied
voice of condemnation, and yet he f as
they were Whigs: Indeed I found throughout
the New England and Middle St f k* deep
-4L
rooted hatred of slaveholders amongst the great
mass of the Whig party. I travelled through
all those States and watched with an anxious
desire to learn the truth, I travelled incog, as
far as practicable, that they might not know I
was a Southerner, and thus give them free
scope to speak their minds without infringing
the rules of politeness, and I came to a settled,
conviction in my own mind, that a majority of
the Democratic party at the North, are the
warm friends of the South, arid that a majori
ty of the Whigs tlifere are our enemies that a
large majority of the Abolitionists are front
the Whig ranks, no honest men at the North
pretends to deny. But that there arfe many
Abolitionists from the Democratic ranks, and
many good friends among the Whigs is just as
certain. •
This state of things is easily accounted for;
he Democratic parly at the North, is with
few exceptions, the same that Sustained the
country during the last war while, neatly all
the leaders of the Whigs in New England are
the old Federalists of the worst school. The.
Democrats retain all their ancient hatred of
British arrogance and aggression, and there
fore, when the British slander the Southern
people or aggress upon their rights, they feel
it an insult to themselves as Americans, While
the Federalists side with England and join in
her slanders of the Southern people.
1 trust, gentlemen, I havo sufficiently an
swered your Questions. It is with reluctance
that I have answered you—nothing but the
rules of politeness has drawn forth this answer
—a civil question demands a reply. 1 do not
desire to be drawn into the disturbing current
of politics, all I ask, is to be permitted, as
heretofore, to glide along in an humble station,
while others worry each other like dogs, on
the political arena, and while I shall neither
seek office nor set myself up as a teacher of
political science, I shall claim the privilege of
voting with whatever party I may honestly be-
l eve will best secure the interest and safety
of the South. But, gentlemen, allow me in
conclusion, to quote from the speech of the
Hon. Rufus Choate, Senator from Massachu
setts, delivered before the Clay Club of Bos
ton, in August last.
Does he reflect how vast a change the sen
timents of civilization have undergone on that
whole subject (slavery) since 1820 ? Does he
reihember that in that learning, the world is
live hundred years o]derthanit was then?—
Can he not read the gathering signs of the
limes ? Does he not mark the blaiing cliar-
aciers traced by the bodiless hand as in the un
finished picture f Does ha not remember what
the nations have done and especially what
England has done within twenty years ? Does
iie not si*e and feel that in that interval a public
opinion has been generated, has been organi
zed wholly new, aggressive, intolerant of the
sight, intolerant of the cry of Than in chains ?"
Then, gentlemen,.you have the embodied
| the printed sentiments of the Whig party of
he North and of some of the Democrats of
he North. And he must be blind indeed who
can travel, and tarry any considerable time at
the North, and '■•hot read the gathering signs of
the times'" nor “.see the bodiless hand ox
theiball" And if I might be permitted with-
ut arrogance, I would beseech the whole
South to lay aside their party warfare, and
squabble for office, and unite their best coun
sels, and their best energies to provide for their
future safety before “thebodiless hand” writes
iheir irrevocable doom. The lime is surely
coming, when they cannot rely on either Whigs
or Democrats st the North, arid when that day
comes, happy will it be for them, if they have
provided means of self-reliance.
1 remain, gentlemen,
ftefipectfUlTy, vclSrs, &c.
S. T. BAILEY;
Messrs. Hunter, and others.
