Southern post. (Macon, Ga.) 1837-18??, September 15, 1838, Image 1

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by p. c» PENDLETON. | VOL. I. THE S © S? 2E 23 IB ST !P ©S SP Is published in the city of Macon every Snturday Morning, at three dollars in advance, four dollars at the end of the year —two dollars for six months; and mailed to country subscribers by the earliest mails, enveloped by good strong wrappers, with legible direc tions. &J" No subscription received for a less period than six months—and no paper discontinued, until all arrears arc paid. Advertisements will be inserted at the usual ra’cs of advertising, with a reasonable deduction to yearly ad {S3r Any person forwarding a ten dollaH bill, (post paid,) shall receive four copies, for one year, to be sent to different persons, as directed. DOT Letters, on business either to the Publisher or Editor, must come post paid to insure attention. POETRY. From Blackwood's Magazine. POETICAL PORTR VIT.i. SHAKSPEARE. His was the wizard’s spelh The spirit to enchain ; Ois grasp o’er Nature fell—Creation owned his reign. MILTON. His spirit was the home Os aspirations high ; A temple, whose huge dome Was hidden in the shy. BYRON. Black clouds his forehead bound, And at his feet were flow'ers; Mirth, madness, magic found In him their keenest powers. SCOTT. He sings, and lo ! romance Starts from its mouldering urn; While chivalry’s bright lance And nodding plumes return. SPENSER. Within the enchanting womb Os his vast genius lie Brightstreams and groves, whose glocm Is lit by Una's eye. WORDSWORTH. He hung his harp upon Philosophy’s pure shrine, And, placed by Nature’s throne, Composed each placid line. WILSON. His strains like holv hymns Upon the car do float, Or voice of chcrubiins In mountain vales remote. GRAY. Staring on pinions proud, The lightnings of his etc Scar the black thunder-cloud Ke passes swiftly by. BURNS. He seized his country’s lyre With ardent grasp, and strong, And made his soul of fire Dissolve itself in song. COLERIDGE. Magician, whose dread spell, Working in pale moon light, From superstition’s cell Invokes each satelite. COWPER. Religious light is shed Upon his soul’s dark shrine, And Vice veils o’er her head At his denouncing lines YOUNG. Involved in pall of gloom, He haunts with footsteps dread, The ntutderer’s midnight tomb, And calls upon the dead. GRAHAM. Oh 1 when we hear the bell Os * Sabbath’ chiming free, It strikes us like a knell, And makes us think of thee. W. L. BOWLES. From Nature’s flowery throne His spirit took its flight, And moved serenely on In soft, sad, tender light. SHELLEY. A solitary rock, In a far dis’ant sea, Rent by the thunder’s shock. An emblem stands of thee. J. MONTGOMERY. Upon thy touching strain Religion's spirit fair Falls down like drops ot rain, And blends divinely there HOGG. Clothed in the rainbow’s beam, ’Midstrath and pastoral g'ert, He sees the fairest gleam Far from the haunts of men. MISCELLANEOUS. - —— JL —-■ From the Southern Literary Messenger. POLITICAL RELIGIONISM. BY A SOUTHRON. 1. .4 Letter to the Hon. Henry C!ay, on the Annexation of Texas; by William E Channing, 1). D. Boston, 1337. ". “ Texas,” Quarterly Review, June, 1839. [CONTINUED.] We feel no disposition to retort upon our adversaries, by instituting inquiries into the time and manner of abolition in the northern and eastern states —into the time allowed to sell the few slaves that remained among them into southern bondage, before their law of emanci pation took effect, or into the trifling cost of this move ment. But we undertake to assert, without fear of contradiction, that whenever the generous south can be satisfied that it can be done with safety to themselves, and that the objects of their benevolence would be benefited, and not accursed by the change, one hun dred planters in any one of the slaveholding states can be readily found, who w ill contribute most cheerfully to effect the abolition of slavery, double the sum it cost any state north of Mason’s and Dixon's line to carry out the same design. Some of those states w hose citi zens are the most active friends of abolition, permitted slavery until the period arrived, which in their own coo! judgment, enabled them with perfect safety and trifling loss to abolish it. 7/e are yet to learn that New Eng land surpasses the south in generosity. And if our eas tern brethren will permit us to enjoy the privi'ege whi h they have exercised, we will most assuredly imitate their good example, and abolish slavery whenever the pover ty of our soil and our true interest shall demand it. Al though the plans of these agitators had not then been reduced to that system and perfect organization which Have since characterised them; yet, by the aid of letters pamphlets, papers, and tracts, they produced the insur rection in Southampton, in the state of Virginia. In deed, the character of the tracts secretly distributed among the negroes, threw suspicion upon many of the niinfetcrs of religion, and reflecting men have long siuce been convinced, that the religious instruction imparted to slaves is so defective in its character, as to corrupt their fidelity, to increase their discontent, and to abase their morals Wherever their religious culture, under this imperfect system, has been most assiduous, ther Devoted to Literature, Internal Improvement, Commerce, Agriculture, Foreign and Domestic News, Amusement, Ac. was less merriment, less singing, less dancing, but not less lying, drinking, stealing and disobedience. The calm philosopher, the sedate and orderly Christian, has long and anxiously watched the progress of gloomy b gotry throughout the land. The gloomy and ascetic doctrines inculcated among these unrefldetive beings resulted in their greater depravation For religion can never be blended with any system of worldly policy, w ithout becoming utterly corrupt She is the daughter of the ski is, a id refuses to intermarry with the son 9 of the children of men. In this regard all religions are alike. They have all, in their turns, scourged makind, whenever they became the instruments of worldly men or we e connected with political schemes or establish ments. And whether a crusade be led bv Peter the Hermit, or the northmen, whether its object betoexpe] the Saracen or to redeem the captive—to extirpate Isla niism, or abolish slavery—it is equally offensive to God and destructive to man. The gospel duties are permanenti uniform, and uni versal, in their character; the duties of the clergy of all denominations are pointed out by this invariable law; vet the clergy of the north and of the south, even of the same churches, derive opposite lessons and duties upon the subject of slavery from the same divine law. Titus, the Revered Dr. Channing is the indignant champion of the Indian and the negro, while the Reverend Dr. Schemerhorn reaps golden fruit from the treaty which robs the aboriginesof their dearest fights. The catholic missionary teaches the Indian the observance of the ten commandments, and the slave obedience and subordi nation ; but he does not interfere with their innocent amusements; nor does he harrow tip the angry feelings or stimulate the truculent and revengeful temper of the red or the dark man, by teaching the white man’s op pression. Hence the popularity of that mission in the south-western states, although its ministers profess a creed exp sed to the prejudices of three centuries of of obloquy. The Methodist and Bap'ist churches, also, if we have been correctly informed, have acquired no little share of public confidence by an official declara tion of their opposition to this fanatical and destructive crusade. We have already observed, that the exclu sion of the clergy from political preferment, and their civil disabilities, are not only a safeguard to the public, against the abuse of a wholesome but powerful influ ence, but is the surest protection of the clergy themselves, and of the puritv. f morals and religion. Remove these civil disabilities, and let these reverend gentlemen imi tate the example of I)r. Channing in the discussion of agitating political topics- let them unite with foreign reviewers in decrying our morals and proclaiming the lawlessness which only exist in their heated imagina tions, and ifthev do not themselves become the victims of a just indignation, thev may at least rest well assured that when the day of tribulation comes, the ruins of the altar will crumble amid the ruins of the republic. Aholution of slavery in the southern states, and the admission of slaves to the rights of freemen, constitute the wildest scheme that ever entered the brain. fvisionay enthusiasts. The color, the character, the capacity the negro, the condition and morals of the free negro in the free as well as in the slave states, hear melancholy testimony to the truth, that if the colored population are to remain among us, the safety of the white man, and the happiness of the black, ns the weaker party, require that the blacks should be re.ained in slavery. We wib not presume to fathom the designs of Providence, we will nor attempt to indicate the peculiar destiny, or the similarity of the children ofHam to the descendants of Abraham; hut tis manifest that the dist'nctive eharac ter of the Israelite, does not so effectually cut him off from a full communion with the human family, as does the prejudice arising from color, separate the Anglo- Saxon from the African. No matter whether this preju dice be implanted for wdse and holy purposes, or w hether it be the curse of the age, it exists, its roots are deeply planted, it is a part of ourselves, and he is but a shallow observerof man, a blind and bigoted philosophist, who will overlook or despise this pervading and resistless feeling, originate whence it mat’. The only hope for the African slave is in his removal from the house of bondage to the land of his forefathers. The unqualified advocates of slavery and the aboli tionists occupy the two extremes of this much vexed question. But the scheme of colonization is the juste milieu. This is the broad platform upon which the friends of this unhappy race may meet in soberness and safety. The morals and misery of the free negroes in the northern states, the perpetual and bloody conflicts between them and the white man in New York, New England, and Philadelphia, show that to them freedom carries no healing on its wings, and liberty, that blesses all, has no blessing for them.* * As an evidence of the beneficial results of the friend ship of the abolitionists for the slave, we submit to in telligent readers the subjoined extract from a Boston paper. Police Court. — Degraded condition of a colored fe male, abducted by the Abolitionists. —A case came off yesterday which may be fairly used to advantage by the opponents of the Northern Abolitionists. A wen dressed intelligent and high spirited mulattt woman, named Lttcilia Tucker, was brought up by officer Glover of the West Watch, and charged with being a common night walker, and the evidence was absolute that, for the last ten days at least, she had openly led a lewd and disso lute life. She was originally a slave, and two years ago came on here, in the family of her owner, a gentle man belonging to Natchez, who put up at the Treniont House As soon as it was known to the Abolitionists that she was here, a plan was laid to get her away and secure her; and, under some friendly pretence, she was enticed to visit, and was not permitted to return to her master’s family. The abduction made some stir at the time of it, and the master had to leave the city without her In speaking of it, yesterday, she said, “I always had a good home in Natchez, and I did all I could to got hack to my master, hut they would not let me go any where till it was too la e. Then I was left to shift for myself, and 1 would have done any thing to have got the mt&.ts to return to Natchez.” Court. —It is appa: ent that these people have been the means of bringing you to shame and degradation, al though they probably supposed that they were doing God’s service and saving you at the snme time. They have unfortunately done you a great wrong. Lucilia. lam fully aware of it; and do not expect to he better off, unless I can get back to my good old home, where I had every thing comfortable that is required. Court. I hope you w ill find means to do so; but your late conduct has been a public and gross offence against our laws, and the least that I think of is to sentence you to two months labor, in the House of Correction. Lucilia. Me in the House of Correction 1 Wlmt have I done, that I should go to such a degraded place as that ? 1 should never be able to hold mv head up again after being there ; and I will never go there. 1 would rather cut my throat front ear to • ar, first. Yes, I'll die —l’ll murder myself, sooner. Keep me here in Boston, away from my own home, and send me to the House of Cmrection! I’ll never, never submit to such a disgrace I defy all the officers in court to attempt it; and if they want to sec a dead woman, they will start with me for that place. The officers now removed her in a most violent parox ism of indignation, and uttering imprecations loud and deepen the heads of those who had ensnared heruwav from her pwn home.—Jo stem Post MACON, (Ga.) SATURDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1838. Denied the protecting care which the interest, if not the feeling of the owner, extends to the slave ; subjected to all the prejudice of color; with some of the rights of a freeman, and all the sentiments of a slave ; they con stitute an intermediate class, having no bonds of common interest, no ties of sympathy to sustain them; too indo lent to labor, and too insolent to serve, they are the most depraved and unhappy race under this govern ment. It has been the constant practice of northern writers to dwell upon the oppression and cruelty of the task-master of the south, and the ill usage and sufferings of the slave; but those who are familiar with their do mestic institutions well know, that where the agitator is unk j’.yn, there is not upon the face of the globe a people doomed literally to earn their bread in the sweat of thetr brow, who art! more cheerful, contented and happy. Examples of fidelity and devotion to their mas ters not unfrequently break forth upon an admiring world, and but that the agitator is wilfully bn .id to all such cheering views upon the broad waste of slavery, his restless eye might dwell fora season upon them. In that dark hour of danger, when the pride and the chivalry and the beauty of the south were smitten on the waters by the angel of death, a slave was found cooly and dilligently laboring to construct a raft of the fragments of the ill-fated Pulaski, to “ try and save his master.” Such owners are no tyrants, and such a slave has no task-master. Cast him loose from his bondage, and this estimable but humble being be comes that most wretched of the human family—a free negro. Redeemed from slavery by the mild influence of the Jaws, by the generosity of their owners, or by the persua sive force of a wholesome public opinion, and transla ted to the shores of Africa, these men will be as superior to the native races, as the whites are to them. And the prejudice of color being thus removed, the natives may be civilized and enlighted through their agency. They can there blend by intermarriage, without the aid of M r. Tappan. Tiiey may plant the cross amid the sterile sands of the desert, and-he the heralds of salvation to a benighted people. We feel little inclination to offend the moral reader by a any attempt to expose the redicu lous and revolting scheme of amalgamation; let its projectors be classed with those fanatical advocates of temperance, who would substitute buttermilk for wine, 1 in the Lord’s supper. It i3 by colonization alone that the descendants of Ham can he redeemed. There are j at present but few spots on the African continent settled i for this purpose, and their growth is feeble and sickly, Ss were the colonies of Jamestown and Plymouth on our own shores. But the little fountains that now swell up in the desert may multiply and blend, and roll on until j they sweep onward, not unlike their own Nile, in one resistless and fertilizing stream. How long was it be fore the early colonists of America toiled up the summit of the Allegany, and from another Pisgah looked down upon the land of promise ? Yet as they descended, in little more than one generation of the children of men, empires have arisen and cities have peopled the wilder ness. The first fruits of abolition we have already gathered, and the branch which bore them is of the tree of death. ' In its destructive progress abolition would more speedily effect a revolution, but when its wild fury shall have been exhausted, its stormy depths will settle down into a sullen and stagnant pool, not unlike the sluggish waters which sleep upon ruins in the valley of Siddim, containing no living thing within their bosom. Coloni- ! zation, with its mild and wholesome influence, operating slowly but effectually, will lead the children of captivity forth from the house of bondage tQ the homes of their j fathers, in a clime peculiarly fitted for their habitation, j The strong arm of the Deity, is no longer stretched forth ! visibly to chastise and subdue with famine, and pesti- j lence, and fiery plague; but the inconveniences and | evils of slavery press with a constantly accelerative j force, and may ultimately compel the white man to ! strike away the fetters of the captive. Although the j bars of the prison door may not be again thrown back, and the bonds of servitude forcibly torn asunder, yet ! under the blessing of heaven, and with prudent coun- I sels, the good jailor may himself relent, and invite the j captive to come forth. But should the abolitionists I succeed in their turbulent efforts, in the hour of depar- ! ture which they prepare, every ‘‘lintel and door-cheek i will be sprinkled with blood, but not as a token to the red right arm of the archangel that the inmates are to be consumed.” It is not the discussion of this exciting and alarming ! topic to which the south objects; but they do object to j making their slaves a party to the controversy. They i object to the artificial formation of a spurious public ! opinion through the agency of associations acting di rectly upon ttie slave and stimulating him to rebellion. } For they think with Milton: “ Who knows not that I Truth is strong, next to t! e Almighty; she needs no | policies, no stratagems, no licensings, to make her I victorious.” She disdains all combinations, clerical or political. Like the mighty eagle, Truth soars with ! steady flight and unblenching gaze into the higher hea- | vens, while those timerous companions of her early flight, dismayed and paralysed by apprehension, can ; never penetrate those abysses of light which she floats ' in solitude, undazzled and unalarmed. Have these misguided enthusiasts been taught no salutary lessons by the calamities which their interfer ence has heaped upon the red man? Whithersoever they turn, their embrace is death. They have taught these denizens of the forest to resist the settled policy and pledged faith of the federal government in their re moval, without which they die. Even in the sanctuary we have heard exhausted all the powers of rabid elo quence—we have seen priests, with all the fanatic rav ing, but without the inspiration of the Pythoness de picting in glowing colors to the savage the loss of his home, of his hunting grounds, of the graves of his fore fathers, the fields of his bloody trophies, and the bones of his warriors; but they overlook the sufferings of this weak and uncultivated people in contact with the re sistless white man on his frontier march, their poverty, their starvation, their necessities, their pillage and mur ders, and the retributive vengeance, which the strong never fail to visit mercilessly on the weak. How much ol there eloquent complaints of politicians and religion ists only exist in the fervid imaginations of the de claimers, and how little is there which tho under standing approves? Wc can readily comprehend the reluctance with w hich the civilized man abandons the comforts of home; but to the roving tribes it is but a change of hunting grounds. With little exception, they have never known a fixed abode. The awful truth constantly presses upon us, that the Indian on the borders of civilization must either be subdued to in feriority among a people w'ith whom he can never blend, or he must be removed or exterminated. To sym pathize with the sufferings of this unhappy race, to feel a chill of horror upon observing the closing scene in the destinies of this doomed people, this decayed branch of the tree of civilization lopped offin the depths ofiiidden ages, and perishing in the wilderness—these are feel ings which a Christian may safely indulge, while with a heart filled with gratitude for the blessings heaped upon himself, he may beseech the great Arbiter of human that he will so guide this free and favored people, that they may avert the degrada tion and debasement which have overtaken the red man. To teach resistance to the Indian by dwell ing upon the oppression of the white man, is to ex terminate the lingering remnants of these vagabond tribes, until there will be none left to lift up his voice on the margin of the king of waters, to bew ail the un' timely late of his people. The genius that lias so beau fully told the melancholy tale of the “ Last of the Mo hicans, may yet be employed to sketch the instruc tive history of the last of the red men. It is impossible that these tribes can live in contact with civilization and retain their independence; neither can they be incorpor ated among us any more than the negro. Indeed they are O'rie degree further removed than the black man from the pale of civilization. They have to encounter the same invincib’c prejudice of color, which is unhap pily stronger on the point of coik’uct than elsewhere. In the sweat ofhis brow has man been <?°onied to eat his bread. The necessity of labor, that first is. w of hu manity, that ever asting canto, the destiny of man since his fall, these people stubbornly resist. No per suasion, no force can subdue them to this stern law, which is the porch of civilization. They will perish in the vestibule rather than enter the temple of civilization through the narrow gateway of labor. From the early settlement of these colonies they have been hovering on the borders of civilization; and notwiths'anding nil the efforts of missionaries, and the attractive order and beauty of civil institutions, they still remain the same uncultivated barbarians. But there are considerations connected with the de cress of a superintending Providence, in the govern ment of man, from which the reflecting mind may bor row many salutary lessons in relation to thefa len races ofthe human family. Sacre I and profane history unite in teaching us the awful truth, that national debase ment invariably follows national crime. It is a fixed canon in the institution of the w orld, that no creature can depart from its appropriate function, from the law of its foundation with impunity. In moral agents en dowed with understanding and free will, Justice the Avenger, punishes every departure from the prescribed rule of action. Individuals, it is true, sometin.es ap pear to escape the punishment due to crime; but let tie not forget, that divine justice ntav he disarmed by prayer and repentance, and that for the wicked there is retribution beyond the grave. But national degra dation is the inevitable consequence of national crime. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, when the powers of darkness seemed for a season to have pre vailed upon the earth, there ar ,se indeed unbelieving men, who found it necessary in their attacks upon the social institutions of man to proclaim the savage state as r. state of nature. But the Christian philosopher w ell knows, that the sublimes, ofthe works of the supreme architect did not come thus rude and unfinished from his hands, and the traditions of all ages, as well as revelation itself, assure us that civilization and science are the primitive and natural condition of man. Thus all the traditions of the east, from which we derive every ray of light, characterize the first ages of man as a state of perfection and light; and even fabulous Greece confirms this truth, by commencing the golden age with the origin of things It is no less remarkable, tha* this people has not connected the savage state of man with any one of their ages, not even with the age of iron; so that all that is related in her annals of primitive men, who frequented forests and fed upon acorns, and thence advanced gradually to a state of civilization, contravenes the current of her own tradition, or else refers to particular tribes or colonies of degenerated men, returning tardily to that civiliza tion which is the true state of nature. Has not Vol taire himself declared, (and his authority on this sub ject is everything,) that the “ motto of all nations has constantly been that the age of gold first appeared on earth?” Now, ns all nations have unanimously pre tested against a state of primitive or original barbarism, that protestation is entitled to much w eight. It js impossible for us to took hack into the e.hyss of time,'and discover at what period the aborigines of this country were debased beneath their primitive condi tion. And indeed it matters not at what time any branch was lopped off from the parent trunk. Con cede to us a fail of the human family from an original and more elevated condition, and there will be no doubt ofthe cause of that degradation;-which can benothmg but crime. The moral principle of a people thus de graded has been corrupted, and the consequent ana thema has been entailed upon their generations. Titis depressing force is cumulative in its action, and by perpetually pressing upon the descendants, reduces them at last to what we term the savage state. And this is the degraded condition of fallen man, that Rous seau and his companions call the state of nature. It has been the common error of the '•lergy in all ages, to transcend the limits of moderation and truthin tile fervor of their zeal. Upon the first discovery of this continent the same exaggerated statements of the character and virtues of the Indian were published by these pious men that we now hear; and iri the excess of their philanthrophy, similar appeals were made to the interposition of foreign power. In South America, from the bosom of deserts bedewed wttli their blood, and fruitful of their labors, the clergy flew to the courts of Rome and Madrid, invoking the interposition of both the secular and spiritual authorities to check the merciless avarice which labored to reduce the Indian to hopeless slavery. Animated with a charity transcend ing the precepts of the gospel, the Whusiastic priest exalted in order to preserve him ; he extenuated every vicious propensity, he exaggerated every virtuous quality in the Indian character to such an extent, that Robertson, in hts History of America,cauthns his read ers not to confide too fully in the narrations ol the clergy, on account of their partiality to the aborigines. Anoher source of inaccuracy na to the character and condition of this people mav be found in the philosophy of the last age, which misrepresents the savage state, to underprop its frivolous and malignant assaults upon the social state. Thus the clerical enthusiast and the infidel ph losophist unite to deceive us. But it will require little investigation to expose the errors as wel of the religionists as of the irreligious. We have only to contemplate the savage to perceive that hs has none of those high qualities in behalf of which our sympa thies have been so enthusiastically exerted, and that in his present debased condition he can never blend with the white man, or prosper in his vicinage. Look upon him but for an instant, and behold the anathema graven not only upon bis heart, but upon his frame of body. He is an ill favored mor'al, luaty and ferocious. C. R. HANLEITER, PRINTER. over whose countenance the light of intelligence casts but a feeble and glimmering ray. Smitten by a terri ble power, the two great characteristics of human grandeur, forethought and perfectibility, have been ob literated in the savage. Together the fruit he fells the tree ;he slaughters the oxen bestowed upon him by the Missionary to till his lands, and with the frag ments of his plough he builds the fire to roast bis food. For three centuries he has dwelt within sight of civi ,ized man, and has obtained from him nothing but powder to destroy his brethren, and intoxicating spirits to destroy himself. And still relying upon the undying avarice of the white man to supply him with these de struct ve agents, he has never dreamed of manufactur ing them for himself. As substances object and repul sive in themselves are susceptible of still further de basement, so the inherent vices of humanity acquire a darker character in the savage. He is a cobber, he is cruel and lascivious, but he is so in a different manner from us. To commit crime we violate our nature, tha savage follow s his : w ith the appotite for crime he feels no remorse. While the son murders the father to’ re ieve him from tlie ennui of old age, hs wife will de stroy in her womb the fruit of his brutal passion to escape the duties of a nurse. lie snatches the bleeding scalp from l.i t living foe, be tears the flesh from hie b„dy, he roasts it and devours it arfrid songs of tri umph ; ifbe carl procure ardent spirits, he drinks to intoxica ion, to madness, to death, insensible alike to the reason which restrains man by his fears, and to the instinct which repels the animal by distaste. He is manifestly a doomed being; smitten for his crimes by an avenging hand in the innermost recesses of his moral confo mation, so that he who regards him with an observant eye, trembles as he views. But if we wish to tremble for ourselves with a salu tary fear, if we desire to find objects for our overween ing charity in the beings who surround us and who are connected to us by the most endearing ties, let us re flect, above all let the compassionate clergy reflect,that with all our morals, our sciences, and our arts, we are degraded as far below the primitive condition of man as the savage is debased beneath ourselves. Let us not rend the mantle of our charity by fruitless and destructive efforts to stretch it over the obdurate and d.s.ant savage, while there are so many among us requiring the aid of the Samaritan. Let us be moder ate even in our virtues—the over-zealous priest de generates into the intolerant bigot and brawliag poli tico-religionist. Let him imitate his Master in the meekness and retiring simplicity of his character. Let us have no fiery tracts thrown abroad iike brands; let us have no associations, no combinations, no letters, no pamphlets reviling our southern brethren, no interfer ence with their domestic relations. It is time that tha clerical order should be excluded from the political arena—let them visit the sick, and the prisoner—let them console tho afflicted, bind up the broken-hearted, bury the dead, and teach the living by example rather titan by precept to observe ihe law, to respect estab lished institutions, and above all to abstain from bear ing false testimony against their neighbor, Let the church stand apart trom the state, Such being the melancholy debasement of the Indian people, with whose rise and progress we are wholly unacquainted, but whose awful degradation alone indi cates the extent of the crimes they have committed in their generations ; it is the first duty of philanthropists who wish to restore them to their former dignity to a dopt such measures as the condition and character of these tribes seem to require. If it be true, as we have supposed, that the cause of all the evils which afflict both the Indian and the white man on the borders, is their juxta-position; if it be impracticable for these op posite races to blend harmoniously either from some unknown invincible difficulty, or from some uncon querable repugnance or prejudice ; if in the march of civilization the inferior people must give way or perish before the advance of the more powerful; then there is no other mitigation of the sufferings of the Indian than his removal from the vicinage of the white man, and the interpositionofsuch space or such barriers as will abstract from the Indian the opportunity of plun der and rapine, which lie never fails to seize, and for which the white man as surely retaliates. From these reflections, it is manifest that the government has a dopted and steadily pursues that policy towards the aborigines, which is wisely adapted to the character and condition of that people, end which is well calcu lated to restore and maintain peace on the frontier. And there is as little doubt, that much of the sufferings of that unhappy people during the last five years has been occasioned by the interference of their northern frtends, whose incessant clamor about the right* of the Indian, and the wrongs inflicted by the white man, has incited the former to rebellion, and has stained the hammocks of Florida with the mingled blood of these hostile races. The march of civilization is onward in self-defence. Like the ocean she can never repose, action is essentially necessary for her preservation; to pause i3 to fall a prey to those savages who prowl around her borders. When Rome was in advance of the nations of the earth, they fell back before her ea gles to the fastnesses of impenetrable forests; but when reposing upon her laurels she became corrupted and debased beneath the martial virtue of the barbari an, the tide of civilization rolled back before the over whelming torrent of Gothic barbarism, until Alaric pres sed forward amid the ruins es the western empire to inscribe his name on the trophies of the Caesars. Such is the melancholy history of social ntan, such is the fata of nati ms. Civilization gradually refines and enligh tens, and no sooner is man thus improved, than a cor rupt will leads him to abuse his transcendant gift*, and Ju-tice the Avenger of crime, degrades him to a level w.th the savage. The day perhaps is not far distant, when we shall be enabled to trace the primitive purity and perfection of man in a state of nature—and tha gradual debasement of the corrupt nations of the chil dren of men, as well as the merciful dispensations of Providence in raising them from time to time from this et ite of deg. adation, and in preparing them slowly far admission once again into the pale of civilization. We ourselves are debased very far below the primitive cow dit.cn of man, and it is impossible for us to fathom tha designs of Providence in relation to us. But aa national crime invariably induces national debasement, our ra pid advances in the paths of licentiousness proclaim that we can arrogate to ourselves no exemption from the decrees of avenging and retributive justice. The day may be, probably is, distant, although it seems to be a law of nature that whatever is destined to be dura ble is slow of growth. But our growth has ftaidedths nations of the earth. Yet the destiiues of mighty em pires are not speedily wrought out; the designs of provi dence are surely but slowly and steadily matured. There ism the increasing depravity of our people much cause to apprehend, thatfrovidence will cease to bestow upcit us those signal benefactions which bav* NO 47.