28 AUGUST 1858, Page 11

WHAT IS "THE SOUTH " ?

THE latest American newspapers tell us that a monument of con- siderable pretensions, just completed at Charleston, is ab,nit to be erected to the memory of the Honourable Preston S. Brooks, member of Congress. 'Our readers will recognize the name as that of the assailant of Mr. Sumner, who inflicted. blows to an un- limited extent on a man unarmed, unwarned, seated, and pre- vented by his desk from rising to defend himself. This is the act by which Mr. Brooks acquired his fame. One of the inscriptions on the monumental obelisk (of which there are four) is this.

"Ever able, manly, just, and heroic, illustrating true patriotism by his devotion to his country: the whole South unite with his bereaved family in deploring his untimely end."

We need not waste space on any criticism of the terms of this eulogium, as applied to a man who committed a deadly, premedi- tated assault in the Senate-chamber, on an unconscious antago- nist who, for pm-poses of self-defence might as well have been asleep. There is no difference of opinion among us as to the ap- plication of such epithets as " manly,- just, and heroic." Our business with the inscription is with tile. latter part of • it ; with the declaration that "the whole South." deplores the loss of Mr. Brooks.

Most of us may be conscious of an occasional self-reproach for the wide sweep of our eensures,—ancl particularly of our political censures. In regard to the sectional conflicts in the United States, we may too often adopt, without qualification, the broad statements made by the parties concerned, without sufficient care to•distinguish the aggressive from the passive, ancl.the responsible from the unrepresented: It is something of an excuse that we are merely following the lead of the parties themselves, and adopting their own classification. But when some incident oc- curs which impresses us with the injustice of their random esti- mates, it is useful and right to take the lesson home to ourselves. This inscription is a case in point. It is a rank libel on hun-. dreds of thousands,—on probably many millions of southern resi- dents, to say, deliberately, and in the permanent form of a monu-

mental marble that "the whole South" deplores the loss of a man who was known as Preston Brooks was known. We well remem- ber his triumphs after his dastardly act ; the ovations wherever he

went, the banquets and hustings speeches ; and the testimonials—

the silver-headed canes without end, the pieces of plate, and other rich gifts. We believe, moreover, that many persons who would not subscribe to such tributes, nor come forward at public meet-

ings in his praise, subjected themselves by silence.to be regarded

as his admirers. Such men declined the responsibility of creating or exhibiting a schism at the South at a very critical period ; and they swallowed their disgust and mortification, because they thought that dissent could do no good, and that mischief might come of the deposition of the supposed idol of the hour. But, making all allowance for these silent members, thus classed among the assenting, there was always a very large portion of Southern society which felt very much like the rest of the world about the assault on Mr. Sumner ; and the number has doubtless been increasing, as time and thought worked their natural effect in calming passion. Those who had the opportunity of observing Mr. Brooks were certain that he was aware of this. His anxious expression of countenance, his obvious uncertainty and solicitude about his reception wherever he went in private society, and the failure of his health under the wear and tear of his position, showed that being vociferously called "the conquering hero," every day and all day long did not satisfy his own mind as to his reputation for bravery. It is certain that if he could have visited unseen the general run of southern habitations, he would have heard himself denounced as the worst enemy the South ever had,—as a disgrace to the whole caste to which he belonged,—as a mockery on the southern profession of Christian chivalry. How is it, then, it may be asked, that his monument declares him to be deplored by "the whole South ? " It happens chiefly through the self-importance of a small por- tion of the great southern section of the American nation. A handful of the aristocracy of the Slave states have so long accus- tomed themselves to speak as if they were all and their neigh- bours nothing, that they have really learned to think so. They deceive themselves first, and us afterwards. They are "the Slave power " : the Slave power has by degrees got ahead of all other power in the Federal Union ; and its members have ac- quired the habit of assuming to be half the nation at home, and the whole nation abroad. If our knowledge on any one point —such as that of the impossibility that Preston Brooks's act can be sanctioned by half a great nation—checks our tendency to adopt the view and language of a braggart minority on any one occasion, we may as well extend the admonition a little further, and become careful to impute the blame of an iniquitous policy only to the real advocates of it. What, then, is the Slave power which calls itself the South ? By the census and other records of analysis, we learn that out of the total population of the American Union, amounting now to above 27,000,000, the owners of slaves are no more than 360,000; and we need not explain that no man who is not a slave-holder counts for anything in southern society. The entire slave-hold- ing caste, including the wives, children, relatives, and white de- pendants of slave-holders, amount to no more than 2,000,000 at the utmost; while it is doubtful whether so many as 1000 are earnestly and diligently wedded to the institution of slavery. One thousand ! two millions! out of a population of twenty-seven millions! Is this really what constitutes the South ?—" the whole South," which deplores the loss of Preston Brooks? This group of slave-holders is indeed the whole nucleus of the Slave power. It is inferior in numbers even to the free people of colour, who now amount to at least half a million. It is less than a ninth part of the number of the slaves. It is sustained by broad supports, no doubt, in the hopes of the North and the fears of the South, in the commercial interests of the Free states, and the social depression of the non-slave-holding whites in the Slave states : but these supports would disappear at once with the over- throw of the Slave power; and the nucleus is therefore what com- monly goes by the name of the South, and that which overbears the President and, his Government, and which overrules the na- tional principle and true policy, and makes the republic a spec- tacle to the world for the exhibition of licence, and the absence of that liberty which is to the life of nations what daily bread and vital air are to the life of man.

Who, then, are the others ? What is the real population of the South ?

Of the ten millions, or thereabouts, of the Slave-states, nearly four millions are slaves. The free blacks are not more than 200,000. Of the whites, seven-tenths are not slave-holders. It is only recently that this portentous fact has become known in Europe ; and it was before appreciated by very few in the Free

states of the Union. Every conceivable effort was made by the dominant class to conceal the numbers of their degraded neigh- bours, whose existence was never unnecessarily recognized in the presence of strangers. These "mean-whites," "trash,"—locally " sandhillers," ." clay-eaters," and so forth,—are intensely hated, as well as despised by their aristocratic neighbours, who, Alien questioned about them by foreigners, represent them as mere thiovi.sh hangers-on, who tempt the negroes to pilfer, and conduct an illicit trade with them, or who mope themselves to death with drink and laziness. Mrs. Stowe, by her " Dred," has saved all necessity for describing this class, as it has hitherto existed. It is now becoming widely understood, however, that the mean- whites are altering fast, it is certain that the upper class are more and more in dread of "rebellion" through the ballot boxes. of an electoral power which will enter into collision with their own, and be therefore in alliance with the North.. That this ap- prehension is reasonable will be admitted by all who have watched the course of events since the Kansas struggle began, and especially by those who have read a remarkable book by one of the class, "The impending Crisis of the South," by Mr. Hel- per of North Carolina. When a man who eould write and publish that book declares himself a member of the despised class, it is pretty clear that the class is ceasing to be despicable. Als, Helper was knocked down in the House of Representatives at Washington for his book, as Mr. Sumner was in the Senate for his speech : and men, book, and speech, have been made very important thereby : but the social brethren of Mr. Helper were rousing themselves before the fist and the bludgeon gave them fame. Some of them were sent to Kansas to fight for "the South." Too many sold their arms and their bibles (the 'muting gift of the proud men who shuffled them away) and drank them- selves to death ; and others disappeared ; but a considerable number fell in love with free-labour as soon as they saw it in operation, and are now thriving farmers on free-soil. These seven-tenths of Southern whites ought to be exempted from our censures of the pro-slavery policy and tactics, and temper and manners ; for they are not the South." Ignorant, depressed, vitiated, they may be ; but they are not answerable for a pro- slavery policy. They are awakening to a sense of the cruel in- jury they have sustained from that policy ; and as soon as they know their own strength, they will reverse it at the polls. Mr. Helper is their pledge and their prophet to this effect. We have no hesitation in further eliminating a very large ele- ment from the pro-slavery section ;—almost the entire female sex. The ladies who make the most noisy defence of the institution and its resultant policy are from a distance,—converts, brought over by love, or interest, or imagination. When they talk nonsense, or perpetrate cruelty, let them come under our censure with those who have tempted them into such a position. But they must not make us forget the far greater number of their mourning sisters, who pass a long life-time of fear and grief, or who die early of heart-sickness, on account of the guilt and sorrow amidst which they live. The wife who would fain honour her husband, the mother who suffers in every taint which corrupts her sons, the sister whose glory in her brothers sinks into hopelessness and shame as she sees the hardness of despotism, and the mould of indolence, and the insolence of high caste, and the poison of licentiousness destroying their manhood,—these are not "the South" in the sense claimed by the South and supposed by the world at large. They are no part of "the whole South" which deplores the loss of a Brooks. Their grief is that many an one who promised better grows up a Brooks, and thinks it chivalrous to insult a Sumner. In a little while, the phrase will need restriction and description. Meantime, we avow that when we use it we do not mean the population of the Slave-states, but the small oligarchy who first inflict dumb- ness on all the rest, and then assume to speak for all. When the majority have recovered their tongues, we shall hear another tale.