Progress Of Public Opinion At The South Slavery

From our last number of Mr. Vaughnn's excellent Loaisviile Examiner, we extract the followmg synopsis of letters received by the Editor during the few weeks preceeding. It combines with an exdibiiion of facts showing vividly the evil iniluences of Slavery, a clear exposo of the rapid progresa of Southern opinión on that subject. PerImps we should more accuralely say, the avowal of Arni-Slavery opinions at the South, for we do not believe Slavery ever existen in an even partially civil ized and Christianized community widiout being regarded by a great proponion of ihat comriiunity as iniquitous and lnjurious:; but the slaveholding is in all such cases the governing class, and ils enmity is usually feared by those whose moral visión has been opened to perceive the onormity of the wrong. WhiO the ndversaiies of Slavery in Slavehold ing communitios ore emboldened lo snv what tliey think, then be sure the davsof Bondage are numbered. But hear The Ex vniner: CORRESPONDENTE AND CORRESPONDENTS: Did you ever, reader, have a pile of letters before you, (rom various parts and people, and read them over one by one 1 It is not always a pleasant task. But it may be madeso, if you will onlylearn from them the characters of the writers. The caulious, sanguine, bold, impulsive, timid - can be guessed, at once, without Combe's book, or Fowler's l'hrcnological bust. This whoie day, ihough not with this view, we bave been readingand answering leters, and we do not know that we can employ its close better than in giving a running notice of their contents. The first we take up is from a North Alabamian. His parents were South Carolininns , but moved to the West, where he was mainly reared. He says: v I was principally raispd in North Alabama, but had to leave thtre on account of slavery. I could not live there without participating in t some vvay, and that I determined not to do. I am attached to the the country; it has a mild and genial climate ; produces the best of frttitfl and vegetables; but the curse cf slavery upon it has ruined it. I feel as if 1 stiould like to go back and live there, if this curse could be removed; but 1 have no hope of it in my day." " Let him go," say one class. Not so, friends ! Wh.it drove that inau away, drives thousands. It may not impoverish you ; but it does impoverish the State; check i's g:owth - its power j slop the building of railways ; limit the comfort and happiness of the miny ; unnerve and debase labor. 'Let hitu stay,' adds another. So say we. Stay here, stay, and battle against the evil - stay and root it out. But listen again to aSouthron : "The last year I lived there ('Alabama in 1835J I attended two meetings in my county to ferret out antislavery publicalions [abolition papers.] I dared not take any part. I coula say what 1 pleased in private without running any riak; and anybody who knew the middle class men would have been ostonished at the extent of the emancipation feeling. In fact I believe it is more extensively feit al the Soulh than we genei ally suppose." Well - we say, stay at home nnd talk as you please in private. Rouse the middle class, they have the stuffin them to do; if resolved, they can carrv the day; nnd why should they not speak out Í - This 'I dared not take any part,' is what makes the masses powerless and the few absolute. If in private men say what they piease, they can soon act in public. Stay, then, at the South and wo rk. Let us finnr, now, fi-om Western Virginia. A friend writes. us : " I have the opinión ofsomeofthe citizens of Wood County, thatifthey had somebody to take the lead, an emancipa'ion represenlntive could be elected from that county. So of the counlies round it? "Somebody to take the lead!" Do we wait ibr that in private affairs 1 When our inlerests demand it, do we stop to inquire what we should say or do ? - This idea about waiting to take tho lead isa most perniciops one. Let the good man utter hiinselC, and other good men will raspond, and leadership will soon be settled. The hour then wij! produce ils men. But another correspondent says .- "I have perused 'lic scveral nurr.bers of the Hxaminer as tliey have been received, and ara well pleased with the manner in vvhich it has been conducted su far. I hope it niay prove a valuable auxiliaiy in the grent and good work of terminating American slavery. One tliing is perfectly obvious to everv man wlio reflects or the past history of our country, and carefully surveys the present position of our national afTairs. Slavery rnut soon be checked in iu progress, or the Union of these Slates must be dissulved, and with the dissolulion of the Union, in all probaöility, will terminale all our fair hopes of prosperily and freedom! God grant that the onward tide of this trcmendous evil wliieh has hitherto surmounted aid swept avvay every barrier, may not be permitted to undermine and overthrow our Constitution, our U. nion, our ljbertiesr Svvift's spider, when lie saw the house-wife's broom, snid that [Ieaven and Earth werp coming together, but the coming together of Ileaven and Enrth, was but the comh:g down of his cobwcb." Never fear, friend about disunion. - We of the mrd-slave States will save tliat. We don't mean that the perpetualists shall have every thing theirown way, and if they make the eflbrt to dissolve the Government, these States will prevent it. The Kentucky Statesmen say so. The Missourians all so declare. - Nay, as 10 that, Judge Nicholas's declaration will hold good of all of them. - They will never acquiesce in the idea that negro slavery is to be entailed upon them, and their posterity, in perpetuity and never tolérale the idea of disunion for this eud. Their course may créate a great outcry ; but the cobweb only will be swept away. Look up, then, friends, ond labor on. A better day is coming y et. OU North Carolina! we had well nigh overluoked her. Ilear one of her inintelligent soris. Referring to the fact that lie had made the identical suggestion we had, as regards county action, he says: " I made the indenlicul suggestion which yod state is now about being acted upon in Western Virginia, and have insisted, that not only counties,but towns, cities, and townships, should have the privilege, of aboüshing slavery. I at the same timo pointed out rnany ways in which local emancipation would be accomplishet], provided the fundamÈntnl aw of the State guaranieed the future exemption ofsuch places from slavery. "Many benevolent persons both in the North and South would bc induced to bequeath their property to a county or township for the purpose of ridding it of slavery, who would never think of giving t to a State for such a purpose. - II would be but " a drop in the bucket" fur an individual to give his property to the State of Virgininia as a fund to purchase the slaves ; but many counties in that state might be made free by the liberality of a single citizen. Some counties might become free by taxing themselves to the value of the slaves; whiïe a tax adequate to the purchase of all the slaves in Virginia would be unbearable. Olher counties would gradually become free by the removal of the slaves. But nomatierin what way they become free, the Constitution of the State, and of all the slave States, should provide that slavery should never again be intróduced. " A law now ëxistsin North Carolina which gives to counties thediscretion of making certain local regulations different from those which exist in thogreater portion of the State. For instance, the School Law was put to the counties separately, and was in operation for several years ín the greater part of this State, before it was received by Edgecomb ond a few other counties. A diversity in the local regulntions prevails in many other respects, all of which have been sanctioned by the Legislature. Whycannot this principie be extended to slavery. If the people in the uplands of the South, who endure the stigma without reaping any of the profits of slavery, insist on t, they can have it so, Therc would exist every motive in the upland counties to emancípate themselves had they the pover,or rather could they be secured by law against the reintroductionof slavery. A free county in a slave state would be a bright spot on the surface of the world. Emigrants would flock to it who are now deterred by the very name of slavery, though it has little more than a nominal existence." No matter, brother, who made the suggestion. You shall have all the credit oi' it, f you desire t. Let us see who can do most to carry it out. fhat's the point. VVe hpor from al! qunrters that it has been approved. From East Tennesee, from VVeslem Virginia, from North Carolina, from Kentucky, all who write say " it is the very thing." Let us reason nbout it, write about it, spaak about it until all liear of and understand the principie. Il has long been a (avorite idea with us. Eariy in '45 we suggested it : in '16 we pressed it earnestly ; and we tnean now, to join 'A Carolinian' and all otliers wko may seek to delend and diffuse it.