The Homestead journal, and village register. (Salem, Columbiana County, Ohio), 1848-01-05

              AND VILLAGE JBU I REG1ST E 11 . J. D. COPE, EDITOR. A FA.WU NEWSPAPER? Devoted to the Ailvocaey of Han's Natural Right to the Soil,? to the Abolishment of A L L Slavery,? Morality, Jiews, General Intelligence, Literature, Science. Agriculture? 'fcmpiranse, flenltb, Kt., ie. Old a.id ( Whole No. of Register ? Niiw Sekiks: ^ New Series ? Vol.1. ? No. SALEM, COLUMBIANA COUNTY, OHIO; JANUARY (1ST MONTH,) 5, 184C . THE IIOJIESTEAD JOl VILLAGE REGISTER, la published every Wednesday (4th day,) morning by A A R 0 S H 1 S C 1 1 1 X , ON THE FOLLOWING TERMS, TO WIT: One Dollar and Fifty Cents jor a single copy one year. Two Dollars if payment is delayed fur six months. (J$-TEN DOLLARS for Clubs of ten or more. No paper discontinued until nil arrearages are paid except at the option oi'the publisher, and at even year or halfye ir. 03~Lettcrsi containing subscriptions for the paper, should I19 addressed to the publisher. Communications intended for publication should be addressed to the Editor. 0C7~AII kinds of merchantable produce lam payuieni, if delivered within the year. A J vertisements inserted at the following rates : I square J insertions, $1 00 Each subsequent insertion, 15 t square one year, #00 I do do do 10 00 i column do 15 ?0 I do do 25 00 Advertisements should he mnrked the number of times they are designed to be inserted, and those not marked will he continued until ordered out. VCKKLSfimSSre THE SLAVERY OK POVERTY : i A MAIjOGUK Between a Northern Abolitionist and a Southern Slaveholder. Scene ? The Parlor of a Boarding House in New York. (Concluded.) Abolilioni.il. ? You place the condition of our poor in far too dark a light. You overcharge your picture greatly. Slaveholder. ? And the pictures drawn ; by Abolitionists of negro slavery ? are : they not still more extravagant ? Have I ) said anything half as severe against the rich, their laws and their oppressions, as were the sayings of Jesus ! Do you fancy that the picture of these things which j will be presented at the day of judgement j will be more flattering than mine? A. ? Bui aro you sure that your notion of the pr imary ea use of poverty is correct/ Many a man has got rich without over owning a foot of ground. reasoners, if 1 chose; but will rather refer you to your own common sense and your own eyes. I know there are secondary causes of poverty which make more show in the eyes of some than that which I have named; yet they would be found as powerless, were the primary causc removed, as a lever without a fulcrum. Though the monopolists of the land disable the rest of mankind from working fur themselves ? though they can say to the excluded poor, "You shall not dwell on our earth unless you pay us tribute, nor till it unless you give us such share as we may please to exact of the fruits of your labor ? yet they are not the only ones, especially in an advanced stage of civilization, who contrive to extract wealth from the sweat of the poor. If a man have money enough, he can hire land ? hire factories and workshops ? set his brother man to work therein ? with the products of such labor pay the ground-lord his rent ? and still have a considerable remainder. Yet go into such factory or workshop, and you will find the poor "operative" gains nothing by having two masters to enrich and fatten instead of one. There arc many other ways whereby the poor man is compelled to enrich others by his labor ? such as "usury," "increase," "forestalling," "speculation," &c. &c. ? none of which could be practiced to any extent if all men were free to till the ground for themselves. What man would do as much work as is necessary to raise ten bushels of potatoes for the price of one bushel, if the law allowed him to plant a potato pach of his own ? Who would work in a factory for the gain of another, when he might till the ground for himsell, and live independant ? Men would continue to work in shops and factories if the land monopoly were abolished, I admit; but not as now: you would no longer Me a hundred working, while one or two ??capitalists" pocketcd nearly all their earnings. I A. ? But is not the soil as free now as j it can be made 1 Every man now is at liberty to buy as much as ho wants. S. ? Ami ?ru not our negroes at liberty ' to buy their froodom ? And cannot they do it as easily as 0110 of your laborers or mechanics can rai3e two or throe thouI sand dollars to buy a naked house-lot ! ? ] In England, many a poor calico wearer i works 16 hours u day, and weaves 36 yards for 9d. How grateful should he ! feel that ho is at liberty to buy himself a | farm with his wages! ? or rather so much i of his wagep as may remain after buying j his family oat meal to starve on, and hi! ring them a cellar to starve in. But there is no need of examining each [ slave's case in detail ? no need of discusj sing every twig in your system of slavery | or in ours. 1 have shown that the root of both systems is the same ? poverty : the poverty of the negro slave consisting in his not legally owning his own body, and that of the white .slave in his not owning a sufficiency of the soil for his bodily wants, or to keep himself from starving. We force the negro slave to serve us by Hogging him; you permit the white slave to serva you as a boon ? as the only openning whereby he can escape starvation. ? Yet in one breath you cry out against the cruelty of our system, saying, "Stand aside! I am holier than thou;" and in the next you appeal to our selfishness, telling us that if we would adopt your system, we could exact greater profits from our slaves ? that is, work them harder and closer ? than we now do. I will not insult your understanding by pointing out the folly of such a course ? a course so difficult to explain except on the supposition that you want to reduce the wages 1 and increase the rents of your own worJ king class, by enabling ours to compete ; against them for employment and shelter, j Surely, it is high lime that we either coin* I nience agitatingthe whole subject of slaveI ry. or else that we should let it altogether alone. A. ? i'ornaps bo. IctUic main evil of slavery is its influence in debasing the soul of man. You will not eontend tliat poverty is as injurious as negro slavery in this grand particular ? S. ? Have I not shown you that the negro's slavery lies in his poverty no less than the poor white man's ? Suppose we were to withdraw our claim to the persons of our negroes, and turn them into the streets, and thus subject them to the necessity of begging leave to servo us: would we thereby either brighten thoir intellects or improve their morals? Would their wandering about from houso to house, and begging for a temporary master, increase their self-respect I Is not the necessity of begging for slavery more degrading than slavery itself? But let us consider the workings of your system of poverty in another light. Each poor j man among you must see, from his youth up, that Mammon is the god of this world, and that men are publicly estimated according to the fidelity and success with which they serve him. On one aide he sees the pleasures that wealth can purchase ? troops of servants, "rivers of wine, rivers of oil, and bright-eyed maidens;" j on the other, the poor-house ? that hell above ground, where hope never entors ? that dreary common where the worn; out laborer is turned loose to die. He sees that the former are given to those who are most dexterous in practicing upon the credulity or the necessities of their fellows; and that the latter is too often the j lina! reward of guileless honesty nnd use | lui toll. His whole soul is absorbed in the desire to gain the one and to oseape 'the other. He eannot attain his natural rights upon the earth ? his just position in society ? without uprooting the supremacy of wealth, and changing the whole j structure of society ? a task which he can by- no means accomplish single-handed. Neither has he the leisure nor the means to bring the scattered millions of the opI pressed together in one grand army, and | to unite them in any one scheme of deliverance. lie sees hut this one door of escape: to find out men poorer, weaker than himself, and shift his burden upon their shoulders. Hy eradicating from his heart all sympathy for his fellows, lie may perchance rise from the condition of slave to the dignity of slave driver. He may borrow from some capitalist the means of speculating upon the toil and the necessities of his brcathren, on condition of dividing thfe spoils with his patron. ? With the gain derived from the labor ol one hireling, or slave dismissable at will, he may speculate upon another ? and so go on until he becomes rich, respected, hated. 1 know you regard this as one ol the excellencies of your system ? that the ridden are free to ride if they can succeed in mounting ? that the wrecked are free to become wreckers ? the oppressed to be" come oppressors in their turn. But do you not see that oach new rider adds to the loads of those who support all? and that this is the grand reason why the con dition of your poor gets worse and worse, the difficulty of mounting greater and greater, every year? Worst of all, this feature in your system compJk *ach slave to eye with the scrowl of sSjftcion every movement of his follow slafcT, It sets each man's hand against his fellow, and every man's hand against him. Our slaves have none bin ilieir masters to fear; yours stand isolated, dreading and hating both the rich and each other. A. ? Even supposing your views are corrcct, why draw such a shocking picture of evils which are incurables ? evils which un all-wise Providence ! S. ? Hold ! I pan have no patience with the blasphemous charge against Providence which von wore about to utter, j Providence nmde this world big enough ; for all, and stocked it with a sufficiency for all, if we would only use fair play atnong ourselves. Why is it that you can so readily see God's hand in the wrongs done to the poor while if spoor man steal a sheep from tho rich man's flock, you cannot see God's hand in the matter at all? God never instituted poverty any more than he instituted theft amougmcn: consequently it is not an incurable evil. Our savage tribes oncaienjoyed universal pecuniary independence; then why may not wo ? A. ? Well, well ? if you aro so certain that poverty is a curable evil, tell us how it can be removed I S. ? Why, just as you propose to abolish negro slavery ? by withdrawing from unjust power tho support of law ? by making law the protector, and not the robber of labor ? by repealing every social regulation Whereby the rich ere enabled to derive wealth from the toil, or to levy taxes on tho existence, of the poor. A. ? ;This sounds well. But before repealing our present laws in relation to the rights or soil, we must frame some better system to put in their place. I know that all writers on natural law ? Locko, Blackstone. Paley, and all ? admit that every human being has naturally, or from the Creator, a right to the use of the soil; but these wise men do not seem to have discovered any practical mode of enjoying this right better than tho one they found established. S. ? Perhaps these wise men, as you call ihem, were wise enough to know that persecution would be their sole reward in this life, if they ventured to shed too : much light on the matter. You do not j suppose that God could endow all men ' with a right to the soil, and yet make it practically impossible fur all to freely enjoy such right ? A. ? I dare not accuso Him of such inconsistency or weakness as that. But to the point. Ilow do you propose to place each man in possession of his just portion of the soil, so that he shall be free from encroachment, and free to labor for himself? Would you give the same number of acres to all, without regard to quality ? That would be unfair. Would you give the merchant or the mechanic as much as the fanner ? Then thoy must all turn farmers, or else let thejrj>eriions lie waste. (We have given so ifuch of the above as we can well 6pare room for ? for a full and complete answer to the last paragraph, sec the description of the National Reform Plan of Township Lots and Farms.) TO THE FRIEXDX OF POLITICAL REFOO IN THE County of Madison: You have seen the Call for a Liberty parly State Convention in Auburn, 12th and 13th next month; and for simultaneous Liberty party Conventions in the various Counties of the State, at 10 a. si. on Saturday, thelirst day of the coming year. What shall bo our response to this Call? Let it be the pres?nce of | scores of us, at the Auburn Convention; I and of hundreds of us, at the Court House | in Morrisville. J These aro not Conventions of a temporary, piece-of-an-idea Liberty parly, : to which wo aro called. With such a | Liberty party wc havo no sympathy. ? | Nay more ? we are content, and happy, . ' to seo its folly and madness so busily digging its grave. Pretty Liberty party i that, which refuses even so much, as to inquire into the bearings of its own admitted principle of action ? the principle of the equal rights of all men! Pretty Liberty party that, which, when the civ? ilized world is waking up to the claims of ' Free-trade, Land-Reform, and other ReI forms, shuts its eyes to the light, which , j streams from these vital questions, and ' sneaks away Into the hiding-place of its f ovVn darknes! Pretty political party that i to assume to be the instructor and model | i of the other political panies! Toward all sucli impudent shams 1st our indigna! nation know no limits. j No! ? The Conventions, to which we ? are culled, are Conventions of no such | . cowardlyund compromising Liberty party, : j as that, which I have described. They I ; nro Conventions of a permanent, impar- | j till, uncompromising, comprehensive, i whole-hearted, lenrless, Liberty party. ? : Tht?vare Conventions of a party, which j dares to identify itself with all that is right and true in the sphere of politics. They are Conventions of a party, which symi paihizes, not with the poor black man ! only, but with the poor white man also. I They arc Conventions of a party, which ! concerns -itself, not only to break the I chain of the slave; but to overthrow every form of political iniquity ? every form of legalized fraud and oppression. Who is there, then, that would have the slave a treeman 1 ? let him come to these Conventions. Who is there, then, that would have the landless poor share in the soil, of which systems of land-monopoly rob them ? ? let him come to these Conventions.Who is there, then, that would have j the masses delivered from those inequit- f able und oppressive burdens of taxation, ' which Tariffs impose upon them ? ? let j him come to these Conventions. I Who is ihere, then, that would have! | an end put to Wars ? those foretastes and samples of Hell ? and those devourers of! the earnings and bodies of the poor, say what you will in praise of tho gain and the glory, which they bring to the few? ? I let him come to Uvesa Conventions. I Who is there, then, who would seoan end put to the traffic in intoxicaiingdrinks ; ? a traffic, which opens as many foun- j tains of sorrow, and lays waste as many j scenes of earthly bliss, as any other of j all the agencies employed against human happiness? ? let him come to these Con. ventions. Who is there, then, that would exert his political power to arrest the appalling j evils, with which rapidly multiplying oath-bound secret societies threaten our country ! ? let him come to these Conventions.IJut, let no person come to theso Conventions with a selfish heart, and with partial and narrow schemes. Let no person come to them to promote tho onereform, in which he is interested, at the expense of neglecting, or retarding, those other reforms, in which also he is bound to bo interested. But, let all, who come to them, be so filled with the spirit of jus- J tice and generosity, and brotherly love, as to be "ad to unite their efforts for carrying all needed political reforms; and so filled with the spirit of wisdom and com| rnon sense, as to see, that it is only by j such union, that any one of these reforms j can be fully and permanently carried. | How ruinous is this work offragmentI ary reform! It defeats every reform by arraying the friends of the various reforms against each other: and, by bringing truths into collision with eacli other, it leaves falsehood to reign triumphant. Why will not the friends of all valuable political reforms stand together, in a true Liberty party, at every Election hereafter? Whilst divided, they conquer each other. When united, they conquer for ! each other. We do not forget, that, er# | they can stand together, they must, so j far as they have not done so already I break out from parties, in which many of i them have suffered themselves to be fast j bound. Rut, what business have rcforI mors ? have true men ? in these parties? ! | what business to be serving the schcmcs ' and swelling the trains, of the man, who | lead these parties? What right have i they to belong to a proslavery or sectarian Church party ? ? or to the Whig or Democratic parly? And what right have they to waste their energies in behalf of such j a narrow, worthless, and pernicious thing, as some of its members would mould the Liberty puny into? Oh, that such person# in the County of Madison, as are the friends of needed political reforms ? some of this ? soma of that ? nnd some of the otlu r reform ? would now, forthwith, join hands in a true Liberty party! Oh, thai such persons in the County of Madison, as weep over the crushed slave; and such, as would provide the homeless poor with homes; and such, as would bring to the ; Tariff-oppressed poor the blessings of free trade; and such, as would break up the oath-bound conspiracies against the equal rights of men; and such, as would put an end to all-devouring Rum and War; ? oh, that all such persons would, without delay, strike hands in a true Liberty party! In that happy case, all the towns in the County of Madison, would, even as soon, as the next Spring's Election, redeem themselves from their political thraldom; and present such an attractive example of the irresistibleness of united truths, as other towns in other Counties, and in other States, would quickly follow Y ours, for every truth, GERRIT SMITH. | Pcterboro , December 10, 1847. j Wo want all Men ? all Liberty Wen ? all Djsunionisfs in particular, to read the following Letter, and know, that these are the kind ofMcn the National Reformers delight to honor, and seek to , represent them in tho Hulls of Legislation. ? w. H. LETTER KROM MR. BROOKS, National Reform Candidate for Lieu!. Governor. Wyoming, Nov. 15, 1847. George 11. Evans, Esq. I Dear Sir' ? Y our circular addressed to candidates came too late for a reply before election. I have no objection at this time or any time to commit myself fully to the principles and measures of National Reform. My surprise is that any one can oppose them. Is it unreasonable to suppose that we are all under law, and that God's moral code is binding upon all of His intelligent crcaturcs at all times and under all circumstances ? Is it unreasonable to suppose that men ought to 'love one another,' to manifest that love by tlieir conduct 1 ? Is it unreasonable to suppose that the c(|ual children of God should regard each other's rights and promote each other's welfare ? If so, National Reform is without foundation ? it must stand or fall as the law of God stands or falls. It is the application of that Law to the most important of our earthly interests. It involves the right of Jehovah to make men and give them existence oil the earth. If tho counsels of tho wicked shall prevail and a few shall have a 14 vested right " in this whole earth ; if they shall become the owners and proprietors of it despite the ownership of God and may enact their own pleasure, then God is a trespasser when he brings landless men into this pre-owncd yirooccupiod world. li Liancl Monopolists inuy enslave and degrade and then despise tlioir equal brethren, make them mere creatures of toil, suppress every noble sentiment, overy Godlike aspiration, darken the intellect and shut up the avenues of knowledge, doom to starvation those who can no longer minister to their lusts; if this is to be allowed, God must be dothroncd and his law annulled ! The absolute and unqualified right of every man to occupy some portion of this earth as an independent freeman, without paying tribute to any mortal, 1 fearlessly assert. Cruel oppressions, of which Land Monopoly is the greatest, ? have shortened the period of human life and made life itself, too frequently, an intolerable burden. Go into the workshops, into the assemblies of the people, and you will see care, anxiety, or despair depicted on almost every countenanco. ? Go where the masses live, and you shall find their food seasoned with sorrow S they stnv by sufferance, one torment gives place to another? a bright balmy morning with Nature's own melodies on the breeze but mocks thoir woes, an early death is their only hops. Lot no purse proud oppressor deny this asserting that " honest industry is well | rewarded and any one who chooses can do well enough for himself." Make this reviler poor to-day and his grief ami frenzy will give the lie to his heartless ? and cruel slanders, lie will show too plainly that |>overty has no joys for him. and that opportunities to escape from it I arc not so abundant even in his own just estimation. Every tyrant is a slanderer j and defornier of his kind. Despots asserts that the masses can not be trusted with power: In like munner the oppressors of labor avow that "wages aro high," ihatsome mou must have overseers, that any " favors " granted to the poor will make them " lazy and vicious." Men are beset with temptations on every side, thoy witness fraud and extortion in high places, the gains of industry ure slow, useful labor lightly esteemed and very often made repulsive by haughty dictation and unwholesome appendages. If under these circumstances some of the poor arc vicious and idle, let the blamo bo shared by those who have conspired to have-it so. Manual labor should occupy the smaller portion of every man's time, lie is to be despised, be he rich or poor, who makes another earn the bread ho eats if lie is able to earn it for himself : but no one should fancy that ho does right to labor with his hands during all of his wr. king hours. We havo immortal minds committed to our carc; there are treasures of knowledge within our reach ; theso we cannot neglect without gross injustice to ourselves, without despising the will and words of God. Hard labor and good luck will keep tho poor alive, and there are those who willingly doom them to unceasing toil for a more subsistence ; infamous and inhuman is the conduct and the creed of such men. Tho soul should be expanded and God's own light illuminate every mind. Education is yet to do much for tho human race, but Government or privato patronage of common scools and colicI ges will avail little for the instruction of tho masses while they are harassed by want and degraded and depressed by a vicious social system. Ours is a fundamental reform. It com prehends all others ? at any rate prepares the way for all others. It is the great first step to betaken. Land Limitation, Freedom of the Public Lands, Homestead Exemption, are measures which must bo adopted. Unless we can limit men In the amount of their landed possessions, we cannot secure to all the right to n place on the earth ? the right to live. ? If a few may own it all, then many must 1 be destitute, Those destitute of land are , absolutely at the mercy of those who have land, and will always, when tho population becomes dense, be subjected to terms the most oppressive and unjust. Why should one mortal give to another nine-tenths of his earnings for the privilege of staying a brief period upon God's earth and breathing God's air ? ? Why should one man be clothed in rags, hungry and over taxed, that another may riot in luxurious idleness 1 For this very purpose and to do this eery thing tho Monopolists seizes every acre ?f his lend above what he can till himself. Ono man is thus deprived of what is necessary that another may have what is superfluous.Is this Christian ? is it human ? is it just ? Land Limitation ii is replied will suppress enterprise that curses and kills mankind ! It stops no enterprise which ought not to be stopped. It would give homes and happiness and hope to those who are broken down with toil and aro yielding to despair. It would be the most powerful stimulus to true enterprise that could be do vised. Givo us Land Limitation. 1 The Freedom of the Public Lands is so manifestly just, that I can scarcely think it proper to expend any words upon it. That a Government which professes I to do equal justice to all, protect the weak I and promote the general welfare, should j disinherit a majority of its citizens for l the crimo of' being poor, sieze the land j which God gave them and sell it for a | lew pieces of silver to the Money Lords of the old world and the new, that this should bo done in the name of" Democracy" is so gross an outrage as to admit of no justification. The money e upended on the people's lands has been paid from the sale of lands j or been raised bf taxes on consumption j in which the poor have shared with the rich. There is, then, no reason why landless men should pay again for their own land; let every obstruction be removed and every possible facility granted to j enable ihe poor to become indopendent proprietors. There is no man so idle or vicious but he may be improved and made happier by a Home. Make that home Inalienable: let it be sacred for the purposes oflife. The cause of reform advances rapidly in western New York: the recent vote does not indicate our progress. We have been spreading the light in every direction but have not vet organized in most of the towns, and consequently had not votes distributed at the late election. ? Wo mean to organize) in every town in this county and vicinity during the