Morning Star

SLAVEHOLDERS BUT ONE PARTY

The public is not ignorant of the fact, that the Rev. Henry M. Denison of Louisville, Ky., educated, as he says, "at the Theological Seminary near Alexandria, D. C.," and "ordained for the ministry in the Protestant Episcopal Church," has just met with a great loss. His dear Rosetta has left him! Mr. D. is by birth a northern man; but he goes south—marries, as he tells us, "the daughter of a planter and a slaveholder," and, "as is common with Southern planters," his father-in-law presents Mrs. D. with a "negro girl," "to be her waiting maid," a gift which Mrs. D. receives "with much joy," and forms "numerous plans for her employment," &c. Mrs. D. dies; and Mr. D. in passing through Ohio with his slave finds his hold upon her unloosed. Rosetta is not a fugitive—she has not run away—but Mr. D. has brought her into a free State, and by that act, the poor girl is entitled to her freedom. So the law decides, and the master has to make the best of it. He tries to coax her back, but she only says: "No, I thank'ee, I'd rather stay here;" and so Rosetta and her master shake hands and part.

But the Rev. Slave Hunter will not suffer the drama to end in this way. He comes to the columns of the Ohio Statesman for assistance; where he overflows with wrath, and does not spare in hard words upon the naughty abolitionists. From Mr. D's letter we cut the following:

"I know that personal rights are dearer to the people of the South than the barren glory derived from a union with strangers, from which too many already think they have nothing to gain, and much to lose. And I know that this growing dissatisfaction is confined to no one class of men, but that it is shared in by the vicious and the virtuous, the rich and the poor, the cultivated and the ignorant; that it is found among professional men and mechanics, godless worldlings and devout Christians, lawyers and merchants, and clergymen, and judges, and legislators of the State and federal government. The adherence of slaveholders to their rights of person and property is stronger than all their political preferences or combinations, whether as Whigs, Democrats, or Know Nothings, or even as citizens of the United States."

Here we have the same old truth acknowledged that the slaveholders, however they may appear to be divided, are really but a unit. They are two as Whigs and Democrats; but this is only for the sport of the thing—they are one as slaveholders. They are two as Know Nothings and anti-Know Nothings, but one as slaveholders—“the vicious and the virtuous, the rich and the poor, the cultivated and the ignorant,” “professional men and mechanics, godless worldlings and devout Christians, lawyers and merchants, and clergymen, and judges, and legislators of the State and federal government,” all are one on Slavery.

But what have the members of the American party to say to this? We address those of them who are the known and avowed friends of the slave. Is "Sam" Northern to be caught by the same kind of chaff, spread out for him by "Sam" Southern. which chaff Southern Whigs and Democrats have used so effectually to catch their brethren of the North? Popery is an alarming evil among us, and as such should receive the opposition of every Christian and lover of his country. But if the freemen of the North must, in their war against the Romish power, help keep the Slave Power a unit, it is time they had their eyes and ears open to what is required of them by those old masters (the slaveholders) who have ruled them so long. With Nebraska thrown in our face, can we not now cut loose from Slavery? If not now, in the name of the little justice and honor left remaining, when can we? Tyranny is one and the same, and it matters but a trifle whether we are under Popedom or Slavedom. We choose not to be under either. Americanism is in general another name for freedom and temperance in New England. Boston is an exception, for there it places in the Mayor's chair Dr. Smith of Burns' memory; and the votes of Boston Senators and Representatives are withheld from Gen. Wilson, the regularly nominated candidate of the party for U. S. Senator. In New York Americanism strikes a blow at Gov. Clark and the Maine Law, and in Virginia it is advocated to-day from the stump as the great defender and supporter of the "patriarchal institution," and Mr. Denison assures us that the South will use it only so far as slavery can be promoted by it. Men may talk about a "national party" as much as they please, if by a "national party" is meant one that shall ignore slavery. The thing is impossible. The strongest Hunker organization that can be formed at the North will split in twain almost as soon as the elements composing it are brought together; and slavery will divide it. Slavery is wrong—is wicked—is of its father the devil; and the number of those who so regard it is increasing every day—and men might to-day be in a hunker organization; but to-morrow they will "get converted," and where is the union of hunkerdom?

Slavery cannot be ignored by any man or party—it is too late in the nineteenth century for this—and neither men nor parties should make such fools of themselves as to suppose that they can do, in face of the increasing light on the sinfulness of slavery, what others have failed to do. We have written more than we intended; but we cannot lay down our pen without saying that during our recent visit to New Hampshire we were told by a gentleman who had his information from good authority, that efforts are now being made to strike down the Hon. John P. Hale on the ground that it will injure the "nationality" of the American party to return Mr. Hale to the Senate. We have no desire to meddle with that which does not belong to us, but New Hampshire does not own all of John P. Hale. He belongs to the public; he is the property of a just and holy cause. He is Freedom's champion; and let New Hampshire strike him down and her "Americanism" will melt away sooner than the snows of an April morning. We cannot believe for a moment that Mr. Hale is to receive any such treatment. We shall believe, on the contrary, that he will go back to the Senate with a noble majority. The slaveholders are digging another political pit, and erecting another political gallows—and those of themselves who do not fall into the one may swing from the other—only let the pit be deep, and the gallows high.—O. B. C.