'■■■i-i ^^^^^1 ^HHH^H i I E440 i ^1 ,0 N 1 ,U563 1 M ^^Hj^^j:: ^^^^^^H I ■ i ^^^^H l-^ ;^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1 ' "II LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDD01747D71 y .••-• ^^' s>^%, n.'^i^^lK^*' A"^^^ V >^ o. ^ o«^«*,>e* >> * • • • -«y %f. V<^^ V>«=>' %.^" .1 ,^V. -r '•:^w'%^ .o^»-:^.% ^-^'^.is^'^^ co'^^:.:^^^o '»bv* ^ THE UNION MUST BE PRESERVED! FOUR CRISIS LETTERS TO TKK' I. A- D I E S PEOPOSING THE SPEEDY FORMATION MARTHA WASHI?JGTOI SOCIETY.. PUBLISHED BY FRIENDS OF THE MOYEMEWT. NOTICE. Ladies and Gentlemen, who wish to help circulate these Letters at their own expense, may send their orders to JOHN H. DUYCKINCK, PRINTER, Steam Power Presses, 164 Pearl Street, New-York. A FEW CRISIS LETTERS TO THE LADIES. NUMBER ONE. That the present crisis originates with Domestic Affairs is obvious. A close investigation of them shows that about one liundred cases concerning bond negro nurses and chambermaids, or servants, are the sole cause, that the existence of our power- ful government is in jeopardy. This seems to be incredible ; still it is true. It is further obvious that this calamity can be only averted by the intercession or mediation of American women ; and this may appear also incredible, but is neverthe- less true. The reason is that without this intercession the case never will be dispassionately and minutely sifted. Ladies and mothers of families will consider the case from a strict domestic view, because they understand the domestic institutions and af- fairs best, while the politicians consider the case from a political view — the onl}^ one they know — which is here the wrong one, and will fail. Ladies will deal with the servants in question, while gentlemen deal with generalities and abstractions. We say that about one hundred cases concerning bond serv- ants are at the bottom of a crisis, which by many is described as one of the most disastrous crises we ever witnessed. If the ladies can terminate it, they should try to earn the merit. Our Union is the first best we have. l!^ow how is that ? Tliere are three sides of this hond servant trouble. One is, that some Northern States have enacted laws which declare that all bond servants brought, under whatever pretence, from the South to the North, shall be free. (The New York State law is contained in part 1, chapter xx, title 7, section 1, of the Stat.) When can such a law be operative ? This question will con- cern, above all, ladies. They well know that they, especially, are, when traveling JSTorth in search of health, perhaps accom- panied by children, obliged to stay for awhile at Saratoga or Newport, or other towns, and in need of their own trusty nurses, and this is a part of domestic comfort only duly appreciated by ladies. The pleasure seekers do not burden themselves with such appendages. Xow suppose that, as the feelings North are about such servants, twenty-live such cases happen annually ; then we get for this kind of laws, in this great nation of thirty- two millions, about twenty cases to operate upon, and to expose those poor traveling ladies or families to the loss of their trusty nurses, either by the direct action of those laws, if gentlemen (I) should be found to execute them, or by their indirect influence upon mobs, who act as executors. We say again, that nobody than ladies, mothers of families, housekeepers, can appreciate this domestic afl'air well ; those South feel it mostly, and those North know the value of trusty nurses alone. "Well known cii-- cumstances connected with the late Presidential election, now entirely concluded — we have delayed the publication of these letters so long — have given vent to the irritated feelings of our Southern friends, which run so high that they rather will eecede from the Union than submit to such unchiyalrous laws in this Union longer. Ladies, of course, will not trouble themselves with the constitutionality of such laws, they only will consider them from a charitable and humane view ; and if they will find out that they are improper, and that it is absurd to disturb the peace of the country on account of twenty-live bond nurses, more or less, a word from them, at the right time, and to the right men, and these obnoxious laws will be repealed. According to all aspects, the incoming administration M'ill be impossible, if this should not happen witliout delay. NUMBER TWO. The ladies will be so kind as to examine, in their own practi- cal careful manner, another domestic affair, which has caused for years much irritation, and even riots and bloodshed, and is a principal cause of the present calamitous crisis. A supposed case will explain the matter easiest, A planter in Georgia has a son, who washes to establish himself, say as surveyor, in one of our territories. He has a young wife, who is perfectly willing to follow him into the wilderness, provided she can take her own faithful old bond servant nurse with her, both being attached sincerely to each other. But, according to the creed or platform of a certain party, even armed for the purpose of carrying out that creed, it cannot be done. Now, how many such bond servant or nurse cases may probably occur in all the territories ? Perhaps not more than twenty -five, not counting such cases where bond servants may have been thrust into territories (as in Kansas may have happened) for political party purposes, be- cause no good bond servant will, under prevailing circumstances, be brought voluntarily into a territory, for fear of losing him as may be easily imagined. No planter will remove a bond man from the cotton, rice, or tobacco fields South, to the potato fields out West ! It would not pay, as the homely phrase is. It is further obvious, that unmarried men emigrating to territories, will dispense with servants. Thus the burden of this opposition of, and political meddling with, simple, domestic, housekeeping affaii's, must again fall upon families, and especially poor women. Our Southern friends complain of it bitterly, and make it — as all papers are announcing daily — even a cause for secession from the Union. Thus the ladies will see again, that a few harmless chamber- maid or nursery cases, affecting their comfort, and discomforting nobody in the world, and which are rather calculated to promote the speedy settlement of the wild land by families, the most de- sirable for civilization, commerce, or industry — that a few bond chambermaids, we say, are again the cause that this grand con- federation, the wonder of the world, is about to be broken up, and at the verge of civil war and general bankruptcy. It is in- credible, but, alas! too true ! Similar triflings have before brought ruin to republics and empires. That little Belgium has been separated from the Netherland, is owing to a trifling arbitrary toll levied on oxen, brought by the drovers to Brussels. The drovers resisted ; the populace, already excited by priests and demagogues against Holland, joined them ; a general upheaving and war followed ; and, after a tedious, ruinous crisis, Belgium was separated and organized as a kingdom. Both insignificant states are now at the mercy of their powerful neighbors. Do we intend to imitate that Dutch oxen revolution ? Our fair read(!rs know the history of the American Revolution too well, to be in need of remind- ing them of its proximate cause, a trifling, but arbitrary tax. Shall we split our Union on account of a few domestics, bond or not bond? the like have existed since centuries in the land. Shall thirty-two millions of people be plunged in misery, and God knows what calamities, for that reason ? Is there anything arbitrary or unjust in the case of the sur- veyor's lady mentioned before f Is not the bond nurse, in a common territory of the States, as legitimate a nurse as in a sinde State ? Is it not folly to interfere with sucli transient do- mestic things ? The American ladies know their domestic rights and privileges w^ell ; they cannot be passive lookers on in such things and times. They are called upon by all that is dear to them in their homes, to use their influence so omnipotent in do- mestic affairs to make an end of that unpractical, useless, galling and withal unconstitutional free soil, abolitionist opposition in territories. If this intercession should not be successful, an im- possible thing if well done, the new administration will never come in a working order, and the confederation among tlie things that were. NUMBER THREE. We arrive now at the most prolilic cause of a deep dissatisfactiou of the South with the North, viz: the great organized opposition Nortli against the execution of that clause of the Federal Con- stitution, which ordains that the fugitives from labor shall be restored to their masters when claimed. Honest, religious, good citizens, invariably are such who obey the laws. T]ie law in (pestion is a self-necessity. No confederation like ours can be without one. Even the mere apology of such a confederated government, viz : the venerable Puritan United Colonies of New England, (Massachusetts, New Plymoutli, Connecticut and New Haven,) established in 10^3, had one almost literally like that prescribed in the Federal Constitution. And if this ConstitutioTi should not contain it, all our courts applied to for the restitution of fugitives from labor, whether bondmen, or sailors or others, are bound by the general principles of justice in a confederation to grant the application. Our governments are not appointed to break private obligations, but to realize, if called upon, their fulfilment. It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of such fugitives from the South, who may annually voluntarily, i. e. without being seduced by the abolitionists, leave their homes without the permission of their masters. But as the negro loves, generally, his southern home better than any other, it can be but small, perhaps not over fifty. The organized opposition against the execution of this law, even supported by express legislation of several Northern States, is a flagrant violation of the Federal Constitution and laws, and is one of the principal causes for secession of the Southern States from the Union. So the fair readers of these Wnes will again learn that another trouble about a few domestics is at the bottom of the present calamitous crisis and general stagnation of confidence, credit and business. A few restless bond servants, who, if they choose, may always obtain a peaceable dismission from service — for there are, according to the census, annually, four thousand bondmen manumitted in the South, voluntariiy — are about to demolish the great work of George Washington, indirectly. And if they come to those States who have enacted personal liberty lawB, what awaits them ? The flat refusal of a home, the denegfttibn 8 of voting rights — a slate of bondage so truly insulting and gall- ing as never is their condition in the South; many of those out- casts return, therefore, to the South. Mothers of families know too Avell that our country is the paradise of domestics and not of house-keepers. They alone are able to appreciate justly the feelings of our Southern friends, who [are, like a beleaguered fortress, surrounded by organized bands of abolitionists, and visited by enemies of their domestic })eace and institutions, under all kinds of disguises, stirring their bond servants up to disobedience, rebellion and murder ! They alone can realize the truth wholly that society in the South can- not exist in a civilized state, if the four millions of negroes are not kept, as at present, organized for labor. Mothers of house- liolds know best how provoking and annoying it is to lose ser- vants by intermeddlers or eavesdroppers. They alone are able to sympathize with the families in the South in their perilous situation. And, therefore, it is their sacred duty to do all in their power to allay the alarm of our Southern friends about the election of a gentleman as President with abolition proclivities. We repeat it, without the gentle but most energetic and uni- versal intercession of the ladies, our Union is gone. Partizans cannot prevent that, Congress cannot do it, not the amending of the Federal Constitution is needed, but its faithful execution. Men who are banded together to defeat this most excellent law, as it is at present, will continue this rebellious course when amended. 'Tis easy to destroy, but difficult to create. We repeat again, that the incoming administration is an impossi- bility, without its total separation from abolitionism. Every good^ citizen, on whatever party,grounds he stand — the writer of these lines has not voted for Mr. Lincoln — is bound to help that his administration gets in perfect workiug order. How that can be done is already apparent from these letters, and will be- come clearer in the next and last letter. We beg expressly, and most respectfully, not to indulge in any hope that Congress can avert or help the crisis. This illusion may do irreparable injury to the country. Tlie President has intimated the same in his Message expressly. Congress, as the national government, got no power to legislate on domestics anywhere, or to restrain abolitionists, or demagogues in the several States from arrogant intermeddling witli other people's business. NUMBER FOUR. The fair readers will now be anxious to know what they shall do for the country and Union. The answer is : To form, for prompt action, a grand imposing society, extending all over the country, for the main purpose of promoting conciliation and harmony, by discountenancing all anti-slavery agitation by the abolitionists and others, in the pulpit, lectures, prints, etc. This may be done by personal intercession and remonstrance, and by petitions, correspondence, and a thousand gentle but determined means, calculated to convince our Southern confederated friends that the IS^ortli means to make the Constitution a truth, keep it faithfully, and will stop all intermeddling with their domestic affairs. This, by itself, will and must lead to a speedy termina- tion of the disastrous crisis and all secession trouble, and open the door to the "White House to Mr. Lincoln. For it is Africa — SAM-bo, not uncle Sam — who causes, origi- nally, the trouble, although innocently, because designing men use him for making political capital. This the ladies should bear in mind. It requires no persuasion to make any of them, who, as mothers of families, have only a few years' experience in house- keeping, believe that it is impossible to abolish the bond labor of four millions of negroes South, otherwise than by the almighty, gradual, but sure, agency of time. Bond labor, usually called slavery, is as little an absolute evil or a shame to the country as free labor. Man must labor. The negro was created to live and labor in the South. To keep him, usefully for him and the world, employed, the brains of the white man, created to labor in the temperate regions, must organize his labor, just as it is done North. Sentameutalists and abstractionists do not understand this natural order of labor, but ladies comprehend it, because they are the organizers of domestic labor and thoroughly acquainted with its system and detail. We are often in the necessity of ex- plaining this to Europeans who have no experience in Southern labor, coming, as they do, from temperate regions, inhabited by one race, while the United States are peopled by four distinct races — (Americans, Indians, Negroes, Mongols.) Bond labor in the South is a stern, necessity. The North is not the judge of 10 the South. If slavery is an evil, the responsibility is with the South where it exists, and not with the North, where there are no slaves. Liberty has nothing to do with labor, bond or free. Liberty is nothing but freedom of subjection, (as of the English, Austrians, etc.,) but not freedom of labor, order and propriety. Toiling on forever is our destiny, and by all our toiling and accu- mulating, we never acquire, exactly, for ourselves, more than our board, just as the slave does ; what wo make over goes to others in the form of wages. It is plain that under our most perfect Constitution, our Union may comprise as well a hundred States as thirteen, provided^ that the people in the several. States and their subdivisions will mind their own public and domestic affiiirs, without troubling themselves with those of other people. If they will not do that then there will be an end of our Union, anyhow. No Confede- ration, and if it be made by angels, will stand such intermed- dling. There is the rub. And there is the mediation and go- between of the ladies required and in its most proper place. It should be distinctly understood that this society shall not in the least meddle with politics or disputes on slavery, but merely endeavor to rescue the domestic affairs South from the grasp of designing men. It shall put a stop to Northern supiue- ness, and induce on the other hand, the excited mind of the South (fire-eaters) to hold on, and give to a tast rising, powerful reaction in the North (look at Massachusetts) time to remove the cause of national discord, to make room for sober second thought. North and South. This society may in this direction join hands with the Mount Vernon Association. The business order will require a few meetings for the adoption of a few rules of organi- zation. The name of Martha WashixCtTOn Society has been proposed by a nucleus already existing for such a society since Nov, 21. It was calculated for New-York and Brooklyn. The right spirit is now moving. Patriotic clergymen are speaking the Word. They will favor this Society. We want now action, speedy action, determined action. We know the cause of our embarrassments, let us remove it at once. The honest, patriotic press will, with alacrity, support this move- ment, and the abolitionists will, we hope, not forget the courtesy and respect due to the ladies and mothers of families". 11 A gentleman, as influential, as patriotic and generous, who will support this movement, wrote about it ; that this society might do much good and no harm, but that it must be moved by the impulse of the ladies. Perfectly true. The idea of forming such a society originated Avlth a lady. We have tried to pen it down, but would not appear with those very prosaic, but well-meant letters, before the public if we had no experience of our own of their great influence in such things. Without it society would be a sorry afi'air, and among other things the Christian church not be what it is; Who has bestowed atten- tion upon the history of the struggle of the Italians for that what we are about to demolish (thanks to a few designing men North and South) viz : a national government — will have noticed that women had an immense influence in its flnal success. The papers reported lately a stirring address of Garibaldi to them. The American women always were patriotic and often heroic. Women often ruled the destinies of empires. The courage of Maria Theresa alone saved once Austria. TIow queenly rules Victoria Great Britain. Those ladies now who are moved by the spirit of patriotism and wish to join this society, will please send their card under address : " Martha Washington Society,-'' to the Brooklyn Post Office. The i^ew-York Post Office may be also selected. If the present most disastrous, most unnecessary and, it must be said, most silly crisis, shall cease, and the new administration become a fact, the Union must be preserved and the secession movement stopped. Secessions finally will and must happen, come what loill, if the North continues to meddle with the Southern domestic aff'airs, or what is the same, with the most vital interests of Southern society, better understood and appre- ciated by ladies than gentlemen. Please, then, ladies, do your duty. Come all and help deliver your sisters in the South for ever from the rudest and most wanton intruders of their homes, firesides, and domestic peace and happiness — the abolitionists. SPECTATOK. A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW- YEAR. 34 W S^?^*/ ^v^^^/^ \?^^\/' '*^\."^'i '0 <^-^ V. *^ .* .'^Va-» \/ ..^-, *i.^^^* ..^., -^Z V*^' .^^''V .. *<.^*^^\/ %'^'\'>'> v^^V '^<'**'