THE BRADFORD REPORTER.
ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.
TO WAND A.:
Thursday Morning, April 12, 1860.
Original |}ottrg.
[For the Reporter.]
MUMMIES FOR FUEL!
[Tbi is n asre of improvement. Mummies are used
Tor fueVon the Rai! Roads in Egypt, of which there are
now three hundred miles. They are said to make a very
hot fire, and burn rapidly, owing to the resinous sub
stances in which they are enclosed.]
Shades of the ancients ! Where are ye now !
Ghosts of old Egypt, appear !
From the pyramids, gazing below.
Witness what horrors are there !
Yon iron ribbed steed, with a driver more cruel,
Goes thundering by, with your bodies for fuel.
Glorious destiny 1 thus to be jammed
In catacombs dark to be dried,
Then in a furnace, hot. to be crammed,
And frizzled, and toasted and fried !
May be the hulk of some haughty Pharoah
U smoking along to the city of Cairo.
Fire wood is costly and mummies are cheap.
And plenty euough to be had,
Pown to the sepulchres dreary and deep,
Out with the slumbering dead !
Never ye mind, though they once were a nation,
Pile them along by the railway station.
Pile up your ancestors ! sei! by the cord.
Thoroughly cured for use ;
Ileal up the engine, with prophet and bard,
Nor linger to talk of abuse,
Who cares for dead people, all turned to leather ?
Pitch them all into the furnace together.
The good ..hi rule naust never be broke,
Lo " ashes to ashes, and dust to dust."
Sp'ey the odors that float in their smoke
Though the savor of virtue is lost.
Back to the dust 1 long euough you've delayed it.
The rule must be kept, tho' you sought to evade it.
Foolish Egyptians ; you did not discern
That the longer you've dried the better yon burn.
Now halt at the stop ping-place, just to take on
A cord or so of the dead-
Old human rigging of muAle and bone—
X<>;hing like that for speed.
Hark 1 huw the dry bones rattle and grate.
Swung by the spirits at dead of night.
Breaking the stillness with sounds of fright.
Oncc-it tuay eliance-these were fair foratsand faces
Now bereft of their beauty and graces ;
features >o rigid and callous,
Moved long ago in the air of a palace ;
Lived, and were worshipped, aud went to the dead,
To sleep their !a-t slceo in a cassia bed.
I
Lhried forever is the fountain of tears
From the eves thai wept iu the long gone years ;
The cheeks dried away, cling fast to the bone ;
The lips "clasp the teeth, and their color i* gone.
Mcthinks the w indering soul would thsdaiu
To dwei! in its old habitation again.
No longer lie useless, go in with the rest
Aud soon a new ardor will fire your breast.
No matter what trade you were wont to pursue '
We'll now make an engine-driver of ydu !
And if you're a king, and the station is humble.
Why then you must grumlde. mumble, and jumble.
And rumble and tumble, with the speed of the gale ;
Over the land of the Nile we sai! 1
Shades of the ancients and ghosts ot the dead !
Gainer for icugeance around 1
Lend the huge blocks from your pyramid's head.
Hurling them down to the ground.
Crash yonder black fiery Ghoul, that in thunder
Rushes away o'er the plain with hu plunder.
Seize on the nerve, howling demon of spoil,
And drag him away to his doom ;
Quench his fiery breath in the Nile.
Ere he desolates even the tomb,
That never the sonnd of a f- si robbers tread.
May echo agaiu iu the haiis of the dead.
C.C. T. I
Report from the Committee on Vice and
Immorality.
Mr. LAN DON, chairman of tho Committee
on Vice aud Immorality, made a report on the
subject of the Sunday law?, which was ordered
to be printed in the Legislative Record, as fol
lows : i
The Committee on Vice nnd Immorality, to
which were referred certain petitionsaskiug for
"such a modification of the Sunday laws as will
allow passenger railway cars nod other con
veyances to run on Sunday, beg leave t© re
port :
That they have given to this subject the
careful attention due to its recoguised impor
tance. The first consideration suggested by
the papers iu the bauds of the Commit'ee, is
that they propose a radical change in the nut
form ami settled policy of this Commonwealth.
From a period long autertor to the Declaration
of Independenc© nntif now,our " Sunday Laws"
have received toe sanction, express or implied,
of the legislative authorities of the State. Re
pated attempts to abrogate or seriously to
modify them, have met with a stern repulse at
the bar of nwwwire Legiclatures. Numerous
decisions of our Supreme and local Courts, in (
affirming the constitutionality of these statutes
have incidentally but cordially commended
their wisdom. And the people of our Com
monwealth have, as a body, acquiesced ia the
poticy thus established, without complaint :
they have, in lact. left us no room to doubt ;
thai it ha* their hearty approval.
With these familiar facts before us, we feel
warranted in making a somewhat imperative
demand of any party or parties who seek
through our agency, to annul or emasculate
these ancient and honored laws. We are con
strained to say to them :—" The presumption
is against you. Von must be able, in first
place, to produce cooviuciog reasons in sup
port of the change you would effect iu the
hereditary policy of the State. And, ia the
second place, yon most show that this change
is demanded by tho public voice. 1 " With the ; ■
highest resptrt for the petitioners who present {i
these memorial*, we are obliged to say that
tbey have met neither of these requisitions. ! i
The Legislature is asked to lefrtllretherum- \ i
ning of paasentrer railtrar cars aud other
pot* c conveyances oo Sunday. The popular 1
teguments relied opoe for enforcing the I
application, are these two, riz .-—that the el- j
tsfwqj ttaodav tw? ar a B-oepatbu apoo the
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. O'MEARA GOODRICH.
personal rights of the citizeu ; and that it is
especially oppressive to the working classes, to
deprive them of the use of these conveyances
on their only day of leisure. These objections,
it will he observed, take a wide range. They
make it necessary that the Committee should
re-state certain elementary principles which
underlie our political fabric aud pervade our
whole body of jurisprudence.
The fouuders of our government wisely ex
cluded from their plaus an ecclesiastical estab
ishmeut. But in doiug this, they were not so
obtuse as to imagine that a State could flour
ish without the aid of religion and morality.—
They not ouly secured to every citizen aud
every sect, liberty of opiniou and of worship,
but they recognized Christianity as the religion
of the country. In our laws relating to oaths,
to blasphemy, and to the Lord's day ; in the
appointment of chaplains, and in these obser
vance of days of fasting and thanksgiving ; we
have paid National homage to the God of the
Bible. It is the recorded opinion of the Sup
reme Couit of this State, that " Christianity,
general Christianity, has always been a part of
the common low of PemsyclaniaC This iui
ports that we are a christian people, and nut u
Mohammedan, a Pagan, or Atheistic people.
It ueilber supposes nor involves anorgauio uu
iou be'.weeu the civil and ecclesiastical powers
much less the coucession of special privileges to j
any religious sect. But it proceeds upon the
acknowledged fact, that Christianity, lias,from j
the beginning been the religiou of the great 1
mass of our people ; that as such they claim
the protection of the laws iu the exercise of
, their religious rights ; aud that to deny them
; this protection, would be of the essence of
i tyranny on the part the government—ospcci
j ally of a government which, like our own, re j
i cognizes the w ill of the majority as its funda
mental law.
This is one of the grounds upon which our :
legislation on this subject rests. Another is
that the State needs the sustaining influence of
that morality which derives its code, its sanc
tion® and its efficiency from the Bible. Repub
lican institutions have never survived the gen
eral decay of public virtue. It is as essential
to their healthful action as the atmosphere is .
|to animal and vegetable life. The instinct of i
I self-preservation, therefore, admonishes the
| State toabstaiu from all acts which may weak
en the restraints of mortality. And such is
the obvious tendency of enactments designed
to secularize the first day of the week. For, in
respect, certainly, to communities and nations,
true mortality is the offspring of Christianity:
and Christianity cannot reach the masses of the
j people without its Sunday. Whatever conse
quences might ensue to religion by obliterating
1 from our statue book the modera e ani rea
i sonable laws pointed at in the petitions, the
State cannot afford to reptalj them* If these
' laws are repealed or e-seut.ally modified, uo
j reflecting person can suppose the so called re
! form will stop until the other laws which re
cognize Cnristiauity and its institutions have
been abrogated. And this accomplished, the
flood gates of vice and immorality will he
thrown wide open in every part of the Com
monwealth It would be suicidal iu the State j
to sanction this policy.
The allegation that the "Sunday L iws "
are a usurpation upon the persona! rights of
the citizen, is a sheer assumptiou. That they
may le regarded as burthensome by individuals
or sects which do not accept the Christian sys
tem, in very true. But this is an incident
which pertains to all legislation. Ia our country
I at least, laws must reflect ihe will of the ma
I jority of the people. If the working of a la*
is attended with inconvenience, it is better
that the few should snffer than the many.—
But ia the present case there is very little, if
any, room even for this plea. For the laws in
question are merely negative. They establish
j no church, they impose no creed, they exact
no service, they leave every man free to adopt
what religious dogmas he chooses, or to dis
card all faith?. They require no one to attend
a place of worship, or to contribute to the sup
port of religious ordinances. They institute no
| inquiry iuto the mode iu which people speni
the Sabbath They simply ordaiu that Sun
day shail be a day of rest ; that those who i
choose shall have the opportunity of worship
ing God without molestation, and that ait se- j
culiar avocations which would conflict with
these ends shall be suspended. Is there any j
real hardship in this ? The hardship would be
all on the other side. Let the" Sunday Laws''
be repealed at the bidding of a small minority
of our population, and the residue, comprising
the great mass of the people in every part of
the Commonwealth, might with reason com
plain that the' State, in depriving theui of their
peaceful Sabbath, had virtually robbed them j
of their right to worship God. lie would be
a positive iuvasioo of the righu conscience.—
We are not able to perceive that these rights
are infringed by enactments which simply
inhibit certain wordly employments oo Sunday
This genera! view of the subject comprehends j
numerous subordinate questions ; and among '
the rest, the particular question presented in j
the petitions. The Legislature is asked so to :
modify the " Sunday Laws " as to " allow pass
enger railway cars and other public conreyau *
ees to rua on Sunday." And the application j
comes before ns in the guise of an appeal for
the rights and the comfort of the working
classes.
The " working classes" constitute, in every
land, the mass of the population. The wise
and faithful care of their interests, is one of j
the population. The wise aud faithful care of
their interest?, in one of the most sacred and
responsible functions of civil govemmeut. It
must be said, lo the honor of our National and
State governments, that they have not been i
unmindful of this trust. Nowhere oa the face
of the globe are the relations of capital aud I
labor adjusted with so generous an aspect to f
wards the latter, as they are here. In oo other
feature are the multitudes of all sexes, ages i
aud conditions, who five by the sweat of the j
brow, so well paid, so wellclotbed and fed.amd
1§ certain; t>y r ouest industry, to improve their t
cticuaacauces. No other naUoa devotes to
t&e workiug aim sc much legislation, allow? j
bm to much political power,nor male? tFe same
? I V VS*, v-vftgpf I
" REGARDLESS OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER."
ample provision for him when overtaken by
age or misfortune.—This policy is equally en
lightened as regards the prosperity of the
State and as beneficent towards its objects.—
We may refer with confidence to the Legisla
tive records of this Commonwealth to show
that Pennsylvania has always regarded and
treated the sons of toil within her borders,
comprising in this designation mechanics, oper
atives and laborers of every kind, as a mother
treats her children. And it is because this
sentiment throbs with such power in her breast
she has refused to do anything which might
derogate from the just authority of the Chris
tian Sabbath.
For this day of rest, important as it is to
all classes of society, is indispensable to the
working men. It is tho only day of the seven
he can spend with his family. It recruits his
exhausted frame ; it places within his reach in
valuable opportunities for self culture and im- ;
provement ; it supplies him with means and in
centives to frugality, industry and integrity ;
it opens to him the only sources of comfort and '
hope which are really adequate and permanent.
These are uo trivial advantages, but there
are others which must not be overlooked iu i
this connection. Sunday is the great barrier
which protects the laboring classes agaiustt.be
I wiles of ambition and the encroachments of ,
. merciless cupidity. Neither king-craft nor j
1 priest-craft can long delude a people w ho make |
| a true use of their Sundays. And no intelli- i
1 gent operative can be so blind as not to see
• that if the apacious money-making spirit of the
j age could have its way it would compel him to
; work seven days iustead ia six. What, in fact, j
is the very proposal now before us j Should the j
i prayer of these petitioners be granted.it would
bear with cruel severity upon the persons em
' ployed by the passenger railway and omnibus j
companies. In the capacity of conductors,
: drivers, hostlers, ticket agents, switch tenders
| and the like, they and their families must
; already Dumber several thousand individuals iu
this Commonwealth, and this aggregate is con
stantly increasing. Those who are familiar
with the service these men perform, are accus
tomed to think that it is already sufficiently
rigorous. What would it become if they were
i compelled to -pond Sunday also in the same
way? Is it for the State, instead of throw
ing her parental aeris over this great company
of her children, to break down the last dvke
which protects them ag?in?t the pitiless surges
of avarice, and surrender them to its fatal em
brace ? It is acting the part of a parent for j
her to say to them, you must relinquish to your }
employers even that day of rest, which the
slaves oa every southern plantation are allow
ed to call their own ? We cannot think so.—
We believe the State has uo moral right to
become the oppressor of her own citizens. She
certainly may not connive at the oppression of
the weak by the strong; least of all, may
she use, for these illegitimate ends, a day which
I is not hers to give away.
These considerations are too weighty to be
disregarded, except upon grounds more conclu
! sive than any thus far presented to the Com- :
uiittee. We can easily undertaud, that num- ;
; erous instances might occur iu which the runn
ing of these public vehicles on Sunday would
be a conveocieuce to individuals aud families.
We can imagine circumstances iu which the
want of tiiese would be felt r.s a hardship.—
But the wisdom and equity of a law mn?t be
tested, not by isolated cases, but by its general j
tendencies and fruit?. Aud looking at the
proposed enactment in this view—estimating i
the consequences which would be likely to fol
low, should a broad license bs given to all tho j
existing and future railway and omnibus corn
pauses of the State, to prosecute their cuatom
: mary busuies.- ou Sunday—we eauuot doubt
that the effect would be most injurious to the
public morals. It would entice many from their
homes into the haunts o: dissipation. It would
do much to assimilate our Sunday law to that j
jof continental Europe—a change which no !
1 patriotic citizen could fail to regard as a great !
: calamity. It would contribute to destroy that
I rcvereuce for the Lord's Day, which is not
f ouly oue of the strong buttresses of the public '
morals, but as already intimated one of the
chief defences the poor man's health and free
dom against the insatiate creed of avarice.
We have r.o idea that all these results would
follow immediately. Enough that the ten
dency wou'd be in this direction. The present '
is no time for capping the foundations of mo- j
rahty amongst ns. The decay of public vir
tue and the increase of the spirit of faction
are the two great plague-spots upou the fair
visage of the Republic, which fili every loyal
heart with anxiety. To counter work these
evils, is an object towards which education, re
ligion and legislation may weil dtreet their
most vigorous efforts. It may at least be re
quired at car hands, that if we do nothiug to
strengthen the cause of truth and virtue, we
shall abstain from removing a single one of
the pillars upon which it rest?, and this we are
virtually asked to do by the petitions before
us.
Ia concluding their report, the Committee
beg to repeat, that the views herein presented
are in accordance with the ancient and heredi
tary legislation of Pennsylvania. If there be
any innovators among-t,ih?y are not the friends
o f oar " Sunday Law? " We stand where the •
immortal founder of oar Commonwealth stood j
and we may be excused for re?:>:ingauy change j
j in a policy which has borae the test of uearly
two hundred years.
Ia the - GREAT LAW," passed in the Assent- .
bly at Chester sooa*after his first landing.Dec.
12. 16&2, WiLUAX PENS has recorded his esti- j
matioQ ot the Fabbalh as one of themaiu sale
guards of civil aud religious liberty. In the
, 6rst article of this code, the desieu of which is
declared to be. " that God may have bis due, I
, Caesar his doe. and the people their due, ?o j
[that the be?t and firmest foundat'ou icay be j
' laid for the present and future happiness of both
the government and people of ihis Province." i
| he thus or Jams the end that looseness,
imiigwa, acd atheism maj act creep In under
yihe preteuewpf gon *coce iu U Province, he
Ertber wrioi by the authority aforesaid,
accochnwr to the good eiiflot the pr i at -
el.ietwr • limH tik we? o t tbcMhtk*a
sUm ohb to*
every first day of the week, called the LORD'S
DAY, people shall abstain from their common
toil and labor, that whether masters, parents,
children, or servants, they may the better dis
pose themselves to read the scriptures of truth
at home, or to frequent snch meetings of reli
gious worship abroad, as may best suit their
respective persuasious." (Hazard's Annals,
1609, 1682.)
Since the abrogation of the Sunday laws
would be absolutely oppressive to & large mass
of laboring people, who tend directly to the
Increase of vice, would be contrary to the
known convictions of the patriot worthies of
the past and in contravention of all previon?
legislation, would be repugnant to the moral
sensibilities of the great mass of the best citi
zens throughout the State, and directly in con
flict with the statutes of Revelation, therefore
we snbmit that the prayer of the petitioners
should not be granted, and accordingly be it
Resolved, That the abrogation of t'e exist
ing Sunday laws would be uuwise in itself.aud
) vicious ia its results, and the Committee are
hereby discharged from the further considera
tion of the subject.
GEO LANDON,
JEREMIAH SCUINDEL,
KENNEDY L. BLOOD.
Report of Select Committee.
The Committee to whom was referred son
dry petitions, asking a law to prohibit the im
migration of free negroes into this Commoa
wealth, or in lieu thereof a slave code, make
the following report :
The petitioners ask that laws be enacted by
this Legislature prohibiting forever the imigra
i tion of free negroes into this State ; but if
that request cannot be granted, that they
: pray for a law by which they may be reduced
to a condition of slaves. Believing that the
requests are necessarily commingled, and that
the former is bat auxiliary to the latter, your
Committee propose to examine them connect
edly, at this lime.
The history of Pennsylvania shows her to j
have early adopted a policy of the widest lib- !
erty and philanthropy to all classes of persons. :
Her treatment cf the Indians and Negroes |
lias given h< r a name which has become a
household word among the lovers of liberty
and humanity Aud to graut the request of
the petitioners would illy comport with ail we
liave ever known of her history, aud would be
| a foul blot on her fair fame arid character.
In the year 1780, finding herself iu common
with most of the states of the confederacy,
cursed with slavery, aud forseeing that the in
stitution would work almost irreparable injury
to the black race, that it was degrading and
demoralizing the whites, and corrupting aud
blighting all the moral, social and industrial
intere?ts of the Commonwealth, set the exam
ple to the world of extinguishing every vestige
of slavery withia her borders. Iu settiug
forth the reasons which governed them,aud the
feelings which prompted so humane an act
• tbey used the following language :
"Impressed with these ideas we conceive
; that it is our duty, aud we rejoice that it is iu
our power to extend a portiou of that freedom
to others which hath been extended to us, and
release from that state of thra'dom to which
we were tyranieally doomed, and from which
we Lave uow every prospect of being deliver
■ ed. * * * * We esteem it
a peculiar blessing granted to us, that we are
I enabled this day to add one more step to noi
| versal civilization, by removing as much as
i possible the sorrows of those who have lived
!□ undeserved boudige.*'
Iu lsl9, when the people of the State were
unanimously protesting against a proposed
wrong on ttie part of the general government,
their representatives again said—
" Nor can such a protest be entered by any
, State with greater propriety than by Pennsyl
vania. This Commonwealth has as sacredly
respected the rights of other States as has
been careful of its own ; it has been the uni
versal aim of the people cf Pennsylvania to
' extend to the nuiverse by her example, the
unadulterated blessiucs of civil aud rehuious ;
freedom, and it is their pride that they have
j been a: ali times the practical advocates ot
those improvements and charities among men
which are o well calculated to enable them to
(answer the purpose of their Creator; aud
j above all they may boast that they were fore
most iu removing the pollution of slavery from
among them."
Again, in 1x47,l x 47, the people of Pennsylvania,
through their Legislature, protested against
the purchase of any territory by the general
government unlets? those principles of uuiver-al
freedom were guaranteed as a condition prece
dent to such purchase.
Thus through a period of more than three
quarters of a century did the people of this
Commonwealth in the most solemn aud signifi
cant manner, reiterate their hostility to every
thing tending to degrade, brutalize and enslave
any portioD of the human race : and during
that Ume'Bo man dare raise his Toiee in oppo
sition to them and the doctrines so significant
ly expressed But in these latter days ot po
lotical degeieracy, when a great roonied aris
tocracy has taken possession of the National
| Govemmeut and many of the State Govern
: ments, and when that power prescribe* the
J condition on which its political patrimony is
to be distributed and enjoyed, men can be
found even in Pennsylvania to repudiate the
doctrines of their fathers aud pay the price of
i its political favors.
This Southern aristocracy ha? for year? been
preparing the W3y for reducing to slavery the
few free black? among them. They find every
thing which is t'rrr dangerous to the tenure by
which they hold their slave property ; and,
besides, tfcey have long coveted the great
| amount of money they see in those men. which,
atrciMmg to their own moderate estimate,
. amounts to oue hundred million? of dollars.—
Public sentiment ba? heretofore to a great ex
tent restrained them, and the process of en
slavement has been Sow hat sure, and steady
hi the accomplish meat of Hs w©k They
hare repeatedly aatf publicly declared that
i ?l3Tery i? tLd ea tare! ;o©d;t*oc of black
s race— that they have no rights which a whiti
i man is bound to respect, and that at the prop
, er coincidence of circumstances their enslave
- cueut will be accomplished. Tbey want but a
i pretext to disregard the public sentiment and
- carry out their theories to their logical con
r elusions. Granting the prayers of the peti
, tioners before us we would give them that pre
text. They, no doubt, are driving their fret
3 blacks upon us by their slew process of en
s slavement, hoping thereby to provoke us to
e imitate them, and not only refnse them admis
? siou into our State, but also to drive oat those
' already here. Such ac act ou our part would,
: in their opinion, justify their contemplated ac
-1 tion, on the plea of protecting their peculiar
. institution from the dangerous surroundings ol
. the free blacks.
- It thus becomes a serious question with us.
i Shall we stultify ourselves, and give the lie to
i those doctrines of our fathers, by becoming
. 1 instrumental, to any extent whatever, in driv
-1 iug into slavery these unfortunate beings ?
: It cannot be disguised, that refusing them
freedom iu the free States is to drive them in
to hopeless servitude iu the slave States. For
bidding them egress within our borders, is a
step in carrying out the great slavery pro
gramme long since laid down for us by the
Calhoua politicians of the country.
A careful aud patieut examination of that
programme and the necessary steps of its pro
gress, commencing, as Mr. Calhoun himself in
dicated, many years back of the annexation
; of Texas, down through all its movements to
the present day, eveu including the subject be
fore us ; cannot fail to show that it has all
tended to these definite ends, viz : The en
slavement of the entire black race, and the
subjugation of the Federal Government to the
absolute dominion and control of the slave
power.
We will new briefly examine some of the
! details of the petitions before ns. We are in
formed by them that " fugitive slave? are many
times retaken at the expense of mobs and the
peace and diguity of the Commonwealth."'—
' We canoot see how the prohibition of free
I blacks from the State, can remedy that evil.
Nothing but the slave code asked for, which
would obviate the-necessity of returning them,
or a Personal Liberty Law, which shall pro
hibit huutiug and taking them upon our soil,
would accomplish the object. The excitement
and sometimes mobs attendant the rendi
tion of fugitive slaves, but proves that Penn
sylvanians to-day are not unlike the Pennsyl
vania! s of 1780, when they rejoiced that they
were foremost iu removing the pollution of
slavery from among them. Hence they recoil
at returning a human being to slavcrv.
They further say that " old broken down
negroes, set free by their masters on account
of their worthlessoess, seek our shores only to
become a public charge, or prey upon individ
ual charity." If the institution of slavery has
so degraded and unchristianized her white peo
ple, that after wringing toil from their slave?
until they become worthless, they will drive
them abroad in a state of helplessness and
destitution, shail we, the descendants of those
men who said they rejoiced that thev were
enabled "to remove as much as possible the
sorrows of those who had suffered in undeserved
bondage," spurn them from onr doors and
thereby do tbem as great a wrong as those of
whom we complain ?
Again, they say that " others still more ob
jecliouable commit crimes, occupy the time of
our courts aud fill up our jails aud penitentia
ries, and thus in various ways increase the al
ready uumerous burthens of our tax payers."
Statistics do not show that blacks who have
been born and reared under the inluences of
our own institutions, with ordinary education
al advantages, are criminal beyond many other
classes of men. If their condition of servi
tude has driven them to vice, theu are we not
doing a great wrong to drive them back into
such unfavorable and vice-fostering condition.
Shall ail that is regarded as valuable iu hu
manity be sacrificed upon the altar of dollars
aud cents? While we would be glad to re
lieve them from the bnrthens of taxation, and
of a vicious population, we are not willing to
absolve them from the Christian duty of being
just and eveu merciful to the poorest of human
ity Neither are we willing to disregard the
obligation we are under, of treatiug the peo
ple of each State in the Confederacy as having
rights and privileges iD a!!. To commence the
1 work of isolation proposed, is to begiu freit : Hg
\ asunder the threads which bind the State's to
! gethcr.
Las;ly f tbey say, if these beings cannot be
i forbidden oar soil, they ask for a slave code.
In replying to this request we call attention to
the effect of granting it, by a brief compari
son of two contiguous States.
When Pennsylvania abolished slavery she
was inferior to the State of Virginia ia every
thing which constitutes a great, pro?pereus
1 and happy people. The territory of Virginia
was one third larger than that of Pennsylva
nia. and she more than doubled ber in popula
tion and wealth. Now their conditions are
i more than reversed in everything which is re
| garded as valuable ia a State. In 18b0, the
city of Philadelphia alone almost equaled in
wealth the entire State of Virginia, slave
property included. At this day she no doubt
fully equals her This remarkable change has
not grown out of any natural' advantages we
possess over her--on the contrary, Virginia,
ia her climate and the nataral productiveness
of her soil, is superior to Pennsylvania : and
; she boasts of coal and iron enough beneath
ber surface to supply the whole world. Vet,
with that boast, in lsso the total products of
her mauofaotures, mining and mechanic arts
were bat $29.000.000, while that of Pennsyb
van; a was $155,01)0.000. This remarkable
cuaoge is aUribstaUe only to the institutions
of the respective States. The system of slave
ry in Virginia is calculated only to impoverish
her soil, dry up every fountain of industry and
rrterprise. aud degrade and bruta' ; ze heT peo
ple : while the system of free labor ia Penn
i sjiraoi* tesds to elevate, dignify and enlighten
the laboring classes, stimulate industry aud
t enterprise, and develope all her aStora! re
t' fcurcrs to their fullsy extent
VOL. XX. —KO. 45.
With these facts before them, can any con
siderable number of our citizens ask for any
thing calculated to bring their own State
down to the deplorable condition of slave*
ridaen Virginia, or to even augment those
evils in that State ?
That the influx of blacks into Pennsylvania
may be to a certain extent an evil to ourselves
we are not prepared to deny ; but that to ap
ply the remedy proposed would be just or hu
mane to those unfortunate people, that it
would be honorable or creditable to ourselves
and in keeping with the precepts of our fath
ers, or that it would eventuate in anything but
evil, we cannot be'ieve. Away may be open
ed in time to render a system of colonization
available. The great wilderness regions of
Ceutral America may at some day not far dis
tant become the homes of the blacks of this
nation. The climate and soil are peculiarly
i adapted to such a people, and they woujd un
doubtedly be willing to emigrate thither when
the propitious time arrives. But that day will
be when those who hold them iu bondage shall
'do them justice, and assist in preparing the
way for their exodus. The great work must
j necessarily devolve on the South, and upon
j the general government. It is impossible for
; the North to act, except by a moral influence
•to that end. Had the slave States spent one
: half the life and treasure in preparing such a
| home for that people that they have spent in
enslaving and brutalizing them, the work would
; long since hate been accomplished, and every
i State in the South would to day have been far
| richer in all the elements of greatness, happi
' ness and power.
Thus believing, your Committee respectfully
' offer the following resolution :
Resolctd, That to grant the prayers of your
petitioners would be inexpedient, impolitic aud
j unjust.
0. H. P. KINNEY,
LEWIS MANN,
March 26, 1860. L.P. WILLISTOX.
I On motion,
Said resolution was twice read, considered
and adopted.
INGENTITY OF BlßDS. —Tnrushes feed very
much on snails, looking for them iu mossy
banks. Hating frequently observed some
broken snail-shells near two projecting pebbles
on a gravel walk, which had a hollcw between
them, I endeavored to discover the occasion
of their being brought to that situation. At
least I saw a thrush fly to the spot with a
snail-shell iu his mouth, which he placed between
the two stones and hammered at it with his
beak till he had broken it, and was then able
to feed on its contents. The bird must Lave
discovered that he could not apply bis beak
sufficient force to break the shell when it was
, rolling about, and he, therefore, found out and
made use of a spot which would keep the shell
iu one position. Whe the lapwing wants to
procure food, it seeks for a worm's nest, and
stamps the ground by the side of it with its
feet somewhat in the same manner as I hare
often done when a boy, in order to procure
worms for fishing After doing this for a short
time, the bird waits for this issue of the worm
from its hole, who alarmed at the shaking of
1 the ground, enceavors to make his escape, when
it is immediately seized, and becomes the prey
of the ingenious bird. The lapwing also fre
quents the hauDts of moles. These animals,
when iu pursuit of worms on which the feed,
frighten them, and the worm, in attempting to
escape, comes to the surface of -the ground,
where it is seized by the lapwing. The sam 6
mode of alarming his prey has been related of
the gull.
DR. CR VYING ON THE " SIGNS OF THE TIMES **
—Dr. Camming has been stating his opinion
at Leeds respecting the great events which ac
cording to his interpretation of the Book of
Daniel and the Apocalypse, are looming in
: latere. He said the year 1867 seemed to
end C 000 years cf the world's history, and
, from the ea:.:ast periods onward it had been
' the almost universal belief thai the six days of
creat'oi were typical of those 6,000 years,
and that the seventh day of creation, or the
Sabbath, was typ : cal of the millennial rest of
1.000 year-. But they would say that, sup
posing this were so, they were at this momeul
over 140 years short of the 6,000 years. It
was a remarkable fact however, that the ablest
ehronologist, irrespective of all prophetic the
ories, had shown that a mistake of upwards
of 100 years had been made in calculating the
chronology of the world, and that the year
IS6O of the Christian era began not from the
year 4004 of the world's history, but in the
year 4138, and that the year of Christ's birth
was five years before that, or in 5132. If his
premises were jast. then they were at that
moment within seven years of the exhaustion
! of the 6,000 years ; so that if IS6T was to b3
I the termination of this economy, they had
arrived at tne Saturday evening of the world's
I long and dreary week. If this were so, it was
a magnificent thought that there were some in
that assembly who would never die. They
were just plunging into days such as they had
never before seen ; aa European war was loom
' ing more dreadful than that through which
they had recently passed, and when these
i things happened it would be seen that the
sentiments he had uttered were not the dream*
; of fanaticism, bat the words of soberness and
j truth.
A Goon LAW.—The bill,requiring Overseer*
of the Poor and Supervisors of Roads to give
security, passed both branches of the Legisla
ture, received the •auction of the Governor,
and is cow a law. It was introduced by Mr
\Yagcoscller, to. whose earnest and persevering
efforts the people are mainly indebted fof fts
passage. Under the old syatetn thousand! of
dollars were auaaaliy lost to the public, by the
election of it: competent,irresponsible nd dishon
est men for Supervisors and Overseers of the
poor. Under the new law, these officers are re
quired to give security in a mm not less tbnn
doable the probable amount of tax which may
come into tbeir hands. ' "
lA* / • • '1