THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



299 



For the Southern Planter. 

 REVIEW OF BRUCE'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. Editor, — Seeing that the slavery 

 opinions of Mr. James C. Bruce, as ex- 

 pressed in an agricultural address, had 

 excited much interest amongst our North- 

 ern neighbors, I sent to Richmond and 

 procured a copy of the " Whig' in which 

 it was published. After a careful perusal, 

 I propose to avail myself of your columns, 

 the legitimate medium of agricultural 

 circumstances, to review the nature, cha- 

 racter, and tendency of this discourse. 



Of the author personally I know little, 

 except that he bears the character of be- 

 ing one of the most wealthy, amiable, 

 and intelligent gentlemen in the wealthy 

 and enlightened region in which he lives; 

 it was, therefore, with the most pleasing 

 anticipations that I sat down to the peru- 

 sal of Mr. Bruce's address. Mere farmer 

 as I am, I waded, with some difficulty, 

 through the political opening,, which 

 seems to me to be marked with a very 

 vulgar and very erroneous strain of 

 thought. I dislike very much the com- 

 mon slang about the evils of party. — 

 Without party nothing that is great or 

 noble would ever have been effected. — 

 What is party but union and co-operation, 

 the mighty levers by which the world 

 has been raised 1 and what is political 

 party but the united and concerted action 

 of those who are willing to compromise 

 minor differences for the sake of securing 

 some "great principle held in common 

 amongst them ? Things that are power- 

 ful are never harmless, and it is unques- 

 tionably true that this mighty engine 

 may be worked for evil as well as for 

 good ; but the man who would reject it 

 altogether for this reason, would be about 

 as wise as he who would interdict the 

 printing press, because it is not always 

 devoted to the cause of virtue. 



Nor does Mr. Bruce's idea of "free- 

 dom" find more favor in my eyes. " He 

 who binds himself to man by any sort of 

 chain ; who basks in his smiles and 

 writhes under his frown, is not free." — 

 This is Mr. Bruce's test, and tried by it, 

 I fear that even the millionaire of Halifax, 



if he be the worthy gentleman I imagin« 

 him, will be found reposing in the chains 

 of slavery, The great object and result 

 of civilization is to bind man to man, to 

 make one individual dependant upon an- 

 other, to summon each to the bar of pub- 

 lic opinion in whose smiles the hero may 

 bask, and under whose frown the culprit 

 may wither. Society, government, and 

 legislation have no other end and aim 

 but this. The merchant who asks the 

 patronage of his customer, the lawyer 

 who desires the approbation of his client, 

 and the politician who seeks the favor of 

 the public, even although he do so in 

 pursuit of his daily bread, only groan 

 under the irreversible and divine decree 

 to which the son of woman has been con- 

 demned. And let us never forget that it 

 is the great merit of the glorious institu- 

 tions which Mr. Bruce was called on to 

 eulogize (the speech was delivered on the 

 4th of July) that they seek to diffuse 

 equally the burden of this heavy load 

 amongst the blacks that are doomed to 

 bear it. That in pursuit of the approba- 

 tion of our fellow-men, which is as need- 

 ful to the purse of most, as it is grateful 

 to the affections of all, the frailties and 

 failings of human nature are prominently 

 displayed, is undoubtedly true; but to 

 select one class for this peculiar sligma, 

 or to taint any of his fellow-citizens with 

 the necessity of struggling for a liveli- 

 hood, is what we are sure the good taste 

 of Mr. James C. Bruce would be the first 

 to deprecate; and yet this is what his 

 language means, or it means nothing. I 

 hope Mr. Bruce will excuse me when I 

 add that the habit in which some of our 

 agricultural orators indulge, of sneering 

 at other callings, is neither graceful nor 

 just. The several professions of life are 

 the members of the body politic, equally 

 dependant the one upon the other, con- 

 nected together by an indissoluble link, 

 all performing their several functions, and 

 equally important to the great end they 

 are destined to accomplish. I know it is 

 much the fashion of the day to abuse the 

 American people generally, and the inha- 

 bitants of Virginia especially, for their 

 devotion to politics ; but for my own part 



