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The Southern rebels.

It is quite delightful and refreshing to observe the parrot-like facility with which the Yankee press takes of the ‘"Southern Rebels."’ There is something so novel and exhilarating to people who never owned a servant, to whom no one was ever low enough to acknowledge allegiance, who cannot in general compel even a horse to admit their supremacy, in the idea of anybody on the face of the earth rebelling against them, that they ought to be profoundly grateful to the whole South for affording them an opportunity to entertain themselves with such an exquisite illusion.

It is true, that we are unable to discover the applicability of the term. The South never rebelled against the Constitution, nor do we understand how any State can rebel against the Union, which was but the creation of the States, any more than any other principals can rebel against their agents.--But we prefer to look at the thing in the light which ‘"tickles"’ the Yankees so hugely, viz: a rebellion against Yankeedom, against Yankee commerce, Yankee manufactures, and Yankee lords and masters. The idea of rebelling against Yankees may annoy sensitive people, but to our mind it is so ludicrous and diverting that we shall never want to be called anything but rebel till the day of our death. If ever a monetary gloom overspreads our horizon, if troubles come upon us, friends depart, and the shades of life's evening become prematurely dark, this idea of rebelling against a Yankee would chase everything like serious reflection from our minds, and bring a broad grin even upon the cheek of Despair.

We by no means confound the whole North with that ‘"peculiar people,"’ the Yankees.--Nor are all Yankees who are born and live in Yankeedom. But take them as a whole, we can safely say that rebellion to them — their morality, religion, manners, philosophy — is obedience to Heaven. A more godless, licentious, canting, cruel, humbugging race than the children of the May Flower, never existed in any land. The American Indians, whom they cheated out of their possessions, and assassinated when they had made them drunk enough to commit hostilities, were perfect gentlemen in comparison.

Now, if any one is pleased to suppose that all this is vague and angry denunciation, we have only to refer to the statistics of crime and compare the South and the North, or, leaving out such confessed Sodoms and Gomorrahs as New York and Philadelphia, place side by side New England and any section of equal size in the Southern States. Take their model Commonwealth, Massachusetts, and how will it compare in morality with the much-abused State, South Carolina? No better standard of the morality of a people can be found than female virtue, and in the State of South Carolina there has not been a divorce since the Revolution. In the State of Massachusetts there is scarcely a day, certainly not a week in the year, in which a divorce does not become necessary. We say nothing of the Carolinian's elevation of manners, of his high-bred courtesy, of his chivalric courage, these being considered in Massachusetts Southern fooleries; but, in the vital, hose hold virtues, which are essential to the purity and happiness of society, Massachusetts can bear no comparison with South Carolina.--And so of other Southern States. We well recollect that, when, at the instance of a Northern correspondent, in the canvass between Fremont, Fillmore and Buchanan, we examined the Virginia records to ascertain whether a divorce had ever been obtained between Mrs. Fremont and her husband, Mr. Prior, we were struck with the rarity of such cases in Virginia history. Can Massachusetts say as much? or any New England State?--We do not impeach the general purity of the sex in that or any other portion of the country, for the majority of women in every land are better and purer than man; but we maintain that there does not exist elsewhere, and has not in modern times, whether in the Old World or the New, as high morality as characterizes the Southern States. In regard to truth, frankness, commercial honesty, good fellowship between neighbors, no intelligent and candid man will for a moment contest the superiority of the South. We dismiss altogether the difference of manners — the genial, refined deportment of Southern men in general, and the coarse, abrupt, unfeeling style which has become so general in Northern society that a man of sensibility and geniality among them is regarded as little better than a fool. Think of a people who can deliberately elect such a swine as Lincoln President of the United States, whose beau ideal of a gentleman is Summer, of Massachusetts, and whose model of a hero, Benjamin F. Butler, of Old Point! Rebellion against them! It is the rebellion of a civilized stomach against pork and molasses, Withersfield onions and Massachusetts cod!

There is a practical idea, however, connected with this slang about Southern rebels which lies at the foundation of this infamous war. It is that the Southern States belong to the North; that they are the rightful owners of our wealth and industry; that they are entitled of right to our cotton, tobacco, rice, naval stores and trade. We are not to reap any further benefit from any of the great staples of our production than a bare support. We are to produce these grand articles of commerce which enrich the world, and make New York, Boston, Lowell, Lynn, Philadelphia, &c., magnificent cities, and to receive nothing more from them than our bread, clothing and lodging. All the rest belongs to our Northern lords and masters! The seceding States are to be treated as so many fugitive slaves, and are not to be permitted to imitate our Yankee tyrants in nullifying the fugitive slave law. Therefore, we are denounced as rebels, and the rebellion is to be put down by fire and sword! The question at issue is simply whether we belong to them or to ourselves. The South is able to decide that question, and as long as it can draw a trigger or wield a bayonet it will never become a slave — above all, the worst of all slaves — a slave to the Yankees, ‘"a servant of servants and slave of the devil."’

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