The Foresight of Mr. Fielder.
A Vocalist of the last generation, celebrated in his day, and called Incledon, while listening to the performances of Braham, was accustomed to wish that his old music-master could come down from heaven to Exeter and take the mail-coach up to London, “to hear that d — d Jew sing.” Mr. Herbert Fielder, of Georgia, who is the latest champion of disunion, and who appears to have muddled himself into something like sincerity by too much reading of Mr. Calhoun, in a pamphlet which he has put out, and for which he charges the incredibly small sum of fifty cents, utters a similar wish. Mr. Herbert Fielder admits that Gen. Washington, in a certain document usually called “The farewell Address,” strongly deprecated the dissolution of the Union. In the course of his disquisition, Mr. Fielder supposes Washington to descend from heaven, with or without the aid of a parachute, but still, we suppose, in full regimentals, with what Mr. Fielder calls “important dispatches.” So changed are we, according to Mr. F., that the angel Washington would not know at first where to alight. But Mr. F. is certain that after hovering Over the land for a while and taking [47] sights at us, we suppose with a telescope, Washington would drop upon the Slave side of the line and immediately call a Disunion meeting. “Should the experiment ever be made,” says Mr. Fielder, “that would be the result.” Unfortunately it is not violently probable that the experiment will ever be made. The second advent of Washington, in spite of Mr. Fielder's invocation, is not an event which will occur this week or next. We shall wait some time, if we wait for Washington to come down to help us; and Washington himself might object to such a mission. However, in the absence of this illustrious ghost, Mr. Fielder undertakes the patriotic duty of enlightening this great nation. He proves to a demonstration that the Southern States are down-trodden, bleeding and bound — completely under the thumbs or toes of the North--slaves, vassals, serfs of the commercial States! “There she sits” --she meaning the North--“levying tribute on the Southern agriculturist, to clothe in costly purple and feed on sumptuous repast the lordly manufacturer.” Quite touching! But those who are taking out their handkerchiefs may put them up again, for Mr. Fielder immediately goes on to prove that the Southern States are the most prosperous, enterprising, intelligent and the happiest communities in the world. The benevolent and sympathetic reader is thus placed in a most uncomfortable position, and does not know whether to grin or to groan. But as he has paid his half dollar, he has, we suppose, the right to choose. Mr. H. Fielder, we will do him the justice to say, [48] is a first-rate hater. He throws down his glove in the preface with an unmistakable sincerity. “I hate the North,” says Mr. H. Fielder, ferociously. “I love the South,” says Mr. H. Fielder, tenderly, not to say amorously. Having thus proclaimed his freedom from all possible unworthy prejudices, he advances with zeal, demonstrating the prosperity and prostration of the South with a sort of ambidextrous logic, which would have astonished Archbishop Whately. He opens, indeed, with a burst of amiability, and a sort of grim politeness, soothing to consider. “It is optional,” says Mr. Fielder, “with the public to read the title-page, and to throw it (the book) down without a perusal, or to read it.” Herein it will be seen that Mr. Fielder's pamphlet differs from all other pamphlets heretofore ushered, or hereafter to be ushered, into this reading world. We cannot sufficiently appreciate Mr. Fielder's obliging condescension. We will, however, do him the justice to say, that he is occasionally entertaining and sometimes remarkably pretty. For instance, when he speaks of the doughfaces, who, poor fellows! are doing their best, he forcibly and eloquently says: “The voice of our friends at the North, if we have any there, (ungrateful doubt!) is as feeble, compared with that of the enemy, as would be the force and power of a cooing turtle-dove upon a solitary oak in the forests, when a thousand hungry eagles with whetted beaks and distended claws were already on the wing for the assault.” One turtle-dove with a thousand eagles — a thousand hungry eagles, a thousand [49] eagles with whetted beaks, a thousand eagles with distended claws--one turtle-dove assailed by such a winged host would be, we admit, in a condition of considerable peril. We introduced the passage to show Mr. Fielder's mastery of style, which is a most convenient accomplishment when one has very little to say and a desire to say a great deal. But we pity the doughfaces. The whole body of them thus compared to one miserable, little lonesome pigeon! We will do Mr. Fielder the further justice to say, that he really does seem to consider Human Slavery to be altogether beautiful. It is evident that if he were not Fielder he would be a field-hand — if he were not a slave-owner he would be a slave. He does not seem to think that there is any material difference between the rapture of owning and the rapture of being owned. Slavery is sweet alike to his mental and his religious constitution. He duly lugs in the Holy Scriptures. He quotes, “Cursed be Canaan!” as if it had never been quoted before. We have short, biographical notices of Noah, Ham, Shem, Japheth, Abraham, Hagar, Jacob, our old friend Onesimus, and our old friend Philemon. One of his pages bristles with Biblical references: Gen. IX.; Lev. XIX., etc., etc. The dear old δοῦλος is again trotted out. The creature-comforts of Southern chattels are duly and admiringly dwelt upon. The blankets of the Black, his raiment, his pork and his pone when he is well, and his potions and pills when he is sick. Then his condition is contrasted with that of white workmen [50] at the North, who are, as usual, described as ragged and ruined, as paupers or prisoners, as starving or stealing. We fancy that we have met with something like this line of argumentation before. Mr. Fielder takes it up with an enthusiasm which leads us to suppose that he considers it to be a novelty. If he does, he is very much mistaken. We think we may say, in conclusion, that so far as Mr. Fielder is concerned, the Union is already dissolved. The case now stands thus: Thirty-two sovereign States versus Herbert Fielder, Esq., of Georgia. Mr. Fielder has not, at the latest dates, proceeded so far as to seize the public arsenals, post-offices, revenue cutters, etc., but we presume that he will do so at his earliest convenience — that he will elect himself to all necessary offices, and so found a Republic which will knock the ideal of Plato to splinters, and afford to an admiring world a revival of the glories of Sparta, Athens, Assyria, Carthage and Rome.November 18, 1858.
