Early in the month
of June last, or late in May, an editorial article appeared in the
Charleston Mercury, recommending the production and
encouragement of Southern literature, with which I was so forcibly impressed,
as to resolve upon the composition and publication of the following essay. I
felt that, at this crisis in our history, a brief work, containing a
comprehensive and popularly written exposition of Southern political
philosophy, might be advantageously placed before the world; and although there
were far abler pens than mine in the land, upon which might have devolved this
duty, their silence impelled me to make the present attempt.
In my treatment of
the subject, I have endeavored to be brief, lucid, and compendious—to make my
little work as compact as possible, and spare the reader from useless or
unnecessary reading. I have undertaken to prove historically, that slavery was
originally a universal institution of all great governments and societies; but
that the systems of the ancients were radically different from negro
subordination in America. I have ventured to show that cannibalism and
fetichism are, and ever have been, the normal and unalterable condition of the
negro in his native home-that he is physiologically and psychologically
degraded, that he is of an inferior species of the human race, wholly
dependent upon the Caucasian for progress, enlightenment, and well-being-and
that, servitude and subjection being his natural state, the relation which he
bears to superior mastership, in the Confederate States, is merciful to him and
the cause of religion and civilization.
Relative to the
cruel sectional war into which we have been plunged, I have, I think,
established, that, so far as the South is concerned, it was unavoidable—that it
was forced upon her against her will—in spite of her prayers and supplications.
The North was the first and original secessionist; she rent asunder the old
Union, and trampled under foot the Constitution, which was the bond of Union;
and, as such, let her stand arraigned before the bar of posterity and universal
justice.
I do not claim
anything like pure originality for this Essay. Indeed, much of its matter may
have been already familiar to the reader. But the style, arrangement, design,
and mode of treatment, are wholly my own.
I should not omit to
mention here, that it has been my good fortune to have recently become
acquainted with a distinguished gentleman, whom I am proud to call my friend—Hon.
ALEXANDER DIMITRY. Of him I can truly add, that he is an accomplished critic, a
profound thinker, and a fine scholar—a man of Athenian acumen, and gifted with
a plastic Greek mind. I am indebted to him for important suggestions, as well
as for the reading and correcting of my proof-sheets. To Professor De Bow,
whose fruitful labors have peculiarly associated him with the industrial growth
and development of the South, I am also obliged for kind attentions, and for
having been instrumental in materially adding to my knowledge of cotton
culture.
I must not, and
should not, conclude, without offering sincere and unaffected thanks to my
publishers—Messrs. WEST & JOHNSTON. They have promptly responded to every
wish of mine, in the face of difficulties and expense, during the publication
of this work. Indeed, Mr. Johnston, particularly,—Mr. West being absent in the
military service of his country-has been to me, not only a business, but a
personal, friend-always cheerful, courteous, generous and obliging; and if
my first book meets with popular favor, it is merely designed
to form, a general introduction to a history of the present war—which shall
bear the imprint of my first publishers.
