6.]
In reply to the abolitionists the protagonists of the reactionaries
said that but for the "intrusive and intriguing interference of
pragmatical fanatics"[1] such precautionary enactments would never
have been necessary. There was some truth in this statement; for
in certain districts these measures operated not to prevent the
aristocratic people of the South from enlightening the Negroes, but to
keep away from them what they considered undesirable instructors.
The southerners regarded the abolitionists as foes in the field,
industriously scattering the seeds of insurrection which could then
be prevented only by blocking every avenue through which they could
operate upon the minds of the slaves. A writer of this period
expressed it thus: "It became necessary to check or turn aside the
stream which instead of flowing healthfully upon the Negro is
polluted and poisoned by the abolitionists and rendered the source
of discontent and excitement."[2] He believed that education thus
perverted would become equally dangerous to the master and the slave,
and that while fanaticism continued its war upon the South the
measures of necessary precaution and defense had to be continued.
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