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WEST KILLINGLY : -E. B. CARTER—PRINTER.
1849, Cy
ADDRESS.
‘My Frrienps :—
WE have no ringing of bells—no firing of guns—no sounds of martial music—“ the blow of trumps and thump of drum ”—none of “ the pomp and circumstance” which usually attends a celebration of this anniversary, attracting the attention of the crowd, and gathering the multitude ; but if any feel an interest in the welfare of humanity, in the continued happiness of the country, and in the success and final triumph of the Kingdom of Christ, upon earth, to them we would offer a few thoughts which we trust will not prove irrelevant to the occasion.
Seventy three years have now passed away, since our fathers, assembled in the city of Philadelphia, most solemnly declared “ these truths to be self evident—that all men are created free and equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ;’” and then making a declaration to the world, of their national inde- pendence, and pledging to each other “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor,” they fearfully plunged into a long, and bloody, and expensive war of seven years continuance, with the most powerful nation on the globe, to make that declaration good; and although without an ‘army, without a navy, without a national treasury, and even without a regular general government, as we now have these things, yet against almost all human probabili- ties, they finally succeeded. Their independence was secured; and soon after, they were equally happy in being able, in the face of much opposition, to adopt a new
1
4
-and almost untried form of government—a Federal Re-’ public. Under this form of government, notwithstanding some disturbing forces, we have enjoyed unexampled national prosperity. Our population has travelled west- ward at the astonishing rate of seventeen miles per annum, and increased from three, to twenty millions, while in agriculture, i in commerce, in manufactories, in the useful and elegant arts, and in national wealth, we have increased in a still greater. ratio. *“ As an example of the latter, we would state, that at the close of the revolution, the taxable valuation of Massachusetts and the District of Maine united, amounted to but $20,000,000. At the Jast census the taxable valuation of Massachusetts alone amounted to nearly $300,000,000, while the population of the state had but little more than doubled ; showing a relative gain in point of wealth, of nearly a thousand per cent. The taxable valuation of Massachusetts now, is probably not far from $450,000,000, of which the city of Boston alone possesses $162, 000 000. | This war of the Revolution, like the war of the British parliament with Charles I, 1642—9, was a war of prin- ciple—simply to determine who should hold the purse strings of the people. Charles claimed the right of rais- ing a revenue without the Parliament. They stoutly denied that right, and to make good that denial, engaged in that rebellion, under the leadership of that sturdy old Puritan, Cromwell, in which Charles lost both his crown and his head; and all to establish that great principle of the English constitution—“ no taxation without represent- ation.” A century and a quarter later, that same parlia- ment attempted to impose the same yoke upon the American colonies, which their predecessors had so indigs nantly rejected themselves,—* taxation without representa- tion ;’’ upon which our fathers rose up to repel the insult, and to declare, that while they were “‘ ready to pay mil- lions, if their constitutional rights as British. subjects, were respected, yet not a penny would they pay as tr ibute: Huod
5
But now after a lapse of nearly three fourths of a century since that noble declaration of human rights was sent forth into the world, we find that we have made so litile advancement in the practical development of its great national principles of “liberty and equality,” that we have now three millions of slaves in the republic—as many as the whole population amounted to at the time this declaration was made. And very lately a pious and talented gospel minister, a son of Revolutionary sires, and a native of the old Plymouth colony, died within the walls of a gloomy prison, in a central city of this republic -—a city filled with churches, and professed disciples of him who came “to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound ;” and where the representatives of the two great political parties which have fong ruled the destines of the mation, met in 1844, to select their respective candidates for the presidency ; and all this for attempting to give a practical and universal application to the principles of the famous declaration of independence. The death of the martyred Torrey may serve to’ show us just how far we have actually advanced in political science, and in civil liberty since the 4th of July, 1776.
This fairly mtroduces the subject of the present address to our notice—viz. American Slavery, and which we propose to thus present :-—
I. Slavery defined. II. Slavery in its moral and religious aspects.
III. Slavery in its economical, or pecuniary aspects. IV. Slavery in its political aspects.
Hi I, SLAVERY DEFINED.
What is slavery? We answer, it is the chattel princi- pie. It is' that which takes man made in the likeness and image of God—man redeemed by the precious blood of Christ—man made a temple of the Holy Ghost—man ‘s capable of knowing, of loving, of serving, and of enjoy-
6
ing God forever””—man destined to a glorious resurec- tion, and to a happy immortality in heaven, and reduces him to the condition of a chattel :—which exchanges him in the marts of men for gold and silver, for articles of merchandies and even for brute beasts. ‘This is slavery— nothing more and nothing less. Hence it is not very material, whether the slave is well or ill fed—lodged in a stable or a palace——clothed in rags or broadcloth-—flogged or caressed. These are mere circumstances, which may, or may not, attach to this unhappy condition, according as the slave may fall into the hands of a kind, or of a cruel master :—-it is against the hellish principle involved, that man can hold properity in his fellow man, that we wage eternal war and hold everlasting enmity. We wish, therefore, no man to insult us with apologies for slavery, arising from the supposed good condition of the slave, as contrasted with that of certain other portions of the hu- man race, who may not be subjected to the operation of this principle. Their arguments, in our estimation, are entirely wide of the mark.
The Bible, which is the grand charter of human rights, as well as the rule of human duty, informs us, that when God created man in his own image, and gave him his benediction, and bestowed upon him the grant of the whole earth, it was in the following terms-—‘‘ have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Gen. 1; 28. But observe man. is not in the grant. ‘And the psalmist, Ps. 8: 6, 7, 8, in recapiiulating the several particulars of this original grant to the human race, leaves out man; and By this very plain reason, among a thousand other obvious ones, that a grant of ~ dominion over man, without, at the same time, determin- ing who should be the masters, and who the slaves, would introduce great confusion into man’s affairs; and that, in fact, a grant of servitude against one of the human race, would, in truth, be a grant against the whole.
, Hence slavery, in accordance with this great chattel —
principle, takes from the enslaved the fruits or his honest toil. The Bible declares, that “ the labourer is worthy of his hire:” and therefore pronounces a curse upon him “who useth his neighbors’ service without wages, and payeth him not for his work.” But slavery treats with the most sovereign contempt this great principle of natur- _al justice, almost universally recognized among men, and compels the slave to labor for his owner “from early morn to dewy eve,’’ and from childhood to old age, without compensation.
The slave may clear lands, and make plantations, but they are for another; he may toil and sweat beneath a a tropical sun, the raise. the precious fruits of the earth, but another takes them; by his labor and skill he may erect palaces, but others inhabit them; he may sound the depths of the seas for pearls, and delve i in the bow els of the earth for gold and silver, and “stones of price,” but others are enyiched by them, and not himself. In short, slavery completely reverses the laws of God, as well as nature. Jehovah proclaims,— If any man will not work, neither shall he eat.” But the slave works, and starves. His owner works not; but riots in the fruit of his unrequieted toil.
But this is not all. As slavery robs man of himself, so. it may also rob him of his wife, and of his children. As it reduces him to an article of merchandize, so it reduces the wife of his bosom, and the children of his body, to the same unhappy condition. His wife may be taken from him to satisfy the lust, or the avarice of another; and he cannot protect her, but upon peril of his own life. She may be sold away from him into interminable servitude, and the law redresses not his unspeakable wrongs, but is made the very instrument of those wrongs. He sees his children growing up around him, in the same ineffable degredation, and destined forthe same miserable life as himself ; and he cannot perform for them the duty, or extend to them the protection of a father. He can afford them no instruction in letters and science, for he has none
8
himself toimpart. The eyes of his soul have been sie? | |
out by the arm of an irrecoverable servitude. He can
leave them no property, for all the fruits of his hard toil have been taken from him, and appropriated by another. He has nothing to give them. He has not even a good — name to leave “them—nothing but the infamy of his own: servitude, and the bottomless depths of his own wretched- ness. Unhappy man! He is compelled to’see even his caughters subjected to the cruel lash of the owner, redtit- ed to the lowest deep of female degredation, or sold away
from his presence, and from his sympathies, and there is
no help in his arm.
And now, after the lapse of two gererations since the declaration of American independence, and the war of the Rev olution, we see two of those states which were foremost in that fearful struggle for the professed estab- lishment of free principles, Maryland and’ Virginia, sus- taining the same humiliating relation to the more southern and southw estern states, as the coast of Africa now sus- tains to certain other portions of the world—a mere Guinea coast, selling their own children to strangers for “old. In.1836, Virginia alone sold 40,000 of her people to the South and Southwest, for which she realized $24,000,000. And yet she is poor. And so will any country be poor which seeks to grow rich by the asinine policy of selling its own laboring population !
In short, slavery takes everything from man. Taking
man himself, it of course takes his wife, his children, the fruits of his honest toil, the Key of knowledge, and his civil, political and religious rights. Taking the man himself, it necessarily leaves him nothing in the form: of rights. The code of slavery recognizes no rights in its hapless victim. Nothingis there recognized but duties, and those most rigidly exacted. Privileges—to use its
own language, it sometimes grants. But even those bear- ing, as they apparently do, the marks of kindness and. generosity, are in fact, but insults heaped upon maz ;:
for how came one mortal man by the privilege of
'
g§
_ another, and which he may dole out to him, as may best suit his inclination and convenience ?
Slavery has the face of a Gorgon. Let us look at it in whatever light we please, it exhibits naught but features of a most loathsome and hateful deformity. Even in its very best aspects, it shows its inherent turpitude and sin- fulness. It cannot bear the light. It is,in fact, the reversal of all laws, human and divine. It rests both the tables: of the law, at one blow. It first denies the right of God in his own creatures—to their intelligent and enlightened’ worship, and to their perfect obedience; and: having thus committed the greater sin, its course sticks not at the lesser ;—it then proceeds to deny man right in him- self, in his wife, in his children, and in the fruits of his labors—those “ rights’’ which our boasted aud far famed declaration pronounces to be “inalienable ”»—which one may not only not take from another, but which he cannot even dispose of himself.
1I1.SLAVERY INITS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS.
ind here the first thing that arrests our attention is’ the astounding fact, that American Slavery compels its unhappy victims to live in a state of legalized adultery or concubinage. What a spectacle, to see three millions of people, possessing all the moral capabilities of ourselves, and bound to the judgment seat of Christ, absolutely com- pelled to live in this horrid state, and this’ too, in the midst of a professedly christian country—with christian churches dotting the land in all directions, and with chris- tian ministers everywhere performing their holy functions ! The marriage relation is not recognized by the slave code. No christian minister, nor christian magistrate legally officiates at the solemnization of the union of the slave man and woman. ‘This would be rather too much for slavery itself, as vile as it is, to permit parties to be unit~ ed in the name of the holy trinity, and their blessing invoked upon their union, and with the intention of per- mitting them to be forcibly separated whenever its lust, its avarice, or its convenience might dictate..
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Since the abolition reform commenced, certain immaccu- late spirits have been greatly shocked lest the middle wall of partition between the black and the white races should be broken down, and they permitted to mingle by lawful marriage—lifting up their hands in holy horror at the very thought of the thing. But while those persons have been so exceedingly troubled at the idea of the lawful and christian union of those races, if they should so will it, © they have not been at all shocked at seeing these races mingled by fornication and adultery, the whole South turned into one vast brothel, and its motley population ex- hibiting as many different complexions, as there are shades of coler between the jet black of the Congo negro, and the pure and lily white of the Caucasian. Yea, they — can see fathers retaining their own half caste children in slavery, or selling them to the slave traders, to replenish their empty purses; they can see legitimate children retaining in servitude or selling their half caste brothers and sisters—things often occurring in the slave states ; and for those abominations they have no rebuke, and for these wrongs they have no tear.
What must be the moral and civil condition of a people, who are even denied the rights of the marriage relation ? And what must be the religious character, and what the spiritual conditions of a people who will thus allow the very corner stone of christian and civilized society to be knocked away? How huge is the political hypocricy of a free state, and the religious hypocricy of a christian church that will suffer these rampant abominations !
Again, Slavery denies the bible to most of its victims. In the majority of the slave states, it does not even allow them to learn to read. To teach them to read it is made a crime—tfor the first offence, a fine, for the second, im- prisonment: the third is capital, and must be expiated by death. ‘The audacious slaveholder virtually says, ‘ God may reveal his sovereign and holy will, and the way of salvation to a lost and perishing world, through his proph- ets, and his apostles, even “his well beloyed Son ;” ‘and
1
he may may move his learned servants to render it into / the vernacular languages of the several nations of tiis tearful earth; but He must not send it to my slaves, for they shall not learn to read it; if they did, they would know as well as myself, and they would tend to their emancipation, and then my “ gains of oppression” would be gone. No, no, the bible cannot be allowed in my kitchen, or in my negroes’ quarters; for where the word ot God goes, there goes His Spirit likewise, “and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
Hence the American church has scarcely oe to offer the bible to the slave population. Hundreds of thousands of them are in her communion——baprized by her ministers—-guests at her table—acknowledged to be fellow heirs ef the grace of life—and candidates for the crown of immortality; and yet she has not dared to pre- sume to offer the mass of them the ward of peace; and hecayse somebody has had vhe ineffable impudence and audacity to presume to own them as property. ‘The American Bible Society, instituted in 1816, for the osten- sible purpose of furnishing a copy of the scriptures to every family of man on the face of the globe, although its industrious agents meet the poor emigrant fleeing from the poverty and oppression of the old world, with the word of life and peace, as soon as he touches our shores 3 and although it expends thousands a year for the enlight- enment of the ignorant, and superstitious, and idolatrous millions of the Kastern continent, yet we presume that its first thousand remains to be expended for the benefit of the slaves of the South. Yet it sends its agents into the South, with honied speech, to collect of the slave ow ners, money earned by the toij and sweat of the slave, to fur: nish the idolatrous Hindoo, and the superstitious Papist - with the book of God, which is denied himself. Surely this is “ charity beginning at home” with a witness. And the American and For eign Bible Society, the Baptist In- stitution, formed for the wonderfully pious and benevolent purpose of having the Greek verb, baptizo, and its deriy-
Ho ba
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Atives correctly translated, lest the poor heathen should |
not be washed with water enough to secure their certain admittance to that “kingdom “which is not meats and — drinks, but righteousness, peace and joy in the bidly 3 ghost,” so far as we have learned, is governed by the same policy. The poor Bramins’ in the jungles of Bur-
1
mah, excite their “‘ softest pity,’ and must have the pure |
word of God; and to supply them with which heaven must be moved with prayers, and earth with appeals to christian sympathy and benevolence, while their own
baptized members in the piny woods and the rice swamps © of the Carolinas, in the cotton fields of Georgia and Ala- — bama, and on the sugar plantations of Louisiana, are past — by. A distinguished minister, once the pastor of one of |
their city churches, at the expense of a few thousands,
begged from the poor of Christ’s flock, must be sent ‘
India, to Burmah, to Siam, to China, and to South Africa to look after the condition of the “poor heathen” in
those “ ends of the earth.” He comes home, and takes’
the presidency of a college in a‘ slave state; and if his voice is there lifted up in favor of the heathen of that state, we have failed to hear it. Surely, that generation of hypocrites who strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel’;” has not yet passed away.
And further, slavery takes from the boridman all relig- ious privileges, except what the master may please to
grant him. The slaveholder continually stands between the slave and his God, to prevent the one from giving, and the other from receiving the perfect homage of the heart. If the slaveholder pleases to grant his slave a ‘Sabbath, he does it ; otherwise the fourth commandment is of no force there. If he pleases to grant a pass to his servants to attend a place of worship, to hear the word of life, he does so; if not, God speaks by his ministers in’ vain. If he pleases to permit a christian missionary to visit his plantation to’ offer verbal religious inStruction: to’ his slaves, he does it; if not, the great commission, “ go’ ye into all the world,” fails of its application there. If
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the master pleases to allow the slave to pray—to ad- dress his Creator and Redeemer, as a perishing sinner in need of mercy, he does so; if not he subjects him to eruel scourgings, and lacerations, for even presuming to assume this most simple of all rights. And thus is Amer- ican Slavery a continual interference with the best and highest interests of man, and with the rights of God.
No marvel, therefore that our holy religion should be the deadly antagonist of slavery, and that it should utterly exterminate it, whenever it comes into close contact with |it, and is administered for this purpose. Of the Messiah |it was said by the prophet, that at his coming, ‘ He shall judge the poor of the people, he shail save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppresser ” —that ‘‘ he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. That he shall spare the poor and the needed, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and that precious shall their blood be in his sight.’ And thus it has come to pass.
Therefore, when Christianity opened her glorious com- mission of love in the earth, it was by declaring that God had made of one blood all nations of man to dwell upon the face of the earth ;” that as the Universal Father of the human race, he was “ good unto every man, and his loving kindness over his works ;” that he alike “ gave unto. all men rain, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness ;” that He who so loved the world, with all its various races and colors, and every individual of them all, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, might not perish, but have everlasting life ; it offered the gift of the Holy Ghost, of a full and a free salvation to all men, bond and free, without any dis- truction whatever, according to Joel 2: 28, 29, 32; it declared all equally eligible to the crown of life, to the inheritance of the saints in light, and to everlasting life ;” that God is no respecter of persons, and therefore that men should “love their neighbors as themselves ;” that
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“as they would, that man should do unto inal even 80 must they do unto others, likewise, for this was the snb- stance of the law and the prophets.” _ And finally, the author of our holy religion fortifies the whole by plainly announcing the grand principle upon which the general judgment shall be conducted, in the last day. Matt. 25: 31—46, And thus, although he nowhere said, “ thou shalt not own a slave,” as he also nowhere formally for= bids, games of chance, theatrical exhibitions, and gladia-
torial combats, which existed in common with slavery in. those days; yet by thus proclaiming the universal broths
erhood of the human race, and consequently the equality
of man, he struck a blow at the root. These principles
the world had never heard before. They startled them
as strange sounds; and they so they were; and as such
destined to affect an entire revolution in ainiials affairs ; and the work yet goes on.
When Christianity, under the leadership of twelve humble men, then ‘‘ unknown to fame,” commenced in the earth, its work of renovation; of 130,000,000, which it found in the Roman Empire, then comprising the most of its field of operations, one half were slaves, the property of the other half. True to its heaven born origin, and to the mighty task to which it was appointed, it immedi- ately commenced its glorious work of emancipation ; and finally, after a sharp and protracted struggle, of five cen- turies, during which, the church was called to bleed at every pore herself, the manacles fell from the limbs of the last slave in the reign of Justinian, A. D., 538. It is also said that this was likewise the year of the extinction of the old superstition ; so that it is well worthy of remark, as a most significant event, and a strange coincidence, that slavery and ‘idolatry both died at once—that the last slave ceased to breathe, and the last victim to smoke pice heathen altars, at one and the same time.
But scarcely, yea, before Christianity had fairly accom- plished this great work of humanity, an immense avalanche of heathen barbarians from the snowy regions
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of the north, precipitated themselves upon the sunny plains of the south; and breaking the western empire into many fragments, planted themselves where the Cae- ‘sars who were cotemporary with our Lord, and his apos- tles, once bore away, and introduced a system of servitude —a sort of military vassalage, scarcely better than that which had just passed away. Feudalism rose upon the ruins of the Roman Empire. Christianity, although her ener- gies were now greatly weakened by false doctrine which had begun to prevail, and her vitality almost destroyed by that night of ignorance, which like a dark dread had
begun to invest her, yet true to her high calling, she once
‘more applied herself to the mighty task which was before
her, of overthrowing feudalism. The church was then
the only democrary in the world. Her members within
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her walls, were upon a footing. The lordly baron and his villein knelt side by side at her altars. In her estima- tion, they were both of the same height and dimensions. Even her dignitaries might be taken from the lowest of the people. Hence the temporal lord might be seen bow- ing before the spiritual authority of his hereditary bond- man ; and hence in the church, the people found sympathy and patrons. This was the bottom of the famous quarrel between Henry II. and his chancellor Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and who was finally murdered as it was supposed at the instigation of Henry, in his ca- thedral church, Dec. 1170. Becket was a Saxon, and the patron of the people, even before Macna Charta of King John, 1215; hence his great popularity among the oppressed thousands of his countrymen, and the ne- cessity Henry was under of making peace with his memory. ; te
In Ireland, the church of which was independent, till the infamous council of Cashel 1172, when it became united to Rome, and in which religion and learning the most flourished from the introduction of Christianity till that fatal period, the slave trade, which was carried on between the port of Bristol and that country, was abolish-
16
ed by the clergy, just previous to that event. In the days of Wickliffe feudalism received a mortal blow by . translations of the bible, and the Jight which are thereby immediately diffused by the preaching of his followers, the Lollards. The bible soon put this distich into the mouths of the people, |
“ When Adam dely’d and Eve she span, Where was then the gentleman: ry
‘The effort was prodigious. One hundred thousand men were assembled on Blackheath, under Wat Tyler, and demanded, among other things the abolition of slavery. This requisition was complied with, and the charter af. general emancipation was granted by Richard IL, 13873 although Macauley says, I know not upon what authority, that villeinage, lingered in England until the time of the Reformation, when it became wholly extinguished. Other nations of Western Europe followed in this work, until serfdom was finally abolished in Prussia in the very year of our national independence, 1776. It was this circum- stance which has given to her the moral, and intellectual, and physical elevation which she has since enjoyed among the nations. Poland refused to emancipate, for which erime she has not only lost her own her liberties, but her political independence, and even her national existence. A just judgment upon her for her sin. Russia still main- — tains serfdom; but she is but just emerging from barbar- ism—being more than a century behind her neighbors. Hungary has lately mostly abolished it, and her nobility. even have made common cause with their people, which now gives her such power under the brave Kossuth, as to be able to rise up, and chastise her ancient oppressors,
The American revolution was the result of Puritanism ; and Puritanism imbibed its unquenchable love of liberty, and its hatred of oppression, and its daring defiance of tyrants, from the bible. Men who underetand that beok, © and who drink into its spirit, cannot live in servitude, and — neither will they inflict it upon their fellow men. Hence
F
the Revolution was followed by the abolition of Slavery ‘in several of the states. Vermont abolished it by consti- tution in 1777, and is the only one of the original thirteen, the soil of which was never pressed by the foot f aslave.e In New Hampshire, in which it never exist- d, but to a very limited extent, it was abolished, without snactment, by the individual slaveholders themselves. In assachusetts, it was abolished by a decree of the supreme Court, in 1780, as being incompatible with the Bill of Rights, which, with the constitution, was drafted Jolin Adams, had been adopted the same year. In Rhode Island it was abolished by express statute in 1784. And in 1787, it was prohibited in all the country north- vest of the Ohio, which now comprises the five large States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wis- nsin, by the famous ordinance of that year. . Free Soil- was then the doctrine. Since then Slavery has been ompelled to retire almost south of Mason and Dixon’s ne, where it has entrenched itself, fortified all its posi- ions, flings defiance to the nation; and seems resolved to ight it out to the last. But it is of no use. It is an ursed institution, and must soon take up its line of rch for the Gulf of Mexico, into which it is.to be plunged ; for it will require the waters of the deep and wide sea, to wash out the accumulated guilt of centuries. In accordance with the provision of the constitution to t effect, our government abolished the African slave rede in 1807, and declared it piracy. Great Britain also
jished it about the same time; and both nations, ecording to the provisions of the late Ashburton treaty, low maintain a naval force upon the coast of Africa, for suppression. Every christian nation under heaven, ve also abolished it by treaty, and in. which, they are ng followed even by some of the Mohamedan_ powers. 1ce 1810, slavery has also been abolished by Mexico, all of the South American states, eccept. Brazil, Which, with our Southern States, enjoy the most unenvia-
fA
17
is
ble notoriety of being the only christian governments on earth that maintain the ‘hated system of negro servi- tude. Shame is no reversion for them. |
In August 1834, England, upon the stern demand of
her christian people at home, emancipated 800,000 slaves in her West India possessions, and that at an expense of £20,000,000. In 1842, by a few strokes of the pen, she emancipated 12,000,000, in her East India possessions, and is now engaged in a crusade for its utter suppression all the world over; thus setting an example worthy of . imitation by those Republicans who profess more, and do less. France, Denmark, and Sweden have also either abolished it, or are about to do. so, in all their colonial possessions. Holland among the Protestant powers, and Portugal and Spain among the Catholic and are the only
ones which still uphold the hated system in their colonies ;_
and as they have already lost almost all of them, so they will perhaps soon lose the whole, for their wickedness. “ Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints!”
In short, as slavery stands opposed to the free progress of the gospel, and the dissemination of the holy scrip- tures, its abolition is now the question of age. The heart- less and avaricious sons of mammon, who worship the almighty dollar, may stand in the way of this reform, igno- rantly supposing that it stands in the way of their interest; but they will be compelled to relinquish their wealth and power to those who will fall in with the grand and glori- ous purposes of the all conquering Son of God, who is the emancipator of the oppressed. ‘Corrupt and venal politicians may stand in the way of its progress; but they are already “ broken in pieces,” and ‘the stone” falling upon them they will soon ‘“‘ be ground to powder.” Dan. 2; 34. Luke 20; 18. Unfaithful and godless ministers may oppose, or remain indifferent to the Londman’s wrongs and woes ; but they will soon fall into the con- tempt they so richly merit, and will be compelled to yield
their places to those who can sympathize with the cross
y Md ;
‘
19
of Christ, and with the downtrodden and oppressed mil- lions of earth; and their judgment “hasteth greatly ;” ‘and who can stay it.
Ill. SLAVERY IN ITS ECONOMICAL OR PECUNIARY ASPECTS.
The bible declares, and reiterates the assertion in every variety of form, that the important fact may not be mis- taken, that God has most inseperably connected the real dnterests of nations with their duty; and #f there is one lesson more prominently taught in their history, from the earliest periods, than another, it is this same fact. It stands out upon every page, as in letters of living fire. And yet fools have not learned it, even to this day. They ‘who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in thier own sight,” as also in the sight of their equally simple neighbors, with the bible in one hand and its grand com- mentary, the history of nations, in the other, with the most indomitable and dogged perseverance, are found repeating the same experiments in political economy, that have universally been attended with loss and disgrace, and maintaining theories that have been. demonstrated as false centuries ago; and which, therefore, should be con-
“sidered as utterly exploded by every man not actually demented. Therefore the *‘ woe” of the prophet is against such. Unto man it was said by his Creator, ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread ;” and again he declares to him, that “ The hand af the diligent maketh rich.” “Hence, one of the axioms—the fundamental truths in political economy, is, that all wealth is produced by labor. ‘Nothing can be possessed till somebody earns it. If ‘agriculture is necessary to the prosperity of a people, somebody must “subdue” and cultivate the stubborn soil ; af manufactures, others must construct, and operate the “mecessary machinery, if commerce, others must con- tribute of their skill and daring to build and navigate the ‘ships; if roads, bridges, canals, and railroads, are to cennect distant parts of the nation and to facilitate travel
29
and commuication, others must toil for that purpose ; and if a knowledge of literature, of science, of morals and of religion is needful for the perfection of the whole, some- body must make the necessary outlay of labor requisite ; for its attainment.
‘It would seem that a proposition so very evident, need scarcely be stated, much less illustrated and defended. And yet slavery treats this great law of God and of nature with sovereign contempt; and for which she “receives in herself that recompense of her error which ‘is meet.” In slaveholding communities, labor, which is — actually man’s budge of honorable distruction, is disre- putable, because it'i: performed by slaves. Hence none - will labor, whocan possibly manage, (1 will not say afford,) to keep idle, and live, In our southern country, more thanone third of the people are slaves, who per- form the most of the labor. ‘These, with the few whites who are truly industrious, will, perhaps, make up one
half of the population. Hence, one half might be pre- duced, did all labor, and which is equal to all that is pro-. duced, is lost ata stroke ! But this is not all. Multitudes © of the slaves are engaged in more menial employmente— as waiters and tenders—-in doing what almost every man in an industrious community, does for himself. In this they produce nothing, and consume much. Here is another heavy item of loss.
But even here this evil does not stop. It requires a’
ereater number of slaves than free laborers, to do any given amount of work ; for the slave having no interest
whatever, in the proceeds oi the labor performed, studies » to do as little, and thatin as miserable a manner, as pos-. sible ; while the sturdy freeman, who labors for himeelf, | or for another, for wages, the amount cof wages being eraduated by the amountiof labor performed, the opposite is the case. A gentleman of Massachusetts, the Hon.» Mr. Carter, of Lancaster, tells an aniusing story, of a seene he once witnessed in Virginiay It was a-job at plowing. “ The team ” consisted of two horses, and “five
o1 e
- negroes—one of which held the plow, one the beam, two _ drove the span—one upon each side, while the fifth, the - flower of the whole, in the shape of ‘an overseer.” stood looking on with a whip in his hand,—the said whip being used, not to quicken the industrious propensities of the quadrupeds—they had their “ drivers’—but the bipeds. Sach a job could be performed by a single northern _ yeoman. _ But again, labor to be very productive, and profitable, _ maust be intelligent, that is, it must be combined with skill. . But slave labor is not intelligent—it is not combined with skill; and neither can it be, in the very nature of things, - Slaveholders, in the madness of their hearts, bore out _ the very eyes of the souls of their slaves.. They imbrute _ them. This is part of their system. Hence labor in the _ south is performed under the most material disadvantages. _ Thus even agriculture, which is the chief resource of the _ South, is so badly managed, that the very soil is cursed, under the culture of the slave, and so exhausted, that the owners, not knowing how to restore it, (for both the slave _ and his owner is often alike stupid,) fare compelled to . desert it. Thousands of acres in the older slave states - have thus been cursed with slavery, and then forsaken ; and the deer and the fox now roam over fields which once waved with luxuriaat crops of wheat and of corn. As for commerce, the South has none, of which to speak. -Even her carrying trade is mostly done in north- _ ern bottoms. The tall and goodly ships of the hardy and. intelligent northerner take her crops of cotton, of rice, and of tobacco, to the marts of Europe; and it is thus that her immense exports, which amount to even more _ than those of the industrious north, viz. $85,000,000, out of $158,000,000, net her so little, profit; for more- _ over, the proceeds of her exports, also, are brought to her _ in the same way, after passing through, much of them, _ the hands of the princely factors of Boston, of New York _ and of Philadelphia. The South does not know how to . gonstruct ships, and eyen if she did, she could not navie
(22
gate them ; for of her slaves she could not make mariners, and of their masters she wll not. |
In manufactures it is much the same. While New England, with her hard soil, and cold climate, builds ships, and steam engines, for the whole world, North Carolina imports her axe handles! While the free north sends her intelligent sons to construct railroads for the Autocrat of Russia, and to build ships fer the Grand Seignior, whose heels are to plow the waters once navigated! by the hardy mariners of ancient Phcenicia and Carthage, those of the South exhaust their pent up energies in horse-rac- ing, card-playing, bowie-knife fighting—in selling men, and in whipping women, and in such like “ chivalrous ” employments. ‘Fhe South sends her raw cotton to the Worth, whieh she is unable to nvanufaecture herself, and then buys it back in the fabric. Virginia, with inexhaust- able stores of iron and coal in her own soil, and with arm immense unoccupied water power, buys her horse nails in Birmingham! Indeed, both masters and slaves are alike stultified ; the one by idleness and vice, and the’ other by oppression. Hence also, but very few useful inventions have been made in the South ; and even those made by others have been adopted but to a very limited extent. Even the cotton gin, which has created the boasted cotton trade of the South, and without which it would not be worth mentioning, is the invention of a Yan- kee, Mr. Eli Whitney of Massachusetts.
Even in literary, and in seientific institutions, the blight of slavery is felt as in all other things. An intelligent and well informed letter writer from the South, in 1846, stated that, “In Louisiana, three or four colleges have been established, and liberally endowed—at least half a million of dollars have been squandered upon them. These institutions have failed and become virtually ex- - tinct, before sending out a single, or at most, more than a single graduate. ‘There are now but two colleges in active operation there ; Jefferson college, which is a state institution; and the Centenary college, which is owned
23
by the Methodists, neither of which is accomplishing - much in the way of education. In Mississippi there have been four colleges established and richly endowed, three _ of which yet exist in namo, one is extinct and the endow- ments of all are lost. ‘These endowments also amounted to an half a million, or more. Not one of these colleges has sent out a single graduate, except Oakland college, which is a Presbyterian institution, and which has existed about fifteen years. This college has graduated about _ fifty.”’ Even the oldest and best endowed literary insti- _.tutions of the South possess no celebrity. Southerners themselves pass them with contempt, and send their sons to Harvard, to Yale, to Middletown and to Princeton for an education. ‘The famous Dr. Bascom even, has lately resigned his place as the president of the Transylvania University of Kentucky, because of the want of patron- age and the derangement of its affairs. Of the leading literary periodicals, and works of science and taste, scarce- ly any are found in the South; although that most pre- cious and hopeful commodity—“ stump speeches,” can, be had in any desired quantity. It is also worthy of note, _ that al] our poets, whose names are known to fame, the ‘Pierponts, the Whittiers, the Bryants, and the Longfel- lows, are all found north of a certain geographical line.; and what is also a most singular fact, although we have almost any amount of newspapers, prose effusions, con- gressional and synodical speeches, and even sermons from the South in favor of “ the peculiar institution,” yet nota line of genuine poetry to set forth its “sublime merits.” Ts it so, that although the spirit of the statesman, the pol- itician, and even of the preacher of the cross, can stoop to any required depth to do the dirty work or slavery, yet the poet’s muse never can? Is it so, that although all other men, save the perfect christian, can join their voices in the croaking dissonancies of the defences and apologies of Gopression, that of the true poet is never heard among them?
24
Indeed; the South is far behind the times in almost every thing that gives prosperity and dignity to human society. The reason of. this is, that slavery, which is made her leading and gcverning interest, is a relic of barbarism, and barbarism does not admit of progress. It may be abandoned. MHenceé nothing willbe done in the South towards substantial and enduring nipeennee till slavery is utterly abolished.
But a more particular examination will place the ex- ceedingly bad policy of slaveholding m a sfill more conspicuous light. Let us dissect southern society, for a moment, and see of what it is composed, and what its. several parts are worth. As for the slaves, constituting more than a third of the whole ugk they own nothing—not even their own bodies and souls. As for what we esteem the necessaries of rife! the mass of them are allowed but the lowest possible amount. In the article of food, for instance, “the peck of corn per week, or its equivalent.” ‘Their food, dress, and habitations are of the simplest description, and come as near nothing, as possi- ble, and keep body, and soul together. Of the conve- niences of life, they are allowed still less; and of its luxuries, scarcely any thing at all, except m the case of a few favorites.
Next eome the ‘‘ poor whites ’—‘‘ the sand hillers,”’ and “the corn crackers” of the South, to whom we have no. corresponding class in the North. ‘Phese constitute about one half of the entire.population of the South, as the slaves, with their owners, with their families and dependents, constitute the other half. With but few exceptions, they are ignorant, vicious, degraded, shiftless, and despised both by the slaveholders, and the slaves themselves, who sometimes contrive to look down with scorn upon the “poor white folks;” and they are as wretched and as oppressed as the starving peasantry of Europe, with not half their virtue, their skill and their
ed
25
industry. These also produce but little, consume but jJittle, and possess but little. | The want of property among this class as also by the _ slaves, they together constituting the overwhelming por- tion of Southern population, is one of the grand reasons why the trade and commerce of the South are in such a depressed condition, and why her great capitalists are so few. The large exports of the South, which make such a great show in figures, and by which some have been so greatly deceived, are not the true exponent of her actual prosperity, any more than the exports of Ireland are the true exponent of the real condition of her people; for even in her “ days of famine,’ and when her oppres- sed millions were starving, her exports were prodigious. It is imports of a country as well as its exports, that must assist in determing the true state of trade; even as it is not ’ what a man may have to sell only, but aslo what he is able to buy, and pay for, that determine the true state of his finances; and as we shall presently show, the imports of the South bear no proportion to her exports. And even ' both the exports and imports of a country united, are not alone the real indices to its condition; for a great country, embracing almost every variety of soil and climate, and production, like ours, may live almost wholly within itself, ina state of prosperity, and with but very little foreion commerce at all, as we see is the case with China. An actual survey of the condition of a people is the only correct mode of ascertaining the actual amount of their ~ wealth, as also the actual amount of their prosperity and happiness. |
Then come the slaveowners, the only remaining class of southern population, and who are the possessors of what little wealth there is in the South; and even much of their wealth is rather in appearance, than in substan- tial reality, as we shall presently see. It was stated in the British parliament, nearly a century ago, that slave- holders always went into debt to the very extent of their credit, ‘This is even truer now, if possible, than it was
26
then. Hence almost the whole South is shingled over by bonds and mortgages which are held by the rich mer- chant and capitalists of the North, and even .of Europe, and which one grand reason why this class of our fellow Citizens are so exceeding sensitive when the subject of Southern slavery is discussed, and why they have gener- ally treated abolition either with the most dogged uncon- cern, or with the most determimed and malignant hostility. It is to be presumed, that if the entire indebtedness of the South, past and present, were honorably discharged, that she would scarcely possess a single dollar. Even after repeated bankruptcies have rubbed out millions upon millions, millions upon millions yet remain, to settle which, in the face of the whole world, some of her states have unblushingly proceeded to repudiation ; ;.and even one of the great northern states, that of Mr. ex-secretary Buchanan, which has ever strongly sympathized with the institutions of the South, as she has not escaped the infec- tion of her pro-slaveryism, so she has not escaped the infection of her dishonesty, in this particular. And why not so? If men can boldly cheat the laborer out of the fruits of his hard toil, why should they shrink from cheat- ing the merchant and the banker of the amount of their notes and bonds? If after they have done the greater deed of wickedness, why should they fear to do the lesser ? After they have violently wronged the poor man out of himself, and even his wife and children, why should they have any troublesome qualms of conscience about bleeding the rich man of a little of his surplus wealth, if he is so simple as to give them a chance of doing so: 2
Such are the several parts of Southern society, and such is what each is worth.
The great pressure of 1857, and ‘the years following, which staggered the nation, like a blow from the fist of a giant, was mainly occasioned by the bankruptcy of the South. Slaves, which in the beginning of the last decade, were scarcely worth their keeping, so that after the Southampton insurrection, the Legislature of Virginia
a7
was most seriously and earnestly discussing the question of emancipation, upon the commencement of Gen. Jack- son’s second term, in 1883, suddenly rose to the value of $500 a $1,000. Immediately every thing was set astir in the slave-breeding states; and very suddenly, and though by magie, no more was heard of emancipation. By the policy of Jackson’s administration, the poor Indians of the South and Southwest, were removed West of the Mississippi, and their fertile lands, together with Fexas, by the Revolution of 1836, had immediately opened for the ocewpaney of the slaveholder ; and for the extension of “ the area of slavery.”
Such was the prosperity of this odious traffic, allowed by the general government of this Union, that in the last year of Jackson’s administration, 1836, as before stated, Virginia alone sold 40,000 of her helpless children for which she realized $40,000,000. Eastern Virginia alone realized $40,000,000, in one year, for this one branch of trade! Who ever heard of such a thing? “'Phe old Dominion,” the home of Washington and Jefferson, and the revolutionary worthies, was growing rich just as the Western coast of Africa has been growing rich for the last three centuries, viz. by selling those by whose labors wealth can alone be created! Cotton was fetching a cor- respondingly high price im the far South, a shilling per pound, and which.was one cause of the unwanted activi- ty of the slave trade. ‘Then it was that southern gentle- men launched out largely, and mortgaged their crops for two or three years ahead, with which to purchase lands and negroes, and to live in luxury.
But pay day came, and the South eould not meet it ; and merchants who held southern paper to large amounts, were compelled to suspend payments; and then came a scene of ruim and dessolation in the commercial world, which it was most fearful to behold and at which men grew pale, “ their hearts failing them for fear.” Men in business are like ten pins upon a board. Knock down one, and he carries nine or less of his fellows with him.
~ 28
So it was then. One failure produced many. Many whosup- posed themselves rich, and were, so, indeed, in Southern paper, which they had been so sinple as to get into their hands, suddenly found said paper not worth so much Wrapping paper, and themselves not worth a dollar in the world. This, it will be recollected, was immediately after the great riots in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, some of which had been gotten up, and instigated by these same ‘‘ gentlemen of property and
>
standing.” But alas, the blast of God struck them, and
at once they found themselves without either “ property.
or standing,” and consequently no longer “ gentlemen.” |
The burning of the mammoth Mothodist Book Concern in New York, and also the great fire which had prostrat- ed the business portion of the great commercial empo-
rium, and which consumed property to the amount of —
17,000,090, took place about a year before, and were the producers of the great commercial calamity. But these warnings were utterly unheeded. the
The Bank of the United States, afterwards the Bank of Pennsylvania, was mainly ruined in the same way. It was found, at last, that it had made large loans to the cot- tonocracy of the South; and for thus lending its immense funds to assist in carrying on that most nefarious and dia- bolical interstate slave trade, before mentioned, it was visited with a most terrible retribution ; for when in the process of the slow, but sure operations of those immuta- ble laws which God has stamped upon trade, as well as
upon matter and spirit, and which men are not permitted —
to annul, cotton, well bedewed as it was with the tears, of the slave, suddenly fell from a shilling to seven. cents per pound, the said cottonocracy found themselves unable to pay; and down went that mammoth concern, carrying with it, unto the grave of oblivion and despair, the means of livlibood, and the hopes of multitudes of widows and orphans, whose all was embarked in that corrupt concern,
supposing it to be most safely invested. | {he principal business of Newark, N, J., was carriage
29
making, and the most of its trade was then with Alabama and Mississippi. In the Spring of 1837, it possesed $4,000,000 worth of Southern paper. $1,000,000 of it was sent back protested, and for the other $3,000,000, it was they would gladly have taken ten per cent. A year after I was in that place, and was informed, that in consequence, of their heavy losses, aud the consequent prostration of its trade, that novless flian three thousand of its industrious classes had been compelled to leave, to seek their bread elsewhere ; and subsequently, T heard of some eases of starvation in that town.
Here is the shoe manufacturing town of Lynn, Mass., nossessing one of the most sober “and industrious popula- tions in the world. But its trade has been principally with the South, especially before other, and more profita- ble markets were opened, and the conscquence is that although possessing a population of about 10,000, yet its taxable: valuation, at the last census, amounted only to about $750, 000, showing it to be one of the two poorest towns in the state. It had not even the wealth of the Vineyard embraced in the little county of Dukes, which contains not half its population. And wherefore? Be- cause it had never earned the money? Nothing like it, I have heard it computed, that it has lost not less than $3,000,000 in the South—triple the amount of its. entire wealth, And although this process has been going on for these two generations, yet such in the force of habit, that its industrious Democracy do not yet seem to compre- hend the sublime mystery of the thriftlessness of shoeing the idle and shiftless slaveholding population , of 5 South ; but seem to still esteem their ‘bounden duty ” do as heretofore.
Some intelligent centlemen, acquainted with these mat- ters, variously computed the indebtedness of the South to the North, at this time, and which was mostly lost, at from $ £700,000, 000, to $1,000,000,000.. This is about twice as much as the taxable valuation of the whole of the rich and flourishing state of Massachusetts, and which
36
aiene owns one fourth of the entire shipping of the Uniom, and more than half of the entire whaling fleet of the - world. No marvel, that there was pecuniary and com- mercial distress; and that it took the nation with all its ‘skill, and industry, and enterprise, five long years of struggle and suffering, to rise oat of it.
The largest woolen manufacturer of Rhode Island, and whose fabrics rival those of the looms of France, inform- ed me, that he orders his factors in New York, mot to give credit to a Southern trader. That if he has the cash for goods, he can have them; if not he must go elsewhere with the offer.of his paper. The consequence is, that although at twenty one he possessed not a, dollar | in the world, yet now, out of an annual business of about an half a million, he puts, perhaps, $40,000 into his pocket in the form of “ profits.” But observe, he is an abolitionist, and leaves the question of tariff, in which # would seem he is much interested, and all other mere financial questions, to settle this one grand question of right and of duty; for it takes a man who can fully ap- preciate the damning demerit of the sin of slaveholding, to also fully appreciate the shiftliness and dishonesty af the slaveholder’s character. Those men whe are foolish and wicked enough #o apologise for those men, often get horribly bitten by them, and sometimes even to death.
Let us now take another view ofthe subject. In 1846, it was stated, that the productive industry of the single county of Essex, Mass., then containing a population of 94,000, was $23,800,000. The productive industry of South Carollna, a kingdom under the pale of that won- derfully acute and farsighted statesman, J. C. Calhoun, with a population of 600,000, amounts to but $22,600,- 000, leaivng a balance in favor of “old Essex,” of $1,200,000. So much for the relative productiveness of free and slave labor. And what is a singular fact, worthy of notice is, that of this productive industry, South Carolina exports nearly one half, viz. in round numbers, $10,500,-
Si
600; while Massachusetts, with a productive industry ia 1845, of 114,000,000, the following year exported less than South Carolina, viz. $9,262,000.* If she had exported in proportion to what she produced as did South Carolina, her exports would have amounted to more than 00,000,600. The remainder of what the people of Massachusetts, produced they consumed themselves ; for they could afford todo so. This single fact may serve to show how little insight the mere exports of a people ‘afford us of the precise amount of their wealth, and of - their actual prosperity and happiness. No marvel, that at the last census, it was found that Charlestown had lost a thousand of her population, showing a more than propor- tionate decay of wealth and trade; and that the environs of that city “ situate at the confluence of broad streams and rivers,’ contain but a third as many people as before the Revolution ; and that of 16,000,000 of acres in the state, but 2,000,000 are under actual cultivation, and those fast descending to barrenness and sterility, under the thriftless husbandry of oppression, like those of the older states of - Maryland and Virginia. .
Again, much has been said of the cotton crop, the great staple of the South, as being fhe basis of much of her foreign trade, and even the basis of northern exchang- es in former years. The entire cotton crop of the South, last year, at six cents per pound, amounts to but $63,960,- 000. The potatoe crop, although so greatly reduced by the “rot” of late years, at fifty cents per bushel, (and it probably averaged more than that,) would amount to $59,237,500; and the hay crop, at eight dollars per ton, amounts to $126,280,000, nearly double the value of the cotton crop. As before stated, the productive industry of Massachusetts alone, in 1845, was $114,000,000. Of this, what item of industry, do you suppose stands highest on the list of that commercial and manufacturing state?
*American Almanac, p. 147. . +Beport of the Commissioner of Patents, Jan, 18%.
32
Her immense fisheries, including her great whaling fleet ‘of between three and four hundred sails, amounted to onl $10,000,000. Her cotton manufacture, which is the chief — business of Lowell and such places, amounted to $8,000,< — 000, and her woolen manufacture for protection for which stich a hue and cry is raised and kept up, amounts to still © less. The highest item on the list is that of the shoe- makers—$14, 000 000! And yet who considers them as worthy of notice? Thus they ply the instruments of their humble and “gentle craft,” call for no “ protection,” and demand nobody’s attention ; but yet thus add to the~ wealth of the state. All honor to the industrious sons of St. Crispin ! ;
Since the statistics of the productive industry of the country have been published, slaveholders have ceased pee boasting. It will not do for them to largely talk in.
he presence of those figures. ‘“ See, how plain a tale shall put you down !”
Another fact. At the close of the Revolution, Viceinta, as she was the oldest and most central of the states, so | she was the most populous and powerful. She has an
ea of 64,000 square miles. At the first census of 1790, ale possessed a Paphiation of 748,000; now she has a population estimated at 1,255,000; not yet doubled, and fifteen members of Coneress. New York bas an area of but 46,000, being 18,000 less. In 1790, New York hada |
populs ation of 340 000—not quite half that of Virginia ; now she has a population estimated at 2,750 000, and thirty four members in Congress. The exports” of Vir- einia, for the year ending June 30, 1847, were $5,645,000 ; thosé of New York $44,816,000. The imports of Vir- ginia were $386, 000 : those of New York $84,000,000.
The above is a comparison of two of the old states We new introduce a comparison of two of the new states. which lay side by side—Kentucky and Ohio—the one a
-*See the valuable tables in the Methodist Almanac. for 1846. Also tue American Almanac for 1849,
33 Y free, and the other a slave state, and separated by the Ohio river, so that the traveller's eye may take in both at
_ glance. They each contain the same number of square miles—39,000. Kentucky, however, possesses the advan- tage, both in soil and climate. Kentucky also was first settled; was admitted into the union ten years before Ohio, viz. 1792, and possessed a population of 73,000 before even a census was taken in the latter state. Ken- _tucky was also séttled by a wealthy class of emigrants from Virginia and Maryland; Ohio by a poorer “class, mosily from New England. Kentucky for forty years has also enjoyed the guidance of a distinguished states- man, who has done more to place, and keep her in her present relative position, than any other man, the Hon. Henry Clay. Ohio has been compelled to mostly take eare of herself, as well-as she could. All her statesmen, like herself, are comparatively young. Now Ohio con- tains an estimated population of '1,850,000, and twenty- one representatives on the floor of Congress; Kentucky $20,000, with ten representatives ; the receipts of the treasury of Ohio, last year were $2,644,000; those of Kentucky $419,000; the population of Pinemnan in 1840, was 46,000—now nearly doubled; that of Louis- ville 21,000, and not much increase. Land in the vicin- ity of Cincinnati is worth $60 per acre; that in the vicinity of Louisville but $10.
The great difference here observable in the price of land in Kentucky and Ohio, is likewise obvious between all the free and slave states. In the vicinity of our north- ern cities land will fetch almost any price demanded for it. In the vicinity of Norfolk and Richmond, whole plantations may be purchassed at from five to ten dollars per acre. If the reason of this is asked, we reply, that land of itself, is of no value at all. It is the labor bestowed upon it, or that which can be bestowed upon it, that gives it. its value. The savage who subsists by the chase, requires, upon an average, eight hundred acres for his subsistence. The civilized man, who liyes by
3
34
agrteulture, will subsist upon one acre and a half. It is the labor therefore, that gives to the soil its value. T indastrious and laboring classes who in every country. constitute the great mass of the population, as also the bone and sinew of society, will not go South; because labor is disreputable there, as idleness is here; and those hardy men who are the founders of states and empires, possess too much self-respect to permit themselves to be looked down upon by the oligarchs of the plantations. They therefore go to the free states. They have made the great Northwest what it is, in the course of an half a century; and they and their children will still go on to prosper, increasing in wealth and in political power and importance, to shame the shiftless idleness and ignorance of more sunny climes.
While our pro-slavery government offers a bounty to settlers in Florida, these hardy men go to Iowa, and pay gold for their land. Yet one of our demented Southern statesmen, he of the Palmetto state before mentioned, has said, that “slavery is the corner stone of Republi- can institutions!’ A few more such corner stones, and Republican institutions would not find a place in this world.
One of the objections which the South has raised to . the emancipation of her negroes, is, that if she emanci- — pates them, nobody will compensate her for them! Now to say nothing of the morality involved in the question of compensation, we would say, that although Mr, Clay estimates the value of the slave property of the South, at $1,200,000,000—an immense sum, yet somebody of far more political sagacity, and statesmanlike wisdom than Mr. Clay, has shown that-a rise of but seven dollars per acr¢, upon'the soil of the South would pay for the whole ~ of them. And the great disparity now existing between the price of Jand in the North and South, although all the natural advantages of soil, and climate, and productions, are all in favor of the latter, shows that this would at -onge be realized ; for thousands of northern mechanies,
3a and others who now reside but temporarily in the South, ‘would take up their permanent abode there; while multi- tudes who now go West, would at once turn South, and turn its sterile fields, now blasted by oppression, and cursed by the footsteps of the slave, into “the garden of the Lord.” And the glorious results of emancipation in the British West Indies show that this would be the case; for the soil of those sunny “isles of the South” is now worth more than both soil and the slaves upon it previous ‘to August 1834. But why should we insist upon this point? Has it not ever been the case all the world over ?
IV. SLAVERY IN ITS POLITICAL ASPECTS.
And here some interesting and important facts call not -only for our serious and candid attention, but also for our decided action.
Sometimes, when we have declaimed against slavery as
@ great moral wrong, and as a political nuisance whieh should instantly be abated, some persons possessing far more respect for the laws, and veneration for the constitu- - tion, than knowledge of its powers and provisions, have lifted up their hands in holy horror, as though a great sacrilege was about to be committed by profane hands, -and have exclaimed— Oh, the constitution—the consti- tution allows and sanctions it, and therefore we can- not touch it; for that sacred instrument must be kept inviolate.”
Now after all their bold and earnest exclamations respecting law and constitutional rights, it should be known unto all men, that slavery, in these United States has no constitutional basis whatever; that it exists by mére usurpation and sufferance, and in epposition to all the fundamental laws of the land.
No one will have the moral hardilood to say that slav~ ery has any foundation in natural law. Now all human laws derive their force and authority, not from those who frame them, but from their agreement with the great
36
principles of natural justice. Hence, any laws whieh » agree not with natural Jaw, are null and void, for thei want of compatibility with the great principles ‘of nature yustice. Hence, an eminent English jurist remarks, that “such laws are not even to be dignified with the name of bad laws—they are no laws at all.” If our state, or na- tional legislature should pass laws declaring that theft, and robbery, and adultery, and murder are no crimes at all, and annulling all laws which conflict with such declar- ation, would such enactments change the nature of those things, and possess any force whatever? And would it not be the duty of every virtuous citizen to resist them ?
Thus all laws, which go to establish slavery, which is the “sum of all villainies”—the union of all these erimes, are null and void. It is therefore that men’s nat- ural sense of justice, revolts at such laws as.an abomina- tion.
Hence that horrid modern moral monstrosity, concoeted by the brains of certain Doctors of Divinity, (for who else could possibly invent suchia thing,) the doctrine “of organic sins,” as applied to slavery, is to be scouted as a burning shame to the Church of God; for those same erudite Doetors will not presume to apply the doctrine to any other “organic” evil in the world: Yea, they them- selves are moving heaven and earth for the overthrow of ihe “organie sin” fof the mass in the papal states, of polygamy in Turkey, and of idolatry in India. If such a doctrine were true, we presume that every sinner in the land would hope, that at the judgment seat of Christ, all his sins might prove to be of the “‘organie” kind; and thus they would. have as much reason to harden them; selves against the exhortations to repentance, of those Doctors of Divinity, as the slaveholders have to harden themselves against the appeals of the Abolitionists, defended as they are, they are the doctrine of “organic sins.’ “Ye blind ouides 4° Matt. 23.4 16.
Again, no one not actually demented by the blinding spirit of oppression, and stultified by a pro-slavery morale
37
ity, will presume to say that American Slavery can be founded upon the laws of the bible. Weare aware. that “the attempt has been made, and made too by men fully able to establish whatever can be established by the fair deductions of logic, on the rules of a correct. exegesis ; yet it must be confessed that the pro-slavery bible argu- ment is most singularly unfortunate. It must be wholly abandoned; and there are now the most unmistakable evidences that many of those who have heretofore used it, have already abandoned it in their own hearts; and if their present penitence were equal to the enormity of their past sins, (and which, however, it is not,) they would konestly confess it. We do not intend, in this place, to enter into the bible argument in opposition to slavery. It has already been done by able hands and with the most con- sumate skill, and in a most triumphant manner. Wo would merely remark, that even if the New Testament did allow of servitude, it would avail nothing for Ameri- ean slavery ; for that book not only recognizes no distinc- tions of color, or race, but also most positively and emphat- ically declares, that it utterly repudiates all such distinc- tions. And let it be remembered that the fundamental laws of the land most unequivocally recognizes the divine authority of Christianity, and the revealed principle ef the divine law, as one of their bases.
The common law, which our fathers brought with them as a part of their glorious inheritance, as British subjects, and which has now been fully adopted by ourselves, and incorporated with our constitution, it is well known, does not allow slavery. The constitution declares that “ no man shall be deprived of his liberty without due process of law.” Now suppose those great bulwarks of English liberty, the writ of ‘Habeas Corpus, ” the and right of feial by jury, were granted to every slave in the land, and the courts were guided in their decisions, not by mere muni- cipial laws, and local regulations, which in fact, are of no authority, in this case, by the provisions of the common Jaw, how long would slavery live? It would die in a day.
58 :
Even the colonial charters, which, previous to our sep- aration from the mother country, were the constitutions of all the colonies, so far as our knowledge of them ex- tends, gave no sanction whatever to domestic servitude. Slavery came in, and obtained a footing in the colonies, not under the express sanctions of those charters, but in epite of them,
Slavery waits not to be legislated into existence. It comes in by stealth, without legislative enactments in its favor, as it originally came into the colonies, and as it also has gone into some of the slave states, which have been admitted since the organization of the general govern- ment; and when it is sufficiently stroug, it imperiously demands legislative enactments in its favor, to give it strength and permanence. Let it alone, and it will enter any free territory, without a single law in its favor; and if all reports are true, it has already entered New Mexico and California in this way. Experience has taught us, that the only way to keep it out of any country, is by
egislative enactments against it, like the famous Ordi- nance for the Northwest, of 1787, and by which alone slavery has been kept out of Ohio, Michigan, Indian, IHi- nois, and Wisconsin; and the Missouri compromise of 1820, by which is kept out of Towa, and the whole of that immense and fertile region between the Mississippr and the Rocky Mountains, and the parallels of 86° 30, and’ -49°, North; and the Oregon bill of 1849, by which the whole of those immense regions, déstined for the homes of happy and prosperous millions, in coming time, are forever saved from the blight and curse of domestic servi- tude. Hence Mr. Benton is not correct in saying, in his famous speech delivered in the capitol in Jefferson City, Mo., May 29, of this year, that the Wilmot Proviso is not needed to keep slavery out of our newly acquired territo- ries ; because it was not there when it came into our pos- session, and Congress possesses no power to legislate it into existence, on that soil. We know that Congress possesses no such power,—that it has no more right. to
39
make a slave than it has to make a king, and that the one of these acts is as distant from its constitutional powers as the other. All this looks very well in theory ; and Mr. Benton may be honest in putting forth this ar- gument, so faras we know. But more regard is to be had for lessons of wisdom which bitter experience has taught us, than to the theoretical arguments of men who yet remain slaveholders themselves ; and the experience of the past shows us that except there is an express legis- lative enactment prohibiting slavery in our newly acquir- ed territories, it will enter; and when it has fully en- trenched itself, fortified all its positions, and made itself _ strong, it will peaceably persuade the general government to permit to stay, as it did in Kentucky and Tennessee, or it will hurl defiance in its teeth, to compel it to allow it to enter the Union, as it did in Missouri in 1818—20. And this is now the great question before the nation, and - which is to be quickly settled.
Lhe declaration of Independence, which we always eall to recollection on this anniversary, and upon the broad principles of which, our fathers went into the war of the Revolution, most certainly does not sanction slav- ery. For men to most solemnly declare to the world, and as with halters around their necks, and for the maintain- ance of which, in its application to themselves, they were compelled to pledge to each other “ their lives, their for- tunes, and their sacred honor,” “ That all men are creat- ed free and equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’—I*or men to do this, we say, does not look like an intention to estab- lish and perpetuate slavery, in the land, which they would make free from a foreign yoke. Yet the constitution of the United States, and the constitutions of all the several states, are ostensibly based upon the principles of this famous. Declaration. Deny them, and republican in- stitutions are without a basis, and fall, at once to the ground,
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There is an important fact connected with the history of this instrument, which should be more generally known. Among the charges so vehemently urged against the king of Great Britain, in the original draft of that document, - is the following :—“ He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty, in the persons of a distant people, who never offended him, captivating, and carrying them into slavery, in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical war- fare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt, to prohibit or restrain this execrable traffic,’—just as the presidents of the United States have since done in relation to the domestic traffic, in certain states, and as certain of the states then represented in that Congress, and whose delegates signed that instrument, afterwards did in relation to this same “execrable com- merce,” till 1807, the year of its final abolition. This paragraph was therefore stricken out. It was in advance of the people when the Declaration of Independence was made. But its place in the original draft, as it came from the hands of Jefferson, is a most significant and curious fact. See Marshall’s Life of Washington, Appen- dix to Vol, I, p. 21. |
It is therefore, that the constitutions of the slave states themselves, with the exception of those of Arkansas, and Texas which have both been adopted since the agitation of the slavery question, and which it was therefore, done to effectually guard against emancipation, afford no basis for slavery, and give it no sanction. And it is therefore presumed, that if the slave states had such an upright and able judiciary, that slavery might be abolished in all of them, except the above two, by the action of the courts alone, and without any legislative enactments against it, whatever, and as was the case in Massachusetts
41
in 1780. And itis exceedingly probable that this ques- tion will be brought before some of them, before tated “years. We now come to the Constitution of the United States, respecting the alledged “compromises,” of which so much “has been said. And here the first thing that meets our attention is the preamble, which, written, as it was, after the rest of the instrument was prepared, clearly sets forth its objects. It begins—‘*‘ We, the people of the United States,in order to establish justice, to ensure domestic tran- quility, and the blessings of liberty to ourselves, and our posterity do ordain and establish the following constitution.” “It speaks well,’ as saith the man in the “tale. We, the people.”— Well, “ we” are the people; and most cer- tainly “we” ought to know what “ we” ourselves “ have ordained and established ; and we further presume, that as the constitution was adopted by a plain and common sense people, so plain and common sense rules of interpretation are to be applied to it, just as we apply them to our testaments; and therefore that it can be understood without any very material assistance from law- yers, or from courts of law,—‘‘ In order to establish justice.’ But we have seen, that the principles of jus- tice and of natural law, to which reference is here made, stand opposed to slavery in its wholeness, and in all its parts. It proceeds—‘ lo ensure domestic tranquility.” But has not slavery ever been the bone of contention between different states—between the individual states and the gencral government—between the great parties that have ruled the land—among the great religious bod- ies—between neighbor and neighbor—between parties sustaining the most important and dearest of all earthly relations—and between our own and a foreign govern- ment ?——It goes on.—* And to secure the blessing of lib-— erty, for ourselves and our posterity.” But are not three millions of people, many of whom, if there is any truth in “ natural science,” are most certainly of the “posterity’’ of those who assisted to “ordain and establish ” thaf con-
42
stitution, now deprived of all the blessings of liberty in eur midst, by the peculiar institution?” Verily, thus far, this celebrated political instrument does not look as though it were framed and adopted by “ the people of the United States,” in order to “ordain and establish ” domestic ser- vitude, in the republic, or even to afford it the least sanction.
The next thing that also strongly arrests our attention is the most significant faet, that the words, “slave,” and ‘slavery ” are not even found in the constitution —that those foul words, so ominous of wrong and outrage against man, were not even permitted to pollute its pages; so that if slavery were everywhere abolished to-morrow, ib would not be necessary to even alter its phraseology in the least. “A
But there are two clauses of the constitution, which it is claimed, not only recognize, but also sanction slavery. Let us examine them. The first is in Art. 1, Sec. 2; relating to the ‘‘ three fifths ” representation, which, what- ever construction the words may bear, is applied to the slaves. Very well. But it appears to us that this pro- vision, thus interpreted, smacks most strongly of opposi- ticn to slavery, for it denies to certain states a representa- tion, upon the floor.of Congress, of two fifths of a certain class of their population, because they are slaves; and by thus diminishing their political power and importance, it holds out to them avery strong inducement to emancipate. If there is any fault therein, itis, that it does not go far enough, and deny them any representation whatever, for their slave population. But the fact is, that is could not then doit. It was not strong enough. But it secured all for freedom that was then possible, and left the rest to be accom lished in its days of greater maturity and strength. The ‘three fifths” representation is that which had _ obtained under the colonial covernments, and was there- fore adopted.
_ The second clause is the third of Art. “4, Sec. 2; and is in the following words. “ No person held to service or
43°
labor, in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into: another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up, upon the claims of the party, to - whom such service or labor may be due.” _ But who can see any thing like slavery in the above language? If it is intended to relate to slavery, its very phraseology is extremely unfortunate. Let us examine it. “ Noperson.” But however easy it is to conceive of @ or any person ‘‘ held to service or labor,” ‘and “ escaping,” and being “ delivered up,” &c., yet it is utterly impossible to conceive of “no person,” thus cir- cumstanced, to whom any law can apply. But passing over its grammatical blunder, let us examine it, according to its supposed intention. Tirst, it says, “no persons.” But slaves are not recognized as *‘ persons” at all in the slave laws of the South. They are ‘‘ chattels,’—personal property, or real estate, ‘to all intents and purposes what- ever,’ and as such may be bargained for, bought, cold, mortgaged and assigned. Secondly,—‘ held to service, or labor ;”’ that is, by lawful contract; for to talk of a slaye—of a man circumstanced as stated above. and that by the law, as being “ held” by the law, is the perfection of folly. I should like to see the law of any slave state by-which the slave is thus held, that is, commanded, to render his master any ‘service or labor.” Let such a law be produced. And if such a law can be produced, we have a question to ask, how is it that the law should command a slave to perform certain ‘service or labor” for his master, when at the same time, it forbids his being taught to read the law? How shall he know that such a law is in the Statute Book, except his master informs him -thatitisthere? And is his master informs him, that such law is there, by what rule, or law of evidence shall the slave be expected, or compelled to believe him ? For if his master is so regardless of the rules of christian mo- rality, as to strike down all his rights at a blow, can the slave believe that he possesses suflicient moral honesty to
a4
tell him the truth in a matter relating to his own interests?
Thirdly,—“ in one state, under the laws thereof.” But we have before shown, that slavery has no constitutional
basis whatever—that it is alike opposed to natural law—~~
to the revealed law of God—to the common law, and to constitutional law; and therefore, that if there are any municipal regulations which pretend to hold a slave to render “service or labor” to his master, they are null and void; and it seems to us that any honest court is under supreme obligations to man, and to man’s only owner, “ the Judge of the whole earth,” thus to decide, as did Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, in the famous case of the slave Somerset, in 1772 ; and if this important decision had been applied to all the colonies of Great Britain, ag well as to her own soil, as it might, and ought to have been, we should not, to-day, have been under the necessity of framing this argument. Fourthly, this clause does apply, according to the fairest rules of interpretation, to indented apprentices, and to redemptioners, of which there was a very large class in the country, at that time. And fifthly, if this clause, by fair construction, could be made to apply to fugitive slaves, yet as it would be utterly incompatable with the other pro- visions, and the leading principles of the constitution, it is of no account whatever; for law cannot do opposite things, as ‘‘ ordain and establish’’ freedom and slavery, and command us to be just and unjust—kind and cruel at the same time. “If that instrument is inconsistent with itself, let those concerned look to it. It is not for us to reconcile them. If such inconsistencies there be, its grand principles and its leading provisions must, of course, according to the rules of a fair and righteous interpreta- tion, override them all. And lastly, even if it were clearly and undisputably so, yet there is a law of far higher and greater authority, which in bar of it. It is in Deut. 23 ; 15, 16. ** Thou shalt not deliver unto his mas- ter, the servant that is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in the place
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which he shall choose, in one of thy gates. Thou shalt not oppress him.”
And now what are the famous “‘ compromises of the constitution?” Why, simply these.—The constitution found slavery existing in several of the states; and the states which framed, and adopted, and put in operation that constitution, refused to give Congress any power whatever over it, either to abolish or to extend it. All power originally resided in the states; and all powers which they did not expressly confer upon the general gov- ernment, were reserved. ‘The question of domestic slav- ery was one of the reserved rights. It is wholly a state institution. Its management, whether to abolish, or uphold it, was left where it was found—wholly with the states. All the New England States came into the Union without slavery, and no questions were asked. When afterwards Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, in the exercise of their state sovereignty, abolished slavery, the general government interfered not. Others of the original states still maintain it, and Congress interferes not; and neither do we ask that it should, but simply, that it leave “that abomination which maketh desolute ”’ alone, and that it leave it to take care of itself, if it is able; and that as it cannot abolish, so it shall not extend this institution.
We have already spoken of the Anti Slavery tenden- cies of the “three fifths” rule of representation. The constitution found the foreign slave trade in existence. I¢ was thought that the states would not permit it to be abol- ished at once. It therefore did the next best thing—it forbid the importation of slaves after twenty years; and when those twenty years were expired, the general gov- ernment not only found itself sufficiently strong to enforce that prohibition, but also to declare the slave trade piracy. And that the friends of the constitution were right in sup- posing that the states would not allow that wicked trafiic to be abolished at once, and if they attempted too much, they might lose all, we think is very evident from the
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significant fact, that Rhode Island, whose principle for. ign commerce, at that time, consisted in the Guinea trade, and North Carolina, who received the unhappy- victims of her nefarious business, both at first, stoutly refused to adopt that instrument, and did not come into the union till the fall of 1790; and from the organization of the general government in “April 1789, to that time,
they were both treated as foreign nations ; and the vessels of the former state, were subjected to charges and duties in the several ports of the Union, the same as those of foreign powers, which was that which drove her to the adoption of the constitution, so much against her will, because of the hated clause against the slave trade, and -which was to abolish it in twenty years; and thus compel her, at that time to turn her industry and capital inte another channel.
I am aware that the Supreme court of the United States has decided, that the third clause of Art. 4, See. 2, of the constitution, does refer to fugitive slaves; and that the decisions of that court are a part of the law of the land. Itis by this decision only, that the constitution ean be said to be pro-slavery. We shall not here attempt to examine the gronnd of that decision ; but would simply
remark, that thus far, that court has been under pro-slay- ery influences, and what.else was to be expected from it in matters relating to “the peculiar institution.” Its pres ent chief justice:is a slaveholder, and its place of chief justice was rendered vacant by the death of Judge Mar- shall, of Virginia, the present incumbent was lifted over the heads ef his superiors, because they were citizens of free states, and it was necessary to keep that court under the ruling powers. Who has not heard of William Story of Massachusetts, and of John McLean of Ohio? But what does the world know of Roger B, Taney? Bat that court will presently be redeemed from pro-slavery influence and control, and then we will hear what will be the purport of its mighty utterances. .
Having thus glanced at the constitutional question, le
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ws look at the numerical strength of the South. The estimated population of our country is now 20,000,000. Of these the South has 8,500,000; leaving 11,500,000 for the North. Of these 8,500,000 of the South, 3,000,- 000 are slaves, leaving the white population at 5,500,000; not quite one half that of the North. And in case of a war her actual weakness would be still greater, for the most obvious reasons ; as was proved in the war of the Revolution, as also in that of 1812.
Let us also now see what proportion the South proba- bly contributes towards the support of the general goy- ernment, and then we may further see what relative emount of influence should be allowed her in the councils of the nation. Our national government is supported, not by direct taxation, as it ought to be, in order to equal- ize its burdens, but by import duties ; those, therefore, who consume the greatest quantity of foreign goods, paying duties, contribute the most towards the expenses of the government. Jor the year ensuing June 30th, 1847, the amports of all the Southern State, amounted to $16,778,- 600; of Massachusetts alone, $34,477,000 ; more than ‘double; while those of New York were $84,167,000. The probability is, therefore, that Massachusetts, with those parts of New England which purchase of her im- ports, as Maine, New Hampshire, and the Eastern slope of Vermont, contribute more toward the expenses of the general government, than all the South united. I know that it may be said, that of the $84,168,000 of the im- ports of New York, that a portion is consumed in the South, whose foreign trade is principally carried on through that port. To this we reply, that as there is bnt one class at the South which consume many foreign goods and that class the smallest of them all, not exceeding 1,500,000, we presume that that portion cannot be very large. And as an offset to this, we would remark that of the immense exports of the South—$84,000,000 $42,- 51,000 are from Louisiana alone; and as New Orleans is the grand depot for almost the entire valley of the
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West, much of this actually comes from the free states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, and Iowa, and per- haps some from Western Pennsylvania. Of wealth Bals timore has $77,612, 000; of Boston $174,000,000.*
But does the South agree, that the officers and honors of the government shall be distributed between the North and the South aceording to these proportions? Not at all. She insists that it shall be done according to the rule of Inverse Proportion ; that is, that the fewer they] are, and the less they contribute for the support of the govern- ment, that the more, and the fatter offices they shall pos- Sess, and the more they shall have to say respecting what shall be done with other people’s money, and other people’s interests.
Let us see. During the sixty years that this Union has existed, the South has filled the Presidential chair, forty eight, and the North twelve. The three northern presidents have each served but one term although they all three were men of consummate abilities, while each of the Southern, except Mr. Tyler, and Mr. Polk, have each served two. ‘They have also contrived to fill the vice- presidency, for a large proportion of the time, and thus holding the casting vote, to hold the balance of power between the two great sections of the Union, in that most important conservative body, the Senate. She has also managed, especially for more than thirty years past, to supply for the greater part of the time, the chair of the speaker of the House of Representatives—one of the most important officers in the nation.
Through these three great public functionaries the South has adr oitly managed to control the legislation, the judiciary, and the diplomacy of the country; together with the post office, the custom, house, the army and
*Since the former part of the Address wag struck off, the report for the present year has been published, from which it appears, that the taxable valuation of Boston has increased a ana 000 the past year, now making the whole amount ohiie : 9 0 00,
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the navy, and all the other great interests of the nation. The president has the power of nominating to all the most important offices, and the Senate of confirming, or rejecting those nominations, by which the most. of the business of the country is transacted; and the Speaker of the House of appointing all the committees which pre- pare business for its action, and thus control its legislation. The present presidential incumbent is from the South, and who has been lifted into the seat of power, over the heads of far abler men from the North; for who but a slave- holder should preside over the government of a slayehold- ing nation? And what right have men, however trans- cendent their abilities in other respects, who cannot boast of oppression, to aspire to such an honor? The Vice-~ Presidency is now filled from the North; for what right has that part of the nation which possesses twice as many white inhabitants as the other, and which contributes the overwhelming proportion of the national expense, to aspire to anything greater, in opposition to the rights of the ruling caste ?
’ What is the consequence of all this? Why, of the eight members of the present cabinet, including the pres- ident, five are from the South, three from the North, and those three the least important of them all. Of the nine justices of that important branch of the government, the Supreme Court, five, including the chief-justice, are from the South; four from the North. ‘This is a trifle better, however, than it was at one period under Tyler’s adminis- tration, when all the cabinet, except one, were from the South. Of all our foreign ministers, the far greater part of them, especially those who occupied the most important posts, were from the South. The most important consul- ates, as those of Liverpool, Havre, Antwerp, Constanti- nople, and Havanna, have also been usually filled by men from the South. ‘The officers of the army and navy are _also mostly from the South, especially from Virginia,— the seamen, of course, from the North; for those. the South could not supply. And even if officers of the
A,
>
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general government are to be filled in the free states, they take good care that they are not filled with men who have the least taint of the love of liberty, and who honestly believe the doctrine of the Declaration of Independence. If one is nominated who is even suspected of this enor- mous crime, they hold him on the tenters, and search him as with candles till he gives them the most entire satisfac- tion. Witness the case of Edward Everett as late minis- ter to the court of St. James, and Gov. Morton as collector of the port of Boston.
This slave power, with the assistance rendered it from — the North, has allowed the national domain in the District of Columbia, to become the greatest slave mart in the world, and the national ‘prisons, built with the people’s money, to be used as barricoons for the especial accom- modation of those basest of the human race—the slave- traders. It has also expended twenty millions of the people’s money; $15,000,000, for Louisiana, and $95,- 000,000 for Florida, and $40,000,000 to rid. the latter of its aboriginal inhabitants. It has also admitted eight new slave states to the Union, when it had no-right what- ever of extending slavery beyond its original limits; and as though this were not enough, it-has also brought in a whole foreign nation with its slave population, and incor- porated it with our own; it also lately involved us in a cruel and bloody war with a sister republic, as it.is believ- ed by many for the purpose of still further extending the area of slavery on the west and southwest, even to the shores of the Pacific; and in which war, our expenditure for 1847 was $59,500,000—being more than our national expenditure for 1813 and 14, when engaged in a war with the most powerful maratime nation on earth; and which has also left us saddled with a debt of $45,500,000 more: after an expenditure of $15,000,000 for New Mexico and
‘ California, over which it now seeks to extend the curse of domestic servitude. And now this power, flushed with long continued success, is more insolent in its demands, and more capricious in its measures than ever; and it
51
is time that its power should be checked, and broken down.
The legislation in which this power takes the Jead is vacillating and capricious in the extreme. Having no wisdom at all, but abounding in trickery and intrigues, it does, and undoes, it makes, and unmakes, with the most surprising facility imaginable. In 1811, it destroyed the old Bank of North America ; but finding great difficulty in getting through its ill advised war of 1812, without a bank, in 1816, its constitutional scruples on this point, of which it before talked, were suddenly removed, and it chartered the Bank of the United States with a capital of $35,000,000 , and when the business of the country had become involved with its operations, it destroyed it again in 1832. In 1816, when we had scarcely any manufac- tures to protect, it must put on a tariff. When by this measure our people were compelled to go into manufac- turing operations, against their own will, and when in 1832, the capital and industry of the free north had accommodated itself to this polity, and was depending upon its continuance, then suddenly, it was discovered to be a most ruinous measure, and off it must come. Hav- ing broken down and crippled the commerce of the coun- try, then the most lucrative in the world, by embargoes, and non-intercourse laws, from 1808 to 1811, it finally, in 1812, plunged the country into a bloody and expensive war with the greatest naval power on the globe, for the ostensible reason of the impressment of our seamen by said power ; and then sent commissioners to Ghent, one of whom was a man who had done more than almost any other to blow up the flames of discord between the two nations, the Hon. Henry Clay, to negotiate a peace, and which they finally did, without saying a single word about the ostensible cause of the war, leaving that question to this day, just where it was before the war begun—saddling the government with a debt of $100,000,000, which was afterwards to be paid by the industry of the nation, with diminishing means, besides a loss to individuals, variously
52
estimated at from $500,000,000, to $1,000,000,000 more, and from the sad effects of which we did not fully r recover. till about 1825.. And now, as before stated, it has plunged the nation into a far more unjust war, with a weak sister republic, having invaded her territory with a hostile anny and driven its defenceless people from their quiet homes 5 and all this to enlarge—the area—not of freedom, as. should be the mission of a people of our lofty pretensions to the principles of liberty and equality, but of slavery, and that too on a soil from which it had once been driven: by a semi-barbarous people, as being too vile, to subsist. even among them. And now who pays the expenditures. of $59,500,000, of 1847, and the national debt of 40,- 000,000, more : ? Who pays ? Would not it be well to look into this trifling matter ?
But what are the actual numbers of the slayeholding voters who do all these mighty things? Who make and unmake presidents and vice presidents, and senators, and who through them appoint members of the cabinet, judges of the supreme court, ministers to foreign powers, to look after the slaveholding interests abroad, consuls in. foreign ports, to look after a commerce not its own, collec- tors of our customs, and posimasters, North, as well as. South, and who appoint the officers of the army and. navy, as in duty bound, mostly from their own ranks; who. manage to elect Speaker of the House of Representa-- tives, either from their own number, or from those who. will do their bidding, and thus enable them to control the — legislation of Congress; who even have the audacity to
meddle with the ‘appointment in the free states, and to | dictate to their legislatures; and who control ‘the two. great political parties by which the nation is governed ?-— what are the numbers of those most potent lords of the soil, who do all these things'? Why, it is computed, that the actual slaveowners of the country, including women and children, does not exceed 300,000; two thirds of whom only, viz. 200,000, are probably voters. These are , the mighty lords of this nation, and who give laws to, .
5 ov
and control the policy and interests of 20,000.000 of eople. 4 So it seems, that in escaping from the crown and parlia- r ent of Great Britain, we have fallen into the hands of his most contemptible oligarchy upon the face of the globe, bankrupt both in character and fortune—thus merely changing one set of masters for another. To live ni the rule of lords who could boast of noble ancestry, a
nd of immense wealth, and of the very perfection of civilization and refinement, were, at least, some mitigation ‘of the yoke which they would i impose, But to be under the rule of slaveholders, ‘‘a race of mortals,’ whom as Dr. Samuel Johnson says, ‘‘ no other man would wish to resemble,” is really too bad. And yet what is surprising, this rule is that which our people have voluntarily chosetl; for the remedy is in their own hands, and they can apply it whenever they please. And this remedy is not in the fire and sword, as in the case of our Revolution, by which ‘we were separated from the rule of Great Britain, but simply the silent, but mighty power of the ballot. Why not try it? _ How do the slaveholders not only support their system ‘of wrong and outrage against all right, and against the fundamental laws of the Jand, but also continue to control the general government to suit their own purposes? We answer, the two great parties which have ruled the nation have been so nearly equal in point of numbers, that they could not afford to lose even a few thousand votes, and hence a small number holding the balance of power, and ready to change it to either side, as should suit their interests or whims, could control them both. They do these things by the power of the ballot—by carrying slavery into politics. Some even of the professed friends of the slaves cry out, “ Don’t carry the question of Abo- ition into politi¢s—don’ t carry it into politics.” But do ‘the slaveowners also cry out, “ Don’t carry into politics.” ‘Not they. They are “wise in their generation” in this matter. If they did not, it might constitute some reason
54
why we should not. But they do no such thing They are not thus caught napping. They politically watch the interests of slavery with a vigilance that never sleeps. They exhort all abolitionists to keep their abolitionism from the polls, and thousands are foolish enough to heed their exhortation. But of such foolishness they are never for a moment guilty themselves. If a president, vice president, or speaker of the House is to be elected—if members of the legislatnre are to be chosen——if members of the cabinet, foreign ministers, judges of the supreme and circuit courts, and collectors of ports, and others, are to be appointed, the first question with them is, “are they sound on the subject of slavery ?” and the last is, “* may they be relied on to do all in their power for its perpetui- ty, or at least, will they not injure its interests ?” And if there is any doubt with them in relation to candidates on this subject, they search them as with candles, till they ure satisfied. The same also is their uniform policy in state, county, and town politics, and this because they well know, that the town power, as unimportant as it may seem is “‘ the power of powers,” that the town power goy- erns the state, and the state the national; and we See, therefore, that they will not allow a man tainted with the love of universal liberty to hold the meanest town office if they can prevent it. Kt
What, therefore, if the professed followers of Christ adopted the same polocy in this matter, that do the slave- holders? Why, slavery would die in this nation the very day that the christian church would say that it should. The Methodists alone, with their 1,200,000 members of perhaps 4,000,000 in their congregations, could probably command 500,000 votes, and all the other Protestant sects probably 1,000,000 more; and yet the present adminis- tration of General Taylor is founded upon a minority of more than 160,000! And yet the words of her sabbath lessons read from her thousand of pulpits in the land are such as these,— Remember those that are in bonds ag hound with them, and those who suffer adversity as being
55
also yourselves in the body.” “If thou forbear to deliver those who are drawn unto death, and those who are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth he know it, and shall not he render to every man according to his works?’ ‘Thus saith the ‘Lord, execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go forth as fire, and burn, that none can quench it.” And for her guidance in the case of that most important privilege, and that instrument of mighty power, the bal- lot, the church has this direction, ‘‘ Moreover, thou shalt ‘choose out of all the people, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, and hating covetousness, and appoint them for rulers.” Ex. 18; 21.
_ We know that when leading candidates are before the nation for their suffrages—men who have been brought forward by the political management of slaveholding poli- ticians and their apologists aud abettors, and neither of which come up to the above scriptural standard, and whose moral characters will not bear the closest scrutiny, but one of which it is certain must be elected, christian ‘men excuse their wanton disregard of this scriptural injunction, in giving their suffrages to one of the two which they best like, with the apology, that ‘ of two evils they must choose the least.” But will this lame and ‘Most contemptible apology, and by which so many lend their political power and influence for the commission ‘of evil, and for the support of oppression—will this apol- ogy, we say, abide the test of “ the law and testimony,” which declares that, we are “to avoid the very appearance of evil ?”
But the poor slave in grief and despair—in hopeless- ness and anguish—with tears, and sighs, and groans,—for he is damb—he is not allowed to speak for himself—per- haps it issuch an one as I once knew, a member of the M. E. Church, who had a wife and seven children which had been taken from him by another “dear brother” of
26
the same church—he turns to the professed disciple of him who came “ to judge the poor and the needy, and ‘to
deliver their souls from deceit and from violence,” and
beseeches him, through his friends, “ to deliver him, as he
is spoiled, out of the ‘hand of the oppresser ” according to
the command of Jehovah, and not to hft that “ oppressor ”
into the seat of honor, and of power. But he beseeches
in vain. He will not hear him. He reminds him of the
time in which it shall be said, by “ the Judge of all the earth,” and said with authority too, “inasmuch as you have, or have not, done it unto the least of these, ye have, or have not done it unto me.” But it is of no use. This” ‘pious christian” has “other great interests ” to look after, in connection with the oppressor for whom he propos- es to vote; and says he, “if the slaveholder does not get it, the doughface will, and of these two evils, I must choose the least,” and in goes his vote; and slavery, in
the person of him who practices, it is appointed to rule over the nation another four years; and this by the suff-
rages of baptised men !!
"Thus we are now prepared to understand the distinction ’ that exists between slaveowners, and slaveholders.. The one class are those who own property in man. ‘The other class are those who assist the fermer to hold and retain that property, by lending them the power of the govern- ment for this purpose. The slaveowners, as we have seen, - are a mere handful—3500,000. How could they hold 3,000,000, ten times their number, except somebody help- ed them? Even the non-slaveholding voters of the South are, perhaps, four to one; and by adding those of the North to them, we should have more than twelve to one. Who then are the slave HOLDERS, and who are respon- sible for the existence of slavery in this nation ?—This may suffice to answer the often repeated question, “ What have we of the North to do with slavery, and how could we affect its abolition ?”
‘But it may be said, that we have no ennstidutiohas power to touch slavery in the states. Even this, perhaps,
57
is a debatable question, and it will eome up one of these - days, we hope, in the United States courts. But supposé that we have not constitutional power to touch it in thé states, we have constitutional tower to abolish it in the District of Columbia, to prevent any more slave states from coming into the Union, and to put a stop to the infa- mous inter state slave trade, and to make slaveholding a disqualification for office; and then we opine, we should hardly haye need to touch it in the states. It would not. stand this mode of treatment for five years. It would speedily die.
Some professed abolitionists even, when exhorted to vote, as well as speak for freedom, talk of “ other great interests” which prevent. But has any nation greater interests, before God, than those of justice and humanity ¢ Nations greater and far more powerful than we now are have risen, and flourished for centuries in prosperity and splendor, which never even heard of these “‘ other great interests” of which these people talk. Nations have flourished both with banks and tariffs, and without them ; but history is yet to record that people which have risen to political power and importance, and have flourished for any length of time which were guilty of the abominable crime of slaveholding. But it does. record the fate of slaveholding nations that were once prosperous and pow- erful, but are sono more, as Spain, Portugal, Holland, Po- land and others ; and-even of. some which have been wholly “¢ plucked up, pulled:down, and:destroyed” as “ Babylon,. the glory of the kingdoms ;”’ Egypt, the cradle of. ancient civilization ; Greece, the mistress of: the arts ;:and Rome the world’s conqueror—all of which.are now no more.
It is indeed, most laughable to witness the strife of
the political parties which have hitherto aspired to. admin:- ister the government, and to enjoy the. emoluments: of its offices. Our government is a Federal Republic—a union: of sovereign and independent states, and its-constitution s: written one. Hence the party which framed the constitu tien, which adopted it, and which, with almost superbumgy
2. itty 4 _
58 | efforts originally put the government in operation, under it, were called Federalists. ‘That party expired years ago, and its grand opponent, the Democratic party super- seded it, and has ruled the nation, with but trifling excep- tions, for an half acentury. But the financial policy of the government has always been fixed. With a written constitution, and the precedents of Washington’s ad- ministration before them, it could not well be other- wise. While it has professed Democracy, to beguile the populace, Federalism has always been its policy. To talk of Democracy, which is only applicable to towns, where all the citizens can come together in one place, and elect their moderator, and proceed to their business, as being also applicable to a nation embracing twenty-four degrees of latitude and sixty degrees of longitnde, is cer- tainly one of the greatest humbugs that was ever palmed upon a people! But coming from the South, originally, as it did, it has served to blind the nation to the abomina- tions of slavery, and to permit the slaves to increase from 600,000, to 3,000,000 in number, and slavery to become — the rnling interest of the nation. May God grant that this great delusion may pass away, and that the eyes of the nation may be opened to see, that the only issue now before the people is that of Freedom and Slavery, and between which they are now called upon to decide; and this terrible and momentous decision, affecting, as it does, not the interests of the slave only, but also those of the whole people, and the interests and the success of free institutions throughout the world, is to be decided, not b: the sword, but by the power of the BALLOT. How solemn a thing then,isa VOTE! |
_W.B. The statements respecting the productive industry of Massachusetts, are from the Report of 1845, as 1 have not seen & Report for any subsequent year. As her imports, since then, haye risen from $20,000,000, to $54,000,000, it is presumed that . ‘her productive industry must also have greatly, if not corres- pondingly inereased, This would make our argument still more Zorcibia, : ; =
°
BRRATA.—Vage 5, for ‘the raise, read to raise.. P.8, for ‘irrecoverable servitude? read inexorable servitude. P. 15, for’ ‘dark dread,’ read dark cloud.. P. 16, for ‘the effort was prodig~ ious,’ read the effect was prodigious. P. 18,- for ‘no reversion, read in reversion. P. 20, for‘budge of honoruble distruction.’ read badge of honorable distinction 3 ; for ‘one half might be pro- duced,’ read one half of Be might be produced ; “for, ‘more menial > read mere menial, . 22, for ‘heels,’ read keels. PR;
7, for ‘$40, 000,000,’ read qo4. 000, "000; ; for ‘hine or less,’ read ate or less. P, 28, for ‘producers,’ read precursors. P, 27, for’ ‘ou the rules,’ read or the rnles. P. 49, for $84,000,000, rend $25,000,000. BP. 54, for ‘polocy,’ réad paticy,
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