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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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BX  9815  .P3  1876  v. 6 
Parker,  Theodore,  1810-1860 
Collected  works 


SAe/f. 


TRUBNER  AND   CO.'S 

LIST   OF 

Itk  '§nhlmixonB  aittr  §00ks  xn  tijt  IBti^ss. 


Meditations  on  Death  and  Eternity.  Translated  from  the  German  by 
Feederica  Rowan.  Published  by  Her  Majesty's  gracious  permission.  8vo,  pp.  386,  cloth 
boards,  price  10s.  6d. 

DITTO.    Smaller  Edition,  crown  8vo,  printed  on  toned  paper,  pp.  352,  price  6s. 

Meditations  on  Life  and  its  Religious  Duties.    Translated  from  the 

German  by  Feederica  Rowan.  Dedicated  to  H.R.H.  Princess  Louis  of  Hesse.  Published  by 
Her  Majesty's  gracious  permission.  Being  the  Companion  Volume  to  "Meditations  on 
Death  and  Eternity."    One  Volume,  8vo,  price  10s.  6d, 

DITTO.    Smaller  Edition,  crown  8vo,  printed  on  toned  paper,  pp.  338,  price  6s. 

The  Collected  Works  of  Theodore  Parker,  Minister  of  the  Twenty- 
Eighth  Congregational  Society  at  Boston,  U.S.  Containing  his  Theological,  Polemical,  and 
Critical  Writings  ;  Sennons,  Speeches,  and  Addresses  ;  and  Literary  Miscellanies.  Edited 
by  Frances  Powee  Cobbe.    In  12  Volumes,  8vo 

Vol.  I.  Containing  Discoiu'ses  on  Matters  pertain- 
ing to  Religion ;  with  Preface  by  the  Editor,  and  a 
Portrait  of  Parker  from  a  Medallion  by  Saulini.    380 


pp.,  clotli,  Bs. 

Vol.  II.   Containing  Ten  Sermons,  and  Prayers, 
360  pp.,  cloth,  price  6s. 


Vol.  TIT.  Containing  Discourses  of  Eeligion.  318 
pp.,  cloth,  pi'ice  6s. 

Vol.  IV.  ContainingDiscourses  of  Politics.  312  pp., 
cloth,  price  6s. 

Vol.  V.  Containing  Discourses  of  Slavery.  336  pp., 
cloth,  price  6s. 


Thanksgiving-      A.   Chapter  of  Eeligious  Duty.     By  Frances  Power  Cobbe. 

IBmo,  pp.  40,  cloth,  Is. 
The  Cities  of  the  Past-     By  Frances  Power  Cobbe.     In  8vo.     [In  the  Press. 
Broken  Lights-     A  Survey  of  the  Eeligious  Controversies  of  our  Times.     By 

Frances  Power  Cobbe.    Crown  8vo,  cloth.  \^IntheFress. 

God  in  Christ-  three  discourses,  delivered  at  New  Haven,  Cambridge, 
and  Andover;  with  a  Preliminary  Dissertation  on  Language.  By  Horace  BusnifELL. 
Second  EngUsh  Edition.    Crown  8vo,  pp.  330,  price  3s.  6d. 

The  Creed  of  Christendom :  its  Foundation  and  Superstruc- 
ture.   By  William  Rathbone  Greg.    Second  Edition.    Crown  8vo,  pp.  xx.  and  280,  price  6s. 

Essays  and  Lectures,  chiefly  on  the  Religion  of  the  Hindus- 

By  Horace  H.  Wilson-,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  late  Boden  Professor  of  Sanskrit  in  the  University  of 
Oxford,  Collected  and  Edited  by  Dr.  Eeinhold  Rost.  TwoYolumes,  8vo,  pp.  398  and  416, 
cloth,  price  2Is. 

Spinoza's  TractatUS    TheolOgicO-PoliticUS  :    A  Critical   inquiry  into 

the  History,  Purpose,  and  Authenticity  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  ;  with  the  Right  to  Free 
Thought  and  Free  Discussion  asserted,  and  shown  to  be  not  only  consistent  but  necessarily 
bound  up  with  True  Piety  and  Good  Government.  By  Benedict  de  Spinoza.  From  the 
Latm.    With  an  Introduction  and  Notes  by  the  Editor.    8vo,  pp.  368,  cloth,  price  10s,  6d. 

"We  would  recommend  some  of  those  wintei-s  whose  speculations  on  the  Jewish  Scriptures  have  recently 
excited  attention,  to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  'Tractatus  Theologico-Politicus'  of  Spinoza,  in  which 
they  will  And  whatever  is  deep  and  comprehensive  in  the  criticism  of  these  subiects."—Eclinburffh  Review,  for 
January, 

Letters  on  Bibliolatry-  By  Gotthold  Ephraim  Lessing.  Translated  from 
the  German  by  the  late  H.  H.  Bernard,  Ph.  Dr,     8vo,  pp.  184,  cloth,  price  5s. 

A  Short  Tractate  on  the  Longevity  ascribed  to  the  Patriarchs 

in  the  BOOK  OF  GENESIS,  and  its  relation  to  the  Hebrew  Chronology;  the  Flood,  the 
Exodus  of  the  IsraeUtes,  the  Site  of  Eden,  &c.  &c.  From  the  Danish  of  the  late  Professor 
Rask  ;  with  his  manuscript  corrections,  and  large  additions  from  his  autograph,  now  for  the 
first  time  printed.  With  a  Map  of  Paradise  and  the  cu'cumjacent  Lands.  Crown  8vo, 
pp.  13-1,  boards,  price  2s.  6d. 

Ernest  Renan'S    Life    of  Jesus-     Authorized   English   Translation.     8vo. 

[J»  afeio  days. 

Titan-  By  Jean  Paul  Friedrich  Riciiter.  Translated  into  English,  for  the 
firsttime,  by  Chakles  T.  Brooks,    Two  Vo1s.,8vo,  cloth,  I8s. 

"  'Hesperus'  and  'Titan,'  t1ion<j;!i  in  IVn-in  notliins;;  more  than  'novels  of  real  life,'  as  the 

Minerva  I'russwotild  say,  have  soliil  iiicl;il  ciiciii'^li  In  llicin  to  I'mnish  wlioli-  circiilat inc;  libraries,  were  it 
beaten  into  tlie  \isiial  filigree;  and  iniu-li  wliicli,  ;iltcnii;ilc  it  iis  we  iiiii;lit,  no  ((iiiutcrly  subscriber  could  well 
carry  with  him."    .    .    .    .—ThomaH  Ci(rli/le'i<  Criiica/  and  Mii<ce/i(iueuiis  Jism.i/s,  Vols,  l.andil. 


60,   PATERNOSTEK  BOW,   LONDON. 


THE 


COLLECTED   WORKS 


OP 


THEODOEE   PARKER, 

MINISTEE  OP   THE   TWENTY-EIGHTH   CONGEEGATIONAL 
SOCIETY  AT  BOSTON.   U.S. 


CONTAINING   HIS 


THEOLOGICAL,  POLEMICAL,  AND  CRITICAL  WRITINGS, 

SERMONS,  SPEECHES,  AND  ADDRESSES, 

AND  LITERARY  MISCELLANIES. 


EDITED   BY 


FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 

VOL.  yi. 

DISCOURSES  OF  SLAYERY.— YOL.  II. 


LONDON : 

TRiJBI^ER  &  CO.,  60,  PATERNOSTER  ROW. 

1864. 


loxXdon: 

W.   STETENS,   PEINTEE,   37,  BELL  TAED, 


TEMPLE  BAE. 


DISCOURSES 


ov 


SLAVERY. 


BY 

THEODORE   PAEKEE. 


VOL.  II. 


LONDON : 

TEUBNER  &  CO.,  60.  PATEEITOSTER  EOW. 

1864. 


^  OCT    8    ICCo  "^ 
^^    * -5 


CONTENTS  TO  VOL.   II. 


PAGE 

Some  Thoughts  on  the  Progress  of  America,  and  the  Influence 
of  her  Diverse  Institutions  .  .  .  .  .  .         1 

^The  New  Crime  against  Humanity     .  .  .  .  .  .       44    --^ 

\/ L  Sermon  of  the  Dangers  which  Threaten  the  Rights  of 

Man  in  America  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     110 

An  Address  delivered  before  the  New  York  City  Anti- 
Slavery  Society  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     159 

V^A  Sermon  on  the  Consequences  of  an  Immoral  Principle 

and  Palse  Idea  of  Life       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     192    ^ 

The  Great  Battle  between  Slavery  and  Freedom  : 

Speech  I..  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     215 

Speech  II.  240 

The  Present  Aspect  of  Slavery  in  America,  and  immediate 
Duty  of  the  North  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     287 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  THE  PROGRESS  OF  AMERICA, 

AND  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HER  DIVERSE 

INSTITUTIONS. 


AN    ADDRESS 

prepared  for  the  anti-slavery  convention  in  boston, 

May  31,  1854. 

At  this  day  there  are  two  great  tribes  of  men  in  Chris- 
tendom, which  seem  to  have  a.  promising  future  before 
them — the  Sclavonic  and  the  Anglo-Saxon.  Both  are 
comparatively  new.  For  the  last  three  hundred  years 
each  has  been  continually  advancing  in  numbers,  riches, 
and  territory  ;  in  industrial  and  military  power.  To  judge 
from  present  appearances,  it  seems  probable  that  a  hundred 
years  hence  there  will  be  only  two  great  national  forces 
in  the  Christian  world — the  Sclavonic  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  tribe  is  composite,  and  the  mingling 
so  recent,  that  we  can  still  easily  distinguish  the  main  in- 
gredients of  the  mixture.  There  are,  first,  the  Saxons  and 
Angles  from  North  Germany  ;  next,  the  Scandinavians 
from  Denmark  and  Sweden ;  and,  finally,  the  ^N^ormans,  or 
Komanized  Scandinavians,  from  France. 

This  tribe  is  now  divided  into  two  great  political 
branches,  namely,  the  Anglo-Saxon  Briton,  and  the 
Anglo-Saxon  American  ;  but  both  are  substantially  the 
same  people,  though  with  difierent  antecedents  and  sur- 
roundings. The  same  fundamental  characteristics  belong 
to  the  Briton  and  the  American. 

Three  hundred  years  ago,  the  Anglo-Saxons  were  scarce 
three  millions  in  number  ;  they  did  not  own  the  whole  of 
Great  Britain.  Now  there  are  thirty  or  forty  millions  of 
men  with  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  their  veins.    They  possess 

VOL.    VI.  *B 


2  THOUGHTS   ON    AMERICA. 

tlie  Britisli  Islands ;  Heligoland,  Gibraltar,  Malta,  and  the 
Ionian  Isles ;  St.  Helena,  South  Africa,  much  of  East  and 
"West  Africa;  enormous  territories  in  India,  continually 
increasing;  the  whole  of  Australia;  almost  all  of  North 
America,  and  I  know  not  how  many  islands  scattered 
about  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  seas.  Their  geographical 
spread  covers  at  least  one-sixth  part  of  the  habitable  globe ; 
their  power  controls  about  one-fifth  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth.  It  is  the  richest  of  all  the  families  of  mankind. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  leads  the  commerce  and  the  most  im- 
portant manufactures  of  the  world.  He  owns  seven- 
eighths  of  the  shipping  of  Christendom,  and  half  that  of 
the  human  race.  He  avails  himself  of  the  latest  dis- 
coveries in  practical  science,  and  applies  them  to  the 
creation  of  "  comforts"  and  luxuries.  Iron  is  his  favourite 
metal ;  and  about  two-thirds  of  the  annual  iron  crop  of  the 
earth  is  harvested  on  Anglo-Saxon  soil.  Cotton,  wheat, 
and  the  potato,  are  his  favourite  plants. 

The  political  institutions  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  secure 
National  Unity  of  Action  for  the  State,  and  Individual 
Variety  of  Action  for  each  citizen,  to  a  greater  degree 
than  other  nations  have  thought  possible.  In  all  Christen- 
dom, there  is  scarce  any  freedom  of  the  Press  except  on 
Anglo-Saxon  soil.  Ours  is  the  only  tongue  in  which 
Liberty  can  speak.  Anglo-Saxon  Britain  is  the  asylum  of 
exiled  patriots,  or  exiled  despots.  The  royal  and  patrician 
wrecks  of  the  revolutionary  storms  of  continental  Europe, 
in  the  last  century  and  in  this,  were  driven  to  her  hospit- 
able shore.  Kossuth,  Mazzini,  Victor  Hugo,  and  Comte, 
relics  of  the  last  revolution,  are  washed  to  the  same  coast. 
America  is  the  asylum  of  exiled  nations,  who  flee  to  her 
arms,  four  hundred  thousand  in  a  year,  and  find  shelter. 

The  Sclavonians  fight  with  diplomacy  and  the  sword, 
the  Anglo-Saxon  with  diplomacy  and  the  dollar.  He  is 
the  Roman  of  productive  industry,  of  commerce,  as  the 
Romans  were  Anglo-Saxons  of  destructive  conquest,  of 
war.  The  Sclavonian  nations,  from  the  accident  of  their 
geographical  position,  or  from  their  ethnological  pecu- 
liarity of  nature,  invade  and  conquer  lands  more  civilized 
than  their  own.  They  have  the  diplomatic  skill  to  control 
nations  of  superior  intellectual  and  moral  development. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  is  too  clumsy  for  foreign  politics  ;  when 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  3 

he  meddles  with  tlie  affairs'  of  other  civilized  people,  he  is 
often  deceived.  Eiissia  outwits  England  continually  in 
the  political  game  now  playing  for  the  control  of  Europe. 
The  Anglo-Saxon,  more  invasive  than  the  Sclavonian, 
prefers  new  and  wild  lands  to  old  and  well- cultivated 
territories ;  so  he  conquers  America,  and  tills  its  virgin 
soil :  seizes  on  Africa, — the  dry  nurse  of  lions  and  of 
savage  men, — and  founds  a  new  empire  in  Australia.  If 
he  invades  Asia,  it  is  in  the  parts  not  Christian.  His  rule 
is  a  curse  to  countries  full  of  old  civilization ;  I  take  it 
that  England  has  been  a  blight  to  India,  and  will  be  to 
China,  if  she  sets  there  her  conquering  foot.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  is  less  pliable  than  the  Eomans,  a  less  indulgent 
master  to  conquered  men;  with  more  plastic  power  to 
organize  and  mould, -he  has  a  less  comprehensive  imagin- 
ation, limits  himself  to  a  smaller  number  of  forms,  and  so 
hews  off  and  casts  away  what  suits  him  not.  Austria 
conquers  Lombardy,  France  Algiers,  Russia  Poland,  to  the 
benefit  of  the  conquered  party,  it  seems.  Can  smj  one 
show  that  the  British  rule  has  been  a  benefit  to  India  ? 
The  Russians  make  nothing  of  their  American  territory. 
But  what  civilization  blooms  out  of  the  savage  ground 
wherever  the  Saxon  plants  his  foot ! 

I  must  say  a  word  of  the  leading  peculiarities  of  this 
tribe. 

1.  There  is  a  strong  love  of  individual  freedom.  This 
belongs  to  the  Anglo-Saxons  in  common  with  ail  the 
Teutonic  family.  But  with  them  it  seems  eminently 
powerful.  Circumstances  have  favoured  its  development. 
They  care  much  for  freedom,  little  for  equality. 

2.  Connected  with  this,  is  a  love  of  law  and  order, 
which  continually  shows  itself  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean. 
Past  as  we  gain  freedom,  we  secure  it  by  law  and  constitu- 
tion, trusting  little  to  the  caprice  of  magistrates. 

3.  Then  there  is  a  great  federative  power— a  tendency 
to  form  combinations  of  persons,  or  of  communities  and 
states — special  partnerships  on  a  small  scale  for  mercantile 
business  ;  on  a  large  scale,  like  the  American  Union,  or 
the  Hanse  towns,  for  the  political  business  of  a  nation^ 

4.  The  Anglo-Saxons  have  eminent  practical  power  to 
organize  things  into  a  mill,  or  men  into  a  state,  and  then 

ii2 


4  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

to  administer  the  organization.  This  power  is  one  whicli 
contributes  greatly  to  both  their  commercial  and  political 
success.  But  this  tribe  is  also  most  eminently  material  in  its 
aims  and  means ;  it  loves  riches,  works  for  riches,  fights 
for  riches.  It  is  not  warlike,  as  some  other  nations,  who 
love  war  for  its  own  sake,  though  a  hard  fighter  when  put 
to  it. 

5.  We  are  the  most  aggressive,  invasive,  and  exclusive 
people  on  the  earth.  The  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  for 
the  last  three  hundred  years,  has  been  one  of  continual 
aggression,  invasion,  and  extermination. 

I  cannot  now  stop  to  dwell  on  these  traits  of  our  tribal 
anthropology,  but  must  yet  say  a  word  touching  this  na- 
tional exclusiveness  and  tendency  to  exterminate. 

Austria  and  Eussia  never  treated  a  conquered  nation  so 
cruelly  as  England  has  treated  Ireland.  Not  many  years 
ago,  four-fifths  of  the  population  of  the  island  were  Catho- 
lics, a  tenth  Anglican  churchmen,  xill  ofilces  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  little  minority.  Two-thirds  of  the  Irish 
House  of  Commons  wxre  nominees  of  the  Protestant 
gentry ;  the  Catholic  members  must  take  the  declaration 
against  Transubstantiation.  Papists  were  forbidden  to 
vote  in  elections  of  members  to  the  Irish  Parliament. 
They  sufiered  "  under  a  universal,  unmitigated,  indispens- 
able, exceptionless  disqualification."  ''  In  the  courts  of 
law,  they  could  not  gain  a  place  on  the  bench,  nor  act  as  a 
barrister,  attorney,  or  solicitor,  nor  be  employed  even  as  a 
hired  clerk,  nor  sit  on  a  grand  jury,  nor  serve  as  a  sheriff", 
nor  hold  even  the  lowest  civil  office  of  trust  and  profit ; 
nor  have  any  privilege  in  a  town  corporation ;  nor  be  a 
freeman  of  such  corporation  ;  nor  vote  at  a  vestry."*  A 
Catholic  could  not  marry  a  Protestant :  the  priest  who 
should  celebrate  such  a  marriage  was  to  be  hanged.  He 
could  not  be  "a  guardian  to  any  child,  nor  educate  his 
own  child,  if  its  mother  were  a  Protestant,"  or  the  child 
declared  m  favour  of  Protestantism.  "  No  Protestant 
might  instruct  a  Papist.  Papists  could  not  supply  their 
want  by  academies  and  schools  of  their  own  ;  for  a  Catholic 
to  teach,  even  in  a  private  famil}^,  or  as  usher  to  a  I^ro- 
testant,  was  a  felony,  punishable  by  imprisonment,  exile,  or 
death."     ''To  be  educated  in  any  foreign  Catholic  school 

*  CanciTrt,  History  Of  United  States,  vol.  v.  p.  GO,  ct  scq. 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  0 

was  an  unalterable  and  perpetual  outlawiy."  ''  The  child 
sent  abroad  for  education,  no  matter  of  how  tender  an  age, 
or  himself  how  innocent,  could  never  after  sue  in  law  or 
equity,  or  be  guardian,  executor,  or  administrator,  or 
receive  any  legacy  or  deed  of  gift ;  he  forfeited  all  his 
goods  and  chattels,  and  forfeited  for  his  life  all  his  lands ;" 
whoever  sent  him  incurred  the  same  penalties. 

The  Catholic  clergy  could  not  be  taught  at  home  or 
abroad  :  they  "  were  registered  and  kept,  like  prisoners  at 
large,  within  prescribed  limits."  "  All  Papists  exercising 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction ;  .all  monks,  friars,  and  regular 
priests,  and  all  priests  not  actually  in  parishes,  and  to  be 
registered,  were  banished  from  Ireland  under  pain  of 
transportation ;  and,  on  a  return,  of  being  hanged  and 
quartered.'^  *'  The  Catholic  priest  abjuring  his  religion, 
received  a  pension  of  thirty,  and  afterwards  of  forty 
pounds."  ^'  No  non- conforming  Catholic  could  buy  land, 
or  receive  it  by  descent,  devise,  or  settlement ;  or  lend 
money  on  it  as  security ;  or  hold  an  interest  in  it  through 
a  Protestant  trustee ;  or  take  a  lease  of  ground  for  more 
than  thirty-one  years.  If  under  such  a  lease  he  brought 
'his  farm  to  produce  more  than  one-third  beyond  the 
rent,  the  first  Protestant  discoverer  might  sue  for  the 
lease  before  known  Protestants,  making  the  defendant 
answer  all  interrogations  on  oath  ;  so  that  the  Catholic 
farmer  dared  not  drain  his  fields,  nor  inclose  them,  nor 
build  solid  houses  on  them."  ''  Even  if  a  Catholic  owned 
a  horse  worth  more  than  five  pounds,  any  Protestant 
might  take  it  away,"  on  paj^ment  of  that  sum.  ''  To  the 
native  Irish,  the  English  oligarchy  appeared  as  men  of  a 
different  race  and  creed,  who  had  acquired  the  island  bj^ 
force  of  arms,  rapine,  and  chicane,  and  derived  revenues 
from  it  by  the  employment  of  extortionate  underlings  or 
overseers."  * 

The  same  disposition  to  invade  and  exterminate  showed 
itself  on  this  side  of  the  ocean. 

In  America,  the  Frenchman  and  the  Spaniard  came  in 
contact  with  the  red  man ;  they  converted  him  to  what 
they  called  Christianity,  and  then  associated  with  him  on 
equal  terms.  The  pale-face  and  the  red-skin  hunted  in 
company ;  they  fished  from  the  same  canoe  in  the  Bay  ol 

*  Bancroft,  itbi  sup.  p.  67,  et  scq. 


6  THOUGHTS  ON   AMERICA. 

Funcly  and  Lake  Superior  ;  tliey  lodged  in  tlie  same  tent, 
slept  on  the  same  bear- skin ;  nay,  they  knelt  together  be- 
fore the  same  God,  who  was  *'  no  respecter  of  persons," 
and  had  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  !  The 
white  man  married  the  Indian's  daughter ;  the  red  man 
wooed  and  won  the  pale  child  of  the  Caucasian.  This  took 
place  in  Canada,  and  in  Mexico,  in  Peru,  and  Equador. 
In  Brazil,  the  negro  graduates  at  the  college  ;  he  becomes 
a  general  in  the  army.  But  the  Anglo-Saxon  disdains  to 
mingle  his  proud  blood  in  wedlock  with  the  ''  inferior 
races  of  men."  He  puts  away  the  savage — black,  yellow, 
red.  In  New  England,  the  Puritan  converted  the  Indians 
to  Christianity,  as  far  as  they  could  accept  the  theology  of 
John  Calvin ;  but  made  a  careful  separation  between  white 
and  red,  "my  people  and  thy  people."  They  must  dwell 
in  separate  villages,  worship  in  separate  houses ;  they 
must  not  intermarry.  The  general  court  of  Massachusetts 
once  forbade  all  extra-matrimonial  connection  of  white  and 
red,  on  pain  of  death !  The  Anglo-Saxon  has  carefully 
sought  to  exterminate  the  savages  from  his  territory. 
The  Briton  does  so  in  Africa,  in  Yan  Diemen's  Land,  in 
New  Zealand,  in  New  Holland — wherever  he  meets  them. 
The  American  does  the  same  in  the  western  world.  In 
New  England  the  Puritan  found  the  wild  woods,  the  wild 
beasts,  and  the  wild  men;  he  undertook  to  eradicate 
them  all,  and  has  succeeded  best  with  the  wild  men. 
There  are  more  bears  than  Indians  in  New  England. 
The  United  States  pursues  the  same  destructive  policy. 
In  two  hundred  years  more  there  will  be  few  Indians  left 
between  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  and  the  Grulf  of  Mexico, 
between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans. 

Yet  the  Anglo-Saxons  are  not  cruel ;  they  are  simply 
destructive.  The  Dutch,  in  New  York,  perpetrated  the 
most  wanton  cruelties :  the  savages  themselves  shuddered 
at  the  white  man's  atrocity :  '*'  Our  gods  v/ould  be  offended 
at  such  things,"  said  they ;  "  the  white  man's  God  must  be 
different !"  The  cruelties  of  the  French,  and,  still  more, 
of  the  Spaniards  in  Mexico,  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
South  America,  are  too  terrible  to  repeat,  but  too  well 
known  to  need  relating.  The  Spaniard  put  men  to  death 
with  refinements  of  cruelty,  luxuriating  in  destructiveness. 
The   Anglo-Saxon  simply   shot   down  his   foe,  offered  a 


THOUGHTS  ON   AMERICA.  7 

reward  for  homicide,  so  much  for  a  scalp,  but  tolerated  no 
needless  cruelty.  If  the  problem  is  to  destroy  a  race  of 
men  with  the  least  expenditure  of  destructive  force  on  one 
side,  and  the  least  suffering  on  the  other,  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
Briton,  or  American,  is  the  fittest  instrument  to  be  found 
on  the  whole  globe. 

So  much  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  character  in  general,  as 
introductory  to  an  examination  of  America  in  special.  It 
is  well  to  know  the  anthropology  of  the  stock  before 
attempting  to  appreciate  the  character  of  the  special 
people.  America  has  the  general  characteristics  of  this 
powerful  tribe,  but  modified  by  her  peculiar  geographical 
and  historical  position.  Our  fathers  emigrated  from  their 
home  in  a  time  of  great  ferment,  and  brought  with  them 
ideas  which  could  not  then  be  organized  into  institutions 
at  home.  This  was  obviously  the  case  with  the  theological 
ideas  of  the  Puritans,  who,  with  their  descendants,  have 
given  to  America  most  of  what  is  new  and  peculiar  in  her 
institutions.  Still  more,  the  early  settlers  of  the  ISTorth 
brought  with  them  sentiments  not  ripened  yet,  which,  in 
due  time,  developed  themselves  into  ideas,  and  then  into 
institutions. 

At  first  necessity,  or  love  of  change,  drove  the  wanderers 
to  the  wilderness  ;  they  had  no  thought  of  separating  from 
England.  The  fugitive  pilgrims  in  the  Mayflower,  who 
subscribed  the  compact,  which  so  many  Americans  erro- 
neously regard  as  the  "seed-corn  of  the  republican  tree, 
imder  which  millions  of  her  men  now  stand,"  called  them- 
selves "  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign.  King  James,'' 
undertaking  to  plant  a  colony  "  for  the  glory  of  God,  and 
advancement  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  honour  of  our  king 
and  country."  In  due  time,  as  the  colonists  develo]3ed 
themselves  in  one,  and  the  English  at  home  in  a  difierent 
direction,  there  came  to  be  a  great  diversity  of  ideas,  and 
an  opposition  of  interests.  When  mutuality  of  ideas  and 
of  interests,  as  the  indispensable  condition  of  national  unity 
of  action,  failed,  the  colony  fell  off  from  its  parent :  the 
separation  was  unavoidable.  Before  many  years,  we  doubt 
not,  Australia  will  thus  separate  from  the  mother  country, 
to  the  advantage  of  both  parties. 

In  America,  two  generations  of  men  have  passed  away 


8  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

since  tlie  last  battle  of  tlie  Revoliition.  The  liostility  of 
that  contest  is  only  a  matter  of  history  to  the  mass  of 
Britons  or  Americans,  not  of  daily  consciousness  ;  and  as 
this  disturbing  force  is  withdrawn,  the  two  nations  see 
and  feel  more  distinctly  their  points  of  agreement,  and 
become  conscious  that  they  are  both  but  one  people. 

The  transfer  of  the  colonists  of  England  to  the  western 
world  was  an  event  of  great  importance  to  mankind  ;  thej^ 
found  a  virgin  continent,  on  which  to  set  up  and  organize 
their  ideas,  and  develop  their  faculties.  They  had  no 
enemies  but  the  wilderness  and  its  savage  occupants,  I 
doubt  not  that,  if  the  emigrant  had  remained  at  home,  it 
would  have  taken  a  thousand  years  to  attain  the  same 
general  development  now  reached  by  the  free  States  of 
JN^orth  America.  The  settlers  carried  with  them  the  best 
ideas  and  the  best  institutions  of  their  native  land — the 
arts  and  sciences  of  England,  the  forms  of  a  representa- 
tive government,  the  trial  b}^  j^n'V?  the  common  law,  the 
ideas  of  Christianity,  and  the  traditions  of  the  human 
race.  In  the  woods,  far  from  help,  they  were  forced 
to  become  self-reliant  and  thrifty  men.  It  is  instruc- 
tive to  see  what  has  come  of  the  experiment.  It  is 
but  two  hundred  and  forty- six  years  since  the  settlement 
of  Jamestown — not  two  hundred  and  thirty- four  years 
since  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  Plymouth ;  what  a  develop- 
ment since  that  time — of  numbers,  of  riches,  of  material 
and  spiritual  power ! 

In  the  ninth  century,  Korb  Flokki,  a  half-mythical 
person,  *'  let  loose  his  three  crows,"  it  is  said,  seeking  land 
to  the  west  and  north  of  the  Orkneys,  and  went  to  Iceland. 
In  the  tenth  century,  Gunnbjiorn,  and  Eirek  the  Ped, 
discovered  Greenland,  an  "  ugly  and  right  hateful  coun- 
try," as  Paul  Egede  calls  it.  In  the  eleventh  centur}^, 
Leife,  son  of  Eirek,  with  Tyrker  the  Southerner,  disco- 
vered A^inland,  some  part  of  North  America,  but  whether 
Newfoundland,  Nova  Scotia,  or  New  England,  I  shall 
leave  others  to  determine.  It  is  not  yet  four  hundred 
years  since  Columbus  first  dropped  his  anchor  at  San  Sal- 
vador, and  "Cabot  discovered  the  continent  of  America,  and 
cruised  along  its  shores  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Florida, 
seeking  for  a  passage  to  the  East  Indies.  In  1608 
the  first    permanent    British    settlement  was    made  .in 


THOUGHTS  ON   AMERICA. 


r9 


America,  at  Jamestown;  in  1620  tlie  Pilgrims  began 
their  far-famed  experiment  at  Plymouth.  "What  a  change 
from  1608  to  1854 !  It  is  not  in  my  power  to  determine 
the  number  of  immigrants  before  the  Revolution.  There 
was  a  great  variety  of  nationalities — Dutch  in  New  York, 
Germans  in  Pennsjdvania  and  Georgia,  Swedes  and  Finns 
in  Delaware,  Scotch  in  New  England  and  North  Carolina, 
Swiss  in  Georgia ;  Acadians  from  Nova  Scotia ;  and 
Huguenots  from  France. 

America  has  now  a  stable  form  of  government.  Her 
pyramid  is  not  yet  high.  It  is  only  humble  powers  that 
she  develops,  no  great  creative  spirit  here  as  ^^et  enchants 
men  with  the  wonders  of  literature  and  art ; — but  her 
foundation  is  wide  and  deeply  laid.  It  is  now  easy  to  see 
the  conditions  and  the  causes  of  her  success.  The  condi- 
tions are,  the  new  continent,  a  virgin  soil  to  receive  the 
seed  of  liberty ;  the  causes  were,  first,  the  character  of  the 
tribe,  and  next,  the  liberal  institutions  founded  thereby. 

The  rapid  increase  of  America  in  most  of  the  elements 
of  national  power,  is  a  remarkable  fact  in  the  history  of 
mankind. 

Look  at  the  increase  of  numbers.  In  1689,  the  entire 
popidation  of  the  English  colonies,  exclusive  of  the 
Indians,  amounted  to  about  200,000.  Twenty -live  years 
later  there  were  434,000,  now  24,000,000.* 

*  Table  of  Population  in  1715. 


Colonies. 


Whites.       Xegtfces. 


New  Hampshire !       9,500 

Massachusetts I     94,000 

Rhode  Island  .........  j       8,500 

Connecticut 46,000 

New  York 27,000 

New  Jersey ,     21,000 

Pennsylvania  and  Delawai'o    .     .     .  i     43,300 

Maryland !     40,700 

Virginia j     72,000 

North  Carolina ,       7,500 

South  Carolina 6,250 


150 
2,000 
500 
1,500 
4,000 
1,500 
2,500 
9,500 

23,000 
3,700 

10,500 


375,750  I     58,850 


Total. 


9,650 
96,000 

9,000 
47,500 
31,000 
22,500 
45,800 
50,200 
95,000 
11,200 
16,750 

134,600 


10  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

The  present  population  of  the  United  States  consists  of 

In  1754,  another  return  was  made  to  the  Board  of  Ti'ade,  in  the  fol- 
lowing 

Table  of  Population  in  1754. 
Whites.  Blacks.  Total. 

1,192,896  292,738  1,485,634 

We  will  now  give  the  population  at  seven  successive  periods,  as  indi- 
cated by  the  returns  of  the  oJ0B.cial  census  of  the  United  States. 
Tahle  of  Fopulation  from  1790  to  1850. 
Years.  Whites.  Free  Coloured.         Slaves.  Total. 

]790  3,172,464  59,466  697,897  3,929,827 

1800  4,804,489  108,395  893,041  5,305,925 

1810  5,862,004  186,446         1,191,364  7,239,814 

1820  7,872,711  238,197         1,543,688  9,654,596 

1830         10,537,378  319,599         2,009,043  12,866,020 

1810         14,189,555  386,348         2,487,355  17,069,453 

1850         19,630,738  428,661  3,198,324  23,257,723 

The  following  is  the  official  report  of  Immigration  from  1790  to  1850. 
]\Iuch  of  it  is  conjectural  and  approximate. 

Tahle  of  Immigration  from  1790  to  1850. 

From  1790  to  1800 120,000 

„     1810  to  1820 114,000 

„     1820  to  1830 203,979 

„     1830  to  1840 778,500 

„     1840  to  1850  ....          1,542,840 

2,759,329 

The  immigrants  are  thus  conjecturally  distributed  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth.     The  estimate  is  a  rough  one. 

Tahle  of  Nationality. 

Celtic— Irish  (one-half) 1,350,000 

Teutonic — Germans,  Danes,  Swedes,  etc.  (one-fourth)      ,         .       675,000 
Miscellaneous — AU  other  nations 734,329 

The  following  statement  exhibits  the  nationality  of  the  immigration  to 
the  United  States  for  the  calendar  year,  1851  (Dec.  31,  1850,  to  Dec.  31, 
1851)  :— 

Nationality  of  Immigrants  in  1851. 

From  Great  Britain  and  Ireland         .        ,  264,222 

„      Germany 72,283 

„      France      ......  20,107 

Of  these  there  were  Males     ....  245,017 

„                5,        Females      .        .         .  163,745 

„                 „        Unknown        .         .  66 

Tahle   of  Immigration  for   the  first  four  months   of  1853. 
From  the  British  Islands   ,         ,         ,         .  15,023 

„  French  Ports  ....  8,768 
„  German  Ports  .....  3,511 
„  Belgian  and  Dutch  .  .  .  2,747 
„         Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  Italian       .       135 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  11 

tlie  foUowing  ingredients.     The  nnnabers  are  conjectural 
and  approximate : — 

Table  of  Nationality, 

White  Immigrants  since  3780,  and  their  wliite 

descendants 4,330,934 

Africans,  and  their  descendants      .         .         .         3,626,585 

White  Immigrants  previous  to  1790,  and  their 

white  descendants 15,279j804j 

This  does  not  include  tlie  Indians  living  within  the 
territories  and  States  of  the  Union.  These  facts  show  that 
a  remarkable  mingling  of  families  of  the  Caucasian  stock 
is  taking  place.  The  exact  statistics  would  disclose  a  yet 
more  remarkable  mingling  of  the  Caucasian  and  the 
^Ethiopian  races  going  on.  The  Africans  are  rapidly 
"  bleaching  "  under  the  influence  of  democratic  chemistry. 
If  only  one- tenth  of  the  *^ coloured  population''  has 
Caucasian  blood  in  its  veins,  then  there  are  362,698 
descendants  of  this  "  amalgamation  ;"  but  if  you  estimate 
these  hybrids  as  one  in  five,  which  is  not  at  all  excessive, 
we  have  then  725,397. 

The  thirty- one  States  now  organized  have  a  surface  of 
1,485,870  square  miles,  while  the  total  area  of  the  United 
States,  so  far  as  I  have  information,  on  the  17th  of  May, 
1853,  was  3,220,000  square  miles.  In  the  States,  on  an 
average,  there  are  not  sixteen  persons  to  the  square  mile  ; 
in  the  whole  territory,  not  eight  to  a  mile.  Massachusetts, 
the  most  densely  peopled  State,  has  more  than  one  hundred 
and  twenty- six  to  the  mile,  while  Texas  has  but  eighty- 
nine  men  for  a  hundred  miles  of  land,  more  than  eight 
himdred  acres  to  each  human  soul. 

In  1840,  there  were  ten  States,  whose  united  populations 
exceeded  4,000,000,  which  yet  had  no  town  with  10,000 
inhabitants.* 

*  The  following  table  shows  the  occupation  of  4,798,870  persons  in 
1840,  ascertained  by  the  census  : — 

Table  of  Occuioation, 

Engaged  in  Mining 15,211 

„  Agriculture 3,719,951 

„  Commerce 117,607 

„  Manufactures  ....        791,749 

,,  Navigation  (Ocean)     ....     56,021 

(Inland  Waters)  .         .  33,076 

„  Learned  Professions  •        .        .        .    65,255 


12  :rHOUGiiTS   ON   AMERICA. 

Look  next  at  the  products  of  industry  in  tlie  United 
States.* 

*  I  take  these  results  of  the  census  of  1840,  as  deduced  by  Professor 
Tucker,  in  his  admirable  book,  Progress  of  the  United  States  in  Population 
and  Wealth  in  Fifty  Years.     New  York,  1843.     1  vol.  8vo. 
Value  ofAnnr.al  Products  of  Industry,  1840. 

Aori'iculture §654,387,597 

Manufactxires 236,836,224 

Commerce       ....'..       79,721,086 

Mining 42,358,761 

The  Forest 16,835,060 

The  Ocean 11,996,108 


Total     .         .     .    $1,063,134,736 

In  1850,  the  iron-crop  in  the  United  States  amounted  to  564,755  tons. 
The  shiji-crop  was  1360  vessels,  with  a  measurement  of  272,218  tons. 
The  increase  of  American  shipping  is  worth  notice,  and  is  shown  in  the 
following 

ToMe  of  American  Tonnage  from  1815  to  1850. 
Years.  Tons. 

1815  ....  1,368,127 
1820  ....  1,280,165 
1825  ....  1,423,110 
1830  ....  1,181,986 
1835  ....  1,824,939 
1840  ....  2,180,763 
1845  ....  2,417,001 
1850   ....         3,535,454 

The  tonnage  is  still  on  the  increase.  In  1851  it  amounted  to  3,772,439, 
and  at  this  moment  must  be  considerably  more  than  4,000,000,  The 
first  ship  built  in  New  England  was  the  "  Blessing  of  the  Bay,"  a  "  bark 
of  thirty  tons,"  launched  in  1634.  Nor  far  from  the  spot  where  her  keel 
was  laid,  a  ship  has  recently  been  built,  three  hundred  and  ten  feet  long, 
and  more  than  six  thousand  tons  burden. 

On  the  30th  September,  1851,  there  were,  if  the  accounts  are  reliable, 
12,805  miles  of  railroad  in  the  United  States.  At  present,  there  are 
probably  about  15,000  miles. 

To  show  the  increase  of  American  commerce,  consider  the  following 

ToMe  of  Imports  and  Exports  from  1800  to  1852. 

Years.                                    Imports.  Exports. 

1800  $91,252,768  $70,971,780 

1805  120,000,000  95,566,021 

1810                               85,400,000  66,757,974 

1815  113,041,274  52,557,753 

1820                               74,450,000  69,691,669 

1825                               96^40,075  99,535,388 

1830                               70,876,920  73,849,508 

1835  149,895,742  121,693,577 

1840  107,141,519  132,085,946 

1845  117,254,564  114,646,606 

1850  178,138,318  161,898,720 

1852  212^13,282  209,641,625 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  13 

The  contrast  between  the  Spanish,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon 
settlements  in  America  is  amazing.  A  hundred  years  ago, 
Spain,  the  discoverer  of  America,  had  undisputed  sway 
over  all  South  America,  except  Brazil  and  the  Guianas. 
All  Mexico  was  hers — all  Central  America,  California 
imbounded  on  the  north,  extending  indefinitely,  Louisiana, 
Florida,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  part  of  Hayti.  She  ruled 
a  population  of  twenty  million  men.  Now  Cuba  trembles 
in  her  faltering  hand ;  all  the  rest  has  dropped  from  the 
arms  of  that  feeble  mother  of  feeble  sons.  In  1750  her 
American  colonies  extended  from  Patagonia  to  Oregon. 
The  La  Plata  was  too  far  north  for  her  southern  limit,  the 
Columbia  too  far  south  for  her  northern  bound.  The 
Mississippi  and  the  Amazon  were  Spanish  rivers,  and 
emptied  the  waters  of  a  continent  into  the  lap  of  America, 
the  Mexique  Gulf,  which  was  also  a  Spanish  sea.  But 
Spain  allowed  only  eight-and-thirty  vessels  to  ply  between 
the  mother  country  and  the  family  of  American  daughters 
on  both  sides  of  the  continent.  The  empire  of  Spain, 
mother  countr}^  and  colonies,  extending  from  Barcelona  to 
-Manilla,  with  more  sea-coast  than  the  whole  continent  of 
Africa,  employed  but  sixteen  thousand  sailors  in  her  com- 
mercial marine.  Portugal  forbade  Brazil  to  cultivate  any 
of  the  products  of  the  Indies. 

Look  at  this  day  at  Anglo-Saxon,  and  then  at  Spanish 
America.     In  1606  there  was  not  an  English  settlement 

The  most  important  articles  of  export  for  five-and  twenty  years  appear 
in  the  following 

Tabic  of  the  chief  articles  of  Export  from  1825  to  1850. 


Years. 

Cotton. 

Breadstufis  and  Provis 

ions.     Tobacco. 

1825 

$36,846,649 

$11,634,449 

$6,115,623 

1830 

29,674,883 

12,075,430 

5,586,365 

1835 

64,961,302 

12,009,399 

8,250,577 

1840 

63,870,307 

19,067,535 

9,883,957 

1845 

51,739,643 

16,743,421 

7,469,819 

1850 

71,484,616 

26,051,373 

9,951,023 

1852 

87,965,732 

25,857,177 

10,031,283 

The  greatest  amount  of  cotton  was  exported  in  1852, — 1,093,230,639 
pounds ;  but  the  greatest  value  of  cotton  was  in  1851,  amounting  to 
$11 2,351,317.  In  1847,  the  value  of  breadstuffs  and  provisions  cxpoi'ted 
was  $68,701,921. 

The  government  revenues  for  the  fiscal  year  1 852  were  $49,728,386.89  ; 
there  Avas  a  balance  in  the  treasury  of  $10,911,645,68  ;  making  the  total 
means  for  that  year  $60,640,032.57.  On  the  1st  January,  1853,  the 
national  debt  amounted  to  $65,131,693. 


14  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

ill  America;  In  1627  only  two,  Jamestown  and  Plymontli. 
But  the  Spanish  colonies  elate  back  to  1493.  Compare  the 
history  of  the  basin  of  the  Amazon  with  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi.  The  Amazon,  with  its  affluents,  commands 
seventy  thousand  miles  of  internal  navigation,  draining 
more  arable  land  than  all  Europe  contains,  the  largest,  the 
most  fertile  valley  in  the  world.  It  includes  1,796,000 
square  miles.  Everything  which  finds  a  home  on  earth 
will  flourish  in  the  basin  of  the  Amazon,  between  the  level 
of  the  Atlantic  and  the  top  of  the  Andes.  But  the  tonnage 
on  the  Amazon  does  not  probably  equal  the  tonnage  on  Lake 
Champlain.  Only  an  Anglo-Saxon  steamer  ruffles  the  waters 
of  the  Amazon.  Para,  at  its  mouth,  more  than  three 
hundred  years  old,  contains  less  than  20,000  inhabitants. 

The  Mississippi  with  its  tributaries  drains  982,000  square 
miles,  and  affords  16,694  miles  of  steam  navigation.  In 
1851  there  were  1190  steamboats  on  its  bosom,  measuring 
249,054  tons,  running  at  an  annual  cost  of  $39,774,194 ; 
the  value  of  the  merchandise  carried  on  the  river  in  1852 
was  estimated  at  $432,651,240,  more  than  double  the  whole 
foreign  trade  of  the  United  States  for  that  year.  New 
Orleans,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  was  founded  in 
1719,  and  in  1850  contained  119,461  inhabitants :  in  1810 
it  had  not  18,000  !  ^ 

The  Anglo-Saxon  colonists  brought  with  them  the  vigor- 
ous bodies  and  sturdy  intellect  of  their  race ;  the  forms  of 
representative  and  constitutional  government ;  publicity  of 
political  transactions ;  trial  by  jury ;  a  fondness  for  local 
self-government ;  an  aversion  to  centralization ;  the  Pro- 
testant form  of  religion ;  the  Bible ;  the  right  of  private 
judgment ;  their  national  administrative  power  ;  and  that 
stalwart  self-reliance  and  thrift  which  mark  the  English- 
man and  American  wherever  they  go.  'New  Spain  had 
priests  and  soldiers ;  JN'ew  England  ministors  and  school- 
masters. In  two  centuries,  behold  what  consequences  come 
of  such  causes  !     !No  Chilian  vessel  ever  went  to  Spain ! 

But  America  itself  is  not  unitary ;  there  is  a  Spanish 
America  in  the  United  States.  Unity  of  idea  and  interest 
by  no  means  prevails  here. 

America  was  settled  by  two  very  different  classes  of  men, 
one  animated  by  moral  or  religious  motives,  coming  to 


THOUGHTS   ON    AMETllCA.  15 

realize  an  idea ;  the  other  animated  by  only  commercial 
ideas,  pushing  forth  to  make  a  fortune  or  to  escape  from 
gaol.  Some  men  brought  religion,  others  only  ambition ; 
the  consequence  is,  two  antagonistic  ideas,  with  institutions 
which  correspond,  antagonistic  institutions. 

First  there  is  the  Democratic  idea :  that  all  men  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  natural  rights ;  that 
these  rights  are  alienable  only  by  the  possessor  thereof; 
that  they  are  equal  in  all  men  ;  that  government  is  to 
organize  these  natural,  unalienable,  and  equal  rights  into 
institutions  designed  for  the  good  of  the  governed  ;  and 
therefore  government  is  to  be  of  all  the  people,  by  all  the 
people,  and  for  all  the  people.  Here  government  is  de- 
velopment, not  exploitation. 

Next  there  is  the  Oligarchic  idea,  just  the  opposite  of 
this ;  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  natural,  unalienable, 
and  equal  rights,  but  accidental,  alienable,  and  unequal 
powers ;  that  government  is  to  organize  the  might  of  all, 
for  the  good  of  the  governing  party ;  is  to  be  a  government 
of  all,  by  a  part,  and  for  the  sake  of  a  part.  The  governing 
power  may  be  one  man.  King  Monarch ;  a  few  men.  King 
ISToble;  or  the  majority.  King  Many.  In  all  these  cases,  the 
motive,  the  purpose,  and  the  means,  are  still  the  same,  and 
government  is  exploitation  of  the  governed,  not  the  develop- 
ment thereof.  So  far  as  the  people  are  developed  by  the 
government,  it  is  that  they  may  be  thereby  exploitered. 

Neither  the  Democratic  nor  the  Oligarchic  idea  is  per- 
fectly developed  as  yet :  but  the  first  preponderates  most 
at  the  north,  the  latter  at  the  south — one  in  the  free,  the 
other  in  the  slave  States. 

The  settlers  did  not  bring  to  America  the  Democratic 
idea  fully  grown.  It  is  the  child  of  time.  In  all  great 
movements  there  are  three  periods — first,  that  of  Sentiment 
— there  is  only  a  feeling  of  the  new  thing  ;  next  of  Idea 
— the  feeling  has  become  a  thought ;  finally  of  Action — 
the  thought  becomes  a  thing.  It  is  pleasant  to  trace  the 
growth  of  the  Democratic  sentiment  and  idea  in  the  human 
race,  to  watch  the  efforts  to  make  the  thought  a  thing,  and 
found  domestic,  social,  ecclesiastical,  and  political  institu- 
tions, corresponding  thereto.  Perhaps  it  is  easier  to  trace 
this  here  than  elsewhere.  It  has  sometimes  been  claimed 
that  the  Puritans  came  to  America  to  found  such  institu- 


16  THOUGHTS    ON   AMERICA. 

tions.  But  they  had  no  fondness  for  a  Democracy ;  the 
thought  did  not  enter  their  heads  that  the  substance  of 
man  is  superior  to  the  accidents  of  men,  his  nature  more 
than  his  history.  New  England  men  on  the  4th  of  July 
claim  the  compact  on  board  the  Mayflower,  as  the  founda- 
tion of  Democracy  in  America,  and  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  But  the  signers  of  that  famous  document 
had  no  design  to  found  a  Democracy.  Much  of  the 
liberality  of  the  settlers  at  Plymouth  seems  to  have  been 
acquired  by  their  residence  in  Holland,  where  they  saw  the 
noblest  example  of  religious  toleration  then  in  the  world. 

The  Democratic  idea  has  had  but  a  slow  and  gradual 
growth,  even  in  New  England.  The  first  form  of  govern- 
ment was  a  theocracy,  an  intense  tyranny  in  the  name  of 
God.  The  next  world  was  for  the  "  Elect''  said  Puritan 
theology ;  "  let  us  also  have  this,"  said  the  Elect.  The 
distinction  between  clerical  and  laical  was  nowhere  more 
prominent  than  in  Puritan  New  England.  The  road  to 
the  ballot-box  lay  under  the  pulpit ;  only  church-members 
could  vote,  and  if  a  man's  politics  were  not  marked  with 
the  proper  stripe  it  was  not  easy  for  him  to  become  a  church- 
member.  The  "Lords  Brethren"  were  as  tyrannical  in 
the  new  world  as  the  "  Lords  Bishops"  in  the  old. 

There  was  a  distinction  between  "  gentlemen,"  with  the 
title  of  Mr.,  and  men,  with  only  the  name,  John,  Peter, 
and  Bartholomew,  or  the  title  "  GoodmanJ^ 

Slavery  was  established  in  the  new  world ;  there  were 
two  forms  of  it : — absolute  bondage  of  the  Africans  and 
the  Indians  ;  the  conditional  bondage  of  white  men,  called 
"  servants,"  slaves  for  a  limited  period.  Before  the  He- 
volution  the  latter  were  numerous,  even  in  the  north. 

The  Puritan  had  little  religious  objection  to  the  esta- 
blishment of  Slavery.  But  the  red  man  would  fight,  and 
would  not  work.  It  was  not  possible  to  make  useful  slaves 
of  Indians :  the  experiment  was  tried ;  it  failed,  and  the 
savage  was  simply  destroyed. 

In  theocratic  and  colonial  times  at  the  north,  the 
Democratic  idea  contended  against  the  church ;  and 
gradually  weakened  and  overcame  the  power  of  the  clerg}'- 
and  of  all  ecclesiastical  corporations.  At  length  all  churches 
stand  on  the  same  level.  The  persecuted  Quaker  has  vin- 
dicated his  right  to  free  inspiration  by  the  Holy  Ghost ; 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  17 

the  Baptist  enjoys  the  natural  right  to  be  baptized  after  the 
apostolic  fashion  ;  the  Unitarian  to  deny  the  Holy  Trinity  ; 
the  Universalist  to  affirm  the  eternal  blessedness  of  all  men  ; 
and^  the  philosophical  critic  to  examine  the  claims  of 
Christianity  as  of  all  religions,  to  sweep  the  whole  ocean  of 
religious  consciousness,  draw  his  net  to  land,  gather  the 
good  into  vessels,  and  cast  the  bad  away. 

The  spirit  of  freedom  contended  against  the  claims  of 
ancestral  gentility.  In  the  woods  of  Sew  England  it  was 
soon  found  that  a  pair  of  arms  was  worth  more  than  a 
"  coat  of  arms,''  never  so  old  and  horrid  with  griffins.  A 
man  who  could  outwit  the  Indians,  "  whip  his  weight  in 
wild  cats,''  hew  down  tress,  build  ships,  make  wise  laws, 
and  organize  a  river  into  a  mill,  or  men  into  towns  and 
states,  was  a  valuable  person  ;  and  if  born  at  all  was  well 
born.  "  Men  of  no  family"  grew  up  in  the  new  soil,  and 
often  overtopped  the  twigs  cut  from  some  famous  tree.  In 
the  humblest  callings  of  life,  I  have  found  men  of  the  most 
eminent  European  stocks.  But  it  was  rare  that  men  of 
celebrated  families  settled  in  America :  monarch)^,  nobility, 
prelacy  did  not  emigrate,  it  was  the  people  who  came  over. 
And  in  1780,  the  Convention  of  Massachusetts  put  this  in 
the  first  Article  of  the  Constitution  of  the  State  :  "All  men 
are  born  free  and  equal,  and  have  certain  natural,  essential, 
and  unalienable  rights."  All  distinction  of  gentle  and 
simple,  bond  and  free,  perished  out  of  Massachusetts.  The 
same  thought  is  repeated  in  the  constitutions  of  many 
JN^orthern  States. 

This  spirit  of  freedom  contended  against  the  claims  of 
England.  "  Local  self-government"  was  the  aim  of  the 
colonies.  Opposition  to  centralization  of  authority  is  very 
old  in  America.  I  hope  it  will  be  always  young.  England 
was  a  hard  master  to  her  western  children  ;  she  left  them 
to  fight  their  own  battles  against  the  Indians,  against  the 
French  ;  and  this  circumstance  made  all  men  soldiers.  In 
King  Philip's  war  every  man  capable  of  bearing  arms  took 
the  field,  first  or  last.  The  frontier  was  a  school  for 
soldiers.  The  day  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  a  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  in  a  large  farming  town  of  New  Hampshire, 
shouldered  their  muskets  and  marched  for  Boston,  to  look 
after  their  brethren. 

It  was  long  before  there  was  a  clear  and  distinct  expres- 

VOL.    VI.  (J 


18  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

sion  of  the  Democratic  idea  in  America.  Tlie  Old  Tes- 
tament helped  it  to  forms  of  denunciatory  speech.  The 
works  of  ^lilton,  Sidne}^,  Locke,  and  the  writers  on  the 
law  of  nature  and  of  nations,  were  of  great  service.  Rous- 
seau came  at  the  right  time,  and  aided  the  good  cause. 
Calvin  and  E-ousseau,  strange  to  say,  fought  side  by  side  in 
the  battle  for  freedom.  It  was  a  great  thing  for  America 
and  the  world,  that  this  idea  was  so  clearly  set  forth  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  announced  as  a  self-evident 
truth.  A  young  man's  hand  came  out  of  the  wall,  and 
wrote  words  which  still  make  many  tremble  as  they  read. 

The  battle  for  human  freedom  yet  goes  on ;  its  victory 
is  never  complete.  But  now  in  the  free  States  of  the 
North  the  fight  is  against  all  traditional  forms  of  evil. 
The  domestic  question  relates  to  the  equal  rights  of  men 
and  women  in  the  family  and  out  of  it ;  there  is  a  great 
social  question, — "  Shall  money  prevail  over  man,  and  the 
rich  and  crafty  exploiter  the  poor  and  the  simple  ?"  In 
the  church,  men  ask — '^  Shall  authority — a  book  or  an 
institution,  each  an  accident  of  human  history — prevail 
over  reason,  conscience,  the  affections,  and  the  soul — the 
human  substance  ?"  In  the  State,  the  minority  looks  for 
the  eternal  principles  of  Right ;  and  will  not  heed  the 
bidding  of  famous  men,  of  conventions,  and  majorities  ; 
appeals  to  the  still,  small  voice  within,  which  proclaims 
the  Higher  Law  of  God.  Even  in  the  North  a  great 
contest  goes  on. 

The  Democratic  idea  seems  likely  to  triumph  in  the 
North,  and  build  up  its  appropriate  institutions — a  family 
without  a  slave,  a  family  of  equals ;  a  community  without 
a  lord,  a  community  of  co-operators  ;  a  church  without  a 
bishop,  a  church  of  brethren ;  a  State  without  a  king,  a 
State  of  citizens. 

The  institutions  of  the  free  States  are  admirably  suited 
to  produce  a  rapid  development  of  the  understanding. 
The  State  guarantees  the  opportunity  of  education  to  all 
children.  The  free  schools  of  the  north  are  her  most 
original  institution,  quite  imperfect  as  yet.  The  attempts 
to  promote  the  public  education  of  the  people  have  already 
produced  most  gratifying  results. 

More  than  half  of  the  newspaper  editors  in  the  United 
States  have  received  all  their  academical  education  in  the 


THOUGHTS   ON    AMERICA.  19 

common  scliool.  Many  a  Methodist  and  Universalist 
minister,  many  a  member  of  Congress,  has  been  graduated 
at  that  beneficent  institution.  The  intelligence  and  riches 
of  the  North  are  du3  to  the  common  schools.  In  the  free 
States  books  are  abundant ;  newspapers  in  all  hands ; 
skilled  labour  abounds.  Body  runs  to  brain,  and  work  to 
thought.  The  head  saves  the  hands.  Under  the  benignant 
influence  of  public  education,  the  children  of  the  Irish 
emigrant,  poor  and  despised,  grow  up  to  equality  with  the 
descendants  of  the  rich  ;  two  generations  will  efface  the 
difference  between  them.  I  have  seen,  of  a  Sunday  after- 
noon, a  thousand  young  Irish  women,  coming  out  of  a 
Catholic  church,  all  well  dressed,  with  ribbons  and  cheap 
ornaments,  to  help  elevate  their  self-respect ;  and  when  re- 
membering the  condition  of  these  same  women  in  their  native 
land,  barefoot,  dirt}^,  mendicant,  perhaps  thievish,  glad  of  a 
place  to  serve  at  two  pounds  a  year,  I  have  begun  to  see 
the  importance  of  America  to  the  world ;  and  have  felt 
as  John  Adams,  when  he  wrote  in  his  diary,  ''  I  alwa3^s 
consider  the  settlement  of  America  with  reverence  and 
wonder,  as  the  opening  of  a  grand  scene  and  design  of 
Providence,  for  the  illumination  of  the  ignorant,  and  the 
emancipation  of  the  slavish  part  of  mankind,  all  over  the 
earth.'' 

The  educational  value  of  American  institutions,  in  the 
free  States  is  seldom  appreciated.  The  schools  open  to  all, 
where  all  classes  of  the  people  freely  mingle,  and  the  son 
of  a  rude  man  is  brought  into  contact  with  the  good  man- 
ners and  self- respectful  deportment  of  children  from  more 
fortunate  homes  ;  *  the  churches,  where  everybody  is  wel- 
come (if  not  black)  ;  the  business  which  demands  intelli- 
gence, and  educates  the  great  mass  of  the  people ;  the 
public  lectures,  delivered  in  all  the  considerable  towns  of 
New  England,  the  winter  through  ;  the  newspapers  abun- 
dant, cheap,  discussing  everj^thing  with  as  little  reserve  as 
the  summer  wind  ;  the  various  social  meetings  of  incorpo- 
rated companies  to  discuss  their  affairs  ;  the  constitution 
of  the  towns,  with  their  meetings,  two  or  three  times  a 
year,  when  officers  are  chosen,  and  taxes  voted,  and  all 
piunicipal  affairs  abundantly  discussed;   the  public  pro- 

*  In  tlie  large  towns  of  the  nortli — even  of  Massachusetts — the  coloured 
child/ren  are  not  allowed  in  the  common  schools. 

c2 


20  THOUGHTS    ON   AMERICA. 

ceedings  of  tlie  courts  of  law,  so  instructive  to  jurors  and 
spectators  ;  tlie  local  legislatures  of  the  States — each  con- 
sistino-  of  from  two  to  four  hundred  members,  and  in 
session  four  or  five  months  of  the  year  ;  the  politics  of  the 
nation  brought  home  to  every  voter  in  the  land, — all  these 
things  form  an  educational  power  of  immense  value,  for 
such  a  development  of  the  lower  intellectual  faculties,  as 
men  esteem  most  in  these  days. 

But,  the  Oligarchic  idea  is  also  at  work.  You  meet 
this  in  all  parts  of  the  land,  diligently  seeking  to  organize 
itself.  It  takes  no  new  forms,  however,  which  are  peculiar 
to  America.  It  re-enacts  the  old  statutes  which  have 
oppressed  mankind  in  the  eastern  world  :  it  attempts  to 
revive  the  institutions  that  have  cursed  other  lands  in 
darker  days.  Now  the  few  tyrannize  over  the  many,  and 
devise  machinery  to  oppress  their  fellow-iriortals  ;  then  the 
majority  thus  tyrannize  over  the  few,  over  the  minority. 
There  are  two  Jporms  of  Democracy — the  Satanic  and  the 
Celestial :  one  is  Selfishness,  which  knows  no  higher  law ; 
the  other  Philanthropy,  that  bows  to  the  justice  of  the 
infinite  God,  with  a  "  Thy  will  be  done."  In  America 
we  find  both — the  democratic  Devil  and  the  democratic 
Angel. 

The  idea  of  the  ISTorth  is  preponderatingly  democratic  in 
the  better  sense  of  the  word  ;  new  justice  is  organized  in 
the  laws ;  government  becomes  more  and  more  of  all,  by 
all,  and  for  all.  You  trace  the  progress  of  humanity,  of 
liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  in  the  constitution  of  the 
free  States  from  Massachusetts  to  Wisconsin. 

But  in  the  Southern  States  the  Oligarchic  idea  prevails 
to  a  much  greater  extent,  and  becomes  more  and  more 
apparent  and  powerful.  The  South  has  adopted  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery,  elsewhere  discarded,  and  clings  to  it  with 
strange  tenacity.  In  South  Carolina,  the  possession  of 
slaves  is  made  the  condition,  sine  qua  non,  of  eligibility  to 
certain  ojSiccs.  The  constitution  provides  that  a  citizen 
shall  not  "  be  eligible  to  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, unless  legally  seized  and  possessed  in  his  own  right y 
of  a  settled  freehold  estate  of  five  hundred  acres  of  land, 
and  ten  negroes* 

*  Art.  I.  §  6. 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  21 

The  Puritans  of  "New  England  made  no  very  strong- 
objection  to  Slavery.  It  was  established  in  all  the  colonies 
of  the  North  and  South.  White  servitude  continued  till 
the  Eevolution.  As  late  as  1757,  white  men  were  kid- 
napped, ^'  spirited  away,"  as  it  was  called  in  Scotland,  and 
sold  in  the  colonies. 

Negro  slavery  began  early.  Even  the  gentler  Puritans 
at  Plymouth  had  the  Anglo-Saxon  antipathy  to  the 
coloured  race.  The  black  man  must  sit  aloof  from  the 
whites  in  the  meeting-house,  in  a  "  negro  pew  ;  "  he  must 
'^  not  be  joined  unto  them  in  burial ;  "  a  place  was  set 
apart,  in  the  graveyard  at  Plymouth,  for  coloured  people, 
and  still  remains  as  "  from  time  immemorial."  In  1851, 
an  Abolitionist,  before  his  death,  insisted  on  being  buried 
with  the  objects  of  his  tender  solicitude.  The  request  was 
complied  with. 

After  the  Pevolution,  the  Northern  States  gradually 
abolished  slavery,  though  not  without  violent  opposition 
in  some  places.  In  1788  three  coloured  persons  were 
kidnapped  at  Boston  and  carried  to  the  West  Indies  ;  the 
crime  produced  a  great  excitement,  and  led  to  executive 
and  legislative  action.  The  same  year,  the  General  Pres- 
byterian Assembly  of  America  issued  a  pastoral  letter, 
recommending  "  the  abolition  of  Slavery,  and  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  negroes  in  letters  and  religion."  In  1790, 
Dr.  Franklin,  president  of  the  "  Pennsylvanian  Society  for 
the  Abolition  of  Slavery,"  signed  a  memorial  to  Congress, 
asking  that  body  "  to  countenance  the  restoration  of  liberty 
to  the  unhappy  men  who  alone  in  this  land  of  freedom 
are  degraded  into  perpetual  bondage,  and  who,  amid 
the  general  joy  of  surrounding  provinces,  are  groan- 
ing in  servile  subjection  ;  that  you  will  devise  means  for 
removing  this  inconsistency  from  the  character  of  the 
American  people;  that  you  will  permit  mercy  and  jus- 
tice towards  this  distressed  race  ;  and  that  you  will  step 
to  the  very  verge  of  the  power  vested  in  you  for  dis- 
couraging every  species  of  traffic  in  the  persons  of  our 
fellow-men." 

The  memorial  excited  a  storm  of  debate.  Slavery  was 
defended  as  a  measure  of  political  economy,  and  a  prin- 
ciple of  humanity.  South  Carolina  leading  in  the  defence 
of  her  favourite  institution.     Yet  many  eminent  Southern 


22  THOUGHTS    ON    AMERICA. 

men  were  profoundly  convinced  of  the  injustice  of  slavery  ; 
others  saw  it  was  a  bad  tool  to  work  with. 

Since  that  time  the  Southern  idea  of  Slavery  appears  to 
have  changed.  Formerly,  it  was  granted  by  the  defenders 
of  slavery  that  it  was  wrong  ;  but  they  maintained  : — 
1.  That  Americans  were  not  responsible  for  the  wrong,  as 
England  had  imposed  it  upon  the  colonies.  2.  That  it 
was  profitable  to  the  owners  of  slaves.  3.  That  it  was 
impossible  to  get  rid  of  it.  jN^ow  the  ground  is  taken  that 
slavery  is  not  a  wrong  to  the  slave,  but  that  the  negro  is 
fit  for  a  slave,  and  a  slave  only. 

I  pass  by  the  arguments  of  the  Southern  clergy  and  the 
Northern  clergy — whose  conduct  is  yet  more  contemptible 
— to  cite  the  language  of  the  prominent  secular  organs  of 
the  South.  The  Richmond  Examiner,  one  of  the  most  able 
journals  of  the  South,  declares  : — 

"When  we  deprive  the  negro  of  that  exercise  of  his 
will  which  the  white  calls  liberty,  we  deprive  him  of 
nothing ;  on  the  contrary,  when  we  give  him  the  guidance 
and  protection  of  a  master,  we  confer  on  him  a  great 
blessing."  * 

"  To  treat  two  creatures  so  utterly  different  as  the  white 
man  and  the  negro  man  on  the  same  system,  is  an  effort  to 
violate  elementary  laws.''  ''  The  aphorisms  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  "  are  illogical  when  applied  to  the 
negro.  "  They  involve  the  assumption  that  the  negro  is 
the  white  man,  only  a  little  different  in  external  appear- 
ance and  education.  But  this  assumption  cannot  be  sup- 
ported." "  A  law  rendering  perpetual  the  relation  between 
the  negro  and  his  master  is  no  wrong,  but  a  right." 
*'  Negroes  are  not  men,  in  the  meaning  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence." 

"  *  Haven't  negroes  got  souls  ? '  asks  some  sepulchral 
voice.  *  Have  they  no  souls  ? '  That  question  we  never 
answer ;  we  know  nothing  about  it.  Non  mi  ricordo; 
they  may  have  souls,  for  aught  we  know  to  the  contrary  ; 
so  may  horses  and  hogs." 

"  We  expect  the  institution  of  Slavery  to  exist  for  ever." 
"  The  production  of  cotton,  rice,  sugar,  coffee,  and  tobacco, 
demand  that  which  Slavery  only  can  supply.     And  in  all 


Sec  above,  vol.  i.  p.  391,  ct  seq. 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  23 

portions  of  this  Union  where  these  staples  are  produced, 
it  will  be  retained.  And  when  we  get  Ilayti,  Mexico,  and 
Jamaica,  common  sense  will  doubtless  extend  it,  or  rather, 
re-establish  it  there  too.''  * 

I  will  now  quote  a  little  from  the  Mr.  De  Bow's  large 
work : — f 

"  No  amount  of  education  or  training  can  ever  render 
the  negro  equal  in  intellect  with  the  white."  "  '  You 
cannot  make  a  silk  purse  out  of  a  sow's  lug,'  is  an  old  and 
homely  adage,  but  not  the  less  true  ;  so  you  cannot  make 
anything  from  a  negro  but  negroism,  which  means  bar- 
barism and  inferiority."  '^As  God  made  them  so  they 
have  been,  and  so  they  will  be ;  the  white  man,  the  negro, 
and  the  jackass  ;  each  to  his  kind,  and  each  to  his  nature ; 
true  to  the  finger  of  destiny  (which  is  the  finger  of  God), 
and  imdcTT-atingly  pursuing  the  track  which  that  finger  as 
undeviatingly  points  out."  J 

*'  Is  the  negro  made  for  slavery  ?  God  in  heaven  !  what 
are  we,  that  because  we  cannot  understand  the  mj^stery  of 
this  Thy  will,  we  should  dare  rise  in  rebellion,  and  call  it 
wrong,  unjust,  and  evil  ?  The  kindness  of  nature  fits  each 
creature  to  fulfil  its  destiny.  The  very  virtues  of  the 
negro  fit  him  for  slavery,  and  his  vices  cry  aloud  for  the 
shackles  of  bondage  !  "  "  It  is  the  destiny  of  the  negro,  if 
by  himself,  to  be  a  savage ;  if  by  the  white,  to  be  a  serf." 
"  They  may  be  styled  human  beings,  though  of  an  inhe- 
rently degraded  species.  To  attempt  to  relieve  them  from 
their  natural  inferiority  is  idle  in  itself,  and  may  be 
mischievous  in  its  results."  § 

"  Equality  is  no  thought  nor  creation  of  God.  Slavery, 
under  one  name  or  another,  will  exist  as  long  as  man 
exists ;  and  abolition  is  a  dream  whose  execution  is  an 
impossibihty.  Intellect  is  the  only  divine  right.  The 
negro  cannot  be  schooled,  nor  argued,  nor  driven  into  a 
love  of  freedom." II 

"  Alas  for  their  folly !    (the  abolitionists.)     But  woe ! 

*  Eichmond  (Va.)  Semi-iveekhj  Examiner,  January  4,  1853. 

t  "  The  Industrial  Kesoui'ces,  etc.,  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States  : 
embracing  a  View  of  their  Commerce,  Agriculture,  Manufactures,  In- 
ternal Improvements  ;  Slave  and  Free  Labour,  Slavery  Institutions,  Pro- 
ducts, etc.,  of  the  South,  etc.,  with  an  Appendix."  By  J.  D,  B.  de  Bow, 
etc.     In  3  vols.  8vo.     New  Oi'leans,  1852. 

X  De  Bow,  vol.  ii.  p.  199.  §  Id.  p.  203.  ||  Id.  p.  204. 


24  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

woe !  a  woe  of  darkness  and  of  deatli,  a  woe  of  liell  and 
perdition  to  those  wlio,  better  knowing,  goad  folly  on  to 
such,  an  extreme.  This  is,  indeed,  the  sin  not  to  be  for- 
given ;  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  against  the 
Spirit  of  God !  The  beautiful  order  of  creation  breathed 
down  from  Almighty  intelligence,  is  to  be  moulded  and 
wrought  by  fanatic  intelligence,  until  dragged  down,  at 
last,  to  negro  intelligence  !  "  * 

Chancellor  Harper,  of  South  Carolina,  in  an  address 
delivered  before  "the  Society  for  the  Advancement  of 
Learning,"  at  Charleston,  makes  some  statements  a  little 
remarkable  : — 

*'  The  institution  of  Slavery  is  a  principle  cause  of  civili- 
zation." "It  is  as  much  the  order  of  nature  that  men 
should  enslave  each  other,  as  that  other  animals  should 
prey  upon  each  other."  "  The  savage  can  only  be  tamed 
by  being  enslaved  or  by  having  slaves."  "  The  African 
slave-trade  has  given  and  will  give  the  boon  of  existence 
to  millions  and  millions  in  our  country  who  would  other- 
wise never  have  enjoyed  it."  f 

He  quotes  the  Bible  to  justify  Slavery : — 
"  '  They  shall  be  your  bondmen  for  ever.'  "  "  Servi- 
tude is  the  condition  of  civilization.  It  was  decreed  when 
the  command  was  given,  '  Be  fruitful  and  multijDly,  and 
replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it ; '  and  when  it  was  added 
*  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread.'  Slavery 
was  "  forced  on  us  by  necessity,  and  further  forced  upon 
us  by  the  superior  authority  of  the  mother  country.  I,  for 
one,  neither  deprecate  nor  resent  the  gift."  "  I  am  by  no 
means  sure  that  the  cause  of  humanity  has  been  served  by 
the  change  in  jurisprudence  which  has  placed  their  murder 
on  the  same  footing  with  that  of  a  freem-an."  "  The 
relation  of  master  and  slave  is  naturally  one  of  kindness." 
"  It  is  true  that  the  slave  is  driven  to  his  labour  by 
stripes ;  such  punishment  would  be  degrading  to  a  free- 
man, who  had  the  thoughts  and  aspirations  of  a  freeman. 
In  general,  it  is  not  degrading  to  a  slave,  nor  is  it  felt  to 
be  so."  t 

It  is  alleged  that  "  the  slave  is  cut  off  from  the  means 
of  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  improvement,  and  in 
consequence  his  moral  character  becomes  depraved,  and  he 

*  De  Bow,  vol.  ii.  p.  197.     f  Id.  pp.  206—210.     J  Id.  pp.  21-1—217. 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  25 

addicted  to  degrading  vices. "  To  tliis  tlie  democratic 
Chancellor  of  South  Carolina  replies  : — 

*'  The  Creator  did  not  intend  that  every  individual 
human  being  should  be  highly  cultivated,  morally  and 
intellectually.''  "  It  is  better  that  a  part  should  be  highly 
cultivated,  and  the  rest  utterly  ignorant."  "  Odium  has 
been  cast  upon  our  legislation  on  account  of  its  forbidding 
the  elements  of  education  to  be  communicated  to  slaves. 
But,  in  truth,  what  injury  is  done  them  by  this  ?  He  who 
works  during  the  day  with  his  hands  does  not  read  in 
intervals  of  leisure  for  his  amusement,  or  the  improvement 
of  his  mind."  "  Of  the  many  slaves  whom  I  have  known 
capable  of  reading,  I  have  never  known  one  to  read  any- 
thing but  the  Bible,  and  this  task  they  imposed  on  them- 
selves as  matter  of  duty."  "  Their  minds  generally  show 
a  strong  religious  tendency,  .  .  .  and  perhaps  their  religious 
notions  are  not  much  more  extravagant  than  those  of  a 
large  portion  of  the  free  population  of  our  country,"  *'  It 
is  certainly  the  master's  interest  that  they  should  have 
proper  religious  sentiments." 

*'  A  knowledge  of  reading,  writing,  and  the  elements  of 
arithmetic,  is  convenient  and  important  to  the  free  labourer 
.  .  .  but  of  what  use  would  they  be  to  the  slave  ?" 
"  Would  you  do  a  benefit  to  the  horse  or  the  ox  by  giving 
him  a  cultivated  understanding  or  fine  feelings  ?"  * 

"  The  law  has  not  provided  for  making  those  marriages 
[of  slaves]  indissoluble  ;  nor  could  it  do  so."  "It  may 
perhaps  be  said,  '  that  the  chastity  of  wives  is  not  protected 
by  law  from  the  outrages  of  violence.'  "  "  Who  ever 
heard  of  such  outrages  being  ofiered?  .  .  .  One  reason, 
doubtless,  may  be,  that  often  there  is  no  disposition  to 
resist,  .  .  .  there  is  little  temptation  to  this  violence  as 
there  is  so  large  a  population  of  this  class  of  females 
[slave  wives]  who  set  little  value  on  chastity."  "It  is 
true  that  in  this  respect  the  morals  of  this  class  are  very 
loose,  ,  .  .  and  that  the  passions  of  the  men  of  the  superior 
caste  tempt  and  find  gratification  in  the  easy  chastity  of 
the  females.  This  is  evil,  .  .  .  but  evil  is  incident  to  every 
condition  of  society." 

"  The  female  slave  [who  yields  to  these  temptations]  is 
not  a  less  useful  member  of  society  than  before.  .   .    .   She 

*  De  Bow,  vol.  ii.  p.  217,  et  seq. 


26  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

has  done  no  great  injury  to  herself  or  any  other  human 
being  ;  her  offspring  is  not  a  burden  but  an  acquisition  to 
her  owner  ;  his  support  is  provided  for,  and  he  is  brought 
uj)  to  usefulness ;  if  the  fruit  of  intercourse  with  a  free 
man,  his  condition  is  perhaps  raised  somewhat  above  that 
of  his  mother." 

"  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  the  intercourse  which 
takes  place  with  enslaved  females  is  less  debasing  in  its 
effects  [on  man]  than  when  it  is  carried  on  with  females 
of  their  own  caste,  .  .  .  the  attraction  is  less,  .  .  .  the 
intercourse  is  generally  casual,  ...  he  is  less  liable  to 
those  extraordinary  fascinations. '* 

"  He  [the  slave  husband]  is  also  liable  to  be  separated 
from  wife  or  child,  .  .  .  but  from  native  character  and 
temperament,  the  separation  is  much  less  severely  felt."  * 

*'  The  love  of  liberty  is  a  noble  passion.  But,  alas  !  it  is 
one  in  which  we  know  that  a  large  portion  of  the  human 
race  can  never  be  gratified."  "  If  some  superior  power 
should  imjDose  on  the  laborious  poor  of  this,  or  any  other 
country,  this  ['  a  condition  which  is  a  very  near  approach 
to  that  of  our  slaves']  as  their  undeniable  condition,  .  .  . 
how  inappreciable  would  the  boon  be  thought."  "  The 
evils  of  their  situation  they  [the  slaves]  but  slightly  feel,, 
and  would  hardly  feel  at  all  if  they  were  not  sedulously 
instructed  into  sensibility."  "  Is  it  not  desirable  that  the 
inferior  labouring  class  should  be  made  up  of  such  who  will 
conform  to  their  condition  without  painful  aspirations  and 
vain  struggles  P"  f 

"  I  am  aware  that,  however  often  assumed,  it  is  Kkely 
to  be  repeated  again  and  again : — How  can  that  institution 
be  tolerable,  by  which  a  large  class  of  society  is  cut  ofi" 
from  the  hope  of  improvement  and  knowledge;  to  whom 
blows  are  not  degrading,  theft  no  more  than  a  fault,  false- 
hood and  the  want  of  chastity  almost  venial ;  and  in  which 
a  husband  or  parent  looks  with  comparative  indifference  on 
that  which  to  a  free  man  would  be  the  dishonour  of  a  wife 
or  child  ?  But  why  not,  if  it  produce  the  greatest  aggre- 
gate of  good  ?  Sin  and  ignorance  are  only  evils  because 
they  lead  to  misery."  J 

"  The  African  negro  is  an  inferior  variety  of  the  human 

*  De  Bow,  vol.  ii.  p.  219,  ct  scq.  f  Id:  p.  222.  J  Id. 


THOUGHTS   ON    AMERICA.  27 

race,  .  .  .  and  his  distinguisliing  characteristics  are  such 
as  peculiarly  mark  him  out  for  the  situation  which  he 
occupies  among  us ;  .  .  .  the  most  remarkable  is  their 
indifference  to  personal  liberty/'  "  Let  me  ask  if  this 
people  do  not  present  the  very  material  out  of  which  slaves 
ought  to  be  made  ?"  *'  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  may 
not  be  found  among  them  some  of  superior  capacity  to 
many  white  persons.  .  .  .  And  why  should  it  not  be  so  ? 
We  have  many  domestic  animals — infinite  varieties,  dis- 
tinguished by  various  degrees  of  sagacity,  courage,  strength, 
swiftness,  and  other  qualities.'* 

"  Slavery  has  done  more  to  elevate  a  degraded  race  in 
the  scale  of  humanity  ;  to  tame  the  savage,  to  civilize  the 
barbarous,  to  soften  the  ferocious,  to  enlighten  the  ignorant, 
and  to  spread  the  blessing  of  Christianity  among  the 
heathen,  than  all  the  missionaries  that  philanthropy  and 
religion  have  ever  put  forth."  "  The  tendency  of  Slavery 
is  to  elevate  the  character  of  the  master,"  "  to  elevate  the 
female  character."  "  There  does  not  now  exist  a  people 
in  a  tropical  climate,  or  even  approaching  to  it,  where 
Slavery  does  not  exist  that  is  in  a  state  of  high  civilization. 
Mexico  and  the  South.  American  republics,  having  gone 
through  the  farce  of  abolishing  slavery,  are  rapidly 
degenerating."  "  Cuba  is  daily  and  rapidly  advancing  in 
industry  and  civilization  ;  and  it  is  owing  exclusively  to 
her  slaves.  St.  Domingo  is  struck  out  of  the  map  of 
civilized  existence,  and  the  British  West  Indies  shortly 
will  be  so."  "  Greece  is  still  barbarous,  and  scantily 
peopled."  "  Such  is  the  picture  of  Italy — nothing  has 
dealt  upon  it  more  heavily  than  the  loss  of  domestic  Slavery. 
Is  not  this  evident  ?  "  * 

A  writer  in  the  same  work,  speaking  of  the  future  of  the 
South,  refers  to  the  British  and  French  West  Indies  as 
follows  : — 

"  The  mind  of  the  devout  person  who  contemplates  the 
condition  of  the  ci-devant  slave- colonies  of  these  two 
powers,  must  become  impressed  with  the  fact,  that  Provi- 
dence must  have  raised  up  those  two  examples  of  human 
folly  for  the  express  purpose  of  a  lesson  to  these  States,  to 
save  which  from  human  errors  it  has,  on  more  than  one 

*  De  Bow,  vol.  ii.  pp.  222—229. 


28  THOUGHTS    ON   AMERICA. 

occasion,  manifestly  and  directly  interposed."  *'  England 
itself  ...  is  in  some  sort  tlie  slave  of  Southern  blacks." 

"  The  few  articles  which  are  most  necessary  to  modern 
civilization — sugar,  coffee,  cotton,  and  tobacco — are  products 
of  compulsory  black  labour."  * 

Another  writer,  whom  I  take  to  be  a  clergyman  and 
a  Jesuit,  t  goes  so  far  as  to  forbid  all  sympathy  for  the 
sufferings  of  slaves  : — 

"  Symj)athy  for  them  could  do  them  no  good,  because  a 
relief  from  slavery  could  not  elevate  them — could  do  them 
no  good,  but  an  injury.  Hence  such  sympathy  is  for- 
bidden ;"  meaning  it  is  forbidden  by  God,  in  such  passages 
as  this  :  "Thine  eye  shall  not  pity  him"  (Deut.  xix.  13). 
He  maintains  that  African  slavery  is  a  punishment  divinely 
inflicted  on  the  descendants  of  Ham  for  his  offence.  Ham, 
he  thinks,  married  a  descendant  of  Cain,  and  his  children 
inherited  the  "  mark"  set  upon  the  first  murderer  ! 

Let  us  now  look  at  some  facts  connected  with  Slavery  in 
America. 

No  nation  has,  on  the  whole,  treated  its  African  slaves 
so  gently  as  the  Americans.  This  is  proved  by  the  rapid 
increase  of  the  slave  population.  Compare  America  in 
this  respect  with  some  of  the  British  West  Indies.  J 

In  seventy-three  years,  from  1702  to  1775,  the  increase 
of  the  coloured  population  of  Jamaica  was  158,614 ;  but 
in  that  period  there  were  imported  and  retained  in  the 
island,  360,622  ;  so  the  slave-owners  in  seventy- three  years 
must  have  used  up  and  destroyed  about  300,000  human 
beings.  This  dreadful  exploitation  continued  a  long  time. 
From  1775  to  1794,  about  113,000  more  were  imported; 

*  De  Bow,  vol.  iii.  pp.  39,  40. 

t  "John  Fletcher  of  Louisiana,"  in  his  Studies  on  Slavery  in  (119) 
Easy  Lessons.  Natchez,  1852.  8vo.  pp.  xiv.  and  637.  The  author  luxu- 
riates in  the  idea  of  Slavery,  and  gives  the  public  a  paradigm  of  the 
Hebrew  verb  ni^,  to  slave,  in  leal,  niplial,  pihel,  puliol,  hiphil  hoplia\ 
Mthpael ;  and  a  declension  of  the  "factitious  ewphonic  segholate^'  noun. 


13^,  a  slave. 

X  In  1658  there 
1670 
1673 
1702 
1734 
1775 

were 

in  Jamaica 

1,400  slaves. 

8,000      „ 

9,504      „ 
36,000      „ 

86,546      „                      [persons. 
194,614      „      and  free  coloured 

THOUGHTS   ON    AMERICA.  29 

but  in  1791  there  were  only  260,000  colonred  persons  in 
Jamaica.  In  sixteen  j^ears,  the  loss  was  more  than  47,000 
greater  than  the  entire  importation.  To  say  it  all  in  a 
word  :  in  1702,  Jamaica  started  with  36,000  slaves  ;  up  to 
1791,  she  had  imported  and  retained  in  bondage  473,000 
more  ;  making  a  total  of  509,000  souls,  and  in  1791,  she 
had  only  260,000  to  show  as  the  result  of  her  traffic  in 
human  souls.     There  was  a  waste  of  249,000  lives  !  * 

About  750,000  slaves  were  imported  into  Jamaica 
between  1650  and  1808.  If  that  number  seems  excessive, 
diminish  it  to  700,000,  which  is  certainly  below  the  fact ; 
then  add  all  the  children  born  in  the  one  hundred  and 
eighty-four  years  which  elapsed  before  the  day  of  emanci- 
pation came.  Remember  that  only  311,000  were  there  to 
be  emancipated  in  1834,  and  it  is  plain  what  a  dreadful 
massacre  of  human  life  had  been  going  on  in  that  garden 
of  the  western  world,  f 

About   1,700,000   slaves  have  been  imported  into  the 

*  From  1791  to  1808,  about  150,000  more  were  imported,  and  the  slave 
population  in  1808  was  only  323,827,  showing  a  waste  of  more  than 
86,000  lives  in  eighteen  years !  Importation  was  illegal,  but  still  carried 
on  after  the  latter  date  ;  at  least  80,000  must  have  been  smuggled  in,  in 
the  next  nine  years. 

In  1817  the  number  of  slaves  was  346,150 

In  1826  it  had  fallen  to     .     .     .     331,119 

In  1833         „  „  ...     311,692 

After  the  importation  ceased,  more  pains  were  taken  to  preserve  the 

Africans  3   but  the  table  shows  how  mortality  went  on  with  increased 

velocity. 

Years.  Registered  Bii-tlis.       Registered  Deaths. 


From  1817  to  1820 

?4,348 

25,104 

„   1823  to  1826 

23,026 

25,171 

„   1826  to  1829  ■ 

21,728 

25,137 

t  The  same  thing  took  place  in  all  the  British  West  Indies.     Look  at 
the  following 

TaMe  of  Slave  Population  of  British  Guiana, 

Number  in  1820  77,376 

„         1826  71,382 

1832  65.517 

Loss  in  twelve  years  11,859 

Table  of  Births  and  Deaths. 

Years.  Registered  Births.  Registered  Deaths. 
1817  to  1820                       4868  7140 

1820  to  1823  4512  7188 

1823  to  1826  4494  7634 

1826  to  1829  4684  5731 

1829  to  1832  4086  7016 


30  THOUGHTS    ON    AMERICA. 

British  West  Indies.  Of  all  this  number,  and  the  vast 
families  of  children  born  thereof,  in  1834  there  were  only 
780,993  to  be  emancipated. 

Look  at  the  course  of  things  in  the  United  States.  In 
1714,  the  number  of  coloured  persons  was  58,850  ;  in 
1850,  3,626,985.* 

The  United  States  can  show  ten  Africans  now  living  for 
every  one  brought  into  the  country,  while  the  British  West 
Indies,  in  1834,  could  not  show  one  living  man  for  each 
two  brought  thither  as  slaves,  f 

*  Here  is  a  conjectural  and  approximate 

Table  of  Imjiortation  of  African  Slaves  to  the  United  States. 

Before  1714  .         .     30,000 

From  1715  to  1750  .         90,000 

„  1750  to  1760  .  .  35,000 
„     1760  to  1770  .        74,000 

„      1770  to  1790  .        .     34,000 

After  1790      .        .         .        70,000 


Total  .  .  .  333,500 
t  The  above  facts,  and  the  authorities  for  them,  are  taken  from  a  valu- 
able and  readable  book,  by  H.  C.  Carey,  The  Slave  Trade,  Domestic  and. 
Foreign;  wTiy  it  exists,  and  how  it  moAj  he  extinguished.  Philadelphia, 
1853.  1  vol.  12mo.,  pp.  426.  Another  work,  by  M.  Charles  Cqmte,  con- 
tains much  infoi'mation  relative  to  slavery,  and  its  effects  in  ancient  and 
modern  times: — Traite  de  Legislatiorb  ou  Exposition  des  Lois  Generales 
suivant  lesquelles  les  Peuples  prosperent,  deperissent,  ou  restent  station- 
aires,  etc.     (3me  Edition.     Bruxelles,  1837.)     Livre  v. 

In  De  Bow,  vol.  ii.  p.  340,  et  seq.,  is  a  statement  of  the  importation  of 
Slaves  to  Charleston,  from  1804  to  1807,  whence  I  construct  the  fol- 
lowing 

Talle  of  South  Carolina  Slojve-Trade  1604-1807. 
70  vessels  owned  in  England     ,         .         brought  19,649  slaves. 

^9       J,  „ 

^  }>  55 

3  55  55 

3  55  55 

39,075  „ 
Of  these,  3433  were  imported  on  account  of  citizens  of  the  slave-holding 
States,  and  35,612  on  account  of  capitalists  in  countries  where  Slavery 
was  proliibited !  Newport,  in  Rhode  Island,  was  famous  for  the  slave- 
trade,  and  its  prosperity  fell  with  that  business.  The  cost  of  paving  the 
only  street  in  the  town  paved  with  stone  was  defrayed  by  a  tax  of  ten 
dollars  on  each  slave  brought  into  the  harbour.  So  late  as  1850,  Boston 
vessels  were  engaged  in  the  African  slave-trade.  The  domestic  slave- 
trade  stiU  employs  many  northern  vessels, — 1033  slaves  were  shipped  at 
Baltimore,  for  various  southern  poiis,  in  1851. 


France  . 

1,078 

Charleston 

7,723 

Rhode  Island          . 

8,238 

Baltimore  . 

750 

other  Southern  Ports 

787 

„      Northern  Ports 

650 

THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  31 

'  A  Texan  newspaper,  the  CGlumbian  Planter,  of  April  5, 
1853,  deprecates  all  discussion  of  Slavery,  and  thus  speaks 
of  the  slave  code  of  that  State  : — '*  We  consider  it  the  duty 
of  the  County  Court  to  have  these  local  laws  compiled  and 
printed  in  a  cheap  form,  and  a  copy  placed  on  each  planta- 
tion in  the  county.  But  we  cannot,  with  what  we  con- 
sider the  true  policy  and  interest  of  the  South,  open  the 
columns  of  the  Planter  for  their  publication." 

*'  We  regard  the  institution  of  domestic  slavery  as 
purely  a  local  subject,  which  should  lie  at  the  feet  of  the 
Southern  press  with  deathlike  silence  ;  for  its  great  import- 
ance will  not  admit  of  its  discussion.'' 

I  will  mention  three  cases  of  cruelty  which  have  lately 
come  to  my  knowledge.  A  black  free  man,  in  a  city  of 
Kentucky,  had  a  wife  who  was  a  slave.  One  evening  her 
master,  who  had  a  grudge  against  the  husband,  found  him 
in  the  kitchen  with  her,  and  ordered  him  out  of  the  house. 
He  went,  but  left  the  gate  of  the  back  yard  open  as  he 
passed  ont.  The  white  man  ordered  him  to  return  and 
shut  it ;  the  black  man  grumbled  and  refused  ;  whereupon 
the  white  man  shot  him  dead !  The  murderer  was  a 
"class  leader"  in  the  church,  and  attended  a  meeting 
shortly  after  this  transaction.  He  was  asked  to  *'  comfort 
the  souls  of  the  meeting,  and  improve  his  gift"  by  some 
words  of  exhortation.  He  declined  on  the  ground  that  he 
felt  dissatisfied  with  himself,  that  he  himself  "needed 
to  be  strengthened,  and  wished  for  the  prayers  of  the 
brethren."  They  appointed  a  committee  to  look  into  the 
matter,  who  reported  that  he  had  done  nothing  wrong. 
The  afiair  was  also  brought  before  a  magistrate,  who  dis- 
missed the  case  ! 

Here  is  another,  yet  more  atrocious.  A  slave-holder  in 
South  Carolina  had  inflicted  a  brutal  and  odious  mutila- 
tion, which  cannot  be  named,  on  two  male  slaves  for 
some  ofience.  Last  year  the  master  attempted  to  inflict 
the  same  barbarity  upon  a  third  slave.  He  ordered 
another  black  man  to  help  bind  the  victim.  The  slave, 
struggling  against  them  both,  seized  a  knife,  killed  the 
master,  and  then  took  his  own  life.  The  neighbours  came 
together,  ascertained  the  facts,  and  hung  up  the  slave's 
dead  body  at  the  next  four  corners,  as  a  terror  to  the 
coloured   people   of  the    place !     No    account   of  it  was 


32  THOUGHTS    ON    AMERICA. 

published  in  tlie  newspapers.  Slavery  "  sliould  lie  at  the 
feet  of  the  Southern  press  with  deathlike  silence  V 

While  writing  this  address  I  receive  intelligence  of  a 
slave  woman  recently  whipped  to  death  in  Missouri.  An 
incautious  German,  who  had  not  been  long  enough  in  the 
country  to  become  converted  to  "  American  Christianity," 
and  so  callous  to  such  things,  published  an  account  of  the 
transaction  in  a  German  newspaper.  The  murderers  were 
not  punished. 

The  following^  advertisement  is  taken  from  a  newspaper 
published  in  Wilmington  (IN^orth  Carolina),  in  March, 
1853.  Nothing  in  Mrs.  Stowe's  work  is  so  atrocious  ;  for 
American  fiction  halts  tl^is  side  of  the  American  fact : — • 

225  DoLLAKS  Reward. — State  of  North  Carolina,  New  Hanover  County. 
— Whereas,  complaint  ujDon  oath  has  this  day  been  made  to  ns,  two  of 
the  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  the  State  and  county  aforesaid,  by  Benjamin 
Hallett,  of  the  said  county,  that  two  certain  male  slaves  belonging  to 
him,  named  Lott,  aged  about  twenty- two  years,  five  feet  four  or  five 
inches  high,  and  black,  formerly  belonging  to  Lott  Williams,  of  Onslow 
Co. ;  and  Bob,  aged  about  sixteen  years,  five  feet  high,  and  black,  have 
absented  themselves  from  their  said  m.aster's  service,  and  supposed  to  be 
lurking  about  this  county,  committing  acts  of  felony  and  other  misdeeds. 
These  are,  therefore,  in  the  name  of  the  State  aforesaid,  to  command  the 
said  slaves  forthwith  to  return  home  to  their  masters  ;  and  we  do  hereby, 
by  virtue  of  the  Act  of  the  General  Assembly  in  such  cases  made  and 
provided,  intimate  and  declare,  that  if  the  said  Lott  and  Bob  do  not 
return  home  and  sun^-ender  themselves,  any  person  may  kill  and  destroy 
the  said  slaves,  by  such  means  as  he  or  they  may  think  of,  without  ac- 
cusation or  impeachment  of  any  crime  or  offence  for  so  doing,  and  with- 
out incurring  any  penalty  or  forfeiture  thereby. 

Given  under  our  hands  and  seals,  this  28th  day  of  February,  ]  853, 

W.  N.  Peden,  J.  P.  [seal.] 

W.  C.  Bettencourt,  J.  P.     [seal.] 

225  Dollars  Rewaed. — Two  hundred  dollars  will  be  given  for  negro 
Lott,  either  dead  or  alive ;  and  twenty-five  dollars  for  Bob's  head,  de- 
livered to  the  subscriber  in  the  town  of  Wilmington. 

Benjamin  Hallett. 

March  2,  1853. 

I  will  next  proceed  to  show  some  of  the  effects  of  demo- 
cracy at  the  North,  and  despotism  at  the  South. 

First  notice  the  effect  on  the  increase  of  population. 
In  1790,  the  entire  population  of  the  territory  now  occu- 
pied by  the  slave  States  was  1,961,372  exclusive  of  Indians; 
that  of  the  free  States  was  1,968,455. 

In  1850,  with  an  addition  of  immense  territories — 
Florida,  Louisiana,  Texas,  New  Mexico— the  population  of 


THOUGHTS   OX   AMERICA.  33 

the  slave  States  amounted  to  9,719,779 ;  tlie  free  States 
and  territories,  not  including  Oregon  and  California,  had 
13,348,371  souls.  The  population  of  the  free  States  has 
increased  about  six  hundred  per  cent.,  that  of  the  slave 
only  about  four  hundred  per  cent. 

Let  us  compare  a  free  and  a  slave  State  which  lie  side 
by  side.  In  soil  and  climate,  Kentucky  is  superior  to 
Ohio — only  the  stream  separates  them.  Slavery  is  on  one 
side,  freedom  on  the  other  ;  and  what  a  difference  ! 

Kentucky  contains  37,680  square  miles.  It  is  well 
watered  with  navigable  rivers — the  Ohio,  Cumberland, 
Kentucky,  Green,  and  Salt,  The  soil  is  admirable,  pro- 
ducing abundantly  ;  the  climate  mild  and  salubrious.  It 
abounds  in  minerals — coal,  iron,  lead.  The  salt  springs 
were  famous  even  with  the  French  and  Indians.  Rice, 
cotton,  and  the  sugar-cane  grow  in  Kentucky. 

Ohio  contains  39,964  square  miles  of  land,  no  better 
watered,  with  a  soil  not  superior,  less  favoured  with  mine- 
ral riches,  yet  also  abounding  in  iron  and  coal ;  the  climate 
is  sterner,  the  water  power  less  copious. 

In  1790,  Kentucky  had  73,077  inhabitants ;  Ohio  not 
a  white  man.  In  1800,  Kentucky  had  220,959  ;  Ohio 
only  45,365.  But  in  1850,  Kentucky  had  only  982,405  ; 
while  Ohio  had  grown  to  1,980,427  souls.  To-day,  Ken- 
tucky has  not  775,000  freemen,  while  Ohio  has  more  than 
2,000,000. 

In  1810,  Louisville,  the  capital  of  Kentucky,  numbered 
4,012  persons ;  Cincinnati,  the  chief  town  of  Ohio,  con- 
tained 9,644.  Now  Louisville  has  less  than  50,000,  and 
Cincinnati  more  than  150,000 ;  while  Cleveland  and 
Columbus,  in  the  same  State,  have  risen  from  nothing  to 
cities  each  containing  20,000  inhabitants. 

Look  next  at  the  effect  of  these  different  institutions  on 
the  productive  industry  of  the  different  sections  of  the 
land.  In  the  North,  labour  is  respected.  In  1845,  there 
were  in  Boston  19,037  private  families ;  there  were 
15,744  who  kept  no  servant,  and  only  1,069  who  had 
more  than  one.  Is  Boston  poor  ?  In  1854,  the  property 
of  her  citizens,  taxable  on  the  spot,  is  more  than 
$225,000,000. 

In  1847,  the  real  property  in  Boston  was  valued  at 
$97,764,500,— $45,271,120  more  than  the  value  of  all  the 

VOL.    VI.  D 


34  THOUGHTS   ON    AMERICA. 

real  estate  of  Soutli  Carolina,  with,  lier  24,500  square  miles 
of  land.  South  Carolina  "  owns"  384,984  slaves  ;  at  $400 
a  head,  tliey  would  come  to  $153,993,600.  The  actual 
property  of  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  in  1854,  is  sufficient 
to  buv  all  those  slaves,  and  then  leave  a  balance  sufficient 
to  pay  the  market  value  of  all  the  houses  and  land  in  that 
proud  State. 

In  1839,  the  census  value  of  the  annual  agricultural 
products  of  the  entire  South  was  $312,380,151 ;  that  of 
the  free  States,  $342,007,446.  Yet  the  South  had  an  ad- 
vantage by  nature,  and  249,780  more  persons  engaged  in 
agriculture. 

The  manufactures  of  the  South  for  that  year  were  worth 
$42,178,184;  of  the  North,  $197,658,040. 

The  aggregate  earnings  of  all  the  South  were  $403,429,718, 
of  the  North,  $658,705,108.  The  entire  earnings  of  the  two 
Carolinas,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana, 
amounted  to  $189,321,719;  those  of  New  York  to 
$193,806,433. 

Omitting  the  territories  and  California  from  the  estimate, 
in  1850,  the  fifteen  slave  States  contained  190,297,188 
acres  of  land  in  farms ;  the  fifteen  Northern  States  only 
97,087,778  acres.  But  the  Northern  farms  were  worth 
$283,023,483,  while  the  Southern  were  valued  at  only 
$253,583,234.  The  South  has  93,000,000  acres  the  most 
land,  and  it  is  worth  $30,000,000  the  least. 

The  South  has  invested  $95,918,842  in  manufactur- 
ing establishments  which  give  an  annual  return  of 
$167,906,350:  while  the  North  has  $431,290,351  in 
manufactures,  with  a  yearly  earning  of  $845,430,428. 

In  1853,  the  South  had  438,297  tons  of  shipping ; 
at  $40  a  ton  it  was  worth  $17,331,880.  The  North  had 
3,831,047  tons,  worth  $153,241,880. 

On  the  1st  of  September,  1852,  the  South  had  2,144 
miles  of  railroad ;  the  North  9,661  miles.  The  cost  of 
1,140  miles  of  railroad  in  Massachusetts  with  its  equip- 
ment was  $56,559,982. 

In  1850,  the  aggregate  value  of  all  the  property  real 
and  personal  of  the  fifteen  slave  States  was  $2,755,411,554; 
that  of  fifteen  free  States — omitting  California — was 
$3,186,683,924.  But  in*  the  Southern  estimate  the  value 
of  the  working  men  is  included  ;  ajppraising  the  3,200,412 


THOUGHTS    OX    AMERICA.  35 

at  $400  apiece,  tlicy  come  to  $1,280,164,800 ;  deduct  this 
from  the  gross  sum,  and  there  remains  $1,475,246,754  as 
the  worth  of  all  the  material  property  of  all  the  persons 
in  the  fifteen  slave  States ;  while  the  inhabitants  of 
the  free  States  have  material  property  amounting  to 
$3,186,683,924. 

The  different  effects  of  democracy  and  despotism  appear 
in  the  higher  forms  of  industry — the  inventions  which 
perform  the  work  of  human  hands.  From  1790  to  1849, 
there  were  16,514  patents  granted  for  inventions  made  in 
the  free  States,  and  only  2,202  in  the  slave  States.  I  omit 
patents  granted  to  citizens  of  the  district  of  Columbia, 
and  to  foreigners.  In  1851,  64  patents  were  granted  to 
citizens  of  the  slave  States  ;  656  to  those  of  the  free  States. 
Besides,  many  of  the  Southern  patents  are  granted  to  men 
born  and  bred  at  the  North. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the  machinery  of  Penn- 
sylvania, New  York,  and  Massachusetts,  driven  by  water 
and  steam,  earns  every  year  more  than  all  the  3,000,000 
slaves  of  the  entire  South.  Even  Chancellor  Harper  con- 
fesses that  "  free  labour  is  cheaper  than  the  labour  of 
slaves."  The  South  kidnaps  men,  breeds  them  as  cattle, 
brands  them  as  cattle,  beats  them  as  cattle,  sells  them  as 
cattle — does  not  know  "  whether  they  have  a  soul  or  iLot ;" 
declares  them  cursed  by  God,  not  fit  for  human  sympathy, 
incapable  of  development,  indifierent  to  libertj^,  to  chastitv, 
without  natural  affection  ;  breaks  up  their  marriages,  for- 
bids them  to  be  taught  reading  and  writing — behold  the 
practical  residts  ! 

Look  at  the  effect  of  these  two  institutions,  the  demo- 
cratic and  the  despotic,  on  the  intellectual  education  of  the 
people,  in  the  North  and  South. 

In  1839,  there  were  in  the  slave  States,  at  schools  and 
colleges,  301,172  pupils;  in  the  free  States,  2,212,444 
pupils  at  school  and  college.  New  York  sends,  to  school 
and  college,  more  than  twice  as  many  young  persons  as 
all  the  slave  States. 

At  that  time  there  were  in  Connecticut  163,843  free 
persons  over  twenty  years  of  age  ;  of  these  only  526  were 
unable  to  read  and  write.  In  South  Carolina,  there  were 
111,663  free  persons  over  twenty,  and  of  these  20,615  were 
reported  as  unable  to  write  or  read.     The  ignorant  men  of 

D  2 


36  THOUGHTS    ON    AMERICA. 

Connecticut  were  almost  all  foreigners,  those  of  South 
Carolina  natives  of  that  soil.  A  sixth  part  of  the  voters 
of  South  Carolina  are  unable  to  read  the  ballot  they  cast. 

According  to  the  census  of  1850,  in  the  year  1849,  the 
South  paid  $2,717,771  for  public  schools ;  the  North 
$6,834,388.  The  South  had  976,966  children  at  school ; 
the  North,  3,106,961. 

The  South  had  2,867,567  native  whites  over  twenty 
years  of  age  ;  of  these  532,605  were  unable  even  to  read — 
more  than  eighteen  per  cent.  In  the  JSTorth  there  were 
6,649,001  native  whites  over  twenty,  and  only  278,575 
thus  illiterate — not  four  and  one-fourth  per  cent. 

In  1850,  there  were  in  the  United  States  2,800  news- 
papers and  other  periodicals,  from  the  daily  to  the  quar- 
terly, issuing  annually  about  422,700,000  copies,  to  about 
5,000,000  subscribers.  Of  these  journals,  716  were  in  the 
slave  States — including  those  printed  in  the  capital  of 
America — and  2,084  in  the  free  States.  The  circulation  of 
Southern  periodicals,  however,  is  limited :  their  average 
is  not  more  than  one-half  or  two-thirds  that  of  the  northern 
journals. 

Almost  all  who  are  eminent  in  science,  literature,  or  art 
— naturalists,  historians,  poets,  preachers — are  Northern 
men.  The  Southern  pulpit  produces  nothing  remarkable 
but  evidences  of  the  Divinity  of  Slavery. 

The  respective  military  power  of  the  democratic  and 
despotic  institutions  was  abundantly  tested  in  the  revolu- 
tionary war.  From  1775  to  1783,  the  free  population  of 
the  slave  States  was  1,307,549;  there  were  also  657,527 
slaves.  New  England  contained  673,215  free  persons, 
and  3,886  slaves.  During  the  nine  years  of  that  war,  the 
slave  States  furnished  the  continental  army  with  58,421 
regular  soldiers ;  New  England  alone  furnished  118,380 
regulars-  The  slave  States  had  also  12,719  militia-men, 
and  New  England  46,048  militia-men. 

After  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  when  the  States  in 
Congress  were  called  on  to  furnish  soldiers.  South  Carolina, 
in  consequence  of  her  "  peculiar  institutions,"  asked  that 
hers  might  remain  at  home.  In  1779  (March  29th)  a 
committee  of  Congress  reported  that  "  the  State  of  South 
Carolina  is  unable  to  make  any  effectual  effort,  with  militia, 


THOUGHTS    OX    AMERICA.  37 

by  reason  of  the  great  proportion  of  tlie  citizens  necessary 
to  remain  at  home,  to  prevent  insurrection  among  the 
negroes,  and  prevent  the  desertion  of  them  to  the  enemy/* 
From  1775  to  1783,  South  Carolina  contained  166,018 
free  persons,  Connecticut  onty  158,760.  During  the 
nine  years  of  the  war.  South  Carolina  sent  5,508  soldiers 
to  the  army,  and  Connecticut  39,831.  While  the  six 
slave  States  could  raise  only  58,421  soldiers,  and  12,779 
militia- men,  Massachusetts  alone  contributed  67,937  sol- 
diers to  the  continental  army,  and  15,155  militia-men — in 
all  83,092  ! 

The  demoralizing  influence  of  American  despotism  is 
fearfully  obvious  in  the  conduct  of  the  general  Govern- 
ment. It  debases  the  legislative  and  the  executive  power  ; 
the  Supreme  Court  is  its  venal  prostitute.  You  remember 
the  Inaugural  of  Mr.  Pierce  : — 

*'  I  believe  that  involuntary  servitude  is  recognised  by 
the  Constitution.  I  believe  that  it  stands  like  any  other 
admitted  right.  I  hold  that  the  laws  of  1850  [the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Act]  commonly  called  the  '  compromise  mea- 
sures,' are  strictly  constitutional,  and  to  be  unhesitatingly 
carried  out."  "  The  laws  to  enforce  these  [rights  to  pro- 
perty in  the  body  and  soul  of  men]  should  be  respected 
and  obeyed,  not  with  a  reluctance  encouraged  by  abstract 
opinions  as  to  their  propriety  in  a  different  state  of  society, 
but  cheerfully,  and  according  to  the  decisions  of  the 
tribunal  to  which  their  exposition  belongs." 

The  effect  of  Slavery  on  the  moralit}^  of  the  North  is 
painful  to  reflect  upon.  JSTorthern  merchants  engage  in 
the  internal  slave  trade  ;  in  the  foreign  slave  trade  ;  they 
own  plantations  at  the  South  ;  they  lend  money  to  the 
South,  and  take  slaves  as  security.  The  Northern  church 
is  red  with  the  guilt  of  bondage  ;  most  of  its  eminent 
preachers  are  deadly  enemies  to  the  freedom  of  the  African. 
How  many  clerical  defenders  has  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act 
found  in  the  North?  The  court-house  furnished  kid- 
nappers at  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston ;  the 
church  justified  them  in  the  name  of  God.  I  know  of  no 
church  which  has  ever  showed  itself  more  cowardly  than 
the  American.  Since  1849,  the  Bible  Society  dares  not 
distribute  the  Scriptures  to  slaves.     The  American  Tract 


38  THOUGHTS    ON    AMERICA. 

Society  adapts  its  publications  to  tlie  Soutliern  market,  by 
expunging  every  word  hostile  to  the  patriarchal  institu- 
tion. Mr.  Gurney  says,  "  If  this  love  had  always  pre- 
vailed among  professing  Christians,  where  would  have 
been  the  sword  of  the  crusader  ?  Where  the  African 
slave-trade  ?  Where  the  odious  system  which  permits  to 
man  a  property  in  his  fellow-man,  and  converts  rational 
beings  into  marketable  chattels?''  The  American  Tract 
Society  alters  the  text,  and  instead  of  what  I  have  itali- 
cized, it  prints  :  ^'  Where  the  tortures  of  the  Inquisition  ? 
Where  every  system  of  oppression  and  wrong  by  which 
he  who  has  the  power  revels  in  luxury  and  ease  at  the 
expense  of  his  fellow-men  V 

In  1850  and  1851,  the  most  prominent  preachers  in 
the  North  came  out  in  public  and  justified  the  kidnapping 
of  men  in  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston.  It  is 
true  some  noble  ministers  lifted  up  their  voices  against  it ; 
but  the  theological  leaders  went  for  man-stealing,  and 
knew  no  higher  law. 

Commercial  and  political  journals  denounced  every 
minister  who  applied  the  golden  rule  of  the  Gfospel  to 
the  poor  fugitives  from  Slavery.  Several  clergymen 
were  di^iven  from  their  parishes  in  Massachusetts,  because 
they  preached  against  kidnapping.  Metropolitan  news- 
papers invited  merchants  to  refuse  to  trade  with  towns 
where  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  unpopular  ;  lawyers 
and  doctors  opposed  to  Slavery  must  not  be  employed. 

Anti- Slavery  sentiments  are  carefully  excluded  from 
school-books :  the  writers  want  a  Southern  market.  The 
principal  men  in  the  Northern  colleges  appear  to  be  on 
the  side  of  oppression.  The  political  and  commercial  press 
of  the  North  is  mainly  on  the  side  of  the  slave-holder. 
While  j)reparing  this  paper  I  find  in  a  Northern  news- 
paper (the  Boston  Courier,  of  April  26,  1853)  an  adver- 
tisement as  follows  : — 

"a  rare  chance  for  capitalists! 
"for  sale. 

"  The  Pulaski  House,  at  Savannah,  and  Furniture,  and  a  number  of 
prime  negroes,  accustomed  to  hotel  business,"  etc. 

The  advertisement  is  dated  "  Savannah,  l^th  April." 
On  that  day,  1851,  Boston  landed  at  Savannah  a  man 


THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA.  39 

whom  she  had  kidnapped  in  her  own  streets  ;  on  that  day, 
in  1775,  a  few  miles  from  Boston,  a  handful  of  farmers 
and  mechanics  first  drew  the  sword  of  America  against  the . 
oppressions  of  her  parent,  "in  the  sacred  cause  of  God 
and  their  country."  Nemesis  is  never  asleep  !  If  men  are 
to  be  advertised  for  sale  in  a  Boston  newspaper,  it  is  well 
that  the  advertisement  should  date  from  the  Battle  of 
Lexington,  or  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Last  year  the  State  of  Illinois  passed  "  An  Act  to  prevent 
the  immigration  of  free  negroes"  into  that  State.  A  man 
who  brings  a  free  negro  or  mulatto  into  the  State  is  to  be 
fined  not  less  than  $100,  nor  more  than  $500,  and  to  be 
imprisoned  not  more  than  a  year.  Every  negro  thus 
coming,  shall  be  fined  fifty  dollars,  and,  if  unable  to  pay, 
shall  be  sold  to  any  person  "  who  will  pay  said  fine  and 
costs,  for  the  shortest  time."  "  Every  person  who  shall 
have  one-fourth  negro  blood  shall  be  deemed  a  mulatto." 
Delaware  has  just  passed  a  similar  law,  though  with  penalties 
less  severe. 

In  the  commercial  journals  of  the  free  and  the  slave 
States,  the  most  scandalous  abuse  has  been  poured  out  upon 
Mrs.  Stowe  for  her  U?icle  lom's  Cabin,  and  its  Key. 
"  Priestess  of  Darkness"  is  one  of  the  pleasant  epithets 
applied  to  her.  The  Duchess  of  Sutherland  receives,  also, 
a  large  share  of  abuse  from  the  same  quarter.  ^Yhen  the 
kidnapper  is  honoured ;  when  "  prime  negroes"  are 
advertised  for  sale ;  when  clergymen  recommend  man- 
stealing  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  of  God,  it  is  very  proper 
that  ladies  of  genius  and  philanthropy  should  be  held  up 
as  objects  of  scorn  and  contempt !  Men  who  know  no 
law  higher  than  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  must  work  after 
their  kind. 

It  is  a  strange  spectacle  which  America  just  now  ofiers. 
Exiles  flee  hither,  four  hundred  thousand  in  a  year,  and 
are  welcome ;  while  Americans  born  take  their  lives  in 
their  hand,  and  fly  to  Canada,  to  Nova  Scotia,  for  an 
asylum.  Unsuccessful  "  rebels,"  who  have  committed 
"  treason"  at  home,  find  a  shelter  in  America,  a  welcome, 
and  the  protection  of  the  democratic  government ;  while 
3,300,000  men,  guilty  of  no  crime,  are  kept  in  a  bondage 
worse   than   Siberian.      The    *'  chief  judicial   officer"    of 


40  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

South  Carolina  thinks  of  all  "distinguishing  character- 
istics" of  the  nejjroes  *'the  most  remarkable  is  their 
indifference  to  personal  liberty."  But  democratic  Calhoun, 
with  Clay,  Webster,  and  all  the  leaders  of  the  South,  must 
unite  to  make  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  hinder  those 
men  who  are  indifferent  to  personal  liberty  from  running 
away  !  After  all  the  tumult,  fifteen  hundred  fugitives  got 
safely  out  of  the  slave  soil  of  the  United  States  in  the  year 
1853.  Alas,  they  must  escape  to  the  territories  of  a 
monarch  !  Of  all  the  ground  covered  by  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  not  an  inch  is  free  soil,  except  the  five 
thousand  miles  which  Britain  regained  by  tlie  Ashburton 
treaty.  Every  foot  of  monarchic  British  soil  can  change 
a  slave  to  a  free  man  ;  while  in  all  the  three  million  square 
miles  of  democratic  America,  there  is  not  an  inch  of  land 
where  he  can  claim  the  natural  and  unalienable  right  to 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  English  is  the 
only  tongue  for  liberty  ;  it  is  also  the  only  speech  in  which 
kidnapping  is  justified  by  the  clergy  in  the  name  of  God. 
The  despots  of  the  European  continent  point  with  delight 
to  the  American  democrats  enslaving  one  another,  and 
declaring  there  is  no  higher  law. 

There  can  be  no  lasting  peace  between  the  two  conflicting 
ideas  I  have  named  above.  One  wants  a  Democracy,  the 
other  a  Despiotism ;  each  is  incursive,  aggressive,  exter- 
minating. Which  shall  jdeld  ?  The  answer  is  plain  : 
Slavery  is  to  perish  out  of  America  ;  Democracy  is  to 
triumph.  Every  census  makes  the  result  of  the  two  ideas 
more  apparent.  The  North  increases  in  numbers,  in 
riches,  in  the  intellectual  development  of  the  great  mass 
of  its  people — out  of  all  proportion  to  the  South.  Slavery 
is  a  bad  tool  to  work  with.  In  the  South,  there  is  little 
skilled  labour,  little  variety  of  industry  ;  rude  farm  labour, 
rearing  corn,  coffee,  tobacco,  sugar,  cotton,  that  is  all. 
At  Boston,  at  New  York,  on  the  Kennebec,  and  the 
Penobscot,  Northern  men  build  ships  of  oak  from  Virginia, 
and  hard  pine  from  Georgia ;  they  get  the  pitch  and  tar 
from  Carolina,  the  hemp  from  Kentucky — that  State  which 
has  no  shipping.  Labour  is  cheap  on  the  fair  land  of  the 
Carolinas,  the  best  in  the  world  for  red  wheat ;  labour  is 
dear  in  Pennsylvania,  but  she  undersells  the  Carolinas  in 


THOUGHTS   ON    AMERICA.  41 

the  wlieat  market.  Tennessee  has  rich  mines  of  iron  ore 
— the  fine  bloomer  iron ;  slave  labour  is  cheap,  coal 
abundant.  Work  is  dear  in  Pennsylvania  ;  but  there  free 
labour  makes  better  iron  at  cheaper  rates.  The  South  is 
full  of  water  power ;  within  six  miles  of  the  President's 
house  there  is  force  enough  to  turn  all  the  mills  of  British 
Manchester ;  it  runs  by  as  idle  as  a  cloud.  The  Southerner 
draws  water  in  a  Northern  bucket,  drinks  from  a  Northern 
cup ;  with  a  Northern  fork  and  spoon  he  eats  from  a 
Northern  dish,  set  on  a  Northern  table.  He  wears 
Northern  shoes  made  from  Southern  hides ;  Northern 
coats^  hats,  shirts  ;  he  keeps  time  with  a  Northern  watch  ; 
his  wife  wears  Northern  jewels,  plays  on  a  Northern 
pianoforte  ;  he  sleeps  in  a  Northern  bed  ;  reads  (if  read  he 
can)  a  Northern  book;  and  writes  (if  writing  be  not  a 
figure  of  speech)  on  Northern  paper,  with  a  pen  from  the 
North.  The  laws  of  Mississippi  must  be  printed  in  a 
Northern  town !  The  Southerner  has  no  market  near  at 
hand,  no  variety  of  labour,  Kttle  that  is  educational  in  toil ; 
industry  is  dishonourable.  It  is  the  curse  of  Slavery  which 
makes  it  so ! 

Three  forces  now  work  a  stains  t  this  institution  :  Political 
Economy,  showing  that  it  does  not  pay ;  the  Public 
Opinion  of  England,  France,  Germany,  of  all  Christendom, 
heaping  shame  on  the  '^  model  republic" — "the  first  and 
most  enlightened  nation  in  the  world  ;"  the  still  small 
voice  of  Conscience  in  all  men.  The  Political  Economist 
scoffs  at  the  absolute  Eight ;  the  Partisan  Politician  mocks 
at  the  Higher  Law  ;  the  Pharisee  in  the  pulpit  makes 
mouths  at  the  invisible  Spirit,  which  silently  touches  the 
hearts  of  women  and  of  men.  But  he  who  knows  the 
world  because  he  knows  man,  and  man's  Grod,  understands 
very  well,  that  though  Justice  has  feet  of  wool,  her  hands 
are  of  iron.  These  three  forces — it  is  plain  what  they  will 
do  with  American  Slavery. 

This  institution  of  Slavery  has  brought  us  into  most 
deadly  peril.  A  story  is  told  of  some  Italian  youths,  of 
famous  family,  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Borgia  and  his  com- 
rades sat  riotously  feasting,  long  past  midnight,  hot  with 
young  blood,  giddy  with  passion,  crazed  with  fiery  wine. 


42  THOUGHTS   ON   AMERICA. 

In  their  intemperate  laughter  they  hear  the  hoarse  voice 
of  monks  in  the  street,  coming-  round  the  corner,  chantinor 
the  Miserere  as  service  for  the  dying,  "  Have  mercy  upon, 
me,  0  God,  according  to  thy  loving-kindness  !"  "  What  is 
that?"  cries  one.  "  Oh,"  answers  another,  "it  i^  only  some 
poor  soul  going  to  hell,  and  the  priests  are  tryiiig  to  cheat 
the  devil  of  his  due  !  Push  round  the  wine."  Again 
comes  the  chant,  "For  I  acknowledge  my  transgression, 
and  my  sin  is  ever  before  me!"  "How  near  it  is  ;  under 
the  windows,"  saj^s  a  reveller,  turning  pale.  "  What  if  it 
should  be  meant  for  one  of  us ;  let  me  look."  He  opens 
the  window,  the  torches  flash  in  from  the  dark  street,  and 
the  chant  pours  on  them,  "  Purge  me  with  hyssop,  and  I 
shall  be  clean  :  wash  me,  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow  !" 
They  all  spring  to  their  feet.  "  Whom  is  it  for  ?"  they 
cry  out.  "  Deliver  me  from  blood- guiltiness,  0  God,  thou 
God  of  my  salvation ;  and  my  tongue  shall  sing  aloud  of 
thy  righteousness,"  is  the  answer.  They  throw  open  the 
door — the  mother  of  Borgia  rushes  in  :  "  You  are  all  dead 
men,"  she  cries ;  "  I  poisoned  the  wine  myself.  Confess, 
and  make  your  peace  with  God ;  here  are  His  ministers." 
The  white-robed  priests  fill  up  the  room,  chanting,  "  The 
sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit :  a  broken  and  a 
contrite  heart,  0  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise  !"  "But  here 
is  an  antidote  for  my  son,"  cries  the  mother  of  Borgia. 
"Take  it!"  He  dashes  the  cup  on  the  ground — and  the 
gay  company  lies  there,  pale-blue,  poisoned,  and  dead  I 
IShall  that  be  the  fate  of  America  ?  Yes  ;  if  she  cast  the 
cup  of  healing  to  the  ground  !  Other  admonitions  must 
come,  yet  more  terrible,  before  we  learn  for  whom  the 
Miserere  is  now  wailing  forth. 

If  America  were  to  keep  this  shameful  pest  in  the 
land,  then  ruin  is  sure  to  follow, — ruin  of  all  the  dear- 
bought  institutions  of  our  fathers.  The  slaves  double  in 
about  twenty-five  years ;  so  in  a.d.  1930,  there  would  be 
27,000,000  of  slaves  !  What  a  thought !  The  question  is 
not  merely,  shall  we  have  'Slavery  and  Freedom,  but 
Slavery  or  Freedom.  The  two  cannot  long  continue  side 
by  side. 

When  this  hinderance  is  taken  away,  there  is  a  noble 
career  open  before  this  young  giant.     There  is  a  new  con- 


THOUGHTS    ON    AMERICA.  43 

tinent^  now  for  tlie  first  time  married  to  the  civilized 
world.  Various  races  of  men  mingle  their  blood — Indians, 
Africans,  Caucasians  ;  various  tribes — Celtic  Irish,  Welsh, 
Scotch,  Anglo-Saxon,  Norwegian,  Swedish,  Danish,  Dutch, 
German,  Polish,  Swiss,  French,  Spanish ;  all  these  are 
here.  Each  will  contribute  its  best  to  the  general  stock. 
Democratic  institutions  and  Democratic  education  will  give 
an  intellectual  development  to  the  mass  of  men  such  as  the 
world  never  saw.  There  is  no  fear  of  war  ;  the  army  and 
the  navy  do  not  number  thirty  thousand  men.  The 
energies  of  the  nation  will  be  directed  to  their  natural 
work — subduing  material  Nature,  and  developing  human 
Nature  into  its  higher  forms.  Now  we  are  excessively 
material  in  our  tastes — one  day,  if  this  great  obstacle  be 
overcome,  America  will  be  eminent  also  for  science,  letters, 
art,  and  for  the  noblest  virtues  which  adorn  mankind.  No 
nation  had  ever  so  fair  an  opportunity — shall  we  be  false 
to  our  origin,  and  the  heart's  high  hope  ?  Humanity  says, 
"No!'' 


THE  NEW  CRIME  AGAINST  HUMANITY. 


A    SERMON 

PREACHED    AT 

The  Music  Hall,  in  Boston,  on  Sunday,  June  4,  1854. 

WITH 
THE  LESSON  FOR  THE  DAY  OF  THE  PREVIOUS  SUNDAY. 

INTRODUCTOEY. 

On  Sunday,  May  28,  after  the  usual  introductory  services,  Mr.  Parker 
pronounced  the  following 

LESSON  FOR  THE  DAT. 

I  SEE  by  your  faces,  as  well  as  by  your  number,  what  is 
expected  of  me  to-day.  A  person  has  just  sent  me  a  re- 
quest, asking  me,  "  Cannot  you  extemporize  a  sermon  for 
this  day?"  It  is  easier  to  do  it  tban  not.  But  I  shall 
not  extemporize  a  sermon  for  to-day — I  shall  extemporize 
the  Scripture.  I  therefore  pass  over  the  Bible  words,  which 
I  designed  to  read  from  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New, 
and  will  take  the  Morning  Lesson  from  the  circumstances 
of  the  past  week.  The  time  has  not  come  for  me  to  preach 
a  sermon  on  the  great  wrong  now  enacting  in  this  city. 
The  deed  is  not  yet  fully  done  :  any  counsel  that  I  have  to 
offer  is  better  given  elsewhere  than  here,  at  another  time 
than  now.  Neither  you  nor  I  are  quite  calm  enough  to- 
day to  look  the  matter  fairly  in  the  face  and  sec  entirely 
what  it  means.  Before  the  events  of  the  past  week  took 
place,  I  had  proposed  to  preach  this  morning  on  the  sub- 
ject of  war,  taking  my  theme  from  the  present  commotions 
in  Europe,  which  also  will  reach  us,   and  have  already. 


THE    NEW   CRIME    AGAINST   HUMANITY.  45 

That  will  presently  be  tlie  theme  of  my  morning's  sermon. 
JS^ext  Sunday,  I  shall  preach  on  The  perils  into  which 
America  is  liiiouGiiT  at  this  day  by  the  new  Crime 
AGAINST  Humanity.  That  is  the  theme  for  next  Sunday : 
the  other  is  for  to-day.  But  before  I  proceed  to  that,  I 
have  some  words  to  say  in  place  of  the  Scripture  lesson, 
and  instead  of  a  selection  from  the  Old  Testament 
prophets. 

Since  last  we  came  together,  there  has  been  a  man  stolen 
in  this  city  of  our  fathers.  It  is  not  the  first ;  it  may  not 
be  the  last.  He  is  now  in  the  great  slave  pen  in  the  city 
of  Boston.  He  is  there  against  the  law  of  the  Common- 
wealth, which,  if"  I  am  rightly  informed,  in  such  cases 
prohibits  the  use  of  State  edifices  as  United  States  gaols. 
I  may  be  mistaken.  Any  forcible  attempt  to  take  him 
from  that  barracoon  of  Boston,  would  be  wholly  without 
use.  For  besides  the  holiday  soldiers  who  belong  to  the 
city  of  Boston,  and  are  ready  to  shoot  down  their  brothers 
in  a  just  or  an  unjust  cause,  any  day  when  the  city  govern- 
ment gives  them  its  command  and  its  liquor,  I  understand 
that  there  are  one  hundred  and  eighty- four  United  States 
marines  lodged  in  the  Court  House,  every  man  of  them 
furnished  with  a  musket  and  a  bayonet,  with  his  side 
arms,  and  twenty-four  ball  cartridges.  They  are  stationed 
also  in  a  very  strong  building,  and  where  five  men,  in  a 
passage-way,  about  the  width  of  this  pulpit,  can  defend  it 
against  five-and-twenty,  or  a  hundred.  To  '^  keej)  the 
peace,"  the  Mayor,  who,  the  other  day  ^'  regretted  the 
arrest "  of  our  brother,  Anthony  Burns,  and  declared  that 
his  sympathies  were  wholly  with  the  alleged  fugitive — and 
of  course  wholly  against  the  claimant  and  the  Marshal — 
in  order  to  keep  the  peace  of  the  city,  the  Mayor  must 
become  corporal  of  the  guard  for  kidnappers  from  Virginia. 
He  must  keep  the  peace  of  our  city,  and  defend  these 
guests  of  Boston  over  the  graves,  the  unmonumented 
graves,  of  John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams. 

A  man  has  been  killed  by  violence.  Some  say  he  was 
killed  by  his  own  coadjutors  :  I  can  easily  believe  it ;  there 
is  evidence  enough  that  they  were  greatly  frightened. 
They  were  not  United  States  soldiers,  but  volimteers  from 
the  streets  of  Boston,  who,  for  their  pay,  went  into  the 


46  THE    NEW    CRIME 

Court  House  to  assist  in  kiclnapping  a  brother  man.  They 
were  so  cowardly  that  they  could  not  use  the  simple  cut- 
lasses they  had  in  their  hands,  but  smote  right  and  left, 
like  ignorant  and  frightened  ruffians  as  they  are.  They 
may  have  slain  their  brother  or  not — I  cannot  tell.  It  is 
said  by  some  that  they  killed  him.  Another  story  is,  that 
he  was  killed  by  a  hostile  hand  from  without.  Some  say 
by  a  bullet,  some  by  an  axe,  and  others  still  by  a  knife. 
As  yet  nobody  knows  the  facts.  But  a  man  has  been 
killed.  He  was  a  volunteer  in  this  service.  He  liked  the 
business  of  enslaving  a  man,  and  has  gone  to  render  an 
account  to  God  for  his  gratuitous  wickedness.  Twelve 
men  have  been  arrested,  and  are  now  in  gaol  to  await  their 
examination  for  wilful  murder  ! 

Here,  then,  is  one  man  butchered,  and  twelve  men 
brought  in  peril  of  their  lives.  Why  is  this?  Whose 
fault  is  it  ? 

Some  eight  years  ago,  a  Boston  merchant,  by  his  mer- 
cenaries, kidnapped  a  man  "  between  Faneuil  Hall  and  old 
Quincy,"  and  carried  him  off  to  eternal  slavery.  Boston 
mechanics,  the  next  day,  held  up  the  half-eagles  which 
they  received  as  pay  for  stealing  a  man.  The  matter  was 
brought  before  the  grand  jury  for  the  county  of  Suffolk, 
and  abundant  evidence  was  presented,  as  I  understand, 
but  they  found  "  no  bill."  A  wealthy  merchant,  in  the 
name  of  trade,  had  stolen  a  black  man,  who,  on  board  a 
ship,  had  come  to  this  city,  had  been  seized  by  the  mer- 
cenaries of  this  merchant,  kept  by  them  for  awhile,  and 
then,  when  he  escaped,  kidnapped  a  second  time  in  the  city 
of  Boston.     Boston  did  not  punish  the  deed  ! 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  presented  to  us,  and  Boston 
rose  up  to  welcome  it !  The  greatest  man  in  all  the  North 
came  here,  and  in  this  city  told  Massachusetts  she  must 
obey  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  with  alacrity — that  we  must 
all  conquer  our  prejudices  in  favour  of  justice  and  the 
unalienable  rights  of  man.  Boston  did  conquer  her  pre- 
judices in  favour  of  justice  and  the  unalienable  rights  of 
man. 

Do  you  not  remember  the  '*  Union  Meeting  "  which  was 
held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  when  a  "  political  soldier  of  fortune, '^ 
sometimes  called  the  ''  Democratic  Prince  of  the  Devils," 
howled  at  the  idea  that  there  was  a  law  of  God  higher 


AGAINST    HUMANITY.  47 

than  tlie  Fugitive  Slave  Bill?  He  sneered,  and  asked, 
"  Will  you  have  the  '  Higher  Law  of  God '  to  rule  over 
you  ?  ''  and  the  multitude  which  occupied  the  floor,  and 
the  multitude  that  crowded  the  galleries,  howled  down  the 
Higher  Law  of  God !  They  treated  the  Higher  Law  to 
a  laugh  and  a  howl !  That  was  Tuesday  night.  It  was 
the  Tuesday  before  Thanksgiving- day.  On  that  Thanks- 
giving-day, I  told  the  congregation  that  the  men  who 
howled  down  the  Higher  Law  of  Almighty  God,  had 
got  Almighty  God  to  settle  with ;  that  they  had 
sown  the  wind,  and  would  reap  the  whirlwind.  At  that 
meeting  Mr.  Choate  told  the  people—''  REMEMBER  ! 
Kemember  !  Remembe7'! "  Then  nobody  knew  what  to 
*'  remember.'^  Now  you  know.  That  is  the  state  of  that 
case. 

Then  you  "  remember "  the  kidnappers  came  here  to 
seize  Thomas  Sims.  Thomas  Sims  was  seized.  Nine  days 
he  was  on  trial  for  more  than  his  life  ;  and  never  saw  a 
judge — never  saw  a  jury.  He  was  sent  back  into  bondage 
from  the  city  of  Boston.  You  remember  the  chains  that 
were  put  around  the  Court  House ;  you  remember  the 
judges  of  Massachusetts  stooping,  crouching,  creeping, 
crawling  under  the  chain  of  Slavery,  in  order  to  get  to 
their  own  courts.  All  these  things  you  ''  remember." 
Boston  was  non-resistant.  She  gave  her  "back  to  the 
smiters  '* — from  the  South  ;  she  "  withheld  not  her  cheek  " 
— from  the  scorn  of  South  Carolina,  and  welcomed  the 
*'  spitting  '^  of  kidnappers  from  Georgia  and  Yirginia. 
To-day  we  have  our  pay  for  such  conduct.  You  have  not 
forgotten  the  *'  fifteen  hundred  gentlemen  of  property  and 
standing,"  who  volunteered  to  conduct  Mr.  Sims  to  slavery 
— Marshal  Tid^ey's  "  gentlemen."  They  ''remember"  it. 
They  are  sorry  enough  now.  Let  us  forgive — we  need  not 
forget.     " REMEMBER!  Remember!  Remember!'' 

The  Nebraska  Bill  has  just  now  been  passed.  Who 
passed  it  ?  The  fifteen  hundred  "  gentlemen  of  property 
and  standing"  in  Boston,  who,  in  1851,  volunteered  to 
carry  Thomas  Sims  into  slavery  by  force  of  arms.  They 
passed  the  Nebraska  Bill.  If  Boston  had  punished  the 
kidnapping  of  1845,  there  would  have  been  no  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  in  1850.  If  Massachusetts,  in  1850,  had  de- 
clared the  Bill  should  not  be  executed,  the  kidnapper  would 


48  THE    NEW   CRIME 

never  have  shown  his  face  in  the  streets  of  Boston.  If, 
failing  in  this,  Boston  had  said,  in  1851,  "  Thomas  Sims 
shall  not  be  carried  off,"  and  forcibly  or  peacefully,  by  the 
majesty  of  the  great  mass  of  men,  had  resisted  it,  no 
kidnapper  would  have  come  here  again.  There  would 
have  been  no  Nebraska  Bill.  But  to  every  demand  of 
the  slave  power,  Massachusetts  has  said,  "  Yes,  yes  ! — we 
grant  it  all !  "  "  Agitation  must  cease  !  "  "  Save  the 
Union!" 

Southern  Slavery  is  an  institution  which  is  in  earnest. 
Northern  Freedom  is  an  institution  that  is  not  in  earnest. 
It  was  in  earnest  in  '76  and  ^83.  It  has  not  been  much 
in  earnest  since.  The  compromises  are  but  provisional ! 
Slavery  is  the  only  finality !  Now,  since  the  Nebraska 
Bill  is  passed,  an  attempt  is  made  to  add  insult  to  insult, 
injury  to  injury.  Last  week,  at  New  York,  a  brother  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Pennington,  an  established  clergyman,  of 
large  reputation,  great  character,  acknowledged  learning, 
who  has  his  diploma  from  the  University  of  Heidelberg, 
in  Germany — a  more  honourable  source  than  that  from 
which  any  clergyman  in  Massachusetts  has  received  one — 
his  brother  and  two  nephews  were  kidnapped  in  New 
York,  and  without  any  trial,  without  any  defence,  were 
hurried  off  into  bondage.  Then,  at  Boston,  joii  know 
what  was  done  in  the  last  four  days.  Behold  the  conse- 
quences of  the  doctrine  that  there  is  no  higher  law. 
Look  at  Boston  to-day.  There  are  no  chains  round  your 
Court  House — there  are  only  ropes  round  it  this  time,  A 
hundred  and  eighty-four  United  States  soldiers  are  there. 
They  are,  I  am  told,  mostly  foreigners — the  scum  of  the 
earth — none  but  such  enter  into  armies  as  common  soldiers, 
in  a  country  like  ours.  I  say  it  with  pity — they  are  not 
to  blame  for  having  been  born  where  they  were  and  what 
they  are.  I  pity  the  scum  as  well  as  I  pity  the  mass  of 
men.  The  soldiers  are  there,  I  say,  and  their  trade  is  to 
kill.     Why  is  this  so  ? 

You  remember  the  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall,  last  Friday, 
when  even  the  words  of  my  friend,  Wendell  Phillips,  the 
most  eloquent  words  that  get  spoken  in  America  in  this 
century,  hardly  restrained  the  multitude  from  going,  and 
bv  violence  storming  the  Court  House.  What  stirred 
them  up  ?     It  was  the  spirit  of  our  fathers — the  sj)irit  of 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  49 

justice  and  liberty  in  your  lieart,  and  in  my  licai't,  and  in 
the  heart  of  us  all.  Sometimes  it  gets  the  better  of  a 
man's  prudence,  especially  on  occasions  like  tliis  ;  and  so 
excited  was  that  assembly  of  four  or  five  thousand  men, 
that  even  the  words  of  eloquent  Wendell  Phillips  could 
hardly  restrain  them  from  going  at  once  rashly  to  the 
Court  House,  and  tearing  it  to  the  ground. 

Boston  is  the  most  peaceful  of  cities.  Why  ?  Because 
we  have  commonly  had  a  peace  which  was  worth  keeping. 
No  city  respects  laws  so  much.  Because  the  laws  have 
been  made  by  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  are  laws 
which  respect  justice.  Here  is  a  law  which  the  people 
will  not  keep.  It  is  a  law  of  our  Southern  masters  ;  a 
law  not  fit  to  keep. 

Why  is  Boston  in  this  confusion  to-day  ?  The  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Bill  Commissioner  has  just  now  been  sowing 
the  wind,  that  we  may  reap  the  whirlwind.  The  old 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioner  stands  back ;  he  has 
gone  to  look  after  his  "  personal  popularity.'*  But,  when 
Commissioner  Curtis  does  not  dare  appear  in  this  mat 
ter,  another  man  comes  forward,  and  for  the  first  time 
seeks  to  kidnap  his  man  also  in  the  city  of  Boston.  Judge 
Loring  is  a  man  whom  I  have  respected  and  honoured. 
His  private  life  is  mainly  blameless,  so  far  as  I  know. 
He  has  been,  I  think,  uniformly  beloved.  His  character 
has  entitled  him  to  the  esteem  of  his  fellow-citizens.  I 
have  kno^\Ti  him  somewhat.  I  never  heard  a  mean  word 
from  him — many  good  words.  He  was  once  the  law- 
partner  of  Horace  Mann,  and  learned  humanit}^  of  a  great 
teacher.  I  have  respected  him  a  good  deal.  He  is  a 
respectable  man — in  the  Boston  sense  of  that  word,  and 
in  a  much  higher  sense  ;  at  least,  I  have  thought  so.  He 
is  a  kind-hearted,  charitable  man  ;  a  good  neighbour  ;  a 
fast  friend — when  politics  do  not  interfere ;  charitable 
with  his  purse  ;  an  excellent  husband  ;  a  kind  father ;  a 
good  relative.  And  I  should  as  soon  have  expected  that 
venerable  man  who  sits  before  me,  born  before  your 
Eevolution  [Samuel  May], — I  should  as  soon  have  ex- 
pected him  to  go  and  kidnap  Kobert  Morris,  or  any  of 
the  other  coloured  men  I  see  around  me,  as  I  should  have 
expected  Judge  Loring  to  do  this  thing.  But  he  has 
sown  the  vv^ind,  and  we  are  reaping  the  whirlwind.     I  need 

VOL.  VI.  E 


50  THE   NEW   CRIME   AGAINST   HUMANITY. 

not  say  what  I  now  think  of  Mm.  He  is  to  act  to- 
morrow, and  may  yet  act  like  a  man.  Let  us  wait  and  see. 
Perhaps  there  is  manhood  in  him  yet.  But,  my  friends, 
all  this  confusion  is  his  work.  He  knew  he  was  stealing 
a  man  born  with  the  same  unalienable  right  to  "  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  "  as  himself.  He 
laiew  the  slave-holders  had  no  more  right  to  Anthony 
Burns  than  to  his  own  daughter.  He  knew  the  conse- 
quences of  stealing  a  man.  He  knew  that  there  are  men 
in  Boston  who  have  not  yet  conquered  their  prejudices — 
men  who  respect  the  higher  law  of  God.  He  knew 
there  would  be  a  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall — gatherings  in 
the  streets.     He  knew  there  would  be  violence. 

Edward  Greeley  Loring,  Judge  of  Probate  for  the 
county  of  Suffolk,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Bill  Commissioner  of  the  United  States,  before 
these  citizens  of  Boston,  on  Ascension  Sunday,  assembled 
to  worship  God,  I  charge  you  with  the  death  of  that 
man  who  was  killed  on  last  Friday  night.  He  was  your 
fellow -servant  in  kidnapping.  He  dies  at  your  hand. 
You  fired  the  shot  which  makes  his  wife  a  widow,  his 
child  an  orphan.  I  charge  you  with  the  peril  of  twelve 
men,  arrested  for  murder,  and  on  trial  for  their  lives.  I 
charge  you  with  filling  the  Court  House  with  one  hundred 
and  eighty-four  hired  ruffians  of  the  United  States,  and 
alarming  not  only  this  city  for  her  liberties  that  are  in 
peril,  but  stirring  up  the  whole  Commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts with  indignation,  which  no  man  knows  how  to 
stop — ^which  no  man  can  stop.     You  have  done  it  all ! 

This  IS  my  Lesson  for  the  Day. 


51 


SERMON.* 


"  Then  one  of  the  twelve,  called  Judas  Iscariot,  went  unto  the  chief 
priests,  and  said  unto  them,  What  will  ye  give  nie,  and  I  will  deliver  him 
unto  you  ?  And  they  covenanted  with  him  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver. 
And  from  that  time  he  sought  opportunity  to  betray  him." — Matt.  xxvi. 
14-16. 

"  Then  Judas,  which  had  betrayed  him,  when  he  saw  that  he  was  con- 
demned, repented  himself,  and  brought  again  tlie  thirty  pieces  of  silver 
to  the  chief  priests  and  elders,  saying,  1  have  sinned  in  that  I  have 
betrayed  the  innocent  blood.  And  they  said,  What  is  that  to  us  ?  see 
thou  to  that." — Matt,  xxvii.  3,  4. 

Within  the  last  few  days,  we  have  seen  some  of  the 
results  of  despotism  in  America,  which  might  indeed  easily 
astonish  a  stranger ;  but  a  citizen  of  Boston  has  no  right 
to  be  surprised.  The  condition  of  this  town  from  May 
24th  to  June  2nd  is  the  natural  and  unavoidable  result  of 
well-known  causes,  publicly  and  deliberately  put  in  action. 
It  is  only  the  first-fruit  of  causes  which  in  time  will 
litter  the  ground  with  similar  harvests,  and  with  others 
even  "worse.  Let  us  pretend  no  amazement  that  the  seed 
sown  has  borne  fruit  after  its  kind.  Let  us  see  what  warn- 
ing or  what  guidance  we  can  gather  from  these  events, 
their  cause  and  consequence.  So  this  morning  I  ask  your 
attention  to  a   Sermon,    of    the    New    Crime    against 

(  *  Tiie  Sermon  wliich  follows  was  printed  in  the  Boston  Conimomvealtli, 
on  Monday,  from  the  Phonographic  lleport  of  Messrs.  Slack  and  Yerrin- 
ton.  They  copied  out  the  notes  at  my  house,  and  I  revised  them.  We 
did  not  complete  our  labours  till  half-past  three  o'clock  Monday  morning. 
It  may  easily  be  imagined  that  sonae  errors  aj^pcared  in  the  print — for 
the  perishable  body  weigheth  down  the  mind,  and,  though  the  spirit  bo 
willing,  tho  flesh  is  too  weak  to  work  four-and-twcnty  hours  continuously. 
Yet  the  errors  were  surprisingly  few.  In  tiiis  edition  of  the  Sermon 
some  passages  have  been  added  which  were  omitted  in  tho  lleport,  and 
some  also  which,  though  written,  wei'c  not  delivered  on  Sunday. 
Boston,  Jimo  10,  1854. 

E  2 


02  THE   NEW   CRIME 

Humanity  co?.imitted  in  the  midst  of  us,  of  tlie  Last 
Kidnapping  wliicli  has  taken  place  in  Boston. 

I  know  well  tke  responsibility  of  the  place  I  occupy  this 
morning.  To-morrow's  sun  shall  carry  my  words  to  all 
America.  They  will  be  read  on  both  sides  of  the  continent. 
They  will  cross  the  ocean.  It  may  astonish  the  minds  of 
men  in  Europe  to  hear  of  the  iniquity  committed  in  the 
inidst  of  us.  Let  us  be  calm  and  cool,  and  look  the  thing 
fairly  in  the  face. 

Of  course,  you  will  understand,  from  nw  connection  with 
what  has  taken  place  in  part,  that  I  must  speak  of  some 
things  with  a  good  deal  of  reserve,  and  others  pass  by 
entirely.  However,  I  have  only  too  much  to  say.  I  have 
have  had  but  short  time  for  preparation,  the  deed  is  so  re- 
cent. Perhaps  I  shall  trespass  a  little  on  your  patience 
this  morning,  that  hand  overrunning  my  customary  hour 
some  twenty  or  thirty  minutes.  If  any  of  you  find  your 
patience  exhausted,  and  standing  too  wearisome,  you  can 
retire ;  and,  if  without  noise,  none  will  be  disturbed,  and 
none  offended. 

On  Wednesday  night,  the  24th  of  May,  a  young  man, 
without  property,  without  friends — I  will  continue  to  call 
his  name  Anthony  Burns — was  returning  home  from  his 
usual  lawful  and  peaceful  work  in  the  clothing  shop  of 
Deacon  Pitts,  in  Brattle  Street.  He  was  assaulted  by  six 
ruffians,  who  charged  him.  with  having  broken  into  a 
jev/eller's  shop.  They  seized  him,  forced  him  to  the  Court 
House,  thrust  him  into  an  upper  chamber  therein,  where 
he  was  surrounded  by  men,  armed,  it  is  said,  with 
bludgeons  and  revolvers.  There  he  was  charged  with 
being  a  fugitive  slave.  A  man  from  Yirginia,  claiming  to 
be  his  owner,  and  another  man,  likewise  from  Yirginia, 
confronted  the  poor  victim,  and  extorted  from  him  a  con- 
.  fession,  as  the}^  allege,  that  he  was  the  claimant's  fugitive 
slave — if,  indeed,  the  confession  was  not  purely  an  inven- 
tion of  his  foes,  who  had  made  the  false  charge  of  burglary ; 
for  they  who  begin  Y»dth  a  lie  are  not  to  be  trusted  after 
that  lie  has  been  told.  He  was  kept  all  night,  guarded  by 
ruffians  hired  for  the  purpose  of  kidnapping  a  man.  No 
friend  was  permitted  to  see  him ;  but  his  deadliest  foes, 
who  clutched  at  what  every  one  of  us  holds  tenfold  dearer 


AGAINST  HUMANITY,  53 

than  life  itself,  were  allowed  access.  They  came  and 
went  freely,  making  their  inquisition,  extorting  or  invent- 
ing admissions  to  be  used  for  Mr.  Burns's  ruin. 

At  nine  o'clock  the  next  morning,  Thursday  (May 
25th),  the  earliest  hour  at  which  the  courts  of  Massa- 
chusetts ever  open,  he  was  brought  tot  he  court-room 
and  arraigned  before  Edward  Greeley  Loring,  Judge  of 
Probate,  one  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioners  of 
the  city  of  Boston,  and  immediately  put  on  trial.  "  Inti- 
midated" by  the  mob  about  him,  and  stupefied  with 
terror  and  fear,  he  makes  no  defence.  "  As  a  lamb  before 
his  shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth."  How 
could  he  dare  make  a  defence,  treated  as  he  had  been  the 
night  before  ? — confronted  as  he  was  by  men  clutching  at 
his  liberty  ? — in  a  court-room  packed  ^\dth  rufhans,  where 
the  slaveholders'  counsel  brought  pistols  in  their  breasts  ? 
He  had  been  in  duress  all  night,  with  inquisitors  about 
him.  His  claimant  was  there,  with  documents  manu- 
factured in  Alexandria  ;  with  a  witness  brought  from 
Eichmond  ;  with  two  lawj^ers  of  Boston  to  aid  them. 

What  a  scene  it  Yvas  for  a  Massachusetts  court !  A 
merchant  from  Richmond,  so  Mr.  Brent  called  himself ; 
another  from  Alexandria,  who  was  a  sheriff  and  member  of 
the  Virginia  Legislature — for  such  Colonel  Suttle  has  been 
— they  were  there  to  steal  a  man !  They  had  him  already 
in  gaol ;  they  went  out  and  came  in  as  they  liked,  and  shut 
from  his  presence  everybody  who  was  not  one  of  the 
minions  hired  to  aid  them  in  their  crime. 

Further,  they  had  two  lawyers  of  Boston  giving  them 
the  benefit  of  their  education  and  their  knowledge  of  the 
law;  and,  in  addition  to  that,  the  senior  lawyer,  Seth 
J.  Thomas,  brought  considerable  experience,  acquired  on 
similar  occasions — for  he  has  been  the  kidnappers'  counsel 
from  the  beginning.  The  other  lawyer  was  a  young  man 
of  good  culture  and  amiable  deportment,  I  think  with  no 
prcA^ous  stain  on  his  reputation.  This  is  his  first  offence. 
I  trust  it  will  be  also  his  last — that  he  will  not  bring 
shame  on  his  own  and  his  mother's  head.  I  know  not 
how  the  kidnappers  enticed  the  young  man  to  do  so  base 
a  deed  ;  nor  what  motive  turned  him  to  a  course  so  foul  as 
this.  He  is  a  young  man,  sorely  penitent  for  this  early 
treason  against  humanity.     Generous  emotions  arc  com- 


54  THE   NEW    CRIME 

monly  powerful  in  the  bosoms  of  tlie  young.  A  young 
man  with  only  cruel  calculation  in  his  heart  is  a  rare  and 
loathsome  spectacle.  Let  us  hope  better  things>f  this 
lawyer  ;  that  a  generous  nature  only  sleeps  in  him.  It  is 
his  first  offence.  I  hope  he  will  bring  forth  "fruits 
meet  for  repentance."  Judge  of  him  as  charitably  as^you 
can.  Of  Mr.  Thomas  I  have  only  this  to  add : — that  he  is 
chiefly  known  in  the  courts  as  the  associate  of  Mr.  Curtis 
in  attempts  like  this  ;  the  regular  attorney  of  the  stealers 
of  men,  and  apparently  delighted  with^  his  work.  He 
began  this  career  by  endeavouring  to  seize  William  and 
Ellen  Craft.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Democratic  party 
who  has  not  yet  received  his  reward. 

On  the  side  of  the  kidnapper  there  were  also  the  district 
marshal,  the  district  attorney,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 
Commissioner,  and  sixty-five  men  whom  I  counted  as  the 
marshal's  *^  guard."  When  the  company  was  ordered  to 
disperse,  and  the  guard  to  remain,  I  tarried  late,  and 
counted  them.  I  reckoned  sixty-five  in  the  court- room, 
and  five  more  outside.  I  may  have  been  mistaken  in  the 
count. 

:•  On  the  other  side  there  was  a  poor,  friendless  negro, 
sitting  between  two  bullies,  his  wrists  chained  together 
by  stout  handcuffs  of  steel — a  prisoner  without  a  crime, 
chained ;  on  trial  for  more  than  life,  and  yet  there  was  no 
charge  against  him,  save  that  his  mother  had  been  a  slave ! 

Mr.  Burns  had  no  counsel.  The  kidnapper's  lawyers 
presented  their  documents  from  Alexandria,  claiming 
him  as  a  slave  of  Colonel  Suttle,  who  had  escaped  from 
"  service."  They  brought  a  Virginia  merchant  to  identify 
the  prisoner.  He  was  swiftly  sworn,  and  testified  with 
speed.  The  claimant's  lawyers  declared  that  Mr.  Burns 
had  acknowledged  already  that  he  was  Colonel  Suttle's 
slave,  and  willing  to  go  back.  So  they  demanded  a 
"  certificate  ;"  and  at  first  it  seemed  likely  to  be  granted 
at  once.  Why  should  a  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioner 
delay  ?  Why  does  he  want  evidence  ?  Injustice  is  swift 
of  foot.  You  know  what  was  done  in  ^N'ew  York,  the  very 
same  week  : — three  men  were  seized,  carried  before  a  com- 
missioner, and,  without  even  a  mock  trial,  without  any 
defence,  hurried  to  bondage,  pitiless  and  for  over  !  Only 
an  accident,  it  seems,  saved  Boston  from  that  outrage. 


AGAINST  HUMANITY.  55 

But  there  came  forward  in  tlie  court-room  two  youn^* 
lawj^ers,  Ricliard  H.  Dana  and  Charles  M.  Ellis,  noble  and 
honourable  men,  the  pride  of  the  mothers  that  bore  them, 
and  the  joy  of  the  fathers  who  have  trained  them  up  to 
piety  and  reverence  for  the  law  of  God.  Voluntarily, 
gratuitously,  they  offered  their  services  as  counsel  for  Mr. 
Burns.  But  it  was  said  by  the  kidnappers  that  he  did 
*^  not  want  counsel ;"  that  he  "  would  make  no  defence ;" 
that  he  was  "  willing  to  go  back."  Messrs.  Dana  and 
Ellis  did  not  wish  to  speak  with  him,  or  seemed  to  plead 
that  he  might  be  their  client.  I  spoke  with  him.  His 
fear  gave  him  a  sad  presentiment  of  his  fate.  He  feared 
that  he  should  be  forced  into  slavery.  How  could  he 
think  otherwise  ?  Arrested  on  a  lying  charge  ;  kept  in 
secret  under  severe  and  strict  duress ;  guarded  by  armed 
men ;  confronted  by  his  claimant ;  seeing  no  friends  about 
him ;  how  could  he  do  otherwise  than  despair  ?  If  he  went 
back  at  all,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  '^  wish  to  go  back 
easily,"  fearing  that,  if  he  resisted  his  claimant  in  Boston, 
he  *'must  suffer  for  it  in  Alexandria."  His  "  conqueror," 
he  thought,  would  take  "  vengeance"  on  him  when  he  got 
him  home,  if  he  resisted  his  claim.  That  is  the  best 
evidence  which  I  have  seen  that  the  m.an  had  ever  been  a 
slave  :  he  knew  the  taste  and  the  strength  of  the  slave- 
driver's  whip.  That  was  not  brought  forward  in 
"  evidence."  If  I  had  been  the  kidnapper's  counsel  I 
should  have  said,  *'  The  man  is  doubtless  a  slave ;  he  is 
afraid  to  go  back  !"  When  I  was  in  the  court-room,  as 
I  was  about  to  ask  poor  Burns  if  he  would  have  counsel, 
one  of  the  "  guard"  said  to  me,  '^  You  will  never  get  him 
to  say  he  wants  a  defence."  Another  more  humanely  said, 
"  I  hope  he  will ;  at  any  rate,  it  will  do  no  harm  to  try." 
I  asked  him,  and  he  said,  "  Do  as  you  think  best." 

But  still  the  counsel  felt  a  delicacy  in  engaging  under 
such  circumstances.  For  they  thought  that,  if,  after  all, 
he  was  to  be  sent  to  bondage,  and  when  in  the  hands  of  the 
slave-master  should  be  tortured  the  more  for  the  defence 
they  had  made  for  him  in  Boston  Court  House,  it  would 
surely  be  better  to  let  the  marshal  take  his  victim  as  soon  as 
he  liked,  and  allow  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioner 
to  earn  his  "  thirty  pieces  of  silver"  without  delay.  They 
begged  for  time,  however,  that  the  intimidated  man  might 


56  THE  NEW  craME 

make  up  liis  mind,  and  determine  whether  he  would 
have  a  defence  or  not. 

There  is  no  end  to  human  atrocity.  The  kidnapper's 
lawyers  objected  to  the  delay,  and  wished  the  ''trial"  to 
proceed  at  once  "  fortliwith.''  They  said  that  the  claimant. 
Colonel  Suttle,  was  here,  having  come  all  the  way  from 
Alexandria  to  Boston,  at  great  cost;  that  the  case  was 
clear  ;  that  Burns  made  no  defence :  and  they  asked  for 
an  instant  decision.  The  Democratic  lawyer  [Thomas] 
thought  it  was  not  worth  while  to  delay ;  there  was  only 
the  liberty  of  a  man  at  stake — a  poor  man,  with  no  repu- 
tation, no  friends,  nothing  but  the  "  natural,  essential,  and 
imalienable  rights  '^  wherewith  he  was  "  endowed  by  his 
Creator" — nothing  but  that : — let  the  Yirginia  colonel 
have  his  slave!  That  is  Administration  Democracy  in 
Massachusetts.  There  are  two  Democracies — the  Celes- 
tial and  the  Satanic.  One — it  is  the  Democracy  of  the 
Beatitudes  of  the  New  Testament  and  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
that  says,  "  My  brother,  you  are  as  good  as  I :  come  up 
higher,  and  let  me  take  you  by  the  hand,  and  we  will 
help  each  other."  Such  Democracy  is  the  worship  of  the 
great  Grod.  The  other — it  says,  "  I  am  as  good  as  you, 
and,  if  you  don't  let  me  triumph  over  you,  I  will  smite  you 
to  the  ground."  That  is  the  Democracy  of  Caleb  Cushing, 
the  Democracy  of  the  Administration,  and  of  a  great  many 
political  men,  Democrat  and  "Whig,  and  neither  Whig  nor 
Democrat. 

Commissioner  Loring  asked  Mr.  Burns  if  he  wanted 
time  to  think  of  the  matter,  and  counsel  to  aid  in  his 
defence.  I  shall  never  forget  how  he  looked  round  that 
court-room,  at  the  marshal,  at  the  kidnapper's  lawyers,  at 
the  commissioner,  the  claimant  and  his  witness  !  Save 
the  counsel,  whom  he  had  never  seen  before,  there  was 
scarce  a  friendly  face  that  his  eye  rested  on.  At  length 
he  said  timidly,  and  catching  for  breath,  "Yes."  Mr. 
Loring  put  off  the  case  until  Saturday.  The  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  Commissioner  was  to  lecture  at  Cambridge  on 
Friday.  He  is  a  Professor  at  Harvard  College,  and  he 
could  not  conveniently  hold  court  on  that  day.  He  is  a 
Judge  of  Probate,  and  looks  after  widows  and  orphans ;  he 
must  be  in  the  Probate  Office  on  Monday.  Saturday  was 
iho  most  convenient  day  for  the  commissioner.     So,  in  a 


AGAINST   HUAUNITY.  57 

matter  whicli  was  to  determine  wliether  tlie  prisoner  sliould 
be  a  free  man  or  only  a  thing  which  might  be  sokl  and 
beaten  as  a  beast,  the  "  court  "  allowed  him  forty- eight 
hours'  delay  !  It  really  gave  him  time  to  breathe  a  little. 
Let  us  be  grateful  to  the  commissioner !  He  gave  more 
favour  than  anj^  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioners  have 
done  before,  I  believe. 

You  know  the  rest.  He  was  on  trial  ten  days.  He  was 
never  in  a  court ;  all  this  time  he  has  not  seen  a  jury  ;  he 
has  not  even  seen  a  judge ;  the  process  is  "  summary," 
not  ^'  summary  in  time,"  as  Mr.  Loring  declares  ;  but  it 
is  '^  without  due  form  of  law."  The  Democratic  charge 
d'affaires  at  Turin  says  '^  the  negro  is  the  connecting  link 
between  the  human  and  brute  creation."  *  Why  do  you 
want  a  court  to  make  a  negro  a  slave  in  Boston  ?  Surely, 
a  commissioner  is  enough  in  such  a  case.  Let  him  pro- 
ceed as  swiftly  as  he  will : — the  kidnapper's  lawyers  said 
— "  forthwith ;  "  not  in  a  hurry,  but  '^  immediately." 

You  remember  what  followed.  You  have  seen  the 
streets  crowded  with  armed  men.  You  have  read  the 
newspapers,  the  handbills,  and  the  posters.  You  remem- 
ber the  Faneuil  Hall  meeting,  when  all  the  influence  of 
the  platform  scarce  kept  the  multitude  from  tearing  the 
Court  Plouse  that  night  to  the  ground.  You  remember 
the  attack  on  the  Court  House — a  man  Idlled  and  twelve 
citizens  in  gaol,  charged  with  crimes  of  an  atrocious 
character.  You  recollect  the  conventions — Free  Soil  and 
Anti-Slavery.  You  call  to  mind  the  aspect  of  Court  Square 
last  Monday.  Boston  never  saw  such  an  Anniversary 
week.  There  were  meetings  of  theological  societies,  phi- 
lanthropic societies,  reformatory  societies,  literary  societies  : 
and  Boston  was  in  a  state  of  siege — the  Court  House  full 
of  United  States  soldiers — marines  from  the  navy  yard, 
troops  from  the  forts,  from  New  York,  from  Portsmouth, 
from  Ehode  Island.  The  courts  sat  with  muskets  at  their 
backs,  or  swords  at  their  bosoms  ;  drunken  soldiers  charged 
bayonet  on  the  witnesses,  on  counsel,  and  on  strangers,  who 
had  rights  where  the  soldier  had  none.  The  scene  last  Friday 
you  will  never  forget — business  suspended,  the  shops  shut, 
the  streets  blocked  up,  all  the  "  citizen- soldiery  "  under 
arms.   Ball  cartridges  were  made  for  the  city  government  on 

*  Soc  above,  vol.  i.  p.  39  !■. 


58  THE   NEW   CRIME 

Thui'sday  afternoon  in  Dock  Square,  to  be  fired  into  your 
bosoms  and  mine ;  United  >States  soldiers  loaded  their 
pieces  in  Court  Square,  to  be  discharged  into  the  crowd  of 
Boston  citizens  whenever  a  drmiken  officer  should  give 
command;  a  six-poimd  cannon,  furnished  with  forty 
rounds  of  canister  shot,  was  planted  in  Court  Square, 
manned  by  United  States  soldiers,  foreigners  before  they 
enlisted.  The  town  looked  Austrian.  And,  at  high 
change,  over  the  spot  where,  on  the  5th  of  March,  1770, 
fell  the  first  victim  in  the  Boston  Massacre, — where  the 
negro  blood  of  Christopher  Attucks  stained  the  ground, — 
over  that  spot  Boston  authorities  carried  a  citizen  of  Mas- 
sachusetts to  Alexandria  as  a  slave  ;  *^  and  order  reigns  in 
Boston  '^ — or  "Warsaw,  call  it  which  you  will. 
So  much  for  a  brief  statement  of  facts. 

Pause  with  me  a  moment,  and  look  at  the  general  causes 
of  the  fact.  Here  are  two  great  forces  in  the  nation.  One 
is  Slavery,  Freedom  is  the  other.  The  two  are  hostile, 
deadly  foes — irreconcilable.  They  will  go  on  fighting  till 
one  kills  the  other  outright.  From  1775  to  1788,  Freedom 
generally  prevailed  over  Slavery.  It  was  the  period  of 
revolution,  when  the  nation  fell  back  on  its  religious 
feelings,  and  thence  developed  the  great  political  ideas  of 
America,  But  even  then  Slavery  was  in  the  midst  of  us. 
It  came  into  the  constitution,  and,  from  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  constitution  to  the  present  time,  it  has  advanced, 
and  freedom  declined.  It  has  gone  over  the  AUeghanics, 
over  the  Rio  del  Norte,  over  the  Cordilleras ;  it  extends 
from  the  forty-ninth  parallel  to  the  thirty- second,  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific ;  it  has  gone  into  ten  new  States, 
into  all  the  territories  except  Oregon. 

Since  the  annexation  of  Texas,  in  1845,  Slavery  has  been 
the  obvious  master,  Freedom  the  obvious  servant.  Fidelity 
to  Slavery  is  the  sine  qua  non  for  office-holders.  Slavery 
is  the  '^  peculiar  institution  "  of  the  industrial  democracy 
of  America.  Slavery  is  terribly  in  earnest,  as  Freedom  has 
never  been  since  the  Pevolution.  It  controls  all  the  poli- 
tics of  the  country.  It  strangles  all  our  "  great  men." 
There  is  not  a  great  democrat,  nor  a  great  Whig,  who  dares 
openly  op  ose  Slavery.  All  the  commercial  towns  are  on 
its  side.     There  is  not  an  anti-Slavery  governor  of  any 


AGAINST  HUMANITY.  59 

State  in  the  Union.  The  supreme  courts  of  the  States  are 
all  pro-Slavery,  save  in  Vermont.  The  leading  newspapers 
are  nearly  all  on  the  side  of  wrong — almost  all  the  com- 
mercial, almost  all  the  political  newspapers.  I  know  but 
few  exceptions — of  course  I  do  not  speak  of  those  devoted 
to  philanthropy — the  democratic  Evening  Post,  truly  de- 
mocratic, of  New  York ;  and  the  Neiv  York  Ti^ibune,  which 
is  truly  democratic,  though  it  hoists  another  banner. 
Many  of  the  theological  journals — Protestant  as  well  as 
Catholic— are  cruelly  devoted  to  Slavery.  But  proudly 
above  all  the  religious  journals  of  the  land  rises  the 
Independent,  and  bears  a  noble  witness  to  the  humane 
spirit  of  Christianity.  These  are  eminent  exceptions,  which 
would  do  honour  to  any  nation. 

The  friends  of  Freedom  appeal  religiously  to  the  souls 
and  consciences  of  men  :  piety  and  justice  demand  that  all 
be  free ;  the  appeal  immediately  touches  a  few.  They 
address  also  the  reason  and  the  understanding  of  men: 
Freedom  is  the  great  idea  of  politics  ;  it  is  self-evident  that 
"  all  men  are  created  equal.^'  That  argument  touches  a 
few  more.  But  the  religious,  who  reverence  God's  higher 
law,  and  the  intellectual,  who  see  the  great  ideas  of  politics, 
they  are  few.  Slavery  addresses  the  vulgar  interests  of 
vulgar  men.  To  the  slave-holder  it  gives  political  power, 
pecuniary  power ;  and  here  is  an  argument  which  the 
dullest  can  miderstand,  and  the  meanest  appreciate.  Able 
and  cunning  men  feel  this,  and  avail  themselves  of  Slavery 
to  secure  money  and  political  power.  These  are  the  objects 
of  most  intense  desire  in  America.  They  are  our  highest 
things — marks  of  our  "  great  men."  Ofhce  is  transient 
nobility;  money  is  permanent,  heritable  nobility.  Ac- 
cordingly, Slavery  is  the  leading  idea  of  America — the 
"  great  American  institution."  I  think  history  furnishes 
no  instance  of  one  section  of  a  country  submitting  so  meanly 
to  another  as  we  have  done  in  America.  The  South  is 
weak  in  numbers  and  in  money — the  l^orth  strong  in  both. 
The  South  has  few  schools,  no  commerce,  few  newspapers, 
no  large  mass  of  intelligent  men,  wherein  the  North 
abounds.  But  the  most  eminent  Southern  men  are  de- 
voted to  politics,  while  the  Northern  turn  to  trade  :  and 
so  the  South  commands  the  North.  I  am  only  translating 
facts  into  ideas,  and  bringing  the  condition  of  America  to 


60  THE   NEW   CRIME 

tlie   consciousness  of  America.     Some   men  knew    these 
things  before,  but  the  mass  of  men  know  them  not. 
So  much  for  the  general  causes. 

[N'ow  look  at  some  of  the  special  causes.  I  shall  limit 
myself  chiefly  to  those  which  Massachusetts  has  had  a  share 
in  putting  into  activity. 

In  1826,  on  the  9th  of  March,  Mr.  Edward  Everett 
made  a  speech  in  Congress.  He  was  the  representative  of 
Middlesex  Countj^  Once  he  w^as  a  minister  of  the  church 
where  John  Hancock  used  to  worship,  and  as  clergyman 
officially  resided  in  the  house  which  John  Hancock  gave 
to  that  church.  I^ext,  he  was  a  Professor  in  Harvard 
College,  where  the  Adamses — the  three  Adamses,  Samuel, 
John,  and  John  Quincy — were  educated,  and  where  John 
Hancock  had  graduated.  He  represented  Lexington,  and 
Concord,  and  Bunker  Hill,  and  in  his  speech  he  said  : — 

''  Neither  am  I  one  of  those  citizens  of  the  North  who 
would  think  it  immoral  and  irreligious  to  join  in  putting 
down  a  servile  insurrection  at  the  South.  I  am  no  soldier, 
sir.  My  habits  and  education  are  very  immilitary ;  but 
there  is  no  cause  in  which  I  would  sooner  buckle  a  knap- 
sack to  my  back,  and  put  a  musket  to  my  shoulder,  than 
that."  "  Domestic  slavery  ...  is  not,  in  my  judgment, 
to  be  set  down  as  an  immoral  or  irreligious  institution." 
*^  Its  duties  are  presupposed  by  religion."  "  The  New 
Testament  says,  '  Slaves,  obey  your  masters.'  " 

The  Daily  Advertiser  defended  Mr.  Everett,  declaring 
that  it  was  perfectly  right  in  him  to  justify  the  continu- 
ance of  the  relation  between  the  master  and  his  slaves,  and 
added  (I  am  now  quoting  from  the  Daily  Advertiser  of 
March  28th,  1826)  :—"  We  hold  that  it  is  not  time,  and 
never  will  be,  that  we  should  be  aroused  to  any  efforts  for 
their  redemption."  That  was  the  answer  which  the  "  re- 
spectability of  Boston  "  gave  to  Mr.  Everett's  speech. 
True,  some  journals  protested  against  the  iniquitous  state- 
ment ;  even  the  Christia?!  Register  was  indignant.  But 
Middlesex  County  sent  him  again.  Lexington,  and  Cor- 
cord,  and  Bunker  Hill,  returned  their  apostate  represen- 
tative a  second,  a  third,  a  fourth,  and  a  fifth  time.  And, 
when  he  was  weary  of  tlmt  honour,  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts made  him  her  Governor,  and  lie  carried  to  the  State 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  61 

House  the  same  proclivities  to  despotism  wliicli  lie  luicl 
evinced  in  liis  maiden  speecli. 

In  1835,  the  anti-Slavery  men  and  women  were  mobhcd 
in  Boston  by  an  assembly  of  ''  respectable  gentlemen ;  " 
the  Mayor  did  not  stop  the  tumult,  the  destruction  of 
property,  and  the  peril  to  life  !  There  were  no  soldiers  in 
the  streets  then ;  nobodj^,  I  think,  was  punished. 

The  next  winter,  the  General  Assemblies  of  several 
Southern  States  sent  resolutions  to  the  Massachusetts 
General  Court,  whereof  this  is  one  from  South  Carolina  : — 
*'  The  formation  of  abolition  societies,  and  the  acts  and 
doings  of  certain  fanatics,  calling  themselves  abolitionists, 
in  the  non-slaveholding  States  of  this  confederacy,  are  in 
direct  violation  of  the  obligations  of  the  compact  of  the 
Union." 

South  Carolina'  requested  the  Government  "  promptly 
and  effectually  to  suppress  all  those  associations,''  and 
w^oidd  consider  "  the  abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  district  of 
Columbia  as  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  citizens,  and  a 
usurpation  to  be  at  once  resisted."  Georgia  asked  Massa- 
chusetts "to  crush  the  traitorous  designs  of  the  aboli- 
tionists." Virginia  required  the  non-slaveholding  States 
*' to  adopt  penal  enactments,  or  such  other  measures  as  will 
effectually  suppress  all  associations  within  their  respective 
limits,  purporting  to  be,  or  having  the  character  of,  aboli- 
tion societies  ;  "  and  that  they  "  will  make  it  highly  penal 
to  print,  publish,  or  distribute  newspapers,  pamphlets,  or 
other  publications,  calculated  or  having  a  tendency  to 
incite  the  slaves  of  the  Southern  States  to  insurrection  and 
revolt."  How  do  you  think  Massachusetts  answered  ?  In 
solemn  resolutions  the  committee  of  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  declared  that  "the  agitation  of  the  question  of 
domestic  slavery  had  already  interrupted  the  friendly 
relations  between  the  several  States  of  the  Union  ;  "  ex- 
pressed its  "  entire  disapprobation  of  the  doctrines  and 
speeches  of  such  as  agitate  the  question,"  and  advised  them 
"  to  abstain  from  all  such  discussion  as  might  tend  to  dis- 
turb and  agitate  the  public  mind."  That  was  the  voice  of 
a  committee  appointed  by  the  IMassachusetts  Legislature* 
True,  it  was  not  accepted  by  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, but  the  report  was  only  too  significant.  What 
followed  ? 


62  THE   NEW   CRIME 

In  1844,  one  of  tlie  most  eminent  lawyers  of  this  State 
was  sent  by  Massachusetts  to  the  city  of  Charleston,  to 
proceed  legally  and  secure  the  release  of  Massachusetts 
coloured  citizens  from  the  gaols  of  Charleston,  where  they 
were  held  without  charge  of  crime,  and  contrary  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Hoar  was  mobbed 
out  of  Charleston  by  a  body  of  respectable  citizens,  the 
high  sheriff  aiding  in  driving  him  out. 

Mr.  Hoar  made  his  report  to  the  Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  said : — 

"  Has  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  the  least 
practical  validity  or  binding  force  in  South  Carolina, 
excepting  when  she  thinks  its  operation  favourable  to  her  ? 
She  prohibits  the  trial  of  an  action  in  the  tribunals  estab- 
lishqd  under  the  Constitution  for  determining  such  cases, 
in  which  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts  complains  that  a  citizen 
of  South  Carolina  has  done  him  an  injury;  saying  that  she 
has  herself  already  tried  that  cause,  and  decided  against 
the  plain tiif.^' 

The  evil  complained  of  continues  unabated  to  this  day. 
South  Carolina  imprisons  all  the  free  coloured  citizens  of  the 
I^orth  who  visit  her  ports  in  our  ships. 

In  1845,  Texas  was  admitted,  and  annexed  as  a  slave 
State,  with  the  promise  that  she  might  bring  in  four  other 
slave  States. 

In  1847  and  '48  came  the  Mexican  "War,  with  the 
annexation  of  an  immense  territory  as  slave  soil.  Many 
of  the  leading  men  of  Massachusetts  favoured  the  annexa- 
tion of  Texas.  ISTew  England  might  have  stopped  it ; 
Massachusetts  might  have  stopped  it ;  Boston  might  have 
stopped  it.  But  Mr.  Webster  said  "  she  could  not  be 
aroused."  The  politicians  of  Massachusetts  favoured  the 
Mexican  war.  It  was  a  war  for  Slavery.  Boston  favoured 
it.  The  ncAVspapers  came  out  in  its  defence.  The  Gfovernor 
called  out  the  soldiers,  and  they  came.  From  the  New 
England  pulpit  we  heard  but  a  thin  and  feeble  voice 
against  the  war. 

But  there  were  men  who  doubted  that  wrong  was  right, 
and  said,  "  Beware  of  this  wickedness  V  The  sober  people 
of  the  country  disliked  the  war  :  they  said,  "  'No  I  lot  us 
have  no  such  wicked  work  as  this  V  Governor  Briggs, 
though  before  so  deservedly  popular,  could  never  again  got 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  63 

elected  by  tlie  people.     He  had  violated  their  conscience 
by  issuing  his  proclamation  calling  for  volunteers. 

In  1850  came  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  You  all  remem- 
ber Mr.  Webster's  speech  on  the  7th  of  March.  Before 
that  time  he  had  opposed  all  the  great  steps  of  the  slave 
power — the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  annexation^  of 
Texas,  the  Mexican  War,  the  increase  of  slave  territory. 
He  had  voted,  I  think,  against  the  admission  of  every 
slave  State.  He  was  opposed  to  the  extension  of  American 
Slavery,  "at  all  times,  now  and  for  ever."  He  claimed 
the  Wilmot  proviso  as  his  "  thunder.' '  He  "  could  stand 
on  the  Buffalo  platform"  in  1848.  But,  in  1850,  he  prof- 
fered his  support  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  BIB,  "  with  all  its 
provisions,  to  the  fullest  extent."  He  volunteered  the  pro- 
mise that  Massachusetts  would  "  obey,"  and  that  "  with 
alacrity."  You  remember  his  speech  at  the  Eevere  House 
— discussion  "  must  be  suppressed,  in  Congress  and  out ;" 
Massachusetts  must  "  conquer  her  prejudices"  in  favour  of 
the  unalienable  rights  of  man,  which  she  had  fought  the 
Revolution  to  secure.  You  have  not  forgotten  his  speeches 
at  Albany,  at  Syracuse,  at  Buffalo ;  nor  his  denial  of  the 
Higher  Law  of  God  at  Capron  Springs  in  Yirginia — "  The 
North  Mountain  is  very  high  ;  the  Blue  Ridge  higher 
still;  the  AUeghanies  higher  than  either;  yet  this 
*  Higher  Law'  ranges  an  eagle's  flight  above  the  highest 
peak  of  the  AUeghanies."  What  was  the  answer  from 
the  crowd  ?  "  Laughter."  The  multitude  laughed  at  the 
Higher  Law.  There  is  no  law  above  the  J^orth  Mountain, 
above  the  Blue  Ridge,  above  the  peaks  of  the  Alleghany — 
is  there  ?  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  reaches  up  where  there 
is  no  God ! 

Men  of  property  and  standing  aU  over  New  England 
supported  the  apostacy  of  Mr.  Webster.  You  remember 
the  letters  from  Maine,  from  New  Hampshire,  and  the  one 
from  Newburyport.  I  am  sure  you  have  not  forgotten  the 
letter  of  the  nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven  prominent  men 
in  and  about  Boston,  telling  him  that  he  had  "  convinced 
the  understanding  and  touched  the  conscience  of  a  nation." 
Good  men,  whom  I  have  long  known,  and  tenderly  loved, 
put  their  names  to  that  letter.  Did  they  think  the  "  Union 
in  danger  ?"  Not  one  of  them.  A  man  of  great  under- 
standing beguiled  them. 


64  THE    NEW    CRIME 

You  remember  the  tone  of  the  newspapers,  Whig  and 
Democratic.  With  alacrity  they  went  for  kidnapping  to 
the  fullest  extent.  They  clasped  hands  in  order  to  seize 
the  black  man.  When  the  time  came,  Mr.  Eliot  gave 
the  vote  of  Boston  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  When  he 
returned  to  his  home,  some  of  the  most  prominent  men  of 
the  city  went  and  thanked  him  for  his  vote.  They  liked 
it.  I  believe  no  '*  eminent  man"  of  Boston  spoke  against 
it.  They  "strained  their  consciences,'^  as  Mr.  Wallejr 
has  just  said,  *'  to  aid  ui  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Act.''  Boston  fired  a  hundred  guns  on  the  Common,  at 
noon-day,  in  honour  of  that  event. 

I  know  there  was  opposition — earnest  and  fierce  opposi- 
tion ;  but  it  did  not  come  from  the  citizens  of  "  eminent 
gravity,"  whom  Boston  and  Massachusetts  are  accustomed 
stupidly  to  folloY/.  You  know  what  hatred  was  felt  in 
Boston  against  all  men  who  taught  that  the  natural  law  of 
God  was  superior  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  Conscience 
above  the  Constitution. 

You  have  not  forgotten  the  "  Union  meeting"  in  Fa- 
neuil  Hall.  I  never  saw  so  much  meanness  and  so  little 
manhood  on  that  platform.  The  Democratic  Herods  and 
the  Whig  Pilates  were  made  friends  that  day  that  they 
might  kidnap  the  black  man.  You  recollect  the  howl  of 
derision  against  the  Higher  Law  of  God,  which  came  from 
that  ignoble  stage,  and  was  echoed  by  that  ignoble  crowd 
above  it  and  below — speakers  fit  for  fitting  theme. 

When  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  proposed,  prominent 
men  said,  "  It  cannot  pass :  the  ISTorth  will  reject  it  at  once  ; 
and,  even  if  it  were  passed,  it  would  be  repealed  the  next 
daj.  We  will  petition  for  its  repeal."  After  it  was 
passed,  they  said  :  "It  cannot  be  executed,  and  never  will 
be."  But,  when  asked  to  petition  for  its  repeal,  the  same 
men  refused — "  No,  it  would  irritate  the  South."  I 
received  the  petitions  which  our  fellow- citizens  sent  from 
more  than  three  hundred  towns  in  Massachusetts.  I  took 
the  smallest  of  them  all,  and  sent  it  to  the  representative 
of  Boston,  Mr.  Eliot,  with  a  letter,  asking  him  to  present 
it  to  the  House.  He  presented  it — to  me !  It  was  not 
"  laid  on  the  table  ;"  he  put  it  in  the  post-ofiice.  I  sent  it 
back  to  Washini>ton,  to  some  Southern  or  Western  mem- 
ber,  and  he  presented  it  in  Congress. 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  65 

The  next  Congress  re-affirmed  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 

"  Twice  they  routed  all  their  foes, 
And  twice  they  slew  the  slain." 

The  new  Representative  from  Boston,  Mr.  Appleton, 
gave  the  vote  of  Boston  for  it.  He  was  never  censured  for 
that  act.     He  was  approved,  and  re-elected. 

You  remember  the  conduct  of  the  Boston  newspapers. 

Almost  all  of  them  went  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  They 

made  Atheism  the  first  principle  in  American  politics — 

"  There  is  no  Higher  Law."     The  instinct  of  commerce  is 

adverse  to  the  natural  rights  of  labour :  so  the  chief  leaders 

in  commerce  wish  to  have  the  working  man  but  poorly  paid  ; 

the  larger  gain  falls  into  their  hands  ;  their  labourer  is  a 

ruill,  they  must  run  him  as  cheap  as  they  can.     So  the  great 

cities  of  the  I!^orth  were  hostile  to  the  slave — hostile  to 

freedom.     The  wealthy  capitalists  did  not  know  that  in 

denjdng  the  Higher  Law  of  God  they  were  destroying  the 

rock  on  which  alone  their  money  could  rest  secure.     The 

mass  of  men  in  cities,  servants  of  the  few,  loiew  not  that  in 

.chaining  the  black  man  they  were  also  putting  fetters  on 

their  own  feet.     Justice  is  the  common  interest  of  all  men  ! 

Alas,  that  so  few  know  what  God  writes  in  letters  of  fire  on 

the  world's  high  walls  ! 

You  have  not  forgotten  the  general  tone  of  the  pulpit, — 
"  Conscience  and  the  Constitution,"    at  Andover.      Mr. 
Stuart  says,  "  Keep  the  laws  of  men,  come  what  may  come  of 
the  Higher  Law  of  God."    One  minister  of  Boston  said,  ''I 
would  drive  the  fugitive  from  my  own  door."       The  most 
eminent  Doctor  of  Divinity  in  the  Unitarian  ranks  declared 
he  would  send  his  own  mother  into  slavery.      He  says  he 
said  brother  !     Give  him  the  benefit  of  the  ethical  distinc- 
tion :  he  would  send  back  his  own  brother !     What  had 
Andover  and  New    Haven    to    say,    in    their    collegiate 
churches  ?      What  the  churches  of  commerce  in  New  York. 
Boston,   Philadelphia,  Albany,  Buffalo  ?     They  all  went 
for  kidnapping.     "  Down  with  God  and  up  with  iniquity." 
That  was  the  short  of  the  lower  law  religion  which  littered 
the  land.     The  ecclesiastical  teachers  did  more  to  strengthen 
infidelity  then,  than  all  the  "  infidels"  that  ever  taught. 
What  else  could  you  expect  from  lower  law  divines  ?     All 
at  once  this  blessed  Bible  seemed  to  have  become  a  treatise 

VOL.   VI.  F 


66  THE   NEW   CRIME 

in.  favour  of  man-stealmg.  Kidnapping  argaiments  were 
strewn  all  the  wixj  tlirougli  from  Genesis  to  Revelation. 
These  were  the  reverned  gentleman  who  call  me  "  infidel," 
or  "atheist!"  JN^othing  has  so  weakened  the  Church  in 
America  as  this  conduct  of  these  ''  leading  ministers"  at 
that  time.  I  mean  ministers  of  churches  that  are  rich  in 
money,  which  lead  the  fashion  and  the  opinion  of  the  day. 
What  defences  of  kidnapping  have  I  heard  from  clerical 
lips  !  "  ]^o  matter  what  the  law  is — it  must  be  executed. 
The  men  who  made  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  those  who 
seek  to  execute  it,  are  *  Christian  men,'  *very  conscien- 
tious !'  "  Turn  back  and  read  the  newspapers  of  1850  and 
1851.     ISTay,  read  them  not— they  are  too  bad  to  read  ! 

When  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  before  Congress,  some 
of  the  northern  politicians  said  to  the  people,  "  Let  it  pass  ; 
it  will  *  save  the  Union,'  and  we  will  repeal  it  at  the  next 
session  of  Congress."  After  it  had  passed  they  said,  "  Do 
not  try  to  repeal  it ;  that  would  irritate  the  South,  and 
*  dissolve  the  Union  ;'  it  will  never  be  executed  ;  it  is  too 
bad  to  be."  But  when  the  kidnapper  came  to  Boston,  and 
demanded  William  and  Ellen  Craft,  the  same  advisers  said, 
"  Of  course  the  niggers  must  be  sent  back  ;  the  law  must 
be  enforced  because  it  is  law  !" 

At  length  the  time  came  to  execute  the  Act.  Morton 
w^as  busy  in  New  York,  Kane  in  Philadelphia,  Curtis,  the 
Boston  Commissioner,  was  also  on  his  feet.  William  and 
Ellen  Craft  fled  off  from  the  stripes  of  America  to  the  lion 
of  England.  Shadrach — he  will  be  remembered  as  long  as 
Daniel — sang  his  psalm  of  deliverance  in  Canada.  Taking 
him  out  of  the  Kidnappers'  Court  was  high  treason.  It 
was  "  levying  war."  Thomas  Sims  will  not  soon  be  for- 
gotten in  Boston.  Mayor  Bigelow,  Commissioner  Curtis, 
and  Marshal  Tukey,  they  will  also  be  remembered ;  they 
will  all  three  be  borne  down  to  posterity,  riding  on  the 
scourged  and  bleeding  shoulders  of  Thomas  Sims.  The 
government  of  Boston  could  do  nothing  for  the  fugitive 
but  kidnap  him.  The  officers  of  the  county  nothing  ;  they 
were  only  cockade  and  vanity.  The  Supreme  Court  could 
do  nothing ;  the  Judges  crouched,  and  crawled,  and  went 
under  the  chain.  The  Free  Soil  Governor  could  do 
nothing ;  the  Free  Soil  Legislature  nothing.  The  Court 
House  was  in  chains.     Faneuil  Hall  was  shut.     The  victim 


AGAINST  HUMANITY.  G7 

was  on  trial.  A  tliousand  able-bodied  men  sat  in  Tremont 
Temple  all  day  in  a  Free  Soil  Convention,  and — went  home 
at  night !  Most  of  the  newspapers  in  the  city  were  for 
kidnapping.  The  greater  part  of  the  clergy  were  for  re- 
turning the  fugitive  : — "  Send  back  our  brother.'^  Some  of 
the  towns  held  meetings,  and  passed  resolutions  against  the 
rendition  of  the  fugitive — Lynn,  I'Tew  Bedford,  Worcester. 
And,  in  consequence,  the  leading  commercial  papers  of 
Boston  threatened  to  cut  off  all  trade  with  ISTew  Bedford  ; 
they  would  not  buy  its  oil :  would  have  no  dealings  with 
Lynn,  they  woidd  not  tread  her  shoes  under  their  feet : 
they  would  starve  out  Worcester.  In  Boston,  wealthy 
traders  entertained  the  kidnappers  from  the  South.  Mer- 
chants and  railroad  directors  withdrew  their  advertising 
from  newspapers  which  opposed  the  stealing  of  men. 
More  than  one  minister  in  New  England  was  driven  from 
his  pulpit  for  declaring  the  Golden  Eule  superior  to  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill ! 

When  Judge  Woodbury  decided  not  to  grant  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus,  and  thus  at  one  spurt  of  his  pen  cut  off 
Mr.  Sims's  last  chance  for  liberty  and  life,  the  Court  House 
rang  with  plaudits,  and  the  clapping  of  hands  of  "  gentle- 
men'* who  had  assembled  there  !  Fifteen  hundred  "  gen- 
tlemen, of  property  and  standing,'*  volunteered  to  escort 
the  poor  fugitive  out  of  the  State,  and  convey  him  to 
bondage  for  ever.  It  was  not  necessary.  When  he  stepped 
from  Long  W^harf  on  board  John  H.  Pearson's  brig, — the 
owner  is  sorry  for  it  now,  and  has  repented,  and  promises 
to  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance  ;  let  that  be 
remembered  to  his  honour, — when  Thomas  Sims  stepped 
on  board  the  "  Acorn,"  these  were  his  words  :  "  And  this 
is  Massachusetts  liberty!"  There  was  that  great  stone 
finger  pointing  from  Bunker  Hill  tov/ards  heaven;  and 
this  was  "Massachusetts  liberty!"  "Order  reigned  in 
Warsaw."  But  it  was  some  comfort  that  he  could  not  be 
sent  away  till  soldiers  were  billeted  in  Faneuil  Hall ;  then, 
only  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the  night ! 

Boston  sent  back  the  first  man  she  ever  stole  since  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Thomas  Sims  reached 
Savannah  on  the  19th  of  April,  seventy-six  years  after 
the  first  battle  of  the  He  volution,  fought  on  the  soil  of  Lex- 
ington.    He  was  sent  back  on  Saturday,  and  the  next 

F  2 


68  THE    NEW   CRIME 

Sunday  tlie  "  leading  ministers  "  of  this  city — I  call  tliem 
leading,  tliough.  tliey  lead  nobody — gave  God  tlianks. 
They  forgot  Jesus.  They  took  Iscariot  for  their  exemplar. 
''The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  must  be  kept/'  they  said,  ''come 
what  will  come  to  justice,  liberty,  and  love ;  come  what 
may  come  of  God." 

I  know  there  were  noble  ministers,  noble  men  in  pulpits, 
whose  hearts  bled  in  them,  and  who  spoke  brave  warning 
words  of  liberty ;  some  were  in  the  countrj^,  some  in  town. 
I  know  one  minister,  an  "  orthodox  man,''  who  in  five 
months  helped  ninety-and-five  fugitives  flee  from  American 
stripes  to  the  freedom  of  Canada  !  I  dare  not  yet  tell  his 
name  !  Humble  churches  in  the  country  towns — Metho- 
dist, Baptist,  Unitarian — of  all  denominations  save  that 
of  commerce — dropped  their  two  mites  of  money  into  the 
alms-box  for  the  slave,  and  gave  him  their  prayers  and 
their  preaching  too.  But  the  "famous  churches"  went 
for  "  law  "  and  stealing  men. 

Slavery  had  long  been  master  at  lYashington :  the 
"  Union  meeting  "  proved  that  it  was  master  at  Boston ; 
proved  it  by  words.  The  capture  and  sending  back  of 
Thomas  Sims  proved  it  by  deeds.  iSTo  prominent  Whig 
openly  opposed  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  or  its  execution. 
No  prominent  democrat  opposed  it.  I^ot  a  prominent 
clergyman  in  Boston  spoke  against  it.  I  mean  a  clergy- 
man of  a  "  rich  and  fashionable  church  " — for  in  these 
days  the  wealth  and  social  standing  of  the  church  make 
the  minister  "  prominent."  Intellectual  power,  eloquence, 
piety, — they  do  not  make  a  "prominent  minister"  in  these 
days.*  Not  ten  of  the  rich  men  of  Massachusetts  gave  the 
weight  of  their  influence  against  it.  Slavery  is  master ; 
Massachusetts  is  one  of  the  inferior  counties  of  Virginia ; 
Boston  is  only  a  suburb  of  Alexandria.  Many  of  our 
lawyers,  ministers,  merchants,  politicians,  were  negro- 
drivers  for  the  South.  They  proved  it  by  idea  before ; 
then  by  deed.  Yet  there  were  men  in  .Boston  who  hated 
slavery — alas  !  they  had  little  influence. 

Let  me  not  pass  by  the  Baltimore  conventions,  and  the 
two  platforms.     The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  the  central 

*  Dr.  Charles  Lowell,  wifcli:the  humane  piety  which  has  beautified  his 
long  and  faithful  ministrj^  at  that  time  opposed  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 
Avith  manly  eai'nestncss. 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  69 

and  topmost  plank  in  tliem  botli.  Each  confessed  Slavery 
to  be  master  ;  it  seemed  that  there  was  no  North ;  slave 
soil  all  the  way  from  the  south  of  Florida  to  the  north  of 
Maine.     All  over  the  land  Slavery  ruled. 

You  cannot  forget  Mr.  Pierce's  inaugural  address,  nor 
the  comments  of  the  Boston  press  thereon.  He  says  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  is  to  be  "  unhesitatingly  carried  into 
effect;"  "not  with  reluctance,"  but  "cheerfully  and  will- 
ingly." The  newspapers  of  Boston  welcomed  the  senti- 
ment ;  and  now  Mr.  Pierce's  organ,  the  Washington  UnioUy 
says  it  is  very  proper  this  Bill  should  be  enforced  at 
Boston,  for  "  Boston  was  among  the  first  to  approve  of 
this  emphatic  declaration."  So  let  the  promise  be  executed 
here  till  we  have  enough  of  it ! 

You  know  the  contempt  v/hich  has  been  shown  towards 
everybody  who  opposed  Slavery  here  in  ]\Iassachusetts. 
Horace  Mann — there  is  not  a  man  in  the  State  more  hated 
than  he  by  the  "prominent  politicians," — or  more  loved 
by  the  people — because  he  opposed  Slavery  with  all  his 
might ;  and  it  is  a  great  might.  Robert  Rantoul,  though 
a  politician  and  a  X^arty  man,  fought  against  Slavery  ;  and 
when  he  died,  though  he  was  an  eminent  lawyer,  the 
members  of  the  Suffollv  bar,  his  brother  lawyers,  took  no 
notice  of  him.  They  wore  no  crape  for  Pobert  Rantoul ! 
He  had  opposed  Slavery ;  let  him  die  unnoticed,  un- 
honoured,  unknown.  Massachusetts  sent  to  the  Senate  a 
man  vv^hose  chief  constitutional  impulse  is  the  instinct  of 
decorum — Mr.  Everett,  who  had  been  ready  to  buckle  on 
his  knapsack,  and  shoulder  his  musket,  to  put  down  an  in- 
surrection of  slaves ;  a  Cambridge  professor  of  Greek,  he 
studied  the  original  tongue  of  the  Bible  to  learn  that  the 
Scripture  says  "  slaves,"  where  the  English  Bible  says 
only  "  servants."     Fit  Senator! 

Then  came  the  I^ebraska  Bill.  It  v^^as  at  once  a  measure 
and  a  principle.  As  a  measure,  it  extends  the  old  curse  of 
Slavery  over  half  a  million  square  miles  of  virgin  soil,  and 
thus  hinders  the  growth  of  the  territory  in  population, 
riches,  education,  in  moral  and  religious  character.  It 
makes  a  South  Carolina  of  what  might  else  be  a  Connec- 
ticut, and  establishes  Paganism  in  the  place  of  Christ's 
piety.  As  a  principle,  it  is  worse  still — it  makes  Slavery 
national  and  inseparable  from  the  national  soil ;  for  the 


70  THE   NEW   CRIME 

principle  wliicli  is  covertly  endorsed  by  the  I^ebraska  Bill 
might  establish  Slavery  in  Massachusetts — and  ere  long 
the  attempt  will  be  made. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  forty-four  Northern 
men  voted  for  the  enslavement  of  Nebraska.  They  are  all 
Democrats — it  is  an  administration  measure.  Mr.  Everett, 
the  senator  from  Boston,  "  did  not  knov/  exactly  what  to  * 
do.'*  The  thing  was  discussed  in  committee,  of  which  he 
was  a  member ;  but  when  it  came  up  in  public,  it  "  took 
him  by  surprise.'*  He  wrote,  I  am  told,  to  eleven  promi- 
nent Whig  gentlemen  of  Massachusetts,  and  asked  their 
advice  as  to  what  he  should  do.  With  singular  unanimity, 
every  man  of  them  said,  "Oppose  it  vfith  all  your  might! " 
But  he  did  not.  ISTay,  his  vote  has  not  l3een  recorded 
against  it  yet.  I  am  told  his  vote  was  in  favour  of  pro- 
hibiting aliens  from  voting  in  that  territory ;  his  name 
against  the  main  question  has  never  been  recorded  yet. 
Nay,  he  did  not  dare  to  present  the  remonstrance  which 
three  thousand  and  fifty  of  his  fellow- clergymen  manfully 
sent  to  their  clerical  brother,  and  asked  him  to  lay  before 
the  senate.  Hid  any  one  suppose  that  he  would  dare  do 
it  ?     None  who  knew  his  antecedents. 

There  was  an  Anti-Nebraska  meeting  in  Boston  at 
Faneuil  Hall.  It  was  Siberian  in  its  coldness — it  was  a 
meeting  of  icebergs.  The  platform  was  Arctic.  There 
seemed  to  be  no  heart  in  the  speeches.  It  must  have  been 
an  encouragement  to  the  men  at  Washington  who  advo- 
cated the  bill.  I  suppose  they  understood  it  so.  I  am 
sure  I  should.  The  mass  of  the  people  in  Massachusetts 
who  think  at  all,  are  indignant ;  but  so  far  as  I  can  learn, 
the  men  who  control  the  politics  of  Boston,  or  wdio  have 
controlled  them  until  the  last  week,  feel  no  considerable 
interest  in  the  matter.  In  New  York,  men  of  great 
property  and  high  standing  came  together  and  protested 
against  this  iniquity.  New  York  has  been,  for  once,  and  in 
one  particular,  morally  in  advance  of  Boston.  The  platform 
there  was  not  Arctic,  not  even  Siberian.  Such  a  meeting 
could  not  have  been  held  here. 

Now,  put  all  these  things  together,  and  you  see  the 
causes  which  bore  the  fruits  of  last  week  ; — in  general,  the 
triumph  of  Slavery  over  Freedom,   and  in   special,  the 


AGAINST  HUMANITY.  71 

indifference  of  Massacliusetts,  and  particularly  of  Boston, 
to  the  efforts  which  are  made  for  Freedom;  her  zeal 
to  promote  Slavery  and  honour  its  defenders.  Men  talk 
of  dividing  the  TJnion.  I  never  proposed  that.  Before 
last  week  I  should  not  have  known  where  to  begin. 
I  should  have  had  to  draw  the  line  somewhere  north  of 
Boston. 

Last  week  Massachusetts  got  part  of  her  pay  for  obey- 
ing the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  with  alacrity  ;  for  suppressing 
discussion ;  for  conquering  her  prejudices  ;  pay  for  putting 
cowardly,  mean  men,  in  the  place  of  brave,  honourable 
men;  pay  for  allowing  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  to  be 
trodden  underfoot,  and  her  court-house  of  Northern  granite 
to  be  surrounded  by  Southern  chains.  Thomas  Sims  was 
scourged  on  the  'l9th  of  April,  when  he  was  carried 
back  to  Savannah.  Boston  did  not  feel  it  then.  She  felt 
it  last  week — felt  it  sorely.  In  September,  1850,  we  heard 
the  hundred  guns  fired  on  Boston  Common,  in  honour  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill — fired  by  men  of  *' eminent 
gravity."  Last  Friday  you  saw  the  cannon  !  One  day 
you  will  see  it  again  grown  into  many  cannons.  That  one 
was  only  a  devil's  grace  before  a  deviFs  meat !  No  higher 
law,  is  there  ?  Wait  a  little  longer,  and  you  shall  find 
there  is  a  "  lower  law,"  a  good  deal  lower  than  we  have 
yet  come  to  !  Sow  the  wind,  shall  we  ?  When  the  whirl- 
wind comes  up  therefrom,  it  has  a  course  of  its  own,  and 
God  only  can  control  the  law  of  such  storms  as  those.  We 
have  not  yet  seen  the  full  consequences  of  sowing  atheism 
with  a  broad  hand  among  the  people  of  this  continent. 
We  have  not  yet  seen  the  end.  These  are  only  the  small 
early  apples  that  first  fall  to  the  earth.  There  is  a  whole 
tree  full  of  them.  When  some  autumnal  storm  shakes  the 
boughs,  they  will  cover  the  ground — sour  and  bitter  in  our 
mouths,  and  then  poison. 

Yet  this  triumph  of  Slavery  does  not  truly  represent  the 
wishes  of  the  Northern  people.  Not  a  single  Pro-Slavery 
measure  has  ever  been  popular  with  the  mass  of  men  in 
New  England  or  Massachusetts.  The  people  disliked  the 
annexation  of  Texas  in  that  unjust  manner  :  they  thought 
the  Mexican  War  was  wicked.  They  were  opposed  to  the 
extension  of  Slavery  ;  they  hated  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 
and  rejoiced  at  the  rescue  of  Shadrach.     The  kidnapping 


72  THE   NEW   CRIME 

of  Thomas  Sims  roused  a  fierce  indignation.  Only  one 
town  in  all  New  England  has  ever  returned  a  fugitive — 
all  the  rest  hide  the  outcasts,  while  Boston  bewrays  him 
that  wandereth.'  The  Nebraska  Act  is  detested  by  the 
people. 

A  few  editors  have  done  a  manly  duty  in  opposing  all 
these  manifold  iniquities.  A  few  ministers  have  been 
faithful  to  the  spirit  of  this  Bible,  and  to  their  own  con- 
science, heedless  of  law  and  constitution.  Manly  preachers 
of  all  denominations — save  the  commercial — protested 
against  kidnapping,  against  enacting  wickedness  by  statute. 
From  humble  pulpits  their  voices  rang  out  in  Boston  and 
elsewhere.  But  what  were  they  among  so  many  ?  There 
were  Theological  Journals  which  stoutly  resisted  the 
wickedness  of  the  prominent  men,  and  rebuked  the  mam- 
mon-worship of  the  churches  of  commerce.  The  Indepen- 
dent at  New  York,  the  Congregationalist  at  Boston,  not  to 
mention  humbler  papers,  did  most  manl}^  service — now 
with  eloquence,  now  with  art,  then  with  satiric  scorn, — 
always  with  manly  religion.  Even  in  the  cities,  there  were 
editors  of  secular  prints  who  opposed  the  wicked  law  and 
its  execution. 

No  man  in  New  England,  within  the  last  few  years,  has 
supported  Slavery  without  at  the  same  time  losing  the  con- 
fidence of  the  best  portion  of  the  people — sober,  serious, 
religious  men,  who  believe  there  is  a  law  of  God  writ  in  the 
nature  of  things.  Even  Mr.  Webster  cj[uailed  before  the 
conscience  of  the  North  :  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts no  longer  enjoys  the  confidence  of  the  people  ;  the 
most  ''  prominent  clergymen"  of  New  England — pastors, 
I  mean,  of  the  richest  churches — are  not  looked  up  to  with 
the  same  respect  as  before. 

The  popularity  of  Uncle  Tom^s  Cabin  showed  how 
deeply  the  feelings  of  the  world  were  touched  by  this 
great  outrage.  No  one  of  the  encroachments  of  Slavery 
could  have  been  sustained  by  a  direct  popular  vote.  I 
think  seven  out  of  every  ten  of  all  the  New  England  men 
would  have  voted  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  nine 
out  of  ten  against  kidnapping.  But  alas !  we  did  not 
say  so — we  allowed  wicked  men  to  rule  over  us.  Now 
behold  the  consequences !  Men  who  will  not  love  God 
must  fear  the  devil. 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  73 

Boston  is  the  test  and  touchstone  of  political  principles 
and  measures.  Faneuil  Hall  is  "  the  cradle  of  liberty/* 
and  therein  have  been  rocked  the  great  ideas  of  America — 
rocked  by  noble  hands. 

Well,  if  Boston  had  said,  "  No  Texan  annexation  in 
that  wicked  way  !"  we  might  have  had  Texas  on  fair  con- 
ditions. If  Boston  had  opposed  the  Mexican  War,  all  New 
England  would  have  done  the  same — almost  all  the  North. 
A¥e  might  have  had  all  the  soil  we  have  got,  without 
fighting  a  battle,  or  taking  or  losing  a  life,  at  far  less 
cost ;  and  have  demoralized  nobody.  If,  when  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  -vtas  before  Congress,  Boston  had  spoken  against 
that  iniquity,  all  the  people  would  have  risen,  and  there 
would  have  been  no  Fugitive  Slave  Act.  If,  after  that 
Bill  was  passed,  she  had  said,  '^No  kidnapping,"  there  would 
have  been  none.  Then  there  would  have  been  no  Nebraska 
Bill,  no  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  no  attempt  to 
seize  Cuba  and  Saint  Domingo.  If  the  fifteen  hundred  gen- 
tlemen of  ^^  property  and  standing"  in  Boston,  who  volun- 
teered to  return  Mr.  Sims  to  bondage,  or  the  nine  himdred 
and  eighty-seven  who  thanked  Mr.  Webster  for  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill,  had  come  forward  on  the  side  of  justice,  they 
might  have  made  every  Commissioner  swear  solemnly  that 
he  woukl  not  execute  that  Act.  Thus  the  "  true  sons  of 
liberty,"  on  the  17th  of  December,  1765,  induced  Com- 
missioner Oliver  to  swear  solemnly,  at  no  on- day,  in 
"  presence  of  a  great  crowd,"  and  in  front  of  the  Liberty 
Tree,  that  he  would  not  issue  a  single  stamp  !  Had  that 
been  done,  there  would  have  been  no  man  arrested.  There 
are  only  eight  Commissioners,  and  public  opinion  would 
have  kept  them  all  down.  We  should  have  had  no  kid- 
nappers here. 

Boston  did  not  do  so  ;  Massachusetts  did  no  such  thing. 
She  did  just  the  opposite.  In  1828,  the  Legislature  of 
Georgia  passed  resolutions  relative  to  the  Tariff,  declaring 
that  the  General  Government  had  no  right  to  protect 
domestic  manufactures,  and  had  been  guilty  of  a  '^  flagrant 
usurpation ;"  she  will  insist  on  her  construction  of  the 
Constitution,  and  ''will  submit  to  no  other."  Georgia 
carried  her  point.  The  Tariff*  of  1828  went  to  the  ground  ! 
South  Carolina  imprisons  our  coloured  citizens :  we  bear 
it  with  a  patient  shrug, — and  pay  the  cost :  Massachusetts 


74  THE   NEW   CRIME 

is  non-resistant;  New  England  is  a  Quaker, — wlien  a 
blustering  little  State  undertakes  to  ride  over  us.  Georgia 
offers  a  reward  of  five  thousand  dollars  for  the  head  of  a 
non-resistant  in  Boston, — and  Boston  takes  special  pains  to 
return  Ellen  Craft  to  a  citizen  of  Georgia,  who  wished  to 
sell  her  as  a  harlot  for  the  brothels  of  New  Orleans  ! 
Northern  clergjTiien  defended  the  character  of  her 
"  owner" — a  man  of  "  unquestionable  piety."  You  know 
what  denunciations  were  nttered  in  this  city  against  the 
men  and  women  who  sheltered  her  !  Boston  could  not 
allow  the  poor  woman  to  remain.  Did  the  churches  of 
commerce  "  put  np  a  prayer"  for  her  ?  "  Send  back  my 
own  mother !"  Not  a  Northern  minister  lost  his  pulpit  or 
his  professional  respectability  by  that  form  of  practical 
atheism.  Not  one  !  At  the  South  not  a  minister  dares 
preach  against  Slavery  ;  at  the  North — think  of  the  preach- 
ing of  so  many  "  eminent  divines  !"  * 

*  My  friend,  the  Eev.  Dr.  Edward  Beeclicr,  thinks  I  have  been  unjust 
to  the  ministers, — judging  from  the  Sermon  as  reported  in  the  Common- 
wealth. So  he  pubHshed  the  following  article  in  that  paper  on  Friday, 
June  9.  I  gladly  insert  it  below.  It  comes  from  a  powerful  and  noble 
man.     I  wish  he  had  made  out  a  stronger  case  against  me. 

"  Tpieodore  Parker  and  the  Ministry. 

"  Mr.  Editor, — In  his  Sermon,  last  Sabbath,  Mr.  Parker  seems  to  charge 
the  clergy  of  the  country  v/ith  a  general,  if  not  universal,  delinquency  in 
the  cause  of  freedom  with  respect  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  He  says, 
*  You  all  remember  the  tone  of  the  vulpiV  As  if  on  that  subject  the 
^oidpit  had  been  a  unit.  He  adds,  '  What  had  Andover  and  New  Haven 
to  say  in  their  collegiate  churches  ?  What  the  churches  (of  commerce) 
of  New  York,  of  Boston,  of  Philadelphia,  of  Albany,  of  Buffalo  ?  They  all 
went  for  kidnapping.  "  Down  with  God  and  up  with  kidnapping."  That 
was  the  short  of  the  lower  law  religion  that  littered  the  land.  The 
ecclesiastical  teachers  did  more  to  strengthen  infidelity  than  aU  the 
infidels  that  ever  taught.'  He  does  not  say  that  these  charges  are  true 
of  a  part  only  of  the  ministry.  His  language  would  convey  to  any  reader, 
ignorant  of  the  fact,  the  opposite  impression.  He  says  that  when  Thomas 
Sims  was  sent  back,  '  the  clergy  were  for  returning  the  Fugitive.  "  Send 
back  our  brother."  '  '  The  next  Sunday  the  leading  ministers  of  the  city 
—1  call  them  leading,  though  they  lead  nobody — gave  God  thanks.' 

"  Speaking  of  the  Slave  Bill  and  its  execution,  he  says,  '  Not  a  promi- 
nent clergyman  spoke  against  it.' 

"  And  when  he  speaks  of  the  Nebraska  Bill,  he  scarcely  mentions  the 
petition  of  the  three  thousand  and  fifty  ministers.  And  then,  not  as 
if  he  desired  to  give  them  duo  jiraise,  ho  merely  mentions  it  incidentally 
in  dealing  with  Mr.  Everett — '  He  did  not  dare  to  present  the  remon- 
strance which  three  thousand  and  fifty  of  his  fellow- clergyman  sent  to 
their  clerical  brother,  and  asked  him  to  lay  before  the  Senate.'    And 


AGAINST  HUMANITY,  75' 

My  friends,  we  deserve  all  we  have  suffered.     We  are 
tlie  scorn   and   contempt  of  tlie   South.     The}^  are   our 


again :  '  The  cowardice  of  Mr.  Everett  has  excited  the  clergy  of  Now 
England— of  all  the  North ;  they  are  stung  with  the  reproach  of  the 
people,  and  ashamed  of  their  past  neglect.'  Just  as  if  they  had  not  been 
self-moved  by  their  ovm  honourable  impulses.  The  bearing  of  all  these 
passages,  considered  in  the  general  drift  of  the  Sermon,  is  undeniably  to 
implicate  the  clergy  as  a  whole  in  the  delinquencies  charged. 

"  Now,  if  Mr.  Parker  were  to  be  represented,  on  both  continents,  as  an 
advocate  of  kidnapping,  and  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  he  would  pro- 
bably regard  it  as  unjust.  But  he  does  not  seem  to  bo  sufficiently  alive 
to  the  idea,  that  it  is  unjust  to  convey  the  idea  that  this  is  true  of 
clergymen  who  have  from  the  first  opposed  these  measures  as  earnestly 
and  decidedly  as  he  himself.  He  seems  to  be  fully  convinced  that  to  rob 
even  one  slave  of  his  liberty  is  a  crime.  He  does  not  seem  as  deeply  to 
feel  that  it  is  a  crime  to  rob  even  our  ministers  of  that  reputation  which' 
in  his  own  case  he  prizes  so  highly.  Even  if  the  cases  of  fidelity  were 
few,  for  that  very  reason  they  should  receive  from  a  lover  of  the  cause 
the  more  careful  and  particular  notice  and  praise.  In  cases  like  these,  if 
ever,  discriminations  and  truthful  statements  of  facts  are  a  sacred  duty. 
Let  those  be  censured  who  deserve  censure,  and  lot  those  be  commended 
who  deserve  praise. 

"  Allow  me,  then,  to  state  some  of  the  facts  of  the  case  chiefly  con- 
cerning the  Orthodox  Congregational  jjastors  and  churches,  leaving  to 
other  denominations,  if  they  see  fit,  to  state  similar  facts,  more  at  large, 
in  their  own  case.  From  my  own  knowledge,  I  am  assured  that  it  would 
not  be  difficult  to  multiply  them,  especially  if  a  full  account  were  to  be 
given  of  all  the  unpublished  sermons  of  the  times. 

"  It  is  not  true,  as  Mr.  P.'s  statements  imply,  that  Mr.  Parker  was  the 
only  one  who  preached  and  ^vrote  and  prayed  against  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law. 

"  The  Congregationalist,  then  edited  by  the  Eev.  H.  M.  Dexter,  Eev. 
Mr.  Storrs,  and  myself,  devoted  all  its  energies  to  a  conflict  with  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  a  vindication  of  the  claim  of  the  higher  law. 
Some  of  its  articles  were  considered  of  such  importance  as  to  be  honoured 
with  special  attention  and  censure  by  Mr.  Choate,  at  the  Boston  Union 
Saving  meeting.     Our  articles,  if  collected,  would  make  a  large  volume. 

"  The  law  was  also  most  earnestly  opposed  from  the  pulpit  by  many 
ministers,  Mr.  Stone,  Mr.  Dextei",  and  myself  among  the  number.  The 
same  thing  was  true  of  a  large  number  oPthe  clergymen  of  New  England 
and  the  Middle  States.  I  have  before  me  published  Sermons  or  other 
Addresses  to  this  eflect  from  Storrs  and  Spear,  of  Bi'ooklyn,  N.  Y. ; 
Beecher,  of  Newark,  N.  J. ;  Thompson  and  Cheever,  of  New  York ; 
Bacon,  of  New  Haven,  Conn. ;  Colver,  of  Boston ;  Wallcott,  now  of 
Providence  ;  Leavit,  then  of  Newton,  Mass. ;  Withington,  of  Newbury, 
Mass. ;  Whitcomb,  of  Stoneham,  Mass. ;  Thayer,  of  Ashland,  Mass. ; 
Arvine,  of  West  Boylston,  Mass.,  and  others.  Nothing  can  be  more  able 
and  eloquent  than  their  defence  of  God's  law,  as  opposed  to  the  infamous 
Slave  Bill.  Others  also  were  published  which  I  have  not  on  file,  and  I 
know  of  several  very  able  discourses  against  the  law  which  were  not 
published.  If  a  true  report  could  be  made  of  all  the  Sermons  then 
preached,  and  of  the  influence  then  exerted  in  other  ways  by  the  ministry 


76  THE   NEW   CRIME 

masters,  and  treat  us  as  slaves.     It  is  ourselves  wlio  made 
the  yoke.     We  offer  our  back  to  the  slave-driver's  whip. 


of  the  North,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  a  very  large  majority  would 
be  found  to  have  set  themselves  decidedly  against  the  law,  and  to  have 
advocated  its  entire  disobedience. 

"  The  fact  is,  that  undue  importance  has  been  given  to  those  of  the 
ministry  who  favoured  obedience  to  that  law,  and  they  have  been  made 
to  overshadow  its  more  numerous  opponents. 

"  In  relation  to  Andover,  the  facts  are  these  : — Professor  Stuart,  who 
for  some  years  had  ceased  to  act  as  Professor  in  the  Seminary,  published 
his  views,  greatly  to  the  regret  of  a  large  portion  of  his  brethren.  That 
the  body  of  the  Professors  of  the  Institution  did  not  sympathize  in  these 
views,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  when  a  paper  approving  the  com- 
promise was  circulated  there,  Professors  Park,  Phelps,  and  Edwards 
refused  to  sign.  Only  one  acting  Professor  did  sign,  much  to  his  own 
subsequent  regret.     This  does  not  justify  the  sweeping  affirmation. 

"  '  Andover  went  for  kidnapping.'  Mr.  Parker  ought  to  be  more  care- 
ful, and  less  free  in  the  use  of  such  wholesale  charges.  Moreover,  tho 
positions  of  Professor  Stuart  were  thoroughly  exposed  by  members  of  his 
own  denomination. 

"The  Eev.  Kufus  Clark,  now  of  East  Boston,  published  in  the  columns 
of  the  Atlas  a  thorough  refutation  of  his  pamphlet  in  a  series"  of  very 
able  articles,  which  were  subsequently  republished  in  a  pamphlet  form. 

"  Rev.  George  Perkins,  of  Connecticut,  performed  a  similar  service  in 
that  State.  Eev.  Mr.  Dexter,  of  Boston,  exposed  himself  to  an  excited 
retort  from  Professor  Stuart,  for  his  keen  and  able  exposure  of  his  course 
on  the  Compromises. 

"  That  there  was  a  sad  failure  on  the  part  of  too  many  of  the  clergy  of 
Boston  and  other  commercial  cities,  cannot  be  denied  ;  nor  do  I  desire 
to  avert  from  them  merited  censure.  But  ought  the  labours  of  such  men 
as  the  clerical  editors  and  contributors  of  the  Independent  to  be  passed 
by  in  silence  in  speaking  of  the  prominent  clergy  of  the  city  of  New 
York  ? 

"  As  to  the  other  cities  named,  if  there  were  but  one  exception  in  each, 
it  ought  to  have  been  prominently  named  and  honoured.  I  do  not  doubt 
that  there  were  more. 

"  As  to  the  country  churches  and  pastors  of  New  England,  I  have 
already  stated  my  opinion  that  the  vast  majority  were  opposed  to  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  It  is  not  just  to  regard  the  Nebraska  protest  as  a 
virtual  confession  and  reiDaratiop  of  past  neglect,  but  rather  as  a  develop- 
ment of  the  real  feeling  of  the  clergy  of  New  England.  Charity  thinketh 
no  evil,  and  thei'e  is  no  gain  at  this  time  in  depreciating, the  merits  of 
any  earnest  opponents  of  the  aggressions  of  Slavery. 

"  As  Mr.  Parker  expects  to  be  read  in  all  pai'ts  of  this  nation  and  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  I  will  not  doubt  that  his  strongly  avowed 
appreciation  of  what  is  just  and  honourable  in  action  will  induce  him  to 
revise  and  correct  his  statement  of  facts,  and  instead  of  such  sweeping 
and  indiscriminate  censure,  to  give  honour  where  honour  is  due. 

"  Edwaki;  Beeciier." 

I  have  repeatedly  and  in  tho  most  public  manner  done  honour  to  the 
ministers  who  have  opposed  this  great  iniquity,  and  did  not  suppose  that 
any  one  would  misunderstand  the  expressions  which  Dr.  Bcccher  con- 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  77 

A  "Western  man  travels  all  through  Kentucky — ^he  was  in 
Boston  three  days  ago — and  hears  only  this  rumour :  "  the 


sidei's  as  "  sweeping."  When  lie  reads  in  the  Bible  that  "  Jeruso.lem  and 
all  Judeawent  out,"  1  suppose  he  thinks  that  some  persons  stayed  at  home. 
But  I  am  soriy  he  could  not  make  out  a  stronger  case  for  his  side.  I 
know  nothing  of  what  was  said  privately,  or  of  sermons  which  never  get 
spoken  of  out  of  the  little  parish  where  they  are  wi'itten.  He  mentions 
sixteen  Ortlioclox  ministers  who  published  matter  in  opposition  to  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  It  is  not  a  very  large  number  for  all  the  churches 
in  New  Jersey,  Kev/  York,  Connecticut,  Khode  Island,  and  Massachusetts 
to  furnish.     I  can  mention  more. 

The^e  are  the  facts  in  respect  to  Andover  :  Professor  Stuart,  the  most 
distinguished  clergyman  in  all  New  England,  wrote  an  elaborate  defence 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  of  Mr.  Webster's  conduct  in  defending  it. 
He  was  induced  to  do  this  by  Mr.  Webster  himself.  The  work  is  well 
kno^vn — Conscience  and  the  Constitution — and  it  is  weak  and  doting  as  it 
is  wicked.  Professor  Stuart  and  two  other  Andover  Professors — Rev. 
Ealph  Emerson,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  Leonard  Woods,  D.D. — signed  the  letter 
to  Mr.  Webster  expressing  their  "  deep  obligations  for  what  this  speech 
has  done  and  is  doing ;"  thanking  him  "  for  recalling  us  to  our  duties 
under  the  Constitution,  and  for  the  broad,  national,  and  patriotic  views" 
it  inculcates,  and  desiring  to  "  express  to  you  our  entire  concurrence  in 
the  sentiments  of  your  speech."  It  seems  three  other  Professors — 
Messrs.  Park,  Phelps,  and  Edwards — did  not  sign  it,  and  one  of  the 
signers — Dr.  Woods  or  Dr.  Emerson — did  it  much  to  his  own  subsequent 
regret.  But  did  he  make  his  regret  public?  Did  Andover  in  pubHc 
say  anything  against  the  conduct  of  the  signers  ? 

At  the  Annual  Conference  of  Unitarian  Ministers,  in  May,  1851,  long 
and  public  defences  of  kidnapping  vrere  made  by  "  the  most  eminent  men 
in  the  denomination."  One  Doctor  of  Divinity  vindicated  the  attempt 
of  his  parishioners  to  kidnap  mine,  whom  I  took  to  my  house  for  shelter. 
Dr.  Dewey's  pi'omise  to  send  back  his  own  mother  or  brother  got  the 
heartiest  commendation  from  more  than  one  "  prominent  minister."  Dr. 
Dewey  was  compared  with  "  faithful  Abraham  ;"  his  declaration  was  "^im- 
puted to  him  for  righteousness."  Many  of  the  country  ministers  were  of 
a  different  opinion.  Some  of  them  declared  his  conduct  "atrocious." 
Of  course  there  were  noble  men  in  the  Unitarian  denomination,  who  were 
faithful  to  the  great  principles  of  Christianity.  I  have  often  spoken  in 
their  praise,  and  need  not  now  mention  their  names ;  too  well  known  to 
require  honour  from  me. 

But  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  can  retract  nothing  from  what  I  have  said 
in  general  respecting  the  conduct  of  the  clergy  of  all  denominations  at 
that  time.  At  a  large  public  meeting  in  Boston  a  Vigilance  Committee 
was  appointed  to  look  after  the  fugitives  and  furnish  them  aid.  The 
Committee  sent  a  circular  to  every  church  in  Massachusetts,  asking  for 
the  fugitives  donations  of  money  and  clothes  ;  and  received  replies  from 
eiffhty-seven  churches,  which  gave  us  $148,456  ! 

Here  is  my  letter  in  reply  to  Dr.  Beecher,  from  the  Commonwealth  of 
June  10,  1854  :— 

Dk.  Edwaed  Beecher  and  Theodoee  Parkeu* 

TvQv.  Edvxtrd  Beecher,  D.D., — My  dear  Sir,  I  have  just  read  your  letter 


78  THE   NEW  CRIME 

Yankees  are  cowards ;  tliey  dare  not  resist  us.  We  will 
drive  them  just  where  we  like.  We  will  force  the  I^ebraska 
Bill  down  their  throats,  and  then  force  Saint  Domingo  and 
Cuba  after  it.''  That  is  public  opinion  in  Kentucky.  My 
brothers,  it  is  very  well  deserved. 

The  North  hated  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Daniel 
Webster  fought  against  it  with  all  his  manly  might ;  and 
then  it  was  very  manly  and  very  mighty.  When  he  col- 
lects his  speeches,  in  1850,  for  electioneering  purposes — a 
political  pamphlet  in  six  octavos — he  leaves  out  ail  his 
speeches  and  writings  against  the  Missouri  Compromise ! 
His  friend,  Mr.  Everett,  writes  his  memoir,  and  there  is 
nothing  about  Mr.  Webster's  opposition  to  the  extension 
of  Slavery ;  about  the  Missouri  Compromise  not  one  single 
word. 


in  the  CommonivealtJi  of  this  moniing,  in  which  you  maintain  that  the 
statements  in  my  last  sei-mon  respecting  the  delinquency  of  the  Northern 
clergy  were  too  sweepmg,  and  that  I  did  injustice  to  the  ministers  who 
stoutly  resisted  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  and  its  execution.  Perhaps  the 
language  of  the  sermon  would  seem  to  warrant  your  opinion.  But  I  have 
so  many  times,  and  in  so  pubHc  a  manner,  expressed  my  respect  and 
veneration  for  those  noble  men  who  have  been  found  faithful  in  times  of 
peril,  that  I  cannot  think  I  am  in  general  obnoxious  to  the  charge  you 
make  against  me. 

In  respect  to  the  special  sermon  of  last  Sunday,  I  beg  leave  to 
inform  you  that  the  whole  was  neither  printed  nor  preached ;  the  entire 
sermon  is  now  in  press,  and  when  you  see  it,  I  think  you  will  find  that 
I  do  no  injustice  to  the  men  you  speak  of.  As  I  spoke  on  Sunday,  I  did 
not  suppose  any  one  would  misunderstand  my  words,  or  think  I  wished 
to  be  regarded  as  the  only  one  found  faithful.  Certainly  I  have  many 
times  done  honour  to  the  gentlemen  you  mention,  and  to  the  journals 
you  refer  to — with  others  you  do  not  name.  And  allow  me  to  say,  the 
conduct  of  yourself  and  all  your  family  has  not  only  been  a  strong  per- 
sonal encouragement  to  me,  but  a  theme  of  public  congratulation  which 
I  have  often  brought' forward  in  lectures,  and  sermons,  and  speeches.  I 
am  a  little  surprised  that  you  should  suppose  that  by  the  clturclics  of 
commerce  in  New  York,  Boston,  &c.,  I  mean  cdl  the  churches  of  these 
towns.  I  still  think  that  from  1850  to  1852  the  general  voice  of  the  New 
England  churches,  so  far  as  it  was  heard  through  the  press,  was  in 
favour  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  and  its  execution.  This  was  especially 
true  of  the  rich  and  fashionable  churches  in  the  great  commercial  towns. 
Surely  you  cannot  forget  the  numerous  clerical  eulogies  on  the  late  Mr. 
Webster,  which  sought  to  justify  all  his  political  conduct.  I  do  not  think 
you  have  made  out  a  very  strong  case  for  Andover. 

I  am  sorry  to  have  given  pain  to  a  man  whose  life  is  so  noble  and 
his  character  so  high ;  but  believe  me, 

Kespectfully  and  truly  yours, 

Theodore  Paekek. 


AGAINST  HUMANTTY.  79 

My  friends,  tlie  South  treat  us  as  we  deserve.  They 
make  compromises,  and  then  break  them.  They  say  we 
are  cowards.  Are  they  mistaken  ?  They  put  our  seamen 
in  gaol  for  no  crime,  but  their  complexion.  "We  allow  it. 
Then  they  come  to  New  England,  and  in  Boston  steal  our 
fellow- citizens — no  !  our  fellow-subjects,  our  fellow- slaves. 
We  call  out  the  soldiers  to  help  them !  Go  into  a  bear's 
den,  and  steal  a  young  cub ;  and  if  you  take  only  one,  all 
the  full-grown  bears  in  the  den  will  come  after  you  and 
follow  till  you  die,  or  they  die,  or  their  strength  fails,  and 
they  must  give  up  the  pursuit. 

"  O  Justice !  tlion  art  fled  to  brutish  beasts, 
And  men  have  lost  their  reason !" 

The  [N^ebraska  Bill  has  h-ardly  got  back  to  the  Senate 
again  when  a  Virginian  comes  here  to  see  how  much 
Boston  will  bear.  He  brings  letters  to  "  eminent  citizens 
of  Boston,"  lodges  at  the  Eevere  House,  and  bravely 
shows  himself  to  the  public  in  the  streets.  He  walks 
upon  the  Common,  and  looks  at  the  ecKpse — the  eclipse  of 
the  sun  I  mean,  not  the  eclipse  of  Boston :  that  he  needs 
no  glass  to  look  at,  as  there  is  none  smoked  dark  enough 
to  hinder  it  from  dazzling  his  eyes.  He  gets  two  Boston 
lawyers  to  help  him  kidnap  a  man.  He  finds  a  Com- 
missioner, a  Probate  Officer  of  Massachusetts,  ready  to 
violate  the  tenure  of  his  own  trust,  prepared  for  the  work ; 
a  Marshal  anxious  to  prove  his  democracy  by  stealing 
a  man ;  he  finds  newspapers  ready  to  sustain  him ;  the 
Governor  lets  him  go  unmolested ;  the  Mayor  lends  him 
all  the  police  of  the  city ;  and  then,  illegally  and  without 
any  authority,  against  the  protestations  of  the  Aldermen, 
calls  out  all  the  soldiers  among  a  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  people,  in  order  to  send  one  innocent  negro  into 
bondage,  and  gives  them  orders,  it  is  said,  to  shoot  down 
any  citizen  who  shall  attempt  to  pass  their  lines  !  The 
soldiers,  half  drunk,  present  their  horse-pistols  at  the  heads 
of  women — their  thumb  on  the  hammer !  They  stab 
horses,  and  with  their  sabres  slash  the  heads  of  men ! 

When  Mr.  Burns  was  first  seized  by  the  kidnappers, 
nearly  all  the  daily  newspapers  took  sides  against  the 
fugitive.  The  city  was  full  of  ministers  all  the  week; 
two  Anti-Slavery  conventions  were  held,  one  of  them  two 


80  THE   NEW   CHIME 

tliousand  men  strong;  tlie  Worcester  "Freedom  Club'' 
came  down  here  to  visit  us:  they  all  went  home,  and 
''  order  reigns  in  Warsaw."  In  South  Carolina  there  is  a 
public  opinion  stronger  than  the  law.  Let  Massachusetts 
send  an'  honoured  citizen  to  Charleston,  to  remonstrate 
against  an  iniquitous  statute,  and  most  respectable  citizens 
drive  him  away.  Coloured  citizens  of  Massachusetts  rot 
in  the  gaols  of  Charleston.  Northern  merchants  pay  the 
costs.  Boston  merchants  remonstrated  years  ago,  and  the 
Boston  senator  did  not  dare  to  offer  their  paper  in  Con- 
gress!  Yes,  a  Boston  senator  did  not  dare  present  the 
remonstrances  of  Boston  merchants  !  The  South  despises 
us.  Do  you  wonder  at  the  treatment  we  receive  ?  I 
wonder  not  at  all. 

I^ow,  let  me  say  another  word — it  must  be  a  brief  one — 
of  this  particular  case.  When  Mr.  Burns  was  kidnapped, 
a  public  meeting  w^as  called  in  Faneuil  Hall.  Who  went 
there  ?  Not  one  of  the  men  who  are  accustomed  to  con- 
trol public  opinion  in  Boston.  If  ten  of  them  had 
appeared  on  that  platform,  Mr.  Phillips  and  myself  would 
not  have  troubled  the  audience  with  our  speech.  We 
would  have  yielded  the  place — to  citizens  of  *'  eminent 
gravity"  giving  their  counsel,  and  there  would  have  been 
no  man  carried  out  of  Boston.  I  could  mention  ten  men, 
known  to  every  man  here,  who,  if  they  had  been  there, 
would  have  so  made  such  public  opinion,  that  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  Commissioner  never  would  have  found  "evi- 
dence" or  "law"  enough  to  send  Anthony  Burns  back  to 
Alexandria.  There  w^as  not  one  of  them  there.  They  did 
not  wish  to  be  there.     They  cared  nothing  for  freedom ! 

In  general,  the  blame  of  this  wickedness  rests  on  the 
city  of  Boston,  much  of  it  on  Massachusetts,  on  New 
England,  and  on  all  the  North.  But  here  I  must  single 
out  some  of  the  individuals  who  are  personally  responsible 
for  this  outrage. 

I  begin  with  the  Commissioner.  He  was  the  primo 
mover. 

Now,  as  a  general  thing,  the  Commissioners  who  kidnap 
men  in  America  have  had  a  proclivity  to  wickedness.  It 
has  been  structural,  constitutional.  Man-stealing  was  in 
their  bones.     It  was  an  osteological  necessity.     A  phreno- 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  81 

logist,  examining  their  heads,  would  have  said  :  "  Beware 
of  this  man.  He  is  '  fit  for  treason,  stratagems,  and 
spoils.' " 

It  seems  natural  that  Mr.  Kane  should  steal  men  in 
Philadeljihia.  His  name  is  warrant  to  bear  out  the  deed. 
In  Boston,  the  former  kidnapper  lost  no  *'  personal  popu- 
larity" by  the  act.  His  conduct  seems  alike  befitting  the 
disposition  he  was  born  with,  and  the  culture  he  has  at- 
tained to  ;  and  so  appears  equally  natural  and  characteristic. 
But  I  thought  Mr.  Loring  of  a  difierent  disposition.  His 
is  a  pleasant  face  to  look  at,  dignified,  kindly — a  little 
weak,  yet  not  without  sweetness  and  a  certain  elevation. 
I  have  seen  him  sometimes  in  the  Probate  Office,  and 
it  seemed  to  me  a  face  fit  to  watch  over  the  widow  and 
the  fatherless.  When  a  bad  man  does  a  wicked  thing,  it 
astonishes  nobody.  When  one  otherwise  noble  and  gene- 
rous is  overtaken  in  a  fault,  we  "  weep  to  record,  and 
blush  to  give  it  in,"  and  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  seek  to 
restore  such  a  one.  But  when  a  good  man  deliberately, 
voluntarily,  does  such  a  deed  as  this,  words  cannot  express 
the  fiery  indignation  which  it  ought  to  stir  up  in  every 
man's  bosom.     It  destroys  confidence  in  humanity. 

The  wickedness  began  with  the  Commissioner.  He 
issued  the  writ.  It  was  to  end  with  him, — he  is  sheriff, 
judge,  jur}^  He  is  paid  twice  as  much  for  condemning  as 
for  acquitting  the  innocent. 

He  was  not  obliged  to  be  a  Commissioner.  He  v/as  not 
forced  into  that  bad  eminence.  He  went  there  voluntarily 
fifteen  years  ago,  as  United  States  Commissioner,  to  take 
affidavits  and  acknowledgments.  Slave- catching  was  no 
part  of  his  duty.  The  soldiers  of  Nicholas  execute  their 
master's  tyranny,  because  they  are  forced  into  it.  The 
only  option  with  them  is  to  shoot  with  a  musket,  or  be 
scourged  to  death  with  the  knout.  If  Mr.  Loring  did 
not  like  kidnapping,  he  need  not  have  kept  his  office.  But 
he  liked  it.  He  wrote  three  articles,  "  cold  and  cruel,"  in 
the  Daily  Advertiser,  defending  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 

But  if  he  kept  the  office  he  is  not  officially  obliged  to 
do  the  work.  The  District  Attornej^  is  not  suspected  of 
being  so  heavily  fraught  Avith  conscience  that  he  cannot 
trim  his  craft  to  sail  with  any  political  wind  which  oficrs 
to    carry  him  to  port ;  but  even  Mr.   Hallett  refused  to 

VOL.  VI.  G 


82  THE   NEW   CRIME 

kidnap  Ellen  Craft.  He  did  not  like  the  business.  It  was 
not  a  part  of  Mr.  Loring's  official  obligation.  A  man  lets 
himself  to  a  sea-captain  as  a  mariner  to  go  a  general 
voyage.  He  is  not  obliged  to  go  privateering  or  pirating 
whenever  the  captain  hoists  the  black  flag.  He  can  leave 
at  the  next  port.  A  labourer  lets  himself  to  a  farmer  to 
do  general  farm  work.  By  and  by  his  employer  says,  "  I 
intend  to  steal  sheep.^'  The  man  is  not  obliged  by  his 
contract  to  go  and  steal  sheep  because  his  employer  will. 
That  would  be  an  illegal  act,  no  doubt.  But  suppose  the 
general  government  had  made  a  law,  authorizing  every 
farmer  to  steal  all  the  black  sheep  he  can  lay  his  hands 
on ;  nay,  commanding  the  felony.  Is  this  servant,  who 
is  hired  to  do  general  farm  work,  obliged  in  his  official 
capacity  to  go  and  steal  black  sheep  ?  I  do  not  look  at  it 
so.  I  do  not  think  any  man  does.  A  lawyer  turns  off 
many  a  client.  A  constable  refuses  many  a  civil  job.  He 
does  not  Kke  the  business.  The  Commissioner  took  this 
business  because  he  liked  to  take  it.  I  do  not  say  he  was 
not  "  conscientious."  I  know  nothing  of  that.  I  only 
speak  of  the  act.  Herod  was  "  conscientious,"  for  aught 
I  know,  and  Iscariot  and  Benedict  Arnold,  and  Aaron 
Burr.  I  do  not  touch  that  question.  To  their  own 
master  they  stand  or  fall.  The  tortures  of  the  Spanish 
Inquisition  may  have  been  "  conscientious." 

It  was  entirely  voluntary  for  Mr.  Loring  to  take  this 
case.  There  was  no  official  obligation,  no  professional 
honour,  that  required  him  to  do  it.  He  had  a  "  great 
precedent,"  even,  in  Mr.  Hallett,  to  decline  it. 

In  1843,  Massachusetts  enacted  a  law  prohibiting  any 
State  officer  from  acting  as  slave-catcher,  for  fear  of  abuse 
of  our  own  law.  Since  that,  Mr.  Loring  has  become 
Judge  of  Probate.  There  was  a  chance  for  a  good  man 
to  show  his  respect  for  the  law  of  the  State  which  gives 
him  office. 

IN^ow  see  how  the  case  was  conducted.  I  am  no  lawyer, 
and  shaU  not  undertake  to  judge  the  technical  subtleties  of 
the  case.  But  look  at  the  chief  things  which  require  no 
technical  skill  to  judge. 

The  Commissioner  spoke  very  kindly,  and  even  pater- 
nally, when  he  consulted  Burns.  I  confess  the  tear  started 
to  my  eye  when  he  looked  so  fatherly  towards  the  man, 


AGAIXST  HUMANITY.  83 

like  a  Judge  of  Probate,  and  asked  him,  "  Would  you  like 
a  little  time  to  prepare  to  make  a  defence  ?"  And  when 
Mr.  Eurns  replied,  "  Yes,"  he  honourably  gave  him  some 
time,  fortjr-eight  hours,  to  decide  whether  he  would  make 
a  defence  on  Saturday,  May  27.  He  also  honourably 
gave  Mr.  Burns  and  his  counsel  a  little  time  to  make  ready 
for  trial.  He  gave  them  from  Saturday  until  Monday ! 
True  it  was  only  twenty-four  hours ;  Sunday  intervened, 
and  lawyers,  like  other  laymen,  and  ministers,  are  sup- 
posed to  be  at  meeting  on  Sunday.  That  twenty-four 
hours — it  was  not  very  much  time  to  allow  for  the  defence 
of  a  man  whose  liberty  was  in  peril !  If  Mr.  Burns  had  been 
arraigned  for  murder,  he  would  have  had  several  months 
to  prepare  for  his  trial,  the  purse  and  the  arm  of  Massa- 
chusetts to  summon  witnesses  for  his  defence.  But  as  he 
was  charged  with  no  crime,  only  with  being  the  involun- 
tary slave  of  one  of  our  Southern  masters — as  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Act  was  not  designed  to  '^establish  justice,''  but  its 
opposite,  or  to  "  insure  the  blessings  of  liberty,"  but  the 
curse  of  bondage — he  may  have  only  twenty-four  hours  to 
■  make  ready  for  his  defence  :  his  counsel  and  a  minister 
may  visit  him — others  are  excluded  ! 

If  Mr.  Burns  had  been  arraigned  for  stealing  a  horse, 
for  slander,  or  anything  else,  not  twenty-fours,  or  days, 
but  twenty- four  weeks  would  have  been  granted  him  to 
make  ready  for  trial.  A  common  lawsuit,  for  a  thousand 
dollars,  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Suffolk,  is  not  ordinarily 
tried  within  a  year  ;  and,  if  any  questions  of  law  are  to  be 
settled,  not  disposed  of  within  two  years.  Here,  however, 
a  man  was  on  trial  for  more  than  life,  and  but  twenty- four 
hours  were  granted  him  I  I  accept  that  thankfully,  and 
tender  Mr.  Loring  my  gratitude  for  that !  It  is  more  than 
I  looked  for  from  any  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioner, 
except  him.  I  never  thought  him  capable  of  executing 
this  wickedness.  Honour  him  for  this  with  due  honour — 
no  more,  no  less. 

When  the  hearing  began,  the  kidnapper's  counsel  urged 
that  the  testimony  taken  at  first,  when  Mr.  Burns  was 
brought  up,  was  in  the  case.  The  Commissioner  held  to 
this  monstrous  position ;  and  it  was  only  after  the  urgent 
opposition  of  the  prisoner's  counsel  that  he  consented  it 
should  be  put  in  de  novo. 

a  2 


84  THE    NEW   CRIME 

But  after  tlie  kidnapping  lawyers  put  in  their  evidence, 
the  counsel  for  Mr.  Burns  asked  time  for  conference  and 
consultation,  as  the  most  important  questions  of  law  and 
fact  came  up  ;  they  were  weary  with  long  service  and 
exhausting  labour — and  they  begged  the  Commissioner  to 
adjourn  for  an  hour  or  two.  It  was  already  almost  three 
o'clock.  When  hard  pressed,  he  granted  them  thirty 
minutes  to  get  up  their  law  and  their  evidence,  take  re- 
freshment, and  come  back  to  court.  At  length  he  extended 
it  to  forty  minutes  !  Much  of  that  time  was  lost  to  one 
of  the  counsel  by  the  troops,  who  detained  him  at  the 
door.  But  the  next  day,  after  Mr.  Burns' s  counsel  had 
brought  in  evidence  to  show  that  he  was  in  Boston  on  the 
1st  of  March, — which  nobody  expected,  for  Brent  alleges 
that  he  saw  him  in  Virginia  on  the  19th  of  March, 
and  that  he  escaped  thence  on  the  24th, — then,  after 
a  conference  with  the  Marshal,  he  grants  the  kid- 
napper's lawj^ers  an  hour  and  a  quarter  to  meet  this 
new  and  unexpected  evidence.  Of  course  he  knew  that  in 
granting  them  this,  he  really  gave  them  all  night  to  get 
up  their  evidence,  prepare  their  defence,  and  come  into 
court  the  next  morning,  and  rebut  what  had  been  said.  Is 
that  fair  ?  Consider  what  a  matter  there  was  at  stake — a 
man's  liberty  for  ever  and  ever  on  earth !  Consider  that 
Mr.  Loring  was  judge  and  jury; — that  it  was  a  "  court" 
without  appeal ;  that  no  other  court  could  pass  upon  his 
verdict,  and  reverse  it,  if  afterwards  it  was  shown  to  be 
suspicious  or  proved  to  be  wrong.  He  grants  Mr.  Burns 
thirty  minutes,  and  the  other  side,  at  once,  an  hour  and 
a  quarter,  virtually  all  night !  That  is  not  all.  His 
decision  was  limited  to  one  point,  namely,  the  identity  of 
the  prisoner.  If  Mr.  Burns  answered  the  description  of 
the  fugitive  given  in  the  record,  the  Commissioner  took  it 
for  granted,  first,  that  he  was  a  slave, — there  was  no 
proof ;  second,  that  he  had  escaped  into  another  State, — 
that  was  not  charged  in  the  record,  nor  proved  by  testi- 
mony ;  third,  that  he  owed  service  and  labour  to  Colonel 
Suttle,  not  to  the  lessee,  who  had  a  limited  fee  in  his 
services,  nor  to  the  mortgagee,  who  had  the  conditional 
fee  of  his  person  ;  but  to  Colonel  Suttle,  the  reversioner, 
the  original  claimant  of  his  hodj. 

Now  the  statute  leaves  the  party  claimant  his  choice 


AGAI^^ST   HUMANITY.  85 

between  two  processes  ;  one  under  its   sixth  section,  tlio 
other  under  the  tenth. 

The  sixth  section  obliges  the  claimant  to  prove  three 
points — 1,  That  the  persons  claimed  owes  service ;  2,  That 
he  has  escaped ;  and,  3,  That  the  party  before  the  court 
is  the  identical  one  alleged  to  be  a  slave. 

The  tenth  section  makes  the  claimant's  certificate  con- 
clusive as  to  the  first  two  points,  and  only  leaves  the 
identity  to  be  proved. 

In  this  case,  the  claimant,  by  offering  proof  of  service 
and  escape,  made  his  election  to  proceed  under  the  sixth 
section. 

Here  he  failed  :  failed  to  prove  service  ;  failed  to  prove 
escape.  Then  the  Commissioner  allowed  him  to  swing 
round  and  take  refuge  in  the  tenth  section,  leaving  identity 
only  to  be  proved ;  and  this  he  proved  by  the  prisoner's 
confession,  made  under  duress  and  in  terror,  if  at  all ; 
wholly  denied  by  him  ;  and  proved  only  by  the  testimony 
of  a  witness  of  whom  we  know  nothing,  but  that  he  was 
contradicted  by  several  witnesses  as  to  the  only  point  to 
which  ]ie  affirmed  capable  of  being  tested. 

So,  then,  the  Commissioner  reduced  the  question  pre- 
cisely to  this  :  Is  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  the  same  Anthony 
Burns  whom  Brent  saw  in  Yirginia  on  the  19th  day 
of  March  last,  and  who  the  claimant  swears  in  his  com- 
plaint escaped  from  Virginia  on  the  24th  of  March  ? 

One  man,  calling  himself  '^William  Brent,  a  merchant 
of  Richmond,"  testified  as  to  the  question  of  identity 
— '*  This  is  Burns."  He  was  asked,  ^'  When  did  you  see 
him  in  Yirginia  ?  "  and  he  answered,  ''  On  the  19th  of 
March  last."  But  nobody  in  court  new  Mr.  Brent,  and 
Mr.  Loring  himself  confessed  that  he  stood  ''under  cir- 
cumstances that  would  bias  the  fairest  mind."  He  had 
come  all  the  way  from  Eichmond  to  Boston  to  make  out 
the  case.  Doubtless  he  expected  his  reward — perhaps  in 
money,  perhaps  in  honour ;  for  it  is  an  honour  in  Vir- 
ginia to  support  the  institutions  of  that  State.  But  on  the 
other  side,  many  witnesses  testified  that  Burns  was  here  in 
Boston  on  the  1st  of  March,  and  worked  several  daj^s  at 
the  Mattapan  Iron  Works,  at  South  Boston.  Several 
men,  well  known  in  Boston — persons  of  unimpeached  in- 
tegrity— testified  to  the  fact.     No  evidence  rebutted  their 


86^^  THE  NEW  CRIME 

testimony.  Notliing  was  urged  to  impugn  tlieir  veracity. 
The  Commissioner  says  tlieir  "  integrity  is  admitted,"  and 
*'  no  imputation  of  bias  could  be  attached  "  to  them.  So, 
to  decide  between  these  two,  Mr.  Loring  takes  the  admis- 
sions of  the  fugitive,  alleged  to  have  been  made  imder 
duress,  in  the  presence  of  his  "  master,"  made  in  gaol ;  when 
he  was  surrounded  by  armed  ruffians ;  when  he  was  "  inti- 
midated" by  fear, — admissions  which  Mr.  Burns  denied  to 
the  last,  even  after  the  decision.  This  was  the  proof  of 
identity ! 

The  record  called  Burns  a  man  with  '^  dark  complexion." 
The  prisoner  is  a  '^  full-blooded  negro."  His  complexion 
is  black  almost  as  my  coat.  The  record  spoke  of  Burns  as 
having  a  scar  on  his  right  hand.  The  right  hand  of  this 
man  had  been  broken ;  it  was  so  badly  injured  that  when 
it  was  opened  he  could  only  shut  it  by  grasping  it  with 
his  left.  The  bone  stuck  out  prominent.  The  kidnapper's 
witness  testified  that  Burns  was  in  Yirginia  on  the  19th 
of  March.  Several  witnesses — I  know  not  how  many — 
testified  that  he  was  in  Boston  nineteen  days  before  ! 

Mr.  Brent  stated  nothing  to  show  that  he  had  ever  had 
any  particular  knowledge  of  Mr.  Burns,  or  particularly 
observed  his  person.  Some  of  the  witnesses  for  the  prisoner 
did  not  testify  merely  from  general  observation  of  his  form 
or  features,  but  they  stated  that  they  had  noted  especially 
the  scar  on  his  cheek,  and  his  broken  hand,  and  they  knew 
him  to  be  the  man.  Besides,  this  testimony  is  of  multi- 
plied force,  not  being  that  of  so  many  to  one  fact ;  that  of 
each  stands  by  itself.  There  was  a  cloud  of  witnesses  to 
prove  that  Mr.  Burns  was  in  Boston  from  the  1st  of 
March.  If  their  evidence  could  be  invalidated,  it  was  not 
attacked  in  court.     Their  fairness  was  admitted. 

Not  many  years  ago,  a  woman  was  on  trial  in  Boston 
for  the  murder  of  her  own  child.  At  first  she  pleaded 
guilty,  and,  weeping,  stated  the  motives  which,  led  to  the 
unnatural  crime.  But  the  court  interfered,  induced  her 
to  retract  the  plea,  and  to  make  a  defence.  And  in  spite 
of  her  voluntary  admissions  made  in  court,  she  was  ac- 
quitted— for  there  was  not  evidence  to  warrant  a  legal 
conviction. 

Mr.  Loring  seemed  to  regard  Slavery  as  a  crimen  ex- 
ceptum ;  and  when  a  man  is  charged  with  it  he  is  presup- 


AGAINST  HUMANITY,  87 

posed  to  be  guilty,  and  must  be  denied  tbe  usual  means  of 
defence.  So  out  of  the  victim's  own  mouth  he  extorts  the 
proof  that  this  is  the  man  named  in  the  record. 

A  man  not  known  to  anybody  in  court  brings  a  paper 
from  Alexandria  claiming  Anthony  Burns  as  his  slave ; 
the  paper  was  drawn  up  five  hundred  miles  ofi";  in  the 
absence  of  Mr.  Burns ;  by  his  enemies,  who  sought  for  his 
liberty  and  more  than  his  life.  He  brought  one  witness  to 
testify  to  the  identity  of  the  man,  who  says  that,  in  his 
fear.  Burns  said,  "  I  am  the  man."  But  seven  witnesses, 
whose  veracity  was  not  impeached  in  the  court,  testify  that 
the  prisoner  was  in  Boston  in  the  early  part  of  March ; 
and  therefore  it  appears  that  he  is  not  the  Burns  who  ivas 
in  Virginia  on  the  19th  of  March,  and  thence  escaped 
on  the  24th.  To  decide  between  the  two  testimonies — 
that  of  one  Virginian  imder  circumstances  that  would  bias 
the  fairest  mind,  and  seven  Bostonians  free  from  all  bias — 
the  Commissioner  takes  the  words  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Mr.  Burns. 

'Now,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  provides  that  the  testimony 
of  the  fugitive  shall  not  be  received  as  evidence  in  the  case. 
Mr.  Loring  avoids  that  difficulty.  He  does  not  call  it 
"testimony"  or  "evidence."  He  calls  it  "admissions;" 
accepts  it  to  prove  the  "  identity,"  and  decides  the  case 
against  him.  But  w^ho  proves  that  Mr.  Burns  made  the 
admissions?  There  are  two  witnesses:  1.  A  man  hired 
to  kidnap  him,  one  of  the  Marshal's  "  guard,"  a  spy,  a 
hired  informer,  set  to  watch  the  prisoner  and  make  inquisi- 
tion. Of  what  value  was  his  testimony  ?  2.  Mr.  Brent, 
who  had  come  five  hundred  miles  to  assist  in  catching 
a  runaway  slave,  and.  claimed  Mr.  Burns  as  the  slave. 
This  was  the  only  valuable  witness  to  prove  the  admission. 
So  the  admission  is  proved  by  the  admission  of  Mr.  Brent, 
and  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Brent  is  proved  by  the  admis- 
sion !  Excellent  'Fugitive  Slave  Bill  "  evidence  !"  Brent 
confirms  Brent !  There  is,  I  think,  a  well-known  axiom 
of  the  common  law,  that  "  admissions  shall  go  in  entire  " 
— all  that  the  prisoner  said.  Now,  Mr.  Loring  rules  in 
just  what  serves  the  interest  of  the  claimant,  and  rules  out 
everything  that  serves  Mr.  Burns's  interest.  And  is  that 
Massachusetts  justice  ? 

Bemember,  too,  that  Commissioner  Loring  is  the  whole 


88'  THE   NEVv    CRIME 

court — a  *' judge,"  not  known  to  the  Constitution;  a 
*'  jury"  only  known  in  tlie  inquisition !  There  is  no  appeal 
from  his  decision.  The  witness  came  from  Yirginia  to 
swear  away  the  freedom  of  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts, 
charged  with  no  crime.  When  the  Marshal,  and  the  men 
hired  to  kidnap,  are  about  the  poor  black  man,  it  is  said 
he  makes  an  admission  that  he  is  the  fugitive ;  and  on  that 
"  evidence"  Mr.  Loring  decides  that  he  is  to  go  into  bond- 
age for  ever.  It  was  conduct  worthy  of  the  Inquisition 
of  Spain !  *  Let  doubts  weigh  for  the  prisoner,  is  a  rule 
as  old  as  legal  attempts  at  justice.  Here,  they  weigh 
against  him.  The  case  is  full  of  doubts — doubts  on  every 
side.  He  rides  over  them  all.  He  takes  the  special  words 
he  wants,  and  therewith  strikes  down  the  prisoner's  claim 
to  libert}'. 

Suppose,  in  the  present  instance,  the  fugitive  had  been 
described  as  a  man  of  light  complexion,  blue  eyes,  and 
golden  hair :  then,  suppose  some  white  man,  you  or  I, 
answered  the  description,  and  some  ruffian  swore  to  the 
identity.  By  that  form  of  law,  any  man,  any  woman,  in 
the  city  of  Boston,  might  have  been  taken  and  carried  oiF 
into  bondage  straightway,  irredeemable  bondage,  bondage 
for  ever. 

Commissioner  Loring  had  no  better  ground  for  taking 
away  the  liberty  of  Anthony  Burns  than  in  the  case  I 
have  just  supposed. 

Suppose  Colonel  Suttle  had  claimed  the  Mayor  and 
Aldermen  of  Boston  as  his  slaves  ;  had  brought  a  ''  record" 
from  Alexandria  reciting  their  names,  and  setting  forth 
the  fact  of  their  owing  service,  and  their  escape  from  it ; 
had  them  kidnapped  and  brought  before  Mr.  Loring. 
According  to  his  own  ruling,  the  only  question  he  has  to 
determine  is  this  :  '^  the  identity  of  the  persons."  A  witness 
testifies  that  the  Maj^or  and  Aldermen  of  Boston  are  the 
parties  named  in  the  record  as  owing  service  and  having 
escaped  therefrom.  The  Commissioner  says,  "  The  facts  to 
be  proved  by  the  claimant  are  three. 

"1.  That  the  parties  charged  owed  him  service  in 
Yirginia. 

*  Tacitus  thinks  it  a  piece  of  good  fortune  that  Agricola  died  before 
such  "  admissions"  were  made  evidence  to  ruin  a  man,  as  in  Doraitian's 
tinae  qiiwrn  Suspiria  nostra  suhscnherenkir  ! — Agricola,  c.  xlv. 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  89- 

"2.  That  tliey  escaped  from  tliat  service. 

''These  facts  he  has  proved  by  the  record  which  the 
statute  (sec.  10)  declares  *  shall  be  held,  and  taken  to  be 
full  and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  fact  of  escape,  and  that 
the  service  or  labour  of  the  person  escaping  is  due  to  the 
party  in  such  record  mentioned.' 

"  Thus  these  two  facts  are  removed  entirely  and  abso- 
lutely from  my  jurisdiction,  and  I  am  entirely  and  abso- 
lutely precluded  from  applying  evidence  to  them ;  if, 
therefore,  there  is  in  the  case  evidence  capable  of  such 
application,  I  cannot  make  it. 

"3.  The  third  fact  is  the  identity  of  the  parties  before 
me  with  the  parties  mentioned  in  the  record. 

''  This  identity  is  the  only  question  I  have  a  right  to 
consider.  To  this,  and  to  this  alone,  I  am  to  apply  the 
evidence. 

"  And  then,  on  the  whole  testimony,  my  mind  is  satis- 
fied beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  of  the  identity  of  the 
respondents  with  the  parties  named  in  the  record. 

"On  the  law  and  facts  of  the"  case,  I  consider  the 
claimant  entitled  to  the  certificate  from  me  which  he 
claims." 

The  Mayor  and  Aldermen  go  into  bondage  for  ever. 
The  liberty  of  all  this  audience  might  be  thus  sworn 
away  by  a  Commissioner  and  another  kidnapper. 

But  the  ''ruling"  is  not  the  worst  thing  in  the  case. 
The  Commissioner  had  prejudged  it  all.  He  had  pre- 
judged it  entirely  before  he  had  even  begun  this  mock 
trial ;  before  he  heard  the  defence ;  before  the  prisoner  had 
any  counsel  to  make  a  defence.  Here  is  my  proof.  On 
Friday  (May  26),  Wendell  Phillips  went  to  Cambridge  to 
see  Mr.  Loring.  He  is  a  professor  of  law  in  Harvard 
College,  teaching  law  and  justice  to  the  young  men  who 
go  up  thither  to  learn  law  and  justice !  Mr.  Phillips 
went  there  to  get  permission  to  visit  Mr.  Burns,  and  see 
if  he  would  make  a  defence  and  have  counsel,  Mr, 
Loring  advised  Mr.  Phillips  to  make  no  defence.  He  said: 
"  Mr.  Phillips,  I  think  the  case  is  so  clear  that  you  would 
not  be  justified  in  placing  any  obstructions  in  the  way  of 
the  man's  going  back,  as  he  probably  will." 

So,  as  the  matter  was  decided  beforehand,  it  was  to  be 
only  a  mock  trial,  and  might  just  as  well  have  been  dis- 


90  THE  NEW  CRIME    ' 

pensed  with.  It  keeps  up  some  hollow  semblance  to  the 
form  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  but  it  was  all  prejudged 
before  Mr.  Burns  had  selected  his  counsel  or  determined  to 
have  any.  Place  no  ''  obstructions  in  the  way  of  the  man's 
going  back,  as  he  probably  will !  '^ 

Nor  is  that  all.  Before  any  defence  had  been  made,  on 
Saturday  night,  Mr.  Loring  drew  up  a  bill  of  sale  of 
Anthony  Burns.     Here  it  is,  in  his  own  handwriting : — 

"  Know  all  men  in  these  Presents  —  That  I,  Charles 
F.  Suttle,  of  Alexandria,  in  Virginia,  in  consideration  of 
twelve  himdred  dollars^  to  me  paid,  do  hereby  release  and 
discharge,  quitclaim  and  convey  to  Antony  Byrnes,  his 
liberty ;  and  I  hereby  manumit  and  release  him  from  all 
claims  and  services  to  me  for  ever,  hereby  giving  him  his 
liberty  to  all  intents  and  effects  for  ever. 

"  In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereto  set  my  hand  and 
seal,  this  twenty- seventh  day  of  May,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-four/' 

What  should  you  say  of  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Massachusetts  who  should  imdertake  to  negotiate  a  note 
of  hand  which  was  a  matter  of  litigation  before  him  in 
court  ?  "What  if  the  Chief- Justice,  before  he  had  heard  a 
word  of  the  case  of  the  last  man  tried  for  murder — before 
the  prisoner  had  any  counsel — ^had  told  some  humane  man 
taking  an  interest  in  the  matter,  '^  You  would  not  be  justi- 
fied in  placing  any  obstructions  in  the  way  of  the  man's 
being  hanged,  as  he  probably  will  ?  "  Add  this,  also  : 
here  Commissioner  Loring  is  Justice  to  draw  the  writ. 
Judge,  Jury,  all  in  one  !  Do  the  annals  of  judicial  tyranny 
show  a  clearer  case  of  judgment  v/ithout  a  hearing  ? 

This  is  not  yet  the  end  of  the  wickedness.  Last  Wed- 
nesday night  the  Kidnapper's  Court  adjourned  till  Friday 
morning  at  nine  o'clock.  Then  the  ^'  decision  "  was  to  be 
made.  But  the  kidnapper  and  his  assistants,  the  Marshal, 
etc.,  knew  it  on  Thursday  night.  How  long  before,  I  know 
not.  The  men  who  hired  Mr.  Loring  to  steal  a  man,  with 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  for  his  instrument,  they  knew  the 
decision  at  least  fourteen  hours  before  it  was  announced  in 
court — I  think  twenty  hours  before. 

First,  he  judged  the  case  before  he  heard  it ;  second,  he 
judged  it  against  evidence  when  he  heard  it ;  third,  he 
clandestinely  communicated  the   decision  to   one  of  the 


AGAINST  HUMANITY.  91 

parties  half  a  clay  before  lie  declared  it  openly  in  court. 
Could  Kane  or  Curtis  do  worse  ?  I  do  not  find  that  they 
have  ever  done  so  bad.  Does  Boston  teem  with  Epsoms 
and  Dudleys,  the  vermin  of  the  law  ?  Does  J^ew  England 
spawn  Jeffreyses  and  Scroggses,  whom  we  supposed  impos- 
sible— fictitious  characters  too  bad  to  be  ? 

Look  at  the  Marshal's  conduct.  Of  his  previous  character 
I  say  nothing.  But  his  agents  arrested  Mr.  Burns  on  a 
false  charge ;  threatened  violence  if  he  should  cry  out ;  they 
kept  him  in  secret.     I^obody  came  nigh  unto  him. 

The  trial  was  unfairly  conducted  on  the  Marshal's  part. 
The  public  was  excluded  from  the  Court  House.  His  ser- 
vants lined  the  stairways,  insulting  the  people.  Southerners 
were  freely  admitted,  but  Northern  gentlemen  kept  out. 
Rude,  coarse,  and  insolent  fellows  found  no  check.  Clergy- 
men and  lawyers  were  turned  back,  and  Southern  students 
of  law  let  in.  Two  gentlemen  were  refused  admission ;  but 
when  one  declared  he  was  from  Yirginia,  the  other  from 
South  Carolina,  they  were  both  admitted  on  the  instant. 
The  whole  Court  House  seemed  to  be  the  property  of  the 
slave  power. 

He  crowded  the  Court  House  with  soldiers.  Some  of 
them  were  drunk,  and  charged  bayonet  upon  the  counsel 
and  witnesses  for  Burns,  and  thrust  them  away.  He  em- 
ployed base  men  for  his  guard.  I  never  saw  such  a  motley 
crew  as  this  kidnapper's  gang  collected  together,  save  in 
the  darkest  places  of  London  and  Paris,  whither  I  went  to 
see  how  low  humanity  might  go  down,  and  yet  bear  the 
semblance  of  man.  He  raked  the  kennels  of  Boston.  He 
dispossessed  the  stews,  bawding  the  courts  Tvdth  unwonted 
infamy.  He  gathered  the  spoils  of  brothels  ;  prodigals  not 
penitent,  who  upon  harlots  had  wasted  their  substance  in 
riotous  living ;  pimps,  gamblers,  the  succubus  of  Slavery  ; 
men  which  the  gorged  gaols  had  cast  out  into  the  streets 
scarred  with  infamy  ;  fighters,  drunkards,  public  brawlers  ; 
convicts  that  had  served  out  their  time,  waiting  for  a  second 
conviction ;  men  whom  the  subtlety  of  counsel,  or  the 
charity  of  the  gallows,  had  left  unhanged.  "  No  eye  hath 
seen  such  scarecrows."  The  youngest  of  the  Police  Judges 
found  ten  of  his  constituents  there.  Gaoler  Andrews,  it  is 
said,  recognised  forty  of  his  customers  among  them.     It  is 


92  THE    NEW   CRliME 

said  that  Albert  J.  Tirrell  was  invited  to  move  in  that 
leprous  gang,  and  declined  !*  ''  The  wicked  walk  on  every 
side  when  the  vilest  men  are  exalted  !  "  The  publican  who 
fed  those  locusts  of  Southern  tyrann}^,  said  that  out  of  the 
sixty-five,  there  was  but  one  respectable  man,  and  he  kept 
aloof  from  all  the  rest.  I  have  seen  courts  of  justice  in 
England,  Holland,  Belgium,  Germany,  France,  Italy,  and 
Switzerland,  and  I  have  seen  just  such  men.  But  they 
were  always  in  the  dock,  not  the  servants  of  the  Court. 
The  Marshal  was  right;  "the  statute  is  so  cruel  and 
wicked  that  it  should  not  be  executed  by  good  men."  He 
chose  fit  tools  for  fitting  work.  I  do  not  think  Herod  sent 
the  guardian  of  orphans  to  massacre  the  innocents  of  Beth- 
lehem. I  doubt  that  Pontius  Pilate  employed  a  Judge  of 
Probate  to  crucify  Jesus  between  two  thieves  ! 

There  was  an  unfairness  about  the  ofier  to  sell  Mr. 
Burns.  I  do  not  know  whose  fault  that  was.  His  claimant 
pretended  that  he  would  sell ;  but  when  the  money  was 
tendered,  his  agents  delayed,  equivocated,  wore  out  the 
time,  till  it  was  Sunday ;  and  the  deed  could  not  legally  be 
done.  It  was  the  man,  and  not  the  money  they  wanted. 
He  offered  to  sell  the  man  for  twelve  hundred  dollars. 
The  piice  v/as  exorbitant,  he  would  not  bring  eight 
hundred  at  Alexandria,  f 

*  "Wlnlo  these  slieets  are  passing  tlirougli  the  press  1  learn  that  three 
of  the  Marshal's  guard  have  been  arrested  for  crimes  of  violence  com- 
mitted within  twenty-four  hours  after  the  rendition.     Bet  a  thief  to  serve  a 
thief 
t  "  Mr.  Attoeney  Hallett's  Interference  with  the   Purchase  op 

THE  Fugitive. 

"  Boston,  Saturday,  June  3,  1854. 

"  To  the  Editors  of  the  Atlas  : — You  have  called  my  attention  to  an 
article  in  yonr  paper  this  morning  signed  'L.,'  and  to  a  contradiction  of 
its  statement  in  the  Joirrnal  of  this  evening,  by  authority  of  the  United 
States  District  Attorney.  I  know  nothing  of  the  origin  of  either  of  these 
articles,  but  will,  at  your  request,  give  you  a  narrative  of  my  own  con- 
nection with  tbo  recent  negotiation  for  the  freedom  of  '  Byrnes,'  believing 
that  such  a  narrative  will  he  altogether  pertinent  to  the  fact  which  you 
seek  to  establish,  namely,  the  interference  of  the  United  States  Distinct 
Attorney  in  the  negotiation  above  referred  to. 

"  On  Saturday  afternoon  last,  the  He  v.  Mr.  Grimes  called  upon  me  and 
said  that  the  owaier  of  Byrnes  had  offered  to  sell  him  for  twelve  hundred 
dollars,  and  that  he  (Grimes)  Avas  anxious  to  raise  the  money  at  once. 
He  desired  my  advice  and  assistance  in  the  matter,  and  requested  me  to 
draw  up  a  suitable  subscription  paper  for  that  purpose,  which  I  did  iu 
these  words : — 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  "93 

There  was  auotlier  trick.      At  one  time  it  was  tliought 
the  evidence  would  compel  the  reluctant  Commissioner  to 


•' '  Boston,  May  27,  1854. 

"  *  We,  the  undersigned,  agree  to  pay  to  Antliony  Byrnes,  or  order,  tlie 
sum  set  against  our  respective  names,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him  to 
obtain  his  freedom  from  the  United  States  Government,  in  the  hands  of 
whose  officers  he  is  now  held  as  a  slave. 

"  '  This  paper  will  be  presented  by  the  Rev.  L.  A.  Grimes,  pastor  of  the 
12th  Baptish  Church.' 

"  Upon  this  paper  Mr.  Grimes  obtained  signatures  for  six  hundred  and 
sixty-live  dollars,  and  with  the  aid  of  Colonel  Suttle's  counsel,  Messrs. 
Parker  and  Thomas,  who  interested  themselves  in  this  matter,  four 
hundred  dollars  more  were  got  in  a  check,  conditionally,  and  held  by  Mr. 
Parker.  It  was  agreed  by  me  that  I  should  be  near  at  hand  on  Saturday 
night,  to  assist  and  advance  the  money,  which  was  accordingly  done  ;  and 
my  check  for  eight  hundred  dollars,  early  in  the  night,  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  United  States  Marshal  for  this  purpose.  About  eleven 
o'clock,  all  parties  being  represented,  we  met  at  Mr.  Commissioner 
Loring's  office.  This  gentleman,  with  commendable  alacrity,  prepared 
necessary  papers. 

"  At  tlais  juncture  the  actual  money  was  insisted  on,  which  threatened 
for  a  time  the  completion  of  the  negotiation  ;  but  anticipating  this  con- 
tingency, Avhich,  under  all  circumstances,  was  not  an  unreasonable  de- 
mand, we  adjourned  to  the  Marshal's  office,  and  I  prepared  myself  with 
the  needful  tender.  The  United  States  Attorney,  Mr.  Hallett,  was  in 
attendance,  and  the  respective  parties  immediately  discussed  the  mode 
of  procedure.  The  hour  of  twelve  was  rapidly  approaching,  after  v/hich 
no  action  could  be  taken.  Mr.  Grimes  was  pi-epared  to  receive  Byrnes, 
and  anxious  to  take  him  as  he  might  peacefully.  The  matter  lingered, 
and  official  action  ceased. 

"  I  am  not  disposed  to  chai'ge  any  one  with  designedly  defeating  the 
desired  end  on  that  occasion.  The  business  was  new,  the  questions 
raised  novel.  But  w^hen  we  had  proceeded  thus  far,  and  were  ready  in 
good  faith  to  make  good  the  sum  requisite  on  Monday,  in  view  also  of 
the  friendly  understanding  had  after  midnight  with  all  parties  in  interest, 
we  had  a  right  to  expect  Byrnes' s  liberation  on  Monday.  When  that  day 
came,  the  owner  refused  to  treat.  Learning  from,  rumour  only  that  four 
thousand  dollars  had  been  named  as  the  sum  then  asked  for-,  I  on  Mon- 
day addressed  Colonel  Suttle,  then  in  court,  a  respectful  note,  reminding 
him  of  the  position  of  things  on  Saturday  night,  and  urging  that  Mr. 
Grimes  had  the  right  to  expect  the  original  agreement  to  be  carried  out, 
but  further  asking  him  if  any  additional  sum  was  required  ;  to  which  he 
replied,  that  the  '  case  is  before  the  Court,  and  must  await  its  decision.' 

"  Tuesday  morning,  I  had  an  interview  with  Colonel  Suttle  in  the  U.  S. 
Marshal's  office.  He  seemed  disposed  to  listen  to  me,  and  met  the  sub- 
ject in  a  manly  way.  He  said  he  wished  to  take  the  boy  back,  after 
which  he  would  sell  him.  He  wanted  to  see  the  result  of  the  trial,  at 
any  rate.  I  stated  to  him  that  we  considered  his  claim  to  Byrnes  clear 
enough,  and  that  he  would  be  delivered  over  to  him,  urging  particularly 
upon  him  that  the  boy's  libei'ation  was  not  sought  for  except  with  his 
free  consent,  and  his  claim  being  fully  satisfied.  I  urged  upon  him  no 
consideration  of  the  fear  of  a  rescue,  or  possible  tmfavourable  result  of 


94  THE   NEW   CRIME 

free  liis  victim.     Then  it  was  proposed  that  he  should  be 
seized  in  the  court,  and  either  summarily  declared  a  slave  by 


the  trial  to  liim,  but  offered  distinctly,  if  lie  cliose,  to  have  the  trial  pro- 
ceed, and  whatever  might  be  the  result,  still  to  satisfy  his  claim. 

"  I  stated  to  him  that  the  negotiation  was  not  sustained  by  any  society 
or  association  whatsoever,  but  that  it  was  done  by  some  of  our  most 
respectable  citizens,  who  were  desirous  not  to  obstruct  the  operation  of 
the  law,  but  in  a  jjeaceable  and  honourable  manner  sought  an  adjustment 
of  this  unpleasant  case ;  assuring  him  that  this  feeling  was  general 
among  the  people.  I  read  to  him  al  etter,  addressed  to  me  by  a  highly- 
esteemed  citizen,  urging  me  to  renew  my  efforts  to  accomplish  this,  and 
placing  at  my  disposal  any  amount  of  money  that  I  might  think  proper 
for  the  purpose. 

"  Colonel  Suttle  replied  that  he  appreciated  our  motives,  and  that  he  felt 
disposed  to  meet  us.  He  then  stated  what  he  would  do.  I  accepted  his 
proposal  at  once ;  it  was  not  entirely  satisfactory  to  me,  but  yet,  in  view 
of  his  position,  as  he  declared  to  me,  I  was  content.  At  my  request,  he 
was  about  to  commit  our  agreement  to  writing,  when  Mr.  B.  F.  Hallett 
entered  the  office,  and  they  two  engaged  in  conversation  apart  from  me. 
Presently  Colonel  Suttle  returned  to  me,  and  said  :  *  I  must  withdraw 
what  I  have  done  with  you.'  We  both  immediately  approached  Mr. 
Hallett,  who  said,  pointing  to  the  spot  where  Mr,  Batchelcler  fell,  in  sight 
of  which  we  stood,  '  That  blood  must  be  avenged.'  I  made  some  perti- 
nent reply,  rebuking  so  extraordinary  a  speech,  and  left  the  room. 

"  On  Friday,  soon  after  the  decision  had  been  rendered,  finding  Colonel 
Suttle  had  gone  on  board  the  Cutter  at  an  early  hour,  I  waited  upon  his 
counsel,  Messrs.  Thomas  and  Parker,  at  the  Court-house,  and  there 
renewed  my  proposition.  Both  these  gentlemen  promptly  interested 
themselves  in  my  purpose,  which  was  to  itender  the  claimant  full  satis- 
faction, and  receive  the  suiTender  of  Byrnes  from  him,  either  there,  in 
State  Street,  or  on  board  the  Cutter,  at  his  own  option.  It  was  arranged 
between  us  that  Mr.  Parker  should  go  at  once  on  board  the  Cutter,  and 
make  an  arrangement,  if  possible,  with  the  Colonel. 

*'  I  provided  ample  funds,  and  returned  immediately  to  the  Court- 
house, when  1  found  that  there  would  be  difficulty  in  getting  on  board 
the  Cutter.  Application  was  made  by  me  to  the  Marshal ;  he  interposed 
no  objection,  and  I  offered  to  place  Mr.  Parker  alongside  the  vessel. 
Presently  Mr.  Parker  took  me  aside  and  said  these  words  :  '  Colonel 
Suttle  has  pledged  himself  to  Mr.  Hallett  that  he  will  not  sell  his  boy 
until  he  gets  him  home.'     Thus  the  matter  ended. 

"  In  considering,  Mr.  Editor,  whose  interfei'ence  was  potent  in  thus 
defeating  the  courteous  endeavours  of  citizens  of  Boston,  peacefully  and 
with  due  respect  to  the  laws  of  the  land,  to  put  to  rest  the  painful  scenes 
of  the  past  week,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  United  States 
Marshal,  who,  throughout  this  unfortunate  negotiation,  has  conducted 
himself  towards  us  with  great  consideration,  consented  individual!}'-  to 
hold  the  funds,  as  a  party  not  in  interest,  thus  early  acquiescing  in  the 
success  of  our  plan ;  the  owner  himself  was  willing  to  release  his  claim ; 
his  counsel,  Messrs.  Thomas  and  Parker,  volunteered  their  aid  in  raising 
the  money,  urged  it,  and  interested  themselves  in  its  speedy  accomplish- 
ment— even  in  the  latest  moment  when  it  could  be  effected,  with  com- 
mendable alacrity,   they  offered  their  assistance ;    the  United  States 


AGAINST  HUMANITY.  95 

some  other  Commissioner,  or  else  carried  ofF  witli  no  furtlier 
mock  trial.  I  think  it  would  haye  been  done  ;  but  Com- 
missioner Loring  was  ready  to  do  the  work  demanded  of 
bim,  and  earn  bis  twofold  pay. 

Tbe  conduct  of  tbe  Governor  requires  some  explanation. 
The  law  of  Massachusetts  was  cloven  down  by  the  sword  of 
the  Marshal ;  no  officer  could  be  found  to  serve  the  writ  of 
personal  replevin,  designed  by  the  Massachusetts  Legisla- 
ture to  meet  exactly  such  cases,  and  bring  Mr.  Burns  before 
a  Massachusetts  court.  The  Governor  could  not  be  induced 
to  attend  to  it :  Monday  he  was  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Bible  Society;  Thursday  at  the  meeting  of  the  Sunday 
Schools.  If  the  United  States  Marshal  had  invaded  the 
sovereignty  of  South  Carolina,  where  do  you  think  her 
Governor  would  have  been  ? 

The  conduct  of  the  Mayor  of  Boston  deserves  to  be 
remembered.  He  had  the  police  of  the  city  in  Court 
Square,  aiding  the  kidnapper.  It  was  not  their  fault. 
They  served  against  their  will.  Captain  Hayes,  of  the 
poKce,  that  day  magnanimously  resigned  his  charge.*  The 
Mayor  called  out  the  soldiers  at  great  cost,  to  some  one. 

Commissioner  himself  consented  to  be  at  Ms  post  trntil  midnight  of 
Saturday,  to  give  his  official  service  for  the  object — I  repeat,  in  view  of 
all  these  considerations,  the  conclusion  must  come  home  irresistibly  to 
every  candid  mind,  that  there  was  one  personage  who,  officially  or  indi- 
vidually, in  this  connection  either  did  do,  or  left  iindone,  something 
Vvdaereby  his  interference  became  essential  to  a  less  painful  termination 
of  this  case. 

"Eespectfally,  ■; 

"Hamilton  Willis." 

*  Here  Is  the  note  of  Mr.  Hayes  to  the  city  authorities  j  one  day  his 
cliildren  will  deem  it  a  noble  trophy : — 

"  Boston,  June  2, 1854 

"  To  His  Honour  the  Mayor  and  tlie  Aldermen  of  the  City  of  Boston : — 
"  Through  all  the  excitement  attendant  upon  the  arrest  and  trial  of 
the  fugitive  by  the  United  States  Government,  I  have  not  received  an 
order  which  I  have  conceived  inconsistent  with  my  duties  as  an  officer 
of  the  police  until  this  day,  at  which  time  I  have  received  an  order  which, 
if  performed,  would  implicate  me  in  the  execution  of  that  infamous 
'  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.' 

"  I  therefore  resign  the  office  which  I  now  hold  as  a  Captain  of  the 
■Watch  and  PoHce  from  this  hour,  11  am. 

"  Most  respectfully  yours, 

"  Joseph  K.  Hayes." 


96 


THE   NEW   CRIME 


He  did  this  on  liis  own  responsibility.  Five  Aldermen 
have  publicly  protested  against  the  breach  of  honour  and 
justice.  After  the  Avicked  deed  was  over,  he  attended  a 
meeting  of  Sunday  School  children  in  Faneuil  Hall.  When 
he  was  introduced  to  the  audience,  "Out  of  the  mouth  of 
babes  and  sucklings  "  came  a  hiss  !  At  night,  the  "  citizen 
soldiery ''  had  a  festival.  The  Mayor  was  at  the  supper, 
and  toasted  the  militarjr — eating  and  drinking  and  making 
merry.  What  did  they  care,  or  he,  that  an  innocent 
citizen  of  Boston  was  sent  into  bondage  for  ever,  and  by 
their  hands  !  The  agony  of  Mr.  Burns  only  flavoured  their 
cup.  So  the  butcher's  dog  can  enjoy  himself  in  the 
shambles,  while  the  slaughter  of  the  innocent  goes  on 
around  him,  "  battenins:  on  ffarba^^e  ! '' 


Thus,  on  the  2nd  of  June,  Boston  sent  into  bondage 
the  second  victim.  It  ought  to  have  been  fifteen  days 
later — the  17th  of  June.  What  a  spectacle  it  was  ! 
The  day  was  brilliant ;  there  was  not  a  cloud ;  all  about 
Boston  there  was  a  ring  of  happy  summer  loveliness  ;  the 
green  beauty  of  June  ;  the  grass,  the  trees,  the  heaven,  the 
light ;  and  Boston  itself  was  the  theatre  of  incipient  civil 
war ! 

What  a  day  for  Boston  !  Citizens  applauding  that  a 
man  was  to  be  carried  into  bondage !  Drunken  soldiers, 
hardly  able  to  stand  in  the  street,  sung  their  ribald  song — 
''  Oh,  carry  me  back  to  old  Yirginia!"  * 

Daniel  Webster  lies  buried  at  Marshfield  ;  but  his  dead 

*  I  copy  this  from  one  of  the  newspapers  : — 

"  The  Pay  of  the  Boston  Military  for  their  Aid  in  the  Rendition  of  Anthony 

Burns. 
"  We  write  with  an  '  iron  pen '  for  the  benefit  of  some  fature  historian, 
that  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-four,  in  the  City 
of  Boston,  there  was  received  for  their  aid  in  consigning  to  the  bondage 
of  American  chattel  Slavery  one  Anthony  Burns, — by  the  grace  of  God 
and  his  own  efforts  a  freeman, — by  the  independent  volunteer  militia  of 
Said  city,  the  following  sums  : — 

"  National  Lancers,  Capt.  Wilmarth       ....      $820.00 
Boston  Light  Dragoons,  Capt.  Wright    .         ...     1,128.00       ; 
Fifth  Ecgiment  of  Artillery,  by  Col.  Cowdin,  for  him-  - 

self,  staff,  and  regiment 3,91G.00 

Boston  Light  Infantry,  Capt.  Rogers      .         .         .     .        460.00 
New  England  Guards,  Capt  Henshaw         .         .         .        432.00 

Pulaski  Guards,  Capt.  AYright 328.00 

Boston  Liglit  Guai-d,  Capt.  Follett      ....        500.00 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  97 

hand  put  the  chain  on  Anthony  Burns.  Last  ^Yinter  it 
was  proposed  to  buihl  him  a  monument.  lie  needs  it  not. 
Hancock  has  none  ;  Samuel  Adams  sleeps  in  a  nameless 
grave  ;  John  Adams  has  not  a  stone.  We  are  their  monu- 
ments ;  the  homage  of  the  people  is  their  epitaph.  Daniel 
Webster  also  had  his  monument  last  Friday.  It  was  the 
Court  House  crowded  with  two  hundred  and  twenty  United 
States  soldiers  and  flanked  with  a  cannon.  His  monu- 
ment reached  all  the  way  from  John  Hancock's  house  in 
Court  Street  to  the  T  Wharf ;  nay,  it  went  far  out  to  sea 

Boston  City  Guard,  Capt.  French 488.00 

(of  which  $190  was  paid  by  order  to  George  Young 
for  '  refreshments.') 

Boston  Independent  Fusileers,  Capt.  Cooley       .         .  320.00 

Washington  Light  Infantry,  Capt.  Upton       .         .     .  536.00 

Mechanic  Infantry,  Capt.  Adams         ....  428.00 

National  Guard,  Lieut.  Harlow  commanding .         .     .  416.00 

Union  Guard,  Capt.  Brown 476.00 

Sarsfield  Guard,  Capt.  Hogan 308.00 

Boston  Independent  Cadets,  Capt.  Amoiy  .         .         .  1,136.00 

Boston  Light  Artillery,  Capt.  Cobb         ....  168.00 

Major- Genei'al  Edmands  and  staff       ....  715.00 
Major  Pierce  and  staff  of  the  First  Battalion  Light 

Dragoons .........  146,00 

Colonel  Holbrook  and  staff  of  the  first  Regiment  of 

Light  Infantry       .         .         .         .         .         .         .  26.00 

Brigadier- General   Andrews   and   staff  of  the   First 

Brigade 107.50 

Major  Burbank  and  staff  of  the  Third  Battalion   of 

Light  Infantry 76.00 

William    Read,   hardware    and    sporting   apparatus 

dealer,  for  ammunition     .        .         .         .         .     .  155.28 


Total        ,         .  §13,115.78" 

The  sum  paid  to  the  civil  officers  of  Boston  for  their  services  has  not 
yet  been  made  public. 

Mr.  Burns  was  subsequently  sold  to  David  McDaniel,  of  Nash  county, 
N.  C,  on  condition  that  he  "should  never  he  sold  to  go  North"  A  most 
piteous  letter  was  received  from  him  in  January,  1855,  full  of  pious  grati- 
tude to  all  who  sought  to  preserve  for  hina  the  unalienable  Right  to  Life, 
Liberty,  and  the  Pursuit  of  Happiness. 

Presently,  after  Commissioner  Loring  had  accomplished  his  "  legal " 
kidnapping,  he  tried  to  purchase  a  piece  of  meat  of  a  noble-hearted 
butcher  in  Boylston  Market.  "I  Avill  take  that  pig,"  said  the  Com- 
missioner. "  You  can't  have  it,"  replied  the  butcher.  "  What,  is  it 
sold  ?"  "  No,  sir !  But  you  can't  buy  your  meat  of  me.  I  want  none  of 
your  blood-money.     It  would  htirn  my  pocket .'" 

Rev.  Nehemiah  Adams,  D.D.,  subsequently  sent  to  the  Commissioner 
a  presentation  copy  of  his  Soidh  Side  View  of  Slavery,  with  the  author's 
regards ! 

VOL.    TT.  II 


98  THE   NEW  CRIME 

in  the  Revenue  Cutter,  and  is  borne  seaward  or  shoreward. 
Conquer  your  prejudices  !  No  higher  law !  On  the  brass 
cannon  you  could  read,  I  still  live. 

Mr.  Burns  was  seized  on  that  day  which  the  Christian 
church  has  consecrated  to  two  of  the  martyrs.  Saints 
Donatian  and  Rogatian.  They  seem  to  have  been  put  to 
death  by  Rictius  Yarns,  the  Commissioner  of  Belgic  and 
Celtic  Gaul.  They  suffered  death  at  ]N"antes.  They  were 
impeached  for  professing  themselves  Christians.  Simple 
death  was  not  torment  enough  for  being  a  Christian 
in  the  year  287.  They  were  put  to  the  rack  first.  Their 
bodies,  still  held  in  great  veneration,  now  sleep  their  dusty 
slumber  in  the  great  cathedral  of  the  town.  The  antiqua- 
rian traveller  wonders  at  the  statues  of  those  two  martyrs 
still  standing  at  the  corner  of  the  Money- Changers'  Street, 
and  telling  the  tale  of  times  when  the  Christians  only  suf- 
fered persecution.  St.  Rogatian's  day  was  not  an  unfitting 
time  for  Puritanic  Boston  to  steal  a  man  ! 

The  day  on  which  Mr.  Burns  was  sent  from  Boston  into 
Alexandrian  bondage  is  still  more  marked  in  the  Christian 
church.  It  is  consecrated  to  a  noble  army  of  martyrs  who 
tasted  death  at  Yienna,  in  Gaul, — now  Yienne,  in  the 
south  of  France — in  the  year  178  after  Christ.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  little  town,  once  famous  and  eminent, 
where  the  dreadful  event  took  place.  A  letter  written,  it 
is  said,  by  St.  Irenseus  himself  details  the  saddening  his- 
tory. It  begins;  "We  the  Servants  of  Christ  [Mr.  Everett 
might  translate  it  '  Slaves'^,  dwelling  at  Yienna  and 
Lyons  in  Gaul  to  the  brethren  in  Asia  and  Phrygia  who 
have  the  same  faith  and  hope  with  us.  Peace,  and  Grace, 
and  Glory  from  God  the  Father,  and  from  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. '^  The  whole  letter  is  a  most  touching  memorial  of 
the  faithful  piety  of  the  Christians  in  days  when  it  cost  life 
to  be  religious.  Anybody  may  read  what  remains  of  it 
in  Eusebius.     Here  is  the  story  in  short : — 

A  law  was  passed  forbidding  Christians  to  be  out  of 
their  own  houses  "  in  any  place  whatsoever.'^  The  most 
cruel  punishments  were  denounced  against  all  persons 
who  professed  the  Christian  religion. 

The  Governor,  who  was  also  a  commissioner  appointed 
for  persecuting  and  murdering  the  Christians,  had  the 
most  prominent  members  of   the   Church  arrested  and 


AGAINST    HUMANITY.  99 

brouglit  before  him.  In  the  "examination"  they  were 
treated  with  such  cruelty  that  Yettius  Epagathus,  a 
Christian  of  distinguished  family,  undertook  their  defence, 
a  man  so  exactly  virtuous,  that,  though  young,  he  won  the 
honour  of  old  Zacharias — "  walking  in  all  the  command- 
ments and  ordinances  of  the  Lord  blameless."  The  com- 
missioner asked  him,  "Art  thou  also  a  Christian  ?"  Epa- 
gathus made  his  "  admission  "  in  a  loud  voice,  and  shared 
the  fate  of  the  martyrs.  The  Christians  called  him  the 
Comforter  of  Christians, — "  for  he  had  the  Comforter,  the 
Spirit,  in  him,  more  than  Zacharias  himself;"  a  title  as 
hateful  then  as  Friend  of  the  Slave  now  is  in  the  Court  or 
the  Church  of  Kidnappers  in  Boston. 

Sanctus,  the  Deacon  ;  Maturus,  a  new  convert ;  Attains, 
from  Asia  Minor,  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  Church  ;  Blan- 
dina,  a  female  Slave  ;  Pothinus,  ninety  years  old,  and 
Bishop  of  Lyons,  hard  by,  were  put  to  the  most  cruel 
tortures.  Four  of  them  were  exposed  to  the  wild  beasts 
in  the  amphitheatre  to  divert  the  spectators  !  Blandina 
was  fastened  to  a  post  to  be  eaten  up  by  the  beasts,  and 
when  they  left  her  untouched,  the  Marshal  haled  her  to 
prison  again.  "  But,  last  of  all,  St.  Blandina,  like  a  well- 
born mother  who  has  nursed  her  children  and  sent  them 
victorious  to  the  King,  hastened  after  them,  rejoicing  and 
leaping  for  joy  at  her  departure  ;  thrown,  indeed,  to  the 
wild  beasts,  she  went  as  if  invited  to  a  bridal  feast ;  and 
after  the  scourging,  after  the  exposure  to  wild  beasts,  after 
the  chair  of  fire,  she  was  wrapped  in  a  net  and  tossed  by  a 
bull — and  at  last  killed."  Others  fell  with  them  :  Pon- 
ticus,  a  boy  of  fifteen  ;  Alexander  the  Phrygian,  and  many 
more.  They  were  tortured  with  cudgels,  with  whips,  with 
wild  beasts,  and  red-hot  plates  of  iron  ;  at  last  they  died, 
one  by  one.  The  tormentors  threw  their  dead  bodies  to 
the  dogs :  some  raged  and  gnashed  their  teeth  over  the 
dead,  seeking  to  take  yet  more  abundant  vengeance  thereon ; 
others  laughed  and  made  mockery  thereof.  And  others, 
more  gentle,  seeming  to  sympathize  as  much  as  they  dared, 
made  grievous  reproaches,  and  said,  "  Where  is  now  their 
God,  and  of  what  profit  is  their  piety,  which  they  loved 
better  even  than  their  own  life  !  Now  we  shall  see  if  they 
will  ever  rise  from  the  dead,  and  if  their  God  can  help  and 
deliver  them  out  of  our  hands  ! " 

*H  2 


100  THE    NEW   CRIME 

So  things  went  at  AUobrogian  Vienna  on  the  2nd  of 
June,  sixteen  hundred  and  seventy-six  years  ago  last 
Friday.  The  murder  of  those  Christians  was  just  as 
"  legal "  as  the  rendition  of  Anthony  Burns.  It  would 
be  curious  to  know  what  the  "  respectable  "  men  of  the 
town  said  thereupon  :  to  see  the  list  of  fifteen  hundred 
citizens  volunteering  their  aid  ;  to  read  the  letter  of  nine 
hundred  and  eighty-seven  men  thanking  the  commissioner 
for  touching  their  conscience.  The  preaching  of  the  priests 
must  have  been  edifying : — "  I  would  drive  a  Christian 
away  from  my  own  door !  I  woidd  murder  my  own 
mother  ! " 

Doubtless  some  men  said, "  The  statute  which  commands 
the  torturous  murder  of  men,  women,  and  children,  for  no 
crime  but  piety,  if  constitutional,  is  wicked  and  cruel. ^' 
And  doubtless  some  heathen  "  Chief- Justice  Parker  " 
choked  down  the  rising  conscience  of  mankind,  and  an- 
swered, "  Whether  the  statute  is  a  harsh  one  or  not,  it  is 
not  for  us  to  determine."*  No  !  it  is  not  for  the  blood- 
hound to  ask  whether  the  victim  he  rends  to  quivering 
fragments  is  a  sinner  or  a  saint ;  the  bloodhound  is  to  bite, 
and  not  consider ;  he  has  teeth,  not  conscience.  The 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioner  is  not  to  do  justly,  and 
love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  his  God ;  he  is  to 
kidnap  men  in  Boston  at  ten  dollars  a  head  !  The  pagan 
murder  of  Christians  at  Vienna  under  Aurelian,  did  not 
differ  much  from  the  Christian  kidnapping  of  Mr.  Burns 
in  Boston  under  Pierce.  But,  alas  for  these  times — it  is 
not  recorded  of  the  Romans  that  any  heathen  Judge  of 
Probate  came  forward  and  volunteered  to  butcher  the 
widows  and  orphans  of  the  early  Church  !  Then  the  tor- 
mentor worshipped  Mars  and  Bellona  ;  now  he  sits  in  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Boston  chose  a  fit  day  to  consummate  her  second  kid- 
napping. St.  Pothinus  was  a  Christian  preacher,  so  was 
Anthony  Burns — "  a  minister  of  the  Baptist  denomina- 
tion," "  regularly  ordained!"  Commissioner  Loring  could 
not  have  done  better  than  select  this  time  to  execute  his 
"  decision."  On  St.  Pothinus's  day,  let  Anthony  Burns 
be  led   to  a   martyrdom  more  atrocious !      The  African 

*  Eeference  is  hero  made  to  the  words  used  by  Commissioner  Loriiig 
in  his  "  decision,"  citing  the  words  of  the  late  Chief-Justice  Parker. 


AGAINST  HUMANITY.  101 

churclies  of  Boston  may  write  a  letter  to-day,  which  three 
or  four  thousand  years  hence  will  sound  as  strange  as  now 
the  Epistle  of  St.  Irenccus.  Sixteen  hundred  and  seventy- 
six  years  hence,  it  may  be  thought  the  Marshal's  "guard" 
is  a  fair  match  for  the  bullies  who  tortured  Blandina.  In 
the  next  world  the  District  Marshal  may  shake  hands  with 
the  heathen  murderer  who  put  the  boy  Ponticus  to  cruel 
death.  I  make  no  doubt  there  were  men  at  the  corners  of 
the  streets  who  clapped  hands,  as  one  by  one  the  lions  in 
the  public  square  rent  the  Christian  maidens  limb  from 
limb,  and  strewed  the  ground  with  human  flesh  yet  palpi- 
tating in  its  severed  agony.  Boston  can  furnish  mates  for 
them.  But  the  Judge  of  Probate,  the  teacher  of  a  Sunday- 
school,  the  member  of  a  church  of  Christ, — ^he  may  wander 
through  all  Hades,  peopled  thick  with  Eoman  tormentors, 
nor  never  meet  with  a  heathen  guardian  of  orphans  who 
can.  be  his  match.  Let  him  pass  by.  Declamation  can 
add  nothing  to  his  deed. 

"  To  gild  refined  gold,  to  paint  the  lily, 
To  throw  a  perfume  on  the  violet, 
To  smooth  the  ice,  or  add  another  hue 
Unto  the  rainbow,  or  with  taper  light 
To  seek  the  beauteous  eye  of  heaven  to  garnish, 
Is  wasteful  and  ridiculous  excess." 

No  doubt  the  commissioner  for  murdering  the  Christians 
at  Yienna  reasoned  as  ''  legally  "  and  astutety  in  the  second 
century  as  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Commissioner  at  Boston 
in  the  nineteenth.  Perhaps  the  '^  argument "  was  after 
this  wise  : — * 

**  This  statute  has  been  decided  to  be  constitutional  by 
the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  Province  of  Gaul,  after  the  fullest  argument  and  the 
maturest  deliberation,  to  be  the  law  of  this  province,  as  well 
as  and  because  it  is  a  constitutional  law  of  the  Roman 
Empire  ;  and  the  wise  words  of  our  revered  chief-justice  f 
may  well  be  repeated  now,  and  remembered  always.  The 
chief-justice  says  :  — 

"  '  The  torture,  persecution,  and  murder  of  Christians 
was  not  created,  established,  or  perpetuated  by  the  consti- 

*  See  the  Commissioner's  "  decision." 

t  Hon.  Lemuel  Shaw.  Sec  his  "  opinion  "  on  the  constitutionality  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  in  7  Cushing's  Kcports,  p.  285,  et  seq. 


102  THE   NEW   CRIME 

tution;  it  existed  before;  it  would  have  existed  if  the 
constitutioii  liad  not  been  made.  The  framers  of  the 
constitution  could  not  abrogate  the  custom  of  persecuting, 
torturing,  and  murdering  Christians,  or  the  rights  claimed 
under  it.  They  took  it  as  they  found  it,  and  regulated  it 
to  a  limited  extent.  The  constitution,  therefore,  is  not 
responsible  for  the  origin  or  continuance  of  this  custom  of 
persecuting,  torturing,  and  murdering  Christians — the  pro- 
vision it  contains  was  the  best  adjustment  which  could  be 
made  of  conflicting  rights  and  claims  to  persecute,  torture, 
and  murder,  and  was  absolutely  necessary  to  effect  what 
may  now  be  considered  as  the  general  pacification  by  which 
harmony  and  peace  should  take  the  place  of  violence  and 
war.  These  were  the  circumstances,  and  this  the  spirit  in 
which  the  constitution  was  made — the  regulation  of  perse- 
cution, torture,  and  murder  of  Christians,  so  far  as  to  pro- 
hibit provinces  by  law  from  harbouring  fugitive  Christians, 
was  an  essential  element  in  its  formation ;  and  the  union 
intended  to  be  established  by  it  was  essentially  necessary 
to  the  peace  and  happiness  and  highest  prosperity  of  all 
the  provinces  and  towns.  In  this  spirit,  and  with  these 
views  steadily  in  prospect,  it  seems  to  be  the  duty  of  all 
judges  and  magistrates  to  expound  and  apply  these  pro- 
visions in  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  in  this  spirit  it  behoves  all  persons  bound  to  obey 
the  laws  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  consider  and  regard 
them.' 

"  Therefore  Christianos  ad  Leones — Let  the  Christians 
be  torn  to  pieces  by  the  wild  beasts." 

"Wednesday,  the  24th  of  May,  the  city  was  all  calm 
and  still.  The  poor  black  man  was  at  work  with  one 
of  his  own  nation,  earning  an  honest  livelihood.  A  Judge 
of  Probate,  Boston  born  and  Boston  bred,  a  man  in  easy 
circumstances,  a  professor  in  Havard  College,  was  sitting 
in  his  office,  and  with  a  single  spurt  of  his  pen  he  dashes 
off  the  Kberty  of  a  man — a  citizen  of  Massachusetts.  He 
kidnaps  a  man  endowed  by  his  Creator  with  the  unalien- 
able right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
He  leaves  the  writ  with  the  Marshal,  and  goes  home  to 
his  family,  caresses  his  children,  and  enjo3^s  his  cigar. 
The  frivolous  smoke  curls  round  his  frivolous  head,  and  at 


AGAINST  HUMANITY..  103 

length  lie  lays  him  down  to  sleep,  and,  I  suppose,  such 
dreams  as  haunt  such  heads.  But  when  he  wakes  next 
morn,  all  the  winds  of  indignation,  wrath,  and  honest 
scorn,  are  let  loose.  Before  night,  they  are  blowing  all 
over  this  commonwealth — ay,  before  another  night  they 
have  gone  to  the  Mississippi,  and  wherever  the  lightning 
messenger  can  tell  the  tale.  So  have  I  read  in  an  old 
mediaeval  legend,  that  one  summer  afternoon  there  came 
up  a  ''  shape,  all  hot  from  Tartarus,"  from  hell  below,  but 
garmented  and  garbed  to  represent  a  civil-suited  man, 
masked  with  humanity.  He  walked  quiet  and  decorous 
through  Milan's  stately  streets,  and  scattered  from  his 
hand  an  invisible  dust.  It  touched  the  walls ;  it  lay  on 
the  streets ;  it  ascended  to  the  cross  on  the  minster's 
utmost  top.  It  went  down  to  the  beggar's  den.  Peace- 
fully he  walked  through  the  streets,  vanished  and  went 
home.  But  the  next  morning,  the  pestilence  was  in 
Milan,  and  ere  a  week  had  sped  half  her  population  were 
in  their  graves ;  and  half  the  other  half,  crying  that  hell 
was  clutching  at  their  hearts,  fled  from  the  reeking  City 
of  the  Plague ! 

Why  did  the  Commissioner  do  all  this  ?  He  knew  the 
consequences  that  must  follow.  He  knew  what  Boston 
was.  We  have  no  monument  to  Hancock  and  Adams  ; 
but  still  we  keep  their  graves ;  and  Boston,  the  dear  old 
mother  that  bore  them,  yet  in  her  bosom  hides  the  honoured 
bones  of  men  whom  armies  could  not  terrify,  nor  England 
bribe.  Their  spirit  only  sleeps.  Tread  roughly,  tread 
roughly  on  the  spot — their  spirit  rises  from  the  ground !  He 
laiew  that  here  were  men  who  never  will  be  silent  when 
wrong  is  done.  He  knew  Massachusetts ;  he  loiew  Boston ; 
he  knew  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  had  only  raked  the 
ashes  over  fires  which  were  burning  still,  and  that  a  breath 
might  scatter  those  ashes  to  the  winds  of  heaven,  and  bid 
the  slumbering  embers  flame.  Had  he  determined  already 
what  should  happen  to  Anthony  Burns  ?  He  knew  what 
had  befallen  Thomas  Sims.  Did  he  wish  another  inhabitant 
of  Boston  whipped  to  death  ? 

I  have  studied  the  records  of  crime — it  is  a  part  of  my 
ministry.  I  do  not  find  that  any  college  professor  has 
ever  been  hanged  for  murder  in  all  the   Anglo-Saxon 


104  THE   KEW    CRIME 

family  of  men,  till  Harvard  College  had  that  solitary- 
shame.  Is  not  that  enough  ?  Now  she  is  the  first  to  have 
a  professor  that  kidnaps  men.  "  The  Athens  of  America  " 
furnished  both. 

I  can  understand  how  a  man  commits  a  crime  of  passion, 
or  covetousness,  or  rage, — nay,  of  revenge,  or  of  ambition. 
But  for  a  man  in  Boston,  with  no  passion,  no  covetousness, 
no  rage,  with  no  ambition  nor  revenge,  to  steal  a  poor  negro, 
to  send  him  into  bondage, — I  cannot  comprehend  the  fact. 
I  can  understand  the  consciousness  of  a  lion,  not  a  kid- 
napper's heart.  Once  Mr.  Loring  defined  a  lawyer  to  be 
*'  a  human  agent  for  effecting  a  human  purpose  by  human 
means."  Here,  and  now,  the  Commissioner  seems  an 
inhuman  agent  for  effecting  an  inhuman  purpose  by 
inhuman  means. 

I  belong  to  a  school  that  reverences  the  infinite  perfection 
of  God, — if,  indeed,  there  be  such  a  school.  I  believe,  also, 
in  the  nobleness  of  man ;  but  last  week  my  faith  was 
somewhat  sorely  tried.  As  I  looked  at  that  miscreant 
crew,  the  kidnapper's  body-guard,  and  read  in  their  faces 
the  record  and  the  prophecy  of  many  a  crime, 

"  Felons  by  the  hand  of  nature  marked, 
Quoted  and  signed  to  do  a  deed  of  shame," 

I  could  explain  and  not  despair.  They  were  tools,  not 
agents.  But  as  I  looked  into  the  Commissioner's  face, 
mild  and  amiable,  a  face  I  have  respected,  not  without 
seeming  cause  ;  as  I  remembered  his  breeding  and  his 
culture,  his  social  position,  his  membership  of  a  Christian 
church,  and  then  thought  of  the  crime  he  was  committing 
against  humanity,  with  no  temptation,  I  asked  myself,  can 
this  be  true  ?  Is  man  thus  noble,  made  in  the  dear  image 
of  the  father  God  ?  Is  my  philosophy  a  dream :  or  are 
these  facts  a  lie  ? 

But  there  is  another  court.  The  Empsons  and  the 
Dudleys  have  been  summoned  there  before  ;  Jeffreys  and 
Scroggs,  the  Kanes,  and  the  Curtises,  and  the  Lorings, 
must  one  day  travel  the  same  unwelcome  road.  Imagine 
the  scene  after  man's  mythologic  way.  ''  Edward,  where 
is  thy  brother  Anthony?"  "I  know  not;  am  I  my 
brother's  keeper.  Lord  ?"  *'  Edward,  where  is  thy  brother 
Anthony  ?"      "  Oh,   Lord,  he   v/as  friendless,   and  so  I 


AGAINST   HUMANITY.  105 

smote  him  ;  lie  was  poor,  and  I  starved  him  of  more  than 
life.  He  owned  nothing  but  his  African  body.  I  took 
that  away  from  him,  and  gave  it  to  another  man  !" 

Then  listen  to  the  voice  of  the  Crucified — ''  Did  I  not 
tell  thee,  when  on  earth,  *  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  understanding  and  thy  heart  ?'  "  ''  But 
I  thought  thy  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world. '^ 

^'  Did  I  not  tell  thee  that  thou  shouldst  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself  ?  Where  is  Anthony,  thy  brother  ? 
I  was  a  stranger,  and  you  sought  my  life  ;  naked,  and  you 
rent  away  my  skin  ;  in  prison,  and  you  delivered  me  to 
the  tormentors — fate  far  worse  [than  death.  Inasmuch 
as  you  did  it  to  Anthony  Burns,  you  did  it  unto  me." 

The  liberty  of  America  was  never  in  greater  peril  than 
now.  Hessian  bayonets  were  not  half  so  dangerous  as  the 
gold  of  the  JSfational  treasury  in  the  hands  of  this  Adminis- 
tration. Which  shall  conquer.  Slavery  or  Freedom  ?  That 
is  the  question.  The  two  cannot  long  exist  side  by  side. 
Think  of  the  peril ;  remember  the  rapacity  of  this  Admin- 
istration ;  its  reckless  leaders :  think  of  Douglas,  Gushing, 
and  the  rest.  They  aimed  at  the  enslavement  of  Nebraska. 
The  Northern  majority  in  Congress  yielded  that. 

JSTow  they  aim  at  Hayti  and  Cuba.  Shall  they  carry 
that  point  ?  Surely,  unless  we  do  our  duty.  Shall  Slavery 
be  established  at  the  North,  at  the  West,  and  the  East ;  in 
all  the  free  States  ?  Mr.  Toombs  told  Mr.  Hale—"  Before 
long  the  master  will  sit  down  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill 
Monument  with  his  slaves."  Will  do  it.  He  has  done  it 
already,  and  not  an  officer  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
made  the  least  resistance.  Our  laws  were  trod  down  by 
insolent  officials,  and  Boston  ordered  out  her  soldiers  to 
help  the  disgraceful  deed.  Strange  that  we  should  be 
asked  to  make  the  fetters  which  are  to  chain  us.  Mr.  Suttle 
is  only  a  feeler.  Soon  there  will  be  other  Suttles  in  Boston. 
Let  them  come ! 

It  is  not  only  wicked  ;  it  is  costly.  The  kidnapping  of 
Mr.  Burns  must  have  cost  in  all  at  least  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  including  the  loss  of  time  and  travelling 
expenses  of  our  friends  from  the  country.  The  publican's 
bill  for  feeding  the  Marshal's  crew  is  already  more  than 
six  thousand  dollars  ! 


106  THE   NEW   CRIME 

Consider  tlie  demoralization  of  the  people  produced 
by  such  a  deed.  Mr.  Dana  was  knocked  down  in  the 
street  by  one  of  the  Marshal's  posse — as  it  is  abundantly 
proved.*  The  blow  might  easily  have  been  fatal.  It  is 
long  since  a  bully  has  attacked  a  respectable  citizen  in 
Boston  before.  Hereafter  I  fear  it  will  be  more  common. 
You  cannot  employ  such  a  body-guard  as  the  Marshal  had 
about  him  in  such  business  without  greatly  endangering 
the  safety  of  the  persons  and  the  property  of  the  town. 
We  shall  hear  from  them  again.  What  a  spectacle  it  was  ; 
the  army  of  the  United  States,  the  soldiers  of  Boston, 
sending  an  innocent  man  into  Slavery !  What  a  lesson  to 
the  children  in  the  Sunday  Schools  —  to  the  vagrant 
children  in  the  streets,  who  have  no  school  but  the  Sights 
of  the  City  !  What  a  lesson  of  civilization  to  the  Irish 
population  of  Boston  !  Men  begin  to  understand  this. 
There  never  was  so  much  Anti- Slavery  feeling  in  Boston 
before — never  so  much  indignation  in  my  day.  If  a  law 
aims  at  justice,  though  it  fail  of  the  mark  we  will  respect 
the  law — not  openly  resist  it  or  with  violence :  wait  a 
little,  and  amend  it  or  repeal  it.  But  when  the  law  aims 
at  injustice,  open,  manifest,  palpable  wickedness,  why,  we 
must  be  cowards  and  fools  too,  if  we  submit. 

Massachusetts  has  never  felt  so  humiliated  before. 
Soldiers  of  the  Government  enforcing  a  law  in  peaceful 
Boston,  the  most  orderly  of  Christian  cities  !  We  have 
had  no  such  thing  since  the  Declaration  of  Independence  ! 
The  rendition  of  Mr.  Burns  fills  New  England  with 
sorrow  and  bitter  indignation.  The  people  tolled  the  bells 
at  Plymouth.  The  bones  of  the  forefathers  gave  that 
response  to  the  kidnappers  in  Boston.  At  Manchester  and 
several  other  towns  they  did  the  same.  To-day,  ministers 
are  preaching  as  never  before.  What  will  it  all  come  to  ? 
Men  came  to  Boston  peacefully  last  Aveek.  Will  they 
always  come  "  with  only  the  arms  God  gave  ?"  One  day 
in  the  seventeenth  century  five  thousand  country  gentlemen 
rode  into  London  with  a  "petition  to  the  King" — with 
only  the  arms  God  gave  them.     IN'ot  long  after  they  went 

*  The  culprit  was  held  in  trifling  bail  by  the  Court,  one  of  the  Mar- 
shal's gang  became  his  surety.  But  the  ruffian  absconded,  was  subse- 
quently arrested  at  New  Orleans,  and  sent  to  the  House  of  Correction 
for  a  year  and  a  half. 


AGAINST  HUMANITY.  107 

thitlier  with  Oliver  Cromwell  at  their  head  and  other 
'^  arms"  which  God  also  had  given.  May  such  times 
never  return  in  New  England  !  * 

We  want  no  rashness,  but  calm,  considerate  action, 
deliberate,  prudent  far-seeing.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 
is  a  long  wedge,  thin  at  one  end,  w^ide  at  the  other  ;  it  is 
entered  between  the  bottom  planks  of  our  Ship  of  State  ; 
a' few  blows  thereon  will  "enforce"  more  than  the  South 
thinks  of.  A  little  more, — and  we  shall  go  to  pieces.  Men 
talk  wildly  just  now,  and  I  do  not  credit  what  cool  men  say 
in  this  heat.  But  I  see  what  may  come — what  must  come,  if 
a  few  more  blows  be  struck  in  that  quarter.  It  was  only 
Mr.  Webster's  power  to  manufacture  public  opinion  by 
his  giant  will  and  immense  eloquence,  which  made  the 
North  submit  at  all  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  He  strained 
his  power  to  the  utmost — and  died !  Now  there  is  no  Webster 
or  Clay  ;  not  even  a  Calhoun ;  not  a  first-rate  man  in  the 
Pro- Slavery  party.  North  or  South.  Slavery  is  not  well 
manned — many  hands,  dirty,  cunning,  stealthy, — not  a 
single  great,  able  head. 

The  cowardice  of  Mr.  Everett  has  excited  the  clergy  of 
New  England  ;  of  all  the  North.  They  are  -stung  with 
the  reproach  of  the  people,  and  ashamed  of  their  own  past 
neglect.  The  Nebraska  BiU  opens  men's  eyes.  Agitation 
was  never  so  violent  as  at  this  day.  The  prospect  of  a  war 
with  Spain  is  not  inviting  to  men  who  own  ships,  and 
want  a  clear  sea  and  open  market.     Pirates,  privateers, — 

*  WMle  this  Sermon  is  passing  throngli  the  press,  I  find  the  following 
paragraph  in  a  newspaper  : — 

"  One  of  the  Fourth  of  July  celebrations  at  Columbus,  Ga.,  was  tho 
sale  of  ninety  or  a  hundred  men,  women,  and  boys,  by  the  order  of 
Robert  Toombs,  United  States  Senator.     Here  is  the  advertisement : — 

"  '  Administrator's  Sale, — Will  be  sold  on  the  first  Tuesday  in  July 
next,  at  the  Court  House  door  of  Stewart  County,  within  the  usual  hours 
of  sale,  between  ninety  and  one  hundred  negroes,  consisting  of  men, 
women,  boys,  etc.  These  negroes  are  all  very  likely,  and  between  forty 
and  fifty  of  the  number  are  men  and  boys.  Sold  as  the  property  of 
Henry  J.  Pope,  deceased,  in  pursuance  of  an  order  of  the  Court  of 
Ordinaiy  of  Stewart  County,  for  the  benefit  of  heirs  and  creditors. 
Terms  of  sale,  a  credit  (with  interest)  until  25th  December  next. 

" '  Robert  Toombs, 
"  '  Adm'r  of  Henry  J.  Pope,  deceased.' 

" '  Men,  women,  and  boys,*  bought  on  the  Fourth  of  July, — paid  for  on 
Christmas!" 


108  THE   NEW   CRIME 

Algerine,  Greek,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  West  Indian, — aro 
not  welcome  to  the  thoughts  of  men.  The  restoration  of 
the  Slave  Trade  is  not  quite  agreeable  to  the  farmers  and 
mechanics  of  the  North.  This  attempt  to  seize  a  man 
in  Boston ;  the  display  of  force ;  the  insolence  of  the 
officials ;  the  character  of  the  men  concerned  in  this 
iniquity — all  is  offensive.  Then  there  was  insult,  open  and 
intentional.  Mr.  Burns  was  carried  through  State  Street 
at  ^'high  change."  Boston  merchants  feel  as  they  never 
did  before.  All  Massachusetts  is  incensed.  The  wrath  of 
Massachusetts  is  slow,  but  she  has  wrath,  has  courage, 
"  perseverance  of  the  saints." 

Let  us  do  nothing  rashly.  What  is  done  hastily  must 
be  done  over  again — it  is  not  well  done.  This  is  what  I 
would  recommend. 

1.  A  convention  of  all  Massachusetts,  without  distinc- 
tion of  party,  to  take  measures  to  preserve  the  rights  of 
Massachusetts.  For  this  we  want  some  new  and  stringent 
laws  for  the  defence  of  personal  liberty,  for  punishing  all 
who  invade  it  on  our  soil.  We  want  powerful  men  as 
officers  to  execute  these  laws. 

2.  A  general  convention  of  all  the  States  to  organize  for 
mutual  protection  against  this  new  master. 

It  is  not  speeches  that  we  want — but  action  ;  not  rash, 
crazy  action,  but  calm,  deliberate,  systematic  action — 
organization  for  the  defence  of  personal  liberty  and  the 
State  Eights  of  the  North.  Now  is  a  good  time  ;  let  us 
act  with  cool  energy.  By  all  means  let  us  do  something, 
else  the  liberties  of  America  go  to  ruin — then  what  curses 
shall  mankind  heap  upon  us  ! 

"  And  deep,  and  more  deep — as  the  iron  is  driven, — 
Base  slaves,  will  the  whet  of  our  agony  be, 
When  we  think — as  the  damned  haply  think  of  the  Heaven 
They  had  once  in  their  reach — that  we  might  have  been  fi'ee." 

But,  my  friends,  out  of  all  this  dreadful  evil  we  can 
bring  relief.  The  remedy  is  in  our  hearts  and  hands.  God 
works  no  miracles.  There  is  power  in  human  nature  to 
end  this  wickedness.  God  appointed  the  purpose,  provided 
the  means — a  divine  purpose,  human  means.  Only  be 
faithful,  and  in  due  time  we  shall  triumph  over  the 
destroyer.     Every  noble  quality  of  man  works  with  us ; 


AGAINST   HUMANITY. 


109 


eacli  attribute  of  Grod.  "We  are  His  instruments.  Let  us 
faithfully  do  the  appointed  work  !  Darkness  is  about  us  ! 
Journey  forward  ;  light  is  before  us  ! 


"  0  God,  who  in  thy  dear  still  heaven 

Dost  sit  and  wait  to  see 
The  errors,  sufferings,  and  crimes 

Of  our  humanity  ; 
How  deep  must  be  thy  Causal  love, 

How  Whole  thy  final  care, 
Since  Thou  who  rulest  all  above 

Canst  see,  and  yet  canst  bear  !"  * 


*  See  Appendix. 


A    SERMON 


OF   THE 


DANGERS    WHICH    THREATEN    THE    RIGHTS 
OF  MAN  IN  AMERICA. 

Peeached  at  the  Music  Hall,  on  Sunday,  July  2,  1854. 


"  And  He  gave  them  their  request ;  but  sent  leanness  into  their  soitI." — 

Psalm  cvi.  15. 

Next  Tuesday  will  be  the  seventy-eiglith  anniversary  of 
American  Independence.  The  day  suggests  a  national 
subject  as  theme  for  meditation  this  morning.  The  con- 
dition of  America  makes  it  a  dark  and  a  sad  meditation.  I 
ask  your  attention,  therefore,  to  a  "Sermon  of  the  Dangers 
which  threaten  the  Rights  of  Man  in  America." 

The  human  race  is  permanent  as  the  Mississippi,  and 
like  that  is  fed  from  springs  which  never  dry ;  but  the 
several  nations  are  as  fleeting  as  its  waves.  In  the  great 
tide  of  humanity.  States  come  up,  one  after  the  other,  a 
wave  or  a  bubble ;  each  lasts  its  moment,  then  dies — passed 
off,  forgot : 

"  Or  like  the  snow-falls  in  the  river, 
A  moment  white — then  melts  for  ever," 

while  the  great  stream  of  humanity  rolls  ever  forward, 
from  time  to  eternity  : — not  a  wave  needless  ;  not  a  snow 
flake,  no  drop  of  rain  or  dew,  no  ephemeral  bubble,  but 
has  its  function  to  perform  in  that  vast,  unmeasured,  never- 
ending  stream. 

How  powerless  appears  a  single  man  !  He  is  one  of  a 
thousand  million  men  ;  the  infinitesimal  of  a  vulgar  frac- 
tion ;  one  leaf  on  a  particular  tree  in  the  forest.  A  single 
nation,  like  America,  is  a  considerable  part  of  mankind 
now  living ;  but  when  compared  with  the  human  race  of  all 
time,  past  and  to  come,  it  seems  as  nothing  ;  it  is  but  one 


DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN  THE   RIGHTS   OF  MAN.     Ill 

bougli  in  the  woods.  Nay,  the  population  of  the  earth,  to- 
day, is  but  one  tree  in  the  wide  primeval  forest  of  mankind, 
which  covers  the  earth  and  outlasts  the  ages.  The  leaf, 
may  fall  and  not  be  missed  from  the  bough ;  the  branch 
may  be  rudely  broken  off,  and  its  absence  not  marked  ;  the 
tree  will  die  and  be  succeeded  by  other  trees  in  the  forest, 
green  with  summer  beauty,  or  foodful  and  prophetic  with 
autumnal  seed.  Tree  by  tree,  the  woods  will  pass  away, 
and,  unobserved,  another  forest  take  its  place, — arising,  also, 
tree  by  tree. 

How  various  the  duration  of  States  or  men — dying  at 
birth,  or  lasting  long  periods  of  time  !  For  more  than 
three  thousand  years,  Egypt  stood  the  queen  of  the  world's 
young  civilization,  invincible  as  her  own  pyramids,  which 
yet  time  and  the  nations  alike  respect.  From  Eomulus, 
the  first  half-mythologic  king  of  the  seven-hilled  city,  to 
Augustulus,  her  last  historic  emperor,  it  is  more  than 
twelve  centuries.  At  this  day  the  Austrian,  the  Spanish, 
the  French  and  German  sovereigns  sit  each  on  a  long*- 
descended  throne.  Victoria  is  "daughter  of  a  hundred 
kings."  Pope  Pius  the  Ninth  claims  two  hundred  and 
fifty-six  predecessors,  canonical  and  "infallible."  His 
chair  is  reckoned  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years  old ; 
and  it  rests  on  an  Etrurian  platform  yet  ten  centuries  more 
ancient.  The  Turkish  throne  has  been  firmly  fixed  at 
Constantinople  for  four  hundred  years.  Individual  tyrants, 
like  summer  flies,  are  short-lived ;  but  tyranny  is  old  and 
lasting.  The  family  of  ephemera,  permanent  amid  the 
fleeting,  is  yet  as  old  as  that  of  elephants,  and  wiU  last  as 
long. 

But  free  governments  have  commonly  been  brief.  If  the 
Hebrew  people  had  well-nigh  a  thousand  years  of  indepen- 
dent national  life,  their  Commonwealth  lasted  but  about 
three  centuries;  the  flower  of  their  literature  and  religion 
was  but  Httle  longer.  The  historic  period  of  Greece  begins 
776  B.  c. ;  her  independence  was  all  over  in  six  hundred 
and  thirty  years.  The  Roman  deluge  had  swallowed  it  up. 
No  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha  could  re-people  the  land  with 
men.  Her  little  States — how  brief  was  their  hour  of  free- 
dom for  the  people  !  From  the  first  annual  archon  of 
Athens  to  her  conquest  by  Philip,  and  the  death  of  her 
liberty,  it  was  only  two  hundred  and  forty-five  years ! 


112  DANGERS    WHICH   THllEATEN 

Her  tree  of  freedom  grew  in  a  narrow  field  of  time  and 
briefly  bore  its  age-outlasting  fruit  of  science,  literature, 
and  art.  Now  the  tree  is  dead;  its  fragments  are  only- 
curious  Athenian  stone.  The  Grecian  colonies  in  the  East, 
_^tolian,  Dorian,  Ionian — how  fair  they  flourished  in  the 
despotic  waste  of  Asia !  how  soon  those  liberal  blossoms 
died !  Even  her  colonies  in  the  advancing  West  had  no 
long  independent  life.  Cyrene,  Syracusa,  Agrigentum, 
Crotona,  Massilia  Saguntum, — how  soon  they  died ! — 
flowers  which  the  savage  winter  swiftly  nipped. 

The  Roman  Commonwealth  could  not  endure  five  hundred 
years.  Her  theocratic  Tarquin  the  Proud  must  be  suc- 
ceeded by  a  more  despotic  dictator,  with  the  style  of  demo- 
crat ;  and  E-ome,  abhorring  still  the  name  of  king,  see  all 
her  liberties  laid  low.  The  red  sea  of  despotism  opened  to 
let  pass  one  noble  troop — the  elder  Brutus  at  the  head,  the 
younger  bringing  up  the  rear — then  closed  again  and 
swallowed  up  that  worse  than  Egyptian  host,  clamouring 
only  for  "  bread  and  games  V 

The  republics  of  Italy  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  no  more 
fortunate.  The  half- Grecian  Commonwealths,  Naples, 
Amalphi,  Gaeta, — what  promise  they  once  held  forth  ; 
and  what  a  warning  fate !  They  were  only  born  to  die, 
A  similar  destiny  befell  the  towns  of  more  northern  Italy, 
where  freedom  later  found  a  home, — Milan,  Padua,  Genoa, 
Verona,  Venice,  Bologna,  Florence,  Pisa.  Nay,  in  the 
midnight  of  the  dark  ages,  seven  hundred  years  ago,  in  the 
very  city  of  the  Popes  and  Caesars,  in  the  centre  of  that 
red  Poman  sea  of  despotism,  there  was  a  momentary  spot 
of  dry  free  land ;  and  Arnaldo  da  Brescia  eloquently  spoke 
of  "Roman  Liberty."  The  "Roman  Republic''  and 
"Roman  Senate"  became  once  more  familiar  words. 
Italian  liberty,  Lombard  republics, — how  soon  they  all 
went  down!  No  city — not  even  Florence — kept  the 
people's  freedom  safe  three  hundred  years.  Silently  the 
wealthy  nobles  and  despotic  priests  sapped  the  walls.  Party 
spirit  blinded  the  else  clear  eyes  :  "  the  State  may  perish  ; 
let  the  faction  thrive."  The  republicans  sought  to  crush 
the  adjacent  feeble  States.  They  forgot  justice,  the  higher 
law  of  God :  unworthy  of  liberty,  they  fell  and  died  !  Let 
the  tyrant  swallow  up  the  Italian  towns ;  they  were  imfit 
for  freedom.     "  A  generous  disdain  of  one  man's  will  is  to 


THE   UTGTITS   OF   MAN   IN    AMERtCA.  113 

riepubllcs  what  chastity  is  to  woman ;"  they  spurned  this 
austere  virtue.  Let  them  serve  their  despots.  "  Liberty 
withdrew  from  a  people  who  disgraced  ]ier  name."  Let 
Dante  burn  his  poetic  brand  of  infamy  into  the  forehead 
of  his  countrymen.  But  while  freedom  lasted,  how  fair 
was  her  blossom,  how  rich  and  sweet  her  fruit !  What 
riches,  what  beauty,  what  science,  letters,  art,  came  of  that 
noble  stock !  Italy  was  the  w^orld's  wonder — for  a  day ; 
its  sorrow  ever  since.  So  the  cactus  flowers  into  one 
gorgeous  ecstasy  of  bloom ;  then  the  excessive  blossom, 
witli  withering  collapse,  swoons  and  dies  of  its  voluptuous 
and  tropical  delight. 

Liberty  wanders  from  the  ISTorth,  through  Itaty,  the 
fairest  of  all  earthly  lands ;  then  sits  sadly  down  on  the 
tallest  of  the  Alps,  and  once  more  reviews  those  famous 
towns  ;  the  jewels  that  adorn  the  purple  robe  of  history — 
all  tarnished,  shattered,  spoiled.  Slowty  she  turns  her 
face  northward  and  longs  for  hope.  But  even  the  Teutonic 
towTis,  where  freedom  ever  wore  a  sober  dress,  were  only 
spots  of  sunshine  in  a  day  of  wintry  storm.  Swiss,  Ger- 
man, Dutch,  they  were  brief  as  fair.  In  Novogorod  and 
in  Poland,  how  soon  was  Slavonian  freedom  lost ! 

So  in  a  winter  day  in  the  country  have  I  seen  a  little 
frame  of  glass  screening  from  the  northern  snow  and  ice 
a  nicely  sheltered  spot,  where  careful  hands  tended  little 
delicate  plants,  for  beauty  and  for  use.  How  fair  the 
winter  garden  seemed  amid  the  wildering  snow,  and  else 
all- conquering  frost !  The  little  roses  lifted  up  their  face 
and  kissed  the  glass  which  sheltered  from  the  storm.  But 
anon,  some  rude  hand  broke  the  frail  barrier  down,  and  in 
an  hour  the  plants  were  frozen,  stiff  and  dead ;  and  the 
little  garden  was  all  filled  with  snow  and  ice  ; — a  garden 
now  no  more ! 

How  often  do  you  see  in  a  great  city  a  man  perish  in  his 
youth,  bowed  down  by  lusts  of  the  body.  The  graves  of 
such  stand  thick  along  the  highway  of  our  mortal  life, — 
numberless,  nameless,  or  all  too  conspicuously  marked. 
Other  men  we  see  early  bowed  down  by  their  ambition, 
and  they  live  a  life  far  worse  than  merely  sensual  death — 
themselves  the  ghastliest  monuments,  beacons  of  ruin  I 
And  so,  along  the  highway  that  mankind  treads,  there  are 
the  open  sepulchres  of  nations,  which  perished  of  their  sin ; 

VOL,  VI,  I 


114  DANGERS   WHICH   THllEATEN 

or  elsG  transformed  to  stone,  the  gloomy  S23liinxes  sit  there 
by  the  wayside — a  hard,  di'ead,  awful  lesson  to  the  nations 
that  pass  by.     Let  America, 

"  The  Heir  of  all  tlie  ages !  and  the  youngest  bona  of  time ! " 

gather  up  every  jewel  which  the  prodigal  scattered  from 
his  hand,  look  down  into  his  grave,  and  then  confront 
these  gloomy,  awful  sphinxes,  and  learn  what  lessons  of 
guidance  they  have ;  or  of  warning,  if  it  alone  is  to  be 
found!  Even  the  sphinx  has  a  riddle  which  we  needs 
must  learn,  or  else  perish. 

The  greater  part  of  a  nation's  life  is  not  delight ;  it 
is  discipline.  A  famous  political  philosopher,  who  has 
survived  two  revolutionary  storms  in  France,  has  just  now 
written,  "  Gfod  has  made  the  condition  of  all  men  more 
severe  than  they  are  willing  to  believe.  He  causes  them 
at  all  times  to  purchase  the  success  of  their  labours  and 
the  progress  of  their  destiny  at  a  dearer  price  than  they 
had  anticipated.'' 

The  merchant  knows  how  difficult  it  is  to  acquire  a 
great  estate;  the  scholar,  youthful  and  impatient,  well 
understands  that  the  way  of  science  or  of  letters  is  steep 
and  hard  to  climb ;  the  farmer,  knowing  the  stern  climate 
of  'New  England,  her  niggard  soil,  rises  early  and  retires 
late,  and  is  never  off  his  guard.  These  men  all  thrive. 
But,  alas !  the  people  of  America  do  not  know  on  what 
severe  conditions  alone  national  welfare  is  to  be  won. 
Human  nature  is  yet  only  a  New  England  soil  and  climate 
for  freedom  to  grow  in. 

Nations  may  come  to  an  end  through  the  decay  of  the 
family  they  belong  to ;  and  thus  they  may  die  out  of  old 
age, — for  there  is  an  infancy,  manhood,  and  old  age  to  a 
nation  as  well  as  to  a  man.  Then  the  nation  comes  to  a 
natural  end,  and  like  a  shock  of  corn  fully  ripe,  in  its 
season  it  is  gathered  to  its  people.  But  I  do  not  find  that 
any  State  has  thus  lived  out  its  destiny,  and  died  a  natural 
death. 

Again,  States  may  perish  by  outward  violence,  military 
conquest, — for  as  the  lion  in  the  wilderness  eateth  up  the 
wild  ass,  so  the  strong  nations  devour  the  weak.     But  this 


THE   RIGHTS   OF   MAN    IN   AMERICA.  115 

luippcned  most  often  in  ancient   times,  when   men   and 
States  were  more  rapacious  even  than  now. 

Thirdly,  States  may  perish  through  their  own  vice, 
moral  or  political.  Their  national  institutions  may  be 
a  defective  machine  which  works  badlj^,  and  fails  of  pro- 
ducing national  welfare  of  body  or  spirit.  It  may  not 
secure  national  unity  of  action — there  being  no  national 
gravitation  of  the  great  masses  which  fly  asunder ;  or  it 
may  fail  of  individual  varietj^  of  action — having  no  per- 
sonal freedom ;  excessive  national  gravitation  destroys  indi- 
vidual cohesion,  and  pulls  the  people  flat ;  the  men  are 
slaves ;  they  cannot  reach  the  moral  and  spiritual  welfare 
necessary  for  a  nation's  continuous  life.  In  both  these 
cases  the  vice  is  political ;  the  machinery  is  defective,  made 
after  false  ideas.  Or  when  the  institutions  are  good  and 
capable  of  accommodating  the  nation's  increase  and  growth, 
the  vice  may  be  moral,  lying  deeper  in  the  character  of  the 
people.  They  may  have  a  false  and  unimprovable  form  of 
religion,  which  suits  not  the  nature  of  man  or  of  God,  and 
which  consequently  produces  a  false  system  of  morals,  and 
so  corrupts  the  nation's  heart.  They  may  become  selfish, 
gross,  cowardly,  atheistic,  and  so  decay  inwardly  and  perish. 
If  left  all  alone,  such  a  people  will  rot  down  and  die  of 
internal  corruption.  Mexico  is  in  a  perishing  condition 
to-day ;  so  is  Spain  ;  so  are  some  of  the  young  nations  of 
South  America,  and  some  of  the  old  of  Asia  and  Europe, 
l^othing  can  ever  save  Turkey, — not  all  the  arms  of  all  the 
allied  West;  and  though  Protestant  and  Catholic  join 
hands,  Christendom  cannot  propagate  Mahometanism,  nor 
keep  it  from  going  down. 

Leave  these  nations  to  their  fate  and  they  will  die.  But 
commonly,  they  are  not  left  to  themselves ;  other  people 
rush  in  and  conquer.  The  wild  individual  man  is  rapa- 
cious by  instinct.  The  present  nations  are  rapacious 
also  by  calculation;  they  prey  on  feeble  States.  The 
hooded  crow  of  Europe  watches  for  the  sickly  sheep.  In 
America  the  wolves  prowl  round  the  herd  of  buffaloes  and 
seize  the  sickly,  the  wounded,  and  the  old.  And  so  there 
are  scavengers  of  the  nations, — fiUibusters,  the  flesh-flies 
and  carrion-vultures  of  the  world,  who  have  also  their 
function  to  perform.  Wealth  and  power  are  never  left 
without  occupants.     Rome  was  corrupt,  her  institutions 

I  2 


116  DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN 

bad,  her  religion  worn  out,  Iier  morals  desperate  ;  nortliern 
nations  came  ujDon  lier.  "  Wlieresoever  tlie  bod}^  is,  thither 
the  eagles  will  be  gathered  together." 

In  Europe  there  are  nations  in  this  state  of  decay,  from 
moral  or  political  vice.  All  the  Italo- Greek  populations, 
most  of  the  Celto-Homan,  all  the  Celtic,  all  the  old  Asiatic 
populations — the  Hungarians  and  Turks.  The  Teutonic 
and  Slavic  families  alone  seem  to  prosper,  full  of  vigorous, 
new  life,  capable  of  making  new  improvements,  to  suit  the 
altered  phases  of  the  world. 

In  America  there  is  only  one  family  in  a  condition  of 
advance,  of  hardy  health.  Spanish  America  is  in  a  state 
of  decay  ;  she  has  a  bad  form  of  religion,  and  bad  morals  ; 
her  republics  only  "  guarantee  the  right  of  assassination ;" 
an  empire  is  her  freest  state.  But  in  the  north  of  North 
America  the  Anglo-Saxon  British  colonies  rapidly  advance 
in  material  and  spiritual  development,  and  one  da,y  doubt- 
less they  will  separate  from  the  parent  stem  and  become 
an  independent  tree.  The  roots  of  England  run  under  the 
ocean ;  they  come  up  in  Africa,  India,  Australia,  America, 
in  many  an  island  of  all  the  seas.  Great  fresh,  living 
trunks  grow  up  therefrom.  One  day  these  offshoots  will 
become  self-supporting,  w^ith  new  and  independent  roots, 
and  ere  long  will  separate  from  the  parent  stem ;  then  there 
will  be  a  great  Anglo-Saxon  trunk  in  Australia,  another 
in  India,  another  in  Africa,  another  in  the  north  of  our 
own  continent,  and  yet  others  scattered  over  the  manifold 
islands  of  the  sea,  an  Anglo-Saxon  forest  of  civilization. 

But  in  the  centre  of  the  North  American  continent,  the 
same  Anglo-Saxons  have  passed  from  their  first  condition 
of  scattered  and  dependent  colonies,  and  become  a  united 
and  independent  nation,  five-and-twenty  millions  strong. 
Our  fellow-countrymen  here  in  America  compose  one- 
fortieth  part  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe.  We  are 
now  making  the  greatest  political  experiment  which  the 
sun  ever  looked  down  upon. 

First,  we  are  seeking  to  found  a  State  on  industry,  and 
not  war.  All  the  prizes  of  America  are  rewards  of  toil, 
not  fighting.  We  are  ruled  by  the  constable,  not  by  the 
soldier.  It  is  only  in  exceptional  cases,  when  the  liberal 
institutions  of  America  are  to  be  trodden  inider  foot,  tliat 
the  constable  disappears,  and  the  red  arm  of  the  soldier 


THE   IIIGHTS   OF   MAN    IN   AMERICA.  117 

clutches  at  the  people's  throat.     That  is  the  first  part  of 
our  scheme — we  are  aiming  to  found  an  industrial  State. 

Next,  the  national  theory  of  the  g-overnment  is  a  demo- 
cracy— the  government  of  all,  by  all,  for  all.  All  officers 
depend  on  election,  none  are  foreordained.  There  are  to  bo 
no  special  privileges,  only  natural,  universal  rights. 

It  would  be  a  fair  spectacle, — a  great  industrial  Com- 
monwealth, spread  over  half  the  continent,  and  folding  in 
its  bosom  one- fortieth  of  God's  whole  family !  It  is  a 
lovely  dream ;  nor  Athenian  Plato,  nor  English  Thomas 
More,  nor  Bacon,  nor  Harrington,  ever  dared  to  write 
on  23aper  so  fair  an  ideal  as  our  fathers  and  we  have  essayed 
to  put  into  men.  I  once  thought  this  dream  of  America 
Y/ould  one  daj^  become  a  blessed  fact !  We  have  many 
elements  of  national  success.  Our  territory  for  quantity 
and  quality  is  all  we  could  ask ;  our  origin  is  of  the  Cau- 
casian's best.  No  nation  had  ever  so  fair  a  beginning  as 
we.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is  a  good  hardy  stock  for  national 
v/elfare  to  grow  on.  To  my  American  eye,  it  seems  that 
human  nature  had  never  anything  so  good  for  popular 
liberty  to  be  grafted  into.  We  are  already  strong,  and 
fear  nothing  from  any  foreign  power.  The  violent  cannot 
take  us  by  force.     No  nation  is  our  enem3^ 

But  the  question  now  comes,  Is  America  to  live  or  to 
die  ?  If  we  live,  what  life  shall  it  be  ?  Shall  we  fall  into 
the  sepulchre  of  departed  States — a  new  debauchee  of  the 
nations?  Shall  we  live  petrified  to  stone,  a  despotism 
many-headed,  sitting — another  sphinx — by  the  wayside  of 
history,  to  scare  young  nations  in  their  march  and  impede 
their  progress  ?  Or  shall  we  pursue  the  journey — a  great, 
noble-hearted  Commonwealth,  a  nation  possessing  the  con- 
tinent, full  of  riches,  full  of  justice,  full  of  wisdom,  full  of 
piety,  and  full  of  peace  ?  It  depends  on  ourselves.  It  is 
for  America,  for  this  generation  of  Americans,  to  say  which 
of  the  three  shall  happen.  No  fate  holds  us  up.  Our 
character  is  our  destiny. 

I  am  not  a  timid  man ;  I  am  no  excessive  praiser  of 
times  passed  by  ;  I  seldom  take  counsel  of  my  fears,  often 
of  my  hopes ; — but  now  I  must  say  that  since  '76  our  suc- 
cess was  never  so  doubtful  as  at  this  time.  England  is  in 
peril ;  the  despots  on  the  continent  hate  her  free  Parliament, 
which  makes  laws  for  the  people — just  laws ;  they  hate  her 


118  DAI^GEIiS   WHICH   THREATEN 

free  speecli,  which,  tells  every  grievance  at  home  or  abroad ; 
they  hate  her  free  soil,  which  offers  a  home  to  every  exile, 
republican  or  despotic.  England  is  in  peril,  for  every 
tyrant  hates  her.  Russia  is  in  danger,  for  the  two  strongest 
powers  of  Christendom  have  just  clasped  hands,  and  sworn 
an  oath  to  fight  against  that  great  marauding  empire  of 
the  East.  Their  armies  threaten  her  cities ;  her  sovereign 
deserts  his  capital ;  her  treasure  is  carried  a  thousand  miles 
inward ;  the  Western  fleets  blockade  her  ports  and  sweep 
her  navies  from  the  sea.  But  Russia  has  no  peril  like 
ours ;  England  has  no  danger  so  great  as  that  which 
threatens  us  this  day.  In  the  darkest  periods  of  the 
American  Revolution,  when  Washington's  army,  without 
blankets,  without  coats,  without  shoes,  fled  through  the 
Jerseys,  when  they  marked  the  ice  of  the  Delaware,  and 
left  revolutionary  tracks  in  frozen  blood,  we  v/ere  not  in 
such  peril  as  to-day.  When  General  Gage  had  the  throat 
of  Boston  in  his  hand,  and  perfidiously  disarmed  the  people, 
we  were  not  in  such  danger.  Yea,  when  four  hundred 
houses  in  yonder  town  went  up  in  one  great  cloud  of  smoke 
towards  heaven,  the  liberties  of  America  were  not  in  such 
peril  as  they  are  to-day.  Then  we  were  called  to  fight 
with  swords — and  when  that  work  was  to  be  done,  was 
America  ever  found  wanting  ?  Then  our  adversary  was 
the  other  side  of  the  sea,  and  wicked  statutes  were  enacted 
against  us  in  Westminster  Hall.  I^ow  our  enemy  is  at 
home ;  and  something  far  costlier  than  swords  is  to  be 
called  into  service. 

Look  at  some  of  these  dangers.  I  shall  pass  by  all  that 
are  trifling.     I  find  four  great  perils.     Here  they  are  : — 

I.  There  comes  the  danger  from  our  exclusive  Devotion 
to  Riches. 

XL  The  danger  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Clmrch, 
established  in  the  midst  of  us. 

III.  The  danger  from  the  idea  that  there  is  no  Higher 
Law  above  the  Statutes  which  men  make. 

IV.  The  danger  from  the  Institution  of  Slavery,  which 
is  based  on  that  atheistic  idea  last  named. 

I.  Of  the  danger  which  comes  from  our  exclusive 
Devotion  to  Riches. 


THE   RIG  PITS   OF   MAN   IK   AMERICA.  119 

Power  is  never  left  without  a  possessor :  wlien  it  fell 
from  the  theocratic  and  military  classes,  from  the  priest, 
the  noble,  and  the  king,  it  passed  to  the  hands  of  the 
capitalists.  In  America,  ecclesiastical  office  is  not  power ; 
noble  or  royal  birth  is  of  small  value.  If  Madison  or 
Jefferson  had  left  any  sons  but  mulattoes,  their  distin- 
guished birth  would  avail  them  nothing.  The  son  of 
Patrick  Henry  lived  a  strolling  schoolmaster,  and  a  pauper's 
funeral  was  asked  for  his  body.  Money  is  power ;  the 
only  perm^anent  and  transmissible  power ;  it  goes  by 
device.  Money  "can  ennoble  sots  and  slaves  and  cowards." 

It  gives  rank  in  the  Church.  The  millionaire  is  always 
a  saint.  The  priests  of  commerce  will  think  twice  before 
damning  a  man  who  enhances  their  salary  and  gives  them 
dinners.  In  one  thing  the  American  Heaven  resembles 
the  New  Jerusalem: — its  pavement  is  "of  fine  gold.''  The 
capitalist  has  the  chief  seat  in  our  Christian  synagogue.  It 
is  a  rare  minister  who  dares  assail  a  vice  which  has  riches 
on  its  side.  Is  there  a  clergyman  at  the  South  who  speaks 
against  the  profitable  wickedness  which  chains  three 
million  American  men  ?  How  few  at  the  North  !  European 
gentility  is  ancient  power ;  American  is  new  money  hot 
from  the  stamping. 

In  society,  money  is  genteel ;  it  is  always  respectable. 
The  high  places  of  society  do  not  belong  to  ecclesiastical 
men,  as  in  Rome  ;  to  military  men,  as  in  St.  Petersburg  ; 
to  men  of  famous  family,  as  in  England  and  Spain ;  to 
men  of  science  and  literature,  men  of  genius,  as  in  BerKn ; 
but  to  rich  men. 

Money  gives  distinction  in  literature,  so  far  as  the 
literary  class  can  control  the  public  judgment.  The  colleges 
revere  a  rich  man's  son  ;  they  name  professorships  after 
such  as  endow  them  with  money,  not  mind.  Critics 
respect  a  rich  man's  book  ;  if  he  has  not  brains,  he  has 
brass,  which  is  better.  The  capitalist  is  admitted  a  member 
of  the  Academies  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  of  collegiate 
societies ;  if  he  cannot  write  dissertations,  he  can  give 
suppers,  and  there  must  be  a  material  basis  for  science.  At 
anniversaries,  he  receives  the  honorary  degree.  "  'Tis 
easier  to  weigh  purses,  sure,  than  brains."  A  dull  scholar 
is  expelled  from  college  for  idleness,  and  twenty  years  later 
returns  to  New  England  with  half  a  million  of  money,  and 


120  DANGERS   WHICH   THREATEN 

gets  his  degree.  As  he  puzzles  at  the  Latin  diploma,  he 
asks,  ''  If  I  had  come  home  poor,  I  wonder  how  long  it 
would  have  taken  the  '  Alma  Mater'  to  find  out  that  I  was 
ever  a  *  good  scholar,'  and  now  *  merited  an  honorary 
degree' — -facts  which  I  never  knew  before  !" 

In  politics,  money  has  more  influence  than  in  Turke}^, 
Austria,  Russia,  England,  or  Spain.  For  in  our  politics 
the  interest  of  property  is  preferred  before  all  others. 
National  legislation  almost  invariably  favours  capital,  and 
not  the  labouring  hand.  The  Federalists  feared  that  riches 
would  not  be  safe  in  America — the  many  would  jDlunder 
the  wealthy  few.  It  was  a  groundless  fear.  In  an 
industrial  commonwealth,  property  is  sure  of  popular  pro- 
tection. Where  all  own  hayricks  no  one  scatters  fire- 
brands. Nowhere  in  the  world  is  property  so  secure  or  so 
much  respected  ;  for  it  rests  on  a  more  natural  basis  than 
elsewhere.  Nowliere  is  wealth  so  powerful,  in  Church, 
Society,  and  State.  In  Kentucky  and  elsewhere,  it  can 
take  the  murderer's  neck  out  of  the  halter.  It  can  make 
the  foolish  '^  wise  ;"  the  dull  man  "  eloquent ;"  the  mean 
man  *'  honourable,  one  of  our  most  prominent  citizens  ; " 
the  heretic  ''  sound  orthodox;"  the  ugly  ^'  fair  ;"  the  old 
man  a  '^  desirable  young  bridegroom."  Nay,  vice  itself 
becomes  virtue,  and  man-stealing  is  Christianity  ! 

Here,  nothing  but  the  voter's  naked  baUot  holds  money 
in  check :  there  are  no  great  families  with  their  historic 
tradition,  as  in  all  Europe ;  no  bodies  of  literary  or 
scientific  men  to  oppose  their  genius  to  mere  material  gold. 
The  Church  is  no  barrier,  only  its  servant,  for  when  the 
minister  depends  on  the  wealth  of  his  parish  for  support, 
you  know  the  common  consequence.  Lying  rides  on  obli- 
gation's back.  The  minister  respects  the  hand  that  feeds 
him  :  "  the  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's 
crib."  Yet  now  and  then  a  minister  looks  starvation  in 
the  face,  and  continues  his  unpopular  service  of  God.  No 
political  institutions  check  the  authority  of  wealth  ;  it  can 
bribe  and  buy  the  venal ;  the  brave  it  sometimes  can 
intimidate  and  starve.  Money  can  often  carry  a  bill 
through  the  legislature — state  or  national.  The  majority 
is  hardly  strong  enough  to  check  this  pecuniary  sway. 

In  the  ''most  democratic"  States,  gold  is  most  powerful. 
Thus,  in  fifteen  States  of  America,  three  hundred  thousand 


THE    JIIGHTS   OF   MAN   IN    AMEKIOA.  121 

proprietors  own  tliirteen  liimdred  millions  of  money  in- 
vested in  men.  In  virtue  thereof  tliey  control  the  legisla- 
tion of  their  own  vStates,  making  their  institutions  despotic, 
and  not  republican  ;  they  keep  the  poor  white  man  from 
political  power,  from  comfort,  from  the  natural  means  of 
education  and  religion  ;  they  destroy  his  self-respect,  and 
leave  him  nothing  but  his  hodj  ;  from  the  poorest  of  the 
poor,  they  take  away  his  body  itself.  Next  they  control 
the  legislation  of  America ;  they  make  the  President,  they 
appoint  the  Supreme  Court,  they  control  the  Senate,  the 
Eepresentatives  ;  they  determine  the  domestic  and  foreign 
policy  of  the  nation.  Finally,  they  affect  the  laws  of  all 
the  other  sixteen  States — the  Southern  hand  colouring  the 
local  institutions  of  New  Haven  and  Boston. 

That  is  onty  one  example — one  of  many.  Russia  is 
governed  by  a  long-descended  Czar  ;  England  by  a  Queen, 
nobles,  and  gentry, — men  of  ancient  famity,  with  culture 
and  riches.  America  is  ruled  by  a  troop  of  men  with 
nothing  but  new  money  and  what  it  brings — three  hundred 
thousand  slaveholders  and  their  servants,  North  and  South. 
Boston  is  under  their  thumb  ;  at  their  command  the  mayor 
spits  in  the  face  of  Massachusetts  law,  and  plants  a 
thousand  bayonets  at  the  people's  throat.  They  make  ball 
cartridges  imder  the  eaves  of  Faneuil  Hall. 

Accordingly,  money  is  the  great  object  of  desire  and 
pursuit.  There  are  material  reasons  why  this  is  so  in 
many  lands  : — in  America  there  are  also  social,  political, 
and  ecclesiastical  reasons  for  it.  "To  be  rich  is  to  be 
blessed :  poverty  is  damnation : "  that  is  the  popidar  creed. 

The  public  looks  superficially  at  the  immediate  effect  of 
this  opinion,  at  this  exceeding  and  exclusive  desire  for 
riches ;  they  see  its  effect  on  Israel  and  John  Jacob,  on 
Stephen,  Peter,  and  Pobert :  it  makes  them  rich,  and  their 
children  respectable  and  famous.  Few  ask.  What  effect 
will  this  have  on  the  nation  P  They  foresee  not  the  future 
evil  it  threatens.  Nay,  they  do  not  consider  how  it 
debauches  the  institutions  of  America — ecclesiastical,  aca- 
demic, social,  political ;  how  it  corrupts  the  hearts  of  the 
people,  making  them  prize  money  as  the  end  of  life,  and 
manhood  as  only  the  means  thereto,  making  money  master, 
and  human  nature  its  tool  or  servant,  but  no  more. 

The  political  effect  of  this  unnatural  esteem  for  riches  is 


122  DANGERS   WHICH   THREATEN 

not  at  all  well  uuderstood.  History  but  too  plainly  tells  of 
the  dangerous  power  of  priests  or  nobles  consolidated  into 
a  class,  and  tbeir  united  forces  directed  by  a  single  able 
head.  The  power  of  allied  kings,  concentrating  whole 
realms  of  men  and  money  on  a  single  point ;  the  effect  of 
armies  and  navies  collected  together  and  marshalled  by  a 
single  will ;  is  all  too  boldly  written  in  the  ruin  of  many  a 
State.  TVe  have  often  been  warned  against  the  peril  from 
forts,  and  castles,  and  standing  armies.  But  the  power  of 
consolidated  riches,  the  peril  which  accumulated  property 
may  bring  upon  the  liberties  of  an  industrial  common- 
wealth, though  formidably  near,  as  yet  is  all  unknown,  all 
unconsidered  too.  Already  the  consolidated  property  of 
one-eightieth  part  of  the  population  controls  all  the  rest. 

Two  special  causes,  both  exceptional  and  fleeting,  just 
now  stimulate  the  acquisitiveness  of  America  almost  to 
madness. 

One  is  the  rapid  development  of  the  art  of  manufacturing 
the  raw  materials  gathered  from  the  bosom  or  the  surface 
of  the  earth.  The  invention  of  printing  made  education 
and  freedom  possible  on  a  large  scale ;  one  of  the  immediate 
results  thereof  is  this — the  head  briefly  performs  the  else 
long-protracted  labour  of  the  hand.  Wind,  water,  fire, 
steam,  lightning,  have  become  pliant  forces  to  manufactm^e 
wood,  flax,  cotton,  wool,  and  all  the  metals.  This  result 
is  nowhere  so  noticeable  as  in  'New  England,  where  educa- 
tion is  almost  universal.  The  New  England  school-house 
is  the  machine-shop  of  America.  What  the  State  invests 
in  slates  and  teachers  paj^s  dividends  in  hard  coin.  This 
new  power  over  the  material  world,  the  first  and  unex- 
pected commercial  residt  of  the  public  education  of  the 
people,  gives  a  great  and  perhaps  lasting  stimulus  to  the 
pursuit  of  wealth.  It  affects  the  most  undisciplined  por- 
tions of  the  world, — for  the  educated  man  leaves  much 
rough  labour  for  the  ignorant,  and  enhances  the  demand 
for  the  results  of  their  toil.  The  thinldng  head  raises  the 
wages  of  all  mere  hands.  Hence  arises  the  increased 
value  of  slaves  at  the  South,  and  the  rapid  innnigration  of 
the  most  ignorant  Irishmen  to  the  North.  They  are  to 
the  thoughtful  projector  what  the  Merrimack  is  to  the 
cotton- spinner — a  rude  force  pliant  before  his  will.  Dr. 
Faustus  is  the  unconscious  pioneer  of  many  a  pilgrimage. 


THE    RIGHTS   OF   MAN    IN   AMERICA.  123 

The  other  cause  is  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California 
and  then  in  Australia.  This  doubles  or  trebles  the  pecu- 
niary momentum  of  America.  Its  stimulating  influence 
on  our  covetousness,  accumulation,  and  luxury,  is  obvious. 
What  further  and  ultimate  efiects  it  will  produce  I  shall 
not  now  pause  to  inquire.  When  a  whirlwind  rises,  all 
men  can  see  that  dust  is  moimting  to  the  sky. 

Besides,  the  form  of  American  industry  is  changed. 
Once  New  England  and  all  the  !N"orth  were  chiefly  agricul- 
tural ;  manufactures  and  commerce  were  conducted  on  a 
small  scale ;  and  therein  each  man  wrought  on  his  own 
account.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  individual  activity, 
individuality  of  character.  Few  men  worked  for  wages. 
IsTow  New  England  is  mainly  manufacturing  and  commer- 
cial, Vermont  is  the  only  farming  State.  Mechanics,  men 
and  women,  work  for  wages  ;  many  in  the  employment  of 
a  single  man ;  thousands  in  the  pay  of  one  company, 
organized  by  superior  ability .  The  workman  loses  his  in- 
dependence, and  is  not  only  paid  but  governed  also  by  his 
employer's  money.  His  opinions  and  character  are  formed 
after  the  prescribed  pattern,  by  the  mill  he  works  in.  The 
old  military  organizations  for  defence  or  aggression  brought 
freedom  of  body  distinctly  in  peril :  the  new  industrial  or- 
ganizations jeopardize  spiritual  individuality,  all  freedom 
of  mind  and  conscience.  New  England  is  a  monumental 
proof  thereof. 

Another  change  also  follows  :  the  military  habits  of  the 
North  are  all  gone.  Once  New  England  had  more  fire- 
locks than  householders  ;  every  man  was  a  soldier  and  a 
marksman.  Now  the  people  have  lost  their  taste  for  mili- 
tary discipline,  and  neither  keep  nor  bear  arms.  Of  course 
a  few  holiday  soldiers,  called  out  by  a  doctor,  and  com- 
manded by  an  apothecary,  can  overawe  the  toT^Ti. 

The  Northern,  and  especially  the  Eastern  and  Middle 
States,  are  the  great  centre  of  this  industrial  development. 
Here,  and  especially  in  New  England,  the  desire  for  riches 
has  become  so  powerful  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  our 
men  of  the  greatest  practical  intellect  have  almost  exclu- 
sively turned  their  attention  to  purely  productive  business, 
to  commerce  and  manufactures.  They  rarely  engage  in 
the  work  of  politics — improfitable  and  distasteful  to  the 
individual,   and,  at   first   sight,  merely  preservative  and 


124  DANGERS   WHICH  THREATEN 

defensive  to  the  community.     This  tliey  slimi  or  neglect, 
as  the  mass  of  men  avoid  military  discipline. 

The  statutes  must  be  made  and  administered  by  politi- 
cians. Here  they  are  not  able  men.  Of  the  forty-one 
Kew  England  delegates  in  Congress,  of  the  six  governors, 
of  the  many  other  professional  leaders  in  politics,  how 
many  first-rate  men  are  there?  how  many  middle-sized 
second-rate  men  ?  The  control  of  the  national  affairs 
passes  out  of  the  fingers  of  the  North — which  has  yet 
three-fifths  of  the  population,  and  more  than  four-fifths 
of  the  speculative  and  practical  intelligence  and  material 
wealth.  The  nation  is  controlled  by  the  South,  whose 
ablest  men  almost  exclusively  attend  to  politics.  Besides, 
the  State  politics  of  the  I^orth  fall  into  the  hands  of  men 
quite  inadequate  to  such  a  weighty  trust.  This  mistake  is 
as  fatal  as  it  would  be  in  time  of  war  to  send  all  the  able- 
bodied  men  to  the  plough,  and  the  women  and  children 
to  the  camp.  We  are  mismanaged  at  home,  and  disho- 
nourably routed  in  the  Federal  capital.  In  the  present 
state  of  the  world  I  think  no  nation  would  be  justified  in 
turning  non-resistant,  tearing  down  its  forts,  disbanding 
its  armies,  melting  up  its  guns  and  swords ;  and  I  am  sure 
the  I^orth  sufiers  sadly  from  devoting  so  large  a  part  of  its 
masterly,  practical  men  to  the  productive  work  of  com- 
merce and  manufactures.  Her  politicians  are  not  strong 
enough  for  her  own  defence.  In  American  politics  the 
great  battle  of  ideas  and  principles,  yea,  of  measures,  is 
to  be  fought.  Shall  we  keep  our  Washingtons  surveying 
land  ? 

The  national  efiect  of  this  estimate  and  accumulation  of 
riches  is  to  produce  a  great  and  rapid  development  of  the 
practical  understanding ;  a  great  love  for  vulgar  finery 
which  pleases  the  palate  or  the  eye  ;  great  luxury  of  dress, 
ornament,  furniture.  You  see  this  in  the  hotels  and 
public  carriages  on  land  and  sea,  in  the  costume  of  the 
nation,  at  public  and  private  tables.  Along  with  this  there 
comes  a  certain  refinement  of  the  public  taste. 

But  there  is  no  proportionate  culture  of  the  higher 
intellectual  faculties — of  the  reason  and  imagination; 
still  less  of  yet  nobler  powers — moral,  afiectional,  and  re- 
ligious. From  the  common  school  to  the  college,  the  chief 
things  taught  are  arithmetic  and  elocution  ;  not  the  art  to 


THE   RIGHTS   OF   MAK   IN   AMERICA.  125 

reason  and  create,  but  the  trade  to  calculate  and  express. 
Everything  is  measured  by  the  money  standard.  "The 
protection  of  property  is  the  great  object  of  government.'* 
The  politician  must  suit  the  pecuniary  interest  of  his  con- 
stituency, though  at  the  cost  of  justice  ;  the  writer,  author, 
or  editor,  the  pecuniary  interest  of  his  readers,  though  at 
the  sacrifice  of  truth ;  the  minister,  the  pecuniary  interest 
of  his  audience,  though  piety  and  morality  both  come  to 
the  ground.  Mammon  is  a  profitable  god  to  worship — he 
gives  dinners ! 

I  think  it  must  be  confessed  in  the  last  eighty  years  the 
general  moral  and  religious  tone  of  the  people  in  the  free 
States  has  improved.  This  change  comes  from  the  natural 
forward  tendency  of  mankind,  the  instinct  of  development 
quickened  by  our  free  institutions.  But,  at  the  same  time, 
it  is  quite  plain  to  me  that  the  moral  and  religious  tone  of 
American  politicians,  writers,  and  preachers,  has  propor- 
tionately and  absolutely  gone  down.  You  see  this  in  the 
great  towns:  if  Boston  were  once  the  '^  Athens  of  America," 
she  is  now  only  the  '^  Corinth."  Athens  has  retreated  to 
some  inland  Salami  s. 

But,  in  general,  this  peril  from  the  excessive  pursuit  of 
riches  comes  unavoidably  from  our  position  in  time  and 
space,  and  our  consequent  political  institutions.  It  belongs 
to  the  period  of  transition  from  the  old  form  of  vicarious 
rule  by  theocratic,  military,  and  aristocratic  governments, 
to  the  personal  administration  of  an  industrial  common- 
wealth. I  do  not  much  fear  this  peril,  nor  apprehend 
lasting  evil  from  it.  One  of  the  great  things  which  man- 
kind now  most  needs  is  power  over  the  material  world  as 
the  basis  for  the  higher  development  of  our  spiritual  facul- 
ties. Wealth  is  indispensable  ;  it  is  the  material  pulp 
around  the  spiritual  seed.  No  nation  was  ever  too  rich, 
too  well  fed,  clad,  housed,  and  comforted.  The  human 
race  still  suffers  from  poverty,  the  great  obstacle  to  our 
progress.  Doubtless  we  shall  make  many  errors  in  our 
national  attempt  to  organize  the  productive  forces  into  an 
industrial  State,  as  our  fathers — thousands  of  years  ago  — 
in  organizing  their  destructive  powers  into  a  military 
state.  Once,  man  cut  his  fingers  with  iron ;  he  now 
poisons  them  with  gold.  All  Christendom  shares  this 
peril,  though  America  feels  it  most.     She  is  now  like  a 


126  DANGERS   WHICH   THREATEN 

thriving  man  who  gets  rich  fast,  arid  thinks  more  than 
he  ought  of  his  money,  and  less  of  his  manhood.  Some 
misfortune,  the  ruin  of  a  prodigal  son  perishing  in  quick- 
sands of  gold,  will,  by-and-by,  convince  him  that  riches 
is  not  the  only  thing  in  life. 

II.  Of  the  danger  which  comes  from  the  Eoman 
Catholic  Church. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  claims  infallibility  for  itself, 
and  denies  spiritual  freedom,  liberty  of  mind  or  conscience, 
to  its  members.  It  is  therefore  the  foe  to  all  progress  ;  it 
is  deadly  hostile  to  democracy.  To  mankind  this  is  its 
first  command — Submit  to  an  external  authority ;  subordi- 
nate your  human  nature  to  an  element  foreign  and  abhor- 
rent thereto !  It  aims  at  absolute  domination  over  the 
body  and  the  spirit  of  man.  The  Catholic  Church  can 
never  escape  from  the  consequences  of  her  first  principle. 
She  is  the  natural  ally  of  tyrants,  and  the  irreconcileable 
enemy  of  freedom.  Individual  Catholics  in  America,  as 
elsewhere,  are  inconsistent,  and  favour  the  progress  of 
mankind.  Alas!  such  are  exceptional;  the  Catholic  Church 
has  an  iron  logic,  and  consistently  hates  liberty  in  all  its 
forms — free  thought,  free  speech. 

I  quote  the  words  of  her  own  authors  in  America,  re- 
cently uttered  by  the  press.  "  Protestantism  .  .  .  has 
not  and  never  can  have  any  rights  where  Catholicity  is 
triumphant."  "  We  lose  all  the  breath  we  expend  in  de- 
claiming against  bigotry  and  intolerance,  and  in  favour  of 
religious  liberty."  *' Religious  liberty  [in  America]  is 
merely  endured  until  the  ojDposite  can  be  carried  into  exe- 
cution without  peril  to  the  Catholic  world."  "  CathoKcity 
will  one  day  rule  in  America,  and  then  religious  liberty  is  at 
an  end."  ''  The  very  name  of  Liberty  ...  ought  to  be  ban- 
ished from  the  very  domain  of  religion."  "  No  man  has  a 
right  to  choose  his  religion."  "  Catholicism  is  the  most 
intolerant  of  creeds.  It  is  intolerance  itself,  for  it  is  the 
truth  itself"* 

The  Catholic  population  is  not  great  in  numbers.  In 
1853,  there  were  in  America  1,712  churches,  1,574  priests, 

*  The  above,  and  many  more  similar  declarations,  may  be  found  in  a 
little  pamphlet — "  Familiar  Letters  to  John  B.  Fitzpatrick,  the  Catholic 
Bishop  of  Boston,  by  an  Independent  Irishman."     Boston,  1854. 


THE   RIGHTS   OF   IVJAN   IN   AMERICA.  127 

396  theological  students,  32  bishops,  7  archbishops,  church- 
property  worth  about  §10,000,000,  and  1,728,000  Catho- 
lics. But  most  of  them  are  of  the  Celtic  stock,  which  has 
never  much  favoured  Protestantism  or  individual  liberty 
in  religion ;  and  in  this  respect  is  widely  distinguished 
from  the  Teutonic  population,  who  have  the  strongest  eth- 
nological instinct  for  personal  freedom. 

Besides,  the  Catholics  are  governed  with  absolute  rigour 
by  their  clergy,  who  are  celibate  priests,  a  social  caste  by 
themselves,  not  sympathizing  with  mankind,  but  emascu- 
lated of  the  natural  humanities  of  our  race.  There  are 
exceptional  men  amongst  them,  but  such  seems  to  be  the 
rule  with  the  class  of  Catholic  priests  in  America.  They 
are  united  into  one  compact  body,  with  complete  corporate 
unity  of  action,  and  ruled  despotically  by  their  bishops, 
archbishops,  and  Pope.  The  Catholic  worshipper  is  not 
to  think,  but  to  believe  and  obey ;  the  priest  not  to  reason 
and  consider,  but  to  proclaim  and  command ;  the  voter  is  not 
to  inquire  and  examine,  but  to  deposit  his  ballot  as  the 
ecclesiastical  authority  directs.  The  better  religious  orders 
do  not  visit  America  ;  the  Jesuits,  the  most  subtle  enemies" 
of  humanity,  come  in  abundance  ;  some  are  known,  others 
stealthily  prowl  about  the  land,  all  the  more  dangerous  for 
their  disguise.  They  all  act  under  the  direction  of  a  single 
head.  One  shrcAvd  Protestant  minister  may  be  equal  to 
one  Jesuit,  but  no  ten  or  forty  Protestant  ministers  is  a 
match  for  a  combination  of  ten  Jesuits,  bred  to  the  business 
of  deception,  knowing  no  allegiance  to  truth  or  justice, 
consciously  disregarding  the  higher  law  of  God,  with  the 
notorious  maxim  that  "the  end  justifies  the  means/'  bound 
to  their  order  by  the  most  stringent  oath,  and  devoted  to 
the  worst  purposes  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

All  these  priests  owe  allegiance  to  a  foreign  head.  It  is 
not  an  American  Church  ;  it  is  Roman,  not  free,  individual, 
but  despotic  ;  nay,  in  its  designs  not  so  much  human  as 
merely  Papal. 

The  Catholic  Church  opposes  everything  which  favours 
democracy  and  the  natural  rights  of  man.  It  hates  our 
free  churches,  free  press,  and,  above  all,  our  free  schools. 
No  owl  more  shuns  the  light.  It  hates  the  rule  of  majori- 
ties, the  voice  of  the  people ;  it  loves  violence,  force,  and  blood. 

The  Catholic  clergy  are  on  the  side  of  Slavery.     They 


128  DANGERS   WHICH   THREATEN 

find  it  is  tlie  dominant  power,  and  ]3ay  court  thereto  tliat 
they  may  rise  by  its  help.  They  love  Slavery  itself ;  it  is 
an  institution  thoroughly  congenial  to  them,  consistent 
with  the  first  principles  of  their  Church.  Their  Jesuit 
leaders  think  it  is  *'an  ulcer  which  will  eat  up  the  Ee- 
pubKc,"  and  so  stimulate  and  foster  it  for  the  ruin  of  Demo- 
cracy, the  deadliest  foe  of  the  Roman  hierarchy. 

Besides,  most  of  the  Catholics  are  the  victims  of  oppres- 
sion,— poor,  illiterate,  oppressed,  and  often  vicious.  Their 
circumstances  have  ground  the  humanity  out  of  them.  No 
sect  furnishes  half  so  many  criminals — victims  of  society 
before  they  become  its  foes ;  no  sect  has  so  little  philan- 
thropy ;  none  is  so  greedy  to  oppress.  AU  this  is  natural. 
The  lower  you  go  down  the  coarser  and  more  cruel  do  you 
find  the  human  being. 

I  am  told  there  is  not  in  all  America  a  single  Catholic 
newspaper  hostile  to  Slavery ;  not  one  opposed  to  tyranny 
in  general ;  not  one  that  takes  sides  with  the  oppressed  in 
Europe.  There  is  not  in  America  a  man  born  and  bred  in 
the  Catholic  Church,  vvdio  is  eminent  for  philosophy,  science, 
literature,  or  art ;  none  distinguished  for  philanthropy ! 
The  water  tastes  of  the  fountain. 

Catholic  votes  are  in  the  market ;  the  bishops  can  dis- 
pose of  them — ^politicians  will  make  their  bid.  Shall  it  be 
the  sacrifice  of  the  free  schools  ?  of  other  noble  institutions  ? 
In  some  States  it  seems  not  unlikely. 

I  do  not  think  our  leading  men  see  all  this  danger.  But 
the  baneful  infiuence  of  the  Church  of  the  dark  ages  begins 
to  show  itself  in  the  press,  in  the  schools,  and  still  more  in 
the  politics  of  America.  Yet  I  am  glad  the  Catholics  come 
here.  Let  America  be  an  asylum  for  the  poor  and  the 
down-trodden  of  all  lands ;  let  the  Irish  ships,  reeking 
with  misery,  land  their  human  burdens  in  our  harbours. 
The  continent  is  wide  enough  for  all.  I  rejoice  that  in 
America  there  is  no  national  form  of  religion ; — let  the 
Jew,  the  Chinese  Buddhist,  the  savage  Indian,  the  Mormon, 
the  Protestant,  and  the  Catholic  have  free  opportunity  to 
be  faithful  each  to  his  own  conscience.  Let  the  American 
Catholic  have  his  bishops,  his  archbishops,  and  his  Pope, 
his  Jesuits,  his  convents,  his  nunneries,  his  celibate  priest- 
hood of  hard  drinkers,  if  he  will.  Let  him  oppose  the 
public   education   of  the   people ;    oppose  the   press,  the 


THE   RIGHTS   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  129 

meetlng-liouse,  and  the  ballot-box ;  nay,  oppose  temperance 
and  religion,  if  lie  likes.  If,  with  trutli  and  justice  on  our 
side,  the  few  Catholics  can  overcome  the  many  Protestants, 
we  deserve  defeat.  We  should  be  false  to  the  first  princi- 
ples of  democratic  theory,  if  we  did  not  grant  them  their 
unalienable  rights.  Let  there  be  no  tyranny ;  let  us  pay 
the  Catholics  good  for  ill ;  and  cast  out  Satan  by  the 
finger  of  God,  not  by  the  Prince  of  Devils.  This  peril  is 
easily  mastered.  The  Catholic  Church  has  still  many 
lessons  to  ofier  the  Protestants. 

III.  Of  the  danger  from  the  Idea  that  there  is 
NO  Higher  Law  above  the  Statutes  of  Men. 

Of  late  years,  it  has  been  industriously  taught  in  America 
that  there  is  no  law  of  nature  superior  to  the  statutes  which 
men  enact ;  that  politics  are  not  amenable  to  conscience  or 
to  God.  Accordingly,  the  American  Congress  knows  no 
check  in  legislation  but  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  the  will  of  the  majority ;  none  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  Universe  and  the  will  of  God.  The  atheistic  idea  of 
the  Jesuits,  that  the  end  justifies  the  means,  is  made  the 
first  principle  in  American  politics.  Hence  it  has  been 
repeatedly  declared  by  "prominent  clergymen''  that 
politics  should  not  be  treated  of  in  the  pulpit ;  they  are 
not  amenable  to  religion ;  Christianity  has  nothing  to  do 
with  making  or  administering  the  laws.  When  the  Pha- 
risees and  Sadducees  have  silenced  the  prophet  and  the 
apostle,  it  is  not  difiicult  to  make  men  believe  that  Machia- 
velli  is  a  great  saint,  and  Jesuitism  the  revealed  religion  of 
politics  !  Let  the  legislators  make  what  wicked  laws  they 
will  against  the  rights  of  man ;  the  priest  of  commerce  is 
to  say  nothing.  iNay,  the  legislators  themselves  are  never 
to  refer  to  justice  and  the  eternal  right,  only  to  the  expe- 
diency of  the  hour. 

Then  when  the  statute  is  made,  the  magistrate  is  not  to 
ask  if  it  be  just,  he  is  only  to  execute  it;  the  people  are 
to  obey  and  help  enforce  the  wicked  enactment,  never 
asking  if  it  be  right.  The  highest  virtue  in  the  people 
is — "  unquestioning  submission  to  the  Constitution ;"  or, 
when  the  statute  violates  their  conscience,  to  do  "a  dis- 
agreeable duty  ! "  Thus  the  political  action  of  the  people 
is  exempted  from  the  jurisdiction  of  God  and  His  natural 

vol.   VI.  Iv 


130  DANGERS   WHICH   THREATEN 

moral  law  !  "  Christianity  has  nothing  to  do  with  poli- 
tics!'' 

Within  a  few  years  this  doctrine  has  been  taught  in  a 
great  variety  of  forms.  At  first  it  came  in  with  evil  laws, 
simply  as  the  occasional  support  of  a  measure  ;  at  length  it 
is  announced  as  a  principle.  It  has  taken  a  deep  hold  on 
the  educated  classes  of  the  community  ;  for  our  "  superior 
education"  is  almost  wholly  of  the  intellect,  and  of  only 
its  humbler  powers.  It  appears  among  the  lawyers,  the 
politicians,  the  editors,  and  the  ministers.  Some  deny  the 
natural  distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  "  Justice,'^ 
is  a  matter  of  convention ;  things  are  not  "  true,"  but 
"  agreed  upon ;"  not  "  right,"  only  "  assented  to."  There 
is  no  "  moral  obligation."  Grovernment  rests  on  a  compact, 
having  its  ultimate  foundation  on  the  caprice  of  men,  not 
in  their  moral  nature.  What  are  called  natural  rights  are 
only  certain  conveniences  agreed  upon  amongst  men  ;  legal 
fictions — their  recognition  is  their  essence,  they  are  the 
creatures  of  a  compact.  Property  has  no  fomidatiou  in  the 
nature  of  things ;  it  may  consist  of  whatever  the  legis- 
lature determines — land,  cattle,  food,  clothing  ;  or  of  men, 
women,  and  children.  Dives  may  own  Lazarus  as  well  as 
the  dogs  who  serve  him  at  the  gate.  There  is  no  political 
morality,  only  political  economy. 

This  conclusion  arises  from  the  philosophy  of  Hobbes 
and  Fibner ;  yes,  from  the  first  principles  of  Locke  and 
Housseau.  It  is  one  of  the  worst  results  of  materialism 
and  practical  atheism.  It  takes  difierent  forms  in  different 
nations.  In  a  monarchy  it  has  for  its  axiom,  "  The  King 
can  do  no  wrong ;  he  is  the  Norm  of  Law — Vo:ip  Regis  vox 
Dei,''  In  a  Democracy,  "  The  majority  can  do  no  wrong ; 
they  are  the  Norm  of  Law — Vox  Populi  vox  Dei."  So 
the  Statute  becomes  an  idol ;  loyalty  takes  the  place  of 
reKgion,  and  despotism  becomes  enthroned  on  the  necks  of 
the  people. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  this  doctrine  should  be  taught 
from  the  pulpit  in  Catholic  countries — it  is  conformable  to 
the  general  conduct  of  the  Roman  Church.  It  belongs 
also  with  the  sensational  philosophy  which  has  yet  done  so 
much  to  break  to  pieces  the  theology  of  the  Dark  Ages ; — 
and  does  not  astonish  one  in  the  sects  which  build  thereon. 
But  at  first  sight  it  seems  amazing  that  American  Chris- 


THE   RIGHTS   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  131 

tlaiis  of  tlie  Puritanic  stock,  with  a  pliilosophy  that 
transcends  sensationalism,  should  prove  false  to  the  only 
principle  which  at  once  justifies  the  conduct  of  Jesus,  of 
Luther,  and  the  Puritans  themselves.  For  certainly  if 
obedience  to  the  estabhshed  law  be  the  highest  virtue,  then 
the  Patriots  and  Pilgrims  of  'New  England,  the  Eeformers 
of  the  Church,  the  glorious  company  of  the  Apostles,  the 
goodly  fellowship  of  the  Prophets,  and  the  noble  army  of 
martyrs, — ^nay,  Jesus  himself, — were  only  criminals  and 
traitors.  To  appreciate  this  denial  of  the  first  principle  of 
all  reKgion,  it  would  be  necessary  to  go  deep  into  the 
theology  of  Christendom,  and  touch  the  fatal  error  of  all 
the  three  parties  just  referred  to.  For  that  there  is  now 
no  time. 

One  of  the  consequences  of  this  atheistic  denial  of  the 
natural  foundation  of  human  laws  is,  the  preponderance  of 
parties.  An  opinion  before  it  becomes  a  law,  while  it  is 
yet  a  tendency,  becomes  organized  into  a  faction,  or  party. 
Members  of  the  party  feel  the  same  loyalty  thereto  which 
narrow  patriots  feel  for  their  nation,  or  bigots  for  their 
sect ;  they  give  up  their  mind  and  conscience  to  their  party. 
So  fidelity  to  their  party,  right  or  wrong,  is  deemed  a 'great 
poKtical  virtue  ;  the  individual  member  is  bound  by  the 
party  opinion.  Thus  is  the  private  conscience  still  further 
debauched  by  the  second  act  in  this  atheistic  popular 
tragedy. 

Thus  both  national  and  party  politics  are  taken  out  of 
the  jurisdiction  of  morals,  declared  not  amenable  to  con- 
science: in  other  w^ords,  are  left  to  the  control  of  political 
Jesuits.  An  American  may  read  the  natural  result  of  such 
principles  in  the  downfall  of  the  Grecian  and  Italian 
Republics,  or  wait  to  behold  it  in  his  own  land. 

IV.  Of  the  dangers  from  the  Institution  of  Slavery 
WHICH  rests  on  this  False  Idea. 

Slavery  is  the  child  of  Violence  and  Atheism.  Brute 
material  forco  is  its  father. :  the  atheistic  idea  that  there  is 
no  law  of  God  above  the  passions  of  men — that  is  the 
mother  of  it.  I  have  lately  spoken  so  long,  so  often,  and 
with  such  publicity,  both  of  speech  and  print,  respecting 
the  extent  of  Slavery  in  America,  and  its  constant  advance 
since  1788,  that  I  shall  pass  over  all  that  theme,  and  speak 

k2 


132  DANGERS    WHICH   THREATEN 

more  directly  of  the  present  danger  it  brings  upon  our 
freedom. 

There  can  be  no  national  welfare  without  national  unity 
of  action.  That  cannot  take  place  unless  there  is  national 
unity  of  idea  in  fimdamentals.  Without  this  a  nation  is 
a  "house  divided  against  itself;''  of  course  it  cannot 
stand.  It  is  what  mechanics  call  a  figure  without  equili- 
brium ;  the  different  parts  thereof  do  not  balance. 

Now,  in  the  American  State  there  are  two  distinct  ideas 
— Freedom  and  Slavery. 

The  idea  of  freedom  first  got  a  national  expression 
seventy- eight  years  ago  next  Tuesday.  Here  it  is.  I  put 
it  in  a  philosophic  form.     There  are  five  points  to  it. 

First.  All  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
natural  rights,  amongst  which  is  the  right  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

Second.  These  rights  are  unalienable ;  they  can  be 
alienated  and  forfeited  only  by  the  possessor  thereof; 
the  father  cannot  alienate  them  for  the  son,  nor  the  son  for 
the  father  ;  nor  the  husband  for  the  wife,  nor  the  wife 
for  the  husband ;  nor  the  strong  for  the  weak,  nor  the 
weak  for  the  strong ;  nor  the  few  for  the  many,  nor  the 
many  for  the  few  ;  and  so  on. 

Third.  In  respect  to  these  all  men  are  equal ;  the  rich 
man  has  not  more,  and  the  poor  less  ;  the  strong  man  has 
not  more,  and  the  weak  man  less  : — all  are  exactly  equal 
in  these  rights,  however  unequal  in  their  powers. 

Fourth.  It  is  the  function  of  government  to  secure  these 
natural,  unalienable,  and  equal  rights  to  every  man. 

Fifth.  Government  derives  all  its  divine  right  from  its 
conformity  with  these  ideas,  all  its  human  sanction  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed. 

That  is  the  idea  of  Freedom.  I  used  to  call  it  ''the 
American  idea ; "  it  was  when  I  was  younger  than  I  am 
to-day.  It  is  derived  from  human  nature  ;  it  rests  on  the 
immutable  laws  of  God ;  it  is  part  of  the  natural  religion 
of  mankind.  It  demands  a  government  after  natural 
justice,  which  is  the  point  common  between  the  conscience 
of  God  and  the  conscience  of  mankind,  the  point  common 
also  between  the  interests  of  one  man  and  of  all  men. 

Now  this  government,  just  in  its  substance,  in  its  form 
must  be  democratic  :  that  is  to  say,  the  government  of  all, 


THE   EIGHTS   OF    MAN   IN   AMERICA.  133 

by  all,  and  for  all.  You  see  what  consequences  must  follow 
from  such  an  idea,  and  the  attempt  to  re-enact  the  law  of 
God  into  political  institutions.  There  will  follow  the 
freedom  of  the  people,  respect  for  every  natural  right 
of  all  men,  the  rights  of  their  body,  and  of  their  spirit — 
the  rights  of  mind  and  conscience,  heart  and  soul.  There 
must  be  some  restraint — as  of  children  by  their  parents, 
as  of  bad  men  by  good  men ;  but  it  will  be  restraint  for 
the  joint  good  of  all  parties  concerned ;  not  restraint  for 
the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  restrainer.  The  ultimate  con- 
sequence of  this  will  be  the  material  and  spiritual  welfare 
of  all  —  riches,  comfort,  noble  manhood,  all  desirable 
things. 

That  is  the  idea  of  Freedom.  It  appears  in  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence ;  it  re- appears  in  the  Preamble  to 
the  American  Constitution,  which  aims  "  to  establish 
justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common 
defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  bless- 
ings of  libert}^"  That  is  a  religious  idea  ;  and  when  men 
pray  for  the  "reign  of  justice"  and  the  '^kingdom  of 
heaven,"  to  come  on  earth  politically,  I  suppose  they  mean 
that  there  may  be  a  commonwealth  where  every  man  has 
his  natural  rights  of  mind,  body,  and  estate. 

Next  is  the  idea  of  Slavery.  Here  it  is.  I  put  it  also 
in  a  philosophic  form.  There  are  three  points  which  I 
make. 

First.  There  are  no  natural,  unalienable,  and  equal  rights, 
wherewith  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator ;  no  natural, 
vmalienable,  and  equal  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness. 

Second.  There  is  a  great  diversity  of  powers,  and  in 
virtue  thereof  the  strong  man  may  rule  and  oppress, 
enslave  and  ruin  the  weak,  for  his  interest  and  against 
theirs. 

Third.  There  is  no  natural  law  of  God  to  forbid  the 
strong  to  oppress  the  weak,  and  enslave  and  ruin  the 
weak. 

That  is  the  idea  of  Slavery.  It  has  never  got  a  national 
expression  in  America ;  it  has  never  been  laid  down  as  a 
principle  in  any  act  of  the  American  people,  nor  in  any 
single  State,  so  far  as  I  know.     All  profess  tlic  opposite ; 


134  DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN 

but  it  is  involved  in  the  measures  of  LotL.  State  and 
nation.  This  idea  is  founded  in  the  selfishness  of  man  ;  it 
is  atheistic. 

The  idea  must  lead  to  a  corresponding  government ;  that 
wiU  be  unjust  in  its  substance — for  it  will  depend  not  on 
natural  right,  but  on  personal  force  ;  not  on  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  universe,  but  on  the  compact  of  men.  It  is  the 
abnegation  of  God  in  the  universe  and  of  conscience  in 
man.  Its  form  will  be  despotism — the  government  of  all 
by  a  part,  for  the  sake  of  a  part.  It  may  be  a  single- 
headed  despotism,  or  a  despotism  of  many  heads  ;  but 
whether  a  Cyclops  or  a  Hydra,  is  is  alike  "  the  abomina- 
tion which  maketh  desolate."  Its  ultimate  consequence  is 
plain  to  foresee — poverty  to  a  nation,  misery,  ruin. 

At  first  Slavery  came  as  a  measure ;  nothing  was  said 
about  it  as  a  principle.  But  in  a  country  full  of  school- 
masters, legislatures,  newspapers,  talking  men — a  measure 
without  a  principle  to  bear  it  up  is  like  a  single  twig  of 
willow  cast  out  on  a  wooden  floor  ;  there  is  nothing  for  it 
to  grow  by  ;  it  will  die.  So  of  late  the  principle  has  been 
boldly  avowed.  Mr.  Calhoun  denied  the  self-evident 
truths  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  ;  denied  the 
natural,  unalienable,  and  equal  rights  of  man.  Many 
since  have  done  the  same — political,  literary,  and  mercan- 
tile men,  and,  of  course,  ecclesiastical  men ;  there  are 
enough  of  them  always  in  the  market.  All  parts  of  the 
idea  of  Slavery  have  iDcen  affirmed  by  prominent  men  at 
the  North  and  the  South.  It  has  been  acted  on  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  constitution  of  every  slave  State,  and  in  the 
passage  of  many  of  its  laws.  It  lies  at  the  basis  of  a 
great  deal  of  national  legislation. 

Hear  the  opinions,  of  some  of  our  Southern  patriots  : 
''  Slavery  is  coeval  with  society  :"  ''It  was  commended  by 
God's  chosen  theocracy,  and  sanctioned  by  His  Apostles  in 
the  Christian  Church."  All  ancient  literature /'is  the 
literature  of  slaveholders ;"  "  Rome  and  Greece  owed  their 
literary  and  national  greatness  exclusively  to  the  institu- 
tion of  Slavery  ;"  "  Slavery  is  as  necessary  for  the  welfare 
of  the  Southern  States  as  sunshine  is  for  the  flowers  of  the 
prairies  ;"  "  A  noble  and  necessary  institution  of  God's 
creation."  *     "  liaturc   is   the   mother   and   protector   of 

*  lUclimo'-tid  Examiner  for  June  30,  1854'. 


THE   RIGHTS   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  135 

Slavery ;"  ^'  Domestic  Slavery  is  not  only  natural  and  ne- 
cessarify  but  a  great  blessing/'  "  Free  society  is  a  sad  and 
signal  failure;'''  "it  does  well  enougb  in  a  new  country." 
"  Free  society  has  become  diseased  by  abolisbing  Slavery. 
It  can  only  be  restored  to  pristine  health,  happiness,  and 
prosperity  by  re-instituting  Slavery.'-'  "  Slavery  may  be 
administered  under  a  new  name."  *'  Free  society  is  a 
monstrosity.  Like  all  monsters  it  will  be  short-lived. 
We  dare  and  do  vindicate  Slavery  in  the  abstract."  The 
negro  "  needs  a  master  to  protect  and  govern  him  ;  so  do 
the  ignorant  poor  in  old  countries."* 

"  There  is  no  moral  wrong  in  Slavery  ;'^  it  ''  is  the 
normal  condition  of  human  society."  "  The  benefits  and 
advantages  which  so  far  have  resulted  from  this  institution 
we  take  as  lights  to  guide  us  to  the  brighter  truths  of  its 
future  history."  ^'We  belong  to  that  society  of  which 
Slavery  is  the  distinguishing  element,  and  we  are  not 
ashamed  of  it.  We  find  it  marked  by  every  evidence  of 
Divine  approval."  f 

These  two  ideas  are  now  fairly  on  foot.  They  are 
hostile  ;  they  are  both  mutually  invasive  and  destructive. 
They  are  in  exact  opposition  to  each  other,  and  the  nation 
which  embodies  these  two  is  not  a  figure  of  equilibrium. 
As  both  are  active  forces  in  the  minds  of  men,  and  as  each 
idea  tends  to  become  a  fact — a  universal  and  exclusive 
fact — as  men  with  these  ideas  organize  into  parties  as  a 
means  to  make  their  idea  into  a  fact,  it  follows  that 
there  must  not  only  be  strife  amongst  philosophical  men 
about  these  antagonistic  principles  and  ideas,  but  a  strife 
of  practical  men  about  corresponding  facts  and  measures. 
So  the  quarrel,  if  not  otherwise  ended,  will  pass  from  words 
to  what  seems  more  serious ;  and  one  will  overcome  the 
other. 

So  long  as  these  two  ideas  exist  in  the  nation  as  two 
political  forces  there  is  no  national  unity  of  idea,  of  course, 
no  unity  of  action.  For  there  is  no  centre  of  gravity 
common  to  Freedom  and  Slavery.  They  will  not  compose 
an  equilibrious  figure.     You  may  cry,  "Peace!  peace!" 

*  Richmond,  Excmiiner,  June  23,  1854. 

t  Cha/rleston  Sto/ndard  (S.C),  June  21, 1854. 


136  DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN 

but  so  long  as  these  two  antagonistic  ideas  remain,  each, 
seeking  to  organize  itself  and  get  exclusive  power,  there 
is  no  peace ;  there  can  be  none. 

The  question  before  the  nation  to  day  is,  Which  shall 
prevail — the  idea  and  fact  of  Freedom,  or  the  idea  and  the 
factof  Slavery ;  Freedom,  exclusive  and  universal,  or  Slavery, 
exclusive  and  universal  ?  The  question  is  not  merely, 
Shall  the  African  be  bond  or  free  ?  but  shall  America  be  a 
democracy  or  a  despotism  ?  For  nothing  is  so  remorseless 
as  an  idea,  and  no  logic  is  so  strong  as  the  historical 
development  of  a  national  idea  by  millions  of  men.  A 
measure  is  nothing  without  its  principle.  The  idea  which 
allows  Slavery  in  South  Carolina  will  establish  it  also  in 
New  England.  The  bondage  of  a  black  man  in  Alexandria 
imperils  every  white  woman's  daughter  in  Boston.  You 
cannot  escape  the  consequences  of  a  first  principle  more 
than  you  can  "  take  the  leap  of  Niagara  and  stop  when 
half-way  down."  The  principle  which  recognises  Slavery 
in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  would  make  all 
America  a  despotism ;  while  the  principle  which  made 
John  Quincy  Adams  a  free  man  would  extirpate  Slavery 
from  Louisiana  and  Texas.  It  is  plain  America  cannot 
long  hold  these  two  contradictions  in  the  national  conscious- 
ness.    Equilibrium  must  come. 

Now  there  are  three  possible  waj^s  of  settling  the  quarrel 
between  these  two  ideas  ;  only  three.  The  categories  are 
exhaustive. 

This  is  the  first :  The  discord  may  rend  the  nation 
asunder  and  the  two  elements  separate  and  become  distinct 
nations — a  despotism  with  the  idea  of  Slavery,  a  democracy 
with  the  idea  of  Freedom.  Then  each  will  be  an  equili- 
brious  figure.  The  Anglo-Saxon  despotism  may  go  to 
ruin  on  its  own  account,  while  the  Anglo-Saxon  democracy 
marches  on  to  national  welfare.  That  is  the  first  hj^po- 
thesis. 

Or,  second  :  The  idea  of  Freedom  may  destroy  Slavery, 
with  all  its  accidents — attendant  and  consequent.  Then 
the  nation  may  have  unity  of  idea,  and  so  a  unity  of 
action,  and  become  a  harmonious  whole,  a  unit  of  freedom, 
a  great  industrial  democracy,  re-enacting  the  laws  of  God, 
and  pursuing  its  way,  continually  attaining  greater  degrees 


THE    PvIGHTS   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  137 

of  freedom   and  prosperity.     That  is  tlie  second  hypo- 
thesis. 

Here  is  the  third  :  The  idea  of  Slavery  may  destroy 
Freedom,  with  all  its  accidents — attendant  and  consequent. 
Then  the  nation  will  become  an  integer ;  only  it  will  be  a 
unit  of  despotism.  This  involves,  of  course,  the  destruc- 
tive revolution  of  all  our  liberal  institutions.  State  as  well 
as  national.  Democracy  must  go  down  ;  the  free  press 
go  down  ;  the  free  church  go  down ;  the  free  school  go 
down.  There  must  be  an  industrial  despotism,  which  will 
soon  become  a  military  despotism.  Popular  legislation 
must  end  ;  the  Federal  Congress  will  be  a  club  of  officials, 
like  Nero's  senate,  which  voted,  his  horse  first  consul.  The 
State  legislature  will  be  a  knot  of  commissioners,  tide- 
waiters,  postmasters,  district  attorneys,  deputy-marshals. 
The  town-meeting  will  be  a  gang  of  government  officers, 
like  the  *' Marshal's  Guard,"  revolvers  in  their  pockets, 
soldiers  at  their  back.  The  Habeas  Corpus  will  be  at  an 
end ;  trial  by  jury  never  heard  of,  and  open  courts  as 
common  in  America  as  in  Spain  or  Rome.  Commissioners 
Curtis,  Loring,  and  Kane  will  not  be  exceptional  men  ; 
there  will  be  no  other  "judges  ;"  all  courts,  courts  of  the 
kidnapper  ;  all  process  summary ;  all  cases  decided  by  the 
will  of  the  Government ;  arbitrary  force  the  only  rule. 
The  constable  will  disappear,  the  soldier  come  forth.  All 
newspapers  will  be  like  the  "  Satanic  press "  of  Boston 
and  STew  York,  like  the  journal  of  St.  Petersburg,  or  the 
Diario  Romano,  which  tell  lies  when  the  ruler  commands, 
or  tell  truth  when  he  insists  upon  it.  Then  the  wicked 
will  walk  on  every  side,  for  the  vilest  of  men  will  be 
exalted,  and  America,  become  the  mock  and  scorn  and 
hissing  of  the  nations,  will  go  down  to  worse  shame  than 
was  ever  heaped  upon  Sodom ;  for  with  her  lust  for  wealth, 
land,  and'  power,  she  will  also  have  committed  the  crime 
against  nature.  Then  America  will  be  another  Italy, 
Greece,  Asia  Minor,  yea,  like  Gomorrah — for  the  Dead 
Sea  will  have  settled  down  upon  us  with  nothing  living 
in  its  breast,  and  the  rulers  will  proclaim  peace  where 
they  have  made  solitude. 

Which  of  these  three  hypotheses  shall  we  take  ? 

I.  Will  there  be  a  separation  of  the  two  elements,  and 


138  DANGERS   WHICH  THREATEN 

a  formation  of  two  distinct  States, — Freedom  with  demo- 
cracy, and  Slavery  with  a  tendency  to  despotism  ?  That 
may  save  one  half  the  nation,  and  leave  the  other  to  volun- 
tary ruin.  Certainly  it  is  better  to  enter  into  life  halt  or 
maimed,  rather  than  having  two  hands  and  two  feet  to  be 
cast  into  everlasting  fire. 

I^ow,  I  do  not  suppose  it  is  possible  for  the  Anglo-Saxons 
of  America  to  remain  as  one  nation  for  a  great  many  years. 
Suppose  we  become  harmonious  and  prosper  abundantly : 
when  there  are  a  hundred  millions  on  the  Atlantic  slope, 
another  hundred  millions  in  the  Mississippi  Yalley,  a  third 
hundred  millions  on  the  Pacific  slope,  and  a  fourth  hundred 
millions  in  South  America, — ^it  is  not  likely  that  all  these 
will  hold  together.  We  shall  be  too  wide  spread.  And, 
besides,  it  is  not  according  to  the  disposition  of  the  Teutonic 
family  to  aggregate  into  one  great  State  any  very  large 
body  of  men  ;  division,  not  conglomeration,  is  after  the  eth- 
nologic instinct  and  the  historical  custom  of  the  Teutonic 
family,  and  especially  of  its  Anglo-Saxon  tribe.  We  do 
not  like  centralization  of  power,  but  have  such  strong  in- 
dividuality that  we  prefer  local  self-government ;  we  are 
social,  not  gregarious  like  the  Celtic  family.  I,  therefore, 
do  not  look  on  the  union  of  the  States  as  a  thing  that  is 
likely  to  last  a  great  length  of  time,  under  any  circum- 
stances. I  doubt  if  any  part  of  the  nation  will  desire  it  a 
hundred  years  hence. 

True,  there  are  causes  which  tend  to  keep  us  united : 
community  of  ethnologic  origin — fifteen  millions  are  Anglo- 
Saxon  ;  —  unity  of  language,  literature,  religion  ;  historic 
and  legal  traditions,  and  commercial  interest.  But  all 
these  may  easily  be  overcome,  and  doubtless  will  be.  So  a 
dissolution  of  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  State  seems  likely  to 
take  place,  when  the  territory  is  spread  so  wide  that  there 
is  a  practical  inconvenience  in  balancing  the  nation  on  a 
single  governmental  point ;  when  the  numbers  are  so  great 
that  we  require  many  centres  of  legislative  and  administra- 
tive action  in  order  to  secure  individual  freedom  of  the 
parts,  as  well  as  national  unity  of  the  whole  ;  or  when  the 
Federal  Government  shall  become  so  corrupt  that  the 
trunk  will  not  sustain  the  limbs.  Then  the  branches 
which  make  up  this  great  American  banyan-tree  will 
separate  from  the  rotten  primeval  trunk,  draw  their  sup- 


THE   RIGHTS  OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  139 

port  from  their  own  local  roots,  and  spread  into  great  and 
independent  trees.  All  this  may  take  place  without 
fighting.  Massachusetts  and  Maine  were  once  a  single 
State ;  now  friendly  sisters. 

But  I  do  not  think  this  "  dissolution  of  the  Union " 
will  take  place  immediately,  or  very  soon.  For  America 
is  not  now  ruled — as  it  is  commonly  thought — either  by 
the  mass  of  men  who  follow  their  national,  ethnological, 
and  liuman  instincts ;  or  by  a  few  far-sighted  men  of 
genius  for  politics,  who  consciously  obey  the  Law  of  God 
made  clear  in  their  own  masterly  mind  and  conscience,  and 
make  statutes  in  advance  of  the  calculation  or  even  the  in- 
stincts of  the  people,  and  so  manage  the  ship  of  State  that 
every  occasional  tack  is  on  a  great  circle  of  the  Universe, 
a  right  line  of  justice,  and  therefore  the  shortest  way  to 
welfare :  but  by  two  very  difierent  classes  of  men ;  —  by 
mercantile  men,  who  covet  money,  actual  or  expectant 
capitaKsts  ;  and  by  political  men,  who  want  power,  actual 
or  expectant  ofiice -holders.  These  appear  diverse ;  but 
there  is  a  strong  unanimity  between  the  two ; — for  the 
mercantile  men  want  money  as  a  means  of  power,  and  the 
political  men  power  as  a  means  of  money.  There  are  noble 
men  in  both  classes,  exceptional,  not  instantial,  men  with 
great  riches  even,  and  great  ofiice.  But  as  a  class,  these 
men  are  not  above  the  average  morality  of  the  people,  often 
below  it :  they  have  no  deep,  religious  faith,  which  leads 
them  to  trust  the  Higher  Law  of  Grod.  They  do  not  look 
for  principles  that  are  right,  conformable  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  universe,  and  so  creative  of  the  nation's  perma- 
nent welfare ;  but  only  for  expedient  measures,  productive 
to  themselves  of  selfish  money  or  selfish  power.  In  gene- 
ral, they  have  the  character  of  adventurers,  the  aims  of  ad- 
venturers, the  morals  of  adventurers  ;  they  begin  poor,  and 
of  course  obscure,  and  are  then  "  democratic,''  and  hurrah 
for  the  people :  ''  Down  with  the  powerful  and  the  rich"  is 
the  private  maxim  of  their  heart.  If  they  are  successfid, 
and  become  rich,  famous,  attaining  high  office,  they  com- 
monly despise  the  people:  "Down  with  the  people!"  is 
the  axiom  of  their  heart — only  they  dare  not  say  it ;  for 
there  are  so  many  others  with  the  same  selfishness,  who 
have  not  yet  achieved  their  end,  and  raise  the  opposite  cry. 
The  line  of  the  nation's  course  is  a  resultant  of  the  com- 
pound selfishness  of  these  two  classes. 


140  DANGERS    WHICH   THREATEN 

From  these  two,  witli  their  mercantile  and  political  sel- 
fishness, we  are  to  expect  no  comprehensive  morality,  which 
will  secure  the  rights  of  mankind ;  no  comprehensive 
policy,  which  will  secure  expedient  measures  for  a  long 
time.  Both  will  unite  in  Avhat  serves  their  apparent  in- 
terest, brings  money  to  the  trader,  power  to  the  politician, 
— whatever  be  the  consequence  to  the  country. 

As  things  now  are,  the  Union  favours  the  schemes  of 
both  of  these  classes  of  men ;  thereby  the  politician  gets 
power,  the  trader  makes  money. 

If  the  Union  were  to  be  dissolved  and  a  great  Northern 
Commonwealth  were  to  be  organized,  with  the  idea  of 
freedom,  three  quarters  of  the  politicians,  Federal  and 
State,  would  pass  into  contempt  and  oblivion  ;  all  that 
class  of  Northern  demagogues  who  scoff  at  God's  Law, 
such  as  filled  the  offices  of  the  late  Whig  administration  in 
its  day  of  power,  or  as  fill  the  offices  of  the  Democratic 
administration  to-day — they  would  drop  down  so  deep  that 
no  plummet  would  ever  reach  them ;  you  would  never  hear 
of  them  again. 

Grratitude  is  not  a  very  common  virtue ;  but  gratitude 
to  the  hand  of  Slavery,  which  feeds  these  creatures,  is  their 
sole  and  single  moral  excellence  ;  they  have  that  form  of 
gratitude.  "When  the  hand  of  Slavery  is  cut  ofi',  that  class 
of  men  will  perish  just  as  caterpillars  die  when,  some  day 
in  May,  the  farmer  cuts  ofi"  from  the  old  tree  a  great  branch 
to  graft  in  a  better  fruit.  The  caterpillars  will  not  vote 
for  the  grafting.  That  class  of  men  will  go  for  the  Union 
while  it  serves  them. 

Look  at  the  other  class.  Property  is  safe  in  America  : 
and  why  ?  Because  we  have  aimed  to  establish  a  govern- 
ment on  natural  rights,  and  property  is  a  natural  right ; 
say  oligarchic  Blackstone  and  socialistic  Proudhon  what 
they  may,  property  is  not  the  mere  creature  of  compact,  or 
the  child  of  robbery ;  it  is  founded  in  the  nature  of  man. 
It  has  a  very  great  and  important  function  to  perform. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  is  it  so  much  respected  as  here. 

But  there  is  one  kind  of  property  which  is  not  safe  just 
now  : — Property  in  men.  It  is  the  only  kind  of  property 
which  is  purely  the  creature  of  violence  and  law  ;  it  has 
no  root  in  itself. 

Now,  the  Union  protects  that  "property."     There  are 


THE   RIGHTS   OF   MAN   IN   AMEKICA.  141 

three  hundred  thousand  slave-holders,  owning  thirteen 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  invested  in  men.  Their  wealth 
depends  on  the  Union ;  destroy  that,  and  their  unnatural 
property  will  take  to  itself  legs  and  run  off,  seeking  liberty 
by  flight,  or  else  stay  at  home  and,  like  an  Anglo-Saxon, 
take  to  itself  firebrands  and  swords,  and  burn  down  the 
master's  house  and  cut  the  master's  throat.  So  the  slave- 
holder wants  the  Union  ;  he  makes  money  by  it.  Slavery 
is  unprofitable  to  the  nation.  No  three  millions  earn  so 
little  as  the  three  million  slaves.  It  is  costly  to  every 
State.  But  it  enriches  the  owner  of  the  slaves.  The  South 
is  agricultural ;  that  is  all.  She  raises  cotton,  sugar,  and 
corn  ;  she  has  no  commerce,  no  manufactures,  no  mining. 
The  North  has  mills,  ships,  mines,  manufactures  ;  buys  and 
sells  for  the  South,  and  makes  money  by  what  impoverishes 
the  South.  So  all  the  great  commercial  centres  of  the 
North  are  in  favour  of  Union,  in  favour  of  Slavery.  The 
instinct  of  American  trade  just  now  is  hostile  to  American 
freedom.  The  money  power  and  the  slave  power  go  hand 
in  hand.  Of  course  such  editors  and  ministers  as  are  only 
the  tools  of  the  money  power,  or  the  slave  power^  will  be 
fond  of  "Union  at  all  hazards."  They  will  sell  their 
mothers  to  keep  it.  Now  these  are  the  controlling  classes 
of  men ;  these  ministers  and  editors  are  the  mouthpieces 
of  these  controlling  classes  of  men ;  and  as  these  classes 
make  money  and  power  out  of  the  Union,  for  the  present 
I  think  the  Union  will  hold  together.  Yet  I  know  very 
well  that  there  are  causes  now  at  work  which  embitter  the 
minds  of  men,  and  which,  if  much  enforced,  will  so  exas- 
perate the  North  that  we  shall  rend  the  Union  asunder  at 
a  blow.  That  I  think  not  likely  to  take  place,  for  the 
South  sees  the  peril  and  its  own  ruin. 

11.  The  next  hypothesis  is.  Freedom  may  triumph  over 
Slavery.  That  was  the  expectation  once,  at  the  time  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence ;  nay,  at  the  formation  of  the 
Constitution.  But  only  two  national  steps  have  been  taken 
against  Slavery  since  then  —  one  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
the  other  the  abolition  of  the  African  Slave-Trade  ;  really 
that  was  done  in  1788,  formally  twenty  years  after.  In  the 
individual  States,  the  white  man's  freedom  enlarges  every 
year ;  but   the   Federal  Government   becomes  more  and 


142  DANGERS   WHICH   THREATEN 

more  addicted  to  Slavery.     This  liypotliesis  does  not  seem 
very  likely  to  be  adopted. 

III.  Shall  Slavery  destroy  Freedom?  It  looks  very 
much  like  it.  Here  are  nine  great  steps,  openly  taken 
since  '87,  in  favour  of  Slavery.  First,  America  put  Slavery 
into  the  Constitution.  Second,  out  of  old  soil  she  made 
four  new  slave  States.  Third,  America,  in  1793,  adopted 
Slavery  as  a  Federal  institution,  and  guaranteed  her  pro- 
tection for  that  kind  of  property  as  for  no  other.  Fourth, 
America  bought  the  Louisiana  territory  in  1803,  and  put 
Slavery  into  it.  Fifth,  she  thence  made  Louisiana,  Mis- 
souri, and  then  Arkansas  slave  States.  Sixth,  she  made 
Slavery  perpetual  in  Florida.  Seventh,  she  annexed  Texas. 
Eighth,  she  fought  the  Mexican  war,  and  plundered  a 
feeble  sister  republic  of  California,  Utah,  and  New  Mexico, 
to  get  more  slave  soil.  Mnth,  America  gave  ten  millions 
of  money  to  Texas  to  support  Slavery,  passed  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill,  and  has  since  kidnapped  men  in  'New  England, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan, 
"Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Indiana,  in  all  the  East,  in  all  the 
West,  in  all  the  Middle  States.  All  the  great  cities  have 
kidnapped  their  own  citizens.  Professional  slave-hunters 
are  members  of  New  England  churches ;  kidnappers  sit 
down  at  the  Lord's  table  in  the  city  of  Cotton,  Chauncey, 
and  Mayhew.  In  this  very  year,  before  it  is  half  through, 
America  has  taken  two  more  steps  for  the  destruction 
of  Freedom.  The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise  and 
the  enslavement  of  Nebraska :  that  is  the  tenth  step.  Here 
is  the  eleventh:  The  Mexican  treaty,  giving  away  ten 
millions  of  dollars  and  buying  a  little  strip  of  worthless 
land,  solely  that  it  may  serve  the  cause  of  Slavery. 

Here  are  eleven  great  steps  openly  taken  towards  the 
ruin  of  liberty  in  America.  Are  these  the  worst  ?  Very 
far  from  it !  Yet  more  dangerous  things  have  been  done 
in  secret. 

I.  Slavery  has  corrupted  the  mercantile  class.  Almost 
aU  the  leading  merchants  of  the  North  are  pro-Slavery 
men.  They  hate  freedom,  hate  your  freedom  and  mine  ! 
This  is  the  only  Christian  country  in  which  commerce  is 
hostile  to  freedom. 


THE   EIGHTS   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  143 

II.  See  the  corruption  of  tlie  political  class.  There  are 
forty  thousand  officers  of  the  Federal  Government.  Look 
at  them  in  Boston — their  character  is  as  well  laiown  as 
this  Hall.  Eead  their  journals  in  this  city — do  you  catch 
a  whisper  of  freedom  in  them?  Slavery  has  sought  its 
menial  servants — men  basely  born  and  basely  bred :  it  has 
corrupted  them  still  further,  and  put  them  in  office. 
America,  like  Eussia,  is  the  country  for  mean  men  to 
thrive  in.  Give  him  time  and  mire  enough,  a  worm  can 
crawl  as  high,as  an  eagle  flies.  State  rights  are  sacrificed 
at  the  North ;  centralization  goes  on  with  rapid  strides ; 
State  laws  are  trodden  under  foot.*  The  jN'orthern  Presi- 
dent is  all  for  Slavery.  The  Northern  members  of  the 
Cabinet  are  for  Slavery  ;  in  the  Senate,  fourteen  Northern 
Democrats  were  for  the  enslavement  of  Nebraska ;  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  forty-four  Northern  Democrats 
voted  for  the  bill, — fourteen  in  the  Senate,  forty-four  in  the 
House,  fifty-eight  Northern  men  voted  against  the  con- 
science of  the  North  and  the  law  of  God.  Only  eight 
men  out  of  all  the  South  could  be  found  friendly  to  justice 
and  false  to  theii'  own  local  idea  of  injustice.  The  present 
administration,  with  its  supple  tools  of  tyranny,  came  into 
office  while  the  cry  of  "No  Higher  Law''  was  echoing 
through  the  land ! 

III.  Slavery  has  debauched  the  Press.  How  many 
leading  journals  of  commerce  and  politics  in  the  great 
cities  do  you  know  that  are  friendly  to  Freedom  and 
opposed  to  Slavery  ?  Out  of  the  five  large  daily  com- 
mercial papers  in  Boston,  Whig  or  Democratic,  I  know  of 
only  one  that  has  spoken  a  word  for  freedom  this  great 
while.  The  American  newspapers  are  poor  defenders  of 
American  liberty.  Listen  to  one  of  them,  speaking  of 
the  last  kidnapping  in  Boston:  "We  shall  need  to  em- 
ploy the  same  measures  of  coercion  as  are  necessary  in 
monarchical  countries."  There  is  always  some  one  ready  to 
do  the  basest  deeds.     Yet  there  are  some  noble  journals — 

*  While  this  vohime  is  passing  through  the  press,  another  example  of 
this  same  corruption  appears.  The  Senate  passes  a  bill  to  protect  United 
States  officers  engaged  in  kidnapping  citizens  of  the  free  States,  from 
the  justice  of  the  people.  Such  kidnappers  are  to  be  tried  in  the  kid- 
nappers' court. 


144  D.iNGERS   VmiCK  THREATEN 

political  and  commercial ;  .sucli  as  the  Xev:  York  Tribune 
and  Evening  Post. 

TV.  Then  our  colleges  and  schools  are  corrupted  by 
Slaver^'.  I  do  not  know  of  five  collej?es  in  all  the  Xorth 
which  publicly  appear  on  the  side  of  Freedom.  ^ATiat  the 
hearts  of  the  presidents  and  professors  are,  God  knows,  not 
I.  The  great  crime  against  humanity,  practical  atheism, 
found  ready  support  in  ZS^orthem  colleges,  in  1850  and  1851. 
Once,  the  common  reading  books  of  our  schools  were  full 
of  noble  words.  Read  the  school-books  now  made  by 
Yankee  pedlers  of  literature,  and  what  liberal  ideas  do 
you  find  there  ?  They  are  meant  for  the  Southern  market. 
Slaver}'  must  not  be  ofiended  I 

T.  Slavery  has  corrupted  the  churches !  There  are 
twenty-eight  thousand  Protestant  clerg^Tnen  in  the  United 
States.  There  are  noble  hearts,  true  and  just  men  among 
them,  who  have  fearlessly  borne  witness  to  the  truth.  I 
need  not  mention  their  names.  Alas  I  they  are  not  very 
numerous ;  I  should  not  have  to  go  over  my  fingers  many 
times  to  count  them  all.  I  honour  these  exceptional  men. 
Some  of  them  are  old,  far  older  than  I  am ;  older  than  my 
father  need  have  been ;  some  of  them  are  far  younger  than 
I ;  nav,  some  of  them  voimorer  than  mv  children  mio-ht  be : 
and  I  honour  these  men  for  the  fearless  testimony  which 
they  have  borne — the  old,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  young. 
But  they  are  very  exceptional  men.  Is  there  a  minister 
in  the  South  who  preaches  against  Slaver}'  ?  How  few  in 
all  the  Xorth  I 

Look  and  see  the  condition  of  the  Sunday  schools.  In 
1853,  the  Episcopal  Methodists  had  9,488  Sunday  schools ; 
102,732  Sunday  school  teachers  ;  525,008  scholars.  There 
is  not  an  anti- Slavery  Sunday  school  in  the  compass  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church.  Last  year,  in  Xew  York, 
they  issued,  on  an  average,  two  thousand  bound  volumes 
every  dav  in  the  vear,  not  a  line  against  Slaverv  in  them. 
They  printed  also  two  thousand  pamphlets  every  day; 
there  is  not  a  line  in  them  all  against  Slavery ;  they  printed 
more  than  two  hundred  and  forty  milKon  pages  of  Sunday 
school  books,  not  a  line  against  Slaver}'  in  them  all ;  not  a 
line  showing  that  it  is  wicked  to  buy  and  sell  a  man,  for 


THE    KlGinS   OF    MAX    IN    AMERICA.  145 

whom,  according  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
Christ  died  I 

The  Orthodox  Sunday  School  Union  spent  last  year 
^248,201  ;  not  a  cent  against  Slavery,  our  great  national 
sin.  They  print  books  by  the  million.  Only  one  of  them 
contains  a  word  against  Slavery ;  that  is  Cowper'  s  Task^ 
which  contains  these  words — my  mother  taught  them  to 
me  when  I  was  a  little  boy,  and  sat  in  her  lap  : — 

**  I  would  not  have  a  slave  to  till  my  ground, 
To  carry  me,  to  fan  me  -when  1  sleep, 
And  tremble  when  1  wake,  for  all  the  wealth 
That  sinews,  bought  and  sold,  have  ever  earned  ! " 

You  all  know  it :  if  you  do  not,  you  had  better  learn  and 
teach  it  to  your  children.  That  is  the  only  anti- Slavery 
vv^ork  they  print.  Once  they  published  a  book  written  by 
Mr.  Gallaudet,  which  related  the  story,  I  think,  of  the 
selling  of  Joseph :  at  any  rate,  it  showed  that  Egyptian 
Slavery  was  wrong.  A  little  girl  in  a  Sunday  school  in 
one  of  the  Southern  States  one  day  said  to  her  teacher, 
"  If  it  was  wrong  to  make  Joseph  a  slave,  why  is  it  not 
wrong  to  make  Dinah,  and  Sambo,  and  Chloe  slaves  ? " 
The  Sunday  school  teacher  and  the  church  took  the  alarm, 
and  complained  of  the  Sunday  School  Union :  ^'  You  are 
poisoning  the  South  with  your  religion,  telling  the  children 
that  Slavery  is  wicked."  It  was  a  serious  thing,  "  disso- 
lution of  the  Union,"  "levying  war,"  or  at  least,  "misde- 
meanor," for  aught  I  know,  "obstructing  an  officer  of  the 
United  States."  What  do  you  think  the  Sunday  School 
Union  did  ?  It  suppressed  the  book !  It  printed  one 
Sunday  school  book  which  had  a  line  against  Egj^tian 
Slavery  and  then  suppressed  it  !  and  it  cannot  be  had 
to-day.  Amid  all  their  million  books,  there  is  not  a  line 
against  Slavery,  save  what  Cowper  sung.  There  are  five 
million  Sunday  school  scholars  in  the  United  States,  and 
there  is  not  a  Sunday  school  manual  which  has  got  a  word 
against  Slavery  in  it. 

You  all  know  the  American  Tract  Society.  Last  year 
the  American  Tract  Society  in  Boston  spent  $79,983.46 ; 
it  visited  more  than  fourteen  thousand  families  ;  it  dis- 
tributed 3,334,920  tracts — not  a  word  against  Slavery  in 
them  all.  The  American  Tract  Society  in  New  York  last 
year   visited   568,000  families,    containing  three   million 

VOL.    VI.  L 


14G  DANGERS   WHICH   THKEATEN 

persons  ;  it  spent  for  home  purposes  $406,707  ;  for  foreign 
purposes  $422,294 ;  it  distributed  tracts  in  English,  French, 
German,  Dutch,  Danish,  Swedish,  Norwegian,  Italian, 
Hungarian,  and  Welsh — and  it  did  not  print  one  single 
line,  nor  whisper  a  single  word  against  this  great  national 
sin  of  Slavery  !  Nay,  worse  :  — if  it  finds  English  books 
which  suit  its  general  purpose,  but  containing  matter 
adverse  to  Slavery,  it  strikes  out  all  the  anti- Slavery 
matter,  then  prints  and  circulates  the  book.  Is  the  Tract 
Society  also  managed  by  Jesuits  from  the  Homan  Church  ? 

At  this  day,  600,000  slaves  are  directly  and  personally 
owned  by  men  who  are  called  ''professing  Christians," 
"  members  in  good  fellowship  "  of  the  churches  of  this 
land;  80,000  owned  by  Presbyterians,  225,000  by  Bap- 
tists, 250,000  owned  by  Methodists  :— 600,000  slaves  in 
this  land  owned  by  men  who  profess  themselves  Christians, 
and  in  churches  sit  down  to  take  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  the 
name  of  Christ  and  God !  There  are  ministers  who  own 
their  fellow-men — "  bought  with  a  price." 

Does  not  this  look  as  if  Slavery  were  to  triumph  over 
Freedom  ? 

YI.  Slavery  corrupts  the  judicial  class.  In  America, 
especially  in  New  England,  no  class  of  men  has  been  so 
much  respected  as  the  judges  ;  and  for  this  reason :  we 
have  had  wise,  learned,  excellent  men  for  our  judges  ;  men 
who  reverenced  the  higher  law  of  God,  and  sought  by 
human  statutes  to  execute  justice.  You  all  know  their 
venerable  names,  and  how  reverentially  we  have  looked  up 
to  them.  Many  of  them  are  dead ;  some  are  still  living, 
and  their  hoary  hairs  are  a  crown  of  glory  on  a  judicial 
life,  without  judicial  blot.  But  of  late  Slavery  has  put  a 
different  class  of  men  on  the  benches  of  the  Federal  Courts 
• — mere  tools  of  the  Government ;  creatures  which  get  their 
appointment  as  pay  for  past  political  service,  and  as  pay 
in  advance  for  iniquity  not  yet  accomplished.  You  see 
the  consequences.  Note  the  zeal  of  the  Federal  Judges  to 
execute  iniquity  by  statute  and  destroy  liberty.  See  how 
ready  they  are  to  support  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 
which  tramples  on  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  its 
letter  too  ;  which  outrages  justice  and  violates  the  most 
sacred  principles  and  precepts  of  Christianity.  Not  a 
United  States  judge,  circuit  or  district,  has  uttered  one 


THE   RIGHTS  OF  MAN   IN   AMERICA.  147 

word  against  tliat  "bill  of  abominations/^  ISTay,  bow 
greedy  tbey  are  to  get  victims  under  it !  ]^o  wolf  loves 
better  to  rend  a  lamb  into  fragments  than  tbese  judges  to 
kidnap  a  Fugitive  Slave,  and  punish  any  man  who  dares  to 
speak  against  it.  You  know  what  has  happened  in  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Bill  Courts.  You  remember  the  "miraculous'' 
rescue  of  Shadrach ;  the  peaceable  snatching  of  a  man  from 
the  hands  of  a  cowardly  kidnapper  was  "  high  treason ;" 
it  was  "  levying  war."  You  remember  the  "  triaF'  of  the 
rescuers !  Judge  Sprague's  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury, 
that,  if  they  thought  the  question  was  which  they  ought 
to  obey,  the  law  of  man  or  the  law  of  God,  then  they  must 
"  obey  both !"  serve  God  and  Mammon,  Christ  and  the 
devil,  in  the  same  act !  You  remember  the  "  trial,"  the 
"  ruling "  of  the  Bench,  the  swearing  on  the  stand,  the 
witness  coming  back  to  alter  and  "  enlarge  his  testimony" 
and  have  another  gird  at  the  prisoner !  You  have  not 
forgotten  the  trials  before  Judge  Kane  at  Philadelphia,  and 
Judge  Grier  at  Christiana  and  "VYilkesbarre. 

These  are  natural  results  of  causes  well  knoTiVTi.  You 
cannot  escape  a  principle.  Enslave  a  negro,  will  you  ? — 
you  doom  to  bondage  your  own  sons  and  daughters,  by 
your  own  act. 

Do  you  forget  the  Union  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
November  26th,  1850,  the  Tuesday  before  Thanksgiving 
Day  ?  It  was  called  to  indorse  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill — a 
meeting  to  promote  the  stealing  of  men  in  Boston,  of  your 
fellow- worshippers  and  my  parishioners.  Do  you  remember 
the  Democratic  Herods  and  Whig  Pirates,  who  were  made 
friends  that  day,  melted  into  one  unity  of  despotism, 
in  order  that  they  might  enslave  men  ?  They  had  unity 
of  idea  and  unity  of  action,  that  day.  Do  you  remember 
the  speeches  of  Mr.  Curtis  and  Mr.  Hallett ;  their  yelp 
against  the  unalienable  rights  of  men ;  their  howl  at  God's 
Higher  Law  ?  The  worser  half  of  that  platform  is  now  the 
United  States  Court ; — the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  judge,  the 
United  States  attorney.  They  got  their  offices  for  their 
political  services  past  and  for  their  character — very  fitting 
reward  to  very  fitting  men  !  A  man  professes  a  fondness 
for  kidnapping,  hurrahs  for  it  in  Faneuil  Hall : — give  him 
the  United  States  judgeship;  make  him  United  States 
attorney  —  fit  to  fit!      "When   Slavery  dispenses   offices. 


148  DANGERS    WHICH    THREATEN 

every  service  rendered  to  despotism  is  well  paid.  Men 
with,  foreheads  of  brass,  with  iron  elbows,  with  consciences 
of  gum  elastic,  whose  chief  commandment  of  their  law, 
their  prophets,  and  their  gospel,  is  to 

" crook  the  pregnant  liinges  of  tlie  knee, 

Where  thrift  may  follow  fawning ;" 

verily  they  shall  have  their  reward  !  They  shall  become 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  judges ;  yea,  attorneys  of  the  United 
States  ! 

In  1836,  a  poor  slave  girl  named  Med,  who  had  been 
brought  from  Louisiana  to  Boston  by  her  master,  sued  for 
her  freedom  in  the  courts  of  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Benjamin 
R.  Curtis  appeared  as  the  slave-hunter's  counsel,  long,  and 
stoutly,  and  learnedly  contending  that  she  should  not  re- 
ceive her  freedom  by  the  laws,  constitution,  and  usages  of 
this  Commonwealth,  but  should  be  sent  back  to  eternal 
bondage.*  On  the  7th  of  March,  1850,  Mr.  Webster 
made  his  speech  against  Freedom,  so  fatal  to  himself ;  but 
soon  after  found  such  a  fire  in  his  rear  that  he  must 
return  to  Massachusetts  to  rescue  his  own  popularity — 
then  apparently  in  great  peril.  On  the  29th  of  April, 
the  same  Mr.  Curtis,  faithful  to  his  proclivities  towards 
Slavery,  made  a  public  address  to  the  apostate  senator,  at 
the  Revere  House,  and  expressed  his  "abounding  grati- 
tude for  the  ability  and  fidelity"  which  Mr.  Webster  had 
"brought  to  the  defence  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union ;" 
praising  him  as  "  eminently  vigilant,  wise,  and  faithful  to 
our  country,  without  shadow  of  turning."  At  the  Union 
meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  (l^ov.  26th),  Mr.  Curtis  declared 
the  fugitive  slaves  "a  class  of  foreigners,"  "with  whose 
rights  Massachusetts  has  nothing  to  do.  It  is  enough  for 
us  that  they  have  no  right  to  be  here'^     Other  services, 

*  The  girl  was  set  free,  and  the  principle  laid  down  that  slaves  coming 
to  a  free  State  with  the  consent  of  their  masters,  secured  their  freedom. 
An  account  of  the  case  was  published  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  of 
August  29,  1836,  and  introduced  with  the  following  editorial  comment : — 
"  In  some  of  the  States  there  is,  we  believe,  legislative  pi'ovision  for  cases 
of  this  sort  [namely,  allowing  the  master  to  bring  and  keep  slaves  in 
bondage],  and  it  would  seem  that  some  such  provision  is  necessary  in 
this  State,  unless  we  would  prohibit  citizens  of  the  slave-holding  States 
from  travelling  in  this  State  with  their  families,  and  unless  wo  would  per- 
mit such  of  them  as  wish  to  emancipate  their  slaves,  to  tln'ow  them  at 
their  pleasure  upon  the  people  of  this  State." 


THE   RIGHTS   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA.  149 

similar  or  analogous,  which,  he  has  rendered  to  the  cause 
of  inhumanity,  I  here  pass  by. 

This  is  a  world  in  which  ^'  men  do  nothing  for  nothing  ;" 
the  workman  is  worthy  of  his  hire ;  in  due  time  Mr.  Curtis 
received  his  reward. 

He  has  lately  (June  7th)  "charged"  the  Grand  Jury 
of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States,  pointing  out 
their  duty  in  respect  to  recent  events  in  Boston.  A  federal 
enactment  of  1790  provides  that,  if  any  person  shall  wil- 
fully obstruct,  resist,  or  oppose  any  officer  of  the  United 
States  in  executing  any  legal  writ  or  process  thereof,  he 
shall  be  imprisoned  not  more  than  twelve  months,  and 
fined  not  more  than  three  hundred  dollars.  Mr.  Curtis 
charges  that  the  offence  is  "a  misdemeanour :"  to  consti- 
tute the  crime,  it  is  "  not  necessary  to  prove  the  accused 
used  or  even  threatened  active  violence.'^  "  If  a  multitude 
of  persons  should  assemble,  even  in  a  public  highway,  with 
the  design  to  stand  together,  and  thus  prevent  the  officer 
from  passing  freely  along  the  way,  .  .  .  this  would  of 
itself,  and  without  any  active  violence,  be  such  an  obstruc- 
tion as  is  contemplated  by  this  law." 

So  much  for  what  constitutes  the  crime.  Now  see  who 
are  criminals  :  ''  All  who  are  present  and  actually  obstruct, 
resist,  or  oppose,  are  of  course  guilty.  So  are  all  who  are 
present,  leagued  in  the  common  design,  and  so  situated  as 
to  be  able,  in  case  of  need,  to  afford  assistance  to  those 
actually  engaged,  though  they  do  not  actually  obstruct, 
resist,  or  oppose."  That  is,  they  are  guilty  of  a  misde- 
meanour, because  they  are  in  the  neighbourhood  of  such 
as  oppose  a  constable  of  the  United  States,  and  are  '^able" 
"  to  afford  assistance."  ''  If  they  are  present  for  the  pur- 
pose of  affording  assistance,  though  no  overt  act  is  done  by 
them,  they  are  still  guilty  under  this  law."  They  are 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanour,  not  merely  as  accessory  before 
the  fact,  but  as  principals,  for  "  in  misdemeanours  aU  are 
principals." 

"  Not  only  those  who  are  present,  but  those  who,  though 
absent  when  the  offence  was  committed,  did  procure,  counsel, 
command,  or  abet  others  to  commit  the  offence,  are  indict- 
able as  principals."  But  what  amounts  to  such  counselling 
as  constitutes  a  misdemeanour?  "Evincing  an  express 
liking,  approbation,  or  assent  to  another's  criminal  design." 


150  DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN 

"  It  need  not  appear  tliat  the  precise  time,  or  place,  or 
means  advised,  were  used."  So  all  wlio  evinced  "an 
express  liking,  approbation,  or  assent"  to  the  rescue  of 
Mr.  Burns  are  guilty  of  a  misdemeanour ;  if  they  evinced 
"  an  express  liking"  that  he  should  be  rescued  by  a  miracle 
wrought  by  Almighty  God, — and  some  did  express  "  ap- 
probation" of  that  "means," — they  are  indictable,  guilty 
of  a  "  misdemeanour ;"  "  it  need  not  appear  that  the  pre- 
cise time,  or  place,  or  means  advised,  were  used  !"  If  any 
coloured  woman,  during  the  wicked  week — which  was  ten 
days  long — prayed  Ithat  God  would  deliver  Anthony,  as  it 
is  said  his  angel  delivered  Peter,  or  said  "  amen"  to  such 
a  prayer,  she  was  "  guilty  of  a  misdemeanour :"  to  be  in- 
dicted as  a  "principal." 

So  every  man  in  Boston  who,  on  that  bad  Friday,  stood 
in  the  streets  of  Boston  between  Court  Square  and  T 
Wharf,  was  "  guilty  of  a  misdemeanour,"  liable  to  a  fine  of 
three  hundred  dollars,  and  to  gaoling  for  twelve  months. 
All  who  at  Faneuil  Hall  stirred  up  the  minds  of  the  people 
in  opposition  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  all  who  shouted, 
who  clapped  their  hands  at  the  words  or  the  countenance 
of  their  favourites,  or  who  expressed  "  approbation  "  by  a 
whisper  of  "  assent,"  are  "  gnilty  of  misdemeanour."  The 
very  women  who  stood  for  four  days  at  the  street  corners, 
and  hissed  the  infamous  slave-hunters  and  their  coadjutors, 
they,  too,  ought  to  be  punished  by  fine  of  three  hundred 
dollars  and  imprisonment  for  a  year  !  "Well,  there  were 
fifteen  thousand  persons  " assembled "  "in  the  highway  " 
of  the  City  of  Boston  that  day  opposed  to  kidnapping ; 
half  the  newspapers  in  the  country  towns  of  Massachu- 
setts "  evinced  an  express  liking  "  for  freedom,  and  opposed 
the  kidnapping  ;  they  are  all  "  guilty  of  a  misdemeanour  ;" 
they  are  "  principals."  IsTay,  the  few  ministers  all  over 
the  State,  who  preached  that  Iddnapping  was  a  sin ;  those 
who  read  brave  words  out  of  the  Old  Testament  or  the 
IsTew ;  those  who  prayed  that  the  victim  might  escape : 
they,  likewise,  were  "  g^dlty  of  a  misdemeanour," 
liable  to  be  fined  three  hundred  dollars  and  gaoled  for 
twelve  months.  Excellent  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Judge ! 
Mr.  Webster  did  wisely  in  making  that  appointment !  He 
chose  an  appropriate  tool.  The  charge  was  worthy  of  the 
worst  days  of  Jeffreys  and  the  second  James  ! 


THE  EIGHTS  OF  MAN   IN  AMERICA.  151 

"We  all  knov/  against  wliom  this  judicial  iniquity  was 
directed — against  men  who  at  Faneuil  Hall,  under  tlie 
pictured  and  sculptured  eyes  of  Jolin  Hancock  and  the 
three  Adamses,  appealed  to  the  spirit  of  humanity,  not  yet 
crushed  out  of  your  heart  and  mine,  and  lifted  up  their 
voices  in  favour  of  freedom  and  the  eternal  law  of  God.  If 
he  had  called  us  by  our  names  he  could  not  have  made  the 
thing  plainer.  You  know  the  zeal  of  the  United  States 
Attorney,  you  have  heard  of  the  swearing  before  the  Grand 
Jury  and  at  the  Grand  Jury.  Did  the  Judge's  lightning 
only  glow  with  judicial  ardour  and  zeal  for  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  F — or  was  it  also  red  with  personal  malignity 
and  family  spleen  ?     Judge  you ! 

But,  alas  !  there  was  a  Grand  Jury,  and  the  Salmpnean 
thunder  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Judge  fell  harmless — 
quenched,  conquered,  disgraced,  and  brutal — to  the  ground. 
Poor  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Court !  it  can  only  gnash  its 
teeth  against  freedom  of  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall ;  only  bark 
and  yelp  against  the  unalienable  rights  of  man,  and  howl 
against  the  Higher  Law  of  God !  it  cannot  bite  !  Poor  im- 
becile, maKgnant  Court !  What  a  pity  that  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  Judge  was  not  himself  the  Grand  Jury,  to  order 
the  indictment !  what  a  shame  that  the  Attorney  was  not 
a  petty  jury  to  convict !  Then  I^ew  England,  like  Old, 
might  have  had  her  ^'  bloody  assizes,"  and  Boston  streets 
might  have  streamed  with  the  heart's  gore  of  noble  men 
and  women ;  and  human  heads  might  have  decked  the 
pinnacles  all  round  the  town ;  and  Judge  Curtis  and 
Attorney  Hallett  might  have  had  their  place  with  Judge 
Jeffreys  and  John  Boilman  of  old.  "What  a  pity  that  we 
have  a  Grand  Jury  and  a  traverse  jury  to  stand  between 
the  malignant  arm  of  the  slave-hunter  and  the  heart  of 
you  and  me  !  Perhaps  the  Court  will  try  again,  and  find  a 
more  pliant  Grand  Jury,  easier  to  intimidate.  Let  me  sug- 
gest to  the  Court,  that  the  next  time  it  should  pack  its  jurors 
from  the  Marshal's  "  guard.'^  Then  there  will  be  unity  of 
idea  ;  of  action,  too — the  Court  a  figure  of  equilibrium.* 

At  a  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  it  is 
easy  to  ask  a  minister  a  question  designed  to  be  insulting, 

*  The  experiment  was  made ;  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  Judge  was  put  on  the  jury,  and  indictments  were  found  in 
October  and  November. 


152  DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN 

and  not  dare  listen  to  tlie  proffered  reply  ;  easy  to  bark  at 
justice,  and  howl  at  the  unalienable  rights  of  man ;  easy 
to  yelp  out  the  vengeance  of  a  corrupt  administration  of 
slave-hunters  upon  all  who  love  the  Higher  Lav/  of  God  ; 
but  He  himself  has  so  fashioned  the  hearts  of  men  that  we 
instinctively  hate  all  tyranny,  all  oppression,  all  wrong  ; 
and  the  hand  of  history  brands  ineffaceable  disgrace  on  the 
brass  foreheads  of  all  such  as  enact  iniquity  by  statute,  and 
execute  wickedness  as  law.  The  memory  of  the  wicked 
shall  rot.  Scroggs  and  Jeffreys  also  got  their  appointment 
as  pay  for  their  service  and  their  character — fitting  blood- 
hounds for  a  fitting  king.  For  near  two  hundred  years 
their  names  have  been  a  stench  in  the  face  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  tribe.  Others  as  unscrupulous  may  take  warning 
by  their  fate. 

Thus  has  Slavery  debauched  the  Federal  Courts. 

YII.  Alas  me !  Slavery  has  not  ended  yet  its  long 
career  of  sin.  Its  corruption  is  seven-fold.  It  debauches 
the  elected  offices  of  our  City,  and  even  our  State.  In  the 
Sims  time  of  1851,  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  were  violated 
nine  days  running,  and  the  Free  Soil  Governor  sat  in  the 
State  House  as  idle  as  a  feather  in  his  chair.  In  the  wicked 
week  of  1854,  the  Whig  Governor  sat  in  the  seat  of  his 
predecessor ;  Massachusetts  was  one  of  the  inferior  coun- 
ties of  Virginia,  and  a  slave-hunter  had  eminent  domain 
over  the  birthplace  of  Franklin  and  the  burial-place  of 
Hancock !  Nay,  against  our  own  laws  the  Free  Soil 
Mayor  put  the  neck  of  Boston  in  the  hands  of  a  "  train- 
band captain" — the  people  '^wondering  much  to  see  how 
he  did  ride  ! "  Boston  was  a  suburb  of  Alexandria  ;  the 
mayor  a  slave- catcher  for  our  masters  at  the  South  !  You 
and  I  were  only  fellow- slaves  ! 

All  this  looks  as  if  Slavery  was  to  triumph  over  Freedom. 
But  even  this  is  not  the  end.  Slavery  has  privately 
emptied  her  seven  vials  of  wrath  upon  the  nation — com- 
mitting seven  debaucheries  of  human  safeguards  of  our 
natural  rights.  That  is  not  enough — there  are  other 
seven  to  come.  This  Apocalyptic  Dragon,  grown  black 
with  long- continued  deeds  of  shame  and  death,  now  medi- 
tates five  further  steps  of  crime.  Here  is  the  programme 
of  the  next  attempt — a  new  political  tragedy  in  five  acts. 


THE    RIGHTS    OF    MAN    IN   AMERICA.  153 

I. — The  acquisition  of  Dominica — and  then  all  Hayti 
— as  new  slave  territory. 

II. — The  acquisition  of  Cuba,  by  purchase,  or  else  by 
private  fillibustering  and  public  war, — as  new  slave  ter- 
ritory. 

III. — The  re-establishment  of  Slavery  in  all  the  free 
States,  by  judicial  *' decision"  or  legislative  enactment. 
Then  the  master  of  the  North  may  ^'  sit  down  with  his 
slaves  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill  monument !" 

TV.  The  restoration  of  the  African  Slave-Trade,  which 
is  already  seriously  proposed  and  defended  in  the  Southern 
journals.  Nay,  the  Senate  Committee  on  Foreign  Rela- 
tions recommend  the  first  step  towards  it — the  withdrawal 
of  our  fleet  from  the  coast  of  Africa.  You  cannot  escape 
the  consequence  of  your  first  principle  :  if  Slavery  is  right, 
then  the  Slave-Trade  is  right ;  the  traffic  between  Guinea 
and  New  Orleans  is  no  worse  than  between  Virginia  and 
New  Orleans  ;  it  is  no  worse  to  kidnap  in  Timbuctoo  than 
in  Boston. 

Y.  A  yet  further  quarrel  must  be  sought  with  Mexico, 
and  more  slave  territory  be  stolen  from  her. 

Who  shall  oppose  this  five-fold  wickedness  ?  The  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Bill  party; — the  Nebraska  Enslavement  party? 
Northern  servility  has  hitherto  bee  n  ready  to  grant  'more 
than  Southern  arrogance  dared  to  demand ! 

All  this  looks  as  if  the  third  hypothesis  would  be  ful- 
filled, and  Slavery  triumph  over  Freedom  ;  as  if  the  nation 
would  expunge  the  Declaration  of  Independence  from  the 
scroll  of  Time,  and,  instead  of  honouring  Hancock  and  the 
Adamses  and  Washington,  do  homage  to  I^ane  and  Grier 
and  Curtis  and  Hallett  and  Loring.  Then  the  preamble  to 
our  Constitution  might  read — '^to  establish  injustice,  insure 
domestic  strife,  hinder  the  common  defence,  disturb  the 
general  welfare,  and  inflict  the  curse  of  bondage  on  our- 
selves and  our  posterity."  Then  we  shall  honour  the 
Puritans  no  more,  but  their  prelatical  tormentors  ;  nor 
reverence  the  great  Reformers,  only  the  inquisitors  of 
Rome.  Yea,  we  may  tear  the  name  of  Jesus  out  of  the 
American  Bible  ;  yes,  God's  name ;  worship  the  devil  at 
our  Lord's  table,  Iscariot  for  Redeemer  ! 

See  the  steady  triumph  of  despotism  !     Ten  years  more, 


154  DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN 

lilie  the  ten  years  past,  and  it  will  be  all  over  with,  the 
Kberties  of  America.  Everything  must  go  down,  and  the 
heel  of  the  tyrant  will  be  on  our  neck.  It  will  be  all  over 
with  the  Eights  of  Man  in  America,  and  you  and  I  must 
go  to  Austria,  to  Italy,  or  to  Siberia  for  our  freedom;  or 
perish  with  the  liberty  which  our  fathers  fought  for  and 
secured  to  themselves — not  to  their  faithless  sons  !  Shall 
America  thus  miserably  perish  ?  Such  is  the  aspect  of 
things  to-day ! 

Eut  are  the  people  alarmed  ?     ISTo,  they  fear  nothing — 
only  the  tightness  in  the  money-market !     ISText  Tuesday 
at  sunrise  every  bell  in  Boston  will  ring  joyously  ;  every 
cannon  will  belch   sulphurous  welcome  from  its  brazen 
throat.     There  wiU  be  processions, — ^the  Mayor  and  the 
Aldermen  and  the  Marshal  and  the  ISTaval  Officer,  and,  I 
suppose,  the  "Marshal's  Guard,"  very  appropriately  taking 
their  places.     There  is  a  chain  on  the  common  to-day — it 
is  the  same  chain  that  was  around  the  Court  House  in 
1851 — it  is   the   chain   that  bound   Sims ;    now  it  is   a 
festal  chain.     There   are  mottoes   about  the   common — 
"  They  mutually  pledged  to  each  other  their  lives,  their 
fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honour."     I  suppose  it  means 
that  the  Mayor  and  the  Iddnappers  did  this.     "  The  spirit 
of '76  stiU  lives."     Lives,  I  suppose,  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Fugitive  Slave  BiU  judges.     "Washington,  Jefferson, 
and  their  compatriots  ! — their   names  are  sacred   in  the 
heart  of  every  American."    That,  I  suppose,  is  the  opinion 
of  Thomas  Sims  and  of  Anthony  Burns.     And  opposite  the 
great  Park  Street  Church,  where  a  noble  man  is  this  day, 
I  trust,  discoursing  noble  words,  for  he  has  never  yet  been 
found  false  to  Freedom — "Liberty  and  independence,  our 
fathers'  legacy  ! — Grod   forbid  that  we  their  sons  should 
prove  recreant  to  the  trust!"     It  ought  to  read,  "God 
forgive  us  that  we  their  sons  have  proved  so  recreant  to 
the  trust ! "    So  they  will  celebrate  the  4th  of  July,  and  call 
it  "Independence  Day!"     The  foolish  press  of  France, 
bought  and  beaten  and  trodden  on  by  Napoleon  the  Crafty, 
is  full  of  talk  about  the  welfare  of  the  "  Great  Nation !" 
Philip  of  Macedon  was  conquering  the  Athenian   allies 
town  by  town ;  ho  destroyed  and  swept  off  two  and  thirty 
cities,  selling  their  children  as  slaves.    All  the  Cassandrian 


THE   EIGHTS  OF  MAN   IN  AMEEICA.  155 

eloquence  of  Demosthenes  could  not  rouse  degenerate 
Athens  from  her  idle  sleep.  She  also  fell — the  fairest  of 
all  free  States ;  corrupted  first — forgetfid  of  God's  higher 
law.     Shall  America  thus  perish,  all  immature ! 

So  was  it  in  the  days  of  old  :  they  ate,  they  drank,  they 
planted,  they  builded,  they  married,  they  were  given  in 
marriage,  imtil  the  day  that  Noah  entered  into  the  ark, 
and  the  flood  came  and  devoured  them  all! 

Well,  is  this  to  be  the  end  ?  Was  it  for  this  the  pilgrims 
came  over  the  sea  ?  Does  Forefathers'  E/Ock  assent  to  it  ? 
Was  it  for  this  that  the  New  England  clergy  prayed,  and 
their  prayers  became  the  law  of  the  land  for  a  hundred 
years  ?  Was  it  for  this  that  Cotton  planted  in  Boston  a 
little  branch  of  the  Lord's  vine,  and  Eoger  Williams  and 
Higginson — he  still  lives  in  an  undegenerate  son — did 
the  same  in  the  city  which  they  called  of  peace,  Salem  ? 
Was  it  for  this  that  Eliot  carried  the  Gospel  to  the  Indians  ? 
that  Chauncey,  and  Edwards,  and  Hopkins,  and  Mayhew, 
and  Channing,  and  Ware  laboured  and  prayed  ?  for  this 
that  our  fathers  fought — the  Adamses,  Washington,  Han- 
cock ?  for  this  that  there  was  an  eight  years'  war,  and 
a  thousand  battle-fields?  for  this  the  little  monument 
at  Acton,  Concord,  Lexington,  West  Cambridge,  Danvers, 
and  the  great  one  over  there  on  the  spot  which  our  fathers' 
blood  made  so  red  ?  Shall  America  become  Asia  Minor  ? 
New  England  Italy  ?  Boston  such  as  Athens — dead  and 
rotten  ?  Yes !  if  we  do  not  mend,  and  speedily  mend. 
Ten  years  more,  and  the  liberty  of  America  is  all  gone. 
We  shall  fall,  the  laugh,  the  byword,  the  proverb,  the 
scorn,  the  mock  of  the  nations,  who  shall  cry  against  us. 
Hell  from  beneath  shall  be  moved  to  meet  us  at  our 
coming,  and  in  derision  shall  it  welcome  us : — 

"  The  heir  of  all  the  ages,  and  the  youngest  born  of  time ! " 

We  shall  lie  down  with  the  unrepentant  prodigals  of  old 
time,  damned  to  everlasting  infamy  and  shame. 

Would  you  have  it  so  ?     Shall  it  be  ? 

To-day,  America  is  a  debauched  young  man,  of  good 
blood,  fortune,  and  family,  but  the  companion  of  gamesters 
and  brawlers  ;  reeking  with  wine ;  wasting  his  substance 
in  riotous  living ;  in  the  lap  of  harlots  squandering  the 


156  DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN 

life  whicli  his  mother  gave  him.  Shall  he  return  ?  Shall 
he  perish  ?     One  day  may  determine. 

Shall  America  thus  die  ?  I  look  to  the  past, — Asia, 
Africa,  Europe,  and  they  answer,  *'  Yes  ! "  Where  is  the 
Hebrew  Commonwealth ;  the  Roman  Republic  ;  where  is 
liberal  Greece, — Athens,  and  many  a  far-famed  Ionian 
town ;  where  are  the  Commonwealths  of  Mediasval  Italy  ; 
the  Teutonic  free  cities — German,  Dutch,  or  Swiss  ?  They 
have  all  perished.  Not  one  of  them  is  left.  Parian  statues 
of  liberty,  sorely  mutilated,  still  remain  ;  but  the  Parian 
rock  whence  Liberty  once  hewed  her  sculptures  out — it  is 
all  gone.  Shall  America  thus  perish  ?  Greece  and  Italy 
both  answer,  "  Yes  ! "  I  question  the  last  fifty  years  of 
American  history,  and  it  says,  "  Yes."  I  look  to  the 
American  pulpit,  I  ask  the  five  million  Sunday  school 
scholars,  and  they  say,  "Yes."  I  ask  the  Federal  court, 
the  Democratic  i)arty,  and  the  Whig,  and  the  answer  is 
still  the  same. 

But  I  close  my  eyes  on  the  eleven  past  missteps  we  have 
taken  for  Slavery  ;  on  that  seven-fold  clandestine  corrup- 
tion ;  I  forget  the  Whig  party ;  I  forget  the  present 
administration ;  I  forget  the  Judges  of  the  Courts ; — I 
remember  the  few  noblest  men  that  there  are  in  society. 
Church  and  State  ;  I  remember  the  grave  of  my  father,  the 
lessons  of  my  mother's  life  ;  I  look  to  the  spirit  of  this  age — 
it  is  the  nineteenth  century,  not  the  ninth ; — I  look  to  the 
history  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  in  America,  and  the  history 
of  mankind ;  I  remember  the  story  and  the  song  of  Italian 
and  German  patriots ;  I  recall  the  dear  words  of  those 
great-minded  Greeks — Ionian,  Dorian,  ^tolian ;  I  re- 
member the  Romans  who  spoke,  and  sang,  and  fought  for 
truth  and  right ;  I  recollect  those  old  Hebrew  prophets, 
earth's  nobler  sons,  poets  and  saints ;  I  call  to  mind  the 
greatest,  noblest,  purest  soul  that  ever  blossomed  in  this 
dusty  world ; — and  I  say,  "  No  ! "  Truth  shall  triumph, 
justice  shall  be  law !  And,  if  America  fail,  though  she  is 
one  fortieth  of  God's  family,  and  it  is  a  great  loss,  there 
are  other  nations  behind  us ;  our  truth  shall  not  perish, 
even  if  we  go  down. 

But  we  shall  not  fail !  I  look  into  your  eyes — yomig 
men  and  women,  thousands  of  you,  and  men  and  women 
far  enough  from  young  !     I   look  into  the  eyes  of  fifty 


THE    KIGirrS   OF   MAN    IN   AMEllICA.  157 

thousand  otlier  men  and  women,  wliom,  In  tlie  last  eiglit 
months,  I  have  spoken  to,  face  to  face,  and  they  say,  "No! 
America  shall  not  fail !  '^ 

I  remember  the  women,  who  were  never  found  faithless 
when  a  sacrifice  was  to  be  offered  to  great  principles  ;  I 
look  up  to  my  God,  and  I  look  into  my  own  heart,  and  I 
say,  "  We  shall  not  fail !     We  shall  not  fail ! " 

This,  at  my  side,  it  is  the  willow  ;*  it  is  the  symbol  of 
weeping  : — but  its  leaves  are  deciduous  ;  the  autumn  wind 
will  strew  them  on  the  ground  ;  and  beneath,  here  is  a 
perennial  plant ;  it  is  green  all  the  year  through.  When 
this  willow  branch  is  leafless,  the  other  is  green  with  hope, 
and  its  buds  are  in  its  bosom ;  its  buds  will  blossom.  So 
it  is  with  America. 

Did  our  fathers  live  ?  are  we  dead  ?  Even  in  our  ashes 
live  their  hol}^  fires !  Boston  only  sleeps ;  one  day  she 
will  wake  !  Massachusetts  will  stir  again  !  New  Eng- 
land will  rise  and  walk!  the  vanished  North  be  found 
once  more  queenly  and  majestic !  Then  it  will  be  seen 
that  Slavery  is  weak  and  powerless  in  itself,  only  a  phantom 
of  the  night. 

Slavery  is  a  "  finality," — is  it  ?  There  shall  be  no 
"  agitation," — not  the  least, — shall  there  ?  There  is  a 
Hispaniola  in  the  South,  and  the  South  knows  it.  She  sits 
on  a  powder  magazine,  and  then  plays  with  fire,  while 
humanity  shoots  rockets  all  round  the  world.  To  mutilate, 
to  torture,  to  burn  to  cTeatli  revolted  Africans  whom  out- 
rage has  stung  to  crime— that  is  only  to  light  the  torches 
of  San  Domingo.  This  black  bondage  will  be  red  freedom 
one  day :  nay,  lust,  vengeance,  redder  yet.  I  would  not 
wait  till  that  flood  comes  and  devours  all. 

When  the  North  stands  up,  manfully,  united,  W3  can 
tear  down  Slavery  in  a  single  twelvemonth  ;  and,  when  we 
do  unite,  it  must  be  not  only  to  destroy  Slavery  in  the 
territories,  but  to  uproot  every  weed  of  Slavery  throughout 
this  whole  wide  land.  Then  leanness  will  depart  from  our 
souls  ;  then  the  blessing  of  God  will  come  upon  us  ;  we 
shall  have  a  Commonwealth  based  on  righteousness,  which 
is  the  strength  of  any  people,  and  shall  stand  longer 
than  Egypt, — national  fidelity  to  God  our  age-outlasting 
pyramid ! 

*  Keferring  to  tlie  floral  ornaments  that  day  on  tlie  desk. 


158     DANGERS  WHICH  THREATEN  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN. 

How  feeble  seems  a  single  nation ;  liow  powerless  a 
solitary  man  !  But  one  of  a  family  of  forty,  we  can  do 
mucli.  How  nmcli  is  Italy,  Rome,  Greece,  Palestine, 
Egypt  to  the  world  ?  The  soKtary  man — a  Luther,  a 
Paul,  a  Jesus — he  outweighs  millions  of  coward  souls ! 
Each  one  of  you  take  heed  that  the  Republic  receive  no 
harm ! 


AN    ADDRESS 

DELIVERED   BEFORE   THE   NEW  YORK   CITY   ANTI- 
SLAYERY  SOCIETY, 

at  its  fikst  anniyeesaey,  held  at  the  beoadway  tabeenacle, 

May  12,  1854. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — I  shall  ask  your  attention 
this  evening  to  some  few  thoughts  on  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  United  States  in  respect  to  Slavery.  After 
all  that  has  been  said  by  wise,  powerful,  and  eloquent  men, 
in  this  cit}^  this  week,  perhaps  I  shall  have  scarce  anything 
to  present  that  is  new. 

As  you  look  on  the  general  aspect  of  America  to-day, 
its  main  features  are  not  less  than  sublime,  while  they 
are  likewise  beautiful  exceedingly.  The  full  breadth  of  the 
continent  is  ours,  from  sea  to  sea,  from  the  great  lakes  to 
the  great  gulf.  There  are  three  million  square  miles,  with 
every  variety  of  climate,  and  soil,  and  mineral ;  great 
rivers,  a  static  force,  inclined  planes  for  travel  reaching 
from  New  Orleans  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Chicago ;  smaller  rivers, 
a  dynamic  force,  turning  the  many  thousand  mills  of  the 
industrious  North.  There  is  a  coast  most  richly  indented, 
to  aid  the  spread  of  civilization.  The  United  States  has 
more  than  twelve  thousand  miles  of  shore  line  on  the  con- 
tinent ;  more  than  nine  thousand  on  its  islands  ;  more  than 
twenty-four  thousand  miles  of  river  navigation.  Here  is 
the  material  groundwork  for  a  great  State — not  an  empire, 
but  a  commonwealth.     The  world  has  not  such  another. 

There  are  twenty-four  millions  of  men ;  fifteen  and 
a  half  millions  with  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  their  veins — 
strong,  real  Anglo-Saxon  blood ;  eight  millions  and  a  half 
more  of  other  families  and  races,  j  ust  enough  to  temper 


160  ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS. 

the  Anglo-Saxon  blood,  to  furnisli  a  new  composite  tribe, 
far  better,  I  trust,  than  the  old.  What  a  human  basis  for 
a  State  to  be  erected  on  this  material  ground- work  ! 

On  the  Eastern  slopes  of  the  continent,  where  the  high 
lands  which  reach  from  the  Katahdin  mountains  in  Maine 
to  the  end  of  the  Apalachians  in  Georgia — on  the  Atlantic 
slopes,  where  the  land  pitches  down  to  the  sea  from  the 
48th  to  the  28th  parallel,  there  are  fifteen  States,  a  million 
square  miles  communicating  with  the  ocean.  In  the  South, 
rivers  bear  to  the  sea  rice,  cotton,  tobacco,  and  the  products 
of  half- tropic  agriculture;  in  the  I^orth,  smaller  streams 
toil  all  day,  and  sometimes  all  night,  working  wood, 
iron,  cotton,  and  wool  into  forms  of  use  and  beauty,  while 
iron  roads  carry  to  the  sea  the  productions  of  temperate 
agriculture,  mining  and  manufactures. 

On  the  Western  slope,  where  the  rivers  flow  down  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean  from  the  49th  to  the  32nd  parallel,  is  a  great 
country,  almost  eight  hundred  thousand  square  miles  in 
extent.  There,  too,  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  gone  ;  in  the 
South,  the  gold-hunter  gathers  the  precious  metals,  while 
the  farmer,  the  miner,  and  the  woodman  gather  far  more 
precious  products  in  the  North. 

In  the  great  basin  between  the  Cordilleras  of  the  West 
and  the  Alleghanies,  where  the  Mississippi  drains  half  the 
continent  to  the  Mediterranean  of  the  New  World,  there 
also  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  occupied  the  ground — twelve 
hundred  thousand  square  miles ;  in  the  south  to  rear 
cotton,  rice,  and  sugar  ;  in  the  north  to  raise  cattle  and 
cereal  grasses,  for  beast  and  for  man. 

What  a  spectacle  it  is !  A  nation  not  eighty  years 
old  and  still  in  its  cradle,  and  yet  grown  so  great.  Two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  there  was  not  an  Anglo-Saxon 
on  all  this  continent.  Now  there  is  an  Anglo-Saxon 
commonwealth  twenty-four  millions  strong.  Hich  as  it  is 
in  numbers,  there  are  not  yet  eight  men  to  the  square 
mile. 

All  this  is  a  Republic  ;  it  is  a  Democracy.  There  is  no 
born  priest  to  stand  betwixt  the  nation  and  its  God ;  no 
pope  to  entail  his  nephews  on  the  Church ;  no  bishop 
claiming  divine  right  to  rule  over  the  people  and  stand 
betwixt  them  and  the  Infinite.  There  is  no  king,  no  born 
king,  to  ride  on  the  nation's  neck.     There  are  noble-men, 


ANTI-SLAVEllY   ADDRESS.  16l 

but  none  noble-born  to  usurp  the  land,  to  monopolize  the 
government  and  keep  the  community  from  the  bosom  of 
the  earth.  The  people  is  priest,  and  makes  its  own  religion 
out  of  Grod's  revelation  in  man's  nature  and  history.  The 
people  is  its  own  king  to  rule  itself;  its  own  noble  to 
occupy  the  earth.  The  people  make  the  lavv's  and  choose 
their  own  magistrates.  Industr}^  is  free ;  travel  is  free  ; 
religion  is  free ;  speech  is  free  ;  there  are  no  shackles  on 
the  press.  The  nation  rests  on  industry,  not  on  war.  It 
is  formed  of  agriculturists,  traders,  sailors,  miners — not  a 
nation  of  soldiers.  The  army  numbers  ten  thousand — one 
soldier  for  every  twenty-four  thousand  men.  The  people 
are  at  peace  ;  no  nation  invades  us.  The  government  is 
iirrnty  fixed  and  popular.  A  nation  loving  liberty,  loves 
likewise  law  ;  and  when  it  gets  a  point  of  liberty,  it  fences 
it  all  round  with  law  as  high  up  as  the  hands  reach.  We 
annually  welcome  four  hundred  thousand  immigrants  who 
flee  from  the  despotism  of  the  Old  World. 

The  country  is  rich — after  England,  the  richest  on  earth 
in  cultivated  lands,  roads,  houses,  mills.  Four  million 
tons  of  shipping  sail  under  the  American  flag.  This  year 
we  shall  build  half  a  million  tons  more,  which,  at  forty 
dollars  a  ton,  is  v/orth  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  That  is 
the  ship  crop.  Then,  the  corn  crop  is  seven  hundred  mil- 
lions of  bushels — Indian  corn.  What  a  harvest  of  coal, 
copper,  iron,  lead,  of  wheat,  cotton,  sugar,  rice,  is  produced  ! 

Over  all  and  above  all  these  there  rises  the  great 
American  political  idea,  a  ''  self-evident  truth" — which 
cannot  be  proved — it  needs  no  proof ;  it  is  anterior  to  de- 
monstration ;  namely,  that  everj^  man  is  endowed  by  his 
Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights,  and  in  these  rights 
all  men  are  equal ;  and  on  these  the  government  is  to  rest, 
deriving  its  sole  sanction  from  the  governed's  consent. 

Higher  yet  above  this  material  gromidwork,  this  human 
foundation,  this  accumulation  of  numbers,  of  riches,  of 
industry — as  the  cross  on  the  top  of  a  tall,  wide  dome, 
whose  lantern  is  the  great  American  political  idea — as  the 
cross  that  surmounts  it  rises  the  American  religious  idea 
— one  God;  Christianity  the  true  religion  ;  and  the  worship 
of  God  by  love  ;  inwardlj^  it  is  piety,  love  to  God  ;  out- 
wardljr  love  to  man — morality,  benevolence,  philanthropy. 

What  a  spectacle  to  the  eyes  of  the  Scandinavian,  the 

VOL.  VI.  M 


162  ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS. 

German,  the  Dutchman,  the  Irishman,  as  they  view 
America  from  afar  !  What  a  contrast  it  seems  to  Europe. 
There  liberty  is  ideal,  it  is  a  dream  ;  here  it  is  organic,  an 
institution ;  one  of  the  establishments  of  the  land. 

That,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  the  aspect  which  America 
presents  to  the  oppressed  victims  of  European  despotism  in 
Church  and  in  State.  Far  oif  on  the  other  side  of  the  At- 
lantic, among  the  Apennines,  on  the  plains  of  Germany,  and 
in  the  Slavonian  lands,  I  have  met  men  to  whom  America 
seemed  as  this  fair-proportioned  edifice  that  I  have  thus 
sketched  out  before  your  eyes.  But  when  they  come  nearer, 
behold  half  the  land  is  black  with  Slavery.  In  1850,  out 
of  more  than  two  hundred  and  forty  hundred  thousand 
Americans  (24,000,000),  thirty-two  hundred  thousand 
(3,200,000)  were  slaves — more  than  an  eighth  of  the  popu- 
lation counted  as  cattle ;  not  as  citizens  at  all.  They  are 
only  human  material,  not  yet  wrought  into  citizens — nay, 
not  counted  human.  They  arc  cattle,  property ;  not  counted 
men,  but  animals  and  no  more.  Manhood  must  not  be  ex- 
tended to  them.  Listen  while  I  read  to  you  from  a  Southern 
print.  It  was  recommended  by  the  Governor  of  Alabama 
that  the  Legislature  should  pass  a  law  prohibiting  the 
separation  of  families ;  whereupon  the  Richmond  Inquirer 
discourses  thus : — 

"This  recommendation  strikes  us  as  being  most  unwise  and  impolitic. 
If  slaves  are  property,  then  sliovZd  they  he  osb  the  absolute  dAsposal  of  the 
master,  or  be  subject  only  to  such  legal  jDi-ovisions  as  are  designed  for  the 
protection  of  life  and  limb.  If  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  bo  in- 
fringed for  one  purpose,  it  would  be  difficult  to  fix  any  limit  to  the 
encroachment." 

They  are  property,  no  more,  and  must  be  treated  as  such, 
and  not  as  men. 

Slavery  is  on  the  Atlantic  slopes  of  the  continent.  There 
are  one  million  six  hundred  thousand  (1,600,000)  slaves 
between  the  Alleghany  range  and  the  Atlantic  coast.  Slavery 
is  in  the  central  basin.  There  arc  a  million  and  a  half 
of  slaves  on  the  land  drained  by  the  Mississippi.  Spite 
of  law  and  constitution.  Slavery  has  gone  to  tlie  Pacific 
slopes,  travelling  with  the  goldhunter  into  California.  The 
State  whose  capital  county  *'in  three  years  committed 
over  twelve  hundred  murders"  has  very  appropriately 
legalized  Slavery  for  a  limited  time.     I  suppose  it  is  only 


ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS.  1G3 

preKmlnaiy  to  legalizing  it  for  a  time  limited  only  by 
the  Eternal  God.  In  the  very  capital  of  the  Christian 
democracy  there  are  four  thousand  purchased  men.  In  tho 
Senate-house,  a  fevvr  years  ago,  a  Mississippi  senator  belched 
out  his  imprecations  against  that  one  New  Hampshire 
senator  who  has  never  yet  been  found  false  to  himianity. 
Mr.  Foote  was  a  freeman,  a  citizen,  and  a  "  Democrat ; " 
and  while,  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  he  was  threatening 
to  hang  John  P.  Hale  on  the  tallest  pine  tree  in  Missis- 
sippi, there  toiled  in  a  stable,  whose  loft  he  slept  in  by 
night,  one  of  that  senator's  own  brothers.  The  son  of  Mr. 
Foote's  father  was  a  slave  in  the  capital  of  the  United 
States,  while  his  half-brother— by  the  father's  side— threat- 
ened to  hang  on  the  tallest  pine  in  Mississippi  the  only 
senator  that  New  Hampshire  sent  to  Washington  who 
dared  be  true  to  truth  and  free  for  freedom. 

But  a  few  years  ago,  Mr.  Hope  H.  Slatter  had  his  negro 
market  in  the  capital  of  the  United  States ;  one  of  the 
greatest  slave-dealers  in  America.  He  was  a  member  also, 
it  is  said,  of  a  "  Christian  church.''  The  slave-pen  is  a 
-singular  institution  for  a  democratic  metropolis,  and  the 
slave-trader  a  pecuKar  ornament  for  the  Christian  Church 
in  the  capital  of  a  democracy.  He  grew  rich,  went  to 
Baltimore,  had  a  fine  house,  and  once  entertained  a  "  Pre- 
sident of  the  United  States''  in  his  mansion.  The  slave- 
trader  and  the  democratic  President  met  together— Slatter 
and  Polk  !  fit  guest  and  fitting  host! 

In  all  the  three  million  square  miles  of  American  land 
there  is  no  inch  of  free  soil,  from  the  St.  John's  to  the  Eio 
Gila,  from  Madawasca  to  San  Diego.  The  star-spangled 
banner  floats  from  Yan  Couver's  island  by  JN'ootka  Sound 
to  Key  West,  on  the  south  of  Florida,  and  all  the  way  the 
flag  of  our  Union  is  the  standard  of  Slavery.  In  all  the 
soil  that  our  fathers  fought  to  make  free  from  English 
tyranny,  there  is  not  an  inch  where  the  black  man  is  free, 
save  the  five  thousand  miles  that  Daniel  Webster  sur- 
rendered to  Lord  Ashburton  by  the  treaty  of  1842.  The 
symbol  of  the  Union  is  a  fetter.  The  President  should 
be  sworn  on  the  auction  block  of  a  slave-trader.  The 
JSTew^  Hampshire  President,  in  his  inaugural,  declared, 
publicly,  his  allegiance  to  the  slave  power— not  to  the 
power  of  Northern  mechanics,  free  farmers,  free  manu- 


M 


164  ANTI-SLAVERY    ADDRESS. 

facturers,  free  men ;  but  allegiance  to  the  slave  power ;  lie 
swears  special  protection  to  no  property  but  "property'* 
in  slaves ;  specific  allegiance  to  no  law  but  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill;  devotion  to  no  liglit  but  tbe  slave-holder's 
"right"  to  his  property  in  man. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  a  slave  court ; 
a  majority  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives the  same.  It  has  been  so  this  forty  years.  The 
majority  of  the  House  of  Representatives  are  obedient  to 
the  lords  of  the  lash ;  a  majority  of  IN^orthern  politicians, 
especially  of  that  denomination  which  is  called  "  dough- 
faces," are  only  overseers  for  the  owner  of  the  slave.  Mr. 
Douglas  is  a  great  overseer;  Mr.  Everett  is  a  little  over- 
seer, very  little. 

The  nation  offers  a  homestead  out  of  its  public  land ;  it 
is  only  to  the  white  man.  What  would  you  say  if  the  Empe- 
ror of  Eussia  offered  land  only  to  nobles  ;  the  Pope  only  to 
priests ;  Queen  Victoria  only  to  lords  ?  Each  male  settler 
in  Utah,  it  seems,  is  to  have  four  hundred  and  eighty  acres 
of  land  if  he  is  not  married,  o.nd  a  hundred  and  sixty  more, 
I  believe,  according  to  one  proposition,  for  every  wife  that 
he  has  got.  But  if  he  has  the  complexion  of  the  only 
children  that  Madison  left  behind  him,  he  can  have  no 
land  at  all. 

Even  a  Boston  school-house  is  shut  against  the  black 
man's  children.  The  arm  of  the  city  government  slams  the 
door  in  everj^  coloured  boy's  face.  His  father  helps  pay  for 
the  public  school ;  the  son  and  daughter  must  not  come  in. 

In  the  slave  States,  it  is  a  crime  to  teach  the  slave  to  read 
and  write.  Out  of  four  millions  of  children  of  America  at 
school  in  1850,  there  were  twenty  six  thousand  that  were 
coloured.  There  were  more  than  four  hundred  thousand 
free  coloured  persons,  and  there  were  more  than  two  hun- 
dred and  fourteen  thousand  thereof  under  the  age  of  twenty ; 
of  these,  there  were  at  school  only  twenty-six  thousand — 
07ie  child  in  nine  !  Out  of  three  and  a  quarter  millions  of 
slaves,  there  was  not  one  at  school.  It  is  a  crime  by  the 
statute  in  every  slave  State  to  teach  a  slave  to  spell  "  God.^' 
He  may  be  a  Christian  ;  he  must  not  write  "  Christ."  He 
must  worshi]3  the  Bible  ;  he  must  not  read  it !  It  is  a  crime 
even  in  a  Sunday  school  to  teach  a  child  the  great  letters 
which  spell  out  "  Holy  Bible."    I  knew  a  minister,  he  was 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS.  165 

a  Connecticut  man,  too,  wlio  went  off  from  New  Orleans 
because  he  did  not  dare  to  stay;  and  he  did  not  dare  to  stay 
because  he  tried  to  teach  the  slave  to  read  in  his  Sunday 
school.  He  went  back  to  Comiecticut,  whence  he  will,  per- 
haps, go  as  missionary  to  China  or  Turkey,  and  find  none 
to  hinder  his  Christian  work. 

At  the  ISTorth,  the  black  man  is  shut  out  of  the  meeting 
house.  In  heaven,  according  to  the  theology  of  America, 
he  may  sit  down  with  the  just  made  perfect,  his  sins  washed 
white  "  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb;  "  but  when  he  comes  to 
a  certain  Baptist  church  in  Boston,  he  cannot  own  a  pew. 
And  there  are  few  churches  where  he  can  sit  in  a  pew. 
The  rich  and  the  poor  are  there ;  the  one  Lord  is  the 
Maker  of  them  all;  but  the  Church  thinks  He  did  not 
make  the  black  as  well  as  the  v/hite.  Nay;  he  is  turned 
out  of  the  omnibus,  out  of  the  burial  ground.  There  is  a 
burial  ground  in  this  State,  and  in  the  deed  that  confers 
the  land  it  is  stipulated  that  no  coloured  person  or  convict 
can  ever  be  buried  there.  He  is  turned  out  of  the  grave- 
yard, where  the  great  mother  of  our  bodies  gathers  our 
dust  when  the  sods  of  the  valley  are  sweet  to  the  soul. 
Nowhere  but  in  the  gaol  and  on  the  gallows  has  the 
black  man  ec[ual  rights  with  the  white  in  our  American 
legislation ! 

The  American  press — it  is  generally  the  foe  of  the  slave, 
the  advocate  of  bondage. 

In  Virginia,  it  is  felony  to  deny  the  master's  right  to 
own  his  slave.  There  is  an  old  iavr,  re-enacted  in  the 
revision  of  the  Virginia  statute,  which  inflicts  a  punish- 
ment of  not  more  than  one  year's  confinement  on  any  one 
guilty  of  that  offence.  It  was  proposed  in  the  Virginia 
Legislature,  last  winter,  that  if  a  man  had  conscientious 
objections  to  holding  slaves,  he  should  not  be  allowed  to 
sit  on  an}'-  jury  where  the  matter  of  a  man's  freedom  was 
in  question.  Nor  is  that  all.  There  is  a  law  in  Virginia, 
it  is  said,  that  when  a  man  has  three-quarters  white  blood 
in  his  veins,  he  may  recover  his  freedom  in  virtue  of  that 
fact.  It  is  well  known  that  at  least  half  the  slaves  in 
Virginia  arc  half  white  and  one- quarter  of  them  three- 
quarters  white.  Accordingly,  it  was  proposed  in  one 
of  their  newspapers  that  that  old  law  should  be  re- 
pealed,  mu\  another   substituted,  providing  that  no  man 


166  ANTI-SLAVEEY  ADDRESS. 

should  recover  his  freedom  in  consequence  of  his  com- 
plexion, unless  he  had  more  than  nine-tenths  white  blood 
in  his  veins. 

The  slave  has  no  rights ;  the  ideas  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  are  repudiated ;  he  is  not  '^  endowed  by 
his  Creator'*  with  "certain  inalienable  rights"  to  "life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  Accomplished  Mr. 
Agassiz  comes  all  the  way  from  Switzerland  to  teach 
us  the  science  which  God  has  stored  up  in  the  ground 
under  our  feet — the  perennial  Old  Testament — or  in  the 
frames  of  our  bodies,  this  living  New  Testament  of 
Almighty  God  in  man ;  and  he  tells  us  this :  "  The 
Mandingo  and  the  Guinea  negro  ^^  together  "  do  not 
differ  more  from  the  Orang  Outang  than  the  Malay 
or  white  man  differs  from  the  negroJ^  So,  according 
to  Mr.  Agassiz,  the  negro  is  a  sort  of  arithmetic  mean 
proportional  between  a  man  and  a  monkey.  The  up- 
right form,  the  power  of  speech,  the  religious  faculty, 
permanence  of  affection,  self-denial,  power  to  master  the 
earth,  and  smelt  iron  ore,  as  the  African  has  done,  and  is 
doing  still,  every  year,  do  not  distinguish  the  black  man 
from  the  Orang  Outang. 

"  O  star-eyecT  Bcience  !  hast  thou  wandered  there, 
To  waft  us  home  the  message  of  despair  ?" 

Mr.  Agassiz  is  an  able  man,  of  large  genius,  industry  that 
never  surrenders,  and  was  a  bold  champion  of  freedom  on 
his  own  Swiss  hills.  He  comes  to  America ;  he  is  subdued 
to  the  temper  of  our  atmosphere ;  and,  from  a  great  man  of 
science,  he  becomes  the  Swiss  of  Slavery,  Southern  jour- 
nals rejoice  at  the  confirmation  of  their  opinion.  Listen 
to  what  a  Southern  editor  says.  I  am  quoting  now  from 
one  of  the  most  powerful  Southern  journals,  printed  at  the 
capital  of  Yirginia,  the  Richmond  Examiner;  and  the 
words  which  I  read  were  written  by  the  American  charge 
d'affaires  at  Turin.  He  says  :  "  The  foundation  and  right 
of  negro  Slavery  is  in  its  utility  and  the  fitness  of  things ; 
it  is  the  same  riglit  by  wMch'we  hold  property  in  domestic 
animals.^'  The  negro  is  "  the  connecting  link  between  the 
humanand  brute  creation.''  "  The  negro  is  not  the  white  man. 
Not  with  more  safety  do  we  assert  that  a  horse  is  not  a  hog. 
Tiny  is  good  for  horses — but  not  for  hogs ;  liberty  is  good 


ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDREf^S.  167 

iov  white  men,  but  not  for  negroes'^  '^ A  law  rendering 
perpetual  the  relation  between  a  negro  and  his  master  is 
no  wrong,  but  a  right J^ 

Then,  in  reply  to  some  writer  in  tlie  Tribune,  who  had 
asked,  "Have  they  no  souls  ?"  he  says,  "  They  may  have 
souls  for  aught  he  knew  to  the  contrary ;  so  may  horses 
and  hogs.''  Then,  when  somebodj^  quotes  the  Bible  in 
behalf  of  the  rights  of  men,  he  answers :  "  The  Bible 
has  been  vouchsafed  to  mankind  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
us  out  of  hell-fire  and  getting  us  into  heaven  by  the  mys^ 
teries  of  faith  and  the  inner  life ;  not  to  teach  us  a  govern- 
ment political  economy,'  &c. 

The  American  Church  repudiates  the  Christian  religion 
when  it  comes  to  speak  about  the  African.  It  does  not 
apply  the  golden  rule  to  the  slave.  The  ^^  servants"  of  the 
New  Testament,  in  the  slave  language,  were  "  slaves, ''  and 
the  American  Church  commands  them  to  be  obedient  to 
their  masters.  There  must  be  no  marriage — the  affectional 
and  passional  union  of  one  man  and  one  woman  for  life — 
only  transient  concubinage.  Marriage  is  inconsistent  with 
Slavery,  and  the  slave  wedlock  in  the  American  Church  is 
not  a  Sacrament.  "Manifest  destiny^'  is  the  cry  of  poli- 
ticians, and  that  demands  Slavery:  "the  will  of  God''  is 
the  cry  of  the  priests,  and  it  demands  the  same  thing.  I 
am  not  speaking  of  ministers  of  Christianity;  they  are 
very  different  sort  of  men,  and  preach  a  very  different  creed 
from  that — onl}^  of  the  ministers  in  the  churches  of  com- 
merce. According  to  the  popular  theology  of  all  Chris- 
tendom, Jesus  Christ  came  on  earth  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  is  lost.  The  good  physician  does  not  go  among  the 
whole,  but  among  the  sick.  If  he  were  to  come  here  to 
seek  to  relieve  the  slave,  the  leading  men  in  the  American 
denominations  would  tell  him  he  came  before  he  was  called; 
he  ran  before  he  was  sent — that  it  was  no  mission  from  God 
to  break  a  single  American  fetter,  nor  to  let  the  oppressed 
go  free.  Is  not  the  "Constitution"  above  "Conscience," 
and  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  more  holy  than  the  Bible  ? 
the  Commissioner  of  more  authority  than  Christ  ? 

"  0  Faitli  of  Christians,  hast  thou  wandered  there 
To  waft  us  homo  the  message  of  despair  ? 
Then  bind  tho  pahn  tliy  sage's  broio  to  suit, 
Of  Masted  leaf  and  death- distilling  frvAt.^^ 


168  ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS. 

Sucli  is  tlie  aspect  of  America  wlieii  the  immigrant  comes 
near  and  looks  tlie  nation  in  tlie  face.  What  a  spectacle 
that  is  to  put  alongside  of  the  other  1  Europe  repudiates 
bondage — Scandinavia,  Holland,  France,  England.  Since 
Britain  emancipated  her  slaves,  the  present  Emperor  of 
Hussia  has  set  free  over  seve7i  million  of  slaves  that  be- 
longed to  his  own  private  domain,  and  established  more 
than  four  thousand  schools,  free  for  those  seven  millions 
of  emancipated  slaves ;  and  did  he  not  fear  an  outbreak 
in  a  country  where  "  revolution  is  endemic,"  he  would 
set  free  the  other  five  and  thirty  millions  that  occupy 
his  soil  to-day.  And  when  he  extends  his  territory,  he 
never  extends  the  area  of  bondage,  only  the  area  of  what 
in  Russia  is  freedom. 

What  a  spectacle  !  A  country  reaching  from  sea  to  sea, 
from  the  gulf  of  tropic  heat  to  Lake  Superior's  arctic  cold, 
and  not  an  inch  of  free  soil  all  the  way  I  Three  millions 
of  square  miles,  and  not  a  foot  where  a  fugitive  from 
Slavery  can  be  safe  I  A  democracy,  and  every  eighth  man 
bought  and  sold ! 

It  is  the  richest  nation  in  the  world,  after  England ;  yet, 
we  are  so  poor  that  every  eighth  man  is  unable  to  say  that 
he  owns  the  smallest  finger  on  his  feeblest  hand.  So  poor 
are  we  amid  our  riches,  that  every  eighth  woman  is  to  such 
an  extent  a  pauper  that  she  does  not  own  the  baby  she  has 
borne  into  the  world,  nor  even  the  baby  that  she  bears 
under  her  bosom  !  Maternity  is  put  up  at  public  vendue, 
and  the  auctioneer  says,  "  So  much  for  the  mother  and  so 
much  for  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  another  life  tliat  is 
to  be  born  V 

America  calls  herself  "  the  best  educated  nation  in  the 
world,"  and  yet,  in  fifteen  democratic  States,  it  is  a  felony 
by  statute  to  teach  a  child  to  know  the  three  letters  that 
spell  "  God."     What  a  spectacle  is  that ! 

ISTor  is  that  all ;  but  able  men,  vrell- educated  and  well- 
endowed,  come  forward  to  teach  us  that  Slavery  is  not  oiilj 
no  evil,  but  is  right  as  a  principle,  and  is  divine — is  a  j)art 
of  the  divine  revelation  which  the  great  God  miraculously 
made  to  man.     What  a  spectacle  ! 

Four  hundred  thousand  immigrants  come  here  openly 
every  year,  and  a  thousand  fugitives  flee  off  by  night, 
escaping  from  American  despotism.  They  go  by  the  under- 


ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS.  169 

gToimcl  railroad,  sliiit  up  in  boxes  smaller  than  a  coffin,  or, 
as  lately  happened,  riding  through  the  storms  of  ocean  in 
the  fore -chains  of  a  packet  ship,  wet  by  every  dash  of  the 
sea,  and  frozen  by  the  winter's  wind.  Far  off  in  the  South 
the  spirit  of  freedom  came  in  the  JSTorthern  blast  to  the 
poor  man,  and  said  to  him,  *'It  is  better  to  enter  into 
freedom  halt  and  maimed  rather  than,  having  two  hands 
and  two  feet,  to  continue  in  bondage  for  ever ; "  and  he  puts 
himself  in  the  fore- chains  of  a  packet  ship,  and,  half  frozen, 
with  the  loss  of  two  of  his  lunbs,  he  gets  to  the  North, 
and  thanks  God  that  he  has  got  one  hand  and  one  foot  to 
enter  into  freedom  with.  Alas !  he  is  carried  back, 
halt  and  maimed,  to  die ;  then  he  goes  from  bondage  to 
that  other  Commonwealth,  where  even  the  American  slave 
is  free  from  his  master,  and  democrats  "  cease  from 
troubling." 

America  translates  the  Bible — I  am  glad  of  it,  and  would 
give  my  mite  thereto — into  a  hundred  and  forty-seven  dif- 
ferent tongues,  and  sends  missionaries  all  over  the  v/orld ; 
and  hero  at  home  are  three  and  a  quarter  millions  of  Ame- 
-rican  men  who  have  no  Bible,  whose  only  missionary  is  the 
overseer. 

In  the  Hall  of  Independence,  Judge  Kane  and  Judge 
Grier  hold  their  court.  Two  great  official  kidnappers  of 
the  middle  States  hold  their  slave-court  in  the  very  building 
where  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  decreed,  was 
signed,  and  thence  published  to  the  world.  What  a  spec- 
tacle it  is !  We  thought,  a  little  while  ago,  that  Judge 
Jeffries  was  an  historical  fiction ;  that  Scroggs  was  impos- 
sible. We  did  not  think  such  a  thins?-  could  exist.  Jeffries 
is  repeated  in  Philadelphia ;  Scroggs  is  brought  back  to 
life  in  various  Northern  towns.  What  a  spectacle  is  that 
for  the  Swiss,  the  German,  and  the  Scandinavian  vv^ho  come 
here ! 

Do  these  immigrants  love  American  Slavery  ?  The  Ger- 
man, the  Swiss,  the  Scandinavian  hate  it.  I  am  sorry  to 
say  there  is  one  class  of  men  that  come  here  who  love  it ; 
it  is  the  class  most  of  all  sinned  against  at  home.  When 
the  Irishman  comes  to  America,  he  takes  ground  against 
tlie  African.  I  know  there  are  exceptions,  and  I  would  go 
far  to  honour  them ;  but  tlie  Irish,  as  a  body,  oppose  the 
emancipation  of  the  blacks  as  a  body.     Every  sect  that 


170  ANTT-SLAVERY  ADDRESS. 

comes  from  abroad  numbers  friends  of  freedom — except 
the  Catbolic.  Those  who  call  themselves  infidels  from 
Germany  do  not  range  on  the  slave-holder's  side.  I  have 
known  some  men  who  take  the  ghastly  and  dreadful  name 
of  Atheists  ;  but  they  said,  ^'  there  is  a  law  higher  than  the 
slave-holder's  statute."  But  do  you  know  a  Catholic  priest 
that  is  opposed  to  Slavery  ?  I  wish  I  did.  There  are  good 
things  in  the  Catholic  faith — the  Protestants  have  not 
wholly  outgrown  it — not  yet.  I  wish  I  could  hear  of  a 
single  Catholic  priest  of  any  eminence  who  ever  cared  any- 
thing for  the  freedom  of  the  most  oppressed  men  that  are 
here  in  America.     I  have  heard  of  none. 

Look  a  little  closer.  The  great  interests  prized  most 
in  America  are  commerce  and  politics.  The  great  cities 
are  the  head-quarters  of  these,  too.  Agriculture  and  the 
mechanic  arts,  they  are  spread  abroad  all  over  the  country. 
Commerce  and  politics  predominate  in  the  cities.  New 
York  is  the  great  metropolis  of  commerce ;  Washington  of 
politics.  What  have  been  the  views  of  American  commerce 
in  respect  to  freedom  ?  It  has  been  against  it,  I  am  sorry 
to  say  so. 

In  Europe  commerce  is  the  ally  of  freedom,  and  has 
been  so  far  back  that  the  memory  of  man  runs  not  to  the 
contrary.  In  America,  the  great  commercial  centres, 
ever  since  the  Revolution,  have  been  hostile  to  freedom. 
In  Massachusetts  we  have  a  few  rich  men  friendly  to 
freedom — they  are  very  few;  the  greater  part  of  even 
Massachusetts  capital  goes  towards  bondage  —  not  towards 
freedom.  In  general,  the  great  men  of  commerce  are  hos- 
tile to  it.  They  want  first  money,  next  money,  and  money 
last  of  all ;  fairly  if  we  can  get  it — if  not,  unfairly.  Hence  the 
commercial  cities  are  the  head-quarters  of  Slavery  ;  all  the 
mercantile  capitols  execute  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  —  Phi- 
ladelphia, New  York,  Boston,  Buffalo,  Cincinnati — only 
smaU.  towns  repudiate  man-stealing.  The  Northern  capi- 
talists lend  money  and  take  slaves  as  collateral ;  they  arc 
good  security :  you  can  realize  on  it  any  day.  The 
Northern  merchant  takes  slaves  into  his  ships  as  merchan- 
dise. It  pays  very  well.  If  you  take  them  on  a  foreign 
voyage,  it  is  "  piracy ; ''  but  taken  coastwise,  the  domestic 
slave  trade  is  a  legal  trafHc.  In  1852,  a  ship  called  the 
"  Edward  Everett "  made  two  voyages  from  Baltimore  to 


ANTI-SLAVEKY  ADDRESS.  171 

"New  Orleans,  and  each  time  it  carried  slaves,  once  twenty, 
once  twelve. 

A  sea  captain  in  Massachusetts  told  a  story  to  a  commis- 
sioner sent  to  look  after  the  Indians,  which  I  will  tell  you. 
He  commanded  a  small  brig,  which  plied  between  Carolina 
and  the  Gulf  States.  "  One  day,  at  Charleston,''  said  he, 
"  a  man  came  and  brought  to  me  an  old  negro  slave.  He 
was  very  old,  and  had  fought  in  the  Revolution,  and  been 
very  distinguished  for  bravery  and  other  soldierly  quali- 
ties. If  he  had  not  been  a  negro,  he  would  have  become  a 
captain  at  least,  perhaps  a  colonel.  But,  in  his  old  age, 
his  master  found  no  use  for  him,  and  said  he  could  not 
afford  to  keep  him.  He  asked  me  to  take  the  revolutionary 
soldier  and  carry  him  South  and  sell  him.  I  carried  him," 
said  the  man,  "  to  Mobile,  and  I  tried  to  get  as  good  and 
kind  a  master  for  him  as  I  could,  for  I  didn't  like  to  sell  a 
man  that  had  fought  for  his  country.  /  sold  the  old  revo- 
lutionary soldier  for  a  hundred  dollars  to  a  citizen  of  3Iobile, 
who  raised  poultry,  and  he  set  him  to  attend  a  hen-coop." 
I  suppose  the  South  Carolina  master  drew  the  pension  till 
the  soldier  died.  "  Why  did  you  do  such  a  thing  ?"  said 
my  friend,  -who  was  an  anti-Slavery  man.  "  If  I  didn't 
do  it,"  he  replied,  "  I  never  could  get  a  bale  of  cotton,  nor 
a  box  of  sugar,  nor  anything  to  carry  from  or  to  any 
Southern  port." 

In  politics,  almost  all  leading  men  have  been  servants  of 
Slavery.  Three  ^'  major  prophets  "  of  the  American  Ee- 
public  have  gone  home  to  render  their  account,  where  the 
servant  is  free  from  his  master  and  "  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling,"  and  the  "  weary  are  at  rest."  Clay,  Calhoun, 
Webster ;  they  were  all  prophets  of  Slavery  against 
Freedom.  No  men  of  high  political  standing  and  in- 
fluence have  ever  lived  in  this  century  who  were  sunk  so 
deep  in  the  mire  of  Slavery  as  they  during  the  last  twenty 
years.  No  political  footprints  have  sunli  so  deep  into  the 
soil  —  their  tracks  run  towards  bondage.  Where  they 
marched  Slavery  followed. 

Our  Presidents  must  all  be  pro-Slavery  men.  John 
Quincy  Adams  even,  the  only  American  thus  far  who  in- 
herited a  great  name  and  left  it  greater,  as  President,  did 
nothing  against  Slavery  that  has  yet  come  to  light ;  said 
nothing  against  it  that  has  yet  come  to  light.      The  brave 


172  ANTI-SLAVERY   A.DDEES3. 

old  mau,  in  liis  latter  days,  stirred  up  tlie  nobler  nature 
that  was  in  liim,  and  amply  repaid  for  tlio  sins  of  omission. 
But  the  other  Presidents,  a  long  line  of  them — Jackson, 
Yan  Buren,  Harrison  (they  are  growing  smaller  and 
smaller),  Tyler,  Polk,  Taylor  (who  was  a  brave,  earnest 
man,  and  had  a  great  deal  of  good  in  him — and  now  they 
begin  to  grow  very  rapidly  small),  Fillmore,  Pierce — can 
you  find  a  single  breath  of  freedom  in  these  men  ?  Kot 
one.  The  last  slave  President,  thougli  his  cradle  was 
rocked  in  I^ew  Hampshire,  is  Texan  in  his  latitude.  He 
swears  allegiance  to  Slavery  in  his  inaugural  address. 

Is  there  a  breath  of  freedom  in  the  great  Federal  offi- 
cers —  secretaries,  judges  ?  Ask  the  Cabinet ;  ask  the 
Supreme  Court ;  the  Federal  officers  ;  thej  are,  almost 
without  exception,  servants  of  Slavery.  Out  of  forty  thou- 
sand government  officers  to-day,  I  thinlv  tliirty- seven 
thousand  are  strongly  pro-Slavery  ;  and  of  the  three  thou- 
sand who  I  think  are  at  heart  anti- Slavery,  we  have  j^et 
to  listen  long  before  we  shall  hear  the  first  anti- Slavery 
lisp.  I  have  been  listening  ever  since  the  4th  of  March, 
1853,  and  have  not  heard  a  word  yet.  In  the  English 
Cabinet  there  are  various  opinions  on  important  matters ; 
in  America,  they  "  are  a  unit,"  a  unit  of  bondage.  In  Rus- 
sia, a  revolutionary  man  sometimes  holds  a  high  post  and 
does  great  service ;  in  America,  none  but  the  servant  of 
Slavery  is  fit  for  the  political  functions  of  Democracy.  I 
believe,  in  the  United  States,  there  is  not  a  single  editor 
holding  a  government  office  who  says  anything  against  the 
Nebraska  Bill.  They  do  not  dare.  Did  a  Whig  office- 
holder oppose  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  or  its  enforcement  ? 
I  never  heard  of  one.  The  day  of  office,  like  the  day  of 
bondage,  "  takes  off  half  a  man's  manhood,^'  and  the  other 
half  it  hides  !  A  little  while  ago,  an  anti-Slavery  man  in 
Massachusetts  carried  a  remonstrance  against  the  jN"ebraska 
Bill,  signed  by  almost  every  voter  in  his  town,  to  the  post- 
master, and  asked  him,  "  Will  you  sign  it  ?  "  "  No,  I 
shan't,"  said  he.  "  Why  not  ?"  Before  he  answered,  one 
of  his  neighbours  said,  ''  Well,  I  would  not  sign  it  if  I  was 
he."  *'  Why  not  ?  "  said  the  man.  "  Because  if  he  did, 
he  would  be  turned  out  of  office  in  twenty- four  hours ;  the 
next  telegraph  would  do  the  business  for  him."  "Well," 
said  my  friend,  **  if  I  licld  an  office  on  that  condition,  T 


a:sti-:^lavery  address.  17  o 

would  got  the  biggest  "brass  clog-collar  I  could  find  and  put 
it  around  ni}'  neck,  and  have  my  owner's  name  on  it,  in 
great,  large  letters,  so  that  everybody  might  see  whose  dog 
I  was." 

In  the  individual  States,  I  think  there  is  not  a  single 
anti-Slavery  government.  I  believe  Yermont  is  the  only 
State  that  has  an  anti-Slavery  Supreme  Court ;  and  that 
is  the  only  State  which  has  not  much  concern  in  commerce 
or  manufactures.     It  is  a  State  of  farmers. 

For  a  long  time  the  American  Government  has  been 
controlled  by  Slavery.  There  is  an  old  story  told  by  the 
Hebrew  rabbis,  that  before  the  flood  there  was  an  enormous 
giant,  called  G-og.  After  the  flood  had  got  into  full  tide 
of  successful  experiment,  and  everybody  was  drowned  ex- 
cept those  taken  into  the  ark,  Gog  came  striding  along 
after  jN^oah,  feeling  his  way  with  a  cane  as  long  as  a  mast 
of  the  "  Great  Eepublic."  The  waters  had  only  just  come 
up  to  his  girdle.  It  was  then  over  the  hill  tops,  and  was 
still  rising — raining  night  and  day.  The  giant  hailed  the 
Patriarch.  Noah  put  his  head  out  of  the  window  and  said, 
'"  Who  is  there  ?''  "  It  is  I,"  said  Gog.  ''  Take  us  in  ;  it 
is  wet  outside  !  "  "  JN'o,"  said  JSToah,  "  you're  too  big  ;  no 
room.  Besides,  you're  a  bad  character.  You  would  be  a 
very  dangerous  passenger,  and  would  make  trouble  in  the 
ark  ;  I  shall  not  take  you ;"  and  he  clapped  to  the  window. 
"  Go  to  thunder,"  said  Gog  :  "I  will  ride  after  all ;  "  and 
he  strode  after  him,  wading  through  the  waters  and  keep- 
ing out  of  the  deep  holes,  and  mounting  on  the  top  of  the 
ark,  with  one  leg  over  the  larboard  and  the  other  over  the 
starboard  side,  steered  it  just  as  he  pleased,  and  made  it 
rough  weather  inside.  jSTow,  in  making  tlie  Constitution, 
we  did  not  care  to  take  in  Slavery  in  express  terms.  It 
looked  ugly.  So  it  got  on  the  top  astride,  and  it  steers  us 
just  where  it  pleases. 

The  slave  power  controls  the  President,  and  fills  all  the 
offices.  Out  of  the  twelve  elected  Presidents,  four  have 
been  from  the  North,  and  the  last  of  them  might  just  as 
well  have  been  taken  by  lot  at  the  South  anywhere.  Mr* 
Pierce,  I  just  now  said,  was  Texan  in  his  latitude.  His 
conscience  is  Texan  ;  only  his  cradle  was  New  Hampshire* 
Of  the  nine  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  five  are  from  the 
slave  States — the  Chief  Justice  from  the  slave  States.     A 


174  ANTI-SLAVEPvY   ADDRESS. 

part  of  the  Cabinet  are  from  the  North — I  forget  how  many ; 
it  makes  no  difference  ;  they  are  all  of  the  same  Southern 
complexion  ;  and  the  man  that  was  taken  from  the  farthest 
north,  Caleb  Cushing,  I  think  is  most  Southern  in  his 
Slavery  proclivities. 

The  nation  fluctuates  in  its  policy.  l!^ow  it  is  for 
internal  improvements :  then  it  is  against  them.  I^ow 
it  is  for  a  bank ;  then  a  bank  is  unconstitutional.  Now 
it  is  for  free-trade ;  then  for  protection ;  then  for  free- 
trade  again  —  protection  is  altogether  unconstitutional. 
Mr.  Calhoun  turns  clear  romid.  When  the  North  went 
for  free-trade  and  grew  rich  by  that,  Calhoun  did  not  liiie 
it,  and  wanted  protection.  He  thought  the  South  would 
grow  rich  by  it.  And  when  the  North  grew  rich  under 
protection,  he  turned  round  to  free-trade  again.  Now  the 
nation  is  for  giving  away  the  public  lands.  Sixteen  mil- 
lions of  acres  of  "swamp  lands''  are  given,  within  seven 
years,  to  States.  Twenty-five  millions  of  the  public  lands 
are  given  away  gratuitously  to  soldiers — six  millions  in  a 
single  year.  Forty-seven  millions  of  the  public  lands  to 
seventeen  States  for  schools,  colleges,  &c.  Forty-seven 
thousand  acres  for  deaf  and  dumb  asylums.  And  look; 
just  now  it  changes  its  policy,  and  Mr.  Pierce  is  opposed  to 
granting  any  land — it  is  not  constitutional — to  Miss  Dix, 
to  make  the  insane  sober,  and  bring  them  to  their  right 
minds.  He  may  have  a  private  reason  for  keeping  the 
people  in  a  state  of  craziness,  for  aught  I  know. 

The  public  policy  changes  in  these  matters.  It  never 
changes  in  respect  to  Slavery.  Be  the  Whigs  in  power, 
Slavery  is  Whig ;  be  the  Democrats,  it  is  Democratic.  At 
first.  Slavery  was  an  exceptional  measure,  and  men  tried  to 
apologize  for  it  and  excuse  it.  Now  it  is  a  normal  prin- 
ciple, and  the  institution  must  be  defended  and  enlarged. 

Commercial  men  must  be  moved,  I  suppose,  by  commer- 
cial arguments.     Look,  then,  at  this  statement  of  facts. 

Slavery  is  unprofitable  for  the  people.  America  is  poorer 
for  Slavery.  I  am  speaking  in  the  great  focus  of  American 
commerce — the  third  city  for  population  and  riches  in  the 
Christian  world.  Let  me,  therefore,  talk  about  dollars. 
America,  I  say,  is  poorer  for  Slavery.  If  the  three  and  a 
quarter  millions  of  slaves  were  freemen,  how  much  richer 
would  she  be  ?     There  is  no  State  in  the  Union  but  it 


ANTr-SLAVERY   ADDllESS.  175 

is  poorer  for  Slavery.  It  is  a  bad  tool  to  work  with. 
The  educated  freemen  is  the  best  working  power  in  the 
world. 

Compare  the  !N"orth  with  the  South,  and  see  what  a  dif- 
ference in  riches,  comfort,  education.  See  the  superiority 
of  the  North.  But  the  South  started  with  every  advantage 
of  nature — soil,  climate,  everything.  To  make  the  case 
plainer,  let  me  take  two  great  States,  Yirginia  and  New 
York.     Compare  them  together. 

In  geographical  position  Virginia  has  every  advantage 
over  New  York.  Almost  everything  that  will  grow  in  the 
Union  will  grow  somewhere  in  Yirginia,  save  sugar.  The 
largest  ships  can  sail  up  the  Potomac  a  hundred  miles,  as 
far  as  Alexandria.  The  Rappahannock,  York,  James,  are 
all  navigable  rivers.  The  Ohio  flanks  Yirginia  more  than 
three  hundred  miles.  There  is  sixty  miles  of  navigation 
on  the  Kanawha.  New  York  has  a  single  navigable  stream 
with  not  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  navigation  from 
Troy  to  the  ocean.  Yirginia  has  the  best  harbour  on 
the  Atlantic  coast,  and  several  smaller  ones.  Your 
State  has  but  a  single  maritime  port.  Yirginia  abounds 
in  water-power  for  mills.  I  stood  once  on  the  steps  of 
the  capitol  at  Washington,  and  within  six  miles  of  me, 
under  my  eyes,  there  was  a  water-power  greater  than 
that  which  turns  the  mills  of  Lawrence,  Lowell,  and  Man- 
chester, all  put  together.  In  1836  it  did  not  turn  a  wheel ; 
now,  I  am  told,  it  drives  a  grist  mill.  No  State  is  so 
rich  in  water-power.  The  AUeghanies  are  a  great  water- 
shed, and  at  the  eaves  the  streams  rush  forward  as  if 
impatient  to  turn  mills.  New  York  has  got  very  little 
water-power  of  this  sort.  Yirginia  is  full  of  minerals — 
coal,  iron,  lead,  copper,  salt.  Her  agricultural  resources 
are  immense.  What  timber  clothes  her  mountains  !  what 
a  soil  for  Indian  corn,  wheat,  tobacco,  rice !  even  cotton 
grows  in  the  southern  part.  Washington  said  the  central 
counties  of  Yirginia  were  the  best  land  in  the  United 
States.  Daniel  Webster,  reporting  to  Yirginians  of  his 
European  tour,  said  he  saw  no  lands  in  Europe  so  good  as 
the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah.  Yii'ginia  is  rich  in  mountain 
pastures  favourable  to  sheep  and  horned  cattle.  Nature 
gives  Yirginia  everything  that  can  be  asked  of  nature. 
What  a  position  for  agriculture,  manufactures,  mining. 


17G  ANTI-SLA VERY   ADDRESS. 

commerce  !  IsTorfolk  is  a  liimdred  miles  nearer  Chicago 
than  New  York  is,  but  she  has  no  intercourse  with  Chicago. 
It  is  three  hundred  miles  nearer  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio ; 
but  if  a  jSTorfollv  man  wants  to  go  to  St.  Louis,  I  believe 
his  quickest  way  lies  through  I^ew  York.  It  is  not  a 
day's  sail  farther  from  Liverpool ;  it  is  nearer  to  the 
Mediterranean  and  South  American  points.  But  what  is 
Norfolk,  with  her  23,000  tons  of  shipping  and  her  14,000 
popidation  ?  What  is  Richmond,  with  her  27,000  men — 
10,000  of  them  slaves  ?  Nay,  v/hat  is  Virginia  itself,  the 
very  oldest  State?  Let  me  cipher  oiit  some  numerical 
details. 

In  1790  she  had  748,000  inhabitants ;  now  she  has 
1,421,000.  She  has  not  doubled  in  sixty  years.  In 
1790  New  York  had  340,000  ;  now  she  has  3,048,000. 
She  has  multiplied  her  population  almost  ten  times.  In 
Virginia,  in  1850,  there  were  only  452,000  more  freemen 
than  sixty  years  before;  in  New  York,  there  were  2,724,000 
more  freemen  than  there  were  iii  1790.  There  are  only 
165,000  dwellings  in  Virginia;  463,000  in  New  York. 
Then  the  Virginia  farms  were  worth  $216,000,000,  yours 
§554,000,000;  Virginia  is  wholly  agricultural,  while  you 
are  also  manufacturing  and  commercial.  Her  farm  tools 
were  worth  $7,000,000 ;  yours  $22,000,000.  Her  cattle 
$33,000,000  ;  ^  );ours  $73,000,000.  The  orchard  pro- 
ducts of  Virginia  were  worth  $177,000  ;  of  New  York 
$1,762,000.  Virginia  had  478  miles  of  railroad ;  you  had 
1,826  miles.  She  had  74,000  tons  of  shipping ;  you  had 
942,000.  The  value  of  her  cotton  factories  was  not 
two  milKons  ;  the  value  of  yours  was  four  and  a  quarter 
millions.  She  produced  $841,000  worth  of  woollen  goods; 
you  produced  $7,030,000.  Her  furnaces  produced  two 
millions  and  a  half ;  yours  produced  eight  millions.  Her 
tanneries  $894,000 ;  yours  $9,804,000.  All  of  her  manufac- 
tures together  were  not  worth  $9,000,000  ;  those  of  the  city 
of  New  York  alone  have  an  annual  value  of  $105,000,000. 
Her  attendance  at  school  was  109,000  ;  yours  693,000. 

Eut  there  is  one  thing  in  which  Virginia  is  far  in 
advance  of  you.  Of  native  Virginians,  over  twenty  years 
old,  who  could  not  read  the  name  of  ''Christ"  nor  the 
Vford  "  God" — free  white  people  who  cannot  spell  democrat 
—there  were  87,383.     That  is,  out  of  every  five  hundred 


ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS.  177 

free  white  persons,  there  were  one  hundred  and  five  that 
could  not  spell  Pierce.  In  New  York  there  are  30,670 — 
no  more  ;  so  that,  out  of  five  hundred  persons,  there  are  six 
that  cannot  read  and  write.  Virginia  is  advancing  rapidly 
upon  you  in  this  respect.  In  1840  she  had  only  58,787 
adults  that  could  not  read  and  write ;  now  28,596  more. 
So,  you  see,  she  is  advancing. 

Virginia  has  87  newspapers ;  New  York  428.  The 
Virginia  newspaper  circulation  is  89,000  ;  New  York  news- 
paper circulation  is  1,622,000.  The  Tribune — and  I  think 
it  is  the  best  paper  there  is  in  the  world — has  an  aggre- 
gate circulation  of  110,000 ;  20,000  more  than  all  the 
newspapers  of  Virginia !  Virginia  prints  every  year 
9,000,000  of  copies  of  newspapers,  all  told.  New  York 
prints  115,000,000,  The  New  York  Tribune  prints 
15,000,000 — more  than  the  whole  state  of  Virginia  put 
together.  Such  is  the  state  of  things  counted  in  the 
gross,  but  1  think  the  New  York  quality  is  as  much  better 
as  the  quantity  is  more. 

Virginia  has  88,000  books  in  libraries  not  private.  New 
York  1,760,000 ;  a  little  more  than  twenty  times  as  much. 
Virginia  exports  .^3,500,000;  New  York  ^53,000,000. 
Virginia  imports  ^426,000;  New  York  ^111,000,000. 
But  in  one  article  of  export  she  is  in  advance  of  you — she 
sends  to  the  man-markets  of  the  South  about  ^10,000,000 
or  ^12,000,000  worth  of  her  children  every  year ;  exports 
slaves  !  The  value  of  all  the  property  real  and  personal 
in  the  State  of  Virginia,  including  slaves,  is  ^430,701,882; 
of  New  York  .^1,080,000,000,  without  estimating  the 
value  of  the  men  who  own  it.  Virginia  has  got  472,528 
slaves.  I  will  estimate  them  at  less  than  the  market 
value— at  ^400  each;  they  come  to  ^189,000,000.  I 
subtract  the  value  of  the  working  people  of  Virginia^ 
and  she  is  worth  not  quite  ^242,000,000.  Now,  the  State 
of  New  York  might  buy  up  all  the  property  of  Virginia, 
including  the  slaves,  and  still  have  «8649,000,000  left ; 
might  buy  up  all  the  real  and  personal  property  of 
Virginia,  except  the  working-men,  and  have  ^838,000,000 
left.  The  North  appropriates  the  rivers,  the  mines,  the 
harbours,  the  forests,  fire  and  water — the  South  kidnaps 
men.     Behold  the  commercial  result. 

Virginia  is  a  great  State — very  great !    You  don't  know 

VOL.    VI.  *N 


178  AKTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS. 

how  great  it  is,  I  will  read  it  to  you  presently.  Things 
are  great  and  small  by  comparison.  I  am  quoting  again 
from  the  Richmond  Examiner  (March  24th,  1854). 
"  Virginia  in  this  confederacy  is  the  impersonation  of 
the  well-born,  well-educated,  well-bred  aristocrat"  [well- 
born^  while  the  children  of  Jefferson  and  the  only  children 
of  Madison  are  a  "  connecting  link  between  the  human 
and  brute  creation ;"  well-educated,  with  21  per  cent,  of 
her  white  adults  unable  to  read  the  vote  they  cast  against 
the  unalienable  rights  of  man  ;  well-bred,  when  her  great 
product  for  exportation  is — the  children  of  her  own  loins  ! 
Slavery  is  a  "patriarchal  institution;"  the  Democratic 
Abrahams  of  Yirginia  do  not  offer  up  their  Isaacs  to  the 
Lord ;  that  would  be  a  sacrifice,  they  only  sell  them.  So]  ; 
*'  she  looks  down  from  her  elevated  pedestal  upon  her  par- 
venu, ignorant,  mendacious  Yankee  vilifiers,  as  coldly  and 
calmly  as  a  marble  statue ;  occasionally  she  condescends  to 
recognise  the  existence  of  her  adversaries  at  the  very 
moment  when  she  crushes  them.  But  she  does  it  without 
anger,  and  with  no  more  hatred  of  them  than  the  gardener 
feels  towards  the  insects  which  he  finds  it  necessary  occa- 
sionally to  destroy."  "  She  feels  that  she  is  the  sword 
and  buckler  of  the  South — that  it  is  her  influence  which 
has  so  frequently  defeated  and  driven  back  in  dismay  the 
Abolition  party  when  flushed  by  temporary  victory.  Brave, 
calm  and  determined,  wise  in  times  of  excitement,  always 
true  to  the  slave  power,  never  rash  or  indiscreet,  the  waves 
of  Northern  fanaticism  burst  harmless  at  her  feet ;  the 
contempt  for  her  Northern  revilers  is  the  result  of  her 
consciousness  of  her  influence  in  the  political  world.  She 
makes  and  unmakes  Presidents ;  she  dictates  her  terms  to 
the  horthern  Democracy,  and  they  obey  her.  She  selects 
from  among  the  faithful  of  the  North  a  man  upon  whom 
she  can  rely,  and  she  makes  him  President J^  [This  latter 
is  true !  The  opinion  of  Richmond  is  of  more  might 
than  the  opinion  of  New  York.  Slavery,  the  political  Gog 
on  the  outside,  steers  the  ark  of  commercial  Noah,  and 
makes  it  rough  or  smooth  weather  inside,  just  as  he  likes.] 
"  In  the  early  days  of  the  Republic,  the  superior  saga- 
city of  her  statesmen  enabled  them  to  rivet  so  firmly  the 
shackles  of  the  slave,  that  the  Abolitionists  ivill  never  be 
able  to  unloose  them.'^ 


ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS.  179 

"  A  Wide  and  impassable  gulf  separates  tlie  noble,  proud, 
glorious  Old  Dominion  from  her  I^ortbern  traducers  ;  the 
mastiff  dare  not  willingly  assail  the  skunk ! "  "  When 
Virginia  takes  the  field,  she  crushes  the  whole  Abolition 
party  ;  her  slaughter  is  wholesale,  and  a  hundred  thousand 
Abolitionists  are  cut  down  when  she  issues  her  commands  !" 

Again  (April  4th,  1854),  "  A  hundred  Southern  gen- 
tlemen, armed  with  riding- whips,  could  chase  an  army  of 
invading  Abolitionists  into  the  Atlantic.'^ 

In  reference  to  the  project  at  the  North  of  sending 
Northern  Abolitionists  along  with  the  Northern  slave- 
breeders  to  Nebraska,  to  put  freedom  into  the  soil  before 
Slavery  gets  there,  the  Ewaminer  says : — "  Why,  a  hundred 
wild,  lanJc^  half-horse,  half- alligator  Missouri  and  Arkansas 
emigrants  would,  if  so  disposed,  chase  out  of  Nebraska  and 
Kansas  all  the  Abolitionists  who  have  figured  for  the  last 
twenty  years  at  anti- Slavery  meetings." 

I  say  Slavery  is  not  profitable  for  the  nation  nor  for  a 
State,  but  it  is  profitable  for  slave-owners.  You  will  see 
why.  If  the  Northern  capitalist  owned  the  weavers  and 
spinners  at  Lowell  and  Lawrence,  New  England  would  be 
poorer,  and  the  working-men  would  not  be  so  well  off,  or 
so  well-educated;  but  Undershot  and  Overshot,  Tm^bine 
Brothers,  Spindle  and  Co.,  would  be  richer,  and  would  get 
larger  dividends.  Land  monopoly  in  England  enfeebles 
the  island,  but  enriches  the  aristocracy.  How  poor,  ill-fed, 
and  ill-clad  were  the  French  peasants  before  the  Hevolu- 
tion ;  how  costly  was  the  chateau  of  the  noble.  Monopoly 
was  bad  for  the  people  ;  profitable  for  the  rich  men.  How 
poor  are  the  people  in  Italy ;  how  rich  the  Cardinals 
and  the  Pope.  Oppression  enriches  the  oppressor  ;  it 
makes  poorer  the  down-trodden.  Piracy  is  very  costly  to 
the  merchant  and  to  mankind  ;  but  it  enriches  the  pirate. 
Slavery  impoverishes  Virginia,  but  it  enriches  the  master. 
It  gives  him  money — commercial  power — office — political 
power.  The  slave-holder  is  drawn  in  his  triumphal  chariot 
by  two  chattels  :  one,  the  poor  black  man,  whom  he  "  owns 
legally  ;''  the  other  is  the  poor  white  man,  whom  he  owns 
morally,  and  harnesses  to  his  chariot.  Hence  these 
American  lords  of  the  lash  cleave  to  this  institution — they 
love  it.    To  the  slave-holders,  Slavery  is  money  and  power  ! 

Now  the  South,  weak  in  numbers,  feeble  in  respect  to 

n2 


180  ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS. 

money,  has  contintially  directed  the  politics  of  America, 
just  as  she  woidd.     Her  ignorance  and  poverty  were  more 
efficacious  than  the  Northern  riches  and  education.  She  is  in 
earnest  for  Slavery  ;  the  North  not  in  earnest  for  Freedom  ! 
only  earnest  for  money.     So  long  as  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment grinds  the  axes  of  the  Northern  merchant,  he  cares 
little  whether  the  stone  is  turned  by  the  free  man's  labour 
or   the   slave's.      Hence,    the   great   centres  of  Northern 
commerce  and  manufactures  are  also  the  great  centres  of 
pro- Slavery  politics.      Philadelphia,  New  York,    Boston, 
Buffalo,  Cincinnati,  they  all  liked  th.Q  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ; 
all  took  pains  to  seize  the  fugitive  who  fled  to  a  Northern 
altar  for  freedom ;  nay,  the  most  conspicuous  clergymen  in 
those  cities  became  apostles  of  kidnapping  ;  their  churches 
were  of  commerce,  not  Christianity.     The  North  yielded 
to  that  last  most  insolent  demand.    Under  the   influence 
of  that  excitement  she  chose   the  present  Administration, 
the  present  Congress.      Now  see  the  residt !      Whig  and 
Democrat  meet  on  the  same  platform  at  Baltimore.     It 
was  the  platform   of  Slavery.     Both  candidates  gave  in 
their  allegiance  to  the  same  measTire — Scott  and  Pierce — 
it  was  the  measure  which  compromised  the  first  principles 
of  the  American  Independence — they  were  sworn  on  the 
Fugitive    Slave   Bill.      Whig   and    Democrat    knew   no 
"  higher  law,"  only  the  statute  of   slave-holders.     Con- 
science bent  down  before  the  Constitution.     What  sort  of 
a  government  can  you  expect  from  such  conduct !     What 
representatives  !    Just  what  you  have  got.    Sow  the  wind, 
will  you  ?  then  reap  the  whirlwind.     Mr.  Pierce  said  in 
his   inaugural,    "  I  believe  that  involuntary  servitude  is 
recognised   by  the   Constitution;"    *''that   it   stands  like 
any  other  admitted  right.      I  hold  that  the  compromise 
measures  (z.e.,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill)  are  strictly  consti- 
tutional, and  to  be  unhesitatingly  carried  into  effect.'^    The 
laws  to  secure  the  master's  7'ight  to  capture  a  man  in  the 
free   States  "  should  be  respected  and  obeyed,  not  luith  a 
reluctance  encouraged  by  abstract  opinions  as  to  their  pro- 
priety in  a  different  state  of  society,  bat  cheerfully  and 
according  to  the  decision  of  the  tribunal  to  which  their 
exposition  belongs."     These  words  were  historical  —  re- 
miniscences of  the  time  when  ''no  higher  law''  was  the 
watchword   of   the  American   State   and   the    American 


ain^ti-slavery  address.  181 

Churcli  ;    tliey  were  prophetic — ominous  of  wliat  we  see 
to-day. 

I.  Here  is  the  Gadsden  Treaty  wliicli  has  been  nego- 
tiated. How  bad  it  is  I  cannot  say  ;  only  this.  If  I  am 
rightly  informed,  a  tract  of  39,000,000  acres,  larger  than 
all  Virginia,  is  "  re-annexed"  to  the  slave  soil  which  the 
"flag  of  our  Union"  already  waves  over.  The  whole, 
thing,  when  it  is  fairly  understood  by  the  public,  I  think 
will  be  seen  to  be  a  more  iniquitous  matter  than  this 
^Nebraska  wickedness. 

II.  Then  comes  the  Nebraska  Bill,  yet  to  be  consum- 
mated. While  we  are  sitting  here  in  cold  debate,  it  may 
be  the  measure  has  passed.  From  the  beginning  I  have 
never  had  any  doubts  that  it  would  pass  ;  if  it  could  not 
be  put  through  this  session — as  I  thought  it  would — I  felt 
sure  that  before  this  Congress  goes  out  of  office,  Nebraska 
would  be  slave  soil.  You  see  what  a  majority  there  was 
in  the  Senate  ;  you  see  what  a  majority  there  is  in  the 
House.  I  know  there  is  an  opposition — and  most  bril- 
liantly conducted,  too,  by  the  few  faithful  men ;  but  see 
this:  the  Administration  has  yet  three  years  to  run.  There 
is  an  annual  income  of  sixty  millions  of  dollars.  There  are 
forty  thousand  offices  to  be  disposed  of — four  thousand  very 
valuable.  And  do  you  think  that  a  Democratic  Adminis- 
tration, with  that  amount  of  offices,  of  money  and  time, 
cannot  buy  up  Northern  doughfaces  enough  to  carry  any 
measure  it  pleases  ?  I  know  better.  Once  I  thought  that 
Texas  could  not  be  annexed.  It  was  done.  I  learned 
wisdom  from  that.  I  have  taken  my  counsel  of  my  fears. 
I  have  not  seen  any  barrier  on  which  the  North  would  rally 
that  we  have  come  to  yet.  There  are  some  things  behind 
us.  John  Randolph  said,  years  ago,  "  We  will  drive  you 
from  pillar  to  post,  back,  back,  back."  He  has  been  as 
good  as  his  word.  We  have  been  driven  "  back,  back, 
back."  But  we  cannot  be  driven  much  farther.  There  is 
a  spot  where  we  shall  stop.  I  am  afraid  we  have  not  come 
to  it  yet.  I  will  say  no  more  about  it  just  now — because, 
not  many  weeks  ago,  I  stood  here  and  said  a  great  deal. 
You  have  listened  to  me  when  I  was  feeble  and  hollow- 
voiced  ;  I  will  not  tax  your  patience  now,  for  in  this,  as  in 


182  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS. 

a  celebrated  feast  of  old,  tliey  have  ^'  kept  the  good  wine 
until  now  !''  (alluding  to  Garrison  and  Phillips,  who  were 
to  follow). 

If  the  Nebraska  Bill  is  defeated,  I  shall  rejoice  that 
iniquity  is  foiled  once  more.  But  if  it  become  a  law — 
there  are  some  things  which  seem  probable. 

1.  On  the  4th  of  March,  1856,  the  democrats  will  have 
leave  to  withdraiv  from  office. 

2.  Every  Northern  man  who  has  taken  a  prominent  stand 
in  behalf  of  Slavery  will  be  j)olitically  ruined.  You  know 
what  befell  the  Northern  politicians  who  voted  for  the 
Missouri  Compromise ;  a  similar  fate  hangs  over  the  men 
who  enslave  Nebraska.  Already,  Mr.  Everett  is,  theo- 
logically speaking,  among  the  lost ;  and,  of  all  the  three 
thousand  New  England  ministers  whose  petition  he  dared 
not  present,  not  one  will  ever  pray  for  his  political  sal- 
vation. 

Pause  with  me  and  drop  a  tear  over  the  ruin  of  Edward 
Everett,  a  man  of  large  talents  and  commensurate  industry, 
very  learned,  the  most  scholarly  man,  perhaps,  in  the 
country,  with  a  persuasive  beauty  of  speech  only  equalled 
by  this  American  (Mr.  Phillips),  who  surpasses  him;  he 
has  had  a  long  career  of  public  service,  public  honour — 
Clergyman,  Professor,  Editor,  Representative,  Governor, 
Ambassador,  President  of  Harvard  College,  alike  the  orna- 
ment as  the  auxiliary  of  many  a  learned  society — he  yet 
comes  to  such  an  end. 

j"  This  is  the  state  of  man  :  to-day,  he  puts  forth 
The  tender  leaves  of  hoj^e  ;  to-morrow,  blossoms, 
And  bears  his  blushing  honours  thick  ujDon  him  ; 
The  third  day  comes  a  frost,  Nebrasl<cCs  frost ; 
And,  when  he  thinks,  good  easy  man,  full  surely, 
His  greatness  is  a  ripening,  nips  his  root, 
And  then  he  falls ." 

"Oh,  how  wretched 
Is  that  poor  man  that  hangs  on  public  favours  ! 
There  is  betwixt  that  smile  lie  would  aspire  to, 
That  sweet  aspect  of  voters,  and  their  ruin, 
More  pangs  and  fears  than  wars  or  women  have ; 
And  when  he  falls,  he  falls  like  Lucifer, 
»         Never  to  hope  again !  " 

Mr.  Douglas  also  is  finished  ;  the  success  of  his  measure 
is  his  own  defeat.     Mr.  Pierce  has  three  short  years  to 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS.  183 

serve  ;  then  tliere  will  be  one  more  ex-President — ranking 
with  Tyler  and  Fillmore.     Mr.  Seward  need  not  agitate, 

"  Let  it  work, 


For  'tis  the  sport  to  have  the  engineer 
Hoist  with  his  own  petard." 

III.  The  next  thing  is  the  enslavement  of  Cuba.  That 
is  a  very  serious  matter.  It  has  been  desired  a  long  time. 
Lopez,  a  Spanish  fillibiister,  imdertook  it  and  was  legally 
put  to  death.'  I  am  not  an  advocate  for  the  garrote,  but  I 
think,  all  things  taken  into  consideration,  that  he  did  not 
meet  with  a  very  inadequate  mode  of  death :  and  I  believe 
that  is  the  general  opinion,  not  only  in  Cuba,  but  in  the 
United  States.  But  Young  America  is  not  content  with 
that.  Mr.  Dean,  a  little  while  ago,  in  the  House,  proposed 
to  repeal  the  neutrality  laws — ^to  set  fillibusterism  on  its 
legs  again.  You  remember  the  President's  message  about 
the  *' Black  Warrior" — how  black  warrior  like  it  was;  and 
then  comes  the  *^ unanimous  resolution"  of  the  Louisiana 
legislature  asking  the  United  States  to  interfere  and  declare 
war,  in  case  Cuba  should  undertake  to  emancipate  her 
slaves.  Senator  Slidell's  speech  is  still  tingling  in  our 
ears,  asking  the  Government  to  repeal  the  neutrality  laws 
and  allow  every  pirate  who  pleases  to  land  in  Cuba  and 
burn  and  destroy.  You  kno'F  Mr.  Soule's  conduct  in 
Madrid.  It  is  rumoured  that  he  has  been  authorized  to 
offer  $250,000,000  for  Cuba.  The  sum  is  enormous  ;  but, 
when  you  consider  the  character  of  this  Administration 
and  the  Inaugural  of  President  Pierce,  the  unscrupulous 
abuse  made  of  public  money,  I  do  not  think  it  is  a  very 
extraordinary  supposition. 

But  this  matter  of  getting  possession  of  Cuba  is  some- 
thing dangerous  as  well  as  difficult.  There  are  three  con- 
ceivable ways  of  getting  it :  one  is  by  buying,  and  that  I 
take  it  is  wholly  out  of  the  question.  If  I  am  rightly 
informed,  there  is  a  certain  Spanish  debt  owing  to  English- 
men, and  that  Cuba  is  somehow  pledged  as  a  sort  of  col- 
lateral security  for  the  Spanish  bonds.  I  take  it  for 
granted  that  Cuba  is  not  to  be  bought  for  many  years 
without  the  interference  of  England,  and  depend  upon  it 
England  will  not  allow  it  to  be  sold  for  the  establishment 
of  Slavery ;  for  I  think  it  is  pretty  well  understood  by  poli- 


184  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS. 

ticians  that  there  is  a  regular  agreement  entered  into 
between  Spain  on  one  side  and  England  on  tlie  other, 
that  at  a  certain  period  within  twenty-fiye  years  every 
slave  in  Cuba  shall  be  set  free.  I  believe  this  is  known 
to  men  somewhat  versed  in  the  secret  histor}^  of  the  two 
cabinets  of  England  and  of  Spain.  England  has  the  same 
wish  for  land  which  fires  our  Anglo-Saxon  blood.  She 
has  islands  in  the  West  Indies  ;  the  Morro  in  Cuba  is  only 
100  miles  from  Jamaica.  If  we  get  Cuba  for  Slavery,  we 
shall  next  want  the  British  West  Indies  for  the  same 
institution.  Cuba  filled  with-  fillibusters  would  be  a  daur 
gerous  neighbour. 

Then  there  are  two  other  ways  :  one  is  by  fillibusterism ; 
and  that  Mr.  Slidell  and  Mr.  Dean  want  to  try ;  the  other 
is  by  open  war.  Now,  fillibusterism  will  lead  to  open  war, 
so  I  will  consider  only  this  issue. 

I  know  that  Americans  will  fight  more  desperately,  per- 
haps, on  land  or  sea,  than  any  other  people.  But  fighting 
is  an  ugly  business,  especially  with  such  antagonists  as  we 
shalLhave  in  this  case.  It  is  a  matter  well  understood  that 
the  Captain- General  of  Cuba  has  a  paper  in  his  pos- 
session authorizing  him  discretionally  to  free  the  slaves 
and  put  arras  in  their  hands  whenever  it  is  thought 
necessary.  It  is  rather  difficult  to  get  at  the  exact  sta- 
tistics of  Cuba.  There  has  been  no  census  since  1842,  I 
think,  when  the  population  was  estimated  at  a  million.  I 
will  reckon  it  now  at  1,300,000—700,000  blacks,  and 
600,000  Avhites.  Of  the  700,000  blacks,  half  a  million  are 
slaves  and  tivo  hundred  thousand  free  men.  Now.  a  black 
free  man  in  Cuba  is  a  very  different  person  from  the  black 
free  man  in  the  United  States.  He  has  rights.  He  is  not 
turned  out  of  the  omnibus  nor  the  meeting  house  nor  the 
graveyard.  He  is  respected  by  the  law  ;  he  respects  him- 
self, and  is  a  formidable  person ;  let  the  blacks  be  fur- 
nished with  arms,  they  are  formidable  foes.  And  remem- 
ber there  are  mountain  fastnesses  in  the  centre  of  the 
island ;  that  it  is  as  defensible  as  St.  Domingo  ;  and  it  has 
a  very  unhealthy  climate  for  ISForthern  men.  The  Spaniard 
would  have  great  allies.  The  vomito  is  there ;  typhoid, 
dysentery,  yellow  fever — the  worst  of  all — is  there.  A 
Northern  ormy  even  of  fillibusters  would  fight  against  the 
most  dreadful  odds.     *'  The  Lord  from  on  high,^'  as  the 


ANTI -SLAVERY   ADDRESS.  185 

old  Hebrew  would  say,  would  figlit  against  the  Northerii 
men  ;  the  pestilence  that  swept  off  Sennacherib's  host  would 
not  respect  the  fillibuster. 

That  is  not  all.  A\Tiat  sort  of  a  navy  has  Spain  ?  One 
hundred  and  seventy-iiine  ships  of  war  I  They  are  small 
mostly,  but  they  carry  over  1,400  cannon  and  24,000  men 
— 15,000  marines  and  9,000  sailors.  The  United  States 
has  seveniy-five  ships  of  war  ;  2,200  cannon,  14,000  men — 
large  ships,  heavy  cannon.  That  is  not  all.  Spaniards 
fight  desperatety.  A  Spanish  armada  I  would  not  be  very 
much  afraid  of;  but  Spain  will  issue  letters  of  marque, 
and  a  Portuguese  or  Spanish  pirate  is  rather  an  uncom- 
fortable being  to  meet.  Our  commerce  is  spread  all  over 
the  seas ;  there  is  no  mercantile  marine  so  unprotected  as 
ours.  Our  ships  do  not  carry  muskets,  still  less  cannon, 
since  pirates  have  been  swept  off  the  sea.  Let  Spain  issue 
letters  of  marque,  England  winking  at  it,  and  Algerine 
pirates  from  out  the  Barbary  States  of  Africa  and  other 
pirates  from  the  Brazilian,  Mexican,  and  the  West  Indian 
.ports,  would  prowl  about  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean 
and  over  all  the  bosom  of  the  Atlantic ;  and  then  where 
would  be  our  commerce  ?  The  South  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  that.  She  has  got  no  shipping.  Yes,  Norfolk  has 
23,000  tons.  The  South  is  not  afraid.  The  North  has 
nearly  four  million  tons  of  shipping.  But  touch  the  com- 
merce of  a  Northern  man  and  you  touch  his  heart. 

England  has  conceded  to  us  as  a  measure  just  what  we 
asked.  We  have  always  declared  ''  free  ships  make  free 
goods. '^  England  said  ''  enemies'  goods  make  enemies' 
ships."  Now  she  has  not  affirmed  our  principle  ;  she  has 
assented  to  our  measure.  That  is  all  you  can  expect  her 
to  do.  But,  if  we  repeal  our  neutrality  laws  and  seek  to 
get  Cuba  in  order  to  establish  Slavery  there,  endangering 
the  interests  of  England,  and  the  freedom  of  her  coloured 
citizens,  depend  upon  it  England  will  not  suffer  this  to  be 
done  without  herself  interfering.  If  she  is  so  deeply  im- 
mersed in  European  wars  that  she  cannot  interfere  directly, 
she  will  indirectly.  But  I  have  not  thought  that  England 
and  France  are  to  be  much  engaged  in  a  European  war. 
I  suppose  the  intention  of  the  American  Cabinet  is  to  seize 
Cuba  as  soon  as  the  British  and  Russians  are  fairly  fighting, 
thinkino-  that  Eno-land  will  not  interfere.     But  in  "  this 


186  ANTI-SLAVEKY   ADDRESS. 

war  of  elder  sons"  wHch  now  goes  on  for  the  dismember- 
ment of  Turkey,  it  is  not  so  clear  that  England  will  be  so 
deeply  engaged  tliat  she  cannot  attend  to  her  domestic 
affairs,  or  the  interest  of  her  West  Indies.     I  think  these 
powers  are  going  to  divide  Turkey  between  them,  but  I 
do  not  believe  they  are  going  to  do  much  fighting  there. 
If  we  are  bent  on  seizing  Cuba,  a  long  and  ruinous  fight 
is  a  thing  that  ought  to  enter  into   men's   calculations. 
Now,  let  such  a  naval  warfare  take  place,  and  how  will 
your  insurance  stock  look  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and 
Boston?     How  will  your  merchants  look  when  reports 
come  one  after  another  that  your  ships  are  carried  in  as 
prizes  by  Spain,  or  sunk  on  the  ocean  after   they  have 
been  plundered?     I  speak  in  the  great  commercial  metro- 
polis of  America.     I  wish  these  things  to  be  seriously  con- 
sidered by  Northern  men.     Though  I  would  not  fear  a 
naval  war,  let  the  Northern  men  look  out  for  their  own 
ships.     But  here  is  a  matter  which  the  South  might  think 
of.     In  case  of  foreign  war,  the  North  will  not  be  the 
battle-field.     An  invading  army  would  attack  the  South. 
Who  would  defend  it— the  local  militia,  the  "  chivalry"  of 
South  Carolina,  the  "  gentlemen"  of  Virginia,  who  are  to 
slaughter  100,000  Abolitionists  in  a  day  ?     Let  an  army 
set  foot  on  Southern  soil,  with  a  few  black  regiments ;  let 
the  commander  o&qy  freedom  to  all  the  slaves  and  put  arms 
in  their  hands ;  let  him  ask  them  to  burn  houses  and  butcher 
men ;  and  there  would  be  a  state  of  things  not  quite  so 
pleasant  for  gentlemen  of  the  South  to  look  at.     "  They 
that  laughed  at  the  grovelling  worm  and  trod  on  him  may 
cry  and  howl  when  they  see  the  stoop  of  the  flying  and 
fiery-mouthed  dragon !"     Now,  there  is  only  one  opinion 
about  the  valour  of  President  Pierce.     Like  the  sword  of 
Hudibras,  it  cut  into  itself, 

"  for  lack 

Of  other  Btuff  to  hew  and  hack." 

But  would  he  like  to  stand  with  such  a  fire  in  his  rear  ? 
Set  a  house  on  fire  by  hot  shot,  and  you  don't  know  hoio 
much  of  it  will  burn  down. 

lY.  Well,  if  Nebraska  is  made  a  slave  territory,  as  I 
suppose  it  will  be,  the  next  thing  is  the  possession  of 
Cuba.     Then  the  war  against  Spain  will  come,  as  I  think, 


ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS.  187 

inevitably.  But  even  if  we  don't  get  Cuba,  Slavery  must 
be  extended  to  other  parts  of  the  Union.  This  may  be 
done  judicially  by  the  Supreme  Court — one  of  the  powerful 
agents  to  destroy  local  self-government  and  legalize  cen- 
tralization ;  or  legislatively  by  Congress.  Already  Slavery 
is  established  in  California.  An  attempt,  you  know,  was 
made  to  establish  it  in  Illinois.  Senator  Toombs,  the  other 
day,  boasted  to  John  P.  Hale,  that  it  would  "  not  be  long 
before  the  slave-holder  would  sit  do^vn  at  the  foot  of  Bunker 
Hill  monument  with  his  slaves.^'  You  and  I  may  live  to 
see  it — at  least  to  see  the  attempt  made.  A  writer  in  a 
prominent  Southern  journal,  the  Charleston  Courier  (of 
March  16,  1854),  declares  "that  domestic  Slavery  is  a 
constitutional  institution,  and  cannot  be  prohibited  in  a 
territory  by  either  territorial  or  congressional  legislation. 
It  is  recognised  by  the  Constitution  as  an  existing  and 
lawful  institution  .  .  and  by  the  recognition  and  establish- 
ment of  Slavery  eo  nomine  in  the  district  of  Columbia, 
under  the  constitutional  provision  for  the  acquisition  of 
and  exclusive  legislation  over  such  a  capitoline  district; 
and  by  that  clause  also  which  declares  that  the  citizens  of 
each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immu- 
nities of  citizens  in  the  several  States."  "  The  citizens  of 
any  State  .  .  cannot  be  constitutionally  denied  the  equal 
right  .  .  of  sojourning  or  settling  .  .  with  their  man  ser- 
vants and  maid  servants  .  .  in  any  portion  of  the  ivide- 
spread  Canaan  which  the  Lord  their  God  hath  given 
them,  there  to  dwell  unmolested  in  person  or  PRorERTY." 
Admirable  exposition  of  the  Constitution  !  The  free  black 
man  must  be  shut  up  in  gaol  if  he  goes  from  Boston  in  a 
ship  to  Charleston,  but  the  slave-holder  may  bring  his 
slaves  to  Massachusetts  and  dwell  there  unmolested  ivith  his 
property  in  men.  South  Carolina  has  a  white  population 
of  274,567  persons,  considerably  less  than  half  the  popula- 
tion of  this  city.  But,  if  South  Carolina  says  to  the  State 
of  New  York,  with  three  million  men  in  it,  let  us  bring 
our  slaves  to  New  York,  what  will  the  "  Hards,"  and  the 
"Softs,"  and  the  "Silver  Greys"  answer?  Gentlemen, 
we  shall  hear  Avhat  wo  shall  hear.  I  fear  not  an  office- 
holder of  any  note  would  oppose  the  measure.  It  might 
be  carried  with  the  present  Supreme  Court,  or  Congress,  I 
make  no  doubt. 


188  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDKBSS. 

But  tliis  is  not  the  end.  After  the  Gadsden  Treat}^ 
the  enslavement  of  Nebraska,  the  extension  of  Slaver}^  to 
the  free  States,  the  seizure  of  Cuba,  with  other  islands — 
San  Domingo,  &c. — there  is  one  step  more — ^the  re-es- 
tablishment or  THE  African  Slave-Trade. 

A  recent  number  of  the  Southern  Standard  thus  develops 
the  thought :  "  "With  firmness  and  judgment  we  can  open 
up  the  African  slave  emigration  again  to  people  the  whole 
region  of  the  tropics.  We  can  boldly  defend  this  upon 
the  most  enlarged  system  of  philanthropy.  It  is  far  better 
for  the  wild  races  of  Africa  themselves."  '^  The  good  old 
Las  Casas,  in  1519,  was  the  first  to  advise  Spain  to  import 
Africans  to  her  colonies.  .  .  Experience  has  shown  his 
scheme  was  founded  in  wise  and  Christian  philanthropy.  .  ., 
The  time  is  coming  when  we  Avill  boldly  defend  this  emi- 
gration [kidnapping  men  in  Africa  and  selling  them  in  the 
Christian  Eepublic]  before  the  world.  The  hypocritical 
cant  and  w^hining  morality  of  the  latter-day  saints  will  die 
away  before  the  majesty  of  commerce.  .  .  We  have  too 
long  been  governed  b)^  psalm-singing  schoolmasters  from 
the  North.  .  .  The  folly  commenced  in  our  own  govern- 
ment uniting  with  Great  Britain  to  declare  slave- importing 
piracy."  .  .  "  A  general  rupture  in  Europe  would  force 
upon  us  the  undisputed  sway  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and 
the  West  Indies.  .  .  With  Cuba  and  St.  Domingo,  we 
could  control  the  .  .  power  of  the  world.  Our  true  policy 
is  to  look  to  Brazil  as  the  next  great  slave  power.  .  .  A 
treaty  of  commerce  and  alliance  with  Brazil  will  give  us 
the  control  over  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  its  border  coun- 
tries, together  with  the  islands  ;  and  the  consequence  of  this 
v/ill  place  African  Slavery  beyond  the  reach  of  fanaticism  at 
home  or  abroad.  These  two  great  slave  powers  .  .  ought 
to  guard  and  strengthen  their  mutual  interests.  .  .  We  can 
not  only  preserve  domestic  servitude,  but  we  can  defy  the 
power  of  the  world."  .  .  ''  The  time  will  come  that  all  the 
islands  and  regions  suited  to  African  Slavery,  between  us 
and  Brazil,  will  fall  under  the  control  of  these  two  powers. 
.  .  In  a  few  years  there  will  be  no  investment  for  the 
$200,000,000  .  ,  so  profitable  .  .  as  the  development  .  .  of 
the  tropical  regions"  [that  is,  as  the  African  slave-trade]. 
.  .  '*  If  the  slaveholding  race  in  these  States  are  but  true 
to  themselves,  they  have  a  great  destiny  before  them." 


ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDRESS,  18& 

Now,'  gentlemen  and  ladies,  wlio  is  to  Mame  tliat  things 
have  come  to  such  a  jDass  as  this  ?  The  South  and  the 
North;  but  the  North  much  more  than  the  South, — very 
much  more.  Gentlemen,  we  let  Gog  get  upon  the  Ark  ; 
we  took  pay  for  his  passage.  Our  most  prominent  men  in 
Church  and  State  have  sworn  allegiance  to  Gog.  But  this 
is  not  always  to  last ;  there  is  a  day  after  to-day — a  for- 
ever behind  each  to-day. 

The  North  ought  to  have  fought  Slavery  at  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution,  and  at  every  step  since  ;  after  the 
battle  was  lost  then,  we  should  have  resisted  each  successive 
step  of  the  slave  power.  But  we  have  yielded —  yielded 
continually.  We  made  no  fight  over  the  annexation  of 
slave  territory,  the  admission  of  slave  States.  We  should 
have  rent  the  Union  into  the  primitive  townships  sooner 
than  consent  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  But  as  we  failed 
to  fight  manfully  then,  I  never  thought  the  North  woidd 
rally  on  the  Missouri  Compromise  line.  I  rejoice  at  the 
display  of  indignation  I  witness  here  and  elsewhere. 
For  once  New  York  appears  more  moral  than  Bos- 
ton. I  thank  you  for  it.  A  meeting  is  called  in  the  Park 
to-morrow.  It  is  high  time.  But  I  doubt  that  the  North 
will  yet  rally  and  defend  the  line  drawn  in  1820.  But 
there  are  two  lines  of  defence  where  the  nation  wiU.  pause, 
I  think — the  occupation  of  Cuba,  with  its  war  so  destruc- 
tive to  Northern  ships ;  and  the  restoration  of  the  African 
slave-trade.  The  slave-breeding  States,  Maryland,  Yirginia, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Missouri,  will  oppose  that ;  for,  if  the 
Gulf  States,  and  the  future  tropical  territories  can  import 
Africans  at  $100  a  head,  depend  upon  it,  that  will  spoil  the 
market  for  the  slave-breeders  of  America.  And,  gentle- 
men, if  Virginia  cannot  sell  her  own  children,  how  will  this 
"  well-born,  Avell- educated,  well-bred  aristocrat  "  look  down 
on  the  poor  and  ignorant  Yankee !  No,  gentlemen,  this 
iniquity  is  not  to  last  for  ever.  A  certain  amount  of  force 
will  compress  a  cubic  foot  of  water  into  nine-tenths  of  its 
natural  size  ;  but  the  weight  of  the  whole  earth  cannot  make 
it  any  smaller.  Even  the  North  is  not  infinitely  compres- 
sible. When  atom  touches  atom,  you  may  take  off  the 
screws. 

Things  cannot  continue  long  in  this  condition.  Every 
triumph  of  Slavery  is   a  day's  march  towards  its  ruin. 


190  ANTI-SLAVERY  ADDRESS. 

There  is  no  liigher  law,  is  there  ?  *'  He  taketh  tlie  wise 
in  their  own  craftiness,  the  council  of  the  wicked  is  carried  '' 
— ay,  but  it  is  carried  headlong. 

Only  see  what  a  change  has  been  coming  over  our  spirit 
just  now.  Three  years  ago,  Isaiah  Rynders  and  Hiram 
Ketchum  domineered  over  New  York ;  and  those  gentle- 
men who  are  to  follow  me,  and  whom  you  are  impatient  to 
hear,  were  mobbed  down  in  the  city  of  J^ew  York,  two 
years  ago ;  they  could  not  find  a  hall  that  would  be  leased 
to  them  for  money  or  love,  and  had  to  adjourn  to  Syra- 
cuse to  hold  their  convention.  Look  at  this  assembly 
now. 

A  little  while  ago  all  the  leading  clergymen  were  in 
favour  of  the  [Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  now  three  thousand  of 
New  England  ministers  remonstrate  against  Nebraska. 
They  know  there  is  a  fire  in  their  rear,  and,  in  theological 
language,  it  is  a  fire  that  "  is  not  quenched."  It  goeth  not 
out  by  day,  and  there  is  no  night  there.  The  clergymen 
stand  between  eternal  torment  on  one  side  and  the  little 
giant  of  Slavery  on  the  other.  They  do  not  go  back ! 
Two  thousand  English  clergymen  once  became  non-con- 
formists in  a  single  day.  Three  thousand  New  England 
ministers  remonstrated  against  the  enslavement  of  Ne- 
braska. Now  is  the  time  to  push  and  be  active,  call  meet- 
ings, bring  out  men  of  all  parties,  all  forms  of  religion, 
agitate,  agitate,  agitate.  Make  a  fire  in  the  rear  of  the 
Government  and  the  representatives.  The  South  is  weak 
• — only  .united.  The  North  is  strong  in  money,  in  men,  in 
education,  in  the  justice  of  our  great  cause — only  not  united 
for  freedom.  Only  be  faithful  to  ourselves,  and  Slavery  will 
come  down,  not  slowly,  as  I  thought  once,  but  when  the 
people  of  the  North  say  it,  it  will  come  down  with  a  great 

CRASH. 

Then,  when  we  are  free  from  this  plague-spot  of  Slavery 
—the  curse  to  our  industry,  our  education,  our  politics,  and 
our  religion — we  shall  increase  more  rapidly  in  number  and 
still  more  abundantly  be  rich.  The  South  will  be  as  the 
North — active,  intelligent — Virginia  rich  as  New  York, 
the  Carolinas  as  active  as  Massachusetts.  Then,  by  peace- 
ful purchase,  the  Anglo-Saxon  may  acquire  the  rest  of  this 
North  American  Continent.  The  Spaniards  will  make 
nothing  of  it.     Nay,  we  may  honourably  go  farther  South, 


ANTI-SLAVERY   ADDHESS.  191 

and  possess  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  slopes  of  the  IS^orthern 
continent,  extending  the  area  of  Freedom  at  every  step. 
We  may  carry  thither  the  Anglo-Saxon  vigour  and  enter- 
prise, the  old  love  of  liberty,  the  love  also  of  law  ;  the  best 
institutions  of  the  present  age — ecclesiastical,  political, 
social,  domestic.  Then  what  a  nation  w^e  shall  one  day 
become.  America,  the  mother  of  a  thousand  Anglo-Saxon 
States,  tropic  and  temperate,  on  both  sides  the  Equator, 
may  behold  the  Mississippi  and  the  Amazon  uniting  their 
waters,  the  drainage  of  two  vast  continents  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean of  the  Western  World ;  may  count  her  children  at 
last  by  hundreds  of  millions — and  among  them  all  behold 
no  tyrant  and  no  slave !  What  a  spectacle — the  Anglo- 
Saxon  family  occupying  a  whole  hemisphere,  with  industry, 
freedom,  religion.  The  fulfilment  of  this  vision  is  our  pro- 
vince ;  we  are  the  involuntary  instruments  of  God.  Shall 
America  scorn  the  mission  God  sends  her  on?  Then  let  us 
all  perish,  and  may  Russia  teach  justice  to  mankind  ! 


A    SERMON 


OF   THE 


CONSEQUENCES    OF  AN   IMMORAL  PRINCIPLE  AND 
FALSE  IDEA  OF  LIFE. 

PREACHED    AT   THE    MUSIC   HALL    IN    BOSTON,    ON    SUNDAY, 

NOTEMBEU  26,    1854. 

"  Be  not  deceived  ;  God  is  not  mocked  :  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 
that  shall  ho  also  reap." — Galatians,  vi.  7. 

I  ASK  your  attention  to  a  "  Sermon  of  tlie  Consequences 
wliicli  come  from  an  Immoral  Principle  and  False  Idea  of 
Man's  Duty  and  the  Purpose  of  Human  Life." 

Man's  moral,  as  his  industrial  progress,  is  by  experiment. 
Many  of  the  experiments  fail ;  but  by  repeated  trials  we 
hit  the  mark.  America's  mercantile  ability  to-day — her 
power  of  agriculture,  mining,  manufactures,  commerce — is 
the  achievement  of  the  human  race  in  the  long  history 
from  the  creation  till  now.  So  America's  spiritual  ability 
— her  power  of  wisdom,  justice,  philanthropy,  and  religion 
— is  not  the  product  of  this  one  nation,  nor  of  this  age 
alone,  but  of  all  time  and  all  men;  it  is  a  part  of  the  net 
result  of  human  activity  thus  far.  Vice,  ignorance,  folly, 
injustice,  bad  institutions — they  represent  the  imperfect 
development  of  man's  faculties,  and  consequent  experi- 
ments badly  planned  ;  and  so  which  needs  must  fail.  The 
most  moral  man  in  Boston  did  not  attain  his  excellence  all 
at  once,  but  by  repeated  efforts,  by  continuous  experi- 
ments ;  and  a  great  many  of  his  efforts  turned  out  mistakes. 
As  he  builds  up  his  fortune,  so  his  character,  by  trial,  by 
experiment ;  first  failure,  and  then  success.  So  out  of  this 
briar.  Failure,  we  pluck  the  honeyed  rose.  Success. 

In  the  best   man's   action,   there   is  a  per-centage   of 


THE    CONSEQUENCES   OF   AN   IMMOHAL   PRINCIPLE.       193 

abnormal  action :  that  is,  folly,  injustice,  error,  sin — if  you 
choose  to  call  it  so.  Put  all  man's  moral  misdemeanours 
together,  and  call  them  by  one  name — Yice.  They  are 
most  conveniently  dealt  with  if  put  into  a  basket  with  a 
single  handle. 

This  amount  of  abnormal  action,  other  things  being 
equal,  will  diminish  in  proportion  to  the  correctness  of  the 
man's  ideal  of  life  ;  and  in  proportion  to  the  strength  and 
earnestness  of  his  efforts  to  make  his  ideal  the  actual  fact 
of  his  life  :  or  it  will  increase  in  proportion  to  the  falseness 
of  his  ideal,  and  the  feebleness  of  his  eiforts  to  make  it 
the  actual  fact  of  his  life.  Yice  is  a  variable,  capable  of 
being  enlarged  or  lessened. 

In  all  nations,  likewise,  there  is  a  variable  per  centage 
of  moral  error — Yice.  Other  things  being  equal,  this 
abnormal  quantity  will  commonly  depend  on  five  causes. 

First.  On  the  amount  of  activity  in  the  nation ;  a 
people  that  goes  is  more  likely  to  go  wrong  than  one  that 
goes  not ;  one  which  goes  much,  more  than  one  which  goes 
little. 

■  Second.  On  the  amount  of  property ;  for  property  re- 
presents power  over  Nature,  and  this  may  be  abused, 
directed  wrong  or  right. 

Third.  On  the  difference  in  respect  to  property  between 
the  rich  class  and  the  poor  class.  Where  this  difference 
is  immense,  there  is  a  vast  quantity  of  vice ;  where  the 
difference  is  small,  the  vice  is  little. 

Fourth.  On  the  ideas  which  men  of  genius,  cidture, 
and  station,  spread  abroad  amongst  the  people  as  their  rule 
of  life  ;  on  the  institutions  and  laws.  Where  these  are 
good,  vice  will  continually  diminish;  where  bad,  progres- 
sively multiply.  National  institutions,  conduct,  character, 
resemble  the  popular  ideas  as  plants  grow  from  the  seed. 

Fifth.  On  the  pains  taken  to  remove  the  causes  of 
wrong, — the  circumstances  which  occasion  it ;  an  attempt 
to  remove  ignorance,  alleviate  want,  cure  drunkenness,  end 
prostitution  ;  on  the  pains  taken  to  comfort,  teach,  and 
moralize  mankind. 

In  France,  England,  part  of  Germany,  and  the  free 
States  of  America,  great  pains  are  taken  to  diminish  the 
amomit  of  vice  by  removing  some  of  its  outward  causes. 
Wise  social  philosophers  look  upon  all  this  abnormal  action 

VOL.    VI.  0 


194      THE   CONSEQUENCES   OF   AN   IMMORAL  PRINCIPLE. 

of  a  nation  as  a  disease  incident  to  tlio  cHldhood  of  man- 
Idnd,  and  to  exposure  amongst  pernicious  circumstances, 
not  natural  to  man's  constitution,  but  only  native  to 
certain  conditions  and  stages  of  development ;  and  theso 
doctors  of  humanity  seek  to  help  mankind  remove  the  out- 
ward occasion,  and  overcome  the  inward  and  transient  im- 
pulse to  this  wrong. 

Now,  in  these  four  countries,  for  fifty  or  a  hundred  years 
past,  there  has  been  a  progressive  diminution  of  vice.  The 
amount  of  abnormal  action  first  becomes  smaller  in  pro- 
portion to  the  whole  action,  and  to  the  whole  property,  a 
smaller  fraction  of  the  total  action  of  the  people.  The 
amount  of  tare  is  diminished. 

But  next,  the  bad  quality  of  vice  also  diminishes.  The 
old  error  of  violence  disappears ;  the  milder  vices  take  its 
place.  The  chief  object  of  vicious  attack  is  not  the  sub- 
stance of  man,  his  person ;  it  is  an  accident  of  man,  his 
estate.  Yices  of  violent  instinct — lust,  revenge,  diminish 
and  shade  off  into  vices  of  reflective  calculation — ambition, 
acquisitiveness,  and  the  like. 

Then,  as  a  third  thing,  vice  is  getting  confined  to  a 
smaller  class  of  persons.  Once,  it  was  almost  universal. 
Buch  vice  was  instantial,  virtue  the  exception.  In  the  age 
before  Homer,  every  Grreek  skipper  was  also  a  pirate. 
Now,  vice  permanently  infects  but  a  small  body  of  persons; 
first,  the  perishing  class,  whom  poverty  and  its  consequent 
ignorance  makes  offenders ;  second,  the  professional  vil- 
lains, not  ignorant,  not  necessarily  poor, — for,  in  the 
division  of  labour  in  modern  society,  general  viUany  has 
become  a  profession,  whereof  there  are  various  specialities 
— pickpockets,  burglars,  thieves,  forgers,  and  the  Kke  ;  the 
same  spirit  of  viUany  having  divers  manifestations. 

So  the  general  abnormal  action  is  getting  corrected. 
First,  the  snow  is  getting  thin  everywhere ;  next,  it  be- 
comes less  cold  in  aU  or  most  places  ;  third,  it  gets  melted 
away  from  the  open  land,  and  only  lies  in  a  few  great  heaps, 
covered  up  with  dust,  or  is  stretched  in  long  lines  where 
the  walls  hide  it  from  the  summer's  sun.  Men  are  attack- 
ing also  this  residue  of  ice  and  snow,  carting  it  off  to 
sunnier  spots  :  and  so  the  world  is  getting  moralized  ;  and 
though  fresh  snow  falls  on  the  ground,  yet  the  neck  of 
vice's  vanter  must  be  considered  broke.    The  moralization 


AND   FALSE   IDEA   OF   LIFE.  195 

of  mankind,  goes  on  continually ;  tlic  proportionate  quan- 
tity of  yico  is  lessened,  and.  its  quality  bettered,  in  Eng- 
land, France,  part  of  Germany,  and.  in  free  America. 

In  some  of  the  other  countries  of  Christendom,  there  is 
one  great  cause  which  hinders  man's  instinct  of  pro- 
gressive development,  and  prevents  the  advancing  diminu- 
tion of  vice,  namely ;  the  institutional  tyranny  exercised 
by  the  church,  by  society,  by  the  state,  by  priests,  kings, 
and  nobles.  That  cause  retards  the  normal  action  of  the 
people  in  Russia,  Turkey,  Austria,  the  other  part  of 
Germany,  in  Italy,  Portugal,  and  Spain,  where  the 
progress  of  man  is  far  less  rapid  than  in  those  four  other 
countries  just  named.  This  tyranny  retards  also  man's 
advance  in  riches,  for  despotism  is  always  costly ;  vice  is  a 
spendthrift,  and,  other  things  being  equal,  a  moral  people 
will  have  the  most  power  over  the  material  world,  and 
consequently  be  the  richest,  and  advance  in  riches  with  the 
greatest  rapidity, — for  wealth  is  an  unavoidable  accident 
of  man's  development,  indispensable  for  future  progress, 
and  the  hoarded  result  of  the  past. 

But  here,  in  America,  there  is  one  cause  which  tends  to 
check  the  progressive  diminution  of  abnormal  action,  and 
the  advancing  moralization  of  man,  and  which  actually  is 
now  leading  to  a  frightful  development  of  vice  in  most 
hateful  and  dangerous  forms  ;  indeed,  a  cause  which  tends 
to  demoralize  the  people  here,  even  more  rapidly  than 
tyranny  itself  is  doing  in  Russia,  Austria,  Turkey,  Italy, 
Portugal,  and  Spain.  Here  is  the  cause  :  it  is  the  preva- 
lence of  an  immoral  principle,  a  false  idea  of  man's  duty, 
boldly  set  forth  by  men  of  great  prominence,  and  within 
the  last  few  years  very  widely  spread. 

To  understand  this  false  idea  the  better,  and  see  how 
fatally  it  operates  against  us,  look  a  little  at  the  circum- 
stances of  the  nation,  wherein  we  differ  from  the  other 
families  of  men.  The  old  civilizations  of  Europe  had  two 
distinctive  characteristic  marks. 

First,  they  were  oligarchic,  having  a  government  of  all, 
but  by  a  few,  and  for  the  sake  of  a  few.  Sometimes  it 
was  a  theocratic  oligarchy — the  rule  of  priests  over  the' 
people;  sometimes  a  monarchic  oligarchy — the  rule  of 
kings  over  the  subjects;   sometimes   an  aristocratic  oli- 

o2 


196       THE   CONSEQUENCES   OF   AN   IMMORAL   PRINCIPLE 

garchy—tlie  rule  of  tlie  nobility  over  the  plebeian  class ; 
sometimes  a  despotocratic  oligarchy — the  rule  of  masters 
over  their  slaves.     In  all  these  four  cases,  the  mass  of  men 
were  deemed  of  no  value  except  as  servants  to  the  oligarch. 
He  was  "  born  to  eat  up  the  corn/'  to  wear  the  flowers  in 
the  garland  round  his  brow ;  the  mass  of  men  were  only 
born  to  create  corn  for  him  to  eat,  and  rear  flowers  for 
him  to  wear.     But  if  you  ''  drive  out  Nature  with  a  pitch- 
fork,   still   nevertheless  she  comes   back."     And   so   the 
people  tended  to  rebellion,  casting  ofi"  the  yoke  of  priest, 
king,  noble,  master.     To  check  this  revolutionary  spirit, 
the  ruling  power  spreads  abroad  the  idea  that  such  rebel- 
lion is  the  greatest  ofience  which  man  can  commit ;  it  is 
high   treason.      So   in    the   theocratic   oligarchy   it   was 
high  treason  to  doubt  or  deny  the  exclusive  rule  of  the 
priest ;  in  the  monarchic,  the  exclusive  rule  of  the  king ; 
in  the  aristocratic,  the  exclusive  rule  of  the  nobilitary 
class  ;  and,  in  the  despotocratic,  the  exclusive^  rule  of  the 
master.     It  was  taught  there  was  no  natural  right  of  men 
above  the  conventional  privilege  of  the  priest,  king,  noble, 
and  master  ;  no  law  of  God  above  the  enactment  of  earthly 
rulers.     This  characteristic  mark  of  the  old  civilization  is 
somewhat  efiaced  in  France  and  England ;  but  still  even 
there  the  handwriting  is  yet  so  plain  that  he  may  read 
who  runs. 

That  is  the  first  characteristic.  Here  is  the  next. 
Therein,  civilization  was  military,  not  industrial ;  the  art 
to  produce  was  put  below  the  art  to  destroy.  Productive 
industry  was  counted  "  an  illiberal  art ;"  it  was  despised : 
destructive  fighting  was  "liberal"  work;  it  was  honoured. 
Working  was  for  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  must  be 
degraded  ;  fighting,  the  rulers'  business,  and  held  honour- 
able. "  It  is  the  business  of  a  man  to  fight,  of  a  slave  to 
work,"  quoth  Homer.  Besides,  fighting  was  indispens- 
able for  these  unnatural  rulers,  not  only  to  stave  off"  a 
foreign  foe,  but  at  home  to  keep  the  mass  of  the  people 
down.  This  characteristic  mark  of  all  the  governments  of 
the  old  world  is  likewise  somewhat  efiaced  in  mercantile 
England  and  France,  but  still  writ  in  letters  of  fire,  most 
savagely  plain.  Such  oligarchies  do  not  rest  on  the  per- 
manent moral  nature  of  man,  but  only  on  the  transient 
selfishness  incident  to  a  low  stage  of  development.     Their 


AND  FALSE   IDEA  OF  LIFE.  197 

support  is  not  in  tlie  conscience  of  the  mass  of  men,  but 
in  tlie  violence  of  tlie  few  wlio  rule ;  not  in  the  consent 
of  the  Hungarians  and  Poles,  but  in  the  cannons  of  the 
Emperor  and  the  Czar.  Military  violence  is  the  comple- 
ment of  oligarchy,  for  the  special  privilege  of  the  oligarch 
is  held  of  his  private  selfishness,  and  against  mankind ; 
not  of  his  human  nature,  and  for  all  the  people  ;  is  a  con- 
ventional, not  a  natural  accident  of  humanity.  Hence  is  it 
also  insecure :  for  what  will  not  even  touch  firm  ground 
with  its  feet  must  one  day  Avith  its  head. 

"Now,  the  American  civilization  has  two  characteristics 
exactly  opposite  to  these.  First,  it  is  not  oligarchic  ;  it  is 
a  democracy ;  in  theory,  having  a  government  of  all,  for 
all,  by  all.     JSText,  it  is  industrial,  and  not  military. 

I.  This  democracj^,  in  theory,  rests  on  the  idea  that  the 
substance  of  manhood,  the  human  nature  in  which  all  are 
alike,  is  superior  to  any  human  accident  wherein  all  must 
differ.  Manhood  is  more  than  priesthood,  kinghood,  noble - 
hood,  masterhood.  The  qualitative  human  agreement  of 
nature  is  more  than  the  quantitative  difierence  between 
the  genius  and  the  clown ;  more  than  the  historic  and 
conventional  distinction  between  noble-born  and  common- 
born,  rich  and  poor.  So  democracy  can  exist  only  on  con- 
dition that  this  human  substance  is  equally  respected  in 
the  greatest  and  the  least ;  in  man  and  woman ;  in  the 
largest  majority,  and  in  the  minority  of  one,  that  stands 
on  manhood.  So  the  people  is  not  for  the  ruler,  but  the 
ruler  for  the  people ;  the  government  is  the  creature  of  the 
nation,  not  the  nation  of  the  government.  Each  man's 
natural  rights  are  to  be  sacred  against  the  wrong-doing  of 
any  other  man,  or  of  the  whole  nation  of  men — all  pro- 
tected against  each,  each  against  all.   That  is  the  first  point, 

II.  Then  the  American  civilization  is  also  industrial. 
Military  power  is  to  be  exceptional,  subordinate  ;  the  in- 
dustrial is  instantial  and  chief.  Now,  industry  aims  at  the 
production  and  enjoyment  of  property;  for,  in  a  word, 
industry  is  the  art  of  making  material  nature  into  human 
property.  Property  is  a  natural  accident  of  man,  in- 
separable from  his  substance.     The  first  thing  he  does  on 


198      THE  CONSEQUENCES  OF  AN  IMMORAL  PEINCIFLE 

coming  into  tlie  world  is  to  acquire  property ;  first  food, 
then  shelter.  The  first  thing"  the  baby  does  is  this :  the 
earliest  generation  of  babies — baby  men — their  first  deed 
was  acquisition ;  food  for  existence,  flowers  for  ornament. 
Property  is  the  material  result  and  test  of  man's  normal 
activity.  It  is  also  the  indispensable  condition  of  existence 
from  day  to  day;  much  and  permanent  property  is  the 
indispensable  condition  for  the  advance  and  development 
of  mankind,  in  mind  and  conscience,  heart  and  soul.  It  is 
an  accident  of  more  value  than  all  other  external  accidents 
— priestly,  kingly,  nobilitary,  and  despotocratic.  In  the 
industrial  state,  money  is  the  symbol  of  power,  for  the 
individual  and  for  the  nation ;  it  is  worth  more  than 
descent  from  priestly  Moses,  or  Luther,  from  royal  Charle- 
magne, or  protectorial  Cromwell,  or  from  any  nobilitary 
stem.  "  All  the  blood  of  all  the  Howards"  is  powerless, 
compared  to  the  almighty  dollar. 

Democracy  is  not  possilDle  except  in  a  nation  where  there 
is  so  much  property,  and  that  so  widely  distributed  that 
the  whole  people  can  have  considerable  education — intel- 
lectual, moral,  affectional,  and  religious.  So  much  property, 
widely  distributed,  judiciously  applied,  is  the  indispensable 
material  basis  of  a  democracj^ ;  as  military  power  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  existence  of  a,n  unnatural  oligarchy — 
priestl}^,  monarchic,  nobilitary,  or  despotocratic;  and  as 
those  tyrannical  rulers  must  have"  military  power  to  keep 
the  people  down,  so  in  a  democracy  the  people  must  have 
property — the  result  of  their  industry — to  keep  themselves 
up,  and  advance  their  education ;  else,  very  soon  there  will 
be  a  government  over  all,  but  by  a  few,  and  for  the  sake  of 
a  few ;  and  democracy  will  end  in  despotism.  But  it  ^nust 
be  natural  property  resting  on  a  basis  of  natural  morality, 
consisting  of  what  man  may  own  and  not  violate  his  moral 
nature.  There  can  be  no  natural  property  which  violates 
natural  right,  the  constitution  of  the  universe. 

Accordingly,  from  the  nature  of  such  a  government,  it 
becomes  necessary,  in  every  industrial  democracy,  to  have 
one  thing  sacred  : — the  natural  rights  of  man,  the  sub- 
stance of  humanity.  This  is  the  prime  factor  of  all  the 
national  product.  If  the  natural  rights  of  man  be  not 
respected,  then  the  democracy  will  perish,  just  as  the  oli- 
garchy will  come  to  an  end  if  the  pretended  privilege 


AND   FALSE   IDEA   OF   LIFE.  199 

of  Idng,  priest,  noble,  and  master  be  denied  and  set  at 
naught.  Tlie  natural  rights  of  the  individual  must  bo 
secured  from  violation  by  another  man,  or  by  the  State.  An 
attack  on  the  natural  rights  of  man  is  the  most  fatal  of  all 
things  to  the  industrial  democracy,  undermining  the  foun- 
dation whereon  its  chief  corner  stone  is  laid ;  for  rights  are 
anterior  to  all  '^  social  compacts,"  and  the  earliest  statutes 
of  the  oldest  realm ;  are  inherent  in  our  nature,  and  there- 
with derived  from  God.  Oligarchy  involves  a  denial  of 
the  generic  rights  of  human  nature ;  it  depends  on  violence, 
and  has  no  permanent  roots  in  the  constitution  of  man; 
while  democracy  is  only  possible  on  condition  of  permanent 
respect  for  those  rights. 

When  the  substance  of  man  is  thus  respected,  and  his 
rights  in  general  duly  honoured,  all  special  rights  are  also 
safe  :  among  these  is  the  right  to  property,  an  indispensable 
accident  of  man,  quite  easily  secured  if  man's  substance  be 
respected ;  but  if  not,  then  property  itself  is  as  insecure  in 
the  industrial  democracy  as  freedom  in  a  despotism.  So, 
in  a  democracy,  any  attack  on  the  unalienable  rights  of 
man,  or  any  class  of  men,  or  any  individual  person,  is  an 
attack  also  on  each  one  of  the  accidents  of  man — on  property, 
for  example ;  taking  from  beneath  it  the  natural  basis  of 
right,  whereon  it  might  rest  secure,  and  substituting  there- 
fore only  permanent  or  fleeting  violence.  This  has  not 
been  known  as  science  by  philosophers,  nor  seen  as  fact  by 
the  mass  of  men,  but  is  yet  fore-felt  in  the  instinctive  con- 
sciousness of  enlightened  nations,  and  partially  acted  on. 
We  are  wiser  than  we  Iniow,  and  build  better  than  we  plan ; 
for  the  instinct  of  the  people  has  told  them  that  the  sub- 
stance of  man  must  be  held  sacred. 

Now,  an  industrial  democracy  is  not  the  creature  of 
man's  caprice,  which  might  be  so  or  otherwise.  It  is  a 
reproduction  of  the  law  of  human  nature,  and  the  consti- 
tution of  the  universe ;  and  "  other  foundation  can  no  man 
lay  than  what  is  laid"  eternally  in  the  nature  of  man. 
Arabesques  of  fancy  may  differ,  as  Eaphael  Urbino  or  as 
E/aphael  Morgen  paints  them;  they  are  the  creatures  of 
voluntary  caprice  :  but  the  multiplication  tables,  made  by 
Pythagoras  or  Bowditch,  must  be  exactly  alike ;  for  they 
represent,  not  man's  caprice,  but  a  necessity  of  universal 
law,  and  rest  thereon.    So  the  industrial  democracy  can  rest 


200      THE    COXSEQUENCES   OF   AN    IMMORAL   PHINCIPLE 

only  on  the  law  of  God,  writ  in  the  constitution  of  matter 
and  mind  ;  accordingly,  the  greatest  of  all  political  errors, 
and  the  most  fatal  to  the  existence  of  democracy,  to  the 
rights  of  man,  and  to  the  security  of  property,  one  of  his 
indispensable  accidents,  is  the  idea  that  man  has  no  obliga- 
tion to  respect  the  constitution  of  the  universe ;  and  the 
declaration  that  there  is  no  law  above  the  statutes  which 
men's  hands  have  made.  Where  that  idea  prevails,  there 
is  a  blovv^  struck  at  every  man's  head,  and  at  each  dollar  of 
property.  Tyranny  may  be  provisional;  justice  alone  is 
ultimate  ;  the  point  common  to  each  and  all,  to  man  and 
God,  whereon  all  rights  balance. 

Such  is  the  difference  between  the  theory  of  American 
civilization  and  that  of  the  old  civilizations  of  Asia  and 
Europe  ; — ours  is  the  theory  of  a  society  that  is  onlj^  pes- 
sible  nineteen  centuries  after  Christ ;  nine  centuries  after 
it  could  not  have  been  ;  and  nine  centuries  before  it  could 
not  have  been  dreamed  of ;  and  such  is  its  foundation  in 
man  and  the  nature  of  things. 

I  have  just  said  that,  in  virtue  of  certain  causes,  there  is 
a  progressive  diminution  of  man's  abnormal  action,  and  a 
j)rogressive  moralization  of  manldnd  in  England,  France, 
part  of  Germany,  and  the  free  States  of  America;  but 
that  in  some  other  European  countries  this  natural  diminu- 
tion of  wrong  is  retarded  by  the  crimes  of  the  ruling  power. 
ISTay,  even  in  England  and  France,  man's  moralization  is 
largely  retarded  by  the  corruption  and  selfishness  of  the 
controlling  classes  of  men,  who  spread  abroad  false  ideas  of 
man's  duty  to  himself,  to  his  brother,  and  to  his  God ; — 
sometimes  doing  it  purposely,  but  most  often,  I  have  charity 
enough  to  think,  doing  it  through  mistake.  Still  this  dimi- 
nution goes  on  in  the  manner  set  forth. 

Now,  in  America,  in  direct  opposition  to  this  progressive 
moralization  of  man,  during  the  last  few  years  there  has 
been  a  rapid  increase  of  certain  great  vices,  which  are  also 
crimes ;  transgressions  not  only  of  God's  law,  but  likewise 
of  man's  statutes, — vices  of  appalling  magnitude.  They 
are  offences  not  committed  by  those  two  classes  just  men- 
tioned as  concentrating  a  great  amount  of  what  is  com- 
monly called  vice  and  crime — the  perishing  class,  whom 
poverty  makes  thieves  and  robbers,  and  the  professional 
villains,  who  make  rascality  their  vocation.     ]Nor  yet  are 


AND   FALSE   IDEA   OF   LIFE.  201 

they  committed  under  the  transient  and  accidental  stimidus 
of  strong  drink,  or  temporary  malice,  or  passion,  that 
springs  upon  the  man, — causes  which  gender  so  many 
brawls  and  murders.  These  offences  are  committed  by 
persons  of  high  standing  in  society,  done  deliberately,  the 
man  knowing  verj'-  well  what  he  is  about. 

For  convenience  in  my  handling  and  your  remembering, 
I  will  put  these  into  three  classes.  First,  offences  against 
the  property  of  individuals ;  next,  offences  against  the  life 
of  individuals  for  the  sake  of  getting  their  property ;  and 
third,  offences  against  the  property  and  the  life  of  other 
nations.  The  first  and  second  are  individual, — personal 
vices  ;  the  last  is  national, — a  collective  vice. 

I.  Here  are  some  cases  which  I  put  in  the  first  class, 
offences  against  property.  I  will  not  travel  out  of  Ame- 
rica, nor  go  back  more  than  twelve  months.  Let  me  say 
at  the  outset,  of  the  individuals  who  have  done  the  deeds  I 
refer  to,  I  would  speak  and  judge  with  the  greatest  deli- 
cacy and  the  most  refined  charity.  It  is  the  deed  itself  on 
which  I  wish  to  fasten  your  condemnation,  not  the  man 
who  did  it  ;  for  I  want  you  to  look  through  the  man  at  the 
deed  ;  through  the  deed,  at  the  cause  of  it,  lying  far  behind, 
which  I  will  presently  bring  before  your  eye. 

Here  is  the  first  in  the  first  class.  Mr.  Crane,  President 
of  the  New  England  railroad,  deprived  the  company  of  I 
know  not  how  large  a  sum  of  money  entrusted  to  him.  In 
this  particular  case  there  was  much  in  the  man's  character, 
and  has  been  much  in  his  conduct  since, — which,  I  am 
told,  is,  in  general,  manly  and  upright, — to  lead  to  a  favour- 
able judgment  of  him.  It  is  the  deed  I  look  at,  and  the 
principle  which  lies  behind  the  deed,  which  I  condemn  : 
for  the  man,  I  have  a  woman's  charity  ;  for  the  deed  and 
the  principle  behind  it,  a  man's  justice. 

Here  is  the  next  case.  Mr.  Schuyler,  at  New  York, 
plundered  the  public  of  about  two  millions  of  dollars,  com- 
mitting the  largest  fraud  of  the  kind  ever  perpetrated  in 
America  or  Europe. 

Here  is  the  third.  In  California,  Mr.  Meigs  robbed  the 
pubKc  of  one  million  six  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

As  a  fourth  thing,  in  New  York,  the  Ocean  Bank  has 
robbed  the  public  of  one  or  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 


202      THE   CONSEQUENCES   OF   AN   IMMORAL   PEINCIPLE 

As  a  fifth,  you  laiov/  in  Boston  tlie  history  of  the  Metro- 
politan Insurance  Company  and  of  the  Cochituate  Bank, 
two  bubbles  of  fraud  that  burst,  swallowing  up  the  pro- 
perty of  honest  men. 

In  Ohio,  banks  and  bankers  have  just  now  committed 
frauds  to  the  extent  of,  I  think,  not  less  than  two  millions 
of  dollars. 

Then  look  at  the  conduct  of  the  municipal  governments 
of  New  York  and  Boston,  the  manner  in  which  they  squan- 
der the  money  of  the  people,  veiling  the  uses  to  which  it 
has  been  appropriated,  and  thus  wasting  the  people's  trea- 
sure. I  need  only  refer  to  the  rapid  increase  of  taxes  in 
Boston,  which  every  property-holder  knows  and  laments, 
— and  I  need  not  say  there  is  no  honest  explanation  for  the 
whole  thing.  You  all  know  it.  Here,  too,  I  would  speak 
with  all  becoming  charity. 

II.  Here  are  some  cases  of  the  next  class.  !N^ot  two 
months  ago,  the  steamship  A7Ttic,  with  about  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty  passengers,  was  coming  from  England  to 
E'ew  York.  She  had  six  boats,  and,  if  they  were  crowded 
till  the  gunwale  kissed  the  sea,  they  would  hold  at  the  ut- 
most only  one  hundred  and  eighty  persons ;  so  in  case  t)f 
wreck  there  were  two  hundred  others  with  no  chance  of 
escape.  This  was  the  owner's  fault ;  and  dearly  has  he 
paid  for  it !  The  ship,  in  a  fog  so  thick  that  a  man  could 
not  see  twice  the  length  of  the  vessel  before  him,  drives 
through  the  darkness  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  miles  an  hour, 
giving  no  warning  sound  of  her  ferocious  approach.  This 
was  the  captain's  fault ;  and  dearly  has  he  paid  for  it ! 
When  the  disaster  happened,  some  thirty  or  forty  men  es- 
caped,— not  a  woman  or  child !  the  feeble-bodied  were  left 
to  die.  I  will  not  call  this  the  faicU  of  the  men ;  it  was 
their  disgrace  and  their  sin  !  If  our  fathers  at  Lexington 
and  Bunker  Hill  had  thrown  down  their  muskets  and 
turned  their  backs  to  the  British,  and  been  shot  down  with 
a  coward's  womid,  you  and  I  would  feel  disgraced  till  this 
day ;  but  I  think  it  woidd  not  have  been  half  so  disgraceful 
to  run  from  a  red- coat  as  to  leave  a  woman  and  a  baby  to 
perish  in  the  waters,  rather  than  hazard  one's  own  life.  I 
should  be  ashamed  to  live  if  I  had  left  a  woman  to  sink  in 
the  ocean,  and  escaped  myself.     It  is  rumoured  that  a  boat 


AND   FALSE   IDEA   OF   LIFE.  203 

full  of  women  was  purposely  overturned  by  the  crew — to 
save  their  manly  lives  ! 

I  believe  about  three  hundred  and  forty  persons  perished. 
I  am  spealdng  in  a  mercantile  town,  where,  if  life  and  jus- 
tice be  not  valued,  money  is.  Look  then  at  it  as  the  de- 
struction of  himian  property  only.  In  Massachusetts,  the 
official  valuation  of  a  man,  whose  life  is  destroyed  by  a 
railroad  company,  is  five  thousand  dollars.  Three  hundred 
and  forty  lives  at  five  thousand  dollars  each,  make  the  sum 
of  one  million  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars.  That  is  the 
pecuniary  value  of  life  dashed  away  through  the  cupidity 
of  the  ship-owner  and  the  recklessness  of  the  ship-master  ! 
With  gentleness,  judge  you  the  men ;  look  at  the  principle 
which  lies  behind ! 

Pardon  me  if  I  try  to  calculate  the  value  of  a  human 
life,  estimating  it  at  five  thousand  dollars  !  If,  an  hour 
before  the  "  accident,"  some  man  had  said  to  these  three 
hundred  and  forty  persons,  "  I  will  place  at  your  disposal 
all  the  riches  of  America,  Europe,  and  Asia,  on  condition 
you  shall  sink  yourselves  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea ; "  do  you 
think  there  was  one  man  who  would  have  said,  "  Let  us 
take  the  wealth,  and  leave  it  to  our  heirs,  and  ourselves 
atheistically  go  down? ''  E'o  !  all  the  wealth  of  the  mate- 
rial universe  could  not  have  purchased  the  sin.  Men  who 
would  lay  down  their  life  for  a  moral  principle,  or  a  friend, 
would  never  throw  it  away  for  all  the  gold  in  California  or 
Australia,  or  in  the  three  continents  of  the  earth  besides. 
Pardon  me  for  calculating  in  money  the  value  of  human  life. 

A  similar  case,  in  its  origin  and  in  its  conduct,  took 
place  in  the  recent  destruction  of  the  Ymikee  Blade,  at 
California.  Then,  scarce  a  week  passes  but  some  railroad 
or  steamboat  company  massacres  men  by  the  wholesale, — > 
sometimes,  most  commonly,  through  reckless  cupidity  and 
lust  of  gold.  I  believe  America  commits  more  murders 
than  all  the  rest  of  Protestant  Christendom  ;  taking  away 
Bussia  and  Spanish  America,  probably  more  than  all 
Christendom,  Protestant  and  Catholic.  But  not  to  speak  of 
the  harvest  of  murders  we  annually  reap,  there  is  no 
country  in  Christendom  where  life  is  so  insecure,  so  cruelly 
dashed  away  in  the  manslaughter  of  reckless  enterprise  ! 

III.    Here  is  the  third  class, — offences  against  the  pro- 


204      THE   CONSEQUENCES   OF   AN   IMMORAL   PRINCIPLE 

perty  and  life  of  other  nations.  You  may  take  the  whole 
history  of  the  present  national  administration.  Look  at  the 
conduct  of  this  government  for  the  last  two  years  of  its  un- 
happy and  disgraceful  life  ;  at  the  perpetual  fiUibustering 
of  the  government,  now  against  Mexico,  then  against  Hayti, 
then  against  Cuba  ;  at  that  murderous  attack  on  Greytown, 
not  only  wicked,  but  mean,  cowardly,  and  sneaking !  not  a 
Narragansett  Indian  but  would  have  been  ashamed  of  such 
unbarbarous  conduct !  But  it  has  been  commended,  I  know 
not  in  how  many  journals  ;  and  one  in  this  city  declares  it 
had  "  the  entire  approbation  of  the  whole  community." 
See  how  steadily  the  administration  seeks  to  tighten  the 
chains  on  the  working  class  of  the  South :  no  Italian  pope, 
no  king,  nor  priest,  was  ever  more  oppressive  towards  his 
subjects  than  the  American  industrial  democracy  towards 
the  three  and  a  quarter  millions  of  men  who  do  the  work 
of  the  South. 

These  three  classes  of  cases  are  exceptions  to  the  pro- 
gressive diminution  of  abnormal  action,  and  to  the  advanc- 
ing moralization  of  the  people.  They  are  not  to  be  ex- 
plained by  the  common  causes  of  vice. 

Look  back  a  little,  and  you  will  see  the  root  out  of 
which  all  this  monstrous  crop  of  wickedness  has  grown  so 
swiftly  np.  I  will  omit  all  reference  to  individuals,  and 
speak*^  impersonally.  A  few  years  ago  three  axioms  were 
published  to  the  world  as  embodying  the  fundamentals  of 
the  party  then  in  power.  They  were  laid  down  as  a  pro- 
gramme of  principles  for  the  nation's  future  politics.  Let 
it  be  remembered  that  this  political  party  has  more  literary 
education,  and  more  hoarded  money,  than  any  other  what- 
soever in  the  land.  But  the  rival  party  affirmed  the  same 
principles,  having  therewith  unity  of  idea. 

Here  are  the  maxims — 

The  first,  which  I  give  in  my  own  language,  is  this : 
There  is  no  law  of  God  above  any  statutes,  however  wicked, 
which  politicians  make. 

The  next,  which  is  not  in  my  words,  is,  "  Eeligion  has 
nothing  to  do  with  politics  ;  there  it  makes  men  mad." 

The  third  is,  "  The  great  object'  of  government  is  the 
protection  of  property  at  home,  and  respect  and  renown 
abroad." 


AND   FALSE    IDEA   OF   LIFE.  205 

Look  at  these — 

I.  "  There  is  no  higher  law  ! ''  That  is  the  proclama- 
tion of  objective  atheism ;  it  is  the  selfish  materialism  of 
Hobbes,  Hume,  of  De  la  Mettrie,  and  Helvetius,  gone  to 
seed.  You  have  nothing  to  rely  on  above  the  politicians 
and  their  statutes :  if  you  sufier,  nothing  to  appeal  to — 
but  the  ballot-box.  The  speculative  materialism  of  Comte 
resolves  man  into  blood  and  bone  and  nerves.  The  specu- 
lative atheism  of  Feuerbach  resolves  deity  into  the  blind 
force  of  a  blind  universe,  working  from  no  love  as  motive, 
with  no  plan  as  method,  and  for  no  purpose  as  ultimate 
end.  But  both  of  these,  materialistic  Comte  and  atheistic 
Feuerbach,  bow  them  down  before  the  eternal  laws  of 
matter  and  mind :  *'  These,''  say  they,  "  we  must  keep 
always,  come  what  may."  But  the  prominent  politicians 
of  America, — they  mocked  at  the  law  of  nature  and  the 
constitution  of  mind ;  they  outdid  the  "  French  mate- 
riaKsm ''  of  Comte,  and  the  "  Germanic  atheism "  of 
Feuerbach.  Pardon  me  for  saying  Germanic  atheism ! 
He  violated  his  nation's  consciousness  before  he  called  him- 
self an  atheist ;  and  then  is  not  so  in  heart,  only  in  head ; 
it  is  the  blood  of  pious  humanity  which  runs  in  his  nation's 
veins.  The  sailor,  the  machinist,  and  the  farmer  recognise 
a  law  of  God  writ  in  the  matter  they  deal  with,  whereto 
they  seek  to  conform  ;  but  the  American  politician  has  no 
objective  restraint.  No  God  is  to  check  the  momentum  of 
his  ambition. 

II.  Here  is  the  next  axiom  :  "  Eeligion  has  nothing  to 
do  with  politics."  That  is  subjective  atheism,  with  a  poli- 
tical application.  If  there  be  no  law  inherent  in  mind  and 
matter  above  any  wicked  statute  of  a  tyrant,  still  the  in- 
stinctive religious  sense  of  man  looks  up  with  reverence, 
faith,  and  love,  and  thinks  there  is  a  God,  and  a  higher 
law.  Materialistic  Comte  and  atheistic  Feuerbach,  and 
those  accomplished  translators  Avho  set  such  works  over  to 
the  English  soil,  confess  to  the  natural  religious  emotions, 
give  them  sure  place  in  all  human  afiairs  ;  but  in  one  of 
the  most  important  of  human  transactions,  where  the  wel- 
fare of  miUions  of  men  is  at  stake,  the  American  politicians 
declare  that  "  Eeligion  has  nothing  to  do  with  politics  ;  it 
makes  men  mad."     Politic  Felix  trembled  before  Paul, 


206       THE   CONSEQUENCES   OF   AN    IMMORAL   PRINCIPLE. 

reasoning  of  self-command,  rigliteousness,  and  God's  judg- 
ment to  come;  Festus  told  the  magnificent  apostle,  ^'Much 
learning  hath,  made  thee  mad ;"  but  the  heathen  Boman 
did  not  venture  to  say,  "  Religio7i  makes  men  mad !" 
Conscience  makes  cowards  of  men  who  meditate  their  own 
destruction ;  nay,  it  sometimes  holds  the  murderer's  hand. 
But  the  moral  feeling,  the  religious  feeling,  has  nothing 
to  do  with  politics  ! 

]^o  higher  law  !     Religion  nothing  to  do  with  politics ! 

See  what  it  leads  to.  Come,  Puritan  fathers  !  who, 
feeding  on  clams  for  three  months  at  a  time,  thanked  God 
that  they  "  sucked  of  the  abundance  of  the  seas,  and  of 
the  treasures  hid  in  the  sands !''  You  were  mistaken ! 
Religion  has  nothing  to  do  with  politics  !  Bow  to  the 
Eighth  Henry,  to  "Bloody"  Mary,  and  Elizabeth,  scarce 
cleaner  in  the  hand  or  heart ;  to  James  the  Stupid,  and  to 
Charles,  whose  head  the  righteous  axe  shore  ofi*!  Come, 
Protestant  martyrs  ;  whose  bodies  snapped  and  crackled 
in  the  Catholic  lire,  but,  as  the  candle  decayed,  your  soul 
still  flaming  more  ardent  up  to  God  !  Come  and  submit ! 
It  was  all  a  mistake  I  The  priestly  tyrants  were  right  I 
There  is  no  higher  law !  Come,  glorious  company  of 
the  apostles  !  Come,  goodly  fellowship  of  the  prophets ! 
Come,  noble  army  of  martyrs  !  Come,  Jesus  of  I^azareth 
— crowned  with  thorns,  spit  upon,  scourged,  mocked  at, 
and  crucified  !  It  was  all  a  mistake  !  Your  cross  was  not 
your  crown  of  triumph  ;  it  was  only  your  shame !  The 
scribes  and  Pharisees  were  right !  There  is  no  higher 
law  I     Religion  has  nothing  to  do  with  politics  ! 

Come,  all  ye  tyrants  of  earth — Herods,  Pilates,  Dominies, 
and  Torquemadas  !  Your  great  enemy  is  slain !  There  is 
no  law  above  you!  No  sentiment  in  the  human  heart 
which  has  a  right  to  protest  against  your  iniquities  !  In 
matter,  it  is  objective  atheism ;  in  mind  subjective  athe- 
ism. Religion  has  nothing  to  do  with  politics  !  Come, 
Americans,  tear  down  the  monuments  you  built  at  Bunker 
Hill,  at  West  Cambridge  and  Concord  and  Lexington  and 
Danvers,  commemorating  the  heroism  of  a  few  farmers  and 
mechanics  !  It  was  all  a  mistake  !  Nay,  sj)lit  to  pieces 
the  Rock  of  Plymouth,  and  grind  it  to  powder,  and  tread 
it  under  foot  of  men  !  There  is  no  heroism  !  The  Puritans 
were  madmen,  and  the  fire-tried  Christians  fools  ! 


AND  FALSE   IDEA  OF   LIFE.  207 

III.  ^'  Tlie  great  object  of  government  is  fhe  protection 
of  property  ! "  It  is  not  to  protect  the  riglits  of  man,  to 
give  all  men  their  natural  rights  to  "  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness !"  It  is  not  to  protect  labour,  but 
only  property,  the  result  of  labour.  "  The  State — that  is 
I,''  said  the  French  King.  There,  at  least,  the  /,  that 
called  itself  the  State,  was  human  :  here  it  is  the  dollar  that 
speaks: — God's  law  is  to  vacate  the  world,  religion  to 
avoid  the  soil,  man  to  be  turned  out  of  the  State,  and  the 
dollar  to  come  in — more  than  soul,  more  than  man,  more 
than  God ! 

That  is  the  programme  of  principles  laid  down  in  1850 
and  '51.  It  struck  at  all  religion,  all  morality,  all  sound 
human  policy.  It  affirmed  the  worst  axioms  of  the  worst 
oligarchy — theocratic,  monarchic,  aristocratic,  despoto- 
cratic.  A  late  Attorney- General  of  the  United  States,  in 
a  speech  at  JN'ew  York,  in  1851,  declared,  "  Law  is  liberty : 
not  the  means  of  liberty,  it  is  Kberty  itself."  He  applied 
his  words  in  special  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill — "it  is 
liberty  1" 

See  the  measures  which  were  the  concrete  application  of 
these  three  axioms — for  the  atheistic  word  must  also  be- 
come flesh.  According  to  the  custom  of  the  industrial 
democracy  of  America,  one  man  out  of  every  eight  is  con- 
sidered and  treated,  not  as  human,  but  material,  as  pro- 
perty. Now,  according  to  that  programme  of  principles, 
there  is  no  objective  law  in  the  universe,  in  the  nature  of 
things  or  of  God,  which  overrides  this  custom,  and  has 
eminent  domain  over  American  Slavery  ;  there  is  no  higher 
law.  And  there  is,  moreover,  no  subjective  law  in  man 
which  has  a  right  to  resist  this  slavery  in  poHtics,  for, 
though  the  religious  element  be  there,  "religion  has 
nothing  to  do  with  politics.''  So  nothing  must  be  done  or 
said  to  oppose  the  turning  of  every  eighth  American  into 
a  piece  of  human  money. 

But  this  class  of  property  has  one  peculiarity  which 
distinguishes  it  from  all  other  chattels,  and  that  is,  it  runs 
away  !  For,  as  the  fire  mounts  up,  and  as  the  water  runs 
down,  obeying  the  miiversal  gravitation,  so  man's  mind 
and  body  hates  and  abhors  bondage,  and  seeks  to  escape 
therefrom;   and  God  has  made  mankind  so  that  every 


208      THE    CONSEQUENCES   OP   AN   IMMORAL   PRINCIPLE 

natural  man  seeks  to  aid  the  victim  escaping  from  torment, 
to  comfort  and  shelter  him.  I  say  every  natural  man.  If 
a  man  is  "regenerated,"  after  the  fashion  of  Mr.  Adams, 
of  this  city — not  Samuel  or  John^  but  the  Eeverend  JSTehe- 
miah  Adams,  who  takes  a  "  South  Side  Yiew  of  Slavery," 
— or  of  President  Lord,  of  Dartmouth  College,  who  finds 
Slavery  a  sacred  institution, — if  a  man  is  "regenerated^' 
after  this  sort,  he  will  aid  the  slave-hunters  to  the  fullest 
extent,  and  that  with  alacrity ;  but  men  with  natural  hearts 
aid  him  who  flees.  These  things  being  so,  the  property 
being  obnoxious  to  flight  on  its  own  limbs,  and  able  to 
excite  the  instinctive  sympathy  of  whoso  is  most  human, 
the  Government,  whose  great  domestic  object  is  the  pro- 
tection of  property  at  home,  must  eminently  protect  this 
property  in  its  special  peril.  So  Government,  resisting  the 
great  objective  law  of  God,  which  tends  to  moralize  man- 
kind, must  seek  to  extend  and  propagate  Slavery;  must 
oppose  also  the  special  subjective  law  of  humanity  which 
inclines  us  to  help  a  man  escaping  from  bondage.  And  so  the 
Government  must  pass  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  re-kid- 
nap the  runaway,  remanding  him  to  Slavery,  and  put  the 
sheltering  philanthropist  in  gaol,  and  fine  him  a  thousand 
dollars :  thereto  it  must  seek  out  the  vilest  men  ;  not  only 
the  villains  of  the  gutter,  but  also  the  congenital  scoundrels 
of  the  courts  and  the  parlour,  and  give  them  a  legal  com- 
mission to  lay  their  hand  on  any  poor  woman,  and,  if  they 
send  her  back  to  Slavery,  pay  them  twice  as  much  as  if 
they  declare  her  free  ! 

that  programme  of  principles  was  posted  all  over  the 
land,  and  re-affirmed  by  prominent  politicians.  Whig  and 
Democratic ;  by  two  Baltimore  conventions  of  the  people, 
unusually  large  and  "  very  respectable ;"  by  hundreds  of 
political  and  commercial  editors,  IN'orth  and  South ;  by  pro- 
minent merchants, — merchant  traders  and  merchant  manu- 
facturers,— nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven  of  "  our  most 
eminent  citizens"  endorsing  it  all.  It  was  affirmed  by 
judges  on  the  bench,  one  judge  telling  the  jury  that,  if 
there  was  a  doubt  in  their  minds,  and  a  conflict  between 
the  law  of  God  and  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  then  they 
must  "obey  6o//e;"  God  upwards  and  the  devil  downwards. 
It  was  re-affirmed  by  prominent  ministers  of  all  deno- 
minations.    All  these  five  classes  said,  "  There  is  no  higher 


AND   FALSE   IDFA   OF   LIFE.  SOD 

law  ! "  "  Religion  has  notliing  to  do  witli  politics  ! " 
*'  Property  is  the  great  object  of  government ! "  Some 
pulpits  were  silent ;  a  few  spoke  right  out  for  God  and 
against  Atheism  ;  some  ministers  looked  up  weeping,  others 
warning,  and  uttered  their  words  mildl}^  cautiously,  yet 
with  the  might  which  comes  from  virtue  backed  by  the 
Eternal.  Most  of  these  men  had  to  smart  and  suffer. 
Some  were  driven  from  their  parishes,  and  the  bread  taken 
from  their  v\dves'  and  children's  mouths. 

The  programme  of  measures  met  a  similar  acceptance. 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  meetings  were  held  in  all  the  great 
cities.  Faneuil  Hall  rocked  with  the  giddy  genius  that 
screamed  and  thundered,  teaching  Atheism  to  the  people ; 
and  its  walls  caught  the  scoff  and  scorn  and  mow  of  the 
merchants  of  Boston  and  their  purchased  clerks,  hissing  at 
conscience,  at  God,  and  the  higher  law.  Ministers  in  this 
city  affirmed  the  principle  and  supported  the  measures ; 
yea,  at  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Buffalo,  New  Haven, 
Andover, — all  over  the  land.  There  were  exceptional 
men  in  all  these  five  classes — I  honour  them  ! — but  they 
were  very  few.  Judges,  mayors,  lawyers,  mechanics, 
truckmen,  ministers,  merchants,  they  went  for  kidnapping. 
Soldiers  were  called  out  in  Boston,  paid  at  our  cost ;  volun- 
teers, fifteen  hundred  strong,  agreed  to  chattelize  a  man. 
Twice  Boston  has  endorsed  this  programme  of  measures, 
and  twice  offered  a  human  sacrifice  on  this  two-horned  altar 
of  objective  and  subjective  Atheism.  Twice  the  city  of  Cot- 
ton and  Mayhew,  the  birthplace  of  Franklin  and  Samuel 
Adams,  offered  a  human  sacrifice  —  Thomas  Sims  and 
Anthony  Burns.  Is  that  the  end  ?  There  is  a  to-mor- 
row after  to-day ;  yea,  a  for  ever ! 

While  the  nation  was  in  that 

« rank  sweat  of  an  cnseamed  bed. 


Stewed  in  corx'uption," 

it  chose  a  new  Administration.  Look  at  them  ! — the  Presi- 
dent, the  Cabinet,  the  present  Congress,  the  foreign  minis- 
ters, the  Soules  and  the  Belmonts,  and  their  coadjutors ; 
at  the  United  States  judges  appointed  within  four  years ; 
the  government  officers ;  the  marshal's  guard,  last  June ! 
Behold  the  first  fruits  of  Atheism  in  politics  !     Is  that 

VOL.    VI.  p 


210      THE   CONSEQUENCES  OF    AN    IMMORAL    PRINCirLE 

all ;  is  it  not  eiioiiffli  ?    It  is  the  commencement  of  tlie 
beginning. 

I^ow,  in  all  tlie  frauds  wMch  destroy  the  property  of  the 
honest,  in  the  recldessness  which  dashes  away  life  on  rail- 
roads of  iron,  or  on  the  ocean's  watery  floor,  behold  the 
early  fruits  of  the  doctrine  that  there  is  no  higher  law ; 
that  religion  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  most  prominent 
affairs  of  men ;  that  property,  and  not  persons,  is  the  great 
object  of  government !  When  the  prominent  men  in  busi- 
ness, in  the  State,  in  the  literature,  and  the  Church  of 
America,  lay  down  this  dreadful  programme  of  principles ; 
when  the  nation  executes  such  measures,  spreading  Slavery 
over  every  inch  of  Federal  territory,  and  arming  twenty- 
one  millions  of  freemen  to  hunt  down  and  enslave  a  single 
poor  fugitive ;  when  it  plunders  Mexico  and  Hayti,  and 
lusts  for  Cuba ;  when  a  Boston  Judge  of  Probate  betrays 
the  wanderer,  steals  the  outcast,  and  kidnaps  a  man  in  our 
own  streets  ;  when  the  Mayor  illegally  puts  the  throat  of 
the  town  in  the  hands  of  a  militia  colonel,  and  fills  the 
streets  with  soldiers  armed  with  the  deadliest  tools  of  death, 
and  turns  them  loose  to  smite  and  kill, — and  all  that 
to  steal  a  man  accused  of  no  crime  but  the  misfortune 
of  his  birth,  in  "Christian''  America;  when  the  soldiers 
of  Boston  volunteer  to  desecrate  the  laws  of  God — while 
Nicholas,  with  his  knout,  must  scourge  his  Russian  serfs 
to  less  ignoble  tasks ; — while  men  are  appointed  "  Judges" 
for  services  against  mankind,  for  diabolic  skill  to  pervert 
law  to  utter  wickedness ;  when  a  judge  of  the  United  States 
stabs  at  freedom  of  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall ;  when  such 
a  judge,  using  such  creatures  as  appropriate  tools  of  wicked- 
ness, seeks  such  vengeance  on  men,  for  such  a  work ;  when 
the  Grovernor  of  the  State  compliments  the  illegal  soldiers 
because  they  violate  the  laws  which  he  has  hoisted  into  his 
seat  to  enforce  and  keep ;  when  America  would  thus  exploiter 
man  and  God,  do  you  wonder  that  railroad  and  steamboat 
companies  exploiter  the  public,  and  swindling  goes  on  all 
round  the  land !  "  No  higher  law  ! "  "  Religion  nothing 
to  do  with  politics ! "  "  Property  the  great  object  of 
government !" 

The  first  line  of  plain  reading  my  mother  ever  taught 
me  ran  thus  : — 

*'  No   MAN   MAY   PUT   OFF   THE  LAW   OF   GoD.'* 


A1\D    FALSE   IDEA   OF   LIFE.  211 

I  hope  It  lias  not  faded  out  of  tlie  American  spelling- 
books  yet ;  but  it  is  Avrit  plainly  on  tlie  sky,  on  tlie  earth : 
plainer  yet  in  words  of  tire  in  my  heart.  It  will  be  the 
last  line  I  shall  ever  read,  as  it  was  the  first :  I  can  never 
get  beyond  it. 

"No  MAN  MAY  PUT  OFF  THE  LAW  OF  GoD." 

At  one  extreme  of  society  are  politicians,  ministers, 
lawyers,  mayors,  governors,  taking  a  "South  Side  View" 
of  every  popular  wickedness,  longing  for  money,  office,  and 
fame,— which  will  be  their  children's  loathed  infamy, — 
teaching  practical  Atheism  as  political  science,  or  patriotic 
duty,  or  as  "  our  blessed  religion.''  At  the  other  end  are 
ignorant  Americans  and  Irish  Catholics — houseless,  home- 
less, heedless,  famine- stricken,  and  ignorant,  a  bundle  of 
human  appetites  bound  together  by  a  selfish  will.  These 
things  being  so,  do  you  wonder  that  crime  against  property 
and  person  runs  through  society;  that  Irishmen  make 
brawls  in  the  street ;  that  Meigs  exploiters  San  Francisco, 
and  Schuyler  IN'ew  York,  and  others  Boston;  that  railroads 
take  no  heed  of  life,  and  steamboats  sink  three  hundred 
and  forty  men  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  ?  Does  not  the 
nation  exploiter  three  and  a  quarter  millions  of  American 
citizens,  and  pulpits  justify  the  deed?  You  can  never  escape 
the  consequences  of  a  first  principle. 

Dream  not  that  you  have  seen  the  end  of  this  obvious 
wickedness.  There  will  be  more  "defalcations,"  great  and 
little;  more  swindlings,  more  Schuylers  and  Meigses.  Eeap 
as  you  sow — of  the  wind,  the  whirlwind.  Let  the  present 
commercial  crisis  continue,  its  vortex  deepening,  its 
Vt^hirl  more  swift  and  wide ;  let  employment  be  more  dif- 
ficult to  obtain,  winter  cruel  cold,  bread  and  fuel  dear, 
and  labour  cheap,  will  the  almighty  dollar  be  safe  ?  The 
property  of  the  rich  will  be  openly  called  "  a  robbery," 
and  plundered  from  such  as  honestly  earned,  and  would 
generously  use  it.  The  world  has  dreadful  warnings  to 
ofier.  "  Protection  of  property  the  great  object  of  govern- 
ment ! "  Bottom  it  on  justice — it  stands  like  the  continent" 
of  Asia ;  but  put  it  on  injustice — what  then  ?  It  has  some- 
times happened  that  an  idol  came  to  an  end.  "Behold, 
Dagon  was  fallen  iq}on  his  face  to  the  ground  before  the 

T^      9 


212     THE    CONSEQUENCES  OE   AN    IMMORAL    PUTNCIPLE 

ark  of  the  Lord ;  and  the  head  of  Dagon  and  both  the 
palms  of  his  hands  were  cut  off  aipon  the  threshold  ;  only 
the  stump  of  Dagon  was  left  to  him." 

The  official  census  gives  America  about  seven  thousand 
millions  of  dollars.  Thirteen  hundred  millions  thereof  is 
vested  in  the  souls  of  three  and  a  quarter  million  men  !  So 
one-sixth  of  the  nation's  property  has  no  natural  foundation ; 
rests  on  no  moral  law  ;  has  no  conscience  on  its  side  :  all  re- 
ligion is  against  it ;  all  that  property  is  robbery,  unnatural 
property,  inhumanly  got,  also  held  only  by  violence.  ISTow 
the  prominent  men  of  both  political  parties — merchants, 
manufacturers,  politicians,  lawyers,  scholars,  ministers — 
have  declared  that  this  property  in  men  is  just  as  sacred  as 
value  in  corn  and  cattle ;  that  I  may  as  legalljr,  constitu- 
tionally, morally,  religiously,  own  a  man,  as  the  pen  I  write 
with  or  the  bread  I  eat ;  that  when  Ellen  Craft  took  her 
body  from  her  master  in  Georgia,  and  fled  hither  therewith, 
and  appropriated  it  to  her  own  use,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  the 
constitution,  moralit}'',  and  religion,  she  committed  an 
offence  just  as  much  as  Philip  Marrett,  when  he  took  the 
money  of  the  JS^ew  England  Bank  and  appropriated  it  to 
his  own  use ;  and  that  the  nation  is  just  as  much  bound  to 
restore  to  the  Georgian  slave-holder  the  woman  who  runs 
away  from  bondage  as  to  the  stockholders'  money  plun- 
dered by  the  president  of  the  bank ;  na}^,  that  all  who 
aided  in  her  flight  are  also  robbers,  partakers  of  the  felony, 
and  merit  punishment.  The  minister  who  shelters  is  a 
"  receiver  of  stolen  goods  I "  When  the  million  is  hungr}^, 
will  it  not  one  day  take  such  men  at  their  word  ?  Shall 
not  licentious  and  expensive  clerks,  who  applauded  a 
minister  for  his  avowal  of  readiness  to  send  into  bondage 
for  ever  the  mother  that  bore  him ;  shall  not  covetous 
agents  of  factories,  and  speculating  cashiers  and  presidents 
of  railroads  and  banks,  say,  *'  It  is  no  Avorse  for  me  to  steal 
money  than  for  a  fugitive  slave  to  leap  into  freedom ! 
Lawyers  and  ministers  say  so.  One-sixth  of  the  nation's 
property  is  robbery,  yet  the  loudest  defended ;  is  it  worse 
for  me  to  steal  a  few  thousand  dollars  than  for  America  to 
steal  thirteen  hundred  millions?" 

No  higher  law,  is  there  !  So  they  said  in  Paris  some 
eighty  years  ago.  "  After  us  the  deluge  : "  it  came  in  their 
own  time.    ''  No  higher  law  !    Eeligion  nothing  to  do  with 


AND    FALSE  IDEA  OF   LIFE.  213 

politics!"  said  the  "  eminent  citizens  "  of  France.  ''Down 
with  the  rich  ! "  "  OfF  w4th  their  heads  ! "  "  Ours  be  their 
money  ! "  That  was  the  amen  of  the  million  to  that  athe- 
istic litany  of  the  "  enlightened."  Whoso  falls  on  God's 
justice  shall  be  broken  ;  "  but  on  whomsoeA^er  it  shall  fall, 
it  will  grind  him  to  powder  ! " 

Everywhere  is  God's  law,  boundless  above  me,  boundless 
beneath,  every  way  boundless.  The  universe  is  all  Bible  : 
matter  is  Old  Testament,  man  New  Testament — revelations 
from  the  infinite  God.  That  law — it  is  man's  wdsdom  to 
knoAV  it ;  his  morality  to  keep  it ;  his  religion  to  love  it 
and  the  dear  God  whose  motherly  blessing  breathes  through 
and  in  it  all.  You  cannot  segregate  this  Bible  from  the 
world  of  space :  you  cannot  separate  a  particle  of  it  from 
the  laws  of  matter.  The  lesser  attraction  holds  together 
the  cohesive  particles  of  leather,  paper,  metal,  wdiich  com- 
pose this  Bible  under  my  hand ;  and  the  greater  gravita- 
tion binds  its  attracted  mass  downwards  to  the  weighty 
world.  Just  so  is  it  impossible  to  separate  man,  or  any 
one  of  his  faculties,  from  the  great  all-encompassing  laws 
of  God,  the  eternal  decalogue  which  He  has  writ.  Break 
His  law,  put  property  above  person,  the  accident  before  the 
substance  of  man,  declare  that  religion  has  nothing  to  do 
with  man's  chief  aifiiirs,  and  that  there  is  no  law  above 
the  appetite  of  the  politician  and  the  pimp — and  not  a  life 
is  secure,  not  a  dollar  is  safe  !  Subjective  xVtheism  is  chaos 
in  you,  objective  Atheism  chaos  on  the  outside  ;  the  rich 
State  will  end  in  a  ruffianhood  of  thieves  ;  Democracy  turn 
out  a  despotism ;  and  its  masters  will  be  the  "  marshal's 
guard,"  or  the  men  who  make  and  control  such  things. 

The  chain  which  Boston  sought  to  put  round  the  vir- 
tuous neck  of  Ellen  Craft  seemed  short  and  light :  but 
suddenly  it  undid  its  iron  coil,  and  twisted  all  round  the 
Court  House  ;  under  it  crawled  the  Judges  of  the  State,  and 
caught  its  hissing  at  God's  law.  Now  it  seeks  to  twist 
about  Faneuil  Hall  and  choke  the  eloquent  speech  of  libert}^ 
in  her  own  cradle.  The  cannon  appointed  to  shoot  down 
the  manhood  of  poor  Burns  is  levelled  also  at  every  pulpit 
where  piety  dares  pray.  The  hundred  festal  cannons  which 
Boston  "  gentlemen  " — ^^jubilant  at  the  triumph  of  their 
own  wickeduess — fired  to  herald  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 


214      THE   CONSEQUENCES  OF   AN   IMMORAL   PRINCIPLE. 

poured  hard  shot  against  every  honest  dollar  in  the  town  ! 
Politicians  and  lower-law  divines  look  forward  a  great  ways 
— don't  they  ?  There  is  One  who  seeth  the  end  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  by  His  higher  law  is  it  imperishably  writ 
on  every  soul,  "  Though  hand  join  in  hand,  the  wicked 
shall  not  prosper  !'' 

Shall  we  be  warned  by  what  we  suffer  ?  No,  not  yet. 
The  new  political  party  seems  likely  to  adopt  the  worst 
principles  of  the  old  one.  We  must  suffer  much  more,  I 
fear,  before  we  learn  that,  to  be  great  and  permanently  suc- 
cessful, the  nation  must  be  just  to  all. 

"  Be  not  deceived ;  Grod  is  not  mocked :  whatsoever  a  man 
soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap."  Four  years  ago  the  nation 
sowed  Atheism ;  see  what  it  reaps  in  Boston,  in  'New  York, 
and  San  Francisco,  in  commercial  frauds  and  peculation,  in 
dashing  away  human  life  on  the  land  or  on  the  sea.  This 
is  very  far  from  the  end, — yet  here  may  the  dollar  tremble  ! 

But  keep  God's  law  ;  make  the  great  object  of  govern- 
ment the  security  of  every  right ;  recognise  that  there  is  a 
natural  and  unchangeable  law  of  God  which  has  eminent 
domain  over  all  Imman  affairs  ;  re-enact  that  into  statutes  ; 
remember  that  religion  is  the  mediator  between  man's 
desires  and  the  Highest,— and  ail  is  well ;  you  have  wrought 
after  the  lavv^  of  God's  spirit  of  life ;  your  money  is  safe ; 
life  will  be  respected ;  and  the  industrial  Democracy,  rooted 
in  the  soil  of  God's  vforld,  obedient  to  God's  laws,  will  rise 
a  strong  and  flame-like  flower,  abundant  beauty  in  its  leaves 
and  blossoms,  to  bear  fruit,  and  sow  the  world  with  never- 
ending  life,  a  blessed  and  abiding  joy. 


THE    GREAT   BATTLE    BETWEEN    SLAVERY 
AND  FREEDOM, 


CONSIDEEED   IN 


TWO    SPEECHES, 


BELITERED    BEFOEE    THE    AMERICAlSr   A]S"TI-SLAYEET    SOCIETY    AT 

ISTEW    YORK. 


THE  PEESENT  ASPECT  OF  THE  ANTI-SLAYERY  ENTER- 
PEISE,  AND  OF  THE  VARIOUS  FORCES  WHICH  WORK 
THEREIN. 

Delh'ered  on  the  MoENij^fG  OF  May  7,   1856. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — After  tliat 
Trinitarian  introduction,*  in  which  I  am  presented  before 
you  as  one  anti-Slavery  nature  in  three  persons, — a  fanatic 
an  infidel,  and  a  traitor, — I  am  sure  a  IJnitarian  minister 
will  bring  his  welcome  along  with  him.  And  yet  I  come 
under  great  disadvantages :  for  I  follow  one  whose  colour 
is  more  than  the  logic  which  his  cause  did  not  need  (al- 
luding to  Mr.  Remond)  ;  and  another  whose  sex  is  more 
eloquent  than  the  philosophy  of  noblest  men  (referring  to 
Mrs.  Blackwell),  whose  word  has  in  it  the  wild  witchery 
which  takes  captive  your  heart.  I  am  neither  an  African 
nor  a  woman.  I  shall  speak,  therefore,  somewhat  in  the 
way  of  logic,  which  the  one  rejected ;  something  also, 
perhaps,  of  philosophy,  which  the  other  likewise  passed  by. 

Allow  me  to  ssij,  however,  still  further,  by  way  of  intro- 

*  The  President,  Mr.  Garrison,  thus  introduced  Mr.  Parker  to  the 
audience  : — 

"  Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — The  fanaticism  and  infidelity  and  treason 
which  are  hateful  to  the  traffickers  in  slaves  and  the  souls  of  men  must 
be  well-pleasing  to  God,  and  are  indications  of  true  loyalty  to  the  cause 
of  liberty.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  a  very  excellent 
fanatic,  a  very  good  infidel,  and  a  first-rate  traitor,  in  the  person  of 
Theodore  Parker,  of  Boston." 

* 


216  THE  PRESENT  ASPECT  OF 

duction,  that  I  should  not  weary  your  ears  at  all  this 
morning,  were  it  not  that  another  man,  your  friend  and 
mine,  Mr.  Phillips,  lies  sick  at  home.  E-emember  the 
threefold  misfortune  of  my  position :  I  come  after  an 
African,  after  a  woman,  and  in  the  place  of  Wendell 
Phillips. 

I  shall  ask  your  attention  to  some  "  Thoughts  on  the 
Present  Aspect  of  the  anti- Slavery  Enterprise,  and  the 
Forces  which  work  therefor." 

In  all  great  movements  of  mankind,  there  are  three 
special  works  to  be  done,  so  many  periods  of  work,  and  the 
same  number  of  classes  of  persons  therein  engaged. 

First  is  the  period  of  sentiment.  The  business  is  to 
produce  the  right  feeling, — a  sense  of  lack,  and  a  fore- 
feeling  of  desire  for  the  special  thing  required.  The  aim 
is  to  produce  a  sense  of  need,  and  also  a  feeling  of  want. 
That  is  the  first  thing. 

The  next  period  is  that  of  ideas,  where  the  work  is  to 
furnish  the  thought  of  what  is  wanted, — a  distinct,  precise, 
adequate  idea.  The  sentiment  must  precede  the  thought : 
for  the  primitive  element  in  all  human  conduct  is  a  feeling ; 
everything  begins  in  a  spontaneous  emotion. 

The  third  is  the  period  of  action,  when  the  business  is 
to  make  the  thought  a  thing,  to  organize  it  into  institu- 
tions. The  idea  must  precede  the  action,  else  man  begins 
to  build  and  is  not  able  to  finish:  he  runs  before  he  is 
sent,  and  knows  not  where  he  is  going,  or  the  way  thither. 

Now  these  three  special  works  go  on  in  the  anti- Slavery 
movement ;  there  are  these  three  periods  observable,  and 
three  classes  of  persons  engaged  in  the  various  works.  The 
first  efibrt  is  to  excite  the  anti-Slavery  feeling  ;  the  next,  to 
furnish  the  anti-Slavery  idea  ;  and  the  third  is  to  make 
that  thought  a  thing, — to  organize  the  idea  into  institu- 
tions which  shall  be  as  wide  as  the  idea,  and  fully  adequate 
to  express  the  feeling  itself. 

I.  The  primitive  thing  has  been,  and  still  is,  to  arouse  a 
sense  of  humanity  in  the  whites,  which  should  lead  us  to 
abolish  this  wickedness. 

Another  way  would  be  to  arouse  a  sense  of  indignation 
in  the  person  who  has  suffered  the  wrong, — in  the  slave, — 


THE    ANTI-SLAVERY    ENTERPRISE.  217 

and  to  urge  him,  of  himself,  to  put  a  stop  to  bearing  the 
wickedness. 

Two  things  there  were  which  hindered  this  from  being 
attempted.  First,  some  of  the  anti-Slavery  leaders  were 
non-resistant ;  they  said  it  is  wrong  for  the  black  man  to 
break  the  arm  of  the  oppressor,  and  we  will  only  pray  God 
to  break  it :  the  slaves  must  go  free  without  breaking  it 
themselves.  That  was  one  reason  why  the  appeal  was  not 
made  to  the  slave.  The  leaders  were  non-resistants  ;  some 
of  them  covered  with  a  Quaker's  hat,  some  of  them  (point- 
ing to  Mr.  Garrison,  who  was  bald)  not  covered  by  any 
covering  at  all. 

The  other  reason  was,  the  slaves  themselves  were  Afri- 
cans,— men  not  very  good  at  the  sword.  If  the  case  had 
been  otherwise, — if  it  had  been  three  and  a  half  millions 
of  Anglo-Saxons, — the  chief  anti-Slavery  appeal  would  not 
have  been  to  the  oppressor  to  leave  off  oppressing,  but  to 
the  victim  to  leave  off  bearing  the  oppression.  For,  while 
the  African  is  not  very  good  with  the  sword,  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  is  something  of  a  master  with  that  ugly  weapon ; 
at  any  rate,  he  knows  how  to  use  it.  If  the  Anglo-Saxon 
had  not  been  a  better  fighter  than  the  African,  slave-ships 
would  fill  this  side  of  Sandy  Hook  and  in  Boston  Bay ; 
they  would  not  take  pains  to  go  to  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 
The  only  constitution  which  slave-hunters  respect  is  writ 
on  the  parchment  of  a  drum-head.  If  the  three  and  a  half 
millions  of  slaves  had  been  white  men,  with  this  dreadful 
Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  their  bosoms,  do  you  suppose  the 
affair  at  Cincinnati  would  have  turned  out  after  that  sort  ? 
Do  you  believe  Governor  Chase  would  have  said,  ''  No 
Slavery  outside  of  the  slave  States  ;  but,  inside  of  the  slave 
States,  just  as  much  enslavement  of  Anglo-Saxon  men  as 
you  please  ?''  Why,  his  head  would  not  have  been  on  his 
shoulders  twenty-four  hours  after  he  had  said  it.  In  the 
State  of  Ohio,  when  Margaret  Garner  was  surrendered  up, 
there  were  four  hundred  thousand  able-bodied  men  be- 
tween the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five  ;  there  were  half 
a  million  of  firelocks  in  that  State ;  and,  if  that  woman 
had  been  the  representative  of  three  and  a  half  millions  of 
white  persons  held  as  slaves,  every  one  of  those  muskets 
would  have  started  into  life,  and  four  hundred  thousand 
men  would  have  come  forth,  each  with  a  firelock  on  his 


218  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT    OF 

shoulder  ;  and  then  one  hundred  thousand  women  would 
have  followed,  bringing  the  rest  of  the  muskets.  That 
would  have  been  the  state  of  things  if  she  had  been  a 
white  Caucasian  woman,  and  not  a  black  African.  We 
should  not  then  have  asked  Quakers  to  lead  in  the  greatest 
enterprise  in  the  world :  the  leaders  would  have  been 
soldiers  ;  I  mean  such  men  as  our  fathers,  who  did  not 
content  themselves  with  asking  Great  Britain  to  leave  off 
oppressing  them.  They  asked  that  first;  and  when  Great 
Britain  said,  "  Please  God,  we  never  will  V  what  did  the 
Saxon  say  ?  "  Please  God,  I  will  make  you  !'*  And  he 
kept  his  word. 

"  Gods  !"   (we  should  have  said,) 

"  Can  a  Saxon  people  long  debate 
Which  of  the  two  to  choose, — slavery,  or  death  ? 
No  :  let  us  rise  at  once,  gird  on  our  swords, 
.  .  .  Attack  the  foe,  break  through  the  thick  array 
Of  his  thronged  legions,  and  charge  home  upon  hira  !  " 

That  would  have  been  the  talk.  Meetings  would  have 
been  "  opened  with  prayer  "  by  men  who  trusted  in  God, 
and  likewise  kept  their  powder  dry. 

But  in  this  case  it  was  otherwise.  The  work  has  not 
been  to  arouse  the  indignation  of  the  enslaved,  but  to  stir 
the  humanity  of  the  oppressor,  to  touch  his  conscience, 
his  affection,  his  religious  sentiment ;  or  to  show  that  his 
political  and  pecuniary  interests  required  the  freedom  of  all 
men  in  America. 

And  it  has  been  very  fortunate  for  us  that  this  great 
enterprise  fell  into  the  hands  of  just  such  men  as  these, — 
that  it  was  not  soldiers  who  chiefly  engaged  in  it,  but  men 
of  peace.     By  and  by  I  will  show  you  why. 

The  attempt  was  made  at  first,  and  by  that  gentleman 
too  (pointing  to  Mr.  Garrison),  with  others,  to  arouse  the 
anti-Slavery  feeling  in  the  actual  slave-holders  at  the  South. 
You  know  what  followed.  He  and  every  one  w^ho  tried  it 
there  were  driven  over  the  border.  Then  the  attempt  was 
made  at  the  North  ;  and  there  it  has  been  continued.  It 
is  exceedingly  important  to  get  a  right  anti-Slaver}^  feel- 
ing at  the  North :  for  two- thirds  of  the  population  are  at 
the  North  ;  three-fourths  of  the  property,  four-fifths  of  the 
education  are  here,  and  I  suppose  six-sevenths  of  the  Chris- 


THE   ANTI-SLAVERY   ENTERPHISE.  219 

tianity  ;  and  one  of  tliese  days  it  may  be  found  out  tliat 
seven-eighths  of  the  courage  are  at  the  I^orth  also.  I  do 
not  say  it  is  so  ;  but  it  may  turn  out  so.  So  much  for  the 
matter  of  sentiment. 

II.  N'ow  look  at  the  next  point.  If  the  sentiment  be 
right,  then  the  mind  is  to  furnish  the  idea.  But  a  state- 
ment of  the  idea  before  the  sentiment  is  fixed  helps  to  excite 
the  feeling ;  and  so  a  great  deal  has  been  done  to  spread 
abroad  the  anti- Slavery  idea,  even  amongst  persons  who  had 
not  the  anti-Slavery  feeling  ;  for,  though  the  heart  helps 
the  head,  the  head  likewise  pays  back  the  debt  by  helping 
the  heart.  If  Mr.  Grarrison  has  a  clear  idea  of  freedom, 
he  will  go  to  men  who  have  no  very  strong  sentiment  of 
freedom,  and  will  awake  the  soul  of  liberty  underneath 
those  ribs  of  death.  The  womanhood  of  Lucy  Stone 
Blackwell  will  do  it ;  the  complexion  of  Mr.  Remond  wiU 
do  it. 

In  spreading  this  idea  of  freedom,  a  good  deal  has  been 
done,  chiefly  at  the  I^orth,  but  something  also  at  the  South. 
Attempts  have  been  made  to  diffuse  the  anti- Slavery  idea  in 
this  way :  Men  go  before  merchants,  and  say,  "  Slavery  is 
bad  economy  ;  it  don't  pay :  the  slave  can't  raise  so  much 
tobacco  and  cotton  as  the  freeman."  That  is  an  argument 
which  Mr.  May's  "  mercantile  friend  "  could  have  under- 
stood ;  and  a  political  economist  might  have  shown  him, 
that,  although  there  were  millions  of  doUars  invested  "  on 
account  of  Slavery,"  there  were  tens  of  millions  invested 
on  account  of  Freedom ;  and  that  latter  investment  would 
pay  much  larger  dividends  when  it  got  fairly  to  its  work. 

Then,  too,  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  show  that  it 
was  bad  policy :  bondage  would  not  breed  a  stalwart,  noble 
set  of  men  ;  for  the  slave  contaminated  the  master,  and  the 
master's  neii?hbour  not  the  less. 

It  has  been  shown,  likewise,  that  Slavery  injured  educa- 
tion ;  and  while,  in  Massachusetts,  out  of  four  hundred 
native  white  men,  there  is  but  one  who  cannot  read  the 
Bible,  in  Virginia,  out  of  nine  white  native  adults  born  of 
"  the  first  families"  (they  having  none  others  except  "  black 
people"),  there  is  always  one  who  cannot  read  his  own 
name.  *^ 

All  kinds  of  schemes,  too,  have  been  proposed  to  end 


220  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT   OF 

this  wickedness  of  Slavery.  There  lias  been  a  most  multi- 
farious discussion  of  the  idea  ;  for,  after  we  have  the  right 
sentiment,  it  is  difficult  to  get  the  intellectual  work  done, 
done  well,  in  the  best  way.  It  takes  a  large-minded  man, 
with  great  experience,  to  cipher  out  all  this  intellectual 
work,  and  show  how  we  can  get  rid  of  Slavery,  and  Avhat 
is  to  take  its  place,  and  how  the  thing  is  to  be  done.  Ac- 
cordingly, very  various  schemes  are  proposed. 

IS^ow,  the  idea  which  has  been  attained  to,  the  anti-Slavery 
idea  reached  by  the  ablest  men,  is  embodied  in  these  two 
proj)ositions  :  first,  no  Slavery  anywhere  in  America  ; 
second,  no  Slavery  anywhere  on  earth.  That  is  the 
tojDmost  idea. 

There  has  been  an  opposite  work  going  on.  First,  an 
attempt  "  to  crush  out  "  the  sentiment  of  humanity  from 
all  mankind.  That  was  the  idea  of  a  very  distinguished 
son  of  Massachusetts.  He  said  "  it  must  be  crushed  out." 
Second,  to  put  down  the  idea  of  Freedom.  That  has  been 
attempted,  not  only  by  political  officers,  but  also  by  a  great 
many  other  men.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that,  throughout 
the  South,  in  the  controlling  classes  of  society,  the  senti- 
ment and  idea  of  Freedom  are  much  less  widely  spread  than 
twenty  years  ago.  The  South  has  grown  despotic,  while 
the  North  becomes  more  humane. 

III.  The  third  thing  is  to  do  the  deed.  After  the  senti- 
ment is  right,  and  the  idea  right,  organization  must  be 
attended  to.  But  the  greatest  and  most  difficult  work  is 
to  get  the  heart  right  and  i\\Q  head  riglit ;  for,  when  these 
are  in  a  proper  condition,  the  hand  obeys  the  two,  and 
accomplishes  its  work.  Still  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to 
organize  Freedom.  It  will  require  great  talent  and  expe- 
rience ;  for,  as  it  takes  a  master  mind  to  organize  thought 
into  matter,  and  to  make  a  Sharp's  rifle  or  a  sewing- 
machine,  so  it  requires  a  great  deal  more  mind  to  organ- 
ize an  idea  into  political  institutions,  and  establish  a 
State  where  the  anti- Slavery  sentiment  shall  blossom  into 
an  idea,  and  the  idea  grow  into  a  national  fact,  a  State 
where  law  and  order  secure  to  each  man  his  natural  and 
unalienable  rights. 

In  the  individual  Northern  States  a  good  deal  has  been 
done  in  five-^nd  -twenty  years  to  organize  the  idea  of 


THE    ANTI-SLAVERY   ENTERPRISE.  221 

freedom  for  white  men,  a  little  also  for  coloured  men ;  for 
the  feeling  and  thought  must  lead  to  action.  But  in  the 
Federal  Government  the  movement  has  been  continually 
the  other  way.  Two  things  are  plain  in  the  conduct  of 
Congress :  (1)  Acts  to  spread  and  strengthen  African 
Slavery  ;  (2)  Subsidiary  Acts  to  oppress  the  several 
Northern  States  which  love  Freedom,  and  to  "  crush  out " 
individual  men  who  love  Freedom.  Slavery  centralizes 
power,  and  destroys  local  self-government. 

Something  has  been  done  in  the  Northern  States  in 
respect  to  awakening  the  sentiment  and  communicating 
the  idea;  but  there  has  nothing  been  done  as  yet  in  the 
Federal  Congress  towards  accomplishing  the  work.  I 
mean  to  say,  for  the  last  seventy  years,  Congress  has  not 
taken  one  single  step  towards  abolishing  Slavery,  or  making 
the  anti-Slavery  idea  an  American  fact.  So  even  now  all 
these  three  operations  must  needs  go  on.  Much  elemen- 
tary work  still  requires  to  be  done,  producing  the  senti- 
ment and  the  idea,  before  the  nation  is  ready  for  the  act. 

Now  look  at  the  special  forces  which  are  engaged  in 
this  enterprise.     I  divide  them  into  two  great  parties. 

The  first  party  consists  of  the  political  reformers, — men 
who  wish  to  act  by  political  machinery,  and  are  in  govern- 
ment offices,  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive. 

The  second  party  is  the  non-political  reformers,  who 
are  not,  and  do  not  wish  to  be,  in  government  offices,  legis- 
lative, judicial,  or  executive. 

Look  a  moment  at  the  general  functions  of  each  party^ 
and  then  at  the  particular  parties  themselves, — at  the 
business,  and  then  at  the  business  men. 

The  business  of  the  political  man,  legislative,  judicial, 
and  executive,  is  confined  to  the  third  jDart  of  the  anti^ 
Slavery  work  ;  namely,  to  organizing  the  idea,  and  making 
the  anti-Slavery  thought  a  thing.  The  political  reformer, 
as  suchj  is  not  expected  to  kindle  the  sentiment  or  create 
the  idea,  only  to  take  what  he  finds  ready,  and  put  it  into 
form.  The  political  legislative  is  to  make  laws  and  insti- 
tutions which  organize  the  idea.  The  political  judiciary 
is  to  expound  the  laws,  and  is  limited  thereby.  The  poli- 
tical executive  is  to  administer  the  institution,  and  is 
limited  to  that :  he  cannot  go  beyond  it.    So  the  judiciary 


222  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT   OF 

and  the  executive  are  limited  by  the  laws  and  institutions. 
The  legislature  is  chosen  by  the  people  to  represent  the 
people ;  that  is,  it  is  chosen  to  represent  and  to  organize 
the  ideas,  and  to  express  the  sentiments,  of  the  people  ; 
not  to  organize  sentiments  which  are  in  advance  of  the 
people,  or  which  are  behind  the  people.  The  political 
legislator  is  restricted  by  the  ideas  of  the  people :  if  he 
wants  what  they  do  not  want,  then  they  do  not  want  him. 
If  senator  Wilson  had  a  million  of  men  and  women  in 
Massachusetts  who  entertained  the  sentiments  and  ideas  of 
Mr.  Garrison,  why  he  would  represent  the  sentiments  and 
ideas  of  Mr.  Garrison,  would  express  them  in  Congress, 
and  would  go  to  work  to  organize  those  ideas. 

In  hoisting  the  anchor  of  a  ship,  two  sets  of  men  are  at 
work,  two  machines.  One,  I  think,  is  called  the  windlass. 
Many  powerful  men  put  their  levers  to  that,  and  hoist  the 
anchor  up  out  from  the  deep.  Behind  them  is  the  capstan, 
whose  business  it  is  to  haul  in  the  rope.  I^ow,  the  func- 
tion of  the  non- political  reformer  is  to  hoist  the  anchor  up 
from  the  bottom  :  he  is  the  windlass.  But  the  business  of 
Chase,  Hale,  Sumner,  and  Wilson,  and  other  political 
reformers,  is  to  haid  in  the  slack,  and  see  that  what  the 
windlass  has  raised  up  is  held  on  to,  and  that  the  anchor 
does  not  drop  back  again  to  the  bottom.  The  men  at  the 
windlass  need  not  call  out  to  the  men  at  the  capstan, 
"  Haul  in  more  slack  ! ''  when  there  is  no  more  to  haul  in. 
This  is  the  misfortune  of  the  position  of  the  men  at  the 
capstan, — they  cannot  turn  any  faster  than  the  windlass 
gives  them  slack  rope  to  wind  up.  That  ought  to  be 
remembered.  Every  political  man,  before  he  takes  his 
post,  ought  to  understand  that ;  and  the  non-political  men, 
when  they  criticize  him  never  so  sharply,  ought  to  re- 
member that  the  men  at  the  capstan  cannot  turn  any 
faster  than  the  men  at  the  windlass. 

If  the  politician  is  to  keep  in  office,  he  must  accommo- 
date himself  to  the  ideas  of  the  people  ;  for  the  people  are 
sovereign,  and  reign,  while  the  politicians  only  govern 
with  delegated  power,  but  do  not  reign  :  they  are  agents, 
trustees,  holding  by  a  special  power  of  attorney,  which 
authorizes  them  to  do  certain  things,  for  doing  which  they 
are  responsible  to  the  people.  In  order  to  carry  his  point, 
the  politician  must  have  a  majority  on  his  side :  he  cannot 


THE    ANTI-SLAVEPA'   ENTEllPRISE.  223 

wait  for  it  to  grow,  but  must  have  it  now,  else  lie  loses  Ms 
post.  He  takes  the  wolf  by  the  ears  ;  and,  if  he  lets  go, 
the  wolf  eats  hira  up  :  he  must  therefore  lay  hold  where  he 
can  clinch  fast  and  continue.  If  Mr.  Sumner,  in  his  place 
in  the  Senate,  says  what  Massachusetts  does  not  indorse, 
out  goes  Mr.  Sumner.  It  is  the  same  with  the  rest.  All 
politicians  are  well  aware  of  that  fact.  I  have  sometimes 
thought  they  forgot  a  great  many  other  things ;  they  very 
seldom  forget  that. 

See  the  proof  of  what  I  say.  If  you  will  go  into  any 
political  meeting  of  Whigs  or  Democrats,  you  shall  find  the 
ablest  men  of  the  party  on  the  platform, — the  great  Whigs, 
the  great  Democrats  ;  "  the  rest  of  mankind  "  will  be  on 
the  floor.  'Now,  watch  the  speeches.  They  do  not  pro- 
pose an  idea,  or  appeal  to  a  sentiment  that  is  in  advance 
of  th^  people.  But,  when  you  go  into  an  anti-Slavery  meet- 
ing, you  find  that  the  platform  is  a  great  ways  higher  than 
the  pews,  uniformly  so.  Accordingly,  when  an  African 
speaks  (who  is  commonly  supposed  to  be  lower  than  *'  the 
rest  of  mankind  ")  and  says  a  very  generous  thing,  there 
.is  a  storm  of  hisses  all  round  this  hall.  What  does  it 
show  ?  That  the  anti- Slavery  platform  which  the  African 
stands  on  is  somewhat  higher  than  the  general  level  of  the 
floor,  even  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  politician  on  his 
platform  often  speaks  to  the  bottom  of  the  floor,  and  not  to 
the  top  of  the  ceiling. 

So  much  for  the  political  reformers :  I  am  not  speaking 
of  political  hunkers.  ]^ow  a  word  of  the  non-political 
reformers.  Their  business  is,  first,  to  produce  the  senti- 
ment ;  next,  the  idea ;  and,  thirdly,  to  suggest  the  mode  of 
action.  The  anti-Slavery  non-political  reformer  is  to  raise 
the  cotton,  to  spin  it  into  thread,  to  weave  it  into  web,  to 
prescribe  the  pattern  after  which  the  dress  is  to  be  made  ; 
and  then  he  is  to  pass  over  the  cloth  and  the  pattern  to  the 
political  reformer,  and  say,  "  Now,  sir,  take  your  shears, 
and  cut  it  out,  and  make  it  up."  You  see  how  very  in- 
ferior the  business  of  the  political  reformer  is,  after  all.  The 
non-political  reformer  is  not  restricted  by  any  law,  any 
Constitution,  any  man,  nor  by  the  people,  because  he  is  not 
to  deal  with  institutions ;  he  is  to  make  the  institutions 
better.  If  he  do  not  like  the  Union,  he  is  to  say  so  ;  and, 
just  as  soon  as  he  has  gathered  an  audience  inside  of  the 


^24  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT   OF 

Union  that  is  a  little  too  large  for  its  limits,  the  Union  will 
be  taken  down  without  much  noise,  and  piled  up, — -just  as 
this  partition  (alluding  to  the  partition  dividing  the  hall) 
has  been  taken  down  this  morning,  —  and  there  will  be  a 
larger  place.  The  non-political  reformer  can  say,  *'  Down 
with  the  Constitution  !  "  but  the  political  reformer  has 
sworn  to  keep  the  Constitution.  He  is  foreclosed  from 
saying  that  to-day  :  by  and  by  he  can  recant  his  oath,  and 
say  it  when  he  gets  ready.  The  non-political  reformer  is 
not  restricted  by  fear  of  losing  office.  Wendell  Phillips 
can  say  just  what  he  pleases  anywhere:  if  men  will  not 
hear  him  in  Faneuil  Hall,  they  will,  perhaps,  in  the  Old 
South  Meeting-house.  If  they  will  not  here  him  there,  he 
can  speak  on  the  Common;  at  any  rate,  in  some  little 
schoolhouse. 

The  political  reformer  must  have  a  majority  with  him, 
else  he  cannot  do  anything ;  he  has  not  carried  his 
point  or  accomplished  his  end.  But  the  non-political  re- 
former has  accomplished  part  of  his  end,  if  he  has  con- 
vinced one  man  out  of  a  million ;  for  that  one  man  will 
work  to  convince  another,  and  by  and  by  the  whole  will  be 
convinced.  A  political  reformer  must  get  a  majority  ;  a 
non-political  reformer  has  done  something  if  he  has  the 
very  smallest  minority,  even  if  it  is  a  minority  of  one. 
The  politician  needs  bread :  he  goes,  therefore,  to  the  baker  ; 
and  bread  must  be  had  to-day.  He  says,  "  I  am  starving  : 
I  can't  wait."  The  baker  says,  ^'Go  and  raise  the  corn." 
^' Why,  bless  you,"  he  replies,  "it  will  take  a  year  to  do 
that;  and  I  can't  wait."  The  non-political  reformer  does 
not  depend  on  the  baker.  The  baker  says,  "I  have  not  much 
flour."  "  Very  well,"  he  says,  "I  am  going  to  procure  it 
for  you."  So  he  puts  in  the  seed,  and  raises  the  harvest. 
Sometimes  he  must  take  the  land  wild,  and  even  cut  down 
the  forest,  and  scare  off  the  wild  beasts.  After  he  has  done 
that  preliminary  work,  he  has  to  put  in  the  anti- Slavery  seed, 
raise  the  anti- Slavery  corn,  and  then  get  the  public  baker 
to  make  the  bread  with  which  to  feed  the  foremost  of 
the  political  reformers, — men  like  Seward,  Hale,  Sumner, 
and  Wilson.  They  do  all  that  is  possible  in  their  present 
position,  with  such  a  constituency  behind  them  :  they  will 
do  more  and  better  soon  as  the  people  command;  nay, 
they  will  not  wait  for  orders, — soon  as  the  people  allow 


THE    ANTI-SLAVERY   ENTERPRISE.  225 

tliem.     These  men  are  not  likely  to  prove  false  to  their 
trust.     They  urge  the  people  forward. 

So  much  for  the  business.     ISTow  look  at  the  business 
men. 

I.  Look  first  at  the  political  part  of  the  anti-Slavery 
forces. 

1.  There  is  the  Republican  party.     That  is  a  direct  force 
for  anti- Slavery  ;  but,  as  the  anti- Slavery  idea  and  senti- 
ment are  not  very  wide-spread,  the  ablest  members  of  the 
Republican  party  are  forced  to  leave  their  special  business 
as  politicians,  and  go  into  the  elementary  work  of  the  non- 
political  reformers.     Accordingly,  Mr.  Wilson  stumped  all 
Massachusetts  last  year, — yes,  all  the  North ;  not  working 
for  purpose  purely  political,  but  for  a  purpose  purely  anti- 
Slaverj^ — to  excite  the  anti-Slavery  sentiment,  to  produce 
an  anti-Slavery  idea.     And  Mr.  Sumner  has  had  to  do  that 
work,  even  in  our  city  of  Boston.     Yet  JN'ew  England  is 
further  advanced  in  anti- Slavery  than  any  other  part  of 
America.      The  superiority  of  the  Puritan  stock   shows 
itself  everywhere  ;  I  mean  its  moral  superiority.     Look  at 
this  platform  :  how  many  persons  here  are  of  'New  England 
origin  ?     If  an  anti-Slavery  meeting  was  held  at  San  Fran- 
cisco or  JN'ew  Orleans,  it  would  be  still  the  same  ;  the  plat- 
form would  be  Yankee.     It  is  the  foot  of  New  England 
which  stands  on  that  platform.     It  is  to  tread   Slavery 
down.     Eut,  notwithstanding  New  England  is  the  most 
anti -Slavery  portion  of  the  whole  land,  these  political  men, 
whose   business   ought  to  be  only   to  organize  the  anti- 
Slavery  ideas,  and  give  expression  to  anti-Slavery  senti- 
ments in  the  Senate,  or   House  of  Representatives,  are 
forced  to  abandon  that  work  from  time  to  time,  to  go  about 
amongst  the  people,   and  produce  the  anti-Slavery  senti- 
ment and  idea  itself.     Let  us  not  be  very  harsh  in  criticising 
these  men,  remembering  that  they  are  not  so  well  sup- 
ported behind  as  we  could  all  wish  they  were. 

This  Republican  party  has  some  exceedingly  able  men. 
As  a  Massachusetts  man,  in  another  State,  I  am  not  ex- 
pected to  say  anything  in  praise  of  Mr.  Sumner,  or  Mr. 
Wilson,  or  Mr.  Ranks.  It  would  be  hardly  decorous  for  a 
Massachusetts  man,  out  of  his  own  State,  to  speak  in 
praise  of  those  men.     And  they  need  no  praise  from  my 

VOL.    VI.  *  Q 


226  THE    PRESENT    ASPECT    OF 

lips.  And,  as  a  New  England  man,  I  think  it  is  not  neces- 
sary for  me  to  praise  Mr.  Hale  or  Mr.  Foote,  Mr.  Collamer, 
Mr  .Fessenden,  or  anj^  otlier  eminent  political  men  of  New 
England.  But,  as  a  New  Englander  and  a  Massachusetts 
man,  you  will  allow  me  to  say  a  word  in  praise  of  one 
who  has  no  drop  of  Puritan  blood  in  his  veins ;  who  was 
never  in  New  England  but  twice, — the  first  time  to  attend 
a  cattle-show,  and  the  last  to  stand  on  Plymouth  Rock, 
on  Forefathers'  Day,  and,  in  the  bosom  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  Puritans,  to  awaken  the  anti- Slavery  sen- 
timent and  kindle  the  anti-Slavery  idea.  I  am  speaking 
of  your  own  Senator  Seward.  As  I  cannot  be  accused  of 
State  pride  or  of  sectional  vanity  in  praising  him,  let  me 
say,  that,  in  all  the  United  States,  there  is  not  at  this  day 
a  politician  so  able,  so  far-sighted,  so  cautious,  so  wise,  so 
discriminating,  and  apparently  so  gifted  with  power  to 
organize  ideas  into  men,  and  administer  that  organization, 
as  William  Henry  Seward,  I  know  the  other  men  ;  I  de- 
tract nothing  from  them.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  second 
where  Seward  is  first. 

Of  course,  this  party,  as  such,  will  make  mistakes  ;  indi- 
vidual republicans  will  do  wrong  things.  It  has  been  de- 
clared here  that  Mr.  Hale  says,  in  his  place  in  the  Senate, 
that  he  would  not  disturb  Slavery  nor  the  slave-holders. 
I  doubt  that  he  ever  said  so  in  public  ;  I  am  sure  it  is  not  his 
private  opinion.  I  know  not  what  he  said  that  has  been  so 
misunderstood.  His  sentiment  is  as  strongly  anti-Slavery 
as  our  friend  Garrison's  ;  but  he  is  just  now  in  what  they 
call  a  "  tight  place  :"  he  wants  to  do  one  thing  at  a  time. 
The  same  is  true  of  Henry  Wilson  and  of  Charles  Sumner  : 
they  want  to  do  one  thing  at  a  time.  I  do  not  find  fault 
with  their  wishing  to  do  that.  The  Constitution  is  the 
power  of  attorney  which  tells  them  how  to  act  as  ofiicial 
agents  of  the  people;  how  to  govern  for  the  sovereign 
people,  whose  vicegerents  they  are.  But  there  are  repub- 
lican politicians  who  limit  their  work  to  one  special  thing, 
and  say,  "  To-day  will  we  do  this,  and  then  strike  work  for 
ever.  "  We  do  not  intend  to  do  anything  to-morrow." 
They  say,  "  Please  Grod,  we  will  pull  up  these  weeds  to- 
day." the  South  says,  ''  You  shan't !"  And  these  men 
say,  "Let  us  pull  up  these:  we  will  never  touch  those 
which  grow  just  the  other  side  of  the  path."     They  hate 


THE   ANTI-SLAVERY   ENTERPHISE.  227 

those  other  weeds  just  as  mucli ;  tliey  mean  to  pull  them 
up  :  but  I  am  sorry  to  hear  them  say  they  do  not  intend 
to  :  and  I  am  glad  to  hear  severe  censure  passed  upon  them 
for  promising  never  to  do  that  particidar  thing, — not  for 
taking  one  step  at  a  time.  If  we  only  find  fault  with  real 
offenders,  we  shall  still  have  work  enough  to  do. 

I  say  this  party  has  great  names  and  powerful  men.     It 
wiU  gain  others  from  the  Democrats  and  from  the  Whigs 
alike.     See  what  it  has  gathered  from  the   Democrats  ! 
Look  at  that  high-toned  and  noble  newspaper,  the  Evening 
Post,  and  its  editor,  not  only  gifted  with  the  genius  of 
poetry,^  which  is  a   great  thing,  but  with  the  genius  of 
humanity,  which  is  tenfold  greater.     See  likewise  such  a 
man  as  Francis   P.  Blair  coming  into  this  movement ! 
Governor  Chase  is  another  that  it  has  gathered  from  that 
party.    There  are  various  other  men  whom  I  might  mention 
from  both  the  old  political  parties.  Then  see  what  service  is 
rendered  to  the  cause  of  humanity  by  a  newspaper,  which, 
a  few  years  ago,  seemed  sworn  for  ever  to  Henry  Clay.     I 
speak  of  the  only   paper  in  the  world  which  counts  its 
.readers  by   the   million, — the  New  York    Tribune,     The 
Republican  party  gathers  the  best  hearts  and  the  noblest 
heads  out  of  ^  the  Whig  and  the  Democratic  parties.      If 
faithful,  it  will  do  more  in  this  way  for  the  future  than  in 
the  past.    The  Democratic  party  continues  to  exist  by  these 
two  causes  :   (1)  its  admirable  organization ;    (2)  the  tra- 
dition of  noble  ideas  and  sentiments.     In  this  respect,  it  is 
to  the  Americans  what  the  Catholic  Church  is  to  Europe ; 
the  leaders  of  the  two  about  equally  corrupt,  the  rank  and 
file  ^  about   equally    deceived,    hoodwinked,    and   abused. 
Which  is  the  better, — to  be  politician-ridden,  or  priest- 
ridden?     Good  men  will  become  weary  of  such  service, 
and  leave  the  party  for  a  better,  soon  as  they  are  sure  that 
it  is  better. 

2.  Look  next  at  the  American  party,  so  called :  it  is 
anti" American  in  some  particulars.  This  is  an  indirect 
anti-Slavery  force,  as  the  Eepublican  party  is  a  direct  anti- 
Slavery  force.  I  suppose  you  know  what  its  professed  prin- 
ciple is,-—"  No  foreign  influence  in  our  politics."  Now, 
that  princij)le  comes  partly  from  a  national  instinct,  whose 
function  is  this  :  first,  to  prevent  the  excess  of  foreign  blood 

q2 


228  THE   PRESENT  ASPECT   OF 

in  our  veins  ;  and,  secondly,  the  excess  of  foreign  ideas  in 
the  American  consciousness.  Well,  it  was  necessary  there 
should  be  that  party.  It  has  a  very  important  function  ; 
because  it  is  possible  for  a  people  to  take  so  much  foreign 
blood  in  its  yeins,  and  so  many  foreign  ideas  to  its  con- 
sciousness, that  its  nationality  perishes. 

In  part,  this  principle  comes  from  the  national  instinct ; 
and  that  is  always  stronger  in  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
than  it  is  in  any  class  of  men  with  ''  superior  educa- 
tion :"  for  the  superior  education  consists  almost  wholly  in 
development  of  the  understanding, — the  thinking  part, — 
not  in  culture  of  the  conscience,  the  affections,  and  the  reli- 
gious element.  Therefore,  for  the  national  instinct,  I  never 
look  to  lawyers,  ministers,  doctors,  literary  and  scientific 
men,  or,  in  short,  to  the  class  of  men  who  have  what  is 
called  the  "  best  education :''  I  look  to  the  great  mass  of 
the  people.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  national  instinct  of 
the  Saxon  had  something  to  do  in  making  this  principle  of 
the  American  party  so  popular. 

However,  I  do  not  think  the  chief  devotion  to  this  prin- 
ciple comes  from  that  source,  but  from  one  very  much  cor- 
rupter than  that, — a  source  a  great  deal  lower  than  the 
uneducated  mass  of  the  JN^orthern  people.  It  comes  from 
political  partisans, — men  who  want  office.  There  are  two 
ways  of  getting  'Into  high  office.  One  is  to  fly  there  :  that 
is  a  very  good  way  for  an  animal  furnished  with  wings. 
The  other  is  to  crawl  there  :  that  is  the  only  way  left  for 
such  as  have  no  wings,  and  no  legs,  and  no  arms.  Well, 
there  was  a,  class  of  men  at  the  JsTorth  who  could  not  fly 
into  office ;  and  when  the  way  which  led  up  to  the  office 
was  perpendicular,  and  went  up  straight,  they  could  not 
crawl ;  they  were  so  slippery,  that  they  fell  ofi' :  there  was 
not  strength  enough  in  their  natural  gluten  to  hold  up 
their  natural  weight.  Such  men  could  not  fly  there ;  they 
could  not  crawl  there,  so  long  as  the  road  went  straight 
up ;  so  they  took  the  Know-Nothing  plank,  whicli  sloped 
up  pretty  gradual^ ;  and  on  it  Mr.  Gardner  crawled  into- 
the  governorship  of  Massachusetts.  A  good  many  men,  in 
various  other  States,  wormed  up  on  that  gently  sloping 
inclined  plane,  who  else  never  would  have  been  within  sight 
of  any  considerable  office.  !N^ow,  it  is  this  class  of  men, 
who  caught  sight  of  that  principle  demanded  bj'the  national 


THE   ANTI-SLAVERY   ENTERPRISE.  229 

instinct,  whicli  fears  an  excess  of  foreign  blood  in  our  veins, 
and  of  foreign  ideas  in  our  consciousness ;  and  they  said, 
^'  Let  us  make  use  of  that  as  a  wedge  upon  which  we  can 
crawl  up  into  office."  They  have  got  in  there  ;  but  before 
long  they  will  fall  out  of  their  lofty  hole,  or,  if  they  stay  in, 
will  be  shrivelled  up,  dried  clear  through,  and  by  and  by 
be  blown  off  so  far  that  no  particle  of  them  will  ever  be 
found  again.  The  American  party  just  now,  throughout 
all  the  United  States,  I  fear,  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
this  class  of  men.  It  does  not  any  longer,  I  think,  re- 
present the  instinct  of  the  less-educated  people,  or  the 
consciousness  of  the  more  thoughtful  people,  but  the  de- 
signs of  artful,  craftj^  and  rather  low-minded  persons. 

But  let  no  injustice  be  done.  In  the  party  are  still 
noble  men,  who  entered  it  full  of  this  national  instinct, 
with  these  three  negations  on  their  banner, — No  Priest- 
craft, '^0  Liquor,  No  New  Slave  States.  Some  of  them  still 
adhere  to  the  worst  of  the  leaders  of  their  j)arty.  Loyalty 
is  as  strong  in  the  Saxon  as  in  the  Russian  or  Sjpaniard ;  as 
often  attaches  itself  to  a  mean  man.  It  is  now  painful  to 
see  such  faithful  worshippers  of  such  false  "gods."  "An 
idol  is  Nothing,"  says  St.  Paul :  it  may  also  be  a  Know- 
Nothing. 

This  party,  notwithstanding  its  origin  and  character, 
has  done  two  good  works — one  negative,  one  positive. 

First,  it  helped  destroy  the  Whig  and  Democratic 
party.  That  was  very  essential.  The  anti-Slavery  man, 
the  non-political  reformer,  wanted  to  sow  his  seed  in  the 
national  soil.  It  was  dreadfully  cumbered  with  weeds  of 
two  kinds — Whig- weed  and  Democrat-weed.  The  Know- 
Nothings  lent  their  hands  to  destroy  these  weeds ;  and 
they  have  pulled  up  the  Whig-weed  pretty  thoroughly : 
they  have  torn  it  up  by  the  roots,  shaken  the  soil  from  it, 
and  it  lies  there  partly  drying  and  partly  rotting,  but,  at 
any  rate,  pretty  thoroughly  dead.  They  laid  hold  of  the 
Democrat-weed.  That  was  a  little  too  rank,  and  strongly 
rooted  in  the  ground,  for  them  to  pull  up.  Nevertheless, 
they  loosened  its  roots ;  they  gave  it  a  twist  in  the  trunk ; 
they  broke  of  some  branches,  and  stripped  off  some  of  its 
leaves,  and  it  does  not  look  quite  so  flourishing  as  it  did 
several  years  ago. 

Now,  this  negative  work  is  very  important ;  for,  if  we 


230    •  THE   PilESENT  ASPECT   OF 

could  get  both  these  kinds  of  weed  out  of  the  soil,  it  would 
not  be  a  very  difficult  matter  to  sow  the  seed  and  raise 
a  harvest  of  anti-Slavery. 

Next   for   the   positive   work.     It   calls  out  men  who 
hitherto  have  never  taken  the  initiative  in  politics,  but 
have  voted  just  as  they  were  bid.     I  will  speak  of  Massa- 
chusetts, of  Boston.     We  had  there  a  large  class  of  excel- 
lent men,  whc   always  went,  a  week  or  two  before  the 
election,  to  the  Whigs  and  Democrats,  and  said,  *'  Whom 
are  we  to  vote  for?"     The  great  Whigs  said,  "We  have 
not  yet  taken  counsel  of  the  Lord ;  we  shall  do  so  to-mor- 
row,  and  then  we  will  tell  you."     So  these  men  went 
home,  and  bowed  their  linees,  and  waited  in  silent  sub- 
mission ;  and  the  next  day  their  masters  said,  "  You  are  to 
vote  for  John  Smith  or  John  Brovfn,*'  or  whosoever  it 
chanced  to  be.     And  the  people  said,  "Hurrah  for  the 
great  John  Smith  !"    "  Hurrah  for  the  great  John  Brown !" 
"  Did  you  ever  hear  of  him  before  ? "  asked  some  one. 
"  ]^o  :    but    he    is    the    greatest    man   alive."       "  Who 
told  you  so?"     "Oh!    our  masters  told  us  so."     'Now, 
the   Know-J^othings   went   to   that   class    of    men,    and 
said,    "  You  have   been  fooled  long  enough."     "  So  we 
have,"  said  the  people,  "  and  no  mistake  !  and  we'wiil  not 
bear  it  any  longer."     They  would  not  be  fooled  any  longer 
by  the  Whigs,  and  some  of  them  no  longer  by  the  Demo- 
crats ;  but  they  were  fooled  by  the  Know- Nothings.    Never- 
theless, it  was  an  important  thing  for  this  class  of  people 
to  take  the  initiative  in  political  matters.    If  they  stumbled 
as  they  tried  to  go  alone,  it  is  what  all  children,  have  done. 
"Up  and  take  another,"  is  good  advice.     So  the  Know- 
Nothings  not  only  pulled  up  the  Whig- weed,  and  left  it  to 
rot,  but  they  stirred  the  land ;  they  ploughed  it  deep  with 
a  subsoil  plough,  turning  up  a  whole  stratum  of  peojDle 
which  had  never  been  brought  up  to  the  surface  of  the 
political  garden  before.     That  was  another  very  important 
matter ;  and  yet,  allow  me  to  say,  with  all  this  subsoiling, 
they  have  not  turned  up  one  single  man  who  proves  power- 
ful in  politics,  and  at  the  same  time  new.     Mr.  Wilson 
owns  his  place  in  the  Senate  to  the  Know- Nothings :  he 
was  known  to  be  a  powerful  man  before.     Mr.  Banks  owes 
his  place  to  this  party ;  he  also  was  a  powerful  man  before. 
I  do  not  find,  anywhere  in  the  United  States,  that  the 


THE  ANTI-SLAVERY   ENTEEPKISE.  231 

Americans  have  brouglit  one  single  able  man  before  the 
people,  who  was  not  known  to  the  people  just  as  well  before. 
You  shall  determine  what  that  fact  means.  I  shall  not  say 
just  now. 

At  the  South,  this  party  has  done  greater  service  than  at 
the  North  ;  for,  among  the  non- slaveholders  at  the  South, 
there  is  a  class  of  men  with  very  little  money,  less  educa- 
tion, and  no  social  standing  whatsoever.     That  class  have 
been  deprived  of  their  political  power  by  the  rich,  educated, 
and  respectable  slave-holders ;  for  the  slave-holders  make  the 
laws,  fill  the  offices,  and  monopolize  all  the  government  of 
the  South.     Those  Poor-whites  are  nothing  but  the  dogs  of 
the  slave-holder.     Whenever  he  says,  "  Seize  him.   Dirt- 
eater  ! "  away  goes  this  whole  pack  of  pro-Slavery  dogs, 
catching  hold  of  whonisoever  their  master  set  them  upon. 
This   class  of  men,  having  no  money  and  no  education, 
and  no  means   of  getting  any,   deprived  of  political  in- 
fluence, felt  that  they  were  crushed  down  ;  but  they  were 
too  ignorant  to  know  what  hurt  them.    They  had  no  news- 
papers, no  means  of  concerted  action.     Northern  men  have 
undertaken  to  help  those  men.     Mr.  Yaughan  established 
his  newspaper  at  Cleveland  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  reach- 
ing them.     Cassius  M.  Clay,  in  Kentucky,  said,  *'  Let  us 
speak  to  that  class  of  men."     Once  in  a  while,  you  hear  of 
their  holding  a  meeting  somewhere  in  Yirginia,  and  utter- 
ing some  kind  of  anti- Slavery  sentiment  or  idea.     Yery 
soon  they  are  put  down.     Now,  the  Know-Nothings  went 
among  the  Poor- whites  in  the  South,  and  organized  Ame- 
rican lodges.     The  whole  thing  was  done  in  secret ;    so 
that  the  organization  was  estabKshed,  and  set  on  its  legs, 
before  the  slave-holders  knew  anything  about  it :  it  was 
strong,  and  had  grown  up  to  be  a  great  boy  before  they 
knew  the  child  was  born.     Of  course,  the  Southern  Know- 
Nothing  party,  at  first,  does  not  know  exactly  what  to  do ; 
so  it  takes  the  old  ideas  of  persons  that  are  about  it,  and 
becomes  intensely  pro-Slavery.     That  is  not  quite  all.     The 
Whigs  at  the  South  have  always  been  feeble.     They  saw 
that  their  party  was  going  to  pieces  ;  and,  with  the  instinct 
of  that  other  animal  which  flees  out  of  the  house  which  is 
likely  to  fall,  they  sought  shelter  under  some  safer  roof  : 
thev  fled  to  the  Know-Nothino'  orsranization.     The  leadino^ 
Whigs  got  control  of  the  party  at  the  South,  and  made 


232  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT   OP 

that  still  more  pro-Slavery  in  the  South  which  was  already 
sufficiently  despotic  at  the  North.  Nevertheless,  there  has 
now  risen  up,  at  the  South,  a  body  of  men  who,  when  they 
come  to  complete  consciousness  of  themselves,  will  see 
that  they  are  in  the  same  boat  with  the  black  man,  and 
that  what  now  curses  the  black  man  will  also  ruin  the 
Poor-white  at  last.  At  present,  they  are  too  ignorant  to 
understand  that ;  for  the  bulk  of  the  American  party  at 
the  South  consists  of  Know-Nothings,  who  were  such  before 
they  ever  went  into  a  lodge — natural  Know-jNothings,  who 
need  no  initiation.  Nevertheless,  they  are  human ;  and 
the  truth,  driven  with  the  slave-holder's  hammer,  will  force 
itself  even  into  such  heads. 

Such  men  are  not  hopeless.  One  day,  we  shall  see  a  great 
deal  of  good  come  from  them.  At  present,  they  are  in  the 
same  condition  with  the  Irish  at  Boston— first,  ignorant ; 
and  next,  controlled  by  their  priests  ;  for,  as  the  Irish 
Catholic  in  Boston  and  New  York  is  roughly  ridden  by 
that  heavy  ecclesiastical  rider,  the  priest,  so  the  Know- 
Nothings  at  the  South  are  still  more  roughly  ridden  by 
this  desperate  political  rider  mounted  upon  their  backs. 
One  day,  both  the  Irish  and  the  Know- Nothing  master  will 
be  unhorsed,  and  there  will  be  no  more  such  riding. 

So  much  for  these  two  anti-Slavery  forces — one  direct, 
and  the  other  indirect. 

This,  let  me  say  in  general,  is  the  sin  of  the  politician — 
he  seeks  office  for  his  ov/n  personal  gain,  and,  when  he  is  in 
it,  refuses  to  organize  the  anti- Slavery  ideas  which  he  was 
put  in  office  to  develop  and  represent.  After  the  windlass 
has  lifted  the  anchor,  he  refuses  to  haul  in  the  slack  cable. 
That  was  the  case  with  Webster  ;  it  caused  him  his  death. 
It  was  the  case  with  Everett ;  it  brought  him  to  private 
life  and  political  ruin.  Many  are  elected  as  anti-Slavery 
men,  who  prove  false  to  their  professions.  New  England 
is  rich  in  traitors.  The  British  Executive  bought  Benedict 
Arnold  with  money ;  the  American  Executive  has  since 
bought  many  an  Arnold.  Look  at  the  present  national 
Administration.  In  1852,  had  he  published  his  programme 
of  principles  and  measures,  do  you  think  Mr.  Pierce  would 
have  had  the  vote  of  a  single  Northern  State  ?  Not  an 
electoral  vote  would  have  been  given  by  the  North  for 
robbing  the  people  of  a  million  square  miles  of  land,  and 


THE   ANTI-SLAVERY   ENTERPRISE.  233 

bestowing  it  on  three  hundred  and  fiftj^  thousand  slave- 
holders !  He  is  an  official  swindler.  He  got  his  place  by 
false  pretences — the  juggling  trick  of  the  thimble-rigger. 
Mr.  Hale  says,  'Tor  every  doughfaced  representative, 
there  is  a  doughfaced  constituency.'^  It  is  true ;  but  the 
constituency  is  not  always  quite  so  soft  as  the  delegate ;  it 
is  at  least  slack-baked,  and  does  not  pretend  to  be  what  it 
knows  it  is  not. 

Here,  too,  let  me  say,  it  is  a  great  misfortune  that  the 
North  has  not  sent  more  strong  men  to  the  political  work. 
In  time  of  war,  you  take  the  ablest  men  you  can  find,  and 
put  them  to  do  the  military  work  of  the  people.  The 
North  commonly  sends  her  ablest  men  to  science,  literature, 
productive  industry,  trade,  and  manufactures  ;  the  South, 
hers  to  politics  ;  and  so  she  outwits  and  beats  us  from  one 
fifty  years  to  another.  But,  in  such  a  terrible  battle  as  this 
before  us  now,  rest  assured  the  North  cannot  afibrd  to  send 
her  strong  men  to  callings  directly  productive  of  pecuniary 
value :  we  must  have  them  in  politics — men  of  great  mind, 
able  to  see  far  behind  and  before ;  of  great  experience,  to 
organize  and  administer.  Above  all  must  our  statesmen 
be  men  of  great  justice  and  humanity,  such  as  reverence 
the  higher  law  of  God.  Integrity  is  the  first  thing  needed 
in  a  statesman.  The  time  may  come  when  the  men  of 
largest  human  power  may  go  to  the  shop,  the  counting- 
room,  the  farm,  the  ship,  to  science,  or  preaching  :  just 
now  we  cannot  afford  to  make  a  land-surveyor  out  of  a 
Washington,  or  turn  our  Franklins  into  tallowchandlers. 
AYhen  we  can  afford  such  expenditure,  I  shall  not  object : 
now  we  are  not  rich  enough  to  allow  Moses  to  tend  sheep, 
asses,  and  young  camels,  or  to  keep  Paul  at  tent-making. 

Here  are  the  anti-Slavery  forces  which  are  not  political. 
They  are  various. 

At  first,  the  anti-Slavery  men  looked  to  the  American 
Church,  and  said,  "  That  will  be  our  great  bulwark  and 
defender."  Instead  of  being  a  help,  it  has  been  a  hinder- 
ance.  If  the  American  Church,  twenty  years  ago,  could 
have  dropped  through  the  continent,  and  disappeared  alto- 
gether, the  anti- Slavery  cause  woidd  have  been  further  on 
than  it  is  at  this  daj^  If,  remaining  above  ground,  every 
minister  in  the  United  States  had  sealed  his  lips,  and  said, 


234  THE   PKESENT  ASPECT  OF 

"  Before  God,  I  will  say  no  word  for  freedom  or  against  it, 
in  behalf  of  tlie  slave-holder  or  of  his  victim,"  the  anti- 
Slavery  enterprise  would  have  been  further  on  than  it  is 
at  this  day.  I  say,  that,  notwithstanding  the  majestic 
memory  of  William  EUery  Ohanning,  a  magnanimous 
man,  whose  voice  rung  like  a  trumpet  through  the  con- 
tinent, following  that  other  clearer,  higher,  more  widely 
sounding  voice,  still  spared  to  us  on  earth  (Mr.  Garrison's)  ; 
notwithstanding  the  eloquent  words  which  do  honour  to 
the  name  of  Beecher  and  the  heart  of  humanity  ;  notwith- 
standing the  presence  of  this  dear  good  soul  (referring  to 
Samuel  J.  May),  whose  presence  in  the  anti- Slavery  cause 
has  been  like  the  month  whose  name  he  bears,  and  has 
brought  a  whole  lapful  of  the  sweetest  flowers, — the 
Church  has  hindered  more  than  it  has  helped.  For  the 
tallest  heads  in  the  great  sects  were  lifted  up  to  blaspheme 
the  God  of  Eighteousness,  and  commit  the  sin  Y\^hich  Mr. 
Eemond  says  is  second  only  to  Atheism, — the  denial  of 
humanity.  While  the  Atheist  openly  denied  God,  many 
a  minister  openly  denied  man.  I  think  the  minister  com- 
mitted the  vforst  sin  ;  for  he  sinned  in  the  name  of  God, 
and  hvpccritically  :  he  wrought  his  blasphemy  that  he 
might  gain  his  daily  bread,  while  the  Atheist  perilled  his 
bread  and  his  reputation  when  he  stood  up,  and  said,  *'  I 
think  there  is  no  God."  I  have  no  respect  for  Atheism  ; 
but,  when  a  man  in  the  pulpit  blasphemes  the  Divinity  of 
God  by  treading  the  humanity  of  man  under  His  anointed 
foot,  I  say  I  would  take  my  chance  in  the  next  world 
with  him  who  speaks  out  of  his  own  heart,  in  his  blind- 
ness, and  says,  "  There  is  no  God,"  rather  than  share  the 
lot  of  that  man  who,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  and  of  the 
Father,  treads  down  humanity,  and  declares  there  is  no 
higher  law. 

There  are  a  great  many  direct  anti-Slavery  forces. 

1.  The  conduct  of  the  slave-holders  in  the  South,  and 
their  allies,  has  awakened  the  indignation  of  the  North. 
The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  an  anti-Slavery  measure.  We 
said  so  six  years  ago  ;  now  we  know  it.  Kidnapping  is 
anti-Slavery  ;  it  makes  anti-Slavery  men.  The  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  stirred  anti- Slavery  sentiment  in 
]N"orthern  hearts.  The  conduct  of  affairs  in  Kansas,  Judge 
Kane's  wickedness,  and  the  horrible  outrage  at  Cincinnati, 


THE   ANTI-SLAVERY   E3STETIPIIISE.  235 

— all  these  turn  out  anti-Slavery  measures.  M]\  Douglas 
stands  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  and  turns  his  face  north, 
and  says,  "  We  mean  to  subdue  you."  The  mass  at  the 
IMorth  says,  "  We  are  not  going  to  be  subdued.''  It  is  an 
anti-Slavery  resolution.  The  South  repudiates  Democracy : 
the  Charleston  Mercury  and  the  Richmond  Examinerlsaj 
that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  a  great  mistake 
when  it  says  all  men  are  by  nature  equal  in  their  right  to 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness, — that  there  is  no 
greater  lie  in  the  world.  When  the  North  understands 
that,  it  says,  "  I  am  anti-Slavery  at  once."  The  North 
has  not  heard  it  yet  thoroughly.     One  day  it  will. 

2.  Then  there  are  the  general  effects  of  education  :  it 
enlightens  men,  so  that  they  can  see  that  Slavery  is  a  bad 
speculation,  bad  economy. 

3.  Then  there  is  the  progressive  moralization  of  the 
North.  The  North  is  getting  better,  more  and  more 
Christian  and  humane.  It  was  never  so  temperate  as  to- 
day, never  so  just,  never  so  moral,  never  so  hiunane  and 
philanthropic.  To  be  sure,  even  now  we  greatly  over- 
look our  black  brother :  it  is  because  he  is  not  an  Anglo- 
Saxon.  But  he  has  human  blood  in  his  veins  :  by  and  by 
we  shall  see  our  black  brother  also.  • 

4.  Then  the  better  portion  of  the  Northern  press  is  on 
our  side.  Consider  what  quantities  of  books  have  been 
vmtten  within  the  last  ten  years  full  of  anti-Slavery  senti- 
ment, and  running  over  with  anti-Slavery  ideas.  Think 
of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  and  the  host  of  books,  only  in- 
ferior to  that,  which  have  been  published.  Then  look 
at  the  newspapers.  I  just  spoke  of  the  Evening  Post,  and 
Tribune :  look  at  the  Neiv  York  Independent^  with  twenty 
thousand  subscribers,  with  so  much  anti-Slavery  in  it.  It 
does  not  go  the  length  that  I  wish  it  did,  and  sometimes  it 
does  very  mean  things ;  for  it  is  not  unitary.  See  what 
powerful  anti- Slavery  agents  are  the  Evening  Post,  the 
Independent,  the  New  York  Times,  and  the  Neiv  York 
Tribune,  and  that  whole  army  of  newsj)apers,  some  of 
them  in  every  Northern  city ;  not  to  forget  the  National 
Era,  at  Washington.  Besides  these,  there  are  the  anti- 
Slavery  newspapers  proper,  i\\Q Liberator,  ihe  Standard,  and 
divers  others,  only  second  v/herc  it  is  praise  to  be  inferior. 

5.  Then  there  is  the  anti-Slavery  party  proper,  with  its 


236  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT   OF 

men,  its  money,  and  its  immense  force  in  tlie  country.  What 
power  of  religion  it  has  !  I  know  it  has  been  called  anti- 
religious,  anti- Christian,  Infidel.  Was  not  Jesus  of  Naza- 
retli  nailed  to  the  cross,  between  two  thieves,  on  the  charge 
that  He  blasphemed  God  ?  How  rich  is  this  party  in  its 
morals,  how  mighty  in  its  eloquence  !  I  am  sorry  its  most 
persuasive  lijjs  are  not  here  to-day  to  speak  for  themselves 
and  for  you,  and  instead  of  me.  Here  is  a  woman  also  in 
the  anti-Slavery  ranks.  I  need  say  nothing  of  her :  her 
own  sweet  music  just  now  awoke  the  tune  of  humanity  in 
your  hearts,  and  I  saw  the  anti- Slavery  sentiment  spring 
in  tears  out  of  your  eyes.  One  day,  from  such  watering,  it 
will  blossom  into  an  anti-Slavery  idea,  and  fruiten  into 
anti- Slavery  acts. 

(1.)  Here  is  the  merit  of  this  anti-Slavery  party.  It 
appeals  to  the  very  widest  and  deepest  humanity.  It 
knovv's  no  restriction  of  State  or  Church.  If  the  State  is 
wrong,  the  anti- Slavery  party  says,  "Away  with  the  State ! " 
if  the  Church  is  mistaken,  "  Down  with  the  Church  ! "  If 
the  people  are  wrong,  then  it  says,  ".Woe  unto  you,  0  ye 
people !  you  are  sinning  against  God,  and  your  sin  will 
find  you  out."  It  does  not  appeal  to  the  politician,  the 
priest,  the  editor  alone  ;  it  goes  to  the  people,  face  to  face, 
eye  to  eye^  heart  to  heart,  and  speaks  to  them,  and  with 
immense  power.  It  knows  no  man  after  the  flesh.  Let 
me  suppose  an  impossibility — that  Mr.  May  should  become 
as  Everett,  and  Mr.  Garrison  as  Webster  :  would  their  sin 
be  forgiven  by  the  abolitionists  ?  No  :  those  who  sit  behind 
them  now  would  stand,  not  on  this  platform,  but  on  this 
table,  and  denounce  them  for  their  short-coming  and  wrong- 
doing. They  spare  no  man ;  they  forgive  no  sin  against 
the  idea  of  Freedom. 

They  are  not  selfish ;  for  they  ask  nothing  except  an 
opportunity  to  do  their  duty.  And  they  have  had  nothing 
except  a  "chance"  to  do  that;  always  in  ill  report  until 
now,  when  you  shall  judge  how  much  there  is  of  good 
report  awaiting  them. 

They  are  untiring.  I  wish  they  would  sink  through 
the  platform,  so  that  I  could  say  what  would  now  put  them 
to  the  blush  before  so  large  an  audience. 

They  appeal  to  the  high  standard  of  absolute  right.  This 
is  their  merit.     The  nation  owes  them  a  great  debt,  which 


THE   ANTI-SLAVERY   ENTERPRISE.  237 

will  not  be  paid  in  this  life.  Their  reward  is  in  the  noble- 
ness which  does  such  deeds  and  lives  such  life :  thus  they 
will  take  with  them  "  an  inheritance  incorruptible,  un de- 
filed, and  w^hich  fadeth  not  away." 

(2.)  Here,  I  think,  is  their  defect.  They  forget,  some- 
times, that  there  must  be  political  workmen.  This  comes 
from  the  fact,  that,  to  so  great  an  extent,  they  are  non- 
voters,  even  ^'  non-resistants. '^  If  they  were  the  opposite, 
they  would  have  appealed  to  violence  :  being  Quakers  and 
non-resistants,  they  have  not  done  quite  justice  always,  it 
seems  to  me,  to  those  who  work  in  the  political  way. 

This  has  been  charged  against  them :  that  they  quarrel 
among  themselves ;  two  against  three,  and  tliree  against 
two;  Douglas  against  Garrison,  and  Garrison  against 
Douglas ;  the  liberty-party  men  against  the  old  anti- 
Slavery  men ;  and  all  that.  That  is  perfectly  true.  But 
remember  why  it  is  so.  You  can  bring  together  a  Demo- 
cratic bod}^,  draw  your  line,  and  they  all  touch  the  mark : 
it  is  so  with  the  Whigs.  They  have  long  been  drilled  into 
it.  But,  whenever  a  body  of  men  with  new  ideas  comes  to 
.organize,  there  are  as  many  opinions  as  persons.  Pilate 
and  Herod,  bitter  enemies  of  each  other,  were  made  friends 
by  a  common  hostility  to  Jesus ;  but,  when  the  twelve  dis- 
ciples came  together,  they  fell  out :  Paul  resisted  Peter ; 
James  differed  from  John  ;  and  so  on.  It  is  alwaj^s  so  on 
every  platform  of  new  ideas,  and  will  always  be  so — at 
least  for  a  long  time.  We  must  bear  w^ith  one  another 
the  best  we  can. 

I  think  that  the  anti-Slavery  party  has  not  always  done 
quite  justice  to  the  political  men.  See  why.  It  is  easy  for 
Mr.  Garrison  and  Mr.  Phillips  or  me  to  say  all  of  our 
thought.  I  am  responsible  to  nobody,  and  nobody  to  me. 
But  it  is  not  easy  for  Mr.  Sumner,  Mr.  Seward,  and  Mr. 
Chase  to  say  all  of  their  thought ;  because  they  have  a 
position  to  maintain,  and  they  must  keep  in  that  j)osition. 
The  political  reformer  is  hired,  to  manage  a  mill  owned 
by  the  people,  turned  by  the  popular  stream — to  grind 
into  anti-Slavery  meal  such  corn  as  the  people  bring  him 
for  that  purpose,  and  other  grain  also  into  different  meal.  He 
is  not  principal  and  owner,  only  attorney  and  hired-man.  He 
must  do  his  work  so  as  to  suit  his  employers,  else  they  say/ 
''  Thou  mayest  be  no  longer  miller.''      The  non-political 


238  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT   OF 

reformer  owns  his  own  mill,  wliich  is  turned  by  tlie  stream 
drawn  from  his  private  pond :  he  put  up  the  dam,  and  may 
do  what  he  will  with  his  own — run  it  afl.  night,  on  Sunday, 
and  the  4th  of  July ;  may  grind  just  as  he  likes,  for  it 
is  his  own  corn.  He  sells  his  meal  to  such  as  will  buy.  He 
is  in  no  danger  of  being  turned  out  of  his  office ;  for  he 
has  no  master — is  not  hired  man  to  any  one. 

The  anti-Slavery  non-political  reformer  is  to  excite  the 
sentiment,  and  give  the  idea :  he  may  tell  his  whole  scheme 
all  at  once,  if  he  will.  But  the  political  reformer,  who,  for 
immediate  action,  is  to  organize  the  sentiment  and  idea  he 
finds  ready  for  him,  cannot  do  or  propose  all  things  at 
once :  he  must  do  one  thing  at  a  time,  tell  one  thing  at  a 
time.  He  is  to  cleave  Slavery  off  from  the  Government ; 
and  so  must  put  the  thin  part  of  his  wedge  in  first,  and 
that  where  it  will  go  the  easiest.  If  he  takes  a  glut  as 
thick  as  an  anti-Slavery  platform,  and  puts  it  in  anywhere, 
head  foremost,  let  him  strike  never  so  hard,  he  will  not 
rend  off  a  splinter  from  the  tough  log;  nay,  will  only 
waste  his  strength,  and  split  the  head  of  his  own  beetle  ! 

Still,  this  non-political,  anti-Slavery  party — averse  to 
fighting,  hostile  to  voters  under  present,  if  not  all  possible, 
circumstances — has  been  of  most  immense  value  to  man- 
kind. It  has  been  a  perpetual  critic  on  politicians;  and 
now  it  has  become  so  powerful  that  every  political  man  in 
the  I^orth  is  afraid  of  it ;  and,  when  he  makes  a  speech,  he 
asks  not  only.  What  will  the  Whigs  or  the  Democrats 
think  of  it?  but,  what  will  the  anti-Slavery  men  say; 
what  will  the  Liberator  and  the  Standard  say  of  it  ?  And, 
when  a  candidate  is  to  be  presented  for  the  office  of  presi- 
dent, the  men  who  make  the  nomination  go  to  the  Quakers 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  say,  "  Whom  do  you  want  ?"  They 
go  to  the  non-resistants  of  Massachusetts — men  that  never 
vote  or  take  office — and  ask  if  it  will  do  to  nominate  this, 
that,  or  the  other  man.  A  true  Church  is  to  criticize  the 
world  by  a  higher  standard.  The  non-political  anti-Slavery 
party  is  the  Church  of  America  to  criticize  the  politics  of 
America.  It  has  been  of  immense  service;  it  is  now  a 
great  force. 

6.  Besides  that,  there  is  the  spirit  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  tribe^ 
which  hates  oppression,  which  loves  justice  and  liberty,  and 
will  at  last  have  freedom  for  all.     Look  at  its  history  for 


THE   ANTT-SLAVERY    ENTERPKISE.  239 

tliree  hundred  years — from  1556,  wlien  the  three  millions 
of  Old  England  were  ruled  by  the  bloody  Mary,  to  1856, 
when  the  three  millions  of  New  England  govern  them- 
selves !  Do  you  fear  for  the  next  three  hundred  years  ? 
That  historic  momentum  will  not  be  lost. 

7.  Then  there  is  the  spirit  of  the  age  we  live  in.  Only 
see  what  has  been  done  in  a  century  !  A  hundred  years 
ago,  there  were  slaves  in  every  corner  of  the  land.  There 
are  men  on  this  platform,  whose  fathers,  within  fourscore 
years,  have  not  only  owned  black,  but  red  and  white  slaves 
also.  See  what  a  steady  march  there  has  been  of  freedom 
in  'New  England,  and  throughout  the  North — likewise  on 
the  continent  of  Europe  !  Christendom  repudiates  bondage. 
Think  of  British  and  French  emancipation,  of  Dutch  and 
Danish.  Slavery  is  only  at  home  in  three  places  in  Chris- 
tendom,— Russia,  Brazil,  and  the  south  of  the  United 
States.  A  hundred  years  ago,  there  was  not  a  spot  in  all 
Europe  where  there  was  not  Slavery  in  one  form  or  another, 
— men  put  up  at  auction.  It  is  only  ninety-eight  years 
ago  since  men  were  kidnapped  in  Glasgow,  Scotland,  and 
sold  into  bondage  for  ever  in  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love, 
at  Philadelphia.  That  thing  took  place  in  1758.  See 
what  an  odds  there  is  ! 

It  is  plain  that  American  Slavery  is  to  end  ultimately. 
It  cannot  stand.  The  question  before  us  is,  "  Shall  it  ruin 
America  before  it  stops  ?  "  I  think  it  will  not.  The  next 
question  is,  "  Shall  it  end  peaceably,  as  the  Quakers  wish, 
and  as  all  anti- Slavery  men  wish,  or  shall  it  end  in  blood  ? '' 
On  that  point  I  shall  not  now  give  my  opinion. 


THE 

PKESENT  CEISIS  IN  AMEEICAN  AFFAIRS: 

THE  SLAVE-HOLDERS'  ATTEMPT  TO  WRENCH  THE 
TERRITORIES  FROM  THE  WORKING  PEOPLE,  AND 
TO  SPREAD  BONDAGE  OYER  ALL  THE  LAND. 

DELIVERED   ON   THE    EVENING   OF    MAY    7. 


"  Oil !  ill  for  him,  wlio,  bettering  not  with  time, 

Corrupts  the  strength  of  Heaven-descended  will, 
And  ever  weaker  grows  through  acted  crime, 
Or  seeming-genial  venial  fault, — 

Recurring  and  suggesting  still ! 
He  seems  as  one  whose  footsteps  halt, — 

Toiling  in  immeasurable  sand, 

And  o'er  a  weary,  sultry  land, 
Far  beneath  a  blazing  vault. 

Sown  in  a  wrinkle  of  the  monstrous  hill, 
The  city  sparkles  like  a  grain  of  salt." 


America  has  now  come  to  such,  a  pass,  that  a  small  mis- 
step may  plunge  us  into  lasting  misery.  Any  other  and 
older  nation  would  be  timidly  conscious  of  the  peril ;  but 
we,  both  so  confident  of  destined  triumph  and  so  wonted 
to  success,  forecast  only  victory,  and  so  heed  none  of  all 
this  danger.  Who  knows  what  is  before  us  ?  By  way  of 
warning  for  the  future,  look  at  the  events  in  the  last  six 
years. 

1.  In  the  spring  of  1850,  came  the  discussions  on  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  the  programme  of  practical  Athe- 
ism ;  for  it  was  taught,  as  well  in  the  Senate  as  the  pulpits, 
that  the  American  Government  was  amenable  to  no  natural 
laws  of  God,  but  its  own  momentary  caprice  might  take 


THE   PRESENT   CRISIS   IN   AMERICAN   AFFAIRS.  241 

the  place  of  tlie  eternal  reason.  "  The  Union  is  in  danger" 
was  the  aiFected  cr}^.  Violent  speeches  filled  the  land, 
and  officers  of  the  Government  uttered  such  threats  against 
the  people  of  the  North  as  only  Austrian  and  Russian  ears 
were  wont  to  hear.  Even  "  discussion  was  to  cease."  That 
year,  the  principle  was  sown  whence  measures  have  since 
sprung  forth,  an  evil  blade  from  evil  seed.* 

2.  The  next  spring,  1851,  kidnapping  went  on  in  all  the 
North.  Kane  ruled  in  Philadelphia,  Rynders  in  New 
York.  Boston  opened  her  arms  to  the  stealers  of  men, 
who  barked  in  her  streets,  and  howled  about  the  cradle  of 
liberty, — the  hiding-place  of  her  ancient  power.  All  the 
municipal  authority  of  the  town  was  delivered  up  to  the 
kidnappers.  Faneuil  Hall  was  crammed  with  citizen- 
soldiers,  volunteers  in  men-stealing,  eager  for  their — 

"  Glorious  first  essay  in  war." 

Visible  chains  of  iron  were  proudly  stretched  round  the 
Court  House.  The  Supreme  Judges  of  Massachusetts 
crouched  their  loins  beneath  that  yoke  of  bondage,  and 
went  under  to  their  own  place,  wherein  they  broke  down 
the  several  laws  they  were  sworn  and  paid  to  keep.  They 
gave  up  Thomas  Sims  to  his  tormentors.  On  the  19th 
of  April,  the  seventy-sixth  anniversary  of  the  first  battle 
of  the  Hevolution,  the  city  of  Hancock  and  Adams  thrust 
one  of  her  innocent  citizens  into  a  slave-prison  at  Savan- 
nah ;  giving  his  back  to  the  scourge,  and  his  neck  to  the 
everlasting  yoke.f 

3.  In  the  spring  of  1854,  came  the  discussions  on  the 
Kansas- Nebraska  Bill;  the  attempt  to  extend  bondage  into 
the  new  territory  just  opening  its  arms  to  the  industrious 
North  ;  the  legislative  effort  to  rob  the  Northern  labourer 
thereof,  and  give  the  spoils  to  Southern  slave-holders.  Then 
came  the  second  kidnapping  at  Boston :  a  Judge  of  Probate 
stole  a  defenceless  man,  and  made  him  a  slave.  The  old 
volunteer  soldiers  put  on  their  regimentals  again  to  steal 
another  victim.  But  they  were  not  quite  strong  enough 
alone ;  so  the  United  States  troops  of  the  line  were  called 

*  See  Mr.  Parker's   Speeclies,  Addresses,  and  Occasional  Sermons, 
Vol.  II.,  Nos.  VT.— X. 
t  Parker,  vU  su]p.  No.  XI.    Additional  Speeches,  &c.,  Vol.  I.,  Nos.  I.,  II. 
VOL.  VI,  K 


242  THE   PRESENT   CRISIS 

out  to  aid  the  work  of  protecting  tlie  orphan.  It  was  the 
first  time  I  ever  saw  soldiers  enforcing  the  decisions  of  a 
New  England  Judge  of  Probate  ;  the  first  time  I  ever  saw 
the  United  States  soldiers  in  any  service.  This  was  cha- 
racteristic work  for  a  democratic  army!  Hireling  soldiers, 
mostly  Irishmen,— sober  that  day,  at  least  till  noon,-- 
in  the  public  square  loaded  their  cannon,  charged  their 
muskets,  fixed  their  bayonets,  and  made  ready  to  butcher 
the  citizens  soon  as  a  slave-holder  should  bid  them  strike  a 
ij"orthern  neck.     The  spectacle  was  prophetic* 

4.  Now,  in  1856,  New  England  men  migrate  to  Kansas, 
taking  their  wives,  their  babies,  and  their  cradles.^  The 
Old  Bible  goes  also  on  that  pilgrimage,— it  never  fails  the 
sons  of  the  Puritans.    But  the  fathers  are  not  yet  dead  ;-- 

"  E'en  in  our  aslies  live  their  "vvonted  fires." 

Sharp's  rifle  goes  as  missionary  in  that  same  troop  ;  an 
indispensable  missionary — an  apostle  to  theGfentiles — whose 
bodily  presence  is  not  weak,  nor  his  speech  contemptible, 
in  Missouri.  All  the  parties  go  armed.  Like  the  father, 
the  pilgrim  son  is'  also  a  Puritan,  and  both  trusts  in  God 
and  keeps  his  powder  dry. 

A  company  went  from  Boston  a  few  days  ago,  a  few  of 
my  own  friends  and  parishioners  among  them.  There 
were  some  five  and  forty  persons,  part  women  and  children. 
Twenty  Sharp's  rifles  answered  to  their  names,  not  to  speak 
of  other  weapons.  The  ablest  minister  in  the  United 
States  stirs  up  the  *'  Plymouth  Church''  to  contribute  fire- 
arms to  this  new  mission  ;  and  a  spirit,  noble  as  Daven- 
port's and  Hooker's,  pushes  off  from  New  England,  again 
to  found  a  New  Haven  in  the  wilderness.  The  bones  of 
the  regicide  sleep  in  Connecticut ;  but  the  revolutionary 
soul  of  fire  flames  forth  in  new  processions  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

In  1656,  when  Boston  sent  out  her  colonists,  they  took 
matchlocks  and  snaphances  to  fend  off  the  red  savage  of  the 
wilderness  ;  in  1756,  they  needed  weapons  only .  against 
the  French  enemy ;  but,  in  1856,  the  dreadful  tools  of  war 
are  to  protect  their  children  from  the  white  border-ruffians, 
whom  the  President  of  the  United  States  invites  to  burn 
the  new  settlements,  to  scalp  and  kill. 
*  Parker,  Additions!  Speeclies,  Vol.  I.,  Nos.  V.,  VI. ;  Vol.  II.,  Nos.  I.— IV. 


IN   AMERICAN   AFFAIRS.  243 

In  1850,  we  heard  only  the  threat  of  arms;  in  1851,  wc 
saw  the  vohmteer  muskets  in  the  kidnapper's  hand ;  in 
1854,  he  put  the  United  States  cannon  in  batter j^ ;  in  1856, 
he  arms  the  savage  Missourians.  But  now,  also,  there  are 
tools  of  death  in  the  people's  hand.  It  is  high  time. 
"When  the  people  are  sheep,  the  Government  is  always  a 
wolf.  What  will  the  next  step  be  ?  Mr.  Gushing  says, 
"  I  laiow  what  is  requisite ;  but  it  is  means  that  I  cannot 
suggest!  ^'  Who  knows  what  coup  d'etat  is  getting  ready  ? 
Surely  affairs  cannot  remain  long  in  this  condition. 

To  understand  this  present  emergency^  you  must  go  a 
long  ways  back,  and  look  a  little  carefully  at  what  lies 
deep  down  in  the  foundation  of  States. 

The  welfare  of  a  nation  consists  in  these  three  things  ; 
namely  :  first,  possession  of  material  comfort,  things  of 
use  and  beauty ;  second,  enjoyment  of  all  the  natural 
rights  of  body  and  spirit ;  and,  third,  the  development  of 
the  natural  faculties  of  body  and  spirit  in  their  harmoni- 
ous order,  securing  the  possession  of  freedom,  intelligence, 
morality,  philanthropy,  and  piety.  It  ought  to  be  the  aim 
of  a  nation  to  obtain  these  three  things  in  the  highest 
possible  degree,  and  to  extend  them  to  all  persons  therein. 
That  nation  has  the  most  welfare  which  is  the  furthest 
advanced  in  the  possession  of  these  three  things. 

jN^ext,  the  progress  of  a  nation  consists  in  two  things : 
first,  in  the  increasing  development  of  the  natural  facul- 
ties of  body  and  spirit, — intellectual,  moral,  affectional, 
and  religious, — with  the  consequent  increasing  enjoyment 
thereof  ;  and,  second,  in  the  increasing  acquisition  of  power 
over  the  material  world,  making  it  yield  use  and  beauty, 
an  increase  of  material  comfort  and  elegance.  Progress  is 
increase  of  human  welfare  for  each  and  for  all.  That  is 
the  most  progressive  nation  which  advances  fastest  in  this 
development  of  human  faculties,  and  the  consequent  ac- 
quisition of  material  power*  There  is  no  limit  to  this 
progress. 

That  is  the  superior  nation,  which,  by  nature,  has  the 
greatest  amount  of  bodily  and  spiritual  faculties,  and,  by 
education^  has  developed  them  to  the  highest  degree  of 
human  culture,  and,  consequently,  is  capacious  of  the 
greatest  amount  of  power  over  the  material  world,  to  turn 

R  2 


244  THE   PRESENT   CRISIS 

it  into  use  and  beaiit}^,  and  so  of  the  greatest  amount  of 
universal  welfare  for  all  and  eacli.  The  superior  nation  is 
capable  of  most  rapid  progress  ;  for  the  advance  of  man 
goes  on  with  accelerated  velocit}^ ;  the  further  he  has  gone, 
the  faster  he  goes. 

The  disposition  in  mankind  to  acquire  this  increase  of 
human  development  and  material  power,  I  will  call  the 
instinct  of  progress.  It  exists  in  different  degrees  in  vari- 
ous nations  and  races :  some  are  easily  content  with  a  small 
amount  thereof,  and  so  advance  but  slowly ;  others  desire 
the  most  of  both,  and  press  continually  forward. 

Of  all  races,  the  Caucasian  has  hitherto  shown  the  most 
of  this  instinct  of  progress,  and,  though  perhaps  the 
youngest  of  all,  has  advanced  furthest  in  the  development 
of  the  human  faculties,  and  in  the  acquisition  of  power 
over  the  material  world ;  it  has  already  won  the  most  wel- 
fare, and  now  makes  the  swiftest  progress. 

Of  the  various  families  of  the  Caucasian  race,  the  Teu- 
tonic, embracing  all  the  Germanic  people  kindred  to  our 
own,  is  now  the  most  remarkable  for  this  instinct  of  pro- 
gress. Accordingly,  in  the  last  four  hundred  years,  all  the 
great  new  steps  of  peaceful  Caucasian  development  have 
been  first  taken  by  the  Teutonic  people,  who  now  bear  the 
same  relation  to  the  world's  progress  that  the  Greeks  did  a 
thousand  years  before  Christ,  the  Romans  eight  hundred 
years  later,  and  the  Romanized  Celts  of  France  at  a  day 
yet  more  recent. 

Of  the  Teutons,  the  Anglo-Saxons,  or  that  portion 
thereof  settled  in  the  Northern  States  of  America,  have  got 
the  furthest  forward  in  certain  important  forms  of  welfare, 
and  now  advance  the  most  rapidly  in  their  general  progress. 
With  no  class  of  capitalists  or  scholars  equal  to  the  men  of 
great  estates  and  great  learning  in  Europe,  the  whole  mass 
of  the  people  have  yet  attained  the  greatest  material  com- 
fort, enjoyment  of  natural  rights,  and  development  of  the 
human  faculties.  They  feel  most  powerfully  the  general 
instinct  of  progress,  and  advance  swiftest  to  future  welfare 
and  development.  Here  the  bulk  of  the  population  is 
Anglo-Saxon  ;  but  this  i^owcrful  blood  has  been  enriched 
by  additions  from  divers  other  sources,  —  Teutonic  and 
Celtic. 


i 


IN   AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  245 

The  great  forces  wliicli  in  the  last  four  hiiiiclred  years 
have  most  powerfully  and  obviously  helped  this  welfare 
and  progress,  may  be  reduced  to  two  marked  tendencies, 
which  I  Avill  sum  up  in  the  form  of  ideas,  and  name  the 
one  Christianity  and  the  other  Democracy. 

By  Christianity,  I  mean  that  form  of  religion  which 
consists  of  piety — the  love  of  G-od,  and  morality — the 
keeping  of  His  laws.  That  is  not  the  Christianity  of  the 
Christian  Church,  nor  of  any  sect ;  it  is  the  ideal  religion 
which  the  human  race  has  been  groping  after,  if  happil}- 
we  might  find  it.  It  is  yet  only  an  ideal,  actual  in  no 
society. 

By  Democracy,  I  mean  government  over  all  the  people 
by  all  the  people,  and  for  the  sake  of  all.  Of  course,  it  is 
government  according  to  the  natural  law  of  God,  by  justice, 
the  point  common  to  each  man  and  all  men,  to  each 
nation  and  all  mankind,  to  the  human  race  and  to  God. 
In  a  democracy,  the  people  reign  with  sovereign  power ; 
their  elected  servants  govern  with  delegated  trust.  There 
is  national  imity  of  action,  represented  by  law  ;  this  makes 
the  nation  one,  a  whole  ;  it  is  the  centripetal  force  of 
society.  But  there  is  also  individual  variety  of  action, 
represented  b}^  the  personal  freedom  of  the  people  who 
ultimately  make  the  laws ;  this  makes  John  John,  and  not 
James,  the  individual  a  free  person,  discreet  from  all  other 
men  ;  this  is  the  centrifugal  force  of  society,  which  coun- 
teracts the  excessive  solidification  that  would  else  go  on. 
Thus,  by  justice,  the  one  and  the  many  are  balanced 
together,  as  the  centripetal  and  centrifugal  forces  in  the 
solar  sj^stem. 

This  is  not  the  democracy  of  the  parties,  but  it  is  that 
ideal  government,  the  reign  of  righteousness,  the  kingdom 
of  justice,  which  all  noble  hearts  long  for,  and  labour  to 
produce,  the  ideal  wheremito  mankind  slowly  draws  near. 
No  nation  has  yet  come  so  close  to  it  as  the  people  of  some 
of  the  Northern  States,  Avhe  are  yet  far  beneath  ideals  of 
government  now  known,  that  are  yet  themselves  vastly 
inferior  to  others  which  mankind  shall  one  day  voyage 
after,  discover,  and  annex  to  human  possession. 

In  this  Democracy,  and  the  tendency  towards  it,  two 
things  come  to  all ;  namdy,  labour  and  government. 


246  THE  PRESENT  CRISIS 

Labour  for  material  comfort,  tlie  means  of  use  and  beauty, 
is  the  duty  of  all,  and  not  less  the  right,  and  practically  the 
lot,  of  all ;  so  there  is  no  privilege  for  any,  where  each  has 
his  whole  natural  right.  Accordingly,  there  is  no  perma- 
nent and  yicariously  idle  class,  born  merely  to  enjoy  and  not 
create,  who  live  by  the  unpurchased  toil  of  others  ;  and, 
accordingly,  there  is  no  permanent  and  vicariously  working- 
class,  born  merely  to  create  and  not  enjoy,  who  toil  only  for 
others.  There  is  mutuality  of  earning  and  enjoying :  none 
is  compelled  to  work  vicariously  for  another,  none  allowed 
to  rob  others  of  the  natural  fruit  of  their  toil.  Of  course, 
each  works  at  such  calling  as  his  nature  demands  :  on  the 
mare  liberum,  the  open  sea  of  human  industry,  every  per- 
sonal bark  sails  whither  it  may,  and  with  such  freight  and 
swiftness  as  it  will  or  can. 

Government,  in  social  and  political  affairs,  is  the  right  of 
all,  not  less  their  duty,  and  practically  the  lot  of  each.  JSo 
there  is  no  privilege  in  politics,  no  lordly  class  born  to  com- 
mand and  not  obey,  no  slavish  class  born  to  serve  and  not 
command :  there  is  mutuality  of  command  and  obedience. 
And  as  there  is  no  compulsory  vicarious  work,  but  each 
takes  part  in  the  labour  of  all,  and  has  his  share  in  the  en- 
joyment thereof;  so  there  is  no  vicarious  government,  but 
each  takes  part  in  the  making  of  laws  and  in  obedience 
thereunto. 

Such  is  the  ideal  Democracy,  nowhere  made  actual. 

Practically,  labour  and  government  are  the  two  great 
forces  in  the  education  of  mankind.  These  take  the  youth 
where  schools  and  colleges  leave  him,  and  carry  him  fur- 
ther up  to  another  seminary,  where  he  studies  for  what 
honours  he  will,  and  graduates  into  such  degrees  as  he  can 
attain  to. 

This  sharing  of  labour  and  government  is  the  indispens- 
able condition  for  human  development ;  for,  if  any  class 
of  men  permanently  withdraws  itself  from  labour,  first  it 
parts  from  its  human  sympathy;  next  it  becomes  de- 
bauched in  its  several  powers  ;  and  presently  it  loses  its 
masculine  vigour  and  its  feminine  delicacy ;  and  dies,  at 
last,  a  hideous  ruin.  Do  jou  doubt  what  I  say  ?  Look 
then  at  the  Eoman  aristocracy  from  two  centuries  before 
Christ  to  four  centuries  after — at  the  French  aristocracy 
from  Louis  XIII.  to  Louis  XYL 


IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS.  247 

If  any  class  of  men  is  withheld  from  government — from 
its  share  in  organizing  the  people  into  social,  poKtical,  and 
ecclesiastical  forms,  from  making  and  executing  the  laws — 
then  that  class  loses  its  manhood  and  womanhood,  dwindles 
into  meanness  and  insignificance,  and  also  must  perish.  For 
example,  look  at  the  populace  of  Rome  from  the  second 
century  before  Christ  to  the  fourth  after ;  look  at  the  miser- 
able people  of  Naples  and  Spain,  too  far  gone  ever  to  be 
raised  out  of  the  grave  where  they  are  buried  now ;  look  at 
the  inhabitants  of  Ireland,  whose  only  salvation  consists  in 
flight  to  a  new  soil,  where  they  may  have  a  share  in  poli- 
tical government,  as  well  as  in  economic  labour. 

So  much  for  the  definition  of  terms  frequently  to  be  used, 
and  the  statement  of  the  great  principles  which  lie  at  tho 
foundation  of  human  progress  and  welfare. 

"Now,  in  the  history  of  a  nation,  there  are  always  two 
operating  forces, — one  positive,  the  other  negative.  One 
I  will  call  the  progressive  force.  It  is  that  instinct  of 
progress  just  named,  with  the  sum  total  of  all  the  excel- 
lences of  the  people,  their  hopefulness,  human  sjnnpathy, 
virtue,  religion,  piety.  This  is  the  power  to  advance.  The 
other  I  will  call  the  regressive  force  ;  that  is,  the  vis  inerticBy 
the  sluggishness  of  the  people,  the  sum  total  of  all  the 
people's  laziness  and  despair,  all  the  selfishness  of  a  class, 
all  the  vice  and  anti- religion.  This  is  power  to  retard.  I 
do  not  speak  of  the  conservative  force  which  would  keep, 
or  the  destructive  force  which  woidd  wastefully  consume, 
but  only  of  those  named.  The  destructive  force  in  Ame- 
rica is  now  small;  the  conservative,  or  preservative  ex- 
ceeding great. 

Every  nation  has  somewhat  of  the  progressive  force, 
each  likewise  something  of  the  regressive.  Let  me  illus- 
trate this  regressive  force  a  little  further.  You  sometimes 
in  the  country  find  a  thriving,  hardy  family,  industrious, 
temperate,  saving,  thrifty,  up  early  and  down  late.  By 
some  unaccountable  misfortune,  there  is  born  into  the 
family,  and  grows  up  there,  a  lazy  boy.  He  is  weak  in 
the  knees,  drooping  in  the  neck,  limber  in  the  loins,  and 
sluggish  all  over.  He  rises  late  in  the  morning,  after  he 
has  been  called  many  times,  and,  in  the  dog-days,  comes 
down  whilst  his  mother  is  getting  breakfast,  and  hangs 


248  THE    PRESENT    CRISIS 

over  tlie  fire.  Most  of  you  liave  doubtless  seen  sucli ;  I 
have,  to  my  sorrow.  That  is  one  form  of  the  regressive 
force.  He  is  what  the  Bible  calls  a  heaviness  to  his 
mother,  and  a  grief  to  his  father.  There  is  a  worse  re- 
tarding force  than  this  ;  to  wit :  sometimes  a  bad  boy  is 
born  into  the  family  with  head  enough,  but  with  a  devilish 
heart ;  he  is  a  malformation  in  respect  to  all  the  higher 
faculties, — a  destructive  form  of  the  regressive  force. 
Now,  a  nation  may  have  that  r^-ressive  force  in  these  two 
forms, — the  lazy  retardative,  the  wicked  destructive. 

Sometimes  this  progressive  force  seems  limited  to  a 
small  class  of  persons, — men  of  genius,  like  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  the  Socratic  philosophers,  the  German  reformers 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  or  the  French  savants  of  the 
eighteenth.  But  it  is  not  likely  it  is  really  thus  limited  ; 
for  these  men  of  genius  are  merely  trees  of  the  common 
kind,  rooted  into  the  public  soil,  but  grown  to  taller  stature 
than  the  rest. 

In  the  Northern  States  of  America,  and  also  in  England 

and  Scotland,  it  is  plain  this  progressive  force  is  widely 

spread  among  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  who  are  not 

onty  instinctivelj",  but  of  set  purpose,  eager  for  progress  ; 

that  is,  for  the  increasing  development  of  faculties,  and  for 

the  consequent  increasing  power  over  the  material  world, 

transforming  it  to  use  and  beauty.     New  England  is  a 

monument  attesting  this  fact.     But  still  this  force  arrives 

to  its  highest  form  in  men  of  genius.     Here,  in  the  North, 

you  may  find  men  of  money,  men  of  education,  literary 

culture,  and  scientific  skill ;  men  of  talent,  able  to  learn 

readily  what  can  now  be  taught — who  do  not  share  this 

progressive  instinct,  whose  will  is  regressive  ;  but  these  are 

exceptional  men — some  maimed  by  accident,  others  imjDO- 

tent  from  their  mother's  womb  ;  whom  no  Peter  and  John 

could  make  otherwise  than  halt  and  lame.     But  all  the  men 

of  genius — aboriginal  power  of  sight,  ability  to  create,  to 

know  and  teach  what  none  learned  before — are  on  the  side 

of  this  progressive  force.     In  all  the  Northern  States,  I 

know  but  one  exception  among  the  men  of  politics,  science, 

art,  letters,  or  religion.     Even  in  his  cradle,  the  Northern 

genius  strangles  the  regressive  snakes  of  Fogydom.    Still, 

these  men  of  genius  arc  not*' the  cause  of  the  progressive 

force,  only  expressions  of  it ;  not  its  exclusive  depositaries. 


IN   AMERICAN   AFFAIRS.  249 

They  are  tlie  thunder  and  lightning,  perhaps  the  rain,  out 
of  the  cloud,  sparks  from  the  electric  charge  :  they  are  not 
the  cloud ;  they  did  not  make  it.  Of  course,  where  the 
cloud  is  fullest  of  the  fire  of  heaven,  there  is  the  reddest 
lightning,  the  heaviest  thunder,  and  the  most  abounding 
rain.  Still,  the  men  of  genius  did  not  make  the  progres- 
sive spirit  of  the  North  ;  they  but  express  and  help  to 
educate  that  force. 

In  the  North,  those  two  educational  factors.  Labour  and 
Government,  are  widely  diffused  :  more  persons  partake  of 
each  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  So  there  is  no  ex- 
clusive, permanent  servile  class — none  that  does  all  the 
work,  and  enjoys  none  of  the  results  :  there  is  no  exclusive 
and  permanent  ruling  class  ;  all  are  masters,  all  servants  ; 
all  command,  and  all  obey. 

So  much  for  the  progressive  force. 

The  regressive  force  may  consist  in  the  general  slug- 
gishness of  the  whole  mass  of  the  people :  then  it  will  be 
either  an  ethnological  misfortune,  which  belongs  to  the 
constitution  of  the  race — and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the 
Africans  share  that  in  the  largest  degree,  and,  accordingly, 
have  advanced  the  least  of  any  of  the  races — or  else  an 
historic  accident  entailed  on  them  by  oppression ;  and  that 
is  the  case  also  with  a  large  portion  of  the  Africans  in 
America,  who  have  a  double  misfortune — that  of  ethno- 
logic nature  and  historic  position.  But  among  the  Cauca- 
sians, especially  among  the  Teutons,  this  regressive  force  is 
chiefly  lodged  in  certain  classes  of  men,  who  are  excep- 
tional to  the  mass  of  the  people,  b}''  an  accidental  position 
separated  therefrom,  and  possessed  of  power  thereover, 
which  they  use  for  their  own  selfish  advantage,  and  against 
the  interest  of  the  people.  They  commonly  aim  at  two 
things — to  shun  all  the  labour,  and  to  possess  all  the 
government. 

This  exceptional  position  was  either  the  accidental  at- 
tainment of  the  individual,  or  else  a  trust  thereto  delegated 
from  the  people  ;  but  the  occupiers  of  the  trust  considered 
it  at  length  as  their  natural,  personal  right,  and  so  held  to 
it  as  a  finality,  and  asked  mankind  to  stop  the  human 
march  in  order  that  they  might  rejoice  in  their  special 
occupation.     Thus  the  fletchers  of  the  fourteenth  century, 


250  THE  PRESENT  CRISIS 

who  got  their  bread  by  making  bows  and  arrows,  opposed 
tbe  use  of  gunpowder  and  cannon ;  tbus  tbe  scribes  of  the 
fifteenth  century  opposed  printing,  and  said  Dr.  Faustus 
was  "possessed  by  the  devil."  In  England,  two  hundred 
years  ago,  every  top-sawyer  resisted  the  use  of  saw-mills  to 
cut  logs  into  boards,  and  wanted  to  draw  off  the  water  from 
the  ponds.  Forty  years  ago,  the  hand- weaver  of  England 
opposed  power-looms.  In  1840,  the  worshipful  company 
of  ass-drivers  in  Italy  begged  the  Pope  of  Borne  not  to 
allow  a  single  railroad  in  his  territory,  because  it  would 
injure  their  property  invested  in  packsaddles  and  jackasses. 
The  Pope  consented,  and  no  steam-engine  dared  to  scream 
and  whistle  in  the  Papal  States.  In  Boston,  twenty  years 
ago,  the  Irishmen  objected  to  steam  pile-drivers,  and  broke 
them  to  pieces  ;  just  now,  the  stevedores  of  Boston  insist 
that  ships  shall  not  be  unladen  by  horses  or  steam-power, 
but  that  a  man,  who  yet  has  a  head,  shall  live  only  by  the 
great  muscles  in  his  arms ;  that  all  merchandise  shall  be 
taken  out  of  ships  by  an  Irishman  hanging  at  the  end  of  a 
rope.  All  these  men  consider  that  their  exceptional  posi- 
tion and  accidental  business  is  a  finality  of  human  history, 
a  natural  right,  which  the  top-sawyer,  the  scribe,  and  the 
others  have  to  stop  mankind.  The  stevedore  and  hand- 
loom  weaver  must  have  no  competitors  in  the  labour- 
market  ;  the  steam-engine  must  be  shoved  off  the  track,  in 
order  that  the  donkey  may  have  the  whole  country  wherein 
to  bray  and  wheeze. 

In  Europe,  at  this  day,  the  regressive  force  is  lodged 
chiefly  in  the  twofold  aristocracy  which  exists  there,  eccle- 
siastical and  political.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  mankind, 
and  especially  the  Teutonic  family,  longed  to  have  more 
Christianity :  the  priestly  class,  with  the  Pope  at  their 
head,  refused,  hewed  the  people  to  pieces,  burnt  them  to 
ashes  at  Madrid  and  Oxford.  The  priest  stood  between 
the  people  and  the  Bible,  and  said,  ''  The  word  of  God  be- 
longs to  us  :  it  is  for  the  priests  only,  not  for  you,  you 
infidels ;  down  with  you ! "  He  counted  his  stand  as  the 
stopping-place  of  mankind :  the  human  race  must  not  go 
an  inch  further — he  would  kill  all  that  tried.  The  result 
attained  was  a  finality.  So  the  thinker  must  be  burned 
alive,  that  the  ass-driver  might  have  the  wliole  world  to 
snap  his  fingers  in  and  cough  to  his  donkey !     Even  now 


IN  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS.  251 

tlie  same  class  of  men  repeat  the  old  experiment ;  and,  in 
Italy,  Spain,  and  Spanist  America,  the  regressive  power 
carries  the  day. 

In  this  century,  when  the  people  of  Europe  wished  to 
move  on  a  little  nearer  to  Democracy  than  before,  the  poli- 
tical class  of  aristocrats  refused  to  suffer  it ;  they  put  men 
of  political  genius  in  gaol,  or  hung  them.  Kossuth  and 
Mazzini  were  lucky  men  to  escape  to  a  foreign  land; 
thousands  fled  to  America.  In  Europe,  at  present,  and 
especially  on  the  continent,  this  regressive  power  carries 
the  day,  and  the  progressive  force  is  held  down.  For 
priests,  kings,  and  nobles,  inheriting  a  position  which  was 
once  the  highest  that  mankind  had  attained  to,  and  then 
taking  it  as  a  trust,  now  count  it  a  right  of  their  own,  a 
finality  of  the  hmnan  race,  the  end  of  man's  progress. 

When  a  nation  permanently  consents  to  this  triumph  of 
the  regressive  over  the  progressive  force,  allows  one  class  to 
do  all  the  government  and  shun  all  the  labour,  it  is  presently 
aU  over  with  that  nation.  Look  at  Italj,  with  Eome  and 
Naples ;  at  Spain,  which  is  too  far  gone  even  to  be  gal- 
vanized into  life.  See  what  already  takes  place  in  France, 
where  the  son  of  the  nephew  has  just  been  born,  and  the 
little  baby  is  recognised  as  Emperor.  Look  at  an  election- 
day  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  people  choose  one  of  them- 
selves to  be  their  temporarj^  governor,  responsible  to  them, 
swearing  him  on  their  statute-book  :  compare  that  with  the 
preparation  which  Napoleon  the  Little  made  to  anticipate 
the  birth  of  Napoleon  the  Least !  Why,  the  garments  got 
ready  for  this  equivocal  baby  have  already  cost  more  than 
the  clothes  of  all  our  Presidents  since  "  a  young  buckskin 
taught  a  British  general  the  art  of  fighting."  Eighty 
thousand  dollars  is  decreed  to  pay  for  baptizing  this  imperial 
bantling.  If  twice  that  sum  could  christen  the  father,  it 
might  not  be  ill  spent,  if  thereto  decreed.  Look  at  New 
England,  and  then  at  Spain,  to  see  the  odds  between  a 
people  that  has  the  progressive  force  uppermost,  and  a 
nation  where  the  regressive  force  has  trod  the  people  down, 
and  become,  as  it  must,  destructive.  The  Eomanic  nations 
of  Italy  and  Spain,  and  the  Eomanized  Celts  of  France, 
consent  to  a  despotism  which  puts  all  the  labour  on  the 
people,  and  takes  all  the  government  from  them :  they 
easily  enough  accept  the  rule  of  the  political  and  ecclesias- 


252  THE    PRESENT    CRISIS 

tical  aristocracy.  But  the  Teutons,  especially  the  Saxon 
Teutons,  and,  above  aU  others,  those  in  the  Northern  States 
of  America,  \yith  their  immense  love  of  individual  libertj^, 
hate  despotism,  either  political  or  ecclesiastical.  They  per- 
petually demand  more  Christianit}^  and  democracj^ ;  that 
each  shall  do  his  own  work,  and  rejoice  in  its  result ;  that 
each  shall  have  his  share  in  the  government  of  all.  The 
women,  long  excluded  from  this  latter  right,  now  claim, 
and  will  at  length,  little  by  little,  gain  it.  When  all  thus 
share  the  burthens  and  the  joys  of  life,  there  is  no  class  of 
men  compelled  by  their  position  to  hate  society :  so  law  and 
order  prevail  with  ease ;  each  keej)s  step  with  all,  nor 
wishes  to  stay  the  march  ;  property  is  secure,  the  govern- 
ment popular.  But  when  one  class  does  all  the  ruling,  and 
forces  all  the  toil  on  another  class,  nothing  is  certain  but 
trouble  and  violence.  Thus,  in  St.  Domingo,  red  rebellion 
scoured  black  despotism  out  of  the  land,  but  with  blood. 
If  a  government,  like  a  pyramid,  be  wide  at  the  bottom,  it 
takes  little  to  hold  it  up. 

So  much  for  the  regressive  force. 

In  the  United  States  vv^e  have  two  peoples  in  one  nation, 
similar  in  origin,  united  in  their  histor)^,  but  for  the  last 
two  generations  so  diverse  in  their  institutions,  their  mode 
of  life,  their  social  and  political  aims,  that  now  they  have 
become  exceedingly  unlike,  even  alien  and  hostile;  for, 
though  both  the  stems  grow  out  from  the  same  ethnologic 
root,  one  of  them  has  caught  such  a  mildew  from  the 
ground  it  hangs  over,  and  the  other  trees  it  mixes  its 
boughs  among,  that  its  fruit  has  become  "peculiar,"  and 
not  like  the  native  produce  of  the  sister  trunk.  One 
of  these  I  will  call  the  Northern  States,  the  other  the 
Southern  States.  At  present,  there  is  a  governmental  bond 
put  round  both,  which  holds  them  together ;  but  no  moral 
union  makes  the  two  one.  There  is  no  imity  of  idea  between 
them.     A  word  of  each. 

In  the  Northern  States  we  have  a  population  fifteen 
millions  strong,  mainly  of  Anglo-Saxon  origin,  but  early 
crossed  with  other  Teutonic  blood — Dutch,  German,  Scan- 
dinavian— which  bettered  the  stock.  Of  late,  numerous 
Celts  have  been  added  to  the  mixture,  but  so  recently  that 


IN    AMERICAN   AFFAIKS.  253 

110  considerable  influence  yet  appears  in  the  collective 
character,  ideas,  or  institutions  of  the  North.  A  hundi'ed 
years  hence,  the  ethnologic  fruits  of  this  other  seed  will 
show  themselves. 

These  Northern  Saxons,  moreover,  are  mainly  descended 
from  men  who  fled  from  Europe  because  they  had  ideas, 
at  least  sentiments,  of  Christianity  and  democracy  which 
could  not  be  carried  out  at  home.  They  are  born  of  Puri- 
tan pilgrims,  who  were  the  most  progressive  portion  of  the 
most  progressive  people,  of  the  most  progressive  stock,  in 
all  Christendom.  They  came  to  America,  not  for  ease, 
honour,  money,  or  love  of  adventure,  but  for  conscience' 
sake,  for  the  sake  of  their  Christianity  and  their  democracy. 
Such  men  founded  the  chief  Northern  colonies  and  institu- 
tions, and  have  controlled  the  doctrines  and  the  develop- 
ment thereof  to  a  great  degree. 

We  see  the  result  of  such  parentage :  more  than  all  other 
nations  of  the  earth,  the  North  has  cut  loose  from  the  evil 
of  the  past,  and  set  its  face  towards  the  future.  At  one 
extreme,  it  has  no  lordly  class,  ecclesiastical  or  political, 
exclusively  and  permanently  to  shun  labour  and  monopolize 
government,  vicariously  to  enjoy  the  result  of  work,  vica- 
riously to  rule  ;  and,  at  the  other  extreme,  there  is  no  class 
slavishly  and  imwillingly  to  do  the  work,  and  have  none 
of  its  rewards  ;  to  sufier  all  the  obedience,  and  enjoy  none 
of  the  command.  No  class  is  permanent,  highest  or  lowest. 
The  Northern  States  are  progressively  Christian,  also  pro- 
gressively democratic,  in  the  sense  just  given  of  Chris- 
tianity and  democracy.  No  people  on  earth  has  such 
material  comfort,  such  enjoyment  of  natural  rights  of  body 
and  spirit  already  possessed,  such  general  development  of 
the  human  faculties.  But  the  attainment  does  not  satisfy 
us  ;  for  we  share  this  instinct  of  progress  to  such  a  degree, 
that  no  achievement  will  content  us.  Be  the  present 
harvest  never  so  rich,  our  song  is — 

"  To-mon'ow  to  fresh  fields  and  pastures  new." 

No  nation  has  such  love  of  liberty,  such  individual 
Variety  of  action,  or  such  national  unity  of  action  ;  nowhere 
is  such  respect  for  law ;  nowhere  is  property  so  secure,  life 
so  safe,  and  the  individual  so  little  disturbed.     And,  with 


254  THE   PRESENT   CRISIS 

all  this,  we  are  not  at  all  destructive,  but  eager  to  create, 
and  patient  to  preserve.  The  first  thing  which  a  Northern 
man  lays  hold  of  is  a  working-tool,  an  axe,  or  a  plough ; 
the  last  thing  he  takes  in  hand  is  a  fighting-tool,  a  bowie- 
knife,  a  rifle :  he  never  touches  that  till  he  is  driven  to 
the  last  extremity.  He  loves  to  organize  productive 
industry,  not  war. 

So  much  for  the  nation  North. 

Next,  there  are  the  Southern  States  ten  millions  in  popu- 
lation. There  also  the  original  germ  was  Anglo-Saxon,  to 
which  additions  were  made  from  other  stocks,  Teutonic  and 
Celtic,  though  in  a  smaller  degree :  France  and  Spain  added 
more  largely  to  the  mixture.  But  what  has  most  affected 
the  ethnological  character  of  the  South  is  the  African 
element.  There  are  three  and  a-half  millions  of  men  in 
the  Southern  States  of  African  origin,  whereof  half  a 
million  are  (aclaiowledged)  mulattoes,  African  Caucasians ; 
but  those  monumental  half-breeds  are  much  more  numerous 
than  the  census  dares  confess. 

This  is  not  the  only  human  difference  between  the  North 
and  the  South.  While  the  Saxons,  who  originally  came 
to  the  North,  and  have  since  controlled  its  institutions  and 
ideas,  were  mainly  pilgrims,  who,  driven  by  persecution, 
fled  hither  for  the  sake  of  establishing  democracy  and 
Christianity — the  foremost  people  in  an  age  of  movement, 
when  revolution  shook  the  whole  Teutonic  world,  bringing 
the  most  Christian  and  democratic  institutions  and  ideas  of 
their  age,  and  developing  them  to  forms  still  more  human 
and  progressive — ^the  settlers  of  the  South  were  adventurers, 
who  came  to  America  to  mend  their  fortunes,  for  the  sake 
of  money,  ease,  honour,  love  of  change.  Whilst,  subset 
quently,  emigrants  came  from  Europe  to  the  North  of  their 
own  accord,  shared  the  Northern  labour  and  government, 
partook  of  its  Christianity  and  democracy,  partook  of  its 
best  influences,  and  soon  mingled  their  blood  in  the  great 
stream  of  Northern  population  :  many  persons  from  Africa 
were  forced  to  immigrate  to  the  South,  and,  by  legal  vio- 
lence, compelled  to  more  than  their  share  of  labour,  driven 
from  all  share  in  the  government,  branded  as  inferior,  and 
mingled  with  the  Caucasian  population  only  an  illicit  lust — 
which  bastardized  its  own  sons  and  daughters — and  were 


IX   AMERICAN   AFFAIRS.  255 

made  subordinate  to  the  ownersMasli.  While  the  North, 
from  1620  to  1856,  has  aimed  to  spread  education  over  all 
the  land,  and  facilitate  the  acquisition  of  property  by  the 
individual,  and  prevent  its  entailment  in  famiKes,  or  its 
excessive  accumulation  by  transient  corporations,  the  South 
has  always  endeavoured  to  limit  education,  making  it  the 
exclusive  monopoly  of  the  few — who  yet  learned  not  much 
— and  now  makes  it  a  State  prison  offence  to  teach  the 
labouring  class  to  read  and  write :  it  aims  to  condense 
money  into  large  sums,  permanently  held,  if  not  in  families, 
at  least  in  a  class. 

Thus,  at  one  extreme,  the  South  had  formed  a  perma- 
nently idle  and  lordly  class,  who  shun  labour  and  mono- 
polize government. 

The  South  culminates  in  Virginia  and  South  Carolina, 
which  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  slave  States  that  I^ew 
England  does  to  the  free  States  ;  that  is,  they  are  the- 
mother-city  of  population,  ideas,  institutions,  and  charac- 
ter. As  I  just  said,  Christendom  cannot  boast  a  population 
in  any  other  country  where  there  are  fifteen  millions  of  men 
-SO  nobly  developed  as  the  fifteen  millions  of  the  I^Torth ;  so 
far  advanced  in  Christianity  and  democracy ;  with  so  much 
material  comfort,  enjoyment  of  natural  rights^  and  develop- 
ment of  natural  powers.  Compare  I^ew  England  with  Old 
England,  Scotland,  France,  Saxony,  Belgium,  Prussia,  any 
of  the  foremost  nations  of  Europe,  and  you  see  that  it  is  so. 
But  take  the  ten  millions  of  the  South,  and  see  what  they 
are:  nowhere  in  Europe,  north  of  Turkey  and  west  of 
Russia,  can  you  find  ten  milKons  of  contiguous  men  who 
have  so  low  a  development,  intellectual,  moral,  affectional, 
and  religious,  as  the  ten  millions  of  the  slave  States ; 
nowhere  can  you  find  Caucasians  or  any  other  people  in 
Western  Europe  so  slightly  advanced  above  the  savage. 
Three  and  a  quarter  millions  are  actual  slaves.  Take  the 
States  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  in  which  the  South 
comes  to  its  flower :  there  are  one  million  one  hundred  and 
seventy  thousand  whites,  nine  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
coloured,  whereof  eight  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  are 
slaves ;  that  is  to  say,  out  of  two  millions,  more  than  one- 
third  are  only  human  property,  not  counted  as  human  per- 
sons. In  South  CaroHna,  out  of  a  hundred  native  whites 
over  twenty  years  of  age,  there  are  seven  who  cannot  read 


256  THE   PRESENT   CRISIS 

the  name  Pierce,  the  political  lord  they  worship ;  in  Vir- 
ginia, out  of  a  hundred  native  whites  over  twenty  years, 
there  are  nine  who  cannot  write  the  word  slave,  nor  spell 
it  after  it  is  written  all  over  their  State ;  whereas,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, out  of  four  hundred  persons  over  twenty,  there 
is  only  one  man  who  cannot  write,  with  his  own  hand. 
Liberty  for  all  men  now  and  for  ever  ! 

Take  the  two  million  population  of  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina :  there  is  no  peoj)le  in  Western  Europe  so  little 
advanced  as  they ;  and,  in  all  Christendom,  there  are  only 
two  nations  or  collections  of  men  who  stand  on  the  same 
level — the  Russian  empire  and  Spanish  America.  Behold 
the  reason  for  the  phenomenon  which  struck  many  with 
surprise, — that  South  Carolina  and  Virginia,  in  their 
politics,  have  recently  sympathized  with  Russia  and  Brazil. 
Birds  of  a  feather  flock  together,  like  consorting  with  like. 

Here,  then,  are  these  two  nations,  alike  in  their  ethno- 
logical origin,  joint  in  their  history,  now  utterly  diverse 
and  antagonistic  in  disposition  and  aim.  The  North  has 
organized  Freedom,  and  seeks  to  extend  it ;  the  South, 
Bondage,  and  aims  to  spread  that.  The  North  is  pro- 
gressively Christian  and  democratic  ;  while  the  South  is 
progressively  anti- Christian  and  undemocratic.  First,  only 
the  Southern  measures  were  anti- Christian  and  undemo- 
cratic ;  now  also  its  principles.  It  lays  down  anti- Chris- 
tianity and  anti-democracy  as  the  only  theory  of  religion 
and  politics.  In  New  England,  man  is  put  before  pro- 
perty, the  human  substance  above  the  material  accident ; 
in  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  property  is  put  before 
man,  the  material  accident  before  the  human  substance 
itself;  and,  of  all  property  that  which  is  most  valued  and 
most  carefidly  preserved,  though  most  "aristocratic"  and 
sacred,  is  property  in  the  bodies  of  men. 

That  is  the  odds  between  the  North  and  the  South. 

Now,  the  progressive  power  of  America  is  lodged  chiefly 
in  the  North,  where  it  is  difiused  almost  uniA^er sally  amongst 
the  people,  but  most  conspicuously  comes  to  light  in  the  men 
of  genius.  Accordingly,  every  man  of  poetic  or  scientific 
genius  in  the  North  is  an  anti- Slavery  man ;  every  preacher 
with  any  spark  of  Christian  genius  in  him  is  a  progressive 
man  and  hostile  to  Slavery. 


IN    AMERICAN   AFFAIRS.  257 

The  regressive  power  is  lodged  chiefly  at  the  South, 
where  it  is  considerably  diffused  among  the  people.  That 
wide  diffusion  comes  partly  from  the  ethnologic  sluggish- 
ness of  the  African  element  mixed  in  with  the  population, 
but  still  more  from  the  degrad.ation  incident  to  a  people 
who  have  long  sat  under  tyrannical  masters.  It  is  this 
which  has  debased  the  Caucasian  of  Virginia,  Tennessee, 
I^orth  and  South  Carolina. 

But  as  the  progressive  force  of  the  North  comes  clearest 
to  light  in  the  men  of  genius,  so  the  regressive  force  at  the 
South  is  most  shown  in  the  men  of  eminent  ability,  eccle- 
siastical and  political,  of  whom  not  a  single  man  is  publicly 
progressive  in  Christianity  or  Democracy.  Compare  the 
spirit  of  the  great  newspapers  of  the  South,  the  Richmond 
Examiner,  the  Charleston  Mercury,  with  those  of  the 
North,  the  New  York  Tribune,  the  Evening  Post ;  compare 
the  Southern  politicians,  the  Masons  and  Toombses,  with 
the  Sewards  and  Chases  of  the  North.  See  the  odds 
between  the  mass  of  the  people  at  the  North  and  the 
South ;  between  the  eminent  genius,  all  of  which  at  the 
North  is  progressive,  but  all  of  which  at  the  South  turns 
its  back  on  human  progress,  and  would  leave  humanity 
behind.     There  is  the  difference. 

This  regressive  force  accepts  Slavery  as  the  Dagon  of 
its  idolatry,  its  "  peculiar  institution ;''  and  Slavery  is  to 
the  South  what  the  book  of  Mormon  or  the  car  of  Jugger- 
naut is  to  its  worshippers.  This  institution  is  so  iniqui- 
tous and  base,  that  in  Christian  Europe,  all  the  Teutonic 
nations  have  swept  it  away ;  and  all  the  Celtic,  all  the 
liomanic  nations,  even  the  inhabitants  of  Spain,  have 
trodden  bondage  under  their  feet.  Yes,  the  Ugrians  have 
driven  out  such  slavery  from  Hungarj^,  from  Livonia,  from 
Lapland  itself;  and,  of  all  parts  of  Europe,  Russia  and 
Turkey  alone  still  keep  the  unclean  thing ;  but  even  there 
it  is  progressively  diminishing.  As  a  measure^  it  is  felt 
to  be  exceptional,  and  publicly  denounced ;  as  a  principle, 
no  man  defends  it :  it  is  there  as  a  fact  without  a  theory. 
Only  two  tribes  in  Christendom  yet  hold  to  the  theory 
of  this  unholy  thing, — Spanish  America  and  the  slave 
part  of  Saxon  America,  the  two  Barbary  States  of  the  New 
V\  orld. 

All  the  regressive  power  of  Christendom  gathers  about 

VOL.    VI.  s 


258  THE    PRESENT    CRISIS 

American  Slavery,  which  is  the  stone  of  stumbling,  the 
rock  of  offence  in  the  world's  progress. 

Slavery  is  the  great  obstacle  to  the  present  welfare  and 
future  progress  of  the  South  itself.  It  prevents  the  mass 
of  the  Southern  people  from  the  possession  of  material 
comfort, — use  and  beauty;  from  the  enjoyment  of  their 
natural  rights ;  and  also,  for  the  future,  it  hinders  them 
from  the  increasing  development  of  their  natural  faculties, 
and  the  consequent  increasing  acquisition  of  power  over 
the  material  world.  It  hinders  Christianity  and  Demo- 
cracy, which  it  would  destroy,  or  else  itself  must  thereby 
be  brought  to  the  ground.  It  shuts  the  mass  of  the  people 
from  their  share  of  the  government  of  society,  forces  many 
to  unnatural  and  vicarious  labour,  and  robs  them  of  the 
fruit  of  their  toil.  Thus  it  is  the  great  obstacle  alike 
to  present  welfare  and  future  development. 

The  head-quarters  of  this  regressive  force  are  at  the 
South,  where  its  avowed  organization  and  its  institutions 
may  be  found.  At  the  North  it  has  three  classes  of  allies. 
Here  they  are  : — 

1.  The  first  class  is  of  base  men,  such  as  are  somewhat 
inhuman  by  birth ;  men  organized  for  cruelty,  as  fools  for 
folly,  idiotic  in  their  conscience  and  heart  and  soul.  If 
there  had  been  no  '' inherited  sin"  up  to  last  night,  these 
men  would  have  "  originated"  it  the  first  thing  this  morn- 
ing ;  if  Adam  had  had  no  "  fall,"  and  the  ground  did  not 
incline  downward  anywhere,  they  would  dig  a  pit  on  their 
own  account,  and  leap  down  headlong  of  their  own  accord. 
These  men  are  aboriginal  kidnappers,  and  grow  up  amid 
the  filth  of  great  towns,  sweltering  in  the  gutters  of  the 
metropolitan  pavement  at  Cincinnati,  Philadelphia,  New 
York.  Nay,  you  find  them  even  at  Boston,  lurking  in 
some  ofiice,  prowling  about  the  Court  House,  sneaking  into 
alleys,  barking  in  the  newspapers,  to  let  their  masters 
know  their  whereabouts,  turning  up  their  noses  in  the 
streets,  snuffing  after  some  victim  as  the  wind  blows  from 
Virginia  or  Georgia,  and  generally  seeking  whom  they 
may  devour.  These  are  ''  earthly,  sensual,  devilish."  For 
the  honour  of  humanity,  this  class  of  men  is  exceedingly 
small,  and,  like  other  poisonous  vermin,  commonly  bears 
its  warning  on  its  face. 


IN    AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  259 

2.  The  next  class  is  of  mean  men,  of  large  acquisitive- 
ness, or  else  a  great  love  of  approbation,  little  conscience, 
little  affection,  and  only  just  religion  enough  to  swear  by. 
These  men  you  can  buy  with  office,  honour,  monej^,  or  with 
a  red  coat  and  a  fife  and  drum.  There  are  a  great  many 
such  persons  ;  you  find  them  in  many  places  ;  and,  for  the 
disgrace  of  my  own  profession,  I  am  sorry  to  say  they  are 
sometimes  in  the  pulpit,  taking  a  South- side  view  of  all 
manner  of  tyrannj^,  volunteering  to  send  their  mothers 
into  bondage,  and  denying  the  higher  law  of  God. 

3.  The  third  class  is  of  -ignorant  men,  who  know  no 
better,  but  may  be  instructed. 

At  the  South,  this  regressive  force  is  thus  distributed  : — 
(1.)  There  are  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  slave- 
holders, who,  with  their  families,  make  up  a  population  of 
a  million  and  three-quarters;  (2.)  There  are  four  and 
three-quarter  millions  of  non-slave-holders  ;  and  (8.)  Three 
and  a-half  millions  of  slaves.     A  word  of  each. 

1.  First,  of  the  slave-holders.  Slavery  makes  them 
rich  :  they  own  the  greater  part  of  the  land,  and  all  the 
slaves,  and  control  the  greater  part  of  the  coloured  or  white 
labouring  population.  Slavery  is  a  peculiar  curse  to  the 
South  in  general,  but  a  peculiar  comfort  to  the  slave- 
holders. They  monopolize  the  education,  own  the  wealth, 
have  all  the  political  power  of  the  South — are  the  "aristo- 
cracy." But,  since  the  American  Revolution,  I  think  this 
class  has  not  born  and  bred  a  single  man  who  has  made 
any  valuable  contribution  to  the  art,  science,  literature, 
morals,  or  religion  of  the  American  people.  Marshall's 
Life  of  Washington  is  the  oiAj  great  literary  work  of  the 
South  ;  its  hero  was  born  in  1732,  its  author  in  1755  ; 
and  both  Washington  the  hero,  and  Marshall  the  writer, 
at  their  death,  abjured  the  ''  peculiar  institution "  of  the 
South. 

The  Southern  "  aristocracy"  rears  two  things — Negro 
slaves,  of  which  it  is  often  the  father,  and  regressive  poli- 
ticians, who  make  the  institutions  to  keep  the  slaves  in 
bondage  for  ever,  shutting  them  out  from  Christianity  and 
Democracy.  Behold  the  *'  aristocracy"  of  the  South  !  By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.  Of  the  general  morals  of 
this  class  I  need  not  speak  :  "the  dark  places  of  the  earth 
are  full  of  the  habitations  of  cruelty."     Since  the  1st  of 

s2 


260  THE    PRESENT    CRISIS 

January,  they  have  burned  four  negroes  alive,  as  a  joyous 
spectacle  and  "  act  of  faith ;"  a  sort  of  profession  of  Chris - 
tianit}^,  like  the  more  ceremonious  autos-da-fe  of  their 
Spanish  prototypes.  Yet  among  the  slave-holders  are 
noble  men ;  some  who,  but  for  their  surroundings,  would 
have  stood  with  those  eminent  in  talent,  station,  and  in 
service,  too,  the  forerunners  of  human  progress.  Blame 
them  for  their  wrong,  pity  them  for  the  misfortune  which 
they  suffer.  Yet  let  me  do  the  South  no  injustice.  Her 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  slave-holders  have  ruled 
the  nation  for  sixty  years  ;  her  politicians  have  beat  the 
North  in  all  great  battles. 

Kow,  we  commonly  judge  the  South  by  the  slave- 
holders. This  is  wrong :  it  is  like  measuring  England  by 
her  gentry,  France  and  Germany  by  their  men  of  science 
and  letters,  Italy  by  her  priests.  You  shall  judge  what  the 
whole  mass  of  the  people  are  when  the  ^'  aristocracy,"  the 
picked  men,  are  of  that  stamp. 

2.  Next  are  the  non-slave-holders,  four  and  three-quarter 
millions  of  men.  Some  of  these  are  noble  men,  with  pro- 
perty in  land  and  goods,  with  some  intelligence  ;  but,  as  a 
class,  they  are  both  necessitous  and  illiterate,  with  small 
political  power.  They  are  cursed  by  Slavery,  which  they 
yet  defend  ;  for  it  makes  labour  a  disgrace,  and,  if  poor, 
puts  them  on  the  same  level  with  the  slave  himself. 
Slavery  hinders  their  development  in  respect  to  property, 
intellectual  culture,  and  manly  character ;  yet,  as  a  whole, 
they  are  too  ignorant  to  understand  the  cause  which  keeps 
them  down.  The  morals  of  this  class  are  exceedingly  low  : 
it  abounds  in  murders,  and  is  full  of  cruelty  towards  its 
victims.  Nay,  where  else  in  Christendom,  save  Spanish 
America,  is  the  Caucasian  found  to  take  delight  in  burning 
his  brother  with  a  slow  fire,  for  his  own  sport,  and  to  please 
a  licentious  mob  ? 

3.  The  third  class  consists  of  the  slaves  themselves,  of 
whom  I  need  say  only  this — that  public  opinion  and  the 
law,  which  is  only  the  thunder  from  that  cloud,  keep  them 
at  labour  and  from  government,  from  Christianity  and  De- 
mocracy, from  all  the  welfare  and  development  of  the  age, 
and  seek  to  crush  out  the  instinct  of  progress  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  victims.  The  slave  has  no  personal 
rights,  ecclesiastical,  political,  social,  economical,  indivi- 


IN   AMERICAN   AFFAIRS.  261 

dual ;  no  right  to  property — a  human  accident ;  none  to 
his  body  or  soul — the  substance  of  humanity  itself. 

But  I  fear  you  do  not  yet  quite  understand  the  difference 
between  the  regressive  force  of  slavery  at  the  South,  and 
the  progressive  force  of  freedom  at  the  North.  Therefore, 
to  see  in  noonday  light  the  effect  of  each  on  the  present 
welfare  and  the  future  progress  of  a  people,  compare  an 
old  typical  slave  State  with  an  old  typical  free  State,  and 
then  compare  a  new  slave  State  with  a  new  free  State. 

1.  South  Carolina  contains  29,385  square  miles  of  land  ; 
Connecticut,  4674.  In  1850,  South  Carolina  had  668,507 
inhabitants,  whereof  283,523  were  free,  and  381,984  slaves; 
while  Connecticut  had  370,792  inhabitants,  all  free. 

The  government  value  of  all  the  land  in  South  Carolina 
was  $5.08  an  acre ;  in  Connecticut  it  was  $30.50  the  acre. 
All  the  farms  in  South  Carolina  contained  16,217,700  acres, 
and  were  worth  $82,431,684;  while  the  farms  of  Connec- 
ticut were  worth  $72,726,422,  though  they  contained  only 
2,383,879  acres.  Thus  Slavery  and  Freedom  affect  the  value 
of  land  in  the  old  States. 

In  1850,  South  Carolina  had  340  miles  of  railroad  ;  and 
Connecticut  547,  on  a  territory  not  equal  to  one- sixth  of 
South  Carolina.  In  1855,  South  Carolina  had  $11,500,000 
in  railroads  ;  Connecticut  had  then  $20,000,000. 

The  shipping  of  South  Carolina  amounts  to  36,000  tons; 
in  Connecticut,  to  125,000,  though  she  is  not  advanta- 
geously situated  for  navigation. 

The  value  of  the  real  and  personal  property  in  South 
Carolina,  in  1850,  was  estimated  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment at  $288,257,694.  This  includes  the  value  of  all  the 
slaves,  who,  at  $400  apiece,  amount  to  $153,993,600.  Sub- 
tracting this  sum,  which  is  neither  property  in  land  nor 
things,  but  wholly  unreal  and  fictitious,  there  remains 
$134,264,094  as  the  entire  property  of  the  great  slave 
State ;  while  the  total  valuation  of  the  land  and  things 
in  Connecticut,  in  1850,  was  $155,707,980.  In  other 
words,  in  South  Carolina,  670,000  persons,  with  30,000 
square  miles  of  land,  are  worth  $134,000,000  ;  while  in 
Connecticut,  370,000  men,  with  only  4600  square  miles  of 
land,  are  worth  $156,000,000.  Thus  do  Slavery  and  Free- 
dom affect  the  general  wealth  of  the  people  in  the  old  States. 


262  THE    PRESENT    CRISIS 

In  1850,  South.  Carolina  had  365,026  persons  nncler 
twenty  jears  of  age  ;  her  whole  number  of  pupils,  at 
schools,  academies,  and  colleges,  was  40,373.  Connecticut 
had  only  157,146  persons  of  that  age,  but  83,697  at  school 
and  college.  Will  j^ou  say  it  is  of  no  consequence  whether 
the  coloured  child  is  educated  or  not  ?  Then  remember 
that  South  Carolina  had  149,322  white  children,  and  only 
sent  40,373  of  them  to  school  at  all  in  that  year ;  while, 
out  of  153,862  white  children,  Connecticut  gave  82,433 
a  permanent  place  in  her  noble  schools. 

In  South  Carolina,  there  are  but  129,350  free  persons 
over  twenty  years  of  age  ;  and,  of  these,  16,564  ai-e  un- 
able to  read  the  word  heaven.  So,  in  all  that  great  and 
democratic  State,  there  are  only  112,786  persons  over 
twenty  who  know  their  A  B  C's ;  while  in  Connecticut 
there  are  213,662  persons  over  twenty  ;  and,  of  all  that 
number,  only  5306  are  illiterate,  and  of  them  4013  are 
foreigners.  But,  of  all  the  16,564  ignoramuses  of  South 
Carolina,  only  104  were  born  out  of  that  State  ! 

Out  of  365,026  persons  over  twenty.  South  Carolina  has 
only  112,786  who  can  read  their  primer  ;  while,  out  of 
213,662,  Connecticut  has  208,356  who  can  read  and  write. 
South  Carolina  can  boast  more  than  250,000  native  adults 
who  cannot  write  or  read  the  name  of  their  God — a  noble 
army  of  martyrs,  a  cloud  of  witnesses  to  its  peculiar  insti- 
tution ;  while  poor  Connecticut  has  only  1293  native 
adults  unable  to  read  their  Holy  Bible. 

Such  is  the  effect  of  Slavery  and  Freedom  on  education 
in  the  old  States.  The  Southern  politician  was  right : 
"  Free  society  is  a  failure  ! " 

2.  Now  compare  two  new  States  of  about  the  same  age. 
Arkansas  was  admitted  into  the  Union  in  1836,  Michigan 
in  1837. 

Arkansas  contains  52,198  square  miles,  and  209,807 
inhabitants,  of  whom  151,746  are  free,  and  58,161  are 
slaves.  Michigan  contains  56,243  square  miles,  and  was 
entered  for  settlement  later  than  her  sister,  but  contains 
397,654  persons,  all  free. 

In  Arkansas,  the  land  is  valued  at  J^5.88  the  acre  ;  and, 
in  Michigan  at  $11.83.  The  slave  State  has  781,531  acres 
of  improved  land;  and  Michigan,  1,929,110.  The  farms 
of  Arkansas  are  worth  $15,265,245  ;  and  those  of  Michigan, 


IN   AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  263 

^51,872,440.  Thus  Slavery  and  Freedom  affect  the  value 
of  land  in  the  new  States. 

Michigan  had,  in  1855,  699  miles  of  railroad,  which  had 
cost  ^19,000,000;  Arkansas  had  paid  nothing  for  railroads. 
The  total  valuation  of  Arkansas,  in  1850,  was  $39, 871, 025 : 
the  value  of  the  slaves,  $23,264,400,  was  included.  De- 
ducting that,  there  remains  but  $16,576,625,  as  the  entire 
worth  of  Arkansas  ;  while  Michigan  has  property  to  the 
amount  of  ^859,787,255.  Thus  Slavery  and  Freedom  affect 
the  value  of  property  in  the  new  States. 

In  1850,  Arkansas  had  115,023  children  under  twenty, 
whereof  11,050  were  in  schools,  academies,  or  colleges ; 
while  Michigan  had  211,969,  of  whom  112,382,  were  at 
school,  academy,  or  college.  Or,  to  omit  the  coloured 
population,  Arkansas  had  97,402  white  persons  under 
twenty,  and  only  11,050  attending  school;  while,  of  210,831 
whites  of  that  age  in  Michigan,  112,175  were  at  school 
or  college.  Last  year,  Michigan  had  132,234  scholars  in 
her  public  common  schools.  In  1850,  Arkansas  contained 
64,787  whites  over  twenty — but  16,935  of  these  were  un- 
able to  read  and  write ;  while,  out  of  184,240  of  that  age 
in  Michigan,  only  8281  were  thus  ignorant — of  these,  3009 
were  foreigners ;  while,  of  the  16,935  illiterate  persons  of 
Arkansas,  only  37  were  born  out  of  that  State.  The  slave 
State  had  only  47,852  persons  over  twenty  who  could  read 
a  word  ;  while  the  free  State  had  175,959.  Michigan  had 
107,943  volumes  in  "libraries  other  than  private,"  and 
Arkansas  420  volumes.  Thus  Slavery  and  Freedom  affect 
the  education  of  the  people  in  the  new  States. 

Now,  see  the  effect  of  Slavery  and  Freedom  on  property 
and  education  in  their  respective  neighbourhoods.  I  take 
examples  from  the  States  of  Missouri  and  Virginia,  kindly 
furnished  by  an  ingenious  and  noble-hearted  man. 

1.  In  the  twelve  counties  of  Missouri,  which  border  on 
slave-holding  Arkansas,  ther  eare  20,982  free  white  persons, 
occupying  75,360  acres  of  improved  land,  valued  at  $13  an 
acre,  or  ^089,932  :  while  in  the  ten  counties  of  Missouri 
bordering  on  Iowa,  a  free  State,  though  less  attractive  in 
soil  and  situation,  there  are  26,890  free  white  persons,  with 
123,030  acres  of  improved  land,  worth  $19  an  acre,  or 
»82,379,765.  Thus  the  neighbourhood  of  Slavery  retards 
the  development  of  property. 


264  THE    PRESENT   CRISIS 

In  tliose  ten  Nortliern  counties  bordering  on  Freedom, 
there  were  2329  scholars  in  the  public  schools ;  while  in 
the  twelve  Southern,  bordering  on  Arkansas,  there  were 
only  339.  Thus  the  neighbourhood  of  Slave?^  affects  the 
development  of  education. 

2.  Compare  the  Northern  with  the  Southern  counties  of 
Virginia,  and  3^ou  find  the  same  results.  Monongahela  and 
Preston  Counties,  in  Virginia,  bordering  on  free  Pennsylva- 
nia, contain  122,444  acres  of  improved  land,  valued  at  ^"21 
an  acre,  or  -^2,784,137  in  all;  are  occupied  by  24,095 
persons,  whereof  263  only  are  slaves  ;  and  there  are  1747 
children  in  the  public  schools  :  while  the  corresponding 
counties  of  Patrick  and  Henry,  touching  on  North  Carolina, 
contain  but  99,731  acres  of  improved  land,  worth  only  $15 
an  acre,  or  §1,554,841  in  all ;  are  occupied  by  18,481  inha- 
bitants, 5664  of  them  slaves ;  and  have  only  961  children 
at  school.  But  cross  the  borders,  and  note  the  change  : 
the  adjacent  counties  of  North  Carolina,  Pockingham,  and 
Stokes,  contain  103,784  acres  of  improved  land,  worth  ^14 
an  acre,  or  -^1,517,520  ;  23,701  persons,  of  whom  7122  are 
slaves ;  and  have  only  2050  pupils  at  school  or  college : 
while  Fayette  and  Green  Counties,  in  Pennsylvania,  ad- 
jacent to  the  part  of  Virginia  above  spoken  of,  contain 
297,005  acres  of  improved  land,  valued  at  S49  an  acre,  or 
^7,618,919  ;  61,248  persons,  all  free  ;  and  12,998  pupils  at 
the  common  schools. 

The  South  has  numerous  natural  advantages  over  the 
North, — a  better  soil,  a  more  genial  climate,  the  privilege 
of  producing  those  tropical  plants  now  deemed  indispens- 
able to  civilization.  Of  §193,000,000  of  exports  last  year, 
<-S93,000,000  were  of  Southern  cotton  and  tobacco.  Yet 
such  is  her  foolish  and  wicked  system,  that,  while  the  North 
continually  increases  in  riches,  the  South  becomes  con- 
tinually poorer  and  poorer  in  comparison.  Boston  alone 
could  buy  up  two  States  like  South  Carolina,  and  still  have 
thirteen  millions  of  dollars  to  spare.  Three  hundred  years 
ago,  Spain  monopolized  this  continent ;  she  exploitered 
Mexico,  Peru,  the  islauds  of  the  Gulf  ;  all  the  gold  of  the 
New  World  came  to  her  hand.  Where  is  it  now  ?  Spain 
is  poorer  tlian  Italy.  Is  here  no  lesson  for  South  Carolina 
and  Virginia  ? 


IN    AMERICAN   AFFAIRS,  2G5 

In  civilized  society,  tliere  must  be  an  organization  of 
things  and  of  persons,  of  labour  and  of  government ;  and 
so  slavery  is,  to  be  looked  at,  not  only  in  its  economical 
relations,  as  affecting  labour  and  wealth,  power  over  matter, 
but  also  in  its  political  relations,  as  affecting  government, 
which  is  power  over  men. 

There  are  350,000  slave-holders  in  the  United  States, 
with  their  families,  making  a  population  of  1,750,000  per- 
sons. Now,  Slavery  is  a  political  institution  which  puts  the 
government  of  all  the  people  of  the  slaA^e  States  into  tlie 
hands  of  those  few  men  :  the  majority  are  the  servants  of 
this  minority. 

1.  The  350,000  slave-holders  control  the  3,250,000 
slaves  ;  owning  their  bodies,  and,  by  direct  legislation,  pur- 
posely 'preventing  their  development. 

2.  They  control  the  4,750,000  non- slave-holders,  cutting 
them  off  from  their  share  of  government,  and  hindering 
them  alike  in  their  labour  and  their  education,  divA  purposely 
preventing  their  development. 

3.  They  control  the  Federal  politics,  and  thereby  affect 
the  organization  of  things  and  persons,  of  labour  and  govern- 
ment, throughout  the  whole  nation,  and  purposely  prevent 
the  development  of  the  whole  people. 

In  all  these  three  forms  of  political  action,  they  have 
selfishly  sought  their  own  immediate  interest,  and  wrought 
to  the  lasting  damage  of  the  slaves,  the  non-slave-holders, 
and  the  whole  people.^  But  neither  the  slaves  nor  the  non- 
slave-holders  have  made  any  powerful  opposition  to  this 
injury  :  the  chief  hostility  has  been  shown  by  the  North, 
or  rather  by  the  few  persons  therein  who  either  had  mind 
enough  to  see  this  manifold  mischief  clearly,  or  else  such 
moral  and  religious  instinct  as  made  them  at  once  revolt 
from  this  wickedness.  But,  ever  since  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  there  has  been  a  strife,  open  or  hidden, 
between  the  South  and  this  portion  of  the  Northern  people ; 
and  though  the  battle  has  been  often  joined,  yet,  since 
1788,  the  North  has  been  beaten  in  every  conflict,  pitched 
battle,  or  skirmish,  until  last  January  ;  then,  after  much 
fighting,  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  chose  for  Speaker  a 
man  hostile  to  Slavery.  Always  before,  the  Soutli  con- 
cpiered  the  North  ;  that  is,  the  minority  conquered  the 
majority.     The  party  with  the  smallest  numbers,  the  least 


266  THE    PRESENT   CRISIS 

money,  the  meanest  intelligence,  the  wickedest  cause,  yet 
beat  the  larger,  richer,  more  intelligent  party,  which  had 
also  justice  on  its  side.  There  is  now  no  time  to  explain 
this  political  paradox. 

Between  1787  and  1851,  the  regressive  power,  Slavery, 
took  nine  great  steps  towards  absolute  rule  over  the  United 
States.  These  I  have  spoken  of  before.  It  now  lifts  its 
foot  to  take  a  tenth  step, — to  stamp  bondage  on  all  the 
territories  of  this  Union,  and  then  organize  them  into  Slave 
States.     Look  at  the  facts. 

We  have  now  one  million  four  hundred  thousand  square 
miles  of  territory  not  organized  into  States  (1,400,934).  Of 
this,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  New  Mexico,  and  Utah  make  nine 
hundred  and  twenty-six  thousand  (926,857).  Now,  tpie 
South  aims  to  make  it  all  slave  territory,  to  deliver  it 
over  to  this  regressive  force,  and  establish  therein  such  in- 
stitutions that  a  few  men  shall  at  first  own  all  the  land;  next, 
own  the  bulk  of  the  working  people  ;  and,  thirdly,  shall 
control  the  rest  of  the  whites  ;  then  themselves  monopolize 
education,  and  yet  get  very  little  of  it ;  repress  freedom  of 
speech,  and  enact  laws  for  the  advantage  of  the  vulgarest 
of  all  oligarchies, — a  band  of  men-stealers. 

Let  me  suppose  that  there  is  no  immediate  danger  that 
Slavery  will  go  to  Oregon  or  Washington  territory, — 
rather  a  gratuitous  admission  :  there  are  still  nine  hun- 
dred AND  TWENTY-SIX  THOUSAND  SQUARE  MILES    of  land  to 

plant  it  on;  that  is,  about  one-third  of  all  the  country 
which  the  United  States  own !  the  South  is  endeavour- 
ing to  establish  it  there.  Within  three  years  the  great 
battle  is  to  be  fought ;  for,  before  the  4th  of  March, 
1859,  all  that  territory  of  fourteen  hundred  thousand 
square  miles  will  be  either  free  territory  or  else  slave  terri- 
tory. 

The  battle  is  first  for  Kansas.  Shall  it  be  free,  as  the 
majority  of  its  own  inhabitants  have  voted  ;  or  slave,  as 
tlie  Federal  Government  and  the  slave  power — the  general 
regressive  force  of  America — have  determined  by  violence 
to  make  it  ?  This  is  the  question.  Shall  the  nine  hundred 
and  twenty-six  thousand  miles  of  territory  belong  to  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  slave-holders,  or  to  the  ivhole 


IN   AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  267 

people  of  the  United  States  ?  This  is  a  question  wliicli 
directly  concerns  the  material  interest  of  every  working 
man  in  the  nation,  and  especially  every  Northern  working 
man.  Before  the  1st  of  January,  1858,  perhaps  before  next 
January,  Xansas,  with  its  one  hundred  and  fourteen  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  ninety  square  miles,  will  be  a  Free 
State  or  a  Slave  State.  See  what  follows,  immediately  or 
ultimately,  if  we  let  the  slave-holders  have  their  wa}',  and 
make  Kansas  a  Slave  State. 

Look,  first,  at  the  effect  on  the  welfare  and  progress  of 
individuals. 

1.  A  privileged  class,  an  oligarchy  of  slave-holders,  will 
be  founded  there,  such  as  exists  in  the  present  slave  States. 
They  will  own  all  the  land,  almost  all  the  labourers  ;  will 
make  laws  for  the  advantage  of  the  slave-holder  against 
the  interest  of  the  slave  and  the  non-slave-holder.  That  is 
the  effect  on  the  Southern  man. 

2.  Next  see  the  effect  on  the  working  men  of  the  North 
who  emigrate  to  that  quarter.     They  must  go  as  slave- 

.  holders  or  as  non-slave-holders. 

Some  will  go  as  slave-holders,  such  as  take  a  South- side 
view  of  human  wickedness  in  general.  You  know  what 
the  effect  will  be  on  them.  Compare  the  condition,  the 
intellectual  and  moral  character,  of  New  England  men 
who  have  settled  in  Georgia,  and  become  slave-holders, 
with  others  of  the  same  families  —  their  brothers  and 
cousins — who  have  remained  at  home,  and  engaged  in 
agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures. 

But  not  many  Northern  men  will  go  there  and  become 
slave-holders.  Some  will  go  as  non- slave- holders  ;  and  you 
will  see  under  what  disadvantage  they  must  labour. 

1.  They  must  live  by  their  work,  and  in  a  place  where 
industry  is  not  honoured,  as  in  Connecticut,  but  is  despised, 
as  in  South  Carolina  and  Arkansas.  The  working  white 
man  must  stand  on  a  level  with  the  slave.  He  belongs  to 
a  despised  caste.  He  will  have  but  little  self-respect,  and 
soon  will  sink  down  to  the  character  and  condition  of  the 
poor  whites  in  the  old  slave  States.  A  scientific  friend  of 
mine,  who  travels  extensively  in  both  hemispheres,  says 
that  he  has  not  found  the  Caucasian  people  anywhere  so 
degraded  as  in  Tennessee  and  the  Carolinas. 


268  THE    PRESENT   CRISIS 

2.  Next,  there  will  be  no  miscellaneous  meclianical 
industry,  as  in  'New  England  and  all  the  free  States. 
Agriculture  will  be  the  chief  business,  almost  the  only 
business  ;  and  that  will  be  confined  to  the  great  staples — 
corn,  wheat,  rice,  tobacco,  cotton  ;  the  aim  will  be  only  to 
produce  the  raw  material.  Agriculture  will  be  poor,  land 
will  be  low  in  price,  and  continually  getting  run  out  by 
unskilful  culture.  The  slave's  foot  burns  the  soil  and 
spoils  the  land  ;  that  is  the  master's  fault.  Twenty  years 
hence,  land  will  not  be  worth  ^16  an  acre,  as  in  sterile 
I^ew  Hampshire,  but  $4,  as  in  fertile  Georgia.  There  will 
be  no  rapid  development  of  wealth ;  and,  as  the  North- 
ern man  values  riches,  I  think  he  should  look  to  this, 
and  see  that  the  land  is  not  taken  from  under  his  foot, 
and  the  power  of  creating  wealth  from  his  head  and 
hand. 

3.  Then  there  will  be  no  good  and  abundant  roads,  as  in 
New  England,  but  only  a  few,  as  in  Carolina  and  Virginia, 
and  those  miserably  poor.  In  Kansas,  twenty  years  hence, 
there  will  not  be  1964  miles  of  railroad,  as  in  Illinois,  but 
231  miles,  as  in  Missouri. 

4.  There  will  be  no  abundance  of  beneficent  free  schools, 
as  in  New  England,  but  a  few,  and  of  the  worst  sort. 
Education  will  be  the  monopoly  of  the  rich,  who  will 
not  get  much  thereof.  Laws  will  forbid  the  education 
of  the  slave,  and  discourage  the  culture  of  the  mass  of  the 
people. 

5.  There  will  be  no  Lyceums,  no  courses  of  lectures  ;  but, 
in  their  place,  there  will  be  horse-races,  occasionally  the 
lynching  of  an  Abolitionist,  or  the  burning  of  a  black  man 
at  a  slow  fire  !  Yet,  now  and  then,  a  Northern  man  will 
be  invited  thither  by  the  slave-holders  ;  some  unapostolical 
fisherman  will  take  the  majestic  memory  of  Washington, 
disembowel  it  of  all  its  most  generous  humanity,  skilfully 
arrange  it  as  bait;  and  then,  with  bob  and  sinker,  hook 
and  line,  this  *'  political  Micawber,"  "  looking  for  some- 
thing to  turn  up,"  will  go  angling  along  the  shore,  pray- 
ing for  at  least  a  presidential  bite,  and  possibly  obtain  a 
conventional  nibble. 

6.  There  will  be  no  "  libraries  other  than  private,"  with 
their  one  hundred  and  eight  thousand  volumes,  as  in 
Michigan  ;  only  four  hundred  and  twenty  volumes,  as  in 


IX    AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  2G9 

Arkansas.  But  a  noble  army  of  ignoramuses,  twenty-five 
men  out  of  each  hundred  adult  white  men,  will  attest  the 
value  of  the  "peculiar  institution." 

7.  There  will  be  no  multiplicity  of  valuable  newspapers, 
with  an  annual  circulation  of  three  million  three  hundred 
and  twenty-four  thousand  copies,  as  in  Michigan  ;  but  a 
few  political  journals,  scattering  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  thousand  dingy  sheets,  as  in  Arkansas. 

8.  There  will  be  no  abundant  and  convenient  meeting- 
houses, as  in  the  North ;  not  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  comfortable  pew-seats  in  neat  and  decorous 
churches,  as  in  Michigan ;  but  only  sixty  thousand  benches 
in  barns  and  log-huts,  as  in  Arkansas.  No. army  of  well- 
educated  ministers  will  help,  instruct,  and  moralize  the 
community,  but  ignorant  ranters  or  calculating  hypocrites 
will  stalk  through  the  Christian  year,  perverting  the  Bible 
to  a  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  denying  the  higher  law  which 
God  writes  in  man. 

9.  There  will  be  no  laws  favouring  all  men ;  but  statutes 
putting  the  neck  of  labour  into  the  claws  of  capital,  by 
which  the  strong  will  crush  the  weak,  and  enslave  the 
feeblest  of  all ;  constitutions  like  those  of  South  Carolina, 
which  provide  that  nobody  shall  sit  in  the  popular  House 
of  the  Legislature,  unless,  in  his  own  right,  he  own  "  ten 
negro  slaves.'' 

10.  There  will  be  no  universal  suffrage,  as  in  Massachu- 
setts ;  but  a  man's  political  rights  will  be  determined  by  the 
colour  of  his  skin,  and  the  amount  of  his  estate.  One  per- 
manent class  will  monopolize  government,  money,  educa- 
tion, honour,  and  ease  ;  the  other  permanent  class  will  be 
forced  to  bondage,  ignorance,  poverty,  and  shame.  This  is 
the  prospect  which  the  Northern  man  will  find  before  him 
if  Slavery  prevails  in  the  new  territory. 

11.  That  is  not  all :  his  property  and  person  will  not  be 
safe,  as  in  Michigan  ;  border- ruffians  will  permanently  have 
gone  over  the  border,  and  a  new  Arkansas  be  established 
in  Kansas. 

Under  such  circumstances.  Northern  men  will  not  go 
there  ;  and  so  Kansas,  and  then  all  the  other  terri- 
tory, IS  STOLEN  FROM  THE  NoRTH,   AS  EFFECTUALLY  AS  IF 

CEDED  TO  Russia  or  annexed  to  the  Spanish  domain. 
Yes,  more  completely  lost ;  for,  if  it  did  belong  to  Spain, 


270  THE    PRESENT   CRISIS 

we  might  reclaim  it  by  filibustering ;  and  the  American 
Government  would  not  disturb,  but  help  us. 

Then,  if  a  Northern  man  wishes  to  migrate,  he  has  only 
the  poorer  land  of  Washington  and  Oregon  before  him,  and 
is  shut  out  from  the  most  valuable  territory  of  the  United 
States. 

If  the  city  government  of  Boston  were,  next  month,  to 
establish  a  piggery  on  Boston  Common,  with  fifty  thousand 
swine,  and  set  up  an  immense  slaughter-house  of  the 
savagest  and  filthiest  character  in  the  Grranary  Burying- 
ground,  on  Copp's  Hill,  and  in  each  of  the  public  squares ; 
were  to  give  all  vacant  land  to  the  gamblers,  thieves, 
pimps,  kidnappers,  and  murderers — they  would  not  commit 
a  worse  injustice,  and  they  would  not  do  a  greater  propor- 
tional damage  to  the  real  estate,  and  more  mischief  to  the 
health  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  than  the  American 
Government  would  do  the  working  people  of  the  South  and 
North  by  creating  this  nuisance  of  Slavery  on  the  free  soil 
of  Kansas. 

So  much  for  the  efiect  of  this  on  the  individual  interests 
of  the  working  people  of  America.  I  have  only  taken  the 
lowest  possible  view  of  the  subject. 

See  its  efiects  on  American  politics — on  the  welfare  and 
progress  of  the  nation.  If  Kansas  is  made  a  slave  State, 
we  shall  either  keep  united,  or  else  dissolve  the  Union  and 
sejDarate. 

1.  Suppose  we  keep  united  :  what  follows  ? 

First,  New  Mexico  will  be  a  slave  State,  then  Utah. 

California  is  only  half  for  freedom  now,  and  will  soon 
split  into  two  ;  Lower  California  will  be  slave. 

Then  Texas  will  peel  off  into  new  States  ;  Western 
Texas  will  soon  be  made  a  new  slave  State. 

The  Mesilla  "Valley,  bigger  than  Virginia,  will  be  a  slave 
territory. 

Then  we  shall  dismember  Mexico — make  slave  territory 
there. 

We  shall  re- annex  the  Mosquito  territory :  the  Govern- 
ment wants  it,  and  lets  all  manner  of  filibusters  go  there  now. 

We  shall  seize  Cuba,  to  make  that  soil  red  with  the 
white  man's  blood,  which  is  now  black  with  African 
bondage. 


IN    AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  271 

St.  Domingo  must  next  fall  a  prey  to  American  lust  for 
land. 

Then  we  shall  carry  out  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  in  the 
North  as  never  before.  In  1836,  Mr.  Curtis  asked  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  to  decree  that  a  slave- 
holder from  Louisiana  might  take  his  bondman  to  Boston 
as  a  slave,  hold  him  as  a  slave,  sell  him  as  a  slave,  or,  as  a 
slave,  carry  him  back.  In  1855,  Mr.  Kane  decreed  that  a 
slave-holder  might  bring  his  slave  into  a  free  State,  and 
keep  him  there  as  long  as  he  would  in  transitu.  Then  we 
must  have  laws  to  enforce  these  demands  :  Congress  will 
legislate,  and  the  Supreme  Court  will  rule  to  put  Slavery 
into  every  Northern  State.  In  the  beginning  of  June, 
1854,  this  same  Mr.  Curtis,  then  become  a  judge,  gave  a 
"  charge,"  in  which  he  made  it  appear  that,  to  make  a 
speech  in  Faneuil  Hall  against  kidnapping  was  "a  mis- 
demeanour.'* Yes,  if  a  Massachusetts  minister  sees  his 
parishioners  kidnapped,  and  makes  a  speech  in  Faneuil 
Hall  against  that  iniquity,  and  tells  the  people  that  they 
are  slaves  of  Southern  masters,  Mr.  Justice  Curtis  says  that 
that  man  has  committed  a  crime,  to  be  punished  by  im- 
prisonment for  twelve  months,  and  a  fine  of  three  hundred 
dollars  !  By-and-by,  that  charge  will  be  "  good  common 
law :"  all  lawyers  will  be  slave-hunters  ;  all  judges  of 
the  Scroggs  family  ;  all  court-houses  girt  with  chains  ;  all 
the  newspapers  administration  and  Satanic  ;  all  the  Trini- 
tarian doctors  of  divinity  will  take  a  South- side  view  of 
wickedness  in  high  places  ;  all  the  Nothingarian  doctors  of 
divinity  will  send  back  their  mothers — for  a  consideration  ! 
And  then  what  becomes  of  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  to 
worship  God  ?  What  of  unalienable  rights  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ?  They  all  perish ;  and  the 
mocking  of  tyrants  rings  round  the  land  :  "  We  meant  to 
subdue  you,"  scoffs  one;  "I  said,  *We  will  crush  out 
humanit}^,' "  laughs  forth  another.  Where,  then,  is 
America  ?  It  goes  where  Korah,  and  Dathan,  and  Abiram 
are  said  to  have  gone  long  ago.  The  earth  will  open  her 
mouth  and  swallow  us  up  ;  the  justice  of  God  will  visit  us 
— our  crime  greater  than  that  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah — 
for  we  shall  have  committed  high  treason  against  the 
dearest  rights  of  man  !  He  will  rain  on  us  worse  than  fire 
and  brimstone ;  our  name  shall  rot  in  the  Dead  Sea  of 


272  THE    PRESENT   CRISIS 

infamy,  and  tlie  curses  of  mankind  hang  over  our  memory 
for  ever  and  ever,  world  witliout  end ! 

II.  Suppose  we  separate.  The  North  may  at  length  feel 
some  little  manhood ;  become  angry  at  this  continual 
insult,  and  be  roused  by  fear  of  actual  ruin ;  calculate  the 
value  of  the  Union,  and  find  it  not  worth  while  any  longer 
to  be  tied  to  this  offensive  partner.  See  what  may  follow 
in  the  attempt  at  dissolution.  Look  at  the  comparative 
military  power — the  men  and  money — of  the  North  and 
South. 

Omitting  California  and  the  territories,  the  North  has 
fifteen  million  freemen,  or  three  million  men  able  to  do 
military  duty  ;  and  also  thirty- two  hundred  million  dollars 
(,g3,200,000,000)  ;  while  the  South  has  fifteen  hundred 
million  dollars  (.^1,500,000,000),  six  million  five  hundred 
thousand  freemen,  and  three  million  five  hundred  thousand 
slaves.  But  the  latter  are  a  negative  quantity  to  be  sub- 
tracted from  the  whole.  So  the  effective  population  is  three 
millions,  or  six  hundred  thousand  men  able  to  bear  arms. 
Such  is  the  comparative  personal  and  material  force  of  the 
two.  I  will  not  speak  of  the  odds  in  the  quality  of 
Northern  and  Southern  men,  looking  now  only  at  the 
obvious  quantitative  difference. 

The  contest  could  not  be  doubtful  or  long.  The  North 
could  dictate  the  terms  of  separation,  and  would  probably 
take  two-thirds  of  the  naval  and  military  property  of  the 
nation,  and  all  of  the  territories.  Then  would  come  the 
question,  where  shall  be  the  line  of  demarcation  between 
Freedom  and  Slavery  ?  I  think  the  North  might  fix  the 
Potomac  and  Ohio  as  the  Northern,  and  the  Mississippi  as 
the  Western  limit  of  Slavery.  Depend  upon  it,  we  shall 
not  leave  more  land  than  these  boundaries  indicate  to  the 
cause  of  bondage.  Then  the  ten  Barbary  States  of  America 
might  found  a  new  empire,  with  desj)otism  for  their  central 
idea ;  take  the  name  of  Braggadocia,  Servilla,  Violentia, 
Thrasonia,  or,  in  plainer  Saxon  title,  BuUydom ;  and 
become  as  famous  in  future  history  as  the  "  Five  Cities  of 
the  Plain''  were  in  the  past.  But  would  Yirginia,  Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee,  Louisiana,  consent  to  be  border  States, 
with  no  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  to  fetter  their  bondmen  ? 

I  do  not  propose  disunion — at  present.  I  would  never 
leave  the  black  men  in  bondage,  or  the  whites  subject  to 


IN    AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  273 

the  slaveholding  oligarchy  which  rules  them.  The  Consti- 
tution itself  guarantees  "a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment'' to  each  State  in  the  Union :  no  slave  State  has  had 
it  yet.  Perhaps  the  North  will  one  daj^  respect  the  other 
half  of  "  the  Compromises  of  the  constitution."  Certainly 
there  must  be  national  unity  of  idea,  either  of  Freedom  or 
of  Slavery,  or  else  we  separate  before  long. 

This  regressive  force,  which  retards  the  progress  and 
diminishes  the  welfare  of  the  South,  and  yet  controls  the 
politics  of  America,  is  determined  to  conquer  the  pro- 
gressive force,  to  put  liberty  down,  to  spread  bondage  over 
all  the  North,  to  organize  it  in  all  the  wild  land  of  the 
continent.  The  ablest  champions  of  this  iniquity  are 
Northern  men.  The  same  North  which  bore  Seward  and 
Giddings,  Sumner  and  Hale,  not  to  mention  others  equally 
able,  is  mother  also  to  Cushing  and  Douglas ;  and  one  of 
these  would  "  crush  out"  all  opposition  to  Slavery,  all  love 
of  welfare  and  progress ;  the  other  is  reported  to  have  said 
to  the  North,  in  the  Senate,  "  We  mean  to  subdue  you." 
Mark  the  words — "  We  mean  to  subdue  you  I "  That  is 
the  aim  of  the  administration,  to  make  progress,  regress  ; 
welfare,  illfare ;  to  make  Democracy  and  Christianity, 
DesjDotism  and  anti- Christianity ;  that  is  the  purpose  of 
the  oligarchy  of  slaveholders,  to  be  executed  with  those 
triple  Northern  tools  already  named — base  men,  mean  men, 
ignorant  men. 

The  first  great  measure  is  to  put  Slavery  into  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  into  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  six 
hundred  and  eighty  miles  of  wild  land. 

To  accomplish  that,  five  steps  were  necessary.  Here 
they  are : — 

I.  The  first  was  to  pass  a  pro-Slavery  Act  to  organize 
the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  territory.  That  accomplished 
two  things : — 

1.  It  repealed  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  laid  the 
territory  open  to  the  slave-holder. 

2.  It  established  squatter  sovereignty,  and  allowed  the 
settlers  to  make  laws  for  Slavery  or  Freedom,  as  they  saw 
fit.     The  South  intended  that  it  should  be  a  slave  State. 

You  know  how  this  first  step  was  taken  in  1854 ;  what 
was  done  by  Congress,  by  the  President ;  you  have  not 

VOL.    VI.  T 


274  THE    PRESENT   CEISIS 

forgotten  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Douglas,  of  Illinois.  Massa- 
cliusetts  yet  remembers  the  behaviour  of  Mr.  Everett.  It 
is  rather  difficult  to  find  all  the  facts  concerning  this  Kansas 
business  ;  lies  have  been  woven  over  the  whole  matter,  and 
I  know  of  no  transaction  in  human  history  which  has  been 
covered  up  with  such  abundant  lying,  from  the  death  of 
Ananias  and  Sapphira  down  to  the  first  nomination  of 
Governor  Gardiner.  Still  the  main  facts  appear  through 
this  garment  of  lies. 

II.  The  second  step  was  to  give  the  new  territory  a  slave 
government,  which  would  take  pains  to  organize  Slavery 
into  the  land,  and  Freedom  out  of  it.  So  the  executive 
appointed  persons  supposed  to  be  competent  for  that  work, 
and,  amongst  others,  Mr.  Heeder,  of  Easton,  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, who  was  thought  to  be  fit  for  that  business.  But 
it  turned  out  otherwise :  he  became  conscientious,  and  re- 
fused to  execute  the  infamous  and  unlawful  commands  of 
the  executive.  Finding  it  was  so,  the  President — I  have 
it  on  good  authority — tried  to  bribe  him  to  resign,  offering 
him  the  highest  office  then  vacant — the  ministry  to  China. 
Governor  Peeder  refused  the  bribe,  and  then  was  discharged 
from  his  office  on  the  pretence  of  some  pecuniary  unfaith- 
fulness. Mr.  Shannon  was  thrust  into  his  place,  for  which 
he  seems  to  the  manner  born ;  for — I  have  this  also  on 
good  authority — his  habitual  drunkenness  seems  to  be  one 
of  the  smallest  of  his  public  vices. 

III.  The  third  step  was  to  establish  Slavery  by  squatter 
sovereignty.  For  this,  two  things  were  indispensable : 
(1.)  To  elect  a  legislature  friendly  to  Slavery  ;  and  (2.)  To 
get  laws  made  by  that  legislature  to  secure  the  desired  end. 

1.  This  must  be  done  by  actual  settlers ;  and  then,  for 
the  first  time  in  this  career  of  wickedness,  a  difficulty  was 
found.  The  people  were  to  be  consulted  ;  and  no  coup 
d'etat  of  the  government  could  do  tlie  work.  There  was 
an  unexpected  difficulty ;  for,  soon  as  Kansas  was  open, 
great  bodies  went  there  from  the  North  to  settle  and  secure 
it  to  freedom.  It  soon  became  plain  that  they  were  nume- 
rous enough  to  bring  squatter  sovereignty  itself  over  to  the 
side  of  humanity,  and,  by  their  votes,  exclude  bondage  for 
ever.  That  must  be  prevented  by  the  regressive  force.  Mr. 
Atchinson,  Mr.  Stringfellow,  and  others  were  appointed  to 
take  the  matter  in  hand.     Citizens  of  Missouri  organized 


IN    AMERICAN   AFFAIRS.  275 

themselves  into  companies,  and  in  military  order,  with 
pistols  and  bowie-knives,  and  in  one  instance  with  cannon, 
went  over  the  border  into  Kansas  to  determine  the  elec- 
tions by  excluding  the  legal  voters,  and  themselves  casting 
the  ballot.  In  ten  months,  they  made  four  general  inva- 
sions of  Kansas,  if  I  am  rightly  informed ;  namel}^,  (1.) 
On  the  29th  of  Jidy,  1854 ;  (2.)  29th  of  November,  1854  ; 
(3.)  30th  March,  1855,  and  (4.)  22nd  May,  1855.  The 
third  was  the  great  invasion^  made  to  elect  the  legislators 
who  were  to  enact  the  territorial  laws.  It  appears  that 
four  thousand  men  marched  bodily  from  Missouri  to  Kansas, 
some  of  them  penetrating  two  hundred  miles  into  the  in- 
terior, and  delivered  their  votes,  electing  men  who  would 
put  Slavery  into  the  land.  The  fourth  was  a  smaller  and 
local  invasion,  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  legislature. 

I  cannot  dwell  on  these  things,  nor  stop  to  speak  of  the 
violence  and  murder  repeatedly  committed  by  these  border 
ruffians,  under  the  eyes,  and  with  the  consent,  and  by  the 
encouragement,  of  the  American  Executive.  You  can  read 
those  things  in  the  newspapers,  at  least  in  the  New  York 
Tribune  and  Evening  Post.  But,  suffice  it  to  say,  the 
Legislature  thus  chosen  was  wholly  illegal.  If  Jersey  City 
were  to  order  a  municipal  election,  and  New  York  were  to 
go  there,  and  choose  aldermen  and  common  councilmen, 
and  the  new  officers  were  to  act  in  that  capacity,  we  should 
have  a  parallel  of  what  took  place  in  Kansas. 

Thus  the  slave  power  which  controls  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment secured  the  first  requisite, — a  Slave  Legislature. 

2.  They  must  next  proceed  to  make  the  appropriate  laws. 
The  Legislature  came  together  on  the  2nd  July,  1855,  at 
the  place  legally  fixed  by  Governor  Reeder  :  thej^  passed  an 
illegal  Act,  fixing  the  seat  of  Government  at  Shawneetown, 
on  the  borders  of  Missouri,  and  adjourned  thither.  The 
Governor  vetoed  the  Act,  and  repudiated  the  Legislature, 
illegally  chosen  at  first,  illegal^  acting  afterwards.  But 
they  continued  in  session  there  from  July  15th  to  August 
31st,  and  made  a  huge  statute-book  of  more  than  a  thousand 
great  pages.  It  contains  substantially  the  laws  of  Missouri ; 
but,  in  some  instances,  they  were  made  worse.  Take  this 
for  example : — 

"  No  person  who  sliall  have  been  convicted  of  any  violation  of  any  of 
the  provisions  of  an  Act  of  Congress  "  (the  Fugitive  Slave  Bills  of  I7ii3 

t2 


276  THE   PRESENT   CKISIS 

and  1850),  "wliether  such  conviction  was  by  criminal  proceeding  or  by- 
civil  action,  in  any  courts  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any  State  or  terri- 
tory, shall  be  entitled  to  vote  at  any  election,  or  to  hold  any  office  in  this 
territory."  "  If  any  person  offering  to  vote  shall  be  challenged  and 
required  to  take  an  oath  or  affirmation  that  he  will  sustain  the  provisions 
of  the  above-recited  Acts  of  Congress  "  (the  Fugitive  Slave  Bills),  "  and 
shall  refuse  to  take  such  oath  or  affirmation,  the  vote  of  such  person 
shall  be  rejected."— Ch.  Ixvi.  §  11,  p.  332. 

There  is  no  similar  provision  depriving  a  man  of  his  vote 
if  he  violate  any  other  statute  :  but  a  deed  of  common 
humanity  disfranchises  a  man  for  ever ;  nay,  performing  an 
act  of  kindness  to  a  brother  perpetually  deprives  a  man  of 
his  share  in  the  government ! 

Look  at  this  statute  : — 

"  Every  free  person  who  shall  aid  ....  in  any  rebellion  or  insurrec- 
tion of  slaves,  ....  or  do  any  other  overt  act  in  furtherance  of  such 
rebellion,  ....  shall  suffi3r  death." 

"  If  any  jDerson  shall  ....  induce  any  slaves  to  rebel,  ....  or  shall 
....  circulate  ....  any  book  ....  or  circular  for  the  purpose  of 
exciting  insurrection  ....  on  the  part  of  the  slaves,  such  person  shall 
....  suffer  death." 

"  If  any  person  shall  aid  ....  in  enticing  ....  any  slave  ....  to 
effect  the  freedom  of  such  slave,  ....  he  shall  ....  suffer  death,  or 
be  imprisoned  at  hard  labour  for  not  less  than  ten  years." — Ch.  cli. 
§  2,  4,  5. 

Look  at  this  : — 

Sect.  11. — "  If  any  person  print,  write,  introduce  into,  publish,  or  cir- 
culate, or  cause  to  be  brought  into,  printed,  written,  piiblished,  or  circu- 
lated, or  shall  knowingly  aid  or  assist  in  bringing  into,  printing,  publish- 
ing, or  circulating,  within  this  territory,  any  book,  paper,  iDamphlet, 
magazine,  handbill,  or  circular,  containing  any  statements,  arguments, 
opinions,  sentiments,  doctrines,  advice,  or  innuendo,  calculated  to  pro- 
mote a  disorderly,  dangerous,  or  rebellious  disaffection  among  the  slaves 
in  this  territory,  or  to  induce  such  slaves  to  escape  from  the  service  of 
their  masters,  or  to  resist  their  authority,  he  shall  be  guilty  of  a  felony, 
and  be  punished  by  imprisonment  and  hard  labour  for  a  term  not  less 
than  five  yeai's." 

Sect.  12. — "If  any  free  person,  by  speaking  or  by  writing,  assert  or 
maintain  that  persons  have  not  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  this  territory, 
or  shall  introduce  into  this  territory,  print,  publish,  write,  circulate,  or 
cause  to  be  introduced  into  this  territory,  written,  printed,  published,  or 
circulated  in  this  territory,  any  book,  papei',  magazine,  pamphlet,  or  cir- 
cular, containing  any  denial  of  the  right  of  persons  to  hold  slaves  in  this 
territory,  such  person  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  felony,  and  punished  by 
imprisonment  at  hard  labour  for  a  term  of  not  less  than  two  years." 

But  stealing  a  free  child  under  twelve  is  punished  with 
imprisonment  for  not  more  than  five  years,  or  confinement 


IN    AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  277 

ill  the  county  gaol  not  less  than  six  months,  or  a  fine  of 
$500  (Ch.  xlviii.  Sect.  43). 

Chap.  xv.  Sect.  13. — "No  person  wlio  is  conscientiously  opposed  to 
holding  slaves,  or  who  does  not  admit  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  this 
territory,  shall  sit  as  a  juror  on  the  trial  of  any  prosecutions  for  any 
violation  of  any  of  the  sections  of  this  Act." 

That  law  excludes  the  J^ew  Testament  and  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, as  well  as  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
the  works  of  Franklin,  Jefferson,  and  Madison :  it  shuts 
humanitj^  from  the  jury-box. 

TV.  The  next  step  was  to  get  a  pro- Slavery  delegate 
from  Kansas  into  the  House  of  E-epresentatives  at  Wash- 
ington. So,  on  the  1st  of  October,  1855,  the  day  appointed 
by  the  Border-Ruffian  Legislature  to  elect  a  delegate,  a 
fifth  invasion  was  made  by  outsiders  from  Missouri,  who, 
as  before,  took  possession  of  the  polls,  and  chose  Hon. 
J.  W.  Whitfield  to  that  office.  Mr.  Shannon,  the  new  and 
appropriate  Governor  of  the  territory,  gave  him  a  certi- 
ficate of  lawful  election.  He  is  now  at  AYashington  in 
that  capacity.  But  the  House  of  Representatives  has  the 
matter  under  advisement ;  a  committee  has  gone  to  Kansas 
to  investigate  the  matter  ;  and  the  country  waits,  anxious 
for  the  results. 

y.  The  only  remaining  step  is  to  enforce  their  slave- 
law,  and  then  Kansas  becomes  a  slave  State.  But  this  is  a 
difficult  matter  :  for  the  people  of  the  territory,  indignant 
at  this  invasion  of  their  rights,  long  since  repudiated  the 
legislature  of  ruffians ;  held  a  convention  at  Topeka ; 
formed  a  constitution,  which  was  submitted  to  the  people, 
and  accepted  by  them.  They  have  chosen  their  own  legis- 
lature. State  officers,  senators,  and  representatives,  and 
applied  for  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  free  State.  But 
men,  who  have  already  five  times  invaded  the  territory, 
threaten  to  go  there  again,  and  enforce  the  laws  which  they 
have  already  made. 

I  need  only  refer  to  the  conduct  of  the  President,  and 
his  masters  in  the  cabinet,  and  say  that  he  has  been  uni- 
formly on  the  side  of  this  illegal  violence.  You  remember 
his  Message  last  winter,  his  Proclamation  at  a  later  day, 
his  conduct  all  the  time.  He  encourages  the  violence  of 
these  tools  of  the  slave  power,  who  have  sought  to  tread 


278  THE    PRESENT    CRISIS 

the  people  down.     Hence  it  becomes  indispensable  for  tbe 
'Northern  emigrants  to  take  arms.     It  is  instructive  to  see 
the  old  Puritan  spirit  coming  out  in  the  sons  of  the  North, 
even  those  who  went  on  theological  errands.     Excepting 
the  Quakers,   the  Unitarians  are  the  most  unmilitary  of 
sects;    in  Boston,  their  most  conspicuous  ministers  have 
|3eeii — some  of  them  still  are — notorious  supporters  of  the 
worst  iniquities  of  American  Slavery.     Surely  you  will  not 
forget  the  ecclesiastical  defences  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 
the  apologies  for  kidnapping.     But  a  noble-hearted  Unita- 
rian minister,  Eev.  Mr.  Nute,  "  felt  drawn  to  Kansas."   Of 
course  he  carried  his  Bible :  he  knew  it  also  by  heart.    His 
friends  gave  him  a  ''  repeating  rifle"   and  a  "revolver." 
These  also  "felt  drawn  to  Kansas."     This   "minister  at 
large" — very  much  at   large,  too,  his  nearest  denomina- 
tional brother,  on  one  side  live  hundred  miles  off,  on  the 
other  fifteen  hundred — trusts  in  God,  and  keeps  his  powder 
dry.     Listen  to  this,  written  December  3rd,  1855  : — 

"  1  have  just  been  summoned  to  be  in  the  village  with  my  repeating 
rifle.  I  shall  go,  and  use  my  utmost  eSbrts  to  prevent  bloodshed.  But,  if 
it  comes  to  a  fight,  in  which  we  shall  be  forced  to  defend  our  homes  and 
lives  against  the  assault  of  these  border  savages  (and  by  the  way,  the 
Indians  are  being  enlisted  on  both  sides),  I  shall  do  my  best  to  keep 
them  oflf." 

On  the  10th,  he  writes  : — 

"  Our  citizens  have  been  shot  at,  and,  in  two  instances,  murdered  ;  our 
houses  invaded  ;  hay-ricks  burnt ;  corn  and  other  provisions  plundered  ; 
cattle  driven  olf ;  all  communication  cut  off  between  us  and  the  States  ; 
wap-ons  on  the  way  to  us  with  provisions  stopped  and  plundered,  and  the 
drivers  taken  prisoners  ;  and  we  in  hourly  expectation  of  an  attack. 
Nearly  every  man  has  been  in  arms  in  the  village.  Fortifications  have 
been  thrown  up  by  incessant  labour  night  and  day.  The  sound  of  the 
drum,  and  the  tramp  of  armed  men,  resounded  through  our  streets  ; 
families  fleeing  with  their  household  goods  for  safety.  Day  before 
yesterday,  the  report  of  cannon  was  heard  at  our  house  from  the  direc- 
tion of  Lecompton.  Last  Thursday,  one  of  our  neighbours, — one  of  the 
most  peaceable  and  excellent  of  men,  from  Ohio, — on  his  way  home,  was 
set  upon  by  a  gang  of  twelve  men  on  horseback,  and  shot  down.  Several 
of  the  ruffians  pursued  him  some  distance  after  he  M^as  shot ;  and  one 
w^as  seen  to  push  him  from  his  horse,  and  heard  to  shout  to  his  com- 
panions that  he  was  dead.  A  neighbour  reached  him  just  before  he 
breathed  his  last.  I  was  present  when  liis  family  came  in  to  see  the 
corpse,  for  the  first  time,  at  tlio  Free-State  Hotel, — a  wife,  a  sister,  a 
brother,  and  an  aged  mother.  It  was  the  most  exciting  and  the  most 
distressing  scene  that  I  ever  witnessed.  Hundreds  of  our  men  were  in 
tears,  as  the  shrieks  and  groans  of  the  bereaved  women  were  heard  all 


IN    AMERICAN   AFFAIRS.  279 

over  the  building,  now  used  for  military  barracks.  Over  eight  hundred 
men  are  gathered  under  arms  at  Lawrence.  As  yet,  no  act  of  violence 
has  been  perpetrated  by  those  on  our  side  ;  no  blood  of  retaliation  stains 
our  hands.  We  stand,  and  are  ready  to  act,  purely  in  the  defence  of  our 
homes  and  lives.  I  am  enrolled  in  the  cavalry,  though  I  have  not  yet 
appeared  in  the  ranks  ;  but,  should  there  be  an  attack,  I  shall  he  there. 
I  have  had  some  hesitation  about  the  propriety  of  this  course;  but  some 
one  has  said,  "  In  questions  of  duty,  the  first  thought  is  generally  the 
right  one."  On  that  principle,  I  find  strong  justification.  I  could  feel 
no  self-respect  until  I  had  offered  my  services. 

"  Day  before  yesterday,  we  received  the  timely  re-enforcement  of  a 
twelve  pounder  howitzer,  with  ammunition  therefor,  inckiding  grape  and 
canister,  vnth  forty  bomb-shells.  It  was  sent  from  New  York  (made  at 
Chicopee).  By  a  deed  of  successful  daring  and  cunning,  it  was  brought 
through  the  country  invested  by  the  enemy,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles, 
from  Kansas  City,  by  an  unfrequented  route,  boxed  up  as  merchandise. 

^^  Sunday  Morning,  Dec.  9. — The  governor  has  pledged  himself  to  do 
all  he  can  to  make  peace  ;  and  we  are  told  that  the  invaders  are  begin- 
ning to  retreat ;  but  we  know  not  what  to  believe.  Our  men  are  to  be 
kept  under  arms  for  twenty-four  hours  longer,  at  least.  No  religious 
meetings  for  the  last  three  weeks.  No  work  done,  of  course.  Some  of 
the  logs  to  be  sawed  for  our  church  were  pressed  into  service  to  build  a 
fort,  of  which  we  have  no  less  than  five,  and  of  no  mean  dimensions  or 
strength.  For  a  time,  it  seemed  probable  that  the  foundation-stones  for 
the  church  would  be  wet  by  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  for  liberty.  They 
were  piled  up  on  the  ground,  and,  with  the  earth  thrown  out  of  the  exca- 
vation, made  quite  a  fort  on  the  hillside  just  outside  of  the  hue  of 
intrenchments ." 

That  is  the  report  of  a  Unitarian  missionary.  Yon  know 
what  the  Trinitarians  have  done:  the  conduct  of  that  valiant 
man,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  —  the  most  powerful  and 
popidar  minister  in  the  United  States, — and  his  "  Ply- 
mouth Church,"  and  other  "religious  bodies"  at  New 
Haven  and  elsewhere,  need  not  be  spoken  of. 

One  effect  of  this  warlike  spirit  is  curious;  "pious" 
newspapers  are  very  much  troubled  at  the  talk  of  rifles, 
pistols,  and  cannon.  In  1847,  they  rated  me  roundly  for 
preaching  against  the  Mexican  war, — a  war  for  plundering 
a  feeble  nation,  that  we  might  blacken  her  soil  with 
Slavery :  it  was  "  desecrating  the  Sabbath."  They  lilved 
the  Sims  brigade,  the  Burns  division ;  they  did  homage  to 
the  cannon  which  men-stealers  loaded  in  Boston,  therewith 
to  shoot  the  friends  of  humanity  dn  the  graves  of  Hancock 
and  Adams  !  Now,  the  mean  men  and  the  base  men  arc 
brought  over  to  "  peace  principles  :"  a  rifle  is  "  not  of  the 
Lord  ;"  a  cannon  is  "  a  carnal  weapon  ;"  a  sword  is  "  of 
the  devil."     All  the  South  thinks  gunpowder  is  "unchris- 


280  THE    PRESENT    CUISIS 

tian."  Such,  a  *'  cliaiige  of  heart"  has  not  been  heard  of 
since  the  conversion  of  St.  Ananias  and  Sapphira. 

I  have  no  fondness  for  fighting ;  not  the  average  '^  in- 
stinct of  destruction."  I  should  suffer  a  great  while  before  I 
struck  a  blow.  But  there  are  times  when  I  would  take  down 
the  dreadful  weapon  of  war:  this  is  one  of  them  for  the 
men  in  Kansas. 

It  is  not  easy  for  the  border  ruffians  alone  to  put  down 
Kansas  ;  not  possible  for  them  to  break  up  the  popular 
organization,  destroy  the  new  Constitution,  and  hang  the 
officers.  Will  the  President  send  the  United  States  soldiers 
to  do  this  ?  No  doubt  his  heart  is  good  enough  for  that 
work.  We  remember  what  he  did  with  United  States 
soldiers  at  Boston,  in  1854  :  the  only  service  they  ever 
rendered  in  that  town  for  more  than  forty  years  was  to 
kidnap  Anthony  Burns.  But  the  President  falters  :  there 
is  a  North ;  all  last  winter  there  was  a  North, — Northern 
ice  in  the  Mississippi ;  Banks,  of  the  North,  at  Washing- 
ton, in  the  speaker's  chair. 

Kansas  and  Nebraska  are  "  the  Children  in  the  Wood." 
They  had  a  fair  inheritance ;  but  the  parents,  dying,  left 
them  to  a  guardian  uncle, — the  President.  I  heard  the 
Northern  mother  say  to  him, — 

"  You  must  be  father  and  mother  both, 
And  uncle,  all  in  one." 

'*  You  are  the  man  must  bring  our  babes 
To  wealth  or  misery. 

And,  if  you  keep  them  carefully, 

Then  God  will  you  reward ; 
But,  if  you  otherwise  should  deal, 

God  win  your  deeds  regard." 

It  is  still  the  old  story  :  the  Executive  uncle  promises 
well  enough  :  yet — 

"  He  had  not  kept  these  pretty  babes 
But  twelve  months  and  a  day, 
Before  he  did  devise 
To  make  them  both  away. 

He  bargained  with  two  ruffians  strong 

[That  is,  Straightwhig  and  Democrat,^ 

Which  Avere  of  furious  mood. 
That  they  should  take  these  children  young, 
And  slay  them  in  a  wood." 


IN    AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  281 

It  is  still  tlie  old  story.  One  of  the  ruffians  kills  tlie 
other  ;  but,  in  this  case,  Democrat,  the  strong  ruffian,  killed 
Straightwhig, — a  weak  ruffian,  who  had  no  *'  backbone," 
— and  now  seeks  to  kill  the  babes.  He  is  not  content  to 
let  them  starve, — 

"  Their  pretty  lips  with  blackberries 
»  So  all  besmeared  and  dyed  ;" 

he  "  would  make  them  both  aivayJ^  But  that  is  not  quite 
so  easy.  Kansas,  the  elder,  turns  out  a  very  male  child,  a 
thrifty  boy :  he  ivill  not  die ;  he  refuses  to  be  killed,  but, 
with  such  weapons  as  he  has,  shows  what  blood  he  came 
of.  His  relations  hear  of  the  matter,  and  make  a  noise 
about  it.  The  uncle  becomes  the  town-talk.  Even  the 
ghost  of  Straightwhig  is  disquieted,  and  ''  walks  "  in  ob- 
scure places,  by  graveyards,  "haunting"  some  houses. 
Nay,  the  Northern  mother  rises  from  the  grave  :  perhaps 
the  Northern  father  is  not  dead,  but  only  sleeping,  like 
Barbarossa  in  that  other  fable,  with  his  Sharp's  rifle  for  a 
pillow.  Who  knows  but  he,  too,  will  "  rise,"  and  execute 
his  own  will  ?  The  history  may  yet  end  after  the  old 
sort : — 

"  And  now  the  heavy  wrath  of  God 
Upon  the  Uncle  fell ; 
Yea,  fearful  fiends  did  haunt  his  house  ; 
His  conscience  felt  a  hell. 

His  bams  were  fired,  his  goods  consumed, 

His  lands  were  barren  made  ; 
Conventions  failed  to  nominate  ; 

No  office  with  him  staid." 

Kansas  applies  for  admission  as  a  free  State,  with  a 
constitution  made  in  due  form  and  by  the  people.  The 
regressive  force  is  determined  that  she  shall  be  a  slave 
State  ;  and  so  all  the  926,000  miles  of  territory  become  the 
spoil  of  the  slave-holder.     See  the  state  of  things. 

The  majority  of  the  Senate  is  pro-Slavery,  of  the  Satanic 
Democracy.  For  once,  the  House  inclines  the  other  way, — 
leans  towards  Freedom.  A  bill  for  making  Kansas  a  slave 
State  will  pass  the  Senate ;  will  be  resisted  in  the  House  : 
then  comes  the  tug  of  war.  The  North  has  a  majority 
in  the  House,  but  it  is  divided.  If  all  will  unite,  they 
make  Kansas  a  free  State  before  the  4th  of  next  July. 


282  THE    PRESENT    CRISIS 

They  can  force  the  Administratioii  to  this  act  of  justice, 
simply  by  refusing  to  vote  a  dollar  of  money  until  Kansas 
is  free.  If  the  House  will  determine  on  that  course,  the 
two  Executives — the  Presidential  and  the  Senatorial — will 
soon  come  to  terms.  This  is  no  new  expedient :  it  was  often 
enough  resorted  to  by  our  fathers  in  old  England,  under 
the  Tudors  and  Stuarts ;  nay,  even  the  Dutch  used  it 
against  Philip  II. 

But  perhaps  there  is  not  virtue  enough  in  the  House  to 
do  this  ;  then  let  the  State  legislatures  which  are  now  in 
session  send  instructions,  the  people — who  are  always  in 
session — petitions,  to  that  effect. 

But  perhaps  the  people  themselves  are  not  quite  ready 
for  this  measure ;  and  the  House  and  Senate  cannot  agree. 
Then  the  question  goes  over  to  the  next  presidential  elec- 
tion, where  it  will  be  the  most  important  element.  There 
will  be  three  candidates,  perhaps  four ;  for  the  straight 
Whigs  may  put  up  some  invertebrate  politician,  hoping  to 
catch  whatever  shall  turn  "  up."  It  is  possible  there  shall 
be  no  choice  by  the  people ;  then  the  election  goes  to  the 
present  House  of  Representatives,  where  the  choice  is  by 
States.  In  either  case,  if  the  matter  be  managed  well,  the 
progressive  force  of  America  may  get  into  the  presidential 
chair.  I  mean  to  say,  we  can  choose  an  anti- Slavery  pi^esi- 
dent  next  autumn ^ — some  one  who  loves  man  and  God,  not 
merely  money,  loaves  and  fishes, — who  will  counsel  and 
work  for  the  present  welfare  and  future  progress  of  America, 
and  so  promote  that  Christianity  and  Democracy  spoken  of 
before.  I  shall  not  pretend  to  say  who  the  man  is  :  it 
must  be  some  one  who  reverences  Justice, — the  higher 
law  of  God.  He  must  be  a  strong  man,  a  just  man,  a  man 
sure  for  the  right.  Let  there  be  no  humbug  this  time,  no 
doubtful  man. 

If  we  once  put  an  anti-Slavery  man,  never  so  moderate, 
into  the  presidency,  then  see  what  follows  immediately  or 
at  length : — 

1.  The  Executive  holds  40,000  offices  in  his  right  hand, 
and  70,000,000  annual  dollars  in  his  left  hand  :  both  will 
be  dispensed  so  as  to  promote  the  welfiire  and  the  prosperity 
of  the  people.  All  the  great  offices,  executive,  judi- 
cial,  diplomatic,   commercial,    will   be   controlled  by  the 


IN    AMERICAN    AFFAIRS.  283 

progressive  force ;  tlie  Administration  will  be  celestial- 
democratic,  not  Satanic  merely,  and  seek  by  natural  j  ustice 
to  organize  things  and  persons  so  that  all  may  have  a  share 
in  labour  and  government.  Then,  when  freedom  has  money 
and  office  to  bestow,  she  will  become  respectable  in  the 
South,  where  noble  men,  slave-holders  and  non-slaveholders, 
will  come  out  of  their  hiding-places  to  bless  their  land  which 
others  have  cursed  so  heavily  and  so  long.  There  are  anti- 
Slavery  elements  at  the  South  :  "One  swallow  makes 
no  summer ;"  but  one  presidential  summer  of  freedom  will 
bring  many  swallows  out  from  their  wintry  sleep,  fabulous 
or  real.  I^ay,  the  ignorant  men  of  the  North  will  be 
instructed  ;  her  mean  men  will  be  attracted  by  the  smell  of 
dinner ;  and  her  base  men,  left  alone  in  their  rot,  will 
engage  in  other  crime,  but  not  in  kidnapping  men. 

2.  Kansas  becomes  a  free  State  before  the  1st  of  Januar}^ 
1858.  Nebraska,  Oregon,  Washington,  Utah,  New  Mexico, 
all  will  be  free  States.  When  Texas  sends  down  a  pendu- 
lous branch,  which  takes  independent  root,  a  tree  of  free- 
dom will  grow  up  therefrom.  Western  Texas  will  ere 
long  be  a  free  State  ;  she  is  half  ready  now.  Freedom  will 
be  organized  in  the  Mesilla  Valley.  If  we  acquire  new 
territory  from  Mexico,  it  will  be  honestly  got,  and  Demo- 
cracy and  Christianity  spread  thither.  If  Central  America, 
Nicaragua,  or  other  new  soil,  become  ours,  it  will  be  all 
consecrated  to  freedom,  and  the  unalienable  ri2:hts  of  man. 
Slavery  will  be  abolished  in  the  district  of  Columbia. 

3.  There  will  be  no  more  national  attempts  to  destroy 
Freedom  in  the.  North,  but  continual  efforts  to  restrict 
Slavery.  The  democratic  parts  of  the  Constitution,  long 
left  a  dead  letter  therein,  will  be  developed,  and  the 
despotic  clauses,  exceptionable  there,  and  clearly  hostile  to 
its  purpose  and  its  spirit,  will  be  overruled,  and  forced  out 
of  sight,  like  odious  features  of  the  British  common  law. 
There  will  be  a  pacific  railroad,  perhaps  more  than  one ; 
and  national  attempts  will  be  made  to  develop  the  national 
resources  of  the  Continent  by  free  labour.  The  South  will 
share  with  the  North  in  this  better  organization  of  things 
and  persons,  this  development  of  industry  and  education. 

4.  And  what  will  be  tlie  future  of  Kansas  ?  Her  1 14,000 
square  miles  will  soon  fill  up  with  educated  and  industi'ious 
men,    each    sharing   the   labour   and    the  government  of 


284  THE    PRESENT   CRISIS 

society,  helping  forward  tlie  welfare  and  the  progress  of  all, 
aiding  the  organization  of  Christianity  and  Democracy. 
What  a  development  there  will  be  of  agriculture,  mining, 
manufactures,  commerce  !  What  farms  and  shops  !  What 
canals  and  railroads  !  "VVliat  schools,  newspapers,  libraries, 
meeting-houses !  Yes,  what  families  of  rich,  educated, 
happy,  and  religious  men  and  women !  In  the  year  1900, 
there  will  be  2,000,000  men  in  Kansas,  with  cities  like 
Providence,  Worcester,  perhaps  like  Chicago  and  Cincin- 
nati. She  will  have  more  miles  of  railroad  than  Mar^dand, 
Virginia,  and  both  the  Carolinas  can  now  boast.  Her  land 
will  be  worth  ^20  an  acre,  and  her  total  wealth  will  be 
^500,000,000  of  money ;  600,000  children  will  learn  in  her 
schools. 

5.  There  will  be  a  ring  of  Freedom  all  round  the  slave 
States,  and  in  them  Slaver}^  itself  will  decline.  The  theory 
of  bondage  will  be  given  up,  like  the  theory  of  theocracy 
and  monarchy  ;  and  attempts  will  be  made  to  get  rid  of  the 
fact.  Then  the  North  will  help  the  Southern  States  in 
that  noble  work.  There  will  never  be  another  Slave  State 
nor  another  Slave  President ;  no  more  kidnapping  in  the 
North  ;  no  more  chains  round  the  Court  House  in  Boston  ; 
no  more  preaching  against  the  first  principles  of  all 
humanity. 

Three  hundred  years  ago,  our  fathers  in  Europe  were 
contending  for  liberty.  Then  it  was  freedom  of  conscience 
which  the  progressive  force  of  the  people  demanded. 
Julius  the  Third  had  just  been  Pope,  who  gave  the  cardi- 
nalship,  vacated  at  his  election,  to  the  keeper  of  his 
monkeys ;  and  Paul  TV.  sat  in  his  stead  in  St.  Peter's 
chair,  and  represented  in  general  for  all  Europe  the  regres- 
sive power ;  while  bloody  Mary  and  bloodier  Philip  sat  on 
England's  throne,  and,  incited  thereto  by  the  Pontiff,  smote 
at  the  rights  of  man. 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  our  fathers  in  the  two  Englands 
— old  and  new — did  grim  battle  against  monarchic  despo- 
tism :  one  Charles  slept  in  his  bloody  grave,  another 
wandered  through  the  elegant  debaucheries  of  the  Conti- 
nent ;  while  Cromwell  and  Milton  made  liberal  England 
abidingly  famous  and  happy. 

One  hundred  years  ago,  other  great  battling  for  the 


IN   AMEHICAN    AFFAIRS.  285 

rights  of  man  was  getting  begun.  Ah  me  !  the  long-con- 
tinned  strife  is  not  ended.  The  question  laid  over  by  our 
fathers  is  adjourned  to  us  for  settlement.  It  is  the  old 
question  between  the  substance  of  man  and  his  accidents, 
labour  and  capital,  the  people  and  a  caste. 

Shall  the  350,000  slave-holders  own  all  the  1,400,000 
square  miles  of  territory  not  yet  made  States,  and  drive  all 
Northern  men  away  from  it,  or  shall  it  belong  to  the 
people  ;  shall  this  vast  area  be  like  Arkansas  and  South 
Carolina,  or  like  Michigan  and  Connecticut  ?  That  is  the 
immediate  question. 

Shall  Slavery  spread  over  all  the  United  States,  and  root 
out  Freedom  from  the  land  P  or  shall  Freedom  spread  wide 
her  blessed  boughs  till  the  whole  continent  is  fed  by  her 
fruit,  and  lodged  beneath  her  arms — her  very  leaves  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations  ?     That  is  the  ultimate  question. 

Now  is  the  time  for  America  to  choose  between  these 
two  alternatives,  and  choose  quick.  For  America  ?  No, 
for  the  North.  You  and  I  are  to  decide  this  mighty  ques- 
tion. I  take  it,  the  Anglo-Saxon  will  not  forego  his  ethno- 
logical instinct  for  freedom ;  will  not  now  break  the  historic 
habit  of  two  thousand  years ;  he  will  progressively  tend  to 
Christianity  and  Democracy ;  will  put  Slavery  down,  peace- 
ably if  he  can,  forcibly  if  he  must. 

We  may  now  end  this  crime  against  humanity  by  ballots; 
wait  a  little,  and  only  with  swords  and  with  blood  can  this 
deep  and  widening  blot  of  shame  be  scoured  out  from  the 
continent.  No  election,  since  that  first  and  unopposed  of 
Washington,  has  been  so  important  to  America  as  this 
now  before  us.  Once  the  nation  chose  between  Aaron  Burr 
and  Thomas  Jefferson.  When  the  choice  is  between  Slavery 
and  Freedom,  will  the  North  choose  wrong  ?  Any  railroad 
company  may,  by  accident,  elect  a  knave  for  President ; 
but,  when  he  has  been  convicted  of  squandering  their  sub- 
stance on  himself,  and  blowing  up  their  engines,  nay, 
destroying  their  sons  and  daughters,  will  the  stockholders 
choose  a  swindler  for  ever  ? 

I  think  we  shall  put  Slavery  down  ;  I  have  small  doubt 
of  that.  But  shall  we  do  it  now  and  without  tumult,  or  by 
and  by  with  a  dreadful  revolution,  St.  Domingo  massacres, 
and  the  ghastly  work  of  war  ? 

Shall  America  decide  for  wickedness, — extend  the  dark 


286  THE   PRESENT   CRTSTS    IN    AMERICAN   AFFAIRS. 

places  of  the  earth,  filled  up  yet  fuller  with  the  habitations 
of  cruelty  ?  Then  our  ruin  is  certain, — is  also  just.  The 
power  of  self-rule,  which  we  were  not  fit  for,  will  pass  from 
our  hands,  and  the  halter  of  vengeance  will  gripe  our  neck, 
and  America  shall  lie  there  on  the  shore  of  the  sea,  one 
other  victim  who  died  as  the  fool  dieth.  What  a  ruin  it 
would  be  !  Come  away  !  I  cannot  look,  even  in  fancy,  on 
so  foul  a  sight. 

If  we  decide  for  the  unalienable  rights  of  man ;  for  present 
welfare,  future  progress;  for  Christianity  and  Democracj^ ; 
>and  so  organize  things  and  men  that  all  may  share  the 
labour  and  government  of  society — then  what  a  prospect 
is^before  us  !  How  populous,  how  rich,  will  the  land  be- 
come !  Ere  long,  her  borders  wide  will  embrace  the  hemi- 
sphere— how  full  of  men !  If  we  are  faithful  to  our  duty, 
one  day,  America,  youngest  of  nations,  shall  sit  on  the 
Cordilleras,  the  youthful  mother  of  the  continent  of  States. 
J3ehind  her  are  the  Northern  lakes,  the  Northern  forest 
bounded  by  Arctic  ice  and  snow ;  on  her  left  hand  swells 
the  Atlantic,  the  Pacific  on  her  right — both  beautiful  with 
the  white  lilies  of  commerce,  giving  fragrance  all  round 
the  world  ;  while  before  her  spreads  out  the  Southern  land, 
from  terra  firma  to  the  isles  of  fire,  blessed  with  the  Saxon 
mind  and  conscience,  heart  and  soul ;  and,  underneath  her 
eye,  into  the  lap  of  the  hemisphere,  the  Amazon,  and  the 
Mississippi — classic  rivers  of  freedom — pour  the  riches  of 
either  continent ;  and  behind  her,  before  her,  on  either 
hand,  all  round,  and  underneath  her  eye,  extends  the  new 
world  of  humanity,  the  commonwealth  of  the  people, 
justice,  the  law  thereof,  and  infinite  perfection,  God ;  a 
Church  without  a  bishop,  a  State  without  a  king,  a  com- 
munity without  a  lord,  a  family  with  no  holder  of  slaves, 
with  welfare  for  the  present,  and  progress  for  the  future, 
she  will  show  the  nations  how  divine  a  thing  a  people  can 
be  made. 

"  Oil,  well  for  him  whose  will  is  strong  ! 

He  suffers,  but  he  will  not  suffer  long  ; 

He  suffers,  but  he  cannot  suffer  wrong  : 

For  him  nor  moves  the  loud  world's  random  mock, 

Nor  all  calamity's  hugest  waves  confound, 

Who  seems  a  promontory  of  rock, 

That,  compassed  round  with  turbulent  sound, 
•    In  middle  ocean  meets  the  surging  shock, 

Tempest-buffeted,  citadel-crown'd," 


THE   PRESENT  ASPECT   OF   SLAVERY  IN   AMERICA, 
AND  THE  IMMEDIATE  DUTY  OF  THE  NORTH. 


A    SPEECH 

DELIYERED     IK    THE     HALL     OP     THE      STATE     HOUSE,     BEFORE      THE 

MASSACHUSETTS    AISTTI-SLAYEET    CONTENTION,    ON  FELDAT, 

JANUARY  29,    1858. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : —  I  stall  not 
liold  you  long  to-night.  There  are  others  to  speak  after 
me  who  have  better  claims  to  your  attention — the  one  (Mr. 
Ptemond)  for  his  race,  the  other  (Mr.  Phillips)  for  the  per- 
sonal attributes  of  eloquence  which,  in  America,  have  never 
reached  a  higher  height,  or  exhibited  themselves  in  so  fair 
a  form.  The  hand  of  the  dial  shall  pass  round  once,  and  I 
leave  this  spot,  to  be  filled  more  worthily.  During  these 
sixty  minutes,  I  ask  3^  our  attention  to  some  thoughts  on  the 
"  Present  Aspect  of  Slavery  in  America,  and  the  immediate 
Duty  of  the  North.'^ 

Mr.  Guizot — one  of  the  most  learned  and  humane  of  the 
European  statesmen  —  prefaced  one  edition  of  his  History 
of  Representative  Government,  by  stating  that  the  condi- 
tions of  national  welfare  were  far  more  difficult  than  the 
too  sanguine  hoj)es  of  mankind  had  ever  led  them  to  expect. 
If  that  were  so  in  Europe,  where  centuries  of  bitter  expe- 
rience have  taught  men  to  be  cautious  in  their  hopes,  how 
much  truer  it  is  in  America,  where  we  think  liberty  is  so 
natural  to  the  soil  and  congenial  to  man,  that  it  needs  no 
support  from  the  people,  but  will  thrive  of  its  own  sweet 
accord  ! 

In  some  respects,  our  experiment  is  simpler  than  the 
great  attempts  at  freedom  made  before  us  in  the  Old  World  ; 
in  some  others  it  is  more  complex  and  difficult.   All  the  old 


288  THE    PrvESE:NT   ASPECT 

forms  of  civilization  were  based  on  unity  of  race.  It  was 
so  with  the  Romans,  Greeks,  Persians,  Hebrews,  Egj^ptians, 
East  Indians.  The  same  holds  good  of  the  Moors,  who 
mark  the  transition  from  ancient  to  modern  times.  All  the 
mediaeval  attempts  at  improvement  had  the  same  character 
— in  S]3ain,  Italy,  France,  Germany,  England  itself.  Civi- 
lization hitherto  has  belonged  only  to  the  Caucasian  race. 
The  Africans  have  remained  strangers  to  it  in  all  times 
past ;  they  could  not  achieve  it  for  themselves  at  the  time, 
hitherto  never  rising  above  the  savage  or  the  barbarous 
state  ;  no  other  people  brought  it  to  them,  or  them  to  it, 
save  in  small  numbers. 

It  was  left  for  America  to  begin  a  new  experiment  in  the 
history  of  civilization  —  to  bring  divers  races  into  closest 
contact.  The  Catholic  Spaniard  began  the  experiment :  he 
mixed  his  blood  with  the  red  man,  whose  country  he  sub- 
dued ;  he  brought  hither  also  the  black  man.  Thus  the 
African  savage,  the  American  barbarian,  and  the  civilized 
Caucasian  of  Spain,  became  joint  stockholders  in  this  new 
coparceny  of  races.  The  Protestant  Briton  continued  what 
his  Catholic  predecessor  had  begun  ;  and,  while  the  Puritan 
was  painfully  voyaging  to  Plymouth,  in  the  wilderness 
seeking  an  asylum  where  the  Apocalyptic  woman  might 
bear  her  manchild  to  grow  up  in  freedom,  other  Saxons 
were  bringing  a  ship-load  of  negroes  to  the  wilderness,  to 
become  slaves  for  ever.  Thus  the  African  came  to  British 
and  Spanish  America.  Out  of  the  60,000,000  inhabitants 
of  this  continent,  I  take  it  about  9,000,000  are  of  this  un- 
fortunate race. 

In  the  United  States  to-day,  four  of  the  five  great  races  live 
side  by  side.  There  are  some  60,000  or  80,000  Mongolian 
Chinese  in  California,  I  am  told ;  there  are  400,000  Ameri- 
can Indians  within  our  borders ;  perhaps  4,500,000  Afri- 
cans;  and  26,000,000  Caucasians.  The  union  of  such 
diverse  ethnological  elements  makes  our  experiment  of 
democracy  more  complex,  and  perhaps  more  difficult  than 
it  would  otherwise  be. 

The  Mongolians  are  few  in  numbers,  and  so  transient  in 
their  stay  that  nothing  more  need  now  be  said  of  them. 

It  is  plain  where  the  red  man  will  go.  In  two  hundred 
years,  an  Indian  will  be  as  rare  in  the  United  States  as 
now  in  New  England.     Like  the  bear  and  tlie  buffalo,  he 


OF    SLAVERY   IN    AMERICA.  289 

perislies  wath  the  forest,  wliicli  to  him  and  them  was  what 
cultivated  fields,  towns,  and  cities  are  to  us.  Our  fathers 
tried  to  enslave  the  ferocious  and  unprogressive  Indian  ;  he 
would  not  work — for  himself  as  a  freeman,  nor  for  others 
as  a  slave  :  he  would  fight.  He  would  not  be  enslaved — 
he  could  not  help  being  killed.  He  perishes  before  us. 
The  sinewy  Caucasian  labourer  lays  hold  on  the  phlegmatic 
Indian  warrior  ;  they  struggle  in  deadly  grasp — naked 
man  to  naked  man,  hand  to  shoulder,  knee  to  knee,  breast 
to  breast ;  the  white  man  bends  the  red  man  over,  crushes 
him  down,  and  chokes  him  dead.  It  is  always  so  when  the 
civilized  meets  the  savage,  or  the  barbarian — naked  man 
to  naked  man :  how  much  more  fatal  is  the  issue  to  the 
feeble  when  the  white  man  shirted  in  iron  has  the  small- 
pox for  his  ally,  and  rum  for  his  tomahawk  !  In  the  long 
run  of  history,  the  race  is  always  to  the  swift,  and  the  battle 
to  the  strong.     The  Indian  will  perish — utterly  and  soon. 

The  African  is  the  most  docile  and  pliant  of  all  the  races 
of  men  ;  none  has  so  little  ferocity :  vengeance,  instantial 
v/ith  the  Caucasian,  is  exceptional  in  his  history.  In  his 
barbarous,  savage,  or  even  wild  state,  he  is  not  much  ad- 
dicted to  revenge ;  always  prone  to  mercy.  I^o  race  is  so 
strong  in  the  atfectional  instinct  which  attaches  man  to  man 
by  tender  ties ;  none  so  easy,  indolent,  confiding,  so  little 
warlike.  Hence  is  it  that  the  white  men  have  kidnapped 
the  black,  and  made  him  their  prey. 

This  piece  of  individual  biography  tells  us  the  sad  history 
of  the  African  race.  Not  long  since,  a  fugitive  slave  told 
me  his  adventures.  I  will  call  him  John — it  is  not  his 
name.  He  is  an  entire  negro — his  grandfather  was  brought 
direct  from  the  Congo  coast  to  America.  A  stout  man, 
thick-set,  able-bodied,  with  great  legs  and  mighty  arms, 
he  could  take  any  man  from  this  platform,  and  hurl  him 
thrice  his  length.  He  was  a  slave — active,  intelligent,  and 
much  confided  in.  He  had  a  wife  and  children.  One  day 
his  master,  in  a  fit  of  rage,  struck  at  him  with  a  huge  club, 
which  broke  both  of  his  arms  ;  they  were  awkwardly  set,  and 
grew  out  deformed.  The  master  promised  to  sell  the  man 
to  himself  for  a  large  sum,  and  take  the  nione}''  b}^  instal- 
ments, a  little  at  a  time.  But,  when  more  than  half  of  it 
was  paid,  he  actually  sold  him  to  a  trader,  to  be  taken  fur- 
ther South,  and  there  disposed  of.     The  appeals  of  the 

VOL.  VI.  V 


290  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT 

wife,  the  tears  of  the  children,  moved  not  the  master  whom 
justice  had  also  failed  to  touch.  As  the  boat  which  con- 
tained poor  John  shot  b}^  the  point  of  land  where  he  had 
lived,  his  wife  stood  upon  the  shore,  and  held  her  babies  up 
for  him  to  look  upon  for  the  last  time.  Descending  the 
Mississippi,  the  captain  of  the  boat  had  the  river  fever,  lost 
his  sight  for  the  time,  and  John  took  the  command.  One 
night,  far  down  the  Mississippi,  he  found  himself  on  board 
a  boat  with  the  three  kidnappers  who  had  him  in  their  power, 
and  intended  to  sell  him.  They  were  asleep  below — the  cap- 
tain still  blind  with  the  disease — he  watchful  on  deck.  "  I 
crept  down  barefoot,^'  said  John.  *'  There  they  lay  in  their 
bunks,  all  fast  asleep.  They  had  money,  and  I  none.  I 
had  done  them  no  harm,  but  they  had  torn  me  from  my 
wife,  from  my  children,  from  my  liberty.  I  stole  up  noise- 
lessly, and  came  back  again,  the  boat's  axe  in  my  hand.  I 
lifted  it  up,  and  grit  my  teeth  together,  and  was  about  to 
strike  :  and  it  came  into  my  mind, '  No  murderer  hath 
eternal  life.'  I  put  the  axe  back  in  its  place,  and  was  sold 
into  slavery.  What  would  you  have  done  in  such  a  case  ?  " 
I  told  him  that  I  thought  I  should  have  sent  the  kidnappers 
to  their  own  place  first,  and  then  trusted  that  the  act  would 
be  imputed  to  me  for  righteousness  by  an  all-righteous 
God  !  I  need  not  ask  what  Mr.  Garrison  would  do  in  like 
case.  I  think  his  Saxon  blood  would  move  swift  enough  to 
sweep  off  his  non-resistant  creed,  and  the  three  kidnappers 
would  have  started  on  their  final  journey  before  he  asked, 
''Where  shall  I  go?'' 

John's  story  is  also  the  story  of  Africa.  The  stroke  of 
an  axe  would  have  settled  the  matter  long  ago.  But  the 
black  man  would  not  strike.  One  day,  perhaps,  he  will  do 
what  yonder  monument  commends. 

At  this  moment,  we  have  perhaps  4,500,000  men  of 
African  descent  in  the  United  States  ;  say  4,000,000  slaves, 
500,000  free.  They  are  with  us,  are  of  us  ;  America  can- 
not be  rid  of  them  if  she  would.  Shall  they  continue 
slaves,  or  be  set  free  ?  What  consequences  will  follow 
either  result  ?  This  is  the  great  question  for  America.  It 
is  the  question  of  industry,  of  morals,  of  religion  ;  it  is  the 
immediate  question  of  politics.  It  does  not  concern  the 
4,000,000  slaves  alone,  but  also  each  of  the  26,000,000 
Caucasian   freemen.      On  it  depends  the  success  or  the 


OF    SLAVERY   IN    AMERICA.  291 

failure  of  our  experiment  of  Democracy.  The  bondage  of 
a  class  ma}^  continue  in  a  despotism ;  there  it  is  no  contra- 
diction to  the  national  idea.  It  is  different  in  a  Democracy 
which  rests  on  the  equality  of  all  men  in  natural  rights. 
So  here  the  question  of  Slavery  is  this :  *'  Shall  we  have  an 
industrial  Democracy,  or  a  military  despotism?"  If  3'ou 
choose  Slavery,  then  you  take  the  issue  of  Slavery,  which 
can  no  more  be  separated  from  it  than  cold  from  ice.  No 
nation  can  escape  the  consequences  of  its  own  first  principle 
of  politics.  The  logic  of  the  idea  is  the  "manifest  destiny '* 
of  tlie  jDcople.  If  Slavery  continues,  Democracy  goes  down  ; 
every  form  of  republicanism,  or  of  constitutional  monarchy, 
will  perish  ;  and  absolute  military  despotism  take  their 
place  at  last.  From  despotism,  as  seed  reared  in  the 
national  garden,  comes  despotism,  as  national  crop,  growing 
in  the  continental  field. 

This  question  of  Slavery  does  not  concern  America  alone ; 
all  Christendom  likeAvise  is  party  to  the  contest.  To  all  men 
it  is  a  question  of  industry,  commerce,  education,  morals, 
religion ;  to  the  civilized  world,  it  is  the  great  question  of 
civilization  itself.  Shall  this  great  continent  be  delivered 
over  to  ideas  which  help  the  progress  of  mankind,  or  to 
those  which  only  hinder  it  ? 

Every  jea,r  brings  America  into  closer  relations  with  the 
rest  of  mankind.  Our  Slavery  becomes,  therefore,  an 
element  in  the  world's  politics.  See,  then,  for  a  moment, 
how  the  various  Christian  nations  stand  affected  towards  it. 

Just  now,  there  are  but  five  great  national  powers  in  the 
civilized  or  Christian  world.  Spain,  Italy,  and  Greece  pass 
for  nothing — they  have  no  influence  in  the  progressive 
movements  of  mind,  are  no  longer  a  force  in  the  world's 
civilization.  They  are  not  wholly  dead  ;  but  so  far  as  they 
affect  other  peoples,  it  is  onl}^  by  the  thought  of  past  gene- 
rations, not  the  present.  I  pass  those  three  decaying 
nations  by,  and  look  at  the  live  peoples.  There  is  (1)  the 
Kussian  power — a  great  Slavic  people  holding  Mongolians 
in  subjection  ;  (2)  the  French  power — a  great  Celtic  people 
variously  crossed  with  Basque,  Roman,  and  Teutonic  tribes ; 
(3)  the  Grerman  power  —  a  great  Teutonic  people,  in  many 
nations  or  States,  with  Slavic  and  Celtic  elements  mixed 
in  ;  (4)  the  English  power — a  great  Saxon -Teutonic  people, 
with  Celtic  annexations ;  and  (5)  the  American  power — 

u2 


292  TITE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

a  great  English-Saxon-Teiitonic  people,  with  diverse  mix- 
tures from  the  rest  of  mankind.  All  the  four  act  on  the 
fifth,  and  influence  our  treatment  of  this  question  of 
Slaver^^ 

I.  Russia  is  mighty  by  itsv  ast  territory,  its  great  na- 
tural resources,  its  immense  population,  its  huge  army — 
appointed  and  commanded  well — its  strong  central  govern- 
ment, its  diplomatic  talent,  and  the  people's  ability  to  spread. 
The  Grovernment  is  despotic,  but  yet  one  of  the  most  pro- 
gressive in  Christendom       With  the  bondage  of  Africans, 
Russia  has  no  direct  concern  ;  she  has  much  to  do  with 
that  of  white  Caucasians.     She  is  rapidly  putting  an  end 
to  Slaverj^  in  her  own  borders.       Not  many  years  ago,  the 
late  emperor  Nicholas  emancipated  the  serfs  he  had  in- 
herited  as  his  own  private  property.     They  amounted  to 
more  than  7,500,000  men  ;  he  established  over  4000  schools 
for  the  education  of  their  children.     Alexander,  his  son, 
liad  not  been  in  the  imperial  seat  three  years  before  he 
published  a  decree  for  the  gradual  and  ultimate  emanci- 
pation of  all  the  serfs  in  the  empire.       Their  number  must 
exceed  the  entire  population  of  the  United  States.     Here 
is  the  decree,  dated  the  20th  of  last  November — the  2nd  of 
December  by  our  New  Style  calendar.     The  proprietors  of 
two  large  provinces — St.  Petersburg  and  Lithuania  (con- 
taining nearly  three  million  souls)  some  weeks  since  asked 
permission  to  emancipate  their  serfs  at  once.     Yesterday's 
steamer  brings  also  the  welcome  news  that  the  proprietors 
of  Nishni-Novogorod  have  just  done  the  same.      This  pro- 
vince is  as  large  as  Virginia,  with  a  population  of  1,500,000, 
and,  with  the  exception  of  the  capital  and  its  environs,  is 
the  richest  and  most  intellectual  part  of  the  empire.     It 
abounds  with  manufactories;  every  year,  300,000  strangers 
from  Asia  -and  elsewhere  trade  in  its  fairs.     You  would 
expect   the   most  enlightened  population  to  demand  the 
immediate  freedom  of  the  serfs.    Russia  has  become  an  ally 
on  our  side.      Her  example  favours  freedom.     So  you  will 
find  a  change  in  the    Southern  newspapers,   and   in  the 
American  Government,  which  they  direct  and  control.    In 
the  Crimean  war,  when  Russia  fought  for  injustice,  they 
sustained  her  as  the  ally  of  their  own  despotism,  and  fought 
against  England  as  their  foe.      All  that  will  soon  change  ; 
and  already  Southern  papers  denounce  the  enfranchisement 


OF    SLAVERY    IN  AMERICA.  293 

of  the  Russian  serf:  "The  example  is  dangerous  ;'^  "the 
condition  of  the  British  West  Indies,  and  of  Hayti,  might 
have  taught  Alexander  a  better  lesson." 

II.  The  French  are  powerful  through  the  character  of 
the  people — the  most  military  in  the  world — their  science, 
letters,  art,  the  high  civilization  of  the  land.      France  has 
had  a  long  and  sad  connection  with  African  Slavery.  Once 
she  was  the  most  cruel  of  cruel  masters.     In  her  first  Revo- 
lution, of  1789,  the  chain  was  broken,  but  its  severed  links 
united  again.     In  the  last  Eevolution,  of  1 848,  at  the  magic 
word  of  Lamartine,  expressing  the  revolutionary  thought 
of  the  people,  the  fetters  were  not  only  broken  off,  but  cast 
into  the  sea.      France,  for  a  moment,  was  the  ally  of  Free- 
dom— and   of  course  encountered  the  noisy  wrath  of  the 
Southern  States.     But  the   Celtic  French,  the  most  fickle 
people  in  the  world,  revolution  their  normal  State,  per- 
petually turning  round  and  round,  have  elected  a  tyrant 
for  their  master,  and  now  worship  the  Emperor.      He  has 
"  crushed  out  "  Freedom  from  the  French  press  as  com- 
pletely as  our  own  Mr.  Gushing  wished  to  do  in  America. 
The  new  tyrant  attempts  to  revive  the  African  slave  trade, 
and  has  already  made  arrangements  for  kidnapping  5,000 
savages  in  Africa,  and  sending  them  as  missionaries  to 
Christianize  the  West  Indies  !     What  will  come  of  this 
scheme,  I  know  not.     But  just  now  the  political  power  of 
France  is  hostile  to  Freedom   everyv/here.       When   the 
Emperor  has  padlocked  even  the  French  mouthy  no  wonder 
he  finds  it  easy  to  chain  the  negro's  hands,     No  doubt  the 
intellectual  and  moral  power  of  France  are  on  our  side  as 
before  ;  but  both  are  silent  and  of  no  avail.     The  French 
Emperor  is  the   "little  Napoleon"   of  the  African  slave 
trade.     Great  is  the  joy  thereat  in  the  Southern  States  : 
already  their  newspapers  glorify  the  "  profound  policy," 
"  the    wise   and   humane     statesmanship     of    the    great 
Emperor." 

"  A  fellow  feeling  makes  us  wondrous  kind." 

III.  The  Germans  are  of  our  blood  and  language — bone 
of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  flesh— with  the  same  blue  eyes, 
the  same  brown  hair  and  ruddy  cheek,  and  instinctive  love 
of  individuality.  The  people  which  began  the  civilization 
of  modern  times  by  inventing  the  Press,  and  originating 


294  THE    PRESENT    ASPECT 

the  Protestant  Keformation,  can  it  ever  be  false  to  Free- 
dom ?  Germany  acts  on  mankind  by  thongbt — by  great 
ideas.  What  France  is  for  war,  England  for  commerce, 
and  E-ussia  for  the  brute  power  of  men,  that  is  Germany 
for  thought.  The  Germans  have  had  connection  with 
African  Slavery,  but  have  ended  it.  Sweden  begun  the 
work  some  years  ago ;  then  Denmark  followed ;  now, 
within  the  last  few  months,  Holland  has  finished  it.  Here 
are  the  documents.  Soon  the  last  footsteps  of  German  op- 
pression will  be  covered  up  by  the  black  man  rejoicing  in 
his  freedom.  Though  their  rulers  are  often  tyrants,  our 
German  kinsfolk  are  on  our  side — God  bless  them ! 

TV.  England  has  great  influence  by  her  political  institu- 
tions, her  army  and  navy,  her  commerce  and  manufactures, 
her  power  of  practical  thought,  her  large  wealth,  her  mighty 
spread.  She  and  her  children  control  a  sixth  part  of  the 
globe,  and  nearly  a  fourth  part  of  its  people.  No  tribe  of 
men  has  done  such  service  for  Freedom  as  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
in  Britain  and  America.  England  has  had  connection  with 
African  Slavery,  her  hand  has  been  dyed  deep  in  the  negro's 
blood.  She  planted  Slavery  in  her  provinces  throughout 
the  continent  and  its  many  islands  ;  the  ocean  reeked  with 
the  foul  steam  of  her  slave-ships.  She  was  a  hard  master, 
and  men  died  by  millions  under  her  lash.  But  nobly  did  the 
dear  old  mother  put  this  wickedness  away.  She  abolished 
the  slave  trade,  making  it  piracy  ;  at  length,  she  repudiated 
Slavery  itself,  and  in  one  day  threw  into  the  sea  the  fetters 
of  800,000  men.  Well  did  Lord  Brougham  say — it  was 
"  the  greatest  triumph  ever  won  over  the  foulest  wrong  man 
ever  did  against  man.^^  England  need  not  boast  of  Agin- 
court,  Cressy,  Poitiers,  and  many  another  victorious  fight, 
at  Waterloo,  Sebastopol,  or  Delhi  ;  the  most  glorious  victory 
her  annals  record  was  achieved  on  the  1st  of  August,  in  the 
first  year  of  Victoria,  when  justice  triumphed  over  such 
giant  wrong.  Nobly  has  she  contended  against  the  slave 
trade,  rousing  the  tardy  conscience  of  Brazil,  and  not  quite 
vainly  galvanizing  Spain  into  some  show  of  humanity.  She 
has  shamed  even  the  American  Government — and  I  think 
we  have  a  sloop-of-war  on  the  African  coast,  which  we 
yearly  hear  of  in  the  annual  appropriation  bill ! 

But  this  nobleness  is  exceptional  even  in  England  ;  the 
world  had  seen  no  such  example  before.     That  emancipa- 


OF    SLAVERY    IN    AMERICA.  295 

tion  was  not  brouglit  about  by  the  privileged  class,  the 
royal  and  nobilitary,  who  officially  reign,  or  the  com- 
mercial class,  who  actually  govern  the  nation ;  but  by  the 
moral  class,  whose  conscience  stirred  the  people,  and  con- 
strained the  Government  to  do  so  just  a  deed.  Of  course  a 
reaction  must  follow.  We  see  its  effect  to-day.  There  is 
a  party  which  favours  African  Slavery.  Mr.  Carlyle  is  the 
heroic  representative  thereof.  Personally  amiable,  in  his 
ideas  he  is  the  Goliath  of  Slavery.  Just  now,  the  London 
Times  appears  to  favour  this  reactionary  movement,  and 
its  powerful  articles  are  reprinted  with  great  jubilation  in 
the  American  newspapers,  which  hate  England  because  they 
love  the  Slavery  which  she  has  hated  so  long.  There  is 
no  time  to  inquire  into  the  cause  of  this  reaction.  It 
affects  the  political  class,  and  still  more  certain  commercial 
classes  to  whom  "cotton  is  king."  Great  is  the  delight 
of  the  South  ;  the  slave  power  sings  Te  Deums  to  its  God. 
A  bill  was  before  the  Senate,  not  long  since,  appropriating 
<S3750  to  pay  the  masters  for  twelve  slaves  who  ran  away 
and  were  carried  off  by  the  British  in  the  war  of  1812, 
whom  the  captors,  even  then,  refused  to  deliver  up  to  "  de- 
mocratic bondage."  Mr.  Hale  opposed  the  bill,  because  it 
recognised  the  doctrine  that  there  may  be  property  in 
human  beings,  declaring  that  neither  by  vote  nor  by 
silence  would  he  ever  recognise  so  odious  and  false  a  doc- 
trine. Mr.  Seward  joined  in  the  opposition.  But  Mr. 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  Mason  came  to  the  rescue ;  and  after 
referring  to  the  anti-Slavery  opinions  of  the  British,  de- 
clared he  was  "gratified  to  see  those  opinions  are  rapidly 
undergoing  a  changed  What  signs  of  such  a  rapid  change 
he  may  have  seen,  I  know  not ;  nor  what  sympathies  witli 
the  slave  power  the  accomplished  British  minister,  new  in 
this  field,  m.ay  have  expressed  to  him :  "  Diplomacy  is  a 
silent  art."  But  I  think  Mr.  Mason  greatly  mistakes  the 
British  public,  if  he  believes  they  will  be  fickle  in  their 
love  of  right.  The  Anglo-Saxon  has  always  been  a  reso- 
lute tribe.  I  believe  John  Bull  is  the  most  obstinate  of 
all  national  animals.  When  his  instinctive  feelings  and 
his  reflective  conscience  command  the  same  thing,  depend 
upon  it  he  will  not  lack  the  will. 

There  may  have  been  a  change  in  the  British  Govern- 
ment,  though  I  doubt  it  much  ;   there  has  been  in  the 


296  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

London  Times.  In  the  ''  cotton  lords/'  I  take  it,  there  is 
no  alteration  of  doctrine,  only  an  utterance  of  what  they 
have  long  thought.  The  opinion  of  the  British  people,  I 
think,  has  only  changed  to  a  yet  greater  hatred  against 
Slavery.  The  anti-Slavery  party  in  England  has  immense 
power — not  so  much  by  its  numbers,  or  its  wealth,  as  by 
its  intelligence,  and  still  more  by  that  justice  which,  in 
the  long  run  of  time,  is  always  sure  of  the  victory.  At 
the  head  of  this  party  I  must  place  Lord  Brougham,  now 
drawing  near  the  end  of  a  long  and  most  laborious  life, 
not  without  its  eccentricities,  but  mainly  devoted  to  the 
highest  interests  of  the  human  race.  Within  the  four  seas 
of  Britain,  I  think  there  lives  no  man  who  has  done  so 
much  to  proclaim  ideas  of  justice  and  humanity,  and  to 
diffuse  them  among  the  people.  If  he  could  not  oftener 
organize  them  into  law,  it  was  because  he  took  too  long  a 
step  in  advance  of  public  opinion  ;  and  he  that  would  lead 
a  child  must  always  keep  hold  of  its  hand.  Nearly  fifty 
years  ago  (June  14,  1810)  he  fought  against  the  slave 
trade,  and  drew  on  him  the  wrath  of  men  "  who  live  by 
treachery,  rapine,  torture,  and  murder,  and  are  habitually 
practising  the  worst  of  crimes  for  the  worst  of  purposes." 
Long  ago  he  declared — ''  There  is  a  law  above  all  the  enact- 
ments of  human  codes — the  same  throughout  the  world,  the 
same  in  all  times;  it  is  the  law  written  by  the  linger  of 
God  on  the  heart  of  man ;  and  by  that  law,  unchangeable 
and  eternal,  while  men  despise  fraud,  and  loathe  rapine, 
and  abhor  blood,  they  will  reject  the  wild  and  guilty 
phantasy  that  man  can  hold  property  in  man."  When 
the  little  tyrant  of  France  revives  the  slave  trade,  the 
great  champion  of  human  right  roused  him  once  more  for 
battle,  and  the  British  Government  has  taken  the  affair 
in  hand.  The  British  love  of  justice  will  triumph  in  this 
contest.  Wliy,  the  history  of  England  is  pledged  as  se- 
curity therefore. 

Such  to-day  is  the  opinion  of  the  four  great  nations  of 
Christian  Europe.  What  if  the  despotic  power  of  the 
French  Emperor  be  against  us ;  what  if,  for  a  moment,  the 
cotton  lords  of  England  lead  a  few  writers  and  politicians 
to  attempt  the  restoration  of  bondage ;  the  conscience  of 
England  and  her  history,  the  intelligence  of  France  and 
Germany,  the  example  of  Russia  are  on  our  side.     \^es, 


OF    SLAVERY   IN   AMERICA.  207 

the  teachings  of  universal  human  history.  All  these  come 
with  their  accumulated  force  to  help  the  moral  feeling  of 
America  sustain  the  rights  of  man. 

The  American  Government  has  long  been  on  the  side  of 
Slavery.  The  present  administration  is  more  openly  hostile 
to  Freedom  than  any  of  its  predecessors.  Mr.  Buchanan  is 
no  doubt  weak  and  infatuated,  strong  only  in  his  wrong- 
headedness  ;  his  cabinet  is  palsied  with  Slavery.  But  he 
has  done  one  service  which  was  thought  hopelessly  diffi- 
cult,— he  has  already  made  President  Pierce's  administra- 
tion respectable.  We  complain  of  the  New  Hampshire 
general,  but  the  little  finger  of  Buchanan's  left  hand  is 
thicker  than  Pierce's  whole  loins. 

Since  we  met  last  the  Federal  Government  has  com- 
mitted two  outrages  more. 

I.  The  first  is  the  Bred  Scott  decision.  The  Supreme 
Court  is  only  the  dirty  mouth  of  the  slave  power,  its  chief 
function  to  belch  forth  iniquity,  and  name  it  law.  Of  the 
decision  itself,  I  need  not  speak.  It  is  the  political  opinion 
of  seven  partisans  appointed  to  do  ofiiicially  that  wicked- 
ness which  their  personal  nature  also  no  doubt  inclined 
them  to.  That  Court  went  a  little  beyond  itself, — out- 
Heroding  Herod. 

Two  Northern  judges,  only  two,  McLean  and  Curtis, 
opposed  the  wrong.  I  think  nobody  will  accuse  me  of  any 
personal  prejudice  in  favour  of  Judge  Curtis,  or  any  undue 
partiality  towards  him.  His  conduct  on  other  and  trying 
occasions  has  been  justly  condemned  on  the  an ti- Slavery 
platform,  and  is  not  likely  to  be  soon  forgot,  nor  should  it 
ever  be.  But  I  should  do  great  injustice  to  you  and  him, 
and  still  more  to  my  own  feelings,  if  I  let  this  occasion 
pass  without  a  word  of  honest  and  hearty  praise  of  that 
able  lawyer  and  strong-minded  man.  He  opposed  the 
*'  decision,"  with  but  a  single  Northern  judge  to  support 
him,  with  two  Northern  judges  to  throw  technical  diffi- 
culties in  his  way  and  oppose  him  by  coward  treachery, 
with  five  Southern  judges  openly  attacking  and  brow- 
beating him,  with  both  the  outgoing  and  incoming  admi- 
nistration to  oppress  and  mock  at  him,  with  subtle  and 
treacherous  advisers  at  home  to  beguile  his  steps  and 
watch  for  his  halting,  did  Judge  Cui'tis  stand  up  at  Wash- 


298  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT 

ington,  amid  tliose  corrupt  and  wicked  judges,  and  in  the 
name  of  history  which  they  falsified,  of  law  which  they 
profaned,  of  justice  which  they  mocked  at,  with  a  manli- 
ness which  Story  never  showed  on  such  occasions,  he  pro- 
nounced his  sentence  against  the  wicked  Court.  I  re- 
member his  former  conduct  with  indignation  and  with 
shame ;  but  no  blackness  of  the  old  record  shall  prevent 
me  from  turning  over  a  new  leaf,  and  with  golden  letters 
writing  there — In  the  Supreme  Court  Judge  Curtis  de- 
fended ONCE  THE  higher  LAVS^  OF  RIGHT. 

I  am  truly  sorry  his  manhood  did  not  staj^  by  him  and 
continue  his  presence  in  that  Court.  The  defence  of  his 
resignation  is  found  in  the  inadequacy  of  the  salary.  It 
was  .^4500  when  he  took  it,  .^6000  when  he  left  it.  A 
pitiful  reason — by  no  means  the  true  one.  Samuel  Adams 
was  a  poor  man ;  I  do  not  think  he  would  have  left  his 
seat  in  the  revolutionary  Congress  because  more  money 
could  be  made  by  the  cod- fishery  or  by  privateering. 

II.  The  Dred  Scott  decision  was  the  first  enormity.  The 
next  is  Gfeneral  Walker's  filibustering  expedition.  I  re- 
gard this  as  the  act  of  the  Government.  "  AVhat  you  do 
hj  another,  you  do  also  by  yourself,"  is  a  maxim  older 
than  the  Roman  law  which  preserves  it.  I  am  not  inclined 
generally  to  place  much  confidence  in  Walker's  word,  but 
he  sometimes  tells  the  truth.  In  a  recent  speech  at  Mobile, 
he  says  he  had  an  interview  with  the  President,  last  sum- 
mer, and  declared  his  intention  of  returning  to  Nicaragua: 
his  (filibustering)  letter  was  published  with  the  President's 
consent.  A  member  of  the  cabinet  sought  a  confidential 
interview  with  him,  told  him  where  he  might  go  with 
safety,  where  only  with  danger  ;  and  added,  "  You  will 
probably  sail  in  an  American  vessel,  under  the  American 
flag.  After  you  have  passed  American  limits,  no  one  can 
touch  you  but  by  consent  of  this  Government."  A  cabinet 
minister  told  one  of  Walker's  friends,  if  he  made  an  alli- 
ance with  Mexico,  and  attempted  the  conquest  of  Cuba, 
*'  means  shall  not  be  lacking  to  carry  out  the  enterprise.'^ 
Walker  says  the  Government  arrested  him,  not  because  he 
attacked  Nicaragua,  but  because  he  did  not  attack  Mexico ! 
I  hold  the  Federal  Government  responsible  alike  for  the 
conduct  of  Walker  and  the  Supreme  Court. 

But  omitting  particidars,  looking  oidy  at  the  general 


OF    SLAVERY    IN   AMEHICa'".  299 

course  of  tlie  Government,  you  find  it  favours  Slavery  with 
continued  increase  of  intensity.  Let  not  this  rest  on  my 
testimony  alone,  or  your  judgment.  Here  is  "An  Address 
delivered  before  the  Euphemian  and  Philomathean  Literary 
Societies  of  Erskine  College,  at  the  Annual  Commence- 
ment, Wednesday,  August  12th,  1857,  by  Richard  Yeadon, 
Esq.,  of  Charleston,  S.  C."  Mr.  Yeadon  is  a  representative 
man,  editor  of  the  Charleston  Courier,  and  a  staunch 
defender  of  the  peculiar  institution.  He  tells  us  he  comes 
"  rather  to  sow  the  good  seed  of  truth,  than  to  affect  the 
arts  or  graces  of  oratory ;  to  teach  the  lessons  of  history, 
and  impress  the  deductions  of  reason,  than  to  twine  the 
garlands  of  science,  or  strew  the  roses  of  literature  ;"  he 
would  "  combine  the  didactic  in  large  measure  with  the 
rhetorical.''  He  discusses  the  character  of  the  Federal 
Grovernment  and  its  relation  to  Slavery,  "  on  which  rest 
the  pillars  of  the  great  social  fabric  of  the  South."  He 
attempts  to  show  that  the  Constitution  was  so  framed  as  to 
uphold  Slavery  and  check  Freedom ;  and  that  the  Federal 
Government  has  carried  out  the  plan  with  such  admirable 
vigour,  that  now  Slavery  can  stand  by  its  own  strength. 
But  you  must  have  his  own  words  : — 

"  The  new  Constitution  not  only  recognised,  sanctioned,  and  guaran- 
teed it  [Slavery]  as  a  State  institution,  sacred  within  State  limits  from 
Federal  invasion  or  interference,  but  also  so  far  as  to  foster  and  ex- 
pand it,  by  Federal  protection  and  agency,  wherever  it  was  legalized, 
within  State  or  territorial  limits ;  to  uphold  it  by  Federal  power, 
and  the  Federal  arm  against  domestic  violence  or  foreign  invasion ; 
and,  to  make  it  an  element  of  Federal  organization  and  existence,  by 
adopting  it  as  a  basis  of  Federal  representation,  and  a  source  of  Federal 
revenue." 

"  From  that  day  to  this,  the  institution  of  domestic  Slavery,  within 
the  several  States,  has  been  regarded  and  held  sacred  as  a  reserved  right, 
exclusively  within  State  jurisdiction  and  beyond  the  constitutional  power 
of  Congress  or  of  the  general  Government,  except  for  guarantee,  protec- 
tion, and.  defence  ;  it  being  one  and  the  chief  of  those  '  particular  inter- 
ests* which  the  Convention  had.  in  view,  as  enhancing  the  difficulty  of 
their  woi'k." 

"  The  general  Government  and  the  co-States  are  bound  by  constitutional 
duty  and  Federal  comiDact  to  uphold  and  defend  the  institution,  where- 
ever  it  lawfully  exists,  in  any  of  the  States." 

*'  Indeed,  so  unquestionable  is  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  State  sove- 
reignty, except  in  the  way  of  guarantee  and  protection,  over  the  institu- 
tion of  Slavery  within  State  limits,  that  even  the  high-priest  and  arch- 
fiend of  political  free-soilism,  William  H.  Seward,  in  his  speech  in  Con- 
gress, on  the  admission  of  California  into  the  Union,  thus  conceded  it— 
'No  free  State  claims  to  extend  its  legislation  into  a  slave  State.     None 


300  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

claims  that  Congress  shall  usiirp  power  to  abolish  Slavery  in  the  slave 
States  ;'  and  the  wildest  fanatics  of  abolitionism,  of  the  Parker  and  Gar- 
rison school,  acknowledge  that  their  atrocious  crusade  against  the  South 
can  only  achieve  its  unhallowed  aims  by  trampling  as  well  on  the  Consti- 
tution of  their  country,  as  on  the  oracles  of  God." 

He  has  admiration  for  one  Nortliern  man  wlio  has  been 
remarkably  faithful  to  the  ideas  and  plans  of  the  slave 
power.  He  says  it  is  the  duty  of  the  General  Government 
to  protect  Slavery  by  suppressing  insurrectionary  move- 
ments, or  attempts  at  domestic  violence,  and  to  turn  out 
the  whole  force  of  the  Kepublic,  regular  and  militia  : — 

"  It  was  in  contemplation  of  such  a  contingency,  such  a  casus  fcederis, 
that  the  eloquent,  accomplished,  and  gifted  Everett  (now  dedicating  his 
extraordinary  powers  of  composition  and  elocution,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  8outlicrn  Matron,  a  patriot  daughter  of  the  Palmetto  State,  to  the 
purchase  and  consecration  of  the  home  and  the  grave  of  Washington,  as 
the  Mecca  of  America),  in  his  maiden  speech  as  the  representative  in 
Congress  of  the  city  of  Boston,  in  1826,  then  fresh  from  the  pulpit,  in 
honourable  contrast  with  the  dastardly  Sumners  and  bullying  Burlingames 
of  the  present  day,  thus  patriotically  and  fervently  spoke — '  Sir,  T  am  no 
soldier.  My  habits  and  education  are  very  unmilitary  ;  but  there  is  no 
cause  in  which  I  would  sooner  buckle  a  knapsack  on  my  back,  and  put  a 
musket  on  my  shoulder,  than  that  of  putting  down  a  servile  insurrectioa 
in  the  South.'  " 

The  newspapers  say,  with  exquisite  truth,  that  Mr. 
Everett  is  "  the  monarch  of  the  platform,"  the  ^'  greatest 
literary  ornament  of  the  entire  continent  of  America."  So 
he  is  :  but  to  Mr.  Yeadon,  he  is  also  a  great  hero,  the  iron 
man  of  courage,  unlike  the  ^^  dastardly  Sumners,"  and 
^'tJie  dishonoured  and  perjured  miscreants,  Seward,  Sumners, 
et  id  omne  genus,  who  advocated  the  ^  higher  law  doc- 
trine.' " 

He  thus  sums  up  the  whole  of  our  history : — 

"  The  American  Union  .  .  .  has  been  the  great  bulwark  of  .  .  , 
Southern  Slavery,  and  has,  in  fact,  nursed  and  fostered  it,  from  a  feeble 
and  rickety  infancy,  into  a  giant  manhood  and  maturity,  and  self  sustain- 
ing power,  able  to  maintain  itself  either  in  the  Union  or  out  of  the  Union, 
as  may  best  comport  with  the  future  policy  and  welfare  of  the  Southern 
States." 

"  Finally,  to  crown  all,  comes,  in  august  majesty,  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Judicatory  of  the  United  States  in  the  case  of  Dred  Scott,  pro- 
nouncing the  Missouri  restriction  unconstitutional,  null  and  void,  and 
declaring  all  teri'itorics  of  the  Union,  present  and  future,  when  acquirt^d 
by  purchase  or  conquest,  by  common  treasure  or  common  blood,  to  bo 
held  by  the  General  Government,  as  a  trustee  for  the  common  benefit  of 
all  the  States,  and  open  to  every  occupancy  and  residonce  of  the  citizens 


OF    SLAVERY   IN   AMEUICA.  301 

of  every  State,  with  their  property  of  every  description,  including  slaves 
reposing  under  the  aegis  of  the  Constitution." 

"  The  cheering  result,  then,  is,  that  the  Southern  States  stand  now  on 
stronger  and  higher  ground  than  at  any  previous  period  of  our  history ; 
and  this,  under  the  progressive  and  constitutional  action  of  the  General 
Government,  blotting  out  invidious  lines,  establishing  the  broad  platform 
of  State  equality,  demolishing  squatter  sovereignty,  retrieving  the  errors 
of  the  past,  and  furnishing  new  securities  for  the  future." 

"The  number  of  slave-holding  States  has  been  increased  to  fifteen, 
out  of  an  aggregate  of  thirty-one  States,  with  a  fair  prospect  of  further 
increase  in  Texas,  and  in  other  territory,  acquired  or  to  be  acquired  from 
Mexico,  in  the  Carribean  Sea,  and  still  further  south." 

The  slave  States,  lie  says,  no  longer  ^^  conceding  domestic 
Slavery  to  be  a  '  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,'  any  more 
than  any  other  system  of  menial  and  praedial  labour,  but 
able  .  .  to  defend  it  as  consistent  with  scriptural  teachings, 
and  as  an  ordinance  of  Jehovah  for  the  culture  and  welfare 
of  the  staple  States,  and  the  civilization  and  Christianiza- 
tion  of  the  African."  To  them  he  says,  "  Cotton  is  king, 
and  destined  to  rule  the  nations  with  imperial  sway/' 

The  slave-holders  feel  stronger  than  ever  before.  This 
privileged  class,  the  "  Nobility  of  Democracy,''  counts  only 
350,000  in  all.  Feeble  in  numbers,  the  slave  power  is 
strong  in  position — holding  the  great  federal  offices,  judicial, 
executive,  and  military,  stronger  in  purpose  and  in  will. 
*'  The  hope,  the  courage  of  assailants,  is  always  greater 
than  that  of  those  who  act  merely  on  the  defensive."  At 
the  South,  it  rules  the  non -slaveholders,  as  at  the  North  it 
has  had  also  the  Democratic  party  under  its  thumb.  There 
is  a  secret  article  in  the  creed  of  that  party  which  demands 
unconditional  submission  to  the  infallibility  of  the  negro- 
driver.  Senator  Toombs  has  no  slaves  in  Georgia  who 
yield  to  his  will  more  submissively  than  to  the  whim  of 
the  Southern  master  crouches  Hon.  Mr.  Gushing,  whose 
large  intellectual  talents,  great  attainments,  and  consum- 
mate political  art,  in  this  hall,  so  fitly  represent  the  town 
of  Newburj^port.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  Northern  Demo- 
cratic party  that  it  has  been  the  most  cringeing  slave  to 
the  haughtiest  and  unworthiest  master  in  the  world.  All 
individuality  seemed  "  crushed  out,"  to  use  Mr.  Cushing's 
own  happy  phrase.  Within  eight  months  every  Northern 
State  has  had  a  State  Democratic  Convention,  each  of 
which  has  passed  resolutions  endorsing  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision.    This  act  implies  no  individuality,  of  thought  or 


302  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

of  will.  The  Southern  master  gave  command  to  each 
Northern  squad  of  Democrats — "Make  ready  your  reso- 
lutions in  support  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  ! "  They 
"  make  ready."  "  Consider  resolutions  !  "  They  "  con- 
sider."    "  Vote  aye  ! "     They  "  vote  aye." 

The  slave  power,  thus  controlKng  the  slaves  and  slave- 
holders at  the  South,  and  the  Democratic  party  at  the 
INTorth,  easily  manages  the  Government  at  Washington. 
The  Federal  officers  are  marked  with  different  stripes — 
"Whig,  Democrat,  and  so  on.  They  are  all  owned  by  the 
same  master,  and  lick  the  same  hand.  So  it  controls  the 
nation.  It  silences  the  great  sects,  Trinitarian,  Unitarian, 
NuUitarian  :  the  chief  ministers  of  this  American  Church — 
threefold  in  denominations,  one  in  nature — have  naught  to 
say  against  Slavery;  the  Tract  Society  dares  not  rebuke 
the  "sum  of  all  villanies,"  the  Bible  Society  has  no 
"  Word  of  God"  for  the  slave,  the  "  revealed  religion"  is 
not  revealed  to  him.  Writers  of  school-books  "  remember 
the  hand  that  feeds  them,"  and  venture  no  word  against 
the  national  crime  which  threatens  to  become  also  the 
national  ruin.  In  no  nation  on  earth  is  there  such  social 
tyranny  of  opinion.  In  Russia,  Prussia,  Austria,  France, 
Italy,  and  Spain,  the  despotic  bayonet  has  pinned  the  public 
lips  together.  The  Democratic  hands  of  America  have 
sewed  up  her  o^\ti  mouth  with  an  iron  thread — that  and 
fetters  are  the  only  product  of  the  Southern  mine.  In 
Washington  not  a  man  in  the  meanest  office  dares  open 
his  lips  against  the  monster  which  threatens  to  devour  his 
babies  and  his  wife.  Xo  doctor  allows  himself  a  word  against 
that  tyrant — his  business  would  forsake  him  if  he  did.  In 
Southern  States,  this  despotism  drives  off  all  outspoken  men. 
Mr.  Underwood,  of  Yirgina,  made  a  speech  against  the 
extension  of  Slavery  into  Kansas, — he  must  take  his  life  in 
his  hand,  and  flee  from  his  native  State.  Mr.  Helper,  of 
I^orth  Carolina,  writes  a  brave,  noble  book,  ciphering  out 
the  results  of  freedom  and  of  bondage, — even  North  Caro- 
lina is  too  hot  to  hold  him.  Mr.  Strickland,  at  Mobile,  sells 
now  and  then  an  anti-Slavery  book, — the  great  State  of  Ala- 
bama drives  him  out,  scares  off  his  wife,  and  will  not  allow 
him  to  collect  his  honest  debts  !  At  the  North,  you  know 
the  disposition  of  men  who  hold  office  from  the  Federal 
Government,  or  who  seek  and  expect  it  :  the  Federal  hand 


OF    SLAVERY   IN   AMlERICA.  303 

is  raised  to  strangle  Democracy.  They  never  give  the  alarm : 
it  would  be  to  "  strike  the  hand  that  feeds  them.!'  Nay,  they 
crouch  down  and  "  lick  the  hand  just  raised  to  shed  our 
blood."  Even  at  Washington,  Slavery  has  sewed  up  the 
delegated  Northern  mouth,  else  so  noisy  once.  It  is  nearly 
two  years  since  a  Southern  bulty,  a  representative  man  of 
South  Carolina,  stole  upon  our  great  senator,  with  coward 
blows  felled  him  to  the  ground,  and  with  his  bludgeon  beat 
the  stunned  and  unconscious  man.  He  meant  to  ''  silence 
agitation  :"  he  did  his  work  too  well.  Excepting  the  dis- 
cussion which  followed  that  outrage,  do  you  remember  an 
anti- Slavery  speech  in  the  Senate  since  Charles  Sumners', 
in  May  1856  ?  Can  you  think  of  one  in  the  House  ?  If 
such  have  been  spoken,  I  have  not  heard  either,  though  I 
have  Kstened  all  the  time.  Now  and  then  some  one  has 
made  an  apology  for  the  North,  promising  not  to  touch 
Slavery  in  the  part  most  woundable.  But  I  believe  there 
has  been  no  manly  anti-Slavery  speech  in  House  or  Senate 
till  Mr.  Hale  broke  the  silence  with  a  noble  word.  The 
slave  power  dealt  the  blows  upon  one  Northern  man,  and 
nearly  silenced  all  the  rest  !  "  The  safer  part  of  valour  is 
discretion  ! "  The  South  has  many  slaves  not  counted  in 
the  census.     Ought  they  to  represent  the  North  ? 

The  slave  power  is  conscious  of  strength,  and  sure  of 
victor}^  It  never  felt  so  strong  before.  Look  at  this  :  the 
Treasury  Department  has  just  instructed  the  collectors  not 
to  permit  a  free  negro  to  act  as  master  of  a  vessel, — he  is 
not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  !  See  what  the  Southern 
States  are  doing.  A  bill  has  been  reported  in  the  Senate 
of  Louisiana,  authorizing  that  State  to  import  five  thousand 
African  slaves.  If  it  becomes  a  law  the  Government  will 
not  prevent  the  act ;  our  worst  enemy,  the  Supreme  Court, 
is  ready  to  declare  unconstitutional  the  law  which  forbids 
the  African  slave  trade.  The  South  may  import  as  many 
slaves  as  she  likes  ;  the  Government  is  for  her  wickedness, 
not  against  that — only  against  justice  and  the  unalienable 
rights  of  man.  Another  bill  is  pending  before  the  Vir- 
ginia Legislature  to  banish  or  enslave  all  the  75,000  free 
coloured  persons  in  that  State,  where  more  than  one  Presi- 
dent has  been  the  father  of  a  mulatto  woman's  child.  The 
law  to  enslave  them  all  may  pass  ;  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment cares  nothing  about  it.     African  Hachel  may  mourn 


804  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

in  vain  for  her  first-born,  and  refuse  to  be  comforted,  be- 
cause the  Virginian  Jacob  chains  the  parti- coloured  Joseph 
that  she  bore  to  hiin ;  let  her  mourn  !  What  does  the  Federal 
Herod  care  that  in  all  Virginia  there  is  a  voice  heard  of 
lamentation,  and  weeping,  and  great  mourning  from  the 
poor  Eachel  of  Africa  ? 

Stronger  than  ever  before,  at  least  in  fancy,  and  yet 
more  truly  impudent  than  fancied  strong,  the  slave  power 
proposes  two  immediate  measures  : — 

I.  To  pass  the  Lecompton  Constitution  through  Con- 
gress, and  force  Slavery  into  the  laws  of  Kansas,  against 
the  oft-repeated  vote  of  the  people. 

II.  To  add  seven  thousand  men  to  the  standing  army  of 
the  United  States.  They  are  nominally  to  put  down  the 
polygamous  Mormons  in  tJtah — Satan  contradicting  the  lies 
he  is  the  father  of! — but  really  to  support  the  more  grossly 
potygamous  slave-holders  ;  to  force  the  Lecompton  Consti- 
tution upon  Kansas  with  the  bayonet;  in  all  the  North, 
to  execute  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision, already  made,  and  the  Lemmon  decision,  about  to  be 
made,  and  establish  Slavery  in  each  free  State  ;  and  also  to 
put  down  any  insurrection  of  the  coloured  people  at  the 
South.  The  Mormons  are  the  pretence  no  more;  the 
army  is  raised  against  the  Democracy  of  Massachusetts, 
not  the  Polygamy  of  Utah. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen^  both  of  these  measures  will  pass 
the  Senate,  pass  the  House.  If  it  were  the  end  of  a  pre- 
sidential term,  I  should  expect  they  would  be  defeated. 
But  men  worship  the  rising  sun,  not  the  setting,  who  has  no 
more  golden  light  for  them.  A  Boston  merchant,  with  but 
^87,000,  could  bribe  men  enough  to  pass  his  tariff  bill ! 
The  new  Presiden,  the  has  more  than  ^87,000,000 — offices 
for  three  years  to  come.  The  addition  to  the  army  wiU  cost 
at  least  ^'5,000,000  a  year,  and  the  patronage  that  gives 
will  command  votes  enough.  I  know  how  tender  are  the 
feelings  of  Congress  ;  I  know  how  politicians  reject  with 
scorn  the  idea  that  money  or  office  could  alter  their  vote  ; 
but  we  all  know  that  a  President,  his  pocket  full  of  public 
money,  his  hands  full  of  offices,  can  buy  votes  of  honourable 
senators  and  honourable  representatives  just  as  readily  as 
you  can  buy  pea-nuts  of  the  huckster  down  stairs.  I  need 
not  go  from  this  hall,  or  its  eastern  neighbour,  I  need  not 


OF    SLAVERY   IN   AMERICA.  305 

go  back  seven  years  to  find  honourable  members  of  the 
*'  Great  and  General  Court  of  Massachusetts"  who  were 
bought  with  a  price.  I  shall  tell  no  names,  though  I  know 
them  only  too  well.  Peter  did  repent  and  Judas  may — I 
will  give  him  a  chance.  I  expect,  therefore,  that  both 
these  measures  will  pass.  Then  you  will  find  the  Northern 
"Democracy"  supporting  them;  future  conventions  wiU. 
ring  with  resolutions  in  favour  of  the  Lecompton  Conven- 
tion, and  A  GREAT  STANDING  ARMY  will  be  ouc  of  the  acknow- 
ledged "principles"  of  the  Democratic  party — a  toast  on 
Independence  Day. 

When  the  two  immediate  measures  are  disposed  of,  there 
are  three  others  a  little  more  remote,  which  are  likewise  to 
be  passed  upon. 

I.  The  first  is  to  establish  Slavery  in  all  the  Northern 
States — the  Dred  Scott  decision  has  already  put  it  in  all 
the  territories.  The  Supreme  Court  will  make  a  decision 
in  the  Lemmon  case,  and  authorize  any  one  of  the  Southern 
masters  of  the  North  to  bring  his  slaves  to  any  Northern 
State,  and  keep  them  as  long  as  he  pleases.  Coloured  men 
"  have  no  rights  which  white  men  are  bound  to  respect" — 
so  says  the  Supreme  Court,  which  is  greater  than  the 
Constitution ;  and  if  that  be  true  generally,  everywhere, 
then  it  will  be  true  specially  in  Massachusetts.  I  have 
no  doubt  the  Supreme  Court  will  make  the  decision.  We 
have  no  Judge  Curtis  to  sit  in  that  Court,  and  give  his 
verdict  for  law  and  justice  ;  his  place  is  occupied  by  Hon. 
Nathan  Clifford — a  very  difierent  man,  if  I  am  rightly 
informed.  When  his  nomination  was  before  the  Senate, 
Mr.  Hale  opposed  it,  and  said  Mr.  Clifibrd  was  not  reckoned 
a  first  class  lawyer  in  his  own  district — which  comprises 
the  greater  part  of  New  England  ;  nor  in  his  own  State — 
the  State  of  Maine ;  nor  in  his  own  country ;  nor  even  in 
his  own  town ! 

Then,  after  Mr.  Hale  had  reduced  this  vulgar  frac- 
tion of  law  to  his  lowest  terms,  the  Senate  added  it  to 
the  sum  of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  is  strong  enough  for 
his  function — to  create  new  law  for  Slavery.  His  appoint- 
ment must  needs  cause  a  judgment  against  him,  but  let  us 
give  him  a  fair  trial.  When  the  Court  has  given  the 
expected  decision  in  the  Lemmon  case,  then  this  new 
article  will  be  voted  into  the  apostolic  creed  of  the  Demo- 

VOL.    VI.  X 


306  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

cratic  party,  published  by  authority,  and  appointed  to  be 
read  in  caucuses  and  conventions.  It  may  be  "  said  or 
sung,"  as  follows : — *'  I  believe  in  tlie  Fugitive  Bill ;  I 
believe  in  tlie  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill ;  I  believe  in  the  Dred 
Scott  decision ;  I  believe  in  the  Lemmon  decision.  As  it 
was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world 
without  end.     Amen." 

II.  The  next  measure  is  to  conquer  Mexico,  Central  Ame- 
rica, and  all  the  Northern  Continent  down  to  the  Isthmus ; 
to  conquer  Cuba,  Hayti,  Jamaica,  all  the  West  India  Islands, 
and  establish  Slavery  there.  This  conquest  of  the  Islands 
might  seem  rather  a  difficult  work — it  might  require  some 
fighting;  but  the  late  Hon.  Senator  Butler,  of  South  Carolina, 
was  very  confident  it  would  be  done.  You  remember  how 
he  spoke  of  those  islands  in  a  rambling  speech  that  he  once 
made,  which  was  truth-telling,  because  drmiken.  You  smile ; 
but  if  in  vino  ve7'itas  be  good  Latin,  a  fortiori  is  it  good 
American  to  say,  there  is  more  truth  in  tuhisky,  which  is 
stronger?  In  one  of  his  fits  of  ^' loose  expectoration,"  that 
distinguished  senator,  a  representatiA^e  man,  like  Bully 
Brooks,  instantial  and  typical  of  his  State,  spoke  of  "our 
Southern  Islands,"  meaning  Cuba,  San  Domingo,  Jamaica, 
Trinidad,  St.  Thomas^  and  the  rest.  He  called  them  our 
islands,  not  that  they  were  so  then,  or  because  he  had  any 
personal  knowledge  that  they  ever  would  be;  but  "  being  in 
the  spirit"  (of  Slavery),  and  the  spirit  (of  whisky)  being 
also  in  him — imperium  in  imperio — by  this  twofold  inspira- 
tion (of  Slavery  from  without  and  whisky  from  within),  and 
from  this  double  consciousness  (out  of  the  abundance  of 
the  stomach  the  mouth  also  speaking),  he  prophesied  (this 
medium  of  two  spirits),  not  knowing  what  he  said. 

That  is  the  second  measure, — to  re- annex  the  West 
Indies  and  the  Continent. 

III.  The  third  measure  is  to  restore  the  African  slave 
trade.  Now  and  then  the  South  puts  forth  a  feeler,  to  try 
the  weather ;  the  further  South  you  go  the  more  boldly  are 
the  feelers  put  out.  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  seem 
ready  for  this  measure  ;  and  of  course  the  Supreme  Court 
is  ready.  You  must  not  be  surprised  if  yet  another  article 
be  added  to  the  Democratic  creed,  and  we  hear  Mr.  Cushing 
deacon  off  this  new  Litany  of  Despotism^  with — "  I  believe 
in  the  African  Slave  Trade." 


OF    SLAVERY   IN   AMERICA.  307 

To  carry  all  these  measures,  tlie  slave  power  depends  on 
tlie  Federal  Government.  But  it  never  pesters  tlie  Govern- 
ment with,  petitions  on  paper ;  it  sends  its  petitions  in  boots. 
They  are  not  referred  to  Committees  in  House  or  Senate  ; 
the  petitions  in  boots  are  themselves  the  Committee  of 
House  and  Senate.  Gentlemen,  the  slave  power  has  got 
the  Federal  Government,  especially  the  Supreme  Court — a 
constant  power. 

It  relies  also  on  the  Democratic  party  North  for  its  aid  in 
this  destruction  of  Democracy.  Gentlemen,  it  has  got  that 
party — will  it  keep  it  ?  Heretofore  the  two  have  seemed 
united,  not  for  better  but  for  worse,  '*  so  long  as  they  both 
do  live.''  Witness  the  arguments  of  Mr.  dishing,  yester- 
day, in  this  hall,  against  the  personal  liberty  law ;  and  he 
faithfully  and  consistently  represents  the  Northern  Demo- 
cratic party  as  it  was. 

The  slave  power  depends  on  the  four  great  commercial 
cities  of  the  North — Cincinnati,  Philadelphia,  New  York, 
and  Boston.  Gentlemen,  it  has  the  support  of  these  four 
cities,  and  will  continue  to  have  it  for  some  time  to  come. 
If  the  two  immediate  and  the  three  remote  aggressive 
measures  I  have  just  mentioned  were  to  be  passed  on  by 
the  voters  of  these  four  towns,  I  think  they  would  vote  as 
the  slave  power  told  them.  They  did  so  for  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill,  for  the  Kansas- Nebraska  Bill ; — they  will  vote 
for  the  Lecompton  Bill,  the  Army  Bill ;  and  when  their 
help  is  wanted  for  the  Americanization  of  the  rest  of  the 
continent,  by  filibustering ;  for  the  Southernization  of  the 
North,  by  the  Lemmon  decision  ;  for  the  Africanization  of 
America,  by  restoring  the  African  slave  trade,  they  will 
do  as  they  are  bid. 

If  these  five  measures  were  left  to  the  voters  of  Boston 
alone,  the  result  might  be  doubtful, — nay,  I  think  it  would 
be  adverse  to  the  South.  But  look  at  the  matter  a  little 
more  nicely.  Divide  the  Boston  voters  into  four  classes  : — 
the  rich — men  worth  S100,000  or  more  ;  the  educated — 
men  with  such  culture  as  pupils  get  at  tolerable  colleges ; 
the  poor — the  Irish,  and  all  men  worth  but  .S400  or  less ; 
the  middling  class — the  rest  of  the  male  citizens.  If  the 
question  were  submitted  to  the  first  three,  I  make  no  doubt 
the  vote  would  be  for  the  South,  for  the  destruction  of 
Democracy.     The  educated  and  the  poor  would  do  as  the 

X  2 


308  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

rich  commanded  them — they  would  not  "  strike  the  hand 
that  feeds  them/'  for  they  know  how 

"  To  crook  the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee, 
Where  thrift  may  follow  fawning." 

I  speak  of  the  general  rule,  and  do  honour  to  the  excep- 
tions. I  hope  you  think  me  harsh  in  this  judgment. 
Many  of  you,  I  see,  are  members  of  this  House,  and  do 
not  know  exactly  the  city  you  are  strangers  in.  I  believe 
it  the  best  city  in  the  world  ;  but  it  has  some  faults  which 
warrant  my  conjectural  fear.  Two  things  have  happened, 
Mr.  President,  since  our  last  annual  meeting,  which  show 
the  proclivity  of  the  controlling  class  in  Boston  to  support 
Slavery.  The  first  took  place  on  the  17th  of  June.  One 
or  two  haberdashers  and  the  hotel-keepers  of  Boston  were 
anxious  to  celebrate  the  eighty-second  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  The  State  and  the  City  united  in 
that  good  work.  There  was  a  Committee  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature,  joined  with  a  Committee  of  the  City 
Council.  Here  is  the  book,  "  printed  by  authority,"  giving 
an  account  of  some  of  the  proceedings.  The  Committee 
invited  distinguished  champions  of  Slavery  to  come  and 
consecrate  the  statue  of  Warren.  Here  is  the  reply  of 
Governor  Wise,  of  Yirginia.  It  contains  an  admirable 
hint.  He  hopes  the  Revolutionary  times  will  return.  So 
do  I. 

Here  are  letters  from  the  Hon.  Mr.  Hilliard,  of  Alabama, 
from  ex-President  Tyler,  and  from  similar  people,  too 
numerous  to  mention  in  an  anti -Slavery  speech.  There  is  a 
bill  to  be  paid  by  the  Commonwealth  by  and  by,  and  some 
of  you,  gentlemen,  will  have  an  opportunity  to  vote  the 
money  of  Massachusetts  to  pay  for  the  liquor  which  intoxi- 
cated some  of  the  great  champions  of  Slavery  whom  the 
Committee  invited  to  do  honour  to  Bunker  Hill  by  their 
bodily  presence,  and  to  Boston  by  their  subsequent  carouse. 
There  will  be  a  bill  amounting  to  ^1 067. 04  which  I  would 
advise  the  legislators  to  look  at  carefully,  and  see  what  the 
"  items'^  are,  and  ascertain  who  consumed  the  "  items.'* 
But  let  me  return  to  the  "  great  celebration," — almost 
equal  in  glory  to  the  battle  itself. 

The  Committee  invited  the  author  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  to  partake  of  their  festivities.     Yes,  ladies  and  gentle- 


OF    SLAVERY    IN    AMERICA.  309 

men,  tliey  invited  the  Hon.  Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  tlie 
most  insolent  man  in  tlie  American  Senate,  the  most 
bitterly  and  vulgarlj^  hostile  to  the  Democratic  institutions 
of  the  North,  the  man  who  had  treated  your  own  senator 
w^ith  such  insolence  and  abuse ;  Mr.  Keitt,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, also  should  have  been  included  !  I  shall  not  now 
speak  of  the  men  who  outraged  the  decency  of  New 
England  hj  asking  such  a  man  to  such  a  spot  on  such  a 
day, — they  were  types  of  a  class  of  men  whom  they  too 
faithfully  serve.  But  on  that  occasion,  *'  complimentary 
flunkejdsm"  swelled  itself  almost  to  bursting,  that  it 
might  croak  the  praises  of  Mr.  Mason  and  his  coadjutors. 

When  the  coward  blows  of  Mr.  Brooks — one  of  that 
holy  alliance  of  bullies  who  rule  Congress — had  brought 
Charles  Sumner  to  the  ground,  and  he  lay  helpless  between 
life  and  death,  you  know  the  people  of  Boston  proposed  to 
have  a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  to  express  their  indignation. 
A  Committee,  appointed  at  a  previous  meeting,  had  the 
matter  in  charge.  They  invited  Hon.  Mr.  Winthrop  to  at- 
tend. '*  ISTo,"  he  "coidd  not  come."  They  asked  Mr.  Everett. 
*'  No,"  he  too  was  "  unable."  It  was  reported  at  the  time, 
and  I  thought  on  good  authority,  that  when  the  Committee 
asked  Hon.  Mr.  Choate,  he  asked  "  if  blows  on  the  head 
with  a  gutta-percha  stick  would  hurt  a  man  much?" 
These  three  were  ex- senators.  Thc}^  all  refused  to  attend 
the  meeting  and  join  in  any  expression  of  feeling  against 
the  outrage  upon  Mr.  Sumner.  Gentlemen,  I  respect 
sincerity,  and  1  was  glad  that  they  were  not  hypocrites  on 
that  occasion.  Twice  the  Committee  waited  on  the  first 
two  gentlemen,  offering  the  invitation,  which  was  twice 
refused.  But  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Everett  were  both 
at  Charleston  to  pay  that  feudal  homage  to  Mr.  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  Mason,  which  Northern  vassals  owe  the  slave 
power.  With  their  "  flunkeyism,"  they  tainted  still  worse 
the  air  of  that  town  which  has  a  proverbial  repute  and 
name. 

Then  was  fulfilled  that  celebrated  threat  of  Senator 
Toombs,  of  Georgia.  On  the  eighty-second  anniversary  of 
New  England's  first  great  battle,  at  the  foot  of  Bunker 
Hill  monument,  the  author  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  the 
most  offensive  of  all  his  tribe,  called  over  the  roll  of  his 
slaves  ;  and   men,   their   names   unknown  to  fame,  their 


310  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

personalities  too  indistinct  for  sight,  at  least  for  memory, 
with  the  City  Government  of  Boston,  the  authorities  of 
Harvard  College,  two  ex- senators,  one  ex- governor,  the 
Governor  of  Massachusetts  (spite  of  the  "  certainty  of  a 
mathematical  demonstration,''  now  also  an  ex),  answered 
to  their  names ! 

That  was  not  all.  The  next  day,  at  the  public  cost,  in 
a  steam-boat  chartered  expressly  for  the  purpose,  the  City 
Government  took  Mr.  Mason  about  the  harbour,  showing 
to  him  the  handsome  spectacle  of  nature,  the  green  islands, 
then  so  fair  ;  and  you  saw,  a  hideous  sight,  the  magistrates, 
of  this  town  doing  homage  to  one  of  the  foulest  of  her 
enemies,  who  had  purposely  incited  a  kindred  spirit  to 
deal  such  blows  on  the  honoured  head  of  a  noble  senator  of 
this  State. 

'Nor  was  that  all.  The  next  night,  one  of  the  Professors 
of  Harvard  College,  both  a  learned  and  most  genial  man, 
but  at  that  time  specially  representing  the  servility  of  his 
institution,  better  even  than  his  accomplishments  generally 
represent  its  Greek  scholarship,  invited  the  author  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  to  an  entertainment  at  his  house. 

So  the  magistrates  of  Boston,  the  authorities  of  Harvard 
College,  the  "  respectabilities  of  the  neighbourhood,"  the 
Committee  of  the  Legislature,  the  Governor  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  its  ex-senators  said  in  their  acts,  and  their 
words  too,  "  Thus  shall  be  done  unto  the  man  whom  the 
slave  power  delighteth  to  honour." 

Here  is  the  other  act.  Mr.  Alger,  a  young  Unitarian 
minister  of  this  town,  had  been  invited  to  deliver  the  annual 
Fourth  of  July  Address  before  the  city  authorities  ;  and  he, 
good  honest  man,  in  the  simplicity  of  his  heart,  like  Horace 
Mann  and  Charles  Sumner,  long  before,  thought  that  one  day 
in  the  year  was  consecrate  to  Independence,  and  an  orator 
might  be  pardoned  if,  on  Independence  Day,  he  said  a  word 
in  behalf  of  the  self-evident  truths  of  the  old  Declaration, 
and  spoke  of  the  natural  and  unalienable  right  of  all  men 
to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  Mr.  Alger's 
grandfather  fought  in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  it  was 
not  surprising  that  the  "  spirit  of  '75,"  speaking  through 
such  a  "medium,"  should  be  a  little  indignant  at  the 
spirit  of  '57  !  He  spoke  as  he  ought.  The  City  Govern- 
ment refused  to  print  his  speech — which,  however,  printed 


OF   SLAVERY    IN    AMERICA.  311 

itself.  The  act  was  consistent.  They  who  had  crouched 
to  Senator  Mason,  and  answered  at  the  roll-call  of  his 
slaves,  how  could  they  publish  a  manly  speech  rebuking 
their  "  complimentary  flunkey  ism  ! " 

These  two  acts  may  make  you  doubt  what  would  be  the 
fate  of  the  slave  power's  measures  if  left  to  Boston  alone  ; 
but  they  make  me  sure  what  it  would  be  if  left  to  the  three 
classes  I  have  just  now  named. 

But  will  these  measures  succeed,  even  with  such  help  ?  If 
I  had  stood  in  this  spot  on  the  29th  of  January,  1850,  and 
foretold  as  prophecy  what  is  history  to-day,  would  you 
have  believed  me,  Mr.  President  ?  Ladies  and  gentlemen, 
you  could  not  credit  it :  that  Mason's  Bill,  proposed 
the  week  before,  woidd  become  a  law  ;  that  Boston  would 
ever  be  the  haunt  of  man-stealers,  her  Court-House  a 
barracoon,  FaneuilHall  crammed  with  soldiers  hired  to  steal 
a  negro  boy  ;  that  her  Judge  of  Probate  would  forego  the 
benevolence  of  his  nature,  or  at  least  of  his  office,  and 
become  a  kidnapper,  and  even  a  pretended  anti-Slavery 
Governor  keep  him  in  office  still !  JNTo,  you  could  not  be- 
lieve that  Wendell  Phillips  would  ever  be  brought  to  trial 
for  a  ^'  misdemeanor,"  because,  in  the  cradle  of  libert}^,  he 
declared  it  wrong  for  a  Judge  of  Probate  to  turn  kid- 
napper !  No,  you  would  not  hear  the  prediction  that  the 
Missouri  Compromise  would  be  repealed,  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Act  be  passed,  and  the  military  arm  of  the 
United  States,  lengthened  out  with  Border  ruffians,  would 
be  stretched  forth  to  force  Slavery  into  Kansas  with  the 
edge  of  the  sword.  You  would  have  said,  ''  The  Dred  Scott 
decision  is  impossible ;  the  Supreme  Court  cannot  declare 
that  no  coloured  man  is  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, — 
that  the  Constitution  itself  puts  Slavery  into  every  territory, 
spite  of  local  legislation,  spite  of  Congress  itself,  spite  of  the 
people's  will!  Should  they  attempt  so  foul  a  wrong,  the 
next  Convention  of  the  Northern  Democrats  would  rend  the 
Court  asunder!  Caleb  Cushing  would  war  against  it!" 
"What  have  we  seen  abroad  ;  what  do  some  of  you  hear  in 
this  hall,  day  out,  day  in  ?  On  the  29th  of  January,  1858, 
is  it  more  unlikely  that  the  Federal  Government  will 
decree  these  three  new  measures, — to  establish  Slavery 
in  all  the  North,  to  conquer  and  enslave  the  Southern 
part  of  the  continent,  to  restore  the  slave  trade  ?      The 


312  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT 

past  is  explanation  of  tlie  present,  as  the  present  also  of 
tlie  past. 

There  are  two  things  yoii  may  depend  on  :  the  impudent 
boldness  of  your  Southern  masters  ;  the  thorough  corrup- 
tion of  their  ^Northern  slaves.  These  two  are  "sure  as 
death  and  rates." 

But  opposition  is  made  against  Slavery, — some  of  it 
is  quite  remarkable.  I  begin  with  mentioning  what  comes 
from  quarters  which  seemed  least  promising. 

1.  A  Northern  Democrat  enters  on  the  stage, — an  un- 
wonted appearance.  But  it  is  no  "  infant  phenomenon,"  no 
stripling,  "who  never  appeared  on  any  stage  before," 
making  his  first  essay  by  venturing  on  an  anti- Slavery 
part.  It  is  an  old  stock  actor — the  little  giant  of  many  a 
tragedy.  Mr.  Douglas  has  broken  with  the  Administra- 
tion ;  the  author  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  is  now  un- 
doing his  own  work;  the  inventor  of  "  squatter  sovereignty" 
(or,  if  Cass  be  the  inventor,  Douglas  has  the  patent)  turns 
round  and  strikes  the  hand  that  fed  him  with  honours  and 
applause.  He  has  great  personal  power  of  work,  of  endur- 
ance, immense  ability  to  talk  ;  all  the  arts  of  sophistry  are 
at  his  command ;  adroit,  cunning,  far-sighted,  for  an 
American  politician — no  man,  I  think,  better  understands 
the  strategy  of  politics,  and  no  man  has  been  more  im- 
moral and  shameless  in  its  use.  He  has  long  been  the 
leader  of  the  Northern  Democracy,  and  knows  its  instincts 
and  its  ideas ;  his  hand  is  familiar  with  the  strings  which 
move  the  puppets  of  the  party.  Amongst  men  not  cleri- 
cal, I  have  heard  but  one  speaker  lie  with  such  exquisite 
adroitness,  and  make  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason. 
He  is  a  senator,  still  holding  his  place  on  important  com- 
mittees ;  he  is  rich,  in  the  prime  of  life,  ambitious  of  power  : 
he  has  abandoned  drunkenness,  and  his  native  strength 
returns  to  his  stout  frame  once  more.  Let  us  not  disguise 
it, — no  mere  politician  in  America  can  do  the  slave  power 
such  harm. 

But  I  have  no  more  confidence  in  Mr.  Douglas  now 
than  in  1854.  The  nature  of  the  man  has  not  changed, 
nor  can  it  change ;  even  his  will  is  still  the  same.  No 
man  has  done  us  such  harm.  You  know  his  public 
measures,  his  public  speeches — the  newspapers  report  aJl 


OF    SLAVERY    IN   AMERICA.  313 

that ;  but  Ms  frauds^  his  insolent  demeanour,  his  brow- 
beating and  violence  towards  the  Republican  senators,  you 
do  not  know — only  the  actual  spectators  can  understand 
such  things.  Do  you  remember  that,  after  Mr.  Sumner 
had  made  his  last  great  speech,  Mr.  Douglas  said, — "  Does 
the  senator  want  us  to  kick  him?"  You  have  not  forgot 
that  when  Brooks  made  his  attack  upon  Sumner,  Douglas 
also  was  there,  and  did  not  interfere  to  prevent  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  blows.  He  also  was  a  part  of  that  out- 
rage. The  man  has  not  changed.  If  he  were  President, 
he  would  do  as  Buchanan  does,  onl)^  more  so.  If  he  were 
sure  of  his  senatorial  office  for  six  years  to  come,  I  think 
we  should  hear  no  words  from  him  in  behalf  of  Kansas. 
But  his  term  expires  in  March,  next  year.  He  knows  he 
cannot  be  re-elected,  unless  he  changes  his  course.  So  he 
alters  his  measures,  and  provisionally  favours  Freedom ; 
not  his  principles,  which  are  the  loaves  and  fishes  of 
power.  I  am  sorry  to  hear  Republicans  express  their 
confidence  in  him,  and  give  him  praise  which  leaves 
nothing  to  add  to  such  men  as  Hale,  Seward,  and  Chase. 
I  know  it  is  said,  "  Any  stone  is  good  enough  to  throw  at  a 
dog ;"  but  this  is  a  stone  that  will  scale  in  its  flight,  veer 
off,  and  finally  hit  what  you  mean  not  to  hurt,  but  to 
defend.  Yet  it  is  unexpected  to  find  any  individuality  of 
conduct  or  opinion  in  the  party.  It  is  pleasant  to  see 
what  a  train  of  followers  he  has  already,  and  to  think  that 
Democrac}^  is  not  quite  dead  among  ^'  Democrats."  He  is 
fighting  against  our  foes — that  is  an  accident ;  he  is  not 
fighting  for  us,  but  only  for  Stephen  A  Douglas,  and  if 
he  wins  that  battle,  he  cares  not  who  his  allies  are,  nor 
who  his  foes. 

2.  The  next  help  comes  from  a  slave  State.  Here  is 
the  valuable  speech  of  Hon.  F.  P.  Blair,  from  Missouri. 
"  The  civilized  world,"  saj'S  he,  '*  is  at  war  with  the  propa- 
gation of  Slavery,  whether  by  fraud  or  by  the  sword  ;  and 
those  who  look  to  gain  political  ascendancy  on  this  conti- 
nent b}^  bringing  the  weight  of  this  system,  like  an  enor- 
mous yoke,  not  to  subject  the  slaves  onl}'-,  but  their  fellow- 
citizens  and  kindred  of  the  same  blood,  have  made  false 
augwnes  of  the  signs  of  the  times.'' 

Significant  words — doubly  important  when  coming  from 
a  slave  State.     Do  not  think  he  is  alone.     He  has  a  con- 


314  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT 

stituency  behind  him  not  of  doughfaces.  Here  is  the 
speech  of  Mr.  James  B.  Gardenhire,  lately  made  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  at  Jefferson  City,  Missouri.  It 
is  of  the  same  tenor  as  Mr.  Blair's,  and  advocates  the  abo- 
lition of  Slavery  in  Missouri  itself. 

3.  Here  is  something  from  Republican  Members  of  Con- 
gress. Not  to  mention  others  from  New  England,  or  else- 
where, here  is  a  speech  from  Hon.  Eli  Thayer,  ironical, 
sometimes,  I  take  it,  but  plain  and  direct  in  substance.  He 
would  have  the  free  States  send  settlers  to  Northenize  the 
South — already  he  has  a  colony  in  Virginia — and  New 
Englandize  Central  America  !  "  The  Yankee,"  says  Mr. 
Thayer,  ''  has  never  become  a  slave-holder,  unless  he  has 
been  forced  to  it  by  the  social  relations  of  the  slave  State 
where  he  lived  ;  and  the  Yankee  who  has  become  a  slave- 
holder has  every  day  of  his  life  thereafter  felt  in  his  very 
bones  the  bad  economy  of  the  system."  "  Why,  sir,  he 
can  buy  a  negro  power  in  a  steam-engine  for  ten  dollars, 
and  he  can  clothe  and  feed  that  power  for  one  year  for 
five  dollars;  and  are  we  the  men  to  give  SI 000  for  an 
African  slave,  and  SI 50  a  year  to  feed  and  clothe  him  ?" 

This  is  an  anti- Slavery  argument  which  traders  can 
understand.  Mr.  Thayer  is  not  so  much  a  talker  as  an 
organizer  ;  he  puts  his  thoughts  into  works.  You  know  how 
much  Kansas  owes  him  for  the  organization  he  has  set  on 
foot.  One  day  will  he  not  also  revolutionize  Virginia? 
There  is  a  to-morrow  after  to-day. 

Here  is  a  speech  from  Hon.  John  P.  Hale.  I  think  it  is 
the  ablest  he  ever  made, — the  first  any  one  has  made,  I 
think,  since  the  discussion  caused  by  the  assault  on  Mr. 
Sumner.  It  relates  to  Kansas  and  the  Dred  Scot  decision. 
Hear  what  he  says  of  the  latter  : — 

"  If  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  be  true,  it  makes  the  immortal 
authors  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  liars  before  God  and  hypo- 
crites before  the  world ;  for  they  lay  down  their  sentiments  broad,  full, 
and  explicit,  and  then  they  say  that  they  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Ruler  of 
the  universe  for  the  rectitude  of  their  intentions  ;  but,  if  you  believe  the 
Supreme  Court,  they  were  merely  quibbling  on  words.  They  went  into 
the  courts  of  the  Most  High,  and  pledged  fidelity  to  their  principles  as 
the  price  they  would  pay  for  success,  and  now  it  is  attempted  to  cheat 
them  out  of  the  poor  boon  of  integrity ;  and  it  is  said  that  they  did  not 
mean  so  ;  and  that  when  they  said  all  'incn,  they  meant  all  white  men ; 
and  when  they  said  that  the  contest  they  waged  was  for  the  rights  of 
manliind,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  would  have  you  believe 


OF    SLAVERY   IN    AMEHICA.  315 

that  they  mean  it  was  to  establish  Slavery.  Against  that  I  protest,  here, 
now,  and  everywhere  ;  and  I  tell  the  Supreme  Court  that  these  things 
are  so  impregnably  fixed  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  on  the  page  of 
history,  in  the  recollections  and  traditions  of  men,  that  it  will  require 
mightier  efforts  than  they  have  made  or  can  make  to  overturn  or  to 
shake  these  settled  convictions  of  the  popular  understanding  and  of 
the  popular  heart. 

"  Sir,  you  are  now  proposing  to  carry  out  this  Dred  Scott  decision  by 
forcing  upon  the  people  of  Kansas  a  Constitution  against  which  they  have 
remonstrated,  and  to  which  there  can  be  no  shadow  of  doubt  a  very  large 
portion  of  them  are  opposed.  Will  it  succeed  ?  I  do  not  know  ;  it  is 
not  for  me  to  say  ;  but  I  will  say  this  :  if  you  force  that — if  you  perse- 
vere in  that  attempt — I  think,  I  hope,  the  men  of  Kansas  will  fight.  I 
hope  they  will  resist  to  blood  and  to  death  the  attempt  to  force  them  to 
a  submission  against  which  their  fathers  contended,  and  to  which  they 
never  would,  have  submitted.  Let  me  tell  you,  sir,  I  stand  not  here  to 
use  the  language  of  intimidation  or  of  menace  ;  but  you  kindle  the  fires 
of  civil  war  in  that  country  by  an  attempt  to  force  that  Constitution  on 
the  necks  of  an  unwilling  people  ;  and  you  will  light  a  fire  that  all  Demo- 
ci'acy  cannot  quench — ay,  sir,  there  will  come  up  many  another  Peter  the 
Hermit,  that  will  go  through  the  length  and  the  breadth  of  this  land,  telling 
the  story  of  your  wrongs  and  your  outrages  ;  and  they  will  stir  the 
public  heart ;  they  will  raise  a  feeling  in  this  country  such  as  has  never 
yet  been  raised  ;  and  the  men  of  this  country  will  go  forth,  as  they  did  of 
olden  time,  in  another  crusade  ;  but  it  will  not  be  a  crusade  to  redeem 
the  dead  sepulchre  where  the  body  of  the  Crucified  had  lain  from  the 
profanation  of  the  infidel,  but  to  redeem  this  fair  land,  which  God  has 
given  to  be  the  abode  of  freemen,  from  the  desecration  of  a  despotism 
sought  to  be  imposed  upon  them  in  the  name  of  'perfect  freedom'  and. 
'popular  sovereignty.'" 

This  is  a  little  different  from  the  speeches  made  in  Con- 
gress last  winter.  There  is  nothing  apologetic  and  depre- 
catory this  time.  Mr.  Seward  said,  long  ago,  "  The  time 
for  compromises  has  passed  by.'' 

Mr.  Sumner's  chair  is  vacant  still — and  yet  it  speaks 
with  more  power  than  any  senator  can  bring  to  defend 
Slavery  with.  In  the  long  line  of  men  Massachusetts  has 
sent  to  do  service  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  there  has  been 
none  nobler  than  Charles  Sumner,  none  more  faithful.  I 
know  how  dangerous  it  is  to  praise  a  living  man,  especially 
a  politician  ;  to-morrow  may  undo  the  work  of  half  a  cen- 
tury. But  here  I  feel  safe ;  for,  of  all  the  men  I  have 
known  in  political  life,  he  is  the  only  one  wdio  has  thereby 
grown  stronger  in  the  noblest  qualities  of  a  man.  Already 
his  integrity  has  been  tried  in  the  severest  ordeal ;  I  think 
hereafter  it  will  stand  any  test.  Massachusetts  has  had 
three  great  Adamses — Samuel,  John,  John  Quincy.  In 
their  graves,  they  are  to  her  what  ''  the  three  Tells"  arc 


316  THE   PRESENT   ASPECT 

to  Switzerland.  Here  is  a  man  equally  noble,  perhaps  witli 
a  nicer  culture  than  any  of  them.  He  has  now  the  same 
firmness,  the  same  integrity — faithfulness  to  delegated 
trust,  allegiance  to  the  higher  law  of  right.  His  empty 
chair  is  eloquent. 

4.  Then  there  are  Eepublicans  out  of  Congress,  in  offi- 
cial station,  who  are  at  work.  All  the  New  England 
States,  New  York,  Michigan,  Ohio,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Wiscon- 
sin, have  governors  and  legislatures,  I  think,  hostile  to 
Slavery — after  the  "Republican"  way.  The  election  of 
Mr.  Banks  was  a  triumph  in  Massachusetts.  In  fifty  years 
past,  no  Northern  State  has  sent  a  man  to  the  House  of 
Representatives,  who  in  twenty-five  years  acquired  as  great 
influence  there  as  Mr.  Banks  in  four.  He  has  many  qua- 
lities which  fit  him  for  eminence  in  American  politics — if 
he  only  be  faithful  to  the  right.  I  hear  loud  condemnation 
of  him  from  anti-Slavery  men,  because,  say  they,  "  he  will 
do  wrong  by  and  by."  Our  sentence  will  be  in  season  if  it 
comes  after  the  crime ;  and  the  actual  offences  of  Repub- 
lican politicians  are  so  numerous  that  I  will  not  condemn 
conjectural  felonies  before  they  are  committed.  I  hear  it 
said  he  will  not  remove  Judge  Loring.  Wait  and  see.  This 
I  know,  that  a  good  deal  within  twelve  months,  he  said  he 
wished  him  removed,  by  the  address  of  the  Legislature ; 
and  if  he  (Banks)  ivere  Governor^  he  (Banks)  would  do  it ! 
If  he  try  to  ride  a  compromise,  he  may  depend  on  it  he  will 
not  ride  far,  however  long !  "  The  day  of  compromise  is 
past."  I  remember  the  speech  he  made  in  Wall-street, 
New  York  ;  also  the  one  at  Salem.  I  have  no  defence  to 
make  for  them,  no  excuse  to  offer  for  him.  I  felt  astonished 
and  ashamed.  But  to  exchange  his  predecessor  for  him 
seemed  a  triumph  of  freedom  in  1857  ;  I  hope  it  will  prove 
so  in  years  to  come. 

The  Republican  party  has  done  considerable  service,  but 
it  does  not  behave  very  well.  It  is  cowardly;  a  little  de- 
ceitful ;  "  making  /  dare  not  wait  upon  /  would.''  Coloured 
waiters  at  public  festivals  say,  "the  Democrats  treat  us 
better  than  the  Republicans."  Events  have  clearly  shown 
that  the  party  did  not  deserve  to  gain  the  Federal  power 
in  1856 ;  that  it  would  have  been  ruinous  to  the  party 
could  they  then  have  taken  the  great  offices,  and  disastrous 
to  the  cause  of  freedom,  which  they  would  compromise. 


OF    SLAVERY    IN    AMERICA.  317 

Yet,  as  it  is  tlie  best  political  party  we  have,  I  would  not  be 
over-nice  in  criticising  it.  I  like  not  to  pick  holes  in  the 
thin  spots  of  the  only  political  coat  we  have  in  this  stormy 
weather.  I  know  the  difficulties  of  the  party,  and  have 
pity  for  its  offenders — none  for  its  mere  hunters  after 
place. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  services  of  these  classes  of  political 
men.     There  is  one  trouble  which  disturbs  all  four.     They 
are  liable  to  a  certain  disease  of  a  peculiar  nature.     I  have 
a  good  copy  of  Galen,  but  he  does  not  mention  it ;  the  last 
edition  of  Hippocrates,  but  neither  he  nor  his  commentator, 
though  both  well-lettered  men,  makes  any  reference  thereto. 
Hence  I  suppose  it  is  a  new  disease,  which,  though  not 
exactly  a  doctor  of  medicine,  perhaps  I  am  the  first  to  de- 
scribe.   So  I  will  call  it  the  presidential  fever  ;  or,  in  Latin, 
Typhus  infandiis  Americanus*     I  will  try  to  describe  the 
specific  variety  which  is  endemic  in  the  Northern  States, 
the  only  place  where  I  have  studied  the  disease.     I  may 
omit  some  symptoms  of  the  case,  which  other  observers 
will  supply.     At  first  the  patient  is  filled  with  a  vague 
longing  after  things  too  high  for  him.     He  gazes  at  them 
with  a  fixed  stare  ;  the  pupils  expand.     But  he  cannot  see 
distinctly ;  crooked  ways  seem  straight ;  the  shortest  curve 
he  thinks  is  a  right  angle  ;  dirty  things  look  clean,  and  he 
lays  hold  of  them  without  perceiving  their  condition.  Some 
things  he  sees  double — especially  the  number  of  his  friends  ; 
others  with  a  semi-vision,  and  it  is  always  the  lower  half 
he  sees.     All  the  time  he  hears  a  confused  noise,  like  that 
of  men  declaring  votes,  State  after  State.     This  noise  ob- 
scures all  other  sounds,  so  that  he   cannot  hear  the  still 
small  voice  which  yet  moves  the  world  of  men.     He  can 
bear  no  "agitation;"  the  word  "Slavery"  disturbs  him 
much  ;  he  fears  discussion  thereof  as  a  hydrophobiac  dreads 
water.    Yet  he  is  fond  of  the  "  rich  brogue"  of  the  foreign 
population.     His  sense  of  smell  is  so  morbid  that  an  honest 
man  is  unbearably  offensive.     His  tongue  is  foul,  but  he 
has  an  irresistible  propensity  to  lick  the  hands  of  those  he 
thinks  will  give  him  what  he  seeks.     His  organ  of  locality 
is  crazed  and  erratic  in  its  action ;  the  thermometer  may 

*  It  may  be  the  same  Herod  is  said  to  have  died  of.  From  Salhist's 
description,  it  would  seem  that  Cataline  had  a  slight  touch  of  it. — Bell. 
Cat.  ch.  i. 


318  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

stands  at  20  below  zero — even  lower,  if  long  enough — tlie 
Mississipj)i  may  be  frozen  over  clear  down  to  Natchez, 
Hellgate  be  impassable  for  ice,  and  the  wind  of  Labrador 
blow  for  months  across  the  continent  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico — 
still  he  can't  believe  there  is  any  JSTorth  !  Combativeness 
is  irregularly  active  ;  he  fights  his  best  friends  and  clings 
to  his  worst  enemies.  Destructiveness  is  intense  ;  he  would 
abolish  the  negroes,  enforce  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and 
hang  the  abolitionists.  Benevolence  is  wholly  inert.  Casu- 
ality  has  become  idiotic  ;  he  looks  into  the  clockwork  of 
the  State,  and  everywhere  finds  ''  a  little  nigger  has  got 
into  the  machinery,"  which  he  would  set  right  by 
"  crushing  out^'  the  intruder.  Ideality  fills  him  with  the 
foolishest  of  dreams.  The  organ  of  self-esteem  swells  to  a 
monstrous  size — like  a  huge  wen  on  the  top  of  the  head, 
"  a  sight  to  behold."  He  talks  about  himself  excessively, 
ad  nauseam;  and  "makes  a  noise  town-meeting  days," 
and  is  always  *'  up  "  in  the  Legislature.  Yanity  is  im- 
mense ;  he  would  be  before  the  people  continually;  no 
place  is  too  small,  if  only  public  ;*  he  lives  in  the  eye  of 
the  people,  greedy  of  praise.  Hope  is  in  a  state  of  delirious 
excitement ;  no  failure  disconcerts  him,  no  fall  abates  desire 
to  rise.     Yeracity  is  in  a  comatose  state  ;  "he  will  lie  like 

Governor  ."     Conscientiousness  has    "caved  in," 

and  in  its  place  there  is  "  a  hole  in  his  head."  He  knows 
no  higher  law  above  his  own  ambition,  for  which  all  means 
seem  just.  He  often  speaks  of  "  the  father  of  his  country," 
but  never  tells  his  noblest  deeds.  His  reverence  is  delirious 
in  its  action  ;  he  worships  every  graven  or  molten  image 
that  faces  South,  and  lies  prostrate  before  the  great  ugly 
idol  of  Slavery,  rending  his  garments,  and  cries,  "Baal 
help  us  !  Baal  help  us  ! "  Disease  incurable ;  yields  to 
no  medicine  ;  not  hellebore  enough  in  all  Anticyra  to  afiect 
the  case. 

I  need  not  speak  of  the  old  anti -Slavery  Society.    It  is  not 

*  "  Ficlenarum  Gabiorumque  esse  potestas, 
Et  de  mensura  jus  dicere,  vasa  minora 
Frangerc,  pannosus  vacuis  JEdilis  Ulubris  ; 
qui  nimios  optabat  honores." 

The  Latin  is  only  for  doctoi'S,  who  know  the  local  applications  of  the 
geography. 


OF    SLAVERY    IN   AMERICA.  319 

necessary  I  should  criticise  their  action — I  have  done  that 
often  enough  before.  If  we  deserve  any  praise,  let  others 
give  it,  or  give  it  not,  as  suits  them  best. 

There  has  been  a  great  change  in  the  people  of  the 
North — else,  Mr.  President,  we  were  not  here  to-night. 
You  remember  the  Legislatures  of  1850,  1851,  1852 — 
what  if  you  had  asked  them  for  this  hall !  In  1851,  even 
Faneuil  Hall  could  not  be  had  for  a  Convention  of  fifteen 
hundred  as  respectable  and  intelligent  men  as  ever  assem- 
bled in  the  United  States,  with  Horace  Mann  at  their  head. 
We  are  here  to-night  by  the  will  of  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts. For  many  years  we  have  come  up  before  the 
Legislature  of  this  State  ;  it  has  always  heard  us  patiently, 
and  I  think  at  length  has  always  done  what  we  asked. 
Former  Legislatures  have  done  all  in  their  power  to  remove 
the  only  Massachusetts  Judge  of  Probate  that  ever  kid- 
napped a  man.  I  make  no  doubt  this  Legislature  will  as 
faithfully  represent  the  conscience  of  the  State. 

I  say  there  has  been  a  great  change  in  the  people.  Com- 
pare the  old  Daily  Advertiser  with  the  new,  which  I  think 
one  of  the  humanest  as  well  as  ablest  newspapers  in  I^ew 
England. 

I  recall  the  fate  of  the  Northern  men  who  voted  for  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill.  There  were  thirteen  Northern 
senators  who  did  so.  The  official  term  has  expired  for  ten 
of  them.  Nine  of  the  ten  lost  their  election — veteran  old 
Mr.  Cass  at  their  head ;  the  Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad 
sent  back  Mr.  Thompson  to  represent  their  rolling-stock. 
Stuart  of  Michigan,  Jones  of  Iowa,  and  Douglas  of  Illinois, 
abide  their  time. 

Forty-two  Northern  representatives  were  equally  false  to 
Democracy.  Thirty-nine  of  them  have  gone  to  their  own 
place,  onl}^  three  returned  to  their  seats :  J.  Glancey  Jones, 
and  T.  B.  Florence  of  Pennsylvania,  and  W.  H.  English,  of 
Indiana,  alone  remain. 

If  the  South  is  more  confident  of  victory  than  ever,  the 
North  is  also  more  determined  to  conquer.  The  late  elections 
show  this :  that  of  Mr.  Banks  is  a  very  significant  sign  of  the 
times.  The  '' rebellion '^  of  Mr.  Douglas,  so  his  old  masters 
call  it,  is  popular  at  the  North.  He  could  be  elected  to  the 
Senate  to-morrow  by  a  vote  of  the  people  of  Illinois.     I  do 


320  THE    PRESENT    ASPECT 

not  say  I  would  vote  for  him ;  that  State  will.  All  thei 
West  is  on  his  side.  See  how  many  tender-footed  Demo- 
crats there  are  who  cannot  walk  over  a  majority  of  legal 
voters  in  Kansas  ten  thousand  strong,  and  force  Slavery  on 
that  State,  even  at  the  command  of  the  old  master.  Soon 
there  will  be  conscience  Democrats,  as  once  conscience 
Whigs.  The  Administration  party  may  carry  their  mea- 
sures ;  it  will  be  as  of  old,  "  the  counsel  of  the  froward  is 
carried  headlong."  In  1860,  the  Northern  Democratic 
party  will  be  where  the  Whig  party  was  in  1856.  There 
will  be  a  pack  of  men  about  the  Federal  offices  in  all  the 
great  towns,  united  by  common  desire  for  public  plunder ; 
but  the  party  will  be  as  dead  as  Benedict  Arnold.  If  Mr. 
Gushing  will  *' crush  out"  all  individualism  from  the 
Democracy  he  will  leave  no  life  there  ! 

Such  is  the  aspect  of  Slavery  now.  It  is  clear  what 
duty  the  North  has  to  do.  She  mAist  choose  either  Free- 
dom of  the  black  man,  with  an  industrial  Democracy 
gradually  spreading  over  all  the  continent,  diffusing  every- 
where the  civilization  of  New  England  ;  or  else  the  Slavery 
of  the  black  man,  with  a  military  despotism  certainly 
overspreading  the  land  and  crushing  down  the  mass  of 
men,  white  and  black,  into  Asiatic  subjection.  The  choice 
is  between  these  two  extremes. 

There  are  18,000,000  in  the  North,  all  free.  ^  The 
power  of  numbers,  wealth,  industry,  education,  ideas, 
insl^itutions,  all  is  on  our  side.  So  are  the  sympathies  of 
the  civilized  world,  the  hopes  and  the  primal  instincts  of 
mankind  ;  ''the  stars  in  their  courses  fight  against  Sisera." 
The  Federal  Government  is  against  us — we  might  have 
had  it  on  our  side  if  we  would. 

The  last  Presidential  election  showed  who  in  the  North 
were  the  allies  of  the  South.  They  dwell  mainly  in  the 
four  great  cities,  and  in  that  debatable  land  which  borders 
on  the  slave  States,  a  strip  of  territory  200^  miles  wide, 
reaching  from  New  York  harbour  to  the  Mississippi.  ^  I 
trust  the  anti- Slavery  Society  will  send  out  its  missionaries 
to  arouse  and  instruct  the  people  in  that  border  land. 
There  is  a  practical  work  to  be  done — to  be  attempted  at 
once. 

Slavery  is  a  moral  wrong  and  an  economical  blunder  ; 


or    SLAVERY   IX    AMERICA.  321 

but  it  is  also  a  great  political  institution.  It  cannot  be 
put  down  by  political  economy,  nor  by  ethical  preaching ; 
men  liave  not  only  pecuniary  interests  and  moral  feelings, 
but  also  political  passions.  Slavery  must  be  put  down 
politically,  or  else  militarily.  If  not  peacefull)^  ended  soon, 
it  must  be  ended  wrathfully  by  the  sword.  The  negro  will 
not  bear  Slavery  for  ever ;  if  he  would,  the  white  man  will 
not. 

If  the  Republican  party  behave  wisely,  there  will  never 
be  another  inch  of  slave  soil  added  to  the  national  domain, 
nor  another  slave  State  admitted  to  the  Union  :  but  Slavery 
will  be  driven  out  of  all  the  territories.  Look  at  this  fact. 
There  are  now  fifteen  slave  States,  sixteen  free.  Minnesota 
and  Kansas  will  soon  be  admitted,  Washington  and  Oregon 
ere  long — four  new  free  States.  Missouri  'may  abolish 
Slavery  within  four  years.  Then,  in  1864,  we  shall  stand 
tAventj^-one  free  States  to  fourteen  slave  States.  'Naj, 
perhaps  Utah  will  repudiate  both  forms  of  polygamy,  the 
voluntary  and  the  forcible,  and  be  an  ally  in  our  defence. 
It  is  easy  to  conquer  the  Southern  part  of  the  continent ; 
it  is  not  easy  to  establish  African  Slavery  there,  in  the 
midst  of  a  population  made  up  of  Africans  or  Indians  ready 
to  shelter  the  slave,  and  also  much  more  dense  than  that 
in  the  Gulf  States  from  Georgia  or  Florida  to  Texas. 

If  the  North  is  wise  and  just,  we  shall  choose  an  anti- 
Slavery  President  in  1860,  and  on  March  4th,  1861,  incor- 
porate the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  of  the  Constitution's  preamble  into  the  Federal 
Government  itself.  And  on  the  4th  of  July,  1876,  there 
will  not  be  a  slave  within  all  the  wide  borders  of  the 
United  States !  For  that  service,  we  do  not  want  a  man 
like  Colonel  Fremont,  who  has  had  no  political  experience  ; 
we  want  no  Johnny  Raw  for  the  most  dilficult  post  in  the 
nation.  It  must  not  be  a  man  broken  down  with  the  Pre- 
sidential fever. 

But  much  is  to  be  done  before  that  result  is  possible.  The 
whole  policy  of  the  Republican  party  must  be  changed. 
We  must  attack  Slavery — Slavery  in  the  territories.  Slavery 
in  the  district,  and,  above  all.  Slavery  in  the  Slave  States. 
Would  you  remove  the  shadow  of  a  tree  ?  Then  down 
with  the  tree  itself!  There  is  no  other  way.  To  get  rid 
of  the  accidents  of  a  thing,  you  make  way  with  its  sub- 

VOL.    VI.  Y 


322  THE    PRESENT   ASPECT 

stance.  Does  not  the  Constitution  guarantee  a  Republican 
form  of  government  to  every  State  ?  South.  Carolina  has  a 
Republican  form  of  government,  has  she  ?  We  must  be 
aggressive,  and  kill  the  trunk,  not  maim  the  branches. 
When  you  attempt  that,  depend  upon  it  the  South  will 
know  you  are  in  earnest.  The  Supreme  Court  is  our  worst 
enemy.  I  should  attack  it  carefully  by  regular  siege. 
Conquer  and  re-construct  it. 

If  I  were  Republican  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  or  a 
senator  of  the  State,  I  should  make  it  a  part  of  my  duty  to 
attend  every  anti- Slavery  Convention,  and  to  speak  there. 
Such  men  go  to  Cattle  Shows,  and  Mechanics'  Fairs,  and 
meetings  of  Bible  Societies,  to  show  that  they  are  at  least 
officially  interested  in  farming,  manufacturing,  and  religion. 
So  would  I  go  to  the  other  place,  to  show  that  I  really  took 
the  deepest,  heartiest  interest,  in  the  great  principles  of 
Democracy,  and  wished  to  see  justice  done  to  the  humblest 
of  human  kind. 

The  Daily  Advertiser  gives  us  good  counsel.  In  the 
editorial  of  the  26th,  I  find  these  words :  "  The  enemies 
of  Slavery  and  its  extension  have  hitherto  occupied  too 
exclusively  a  defensive  attitude  ;  its  friends,  by  venturing 
on  bold  courses  of  aggression,  have  continually  been  gain- 
ing ground.  If  they  did  not  carry  their  whole  point, 
they  always  gained  something  by  compromise.  It  is  right 
to  learn  from  one's  enemy,  and  it  will  be  fortunate  if  our 
friends  in  Congress  have  really  learned  the  valuable  lesson 
of  refusing  to  be  kept  on  the  defensive." 

I  know  how  anxious  men  are  for  office.  I  take  it  there 
are  20,000  candidates  for  the  Presidency  now  living.  I 
wish  they  were  enumerated  in  the  census — they  might 
come  after  the  overseers  of  slaves.  Certainly  no  man  is 
too  small  for  the  place.  The  experience  of  Europe  shows 
that  little  men  may  be  born  to  high  office  ;  America  proves 
that  they  can  be  chosen — and  Democratic  election  is  as 
good  as  royal  fore- ordination.  But  no  man  is  likely  to 
gain  that  high  office  by  compromise.  Webster  tried  it, 
and  failed  ;  Clay  also  failed.  If  Seward,  Chase,  or  Banks 
attempt  the  same  thing,  they  also  will  come  dishonoured  to 
the  ground.  It  is  always  hard  to  ride  two  horses.  What 
if,  as  now,  both  be  swift,  and  North  runs  one  way,  and 
South  the  other  ?     Anti-Slavery  is  a  moveable  stone — -he 


OF    SLAVERY   IX   AMERICA.  323 

that  falls  on  it  will  be  broken,  but  on  whomsoever  it  shall 
fall,  it  will  grind  him  to  powder  ! 

I  know  men  say,  "  If  you  attack  Slavery,  the  South  wdll 
dissolve  the  Union."  She  dissolve  the  Union  ?  She  does 
not  dare.  "Without  commerce,  manufactures,  schools,  wdth 
no  industry  but  Slavery,  more  than  one-third  of  her  popu- 
lation bondmen,  their  interest  antagonistic  to  hers, — let 
her  try  if  she  will.  Her  threat — I  will  tell  you  what  it  is 
like.  "  Mamma,"  said  a  spoiled  boy  to  a  mother  of  ten 
other  and  older  children,  ''  Mamma,  I  want  a  piece  of 
pickled  elephant."  *'  No,  my  dear,  he  can't  have  it. 
Johnny  must  be  a  good  boy."  "  No,  I  won't  be  a  good  boy. 
I  don't  want  to  be  good.  I  want  a  piece  of  pickled 
elephant."  *'  But  aint  he  mother's  youngest  boy  ?  AYhen 
we  have  some  pickled  elephant,  he  shall  have  the  biggest 
piece!"  "Ma'am,  I  don't  want  di  piece !  I  want  a 
whole  pickled  elephant !  I  want  him  now  !  If  you  don't 
let  me  have  him  now,  I'll  run  right  off  and  catch  the 
measles.     I  know  a  boy  that 's  got  'em  first  rate." 


LONDON : 

"WILLIAir  STEVENS,   PRINTEE,   37,   BELL  TAHD, 
TEMPLE   BAB. 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary   Libraries 


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