acting amidst, and being acted upon by the
sternest facts of all history. Were the facts
which justified their theories similar to those
which are acting upon us? The great past
is useful to us only in so tar as it becomes the
lesson of experience. To that end no man can
give a more attentive ear to its teachings than
myself.
From that distant day when the Chaldean
shepherd tending his flocks on the holy plains
of the east by day, and studying the stars by
night, gave us our first rude lesson in astron-
omy; from that day to the present the whole
past is full of instruction and should not be
disregarded, and I do not disregard it. Bat
in the meantime we must not forget that we
are making history and making it rapidly ;
that we are to-day living in times when ac-
tion, immediate action, is indispensable; when
in action or too much delay may lead to na-
tional death.
And yet it is notorious to this body that
tomes have been brought in here from day to
day. Harangues have been dealt out to us
in detail and with ability. To show what?
Simply this: That with an experience very
limited in importance in comparison to that
through which we are now living and strug-
gling, some men argued that a certain theory
of our Government was the true theory. Do
the facts justify that theory ?
So here upon this 23d article we are again
listening to authorities by which it is sought
to be shown that the institution of slavery is
for instance beneficent, when we ought cer-
tainly by this time to be convinced by facts
that on the contrary it is malevolent and vin-
dictive; or that it is for instance conciliatory
politically when every political development
of it has been aggressive beyond all precedent
of aggression.
Is it aggressive? Let us see. This institution,
claiming to be only local in its character,
praying only to be let alone, has been shown
to be ill the course of this dehate so insatiate
and persistent in its demands upon the non-
slaveholding portion of the country (from
whom all the boon it asked was to be let alone)
that considering its demerit, the whole world
wag astonished at the forbearance of the
North, In its interest almost all the Presi-
dents have been elected. Over the damning
course which its votaries marked out was the
only road to political success.
At its behest the State Government was
obliged to lay its iron band upon good
Christian white citizens everywhere, who ut-
tered a word at the instance of their con-
sciences, which could be tortured into falling
within its interpretation of the term " incen-
diary"—a word by the way with an applica-
tion invented to suit this institution, and as
applied in its behalf, now standing indelibly
fixed in American record to her everlasting
shame, as the initial of a history more ter-
rible than that of the inquisition of Spain. |
At its bidding also the General Govern-
ment was perverted into a despotism, and
while in its written form it provides that con-
sciences should he free, it required Northern
men, who believed as they believed in a God,
that every slave was wrongfully held in bond-
age, and had a natural right to break those
bonds and seek his freedom whenever he had
the power—required these men I say to assist
in bunting down and returning into slavery
every fugitive that escaped. And the politi-
cal power of the institution had become so
great that all these demands were complied
with by Northern men in spite of the fact that
their own judgment and the judgment of
most of the disinterested civilized nations
condemned it.
Is it aggressive? Commencing as an un-
fortunate system of labor, acknowledged as
an evil to be borne with temporarily, it has
gone on and on, grasping for power, and se-
curing so much that it is able to-day to
shake to its centre our whole form of Gov-
ernment.
On the other hand, is it beneficent? The
votaries of the system claim that it is beneficent
to the negro; that it christianizes and civil-
izes him. The statute books of the Southern
States are written all over with the denial of
this statement, I need not deny it. The laws
that sustain the system announce continually
the fact that in order to keep this species of
properly secure they must deprive them of the
rights of religion and civilization; as for in-
stance, the most sacred of all temporal rights,
to read the Bible and to keep inviolate the
marital obligation. This is not inconsistent
with the system, but on the other hand is a
part of it. A slave cannot for a moment be
supposed to be a man.
Is it beneficent to tire master? Even that
I deny; and it is no new doctrine; it is the
old American doctrine. The very essence of
the American idea is that labor is respect-
able. Slavery makes labor, disreputable; hence
the master learns to look upon laborers with
more or less contempt. Being an American,
and indorsing with my whole heart this
American doctrine that labor is not only re-
spectable, but is the source of all power in
a nation, I must conclude that for this reason
alone the institution is not beneficent to the
master; and by the master I mean the com-
munity interested in the holding of slaves.
The whole society takes the cue, and the
"one headed nigger man" follows the lead
of the one with the hundred heads. The
young ladies look down with contempt upon
mechanics, railroad and steamboat men—the
artifacts in fact of our nation's greatness.—
I have understood that the young ladies of
North Carolina would associate with store
keepers,—"sto keepas" they pronounce it—
but with nothing lower.
Now, I conceive that all such ideas are the
very reverse of beneficent. Look at the re- |
