Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution Part 40

Immediate emanc.i.p.ation would involve these slaves in the keenest misery unless they were provided with means of support far beyond the resources of their owners and the abolitionists combined. Humanity would recoil with horror at the practical workings of the proposed abolition system.

It was originated in Europe for the express purpose of destroying our UNION. Its paternity is illegitimate--its object our ruin--its tendency chaotic. Its tare seeds were first sown broadcast in our country by Thompson--_a hired emissary_ from Great Britain who is now in our midst a second time on the same demoniac mission. His breath is pestilence--his pathway is marked with the fomenting sc.u.m of a meddlesome demagogue. In addition to his salary paid by England he is filling his pockets from the hard earnings of our people whom he blinds to destroy. The Syracuse Journal states that after the meeting this member of the British Parliament addressed at that place a short time since "_had pa.s.sed resolutions against the Union_ the remainder of the time was consumed in receiving subscriptions to support Mr. Thompson in his anti-slavery itineracy. Thus the anti-slavery agitators are obliged to call in paid British a.s.sistance to help them break up the Union." At the same meeting this vile emissary made this startling a.s.sertion in substance--You have not famine and pestilence but what is worse you are cursed with 30,000 recreant priests. No American would be permitted to pursue this course in Europe a moment. If we tolerate such foreign interference we are unworthy of FREEDOM. When I speak of abolition I refer to ultra political abolition--that which tramples upon our Const.i.tution as an unholy thing and would rejoice at the dissolution of our UNION and urge the slaves on to murder. I have no sympathy for ultraism in any section or in any cause.

We must look at slavery as it exists in our country. Time has planted it too deeply to be eradicated by the caustic of abolition. Fine spun arguments upon the Declaration of Rights--the Federal Const.i.tution--the Missouri Compromise--free soil and philanthropy cannot remove it. The question is local and belongs exclusively to the slave States. As well may the south interfere with the internal policy of the north as for us to dictate to the high minded slave owners who might have been gained by the talismanic power of love--never by threats or coercion. As a whole, a more humane, n.o.ble, generous people never came from the clean hands of the Creator. They can be led by a single hair of kindness--fanatical power may crush but can never drive them. But for the unfortunate issue of abolition raised by the foreign emissary alluded to--gradual emanc.i.p.ation would long before this have been on the flood tide of progress in several of the slave States. I write from the record. A violation of the eleventh commandment has added greatly to the perpetuity of slavery in our country.

For these reasons and others I would name if s.p.a.ce permitted, I verily believe the abolition issue fraught with more danger to our Independence than any that has yet been conceived and promulged by the enemies of our Liberty. It is like cutting off the head of a man to cure a cancer on his face. The preservation of our glorious UNION is paramount to all other considerations which have yet engaged the attention of our nation.

Could the following advice from the Farewell Address of the ill.u.s.trious Washington be carefully read and implicitly obeyed by all in our land--then our FREEDOM would be safe--our UNION preserved.

"In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs, as a matter of serious concern, that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations--northern and southern--atlantic and western--whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart burnings which spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.

"To the efficacy and permanency of your Union a Government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate subst.i.tute. They must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced.

Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a Const.i.tution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate union and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and alter their const.i.tutions of government. But the const.i.tution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

"All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and a.s.sociations, under whatever plausible character, with a real design to direct, control, counteract or awe the regular deliberation and action of the const.i.tuted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction--to give it an artificial and extraordinary force--to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community and according to the alternate triumphs of different parties to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

"However combinations or a.s.sociations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

"Towards the preservation of your government and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles however specious the pretexts. One method of a.s.sault may be to effect in the forms of the const.i.tution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments, as of other human inst.i.tutions, that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing const.i.tution of a country--that facility in change upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion exposes to perpetual change from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion and remember, especially that for the efficient management of your common interest in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be _constantly_ awake since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.

"In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression. I could wish--that they will control the usual current of the pa.s.sions or prevent our nation from running the course which has. .h.i.therto marked the destiny of nations! but if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good--that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit--to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue--to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism--this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated."

NOTE--In a recent speech the emissary Thompson used this most specific language:--"I do not believe there is one minister in the United States who believes what he says. I know enough of ministers in that country to believe that they preach wilfully and designedly what they know to be false! These men deliberately go to their closets, and, for purely political and pro-slavery purposes, write sermons for the Sabbath-day, which they all the while know to be palpably and d.a.m.nably untrue!"