History of American Abolitionism Part 8

The Rev. Mr. Howell says, when speaking of the Bible arguments in behalf of slavery:--

"Give up my advocacy of abolition? Never! I will sooner, Jonas like, throw the Bible overboard, and execrate it as the Newgate calendar, denounce G.o.d as a slaveholder, and his angels and Apostles as turnkeys and slavedrivers."

The Rev. Mr. Blanchard, in a speech in the Detroit Convention:--

"d.a.m.ned to the lowest h.e.l.l all the pastors and churches of the South, as they were a body of thieves, adulterers, pirates and murderers--that the Episcopal Methodist Church is more corrupt and profligate than any bawdy house in the Union--that the Southern ministers of that body are desirous of perpetuating slavery for the purpose of debauchery, and that every clergyman among them is guilty of enormities that would shock a savage."

The same Rev. Mr. Blanchard, in a discussion in Cincinnati, in 1845, in reply to Dr. Rice, who held up to the abolitionists' imitation the example of the "Angel of the Lord who advised Hagar, the slave of Abraham, to return to her master," said:--"Well, if the angel did so advise her, I think he was a ruffian."

We might quote sentiments like the above _ad libitum_; but these are sufficient to show the drift of a portion, at least, of the clerical mind at the North.

What has been the influence of these clerical fanatics? They have contributed to the formation of revolutionary societies, throughout the length and breadth of the land, and invited all men to join in the holy crusade. Appealing to their congregations, they have worked with honied phrase and flattering carresses upon the tender imaginations of women until they have learned to look upon a slaveholder as a sort of moral monstrosity. Sewing parties have been turned into abolition clubs, while little children in the Sunday schools have been taught that A. B. stands for abolition, from books illuminated with graphic insignia of terror and oppression; with pictorial chains, handcuffs and whips, in the act of application to naked and crouching slaves. This latter remark is truer of the past than the present generation; but we see the influence around us in the millions of young men that now const.i.tute the bulk of the republican party, who may trace their opinions upon the question of slavery to the early prejudices thus acquired.

John Randolph, of Roanoke, once said, "that the worst government on earth was a government of priests, and the next worst was a government of women." There is little doubt that if the present movement goes on, we shall have a government of both priests and females. As the revolution of France was hurried forward by the fish-women of Paris, many of the horrible atrocities of that time being perpetrated by them, so the same misguided spirit urges on the women of the present day, until they have become not only regardless of the human suffering which may result from their course, but of the inevitable tendencies of their influence towards the overthrow of the government itself.

Some of these women edit newspapers, write books, peddle tracts, deliver lectures, and constantly, in one shape or another, keep themselves notorious in the public prints. One of the most effective of these feminine offsprings ever brought to bear upon the public mind was "Uncle Tom's Cabin"--a story which originally appeared in the National Era, at Was.h.i.+ngton, in 1852, was afterwards published in a book, and soon created an extraordinary excitement on both sides of the Atlantic. No other book ever pa.s.sed through so many editions, either in America or Europe. It has been translated into most of the Continental languages, and placed upon the stage in a dramatic form in almost every city of the Union. It served its purpose. What truth could not accomplish, fiction did, and Harriet Beecher Stowe has had the satisfaction of throwing a firebrand into the world, which has kept up a furious blaze ever since. Others have followed in her wake, but their success has been more moderate, making proselytes by hundreds, where she made them by thousands.

Among the publications of a more recent date is that of Hinton Rowan Helper, on the "Impending Crisis," which appeared in 1858, filled with the most ultra abolition doctrines that could be acc.u.mulated, and received the endors.e.m.e.nt of the princ.i.p.al leaders of the republican party. It thereafter became the s.h.i.+bboleth of the organization, by which its members have sworn, and the standard by which its principles have since been measured. While it is a work intrinsically false and worthless, yet, being the production of a Southern man, it had a fict.i.tious value in the eyes of Northern fanatics who were only too glad to use it against the people of the South.

Contemporaneous with the excitement produced by this book, and partially growing out of it, was

THE HARPER'S FERRY INSURRECTION.

The facts are briefly as follows:--On the 17th of October, 1859, the country was startled with the announcement that a party of armed men, whites and blacks, had entered the village of Harper's Ferry, Va., taken possession of the United States armory at that place, shot two or three whites, placed guards on the railroad bridge, and stopped the pa.s.senger trains of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

The President promptly dispatched a detachment of marines to the spot. The insurrectionists were found to number about twenty white men and negroes, under the leaders.h.i.+p of the notorious Kansas Free-State man, John Ossawatomie Brown. After some time spent in parley, made for the purpose of saving a number of prominent citizens who were held prisoners by Brown within the enclosures of the United States Armory, the marines made an attack, beat down the gates, and took all who were not killed prisoners.

Among the latter was Brown himself, who had received a number of severe wounds. Brown confessed that his object was to liberate and run off all the slaves in the adjoining counties of Virginia and Maryland. At a farm-house which Brown had hired a few miles from Harper's Ferry, were found ammunition and arms, consisting of a large number of Sharpe's rifles, revolvers, pikes and other implements of war, together with a great amount of correspondence, consisting of letters of Gerrit Smith and Fred Douglas. During the whole affair, there were killed ten of the insurrectionists, six citizens and one United States marine, and a number on both sides were wounded.

Brown was found guilty of treason and conspiracy against the United States on the 2d of November, was sentenced to be hung, which sentence was carried into effect on the 2d of December, 1859.

It has since been discovered that the following is a portion of the plans of abolitionists, matured in Kansas by Brown and others, and which he attempted in part to carry out:--

"1. To _make war_ (openly or secretly, as circ.u.mstances may dictate) _upon the property of the slaveholders_ and their abettors--not for its destruction, if that can be easily avoided, but to convert it to the _use_ of the _slaves_. If it cannot be thus converted, then we advise its _destruction_. Teach the slaves to _burn their master's buildings_, to _kill_ their _cattle_ and _horses_, to conceal or _destroy farming utensils_, to abandon labor in seed time and harvest, and _let crops perish_. Make slavery unprofitable in this way, if it can be done in no other.

"2. To make slaveholders objects of _derision_ and _contempt_, by _flogging them_ whenever they shall be guilty of flogging their slaves.

"3. To risk no general insurrection until we of the North go to your a.s.sistance, or you are sure of success without our aid.

"4. To cultivate the friends.h.i.+p and confidence of the slaves; to consult with them as to their rights and interests, and the means of promoting them; to show your interest in their welfare, and your readiness to a.s.sist them; let them know that they have your sympathy, and it will give them courage, self-respect and ambition, and make men of them--infinitely better men to live by, as neighbors and friends, than the indolont, arrogant, selfish, heartless, domineering robbers and tyrants who now keep both yourselves and the slaves in subjection, and look with contempt upon all who live by honest labor.

"5. To change your political inst.i.tutions as soon as possible, and, in the meantime, give never a vote to a slaveholder; pay no taxes to their government, if you can either resist or evade them; as witnesses and jurors, give no testimony and no verdicts in support of any slaveholding claims; perform no military, patrol or police service; mob slaveholding courts, jails and sheriffs; do nothing, in short, for sustaining slavery, but everything you safely can, _publicly and privately, for its overthrow_."

THE END.

We have before given a table of the number of slaves in the United States in 1790. It was then 697,696. The following is a similar estimate for the year 1850, as determined by the seventh census:

1 New Jersey 222 2 Delaware 2,990 3 Maryland 90,368 4 Virginia 472,528 5 North Carolina 288,548 6 South Carolina 384,984 7 Georgia 386,682 8 Florida 39,309 9 Alabama 342,892 10 Mississippi 309,878 11 Louisiana 244,809 12 Texas 58,161 13 Arkansas 47,100 14 Tennessee 239,460 15 Kentucky 210,981 16 Missouri 87,422 17 District of Columbia 3,687 18 Utah 26 ---------- Total 3,204,347

Adding to this sum thirty per cent, a fair estimate of the increase for the last ten years, and we have in 1860, 3,965,651 slaves in the United States, or _four millions in round numbers_. There were in the United States 347,525 persons owning slaves. Of this number two owned 1,000 each; both resided in South Carolina. Nine only owned between 500 and 1,000, of whom two resided in Georgia, four in Louisiana, one in Mississippi.

Fifty-six owned from 300 to 500, of whom one resided in Maryland, one in Virginia, three in North Carolina, one in Tennessee, one in Florida, four in Georgia, six in Louisiana, eight in Mississippi, twenty-nine in South Carolina, one hundred and eighty-seven owned from 200 to 300, of whom South Carolina had sixty-nine, Louisiana thirty-six, Georgia twenty-two, Mississippi eighteen, Alabama sixteen, North Carolina twelve, five other States fourteen, and four States none. Fourteen hundred and seventy-nine owned from 100 to 200. All the slaveholding States, except Florida and Missouri, are represented in this cla.s.s, South Carolina having one-fourth of the whole; 29,733 persons owned from ten to twenty slaves each. South Carolina, from this statement, owns more slaves in proportion to her population than any other State in the South.

A few general considerations, and we conclude our narrative. After tracing the course of events recorded in the foregoing pages, the questions naturally arise--What has been the result? what have the abolitionists gained? The answers may be briefly summed up as follows:--

1. They have put an end to the benevolent schemes of emanc.i.p.ation which originated among the real philanthropists of the South, and were calculated, in a proper time and manner, beneficent to all concerned, to produce the desired result. In their wild and fanatical attempts they have counteracted the very object at which they have aimed. Instead of ameliorating the condition of the slaves, they have only aroused the distrust of the master, and led to restrictions which did not before exist. The truth is, the lot of the people of the South is not more implicated in that of the slaves than is the lot of the slaves in the people of the South. In their mutual relations, they must survive or perish together. In the language of another, "The worst foes of the black race are those who have intermeddled in their behalf. By nature, the most affectionate and loyal of all races beneath the sun, they are also the most helpless: and no calamity can befal them greater than the loss of that protection they enjoy under this patriarchal system. Indeed, the experiment has been tried of precipitating them upon a freedom which they know not how to enjoy; and the dismal results are before the world in statistics that may well excite astonishment. With the fairest portions of the earth in their possession, and with the advantage of a long discipline as the cultivators of the soil, their const.i.tutional indolence has converted the most beautiful islands of the sea into howling wastes. It is not too much to say, that if the South should, at this moment, surrender every slave, the wisdom of the entire world, united in solemn council, could not solve the question of their disposal. Freedom would be their doom. Every Southern master knows this truth and feels its power."

2. Touch the negro, and you touch cotton--the mainspring that keeps the machinery of the world in motion. In teaching slaves to entertain wild and dangerous notions of liberty, the abolitionists have thus jeopardized the commerce of the country and the manufacturing interests of the civilized world. They have likewise destroyed confidence. Northern inst.i.tutions are no longer filled with the young men and women of the South, but find rivals springing up in every State south of Mason and Dixon's line. Northern commerce can no longer depend upon the rich places of wealth it has. .h.i.therto found in Southern patronage. Northern men can no longer travel in the South without being regarded as objects of suspicion and confounded with the abolitionists of their section. In short, all the kind relations that have ever existed between the North and the South have been interrupted, and a barrier erected, which, socially, commercially and politically, has separated the heretofore united interests of the two sections, and which nothing but a revolution in public sentiment, a higher sense of the moral obligations due our neighbor, a religious training, which will graft upon our nature a truer conscience and inculcate a purer charity, and finally a recognition of abstract right and justice, can ever remove.

3. They have held out a Canadian Utopia, where they have taught the slaves in their ignorance to believe they could enjoy a life of ease and luxury, and having cut them off from a race of kind masters and separated them from comfortable homes, left the deluded beings incapable of self-support upon an uncongenial soil, to live in a state of b.e.s.t.i.a.lity and misery, and die cursing the abolitionists as the authors of their wretchedness.

4. They have led a portion of the people of the North, as well as of the South, to examine the question in all its aspects, and to plant themselves upon the broad principle that that form of government which recognizes the inst.i.tution of slavery in the United States, is the best, the condition of the two races, white and black being considered, for the development, progress and happiness of each. In other words, to regard servitude as a blessing to the negro, and under proper and philanthropic restrictions, necessary to their preservation and the prosperity of the country.

5. Step by step they have built up a party upon an issue which has led to a dissolution of the Union. They have scattered the seeds of abolitionism until a majority of the voters of the free States have become animated by a fixed purpose not only to prevent the further growth of the slave power, but to beard the lion in his den.

The power of the North has been consolidated, and for the first time in the history of the country it is wielded as a sectional weapon against the interests of the South. The government is now in the hands of men elected by Northern votes, who regard slavery as a curse and a crime, and they will have the means necessary to accomplish their purpose.

The utterances that have heretofore come from the rostrum or from irresponsible a.s.sociations of individuals now come from the throne. "Clad with the sanct.i.ties of office, with the anointing oil poured upon the monarch's head, the decree has gone forth that the inst.i.tution of Southern slavery shall be constrained within a.s.signed limits. Though Nature and Providence should send forth its branches like the banyan tree to take root in congenial soil, here is a power superior to both, that says it shall wither and die within its own charmed circle."

If this be not believed, let the following selections from the speeches of the leaders of the Republican party be the proof:--

Hon. Charles Sumner, United States Senator from Ma.s.s.:--

"This slave oligarchy will soon cease to exist as a political combination. Its final doom may be postponed, but it is certain.

Languis.h.i.+ng, it may live yet longer, but it will surely die. Yes, fellow-citizens, surely it will die--when disappointed in its purposes--driven back within the States, and constrained within these limits, it can no longer rule the Republic as a plantation of slaves at home; can no longer menace Territories with its five-headed device to compel labor without wages; can no longer fasten upon the const.i.tution an interpretation which makes merchandise of men, and gives a disgraceful immunity to the brokers of human flesh, and the butchers of human hearts; and when it can no longer grind flesh and blood, groans and sighs, the tears of mothers and the cries of children into the cement of a barbarous political power! Surely, then, in its retreat, smarting under the indignation of an aroused people, and the concurring judgment of the civilized world it must die;--it may be, as a poisoned rat dies, of rage in its hole.

(Enthusiastic applause.) Meanwhile all good omens are ours. The work cannot stop. Quickened by the triumph, now at hand,--with a Republican President in power, State after State, quitting the condition of a territory, and spurning slavery, will be welcomed into our plural unit, and joining hands together, will become a belt of fire about the slave States, in which slavery must die."

Hon. John Wentworth, Editor of the _Chicago Democrat_, and Mayor of Chicago:--

"We might as well make up our minds to fight the battle now, as at any other time. It will have to be fought, and the longer the evil day is put off, the more b.l.o.o.d.y will be the contest when it comes. If we do not place slavery in the process of extinction now, by hemming it in, where it is, and not suffering it to expand, it will extinguish us, and our liberties.

"If the Union be preserved, and if the Federal government be administered for a few years by Republican Presidents, a scheme may be devised, and carried out, which will result in the peaceful, honorable and equitable EMANc.i.p.aTION of ALL the SLAVES.

"The States must be made ALL FREE, and if a Republican government is intrusted with the duty of making them FREE, the work will be done without bloodshed, without revolution, without disastrous loss of property. The work will be one of time and patience, but it MUST BE DONE!"

Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State (his Rochester speech of Oct. 25, 1858):

"Our country is a theatre which exhibits, in full operation, two radically different political systems--the one resting on the basis of servile or slave labor, the other on the basis of voluntary labor of freemen. * * * * * * * *

"The two systems are at once perceived to be incongruous. But never have permanently existed together in one country, and they never can.

* * * These antagonistic systems are continually coming in closer contact, and collision ensues.

"Shall I tell you what this collision means? It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must, and will, sooner or later, become entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirety a free labor nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina, and the sugar plantations of Louisiana, will ultimately be tilled by free labor, and Charleston and New Orleans become marts for legitimate merchandise alone, or else the rye fields and wheat fields of Ma.s.sachusetts and New York must again be surrendered by their farmers to the slave culture and to the production of slaves, and Boston and New York become once more markets for trade in the bodies and souls of men."