OCR Text |
Show George B. Cheever. aYOW<'(l of mn· noble fri('nd and brothel' in lH'hnlf of human rirrht , i'n this eity, l\lr. Greeley, whose pow<'rf'ul journal has a,~1in and again : mitt '11 the op pre~:;;o r :mel the s la\'('holding it~t 're.-ts to the heart, and will ·ontinuc to do ~o. lie once said, and admirably snid, that "no one can doubt that if ours w re the Constitution of . ome forgotten repnhlic or antiquity ju t recovel'Cd and submitt d to lcnrn e~ publicit-ltR, to uctc~·minc its trnc character, th y must unanunously pronounce 1t incompatible with the existence of Slavery. I.~et the Ame rican people come to hale Shn'cry as they ought, and we . hall ne 'd no Abolition acts, for the Judiciary will d al with it a~ Portia did with Shylock' pounu of' fl e-11. Ther ' must always be law enough in n. r public to sweep a way Slavory whenever the judge can afford to discern and apply it." It is a fearful and a shameful thing to be mooting- th e suppo ition that there i · any thing wrong in the Con. titution; and thnt uppo -ing there were, we ~hould be f(.>rbiLill 'n from interfering with that wrong. The germ of nth i:;;m an<l de, poti ·m lie in this habit; the wor. t men und r the wor:'t government on earth could dc: irc nothing better for the ir purpo c. than such logic. 'l'he principle of being bound by any Con titution to a moral wrong, Gcd's law again. t it, notwithstanding, is atheism. Carry that principle into action, let the people suf[ i·r their rulers to net upon it, to interpret the Con ·tit ution by it, and it creates a tyranny, soon to be perfected iuto the completest, mo t r emorseless, mo t hopeless despotism that the world eYer saw. It is now, therefore, the duty of our m01·ali ·ts and statesmen to take the Con. titution, and apply and drive eycry article and principle of Freedom in it to the utmo t cxtr me, for the accompli. hmcnt of it. dedar '<1 purpo c, the . ccuring to 'very human being under its authority the privileges or lif'c, liberty, and the -puruit of happin ss, for the protection of whirh it wa~ frn.mcd. No Con. titution, with ueh an ol>j 'Ct, can possibly, in any of its articles, d •tn·ive any clas: of l111mnn lH'ing~ umlcr it of their rights. None can be rightfully under its George B. Cheever. authority, hnt for the protc<'tion of these right.'. If such a horrible enormity cou l«l be suppo ed, then th' class so , acriii ·cd, so drpr in~ <l of' th(·ir rights, . o brought ul1l1er authority of the: Uon:l itul ion o11ly to l>c assassinat<·u hy it , mu~t have be n nam •(1, must have ucen d<'scrib<'d with the gr atcst cxp1icitrw:s and cl<'arness, and the exact 'a ·rifkc unmi ~takably marl" L1 an<l distingui ·hcd, for which thc•y arc doom <.1. Jf there could b ' supposed , uch a diabolic bonu, it must l>e drnwn with uch xactnc:s, Huch in ·xoraL1c definiteness in the very last lett 'r, as to l ave no room for p rver. ion or doubt. I f the d~:tined Racrifiee were capable of a nam ', by which alBo the victim: themselves were de. ignatccl, if it had n t illc, a word, an cpith ·t in moral ' and in law, by whi ·h it wa. customarily, nay, always, named aml knowu, then it must b so named and described in the Con 'titu tion. Il' that L acri licr, aml the term hy which it is known, were SLAVERY, then incvitnbly it mu ~t be mentioned; and the Conslitntion wou ld tht'n b , a. to that whole cln ' of human being::~ consign 'd by it to a living tomb, a diabolic indictment for a de.fiuit ', unmistakable tate of' ·ruclty and mi:ery . In the indictment by which . uch con. ignm nt to a moral as:::,assination is cfT',ct d, certainly th adual thing int<'n<lcd mnsL be named; sin 'e we all know that for an inclictmcnt to h old arrainst a criminal, without the exact crirnc b<•ing tHlm <·<l, 0 would be such a mom;t ro ity as never lm. uccn committed or suffered in any ci vilizcd nat ion under he· a ven, not even in Virginia. l~ut much more where it is an in<l ictm nt consigning an innocent per on to a condition which i: <1 'cmcd tltc most drcaclft1l p ·nalty cxccntcu cv n on a criminal; to hav an innocent person consigned to such a condition by virtue of' an indi tm nt in which the condition it. 'If was not, nam d-this woulu be such a complication and cxa~pcration of wick e<lne~s, such combined tr 'nchcry, cruelty, and chaos of mor~th:, that the mincl l.' horrifi Cll at the suppoRitiOil ol' the possibi li ty. The bar' imag ination of havin ~ sueh w1 ·k('c1n('ss nccomplishcu uy a circumlocution of hot1C8L lnuguagc so hypocrit ical |