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Show 150 tamper with and to dispose to violence the minds of the slaves. The severest laws which consist with civilization may justly be resorted to for this end, and they should be stric tl y enfo rced. 1 believe, indeed, that there is no special need for new legislation on the subject. I believe that there was never a moment, when the slaveholding States had so lillie to apprebend from the free, when the moral feeling of the community in regard to the crime of instigating revolt was so universal, thor011gh, and inAexible, as at the present moment. Still, if the South needs other demonstrations than it now has of the moral and friendly spirit which in this respect pervades the North , let them be given. Still more, it is the duty of tbe free States to act by opinion, whet·e they cannot act by law, to discountenance a system of agitation , on the subject of slavery, to frown on passionate appeals to tbe ignorant, and on indiscriminate and inf1ammatory vituperation of the slave bolder. T bis obligation, also, has been and will be fulfill ed. T here was ne ver a stronger feeling of responsibility in tbis particular than at the present moment. There are, howe ver, other duties of tbe free States, to which they m<ty prove false, and whicb they are too willing to forget. Tbey are bound, not in their public, but individual capacities, to use every virtuous inBuence for the abolition of slaver)'. They are bound to encourage tbat manlr, 151 moral, religious Jiscussion of it, through which strength will be given to the continually increasing opinion of tbe civilized and Christian world in favor of personal freedom. They are bound to seek and hold tbc tru th in regard to buman rigbts, to be fai tbful to their principles in conve rsation and conduct, never, never to surrender them to private interest, convenience, fl attery, or fear. The duty of being true to our principles is not easily to be performed. At this moment an immense pressure is driving the North from its true ground. God save it from imbecility, from treachery to freedom and virtue! I have certainly no feelings but those of good-will towards the South ; but I speak the unive rsal sentiment of this pat·t of the count•·y, when I say, that the tone which the South has often assumed towards the North has been that of a superior, a tone unconsciously borrowed from the habit of command, to which it is unhappily accustomed by the form of its society. I must add, that this high hearing of the South has not always been met by a just consciousness of equality, a just self-respect at the North. The causes 1 will not tt·y to ex plain. The effect I fear is not to be denied. It is said, that those, who have represented the North in Congress, have not always represented its dignity, its honor ; that they have not always stood erect before the lofty bearing of the South. Here lies our d&nger. |
