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Show 24 d of common life. pervading principle of government ~n must look with The South, counting labor dcgrada~wn, . )ortions of contempt on the most important and mfluenllal I . I I the North that is our o reat mechanic and agncu lura classes. F' rom the' se fun"d amenta 1 d·acur erence 5 . in the verdy constitution of society, must grow up J. e alou.s lC. s ' real tauna l imaainary collisions of interestH, mutual dashke, mu d fear~ Conaress must be an arena, in which Northern an Southern p:rties will be arrayed against each other ; dan~ that portion of the Union, which has the strongest bon o union within itself, will, on the whole, ~aster the oth:r. A Northern man thinks it no hard thmg to show' t a~ slavery has chiefly ruled the country, has deeply mfluence Northern commerce and manufactures, has played off Northern parties against each other, wh.ilst a Sou:hcr.n man undoubtedly can produce a list of gnevances m I eturn. Thus slavery is the bane of our Union. Nothmg els~ can separate us. Without this element of war .and woe m our institutions, our nation would be more indlssolu~ly b.ound together by mutual benefits, than any other natJOn IS by habit and tradition Have we, then, notlhng to do With slavery ? Is it the .concern of the South alone ? Are we bound to keep silence on it, because It nowhere touches us because it is as foreign to us as the slavery of Turkey and Russia ? Oh no. It more than touches us. We feel its grasp. We owe it to ourselves, as well as to humanity, to do what we lawfully and peacefully may to procure its abolition. I have thus considered at length the right and fitness of discussing freely the subject of slavery. Why IS II that this right is questioned ? What lies at the bottom of th~ char«e against us, of unwarrantable interference with wha is n~t our proper concern? The real cause of th.e co~· plaint, though not suspected at the South, is the msensl- 25 bility which prevails there in regard to this evil. Could the slaveholder look on it from our point of view, could he see it as we do, he would no longer blame our reman~ otrances against it. He would himself join the cry. But here lies his unhappiness. Long habit has hardened him to slavery. Perhaps he calls it an evil, but this word on his lips means something very different from what it means on ours. Habit is as powerful over the understanding and conscience as over the will. An institution handed down from our fathers, sanctioned by laws, and under which we have grown up, be it ever so criminal, cannot shock us as it does a stranger, and we naturally count the stranger's rebuke an insult and wrong. Here lies the vice of Mr. Clay's speech. He silently assumes the innocence of slavery. He docs not dream of the need of apologizing for himself as a slaveholder. He cannot realize, that, in the view of the civilized world, this is a brand, which shows through all the brightness of his talents and f."ne. He approaches the subject with a tone of confidence, and, though the advocate of flagrant injustice, takes the ground of an injured man. We, who speak and write against slavery, find our vindication and our duty in the enormity of the evil. How natural that those, who have lived in fellowship with the evil from their birth, should look on us as rash unwarrantable meddlers with what is their business alone ! I have said, that we rest the justice and obligation of our moral efforts against slavery, on the greatness of the evil. It might then be expected, that to make out our case more fully, I should enlarge on this topic, and show that slavery is not an imaginary monster, but a combination of wrongs, and crimes, and woes, not only justifying, but demanding, the opposition of all good men. But I have, in a former publication, travelled this ground, and I cannot unnecessarily renew the pain which I then suffered. There is, however, one topic on which something should 3 |