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Show so forms a small part of the injury which the Abolitionist proposes, as that injury is estimated at the South. It is the prevalent opinion th ere that a great part of the lund is suscep1ible on ly of ~ lave cult ivat ion , and Lhat without this kind of labor their fine fields would be desolate. 'Vhat the fa ct may be I am unable to say- perhaps it may be true only to a limited extent. It is the opinion and not the fact which the Abolitionist must encounter before he can persuade the planter to give fre edom to his bondsman, but he must satisfy the Northern peo ple not of the opinion but of the fact, and assure them that their cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco will come to them as it now does, or he may find some lillie resistance here to his glorious scheme of universal lib erty. It will be a poor argument in the way of traffic to persuade the Northern freemen to contribute their millions to redeem the country from the sin of slav ery, to tell them that the property they have preserved will not command the accustomed conveniences of life. Whethe.r this labor could be done by freemen, and would, if there were no slaves, be done to any considerable extent by freemen, is a problem we may never be called upon practically to senle, nor is it of moment that we should. There are some conditions in life that no state or circumstance can make more deplorable, if it does not cause actual corporeal pain; and a man, whose lot it may be to work in a rice swamp, or toil in a cotton field , to whom nothing but that unvarying drudgery is appointed by Providence, without hope or possibilty of change, may thank Heaven that in its mercy it ordained him not to be free. These are some of the difficulties in the way of abolition and by what motives are they to be overcome ? Dr. Channing proposes to melt the iron chain of the slave by the soft breath of peace ; he expects to dissolve his feners by the charm of words. He tells the slave owner that he cannot have property in a human being -that to hold him as property is "to inflict a great wrong, to incur the guilt of oppression" ; " that man has received sacred, inalienable rights, which are violated by 31 slavery." That slavery is a mighty evil, and he proceeds to argue out these po>itions with all the learning of the sc hools. lf he spoke with the voice of an Archangel and carried conviction to every planter in the whole region of slavery, it is hard to believe that such conviction would have any effect. Human nattn·e must be improved and sublimated vastly beyond its present standard before such arguments on such a subject would have any practical effect. But the whole of this reasoning will fall on deaf ears and marble hearts. It will not be credited for a moment. Education, custom, habits, all the forms of soc iety, all the modes and manners of life combine to raise an atmosphere that will not transmit the sound. The law of the land re futes it. The teachings of the reverend, the learned, the eminent among them confound it. The immortal leader of the armies of freedom was a slave holder. The draftsman of the Declaration of Independence was a slave holder. The eminent patriot to \vbom more than to any living man we owe the constitution of the United States was a sla1'e holder, and their example will in the land of theit· nativity outweigh all the eloquence and all the leaming of a whole colony of mere talking clergymen . The slave region has pronounced its decision. 'Vithin its borders Slavery shall not be discussed. The people do not mean by any affectation of liberality to endanger their social system. They believe it is ri ght, but they mean to maintain it wrong or right. Upon this subject they ask no in struction and they permit none. They have taken their stand. They refute all argument by silencing it, and to all force they are prepared for resistance. . In this condition of things all ho;Je of exterminating Slavery IS desperate by any other means than open determined professed hostility; by an active, vigorous and destructive civil war. |