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Show 8 MASSACHUSET'l'S IN MOURNlNG. and distm·b order, tmd risk life, merely to save their State from the shame that has just blighted :Massachusetts? In view of these facts, what stands between us and a military despotism? " SuTC guarantees," you say. So has every nation thought until its fall came. "The outward form of Roman institutions stood uninjured till long after CnJigula had made his horse consul." " ' hat is your safeguard? Nothing but a pa_rchmcnt Constitution, which has been ridcllcd tluongh and through whenever it pleased the Slave ])ower; which has not; been ab1c to preserve to you the oldest privileges of Freedom- Habeas Corpus and Trial by Jury 1 Stranger still, that men should think to find a sccm·ity in ou1· material prosperity, and our career of foreign conquest, and ow· acquisition of gold mines, and forget that these have been precisely the symptoms which hnxe prophesied the decline of every powerful commercial state - Home, Carthage, Tyre, Venice, Spa.iu, llolland, and all the rest. In the third century after t he birth of Jesus, 'l'crullian painted that brilliant picture of the Roman power, which describes us, as if it were written for us: "Certainly," says he, "the world becomes more and more our tributary; none of its secret recesses have remained inaccessible, all m:e known, frcq ucnted, and all have become the scene or the object of traffic. \Yho now clreads an un~ known island? who trembles at a reef? our ships tu·e sure to be met with everywhere - everywhere is a people, a state; everywhere is life. W e crush the world beneath mu weight - one1·osi sumus mundo." And Rome perished, almost when the words were uttered ! How simple the acts of our tragedy may be! Let another Fugitive Slave case occur, and more blood be spilt (as might 1\lASSAeHUS.ETTS IN MOURNI KG. 9 happen another time;) -let :Massachusetts be declared insm·~ rectionary, and placed under martial law, (as it might;)-let the ]-'resident be made Dictator, with absolute power; let him send his willing Attorney General to buy up officers of militia, (which would be easy,) and frighten Officers of State, (which would be easier ;)-let him get half the press, and a qua_rtcr of the pulpits, to sustain his usurpatlon, under the name of H Jaw and order"; - let the flame spread from New England to New York, from New York to Ohio, frorh Ohio to "\Visconsin;- and how long would it take !Or some future Franklin Pierce to stand where Louis Napoleon stands now? ]Jow much would the commercial leaders of the ~ast resist, if an appeal were skilfully made to their pockets? - or the political demagogues of the 1V est, if an appeal were made to their ambition? I t seems inconceivable! Certainly- so did the conp d'etat of Louis Napoleon, the day before it happened! "Do not despair of the Republic," says some one, remem~ bering the hopeful old Roman motto. But they had to despail · of that one in the end,- and why not of tills one also '! \Vhy, when we were going on, step by step, as older Republics h:wc done, should we expect to stop just as we reach tl1e brink of Niagara? The love of Liberty grows stronger every year, some think, in some placrs. Thixty years ago, it cost only $25 to restore a Fugitive Slave from Boston, :md now it costs $ 100,000 ;-out st-ill the Slave is ,·estored. I know there are thousands of hearts which stand pledged to Liberty now, and these may save the State, in spite of her officials and her military; but can they save the Nation? They may give us disunion instead of despotism, but can they give us anything better? Can they even give us anything so good? |