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Show 268 LIDERTY AND SLAVERY. § IV. The great benefit supposed by American abolitionist..s to result to the freed nrgroes from the British act of emancipation. \Vc have, in the preceding sections, abundantly seen that the freed colored subjects of the British crown are fast relapsing into the most irretrievable barbat~sm, while the once flourishing colonies themselves present the most appalling scenes of desolation and distreBS. Surely it is no wonder that the hurrahing of the English people has ceased. "At the p1·esent moment," says the London Times for December 1st, 1852, "if there is one thing in tbe world that the British public do not like to talk about, or even to think about, it is the condition of the race for whom this great effort was made." Not so with the abolitionists of this country. They still keep up the annual celebration of that great event, the net of emancipation, by which, in the language of one of their number, more than half a million of human beings were "turned from brutes into freemen!" It is tl1e freedom of the negro which they celebrate. Let us look, then, for a few moments, into the mysteries of this celebration, and see, if we may, the nature of the praises ARGUMENT FROM THE PUBLIC QOOD. 209 they pour forth in honor of freedom, and the kmd of freedom on which they arc so passionately bestowed. We shall not quote from the more insane of :he fraternity of abolitionists, for their wild, ra".'ng nonsense would, indeed, be unworthy of senous refutation. We shall simply notice the language of Dr. Channing, the scholar-like and the eloquent, though visionary, advocate of British emancipation. Even as early as 1842, in an address delivered on the anniversary of tha~ even~, he burst into the following strai11 of tmpnsswucd eulogy: "Emancipation works well, far better than could have been anticipated. 7b me it could hardly have worked otherwi. se than well. It banished slavery, that wronoand curse not to be borne. It ga,,e freedom th~ deal" birthl"ight of humanity; anu had it done nothing more, I should have found in it cause for. joy.. F•:cedom, simple freedom, is 'in my estnnatwn Just, far prized abovo all price.' I do not stop to ask if the emancipated are bette,. fed and clothed than formerly. TIIEY ARE FRBE; AND THAT ONE WORD CONTAINS A WORLD OF GOOD,* unknown to the most pampc,.ed slavo." * Tbo cmphnsi! is our!!. 23• |