OCR Text |
Show 270 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. And again, he says, " N ature cr·l es aloud for freedom as our proper good, our birthright and our end, and resents nothing so much as its loss." In these high-sounding praises, which hold up personal freedom as "our proper good," as "our end," it is assumed that man was ~a.de for liberty, and not liberty for man. It lS, mdeed, one of the fundamental errors of the abolitionist to regard freedom as a great substantive good, or as in itself a blessing, and not merely as a relative good. It may be, and indeed often is, an unspeakable bene£t, but then it is so only as a means to an end. The end of our existence, the proper good, is the improvement of our intellectual and moral powers, the perfecting of our rational and immortal natures. When ft·cedom snbserves this end, it is a good; when it defeats this end, it is an evil. Hence there may be a world of evil as well M a world of good in "this one word." The wise man adapts the means to the end. It were the very height of folly to sacri£ce the end to the means. No man gives personal freedom to his child because he deems it always and in all ca.~es a good. His heart teaches him a better doctrine when the highest good of hi; A RG U:MENT FR0~1 THE PUBLIC GOOD. 271 child is concemed. Should we not be permitted, then, to have something of the same feeling in regard to those whom Providence has placed under om care, especially since, having the passions of men, 'vith only the intellects of children, they stand in utmost need of guidance and direction? As it is their duty to labor, so the law which compels them to do so is not oppressive. It deprives them of the enjoyment of no right, unless, indeed, they may be supposed to have a right to violate their duty. IIence, in compelling the colored population of the South to work, the law docs not deprive them of liberty, in the true sense of the word; that is, it does not del'rive them of the enjoyment of any natural right. It merely requires them to perform a natural duty. This cannot be denied. It has been, as we have shown, admitted both by Dr. Wayland and Dr. Channing.* But while the end is approved, the means arc not liked. Few of the abolitionists are disposed to offer any substitute for our method. They are satis£ed merely to pull down and destroy, without the least * Seo pngc! 110 nnd 1 HI. |