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Show -- - . ·-- --- 84 J)ESrOTISl\1 amiable and nscfnl qualities, or the performance of meritorious actions. Now so far as regards the unprivileged class of the commnnity, it is obvious at a smgle &lance, tlu~t the constitutions of the Southern Sta.tes fail totally, 111 securing any one of the above objects. They not only fail, but they do worse ; they make a deliberate sacn-fice of them all. . 'rhis sacrifice is said to bc.nccessary 111 order_ to secure the well being of the privileged class. lf 111 fact it is so, it must needs be confessed that the al_ternat1vc is very unfortunate. ~.,he Southern people? 1f we allow this necessity, are In the unhappy predicament ~f a savage tribe of which on_e half, 111 order to sustam existence arc driven to kill and to devour the other half. B~fore we can admit the necessity of any ~Such horrible experiment, every other means must first have been tried, and must have failed. w ·hat should we think of a tribe of savages who ltvcd fat and comfortable upon the blood and flesh of thCJr brethren, without the slightest a ttempt to devise any other means of subs istence; and who repulsed w1th Impatient anger and bitter reproaches, the benevolent efforts of those who would point out to them a more decent and innocent way 1 It is clear that so far as the nnprivileged clas!) arc concerned, the political results of slavery arc J!lost disastrous. Slaves sutler at one an~ the same t!~~~~~ all the worst evils of tyranny and of anarchy. Jaws so far as they a re concerned, are all penal; they impose a multitude of obligations, but they crt!at.e 110 riahts 'rho compendious definition of a slave IS, a m~n ~vho has no rights, but with respect to wl.wm the rights of his owner are unlimited . . lf the law"~~~:~ respects seems to protect h1m, It 1s not m. hts c . ter of a'man, but in his character of a .thmgh~ 1P1~~: of property. E xactly the same protectiOn w IC 1 law extends to a slave, it extends to a dog, a rors:~ or a writing desk. The master docs as he Peas with either. If any other person undertakes to dam- TN AJ\TERICA. 85 age, steal, o~ dcstr?y them, he is answerable to the o.wncr, an4 IS pnn1~hed !10t as a violator of pcrsol\al nghts, but for havmg d1sregardcd the laws of property. 'rho ~on~ta,nt sacrifice of so many hnman victims, amountmg m several states of the American Union to a ~ajori ty .of the popnlation,-sneh a sweeping deprivatiOn of nghts as the slave-hold ina states exhibit if it can be justified at all, must find t~at jnstificati01; in some vast amount of good, wllich that sacrifice produces. 'l'his 11ood must be principally sought for among the pnvilegecl class. If it exist at all it must be either politi~al,-by inc.re~sin g the security, freedom ~nd eqt~al1ty of the pnv1!cgccl class; economical, -by mcreasmg wealth1 comfort and civilization; or personal,-by its beneficial innucnces on individual character. When Mr. l\fcOumc pronounces slavery the best and only snre founda tion of a free government, If he has any meaning at a ll, if this declaration be any thing rn?re than a passionate paradox:-he must mean to Imply, that the political consequences of slavery arc of a kind highly beneficial to the master ; in fact so bcncfieial to t!tc master as to form a counterpoise, and more than a counterpoise to a ll t!Jc ~viis it inflicts upon the s lave. It becomes then an Important question, what arc the effects which sl::tvcry produce~ _upon the pol.it~cal, economical, and personal condition of the JHljdegcd class? And in the first place of its political resnlts. 8 |