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Show - . ' '-;w···~· 246 DESPOTISM had itsf'lf once propo!:icd a mutual righ ~ of search on t he coast of Africa, exerti ng a ll its cfl orts, and. not without success, to defeat a treaty of that sort Into which Britain had induced the great powers of Eu· rope to enter ! 'rhc t.hrah.loml t hank God, into which Congress was fast sinking, has, by th.e st.cady effort~ of a few noble men, at last been partmlly shaken oil. The attention of the people has been aroused to the question-S hall the Federal government be a slaveholding or an anti-slave·holding govern ment~ Experience seems to show t hat a ny middle grou nd, practically speaking, is out of t he question. If the Federal government is not t he one, it must be t.he other. But SL1pposing the Federal government to have power, to have a constitutional right to act in th i~ matter, how is it to act? S ha ll Congress employ force? S hall a law be passed declaring the right of the southern negroes to freedom, a nd an army be marched into t he southern states to enforce such law~ Such rude a nd violent methods of effecting political changes correspond neither to t he principles of our institutionR nor to the enlightened philosophy of t he present age. It is not t he office of t he Federal government to abol· ish sla very by a mere act of its own authority im· posed upon the slave-hold ing states- an act wh!ch might j ustly be denounced as a rbit ra ry, and wln~h the whole white population of the South wonld mute to resist. Great evils arc not thus to be got. rid of by a si ngle b low. 'ro be eflectually a nd peacefully abol· ished, slavery must be abolished by the legislatures of the slave states t hemselves. 'l'here exist in all the olave states ample materials for a party ready to un· dertai<e t hat great a nd illustrious task. Some mov· in O' of the d ry bones has been of late discernible; but, fo~ the most part, the a nti-slavery party of the South, strong, mora lly and intellectually, and b,v no means contemptible in point of numbers, lies at t his moment prostrate, completely paralyzed by terror, and pre· 247 v_cntcd thereby fr_om any movement or organiza· t1011; held down 1n a~ pitiable a state of fear and helplessness as can well be irnaaincd. 'fhe grc t excitement of 183-l- thc alarm then raised amana the slave-holders by t he symptoms of an anti-slaver~ !novemcn.t at, t he North-caused the extemporaneous llltroduct!O~l Into the southern states of a suppressive system_, ba!:!ed a pparently on the Spanish inquisitionbut wJth t he democratic improvements of turnina every slave·holdcr into an inquisitor, a nd t he misera~ hie, uneducated mob of the southern villaO'es and hamlets into tipies a nd offic~rs-the proceedings, without any troublesome ~r ted1ous forma lit ies, being reg· ulated by t he code of L ynch law, the same parties ~ctJng 111 the fourfold capacity of accusers, witnesses, ~udges, and. executioners. 'I'hat same despotic spirit, wdccd, whtch holds t he slaves in subjection without law a nd against law, docs not hesitate a moment to set aside all t he most sacred principles of law, a ll onr much·vauntt:d safeguards of personal security, for the sake of speedy vengeance upon those inclined in any ?vay to ~ue~tion its authority. Such, indeed, is the JUSt retnbut1011 of nature. Establish despotism ovrr ?ne r lass of the community, a nd it will soon extend It<elf ove: all the others. Give your neighbor a right to tyranmze over s laves, and he will soon assume a right to tyra nnize over you. Yet it is t o this down-trodden party, this humbled a nd ~J lenced party, t his party existing, indeed, as yet only m embryo, without organization or self·consciousJic: ss, these southern a nti·slavery men, that we must look for the abolition of slavery. 'l'he spirit of despotism must be encountered in t he slave states them~ Rt>lve~, by a power potent e nough to awe it down, and k~~p Jt under ; a nd this power can only be a mass of <·Jli~cns combined together, acting in concert, and l~a.vwg. such weight of social, and c::<pecia lly of po~ lll ~eal In llucnce, that it shall becornc necessary to respect their feelings, their opinions, and t heir rights. Such a combinatiou must be formed in a ll the slave |
