The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-08-31
Hard Language.

We are accused of hard language. admit the
charge. |, for one say in extenuation, that have
not been able to find soft word in the English
tongue to describe vlllany, or identify the perpe
traitor of it. The man who makes chauel of
his brother-what is he i? The man who keeps
back the hire of his laborers by fraud--what is
he :? They who prohibit the circulation of the BIZ
ble-what are they (? They who compel two mill
ions of, men and women to herd together, in pro-
miscuous intercourse, like the brute beasts-what
are they ?-They who sell mothers by the pound,
and children in lots to suit purchasers-what are
they {? / care not what terms are applied to them,
provided, they do apply If they are not thieves,
If they are not adulterers if they are not tyrants,
if they are not man-stealers, should like to know
what is their true character, and by what names
say that thief is a thief as it is to say that a
spade is spade. Words are but the signs of
ideas. A rose by any other name would smell
as sweet Language may be msapplied, and so
be absurd and unjust-as, for example, 10 say that
an aboitionist is fanatic or that STAKEHOLDER is
an honest man. But to call things by their right
names is to use neither hard nor improper Ian
guage. Epthets may be rightly applied, it is true,
and yet be uttered in bad spirit, or with a ma
licious design. What then? Shall we discard
all terms which descriptive of crime, because
they are-not always used with fairness and pro-
prety He who when he sees opposition, cries
out against it-who, when he holds his equal
brother trodden under foot by the iron hoofs of
despotism PUSHES to bis rescue--who when he sees
the weak overborne by the strong, takes sides with
the former, at the imminent peril of his own safe
Ity-such a man needs no certificate to the excel
ency of his temper, or the sincerity of his heart,
or the disnerestedness of his conduct. 1t is the
apologist of slavery-he who can see the victim
of thieves lying, bleeding and helpless on the cold
earth, and yet turn aside like the callous-hearted
priest and Levite-who needs dissolution.
But Twill not enlarge upon this point lfsouth-
ern shareholders and their apologists, cannot en-
dure our rebukes, how will they be able to hear
the awful reributions of heaven, which must in
evitably overwhelm them, unless they speedily re-
pent? | am ready TO make atruce with the South
if she will give up her stolen property will no
longer brand her as thief if she will desist from
driving woman into the field like beast, under
the lash of brutal overseer,-lrom stealing in
fants, from trafhcing in human flesh, from keeping
back the hire of the aborers by fraud, | will agree
not to call her monster If she will honor the
marriage institution, and sacredly respect the
latons OF life, and no longer license incest, polu-
ton and adultery, will not represent her as Sod
omitsh IN spirit and practice; if she will no long
er prevent the unobstructed circulation of the holy
scriptures, and the intellectual and religious edu
cation of her benighted population, will not stig
Matte her as practically atheistical. In short, if
she will abolish her diabolical slave system, root
and branch, at once and forever we will immedi-
ately disband all our antisavery societies, and no
longer agitate the land. But until she thus act,
we shall increase instead of relaxing our Efforts
multiply instead of diminishing our associations
and make our rebukes more terrible than ever