Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, IA [i.e. Ind.]) 1839-1854, 1839-03-09
MISCEL LIAM EO u IS.
Wa publish, by request, the following extract
from an essay on SLAVERY, by William E. Chan
ninr.-(Eds Pal

SUCCESS. From the beginning it created alarm
in the consideraie, and strengthened the sympa-
thics OF the Free States with the Shareholder. II
made converts of few indiv iduas, but alienated
mu.tiiudes. Its influence at the South has been
almost wholly evil. Il has stirred up bitter pas
sions and fierce fana,icism, which have shut
every car aud every heart against its arguments
and psrsuasions. These effects the more to
be deplored, because tho hope Of freedom to the
slave lies chiefly in the dispositions of his master.
The Abo!itionist proposed, indeed. to convert tho
shareholders; and for this end he approached them
with vituperation, and exhausted on them the vo-
cabulary Of reproach. And he has renped as he
sowed His vehement pleadings for the slaves
have been answered by wilder tones from the
stakeholder; and, what is worse, deliberate de-
fences of slavery have been sent forth, in the spi-
rit of the dark ages, and in defiance Of the moral
convictions and feelings Of the Christian and CT
vilized world. Thus, with good purposes, nothing
seems to have been gained. Perhaps QhoUgh
am anxious to repei the though) something has
been lost to the cause of freedom and humanity.
I earnestly desire that Abo,ionsm may lay
aside the form of public agitation, and seek its
end by wiser and miIdcr means. desire as ear
nestly, and more earnestly, that it may not be put
down by I.awloss Force. There is evil
than Abolitionism, and that Is tho suppression of
il by lawless force. No evil greater than this can
exist in the state, and this is never needed Be it
granted, that il is the desig direct, palpabe
tendency of Aboiitionism to stir up instruction
at the South, and that no existing laws can meet
the oxigcncy. 1t is the solemn duty of the chief
magistrate Of the state assemble Immediately
the legislative bodies, and their duty Immediately
to apply the remedy of Law. Let every friend
Of freedom, let every good man lift up his voice
against mobs. Through these lies road to
TYRANNY. Ii is these which have spread the opn-
ion, SO common at the South, tina, the Free States
cannot long sustain republican, institutions. No
man seems awake to their inconsistency with |
liberty. Our whole phraseology is in fault
Mobs call themselves and are called, the People, I
when in truth they assail Immediately the sove-
reignty of the People, when they involve the
guilt Of usurpation and rebellion against the Peo-
ple 1t is the Fundamental principle of our inst
tutions, that the People is Sovereign But by
the People we mean not an individual hero and
there, not a knot Of twenty or hundred or a
thousand indv dvals in this that spot, but the
community formed into body polite, and express
sing and executing its will through regularly ap-
pointed organs. There is but one expression Of
the will sovereignty of the People. and this is
Law. Law il the voice, the living act Of the peo-
pie. II has other. When individual sus-
ponds tho operation of Law, resis,s its established
minister's and forcibIy substitutes for it his own
will, he is an usurPer and rebel. The same
guilt attaches to a combination OF Individuals ,
These, whether many few, in forcibly superse-
ting public law and establishing their own, rise {
up against tho people, truly single usurper
The people should assert its insulted ma esty its
menacod sovereignty, in one decidedly as ,
in the other Tho difference between the mob
and the individual is, that tho usurpation of the
latter has peruanence not easily given to the
tumul,uary movements Of the former. The dis /
tinctio is n weighty one. Little importance is |
due to sudden bursts of the populace, because
they soon pass away. But when mobs are orga- /
nizcd, as in the French Revolution, or when they Q
nre deliberately resolved and Systematically
resorted to, as the means of putting down nm F.,
odious party, they lose this apology. A conspi !
racy exists agains, the Sovereignty of the Poo ,
pie, and ought to be suppressed, as among the {
chief evils Of the state
In this part of tho country adherence of S
mobs is essened by the fact, that they were ,ho't
10 DO good service in the beginning of the Revolu-
lioa. They probably were useful them and why? b
The work Of that day Revolution. To sub +
sort a government was the fearful task to which a
bur fathers thought themselves summoned h
Their duty, they believed, lnsurrection. In I
such a work mobs had their place. The govern {
ment of the State in the hands of its foes. i
Tho people could not use the regular organs of /,
ADMINISTRATION, for these were held and employed h
by the power they wish to crush Violent, IT. I
regular efforts belonged to ,hat day of convul- il
Gicn. a
To resist and subvert institutions is the very
work OF mobs; and when those institutions are &
popular, when their sole end is TO express and b
execute the will of the people, then mobs are re-
osllion against the people, and such should be
understood and suppressed A people Is never h
more insu,ed than when mob takes its name. q
Abolition must not be put down by lawless force. a
The attempt to destroy it ought TO fail. Such "
attempts place Aboli,ionism a ground fa
they make it, not the cause Of few enthusi b
s,s, but the cause Of freedom. They identity ii