The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-03-03

dDOllSleO Dy ldWi 10 piouuSo
,olution, no Legislation was required.
NE feeling disappeared, the oppression
.ppeared. There was no law TO be abolished
But the state of things in modern times, and
particularly m our own country, Is very differ
emit Here our institutions are creations Of the
laws. The people have expressed their will in
the form of organic laws OF of legislative en-
actments; and when they wish TO make change,
the law must be changed. 1t is time that
change in the minds of the people must precede
the change in the laws. But it is the duty OF
every citizen to labor 10 produce change in the
minds of his fellow citizens, when he sees that a
change in the law would be beneficial. No
man is justified in sitting down and saying,
"This is a great and good object, but the people
are not ready. II is not worth while for me 20
trouble myself
1t would be useless for the Legislature TO
make law which the people do not wish. But
the will Of the people has not always an oppor-
tunity of expressing itself. The movements Of
few cunning men often make that appear to
be the will of the people which is not their will.
1 |" . uIlull UCltcNC IAdt ioi kc LoJoihJ VI tho
people of Kentucky are In favor of emancipa-
ton. Many more would be In favor Of the
measure If proper arguments were placed be-
fore them. We consider It the duty of every
man who thinks emancipation would be bene-
fetal TO the people, to labor for the diffusion Of
his views, and for the concentration of the
emancipation sentiment that already exists.
The members of Legislative bodies are not
always the indexes Of public sentiment, when
the people have taken no action. They are
of little politicians who imagine that they
always control public opinion. The Legisa-
ture for some time refused to pass law calling
a convention, declaring that the people did not
wish convention. The Legislature was some
what mistaken. We have no doubt that the
members of the present General Assembly are
mistaken.
But to return to the history of England. We
doubt very much if an appeal to this history
will be Of much advantage to those who are
opposed to the discussion of emancipation
Slavery existed for nearly a thousand years in
England. Do those who are opposed to agita-
ton at this time, wish slavery to continue a
thousand years in Kentucky1 Besides, 1t lie
not true that no laws were enacted to remove
the evils of slavery. Though no laws were
made directly abolishing the whole system, We,
Legislative enactments were frequently made in
later times abolishing some Of the evils Of the
system. II any one denies this, we can refer
him 10 the acts
The whole British nation was, few years
ago, in a state Of thegreatest excitement on the
subject Of parliamentary reform. Why did
they not suffer this matter to regulate itself as
it is said that slavery did, There was as much
opposition TO reform as there could have been
to the abolition Of slavery. But Parliament
was at length forced to act The evils refused
to abolish themselves.
| We do not understand why some are 80
anxious to leave slavery to abolish itself, and
yet wish to have a convention to amend other
things. Why not let all evils remove them
selvesf Is there anything particularly good in
the evil of slavery that il should have peculiar
claim to this privilegel Or has slavery pecu-
liar tendency to this self-abolshing process1-
When did slavery assume its abolitionist char
acterl Ii seems TO us that the principles Of
those who oppose action on this subject would
egitimately lead them TO oppose action on any
subject. They would require mankind to fas-
ten themselves TO the car of Destiny, and be
dragged on INCREASINGLY.
The Journals reference to the French revo-
luton of 1859 was unfortunate for the cause
which it advocates. What produced the horrors
of that revolution The French nation had
been oppressed and degraded, and the rulers re-
fused TO make laws for their relief. II the law
had yielded to the demands of the times the hor-
rors Of the Reign of Terror would have been
avoided. The evils resulted not from leQisls-
tive action, but from the refusal of the law
making power to act The government re-
fused to yield to the internal pressure, and II
was torn to pieces by the earthquake which
followed the resistance. Will the editors of the
Journal say that the present condition Of France
is not superior to that which existed before tho
first revolution7 We believe not. The aRita.
tiou Of that day, then, was beneficial, and the
illustration is against their positions. We say
that If the authorities had changed the laws
sooner, the good would have been produced
with less evil.
This reference to the French revolution To- |
minds us Of another revolution. When Eng
land was expressing her colonies, many per-
sons, no doubt, contended that action was un-
necessary, that the evils would remove them
selves, that our country was doing well enough,
that il was wrong to get up an excitement,
that no one had proposed an unobjectionable
"plan," &C., &c, &c. There were men then 1
Of acute minds-powerful logicians--who could
find "insuperable" objections to any plan what. |
ever There were men then who would have
been "glad to see the evils removed" but they |
were "waiting for some plan.'
We have no doubt that slavery will leave
Kentucky at some time or other, whatever
course the convention may take. Slavery is
a dead carcass fastened to the living form of our
beautiful State. As the loathsome carcass be-
comes more and more putr;d, it must drop of
piece by piece from its own putridity, whatever
efforts may be made to keep II together. But
wisdom would tell us to cut loose the corruptinR
mass before II reduces the beautiful body TO the
same disgusting state.
The Public Lands. In
Prepared from Official Documents.l
c,o,a,,ons of sha Cornro;os;orax oT a.