The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-04-10

" American slavery is quietly assailed on every
side. To the South, Mexico has set the example
of general emancipation to the North, the free
States and the Canadas, by their laws and inst.
tutons, oppose it; the two great nations of Eu-
rope, Great Britain and France, with which We
are most intimately associated, have abolished it,
and act on the South, not only by their example,
but by the still more powerful influence of their
literature, which is essentially antislavery
These, with another more potent than the whole
Christianity-are some Of the agencies which
are quietly improving the condition of slaves,
and may be safely confded in for their ultimate
though distant emancipation, if the whole matter
be left with their masters"
That is to say, the Public Opinion of Mankind,
changed, and controlled, and directed by Chris.
tianity and other healthful influences, manifest
ing itself by acts of abolition in England, France,
and the Northern States of the Union, and through
the literature of those countries, as well as by
the emancipation-spirt in the slavehodng States,
has been the great agent in melioriating the con-
dition of slaves. Who doubts it? Is not the
same agent perpetually operating wherever men
are formed into societies, and recognise them
selves rs belonging to the family of civilized
tionsl The Public Opinion of mankind against
the slave trade was long in maturing, but when
fully ripened, II stamped the traffic with piracy
and will yet drive it from the ocean. Public
Opinion, which regards the life and liberty of a
man as sacred, which recognises the equality in
natural rights of all men, which brands with its
reprobatiOn the attempt to subjugate the will
and interests of one man to those of another,
whether made by the stakeholder, the monopo-
list, or the despot, is rising and surging in all
la.iI and the stakeholder can no more arrest
its advancing tide, than can the Car, whose
throne it is fatally undermining.
In view of the powerful causes at work ad-
verse to Slavery, DR.. Drake advises the Northern
People to abstain from interference with the sub
ject IL by interference he means Congressional
action against Slavery in the States, or irritating,
denunciatory, and dogmatical dctation, his ad-
vice is good. The North would not relish such
tiOns," or be greatly improved by it, But, il
by interference" he means all agitation of the
subject, with a view to relieve the National
Government from responsibility for Slavery, to
prevent the Union from being used to propa-
gate 1t, to prevent the non-saveholders of the
country from becoming pro-slavery, to fix their
opinions irrevocably against the system, to keep
wildly before the minds of the Shareholders the
whole argument for Freedom and Free Labor
then we can assure him that his advice will not
be needed. Free discussion is the irrepealable
law Of modern civilization. The sun never stood
still but once, and then, only for a day but the
record says, that there was no day like that be.
fore il or after it,"
The second letter Of the Doctor is a remark
able one, following as II does his brief exposition
of Christianity, given in the closing part Of let.
ter first
Christianity" says the Doctor, Z" cannot take
the human heart by violence, The soul of Chris
tianity is love- The fruit of Christianity is love
This love binds heart to heart" Nc
The single, broad, plain fundamental propo-
sition" of his second letter, reads as follows;
"The free States should not hereafter permit
negroes OF their descendants Of mixed blood, citi-
lens Of Liberia excepted, to reside in pass
through, or even visit them; and the slave States
should forbid emancipation, except a guaranty be
given that the liberated should not seek the free
Statesp
To comprehend the broad humanity of this
proposition and what a beautiful commentary
Il is upon that Christianity, he soul Of whieh i,