The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-06-02
NO. 335.

tated We do not believe that the fingers &C
statesmen guided it, or that political subtilty
was lts object. We are unwilling 20 attribute
such unworthy motives 10 your husbands, f;.-
theirs, or brothers, ms to suppose that they
would make you their willing dupes We do .
believe that it was the honest dictatou Of SYM
patty for the suferings and moral degradation
of our slaves.
Had your communication 10 US embraced
subjects touching our national rights. or touch
ing the arrangements Of any Of our Legitimate
property, we would be found among the first
to treat il with its merited scOrn.
But the case in point is far otherwise You
have appealed to our sympathies in behalf OF
oppressed men, women, and children, in sla-
very, who have been placed in it by cupidity,
and are retained in it by the numbers that are
interested in supporting It. with no other MI
tnority for it than what time has sanctioned
Such state Of things has been Incorporated
into tangible, regularly licensed system for
| the protection Of the booty thus acquired and
thus held styled the Southern institution
| This Southern institution thus worked up
of flesh and blood has reached the dignity of
a political right known more definitely as
a Southern right and is now being claimed as
such, at the expense Of the Union, by Southern
people, to whom the Northern people succumb
for office, even to the Presidency. As a nation,
ladies' you are Justly entitled to largo share
of this guilt-thc largest share of it, because
you have fastened il on US We appreciate
your acknowledgment of it, Deeds have spo-
ken it, rs we'll as words. We also appreciate
your hint of the enlightened age Of the nine
teenth century; for we do not believe in the
doctrine that we would have done right if we
had not been admonshed of doing wrong We
believe if the disposition exists to do right that
no misguided zeal of sympathzers would he
| able 40 easily to turn us from our purposes,
admitting it to be such J such doctrine has
been most successfully applied TO the much
hated and condemned Aboltlonists to whom
the slave owes his ameliorated condition. His
physical condition has been much improved for
the last twenty years. His spiritual condition
is receiving some considerable attention from
some quarters-with strict guard upon his
intellectual condition. We, who profess to
wish their emancipation are teaching them,
as far as we can within limits of law--sOme
few go beyond it-and we are aiming to treat
| them kindly
| We look to Liberia as the best homo for
them; but we do not prohibit any other, TO
which they would wish to 90 or stay. We here
propose to those who favor the Libcran scheme
for abolishing slavery, (of which we think most
highly,) to let us see them put it in practice.
Let them go Immediately to work. and teach
them, prepare them for Liberia, and send them
away Then we will believe in their sincerity
But alas while we can Fee from one OF our
broadcast streets, suspended from the tops of
the houses across the street, pennon, bearing
| in large letters this iption-" TALBoT's
SLAVE DEpoTn-with the lower floor filled
with men and women for sale--specimens of
them at the doors--and the very high prices
which these victims now communicative fear
, that Virginia and the other exporting States
will send down moro slaves for Talbot, than
3 free men for Liberia.
We will ask Christians, politicians, mothers.
North and South to suspend ordinary thought
for two minutes, and ask themselves the qoes
ton What does q "Southern right" mean
Q The process of thought will bring up the Con
stitution Then think how portion of the men
h who framed it objected to the clause " Per-
sons bound to labor" &c, being inserted in it,
l. but did consent to it, to cement the Union at
that critical stage of our lbcrty's progress, he
cause the owners Of slaves would not make n
IT compact without it, Think why the term
person" was used, instead Of slave Thiuk,
u again. would our model man, our loved Wash
ington, have sanctioned a fugitive slave law in
1882 He left all his slaves free in 1900, and
provided means for them to be taught 10 read
; and write. Think, Northern OF Southern moth
ers how you would feel, TO have q promising
| daughter of fifteen taken from you, and, when
asked, "Where is she -" to he unable to say
more than, I" don't know After Master Tom
took her away, he says he put her in the ira.
der's yard, and doesn't know where she was
sold. ] expect, TO Red river Or bow would
you feel, when tho negro trader" in Kentucky
was gathering up his gang for the New Orleans
"a Ax L. =.
to leave n little child or children-chained, if
you resisted?
Such things arc not the alleged fctions Ct
Uncle Toms Cabin. They are undeniablo
truths and because they are truths, VIC ak
you, Christians, politicians, mothers, to think
Of them. Ponder over them, and lend your ali
| to abolish go horrid a system, which we believe
TO be, from n personal knowledge with il, in
almost ali its phases what Pitt said it was
"a mass, n system of enormities, which incon-
| powerfully bids defiance TO any regulation
which ingenuity can devise, or power effect
but total extinction" While write this,
my thoughts reach to many scenes that would
rival those delneated in Uncle Toms Cabin
the truth Of which deineations dare not dir
avow, though Economically told. The very
many exceptions Of kind treatment whichslayes
receive from very many familes-whlch | am
too happy in acknowledges no excuse for
Christians to sustain n system that puts it in
the power Of so many others, that are not dis
posed to treat them kindly, and who do treat
them cruelty. Their physical sufferings, even
then, are nothing compared to their moral
degradation.
| This question Of slavery VIC do not consider
to he political one. Ii is great moral ques-
tion that involves the highest principles Of our
Christian religion, and equally concerns you
and us, and oil nations Of the globe ID is not
| political question, whether Il man shall DO
deprived Of the fruits of his labor whether he
shall be denied the privilege to call his wife
and children his own! whether he shall not be
taught to read, under penalty Of fine and i'm
prisonrient for the teacher and, worst Of all,
whether he shall belong to himself! These
are questions Of high consideration for Chris
tians to decide and they are called upon to do
it. And they can do it. If they will! One Of
our most eminent diynes, who has written
most ably an the subject, has said that there
| is no power in the United States that conld
sustain slavery for an hour, If the church would
not do it, Whom members Of churches eldcrs.
and ministers Of tho Gospel, not only own
slaves, but sell slaves when Christian editors
Of proiessedly religious newspaper as
have the widest circulation at the South-dl
their columns with the most bitter invectives
against those who say anything against il, and
will contrive to pick up, here and there, every
little incident or fact that speaks favorably for
it, arc we not driven to such q conclusion!
can endure Christians owning slaves, because
we are in the midst of slavery; but cannot
endure the fact Of their selling them, justiiying
it, and doing nothing to get clear Of it. A
wrong once acknowledged, the business of
righting it is half accomplished Let every
Christian stakeholder make law for himself
that every female shall DO free at twenty ono
years Of age, and every male at twenty-five,