The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-03-18

more true than what we have asserted again
and again in this journal: that the abolition
treason, though it may appear to subside after
a defeat, is never dead-it merely sleeps, and
that with its eyes open, like the hare. After a
brief pause, it arouses from its slumber, like a
giant refreshed with new wine, and it goes to
work again with greater energy than before.
Though the anti-slavery sentiment received ap-
parently, mortal blow in the last Presidential
election, in the person of John p. Hale, the
free soil candidate for the chief magistracy yet
''the snake was scotched, not killed." and now
we find it rearing its crest as boldly and fercely
as if it never received wound. John Coch-
rane, local free soil leader, recently furnished
evidence of this in speech delivered at meet
ing of the Prison Association. On Wednesday
evening the New Hampshire Senator, the FORE
most man Of the party, under pretence of Civ
ing lecture on the gladiatorial exhibitions Of
ancient Rome, came out fat-footed for aboli-
ton, at the Tabernacle. The ingenious device
was to draw an audience to listen to lecture
upon an attractive subject of ancient classic
literature, and. having accomplished that OBJ
ject, then to give stab to the constitution un-
der the fifth rib. Though the sting of the
lecture was reserved for the end the object
appeared before he was half through. insomuch
that some Of the audience laughed outright at
the hoax, while others, more seriously inclined,
heartily applauded, and others as cordially
Kissed.
Tho dravup from %ho 1oc r.lo1
torial exhibition at Rome, in favor of the aboli-
ton Of negro slavery, will not hold water To
give it any strength, it was necessary to show
some analogy between the condition of Ameri-
can slaves and Roman gladiators-to demon
strate that one abolition was as practicable as
the other, and that, if practicable, the emanci-
patton Of the African race on this continent
would be for the benefit Of the American people
or the negroes themselves
This he failed to do, and his whole argument
therefore falls to the ground. What analogy is
there between the brutal, bsrbarous, and bloody
spectacles of the gladiators killing each other
for public sport, and the patriarchal institution
of slavery in the South, by which the negro
race owing service are trained to habits of in
dustry earn their bread by agricultural and
other pursuits. enrich their masters. advance
the interests of the whole republic, while they
contribute to the sustenance Of Europeans. and
add to the commercial wealth of the most civil
lized nations of the world? In return for this
they are clothed, fed, housed, protected and
taken care Of from childhood till death, under
the guarantees and sanctions Of the law of the
land. Their lot is enviable, compared with the
condition of millions of white men who boast
that they are free, but have as little idea of the
true nature of republican liberty, and as little
aspiration for it, as any sleek, well-fed negro
that ever basked in the sunshine of an Alabama
plantation.
The best argument for the unftness of the
negro population for every other civilization
than that which they enjoy under the authority
and protection of masters, is to be found in the
degraded and miserable condition of the great
mass Of the men Of color who are free. So
much do the slaves despise them that they will
not associate with them, and look upon them
as a class beneath themselves. To abolish the
gladiatorial exhibitions was to prevent the
wholesale slaughter Of human beings, and to
remove the brutalizing hardening effects upon
the population while it left the gladiators free
to pursue some honest calling; and, being white
men, Of the Caucasian type, there was every
probability that large majority OF them would
be successful. But to set the negro population
loose upon the country would be to destroy
them, and drive them from the country.
The manner in which Mr. Hale pointed the
moral Of the heroism Of Teemachus in inter-
posing between the combatants to the sacrifice
Of his own life, in order to effect the abolition
gestive of the course the orator desires to be
pursued by all free sellers and abolitionists. In
the opinion Of Mr. Hale they are not sufficiently
bold and selfsacrificing. and have not enough
Of the faith that removes mountains. They
ought, like the Roman patriot, to throw them
selves between the fugitive slave and his mas
ter if their own lives should be the forfeit, and
they ought not to delay moment. Now is the
appointed time-now is the day Of salvation
this is the hour to strike the blow for negro
emancipation.
This folly has been tried already, and we
have seen with how little success Perhaps il
the honorable Senator himself, being great
man. would offer himself as the next victim,
victory might crown the sacrifice. Let him
practise what he breaches. and no longer say
"Go as sheep to the slaughter" but Come
and follow me-" But we don't think the
gentleman has the slightest notion Of
any such thing. however his refined
innarmatory appeals may tend to drive fools
and fanatics to their own destruction and,
however calculated his doctrines may be to stir
up the passions Of American citizens against
each other, and to embroil this Union in per-
nicious agitation, that can have no other termi-