Washington sentinel., 1854-03-29


stat pro ratiOae roiuntas, of any man, however
high in office, by the instrumentality, and un-
der the color of fitting out foreign mission for
any Congress or confederacy on the face of the
earth. There is regular constitutional mole
in which these things are properly to be done
there is a regular constitutional mode by which,
if you please, every negro in the United States
may be set free; because the southern States
have, each for herself, the right if they please
but they don't please, and as they rs little
please to do it by law Of their own making,
Us to have it done by measures that tend to
fundamental change in the original compact
b.tween them as States; by going into joint
stock companies with any other States what
ever, except such as we may choose to create
out of our own territory-out OF that which was
part Of the good old United States, or out OF
the territory which the United States have ac-
quired by treaty with foreign powers.
Sir said Mr.. r.. If, in the course OF the veryte-
diousand desultory remarks-moret tedious even
to me than they appear to have been to the Sem
ste--which have submitted, may have let
dropany unwary or unfounded expression in ref
erence to any individual, particularly any trans
Atlantic individual, hope to be permitted to
take the full benefit of all the qualifications
which man of honor never fails voluntarily to
give to any rash or harsh expression, dropped
in heat of blood however founded in fact, and
which he is particularly anxious always to give
to men who are emphatically men of peace.
must be permitted to say, that there exists, in
the nature Of man, ab oro, alb origine, of de-
graded and fallen man-for the frst-born was
murderer-a disposition to escape from our
own proper duties to undertake the duties of
somebody or anybody else. There exists dis.
position not to do as our good old catechism
IL 1,,t 4bat cta-
ton to which it has pleased God to call US. No,
sir; it is obsolete and worm-eaten. We must
insist upon going to take upon ourselves the
situation mud office Of some one else, to which
it has not pleased God to call us--of the Hin
docs and the Otaheitan; of anybody or any
thing but our own proper business and families;
and these very amiable-( for such they are -
tlese very pious men for such believe them
to be don't mean all of that conneXion, but
/ mean the men whom | particularly have
named or indicated )--are led away by this self
delusion, aided by the influence of the moral
atmosphere of London, which no man can
breathe with impunity-men of abstraction and
visionary character more especially. Let me be
understood the physical atmosphere Of London
is of such nature--the physical excitement is
so great--the wonders, the stir, the hustle, the
objects continually changing before the eyes
the best bred physicians have agreed that the
diseases which imperiously require depletion
in the country will not bear that practice in
town-that it cannot be safely followed in Lon
don. You might as well attempt to de-
plete an habitual sot, whose pulse, once got
down, not even brandy will get up again-a man
accustomed to the preternatural stimulus, !
have stated-as to deplete Londoner, who is
accustomed to the stimulus of the excitement
of the atmosphere. But there is moral at
mosphere, too, in London there is not place
on the face Of the earth where there is so much
public spirit, SO much active benevolence-
where there is so much munifcence, and SO
much is given away in charity. speak not OF
the gross amount, but in proportion to her
wealth, ovcrgrown and enormous as it is. ]
believe, with the author Of this book, Burke,
that the spires of her charities avert from her
the lightning Of Heaven, which her depravity
would otherwise call down. There is moral
atmosphere; there is hardly man of note who
does not belong to some society-like our Col
onization Society, and like that, it IS theatre
for display, like other theatres They go there
to praise one another to their faces in man.
ner that had no conception Of then. But the
example has not been lost upon us. They are
oil of one opinion a set of Ofresolutions are drawn
up which nobody is expected to oppose. 1t
would be unheard of to do SO, and reckoned
indecent to do so. All is cut and dry, like
what is called here caucus-why, | could new
er tell.
No one thinks it worth while to oppose them;
for it would be labor lost Speeches are made,
cheerings follow, and clapping and laundering
applause-such as is seen in our theatres, and
might well shake the nerves Of such as are not
used TO it.; such overweening praises are given.
And these men are in the habit of imbbing so
much and such refined as well as gross adula-
lation, that they cannot live out of the atmos-
phere of London. The fine ladies of course
have the vapors upon the abstraction Of this
stimulus; this moral .stimulus of the atmos-
phere Of London is necessary to their existence.
! can only suppose them-these good men,
subject to the in6rmities Of our nature, and
falling under the temptation to which they are
peculiarly exposed. The theatre Of their glory
was the slave trade; now it is the abolition Of
slavery everywhere-at every risk Of conse.
quences to which they are stoneb blind. If they
would only be content to let the man alone--if
they would not insist upon plastering him an
inch think with mercurial ointment, and know
not what active poisons without, and filing him
to the throat with calomel and jalap Within he
will, may be, get well; or, at best, he can but
die natural death-probably an easy one.
But no, slr the politco-rellgious quack, like
the quack in medicine, and in everything else,
will hear Of nothing but his nostrum; all is to
be forced-nothing can be trusted to time or to
nature. The disease will run its course 1t
has run its course in the northern States; it is
beginning to run its course in Maryland. The
natural death Of slavery is the unpro6tabeness
of its most expensive labor. 1t is also begin
ming in the meadow and grain country of Vir-
ginia; among those people there who have no
staple that can pay for slave labor, especially
among those who have none or very few slaves.
These are the strenuous advocates of all these
principles, lin Virginia. most of them Of the
best intentions-all of them mistaken. The
moment the labor of the slave ceases to be
profitable to the master, or very soon after it
has reached that stage, if the slave will not run
away from the MASTER the master ,cW run away
from the slave; and this is the history ofthe pas
sage from slavery to freedom of the villannge
Of England. The free born Englshmen were
- IL. r. - - 4