Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1854-02-10
From the Autographs for Freedom.
A Letter That Speaks for Itself

DISTINGUISHED bencvolence my dear
sir, has nothing to do with abolitionism.
Nay, doubt very much if there is such
a thing as disinterested benevolencc; but
be this as it may, there Is no occasion
for it in the anti-slavery ranks.
1t is Selfshnness, sheer selfishness,-
that has so far carried on the war with sla-
very and wrong in all times; and selfish
ness must break the chains of the Amer
lean slave.
Sef-love has fired the brain and ner-
we'd the arm of every leader and every
soldier in the American anti-slavery ar
my. Where would William Lloyd Gar
rison have been to-day. if any combina-
ton of circumstances could have shut in
his souls deep hatred of oppression, and
prevented its finding utterance i'll burning
words? He would have been dead and
rotten. 1t is necessary to his own exist
ence that he should work,-wOrk for the
slave; and in his work he gratifies ali the
strongest instincts of his nature more
completely than even the grossest sensu-
list can crafty his by unlimited indul-
gence.
Gerrit Smith too. Suppose he had
been compelled to hoard his princely for
tune, or spend it as most others do? 0
dear. what dyspcptic we should have in
six months; and and all the hydropathic
institutes in the country could never keep
him alive five years.
John p. Hale would soon be done with
his rotund person and .joyial face, if he
could no longer send the sharp arrows of
his wit and sarcasm into the consciences
of his woman-whipping neighbors.
1t is necessity of all great natures to
hate meanness and nothing unGer Gods
heaven ever was so mean as American
slavery. Think Of it. JIen who swag-
ger around with pistols and bowe-knifes
to avcn@e their insulted honor. ifanv one
should question if ,-imaginc one turning
up his sleeves to horse-whip an old wo-
man for burning his steak, or pocketlng
her wages, earned at the wash-tub!
No one with a soul above that Of a pig
louise, could help loathing the system, the
instant he saw it in its native mcanness.
Then, in order to keep his own self-re-
specific crafty the love of the good
and true in his own soul,-he must ex-
press that loathing.
No dismterestedness about doing right.
for nobody can be so much interested in
the act as the doer of it.
Wrongdong is the only possible self
abnegation of which the whole range of
thought admits.
All the humiliation and agony of the
Saviour were necessary to himself Moth
ing less could have expressed the infinite
love of the Divine nature; and in working
out most perfect Righteousness for those
he loved, he also wrought out amost per-
feet happiness for himself
The eternal law of God links the hap
piness of all the creatures made in his
Image in an electric chain, united III his Di-
vine love; and He who has "a fcllow-feeling
for our infiImities." has given us fellow
feeling with the suilerngs of each other.
So that no soul in which the Divine inn
age is not totally obscured, can know of
the misery of another, without a sympa-
thetic throb of sorrow.
The true heart in Maine cannot know
that the slave-mother in Georgia is weep
ing for her children torn from her arms
by avarice, without feeling her anguish
palpitating in its utmost core.
1t is in the pulsation ofthe sympathet-
ic heart which stretches out to the hand
to interfere between her and her oppres-
sor and abolitionists are Just seeking a
soft pillow that they may sleep o nights
1t is sclffshness, / tell YOU, all selfish
ness The great whale when she gives
up her own large life to protect her young
one. and the little wren when she carries
all the nice tit bits to her babies. are as
true to themselves as the old pig when
she shoulders all her little family out of
the trough
The whale enjoys death, and the wren
her little fellows supper with better
zest than the old grunter does her corn.
and William GiIdersleeve in spending
money and laboring to prevent any more
scenes of brutal violence i'll his State, by
Furnishing the one past, gratifies his own
/ loves and longings quite rs much aS Judge
Grier in grunting out his wrath against
all lovers of liberty.
The one would enjoy being hanged for
| the cause of God and Humanity, more
| than the other would the luxury of hang
| ing him, even if he could have all the
pleasure to himself--be not only judge
and prosecutor, as he proposes, but mar
shall, jailor, and hangman to boot.
More than this, every creature, so far
as other creatures are concerned, has "a
right to be happy in his own way. Ne
/ 70 had as much right to wish for power
! to cut off all the heads in italy at one
blow. as an innocent pig to wish for ca
pacitv to eat all the corn in the world.
| Mankind has no right to punish them
either, for the desire or its manifestation.
/ They should only make fences to prevent
the accomplishment Of the wish.
Americans have no right to punish
Judge Grier for wishing to prosecute
everybody who attempts to enforce State
laws against murderous assaults by ms
officers. They should content themselves
with fencing his Honor in, or. if necessa-
nv. putting a ring in his nose. He has
as much right to be Judge Grier as
George Washington had to be George
/ Washington, and is no more selfish in
following the instincts Of his nature, than
/ Washington was in following his.
Without any great respect,
am your friend,
JANE G.. SwISsuELM.