The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-05-31
Ny subject will be, THR NECESSITY pR.or1.

cABILITI, AND DIGNITY, OF THE ANTI-SLAvERY
ENTRRPRIsEs WITH GLIMPsEs AT THE SPECIAL
DUTIRs OF rHR NORTH By this enterprise,
do not mean the efforts of any restricted circle,
sect, or party, but the cause of the slave, in all
its forms and degrees, and under all its names,
whether inspired by the Pulpit, the Press, the
economist, or the politician; whether in the
early, persistent and comprehensive demands
OF Garrison, the gentler utterances of Charming,
or the strictly constitutional endeavors of others
now actually sharing the public counsels of the
country. To carry through this review under
its different heads, shall not hesitate to meet
the objections which have been urged against
this Enterprise, so far at least as am aware OF
them. And now, as l address you seriously, /
venture to ask your serious attention even to
the end. Not easily can a public address
reach that highest completeness which is found
in mingling the useful and the agreeable; but
L desire to say that, in this arrangement and
coordination of my remarks tonight, / seek to
cultivate that highest courtesy of speaker
which is found in clearness-
!. begin with the NECESSITY of the Anti.
Slavery Enterprise. In the wrong of Slavery,
as defined 6y existing la,o, this necessity is
plainly apparent; nor can any man within the
sound of my voice, who listens to the authentic
words of the law, hesitate in my conclusion. A
wrong so grievous and unquestionable should
not be allowed to continue. For the honor of
human nature and for the good of all concern
ed, 1t should OF once cease to erist. On this
simple statement, as on a cornerstone, found
the Necessity of the Anti-Slavery Enterprise:
do not dwell, sir, on the many tales which
come from the house of bondage on the bitter
sorrows there undergone; on the flesh CALLED
by the manacle, or spirting blood beneath the
la h. I'll L. $b
knife, or scared by red-hot iron; on the fero-
cious scent of bloodhounds, in chase of human
prey; on the sale of fathers and mothers, bas-
bands and wives, brothers and sisters, little
children-even infants-at the auction block
on the practical prostration of all rights, all
ties, and even all hope; on the deadly injury to
morals, substituting concubinage for marriage,
and changing the whole land of Slavery into a
by-word of Shame, only fifty pictured by the
terrible language of Dante, when he called his
own degraded country House of Ill-Fame
and, last of all; on the pernicious influence upon
the master as well as the slave, showing itself
too often, even by his own confession, in rude
ness of manners and character and especially
in that blindness'which renders him insensible
to the wrong he upholds, while he,
g so perfect is his misery
Not once perceives his foul disbursement
But boasts himself more comey than before"
On these things do not dwell, although vol
umes are at hand, of unquestionable facts and
of illustrative story, just and happy as to vie
with fact, out of which | might draw until, like
Macbeth, you bad supped full of horrors.
But all thess put aside; not because do
not regard the!p of moment in exhibiting the
true charactersof Slavery, but because desire
to present this argument on grounds above all
controversy, Impeachment or suspicion, even
from slave-masters themselves. Not on. tri-
umphant story, not even on indisputable facts,
do now accuse Slavery, but on its character as
revealed in its own simple definition of itself
Out of its own mouth do / condemn it. BY the
lao Of S2ace,y man, created in the image of
God, is diveste of his human character, and
declared to be mere chattel. That this state
ment may not lem to be put forward without
precise author I, | quote the law of two diff.
ferent States. The civil CODE or Louisiana
thus defines n I'VE:
"a slave is ne who is in the power of
master to whom, he belongs. The master may
sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and
his labor. He can do nothing, possess nothing,
nor acquire anything, but what must belong to
his master. ~ 9ril Code, Dirt. 35.
The law of another polished slave State gives
this definition:
"Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, repu-
ted, and adjudged in law to be chattels person
al in the hands Of their owners ond possessors,
and their executors, administrators, and as
signees, TO all intents, constructions, and pur-
poses whatsoever."-2 Brer. Dig, 229.
And a carefutwriter, Judge Stroud, in work
of juridical as well as philanthropic merit, thus
sums up the law:
"The cardinal principle of Slavery-that the
slave is not to be ranked among sentient beings,
but among Minos; is an article of property, a
chattel personal--obtains as undoubted law in
all these 1.-THE slaye) States. "-iStrouds La,cs
Of Slavery, 22.~
Sir, this is enough. AS out of its small egg
crawls forth the shiny, scaly, reptile crocodile,
so out of this simple definition crawls forth the
whole shiny, scaly, reptile monstrosity by which
man is changed into a chattel-a person is
converted into thing soul is transmitted
into merchandise. According to this very def
milton, the slave is held simply for the good of
his master to whose behests his life, liberty, and
happiness, are devoted, and by whom he may
be bartered, leased, mortgaged, bequeathed, ia
voiced, shipped as cargo, stored as goods, sold
on execution, knocked off at public auction,
hazard of card or a die. The slave may
seem to have a wife, but he has not for his
wife belongs to his master; he may seem to
have a child, but he has not, for his child be-
longs to his master. He may be filed with the
desire of knowledge, opening to him the gates
of hope on earth and in heaven, but the master
NAV impiously close this sacred pursuit. Thus
is he robbed not merely of privileges, but of
himself; not merely of money and labor, but of
wife and children; not merely of time and OPP
portunity, but of every assurance of happiness;
not merely of earthly hope, but of all those d.
vine aspirations that spring from the fountain
of light. He is not merely restrained in Gber-
ty, but totally deprived of it; not merely curtail
ed in rights, but absolutely stripped of them; not
merely loaded with burdens, but changed into a
beast of burden; not merely bent in counte-
nance to the earth, but sunk to the legal level
of quadruped; not merely exposed to person
al cruelty, but deprived of his character as a
person; not merely compelled to involuntary la
Dor. but degraded to be rude thing; not mere
" shut out from knowledge, but wrested from
his place in the human family. And all this,
sir. is according to the simple taw Of Slavery.
Nor is even this all. The law by cumulative
provisions positively forbids that a slave shall
he Taught to read. Hear this, ow-citizens,
and confess that no harbarism of despotism, no
extravaganza of tyranny, no excess of impiety,
can be more blasphemous or deadly. "Train
up the child in the way he should GO" is the
lesson of sacred wisdom but the law of Slave
~ boldly prohibits any such training, and dooms
the child to hopeless ignorance and dsgrada-
ton. "Let there be light =" was the Divine ut
terance, at the very dawn of Creation-and this
commandment, travelling with the ages and
the hours, still speaks with the voice of God;
but the law of Slavery says, "Let there be dark
ness"
But it is earnestly averred that slave-masters
are humane, and that slaves are treated with
kindness. These averments, however, proper