The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-05-31

was nailed to the cross, with a crown of thorns
on his head, as a disturber of that peace on
earth which he came to declare. The disciples,
while preaching the Gospel of forgiveness and
good will, were stoned as preachers of sedition
and discord. The reformers, who sought to
establish higher piety and faith, were burned
at the stake as blasphemers and inhdels. Pa
triots in all ages, who have striven for their
country's good, have been doomed to the scat
fold or to exile, even as their country's enc
mics. And those brave Englishmen, who az
home, under the lead of Edmund Burke, even
against their own country, espoused the cause
of our fathers, shared the same illogical i'm
parchment which was touched to the quick by
that orator statesman, when, after exposing it's
essential vice " in attributing the Ill effect of
ill:judged conduct to the arguments used TO
dissuade US from il, he denounced il as "very
absurd, but very common in modern practice,
and very wicked" Sir, it is very common in
modern practice. In England, it has vainly
renewed itself with special frequency against
the Bible Societies, against the friends of edu-
cation, against the patrons Of vaccination,
against the partisans of peace, all of whom
have been openly arraigned as provoking and
increasing the very evils, whether of infidelitv,
idleness, disease, or war; which they benignly
sought to check. And, TO bring an instance
which is precisely applicable to our own, VIII
berforce, when conducting the Anti-Slavery
Enterprise of England, first against the slave
trade, and then against Slavery itself, vas told
that those efforts by which his name is conse-
Grated forevermore, tended to increase the
hardships of the slave, even to the extent Of
riveting anew his chains. Such are the prece-
dents for the imputation to which our Enter
prise IS exposed; and also are the precedents
oy which L exhibit the fallacy of the imputa-
ton.
Sir, do not doubt that the Enterprise has
produced heat and irritation amounting often
to Inflammation, among slave-masters, which
to superficial minds may seem inconsistent
with success, but which the careful observer
VIII recognise at once as the natural and not
unhealthy effort of diseased body to purge
itself oil existing impurities and Just in pro-
portion to the malignity Of the concealed poi-
son, will be the extent of inflammation A
distemper like Slavery cannot be elected like
splinter. 1t is perhaps too much to expect that
men thus tortured should reason calmly-that
patients thus suffering should comprehend the
true nature of their case, and kindly acknowl-
edge the benefcent work but not on this &C
count can it be suspended.
In the face of this complaint, assert that the
Ant-Slavery Enterprise has already accom-,
plished incalculable good. Even now it touches
the national heart as it never before was touch,
ed, sweeping Its strings with might to draw
forth emotions such as no political struggle has
ever evoked. 1t moves the young, the middle
aged, and the old. 1t enters the family circle,
and mlngles with the flame Of the household
hearth. 1t reaches the souls of mothers, wives,
sisters, and daughters, filling all with new as
plration for justice on earth, and awakening not
merely sentiment against Slavery such as
prevailed with our fathers, but deep, undying
conviction of its worng, and determination to
leave no effort uninterrupted for its removal
With the sympathies of all Christendom "a
allies, 1t has already encompassed the slave
masters by moral blockade invisible to the
eye, but more potent than navies, from which
there can be no escape except in final capitula-
ton. Thus it has. created the irresistible in
huence which itself constitutes the beginning of
success. Already there are signs of change.
IN common speech as well as in writing, among
STARE, but a SerUdnt-thus by a soft substitu-
ton concealing and condemniug the true rela-
ion. Even newspapers In the land of bondage
blush with Indignation at the hunt of men by
olcodhounds-thus protesting against an un-
questionable incident of Slavery. Other signs
are found in the added comfort of the slave, in
the enlarged attention to his wants, in the ex-
perlments, now beginning, by which he is ena
bled to share in the profits of his labor, and thus
finally secure the means to purchase his free
dom; and, above all, in the consciousness among
slave-masters themselves that they dwell now,
as never before, under the keen observation of
an ever-wakeful Public Opinion, quickened By
an everwakeful Public Press. Nor is this all.
Only lately, propositions have been introduced
into the Legislatures of different States, and
countenanced by Governors, to mitigate the
existing law of Slavery and, almost while
speaking / have received the drafts of two
different memorials-one addressed to the
Legislature of Virginia, and the other to that
of North Carolina-asking for the slave three
things, which it will be monstrous to refuse, but
which, if conceded, will take from Slavery It's
existing character: mean, first, the protection
of the marriage relation; secondly, the protec-
ton of the parental relation; and thirdly, the
privilege of knowledge. Grant these, and the
girdled Upas-tree soon must die. Sir, amid
these tokens Of present success and the auguries
of the future, am not disturbed by any com
plants of seeming damage. Though it con-
sumo our own dwelling, who does not venerate
fire, without which human life can hardly exist
on earth2" says the Hindoo proverb and the
time is even now at hand when the Anti-Slavery
Enterprise, which is the very FIRE Of Freedom,
with all its incidental excuses, will be hailed
with a similar regard.
III. And now in the third place, the Anti
Slavery Enterprise, which have shown to be-
at once Necessary and Practicable, is com
mended by its inherent DIGNITY. Here the
reasons are obvious and unanswerable
Its object is benevolent; nor is there, in the
dreary annals of the Past, single enterprise
which stands forth more clearly and indispu-
tably entitled to this character. With unsur-
passed and touching magnanimity, it seeks to
benefit the lowly, whom your eyes have not
seen, and who are ignorant even Of your labors,
while it demands and receives a selfsaerifce
calculated TO ennoble an enterprise of even
questionable merit. It's true rank is among
works properly called phiLdnthropic-th title
of highest honor on earth. al take goodness
in this sense" says Lord Bacon, in his Essays,
" the e6ecting Of the real Of men, which is Whist
the Grecians call Philanthropeia-of all virtues
and dignities of the mind the greatest, being
the character of the Deity and, without it,
man is busy, mischievous, wretched thing,
no better than a kind of vermin." Lord Bacon
was right, and perhaps unconsciously followed
a higher authority; for, when Moses asked the
Lord to show unto him His glory, the Lord
said, 81 viii make all my goodness to pass be-
fore thee" All sir, Peace has trophies fairer
and more perennial than any snatched from
fields of blood but among all these, the fairest
and most perennial are the trophies of benef-
cence. Scholarship, literature, jurisprudence,
art, may wear their welldeserved honors; but
an Enterprise of goodness deserves, and will yet
receive, higher palm than these.
In other aspects its Dignity is apparent 1t
concerns the cause of Human Freedom, which.
from the earliest days, has been the darling Of
history. BY all the memories of the Past; by
the stories Of childhood and the studies youth;
by every example Of magnanimous virtue; by
every aspiration for the good and true by the