Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-06-14
MASSACHUSETTS,.


action and profession. Fleeing from alleged re-
striction on the right Of conscience, the first act
OF the Pilgrim Fathers remorseless pro-
| scripton Of conscience. The peaceable Society
OF Friends, proselyting none, interfering with no
one, of simple habits and pure manners, whose
professed morality and practical virtue COM
pared favorably with their oppressor's own best
opinion of themselves, were treated with ruthless
barbarity-few criminals being seriously pun
ished as were these unobtrusve Friends. Their
merciless severity to the Indians have no ex-
ample Of greater barbarity. Their own notions
of religion and piety consisted then, as now,
rather of form and profession than of vital ac-
ton. 1t was a cold painted virtue, bearing some
thing of the semblance, but little of the warmth
and life, of true vrtue--thers little in it that
was benefcent. These peculiaritics which rem
dered even family endearments matter of legal
| offence and restriction, together with the sterile
character of the SOIL begot spirit of industrious
strife, at whose shrine the social virtues were
sacrificed, the native feeling of the heart sub
dued, and black-letter virtue in all its cold and
lifeless formality became substituted. Thrift be-
came the god; the hearts best affections being
violently subjugated, and black-letter virtue
ruling, Massachusetts, reaped the only reward
such virtue can bestow; it caused the adoption
of system of general education, and her virtue
became the virtue Of the head, and not the heart.
The virtue of the head leads inevitably to fana-
ticism, and the history of Massachusetts is
series of moral and political fanaticisms. In the
Revolution it was alike becoming moral and re-
lgous people to go to war with their Acknowledged
Government to apoid the payment Of pitJuI stamp
duty-subsequently;, it unbecoming moral
and religious people to go to Dar NTH an alien
and hostile Goperrn,eat for the preservation Of
their dearest rights, for the protection Of their
gallant sea,ne,, from brutal outrage.
This same Massachusetts, now, in one breath,
utters its bitterest anathemas against the law
CURED by the provisions of a constitution made
and adopted by themselves, for the restoration to
the South of property, admitted to be legally SO;
while at the same time they shout over the Illegal
destruction in their midst of the peaceful refuge
Of pious and unprotected women who had erected
in their midst their convent residence, relying
upon the professions and righteousness of the
people of Massachusetts. With the blackened
walls of this convent in their midst, monument
of their atrocous outrage alike against law and
/ common humanity-an outrage still unatoned,
though acknowledged rights of these white
women have no claim to their sense of justice,
but law and humanity must DO violated to wreak
f on these helpless, moffending people the weight
Of most unrighteous prejudices; while, on the
other hand, with equal zeal and ferocty, they
violate law and humanity TO relieve a black fugi-
tive.
At one time we see them the great importers of
slaves the creators of slavery, violently opposing
the curtailment of the slave trade, or limitation
r to its duration; at another time, to strike blow
at this trade, the whole decalogue may be viola
ted with impunity, and the Deity itself informed
that Massachusetts, lacks only the power, not the
will, to dethrone Him as an abetter Of slavery
In its violence, she at one moment lauds her
Quaker-killing progentors as one degree above
the Angels Of Light; at another denounces them
(all slave dealers and owners) the children Of
hell.
There is, indeed, no degree phase of moral
and political fanaticism in which Massachusetts,
: has not indulged; and although Massachusetts,
prospers in her worldly matters, which sclishness
Of fanaticism and industry may secure, yet in
genial and living virtue she is far from being an
example for imitation.
Massachusetts, has lately, in one wild fury Of
; fanaticism, placed the browning insult her
brow. She has formally appointed a committee
of her legislature to desecrate private houses
She has degraded judge-no, not the judge-but
herself, by ostracising judge, because he had
respected his oath and refused to perjure himself
She has passed a law, deliberately, to break her
own faith, to loosten one Of the key,tones Of the
Union, and to rob her felow-countrymen of vest
ed rights Massachusetts, may view herself com
placenty in q mirror, manufactured by herself
! to reflect her distorted features as harmonious
but If ever people needed a prayer, which
should without ceasng be fervcntly uttered by
them, Massachusetts, holds that people, and that
prayer is
: 40 wad some power the Gifie gle u,,
To see oursels as ithers see us"
But above all other matters, there is one re-
tho people of Massachusetts, and that is this:
that it is a very easy matter for them at once to
enjoy the millennium of their hopes without let or
hindrance, and that is to retire TO themselves and
among themselves to enjoy that pure association
unalloyed, in which they can indulge when freed
from all the responsibility ofthe sins Of those out
side her limits. Let her withdraw from the
Union No voice will rso TO stay her, but all
hail her God-spced in the movement. She may
rest perfectly assured that she will not be, by the
iron arm Of Government, held in, as was South
Carolina; but uncontrolled, unopposed, and I'M
regretted, she retire TO herself, leaving
peace behind her, whatever she may carry with
her. That her anaticism may, fortunately for
} the good Of the country, take that turn, is
consummation devoutly to be wished Then,
solitary and alone, revealing in the pandemonium
Of her own virtues, she may prove beacon of
warning which shall preserve these States from
further dscord
THE PORTLAND nreT.--PoRrLAND, June IL
The Coroners inquest on the death OF Robbins,
who was killed in the late riot, has been in sos