The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-10-25

plore have resulted from our own imbecihty and
cowardice? / do not dwell, as others so often
and so Justly do, upon the atrocious usurpatlon
of the government of Kansas by the savehold-
ers of Missouri, nor even on the barbarous and
tyrannical code which they have established to
stihe Freedom in that Territory, nor even yet on
the fraudulent and nefarious connivance of the
President with the usurpers. Nor will L draw
into this picture, already too darkly shaded, the
personal humiliations which daily come home
to yourselves in the conduct of your own affairs.
You are commanded by an unconstitutional law
of Congress to seize and deliver up to the mem
bers of that privileged class their fugitive slaves,
under pain of Imprisonment and forfeiture of
your estates. You may not interpose between
the armed STAKEHOLDER and the wounded slave,
to prevent his being murdered, without coming
under arrest for treason, nor may you cover his
naked and lacerated limbs except by stealth.
You have fought twenty years, and with but par
tial success, for the constitutional right to lay
your remonstrances on the table of Congress.
You may not tell the freed slave who reaches
your borders that he is free, without being
seized by Federal Court, and condemned,
without a trial or even an accusation, to an I'M
prisonment without bail or mainprize, and with
out limitation of sentence. Your representa-
tives in either House of Congress must speak
with bated breath and humble countenance in
presence OF the representatives of the privileged
class, lest justice be denied to your old soldiers
when they claim their pensions, or to your la
borers when they claim the performance of their
contracts with the Government. The President
of the United States is reduced to the position
of a deputy of the privileged class, emptying
the treasury and marshalling battalions and
ships of war TO dragoon you into the execution
Of no ba hop
while he removes Governors and Judges, at their
command, who attempt to maintain lawful and
constitutional resistance against them in the
Territory of Kansas. The Vice President of the
United States and the Speaker of the House Of
Representatives are safe men, whom the privi-
legged class can trust IN every case. The care
OF the Judiciary Of the Territories, end even of
the foreign relations is intrusted in either House
to assured supporters of that class. Protection
is denied to your wool, while it is freely given
to the Shareholders sugar. Millions of acres of
the public domain are freely given to Alabama,
for railroads, and even as gratuities, while not a
dollar can he obtained to remove the rocks of
He'll Gate and the sands of the Overslaugh, or
the bars in Lake st. Clair or in the mouths of
your Lake harbors. Canada, lying all along
your northern borders, must not even be looked
upon, lest you may lust after it, while millions
to annex and spread Slavery over Louisiana
Florida, Texas, Mexico, Cuba, and Central
America. Your liberty Of speech, where is it :?
You may not, without severe rebuke, speak of
despotism in foreign lands, lest the slave over
hear you on the plantations of the privileged
class, or the foreign despot visit them, in retail
iation for your unavailing sympathy. The ma
tional flag, the emblem of universal liberty,
covers cargoes of slaves not only in your own
view, but tlaunts defiance over them in foreign
ports. Judges of the United States Courts safe
under the protection of the President and the
Senate, charge grand juries, in advance of any
question, that obnoxious and unequal Federal
laws are constitutional and obligatory they
give counsel to legislative bodies how to frame
laws which they will sustain instead of waiting
to review those laws when enacted. They even
convert the writ of Freedom to an engine of
Slavery, and they pervert the power of punish
ing irregularities committed in their presence
into the machinery of a tyranny as odious as
that of the Star Chamber. The privileged class
in Virginia imprison your seamen in their ports,
in retaliation for the independence of YOUR ex-
ecutive authorities and you are already in a
doubtful struggle for the right to exclude the
traffic in slaves from your own borders.
will only ask, in concluding this humilating
rehearsal, whether there is not in this favored
country privileged class whether it does not
stand on an enduring foundation; whether it is
not growing stronger and stronger, while the
unprivieged class grows weaker and weaker
whether its further growth and extent would not
be, not merely detrimental, but dangerous; and
whether there is any hope to arrest that growth
and extension hereafter, if the attempt shall not
be made now?
The change, that has become at last so
necessary, is as easy to be made as it is neces-
sary. The whole number of shareholders is
only three hundred and fifty thousand, one-hun-
dredth part of the entire population of the coun.
try. If you add their parents, children, imme-
date relatives and dependents, they are two mil
lions-one fifteenth part of the American peo-
pie. Slavery is not, and never can be, perpetual.
1t will be overthrow either peacefully and law
fully under this Constitution or it will work the
subversion of the Constitution, together with
its own overthrow. Then the shareholders
would perish in the struggle. The change can
now be made without violence, and by the agen-
cy of the ballot-box. The temper of the nation
Is just, liberal, forbearing. 1t will contribute
any money and endure any sacrifices to effect
this great and important change indeed, it is
half made already. The House of Represent
atives is already yours, as it always must be
when you choose to have it. The Senate of the
United States is equally within your power, if
you only will persistently endeavor, for two
years, to have it. Notwithstanding all the
wrong that has been done, not another slave
State can now come into the Union. Make
only one years constant, decisive effort. and
you can determine what States shall be ad-
mitted.
The Will exists, because the evil has become
lntolerable, and the necessity of a remedy is
universally acknowledged. What, then. is
wanted? Organization Organization! Nothing
but organization.
Shall we organize? Why not? Can we main
tain the revolution, so auspiciously begun, with
out organization? Certainly not Are YOU ap-
prehensive of failure, because the revolution is
not everywhere and at all times equally sue.
cessful! Was there ever a revolution that was
equally successful at all times and everywhere !?
Certainly not. Do you say that YOU cannot
abolish Slavery in the privileged States We
have no need, no purpose, no constitutional
power, no duty, to do so. Providence has de.
volved that duty on Others and the organic law
leaves it wisely to them. We have power to
avert the extension of Slavery in the Territories
of the Union, and that is enough. Do you
doubt that power? Did not the statesmen of
1877 know the bounds of constitutional power?
Somebody has municipal power in the morgan
lied Territories in the Union. Who is it? 1t
is not any foreign State; it is not any of the
American States it is not the people in the
Territories. 1t is the Congress of the whole
United States, and their power there is supreme
Are you afraid that the privileged class will not
submit? The privileged class are human, and
they are wise. They know just as we'll how to
submit to just authority, firmly and constitution
ally exercised, as they do how to extort UNEQUAL
concessions by terror from timid men. Can
the privileged class live without a union any
better than you can? They would not remain
and wrangle with you an hour, if they could do