Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1855-08-09
4olititaI.
From the Boston Post
Rev. J. c. Breckenridge--An eloquent
Letter.

III VIII pc reCOlleCtcQ tnat CnarleS summer
delivered a lecture at Niblo's, New York, on
the slavery question, in which his ultra no
tions were all faithfully summed up. This
lecture has elected reply from Rev. j. c.
Breckenridge, of Kentucky. Seldom is it
that we have the pleasure of reading a more
able, beautiful, or eloquent production and,
though there are things in it to which we do
not assent, we may add, or one containing
sounder or more patriotic views. We pro-
pose to present some Of these to our readers.
After few personal remarks, Mr.. Brecken-
ridge says
ss Allow me, sir, to utter in one sentence
the substance of my whole thought touching
the madness of the times, about this whole
question of negro slavery. Here we are-a
great people, with glorious mission set be-
fore us. More than twenty millions of us
with whose destiny the destiny of three or
four millions of blacks is fearfully combined.
One way or other we must solve their destiny
when we solve our own. This is wholly un-
avoidable. But the madness is, that every
seven white Americans must needs cut each
others throats concerning the fate of one
black African Is there no solution of the
problem of their destiny and ours, but that So
luton which destroys us without beneftting
them And can statesmen, such as do not
see sufficient reason TO doubt you are-and
patriots such as have not the heart TO deny
you to be-hnd no better solution of this terri
bic problem-no nobler issue of our sublime
hopes-than mutual destruction by the men of
the north and the men of the south-for the
sake of the African slaves, scattered thinly
over the continent Are we not able to bear
through, by our invincible strength, even such
a parasite as this black race, carving them
forward far beyond anything they could have
reached without US, and yet mounting up our
selves, far beyond anything they may ever
reach! Shame upon every American states
man and every American patriot who is in
sensible to the glory Of such result In
fanny to every one who conspires TO defeat it y
Mr.. Breckenridge next states and comments
upon Mr.. Summers position =
" You openly avow that slavery in America
Is a wrong so grieyous and unquestionable
that it should not be allowed to continue
nay, that it should cease to exist at once-nav,
that wrong so transcendant, SO loaihsome, SO
direfui, must be encountered wherever it can
be reached, and the battle must be continued
without truce or compromise, until the field is
entirely won. Such are your words, pro-
foundly eloquent-unspeakabIy frantic
Now, sir, this means, neither more nor less
than the edge of the sword. Lay aside the
rhetoric, and the simple sense is, grape and
canister, cold steel and stricken battle''
After stating the fact that the relations ex-
listing between the states of the Union, as to
slavery, were settled when the old confedera-
tion was formed; and that if the north were
united as one man it could no more abolish
slavery than it could create world, he thus
states, and replies to, the foundation principle
of Mr.. Summers discourse. We BEG to call
attention TO this statement from one lcho states
that he does not defend sldUery, eren in its fun
damental nature, much less in ITS more reuoAing
dspeds:-
The very foundation of your discourse. as
you distinctly state, is the grand principle
universal, as you assert, in the law of slavery
that man, created ia the image of God is d.
vested of his human character, and declared to
be mere chatteI. Now, Mr.. Sumner, YOU
cannot fail to be aware that both parts of this
statement are absolutely untrue, and by con-
sequence your whole plea for our conquest is
based on double, perfidious quibble There
is not single slave state in this Union whose
laws divest the slave of his human character.
There is not single one whose laws declare
a slave 10 be mere chattel. No doubt many
of the rights, which | believe with you to be
inherent IN human nature, are wholly incom-
patibe with any state of slavery. No doubt
if slavery exists at all the right of property
thus recognized by the local law may be made
90 81. r.rx,ta L.. Il Il
just as it may be to the right one has to reali-
ty. But you have far too much sense and
knowledge not to know, that these are widely
different truths, from the abominable untruths
upon which your whole discourse proceeds.
Do you not perfectly understand, that every
slave state in this Union shapes its entire slave
code, upon the grand truths that a slave is not
mere chattel, and that his human character
is not divested! Do you not know that by the
universal law of slavery, the slave is held to
innumerable accountabilties, overriding all
claim of his master; and that he is protected,
not as chattel but as man, at the peril and
profit even of his masters life And yet, up
on precisely opposite allegations, you construct
an argument whose logical issue is the sub
version of our national Union and upon that
argument you construct a code of morals,
whose highest obligation is civil war Sir,
whatever may be my opinion of the fairness
of such reasoning, easily perceive its dialec-
tic skill. But for your sweeping allegations,
your argument had nothing on which to rest
tor IT the relation of master and slave be once
admitted 10 be generically a relation of power
and subjection analogous to those of ruler and
subject, guardian and ward, parent and child,
then it demands far higher powers than
yours, to show that as mere relation it has
any moral quality at all and then your duty
ot murder on account of it, comes straightway
TO an end Slavery, Mr.. Sumner, is not a
ahing, which, even in its fundamental nature,
much less In its more revolving aspects, have
any purpose to defend. But it is not. either
In It's nature or Its manifestations. the thing
you pronounce 1t to be; and this YOU could
hardly fail to know. How then can I avo;d
saying, that the pretexts on which Won counsel
such insane proceedings, are neither trpe nor
Feal4'
After stating distinction of race to be the
great obstacle to immediate abolition, Mr..
Breckenridge goes on as follows =
"On the other point, your plea for the dis
solution of society and the ruin of our country
is still less satisfactory. As for me, Mr.
Sumner, it has been the great business of my
life to preach the Gospel of God ; the great
pleasure of my life to do what | could to
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