The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1856-03-29
TIE SLAVE MOTHERS DEED.

The following is the reply Of c. L. Brace
20 ar accusation OF false mOralitv which ap-
Ieared in the N,s.rrer. because lie expressed
admiration for mother who would rather
s-e her child a bleeding corpse than to see it
returned to slavery.
There are two parties of men in this coun-
try. who each have definite theory of chat
.el->averv. One ailirms that the Africans
en>laved in America are happy in bondage:
that it is comfortable and pleasant for them
thus to be cared for by another. and that
their DAYS pass far more chceriv, than those
C' any common laboring class in the world -
The other bodily says. the Negro belong. to
an inferior race: ha is not fully developed
man he is created for dependence and ser
,l'ude and he does not fee! as whites would
:he Incidental evils Of slavery. .Ie is mere
" a lii,le above the animal. Freedom is no
more to him than to the brute
All down the course OF human history,
there have been actions. which men instinct
ively felt could only be performed by highly
organized and heroic natures One ph.oso-
pher has said That sensitive feeling of per
'onaI freedom belongs only to the higher class
OF minds"
When Eirgnius strikes the knife to the
heart OF bis daughter before the ewes of the
people to preserve Ter from di>honor when
the Norwegian Viking plunges armed into
the SEA to escape captivity by death; when
the Knights of St. John defend the hopeless
citadel Of Malta against the Turk. until de-
Tenders and as>ailants are buried in COM
mon ruin: when the floIan,ler floods his
country. drowning his own wifi. and children
10 deliver it from scrvitue; when a Rrbrc
"a OF fiction. stands on the paraprt. prepared
by one plunge to escape shame and slavery
or when the Hungarian fires the magazine
which shall blow himself and his fort to atoms,
rather than be taken prisoner - the human
mind nvolunfary adnrres 1t feels that
such deeds could only he done bv noble and
heroic persons. IL iporS that such men and
such women could not be low. or brutal or
animal. 1t may not on the purest code OF
Christianity. justify them. vet it feels that
The wrong. II wrong there be, is half excused
by the sin Of the system or the oppression
which produced it, Its instincts sav. that t
value Life less than Liberty is noble.
Now why does the act prove less, when per
formed by poor slave mother in these Uni
ted States OF America? Does it not say il
tones, winch neither theory nor spltishnes
can prevent; from bein. heard. "The poo
save mother is not contrnted with bondage
',ood food and comfortable clothing do nc
out-haance to her the wrongs of servitude
She 1,el>-ttcs the ranss of slavery Sh
loves her own life she loves her child eve
more than life: but she loves LIBERTY NOR
than either "She cannM hear 10 expose III
!"urg girl to the prost,ution the icnoranr,
the heahenism. the nameless wrongs of 4
rneriran slavery"
We cannot but admire such feeling
tie deed had happened in Republican Rom
Or in Hungary. it must have become the sui
lect of drama, and the theme of oratorv
We should not perhaps on the highest cod
have fully justified it-but the universal h,
man mind, surprising the woman to have az
cd sanely. would have pronounced the feelin
thai prompted it "a noble instinct"
The abstract question of the strict moral
" Of such acts, we are not discussing. TIL
great point is. what do such deeds show o
american Siar.ryl