The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-06-13

I
interests of the community-if it could
point out, in all the sunny regions of the
| South, one favored spot that has not been
marred with its poisoned breath, then, IN
deed, we might be inclined to think that
there was bare possibility that the sys-
tenn might work well here. As it is, the
evidence is all against it. Can We, dare
We hope for good from that Institution
which has hung like great mill stone
around every State in the South Can
we persuade ourselves that all the wise
statesmen of the South, from Washington
to Clay, were mistaken in regarding it as
an evil
If slavery had not proved itself ruinous
to the white population by retarding i'm
provements, and by roofing out and send
ing to other States the industrious and
enterprising yeomanry Of the country-if
it had not deprived the spinner, the
weaver. the carpenter, the smith, the
shoemaker and mason, of employment
if it had never poured. Its streams of i'm
moral death down over the social, moral,
and political interests of the people, until
the wise and good of the South, stung al
most to madness, were compelled to cry
out that their beautiful land was fast be-
coming desert like the great Sahara-if
these facts did not exist, possibly the
people of this Territory might be inclined
to listen to the interested song of Missouri,
who would gladly convert this land, first
into market and home for her degraded
slaves, and then into long black she'd to
screen her from the reflected glory of the
surrounding Free States.
The benefits or evils Of slavery to Kan
sas may be conveniently and probably
best viewed by bringing their results, one
by one, before the mind, or at least by
specifying few of the leading and more
important interests.
And, first, we would inquire how slavery
ergy.
The moral and intellectual condition of
people is of primary Importance. Money
without correct moral theory, may and
often does prove a grand scourge to a
State. Money becomes a curse to peo-
pie or to an Individual when it is used to
| dwarf the intellectual, moral and physical
powers of men. Let me illustrate. God
| intended that man should labor. The
man who never exercises his power, is
| doomed to die child; the man who
/ never exercises his intellect, is fit only fol
the tool of another; the man who never
exercises his physical powers, will never
arrive at the stature and power of man
The same is true of the moral nature
The man who never struggles to sur
mount difficulties, to overcome his appe-
tites, his passions, and his desires, i:
doomed to remain mere child in mora
greatness. The slave States make com
paratively little progress in the usefu
arts, not because they are intellectual!
inferior to the people of the free States
but because the white population of thos'
States are not compelled to struggle witt
i difficulties. The mind is not taxed !; tn
!. powers are not put forth; and consequent
i " there is but little advance. SLAYER,
dwarfs the intellectual man by creatin
circumstances unfavorable to the devel
opment of the mind. The powers of tn
mind must be taxed, and unless they ar
/ frequently marshaled in the conflict, the
will remain weak. Labor is the price c
mental or moral progress. Hence, tn
easv circumstances which surround tn
intellectual portion of the slave States
retards the development of the intellect.
t Slavery affects the morals OF a peopl
, by clouding and blotting out the primar
elements of virtue. All our moral ne
$ tions have basis, and that basis Is ii
: God-ordained relation which man su
! tains to man. Religion rests on the tW
grand relations of life, the relation v
4 sustain to God and the relation we su
tain to man, evolve all our religious idei
| and obligations.
; Human law is based on the equal nat
n raj relation which man sustains TO ma
q. 1t implies anteeedent rights, and the
1t rights create obligations of justice. A
Y our notions of right, of justice, of hum;
obligation, spring from the equal natur
J. relation which man sustains to man. Sla
10 ery repudiates and practically denies I
IN existence of any equal natural relate
" between man and man. With one strol
e, it sweeps out the fundamental idea viii
be underlays and gives character and for
n to all our notions of right. 1t leaves t
a moral system of a people entirely ies
ID tute of any great fundamental principl
Il The moment We cast aside the great t
er controlling truth, that man is our neig
he Dor, our fellow, our equal, then are we
he endless mazes lost" Our moral sh
O. is out on boundless sea; We are at t
on mercy of every breezeeof human fancy
-, h,,,,,o,, r,.,,tafion For one man To d
er, another, is the most positive denial pos
of bic that man Is neighbor to his broti
n man. 1t clearly and unequivocally {
r. nies that the eHslaved man has the rigl
r. Of a neighbor. Is it strange that the n
in raj notions of men are confused when Ii
have both theoretically and pracsica
i'd set aside the very relation which inyof
ed the law Of human obligation ? Right 8
rs wrong are not arbitrary vhims, but 7