The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-02-05
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, D. c. FEBRUARY s.

surely than the resistants of military despotism
in the French Empire. Nor except just now,
has the case been much better, even in the free
States. 1t is only as of yesterday, when the free
citizens, assembled to discuss the exactions OF
the slaveholding class, were dispersed in Bos-
ton, Utica, Philadelphia, and New York. 1t is
only as of yesterday, that when rose, on re-
quest of citizens of Michigan, at Marshall, to
speak of the great political questions of the day,
was enjoined not to make disturbance or to
give offence by speaking of free soil, even on
the ground which the Ordinance of 1887 had
saved to Freedom. 1t was only as of yesterday,
that Protestant Churches and Theological Semi
naries, built on Puritan foundations, We'd with
the organs of the slaveholding class in denounc-
ing legislator who, in the act of making laws
affecting its interests, declared that all human
laws ought to be conformed to the standard of
eternal justice. The day has even not yet passed
when the press employed in the service of edu-
cation and morality, expurgates from the books
which are put into the hands of the young all
reflections on Slavery. The day yet lasts when
the flag of the United States faunts defiance on
the high seas, over cargoes of human merchan-
disc. Nor is there an American representative
anywhere, in any one of the four quarters of the
globe, that does not labor to suppress even there
the discussion of American Slavery, lest it may
possibly affect the safety of the slaveholdng class
at home. If, in generous burst of sympathy with
the struggling Protestant Democracy of Europe,
we bring off the field one of their fallen champions,
to condole with and comfort him, we suddenly
discern that the mere agitation of the principles
| of Freedom tend to alarm the slaveholding class,
and we cast him off again as wait, not merely
worthless but dangerous to ourselves. The nat
ural and ancient order of things is reversed !;
Freedom has become subordinate, sectional, and
| local. Slavery in its influence and combinations
has become predominant, NATIONAL and general.
| Free direct, and manly utterance in the cause
of Freedom, even in the free States themselves,
leads to ostracism, while superserviceablity to
the slaveholding class alone secures prelerment
| in the national councils. The descendants of
Franklin, and Hamilton, and Jay, and King, are
unprized-
IT'LL they learn to betray
Undisncuish'd they live If they shame not their sires,
Aud the torch that would lgh, them 10 digny's way,
Must be caught from the pile when thercountry expires
| In this course of rapid public Generalization,
what wonder is it that the action of the Govern
ment tends continually with fearfully augment
ing force to the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the slave
| holding class? A Government can never be bet
ter or wiser, or even so good or so wise as the
| people over whom it presdes Who can wonder,
then, that the Congress of the United States in
1920 gave to Slavery the west bank of the Missis-
sippi quite up to the present line of Kansas, and
was content to save for Freedom, out of the vast
region of Louisiana, only Kansas and Nebraska
| Who can wonder that it consented to annex and
admit Texas, with power to subdivide herself in
to five slave States, so as to secure the slavehold
| ing class balance against the free States then
| expected to be ultimately organized in Kansas
and Nebraska? Who can wonder, that when this
annexation of Texas brought on war with
| Mexico, which ended in the annexation of Up
per California and New Mexico, every foot of
which was free from African Slavery, Congress
divided that vast Territory, reluctantly admitting
4 ,a Statn >fE
cause she would not consent to establish Slavery,
! dismembered New Mexico, transferred a large
portion of it to 81 aveholding Texas, and stipula-
| ted that what remained of New Mexico, together
with Utah, should be received as slave States if
the people thereof should so demand? Who
| can wonder that the President, without any re-
proof by Congress, simultaneously offered to
Spain two hundred millions of dollars for the
purchase of Cuba, that it might be divided into
two slaveholding States, to be admitted as men,
bsrs of the Federal Union, and at the same time
menaced the European Powers with war if they
should interfere to prevent the contamination of
the purchase? Who can wonder that embold-
| ened with these concessions of the people, Con-
gress at last anctioned reprisal by the slave
holding class upon the regions of Kansas and
Nebraska, not on the ground of Justice or for an
| equivalent, but simply on the ground that the
original concession of them to Freedom was ex-
torted by injustice and unconstitutional oppres-
sion by the free States? Who can wonder that
| the slavehOlding class, when it had obtained the
sanction of Congress to that reprisal, by giving
a pledge that the people of those Territories
should be perfectly free nevertheless to estab-
fish Freedom therein, invaded the Territory Of
Kansas with armed forces, naugurated an usurp-
alton, and established Slavery there, and dis
franchised the supporters of Freedom by tyran-
nical laws, enforced by fire and sword, and that
the President and Senate maintain and uphold
the slavehOldingl interests in these eliminating
demonstrations Of their power, while the House
OF Representatives lacks the power because it
is wanting in the virtue to rescue the interests of
Justice, Freedom and Humanity? Who can won
der that Federal Courts in Massachusetts indict
defenders of Freedom for sedition, and in Pennsyl
vania subvert the State tribunals, and pervert
the habeas corpus, the great writ of Liberty into
a process for arresting fugitive slaves, and con-
strue into contempt, punishable by imprison-
ment without bail or mainprize, the simple and
truthful denial of personal control over fugi-
tive female slave, who has made her own voun-
tary escape from bondage? Who can wonder
that in Kansas lawyers may not plead or juries
be empannelled in the Federal Courts, nor can
even citizens vote, without first swearing to sup
port the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas and
Nebraska act, while citizens who discuss through
the press the right of Shareholders to domineer
there, punished with Imprisonment or death
free institutions, may pass, free taverns where
they may rest, and free presses through which
they may speak, are destroyed under indictments
for nulsances and those who peacefully assem-
bic to debate the grievances of that class and
petition Congress for relief are indicted for high
treason?
Just now, the wind sets with some apparent
steadiness in tile North, and you will readily
confess therefore that | do not exaggera:e the
growing acknowledgements of tho clavohoI1inf,
class, but you will nevertheless insist that that
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT is now and may be merely tenn
pOrary and occasional. A moments reflection,
however, will satisfy you that this opinion is
profoundly untrue. What is now seen is ONLY
the legitimate maturing of errors unresisted
through period of more than thirty years. All
the fearful evils now upon US are only the inev-
liable results of Efforts to extinguish, by delays
concession, and compromises, a discussion to
which Justice, Reason, and Humanity, are contin-
ually lending their elemental fires
What, then is the tendency Of this aggrandize-
ment of the slave interest, and what must be its
end, if it be not now speedily arrested? I'm
mediate consequences are distinctly in view
The admission of Kansas into the Union as a
slave State, the subsequent introduction of Sla-
very by means equally fragrant into Nebraska,
and the admissio of Utah with the twin pa
triarchal institutions of legalized Adultery and
Slavery, and these three achievements crowned
with the incorporation of Cuba into the Repub-
lie. Beyond these visible fields lies q region
of fearful speculation = the restoration of the
African slave trade, and the Dissertation of all
Mexico and Central America by the infiction
upon the half civilized Spanish and Indian races
dwelling there, by our hands, Of a curse from
which, inferior as they are to ourselves, they
have had the virtue once to redeem themselves.
Beyond this area last surveyed lies that of civil
and servilc wars, national decline and-RuIN.