The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-24

4 l
and feels them. When the statesman examines
the condition of his country, he finds her mora
! influence gone, her physical strength diminish
ed, her. physical power wasted, he sees ane
must confess them. ~ Sir, we shoulC
take courage from the goodness of the cause il
which we are engaged. 1t is one on which
Heaven viii smile. We shall not be left unaid
ed in our exertions. Slavery is a national ca
laasty. Such Hhas been regarded by those aokt
are entirely free from the evil. Nine Of the non
slapeholdiag States haze generously offered ID
the South The common treasury for the remoOa
of the common epa. Such, too, soas the puyport
of the resolutions Submitted to the Senate of thu
United States By Rufus King, at tie close o
has long and useful public life"
Mr.. Chandler, of Norfolk, said
/" But, sir, will this evil-this curse-not in
crease? viii not the life, liberty, prosperity
happiness, and safety, of those schO may com.
after as be endangered in a still greater degree
by it? How, then, can we reconcile it to our
selves, to fasten this upon them? Do we not
endanger the very national existence by entail
ing Slavery upon them :"
Thomas j. Randolph, of Albemarle, a grand
son of Mr.. Jefferson, said
/" The gentleman has spoken of the increase
of the female slaves being part of the profit.
! 1t is admitted but no great evil can be avert
ed, no good attained, without some inconveni-
ence. 1t may be questioned how far it is de.
sirable to foster and encourage this branch of
! profit. 1t is practice an increasing prac-
tice, in parts of Virginia-to rear slaves for
market. How can an honorable mind, o pa
triot and lover of his country, bear to see this
Ancient Dominion, rendered illustrious by the
noble devotion and patriotism of her sons to
I e foA s,,k0
menagerie, where men are to be reared for
market like oxen in the shambles? Is it
better, is it not worse than the slave trade
that trade which enlisted the labor of the good
and the wise of every creed and every cline to
4 abolish it? The gentleman has ap-
| pealed to the Christian religion in Justification
| of Slavery. / would ask him upon what part
| of those pure doctrines does he rely, to which
of those sublime precepts does he advert, to
sustain his position? Is it that which teaches
charity, justice, and good will to all, or is it that
which teaches that { Ye do unto others as We
would they should do unto you >"
Another Representative from Jefferson and
Harpers Ferry, Mr.. Henry Berry said:
~ believe that no cancer on the physical
| body was ever more certain, steady, and fatal
in its progress than is the cancer on the politi-
cal body of the State of Virginia. 1t is eating
into her very vitalS. And shall we admit that
the evil is past remedy? Shall we act the part
of a puny patient, suffering under the ravages
of a fatal disease, who would say the remedy is
too painful, the dose too nauSeous, l cannot
bear it /; who would close his eyes in despair,
and give himself up to death ? No, sir, I,could
bear the knife and the caute'y for the sake Of
health"
Mr.. Thomas Marshall, of Fauquier, in the
same section of Virginia. said
Wherefore, then, object to Slavery? Be-
cause it is ruinous to the whites-retards i'm
provement, roots out an industrious population,
banishes the yeomanry of the country, deprives
the spinner, the weaver, the smith, the shoe
maker, the carpenter, of employment and sup
port"
Mr.. James Mcdowell of Rockbridge, since
Governor of the State and a distinguished
member of Congress, said:
"Sir, you may place the slave where you
please-you may dry up, to your utmost, the
fountains of his feelings, the springs of his
thought-you may close upon his mind every
avenue to knowledge, and cloud it over with
artificial night-you may yoke him to your
labor as an OK which liveth only to work, and
worketh only to hve-you may put him under
any process, which, without destroying his
value as slave, will debase and crush him as
a rational being-you may do this, and the
idea that he was born to be free will survive it
all. 1t is allied to his hope Of Immortality
it is the ethereal part of his nature, which OBJ
preston cannot reach-it is q torch lit up in
his soul by the hand of the Deity, and never
4 meant to be extinguished by the hand of man."
! 1t would be difficult to find anywhere more
eloquent tribute to the God-given rights of man
than this. The same speaker, in another part
of the speech, gives the following prophetic
warning to the South
| of gentlemen do not see and feel the erH of
| Slavery lchiIe this Federal Union lasts Mey lciL
see and feel ii ,ohen IL is gone; they will see
and suffer it then in a magnitude of desolatng
power, to which the pestilence that walketh at
| MONDAY would be a blessing-to which the
malaria which is now threatening extinction to
the eternal city, as the proud one of the pom
tiffs and Caesars is called, would be as refresh
| ing and as balmy as the first breath of spring
! to the chamber of disease. Was it
the fear of Nat Turner and his deluded, drunken
handful of fellows, which produced, or could
| produce, such effects? Was it this that induced
distant counties, where the very name of South
ampton was strange, to arm and equip for a
struggle? No, sir; it was the suspicion eter-
/
| cion that Nat Turner might be in every fam
| lily; that the same bloody deed could be acted
over at any time, and in any place; that the
materials for it were spread through the land,
and always ready for like explosion
| What Virginian will not at this moment ac-
knowledge the terrible force of these words?
Mr.. Philip A. Boiling, of Buckingham, said ::
"There is still small voice which speaks
| to the heart of man In tone too clear and
distinct to be dsregarded. 1t tells him that
every system of Slavery is based upon I'M Justice
and oppression. II gentlemen disregard 1t noU,
| and I'LL their cOnScienceS to sleep, they may be
aroused to a sense Of their danger iohen 1t IS too
late to repair their errors.
However the employment of slave labor
might be defended, gentlemen would not, could
not Justify the traffic in human beings. \
| How many broken heart, how many Rachel
mourns, because her house is left unto her des
| olatei The time has come when these feelings
could not be suppressed; the day would come
when they could not be resisted"
| Mr.. Brodnax, of Dinwiddie, said:
That Slavery in Virginia is an evil, it would
| be idle and more than idle for any human being
to doubt or deny. 1t is a mildew which has
! bighted in its course every region it has touch
| ed. from the creation of the world"
The Hon. Charles j. Faulkner, who also re-
sides in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, made
| long. eloquent, and radically abolition speech,
We have only room for few brief extracts. 1t
will be seen that like all the Representatives
from that region, he was, perhaps all uncon-
sciously, prophetic. He said
again, sir, ask, what new light has dawn
| .,oox, tho oantleman from Mock lon huro (thq