Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1859-12-09
are frequently seen And the Seal and

Nat Turner. should be growing u,
among oseapparently quiet spectators
II is in no spirit OF taunt or of exulta
ton, that ask this question, neve,
think OF 1t but with anxiety, sadness. ane
sympathy. I know that slaveholdins
community necessarily lives in the mids
OF gunpowder; and in this age sparks o
free thought are flying in every direction
lon cannot quench the fires of free
thought and human sympathy by an,
process Of cunning or force; but there i.
method by which you can efectuall,
wet the gunpowder. England has al
already tried it. with safety and success
would that you could be persuaded to
ne, aside the prejudiccs of education and
candidiy examine the actual working Of
that experiment Virginia is so richl,
endowed by nature that Free Institutions
alone are wanting to render her the mos,
prosperous and powerful of the States.
In your letter you suggest that such
scheme as Captain Browns is the nat
ural result Of the opinions with which |
sympathlze. Even if thought this to
be a correct statement, though | should
deeply regret it, could no: draw the
conclusion that humanity ought to be
stlhed, and truth struck dumb, for fear
that long-successful despotism might be
endangered by their u,terance. But the
tact Is, you mistake the source of that
strange outbreak. No abolition arsu.
ments or denuncations, however earnest
ly, loudly, or harshly proclaimed, would
nave produced that result. 1t was the
legitimate consequences ofthe continual,
and constantly-increasing asgress,ons Of
the S!ave-Power. The Slave States, in
their desperate efforts to sustain a bad
and dangerous institution, have encroach-
ed more and more upon the liberties OF
the Free States. Our inherent love of
law and order, and our supersti,ious
attachment to the Union, you have mis-
taken for cowardice; and rarely have YOU
let slip an opportunity to add insul, to
aggression.
The manifested opposition to Slavery
began with the lectures and phamplets
OF few disinterested men and women,
who based their movements upon pure
ly moral and religious grounds; but their
expostulations were met with a storm of
rage. with tar and feathers, brickba
demolished houses and other applications
of Lynch law. When the dust of the
conflict began to subslde a little, their
numbers were found to be greatly in
creased by the efforts to exerminate
them. They had become an influence
IN the State too important to be over
looked by shrewd calcula'ors. Politi.
cal economists began to look at the sub.
ject from lower point of view. They
used their abilities to demo nstrate tina,
slavery was wasteful system. aid that
the Free States were taxed, 10 an euor.
nous extent, to sustain an institution
which, at heart, two thirds of them
abhorred. The forty millions, or more,
of dollars. expended in hunting Fugitive
slaves in Florida under the name Of the
Seminole War, were adduced as one
item in proof, to which many more were
added. At last politicians were COM
PEELED to take some acton on thes ubiect
1t soon became known to all the people
that the slave States had always managed
to hold in their hands the political power
ofthe Cnion,and that while they consti,u-
ted only one third ofthe white popula-
ton of these States, they held more than
two thirds OF all the lucrative. and once
honorable Offices; an indignity TO which
none but subjusated people had ever
before submitted. The knowledge also
became generally diffused, that while the
Southern States ovatd their Democracy
4. home, and voted far them. they also
systematically tri6ed the nominally
Democratic party at the North, with the
Offices adroi,ly kept at their disposal.
look upon their shame.
Through these. and other instrument
talities the sentiment OF the original
Garrisonian Abolitionists became very
widely extended. in forms more or less
diluted. But by far the most ,iiciens
co..aborers we have ever had have been
the slave States themselves. By deny.
ing u the sacred Right of Petition. they
reused the free spiiit Of the North, as il:
never could have been reused By the
loud trumpet Of Garrison. or the soul.
animating bugle Of Phillips. They
bought our great slave, Daniel, and, ac-
cordins to their established usage, paid
him no wages for his labor. BY his CO.
operation, they t reed the fugitive slave
law upon us in collation. of all our hui
name instincts aud all our principles of
justice. And what did tn Y procure for
the Abolitionis,s by that despoiic pro-
cess:
\ deeper and wider detesta,ion Of
slavery throughout the Free States, and
the publication of Uncle Toms Cabin
an eloquent outburst of moral indigna-
ton, whose echoes wakened the world to
look upon their shame
By hliibustering and fraud, they dis
membered Mexico, and having thus OBJ
tanned the soil Of Texas. they tried TO
introduce it as slave State into the
Union. Failing to effect their purpose
ly constitutional means, they accom-
plished it by most open and palpable
violation Of the Constitution, and by OBJ
tanning the votes of Senators on false
pretenses.
Soon afterwa,d. Southern, slave ad-
ministrat:on coded to TIE powerful mon
srchy Of Great Britain several hundred
IL