The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1859-04-13
tFrom the correspondence Of Washington Union
Decay of AbOIitiOni>In in New En-
EIa


smartness, and will he praised by your partlzsns
as a very clever effort; but see no othor effect
that it can produce but TO irrtate the South,
and ALLEVIATE one section OF the Union still more
from the other Have we not at the North
stimulated our own selfrighteOusness, IN con-
traSt with the sins Of the South, quite up to,
or beyond the healthy point? Would it not he
well for u.s. for a tim to look more at our own
failngs, and at the virtues Of our brethren Of
the South? ...
You speak Of the change Of tone and senti-
ment that has taken place during the last twen.
ty. five years on the subject of slavery. plead
guilty to the truth of this charge. 1t was one
Of the dreams of nv early life, that the condl-
ton OF mankind might be greatly improved by
sudden political changes. The cry of the slave
came to nv youthful ear, waited by the eloquent
breath Of eye- witnesses, from Virginia and New
Jersey. Almost every man at the South, at
that time, admitted that slavery was an evil,
moral, social and political; the horrors OF the
middle passage, the barbarian crueltes Of Ja-
mica, came to US across the ocean; Wliberiorce
aud ClarkSon had acquired a world wide fame
by their singular devotion to the abolition OF the
slave trade; the assault waS soon made upon
slavery itself in the British West Indies, and
the 1st Of August 1898 was entered inthe cal.
ender as one of the holy davS Of the year.
Campbell painted the wild chieNain on his
native plains 40 noble, so fresh, 50 happy caught
chained, doomed, suffering, till the hurricanes
in the West 1nlias, were commissioned to n
venge his wrongs. The pIaintve Cowper wept
out his compassion in the touching lines, 81
would not have slave for all the gold that
Snews bought and sold have ever earned' and
these tones of suffering, of compassion, OF pity
were echoed hv every harp and re echoed by ev-
cry orator and preacher, till the whole atmos-
phere Of New England was vocal with the cries
Of the slave. have done my full share of it,
but greater men have been mistaken, and have
in ripper years been compelled to revise and re-
woke the opinions Of earlier days. Burke once
was enraptured with the voice OF Liberty as
she cried from across the Channel, but in the
| full strength Of his manhood, he was compelled
| to denounce the crimes committed in her name.
| Sir James Mcintosh, wrote hls piHctfi1E GgtH-
cp, but was compelled, by longer experience
any wider observation, to carceI the opinions OF
early life by those Of maturcr years am com
! PEELED to cancel many things that | have said
on the subject of slavery, and substitute for
them the opinions Of ripe age. / might have
once said what or nearly what you have said in
your late speech in Congress, although | do
| L
which serve to no other end than simply to irri-
tate, without convincing. But my convictions
at the present time are, not only that the slave
holders have a complete vndicatOn of their pre-
sent position, but they are entitled to be looked
upon as beneactors to the country and the hu.
man race.
The only ground on which can claim their
patience and forbearance towards US meddling
with their affairs, and for abusing them as much
as we have, and as some still continue to do, is
this: they gave us the false premises on which
we reasoned correctly to false conclusions They
gave away their case by concession; for if sla-
very be a sin, a wrong, or an evil, no fair mind
can resist the conclusion that efforts ought to
be made as soon as possible to do it away. This
PHILOSOPHY that slavery is wrong, Sprang up in
Virginia, and was adopted and encouraged in
nearly all of the slave states, and the seed was
| thence in connection with the correct and grand
principles ofhuman government, scattered wide
over the free States They have had their growth
and now it is n little difficult to pull them up;
but they shall take the wheat with them also.
The South are impregnabe. The ConStitu-
ton protects them, and the experience ofman-
| kind protects them, and the Bible protects
them Our fathers made covenant with their
fathers. They came into the Union with their
African slaves, on terms ofeQuaity with us, and
with all the rights and privileges that we can
claim under the same instrument. They would
make no covenant except upon terms of equal
ity. We accepted those terms; we could get ne
better TO day; and yet we should be glad tC
make it, if it were not made, or to renew it, i
broken, and on the same conditions we have
now. -yt&
The South claim the right to 90 into new
territory, and try the new land with their slaves
till the territory becomes a sovereign state, and
then bow to its will. as before all sovercigns.-
This is the Just and equitable claim, founded
on fair interpretation Of the Constitution
Slavery should be permitted to flow by natural
laws to regions for which it is best adapted. II
will go nowhere else You could not force il
into New Hampshire ncr keep it there if in.
troduced. The experiment has been tried and
failed Slavery was given up in the Northern
States not by the force of moral but by the force
of natural lars.
1t is true the discussions of the last twenty
five years have produced great deal Of senti
ment on the subject Of slavery in the Northern
States; but you know how utterly barren of any
good results it has been to the African. In 1oo'tl
and because their number is small, and vii
continue to be small-we have in the extreme
north given them the rights Of citizenship ant
equality; but in ,00rks we deny them. The mos
respectable colored men in Boston would not bt
permitted to hire or to own and quietly enjoy
pew in the broad aisle ofany fashionable church
In the West where your soil is more fertile
and where more free colored men would be like
ly to go you nre more stringent and the black
laws Of Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and Oregon and tn
still more expulsive Topeka Constitution O
, KansaS-for which, believe you and all you
Republican associates voted-proclaim, as will
trumpet tongue, the innate and ineradicab
prejudice against the African, lurking, as
still docs, in the bosom Of those whose tongue
are eloquent for his rights.
| am not little surprised at the manner il
, which you speak of Noah. The Bible calls hin
a "just man, and perfect in his generation" ant
not because he by divine inspiration and by di
vine command, oretold the slavery of the chill
dren of Ham, you give him some very hare
thrusts, and leave him on the pages of you
, speech with character by no means so fair a
that gwen by the sacred historian. Was Noal
t in the way of your theory, that you strike a
him so vigorously, as though you would hev
him down? You say he mistook Canaan 10
, Ham. Suppose he did, the pred dcton and tn
r curse rest somewhere-on some nation. TIL
principle is the same in the divine administra
, ton. Who are the children of Canaan? Ira
r dition and history unite in the belief that the
inhabit the continent Of Africa. Their condi
ton fulfls, with remarkable fidelity, the prophe
Q cy Of that righteous man and preacher ofrigtt
: eousness," Noah. "A servant of servants wa
the double curse, which has rested on that con
Q tinent and Trace for many centuries. 1t is GOV
r cred with network Of double slavery--ever
chief having his retnue Of slaves, while he pay
/. tribute to some higher ohief or petty king.
You seem TO lay much stress upon the fac
g that the Canaanles were not black. How d
# you know? Dr. Thompson, who has writer