The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-03-21
~, Social improvement

men? and book, too as harmless as the I'm
pending Crisis? / have heard gentlemen de
} nouDce that book in most violent language
! asserting that it advised insurrection, treason
servife war, arson, and murder. / say that the
book advises no much thing, and | call npou
gentlemen TO pronuce any such recommends
tion from that book, presume that gentle
man who made the charges never had read the
book. And yet to sell this harmless book in
slave State is considered crime. Where
is your constitutional liberty! In what respect
does the Liberty of South Carolina differ from
the d9spotism of AustriaH f. -e
! w hen say that northern men cannot trav-
ei in the southern States and give utterance
10 ,helr opInions. do not say that the laws
prohibit it. Bot there is a power above law
and above Constitution That power is the
po wer OF The mob, controlled bv the. privjIeg.
ed class. In the presence of slavery the law
is silenr. and the Constitution nulIity flor the
night To Lold property in man has become the
supreme law of the land. The people of the
tfee States respect all constitutional obiga-
! lions; thew guard, with especial jealousy the
liberty of speech and of the press The most
Violent advocate of slavery can travel through
any OF oar free States. He may preach for
slavery and against freedom, and he will meet
with no molestation. Not hs will he
raised against him in violence but from the
farm and the workshops he will find men
willing and able to discuss the su, iect with
him. He may even publish his opinions in a
book; we will not imprison or harg the man
who circulates it.; we can trust our people 10
read whatever may be written; we require no
censors of the press
How is it at the South? To be suspected
OF loving freedom better than slavery is
crime Men, women. and children are Danish
ed from their homes and driven from your
States for the attrocIous crime of loving lie
erty and hating slavery, no. by process of law
but by the many headed mob northern
man can travel with more fttv in any part
OF the world than in our slave States. We
can hardly take up paper but we see some
new act of violence perpetrated upon our
northern people. The unfortunate victim
may invoke the Constitution, but it has
no protection for bin. He may exclaim. am
an American citizen; but will be answered with
imprisonment, scourge, or gibbet And yet
we are. gravely |, ctured for our want of ie-
spect for the Constitution .-- s
Gentlemen of the South, the North demands
of you the observance of constitutional obi.
cations. She demands that her citizens be
protected by your laws in the enjoyment of
their constitutional rights. She demands the
freedom of speech and of the press; and if
your peculiar institution cannot stand before
them, let it go down. for the rights of ma
ton are not to be thrown away because they
conflict with your system of bondage.
Mr. Chairman, it is in vain to talk of fur
ther concession to slavery. We have no con
hdence in its integrity. We have trusted to
its plighted faith and found it punic. Its last
great act of treachery shuts the door of com
promise forever. We have yielded to its de.
mands, and it has only increased its arrogance
and sharpHned its appetite for yet greater de.
mands Let slavery restrain its inordinate lust
Tor power; let it take its place under the Con.
stltution, and not above it; let it respect the
rights of others and cease its aggressions; then
1t will be time for its advocates here to lecture
the free States about their Constitutional OBJ.
legations. We hear m Jch about the rights of
the South-indeed, we have heard little else;
and one would suppose.listeDing to the speech
es on the other side, that there were no rights
except Southern rights. We do not hear of
natural rights, or the rights of American citi-
zens, but the rights of the South What do
you mean by the rights of the South2 Not
the rights of your four million slaves; not the
rights OF the great mass of our white brothers.
the non shareholders. You certainly do not
mean theee; you mean the rights of the priv
lleged few, the rights of the slaveholding ar.
lstocracy And. by q strange perverson of
languagethe party which is array ed against the
rights OF the many, and sustains the most ar.
rogaHt demands of the slayeholding aristocra.
cv, is called the Democratic party Mr..
Chairman, l have heard strange doctrines
avowed here. have heard Democrat after
Democrat defend slavery on principle, and vet
not one Democrat has arisen to condemn or
reprobate it-no, not one. l had supposed
that if anything was fixed in the theory of our
Government. or sustained by the teachings of
our religion. it was that man had certain God
given rights; that these rights were indefeasi
BILE; that these rights existed before. and were
superior to, all constitutions and all laws; that
they formed the true basis of all political as
sociaiion; and that to secure these inaliena.
BILE rights, Governments are instituted among
men, cr-eSeaE -=f. s..-r a.r.efL =
But, in these latter days. find that new
light has burst upon the world; Democrats no
longer admit that men have inalienable rights;
for 20 admit that, brands slavery as wrong,
and slavery,say they. is Enthusiastically right;
great moral, social, and political blessing,
and good. Not African slavery; but slavery
as a principle, black or white, per Sc. The
gentleman from Mississippi, [Mr. Lamar,1 in
bis able speech the other day, attempted to
show that the Bible sanctioned slavery: if it
did, it was white slavery. Indeed, the gentle
man did not attempt to sustain slavery upon
the foolish pretext of color; but he based it
upon the startling assumption that the strong.
er class has right to enslave the weaker
1t is an alarming doctrine. that physical or
mental superiority confers upon the possessor
additional rights; for who has not superior2
And if this be the trne doctrine, where is the
man who may not at any moment become
slave? This has always been the tyraEt's plea
Intrenched behind the Divine right of superi
or birth, or superior class. he imposes his des.
potic will upon his cringing subjects. There
is not a despotism to day but sustains itself
upon the very argument by which Democracy
attempts to Justify slavery ~"
When we assert that slavery is contrary to
natural justice, we are asked for the evidence.
see that evidence in the intellectual and NOR
al capabilities of man, which assert the right
of improvement. and which slavery denies;
see it in the eternal aspirations of the human
heart; | see it in the blight and ruin which
ever follow, sooner or later, in the footsteps of
slavery; and finally | see that evidence 10 the
fact that slavery denies to man every right;
for the very idea of slavery is the exclusive
ownership of one man by another. Blood
bone, sinew, and soul, all belong to the master.
According to the Louisiana code:
8 A slave is in the power of the master, to
whom he belongs; the master may sell him,
dispose of his person. his industry, his labor;
he can do nothing possess nothing, nor acquire
anything, bat what must belong to his MASTER
hold in my hand pamphlet, which some
gentleman has kindly sent me from Mississippi.
1t appears to be report made to the South
ern Gommerciol Cnnvant;nn bol5 ot U;oLs