Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-03-10
THE CONSTITUTION THE IRREPREssI
BILE CONFLICT.

THE CONSTITUTION THE IRREPREssI-
BILE CONFLICT.
Iu tho course OF his remarks at the recent
meeting of the Massachusetts, A. S. Society
Wendell Phillips soid -
Ladies and gentlemen, Go not know what l
can add to the discussion of these six sessions,
Almost verything appears to have been said, and
can only come to CLEAN little, after such eHic-
lent reapers / hardly know where to begin. Mr..
Garrison has said little in regard to what he
calls an Anti-Slavery or Pro-Savery character
of the Constitution, Well, after all, friends,
where do you 60 to learn the character Of the
Constitution 2 Do you go to the parchment, laid
up at Washington Suppose we take it out. and,
as the Roman Catholic used to carry his saints
image in days of pestilence or storm, in order to
bring back health or peace, suppose you carry it
up and down the streets of Charleston, South Car
olinia, when they are about to tar ard feather a
Northern merchant who has been guilty of the sin
of passing Massachusetts, bank bill-do you
think it will save him ? Suppose you take it, sa-
cred and covered with the hoar of seventy years
and bearing the name Of Washington-take it to
Syracuse, on the evening when Gerrit Smith-God
bless him (applause) and some dozen others are
met, debating the question Of the rescue of Jerry,
and one anxious inquirer into the means Of saliva
tion says Mr.. Smith, what do you think Of mus
kets p Il don't think the time has come for that,
said Gerylt. Well, what do you think of axesH
The more of them the better And SO they
walked out With axes, and jerry walked to Can
ada. (Applause.) Do you think the parchment
Of the United States Constitution would have held
back Gerrit Smith, and the immortal jury OF
twelve that followed him, armed with axes, al
though they couldn't quite stomach rifles in that
early PERIOD in the twiligh, of the chapter of vi
olence / trow not. l do not learn the COnsti'
tuition of the United States in the parchment at
Washington. learn it in Wall Street and State
Street. For Constitutions are not made they
grow. Our fathers made, probably, the best Con-
stitution they could makei for they were the mere
scrbes to write out the prevalent will of the Amer
ican people. And as long as slavery exists, and
controls thirty Slates there is question whether
the Constituton-properlys speaking, the govern-
ment of this country-is Pro-Slavery or Jan Anti
Slavery instrument. Foe that government OF
which slavery takes the control, must be Pro-
Slavery government. But this is mere dispute
abou; words l went down. recently, to lecture in
Bristol, Rhode Island. As l passed out of the
town, rode through very fine farm, ard was
told that the man who owned it very much
disturbed by question which had risen up be-
tween Warren and Bristol, whether that farm
which had hitherto belonged to Bristol should be
set off to Warren, and the old farmer objected,
and went up to town-meeting, very much agtated,
and said 4 don't want to be set off to Warren /;
for Bristol has always been healthier town than
Warren = (Laughter) just as idle is the discus
sion as to what the parchment says at Washing
ton. Constitutions grow; they are notmade and
while the Constitution of this country sanctions
slavery to the extent that slavery rules the coun-
t1y the government is pro-slavery one, and we
need not concern ourselves about the precise word
ing Of the instrument that represents it. l said
to an audience somewhat larger than this, last
Sunday and probably most of you heard it,
that it reminded me only of the anecdote OF the
savage that Bayald Taylor, | think, met, who had
painted upon himself blue coat and brass but
tons-he was still naked savage And if the
American people, in 1889, had painted upon them
selves an anti-slayery Constitution, they would
still have been pro.savery people, because State
Street. and Harverd College, and Princeton, and
every one of the advance guards of what are called
the FTec States, are prO-slavery they are made
out of public opinion that is willing to support
slavery for certain ends. l maintain that there is
no irrepressble conflict, and has not been for six
ty years, between the governing influences of these
Northern States and those of the South If there
had been there could not have been peace between
the two sections of the Government-w which there
has BEEN The money Of the North and the mon
ey Of the South were identical. The religion OF
the North and the religion of the South were iden'
tcal The literature of the North and that of the
South were identical. And they framed tho gov
ernment. But we were like family Of children,
all in loving harmony we couldn't live separate,
while we were Toys and girls. Our dispositions
lie cradled and folded. and character does not
come out, strong and broadly marked. We are
beginning to grow we have got to be twenty one
and thirty, and forty-marIied, and have children;
weIhaye entered into business. The keen comPe'
titions of active manhood have begun among
thirty States; and with them has commenced the
lirrepressbe | conflict to which Mr.. Seward alludes
1t will necessarily be very slow progress as
it has been. The only thing that know like it
is the introduction of Christianity into the Roman
Empire Blu: it took three centuries to put Con
stantne on the throne of that Roman Empire
Meantime, Christianity had been doing exactly
what we have been doing-remodolling literature
undermining the army, changing domestic life; u
left law imperative, authority powerless, an al
tar dcserted and the irrepressibe conflict between
the two ideas went on, without the sword, by the