Red Wing sentinel. [volume] (Red Wing, M.T. [i.e. Minn.]) 1855-1861, 1860-02-29
BROTHER son1N,, LECTURE.

BROTHER soRIN's LECTURE
AS per announcement, the Elder wa!
safely delivered Of his lecture on Monda,
evening. We found ourselves among tn.
audience ut the appointed time. After hi.
usual preparatory a-hems the Eldcr!procecd
cd to state that having nothing better to do
he was about to clear the anti-slavery mer
Of. the North from the charge Of exciting
Southern insurrection--a charge which he
thought had never been rcfuted we agreed
with him therc,) and which his lecture was
to knock on the head. lie reviewed the
history Of slavery among the Hebrews
Greeks and Romans, and through the mid.
die ages, till he came down, with anothe,
significant ahem, to the days Of the negro
question.
The Elder took the position that insur.
rection was the natural result depression
and he occupied the greater portion Of his
time in establishing it by "the teachings o.
philosophy, and the attestations of history
and finally accomplished his object, much tc
his own satisfaction and our obligation
Now says the Elder, triumph antly, push
ing back his specs till they gracefully s.rad.
died his bump Of veneration, and putting on .
sort of now-I'm- going to -do-it look, "whe
says slavery was not the cause of the Har.
pers Ferry instruction? Who says the Abo.
litionists are responsible for what history
and philosophy teach US is the natural re-.
suit of oppression p And our venerable
father in the Lord said this with such an
air Of injured innocence that we could not in
our heart find him guilty Of hypocrisy and
we charitably concluded that it never occur
red to his mind that there was not single
slare in the Harper's Ferry affair, and that
not single Southern negro could be induced,
either by threats or brides, to join the insur-
surrectionists. "No, sir;' said the Elder,
with magnificent gesture, "the Republicans
had no more to do with the instruction Of
1853, than with that of 1900" But, dea,
Elder, it. as you say, the Abolitionists are
not responsible. and it. as you further say
the Republicans were not engaged in it, and
It; as we oil know, there was not a single
slave OF Southern negro in the muss, who
as you would say, I'm the name Of candor,'
are the guilty parties F? Will that, not YER,
automatic, generality, slavery is the moth
er Ut instructions" answer our inquiry il
this case Here, dear Elder, is where 20,
|signally failed. You got up nice theory
but could find no instruction in the histor,
Of slavery on this continent. to which il
would apply; and you might as we'll take
hold Of the seat Of your breeches and try t.
hold yourself out Of three story window
|as to account for the Harpor's Ferry afIai,
by it. That was in no sense Of the term
slave instruction but an invasion b,
Northern men-white fanatics and Cana
dian negroes--who had learned their prin
|ciples from the mouth of your Republican
leaders, who had received their arms from
your Republican Kansas Committee, VII.
listened time and again to sentiments sucl
las you now put forth, till they believed the
slaves were only waiting for an opportnnit,
to rise on their masters, and join in a mas
sacre to which that Of St. Bartholomew
would have borne no comparison, who went
to Virginia to find them, elves miserably de-
ceived, and to become the mournful victims
of their own folly, in putting into practice
the precepts Of men, whose sympathy fo'
them in their misfortune was exhibited in
the adoption of resolutions, the utterancc o.
blasphemous prayers, the tolling of bells
and the windy denunciations of the instru'
ments Of justice.
The Elder denounced the slave trade, and
its horrors. We agreed with him there
But when he said that that trade was to-day
carried on under the protection Of the Amer.
lean flag, he perpetrated miserable and
ehaueful falsehood. Never has that inhu.
man traffic been carried on to a less extent
and never has this government taken more
active measures for its suppression, than dur
ing the last 6ur years.
The Elder eliminated :" in a peroration
on the evils of slavery, both to the white
race and the black; and he done it I'D pretty
we'll too. lie looked the orator, all over
The spirits Of the mighty dead were around
him; they were IS Liliputians to his great
ness, IS he lowered and swelled. The
shade Of Demosthenes rerched on the sad
die Of his specs, the ghosts of Cicero and
Burke took their respective stations on the
points Of his standing collar, and the spirits
Of Webster, Clay and Calhoun, listened de.
lightedly from comfortable seats on the tin
of his luminous nose. 1t was grand (; j,
was sublime--so it was. We could scarcely
command our feelings; we could scarcely re.
frain from exclaiming with Artemus Ward