Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-02-01

sion OF puUNCACOnS QlreCteu u tlAt cnu' As' "''
fruits we're seen in its influences on women preach
ers teachers. and professors persons Of lively sen,
sibitjes generally, not much accustomed to deal
with matters Of fact MORE easily deludcd by cum
nng}y devised sophisms and more frequently acting
from the influence Of feelings Soon abolition SEN
timents appeared in books of education; got pos
session Of schools, colleges, and churches As its
oowers increased, its efforts multiplied until
covered the land with its publications Some twelve
| months ago. it was stated in the newspapers that
one Of the antsavery organizations had resolved to
circulate during the following year, in the State of
| New York one million of its tracts. Can such an
amount of printed matter as this, consisting, as it
does, of ingenously written misrepresentation and
falsehoods, fail to produce some effect? Remember
that this is repeated from year to year. and aided by
hired and voluntary lecturers speakers and preach
ers. Aboltonism, to great extent, pervades the
literature of the free States. So strong is the feel
ing against slavery there that the writers of novels
and PLAYS, to secure the public patronage exercise
their wits in imagining all that can be conceived as
worst in human nature, and represent it as true
type of the state of society in the South The bulk OF
the newspaper press too in the North is anti-save-
ry Such is the character of the entire press OF the
dominant party there, and Of large portion of the
neptral and religious papers; while part even of
| the minority, or Democratic press, avoids the sub
iect as much as possible, instead of attempting to
stem the current. Though Northern city papers are
much read in the South, On the contrary, our pa
pers have little or no circulation in the North. If
they had, the efforts Of the antisavery party would,
| to sumo extent be counteracted The cities of New
York and Philadelphia, for example, are not abo:i:
tionzed and this is attributed by some to the fact
that they are engaged largely in Southern trade
| But the mechanics of Massachusetts Just
much interested, and yet they are intensely anti
slavery in their feelings. The true solution think,
will be found in the fact that these cities the
! hat of
ccty is thereby better Understood and cannot be so
successfully dsfamed. The same reason applies to
the free States on the borders Of the saveholding
country 1t is not as the abolitionsts aliege, that
their conscenccs much bunted that they cannot
appreciate the evils Of slavery but simply because
they do understand it, that they cannot be imposed
upon by the falsehoods of the antsiavery writers.
In addition to this reason, the western States have
| large influx of Southern e,ngrants. While YER
mont is intensely abolitionfzed New Hampshire, adj
| joining it, is less so. This may be accounted for
| from the fact that New Hampshire was originally
strongly Democratic, and its press resisted, there
| FORE to some extent the statements of the aboli-
! tionists. Had not New Hampshire been small
State and surrounded with adverse influences, she
would probably not have been over-powered
! The anti slavery movement has gone on with in
creasng strength, until it has educated large por-
ton of the northern people to entertain feelings of
hostility to slavery and the southern States. The
movement has progressed independently OF political
occurrences but it has occasionally been accelerated
or retarded by them. For example: in 1859 it was
weakened somewhat, partly by the great discussion
at that time, which enlightened somewhat the popu-
lar mind and also by The peculiar character Of the
legislation of the period. California was admitted
free State, with boundaries reaching far south
Of the Missouri line, and giving the North the
orty in this body; while the principle of non-inter
vention applied to Utah and New Mexico. was re-
garded as frutless abstraction the general opinion
\ prevailing that, to use the words of Mr. Webster.
the law of God had excluded slavery from them
AS to the fugitive slave law it that it could
practically. like its predecessor. the at: OF lS be
rendered nullty by State action and individual re-
sisance. 1t is great mistake to suppose tina: the
repeal of the Missouri restriction in 1854 produced
the present anti-slayery organization In Us. and
lS4S the House ofRepreSsassa1uve by large msS@vs-
ties repeatedly passed tine Waaass pgWSsSa.; and
this understood to have been done in accordance
with the wishes of their constituents Prior to $780,
most of the churches had been divided Ly this issue
From year to year the anti-slavery sentiment &C
quired more and more political Influence; and in
1913 it took possession of the greater portion of the
Wing party in the free States. No one was so inau
entail in etfec:ing this result the Senator from
New York. In speech delivered during tina. year
in Ohio the object in part of which was to induce
the anti-slavery to join the Wing party rather
than the Butfilo-patorm Free Sellers, he such
expressions as these call the attention of Sena-
tors particularly to them, because shall have
sion to refer to them again presently:
THE party of Freedom seeks complete and univer.
sal emancipation"
slavery is the sin of not some of the States only,
but of them all of not nation only, but of all
nations. 1t perverted and corrupted the moral sense
of mankind deeply and universally. and this corryp-
ton became universal habit. Habits of thought
become fixed principles. No American State has
yet delivered itself entirely from these habits We,
in New York, guilty OF slavery still by withhold
ing the right of suffrage from the race We have
cipatcd. You, in Ohio, are guilty in the same way
bv system of black laws still more aristocratc and
odio,ls 1t is written in the Constitution of the
United States that five slaves shall count equal to
three frcemen basis of representation; and it is
written Also in violation of Divine law that shall
surrender the fugitive slave who takes refuge at
fireside from his relentless pursuer. You blush not
at these things, because they have become famil-
lar as household words; and your pretended Free
Soil allies claim peculiar merit for maintaining these
mscalled guarantees Of slavery which they find in
the national compact. Does not all this prove that
the Wing party have kept up with the spirit of the
age: that it is true and faithful to human free
dom as the inert conscience of the American people
will permit it to be? What then, you saw can no.
thing be done for freedom because the public con-
science remains inert? Yes, much can be DONE
everything can be DONE Slavery can be limited to
its present bounds. 1t can be ameliorated 1t can
be and must be abolished. and you and can and
must do it. The task is simple and easy, as its con-
summation will be beneficcnt and its rewards glori-
Gus. 1t requires only to follow this simple rule Of
action: To do everywhere and every occasion
what we can, and not to neglect refuse to do what
we can at any time because at that precise time and
on that particular occasion We cannot do more
circumstances determine possibilities"
But VIC must begin deeper and lower than the
composition and combination of factions or parties
wherein the strength and security of slavery lie
You answer that 1t lies in the Constitution of the
United States and the constitutions and laws Of
slaveholdng States. Not at ALL 1t is in the erro.
neous sentiment Of the American people Constitu.
tons and laws can no more rise above the virtue Of
the people than the lmpid stream can climb above
its native spring. Inccate the love of freedom and