Worcester daily spy., 1860-06-06
MR.. SUMMERS SPEECH.

VI clHfelyj just uellNefeu III the Seidte, is
perhaps the ablest most vigorous, and most
finished speech that ever came from him. We
print some extracts. The tone and manner OF
the speech are sufficiently manifest in the fol-
lowing passage, which we take from the intro
ductory portion of it,
"Motive is to crime as soul to body; and it is
only when we comprehend the motive that we
can truly comprehend the crime. Here, the
motive is found in slavery and the rage for its
extension. Therefore, by logical necessity,
must slavery be discussed not indirectly,
timidly, and sparingly, but directly, openly,
| and thoroughly. 1t must be exhibited as it is
alike in its influence and in its animating char
acter, so that not only its outside but its inside
must be seen.
This is no time for soft words or excuses.
All such are out of place. They may turn
away wrath but what is the wrath of man ?
This is no time to abandon any advantage in
the argument Senators sometimes announce
that they resist slavery on political grounds
| only, and remind us that they say nothing of
the moral question. This is wrong Slavery
must be resisted not only on political grounds,
but on all other grounds, whether social, econ
omical, or moral.
Ours is no holiday contest; nor is it any
strife of rival factions; of White and Red
|
a solemn battle between Right and Wrong be-.
tween Good and Evil. Such battle cannot
| be fought with excuses or with rose water.
! There is austere work to be done, and Free
dom cannot consent to fling away any OF her
weapons.
If / were disposed to shrink from this dis
cussion, the boundless assumptions now made
by senators on the other side would not allow
me. The whole character of slavery as pre-
tended form of civilization is put directly in
issue, with a pertnacity and a hardihood
which Danish all reserve on this side. In these
assumptions senators from South Carolina nat
uray take the lead.
| Following Mr. Calhoun, who pronounced
| slavery the most safe and stable basis for free
institutions in the world" and Mr.. McDuffie,
! who did not shrink from calling it "the corner
stone of the republican edIhce, the senator
from South Carolina Mr., Hammond insists
that ''its forms of society are the best in the
world :" and his colleague Mr.. Chestnut takes
up the strain. One senator from Missis-
sippi Mr.. Davis adds, that slavery ''is but
form of civil government for those who are
not fit to govern themselves y and his col.
league Mr.. Brown openly vaunts that it 'is
great moral, social, and political blessing-a
blessing to the slave and blessing to the mas
ter"
One senator from Virginia, Mr.. Hunter,
in studied vindication of what he is pleased
to call "the social system of the slaveholding
states" exalts slavery as ''the normal condi-
ton of human society ;" "beneticial to the
non-slave.owner as it is to the slave owner
"best for the happi ness of both races" and
in enthusiastic advocacy, declares, 'that the
very keystone of the mighty arch, which by
its concentrated strength is able to sustain our
social superstructure, consists in the black
marble block OF African slavery. Knock that
out" he says, "and the mighty fabric with
all that it upholds, topples and tumbes to its
fall. These were his very words, uttered in
debate here. And his colleague, Mr.. Masonl
who has never hesitated where slavery was in
question, has proclaimed that it is "ennobiinq
to both master and slave''-a word which so
far as the slave was concerned, he changed,
on a subsequent day, to "elevatng," assuming
still that it is "ennobling" to the master
which is simply new version of an old as
sumption, by Mr.. McDuffie of South Carolina,
that slavery supersedes the necessity of an
order Of nobility"
Thus, by various voices, is the claim made
for slavery, which is put forward defantly as
form of civiliZaton-as if its existence were
not plainly inconsistent with the first princ-
pies of anything that can be called civilization
except by that figure of speech in classical
literature, where thing takes its name from
something which it has not, as the dreadful
| Fates We're called merciful because they were
without mercy. And pardon the allusion, if
l add that, listening to these sounding words
for slavery, am reminded of the kindred ex.
travagance related by that remarkable traveller
in China, the late Able Hue of gloomy hole
in which he was lodged, pestered by mosqui-
toes and exhaling noisome vapors, where light
and air entered ouly by single narrow aper-
ture, but styled by Chinese pride the Hotel of
the Beatitudes.
1t is natural that senators thus insensible to
the true character OF slavery, should eynce
an equal insensibility to the character of the
constitution. This is shown in the claim now
made, and pressed with Unprecedented energy,
degrading the work of our fathers, that by
virtue OF the constitution, the pretended prop.
erty in man is placed beyond the reach of
Congressional prohibition even within Con-
gressional jurisdiction, so that the slavemas
ter may at all times enter the broad outlying
territories of the Union with the victims of
his oppression, and there continue to hold
them by lash and chain.
Such are the two assumptions, the first an as.
sumption of fact, and tie second an assumption
ef constitutional law, which are now made
without apology or hesitation. | meet them
both. To the first l oppose the essential bar
barism of slavery, in all its Influences whether
high or low, as Satan is Satan still, whether
towering in the sky or squattng in the toad
To the second oppose the unanswerable, IT.
resistible TRUTH that the constitution of the
United States nowhere recognizes property in
man. These two assumptions naturally 90
together. They are 'twins" sucked by the
same wolf. They are the Couple in the
present slave hunt. And the latter cannot be
answered without exposing the former 1t is
only when slavery is exhibited in its truly hate
tul character, that we can fully appreciate the
absurdity of the assumption, which, in defiance
Of the express letter Of the constitution, and
without single sentence, phrase or word, up
| holding human bondage, yet toists into this
blameless text the barbarous idea that men
can hold property in man,
Mr.. Summers topic is "the barbarism of
slavery" as shown, first, in the character OF
slavery, and, second, in the character of slave
masters. These two points are discussed in
the most elaborate manner. After showing
that slavery did not Originate i'll the common
law, nor from Mahomedan law, nor from any
civilized source, he goes on =
No. sir not from any land of civilization is
this barbarlsm derived. it comes from Africa ::
ancient nurse OF monsters from Guinea, Da.
honey, and Congo. There is its origin and
fountain. This benighted region we are told
by Chief Justice Marshall, in memorable
judgment The antelope, 10 Wheaton r., 66),
still asserts right, discarded by Christendom,
to enslave captives taken in war and this Al
rican barbarlsm is the beginning of American
slavery. From its home in Africa, where it is
sustained by immemOrial usage this barbar-
ism, thus derived and thus developed, travers.
ed to American soil. II entered on board
that fatal slave ship "built in the eclipse and