The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-04-19
"Ere last years sun had left the sky,
A birding sought my Indian nest,
And folded, All so lovingly,
Its tinny wings upon nv breast

"Ere last years sun had left the sky,
birding sought my Indian nest,
And folded, All so lovingly,
Its tinny wings upon my breast"
Now where is the wretch who would dare
to 60 up and take that fluttering and pant
ing birding from the bosom of it's mother,
and say, at is mine I will sell it like a
calf l. will sell it like pig ~ What right
had the mother to her babe Was it because
she was Fanny Forester" the gifted author
ess was it because she was the wife of
venerable and venerated missionary No !.
it was because she was its MOTHER; and
every slave mother has just as good title
to her babe as Fanny Forester" had to hers.
No laws can make it right to rob her. say,
in Gods name, my child is mine; and yet
have no right to mine that slave father has
not to his child. Not particle. The same
argument that proves my right to my per-
sonal liberty, proves the right of every hui
man being to his. The argument that proves
my right to my children, gives the same IT,.
tie, the same sacred claim to every father
They, as I, get it from their God, and no hui
sir, neveri Therefore, every slave has a
right to his freedom, in spite of your slave
laws. Every slave has ri ght to run away,
in spite Of your slave laws.
4 81 i !: X
tell you of the Slave State that you must
emancipate your slaves. 1t belongs to you
and not to us. You must transform them
from slaves into serfs, and give them homes,
and protect and guard the sanctity Of the
family. We shall not push you. If you
say that you want quarter ola century you
can have it; If you want half of century
you can have it. But insist that this sys-
tenn must ultimately be extinguished. There
is no question about it. You who advocate
the perpetuty of slavery are like a set Of
madcaps, who should place themselves on
the top of an iceburg which had disengaged
itself from the frozen regions of the North
and begun to float downward, and downward
through the warm climates. The sun shines
and melts it; the soft winds blow on and
melt it /; the rains descend and melt it; the
water ripples around it and melts il, and
then these wild Missionaries, who fancied they
could sail an iceberg through the tropics,
start up, and blaspheme sun shine, and rain,
and zephyr; and, mounting the heavens, tell
Jehovah that unless he stops the shining of
the sun, and the blowing of the winds, and
the falling of the rain, they will crumble His
universe from turret to foundation stone"
| Do you not think God would feel bad I?
and would not the archangels tremble at the
ch;valry Renewed laughter You may
call this extravagant; but you can no more
perpetuate slavery, and will no more dissolve
this Union, in order to perpetuate it, than
you can stop the shining of the sun, or the
ripple of the sea, the descent of rain, or the
blowing Of the wind, ay, no more than you
can subdue the ocean, when it lashes itself
into fury and dashes its crested mountain
blows against the rocks. 1t is as prepos.
ferrous to think of taking slavery down
through the civilization Of the ages, as it is to
think of floating an iceberg, through the
| tropics. 1t is not in the order of things.
nm willing to concede that YOU can do any
hing that any equal number of men can
achieve. did mean to taunt you about
Iiarper's Ferry, but believe | will not |
nm willing to concede that you are as brave
as other men, although do not think you
show it by this abusive language; because
brave men arc always calm and self posscssed
God feels no anger, for he knows no fear.