, 1862-08-23
SLAVERY AND TREASON

Many years ago Henry Clay predicted
that il the South should ever provoke =
war with the North, the inevitable result
would be tie extinction Of slavery. He
may have uttered the prophecy as q ma
ture and deliberate conviction, or merely
intended to hold it as q terror over the |
heads Of Southern traitors; but the awful
warning, though unheeded, comes up now
in such shape as to confound the skeptic
and silence the scofer. The maniac South !
las provoked war with the North. She
counted not the cost she calculated not
the strength of her ndversary-she knew
not her own lack Of resources; but she !
rushed into the contest blindly, as though
the age Of fact and science had passed
away, and the age OF miracles had como
again
Tho rebels have threatened at times to
arm their Slaves against the North with
promise Of freedom, but the threat Is an
empty one. They dare nottry the expert
ment> The Greeks, it is true, armed their
slaves and freedmen to fight the Persians.
Roman slaves assisted in repelling the Car
thagenians. But in both cases, the in9a-
ders and the defenders were shareholders
The slave gained his freedom by fighting
for his country; he would have had cap
tivity added to slavery if his country had
been subdued. Slaves have never fought
against people who made slaves free,
and they never will fight against such
people. In this ineradicab1e instinct OF
the human heart lies our strength and the
south's weakness Man may be persuaded
70 fight against lis own interests OF bribed
to fight against his own principles; buthe
viii not fight against Lis own nature. He
will ens]ave others; but he will not bind
the chains on himself. In the loyalty Of
tie freeman, and in the nohlest instinct Of
| the slave; in the patriotism Of the poor,
and in the conservatism OF the rich; in
the hope of the brave, and In the caution
Of the timid; in the history Of the past,
and in the anticipations Of the future-1n
mans devotion, in woman's love, in Gods
eternal justice, We have unerring signs
and tokens Of The glorious issue Of this holy
war against the foulest aud most unnatural
treason that ever yet our race was guilty Of
The North cannot afford to fight treason
with one hand, and protect slavery with the
other, while the South uses slavery-as she
docs in various ways-as 9 weapon OF trea
sen. Both must go down together. In at
tempting to spare the one, we should los
| our grip on the other, and the great battl
would have to be fought over again "
| must not lose sight Of the nloral aspect &
f the contest-of the fact that What what tn
q Free States require, the civilized world ju:
tifies them in requiring, while what th
i Slave States demand, they can demand onl
I at the cost Of justice and humanity. "
= cannot disguise from ourselves the fac
f that, apart from all other consideration
0 there is right and q wrong in this que
i tion, and that the right belongs, with all i
5 decisive advantages, to the States OF tt
IS North. Our greatest strength lies IN Il
u warm sympathy Of our enlightened publ
4 sentiment. ALI this we lose the very day c
!, which We set ourselves up as The defende
= and champions Of slavery; and We volunt
y rily become its special champions whenev
l. We enter into obligations to strengthen
T. weakness, and to hold it blamelcss no ma
t. ter what may have been its crimes, I
matter how much it may have aide
treason.
II It is not possible to conceive Of wa
!, in the conduct and results of which eyel
j. person in the North could have more {
a rect interest. And for this reason, Il
2 popular feeling in the North with rega1
r to its management, should and must
Il The supreme law Of the Adminis.rato
d We are engaged in no trivial contest gro
If ing out of disputed boundary line OF
a. discriminating tariff, and involving the Il
~ of lew merchant ships OF the conquest
,e strip Of territory; but we have before
ct the issue Of life or death-the hazard is
,c less Than the existence Of the republic
~ principle The underlying Of QUE ci
t. life becomes, in such contest, the rule
Mt executive action. The Federal Cove
tv ment becomes simply an agent, whose dr
ia it is TO carefully ascertain the wishes Of
itb principal, and to derive from the mauifes
ms lions Of popular feeling its general instr
lid tons which, in this form, are as mandate
,tc as if they were declared by the Consti
ast ton itself Expressed in language not
.rd be misunderstood, and with unanim
Ill which makes every word doubly cmpha
nj, this i1cvohable popular mandate has g.
;th forth: As slavery and treason are iadi
,re ible in life, in death let them not be Sc
nm ratedf