Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1862-06-25
THE sACREDNESS OF SLA-
VERY.

VERY.
The following is an extract from tue
recent speech of Hon. OWEN LovEJoY,
at the Cooper Institute, New York !:
/ viii not now stop to scout, as 1t ever
ought to be secuted, the wild and guilty
phantasy that man can have any vested
right as property in man, but can there
be anything so sacred that it must not
yield to the public safety-the life OF the
nation When it is demonstrated that
the permanent existence of Slavery is in
compatible with the safety, and even the
life of the nation, shall not the pretended
claims of Slavery give away ? Had not
the people of Rome right 10 drain the
Pontine Marshes, whose nalariors exha-
lations nightly rose and spread over the
city, bearing sickness and death to its
households, although it might interfere
with the water lots of frog breeders and
snake fanciers The health of the city
was Of more consequence than the vested
rights of the reptile that lived
on the margin of the immense bog. l
beg to know just how sacred this right of
enslaving man is. l desire to under
stand its height and depth, its length and
breadth. AT what graduated point on
the scale of sacred and precious things
does it stand Is it as sacred rs pro-
perty !? Tho people win have given
thousand millions of property before this
struggle is over, free-will offering, to
save the country. Business Frustrated,
the affluent reduced to beggary, bank
ruptcy which no skill could foresee and 10
sagacity avoid, submitted to uncom-
plainingly, for the sake of the country
1t can almost be said of the commercial
community of our great cities, as it was
Of the early Christians-they took the
spelling of their goods joyfully-tbe one
for Christ's sake and the other for their
country's sake. All classes throughout
the land have suffered in their kind and
degree, in the same manner and for the
same purpose. Isproperty i'll the bodies
and souls of men made in the image of
God and redeemed by the blood of atone.
ment any more sacred than other proper
ty Can every other pecuniary interest
be sacrificed on the altar of public veal,
and this anomalous and impious claim of
property in human flesh remain untouch-
ed, as too sacred to be meddled with 3
Human life is sacred. Yet when Els
worth fell we said it was right; he died
for his country. The scholarly and in
trepid and gentle Winthrop was slain,
and, griefstricken, he bowed, saying it
was for his country. The gallant Baker
fell ut that terrible slaughter of Balls
Bluff, and we acquiesced, exclaiming it
was for his country. The noble-hearted
Lyon was borne lifelcss from the bloody
battle of Spring field, and to assuage our
anguish we cried he died for his country.
General Wallace, my neighbor, and [
know not how many scores, gave up their
lives on the hard-fought field of Shiloh,
forty of whom, my constituents, were
brought home, and buried in one grave;
but we submitted to the terrible tragedy,
for they were slain fighting the battles of
their country. The story Of Williams
DurT anu IdIE odho 10 IiOt yet bOlu.-
What vast and precious sacrifice of hu-
man life has there been to preserve the
Republic Is Slavery more sacred than
all this human life There is a young
man, the only son Of his mother, and
she a widow. His country calls, and he
says, another, am going to enlist
Then comes the struggle-a convulsige
STANDARDIZATION o mothers love and
the love Of country-an only son and the
Republic. At last, with Divine ener-
gy of self-sacritice, she says, in broken
sobs, eco, my son; fight, and, if it must
be, die for your country" | have seen
this. And now, in Gods name, is this
uuholy thing Slavery more sacred than
all these Shall property vanish, the
dead be piled in hecatombs on the field
of slaughter, parental hearts pierced with
the arrows of anguish, wife, sister and
betrothed stricken with grief, ard yet the
clutch of the enslayer remain unrelaxed,
and the fell Destroyer who has caused all
this waste of property and life, all this
mental and neart suffering, be left I'M
molestcd 1t cannot be. We are not
thus bereft of reason. | have no pa
tience with those who enshrine this stu
pendous crime and surround it with the
sanctty of an idol, and say Let it alone
Great is Diana of the Ephesians =
Great is American Slavery