The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-11-12
THE ABOLITION or SLAVERY IN THE
UNITED STATES.

UNITED STATES.
If from the race which, for many year,
has superseded, In the Southern states, the
use Of the aboriglncs as slaves, new H ioP
could arise, we should picture him as cor
templating the history Of bis people as an
entirety, and deducing from il loitier
! moral than ever that ancient serf did from his
pointed fables. We should picture him as
making researches into very distant past,
where the natives Of Western Africa, epgared
in incessant warfare with each other, were ini-
tiated almost from birth into the meaning of
! slavery; or should follow him Ia his inve5iiga-
tions up TO the hour when the benevolent LAS
CAsAs, cruelty kind dsuggested the substitution
of these fighting tribes for the gentle savages
whose enslavement the discovery of a new
world had begun; and we should intently
follow his footsteps as, with q iNed11ss o." pur-
pose all the more intense from his sympathy
with his brothers, he traces their most
strange and sad career from that hour up to
this, and dwelt upon all the wonderful issues
to which IL gave rise. And when, in the glow
ing language Of glad conviction, he dwslt
upon that certain hour when the se1uel
Of that history all told, the PRINCIPLES of
freedom should be most convlncingly illus
trated by it, we should agree with him that so
glorious a yindicaton was as much a correla-
tive to such a career, as happiness is to virtue,
or retribution is to crime.
The abolition orslayery ia the United States
is not only inevitable, it is near 1t is an ex-
purgation which the country needs. The
existence of slavery in a nation like this Is 30
glaringly inconsistent with the principles which
our carping neighboIs quote from the pre- lmble
to the Constitution under which we live, that
FIVE would hold erect our heads with honor
and without eArontery, we should seek to
eradicate the stain from our cscutcheon.
The primitive settlements commenced in
consistently in this respect, and it is a notice
able fact that the landing on Plymouth Rock
OF the Pilgrims whose only burning hope
was to enjoy untrammelled the most exalted
degree of liberty-and the landing of the arst
slaves at jamestown were almost identical in
point of time. Then, as now, the war waged
was between money and morals, and money
gained the day. The early colonists encour-
aged the root Of the evil, and posterty enjoyed
the fruit.
The experience of the last four years has
hardly been needed TO prove to us that we
could not go on forever as heretofore. The
lane of slavery has been a long one, but we
have come to the turning at last. Agitated
as the question has been for nearly a century,
the hour is at hand when il is to be decisively
answered, and forever. Little by little have
the many who once advocated slavery been
educated to this result, through many
struggle has the question passed, as it has
been banded about by territories and States.
In the next session of Congress the subject of
the abolition of slavery will be taken up anew.
What the action upon it will be cannot be a
matter OF doubt or conjecture.
Slavery viii be abolished; and although we
cannot abolish the recollection of it, yet the
perennial fountain of freedom which will be
opened by such legislation, will do much to
correct the devastation accomplished by false
legislation in the past
If we are one of the last nations to obliter-
ate slavery, our glory is none the less. The
abolition of it will be only one Of the phe-
nomena which we are accomplishing In the
midst of gigantic, unparalleled strife. 1t will
be something for every nook and corner of a
reunited republic to realize what freedom
| truly is. The health and the wealth of the
nation will be resuscitated; all our incalcula-
ble resources will in time be increased. We
shall then be model nation, without descend
ing to the puerility Of boasting of it, any more
than noble landscape, after storms at night
boasts of the rainbow flashing above and
around il from the wings of the morning.