Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1864-08-04
AMERICAN SLAVERY


|
!. The world has never produces
!. q question so intricate and perplex
ing, q subject so embarrassing an
2 conficting1so completely interwovel
! with all other subjects, whethe
, social, moral. political, civil, mill ar
and religions, as the question o
! American Slavery. 1t has hitherto
been problem too difficult to solv,
! BY any brain, no matter how fertile
; a question too intricate to unraYe
by any genius; too huge, weighty,
and aggressive, for any philanthropy.
ist of modern times to handle; too
eccentric and variant for Chris tians
to interfere with extensively; and so
it was allowed to settle into the bot
tom Of the dry poo. OF politics. to be
stirred up at every election and kept
circulating from bottom to surface
during session of Congress and the
sitting of every State Legislature,
while for the densgogues, who an
uually gained admission lnio these
places it formed an inexhaustible sup
ply of matter for vituperation and
abuse that never failed to stamp the
author as a blackguard of the first
water. Not content with dividing
political parties that had once boast
ed of principles and honesty into
mere factions, with geographical
divisions and fierce malignant an
tagonisms, it divided churches yet
more radical, by seeking to make
the "sum of all villaninies' a God
ordered institution, Outstanding in
its influence upon white and black,
and protesting to give the whites an
opportunity, not otherwise attaina-
bic, for comforting upon an ignorant
and barbarous people the blessings
of civilization and religion. 1t has
been discussed in all aspects by men
of highest intellectual culture; it has
been alternately apologIzed for-not
being capable of defense-and pit
terly assailed rs crime against hu-
manitv without parallel; curse un-
mitigated, sin unpardonable, a de-
lusion wicked and abominable, a svs-
TEN brutal and barbarous, an in
stitution dangerous and destructive,
making us a living paradox. While
hoasting of our liberty we held mil
lions ofhuman beings in a bondage
that civilization has failed TO tighten,
embodying the cruelties and
wrongs of all other systems Of op-
preston, ignoring manhood, annul-
ling sacred relations, drying up the
fountHins of affection, blasting the
energies and aspirations ofhumsn be
ines that their Creator endowed them
with an inalienable right TO life and
liberty, cursing the very ground that
dried up the tears and blood and
sweat of the slave. Such was the
Institution that genius, philanthrop-
its and Christians handed over to
he politician, in the vain hope that
t could be hedged in by legislation
md controlled by laws, in defiqnce-
If the divine mandate to ''break
Every yoke and let the oppressed go
rec" Few were willing to do this,
lnd none knew how to do it. The
indeed. could carry it far
,eyond its legitimate limits: he conld
orge additional links and add to the
ength Of the slavedriyer's lash; he :
.ould place slavery in arms" and
make a rebellion that has made of
very house a house of mourning
md every field a grave yard, laden-
ID every breeze with dying groans,
made every landscape lurid with
'attle fame. opened upon our conn
rv the very flood gates of the fiercest /;
iell, with its lava tide Of fire and its
''ood red waves of death Such is
slavery in arms battling the poll ,
ician who thought TO use it for the
OF a new nation. forgetful ,,
# the fact that thera was a Supreme
Governor, who held in his hand the !
Iestinies of nations He alone was
apaole to deal with the question
hat had proven itself too intricate 8
or human skill. and He has elected {
hat through the mad ambition of |
men ''the horse and his ,
ider shall be a second time thrown i
nto the sea" and the great curse Of !
he age be wiped out not only from |
he statute books OF the Nation, but '
nder the sccumuluted blessings of !
liberty, be buried where no re ur- !
ection arm can ever reach, and oil {
be wrongs and cruelties, all the I
litter anguish of the past, be hurled {
" the armed hosts of freedom into /
he vortex of the past, whence nei-
her imagination nor memory, nor =
ny other attibute of the hu nan |;
mind. can recall them. r