The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1888-01-19
APOPULAR ERROR.

Under the above heading the Leayen-
worth Times has an extremely interest
ing article in relation to abolition and
what the early abolitionists did toward
freeing the slaves. The statements
are the more interesting VIII en- Wecom-
pare the situation of the country now
with regard to prohibition with how
it was then as to abolition. The fol-
lowing is the article:
The Times received "A letter a few
days ago in which the oft-repeated as
sumption was made that the early
abolitionists should have the credit of
arousing the conscience of the north to
the wrong and danger of slavery.
We are aware that that opinion is very
general, but the history of the country
| does not sustain it, and those who read
that history carefully will regard the
claim for the Abolitionists as a popular
error.
This is not saying that the early abo-
| lition' leaders were not sincere, de-
| voted and. courageous men, VIA were
willing to sacrifice all to the cause of
| the slave. They were men OF rare
/ courage and sublime devotion, but the
| course which they pursued rather re-
| tarded than promoted the cause to
which they devoted their lives. Their
violent denunciatiOns of men, society
and the church, aroused the indigna-
ton and prejudice of the mass Of pee
pie against them and their cause.
Those who failed to agree with them
were towards and knaves. The slave
holder was the wickedest and most
cruel of tyrants, and the constitution
of the United States "a covenant with
hell"
If there had been no change in the
conditions, if the slave power had not
assumed an aggressive attitude and
undertaken to make itself national, tbs
, north would have remained the same
for all the abolition leaders could do
They had not in twenty years made any
gain. Their liberty party got feN
more votes in 1874 when it defeated
Clay and elected Polk than four years
r earlier.
The people Of the free states were
aroused to the danger which slavery
threatened by that series OF plots tt
make the slaYe power the controlling
, element in the country which begaI
, with the annexation of Texas, sp
peared in the appeal of the Missouri
compromise and showed its wicked
3 purpose in its attempt to forc(
3 slavery upon Kansas. These events
not thel brilliant orations and the
violent rant of the abolition leaders
aroused the masses OF the north to the
7 danger of slavery extension. and thu
prepared the public mind to see thu
wrong which the system Of slavery in
D volved. In other words, the danger
: gave the north a conscience. The ont
work which served at the beginning
: Of the conflict to arouse public senti
s ment more than all the lectures ant
: the periodicals of the abolitionistS wa
the publication of Uncle Tom
CABIN written by Mrs. Harrie
n Beecher Stowe, and undoubtedly tn
D one book which has had more influene
n upon the popular mind than any, per
haps all, others ever published in thi
. country.
b When the contest became hot be
e tween the free soil and the slavery ex
3 tension elements, from 1853 to 1880
the abOlitionists were lost sight of il
the immensity and intensity of tn,
struggle. The more sensible ones, Xix
Garrison, joined the new party opposes
, to slavery extension; and were conten
+ to work with. 1t, but even their pres
y sence in it served to deter conservative
men for a season. But Garrison
and those who were sensible with hin
8 when they entered the republicai
: organization became forever silen
/, about the covenant with hell" and n,
longer demanded unconditional aboli
: tion. They joined the great part,
a which was led by the logic Of events b
/ strangle slavery; but they never creates
IL or moulded public sentiment int
hostility to the slave power.