New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-09-22


1t was not time for half measures, but for heroic
remedies, therefore, and the whlte-hot anger OF
,iarrison's invective was the nest fitting agent
for the occasion There was OF cOurse no policy
in the course Of The Liberator7 the implica-
tions OF It's articles were often such 10 make
sond, slow men uneasy; it was too unco1ven-
tlonal to be approved by the slaves of convention;
it was too outspoken and downright to be liked
by those who held to the suavter in modo' and
had forgotten 10 fall back upon the fortiter In
re-" 1t was, in short, constant, sharp reproach
to the North, and a constant and unwecome
reminder to the South that its sin would find it
out Can 1t be wondered at if the AbOhtlonlstS
were unpopular North as well as South, or that
those of their own section would gladly have
senced them had it been possible to do 50
But for all this unpopuarity, and as we have
endeavored TO show, partly because of 1T, abohuoh
sentiment made its way, and influenced, lar more
than they would admit, then or now perhaps,
even the minds of those who most heartily anu
bitterly cursed the fanatics and all their WORKS
Mr.. Thayer, we are inclined 20 think, moreover,
attaches far too much weight to the puoiisheu
expressions of Northern newspapers OF the perloA'
The press ut that time was far less independent
than at present. 1t was general Vhlhs
under the influence Of the prevailing puslhess
sentiment, and political sentiment; ana neI'Iicr
business nor political circles had for many years
ventured to oppose any serious resistance "
Southern SUPREMACY. but had learned to truckle
TO the Slave Power with suDserVlehcy INC
mere recollection of which is full of mystihcato.
Slavery was at last hardly more ietch at the
South than at the North, and in what was calieu
good society" it was held absolutely intolerape
that any attack should be made upon the lnStitu-
| ton Even those who admitted that 10 was
| wrong treated il rather an abstract question,
| as men treat poverty, disease ana suHerlhss III
other lands TO be regretted mildly, put as matters
| beyond rtmedy The attitude OF the Apoillloh-
| lists was inexplicable to such people, ana 10
| doubt really shocked and hurt them. But the
| Abolitioniss from their point of view were hoV
| without justification, and the fact that 'dicIr
| opinion of slavery is to-day the common OPINION
| may be held to warrant hesitation IN denouncins
| them as mere mischievous fanatics.
Mr. Thayer says that they were always pictur
| ing bloodhounds. auctiOn-blocks, mahaceS anu
whipping.posts7 and complains that they were
| continually endeavoring 4" TO stimulate leenhS
! upon the slavery question without sugees'lh5
practical action Modern opinion certainly VIII
| not blame them for perceivlng vlVldly the dcuua'
horrors of slavery. nor for striving TO convey 10
their fellows the disgust anger ana Shame WIN
/ which the INSTITUTION Hllcu tAcAi' Oi' GO 10y
ard observes in his life of Van Buren,, to them
this was no philosophical or economical question
They were undaunted by the examples of Wash
in.ton and jefferson and Patrick Henry, who,
whatever they said or hoped against slavery, new
ertheless held human beings IN bondage or OF
Adams and other Southern adherentS OF the Con
stitution. who. for a season at least had joined
in pact TO protect the infamous slave trTic.
TO them talk of the sacred Union, or of the great
advances which negroes had made IN slavery ana
would not have made in freedom. was idle. win
unauenched vision they saw the horrid picture OF
the individual slave life. not the general features
of slavery; they the chain, the LASH the
brutalizing and contrived ignorance; they saw the
tearing apart of families with their love and hope,
precisely like those Of white men and women,
crushed out by detestable cruelty; they saw the
beastly dissouteness inevitable to the plantation
system. Nor would they be still. whatever the
calm preaching of political wisdom. whatever the
sincere and weighty insolence of men of wisdom
and uprightness and property" And the same
writer adds: Northern men Of SsS must look
with ineffable shame upon the behavior of their
fathers and grandfathers toward the narrow. fiery,
sometimes almost hateful, apostles Of human
rights: and with even greater shame upon the
talk of the sacred right of white men to make
brutes of black men. right to be treated. as the
best of Americans were fond of saving, with
tender and dfrectiOnate regard for the feelings
of the white slave-masters"
Did the Abolitionists do well to be angry? The
verdict Of their country and of the world declares
that they did; nay, that when they went to the
extreme of declaring the Constitution "a league
with Death and covenant with HELL they were
far nearer the eternal truth than the politicians
and trimmers who were willing that slavery should
flourish indefinitely rather than endanger the in
strument under which it lived and moved and
had its being. Without AbolitOniSm- without
Garrison and Phillips and Tappan and Gddngs
and Loyejoy and Sumner and Beecher-mOreOver
il is very doubtful whether Mr.. Thayer would
have found the sentiment in existence which he
utilized in organizing the Kansas crusade The
Church supported him noby; but how long had
the Church possessed the courage to oppose slavery
either openly or indirectly? Was ii from South
ern pulpits alone that the institution derived
its support and justification during the early part
of the century? Even when the Church ventured
! to approach the issue, did it not shrink from
taking the only attitude respecting it which was
consonant with gospel Christianity? And if this
| bacllwardness was visible when above all courage
and outspOken humanity and morality should have
been expected, how could it be possible, without
such fiery stimulus as Abolitonism supplied 30
create a public opinion capable of extinguishing
| the evil?,
| Mr. Thaver indeed is not always consistent
| There for instance, in one place he asserts that
the course of the AbolitiOnists entittered the
| South, and led to the extension of It's claims
| and pretensions, while elsewhere he says that
! Calhoun succeeded in securing perfect union
| in favor Of slavery. The same institution whose
existence had so long been deplored by the
| South as a burden ard a curse which all should
labor TO remove began then to be applaudcd as
ordained Of God, sustained by the Bible and well
adapted 20 secure the highest development of
both the white and negro races. The slave-hold-
ers who formerly willing TO reason upon
| methods for lis extinction. bad now become