New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-01-19

ABOLITION movements in the South before l525.
BY William Brney, ex BreVGt ,}y. u T
U. S. V. 12mO. pp. NAB. ID. Appleton * CO.
1t is, no doubt one of the inevitable sequences
If the extinction of slavery in the Union that all
who were actively engaged in combating the IN
stitution prior to the Rebellion should be put
forward by their friends or families generation
later as having contributed largely to the accom-
nlisbmcnt of emancipation. AS there were several
almost distinct and separate schools OF ADolltlon-
ism moreover. whose members and leaders cher
ished lively animosities against one another, ana
decred one another's methods and policies, it is
only to be expected that these differences should
be represented in the controversies arising later
and that awkward and unpleasant rlvalrles ana
mutual accusations should appear TO darken coun-
sci and to render the task of the dlspasSlona'e
historian more difficult. The volume before us
is An an example of what we have just referred
70 Written by son of James q. Brney, II Is
avowedlv directed to controverting the positions
taken and the claims made by the sons of w. a.
Garrison in the recently completed biography oil
their father OF a similar type, though having
a different object was the volume upon the Kan
sas Crusade by Mr. Eli Thayer, also pupnsDeu
last year. The unprepared student OF hls'oIA
who should read these works successlVely "oul"
probably if not hopelessly confused by thelr coh-
tradctions reach the conclusion that in eacn case
too much had been claimed, and that the eAacu
truth of the matter must he sought elsewhere
In the case of James G. Birney II seems
especially unnecessary to magnify unduV MS III
fuence upon the abolition Of slavery slhoe "o
man is better able TO stand wholly upon HIS own
merits. The interest attaching to his public
career is greatly enhanced by the fact that he was
n Southerner. born and bred in Kentucky, ana
~. If c1a
father was a slaveowner, and so was he until
he had almost reached middle age, when he
manumitted all his slaves The notion of anomaly
conveved in the words "a Southern Aboliuonlst
is. however. mainly due TO the circumstance that
the nresent generation bases all its KNOWLEDGE
of Southern pre-rebellion sentiment upon that
which was exhibited in the period Immediately
nreceding the war. There are few now hNlhg
who remember the twenties OF the present century,
and therefore there few who reallze 'haV u'cIc
was n time when abolition sentiment was really
rife in many parts of the South; when as N'.
neither public opinion nor the press was muzzle"
by terrorism on the subject: when, In TACT, most
men who thought at all frankly admitted tIc
wrong of slavery when the idea oil lusu'NIh3
the system out of the Bible had not occUIIc" "
any one ; and when vague and optimistic eApec-
tation prevailed that the institution would or
such an atmosphere that young Birney grew up
and his pasccnt abolition views were strength
oned "a certain extent by the influences ne
encountered at Princeton, where he went lor MS
decree although the then head of the college
was one of those peculiarly illogical rhetorlciahs
who condemned slavery in theory nut opPoSc"
interference with it in practice. WIN biin'N'
however. the growth Of conviction was SLOW,
After reading all that be could find on the gehei"i
question, his mind rested upon the col"hlz"''o"
scheme The slaves were TO he mahuuu'cu
gradually and deported from the country "
Africa South or Central America. or elSe"heit'
For wears he got no further than TINS ana as MS
theory required that manumissloh shoui" ~
voluntary on the part of the slaveowner' II must
be regarded as having been impractlcaoIe al"
crude
James G. Birney. nevertheless, was man VINO
did not stop growing, and herein lay the secret o'
his ultimate soundncss Of Judgment ENpellehce
was his teacher and after working for some TIME
in Tho Sontb as AGENT of the Colonization Society,
no became convinced that the problem was not to
be solved in that way While he was woIhlhg hls
way from Colonization, through GraduaIlsh' ~
immediate Abolition, the public opinion oil 'nc
South was changing also. Whether as OeheI"'
Birney appears to think, there ever was moment
when the South really hung poised between apoh-
ton and slavery is question far TOO large 10 Dc
prohtably considered here. But the rational pre-
sumption seems to be against it, the truth prob
ably being that the Southern Abolitionlsts often
conf,unded tolerance with approval, and 50 be-
came accustomed to eXaggcratc the extent OF the
feeling AGAINST slavery. The single consideration
that a great money interest was throughout con-
cerned i'm unfolding the institution renders ii III
the highest degree improbable that there ever
should have been ground for doubt as to the de-
cision Of the South the question. Inc moment
that made slavery a political issue determined lis
destiny, in any case. Thenceforward the Sia'e
Power came into view, and doomed larger ana
larger, until, as Brney penetratingy observed lhe
Nuuestion no longer was whether slavery should DE
abolished in the South, but whether liberty should
be eXtincuishcd throughout the Union II Is a
melancholy task TO follow the corruption OF pubnc
opinion both North and South which resulted
from the new departure, and especially Illuminating
10 note the frequency with which the clergy oil
both sections betrayed their sacred trust ana as
rraced their calling and religion itself by lending
their aid 10 the invention Of sophistries where
with TO buttrcss slavery. just as there IS some
thing pccrliarly shocking in the discovery that
medical man has poisoned a patient, so there must
always lie something especially revolving in the
snectacle of ministers of the Gospel in alliance
with SO. foul crime against humanity as the
South had now determined 10 stand or fall by
Sectional feeling, however, local feeling, ana par
tisan feeling, were too strong for the Majority
and il must be added that the example OF Andrew
Jackson's Administration was most demoralizlng
and mschievOus.
Never had the country so defantlv and law
lessly sectional an Executive, or one who so
trampled and rent the Constitution whenever IL
stood between him and his desires or ambitions
Ii is possible that had Congress been but little
more subservent. Jackson would have destroyed
the freedom of the press and the mails, and In the
sole interest of slavery reduced the Free States