Year: 1861




THE LAST STRUGGLE OF SLAVERY.


Turning aside from the political aspects of
the great question now before the American
people, and looking at it in the light ofhisto-
ry and divine Providence there are in it mat
ters for most serious consideration Slavery
seems to be gathering itself Up for a decisive
struggle. The moral forces of the world have
long assailed il, and everywhere religion.
morality and politics are againstit It's strong
bold is in the southern states of this Union.
Spain tolerates it in her colonies. but does
not justify it, or attempt to surround it by
moral sanctions. Some Of the most barbar-
GUS Of the African tribes practice it, and sell
oaptives taken from each other to the Chris
tians, because they want the trinkets and the
rum the Christians offer in barter, but we are
not aware that the king of Dahomey attempts
any other justification than the old axiom,
might makes right" All the nations of the
world, civilized and unciyilzed, agree in the
denunciation Of the system that chattelizes
men, buys and sells them, compeis their un-
requitted labor by the lash, and makes them
tie unwilling ministers TO others welfare in
stead Of their own. IL is the unanimous vor-
dict Of Christendom and heathendom alike,
our southern states and the kingdom of Da-
honey excepted, that the institution Of slave
ry is the worst possible perversion Of human
relations and the most entire violation alike
Of natural and divine law. Only in this coun-
try is an attempt made to throw around the
system the sanctions of religion and to uphold
it as a good and proper thing in itself and
worthy to be cherished, protected and extern
ded over other lands, and this defense OF slave
ry is not a quarter of a century old, even here.
But notwithstanding the assumed confidence
Of the people of the South that their theory
Of slavery is correct they evidently feel un-
easy and annoyed under the verdict of man
kind against it. The feeling has shown itself
often in the heat Of the present controversy
aud there is no plea the secessionists make with
more effec, than this, that it is impossible to
/ live under the same government with a people
whose pref judices are so strongly against the
southern institution II is the desire to throw
1 Of and get out Of the reach Of, this moral SEN
/ timent against slavery that accounts in part
/ for the disunion feeling, and in no one class is
/ this more apparent than among the clergymen
and Christian professors of the South. Slave
~ thinks to hedge itself in, to shut out the
| great influences that are moulding society and
government everywhere, and to set universal
opinion at defiance.


/ We do not believe it can be done. Popular
/ opinion is becoming more and more the great
Z power in this world Kings bow before it,
4 boodless revolutions are achieved by it ; the
European governments yield to its demands
and confess its right to be heard, and even the
most absolute. like Russia, formally acknowl
edge that the ultimate appeal is to the popu-


lar will No man can fail to see that the pop
uar judgement Is becoming more and more
respected. and that the great idea Of the right
Of all men to life, liberty and the persuit Of
happiness" Is fast becoming the universal doc
trne We do not believe that any human
power can destroy this great element in the
worlds progress, and we look upon the tri-
umphal march of amelloratng ideas and events
as certain to 90 on to the grand consumation,
the foresight Of which has been the inspra-
q Of prophets and poets from the beginning.
I The eworld will move straight forward in its
course, and all the petty obstacles interposed
I by the will and wickedness ofmen and nations
will be ground to dust beneath it.


Suppose the shareholders should induce the
politicians to give slavery all the new guaran-
ties it can ask, even to the extent of declar-
ing the right of property in men sacred and of
divine authority. That declaration would not
change northern opinion on the subject. On
the contrary it would arouse it to new vigor
and zeal for the moral assault upon the nsti
tuition and neither the general government nor
the slave states would hcnceforth have a mo-
ment's rest from irrepressible conflict" till
the new guarenties were swept away. Sup
pose the southern states go out of the Union
TO escape northern aversion to slavery. That
would not diminish, but rather intensity that
aversion. and would set it free from all the
constitutional restraints that now limit its ac-
0. ~, Al, 80
would environ the South on all sides, and
while the slaves would have free door of es-
cape, the entire circuit of the slave states
would be exposed TO the inroads of popular
opinion against slavery, and in the border slave
states the progress of emancipation and deliy-
erance from slavery would inevitably be great
lY accelerated. Neither would the schemes
of indefinite extension southwark and west
ward be realized. The northern states would
agree with the European powers in resisting
all attempts by the slavery propagandists to
appropriate Mexico or Central America The
same powers would prevent tho acquisition of
Cuba by the slayeholding confederacy. and
the institution would find itself more effectu-
ally and more rapidly hemmed in aud circum-
scribed than it could be in the Union. For
whatever respect and federation it now gets
from other nations, it is chiefly indebted to
the influence of the free states. Let it iso-
late itself and attempt to stand on its own
merits, and it will find no aid and comfort
from any Christian or civilized power.


\ Whichever way, therefore, the present
struggle terminates either in union or dis
union. we look upon it as decisive as to the
supremacy ofslavery. In the Union, it must
be content in its present limits and with its
constitutional rights, and can never again sub
ject the general government to its despotie
control Out of the Union, it will stand de-
delenseless and exposed on all sides to the
moral hostility of mankind, which it vainly
seeks to evade In the Union. it will live
longer and die more gradually aud quietly
out the Union, its life will be one of con
slant peril and strife and, like all great Grim
inals, it will be pretty certain to come to a
violent DEATH The day or the manner Of its
end no man can tell but he knows little of
human nature aud human history, and lacks
faith in the fnal reign of justice and truth on
the earth, who does not see that no such in
stitution can plant itself defantly against the
onward march Of events and hope to escape
collision and wreck. To see this and to say it
frankly implies no hostility to shareholders.
IA 4 a.. A..