Year: 1864

LAW OF MORAL PROGRESS.


The New York Observer, one among the very
few religious newspapers of the country which pre-
serves the integrity of its distinctive character free
from the intrusion of partisan politics, and which
did SO even during the late political canvass, when
the great msjority of the so-called religious
press threw off even the reserve prescribed to
themselves by the better class of secular journals,
refers in its number Of last week to the current
phases Of the slavery question, and, after bringing
into relief the views taken Of this topic by our
selves and others among our political contempo-
raries, remarks as follows:


$50 long ago as October A, 1855, the New York OBJ
closed extended discussion OF ha slavery ques
ton in these words:


The doctrine of the Bible in every case secures 10 the
end universal liberty not by asserting with the Aboon-
ist the unqualified right OF every man TO liberty but py
requiring those 10 power TO give liberty as the reward OF
ntef and vrtne, and to train all to the Intelligence
and virtue which will ente them to receive, or II need
be to demand the gilt. t Es


steadily enforced the duty which was clearly de-
fined by the action O. General Assem-
and which struck at those features of the sytem which
good mans conscience judgment approves and ths abb
rogaton which works such complete the exist
ing system to render its extinction necessary result
The conscience and the Judgment of every sensible Chris
tian pronounce it excellent way than national
conyGsion with the sacrifice of thousands Of lives and the
suterng of incscuabe misery Love ought to make all
men free and happy War may make many men Free but
terrible process One OF the agents for the care OF
the freedmen tells us that of all the slaves set free
have pershed will perish from want OF the necessaries


"But in the mysterious providence of God We are
brought into state Of civil Whether we choose It
it u.s. and the result of is that the system OF
slavery has been substantially 0Verthr0Wn IN some OF the
States and il shaken in all !"


We have always concurred with the view which
the Observer takes of the problem presented by
slavery, as being view no less true in practical
politics than 10 the field of morals. Indeed, we
should expect "the doctrine Of the Bible" on this
subject 10 coincide with the dictates of the highest
human wisdom as approved by the judgment and
experience Of men in all ages That doctrine points
10 the universal enfranohisementof the race, not by
asserting, with the doctrinaires of the extreme
school of abolitionists the unqualified right Of
every human being to partake in all the forms and
privileges of civil liberty recognised by the State
but, as the Observer defines the question, "by re-
quiring these in power to give liberty the reward
Of intelligence and virtue and to train all to the
Intelligence and virtue aohich shall entite then, TO
receive or, If need be, demand the git" This is
the order of moral progress as prescribed no less
by reason than revelation. 1t is of the nature and
essence of moral ideas that they should win their
way to concrete realization in the figure of society
simply and solely by the force of their own WORTH
ness to be received and adopted by men. When
moral progress depends for its impulse on the
power of the sword there is implied 10 that very
fact departure from the law of true moral progress


And it is not difficult to say where this depar-
ture on the subject of slavery began well at the
North as at the South. 1t began at the North in
the assertion of unqualified political and civil
rights, without regard to the fitness of persons for
their enjoyment. 1t began at the South in that
perverted view which sought to see in slavery the
normal condition Of the black race, and which set
its face against the very idea Of melioratiDg the
mental and material condition Of the slave until
he should be fit for the boon Of freedom. 1t is the
conflict Of these ntagonisms-equally standing In
the way of true moral progress-which has pro-
duced our civil war SO far as its issues are deter
mined by the moral aspects Of slavery. 1t may be
that the shock Of war could alone wake the people
10 sense of "right reason on this question, but
none will deny the peril of enlisting war in the
cause of moral reform The general lesson Of his
tory on this topic is correctly expounded by DR..
Arnold, when, in his sometimes profound and al
ways judicous annotations on the Peloponnesian
civil war as recited by Thucydides, he says


"The great enemy of society in its present stage s
II this calamity be avoided the progress Of improvement
is sure but attempts to advance the Of freedom by
the sword are intellectually perous War is state of such
fatal ntoIcaon that it makes men careless OF improving
and sometimes Of repairing their internal
and thus the Of national happiness may be cut
short not only by foreign conquest but BY state Of war
poisoning the blood destroying the healthy tone OF the
system and setting up everish excitement, till the dsor
der terminates in despotism" (yoi. ], Appendix L. p
522, 4tb ed


1.-THE C's OF FINANCE