Year: 1865

TWO ELEMENTAL FORCES, SLAVERY AND LIBERTY
FACE TO FACE.


A glance only at the immediate origin oi
this war is enough for the present occasion
But, in order to dispel all darkness and to
determine our duty, let me take you for a
few moments back to the distant origin OF
the elemental forces which are now in dead
ly conflict.


Looking at the question abstractedly,
these two elemental forces are nothing but
slavery and liberty. 1t is aim )st superfuous
to add that these are natural enemies, and
cannot exist together Where slavery is
there liberty cannot be, and where liberty
is there slavery cannot be. To uphold slave,
ry there must be an uncompromising denial
of liberty; to uphold liberty there must be
an uncompromising denial of slavery Each
In self defence must stitle the other There.
fore between the two there is constant
hostility and undying hate. This eternal
warfare is not peculiar to our country. II
belongs to the nature of universal man. II
it fails to show itself anywhere, it is be,
cause slavery has won its most detestable
triumph, and blotted out the heaven-born
sentiment of freedom Circumstances a
mong us, going back to our earliest histo.
ry, have given unprecedented activity to
these two incompatible principles, and have
at last brought them into bloody battle face
to face. But it is only part of the uni
versal conflict which must endure so long
as single slave shall wear chain Slave.
ry itself is a state of war, ready to burst
forth in blood whenever the slave reclaims
that liberty which is his right, or whenever
mankind refuses to sanction it's inhuman
pretensions.


THE sLAvE-sHIP, AND THE MAYFLowER IN 1920.


Go back to the earliest days of colonial
history, and you will find the conflict al
ready preparing 1t was in 1920 that nine
teen slaves were landed in Jane stown,
in Virginia the first that ever pressed the
soil of our country. In that same year the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Those two
cargoes contained the hostile germs which
have ripened to our times They ftly SYM
bolize our gigantic strife. On the one side
is the slave-ship, and On the other is the
Mayfower. Early events derive impor-
tance as we learn to recognize their un-
doubted consequences, and these two ships
may be regarded hereafter with additional
interest, when it is seen that in them were
the beginnings of the present war


Perhaps in all the romantic legends of
the sea there is nothing more striking than
the contrast presented by those two YES
sells. Each had ventured forth upon an un-
tried and perilous ocean to find an unknown
and distant coast. In this they were alike;
but in all else how unlike! One was
freighted with human beings forcibly torn
from their own country, and hurried away
in chains to be sold as slaves. The other
Nv ad rhn Iol
tarily turned their backs upon. their own
country to seek other homes, where at least
they might be free One was heavy with
curses and sorrow. The other was lifted
with anthem and with prayer And thus,
at the same time, beneath the same sun,
over the same waves, they found their way
1t requires no effort of imagination to see
on board one of those ships Slavery, and
on board of the other Liberty, traversing
the ocean TO continue here on this broad
continent their immitigabIe war


There is no record of what passed in the
cabin of the slave-ship before the landing
of the slaves. The wall of slavery, the
clank of chains, and the voice of the mas
ter counting the price of his cargo, there
might have been. But the cabin of the
Mayhower another scene of which there is
an authentic record, as the whole company,
by solemn compact, deliberately constituted
themselves body polite, and set the grand
example of a Christian commonwealth.
thus indicating the character which had
been claimed for them, as knit together in
strict and sacred bond, byvirtue of which
they held themselves bound to take care of
the good of each other and of the whole"
And so these two voyages closed.


INFLUENCE OF THE TWO SHIPS.


Look at the early social life of the two
warning sections, and you will see the infu-
to be supplied with slaves, so that slavery
became a part of herself On the other
hand, New England always set her face
against slavery. To her great honor, in an
age when slavery was less condemned than
now, the Legislature of Massachusetts cen
sured ship-master who had fraudulently
and injuriously brought negro from GUM
ea," and, by solemn vote, resolved that the
negro should be sent back without delay"
and not long after enacted the law of Ex-
odus, If any man stealeth man, he shall
surely be put to death" Thus at that
early day stood Virginia and New England;
for such at that time was the designation
of the two provinces which divided British
America by line of demarkation very
nearly coincident with the recent slave line
of our Republic.


OPPOSITE CHARACTER OF THE SETTLERS OF VIRGIN
IA AND NEW ENGLAND,


But the contrast between the two colonies,
as illustrated by those two voyages, ap-
pears equally in the opposite character of
their respective settlers. Like seeks like,
and the Pilgrims of the Mayfower were
followed by others of similar virtues
whose first labors on landing were to build
churches and schools Many of them had
the best education in England some were
men of substance, and there was no power
ty among them that could cause blush,
while all were most exact and exemplary
in conduct They were a branch of that
grand Puritan stock, to which, according to
the reluctant confession of Hume, the
English were indebted for the whole free
dom of their Constitution" We are told
by Burke that there is sacred veil to be
drawn over the beginnings of all govern
ments, and that where this is not happily
supplied by time, it must be found in dis
Greet silence But no veil is needed for the
Puritan settlers of New England. 1t is
very different with the early settlers of Vir-