Year: 1860

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH OF EDWARD EVER


EFT, AT THE UNION MEETING IN FANEUIL


HALL, BOSTON, THURSDAY DECEMBER s, 1852


The subject Of this speech the John Brown raid
at Harper's Ferry After reading some extracts from
the history of st. Domingo Mr. Everett proceeded thus


''Such sir as matter Of history is a servle nsurrec
ton Now let cast glance at the state OF things in
the Southern States, members they with us In
this great republican Conederacy. Let consider over
what sort OF population it is, that persons among
us think 1t not only right and cSmmeudabe but in the
highest degree heroic saintke, God like 10 extend the
awful calamity which turned St. Domingo into heap Of
bloody ashes in 1891. There are between three and
four millions of the coored race scattered through the
southern and southwestern States In small groups in
cities towns villages and in larger bodies isolated
plantations the house, the factory, and the field -;
mingled together with the dominant in the various
pursuits of life the latter amounting in the aggregate TO
eight pine millions, If rightly recoect the numbers.
Upon this community, thus composed It was the design
Of Brown 10 let loose the helhounds Of a serve insur
rectior and bring struggle which, for magnitude
atrocy and horror would have stood alone 10 the world
And those eight or nine millions, against whom this
ftghtiul was levied are our teow-ctiLens, entitled
with the protection Of that compact OF Government
which recognizes their relation to the colored
compact which every officer Of the Union or Of the
States is bound by his oath to support. Among them
sir is fair proportion OF men and women OF education
and cuure-of moral and religious lives and characters





who would adorn any station Of society in any county
men who read the Bible that do, aud, in the
name of the Master, kneel at the throne OF the
same Conforming class Of men from which have gone
forth some Of the greatest and purest characters which
adorn our history-Washington Jefferson Madison,
Monroe Marshall in the single State OF Virginia, against
which the first blow has been struck These the men,
the women for whose bosoms pixies and rifles manu-
ufactured in New England to be Placed in the hands Of
ignorant subj ct race, supposed, most Wrongfuy, rs
recent events have shown, TO be waiting only for op
portunity to use them.


"Sir have on three or four different occasions 10
early life, aud more recently vseda all the southern and
south States with the exception Of Arkansas and
Alabama. have enjoyed the hospitality Of the city aud
the country, and have had the privilege before crowd
cd and fayoring audiences hold up the character Of
the Father OF his country aud TO incucae the blessings
of the Union in the precise tlrms in which have
done it here at hone aud in the other por-
lions of the land. / have been admitted to the
confidence of the domestic circle, aud have seen there
touching manifestations of the kudest feelings by which
that circle 10 all its members high aud low master and
servant, be bound together; and whtn contemplate
the horrors that would have ensued had the tragedy
which the curtain at Hlrpers Ferry been acted out
through all ts scenes OF fire aud sword OF lust and
der OF rapine and desOaion am overcome by emotions
to which no word can Justice. There could ocourse be
but esua that well deserving the thoughtful med


alton OF those If any such there be- who think that the
welfare Of the coored could by any possibility, be
promoted by the ofsuch movement and Who
willing purchase that result by costly sacrifice The
c)ored population Of St. Domingo amounted TO but little
short OF half million, while the whites amounted 10 ony
thirty thousand The white population of the Southern
States alone in the aggregate outnumbers the coorcd
in the ratio Of two TO One in the Union at large IN
the ratio of one aud if which Heaven avert
they should be brought into the conflict it could end only
in the determination Of the latter, after Of
for which Language is faint and for which the veest
fancy has no adequate images OF horror.