Year: 1874

authority they felt that their hour had


come,


Yon found it easy enough to say thai


he was the greatest of American states


men, and that he p we'd 1t 6y proposing


such legislation as this. But consider a


msmens whether 1t was consistent with


any true idea Of wisdom or justice.


You will concede the simple point that
| Congress had no Jurisdiction over the sub
Ject Of slavery IN the ) ates. What he
| contemplated and desired and worked to
/ accomplish could not be done without a
fraudulent bTe CT of Lhe trust on which he


and all others held and exercised the pow
ers Of the Federal Government. The


practicability Of carrying out the usurpa-


ton was based on the assumption that the
Southern people would choke down their


resentment and subn it tame!y to be.strip-
| psd- Of their constitutional rights, and this
/ you admit to have been a rniscalsulation


OF the passion which would be reused by


the attempt 1t follows that Mr.. Sew


ards political chGef G'OeltUre consisted
merely Of a fraud & blunder compound


ed together. Have you not proved your
| great statesman to be alike destitute Of
| principle and prudence?


He pleaded ''the salutary instructions
of economy and the ripening influences of
humanity" In favor OF measures. These


Instructions" aud influences" have


probably made 50 deep an impression on
your susceptible heart that you are will


ing to condone both the fraud and the
blunder for their sake. You will not as


sert the infamous maxim that the end
Justifes the means, but you have made up


your mind that Mr. Stewards object in
legislating on the internal affairs Of the
South was, in itself, so benefcent as TO


make him preach of his fidelity to the
| Constitution venial sin If not virtue.
! And you think the passions of the South


were 80 monstrous and unnatural that to


miscalculate and ignore them was not q
very bad mistake after all.


But look a little further. The Southern
| people sprang from a race accustomed for


two thousand years TO dominate over all


other races with which it came IN contact


They supposed themselves greatly supe-


rlor to negroes. Most of them sincerely


believed that, If they and the Africans


must live together, the best and safest


relation for both that could be established


between them was that of master and SER


want. They thought 1t could not be abol-


ished without revolution disastrous 10


their material prosperity and fatal to their


social organization. They did not thin


it sinful. The Bible furnishes evidence


satisfactory to them that God himself had
| framed constitution and laws for his


chosen people, which made Israsl pro-


slavery commonwealth as much as Viz


ginia or South Carolina. Their religious
teachers had told them for many eentu-


rIes that the canons of the Christian


Church did not oppose it, but would hold


them morally responsible only for the abuse
of the power it gave them. They knew


that the fathers Of the republic, and other


men, the best and greatest Of all the ages,


had lived according to this faith and Ia


ken it with them Through the valley Of
the shadow Of death" Some Of them


see how to get rid Of it,. This last class


were especially resentfuI of ontside inter-
ference They felt as Jefferson did, that
they had the wolf by the ears" they


coald neither hold on with comfort nor let
go with safety, and it made them extre me-
| Iy indignant to be go=ded IN the rear. In


all that country, from the Potomac TO the
| Gulf there was probably not one man


who felt convinced that this difficult sub
jeet should be determined for them by


strangers and eneIni ss. Seeing that we


in the North had held fastSto every pound
of human flesh we owned, and either work
ed il TO death or sold IL for a price. our


provision for the freedom of unborn ne
groes did not tend much to their eduea-


ton. They had no confidence in that
'ripening influence Of humanity" which
turned up the whites of its eyes in horror
at the sight of negro compellod to hoe
corn or pick cotton, yet gloRted over the
prospect of insurrection and massacre.
They were nearly unanimous IN the opin-
= = -. ".
affairs was prompted by laneorous hatred
Of tha white people, or that il proceeded,
at best, from that monkey IKE spirit of
mischief which is never content without
thrusting its unwelcome nose into some
body's kitehen or somebody's church,
They had tradition among them that it
was not their fathers who brought the At
rieans 70 this country. They charged the
eruelties Of the slave trade and the horrors
Of the middle passage upon the English
and the Yankees; the planters merely re-
eeived the savage negroes tanned and do
meshcated them, taught them TO work,
converted them 70 Christianity, organized /
them into churches, and generally did |
more to improve their condition, materi- /
ally and spiritually than all the mission
ary societies that ever existed. Moreover |
they had suspicion that if they gave up /
their right Of self government on this sub
iect all their other rights would be taken |
away; once placed without the pale Of con-
stitutional protection their Northern enc
mics would cut them up root and branch. |


or course l admit that in all this the |
Southern people wers blindly wrong. |
They should have understood their bodies |
different They ought to have known /
that the negro was at least their equal, |
if not their superior They were besotted /
not to see that Northern sbolitionists were |
the "wisest, virtuousest, diBcreetest, best
OF human beings, whose tender hearts /
were always overfOwipg with pure benev |
olence; and who wished TO control the /
local governments and domestic business
of the South, not for their own profit or |
pleasure, but solely in the interests of
God and morality. If they had seen
things, as you see them, IN this true light
they would have surrendered their right
of self government upon the frst sum;
mons. But they could not so understand
the business. 1t was with them simply
non possunrtLs The faith Of people,
delivered and kept from generation TO
generation for thousands Of years cannot
be changed in 8 moment Independence,
bravely won and long established, IS not
often given up without struggle. Burke
speaking of these same communities,
warned the British Parliament that slave
holders were, by their very habits Of mas
terdom, made more vigilant, jealons, and
hardy than other men in the defence Of
their own liberties, Everything was un-
propitious to the spread of yonr doctrine
among them. There was not = pOpula-
ton on the habitable globe less prepared
than they were TO appreciate the duty OF
passive submission. You must net judge
them by yourself, or apply to them the
lefty standard Of ysur own conscience.
You contemplated things from a different
point Of view, and had means denied TO
Them Of understanding their religious and
political wants. Even yet they cannot
see as you do the infinite blessings they
enjoy IN being subjected and objected to
Yankee rule.


1t has been ever thus. A sinful people
can never appreciate the holiness Of the
strangers who kill and rob them for their
good. Philip II, and the Duke of Alva
determined to lay the Low Countries
waste, and extinguisA the heresies Of the
people in their owR. This was to save
their souls, The KING expressed the OBJ