OUR BEST WITNESSES AND MASTERS IN THE ART OF WAR.
I think few worth damnation, save their kings;
And these but as a kind of quit-rent, to
Assert my right as lord.
VISION OF JUDGMENT.
We intend this chapter as our trump card, and have kept it in reserve,
because it is rash to "lead trumps." We could produce a cloud of
witnesses, but should only protract the trial thereby. We call into
court Horace Greely, Wm. Goodell, Gerrit Smith, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, and
Stephen Pearle Andrews, and propose to prove by them (the actual leaders
and faithful exponents of abolition,) that their object, and that of
their entire party, is not only to abolish Southern slavery, but to
abolish also, or greatly to modify, the relations of husband and wife,
parent and child, the institution of private property of all kinds, but
especially separate ownership of lands, and the institution of Christian
churches as now existing in America. We further charge, that whilst
actively engaged in attempts to abolish Southern slavery, they are busy,
with equal activity and more promise of success, in attempts to upset
and re-organize society at the North.
In convening these gentlemen as witnesses, and also arraigning them
on trial, we are actuated by no feelings of personal ill-will or
disrespect. We admire them all, and have had kindly intercourse and
correspondence with some of them. They are historical characters, who
would seek notoriety in order to further their schemes of setting the
world to rights. We have no doubt of their sincere philanthropy, and as
little doubt, that they are only "paving hell with good intentions."
We speak figuratively. We shall try their cause in the most calm and
judicial temper. We would address each of them in language borrowed from
Lord Byron:
Why,
My good old friend, for such I deem you,
Though our different parties make us fight so shy,
I ne'er mistake you for a _personal_ foe;
Our difference is political, and I
Trust that whatever may occur,
You know my great respect for you, and this
Makes me regret whatever you do amiss.
Indeed, we should be ungrateful and discourteous in the extreme, if we
did not entertain kindly remembrance and make gentlemanly return for the
generous reception and treatment we received, especially from leading
abolitionists, when we went north to personate Satan by defending
Slavery. Though none agreed with us, none were made converts by us:
Yet still between his darkness and his brightness,
There passed a mutual glance of great politeness.
We will first call Mr. Wm. Goodell to the stand. His position as one of
the most active leaders of the Gerrit Smith or Syracuse wing of
abolition, would entitle his admissions and assertions of the failure of
his own society to the greatest credence, since such admissions and
assertions weaken his assaults on the South, and must be reluctantly
drawn from him; but, independent of his peculiar position, his high
character as a man, and his distinction as an author, should enlist
attention and command respect for what he says. In his Democracy of
Christianity, vol. 2d, page 197, he thus writes:
"And what is this pride of wealth, after all, growing up into the
aristocracy of wealth, the usurpations of wealth, the oppressions
of wealth, grinding the masses of humanity into the dust to-day,
throughout our modern Christendom, in the middle of our nineteenth
century civilization and progress, with a hoof more flinty, more
swinish, and MORE MURDEROUS (capitals ours) than that of
semi-barbarous feudalism in its bloodiest days."
He understands the intolerable exploitation of capital better than we
do, for he lives in a country where slavery has not stepped in to shield
the laborer. He, the laborer, is a "slave without a master," and his
oppressors, "cannibals all."
Mr. G's. book appears to us to carry the doctrine of human equality to a
length utterly inconsistent with the power and control which ordinary
Christian marriage gives to the husband over the wife; yet be assures us
he is the unflinching friend of Christian marriage. The purity of his
sentiments revolt at the conclusions to which his abstract doctrines
inevitably lead. Yet his idea of Christian marriage may differ, so far
as the power of the husband is concerned, widely from ours. We are sure
he would do nothing, designedly, to impair the purity and sacredness of
the relation.
Mr. G. is a Christian socialist, and looks to a proximate millenium to
rectify the false relations of men and property, in his own society, and
to the arm of the Federal Government to set things right in the South.
Why not leave all to Providence, especially since the right of the
Government to abolish Southern slavery is denied by all respectable
authority outside of abolition; and also by the Garrisonians, who are
the most thorough-going of all abolitionists, and of all disorganizers.
Mr. Goodell's plan of "rectifying human relations" at the North, by a
millennium, is quite as common as that of Mr. Greely, Andrews and Owen,
each of whom has discovered a new social science that they are sure will
fit the world, because it wont fit a village.
We really think that a man of Mr. Goodell's nice sense of justice and
propriety, should have hesitated long ere he invoked a God to do that
which he would be ashamed to do himself. If it be wrong to strip the
rich of their possessions, why hope or expect that God will perpetrate a
wrong at which human conscience revolts, when it is proposed to be done
by human agency.
After an elaborate argument, to prove the advent of a millennial state
of society, through the instrumentality of Christianity, Mr. Goodell, on
page 510, vol. II, of his Democracy of Christianity, thus sums up and
concludes:
"Glance over, again, the items included in these predictions:--The
general and permanent prevalence of peace,--the result of justice,
_equity_, SECURITY, and the actual _possession_, [italics his] by
each and every one of 'his vine and fig tree'--that is, of soil
sufficient to produce the needful fruits of the earth, or, in some
way, a supply for his physical wants.
"Add to this, the general diffusion and great increase of
knowledge, especially moral and religious knowledge, which
includes the knowledge of social relations, duties and
rights,--the knowledge that implies 'wisdom,' and that wisdom
which begins with 'the fear of the Lord.' Next the application of
all this knowledge, wisdom and fear of the Lord, to the concerns
of civil government, insomuch that 'the kingdoms of this world
shall become the kingdoms of Christ,' and the dominion be given to
THE PEOPLE, who at that period, shall have become purified and
instructed by him,--who shall all be righteous, who 'shall all
know the Lord, from the least to the greatest,' and even 'the
feeble among them shall be as David.' To this, add general
contentment and enjoyment, facilities of social and international
intercourse, the general prevalence of the spirit of benevolence
and brotherly love, and the absence of those maddening and satanic
temptations, delusions and prejudices, that have so long deceived,
enslaved and embroiled the nations;--all this cemented by the true
spiritual worship, protection and love of the Common Father of all
men.
"Is any thing wanting to complete the picture, and to ratify the
assurance of a state of liberty, equality, common brotherhood,
common interests, common sympathy, and common participancy in
social rights, immunities, privileges and arrangements? Must we
need be told in addition to all this, that 'the thrones of
despotism shall be cast down,' that the 'beast' of civil and
ecclesiastical tyranny and usurpation, the persecutor 'of the holy
apostles and people,' shall be given 'to the burning flames,' that
the yoke of domination 'shall be dashed into pieces as a potter's
vessel,' that 'subversion' shall tread upon the heels of
subversion, and one despotism overturn another, till He, 'whose
right it is, shall rule.' That the masses shall be elevated, the
exclusives brought low, that the 'lofty' shall be 'humbled,' and
the 'haughty bowed down'--_in such a period of general possession,
general justice, equality and contentment as has been already and
previously described_?"
Now, Mr. Goodell deplores that the condition of his society is so bad,
that it becomes necessary to upset and reverse it by a millennium. Is
not this, considering his high position and authority, strong evidence
to prove "the failure of Free Society." We should add, that his whole
book teems with evidence of his uncompromising hostility to existing
Church institutions, and the existing Priesthood, as abuses and
interpolations that have been engrafted improperly on Christianity. He
obviously belongs, in faith, to those early Christians, who resembled
the Essenes in their social relations, and who daily expected the advent
of the millennium. Their error in the last respect, shows that it is the
Bible, and not their construction of it, that should be our rule of
faith and guide of conduct.
The next witness we call up, is Gerrit Smith, a man who has a national
reputation as an orator, a philanthropist and a gentleman; who writes
better than he speaks, and whose active charity and benevolence are only
exceeded in the greatness of their amount by the grossness of their
misapplication. He is a zealous Christian, yet edits, or did edit, the
Progressive Christian, which proposed to abolish Christianity as now
understood. He builds churches to keep out the clergy, and heads
Christian conventions to put down Christian institutions, and agrees
with Wendell Phillips, that the pulpit of the North stands in the way
of reform--_et delenda est Carthago_--the pulpit should be destroyed!
Like Mr. Goodell, he seems to look to an approaching millenium. But he
is a man of restless activity and energy, and of incalculable daring,
and would put his shoulder to the wheel, and inaugurate the millenium at
once. He assumes the responsibility; declares continually in speeches,
lectures and essays, that land monopoly is an intolerable evil; that
lands should be as common and as free for use to all, as air and water;
and proposes to divide them at once. He is one of the largest owners of
real estate at the North, and yet the most uncompromising agrarian in
the world. His disinterestedness is only exceeded by his rashness and
destructiveness:
"The mildest-manner'd man,
That ever cut a throat or scuttled ship."
His amiableness of disposition and evenness of temper never desert him,
because he has not to "screw his courage to the sticking-place." 'Tis
always there. The "red right arm of Thundering Jove" could not shake his
tenacity of purpose; and, in a case of conscience, he would let the
world or the Union slide with equal equanimity:
"Si fractus illabitur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae!"
He gives a forty thousand or so to Kansas emigrants from the North,
because, as a gentleman, he feels it his duty to stick to his country,
right or wrong; and abolitionists are _his_ country. His gross
eccentricities and intellectual aberrations are but the natural
out-growth of the social system which surrounds him, and which reminds
him and every other ingenuous and candid mind,
"That whatever is, is _wrong_.'"
He is only seemingly eccentric and erratic. He feels the difficulty of
disposing of his immense wealth, without making it an engine of
oppression and exaction. He understands the theory of capital and labor,
as his speeches show;--knows that labor produces every thing, and that
capital is the whip that forces it to work, and also the exploitator
that robs it of most of the proceeds of its industry. "La propriete
c'est le vol!" he sees is true, save in the impurity of motive, which it
seems to attribute to its owners. If he endows colleges, or gives his
money in large sums to individuals, in the one case it is used to rear
up exploitators, who rob labor by professional skill; and in the other,
to those who use it at once as an engine of exaction and oppression. If
he gives it in smaller sums to the poor, he is generally giving to the
idle the labor of the industrious, and offering a premium to continued
idleness; for he can neither control the conduct nor expenditure of his
beneficiaries. He is too good, and too proud, to spend his income in
pomp and luxury. Too good thus to waste the proceeds of labor, (as all
public or private luxury does,) and thus increase the burdens of the
working class. Too proud to derive reflected importance and standing
from extraneous glitter and costly show and equipage. He has (no doubt,
in vain,) attempted to ameliorate the condition of a great many slaves,
by purchasing them and emancipating them. Could he retain them as
slaves, he might see that his charity was not misapplied, by educating
them and controlling their conduct. To us, it occurs that a large
capital can only be safely invested in slaves and hands, if the owner
wishes to be sure that it shall not be used as an engine of oppression,
or as a persuasive to idleness and dissipation.
We should do injustice to Mr. Smith were we not to add, that he is quite
as busy in abducting negroes as in buying them. The underground railroad
is one of his favorite pets and beneficiaries. His restless energy is
not satisfied with the slow proceedings of this road, and hence he buys
negroes, as well as aids the abducting of them. He has been severely
censured for buying them, by those whom he supplies with the means to
steal them, or whom he rescues from the fangs of the law, when caught
in abortive efforts to abduct them.
He had the education and has the feelings and bearing of the Southerner.
His father owned slaves, and a territory full of Indians, and he was
reared as playmate and prince in their midst; hence, he has the proud
humility of the Southerner, not the exacting and supercilious arrogance
of the Northerner. He does not demand deference and respect, because it
has, from boyhood, been yielded to him, as his due, by admitted
inferiors.
The value of his testimony, establishing, if true, the utter and entire
failure of free society, cannot be over estimated. He is learned,
candid, honest, well-informed, and has always lived in free society. Its
subversion, which he proposes, and actively attempts, would strip him of
millions of wealth. He is the leading champion of slave abolition, and,
by admitting the failure of free society, blunts and neutralizes all his
arguments against slavery. In every way, then, pride of opinion, seeming
consistency, and pecuniary interest, tempt him to extol, not to condemn
free society. It is true, he thinks slavery also a failure, and a
greater failure; but he knows little practically about slave society,
and cannot admit for us, although he may for himself and his
section.--En passant, we would say to him, that air and water are the
subjects of more exclusive appropriation in free society than land.--He
is a lawyer, and knows that the ownership of the soil carries with it
the ownership of every thing, ad inferos, et usque ad coelum. In fact,
in cities where the poor most do congregate, their food and raiment
differ not half so much from that of the rich, as their enjoyment of
pure air and water. Men must get a place to breathe and drink from; and
all places are appropriated.
Yes, Mr. Smith, you are vainly trying to grasp The Right! The Right is
connected with, affected by, and affects all the Past, all the Present,
and all the Future. God knows the Right--man only the Expedient.
Our next witness is Horace Greely, Editor of the Tribune, and Napoleon
of the Press. His first distinction was won by his espousing and
elaborately propagating the Social Philosophy of Charles Casimir
Fourier. This he did, some twenty years since, in a long controversy
with the Courier & Enquirer: the latter paper sustaining the
conservative side. The correspondence was afterwards published in book
form, and we regret that we have not been able to possess ourselves of a
copy. The whole edition, we learn, was burnt at the Harpers. Consigned
by Providence, not by a human Censor, to the flames. Should we
misrepresent our witness, it will be because we have tried in vain to
get this book. We think he was the first, in America, to assert, and
maintain by arguments and proofs, the inadequacy and injustice of the
whole social and governmental organization at the North. He, not
ourselves, is the American author of the theory of the Failure of Free
Society. His remedies, though not as radical and scientific as those of
Proudhon and Mr. Andrews, did very well for a beginning. He, we think,
proposed at once to coop mankind up in Phalansteries, where, in a few
generations, all the distinctions of separate property, and of separate
wives and children, would be obliterated and lost, and society would
gradually and gently be fused and crystalized into a system of pure and
perfect Communism. The Tribune has to minister to a variety of tastes,
all agreeing in their destructive tendencies, but differing widely as to
the manner in which they shall attain their conclusions; hence, it is
hard to deduce any well defined system of philosophy from its columns.
Mr. Andrews intimates, that our witness is no philosopher at all. Be it
so. Yet all must admit that no man of the age has the organ or faculty
of Destructiveness so fully developed. The Tribune has been, from the
time of the controversy of which we have spoken, to the present day, the
great Organ of Socialism, of Free Love, and of all the other isms which
propose to overthrow and rebuild society and government, or to dispense
with them altogether. Steadily pursuing this destructive course, the
Tribune has for years become the most popular paper in the North, and,
'tis said, has more readers in Europe and America than any paper in the
world; and yet its only peculiar thought, its whole intellectual, moral,
social and political stock in trade, consists of the one idea, variously
expressed, illustrated and enforced, "The Failure of Free Society;" or,
as Carlyle phrases it, "We must have a new world, if we are to have any
world at all."
What a striking illustration of our theory, that "a mere verbal formula
often distinguishes a truism from a paradox." _We_ assert a theory
bluntly and plainly, and attempt to prove it by facts and arguments, and
the world is ready to exclaim, "Oh, what shocking heresy." Mr. Greely,
for twenty years, maintains the same theory, in different language, and
elicits the admiration and gratitude of the world. Oh, Le Pauvre Peuple!
how long will it permit its flatterers to deceive and betray it? Mr.
Greely and ourselves agree in our destructive philosophy, but are wide
asunder as the poles in what is constructive. Each proposes to protect
the weak. He promises "protection without control or abridgment of
liberty." We tell those who ask for or require protection and support,
that "they must submit to be controlled, for that the price of security
has ever been, and ever will be, the loss of liberty."
The popularity of the Tribune shews that the world is prepared to upset
existing social systems. When that is done, it will have to choose
between Free Love and Slavery; between more of government and no
government. We think, like Carlyle, more of government is needed. We,
too, are a Socialist, (for free society,) but we would screw up the
strings of society, not further relax them, much less cut them "sheer
asunder!"
We wish to display the truth, and nothing but truth, to the public, on
the subjects of Abolition and Socialism; and, for fear of
misrepresentation, have written letters to Mr. Greely and Mr. Garrison,
copies of which we shall append to this chapter. Should they be silent,
the letters will at least show our solicitude to arrive at truth.
We have written enough about Mr. Andrews, and quoted enough from his
book already, to show that he is the great philosopher of his party, and
the comprehensive and truthful expositor of its doctrines, its
tendencies, and ultimate results. His co-laborers, less scientific and
far-sighted than he, might be ready to exclaim, on reading his book,
"Thinkest thou thy servant a dog, that he shall do this thing!" But Mr.
Andrews is right. To this complexion must they come at last. A plunge
into the soft and sensual waters of the lake of Free Love--then a sudden
and violent exit into the keen and shivering atmosphere of despotism.
We know less of Mr. Garrison than of either of the other gentlemen. He
heads the extreme wing of the Socialist, Infidel, Woman's-Right,
Agrarian and Abolition party, who are called Garrisonians. He edits the
Liberator, which is conducted with an ability worthy of a better cause.
He and his followers seem to admit that the Bible and the Constitution
recognize and guarantee Slavery, and therefore denounce both, and
propose disunion and no priests or churches, as measures to attain
abolition. Mr. Garrison usually presides at their meetings, and we
infer, in part, their principles and doctrines, from the materials that
compose those meetings. A Wise-Woman will rise and utter a philipic
against Marriage, the Bible, and the Constitution,--and will be followed
by negro Remond, who "spits upon Washington," and complains of the
invidious distinction of calling whites Anglo-Saxons, and negroes
Africans. And now, Phillips arises,
"Armed with hell-flames and fury,"
and gently begins, in tones more dulcet, and with action more graceful
than Belial, to
"Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell!
Uproar the universal peace--
Destroy all unity on earth."
Then Mr. Parker will edify the meeting by stirring up to bloody deeds in
Kansas or in Boston--in which, as becomes his cloth, he takes no
part--and ends by denouncing things in general, and the churches and
parsons in particular. And, probably, the whole will conclude with a
general indulgence and remission of sins, from Mr. Andrews, who assumes,
for the nonce, the character of Father Confessor, and assures the tender
conscience that it is right and incumbent to take the oath to sustain
the Constitution, with the deliberate purpose of violating it, because
such oaths are taken under moral duress. These Garrisonians are as
intellectual men as any in the nation. They lead the Black Republican
party, and control the politicians. Yet are they deadly enemies of
Northern as well as of Southern institutions.
Now, gentlemen, all of you are philosophers, and most zealous
philanthropists, and have for years been roaring, at the top of your
voice, to the Oi Polloi rats, that the old crazy edifice of society, in
which they live, is no longer fit for human dwelling, and is imminently
dangerous. The rats have taken you at your word, and are rushing
headlong, with the haste and panic of a "sauve que peut," into every
hole that promises shelter--into "any port in a storm." Some join the
Rappists and Shakers, thousands find a temporary shelter in Mr. Greely's
Fourierite Phalansteries; many more follow Mr. Andrews to Trialville, to
villages in the far West, or to Modern Times; and a select few to the
saloons of Free Love; and hundreds of thousands find shelter with
Brigham Young, in Utah; whilst others, still more frightened, go to
consult the Spiritual Telegraph, that raps hourly at the doors of heaven
and of hell, or quietly put on their ascension robes to accompany Parson
Miller in his upward flight. But the greater number are waiting (very
impatiently) for Mr. Andrews to establish his New and Better World, or
for Mr. Garrison and Mr. Goodell to inaugurate their Millenium.
Why, Gentlemen! none of these worse than Cassandra vaticinations--why
none of this panic, terror, confusion and flight, in Slave Society? Are
we suffering, and yet contented? Is our house tumbling about our heads,
and we sitting in conscious security amidst the impending ruin? No! No!
Our edifice is one that never did fall, and never will fall; for
Nature's plastic hand reared it, supports it, and will forever sustain
it.
Have we not shewn, in this single chapter, that the North has as much to
apprehend from abolition as the South, and that it is time for
conservatives every where to unite in efforts to suppress and extinguish
it?
We add hereto a letter we addressed to the public as to "Our Trip to the
North," and our reply to a Mr. Hogeboom, a New York abolitionist. Also,
our letters to Garrison and Greely. We do this to shew that we intend
not to mislead, misrepresent or deceive. In truth, the leading
Abolitionists are our pets and favorites. We have an inveterate and
perverse penchant of finding out good qualities in bad fellows.
Robespierre and Milton's Satan are our particular friends.
MY TRIP TO THE NORTH.
_To the Editors of the Enquirer_:
GENTLEMEN,--I hesitated long before resolving to address you this
letter. I feel that I shall be amenable to the charge of egotism; but I
have written a book, in which I undertake to defend and justify Slavery,
and to advise the South as to its future policy. In that I am
egotistical, as every one is who writes a book. I have "stepped in so
far, that returning were more tedious than go o'er." I will not do
things by halves. When I wrote that book, I believed that Government,
Law, Religion, and Marriage, were victims bound and filleted for
sacrifice by Northern abolition. What was then matter of doubtful
opinion, inference and speculation, has become, since my trip to the
North, subject of fixed faith and conviction. I enjoyed the warm and
elegant hospitality of some of the Liberty party of the North. I was in
social intercourse with many of them. I have received many pamphlets,
books and speeches from them. I have no private confidences to betray,
because I heard no secrets. This party is conscientious, believes itself
right, and courts discussion and notoriety. I, besides, conversed
freely with strangers, in public conveyances and at hotels. I think,
with my previous study on the subject of Slavery and Abolition, I may be
able to make some useful suggestions to the South and the North.
It seemed to me, that in attempting to prove "Free Society a failure,"
in my lecture at New Haven, I was "but carrying coals to New Castle."
The Liberty party, at least, discovered that long before I did, and are
as intent on subverting and re-constructing society at home, as on
abolishing slavery with us. A part of them, I will not undertake to say
how large a portion, are infidels, who find the Bible no impediment to
their schemes of social reform, because they assert that it is false.
This wing of the Liberty party is in daily expectation of discovering a
new Social Science, that will remedy all the ills that human flesh is
heir to. They belong to the schools of Owen, Louis Blanc, Fourier,
Comte, and the German and French Socialists and Communists. The other
wing, and probably the most numerous wing of the party, is composed of
the Millenial Christians--men who expect Christ, either in the flesh or
in the spirit, soon to reign on earth; the lion to lie down with the
lamb; every man to sit down under his own vine and fig tree; all to have
an interest in lands; marrying and giving in marriage to cease; war to
be abolished, and peace and good will to reign among men. They are as
intent on abolishing all Church government and authority, as the
infidels. They would, equally with them, trample on all law and
government, because "liberty is," say they, "an inalienable right," and
law, religion, and government continue to protect slavery. Marriage,
Christian marriage, which requires the obedience of the wife, is
slavery; and they would modify it, or destroy it. Land monopoly, they
say, gives to property or capital a greater power over labor than
masters have over slaves; hence, they very wisely and logically
conclude, that land, like air and water, should be common property.
The Liberty party is composed of very able men--of philosophers and
philanthropists. They have demonstrated, beyond a doubt, that slavery is
necessary, unless they can get up a Millenium, or discover a new Social
Science. The increasing crime and poverty of mankind, and the utter
failure of all social experiments like those of Owen and others,
indicate neither the advent of the one, nor the discovery of the other.
This Liberty party are the best allies of the South, because they admit,
and continually expose, the utter failure of Free Society.
One of the most distinguished of this party thus writes to Wendell
Phillips, Esq.:
"I cannot refrain from expressing, in this connection, my grief
that many abolitionists have allowed their faith in the Bible to
be shaken."
In my short trip to the North, I was struck with nothing so much as the
avowed infidelity of many, and the Christianity melting into infidelity,
of the great mass of the balance with whom I conversed. I have no doubt,
however, that although such a state of things is too common at the
North, yet my peculiar associations made the evil appear greater than it
really is. The religious and conservative, like the lily of the valley,
are silent and secluded. As a specimen of this religion melting, as I
think, into infidelity, I will give another extract from the letter to
Wendell Phillips:
"You have been much censured for holding that the anti-slavery
cause can reach success only over the ruins of the American
government and the American church. Nevertheless, you are right.
The religion which tolerates--nay, sanctifies--slavery, must
necessarily be conquered ere the devotees and dupes of that
religion will suffer slavery to be abolished. Again, so long as
the actual government is on the side of slavery, the bloodless
abolition of slavery is impracticable."
The author of the letter from which I quote, and Mr. Phillips to whom it
is addressed, are gentlemen, scholars and christians. They are, besides,
historical characters. We violate no privacy in holding up their
opinions to public view and general criticism. Is their's not
Christianity melting into infidelity? I have lately received a book, in
two volumes, entitled "The Democracy of Christianity," from its
author--William Goodell of New York, a member of the Liberty Party. The
author evinces much ability, ingenuity and research. He is one of the
millenial Christians--obviously pious and sincere. He sees no exodus
from the appalling evils of Free Society, except that state of perfect
equality, peace, happiness and security, that he, like the men of
Cromwell's day, thinks is promised and predicted in the Bible. I cite
the following passage from the conclusion of his work:
"Glance over again the items included in these predictions:--The
general and permanent prevalence of peace--the result of justice,
equity, security, and the actual possession, by each and every
one, of 'his vine and fig tree,' i. e. of soil sufficient to
produce the needful fruits of the earth, or in some way, a supply
of his physical wants."
If this state of things ever occur, God will bring it about without the
help of abolitionists.
We do not deem it necessary to quote from the infidel agrarians and
abolitionists, because their splendid promises and bloody and disastrous
failures, have been matters of every day's history and of every day's
occurrence, from the times of Marat and the guillotine to those of
Lamartine and Cavaignac.
The Proletariat of France, the nomadic pauper banditti of England, the
starving tenantry of Ireland, the Lazzaroni of Italy, and the
half-savages of Hayti, are the admitted results of practical abolition.
But, say the Liberty party, abolition has stopped half-way; abolish
churches, law, government, marriage, and separate property in lands, and
then the scheme will work charmingly.
Well, possibly it will; but as we are very happy, comfortable and
contented in slave society, suppose you try the "experimentum in vile
corpus." Begin at home, and if the experiment works well, we of the
South will follow your example. You have a little Eden now near Lake
Oneida. Some hundreds of Oneida perfectionists, living in primitive
simplicity, among whom there is no "marrying or giving in marriage," no
separate property, all things enjoyed in common; and we suppose, neither
priest nor officer to disturb or mar the harmony of millenial society.
"We but tell the tale as 'twas told to us." Does it work well? If so,
why not form all your institutions on that model?
You of the Liberty party seem to think that "passional attraction" and
"attractive labor" will keep all men up to their duties, and dispense
with the necessity of Church and State, Law and Religion, Priest and
Officer. You think you follow nature, but in truth you are superficial
observers of nature. Man, it is true, is a social and gregarious animal,
but like all animals of that kind, he is, by nature, law-making and
law-abiding. The ants and bees are ruled by despotic and exacting
governments, and by laws and regulations, wise and less changeable than
those of the Medes and Persians. But man is not only a law-making
animal, but a religious one also. In remitting him to a state of anarchy
and infidelity, you would not remit him to a state of nature, but one of
continuous, exterminating warfare, such as France witnessed during the
reign of terror.
I find, Messrs. Editors, that I am somewhat wandering from the subject
with which I commenced, and will conclude--for the present, at least.
Very respectfully, your ob't serv't.
G. F."
LETTER TO MR. HOGEBOOM.
_Port Royal_, Va., Jan. 14th, 1856.
To A. HOGEBOOM, Esq., Sheds Corners, Madison county, N. Y.
DEAR SIR:--Your letter reached this office during my absence from home.
I embrace the earliest opportunity of replying to it, because I rejoice
that public attention at the North may, by this means, be excited to the
subject of my book. I am sure I should not have been honored with your
correspondence had you read the book and known its subject. That subject
is the "Failure of Free Society." You have only read extracts from it,
you say, in the Northern papers. Those papers will be slow to notice the
facts, authorities and admissions which it cites, to prove the failure
of their form of society. I send you the book and refer you particularly
to the preface, to the second and third chapters, and to the "summing
up" in the concluding chapter.
If this does not satisfy you that free society is a cruel failure, read
the history of the English Poor laws, and you will find that the
laboring class of England have, every day since the emancipation of the
villeins, been in a worse condition, morally and physically, than any
slaves ever were. Read, also, two articles, the one in the North British
Review, and the other in Blackwood for December, depicting the
demoralized and starving condition of the whole laboring class of Great
Britain. Read, also, Carlyle's Latter Day Pamphlets. If this does not
convince you that the _Little Experiment_, (for it is a very little one,
both in time and space,) is a disastrous and cruel failure, look at
home! How comes it that your distinguished neighbor, Gerrit Smith,
proposes to make land as free for the enjoyment of all as air and water?
Confessedly, because the despotism of capital over labor is
_intolerable_. Confessedly, because your form of society is found to be
a failure in practice! Why does another distinguished abolitionist, Mr.
Goodell, of New York, in his book, on the Democracy of Christianity,
declare, that wealth now is more cruel, oppressive and _murderous_,
than Feudal masters? Why does Mr. Greely advocate the doctrines of
Fourier, and propose to subvert your society and reconstruct it from top
to bottom, making a sort of common property of women and children, as
well as of lands and houses? Why does, much your ablest philosopher,
Stephen Pearle Andrews, propose plans of reform still more sweeping?
And, why are his doctrines popular with the "higher classes" in New
York? Why, in fine, are the larger number of the abolitionists,
millenial Christians, in daily expectation of the advent of Christ, who
is to divide all property equally, and give to each one his "vine and
fig tree." And why are the others, Atheists, like Owen and Fourier,
attempting to invent new and better forms of society?
Why have you Bloomer's and Women's Right's men, and strong-minded women,
and Mormons, and anti-renters, and "vote myself a farm" men, Millerites,
and Spiritual Rappers, and Shakers, and Widow Wakemanites, and
Agrarians, and Grahamites, and a thousand other superstitious and
infidel isms at the North? Why is there faith in nothing, speculation
about everything? Why is this unsettled, half demented state of the
human mind co-extensive in time and space, with free society? Why is
Western Europe now starving? and why has it been fighting and starving
for seventy years? Why all this, except that free society is a failure?
Slave society needs no defence till some other permanently practicable
form of society has been discovered. None such has been discovered.
Nobody at the North who reads my book will attempt to reply to it; for
all the learned abolitionists had unconsciously discovered and
proclaimed the failure of free society long before I did.
I am indebted for the honor of your correspondence, to your ignorance of
what my book contains. I reply through the Press, because I intend to
use your letter merely as an occasion to challenge the North, to dispute
or deny my assertion that "free society is a failure!"
In conclusion, I propose to you, and through you to the whole North,
these questions.
Do not the past history and present condition of Free Society in Western
Europe (where alone the experiment has been fully tried,) prove that it
is attended with greater evils, moral and physical, than Slave Society?
Do not the late writers on society in Western Europe, and in our free
States, generally admit that those evils are intolerable, and that Free
Society requires total subversion and re-organization?
Should you not, therefore, abolish your form of society, and adopt ours,
until Mr. Greely, or Brigham Young, or Mr. Andrews, or Mr. Goodell, or
some other socialist of Europe or America, invents and puts into
successful practice, a social organization better than either, or until
the millenium does actually arrive?
With the assurance that I am quite as intent on abolishing Free Society,
as you are on abolishing slavery, and with the confidence that all of
divine authority, and almost all of human authority, is on my side, I
remain, your co-philanthropist, and
Obedient servant,
GEO. FITZHUGH.
LETTER TO MR. GARRISON.
_Port Royal, Va._, July 18, 1856.
DEAR SIR--I am about to publish a work, entitled "Cannibals All; or,
Slaves Without Masters." I shall, in effect, say, in the course of my
argument, that every theoretical abolitionist at the North is a
Socialist or Communist, and proposes or approves radical changes in the
organization of society. I shall cite Mr. Greely, Mr. Goodell, S. P.
Andrews, Gerrit Smith, yourself, and other distinguished and leading
abolitionists, of both sexes, as proof of my assertion. I shall also
endeavor to show that all the literary mind of Western Europe concurs
with you. You, I perceive, have read a work already written by me, and
will not mistake my object. We live in a dangerous crisis, and every
patriot and philanthropist should set aside all false delicacy in the
earnest pursuit of truth. I believe Slavery natural, necessary,
indispensable. You think it inexpedient, immoral and criminal. Neither
of us should withhold any facts that will enable the public to form
correct opinions. Should you not reply to this letter, I shall publish a
copy of it in my book, and insist that your silence is an admission of
the truth of my charges. I regret that your very able paper reaches me
irregularly.
Your obedient servant,
GEO. FITZHUGH.
LOYD GARRISON, Esq., Boston, Mass.
LETTER TO MR. GREELY.
_Port Royal, Va._, July 20, 1856.
DEAR SIR--I am writing a work, entitled, "Cannibals All; or, Slaves
Without Masters." I shall state, as a matter of fact, that all
theoretical abolitionists assert the failure of free society, and each
proposes some plan for its re-organization. I shall cite particularly
yourself, Gerrit Smith, S. P. Andrews, Mr. Goodell and Mr. Garrison. I
shall rely on your discussion with the Courier and Enquirer, which has
been burnt, chiefly as my proof of your opinion.
I wish to afford you, and other distinguished gentlemen, an opportunity
of correcting me if I have come to erroneous conclusions. I have,
therefore, written to Mr. Garrison, and I now write to you, to afford
you an opportunity to correct me if I am wrong. I know you all think our
society a greater failure than your own; but you can _admit_ it for
yourselves, not for us. I shall publish a copy of this letter in my
book, if you do not reply, (and possibly if you reply,) both this letter
and your answer.
'Tis not possible that our two forms of society can long co-exist. All
Christendom is one republic, has one religion, belongs to one race, and
is governed by one public opinion. Social systems, formed on opposite
principles, cannot co-endure.
With much respect,
Your obedient servant,
GEO. FITZHUGH.
Before parting with our "Masters in the Art of War," we must abate a
little of the honors we have lavished on them. We have said that they
discovered and proclaimed the failure of Free Society before we did. So
they did; but they mistook it for the failure of all society. Their
little world of Western Europe and Yankeedom was, in their eyes, the
whole world. Hence, exclaims Mr. Carlyle, "We must have a new world, if
we are to have any world at all." And Andrews takes up the cry, all the
North joins in chorus, and sends the sad knell echoing back to Europe.
Not so fast, gentlemen. Your world is not one-tenth of the whole world,
and all is peace, quiet, and prosperity outside of it. We of the South,
and all slave countries, want no new world.
Now we were the first to discover and proclaim that Free Society _alone_
had failed; and failed because it was free. We occupied vantage ground,
a good stand-point, saw both forms of society, and thus discovered what
our masters had overlooked. Every body sees it now, and gives us no more
credit for the discovery, than his cotemporaries gave Columbus--"At mihi
plaudo!"
ITALIAM! primus conclamat Achates;
Italiam, coeto socii clamore salutant.