he thus, in a speech at New York, expressed himself in regard to the
antislavery agitation at the North. "It [slavery] has arrested the
_religious feeling_ of the country; it has taken strong hold of the
consciences of men. He is a rash man indeed, little conversant with
human nature, and especially has he a very erroneous estimate of the
character of the people of this country, who supposes that a feeling of
this kind is _to be trifled with or despised_." This gentleman has
become the rash man shadowed forth in his speech, and is trifling with
and despising the religious feeling of the North. In his street speech
in Boston, in favor of slave-hunting, he avowed that he was well aware
that the return of fugitives "is a topic that must excite prejudices,"
and that the question for Massachusetts to decide was, "whether she will
conquer her own prejudice." In his letter to the citizens of
Newburyport, he sneeringly alludes to the "cry that there is a rule for
the government of public men and private men which is superior to the
Constitution," and he scornfully intimates that Mr. Horace Mann, who had
objected to your law as wicked, would do well "to appeal at once, as
others do, to that high authority which sits enthroned above the
Constitution and the laws"; and he gives an extract from a nameless
English correspondent, in which the writer remarks, "Religion is an
excellent thing except in politics," a maxim exceedingly palatable to
very many of our politicians. Aware that the impiety of this sentiment
was not exactly suited to the meridian of Massachusetts, he says his
friend undoubtedly meant "a fantastical notion of religion." Of course,
he regards the religious prejudice against hunting and enslaving men as
springing from a fantastic notion of religion. Yet, with a strange
fatuity, he confesses that "the teaching of Christ and his Apostles is a
sure guide to duty in _politics_, as in any other concern of life,"
utterly oblivious of the fact, that the "higher law," which he
ridicules, was proclaimed in that very teaching. Christ taught, "Fear
not them [magistrates] who kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul, but rather fear HIM who is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell." What taught the Apostles? "We must obey God, rather than man."
Such teaching it was, that gave birth to "the noble army of martyrs,"
and this very teaching will induce multitudes of Christians at the
present day to hazard fines and imprisonment rather than obey the wicked
injunctions of your law. It was this same teaching which, on the
publication of your law, induced numerous ministers of Jesus Christ, and
various ecclesiastical assemblies, to denounce it as wicked, and
obedience to it as rebellion against God. This expression of religious
sentiment alarmed both our politicians and our merchants. How could the
one expect Southern votes, or the other Southern trade, if the religious
people at the North refused to catch slaves? Hence arose a mighty outcry
against the blending of religion with politics, and most fearful were
the anathemas against the parsons who desecrated the pulpit by preaching
politics, that is, preaching that people ought to obey God rather than
the Fugitive Slave Act. Such men were, in the language of one of the New
York commercial journals, "clerical preachers of rebellion," and their
congregations were exhorted to "leave them to naked walls." But the
leaven was at work, and an antidote was greatly wanted. Supply of course
follows demand, and forthwith there was a sudden advent of cotton
clergyman, preaching against rebellion, and cunningly confounding a
conscientious, passive disobedience with forcible resistance. Their
sermons, in which virtually
"The image of God was accounted as base,
And the image of Caesar set up in its place,"
were received with mighty applause by the very men who had been striving
to save the pulpit from all contaminating contact with politics, and the
reverend preachers of cotton politics were elevated into patriots, and
their disquisitions against the "higher law" were scattered on the wings
of the commercial press broadcast over the land.[2] The theology which
holds that the allegiance we owe to civil government binds the
conscience to obedience to its mandates, is the same with which
Shakspeare's assassin quieted his scruples when acting under the royal
command,--"If a king bid a man be a villain, he is bound by the
indenture of his oath to be one."
[2] In one of the most celebrated of these sermons, we find the
following broad assertion:--"If God _has_ left to men the choice of the
_kind_ of government they will have, he has _not_ left it to their
choice whether they will obey human government or not. He has
_commanded_ that obedience." Our rulers command us, when required by a
commissioner's agent, to aid in hunting and seizing our innocent
fellow-men, and delivering them into the hands of their task-masters.
That the reverend preacher would render a cheerful obedience to such a
mandate, there is little doubt. We read that the Jewish rulers, "The
chief priests and Pharisees, had given a _commandment_, that, if any one
knew where he (Jesus) was, he should show it, that they might take him."
Strange is it, that of the college of Apostles there was but one "good
citizen," who rendered obedience to the powers ordained by God; all the
others suffered death for their wilful, deliberate defiance of the laws
and the magistrates of the land. As a specimen of the teaching of these
cotton divines, I quote from this same admired sermon the following
precious piece of information, viz.:--"Nor is it true that the _fugitive
slave_ is made an _outlaw_, and on that ground justifiable for bloody
and murderous resistance of law. He is under _the protection of law_;
and if any man injures him, or kills him, the law will avenge him, just
_as soon as it would you or me_." To deny the truth of this solemn
declaration, made in the house of God, would be, in the reverend
gentleman's estimation, but a portion of "that perpetual abuse of our
Southern brethren" of which he complains. He must, however, permit us to
call his attention to the following advertisements respecting a FUGITIVE
SLAVE, published in the Wilmington Journal of the 18th of October last,
in pursuance of a law of the State of North Carolina.
"_State of North Carolina, New Hanover County._--Whereas complaint upon
oath hath this day been made to us, two of the justice of the peace for
the State and County aforesaid, by Guilford Horn, of Edgecombe County,
that a certain male slave belonging to him, named HARRY,--a carpenter by
trade, about 40 years old, 5 feet 5 inches high, or thereabouts, yellow
complexion, stout built, with a scar on his left leg (from the cut of an
axe), has very thick lips, eyes deep sunk in his head, forehead very
square, tolerably loud voice, has lost one or two of his upper teeth,
and has a very dark spot on his jaw, supposed to be a mark,--hath
_absented_ himself from his master's service, and is _supposed_ to be
lurking about in this County, committing acts of felony or other
misdeeds: These are, therefore, in the name of the State aforesaid, to
command said slave forthwith to surrender himself, and return home to
his master; and we do hereby, by virtue of the act of Assembly in such
case made and provided, intimate and declare that if the said slave
Harry doth not surrender himself, and return home immediately after the
publication of these presents, that any person or persons may KILL and
DESTROY the said slave by such means as he may think fit, without
accusation or impeachment of any crime or offence for so doing, and
without incurring any penalty or forfeiture thereby.
"Given under our hands and seals, this 29th day of June, 1850.
"JAMES T. MILLER, J. P.
"W. C. BENTTENCOURT, J. P.
"ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS REWARD will be paid for the
delivery of said HARRY to me at Tonsott Depot, Edgecombe County, or for
his confinement in any jail in the State, so that I can get him; or one
hundred and fifty dollars will be given for his HEAD. He was lately
heard from in Newbern, where he called himself Henry Barnes (or Burns)
and will be likely to continue the name or assume that of Coppage or
Farmer. He has a free mulatto woman for a wife, by the name of Sally
Bozeman, who has lately removed to Wilmington, and lives in that part of
the town called Texas, where he will likely be lurking.
"GUILFORD HORN.
"_June 29, 1850._"
It is amusing to observe with what awful reverence our merchants and
brokers regard the sanctity of human law, when it commands them to catch
slaves; a reverence not always felt by them for the statute of usury
when the money market is tight.
A vast deal of nonsense and impiety has been recently thrown upon the
public in relation to the "higher law," by men who had political and
pecuniary interests depending on the good-will of the slaveholders. The
whole subject is perfectly simple and intelligible, and has been
intentionally misrepresented and mystified.
Human government is indispensable to the happiness and progress of human
society. Hence God, in his wisdom and benevolence, wills its existence;
and in this sense, and this alone, the powers that be are ordained by
him. But civil government cannot exist, if each individual may, at his
pleasure, forcibly resist its injunctions. Therefore Christians are
required to _submit_ to the powers that be, whether a Nero or a
slave-catching Congress. But obedience to the civil ruler often
necessarily involves rebellion to God. Hence we are warned by Christ and
his Apostles, and by the example of saints in all ages, in such cases,
not to obey, but to submit and suffer. We are to hold fast our
allegiance to Jehovah, but at the same time not take up arms to defend
ourselves against the penalties imposed by the magistrate for our
disobedience. Thus the Divine sovereignty and the authority of human
government are both maintained. Revolution is not the abolition of human
government, but a change in its form, and its lawfulness depends on
circumstances. What was the "den" in which John Bunyan had his glorious
vision of the Pilgrim's Progress? A prison to which he was confined for
years for refusing obedience to human laws. And what excuse did this
holy man make for conduct now denounced as wicked and rebellious? "I
cannot obey, but I can suffer." The Quakers have from the first refused
to obey the law requiring them to bear arms; yet have they never been
vilified by our politicians and cotton clergymen, as rebels against the
powers that be, nor sneered at for their acknowledgment of a "higher"
than human law. The Lord Jesus Christ, after requiring us to love God
and our neighbour, added, "There is none other commandment greater than
these"; no, not even a slave-catching act of Congress, which requires us
to hunt our neighbour, that he may be reduced to the condition of a
beast of burden. Rarely has the religious faith of the community
received so rude a shock as that which has been given it by your
horrible law, and the principles advanced by its political and clerical
supporters. Cruelty, oppression, and injustice are elevated into
virtues, while justice, mercy, and compassion are ridiculed and
vilified.
But lately, the business of catching slaves was regarded as one of the
lowest grades of scoundrelism. Now, great pains are taken by our
gentlemen of property and standing to ennoble it; and men of eminence in
the legal profession are stooping to take the wages of iniquity, and
lending themselves to consign to the horrors of American slavery men
whom they know to be innocent of crime. Nay, we have seen in New York a
committee of gentlemen actually _raising money by voluntary
contribution_ to furnish a slave-catcher with professional services
gratis;--a free gift, not to mitigate human misery, but to aggravate the
hardships of the poor and friendless a thousandfold. Can men of standing
in the community thus openly espouse the cause of cruelty and
oppression, and, from commercial and political views, trample upon every
principle of Christian benevolence, without corrupting the moral sense
of the people to the extent of their influence? When gentlemen club
together to hire a lawyer to assist a slave-catcher, no wonder that the
commercial press should teem with the vilest abuse of all who feel
sympathy for the fugitive. One of the most malignant proslavery journals
in New York is edited by your colleague and fellow-Whig, the Honorable
Mr. Brooks, and his brother. I copy, Sir, for your consideration, the
following article from the _New York Evening Express_, published during
the late trial in that city of Henry Long, an alleged fugitive:--
"Two fugitive cases are now before our courts; one that of the negro
Henry Long, and the other that of three white Frenchmen, under the
extradition treaty with France. The negro's case makes a great deal of
noise, because he is black; the three white Frenchmen are hardly heard
of. The three white French people pay their own counsel: they may have
committed a robbery in Paris, or may not; are perhaps innocent, though
possibly guilty; but here they are on trial, with no chance of a trial
before a jury! If they are sent back, and are convicted, they go to the
galleys, and are slaves for life. The negro, Henry Long, lucky fellow
for being black! lives in clover here, and has one of the best speakers
in the city, on the best fee, interests all the Abolitionists in all
quarters, who contribute money freely for his defence, and if he is
returned, leaves here canonized as a martyr, and goes back to the
condition he was born in, to fatten on hog and hominy, better fed and
better clothed than nine tenths of the farm laborers in Great Britain.
Another consideration strikes us, and that is, the cost of defending
Long will buy his freedom three times over. The very fee of his counsel
would purchase his freedom. But to buy him and pay for him, _not steal_
him, would leave no room for agitation. And where does this money come
from, that cares for Long and neglects the three Frenchmen? From
England, in the main, we believe. The Abolitionists here do not
_contribute it_."
It would be difficult to find in the Satanic press a more clumsy piece
of malignant falsehood. We have here, from the same pen, and in the same
article, the assertions, that the Abolitionists, in all quarters, we are
assured, "contribute money freely for his defence"; and then the money,
it is believed, comes mainly from England. "The Abolitionists here do
not contribute it." To contribute money for the legal defence of a
fugitive is _stealing him_. The cost of defending Long amounted to three
times the price that would be asked for him. Long, after his return,
sold in Richmond for $750; of course his defence cost $2,250. To whom,
and for what, was this money paid? Long could not be bought in New York,
all advances for the purpose being peremptorily repulsed. His counsel's
fee was $300, being all contributed in New York, and about $100 of it
being raised by the free colored people. While $300 were thus raised to
give Long the chance of a legal defence, gentlemen of the New York Union
Safety Committee, of which your colleague has the honor of being a
member, contributed $500 to aid the slave-catcher in reducing to bondage
a man unaccused of crime!
I am inclined to believe, Sir, that you have little cause to
congratulate yourself, that, in voting for the Fugitive Slave Law, you
have advanced the cause of truth, justice, humanity, or religion.
A refusal to _obey_ your wicked law has been artfully represented as a
determination to _resist_ its execution. Very few of our white
population have intimated the most distant intention of resorting to
illegal violence. Very many ecclesiastical bodies have denounced your
law as so iniquitous, that they could not in conscience obey it; but I
challenge you to point to a _single instance_ in which such a body has
recommended forcible resistance. To the vast accumulation of impiety
uttered in support of your law has been added a fiendish ridicule of the
benevolent and Christian feeling arrayed against it. It is true, that
some of our free blacks and fugitives have declared, that they would, at
the hazard of their lives, defend themselves against the kidnapper.
Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of such a determination, be
assured it will tax your logical powers to the utmost to prove that God
has conferred the right of self-defence exclusively upon white men. The
slave is a prisoner of war, and instead of being protected by law, he is
subjected by it to every conceivable outrage. When murdered, his owner
seeks in the courts _damages_ at the hands of the murderer, as he would
for the death of his horse. For no possible injury committed on his
person, either by his owner or others, can he receive compensation,
although the law may profess to punish cruelty to him as to other
animals. Now it has never been regarded as immoral, by those who admit
the right of self-defence, for a prisoner of war to effect his escape by
slaying his guard. All this, I know, will horrify a certain class of
our divines and politicians. But let them be patient. I am not laying
down a doctrine, but stating _facts_, which they may disprove if they
can. Let them remember, that all the slavery which they delight to find
in the Bible was the slavery of _white_ men, and that the Roman slaves
in the time of Christ, whose bondage, we are told, he and his Apostles
approved, were held by the _right of war_. White Americans have been
held as slaves by the same holy and Scriptural tenure. Let us, then,
inquire how the escape and resistance of white slaves have heretofore
been regarded. In 1535, the _white_ slaves in Tunis alone amounted to
twenty thousand. Cervantes, who had himself been a slave in Algiers,
says in his writings, "For liberty we ought to risk life itself; slavery
being the greatest evil that can fall to the lot of man." Acting upon
this precept, he himself, while a slave, planned a general insurrection
of the slaves. Yet Cervantes was recognized as a faithful son of the
Church, and the license prefixed to his works declares they contain
nothing contrary to the Christian religion. The Annual Register for 1763
announces, that, "last month, the Christian slaves at Algiers, to the
number of four thousand, rose and killed their guards, and massacred all
who came in their way." The insurrection was suppressed, but no one in
Europe denounced the insurgents as bloodthirsty wretches, nor regarded
their effort as an impious and anti-Christian rebellion against the
powers ordained of God. In the reign of Elizabeth, one John Fox, a slave
on the Barbary coast, slew his master, and, effecting his escape with a
number of his fellow-slaves, arrived in England. The queen, instead of
looking upon him as a murderer, testified her admiration of his exploit
by allowing him a pension.[3]
[3] For the facts on this subject, see the admirable work by Charles
Sumner, entitled "White Slavery in the Barbary States."
Washington Madison performed a similar exploit on board an American
coast slaver, and arrived, with a large number of his fellow-slaves, in
the British West Indies. Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State,
officially demanded of the British government the surrender of this
heroic man as a MURDERER.
In 1793, there were one hundred and fifteen American slaves in Algiers,
held by as perfect and Scriptural a tenure as any slave is now held in
any part of our wide republic. Had one of these slaves made his escape
by killing his Algerine master, would any of our patriotic divines,
would any gentleman of the "New York Union Committee of Safety," would
even Mr. Webster himself, have pronounced him a murderer? Had the
captain of a British ship favored his escape, and given him a passage to
Boston, would your colleague, the Honorable Mr. Brooks, have accused him
of slave-stealing? Is it not possible, Sir, that, with very many of our
casuists and moralists, questions of conscience are decided according to
the tincture of a skin?
I will now ask your attention to some of the political consequences
resulting from the late measures in which you rejoice, and for which you
voted. No sooner had Congress made the required concessions to the slave
power, than the advocates of those measures claimed the glory of having
given peace to the country, and perpetuity to the Union. Mr. Webster, as
one of the chief agents in this blessed consummation, received the
congratulations of a crowd in Washington. In his reply he
observed,--"Truly, gentlemen, the last two days have been great days. A
work has been accomplished which dissipates doubts and alarms, puts an
end to angry controversies, fortifies the Constitution of the country,
and strengthens the bond of the Union.
'Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer;....
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.'"
The glorious summer anticipated by the orator proved cold and brief, and
if the lowering clouds were indeed buried in the ocean, the sea has
given up its dead. Never before, since the organization of the
government, has such a tempest of indignation swept over the land. Never
before, in a single instance, has there been manifested throughout the
religious portion of the community, of all creeds and names, such a
settled determination in the fear of God to withhold obedience to a law
of the land. The sentiments of the great mass of the people of the free
States, exclusive of the commercial cities, are briefly but emphatically
embodied in a resolution of the Common Council of Chicago, viz.:--"The
Fugitive Slave Act recently passed by Congress is revolting to our moral
sense, and an outrage on our feelings of justice and humanity, because
it disregards all the securities which the Constitution and laws have
thrown around personal liberty, and its direct tendency is to alienate
the people from their love and reverence for the government and
institutions of our country."
How far the clouds which hovered over our house have been dissipated,
let the recent rout of Mr. Webster's party in Massachusetts testify. Let
his own declaration, a month after the _peace_ measures were adopted,
that the Union was passing through a _fiery trial_, testify.[4] How far
the work of the two days has fortified the Constitution, let the recent
law of Vermont, denounced as an utter nullification of the Constitution,
because it rescues the alleged fugitive from the hands of the
commissioner, and gives him a jury trial before a State court, testify.
When rumors were rife that Mr. Webster intended to repudiate his own
thunder, the Wilmot Proviso, the _New York Herald_, the chief Northern
organ of the slaveholders, promised that, if the Senator would indeed
pursue a course so patriotic, a grateful country would, at the next
election, place him in the Presidential chair. But scarcely had the acts
advocated by Mr. Webster been consummated, than the _Herald_, with
sardonic malice, announces,--"The predictions of Mr. Clay, that the
Compromise Bill would speedily conciliate all parties, and restore the
era of good feeling, were exactly the reverse of the actual
consequences. Mr. Webster has been cast overboard in Massachusetts.
General Cass has been virtually condemned in Michigan. Mr. Dickinson,
the President, and his cabinet, have been routed in New York. Mr. Phelps
has been superseded in Vermont. Whilst in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and
Wisconsin, the Free-Soilers have carried off the booty." And he winds up
with declaring, that the next President "can't be Fillmore nor Webster."
[4] Letter to Union Meeting in New York, 28th Oct., 1850.
If the "peace measures" have strengthened the bond of the Union, what
mean all the meetings lately held to _save the Union_? Why is the tocsin
now sounded by the very authors and friends of the measures? How comes
it that, in Boston itself, the chairman of a Union meeting contradicts
the exulting and jubilant shout of triumph uttered by the Secretary of
State, and makes the following doleful announcement:--"The Union, and
consequently the existence of this nation, is menaced, and unless there
is a great and general effort in their support, we may soon behold the
mighty fabric of our government trembling over our heads, and
threatening by its fall to crush the prosperity which we have so long
and happily enjoyed." So relaxed has become the bond of our Union, that
one hundred gentlemen of property and standing in New York have, under
the style and title of "The New York Union Committee of Safety," assumed
the onerous task of taking it into their safe-keeping. "Committees of
safety" are associated with times of peril and anarchy, and are never
wanted when alarms have ceased, angry discussions ended, the
Constitution fortified, and the bond of union strengthened.