other event which has occurred during my progress in public life, ever
gave such unbounded and universal satisfaction as the settlement of the
Missouri compromise. We may argue from like causes like effects. Then,
indeed, there was great excitement. Then, indeed, all the legislatures
of the North called out for the exclusion of Missouri, and all the
legislatures of the South called out for her admission as a State.
Then, as now, the country was agitated like the ocean in the midst of
a turbulent storm. But now, more than then, has this agitation been
increased. Now, more than then, are the dangers which exist, if the
controversy remains unsettled, more aggravated and more to be dreaded.
The idea of disunion was then scarcely a low whisper. Now, it has become
a familiar language in certain portions of the country. The public mind
and the public heart are becoming familiarized with that most dangerous
and fatal of all events--the disunion of the States. People begin to
contend that this is not so bad a thing as they had supposed. Like the
progress in all human affairs, as we approach danger it disappears, it
diminishes in our conception, and we no longer regard it with that awful
apprehension of consequences that we did before we came into contact
with it. Everywhere now there is a state of things, a degree of alarm
and apprehension, and determination to fight, as they regard it, against
the aggressions of the North. That did not so demonstrate itself at the
period of the Missouri compromise. It was followed, in consequence of
the adoption of the measure which settled the difficulty of Missouri,
by peace, harmony, and tranquillity. So, now, I infer, from the greater
amount of agitation, from the greater amount of danger, that, if you
adopt the measures under consideration, they, too, will be followed by
the same amount of contentment, satisfaction, peace, and tranquillity,
which ensued after the Missouri compromise. * * *
The responsibility of this great measure passes from the hands of the
committee, and from my hands. They know, and I know, that it is an awful
and tremendous responsibility. I hope that you will meet it with a just
conception and a true appreciation of its magnitude, and the magnitude
of the consequences that may ensue from your decision one way or, the
other. The alternatives, I fear, which the measure presents, are concord
and increased discord; a servile civil war, originating in its causes
on the lower Rio Grande, and terminating possibly in its consequences
on the upper Rio Grande in the Santa Fe country, or the restoration of
harmony and fraternal kindness. I believe from the bottom of my soul,
that the measure is the reunion of this Union. I believe it is the dove
of peace, which, taking its aerial flight from the dome of the Capitol,
carries the glad tidings of assured peace and restored harmony to all
the remotest extremities of this distracted land. I believe that it will
be attended with all these beneficent effects. And now let us discard
all resentment, all passions, all petty jealousies, all personal
desires, all love of place, all hankerings after the gilded crumbs which
fall from the table of power. Let us forget popular fears, from
whatever quarter they may spring. Let us go to the limpid fountain of
unadulterated patriotism, and, performing a solemn lustration, return
divested of all selfish, sinister, and sordid impurities, and think
alone of our God, our country, our consciences, and our glorious
Union--that Union without which we shall be torn into hostile fragments,
and sooner or later become the victims of military despotism, or foreign
domination.
Mr. President, what is an individual man? An atom, almost invisible
without a magnifying glass--a mere speck upon the surface of the
immense universe; not a second in time, compared to immeasurable,
never-beginning, and never-ending eternity; a drop of water in the great
deep, which evaporates and is borne off by the winds; a grain of sand,
which is soon gathered to the dust from which it sprung. Shall a being
so small, so petty, so fleeting, so evanescent, oppose itself to the
onward march of a great nation, which is to subsist for ages and ages to
come; oppose itself to that long line of posterity which, issuing from
our loins, will endure during the existence of the world? Forbid it,
God. Let us look to our country and our cause, elevate ourselves to the
dignity of pure and disinterested patriots, and save our country from
all impending dangers. What if, in the march of this nation to greatness
and power, we should be buried beneath the wheels that propel it onward!
What are we--what is any man--worth who is not ready and willing to
sacrifice himself for the benefit of his country when it is necessary? *
* *
If this Union shall become separated, new unions, new confederacies will
arise. And with respect to this, if there be any--I hope there is no one
in the Senate--before whose imagination is flitting the idea of a great
Southern Confederacy to take possession of the Balize and the mouth
of the Mississippi, I say in my place never! never! NEVER! will we who
occupy the broad waters of the Mississippi and its upper tributaries
consent that any foreign flag shall float at the Balize or upon the
turrets of the Crescent City--NEVER! NEVER! I call upon all the South.
Sir, we have had hard words, bitter words, bitter thoughts, unpleasant
feelings toward each other in the progress of this great measure. Let us
forget them. Let us sacrifice these feelings. Let us go to the altar of
our country and swear, as the oath was taken of old, that we will stand
by her; that we will support her; that we will uphold her Constitution;
that we will preserve her Union; and that we will pass this great,
comprehensive, and healing system of measures, which will hush all the
jarring elements, and bring peace and tranquillity to our homes.
Let me, Mr. President, in conclusion, say that the most disastrous
consequences would occur, in my opinion, were we to go home, doing
nothing to satisfy and tranquillize the country upon these great
questions. What will be the judgment of mankind, what the judgment of
that portion of mankind who are looking upon the progress of this scheme
of self-government as being that which holds the highest hopes and
expectations of ameliorating the condition of mankind--what will their
judgment be? Will not all the monarchs of the Old World pronounce our
glorious Republic a disgraceful failure? What will be the judgment of
our constituents, when we return to them and they ask us: "How have
you left your country? Is all quiet--all happy? Are all the seeds of
distraction or division crushed and dissipated?" And, sir, when you
come into the bosom of your family, when you come to converse with the
partner of your fortunes, of your happiness, and of your sorrows, and
when in the midst of the common offspring of both of you, she asks you:
"Is there any danger of civil war? Is there any danger of the torch
being applied to any portion of the country? Have you settled the
questions which you have been so long discussing and deliberating
upon at Washington? Is all peace and all quiet?" what response, Mr.
President, can you make to that wife of your choice and those children
with whom you have been blessed by God? Will you go home and leave all
in disorder and confusion--all unsettled--all open? The contentions and
agitations of the past will be increased and augmented by the agitations
resulting from our neglect to decide them. Sir, we shall stand condemned
by all human judgment below, and of that above it is not for me to
speak. We shall stand condemned in our own consciences, by our own
constituents, and by our own country. The measure may be defeated.
I have been aware that its passage for many days was not absolutely
certain. From the first to the last, I hoped and believed it would pass,
because from the first to the last I believed it was founded on the
principles of just and righteous concession of mutual conciliation. I
believe that it deals unjustly by no part of the Republic; that it saves
their honor, and, as far as it is dependent upon Congress, saves the
interests of all quarters of the country. But, sir, I have known that
the decision of its fate depended upon four or five votes in the Senate
of the United States, whose ultimate judgment we could not count upon
the one side or the other with absolute certainty. Its fate is now
committed to the Senate, and to those five or six votes to which I have
referred. It may be defeated. It is possible that, for the chastisement
of our sins and transgressions, the rod of Providence may be still
applied to us, may be still suspended over us. But, if defeated, it
will be a triumph of ultraism and impracticability--a triumph of a most
extraordinary conjunction of extremes; a victory won by abolitionism; a
victory achieved by freesoilism; a victory of discord and agitation over
peace and tranquillity; and I pray to Almighty God that it may not, in
consequence of the inauspicious result, lead to the most unhappy and
disastrous consequences to our beloved country.
MR. BARNWELL:--It is not my intention to reply to the argument of the
Senator from Kentucky, but there were expressions used by him not a
little disrespectful to a friend whom I hold very dear. * * * It is true
that his political opinions differ very widely from those of the Senator
from Kentucky. It may be true, that he, with many great statesmen, may
believe that the Wilmot proviso is a grievance to be resisted "to the
utmost extremity" by those whose rights it destroys and whose honor it
degrades. It is true that he may believe * * * that the admission of
California will be the passing of the Wilmot proviso, when we here in
Congress give vitality to an act otherwise totally dead, and by our
legislation exclude slaveholders from that whole broad territory on the
Pacific; and, entertaining this opinion, he may have declared that the
contingency will then have occurred which will, in the judgment of most
of the slave-holding States, as expressed by their resolutions, justify
resistance as to an intolerable aggression. If he does entertain and
has expressed such sentiments, he is not to be held up as peculiarly a
disunionist. Allow me to say, in reference to this matter, I regret that
you have brought it about, but it is true that this epithet "disunionist"
is likely soon to have very little terror in it in the South. Words do
not make things. "Rebel" was designed as a very odious term when applied
by those who would have trampled on the rights of our ancestors, but I
believe that the expression became not an ungrateful one to the ears
of those who resisted them. It was not the lowest term of abuse to call
those who were conscious that they were struggling against oppression;
and let me assure gentlemen that the term disunionist is rapidly
assuming at the South the meaning which rebel took when it was baptized
in the blood of Warren at Bunker Hill, and illustrated by the gallantry
of Jasper at Fort Moultrie. * * *
MR. CLAY:--Mr. President, I said nothing with respect to the character
of Mr. Rhett, for I might as well name him. I know him personally,
and have some respect for him. But, if he pronounced the sentiment
attributed to him--of raising the standard of disunion and of resistance
to the common government, whatever he has been, if he follows up that
declaration by corresponding overt acts, he will be a traitor, and I
hope he will meet the fate of a traitor.
THE PRESIDENT:--The Chair will be under the necessity of ordering the
gallery to be cleared if there is again the slightest interruption. He
has once already given warning that he is under the necessity of keeping
order. The Senate chamber is not a theatre.
MR. CLAY:--Mr. President, I have heard with pain and regret a
confirmation of the remark I made, that the sentiment of disunion is
becoming familiar. I hope it is confined to South Carolina. I do not
regard as my duty what the honorable Senator seems to regard as his. If
Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance unjustly, I never
will fight under that banner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole
Union--a subordinate one to my own State. When my State is right--when
it has a cause for resistance--when tyranny, and wrong, and oppression
insufferable arise, I will then share her fortunes; but if she summons
me to the battle-field, or to support her in any cause which is unjust,
against the Union, never, never will I engage with her in such cause.
WENDELL PHILLIPS,
OF MASSACIUSETTS. (BORN 1811, DIED 1884.)
ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT, BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS
ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, AT BOSTON, JANUARY 27, 1853.
Mr. CHAIRMAN:
I have to present, from the business committee, the following
resolution:
Resolved; That the object of this society is now, as it has always been,
to convince our countrymen, by arguments addressed to their hearts and
consciences, that slave-holding is a heinous crime, and that the duty,
safety, and interest of all concerned demand its immediate abolition
without expatriation.
I wish, Mr, Chairman, to notice some objections that have been made to
our course ever since Mr. Garrison began his career, and which have been
lately urged again, with considerable force and emphasis, in the
columns of the London Leader, the able organ of a very respectable and
influential class in England. * * * The charges to which I refer are
these: That, in dealing with slave-holders and their apologists, we
indulge in fierce denunciations, instead of appealing to their reason
and common sense by plain statements and fair argument; that we might
have won the sympathies and support of the nation, if we would have
submitted to argue this question with a manly patience; but, instead of
this, we have outraged the feelings of the community by attacks, unjust
and unnecessarily severe, on its most valued institutions, and gratified
our spleen by indiscriminate abuse of leading men, who were often honest
in their intentions, however mistaken in their views; that we have
utterly neglected the ample means that lay around us to convert the
nation, submitted to no discipline, formed no plan, been guided by no
foresight, but hurried on in childish, reckless, blind, and hot-headed
zeal,--bigots in the narrowness of our views, and fanatics in our blind
fury of invective and malignant judgment of other men's motives.
There are some who come upon our platform, and give us the aid of names
and reputations less burdened than ours with popular odium,who are
perpetually urging us to exercise charity in our judgments of those
about us, and to consent to argue these questions. These men are ever
parading their wish to draw a line between themselves and us,
because they must be permitted to wait,--to trust more to reason than
feeling,--to indulge a generous charity,--to rely on the sure influence
of simple truth, uttered in love, etc., etc. I reject with scorn all
these implications that our judgments are uncharitable,--that we are
lacking in patience,--that we have any other dependence than on the
simple truth, spoken with Christian frankness, yet with Christian
love. These lectures, to which you, sir, and all of us, have so often
listened, would be impertinent, if they were not rather ridiculous for
the gross ignorance they betray of the community, of the cause, and of
the whole course of its friends.
The article in the _Leader_ to which I refer is signed "ION," and may
be found in the _Liberator_ of December 17, 1852. * * * "Ion" quotes
Mr Garrison's original declaration in the _Liberator_: "I am aware that
many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause
for severity? I _will_ be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as
justice. I am in earnest,--I will not equivocate,--I will not excuse,--I
will not retreat a single inch,--AND I WILL BE HEARD. It is pretended
that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my
invective and the precipitancy of my measures. The charge is not true.
On this question, my influence, humble as it is, is felt at this
moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years, not
perniciously, but beneficially; not as a curse, but as a blessing; and
posterity will bear testimony that I was right. I desire to thank
God that He enables me to disregard 'the fear of man which bringeth a
snare,' and to speak His truth in its simplicity and power." * * *
"Ion's" charges are the old ones, that we Abolitionists are hurting our
own cause; that, instead of waiting for the community to come up to our
views, and endeavoring to remove prejudice and enlighten ignorance by
patient explanation and fair argument, we fall at once, like children,
to abusing every thing and everybody; that we imagine zeal will supply
the place of common sense; that we have never shown any sagacity
in adapting our means to our ends; have never studied the national
character, or attempted to make use of the materials which lay all about
us to influence public opinion, but by blind, childish, obstinate fury
and indiscriminate denunciation, have become "honestly impotent, and
conscientious hinderances."
I claim, before you who know the true state of the case, I claim for
the antislavery movement with which this society is identified, that,
looking back over its whole course, and considering the men connected
with it in the mass, it has been marked by sound judgment, unerring
foresight, the most sagacious adaptation of means to ends, the strictest
self-discipline, the most thorough research, and an amount of patient
and manly argument addressed to the conscience and intellect of the
nation, such as no other cause of the kind, in England or this country,
has ever offered. I claim, also, that its course has been marked by a
cheerful surrender of all individual claims to merit or leadership,--the
most cordial welcoming of the slightest effort, of every honest attempt,
to lighten or to break the chain of the slave. I need not waste time by
repeating the superfluous confession that we are men, and therefore do
not claim to be perfect. Neither would I be understood as denying that
we use denunciation, and ridicule, and every other weapon that the human
mind knows. We must plead guilty, if there be guilt in not knowing
how to separate the sin from the sinner. With all the fondness for
abstractions attributed to us, we are not yet capable of that. We are
fighting a momentous battle at desperate odds,--one against a thousand.
Every weapon that ability or ignorance, wit, wealth, prejudice, or
fashion can command, is pointed against us. The guns are shotted to
their lips. The arrows are poisoned. Fighting against such an array, we
cannot afford to confine ourselves to any one weapon. The cause is not
ours, so that we might, rightfully, postpone or put in peril the victory
by moderating our demands, stifling our convictions, or filing down
our rebukes, to gratify any sickly taste of our own, or to spare the
delicate nerves of our neighbor. Our clients are three millions of
Christian slaves, standing dumb suppliants at the threshold of the
Christian world. They have no voice but ours to utter their complaints,
or to demand justice. The press, the pulpit, the wealth, the literature,
the prejudices, the political arrangements, the present self-interest
of the country, are all against us. God has given us no weapon but
the truth, faithfully uttered, and addressed, with the old prophets'
directness, to the conscience of the individual sinner. The elements
which control public opinion and mould the masses are against us. We can
but pick off here and there a man from the triumphant majority. We have
facts for those who think, arguments for those who reason; but he who
cannot be reasoned out of his prejudices must be laughed out of them; he
who cannot be argued out of his selfishness must be shamed out of it by
the mirror of his hateful self held up relentlessly before his eyes. We
live in a land where every man makes broad his phylactery, inscribing
thereon, "All men are created equal,"--"God hath made of one blood all
nations of men." It seems to us that in such a land there must be, on
this question of slavery, sluggards to be awakened, as well as doubters
to be convinced. Many more, we verily believe, of the first than of
the last. There are far more dead hearts to be quickened, than confused
intellects to be cleared up,--more dumb dogs to be made to speak, than
doubting consciences to be enlightened. We have use, then, sometimes,
for something beside argument.
What is the denunciation with which we are charged? It is endeavoring,
in our faltering human speech, to declare the enormity of the sin of
making merchandize of men,--of separating husband and wife,--taking the
infant from its mother and selling the daughter to prostitution,--of
a professedly Christian nation denying, by statute, the Bible to every
sixth man and woman of its population, and making it illegal for "two
or three" to meet together, except a white man be present! What is
this harsh criticism of motives with which we are charged? It is
simply holding the intelligent and deliberate actor responsible for the
character and consequences of his acts. Is there any thing inherently
wrong in such denunciation of such criticism? This we may claim,--we
have never judged a man but out of his own mouth. We have seldom, if
ever, held him to account, except for acts of which he and his own
friends were proud. All that we ask the world and thoughtful men to note
are the principles and deeds on which the American pulpit and American
public men plume themselves. We always allow our opponents to paint
their own pictures. Our humble duty is to stand by and assure the
spectators that what they would take for a knave or a hypocrite is
really, in American estimation, a Doctor of Divinity or a Secretary of
State.