THE ABOLITION ORGANIZATION DESTRUCTIVE OF REPUBLICAN LIBERTY.
If the main argument of this work is sound--and we are unable to see
why it is not--the tables are fairly turned on the Abolitionists, who
have been crying out for freedom, and the freedom of the Constitution.
Enough, we trust, has been said, in the progress of these discussions,
to show, that the action of the American Anti-Slavery Society, as a
grand and permanent political organization, destroys that balance of
individual and popular influence, which the Constitutional law of this
land was intended to establish, fortify, and secure; and which is, in
truth, the grand palladium of our liberties. The chapter immediately
preceding brings this matter to a point.
The freedom of speech and of the press, and the rights of popular
action, as guaranteed by the Constitution, or Constitutions, are not
worth a penny, so long as the agency of such an institution as the
American Anti-Slavery society is permitted to be brought into the
field against them. For it is overwhelming by the force of its polity.
No matter what may be the prevailing feeling of the public, at any
given time in regard to it; no matter how many single voices may be
raised in remonstrance against the Abolition movement; no matter how
many newspapers may blaze away at the common enemy; no matter how many
resolutions of rebuke may be passed by the Senate of the Nation; no
matter what other forms of action, by whom soever or where soever, may
be instituted, within the prescribed forms of the Constitution, to
encounter this foe; yet, so long as the Government, which is the only
agency that can treat with such an unconstitutional usurpation on
equal terms, remains inactive, they will avail nothing. They are all
crippled and rendered nugatory by the moral power and irresistible
momentum of this regular system of means, under a State machinery,
that is brought into the field. The Abolitionists know their power,
under such an advantage, and laugh their enemies to scorn. By the
influence of their organization, by its constant, systematic, and all
pervading action, they expect, and not without reason, to carry all
before them in the free States.
All the freedom guaranteed by the Constitution to their opponents is
worth nothing in the scale against such a power; it is annihilated.
There is no equality of privilege between the parties.
The reason why the public generally have not understood the character
of this enemy, is because it came by a sudden leap, by a sort of
somerset, from the religious world, with the operations of which the
public, as a body, have not concerned themselves. It is in fact a
foreign organized power, that has stolen a march on the territories of
the Republic, obtained a footing, and gained an alarming ascendancy,
before the public were apprized of the fact, or had any true knowledge
of the character of the invaders; and such is their overpowering
influence, by virtue of a political polity, that the privileges
secured by the Constitution and laws, as a means of opposing them, are
rendered utterly valueless, in any thing short of the interposition of
authority.
How can the private action of individuals, how can the press in its
customary forms, how can the resolutions of popular assemblies, of
legislative bodies, of Congress itself, counteract the movements of
such on organization? They are utterly impotent. Their influence
expires with their acts; while that of this Society, on account of its
systematic and efficient organization is untiring, assiduous, is every
where, lives forever, and is forever augmenting its forces. The
American Anti-Slavery Society can command all the money it wants, and
money will command agencies of every description; money is the
animating soul of every political body.
It is of no use, therefore, that the Constitutional law of this land
has secured these sacred privileges, so long and so highly valued,
while the same law is transcended and trampled under foot by this
antagonist power. All the imagined advantages of this boasted freedom
are annihilated by the sweeping claims and prerogatives of this
usurpation. All our liberties are but a name, if such an organization
may come in, expunge them from the Charter, and abolish their sway, by
setting up a power which the Constitution itself cannot contend with,
without calling to its aid the arm of authority, because the rules of
the Constitution are violated.
Having discharged this duty--a sincere and conscientious duty, as we
profess--to the country, to the cause of humanity, and above all, to
that God whom we desire to worship and serve, we are content to submit
the question to the public, and await their decision, whether, a new
DYNASTY, under the form of a RELIGIOSO-POLITICAL ORGANIZATION, shall
be permitted to take the field; or whether, the OLD AND CONSTITUTIONAL
GOVERNMENT shall stand?
THE END.