I do not content myself with a single objection to this outrageous
consummation. There is another, of a different nature. Assuming, for
the moment, what I glory to believe can never happen, that the _new_
Slave Power has become independent _in fact_, while the national flag
has sunk away exhausted in the contest, there is one objection which,
in an age of Christian light, thank God, cannot be overcome, unless,
after solemn covenants branding Slavery, the great powers shall forget
their vows, while England, the declared protectress of the African
race, and France, the declared champion of “ideas,” both break away
from the irresistible logic of their history, and turn their backs upon
the past. Vain is honor, vain is human confidence, if these nations,
at a moment of high duty, can thus ignobly fail. “Renown and grace
is dead.” Like the other objection, this is _of fact_ also,--for it
is founded on the character of the pretension claiming recognition,
which constitutes _fact_. Perhaps it may be said that it is a question
of policy; but it is of policy which ought to be beyond debate, _if
such fact be established_. Something more is necessary than that the
new power shall be _de facto_ independent. _De facto_ it must be _fit_
for independence; and, from the nature of the case, every nation will
judge of this fitness _in fact_. Undertaking to acknowledge a _new_
power, you proclaim its fitness for welcome and association in the
Family of Nations. Can England gazette such a proclamation, elevating
the whippers of women and sellers of children? Can France permit Louis
Napoleon to do the same?
Here, on the threshold of this inquiry, the true state of the question
must not be forgotten. It is not whether old and existing relations
shall be continued with a power permitting Slavery, but _whether
relations shall be commenced with a new power_, not merely permitting
Slavery, but building its whole intolerable pretension upon this
Barbarism. “No _new_ Slave State” is a watchword with which we are
familiar in our domestic history; but even such cry does not reveal
the full opposition to the _new_ revolt against Civilization,--for,
even if disposed to admit a _new_ Slave State, there must be, among men
who have not yet lost all sense of decency, undying resistance to the
admission of a _new_ Slave Power with such an unquestioned origin and
such an unquestioned purpose as that which now flaunts in piracy and
blood before the civilized world, seeking recognition for its criminal
chimera. Here is nothing for nice casuistry. Duty is plain as the moral
law or the multiplication table.
Look for a moment at the unprecedented character of this pretension. A
President known to be against the extension of Slavery was duly elected
by the people in the autumn of 1860. This was all. He had not entered
upon his duties. But the apostolic Slavemongers saw that Slavery at
home must suffer under the popular judgment against its extension;
they saw that a vote against its extension was a vote for its
condemnation; and they rebelled. Under this wicked inspiration, State
after State pretended to withdraw from the Union, and to construct a
new Confederacy, whose “corner-stone” was Slavery. A Constitution was
adopted, declaring these words: (1.) “No law denying or impairing the
right of property in negro slaves shall be passed”[106]; and (2.) “In
all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the
limits of the several States, the institution of Negro Slavery, as it
now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected
by Congress and by the Territorial Government.”[107] Do not start.
These are the authentic words of the text. You will find them in the
Rebel Constitution.
Such was the unalterable fabric of the new government. Nor was there
any doubt or hesitation in proclaiming its distinctive character.
Its Vice-President, Mr. Stephens, thus far remarked for moderation
on Slavery, as if smitten with diabolic light, undertook to explain
and vindicate the new Magna Charta. His words are familiar, but they
cannot be omitted in a complete statement of the case. “_The new
Constitution_,” he said, “has put at rest _forever_ all the agitating
questions relating to our peculiar institution, African Slavery, as
it exists among us,” which he proceeds to declare “was the immediate
cause of the late rupture and present revolution.” The Vice-President
announced unequivocally the change that had taken place. Admitting
it was “the prevailing idea of most of the leading statesmen at the
time of the formation of the old Constitution that the enslavement
of the African was in violation of the Laws of Nature, that it was
wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically,” he denounces
this idea as “fundamentally wrong,” and proclaims the new government
“founded upon _exactly the opposite idea_.” Here is no disguise. “Its
foundations,” he avows, “are laid, its _corner-stone_ rests, upon
the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man,--that
Slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal
condition.” Not content with exhibiting the untried foundation, he
boastfully claims for the new government priority of invention. “_This
our new government_,” he vaunts, “_is the first in the history of the
world_ based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.…
This stone, which was rejected by the first builders, ‘is become the
chief stone of the corner.’” And then, as if priority of invention
were not enough, he proceeds to claim for the new government future
supremacy, saying that it is already “the nucleus of a growing power,
which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and our high mission,
will become the controlling power on this continent.”[108]
Since Satan first declared the “corner-stone” of his new government,
and openly denounced the Almighty Throne, there has been no blasphemy
of equal audacity. In human history nothing but itself can be its
parallel. The gauntlet is thrown down to heaven and earth, while a
disgusting Barbarism is proclaimed as the new Civilization. Here is
a new method, a _novum organum_, to usher in the world’s future. Two
years are already passed,--but, as the Rebellion began, so is it now.
A Governor of South Carolina, in a message to the Legislature, as late
as 3d April, 1863, takes up the boastful strain, and congratulates
the Rebel Slavemongers that they are “a refined, cultivated, and
enlightened people,” and that the new government is “the finest type
that the world ever beheld.”[109] God save the mark! Such, doubtless,
was the speech of the African tyrant, as he sat in state on the
prostrate bodies of his subjects and rejoiced in this manifestation
of power. A leading journal, more than any other the organ of the
Slavemongers, repeats the original vaunt with more than the original
brutality. After dwelling on “the grand career and lofty destiny”
before the new government, the “Richmond Examiner” of 28th May, 1863,
proceeds as follows. “Would that all of us understood and laid to heart
the true nature of that career and that destiny, and the responsibility
it imposes. _The establishment of the Confederacy is, verily, a
distinct reaction against the whole course of the mistaken civilization
of the age._ For Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity we have deliberately
substituted Slavery, Subordination, and Government. _Reverently we feel
that our Confederacy is a God-sent missionary to the nations, with
great truths to preach._ We must speak thus boldly; but ‘whoso hath
ears to hear, let him hear.’” This God-sent missionary to the nations
it is now proposed to welcome at the household hearth of the civilized
world.
Unhappily, there are old nations already in the family still tolerating
Slavery; but now, for the first time, a new nation claims admission
there, which not only tolerates Slavery, but, exulting in its shame,
strives to reverse the judgment of mankind, making this outrage its
chief support and glory, so that all recognition of the new power will
be recognition of a sacrilegious pretension,
“With one vast blood-stone for the mighty base.”
Elsewhere Slavery has been an accident; here it is the principal.
Elsewhere it has been an instrument only; here it is the inspiration.
Elsewhere it has been kept back in becoming modesty; here it is pushed
forward in all its brutish nakedness. Elsewhere it has claimed nothing
but liberty to live; here it claims license to rule, with unbounded
empire at home and abroad. Look at this candidate power in its whole
continued existence, from Alpha to Omega, and it is nothing but
Slavery. Its origin is Slavery, its mainspring is Slavery, its object
is Slavery. Wherever it appears, whatever it does, whatever form it
takes, it is Slavery and nothing else; so that, with the agonizing
despair of Satan, it might cry out:--
“Me miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is Hell; _myself am Hell_.”
The Rebellion is Slavery in arms, Slavery on horseback, Slavery on
foot, Slavery raging on the battle-field, Slavery savage on the
quarter-deck, robbing, destroying, burning, killing, to uphold this
candidate power. Its legislation is simply Slavery in statutes,
Slavery in chapters, Slavery in sections, with an enacting clause.
Its diplomacy is Slavery in pretended ambassadors, Slavery in
cunning letters, Slavery in cozening promises, Slavery in persistent
negotiation,--all to secure for the candidate power its much desired
welcome. Say what you will, try to avoid it, if you can, you are
compelled to admit that the candidate power is nothing else than
_organized Slavery_, now, in its madness, surrounded by its criminal
clan, and led by its felon chieftains, braving the civilization of
the age. Any recognition of Slavery is bad enough; but this will be
recognition with welcome and benediction, imparting _new_ consideration
and respectability, and, worse still, securing _new_ opportunity and
foothold for the supremacy it openly proclaims.
In ancient days the candidate was robed in white, while at the
Capitol and in the Forum he canvassed the people for their votes. The
candidate nation, unashamed of Slavery, should be robed in black, while
it conducts the great canvass, and asks the votes of the Christian
powers. “Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night,” as
the outrage proceeds; for the candidate gravely asks international
recognition of the claim to hold property in man, to sell wife away
from husband, to sell child away from parent, to shut the gates of
knowledge, to appropriate all the fruits of another’s labor. The
candidate proceeds in the canvass, notwithstanding all history declares
Slavery essentially barbarous, and that whatever it touches it changes
to itself,--that it barbarizes laws, barbarizes business, barbarizes
manners, barbarizes social life, and makes the people who cherish it
barbarians. And still the candidate proceeds, although it is known
to the Christian powers that the partisans of Slavery are naturally
“filibusters,” always apt for lawless incursion and for robbery;
that, during later years, under their instigation and to advance
their pretensions, expeditions _identical in motive with the present
Rebellion_ were let loose in the Gulf of Mexico, twice against Cuba,
and twice, also, against Nicaragua, breaking the peace of the United
States and threatening the repose of the world, so that Lopez and
Walker were but predecessors of Beauregard and Jefferson Davis. And yet
the candidate proceeds, although it is obvious that the recognition
urged will be nothing less than solemn sanction by the Christian powers
of Slavery everywhere throughout the new jurisdiction, on land or
sea, so that every ship, being part of _the floating territory_, will
be _Slave Territory_. And yet, with the phantasy that man can hold
property in man shooting from his lips, with the shackle and lash in
his hands, with barbarism on his forehead, with filibusterism in his
recorded life, and with Slavery woven in his flag wherever it floats on
land and sea, the candidate clamors for independent recognition. It is
sad to think that there is delay in repelling the insufferable canvass.
Can Christian nations longer hesitate? To detest and combat such an
accursed pretension it is not necessary even to be a Christian,--it is
sufficient to be a man.
If the recognition of a _de facto_ power were a duty imposed upon
other nations by International Law, there would be no opportunity for
objections founded on principle or policy. _But there is no such duty._
International Law leaves to each nation, precisely as the Municipal
Law leaves to each citizen, what company to keep or what copartnership
to form. No company and no copartnership can be forced upon a nation.
It is all a question of free choice and acceptance. International Law
on this head is like the Constitution of the United States, which
declares, “New States _may be admitted_ by the Congress into this
Union.” Not _must_, but _may_,--it being in the discretion of Congress
to determine whether the State shall be admitted. Accordingly, in the
exercise of this discretion, Congress for a long time refused to admit
Missouri _as a Slave State_. And now the old Missouri Question, in
more outrageous form, on vaster theatre, with “monarchs to behold the
swelling scene,” is presented to the Christian powers of the world. If
it was right to exclude Missouri, having only few slaves, and regarding
Slavery merely as a temporary condition, it must be right to exclude
a pretended nation, which not only boasts millions of slaves, but
passionately proclaims the perpetuity and propagation of Slavery as the
cause and object of its separate existence.
Practical statesmen have always treated recognition as a question of
policy, to be determined on the whole case, even where the power is
_de facto_ established,--as amply appears in the Parliamentary debates
on the recognition of Spanish America. If we go behind the practical
statesmen and consult the earliest oracles of International Law, we
find, that, according to their most approved utterances, not only may
recognition be refused, but there are considerations of duty this way
which cannot be evaded. It is not enough that a pretender has the form
of a commonwealth. “A people,” says Cicero, in a definition copied by
most jurists, “is not every body of men, _howsoever_ congregated,
but a gathered multitude _associated through agreement in right and
community of interest_.”[110] Again, he goes so far as to say, “When
the king is unjust, or the aristocracy, or the people itself, the
commonwealth is not vicious, _but null_.”[111] Of course a commonwealth
that is _null_ cannot be recognized. This same lofty standard is of
frequent recurrence in the testimony of the great Roman. But he is not
alone. Grotius, who speaks always with the magistral voice of learning
and genius, furnishes the just conclusion, when, after declaring that
a state is “a complete body of freemen associated for the enjoyment of
right and for their common benefit,”[112] he exposes the distinction
between a body of men, who, being already a recognized commonwealth,
are guilty of systematic crime,--as, for instance, piracy,--and
another body of men, who, _not yet recognized as a commonwealth_, band
together for this purpose,--_sceleris causâ coeunt_. The latter, by
happy discrimination, he places beyond the pale of recognition.[113]
When before, in all history, have creatures wearing the human form
proclaimed the _criminal principle_ of their association with the
audacity of our Slavemongers? And yet there is hesitation to place them
beyond the pale of recognition. A recent English authority on the Law
of Nations adopts the same distinction. I quote Mr. Phillimore, who,
after alluding to societies united _for the sake of crime_, says:
“All agree to class such bodies amongst those of whose corporate
existence the law takes no cognizance (_qui civitatem non faciunt_),
and therefore as not entitled to international rights either in peace
or war.”[114]
It might be argued, on grounds of reason and authority even, that
the _declared principle_ of the pretended power was a violation of
International Law. Eminent magistrates have solemnly ruled, that, in
the development of civilization, the Slave-Trade has become illegal
by a law higher than any statute. Sir William Grant, an ornament of
the British bench, whose elegant mind was governed always by practical
sense, adjudged that this trade “cannot, _abstractedly speaking_, be
said to have a legitimate existence”;[115] and our own great authority,
Mr. Justice Story, in a remarkable judgment, declared himself
constrained “to consider the trade _an offence against the universal
law of society_”;[116] and the highest professional authorities of our
country adopted the same conclusion: I refer especially to the late
William Pinkney and Jeremiah Mason.[117] But arguments which are strong
against any recognition of the Slave-Trade are strong also against any
recognition of Slavery itself, especially when it is the foundation of
a _new_ power.
In the determination of present duty, it is not necessary to assume
that Slavery or the Slave-Trade is positively forbidden by existing
International Law. It is enough to show, that, _according to the
spirit_ of that sovereign law which “sits empress, crowning good,
repressing ill,” and also according to those commanding principles
of justice and humanity which cannot be set at nought without shock
to human nature itself, so foul a wrong as Slavery can receive no
voluntary support from the Commonwealth of Nations. It is not a
question of Law, but of Morality. The Rule of Law is sometimes less
comprehensive than the Rule of Morality, so that the latter may
positively condemn what the former silently tolerates. But within its
own domain Morality cannot be less authoritative than Law. It is,
indeed, nothing less than the Law of Nature, which is the Law of God.
If we listen again to heathen teaching, we shall confess its truth.
“Law,” says Cicero, “is the highest reason, implanted in nature,
_which prescribes those things which ought to be done, and forbids the
contrary_.”[118] This law is an essential part of International Law,
as is also Christianity itself, and where treaties fail and usage is
silent it is the only law between nations. Jurists of all ages and
countries have delighted to acknowledge its authority, if it spoke only
in the still, small voice of conscience. A celebrated professor of
Germany in our own day, Savigny, whose name is honored by students of
jurisprudence everywhere, touches upon this monitor of nations, when
he declares that “there may exist between different nations _a common
consciousness of right_ similar to that which engenders the positive
law of particular nations.”[119] This common consciousness of right is
identical with that law, which, according to Cicero, is “the highest
reason, implanted in nature.” Such is the _Rule of Morality_.
The Rule of Morality differs from the Rule of Law in this
respect,--that the former finds support in the human conscience, the
latter in the sanctions of public force. But moral power prevails with
a good man as much as if it were physical. I know no different rule for
a good nation than for a good man. I am sure that a good nation will
not do what a good man would scorn to do.
There is a Rule of Prudence superadded to the Rule of Morality.
Grotius, in discussing treaties, does not forget the wisdom of
Solomon, who, in not a few places, warns against fellowship with the
wicked,--although he adds, that these are maxims of prudence, and not
of law.[120] And he reminds us of the saying of Alexander, “that those
grievously offend who enter the service of barbarians.”[121] Better
still are the words of the wise historian of classical antiquity, who
enjoins upon a commonwealth the duty of considering carefully, when
sued for assistance, “whether what is sought is sufficiently pious,
safe, glorious, or whether it is _unbecoming_”;[122] and also those
words of the Hebrew king, who, after rebuking an alliance with Ahab,
asks with scorn, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly?”[123]
The claim for recognition, when brought to the touchstone of these
principles, is easily disposed of.
* * * * *
Urge not the _Practice of Nations_ in its behalf. Never before in
history has a candidacy been put forward _in the name of Slavery_,
and the terrible outrage is aggravated by the Christian light which
surrounds it. This is not an age of darkness. But even in the Dark
Ages, when the Slavemongers of the Barbary coast had gathered into
cities, the saintly Louis the Ninth was fired to treat one of these
communities as a “nest of wasps.”[124] Afterwards, but slowly, they
obtained “the right of legation” and “the reputation of a government”;
when at last, weary of their criminal pretensions, the aroused
vengeance of Great Britain and France blotted out this power from the
list of nations. Louis the Eleventh, who has been described as the
sovereign “who best understood his interest,” indignant at Richard the
Third of England, who had murdered two infants in the Tower and usurped
the crown, sent back his ambassadors without holding intercourse
with them. This is a suggestive precedent, which I give on venerable
authority in diplomatic history;[125] but the parricide usurper of
England had never murdered so many infants or usurped so much as the
pretended Slave Power, strangely tolerated by the sagacious sovereign
who sits on the throne of Louis the Eleventh.
It is not necessary, however, to go so far in history, nor to dwell on
the practice of nations in withholding or conceding recognition. The
whole matter is stated by Burke, with his customary power.
“In the case of a divided kingdom, by the Law of Nations, Great
Britain, like every other power, is free to take any part
she pleases. _She may decline, with more or less formality,
according to her discretion, to acknowledge this new system_;
or she may recognize it as a government _de facto_, setting
aside all discussion of its original legality, and considering
the ancient monarchy as at an end. The Law of Nations leaves
our court open to its choice.… The declaration of a _new_
_species_ of government on new principles is a real crisis in
the politics of Europe.”[126]
This same rule Burke declared in Parliament, saying, “that the French
Republic was _sui generis_, and bore no analogy to any other that ever
existed in the world. It, therefore, did not follow that we ought to
recognize it, merely because different powers in Europe had recognized
the Republic of England under Oliver Cromwell.”[127] And in his famous
“Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs” this illustrious authority
proclaimed the new French Government “so fundamentally wrong as to be
utterly incapable of correcting itself by any length of time, or of
being formed into any mode of polity of which a member of the House of
Commons could publicly declare his approbation.”[128]
Another eloquent publicist, Sir James Mackintosh, while pressing on
Parliament the recognition of Spanish America, says: “The reception of
a new state into the society of civilized nations by those acts which
amount to recognition is a proceeding which has no legal character, and
_is purely of a moral nature_”; and he proceeds to argue, that, since
England “is the only anciently free state in the world, for her to
refuse her _moral aid to communities struggling for liberty_ is an act
of unnatural harshness.”[129] Thus does he vindicate recognition for
the sake of Freedom. How truly he would have repelled any recognition
for the sake of Slavery let his life testify.
At the Congress of Verona, Chateaubriand, as representative of France,
replied to a proposition from the Duke of Wellington on this subject:--
“France is influenced by considerations of more general
importance with regard to the governments _de facto_. She
conceives that _the principles of justice on which society is
founded must not be lightly sacrificed_ to secondary interests,
and it appears to her that those principles increase in
importance _when the matter in question is that of recognizing
a political order of things virtually hostile to that which
exists in Europe_.”[130]
Here the rule is mildly stated, but in harmony with correct principle.
A _new_ government, with Slavery as its active soul, must be “virtually
hostile” to European civilization, so as to make its recognition
impossible; nor can the principles of justice be lightly sacrificed.
No better testimony to the practice of nations can be found than the
words of Vattel, whose work, presenting the subject in familiar form,
has done more, during the last century, to fashion opinion on the Law
of Nations than any other authority. Here it is briefly.
“If there be any nation that _makes an open profession_ of
trampling justice under foot, of despising and violating
the rights of others, whenever it finds an opportunity, the
interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in
order to humble and chastise it.”[131]
“_To form and support an unjust pretension_ is to do an injury
only to the nation whom such pretension concerns; to mock at
justice in general is to injure all nations.”[132]
“The power that assists an odious tyrant, that declares for an
unjust and rebellious people, undoubtedly violates duty.”[133]
“As to those monsters who under the title of sovereigns render
themselves the scourges and horror of humanity, they are
ferocious beasts, of whom every brave man may justly clear the
earth.”[134]
“If the maxims of a religion tend to establish it by violence,
and to oppress all those who do not embrace it, the Law
of Nature forbids us to favor that religion, or to unite
unnecessarily with its inhuman followers, and the common safety
of mankind invites them rather to enter into _a league against
such madmen, to repress such fanatics, who disturb the public
repose and menace all nations_.”[135]
Nor can you urge this recognition on any principle of _Comity of
Nations_. This is an expansive term, into which enters much of the
refinements, amenities, and hospitalities of civilization, and also
something of the obligations of moral duty. But where an act is
prejudicial to national interests, or contrary to national policy, or
questionable in morals, it cannot be commended by any consideration
of courtesy. A paramount duty must not be betrayed by a kiss. For the
sake of comity, acts of good-will and friendship not required by law
are performed between nations; but an English court has authoritatively
declared that this principle cannot prevail, “where it violates the
law of our own country, the Law of Nature, or the Law of God,” and on
this exalted ground it was decided that an American slave who had found
shelter on board a British man-of-war on the high seas could not be
recognized as a slave.[136] The same principle must prevail against
recognition of a new slave nation.
Nor, finally, can this recognition be urged on any reason of _Peace_.
There can be no peace founded on injustice; and any recognition is
injustice which will cry aloud, resounding through the earth. You may
seem to have peace, but it will be only smothered war, sure to break
forth in war more direful than before.
Thus is every argument for recognition repelled, whether under the
sounding words, Practice of Nations, Comity of Nations, or Peace. There
is nothing in practice, nothing in comity, nothing in peace, which is
not against any such shameful acknowledgment.
* * * * *
Applying the principles already set forth,--assuming what cannot be
denied, that every power is free to refuse recognition,--assuming that
it is not every body of men that can be considered a commonwealth,
but only those “associated _through agreement in right and community
of interest_,”--that men “banding together for the sake of systematic
crime” cannot be considered a commonwealth,--assuming that every member
of the Family of Nations will surely obey the rule of morality,--that
it will “shun fellowship with the wicked,”--that it will not “enter
the service of barbarians,”--that it will avoid what is “unbecoming,”
and do that only which is “pious, safe, and glorious,”--and that,
above all things, it will not enter into alliance to “help the
ungodly,”--assuming these things, every such member must reject with
indignation a new pretension whose declared principle of association is
so intrinsically wicked. Here there can be no question. The case is
plain; nor is any language of contumely or scorn too strong to express
the irrepressible repugnance to such a pretension, which, like vice,
“to be hated needs but to be seen.” Surely there can be no Christian
power which will not rouse to expose it, crying, with irresistible
voice,--
No _new_ sanction of Slavery!
No _new_ quickening of Slavery in its active and aggressive barbarism!
No _new_ encouragement to “filibusters” engendered by Slavery!
No _new_ creation of _Slave Territory_!
No _new_ creation of a _Slave Navy_!
_No new Slave Nation!_
No installation of Slavery as a _new_ Civilization!
But all this litany will fail, if recognition succeeds,--from which,
good Lord, deliver us! Nor will this be the end.
* * * * *
Slavery, through the _new_ power, will take its place in the Parliament
of mankind, with the immunities of an independent nation, ready
always to uphold and advance itself, and organized as an unrelenting
Propaganda of the new faith. A power having its inspiration in such
a Barbarism must be essentially barbarous; founded on the asserted
right to whip women and sell children, it must assume a character
of disgusting hardihood; and openly professing determination to
revolutionize the public opinion of the world, it must be in open
schism with Civilization itself, so that all its influences will be
wild, savage, brutal, and all its offspring kindred in character.
“Pards gender pards; from tigers tigers spring;
No doves are hatched beneath a vulture’s wing.”[137]
Such a power, from very nature, must be despotism at home “tempered
only by assassination,” with the cotton-field for its Siberia,--while
abroad it must be aggressive, dangerous, and revolting, in itself
a _Magnum Latrocinium_, whose fellowship can have nothing but “the
filthiness of evil,” and whose very existence will be an intolerable
nuisance. When Dante, in the vindictive judgment hurled against his own
Florence, called it _bordello_, he did not use a term too strong for
the mighty house of ill-fame which the Christian powers are now asked
for the first time to license. Such must be the character of the new
power. But, though only a recent wrong, and pleading no prescription,
the illimitable audacity of its nature can hesitate at nothing; nor is
there anything offensive or detestable it will not absorb into itself.
It will be an Ishmael, with hand against every man. It will be a brood
of Harpies, defiling all it cannot steal. It will be the one-eyed
Cyclop of nations, seeing only through Slavery, spurning all as fools
who do not see likewise, and bellowing forth in savage egotism,--
“Know, then, we Cyclops are _a race above_
Those air-bred people and their goat-nursed Jove;
And learn our power proceeds with thee and thine
Not as he wills, _but as ourselves incline_.”[138]
Or it will be the Læstrygonian cannibal, with Slavery a perpetual
maw, and terrible to the civilized world as that distant power to the
companions of Ulysses, when, according to Homer,
“One for his food the raging glutton slew.”[139]
Or, worse still, it will be the soulless monster of Frankenstein, the
wretched creation of human science without God,--endowed with life and
nothing else, forever raging madly, the scandal to humanity, powerful
only for evil, whose destruction will be essential to the peace of the
world.
Who can welcome such a creation? Who can consort with it? There is
something loathsome in the idea. There is contamination even in the
thought. If you live with the lame, says the ancient proverb, you will
learn to limp; if you keep in the kitchen, you will smell of smoke; if
you touch pitch, you will be defiled. But what limp so mean as that
of this pretended power? what smoke so foul as its breath? what pitch
so defiling as its touch? It is an Oriental saying, that a cistern of
rosewater will become impure, if a dog be dropped into it; but an ocean
of rosewater with Rebel Slavemongers would be changed into a vulgar
puddle. Imagine whatever is most disgusting, and this pretended power
is more disgusting still. Naturalists report that the pike will swallow
anything except the toad, but this it cannot do. The experiment has
been tried, and though this fish, in unhesitating voracity, always
gulps whatever is thrown to it, yet invariably it spews the nuisance
from its throat. Our Slavemonger pretension is worse than toad; and
yet there are foreign nations which, instead of spewing it forth, are
already turning it like a precious morsel on the tongue.
* * * * *
There is yet another ground on which I make this appeal. It is part
of the triumphs of Civilization, that no nation can act for itself
alone. Whatever it does for good or for evil affects all the rest.
Therefore a nation cannot forget its obligations to others. Especially
does International Law, when it declares the absolute equality of
independent nations, cast upon all the duty of considering well how
this privilege shall be bestowed so that the welfare of all may be best
upheld. But the whole Family of Nations would be degraded by admitting
this new pretension to any toleration, much more to equality. There
can be no reason for such admission; for it can bring nothing to the
general weal. Civil society is created for safety and tranquillity.
Nations come together and fraternize for the common good. But this
hateful pretension can do nothing but evil for civil society at home or
for nations in their intercourse with each other. It can show no title
to recognition, no passport for its travels, no old existence. It is
all new. And here I borrow the language of Burke on another occasion:--
“It is not a new power of an old kind. _It is a new power of a
new species._ When such a questionable shape is _to be admitted
for the first time_ into the brotherhood of Christendom, it is
not a mere matter of idle curiosity to consider _how far it is
in its nature alliable with the rest_.”[140]
The greatest of corporations is a nation; the sublimest of all
associations is that composed of nations, independent and equal, knit
together in the bonds of peaceful fraternity as the great Christian
Commonwealth. The Slavemongers may be a corporation _in fact_, but
no such corporation can find place in that august Commonwealth. As
well admit the Thugs, whose first article of faith is to kill the
stranger,--or the Buccaneers, those “brothers of the coast,” who
plundered on the sea; or, better still, revive the old Kingdom of the
Assassins, where the king was an assassin, surrounded by counsellors
and generals who were assassins, and all his subjects were assassins;
or yet again, better at once and openly recognize Antichrist, the
supreme and highest impersonation of the Slave Power.
* * * * *
Amidst the general degradation following such obeisance to Slavery,
there are two Christian powers that would appear in sad and shameful
eminence. I refer to Great Britain, declared protectress of the African
race, and to France, declared champion of “ideas,” who, from the very
abundance of pledges, are so situated that they cannot desert the good
old cause and turn their faces against civilization without criminal
tergiversation, which no mantle of diplomacy can cover. Where, then,
is British devotion to the African race, so eloquently proclaimed by
the British Minister? Where, then, is French devotion to ideas, so
ostentatiously announced by the French Emperor? Remembered only to
point a tale and show how nations have fallen. Great Britain knows less
than France of national vicissitudes, but such an act of wrong would
do something in its influence to equalize the conditions of these two
nations. Rather than do this thing, better for the fast-anchored isle
that it should sink beneath the sea, carrying down its cathedrals, its
castles, its happy homes, its fields of glory, Runnymede, Westminster
Hall, and the tomb of Shakespeare. In other days England has valiantly
striven against Slavery, winning a truer glory than any achieved by
her arms on land or sea; and now she is willing to surrender, at a
moment when more can be done than ever before against the monster,
wherever it shows its head,--for Slavery everywhere has its neck in
this Rebellion. In other days France has valiantly striven for ideas;
and now she, too, proposes surrender, although all that she professes
at heart is involved in the doom of Slavery, which a word from her
might hasten beyond recall. It is in England, where the great victory
of Emancipation was first obtained, that now, more even than in
France, the strongest sentiment for Rebel Slavemongers is manifest,
constituting a _moral mania_ which menaces a pact and _concordat_ with
the Rebellion itself,--as when an early Pope, head of the Christian
Church, did not hesitate to execute a piratical convention with a Pagan
enemy to the Christian name. It only remains that the new coalition
should be signed in order to consummate the unutterable degradation.
The contracting parties will be the Queen of England and Jefferson
Davis, once patron of “Repudiation,” now chief of Rebel Slavery. Then
must this virtuous lady, whose pride is justice always, bend to receive
the author of the Fugitive Slave Bill as ambassadorial plenipotentiary
at her Court.
A new power, dedicated to Slavery, will take its seat at the great
council-board, to jostle thrones and benches, while it overshadows
humanity. Its foul attorneys, reeking with Slavery, will have their
letter of license as ambassadors of Slavery, to rove from court to
court, over foreign carpets, poisoning the air which has been nobly
pronounced too pure for a slave to breathe. Alas for England, vowed
a thousand times to the protection of the African race, and by her
best renown knit perpetually to this sacred loyalty, now plunging
into adulterous dalliance with Slavery, recognizing the new and
impious Protestantism against Liberty itself, and wickedly becoming
_Defender of the Faith_ as now professed by Rebel Slavemongers! Alas
for England’s Queen, woman and mother, carried off from the cause of
Wilberforce and Clarkson to sink into unseemly association with the
scourgers of women and the auctioneers of children!--for a “stain”
deeper than that which aroused the anguish of Maria Theresa is settling
upon her reign. Alas for that Royal Consort, humane and just, whose
dying voice was given to assuage the temper of that ministerial
despatch, by which, in an evil hour, England was made to strike hands
with Rebel Slavery!--for the counsellor is needed now to save the land
he adorned from an act of inexpiable shame.
And for all this sickening immorality I hear but one declared apology.
It is, that the Union permitted and still permits Slavery,--therefore
foreign nations may recognize Rebel Slavery as a _new_ power. Here
is the precise error. England is still in diplomatic relations with
Spain, and was only a short time ago in diplomatic relations with
Brazil, both permitting Slavery; but these two powers are not _new_,
they are already established, there is no question of recognition,
nor do they pretend to found empire on Slavery. There is no reason
in any relations with them why a _new_ power, with Slavery as its
declared “corner-stone,” whose gospel is Slavery, and whose evangelists
are Slavemongers, should be recognized in the Family of Nations.
If Ireland were in triumphant rebellion against the British Queen,
complaining of rights denied, it would be our duty to recognize her as
an independent power; but if Ireland rebelled with the declared object
of establishing a _new_ power which should be nothing less than a giant
felony and a nuisance to the world, then it would be our duty to spurn
the infamous pretension, and no triumph of rebellion could change this
plain and irresistible obligation. And yet, in face of this commanding
rule, we are told to expect the recognition of Rebel Slavery.
An aroused public opinion, “the world’s collected will,” and returning
reason in England and France, will see to it that Civilization is
saved from this shock, and the nations themselves from the terrible
retribution which sooner or later must surely attend it. No power
can afford to stand up before mankind and openly vote a new and
untrammelled charter to injustice and cruelty. God is an unsleeping
avenger; nor can armies, fleets, bulwarks, or “towers along the steep”
prevail against His mighty anger. To any application for this unholy
recognition there is but one word the Christian powers can utter. It is
simply and austerely “No,” with an emphasis that shall silence argument
and extinguish hope itself. And this proclamation should go forth
swiftly. Every moment of hesitation is a moment of apostasy, casting
its lengthening shadow of dishonor. Not to discourage is to encourage;
not to blast is to bless. Let this simple word be uttered, and Slavery
will slink away with a mark on its forehead, like Cain, a perpetual
vagabond, forever accursed; and the malediction of the Lord shall
descend upon it, saying: “Among these nations shalt thou find no ease,
neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give
thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind;
and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day
and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life; in the morning
thou shalt say, Would God it were even, and at even thou shalt say,
Would God it were morning.”[141]