DEDICATION OF A NEW EDITION OF THE SPEECH ON THE BARBARISM OF
SLAVERY,[152] JULY 4, 1863.
TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE UNITED STATES I DEDICATE THIS NEW
EDITION OF A SPEECH ON THE BARBARISM OF SLAVERY, IN TOKEN OF
HEARTFELT GRATITUDE TO THEM FOR BRAVE AND PATRIOTIC SERVICE
RENDERED IN THE PRESENT WAR FOR CIVILIZATION.
It is now more than three years since I deemed it my duty, in the
Senate, to expose the Barbarism of Slavery. This phrase, though common
now, was new then. The speech was a reply, strict and logical, to
assumptions of Senators, asserting the “divine origin” of Slavery, its
“ennobling” character, and that it was the “black marble keystone” of
our national arch. Listening to these assumptions, which were of daily
recurrence, I felt that they ought to be answered; and considering
their effrontery, it seemed to me that they should be answered
frankly and openly, by exhibiting Slavery _as it really is_, without
reserve,--careful that I should “nothing extenuate, nor set down aught
in malice.” This I did.
In that debate was joined the issue still pending in the Trial by
Battle. The inordinate assumptions for Slavery naturally ripened in
Rebellion and War. If Slavery were in reality all that was claimed by
its representatives, they must have failed in duty, if they did not
vindicate and advance it. Not easily could they see a thing so “divine”
and so “ennobling,” constituting the “black marble keystone” of our
national arch, discredited by popular vote, even if not yet consigned
to sacrifice.
The election of Mr. Lincoln was a judgment against Slavery, and its
representatives were aroused.
Meanwhile, for more than a generation, an assumption of Constitutional
Law, hardly less baleful, had become rooted side by side with Slavery,
so that the two shot up in rank luxuriance together. It was assumed,
that, under the Constitution, a State was privileged at any time, in
the exercise of its own discretion, to withdraw from the Union. This
absurdity found little favor at first, even among the representatives
of Slavery. To say that two and two make five could not be more
irrational. But custom and constant repetition gradually produced
an impression, until, at last, all the maddest for Slavery were the
maddest also for this disorganizing ally.
It was then, conjoined with this constitutional assumption, that the
assumption for Slavery grew into noxious vigor, so that, at last, when
Mr. Lincoln was elected, it broke forth in flagrant war; but the war
was declared in the name of State Rights.
Therefore there are two _apparent_ rudiments to this war. One is
Slavery, and the other is State Rights. But the latter is only a cover
for the former. If Slavery were out of the way, there would be no
trouble from State Rights.
The war, then, is for Slavery, and nothing else. It is an insane
attempt by arms to vindicate the lordship asserted in debate. With
madcap audacity it seeks to install this Barbarism as the truest
Civilization. Slavery is announced as the “corner-stone” of the new
edifice. This is enough.
The question is presented between Barbarism and Civilization,--not
merely between two different forms of Civilization, but between
Barbarism on the one side and Civilization on the other side.
Such is the issue, simply stated. On the one side are women and
children at the auction-block, families rudely separated, human flesh
lacerated and seamed by the bloody scourge, labor extorted without
wages; and all this frightful, many-sided wrong is the declared
foundation of a mock Commonwealth. On the other side is the Union of
our fathers, with the image of Liberty on its coin and the sentiment of
Liberty in its Constitution, now arrayed under a patriotic Government,
which insists that no such mock Commonwealth, having such declared
foundation, shall be permitted on the national territory, purchased
with money and blood, to impair the unity of our jurisdiction, and to
insult the moral sense of mankind.
Therefore the battle waged by the Union is for Civilization itself, and
it must have aid and God-speed from all not openly for Barbarism. Every
one must give his best efforts, and especially the young men to whom I
now appeal.