It remains to show, in the _third_ place, that the Antislavery
Enterprise, which stands before you at once necessary and practicable,
is commended by inherent DIGNITY. Here reasons are obvious and
unanswerable.
Its object is benevolent; nor is there in the dreary annals of the
Past a single enterprise more clearly and indisputably entitled to
this character. With unsurpassed and touching magnanimity, it seeks to
benefit the lowly whom your eyes have not seen, and who are ignorant
even of your labors, while it demands and receives a self-sacrifice
calculated to ennoble an enterprise of even questionable merit. Its
true rank is among works properly called _philanthropic_,--the title
of highest honor on earth. “I take goodness in this sense,” says Lord
Bacon in his Essays, “_the affecting of the weal of men_, which is that
the Grecians call Philanthropia, … of all virtues and dignities of
the mind the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without
it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a
kind of vermin.”[16] Lord Bacon was right, and perhaps unconsciously
followed a higher authority; for, when Moses asked the Lord to show
him his glory, the Lord said, “I will make all my goodness pass before
thee.”[17] Ah! Sir, Peace has trophies fairer and more perennial than
any snatched from fields of blood, but, among all these, the fairest
and most perennial are the trophies of beneficence. Scholarship,
literature, jurisprudence, art, may wear their well-deserved honors;
but an enterprise of goodness deserves, and will yet receive, a higher
palm than these.
In other aspects its dignity is apparent. It concerns the cause of
Human Freedom, which from earliest days has been the darling of
History. By all the memories of the Past, by the stories of childhood
and the studies of youth, by every example of magnanimous virtue, by
every aspiration for the good and true, by the fame of martyrs swelling
through all time, by the renown of patriots whose lives are landmarks
of progress, by the praise lavished upon our fathers, are you summoned
to this work. Unless Freedom be an illusion, and Benevolence an error,
you cannot resist the appeal. Who can doubt that our cause is nobler
even than that of our fathers? for is it not more exalted to struggle
for the freedom of _others_ than for our _own_?
Its practical importance at this moment gives to it additional
eminence. Whether measured by the number of beings it seeks to benefit,
by the magnitude of the wrongs it hopes to relieve, by the difficulties
with which it is beset, by the political relations which it affects,
or by the ability and character it enlists, the cause of the slave now
assumes proportions of grandeur which dwarf all other interests in our
broad country. In its presence the machinations of politicians, the
aspirations of office-seekers, and the subterfuges of party, all sink
below even their ordinary insignificance. For myself, Sir, I see among
us at this time little else by which an honest man, wishing to leave
the world better than he found it, can be tempted out upon the exposed
steeps of public life. I see little else which can afford any of those
satisfactions an honest man should covet. Nor is there any cause so
surely promising final success:--
“Oh! a fair cause stands firm and will abide;
Legions of angels fight upon her side!”[18]
It is written that in the last days there shall be scoffers, and
even this Enterprise, thus philanthropic, does not escape their
aspersions. As the objections to its Necessity were twofold, and the
objections to its Practicability twofold, so also are the aspersions
twofold,--_first_, in the form of hard words, and, _secondly_, by
personal disparagement of those engaged in it.
* * * * *
1. The _hard words_ are manifold as the passions and prejudices of
men; but they generally end in the imputation of “fanaticism.” In such
a cause I am willing to be called “fanatic,” or what you will; I care
not for aspersions, nor shall I shrink before hard words, either here
or elsewhere. They do not hurt. “My dear Doctor,” said Johnson to
Goldsmith, “what harm does it do any man to call him Holofernes?” From
that great Englishman, Oliver Cromwell, I have learned that one cannot
be trusted “who is afraid of a paper pellet”; and I am too familiar
with history not to know that every movement for reform, in Church
or State, every endeavor for Human Liberty or Human Rights, has been
thus assailed. I do not forget with what facility and frequency hard
words are employed: how that grandest character of many generations,
the precursor of our own Washington, without whose example our
Republic might have failed, the great William, Prince of Orange,
founder of the Dutch Republic, the United States of Holland,--I do
not forget how he was publicly branded as “a perjurer and a pest of
society”; and, not to dwell on general instances, how the enterprise
for the abolition of the slave-trade was characterized on the floor of
Parliament, by one eminent speaker as “mischievous,” and by another
as “visionary and delusive”; and how the exalted characters which it
enlisted were arraigned by still another eminent speaker,--none other
than that Tarleton, so conspicuous as commander of the British horse
in the Southern campaigns of our Revolution, but more conspicuous in
politics at home,--“as a junto of sectaries, sophists, enthusiasts,
and fanatics”; and yet again were arraigned by no less a person than
a prince of the blood, the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William the
Fourth of England, as “either fanatics or hypocrites,” in one of which
categories he openly placed William Wilberforce.[19] Impartial History,
with immortal pen, has redressed these impassioned judgments; nor has
the voice of the poet been wanting:--
“Thy country, Wilberforce, with just disdain,
Hears thee by cruel men and impious called
Fanatic, for thy zeal to loose the inthralled
From exile, public sale, and slavery’s chain.”[20]
But the same impartial History will yet re-judge the impassioned
judgments of this hour.
* * * * *
2. Hard words have been followed by _personal disparagement_, and the
sneer is often raised that our Enterprise lacks the authority of names
eminent in Church and State. If this be so, the more is the pity on
their account; for our cause is needful to them more than they are
needful to our cause. Alas! it is only according to example of history
that it should be so. It is not the eminent in Church and State, the
rich and powerful, the favorites of fortune and of place, who most
promptly welcome Truth, when she heralds change in the existing order
of things. It is others in poorer condition who open hospitable hearts
to the unattended stranger. This is a sad story, beginning with the
Saviour, whose disciples were fishermen, and ending only in our own
day. Each generation has its instances. But the cause cannot be judged
by any such indifference. Strong in essential truth, it awaits the day,
surely at hand, when all will flock to its support. As the rights of
man are at last recognized, the scoffers, now so heartless, will forget
to scoff.
* * * * *
And now, Sir, I present to you the Antislavery Enterprise vindicated,
in Necessity, Practicability, and Dignity, against all objection. If
there be any which I have not answered, it is because I am not aware of
its existence. It remains that I should give a practical conclusion to
this whole matter, by showing, though in glimpses only, your SPECIAL
DUTIES AS FREEMEN OF THE NORTH. And, thank God! at last there is a
North.
* * * * *
Mr. President, it is not uncommon to hear persons among us at the North
confess the wrong of Slavery, and then, folding the hands in absolute
listlessness, ejaculate, “What can we do about it?” Such we encounter
daily. You all know them. Among them are men in every department of
human activity,--who perpetually buy, build, and plan,--who shrink
from no labor,--who are daunted by no peril of commercial adventure,
by no hardihood of industrial enterprise,--who, reaching in their
undertakings across ocean and continent, would promise to “put a girdle
round about the earth in forty minutes”; and yet, disheartened, they
can join in no effort against Slavery. Others there are, especially
among the youthful and enthusiastic, who vainly sigh because they
were not born in the age of Chivalry, or at least in the days of the
Revolution, not thinking that in this Enterprise there is opportunity
for lofty endeavor such as no Paladin of Chivalry or chief of the
Revolution enjoyed. Others there are who freely bestow means and
time upon distant, inaccessible heathen of another hemisphere, in
islands of the sea; and yet they can do nothing to mitigate our graver
heathenism here at home. While confessing that it ought to disappear
from the earth, they forego, renounce, and abandon all effort to this
end. Others there are still (such is human inconsistency!) who plant
the tree in whose full-grown shade they can never expect to sit,--who
hopefully drop the acorn in the earth, trusting that the oak which
it sends upward to the skies will shelter their children beneath its
shade; but they do nothing to plant or nurture the great tree of
Liberty, that it may shield with its arms unborn generations of men.
Others still there are, particularly in large cities, who content
themselves with occasional contribution to the redemption of a slave.
To this object they give out of ample riches, and thus seek to silence
the monitions of conscience. I would not discountenance any activity
by which Human Freedom, even in a single case, may be secured; but I
desire to say that such an act--too often accompanied by pharisaical
pretension, in contrast with the petty performance--cannot be
considered essential aid to the Antislavery Enterprise. Not in this
way can impression be made on an evil so vast as Slavery,--so widely
scattered, and so exhaustless in its unnatural supply. The god Thor,
of Scandinavian mythology, whose power surpassed that of Hercules, was
once challenged to drain dry a simple cup. He applied it to his lips,
and with superhuman capacity drank, but the water did not recede even
from the rim, and at last the god abandoned the trial. The failure of
even his extraordinary prowess was explained, when he learned that the
cup communicated, by invisible connection, with the whole vast ocean
behind, out of which it was perpetually supplied, and which remained
absolutely unaffected by the effort. And just so will these occasions
of charity, though encountered by the largest private means, be
constantly renewed; for they communicate with the whole Black Sea of
Slavery behind, out of which they are perpetually supplied, and which
remains absolutely unaffected by the effort. Sir, private means may
cope with individual necessities, but they are powerless to redress the
evils of a wicked institution. Charity is limited and local; the evils
of Slavery are infinite and everywhere. Besides, a wrong organized and
upheld by law can be removed only through change of the law. Not, then,
by occasional contribution to ransom a slave can your duty be done in
this great cause, but only by earnest, constant, valiant effort against
the institution, against the law, which makes slaves.
I am not insensible to the difficulties of this work. Full well I know
the power of Slavery. Full well I know all its various intrenchments in
the Church, the politics, and the prejudices of the country. Full well
I know the wakeful interests of property, amounting to many hundred
millions of dollars, which are said to be at stake. But these things
can furnish no motive or apology for indifference, or any folding
of the hands. Surely the wrong is not less wrong because gigantic;
the evil is not less evil because immeasurable; nor can the duty of
perpetual warfare with wrong and evil be in this instance suspended.
Nay, because Slavery is powerful, because the Enterprise is difficult,
therefore is the duty of all more exigent. The well-tempered soul does
not yield to difficulties, but presses _onward forever_ with increased
resolution.
But the question recurs, so often pressed in argument, or in taunt,
_What have we at the North to do with Slavery?_ In answer, I might
content myself by saying, that, as members of the human family, bound
together by cords of common manhood, there is no human wrong to which
we can be insensible, nor is there any human sorrow which we should
not seek to relieve; but I prefer to say, on this occasion, that, as
citizens of the United States, anxious for the good name, the repose,
and the prosperity of the Republic, that it may be a blessing and not a
curse to mankind, there is nothing among all its diversified interests,
under the National Constitution, with which, at this moment, we have
so much to do; nor is there anything with regard to which our duties
are so irresistibly clear. I do not dwell on the scandal of Slavery
in the national capital, of Slavery in the national territories,
of the coastwise slave-trade on the high seas beneath the national
flag,--all of which are outside State limits, and within the exclusive
jurisdiction of Congress, where you and I, Sir, and every freeman of
the North, are compelled to share the giant sin and help to bind its
chain. To dislodge Slavery from these usurped footholds, and thus at
once relieve ourselves from grievous responsibility, and begin the
great work of Emancipation, were an object worthy an exalted ambition.
But before even this can be commenced, there is a great work, more
than any other important and urgent, which must be consummated in
the domain of national politics, and also here at home in the Free
States. The National Government itself must be emancipated, so that
it shall no longer wear the yoke of servitude; and Slavery in all its
pretensions must be dislodged from a usurped foothold in the Free
States themselves, thus relieving ourselves from serious responsibility
at our own door, and emancipating the North. Emancipation, even within
the national jurisdiction, can be achieved only through emancipation
of the Free States, accompanied by complete emancipation of the
National Government. Ay, Sir, emancipation at the South can be reached
only through emancipation of the North. And this is my answer to the
interrogatory, What have we at the North to do with Slavery?
But the answer may be made yet more irresistible, while, with mingled
sorrow and shame, I portray the tyrannical power which holds us in
thraldom. Notwithstanding all its excess of numbers, wealth, and
intelligence, the North is now the vassal of an OLIGARCHY, whose single
inspiration comes from Slavery. According to official tables of our
recent census, the slave-masters, all told, are only THREE HUNDRED AND
FORTY-SEVEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE;[21] and yet this
small company now dominates over the Republic, determines its national
policy, disposes of its offices, and sways all to its absolute will.
With a watchfulness that never sleeps and an activity that never tires,
the SLAVE OLIGARCHY asserts its perpetual and insatiate masterdom,--now
seizing a broad territory once covered by a time-honored ordinance of
Freedom,--now threatening to wrest Cuba from Spain by violent war,
or hardly less violent purchase,--now hankering for another slice of
Mexico, merely to find new scope for Slavery,--now proposing once more
to open the hideous, Heaven-defying Slave-Trade, thus replenishing its
shambles with human flesh,--and now, by the lips of an eminent Senator,
asserting an audacious claim to the whole group of the West Indies,
whether held by Holland, Spain, France, or England, as “our Southern
islands,”[22] while it assails the independence of Hayti, and extends
its treacherous ambition even to the distant valley of the Amazon.
For all this tyranny there must be tools, and these are found through
a new test for office, where Slavery is the shibboleth. Nobody,
throughout this Republic, who cannot repeat the hateful word, is
taken,--nobody, unless faithful to Slavery, is accepted for any post
under the National Government. Yes, let it be proclaimed, that now
at last, not honesty, not capacity, not fidelity to the Constitution
is the test for office, but unhesitating support of Slavery. This is
fidelity, this is loyalty, according to the new dispensation. And thus
the strength of the whole people is transfused into this oligarchy.
The Constitution, the flag itself, and everything we call our own, is
degraded to this wicked rule.
And this giant strength is used with giant heartlessness. By cruel
enactment, which has no source in the Constitution, which defies
justice, tramples on humanity, and rebels against God, the Free States
are made the hunting-ground for slaves, and you and I and all good
citizens are pressed to join in the loathsome and abhorred work. Your
hearts and judgments, swift to feel and to condemn, will not require
me to expose here the abomination of the Fugitive Slave Bill, or
its unconstitutionality. Elsewhere I have done this, and never been
answered. Nor will you expect that an enactment so entirely devoid of
all just sanction should be called by the sacred name of _law_. History
still repeats the language in which our fathers persevered, when they
denounced the last emanation of British tyranny which heralded the
Revolution, as the Boston Port _Bill_; and I am content with this
precedent. I have said, that, if any man finds in the Gospel any
support of Slavery, it is because Slavery is already in himself; so
do I now say, if any man finds in the Constitution of our country any
support of the Fugitive Slave Bill, it is because that bill is already
in himself. One of our ancient masters--Aristotle, I think--tells us
that every man has a beast in his bosom; but the Northern citizen who
has the Fugitive Slave Bill there has worse than a beast,--a devil!
And yet in this bill, more even than in the ostracism at which you
rebel, does the Slave Oligarchy stand confessed,--heartless, grasping,
tyrannical,--careless of humanity, right, or the Constitution,--whose
foundation is a coalition of wrong-doers, without even the semblance
of decency,--while it degrades the Free States to the condition of a
slave plantation, under the lash of a vulgar, despised, and revolting
overseer.
Surely, fellow-citizens, without hesitation or postponement, you
will insist that this Oligarchy shall be overthrown; and here is the
foremost among the special duties of the North, now required for the
honor of the Republic, for our own defence, and in obedience to God.
In urging this comprehensive duty, I ought to have hours rather than
minutes; but in a few words you shall see its comprehensive importance.
With the disappearance of the Slave Oligarchy, the wickedness of the
Fugitive Slave Bill will drop from the statute-book,--Slavery will
cease at the national capital,--Freedom will become the universal law
of the national territory,--the Slave-Trade will no longer skulk along
our coast beneath the national flag,--the Slave-marriage of the nation
will be dissolved,--the rule of our country will be Freedom instead of
Slavery,--the North will no longer be trampled on by the South,--the
North will at last be allowed its just proportion of office and honor.
Let all this be done, and much more will follow. With the disappearance
of the Slave Oligarchy, you will possess the master-key to unlock the
whole house of bondage. Oh, Sir! prostrate the Slave Oligarchy, and the
gates of Emancipation will be open at the South.
Without waiting for this consummation, there is another special duty
here at home, on our own soil, which must be made free in reality,
as in name. And here I shall speak frankly, though not without a
proper sense of the responsibility of my words. I know that I cannot
address you entirely as a private citizen; but I shall say nothing
here which I have not said elsewhere, and which I shall not be proud
to vindicate everywhere. “A lie,” it has been declared, “should be
trampled out and extinguished forever”; and surely you will do nothing
less with a tyrannical and wicked enactment. The Fugitive Slave Bill,
while it continues unrepealed, must be made a dead letter,--not by
violence, not by any unconstitutional activity or intervention, not
even by hasty conflict between jurisdictions,--but by an aroused Public
Opinion, which, in its irresistible might, shall blast with contempt,
indignation, and abhorrence all who consent to be its agents. Thus did
our fathers blast all who became agents of the Stamp Act; and surely
their motive was small, compared with ours. The Slave-Hunter who
drags his victim from Africa is loathed as a monster; but I defy any
acuteness of reason to indicate the moral difference between his act
and that of the Slave-Hunter who drags his victim from our Northern
free soil. A few puny persons, calling themselves Congress, with
titles of Representatives and Senators, cannot turn wrong into right,
cannot change a man into a thing, cannot reverse the irreversible
law of God, cannot make him wicked who hunts a slave on the burning
sands of Congo or Guinea, and make him virtuous who hunts a slave over
the pavements of Boston or New York. Nor can any acuteness of reason
distinguish between the original bill of sale from the kidnapper, by
which the unhappy African was transferred in Congo or Guinea, and the
certificate of the Commissioner, by which, when once again in Freedom,
he is reduced anew to bondage. The acts are kindred, and should share a
kindred condemnation.
One man’s virtue becomes a standard of excellence for all; and there
is now in Boston a simple citizen whose example may be a lesson
to Commissioners, Marshals, Magistrates, while it fills all with
the beauty of a generous act. I refer to Mr. Hayes, who resigned
his place in the city police rather than take part in the pack of
the Slave-Hunter. He is now the door-keeper of the public edifice
honored this winter by the triumphant lectures on Slavery. Better be
a door-keeper in the house of the Lord than a dweller in the tents of
the ungodly. Has he not chosen well? Little think those now doing the
work of Slavery that the time is near when all this will be dishonor
and sadness. For myself, long ago my mind was made up. Nothing will
I have to do with it. How can I help to make a slave? The idea alone
is painful. To do this thing would plant in my soul a remorse which
no time could remove or mitigate. His chains would clank in my ears.
His cries would strike upon my heart. His voice would be my terrible
accuser. Mr. President, may no such voice fall on your soul or mine!
Yes, Sir, here our duty is plain and paramount. While the Slave
Oligarchy, through its unrepealed Slave Bill, undertakes to enslave our
free soil, we can only turn for protection to a Public Opinion worthy
of a humane, just, and religious people, which shall keep perpetual
guard over the liberties of all within our borders. On this from the
beginning I have relied. On this I now rely. Wherever it is already
strong, I would keep it so; wherever it is weak, I would strengthen it,
until of itself it is an all-sufficient protection, with watch and ward
surrounding the fugitive, surrounding all. And this Public Opinion,
with Freedom as its countersign, must proclaim not only the overthrow
of the Slave Bill, but also the overthrow of the Slave Oligarchy
behind,--the two pressing duties of the North, essential to our own
emancipation; and believe me, Sir, while they remain undone, nothing is
done.
* * * * *
Mr. President, far already have I trespassed upon your generous
patience; but there are other things pressing for utterance. Something
would I say of the arguments by which our Enterprise is commended;
something also of the appeal it makes to people of every condition;
and something, too, of union, as a vital necessity, among all who love
Freedom.
I know not if our work will be soon accomplished. I know not, Sir, if
you or I shall live to see in our Republic the vows of the Fathers
at length fulfilled, as the last fetter falls from the last slave.
But one thing I do know, beyond all doubt or question: that this
Enterprise must go on; that, in its irresistible current, it will sweep
schools, colleges, churches, the intelligence, the conscience, and the
religious aspiration of the land, while all who stand in its way or
speak evil of it are laying up sorrow and shame for their children, if
not for themselves. Better strive in this cause, even unsuccessfully,
than never strive at all. The penalty of indifference is akin to the
penalty of opposition,--as is well pictured by the great Italian poet,
when, among the saddest on the banks of Acheron, rending the air with
outcries of torment, shrieks of anger, and smiting of hands, he finds
the troop of dreary souls who had been ciphers in the great conflicts
of life:--
“Mingled with whom, of their disgrace the proof,
Are the vile angels, who did not rebel,
Nor kept their faith to God, _but stood aloof_.”[23]
There is no weapon in the celestial armory of Truth, no sweet influence
from the skies, no generous word from human lips, which may not be
employed. Ours, too, is the argument alike of the Conservative and
the Reformer; for our cause stands on the truest conservatism and
the truest reform. It seeks the conservation of Freedom itself, and
of kindred historic principles; it seeks also the reform of Slavery,
and of the kindred tyranny by which it is upheld. Religion, morals,
justice, economy, the Constitution, each and all, may be invoked; and
one person is touched by one argument, while another person is touched
by another. You do not forget how Christopher Columbus won Isabella of
Spain to his enterprise of discovery. He began with the temptation of
extending her dominions; but she hearkened not. Next he promised the
dazzling wealth of the Indies; and still she hearkened not. When, at
last, to her pious imagination were pictured poor heathen with souls
to be saved, then the youthful Queen poured her royal jewels into the
lap of the Genoese adventurer, and at her expense went forth that small
fleet which gave to Spain and to mankind a New World.
As in this Enterprise there is a place for every argument, so also is
there a place for every man. Even as on the broad shield of Achilles,
sculptured by divine art, was wrought every form of human activity, so
in this cause, which is the very shield of Freedom, whatever man can
do by deed or speech will find its place. One may act in one way, and
another in another way; but all must act. Providence is felt through
individuals; the dropping of water wears away the rock; and no man
can be too humble or poor for this work, while to all the happy in
genius, fortune, or fame it makes a special appeal. Here is room for
the strength of Luther and the sweetness of Melancthon, for the wisdom
of age and the ardor of youth, for the judgment of the statesman and
the eloquence of the orator, for the grace of the scholar and the
aspiration of the poet, for the learning of the professor and the skill
of the lawyer, for the exhortation of the preacher and the persuasion
of the press, for the various energy of man and the abounding sympathy
of woman.
And still one thing more is needed, without which Liberty-loving men,
and their arguments, will fail in power,--even as without charity all
graces of knowledge, speech, and faith are said to profit nothing. I
mean that _Unity of Spirit_--in itself a fountain of strength--which,
filling the people of the North, shall make them tread under foot past
antipathies, decayed dissensions, and those irritating names which
now exist only as tattered ensigns of ancient strife. It is right to
be taught by the enemy; and with their example before us, and their
power brandished in our very faces, we cannot hesitate. With them
Slavery is the mainspring of political life, and the absorbing centre
of political activity; with them all differences are swallowed up by
this _one idea_, as all other rods were swallowed up by the rod of
Aaron; with them all unite to keep the National Government under the
control of slave-masters: and surely we should not do less for Freedom
than they do for Slavery. _We, too, must be united._ Among us at last
mutual criticism, crimination, and feud must give place to mutual
sympathy, trust, and alliance. Face to face against the Slave Oligarchy
must be rallied the UNITED MASSES of the North, in compact political
association,--planted on the everlasting base of justice,--knit
together by instincts of a common danger and holy sympathies of
humanity,--enkindled by love of Freedom, not only for themselves, but
for others,--determined to enfranchise the National Government from
degrading thraldom,--and constituting the BACKBONE PARTY, powerful
in numbers, wealth, and intelligence, but more powerful still in an
inspiring cause. Let this be done, and victory will be ours.