Of course I begin with the assumption of fact, which must be treated at
length.
It was the often-quoted remark of John Wesley, who knew well how to use
words, as also how to touch hearts, that Slavery is “the sum of all
villanies.” The phrase is pungent; but it were rash in any of us to
criticise the testimony of that illustrious founder of Methodism, whose
ample experience of Slavery in Georgia and the Carolinas seems to have
been all condensed in this sententious judgment. Language is feeble to
express all the enormity of an institution which is now exalted as in
itself a form of civilization, “ennobling” at least to the master, if
not to the slave. Look at it as you will, and it is always the scab,
the canker, the “barebones,” and the shame of the country,--wrong, not
merely in the abstract, as is often admitted by its apologist, but
wrong in the concrete also, and possessing no single element of right.
Look at it in the light of principle, and it is nothing less than a
huge insurrection against the eternal law of God, involving in its
pretensions the denial of all human rights, and also the denial of that
Divine Law in which God himself is manifest, thus being practically the
grossest lie and the grossest atheism. Founded in violence, sustained
only by violence, such a wrong must by sure law of compensation blast
master as well as slave,--blast the lands on which they live, blast the
community of which they are part, blast the government which does not
forbid the outrage; and the longer it exists and the more completely
it prevails, must its vengeful influences penetrate the whole social
system. Barbarous in origin, barbarous in law, barbarous in all its
pretensions, barbarous in the instruments it employs, barbarous in
consequences, barbarous in spirit, barbarous wherever it shows itself,
Slavery must breed Barbarians, while it develops everywhere, alike
in the individual and the society to which he belongs, the essential
elements of Barbarism. In this character it is conspicuous before the
world.
Undertaking now to expose the BARBARISM OF SLAVERY, the whole broad
field is open before me. There is nothing in its character, its
manifold wrong, its wretched results, and especially in its influence
on the class claiming to be “ennobled” by it, that will not fall
naturally under consideration.
I know well the difficulty of this discussion, involved in the
humiliating truth with which I begin. Senators, on former occasions,
revealing their sensitiveness, have even protested against comparison
between what were called “two civilizations,”--meaning the two
social systems produced respectively by Freedom and Slavery. The
sensibility and the protest are not unnatural, though mistaken. “Two
civilizations!” Sir, in this nineteenth century of Christian light
there can be but one Civilization, and this is where Freedom prevails.
Between Slavery and Civilization there is essential incompatibility.
If you are for the one, you cannot be for the other; and just in
proportion to the embrace of Slavery is the divorce from Civilization.
As cold is but the absence of heat, and darkness but the absence
of light, so is Slavery but the absence of justice and humanity,
without which Civilization is impossible. That slave-masters should be
disturbed, when this is exposed, might be expected. But the assumptions
so boastfully made, while they may not prevent the sensibility, yet
surely exclude all ground of protest, when these assumptions are
exposed.
Nor is this the only difficulty. Slavery is a bloody Touch-Me-Not, and
everywhere in sight now blooms the bloody flower. It is on the wayside
as we approach the National Capitol; it is on the marble steps which
we mount; it flaunts on this floor. I stand now in the house of its
friends. About me, while I speak, are its most jealous guardians, who
have shown in the past how much they are ready to do or not to do,
where Slavery is in question. Menaces to deter me have not been spared.
But I should ill deserve the high post of duty here, with which I am
honored by a generous and enlightened people, if I could hesitate.
Idolatry has been exposed in the presence of idolaters, and hypocrisy
chastised in the presence of Scribes and Pharisees. Such examples may
impart encouragement to a Senator undertaking in this presence to
expose Slavery; nor can any language, directly responsive to Senatorial
assumptions made for this Barbarism, be open to question. Slavery can
be painted only in sternest colors; nor can I forget that Nature’s
sternest painter has been called the best.
* * * * *
THE BARBARISM OF SLAVERY appears, _first_, in the _character of
Slavery_, and, _secondly_, in the _character of Slave-Masters_.
Under the first head we shall properly consider (1) the Law of Slavery
with its Origin, and (2) the practical results of Slavery, as shown in
comparison between the Free States and the Slave States.
Under the _second_ head we shall naturally consider (1) Slave-Masters
as shown in the Law of Slavery; (2) Slave-Masters in their relations
with slaves, here glancing at their three brutal instruments; (3)
Slave-Masters in their relations with each other, with society, and
with Government; and (4) Slave-Masters in their unconsciousness.
The way will then be prepared for the consideration of the assumption
of Constitutional Law.