“Insult, bullying, and threat characterize the Slaveholders in
Congress; talk, timidity, and submission, the Representatives
from the Free States.”
Nor were the Slave-Masters content with violence of words, or with
ejaculation of personalities by which debate became a perpetual syringe
of liquid foulness, and every one seemed to vie with Squirt the
apothecary, according to the verse admired by Pope,--
“Such zeal he had for that vile utensil.”[113]
True to the instincts of Slavery, they threatened personal indignity of
every kind, and even assassination. And here South Carolina naturally
took the lead.
The “Charleston Mercury,” which always speaks the true voice of
Slavery, said in 1837:--
“Public opinion in the South would now, we are sure, justify
an immediate resort to force by the Southern delegation, _even
on the floor of Congress_, were they forthwith to seize and
drag from the Hall any man who dared to insult them, as that
eccentric old showman, John Quincy Adams, has dared to do.”
And at a public dinner at Walterborough, in South Carolina, on the 4th
of July, 1842, the following toast, afterwards preserved by Mr. Adams
in one of his speeches, was drunk with unbounded applause:--
“May we never want a Democrat to trip up the heels of a
Federalist, or a hangman to prepare a halter for John Quincy
Adams! [_Nine cheers._]”
A Slave-Master from South Carolina, Mr. Waddy Thompson, in debate
in the House of Representatives, threatened the venerable patriot
with the “penitentiary”; and another Slave-Master, Mr. Marshall, of
Kentucky, insisted that he should be “_silenced_.” Ominous word!
full of incentive to the bludgeon-bearers of Slavery. But the great
representative of Freedom stood firm. Meanwhile Slavery assumed more
and more the port of Giant Maul in “Pilgrim’s Progress,” who continued
with his club breaking skulls, until he was slain by Mr. Great-Heart,
soon to join the congenial pilgrims, Mr. Honest, Mr. Valiant-for-Truth,
and Mr. Standfast.
Next to John Quincy Adams, no person in Congress has been more
conspicuous for long-continued and patriotic services against Slavery
than Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio; nor have any such services received
in higher degree that homage found in the personal and most vindictive
assaults of Slave-Masters. For more than twenty years he sat in the
House of Representatives, bearing his testimony austerely, and never
shrinking, though exposed to the grossest brutality. In a recent
address at New York he has recounted some of these instances.
On his presentation of resolutions affirming that Slavery was a local
institution and could not exist outside of the Slave States, and
applying this principle to the case of the “Creole,” the House caught
the South Carolina fever. A proposition of censure was introduced by
Slave-Masters, and under the previous question pressed to a vote,
without giving him a moment for explanation or reply. This glaring
outrage upon freedom of debate was redressed by the constituency of Mr.
Giddings, who without delay returned him to his seat. From that time
the rage of the Slave-Masters against him was constant. Here is his own
brief account.
“I will not speak of the time when Dawson, of Louisiana, drew a
bowie-knife for my assassination. I was afterward speaking with
regard to a certain transaction in which negroes were concerned
in Georgia, when Mr. Black, of Georgia, raising his bludgeon,
and standing in front of my seat, said to me, ‘If you repeat
that language again, I will knock you down.’ It was a solemn
moment for me. I had never been knocked down, and, having some
curiosity upon that subject, I repeated the language. Then Mr.
Dawson, of Louisiana, the same who had drawn the bowie-knife,
placed his hand in his pocket and said, with an oath which
I will not repeat, that he would shoot me, at the same time
cocking the pistol, so that all around me could hear it click.”
Listening to these horrors, ancient stories of Barbarism are all
outdone; and the “viper broth,” which was a favorite decoction in a
barbarous age, seems to be the daily drink of American Slave-Masters.
The blaspheming madness of the witches in “Macbeth” is renewed, and
they dance again round the caldron, dropping into it “sweltered venom
sleeping got,” with every other “charm of powerful trouble.” Men are
transformed into wolves, as according to early Greek superstition,
and a new lycanthropy has its day. But Mr. Giddings, strong in
consciousness of right, knew the dignity of his position. He knew that
it is always honorable to serve the cause of Liberty, and that it is a
privilege to suffer for this cause. Reproach, contumely, violence even
unto death, are rewards, not punishments; and clearly the indignities
you offer can excite no shame except for their authors.
Besides these eminent instances, others may be mentioned, showing the
personalities to which Senators and Representatives are exposed, when
undertaking to speak for Freedom. And truth compels me to add, that
it would be easy to show how these are grossly aggravated towards
individuals who notoriously reject the Duel; for then they can be
offered with personal impunity.
Here is an instance. In 1848, Mr. Hale, the Senator from New Hampshire,
who still continues an honor to this body, introduced into the Senate
a bill for the protection of property in the District of Columbia,
especially against mob-violence, when, in the debate that ensued, Mr.
Foote, a Slave-Master from Mississippi, thus menaced him:--
“I invite the Senator to the good State of Mississippi, and
will tell him beforehand, in all honesty, that he could not
go ten miles into the interior before he would grace one of
the tallest trees of the forest with a rope around his neck,
with the approbation of every virtuous and patriotic citizen,
and that, if necessary, _I should myself assist in the
operation_.”[114]
That this bloody threat may not seem to stand alone, I add two others.
In 1836, Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, now a Senator, is reported as
saying in the House of Representatives:--
“I warn the Abolitionists, ignorant, infatuated barbarians as
they are, that, if chance shall throw any of them into our
hands, he may expect _a felon’s death_!”[115]
In 1841, Mr. Payne, a Slave-Master from Alabama, in the course of
debate in the House of Representatives, alluding to the Abolitionists,
among whom he insisted the Postmaster-General ought to be included,
declared that
“He would put the brand of Cain upon them,--yes, the mark of
Hell; and if they came to the South, he would _hang them like
dogs_.”[116]
And these words were applied to men who simply expressed the recorded
sentiments of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.
Even during the present session of Congress, I find in the
“Congressional Globe” the following interruptions of the eloquent and
faithful Representative from Illinois, Mr. Lovejoy, when speaking on
Slavery. I do not characterize them, but simply cite the language.