“And if you come among us, we will do with you as we did with
John Brown,--hang you up as high as Haman. I say that as a
Virginian.”[117]
But enough,--enough; and I now turn from this branch of the great
subject with a single remark. While exhibiting the Character of
Slave-Masters, these numerous instances--and they might be multiplied
indefinitely--attest the weakness of their cause. It requires no
special talent to estimate the insignificance of an argument that can
be supported only by violence. The scholar will not forget the ancient
story of the colloquy between Jupiter and a simple countryman. They
talked with ease and freedom until they differed, when the angry god
at once menaced his honest opponent with a thunderbolt. “Ah! ah!” said
the clown, with perfect composure, “now, Jupiter, I know you are wrong.
You are always wrong, when you appeal to your thunder.” And permit
me to say, that every appeal, whether to the Duel, the revolver, or
the bludgeon, every menace of personal violence and every outrage of
language, besides disclosing a hideous Barbarism, also discloses the
fevered nervousness of a cause already humbled in debate. And then how
impotent! Truth, like the sunbeam, cannot be soiled by outward touch,
while the best testimony to its might is found in the active passions
it provokes. There are occasions when enmity is a panegyric.
* * * * *
(4.) Much as has been said to exhibit the Character of Slave-Masters,
the work would be incomplete, if I failed to point out that
_unconsciousness_ of its fatal influence which completes the evidence
of the Barbarism under which they live. Nor am I at liberty to decline
this topic; but I shall be brief.
That Senators should seriously declare Slavery “ennobling,” at least
to the master, and “the black marble keystone of our national arch,”
would excite wonder, if it were not explained by examples of history.
There are men who, in the spirit of paradox, make themselves partisans
of a bad cause, as Jerome Cardan wrote an Encomium on Nero. But where
there is no disposition to paradox, it is natural that a cherished
practice should blind those under its influence; nor is there any
end to these exaggerations. According to Thucydides, piracy in the
early ages of Greece was alike wide-spread and honorable; and so much
was this the case, that Telemachus and Mentor, on landing at Pylos,
were asked by Nestor if they were “pirates,”[118]--precisely as in
South Carolina the stranger might be asked if he were a Slave-Master.
Kidnapping, too, a kindred indulgence, was openly avowed, and I doubt
not held to be “ennobling.” Next to the unconsciousness of childhood is
the unconsciousness of Barbarism. The real Barbarian is unconscious as
an infant; and the Slave-Master shows much of the same character. No
New-Zealander exults in his tattoo, no savage of the Northwest Coast
exults in his flat head, more than the Slave-Master of these latter
days--always, of course, with honorable exceptions--exults in his
unfortunate condition. The Slave-Master hugs his disgusting practice
as the Carib of the Gulf hugged Cannibalism, and as Brigham Young now
hugs Polygamy. The delusion of the Goitre is repeated. This prodigious
swelling of the neck, nothing less than a loathsome wallet of flesh
pendulous upon the breast, and sometimes so enormous, that the victim,
unable to support the burden, crawls along the ground, is common
to the population on the slopes of the Alps;[119] but, accustomed
to this deformity, the sufferer comes to regard it with pride,--as
Slave-Masters with us, unable to support their burden, and crawling
along the ground, regard Slavery,--and it is said that those who have
no swelling are laughed at and called “goose-necked.”[120]
With knowledge comes distrust and the modest consciousness of
imperfection; but the pride of Barbarism has no such limitation. It
dilates in the thin air of ignorance, and makes boasts. Surely, if
the illustrations which I have presented to-day are not entirely
inapplicable, then must we find in the boasts of Slave-Masters new
occasion to regret that baleful influence under which even love of
country is lost in love of Slavery, and the great motto of Franklin is
reversed, so as to read, _Ubi Servitudo, ibi Patria_.
It is this same influence which renders Slave-Masters insensible
to those characters which are among the true glories of the
Republic,--which makes them forget that Jefferson, who wrote the
Declaration of Independence, and Washington, who commanded our armies,
were Abolitionists,--which renders them indifferent to the inspiring
words of the one and the commanding example of the other. Of these
great men it is the praise, well deserving perpetual mention, and
grudged only by malign influence, that, reared amidst Slavery, they did
not hesitate to condemn it. Jefferson, in repeated utterances, alive
with the fire of genius and truth, has contributed the most important
testimony to Freedom ever pronounced in this hemisphere, in words equal
to the cause; and Washington, often quoted as a Slave-Master, in the
solemn dispositions of his last will and testament, has contributed
an example which is beyond even the words of Jefferson. Do not, Sir,
call him Slave-Master, who entered into the presence of his Maker only
as Emancipator of his slaves. The difference between such men and the
Slave-Masters whom I expose to-day is so precise that it cannot be
mistaken. The first _looked down_ upon Slavery; the second _look up_
to Slavery. The first, recognizing its wrong, were at once liberated
from its insidious influence; while the latter, upholding it as right
and “ennobling,” must naturally draw from it motives of conduct. The
first, conscious of the character of Slavery, were not misled by
it; the second, dwelling in unconsciousness of its true character,
surrender blindly to its barbarous tendencies, and, verifying the words
of the poet,--
“So perfect is their misery,
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,
But boast themselves more comely than before.”[121]
Mr. President, it is time to close this branch of the argument. The
Barbarism of Slavery has been exposed, first, in the Law of Slavery,
with its five pretensions, founded on the assertion of property in man,
the denial of the conjugal relation, the infraction of the parental
tie, the exclusion from knowledge, and the robbery of the fruits of
another’s labor, all these having the single object of _compelling men
to work without wages_, while its Barbarism was still further attested
by tracing the law in its origin to barbarous Africa; and, secondly,
it has been exposed in a careful examination of economical results,
illustrated by contrast between the Free States and the Slave States,
sustained by official figures. From this exposure I proceeded to
consider the influence on Slave-Masters, whose true character stands
confessed,--first, in the Law of Slavery, which is their work,--next,
in the relations between them and their slaves, maintained by three
inhuman instruments,--then, in their intercourse with each other and
with society: and here we have seen them at home, under the immediate
influence of Slavery, also in the communities of which they are a
part, practising violence, and pushing it everywhere, in street-fight
and duel; especially raging against all who question the pretensions
of Slavery, entering even into the Free States,--but not in lawless
outbreaks only, also in official acts, as of Georgia and of South
Carolina regarding two Massachusetts citizens,--and then, ascending
in audacity, entering the Halls of Congress, where they have turned,
as at home, against all who oppose their assumptions; while the whole
gloomy array of unquestionable facts is closed by the melancholy
unconsciousness which constitutes one of the distinctive features of
this Barbarism.
* * * * *
Such is my answer to the assumption of fact in behalf of Slavery
by Senators on the other side. But before passing to that other
assumption of Constitutional Law, which forms the second branch
of this discussion, I add testimony to the influence of Slavery
on Slave-Masters in other countries, which is too important to be
neglected, and may properly find place here.
Among those who have done most to press forward in Russia that sublime
act of emancipation by which the present Emperor is winning lustre,
not only for his own country, but for our age, is M. Tourgueneff.
Originally a Slave-Master himself, with numerous slaves, and
residing where Slavery prevailed, he saw, with the instincts of a
noble character, the essential Barbarism of this relation, and in
an elaborate work on Russia, which is now before me, exposed it
with rare ability and courage. Thus he speaks of its influence on
Slave-Masters:--
“But if Slavery degrades the slave, it degrades the master
more. This is an old adage, and long observation has proved to
me that this adage is not a paradox. In fact, how can that man
respect his own dignity, his own rights, who has not learned
to respect either the rights or the dignity of his fellow-man?
What control can the moral and religious sentiments have over
a person who sees himself invested with a power so eminently
contrary to morality and religion? The continual exercise
of an unjust claim, even when moderated, ends in corrupting
the character of the man, and perverting his judgment.… The
possession of a slave being the result of injustice, the
relations of the master with the slave cannot be otherwise than
a succession of wrongs. Among good masters (and it is agreed
so to call those who do not abuse their power as much as they
might) these relations are invested with forms less repugnant
than among other masters; but here the difference ends. Who can
remain always pure, when, induced by disposition, excited by
temper, influenced by caprice, he may with impunity oppress,
insult, humiliate his fellow-men? And be it remarked, that
enlightenment, civilization, do not avail here. The enlightened
man, the civilized man, is nevertheless a man; that he may not
oppress, it is necessary that it should be impossible for him
to oppress. All men cannot, like Louis the Fourteenth, throw
the cane out of the window, when they feel an inclination to
strike.”[122]
Another authority, unimpeachable at all points, whose fortune it has
been, from extensive travels, to see Slavery in the most various forms,
and Slave-Masters under the most various conditions,--I refer to the
great African traveller, Dr. Livingstone,--thus touches the character
of Slave-Masters:--
“I can never cease to be most unfeignedly thankful that I was
not born in a land of slaves. No one can understand the effect
of the unutterable meanness of the slave system on the minds
of those who, _but for the strange obliquity which prevents
them from feeling the degradation of not being gentlemen enough
to pay for services rendered_, would be equal in virtue to
ourselves. Fraud becomes as natural to them as ‘paying one’s
way’ is to the rest of mankind.”[123]
And so does the experience of Slavery in other countries confirm the
sad experience among us.