DUTIES.
A few words remain to be spoken in relation to the duties of the Free
States. These need to feel the responsibilities and dangers of their
present position. The country is approaching a crisis on the greatest
question which can be proposed to it, a question not of profit or loss,
of tariffs or banks, or any temporary interests, but a question
involving the First Principles of freedom, morals, and religion. Yet who
seems to be awake to the solemnity of the present moment? Who seems to
be settling for himself the great fundamental truths, by which private
efforts and public measures are to be determined?
The North has duties to perform towards the South and towards itself.
Let it resolve to perform them faithfully, impartially; asking first for
the Right, and putting entire confidence in Well-doing. The North is
bound to suppress all attempts of its citizens, should such be
threatened, to excite insurrection at the South, all attempts to tamper
with and to dispose to violence the minds of the slaves. The severest
laws which consist with civilization may justly be resorted to for this
end, and they should be strictly enforced. I believe, indeed, that there
is no special need for new legislation on the subject. I believe that
there was never a moment, when the slaveholding States had so little to
apprehend from the free, when the moral feeling of the community in
regard to the crime of instigating revolt was so universal, thorough,
and inflexible, as at the present moment. Still, if the South needs
other demonstrations than it now has of the moral and friendly spirit
which in this respect pervades the North, let them be given. Still more,
it is the duty of the free States to act by opinion, where they cannot
act by law, to discountenance a system of agitation, on the subject of
slavery, to frown on passionate appeals to the ignorant, and on
indiscriminate and inflammatory vituperation of the slaveholder. This
obligation, also, has been and will be fulfilled. There was never a
stronger feeling of responsibility in this particular than at the
present moment.
There are, however, other duties of the free States, to which they _may_
prove false, and which they are too willing to forget. They are bound,
not in their public, but individual capacities, to use every virtuous
influence for the abolition of slavery. They are bound to encourage that
manly, moral, religious discussion of it, through which strength will
be given to the continually increasing opinion of the civilized and
Christian world in favor of personal freedom. They are bound to seek and
hold the truth in regard to human rights, to be faithful to their
principles in conversation and conduct, never, never to surrender them
to private interest, convenience, flattery, or fear.
The duty of being true to our principles is not easily to be performed.
At this moment an immense pressure is driving the North from its true
ground. God save it from imbecility, from treachery to freedom and
virtue! I have certainly no feelings but those of good-will towards the
South; but I speak the universal sentiment of this part of the country,
when I say, that the tone which the South has often assumed towards the
North has been that of a superior, a tone unconsciously borrowed from
the habit of command, to which it is unhappily accustomed by the form of
its society. I must add, that this high bearing of the South has not
always been met by a just consciousness of equality, a just self-respect
at the North. The causes I will not try to explain. The effect I fear is
not to be denied. It is said, that those, who have represented the North
in Congress, have not always represented its dignity, its honor; that
they have not always stood erect before the lofty bearing of the South.
Here lies our danger. The North will undoubtedly be just to the South.
It must also be just to itself. This is not the time for sycophancy, for
servility, for compromise of principle, for forgetfulness of our rights.
It is the time to manifest the spirit of Men, a spirit which prizes,
more than life, the principles of liberty, of justice, of humanity, of
pure morals, of pure religion.
Let it not be thought that I would recommend to the North, what in some
parts of our country is called "Chivalry," a spirit of which the
duelling pistol is the best emblem, and which settles controversies with
blood. A Christian and civilized man cannot but be struck with the
approach to barbarism, with the insensibility to true greatness, with
the incapacity of comprehending the divine virtues of Jesus Christ,
which mark what is called "chivalry." I ask not the man of the North to
borrow it from any part of the country. But I do ask him to stand in the
presence of this "chivalry" with the dignity of moral courage and moral
independence. Let him, at the same moment, remember the courtesy and
deference due to the differing opinions of others, and the sincerity and
firmness due to his own. Let him understand the lofty position which he
holds on the subject of slavery, and never descend from it for the
purpose of soothing prejudice or disarming passion. Let him respect the
safety of the South, and still manifest his inflexible adherence to the
cause of human rights and personal freedom.
On this point I must insist, because I see the North giving way to the
vehemence of the South. In some, perhaps many, of our recent
"Resolutions," a spirit has been manifested, at which, if not we, our
children will blush. Not long ago there were rumors, that some of our
citizens wished to suppress by law all discussion, all expression of
opinion on slavery, and to send to the South such members of our
community as might be claimed as instigators of insurrection. Such
encroachments on rights could not, of course, be endured. We are not yet
so fallen. Some echoes of the old eloquence of liberty still come down
to us from our fathers. Some inspirations of heroism and freedom still
issue from the consecrated walls of Faneuil Hall. Were we to yield to
such encroachments, would not the soil of New England, so long trodden
by freemen, heave and quake under the steps of her degenerate sons? We
are not prepared for these. But a weak, yielding tone, for which we seem
to be prepared, may be the beginning of concessions which we shall one
day bitterly rue.
The means used at the South to bring the North to compliance seem to
demand particular attention. I will not record the contemptuous language
which has been thrown on the frugal and money-getting habits of New
England, or the menaces which have been addressed to our cupidity, for
the purpose of putting us to silence on the subject of slavery. Such
language does in no degree move me. I only ask that we may give no
ground for its application. We can easily bear it, if we do not deserve
it. Our mother-country has been called a nation of shopkeepers, and New
England ought not to be provoked by the name. Only let us give no
sanction to the opinion that our spirit is narrowed to our shops; that
we place the art of bargaining above all arts, all sciences,
accomplishments, and virtues; that rather than lose the fruits of the
slave's labor we would rivet his chains; that sooner than lose a market
we would make shipwreck of honor; that sooner than sacrifice present
gain we would break our faith to our fathers and our children, to our
principles and our God. To resent or retaliate reproaches would be
unwise and unchristian. The only revenge worthy of a good man is, to
turn reproaches into admonitions against baseness, into incitements to a
more generous virtue. New England has long suffered the imputation of a
sordid, calculating spirit, of supreme devotion to gain. Let us show
that we have principles, compared with which the wealth of the world is
light as air. It is a common remark here, that there is not a community
under heaven, through which there is so general a diffusion of
intelligence and healthful moral sentiment as in New England. Let not
the just influence of such a society be impaired by any act which would
give to prejudice the aspect of truth.
The free States, it is to be feared, must pass through a struggle. May
they sustain it as becomes their freedom! The present excitement at the
South can hardly be expected to pass away, without attempts to wrest
from them unworthy concessions. The tone in regard to slavery in that
part of our country is changed. It is not only more vehement, but more
false than formerly. Once slavery was acknowledged as an evil. Now it is
proclaimed to be a good. We have even been told, not by a handful of
enthusiasts in private life, but by men in the highest station and of
widest influence at the South, that slavery is the soil into which
political freedom strikes its deepest roots, and that republican
institutions are never so secure as when the laboring class is reduced
to servitude. Certainly, no assertion of the wildest abolitionist could
give such a shock to the slaveholder, as this new doctrine is fitted to
give to the people of the North. Liberty, with a slave for her pedestal,
and with a chain in her hand, differs so entirely from that lovely
vision, that benignant Divinity, to which we, like our fathers, have
paid homage, that we cannot endure that both should be called by the
same name. A doctrine, more wounding or insulting to the mechanics,
farmers, laborers of the North than this strange heresy, cannot well be
conceived. A doctrine more irreverent, more fatal to republican
institutions, was never fabricated in the councils of despotism. It does
not, however, provoke us. I recall it only to show the spirit in which
slavery is upheld, and to remind the free States of the calm energy
which they will need, to keep themselves true to their own principles of
liberty.
There is a great dread in this part of the country, that the union of
the States may be dissolved by the conflict about slavery. To avert this
evil, every sacrifice should be made but that of honor, freedom, and
principle. No one prizes the Union more than myself. Perhaps I may be
allowed to say, that I am attached to it by no common love. Most men
value the Union as a Means; to me it is an End. Most would preserve it
for the prosperity of which it is the instrument; I love and would
preserve it for its own sake. Some value it as favoring public
improvements, facilities of commercial exchange, &c.; I value these
improvements and exchanges chiefly as favoring union. I ask of the
General Government to unite us, to hold us together as brethren in
peace; and I care little whether it does any thing else. So dear to me
is union. It is our highest national interest. All the pecuniary
sacrifices which it can possibly demand should be made for it. The
politicians in some parts of our country, who are calculating its value,
and are willing to surrender it, because they may grow richer by
separation, seem to me bereft of reason. Still, if the Union can be
preserved only by the imposition of chains on speech and the press, by
prohibition of discussion on a subject involving the most sacred rights
and dearest interests of humanity, then union would be bought at too
dear a rate; then it would be changed from a virtuous bond into a league
of crime and shame. Language cannot easily do justice to our attachment
to the Union. We will yield every thing to it but Truth, Honor, and
Liberty. These we can never yield.
Let the free States be firm, but also patient, forbearing, and calm.
From the slaveholder they cannot look for perfect self-control. From his
position he would be more than man, were he to observe the bounds of
moderation. The consciousness which tranquillizes the mind can hardly be
his. On this subject he has always been sensitive to excess. Much
exasperation is to be expected. Much should be borne. Every thing may be
surrendered but our principles and our rights.
* * * * *
My work is done. I ask and hope for it the Divine blessing, as far as it
expresses Truth, and breathes the spirit of Justice and Humanity. If I
have written any thing under the influence of prejudice, passion, or
unkindness to any human being, I ask forgiveness of God and man. I have
spoken strongly, not to offend or give pain, but to produce in others
deep convictions corresponding to my own. Nothing but a feeling, which I
could not escape, of the need of such a work at this very moment, has
induced me to fix my thoughts on so painful a subject. The few last
months have increased my solicitude for the country. Public sentiment
has seemed to me to be losing its healthfulness and vigor. I have seen
symptoms of the decline of the old spirit of liberty. Servile opinions
have seemed to gain ground among us. The faith of our fathers in free
institutions has waxed faint, and is giving place to despair of human
improvements. I have perceived a disposition to deride abstract rights,
to speak of freedom as a dream, and of republican governments as built
on sand. I have perceived a faint-heartedness in the cause of human
rights. The condemnation, which has been passed on abolitionists, has
seemed to be settling into acquiescence in slavery. The sympathies of
the community have been turned from the slave to the master. The impious
doctrine, that human laws can repeal the Divine, can convert unjust and
oppressive power into a moral right, has more and more tinctured the
style of conversation and the press. With these sad and solemn views of
society, I could not be silent; and I thank God, amidst the
consciousness of great weakness and imperfection, that I have been able
to offer this humble tribute, this sincere, though feeble, testimony,
this expression of heartfelt allegiance, to the cause of Freedom,
Justice, and Humanity.
Having stated the circumstances which have moved me to write, I ought to
say, that they do not discourage me. Were darker omens to gather round
us, I should not despair. With a faith like his, who came to prepare the
way for the Great Deliverer, I feel and can say, "The Kingdom of
Heaven," the Reign of Justice and Disinterested Love, "is at hand, and
All Flesh shall see the Salvation of God." I know, and rejoice to know,
that a power, mightier than the prejudices and oppression of ages, is
working on earth for the world's redemption, the power of Christian
Truth and Goodness. It descended from Heaven in the person of Christ. It
was manifest in his life and death. From his cross it went forth
conquering and to conquer. Its mission is "to preach deliverance to the
captive, and to set at liberty them that are bound." It has opened many
a prison-door. It is ordained to break every chain. I have faith in its
triumphs. I do not, cannot despair.
NOTES.
NOTE I.
I wish to add a few statements to show how little reliance can be placed
on what seem to a superficial observer mitigations or advantages of
slavery, and how much safer it is to argue from the experience of all
times and from the principles of human nature, than from insulated
facts.
I once passed a colored woman at work on a plantation, who was singing
apparently with animation, and whose general manners would have led me
to set her down as the happiest of the gang. I said to her, "Your work
seems pleasant to you." She replied, "No, Massa." Supposing that she
referred to something particularly disagreeable in her immediate
occupation, I said to her, "Tell me, then, what part of your work is
most pleasant." She answered, with much emphasis, "_No part_ pleasant.
We _forced_ to do it." These few words let me into the heart of the
slave. I saw under its apparent lightness a human heart.
On this plantation, the most favored woman, whose life was the easiest,
earnestly besought a friend of mine to buy her and put her in the way to
earn her freedom. A daughter of this woman, very young, had fallen a
victim to the manager of the estate. How far this cause influenced the
exasperated mother, I did not learn.
I heard of an estate managed by an individual who was considered as
singularly successful, and who was able to govern the slaves without the
use of the whip. I was anxious to see him, and trusted that some
discovery had been made favorable to humanity. I asked him how he was
able to dispense with corporal punishment. He replied to me, with a very
determined look, "The slaves know that the work _must_ be done, and that
it is better to do it without punishment than with it." In other words,
the certainty and dread of chastisement were so impressed on them that
they never incurred it.
I then found that the slaves on this well managed estate decreased in
number. I asked the cause. He replied, with perfect frankness and ease,
"The gang is not large enough for the estate." In other words, they were
not equal to the work of the plantation and yet were made to do it,
though with the certainty of abridging life.
On this plantation the huts were uncommonly convenient. There was an
unusual air of neatness. A superficial observer would have called the
slaves happy. Yet they were living under a severe, subduing discipline,
and were overworked to a degree that shortened life.
I cannot forget my feelings on visiting a hospital belonging to the
plantation of a gentleman highly esteemed for his virtues, and whose
manners and conversation expressed much benevolence and
conscientiousness. When I entered with him the hospital, the first
object on which my eye fell was a young woman, very ill, probably
approaching death. She was stretched on the floor. Her head rested on
something like a pillow; but her body and limbs were extended on the
hard boards. The owner, I doubt not, had, at least, as much kindness as
myself; but he was so used to see the slaves living without common
comforts, that the idea of unkindness in the present instance did not
enter his mind.
The severest blow I ever saw given to a slave was inflicted by a colored
driver on a young girl, who, on removing a load of wood from a horse,
had let a stick fall against the animal's leg. I remonstrated with the
man, as soon as an opportunity offered, against his inhumanity. He said,
"Massa, I have the care of the horse, and the manager _lick me_ if it
get hurt." This answer explained to me the common remark, that the black
drivers are more cruel than the whites. I saw where the cruelty _began_.
I once heard some slaves, who had been taken by law from their master,
singing a song of their own composition, and at the end of every stanza
they joined with a complaining tone in a chorus, of which the burden
was, "We got no Massa." Here seemed a striking proof of attachment to
the master; but on inquiry into the rest of the song, I found it was an
angry repetition of the severities which they were suffering from the
new superintendent. They wanted their master as an escape from cruelty.
Facts of this kind, which make no noise, which escape or mislead a
casual observer, help to show the character of slavery more than
occasional excesses of cruelty though these must be frequent. They show
how deceptive are the appearances of good connected with it; and how
much may be suffered under the manifestation of much kindness. It is,
in fact, next to impossible to estimate precisely the evils of slavery.
The slave writes no books, and the slaveholder is too inured to the
system, and too much interested in it, to be able to comprehend it.
Perhaps the Laws of the slave States are the most unexceptionable
witnesses which we can obtain from that quarter; and the barbarity of
these is decisive testimony against an institution which requires such
means for its support.
* * * * *
NOTE II.
I think it right to state, that my views of abolitionism have been
founded in part, perhaps chiefly, on the testimony of others. I have
attended no abolition-meetings, and never heard an abolition-address.
But the strong, and next to universal impression, in regard to the
tendency of the operations of this party to inflame common minds,
confirmed, as it is, by what I have seen of their newspapers, must be
essentially true. The orator, who was chiefly employed in addressing
their meetings and forming societies, was distinguished by his vehemence
and passionate invectives. On one occasion, there is strong proof of his
having given an opinion in favor of cruel vengeance on the part of the
slaves. This seems to contradict what I have said of the steady
inculcation of forbearance and non-resistance by the abolitionists. But
this case, if correctly reported, was an exception, an ebullition of
uncontrollable passion in an individual, for which the rest were not
responsible. I have thought it my duty to state the kind of evidence on
which my views of abolitionism are founded, that others may better
judge what confidence is due to them. In times of great excitement, it
is not easy to arrive at the precise truth.
* * * * *
NOTE III.
It was my purpose to address a chapter to the South, but the failure of
strength compelled me to pause; and when I considered, that the
circulation of my book in that part of the country might be a crime, I
had no encouragement to proceed. I beg, however, to say, that nothing
which I have written can have proceeded from unkind feeling towards the
South; for in no other part of the country have my writings found a more
gratifying reception; from no other part have I received stronger
expressions of sympathy. To these I am certainly not insensible. My own
feelings, had I consulted them, would have led me to stifle every
expression, which could give pain to those from whom I have received
nothing but good-will.
I wished to suggest to the slaveholders, that the excitement now
prevalent among themselves, was incomparably more perilous, more fitted
to stir up insurrection, than all the efforts of abolitionists, allowing
these to be ever so corrupt. I also wished to remind the men of
principle and influence in that part of the country, of the necessity of
laying a check on lawless procedures, in regard to the citizens of the
North. We have heard of large subscriptions at the South for the
apprehension of some of the abolitionists in the free States, and for
the transportation of them to parts of the country where they would meet
the fate, which, it is said, they deserve. Undoubtedly the respectable
portion of the slaveholding communities are not answerable for these
measures. But does not policy, as well as principle, require such men
steadily to discountenance them? At present, the free States have
stronger sympathies with the South than ever before. But can it be
supposed that they will suffer their citizens to be stolen, exposed to
violence, and murdered, by other States? Would not such an outrage rouse
them to feel and act as one man? Would it not identify the abolitionists
with our most sacred rights? One kidnapped, murdered abolitionist would
do more for the violent destruction of slavery than a thousand
societies. His name would be sainted. The day of his death would be set
apart for solemn heart-stirring commemoration. His blood would cry
through the land with a thrilling voice, would pierce every dwelling,
and find a response in every heart. Do men, under the light of the
present day, need to be told, that enthusiasm is not a flame to be
quenched with blood? On this point, good and wise men, and the friends
of the country at the North and South, can hold but one opinion; and if
the press, which, I grieve to say, has kept an ominous silence amidst
the violations of law and rights, would but speak plainly and strongly,
the danger would be past.
Since writing the preceding chapters, I have seen in a Newspaper some
notice of a meeting of ministers in one of the Southern States, in which
slavery was spoken of as sinful. If the account was correct, the liberty
of speech is not every where denied to the degree which I had supposed.
I have only to add, that I alone am responsible for what I have now
written. I represent no society, no body of men, no part of the
country. I have written by no one's instigation, and with no one's
encouragement, but solely from my own convictions. If offence is given,
I alone ought to bear it.