The sixth position in the treatise under consideration is, “I shall
offer some remarks on the means of removing it.” His plan is, page
108—“In the first place, the great principle that man cannot rightfully
be held as property, should be admitted by the slaveholder.”
Dr. Channing seems to suppose that his previous arguments are sufficient
to produce the proposed admission.
Page 109. “It would be cruelty to strike the fetters from a man, whose
first steps would infallibly lead him to a precipice. The slave should
not have an owner, but he should have a guardian.”
We take this as an admission that the slave is not a fit subject for
freedom. But he says—
Page 110. “But there is but one weighty argument against immediate
emancipation; namely, that the slave would not support himself and his
children by honest industry.”
Dr. Channing’s plan in short is, that the names, master and slave, shall
be exchanged for guardian and ward; but he awards no compensation to the
guardian;—that the negro shall be told he is free; yet he should be
compelled to work for his own and his family’s support;—that none should
be whipped who will toil “from rational and honourable motives.”
Page 112. “In case of being injured by his master in this or in any
respect, he should be either set free, or, if unprepared for liberty,
should be transmitted to another guardian.”
Dr. Channing proposes “bounties,” “rewards,” “new privileges,”
“increased indulgences,” “prizes for good conduct,” &c., as substitutes
for the _lash_. He supposes that the slave may be “elevated and his
energies called forth by placing his domestic relations on new ground.”
“This is essential; we wish him to labour for his family. Then he must
have a family to labour for. Then his wife and children must be truly
his own. Then his home must be inviolate. Then the responsibilities of a
husband and father must be laid on him. It is argued that he will be fit
for freedom as soon as the support of his family shall become his habit
and his happiness.”
Page 114. “To carry this and other means of improvement into effect, it
is essential that the slave should no longer be bought and sold.”
Page 115. “Legislatures should meet to free the slave. The church should
rest not, day nor night, till this stain be wiped away.”
We do not choose to make any remark on his plan of emancipation; we
shall merely quote one passage from page 106:
“How slavery shall be removed is a question for the slaveholder, and one
which he alone can answer fully. He alone has an intimate knowledge of
the character and habits of the slaves.”
In this we fully concur; and we now ask our readers, what does Dr.
Channing’s confession of this fact suggest to their minds?
Dr. Channing’s seventh proposition is, “To offer some remarks on
abolitionism.” The considerations of this chapter are evidently
addressed to the abolitionists, with which we have no wish to interfere.
There are, however, in it, some fine sentiments expressed in his usual
eloquent style.
The eighth and concluding subject is, “A few reflections on the duties
of the times.” These reflections, we are exceedingly sorry to find
highly inflammatory; they are addressed alone to the Free States. We
shall present a few specimens. They need no comment: there are those to
whom pity is more applicable than reproof.
Page 138. “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.”
Page 139. “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 in their individual capacities, to use
every virtuous influence for the abolition of slavery.”
Page 140. “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 sentiments 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. * * * Here lies the 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.”
Page 142. “Let us show that we have principles, compared with which the
wealth of the world is as light as air. * * * 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 the 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.”
Page 143. “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. * * * There is a great dread in this
part of the country that the Union of the States may be dissolved by
conflict about slavery. * * * No one prizes the Union more than myself.”
Page 144. “Still, if the Union can be purchased only by the imposition
of chains on the tongue and the press, by prohibition of discussion on
the subject involving the most sacred rights and dearest interests of
humanity, then union would be bought at too dear a price.”
In his concluding note, he says, page 153—“I feel too much about the
great subject on which I have written, to be very solicitous about what
is said of myself. I feel that I am nothing, that my reputation is
nothing, in comparison with the fearful wrong and evil which I have
laboured to expose; and I should count myself unworthy the name of a man
or a Christian, if the calumnies of the bad, or even the disapprobation
of the good, could fasten my thoughts on myself, and turn me aside from
a cause which, as I believe, truth, humanity, and God call me to
sustain.”
------------------