Address to the Non-Slaveholders of the South Part 5

Notwithstanding this express provision, there are in almost every slave State, if not in all, laws for seizing, imprisoning, and then selling as slaves for life, citizens having black or yellow complexions, entering within their borders. This is done under pretence that the individuals are supposed to be fugitives from bondage. When circ.u.mstances forbid such a supposition, other devices are adopted, for nullifying the provision we have quoted. By a law of Louisiana, every free negro or mulatto, arriving on board any vessel as a _mariner_ or pa.s.senger, shall be immediately imprisoned till the departure of the vessel, when he is to be compelled to depart in her. If such free negro or mulatto returns to the State, he is to be imprisoned for FIVE years.

The jailor of Savannah some time since reported TEN STEWARDS as being in his custody. These were free citizens of other States, deprived of their liberty solely on account of the complexion their Maker had given them, and in direct violation of the express language of the Federal Const.i.tution. If any free negro or mulatto enters the State of Mississippi, for any cause however urgent, any white citizen may cause him to be punished by the Sheriff with thirty-nine lashes, and if he does not immediately thereafter leave the State, he is SOLD AS A SLAVE.

In Maryland, a free negro or mulatto, coming into the State, is fined $20, and if he returns he is fined $500, and on default of payment, is sold AS A SLAVE. Truly indeed have the slaveholders rendered the Const.i.tution a blurred, obliterated, and tattered parchment. But whenever this same Const.i.tution can, by the grossest perversion, be made instrumental in upholding and perpetuating human bondage, then it acquires, for the time, a marvellous sanct.i.ty in their eyes, and they are seized with a holy indignation at the very suspicion of its profanation.

The readiness with which Southern Governors prefer the most false and audacious claims, under color of Const.i.tutional authority, exhibits a state of society in which truth and honor are but little respected.

In 1833, seventeen slaves effected their escape from Virginia in a boat, and finally reached New York. To recover their slaves _as such_, a judicial investigation in New York would be necessary, and the various claimants would be required to prove their property. A more convenient mode presented itself. The Governor of Virginia made a requisition on the Executive of New York for them as fugitive _felons_, and on this requisition, a warrant was issued for their arrest and surrender. The pretended felony was stealing the _boat_ in which they had escaped.

In 1839, a slave escaped from Virginia on board of a vessel bound to New York. It was _suspected_, but without a particle of proof, that some of the crew had favored his escape; and immediately the master made oath that _three_ of the sailors, naming them, had feloniously STOLEN the slave; and the Governor, well knowing there was no slave-market in New York, and that no man could there be held in slavery, had the hardihood to demand the surrender of the mariners, on the charge of grand larceny; and, in his correspondence with the Governor of New York, declared the slave was worth six or seven hundred dollars, and remarked that _stealing_ was "recognized as a CRIME by all laws, human and divine."

In 1841, a female slave, belonging to a man named Flournoy, in Georgia, was discovered on board a vessel about to sail for New York, and was recovered by her master. It was afterwards supposed, from the woman's story, that she had been induced by one of the pa.s.sengers to attempt her escape. Whereupon Flournoy made oath that John Greenman did feloniously STEAL his slave. But the Governor of New York had already refused to surrender citizens of his State, on a charge so palpably false and absurd. It was therefore deemed necessary to trump up a very different charge against the accused; and hence Flournoy made a second affidavit, that John Greenman did _feloniously steal and take away three blankets, two shawls, three frocks, one pair of earrings, and two finger-rings, the property of deponent_. Armed with these affidavits, the Governor demanded the surrender of Greenman under the Const.i.tution. Not an intimation was given by His Excellency, when he made the demand, of the _real facts_ of the case, which, in a subsequent correspondence, he was compelled to admit. It turned out that the woman, instead of being stolen, went voluntarily, and no doubt joyfully, on board the vessel; and that the wearing apparel, &c., were the clothes and ornaments worn by her; nor was there a pretence that Greenman had ever touched them, or ever had them in his possession.

In 1838, Rev. John B. Mahan, a Methodist preacher, residing in Ohio, was reported to have given aid and shelter to fugitive slaves from Kentucky, and forthwith the Grand Jury of Mason County, in that State, indicted him, as being "late of the County of Mason," for aiding two slaves in making their escape from said county. On the strength of this indictment, Governor Clark, of Kentucky, issued his requisition on the Governor of Ohio, wherein he stated that the said Mahan "_has fled from justice, and is now going at large in the State of Ohio_;" and that by virtue of the authority vested in him by the "Const.i.tution and Laws of the United States, he did demand the said John B. Mahan, as _a fugitive from the justice of the laws of this State_." On this requisition Mahan was seized, carried into Kentucky, put in irons, and kept in prison as a felon for about ten weeks, when, after a trial which lasted six days, he was acquitted by the jury. Now it was a matter of notoriety, and _admitted_ by the prosecution, that Mahan had not been in Kentucky for about _twenty years_!! Yet day after day was spent in endeavors to procure the conviction of a man who had committed no offence against the laws of the State, and whose person had been seized in consequence of a gross fraud, and a palpable and acknowledged falsehood. But how happened it that the slaveholders permitted their prey to escape? Fortunately for Mahan, the Governor of Ohio, after surrendering him, discovered the imposition that had been practised, and officially informed the Governor of Kentucky, that he could not consent that a citizen of Ohio should be taken to another State, and tried for an offence not committed within her jurisdiction. The publication of this letter drew the attention of the community to the infamous outrage that had been practised. If, after this, Mahan had been Lynched, or even judicially punished, a controversy would have arisen between the two States, which would necessarily have given new strength and influence to the anti-slavery cause.

But perhaps the most insolent attempt yet made to pervert the Federal Const.i.tution to the support of slavery, was the expedient devised in Alabama to muzzle the Northern press. An article appeared in a newspaper published in New York, in 1835, which gave offence to certain planters in that State; and forthwith a grand jury, _on their oaths_, indicted the New York publisher, "late of the County of Tuscaloosa," for endeavoring to excite insurrection among the slaves, by circulating a seditious paper; and on this indictment the Governor had the impudence to make a formal requisition for the surrender of the publisher, as a _fugitive from justice_, although he had never breathed the air of Alabama.

We have said that the slaveholders hold their _own_ laws and Const.i.tutions in the same contempt as those of the Federal Government, whenever they conflict with the security and permanency of slavery. One of the most inestimable of const.i.tutional privileges is TRIAL BY JURY; and this, as we have seen, is trampled under foot with impunity, at the mandate of the slaveholders. Even JOHN TYLER, as it appears, is for inflicting summary punishment on abolitionists, by a Lynch club, "without resorting to any other tribunal."

We now proceed to inquire how far they respect the liberty of speech and of the press.

IX. LIBERTY OF SPEECH.

The whole nation witnessed the late successful efforts of the slaveholders in Congress, by their various gag resolutions, and through the aid of recreant Northern politicians, to destroy all freedom of debate adverse to "the peculiar inst.i.tution." They were themselves ready to dwell, in debate, on the charms of human bondage; but when a member took the other side of the question, then, indeed, he was out of order, the const.i.tution was outraged, and the Union endangered. We all know the violent threats which have been used, to intimidate the friends of human rights from expressing their sentiments in the national legislature. "As long," says Governor McDuffie to the South Carolina Legislature, "as long as the halls of Congress shall be _open_ to the _discussion_ of this question, we can have neither peace nor security." The Charleston Mercury is, on this subject, very high authority; and in 1837 its editor announced that "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."

When so much malignity is manifested against the freedom of speech, in the very sanctuary of American liberty, it is not to be supposed that it will be tolerated in the house of bondage. We have already quoted a Southern paper, which declares that the moment "any private individual attempts to lecture us on the evils and immorality of slavery, that very moment his tongue shall be cut out and cast upon the dunghill."

In Marion College, Missouri, there appeared some symptoms of anti-slavery feeling among the students. A Lynch club a.s.sembled, and the Rev. Dr. Ely, one of the professors, appeared before them, and denounced abolition, and submitted a series of resolutions pa.s.sed by the faculty, and among them the following: "We do hereby forbid all discussions and public meetings among the students upon the subject of domestic slavery." The Lynchers were pacified, and neither tore down the college nor hung up the professors; but before separating they resolved that they would oppose the elevation to office of any man entertaining abolition sentiments, and would withhold their countenance and support from every such member of the community. Indeed, it is obvious to any person attentive to the movements of the South, that the slaveholders dread _domestic_ far more than foreign interference with their darling system. They dread _you_, fellow-citizens, and they dread converts among themselves.

X. LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

The Const.i.tutions of all the slave States guarantee, in the most solemn and explicit terms, the Liberty of the Press; but it is well understood that there is one exception to its otherwise unbounded license--Property in human flesh is too sacred to be a.s.sailed by the press. The attributes of the Deity may be discussed, but not the rights of the master. The characters of public, and even of private men, may be vilified at pleasure, provided no reproach is flung upon the _slaveholder_. Every abuse in Church or State may be ferreted out and exposed, except the cruelties practiced upon the slaves, unless when they happen to exceed the ordinary standard of cruelty established by general usage. Every measure of policy may be advocated, except that of free labor; every question of right may be examined, except that of a man to himself; every dogma in theology may be propagated, except that of the sinfulness of the slave code. The very instant the press ventures beyond its prescribed limits, the const.i.tutional barriers erected for its protection sink into the dust, and a censors.h.i.+p, the more stern and vindictive from being illegal, crushes it into submission. The midnight burglary perpetrated upon the Charleston Post-office, and the conflagration of the anti-slavery papers found in it, are well known.

These papers had been sent to distinguished citizens, but it was deemed inexpedient to _permit_ them to read facts and arguments against slavery. Pains will be taken to prevent _you_ from reading this address, and vast pains have been taken to keep slaveholders as well as others ignorant of every fact and argument that militates against the system.

Hence Mr. Calhoun's famous bill, authorizing every Southern post-master to abstract from the mails every paper relating to slavery. Hence the insane efforts constantly made to expurgate the literature of the world of all recognition of the rights of _black_ men. Novels, annuals, poems, and histories, containing sentiments hostile to human bondage, are proscribed at the South, and Northern publishers have had the extreme baseness to publish mutilated editions for the Southern market.[11]

[11] The Harpers, of New York, in reply to a letter from the South, complaining of the anti-slavery sentiments in a book they had recently published, stated, "since the receipt of your letter we have published an edition of the 'Woods and Fields,' _in which the offensive matter has been omitted_."

In some of the slave States laws have been pa.s.sed establis.h.i.+ng a censors.h.i.+p of the press, for the exclusive and special benefit of the slaveholders. Some time since an anti-slavery pamphlet was mailed at New York, directed to a gentleman in Virginia. Presently a letter was received from William Wilson, post-master at Lexington, Va., saying--

"I have to advise you that a law pa.s.sed at the last session of the Legislature of this State, which took effect on the first day of this month, makes it the duty of the post-masters or their a.s.sistants to report to some magistrate (under penalty of from $50 to $200), the receipt of all _such_ publications at his office; and if, on examination, the magistrate is of opinion they come under the provision of the law, it is his duty to have them BURNT in his presence--_which operation was performed on the above mentioned pamphlet this morning_."

The Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, a well-known zealous opponent of abolition, edited, in 1835, "The Baltimore Religious Magazine." A number of this magazine contained an article from a correspondent, ent.i.tled "Bible-Slavery." The tone of this article not suiting the slave-breeders of Petersburg (Virg.), the subscribers were deprived of the numbers forwarded to them through the post-office of that town. The magazines were taken from the Office, and on the 8th May, 1838, were burnt in the street, before the door of the public reading-room, in the _presence and by the direction of the Mayor and Recorder_!!

It is surely unnecessary to remark, that this Virginia law is in contemptuous violation of the Const.i.tution of Virginia, and of the authority of the Federal Government. The act of Congress requires each post-master to deliver the papers which come to his office to the persons to whom they are directed, and they require him to take an oath to fulfil his duty. The Virginia law imposes duties on an officer over whom they have no control, utterly at variance with his oath, and the obligations under which he a.s.sumed the office. If the postmaster must select, under a heavy penalty, for a public bonfire, all papers bearing on slavery, why may he not be hereafter required to select, for the same fate, all papers hostile to Popery? Yet similar laws are now in force in various slave States.

Not only is this espionage exercised over the mail, but measures are taken to keep the community in ignorance of what is pa.s.sing abroad in relation to slavery, and what opinions are elsewhere held respecting it.

On the 1st of August, 1842, an interesting address was delivered in Ma.s.sachusetts, by the late Dr. Channing, in relation to West India emanc.i.p.ation, embracing, as was natural and proper, reflections on American slavery. This address was copied into a New York weekly paper, and the number containing it was offered for sale, as usual, by the agent of the periodical at Charleston. Instantly the agent was prosecuted by the South Carolina a.s.sociation, and was held to bail in the sum of $1,000, to answer for his CRIME. Presently after, this same agent received for sale a supply of "d.i.c.kens' Notes on the United States," but having before his eyes the fear of the slaveholders, he gave notice in the newspapers, that the book would "be submitted to highly intelligent members of the South Carolina a.s.sociation for _inspection_, and IF the sale is approved by them, it will be for sale--if not, not." And so the population of one of the largest cities of the slave region were not permitted to read a book they were all burning with impatience to see, till the volume had been first _inspected_ by a self-const.i.tuted board of censors! The slaveholders, however, were in this instance afraid to put their power to the test--the people might have rebelled if forbidden to read the "Notes,"

and hence one of the most powerful, effective anti-slavery tracts yet issued from the press was permitted to be circulated, because people _would_ read what d.i.c.kens had written. Surely, fellow-citizens, you will not accuse us of slander, when we say that the slaveholders have abolished among you the liberty of the press. Remember the a.s.sertion of the editor of the Missouri Argus: "Abolition editors in the slave States will not dare to avow their opinions: it would be INSTANT DEATH to them."

XI. MILITARY WEAKNESS.

A distinguished foreigner, after travelling in the Southern States, remarked that the very aspect of the country bore testimony to the temerity of the nullifiers, who, defenceless and exposed as they are, could not dare to hazard a civil war; and surely no people in the world have more cause to shrink from an appeal to arms. We find at the South no one element of military strength. Slavery, as we have seen, checks the progress of population, of the arts, of enterprise, and of industry.

But above all, the laboring cla.s.s, which in other countries affords the materials of which armies are composed, is regarded among you as your most deadly foe; and the sight of a thousand negroes with arms in their hands, would send a thrill of terror through the stoutest hearts, and excite a panic which no number of the veteran troops of Europe could produce. Even now, laws are in force to keep arms out of the hands of a population which ought to be your reliance in danger, but which is your dread by day and night, in peace and war.

During our revolutionary war, when the idea of negro emanc.i.p.ation had scarcely entered the imagination of any of our citizens--when there were no "fanatic abolitionists," no "incendiary publications," no "treasonable" anti-slavery a.s.sociations; in those palmy days of slavery, no small portion of the Southern militia were withdrawn from the defence of the country to protect the slaveholders from the vengeance of their own bondmen! This you would be a.s.sured was abolition slander, were not the fact recorded in the national archives. _The Secret Journal of Congress_ (Vol. I., p. 105) contains the following remarkable and instructive record:--

"_March 29th, 1779._--The Committee appointed to take into consideration the _circ.u.mstances of the Southern States_, and the ways and means for _their_ safety and defence, report, That the State of South Carolina (as represented by the delegates of the said State, and by Mr. Huger, who has come hither at the request of the Governor of said State, on purpose to explain the particular circ.u.mstances thereof,) is UNABLE to make any effectual efforts with militia, by reason of the great proportion of citizens _necessary to remain at home, to prevent insurrection among the negroes_, and to prevent the desertion of them to the enemy. That the state of the country, and the great number of these people among them, expose the inhabitants to _great danger_, from the endeavors of the enemy to excite them to revolt or desert."

At the first census, in 1790, eleven years after this report, and when the slaves had unquestionably greatly increased their numbers, they were only 107,094 _fewer_ than the whites. If, then, these slaves exposed their masters "to great danger," and the militia of South Carolina were obliged to _stay at home_ to protect their families, not from the foreign invaders, but the domestic enemies, what would be the condition of the little bl.u.s.tering nullifying State, with a foreign army on her sh.o.r.es, and 335,000 slaves ready to aid it, while her own white population, _militia_ and all, is but as two whites to three blacks?

You well know that slaveholders, in answer to the abolitionists, are wont to boast of the fidelity and attachment of their slaves; and you also well know, that among themselves they freely avow their dread of these same faithful and attached slaves, and are fertile in expedients to guard against their vengeance.

It is natural that we should fear those whom we are conscious of having deeply injured, and all history and experience testify that fear is a cruel pa.s.sion. Hence the shocking severity with which, in all slave countries, attempts to shake off an unrighteous yoke are punished. So late even as 1822, certain slaves in Charleston were _suspected_ of an _intention_ to rise and a.s.sert their freedom. No overt act was committed, but certain blacks were found who professed to testify against their fellows, and some, it is said, confessed their intentions.

On this ensued one of the most horrible judicial butcheries on record.

It is not deemed necessary, in the chivalrous Palmetto State, to give grand and pet.i.t juries the trouble of indicting and trying slaves, even when their lives are at stake. A court, consisting of two Justices of the Peace and five freeholders, was convened for the trial of the accused, and the following were the results of their labors:--

July 2 6 hanged, " 12 2 "

" 26 22 "

" 30 4 "

August 9 1 "

-- Total 35 "

Now, let it be remembered, that this sacrifice of human life was made by one of the lowest tribunals in the State; a tribunal consisting of two petty magistrates and five freeholders, appointed for the occasion, not possessing a judicial rank, nor professing to be learned in the law; in short, a tribunal which would not be trusted to decide the t.i.tle to an acre of ground--we refer not to the individuals composing the court, but to the court itself;--a court which has not power to take away the land of a white man, hangs black men by dozens!

Listen to the confessions of the slaveholders with regard to their happy dependents; the men who are so contented under the patriarchal system, and whose condition might well excite the envy of northern laborers, "the great democratic rabble."

Governor Hayne, in his message of 1833, warned the South Carolina Legislature, that "a state of _military preparation_ must always be with us a state of perfect _domestic_ security. A profound peace, and consequent apathy, may expose us to the danger of _domestic insurrection_." So it seems the happy slaves are to be kept from insurrection by a state of military preparation. We have seen that, during the revolutionary _war_, the Carolina militia were kept at home watching the slaves, instead of meeting the British in the field; but now it seems the same task awaits the militia in a season of profound peace. Another South Carolinian[12] admonishes his countrymen thus: "Let it never be forgotten that our negroes are truly the Jacobins of the country; that they are the anarchists, and the domestic enemy, THE COMMON ENEMY OF CIVILIZED SOCIETY, AND THE BARBARIANS WHO WOULD, IF THEY COULD, BECOME THE DESTROYERS OF OUR RACE."

[12] The author of "A Refutation of the Calumnies inculcated against the Southern and Western States."

Again, "Hatred to the whites, with the exception, in some cases, of attachment to the person and family of the master, is nearly universal among the black population. We have then a FOE, cherished in our very bosoms--a foe WILLING TO DRAW OUR LIFE-BLOOD whenever the opportunity is offered; in the mean time intent on doing us all the mischief in his power."--_Southern Religious Telegraph._

In a debate in the Kentucky Legislature, in 1841, Mr. Harding, opposing the repeal of the law prohibiting the importation of slaves from other States, and looking forward to the time when the blacks would greatly out-number the whites, exclaimed:

"In such a state of things, suppose an insurrection of the slaves to take place. The master has become timid and fearful, the slave bold and daring--the white men, overpowered with a sense of superior numbers on the part of the slaves, cannot be embodied together; _every man must guard his own hearth and fireside_. No man would even dare for an hour to leave his own habitation; if he did, he would expect on his return to find his wife and children ma.s.sacred. But the slaves, with but little more than the shadow of opposition before them, armed with the consciousness of superior force and superior numbers on their side, animated with the hope of liberty, and maddened with the spirit of revenge, embody themselves in every neighborhood, and furiously march over the country, visiting every neighborhood with all the horrors of civil war and bloodshed. And thus the yoke would be transferred from the black to the white man, and the master fall a bleeding victim to his own slave."