Abolition a Sedition Part 5

Now for the romance of "Equality"--"that all men are created _equal_."

And what is the meaning of this in the Charter of our rights? Simply, that royal blood, and n.o.ble blood, is no better than any other blood; and therefore, that we will have no king, and no aristocracy. The hereditary and divine right of kings, and the hereditary right of n.o.bles, are here barred, and the _people_ are enthroned in their place, with all the chances open before them of _rising_ in society, according to their merits, even to the highest honors of the Republic.

This, we think, is the exact meaning of equality in this place, and that it goes no farther than to cut off the hereditary claims of kings and n.o.bles, and of privileged orders in the community--that is, of orders privileged by the enactments of Const.i.tutional law. But this principle, obviously, was never intended to apply practically to general society, nor to any ranks of society below these degrees. In this sense of the term the whole community is reduced fairly to what is generally understood by the republican level: that all may have a chance to rise according to their merits. But who will say, that it was intended to make a President of the United States of a man, who has no sort of qualification or claim to that office? Or to raise any man to an honor or office, to which he is not judged to be ent.i.tled by a majority of those voices appointed by law to determine such a question? Who will say, that it was intended to annihilate those grades of society, which the use of common rights necessarily creates, because one man is more industrious, or more virtuous, or more fortunate than another? Who will say, that it was intended to establish the Agrarian principle, that because the industry of one man has built him a good house, the lazy, idle, and worthless man has a right to claim a part of it, and a part of the wealth of its owner?

Or, that all inequalities of wealth and condition in life, produced by different degrees of virtue, application to business, and good luck, are to be levelled by making all things common, and an equal distribution to every man, whatever may be his character? We are disposed to believe, that our American society is hardly yet prepared for the application of such a rule as this; or that there is a single man in the community who will relinquish his fairly acquired rights and property to those, who may happen not to have acquired the same advantages.

As a matter of fact, there is no such thing as equality among men, nor can there be. There is no equality in their physical powers, none in the circ.u.mstances of their birth and education, none in the privileges and wealth which they inherit or acquire, none in their social advantages--_no_ equality in any thing. The two men cannot be found who are in all or any respects exactly equal. If all the talents and powers of the whole community were solely devoted to produce equality, they would be unequal to the task. Neither G.o.d nor man ever inst.i.tuted equality. We do not say, that G.o.d could not have done it; but, to our taste, he would have spoiled creation, if he had. We desire, therefore, and think we have good reasons, to be contented with such a Universe as he has made. We desire also to be contented, that any man, by his virtues or good fortune, should be more elevated and better off than ourself. If we are not, we sin: "Thou shalt not covet." This Divine law, was enacted for such a case, as well as others; and the very frame of society was intended to maintain these inequalities; that is, to secure to every man his own rights.

What, then, becomes of this _song_ of liberty and equality--this poetry and romance of popular declamation--this soul-stirring and heaven-appealing claim?--Has nothing really been acquired? Yes, much: We have acquired the right of making our own laws, and cut off kings and n.o.bles from all claim to hereditary ascendancy. This is a great, a mighty achievement, if we prove wise enough to know how to use it. We hold it to be an advance in human society--a most important acquisition to the liberties and rights of mankind. But it will be seen, that the general and vague notion commonly attached to these terms is utterly without foundation--mere poetry and romance.

We may ask, then, with what propriety the Abolitionists apply this pa.s.sage in our National bill of rights to slavery? Obviously, there is no warrant for it, if we stick to the meaning and intent thereof. If they see fit to give it another meaning--to force a construction from it that was never intended, of course, in such an arbitrary interpretation, we can have no farther controversy with them, than to state, that it _is_ arbitrary.

We deem it proper to say, that the Bill of Rights set forth in the Declaration of our Independence, was never intended for such an application; but that this particular pa.s.sage was limited to the two single points which we have noticed. It neither affirms nor denies, it neither vitiates nor strengthens, the claim of the slave to his freedom, because it never contemplated the case. We are now settling a question of fact. To be wrong is one thing; to be inconsistent another. That there is wrong in slavery we do not deny; but we do say, that there is no inconsistency in the existence of slavery in the United States with our National Bill of Rights, when fairly interpreted. It will doubtless be allowed, that the Federal Const.i.tution is a good interpreter of that Bill; and that decrees the perpetuity of slavery, at the will of the slave States. The _consistency_ of our Government, and of our country, therefore, is maintained and defended, in this particular, against all imputation to the contrary, whatever may be the _right_ of the case. If any body chooses to say, that the _principle_ involved in this pa.s.sage of our Bill of Rights _reaches_ the case of the slave, we have no objection.

For, we frankly confess, we have always thought so too. But we deny, that it was ever intended to have such an application, and that there is any inconsistency, however there may be wrong, in the existence of slavery in our country, so long as we abide by the Bill of Rights and the Const.i.tution as the rule, when interpreted according to their meaning.

We gained a great step in the acquisition of our National Independence; but we did not arrive to a state of _perfectionism_.

Since that time we have made advances in society, for the better, too.

We have abolished the slave trade, and slavery itself in all the States north of Mason's and Dixon's line; and it is manifest, that the slave States bordering on the free, are greatly affected by the influence of the latter, to make slave property less valuable, and to lead towards emanc.i.p.ation. But so long as the laws of the land are respected and maintained, the slave States can never be compelled to emanc.i.p.ation by foreign dictation; nor will they be advised. By the existing regulations of society, there is no power authorized to advise them. We, of the North, in like circ.u.mstances, would not be advised. Every State and nation is the best judge of what may be expedient in the management of its own domestic polity; and if any of its component parts are depressed and oppressed, they have an undoubted right to relieve themselves, if they can, at their own risk.

But the law of nations, which is the highest and most important of all laws, and the breach of which is most momentous in its consequences, does not authorize, but forbids, interference.

CHAPTER XIV.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EFFECTS OF ABOLITIONISM.

First, its _social_ effects. It has produced a very unhappy state of feeling in the North. Just in proportion to a man's unreasonableness, if he happens to be in the wrong, will be his zeal to maintain his cause; and the effect of his zeal on all concerned may generally be measured by the same rule. The Abolitionists are believed to be in the wrong; and the extreme zeal and infatuation, not to say madness, with which they urge their cause, would seem to prove them so. Why should men, conscious of the rect.i.tude of their principles and conduct, be violent? Even if they were in the heat of battle, dignity and self possession, and even generosity towards their foes, would be more becoming. That they are the aggressors, is certain. Who else began it?

Like as a man, who slanders his neighbour, will take all possible pains to prove it is not slander, and by-and-by believe his own story, because he has told it so often, and is determined to have it so; so the Abolitionists, becoming fervid in their cause, persuade themselves that they are right. But they appear to the rest of the community so unreasonable, and so manifestly wrong, that the effect of their zeal on the public mind is very unhappy--more especially so, as the interests of the country, which are dear to all good citizens, are put in great peril by their movement. Hence families, neighbourhoods, towns, cities, and the whole community, are divided, and driven to acrimonious controversy on this subject. We scarcely recollect any occasion of public excitement in this country, that has given birth to greater violence of language, to more uncharitableness, or greater bitterness of feeling, than this. That this bad temper has been all on one side, it would be unjust to say; but that the Abolitionists have had a good share of it, we think it no libel to suggest; nor are we prepared to say, that they have endured opposition in the most Christian-like way. We hesitate not to say, that their literary publications are of a very inflammatory character. Even the grave and solemn doc.u.ment of their last Annual Report--or which ought to have been grave and solemn--is so rude, violent, and denunciatory--so much like a tear-all-down--that the nerves of a well composed person, as we will venture to say, will be not a little _dis_-composed in the reading thereof. One is shocked to think, that we have come to such revolutionary times, as that production would seem to indicate--that a grand political organization, wielding such a tremendous sway of influence, as the American Anti-Slavery Society, should take upon itself to declare the Const.i.tutional law of the land null and void, and no longer binding; and by one stroke of the pen to abrogate the authority of the Senate of the Nation, and proclaim their decisions as worthy only of contempt. What next? But we forbear; for we seem to feel, that we are getting into the same strain, inasmuch as the record of the simple facts of their history is too exciting to be set in their true light. No wonder then, that the people of this country have felt themselves injured and outraged by such bold a.s.saults on that social edifice, under the shadow, and within the precincts of which, they have and hold all their most valuable privileges. It is a pity, indeed, that fellow citizens and christian brethren should be driven so far asunder, and be filled with so much animosity, by such an unnatural broil. On whom does this responsibility rest? In our judgment, on those who have instigated the quarrel, on the aggressors, and not on those who act merely on the defensive, in vindication and support of the Government of the country. The question, now, is not the rights of the slave; that is entirely set aside by another, which this controversy has forced into its place--the peace of the country, and the integrity of the Union.

But the social effects between the North and the South are much more unhappy, than between the Abolitionists and Anti-Abolitionists of the North. Time was when a northern man could go to the South without suspicion, and be received in all good faith. But it is no longer so.

The very name of a Northerner is odious at the South, till his personal qualities shall happen to make him agreeable. Time was, when a Southern man could enjoy himself in visiting the North, and be honored; but now he feels, that every second man he meets with may be an Abolitionist, to him a name of horror, because he loves his wife and his children, and thinks of the terrible scenes which the doctrines and measures of the Abolitionists expose them to. In the social intercourse of the North with the South, there has been raised a barrier of a very formidable character, and every month and every day it is getting worse and worse. It is impossible it should be otherwise, so long as the end of this sad controversy cannot be foreseen.

The violence of language used by the Abolitionists against the slave States and slave holders, is most uncharitable and unwarrantable, and its social effects pernicious. The people of the South are _men_, and remarkable for their courtesy and hospitality to strangers. They have been educated to think and to feel, that slavery is justifiable in the circ.u.mstances under which it has come down to them. They do not view the subject as we Northerners do. And admitting that they are wrong, the worst that could be said of them is, that they are unenlightened in this particular. They are found to be gentlemen, amiable and kind, and many of them Christians--yes, Christians. Philemon, of Bible notoriety, was a Christian, and a slaveholder. And yet the Abolitionists do not hesitate to call them MONSTERS in human shape!

But the _political_ effects are still worse, in so far as they are more important and more momentous. Abolition is a fire brand on the floor of Congress, which we have reason to fear is gratifying to the movers of this sedition. But the worst of all is, the South is evidently antic.i.p.ating and preparing for a dissolution of the Union; and no spirit of prophecy, now the gift of mortals, can foretell the consequences of such an event. If it shall be forced by this agitation, one of the first measures of the South will be to visit with tremendous vengeance all disturbers of their peace in this particular concern; and who of us, in like circ.u.mstances, could blame them for it? And the misfortune will be, that the innocent will not always escape, as every Northern man will of course be suspected.

Would it not be difficult to maintain peace between two such Republics? Evidently, nothing is more to be deprecated in a political horoscope, than a dissolution of this Union. The South is essential to the North, and the North to the South, on the terms of the Federal compact; but put them asunder, by such a cause, and the chances are, that they will be implacable enemies. To all these evils are we exposed by the Abolition movement, besides what have already come.

CHAPTER XV.

THE BAD EFFECTS OF ABOLITIONISM ON THE FREE COLORED POPULATION, AND ON THE CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF SLAVES.

It cannot be denied, that Abolitionism has created a very unpleasant state of feeling in the minds of the free colored population, and made them unhappy; that it has excited them, in no inconsiderable degree, to insubordination as citizens; that it has vitiated their domestic and social character, as servants, wherever they are employed; that it has invested them with an importance, in their own esteem, which the present state of society is not prepared to award them, and encouraged them to a.s.sume airs which are often rebuked to their great unhappiness, and to the disturbance and injury of their temper; and that it has exposed them to insult and outrage from the lower cla.s.ses of the white population, which very naturally provokes the same kind of treatment in return, and consequently keeps alive perpetual feuds in these conditions of life, not unfrequently leading to tragical results, in which generally the colored people have the worst of it.

It will be observed, that we are now stating facts, not principles.

Abolitionists may say, it ought not to be so, and we admit it. But their error is, in this, as in all departments of their cause, that they build and go on the principle of _perfectionism_, and refuse to submit to the suggestions of practical wisdom--of experience. They a.s.sume, that it is possible to manage society just as if it were perfect in its structure, and morally perfect in all its component parts, and insist, that it shall be so managed. The consequence is, that disturbance instantly insues, on the attempt to enforce their principles, and the colored people are doomed to suffer the evil consequences of the rashness of their pretended friends and benefactors, besides that they are injured in their temper and character as citizens.

Again we observe, that we are stating facts, as we know that we are exposed to misrepresentation. We say, then, what every body knows--though we regret the fact as sincerely as any one can--that the free colored people of this country, with few exceptions, have risen, in person or by genealogy, from a depressed condition, from a state of bondage, which, in connexion with the public feeling and prejudice against the race, on account of a difference of physical const.i.tution, subjects them unfortunately to social disadvantage, in a white population, who have always had the ascendency, and to whom society, as it exists, owes its origin and maintenance. This may be wrong in the widest view and with the most generous construction of human rights, as they are commonly maintained in the abstract; but it is a fact. We say, moreover, in reference to such a fact, it has never been known, in the history of human society, that such a cla.s.s has risen, by a single step, to a full equality of social immunity and privilege.

We know it is a doctrine of _perfectionism_, but it is not a practicable doctrine, in our opinion. It will doubtless commonly be regarded as impossible for such a cla.s.s to be qualified, except by time and degrees, for such a station in society with a white population. To attempt, therefore, to enforce it on the people of this country, in such circ.u.mstances, is only to make the colored people unhappy, to put a claim into their mouths which they cannot hope to realize, and to arm the white population with still stronger prejudices against them.

Look, for example, to the effect of the Abolition agitation, in the formation and adoption of the new Const.i.tution of the State of Pennsylvania: Before, free colored people, of specific qualifications, were ent.i.tled to the privilege of electors; now they are all disfranchised. We are inclined to the opinion, that if all the Northern States were now engaged in remodelling their Const.i.tutions--especially where the colored people are numerous--they would do the same thing, merely as the effect of the Abolition movement. However this may be regretted, it is a natural consequence, and on the Abolitionists rests the responsibility. Just in proportion as they violently urge their measures, will the social privileges of the colored population be abridged, and their comfort, happiness, and prospects impaired. Before this agitation commenced, the colored people were comparatively contented and happy, their privileges were being extended, they were gradually rising in the scale of society, and every body--at least the public generally--were gratified to see them rise, and ready to help them. There was a common pleasure in encouraging the worthy and industrious of their color; and though an Abolitionist may be surprised at the fact, _we_ have entertained them _as guests_ in our house, and at our table for days in succession, in the same manner and with the same hospitalities which we are accustomed to render to those of our own color, and with much greater satisfaction, because we were delighted to see such proofs of their excellence and worth. And notwithstanding that the measures of the Abolitionists have thrown formidable obstacles in the way, we declare, we would do the same thing again, in like circ.u.mstances. But however worthy they may be, and the more worthy they are, they would be backward and diffident in accepting such hospitalities, simply because the effect of the Abolition movement has been to depress, instead of raising them in society. It has abridged their privileges at all points, and in all their relations with the white population, the Abolitionists only excepted. Nor can the favor of the Abolitionists be regarded as a fair and full indemnification for the loss they have sustained by such an unfortunate alliance, inasmuch as the highest and most influential agencies of society are now, and are likely to continue, indirectly armed against them, by maintaining the Government, and defending the inst.i.tutions of the country, against violence. The effect of the agitation, generally and particularly, on the colored people themselves, and on the white population individually and collectively, is to abridge the privileges of the former, and to injure them.

We are aware, that the Abolitionists will probably say, such incidental and unavoidable evils are always the concomitants of great reformations in society. We suppose, of course, they will not say, it is a proof of the justice of their cause, as such a reason would go to authorize any mischief. These facts, then, are admitted. Indeed, we see not, how they can be denied. It remains to be seen, whether the final result will be any better than the beginning. We fear it will not.

But the effects of Abolitionism on the condition and prospects of the slaves, is even and far worse than on the free colored people. It has rivetted the chains of slavery with a manifold firmness and strength; it has greatly abridged the privileges before allowed them for intellectual and moral culture; it has barred the door, in the slave States, against all open and free discussion of the subject of emanc.i.p.ation, which before was tolerated; it has interdicted all intercourse between the North and South, that presumes to meddle with the subject of slavery, and of course raised an insurmountable barrier against the social influence of the North in this particular direction; it has barred the influence of public opinion on slavery from all quarters beyond the slave States; it has driven the South as a body to maintain the _principle_ of slavery _out_ and _out_, without restriction or qualification, whereas before, a large portion of the slave-holders were ready to admit it was wrong, desired to see their way out of it, and were open to advice; it has caused to be established a most rigid police and surveillance over the system; it has multiplied the enactments and increased the strength of legislation for its protection and defence; it has nerved the arm of the law with greater vigor and determination; it has bound the slave States together by stronger ties in defence of a common interest; it has given sanction to Lynch law for the summary treatment of offenders; and for all these, and many other reasons that might be named, it has put far off the day of emanc.i.p.ation, if it has not determined the _perpetuity_ of slavery.

Here, again, the Abolitionists will perhaps say, it only proves the right of our cause, and that all this is the struggle of a last and dying effort. But, it might be wise for them not to forget, that the bulwark of the Nation's Const.i.tution stands between them and slavery; and that, till that is pulled down and trampled under foot, as they themselves have set the example in their last Annual Report, they will not have gained their object. Nay, though the fabric of the Nation should be broken in pieces by their hands, and thrown to the winds of Heaven, such is the spirit they have kindled in the South, that they would be compelled to wade through blood, and with iron heel to trample on the carca.s.ses of their opponents, before they will have triumphed. We speak of men as they are, as they always have been, and as they are likely for some time yet to be; and in doing so, the language we employ is no figure of speech, but, as we think, the veritable prophecy of the future. And by the time the Abolitionists shall have done this work, there will be good room and a fit opportunity for the establishment of a despotism unrivalled in severity by any known to the present age, as the only adequate remedy for the anarchy they will have produced.

Such are some of the lamentable effects of this lamentable movement, as they bear on the free coloured people, and on the condition and prospects of the slaves of this country; and we submit them to the serious consideration of those whom it may concern.

CHAPTER XVI.

A HYPOTHETICAL VIEW OF ABOLITIONISM.

We think it must strike every intelligent observer--every one certainly that lays claims to any knowledge in the workings of society--that _immediate_ Abolition, whenever acquired by the measures now in operation--admitting it can be effected without a civil war, though we do not believe it can--must find the two conflicting parties in the worst possible humour in relation to each other. On the one side would be arrayed the Abolitionists with their proteges; and on the other the party defeated after a long and violent struggle. In the mean time all the colored people, now free or in bondage, will have been filled with the most violent hatred and animosity towards the opponents of their claims. The feeling already produced in that cla.s.s of colored people, that has come under the influence of Abolitionists, may serve as an ill.u.s.tration; and the well known principles of human nature may fill out the complement of the lesson.

It would be seen by the people of this country, in the progress of events, long before this object shall have been attained, that an immediate emanc.i.p.ation at any time, brought about by such means, will place the country in a most undesirable and perilous condition. These antic.i.p.ations and apprehensions must necessarily, as we think, mount to an insuperable barrier.--Self-preservation is the first law of nature; and when that comes to be the question, either with individuals or with society, people are not wont to suspend action to discuss casuistry or right.--The drowning man seizes the plank within his reach, even though he should hear the voice of a remonstrant, giving some very subtle reasons why he ought not to do so. So society, finding itself in peril, from within or from without, will save itself, if it can. We are inclined to believe, that the harder Abolition is pushed in its present shape, and under its present avowed principles, so much greater will be the apprehensions of the people, as to the consequences of its success. We think they will never consent, that three millions of the colored race should be raised by one step, from the condition in which they now are, to a full equality of privilege with all other citizens, backed by such a party as the Abolitionists, and actuated by their principles. The dangers would be too obvious and too imminent to admit of parley. They must first be made to believe in _perfectionism_, before they would venture on such an experiment. Every stage of the progress of Abolitionism hitherto, instead of allaying those apprehensions, has only served to augment them. If the peace of the country can hardly be maintained now, and is more and more disturbed at every successive stage of the movement, under its present organization, who can answer for it a little while to come?--Much more, who could answer for it in the hottest of the conflict? The Abolitionists insist on principles, apart from emanc.i.p.ation, which rouse popular indignation, and occasionally blow it into flame, even while the people know that the power is in their own hands. But when once they shall be obliged to see, that these principles are actually going into practice by force, throughout the length and breadth of the land, it requires no prophet to foretell how they will feel, and how they will act. Honestly, we do not think it among the possible events of the future, that Abolition principles, as they now stand forth before the public, can be forced upon the people of this country; but on the contrary, that, foreseeing the evil, they will take care to prevent it.

The Abolitionists cannot appeal to the effects of emanc.i.p.ation in the British West Indies, even on the ground of their own showing, to allay these apprehensions; for there is no parallel between the two cases.

Every circ.u.mstance and every attribute of the question, as it exists here, in its essential influences, are at variance with that example.

But so long as our political fabric remains such as it is, it would seem to be folly to discuss this subject on this hypothetical basis.

We have only taken this license for a moment, for the sake of showing, that, if this political structure of our society were all out of the way, and if the slave-holders had no interest or voice in the question, the avowed principles of the Abolitionists, apart from the difficulty of political rights, would erect an insuperable barrier in the public mind to the accomplishment of their designs.

CHAPTER XVII.

ABOLITIONISM CONSIDERED AS PROPOSING NO COMPENSATION FOR SLAVE-PROPERTY.

The political frame of society governs the world, the doctrines of _perfectionists_ to the contrary notwithstanding; and we shall be heartily thankful that it is so, until we can fall into better hands than this visionary fraternity. And since the Abolitionists have come into the political field, it might be wise for them to consider, whether they can carry their measures in contempt of established political principles. The responsibility of slavery is divided among the community of nations; and there are few of those which profess respect for the code of international law, and feel obliged by their political relations to regard it, that have not some share in it, directly or indirectly. Among these exceptions, if there is any, is the Government of the United States. For we have seen, that it has never made itself responsible for the slavery of individual States. We have also seen, that the slave States are not responsible for its introduction, but that it was imposed upon them by authority. And before the public conscience of the parties concerned had become alive to the enormities and guilt of the slave trade, and much more before slavery itself had become the subject of public remonstrance, it had attained to a growth in the Southern States, not easily to be eradicated. So long, therefore, as political society is dominant, and is bound together by common ties, by common interests, and by common principles, no part of such society can claim of another part the relinquishment of property in slaves without an indemnification. This principle, it will be observed, does not vitiate the claim of the slave to his own freedom; it only affects the parties concerned in the political structure of general society.

The British Government acquitted itself honorably on this point, in decreeing the abolition of slavery in its West India Colonies, and voted a full indemnification for the property, the right to which was thus effaced from the statute book. We say, a _full_ indemnification, notwithstanding it is commonly rated higher, as quoted in this country. The reason of this high quotation results from the fact, that it is not commonly considered, perhaps not known, that slave property in the British West Indies had depreciated so greatly and so rapidly in a few years, by political aspects having a bearing upon it, as to have pa.s.sed, in very large amounts, into other hands, at the depreciated price, by the necessities of bankruptcy, and consequently graduated the valuation of all such property in the same circ.u.mstances. Whenever, therefore, that property should be transferred to other holders for any purpose whatever, the commercial valuation at the time would of course be a.s.sumed as the rule of estimate. That was the rule consulted by the British Parliament, and it was considered, that the 20,000,000 sterling was a fair estimate of the property redeemed. But, whether this be the exact truth or not, the principle of indemnification was recognized, and was supposed to have been honorably respected in this transaction.

Clearly, it must be seen, that by the political history of the world, and the action of general society, under the sanction of which all those commercial transactions have been carried on, which have determined and graduated the valuation of slave property from time to time, in all and any States where it exists, the public faith of the world that has sanctioned and tolerated slavery so long, and thereby profited by it, is pledged as the guardian of that property to the indemnification of the holders, whenever the public conscience shall demand it to be annihilated, as to its previous form, and return to that law which generally prevails in human society. There is not a man, woman, or child, in the circle of Christendom, hardly in the world, that has not profited by slavery, in a commercial point of view, which is the only point we are here concerned to notice. Much less is there one such individual in the free States of our country, that has not profited by it. All the property of the Northern States, and all their commercial interests, have been interwoven with it. It is that property which has determined the value of ours, and ours that has determined the value of that, reciprocally. And just in proportion to the foreign commercial relations and transactions of our country, does the same rule apply to the respective communities with which we have maintained such intercourse. The amount of the slave property of the South is not theirs, except in the convenient t.i.tle of a regulation of general society; but it is the world's, or all that part of the world's, where commercial transactions have determined its estimate. But since it has been convenient for the world, for general society, that it should _vest_ in certain persons, in the same manner as any other property vests in certain other persons, either here or there, in this country or any other, and that no persons should have any other t.i.tle in any other property than that which is held by this conventional rule for general good, it would be a manifest and flagrant injustice, robbery, for one part of general society to demand of another part, to resign this t.i.tle without indemnification, while the party making this demand claims to hold its own. Of course, this question does not touch the right of the slave to himself, or in any way affect that claim.

It may be seen, then, how this matter stands in the United States. We strike at the very foundations of society, when we use our influence to impair the rights of property, as established by general consent; and the impulse of the blow, in the circle of its action, must necessarily return to ourselves, in its natural, or rather artificial, channel, as society in all its parts is an artificial edifice. We can no more move upon the South for such an object, than they can move upon us; in laying our hand upon their property to impair its t.i.tle, we impair our own in the same degree. For our convenience and profit, be it known, the t.i.tle to slave property has happened to vest in them; and for their convenience and profit the t.i.tle to our property has happened to vest in us, because we happen to be here and not there, and they there and not here. Both t.i.tles are equally sacred in the relations we bear to each other.

Unless, therefore, the Abolitionists have made up their minds to go into this field in the character of pirates and brigands, we see not how they can move an inch, till they are prepared to make the tender of indemnification for the release of the property which they claim.

We aver solemnly, that it is with pain we have written the last sentence, and that if any other terms would have represented the exact truth of the case, as it stands before our mind, we should have preferred them. We agree with the Abolitionists as to the _wrong_ of slavery, though we dissent from them, both as to the expediency and duty of _immediate_ emanc.i.p.ation, in view of all the facts and circ.u.mstances of the case; and we dissent from them utterly, _ab imo pectore_, as to the _validity_ of slave property, not in relation to the slave, however, but in relation to general society; and we are prepared to go with the nation for redemption by a fair indemnification. Though we may have little at stake in such a concern, yet he who has little may feel the burden more than he that has much.