Part 122 (1/2)
[Footnote A: Senator Preston's Railroad Speech, delivered at Colombia, S.C., in 1836.]
Thus much for the menace, that the ”UNION WILL BE DISSOLVED” unless the discussion of the slavery question be stopped.
But you may reply, ”Do you think the South is not in earnest in her threat of dissolving the Union?” I rejoin, by no means;--yet she pursues a perfectly reasonable course (leaving out of view the justice or morality of it)--just such a course as I should expect she would pursue, emboldened as she must be by her multiplied triumphs over the North by the use of the same weapon. ”We'll dissolve the Union!” was the cry, ”unless Missouri be admitted!!” The North were frightened, and Missouri was admitted with SLAVERY engraved on her forehead. ”We'll dissolve the Union!” unless the Indians be driven out of the South!! The North forgot her treaties, parted with humanity, and it is done--the defenceless Indians are forced to ”consent” to be driven out, or they are left, undefended, to the mercies of southern land-jobbers and gold-hunters.
”We'll dissolve the Union! If the Tariff” [established at her own suggestion] ”be not repealed or modified so that our slave-labor may compete with your free-labor.” The Tariff is accordingly modified to suit the South. ”We'll dissolve the Union!” unless the freedom of speech and the press be put down in the North!!--With the promptness of commission-merchants, the alternative is adopted. Public a.s.semblies met for deliberation are a.s.sailed and broken up at the North; her citizens are stoned and beaten and dragged through the streets of her cities; her presses are attacked by mobs, instigated and led on by men of influence and character; whilst those concerned in conducting them are compelled to fly from their homes, pursued as if they were noxious wild beasts; or, if they remain to defend, they are sacrificed to appease the southern divinity. ”We'll dissolve the Union” if slavery be abolished in the District of Columbia! The North, frightened from her propriety, declares that slavery ought not to be abolished there NOW.--”We'll dissolve the Union!” if you read pet.i.tions from your const.i.tuents for its abolition, or for stopping the slave-trade at the Capital, or between the states. FIFTY NORTHERN REPRESENTATIVES respond to the cry, ”down, then, with the RIGHT OF PEt.i.tION!!” All these a.s.saults have succeeded because the North has been frightened by the war-cry, ”WE'LL DISSOLVE THE UNION!”
After achieving so much by a process so simple, why should not the South persist in it when striving for further conquests? No other course ought to be expected from her, till this has failed. And it is not at all improbable, that she will persist, till she almost persuades herself that she is serious in her menace to dissolve the Union. She may in her eagerness, even approach so near the verge of dissolution, that the earth may give way under her feet and she be dashed in ruins in the gulf below.
Nothing will more surely arrest her fury, than the firm array of the North, setting up anew the almost forgotten principles of our fathers, and saying to the ”dark spirit of slavery,”--”thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.” This is the best--the only--means of saving the South from the fruits of her own folly--folly that has been so long, and so strangely encouraged by the North, that it has grown into intolerable arrogance--down right presumption.
There are many other ”events” of the last two or three years which have, doubtless, had their influence on the course of the abolitionists--and which might properly be dwelt upon at considerable length, were it not that this communication is already greatly protracted beyond its intended limits. I shall, therefore, in mentioning the remaining topics, do little more than enumerate them.
The Legislature of Vermont has taken a decided stand in favor of anti-slavery principles and action. In the Autumn of 1836, the following resolutions were pa.s.sed by an almost unanimous vote in both houses:--
”Resolved, By the General a.s.sembly of the State of Vermont, That neither Congress nor the State Governments have any const.i.tutional right to abridge the free expressions of opinions, or the transmission of them through the medium of the public mails.”
”Resolved, That Congress do possess the power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.”
”Resolved, That His Excellency, the Governor, be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the Executive of each of the States, and to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress.”
At the session held in November last, the following joint resolutions, preceded by a decisive memorial against the admission of Texas, were pa.s.sed by both branches--with the exception of the _fifth_ which was pa.s.sed only by the House of Representatives:--
1. Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use their influence in that body to prevent the annexation of Texas to the Union.
2. Resolved, That, representing, as we do, the people of Vermont, we do hereby, in their name, SOLEMNLY PROTEST against such annexation in any form.
3. Resolved, That, as the Representatives of the people of Vermont, we do solemnly protest against the admission, into this Union, of any state whose const.i.tution tolerates domestic slavery.
4. Resolved, That Congress have full power, by the Const.i.tution, to abolish slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia and in the territories of the United States.
[5. Resolved, That Congress has the const.i.tutional power to prohibit the slave-trade between the several states of this Union, and to make such laws as shall effectually prohibit such trade.]
6. Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested, to present the foregoing Report and Resolutions to their respective Houses in Congress, and use their influence to carry the same speedily into effect.
7. Resolved, That the Governor of this State be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing Report and Resolutions to the President of the United States, and to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress.
The influence of anti-slavery principles in Ma.s.sachusetts has become decisive, if we are to judge from the change of sentiment in the legislative body. The governor of that commonwealth saw fit to introduce into his inaugural speech, delivered in January, 1836, a severe censure of the abolitionists, and to intimate that they were guilty of an offence punishable at common law. This part of the speech was referred to a joint committee of five, of which a member of the senate was chairman. To the same committee were also referred communications which had been received by the governor from several of the legislatures of the slaveholding states, requesting the Legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts to enact laws, making it PENAL for citizens of that state to form societies for the abolition of slavery, or to speak or publish sentiments such as had been uttered in anti-slavery meetings and published in anti-slavery tracts and papers. The managers of the Ma.s.sachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, in a note addressed to the chairman of the committee, requested permission, as a party whose rights were drawn in question, to appear before it. This was granted. The gentlemen selected by them to appear on their behalf were of unimpeachable character, and distinguished for professional merit and general literary and scientific intelligence.
Such was _then_ the unpopularity of abolitionism, that notwithstanding the personal influence of these gentlemen, they were ill--not to say rudely--treated, especially by the chairman of the committee; so much so, that respect for themselves, and the cause they were deputed to defend, persuaded them to desist before they had completed their remarks. A Report, including Resolutions unfavorable to the abolitionists was made, of which the following is a copy:--
The Joint Special Committee, to whom was referred so much of the governor's message as related to the abolition of slavery, together with certain doc.u.ments upon the same subject, communicated to the Executive by the several Legislatures of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, transmitted by his Excellency to the Legislature, and hereunto annexed, have considered the same, and ask leave, respectfully, to submit the following:--
Resolved, That this Legislature distinctly disavow any right whatever in itself, or in the citizens of this commonwealth, to interfere in the inst.i.tution of domestic slavery in the southern states: it having existed therein before the establishment of the Const.i.tution; it having been recognised by that instrument; and it being strictly within their own keeping.
Resolved, That this Legislature, regarding the agitation of the question of domestic slavery as having already interrupted the friendly relations which ought to exist between the several states of this Union, and as tending permanently to injure, if not altogether to subvert, the principles of the Union itself; and believing that the good effected by those who excite its discussion in the non-slaveholding states is, under the circ.u.mstances of the case, altogether visionary, while the immediate and future evil is great and certain; does hereby express its entire disapprobation of the doctrine upon this subject avowed, and the general measures pursued by such as agitate the question; and does earnestly recommend to them carefully to abstain from all such discussion, and all such measures, as may tend to disturb and irritate the public mind.
The report was laid on the table, whence it was not taken up during the session--its friends being afraid of a lean majority on its pa.s.sage; for the _alarm_ had already been taken by many of the members who otherwise would have favored it. From this time till the election in the succeeding autumn, the subject was much agitated in Ma.s.sachusetts. The abolitionists again pet.i.tioned the Legislature at its session begun in January, 1837; especially, that it should remonstrate against the resolution of Mr. Hawes, adopted by the House of Representatives in Congress, by which all memorials, &c, in relation to slavery were laid, and to be laid, on the table, without further action on them. The abolitionists were again heard, in behalf of their pet.i.tions, before the proper committee.[A] The result was, the pa.s.sage of the following resolutions with only 16 dissenting voices to 378, in the House of Representatives, and in the Senate with not more than one or two dissentients on any one of them:--
[Footnote A: The gentleman who had been chairman of the committee the preceding year, was supposed, in consequence of the change in public opinion in relation to abolitionists, to have injured his political standing too much, even to be nominated as a candidate for re-election.]