Part 3 (1/2)
No society is free from vices and crime, and we well know that human depravity springs from another source than slavery. It will not, however, be denied that circ.u.mstances and inst.i.tutions may check those evil propensities to which we are all p.r.o.ne; and it will, we presume, be admitted that in forming an opinion of the moral condition and advancement of any community, we are to be guided in our judgment, not by insulated facts, but by the _tone of public opinion_. Atrocities occur in the best regulated and most virtuous States, but in such they excite indignation and are visited with punishment; while in vicious communities they are treated with levity and impunity.
In a country where suffrage is universal, the representatives will but reflect the general character of their const.i.tuents. If we are permitted to apply this rule in testing the moral condition of the South, the result will not be favorable.
In noticing the public conduct of public men, we are not sensible of violating any principle of courtesy or delicacy; we touch not their private character or their private acts; we refer to their language and sentiments, merely as one indication of the standard of morals among their const.i.tuents, not as conclusive proof apart from other evidence.
On the 15th February, 1837, R. M. Whitney was arraigned before the House of Representatives for contempt in refusing to attend when required before a Committee. His apology was that he was afraid of his life, and he called, as a witness in his behalf, one of the Committee, Mr.
Fairfield, since Governor of the State of Maine. It appeared that in the Committee, Mr. Peyton of Virginia had put some interrogatory to Whitney, who had returned a written answer which was deemed offensive. On this, as Mr. Fairfield testified, Peyton addressed the Chairman in these terms, ”Mr. Chairman, I wish you to inform this witness, that he is not to insult me in his answers: if he does, G.o.d d.a.m.n him! I will take his life on the spot!” Whitney rose and said he claimed the protection of the Committee, on which Peyton exclaimed, ”G.o.d d.a.m.n you, you shan't speak, you shan't say one word while you are in this room, if you do I will put you to death!” Soon after, Peyton observing that Whitney was looking at him, cried out, ”d.a.m.n him, his eyes are on me--G.o.d d.a.m.n him, he is looking at me--he shan't do it--d.a.m.n him, he shan't look at me!”
The newspaper reports of the proceedings of Congress, a few years since, informed us that Mr. Dawson, a member from Louisiana, went up to Mr.
Arnold, another member, and said to him, ”If you attempt to speak, or rise from your seat, sir, by G.o.d I'll cut your throat!”
In a debate on the Florida war, Mr. Cooper having taken offence at Mr.
Giddings of Ohio, for some remarks relative to slavery, said in his reply, ”If the gentleman from Ohio will come among my const.i.tuents and promulgate his doctrines there, he will find that Lynch law will be inflicted, and that the gentleman will reach an elevation which he little dreams of.”
In the session of 1841, Mr. Payne, of Alabama, in debate, alluding to the abolitionists, among whom he insisted the Postmaster-General ought to be included, declared that he would proscribe all abolitionists, he ”would put the brand of Cain upon them--yes, the mark of h.e.l.l, and if they came to the South he would HANG THEM LIKE DOGS!”
Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, at an earlier period thus expressed himself in the House: ”I warn the abolitionists, ignorant, infatuated barbarians as they are, that if chance shall throw any of them into our hands, they may expect a FELON'S DEATH!”
In 1848, Mr. Hale, a Senator from New Hamps.h.i.+re, introduced a bill for the protection of property in the District of Columbia, attempts having been made to destroy an anti-Slavery press. Mr. Foote, a Senator from Mississippi, thus expressed himself in reply: ”I invite him (Mr. H.) to the State of Mississippi, and will tell him before-hand, in all honesty, that he could not go ten miles into the interior, before he would grace one of the tallest trees of the forest, with a rope around his neck, with the approbation of every virtuous and patriotic citizen, and that, if necessary, I SHOULD MYSELF a.s.sIST IN THE OPERATION.”
And now, fellow-citizens, do these men, with all their profanity and vulgarity, breathing out threatenings and slaughter, represent the feelings, and manners, and morals of the slaveholding community? We have seen no evidence that they have lost a particle of popular favor in consequence of their ferocious violence. Alas! their language has been re-echoed again and again by public meetings in the slave States; and we proceed to lay before you overwhelming proof that in the expression of their murderous feelings towards the abolitionists, they have faithfully represented the sentiments of their const.i.tuents.
VII. DISREGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE.
We have already seen that one of the blessings which the slaveholders attribute to their favorite inst.i.tution, is exemption from popular tumults, and from encroachments by the democracy upon the rights of property. Their argument is, that political power in the hands of the poor and laboring cla.s.ses is always attended with danger, and that this danger is averted when these cla.s.ses are kept in bondage. With these gentlemen, life and liberty seem to be accounted as the small dust of the balance, when weighed against slavery and plantations; hence, to preserve the latter they are ever ready to sacrifice the former, in utter defiance of laws and const.i.tutions.
We have already noticed the murderous proposition in relation to abolitionists, made by Governor M'Duffie to the South Carolina Legislature in 1835: ”It is my deliberate opinion that the _laws_ of every community should punish this species of interference, by DEATH without benefit of clergy.” In an address to a legislative a.s.sembly, Governor M'Duffie refrained from the indecency of recommending _illegal_ murder; but we will soon find that the public sentiment of the South by no means requires that abolitionists shall be put to death with legal formalities; but on the contrary, the slaveholders are ready, in the language of Mr. Payne, to ”hang them like dogs.”
We hazard little in the a.s.sertion, that in no civilized Christian community on earth is human life less protected by law, or more frequently taken with impunity, than in the slave States of the Federal Union. We wish to impress upon you the danger and corruption to which you and your children are exposed from the inst.i.tution, which, as we have shown you, exists by your sufferance. But you have been taught to respect this inst.i.tution; and hence it becomes necessary to enter into details, however painful, and to present you with authorities which you cannot reject. What we have just said of the insecurity of human life, will probably be deemed by you and others as abolition slander. Listen, then, to slaveholders themselves.
”We long to see the day,” said the Governor of Kentucky in his message to the Legislature, 1837, ”when the law will a.s.sert its majesty, and stop the wanton destruction of life which almost _daily_ occurs within the jurisdiction of this commonwealth. MEN SLAUGHTER EACH OTHER WITH ALMOST PERFECT IMPUNITY. A species of common law has grown up in Kentucky, which, were it written down, would, in all civilized countries, cause her to be re-christened, in derision, THE LAND OF BLOOD.”
The present Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Kentucky[10] a few years since, published an article on the murders in that State. He states that some with whom he had conversed, estimated them at 80 per annum; but that he had rated them at about 30; and that he had ascertained that for the last three years, there had not been ”an instance of capital punishment in any _white_ offender.” ”It is believed,” says he, ”there are more homicides on an average of two years in _any_ of our more populous _counties_, than in the whole of several of our _States_ of equal, or nearly equal, population to Kentucky.”
[10] It is believed this gentleman is _not_ a slaveholder.
Governor McVay, of Alabama, in his message to the Legislature, November 15, 1837, thus speaks, ”We hear of homicides in different parts of the State continually, and yet have few convictions and still fewer executions! Why do we hear of stabbings and shootings almost _daily_ in some part or other of our State?”
”DEATH BY VIOLENCE.--The moral atmosphere in our State appears to be in a deleterious and sanguinary condition. Almost every exchange paper which reaches us, contains some inhuman and revolting case of murder, or death by violence. _Not less than_ FIFTEEN deaths by violence have occurred, to our certain knowledge, within the past three months.”--_Grand Gulf Miss.
Advertiser, 27th June, 1837._
CONTEMPT OF HUMAN LIFE.--In view of the crimes which are daily committed, we are led to inquire whether it is owing to the inefficiency of our laws, or to the manner in which these laws are administered, that this FRIGHTFUL DELUGE OF HUMAN BLOOD FLOWS THROUGH OUR STREETS AND OUR PLACES OF PUBLIC RESORT.--_New Orleans Bee, 23d May, 1838._
At the opening of the Criminal Court in New Orleans, November 4th, 1837, Judge Lansuque delivered an address, in which, speaking of the prevalence of violence, he used the following language:
”As a Louisiana parent, I reflect with terror, that our beloved children, reared to become one day honorable and useful citizens, may be the victims of these votaries of vice and licentiousness. Without some powerful and certain remedy, our streets will become BUTCHERIES, OVERFLOWING WITH THE BLOOD OF OUR CITIZENS!”