In his speech before the "Disunion Convention" at Worcester, Mass., above referred to, William Lloyd Garrison said:
"Again, I am for the speedy overthrow of the Union because, while it exists, I see no end to the extension of slavery. I see everything in the hands of the Slave Power now—all the resources of the country,—every dollar in the Treasury, the Navy, the Judiciary, everything in its grasp; and I know that with all these means and facilities and the disposition to use them, nothing can successfully contend against it.
"I am sure of another thing—that when the North shall withdraw from the Union, there will be an end to Southern filibustering and schemes of annexation. Then the tables will be turned and we shall have the slaveholders at our doors crying for mercy. Rely upon it, there is not an intelligent slaveholder at the South who is for a dissolution of the Union. I do not care what the folly or insanity of the Southern Nullifiers may be; ... not one of them is willing to have the cord cut and the South permitted to try the experiment. If it be otherwise, God grant that she may soon take this step and see whether she will be able to hold a single slave one hour after the deed is done."[[314]]
No opportunity was neglected to inculcate sentiments of disloyalty to the Union, hatred of the constitution, and disregard of the statutes enacted by the Federal Government bearing upon slavery. Sometimes the Abolitionists would emphasize their position and lend a touch of realism to their sentiments by burning before the multitudes copies of the constitution and obnoxious laws passed by Congress.
ABOLITIONISTS' ASSAULTS ON EMINENT MEN
Thus at Framingham, Mass., on the fourth of July, 1854, at the open-air celebration of the day by the Abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison burned copies of the constitution, the Fugitive Slave Law, and the opinions of several Judges of the Federal Courts in Massachusetts. The Liberator records that Mr. Garrison, "holding up the United States constitution branded it as the source and parent of all the other atrocities—a covenant with Death and an agreement with Hell—and consumed it to ashes on the spot, exclaiming, 'So perish all compromises with Tyranny,' and 'Let all the people say Amen,' and a tremendous shout of 'Amen' went up to Heaven in ratification of the deed."[[315]]
No eminence of public station nor personal worth availed to shield from the assaults of these Abolition leaders. William Lloyd Garrison alluding to Webster's eulogies upon the constitution declared, "Let Daniel Webster, the greatest and meanest of his countrymen, exhaust his powers of eulogy upon it if he will; the effort will but render his character base and contemptible with posterity."[[316]]
Wendell Phillips, referring to the "Defender of the Constitution," said: "God gives us great scoundrels for texts to anti-slavery sermons. See to it, when nature has provided you a monster like Webster, that you exhibit him—himself a whole menagerie—throughout the country."[[317]] Subsequently in an article in The Liberator on Mr. Lincoln—then but recently nominated for the Presidency, headed "Abraham Lincoln, the Slave Hound of Illinois," Wendell Phillips wrote: "We gibbet a Northern hound to-day side by side with the infamous Mason of Virginia."[[318]]
ABOLITIONISTS AND SLAVE INSURRECTIONS
Theodore Parker alluding to the Federal judges and officials in Boston who bore a part in the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, addressing the "Spirits of Tyrants" and apostrophising Cain, Herod, Nero, and Torquemada, proceeds as follows: "Come up, thou heap of wickedness, George Jeffreys! Thy hands deep purple with the blood of thy murdered fellow men!... What! Dost thou shudder? Thou turn back? These not thy kindred? It is true, George Jeffreys. And these are not thy kin.... Thou wouldst not send a man into bondage for two pounds. I will not rank thee with men who in Boston for ten dollars would enslave a negro now."[[319]]