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 emancipation. But so long as the laws of the land are respected and maintained, the slave States can never be compelled to emancipation 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 circumstances, 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 rectitude 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 document 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 Constitutional 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 assaults 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 circumstances 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 anticipating 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 circumstances, 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.