There is one frightful circumstance, unhappily of frequent occurrence, which proclaims so clearly the character of the social system bred by Slavery, that I shall be pardoned for adducing it. I refer to the roasting of slaves alive at the stake. One was roasted very recently,—not after public trial, according to the forms of law, as at the fires of Smithfield, but by a lawless crowd, suddenly assembled, who in this way made themselves ministers of a cruel vengeance. This Barbarism, which seems to have become part of the customary Law of Slavery, may well cover us all with humiliation, when we reflect that it is already renounced by the copper-colored savages of our continent, while during the present century more instances of it have occurred among our Slave-Masters than we know among the former since that early day when Captain Smith was saved from sacrifice by the tenderness of Pocahontas. Perhaps no other usage reveals with such fearful distinctness the deep-seated, pervading influence of Slavery, offensive to Civilization, hostile to Law itself, by virtue of which it pretends to live, insulting to humanity, shocking to decency, and utterly heedless of all rights, forms, or observances, in the maintenance of its wicked power. Here I add, that the proportion of slave to free is not without influence in determining treatment. Fear is a constant tyrant, with an inhumanity which does not tire or sleep, and nothing can quicken its cruelty more than the dread of vengeance for the multitudinous wrong done to the slave.
I would not be unjust to Slave-Masters. Some there are, I doubt not, of happy natures, uncorrupted by the possession of tyrannical power, who render the condition of their slaves endurable, and in private virtues emulate the graces of Civilization; but the good in these cases comes from the masters, notwithstanding Slavery. And, besides, there are the great examples of the Fathers, who, looking down upon Slavery and regarding it as an Evil, were saved from its contamination. To all these I render heartfelt homage. But their exceptional virtues cannot save the essential wrong which I expose. Nor am I blinded by the blandishments of that wealth which is the fruit of Slavery. With abhorrence we read of the scandalous man-traffic by which a Hessian prince of Germany sold his subjects to be used by George the Third against our fathers; and we share the contempt expressed by Frederick, surnamed the Great, when he levied on these victims, passing through his dominions, the customary toll for so many head of cattle, since, as he said, they had been sold as such; and even now the traveller turns with disgust from the pleasant slopes of the ducal garden which was adorned by these unholy gains.[159] But all this, and more, must be renewed in our minds, when we think of American Slavery, with the houses and gardens decorated by its sweat.
Such, fellow-citizens, is Slavery, as manifest in its law, and also in its influence on society. Bad as it is, if it modestly kept at home, if it did not stalk into the National jurisdiction and enter into the National Government, within reach of our votes, I should not summon you on this occasion to unite against it; for, whatever the promptings of sympathy and of godlike philanthropy, nothing is clearer than that our political duties depend simply upon our political responsibilities; and since we are not politically responsible for Slavery in Charleston, or in Constantinople, so in neither place have we any political duties in regard to it. Lament it, wherever it exists, we must, and surround its victims with our prayers; but our action, while inspired by these sentiments, must rest within the bounds of Law and Constitution.
Here the field is ample. Indeed, if Slavery existed nowhere within the national jurisdiction, our duty would still be urgent to grapple with that pernicious influence, which, through an Oligarchical Combination of Slave-Masters, unknown to the Constitution, never anticipated by its founders, and in defiance of their example, has entered into and possessed the National Government, like an Evil Spirit. This influence, which, wielding at will all the powers of the National Government, even those of the Judiciary, has become formidable to Freedom everywhere, clutching violently at the Territories, and menacing the Free States,—as witness the claim, still undecided in the court of the last resort, so audaciously presented by a citizen of Virginia, to hold slaves in New York on the way to Texas; this influence, now so vaulting, was for a long time unobserved, even while exercising a controlling power. At first timid and shy, from undoubted sense of guilt, it avoided discussion, yet was determined in its policy. The Southern Senator who boasted that for sixty years the Slave States had governed the country knew well their constant inferiority to the Free States in population, wealth, manufactures, commerce, schools, churches, libraries, and all the activities of a true Civilization,—knew well that they had contributed nothing to the literature of the country, even in Political Economy and the science of Government, which they have so vehemently professed, except the now forgotten “forty bale theory,”[160]—knew well that by no principle of justice could this long predominance be explained; but he forgot to confess the secret agency. Though unseen, Slavery was present always with decisive influence. No matter what the question, it was the same. Once the Free States inclined to Free Trade, but the Slave States went the other way; but when the former inclined towards Protection, the Slave Power in the dark behind dictated Free Trade, and so it has been till now. Here is the subtle ruling influence, against which population, wealth, manufactures, commerce, schools, churches, libraries, and all the activities of a true Civilization are impotent. The Slave Power is always master, and it is this Power which for sixty years, according to the boast of the Senator, has governed this broad and growing country, doing what it pleases, and penetrating far-away places, while it sacrifices all who will not do its bidding.
The actual number of slaveholders was for a long time unknown, and on this account was naturally exaggerated. It was often represented very great. On one occasion, a distinguished representative from Massachusetts, whose name will be ever cherished for devotion to Human Rights,—I mean the late Horace Mann,—was rudely interrupted on the floor of Congress by a member from Alabama, who averred that the number of slaveholders was as many as three millions.[161] At that time there was no official document by which this extravagance could be corrected. But at last we have it. The late census, taken in 1850, shows that the whole number of this peculiar class, all told, so unfortunate as to hold slaves, was only 347,525;[162] and of this number the larger part are small slaveholders, leaving only 92,000 persons as owners of the great mass of slaves, and substantial representatives of this class. And yet this small Oligarchy, odious in origin, without any foundation in that justice which is the essential base of every civilized association, stuck together only by confederacy in all the five-headed wrong of Slavery, and constituting in itself what in other days was called Magnum Latrocinium, has, by confession of one of its own leaders, for sixty years governed the Republic. To this end two things have concurred: first, its associated wealth, being the asserted value of its human flesh, constituting a flagitious capital of near two thousand millions of dollars; and, secondly, its peculiar representation in the House of Representatives, where, under the three-fifths rule of the Constitution, ninety members actually hold their seats by virtue in part of this indefensible property. Thus are our Slave-Masters an enormous Corporation, or Joint-Stock Company, by the side of which the United States Bank, with its petty thirty millions of capital, and without any peculiar representation, is dwarfed into insignificance.
All tyranny, like murder, is foul at the best; but this is most foul, strange, and unnatural, especially when it is considered that the States occupied by the Slave Oligarchy are far below the Free States in resources of all kinds. By the last census there was in the Free States a solid population of freemen amounting to upwards of thirteen millions, while in the Slave States there was a like population of only six millions. In other respects, important to Civilization, the disparity was as great,—all of which I have amply shown elsewhere. And yet from the beginning this Oligarchy has taken the lion’s share among the honors and trusts of the Republic, while it entered into and possessed both the old political parties, Whig and Democrat,—as witness their servile resolutions always,—making them one in subserviency, though double in form, and renewing in them the mystery of the Siamese twins, which, though separate in body and different in name, are constrained by an unnatural ligament to a community of exertion.
I feel humbled, when I dwell on the amazing disproportion of offices usurped by this Oligarchy. From the beginning, all the great posts of the Republic—Presidency, Vice-Presidency, seats in the Cabinet, seats in the Supreme Court, Presidency of the Senate, Speakership—seem to be almost perpetually in their hands. At this moment, the Free States, with double the population of the Slave States, have only four out of nine Justices of the Supreme Court; and of these four, it must be said, three are Northern men with Southern principles. And in the humbler places at the Departments the same extraordinary disproportion prevails. Out of the whole number there employed, 787 are from the Slave States and District of Columbia, and 441 from the Free States, but mostly with Southern principles. These instances are typical. There is nothing in the National Government which the Oligarchy does not appropriate. Down to our day it has held the keys of every office, from President to the humblest postmaster, compelling all to do its bidding. It makes Cabinets,—organizes Courts,—directs the Army and Navy,—manages every department of public business,—presides over the Census,—conducts the Smithsonian Institution, founded by the generous charity of a foreigner to promote the interests of mankind,—and subsidizes the national press, alike in the national capital and in the remotest village of the North.
Mounting the marble steps of the Capitol, it takes the chair of the President of the Senate, also the chair of the Speaker of the House, then arranges the Committees of both bodies, placing at their head only servitors of Slavery, and excluding friends of Freedom, though entitled to such places by personal character and the States they represent; and thus it controls the national legislation. From the Capitol to the most distant confines, the whole country is enslaved. The Mahometan priest turns in prayer towards Mecca, his pulpit is on the side which fronts towards Mecca, his auditors face towards Mecca. But Slavery is our Mecca, towards which everything turns, everything fronts, everything faces.