Let us not be thought invidious or uncharitable in saying, that where slavery exists there are so many causes necessarily uniting to corrupt public sentiment with regard to the slave, that the best-constituted minds cannot trust themselves in it. In the northern and free states public sentiment has been, and is, to this day, fatally infected by the influence of a past and the proximity of a present system of slavery. Hence the injustice with which the negro in many of our states is treated. Hence, too, those apologies for slavery, and defences of it, which issue from Northern presses, and even Northern pulpits. If even at the North the remains of slavery can produce such baleful effects in corrupting public sentiment, how much more must this be the case where this institution is in full force!
The whole American nation is, in some sense, under a paralysis of public sentiment on this subject. It was said by a heathen writer that the gods gave us a fearful power when they gave us the faculty of becoming accustomed to things. This power has proved a fearful one indeed in America. We have got used to things which might stir the dead in their graves.
When but a small portion of the things daily done in America has been told in England, and France, and Italy, and Germany, there has been a perfect shriek and outcry of horror. America alone remains cool, and asks, “What is the matter?”
Europe answers back, “Why, we have heard that men are sold like cattle in your country.”
“Of course they are,” says America; “but what then?”
“We have heard,” says Europe, “that millions of men are forbidden to read and write in your country.”
“We know that,” says America; “but what is this outcry about?”
“We have heard,” says Europe, “that Christian girls are sold to shame in your markets!”
“That isn’t quite as it should be,” says America; “but still what is this excitement about?”
“We hear that three millions of your people can have no legal marriage ties,” says Europe.