virtues of our fathers, and especially from our revolutionary conflict; and there is an indomitable energy, which, after rearing an empire in the wilderness, is fresh for new achievements. Such a people are not ruined because Congress leaves the treasury bankrupt for weeks and months, and exposes itself to scorn by vulgar manners and ruffian abuse. In that very body how many men may be found of honor, integrity, and wisdom, who watch over their country with sorrow, but not despair, and who meet an answer to their patriotism in the breasts of thousands of their countrymen ! There is one Duty of the Free States of which I have not-spoken; it is the duty of Faith in the intellectual and moral energies of the country, in its high destiny, and in the good Providence which has guided it through so many trials and perils to its present greatness. We indeed suffer much, and deserve to suffer more. Many dark pages are to be written in our history. But generous seed is still sown in this nation's mind. Noble impulses are working here. We are called to be witnesses to the world of a freer, more equal, more humane, more enlightened social existence than has yet been known. May God raise us to a more thorough comprehension of our work! May he give us faith in the good which we are summoned to achieve ! May he strengthen us to build up a prosperity not tainted by slavery, selfishness, or any wrong; but pure, innocent, righteous, and overflowing, through a just and generous intercourse, on all the nations of the earth! NOTES. Note A. In the first part of these remarks I said that the freedom of speech and of the press was fully enjoyed in this country. I overlooked the persecutions to which the Abolitionists have been exposed for expressing their opinions. That I should have forgotten this is the more strange because my sympathy with these much injured persons has been one motive to me for writing on slavery. The Free States, as far as they have violated the rights of the Abolitionists, have ceased to be fully free. They have acted as the tools of slavery, and have warred against freedom in its noblest form. No matter what other liberties are conceded, if liberty of speech and the press be denied us. We are robbed of our most precious right, of that without which all other rights are unprotected and insecure. SINCE the publication of the first edition of this Tract I have been sorry to learn that this paragraph has been considered by some as showing an insensibility to the depraving influences of slavery. My purpose was, to be just to the South; and I did not dream that in doing this I was throwing a veil over the deformity of its institutions. I feel deeply, what I have again and again said, that slavery does and must exert an exceedingly depraving influ ence. So wrongful an exercise of power cannot but injure the character. All who sustain the relation are the worse for it. But it is a plain fact, taught by all history and experience, that under depraving institutions much virtue may exist; and were not this the case, the condition of our race would be hopeless indeed, for everywhere such institutions are found. The character is not determined by a single relation or circumstance in our lot. Most of us believe that Roman Catholicism exerts many influences hostile to true Christianity, and yet how many sincere Christians have grown up under that system! In the midst of feudal barbarism, in the palaces of despotism, noble characters have been formed. Slavery, I believe, does incalculable harm to the slave-holders. It spreads licentiousness of manners to a fearful extent; and in the case of the good it obscures their perception of those most important teachings of Christianity which unfold the intimate relation of man to man, and which enjoin universal love. Still, it cannot be denied, that, under all these disadvantages, God finds true worshippers within the bounds of slavery, that many deeds of Christian love are performed there, and that there are not wanting examples of eminent - virtue. This is what I meant to say. I am bound, however, to add, that, the more I become acquainted with the Slave-holding States, the more I am impressed with the depraving influence of slavery; and I shall grieve, if my desire to be just to the South, and my joy at witnessing virtue there, should be construed as a negative testimony in favor of this corrupting institution. |