Xxxii.
But the answer may be made yet more irresistible, while, with mingled sorrow and shame, I portray the tyrannical power which holds us in thraldom. Notwithstanding all its excess of numbers, wealth and intelligence, the North is now the vassal of an Oligarchy, whose single inspiration comes from Slavery. According to the official tables of our recent census, the slave-masters—men, women, and children all told—are only three hundred and forty-seven thousand; and yet this small company now dominates over the Republic, determines its national policy, disposes of its offices, and sways all to its absolute will. With a watchfulness that never sleeps, and an activity that never tires—with as many eyes as Argus, and as many arms as Briareus—the Slave Oligarchy asserts its perpetual and insatiate masterdom; now seizing a broad territory once covered by a time-honored ordinance of Freedom; now threatening to wrest Cuba from Spain by violent war, or hardly less violent purchase; now hankering for another slice of Mexico, merely to find new scope for Slavery; now proposing once more to open the hideous, heaven-defying Slave-trade and thus to replenish its shambles with human flesh; and now, by the lips of an eminent Senator, asserting an audacious claim to the whole group of the West Indies, whether held by Holland, Spain, France, or England, as ‘our Southern Islands,’ while it assails the independence of Hayti, and stretches its treacherous ambition even to the distant valley of the Amazon.In maintaining its power, the Slave Oligarchy has applied a new test for office, very different from that of Jefferson: ‘Is he honest; is he capable? is he faithful to the Constitution?’ These things are all forgotten now in the controlling question, ‘Is he faithful to Slavery?’ With arrogant ostracism it excludes from every national office all who cannot respond to this test. So complete and irrational has this tyranny. become, that, at this moment, while I now speak, could Washington, Jefferson, or Franklin once more descend from their spheres above, to mingle in our affairs and bless us with their wisdom, not one of them, with his recorded, unretracted opinions on Slavery, could receive a [194] nomination for the Presidency from a National Convention of either of the late great political parties; nor, stranger still, could either of these sainted patriots, whose names alone open a perpetual fountain of gratitude in all your hearts, be confirmed by the Senate of the United States for any political function whatever under the National Government—not even for the office of Postmaster. What I now say, amidst your natural astonishment, I have more than once uttered from my seat in the Senate, and no man there has made answer, for no man, who has sat in its secret sessions and there learned the test which is practically applied, could make answer; and I ask you to accept this statement as my testimony derived from the experience which has been my lot. Yes, fellow-citizens, had this test prevailed in the earlier days, Washington—first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen—--could not have been created Generalissimo of the American forces; Jefferson could not have taken his place on the Committee to draft the Declaration of Independence; and Franklin could not have gone forth to France, with the commission of the infant Republic, to secure the invaluable alliance of that ancient kingdom.
And this giant strength is used with a giant heartlessness. By a cruel enactment, which has no source in the Constitution—which defies justice—which tramples on humanity—and which rebels against God, the Free States are made the hunting-ground for slaves, and you, and I, and all good citizens, are summoned to join in the loathsome and abhorred work. Your hearts and judgments, swift to feel and to condemn, will not require me to expose here the abomination of the Fugitive Slave Bill or its utter unconstitutionality. Elsewhere I have done this, and never been answered. Nor will you expect that an enactment, so entirely devoid of all just sanction, should be called by the sacred name of law. History still repeats the language in which our fathers persevered, when they denounced the last emanation of British tyranny which heralded the Revolution, as the Boston Port Bill, and I am content with this precedent. I have said that if any man finds in the Gospel any support of Slavery, it is because Slavery is already in himself; so do I now say, if any man finds in the Constitution of our country any support of the Fugitive Slave Bill, it is because that Bill is already in himself. One of our ancient Masters—Aristotle, I think—tells us that every man has a beast in his bosom; but the Northern citizen, who has the Fugitive Slave Bill there, has worse than a beast—a devil! And yet in this Bill—more even than in the ostracism at which you rebel—does the Slave Oligarchy stand confessed; heartless, grasping, tyrannical; careless [195] of humanity, right, or the Constitution; wanting that foundation of justice which is the essential base of every civilized community; stuck together only by confederacy in spoliation; and constituting in itself a magnum latrocinium; while it degrades the Free States to the condition of a slave plantation, under the lash of a vulgar, despised and revolting overseer.
Surely, fellow-citizens, without hesitation or postponement you will insist that this Oligarchy shall be overthrown; and here is the foremost among the special duties of the North, now required for the honor of the republic, for our own defence, and in obedience to God. Urging this comprehensive duty, I ought to have hours rather than minutes before me; but, in a few words, you shall see its comprehensive importance. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and the wickedness of the Fugitive Slave Bill will be expelled from the statute-book. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and Slavery will cease at once in the national capital. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and liberty will become the universal law of all the national territories. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and the Slave-trade will no longer skulk along our coasts, beneath the national flag. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and the national government will be at length divorced from Slavery. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and the national policy will be exchanged from Slavery to Freedom. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and the North will be no longer the vassal of the South. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and the North will be admitted to its just share in the trusts and honors of the Republic. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and you will possess the master-key to unlock the whole house of bondage. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy—and the gates of emancipation will be open at the South.
But, without waiting for this consummation, there is another special duty to be done here at home, on our own soil, which must be made free in reality, as in name. And here I shall speak frankly, though not without a proper sense of the responsibility of my words. I know that I cannot address you entirely as a private citizen; but I shall say nothing here which I have not said elsewhere, and which I shall not be proud to vindicate everywhere. ‘A lie,’ it has been declared, ‘should be trampled out and extinguished forever,’ and surely you will do nothing less with a tyrannical and wicked enactment. The Fugitive Slave Bill, while it continues unrepealed, must be made a dead letter; not by violence; not by any unconstitutional activity or intervention; not even by hasty conflict between jurisdictions; but by an aroused Public [196] Opinion, which, in its irresistible might, shall blast with contempt, indignation and abhorrence, all who consent to be its agents. Thus did our fathers blast all who became the agents of the Stamp Act; and surely their motive was small compared with ours. The Slave-hunter who drags his victim from Africa is loathed as a monster; but I defy any acuteness of reason to indicate the moral difference between his act and that of the Slave-hunter who drags his victim from our Northern free soil. A few puny persons, calling themselves the Congress of the United States, with the titles of Representatives and Senators, cannot turn wrong into right—cannot change a man into a thing—cannot reverse the irreversible law of God—cannot make him wicked who hunts a slave on the burning sands of Congo or Guinea, and make him virtuous who hunts a slave in the colder streets of Boston or New York. Nor can any acuteness of reason distinguish between the bill of sale from the kidnapper, by which the unhappy African was originally transferred in Congo or Guinea, and the certificate of the Commissioner, by which, when once again in Freedom, he was reduced anew to bondage. The acts are kindred, and should share a kindred condemnation.
One man's virtue becomes a standard of excellence for all; and there is now in Boston, a simple citizen, whose example may be a lesson to Commissioners, Marshals, Magistrates; while it fills all with the beauty of a generous act. I refer to Mr. Hayes, who resigned his place in the city police rather than take any part in the pack of the Slave-hunter. He is now the doorkeeper of the public edifice which has been honored this winter by the triumphant lectures on Slavery. Better be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than a dweller in the tents of the ungodly. For myself, let me say, that I can imagine no office, no salary, no consideration, which I would not gladly forego rather than become in any way an agent for the enslavement of my brother-man. Where, for me, would be comfort or solace after such a work! In dreams and waking hours, in solitude and in the street, in the study of the open book and in conversation with the world,—wherever I turned, there my victim would stare me in the face; while from the distant rice-fields and sugar plantations of the South, his cries beneath the vindictive lash, his moans at the thought of liberty once his, now, alas! ravished away, would pursue me, repeating the tale of his fearful doom, and sounding —forever sounding—in my ears, ‘Thou art the man.’ Mr. President, may no such terrible voice fall on your soul or mine!
Yes, sir, here our duty is plain and paramount. While the Slave Oligarchy, through its unrepealed Slave Bill, undertakes to enslave our [197] free soil, we can only turn for protection to a Public Opinion worthy of a humane, just and religious people, which shall keep perpetual guard over the liberties of all within our borders, nay more, which, like the flaming sword of the cherubim at the gates of Paradise, turning on every side, shall prevent any Slave-hunter from ever setting foot on our sacred soil. Elsewhere he may pursue his human prey; he may employ his congenial blood-hounds, and exult in his successful game. But into these domains of Freedom he must not come. And this Public Opinion, with Freedom as its watchword, must proclaim not only the overthrow of the Slave Bill, but also the overthrow of the Slave Oligarchy behind,—the two pressing duties of the North, essential to our own emancipation; and believe me, sir, while they remain undone, nothing is done.
