The Collected Works of Theodore Parker/Volume 06/Discourse 6
THE GREAT BATTLE BETWEEN SLAVERY AND FREEDOM,
CONSIDERED IN
TWO SPEECHES,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY AT NEW YORK.
THE PRESENT ASPECT OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE, AND OF THE VARIOUS FORCES WHICH WORK THEREIN.
Delivered on the Morning of May 7, 1856.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,—After that Trinitarian introduction,[1] in which I am presented before you as one anti-Slavery nature in three persons,—a fanatic an infidel, and a traitor,—I am sure a Unitarian minister will bring his welcome along with him. And yet I come under great disadvantages: for I follow one whose colour is more than the logic which his cause did not need (alluding to Mr. Remond); and another whose sex is more eloquent than the philosophy of noblest men (referring to Mrs. Blackwell), whose word has in it the wild witchery which takes captive your heart. I am neither an African nor a woman. I shall speak, therefore, somewhat in the way of logic, which the one rejected; something also, perhaps, of philosophy, which the other likewise passed by. Allow me to say, however, still further, by way of intro duction, that I should not weary your ears at all this morning, were it not that another man, your Mend and mine, Mr. Phillips, lies sick at home. Remember the threefold misfortune of my position: I come after an African, after a woman, and in the place of Wendell Phillips.
I shall ask your attention to some "Thoughts on the Present Aspect of the anti-Slavery Enterprise, and the Forces which work therefor."
In all great movements of mankind, there are three special works to be done, so many periods of work, and the same number of classes of persons therein engaged.
First is the period of sentiment. The business is to produce the right feeling,—a sense of lack, and a fore-feeling of desire for the special thing required. The aim is to produce a sense of need, and also a feeling of want. That is the first thing.
The next period is that of ideas, where the work is to furnish the thought of what is wanted,—a distinct, precise, adequate idea. The sentiment must precede the thought: for the primitive element in all human conduct is a feeling; everything begins in a spontaneous emotion.
The third is the period of action, when the business is to make the thought a thing, to organize it into institutions. The idea must precede the action, else man begins to build and is not able to finish: he runs before he is sent, and knows not where he is going, or the way thither.
Now these three special works go on in the anti-Slavery movement; there are these three periods observable, and three classes of persons engaged in the various works. The first effort is to excite the anti-Slavery feeling ; the next, to furnish the anti-Slavery idea; and the third is to make that thought a thing,—to organize the idea into institutions which shall be as wide as the idea, and fully adequate to express the feeling itself.
I. The primitive thing has been, and still is, to arouse a sense of humanity in the whites, which should lead us to abolish this wickedness.
Another way would be to arouse a sense of indignation in the person who has suffered the wrong,—in the slave— and to urge him, of himself, to put a stop to bearing the wickedness.
Two things there were which hindered this from being attempted. First, some of the anti-Slavery leaders were non-resistant; they said it is wrong for the black man to break the arm of the oppressor, and we will only pray God to break it: the slaves must go free without breaking, it themselves. That was one reason why the appeal was not made to the slave. The leaders were non-resistants; some of them covered with a Quaker's hat, some of them (pointing to Mr. Garrison, who was bald) not covered by any covering at all.
The other reason was, the slaves themselves were Africans,—men not very good at the sword. If the case had been otherwise,—if it had been three and a half millions of Anglo-Saxons,—the chief anti-Slavery appeal would not have been to the oppressor to leave off oppressing, but to the victim to leave off bearing the oppression. For, while the African is not very good with the sword, the Anglo-Saxon is something of a master with that ugly weapon; at any rate, he knows how to use it. If the Anglo-Saxon had not been a better fighter than the African, slave-ships would fill this side of Sandy Hook and in Boston Bay; they would not take pains to go to the Gulf of Guinea. The only constitution which slave-hunters respect is writ on the parchment of a drum-head. If the three and a half millions of slaves had been white men, with this dreadful Anglo-Saxon blood in their bosoms, do you suppose the affair at Cincinnati would have turned out after that sort? Do you believe Governor Chase would have said, "No Slavery outside of the slave States; but, inside of the slave States, just as much enslavement of Anglo-Saxon men as you please?" Why, his head would not have been on his shoulders twenty-four hours after he had said it. In the State of Ohio, when Margaret Garner was surrendered up, there were four hundred thousand able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five; there were half a million of firelocks in that State; and, if that woman had been the representative of three and a half millions of white persons held as slaves, every one of those muskets would have started into life, and four hundred thousand men would have come forth, each with a firelock on his shoulder; and then one hundred thousand women would have followed, bringing the rest of the muskets. That would have been the state of things if she had been a white Caucasian woman, and not a black African. We should not then have asked Quakers to lead in the greatest enterprise in the world: the leaders would have been soldiers; I mean such men as our fathers, who did not content themselves with asking Great Britain to leave off oppressing them. They asked that first; and when Great Britain said, "Please God, we never will!" what did the Saxon say? "Please God, I will make you!" And he kept his word.
"Gods!" (we should have said,)
"Can a Saxon people long debate
Which of the two to choose,—Slavery, or death?
No: let us rise at once, gird on our swords,
… Attack the foe, break through the thick array
Of his thronged legions, and charge home upon him!"
That would have been the talk. Meetings would have been "opened with prayer" by men who trusted in God, and like kept their powder dry.
But in this case it was otherwise. The work has not been to arouse the indignation of the enslaved, but to stir the humanity of the oppressor, to touch his conscience, his affection, his religious sentiment; or to show that his political and pecuniary interests required the freedom of all men in America.
And it has been very fortunate for us that this great enterprise fell into the hands of just such men as these,—that it was not soldiers who chiefly engaged in it, but men of peace. By and by I will show you why.
The attempt was made at first, and by that gentleman too (pointing to Mr. Garrison), with others, to arouse the anti-Slavery feeling in the actual slave-holders at the South. You know what followed. He and every one who tried it there were driven over the border. Then the attempt was made at the North; and there it has been continued. It is exceedingly important to get a right anti-Slavery feeling at the North: for two-thirds of the population are at the North; three-fourths of the property, four-fifths of the education are here, and I suppose six-sevenths of the Chris tianity; and one of these days it may be found out that seven-eighths of the courage are at the North also. I do not say it is so; but it may turn out so. So much for the matter of sentiment.
II. Now look at the next point. If the sentiment be right, then the mind is to furnish the idea. But a statement of the idea before the sentiment is fixed helps to excite the feeling; and so a great deal has been done to spread abroad the anti-Slavery idea, even amongst persons who had not the anti-Slavery feeling; for, though the heart helps the head, the head nkewise pays back the debt by helping the heart. If Mr. Garrison has a clear idea of freedom, he will go to men who have no very strong sentiment of freedom, and will awake the soul of liberty underneath those ribs of death. The womanhood of Lucy Stone Blackwell will do it; the complexion of Mr. Remond will do it.
In spreading this idea of freedom, a good deal has been done, chiefly at the North, but something also at the South. Attempts have been made to diffuse the anti-Slavery idea in this way: Men go before merchants, and say, "Slavery is bad economy; it don't pay: the slave can't raise so much tobacco and cotton as the freeman." That is an argument which Mr. May's "mercantile friend" could have understood; and a political economist might have shown him, that, although there were millions of dollars invested "on account of Slavery," there were tens of millions invested on account of Freedom; and that latter investment would pay much larger dividends when it got fairly to its work.
Then, too, the attempt has been made to show that it was bad policy: bondage would not breed a stalwart, noble set of men; for the slave contaminated the master, and the master's neighbour not the less.
It has been shown, likewise, that Slavery injured education; and while, in Massachusetts, out of four hundred native white men, there is but one who cannot read the Bible, in Virginia, out of nine white native adults born of "the first families" (they having none others except "black people"), there is always one who cannot read his own name.
All kinds of schemes, too, have been proposed to end this wickedness of Slavery. There has been a most multifarious discussion of the idea; for, after we have the right sentiment, it is difficult to get the intellectual work done, done well, in the best way. It takes a large-minded man, with great experience, to cipher out all this intellectual work, and show how we can get rid of Slavery, and what is to take its place, and how the thing is to be done. Accordingly, very various schemes are proposed.
Now, the idea which has been attained to, the anti-Slavery idea reached by the ablest men, is embodied in these two propositions: first, no Slavery anywhere in America; second, no Slavery anywhere on earth. That is the topmost idea.
There has been an opposite work going on. First, an attempt "to crush out" the sentiment of humanity from all mankind. That was the idea of a very distinguished son of Massachusetts. He said "it must be crushed out." Second, to put down the idea of Freedom. That has been. attempted, not only by political officers, but also by a great many other men. It is not to be denied that, throughout the South, in the controlling classes of society, the sentiment and idea of Freedom are much less widely spread than twenty years ago. The South has grown despotic, while the North becomes more humane.
III. The third thing is to do the deed. After the sentiment is right, and the idea right, organization must be attended to. But the greatest and most difficult work is to get the heart right and the head right ; for, when these are in a proper condition, the hand obeys the two, and accomplishes its work. Still it is a difficult matter to organize Freedom. It will require great talent and experience; for, as it takes a master mind to organize thought into matter, and to make a Sharp's rifle or a sewing-machine, so it requires a great deal more mind to organize an idea into political institutions, and establish a State where the anti-Slavery sentiment shall blossom into an idea, and the idea grow into a national fact, a State where law and order secure to each man his natural and unalienable rights.
In the individual Northern States a good deal has been done in five-and-twenty years to organize the idea of freedom for white men, a little also for coloured men; for the feeling and thought must lead to action. But in the Federal Government the movement has been continually the other way. Two things are plain in the conduct of Congress: (1) Acts to spread and strengthen African Slavery; (2) Subsidiary Acts to oppress the several Northern States which love Freedom, and to "crush out" individual men who love Freedom. Slavery centralizes power, and destroys local self-government.
Something has been done in the Northern States in respect to awakening the sentiment and communicating the idea; but there has nothing been done as yet in the Federal Congress towards accomplishing the work. I mean to say, for the last seventy years. Congress has not taken one single step towards abolishing Slavery, or making the anti-Slavery idea an American fact. So even now all these three operations must needs go on. Much elementary work still requires to be done, producing the sentiment and the idea, before the nation is ready for the act.
Now look at the special forces which are engaged in this enterprise. I divide them into two great parties.
The first party consists of the political reformers,—men who wish to act by political machinery, and are in government offices, legislative, judicial, and executive.
The second party is the non-political reformers, who are not, and do not wish to be, in government offices, legislative, judicial, or executive.
Look a moment at the general functions of each party, and then at the particular parties themselves,—at the business, and then at the business men.
The business of the political man, legislative, judicial, and executive, is confined to the third part of the anti-Slavery work; namely, to organizing the idea, and making the anti-Slavery thought a thing. The political reformer, as such, is not expected to kindle the sentiment or create the idea, only to take what he finds ready, and put it into form. The political legislative is to make laws and institutions which organize the idea. The political judiciary is to expound the laws, and is limited thereby. The political executive is to administer the institution, and is limited to that: he cannot go beyond it. So the judiciary and, the executive are limited by the laws and Institutions. The legislature is chosen by the people to represent the people; that is, It is chosen to represent and to organize the Ideas, and to express the sentiments, of the people; not to organize sentiments which are in advance of the people, or which are behind the people. The political legislator is restricted by the ideas of the people: if he wants what they do not want, then they do not want him. If senator Wilson had a million of men and women in Massachusetts who entertained the sentiments and ideas of Mr. Garrison, why he would represent the sentiments and ideas of Mr. Garrison, would express them in Congress, and would go to work to organize those ideas.
In hoisting the anchor of a ship, two sets of men are at work, two machines. One, I think, is called the windlass. Many powerful men put their levers to that, and hoist the anchor up out from the deep. Behind them is the capstan, whose business it is to haul in the rope. Now, the function of the non-political reformer is to hoist the anchor up from the bottom: he is the windlass. But the business of Chase, Hale, Sumner, and Wilson, and other political reformers, is to haul in the slack, and see that what the windlass has raised up is held on to, and that the anchor does not drop back again to the bottom. The men at the windlass need not call out to the men at the capstan, "Haul in more slack!" when there is no more to haul in. This is the misfortune of the position of the men at the capstan,—they cannot turn any faster than the windlass gives them slack rope to wind up. That ought to be remembered. Every political man, before he takes his post, ought to understand that; and the non-political men, when they criticize him never so sharply, ought to remember that the men at the capstan cannot turn any fluster than the men at the windlass.
If the politician is to keep in office, he must accommodate himself to the ideas of the people; for the people are sovereign, and reign, while the politicians only govern with delegated power, but do not reign: they are agents, trustees, holding by a special power of attorney, which authorizes them to do certain things, for doing which they are responsible to the people. In order to carry his point, the politician must have a majority on his side: he cannot wait for it to grow, but must have it now, else lie loses his post. He takes the wolf by the ears ; and, if he lets go, the wolf eats him up : he must therefore lay hold where he can clinch fast and continue. If Mr. Sumner, in his place in the Senate, says what Massachusetts does not indorse, out goes Mr. Sumner. It is the same with the rest. All politicians are well aware of that fact. I have sometimes thought they forgot a great many other things; they very seldom forget that.
See the proof of what I say. If you will go into any political meeting of Whigs or Democrats, you shall find the ablest men of the party on the platform,—the great Whigs, the great Democrats; "the rest of mankind" will be on the floor. Now, watch the speeches. They do not propose an idea, or appeal to a sentiment that is in advance of the people. But, when you go into an anti-Slavery meeting you find that the platform is a great ways higher than the pews, uniformly so. Accordingly, when an African speaks (who is commonly supposed to be lower than "the rest of mankind") and says a very generous thing, there is a storm of hisses all round this hall. What does it show? That the anti-Slavery platform which the African stands on is somewhat higher than the general level of the floor, even in the city of New York. The politician on his platform often speaks to the bottom of the floor, and not to the top of the ceiling.
So much for the political reformers: I am not speaking of political hunkers. Now a word of the non-political reformers. Their business is, first, to produce the sentiment; next, the idea; and, thirdly, to suggest the mode of action. The anti-Slavery non-political reformer is to raise the cotton, to spin it into thread', to weave it into web, to prescribe the pattern after which the dress is to be made; and then he is to pass over the cloth and the pattern to the political reformer, and say, "Now, sir, take your shears, and cut it out, and make it up." You see how very inferior the business of the political reformer is, after all. The non-political reformer is not restricted by any law, any Constitution, any man, nor by the people, because he is not to deal with institutions; he is to make the institutions better. If he do not like the Union, he is to say so; and, just as soon as he has gathered an audience inside of the Union that is a little too large for its limits, the Union will be taken down without much noise, and piled up,—just as this partition (alluding to the partition dividing the hall) has been taken down this monung, — and there will be a larger place. The non-political reformer can say, "Down with the Constitution!" but the political reformer has sworn to keep the Constitution. JBEe is foreclosed from saying that to-day: by and by he can recant his oath, and say it when he gets ready. The non-political reformer is not restricted by fear of losing office. Wendell Phillips can say just what he pleases anywhere: if men will not hear him in Faneuil Hall, they will, perhaps, in the Old South Meeting-house. If they will not here him there, he can speak on the Common; at any rate, in some little schoolhouse.
The political reformer must have a majority with him, else he cannot do anything; he has not carried his point or accomplished his end. But the non-political reformer has accomplished part of his end, if he has convinced one man out of a million; for that one man will work to convince another, and by and by the whole will be convinced. A political reformer must get a majority; a non-political reformer has done something if he has the very smallest minority, even if it is a minority of one. The politician needs bread: he goes, therefore, to the baker; and bread must be had to-day. He says, "I am starving: I can't wait." The baker says, "Go and raise the com." "Why, bless you," he replies, " it will take a year to do that; and I can't wait." The non-political reformer does not depend on the baker. The baker says, "I have not much flour." "Very well," he says, "I am going to procure it for you." So he puts in the seed, and raises the harvest. Sometimes he must take the land wild, and even cut down the forest, and scare off the wild beasts. After he has done that preliminary work, he has to put in the anti-Slavery seed, raise the anti-Slavery com, and then get the public baker to make the bread with which to feed the foremost of the political reformers,—men like Seward, Hale, Sumner, and Wilson. They do all that is possible in their present position, with such a constituency behind them: they will do more and better soon as the people command; nay, they will not wait for orders,—soon as the people allow them. These men are not likely to prove false to their trust. They urge the people forward.
So much for the business. Now look at the business men.
I. Look first at the political part of the anti-Slavery forces.
1. There is the Republican party. That is a direct force for anti-Slavery; but, as the anti-Slavery idea and sentiment are not very wide-spread, the ablest members of the Republican party are forced to leave their special business as politicians, and go into the elementary work of the non-political reformers. Accordingly, Mr. Wilson stumped all Massachusetts last year,—yes, all the North ; not working for purpose purely political, but for a purpose purely anti-Slavery—to excite the anti-Slavery sentiment, to produce an anti-Slavery idea. And Mr. Sumner has had to do that work, even in our city of Boston. Yet New England is further advanced in anti-Slavery than any other part of America. The superiority of the Puritan stock shows itself everywhere; I mean its moral superiority. Look at this platform: how many persons here are of New England origin? If an anti-Slavery meeting was held at San Francisco or New Orleans, it would be still the same ; the platform would be Yankee. It is the foot of New England which stands on that platform. It is to tread Slavery down. But, notwithstanding New England is the most anti-Slavery portion of the whole land, these political men, whose business ought to be only to organize the anti-Slavery ideas, and give expression to anti-Slavery sentiments in the Senate, or House of Representatives, are forced to abandon that work from time to time, to go about amongst the people, and produce the anti-Slavery sentiment and idea itself. Let us not be very harsh in criticising these men, remembering that they are not so well supported behind as we could all wish they were.
This Republican party has some exceedingly able men. As a Massachusetts man, in. another State, I am not expected to say anything in praise of Mr. Sumner, or Mr. Wilson, or Mr. Banks. It would be hardly decorous for a Massachusetts man, out of his own State, to speak in praise of those men. And they need no praise from my lips. And, as a New England man, I think it is not necessary for me to praise Mr. Hale or Mr. Foote, Mr. Collamer, Mr Fessenden, or any other eminent political men of New England. But, as a New Englander and a Massachusetts man, you will allow me to say a word in praise of one who has no drop of Puritan blood in his veins; who was never in New England but twice,—the first time to attend a cattle-show, and the last to stand on Plymouth Rock, on Forefathers' Day, and, in the bosom of the sons and daughters of the Puritans, to awaken the anti-Slavery sentiment and kindle the anti-Slavery idea. I am speaking of your own Senator Seward. As I cannot be accused of State pride or of sectional vanity in praising him, let me say, that, in all the United States, there is not at this day a politician so able, so far-sighted, so cautious, so wise, so discriminating, and apparently so gifted with power to organize ideas into men, and administer that organization, as William Henry Seward. I know the other men; I detract nothing from them. It is a great thing to be second where Seward is first.
Of course, this party, as such, will make mistakes; individual republicans will do wrong things. It has been declared here that Mr. Hale says, in his place in the Senate, that he would not disturb Slavery nor the slave-holders. I doubt that he ever said so in public; I am sure it is not his private opinion. I know not what he said that has been so misunderstood. His sentiment is as strongly anti-Slavery as our friend Garrison's; but he is just now in what they call a "tight place:" he wants to do one thing at a time. The same is true of Henry Wilson and of Charles Sumner: they want to do one thing at a time. I do not find fault with their wishing to do that. The Constitution is the power of attorney which tells them how to act as official agents of the people; how to govern for the sovereign people, whose vicegerents they are. But there are republican politicians who limit their work to one special thing, and say, "To-day will we do this, and then strike work for ever. We do not intend to do anything to-morrow." They say, "Please God, we will pull up these weeds today." The South says, "You shan't!" And these men say, "Let us pull up these: we will never touch those which grow just the other side of the path." They hate those other weeds just as much ; they mean to pull them up: but I am sorry to hear them say they do not intend to: and I am glad to hear severe censure passed upon them for promising never to do that particular thing,—not for taking one step at a time. If we only find fault with real offenders, we shall still have work enough to do.
I say this party has great names and powerful men. It will gain others from the Democrats and from the Whigs alike. See what it has gathered from the Democrats I Look at that high-toned and noble newspaper, the Evening Post, and its editor, not only gifted with the genius of poetry, which is a great thing, but with the genius of humanity, which is tenfold greater. See likewise such a man as Francis P. Blair coming into this movement I Governor Chase is another that it has gathered from that party. There are various other men whom I might mention from both the old political parties. Then see what service is rendered to the cause of humanity by a newspaper, which, a few years ago, seemed sworn for ever to Henry Clay. I speak of the only paper in the world which counts its readers by the million,—the New York Tribune. The Republican party gathers the best hearts and the noblest heads out of the Whig and the Democratic parties. If faithful, it will do more in this way for the future than in the past. The Democratic party continues to exist by these two causes: (1) its admirable organization; (2) the tradition of noble ideas and sentiments. In this respect, it is to the Americans what the Catholic Church is to Europe; the leaders of the two about equally corrupt, the rank and file about equally deceived, hoodwinked, and abused. Which is the better,—to be politician-ridden, or priest-ridden? Good men will become weary of such service, and leave the party for a better^ soon as they are sure that it is better.
2. Look next at the American party, so called: it is anti-American in some particulars, This is an indirect anti-Slavery force, as the Republican party is a direct anti-Slavery force. I suppose you know what its professed principle is,—"No foreign influence in our politics." Now, that principle comes partly from a national instinct, whose function is this: first, to prevent the excess of foreign blood in our veins; and, secondly, the excess of foreign ideas in the American consciousness. Well, it was necessary there should be that party. It has a very important function; because it is possible for a people to take so much foreign blood in its veins, and so many foreign ideas to its consciousness, that its nationality perishes.
In part, this principle comes from the national instinct; and that is always stronger in the great mass of the people than it is in any class of men with "superior education:" for the superior education consists almost wholly, in development of the understanding, — ^the thinking part,—not in culture of the conscience, the affections, and the religious element. Therefore, for the national instinct, I never look to lawyers, ministers, doctors, literary and scientific men, or, in short, to the class of men who have what is called the "best education:"I look to the great mass of the people. It seems to me that the national instinct of the Saxon had something to do in making this principle of the American party so popular.
However, I do not think the chief devotion to this principle comes from that source, but from one very much corrupter than that,—a source a great deal lower than the uneducated mass of the Northern people. It comes from political partisans,—men who want office. There are two ways of getting into high office. One is to fly there: that is a very good way for an animal furnished with wings. The other is to crawl there: that is the only way left for such as have no wings, and no legs, and no arms. Well, there was a class of men at the North who could not fly into office; and when the way which led up to the office was perpendicular, and went up straight, they could not crawl; they were so slippery, that they fell off: there was not strength enough in their natural gluten to hold up their natural weight. Such men could not fly there; they could not crawl there, so long as the road went straight up; so they took the Know-Nothing plank, which sloped up pretty gradually; and on it Mr. Gardner crawled into the governorship of Massachusetts. A good many men, in various other States, wormed up on that gently sloping inclined plane, who else never would have been within sight of any considerable office. Now, it is this class of men, who caught sight of that principle demanded by the national instinct, which fears an excess of foreign blood in our veins, and of foreign ideas in our consciousness; and they said, "Let us make use of that as a wedge upon which we can crawl up into office." They have, got in there; but before long they will fall out of their lofty hole, or, if they stay in, will be shrivelled up, dried clear through, and by and by be blown off so far that no particle of them will ever be found again. The American party just now, throughout all the United States, I fear, has fallen into the hands of this class of men. It does not any longer, I think, represent the instinct of the less-educated people, or the consciousness of the more thoughtful people, but the designs of artful, crafty, and rather low-minded persons.
But let no injustice be done. In the party are still noble men, who entered it full of this national instinct, with these three negations on their banner,—No Priestcraft, No Liquor, No New Slave States. Some of them still adhere to the worst of the leaders of their party^ Loyalty is as strong in the Saxon as in the Russian or Spaniard; as often attaches itself to a mean man. It is now painful to see such faithful worshippers of such false "gods." "An idol is Nothing," says St. Paul: it may also be a Know-Nothing.
This party, notwithstanding its origin and character, has done two good works—one native, one positive.
First, it helped destroy the Whig and Democratic party. That was very essential. The anti-Slavery man, the non-political reformer, wanted to sow his seed in the national soil. It was dreadfully cumbered with weeds of two kinds—Whig-weed and Democrat-weed. The Know-Nothings lent their hands to destroy these weeds; and they have pulled up the Whig-weed pretty thoroughly: they have torn it up by the roots, shaken the soil from it, and it lies there partly drying and partly rotting, but, at any rate, pretty thoroughly dead. They laid hold of the Democrat-weed. That was a little too rank, and strongly rooted in the ground, for them to pull up. Nevertheless, they loosened its roots; they gave it a twist in the trunk; they broke of some branches, and stripped off some of its leaves, and it does not look quite so nourishing as it did several years ago.
Now, this negative work is very important; for, if we could get both these kinds of weed out of the soil, it would not be a very difficult matter to sow the seed and raise a harvest of anti-Slavery.
Next for the positive work. It calls out men who hitherto have never taken the initiative in politics, but have voted just as they were bid. I will speak of Massachusetts, of Boston. We had there a large class of excellent men, who always went, a week or two before the election, to the Whigs and Democrats, and said, "Whom ore we to vote for?" The great Whigs said, "We have not yet taken counsel of the Lord ; we shall do so to-morrow, and then we will tell you." So these men went home, and bowed their knees, and waited in silent submission; and the next day their masters said, "You are to vote for John Smith or John Brown," or whosoever it chanced to be. And the people said, "Hurrah for the great John Smith!" "Hurrah for the great John Brown!" "Did you ever hear of him before?" asked some one. "No: but he is the greatest man alive." "Who told you so?" "Oh! our masters told us so." Now, the Know-Nothings went to that class of men, and said, "You have been fooled long enough." "So we have," said the people," and no mistake! and we will not bear it any longer." They would not be fooled any longer by the Whigs, and some of them no longer by the Democrats ; but they were fooled by the Know-Nothings. Nevertheless, it was an important thing for this class of people to take the initiative in political matters. If they stumbled as they tried to go alone, it is what all children have done. "Up and take another," is' good advice. So the Know Nothings not only pulled up the Whig- weed, and left it to rot, but they stirred the land ; they ploughed it deep with a subsoil plough, turning up a whole stratum of people which had never been brought up to the surface of the political garden before. That was another very important matter; and yet, allow me to say, with all this subsoiling, they have not turned up one single man who proves powerful in politics, and at the same time new. Mr. Wilson owns his place in the Senate to the Know-Nothings: he was known to be a powerful man before. Mr. Banks owes his place to this party; he also was a powerful man before. I do not find, anywhere in the United States, that the Americans have brought one single able man before the people, who was not known to the people just as well before, you. shall determine what that fact means. I shall not say just now.
At the Souths this party has done greater service than at the North; for, among the non-slaveholders at the South, there is a class of men with very little money, less education, and no social standing whatsoever. That class have been deprived of their political power by the rich, educated, and respectable slave-holders; for the slave-holders make the laws, ml the offices, and monopolize all the government of the South. Those Poor-whites are nothing but the dogs of the slave-holder. Whenever he says, "Seize him. Dirt-eater!" away goes this whole pack of pro-Slavery dogs, catching hold of whomsoever their master set them upon. This class of men, having no money and no education, and no means of getting any, deprived of political influence, felt that they were crushed down; but they were too ignorant to know what hurt them. They had no newspapers, no means of concerted action. Northern men have undertaken to help those men. Mr. Vaughan established his newspaper at Cleveland chiefly for the purpose of reaching them. Cassius M. Clay, in Kentucky, said, "Let us speak to that class of men." Once in a while, you hear of their holding a meeting somewhere in Virginia, and uttering some kind of anti-Slavery sentiment or idea. Very soon they are put down. Now, the Know-Nothings went among the Poor-whites in the South, and organized American lodges. The whole thing was done in secret; so that the organization was established, and set on its legs, before the slave-holders knew anything about it : it was strong, and had grown up to be a great boy before they knew the child was bom. Of course, the Southern Know-Nothing party, at first, does not know exactly what to do; so it taKes the old ideas of persons that are about it, and becomes intensely pro-Slavery. That is not quite all. The Whigs at the South have always been feeble. They saw that their party was going to pieces ; and, with the instinct of that other animal which flees out of the house which is likely to fall, they sought shelter under some safer roof: they fled to the know-Nothing organization. The leading Whigs got control of the party at the South, and made that still more pro-Slavery in the South which was already sufficiently despotic at the North. Nevertheless, there has now risen up, at the South, a body of men who, when they come to complete consciousness of themselves, will see that they are in the same boat with the black man, and that what now curses the black man will also ruin the Poor-white at last. At present, they are too ignorant to understand that; for the bulk of the American party at the South consists of Know-Nothings) who were such before they ever went into a lodge—natural Know-Nothings, who need no initiation. Nevertheless, they are human; and the truth, driven with the slave-holder's hammer, will force itself even into such heads.
Such men are not hopeless. One day, we shall see a great deal of good come from them. At present, they are in the same condition with the Irish at Boston—first, ignorant; and next, controlled by their priests; for, as the Irish Catholic in Boston and New York is roughly ridden by that heavy ecclesiastical rider, the priest, so the Know-Nothings at the South are still more roughly ridden by this desperate political rider mounted upon their backs. One day, both the Irish and the Know-Nothing master will be unhorsed, and there will be no more such riding.
So much for these two anti-Slavery forces—one direct, and the other indirect.
This, let me say in general, is the sin of the politician—he seeks office for his own personal gain, and, when he is in it, refuses to organize the anti-Slavery ideas which he was put in office to develop and represent. After the windlass has lifted the anchor, he refuses to haul in the slack cable. That was the case with Webster; it caused him his death. It was the case with Everett; it brought him to private life and political ruin. Many are elected as anti-Slavery men, who prove false to their professions. New England is rich in traitors. The British Executive bought Benedict Arnold with money; the American Executive has since bought many an Arnold. Look at the present national Administration. In 1852, had he published his programme of principles and measures, do you think Mr. Pierce would have had the vote of a single Northern State? Not an electoral vote would have been given by the North for robbing the people of a million square miles of land, and bestowing it on three hundred and fifty thousand slave-holders! He is an official swindler. He got his place by false pretences—the juggling trick of the thimble-rigger. Mr. Hale says, "For every doughfaced representative, there is a doughfaced constituency." It is true; but the constituency is not always quite so soft as the delegate; it is at least slack-baked, and does not pretend to be what it knows it is not.
Here, too, let me say, it is a great misfortune that the North has not sent more strong men to the political work. In time of war, you take the ablest men you can find, and put them to do the military work of the people. The North commonly sends her ablest men to science, literature, productive industry, trade, and manufactures; the South, hers to politics; and so she outwits and beats us from one fifty years to another. But, in such a terrible battle as this before us now, rest assured the North cannot afford to send her strong men to callings directly productive of pecuniary value: we must have them in politics—men of great mind, able to see far behind and before; of great experience, to organize and administer. Above all must our statesmen be men of great justice and humanity, such as reverence the higher law of God. Integrity is the first thing needed in a statesman. The time may come when the men of largest human power may go to the shop, the counting-room, the farm, the ship, to science, or preaching: just now we cannot afford to make a land-surveyor out of a "Washington, or turn our Franklins into tallow-chandlers. When we can afford such expenditure, I shall not object: now we are not rich enough to allow Moses to tend sheep, asses, and young camels, or to keep Paul at tent-making.
Here are the anti-Slavery forces which are not political. They are various.
At first, the anti-Slavery men looked to the American Church, and said, "That will be our great bulwark and defender." Instead of being a help, it has been a hinderance. If the American Church, twenty years ago, could have dropped through the continent, and disappeared altogether, the anti-Slavery cause would have been further on than it is at this day. If, remaining above ground, every minister in the United States had sealed his lips, and said, "Before God, I will say no word for freedom or against it, in behalf of the slave-holder or of his victim/' the anti-Slavery enterprise would have been further on than it is at this day. I say, that, notwithstanding the majestic memory of William Ellery Channing, a magnanimous man, whose voice rung like a trumpet through the continent, following that other clearer, higher, more widely sounding voice, still spared to us on earth (Mr. Garrison's); notwithstanding the eloquent words which do honour to the name of Beecher and the heart of humanity; notwithstanding the presence of this dear good soul (referring to Samuel J. May), whose presence in the anti-Slavery cause has been like the month whose name he bears, and has brought a whole lapful of the sweetest flowers,—the Church has hindered more than it has helped. For the tallest heads in the great sects were lifted up to blaspheme the God of Righteousness, and commit the sin which Mr. Remond says is second only to Atheism,—the denial of humanity. While the Atheist openly denied God, many a minister openly denied man. I think the minister committed the worst sin; for he sinned in the name of God, and hypocritically: he wrought his blasphemy that he might gain his daily bread, while the Atheist perilled his bread and his reputation when he stood up, and said, "I think there is no God." I have no respect for Atheism; but, when a man in the pulpit blasphemes the Divinity of God by treading the humanity of man under His anointed foot, I say I would take my chance in the next world with him who speaks out of his own heart, in his blindness, and says, "There is no God," rather than share the lot of that man who, in the name of Jesus and of the Father, treads down humanity, and declares there is no higher law.
There are a great many direct anti-Slavery forces.
1. The conduct of the slave-holders in the South, and their allies, has awakened the indignation of the North. The Fugitive Slave Bill was an anti-Slavery measure. We said so six years ago; now we know it. Kidnapping is anti-Slavery; it makes anti-Slavery men. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise stirred anti-Slavery sentiment in Northern hearts. The conduct of affairs in Kansas, Judge Kane's wickedness, and the horrible outrage at Cincinnati, —all these turn out anti-Slavery measures. Mr. Douglas stands in his place in the Senate, and turns his face north, and says, "We mean to subdue you." The mass at the North says, " We are not going to be subdued." It is an anti-Slavery resolution. The South repudiates Democracy: the Charleston Mercury and the Richmond Examiner. say that the Declaration of Independence is a great mistake when it says all men are by nature equal in their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,—that there is no greater lie in the world. When the North understands that, it says, "I am anti-Slavery at once." The North has not heard it yet thoroughly. One day it will.
2. Then there are the general effects of education: it enlightens men, so that they can see that Slavery is a bad speculation, bad economy.
3. Then there is the progressive moralization of the North. The North is getting better, more and more Christian and humane, it was never so temperate as today, never so just, never so moral, never so humane and philanthropic. To be sure, even now we greatly over-look our black brother: it is because he is not an Anglo-Saxon. But he has human blood in his veins: by and by we shall see our black brother also.
4. Then the better portion of the Northern press is on our side. Consider what quantities of books have been written within the last ten years full of anti-Slavery sentiment, and running over with anti-Slavery ideas. Think of Uncle Tom's Cabin and the host of books, only inferior to that, which have been published* Then look at the newspapers. I just spoke of the Evening Post, and Tribune: look at the New York Independent, with twenty thousand subscribers, with so much anti-Slavery in it. It does not go the length that I wish it did, and sometimes it does very mean things ; for it is not unitary. See what powerful anti-Slavery agents are the Evening Post, the Independent, the New York Times, and the New York Tribune, and that whole army of newspapers, some of them in every Northern city ; not to forget the National Era, at Washington. Besides these, there are the anti-Slavery newspapers proper, the Liberator, the Standard, and divers others, only second where it is praise to be inferior.
5. Then there is the anti-Slavery party proper, with its men, its money, and its immense force in the country. What power of religion it has! I know it has been called anti-religious, anti-Christian, Infidel. Was not Jesus of Nazareth nailed to the cross, between two thieves, on the charge that He blasphemed God? How rich is this party in its morals, how mighty in its eloquence! I am sorry its most persuasive lips are not here to-day to speak for themselves and for you, and instead of me. Here is a woman also in the anti-Slavery ranks. I need say nothing of her: her own sweet music just now awoke the tune of humanity in your hearts, and I saw the anti-Slavery sentiment spring in tears out of your eyes. One day, from such watering, it will blossom into an anti-Slavery idea, and fruiten into anti-Slavery acts.
(1.) Here is the merit of this anti-Slavery party. It appeals to the very widest and deepest humanity. It knows no restriction of State or Church. If the State is wrong, the anti-Slavery party says, "Away with the State!" if the Church is mistaken, "Down with the Church!" If the people are wrong, then it says, "Woe unto you, ye people! you are sinning against God, and your sin will find you out." It does not appeal to the politician, the priest, the editor alone; it goes to the people, face to face, eye to eye, heart to heart, and speaks to them, and with immense power. It knows no man after the flesh. Let me suppose an impossibility — that Mr. May should become as Everett, and Mr. Garrison as Webster: would their sin be forgiven by the abolitionists? No: those who sit behind them now would stand, not on this platform, but on this table, and denounce them for their short-coming and wrong doing. They spare no man; they forgive no sin against the idea of Freedom.
They are not selfish; for they ask nothing except an opportunity to do their duty. And they have had nothing except a "chance" to do that; always in ill report until now, when you shall judge how much there is of good report awaiting them.
They are untiring. I wish they would sink through the platform, so that I could say what would now put them to the blush before so large an audience.
They appeal to the high standard of absolute right. This is their merit. The nation owes them a great debt, which will not be paid in this life. Their reward is in the nobleness which does such deeds and lives such life : thus they will take with them "an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away."
(2.) Here, I think, is their defect. They forget, sometimes, that there must be political workmen. This comes from the fact, that, to so great an extent, they are non-voters, even "non-resistants." If they were the opposite, they would have appealed to violence : being Quakers and non-resistants, they have not done quite justice always, it seems to me, to those who work in the political way. This has been charged against them : that they quarrel among themselves; two against three, and three against two; Douglas against Garrison, and Garrison against Douglas; the liberty-party men against the old anti-Slavery men ; and all that. That is perfectly true. But remember why it is so. You can bring together a Democratic body, draw your line, and they all touch the mark: it is so with the "Whigs. They have long been drilled into it. But, whenever a body of men with new ideas comes to organize, there are as many opinions as persons. Pilate and Herod, bitter enemies of each other, were made friends by a common hostility to Jesus ; but, when the twelve disciples came together, they fell out : Paul resisted Peter; James differed from John ; and so on. It is always so oil every platform of new ideas, and will always be so—at least for a long time. "We must bear with one another the best we can.
I think that the anti-Slavery party has not always done quite justice to the political men. See why. It is easy for Mr. Garrison and Mr. PhilKps or me to say all of our thought. I am responsible to nobody, and nobody to me. But it is not easy for Mr. Sumner, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Chase to say all of their thought ; because they have a position to maintain, and they must keep in that position. The political reformer is hired to manage a mill owned by the people, turned by the popular stream— to grind into anti-Slavery meal such com as the people bring him for that purpose, and other grain also into different meal. He is not principal and owner, only attorney and hired-man. He must do his work so as to suit his employers, else they say, "Thou mayest be no longer miller." The non-political reformer owns his own mill, which is turned by the stream drawn from his private pond: he put up the dam, and may do what he will with his own—run it all night, on Sunday, and the 4th of July; may grind just as he likes, for it is his own com. He sells his meal to such as will buy. He is in no danger of being turned out of his office; for he has no master—is not hired man to any one.
The anti-Slavery non-political reformer is to excite the sentiment, and give the idea: he may tell his whole scheme all at once, if he will. But the political reformer, who, for immediate action, is to organize the sentiment and idea he finds ready for him, cannot do or propose all things at once : he must do one thing at a time, tell one thing at a time. He is to cleave Slavery off from the Government; and so must put the thin part of his wedge in first, and that where it will go the easiest. If he takes a glut as thick as an anti-Slavery platform, and puts it in anywhere, head foremost, let him strike never so hard, he will not rend off a splinter from the tough log; nay, will only waste his strength, and split the head of his own beetle!
Still, this non-political, anti-Slavery party—averse to fighting, hostile to voters under present, if not all possible, circumstances—has been of most immense value to mankind. It has been a perpetual critic on politicians; and now it has become so powerful that every political man in the North is afraid of it; and, when he makes a speech, he asks not only. What will the Whigs or the Democrats think of it? but, what will the anti-Slavery men say; what will the Liberator and the Standard say of it? And, when a candidate is to be presented for the office of president, the men who make the nomination go to the Quakers of Pennsylvania, and say, "Whom do you want?" They go to the non-resistants of Massachusetts— men that never vote or take office—and ask if it will do to nominate this, that, or the other man. A true Church is to criticize the world by a higher standard. The non-political anti-Slavery party is the Church of America to criticize the politics of America. It has been of immense service; it is now a great force.
6. Besides that, there is the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon tribe, which hates oppression, which loves justice and liberty, and will at last have freedom for all. Look at its history for three hundred years—from 1556, when the three millions of Old England were ruled by the bloody Mary, to 1856, when the three millions of New England govern themselves! Do you fear for the next three himdred years? That historic momentum will not be lost.
7. Then there is the spirit of the age we live in. Only see what has been done in a century! A hundred years ago, there were slaves in every comer of the land, there are men on this platform, whose fathers, within fourscore years, have not only owned black, but red and white slaves also. See what a steady march there has been of freedom in New England, and throughout the North—likewise on the continent of Europe! Christendom repudiates bondage. Think of British and French emancipation, of Dutch and Danish. Slavery is only at home in three places in Christendom,—Russia, Brazil, and the south of the United States. A hundred years ago, there was not a spot in all Europe where there was not Slavery in one form or another,—men put up at auction. It is only ninety-eight years ago since men were kidnapped in Glasgow, Scotland, and sold into bondage for ever in the City of Brotherly Love, at Philadelphia. That thing took place in 1758. See what an odds there is!
It is plain that American Slavery is to end ultimately. It cannot stand. The question before us is, " Shall it rum America before it stops?" I think it will not. The next question is, "Shall it end peaceably, as the Quakers wish, and as all anti-Slavery men wish, or shall it end in blood?" On that point I shall not now give my opinion.
- ↑ The President, Mr. Garrison, thus introduced Mr. Parker to the audience:—
"Ladies and Gentlemen,—The fanaticism and infidelity and treason which are hateful to the traffickers in slaves and the souls of men must be well-pleasing to God, and are indications of true loyalty to the cause of liberty. I have the pleasure of introducing to you a very excellent fanatic, a very good infidel, and a first-rate traitor, in the person of Theodore Parker, of Boston."