Delivered at Dodworth’s Hall, on the Morning
of Sunday, Dec. 16, 1860.
Mrs. C. L. V. Hatch, Medium.
“They being Dead yet Speak.”
I Have been requested to state that the object of the present discourse, and of that which will follow this evening, is two-fold; first to represent as nearly as possible through one human organism, two distinct identities of opposite character; and so distinctly shall we endeavor to identify ourselves, that those who know us may perhaps recognize us as being present; and secondly, to give you two opposite and distinct sides of the question which is now pending in your national government, and show you that while in the invisible world there are opportunities of observation, of knowing the future and perceiving the present, greater than in the evident world; there are yet differences of opinion, perhaps as distinct and positive as those that characterized us when we were with you, and as those which now mark the political struggle in your nation, or the struggle between right and wrong, as we understand it.
I propose upon this occasion not to enter into a religious discussion of slavery, for we have no standard of what is religious and what is not religious, save that which is embodied in the truth. We do not propose therefore, to appeal to your religious prejudices in behalf of any movement or of any principle connected with American slavery. But we propose to appeal to your reason, to your judgment, to your sympathy, to your humanity; and if these are not religion, where is the altar that is sanctified to worship? We do not ask you to recognize slavery or anti-slavery, because it is revealed in this book, ( the Bible, ) greatly as we revere it, much as we approve of many of its doctrines; yet we know that God speaks oftener to human souls, through human affections, than through written laws. The mind is a great and positive revelation; and human sympathy and human intelligence are the recorded evidences of his power and greatness. We shall appeal, therefore, to your high manhood; to your great sense of human justice; to your comprehension of the Infinite, and ask you what means this struggle which is now pending.
History has rendered familiar to you, as to us, the nations, which from various causes and policies, and under various circumstances, have regarded slavery as right; as a policy of national government, and we well remember, in the history of every nation where slavery has existed, how with the dawning of intelligence, with the increase of humanity, with the bursting forth of what is called Christian light and Christian love, slavery has gradually melted away like the hoary frosts of winter, melting before the sunshine. But now, when we, in the nineteenth century, look over all the broad, civilized, and enlightened countries of the world, and over pagan and heathen countries, we find that nowhere does slavery, save as a form and consequence of monarchical government, exist; nowhere is it a national policy, nowhere is it recognized other than a wrong; nowhere is it upheld, other than to support thrones and kingdoms. I look to Russia; but in the serfdom of that theocratic government, recognize not one tithe of the human slavery that exists in another government that I know. I look to Austria, and behold in all her pride and regal pomp, and in all her assumed power, in all that belongs to her force of arms, and all that belongs to her ministration of strict and positive tyranny, nothing but the willing enslavement of mind, and thought, and feeling, to what they suppose to be right. I look to France and England, Christian countries, and I behold there no slavery. I look to Italy, that new-born star just bursting forth from the bosom of the earth, like a gem upon the night, and behold there nothing save the up-springing buds of freedom and patriotism; and I see before the bright sunshine of liberty, the mists and darkness, and tyranny of religious slavery fast dying away. I look to South America, and behold in the republics there, which are newer than your own republic, which have received its sanction, which were born and fostered, and in some degree encouraged by it, and I see no slavery there, as a national policy. I look to the remotest islands of the sea, and I behold ignorance and bondage, which is the result of ignorance, but I see nowhere one human being bought or sold. I look back to the ancient Romans and Grecians. I see their trophies of war, their prisoners made captive, their slaves bought and sold, not as the price of human souls, but as the prize of captured nations.
But I look to America, the star of liberty, the morning glory of the earth, the beauty and pride of the world, as it has been called, and I see, not monarchy, but professed liberty. I see no kind of a throne, no monarchical rule, no theocratic government, no popular tyranny, nothing but the ensigns of freedom—freedom—freedom, emblazoned o’er all the land; but what else do I see? Along with the name of liberty I see slavery; bondage, hand in hand with freedom. Beneath the flag of stripes and stars, I see the dark stains of human torture. Above the loud huzzas and cheers of national patriotism, I hear the cries and moans of oppressed millions. And more than all this, and deeper than all this, and more terrible than all this; I see men, professing patriotism, sanctioning by word and deed, by religion and legislation, this terrible slavery under the name of liberty. What does it mean, that just two centuries from the time when our pilgrim fathers landed upon this bleak lone coast, was witnessed one of the greatest struggles for human liberty and the redemption of the African slaves? What does it mean that after all the bloodshed, after the heroic toils and battles, after struggles which would have done honor to any nation or kingdom in the world, they at last gained, and in 1776 proclaimed their independence?
In that memorable and glorious preamble of the Declaration which makes your nation as it now is, free in name, but alas, not in reality, we perceive that it is founded upon the strictest elements of human equity, human justice, and human equality. All beings are created free and equal. All persons have alike a right to life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Still later, for purposes of confederation and mutual protection, the United States of America, as they are now called, but then separate colonies of your country, met in convention for the purpose of mutually cementing the ties which had been formed in battle together; and we see that the first principle upon which that Union was predicated was individual human liberty. We know that the Constitution of the United States was but the natural sequence to the Declaration of Independence. When your forefathers declared their independence of Great Britain, of the oppression, tyranny, bloodiness, and selfishness of the then ruling power, Christianity was its predicate; it was founded upon human right, justice, and liberty. We know that there never was a foot then trod upon the American soil that did not recognize these principles of human liberty, of the pursuit of happiness, of liberty and of life; but first of life. Life is that which is bestowed by its author, that no human being can take away with impunity, or having once taken that life, can restore it. It is painful, dreadful, terrible to witness a nation struggling for life with another nation; but we know of horrors that are more terrible than war, of a death, the more terrible because it is a living death, than that which comes from the sword. We honor, we adore, we worship almost, the man who dies for his country’s freedom. But what do we think of him who takes into his possession a life that he has not created, which he does not own, which belongs to God, and who says, “This is mine, body and soul; this is mine to purchase and to sell; so much for this body and soul I will have?” What do we think of the man who takes into living death a human being, upon a soil and in a territory dedicated to freedom?
We are all familiar with the struggles in forming the American Constitution, and with the struggles which have since occurred in Congress. But we will point out to you by way of illustrating our position a few of those incidents to show you with what justice slavery is associated, and with what humanity slavery is still kept in existence, and with what freedom and liberty America retains and approves and upholds her Constitution and declaration; and with what glory and pride this free nation, and free country, hold in bondage children of God’s creation. We are well aware, not as statesmen, but as citizens of the United States, that where this confederation of Thirteen States was first formed, which has now extended vastly in numbers, and vastly increased in territory, population, and power, the subject of slavery was purposely left entirely out of the Constitution; and that the object of this was to prevent future turmoil and disquiet among the various States of the Union. But we also know that there was a tacit obligation and understanding by not a few, but all of the various States, or representatives from the various States, that slavery should be abolished from the Union. We know that the North required this, and that the South consented to it.
We have since been told by politicians and by Southern statesmen that the South did not design doing this. So much the greater their treachery; so much the deeper their wrong; to enter into the Union with the stain of slavery upon their names and hearts, to commence with the understanding that it was to be abolished, and then at last to say that they did not design doing any such thing. We know that the Constitution properly avoided this subject. It was a matter of discussion in the various conventions, even after the general constitution was adopted and approved by Congress, and various States sent in their approval or their disapproval suggesting amendments that would favor the continuance and further extension of slavery. From the time that the Constitution of the United States was formed, up to the present year, 1860, there has been a continued succession of struggles, and battles, and warfare; often with words, sometimes with blows. The subject of slavery we know has been from the first the germ of all the evil that has grown up in the country. And this evil has been caused, not by the North, but by the South. We know and will point out to you that they have not lived up to the obligations of the Constitution, or to the principles upon which the confederacy existed. And if they secede from the Union, which we individually hope they will, it will be because right and wrong cannot exist together; because error and right can make no compromise; because between light and darkness there is no union; because, thank God, the right is the strongest.
We know that those states in the confederation where slavery exists, then seemed to regard it precisely as the North, for it then existed in every state of the Union; and slavery was resisted with such sad and such earnest supplication, that the North at last abolished it, under the conclusion that the South would fulfill its part of the treaty, and continued in harmonious relations with them, in legislation in Congress, until the great question of the territories was to be decided. The North asked nothing of the South until then. The North said, “We will wait until it is convenient for you to fulfill your part of this treaty.” It was not the treaty of the Constitution of the United States. That spoke for itself. But it was the treaty of honor between the several states of the Union, which treaty has been willfully, constantly, and successfully violated from that time until the present day. Now, instead of thirteen states, we have thirty-two, and territories which will number in their turn, perhaps as many more. Still the cry is further extension of slavery, and not for its abolition. Still the cry is “More room for darkness; more room for bondage;” and not “less room.” The cry is not “Teach us how to liberate our slaves;” but, “Teach us how to extend the area of our bondage.” The cry is not “We regard slavery as a great wrong; we regard it as being the only wrong existing in our Union, but we will abolish it as soon as possible.” The question with your forefathers, with those whose names we love and revere, with Washington, and Jefferson, and Hancock, and Hamilton, was not slavery, but our country; was not self, but the nation; was not an individual state of the United States, not any particular institution which, being conceived to be a lesser wrong than the tyranny and oppression of crowned kings, it was supposed would die out of itself in a free soil; for who ever knew goodness to associate with evil, and command thrift, or prosper in a soil uncongenial to its culture? Who ever knew a tropical plant to flourish in the frigid zone, or an iceberg to form and grow up and become almost a living temple, beneath the burning sun of the torrid zone? No one. Slavery was then, as it is now, a political question and not a national one. Slavery was then, as it is now, a question of individual state policy and not of national governmental policy.
But slavery was not then, as it is now, interwoven with the very constituents and elements of the national government. Slavery was not then, as it is now, an armed host marching on to devour and uproot the very principles of liberty. Slavery was not then, as it is now, the Gorgon head of evil against which the early patriots and founders of your country sought to defend you. Slavery was not then, as it is now, spread over the most beautiful portion of your territory, extending as far North as the people and the religion of the North would allow it, and which would extend still farther, but for the earnest and glorious warfare which has been fought to prevent it.
We remember with what reluctance, with what degree of sadness, even the most earnest upholders of slavery in 1820 regarded the Missouri compromise; what a battle was then fought; what eloquence their statesmen poured forth then. We remember with what earnest regard for the welfare of her country, with what depth of sadness and earnest prayers, it was at last admitted into the Union as a slave State; but upon the strict condition that the remaining portion of the territory which Missouri then claimed, should belong to the United States, and should be free from slavery. We remember the act which was introduced to prevent the further existence of slavery in Missouri, by providing that after twenty-five years slavery should be abolished, and that every negro born in the State should at the age of twenty-one years be free. This was overcome by Southern policy; and at last that great death-blow of human emancipation was signed and approved by Congress. Individually, we have always regarded it as the signing away of American liberty; as setting the seal of the nation upon slavery, as an act of human oppression; and individually, we shall always pray that this nation may not prosper until those compromises between truth and error shall cease, and the struggle shall be an open, bold and free one; and we know that the right will conquer, whether it be for slavery or for freedom.
When by the treaty of 1802, from France the United States obtained possession of those territories which she claimed, and when with Spain the treaty was signed delivering up those territories which naturally belonged to the United States, when Louisiana was ceded to this country by the French, the treaties then entered into had very little relevancy to the institution of slavery, but regarded it as being interesting only to the particular States where slavery existed. Consequently those treaties were formed to protect the then existing Southern States which held slaves, and who could not free themselves from what they regarded then as a curse, but what their children now regard as a divine blessing and dispensation. Did Washington, did Jefferson, did Clay, did any, save Calhoun, regard the institution of slavery, or the right of individual states upon slavery, as being a sacred or strictly a State institution? Never. They regarded it as one of the contingencies of the early settlement of a new country, one of the contingencies of a revolutionary country, one of the contingencies which the population of the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida acquired in removing the natural obstructions which then existed in the cultivation of the soil, which, regarded as an expediency, was a good one. But when Ohio, under a similar Southern administration, under similar interests, applied for admission into the Union, and at the same time applied for permission to receive and to retain in slavery, slaves for a period of ten years, the Congress of the United States found it inexpedient, and repealed the act, and forbade the extension of slavery into that territory; and from that day to this, Ohio has been a free State.
Massachusetts I am proud to call my mother; proud for more than one reason, but greatest because she was first to liberate her slaves; proud of her because she was the first, and has always taken the first steps towards the approval of the emancipation of slaves; proud of her because she first recognized in the negro slave the right to the title of human beings; proud of her because she is represented in the various sessions of Congress by so many heralds of emancipation; proud of her because for the sake of slavery one of her sons, more noble in our esteem than those who fight with swords, was stricken down in the midst of the expression of his honest sentiments; proud of her because she has endured, and suffered, and triumphed over the evil which now threatens your whole country; proud of her because her sister States, looking up to her, and following her example, proclaimed the negro free.
We well remember what a feeling of indignation swept through the whole North when the Fugitive Slave bill was first introduced; and what were the objects and purposes of Mr. Mason in introducing that bill. It was designed, as we conceive, as a deliberate insult to every Northern state. The Constitution of the United States provided for the contingency of persons who fled from servitude, and for the contingency of their being returned again to their service and their master. The word “slave” or “slavery” does not exist in the American Constitution; for humane minds, patriotic minds, free and elevated minds, were unwilling that upon the page of history there should be a blot, or a mark, or a scar, known as slavery in the Constitution of a free people. It was very wise, very judicious, very far-sighted. It is also most singular what expressions were used to represent slaves. The word “person” is always applied. The person escaping from servitude and flying from the service of his master must be returned by the other States of the union. But when in addition to this the Fugitive Slave bill was introduced, as a proposed provision against contingencies. I remember well that it was with indignation, with scorn, almost with contempt, that the Fugitive Slave bill was first received.
But what was looked upon at first with indignation was at last regarded by the compromising patriots of the North as being well done. The South demanded this protection of her property and her rights, and she had it in the Constitution. The North at last grew willing to give more; and thus the Fugitive Slave bill was passed, which prevented every state in the Union from recognizing the rights which the Constitution gave it, to make such laws and such provisions against the recognition of slavery as it might deem expedient; and now, in the growth of civilization and intelligence which has dawned upon the minds of the people, eight of the United States of America have refused to recognize the Fugitive Slave bill. We are glad of it. It is not unconstitutional, because it is not the Constitution which they refuse to recognize, but the Fugitive Slave bill which was passed by the Congress, not of the North, but of the South, the fugitive Slave bill which takes away the individual positive right of the States, and which recognizes in itself the absolute power and rightfulness of slavery.
We are still in remembrance and in the midst of the Kansas-Nebraska struggle, and Heaven only knows how it will end; for now the question is, not of slavery in the territories, but of slavery in the States; not of the nation, but of individuals; not of patriotism, but of selfishness. And we thank Heaven that it is so; because if there is rottenness in the heart of anything that is fair and beautiful, we would rather that it should be known than concealed; that it should be known before it is too late to save even the fair portion from darkness, corruption, and decay. There are men of the North to-day that wear sheep’s clothing, but are not so bad as those that disguise themselves under the plea of patriotism, and mean policy; that disguise themselves behind the Constitution and mean monied interests; that disguise themselves behind the Declaration of Independence and mean the rise and fall of stocks and bank suspensions; men of the North that say compromise because of love of the Union, and mean compromise because of love of the dollars; that say compromise because of religion, and mean compromise because of selfishness, that say compromise because of the greatness and glory of our union, and the disgrace that will follow a civil war, the servile war which must grow out of it, but who mean compromise because we are afraid, compromise because we secretly uphold slavery, compromise because much of our subsistence ( but none of our wealth ) is derived from the South, compromise because the price of stocks will fall, and banks will fall to the ground.
But we do expect, and we do pray as individuals, that rather than have another compromise like that which made Missouri a slave State, rather than have another compromise like that which made disgraceful the country in the rejection of the Wilmot Proviso, rather than have another compromise like that which we witnessed in the struggle of 1850, rather than have any compromise like that which has been sought for, under the present election and in the present political struggle, we may see every one of you in arms, marching on to battle, every one of you saying, The right shall conquer, or we are ready to die. Compromise? For what? Why, for the preservation of our Union. What Union? Where is the Union? The North and the South are as bitter enemies as any nation that ever lived; are as distinct and separate as nations can be. England, Austria, Russia, France, are united more than they. Those who war and fight over the States in confusion in Italy, those who over that bone of contention seek which shall have the largest morsel, are more united than those States which exist with slavery and those which exist without slavery called the United States of America. England and France, Russia and France, Austria and France, England and Russia, all those States are respectively and separately more united with each other and with the United States, than are the States of America united with themselves. And shall we say compromise, which only means, smother the volcano a little while longer before it bursts; conceal the mouth of the earthquake a little longer, until the whole nation shall be plunged in ruin? Shall we say compromise, which only means, let slavery extend a little further; let it creep like a serpent along that great Father of Waters; let it spread out its branches and roots until it establishes itself in the very soil of freedom; let us have more room for slaves, more room for the four millions which we already have, and for those which we shall want to import hereafter, more room for the opening of the African slave trade, more room for contention, and cries, and groans, more room for degradation, for the lack of enterprise and industry, for the suppression of the mechanic arts, and of free education and free schools, more room for the prevention of extending into all these States which might be rendered valuable, the field of Christianity, of education, of all that belongs to an enlightened and civilized country, more room for darkness and degradation? Shame! Shame! Shame!
The man at the South who legitimately inherits slaves, which are his only support, his only means of providing for his family, is in some degree excusable when he turns to us at the North and asks, “If I were never so willing to liberate my slaves, and regarded the holding of slaves as ever so great a misfortune, how am I to do it?” We do not blame him for asking the question. When the man at the South, with a hereditary title to slaves, which are his only inheritance, and which he regards as justly belonging to him, asks the question, though we would help the captured human being to his liberty even at the expense of life, if we had another life to lose, we would still say that that man is justified. But when men of the North who have no slaves, men of the North who inherit nothing but their manhood and independence, and gain a sustenance unaided, who depend upon their industry, and economy, and education, with which to gain wealth, say, “Let us compromise with slavery; let us have slavery; let us extend slavery;”for them there is no excuse, and no punishment too severe.
When men of the South do not debate in Congress as statesmen and patriots and orators, but as passion-loving men, and say, “Give us our rights, or we are no longer one of you,” and when men of the North unite in that, it means not simply “Let slavery alone where it is,” but it means “Let slavery alone now; and by and by, let it alone when we shall extend it into Kansas; and after that, let it alone when we shall extend it into California, for though California is now a free State, that is in question; and after that, let it alone when we shall extend it into every other State and every other position which can render it at all profitable; let us alone while we elect the Presidents and the Congressmen; and let us alone when at last we shall conquer all your State enactments, and when the Fugitive Slave bill shall give place to another, which permits us at will to go into the Northern States.” And when you have made compromise after compromise, when the whole North is swallowed up in the sea of slavery, it still says, “Let us alone; we will be protected in our rights by the Constitution.”
This is the meaning of compromise. This was the meaning of the Missouri compromise. This was the meaning of the application for admission into the United States of Missouri and Ohio. This was the meaning of that treachery. Oh Heaven, what treachery was that, and what a traitor! Arnold was considered the greatest traitor that America ever knew; but we know of one who now sits upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, who, in our opinion, is as much greater a traitor than Arnold, as is darkness darker than light itself. When Jackson, through personal malice, desired to overthrow the Bank of the United States, and when the then existing personage under the administration desired not to do it because it would be unconstitutional, Jackson, with his favorite oath, resolved that it should be done; and he employed this Tancy, who is now Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to accomplish that act of treachery against the Union. We know that he is a fit man to be a traitor against humanity. It was he, who, in that decision which sent a thrill of horror through the heart of every philanthropist in the Union, decided that Dred Scott was not a human being. Shame upon such a traitor! He cannot die by the hand of man; but we know of a retributive justice who in the all-wise administration of his power will deal to such traitors their just deserts. We leave him alone with that justice.
We are still fresh from the bloody contest of Kansas; and even now this war, in another form, is raging. We know, and you know, its cause. Abolitionism is said to be its cause. Abolitionism is said to be the fiery element that has stirred this up, and caused this warfare of bloodshed, and starvation, and oppression. But if there was no slavery to abolish, abolitionism would not be the cause. So long as there is slavery, we are glad that it is the cause. When people fight for liberty, I would rather see them fight than to see them yield to a compromise which countenances error. When we sent arms and ammunition from our mother State, and when you sent arms and ammunition from here, we regarded it as a most sacred, religious rite. And now that starvation is upon them, now that suffering is there, we regard those who send food and clothing, and, if need be, arms and ammunition, as performing a religious rite. And we regard those who first send these requirements as being the greatest Christians.
And now, is the North or the South to perish? Must this Union, this glorious country, this free America, this Christian organization, at last totter and fall into ruins? If a man builds up a beautiful temple, and deck it with the most gorgeous architecture, puts grace, and symmetry, and perfection in every form, but builds it upon a foundation that is in itself rotten—a foundation which is not firm, but must at some time fall—much as we may regret that so much beauty should perish, still remembering that the foundation is not secure, you would rather the structure should fall at a seasonable time, when every one is expecting it, than that some great calamity and loss of life should occur because no one is prepared for it. Rather let it fall at once, or tear it down, take stone from stone, bolt from bolt, joint from joint, corner-stone from corner-stone, until it is all ready to build up again in security, than to prop it up here and prop it up there, to compromise here and compromise there, until at last from its very weight and its lack of foundation, it falls, and masses are crushed beneath its ruins.
If, then, America is builded upon slavery, the sooner America is no longer a Union the better. If slavery has its foundation in the Constitution, the sooner that Constitution is not recognized, the better. We see it not in the Constitution. We regard that as sacred. We regard it as the highest and loftiest conception of human intelligence and human perfectness. But if men pervert it and subvert it, if it is made the lever of the power of error, if it is made the strongest of the levers to overthrow the Union, then we say, Let it perish before it is too late.
All republics, Greece and Italy not excepted, have fallen into that greatest of all misfortunes—anarchy. If America chooses, she may become, not an anarchy, but a republic; We mean that portion of America which is a republic. If America chooses to compromise, she may become what all republics have become an anarchy. We are not accustomed to prophesy; but when we know the natural sequence of a cause, we must expect it; and when we know that cause produces certain effects, we are blind not to recognize that cause and that effect; and to-day we would not mask, or screen, or veil from the eyes of all the world, this stain, this darkness, this corruption that exists in your republic. But we would say, as men, as patriots, as human beings, as those who love goodness and despise error, who love freedom and despise tyranny, who love liberty and despise bondage, let the contest be now or never between freedom and slavery. It is no longer a question of State or of national policy. It is no longer a question between the North and the South which can be settled when all others have been disposed of. It is no longer a question subject to the admission of other States or other territories into the country, which can be postponed until a new tariff bill shall have been decided, which can be taken up after all others have been disposed of, to be discussed and compromised, and pasted up, and bolstered up, and propped up—but it is now or not at all; it is compromise if you will, but if you do compromise you are destroyed.
We are glad that Vermont has refused, and taken the initiative in refusing, to enter into such a compromise. We are glad that other States of the North are not backward in the expression of their opinions, that men are not afraid to venture the assertion of the truth. We are glad that the Union is not considered a Union unless it is a unity of soul, for liberty, and justice, and humanity. We are glad, therefore, that this country, at the present crisis, with all the struggles which must ensue, is upon the verge of such a warfare; and were our views to be heard, were our opinions to be sought for and recognized as being true, we would say the sooner it is decided in war the better, because there is more cruelty in those words and those actions that prolong the suffering, that prolong the slavery, and its recognition in the Northern States, and there is more wrong in it, than there is in saying: “We are two, we will see which is the strongest.” That is the way that nations settle all their difficulties. We would wish in all battles that those who created the wars might have the wars to fight; but such is not the case, kings are not generally the leaders of their armies; they do not generally fight face to face, but they marshal their hosts of valiant men to bleed and suffer for their individual captiousness. We wish all disputes could be settled according to the code of honor of South Carolina. We wish that it might be made personal, and that those of the North and those of the South who never can and never will recognize each other as members of the same confederacy, might face to face now settle the difficulties that exist between them. The innocent would not then have to suffer for the guilty. But so it has always been, and so perhaps it must be forever.
And now all that we have to say in conclusion is, that if America cannot be free upon these principles, we do not want America at all. If it cannot be established as a republic upon these principles, there can be no republic at all. And if within a confederacy must be fostered, and nourished, and recognized, this poisonous asp which will eventually grow and spread its branches, and taint the very atmosphere of American liberty, then we say we want it not at all. Countries, nationalities, governments, have no right to exist, unless they exist upon a positive foundation and understood basis. Great Britain’s policy is known; the policy of Austria and of Russia are known; the policy of France is, or will be, known. America has no right to screen, under the name of liberty, or under the name of a republic, anarchy, or a despotism which is worse than anarchy itself.
We might say much more, but have not time, and are not willing to tax your patience upon this occasion; but at some future time we propose to discuss the origin and rise and fall of slavery in the various empires of the world, from the existence of time until the present day, concluding with the origin of American slavery, its progress and probable duration. To-day we have had to deal exclusively and distinctly with the present contingencies which seem to surround your nation as a national government, and the right and wrong as it presents itself to our conception. If we have wounded the feelings of any one, we do not ask his pardon, for it has not been designed. We have simply expressed our individual opinion. You have a right to yours. If we have in the utterance of truth gone farther than is prescribed by human justice or human mercy, then we say that the fault was in our judgment, and not in our intention. If we have ventured to affirm too much, we simply ask for time and opportunity to prove all the assertions we have made. And now in the name of that liberty and that justice and that divinity which means all godliness, we ask the Father and Spirit of Life to be with you wherever you may go; and may Liberty, as it means with God, unfurl her banner above the States and Nations of the world; and may this Republic, once young and beautiful, now growing and prosperous, but filled with something of darkness and something of crime, recognize, in her beauty and prosperity, freedom as her only guide; and stretching her hand across the seas and across the countries of despotism—across where kings and rulers have fought in vain—link her hand and heart closely with that young and new and growing Republic, which may perchance even out rival America itself. And, Father, God, bless thy children, with the consciousness of thy blessing; teach them to do and to feel what is true; teach them to be fearless and brave; and may they know that he is greatest, not who sacrifices most to self, but who conquers most his selfishness. Amen.