can be no resurrection. And our Fugitive Slave Act itself, with all its villainy, not only has the credit of giving birth to "Uncle Tom,' but of extending and vitalizing a great system of subterranean railroads, all the lines of which are now striking larger dividends than at any time since the formation of the government. In view, of such facts, upon which I cannot now enlarge, and of the glorious future toward which they are hastening us, suffer me to exhort you to courage, constancy, and an unfaltering faith. Let us remember that the beautiful horizon of light which now salutes our vision has been educed from a season of darkness and gloom; and whilst we feel encouraged by our progress thus far, by the justice of our cause, and by the smiles of our Maker, let us consecrate ourselves anew to the great service which lies before us.

*OXFORD*

LIBRARY

THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN ITS PRESENT RELATIONS TO AMERICAN POLITICS.

DELIVERED AT INDIANAPOLIS, JUNE 29, 1855.

[The final disruption of the Whig party, followed by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the simultaneous birth of Know Nothingism, inaugurated a strange political dispensation with which the speech here reprinted deals unsparingly. It appeared at the time in the National Era," and "Facts for the People," and was addressed especially to the anti-slavery men of Indiana, whose policy it rebuked; but its fearless arraignment of the Know Nothing movement, and of the slippery tactics of the "Anti-Nebraska" leaders, gave still further and more general offense. The madness of the times, however, soon passed away, and the speech is now submitted as its own best vindication.]

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, I confess to some degree of embarrassment in approaching the discussion of the slavery question at this crisis in its history. It has assumed an attitude so novel and peculiar in its relations to American politics, and is so complicated with strange and alien elements, that I can scarcely hope to present my views of present duty without giving offense to some, and perhaps arousing a certain antagonism among those who have heretofore walked together as brethren. My task is a delicate one, and I regret, sincerely, the causes that have made it so. I shall, however, in the exercise of free speech, and with that plainness which I am accustomed to employ, give utterance to my own deliberate convictions, holding no man or party responsible for them, and only asking, in their behalf, such consideration as they may be entitled to receive at your hands. I desire to address myself, to-day, to anti-slavery men; and I begin by remarking that the grand obstacle to the spread of free principles is the lack of a just comprehension of our movement. It is not only grossly misconceived by the great body of the people, but many, I fear, who are set apart by common consent as its peculiar friends, either do not understand, or perceive but dimly, its real magnitude. The cause of Human Rights is not one to be dragged down to the level of our current politics, and confounded with the strife of parties and the schemes of place-hunters. It is not to be hawked about in the political market, and advocated with a zeal

which instantly expires when the temporary occasion of it has disappeared. We dishonor the cause, and bring our own integrity into question, when we suffer it to be placed alongside the comparatively trifling and ephemeral questions of the day, and to be dealt with as such, instead of elevating it to the dignity of a great moral enterprise, to be steadily prosecuted, whether honor, advantage, and immediate success, on the one hand, or obloquy, suffering, and present defeat, on the other, shall be the result of our fidelity. The question of human freedom is not a question of one nation, or one race, but of all nations and all races. Ours is preeminently a Christian movement. Its grand idea, its central, life-giving principle, is the equal brotherhood of all men before their common Father in heaven; and its mission is the practical vindication of this truth. We are to make it the animating spirit of the religion, the morality, and the politics of this nation. We are to rescue the doctrine of a common brotherhood from the limbo of unmeaning abstractions, and make it incarnate in the popular heart. "One God, one humanity, one love from all for all," — this is the platform of the abolitionist, and this is the platform of the Christian. The work we are striving to accomplish, therefore, coincides with Christianity itself. The obstacles which oppose the liberation of three and a half millions of American slaves, are the obstacles which oppose every enterprise looking to the reign of "peace on earth and good-will to men." Contempt for humanity is the foundation of slavery, and of every species of oppression and wrong; respect for humanity is the foundation of freedom, and the grand condition of the world's advancement. Abrogate the infidel law of Hate, which regards man as a child of the devil, and enthrone in its stead the Christian law of Love, which reverences him as the child and moral likeness of his Maker, and not only will the chains of the slave fall asunder, but the curses of land monopoly, the cruel exactions of capital over labor, the cold-blooded rapacity of avarice, and every other form of "man's inhumanity to man," will be sent howling from the face of the earth.

Here, Mr. Chairman, on the great rock of Christianity, and on no narrower or frailer foundation, should we erect the altar of freedom, and offer our sacrifices. This is the only true stand-point for the anti-slavery party in the United States, and we should resolutely and unitedly maintain it, in the face of all opposition. Principle and policy alike require that we stand on Christian ground, and on no account should we forego a position which alone can render our cause impregnable, and which is so much needed to cheer us under

the many discouragements to which it is perpetually subjected. We are branded as infidels. Let us say to the world that we wage war against slavery because we are Christians, and that to us rightfully belongs the prerogative of sitting in judgment upon the popular religion of the country, and pronouncing upon it according to its fidelity or its infidelity to the great doctrine of human brotherhood. We are upbraided with having but "one idea." Let us reply, that we borrow it from the New Testament, in which we find it appealing to us as the "one idea " of the founder of our religion, and that that idea is large enough to comprehend the moral universe. We are charged with an undue measure of zeal in the advocacy of our cause. Let us answer, that the system of American slavery is the hugest and most frightful denial of the central truth of our religious faith, the most atrocious libel upon justice and humanity, that now confronts Heaven on any part of our globe. We are reproached with our weakness as a party, and sometimes our own doubting hearts whisper to us that our struggles have proved but so many failures. Let us remember, that so holy an enterprise must necessarily encounter every form of human selfishness, and be subject to those conditions by which every other good work has been retarded; that, in the nature of things, it can only keep pace with the gradual but slow progress of Christian principles in the community; and while we thus learn a lesson of patience, let us ever bear in mind that Heaven itself is pledged to the ultimate success of our sincere endeavors.

That our movement is not understood, not uniformly referred to the grand principle which underlies it, seems quite evident, from the want of any deep and pervading conviction of the wrongfulness of slavery among the people of the free States. Our abhorrence of the institution is from the lips, and not from the heart. We do not hate it with an earnest and robust hatred, that goes out into deeds, but with a sickly and superficial aversion that yields no result, unless it be to debauch the conscience. We hate the negro with a practical vengeance. It is no counterfeit, no mere disguise, but a blighting, scathing, ever-present hatred, under which the colored race withers and is consumed in our midst. Ask the people of Indiana if they hate slavery, and they will point you to their Constitution and laws forbidding colored men from coming into the State, denying those who are in the right of suffrage, taxing them to support the government whilst refusing them any share in the school fund, forbidding them to testify in our courts, and even questioning their right to travel on our railways. Ask the people of

our own.

Illinois the question, and they will point to a still blacker code than Do the people of Ohio hate slavery? The General School Board of the chief city of the State recently sanctioned the exclusion of a white lad from one of its schools, because one thirtysecond part of the blood in his veins was understood to be of African extraction! Sir, the lamentable truth is, that the unchristian spirit of Caste is the dominant spirit in the religious, political, and social institutions of the non-slave-holding States. Has not every slaveholding outrage that has ever yet aroused our people been summarily followed by a quiet acquiescence? And would this be so, if there were any deep central fire of anti-slavery hatred burning in our hearts? Does it not prove much of our hostility to slavery to be a frothy and evanescent sentiment, nursed into life by our politicians, and thrown on to the surface by a temporary swell of popular feeling?

Nor can I regard the late Anti-Nebraska excitement as proceeding from any more radical and healthy conviction. It seems to be prudently following in the line of its precedents. The more sanguine among us, I am aware, have regarded the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as a godsend. They have argued that Northern endurance, already taxed to the utmost, would sink under such a weight; that the slave power would thus dig its own grave; and that wicked institutions must always grow to their full stature, and display all their inherent enormity, before men will earnestly engage in their overthrow. I confess I cannot feel encouraged by this line of argument. It has flavored our anti-slavery dish on other occasions, when the slave interest has trampled down our rights. It has no just application to the contest between the free and the slave States; for, if it be true that our acquiescence in one scheme of aggression emboldens the South to concoct another still more flagrant and alarming, it is likewise true that it prepares the North to submit to it. The enormity of slavery is lost upon us, when displayed by such a process. Not submission to despotism, but resistance, is the true method of deliverance from it. We need have no fears that the devilish attributes of slavery will not be exhibited, without any guilty help from us. The Nebraska and Kansas Act of 1854 is a natural fruit of the compromise measures of 1850, and is in no respect more flagitious in principle. It is only a sprout from Daniel Webster's grave. The anti-slavery sentiment that submitted to the former will acquiesce in the latter. Indeed, the very ground on which this new outrage has been generally opposed, proves our repugnance to slavery to be shallow and insincere.