Slavery and the Slave Power: An Address Delivered in Rochester, New York, on December 1, 1850
SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE POWER: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED
IN ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ON 1 DECEMBER 1850
North Star, 5 December 1850. Other texts in Frederick Douglass, Lectures on American
Slavery (Buffalo, 1851), 3-16; Douglass, Bondage and Freedom, 429-34; Foner, Life and
Writings, 2: 132-39.
During the period of intense agitation following the passage of the Fugitive
Slave Law, Douglass undertook a public lecture series that convened in
Rochester’s Corinthian Hall on Sunday evenings from December through
February. Texts of only five speeches survive, but it seems likely that Doug-
lass had two goals for the series. He hoped, as he wrote in a letter to Gerrit
Smith, to produce a polished set of lectures suitable for publication. He also
apparently wanted to attract a large nonabolitionist audience to the free lec-
tures, which he advertised in the Rochester Daily American. Douglass proba-
bly achieved partial success on both counts. Although the entire series was not
reprinted, the first two speeches were published as Lectures on American
Slavery. According to Abigail Bush, a Rochester delegate at the January 1851
Western New York Antislavery Society meeting, much of Corinthian Hall, a
building with a capacity of twelve hundred, was filled for the lectures. Be-
cause Douglass published only the prepared texts of the speeches in his paper
and because local papers failed to report on the series, the reaction of the
audience remains in doubt, as does the extent to which Douglass’s actual
address deviated from his planned remarks. Douglass to Gerrit Smith, 21
January 1851, Gerrit Smith Papers, NSyU; NS, 23 January 1851.
I come before you this evening to deliver the first lecture of a course which I
purpose to give in this city, during the present winter, on the subject of
American Slavery.
I make this announcement with no feelings of self-sufficiency. If I do
not mistake my own emotions, they are such as result from a profound
sense of my incompetency to do justice to the task which I have just
announced, and have now entered upon.
If any, then, demand of me why I speak, I plead as my apology, the fact
that abler and more eloquent men have failed to speak, or what, perhaps, is
more true, and therefore more strong, such men have spoken only on the
wrong side of the question, and have thus thrown their influence against the
cause of liberty, humanity, and benevolence.
There are times in the experience of almost every community, when
even the humblest member thereof may properly presume to teach—when
the wise and great ones, the appointed leaders of the people, exert their
powers of mind to complicate, mystify, entangle and obscure the simple
truth—when they exert the noblest gifts which heaven has vouchsafed to
man to mislead the popular mind, and to corrupt the public heart,—then the
humblest may stand forth and be excused for opposing even his weakness
to the torrent of evil.
That such a state of things exists in this community, I have abundant
evidence. I learn it from the Rochester press, from the Rochester pulpit,
and in my intercourse with the people of Rochester. Not a day passes over
me that I do not meet with apparently good men, who utter sentiments in
respect to this subject which would do discredit to savages. They speak of
the enslavement of their fellow-men with an indifference and coldness
which might be looked for only in men hardened by the most atrocious and
villainous crimes.
The fact is, we are in the midst of a great struggle. The public mind is
widely and deeply agitated; and bubbling up from its perturbed waters, are
many and great impurities, whose poisonous miasma demands a constant
antidote.
Whether the contemplated lectures will in any degree contribute to-
wards answering this demand, time will determine.
Of one thing, however, I can assure my hearers—that I come up to this
work at the call of duty, and with an honest desire to promote the happiness
and well-being of every member of this community, as well as to advance
the emancipation of every slave.
The audience will pardon me if I say one word more by way of intro-
duction. It is my purpose to give this subject a calm, candid and faithful
discussion. I shall not aim to shock nor to startle my hearers; but to con-
vince their judgment and to secure their sympathies for the enslaved. I shall
aim to be as stringent as truth, and as severe as justice; and if at any time I
shall fail of this, and do injustice in any respect, I shall be most happy to be
set right by any gentleman who shall hear me, subject, of course, to order
and decorum. I shall deal, during these lectures, alike with individuals and
institutions—men shall no more escape me than things. I shall have occa-
sion, at times, to be even personal, and to rebuke sin in high places. I shall
not hesitate to arraign either priests or politicians, church or state, and to
measure all by the standard of justice, and in the light of truth. I shall not
forget to deal with the unrighteous spirit of caste which prevails in this
community; and I shall give particular attention to the recently enacted
fugitive slave bill. I shall keep my eye upon the Congress which is to
commence to-morrow, and fully inform myself as to its proceedings. In a
word. the whole subject of slavery, in all its bearings, shall have a full and
impartial discussion.
A very slight acquaintance with the history of American slavery is
sufficient to show that it is an evil of which it will be difficult to rid this
country. It is not the creature of a moment, which today is, and to-morrow
is not; it is not a pigmy, which a slight blow may demolish; it is no youthful
upstart, whose impertinent pratings may be silenced by a dignified con-
tempt. No: it is an evil of gigantic proportions, and of long standing.
Its origin in this country dates back to the landing of the pilgrims on
Plymouth rock. It was here more than two centuries ago. The first spot
poisoned by its leprous presence was a small plantation in Virginia. The
slaves, at that time, numbered only twenty. They have now increased to the
frightful number of three millions; and from that narrow plantation, they
are now spread over by far the largest half of the American Union. Indeed,
slavery forms an important part of the entire history of the American
people. Its presence may be seen in all American affairs. It has become
interwoven with all American institutions, and has anchored itself in the
very soil of the American Constitution. It has thrown its paralysing arm
over freedom of speech, and the liberty of the press; and has created for
itself morals and manners favorable to its own continuance. It has seduced
the church, corrupted the pulpit, and brought the powers of both into
degrading bondage; and now, in the pride of its power, it even threatens to
bring down that grand political edifice, the American Union, unless every
member of this republic shall so far disregard his conscience and his God as
to yield to its infernal behests.
That must be a powerful influence which can truly be said to govern a
nation; and that slavery governs the American people, is indisputably true.
If there were any doubt on this point, a few plain questions (it seems to me)
could not fail to remove it. What power has given this nation its Presidents
for more than fifty years? Slavery. What power is that to which the present
aspirants to presidential honors are bowing? Slavery. We may call it
“Union,” “Constitution," “Harmony,” or “American institutions,”
that to which such men as Cass,1Originally from New Hampshire, the wealthy lawyer and brigadier general Lewis Cass (1782-1866) unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1844 and 1852. Though he captured the nomination in 1848, he lost the race to Zachary Taylor. Cass's first elective post was as prosecuting attorney for Muskingum County, Ohio (1804). He was subsequently sent to the Ohio House of Representatives (1806) and to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat representing Michigan (1845- 48, 1849-57). His appointive positions included that of U.S. marshal for Ohio (1807-12), civil governor of the Michigan Territory (1813-31), secretary of war under Andrew Jackson (1831-36), minister to France (1836-42), and secretary of state under James Buchanan (1857-60). He served on the Senate Committee of Thirteen, which hammered out the five laws that became the Compromise of 1850, though he abstained on the final vote on the Fugitive Slave Bill because it did not include a provision for jury trial. Frank B. Woodford, Lewis Cass: The Last Jeffersonian (New Brunswick, N .J., 1950), 36-37, 80, 169-78, 193, 250-71, 287; Holman Hamilton, Prologue to Conflict: The Crisis and Compromise of 1850 (Lexington, Ky., 1964), 28-29, 191; Andrew C. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass (Boston, 1891), 258-86; BDAC, 672; NCAB, 5: 3-5; ACAB, 1: 551-53; DAB, 3: 562-64. Dickinson,2Daniel Stevens Dickinson (1800-—66), conservative Democratic lawyer and politician of New York, member of the New York Senate (1837-41) and the U.S. Senate (1845-51), insisted that northern Democrats, no matter how strongly they disapproved of slavery, should respect the constitutional guarantees of the institution. In the Senate on 17 January 1850, Dickinson assured southern Democrats that he “deprecated the assaults which I have seen made upon the Constitution occasionally in the non-slaveholding States, in the refusal to deliver fugitives from service" and affirmed his desire “to see the South secure in the full possession and enjoyment of their constitutional rights." Learning that Dickinson was to sit on the Committee of Thirteen that would eventually draft the 1850 compromise measures, Douglass, in an April 1850 editorial, pronounced him “the most cringing, subservient sycophant that ever crawled into the good graces of the slave power." Dickinson did not abandon his attempt to secure recognition of the legitimacy of southern demands until the firing on Fort Sumter, after which he vigorously supported the northern war effort and promoted military recruitment. He was elected state attorney general on the Union ticket in 1861, waged a futile campaign for the U.S. Senate as a Republican in 1862, and was appointed a federal district judge for the Southern District of New York in 1865. John R. Dickinson, ed., Speeches, Correspondence, eta, of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson, 2 vols. (New York, 1867), 1: 331; NS, 26 April 1850; NCAB, 5: 388—89; DAB, 5: 294-95. Webster, Clay and other
distinguished men of this country, are devoting their energies, is nothing
more nor less than American slavery. It is for this that they are writing
letters, making speeches, and promoting the holding of great mass meet-
ings, professedly in favor of “the Union.” These men know the service
most pleasing to their master, and that which is most likely to be richly
rewarded. Men may “serve God for nought,” as did Job;3In Job 1: 9 Satan asks the Lord, “Doth Job fear God for nought?" but he who
serves the devil has an eye to his reward. “Patriotism,” “obedience to the
law,” “prosperity to the country,” have come to mean, in the mouths of
these distinguished statesmen, a mean and servile acquiescence in the most
flagitious and profligate legislation in favor of slavery. I might enlarge here
on this picture of the slave power, and tell of its influence upon the press in
the free States, and upon the condition and rights of the free colored people
of the North; but I forbear for the present. Enough has been said, I trust, to
convince all that the abolition of this evil will require time, energy, zeal,
perseverance, and patience; that it will require fidelity, a martyr-like spirit
of self-sacrifice, and a firm reliance on HIM who has declared Himself to be
“the God of the oppressed. ” Having said thus much upon the power and
prevalence of slavery, allow me to speak of the nature of slavery itself; and
here I can speak, in part, from experience—I can speak with the authority
of positive knowledge.
More than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of slavery.
My childhood was environed by the baneful peculiarities of the slave
system. I grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra-headed
monster—not as a master—not as an idle spectator—not as the guest of the
slaveholder; but as A SLAVE, eating the bread and drinking the cup of
slavery with the most degraded of my brother bondmen, and sharing with
them all the painful conditions of their wretched lot. In consideration of
these facts, I feel that I have a right to speak, and to speak strongly. Yet, my
friends, I feel bound to speak truly.
Goading as have been the cruelties to which I have been subjected—
bitter as have been the trials through which I have passed—exasperating as
have been (and still are) the indignities offered to my manhood, I find in
them no excuse for the slightest departure from truth in dealing with any
branch of this subject.
First of all, I will state, as well as I can, the legal and social relation of
master and slave. A master is one (to speak in the vocabulary of the South-
ern States) who claims and exercises a right of property in the person of
a fellow man. This he does with the force of the law and the sanction of
Southern religion. The law gives the master absolute power over the slave.
He may work him, flog him, hire him out, sell him, and, in certain con-
tingencies, kill him, with perfect impunity. The slave is a human being,
divested of all rights—reduced to the level of a brute—a mere “chattel” in
the eye of the law—placed beyond the circle of human brotherhood—cut
off from his kind—his name, which the “recording angel” may have
enrolled in heaven, among the blest, is impiously inserted in a master’s
leger, with horses, sheep and swine. ln law, the slave has no wife, no
children, no country, and no home. He can own nothing, possess nothing,
acquire nothing, but what must belong to another. To eat the fruit of his
own toil, to clothe his person with the work of his own hands, is considered
stealing. He toils that another may reap the fruit; he is industrious that
another may live in idleness; he eats unbolted meal, that another may eat
the bread of fine flour; he labors in chains at home, under a burning sun and
a biting lash, that another may ride in ease and splendor abroad; he lives in
ignorance, that another may be educated; he is abused, that another may be
exalted; he rests his toil-worn limbs on the cold, damp ground, that another
may repose on the softest pillow; he is clad in coarse and tattered raiment,
that another may be arrayed in purple and fine linen; he is sheltered only by
the wretched hovel, that a master may dwell in a magnificent mansion; and
to this condition he is bound down as by an arm of iron.
From this monstrous relation, there springs an unceasing stream of
most revolting cruelties. The very accompanyments of the slave system,
stamp it as the offspring of hell itself. To ensure good behavior, the
slaveholder relies on the
whip; to induce proper humility, he relies on the
whip; to rebuke what he is pleased to term insolence, he relies on the
whip;
to supply the place of wages, as an incentive to toil, he relies on the
whip;
to bind down the spirit of the slave, to imbrute and to destroy his manhood,
he relies on the whip, the chain, the gag, the thumb-screw, the pillory, the
bowie-knife, the pistol, and the bloodhound. These are the necessary and
unvarying accompanyments of the system. Wherever slavery is found,
these horrid instruments are also found. Whether on the coast of Africa,
among the savage tribes, or in South Carolina, among the refined and
civilized, slavery is the same, and its accompanyments one and the same. It
makes no difference whether the slaveholder worships the God of the
Christians or is a follower of Mahomet,4Muhammad (572-632), Arab prophet and founder of Islam. he is the minister of the same
cruelty, and the author of the same misery. Slavery is always slavery—
always the same foul, haggard, and damning scourge, whether found in the
Eastern or in the Western Hemisphere.
There is a still deeper shade to be given to this picture. The physical
cruelties are indeed sufficiently harassing and revolting; but they are but as
a few grains of sand on the sea shore, or a few drops of water in the great
ocean, compared with the stupendous wrongs which it inflicts upon the
mental, moral and religious nature of its hapless victims. It is only when we
contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual being, that we can
adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of slavery, and the in-
tense criminality of the slaveholder. I have said that the slave is a man.
“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in
faculties! ln form and moving how express and admirable! ln action how
like an angel! In apprehension how like a God! The beauty of the world! the
paragon of animals!"5Hamlet, act 2, sc. 2, lines 323-28.
The slave is a man, “the image of God,” but “a little lower than the
angels;”6Douglass links Gen. 1: 26, “And God said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," and Ps. 8: 5, “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels." possessing a soul, eternal and indestructible; capable of endless
happiness, or immeasurable woe; a creature of hopes and fears, of affec-
tions and passions, of joys and sorrows; and he is endowed with those
mysterious powers by which man soars above the things of time and sense,
and grasps with undying tenacity, the elevating and sublimely glorious idea
of a God. It is such a being that is smitten and blasted. The first work of
slavery is to mar and deface those characteristics of its victims which
distinguish men from things, and persons from property. Its first aim is to
destroy all sense of high moral and religious responsibility. It reduces man
to a mere machine. It cuts him off from his maker, it hides from him the
laws of God, and leaves him to grope his way from time to eternity in the
dark, under the arbitrary and despotic control of a frail, depraved and
sinful fellow-man.
As the serpent-charmer of India is compelled to extract the deadly teeth
of his venomous prey before he is able to handle him with impunity, so the
slaveholder must strike down the conscience of the slave, before he can
obtain the entire mastery over his victim.
It is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, deaden and
destroy the central principle of human responsibility. Conscience is to the
individual soul and to society, what the law of gravitation is to the universe.
It holds society together; it is the basis of all trust and confidence; it is the
pillar of all moral rectitude. Without it, suspicion would take the place of
trust; vice would be more than a match for virtue; men would prey upon
each other, like the wild beasts of the desert; and earth would become a
hell.
Nor is slavery more adverse to the conscience than it is to the mind.
This is shown by the fact that in every State of the American Union,
where slavery exists, except the State of Kentucky, there are laws, abso-
lutely prohibitory of education among the slaves. The crime of teaching a
slave to read is punishable with severe fines and imprisonment, and, in
some instances, with death itself.
Nor are the laws respecting this matter a dead letter. Cases may occur
in which they are disregarded, and a few instances may be found where
slaves may have learned to read; but such are isolated cases, and only prove
the rule. The great mass of slaveholders look upon education among the
slaves as utterly subversive of the slave system. I well remember when my
mistress first announced to my master that she had discovered that I could
read. His face colored at once, with surprise and chagrin. He said that “I
was ruined, and my value as a slave destroyed; that a slave should know
nothing but to obey his master; that to give a negro an inch would lead him
to take an ell; that having learned how to read, I would soon want to know
how to write; and that, bye and bye, I would be running away.” I think my
audience will bear witness to the correctness of this philosophy, and to the
literal fulfilment of this prophecy.
It is perfectly well understood at the South that to educate a slave is to
make him discontented with slavery, and to invest him with a power which
shall open to him the treasures of freedom; and since the object of the
slaveholder is to maintain complete authority over his slave, his constant
vigilance is exercised to prevent everything which militates against, or en-
dangers the stability of his authority. Education being among the menacing
influences, and, perhaps, the most dangerous, is, therefore, the most cau-
tiously guarded against.
It is true that we do not often hear of the enforcement of the law,
punishing as crime the teaching of slaves to read, but this is not because of a
want of disposition to enforce it. The true reason, or explanation of the
matter is this[:] there is the greatest unanimity of opinion among the white
population of the South, in favor of the policy of keeping the slave in
ignorance. There is, perhaps, another reason why the law against education
is so seldom violated. The slave is too poor to be able to offer a temptation
sufficiently strong to induce a white man to violate it; and it is not to be
supposed that in a community where the moral and religious sentiment is in
favor of slavery, many martyrs will be found sacrificing their liberty and
lives by violating these prohibitory enactments.
As a general rule, then, darkness reigns over the abodes of the en-
slaved, and “how great is that darkness!”
We are sometimes told of the contentment of the slaves, and are enter-
tained with vivid pictures of their happiness. We are told that they often
dance and sing; that their masters frequently give them wherewith to make
merry; in fine, that they have little of which to complain. I admit that the
slave does sometimes sing, dance, and appear to be merry. But what does
this prove? It only proves to my mind, that though slavery is armed with
a thousand stings, it is not able entirely to kill the elastic spirit of the bond-
man. That spirit will rise and walk abroad, despite whips and chains, and
extract from the cup of nature, occasional drops of joy and gladness. No
thanks to the slaveholder, nor to slavery, that the vivacious captive may
sometimes dance in his chains, his very mirth in such circumstances, stands
before God, as an accusing angel against his enslaver.
But who tells us of the extraordinary contentment and happiness of the
slave? What traveller has explored the balmy regions of our Southern
country and brought back “these glad tidings of joy”?7An allusion to Luke 2: 10: “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Bring him on the
platform, and bid him answer a few plain questions, we shall then be able to
determine the weight and importance that attach to his testimony. Is he a
minister? Yes. Were you ever in a slave State, sir? Yes. May I inquire the
object of your mission South? To preach the gospel, sir. Of what denomina-
tion are you? A Presbyterian, sir. To whom were you introduced? To the
Rev. Dr. Plummer.8Douglass alludes to the Reverend William Swan Plumer. Is he a slaveholder, sir? Yes, sir. Has slaves about his
house? Yes, sir. Were you then the guest of Dr. Plummer? Yes, sir. Waited
on by slaves while there? Yes, sir. Did you preach for Dr. Plummer? Yes,
sir. Did you spend your nights at the great house, or at the quarter among
the slaves? At the great house. You had, then, no social intercourse with the
slaves? No, sir. You fraternized, then, wholly with the white portion of the
population while there? Yes, sir. This is sufficient, sir; you can leave the
platform.
Nothing is more natural than that those who go into slave States, and
enjoy the hospitality of slaveholders, should bring back favorable reports
of the condition of the slave. If that ultra republican, the Hon. Lewis Cass
could not return from the Court of France, without paying a compliment to
royalty simply because King Louis Philippe patted him on the shoulder,
called him “friend, ” and invited him to dinner,9Lewis Cass had developed exceptionally cordial relations with French monarch Louis Phillippe during his service as U.S ambassador from 1836 to 1842. Cass's small volume France, Its King, Court and Government (New York, 1840) described Louis Phillipe in highly flattering terms. He had a special audience with the king on 12 November 1842, the day the ambassador departed Paris to return to the United States. New York Herald, 8 December 1842; Woodford, Lewis Cass, 198-99. it is not to be expected that
those hungry shadows of men in the shape of ministers, that go South, can
escape a contamination even more beguiling and insidious. Alas! for the
weakness of poor human nature! “Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a
straw!''10Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, Epistle 11, line 275.
Why is it that all the reports of contentment and happiness among the
slaves at the South come to us upon the authority of slaveholders, or (what
is equally significant), of slaveholders’ friends? Why is it that we do not
hear from the slaves direct? The answer to this question furnishes the
darkest features in the American slave system.
It is often said, by the opponents of the Anti-Slavery cause, that the
condition of the people of Ireland is more deplorable than that of the
American slaves. Far be it from me to underrate the sufferings of the Irish
people. They have been long oppressed; and the same heart that prompts
me to plead the cause of the American bondman, makes it impossible for
me not to sympathize with the oppressed of all lands. Yet I must say that
there is no analogy between the two cases. The Irishman is poor, but he is
not a slave. He may be in rags, but he is not a slave. He is still the master of
his own body, and can say with the poet, “The hand of Douglass is his
own.” “The world is all before him, where to choose,"11Douglass adapts John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 12, lines 646-47: “The world was all before them, where to choose/Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.” and poor as may
be my opinion of the British Parliament, I cannot believe that it will ever
sink to such a depth of infamy as to pass a law for the recapture of Fugitive
Irishmen! The shame and scandal of kidnapping will long remain wholly
monopolized by the American Congress! The Irishman has not only the
liberty to emigrate from his country, but he has liberty at home. He can
write, and speak, and co-operate for the attainment of his rights and the
redress of his wrongs.
The multitude can assemble upon all the green hills, and fertile plains
of the Emerald Isle—they can pour out their grievances, and proclaim their
wants without molestation; and the press, that “swift-winged messenger,”
can bear the tidings of their doings to the extreme bounds of the civilized
world. They have their “Conciliation Hall” on the banks of the Liffey,12Constructed in 1843 on Dublin's Burgh Quay, Conciliation Hall replaced the Corn Exchange, located next door, as the headquarters of Daniel O'Connell's Loyal National Repeal Association. O'Connell hoped that, once the Act of Union of 1800 was repealed, the building could serve as the Irish House of Commons until the old Parliament building was repurchased. Instead, Conciliation Hall later housed the Tivoli Music Hall and the offices of the Irish Press. The Liffey rises in county Wicklow and flows into Dublin Bay at Dublin. Lawrence J. McCaffrey, Daniel O'Connell and the Repeal Year (Lexington, Ky., 1966), 46; Official Guide Dublin (Dublin, n.d.), 107.
their reform Clubs, and their newspapers; they pass resolutions, send forth
addresses, and enjoy the right of petition. But how is it with the American
slave? Where may he assemble? Where is his Conciliation Hall? Where are
his newspapers? Where is his right of petition? Where is his freedom of
speech? his liberty of the press? and his right of locomotion? He is said to be
happy; happy men can speak. But ask the slave—what is his condition?—
what his state of mind?—what he thinks of his enslavement? and you had as
well address your inquiries to the silent dead. There comes no voice from the
enslaved, we are left to gather his feelings by imagining what ours would
be, were our souls in his soul’s stead.
If there were no other fact descriptive of slavery, than that the slave is
dumb, this alone would be sufficient to mark the slave system as a grand
aggregation of human horrors.
Most who are present will have observed that leading men, in this
country, have been putting forth their skill to secure quiet to the nation. A
system of measures to promote this object was adopted a few months ago in
Congress.13Douglass refers to the five measures signed into law between 9 and 20 September that are collectively known as the Compromise of 1850. The individual acts provided for the establishment of territorial government in New Mexico and the resolution of the Texas boundary and public debt issues; the admission of California as a free state; the organization of Utah Territory; the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; and a new fugitive slave law to replace the act of 1793.
The result of those measures is known. Instead of quiet, they have
produced alarm; instead of peace, they have brought us war, and so [it]
must ever be.
While this nation is guilty of the enslavement of three millions of
innocent men and women, it is as idle to think of having a sound and lasting
peace, as it is to think there is no God, to take cognizance of the affairs of
men. There can be no peace to the wicked while slavery continues in the
land. It will be condemned, and while it is condemned there will be agita-
tion. Nature must cease to be nature; Men must become monsters; Humanity
must be transformed; Christianity must be exterminated; all ideas of
justice, and the laws of eternal goodness must be utterly blotted out from
the human soul, ere a system so foul and infernal can escape condemnation,
or this guilty Republic can have a sound and enduring Peace.