They Declare That The Unconditional Abolition Of
Slavery, In A Country Abounding In Unappropriated Lands, Where Men May
Squat Without
Being disturbed, means simply the confiscation of three
hundred millions sterling, the value of the slaves, in the first place,
And the abandonment and destruction of the entire planting interest,
in the second. To urge the morality of the question with these men,
would be as successful as a similar appeal to our opium traders; to the
maker of fire-arms certain to burst; or, to use an American free State
illustration - to the successful manufacturer of wooden nutmegs.
"After hearing these statements, doubtless exaggerated, but which were
made with earnestness, and are at least partially true, I was not
surprised to learn, that since the forcible seizure of a slave at
Boston, some months ago, by the abolitionists of that city, many of the
Southern merchants have transferred their purchases of manufactured
goods to New York, to an extent which, were it not stated on authority,
would be beyond belief. Indeed I learn, that so strong is this anti-
abolition feeling, that where any option exists, the avowed
abolitionists are systematically avoided in business dealings. A first-
class firm in New York, having a magnificent shop in the Broadway, see
their old Southern customers pass by to a rival establishment in the
same street, the only reason being that they are known to be earnest
abolitionists, while their rival has never publicly expressed any
opinion on the question.
"This feeling, showing itself in an endless variety of shapes, is just
now most-fierce, owing to an outrage which has occurred in
Pennsylvania, in which a Mr. Gorsuch has been shot down, and his son
seriously wounded, in an attempt to seize a fugitive slave (under the
provisions of the 'fugitive slave law'), which was resisted by a rising
of the free black population, and of some white abettors.
"The 'fugitive slave law' is, indeed, simply a declaratory act. For it
is unfortunately the fact, that the Southern States gave in their
adhesion to the Federal Republic solely on condition that, while the
slave trade should cease, the institution of slavery should be
respected, and they should have the right to follow and seize fugitive
slaves in any part of the Union. The 'fugitive slave law' was the work
of the 'Union' party - a party composed of men of all shades of opinion,
who wished, by conciliation, to prevent the threatened withdrawal of
South Carolina and other slave States from the Union.
"Greatly as all just and dispassionate men must abhor slavery, every
one must admit the difficulties with which its immediate abolition is
here surrounded. The negro does not possess the cordial sympathy of the
white man. For while a small, and, politically speaking, uninfluential,
party are prepared to make every sacrifice and run all risks in order
to blot out slavery on the instant, the influential and acting leaders
of the majority, whatever their occasional language of denunciation,
and affectation of horror, are not disposed to brave the rebellion of
the South, and the possible disruption of the Republic, for the sake of
shortening the thraldom of the negro some fifty years.
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