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Page 51
How vigilantly, how patiently, did we watch the Texas plot from its
commencement! The politic South felt that its first move had been too
bold, and thenceforward worked underground. For many a year men laughed
at us for entertaining any apprehensions. It was impossible to rouse the
North to its peril. David Lee Child was thought crazy because he would
not believe there was no danger. His elaborate "_Letters on Texas
Annexation_" are the ablest and most valuable contribution that has
been made toward a history of the whole plot. Though we foresaw and
proclaimed our conviction that annexation would be, in the end, a fatal
step for the South, we did not feel at liberty to relax our opposition,
well knowing the vast increase of strength it would give, at first, to
the slave power. I remember being one of a committee which waited
on Abbott Lawrence, a year or so only before annexation, to ask his
countenance to some general movement, without distinction of party,
against the Texas scheme. He smiled at our fears, begged us to have
no apprehensions; stating that his correspondence with leading men at
Washington enabled him to assure us annexation was impossible, and that
the South itself was determined to defeat the project. A short time
after, Senators and Representatives from Texas took their seats in
Congress!
Many of these services to the slave were done before I joined his cause.
In thus referring to them, do not suppose me merely seeking occasion of
eulogy on my predecessors and present co-laborers. I recall these things
only to rebut the contemptuous criticism which some about us make the
excuse for their past neglect of the movement, and in answer to
"Ion's" representation of our course as reckless fanaticism, childish
impatience, utter lack of good sense, and of our meetings as scenes only
of excitement, of reckless and indiscriminate denunciation. I assert
that every social, moral, economical, religious, political, and
historical aspect of the question has been ably and patiently examined.
And all this has been done with an industry and ability which have left
little for the professional skill, scholarly culture, and historical
learning of the new laborers to accomplish. If the people are still in
doubt, it is from the inherent difficulty of the subject, or a hatred of
light, not from want of it. * * *
Sir, when a nation sets itself to do evil, and all its leading forces,
wealth, party, and piety, join in the career, it is impossible but that
those who offer a constant opposition should be hated and maligned, no
matter how wise, cautious, and well planned their course may be. We
are peculiar sufferers in this way. The community has come to hate its
reproving Nathan so bitterly, that even those whom the relenting part of
it are beginning to regard as standard-bearers of the antislavery host
think it unwise to avow any connection or sympathy with him. I refer to
some of the leaders of the political movement against slavery. They feel
it to be their mission to marshal and use as effectively as possible
the present convictions of the people. They cannot afford to encumber
themselves with the odium which twenty years of angry agitation have
engendered in great sects sore from unsparing rebuke, parties galled by
constant defeat, and leading men provoked by unexpected exposure. They
are willing to confess, privately, that our movement produced theirs,
and that its continued existence is the very breath of their life. But,
at the same time, they would fain walk on the road without being soiled
by too close contact with the rough pioneers who threw it up. They are
wise and honorable, and their silence is very expressive.
When I speak of their eminent position and acknowledged ability, another
thought strikes me. Who converted these men and their distinguished
associates? It is said we have shown neither sagacity in plans,
nor candor in discussion, nor ability. Who, then, or what converted
Burlingame and Wilson, Sumner and Adams, Palfrey and Mann, Chase and
Hale, and Phillips and Giddings? Who taught the _Christian Register_,
the _Daily Advertiser_, and that class of prints, that there were such
things as a slave and a slave-holder in the land, and so gave them some
more intelligent basis than their mere instincts to hate William Lloyd
Garrison? What magic wand was it whose touch made the todying servility
of the land start up the real demon that it was, and at the same
time gathered into the slave's service the professional ability, ripe
culture, and personal integrity which grace the Free Soil ranks? We
never argue! These men, then, were converted by simple denunciation!
They were all converted by the "hot," "reckless," "ranting," "bigoted,"
"fanatic" Garrison, who never troubled himself about facts, nor stopped
to argue with an opponent, but straightway knocked him down! My old
and valued friend, Mr. Sumner, often boasts that he was a reader of the
_Liberator_ before I was. Do not criticise too much the agency by which
such men were converted. That blade has a double edge. Our reckless
course, our empty rant, our fanaticism, has made Abolitionists of some
of the best and ablest men in the land. We are inclined to go on, and
see if, even with such poor tools, we cannot make some more. Antislavery
zeal and the roused conscience of the "godless comeouters" made the
trembling South demand the Fugitive Slave Law, and the Fugitive Slave
Law provoked Mrs. Stowe to the good work of "Uncle Tom." That is
something! Let me say, in passing, that you will nowhere find an earlier
or more generous appreciation, or more flowing eulogy, of these men and
their labors, than in the columns of the _Liberator_. No one, however
feeble, has ever peeped or muttered, in any quarter, that the vigilant
eye of the _Pioneer_ has not recognized him. He has stretched out the
right hand of a most cordial welcome the moment any man's face was
turned Zionward.
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