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Page 54
It may sound strange to some, this claim for Mr. Garrison of a profound
statesmanship. "Men have heard him styled a mere fanatic so long
that they are incompetent to judge him fairly." "The phrases men are
accustomed," says Goethe, "to repeat incessantly, end by becoming
convictions, and ossify the organs of intelligence." I cannot accept
you, therefore, as my jury. I appeal from Festus to Csar, from the
prejudice of our streets to the common-sense of the world, and to your
children.
Every thoughtful and unprejudiced mind must see that such an evil as
slavery will yield only to the most radical treatment. If you consider
the work we have to do, you will not think us needlessly aggressive,
or that we dig down unnecessarily deep in laying the foundations of our
enterprise. A money power of two thousand millions of dollars, as the
prices of slaves now range, held by a small body of able and desperate
men; that body raised into a political aristocracy by special
constitutional provisions; cotton, the product of slave labor, forming
the basis of our whole foreign commerce, and the commercial class thus
subsidized; the press bought up, the pulpit reduced to vassalage, the
heart of the common people chilled by a bitter prejudice against the
black race; our leading men bribed, by ambition, either to silence or
open hostility;--in such a land, on what shall an Abolitionist rely?
On a few cold prayers, mere lip-service, and never from the heart? On
a church resolution, hidden often in its records, and meant only as a
decent cover for servility in daily practice? On political parties, with
their superficial influence at best, and seeking ordinarily only to use
existing prejudices to the best advantage? Slavery has deeper root here
than any aristocratic institution has in Europe; and politics is but the
common pulse-beat, of which revolution is the fever-spasm. Yet we have
seen European aristocracy survive storms which seemed to reach down
to the primal strata of European life. Shall we, then, trust to mere
politics, where even revolution has failed? How shall the stream rise
above its fountain? Where shall our church organizations or parties
get strength to attack their great parent and moulder, the slave power?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me
thus? The old jest of one who tried to lift himself in his own basket,
is but a tame picture of the man who imagines that, by working solely
through existing sects and parties, he can destroy slavery. Mechanics
say nothing, but an earthquake strong enough to move all Egypt can bring
down the pyramids.
Experience has confirmed these views. The Abolitionists who have acted
on them have a "short method" with all unbelievers. They have but to
point to their own success, in contrast with every other man's failure.
To waken the nation to its real state, and chain it to the consideration
of this one duty, is half the work. So much we have done. Slavery has
been made the question of this generation. To startle the South to
madness, so that every step she takes, in her blindness, is one step
more toward ruin, is much. This we have done. Witness Texas and the
Fugitive Slave Law.
To have elaborated for the nation the only plan of redemption, pointed
out the only exodus from this "sea of troubles," is much. This we claim
to have done in our motto of IMMEDIATE, UNCONDITIONAL, EMANCIPATION ON
THE SOIL. The closer any statesmanlike mind looks into the question,
the more favor our plan finds with it. The Christian asks fairly of
the infidel, "If this religion be not from God, how do you explain its
triumph, and the history of the first three centuries?" Our question
is similar. If our agitation has not been wisely planned and conducted,
explain for us the history of the last twenty years! Experience is a
safe light to walk by, and he is not a rash man who expects success in
future from the same means which have secured it in times past.
CHARLES SUMNER,
OF MASSACHUSETTS. (BORN 1811, DIED 1874.)
ON THE REPEAL OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW--
IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, AUGUST 26, 1852.
THURSDAY, 26TH AUGUST, 1852.--The Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation
Bill being under consideration, the following amendment was moved by Mr.
Hunter, of Virginia, on the recommendation of the Committee on Finance:
"That, where the ministerial officers of the United States have or shall
incur extraordinary expense in executing the laws thereof, the payment
of which is not specifically provided for, the President of the United
States is authorized to allow the payment thereof, under the special
taxation of the District or Circuit Court of the District in which
the said services have been or shall be rendered, to be paid from the
appropriation for defraying the expenses of the Judiciary."
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