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Page 23
A spirit of emancipation was then common among slaveholders; many
slaves were set at liberty, and Christians, and philanthropists, were
anxiously looking forward to a period of universal emancipation. A
gentleman, by name Benjamin Lundy, published at that time an
anti-slavery paper in Greenville, East Tennessee; which paper had an
extensive circulation. About that time, I gathered up my anti-slavery
juvenile doggerel, corrected it, as well as I could,--selected poems
from Cowper and others, on the subject; forwarded the manuscript to
the aforesaid B. Lundy, and the result was, a little volume of
anti-slavery poems. But the abolition excitement broke out in the
North, and the South took the alarm. The mouths of clergymen were
closed in the pulpit; for it was deemed inadvisable, in consequence of
Northern interference, to discuss the subject of slavery in the
pulpit, social circle, or under any circumstances, whatever. It was
thus, we see, through the intermeddling of Northern abolitionists,
that discussion was cut off in the South. Rigid laws were then enacted
by the state Legislatures, for the suppression of public discussion;
and there were also enactments which threw obstacles in the way of
emancipation; and thus, the fetters of slavery have been drawn
tighter, and tighter, from that day, to the present time.
A short time after the excitement commenced in the South, a committee
of panic-stricken citizens called on Mr. Lundy, after expressing for
him personally the highest regard, they politely requested him to
discontinue his paper; expressing the opinion, at the time, that its
publication was no longer consistent with public safety. Mr. Lundy
complied with their request, and it was rumored, whether true or
false, I know not, that he remarked, that it was a great pity that the
Yankees could not mind their own business. Mr. Lundy, I believe, was a
Yankee himself, but was said to be a gentlemanly, humane man. Some are
no doubt ready to ask, Why was it, that the abolition excitement in
the North, produced such a panic in the South? It was the revolting
and shocking doctrines, which they openly promulgated. It was their
notorious disregard of the laws of God and man, and all those ties
which bind us together as one great nation; their denial of the right
of the South to hold slave property, notwithstanding that right had
been guaranteed to them by the Federal Constitution; their advocacy of
the right of the slave to arise in the night and cut his master's
throat; or, else, burn his house over his head; their advocacy of the
right of the North to force emancipation on the South, at the point of
the bayonet, &c.
It was these monstrous doctrines and assumptions, which were then, and
are to the present day, avowed and defended by abolition orators, that
alarmed the Southern people. It was not long before Northern
abolitionists were detected in circulating through the South, exciting
and incendiary publications, on the subject of slavery, and in some
instances, intermeddling with slaves, and trying to incite
insurrections among them. These things inflamed the public mind more
and more in the South. Legislatures met, and enacted laws still more
stringent for the punishment of such offenders; for the suppression of
public discussion; and they, withal, threw so many restrictions around
those who held slaves that in most of the states, emancipation became
exceedingly difficult, and in some of them, absolutely impracticable.
These are historical facts, and they are worth more than a volume of
any man's speculations on the subject of slavery. They speak for
themselves, and require but little comment from me. Who was it that
crushed in embryo, the reform which was in progress thirty-five years
ago? It was the abolitionists, and every one is aware of it, who is
informed on the subject; and intelligent men among the abolitionists
know it, as well as any one else. The officious inter-meddling of
abolitionists with Southern slavery, never has, and never can effect
anything for the slave; it has served but to retard emancipation, and
to rivet the chains of slavery. This opinion has been expressed a
thousand times, by the wisest and best men, that our nation has ever
produced--men, who enjoyed the best opportunities for forming correct
opinions on the subject. Henry Clay said, in a letter, written in
1845, "I firmly believe that the cause of the extinction of negro
slavery, far from being advanced, has been retarded by the agitation
of the subject at the North."
I believe slavery to be an individual and a national evil--a dire
calamity--and would rejoice to see it extinguished by any means
compatible with the safety, peace and prosperity of the nation, the
best interests of master and slave; and in the fear of God Almighty,
before whose bar I know that I must shortly appear, I sincerely,
firmly and solemnly believe, that if the free states had stood aloof,
and left the discussion and disposition of it entirely to the slave
states, several states which are now slave states, and are likely to
remain so, would have long since made provisions for the emancipation
of their slaves. And I moreover believe, that if the North would now
desist from all interference with it, the evil would be eradicated
from the United States, some hundreds of years sooner than it will be,
provided she persists in her present course. This is a legitimate
conclusion from the foregoing historical facts. Abolitionists can do
nothing, and men of intelligence well know it, that will mitigate the
evils of slavery, or eradicate it from the South. It is entirely
beyond their reach, they cannot control it; and if the object of
intelligent men in the North was the abolition of slavery, they would
cease to agitate the subject. But that is not their object. I allude
to the leaders of that party--the politicians, and not the common
people, for they are sincere. What then is their object? It is to
produce a dissolution of the Union; a separation of the Northern and
Southern sections of the United States, civil war, blood-shed, the
sacking and burning of cities, devastations, brother imbruing his
hands in the blood of brother, the father shedding the blood of his
son, and the son that of the father! Yea, and ten thousand other evils
and calamities, of which they, themselves, have never dreamed. Is this
abolitionism? Great God! what a picture--and the half has not been
told! From whence did it spring? "By whom begot?" It is an offspring
of New England infidelity. It was born in fanaticism, and nurtured in
violence and disorder. It opposes and violates the commands of God,
and is full of strife and pride. Its course is unchristian, impolitic
and hypocritical; it is alike hostile to religion and republicanism;
it rejects the Bible and the constitution of our country, and under
the pretense of higher law, it abrogates all law! This is
abolitionism, but all is not yet told. Be patient, reader, and perhaps
before I bring this essay to a close, I shall succeed in disclosing
its anti-christian and anti-republican tendencies; its seditious
spirit; its self will, pride and contumacy; its duplicity and
hypocrisy; its cruelties, horrors and woes.
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