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OPPOSITION TO THE ANNEXATION
OF TEXAS. -CARRIES PETITIONS TO WASHINGTON. - SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES, 1846.
ON the death of Mr.
Harrison, April 4, 1841, the slave-power found in Mr. Tyler, his
successor, a willing advocate of its extension; and then brought forward
with unblushing front the gigantic scheme of annexing Texas to the
Union. This said Gen. Hamilton, would "give a Gibraltar to the South."
"The Madisonian," the organ of the administration, declared that it
would have the most salutary influence upon slavery, and that "it must
be done soon, or not at all;" and Mr. Upshur asserted in January, 1844,
that, "if Texas should not be attached to the United States, she cannot
maintain that institution [slavery] ten years, and probably not half
that time." Stormy debates occurred in Congress on the question; the
Whigs, in general, opposing the annexation while "Texas, or disunion!"
became the watchword of the South. The question was carried into the
presidential election of 1844; and James K. Polk thus came into the
chief executive chair.
In the State Senate Mr.
Wilson took an active part against the Texan scheme. He moved an
amendment to the resolutions against annexation, "requesting
Massachusetts senators in Congress to prevent, if possible, the
consummation of that slaveholding scheme." The resolution implied a
rebuke for their timid action; and he commented freely on what he
characterized as their want of spirit. He wished to call their attention
to the fact, that, upon the question of slavery, the legislature was in
sober earnest; that it wished "them to feel, to think, and to act as
Massachusetts men, who have been reared under the institutions of the
Pilgrim Fathers, should think, feel, and act." His amendment was
unanimously adopted by the Senate; and, though amended in the House by
the insertion of the words "representatives in Congress," it had the
desired effect upon our senators in that body. Mr. Wilson spoke
eloquently and earnestly in the Senate-chamber against annexation,
maintaining that, "if Texas should he admitted by a legislative act,
that act could and ought to be repealed at the earliest possible
moment." In order to develop and concentrate public sentiment on this
question, he drew up a paper calling a convention of the State. Many
eminent men of the Whig party in the General Court declined to sign the
paper. This was the entering wedge in the division of the Whig party of
Massachusetts in respect to slavery, which resulted in open rupture
three years afterwards, and, finally, in complete extinction. Glorying
in its past record, and intimidated by the effrontery of the South, that
party failed to see the "logic of events," and wore away until it
received from its distinguished leader, Daniel Webster, in his speech on
the seventh day of March, 1850, its final death-blow. The world was
moving: not to move with it was to perish.
The State convention was
held in Faneuil hall upon the 29th of January; and its discussions were
characterized by earnestness, vigor, and determination. An address, in
part drawn up by Mr. Webster, and declaring that "Massachusetts
denounces the iniquitous project [of annexation] in its inception, and
in every stage of its progress, its means, and its ends, and all the
purposes and pretences of its authors," was unanimously adopted, and
widely circulated. "Thoughtful men," says Mr. Wilson, "filled the hall;
speakers and hearers partook of a common sentiment: they realized as
never before the imminence of the impending calamity, the gravity of the
occasion, and the pregnant issues of the hour."
"The true reformer," says
some writer, "is the man upon whose mind the light of great truths has
fallen before it has reached the mass of his fellow-men, and who feels
called of God to shed it abroad in the darkness." The declarations of
Mr. Wilson at this period show that he distinctly saw the "impending
crisis," the upheaving of the moral power of the nation, and the
downfall of the deep- rooted institution of human servitude.
Although a treaty of
annexation had been signed by the president, and Texas had accepted the
conditions, she was not yet a State of the Union. Efforts were therefore
strenuously made by antislavery men against her admission as a State. On
the anniversary (Aug. 1, 1845) of the West-India emancipation, a large
meeting was held at Waltham, Mass., where eloquent speeches were made by
William Henry Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Weiss, and Henry
Wilson, in which the usurpations and iniquities of the slaveholding
power were forcibly set forth.
"The calamity and
disgrace of annexation," said Mr. Wilson, "had come upon the country
through the treachery of Northern men: even the representative of
Concord and Lexington had proved recreant." To the question, "What
should be done?" he said, "Act, hold meetings in every district, town,
and county in the State. Oppose the admission of Texas into the Union as
a slaveholding State, and appeal to the people of the free States to
arrest the consummation of the great iniquity. Say to the men of the
South, 'You are warring against civilization, against humanity, against
the noblest feelings of the heart, the holiest impulses of the human
soul, and the providence of God; and the conflict must ultimately end in
your defeat.'
Mr. Wilson soon after
obtained the signatures of a large number of influential men for a
convention to be held at Concord on the twenty-second day of September,
1845, which, as set forth in the call, was to "take into consideration
the encroachments of the slave-power, and recommend such action as
justice and patriotism shall dictate to resist those encroachments, and
arrest the progress of events so rapidly tending to that fearful
consummation when slavery shall have complete control over the policy of
the government and the destinies of the country." Men of all parties,
sects, and pursuits, were invoked to "devote one day to the country and
the oppressed." "Let old age," he said, "with its garnered treasures of
wisdom and experience, be there, let manhood in its maturity and vigor
be there, let youth with its high hopes and aspirations be there, to
devise such measures and awaken such a spirit as shall free the country
from the dominion, curse, and shame of slavery."
Mr. Wilson had the
pleasure of seeing a large, enthusiastic convention, and of reporting a
preamble and resolutions; the former of which had been prepared by his
pastor, the Rev. Samuel Hunt, who, he observes, "had always, in the
pulpit, in religious and political organizations, and at the ballot-box,
acted for the slave, and against the domination of his master."
"We solemnly announce our
purpose to the South," said the resolutions; "and to the execution of
that purpose we pledge ourselves to the country and before heaven, that,
rejecting all compromise, without restraint or hesitation, in our
private relations and in our political organizations, by our voices and
our votes, in Congress or out, we will use all practicable means for the
extinction of slavery on the American continent." Letters were received
from Charles Francis Adams, and John G. Whittier the poet and eloquent
speeches were made by William Lloyd Garrison, Stephen C. Philllip's and
other antislavery men. The resolutions were unanimously adopted.
At an adjourned meeting
of the convention, held in Cambridge on the 21st of October, Mr. Wilson
presided, and, on taking the chair, made an earnest appeal for prompt
and fearless action; in which he said, "Let us at once take an advanced
step against the slave-power. Let us act, and, as far as we have the
constitutional right, go in favor of emancipation. Let us make it the
cardinal doctrine of our creed, the sun of our system. Let us inscribe,
in letters of light, emancipation on the banners under which we rally.
Let us go to the country on that issue. We shall reach the heart and
conscience of the people. They will come to the rescue, and we shall lay
the foundations of an enduring triumph.''
A. committee appointed at
this convention prepared an address to the people, and received in
response petitions, signed by sixty-five thousand names, against the
admission of Texas as a State into the Union. Mr. Wilson and John G.
Whittier were chosen to present this remonstrance of the people of this
State to Congress. On the tenth day of December, Mr. Adams laid these
petitions before the House of Representatives, and moved that they be
referred to a select committee; but the House by a large majority laid
them on the table, and Texas soon became a State of the Union. But,
though the Southern power was thus augmented, there were forces rising
and combining which portended "irrepressible conflict."
While at Washington, Mr.
Wilson was invited to dine with John Q. Adams; and, when wine was urged
upon him at table, held himself, as did Daniel at the court of Babylon,
to his principles of temperance, and declined to taste it. Surrounded by
fashion, and moved by the example of the great and gifted, as he was, he
has since spoken of this as one of the strongest temptations, in respect
to total abstinence, of his life. Mr. Adams afterwards heartily
commended him for his consistency.
In 1840, Mr. Wilson, who
had declined being a candidate for the State Senate, held a seat in the
House of Representatives, and, as usual, took a leading part in the
deliberations of the session; ever casting the weight of his influence
upon the side of humanity and progress. He introduced a resolution on
the third day of February, declaring "the unalterable hostility of
Massachusetts to the further extension and longer existence of slavery
in America, and her fixed determination to use all constitutional and
legal means for its extinction." This resolution he supported in a
speech of signal power, evincing profound research and a complete
mastery of his subject. He met with stern opposition from some leading
men of the Whig party, with which he was still acting; though none could
answer his strong and lucid argument. Of this speech "The Liberator"
said, "This is unquestionably the best antislavery speech that has ever
been delivered in any legislative assembly in this country, - more
direct, more comprehensive, more important;" and "The Boston Courier"
truly averred that "the spirit of independence is manifest in every
paragraph." Inasmuch as Mr. Wilson, in this appeal for freedom,
fearlessly discloses his opinions as a legislative champion of
antislavery, clearly states the issues between the parties, ably answers
the objections to his own position, marks out his future course, and
prophetically announces coming events, we introduce it, with few
omissions, to the reader : -
SPEECH ON SLAVERY IN THE
MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1846.
"I am not, sir, a
political abolitionist; or, rather, I am not a Liberty-party map. I have
no connection whatever with that party as a party. I am an abolitionist,
and have been a member of an abolition society for nearly ten years. I
am proud of the name of' abolitionist: I glory in it. l am willing to
bear my full share of the odium that may now or hereafter be heaped upon
it. I had far rather be one of the humblest in that little band which
rallies around the glorious standard of emancipation than to have been
the favorite marshal of Napoleon, and have led the Old Guard over a
hundred fields of glory and renown. I have, here and in the other
branch, always advocated and supported all measures that tend to the
freedom and elevation of the colored portion of our countrymen. At all
times and on all occasions, in public and in private, I have endeavored,
according to the convictions of my judgment, to advance the cause of
emancipation. I have been a candidate for seven years in succession for
this House or the Senate, and have never, to my knowledge, received the
vote of a solitary political abolitionist; and, should I ever again be a
candidate for public office (which I do not anticipate), never expect to
receive from one a vote. I hope, therefore, that no more insinuations
will be thrown out that I only wish to court and please 'a little knot
of political abolitionists.' At any rate, I shall not shrink from the
performance of duty from any such insinuations here or elsewhere. I have
said that I have no connection with the Liberty party; yet I am free to
say that I am ready to forget the past, to let bygones be bygones, and
to act with any set of men - Whigs,. Democrats, Liberty men, or old
organizationists - in all lawful and constitutional measures that shall
tend to arrest the extension, and overthrow the entire system, of
slavery in America. It is time for the friends of freedom to bury minor
differences of opinion, and march shoulder to shoulder, with lock-step,
against the slave-power. How stands Massachusetts at this time? What is
her position in reference to slavery? As long ago as 1838, during the
presidency of Mr. Van Buren, an effort was made to bring Texas into the
Union. The subject was brought before the legislature; and the late
lamented James C. Alvord of Greenfield, then a member of the Senate,
made a very able report on the subject, concluding with resolutions
against the admission of Texas, which were unanimously adopted as the
sense of the people of the Commonwealth. And in 1843, when the
Democratic party had the control of the State government, a resolution
was likewise unanimously passed, setting forth the evils of annexation,
and declaring that under 'no circumstances whatever would Massachusetts
consent to it.' In 1844, when rumors were rife that the administration
of John Tyler, - which has been aptly called a 'gigantic joke,' -
casting about for popular themes which should give it a chance for a
renewed term, had pitched upon this project of annexation, the
legislature, by nearly a unanimous vote, passed resolutions that such
annexation would be a 'palpable violation of the Constitution, a
deliberate assault upon its compromises.' I know very well, and
everybody knows very well, that the Democracy have abandoned the
position we all then assumed. . . . But the deed has been done. The last
act in this great drama of national guilt and infamy has been performed.
Texas has been admitted. She is now a sister State. She has been
admitted in violation of the Constitution, and under circumstances winch
leave but little doubt that the measure was carried by corruption, - by
a free use of the patronage of the executive. Men who had committed
themselves against it, and whose constituents were strongly opposed to
it, also voted for it, and have since received their reward by
appointment to places of honor and emolument.
"We must now act. We are
in a position where we can not stand still with honor and dignity. We
can adopt three courses of' action, - say and do nothing; stand just
where we now are, and win, as win we should, the unenviable reputation
of talking loud beforehand; and, when the act is finally accomplished,
shutting our mouths in silence, and submitting to the wrong without a
murmur. Such a position is one of shame and humiliation, unworthy of old
Massachusetts.
"We may declare that this
gross outrage of the General Government is an entire revolution, which
will justify Massachusetts in dissolving all connection with the
government. We may declare our independence, withdraw our delegation
from Congress, exercise exclusive jurisdiction over our territory, and
maintain it by force. Very few will recommend such a course of action.
Such a step would doubtless lead to bloodshed, which few can contemplate
without horror. Were the people ready and prepared for it, the
circumstances would not, could not, justify such action. What then, can
we do? We can pledge all the moral, social, and political power of the
Commonwealth against slavery, and for freedom. We will remain in the
Union ; but we remain there to fight the battles of freedom. We will
stand by the Constitution: but we stand by it to rescue and defend it
from the slave-power; to exercise all its just powers for the overthrow
of slavery. We can dedicate ourselves to freedom, and wage eternal
hostility to slavery and its power. This is, in my judgement, the only
true course for Massachusetts to take. Her duty to the country, and her
own honor and dignity, demand that she should take that position, and
maintain it with unfaltering devotion."
Having forcibly discussed
the allegations of the preamble to the resolution, he continued:-
"Sir, this republic was
based upon the grand idea of the freedom and equality of all men; and
yet now, in the middle part of the nineteenth century, in this age of
light and knowledge illuminating our pathway, it has committed itself
against freedom, and for slavery. And so it stands committed before all
nations, and before Him who has declared that 'righteousness exalteth a
nation, and sin is a reproach to any people.' Our position before the
world is now one of disgrace and shame; and there is no true American,
who cares any thing for the fame and glory of his country, that does not
blush for his native land. We are drawing upon ourselves the scorn and
derision of the universe. With the friends of freedom abroad we are fast
losing sympathy and character. It is the universal sentiment all over
the civilized world, that we are false and recreant to the principles of
our own Constitution. Even the great and good Lafayette declared, a
short time before his death, to Clarkson, that he never would have drawn
his sword for America if he had known he was aiding to found a
slaveholding republic.
"At the present time, Mr.
Speaker, slavery governs the country: it holds possession of the
government, and its vast power is everywhere seen and felt. Its eye is
fixed upon California, and turned towards Cuba; and Mr. Calhoun has even
gone so far as to send a secret and special agent to Hayti to stir up a
rebellion for the purpose of crushing the negro republic. Slavery has
its sleepless eye upon the rich provinces of the Mexican republic. Our
own gifted Prescott may yet live to write again 'The Conquest of
Mexico,' not by the Spanish, but by the Anglo-Saxon race; and for what?
Simply, solely, and singly, for the extension of negro slavery over
those fair and rich fields.
"The effects of slavery
upon the whites and the blacks, upon the moral, social, and intellectual
condition of the people, are visible to the most casual observer. It has
left its impress upon man, upon institutions and society, and upon the
face of Nature. Like the fabled upas-tree, it blasts, withers, and
consumes all of life that comes within the circle of its influence. Of
the five millions of white population in the slave States, only about
three hundred thousand are slaveholders; the great mass of the
population being poor ignorant, and degraded, many of them but little,
if any, above the slaves: and slavery has reduced them to that
condition. The soil is cut up into vast estates, owned by a few
aristocrats who disdain labor, and despise the laborer. Common schools,
the glory of New England, hardly exist; and education is almost unknown
by the mass of the people. It is our boast in New England that our soil
is divided into small estates; that its cultivators stand upon their own
acres, which they till; and that education is accessible to all our
people. These are the main supports of our republican institutions. What
are the results of the two systems? One system has, for example, made
Massachusetts the pattern State of the Union: the other has made old
Virginia, the mother of States and of statesmen, a poor and drivelling
commonwealth, with a broken-down and proud aristocracy (mere pensioners
upon the government for menial and petty offices), and a helpless and
dissipated people. Such is the legitimate result of slavery everywhere;
and nothing can be more preposterous than the idea of sustaining
republican institutions in a land of slavery. It has ever been the bane
of empires. It corrupted and destroyed the ancient republics. It has
retarded the progress of the race. It destroyed the Roman republic; it
corrupted her aristocracy; it annihilated the democracy, impoverished
the masses, and converted them into paupers that were fed from the
public crib. We talk of Ceasar's crossing the Rubicon, and prostrating
the liberties of his country: Roman liberty had perished forever before
Ceasar returned from his Northern conquests. When Tiberius Gracchus,
seeing and comprehending the tendencies of slavery, attempting to arrest
its corrupting influence by dividing the public domain into small
estates, - thus creating an independent yeomanry that should preserve
and perpetuate the liberties of the commonwealth, —fell with three
hundred of his followers in the Forum beneath the blows of the
slaveholding aristocracy, and his body was thrown into the Tiber, that
day the liberties of Rome went down, to rise no more forever. We talk of
the Northern barbarians despoiling Italy. Before the Scythians left
their rude huts in the North, and crossed the Alps, the rich fields of
Italy had been converted into barrenness and desolation by the barbarism
of slavery, so that those once fertile fields would only yield one-third
as much as our own cold, sterile soil of New England. Look at the once
proud monarchy of Spain. For three centuries the gold and the silver of
the New World were poured into her coffers. It seems now that the hand
of God was upon her, avenging the wrongs of the black and red man.
"The issue is now clearly
made up. Slavery assumes to direct and control the nation. The friends
of freedom must meet the issue. Freedom and slavery are now arrayed
against each other. We must destroy slavery, or it will destroy liberty.
The path of duty is plain. We are bound to exert our utmost efforts to
restore our government to its original and pristine purity. The contest
is a glorious one; and let us be cheered by the fact that the bold and
daring efforts of the slave-power to arrest the progress of free
principles have awakened and aroused the country. True, that power has
won a brilliant victory in the acquisition of Texas; yet it is only one
victory in her series of victories over the constitution and liberties
of the country. Other fields are to be fought; and if we are true to the
country, to freedom, and to man, the future has yet a Waterloo in store
for the supporters of this unholy system. The tendencies of the age we
live in are all against slavery; the progress of literature and science
is against it; every thing that is beautiful and holy in the works of
God is against it; God himself is against it; and, sooner or later, fall
it must. Let us not be the last to engage in the good work.
"Sir, I wish for the
adoption of this resolution, because thereby Massachusetts would take an
entirely new and noble position. It is clear, distinct, and plain in its
terms, and is based upon the aggressions of slavery itself upon freedom,
the liberties, the rights, of the people of the country. It pledges
Massachusetts to resist to the utmost all extension of the accursed
institution, and to use all her just powers for the entire extinction of
the whole system. Let her adopt this sentiment, and act in accordance
with it. I wish that it could be written, in the words of Daniel
Webster, 'in letters of light on the blue arch of heaven, between Orion
and the Pleiades,' so that every one might see and read it, and ponder
upon it. But I am not one to believe that our whole duty will have been
discharged by the adoption of a resolution of this character. We must
make its principles a living faith. We must sustain it at any cost and
at any sacrifice. We must send to the halls of Congress men ready and
willing at all times to support it. We must carry it into every
department of our government, and bring the whole moral force and power
of the State to bear in favor of it; and in doing this we shall at last
inevitably succeed.
"It is asked what we of
the North can do. Sir, we can prevent slavery from ever gaining a
foothold in the vast Territories of the republic; and we can abolish it
in the District of Columbia. And, in regard to this point, we of
Massachusetts are just as responsible for the existence of slavery there
as are the people of any State in the Union: and are more guilty than
some; for we sin against our own convictions. In that District the
prisons of our own government are converted into slave-pens; and side by
side with our national public edifices are private persons, where our
fellow-beings are immured, and kept for sale like cattle. I have visited
one, and have seen crowds of slaves awaiting purchasers, thence to be
sent to the cotton-fields and sugar-plantations of the far South-west.
One of our own representatives told me that he saw at the railroad depot
a poor negro woman torn away from her children, shrieking in the
bitterness of her agony, and reproaching her owner for the violation of
his promise that she should not be separated from her offspring. A
distinguished member of Congress from South Carolina was his companion
at the time, and exclaimed, 'Great God! what a sight is here! no wonder
that you of the North are abolitionists! We can't stop this in the
District of Columbia, and abolish throughout the country this vile
inter-state slave-traffic; and the world and God will hold us to a
fearful responsibility until we do it.
"Then the revenue force
of the government is now used to prevent the escape of fugitive slaves;
the garrisons are used for prisons, and the army is the mere body-guard
of slavery; the navy, if not created, is used almost wholly (at least
the home squadron), for the protection of the domestic slave-trade. The
General Government can correct all this; and, were that government to
exercise its constitutional right and power, slavery would die. The free
States, and Massachusetts among them, are responsible for this; for they
have the power to do it, and do not exercise it. They can bring the
whole force and power of the government to bear in favor of liberty.
They can change the provisions of the Constitution and the laws which
now protect slave-property. As the Constitution now stands, a slave
escaping here has no refuge, no protection; and the soil of our own
State has long been the slave holder's hunting-ground. The panting and
fleeing fugitive, with bloodhounds at his heels, may enter Fanenil Hall,
and he is still a slave. He may cast himself down under the shadow of
yonder monument, and he is still a slave, he may come into this very
chamber, or penetrate to the council-chamber of the executive for
protection, and he is still a slave, and his master can drag him away
into bondage. The law and the Constitution that allow this can be
changed, as well, also, as that provision which allows a representative
of slave-property in the national councils. This subject was once acted
upon by this legislature; and, though then unsuccessful, repeated and
constant effort will enable us to accomplish the end. But we are met
with the assertion that the slaveholders have rights under the
Constitution, and that the existence of their property was guaranteed by
that instrument. Now, I undertake to say that the Constitution was made
for a free people. The whole history of the country from 1774 to the
adoption of the Constitution proves this. The first Congress which met
in 1774 declared, -
"'That they would not
import or purchase any slaves that they would not be concerned in the
trade themselves and that they would neither purchase slaves, use ships
in the slave-trade, or sell their commodities and manufactures to those
engaged in that traffic.'
The Congress of 1774
declared, 'God never intended a part of the human race to hold an
absolute property in, and an unbounded power over, others.'
The ordinance of 1787 for
the government of the North-west Territory, drawn up by a distinguished
son of Massachusetts, expressly and forever prohibited slavery
throughout that vast region. From 1775 to 1789, six of the States
abolished slavery within their limits. If we look at the Madison papers,
and into the debates of the several State conventions for the adoption
of the Constitution, we shall find it established as clear as noonday
light, that the framers of the Constitution never entertained the idea
of the long continuance, far less the spread, of this great wrong; but
the universal opinion was that slavery would soon die out, and be
forever extinguished. Such was the opinion of the Washingtons,
Jeffersons, Madisons, Henrys, Masons, and Martins of the South; of the
Jays, Gerrys, Hancocks, Rushes, Adamses, Franklins, and Hamiltons of the
North. They thought that everywhere the institution would soon pass away
under the influence of our higher civilization and larger liberty. The
whole concurrent testimony of all these great men, some of whom were
among the purest and best characters the world has ever produced, proves
that they all held this opinion and held this belief. We had no
statesmen then who believed that 'slavery was the corner-stone of the
republican edifice.'
"But, say some, the
abolition of slavery and the agitation of the subject will lead to
dissolution of the Union. Now, sir, I profess to be, and am, as strongly
attached as any man to the union of these States. From boyhood I have
been taught to regard disunion - in the words of Daniel Webster - as
plunging the country into 'the gulf of fire and blackness.' I wish to
see the whole country, from North to South, from the shores of the
Atlantic to those of the Pacific, one country, great, glorious, and
free, - an example for all the nations. I am for "liberty and union" but
it must be 'liberty and union.' At all events, I am for liberty; and if
dissolution of the Union must be the result of the abolition of slavery,
or of lawful and constitutional action, why, then, let that dissolution
come. Let the Union go; the sooner, the better. Better have liberty
without union than union without liberty. But let me ask of these grave
and conservative gentlemen who deprecate the agitation of this question,
who would keep the subject of slavery out of sight forever, lest its
discussion should hazard the perpetuity of the Union, or change or
modify existing institutions, would they, if living at the time, have
been found among the small flock gathered around Brewster and Robinson
on the wild, barren heaths of Lincolnshire? Would they have been on
board 'The Mayflower'? Would they have gathered with them in council to
lay in prayers the foundation of a Christian commonwealth? Would they
have been among the choice spirits rallying around and supporting Adams
and Hancock? Would they have followed Warren to Bunker Hill? No, sir;
no! They would have preached moderation. They would have kept aloof from
the contests, if possible; have left the country rather than meet the
crisis; and, if compelled to take a decisive part, would probably have
been found arrayed against liberty, and on the side of the stronger
power. They worship the past, gild their fathers' sepulchres, but
crucify all that is noble of the present. Such men as these now call
themselves conservators of our institutions, and oppose all attempts to
agitate the momentous question of the abolition of slavery. Away with
such stuff! I am sick of it. He alone is the true conservative who takes
his stand on the foundation of justice and right, and maintains that
position to the last.
"Our opponents seek to
portray in vivid colors the terrible dangers that would attend the
abolition of slavery. But look at this a moment. Eight of our States
have emancipated all the slaves within their borders, and no difficulty
whatever has followed. None of these dreadful evils have occurred; but,
on the contrary, everything has worked well, and to the
greatly-increased prosperity of such States. And we have a more recent
example in the British West-India islands, where circumstances were
infinitely more unfavorable to the success of emancipation than they are
with us; where the planters to a man were deadly opponents of the
scheme; where the blacks and slaves were as nearly ten to one of the
whites free. Yet the project was carried out, and no harm has been the
result: so far from it, indeed, that, whereas nearly all the planters
were bankrupt before the abolition, their condition is now vastly more
prosperous; and whereas the slaves were then dying off at the rate of
five thousand per year, under the pressure of the lash, to save the
island from bankruptcy, the health and condition, moral, social, and
intellectual, of the colored race, now free, has greatly, almost
wonderfully, improved. All this is established by irrefragable
testimony; and it far outweighs all the arguments and fears, real or
pretended, of the opponents of emancipation.
"This emancipation of the
West-India slaves was conceived and carried out, not by the planters and
owners of the slaves, but by England. This very act is the brightest gem
in her diadem of glory, it will live forever in the remembrance of
mankind, even if the memory of her arms, literature, and arts, the
achievements of her Nelson and Wellington, the works of her Shakspeare
and Milton, should pass away into oblivion. If her power should be
broken forever, and if she should tomorrow sink beneath the ocean, and
the waves of the Atlantic roll over the place where she now stands,
still the renown of this great work, by which she taxed her own people a
hundred millions of dollars, and gave liberty to eight hundred thousand
men three thousand miles away sunk in the lowest depths of degradation,
will endure through all time, and be quoted and commended by the lovers
of freedom. Sir, it was the saying of a famous Athenian that the glory
of his rival would not permit him to sleep. I trust that the glory
England has acquired by this measure will not suffer us of America to
slumber till we have emulated her example. I love not England; I am not
dazzled by her power: but I envy her the glory of that great
achievement.
"But we are again met
with the argument that we are a commercial people, and cannot afford to
disturb our relations with the rest of the country. Now, it is a
notorious fact that the slave States do not pay dollar for dollar what
they purchase from us. I know what I say; for I have examined the
subject. There are many manufacturing towns and villages in our State
that have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars by their dealings with
the South: my own town has large business-connections there, and has
been one of the sufferers. Our prosperity, so universally diffused among
us, is the result of ceaseless and untiring industry. Slavery, sir,
cannot support itself. The slave-holding power draws its living from the
heart's blood of the slave, and the toil and the sweat of the
hard-handed free laborer of the North. Our mariners brave the dangers
and endure the tempests of the deep; our farmers till a hard and barren
soil for a scanty subsistence; our mechanics and artisans labor all
their days at their forges and in their work-shops; and a great part of
the fruit of their honest toil is drawn from them to support the slave
aristocracy of the Southern States. What they cannot whip out of their
negroes they cheat out of us. I would rather that our noble ships that
now whiten every sea should go down to their graves beneath the dark
rolling billows of the deep, and our manufacturing villages be levelled
with the dust, so that a squadron of cavalry could gallop over them
unimpeded as the wild steeds sweep over the ruined cities of the desert,
than that Massachusetts should forget her duty, forsake her principles,
and bow down and crawl and grovel at the feet of the slave-power.
Better, far better, that her sons should till her cold and barren soil,
and cast their nets into the deep for a poor subsistence, than that her
coffers should be filled with gold soiled and dimmed by the blood and
tears of the bondman.
"We are often told, sir,
that this agitation of slavery can do no good; that it has thrown back
emancipation for half a century. This is all sheer nonsense.
Emancipation is not only nearer in point of time, but it is nearer in
point of preparation. We often hear the same sage and profound
observations upon the great and kindred cause of temperance, and with
just as much reason. The press, at least in the free States, now often
utters its voice for the slave; faint and feeble, it is true. Ten years
ago it was dumb, or sided with the oppressor. Religious societies and
associations are discussing and deciding upon it. The cause of the slave
is now advocated in most of our Northern pulpits: the religious
sentiment of the land is setting in favor of the poor bondman,
recognizing him as a man and a brother. The friends of freedom can utter
their sentiments now without being beaten down by mobs of 'gentlemen of
property and standing.' A great change has also taken place in the slave
States. Ten years ago it was dangerous to utter a word against slavery
in the capital of the nation: now one can speak of slavery out of the
halls of Congress with freedom. It can be established by the records and
reports of the religious societies of the Southern States that more has
been accomplished for the improvement of the slave than at any similar
time in our history. We are told that we shall stand alone. I have no
objection to that if we stand in the right. Massachusetts is used to
standing alone. The gentleman from Stockbridge (Mr. Byington), upon
another question the other day, said that Massachusetts exerted a vast
influence on the new States of the confederacy, and that many of her
sons went forth to mould and fashion her institutions. It is all true:
and yet, notwithstanding she has long been the pattern State of the
Union, she is under the ban of the empire; she is regarded with a
jealous eye, and as little better than a conquered province. Her people
are almost ostracized by the government. An occasional sop is now and
then thrown out to some of them if they are false to her, and true to
the peculiar institution; and, from one, I wish that not a single
individual of her people could be found willing to take office under the
National Government while wedded to slavery. Let us have one of
Cromwell's self-denying ordinances while the government remains as it
now is. If it be her destiny to stand alone in support of the right,
alone let her stand, - alone, sir, in the language of one of her sons
who now sleeps by the banks of the Connecticut, - ALONE LET HER STAND IN
SOLITARY GRANDEUR. When the passions of the hour shall be hushed, I
desire that the historic pen that shall record in letters of light for
the study of after-ages the acts of this great struggle shall record the
glorious fact, that there was one State, one free Commonwealth, that was
faithful among the faithless to the teachings of the founders of the
republic.
"But she will not stand
alone if she does her duty. Look at the present condition of affairs in
the former Gibraltar of the slave-power of the North, and behold a proof
of this. Not Georgia, nor even South Carolina herself, has ever been
more subservient and obsequious to the will of the slave-holding portion
of the country than has New Hampshire; yet her granite hills are shaking
and trembling today to the earthquake-voice of her citizens, aroused at
last to a conviction of their duties and their rights. So will it be
elsewhere.
"Let Massachusetts but do
her duty, and other States will rally round her, and she will lead them
on to the rescue of the constitution and the government from the
slave-power. Her high and lofty principles, her stern and lofty
purposes, may be sneered at and derided; timid friends may chide her:
but the stout-hearted and true all over the land will will gather round
her. Standing on the broad and elevated platform of equal rights, living
out and illustrating her own great principles, she will speak to her
sister States with a thousand tongues. She will come to the rescue. She
will be the standard-bearer in the contest. She led the van in the great
struggle for independence: then the post of danger was hers. She has a
right to lead now. Her descent from the sturdy old Puritan stock, her
free labor and her free schools, all point her out as the leader in the
great struggle between freedom and slavery. South Carolina has placed
herself in advance as the leader of the cohorts of slavery. Let the
descendants of the old Cavaliers and Puritans meet once more, not as
their fathers met on the fields of Naseby and Worcester, but in the
stern conflict of opinion. I have no fears for the issue. Every thing
will be with us: the free impulses of the age will be with us;
civilization will be with us; the wild and generous impulses of the
human heart will be with us; and God will be with us. Cassius M. Clays
will arise in all the slave States, pointing them to our example.
Our country was the child
of hope and expectation when our fathers launched our government upon
the tide, the prayers, hopes, and sympathies of the friends of liberal
institutions throughout the globe were with us. The oppressed began to
hope for self-government; and they looked hither with trembling anxiety
to see how we should carry out in practice our sublime declaration of
the equality and freedom of all men. We have not, perhaps, lived in
vain. Had America been true to herself, to her own sublime principles,
the friends of religious, social, and civil liberty everywhere would
have taken courage from her example, and the oppressors of our race
would have loosed their hold upon unjust power: there is hardly a throne
upon the globe but would now be tottering to its fall. Ours is the duty,
be ours the glory, to rescue our country from the 'dominion, curse, and
shame of slavery, and make her great and glorious among the nations.'
The past with its crowded memories of the tears and labors of the
martyrs of truth who have perished on the field, the scaffold, and in
the dungeon, the present with its warm and generous sympathies, and the
future with its high hopes and brilliant expectations, all cheer us
onward in the path of duty and of glory.
"I do not wish to 'allude
to parties;' and yet I cannot well avoid it. I have recommended that the
State should take a bold stand against slavery; and I am willing that
the majority here shall be held responsible for it, as they will surely
be. It is alike undeniable and notorious, that, during the struggles of
the last ten years, the party now in the majority here has generally
been arrayed on the side of liberty on all the incidental questions that
have arisen. It has gone just far enough to lose the confidence and
sympathy of the South, and to encounter defeat in almost every thing;
but it has not gone far enough to gain the entire confidence and obtain
the support of the free impulses of the North. On the other hand, our
opponents, the party here in the minority, it is equally notorious and
undeniable, have usually sided with the slave-power on all the questions
connected with the interests of slavery and they stand in that posture
to-day, committed - fully and entirely committed - to slavery and the
slave-power.
"Thus fur they have
reaped all the advantages of such subserviency; but hereafter, when, in
the contests of the future, a day of retribution shall come, - as come
it surely will, - they will find themselves by their own folly placed in
a position of shame, defeat, and disgrace, as opponents of the progress
of liberty, enlightenment, and civilization.
"Sir, I wish to have
'Emancipation' inscribed on banners under which we rally, in characters
of living light, and also that we go for 'the protection of man.' We go
for the protection of his labor: let us give security, first to himself,
and afterwards to his labor. That is the true ground we must take; and,
if it be taken boldly and manfully, I am willing to risk myself, and all
that I have or hope for, on the issue, confident that in five years our
cause will sweep through the country like a tornado. We shall carry
every free State with a whirlwind: it will go like the fire over the
prairies of the West. If not, we are accustomed to defeat; and it is far
better to be in the right than to hold the reins of government, and roll
in wealth and power. I say without hesitation, that the stand I have
spoken of we must take. We cannot resist so doing if we would. It is our
'manifest destiny.' Even were we base enough to desire it, we could not
regain our influence with the slaveholding South by any means; no, not
by the veriest servile and wretched truckling to all her arrogant
demands. I would not regain it if we could. Then, in Heaven's name, let
us go on in the right. If victory come, let us hail and improve it: if,
on the contrary, defeat be our lot, it will be a glorious defeat; for we
shall have been right, and shall have deserved success. At any rate, we
shall do something for our race, something for liberty, which will
secure for us the confidence and the respect of the good and the true. A
single word, Mr. Speaker, of a personal character, and I shall have
done. I have ever been and am a party man; and I shall always go with my
party in what I think right and best: but I am determined never to be
either driven or kicked out of any party with which I may choose to act;
and it is my pride to believe that four-fifths of the party now in the
majority in this State concur in the view I take of this subject, and
are anxious that we should commit Massachusetts against slavery. It is
so especially with regard to the young men, - those who are shortly to
hold the reins of power. The city influence is, I know, the other way;
but, sir, 'the gods of the valleys are not the gods of the hills.'
For one, I am ready to
stand with any man, or set of men, —Whig, Democrat, Abolitionist,
Christian, or Infidel, - who will go with me in the cause of
emancipation.
It is unpleasant to me to
say what I have now said; it is painful to differ from esteemed and
respected friends whose good opinion we value. I know the feelings of
many who hear me. All sorts of unworthy motives will be ascribed to me,
and my judgment and discretion questioned. Sir, I have no personal
motive: I see nothing to be gained, and something to be lost. At any
rate, I know I shall lose the good opinion of some friends, who will
doubtless regard me as a fanatic. But I have made up my mind, after some
little reflection, that we must either destroy slavery, or slavery will
destroy our government and our liberties; and I had far rather act
according to the dictates of duty and of patriotism than to receive the
approving smiles of friends. I shall go for the abolition of slavery at
all times and on all occasions, now and hereafter. I loathe, detest, and
abhor it. It is at war with Nature and Nature's God.
"I have no apologies to
make for it; and no hope of political reward, no fear of ridicule or
reproach, shall ever deter me from using all the moral and political
influence I possess, in such a manner as my judgment shall approve, to
accomplish the entire extinction of slavery, and to make my native land,
which I love with the affection of a son, what it should be, - glorious
and free, and an example to all nations."
This resolution, so ably
advocated, was, after much discussion and excitement, adopted in the
House by ninety-three majority: in the Senate, which was more
conservative, it was lost by four votes. In the minds of the people it
lived, inspiring noble hearts, and calling to the rescue of the bondman.
Mr. Wilson was no
revolutionist, except through constitutional and legal means. He loved
the Union: had no desire in any event, as an aggressor, to appeal to
arms. He believed, that, under the Constitution, Southern men had no
right to extend slavery over our territorial domains; and on that ground
he would meet the question. When, on the 3d of March, he presented to
the House a memorial from Francis Jackson for the withdrawal from
Congress of the Massachusetts delegation, and the consequent dissolution
of the Union, he declared that he held the right of petition sacred;
that he was for the abolition of slavery: but, continued he, "it must be
accomplished under, by, and through the Constitution;" not by violence,
but by "sovereign law," the "collected will " of the people, which
"O'er thrones and globes
elate,
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill." |
