A Defence of Virginia: And Through Her, of the South, in Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional PartyDabney, Robert Lewis
History
A Defence of Virginia: And Through Her, of the South, in Recent and Pending Contests Against the Sectional Party
Dabney, Robert Lewis
Slavery -- Justification; Slavery -- United States; Slavery -- United States -- History; Slavery -- Virginia
Again, it follows of course from the premises of abolitionism, that
hereditary monarchy, no matter how limited, is a standing injustice. A
hereditary branch of the legislature is, if possible, still worse. Any
such thing as a privileged class in the State is a fraud upon the
others; for "all men are equal." The limitation of the right of
suffrage, by property or sex, is a crime against human right; for the
non-voting classes are ruled without their own consent; but consent
is, according to them, the source of rightful authority. Thus are
condemned at once the three branches of the hoary and honoured British
constitution, kings, lords, and commons; under which men have enjoyed
regulated liberty longer, and to a greater degree, than under any
government on earth. And here it may be remarked that abolitionist
ideas, so current in Great Britain, should have been as alien to the
prevalent turns of thought of that people, as they certainly are to
their welfare and the genius of their institutions. That a fantastic
sciolist, intoxicated with vanity and dazzled by some glittering
sophisms, should be an abolitionist, is natural. But Englishmen have
ever been esteemed a solid and practical race. Their political
conclusions have usually been, to the credit of their good sense,
historical rather than theoretical. Their temper has been rather to
guard the franchises inherited from their fathers, and approved by the
national experience, than to gape after visionary and abstract rights
of man. But despite all this, Great Britain has also been leavened
with this fell spirit. Her political managers imagined that they found
in abolitionism the convenient 'apple of discord' to destroy the peace
of a great rival, and they therefore fostered it. To this great
injustice they have added the condemnation of the South unheard, upon
the testimony of our interested accusers. And the majority of
Englishmen, with a dogmatism as unjust as senseless, have refused to
permit either explanation or defence, proudly wrapped in impenetrable
prejudice, while an innocent and noble people were condemned and
overwhelmed by baseless obloquy. But it requires no spirit of prophecy
to see that Divine Providence is speedily preparing a retribution by
means of their own sin, which will be tremendous enough to satisfy the
resentment of any injured Southerner. Abolitionized America is
manifestly to be the Nemesis of Britain, through her Jacobin ideas, or
arms, or both. The principles of abolition are, as we have proved,
destructive of the foundations of the British constitution. Her own
statesmen have insanely taught them to her people. The masses do not,
indeed, reason very continuously or consistently; yet principles once
fixed in their minds always work themselves out, in time, to their
logical results. The so-called "Liberal Party" of Great Britain, which
draws its inspirations from the abolition democracy of America, is
unveiling itself more and more, as a party of true Jacobinism; and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account