An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called AfricansChild, Lydia Maria
History
An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans
Child, Lydia Maria
Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
What would the South have? They took the management at the very
threshold of our government, and, excepting the rigidly just
administration of Washington, they have kept it ever since. They claimed
slave representation and obtained it. For their convenience the revenues
were raised by imposts instead of direct taxes, and thus they give
little or nothing in exchange for their excessive representation. They
have increased the slave States, till they have twenty-five votes in
Congress--They have laid the embargo, and declared war--They have
controlled the expenditures of the nation--They have acquired Louisiana
and Florida for an eternal slave market, and perchance for the
manufactory of more slave States--They have given five presidents out of
seven to the United States--And in their attack upon manufactures, they
have gained Mr. Clay's _concession_ bill. "But all this availeth not, so
long as Mordecai the Jew sitteth in the king's gate." The free States
must be kept down. But change their policy as they will, free States
_cannot_ be kept down. There is but one way to ruin them; and that is
to make them slave States. If the South with all her power and skill
cannot manage herself into prosperity, it is because the difficulty lies
at her own doors, and she will not remove it. At one time her deserted
villages were attributed to the undue patronage bestowed upon settlers
on the public lands: at another, the tariff is the cause of her
desolation. Slavery, the real root of the evil, is carefully kept out
of sight, as a "delicate subject," which must not be alluded to. It is
a singular fact in the present age of the world, that delicate and
indelicate subjects mean precisely the same thing.
If any proof were wanted, that _slavery_ is the cause of all this
discord, it is furnished by Eastern and Western Virginia. They belong to
the same State, and are protected by the same laws; but in the former,
the slaveholding interest is very strong--while in the latter, it is
scarcely any thing. The result is, warfare, and continual complaints,
and threats of separation. There are no such contentions between the
different sections of _free_ States; simply because slavery, the
exciting cause of strife, does not exist among them.
The constant threat of the slaveholding States is the dissolution of the
Union; and they have repeated it with all the earnestness of sincerity,
though there are powerful reasons why it would not be well for them to
venture upon that untried state of being. In one respect only, are these
threats of any consequence--they have familiarized the public mind with
the subject of separation, and diminished the reverence, with which the
free States have hitherto regarded the Union.
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