An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism: With reference to the duty of American femalesBeecher, Catharine Esther
Philosophy
An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism: With reference to the duty of American females
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Abolitionists -- United States; Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
The whole system of Abolition measures seems to leave entirely out of
view, the obligation of Christians to save their fellow men from all
needless temptations. If the thing to be done is only lawful and right,
it does not appear to have been a matter of effort to do it in such a
way as would not provoke and irritate; but often, if the chief aim had
been to do the good in the most injurious and offensive way, no more
certain and appropriate methods could have been devised.
So much has this been the character of Abolition movements, that many
have supposed it to be a deliberate and systematized plan of the leaders
to do nothing but what was strictly a _right_ guaranteed by law, and
yet, in such a manner, as to provoke men to anger, so that unjust and
illegal acts might ensue, knowing, that as a consequence, the opposers
of Abolition would be thrown into the wrong, and sympathy be aroused for
Abolitionists as injured and persecuted men. It is a fact, that
Abolitionists have taken the course most calculated to awaken illegal
acts of violence, and that when they have ensued, they have seemed to
rejoice in them, as calculated to advance and strengthen their cause.
The violence of mobs, the denunciations and unreasonable requirements of
the South, the denial of the right of petition, the restrictions
attempted to be laid upon freedom of speech, and freedom of the press,
are generally spoken of with exultation by Abolitionists, as what are
among the chief means of promoting their cause. It is not so much by
exciting feelings of pity and humanity, and Christian love, towards the
oppressed, as it is by awakening indignation at the treatment of
Abolitionists themselves, that their cause has prospered. How many men
have declared or implied, that in joining the ranks of Abolition, they
were influenced, not by their arguments, or by the wisdom of their
course, but because the violence of opposers had identified that cause
with the question of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and civil
liberty.
But when I say that many have supposed that it was the deliberate
intention of the Abolitionists to foment illegal acts and violence, I
would by no means justify a supposition, which is contrary to the
dictates of justice and charity. The leaders of the Abolition Society
disclaim all such wishes or intentions; they only act apparently on the
assumption that they are exercising just rights, which they are not
bound to give up, because other men will act unreasonably and wickedly.
Another measure of Abolitionists, calculated to awaken evil feelings,
has been the treatment of those who objected to their proceedings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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