Cannibals all! or, Slaves without mastersFitzhugh, George
General
Cannibals all! or, Slaves without masters
Fitzhugh, George
Slave labor; Slavery -- Justification; Slavery -- United States; Working class
Mr. G. is a Christian socialist, and looks to a proximate millenium to
rectify the false relations of men and property, in his own society, and
to the arm of the Federal Government to set things right in the South.
Why not leave all to Providence, especially since the right of the
Government to abolish Southern slavery is denied by all respectable
authority outside of abolition; and also by the Garrisonians, who are
the most thorough-going of all abolitionists, and of all disorganizers.
Mr. Goodell's plan of "rectifying human relations" at the North, by a
millennium, is quite as common as that of Mr. Greely, Andrews and Owen,
each of whom has discovered a new social science that they are sure will
fit the world, because it wont fit a village.
We really think that a man of Mr. Goodell's nice sense of justice and
propriety, should have hesitated long ere he invoked a God to do that
which he would be ashamed to do himself. If it be wrong to strip the
rich of their possessions, why hope or expect that God will perpetrate a
wrong at which human conscience revolts, when it is proposed to be done
by human agency.
After an elaborate argument, to prove the advent of a millennial state
of society, through the instrumentality of Christianity, Mr. Goodell, on
page 510, vol. II, of his Democracy of Christianity, thus sums up and
concludes:
"Glance over, again, the items included in these predictions:--The
general and permanent prevalence of peace,--the result of justice,
_equity_, SECURITY, and the actual _possession_, [italics his] by
each and every one of 'his vine and fig tree'--that is, of soil
sufficient to produce the needful fruits of the earth, or, in some
way, a supply for his physical wants.
"Add to this, the general diffusion and great increase of
knowledge, especially moral and religious knowledge, which
includes the knowledge of social relations, duties and
rights,--the knowledge that implies 'wisdom,' and that wisdom
which begins with 'the fear of the Lord.' Next the application of
all this knowledge, wisdom and fear of the Lord, to the concerns
of civil government, insomuch that 'the kingdoms of this world
shall become the kingdoms of Christ,' and the dominion be given to
THE PEOPLE, who at that period, shall have become purified and
instructed by him,--who shall all be righteous, who 'shall all
know the Lord, from the least to the greatest,' and even 'the
feeble among them shall be as David.' To this, add general
contentment and enjoyment, facilities of social and international
intercourse, the general prevalence of the spirit of benevolence
and brotherly love, and the absence of those maddening and satanic
temptations, delusions and prejudices, that have so long deceived,
enslaved and embroiled the nations;--all this cemented by the true
spiritual worship, protection and love of the Common Father of all
men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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