other "country under heaven," and then say what but "ignorance, or a
purpose to mislead," could lead to such statements?'
'Perhaps the great reason against the exercise of that power' [to
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia,] was, that it would
_inevitably_ produce a dissolution of the Union. Put 'this and that
together.' 'There is not a sane man in the free states, but wishes the
world rid of slavery;' the free states contain 'seven millions out of
the eleven millions of the white population of the Union;' (see page
7,) 'a large minority in the slaveholding states, in some nearly one
half of the population,' (see page 13,) 'are _zealously_ engaged in
furthering the abolition of slavery,' and yet the exercise by Congress
of its constitutional power to abolish slavery in the national
district would '_inevitably_ dissolve the Union.' Verily, the old
proverb hath well said that a certain class of persons should have a
good memory.
Mr. B. sneers at 'Mr. Thompson's argument about the standing army
employed in keeping down the slaves,' and declares that it was
'complete humbug, founded upon just nothing at all.' Will the citizens
of Southampton county, Virginia, who called in the aid of the U. S.
dragoons to quell an insurrection a few years ago, corroborate his
testimony? 'An officer of the United States' army, who was in the
expedition from fortress Monroe, against the Southampton slaves in
1831, speaks with constant horror of the scenes which he was compelled
to witness. Those troops, agreeably to their orders, which were to
exterminate the negroes, killed all that they met with, although they
encountered neither resistance, nor show of resistance: and the first
check given to this wide, barbarous slaughter grew out of the fact,
that the law of Virginia, which provides for the payment to the master
of the full value of an executed slave, was considered as not applying
to the cases of slaves put to death without trial. In consequence of
numerous representations to this effect, sent to the officer of the
United States' army, commanding the expedition, the massacre was
suspended.'--_Child's Oration._
And what says Mr. B. to this assertion of John Q. Adams, that were it
not for the protection of the western frontier against the Indians,
and of the Southern slaveholder against his human 'machinery,' this
country would scarcely have any need of a standing army. Is that
'complete humbug' too?
Mr. B. ventures to say that 'there are not ten persons in the whole
state of Kentucky, holding anti-slavery principles, in the Garrison
sense of the word.' Page 40. We know not how many there may be now,
but in 1835, a constitution of a state society, framed on anti-slavery
principles, 'in the Garrison sense of the word,' was signed by more
than forty persons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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