The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet ItHelper, Hinton Rowan
History
The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It
Helper, Hinton Rowan
Slavery -- United States
After introducing the unreserved and immortal testimony of Washington,
Jefferson, Madison, Henry, and the other great men of the Old Dominion,
against the institution of slavery, it may to some, seem quite superfluous
to back the cause of Freedom by arguments from other Virginia
abolitionists; but this State, notwithstanding all her more modern manners
and inhumanity, has been so prolific of just views and noble sentiments,
that we deem it eminently fit and proper to blazon many of them to the
world as the redeeming features of her history. An Abolition Society was
formed in this State in 1791. In a memorial which the members of this
Society presented to Congress, they pronounced slavery "not only an odious
degradation, but an outrageous violation of one of the most essential
rights of human nature, and utterly repugnant to the precepts of the
Gospel." A Bill of Rights, unanimously agreed upon by the Virginia
Convention of June 12, 1776, holds--
"That all men are, by nature, equally free and independent;
That Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common
benefit, protection, and security, of the People, Nation, or
Community;
That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people
in assembly ought to be free;
That all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest
with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage,
and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property, for public uses,
without their own consent or that of their representatives so
elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not in like manner
assented, for the public good;
That the freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bulwarks of
Liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic Governments;
That no free Government or the blessing of Liberty can be preserved
to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation,
temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence to
fundamental principles."
The "Virginia Society for the Abolition of Slavery," organized in 1791,
addressed Congress in these words:--
"Your memorialists, fully aware that righteousness exalteth a nation,
and that slavery is not only an odious degradation, but an outrageous
violation of one of the most essential rights of human nature, and
utterly repugnant to the precepts of the gospel, which breathes
'peace on earth and good will to men,' lament that a practice so
inconsistent with true policy and the inalienable rights of men,
should subsist in so enlightened an age, and among a people
professing that all mankind are, by nature, equally entitled to
freedom."
THE VOICE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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