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
"I have made up my mind, for one, that under no circumstances will I
consent to the further extension of the area of slavery in the United
States, or to the further increase of slave representation in the
House of Representatives."
Under date of February 15th, 1850, in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Furness, he
says:--
"From my earliest youth I have regarded slavery as a great moral and
political evil. I think it unjust, repugnant to the natural equality
of mankind, founded only in superior power; a standing and permanent
conquest by the stronger over the weaker. All pretense of defending
it on the ground of different races, I have ever condemned. I have
even said that if the black race is weaker, that is a reason against,
not for, its subjection and oppression. In a religious point of view
I have ever regarded it, and even spoken of it, not as subject to any
express denunciation, either in the Old Testament or the New, but as
opposed to the whole spirit of the Gospel and to the teachings of
Jesus Christ. The religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of kindness,
justice, and brotherly love. But slavery is not kindly affectionate;
it does not seek anothers, and not its own; it does not let the
oppressed go free. It is, as I have said, but a continual act of
oppression. But then, such is the influence of a habit of thinking
among men, and such is the influence of what has been long
established, that even minds, religious and tenderly conscientious,
such as would be shocked by any single act of oppression, in any
single exercise of violence and unjust power, are not always moved by
the reflection that slavery is a continual and permanent violation of
human rights."
While delivering a speech at Buffalo, in the State of New York, in the
summer of 1851, only about twelve months prior to his decease, he made use
of the following emphatic words:--
"I never would consent, and never have consented, that there should
be one foot of slave territory beyond what the old thirteen States
had at the formation of the Union. Never, never."
NOAH WEBSTER.
Noah Webster, the great American vocabulist, says:--
"That freedom is the sacred right of every man, whatever be his
color, who has not forfeited it by some violation of municipal law,
is a truth established by God himself, in the very creation of human
beings. No time, no circumstance, no human power or policy can change
the nature of this truth, nor repeal the fundamental laws of society,
by which every man's right to liberty is guarantied. The act of
enslaving men is always a violation of those great primary laws of
society, by which alone, the master himself holds every particle of
his own freedom."
THE VOICE OF CLINTON.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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