The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
At Worcester, last year, an apostle of abolition from "some where away
down east," delivered a lecture, in the Baptist Church, against
slavery; depicting its wrongs and evils, and insisting upon its
extirpation. He was heard patiently; but when he closed, the pastor of
the church arose, and, to the satisfaction of a numerous audience,
completely answered every argument; vindicated the southern
slaveholders from all wilful injustice in being such; shewed the
impracticability of any but the most cautiously gradual emancipation,
and the madness of attempting even that, by officious intermeddling
from the non-slaveholding states. Our apostle wanted to lecture again
the next day; but the excitement against his doctrine had grown so
strong, that he was refused a further hearing, and admonished, by some
of the leading citizens, that if he remained longer, he was in danger
of tar and feathers. Among the warmest of his reprobators, were the
late and the present governors; both residing there. He wisely
decamped; and has had no successor in Worcester. The manner in which
the New York riots have been spoken of in New England, strikingly shews
the bad odor of abolition here. Instead of the leaning towards that
side, which I feared would result from sympathy and indignation at its
being made the object of a mob's fury, the abolitionists seem to be
regarded by the majority as most chargeable themselves, with all the
mischief that has been done. It is the common sentiment, that they
deserved the treatment they received; and the censure thrown upon the
mob is very _gentle roaring_ indeed. I find almost every New Englander
readily assenting to the positions,--That two millions of slaves could
never be turned loose amongst us and live, while _we_ lived: that the
existence of the two _castes_ in the same country, in a state of
freedom and equality, is morally impossible: that emancipation, without
removal, therefore, is utterly chimerical: that, unjustifiable as
slavery is in the abstract, rights of property in slaves have been
acquired, which, sanctioned as they are by the constitution, and by a
claim prior and paramount to the constitution, cannot be violated
without an outrage, destructive at once of our social compact: that,
let slavery be ever so wrong, abolition ever so just and easy, it is a
matter which concerns _us alone_; and as to which, we are so
sensitively jealous of extraneous interposition, that every agitation
of the subject in other states is calculated to weaken our attachment
to them, and bind faster the chains of slavery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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