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The Mission Of Democracy

The Mission Of Democracy image
Parent Issue
Day
5
Month
May
Year
1848
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Democracy in praetice - Democracy in its univ.Tsal application - Democracy as the Abolitionists of the free North understood it - met, as is well known, with no favor in the South. The very Sta'es which had resisted so stoutly the sedition !avs of Federalism, demanded of the authorities of the free States the enactment of penal laws against all who ventured to express publicly their opposilion io the system of slavery. Their Representativos on the floor of Congress threatened to inflict the punishment of death upon any man -,vlio should be found advocating, on tlieir territory, the fieedom of the slaves. They trampled on the right of pctition. They established a rigid censorship of the press. They riflfd the Northern mail-bugs. One of their üovernors, in behalf of his State, made a formal du mand upon the Governor of New York lor the delivery into his hands, for trial and punishment, of a citizen of the latter State, whose only crime, as specified in the requisilion, was the printed declaration, that God and Nature abhor slavery. As a natural consequence, the öouth, assailed by its own weapons, felt called upon to make a new definition of Democracy, repudiating that of Jefferson. A prominent Southern Democrat, (Pickens, of S. C.,) in his speech in Congress on the 21st of lst month, 1836, took the ground that the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence are " mere abstractions ;" that tho best í'orm of society is that in which the capitalists own the laborers. " ]Ve already," said he, " have not only a right to the proceeds of our laboréis, but we own aclass of laborers ourselves ;" if laborers ever obtain the pohtical power of a country, it is ui fact in a ttate of 'revoi ution, whicli must end in substantially transferring property to themselves, until they shall become capitalists, unless those who liave it shall appeal to the sicord and the standing army to pruttel il.'' It is unnecessary, in this connection, to speak of the sentiments of John C. Calhoun. Governor McDuffie, anolher Southern Democrat, in a message to the Legislature of his State, alluding to what ho regardsas the " meriial offices" of labor, says : " When these offices are performed by members of the political commuinty , a dangerons element is inlroduccd into the hody politie. - Henee the alarming tendeuci to viólate the rights ofproperty by agrarian legislation,ichich is bcginning to be manifest in the older States, where universal suffrage jjievails, without DOMESTIC SLAVERY. This is, after all, but conforming tlie theory of Southern Democracy to its practice, whicli inakes slaves of black laborers, and disfranchises poor whites, who have not been able to rise to the dignity of planters. No map is eligible to a suat in the House of llepresentatives of South Carolina, who does not own a settled ft-eehold estale of five hundred acres of land and ten negroes," or " a real estáte of the valué of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, clear of debt ;" and tho Governor raust own a " settled estáte" of "tho value of fifteen HUNDRED POUNDS STERLING CLEAR OF DEBT." In Virginia, a freehold is required as a qualfication of an elector, and a man may vote in at 7iany counlics as lic owis land, while the landless man cannot vote at all. How potent sometimos is a name ] The Democratie masses of' the North and the plantara of the South have really had nothing else in cotnmon. Yet, by virtue mainly of this, the forrner, through the inrluence of unscrupulous aspirants, desirous of securing the compact political power of the South, have been placed in the unnatural posilion of allies of the latter, and induced to support measures essentially AntiDemocratic in their character. The annexation of Texas ia a striking instance. The Southern Democrats demanded Texas for the purpose of strengthening the institution of slavery, and, to obtain it, resorted to the cast-off theories of Federalism, in respect to the pow ers of the General Government ; and the Northern Democracy, for the sake of a rnerely nominal party triumph we re induced to unito with them in support of that disastrous measure. The reaction of this unnatural state of things lias commenceii. The great body of the Democracy of the free States, the honest and unselfish portion of both parties, are beginning to understand that no political alchymy can blend in one the conflicting interests of Slavery and freedom. They are beginning to feol that the servilility of the politician is the servillty of the man ; that the disgrace of the partisan is that of the citizen also ; and that a profession of Democracy, coupled with proslavery action, is absurd and pitif'ul hypocrisy. The repeal of tle 21st rule in Congress - the revolt of John P. Hale and the Independent in New Hampshire - the position of the con6cience Whigs of Massachusetts and Ohio - the grovth of a Liberty party, 80,000 stront, composed of seceders from Whigs and Dem ocrats - the Wilmot Proviso affirmed, almost unanimously, by the Legislatures of New .England, the Middle, and several of the Western States - the laws enacted in rnany of the [ree States, prohibiting, under severe penalties, dieir oñicers and citizens from lending any aid to the slaveholder in pursuit of his fugitive slave - are all significant indications of the present tendencies of the Democracy of the North. The Barnburner demonstration in New York - a resuscitation of the Anti-Slavery Democracy of Tompkins and Leggett is a fact of too much importance to be overlooked in this connection. Tñe iate Leislative caucus at Albany thus deïnes the position of the " Democratie masses" of the Empire State : "Resolved, That all mputations upon the Democracy of this State, coma from what quarter it may, that its patriotio masses are in favor of the extensión of slavtry inlo territorics nowfree, are bald invontions of open adversarios or secret foes ; that we regard such extensión as derogatory to the principies of natural justice, suhversive of the rights and interests of the f ree lab o ring classes of all the States, and at mar toith the policy establishcd bij the father of the Rf-puhlic, in the ordinance of 1787, for toe government of tlie Northwestern Trritory ; a policy, the wisdom of which has been proved and illustrated by the unprecedented growth and prosperity of the noble States north of the.Ohio river, and by the intelligence, patriotilU), and energy of their population." The spint and temper of this important movement may be seen in llie following extract from tlie brilliant declamation of John Van Buren at Albany : " If Mr. Ritchie supposes that a Democratie creed can be made for the North, as it is made for the South, where Democracy stands still under every stimulant to progress, he mistakes the temper of the progressive Democracy of the North. [Cheers.J If such a thing could be, he might have ' the principies of 1798' as the eternal j)rincip1es of' the Democratie party. But in the State of New York, amidst her gigantic energies and devotion 10 freedom and progress the man who desires to keep pace with the spirit of the age, and with the onward movement of lier üemorrucy, must move on with il, or be rode over oud cnished. fCheers.] He must raise his eyes from the tow-path of Southern apathy, and look out upon the broad ocean of Freedom. He must lay down his jewsharp, and hearken to the shrill bugle-blast of' Progress. He must lay down his pop-gun, and listen to the shouts of the milhon of f'reemen who are determined to plant the Standard of Liberty upon all free soil conquered by the treasure and blood of freemen. [Immense cheering.]" Or hoar the same orator at the late Convention at Utica. Mark the vigor of his language, and the boldness of the thought which it embodies : " lhave never entertaincd hut one opinión in regard to the trajpc in human Jiesh, and buying and selling live bodies ; and that is, an unqual ified aversión and disgust for it ; and while '. would give to those States where it exists the security wliich the Constitution has given to it the moment they step an inch beyond this, they attract the public attention, and invite a dis cussion of the evils of Slavery. They do so unwisely, and I regret t ; but when they do so, the f'ree white people of this State will dis cuss and condemn it. The idea of marchin2 in the 19th century, with the immense power of this free Republic, upon an enfeebled anc half-civiüzed people, and forcing upon them the institution of Slavery which they reject, and making it a fundamental article of' a treaty of peace that they shall be guarded against, is so repugnant to my sense of what is due, not merely to the superior magnitude and strength of our own country, but so disgraceful to our froe institutions, and so pregnant with evil to the people of both countries, that, if I could be satisfied that this war was prosecuted to plant human slavery in Mexico, devoted though I ani to the glory, honor, welfare, and progress ol these United States, in every pulsation of my heart. in every breath of my life, in every fibre of my system, sohelp me God, I would join the IMexicans to-morrow in rtsisting such oppression. [Applause.l These signs of the times are not to be mistaken. Dcmocracy and Slavery are on the i eve of their greut batile. The events we have nuted are but the skirmishing of the outposts - the deaih-grapple is to come. Tho question to be decided is one which aftVcts the race; mighty consequences, for good or evil, hang upon it. For one, we ihank God that we are permitted to see this day, and to take a part, feeble as our efforts may be, in the great eontest. - The hope which we have long cherished is fulfillod. The simple question of Slavery or Freedom, stripped of all extraneous rnatters, and in some measuro placed above the influence of party, is now fairly before the Demo cratic masses of the free States. Party hacks, men without faith in right and truth, hangerson of the Government, greedy for spoil, will undoubtedly tke the side of Slavery. But the generous and humane, the clear-sighted and hopeful, the men of Progress and Christian Reform, all who believe the Declaration of Independence, and who comprehend and love the Democratie principies - the great idea of the vvorld's future - will count it a privilege to stand on the side of Liberty. Our brethren of the South cannot complain that we are aggressors. They have provoked the eontest by effbrts to extend and perpetúate Siavery. - They have interfered, in so doirig, with the interests of free labor. We would only retaliate by returning good for evil. The Democratie doctrines, which with them unhappily have fallen on stony places, took root in the congenial soil of free labor, and are there producing their proper fruits. The North owes a debt of gratitude to the South, for tho benefits, neither few nor trifling, which have resulted from these doctrines. We would pay it by applying them, as Jefferson did, to the relation of master and slave; and, by so doing, confer a lastin blessing upon both classes. Álready the work of a practical application of Democracy bas commenced at the South. Noble hearts there sympathize withus; and voices from Virginia and Kentucky cali upon ug to persevere, The non-slaveholders - the pooiwhites - writhing under the aristocracy of slavery, are prepared to unite with us. Not the slave alone, but the oppressed and disfranchised free laborer, may well ropeat the language of the slave-poet of Cuba : "Oh Liberty ! I sigh for theo To break the chain and ilungeon Uar , I hcar thy spirit cailing me, Deep in the frozen North afar, With voice like Ood'i, and virage like a star!" Let, then, the great eontest come - the sooner the better. Free Labor against Slave Labor ; Democracy against Serfdom. The struggle may be sharp, but it is thrust upon us.- We cannot avoid it - we would not if we could. In the memorable word of Adams, " Let it.

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Subjects
Michigan Liberty Press
Old News