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The Warfare Of Freedom Upon Slavery

The Warfare Of Freedom Upon Slavery image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
December
Year
1843
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

To bc free, or, in other words, to do as óne pleased, so long as ethers are not injuredj laas ever been an object of desire with men. For this they have struggled in every age. sornetimes by forcé, and sometimesby the stratagems of diplomacy and legislation. Sometimes the contest has turned on some particular point; as the establishment of an ofiice, or an increasë of power to that office; while in othcr cases, it hos been an open. barefaced contest of violencc bctween tyranis and i'rcemon for the possession of Personal Liberty. V hile men continue to oppress each other, this warfare will continue,the issues varying according to the nature of the ights invnded. But while the warfare beureen Freetom and Slnvery is going forward in all arts of the world, the agency through vhich the contest is maintained, is entirey changed. Force was formerly the ony means the enslaved or the oppressed ould bring to bcar upon the oppressor. save only in particular cases, where the iumanity or weakness of a sovereign ■niglit condescend to listen to and rcdress he wrongswhich had with difficftliy been made to reach the imperial ear. Butwhere edress was denied. they took the protecion of their rights into their own hands, Revoluiionary Fathers, failing0 ootam a remeay ior reai wrongs, aplealed to thc Sword for that justice which ould not otherwise be obtained. But a great revolution has taken place 1 the manner of governing civilized naíons within the last half century. The ppressed part of a nation no longer ap)cal to Physícal Forcé for redress. They ely on the sense of Justice of a majórity f their countrymen, together with a sense f the common interest of the mass of the jeople, by the unitedaction of whom the ioweT of the Few can be broken down, and the rights of the Many established. - The sense of Justice, and the bonds of Common Interest of the mass of apeople. unitedly aresuffiVent tocarry any reform against the power of the Aristocracy. - The first in its naked. elemental form; has liberated 13,000,000 of slaves in the }ritish Empire, and ís searching them out vherever thcy nmy be hid in its vast dominions; whilc her starvmg millions at home arfe áppealing to the Common Interest and JusLice of the nation for bread. - Nor will the appeal be in vain. Slowly. nwkwardly, with difficulty, the masses will learn to combine and apply their Herculean strength, till they are able to go on peacably from one reform to another. In all the countries where slavery has been abolished during the last fifty years.it has been done p&acably, by the Uovernments, from Interest or from a sense of Justice. These, then, being the governing principies of the age, vo may ex9ectthat if any reform in favor of Liberty shoukl take place in our country, it willbe through these principies. ] f we look at the extent of the warfare betvveen Slavery and Personal Liberty in our country, we are at once struck with its magnitude and importance. Every sixth person is an absolute slave, held by a tyrant, by force, who is sustained in his robbery by the entire nation. The slaves are spread over two thirds of the Union, subjected to the legislation of thirteen separate'States, besides the National Government. There is an amount of open, bare faced wrong, perpetrated on these persons that is unequalled in arry civilized state in the world. lt is obvious that if the condition of the slaves be altered for the better, it must be through his own acts, through the individual action of his master, through the action of Church Judicatories, the decisions of Courts of Justicer or by Legislation. It may not be amiss to consider each of these in their order. If the slave be held as such by force he must submit, fight or flee. To submiis to endure a miserable life, and transmit it to his posterity. It is not natural to the negro race ol our country to fight even for their freedorn. They are educated from infancy with a profoundvenerationfor the whites, and being by nature devout and reverential, their first improssions usually remain through life. It is not, however, from want of courage that they do not strike lor freedom: for the A frican tribes are as courageous as most nations. Nor is it because they do not desire liberty. They all desiro it; but the desire is not attendcd with that obstinate detennination toobtain itby force, or die in the attempt which wouid characterize Anglo-Saxons who had been born and educated free. The deterrnination to be free manifests itself usually among the slaves by endurance rather than by violence. Many slaves make nlmost incredible exertions to purchase liberty for themselves or friends, while other undertake to escape from that thraldom which they will not endure. The effects of this system of running away from Slavery are various,extensive, and important, and deraand the careful attention of every anti-slavery man. To propose running away individually as an absolute remedy for Slavery, wpuld be absurd. Yet every individual who runs away from slavery, exerts an influence for the overthrow of the whole system by no means unimportant.He who escapes from Slavery to Canada finds friends. He is received into perhaps fifty families on his route. To those be tells the story of his wrongs. All listen, and feel that he ought (o be Cree.- The children listen, and receive impressions in favor of Liberty which are never eñáced. Thus he passes on his way quietly,havingbeen a practical lecturer in favor of liberty to hundredsof persons. . At the same time many more fugitives are passing by other routes, exerting the same in' fluence in other families,and keeping alive a sense of the injustice of Sl'avery in ten thousand hearts. In some cases, legal efforts are made for their recovery, the opposing elements of Liberty and Slavery arouse themselves into action, the case is spread out in the papers, and as in the case of Latimer and Nelson Hacket, the cause of Freedom is discussed by hundreds of thousands who never saw the faces of those about whose liberty they conend. But not only is an interest in behalf of ireedom thus sustained in the Free States, but the value of the slaves through the ength of a border line of fifteen hun[red miles; is sensibly diminished. The masters are obliged to treat their slaves with less rigor, or lose their services alogether. And the chance of recoveringugitives from the F ree States grows less and less continually. The time is nol distant, when it will be irapossible to take hem back to Slavery, either with or without legal process. Every difficulty that occurs from the escape of a fugitive tends o hasten that period. The Slave States ire already aware that the reclamation of fugitives from the Free States is usually ïopeless. Henee the slaveholders of Kentucky and Missouri have passcd laws requiring the owners of fugitive slaves to my a certain sum to ány one who shall return a fugitive. The object of this is to keep an army of capturers on the line, who shall thus prevent escapes from the great prisonhouse. But this army must be supported by the slaveholders; and it is one more heavy tax consequent on the system of running away. Again, public sentiment in the Free States is not only favoring more and more the escape of fugitives, but a more correct estímate is set upan thcir legal rights. - It is found,that the laws of the Free States cannot rightfully know any thing of the relation of master and slave. The fugitive who has escaped from Virginia to Michigan may legally shoot down his master in the streets of Ann Arbor if it be necessary iiï defence of his personal liberty. In so doing he violates no law of Michigan or of the United States, so far as we know. The Constitución and laws of Michigan know nothingof Slavery. Every person on her soil stands on the same footing, save where the superior power of the General Government has otherwise decreed in reference to fugitives; and we are not aware that there is any law of the United States which would punish the slave for taking the life of his master in Michigan in defence of his personal rights. It is true there is a law punishing any person who shall assist a fugitive to escape from his master: but on our soil, the slave and his tyrant stand on equal footing, and the contest between them is one of physical force, with which our citizens are forbidden to interfere. - A mere legal prohibition, however, which is enacted for the express purpose of enslaving a man, and preventing the opposition of his fellow citizens to the atrocious deed, we trust will soon be treated with that universal contempt and disregard which its abominable wickedness deserves. Such an enactment is contrary to natura) justice and the divine requirements, and therefore possesses no binding force. So far, then, as the condition of the slaves will be modified by their own acts if w? judge froni the character andíy of the race, it is not probable that their liberty will be achieted by physical force. All experience teaches that nnless a foreign war or other grcat convulsión should take place, they will continue to siibmit to their horrible thraldom, save in those cases where escape may be practicable. - The number of these cases will continually augment, and will exert an important nfluence on the ultímate abolition ofslavëry, bat still the system of escaping from slavery cannot be recommended as a means at all adequate to the overthrow of the institution.

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News