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414 DOUGLASS' MONTHLY FEBRUARY, 1861 [[line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] Moreover, if these Abolitionists believe that the slaves of Cuba and of the United States wisely desire to bring their sad fortunes together, and their desolate hearts together into one nation, or that they would desire it if they knew their true interests, and would do so even if the parties who hold the reins of powers should seek to turn to the advantage of slavery such bringing together – then these Abolitionists could not only withstand the desire, but should promote its realization. They should themselves speak for these 'poor, poor dumb mouths,' and should feel not the least responsibility for the unrighteousness which others may succeed in coupling with the longed for annexation. Nor less is the injustice of classing with 'disunionists' those Abolitionists, who, opposing by all moral and political influences the secession of States from the Union, would nevertheless not have the seceders pursued with armies. Those Abolitionists believe in love rather then in hatred; and hence they would be more disposed to bless than to curse the seceders; to protect them rather then to shed their blood. For my own part, I still feel on this subject as I felt half a dozen years ago, when I said on the floor of Congress: 'If they will go, let them go, and we, though loving the Union, and every part of it, and willing to lose no part, will let them go in peace, and follow them without blessing, and with our warm prayer that they may return to us, and with our firm belief that they will return to us after they shall have spent a few miserable years, or perhaps no more than a few miserable months in their miserable experiment of separating themselves from their brethren. Of course I cannot forget that many – alas, that they are so many – would prefer following the seceders with curses and guns. Oh, how slow our men to emerge from the brutehood into which their passions and their false education have sunk them! I say brutehood, for rage and violence and war belong to it, while love and gentleness and peace, are the adornments of true manhood.' What will be the spirit of the North toward the seceding States, bids fair to be soon proved. It is even probable that the Slave States will secede – a part now and nearly all the remainder soon. This will not be because of the election of Lincoln. That is at the most an occasion or pretext for secession. – Nor will this be because it has long been resolved on. There is something, but not so much, in that. It will be because their 'iniquity is full,' and the time for their destruction at hand. During the last few years the South has been busy in leaving nothing to add to her iniquity. I speak not so much of her reopening the African slave trade, nor of her increasingly tenacious grasp of her slaves as of the purpose to banish what she can of her long-tortured free colored people, and re-enslave the rest. This crowning iniquity ripens her for ruin. It ripens her for secession, which is ruin. Maryland, having refused to be guilty of this crowning iniquity, will, we trust, be saved from the fate of secession. Missouri means to be a Free State, and Delaware is already substantially one. Hence they will not secede. The South would know herself to be hurrying on to destruction were she not blind to the lessons of history and deaf to the voice of Providence. She ought to know it if but from the fate of the oppressors of Hayti. They were not slaughtered until they undertook to re-enslave the free – and then they were. Divine Providence has its course in the Southern States as well as elsewhere; and there as well as elsewhere, both the wickedness and righteousness of men contribute to shape that course. In the words of a precious Moravian hymn: 'He everywhere hath rule, And all things serve his might.' God did not fail to hear the piercing cry sent up a few months ago by the exiles of Arkansas. His tender heart pitied the poor ones driven out about the same time from the State of Louisiana. He witnesses the atrocious cruelties which South Carolina keeps upon her [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] free colored people, and follows them in their flight from their oppressors. And all this, we may feel assured, goes 'to serve His might' and to shape His providence. I spoke of secession as ruin. It will be only a present ruin, however. It will result in a glorious renovation. The seceding States will return to us, not to be Slave States again, but to be Free States; not again to oppress the poor, but cordially and practically to acknowledge the equal rights of all; not again to disgrace America, and hinder the spread of Democracy over the earth, but to honor the one and extend the other; not again to be a heavy curse, but to be a rich blessing to mankind. [[line]] EXTRACT FROM SENATOR SEWARD'S SPEECH OF JANUARY 12. [[short line]] Here I might close my plea for the American Union; but it is necessary, if not to exhaust the argument, at least to exhibit the whole case. The disunionists, consciously unable to stand on their mere disappointment in the recent election, have attempted to enlarge their ground. More than thirty years there has existed a considerable – though not heretofore a formidable – mass of citizens in certain States situate near or around the delta of the Mississippi, who believe that the Union is less conducive to the welfare and greatness of those States than a smaller confederacy, embracing only slave States, would be. This class has availed itself of the discontents resulting from the election to put into operation the machinery of dissolution long ago prepared, and waiting only for occasion. In other States, there is a soreness because of the want of sympathy in the free States with the efforts of slaveholders for the recapture of fugitive slaves from service. In all the slave States there is a restiveness resulting from the resistance which has been so determinedly made within the last few years, in the free States, to the extension of slavery in the common Territories of the U. S. The Republican party, which cast its votes for the successful Presidential candidate on the ground of that policy, has been allowed, practically, no representation, no utterance by speech or through the press, in the slave States; while its policy, principles and sentiments, and even its temper, have been so misrepresented as to excite apprehensions that it denies important constitutional obligations, and aims even at interference with slavery and its overthrow by State authorities or the intervention of the Federal Government. Considerable masses, even in the free States, interested in the success of these misrepresentations as a means of partisan strategy, have lent their sympathy to the party claiming to be aggrieved. While the result of the election brings the Republican party necessarily into the foreground in resisting disunion, the prejudices against them which I have described have deprived them of the co-operation of many good and patriotic citizens. On a complex issue between the Republican party and the disunionists, although it involves the direst national calamities, the result might be doubtful; for the Republican party is weak, in a large part of the Union. But on a direct issue, with all who cherish the Union on one side, and all who desire its dissolution by force on the other, the verdict would be prompt and almost unanimous. I desire thus to simplify the issue, and for that purpose to separate from it all collateral questions, and relieve it of all partisan passions and prejudices. I consider the idea of the withdrawal of the Gulf States and their permanent reorganization with or without others in a distinct Confederacy as a means of advantage to themselves, so certainly unwise and so obviously impossible of execution, when the purpose is understood, that I dismiss it with the discussion I have already incidentally bestowed upon it. The case is different, however, in regard to the other subjects which I have brought, in this connection, before the Senate. Beyond a doubt, Union is vitally important [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] to the Republican citizens of the U. S.; but it is just as important to the whole people. – Republicanism and Union are, therefore, not convertible terms. Republicanism is subordinate to Union as everything else is and ought to be – Republicanism, Democracy, every other political name and thing – all are subordinate; and they ought to disappear in the presence of the great question of Union. So far as I am concerned, it shall be so; it should be so if the question were sure to be tried,, as it ought only to be determined, by the peaceful ordeal of the ballot. It shall be so all the more since there is, on the one side, preparedness to refer it to the arbitrament of civil war. I have such faith in this republican system of ours, that there is no political good which I desire that I am not content to seek through its peaceful forms of administration, without invoking revolutionary action. If others shall invoke that form of action to oppose and overthrow Government, they shall not, so far as it depends on me, have the excuse that I obstinately left myself to be misunderstood. In such a case, I can afford to meet prejudice with conciliation, exaction with concessions which surrender no principle, and violence with the right hand of peace. Therefore, sir, so far as the abstract question whether, by the Constitution of the U. S., a bondsman, who is made such by the laws of a State, is still a man or only property, I answer, that within that State, its laws on that subject are supreme; that when he has escaped from that State into another, the Constitution regards him as a bondsman who may not, by any law or regulation of that State, be discharged from his service, but shall be delivered up, on claim, the party to whom his service is due. While prudence and justice would combine in persuading you to modify the acts of Congress on that subject, so as not to oblige private persons to assist in their execution, and to protect freemen from being, by abuse of the laws, carried into slavery, I agree that all laws of the States, whether free States or slave States, which relate to this class of persons, or any others recently coming from or resident in other States, and which laws contravene the Constitution of the United States, or any law of Congress passed in conformity thereto, ought to be repealed. Secondly – Experience in public affairs has confirmed my opinion, that domestic slavery, existing in any State, is wisely left by the Constitution of the United States exclusively to the care, management, and disposition of that State; and if it were in my power, I would not alter the Constitution in that respect. If misapprehension of my position needs so strong a remedy, I am willing to vote for an amendment of the Constitution, declaring that it shall not, by any future amendment, be so altered as to confer on Congress a power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any State. Thirdly – While I think that Congress has exclusive and sovereign authority to legislate on all subjects whatever in the common Territories of the United States, and while I certainly shall never, directly or indirectly, give my vote to establish or sanction slavery in such Territories, or anywhere else in the world, yet the question, what constitutional laws shall at any time be passed, in regard to the Territories, is, like every other question to be determined on practical grounds. I voted for enabling acts in the cases of Oregon, Minnesota and Kansas, without being able to secure in them such provisions as I would have preferred; and yet I voted wisely. So now, I am well satisfied that, under existing circumstances, a happy and satisfactory solution of the difficulties in the remaining Territories would be obtained by similar laws, providing for their organization, if such organization were otherwise practicable. If, therefore, Kansas were admitted as a State, under the Wyandotte Constitution, as I think she ought to be, and if the organic laws of all the other Territories could be repealed, I could vote to authorize the organization and [[/column 3]]
