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79 D O U G L A S S ' M O N T H L Y . FEBRUARY, 1863 [[horiz line across page]] [[start column 1/3]] lers too, should at any time be guilty of ministering to the mean and murderous spirit is very sad. That they should find leisure and have the heart to do so at such a time as this——a time when millions of Rebels are at the throat of the nation——is indeed deeply discouraging. Emphatically poor employment to be getting out of the country at such a time the only entirely loyal element in its whole population. But come what will of country, the one great prejudice of our people must be gratified. Let the national perish !——But let not hatred of the negro perish ! To return for a moment to this question : "What shall we do with the blacks ?" Although I would have this insulting question, which every day comes welling up out of our pro-slavery hearts, die away forever, I nevertheless would have the whole land ring with the questions : "What shall we do for the blacks ?" And this reasonable and pertinent question I would have both the North and South answer by doing for these outraged ones, in addition to giving them freedom, education, and wages, everything which penitence and pity, love and justice can suggest. To do with the blacks is to insult, cheapen, and degrade them, while to do for men as we have opportunity is a duty toward the highest as well as the lowest, and dishonoring to neither. I pass on to ask what we shall do for the South. For her own sake, we must defeat her. To let her Rebellion triumph, and to let her come up into the piratical nation she purposes to be, would be to let her become as unhappy as she is guilty. To save her——to save her from herself——we must be just and kind to her——as we shall be if we bear in mind how largely responsible the whole nation is for the rebellion. The South rebelled because the nation began to show signs of not letting the slaveholders go where they would with their slaves. Now, was not a part of the guilt of the Rebellion fairly chargeable on the nation, which had practically (whether with or against the Constitution is immaterial to the argument) recognized the Southern laborers to be property, and therefore subject to removal as well as to the other liabilities of property ? Whoever doubts the nation's having done so, should read Jay's 'View of the action of the Federal Government in behalf of Slavery,' and Gidding's 'Exiles of Florida.' As we had done so much to countenance and educate the South in her crime——her crime of crimes——and as we were still impenitently Pro-Slavery——was it not, to say the least, very ungracious in us to threaten to restrict her commission of it ? We shall, I trust, take her slaves out of the hands of the South. But that will be a comparatively easy thing. That will be done by our superior physical power. An infinitely more difficult work for us will be to take the spirit of slaveholding out of her heart. That we can do only by a superior moral power——only by first taking it out of our own heart.——Our repentance of slaveholding will be mighty to work her repentance of it. It is often said that the North and the South have become so unlike each other, as never to be able to live together again under the same Government. But common repentance of a great common sin goes very far to make the penitents resemble each other. They are alike before the repentance. They are more alike after it. There will no longer be ground for complaining of a lack of homogeneousness in the Americans after the North and South shall have repented of their common wickedness against the black man. True yoke-fellows after that will they be in the work of lifting up and enlightening the large black element and the larger and scarcely less barbarous white element in her population. The North will send down thousands of laborers in this blessed work ; and the South will welcome them. Ungrudged and unlimited moneys and means will the North put into Southern hands to be used in a cause that will then be equally dear to both North and South. I said that for our own sake we must defeat the nefarious purpose of the South to rob us of our country. To the heart of the patriot all is lost when country is lost. When [[end column]] [[start column 2/3]] our nation shall be divided into two nations——nay, into four or five, as it will soon be,should the South succeed——we shall have no nation left ; and, on this side of the grave, no home left. And I said that for the world's sake we must defeat the South. For the world's sake we must not suffer this nascent piratical nation to pass its infancy. For the world's sake we must not suffer such a scourge as it would be to the world——such a hostis humani generis——to grow up in America. Hence, for the world's sake, we must put down this Pro-Slavery Rebellion, and purge the American land of Slavery, and the American heart of the spirit of Slaveholding. When all this shall be done, how rapidly will the redundant and the discontented population of other nations be attracted to happy homes in this ! And then the immigrant, no longer as now a subject, from the day he lands, of the perverting, and debasing appliances of a Pro-Slavery Party, will immediately come under influences as purifying and expanding as the present influences upon immigrants are corrupting and shriveling. I add, that when all this shall be done, there will very soon be no Slavery left in any part of Christendom. I was happy, but not surprised to learn that the price of slaves declined in Cuba as soon as the news of the President's Proclamation reached the island. She would be able to maintain her Slavery scarcely a year after ours had ceased. Brazil has long been shaping herself to get rid of Slavery. She will accelerate her steps to this end when her Slavery shall be deprived of the countenance given to it by the American Slavery. And then when America shall be sorrow-stricken for having chained and lashed, and bought and sold and imbruted so many millions of innocent men and women ; and when her statesmen shall be ashamed of every word they had spoken for Slavery, and be ready to wash out with their tears every word they had written for it ; then will our Free Institutions, hitherto obscured by the black cloud of Slavery, and ineffably disgraced by an unatural alliance with their veriest opposite their deadliest enemy, shine out as the Sun, and fast become the desire of the whole earth. Precious Institutions ! They shall yet bless the whole earth, slaveholders and all other tyrants to the contrary notwithstanding. Precious Institutions ! I repeat. The masses of men can never rise under any other political institutions than those which are Republican or Democratic. And far more than this. When America shall have penitently put away Slavery, and not only her statesmen shall be deeply and painfully ashamed of having contributed to uphold it, but her conscience-convicted ecclesiastics shall at last be sensible of their blood guiltiness——then will Christianity be not only relieved of American misrepresentation, but powerfully commended to the nations by regenerated America. It is vain to expect the prevalence of Christianity so long as the nations shall continue in her name to trample upon human rights. The true Christianity does, in distinction from the counterfeit, honor God's rights through the honoring of man's rights. Herein is the great difference between Heathenism and Christianity. The one sacrifices men to God, while the other makes caring for men the most acceptable worship of God. The current Christianity is but too generally only a little better than a modified Heathenism. But the blotting out of Slavery in all Christendom will go far toward lifting up the current to the standard of the true Christianity. I must close. We see in the light of what has been said, that our trust to put down the Rebellion and so save the nation, must not be alone in our superior material forces. It must be also, in justice, and in the Gold of justice——which however it cannot be unless we become just. It is not true, as Napoleon said it was——that God is on the side of the strongest battalions. He is ever on the side of justice, be it the strongest or the weakest battalions that may happen to be there. It has even been true and it ever will be, that 'the na- [[end column]] [[start column 3/3]] tion that will not serve Him shall perish. Many as our people, great as are our richer and resources, and unequaled our invention and skill, we too shall perish if we fall not is with the Divine laws. But we will fall in with them——will we not ? And if we will, then how grand and blessed our future ! In that future our condition will in all respects rise up into correspondence with our matchless natural advantages. In that future there will be no oppression of the black man, no oppression of the red man, and no oppression of any man. Then equal justice to all. Then the North and the South, the East and the West relinked together forever and ever. Then from sea to sea all brothers. Then a nation practically and cordially recognizing all races and all nations to be of one brotherhood. Then a nation with Christ for the leader of its people and Christ for the leader of its leaders. Will Pro Slavery priests and Pro-Slavery politicians say that I have here sketched but a Utopia, but an impracticable ideal perfection ; and that I have sought to please my hearers with a mere fancy ? We will reply that if they and all who with them breathe the contemptuous spirit of caste, and deride the doctrine of the univesal brotherhood, will but stand aside and no longer pour out their malign and withering influence on mankind, this ideal will be rapidly translated into the actual, and this fancy rapidly become a reality. [[horiz line]] The following Resolution, which Mr. Smith offered at the beginning of his Speech, was, with the exception of a solitary negative, adopted unanimously at its close by the thousands who filled to its upmost capacity the spacious Hall in the Cooper Institute : Whereas, It is no less true of a nation than of an individual, that to be just is to be saved, and to be unjust is to be lost ; and Whereas, Among all the greatest violations of justice, Slavery is pre-eminent. Resolved, therefore, that whatever the things which need to be done by this nation in order to be saved, the penitent putting away of Slavery must not be left undone. [[horiz line]] GERRIT SMITH TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. [[horiz line]] PETERBORO, Jan. 12th, 1863. HON. HORATIO SEYMOUR. DEAR SIR,——I have read your Message Although I belong to no party, I belong to a country. Although there are no party interests for me to promote and adjust myself to, I feel the preciousness of those interests of my country, and am deeply and abidingly concerned for their safety. Seldom more than when reading the Message have I felt the great peril of those interests. For I remember that the utterer of its dangerous doctrines is emphatically, if not indeed pre-eminently, the mouthpiece of a part comprising nearly half the voters of the Free States. I remember too what great weight with his party have the words of a gentleman of commanding talents, high culture, multiplied influential public relations, bland and winning manners, admired social and domestic life. How could I fail to fear that the Democratic Party, if not already fully identified with these dangerous doctrines, will by force of such commendations of them soon become so ! 1st. I find denunciation in the Message, but no denunciation of the rebels. The Cotton States and the New England States do in your esteem share about equally in the guilt of the Rebellion. New England, because she suffered her Garrison to write against Slavery, and her Phillips to talk against it, is in your eyes as criminal as the bloody men who flew at the throat of their unoffending country. New England who, to help put them down, promptly armed hundreds of thousands of her cherished sons and promptly poured out scores of millions of her wealth, has no less of your censure and no more of your favor than have those bloody men. And yet you propose to put down the Rebellion ! But how can this be done,if nearly half of us are like yourself ? How could we have the heart to do it even at little cost——much less at the required cost——if the [[end column]]
