Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

right of arming and disciplining themselves. The negroes might, therefore, immediately after the consummation of the abolitionist's designs, meet and make arrangements for the military execution of the whites. With the sanction of the law, with arms, ammunition, discipline, and savage ferocity, they would probably outdo the horrors of St. Domingo. But what is that to the pious abolitionists?

The right of suffrage, and the right to hold office, are of course included in the benevolent scheme of the fanatics. The first fruits of abolition would be the extensive emigration of the whites. The blacks would be thus rendered a majority; and going to the polls with their prejudice against the rival race, (a prejudice which no power under Heaven has removed, or can remove, in any country) the whole civil and military power would fall into their hands. Of the extent of their qualifications for the safe exercise of this power, it is unnecessary to speak; but with this mass of ignorance, prejudice and savage passion in the high places of the Southern Governments, what would become of the whites? The abolitionists neither know nor care. Nor is the North wholly uninterested in this view of the case. A number of the States of our republic would become negro communities; they would send black representatives into Congress; and as they would, probably, by their close union against the whites, attain great power, they might give us a black President. "To this COMPLEXION must we come at last!"

Should the reader be incredulous on the points referred to, should he consider it impossible that human delusion, even under the impulses of a heady fanaticism, can rush into absurdities so gross, and disgusting, we will, to determine his doubts, refer him to the organs of the party, to the declarations of their conventions, to the resolutions of their

meetings, to the articles of their Constitutions, and to the freely expressed sentiments of the advocates. and supporters of the abolition scheme.

Another object has been extensively attributed to them. We refer to the sexual amalgamation of the two races. We are unwilling to press this charge. The design, has, without a doubt, been freely avowed by some individuals among the abolitionists, and tacitly countenanced by many more. It is well known, that in New York the prominent and wealthy advocates of abolition have given dinners, and other parties, at which the sexes, and races were studiously mingled. It is well known, that the social habits of many encourage the most intimate, equal, and familiar intercourse between the two colours of different sexes. It is well known, that matrimonial connexions of the unnatural character referred to, have not been discouraged; and that, though the abolitionists have been frequently and forcibly charged with the design of encouraging such connexions, their denials have been but late, faint, and partial.* From all these facts it is difficult to escape the belief that the abolitionists, if not decidedly and actively favourable to amalgamation, are by no means opposed to it.

*"Let it be the glory of our SONS AND DAUGHTERS," says one of the reports of Anti-Slavery Society, "to have been educated in Seminaries which were open to worthy applicants, without regard to complexion.”

CHAPTER XIII.

Character of Prominent Abolitionists-Garrison, Tappan, Thompson, &c.-General character of the party.

Bur a few years have elapsed since the commencement of the abolition movement. It originated in a few heated and disturbed minds, and was urged in the face of every obstacle. Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Lundy, and some others, who conceived themselves the chosen instruments of accomplishing abolition, proclaimed their peculiar doctrines with an ardour, which, if it did not excite respect, at least attracted attention. Garrison, the most talented and rabid of the corps, soon became notorious. In the fury of his zeal he did not scruple to borrow the aid of fiction; and, at times, indulged his talent for invective, at the expense of truth, and of the character of respectable citizens. The difficulties into which this unfortunate propensity plunged him, only excited his ardour anew. The strict confinement and low diet to which the irreverend administrators of the law consigned him, did not allay the violence of his zeal. He regarded his misfortune as a partial martyrdom. It certainly had one advantage-it lifted him to an elevation which, like that of the pillory, rendered him the observed of all observers. He renewed his denunciations with spirit. He raved, and the world laugh

ed; but in the end he proved that, so ricketty and unstable a thing is the world, even the efforts of a madman can disturb it. He gained disciples-what fanatic ever raved without converts?—and soon became an object of attention to the crack-brained enthusiasts and antiquated ladies of the whole land. The Colonization Society had, by agitating the subject, prepared the country for the coming of this second Peter the Hermit; and the crusade preached by him against the institutions of the South, found supporters and advocates. At length, he enlisted a sufficient force in behalf of abolition, to enable him to visit England, and crave foreign influence against the laws and lives of his fellow countrymen. England was herself reeling under the potions of quacks and enthusiasts, and lent a willing ear to the crazed abstractions, wild appeals, and exaggerated statements, of Garrison. He found himself in his element. He preached against his country to applauding multitudes; he denounced Washington as a robber, because a slave-holder; characterized the American Constitution as a guilty and blood-stained instrument, because it recognized the domestic laws of the South; and, in short, indulged, to his heart's content, in foul and frothy invective against all that is dear and sacred to Americans. Having sufficiently blackened his country abroad, he returned to renew his treasonable efforts at home. He was received by the fanatics with rapture; and the work was resumed with fresh ardour. The efforts of these conspirators, at their midnight meetings, where the bubbling cauldron of abolition was filled with its pestilential materials, and the fire beneath kindled by the breath of the fanatics, has often reminded us of the witch scene in Macbeth. Their chorus is peculiarly in character for the amalgamationists.

.

"Black spirits and white,
Red spirits and gray,
Mingle, mingle, mingle,
You that mingle may."

It requires no excited imagination to conceive them gathered in their secret councils, where, at first, a few half-crazed enthusiasts, with a bevy of female fanatics, met to hatch and prepare this precious scheme. In such a conclave, assembled for such a purpose, the incantation of the scene referred to, would have been wholly appropriate.

[ocr errors]

"For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble.
Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble!"

In these scenes we may suppose that Garrison, gloomy, wild, and malignant, was the ruling spirit. His religious madness, his vehement cant and violence of spirit naturally gained for him the mastery in their councils. Whatever may be the character of his coadjutors, Garrison has, in his whole career, betrayed the worst purposes allied to the worst passions. His writings have been blackened with the vilest slanders, and the most vindictive abuse. Indeed, so vehement, rancorous and fiend-like have been his exhibitions of passion against his opponents, that most persons have considered, and do still consider, him insane. It is a probable and certainly a charitable supposition; for if he is to be considered as strictly accountable for his ravings, he must be held in general execration. The following extract from his writings is a specimen of his style, and certainly affords no evidence of the soundness of either his head or his heart. He addresses the slave-holders. The reader will be reminded of the celebrated sermon of Maw-worm,

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »