SLAVERY:
BY
J. L. BAKER.
AUTHOR OF "EXPORTS AND IMPORTS," "MEN AND THINGS," &c.
PHILADELPHIA:
JOHN A. NORTON,
1860.
SLAVERY.
The recent attempt of John Brown to incite an insurrection at Harper'sFerry has created no little excitement throughout the country. Strangeand desperate as the movement was, it seems to have been the natural andnecessary result of the long twenty years' war, waged in the free Statesupon the institutions of the South, the culminating point, it is to behoped, in a reform based on no sound principle, and which, like anepidemic, has swept over the land, fruitful only in bitter words, harshrecrimination, sectional hostility, and ending, like the last act of atragedy, in violence and murder.
The scene that has been enacted at Harper's Ferry will perhaps have theeffect to open the eyes of the nation, so that they can see fully theyawning gulf, the brink of which they have at last reached, and leadthem to examine the ground on which they stand; inquire what they havebeen doing, and what good cause can be served by a course of actionwhich has led to such fatal results. Many lives have been sacrificed. Awhole family has been ruined, and an old man has been led out to sufferthe last and most terrible infliction of the law. He has been but aninstrument in the hands of others, who have acted, with the exception ofsome political leaders, from honest convictions.
The time has now come, however, for them to inquire, and for all toinquire with the utmost seriousness, if these convictions of duty havebeen just and commendable, or if they have been mistaken, and thereforeto be condemned. Zeal without knowledge is a dangerous weapon, as allhistory has proved, and it is incumbent upon all, not only to do right,but to think right. It is an old maxim that ignorance of the law excusesno man, and it is equally true that we are not at liberty to follow ourblind impulses, but are bound to inform ourselves, and to know whethera particular course of action, however well intended, is such as willnot defeat the very[Pg 4] purposes we have in view, while it brings miseryand ruin to thousands of our fellow beings.
Liberty has been in all ages of the world a most fruitful theme for thepoet and the orator, and still its true nature and conditions are butimperfectly understood. Constitutional liberty, such as that of Englandand the United States, is possible only to a race that has a physicaltemperament that fits it for self-control or self-government, and tosuch a race only is it a blessing. But few such races have been known inhistory. One of them was the Grecian, and afterwards the Roman, but bothbecame degenerated, and lost the capacity of self-government.
In modern times the English nation has exhibited the same capacity,which belongs also to ourselves, who are of the same blood. No otherpeople have those constitutional traits which fit them forself-government, which is but another name for self-restraint. TheFrenchman is volatile, fickle, and fond of glory, and less free to-daythan he was under Louis the Sixteenth. He has a government which answersto his wants and his genius, which exactly represents his condition, andcontributes, therefore, most to his happiness. Should he, in the courseof centuries, become cha