{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_65452/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_65452","id":"gutenberg_65452","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65452","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - American","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Slavery -- United States -- History"],"text":"_Vol. 2._      _Whole No. 24._\n\n                                No. 12.\n                         TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.\n\n\n                               AMERICAN\n                          DANGERS AND DUTIES.\n\n                                  BY\n                            Rev. A. D. MAYO\n\n\n                 Periodical: Postage, 3 cents a Year.\n\n\n        Published by the Ladies\u2019 Religious Publication Society.\n\n\n                                ALBANY:\n                  WEED, PARSONS & COMPANY, PRINTERS.\n                                 1861.\n\n\n\n\n                       CIRCULAR TO OUR FRIENDS.\n\n\nThe experiment of publishing a series of tracts upon Liberal\nChristianity entered upon in the month of October, 1858, has been\neminently successful, with only a moderate outlay of effort and\nexpense. The publications of our Society, under the following titles,\nare before the public:\n\n\n                              Volume One.\n\n     I. Liberal Christianity, by Rev. A. D. Mayo.\n    II. The Gospel of the Day, by Rev. O. B. Frothingham.\n   III. Liberal Christianity a Practical Religion, by Rev. A. D. Mayo.\n    IV. The Father the only and the sufficient God, by Rev. S.\n          Longfellow.\n     V. The Natural History of the Devil, by Rev. M. D. Conway.\n    VI. What is Infidelity, by Rev. A. D. Mayo.\n   VII. Thy Holy Child Jesus, by Rev. Wm. H. Furness, D. D.\n  VIII. The Relation of this Life to the Next, by Rev. T. Starr King.\n    IX. A Church and its Methods, by Rev. James Freeman Clarke.\n     X. The Bottomless Pit, by Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D.\n    XI. The Reformation of the Nineteenth Century, by Rev. A. D. Mayo.\n   XII. A Case of Evangelical Church Discipline, by Emerson W. Keyes.\n\n\n                              Volume Two.\n\n     I. Cornering Religion, by Rev. C. A. Bartol.\n    II. On the Alleged Decay of Faith, by Rev. Orville Dewey, D. D.\n   III. A Religious Experience, by Rev. A. D. Mayo.\n    IV. What do Unitarians Believe? by Rev. Samuel J. May.\n     V. Believing Much and Believing Little, by Rev. O. B. Frothingham.\n    VI. The Simplicity of Liberal Christianity, by Rev. John Pierpont.\n   VII. Theodore Parker, by Rev. A. D. Mayo.\n  VIII. Why not Acknowledge the Faith which you Believe, by Rev. E.\n          Buckingham.\n    IX. Relation of the Unitarian Faith to the Current Creeds of\n          Christendom, by Rev. H. W. Bellows, D. D.\n     X. The Use and Abuse of Religious Creeds, by Rev. A. D. Mayo.\n    XI. Some Essentials of a True Church, by Rev. Robert Collyer.\n   XII. American Dangers and Duties, by Rev. A. D. Mayo.\n\nWe believe there is no way in which our cause can be so surely\nand steadily advanced as by the thorough dissemination of tracts,\ncalculated to awaken interest in the great religious questions of the\nage. And we confidently appeal to our friends for aid and co-operation\nin this work. The publications of the coming year we intend shall\nequal in interest and ability those of the past, and at a very small\ncost any person will be able to enjoy the best thoughts of the ablest\nwriters upon Liberal Christianity. Subscribers of one dollar a year\nwill be furnished with the whole series for 1860 (twelve in number),\nat the rate of two copies a month sent by mail, at periodical rates\nof postage; and to purchasers who desire tracts for more extended\ncirculation, they will be supplied at the rate of $2.00 a hundred. The\nobjects of the society being solely to publish and disseminate the\nideas of Liberal Christianity, the entire receipts in their treasury\nwill be devoted to those ends with no profits accruing to any one.\n\nWe require a sufficient amount of funds to publish our new series, in\nmuch larger editions than our limited means have hitherto allowed;\nand our ability to do so will be greatly augmented by an early\ncontribution. As only one dollar a year is required from each person,\nwho cordially believes that a more liberal faith is necessary to the\nhealthful growth of a Christian character, we earnestly invite all\nsuch, not only to contribute personally, but so to interest their\nfriends in our behalf, that we may go on with confidence in our\npecuniary success, as well as in the persistent advance of the cause to\nwhich we are so heartily devoted.\n\nBound copies of the first series of Tracts for the Times, can be\nobtained at fifty cents per volume.\n\nPrices of New Series $1 a year, for two copies a month. $2 per hundred\ncopies.\n\nAll subscriptions and applications for tracts, addressed by mail, with\nmoney, enclosed, to Mrs. Lucy C. Mayo, 32 Lodge street, or Miss Nancie\nBurton, 70 Chapel street, Albany, N. Y.\n\n\n\n\n                     AMERICAN DANGERS AND DUTIES.\n\n\nThe President of the United States has appointed a day of fasting,\nhumiliation and prayer, in view of the perilous condition of the\ncountry. We rejoice at this symptom of returning sanity in national\naffairs. We have never doubted that the wanton repudiation of God\u2019s\neternal laws of justice, honesty and humanity in high places would\nfinally bring the Republic into the condition so impressively stated in\nthis proclamation. It is too evident that \u201c_God\u2019s Omnipotent arm only\ncan save us from the awful effects of our own crimes and follies\u2015\u2015our\nown ingratitude and guilt towards our Heavenly Father_.\u201d\n\nLet us now approach the Almighty with no vain attempt to conceal our\nhearts from Him, or to delude ourselves and our fellow men. Let us\nearnestly look at our public dangers, that we may learn their source;\nand pray for light upon our path of duty. God helps only those who try\nto help themselves. He governs humanity by immutable laws which the\nprayers of a world cannot change. Let this call from the chief citizen\nof the Republic to national consecration persuade us all to study the\ndivine law of American civilization; the extent of our departure from\nit; the obligation to obey it more faithfully in the days to come.\n\nThe present state of our country is not the result of any accidental or\ntemporary cause. No radical statesmen or victorious party or company\nof professional agitators, has power to involve the Republic in such\ndisturbance. These causes, so passionately and plausibly assigned, are\nthemselves unimportant effects of the one chief cause. The Republic is\nnow in a tumult because the progressive civilization of the nineteenth\ncentury has finally vanquished the combined forces resisting its\nadvent; deprived its chief opponent, the slave power, of the command\nin national affairs; and prepared to administer the government of the\nUnited States forever in the interest of Christian society. The past\nalways dies hard, its struggles for a lease of life are the present\nagitation in American affairs. Let us briefly overlook the progress of\nthis mighty conflict; the present state of the battle; the obligation\nof freemen in the crisis now upon us.\n\nEighty-four years ago, thirteen American colonies revolted from the\nBritish Empire. All acknowledged the right of property in one race of\nmen. But only in six colonies was this idea inwrought into the texture\nof society; in seven northern provinces it was already a condemned\nbarbarism. These seven northern colonies were inclined to believe in\nthe natural right of every man to freedom sufficient to develop his own\nnature without hindrance to other men; a right to be forever asserted\nand secured by a government of the whole people. The masses of the six\nsouthern colonies believed heartily in the enslavement of the negro\nlaborer, such enslavement to be ensured by an aristocratic form of\nsociety and organization of the State. The colony of Massachusetts\nwas the foremost representative of the northern idea, which not only\ncommanded majorities in seven provinces, but largely influenced the\nablest patriot leaders of Virginia. The southern column was led by\nthe Carolinas and Georgia. These states, with a white population of\n480,000, contained 230,000 slaves. Throughout the Revolution they\nwere the focus of indifference and opposition to the common cause;\nbeing practically a British province during most of the war. Their\nidea of society held the majority of the people in Virginia and\nMaryland, and governed an aristocratic party in the middle states,\nwhose descendants abide with us to-day. The northern idea prevailed;\nwrote the Declaration of Independence; carried Washington through the\nwar, and organized the government radically on the basis of civil and\nreligious liberty for all races of men. The Carolinas and Georgia, at\nthe last hour, forced into the Constitution a recognition of slavery,\nalien to its spirit, and supposed, by the wisest patriots, to be of\ntemporary necessity. Thus did freedom triumph in 1787; though robbed of\nthe complete fruits of victory by the obstinancy of a hostile idea.\n\nThus armed, free society girded itself up to the majestic toil of\nsubduing and civilizing a new continent. It entrenched itself on the\nrocky shores and snowy hills of New England, and made those six states\nthe foremost representative of the true Democratic idea.\n\nUnder the auspices of Jay, King, Livingston and a band of like-minded\nstatesmen, the idea was organized in the State of New York; the great\nconstructive centre of American civilization.\n\nIt gradually forced negro slavery from three middle states, and then\nbegan to march its armies of emigration towards the Pacific. It\ncompelled the national government to consecrate to liberty the area of\nfive great states in the northwest. It created a new power in central\nand western New York, which confirmed the policy of the Empire State.\nIt formed the civilization of the five northwestern states east of\nthe Mississippi. When a new empire was brought in by the Louisiana\npurchase, it rallied its forces and secured the territory north of the\nMissouri Compromise Line, from which it already has fashioned three\ngreat states. It scaled the Rocky Mountains and covered Oregon and\nWashington with the proviso of freedom. And when the second vast empire\nwas annexed to the national domain, it swept along its border and\nconsecrated the whole Pacific coast to liberty.\n\nThe idea of society founded on civil and religious liberty for all\nmen has laid the foundation of eighteen American states, containing,\nin 1860, 18,000,000 of people; the best commonwealths that were ever\ncreated in a time so brief. It has also, in less degree, influenced the\nrising confederacy of the Canadas, and is slowly preparing that vast\nregion for self-government. It has diverted a large emigration from the\nSouthern States, of men attracted by the hopes and opportunities of\nfree society. Its possessions stretch from the northeastern coast of\nthe Atlantic with southwesterly inclination to the southern shores of\nthe Pacific, nearing the lower extremity of North America.\n\nAlthough by no means of equal development, society in these eighteen\nfree states is founded on the immutable principles of the natural\nrights of man. The laborer is a free man and a citizen. Social life is\na democracy in which service to the community is the chief claim to\npreeminence. Education is the boon of every child, and the press and\nspeech are free. The ballot in several Northern States is absolutely\nfree to all men, and the current is setting in that direction in the\nremainder. In all these states the free worship of God is secured by\nfundamental law. The radical tendency among these 18,000,000 of people\nis towards the complete establishment of a Christian democracy. Already\nthe superiority of this portion of the Republic in all the elements of\ncivilization is undisputed. Its commercial and industrial enterprise\nis the controlling force of the country\u2019s material prosperity. Its\nagriculture leads in the majority of crops that can be tilled on\nnorthern soil; and it has three crops, either of which can buy up\nthe whole special productions of the southern states. It is the seat\nof popular education. Its literature and art, and general refinement\nof life, represent the Union to the world. The present census brings\nit into its great inheritance of overwhelming political power. Its\nreligion is nearer the Sermon on the Mount than ever was reached by\n18,000,000 of people before. It is headed towards the kingdom of God\nmore decisively than any nation of ancient or modern times.\n\nBut the north is by no means yet in the kingdom. Each of its radical\nideas of free society is violated and perverted by a considerable\nportion of every commonwealth; some of its principles by entire\nstates. Out of the competitions of free labor has sprung a fierce\nand selfish love of money which scorns honesty and tramples down man\nin its accursed lust for gold. Whole classes of men are cursed by\nthis venal insanity which, culminating in the marble streets of the\ncommercial metropolis, distills its venom to the remotest log cabin in\nthe wilderness. Out of the opportunities of free social life has sprung\na mushroom growth of vulgar social ambition, luxury and sensuality;\nwhich struggles to become the fashion on the pavement of the Atlantic\ncity and in the \u201cpercussion\u201d village of the west. The sacred freedom\nof printing and speech has been perverted to a satanic press and the\nopen advocacy of every vagary of despotism and sin. Political freedom\nhas been demoralized to the freedom of unlimited office seeking, the\nbetrayal of human rights for individual success and fearful corruption\nin public affairs. And out of the noblest feature of our church,\nits liberty of worship, comes that pernicious strife for sectarian\nsupremacy and worldly success which endangers the most liberal\nreligious organizations.\n\nThese abuses of northern society marshal a host in New England. They\nrage through the great cities of the Middle States. They demoralize\nmultitudes on the prairies, and on the Pacific struggle with fearful\nintensity for the possession of society. The point to which this\ntendency gravitates is _popular servility_. So we have, in the\nNorth, a great crowd of men and women debauched by the abuse of\nthe opportunities of free society, to the point of yielding to the\nblandishments and menaces of any despotism that promises to pay its way.\n\nLet us distinctly understand that in this direction lies the sin\nand peril of northern civilization. It is not our free institutions\nand their faithful disciples which are endangering the peace of the\ncountry, as is slanderously asserted by every tyrant and tyrant\u2019s\njackall in America; but the chief peril of the Union is from _this\nmargin of servility_ in northern civilization, which is always in the\nmarket, ready to tamper with any abomination from abroad, within or\nwithout its own borders, as its wretched selfishness may be stimulated\nthereby. Perhaps its present direction is least dangerous to the\nnational welfare. It now succumbs to the slave power of our Southern\nStates, as the nearest, most powerful, and remunerative purchaser of\nits influence. Were there no slave power, it would be in league with\nforeign civil and religious despotism, or fasten upon some Northern\ninstitution as the representative of the aristocratic idea. But now it\nhas turned its shameless face away from Northern civilization, which\nis growing up behind its back into an adamantine wall overtopping its\nbase hopes and impotent threats. While its preachers, and politicians,\nand journals and saloons are facing towards despotism, and calling free\nsociety anarchy, the majority of the North is calmly marching onward to\nthe victory for the right which is only a question of a few decades,\nunswayed by the promises, undaunted by the croakings of its _margin\nof servility_. The idea of free society, of which New England is the\nforemost representative, is gradually subduing every region of these\neighteen states to itself.\n\nAnd just as the New England idea, organized in the great Middle States\nand the Northwest, is approaching its day of conquest in the North,\nis the idea of South Carolina subduing the fifteen Southern States.\nSouth Carolina is now the most completely aristocratic State in the\nConfederacy. Fifty-eight per cent of her entire population are slaves.\nHer basis of representation in her Legislature is equally slave\nproperty and white population; one sixty-second of white people and one\nsixty-second of property having the same political weight. Her 25,000\nslaveholders rule the little State with a rod of iron, and this phalanx\nis wheeled about by a smaller number of men than governs any State of\nthe Union. In the Revolution the great men of Maryland and Virginia\nclasped the hands of the North, and thus governed the Carolinas,\nwrested them from utter subjugation, and organized the Constitution\nover their heads. But South Carolina, Georgia and their children along\nthe Gulf of Mexico have been gaining in power every day in the last\nhalf century.\n\nSouth Carolina is now captain of eight States, with a white population\nof more than 2,000,000, owning a slave population of 1,800,000; 42 per\ncent of the whole people; with a monopoly of the cotton, rice and sugar\ncrops; and a rapidly consolidating unanimity of sentiment. The seven\nmore northern Slave States have a white population of 5,000,000, with\n27 per cent of slavery. But they have no peculiar staple of production,\nexcepting young negroes, and are wavering in social ideas and political\npolicy. Freedom has planted a line of batteries along their borders\nin the form of nine growing cities containing a million and a half of\npeople, in all of which free discussion is practically vindicated;\nseveral being already in the hands of the Northern idea. Thus wavering\nbetween extremes, these seven States are now being fought over as the\nbody of Moses was by the angel and the Dragon. South Carolina, foremost\nof the host of despotism, has them by the throat, haling them towards\nthe precipice of disunion. She has conquered them in every battle since\nthey shrank from Northern fellowship; she brought in three slave States\nfrom the Louisiana Purchase; she drove the country into the Mexican\nwar and secured Texas; she repealed the Missouri Compromise; she has\nprocured the Dred Scott decision; and now, on the refusal of the North\nto ratify it, threatens to dissolve the Union, and commands the Central\nSlave States to come on.\n\nWashington, Jefferson, Clay, Jackson, Benton; the great men of this\nregion who withstood her claims are all dead, and who are their\nsuccessors? All things look fearfully like a surrender of the seven\nnorthern Slave States to the idea of South Carolina and her seven\nconfederates, just as the entire North has been wheeled into line by\nNew England and her children of the North.\n\nThere is nothing strange in this. There was always plenty of railing\nagainst New England and her ideas in the Middle and Western States,\nwhich has ended in their conversion. Every great Preacher, Statesman,\nThinker, in twelve States beyond the Hudson, has his heel on Plymouth\nRock. New England and her children believe wholly in the natural\nrights of man; therefore she conquers twelve States that do not exactly\nknow whether man has or has not natural rights. South Carolina and her\nchildren disbelieve wholly in the natural rights of man. Therefore they\nsubdue seven great States of wavering faith. The man, the State that\nbelieves with its whole heart, always in the end subdues the man or\nState that only half believes.\n\nIn every great national collision between the two civilizations,\nfreedom has been nominally beaten, but actually victorious. The\nRevolution made nine States free. If the North was compelled to\nhide away slavery in the Constitution; she saved the Declaration\nof Independence; kept the word \u201cslave\u201d out of the charter of our\nliberties; abolished the slave trade; and secured the Northwest\nterritory, five States, for liberty. The South cut up her remaining\nterritories into four additional slave states; obtained Florida, from\nSpain; Louisiana and Arkansas from France, and then gave battle for\nMissouri. She gained the nominal victory of forcing 80,000 slaves into\nthis State, and lost the remaining territory north of 36 deg. and 30\nmin., sufficient for half a dozen free commonwealths, which secured\ntwo States in the future beyond the Rocky Mountains. Thus, out of the\nLouisiana Purchase, slavery has gained but two States, and kept back\nMissouri fifty years from her natural condition of freedom; while the\nNorth has gained already three free States; and has, beside Kansas,\nhalf a dozen territories in reserve, ready to come in.\n\nThe next great battle was in 1844, when slavery grasped Texas, and\nplunged the country into a war to extend her territory. The end of that\nwas a nominal defeat of liberty, but the real defeat of slavery. For\nthe South has only gained thereby an additional slave population of\n60,000 in Texas; a vast, region whose western border is already in the\nhands of free men; a fugitive slave law, whose imperfect enforcement\nhas greatly served to alienate the Northern mind, and reduce the escape\nof slaves to a science; and a barren promise of several new States in\nTexas, New Mexico, and Utah, if she can get them. The North secured\nthe State of California, which has shut off the Pacific from slavery,\nand planted a mighty free State like a circular battery, covering\nall the newly acquired Mexican Territory. The regions west of Texas\nwill finally be peopled from free California. They are now sparsely\npopulated, because unfit for settlement. But if gold or silver mines\nor profitable agricultural districts should be discovered in this vast\nwilderness, there would be a hegira that way which would \u201cre-enact the\nwill of God\u201d beyond hope of repeal.\n\nThen came the battle of 1854, when the South abolished the Missouri\nCompromise, to steal Kansas, and lost this territory and wounded\nslavery to death in Missouri, thus planting two great States over\nagainst Western Texas and the Indian Possessions, which must be settled\ntherefrom.\n\nThen, in desperation, the slave power sentenced all the territories of\nthe United States to slavery; and the North has declared, unanimously,\nby a popular vote of 3,250,000 against 200,000, that she will not\npermit this subversion of the Constitution.\n\nThus stand the forces on the field. Slavery has fifteen states; three\nof which are turning one ear to freedom. Freedom has eighteen states,\nwith double their white population, and holds the two strategical\npoints, California and Kansas, which cover every territory, and make\nit almost impossible that new slave states should be permanently\nsustained therein. And now the North has united to confine the peculiar\ninstitution within its present limits. _In the Union, the battle\nis fought and won._ Slavery, nominally the victor, has been really\ndefeated in every contest since the Revolution. She has violated\nevery compromise, and thus morally put it out of her power to demand\nconcession from liberty. The slave power to-day stands beaten,\nsurrounded, and dependent for its very existence on the will of the\nFree States.\n\nIs it strange that South Carolina raises the Palmetto flag, and sends\nthe order down the whole line to march out of the Union? She has fewer\nentangling alliances with freedom than any of her followers; and, with\nan eye sharpened by long observation of the conditions of aristocratic\nsociety, sees that its doom is sealed. She knows, as Virginia and\nMaryland do not, that there can be no more reliable extension of the\nslave power in the Union, as now constituted, and as it will inevitably\nbe administered in the future. She is sick at heart, and understands\nthat all her physicians are quacks, who propose only palliatives,\nin helpless inability to cure her disease. What cares she for a new\nfugitive slave law when the old one cannot be enforced, and every Negro\ncarried back to bondage leaves a town full of new-made abolitionists\nbehind? Will it help her to declare that all the territories shall\nchoose freedom or slavery for themselves, when Yankee Jonathan, German\nHans and Irish Patrick are swarming on the borders of every territory\nwhere a civilized man can live? The offer of new slave states in the\nsouthwestern deserts does not console her, for she remembers that of\nthe four slave states admitted into the Union within the last thirty\nyears, two are insignificant, and Texas and Missouri are already in\na state of siege by freedom, while free states stand, rank behind\nrank, awaiting an open door. Do her comforters offer protection in the\nterritories? New Mexico has 62,000 square miles, and has about one\nslave to 1,000 square miles, and this is her most hopeful scion at\npresent; very like protecting a dead horse against a general muster\nof crows. What of the abstract right to carry slaves through states\nthat daily hate slavery more bitterly? Are compromises offered in any\nof these directions? The spectre of one great compromise, murdered\nin the Capitol, rises like Banquo\u2019s ghost, and shrieks, \u201cthou sent\ncompromise to the grave; who calls up my unquiet shadow to haunt the\nday?\u201d A compromise is henceforth only a law; so has slavery willed;\nfreedom responds: \u201cso let it be forevermore.\u201d Lay upon freedom whatever\ncompromises you will, she henceforth walks through and beyond them like\na living man through a churchyard full of wavering shadows. What can\nthe Supreme Court do for her case? She has shown us that court can be\nmade to yield to the reigning spirit of the day, and gained all she\nasked for slavery. Another day will dawn, and the court will look to\nthat rising sun. Will she change the Constitution? But no act of to-day\ncan bind posterity. A perpetual provision for slavery there is setting\nup a king over the Constitution. The North to-day will set up no king;\nif it does the North of to-morrow will dethrone him.\n\nThe slave power, as represented by South Carolina, wants primarily\nbut one thing\u2015\u2015_a complete reversal of Northern moral convictions and\nsocial ideas. That change of civilization would permit her to open\nthe slave trade and acquire new territory for slave States. All these\nthings are impossible in the Union as headed now._ Therefore, South\nCarolina turns her back on it, and gives the command: forward, the\nwhole line towards\u2015\u2015_we\u2019ll see when we get out_. We must confess there\nis no link wanting in this logic of the slave power. If it stays in the\nUnion, it must be girdled, year by year, more irresistibly by freedom;\nas a great snow bank feels the April sun, day by day, enclosing it in\nglittering lines, and already dissolves in thought of June mornings\nahead. With the most determined effort to keep its hands off the\nslave power, the spirit of American liberty will be compelled to deal\nwith it more vitally every year. The age is forcing it towards this\npolicy. Every school house and meeting house, free home, free journal,\nand country lyceum in the United States is a protest against this\nbarbarism. It may be as well said at once _that what the slave power\ncalls abolitionism, is simply the spirit of the nineteenth century\napplied to American Society. Every man who lives in that spirit is to\nit an abolitionist, with his own will, or spite of his will, must help\nabolish human slavery._ I doubt not the political fidelity of the North\nto all constitutional obligations; but if the fifteen slave states\nremain in the Union they must finally become free states. Freedom is\naggressive. Virtue, truth, humanity, God are aggressive. The fathers\nintended that slavery should die a peaceful death in the Union, and\nthe sons will not forget the tradition. The slave power now hears her\nsentence read and sees the executioner on the way. South Carolina\ncounsels it to prolong its life by flying beyond jurisdiction of the\ncourt. But if the slave power flies from the Union, it is only rushing\nfrom the house of a regenerating friend into an open country peopled by\nits foes. The civilization of the age is against it. The South must,\nfirst or last, regenerate her false order of society, or walk towards\nfinal destruction.\n\nWhat is the duty of the North in this perilous condition of affairs?\n\nFirst. The paramount duty of the eighteen Northern States is to\npreserve and perpetuate the Christian civilization already inaugurated\nwithin their borders, and permit the sacred cause of liberty to suffer\nno eclipse.\n\nSecond. The North has now become the natural protector of the Southern\npeople against the tyranny of the slave power, and must do its\nuttermost to prevent the conquest of fifteen states by this remorseless\ntyranny.\n\nThe North has one obligation more sacred than all others; to preserve\nthe sacred rights of man and carry forward the work of a Christian\ncivilization on this continent. These eighteen states now occupy the\nforemost position in the world, and cannot abandon it without such\ndanger and disgrace as no good man can calmly contemplate. Whatever\nthey do, Humanity, Christianity, God command them to surrender nothing\nof that which they hold in trust as the agent for mankind and posterity.\n\nThis is a sufficient answer to the demands of that margin of servility\nin the North which asks us to surrender anything and everything to\nthe cause of the Union. This wretched school of advisers counsel\nnothing less than unconditional submission to the extreme demands\nof an insolent oligarchy, whose turbulent and dishonest despotism\nhas already brought the country to the brink of ruin. To satisfy Mr.\nCharles O\u2019Conor, the Rev. Mr. Van Dyke, and their disciples, we must\nchange our whole type of society; forswear all that gives us power at\nhome and fame abroad; place ourselves under a general espionage more\nhateful than the rule of an emperor; and conspire to crush a whole\nrace of men in the dust forever. _This cannot be done._ Northern\ncivilization is looking towards the golden rule of Christ. Its social,\ncivil, industrial, educational, religious associations are all slowly\nadjusting themselves to the Christian idea of the equal rights of all\nmen. Should our people now be persuaded or forced to repudiate these\nideas; turn their backs on the spirit of the age; hold every principle\non sale; make their pavements and fields too servile for the tread of\nfreemen, it would be a calamity in comparison with which the sinking of\nevery despotic state in the depths of the sea would be a blessing. Our\ngreat commercial cities are full of adventurers from every part of the\nworld, who, caring nothing for republican institutions, only look to\ntheir own aggrandizement in wealth and personal position. Every county\nholds a politician base enough to flatter this class of men to gain an\noffice. The pulpits of the North are not yet rid of the servants of\nthis Sadducism. It is not strange that this whole margin of servility\nis stirred to its nauseous depth in favor of unlimited concession to\nthe slave power. It would be monstrous if this great North cast down\nher noblest and wisest advisers and followed the lead of this motley\ncrew. It may or may not be necessary that certain men should be rich,\nfamous, or in office; but that eighteen states who represent the\nloftiest civilization on the earth should commit social suicide to\nfurther such trivial objects is too much to contemplate.\n\nBut there is a better class of advisers who counsel the North to\ncompromise and conciliation, with the hope of weathering the present\ngale, and ultimately keeping the ship on the track of a Christian\ndemocracy. They sincerely believe the American Union is the best hope\nof freedom on this continent; that united, these States must finally\nreach the promised land; dissevered, they will drift into hopeless\nanarchy. We appreciate the motives and understand the apprehensions of\nthis large body of the Northern people. We wish they took less counsel\nof their fears, and saw more clearly the danger of experimenting on\na thing so sensitive as human rights. We think they are too much\nconcerned to learn what will appease our despotism, forgetting that\nit is unappeasable; while they also forget that there is a sentiment\nof freedom that will not submit beyond a fixed point, and that point\nof endurance is already near. We know that successful statesmanship\nmust be a series of approaches to abstract right, and no great idea\nof liberty can be organized at once. We do not presume to explain the\ndetails of our public policy in a region where the political landscape\nchanges every morning; and it is absurd to ask our advanced statesmen\nto sacrifice the permanent interest of liberty to a verbal consistency.\nNo party can always be guided by its own platform; especially can no\ngreat national policy be run upon the straight track of a fore-ordained\nprogramme.\n\nTherefore, _we believe in all methods of conciliation and forbearance\nthat do not vitiate the spirit of liberty in the people or imperil the\nfinal triumph of freedom in the country_. Let us keep the conscience\nof the North sound, its spirit high, its determination unchangeable\nfor a true civilization. We must abate none of our great agencies of\nfreedom. The free school, the free press, free speech, free society,\na free ballot, a free church must be sustained at all hazards, and\npurified of grossness and license by the gradual education and refining\nof the people. Our political state policy must be maintained, and only\nchanged in the direction of purging the cause of freedom from all base\nalloy, and opening into wider vistas of Christian liberty. Then we must\nchoose men for our servants in national offices whose fidelity to God\nand man are undoubted; instruct them to see that the cause of humanity\nreceives no harm, and trust much to their wisdom in the details of\npublic policy. It is daily becoming a more difficult task to guide our\nnational affairs. Only the highest order of ability, experience and\nunflinching principle can suffice for the mighty toil. The Northern\npeople will sacrifice every man, however lofty, who turns his back\nagainst the present age. They will resent any measure whose effect is\nto undermine Northern ideas, however imperceptibly. But they will give\na generous margin for that policy of wise conciliation, which will\npreserve the Union to freedom forever.\n\nLet our servants remember we forgive all things to devotion to our\ncommon humanity; we pardon any policy, that finally keeps us in the\ncurrent of the nineteenth century; but we forgive no man who, through\nfear, or flattery, or ignorance, or any motive, puts in peril the cause\nof human rights. For such there is everlasting political punishment.\nOur rulers must not open the African slave trade; or make our northern\ncities the depots of the infamous traffic in men; or permit further\nacquisition of territory for slavery; or change the Republic into a\nmachine to assist and protect property in man wherever our flag is\nplanted. The national policy must aim at a final limitation of slavery\nin the nation, and a transferal of the whole controversy to the slave\nstates. Whoever can best accomplish this shall be approved.\n\nOnly by this zealous upholding of freedom in eighteen states can the\nNorth educate herself to her secondary obligation to preserve the\nUnion by defending the people of the South against the slave power.\nWhatever may be the capacity of liberty in the free states to sustain a\ndisruption of the Union; it is morally certain that the only rational\nhope of liberty in fifteen southern states is in their continuance of\nthe partnership in a national government administered in the interests\nof human rights. Were these fifteen states to-day severed from our\nconnection and united in a slave empire, they would be ever haunted\nby three specters, either more formidable than any present danger.\nTheir intestine conflicts would compare with our present agitation\nlike the spouting of a volcano to the sputtering of a coal fire. A\nthousand ambitious and unscrupulous characters stand waiting that event\nto run the wild race for power whose goal is anarchy. There could be\nno permanent union between South Carolina and Maryland; Mississippi\nand Kentucky; for revolutions do not go backward, and the forces that\nwould sweep fifteen states out of the Union would fatally drift any new\ngovernment they should create towards a military despotism. They would\nbe in constant danger from servile insurrection; and the rapid increase\nof slave population would necessitate a reign of terror through all\ntheir borders. They would perpetually be urged into wars with every\ncivilized power; for nobody supposes the nations of the world will\npermit a black empire to open the slave trade and steal unlimited\nterritory. On whatever side we look, the only hope of free institutions\nin the south is adherence to a Union working towards the freedom of man.\n\nThis preservation of the Union for liberty can only be accomplished\nby a co-operation of the moderate men and class of the South with the\nparty of freedom in the North. This class has too long made the fatal\nmistake of choosing its Northern allies from those who misrepresented\nthe Northern conscience and society. They have read the journals\nthat live by maligning our civilization, and kept in power a set of\npoliticians who could not be chosen to preside over a town meeting at\nhome. If any man has made himself specially obnoxious to the people of\nNew England, New York or the Great West, by treason to their higher\nconvictions, we have seen him lifted into some exalted position by the\nvoice of those whose only hope of salvation is the confidence of the\nNorthern heart. The moderate men of the South have counseled too often\nwith this irresponsible section of the free states, and, of course, are\nnow left to drift.\n\nIf this Union is to be saved, the border slave states must change their\npolicy. Their wisest and most patriotic men must, like Washington,\nand Jefferson, and Clay and Benton, clasp the hands of the _real\nNorth_; the North that is faced towards liberty; and demand of it all\nconsideration and support consistent with true civilization. Let them\nno longer parley with the political, social and commercial traitors who\npromise what they never can perform\u2015\u2015a reversal of Northern ideas of\nsociety. Let them convince us that they have at heart the freedom of\nthe Republic, and their counsels for moderation and fraternal action\nwill have the weight they deserve. The real danger now is that the\nfreemen of the North have come to distrust this better class of the\nSouth. When they see venerable statesmen like Bell yielding to the\nuttermost demands of the slave power in his adoption of the heresy of\nuniversal protection for slavery by the General Government, and uniting\nin the vulgar slander that the majority of our people has embarked in\nan unconstitutional and fanatical crusade against Southern rights; or\na man like Crittenden proposing to surrender to the secessionists the\nprivilege of making a dozen Alabamas below the parallel of 36 degrees\n30 minutes; to convert the metropolis of the Union into the great slave\nmarket of the world; and put into the Constitution a perpetual guaranty\nfor slavery, when every provision for liberty is subject to amendment;\nor when Mr. Stephens tells us our only hope is in complete surrender\nto the platform of the extreme South, what are we to think? Are the\nentire slave states so debauched by their institutions that what their\nrepresentative men call \u201ccompromise,\u201d is only the yielding every point\nin issue between the two civilizations? Are the New York Herald and\nCaleb Cushing to be perpetual representatives of northern society: and\nis the Union to be sacrificed because the whole people of the South\nbelieve their infamous slanders about us? Then, indeed, is hope for\nSouthern freedom lost; unless freedom, in fire-eating parlance, means\nliberty to enslave mankind till the end of time.\n\nWe behold in the firm attitude of a few Southern patriots of the\nWashington and Jefferson school, the only hope for the salvation of\nthe country. They know that the majority of the North never did and\nwill not propose to abolish slavery in the Slave States by the General\nGovernment against their own desire. They know that any administration\ninaugurated by this majority will protect the Southern people against\nall danger of war, intestine conflict, invasion or insurrection. They\nknow that we propose to limit slavery to its present possessions only\nfor the safety of the Union, and the defence of the Southern people\nfrom the most insolent oligarchy that ever ruled on earth. If they can\nunite with us to keep the Union as it is; to defeat the extreme demands\nof Davis and Yancy, and O\u2019Conor; to gradually localize the slavery\ncontroversy in fifteen States, which, under the paternal protection of\nthe nation, may work out this painful problem by the increasing lights\nof our age, we can be their friends, and finally deliver them all from\nharm. We will do and suffer everything for ourselves to this glorious\nresult; but we have no right to sacrifice the cause of human rights on\na whole continent to please 350,000 slaveholders. We know that, in any\nevent, the united North must protect the Southern people against the\nslave power. If they tear away from us now, we shall be called before\ntwenty years to defend them against foreign invasions, servile war, and\nintestine anarchy. If they stay with us, we can protect them with less\nperil to human life, and more security in the issue.\n\nFor, come what will, the North will never desert the people of the\nSouth. It will desert the slave power that now rages against our\nUnion and Humanity, tie it up, and leave it to be dealt with by those\nwho know it best. But the millions of white people, our friends and\nneighbors, our brothers, fathers, lovers and children, inhabiting\nthese vast areas, cannot be torn out of our hearts, or spirited by\nany demoniac influence beyond our guardian care. The millions of\nbondmen, who now till those fields, cannot be sacrificed forever to\nplease any clique of tyrants or make the corner stone to any temple\nof eternal Pagan barbarism. We shall care for both, and shall do our\nutmost to save the whole Southern people from the dreadful perils of\nthe present and the more fearful danger of the future. No wall of\nseparation can be raised so high that the growing civilization of the\nNorth will not overlook it, and, like the sun in mid-heaven, shine\ndown with beneficent rays on the just and unjust, protecting the good,\nsuccoring the fallen, regenerating the evil. O! that God would give our\nbrothers of the South the clearness and calmness to see that Northern\ncivilization contemplates harm to no man; is beneficent like God\u2019s\nlove; in truth is, in its ideal, the Love of God applied to the life of\na new world.\n\nThe future is not clear, and he is a bold man who can prophecy a month\nahead. It may be that we are at the end; that the slave power has\nconquered fifteen states and is about to lead them out into the desert\nof a barbaric experiment in despotic society. If so, let us not deluge\nour land with fraternal blood, but let them all go in peace; clinging\ntogether at home and girding ourselves up to the mighty task of finally\nsaving them from the anarchy that surely lies across their path.\nPerhaps the margin of servility in the North will gain a temporary\nvictory, and in concert with a united slave power, enact some infamous\nconcession over our heads. Then we must only close up and move on, as\nin the past; for freedom repudiates all surrender to tyranny now and\nforever, and there must be a final victory for the right.\n\nPerchance the nobler civilization of the South will arise in its might,\nand, in concert with the real North, adopt some wise and conciliatory\npolicy for the whole country which will sacrifice no right of the\npeople and impair no hope of the Republic; and then hold in the few\nrevolting states from secession. If so, the hour of freedom has indeed\nstruck, and the knell of despotism in this Union is tolled. Let us pray\nfor the wisdom, justice, love that shall regenerate us from our sins,\nand overrule our transgressions in the past, to the advancement of the\nkingdom of God on earth, and the uplifting of His best creature\u2015\u2015man.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n \u2015\u2015Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).\n\n \u2015\u2015Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.\n\n \u2015\u2015Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.","title":"American Dangers and Duties","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":7417}