16 and this brute is, indeed, typical of the whole brutal leash of Slave-hunters, who, whether at home on Slave-soil, under the name of Slavecatchers, and kidnappers, or at a distance, under politer names, insult Human Nature by the enforcement of this Barbarism. (3.) From this dreary picture of Slave-masters with their slaves and their triumvirate of vulgar instruments, I pass to another more dreary still, and more completely exposing the influence of Slavery; I mean the relations of ence also. Violence, brutality, injustice, bar- Slave-masters with each other, also with Society barism, must be reproduced in the lives of all and Government, or, in other words, the Char-' who live within their fatal sphere. The meat acter of Slave-masters, as displayed in the gen- that is eaten by man enters into and becomes eral relations of life. And here I need your a part of his body; the madder which is eaten indulgence. Not in triumph or in taunt do I by a dog changes his bones to red ; and the approach this branch of the subject. Yielding Slavery on which men live, in all its five-fold only to the irresistible exigency of the discus- foulness, must become a part of themselves, sion and in direct response to the assumptions I discoloring their very souls, blotting their char- on this floor, especially by the Senator from । acters, and breaking forth in moral leprosy. Virginia, |_Mr. Mason,] I shall proceed. If I This language is strong; but the evidence is touch Slavery to the quick, and enable Slave- even stronger. Some there may be of happy masters to see themselves as others see them, I natures—like honorable Senators—who can shall do nothing beyond the strictest line of thus feed and not be harmed. Mithridates fed duty in this debate. on poison, and lived ; and it may be that there One of the choicest passages of the master is a moral Mithridates, who can swallow withItalian poet, Dante, is where a scene of transcendent virtue is described as sculptured in “ visible speech ” on the long gallery which led to^the Heavenly Gate. The poet felt the in- ,spiration of the scene, and placed it on the way side, where it could charm and encourage. This was natural. Nobody can look upon virtue and justice, if it be only in images and pictures, without feeling a kindred sentiment. Nobody can be surrounded by vice and wrong, by violence and brutality, if it be only in images and pictures, without coming under their degrading influence. Nobody can live with the one without advantage ; nobody can live with the other without loss. Who could pass his life in the secret chamber where are gathered the impure relics of Pompeii, without becoming indifferent to loathsome things ? , But if these loathsome things are not merely sculptured and painted, if they exist in living reality—if they enact their hideous capers in life, as in the criminal pretensions of Slavery—while the lash plays and the blood spirts—while women are whipped and children are sold—while marriage is polluted and annulled—while the parental tie is rudely torn— while-honest gains are filched or robbed—while the soul itself is shut down in all the darkness of ignorance, and while God himself is defied in the pretension that man can have property in his fellow-man ; if all these things, are present, not merely in images and pictures, but in reality, their influence on character must be incalculable. It is according to irresistible law that men are fashioned by what is about them, wheth- er climate, scenery, life, or institutions. Like _____ „ _ produces like, and this ancient proverb is ' which he ought to have done—through childverified always. Look at the miner, delv ing low down in darkness, and the moun-p taineer, ranging on airy heights, and you will see a contrast in character, and even in personal form. The difference between a coward and a hero may be traced in the atmosphere which each has breathed; and how much more in the institutions under which each has been reared. If institutions generous and just ripen souls also generous and just, then other institutions must exhibit their influout bane the poison'of Slavery. Instead of “ennobling” the master, nothing can be clearer than that the slave drags his master down, and this process begins in childhood, and is continued through life. Living much in association with his slave, the master finds nothing to remind him of his own defi- । ciencies, to prompt his ambition or excite his I shame. Without these provocations to virtue, and without an elevating example, he naturally shares the Barbarism of the society which he keeps. Thus the very inferiority which the Slave-master attributes to the African race explains the melancholy condition of the communities in which his degradation is declared by law. A single false principle or vicious thought may degrade a character otherwise blameless; and this is practically true of the Slave-master. Accustomed to regard men as property, his sensibilities are blunted and his moral sense is obscured. He consents to acts from which Civilization recoils. The early Church sold its property, and even its sacred vessels, for the redemption of captives. This was done on a remarkable occasion by St. Ambrose, and successive canons confirmed the example. But in the Slave States this is all reversed. Slaves there are often sold as the property of the Church, and an instance is related of a slave sold in South Carolina in order to buy plate for the communion table. Who can calculate the effect of such an example? Surrounded by pernicious influences of all kinds, both positive and negative, the first making him do that which he ought not to do, and the second making him leave undone that
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