18 cide the day. Iron and adamant are not stronger than these arguments; nor can any one attempt an answer without exposing his feebleness. And yet Slave-masters, disregarding its irrational character—insensible to its folly—heedless of its impiety—and unconscious of its Barbarism, openly adopt the Duel as a regulator of manners and conduct. Two voices from South Carolina have been raised against it, and I mention them with gladness as testimony even in that land of Slavery. The first was Charles Cotes worth Pinckney, who in the early days of the Republic openly declared his “ abhorrence of the practice,” and invoked the the clergy of his State “as a particular favor at some convenient early day to preach a sermon on the sin and folly of duelling.” The other was Mr. Rhett, who on this floor openly declared as his reason for declining the Duel, “ that he feared God more than man.” Generous words, for which many errors can be pardoned. But these voices condemn the social system of which the Duel is a natural product. Looking now at the broad surface of society where Slavery exists, we shall find its spirit actively manifest in the suppression of all freedom of speech or of the press, especially with regard to this wrong. Nobody in the Slave States can speak or print against Slavery, except at the peril of life or liberty. St. Paul could call upon the people of Athens to give up the worship of unknown gods; he could live in his own hired house at Rome, and preach Christianity in this Heathen metropolis ; but no man can be heard against Slavery in Charleston or Mobile. We condemn the Inquisition, which subjects all within its influence to censorship and secret judgment; but this tyranny is repeated in American Slavemasters. Truths as simple as the great discovery of Galileo are openly denied, and all who declare them are driven to recant. We condemn the Index Expurgatorius of the Roman Church ; but American Slave-masters have an Index on which are inscribed all the generous books of the age. There is one book, the marvel of recent literature, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which has been thus treated both by the Church and by the Slave-masters, so that it is honored by the same suppression at the Vatican and at Charleston. Not to dwell on these instances, there is one which has a most instructive ridiculousness. A religious discourse of the late Dr. Channing on West India Emancipation—the last effort of his beautiful career—was offered for sale by a book agent at Charleston. A prosecution by the South Carolina Association ensued, and the agent was held to bail in the sum of one thousand dollars. Shortly afterwards, the same agent received for sale a work by Dickens, freshly published, “American Notes;” but, determined not to expose himself again to the tyrannical Inquisition, he gave notice through the newspapers that the book “ would be submitted to highly intelligent members of the South Carolina Association for inspection, and if the sale is approved by them, it will be for sale—if not, not.” Listen also to another recent instance, as recounted in the Montgomery Mail, a newspaper of Alabama: “ last Saturday we devoted to the flames a large number of copies of Spurgeon’s Sermons, and the pile was graced at the top with a copy of “ Graves’s Great Iron Wheel,” which a Baptist friend presented for the purpose. We trust that the works of the greasy cockney vociferator mayj-eceive the same treatment throughout the South. And if the Pharisaical author should ever show himself in these parts, we trust that a stout cord may speedily find its way around his eloquent throat. He has proved himself a dirty, low-bred slanderer, and ought to be treated accordingly.” And very recently we have read in the journals, that the trustees of a College in Alabama have resolved that Dr. Wayland’s admirable work on Moral Science “ contains abolition doctrine of the deepest dye; ” and they proceeded to denounce “ the said book, and forbid its further use in the Institute.” The speeches of Wilberforce in the British Parliament, and especially those magnificent efforts of Brougham, where he exposed “the wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold property in man,” were insanely denounced by the British planters in the West Indies; but our Slave-masters go further. Speeches delivered in the Senate have been stopped at the Post-office ; booksellers who had received them have been mobbed, and on at least one occasion the speeches have been solemnly proceeded against by a Grand Jury. All this is natural, for tyranny is condemned to be consequent with itself. Proclaim Slavery to be a permanent institution, instead of a temporary Barbarism, soon to pass away, and then, by the unhesitating logic of self-preservation, all things must yield to its support. The safety of Slavery becomes the supreme law. And since Slavery is endangered by liberty in any form, therefore all liberty must be restrained. Such is the philosophy of this seeming paradox in a Republic. And our Slave-masters show themselves apt in this work. Violence and brutality are their ready instruments, quickened always by the wakefulness of suspicion, and perhaps often by the restlessness of uneasy conscience. Everywhere in the Slave States the Lion’s Mouth of Venice, where citizens were anonymously denounced, is open; nor are the gloomy prisons and the Bridge of Sighs wanting. This spirit has recently4 shown itself with such intensity and activ ty as to constitute what has been properly termed a reign of terror. Northern men, unless they happen to be delegates to a Democratic Convention, are exposed in their travels, whether of business or health, to the operation of this system. They arre watched and dogged, as if in a land of Despotism ; they are treated with the meanness of a disgusting tyranny, and live in peril always of personal indignity, and often of life and
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