The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,269 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4.

The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,269 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4.

These ultra-abolitionists, says the Senator, invoke the power of this government to their aid.  And pray, sir, what power should they invoke?  Have they not the same right to approach this government as other men?  Is the Senator or this body authorized to deny them any privileges secured to other citizens?  If so, let him show me the charter of his power and I will be silent.  Until he can do this, I shall uphold, justify, and sustain them, as I do other citizens.  The exercise of power by Congress in behalf of the slaves within this District, the Senator seems to think, no one without the District has the least claim to ask for.  It is because I reside without the District, and am called within it by the Constitution, that I object to the existence of slavery here.  I deny the gentleman’s position, then, on this point.  On this then, we are equal.  The Senator, however, is at war with himself.  He contends the object of the cession by the States of Virginia and Maryland, was to establish a seat of Government only, and to give Congress whatever power was necessary to render the District a valuable and comfortable situation for that purpose, and that Congress have full power to do whatever is necessary for this District; and if to abolish slavery be necessary, to attain the object, Congress have power to abolish slavery in the District.  I am sure I quote the gentleman substantially; and I thank him for this precious confession in his argument; it is what I believe, and I know it is all I feel disposed to ask.  If we can, then, prove that this District is not as comfortable and convenient a place for the deliberations of Congress, and the comfort of our citizens who may visit it, while slavery exists here, as it would be without slavery, then slavery ought to be abolished; and I trust we shall have the distinguished Senator from Kentucky to aid us in this great national reformation.  I take the Senator at his word.  I agree with him that this ought to be such a place as he has described; but I deny that it is so.  And upon what facts do I rest my denial?  We are a Christian nation, a moral and religious people.  I speak for the free States, at least for my own State; and what a contrast do the very streets of your capital daily present to the Christianity and morality of the nation?  A race of slaves, or at least colored persons, of every hue from the jet black African, in regular gradation, up to the almost pure Anglo-Saxon color.  During the short time official duty has called me here, I have seen the really red haired, the freckled, and the almost white negro; and I have been astonished at the numbers of the mixed race, when compared with those of full color, and I have deeply deplored this stain upon our national morals; and the words of Dr. Channing have, thousands of times, been impressed on my mind, that “a slave country reeks with licentiousness.”  How comes this amalgamation of the races?  It comes from slavery.  It is a disagreeable annoyance

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The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.