THE SLAVE QUESTION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 192, 24 May 1860, Page 4

THE SLAVE QUESTION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Laws have been passed iu the States of Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tenessee, to the .effect, that every free negro and person of colour shall leave m 1860, and that if they return they shall he sold as slaves for life. Such infamous laws need no - we hardly,, believe, it possible that they can be carried into effect. The New York Herald says,, that “a reign of terror i 3 approaching in the Southern States pregnant with the most disastrous results to both north and south. Travellers from the northern section of the Union ate net only

looked upon with suspicion in the Southern States, but in many sections of that region they are stopped in their travels, and obliged to give a satisfactory account of themselves and their business. If they have not some local acquaintance who can vouch for them, they are followed through all their ingoings and outcomings, and not unfrequently find themselves face to face with a vigilance committee, charged witli the preservation of public order and the expurgation of the community from northern abolitionists. This is particularly the case with the travelling agents of northern manufacturers and merchants, who, in consequence of the prevailing excitement, are looked upon with great suspicion ” The Toronto correspondent of the Morning Star says, that Governor Wise, of Virginia, in addressing a large meeting of students, said he was determined to carry war into Canada (where there are said to be 45,000 runaway slaves), and not only so, but into England herself. *.£lt would be with an aching heart (he says),'it would be with a wild fever passion, that I could be forced to strike against the bosom of my own countrymen of Nv w England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio ; but if I could only. be. relieved from that struggle, I would gladly take the alternative of a war with England., (Applause.) My heart would leap to. that alternative like a bridegroom to his chamber. (Applause.) Fred. Douglass says he is bound for England. Let him. ,Oh! if I had had one good, long, low, black, rakish, well-armed steamer in Hampton Heads, I would have placed her on the Newfoundland banks, with oilers that if she found a British packet with, that negro on board to take him. (Tremendous applause.) And by the eternal gods, he should have been taken—taken with very particular instructions not to hang him uutil I had the privilege of seeing; him well hung. (Laughter, and applause ) .... I would call upon the President of the United States to demand of England that she should not suffer her Canadian possessions to be uied as a place of refuge for violators of our laws and disturbers of our peace.” Frederick Douglass addressed a meeting in Edinburgh on the 30th January, on the subject of American slavery, in which he said that the slavery .question in America had now reached a most interesting crisis. “ The sole question which now divided the American people, and which now rocked that land from end to end, was the question,— * Shall the United States be under the government, sway, and control of slavery, or shall they be under the control or direction of liberty V The question was now progressing, and it was.not unlikely, that before the end of the present year they should have an anti-slavery President. (Applause.) He did not mean to say that they would have a President who would regard it as within the power of the Federal Government to interfere with the slavery of the slave States ; but if they should get a Republican President elected, he would regard it as of the utmost importance to the antislavery cause. Such an e’ection weuld give the dignity of the_American government to the cause of liberty j itrcwouhplead to the abolition of slavery over the district of Columbia, over which Congress had an. exclusive, jurisdiction ; it would lead to the abolition of slavery in the arsenals; it would cause to be sent to the Court of St. J ames’s some other than the contemptible creature who now represented the United States—(applause); it would lead to the abolition of the system of Post Office espionage ; and it'wouid lead to the weakening of the pro-slavery party, which for sixty years had had uninterrupted power in the Government, insomuch that sixteen or seventeen years ago it was. almost impossible to speak, even in the free States, against slavery. The thing that had brought on the present crisis on the slavery,..question in America above everything else was the recent outbreak at Harper’s Ferry applause)—-beaded by that brave, heroic, and Christian man, John Browu. (Cheers.) That event had stirred a fever in America such as never before existed there, and it had led to the taking of sides on this question in a maimer the most extraordinary. When it was first known that John Brown, with a company of twenty-one men, had entered Harpers Ferry, taken possession of the town of 25,00.0 inhabitants, held it for thirty-six hours, captured the arsenal with 36,000 stand of arms, emancipated some 300 slaves, and captured some twenty.or thirty slave-masters, and when it was heard that he himself at last was captured, and two of his sons killed—a thrill of horror ran through all the country, and the feeling was that be had committed a very, rash, and in the opinion of some, a wicked deed ; but when John Brown had had a few days in which to explain his plans and purposes, and to make known to the American people the spirit by which lie was animated, a reaction occurred at once. It was found that John Brown was not mad —that he was not even wicked—but that he was a noble, heroic, and Christian martyr, animated by a desire to do unto others as he should himself be done unto.. Tim becoming known changed tha whole face of the controversy, and men began to take sides in the North and South till the feeling became so intense that it was doubtful whether North and South would not be inflamed by this little spark, or lashed into one general or civil war. (Applause.) But the question came up—arid he had met it since he came to this country —as to the rightfulness of John Brown’s cause. It was said that John Brown invaded a v peaceable community. That he denied; and maintained that slavery was s. standing -insurrection from beginning to end—(applause)—a perpetual chronic insurrection. Every slaveholder in America is an insurrectionist; the 350,000 slaveholders, with the American government, so-called, at their back, were but an armed band of insurgents

against the just rights and liberties of their fellow men. (Enthusiastic cheering.) John Brown merely stepped in to arrest this insurrection against the rights and liberties of mankind ; and he did right. (Cheers.) But it..' was said lie did not accomplish anything by it. He (Mr. Douglass) was not so sure of that. (Cheers.) He was not sure that this John Brown insurrection would not yet prove the brick knocked down at the end of the row ’ by which all the rest were laid prostrate. There was an idea connected with John Brown’s plan, and that idea had dropped down / among the slaves of the South, and it might be acted upon hereafter. (Cheers.) John Brown’s original plan was not so crazy a tiring as upon the first sight it appeared. . His mistake was, that lie remained a few hours too ' long in the arsenal-—had he succeeded in reaching the mountains, he might have been there,'. until that hour, and defied all the power of the United States army to "liave dislodged him. ( Applause.) ’That idea had gone abroad among the slaves; it was planted there by : John Brown, watered by Iris’ blood, and .it would grow. Let once the slaves of the South find that, by running up from the plains they could lodge in the mountains and descend upon the" plains as‘-opportunity. might offer, and it would be the beginning of the end—more"than" the beginning of the end. (Applause.) After bearing testimony, from personal knewledge, to the truly devout character of John Brown, Mr. Douglass referred to the present contest as to the election of a Speaker of the House of Representatives. In this country, he said, the Speaker of the House of Commons had very little to do with the legislation of the country—his business was to keep order—a business which they did not know anything about in America. (Laughter.) The Speaker of the American House of Representatives, however, had the appointment; of all the in • portant councillors, and each party accordingly struggled for the .mastery: This contest would not last much longer, however, for themembers of Congress, who were paid for their attendance, could not draw one farthing of their allowance until they elected a Speaker, (Laughter.) If the Republican party succeeded in electing their Speaker—and the last accounts showed they had 109 votes, or within three of the requisite number—that, would be, be thought, the certain precursor of the election of an anti-slavery President in the autumn of 1860. (Applause.). Referring next to the progress of the anti-slavery cause since his last visit to Scotland in ] 845 46, Mr. Douglass said, they had then only two men in the national legislature, and one man in the Senate, who dared tell the slaveholder that they regarded slavery as a crime. (Loud applause.) Alluding to the public feeling of Scotland on the question, he expressed his gratification at reading the eloquent speeches of the Rev. Drs. Candlish and Guthrie—(applause)—which almost atoned for some other tilings. (Laughter and cheers.) The religion of America, he said, was the great support of slavery, the pages of inspired wisdom Eeing.r tortured tosanction and sanctify the c^^^^iTaflr ; 'of infidels casting an odium All the infidels in the world combine, i heir writings, had it not cast one tithe of the odium that the American; Doctorsvpf Divinity had done. (AppjjUse:)/;Li Araerfca men ijwer.e sold to build churches, women sold to support ‘ missionaries, and babes sold to' buy bibles. Revivals of religion and revivals of the slave trade went baud in hand. All along the Mississippi river they might see the slave trade going on where it was said that God was pouring out liis Spirit. In Richmond, Vicksburg, and New Orleans, the clank of the fetter might be heard along with the chime of tlm bell that called to prayer. Men might be seen going to prayer on one side of thy street, and chain gangs on the other side, driven by the lash to the market place to be sold. (Hear, hear.) There was a great' scandal brought upon the name of Christianity, and the Christians of Scotland were bound to hold up a purer and higher standard, and say that, whatever Christianity in America might be, the Christianity of Scotland had no sanction for chains or slavery.” A physician in New York writes to an Edinburgh gentleman, of date 23rd Dec. 18b9. “The excitement is immense. John Brown has struck a tremendous blow. The unquestionable evidence lie gave of the highest order of Christian principle has produced a profound impression both throughout the north and south. Everybody knows and feels in his inmost heart that this man cheerfully gave his life for the benefit of a poor, despised, enslaved, down-trodden race, to which he did not belong. Une such martyrdom is worth ten thousand speeches. It has set the whole country in a blaze. Its immediate effect upon us, however, in this cotton city, is to increase our clangers. ‘ Ephraim is a merchant, and the balance of deceit is in his hands/ How shall lie stand firm amid the storm which threatens his gains ? The slave-power is terrified, not sorrow-stricken. It has been wont to fancy that the opposition to it was merely political or sectional. It has now found that there is a religious sentiment with which it has to grapple.”