that that stream sometimes becomes a dangerous torrent, and destroys towns and cities upon its bank. But I am here to say that, without it, civilization, humanity, government, all that makes society itself, would disappear, and the world would return to its ancient barbarism. Sir, if that were possible, though but for a moment, civilization would roll the wheels of its car backward for two thousand years, and the fine conception of the poet would be realized: "As one by one, in dread Medea's train, Star after star fades off the ethereal plain, Sir, we will not risk these consequences, even for slavery; we will not risk these consequences even, for union; we will not risk these consequences to avoid that civil war with which you threaten us; that war which you announce as deadly, and which you declare to be inevitable. XXVII. THE DRED SCOTT DECISION. BEN. WADE-1860. I believe this is the only nation on God's earth that ever placed any mortal man, or anybody bearing the human form, on so low a level, or any court on so high a one as that. But let this go. Dred Scott brought his suit. The plea in abatement was demurred to; the question arose upon that demurrer, and a majority of the court decided that Dred Scott, being a negro, a descendant of an African, and his ancestors having been slaves, he could not maintain a suit in that court, because he was not a citizen under the law. Now, sir, I ask every lawyer here, was not there an end of the case? In the name of Heaven, Judge Taney, what did you retain it for any longer? You said Dred Scott could not sue; he could not obtain his liberty; he was out of court; and what further had you to do with all the questions that you say were involved in that suit? Upon every principle of adjudication, you ought not to have gone further. No court has ever held more solemnly than the Federal courts that they will not go on to decide any more than is before the court; and every lawyer knows that if they do, all they say more is mere talk, and though said by judges in a court house, has just as much operation and effect as if it had been said by a horse-dealer in a bar-room, and no more. And yet we are told that we must follow the dicta of these packed judges-for they were packed, a majority of them interested too, in the very question to be decided. I do not want to go back to see what Jefferson and others said about it. I know the nature of man. I know, as they know, that to arm this judiciary with the power not only to decide questions between private individuals, but to affect the legislation of the nation, to affect the action of your President, to affect the co-ordinate branches of this Government, is a fatal heresy, that, if persisted in by a majority of the people, cannot result in any other than a consolidated despotism; and I am amazed that men who have had their eyes open, and who have held to other doctrines in better days, should, for any temporary purpose, heave overboard, and bury in the deep sea, the sheet-anchor of the liberties of the nation. XXVIII. SLAVERY MUST DIE. OWEN LOVEJOY, You must sacrifice slavery for the good of your country. Do this, and you will have the sympathy, the prayers, and co-operation of the entire nation. Refuse or neglect this—refuse to proclaim liberty through all the land, to all the inhabitants thereof—and the exodus of the slaves will be through the Red Sea. It is a well known physiological, as well as psychological fact, that ancestral characteristics reappear after a long interval of years, and even of generations, as streams disappear and gush out at a distant point. It is also well known that the Saxon blood is being infiltrated into the veins of the enslaved. By and by some Marion will be found, calling his guerilla troops from the swamps and everglades of South Carolina; and Patrick Henry will reappear in the Old Dominion, shouting, as of old, “Give me liberty, or give me death!" Then will transpire those scenes which troubled the prophetic vision of Jefferson, and made him tremble for his country, when he remembered that God was just, and that his justice would not sleep forever, and that every divine attribute would be arrayed upon the side of the struggling bondmen. And he justified the uprising by saying, the little finger of American slavery was thicker than the loins of British despotism. Sir, Virginia cannot afford, the country cannot afford, to continue a practice fraught with so much peril. It is better to remove the magazine than to be kept evermore in dread of a lighted match. The future glory and usefulness of this nation cannot be sacrificed to this system of crime. The nations of the earth are to be taught by our example. The American Republic must repose queen among the nations of the earth. Slavery must die. XXIX. BETHEL. We mustered at midnight,—in darkness we formed,— And out through the mist and the murk of the morn, And we heard not a sound, save the sweep of the oar, Till the word of our Colonel came up from the shore,"Column! Forward!" With hearts bounding bravely, and eyes all alight, As ye dance to soft music, so trod we that night; As ye dance with the damsels, to viol and flute, So we skipped from the shadows, and mocked their pursuit; For the leaves were all laden with fragrance of June, Till the lull of the lowlands was stirred by a breeze, And the woodlands grew purple with sunshiny mist, And the blue-crested hill-tops with rose-light were kissed, Till we marched as through gardens, and trampled on blooms,-"Column! Forward!" Ay! trampled on blossoms, and seared the sweet breath For the cannon's hoarse thunder roared out from the glades, When the long line of chanting Zouaves, like a flood, While the sound of their song, like the surge of the seas, Through green-tasseled cornfields our columns were thrown, O! the fields of fair June have no lack of sweet flowers, When our heroes like bridegrooms, with lips and with breath, Where he fell shall be sunshine as bright as his name, And the soul of our comrade shall sweeten the air, *The march on Bethel was begun in high spirits at midnight, but it was near noon when the Zouaves in their crimson garments, led by Colonel Duryea, charged the batteries, after singing the" Star Spangled Banner" in chorus. Major Winthrop fell in the storming of the enemy's defences, and was left on the battle-field. Lieut. Greble, the only other officer killed, was shot at his gun soon after. This fatal contest inaugurated the "war of posts," which afterwards raged in y ia.-Atlantic Monthly. |