AP Success - AP US History: DBQ An Age of Reform

The court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me further to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done -- as I have always freely admitted I have done -- in behalf of His despied poor, was not wrong, but right. Now if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments. -- I submit; so let it be done! 

I also ask the attention of the world of mankind to the declaration of these very American people, of the United States. A declaration made July 4, 1776. It says, “. . . We hold these truths to be self evident—that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ….” See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language? Hear your language, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776—”We hold these truths to be self evident—that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!! that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!!” Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us—men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!!!!

A battle is to be fought. If we are wise, it will be bloodless. . . . And let us know assuredly that civil war will not burst forth in Kansas without spreading. . . . But timidity and indifference will bring down blows there, which will not only echo in our houses . . . but will, by and by, lay the foundation for an armed struggle between the whole North and the South. . . . 
Who, then, are these armed men, that already confront each other . . . how have they come into [Kansas] Territory, and what are their errands? On the one side are the representatives of civilization’ on the other, of barbarism. On the one side, stand men of 
Liberty, Christianity, industry, arts, and universal prosperity; on the other, are the waste and refuse materials of a worn-out Slave State population . . . the Free State men come hither with books, with newspapers, with free schools, . . . with churches, and the . . . institutions of Christian civilization. 

I am a believer in that portion of the Declaration of American Independence in which it is set forth, as among self-evident truths, “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Hence, I am an Abolitionist. Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every form—and most of all, that which turns a man into a thing—with indignation and abhorrence. Not to cherish these feelings would be recreancy to principle. They who desire me to be dumb on the subject of Slavery, unless I will open my mouth in its defence, ask me to give the lie to my professions, to degrade my manhood, and to stain my soul. I will not be a liar, a poltroon, or a hypocrite, to accommodate any party, to gratify any sect, to escape any odium or peril, to save any interest, to preserve any institution, or to promote any object. Convince me that one man may rightfully make another man his slave, and I will no longer subscribe to the Declaration of Independence. 

Americans! Your republican politics are flagrantly inconsistent. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a byword to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. Oh! Be warned! Be warned! A horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!

Another important objection to this application of the right of self-government, is that it enables the first FEW, to deprive the succeeding MANY, of a free exercise of the right of self-government. The first few may get slavery IN, and the subsequent many cannot easily get it OUT. How common is the remark now in the slave States---``If we were only clear of our slaves, how much better it would be for us.'' They are actually deprived of the privilege of governing themselves as they would, by the action of a very few, in the beginning. The same thing was true of the whole nation at the time our constitution was formed.

Almighty god, thou Giver

Of all our sunny plains,

That stretch from sea to river,

Hear’st thou thy children’s chains?

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See’st thou the snapper’d lashes

That daily sting a−fresh?

See’st thou the cow−skin’s gashes,

Cut through the quivering flesh?

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See’st thou the sores that rankle,

Licked by no pitying dog,

Where, round the bondsman’s ancle,

They’ve riveted a clog?

Hear’st thou the curse he muters?

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Seest thou his flashing eye?

Hear’st thou the prayer he utters,

That thou woulst let him die.

God of the poor and friendless,

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Shall this unequalled wrong,

This agony, be endless?

How long, O Lord, how long

Shall man set, on his brother

The iron heal of sin,

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The Holy ghost to smother—

To crush the God within!