FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162  
163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   >>  
did in 1828, the example would be in point. When the public mind is thoroughly revolutionized, and ready for the change, when the billow has reached its height and begins to crest into foam, then such a measure may bring matters to a crisis. But let us first go through, in patience, as O'Connell did, our twenty years of agitation. Waiving all other objections, this plan seems to me mere playing at politics, and an entire waste of effort. It loses our high position as moral reformers; it subjects us to all that malignant opposition and suspicion of motives which attend the array of parties; and while thus closing up our access to the national conscience, it wastes in fruitless caucussing and party tactics, the time and the effort which should have been directed to efficient agitation. The history of our Union is lesson enough, for every candid mind, of the fatal effects of every, the least, compromise with evil. The experience of the fifty years passed under it, shows us the slaves trebling in numbers;--slaveholders monopolizing the offices and dictating the policy of the Government;--prostituting the strength and influence of the Nation to the support of slavery here and elsewhere;--trampling on the rights of the free States, and making the courts of the country their tools. To continue this disastrous alliance longer is madness. The trial of fifty years only proves that it is impossible for free and slave States to unite on any terms, without all becoming partners in the guilt and responsible for the sin of slavery. Why prolong the experiment? Let every honest man join in the outcry of the American Anti-Slavery Society, NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS. WENDELL PHILLIPS. _Boston, Jan_. 15, 1845. THE NO-VOTING THEORY. "God never made a CITIZEN, and no one will escape as a man, from the sins which he commits as a citizen." Can an abolitionist consistently take office, or vote, under the Constitution of the United States? 1st. What is an abolitionist? One who thinks slaveholding a sin in all circumstances, and desires its abolition. Of course such an one cannot consistently aid another in holding his slave;--in other words, I cannot innocently aid a man in doing that which I think wrong. No amount of fancied good will justify me in joining another in doing wrong, unless I adopt the principle "of doing evil that good may come." 2d. What do taking office and voting under the Constitution im
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162  
163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   >>  



Top keywords:

States

 

agitation

 

consistently

 

office

 

effort

 

abolitionist

 

Constitution

 

slavery

 

outcry

 

madness


WENDELL
 

honest

 

PHILLIPS

 
longer
 
disastrous
 
Society
 

Slavery

 
American
 

alliance

 

SLAVEHOLDERS


proves

 

continue

 

Boston

 

partners

 

responsible

 

experiment

 

country

 

impossible

 

prolong

 

citizen


innocently
 
holding
 
circumstances
 

desires

 

abolition

 

amount

 

fancied

 

taking

 
voting
 
principle

justify

 

joining

 
slaveholding
 

thinks

 
CITIZEN
 

escape

 
THEORY
 

VOTING

 

United

 
commits