Page:Letters on the condition of the African race in the United States.djvu/11

Rh unto men." Immediately after this exhortation to servants, there is one to the master; and therefore, no one seeking truth could assert that the Bible does not recognize the relative condition of master and slave.

The deluded, or rather the impious abolitionist, after advising the negro to become a murderer, after making him defy the laws of God, and the wise laws of our great country, leaves him to starve. For such Pharisees can never perpetrate an act of charity, where no notoriety is to be gained, where no eye but that of the great God is to be witness to his self-denial in making personal sacrifices, in order that he may minister to the daily, hourly wants of his victim, the poor desolate, ignorant African, whom he has enticed, unfledged, from the warmly-feathered nest that God had given him in his master's own self-interest, which formerly commanded for him everything necessary to life or godliness.

But a truce, my brother, to these reflections, that stir up the depths of my heart, as a warm friend of the slave; and let me here assure you, that the very last elections in the North prove that the abstraction called abolitionism is so absurd, that it cannot any longer be used even as a political hobby. Free-soilism, which is much more popular, as a political step-ladder, has no basis more elevated. No! it is nothing more than sectional jealousy, lust of power, and love of strife, which is inherent in strong wills against determined adversaries, that keeps up this war of words,—and not of conviction in Congress; and then designing, ambitious men, who, all the world over, use the prejudices, and passions, and weaknesses of the masses, for a stepping-stone to their own selfish aggrandizement, rejoice in and stimulate every idiosyncrasy that can be converted into political capital. I do earnestly wish that our Southern members could see through the object of demagogues, in encouraging these furious debates in Congress. For a dignified or contemptuous silence on our part, would put a stop to the quarreling and to the vainglorious taunting speeches, that are used as the stepping-stones to high offices, by these heartless politicians. There are nearly twenty-five millions of people in the U. S., and it would be absurd stupidity in us to expect they could exist without seeking some element for strife, or envy against each other. Union of interest and of feeling, among a dense population, can only be expected when we all have learned to " love God with all our hearts, and our neighbors as ourselves." Suppose the North, from their majority of votes, does prevent us from carrying our slaves to California, or Oregon. This will not hurt us, as the present area of