Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/357

 Slavery Question in Oregon. 329 I'alse education. For an illustration I will mention the case of a free-state man, an immigrant to the Oregon Teri'itory from Kentucky, who said that while in his native State he had no doubt as to the rightfulness of slavery and that he considered abolitionists (of whom he had heard) the same as horse thieves. Though ignorant and unacquainted with every- thing not found in his own narrow path, he was not a dull man or deficient in judgment, for the change from a slave to a free country was sufficient to enlighten him. He was a man of stern purpose and would do the right as he saw the right, against all odds. He was by nature a virtuous man, but accepting slavery, into which he was born, as being In accordance with God's will, he would have assisted in punish- ing an abolitionist as he would any other malefactor. Some persons may exclaim, ' ' How dull he was ! ' ' Not so, I am sure, for people found him to be remarkably sagacious in dis- cerning the right side of disputed questions and he was often chosen as referee. No just estimate can be formed of the native character '^f human beings w^ithout taking into account the state of their environment, the social, industrial, and political conditions in which they are placed, and which are potent factors in deter- mining conduct. This is undeniable; indeed, it is platitudi- nous, but Government in its practice, exerts its remedial efforts against the inherited, material endowments of the transgressor, when it is well known that such inheritance is susceptible of slight modification, even by the severest penal statutes. Excluding from consideration the wolves in humau shape who are outlaws to any form of human society— it is irrational to expect that average human nature or individiui is will be superior to the vibratory social influences which affect them, and more irrational to expect that the moral status of society can be raised by picking out a human being here and there from the concatenation, and punishing them. But such has been the function of government, even when it has not been, by its maladjustment, an instigator of the prevailing aberration. This fundamental error is due in great part to