Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/334

Rh but It is also a great political institution. It cannot be put down by political economy, nor by ethical preaching; men have not only pecuniary interests and moral feelings, but also political passions. Slavery must be put down politically, or else militarily. If not peacefully ended soon, it must be ended wrathfully by the sword. The negro will not bear Slavery for ever ; if he would, the white man will not.

If the Republican party behave wisely, there will never be another inch of slave soil added to the national domain, nor another slave State admitted to the Union: but Slavery will be driven out of all the territories. Look at this fact. There are now fifteen slave States, sixteen free. Minnesota and Kansas will soon be admitted, Washington and Oregon ere long—four new free States. Missouri may abolish Slavery within four years. Then, in 1864, we shall stand twenty-one free States to fourteen slave States. Nay, perhaps Utah will repudiate both forms of polygamy, the voluntary and the forcible, and be an ally in our defence. It is easy to conquer the Southern part of the continent; it is not easy to establish African Slavery there, in the midst of a population made up of Africans or Indians ready to shelter the slave, and also much more dense than that in the Gulf States from Georgia or Florida to Texas.

If the North is wise and just, we shall choose an anti-Slavery President in 1860, and on March 4th, 1861, incorporate the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution's preamble into the Federal Government itself. And on the 4th of July, 1876, there will not be a slave within all the wide borders of the United States! For that service, we do not want a man like Colonel Fremont, who has had no political experience; we want no Johnny Raw for the most difficult post in the nation. It must not be a man broken down with the Presidential fever.

But much is to be done before that result is possible. The whole policy of the Republican party must be changed. We must attack Slavery—Slavery m the territories. Slavery in the district, and, above all, Slavery in the Slave States. Would you remove the shadow of a tree? Then down with the tree itself! There is no other way. To get rid of the accidents of a thing, you make way with its sub-