Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/54

Rh the wheat market. Tennessee has rich mines of iron ore—the fine bloomer iron; slave labour is cheap, coal abundant. "Work is dear in Pennsylvania; but there free labour makes better iron at cheaper rates. The South is full of water power; within six miles of the President's house there is force enough to turn all the mills of British Manchester; it runs by as idle as a cloud. The Southerner draws water in a Northern bucket, drinks from a Northern cup; with a Northern fork and spoon he eats from a Northern dish, set on a Northern table. He wears Northern shoes !made from Southern hides; Northern coats, hats, shirts ; he keeps time with a Northern watch; his wife wears Northern jewels, plays on a Northern pianoforte; he sleeps in a Northern bed ; reads (if read he can) a Northern book; and writes (if writing be not a figure of speech) on Northern paper, with a pen from, the North. The laws of Mississippi must be printed in a Northern town! The Southerner has no market near at hand, no variety of labour, little that is educational in toil; industry is dishonourable. It is the curse of Slavery which makes it so!

Three forces now work against this institution: Political Economy, showing that it does not pay; the Public Opinion of England, France, Germany, of all Christendom, heaping shame on the "model republic"—"the first and most enlightened nation in the world;" the still small voice of Conscience in all men. The Political Economist scoffs at the absolute Right; the Partisan Politician mocks at the Higher Law; the Pharisee in the pulpit makes mouths at the invisible Spirit, which silently touches the hearts of women and of men. But he who knows the world because he knows man, and man's God, understands very well, that though Justice has feet of wool, her hands are of iron. These three forces—it is plain what they will do with American Slavery.

This institution of Slavery has brought us into most deadly peril. A story is told of some Italian youths, of famous family, in the Middle Ages. Borgia and his comrades sat riotously feasting, long past midnight, hot with young blood, giddy with passion, crazed with fiery wine.