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AN INCIDENT IN A RAILROAD CAR.

BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

He spoke of Burns: men rude and rough Pressed round to hear the praise of one Whose heart was made of manly simple stuff, As homespun as their own.

And, when he read, they forward leaned, Drinking with thirsty hearts and ears, His brook-like songs whom glory never weaned From humble smiles and tears.

Slowly there grew a tender awe,
Sun-like o'er faces brown and hard,

As if in him who read they felt and saw
Some presence of the bard.

It was a sight for sin and wrong,
And slavish tyranny to see,

A sight to make our faith more pure and strong
In high humanity.

I thought, these men will carry hence
Promptings their former life above,
And something of a finer reverence
For beauty, truth, and love.

God scatters love on every side,
Freely among his children all,

And always hearts are lying open wide
Wherein some grains may fall.

There is no wind but soweth seeds
Of a more true and open life,

Which burst, unlooked-for, into high-souled deeds
With way-side beauty rife.

We find within these souls of ours
Some wild germs of a higher birth,
Which in the poet's tropic heart bear flowers

Whose fragrance fills the earth.

Within the hearts of all men lie
These promises of wider bliss,
Which blossom into hopes that cannot die,
In sunny hours like this.

All that hath been majestical
In life or death, since time began,
Is native in the simple heart of all,
The angel heart of man.

And thus, among the untaught poor, Great deeds and feelings find a home, That cast in shadow all the golden lore Of classic Greece or Rome.

O, mighty brother-soul of man, Where'er thou art, in low or high, Thy skyey arches with exulting span O'er-roof infinity!

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the upward spirit of the age. They did not emanate from those who in wonder and awe were styled prophets, but from those who were of the people, and uttered what many felt and acknowledged, and so shall be honored even when a purer philosophy shall have pointed out to mankind some flaws in their positions. Magna Charta shall not have a name more imperishable than they. The world's archives do not contain nobler voices from masses of men. They are Eras in the march of Soul.

I.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

rica, in Congress assembled.

been honored by pillar, or temple, or poet's song, or stateman's advocacy, or orator's eulogium, or historian's record. Tyrtæus, because he was full of the spirit of carnage, has always sung of battle fields; and as his songs were to Spartans, Spartans treasured them up above any purer strains. Yet many noble aspirations doubtless graced the that have ages fled. The heart of man, though not perfect, has frequently beat for the true and right. Demosthenes, though a coward at Cheronea, was bold for Freedom in the popular assemblies; Tancred, though some- By the Representatives of the United States of Ametimes fierce, was often kind and pious; and even Xerxes, nurtured as he was with no feeling of brotherhood for his millions of serfs, wept with involuntary pity at what he conceived would be their miserable fate. Then, too, Isaiah and Jeremiah and David and Confucius and Socrates, by close union with God, felt and knew nobleness so in advance of their age, that the truth of it all is not even yet acknowledged by the mass of mankind. Then, too, thousands have gone down to their graves unwept and unremembered, whose voices full of divine accents, falling upon ears not ready to receive them, died with the passing breeze.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident-that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their form

The high task of weaving the fragments of nobleness that remain into a Philosophico-Religious history, and deducing from them invaluable conclusions with regard to God's government and man's duty, is reserved for some Freeman whose heart beats warmly for the right, and whose intellect can recognize truth even when covered by the dust which Malice and Ignorance have so liberally flung upon it. We need that the Soul's progress from its lower to its higher destinies should be exhibited in the strong light of history. We need to be assured by infallible proofs that each age has made advances upon that which preceded it, even when at first glance the reverse would appear; and that in every age Love when exerted has been more potent than Hate and Violence to bring men to its measures; and that Freedom has never led to license, but Tyranny always; and that Truth with her pure confiding aspect has ever been more revered even by her enemies, than Falsehood with her gorgeous trappings and millions in her train. We need to have our Infidelity, in God's goodness and power, rebuked by stern facts that shall shame us into heroism that will not doubt of victory in God's causes, but will be as fully assured of it when arming for the assault as if the white flag already streamed from the bat-er systems of government. The history of the pretlements. We need that no storm breaking upon our brows should quench the fire of hope that burns in our bosoms.

Within a few years have appeared three documents, which are worthy of all note as indicating

sent King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation, till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

For abolishing the free system of English law in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies :

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most He has refused to pass other laws for the accom- valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms modation of large districts of people, unless those of our governments :— people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature-a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

of

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power, to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repopurpose sitory of their public records, for the sole fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeated-people. ly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large, for their exercise; the state remaining in the mean time exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the work of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners: refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and rais-our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose ing the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our Legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power.

known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc, tion of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature, to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have appealed have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.

We

He has combined with others, to subject us to a to their native justice and magnanimity, and we jurisdiction, foreign to our Constitution, and unac-have conjured them by the ties of our common kinknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to dred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspontheir acts of pretended legislation :—

us:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among dence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must therefore acFor protecting them by a mock trial, from punish-quiesce in the necessity, which denounces our sepament for any murder which they should commit on ration, and hold them, as we hold the rest of manthe inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world :

For imposing taxes on us without our consent :For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:—

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences:

kind enemies in war-in peace, friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde

pendent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

II.

shalling in arms-the hostile array-the mortal encounter. Ours shall be such only as the opposition of moral purity to moral corruption- the destruction of error by the potency of truth-the overthrow of prejudice by the power of love and the abolition of slavery by the spirit of repentance.

Their grievances, great as they were, were trifling in comparison with the wrongs and sufferings of those for whom we plead. Our fathers were never slavesnever bought and sold like cattle-never shut out from the light of knowledge and religion-never subjected to the lash of brutal task-masters.

But those for whose emancipation we are striving-constituting at the present time at least onesixth part of our countrymen,-are recognized by the law, and treated by their fellow beings, as market

DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS OF THE AMERICAN able commodities, as goods and chattels, as brute

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

The Convention assembled in the city of Philadelphia, to organize a National Anti-Slavery Society, promptly seize the opportunity to promulgate the following Declaration of Sentiments as cherished by them in relation to the enslavement of one-sixth portion of the American people.

beasts; are plundered daily of the fruits of their toil without redress; really enjoying no constitutional nor legal protection from licentious and murderous outrages upon their persons, are ruthlessly torn asunder-the tender babe from the arms of its frantic mother-the heart-broken wife from her weeping husband-at the caprice or pleasure of irresponsible tyrants. For the crime of having a dark complexion, they suffer the pangs of hunger, the infliction of stripes, and the ignominy of brutal servitude. They are kept in heathenish darkness by laws expressly enacted to make their instruction a crimi

More than fifty-seven years have elapsed since a band of patriots convened in this place, to devise measures for the deliverance of this country from a foreign yoke. The corner stone upon which they founded the Temple of Freedom was broadly this"that all men are created equal; and they are en-nal offence. dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." At the sound of their trumpetcall three millions of people rose up as from the sleep of death, and rushed to the strife of blood; deeming it more glorious to die instantly as freemen, than desirable to live one hour as slaves. They were few in number-poor in resources; but the honest conviction that Truth, Justice, and Right were on their side, made them invincible.

We have met together for the achievement of an enterprise, without which that of our fathers is incomplete; and which, for its magnitude, solemnity, and probable results upon the destiny of the world, as far transcends theirs as moral truth does physical force.

In purity of motive, in earnestness of zeal, in decision of purpose, in intrepidity of action, in steadfastness of faith, in sincerity of spirit, we would not be inferior to them.

These are the prominent circumstances in the condition of more than two millions of our people, the proof of which may be found in thousands of indisputable facts, and in the laws of the slaveholding states.

Hence we maintain,-that in view of the civil and religious privileges of this nation, the guilt of its oppression is unequalled by any other on the face of the earth; and, therefore,

That it is bound to repent instantly, to undo the heavy burdens, to break every yoke, and to let the oppressed go free.

We further maintain,-that no man has a right to enslave or imbrute his brother--to hold or acknowledge him, for one moment, as a piece of merchandize to keep back his hire by fraud-or to brutalize his mind by denying him the means of intellectual, social and moral improvement.

The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his own body-the products of his own labor-to the protection of law, and to the common advantages of society. It is piracy to buy or steal a native African, and subject him to servitude. Surely the sin is as great to enslave an American as an African.

Their principles led them to wage war against their oppressors, and to spill human blood like water, in order to be free. Ours forbid the doing of evil that good may come, and lead us to reject, and to entreat the oppressed to reject, the use of all carnal weapons for deliverance from bondage; relying solely upon those which are spiritual, and mighty Therefore we believe and affirm-that there is through God to the pulling down of strong holds. no difference in principle, between the African slave Their measures were physical resistance- the mar-trade and American slavery:

That every American citizen who detains a human, national compact, has no right to interfere with any being in involuntary bondage as his property, is of the slave states, in relation to this momentous according to scripture (Ex. xxi. 16) a man stealer: That the slaves ought instantly to be set free, and brought under the protection of law:

That if they lived from the time of Pharaoh down to the present period, and had been entailed through successive generations, their right to be free could never have been alienated, but their claims would have constantly risen in solemnity.

subject;

But we maintain that Congress has a right, and is solemnly bound, to suppress the domestic slave trade between the several states, and to abolish slavery in those portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under its exclusive jurisdiction. We also maintain that there are, at the present time, the highest obligations resting upon the people

That all those laws which are now in force, ad- of the free states, to remove slavery by moral and mitting the right of slavery, are therefore before God utterly null and void; being an audacious usurpation of the Divine prerogative, a daring infringement on the law of nature, a base overthrow of the very foundations of the social compact, a complete extinction of all the relations, endearments, and obligations of mankind, and a presumptuous transgression of all the holy commandments-and that therefore they ought instantly to be abrogated.

political action, as prescribed in the Constitution of the United States. They are now living under a pledge of their tremendous physical force, to fasten the galling fetters of tyranny upon the limbs of millions in the southern states; they are liable to be called at any moment to suppress a general insurrection of the slaves; they authorize the slave owner to vote on three fifths of his slaves as property, and thus enable him to perpetuate his oppression; they support a standing army at the south for its protection; and they seize the slave who has escaped into their territories, and send him back to be tortured by an enraged master or a brutal driver. This relation to slavery is criminal and full of dan

We further believe and affirm-that all persons of color who possess the qualifications which are demanded of others, ought to be admitted forthwith to the enjoyment of the same privileges, and the exercise of the same prerogatives, as others; and that the paths of preferment, of wealth, and of intelli-ger: it must be broken up. gence, should be opened as widely to them as to persons of a white complexion.

These are our views and principles-these our designs and measures. With entire confidence in

We maintain that no compensation should be given the overruling justice of God, we plant ourselves to the planters emancipating the slaves;

Because it would be a surrender of the great fundamental principle that man cannot hold property in

man;

upon the Declaration of our Independence and the truths of Divine Revelation as upon the Everlasting Rock.

We shall organize Anti-Slavery Societies, if pos

Because slavery is a crime, and therefore is not sible, in every city, town and village in our land. an article to be sold;

Because the holders of slaves are not the just proprietors of what they claim; freeing the slaves is not depriving them of property, but restoring it to its rightful owners; it is not wronging the master, but righting the slave-restoring him to himself:

Because immediate and general emancipation would only destroy nominal, not real property; it would not amputate a limb or break a bone of the slaves, but by infusing motives into their breasts, would make them doubly valuable to the masters as free laborers; and

Because, if compensation is to be given at all, it should be given to the outraged and guiltless slaves, and not to those who have plundered and abused them.

We regard as delusive, cruel, and dangerous, any scheme of expatriation which pretends to aid, either directly or indirectly in the emancipation of the slaves, or to be a substitute for the immediate and total abolition of slavery.

We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remonstrance, of warning, of entreaty, and rebuke. We shall circulate, unsparingly and extensively, anti-slavery tracts and periodicals.

We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the suffering and the dumb.

We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in the guilt of slavery.

We shall encourage the labor of freemen rather than that of slaves by giving a preference to their productions: and

We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to speedy repentance.

Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be personally defeated, but our principles never. Truth, Justice, Reason, Humanity, must and will gloriously triumph. Already a host is coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and the prospect before us is full of encouragement.

Submitting this declaration to the candid examination of the people of this country, and of the We fully and unanimously recognise the sovereign- friends of liberty throughout the world, we hereby ty of each state, to legislate exclusively on the sub-affix our signatures to it; pledging ourselves that, ject of the slavery which is tolerated within its under the guidance and by the help of Almighty limits; we concede that Congress, under the present God we will do all that in us lies, consistently with

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