Southern Convention at Vicksburg, Part 2 [pp. 205-220]

'1)0 SOUTHERN CONVENTION AT VICKSBURG.
oef slaves upon the ranks of masters; they have no reachings to a higher sphere;
there is no contest of classes for the same position; each is in its order balanced
Ani,- I have perfect confidence that, when France shall reel again into the deliritin of liberty-when the peerage of Eingland shall have yielded to the masses
-N-hen democracy at the Northl shall hold its carnival-when all that is pure
anld nioble shall be dragged down-when all that is low and vile shall have
-mounted to the surtfce —Nwhen women slhall have taken the places and habiliments of men, and men shall have taken the places and habiliments of women
-whlen Free Love Unions and phalansteries shall pervade the land-when the
sexes shall conlsort without the restraints of marriage, and when youths and
maidens. drunkl at noon day, and half raked, shall reel about the market placesthe Soutl M ill stand, secure and erect as she stands now-the slave will be restrlained by power, the master by the trusts of a superior position; she will
nmos-e on with a measured dignity of power and progress as conspicuous as it is
noxw; and if there be a hope for the North-a hope that she will ever ride the
aves ofl bottomless perdition that roll around her —it is in the fact that the
South wvill stand by her, and wvill lend a helping hand to rescue and to save
her.
AVIWhy, then, shall we not demand the repeal of these restrictions? Is it that
it will precipitate an issue? That is the one thing, perhaps, the most devoutly
to be wished for The contest is impending and inevitable, unless we can escape it in submiission. The North has seventeen States, and sixteen million
l)eople; the South fifteen States, and(] but ten million people,, the North has
thus the power of legislation, and she ha. shown that she will use it; she has
used it already, to the limits of endurance; she entertains petitions to abolish
siar-erv' she has put restrictions on the slave trade; she has fixed limits to the
"lsp-rea, of slavery; she has prohibited the trade in slaves within the limits of
the Capital; she has made an effort to _rasp the heln of government; she is
marsharlling her forces for another grasp in 1860; she proscribes the len who
will not literally carry out her evil ediets; antd thus there is revealed already
the -over tand puirpLose of oppression. But it is more important still, that there
in of this aggression, the necessity. The proclivities of power are certain and
resistless. It runs to oppression as naturally and necessarily as waters flow, or
spaikls fly upwards. No logic, no policy, no feeling can arrest it. Its leaders.
so calledl, are as powerless to control it, as the reeds the current upon avhllich
they float It is true they may see the precipice, and may recoil from the
aV ere, but only to be trainupled by the mass that plunges after; and we must
sten thi current, or we maust erect political barriers against it. If, then, it is
our p)upose to lareserae the fortunes and the form of that society an Eternal
Prov idenlce has committed to our keepiiig, the issue is inevitable, and wise and
)rucdent men must own the sooner it is made the better. The power and patrona,re of the government are already in the hands of our antagonists, and
evea- ry hour's delay but strengthens them, and wears away fronm us the nerve and
spil'it otI res-,stane,,. tn
Is it for the reason that we wxould shock the moral sentiments of other countries It is convenient for the North to execrate our institution, for she finds
her pro)fit in keepinr it at a discount. It is convenient for England to execrate
the institution, for. she regai-ds it as a principle of strength to the North, and as
the prop, therefore, of her most imperiouts rival. But it is an error to suppose
that anl of these States are tender to the touch of human rights. Eingland
crushes India; Fiance, Algeria; Russia, Prussia and Austria have portioned
Poland. All maIch to opportunity; and if forced to look for European morality
in the histor y of European States, we will find everywvhere, an unequivocal assertion of the one great principle that strength is virtue and weakness only
cr ime.
Ior is it true that European States are hostile to the spread of slavery at the
South. lhey are hostile t- this Union, perhaps; they see in it a threatening
rival in every branch of art, and they see that rival armed with one of the
most potent productive agents the world has ever seen. They would crush India and Algeria, to make an equal supply of cotton with the North, and failing in