Cause and Contrast—The American Crisis [pp. 307-324]

CAUSE AND CONTRAST-THE AMERICAN CRISIS.
slade slaves to be free, as it is to compel freemen to be slaves.
* * * But when we talk of enfranchisement, do we not perceive that the American master may enfranchise too, and arm
servile hands in defence of freedom? * * * Slaves, as tllese
black people are, and dull as all people are'from slavery, must
they not a little suspect the offer of freedom firom that rery
nation which has sold them to their present mniasters?" Bu.riike,
who looked over the heads of centuries, spoke truth in vain.
George III and LIord North resolved upon the sulbjugationI of
the colonists. The colonists were British subjects-thley were
children of Great Britain-they owed allegiance to the English crown-they were "rebels"-the British constitution was
founded upon justice and benignity, and its sulpremacy should
be maintained: albeit Americans were deprived of a full participation in its benefits.
The fruit of this insolently wicked policy has passed into the
the mnorals of history. And yet it is revived, copied, adopted,
by the administration of Abraham Lincoln. They have'lotli
perverted and violated the constitution of their country. That
grand instrumient of human liberty, begotten of the wisdom of
purest statesmanship, baptized in the blood of noblest patriots,
and fostered through a long term of suffering anid seltf-denial,
has been by them corrupted and defloured. Accordi,ng to its
own preamblue, it was fiamed to "establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, and promote the general welfare" of the several states embraced in
the perfect Union. But, according to Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet, its purpose was to consummate a consolidated nationality,
andl overthrow the integrity of state sovereignty. " The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution"reads the tenth article of the great charter-""aie res(erved to
t/he states respectively, or to the people." " The states have no
power, other than that wl"ich they derive from the 7nation,"
replies th( government at WVashington.
But the states were separate, sovereign and independent,
before the constitution had existence. They were sovereign,
independent, and'separate, when they rebelled against the
despotic authority of the mother country. Governor Bernard,
in his official dispatches, styled( them "the American governments." And they remained, respectively, independent, separate and sovereign, after the constitution was ordained. Some
of these goveri7tients refused, for a time, to adopt it as a league
of alliance. Even wllen they acceded, they still retained their
individual constitutions, legislatures, laws, distinlctive usages,
and every paraphernalia of freedom; and where usurpation (as
in Maryland) has not prevailed, they do so now. The F'ederat
constitution had to be ratified by the conventions of the respective states: by this mode only it could attain the virtue of
becoming vital. Had it been rejected by a majority of the
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