In
strictly political matters, many of the same people who love to quote
Jefferson against modern slave-holders, are of opinion that time and
experience give modern statesmen some advantages in their judgments. As
to Jefferson's oft-quoted remark, above cited, it appears to me that if
the Almighty has anywhere set the seal of his divine blessing, clear and
broad, it is on the Christian influence of our Southern friends upon
this colored race.
It is humiliating to me, in looking back to the North, to see how
injudicious and weak we are in pouring out our sympathy upon a fugitive
slave, without discrimination. The lecture before the Boston audience,
already mentioned, contains a perfect illustration of Northern credulity
in the case of fugitive slaves. The lecturer tells us that while reading
the printed report of Mr. Everett's Oration at the inauguration of the
Webster statue, a fugitive slave appeared at his door, and, baring his
breast and back, showed him the marks of the branding-iron, and the
scars from the lash. At the sight, he says, the paper dropped from his
hand. He "thought of Webster and the Fugitive Slave Law."
Now this negro was, just as likely as not, one of those characters whom
we call jail-birds.
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