of themetines the guaranties of freedom is ever on a dediritone patio one on which it is always felt to reverse one's wonne mi a mié dís eren nder the most favorabûe eftemmnetamises, can be done only gradually. The condition presedent of a healthy popular she is at rights, But the reasonable assumption of duties by means of which rights become reasonable means to the attainment of the ends of the state and of society. Popular sovereignty, in the sense that not only the general direction of politics is determined by the will of the majicity, but that this will miontély prescribes the exodust of the factors of government in the questions that arise in any manner, in the form of "patlle opinion" for instance, would be not only a dreadful caltin of things; it is impossible. But when, in a popular state, politics become a despised trade, the state is brought face to face with the question of life or death; for to the extent that this has really happened self-government is only

This is even yet the case in the Tited States to a mad smaler extent that persons of superficial information commonly believe. To be called a politician," is indeed, as great an ofense as to be called a * Jew.” in vemain ciries. But it is my theme of prinimas, not politics, that are despised. Men like Charles Francis Adams. Strum. Trambet, are yet held in high estimation, and the peogue are proud of fhem. When I first wrote these lines. Charles Summer was still living, and I had placed his name after that of Adams. I may bere cite a few words from Samaz's eclogy on Summer, pronounced at Boston. They are not mere rhetorical phrases, but correctly describe the real atmode of the peopie towards such politicians: "When you, Mr. Mayr, in the name of the city government of Boston, invited me to interpres that which millions think and feel. I thanked you for the proud privilege you had conferred upon me, and the invitation appealed so irresistibly to my friendship for the man we had lost, that I could not decline it. And yet, the thought struck me that you might have prepared a greater triumph to his memory bad you moned, not me, his friend, but one of those who had stood against him in the struggles of his life, to bear testimony to Charles Sumner's vores. There are many among them to-day to whose sense of justie you might have safely confided the office, which to me is a task of Love"

EFFECT OF JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION.

79

a shadow without substance; but a healthy popular state without real self-government is a contradiction in terms.

But the process through which the life of a nation goes is not measured by days or by a few years. In the case of a people who bear within themselves the conditions necessary to the building up of a healthy popular state in a high degree, and who have already, in part, made such a state an actuality, decades, even in the most unfavorable case, must elapse before they decline politically to such an extent that a broad chasm separates their social from their political life, and before an organized band of trading politicians can become completely master of them. The rapid and universal decline of a healthy political spirit, the first clear symptom of which was the election of Jackson twice to the presidency, and which was greatly promoted by his administration, caused the growing influence of the real trading politicians, with their bread-and-butter principles, to take the appearance at first of something almost accidental. The greatest immediate gain from this revolution in the condition of affairs, which was being accomplished, was made by those who knew how to employ these elements in their service. The shallowing, materializing, demoralizing transformation of the American democracy, for which a broad path was paved by Jackson's administration, first found its most disastrous consequences in the hands of the southern states, by which it was turned to account in the promotion of the cause of slavery.

CHAPTER II.

THE ABOLITIONISTS AND THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN CONGRESS.

While the reign of Andrew Jackson paved the way on which the slave-holding interest ascended to the zenith of its supremacy over the Union, there arose, at the same time, in the body of the abolitionists, the enemy which undermined the firm ground under the feet of that same slaveholding interest.

The expression, "abolition of slavery," is to be met with even before the adoption of the constitution. But the word "abolitionism," as descriptive of a definite political programme, occurs for the first time in this period. When Goodell, Wilson and others frequently speak of the older antislavery societies as "abolition societies," their language only seems to render the understanding of the development of the slavery question more difficult. Those older anti-slavery societies had simply a programme of action based mainly on humanitarian motives. The history of the origin of the abolitionists, on the other hand, is a political process of reaction; although, with the peculiar double nature of the slavery question, for reasons not far to seek, its moral side first became the basis of operation.

The debates on the Missouri question had called forth reflections here and there which could not be smothered by any legislative compact. People at the north had not forgotten the manner in which the so-called slavery compromises had been wrested from the constitution by the south. Its obstinate aut― aut in the Philadelphia convention was, in great part, reduced to the same motives of action which

were the decisive ones in the question of the representation of the smaller states; the southern states wanted generally to insure to themselves an equal weight in the government of the Union, and therefore could not completely renounce the representation of their slaves. The idea of any special jeopardy of the slave-holding interest was much farther from their minds. Now, for the first time, people began to perceive with horror that the rule of slavery over the slaveholders threatened to become as absolute as the rule of the latter over their slaves. But, after the storm had blown over, most of them again found rest in the consideration, that submission to the law was both a Christian and a citizen's duty, and that the nature of the Union absolved the north of all responsibility for the slavery-sins of the south. But not all were satisfied with this. To object to what political sages taught concerning constitutional law in the matter of the slavery question, did not at first enter their minds. Their rights as citizens they first submitted to an independent examination, when it was sought to prevent their performing their duties as men and Christians, as they understood them. The blow with which the south struck the north down, woke up both the religious and political conscience of the people even where such an effect was least expected. The powerful and the wise were felled to the ground, and from the little and weak there rose up men who, with the weapons of Christian morality, resumed the battle undaunted. As missionaries, beseeching and exhorting men to do that which they professed with their lips, the first abolitionists entered on their career. People made martyrs of them, and martyrdom transformed them into agitators, with the indomitable energy of religious fanaticism.

The immediate precursor, and, in a certain sense, the father of the abolitionists, was Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker, born in New Jersey. In Wheeling, West Virginia, where

he learned the saddler's trade, he had ample opportunity to become acquainted with the horrors of slavery, as great cargoes of slaves, on their way to the southern states, frequently passed the place. Lundy had been endeavoring for some years to awaken an active interest among his neighbors in the hard lot of the slaves, when the Missouri question brought him to the resolve to consecrate his whole life to their cause. In 1821, he began to publish the Genius of Universal Emancipation, which is to be considered the first abolition organ. The nineteenth century can scarcely point to another instance in which the command of Christ to leave all things and follow him, was so literally construed and followed. Lundy gave up his flourishing business, took leave of his wife and of his two dearly beloved children, and began a restless, wandering life, to arouse consciences everywhere to a deeper understanding of the sin and curse of slavery.' In the autumn of 1829, he obtained, as associate publisher of his sheet, William Lloyd Garrison, a young litterateur, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, who, from the position of a poor apprentice to a tradesman, rose to be a type-setter, and from being a type-setter to be a journalist.

The removal of Garrison from New England to Baltimore, where Lundy was then publishing the Genius, was an event pregnant with consequences. Garrison had long been a zealous enemy of slavery, but had hitherto seen the right way of doing away with the evil in the efforts of the coloni

1 He says, himself, in April, 1830, in an appeal to the public: “I have, within the period above mentioned [ten years], sacrificed several thousand dollars of my own hard earnings, have traveled upwards of five thousand miles on foot, and more than twenty thousand in other ways; have visited nineteen states of this Union, and held more than two hundred public meetings-have performed two voyages to the West Indies, by which means the liberation of a considerable number of slaves has been effected, and, I hope, the way paved for the enlargement of many more." Goodell, Slavery and Anti-Slavery, p. 385.