they are not conquered, but liberated. Will slavery die out? As surely as freedom will not die out. [Great cheering.][1]
Slaveholders of America, I appeal to you. Are you really in earnest when you speak of perpetuating slavery? Shall it never cease? Never? Stop and consider where you are, and in what day you live.
This is the nineteenth century. Never, since mankind has a recollection of times gone by, has the human mind disclosed such wonderful powers. The hidden forces of nature we have torn from their mysterious concealment, and yoked them into the harness of usefulness; they carry our thoughts over slender wires to distant nations; they draw our wagons over the highways of trade; they pull the gigantic oars of our ships; they set in motion the iron fingers of our machinery; they will soon plow our fields and gather our crops. The labor of the brain has exalted to a mere bridling and controlling of natural forces the labor of the hand—and you think you can perpetuate a system which reduces man, however degraded, yet capable of development, to the level of a soulless machine?
This is the world of the nineteenth century. The last remnants of feudalism in the old world are fast disappearing. The Czar of Russia, in the fulness of his imperial power, is forced to yield to the irresistible march of
- ↑ The reader will remember that the argument, presented in this passage, was addressed to the people of the Slave States. The assertion that slavery would perish in consequence of the war has meanwhile been verified by fact. The rebels have, indeed, formed concentrations of military forces, but they have certainly not succeeded in protecting thereby the slaveholders in the possession of their “slave property.” Had it not been the policy of the Government, at the commencement of the war, not to interfere with “slave property,” the result would have been still more striking. Aside from this feature, it was at that time very difficult to foresee what character the war might possibly assume. As to the general bearing and tone of this argument on the dissolution of the Union, see note to Chicago speech, p. 29.
