A Letter From Robert S Reeder, Esq, To Dr Stouton W Dent, on the Colored Population of Maryland, and Slavery And a Speech on the Proposition to the Constitution, at December Session, 18

Robert S. Reeder

ISBN 10: 0656140895 / ISBN 13: 9780656140893

Editore: Forgotten Books, 2018

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• Titolo: A Letter From Robert S Reeder, Esq, To Dr Stouton W Dent, on the Colored Population of Maryland, and Slavery And a Speech on the Proposition to the Constitution, at December Session, 18
• Editore: Forgotten Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2018
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0656140895
• ISBN 13: 9780656140893
• Rilegatura: HRD
• Condizione: New
• Peso: 296 grammi

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Riassunto

Excerpt from A Letter From Robert S. Reeder, Esq., To Dr. Stouton W. Dent, on the Colored Population of Maryland, and Slavery: And a Speech on the Proposition to Call a Convention, by a Single Act of the Legislature, to Change the Constitution, at December Session, 1845

I greatly prefer, in principle, the position of the minority, but it is probable that at present and under the existing immature state of the public mind, it is impracticable; and particularly that feature which proposes a diffusion of slavery by confining each one to a limi ted number.

It may sound strange to you, when I tell you, that in this question is involved the question of a twofold form of society, which has divid ~ed nations from time immemorial; and must continue to divide them through all future time, each form producing its own peculiar results of good and evil, and each exerting its own peculiar influence in the progressive destiny and supremacy of nations. Thus viewed, then, this is, in reality, a question of vital importance, not only to ourselves, but shall I say to the human race? The superior power of christen dom, through its various and peculiar agencies, has unlocked the door of exclusion among all nations, is dissipating. The cloud of idolatrous superstition and ignorance which had rested so long like a mental nightmare upon those nations, and has let in, into the moral, social, intellectual and Spiritual interior of them all, the bright, steady and benificent light and influence of our peculiar and humane civiliza tion. This has produced at this time, as I think, a crisis in the con ditional progress of the human race; and the present juncture of events, does appear to me to portend, a universal revolution in the state of society; and is it not a subject of grave consequence, what shall be the result, and indeed the permanent result, of such a revo lution? The spirit of freedom is everywhere moving upon the face ofthe great deep - indeed, there is a mighty upheaving of the great deep itself.

In the midst of this portentous revolution, doctrines, wild, extrava gant, and Imay add, chaotic, are not only entertained and expressed, but acted out delusively and to disorganizing results upon the subject of freedom. Men think, speak, and act as if freedom was a mere abstract being, to be subject to the control and guidance of no legal or social restraint. On this subject perhaps a universal error pre vails. Freedom itself, abstractly considered, is an invisible element, like electricity - is the essence of the inner man but when we regard it practically, and indeed for practical utility, as we must and should, for the purposes of society, it becomes a thing visible, through its agencies, subject to the direction and control of asensible rule of action and for its own preservation and perpetuity, it must be ruled by a strong disciplinary authority.

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