The Abolition of Slavery | Page 6

the Executive, and of all
Executive officers and loyal citizens, to aid, assist and encourage those
slaves who have escaped from rebel masters to continue their flight and
maintain their liberty.
4. That to send back a fugitive slave to a rebel master would be lending
aid and assistance to the rebellion. That those who arrest and send back

such fugitives identify themselves with the enemies of our Government,
and should be indicted as traitors.
J. R. GIDDINGS.
MONTREAL, June 6, 1861.
Accordingly, let old Virginia begin to put her house in order, and pack
up for the removal of her half million of slaves, for fear of the
impending storm. She has invited it, and only a speedy repentance will
save her from being dashed to pieces among the rocks and surging
billows of this dreadful revolution.--New York Herald, April 22.

RETALIATION.
The New York Courier and Enquirer, in an editorial, apparently from
Gen. Webb's own hand, discourses as follows:--
"Most assuredly these madmen are calling down upon themselves a
fearful retribution. We are no Abolitionists, as the columns of the
Courier and Enquirer, for the whole period of its existence, now
thirty-four years, will abundantly demonstrate. And for the whole of
that period, except the first six months of its infancy, it has been under
our exclusive editorial charge.
"Never, during that long period, has an Abolition sentiment found its
way into our columns; and for the good reason, that we have respected,
honored and revered the Constitution, and recognized our duty to obey
and enforce its mandates. But Rebellion stalks through the land. A
confederacy of slave States has repudiated that Constitution; and,
placing themselves beyond its pale, openly seeks to destroy it, and ruin
all whom it, protects. They no longer profess any obedience to its
requirements; and, of course, cannot claim its protection. By their own
act, our duty to respect their rights, under that Constitution, ceases with
their repudiation of it; and our right to liberate their slave property is as
clear as would be our right to liberate the slaves of Cuba in a war with
Spain.

"A band of pirates threaten and authorize piracy upon Northern
commerce; and from the moment that threat is carried into execution,
the fetters will fall from the manacled limbs of their slaves, and they
will be encouraged and aided in the establishment of their freedom.
Suppose Cuba were to issue letters of marque against our commerce,
and, according to the Charleston Mercury, seize 'upon the rich prizes
which may be coming from foreign lands,' does any sane man doubt
that we should at once invade that island, and liberate her slaves? Or
does any statesman or jurist question our right so to do? And why, then,
should we hesitate to pursue a similar course in respect to the so-called
Southern Confederacy?
"Spain, as a well-established nation, and recognized as such by all the
powers of the world, would have the right, according to the laws of
nations, to adopt such a course of proceeding; but she would do it at her
peril, and well weighing the consequences. But the rebel government of
the slave States possesses no such right. The act would be no more or
less than piracy; and we should not only hang at the yard-arm all
persons caught in the practice, but we should be compelled, in
self-defence, to carry the war into Africa, and deal with the slaves of
the Confederacy precisely as we should, under similar circumstances,
deal with those of Cuba.
"'The richly laden ships of the North,' says the Mobile Advertiser,
'swarm on every sea, and are absolutely unprotected. The harvest is
ripe.' We admit it; but gather it if you dare. Venture upon the capture of
the poorest of those richly laden ships,' and, from that moment, your
slaves become freemen, doing battle in Freedom's cause. 'Hundreds and
hundreds of millions of the property of the enemy invite us to spoil
him--to spoil these Egyptians,' says the same paper. True, but you dare
not venture upon the experiment; or, if you should be so rash as to
make the experiment, your fourteen hundred millions of slave property
will cease to exist, and you will find four millions of liberated slaves in
your midst, wreaking upon their present masters the smothered
vengeance of a servile race, who, for generation after generation, have
groaned under the lash of the negro driver and his inhuman employer.

"'The risk of the privateer,' says the same organ of the rebel
confederacy, 'will still be trifling; but he will continue to reap the
harvest.' His risk will only be his neck, and his 'harvest' will be a halter.
But the risk, nay, the certainty of the punishment to be visited upon the
slave confederacy, will be