Lion of the Forest by Charles C. ColeJr

Author:Charles C. ColeJr. [Jr. Cole, Charles C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813189192
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Finley’s major address on the subject of slavery after 1837 was a rambling sixteen-page argument that condemned both slaveholders and abolitionists. He began by declaring that the current excitement on the subject was “fraught with great & important consequences to the republic and deserves a cool and impartial examination.” He had waited for others to speak out but they had not done so, and he said it would be a crime for him to remain silent. He observed that the country was equally divided between thirteen slave states and thirteen free states. He reminded his audience that slavery had been introduced when the colonies were under British control and had no power over themselves. He summarized the reasons for the revolution. He asserted that in the compact creating the federal Constitution a commitment was made by the free states, namely that neither “the free states nor the federal government, was to interfere with that subject but the relation between master and slave was reserved by these states to their own control and their own legislative authority.” He considered this pledge a sacred one on which the confederated republican government was created.25

He reminded his audience of the blessings of the Constitution, which had to be sustained and handed down to future generations. Then he declared, “Whatever question may now arise in the free states on the subject of slavery must be a question of expediency.” He maintained that whatever the people in the free states did to ameliorate the condition of the slaves had to be with the consent of their masters and consistent with the free states’ pledge. To interfere further, he warned, “would be a violation of the treaty, amongst the states, and rebellion against the federal government.”

But modern abolitionism, he maintained, proposed to free all the slaves immediately and give them equal rights “in their present ignorant condition.” Such rights would include suffrage, running for office “and of course a free amalgamation with the whites to marry our daughters to their sons and our sons to their daughters and become one people without distinction.”

He asserted that people in the free states had no more power over the laws in the slave states “than we have in making the laws of England.” He doubted that the abolitionists’ abusive harangues and publications would soften the hearts of masters to free their slaves. What he thought more likely was a slave insurrection that would kill off all whites or a civil war.

Finley then focused on the question of what would happen if the abolitionists did accomplish their objective. He asked, “Will any sober minded citizen of this union be willing to give into the hands of these most ignorant and degraded of men his liberty, life and property?” He thought it unlikely that a majority would support such an action. What was more likely, he believed, was a division of the union.

He then returned to his main theme. “We cannot alter these laws” and have no right to do so. The

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