David, you know, looked small and insignificant when going to meet Goliath, but looked larger when he had slain his foe. It is, thank God, only one view there is another, and a brighter view. The pen, the purse, and the sword, are united against the simple truth, preached by humble men in obscure places. The church organizations in those States are equally at the service of slavery while the Federal Government, with its army and navy, from the chief magistracy in Washington, to the Supreme Court, and thence to the chief marshalship at New York, is pledged to support, defend, and propagate the crying curse of human bondage.
The State governments, where the system of slavery exists, are complete slavery organizations. They are organized and yet were not at the pains of creating their organizations. It is well to notice this advantage - the advantage of complete organization. In one view the slaveholders have a decided advantage over all opposition. The case is one of life or death with them, and they will give up only when they must do that or do worse. Their motto is, “a firmer hold and a tighter grip” for every new effort that is made to break their cruel power. They show no sign of a wish to quit their iron grasp upon the sable throats of their victims. One thing, however, is certain slaveholders are in earnest, and mean to cling to their slaves as long as they can, and to the bitter end. But of that time I can know nothing, and you can know nothing. Standing, as it were, barefoot, and treading upon the sharp and flinty rocks of the present, and looking out upon the boundless sea of the future, I have sought, in my humble way, to penetrate the intervening mists and clouds, and, perchance, to descry, in the dim and shadowy distance, the white flag of freedom, the precise speck of time at which the cruel bondage of my people should end, and the long entombed millions rise from the foul grave of slavery and death. With an earnest, aching heart, I have long looked for the realization of the hope of my people. For one, I see them clearly, and feel them sadly. They fling their broad and gloomy shadows across the pathway of every thoughtful colored man in this country. Without assenting to this strong representation of the increasing strength and stability of slavery, without denouncing what of untruth pervades it, I own myself not insensible to the many difficulties and discouragements, that beset us on every hand. How deep is the misfortune of my poor, bleeding people, if this be so! How lost their condition, if even the efforts of their friends but sink them deeper in ruin! Completing this picture of the happy and prosperous condition of this system of wickedness, they tell us that this state of things is to be set to our account. Emancipation, they tell us, is a wild, delusive idea the price of human flesh was never higher than now slavery was never more closely entwined about the hearts and affections of the southern people than now that whatever of conscientious scruple, religious conviction, or public policy, which opposed the system of slavery forty or fifty years ago, has subsided and that slavery never reposed upon a firmer basis than now. Eminent men, North and South, in Church and State, tell us that the omens are all against us.
To many, the prospects of the struggle against slavery seem far from cheering.
It is a fitting time to take an observation to ascertain where we are, and what our prospects are. It is not for us to be governed by our hopes or our fears in this great work yet it is natural on occasions like this, to survey the position of the great struggle which is going on between slavery and freedom, and to dwell upon such signs of encouragement as may have been lately developed, and the state of feeling these signs or events have occasioned in us and among the people generally. While four millions of our fellow countrymen are in chains - while men, women, and children are bought and sold on the auction-block with horses, sheep, and swine - while the remorseless slave-whip draws the warm blood of our common humanity - it is meet that we assemble as we have done to-day, and lift up our hearts and voices in earnest denunciation of the vile and shocking abomination.
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