No
whisper of it stirred the surface of the political sea. The church heard
of it occasionally, when some colonization agent asked funds to send
the blacks to Africa. Old school-books tainted with some antislavery
selections had passed out of use, and new ones were compiled to suit the
times. Soon as any dissent from the prevailing faith appeared, every one
set himself to crush it. The pulpits preached at it; the press denounced
it; mobs tore down houses, threw presses into the fire and the stream,
and shot the editors; religious conventions tried to smother it; parties
arrayed themselves against it. Daniel Webster boasted in the Senate,
that he had never introduced the subject of slavery to that body, and
never would. Mr. Clay, in 1839, makes a speech for the Presidency, in
which he says, that to discuss the subject of slavery is moral treason,
and that no man has a right to introduce the subject into Congress.
Mr. Benton, in 1844, laid down his platform, and he not only denies the
right, but asserts that he never has and never will discuss the subject.
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