1849.] Social Question. 13 alarmingly easy to achieve such tremendous results. This violent wrenching of the whole order of civil polity, - this prying up by main strength of its foundations, and sudden unloosing of all its bands,—this is not, to us, the right way of dealing with a structure so awful, so complicated, so connected with the whole fabric of society, of business, of every-day life. And the conduct of those who have put themselves at the head of this enterprise gives us no supplementary assurance that things will go well. How different was the manner of proceeding of our own Revolutionary guides! They fought, indeed, but it was under Fabian leading. They fought; but they reasoned, too, in a way more patient and practical, indeed, than ever was seen elsewhere under similar circumstances. John Adams's Defence of our Constitutions was a most careful and elaborate analysis, through three volumes, of all the free systems of polity from the beginning, with a view to educe the wisest and best. The papers of "The Federalist," the immortal labors of Hamilton and Madison and Jay, and the State Papers of that period, were filled with the most sage and deliberate reasonings upon the practical working of the system we were adopting. Here were statesmen qualified to guide a people, worthy to preside over the birth of a new order of things. How was it in France? What pledges of wisdom did the Provisional Government give us? Some papers and speeches of a noble spirit there were from Lamartine, we grant; but generally, ideas, theorems, powerless edicts which were expected to execute themselves, leanings on every side to the popular breeze, and, in fine, the project of an ultra-democratic constitution, with one chamber and universal suffrage. They began where we are ending. Suffrage was not universal with us at the first and well that it was not. Communities must learn to govern themselves. The burden of power must be let down gently into the bosom of the people. The whole process must be deliberate and practical. It is not so in France. Fine words and Utopian theories instead; "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," over all gates and church-doors. One is tempted to say, Would that the French people might dramatize themselves into liberty! for there is no chance of their reasoning themselves into it. There is one question connected with this movement which demands attention, and that is the Social Question. In this, perhaps, lie the great problem and peril of our time. VOL. XLVI. - 4TH S. VOL. XI. NO. I. 2 The higher and lower classes, formerly far apart, always opposed, have now come nearer to each other, at least by the development of conscious rights in the latter. They now stand confronted; and the danger is of an obstinate and fatal conflict. In this state of things, it is of the utmost importance to disabuse them both, as far as possible, of unreasonable and irritating prejudices, and, in this view, we must express our opinion, that many things are said with too little qualification and of a very dangerous tendency. It is implied in much that is written upon the present condition of the depressed classes, that this condition is owing to the classes above them, -to rich employers and grasping capitalists. But is this true? Let us look at it. The civilized world has been for a long time in a state of comparative peace. Population has rapid increased. Laborers have multiplied, and production has outgrown demand. The consequence has been a competition among them for work. They have underbid one another. Wages have fallen to the bare life-supporting point. Whose fault is this? Nobody's, that we can see. It is no one's fault directly and immediately. Remotely, one may say, the condition of the suffering classes is owing to oppressive governments, to unequal institutions, to the entail of estates and immense accumulations in few hands, to enormous national debts and consequent heavy taxes. But all this was the heritage of the past, the fixed order of society, and it could not be changed in a moment. No doubt, freer institutions, extended suffrage, and the substitution of fee and freehold for rent and lease, would have given a spring to the individual energies of the people. And yet we do not see that free institutions and a chance for all, like our own, will altogether prevent the running down of wages. Whose fault, then, is it? we repeat. Is it the fault of the laborer ? He has done but what all men do when commodity is in excess, sold it for less. Is it the fault of the employer, the capitalist? He could not help it. If a neighbouring estate or manufactory is employing workmen at a less price than he, they undersell him, and he cannot go on. Generosity here is out of the question in all ordinary cases; for it would soon make the employer a bankrupt, and then he must stop at any rate, and his men would have no wages. It is out of his power, we repeat, to arrest the descent of wages. No; here is a crisis come upon the world, for which nobody, as we view it, is immediately responsible, — which 1849.] Gradual Changes. 15 presses heavily upon all, employer and laborer together,which presents the most difficult and confounding problem that ever engaged the attention of mankind, and which modern society must labor with all sobriety and earnestness to solve. Exasperation, strife, bloodshed, will not help the case, but only make it worse. Solutions are offered, plans are proposed, with much confidence; and in this great distress of the case, we are tempted to feel as if we could resist nothing that comes in the name of help. We confess that we do not very well understand some things that the projectors say, and that we cannot think that other things are feasible. We do not understand, for instance, what is meant by "the right to labor," or by "every man's right to the soil," or to "a protected homestead." And we cannot see how men, generally, are to be persuaded to leave their separate and independent family state, and to come and live in immense hotels or boarding-houses, called "communities," or "phalansteries." But if there be any practicable or plausible device for help, that will do no great harm, however visionary it seem, let it be tried - by those who are willing to try it; let it, in the name of humanity, be tried. For ourselves, we do not look to any organic changes in society for help. We do not look for any sudden wrench of the world from its settled habitudes. The relief of society from all its heavy burdens must be gradual. Let a new spirit come into the world, and, without any violent changes, it will make the world new. Let governments feel their majestic, solemn, parental relation to the people. Let all partial legislation, unequal privileges, and unjust monopolies be done away, and let all men have a fair chance for competence, comfort, and happiness. Let education be amply provided for, and let pure religion lift up its glorious standard before the eyes of men. Ay, let men "hear the voice of the Son of God, and live." "By love," by love like his, "let them serve one another." Let this spirit enter into our farms and workshops and manufactories. Let employers feel it towards their brethren around them, and by love serve them. Let the sacredness of humanity be felt and recognized beneath the burdens of toil. Let men themselves toil as beneath the great Taskmaster's eye. Let affection help men, let the love of one another help them; and they will be helped. Plans of aid and relief there may be, the good - heart will find them out, but, perhaps, no one plan. Here a joint-stock interest, there some aid in an emergency, -a library, a reading-room, a reverent and humble gathering together in the house of God; but always a kindly looking after the welfare of all, everywhere a loving heart, this is the grand panacea for the ills and diseases of society. In fact, the cause of the present distress is that very freedom which is our boast. Slaves do not die of starvation, nor stand in any fear of it. The Russian serfs do not starve, nor did those of the Middle Ages. They are and were cared for by their masters. But now greater freedom has come, and men are put to take care of themselves; and through this free action, this imperfect and transition state of the free principle, mistakes have arisen, such as men are always liable to commit when left to their own guidance. This very field of unprecedented free activity, while it has opened to some a path for enterprise and accumulation, is conducting multitudes downward, on the way of stinted fare and crushing toil, towards the gates of death; and thus the very freedom, the self-guidance, which the world has sought and cherished, has brought it to this terrible crisis ;-to this terrible crisis, we repeat, when volcanic abysses are suddenly opening themselves in the great centres of civilization, and clouds and whirlwinds are sweeping over the face of the world, and Parisian mobs and Chartist grievances and Irish starvation are shrieking through the gloom, and the whole body of old, established society, from the Caspian Sea to the shores of the Atlantic, is trembling for its strongholds of stability and order. And now we say, the energies of this same freedom must and will find out a way of escape and relief, and better order and stability. And now, once more, we say, the text of texts, the text written in God's book of wisdom, from which help is to be preached, is this: -"Brethren, ye are called to liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh," to the lower and selfish and brutal instincts, but by love serve one another." In the opening of this discussion we remarked that there were certain questions which deeply agitate us at home. It is, indeed, a part of that great movement in men's minds which pervades the whole civilized world. Abroad, men are demanding more freedom for themselves. Here, we are demanding it for the slave. We have come, and the whole 1849.] Wrong of Slavery. 17 world has come, within a few years, to a new view of this whole subject. But at the present moment the demand here has taken a particular form. A determination has very plainly manifested itself in this nation, within a few months past, that there shall be no further extension of the slave system upon our territory. We believe, that, effectively, the battle for free soil is already fought, and the victory won. We rejoice at it, more than we rejoice at any public event within our memory. Whether we are right or wrong, the impulse of our whole heart is to say, We thank God for it! We rejoice at it, and we give thanks; but it is in no spirit of unkindness to our fellow-citizens of the Southern States. We respect many of them, whom we know. We believe them to be perfectly sincere and conscientious in the defence. of their system. But they must allow us to be sincere too, and conscientious. We believe that enslaving men is substantively a wrong. We cannot get over, nor around, nor away from the conviction, that it is a wrong, which, instead of being extended, should be extinguished as fast as possible. We believe that it is a wrong to human nature, that it is a wrong to man as man. What it is to man as an animal, we will not now ask; whether it feeds and clothes him well, whether it makes him comfortable, whether it allows him to be joyous and sportive, or how often it visits him with stripes, gashes him with wounds, sends bloodhounds to pursue him like a dog or a wolf, we will not ask. Human slavery is a wrong to the nature that it takes effect upon. It mistakes and maltreats that nature. There stands a human being; may his master cultivate his faculties as he would those of his child? By no means; it will never do ; he would be no longer a slave. Slavery, then, denies to this nature its inherent rights, denies it progress, commands it to stop, to stand still, — will not, does not, dares not permit it to rise. Why, let me ask any man, the stoutest defender of this system, Would you think it right to enslave the poorest, meanest, most miserable, most imbecile white man that lives in the next cottage? Would you think it right, right before God, to seize him or buy him and sell him, and sell his wife and his children, and their posterity for ever after, into hopeless bondage? The answer is, No. The conscience of all the world says, No. What then? Can the complexion of a skin whitened by a Northern sky, bronzed by an Indian clime, or blackened beneath the heats of Africa- make all |