#3 FIGHTING FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY: GEORGE WASHINGTON JULIAN
Excerpts from "The Cause and Cure of Our National Troubles," a speech before Congress, January 14, 1862
Do you say that the preservation of the Union must be kept in view as the grand purpose of the war? I admit it; but I say that nothing but slavery has brought the Union into peril. Its whole career has been a perpetual conspiracy against the Constitution, crowned at last by a deadly stab at its life. Am I told that this is a war for the life and liberty of a nation belonging chiefly to the white race, and not a war for the emancipation of black men? I frankly agree to it; but I insist that our national life and liberty can only be saved by giving freedom to all, and that all loyal men, therefore, should favor emancipation. Shall we attempt to carry on the war as if slavery had no existence? . . . . Shall we even shrink from the discussion of slavery lest we give offense to rebels and their sympathizers?
Slavery has been the evil genius of the government from its birth. It has frustrated the design of our fathers to form "a more perfect Union." It has made it impossible to "establish justice" or "to secure domestic tranquility." It has weakened the "common defense" by inviting foreign attack. It has opposed the "general welfare" by its merciless aristocracy in human flesh. It has denied us "the blessings of liberty" and given us its own innumerable curses instead. It has laid waste the fairest and most fertile half of the Republic, staying its progress in population, wealth, power, knowledge, civilization, the arts, and religion, thus heaping its burden on the whole nation, and costing us far more than the market value of all the millions [of slaves] in bonds. It has made the establishment of free schools and a general system of education impossible. It has branded labor as dishonorable and degrading. It has brought religion into scorn by bribing its supporters to espouse its revolting iniquity. It has laid its hand on the statesmen and intellects of the land and harnessed them, like beasts of burden, in its service. It has denounced the Declaration of Independence as an abomination and our fathers as hypocrites.
And as the fitting climax of its career of lawlessness, it has aimed its dagger at the government that has guarded its life and borne with its evil deeds for more than seventy years. This mighty rebel against all law, human and divine, is now within our grasp and we should strangle it forever.
For Students :
George Washington Julian became interested in the cause of abolition during his years as a lawyer in 1840s Indiana . He was elected to the Indiana General Assembly for one term in 1845-1846. He later served in the US House of Representatives from 1849 to 1851 and again, as a member of the Republican party, from 1861 to 1871. The speech which is excerpted above was given on the floor of the US House on January 14, 1862 .
1. Julian tries to speak to those who say that the war is being fought only to support the Union . What reasons does Julian give for slavery being a threat to the Union ? How is slavery a conspiracy against the Constitution?
2. What document is Julian quoting in the second paragraph of his speech? List all of his quotes from this document and how he relates them to the evils of slavery.
3. What does Julian mean when he says in the last paragraph that slavery has "aimed its dagger" at the government?
4. What does Julian seem to suggest would have happened if the North had won the Civil War but had not freed the slaves?