On the record
Southern gentlemen, when they threaten disunion, cannot surely be so much at fault as to forget that slavery exists here as it never existed before in the world.
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gutenberg.orgHorace Mann: “Southern gentlemen, when they threaten disunion, cannot surely be so much at fault as to forget that slavery exists here…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann emphasizes the unique and pervasive nature of slavery in America, challenging the complacency of Southern leaders.
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These are but specimens of what the Fugitive Slave law has already done, before the public mind has become familiarized with its brutalities, and while there is yet some sensibility to the claims of justice and mercy left among us.
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
My instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, may all mislead; but from the first time, now years ago, when I heard this subject broached, my instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, have all been in its favor.
I answer, that this difference which they so be-little and disparage will often be all the difference between freedom and bondage, between life and death, between honor and infamy, between happiness and perdition.
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