W. O. Duvall to Frederick Douglass, April 30, 1860

LETTER FROM W. O. DUVALL.

HAYTI, N. Y., April 30, 1860.

MR. EDITOR:—I do assert that what you call a 'political Union of these States,' and what I call 'the Federal Government of these United States,' is a most infernal crime. So, my old friend, the issue is joined, and this article shall close the discussion on my part. And here let me say, that sarcasm and ridicule are with me weapons of war, and never to be used only upon the enemy—never upon friends.—Now for the proof.

Previous to the formation of the Federal Government and the adoption of the United States Constitution, American Slavery received no support whatever from government. The leading men of the Colonies made long faces and pretended great dissatisfaction towards the parent government for not prohibiting the African slave-trade. These holy pretenders, in making up their 'bill of particulars'—their army of reasons for a 'dissolution of the Union' between the colonies and the parent government—put in the connivance of the government with the African slave-trade as a very grave charge; but when these 'glorious patriots,' whose sanctimonious regard for liberty was so great that a three-penny tax upon tea simultaneously sent all their eyes heavenward—met in solemn convention to establish their own dear government which was to 'establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity'—they not only refused to abolish the vilest system of oppression upon which the sun ever shone, but they deliberately as damnably took the foreign slave-trade under the special protection of their flag for twenty years, thus inviting every State that desire laborers stolen from Africa to 'fill to the brim,' which they did at once, and this

powerful governmental aid was long anterior to the invention of the cotton gin. In view of this act of the 'men of '76,' together with that in reference to reclamation of fugitive slaves, well might that blessed and venerable man, Beriah Green, say, 'The so-called government of this Republic I regard as a stupid, grim, malignant conspiracy. All that it is, in its inception, in its elements, in its policy, in its history, generally and comprehensively.' And were the great and good Beriah Green alone in his opinion on that subject, so help me God, I would sooner range by his side, than with the entire population of this round globe, on the other side. You make a great many words and much for yourself in answer to my remark, that previous to giving a plan for a dissolution of this Federal Union, the people should be made to see the necessity for such dissolution. I simple reiterate the assertion, and add that, 'where there's a will, there's a way.'

I do not accept your reasoning on the Hindoo widow case. I never understood that she—was the victim of government—but that hers was self-sacrifice. That government was grossly wrong in prohibiting her from marrying again, we all know, but that furnishes no reason for such a terrible sacrifice. Our widows would cheerfully show her a more excellent way. Upon reflection, don't you think you run that dialogue a little 'into the ground?'

You say—'Now, if to stand inside of the government be a crime, the only action that those outside have a right to demand of those inside, is to place themselves outside instanter.' But you deny being inside of any such government as I assert the United States Federal Government to be; and you say that this Federal Government is a just government, intended to secure justice and liberty to all.—Very well, then, say I, make your pictures to correspond with your readings—act your play according to your programme. Have no I the right to demand this? The Federal Government, based as it is upon the Constitution, is an engine of oppression. Those who made the engine, and every one who has participated in running it, from the first day of its

existence to the present, have used it, for oppression; and though 99 1-100 of the entire American people have coincided and still do coincide with the pro-slavery construction of the Constitution, a few brave, generous and amiable men, though not lawyers, have discovered a flaw in the verbiage of the Constitution, by which they think American Slavery can be abolished. I honor their motives and greatly admire their pluck, and so I do those of the hero of La Mancha. But when, in my imagination, I behold the huge arm of that rascally wind-mill laying him and his faithful Rozinante upon their backs with their feet in the air, it is hard to suppress a smile, to say the least.

W. O. DUVALL.

P.S.—You say I evidently regard the people as a shabby set. Most certainly I do, and for that reason I called them noodles instead of models, as you make me say. And instead of so sacred to spoils men, you make me say, so seen to spoils men. And instead of wide world, you make me say, wind world, which perhaps is an improvement. For this newspaper world, at least, is so given to wind, that I accept the error as an amendment.

W. O. D.