tion through a wise and salutary neglect; I feel the pride of
power and the presumption of wisdom die away within me; and I pardon
everything to their spirit of liberty." The love of freedom, Burke
contended, was the predominant feature in the cause of the Americans,
and he pointed out two other causes which tended to increase its growth
beyond those above-mentioned. One of these causes may seem parodoxical:
it was that black slavery prevailed in the colonies! The possession of
slaves, he said, was more than a counterpoise to the prevalence of the
established church in some of the provinces, and he established his
argument thus:--"I can perceive, by their manner, that some gentlemen
object to the latitude of my description, because in the southern
colonies the church of England forms a large body, and has a regular
establishment. It is certainly true. There is, however, a circumstance
attending these southern colonies, which, in my opinion, fully
counterbalances this difference, and makes the spirit of liberty still
more high and haughty than in those to the northward. It is that in
Virginia, and the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves! Where
this is the case, in any part of the world, those who are free, are by
far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. Not seeing there that
freedom, as in countries where it is a common blessing, and as broad
and general as the air, may be united with much abject toil, with great
misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks amongst them
like something that is more noble and liberal. I do not mean to commend
the superior morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much
pride as virtue in it; but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is
so; and these people of the southern colonies are much, more strongly,
and with a higher and more stubborn, spirit, attached to liberty than
those to the northward." Burke's reasoning was unhappily sound. All the
great nations of antiquity who fought with blood-stained swords, and
with indomitable ardour for their own liberties, were great slave
owners; eating the bread which was grown by the sweat of other men's
brows. This fact, however, redounds to the everlasting shame of the
Americans, and the black stain on their annals is not yet wiped out:
nay, it grows blacker and blacker as the period of their history rolls
onward. Slavery is the plague-spot of that boasted land of liberty! The
last cause of their thirst fo