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(Part 5 of 7)
THE ANTI-ABOLITIONIST LELAND: 1839
Leland's pen was mostly silent during the
years 1837 and 1838, although he did address some religious matters.
In 1837, following several years of federal budget surpluses, Wall
Street crashed. A great depression swept the country and lasted until
1843. (43) Against this backdrop, Leland addressed the issue of
slavery one final time. In a speech delivered on August 16, 1839, he
spoke of two things: the need for an independent treasury and slavery.
The speech remarkably represented a complete about-face from his
petition to Virginia Baptists in 1789. In addition to dismissing the
increasingly vocal calls for emancipation of slaves, the aging
preacher-politician downplayed the plight of slaves and offered kind
words to slave owners. Furthermore, Leland insisted that the federal
government had no responsibility, nor should take any action, in
regards to slavery. Instead, the fate of slavery should properly be
determined by slaveholders:
The slave-holders are to be addressed: the power lies in them
alone. It is not an article to be settled by legislation among us.
It belongs to the moral and religious department, and not to the
legislative. Three parties are concerned in the question, viz:
God--the master-and the slave. As a friend to freedom and right,
I earnestly recommend to masters to set their slaves at liberty as
soon as their good, their choice, and the public safety concur.
Until then, be good to them, remembering you have a Master in
heaven, whose orders are, 'Whatsover you would that men should
do unto you, do you even the same unto them.' Make their lives as
happy as circumstances will admit of. If there is a condition for
them to be in, better than their present state (where their masters
are humane, just, and benevolent), I pray the Lord, and call upon
men, to bestow it upon them. With all deference to the opinions of
others, I would recommend to the abolition orators to serve an
apprenticeship of seven years in a slave--holding state to qualify
their minds to view the question in all its bearings. (44)
This position of government non-interference
represented a complete reversal of Leland's previous stance of
government intervention, a stance he maintained up to a mere three
years earlier. The statement also reflected his altered view of slave
owners, who went from being brutal to being "humane, just, and
benevolent." With this final statement on slavery, nearly fifty years
of antislavery sentiment were seemingly negated, even as Leland
insisted that he remained a "friend to freedom and right."
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