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228 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

as well as to friends abroad, to whom I had given assurances that the money
would be appropriated in the manner I have described.

CHAPTER IX.

INCREASING DEMANDS OF THE SLAVE POWER.

Increased demands of slavery — War in Kansas — John Brown's raid — His capture and
execution — My escape to England from United States marshals.

Nothwithstanding the natural tendency of the human mind to weary of an
old story, and to turn away from chronic abuses for which it sees no remedy,
the anti-slavery agitation for thirty long years — from 1830 to 1860 — was
sustained with ever increasing intensity and power. This was not entirely
due to the extraordinary zeal and ability of the anti-slavery agitators themselves;
for with all their admitted ardor and eloquence, they could have done
very little without the aid rendered them, unwittingly, by the aggressive
character of slavery itself. It was in the nature of the system never to rest in
obscurity, although that condition was in a high degree essential to its security.
It was forever forcing itself into prominence. Unconscious, apparently,
of its own deformity, it omitted no occasion fix inviting disgust by seeking
approval and admiration. It was noisiest when it should have been most
silent and unobtrusive. One of its defenders, when asked what would satisfy
him as a slaveholder, said "he never would be satisfied until he could call the
roll of his slaves in the shadow of Bunker Hill monument." Every effort
made to put down agitation only served to impart to it new strength and
vigor. Of this class was the ''gag rule," attempted and partially enforced in
Congress — the attempted suppression of the right of petition — the mobocratic
demonstrations against the exercise of free speech — the display of
pistols, bludgeons, and plantation manners in the Congress of the nation —
the demand, shamelessly made by our government upon England, for the
return of slaves who had won their liberty by their valor on the high seas —
the bill for the recapture of runaway slaves — the annexation of Texas for the
avowed purpose of increasing the number of slave States, and thus increasing
the power of slavery in the union — the war with Mexico — the filibustering
expeditions against Cuba and Central America — the cold-blooded
decision of Chief Justice Taney in the Dred Scott case, wherein he states, as
it were, a historical fact, that "negroes are deemed to have no rights which
white men are bound to respect"— the perfidious repeal of the Missouri
compromise, when all its advantages to the South had been gained and