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What actions and behaviors did Emerson advocate for in his speech, "The Fugitive Slave Law"?
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In his speech "The Fugitive Slave Law," Emerson advocates for individuals to choose humanity and justice over compliance with unjust laws. He urges his audience to stand against the Fugitive Slave Law, recognizing the humanity of enslaved people rather than treating them as less than human. Emerson calls for decisive action from those with virtue and intelligence to actively oppose slavery and accelerate its downfall, rather than passively waiting for its end.
Emerson suggests that we each have to make a choice: whether we want to stand on the side of "humanity and justice," and stand up to an unjust law, or the side of "abuse and oppression," obeying a law even when we possess an awareness of how wrong it is. In other words, we must decide whether we "will stand for right or for might": in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law, the choice his audience faces is to stand against it and be for the right, or bow down to the unjust law and be for the might.
Emerson wants his audience to choose the right, to be humane. He wants them to recognize the humanity of the men and women and children who have been enslaved, rather than thinking of them as animals and treating them as such. Further, he says,
Whilst the inconsistency of slavery with the...
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principles on which the world is built guarantees its downfall, I own that the patience it requires is almost too sublime for mortals, and seems to demand of us more than mere hoping. And when one sees how fast the rot spreads, -- it is growing serious, -- I think we demand of superior men that they be superior in this, -- that the mind and the virtue shall give their verdict in their day, and accelerate so far the progress of civilization.
He hopes that virtue and intelligence will triumph, that people will not simply wait for slavery to die, because it seems as though that is what will eventually happen, but that they will take active steps to stop the "rot" from progressing any further. People who possess both virtue and intellectual ability must "accelerate" the end of this barbaric practice through decisive action and a refusal to comply with the Fugitive Slave Law.