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diff --git a/28148.txt b/28148.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1af412f --- /dev/null +++ b/28148.txt @@ -0,0 +1,37206 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments + Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, + Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This + Important Subject + +Author: Various + +Editor: E. N. Elliott + +Release Date: February 20, 2009 [EBook #28148] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COTTON IS KING *** + + + + +Produced by Cori Samuel, Jon Ingram, the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net and the Booksmiths +at http://www.eBookForge.net + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Spelling and punctuation anomalies were retained, such as +"Masachusettes" and "philanthrophy" on page 40. The table of +contents can be found at the end of this book. + + + + +COTTON IS KING, + +AND + +PRO-SLAVERY ARGUMENTS: + + +COMPRISING THE WRITINGS OF + +HAMMOND, HARPER, CHRISTY, STRINGFELLOW, HODGE, BLEDSOE, AND CARTWRIGHT, + + +ON THIS IMPORTANT SUBJECT. + + +BY + +E. N. ELLIOTT, L.L.D., PRESIDENT OF PLANTERS' COLLEGE, MISSISSIPPI. + + +WITH AN ESSAY ON SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, BY THE +EDITOR. + +PUBLISHED AND SOLD EXCLUSIVELY BY SUBSCRIPTION. + +AUGUSTA, GA: PRITCHARD, ABBOTT & LOOMIS. 1860. + + + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by M. P. ABBOTT +AND GEO. M. LOOMIS, + +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for +the Southern District of Georgia. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +THERE is now but one great question dividing the American people, and +that, to the great danger of the stability of our government, the +concord and harmony of our citizens, and the perpetuation of our +liberties, divides us by a geographical line. Hence estrangement, +alienation, enmity, have arisen between the North and the South, and +those who, from "the times that tried men's souls," have stood shoulder +to shoulder in asserting their rights against the world; who, as a band +of brothers, had combined to build up this fair fabric of human liberty, +are now almost in the act of turning their fratricidal arms against each +other's bosoms. All other parties that have existed in our country, were +segregated on questions of policy affecting the whole nation and each +individual composing it alike; they pervaded every section of the Union, +and the acerbity of political strife was softened by the ties of blood, +friendship, and neighborhood association. Moreover, these parties were +constantly changing, on account of the influence mutually exerted by the +members of each; the Federalist of yesterday becomes the Republican of +to-day, and Whigs and Democrats change their party allegiance with every +change of leaders. If the republicans mismanaged the government, they +suffered the consequences alike with the federalists; if the democrats +plunged our country into difficulties, they had to abide the penalty as +well as the whigs. All parties alike had to suffer the evils, or enjoy +the advantages of bad or good government. But it has been reserved to +our own times to witness the rise, growth, and prevalence of a party +confined exclusively to one section of the Union, whose fundamental +principle is opposition to the rights and interests of the other +section; and this, too, when those rights are most sacredly guaranteed, +and those interests protected, by that compact under which we became a +united nation. In a free government like ours, the eclecticism of +parties--by which we mean the affinity by which the members of a party +unite on questions of national policy, by which all sections of the +country are alike affected--has always been considered as highly +conducive to the purity and integrity of the government, and one of the +causes most promotive of its perpetuity. Such has been the case, not +only in our own country, but also in England, from whom we have mainly +derived our ideas of civil and religious liberty, and even, to some +extent, our form of government. But there, the case of oppressed and +down-trodden Ireland, bears witness to the baneful effects of +geographical partizan government and legislation. + +In our own country this same spirit, which had its origin in the +Missouri contest, is now beginning to produce its legitimate fruits: +witness the growing distrust with which the people of the North and the +South begin to regard each other; the diminution of Southern travel, +either for business or pleasure, in the Northern States; the efforts of +each section to develop its own resources, so as virtually to render it +independent of the other; the enactment of "unfriendly legislation," in +several of the States, towards other States of the Union, or their +citizens; the contest for the exclusive possession of the territories, +the common property of the States; the anarchy and bloodshed in Kansas; +the exasperation of parties throughout the Union; the attempt to +nullify, by popular clamor, the decision of the supreme tribunal of our +country; the existence of the "underground railroad," and of a party in +the North organized for the express purpose of robbing the citizens of +the Southern States of their property; the almost daily occurrence of +fugitive slave mobs; the total insecurity of slave property in the +border States;[1] the attempt to circulate incendiary documents among +the slaves in the Southern States, and the flooding of the whole country +with the most false and malicious misrepresentations of the state of +society in the slave States; the attempt to produce division among us, +and to array one portion of our citizens in deadly hostility to the +other; and finally, the recent attempt to excite, at Harper's Ferry, and +throughout the South, an insurrection, and a civil and servile war, with +all its attendant horrors. + +All these facts go to prove that there is a great wrong somewhere, and +that a part, or the whole, of the American people are demented, and +hurrying down to swift destruction. To ascertain where this great wrong +and evil lies, to point out the remedy, to disabuse the public mind of +all erroneous impressions or prejudices, to combat all false doctrines +on _this_ subject, and to establish the truth, shall be the aim of the +following pages. In preparing them we have consulted the works of most +of the writers on both sides of this question, as well as the statistics +and history tending to throw light upon the subject. To this we would +invite the candid and dispassionate attention of every patriot and +philanthropist. To all such we would say, in the language of the Roman +bard, + + "Si quid novisti vectius istis, + Candidus imperti; si non, + His utere mecum." + +In the following pages, the words slave and slavery are not used in the +sense commonly understood by the abolitionists. With them these terms +are contradistinguished from servants and servitude. According to their +definition, a slave is merely a "chattel" in a human form; a _thing_ to +be bought and sold, and treated worse than a brute; a being without +rights, privileges, or duties. Now, if this is a correct definition of +the word, we totally object to the term, and deny that we have any such +institution as _slavery_ among us. We recognize among us no class, +which, as the abolitionists falsely assert, that the Supreme Court +decided "had no rights which a white man was bound to respect." The +words _slave_ and _servant_ are perfectly synonymous, and differ only in +being derived from different languages; the one from Sclavonic, the +other from the Latin, just as feminine and womanly are respectively of +Latin and Saxon origin. The Saxon synonym _thrall_ has become obsolete +in our language, but some of its derivations, as thralldom, are still in +use. In Greek the same idea was expressed by _doulos_, and in Hebrew by +_ebed_. The one idea of servitude, or of obedience to the will of +another, is accurately expressed by all these terms. He who wishes to +see this topic thoroughly examined, may consult "Fletcher's Studies on +Slavery." + +The word _slavery_ is used in the following discussions, to express the +condition of the _African race_ in our Southern States, as also in other +parts of the world, and in other times. This word, as defined by most +writers, does not truly express the relation which the African race in +our country, _now_ bears to the white race. In some parts of the world, +the relation has essentially changed, while the word to express it has +remained the same. In most countries of the world, especially in former +times, the _persons_ of the slaves were the absolute property of the +master, and might be used or abused, as caprice or passion might +dictate. Under the Jewish law, a slave might be beaten to death by his +master, and yet the master go entirely unpunished, unless the slave died +outright under his hand. Under the Roman law, slaves had no rights +whatever, and were scarcely recognized as human beings; indeed, they +were sometimes drowned in fish-ponds, to feed the eels. Such is not the +labor system among us. As an example of faulty definition, we will +adduce that of Paley: "Slavery," says he, "is an obligation to labor for +the benefit of the master, without the contract or consent of the +servant." Waiving, for the present, the accuracy of this definition, as +far as it goes, we would remark that it is only half of the definition; +the only idea here conveyed is that of compulsory and unrequited labor. +Such is not our labor-system. Though we prefer the term slave, yet if +this be its true definition, we must protest against its being applied +to our system of African servitude, and insist that some other term +shall be used. The true definition of the term, as applicable to the +domestic institution in the Southern States, is as follows: Slavery is +the duty and obligation of the slave to labor for the mutual benefit of +both master and slave, under a warrant to the slave of protection, and a +comfortable subsistence, under all circumstances. The person of the +slave is not property, no matter what the fictions of the law may say; +but the right to his labor is property, and may be transferred like any +other property, or as the right to the services of a minor or an +apprentice may be transferred. Nor is the labor of the slave solely for +the benefit of the master, but for the benefit of all concerned; for +himself, to repay the advances made for his support in childhood, for +present subsistence, and for guardianship and protection, and to +accumulate a fund for sickness, disability, and old age. The master, as +the head of the system, has a right to the obedience and labor of the +slave, but the slave has also his mutual rights in the master; the right +of protection, the right of counsel and guidance, the right of +subsistence, the right of care and attention in sickness and old age. He +has also a right in his master as the sole arbiter in all his wrongs and +difficulties, and as a merciful judge and dispenser of law to award the +penalty of his misdeeds. Such is American slavery, or as Mr. Henry +Hughes happily terms it, "Warranteeism." + +In order that the subject of American slavery may be thoroughly +discussed, we have availed ourselves of the labors of several of the +ablest writers in the Union. These have been taken, not from one section +only, but from both sections of our country. It is true, most of them +are citizens of the Southern States, and for this there is a good and +obvious reason; no one can correctly discuss this subject, or any other, +who is practically unacquainted with it. This was the error of the +French nation, when they undertook to legislate the African savages of +St. Domingo into free citizens of the model republic; of the English +nation when they undertook to interfere in the internal affairs of +their colonies; and thus must it always be, when men undertake to think +or write, or act, in reference to any subject, of whose fundamental +truths, they are profoundly ignorant. It is true, that in every part of +the civilized world there are noble minds, rising superior to the +prejudices of education, and the influence of the society in which they +are placed, and defending the truth for its own sake; to all such we +render their due homage. + +It is objected to the defenders of American slavery, that they have +changed their ground; that from being apologists for it as an inevitable +evil, they have become its defenders as a social and political good, +morally right, and sanctioned by the Bible and by God himself. This +charge is unjust, as by reference to a few historical facts will +abundantly appear. The present slave States had little or no agency in +the first introduction of Africans into this country; this was achieved +by the Northern commercial States and by Great Britain. Wherever the +climate suited the negro constitution, slavery was profitable and +flourished; where the climate was unsuitable, slavery was unprofitable, +and died out. Most of the slaves in the Northern States were sent +southward to a more congenial clime. Upon the introduction into Congress +of the first abolition discussions, by John Quincy Adams, and Joshua +Giddings, Southern men altogether refused to engage in the debate, or +even to receive petitions on the subject. They averred that no good +could grow out of it, but only unmitigated evil. + +The agitation of the abolition question had commenced in France during +the horrors of her first revolution, under the auspices of the Red +Republicans; it had pervaded England until it achieved the ruin of her +West India colonies, and by anti-slavery missionaries it had been +introduced into our Northern States. During all this agitation the +Southern States had been quietly minding their own business, regardless +of all the turmoil abroad. They had never investigated the subject +theoretically, but they were well acquainted with all its practical +workings. They had received from Africa a few hundred thousand pagan +savages, and had developed them into millions of civilized Christians, +happy in themselves, and useful to the world. They had never made the +inquiry whether the system were fundamentally wrong, but they judged it +by its fruits, which were beneficent to all. When therefore they were +charged with upholding a moral, social, and political evil; and its +immediate abolition was demanded, as a matter not only of policy, but +also of justice and right, their reply was, we have never investigated +the subject. Our fathers left it to us as a legacy, we have grown up +with it; it has grown with our growth, and strengthened with our +strength, until it is now incorporated with every fibre of our social +and political existence. What you say concerning its evils _may_ be true +or false, but we clearly see that your remedy involves a vastly greater +evil, to the slave, to the master, to our common country, and to the +world. We understand the nature of the negro race; and in the relation +in which the providence of God has placed them to us, they are happy and +useful members of society, and are fast rising in the scale of +intelligence and civilization, and the time may come when they will be +capable of enjoying the blessings of freedom and self-government. We are +instructing them in the principles of our common Christianity, and in +many instances have already taught them to read the word of life. But we +know that the time has not yet come; that this liberty which is a +blessing to _us_, would be a curse to _them_. Besides, to us and to you, +such a violent disruption would be most disastrous, it would topple to +its foundations the whole social and political edifice. Moreover, we +have had warning on this subject. God, in his providence, has permitted +the emancipation of the African race in a few of the islands contiguous +to our shores, and far from being elevated thereby to the condition of +Christian freemen, they have rapidly retrograded to the state of pagan +savages. The value of property in those islands has rapidly depreciated, +their production has vastly diminished, and their commerce and +usefulness to the world is destroyed. We wish not to subject either +ourselves or our dependents to such a fate. God has placed them in our +hands, and he holds us responsible for our course of policy towards +them. + +This courteous, common-sense, and practical reply, far from closing the +mouths of the agitators, only encouraged them to redouble their +exertions, and to imbitter the epithets which they hurled at the +slave-holders. They exhausted the vocabulary of billingsgate in +denouncing those guilty of this most henious of all sins, and charged +them in plain terms, with being _afraid_ to investigate or to discuss +the subject. Thus goaded into it, many commenced the investigation. Then +for the first time did the Southern people take a position on this +subject. It is due to a citizen of this State, the Rev. J. Smylie, to +say that he was the first to promulgate the truth, as deduced from the +Bible, on the subject of slavery. He was followed by a host of others, +who discussed it not only in the light of revelation and morals, but as +consistent with the Federal Constitution and the Declaration of +Independence; until many of those who had commenced their career of +abolition agitation by reasoning from the Bible and the Constitution, +were compelled to acknowledge that they both were hopelessly +pro-slavery, and to cry: "give us an anti-slavery constitution, an +anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slavery God." To such straits are men +reduced by fanaticism. It is here worthy of remark, that most of the +early abolition propagandists, many of whom commenced as Christian +ministers, have ended in downright infidelity. Let us then hear no more +of this charge, that the defenders of slavery have changed their ground; +it is the abolitionists who have been compelled to appeal to "a higher +law," not only than the Federal Constitution, but also, than the law of +God. This is the inevitable result when men undertake to be "wise above +what is written." The Apostle, in the Epistle to Timothy, has not only +explicitly laid down the law on the subject of slavery, but has, with +prophetic vision, drawn the exact portrait of our modern abolitionists. + +"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters +worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not +blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise +them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because +they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things +teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to +wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the +doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, +but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, +strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings, of men of +corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is +godliness; from such withdraw thyself." + +Can any words more accurately and vividly portray the character and +conduct of the abolitionists, or more plainly point out the results of +their efforts? Is it any wonder that after having received such a +castigation, they should totally repudiate the authority of God's law, +and say, "Not _thy_ will, but _mine_ be done." It is here explicitly +declared that this doctrine, the obedience of slaves to their masters, +are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the arguments of its +opposers are characterized as doting sillily about questions and strifes +of words, and therefore unworthy of reply and refutation. But the +consequences are more serious; look at the catalogue. Envy, the root of +the evil; strife, see the divisions in our churches, and in our +political communities; railings, their calling slaveholders robbers, +thieves, murderers, outlaws; evil surmisings, can any good thing come +out of Nazareth, or from the Slave States? Perverse disputings of men of +corrupt minds, their wresting the Scriptures from their plain and +obvious meaning to compel them to teach abolitionism. Finally; the duty +of all Christians: from such withdraw thyself. + +The monographs embraced in this compendium of discussions on slavery, +were written at different periods; some of them several years ago, and +some of them were prepared expressly for this work, and some have been +re-written in order to continue the subject down to the present time. +There is this further advantage in combining works of different dates, +that by comparing them it is evident that the earlier and later writers +both stood on, substantially, the same ground, and take the same general +views of the institution. The charge of inconsistency must, therefore, +fall to the ground. To the reading public, most of the matter contained +in these pages will be new; as, though some of them have been before the +public for several years, they have had but a limited circulation, no +efforts having been made by the Southern people to scatter them +broadcast throughout the land, in the form of _Sunday school books_, or +_religious tracts_. Nor will it be expected by the reader, that the +authors of the works on the different topics embraced in this +discussion, should have been able to confine their arguments strictly +within the assigned limits. The subjects themselves so inosculate, that +it would be strange indeed if the writers should not occasionally +encroach upon each other's province; but even this, from the variety of +argument, and mode of illustration, will be found interesting. + +The work of Professor Christy, on the Economical Relations of Slavery, +contains a large amount of the most accurate, valuable and well arranged +statistical matter, and his combinations and deductions are remarkable +for their philosophical accuracy. He spent several years in the service +of the American Colonization Society, as agent for Ohio, and made +himself thoroughly acquainted with the results, both to the blacks and +whites, both of slavery and emancipation. + +Governor Hammond is too well known, as an eminent statesman and +political writer, to require notice here. His letters are addressed to +Mr. Clarkson, of England, who, in conjunction with Wilberforce, after a +long struggle, at last secured the passage, by the Parliament of Great +Britain, of acts to abolish the slave trade and slavery, in the British +West India colonies. The results of this are vividly portrayed by the +author, and his predictions are now history. + +Chancellor Harper, with a master hand, draws a parallel between the +social condition of communities where slave labor exists and where it +does not, and vindicates the South from the aspersions cast upon her. + +Dr. Bledsoe's "Liberty and Slavery," or Slavery in the Light of Moral +Science, discusses the right or wrong of slavery, exposes the fallacies, +and answers the arguments of the abolitionists. His established +reputation as an accurate reasoner, and a forcible writer, guarantees +the excellence of this work. + +Dr. Stringfellow's Slavery in the Light of Divine Revelation, and Dr. +Hodge's Bible Argument on Slavery, form a synopsis of the whole +theological argument on the subject. The plain and obvious teachings, of +both Old and New Testament, are given with such irresistible force as to +carry conviction to every mind, except those wedded to the theory of a +"Higher Law" than the Law of God. + +Dr. Cartwright's "Ethnology of the African Race," are the results of the +observation and experience of a lifetime, spent in an extensive practice +of medicine in the midst of the race. He has had the best of +opportunities for becoming intimately acquainted with all the +idiosyncrasies of this race, and he has well improved them. That the +negro is _now_ an inferior species, or at least variety of the human +race, is well established, and must, we think, be admitted by all. That +by himself he has never emerged from barbarism, and even when partly +civilized under the control of the white man, he speedily returns to the +same state, if emancipated, are now indubitable truths. Whether or not, +under our system of slavery, he can ever be so elevated as to be worthy +of freedom, time and the providence of God alone can determine. The most +encouraging results have already been achieved by American slavery, in +the elevation of the negro race in our midst; as they are now as far +superior to the natives of Africa, as the whites are to them. In a +religious point of view, also, there is great encouragement, as there +are twice as many communicants of Christian churches among our slaves, +as there are among the heathen at all the missionary stations in the +world. (See Prof. Christy's statistics in this volume.) What the negroes +might have been, but for the interference of the abolitionists, it is +impossible to conjecture. That their influence has only been unmitigated +evil, we have the united testimony, both of themselves and of the slave +holders. (See Dr. Beecher's late sermon on the Harper's Ferry trials.) + +To show what has been the uniform course of Christians in the South +towards the slaves, we will quote from the first pastoral letter of the +Synod of the Carolinas and Georgia, to the churches under their care. + +After addressing husbands and wives, parents and children, on their +relative duties, the Synod continues, "But parents and heads of +families, think it not surprising that we inform you that God has +committed others to your care, besides your natural offspring, in the +welfare of whose souls you are also deeply interested, and whose +salvation you are bound to endeavor to promote--we mean your slaves; +poor creatures! shall they be bound for life, and their owners never +once attempt to deliver their souls from the bondage of sin, nor point +them to eternal freedom through the blood of the Son of God! On this +subject we beg leave to submit to your consideration the conduct of +Abraham, the father of the faithful, through whose example is +communicated unto you the commandment of God (Gen. xviii: 19); 'For I +know him,' says God, 'that he will command his children and his +household after him, that they shall keep the ways of the Lord, to do +justice and judgment.' + +"Masters and servants, attend to your duty--in the express language of +the Holy Ghost--'servants, obey your masters in all things; not with eye +service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God; and +whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to man. And +you, masters, render to your servants their due, knowing that your +master is also in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with Him.' +And let those who govern, and those who are governed, make the object of +living in this world be, to prepare to meet your God and judge, when all +shall stand on a level before His bar, and receive their decisive +sentence according to the deeds done in the body. + +"Servants, be willing to receive instruction, and discourage not your +masters by your stubbornness or aversion. Remember, the interest is your +own, and if you be wise, it will be for your own good; _spend the +Sabbath in learning to read, and in teaching your young ones_, instead +of rambling abroad from place to place; a few years will give you many +Sabbaths, which, if rightly improved, will be sufficient for the +purpose. Attend, also, on public worship, when you have opportunity, and +behave there with decency and good order. + +"Were these relative duties conscientiously practiced, by husbands and +wives, parents and children, masters and servants, how pleasing would be +the sight; expressing by your conduct pious Joshua's resolution, as for +me and my house, we will serve the Lord." + +The argument on slavery, deduced from the law of nations, we commend to +the special attention of the candid reader. Indeed, it is from the +recognition of the duty of the various races and nations composing the +human family, to contribute their part for the advancement and good of +the whole, not only that slavery has existed in all ages, but also that +efforts have been, and are now being made, to extend the benefits of +civilization and religion to the benighted races of the earth. This has +been done in two different ways; one by sending the teacher forth to the +heathen, the other by bringing the heathen to the teacher. Both have +achieved great good, but the latter has been the more successful. Though +the principles embraced in this general law of nations have been +acknowledged and acted out in all times, it is due to J. Q. Adams, to +state that he first gave a clear elucidation of those principles, so far +as they apply to commerce. + +Commending these arguments to the candid consideration of every friend +to his country, we may be permitted to express the hope that they will +redound, not only to the perpetuity of our blood-bought liberties, but +to the glory of God, and the good of all men. + +PORT GIBSON, MISS., Jan. 1, 1860. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Strange that we should be compelled to call those _border_ States, +which lie in the very midst of our Union. + + + + + +COTTON IS KING: + +OR, + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. + +BY + + DAVID CHRISTY, ESQ. + OF CINCINNATI. + + + + +COTTON IS KING: + +OR, + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. + + +THE first edition of COTTON IS KING was issued as an experiment. Its +favorable reception led to further investigation, and an enlargement of +the work for a second edition. + +The present publishers have bought the copyright of the third edition, +with the privilege of printing it in the form and manner that may best +suit their purposes. This step severs the author from all further +connection with the work, and affords him an opportunity of stating a +few of the facts which led, originally, to its production. He was +connected with the newspaper press, as an editor, from 1824 till 1836. +This included the period of the tariff controversy, and the rise of the +anti-slavery party of this country. After resigning the editorial chair, +he still remained associated with public affairs, so as to afford him +opportunities of observing the progress of events. In 1848 he accepted +an appointment as Agent of the American Colonization Society, for Ohio; +and was thus brought directly into contact with the elements of +agitation upon the slavery question, in the aspect which that +controversy had then assumed. Upon visiting Columbus, the seat of +government of the State, in January, 1849, the Legislature, then in +session, was found in great, agitation about the repeal of the Black +Laws, which had originally been enacted to prevent the immigration of +colored men into the State. The abolitionists held the balance of +power, and were uncompromising in their demands. To escape from the +difficulty, and prevent all future agitation upon the subject, +politicians united in erasing this cause of disturbance from the statute +book. The colored people had been in convention at the capitol; and felt +themselves in a position, as they imagined, to control the legislation +of the State. They were encouraged in this belief by the abolitionists, +and proceeded to effect an organization by which black men were to +_stump_ the State in advocacy of their claims to an equality with white +men. + +At this juncture the Colonization cause was brought before the +Legislature, by a memorial asking aid to send emigrants to Liberia. An +appointment was also made, by the agent, for a Lecture on Colonization, +to be delivered in the hall of the House of Representatives; and +respectful notices sent to the African churches, inviting the colored +people to attend. This invitation was met by them with the publication +of a call for an indignation meeting; which, on assembling, denounced +both the agent and the cause he advocated, in terms unfitted to be +copied into this work. One of the resolutions, however, has some +significance, as foreshadowing the final action they contemplated, and +which has shown itself so futile, as a means of redress, in the recent +Harper's Ferry Tragedy. That resolution reads as follows: + +"_Resolved_,--That we will never leave this country while one of our +brethren groans in slavish fetters in the United States, but will remain +on this soil and contend for our rights, and those of our enslaved +race--upon the rostrum--in the pulpit--in the social circle, and upon +the field, if necessary, until liberty to the captive shall be +proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of this great Republic, or +we called from time to eternity." + +In the winter of 1850, Mr. Stanley's proposition, to Congress, for the +appropriation of the last installment of the Surplus Revenue to +Colonization, was laid before the Ohio Legislature for approval. The +colored people again held meetings, denouncing this proposition also, +and the following resolutions, among others, were adopted--the first at +Columbus and the second at Cincinnati: + +"_Resolved_,--That it is our unalterable and eternal determination, as +heretofore expressed, to remain in the United States at all hazards, and +to 'buffet the withering flood of prejudice and misrule,' which menaces +our destruction until we are exalted, to ride triumphantly upon its +foaming billows, or honorably sink into its destroying vortex: although +inducements may be held out for us to emigrate, in the shape of odious +and oppressive laws, or liberal appropriations." + +"_Resolved_,--That we should labor diligently to secure--first, the +abolition of slavery, and, failing in this, the separation of the +States; one or the other event being necessary to our ever enjoying in +its fullness and power, the privilege of an American citizen." + +Again, some three or four years later, on the occasion of the formation +of the Ohio State Colonization Society, another meeting was called, in +opposition to Colonization, in the city of Cincinnati, which, among +others, passed the following resolution: + +"_Resolved_,--That in our opinion the emancipation and elevation of our +enslaved brethren depends in a great measure upon their brethren who are +free, remaining in the country; and we will remain to be that 'agitating +element' in American politics, which Mr Wise, in a late letter, +concludes, has done so much for the slave." + +Many similar resolutions might be quoted, all manifesting a +determination, on the part of the colored people, to maintain their +foothold in the United States, until the freedom of the slave should be +effected; and indicating an expectation, on their part, that this result +would be brought about by an insurrection, in which they expected to +take a prominent part. In this policy they were encouraged by nearly all +the opponents of Colonization, but especially by the active members of +the organizations for running off slaves to Canada. + +To meet this state of things, COTTON IS KING was written. The mad folly +of the Burns' case, at Boston, in 1854, proved, conclusively, that white +men, by the thousand, stood prepared to provoke a collision between the +North and the South. The eight hundred men who volunteered at Worcester, +and proceeded to Boston, on that occasion, with banner flying, showed +that such a condition of public sentiment prevailed; while, at the same +time, the sudden dispersion of that valorous army, by a single officer +of the general government, who, unaided, captured their leader and bore +off their banner, proved, as conclusively, that such philanthropists are +not soldiers--that promiscuous crowds of undisciplined men are wholly +unreliable in the hour of danger. + +The author would here repeat, then, that the main object he had in view, +in the preparation of COTTON IS KING, was to convince the abolitionists +of the utter failure of their plans, and that the policy they had +adopted was productive of results, the opposite of what they wished to +effect;--that British and American abolitionists, in destroying tropical +cultivation by emancipation in the West Indies, and opposing its +promotion in Africa by Colonization, had given to slavery in the United +States its prosperity and its power;--that the institution was no longer +to be controlled by moral or physical force, but had become wholly +subject to the laws of Political Economy;--and that, therefore, labor in +tropical countries, to supply tropical products to commerce, and not +insurrection in the United States, was the agency to be employed by +those who would successfully oppose the extension of American Slavery: +for, just as long as the hands of the free should persist in refusing to +supply the demands of commerce for cotton, just so long it would +continue to be obtained from those of the slave. + +It will be seen in the perusal of the present edition, that Great +Britain, in her efforts to promote cotton cultivation in India and +Africa, now acts upon this principle, and that she thereby acknowledges +the truth of the views which the author has advanced. It will be seen +also, that to check American slavery and prevent a renewal of the slave +trade by American planters, she has even determined to employ the slaves +of Africa in the production of cotton: that is to say, the slavery of +America is to be opposed by arraying against it the slavery of +Africa--the petty chiefs there being required to force their slaves to +the cotton patches, that the masters here may find a diminishing market +for the products of their plantations. + +In this connection it may be remarked, that the author has had many +opportunities of conversing with colored men, on the subject of +emigration to Africa, and they have almost uniformly opposed it on the +ground that they would be needed here. Some of them, in defending their +conduct, revealed the grounds of their hopes. But details on this point +are unnecessary. The subject is referred to, only as affording an +illustration of the extent to which ignorant men may become the victims +of dangerous delusions. The sum of the matter was about this: the +colored people, they said, had organizations extending from Canada to +Louisiana, by means of which information could be communicated +throughout the South, when the blow for freedom was to be struck. +Philanthropic white men were expected to take sides against the +oppressor, while those occupying neutral ground would offer no +resistance to the passage of forces from Canada and Ohio to Virginia and +Kentucky. Once upon slave territory, they imagined the work of +emancipation would be easily executed, as every slave would rush to the +standard of freedom. + +These schemes of the colored people were viewed, at the time, as the +vagaries of over excited and ignorant minds, dreaming of the repetition +of Egyptian miracles for their deliverance; and were subjects of regret, +only because they operated as barriers to Colonization. But when a +friend placed in the author's hand, a few days since, a copy of the +_Chatham_ (Canada West) _Weekly Pilot_, of October 13, he could see that +the seed sown at Columbus in 1849, had yielded its harvest of bitterness +and disappointment at Harper's Ferry in 1859. That paper contained the +proceedings and resolutions of the colored men, at Chatham, on the 3d of +that month, in which the annexed resolution was included: + +"_Resolved_,--That in view of the fact that a crisis will soon occur in +the United States to affect our friends and countrymen there, we feel it +the duty of every colored person to make the Canadas their homes. The +temperature and salubrity of the climate, and the productiveness and +fertility of the soil afford ample field for their encouragement. To +hail their enslaved bondmen upon their deliverance, in the glorious +kingdom of British Liberty, in the Canadas, we cordially invite the free +and the bond, the noble and the ignoble--we have no 'Dred Scott Law.'" + +The occasion which called out this resolution, together with a number of +others, was the delivery of a lecture, on the 3d of October last, by an +agent from Jamaica, who urged them to emigrate to that beautiful island. +The import of this resolution will be better understood, when it is +remembered, that the organization of Brown's insurrectionary scheme took +place, in this same city of Chatham, on the 8th of May last. The +"crisis" which was soon to occur in the United States, and the +importance of every colored man remaining at his post, at that +particular juncture, as urged by the resolutions, all indicate, very +clearly, that Brown's movements were known to the leaders of the +meeting, and that they desired to co-operate in the movement. The +spirit breathed by the whole series of the Chatham resolutions, is so +fully in accord with those passed from time to time in the United +States, that there is no difficulty in perceiving that the views, +expectations, and hopes of the colored people of both countries have +been the same. The Chatham meeting was on the night of the 3d October, +and the outbreak of Brown on that of the 16th. + +But the failure of the Harper's Ferry movement should now serve as +convincing proof, that nothing can be gained, by such means, for the +African race. No successful organization, for their deliverance, can be +effected in this country; and foreign aid is out of the question, not +only because foreign nations will not wage war for a philanthropic +object, but because they cannot do without our cotton for a single year. +They are very much in the condition of our Northern politicians, since +the old party landmarks have been broken down. The slavery question is +the only one left, upon which any enthusiasm can be awakened among the +people. The negro is to American politics what cotton is to European +manufactures and commerce--the controlling element. As the overthrow of +American slavery, with the consequent suspension of the motion of the +spindles and looms of Europe, would bring ruin upon millions of its +population; so the dropping of the negro question, in American politics, +would at once destroy the prospects of thousands of aspirants to office. +In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the clamor against slavery is +made only for effect; and there is not now, nor has there been at any +other period, any intention on the part of political agitators to wage +actual war against the slave States themselves. But while the author +believes that no intention of exciting to insurrection ever existed +among leading politicians at the North, he must express the opinion that +evil has grown out of the policy they have pursued, as it has excited +the free negro to attempts at insurrection, by leading him to believe +that they were in earnest in their professions of prosecuting the +"irrepressible conflict," between freedom and slavery, to a termination +destructive to the South; and, lured by this hope, he has been led to +consider it his duty, as a man, to stand prepared for Mr Jefferson's +crisis, in which Omnipotence would be arrayed upon his side. This stand +he has been induced to take from principles of honor, instead of seeking +new fields of enterprise in which to better his condition. + +But there is another evil to the colored man, which has grown out of +northern agitation on the question of slavery. The controversy is one of +such a peculiar nature, that any needed modification of it can be made, +by politicians, to suit whatever emergency may arise. The Burns' case +convinced them that many men, white and black, were then prepared for +treason. This was a step, however, that voters at large disapproved; +and, not only was it unpopular to advocate the forcing of emancipation +upon the slave States, but it seemed equally repugnant to the people to +have the North filled with free negroes. The free colored man was, +therefore, given to understand, that slavery was not to be disturbed in +the States where it had been already established. But this was not all. +He had to have another lesson in the philosophy of _dissolving scenes_, +as exhibited in the great political magic lantern. Nearly all the +Western States had denied him an equality with the white man, in the +adoption or modification of their constitutions. He looked to Kansas for +justice, and lo! it came. The first constitution, adopted by the free +State men of that territory, excluded the free colored man from the +rights of citizenship! "Why is this," said the author, to a leading +German politician of Cincinnati: "why have the free State men excluded +the free colored people from the proposed State?" "Oh," he replied, "we +want it for our sons--for white men,--and we want the _nigger_ out of +our way: we neither want him there as a slave or freeman, as in either +case his presence tends to degrade labor." This is not all. Nearly every +slave State is legislating the free colored men out of their bounds, as +a "disturbing element" which their people are determined no longer to +tolerate. Here, then, is the result of the efforts of the free colored +man to sustain himself in the midst of the whites; and here is the evil +that political agitation has brought upon him. + +Under these circumstances, the author believes he will be performing a +useful service, in bringing the question of the economical relations of +American slavery, once more, prominently before the public. It is time +that the true character of the negro race, as compared with the white, +in productive industry, should be determined. If the negro, as a +voluntary laborer, is the equal of the white man, as the abolitionists +contend, then, set him to work in tropical cultivation, and he can +accomplish something for his race; but if he is incapable of competing +with the white man, except in compulsory labor,--as slaveholders most +sincerely believe the history of the race fully demonstrates--then let +the truth be understood by the world, and all efforts for his elevation +be directed to the accomplishment of the separation of the races. +Because, until the colored men, who are now free, shall afford the +evidence that freedom is best for the race, those held in slavery cannot +escape from their condition of servitude. + +Some new and important facts in relation to the results of West India +emancipation are presented, which show, beyond question, that the +advancing productiveness, claimed for these islands, is not due to any +improvement in the industrial habits of the negroes, but is the result, +wholly, of the introduction of immigrant labor from abroad. No +advancement, of any consequence, has been made where immigrants have not +been largely imported; and in Jamaica, which has received but few, there +is a large decline in production from what existed during even the first +years of freedom. + +The present edition embraces a considerable amount of new matter, having +a bearing on the condition of the cotton question, and a few other +points of public interest. Several new Statistical Tables have been +added to the appendix, that are necessary to the illustration of the +topics discussed; and some historical matter also, in illustration of +the early history of slavery in the United States. + +CINCINNATI, JANUARY 1, 1860. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. + + +"COTTON IS KING" has been received, generally, with much favor by the +public. The author's name having been withheld, the book was left to +stand or fall upon its own merits. The first edition has been sold +without any special effort on the part of the publishers. As they did +not risk the cost of stereotyping, the work has been left open for +revision and enlargement. No change in the matter of the first edition +has been made, except a few verbal alterations and the addition of some +qualifying phrases. Two short paragraphs only have been omitted, so as +to leave the public documents and abolitionists, only, to testify as to +the moral condition of the free colored people. The matter added to the +present volume equals nearly one-fourth of the work. It relates mainly +to two points: _First_, The condition of the free colored people; +_Second_, The economical and political relations of slavery. The facts +given, it is believed, will completely fortify all the positions of the +author, on these questions, so far as his views have been assailed. + +The field of investigation embraced in the book is a broad one, and the +sources of information from which its facts are derived are accessible +to but few. It is not surprising, then, that strangers to these facts, +on first seeing them arranged in their philosophical relations and +logical connection, should be startled at their import, and misconceive +the object and motives of the author. + +For example: One reviewer, in noticing the first edition, asserts that +the writer "endeavors to prove that slavery is a great blessing in its +relations to agriculture, manufactures, and commerce." The candid reader +will be unable to find any thing, in the pages of the work, to justify +such an assertion. The author has proved that the products of slave +labor are in such universal demand, through the channels named by the +reviewer, that it is impracticable, in the existing condition of the +world, to overthrow the system; and that as the free negro has +demonstrated his inability to engage successfully in cotton culture, +therefore American slavery remains immovable, and presents a standing +monument of the folly of those who imagined they could effect its +overthrow by the measures they pursued. This was the author's aim. + +Another charges, that the whole work is based on a fallacy, and that all +its arguments, therefore, are unsound. The fallacy of the book, it is +explained, consists in making cotton and slavery indivisible, and +teaching that cotton can not be cultivated except by slave labor; +whereas, in the opinion of the objector, that staple can be grown by +free labor. Here, again, the author is misunderstood. He only teaches +what is true beyond all question: not that free labor is incapable of +producing cotton, but that it does not produce it so as to affect the +interests of slave labor; and that the American planter, therefore, +still finds himself in the possession of the monopoly of the market for +cotton, and unable to meet the demand made upon him for that staple, +except by a vast enlargement of its cultivation, requiring the +employment of an increased amount of labor in its production. + +Another says: "The real object of the work is an apology for American +slavery. Professing to repudiate extremes, the author pleads the +necessity for the present continuance of slavery, founded on economical, +political, and moral considerations." The dullest reader can not fail to +perceive that the work contains not one word of apology for the +institution of slavery, nor the slightest wish for its continuance. The +author did not suppose that Southern slave holders would thank any +Northern man to attempt an apology for their maintaining what they +consider their rights under the constitution; neither did he imagine +that any plea for the continuance of American slavery was needed, while +the world at large is industriously engaged in supporting it by the +consumption of its products. He, therefore, neither attempted an apology +for its existence nor a plea for its continuance. He was writing history +and not recording his own opinions, about which he never imagined the +public cared a fig. He was merely aiming at showing, how an institution, +feeble and ill supported in the outset, had become one of the most +potent agents in the advancement of civilization, notwithstanding the +opposition it has had to encounter; and that those who had attempted its +overthrow, in consequence of a lack of knowledge of the plainest +principles of political economy and of human nature in its barbarous +state, had contributed, more than any other class of persons, to produce +this result. + +Another charges the author with ignorance of the recent progress making +in the culture of cotton, by free labor, in India and Algeria; and +congratulates his readers that, "on this side of the ocean, the +prospects of free soil and free labor, and of free cotton as one of the +products of free soil and free labor, were never so fair as now." This +is a pretty fair example of one's "whistling to keep his courage up," +while passing, in the dark, through woods where he thinks ghosts are +lurking on either side. Algeria has done nothing, yet, to encourage the +hope that American slavery will be lessened in value by the cultivation +of cotton in Africa. The British custom-house reports, as late as +September, 1855, instead of showing any increase of imports of cotton +from India, it will be seen, exhibit a great falling off in its +supplies; and, in the opinion of the best authorities, extinguishes the +hope of arresting the progress of American slavery by any efforts made +to render Asiatic free labor more effective. As to the prospects on this +side of the ocean, a glance at the map will show, that the chances of +growing cotton in Kansas are just as good, and only as good as in +Illinois and Missouri, from whence not a pound is ever exported. Texas +was careful to appropriate nearly all the cotton lands acquired from +Mexico, which lie on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains; and, by +that act, all such lands, mainly, have been secured to slavery. Where, +then, is free labor to operate, even were it ready for the task? + +Another alleges that the book is "a weak effort to slander the people of +color." This is a charge that could have come only from a careless +reader. The whole testimony, embraced in the first edition, nearly, as +to the economical failure of West India Emancipation, and the moral +degradation of the free colored people, generally, is quoted from +abolition authorities, as is expressly stated; not to slander the people +of color, but to show them what the world is to think of them, on the +testimony of their particular friends and self-constituted guardians. + +Another objects to what is said of those who hold the opinion that +slavery is _malum in se_, and who yet continue to purchase and use its +products. On this point it is only necessary to say, that the logic of +the book has not been affected by the sophistry employed against it; and +that if those who hold the _per se_ doctrine, and continue to use slave +labor products, dislike the charge of being _participes criminis_ with +robbers, they must classify slavery in some other mode than that in +which they have placed it in their creeds. For, if they are not +partakers with thieves, then slavery is not a system of robbery; but if +slavery be a system of robbery, as they maintain, then, on their own +principles, they are as much partakers with thieves as any others who +deal in stolen property. + +The severest criticism on the book, however, comes from one who charges +the author with a "disposition to mislead, or an ignorance which is +inexcusable," in the use of the statistics of crime, having reference to +the free colored people, from 1820 to 1827. The object of the author, in +using the statistics referred to, was only to show the reasons why the +scheme of colonization was then accepted, by the American public, as a +means of relief to the colored population, and not to drag out these +sorrowful facts to the disparagement of those now living. But the +reviewer, suspicious of every one who does not adopt his abolition +notions, suspects the author of improper motives, and asks: "Why go so +far back, if our author wished to treat the subject fairly?" Well, the +statistics on this dismal topic have been brought up to the latest date +practicable, and the author now leaves it to the colored people +themselves to say, whether they have gained any thing by the reviewer's +zeal in their behalf. He will learn one lesson at least, we hope, from +the result: that a writer can use his pen with greater safety to his +reputation, when he knows something about the subject he discusses. + +But this reviewer, warming in his zeal, undertakes to philosophise, and +says, that the evils existing among the free colored people, will be +found in exact proportion to the slowness of emancipation; and complains +that New Jersey was taken as the standard, in this respect, instead of +Massachusetts, where, he asserts, "all the negroes in the commonwealth, +were, by the new constitution, liberated in a day, and none of the ill +consequences objected followed, either to the commonwealth or to +individuals." The reviewer is referred to the facts, in the present +edition, where he will find, that the amount of crime, at the date to +which he refers, was _six times_ greater among the colored people of +Massachusetts, in proportion to their numbers, than among those of New +Jersey. The next time he undertakes to review KING COTTON, it will be +best for him not to rely upon his imagination, but to look at the facts. +He should be able at least, when quoting a writer, to discriminate +between evils resulting from insurrections, and evils growing out of +common immoralities. Experience has taught, that it is unsafe, when +calculating the results of the means of elevation employed, to reason +from a civilized to a half civilized race of men. + +The last point that needs attention, is the charge that the author is a +slaveholder, and governed by mercenary motives. To break the force of +any such objection to the work, and relieve it from prejudices thus +created, the veil is lifted, and the author's name is placed upon the +title page. + +The facts and statistics used in the first edition, were brought down to +the close of 1854, mainly, and the arguments founded upon the then +existing state of things. The year 1853 was taken as best indicating the +relations of our planters and farmers to the manufactures and commerce +of the country and the world; because the exports and imports of that +year were nearer an average of the commercial operations of the country +than the extraordinary year which followed; and because the author had +nearly finished his labors before the results of 1854 had been +ascertained. In preparing the second edition for the press, many +additional facts, of a more recent date, have been introduced: all of +which tend to prove the general accuracy of the author's conclusions, as +expressed in the first edition. + +Tables IV and V, added to the present edition, embrace some very curious +and instructive statistics, in relation to the increase and decrease of +the free colored people, in certain sections, and the influence they +appear to exert on public sentiment. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. + + +IN the preparation of the following pages, the author has aimed at +clearness of statement, rather than elegance of diction. He sets up no +claim to literary distinction; and even if he did, every man of +classical taste knows, that a work, abounding in facts and statistics, +affords little opportunity for any display of literary ability. + +The greatest care has been taken, by the author, to secure perfect +accuracy in the statistical information supplied, and in all the facts +stated. + +The authorities consulted are Brande's Dictionary of Science, Literature +and Art; Porter's Progress of the British Nation; McCullough's +Commercial Dictionary; Encyclopaedia Americana; London Economist; De +Bow's Review; Patent Office Reports; Congressional Reports on Commerce +and Navigation; Abstract of the Census Reports, 1850; and Compendium of +the Census Reports. The extracts from the Debates in Congress, on the +Tariff Question, are copied from the _National Intelligencer_. + +The tabular statements appended, bring together the principal facts, +belonging to the questions examined, in such a manner that their +relations to each other can be seen at a glance. + +The first of these Tables, shows the date of the origin of cotton +manufactories in England, and the amount of cotton annually consumed, +down to 1853; the origin and amount of the exports of cotton from the +United States to Europe; the sources of England's supplies of cotton, +from countries other than the United States; the dates of the +discoveries which have promoted the production and manufacture of +cotton; the commencement of the movements made to meliorate the +condition of the African race; and the occurrence of events that have +increased the value of slavery, and led to its extension. + +The second and third of the tables, relate to the exports and imports of +the United States; and illustrate the relations sustained by slavery, to +the other industrial interests and to the commerce of the country. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY STATEMENTS. + + Character of the Slavery controversy in the United + States--In Great Britain--Its influence in + modifying the policy of Anti-Slavery men in + America--Course of the Churches--Political + Parties--Result, COTTON IS KING--Necessity of + reviewing the policy in relation to the African + race--Topics embraced in the discussion. + + +THE controversy on SLAVERY, in the United States, has been one of an +exciting and complicated character. The power to emancipate existing, in +fact, in the States separately and not in the general government, the +efforts to abolish it, by appeals to public opinion, have been fruitless +except when confined to single States. In Great Britain the question was +simple. The power to abolish slavery in her West Indian colonies was +vested in Parliament. To agitate the people of England, and call out a +full expression of sentiment, was to control Parliament and secure its +abolition. The success of the English abolitionists, in the employment +of moral force, had a powerful influence in modifying the policy of +American anti-slavery men. Failing to discern the difference in the +condition of the two countries, they attempted to create a public +sentiment throughout the United States adverse to slavery, in the +confident expectation of speedily overthrowing the institution. The +issue taken, that slavery is _malum in se_--a sin in itself--was +prosecuted with all the zeal and eloquence they could command. Churches +adopting the _sin per se_ doctrine, inquired of their converts, not +whether they supported slavery by the use of its products, but whether +they believed the institution itself sinful. Could public sentiment be +brought to assume the proper ground; could the slaveholder be convinced +that the world denounced him as equally criminal with the robber and +murderer; then, it was believed, he would abandon the system. Political +parties, subsequently organized, taught, that to vote for a slaveholder, +or a pro-slavery man, was sinful, and could not be done without violence +to conscience; while, at the same time, they made no scruples of using +the products of slave labor--the exorbitant demand for which was the +great bulwark of the institution. This was a radical error. It laid all +who adopted it open to the charge of practical inconsistency, and left +them without any moral power over the consciences of others. As long as +all used their products, so long the slaveholders found the _per se_ +doctrine working them no harm; as long as no provision was made for +supplying the demand for tropical products by free labor, so long there +was no risk in extending the field of operations. Thus, the very things +necessary to the overthrow of American slavery, were left undone, while +those essential to its prosperity, were continued in the most active +operation; so that, now, after more than a thirty years' war, we may +say, emphatically, COTTON IS KING, and his enemies are vanquished. + +Under these circumstances, it is due to the age--to the friends of +humanity--to the cause of liberty--to the safety of the Union--that we +should review the movements made in behalf of the African race, in our +country; so that errors of principle may be abandoned; mistakes in +policy corrected; the free colored people taught their true relations to +the industrial interests of the world; the rights of the slave as well +as the master secured; and the principles of the constitution +established and revered. It is proposed, therefore, to examine this +subject in the light of the social, civil, and commercial history of the +country; and, in doing this, to embrace the facts and arguments under +the following heads: + +1. The early movements on the subject of slavery; the circumstances +under which the Colonization Society took its rise; the relations it +sustained to slavery and to the schemes projected for its abolition; the +origin of the elements which have given to American slavery its +commercial value and consequent powers of expansion; and the futility of +the means used to prevent the extension of the institution. + +2. The relations of American slavery to the industrial interests of our +own country; to the demands of commerce; and to the present political +crisis. + +3. The industrial, social, and moral condition of the free colored +people in the British colonies and in the United States; and the +influence they have exerted on public sentiment in relation to the +perpetuation of slavery. + +4. The moral relations of persons holding the _per se_ doctrine, on the +subject of slavery, to the purchase and consumption of slave labor +products. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE EARLY MOVEMENTS ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY; THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER +WHICH THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY TOOK ITS RISE; THE RELATIONS IT SUSTAINED +TO SLAVERY AND TO THE SCHEMES PROJECTED FOR ITS ABOLITION; THE ORIGIN OF +THE ELEMENTS WHICH HAVE GIVEN TO AMERICAN SLAVERY ITS COMMERCIAL VALUE +AND CONSEQUENT POWERS OF EXPANSION; AND THE FUTILITY OF THE MEANS USED +TO PREVENT THE EXTENSION OF THE INSTITUTION. + + Emancipation in the United States begun--First + Abolition Society organized--Progress of + Emancipation--First Cotton Mill--Exclusion of + Slavery from N. W. Territory--Elements of Slavery + expansion--Cotton Gin invented--Suppression of the + Slave Trade--Cotton Manufactures commenced in + Boston--Franklin's Appeal--Condition of the Free + Colored People--Boston Prison-Discipline + Society--Darkening Prospects of the Colored + People. + + +FOUR years after the Declaration of American Independence, Pennsylvania +and Massachusetts had emancipated their slaves; and, eight years +thereafter, Connecticut and Rhode Island followed their example. + +Three years after the last named event, an _abolition society_ was +organized by the citizens of the State of New York, with John Jay at its +head. Two years subsequently, the Pennsylvanians did the same thing, +electing Benjamin Franklin to the presidency of their association. The +same year, too, slavery was forever excluded, by act of Congress, from +the Northwest Territory. This year is also memorable as having witnessed +the erection of the first cotton mill in the United States, at Beverley, +Massachusetts. + +During the year that the New York Abolition Society was formed, Watts, +of England, had so far perfected the _steam engine_ as to use it in +propelling machinery for spinning cotton; and the year the Pennsylvania +Society was organized witnessed the invention of the _power loom_. The +_carding machine_ and the _spinning jenny_ having been invented twenty +years before, the power loom completed the machinery necessary to the +indefinite extension of the manufacture of cotton. + +The work of emancipation, begun by the four States named, continued to +progress, so that in seventeen years from the adoption of the +constitution, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and New Jersey, had also +enacted laws to free themselves from the burden of slavery. + +As the work of manumission proceeded, the elements of slavery expansion +were multiplied. When the four States first named liberated their +slaves, no regular exports of cotton to Europe had yet commenced; and +the year New Hampshire set hers free, only 138,328 lbs. of that article +were shipped from the country. Simultaneously with the action of +Vermont, in the year following, the _cotton gin_ was invented, and an +unparalleled impulse given to the cultivation of cotton. At the same +time, Louisiana, with her immense territory, was added to the Union, and +room for the extension of slavery vastly increased. New York lagged +behind Vermont for six years, before taking her first step to free her +slaves, when she found the exports of cotton to England had reached +9,500,000 lbs.; and New Jersey, still more tardy, fell five years behind +New York; at which time the exports of that staple--so rapidly had its +cultivation progressed--were augmented to 38,900,000 lbs. + +Four years after the emancipations by States had ceased, the slave trade +was prohibited; but, as if each movement for freedom must have its +counter-movement to stimulate slavery, that same year the manufacture of +cotton goods was commenced in Boston. Two years after that event, the +exports of cotton amounted to 93,900,000 lbs. War with Great Britain, +soon afterward, checked both our exports and her manufacture of the +article; but the year 1817, memorable in this connection, from its being +the date of the organization of the Colonization Society, found our +exports augmented to 95,660,000 lbs., and her consumption enlarged to +126,240,000 lbs. Carding and spinning machinery had now reached a good +degree of perfection, and the power loom was brought into general use in +England, and was also introduced into the United States. Steamboats, +too, were coming into use, in both countries; and great activity +prevailed in commerce, manufactures, and the cultivation of cotton. + +But how fared it with the free colored people during all this time? To +obtain a true answer to this question we must revert to the days of the +Pennsylvania Abolition Society. + +With freedom to the slave, came anxieties among the whites as to the +results. Nine years after Pennsylvania and Massachusetts had taken the +lead in the trial of emancipation, Franklin issued an appeal for aid to +enable his society to form a plan for the promotion of industry, +intelligence, and morality among the free blacks; and he zealously urged +the measure on public attention, as essential to their well-being, and +indispensable to the safety of society. He expressed his belief, that +such is the debasing influence of slavery on human nature, that its very +extirpation, if not performed with care, may sometimes open a source of +serious evils; and that so far as emancipation should be promoted by the +society, it was a duty incumbent on its members to instruct, to advise, +to qualify those restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of +civil liberty. + +How far Franklin's influence failed to promote the humane object he had +in view, may be inferred from the fact, that forty-seven years after +Pennsylvania passed her act of emancipation, and thirty-eight after he +issued his appeal, _one-third_ of the convicts in her penitentiary were +colored men; though the preceding census showed that her slave +population had almost wholly disappeared--there being but _two hundred +and eleven_ of them remaining, while her free colored people had +increased in number to more than _thirty thousand_. Few of the other +free States were more fortunate, and some of them were even in a worse +condition--_one-half_ of the convicts in the penitentiary of New Jersey +being colored men. + +But this is not the whole of the sad tale that must be recorded. Gloomy +as was the picture of crime among the colored people of New Jersey, that +of Massachusetts was vastly worse. For though the number of her colored +convicts, as compared with the whites, was as _one_ to _six_, yet the +proportion of her colored population in the penitentiary was _one_ out +of _one hundred and forty_, while the proportion in New Jersey was but +_one_ out of _eight hundred and thirty-three_. Thus, in Massachusetts, +where emancipation had, in 1780, been _immediate_ and unconditional, +there was, in 1826, among her colored people, about six times as much +crime as existed among those of New Jersey, where _gradual_ emancipation +had not been provided for until 1804. + +The moral condition of the colored people in the free States, generally, +at the period we are considering, may be understood more clearly from +the opinions expressed, at the time, by the _Boston Prison Discipline +Society_. This benevolent association included among its members, Rev. +Francis Wayland, Rev. Justin Edwards, Rev. Leonard Woods, Rev. William +Jenks, Rev. B. B. Wisner, Rev. Edward Beecher, Lewis Tappan, Esq., John +Tappan, Esq., Hon. George Bliss, and Hon. Samuel M. Hopkins. + +In the First Annual Report of the Society, dated June 2, 1826, they +enter into an investigation "of the progress of crime, with the causes +of it," from which we make the following extracts: + +"DEGRADED CHARACTER OF THE COLORED POPULATION.--The first cause, +existing in society, of the frequency and increase of crime is the +degraded character of the colored population. The facts, which are +gathered from the penitentiaries, to show how great a proportion of the +convicts are colored, even in those States where the colored population +is small, show, most strikingly, the connection between ignorance and +vice." + +The report proceeds to sustain its assertions by statistics, which +prove, that, in Massachusetts, where the free colored people constituted +_one seventy-fourth_ part of the population, they supplied _one-sixth_ +part of the convicts in her penitentiary; that in New York, where the +free colored people constituted _one thirty-fifth_ part of the +population, they supplied more than _one-fourth_ part of the convicts; +that, in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, where the colored people +constituted _one thirty-fourth_ part of the population, they supplied +more than _one-third_ part of the convicts; and that, in New Jersey, +where the colored people constituted _one-thirteenth_ part of the +population, they supplied more than _one-third_ part of the convicts. + +"It is not necessary," continues the report, "to pursue these +illustrations. It is sufficiently apparent, that one great cause of the +frequency and increase of crime, is neglecting to raise the character of +the colored population. + +"We derive an argument in favor of education from these facts. It +appears from the above statement, that about _one-fourth_ part of all +the expense incurred by the States above mentioned, for the support of +their criminal institutions, is for the colored convicts. * * Could +these States have anticipated these surprising results, and appropriated +the money to raise the character of the colored population, how much +better would have been their prospects, and how much less the expense of +the States through which they are dispersed for the support of their +colored convicts! * * If, however, their character can not be raised, +where they are, a powerful argument may be derived from these facts, in +favor of colonization, and civilized States ought surely to be as +willing to expend money on any given part of its population, to prevent +crime, as to punish it. + +"We can not but indulge the hope that the facts disclosed above, if they +do not lead to an effort to raise the character of the colored +population, will strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of all +the friends of colonizing the free people of color in the United +States." + +The Second Annual Report of the Society, dated June 1, 1827, gives the +results of its continued investigations into the condition of the free +colored people, in the following language and figures: + + "CHARACTER OF THE COLORED POPULATION.--In the last + report, this subject was exhibited at considerable + length. From a deep conviction of its importance, + and an earnest desire to keep it ever before the + public mind, till the remedy is applied, we + present the following table, showing, in regard to + several States, the whole population, the colored + population, the whole number of convicts, the + number of colored convicts, proportion of convicts + to the whole population, proportion of colored + convicts: + + + _Whole _Number _Proportion _Proportion + number of of of + _Whole _Colored of Colored Colored Colored + Population._ Population._ Convicts._ Convicts._ People._ Convicts._ + Mass. 523,000 7,000 314 50 1 to 74 1 to 6 + Conn. 275,000 8,000 117 39 1 to 34 1 to 3 + N. York 1,372,000 39,000 637 154 1 to 35 1 to 4 + N. Jersey 277,000 20,000 74 24 1 to 13 1 to 3 + Penn. 1,049,000 30,000 474 165 1 to 34 1 to 3 + +"Or, + + _Proportion of the _Proportion of the + Population sent to Colored Popu'n + Prison._ sent to Prison._ + + In Massachusetts, 1 out of 1665 1 out of 140 + In Connecticut, 1 out of 2350 1 out of 205 + In New York, 1 out of 2153 1 out of 253 + In New Jersey, 1 out of 3743 1 out of 833 + In Pennsylvania, 1 out of 2191 1 out of 181 + + +EXPENSE FOR THE SUPPORT OF COLORED CONVICTS. + + In Masachusetts, in 10 years, $17,734 + In Connecticut, in 15 years, 37,166 + In New York, in 27 years, 109,166 + -------- + Total $164 066 + +"Such is the abstract of the information presented last year, concerning +the degraded character of the colored population. The returns from +several prisons show, that the white convicts are remaining nearly the +same, or are diminishing, while the colored convicts are increasing. At +the same time, the white population is increasing, in the Northern +States, much faster than the colored population." + + _Whole No. _Colored + of Convicts._ Convicts._ _Proportion._ + In Massachusetts, 313 50 1 to 6 + In New York, 381 101 1 to 4 + In New Jersey, 67 33 1 to 2 + +Such is the testimony of men of unimpeachable veracity and undoubted +philanthrophy, as to the early results of emancipation in the United +States. Had the freedmen, in the Northern States, improved their +privileges; had they established a reputation for industry, integrity, +and virtue, far other consequences would have followed their +emancipation. Their advancement in moral character would have put to +shame the advocate for the perpetuation of slavery. Indeed, there could +have been no plausible argument found for its continuance. No regular +exports of cotton, no cultivation of cane sugar, to give a profitable +character to slave labor, had any existence when Jay and Franklin +commenced their labors, and when Congress took its first step for the +suppression of the slave trade. + +Unfortunately, the free colored people persevered in their evil habits. +This not only served to fix their own social and political condition on +the level of the slave, but it reacted with fearful effect upon their +brethren remaining in bondage. Their refusing to listen to the counsel +of the philanthropists, who urged them to forsake their indolence and +vice, and their frequent violations of the laws, more than all things +else, put a check to the tendencies, in public sentiment, toward general +emancipation. The failure of Franklin to obtain the means of +establishing institutions for the education of the blacks, confirmed the +popular belief that such an undertaking was impracticable, and the whole +African race, freedmen as well as slaves, were viewed as an intolerable +burden, such as the imports of foreign paupers are now considered. Thus +the free colored people themselves, ruthlessly threw the car of +emancipation from the track, and tore up the rails upon which, alone, it +could move. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + State of public opinion in relation to colored + population--Southern views of + Emancipation--Influence of Mr. Jefferson's + opinions--He opposed Emancipation except connected + with Colonization--Negro equality not contemplated + by the Father's of the Revolution--This proved by + the resolutions of their conventions--The true + objects of the opposition to the slave + trade--Motives of British Statesmen in forcing + Slavery on the colonies--Absurdity of supposing + negro equality was contemplated. + + +THE opinion that the African race would become a growing burden had its +origin before the revolution, and led the colonists to oppose the +introduction of slaves; but failing in this, through the opposition of +England, as soon as they threw off the foreign yoke many of the States +at once crushed the system--among the first acts of sovereignty by +Virginia, being the prohibition of the slave trade. In the determination +to suppress this traffic all the States united--but in emancipation +their policy differed. It was found easier to manage the slaves than the +free blacks--at least it was claimed to be so--and, for this reason, the +slave States, not long after the others had completed their work of +manumission, proceeded to enact laws prohibiting emancipations, except +on condition that the persons liberated should be removed. The newly +organized free States, too, taking alarm at this, and dreading the +influx of the free colored people, adopted measures to prevent the +ingress of this proscribed and helpless race. + +These movements, so distressing to the reflecting colored man, be it +remembered, were not the effect of the action of colonizationists, but +took place, mostly, long before the organization of the American +Colonization Society; and, at its first annual meeting, the importance +and humanity of colonization was strongly urged, on the very ground that +the slave States, as soon as they should find that the persons liberated +could be sent to Africa, would relax their laws against emancipation. + +The slow progress made by the great body of the free blacks in the +North, or the absence, rather, of any evidences of improvement in +industry, intelligence, and morality, gave rise to the notion, that +before they could be elevated to an equality with the whites, slavery +must be wholly abolished throughout the Union. The constant ingress of +liberated slaves from the South, to commingle with the free colored +people of the North, it was claimed, tended to perpetuate the low moral +standard originally existing among the blacks; and universal +emancipation was believed to be indispensable to the elevation of the +race. Those who adopted this view, seem to have overlooked the fact, +that the Africans, of savage origin, could not be elevated at once to an +equality with the American people, by the mere force of legal +enactments. More than this was needed, for their elevation, as all are +now, reluctantly, compelled to acknowledge. Emancipation, unaccompanied +by the means of intellectual and moral culture, is of but little value. +The savage, liberated from bondage, is a savage still. + +The slave States adopted opinions, as to the negro character, opposite +to those of the free States, and would not risk the experiment of +emancipation. They said, if the free States feel themselves burdened by +the few Africans they have freed, and whom they find it impracticable to +educate and elevate, how much greater would be the evil the slave States +must bring upon themselves by letting loose a population nearly twelve +times as numerous. Such an act, they argued, would be suicidal--would +crush out all progress in civilization; or, in the effort to elevate the +negro with the white man, allowing him equal freedom of action, would +make the more energetic Anglo-Saxon the slave of the indolent African. +Such a task, onerous in the highest degree, they could not, and would +not undertake; such an experiment, on their social system, they dared +not hazard; and in this determination they were encouraged to +persevere, not only by the results of emancipation, then wrought out at +the North, but by the settled convictions which had long prevailed at +the South, in relation to the impropriety of freeing the negroes. This +opinion was one of long standing, and had been avowed by some of the +ablest statesmen of the Revolution. Among these Mr. Jefferson stood +prominent. He was inclined to consider the African inferior "in the +endowments both of body and mind" to the European; and, while expressing +his hostility to slavery earnestly, vehemently, he avowed the opinion +that it was impossible for the two races to live equally free in the +same government--that "nature, habit, opinion, had drawn indelible lines +of distinction between them"--that, accordingly, emancipation and +"deportation" (colonization) should go hand in hand--and that these +processes should be gradual enough to make proper provisions for the +blacks in a new country, and fill their places in this with free white +laborers.[2] + +Another point needs examination. Notwithstanding the well-known opinions +of Mr. Jefferson, it has been urged that the Declaration of Independence +was designed, by those who issued it, to apply to the negro as well as +to the white man; and that they purposed to extend to the negro, at the +end of the struggle, then begun, all the privileges which they hoped to +secure for themselves. Nothing can be further from the truth, and +nothing more certain than that the rights of the negro never entered +into the questions then considered. That document was written by Mr. +Jefferson himself, and, with the views which he entertained, he could +not have thought, for a moment, of conferring upon the negro the rights +of American citizenship. Hear him further upon this subject and then +judge: + +"It will probably be asked, why not retain and incorporate the blacks +into the State, and thus save the expense of supplying by importation of +white settlers, the vacancies they will leave? Deep-rooted prejudices +entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of +the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real +distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will +divide us into parties, and produce convulsions, which will probably +never end, but in the extermination of the one or the other race. To +these objections, which are political, may be added others, which are +physical and moral"[3] + +Now it is evident, from this language, that Mr. Jefferson was not only +opposed to allowing the negroes the rights of citizenship, but that he +was opposed to emancipation also, except on the condition that the +freedmen should be removed from the country. He could, therefore, have +meant nothing more by the phrase, "all men are created equal," which he +employed in the Declaration of Independence, than the announcement of a +general principle, which, in its application to the colonists, was +intended most emphatically to assert their equality, before God and the +world, with the imperious Englishmen who claimed the divine right of +lording it over them. This was undoubtedly the view held by Mr. +Jefferson, and the extent to which he expected the language of the +Declaration to be applied.[4] Nor could the signers of that instrument, +or the people whom they represented, ever have intended to apply its +principles to any barbarous or semi-barbarous people, in the sense of +admitting them to an equality with themselves in the management of a +free government. Had this been their design, they must have enfranchised +both Indians and Africans, as both were within the territory over which +they exercised jurisdiction. + +But testimony of a conclusive character is at hand, to show that quite +a different object was to be accomplished, than negro equality, in the +movements of the colonists which preceded the outbreak of the American +Revolution. They passed resolutions upon the subject of the slave trade, +it is true, but it was to oppose it, because it increased the colored +population, a result they deprecated in the strongest language. The +checking of this evil, great as the people considered it, was not the +principal object they had in view, in resolving to crush out the slave +trade. It was one of far greater moment, affecting the prosperity of the +mother country, and designed to force her to deal justly with the +colonies. + +This point can only be understood by an examination of the history of +that period, so as to comprehend the relations existing between Great +Britain and her several colonies. Let us, then, proceed to the +performance of this task. + +The whole commerce of Great Britain, in 1704, amounted, in value, to +thirty-two and a half millions of dollars. In less than three quarters +of a century thereafter, or three years preceding the outbreak of the +American Revolution, it had increased to eighty millions annually. More +than thirty millions of this amount, or over one-third of the whole, +consisted of exports to her West Indian and North American colonies and +to Africa. The yearly trade with Africa, alone, at this +period--1772--was over four and a third millions of dollars: a +significant fact, when it is known that this African traffic was in +slaves. + +But this statement fails to give a true idea of the value of North +America and the West Indies to the mother country. Of the commodities +which she imported from them--tobacco, rice, sugar, rum--ten millions of +dollars worth, annually, were re-exported to her other dependencies, and +five millions to foreign countries--thus making her indebted to these +colonies, directly and indirectly, for more than one-half of all her +commerce. + +If England was greatly dependent upon these colonies for her increasing +prosperity, they were also dependent upon her; and upon each other, for +the mutual promotion of their comfort and wealth. This is easily +understood. The colonies were prohibited from manufacturing for +themselves. This rendered it necessary that they should be supplied with +linen and woolen fabrics, hardware and cutlery, from the looms and shops +of Great Britain; and, in addition to these necessaries, they were +dependent upon her ships to furnish them with slaves from Africa. The +North American colonies were dependent upon the West Indies for coffee, +sugar, rum; and the West Indies upon North America, in turn, for their +main supplies of provisions and lumber. The North Americans, if +compelled by necessity, could do without the manufacures of England, and +forego the use of the groceries and rum of the West Indies; but Great +Britain could not easily bear the loss of half her commerce, nor could +the West India planters meet a sudden emergency that would cut off their +usual supplies of provisions. + +Such were the relations existing between Great Britain and the colonies, +and between the colonies themselves, when the Bostonians cast the tea +overboard. This act of resistance to law, was followed by the passage, +through Parliament, of the Boston Port Bill, closing Boston Harbor to +all commerce whatsoever. The North American colonies, conscious of their +power over the commerce of Great Britain, at once obeyed the call of the +citizens of Boston, and united in the adoption of peaceful measures, to +force the repeal of the obnoxious act. Meetings of the people were held +throughout the country, generally, and resolutions passed, recommending +the non-importation and non-consumption of all British manufactures and +West India products; and resolving, also, that they would not export any +provisions, lumber, or other products, whatever, to Great Britain or any +of her colonies. These resolutions were accompanied by another, in many +of the counties of Virginia, in some of the State conventions, and, +finally, in those of the Continental Congress, in which the slave trade, +and the purchase of additional slaves, were specially referred to as +measures to be at once discontinued. These resolutions, in substance, +declare, as the sentiment of the people: That the African trade is +injurious to the colonies; that it obstructs the population of them by +freemen; that it prevents the immigration of manufacturers and other +useful emigrants from Europe from settling among them; that it is +dangerous to virtue and the welfare of the population; that it occasions +an annual increase of the balance of trade against them; that they most +earnestly wished to see an entire stop put to such a wicked, cruel, and +unlawful traffic; that they would not purchase any slaves hereafter to +be imported, nor hire their vessels, nor sell their commodities or +manufactures to those who are concerned in their importation. + +From these facts it appears evident, that the primary object of all the +resolutions was to cripple the commerce of England. Those in relation to +the slave trade, especially, were expected, at once, when taken in +connection with the determination to withhold all supplies of provisions +from the West India planters--to stop the slave trade, and deprive the +British merchants of all further profits from that traffic. But it would +do more than this, as it would compel the West India planters, in a +great degree, to stop the cultivation of sugar and cotton, for export, +and force them to commence the growing of provisions for food--thus +producing ruinous consequences to British manufactures and commerce.[5] +But, in the opposition thus made to the slave trade, there is no act +warranting the conclusion that the negroes were to be admitted to a +position of equality with the whites. The sentiments expressed, with a +single exception,[6] are the reverse, and their increase viewed as an +evil. South Carolina and Georgia did not follow the example of Virginia +and North Carolina in resolving against the slave trade, but acquiesced +in the non-intercourse policy, until the grievances complained of should +be remedied. Another reason existed for opposing the slave trade; this +was the importance of preventing the increase of a population that might +be employed against the liberties of the colonies. That negroes were +thus employed, during the Revolution, is a matter of history; and that +the British hoped to use that population for their own advantage, is +clearly indicated by the language of the Earl of Dartmouth, who +declared, as a sufficient reason for turning a deaf ear to the +remonstrances of the colonists against the further importation of +slaves, that "Negroes cannot become Republicans--they will be a power in +our hands to restrain the unruly colonists." + +And, now, will any one say, that the fathers of the Revolution ever +intended to declare the negro the equal of the white man, in the sense +that he was entitled to an equality of political privileges under the +constitution of the United States! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol. i. page 370. + +[3] Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol. i. page 370, Note. + +[4] That Mr. Jefferson was considered as having no settled plans or +views in relation to the disposal of the blacks, and that he was +disinclined to risk the disturbance of the harmony of the country for +the sake of the negro, appears evident from the opinions entertained of +him and his schemes by John Quincy Adams. After speaking of the zeal of +Mr. Jefferson, and the strong manner in which, at times, he had spoken +against slavery, Mr. Adams says: "But Jefferson had not the spirit of +martyrdom. He would have introduced a flaming denunciation of slavery +into the Declaration of Independence, but the discretion of his +colleagues struck it out. He did insert a most eloquent and impassioned +argument against it in his Notes on Virginia; but, on that very account, +the book was published almost against his will. He projected a plan of +general emancipation, in his revision of the Virginia laws, but finally +presented a plan leaving slavery precisely where it was; and, in his +Memoir, he leaves a posthumous warning to the planters that they must, +at no distant day, emancipate their slaves, or that worse will follow; +but he withheld the publication of his prophecy till he should himself +be in the grave."--_Life of J. Q. Adams, page 177, 178._ + +[5] See a more extended detail of the proceedings in relation to this +subject, both in England and the colonies, in the Appendix. + +[6] Providence, Rhode Island. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Dismal condition of Africa--Hopes of Wilberforce + disappointed--Organization of the American + Colonization Society--Its necessity, objects, and + policy--Public sentiment in its favor--Opposition + developes itself--Wm. Lloyd Garrison, James G. + Birney, Gerrit Smith--Effects of + opposition--Stimulants to Slavery--Exports of + Cotton--England sustaining American + Slavery--Failure of the Niger Expedition--Strength + of Slavery--Political action--Its failure--Its + fruits. + + +ANOTHER question, "How shall the slave trade be suppressed?" began to be +agitated near the close of the last century. The moral desolation +existing in Africa, was without a parallel among the nations of the +earth. When the last of our Northern States had freed its slaves, not a +single Christian Church had been successfully established in Africa, and +the slave trade was still legalized to the citizens of every Christian +nation. Even its subsequent prohibition, by the United States and +England, had no tendency to check the traffic, nor ameliorate the +condition of the African. The other Europeon powers, having now the +monopoly of the trade, continued to prosecute it with a vigor it never +felt before. The institution of slavery, while lessened in the United +States, where it had not yet been made profitable, was rapidly acquiring +an unprecedented enlargement in Cuba and Brazil, where its profitable +character had been more fully realized. How shall the slave trade be +annihilated, slavery extension prevented, and Africa receive a Christian +civilization? were questions that agitated the bosom of many a +philanthropist, long after Wilberforce had achieved his triumphs. It was +found, that the passage of laws prohibiting the slave trade, and the +extermination of that traffic, were two distinct things--the one not +necessarily following the other. The success of Wilberforce with the +British Parliament, only increased the necessity for additional +philanthropic efforts; and a quarter of a century afterwards found the +evil vastly increased which he imagined was wholly destroyed. + +It was at the period in the history of Africa, and of public sentiment +on slavery, which we have been considering, that the American +Colonization Society was organized. It began its labors when the eye of +the statesman, the philanthropist, and the Christian, could discover no +other plan of overcoming the moral desolation, the universal oppression +of the colored race, than by restoring the most enlightened of their +number to Africa itself. Emancipation, by States, had been at an end for +a dozen of years. The improvement of the free colored people, in the +presence of the slave, was considered impracticable. Slave labor had +become so profitable, as to leave little ground to expect general +emancipation, even though all other objections had been removed. The +slave trade had increased twenty-five per cent. during the preceding ten +years. Slavery was rapidly extending itself in the tropics, and could +not be arrested but by the suppression of the slave trade. The foothold +of the Christian missionary was yet so precarious in Africa, as to leave +it doubtful whether he could sustain his position. + +The colonization of the free colored people in Africa, under the +teachings of the Christian men who were prepared to accompany them, it +was believed, would as fully meet all the conditions of the race, as was +possible in the then existing state of the world. It would separate +those who should emigrate from all further contact with slavery, and +from its depressing influences; it would relax the laws of the slave +States against emancipation, and lead to the more frequent liberation of +slaves; it would stimulate and encourage the colored people remaining +here, to engage in efforts for their own elevation; it would establish +free republics along the coast of Africa, and drive away the slave +trader; it would prevent the extension of slavery, by means of the slave +trade, in tropical America; it would introduce civilization and +Christianity among the people of Africa, and overturn their barbarism +and bloody superstitions; and, if successful, it would react upon +slavery at home, by pointing out to the States and General Government, a +mode by which they might free themselves from the whole African race. + +The Society had thus undertaken as great an amount of work as it could +perform. The field was broad enough, truly, for an association that +hoped to obtain an income of but five to ten thousand dollars a year, +and realized annually an average of only $3,276 during the first six +years of its existence. It did not include the destruction of American +slavery among the objects it labored to accomplish. That subject had +been fully discussed; the ablest men in the nation had labored for its +overthrow; more than half the original States of the Union had +emancipated their slaves; the advantages of freedom to the colored man +had been tested; the results had not been as favorable as anticipated; +the public sentiment of the country was adverse to an increase of the +free colored population; the few of their number who had risen to +respectability and affluence, were too widely separated to act in +concert in promoting measures for the general good; and, until better +results should follow the liberation of slaves, further emancipations, +by the States, were not to be expected. The friends of the Colonization +Society, therefore, while affording every encouragement to emancipation +by individuals, refused to agitate the question of the general abolition +of slavery. Nor did they thrust aside any other scheme of benevolence in +behalf of the African race. Forty years had elapsed from the +commencement of emancipation in the country, and thirty from the date of +Franklin's Appeal, before the society sent off its first emigrants. At +that date, no extended plans were in existence, promising relief to the +free colored man. A period of lethargy, among the benevolent, had +succeeded the State emancipations, as a consequence of the indifference +of the free colored people, as a class, to their degraded condition. The +public sentiment of the country was fully prepared, therefore, to adopt +colonization as the best means, or, rather, as the only means for +accomplishing any thing for them or for the African race. Indeed, so +general was the sentiment in favor of colonization, somewhere beyond the +limits of the United States, that those who disliked Africa, commenced a +scheme of emigration to Hayti, and prosecuted it, until eight thousand +free colored persons were removed to that island--a number nearly +equaling the whole emigration to Liberia up to 1850. Haytien emigration, +however, proved a most disastrous experiment. + +But the general acquiescence in the objects of the Colonization Society +did not long continue. The exports of cotton from the South were then +rapidly on the increase. Slave labor had become profitable, and slaves, +in the cotton-growing States, were no longer considered a burden. Seven +years after the first emigrants reached Liberia, the South exported +294,310,115 lbs. of cotton; and, the year following, the total cotton +crop reached 325,000,000 lbs. But a great depression in prices had +occurred,[7] and alarmed the planters for their safety. They had +decided against emancipation, and now to have their slaves rendered +valueless, was an evil they were determined to avert. The Report of the +Boston Prison Discipline Society, which appeared at this moment, was +well calculated, by the disclosures it made, to increase the alarm in +the South, and to confirm slaveholders in their belief of the dangers of +emancipation. + +At this juncture, a warfare against colonization was commenced at the +South, and it was pronounced an abolition scheme in disguise. In +defending itself, the society re-asserted its principles of neutrality +in relation to slavery, and that it had only in view the colonization of +the free colored people. In the heat of the contest, the South were +reminded of their former sentiments in relation to the whole colored +population, and that colonization merely proposed removing one division +of a people they had pronounced a public burden.[8] + +The emancipationists at the North had only lent their aid to +colonization in the hope that it would prove an able auxiliary to +abolition; but when the society declared its unalterable purpose to +adhere to its original position of neutrality, they withdrew their +support, and commenced hostilities against it. "The Anti-Slavery +Society," said a distinguished abolitionist, "began with a declaration +of war against the Colonization Society."[9] This feeling of hostility +was greatly increased by the action of the abolitionists of England. +The doctrine of "Immediate, not Gradual Abolition," was announced by +them as their creed; and the anti-slavery men of the United States +adopted it as the basis of their action. Its success in the English +Parliament, in procuring the passage of the Act for West India +emancipation, in 1833, gave a great impulse to the abolition cause in +the United States. + +In 1832, William Lloyd Garrison declared hostilities against the +Colonization Society; in 1834, James G. Birney followed his example; +and, in 1836 Gerritt Smith also abandoned the cause. The North +everywhere resounded with the cry of "Immediate Abolition;" and, in +1837, the abolitionists numbered 1,015 societies; had seventy agents +under commission, and an income, for the year, of $36,000.[10] The +Colonization Society, on the other hand, was greatly embarrassed. Its +income, in 1838, was reduced to $10,000; it was deeply in debt; the +parent society did not send a single emigrant, that year, to Liberia; +and its enemies pronounced it bankrupt and dead.[11] + +But did the abolitionists succeed in forcing emancipation upon the +South, when they had thus rendered colonization powerless? Did the +fetters fall from the slave at their bidding? Did fire from heaven +descend, and consume the slaveholder at their invocation? No such thing! +They had not touched the true cause of the extension of slavery. They +had not discovered the secret of its power; and, therefore, its locks +remained unshorn, its strength unabated. The institution advanced as +triumphantly as if no opposition existed. The planters were progressing +steadily, in securing to themselves the monopoly of the cotton markets +of Europe, and in extending the area of slavery at home. In the same +year that Gerritt Smith declared for abolition, the title of the Indians +to fifty-five millions of acres of land, in the slave States, was +extinguished, and the tribes removed. The year that colonization was +depressed to the lowest point, the exports of cotton, from the United +States, amounted to 595,952,297 lbs., and the consumption of the article +in England, to 477,206,108 lbs. + +When Mr. Birney seceded from colonization, he encouraged his new allies +with the hope, that West India free labor would render our slave labor +less profitable, and emancipation, as a consequence, be more easily +effected. How stood this matter six years afterward? This will be best +understood by contrast. In 1800, the West Indies exported 17,000,000 +lbs. of cotton, and the United States, 17,789,803 lbs. They were then +about equally productive in that article. In 1840, the West India +exports had dwindled down to 427,529 lbs., while those of the United +States had increased to 743,941,061 lbs. + +And what was England doing all this while? Having lost her supplies from +the West Indies, she was quietly spinning away at American slave labor +cotton; and to ease the public conscience of the kingdom, was loudly +talking of a free labor supply of the commodity from the banks of the +Niger! But the expedition up that river failed, and 1845 found her +manufacturing 626,496,000 lbs. of cotton, mostly the product of American +slaves! The strength of American slavery at that moment may be inferred +from the fact, that we exported that year 872,905,996 lbs. of cotton, +and our production of cane sugar had reached over 200,000,000 lbs.; +while, to make room for slavery extension, we were busied in the +annexation of Texas and in preparations for the consequent war with +Mexico! + +But abolitionists themselves, some time before this, had, mostly, become +convinced of the feeble character of their efforts against slavery, and +allowed politicians to enlist them in a political crusade, as the last +hope of arresting the progress of the system. The cry of "Immediate +Abolition" died away; reliance upon moral means was mainly abandoned; +and the limitation of the institution, geographically, became the chief +object of effort. The results of more than a dozen years of political +action are before the public, and what has it accomplished! We are not +now concerned in the inquiry of how far the strategy of politicians +succeeded in making the votes of abolitionists subservient to slavery +extension. That they did so, in at least one prominent case, will never +be denied by any candid man. All we intend to say, is, that the cotton +planters, instead of being crippled in their operations, were able, in +the year ending the last of June, 1853, to export 1,111,570,370 lbs. of +cotton, beside supplying near 300,000,000 lbs. for home consumption; and +that England, the year ending the last of January, 1853, consumed the +unprecedented quantity of 817,998,048 lbs. of that staple.[12] The year +1854, instead of finding slavery perishing under the blows it had +received, has witnessed the destruction of all the old barriers to its +extension, and beholds it expanded widely enough for the profitable +employment of the slave population, with all its natural increase, for a +hundred years to come!! + +If political action against slavery has been thus disastrously +unfortunate, how is it with anti-slavery action, at large, as to its +efficiency at this moment? On this point, hear the testimony of a +correspondent of Frederick Douglass' Paper, January 26, 1855: + +"How gloriously did the anti-slavery cause arise . . . . . . in 1833-4! +And now what is it, in our agency! . . . . . . What is it, through the +errors or crimes of its advocates variously--probably quite as much as +through the brazen, gross, and licentious wickedness of its enemies. +Alas! what is it but a mutilated, feeble, discordant, and half-expiring +instrument, at which Satan and his children, legally and illegally, +scoff! Of it I despair." + +Such are the crowning results of both political and anti-slavery action, +for the overthrow of slavery! Such are the demonstrations of their utter +impotency as a means of relief to the bond and free of the colored +people! + +Surely, then, if the negro is capable of elevation, it is time that some +other measures should be devised, than those hitherto adopted, for the +melioration of the African race! Surely, too, it is time for the +American people to rebuke that class of politicians, North and South, +whose only capital consists in keeping up a fruitless warfare upon the +subject of slavery--nay! abundant in fruits to the poor colored man; but +to him, "their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of +Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter; +their vine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps."[13] + +The application of this language, to the case under consideration, will +be fully justified when the facts, in the remaining pages of this work, +are carefully studied. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] See Table I, Appendix. + +[8] The sentiment of the Colonization Society, was expressed in the +following resolution, embraced in its annual report of 1826: + +"_Resolved_,--That the society disclaims, in the most unqualified terms, +the design attributed to it, of interfering, on the one hand, with the +legal rights and obligations of slavery; and, on the other, of +perpetuating its existence within the limits of the country." + +On another occasion Mr. Clay, on behalf of the society, defined its +position thus: + +"It protested, from the commencement, and throughout all its progress, +and it now protests, that it entertains no purpose, on its own +authority, or by its own means, to attempt emancipation, partial or +general; that it knows the General Government has no constitutional +power to achieve such an object; that it believes that the States, and +the States only, which tolerate slavery, can accomplish the work of +emancipation; and that it ought to be left to them exclusively, +absolutely, and voluntarily, to decide the question."--_Tenth Annual +Report, p. 14, 1828._ + +[9] Gerrit Smith, 1835. + +[10] Lundy's Life. + +[11] On the floor of an Ecclesiastical Assembly, one minister pronounced +colonization "a dead horse;" while another claimed that his "old mare +was giving freedom to more slaves, by trotting off with them to Canada, +than the Colonization Society was sending of emigrants to Liberia." + +[12] This portion of the work is left unchanged, and the statistics of +the increase of slave labor products, up to 1859, introduced elsewhere. + +[13] Deuteronomy, xxxii. 32, 33. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE RELATIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY TO THE INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS OF OUR +COUNTRY; TO THE DEMANDS OF COMMERCE; AND TO THE PRESENT POLITICAL +CRISIS. + + Present condition of Slavery--Not an isolated + system--Its relations to other industrial + interests--To manufactures, commerce, trade, human + comfort--Its benevolent aspect--The reverse + picture--Immense value of tropical possessions to + Great Britain--England's attempted monopoly of + Manufactures--Her dependence on American + Planters--Cotton Planters attempt to monopolize + Cotton markets--_Fusion_ of these parties--Free + Trade essential to their success--Influence on + agriculture, mechanics--Exports of Cotton, + Tobacco, etc.--Increased production of + Provisions--Their extent--New markets needed. + + +THE institution of slavery, at this moment, gives indications of a +vitality that was never anticipated by its friends or foes. Its enemies +often supposed it about ready to expire, from the wounds they had +inflicted, when in truth it had taken two steps in advance, while they +had taken twice the number in an opposite direction. In each successive +conflict, its assailants have been weakened, while its dominion has been +extended. + +This has arisen from causes too generally overlooked. Slavery is not an +isolated system, but is so mingled with the business of the world, that +it derives facilities from the most innocent transactions. Capital and +labor, in Europe and America, are largely employed in the manufacture of +cotton. These goods, to a great extent, may be seen freighting every +vessel, from Christian nations, that traverses the seas of the globe; +and filling the warehouses and shelves of the merchants over two-thirds +of the world. By the industry, skill, and enterprise employed in the +manufacture of cotton, mankind are better clothed; their comfort better +promoted; general industry more highly stimulated; commerce more widely +extended; and civilization more rapidly advanced than in any preceding +age. + +To the superficial observer, all the agencies, based upon the sale and +manufacture of cotton, seem to be legitimately engaged in promoting +human happiness; and he, doubtless, feels like invoking Heaven's +choicest blessings upon them. When he sees the stockholders in the +cotton corporations receiving their dividends, the operatives their +wages, the merchants their profits, and civilized people everywhere +clothed comfortably in cottons, he can not refrain from exclaiming: The +lines have fallen unto them in pleasant places; yea, they have a goodly +heritage! + +But turn a moment to the source whence the raw cotton, the basis of +these operations, is obtained, and observe the aspect of things in that +direction. When the statistics on the subject are examined, it appears +that nine-tenths of the cotton consumed in the Christian world is the +product of the slave labor of the United States.[14] It is this monopoly +that has given to slavery its commercial value; and, while this monopoly +is retained, the institution will continue to extend itself wherever it +can find room to spread. He who looks for any other result, must expect +that nations, which, for centuries, have waged war to extend their +commerce, will now abandon that means of aggrandizement, and bankrupt +themselves to force the abolition of American slavery! + +This is not all. The economical value of slavery, as an agency for +supplying the means of extending manufactures and commerce, has long +been understood by statesmen.[15] The discovery of the power of steam, +and the inventions in machinery, for preparing and manufacturing cotton, +revealed the important fact, that a single island, having the monopoly +secured to itself, could supply the world with clothing. Great Britain +attempted to gain this monopoly; and, to prevent other countries from +rivaling her, she long prohibited all emigration of skillful mechanics +from the kingdom, as well as all exports of machinery. As country after +country was opened to her commerce, the markets for her manufactures +were extended, and the demand for the raw material increased. The +benefits of this enlarged commerce of the world, were not confined to a +single nation, but mutually enjoyed by all. As each had products to +sell, peculiar to itself, the advantages often gained by one were no +detriment to the others. The principal articles demanded by this +increasing commerce have been coffee, sugar, and cotton, in the +production of which slave labor has greatly predominated. Since the +enlargement of manufactures, cotton has entered more extensively into +commerce than coffee and sugar, though the demand for all three has +advanced with the greatest rapidity. England could only become a great +commercial nation, through the agency of her manufactures. She was the +best supplied, of all the nations, with the necessary capital, skill, +labor, and fuel, to extend her commerce by this means. But, for the raw +material, to supply her manufactories, she was dependent upon other +countries. The planters of the United States were the most favorably +situated for the cultivation of cotton; and while Great Britain was +aiming at monopolizing its manufacture, they attempted to monopolize the +markets for that staple. This led to a fusion of interests between them +and the British manufacturers; and to the adoption of principles in +political economy, which, if rendered effective, would promote the +interests of this coalition. With the advantages possessed by the +English manufacturers, "Free Trade" would render all other nations +subservient to their interests; and, so far as their operations should +be increased, just so far would the demand for American cotton be +extended. The details of the success of the parties to this combination, +and the opposition they have had to encounter, are left to be noticed +more fully hereafter. To the cotton planters, the co-partnership has +been eminently advantageous. + +How far the other agricultural interests of the United States are +promoted, by extending the cultivation of cotton, may be inferred from +the Census returns of 1850, and the Congressional Reports on Commerce +and Navigation, for 1854.[16] Cotton and tobacco, only, are largely +exported. The production of sugar does not yet equal our consumption of +the article, and we import, chiefly from slave labor countries, +445,445,680 lbs. to make up the deficiency.[17] But of cotton and +tobacco, we export more than _two-thirds_ of the amount produced; while +of other products of the agriculturists, less than the _one forty-sixth_ +part is exported. Foreign nations, generally, can grow their provisions, +but can not grow their tobacco and cotton. Our surplus provisions, not +exported, go to the villages, towns, and cities, to feed the mechanics, +manufacturers, merchants, professional men, and others; or to the cotton +and sugar districts of the South, to feed the planters and their slaves. +The increase of mechanics and manufacturers at the North, and the +expansion of slavery at the South, therefore, augment the markets for +provisions, and promote the prosperity of the farmer. As the mechanical +population increases, the implements of industry and articles of +furniture are multiplied, so that both farmer and planter can be +supplied with them on easier terms. As foreign nations open their +markets to cotton fabrics, increased demands for the raw material are +made. As new grazing and grain-growing States are developed, and teem +with their surplus productions, the mechanic is benefited, and the +planter, relieved from food-raising, can employ his slaves more +extensively upon cotton. It is thus that our exports are increased; our +foreign commerce advanced; the home markets of the mechanic and farmer +extended, and the wealth of the nation promoted. It is thus, also, that +the free labor of the country finds remunerating markets for its +products--though at the expense of serving as an efficient auxiliary in +the extension of slavery! + +But more: So speedily are new grain-growing States springing up; so +vast is the territory owned by the United States, ready for settlement; +and so enormous will soon be the amount of products demanding profitable +markets, that the national government has been seeking new outlets for +them, upon our own continent, to which, alone, they can be +advantageously transported. That such outlets, when our vast possessions +Westward are brought under cultivation, will be an imperious necessity, +is known to every statesman. The farmers of these new States, after the +example of those of the older sections of the country, will demand a +market for their products. This can be furnished, only, by the extension +of slavery; by the acquisition of more tropical territory; by opening +the ports of Brazil, and other South American countries, to the +admission of our provisions; by their free importation into European +countries; or by a vast enlargement of domestic manufactures, to the +exclusion of foreign goods from the country. Look at this question as it +now stands, and then judge of what it must be twenty years hence. The +class of products under consideration, in the whole country, in 1853, +were valued at $1,551,176,490; of which there were exported to foreign +countries, to the value of only $33,809,126.[18] The planter will not +assent to any check upon the foreign imports of the country, for the +benefit of the farmer. This demands the adoption of vigorous measures to +secure a market for his products by some of the other modes stated. +Hence, the orders of our executive, in 1851, for the exploration of the +valley of the Amazon; the efforts, in 1854, to obtain a treaty with +Brazil, for the free navigation of that immense river; the negotiations +for a military foothold in St. Domingo; and the determination to acquire +Cuba. But we must not anticipate topics to be considered at a later +period in our discussion. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] See Appendix, Table I. + +[15] It may be well here to illustrate this point, by an extract from +McQueen, of England, in 1844, when this highly intelligent gentleman was +urging upon his government the great necessity which existed for +securing to itself, as speedily as possible, the control of the labor +and the products of tropical Africa. In reference to the benefits which +had been derived from her West India colonies, before the suppression of +the slave trade and the emancipation of the slaves had rendered them +comparatively unproductive, he said: "During the fearful struggle of a +quarter of a century, for her existence as a nation, against the power +and resources of Europe, directed by the most intelligent but +remorseless military ambition against her, the command of the +productions of the torrid zone, and the advantageous commerce which that +afforded, gave to Great Britain the power and the resources which +enabled her to meet, to combat, and to overcome, her numerous and +reckless enemies in every battle-field, whether by sea or land, +throughout the world. In her the world saw realized the fabled giant of +antiquity. With her hundred hands she grasped her foes in every region +under heaven, and crushed them with resistless energy." + +In further presenting the considerations which he considered necessary +to secure the adoption of the policy he was urging, Mr. McQueen referred +to the difficulties which were then surrounding Great Britain, and the +extent to which rival nations had surpassed her in tropical cultivation. +He continued: "The increased cultivation and prosperity of foreign +tropical possessions is become so great, and is advancing so rapidly the +power and resources of other nations, that these are embarrassing this +country, (England,) in all her commercial relations, in her pecuniary +resources, and in all her political relations and negotiations." . . . . +. . "Instead of supplying her own wants with tropical productions, and +next nearly all Europe, as she formerly did, she had scarcely enough, of +some of the most important articles, for her own consumption, while her +colonies were mostly supplied with foreign slave produce." . . . . . . +"In the mean time tropical productions had been increased from +$75,000,000, to $300,000,000 annually. The English capital invested in +tropical productions in the East and West Indies, had been, by +emancipation in the latter, reduced from $750,000,000, to $650,000,000; +while, since 1808, on the part of foreign nations $4,000,000,000 of +fixed capital had been created in slaves and in cultivation wholly +dependent upon the labor of slaves." The odds, therefore, in +agricultural and commercial capital and interest, and consequently in +political power and influence, arrayed against the British tropical +possessions, were very fearful--six to one. This will be better +understood by giving the figures on the subject. The contrast is very +striking, and reveals the secret of England's untiring zeal about +slavery and the slave trade. Indeed, Mr. McQueen frankly acknowledges, +that "If the foreign slave trade be not extinguished, and the +cultivation of the tropical territories of other powers opposed and +checked by British tropical cultivation, then the interests and the +power of such states will rise into a preponderance over those of Great +Britain; and the power and the influence of the latter will cease to be +felt, feared and respected, amongst the civilized and powerful nations +of the world." + +But here are the figures upon which this humiliating acknowledgement is +made. The productions of the tropical possessions of Great Britain and +foreign countries, respectively, at the period alluded to by Mr. +McQueen, and as given by himself, stood as follows: + +SUGAR--1842. + + British Possessions. | Foreign countries. + West Indies, cwts. 2,508,552| Cuba, cwts. 5,800,000 + East Indies, " 940,452 | Brazil, " 2,400,000 + Mauritius,(1841) " 544,767 | Java, " 1,105,757 + ------------------| Louisiana, " 1,400,000 + Total 3,993,771 | ------------------ + | Total 10,705,757 + + +COFFEE--1842. + + West Indies, lbs. 9,186,555 | Java, lbs. 134,842,715 + East Indies, " 18,206,448 | Brazil, " 135,000,800 + ------------------ | Cuba, " 33,589,325 + Total 27,393,003 | Venezuela, " 34,000,000 + | ------------------ + | Total 337,432,840 + + +COTTON--1840. + + West Indies, lbs. 427,529 | United States, lbs. 790,479,275 + East Indies, " 77,015,917 | Java, " 165,504,800 + To China from do. " 60,000,000 | Brazil, " 25,222,828 + ------------------| ------------------ + Total 137,443,446 | Total 981,206,903 + +[16] See Appendix, Table II. + +[17] Table III. For Statistics up to 1859, see chapter VI. and Appendix. + +[18] See Appendix, Table II. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Foresight of Great Britain--Hon. George Thompson's + predictions--Their failure--England's dependence + on Slave labor--Blackwood's Magazine--London + Economist--McCullough--Her exports of cotton + goods--Neglect to improve the proper moment for + Emancipation--Admission of Gerrit Smith--_Cotton_, + its exports, its value, extent of crop, and cost + of our cotton fabrics--_Provisions_, their value, + their export, their consumption--_Groceries_, + source of their supplies, cost of amount + consumed--Our total indebtedness to Slave + labor--How far Free labor sustains Slave labor. + + +ANTECEDENT to all the movements noticed in the preceding chapter, Great +Britain had foreseen the coming increased demand for tropical products. +Indeed, her West Indian policy, of a few years previous, had hastened +the crisis; and, to repair her injuries, and meet the general outcry for +cotton, she made the most vigorous efforts to promote its cultivation in +her own tropical possessions. The motives prompting her to this policy, +need not be referred to here, as they will be noticed hereafter. The +Hon. George Thompson, it will be remembered, when urging the increase of +cotton cultivation in the East Indies, declared that the scheme must +succeed, and that, soon, all slave labor cotton would be repudiated by +the British manufacturers. Mr Garrison indorsed the measure, and +expressed his belief that, with its success, the American slave system +must inevitably perish from starvation! But England's efforts signally +failed, and the golden apple, fully ripened, dropped into the lap of our +cotton planters.[19] The year that heard Thompson's pompous +predictions,[20] witnessed the consumption of but 445,744,000 lbs. of +cotton, by England; while, fourteen years later, she used 817,998,048 +lbs., nearly 700,000,000 lbs. of which were obtained from America! + +That we have not overstated her dependence upon our slave labor for +cotton is a fact of world-wide notoriety. _Blackwood's Magazine_, +January, 1853, in referring to the cultivation of the article, by the +United States, says: + +"With its increased growth has sprung up that mercantile navy, which now +waves its stripes and stars over every sea, and that foreign influence, +which has placed the internal peace--we may say the subsistence of +millions in every manufacturing country in Europe--within the power of +an oligarchy of planters." + +In reference to the same subject, the _London Economist_ quotes as +follows: + +"Let any great social or physical convulsion visit the United States, +and England would feel the shock from Land's End to John O'Groats. The +lives of nearly two millions of our countrymen are dependent upon the +cotton crops of America; their destiny may be said, without any kind of +hyperbole, to hang upon a thread. Should any dire calamity befall the +land of cotton, a thousand of our merchant ships would rot idly in dock; +ten thousand mills must stop their busy looms; two thousand thousand +mouths would starve, for lack of food to feed them." + +A more definite statement of England's indebtedness to cotton, is given +by McCullough; who shows that as far back as 1832, her exports of cotton +fabrics were equal in value to about two-thirds of all the woven fabrics +exported from the empire. The same state of things, nearly, existed in +1849, when the cotton fabrics exported, according to the _London +Economist_, were valued at about $140,000,000, while all the other woven +fabrics exported did not quite reach to the value of $68,000,000. On +consulting the same authority, of still later dates, it appears, that +the last four years has produced no material change in the relations +which the different classes of British fabrics, exported, bear to each +other. The present condition of the demand and supplies of cotton, +throughout Europe, and the extent to which the increasing consumption of +that staple must stimulate the American planters to its increased +production, will be noticed in the proper place.[21] + +There was a time when American slave labor sustained no such relations +to the manufactures and commerce of the world as it now so firmly holds; +and when, by the adoption of proper measures, on the part of the free +colored people and their friends, the emancipation of the slaves, in all +the States, might, possibly, have been effected. But that period has +passed forever away, and causes, unforeseen, have come into operation, +which are too powerful to be overcome by any agencies that have since +been employed.[22] What Divine Providence may have in store for the +future, we know not; but, at present, the institution of slavery is +sustained by numberless pillars, too massive for human power and wisdom +to overthrow. + +Take another view of this subject. To say nothing now of the tobacco, +rice, and sugar, which are the products of our slave labor, we exported +raw cotton to the value of $109,456,404 in 1853. Its destination was, to +Great Britain, 768,596,498 lbs.; to the Continent of Europe, 335,271,434 +lbs.; to countries on our own Continent, 7,702,438 lbs.; making the +total exports, 1,111,570,370 lbs. The entire crop of that year being +1,305,152,800 lbs., gives, for home consumption, 268,403,600 lbs.[23] Of +this, there was manufactured into cotton fabrics to the value of +$61,869,274;[24] of which there was retained, for home markets, to the +value of $53,100,290. Our imports of cotton fabrics from Europe, in +1853, for consumption, amounted in value to $26,477,950:[25] thus +making our cottons, foreign and domestic, for that year, cost us +$79,578,240. + +In bringing down the results to 1858, it will be seen that the imports +of foreign cotton goods has fluctuated at higher and lower amounts than +those of 1853; and that an actual decrease of our exports of cotton +manufactures has taken place since that date.[26] But in the exports of +raw cotton there has been an increase of nearly a hundred millions of +pounds over that of 1853--the total exports of 1859 being 1,208,561,200 +lbs. The total crop of 1859, in the United States, was 1,606,800,000 +lbs., and the amount taken for consumption 371,060,800 lbs.[27] + +Thus, while our consumption of foreign cotton goods is not on the +increase, the foreign demand for our raw cotton is rapidly augmenting; +and thus the American planter is becoming more and more important to the +manufactures and commerce of the world. + +This, now, is what becomes of our cotton; this is the way in which it so +largely constitutes the basis of commerce and trade; and this is the +nature of the relations existing between the slavery of the United +States and the economical interests of the world. + +But have the United States no other great leading interests, except +those which are involved in the production of cotton? Certainly, they +have. Here is a great field for the growth of provisions. In ordinary +years, exclusive of tobacco and cotton, our agricultural property, when +added to the domestic animals and their products, amounts in value +$1,551,176,490. Of this, there is exported only to the value of +$33,809,126; which leaves for home consumption and use, a remainder to +the value of $1,517,367,364.[28] The portions of the property +represented by this immense sum of money, which pass from the hands of +the agriculturists, are distributed throughout the Union, for the +support of the day laborers, sailors, mechanics, manufacturers, traders, +merchants, professional men, planters, and the slave population. This is +what becomes of our provisions. + +Besides this annual consumption of provisions, most of which is the +product of free labor, the people of the United States use a vast amount +of groceries, which are mainly of slave labor origin. Boundless as is +the influence of cotton, in stimulating slavery extension, that of the +cultivation of groceries falls but little short of it; the chief +difference being, that they do not receive such an increased value under +the hand of manufacturers. The cultivation of coffee, in Brazil, employs +as great a number of slaves as that of cotton in the United States. + +But, to comprehend fully our indebtedness to slave labor for groceries, +we must descend to particulars. Our imports of coffee, tobacco, sugar, +and molasses, for 1853, amounted in value to $38,479,000; of which the +hand of the slave, in Brazil and Cuba, mainly, supplied to the value of +$34,451,000.[29] This shows the extent to which we are sustaining +foreign slavery, by the consumption of these four products. But this is +not our whole indebtedness to slavery for groceries. Of the domestic +grown tobacco, valued at $19,975,000, of which we retain nearly +one-half, the Slave States produce to the value of $16,787,000; of +domestic rice, the product of the South, we consume to the value of +$7,092,000; of domestic slave grown sugar and molasses, we take, for +home consumption, to the value of $34,779,000; making our grocery +account, with domestic slavery, foot up to the sum of $50,449,000. Our +whole indebtedness, then, to slavery, foreign and domestic, for these +four commodities, after deducting two millions of re-exports amounts to +$82,607,000. + +The exports of tobacco are on the increase, as appears from Table VIII +of Appendix, showing an extension of its cultivation; but the exports of +rice are not on the increase, from which it would appear that its +production remains stationary. + +By adding the value of the foreign and domestic cotton fabrics, +consumed annually in the United States, to the yearly cost of the +groceries which the country uses, our total indebtedness, for articles +of slave labor origin, will be found swelling up to the enormous sum of +$162,185,240.[30] + +We have now seen the channels through which our cotton passes off into +the great sea of commerce, to furnish the world its clothing. We have +seen the origin and value of our provisions, and to whom they are sold. +We have seen the sources whence our groceries are derived, and the +millions of money they cost. To ascertain how far these several +interests are sustained by one another, will be to determine how far any +one of them becomes an element of expansion to the others. To decide a +question of this nature with precision is impracticable. The statistics +are not attainable. It may be illustrated, however, in various ways, so +as to obtain a conclusion proximately accurate. Suppose, for example, +that the supplies of food from the North were cut off, the manufactories +left in their present condition, and the planters forced to raise their +provisions and draught animals: in such circumstances, the export of +cotton must cease, as the lands of these States could not be made to +yield more than would subsist their own population, and supply the +cotton demanded by the Northern States. Now, if this be true of the +agricultural resources of the cotton States--and it is believed to be +nearly the full extent of their capacity--then the surplus of cotton, to +the value of more than a hundred millions of dollars, now annually sent +abroad, stands as the representative of the yearly supplies which the +cotton planters receive from the farmers north of the cotton line. This, +therefore, as will afterward more fully appear, may be taken as the +probable extent to which the supplies from the North serve as an element +of slavery expansion in the article of cotton alone. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] Paganism has, long since, attained its maximum in agricultural +industry, and the introduction of Christian civilization, into India, +can, alone, lead to an increase of its productions for export. + +[20] 1839. + +[21] ENGLAND AND SLAVERY.--In the _London Times_ of October 7th, 1858, +there is a long and very able and candid article on the subject of +cotton. The proportions of the article used by different nations are +thus stated: + +Great Britain, 51.28 France, 13.24 Northern Europe, 6.84 Other foreign +ports, 5.91 Consumption of the U. S., 23.58 + +Thus it appears that England uses more of the raw material than all the +rest of the world. After giving the great facts the writer uses the +following language: + +"An advance of one pence per pound on the price of American cotton is +welcomed by the slave-owner of the Southern States as supplying him with +the sinews of war for the struggle now waging with the Northern +abolitionists. This mere advance of one pence on our present annual +consumption is equivalent to an annual subscription of sixteen millions +of dollars toward the maintainance of American slavery."--_American +Missionary._ + +[22] See the speech of the Hon. Gerrit Smith, on the "Kansas-Nebraska +Bill," in which he asserts, that the invention of the _Cotton Gin_ +fastened slavery upon the country; and that, but for its invention, +slavery would long since have disappeared. + +[23] This is only the consumption north of Virginia. + +[24] This estimate is probably too low, being taken from the census of +1850. The exports of cottons for 1850 were $4,734,424; and for 1353, +$8,768,894; having nearly doubled in four years. + +[25] These figures were taken from the official documents for the first +edition. They vary a little from the revised documents from which Table +VII is taken, but not so as to affect our argument. + +[26] See Table VII, in Appendix. + +[27] See Table VI, in Appendix; and in this connection it may be +explained that the _crop year_ ends August 31st. + +[28] See Table II, in Appendix. We have of course to limit our +statements in relation to some of these amounts to the figures used in +the first edition, because they can only be ascertained from the census +tables of 1850. While it will be found that the exports of bread-stuffs +and provisions have increased considerably, it will be seen from Table +VIII that it is not in a greater ratio than the exports of cotton and +tobacco. To show that the statement as it stands was a fair one at the +time, it is only necessary for the reader to look at the last named +table to see that the three years preceding 1853 exported considerably +less than that year. + +[29] See Table III, Appendix. + +[30] These estimates have not been recast and adapted to 1859, for the +third edition, because, as will be seen from Tables VII, VIII and X, +there has been no great change in the amount of these commodities +consumed since 1853. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Economical relations of Slavery further + considered--System unprofitable in grain growing, + but profitable in culture of Cotton--Antagonism of + Farmer and Planter--"Protection," and, "Free + Trade" controversy--Congressional Debates on the + subject--Mr. Clay--Position of the South--"Free + Trade," considered indispensable to its + prosperity. + + +BUT the subject of the relations of American slavery to the economical +interests of the world, demands a still closer scrutiny, in order that +the causes of the failure of abolitionism to arrest its progress, as +well as the present relations of the institution to the politics of the +country, may fully appear. + +Slave labor has seldom been made profitable where it has been wholly +employed in grazing and grain growing; but it becomes remunerative in +proportion as the planters can devote their attention to cotton, sugar, +rice, or tobacco. To render Southern slavery profitable in the highest +degree, therefore, the slaves must be employed upon some one of these +articles, and be sustained by a supply of food and draught animals from +Northern agriculturists; and before the planter's supplies are complete, +to these must be added cotton gins, implements of husbandry, furniture, +and tools, from Northern mechanics. This is a point of the utmost +moment, and must be considered more at length. + +It has long been a vital question to the success of the slaveholder, to +know how he could render the labor of his slaves the most profitable. +The grain growing States had to emancipate their slaves, to rid +themselves of a profitless system. The cotton-growing States, ever after +the invention of the cotton gin, had found the production of that staple +highly remunerative. The logical conclusion, from these different +results, was, that the less provisions, and the more cotton grown by the +planter, the greater would be his profits. This must be noted with +special care. _Markets_ for the surplus products of the farmer of the +North, were equally as important to him as the supply of _Provisions_ +was to the planter. But the planter, to be eminently successful, must +purchase his supplies at the lowest possible prices; while the farmer, +to secure his prosperity, must sell his products at the highest possible +rates. Few, indeed, can be so ill informed, as not to know, that these +two topics, for many years, were involved in the "Free Trade" and +"Protective Tariff" doctrines, and afforded the _materiel_ of the +political contests between the North and the South--between free labor +and slave labor. A very brief notice of the history of that controversy, +will demonstrate the truth of this assertion. + +The attempt of the agricultural States, thirty years since, to establish +the protective policy, and promote "Domestic Manufactures," was a +struggle to create such a division of labor as would afford a "Home +Market" for their products, no longer in demand abroad. The first +decisive action on the question, by Congress, was in 1824; when the +distress in these States, and the measures proposed for their relief, by +national legislation, were discussed on the passage of the "Tariff Bill" +of that year. The ablest men in the nation were engaged in the +controversy. As provisions are the most important item on the one hand, +and cotton on the other, we shall use these two terms as the +representatives of the two classes of products, belonging, respectively, +to free labor and to slave labor. + +Mr. Clay, in the course of the debate, said: "What, again, I would ask, +is the cause of the unhappy condition of our country, which I have +fairly depicted? It is to be found in the fact that, during almost the +whole existence of this government, we have shaped our industry, our +navigation, and our commerce, in reference to an extraordinary war in +Europe, and to foreign markets which no longer exist; in the fact that +we have depended too much on foreign sources of supply, and excited too +little the native; in the fact that, while we have cultivated, with +assiduous care, our foreign resources, we have suffered those at home to +wither, in a state of neglect and abandonment. The consequence of the +termination of the war of Europe, has been the resumption of European +commerce, European navigation, and the extension of European +agriculture, in all its branches. Europe, therefore, has no longer +occasion for any thing like the same extent as that which she had during +her wars, for American commerce, American navigation, the produce of +American industry. Europe in commotion, and convulsed throughout all her +members, is to America no longer the same Europe as she is now, +tranquil, and watching with the most vigilant attention, all her own +peculiar interests, without regard to their operation on us. The effect +of this altered state of Europe upon us, has been to circumscribe the +employment of our marine, and greatly to reduce the value of the produce +of our territorial labor. . . . . The greatest want of civilized society +is a market for the sale and exchange of the surplus of the products of +the labor of its members. This market may exist at home or abroad, or +both, but it must exist somewhere, if society prospers; and, wherever it +does exist, it should be competent to the absorption of the entire +surplus production. It is most desirable that there should be both a +home and a foreign market. But with respect to their relative +superiority, I can not entertain a doubt. The home market is first in +order, and paramount in importance. The object of the bill under +consideration, is to create this home market, and to lay the foundation +of a genuine American policy. It is opposed; and it is incumbent on the +partisans of the foreign policy (terms which I shall use without any +invidious intent) to demonstrate that the foreign market is an adequate +vent for the surplus produce of our labor. But is it so? 1. Foreign +nations can not, if they would, take our surplus produce. . . . . 2. If +they could, they would not. . . . . We have seen, I think, the causes of +the distress of the country. We have seen that an exclusive dependence +upon the foreign market must lead to a still severer distress, to +impoverishment, to ruin. We must, then, change somewhat our course. We +must give a new direction to some portion of our industry. We must +speedily adopt a genuine American policy. Still cherishing a foreign +market, let us create also a home market, to give further scope to the +consumption of the produce of American industry. Let us counteract the +policy of foreigners, and withdraw the support which we now give to +their industry, and stimulate that of our own country. . . . . The +creation of a home market is not only necessary to procure for our +agriculture a just reward of its labors, but it is indispensable to +obtain a supply of our necessary wants. If we can not sell, we can not +buy. That portion of our population (and we have seen that it is not +less than four-fifths) which makes comparatively nothing that foreigners +will buy, has nothing to make purchases with from foreigners. It is in +vain that we are told of the amount of our exports, supplied by the +planting interest. They may enable the planting interest to supply all +its wants; but they bring no ability to the interests not planting, +unless, which can not be pretended, the planting interest was an +adequate vent for the surplus produce of all the labor of all other +interests. . . . . But this home market, highly desirable as it is, can +only be created and cherished by the protection of our own legislation +against the inevitable prostration of our industry, which must ensue +from the action of FOREIGN policy and legislation. . . . . The sole +object of the tariff is to tax the produce of foreign industry, with the +view of promoting American industry. . . . . But it is said by the +honorable gentleman from Virginia, that the South, owing to the +character of a certain portion of its population, can not engage in the +business of manufacturing. . . . . The circumstances of its degradation +unfits it for manufacturing arts. The well-being of the other, and the +larger part of our population, requires the introduction of those arts. + +"What is to be done in this conflict? The gentleman would have us +abstain from adopting a policy called for by the interests of the +greater and freer part of the population. But is that reasonable? Can it +be expected that the interests of the greater part should be made to +bend to the condition of the servile part of our population? That, in +effect, would be to make us the slaves of slaves. . . . . I am sure that +the patriotism of the South may be exclusively relied upon to reject a +policy which should be dictated by considerations altogether connected +with that degraded class, to the prejudice of the residue of our +population. But does not a perseverance in the foreign policy, as it now +exists, in fact, make all parts of the Union, not planting, tributary to +the planting parts? What is the argument? It is, that we must continue +freely to receive the produce of foreign industry, without regard to the +protection of American industry, that a market may be retained for the +sale abroad of the produce of the planting portion of the country; and +that, if we lessen the consumption, in all parts of America, those which +are not planting, as well as the planting sections, of foreign +manufactures, we diminish to that extent the foreign market for the +planting produce. The existing state of things, indeed, presents a sort +of tacit compact between the cotton-grower and the British manufacturer, +the stipulations of which are, on the part of the cotton-grower, that +the whole of the United States, the other portions as well as the +cotton-growing, shall remain open and unrestricted in the consumption of +British manufactures; and, on the part of the British manufacturer, +that, in consideration thereof, he will continue to purchase the cotton +of the South. Thus, then, we perceive that the proposed measure, instead +of sacrificing the South to the other parts of the Union, seeks only to +preserve them from being actually sacrificed under the operation of the +tacit compact which I have described." + +The opposition to the Protective Tariff, by the South, arose from two +causes: the first openly avowed at the time, and the second clearly +deducible from the policy it pursued: the one to secure the foreign +market for its cotton, the other to obtain a bountiful supply of +provisions at cheap rates. Cotton was admitted free of duty into foreign +countries, and Southern statesmen feared its exclusion, if our +government increased the duties on foreign fabrics. The South exported +about twice as much of that staple as was supplied to Europe by all +other countries, and there were indications favoring the desire it +entertained of monopolizing the foreign markets. The West India planters +could not import food, but at such high rates as to make it +impracticable to grow cotton at prices low enough to suit the English +manufacturer. To purchase cotton cheaply, was essential to the success +of his scheme of monopolizing its manufacture, and supplying the world +with clothing. The close proximity of the provision and cotton-growing +districts in the United States, gave its planters advantages over all +other portions of the world. But they could not monopolize the markets, +unless they could obtain a cheap supply of food and clothing for their +negroes, and raise their cotton at such reduced prices as to undersell +their rivals. A manufacturing population, with its mechanical +coadjutors, in the midst of the provision-growers, on a scale such as +the protective policy contemplated, it was conceived, would create a +permanent market for their products, and enhance the price; whereas, if +this manufacturing could be prevented, and a system of free trade +adopted, the South would constitute the principal provision market of +the country, and the fertile lands of the North supply the cheap food +demanded for its slaves. As the tariff policy, in the outset, +contemplated the encouragement of the production of iron, hemp, whisky, +and the establishment of woolen manufactories, principally, the South +found its interests but slightly identified with the system--the coarser +qualities of cottons, only, being manufactured in the country, and, even +these, on a diminished scale, as compared with the cotton crops of the +South. Cotton, up to the date when this controversy had been fairly +commenced, had been worth, in the English market, an average price of +from 29 7/10 to 48 4/10 cents per lb.[31] But at this period, a wide +spread and ruinous depression both in the culture and manufacture of the +article, occurred--cotton, in 1826, having fallen, in England, as low as +11 9/10 to 18 9/10 cents per lb. The home market, then, was too +inconsiderable to be of much importance, and there existed little hope +of its enlargement to the extent demanded by its increasing cultivation. +The planters, therefore, looked abroad to the existing markets, rather +than to wait for tardily creating one at home. For success in the +foreign markets, they relied, mainly, upon preparing themselves to +produce cotton at the reduced prices then prevailing in Europe. All +agricultural products, except cotton, being excluded from foreign +markets, the planters found themselves almost the sole exporters of the +country; and it was to them a source of chagrin, that the North did not, +at once, co-operate with them in augmenting the commerce of the nation. + +At this point in the history of the controversy, politicians found it an +easy matter to produce feelings of the deepest hostility between the +opposing parties. The planters were led to believe that the millions of +revenue collected off the goods imported, was so much deducted from the +value of the cotton that paid for them, either in the diminished price +they received abroad, or in the increased price which they paid for the +imported articles. To enhance the duties, for the protection of our +manufacturers, they were persuaded, would be so much of an additional +tax upon themselves, for the benefit of the North; and, beside, to give +the manufacturer such a monopoly of the home market for his fabrics, +would enable him to charge purchasers an excess over the true value of +his stuffs, to the whole amount of the duty. By the protective policy, +the planters expected to have the cost of both provisions and clothing +increased, and their ability to monopolize the foreign markets +diminished in a corresponding degree. If they could establish free +trade, it would insure the American market to foreign manufacturers; +secure the foreign markets for their leading staple; repress home +manufactures; force a large number of the Northern men into +agriculture; multiply the growth, and diminish the price of provisions; +feed and clothe their slaves at lower rates; produce their cotton for a +third or fourth of former prices; rival all other countries in its +cultivation; monopolize the trade in the article throughout the whole of +Europe; and build up a commerce and a navy that would make us ruler of +the seas. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[31] This includes the period from 1806 to 1826, though the decline +began a few years before the latter date. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Tariff controversy continued--Mr. Hayne--Mr. + Carter--Mr. Govan--Mr. Martindale--Mr. + Buchanan--Sugar Planters invoked to aid Free + Trade--The West also invoked--Its pecuniary + embarrassments for want of markets--Henry + Baldwin--Remarks on the views of the + parties--State of the world--Dread of the + Protective policy by the Planters--Their schemes + to avert its consequences, and promote Free Trade. + + +TO understand the sentiments of the South, on the Protective Policy, as +expressed by its statesmen, we must again quote from the Congressional +Debates of 1824: + +Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina, said: "But how, I would seriously ask, is +it possible for the home market to supply the place of the foreign +market, for our cotton? We supply Great Britain with the raw material, +out of which she furnishes the Continent of Europe, nay, the whole +world, with cotton goods. Now, suppose our manufactories could make +every yard of cloth we consume, that would furnish a home market for no +more than 20,000,000 lbs. out of the 180,000,000 lbs. of cotton now +shipped to Great Britain; leaving on our hands 160,000,000 lbs., equal +to two-thirds of our whole produce. . . . . Considering this scheme of +promoting certain employments, at the expense of others, as unequal, +oppressive, and unjust--viewing prohibition as the _means_, and the +destruction of all foreign commerce as the _end_ of this policy--I take +this occasion to declare, that we shall feel ourselves, justified in +embracing the very first opportunity of repealing all such laws as may +be passed for the promotion of these objects." + +Mr. Carter, of South Carolina, said: "Another danger to which the +present measure would expose this country, and one in which the +Southern States have a deep and vital interest, would be the risk we +incur, by this system of exclusion, of driving Great Britain to +countervailing measures, and inducing all other countries, with whom the +United States have any considerable trading connections, to resort to +measures of retaliation. There are countries possessing vast capacities +for the production of rice, of cotton, and of tobacco, to which England +might resort to supply herself. She might apply herself to Brazil, +Bengal, and Egypt, for her cotton; to South America, as well as to her +colonies, for her tobacco; and to China and Turkey for her rice." + +Mr. Govan, of South Carolina, said: "The effect of this measure on the +cotton, rice, and tobacco-growing States, will be pernicious in the +extreme:--it will exclude them from those markets where they depended +almost entirely for a sale of those articles, and force Great Britain to +encourage the cottons, (Brazil, Rio Janeiro, and Buenos Ayres,) which, +in a short time, can be brought in competition with us. Nothing but the +consumption of British goods in this country, received in exchange, can +support a command of the cotton market to the Southern planter. It is +one thing very certain, she will not come here with her gold and silver +to trade with us. And should Great Britain, pursuing the principles of +her reciprocal duty act, of last June, lay three or four cents on our +cotton, where would, I ask, be our surplus of cotton? It is well known +that the United States can not manufacture one-fourth of the cotton that +is in it; and should we, by our imprudent legislative enactments, in +pursuing to such an extent this restrictive system, force Great Britain +to shut her ports against us, it will paralyze the whole trade of the +Southern country. This export trade, which composes five-sixths of the +export trade of the United States, will be swept entirely from the +ocean, and leave but a melancholy wreck behind." + +It is necessary, also, to add a few additional extracts, from the +speeches of Northern statesmen, during this discussion. + +Mr. Martindale, of New York, said: "Does not the agriculture of the +country languish, and the laborer stand still, because, beyond the +supply of food for his own family, his produce perishes on his hands, or +his fields lie waste and fallow; and this because his accustomed market +is closed against him? It does, sir. . . . . A twenty years' war in Europe, +which drew into its vortex all its various nations, made our merchants +the carriers of a large portion of the world, and our farmers the +feeders of immense belligerent armies. An unexampled activity and +increase in our commerce followed--our agriculture extended itself, grew +and nourished. An unprecedented demand gave the farmer an extraordinary +price for his produce. . . . . Imports kept pace with exports, and +consumption with both. . . . . Peace came into Europe, and shut out our +exports, and found us in war with England, which almost cut off our +imports. . . . . Now we felt how _comfortable_ it was to have plenty of +food, but no clothing. . . . . Now we felt the imperfect organization of +our system. Now we saw the imperfect distribution and classification of +labor. . . . . Here is the explanation of our opposite views. It is +employment, after all, that we are all in search of. It is a market for +our labor and our produce, which we all want, and all contend for. 'Buy +foreign goods, that we may import,' say the merchants: it will make a +market for importations, and find employment for our ships. Buy English +manufactures, say the cotton planters; England will take our cotton in +exchange. Thus the merchant and the cotton planter fully appreciate the +value of a market when they find their own encroached upon. The farmer +and manufacturer claim to participate in the benefits of a market for +their labor and produce; and hence this protracted debate and struggle +of contending interests. It is a contest for a market between the +_cotton-grower and the merchant_ on the one side, and the _farmer and +the manufacturer_ on the other. That the manufacturer would furnish this +market to the farmer, admits no doubt. The farmer should reciprocate the +favor; and government is now called upon to render this market +accessible to foreign fabrics for the mutual benefit of both. . . . . +This, then, is the remedy we propose, sir, for the evils which we suffer. +Place the mechanic by the side of the farmer, that the manufacturer who +makes our cloth, should make it from _our_ farmers' wool, flax, hemp, +etc., and be fed by our farmers' provisions. Draw forth our iron from +our own mountains, and we shall not drain our country in the purchase of +the foreign. . . . . We propose, sir, to supply our own wants from our own +resources, by the means which God and Nature have placed in our +hands. . . . . But here is a question of sectional interest, which elicits +unfriendly feelings and determined hostility to the bill. . . . . The +cotton, rice, tobacco, and indigo-growers of the Southern States, claim +to be deeply affected and injured by this system. . . . . Let us +inquire if the Southern planter does not demand what, in fact, he denies +to others. And now, what does he request? That the North and West should +buy--what? Not their cotton, tobacco, etc., for that we do already, to +the utmost of our ability to consume, or pay, or vend to others; and +that is to an immense amount, greatly exceeding what they purchase of +us. But they insist that we should buy English wool, wrought into cloth, +that they may pay for it with their cotton; that we should buy Russia +iron, that they may sell their cotton; that we should buy Holland gin +and linen, that they may sell their tobacco. In fine, that we should not +grow wool, and dig and smelt the iron of the country; for, if we did, +they could not sell their cotton." (On another occasion, he said:) +"Gentlemen say they _will_ oppose every part of the bill. They will, +therefore, move to strike out every part of it. And, on every such +motion, we shall hear repeated, as we have done already, the same +objections: that it will ruin trade and commerce; that it will destroy +the revenue, and prostrate the navy; that it will enhance the prices of +articles of the first necessity, and thus be taxing the poor; and that +it will destroy the cotton market, _and stop the future growth of +cotton_." + +Mr. Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, said: "No nation can be perfectly +independent which depends upon foreign countries for its supply of iron. +It is an article equally necessary in peace and in war. Without a +plentiful supply of it, we cannot provide for the common defense. Can we +so soon have forgotten the lesson which experience taught us during the +late war with Great Britain? Our foreign supply was then cut off, and we +could not manufacture in sufficient quantities for the increased +domestic demand. The price of the article became extravagant, and both +the Government and the agriculturist were compelled to pay double the +sum for which they might have purchased it, had its manufacture, before +that period, been encouraged by proper protecting duties." + +Sugar cane, at that period, had become an article of culture in +Louisiana, and efforts were made to persuade her planters into the +adoption of the Free Trade system. It was urged that they could more +effectually resist foreign competition, and extend their business, by a +cheap supply of food, than by protective duties. But the Louisianians +were too wise not to know, that though they would certainly obtain +cheap provisions by the destruction of Northern manufactures, still, +this would not enable them to compete with the cheaper labor supplied by +the slave trade to the Cubans. + +The West, for many years, gave its undivided support to the +manufacturing interests, thereby obtaining a heavy duty on hemp, wool, +and foreign distilled spirits: thus securing encouragement to its hemp +and wool-growers, and the monopoly of the home market for its whisky. +The distiller and the manufacturer, under this system, were equally +ranked as public benefactors, as each increased the consumption of the +surplus products of the farmer. The grain of the West could find no +remunerative market, except as fed to domestic animals for droving East +and South, or distilled into whisky which would bear transportation. +Take a fact in proof of this assertion. Hon. Henry Baldwin, of +Pittsburgh, at a public dinner given him by the friends of General +Jackson, in Cincinnati, May, 1828, in referring to the want of markets, +for the farmers of the West, said, "He was certain, the aggregate of +their agricultural produce, finding a market in Europe, would not pay +for the pins and needles they imported." + +The markets in the Southwest, now so important, were then quite limited. +As the protective system, coupled with the contemplated internal +improvements, if successfully accomplished, would inevitably tend to +enhance the price of agricultural products; while the free trade and +anti-internal improvement policy, would as certainly reduce their value; +the two systems were long considered so antagonistic, that the success +of the one must sound the knell of the other. Indeed, so fully was Ohio +impressed with the necessity of promoting manufactures, that all capital +thus employed, was for many years entirely exempt from taxation. + +It was in vain that the friends of protection appealed to the fact, that +the duties levied on foreign goods did not necessarily enhance their +cost to the consumer; that the competition among home manufacturers, and +between them and foreigners, had greatly reduced the price of nearly +every article properly protected; that foreign manufacturers always had, +and always would advance their prices according to our dependence upon +them; that domestic competition was the only safety the country had +against foreign imposition; that it was necessary we should become our +own manufacturers, in a fair degree, to render ourselves independent of +other nations in times of war, as well as to guard against the +vacillations in foreign legislation; that the South would be vastly the +gainer by having the market for its products at its own doors, to avoid +the cost of their transit across the Atlantic; that, in the event of the +repression or want of proper extension of our manufactures, by the +adoption of the free trade system, the imports of foreign goods, to meet +the public wants, would soon exceed the ability of the people to pay, +and, inevitably, involve the country in bankruptcy. + +Southern politicians remained inflexible, and refused to accept any +policy except free trade, to the utter abandonment of the principle of +protection. Whether they were jealous of the greater prosperity of the +North, and desirous to cripple its energies, or whether they were truly +fearful of bankrupting the South, we shall not wait to inquire. Justice +demands, however, that we should state that the South was suffering from +the stagnation in the cotton trade existing throughout Europe. The +planters had been unused to the low prices, for that staple, they were +compelled to accept. They had no prospect of an adequate home market for +many years to come, and there were indications that they might lose the +one they already possessed. The West Indies was still slave territory, +and attempting to recover its early position in the English market. This +it had to do, or be forced into emancipation. The powerful Viceroy of +Egypt, Mehemet Ali, was endeavoring to compel his subjects to grow +cotton on an enlarged scale. The newly organized South American +republics were assuming an aspect of commercial consequence, and might +commence its cultivation. The East Indies and Brazil were supplying to +Great Britain from one-third to one-half of the cotton she was annually +manufacturing. The other half, or two-thirds, she might obtain from +other sources, and repudiate all traffic with our planters. Southern +men, therefore, could not conceive of any thing but ruin to themselves, +by any considerable advance in duties on foreign imports. They +understood the protective policy as contemplating the supply of our +country with home manufactured articles to the exclusion of those of +foreign countries. This would confine the planters, in the sale of their +cotton, to the American market mainly, and leave them in the power of +moneyed corporations; which, possessing the ability, might control the +prices of their staple, to the irreparable injury of the South. With +slave labor they could not become manufacturers, and must, therefore, +remain at the mercy of the North, both as to food and clothing, unless +the European markets should be retained. Out of this conviction grew the +war upon Corporations; the hostility to the employment of foreign +capital in developing the mineral, agricultural, and manufacturing +resources of the country; the efforts to destroy the banks and the +credit system; the attempts to reduce the currency to gold and silver; +the system of collecting the public revenues in coin; the withdrawal of +the public moneys from all the banks as a basis of paper circulation; +and the sleepless vigilance of the South in resisting all systems of +internal improvements by the General Government. Its statesmen foresaw +that a paper currency would keep up the price of Northern products one +or two hundred per cent. above the specie standard; that combinations of +capitalists, whether engaged in manufacturing wool, cotton, or iron, +would draw off labor from the cultivation of the soil, and cause large +bodies of the producers to become consumers; and that roads and canals, +connecting the West with the East, were effectual means of bringing the +agricultural and manufacturing classes into closer proximity, to the +serious limitation of the foreign commerce of the country, the checking +of the growth of the navy, and the manifest, injury of the planters. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Character of the Tariff controversy--Peculiar + condition of the people--Efforts to enlist the + West in the interest of the South--Mr. + McDuffie--Mr. Hamilton--Mr. Rankin--Mr. + Garnett--Mr. Cuthbert--the West still shut out + from market--Mr. Wickliffe--Mr. Benton--Tariff of + 1828 obnoxious to the South--Georgia + Resolutions--Mr. Hamilton--Argument to Sugar + Planters. + + +The Protective Tariff and Free Trade controversy, at its origin, and +during its progress, was very different in its character from what many +now imagine it to have been. People, on both sides, were often in great +straits to know how to obtain a livelihood, much less to amass +fortunes. The word _ruin_ was no unmeaning phrase at that day. The news, +now, that a bank has failed, carries with it, to the depositors and +holders of its notes, no stronger feelings of consternation, than did +the report of the passage or repeal of tariff laws, then, affect the +minds of the opposing parties. We have spoken of the peculiar condition +of the South in this respect. In the West, for many years, the farmers +often received no more than _twenty-five cents_, and rarely over _forty +cents_, per bushel for their wheat, after conveying it, on horseback, or +in wagons, not unfrequently, a distance of fifty miles, to find a +market. Other products were proportionally low in price; and such was +the difficulty in obtaining money, that people could not pay their taxes +but with the greatest sacrifices. So deeply were the people interested +in these questions of national policy, that they became the basis of +political action during several Presidential elections. This led to much +vacillation in legislation on the subject, and gave alternately, to one +and then to the other section of the Union, the benefits of its favorite +policy. + +The vote of the West, during this struggle, was of the first importance, +as it possessed the balance of power, and could turn the scale at will. +It was not left without inducements to co-operate with the South, in its +measures for extending slavery, that it might create a market among the +planters for its products. This appears from the particular efforts made +by the Southern members of Congress, during the debate of 1824, to win +over the West to the doctrines of free trade. + +Mr. McDuffie, of South Carolina, said: "I admit that the Western people +are _embarrassed_, but I deny that they are _distressed_, in any other +sense of the word. . . . . I am well assured that the permanent prosperity +of the West depends more upon the improvement of the means of +transporting their produce to market, and of receiving the returns, than +upon every other subject to which the legislation of this government can +be directed. . . . . Gentlemen (from the West) are aware that a very +profitable trade is carried on by their constituents with the Southern +country, in _live stock_ of all descriptions, which they drive over the +mountains and sell for cash. This extensive trade, which, from its +peculiar character, more easily overcomes the difficulties of +transportation than any that can be substituted in its place, is about +to be put in jeopardy for the conjectural benefits of this measure. When +I say this trade is about to be put in jeopardy, I do not speak +unadvisedly. I am perfectly convinced that, if this bill passes, it will +have the effect of inducing the people of the South, partly from the +feeling and partly from the necessity growing out of it, to raise within +themselves, the live stock which they now purchase from the West. . . . . +If we cease to take the manufactures of Great Britain, she will assuredly +cease to take our cotton to the same extent. It is a settled principle +of her policy--a principle not only wise, but essential to her +existence--to purchase from those nations that receive her manufactures, +in preference to those who do not. We have, heretofore, been her best +customers, and, therefore, it has been her policy to purchase our cotton +to the full extent of our demand for her manufactures. But, say +gentlemen, Great Britain does not purchase your cotton from affection, +but from interest. I grant it, sir; and that is the very reason of my +decided hostility to a system which will make it her interest to +purchase from other countries in preference to our own. It _is_ her +interest to purchase cotton, even at a higher price, from those +countries which receive her manufactures in exchange. It is better for +her to give a little more for cotton, than to obtain nothing for her +manufactures. It will be remarked that the situation of Great Britain +is, in this respect, widely different from that of the United States. +The powers of her soil have been already pushed very nearly to the +maximum of their productiveness. The productiveness of her manufactures +on the contrary, is as unlimited as the demand of the whole world. . . . . +In fact, sir, the policy of Great Britain is not, as gentlemen seem to +suppose, to secure the _home_, but the _foreign_ market for her +manufactures. The former she has without an effort. It is to attain the +latter that all her policy and enterprise are brought into requisition. +The manufactures of that country are _the basis of her commerce_; our +manufactures, on the contrary are to be _the destruction of our +commerce_. . . . . It can not be doubted that, in pursuance of the +policy of forcing her manufactures into foreign markets, she will, if +deprived of a large portion of our custom, direct all her efforts to +South America. That country abounds in a soil admirably adapted to the +production of cotton, and will, for a century to come, import her +manufactures from foreign countries." + +Mr. Hamilton, of South Carolina, said: "That the planters in his section +shared in that depression which is common in every department of the +industry of the Union, _excepting those from which we have heard the +most clamor for relief_. This would be understood when it was known that +sea-island cotton had fallen from 50 or 60 cents, to 25 cents--a fall +even greater than that which has attended wheat, of which we had heard +so much--as if the grain-growing section was the only agricultural +interest which had suffered. . . . . While the planters of this region do +not dread competition in the foreign markets on equal terms, from the +superiority of their cotton, they entertain a well-founded apprehension, +that the restrictions contemplated will lead to retaliatory duties on +the part of Great Britain, which must end in ruin. . . . . In relation to +our upland cottons, Great Britain may, without difficulty, in the course +of a very short period, supply her wants from Brazil. . . . . How long the +exclusive production, even of the sea-island cotton, will remain to our +country, is yet a doubtful and interesting problem. The experiments that +are making on the Delta of the Nile, if pushed to the Ocean, may result +in the production of this beautiful staple, in an abundance which, in +reference to other productions, has long blest and consecrated Egyptian +fertility. . . . . We are told by the honorable Speaker (Mr. Clay,) that +our manufacturing establishments will, in a very short period, supply +the place of the foreign demand. The futility, I will not say mockery of +this hope, may be measured by one or two facts. First, the present +consumption of cotton, by our manufactories, is about equal to one-sixth +of our whole production. . . . . How long it will take to increase these +manufactories to a scale equal to the consumption of this production, he +could not venture to determine; but that it will be some years after the +epitaph will have been written on the fortunes of the South, there can +be but little doubt." . . . . [After speaking of the tendency of +increased manufactures in the East, to check emigration to the West, and +thus to diminish the value of the public lands and prevent the growth of +the Western States, Mr. H. proceeded thus:] "That portion of the Union +could participate in no part of the bill, except in its burdens, in +spite of the fallacious hopes that were cherished, in reference to +cotton bagging for Kentucky, and the woolen duty for Steubenville, Ohio. +He feared that to the entire region of the West, no 'cordial drops of +comfort' would come, even in the duty on foreign spirits. To a large +portion of our people, who are in the habit of solacing themselves with +Hollands, Antigua, and Cogniac, whisky would still have 'a most +villainous twang.' The cup, he feared, would be refused, though tendered +by the hand of patriotism as well as conviviality. No, the West has but +one interest, and that is, that its best customer, the South, should be +prosperous." + +Mr. Rankin, of Mississippi, said: "With the West, it appears to me like +a rebellion of the members against the body. It is true, we export, but +the amount received from those exports is only apparently, largely in +our favor, inasmuch as we are the consumers of your produce, dependent +on you for our implements of husbandry, the means of sustaining life, +and almost every thing except our lands and negroes; all of which draws +much from the apparent profits and advantages. In proportion as you +diminish our exportations, you diminish our means of purchasing from +you, and destroy your own market. You will compel us to use those +advantages of soil and of climate which God and Nature have placed +within our reach, and to live, as to you, as you desire us to live as to +foreign nations--dependent on our own resources." + +Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, said: "The Western States can not manufacture. +The want of capital (of which they, as well as the Southern States, have +been drained by the policy of government,) and other causes render it +impossible. The Southern States are destined to suffer more by this +policy than any other--the Western next; but it will not benefit the +aggregate population of any State. It is for the benefit of capitalists +only. If persisted in, it will drive the South to ruin and resistance." + +Mr. Cuthbert, of Georgia, said: "He hoped the market for the cotton of +the South was not about to be contracted within a little miserable +sphere, (the home market,) instead of being spread throughout the world. +If they should drive the cotton-growers from the only source from whence +their means were derived, (the foreign market,) they would be unable any +longer to take their supplies from the West--they must contract their +concerns within their own spheres, and begin to raise flesh and grain +for their own consumption. The South was already under a severe +pressure--if this measure went into effect, its distress would be +consummated." + +In 1828, the West found still very limited means of communication with +the East. The opening of the New York canal, in 1825, created a means of +traffic with the seaboard, to the people of the Lake region; but all of +the remaining territory, west of the Alleghanies, had gained no +advantages over those it had enjoyed in 1824, except so far as steamboat +navigation had progressed on the Western rivers. In the debate preceding +the passage of the tariff in 1828, usually termed the "Woolens' Bill," +allusion is made to the condition of the West, from which we quote as +follows: + +Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, said: "My constituents may be said to be a +grain-growing people. They raise stock, and their surplus grain is +converted into spirits. Where, I ask, is our market? . . . . Our market +is where our sympathies should be, in the South. Our course of trade, +for all heavy articles, is down the Mississippi. What breadstuffs we +find a market for, are principally consumed in the States of +Mississippi, Louisiana, South Alabama, and Florida. Indeed, I may say, +these States are the consumers, at miserable and ruinous prices to the +farmers of my State, of our exports of spirits, corn, flour, and cured +provisions. . . . . We have had a trade of some value to the South in +our stock. We still continue it under great disadvantages. It is a +ready-money trade--I may say it is the only money trade in which we are +engaged. . . . . Are the gentlemen acquainted with the extent of that +trade? It may be fairly stated at three millions per annum." + +Mr. Benton urged the Western members to unite with the South, "for the +purpose of enlarging the market, increasing the demand in the South, and +its ability to purchase the horses, mules, and provisions, which the +West could sell nowhere else." + +The tariff of 1828, created great dissatisfaction at the South. Examples +of the expressions of public sentiment, on the subject, adopted at +conventions, and on other occasions, might be multiplied indefinitely. +Take a case or two, to illustrate the whole. At a public meeting in +Georgia, held subsequently to the passage of the "Woolens' Bill," the +following resolution was adopted: + + _Resolved_, That to retaliate as far as possible + upon our oppressors, our Legislature be requested + to impose taxes, amounting to prohibition, on the + hogs, horses, mules, and cotton-bagging, whisky, + pork, beef, bacon, flax, and hemp cloth, of the + Western, and on all the productions and + manufactures of the Eastern and Northern States. + +Mr. Hamilton, of South Carolina, in a speech at the Waterborough +Dinner, given subsequently to the passage of the tariff of 1828, said: + +"It becomes us to inquire what is to be our situation under this +unexpected and disastrous conjunction of circumstances, which, in its +progress, will deprive us of the benefits of a free trade with the rest +of the world, which formed one of the leading objects of the Union. Why, +gentlemen, ruin, unmitigated ruin, must be our portion, if this system +continues. . . . . From 1816 down to the present time, the South has +been drugged, by the slow poison of the miserable empiricism of the +prohibitory system, the fatal effects of which we could not so long have +resisted, but for the stupendously valuable staples with which God has +blessed us, and the agricultural skill and enterprise of our people." + +In further illustration of the nature of this controversy, and of the +arguments used during the contest, we must give the substance of the +remarks of a prominent politician, who was aiming at detaching the sugar +planters from their political connection with the manufacturers. We have +to rely on memory, however, as we can not find the record of the +language used on the occasion. It was published at the time, and +commented on, freely, by the newspapers at the North. He said: "We must +prevent the increase of manufactories, force the surplus labor into +agriculture, promote the cultivation of our unimproved western lands, +until provisions are so multiplied and reduced in price, that the slave +can be fed so cheaply as to enable us to grow our sugar at _three cents +a pound_. Then, without protective duties, we can rival Cuba in the +production of that staple, and drive her from our markets." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +Tariff controversy continued--Tariff of 1832--The crisis--_Secession_ +threatened--Compromise finally adopted--Debates--Mr. Hayne--Mr. +McDuffie--Mr. Clay--Adjustment of the subject. + + +THE opening of the year 1832, found the parties to the Tariff +controversy once more engaged in earnest debate, on the floor of +Congress; and midsummer witnessed the passage of a new Bill, including +the principle of protection. This Act produced a crisis in the +controversy, and led to the movements in South Carolina toward +secession; and, to avert the threatened evil, the Bill was modified, in +the following year, so as to make it acceptable to the South; and, so +as, also, to settle the policy of the Government for the succeeding nine +years. A few extracts from the debates of 1832, will serve to show what +were the sentiments of the members of Congress, as to the effects of the +protective policy on the different sections of the Union, up to that +date: + +Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina, said: "When the policy of '24 went into +operation, the South was supplied from the West, through a single +avenue, (the Saluda Mountain Gap,) with live stock, horses, cattle, and +hogs, to the amount of considerably upward of a million of dollars a +year. Under the pressure of the system, this trade has been regularly +diminishing. It has already fallen more than one-half. . . . . In +consequence of the dire calamities which the system has inflicted on the +South--blasting our commerce, and withering our prosperity--the West has +been very nearly deprived of her best customer. . . . . And what was +found to be the result of four years' experience at the South? Not a +hope fulfilled; not one promise performed; and our condition infinitely +worse than it had been four years before. Sir, the whole South rose up +as one man, and protested against any further experiment with this +system. . . . . Sir, I seize the opportunity to dispel forever the +delusion that the South can find any compensation, in a home market, for +the injurious operation of the protective system. . . . . What a +spectacle do you even now exhibit to the world? A large portion of your +fellow-citizens, believing themselves to be grievously oppressed by an +unwise and unconstitutional system, are clamoring at your doors for +justice: while another portion, supposing that they are enjoying rich +bounties under it, are treating their complaints with scorn and +contempt. . . . . This system may destroy the South, but it will not +permanently advance the prosperity of the North. It may depress us, but +can not elevate them. Beside, sir, if persevered in, it must annihilate +that portion of the country from which the resources are to be drawn. +And it may be well for gentlemen to reflect whether adhering to this +policy would not be acting like the man who 'killed the goose which laid +the golden eggs.' Next to the Christian religion, I consider _Free +Trade_, in its largest sense, as the greatest blessing that can be +conferred on any people." + +Mr. McDuffie, of South Carolina, said: "At the close of the late war +with Great Britain, every thing in the political and commercial changes, +resulting from the general peace, indicated unparalleled prosperity to +the Southern States, and great embarrassment and distress to those of +the North. The nations of the Continent had all directed their efforts +to the business of manufacturing; and all Europe may be said to have +converted their swords into machinery, creating unprecedented demand for +cotton, the great staple of the Southern States. There is nothing in the +history of commerce that can be compared with the increased demand for +this staple, notwithstanding the restrictions by which this Government +has limited that demand. As cotton, tobacco, and rice, are produced only +on a small portion of the globe, while all other agricultural staples +are common to every region of the earth, this circumstance gave the +planting States very great advantages. To cap the climax of the +commercial advantages opened to the cotton planters, England, their +great and most valued customer, received their cotton under a mere +nominal duty. On the other hand, the prospects of the Northern States +were as dismal as those of the Southern States were brilliant. They had +lost the carrying trade of the world, which the wars of Europe had +thrown into their hands. They had lost the demand and the high prices +which our own war had created for their grain and other productions; +and, soon afterward, they also lost the foreign market for their grain, +owing, partly, to foreign corn laws, but still more to other causes. +Such were the prospects, and such the well-founded hope of the Southern +States at the close of the late war, in which they bore so glorious a +part in vindicating the freedom of trade. But where are now these +cheering prospects and animating hopes? Blasted, sir--utterly +blasted--by the consuming and withering course of a system of +legislation which wages an exterminating war against the blessings of +commerce and the bounties of a merciful Providence; and which, by an +impious perversion of language, is called 'Protection.' . . . . I will +not add, sir, my deep and deliberate conviction, in the face of all the +miserable cant and hypocrisy with which the world abounds on the +subject, that any course of measures which shall hasten the abolition of +slavery, by destroying the value of slave labor, will bring upon the +Southern States the greatest political calamity with which they can be +afflicted; for I sincerely believe, that when the people of those States +shall be compelled, by such means, to emancipate their slaves, they will +be but a few degrees above the condition of slaves themselves. Yes, sir, +mark what I say: when the people of the South cease to be masters, by +the tampering influence of this Government, direct or indirect, they +will assuredly be slaves. It is the clear and distinct perception of the +irresistible tendency of this protective system to precipitate us upon +this great moral and political catastrophe, that has animated me to +raise my warning voice, that my fellow-citizens may foresee, and +foreseeing, avoid the destiny that would otherwise befall them. . . . . +And here, sir, it is as curious as it is melancholy and distressing, to +see how striking is the analogy between the colonial vassalage to which +the manufacturing States have reduced the planting States, and that +which formerly bound the Anglo-American colonies to the British +Empire. . . . England said to her American colonies 'You shall not trade +with the rest of the world for such manufactures _as are produced in the +mother country_.' The manufacturing States say to their Southern +colonies, 'You shall not trade with the rest of the world for such +manufactures as _we produce_, under a penalty of forty per cent. upon +the value of every cargo detected in this illicit commerce; which +penalty, aforesaid, shall be levied, collected, and paid out of the +products of your industry, to nourish and sustain ours.'" + +Mr. Clay, in referring to the condition of the country at large, said: +"I have now to perform the more pleasing task of exhibiting an imperfect +sketch of the existing state of the unparalleled prosperity of the +country. On a general survey, we behold cultivation extended; the arts +flourishing; the face of the country improved; our people fully and +profitably employed, and the public countenance exhibiting tranquillity, +contentment, and happiness. And, if we descend into particulars, we have +the agreeable contemplation of a people out of debt; land rising slowly +in value, but in a secure and salutary degree; a ready, though not an +extravagant market for all the surplus productions of our industry; +innumerable flocks and herds browsing and gamboling on ten thousand +hills and plains, covered with rich and verdant grasses; our cities +expanded, and whole villages springing up, as it were, by enchantment; +our exports and imports increased and increasing; our tonnage, foreign +and coastwise, swelled and fully occupied; the rivers of our interior +animated by the perpetual thunder and lightning of countless steamboats; +the currency sound and abundant; the public debt of two wars nearly +redeemed; and, to crown all, the public treasury overflowing, +embarrassing Congress, not to find subjects of taxation, but to select +the objects which shall be liberated from the impost. If the term of +seven years were to be selected, of the greatest prosperity which this +people have enjoyed since the establishment of their present +Constitution, it would be exactly that period of seven years which +immediately followed the passage of the tariff of 1824. + +"This transformation of the condition of the country from gloom and +distress to brightness and prosperity, has been mainly the work of +American legislation, fostering American industry, instead of allowing +it to be controlled by foreign legislation, cherishing foreign industry. +The foes of the American system, in 1824, with great boldness and +confidence, predicted, first, the ruin of the public revenue, and the +creation of a necessity to resort to direct taxation. The gentleman from +South Carolina, (General Hayne,) I believe, thought that the tariff of +1824 would operate a reduction of revenue to the large amount of eight +millions of dollars; secondly, the destruction of our navigation; +thirdly, the desolation of commercial cities; and, fourthly, the +augmentation of the price of articles of consumption, and further +decline in that of the articles of our exports. Every prediction which +they made has failed--utterly failed. . . . . It is now proposed to +abolish the system to which we owe so much of the public prosperity +. . . . . Why, sir, there is scarcely an interest--scarcely a vocation +in society--which is not embraced by the beneficence of this system. . . +. . The error of the opposite argument, is in assuming one thing, which, +being denied, the whole fails; that is, it assumes that the _whole_ +labor of the United States would be profitably employed without +manufactures. Now, the truth is, that the system _excites_ and _creates_ +labor, and this labor creates wealth, and this new wealth communicates +additional ability to consume; which acts on all the objects +contributing to human comfort and enjoyment. . . . . I could extend and +dwell on the long list of articles--the hemp, iron, lead, coal, and +other items--for which a demand is created in the home market by the +operation of the American system; but I should exhaust the patience of +the Senate. _Where, where_ should we find a market for all these +articles, if it did not exist at home? What would be the condition of +the largest portion of our people, and of the territory, if this home +market were annihilated? How could they be supplied with objects of +prime necessity? What would not be the certain and inevitable decline in +the price of all these articles, but for the home market?" + +But we must not burden our pages with further extracts. What has been +quoted affords the principal arguments of the opposing parties, on the +points in which we are interested, down to 1832. The adjustment, in +1833, of the subject until 1842, and its subsequent agitation, are too +familiar, or of too easy access to the general reader, to require a +notice from us here. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Results of the contest on Protection and Free + Trade--More or less favorable to all--Increased + consumption of Cotton at home--Capital invested in + Cotton and Woolen factories--Markets thus afforded + to the Farmer--South successful in securing the + monopoly of the Cotton markets--Failure of Cotton + cultivation in other countries--Diminished prices + destroyed Household Manufacturing--Increasing + demand for Cotton--Strange Providences--First + efforts to extend Slavery--Indian lands + acquired--No danger of over-production--Abolition + movements served to unite the South--Annexation of + territory thought essential to its + security--Increase of Provisions necessary to its + success--Temperance cause favorable to this + result--The West ready to supply the Planters--It + is greatly stimulated to effort by Southern + markets--_Tripartite Alliance_ of Western Farmers, + Southern Planters, and English Manufacturers--The + East competing--The West has a choice of + markets--Slavery extension necessary to Western + progress--Increased price of Provisions--More + grain growing needed--Nebraska and Kansas needed + to raise food--The Planters stimulated by + increasing demand for Cotton--Aspect of the + Provision question--California gold changed the + expected results of legislation--Reciprocity + Treaty favorable to Planters--Extended cultivation + of Provisions in the Far West essential to + Planters--Present aspect of the Cotton question + favorable to Planters--London Economist's + statistics and remarks--Our Planters must extend + the culture of Cotton to prevent its increased + growth elsewhere. + + +THE results of the contest, in relation to Protection and Free Trade, +have been more or less favorable to all parties. This has been an +effect, in part, of the changeable character of our legislation; and, in +part, of the occurrence of events in Europe, over which our legislators +had no control. The manufaturing States, while protection lasted, +succeeded in placing their establishments upon a comparatively permanent +basis; and, by engaging largely in the manufacture of cottons, as well +as woolens, have rendered home manufactures, practically, very +advantageous to the South. Our cotton factories, in 1850, consumed as +much cotton as those of Great Britain did in 1831; thus affording +indications, that, by proper encouragement, they might, possibly, be +multiplied so as to consume the whole crop of the country. The cotton +and woolen factories, in 1850, employed over 130,000 work hands, and had +$102,619,581 of capital invested in them. They thus afford an important +market to the farmer, and, at the same time, have become an equally +important auxiliary to the planter. They may yet afford him the only +market for his cotton. + +The cotton planting States, toward the close of the contest, found +themselves rapidly accumulating strength, and approximating the +accomplishment of the grand object at which they aimed--the monopoly of +the cotton markets of the world. This success was due, not so much to +any triumph over the North--to any prostration of our manufacturing +interests--as to the general policy of other nations. All rivalry to the +American planters from those of the West Indies, was removed by +emancipation; as, under freedom, the cultivation of cotton was nearly +abandoned. Mehemet Ali had become imbecile, and the indolent Egyptians +neglected its culture. The South Americans, after achieving their +independence, were more readily enlisted in military forays, than in the +art of agriculture, and they produced little cotton for export. The +emancipation of their slaves, instead of increasing the agricultural +products of the Republics, only supplied, in ample abundance, the +elements of promoting political revolutions, and keeping their soil +drenched with human blood. Such are the uses to which degraded men may +be applied by the ambitious demagogue. Brazil and India both supplied to +Europe considerably less in 1838 than they had done in 1820; and the +latter country made no material increase afterward, except when her +chief customer, China, was at war, or prices were above the average +rates in Europe. While the cultivation of cotton was thus stationary or +retrograding, everywhere outside of the United States, England and the +Continent were rapidly increasing their consumption of the article, +which they nearly doubled from 1835 to 1845; so that the demand for the +raw material called loudly for its increased production. Our planters +gathered a rich harvest of profits by these events. + +But this is not all that is worthy of note, in this strange chapter of +Providences. No prominent event occurred, but conspired to advance the +prosperity of the cotton trade, and the value of American slavery. Even +the very depression suffered by the manufacturers and cultivators of +cotton, from 1825 to 1829, served to place the manufacturing interests +upon the broad and firm basis they now occupy. It forced the planters +into the production of their cotton at lower rates; and led the +manufacturers to improve their machinery, and reduce the price of their +fabrics low enough to sweep away all household manufacturing, and +secure to themselves the monopoly of clothing the civilized world. This +was the object at which the British manufacturers had aimed, and in +which they had been eminently successful. The growing manufactures of +the United States, and of the Continent of Europe, had not yet sensibly +affected their operations. + +There is still another point requiring a passing notice, as it may serve +to explain some portions of the history of slavery, not so well +understood. It was not until events diminishing the foreign growth of +cotton, and enlarging the demand for its fabrics, had been extensively +developed, that the older cotton-growing States became willing to allow +slavery extension in the Southwest; and, even then, their assent was +reluctantly given--the markets for cotton, doubtless, being considered +sufficiently limited for the territory under cultivation. Up to 1824, +the Indians held over thirty-two millions of acres of land in Georgia, +Mississippi, and Alabama, and over twenty millions of acres in Florida, +Missouri and Arkansas; which was mostly retained by them as late as +1836. Although the States interested had repeatedly urged the matter +upon Congress, and some of them even resorted to forcible means to gain +possession of these Indian lands, the Government did not fulfill its +promise to remove the Indians until 1836; and even then, the measure met +with such opposition, that it was saved but by one vote--Mr. Calhoun and +six other Southern Senators voting against it.[32] In justice to Mr. +Calhoun, however, it must be stated that his opposition to the measure +was based on the conviction that the treaty had been fraudulently +obtained. + +The older States, however, had found, by this time, that the foreign and +home demand for cotton was so rapidly increasing that there was little +danger of over-production; and that they had, in fact, secured to +themselves the monopoly of the foreign markets. Beside this, the +abolition movement at that moment, had assumed its most threatening +aspect, and was demanding the destruction of slavery or the dissolution +of the Union. Here was a double motive operating to produce harmony in +the ranks of Southern politicians, and to awaken the fears of many, +North and South, for the safety of the Government. Here, also, was the +origin of the determination, in the South, to extend slavery, by the +annexation of territory, so as to gain the political preponderance in +the National Councils, and to protect its interests against the +interference of the North. + +It was not the increased demand for cotton, alone, that served as a +protection to the older States. The extension of its cultivation, in the +degree demanded by the wants of commerce, could only be effected by a +corresponding increased supply of provisions. Without this, it could not +increase, except by enhancing their price to the injury of the older +States. This food did not fail to be in readiness, so soon as it was +needed. Indeed, much of it had long been awaiting an outlet to a +profitable market. Its surplus, too, had been somewhat increased by the +Temperance movement in the North, which had materially checked the +distillation of grain. + +The West, which had long looked to the East for a market, had its +attention now turned to the South, as the most certain and convenient +mart for the sale of its products--the planters affording to the farmers +the markets they had in vain sought from the manufacturers. In the +meantime, steamboat navigation was acquiring perfection on the Western +rivers--the great natural outlets for Western products--and became a +means of communication between the Northwest and the Southwest, as well +as with the trade and commerce of the Atlantic cities. This gave an +impulse to industry and enterprise, west of the Alleghanies, +unparalleled in the history of the country. While, then, the bounds of +slave labor were extending from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, +Westward, over Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, the area of +free labor was enlarging, with equal rapidity, in the Northwest, +throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Thus, within these +provision and cotton regions, were the forests cleared away, or the +prairies broken up, simultaneously by those old antagonistic forces, +opponents no longer, but harmonized by the fusion of their +interests--the connecting link between them being the steamboat. Thus, +also, was a _tripartite alliance_ formed, by which the Western Farmer, +the Southern Planter, and the English Manufacturer, became united in a +common bond of interest: the whole giving their support to the doctrine +of Free Trade. + +This active commerce between the West and South, however, soon caused a +rivalry in the East, that pushed forward improvements, by States or +Corporations, to gain a share in the Western trade. These improvements, +as completed, gave to the West a choice of markets, so that its Farmers +could elect whether to feed the slave who grows the cotton, or the +operatives who are engaged in its manufacture. But this rivalry did +more. The competition for Western products enhanced their price, and +stimulated their more extended cultivation. This required an enlargement +of the markets; and the extension of slavery became essential to Western +prosperity. + +We have not reached the end of the alliance between the Western Farmer +and Southern Planter. The emigration which has been filling Iowa and +Minnesota, and is now rolling like a flood into Kansas and Nebraska, is +but a repetition of what has occurred in the other Western States and +Territories. Agricultural pursuits are highly remunerative, and tens of +thousands of men of moderate means, or of no means, are cheered along to +where none forbids them land to till. For the last few years, public +improvements have called for vastly more than the usual share of labor, +and augmented the consumption of provisions. The foreign demand added to +this, has increased their price beyond what the planter can afford to +pay. For many years free labor and slave labor maintained an even race +in their Western progress. Of late the freemen have begun to lag behind, +while slavery has advanced by several degrees of longitude. Free labor +must be made to keep pace with it. There is an urgent necessity for +this. The demand for cotton is increasing in a ratio greater than can be +supplied by the American planters, unless by a corresponding increased +production. This increasing demand must be met, or its cultivation will +be facilitated elsewhere, and the monopoly of the planter in the +European markets be interrupted. This can only be effected by +concentrating the greatest possible number of slaves upon the cotton +plantations. Hence they must be supplied with provisions. + +This is the present aspect of the Provision question, as it regards +slavery extension. Prices are approximating the maximum point, beyond +which our provisions can not be fed to slaves, unless there is a +corresponding increase in the price of cotton. Such a result was not +anticipated by Southern statesmen, when they had succeeded in +overthrowing the protective policy, destroying the United States Bank, +and establishing the Sub-Treasury system. And why has this occurred? The +mines of California prevented both the Free-Trade Tariff,[33] and the +Sub-Treasury scheme from exhausting the country of the precious metals, +extinguishing the circulation of Bank Notes, and reducing the prices of +agricultural products to the specie value. At the date of the passage of +the Nebraska Bill, the multiplication of provisions, by their more +extended cultivation, was the only measure left that could produce a +reduction of prices, and meet the wants of the planters. The Canadian +Reciprocity Treaty, since secured, will bring the products of the +British North American colonies, free of duty, into competition with +those of the United States, when prices, with us, rule high, and tend to +diminish their cost; but in the event of scarcity in Europe, or of +foreign wars, the opposite results may occur, as our products, in such +times, will pass, free of duty, through these colonies, into the foreign +market. It is apparent, then, that nothing short of extended free labor +cultivation, far distant from the seaboard, where the products will bear +transportation to none but Southern markets, can fully secure the cotton +interests from the contingencies that so often threaten them with +ruinous embarrassments. In fact, such a depression of our cotton +interests has only been averted by the advanced prices which cotton has +commanded, for the last few years, in consequence of the increased +European demand, and its diminished cultivation abroad. + +On this subject, the _London Economist_, of June 9, 1855, in remarking +on the aspects of the cotton question, at that moment says: + +"Another somewhat remarkable circumstance, considering we are at war, +and considering the predictions of some persons, is the present high +price and consumption of cotton. The crop in the United States is short, +being only 1,120,000,000 or 1,160,000,000 lbs., but not so short as to +have a very great effect on the markets had consumption not increased. +Our mercantile readers will be well aware of this fact, but let us state +here that the total consumption between January 1st and the last week in +May was: + + =CONSUMPTION OF COTTON.= + =1853.= =1854.= =1855.= + + Pounds, 331,708,000 295,716,000 415,648,000 + Less than 1855, 83,940,000 119,932,000 + Average consumption of + lbs. per week, 15,600,000 14,000,000 19,600,000 + +"Though the crop in the United States is short up to this time, Great +Britain has received 12,400,000 lbs. more of the crop of 1854 than she +received to the same period of the crop of 1853. Thus, in spite of the +war, and in spite of a short crop of cotton, in spite of dear corn and +failing trade to Australia and the United States, the consumption of +cotton has been one-fourth in excess of the flourishing year of 1853, +and more than a third in excess of 1854. These facts are worth +consideration. + +"It is reasonably expected that the present high prices will bring +cotton forward rapidly; but as yet this effect has not ensued. . . . . +Thus, it will be seen that, notwithstanding the short crop in the +States, (at present, they have sent us more in 1855 than in 1854, but +not so much as in 1853,) the supply from other sources, except Egypt, +has been smaller in 1855 than in either of the preceding years, and the +supply from Egypt, though greater than in 1854, is less than in 1853." +[From India, the principal hope of increased supplies, the imports for +1855, in the first four months of the year, were less by 47,960,000 lbs. +than in 1854, and less by 64,000,000 lbs. than in 1853.[34]] "We may +infer, therefore, that the rise in price hitherto, has not been +sufficient to bring increased supplies from India and other places; but +these will, no doubt, come when it is seen that the rise will probably +be permanent in consequence of the enlarged consumption, and the +comparative deficiency in the crop of the United States." + +After noticing the increasing exports of raw cotton from both England +and the United States to France and the other countries of the +Continent, from which it is inferred that the consumption is increasing +in Europe, generally, as well as in Great Britain, the _Economist_ +proceeds to remark: + +"A rapidly increasing consumption of cotton in Europe has not been met +by an equally rapidly increasing supply, and the present relative +condition of the supply to the demand seems to justify an advance of +price, unless a greatly diminished consumption can be brought about. +What supplies may yet be obtained from India, the Brazils, Egypt, etc., +we know not; but, judging from the imports of the three last years, they +are not likely to supply the great deficiency in the stocks just +noticed. A decrease in consumption, which is recommended, can only be +accomplished by the state of the market, not by the will of individual +spinners; for if some lessen their consumption of the raw material while +the demand of the market is for more cloth, it will be supplied by +others, either here or abroad; and the only real solution of the +difficulty or means of lowering the price, is an increased supply. This +points to other exertions than those which have been latterly directed +to the production of fibrous materials to be converted directly into +paper. Exertions ought rather to be directed to the production of +fibrous materials which shall be used for textile fabrics, and so much +larger supplies of rags--the cheapest and best material for making paper +will be obtained. But theoretical production, and the schemers who +propose it, not guided by the market demands, are generally erroneous, +and what we now require is more and cheaper material for clothing as the +means of getting more rags to make paper. + +"Another important deduction may be made from the state of the cotton +market. It has not been affected, at least the production of cotton with +the importation into Europe has not been disturbed by the war, and yet +it seems not to have kept pace with the consumption. From this we infer +that legislative restrictions on traffic, permanently affecting the +habits of the people submissive to them, and of all their customers, +have a much more pernicious effect on production and trade than national +outpourings in war of indignation and anger--which, if terrible in their +effects, are of short duration. These are in the order of nature, except +as they are slowly corrected and improved by knowledge; while the +restrictions--the offspring of ignorance and misplaced ambition--are at +all times opposed to her beneficent ordinances." + +The _Economist_ of June 30, in its Trade Tables, sums up the imports for +the 5th month of the year 1855; from which it appears, that instead of +any increase of the imports of cotton having occurred, they had fallen +off to the extent of 43,772,176 lbs. below the quantity imported in the +corresponding month of 1854. + +The _Economist_ of September 1, 1855, in continuing its notices of the +cotton markets, and stating that there is still a falling off in its +supplies, says: + +"The decline in the quantity of cotton imported is notoriously the +consequence of the smallness of last year's crops in the United States. +. . . . It is remarkable that the additional supply which has made up +partly for the shortness of the American crop comes from the Brazils, +Egypt, and other parts. From British India the supply is relatively +shorter than from the United States. It fails us more than that of the +States, and the fact is rather unfavorable to the speculations of those +who wish to make us independent of the States, and dependent chiefly on +our own possessions. The high freights that have prevailed, and are +likely to prevail with a profitable trade, would obviously make it +extremely dangerous for our manufacturers to increase their dependence +on India for a supply of cotton. In 1855, when we have a short supply +from other quarters, India has sent us one-third less than in 1853." + +The _Economist_ of February 23, 1856, contains the Annual Statement of +Imports for 1855, ending December 31, from which it appears that the +supplies of cotton from India, for the whole year, were only 145,218,976 +lbs., or 35,212,520 lbs. less than the imports for 1853. Of these +imports 66,210,704 lbs. were re-exported; thus leaving the British +manufacturers but 79,008,272 lbs. of the free labor cotton of India, +upon which to employ their looms.[35] + +This increasing demand for cotton beyond the present supplies, if not +met by the cotton growers of the United States, must encourage its +cultivation in countries which now send but little to market. To prevent +such a result, and to retain in their own hands the monopoly of the +cotton market, will require the utmost vigilance on the part of our +planters. That vigilance will not be wanting. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32] Benton's Thirty Year's View. + +[33] The Tariff of 1846, under which our imports are now made, +approximates the Free Trade principles very closely. + +[34] These figures are taken from a part of the _Economist's_ article +not copied. For the difference between the imports from India, in the +whole of the years 1850 to 1855, see Table I. + +[35] The commercial year is five days shorter for 1855 than in former +years. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Consideration of foreign cultivation of Cotton + further considered--Facts and opinions slated by + the London Economist--Consumption of Cotton + tending to exceed the production--India affords + the only field of competition with the United + States--Its vast inferiority--Imports from India + dependent upon price--Free Labor and Slave Labor + cannot be united on the same field--Supply of the + United States therefore limited by natural + increase of slaves--Limited supply of labor tends + to renewal of slave trade--Cotton production in + India the only obstacle which Great Britain can + interpose against American Planters--Africa, too, + to be made subservient to this + object--Parliamentary proceedings on this + subject--Successful Cotton culture in + Africa--Slavery to be permanently established by + this policy--Opinions of the _American + Missionary_--Remarks showing the position of the + Cotton question in its relations to slavery--Great + Britain building up slavery in Africa to break it + down in America. + + +THE remark which closes the preceding chapter was made in 1856. An +opportunity is now offered for recording the results of the movements of +Great Britain to promote cotton culture in her own possessions between +that and 1859. The results will be startling. Few anti-slavery men in +the United States expected that Great Britain would so soon be engaged +zealously in establishing slave labor in Africa, or that Lord Palmerston +should publicly commend the measure. The question is one of so much +importance as to demand a full examination. The extracts are taken, +mainly, from the _London Economist_, a periodical having the highest +reputation for candor and fair dealing. On Feb. 12, 1859, the +_Economist_ said: + +"We are not surprised that the future supply of cotton should have +engaged the attention of Parliament on an early night of the Session. It +is a question the importance of which can not well be overrated, if we +refer only to the commercial interests which it involves, or to the +social comfort or happiness of the millions who are now dependent upon +it for their support. But it has an aspect far loftier and even more +important. At its root lies the ultimate success of a policy for which +England has made great struggles and great sacrifices--the maintaining +of existing treaties, and perhaps the peace of the world. Every year as +it passes, proves more and more that the question of slavery, and even +of the slave trade, is destined to be materially affected, if not +ultimately governed, by considerations arising out of the cultivation of +this plant. It is impossible to observe the tendency of public opinion +throughout America, not even excepting the Free States, with relation to +the slave trade, without feeling conscious that it is drifting into +indifference, and even laxity. In every light, then, in which this great +subject can be viewed, it is one which well deserves the careful +attention equally of the philanthropist and the statesman. + +"It has been said, that in the case of cotton we have found an exception +to the great commercial principle of supply and demand. Is this so? We +doubt it. We doubt if, on the contrary, we shall not find, upon +investigation, that it presents one of the strongest examples of the +struggle of that principle to maintain its conclusions. No doubt the +conditions of its production have made that struggle a severe one; but, +nevertheless, it has not been altogether unsuccessful. Eighteen years +ago, (in 1840) the total supply of cotton imported into this country was +592,488,000 lbs.: with temporary fluctuations, it had steadily grown +until it had reached, in the last three years, upwards of 900,000,000 +lbs., showing an increase of more than fifty per cent. Nevertheless, the +demand had been constantly pressing upon the supply, the consumption has +always shown a tendency to exceed the production, and the consequent +result of a high price has, during a majority of those years, acted as a +powerful stimulant to cultivation. But, practically speaking, we possess +but two sources of supply, and both present such powerful obstacles to +extended cultivation, that we are not surprised at the habitual +uneasiness of those whose interests demand a continually increasing +quantity. Those two sources are the United States and British India. It +is true that Brazil, Egypt, the West Indies, and some other countries, +furnish small quantities of cotton; but when we state that of the +931,847,000 lbs., imported into the United Kingdom in 1858, the +proportion furnished by America and India was 870,656,000 lbs., leaving +for all other places put together, a supply of only 61,191,000 lbs., +notwithstanding the many laudable efforts, both on the part of +Government, and of the mercantile community, to encourage its growth in +new countries, it will be admitted that, as an _immediate_ and practical +question, it is confined to those two sources. They are not only the +sources from whence the largest supplies are received, but they are +also those where the chief increase has taken place. + +"In 1840 the supply received from the United States was 487,856,000 lbs. +Since that time, with some considerable fluctuations, it has steadily +increased, until in 1858 it rose to 732,403,000 lbs.--the maximum +quantity having reached in 1856, 780,040,000 lbs. Yet, great as this +increase has been, it appears that it has not been equal to the +increased demand, if we may judge from the price, at the two +periods.[36] The large supplies of the last three years have commanded +prices at least _sixteen per cent._ higher than the smaller supplies +from 1840 to 1842. Every encouragement, therefore, which high and +remunerative prices could give to increased cultivation has been +liberally afforded to the cotton-growing States of America. + +"But whatever the price, there is a condition which places an absolute +limit upon the growth. Land in every way suited for the purpose, is +abundant and cheap. Means of transport is of the cheapest and best kind, +and is without limit. The limit lies in the necessary ingredient of +labor. If cotton had been the produce of free labor, no doubt the +principle of supply and demand would have solved the difficulty. The +surplus of the Old World would have steadily maintained the balance +between the two in the New World. Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, the +Southern parts of France, and Portugal, would have sent their surplus +labor to the best market. As it is, the two kinds of labor--that of the +freeman and that of the slave--can not be united in the same +cultivation. The slave States of America are, therefore, dependent for +any increase of labor only upon themselves. The consuming States can +draw supplies only from the breeding States. It is, therefore, exactly +in proportion as the slave population increases that the cotton crop +becomes larger. Taking the average of three or four years at any period +of the history of the United States for the last forty years, it will be +found that the growth of cotton is equal to one bale for each person of +the slave population. The calculation is well known. When the slave +population was two millions, the average produce of cotton was two +millions of bales:--as the one rose the other increased. The slave +population is now about three millions and a half; the cotton crop of +the present year is computed at from 3,500,000 to 3,700,000 bales. The +high price of cotton, and the great profit attached to its cultivation, +have no doubt furnished the greatest stimulant to an increase of that +part of the population. In the competition for more labor, the price of +slaves was enormously increased. Some years ago the price of a slave was +about L100; now they are worth from L200 to L400. But what must be the +tendency of this fearful competition for a limited supply of human +labor--limited as long as the slave trade is prohibited--unlimited as +soon as the slave trade is legalized? What is the actual condition of +the Southern States at this moment? There is on the ground and being +secured, according to computation, the largest cotton crop ever known. +The last estimates vary from 3,550,000 bales to 3,700,000 bales. A very +few years ago it was calculated that cotton at any thing above _four +cents_ the pound for "middling quality" on the spot was a profitable +crop. Now, the price for the same quality on the spot is fully _ten +cents_ the pound;--and it has been about the same or higher for a long +time. What is the consequence? A correspondent writing by the last mail +says: 'The people of this section of the country feel _made of gold_, +and every thing here is, of course, going at full cry--_every planter +wants to open more land and buy more negroes_.' What do these facts +suggest? Do they furnish no explanation of the strong desire in the +Southern States to possess Cuba? Do they furnish no explanation of the +exaggerated irritation got up last year in respect to the West India +squadron, and the demand of the American Government, we fear too +successfully made, that the right of search in the mitigated form in +which it existed should be altogether abandoned? A people familiarized +not only with slavery, but also with the slave trade as between one +class of States and another, can hardly be expected to entertain a very +strong repugnance to a slave trade from beyond the seas. That cargoes of +imported slaves have recently been landed in the United States is not +denied:--that vessels fitted out as slavers have recently been seized in +American ports, we know upon official authority. The same correspondent +whom we have already quoted, says there are two great questions which +occupy the Southern States at this moment. The one is the acquisition of +Cuba. 'The other,' he says, 'is one which has been presented to me +forcibly during my sojourn in the South, and that is the increase of +slave population. You must have noticed an illicit importation of +negroes from Africa landed in Georgia. This has undoubtedly been done, +and I doubt not also that other negroes have been landed. It is of +course the desire of every honest man that the whole force of the +government should be used to put down such a trade, and punish the +offenders; but I fear the profits of the trade are so enormous that it +will be carried on in the face of all opposition. Negroes are now worth +here from 1,000 to 2,000 dollars a-piece. The subject of their being +introduced is being openly discussed, and the propriety of the trade +being again legalized. It is plain this discussion will by and by take +shape. Will not the government be obliged to listen to it, and what will +be the result? When labor is so profitable it will be obtained. How? I +confess to looking upon this subject with great anxiety. The feeling +with regard to slavery both in the North and South has undergone a +material change in the last four years. It is now looked upon with far +less abhorrence.' Is it possible to separate the danger which is here +presented so forcibly from the question of the high price of cotton? We +know by experience the influence which the Southern States can exercise +upon the election of a President. . . . . . . If the free States are +indifferent, we know that, at whatever risk, the slave States will have +their own way; and with them it is plain that much must depend upon the +price of cotton and the motives which it furnishes to '_open more land +and buy more negroes_.' + +"But with what an enormous interest does this view of the case invest +the cultivation of cotton in India. It is the only real obstacle that we +can interpose to the growing feeling in favor of slavery, to the +diminishing abhorrence of the slave trade in the United States. It is +the only field, competition with which can, for many years to come, +redress the undue stimulant which high prices are giving to slave labor +in America. Nor do the facts as regard the past discourage the hope that +it may be successfully used for that purpose. In 1840 the supply of +cotton from India was 77,011,000 lbs.;--in 1858 it had risen to +138,253,000 lbs.: having been in the immediately preceding year no less +than 250,338,000 lbs. The average importation for four years from 1840 +to 1843 amounted to 83,300,000 lbs.:--the average importation for the +last four years has been 178,000,000 lbs. or somewhat more than double +that of the former period. In some important respects the conditions of +supply from India differ very much from those which attach to and +determine the supply from America. In India there is no limit to the +quantity of labor. There may be said to be little or none to the +quantity of land. The obstacle is of another kind; it lies almost +exclusively in the want of cheap transit. Our supplies of India cotton +are not even determined by the quantity produced, but by that which, +when produced, can profitably be forwarded to England. It is, therefore, +a question of price whether we obtain more or less. A rise in the price +of _one penny_ the pound in 1857, suddenly increased the supply from +180,000,000 lbs. in 1856 to 250,000,000 lbs. in 1857. A fall in the +price in 1858 again suddenly reduced it to 138,000,000 lbs. It was not +that the production of cotton varied in these proportions in those +years, but that at given prices it was possible to incur more cost in +the transit than at others. The same high price, therefore, which at +present renders a large supply possible from India, creates an unusual +demand for slaves in the United States. But would not the same +corrective consequence be produced if we could diminish the cost of +transit in India? Every farthing a pound saved in carriage is equivalent +to so much added to the price of cotton. Four-pence the pound in the +Liverpool market for good India cotton, with a cost of two-pence from +the spot of production, would command just as great a supply as a price +of five-pence the pound if the intermediate cost were three-pence. The +whole question resolves itself into one of good roads and cheap +conveyance. Labor in India is infinitely more abundant than in the +United States, and much cheaper; land is at least as cheap; the climate +is as good;--but the bullock trains on the miserable roads of Hindostan +cannot compete with the steamers and other craft on the Mississippi. No +doubt we have new hopes in the district of Scinde, and in the aid of the +Indus. We have new hopes in the railways which are being +constructed,--not only in cheapening transit, but even more in improving +the condition in which native produce will be brought to market. +Whatever, therefore, be the financial sacrifice which in the first place +must be made for the purpose of opening the interior of India, it should +be cheerfully made, as the only means by which we can hope permanently +to improve the revenues of India, to increase and cheapen the supply of +the most important raw material of our own industry, and to bring in +the abundant labor of the millions of our fellow-subjects in India, to +redress the deficiency in the slave States of America, and thus to give +the best practical check to the growing attractions of slavery and the +slave trade." + +On March 5, 1859, the editor resumes the subject, and discusses the +bearing which the movements making in Africa are likely to have upon +these interests. + +"We pointed out in a recent number the very close connection between the +traditional policy of England in resisting the slave trade, and the +efforts which are now making to find other sources of cotton supply +besides the United States. We showed that a cry is now arising in the +United States, for the renewal of the slave trade--a cry stimulated +principally by the high price of cotton. We showed that for every slave +in the Southern States there is on the average a bale of cotton produced +annually, and that as the demand for cotton, and consequently the price +of cotton rises, the demand for slaves and the price of slaves rises +with it. In the words of a correspondent whom we then quoted, 'every +planter wants to open more land and buy more negroes.' Hence the demand +in the South for the recently successful attempt to smuggle +slave-cargoes into Georgia. If, then, either in India or any other +quarter of the world, it be possible either to cheapen the carriage or +facilitate the growth of cotton, so as to bring it into the English +markets at a price that can compete successfully with the American +cotton, we are conferring a double benefit on mankind--we are increasing +the supply of one of the most necessary, and, relatively to the demand, +one of the least abundant, articles of commerce, on the steady supply of +which the livelihood of millions, and the comfort of almost every +civilized nation on the face of the earth, depends, and by means of the +increased competition we are diminishing the force of the motive which +is now threatening the United States with a renewal of the slave trade. +We cannot, therefore, well conceive of stronger considerations than +those which are now urging Englishmen to do what may be in their power +for the promotion of an increased supply from cotton-growing countries +other than the States of America. + +"Besides these reasons which apply to the promotion of the cotton-supply +in India, or in our own West Indian islands, there is one peculiar to +the case of Africa which makes it important that no opportunities of +encouraging the cotton-growth of that continent should be neglected. The +African supply, if ever it become large, will not only check the rise in +the price of cotton, and therefore of slaves in America,--but it will +diminish the profits of slave exportation on the coast of Africa. +Experience has now sufficiently proved to us, that no one agency has +been so effective in paralyzing the slave trade as the growth of any +branch of profitable industry which convinces the native African chiefs +that they can get a surer and, in the long run, larger profit by +employing their subjects in peaceful labor, than they can even get from +the large but uncertain gains of the slave trade. . . . . Once let the +African chiefs find out, as in many instances they have already found +out, that the sale of the laborer can be only a source of profit _once_, +while his labor may be a source of constant and increasing profit, and +we shall hear no more of their killing the hen which may lay so many +golden eggs, for the sake only of a solitary and final prize." + +The _American Missionary_, of April, 1859, gives a condensed statement +of a discussion in the British Parliament, last summer, in which the +condition of cotton culture in Africa was brought out, and its +encouragement strongly urged as a means of suppressing the slave trade, +and of increasing the supplies of that commodity to the manufacturers of +England. S. Fitzgerald, Under Secretary of State, said: + +"He did not scruple to say that, looking at the papers which he had +perused, it was to the West Coast of Africa that we must look for that +large increase in our supply of cotton which was now becoming absolutely +necessary, and without which he and others who had studied this subject +foresaw grave consequences to the most important branch of the +manufactures of this country. Our consul at Lagos reported: + +"The whole of the Yoruba and other countries south of the Niger, with +the Houssa and the Nuffe countries on the north side of that river, have +been, from all time, cotton-growing countries; and notwithstanding the +civil wars, ravages, disorders and disruptions caused by the slave +trade, more than sufficient cotton to clothe their populations has +always been cultivated, and their fabrics have found markets and a ready +sale in those countries where the cotton plant is not cultivated, and +into which the fabrics of Manchester and Glasgow have not yet +penetrated. The cultivation of cotton, therefore, in the above-named +countries is not new to the inhabitants; all that is required is to +offer them a market for the sale of as much as they can cultivate, and +by preventing the export of slaves from the seaboard render some +security to life, freedom, property, and labor." Another of our consuls, +speaking of the trade in the Bight of Benin in 1856, said: + +"'The readiness with which the inhabitants of the large town of +Abbeokuta have extended their cultivation of the cotton plant merits the +favorable notice of the manufacturer and of the philanthropist, as a +means of supplanting the slave trade.'" + +"It was worthy of notice that while the quantity of cotton obtained from +America between 1784 and 1791, the first seven years of the importation +into this country was only 74 bales; during the years 1855 and 1856 the +town of Abbeokuta alone exported nearly twenty times that quantity. He +thought he might fairly say that if we succeed in repressing the +slave-trade, as he believed we should, we should in a few years receive +a very large supply of this most important article from the West Coast +of Africa." + +"Mr. J. H. Gurney said he had received from Mr. Thomas Clegg, of +Manchester, a few figures, from which it appeared that while in 1852 +only 1800 lbs. of cotton had been brought into Great Britain from +Africa, in the first five months of the present year it was 94,400 lbs. + +"Mr. Buxton said: 'There was no question now, that any required amount +of cotton, equal to that of New Orleans in quality, might be obtained. A +very short time ago Mr. Clegg, of Manchester, aided by the Rev. H. Venn, +and a few other gentlemen, trained and sent out two or three young +negroes as agents to Abbeokuta. These young men taught the natives to +collect and clean their cotton, and sent it home to England. The result +was, that the natives had actually purchased 250 cotton-gins for +cleaning their cotton. Mr. Clegg stated that he was in correspondence +with seventy-six natives and other African traders, twenty-two of them +being chiefs. With one of them Mr. Clegg had a transaction, by which he +(the African) received L3500. And the amount of cotton received at +Manchester had risen, hand over hand, till it came last year to nearly +100,000 lbs.' Well might Mr. Clegg say, that this was 'a rare instance +of the rapid development of a particular trade, and the more so because +every ounce of cotton had been collected, all labor performed, and the +responsibility borne by native Africans alone.' The fact was, that the +West African natives were not mere savages. In trade no men could show +more energy and quickness. And a considerable degree of social +organization existed. He could give a thousand proofs of this, but he +would only quote a word or two from Lieutenant May's despatch to Lord +Clarendon, dated the 24th of November, 1857. Lieutenant May crossed +overland from the Niger to Lagos, and he says: + +"A very pleasing and hopeful part of my report lies in the fact, that +certainly three-quarters of the country was under cultivation. Nor was +this the only evidence of the industry and peace of the country; in +every hut is cotton spinning; in every town is weaving, dyeing; often +iron smelting, pottery works, and other useful employments are to be +witnessed; while from town to town, for many miles, the entire road +presents a continuous file of men, women, and children carrying these +articles of their production for sale. I entertain feelings of much +increased respect for the industry and intellect of these people, and +admiration for their laws and manners." + +"Lord Palmerston said: 'I venture to say that you will find on the West +Coast of Africa a most valuable supply of cotton, so essential to the +manufactures of this country. The cotton districts of Africa are more +extensive than those of India. The access to them is more easy than to +the Indian cotton district; and I venture to say that your commerce with +the Western Coast of Africa, in the article of cotton, will, in a few +years, prove to be far more valuable than that of any other portion of +the world, the United States alone excepted.'" + +The _London Anti-Slavery Reporter_, as quoted by the _American +Missionary_ of March, 1859, says: + +"A few days ago, Mr. Consul Campbell addressed us, saying: 'African +cotton is no myth. A vessel has just arrived from Lagos with 607 bales +on board, _on native account_. Several hundred bales more have been +previously shipped this year.' + +"In order to afford our readers some idea of the extraordinary +development of this branch of native African industry and commerce, we +append a statement which will exhibit it at a single glance. We have +only to observe that we are indebted to Mr. Thomas Clegg, of Manchester, +for these interesting particulars, and that the quantities ordered have +been obtained from Abbeokuta alone. He is about to extend the field of +his operations. Four Europeans have gone out, expressly to trade in +native cotton; and several London houses, encouraged by the success +which has attended Mr. Clegg's experiment, are about to invest largely +in the same traffic. The quantity of raw cotton which has already been +imported into England, from Abbeokuta, since 1851, is 276,235 lbs., and +the trade has developed itself as follows: + + 1851-52 9 Bags or Bales lbs. 1810 + 1853 37 ditto 4617 + 1854 7 ditto 1588 + 1855 14 ditto 1651 + 1856 103 ditto 11,492 + 1857 283 ditto 35,419 + 1858 1819 ditto 220,099 + +"The last importation includes advices from Lagos up to the 1st of last +November. Since that time, the presses and other machinery sent out, +have been got into full work, and the quantity of the raw staple in +stock has rapidly accumulated, the bulk shipped being on 'native +account.' Each bag or bale weighs about 120 lbs. Let it be borne in mind +that the whole of this quantity has been collected, all the labor +performed and the responsibility borne by native Africans; while the +cost of production, Mr. Clegg informs us, does not exceed one half-penny +a pound in the end. It can be laid down in England at about 4 1/4_d._ a +pound, and sells at from 7_d._ to 9_d._" + +The great point of interest in this movement consists in the fact, that +in promoting the production of cotton in Africa, Englishmen are giving +direct encouragement to the employment of slave labor. It is an +undeniable fact, that from eight-tenths to nine-tenths of the population +of Africa are held as slaves by the petty kings and chiefs; and that, +more especially, the women, under the prevailing system of polygamy, are +doomed to out-doors' labor for the support of their indolent and sensual +husbands. Hitherto the labor of the women has, in general, been +comparatively light, as the preparation of food and clothing limited the +extent of effort required of them; but now, the cotton mills of England +must be supplied by them, and the hum of the spindles will sound the +knell of their days of ease. That we are not alone in this view of the +question, will appear from the opinions expressed by the _American +Missionary_, when referring to this subject. It says: + +"An encouraging feature in this movement is, that the men engaged in it +all feel that the suppression of the slave trade is absolutely essential +to its success. The necessity of this is the great burden of all their +arguments in its behalf. It thus acts with a double force. There can be +no question that the development of the resources of Africa will be an +effectual means, in itself, of discouraging the exportation of slaves, +while at the same time those who would encourage this development are +seeking the overthrow of that infamous traffic as the necessary removal +of an obstacle to their success. + +"There is, however, one danger connected with all this that can not be +obviated by any effort likely to be put forth under the stimulus of +commerce, or the spirit of trade. This danger can be averted only by +sending the missionaries of a pure gospel, a gospel of equal and +impartial love, into Africa, in numbers commensurate with the increase +of its agricultural resources and its spirit of general enterprise. + +"The danger to which we allude is not merely that of worldliness, such +as in a community always accompanies an increase of wealth, but that the +slavery now existing there may be strengthened and increased by the +rapid rise in the value of labor, and thus become so firmly rooted that +the toil of ages may be necessary for it removal. All this might have +been prevented if the spirit of Christian enterprise had gone ahead of +that of commerce, and thus prepared the way for putting commerce, under +the influence of Christianity. For years Africa has been open to the +missionary of the cross, to go everywhere preaching love to God and man, +with nothing to hinder except the sickliness of the climate. This evil, +and the dangers arising from it, business men are willing to risk, and +within the next ten years there will be thousands, and tens of +thousands, looking to Africa for the means of increasing their riches." + +From all this it appears, that the question of slavery is becoming more +intimately blended with cotton culture than at any former period; and +that the urgent demand for its increased production must establish the +system permanently, under the control of Great Britain, in Africa +itself. Look at the facts, and especially at the position of Great +Britain. The supply of cotton is inadequate to the demands of the +manufacturing nations. Great Britain stands far in advance of all others +in the quantity consumed. The ratio of increased production in the +United States cannot be advanced except by a renewal of the slave trade, +or a resort to the scheme of immigration on the plan of England and +France. It is thought by English writers, that the renewal of the slave +trade by the United States is inevitable, as a consequence of the +present high prices of cotton and slaves, unless the slave traders can +be shut out from the slave markets of Africa. They assume it as a +settled principle, that the immigration system is impracticable wherever +slavery exists; and that the American planter can only succeed in +securing additional labor by means of the slave trade. Then, according +to this theory, to prevent an increased production of cotton in the +United States, it is only necessary to make it impracticable for us to +renew that traffic. + +The supply of cotton from India is not on the increase, nor can be, +except when prices rule high in England, or until rail roads shall be +constructed into the interior, a work requiring much time and money. The +renewal of the slave trade by the United States, on a large scale, +would, of course, cheapen cotton in the proportion of the amount of +labor supplied. In this view the writers referred to are correct. They +are right also in supposing that a reduction below present prices, of a +cent or two per pound, would be ruinous to India in the present +condition of her inland transportation. They desire, very naturally, +therefore, that prices should be kept up for the advantage of India, so +that its cotton can bear export. But while high prices benefit India, +they also enrich the American planter, and afford him inducements to +renew the slave trade. + +Here Great Britain is thrown into a dilemma. The slave trade to America +must be prevented, in her opinion, or it will ruin the East Indies. To +prevent the renewal of this traffic--to keep up the price of cotton as +long as may be necessary, for the benefit of India, and prevent a supply +of African slaves from reaching the American planter--is a problem that +requires more than an ordinary amount of skill to solve. That skill, if +it exists any where, is possessed by British statesmen, and they are now +employed in the execution of this difficult task. They are convinced +that free labor cannot be found, at this moment, any where in the world, +to meet the growing demands for cotton. To supply this increasing +demand, a new element must be brought into requisition; or rather old +elements must be employed anew. Her cotton spindles must not cease to +whir, or millions of the people of Great Britain will starve at home, or +be forced into emigration, to the weakening of her strength. The old +sources of supply being inadequate, a new field of operations must be +opened up--new forces must be brought into requisition in the +cultivation of cotton. Slave labor and free labor, both combined, are +not now able to furnish the quantity needed. Free labor cannot be +increased, at present, in this department of production. Slave labor, +therefore, is the only means left by which the work can be +accomplished--not slave labor to the extent now employed, but to the +extent to which it may be increased from the ranks of the scores of +millions of the population of Africa. + +This is the true state of the case; and the important question now +agitated is: Who shall have the advantages of this labor? Two fields, +only, present themselves in which this additional labor can be +employed--Africa and America. Great Britain is deeply interested in +limiting it to Africa, which she can only do by preventing a renewal of +the slave trade to America: for she takes it for granted that we will +renew the slave trade if we can make money by the operation. South +Africa is unavailable for this purpose, as it is under British rule, and +slavery abolished within its limits by law. Nothing can be done there, +as it is filling up with English emigrants who will not toil, under a +burning sun, in the cotton fields; and they can not be permitted to +reduce the natives again to slavery. West Africa alone, affords the +climate, soil, and population, necessary to success in cotton culture. +To this point the attention of Englishmen is now mainly directed. One +feature in the civil condition of West Africa must be specially noticed, +as adapting it to the purposes to which it is to be devoted. The +territory has not been seized by the British crown, as in South Africa, +and British law does not bear rule within its limits. The tribes are +treated as independent sovereignties, and are governed by their own +customs and laws. This is fortunate for the new policy now inaugurating, +as the native chiefs and kings hold the population at large as slaves. +Heretofore they have sold their slaves at will, as well as their +captives taken in war, to the slave traders. Now they are to be taught a +different policy by Englishmen; and the African slaveholders are to be +convinced that they will make more money by employing their slaves in +growing cotton, than in selling them to be carried off to the American +planters. This done, and the transportation of laborers to the United +States will be prevented. This will put it out of the power of our +planters, to increase their production of cotton so as to reduce prices; +and this will enable India to complete her rail roads, so as to be able +to compete with American cotton at any price whatever. + +But this new policy, if successful, will do more than stop the slave +trade, to the supposed injury of the American planter. England will +thereby have the benefit of the labor of Africa secured to herself. With +its scores of millions of population under her direction, she hopes to +compete with American slavery in the production of cotton; and not only +to compete with it, but to surpass it altogether, and, in time, to +render it so profitless as to force emancipation upon us. She will there +have access to a population ten fold greater than that of the slave +population of the United States; and the only doubt of success exists in +the question, as to whether the negro master in Africa can make the +slave work as well there as the white master in America has done here. + +But how shall England, in this measure, preserve her "traditional +policy," in which she pledged herself no longer to cherish slave labor. +This will be very easily done. She need not authorize slavery in Western +Africa; but as it already exists among all the tribes "by local law," +she has only to recognize their independence, and bargain with the +chiefs for all the cotton they can force their slaves to produce. This +has already been done, by Englishmen, at several points in Africa, and +will doubtless be resorted to in many other portions of that country. +The moral responsibility of establishing slavery permanently in Africa, +will thus be thrown upon the chiefs and kings, as it has heretofore been +upon the American planter; and Great Britain can reap all the advantages +of the increased production of slave labor cotton, while her moralists +can easily satisfy the conscience of the people at home, by declaiming +against the system which secures to them their bread. + +Here now the policy of British statesmen can be comprehended. They must +have cotton. The products of free labor would be preferred, but as it +can not be had, in sufficient quantities, they must take that of slave +labor. To allow the American planter to supply this want, by renewing +the slave trade, would ruin India and benefit America. To save India, +and, at the same time, to secure the cotton demanded by the +manufacturers, slavery is to be encouraged in Africa; and this is to be +done as a means not only of preventing the slave trade, and checking the +extension of slavery in America, but of multiplying the fields of cotton +cultivation--a policy very essential to the wants of the British nation. +Thus, slavery is to be promoted in Africa as an effectual means of +checking it in America; it is to be converted into a blessing there, and +made instrumental in wiping out its curse here! + +And this, now, is the result of England's philanthropic efforts for +African freedom. Her economical errors, in West Indian emancipation, are +to be repaired by the permanent establishment of slavery in Africa! But +what must be the practical moral effect of her policy? What must be the +opinion entertained of the negro race, when Great Britain abandons her +policy in reference to them? This is not hard to divine. It will wipe +out the odium she has managed to cast upon the system; and, so far as +her example is concerned, will justify the American planter in refusing +to emancipate his slaves. Her conduct is a practical acknowledgment of +the Southern theory of the African race--that slavery is their normal +condition, otherwise she must have adopted the same policy in West +Africa that she has in South Africa. + +But before closing this part of our investigations, it may be well to +examine the claims of Great Britain in relation to her humanity towards +the African, or any of the inferior races doomed to lives of toil--such +as the coolies of India and the laborers of China. + +The contest for the advantages of supplying the increasing demands for +cotton, is between Great Britain operating in India and Africa, and the +American planter operating by an increased amount of labor furnished by +means of the slave trade. The contest between the parties may be +imagined as assuming this form: A portion of the American planters +insist, that they should be allowed to manage this matter; but Great +Britain says, nay: my subjects can do it better than you can. You +Americans are governed by mercenary motives: we Britons by philanthropic +intentions. You Americans have made no sacrifices for the cause of +humanity: we Britons have emancipated our West India slaves. + +Aye, aye, replies the American planter; we understand all about the +humanity of which you boast. Your special type of philanthropy is fully +displayed in the history of your West Indies. Look at it. The total +importation of slaves from Africa into your West Indian Islands, was +1,700,000 persons; of whom and their descendants, in 1833, only 660,000 +remained for emancipation; we had less than 400,000 imported Africans, +of whom and their descendants there existed among us, in 1850, more than +3,600,000 persons of African descent; that is to say, the number of +Africans and their descendants in the United States, is nearly eight or +ten to one of those that were imported, whilst in the British West +Indies there are not two persons remaining for every five imported.[37] +And besides, we have 500,000 free colored persons among us, a number +nearly equal to that which your emancipation act set at liberty, and +more than the whole number imported. Your slavery seems to have been a +system of wholesale slaughter: ours the reverse. + +All true, says Britain: but then we have ceased to do evil, and are +learning to do well. We found "that slavery was bearing our colonies +down to ruin with awful speed; that had it lasted but another half +century, they must have sunk beyond recovery."[38] + +What! says the planter; sunk beyond recovery! why, we find our slaves +rapidly increasing, and ourselves almost "made of gold." Be pleased to +explain, why slavery in the hands of Englishmen should be so +destructive, while with the American it is not only profitable to the +slaveholder himself, but the comfort of the slaves has been so well +secured, from the first, that their natural increase has been about +equal to that of any other people in the full enjoyment of the +necessaries of life. + +Certainly, says Britain: having done our duty, we are free to confess, +that "what gave the death blow to slavery, in the minds of English +statesmen, was the population returns, which showed the fact, 'the +appalling fact,' that although only eleven out of the eighteen islands +had sent them in, yet in those eleven islands the slaves had decreased +in twelve years, by no less than 60,219, namely: from 558,194 to +497,975![39] Had similar returns been procured from the other seven +colonies (including Mauritius, Antigua, Barbadoes, and Granada,) the +decrease must have been little, if at all, less than 100,000! Now it was +plain to every one that if this were really so, the system could not +last. The driest economist would allow that it would not pay, to let the +working classes be slaughtered. To work the laboring men of our West +Indies to death, might bring in a good return for a while, but could not +be a profitable enterprise in the long run. Accordingly, this was the +main, we had almost said the only, topic of the debates on slavery in +1831 and 1832. Is slavery causing a general massacre of the working +classes in our sugar islands, or is it not, was a question worth +debating, in the pounds, shillings, and pence view, as well as in the +moral one. And debated it was, long and fiercely. The result was the +full establishment of the dreadful fact. The slaves, as Mr. Marryatt +said, were 'dying like rotten sheep.' Whatever then may be said for West +Indian slavery, this damning thing must be said of it, that _the slaves +were dying of it_. Then came emancipation."[40] And in performing this +act--in demonstrating to the world the destructive character of +slavery--Englishmen expected America to follow their example, and to +emancipate her slaves also. + +And thereby deceived yourselves, says the planter, into the ruin of your +islands, without effecting any good for the Africans at large, and but +little for those upon whom your bounties were bestowed. And, then, we +cannot see the vastness of your philanthropy, in allowing such +destructive cruelties to prevail so long, and in only emancipating your +slaves when it was apparent they must soon become extinct under the +lash, as applied by the hands of Britons. We know that you claimed that +slavery was the same everywhere, and that humane men in our country were +deceived into the belief that American slavery was as ruinous to life as +British West Indian slavery. We know that the elder Mr. Buxton, in 1831, +used this language, "where the blacks are free they increase. But let +there be a change in only one circumstance, let the population be the +same in every respect, only let them be slaves instead of freemen, and +the current is immediately stopped;" and, in support of this, his +biographer adds: "This appalling fact was never denied, that at the time +of the abolition of the slave trade, the number of slaves in the West +Indies was 800,000; in 1830 it was 700,000; that is to say, in +twenty-three years it had diminished by 100,000."[41] This assertion, +that slavery is always destructive of life, was made by Mr. Buxton, in +the face of the fact, that ten distinct sets of our _Census tables_ were +then accessible to him, in each one of which he had the evidence that +American slavery, instead of reducing the number of our slave +population, tended to its rapid increase. From this and kindred acts of +that gentleman, we came to the conclusion, that, though he might be very +benevolent, he was not very truthful; and was, therefore, a very unsafe +guide to follow, as you must now acknowledge; unsafe, because your +emancipation on a small scale, before securing a general emancipation by +other countries, has thrown you under the necessity of now attempting to +establish slavery elsewhere on a large scale; unsafe, because your negro +population have not made half the moral progress under freedom, that +ours have done under slavery; and because, that, where cultivation has +depended upon the emancipated negro alone, with a single exception, the +islands have almost gone to ruin.[42] + +You misinterpret facts, says Britain: our islands are not ruined; no, by +no means. Under slavery they would have been totally ruined; but +emancipation has placed them in a position favorable to a full +development of all their resources. "It is to be borne in mind that the +influx of free labor is exactly one of those advantages of which a land +is debarred by slavery. It is a part of the curse of slavery that it +repels the freeman. When we are told that to judge of the effect of +emancipation we must exclude those colonies that imported coolies, we +reply at once that this useful importation has been one of the many +blessings that freedom has brought in her train."[43] + +I understand your views now, says the planter: but for emancipation, +your colonies would have sunk to irretrievable destruction. That measure +has prepared the way for the coolie system; and under its operations the +prosperity of your islands is on the increase. But what is the character +of this coolie system, that is working such wonders? In what does it +differ from the slave trade, of which you desire to deprive us? And what +must be its effects upon the colored population, which have received +their freedom at your hands, and whose moral elevation your Christian +missionaries are laboring to promote? On this point I would not multiply +testimony. The character of the coolie traffic is but too well +understood, and is now believed by all intelligent men to be the slave +trade in disguise. A writer, representing the anti-slavery society of +Great Britain, makes these statements.[44] + +"I am prepared to show, that fraud, misrepresentation, and actual +violence are the constituent elements of the immigration system, even as +it is now conducted, and that no vigilance on the part of the government +which superintends its prosecution can prevent the abuses incidental to +it. . . . . In China, especially, this is notoriously the case, and I +refer you to Sir John Bowring's despatches on Immigration from China, +for the fullest revelations. I need only add, that he designates the +Chinese coolie traffic as being in every essential particular 'as bad as +the African slave trade,' and that he recommends its entire prohibition. +. . . . The mortality during the sea-voyage is so great, that the +Emigration Commissioners declare 'these results to be shocking to +humanity, and disgraceful to the manner in which the traffic is carried +on.' I beg to call your special attention to the term 'traffic,' and to +refer you for particulars of the mortality, to the Emigration +Commissioners' Report for 1858. They may be briefly summarised. During +the season 1856-57 the deaths at sea amounted to 17.26/100 per cent. on +4,094 coolies shipped from Calcutta--a rate which, if computed for the +whole year, instead of 90 days, the term of the voyage, would average +upwards of 70 per cent. The rate of mortality on shipments of Chinese +bound to British Guiana, varied from 14 per cent. to 50. . . . . On +shipments of Chinese bound to Havanna, on board British vessels, the +death-rate fluctuated between 20 per cent. and 60. Yet, sir, immigration +is said, by its advocates, to be now conducted on an improved system. . +. . . We come now to the treatment of the coolie, as soon as he is +discharged from the ship. There is no official evidence, that I am yet +aware of, to show what abuses of authority he is subjected to, but the +Jamaica Immigration Bill, now awaiting the sanction of Her Majesty's +Government, proves that the imported laborer is, during his term of +service, subject to conditions quite incompatible with a system of free +labor, and the same remark applies to other colonies. That the +immigrants are liable to ill usage and neglect, may be gathered from the +reports of travelers who have seen them in every stage of destitution +and misery; and that they are peculiarly affected by the kind of service +they contract to render, and by climate, is sufficiently proved by the +awful mortality during industrial residence, which we are assured the +Immigration Agent General's returns for Jamaica show to be equal to 50 +per cent. Sir E. B. Lytton admits it to be 33 per cent. But if we accept +his correction--which I confess I am not prepared to do without knowing +upon what evidence he makes it--I maintain that even this death-rate +establishes the startling fact, that coolie labor in Jamaica is +proportionately more destructive to human life than slave labor in +Cuba." + +On the question of the influence that the coolie immigration exerts upon +the emancipated blacks in the West Indies, the Editor of the _London +Economist_ very justly remarks: + +"Bringing with them depraved heathen habits, and the detestable +traditions of the worst forms of idolatry, and always looking forward to +their return as the epoch when they will renew their heathen worship and +find themselves again among heathen standards of action,--they are +almost proof against the best influences which can be brought to bear +upon them, and, what is worse, they are not only proof against the good, +but missionaries for evil. They are closely associated in their labor +with a race that is just emerging out of barbarism with the fostering +care of Christianity, and we need not say that their social influence on +such a race is deteriorating in the extreme. The difficulty would be +indefinitely diminished, were the new immigrants a permanent addition to +the population. By careful regulations for that purpose, they might, in +that case, be subdued by the higher influences of their English +teachers; but the prospect of speedy restoration to the country and +habits of their birth, entirely foils such attempts as these. How far +this great difficulty can be overcome; and if it cannot, how far it may +more than balance the moral and physical advantages of a fuller labor +market,--it requires the most careful inquiry to determine." Here now +are four distinct points upon which the testimony shows, conclusively, +that the coolie system is worse than ever the slave trade has been +represented to be; and that as the slave trade is opposed on the ground +of the destruction of human life which attends it, so the coolie system +should be abandoned upon the same grounds. The points are these: 1st, +the frauds and cruelties incident to the procuring of immigrants; 2d, +the mortality during the middle passage; 3d, the mortality in the +islands where they are employed; 4th, the influence of the heathen +coolies in demoralizing the emancipated blacks among whom they are +intermingled. These points demand serious consideration by Britons, as +well as Americans--by those who would reopen the slave trade, as well as +those who would substitute for that traffic the immigration system. + +And now, in conclusion, says the planter, I must beg to demur to +Britain's claiming a monopoly of all the philanthropy in the world +toward the African race; and upon that claim founding another which, if +granted, will secure to her the monopoly of all the labor of Africa +itself; and I would beg, further, that myself and my fellow planters may +be excused, if we cannot see any thing more in all her movements than a +determination to have a full supply of cotton, even at the risk of +dooming Africa to become one vast slave plantation. + +While a faithful view of the plans and expectations of the British, in +relation to the production of cotton in Africa, has been presented, it +would be doing injustice to the reader not to give a few facts, in +closing, which indicate that their success, after all, may not equal +their anticipations. The Rev. T. J. Bowen,[45] says of African cotton +generally, that "the staple is good, but the yield can not be more than +one-fourth of what it was on similar lands in the Southern States;" and +of Yoruba, in particular, he says, that "both upland and sea island +cotton are planted; but neither produces very well, owing to the extreme +and constant heat of the climate." Of this, Mr. Bowen, who is a native +of Georgia, must be regarded as a good judge. He spent six years as a +missionary of the Baptist Church in exploring the Abbeokuta and Yoruba +country. This cause of short crops in Yoruba is evidently incurable. It +does not exist in equal force in Liberia and its vicinity. Mr. Bowen +says: "The average in the dry season is about 80 degrees at Ijaye, and +82 at Ogbomoshaw, and a few degrees lower during the rains. I have never +known the mercury to rise higher than 93 degrees in the shade, at Ijaye. +The highest reading at Ogbomoshaw was 97.5." These places are from 100 +to 150 miles inland.[46] + +Another remark. The confidence with which it is asserted, that +immigration is impracticable as a means of obtaining labor, wherever +slavery prevails, will remind the reader of another theory to which +Englishmen long tried to make us converts: that slave labor is +necessarily unprofitable and should be abandoned on economical grounds. +Now they are forced to admit that our planters seem to "be made of +gold." Perhaps these same planters can use immigrant labor as +successfully as slave labor. If necessary, doubtless, they will make the +attempt, notwithstanding the opinions entertained beyond the sea. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] See Table VIII, in Appendix. + +[37] Compendium of United States Census, 1850. + +[38] Mr. C. Buxton, in _Edinburgh Review_, April, 1859. + +[39] Parliamentary Papers, Population Returns for the West Indies, (of +course the decrease by manumission is not included.) + +[40] Mr. C. Buxton, in _Edinburgh Review_, April, 1859, from which these +extracts are made. + +[41] _North British Review_, August, 1848. + +[42] This point will be examined more fully in a subsequent chapter. + +[43] Mr. C. Buxton, in _Edinburgh Review_, April, 1859. + +[44] _London Economist_, Feb. 12, 1859. + +[45] See _African Repository_, October, 1859. + +[46] See _African Repository_, October, 1859. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Rationale of the Kansas-Nebraska movement--Western + Agriculturists merely Feeders of Slaves--Dry goods + and groceries nearly all of Slave labor + origin--Value of Imports--How paid for--Planters + pay for more than three-fourths--Slavery + intermediate between Commerce and + Agriculture--Slavery not self-sustaining--Supplies + from the North essential to its success--Proximate + extent of those supplies--Slavery the central + power of the industrial interests depending on + Manufactures and Commerce--Abolitionism + contributing to this result--Protection + prostrate--Free Trade dominant--The South + triumphant--Country ambitious of territorial + aggrandizement--The world's peace disturbed--our + policy needs modifying to meet + contingencies--Defeat of Mr. Clay--War with + Mexico--Results unfavorable to renewal of + Protective policy--Dominant political party at the + North gives its adhesion to Free Trade--Leading + Abolition paper does the same--Ditches on the + wrong side of breastworks--Inconsistency--Free + Trade the main element in extending + Slavery--Abolition United States Senators' voting + with the South--North thus shorn of its + power--_Home Market_ supplied by Slavery--People + acquiesce--Despotism and Freedom--Preservation of + the Union paramount--Colored people must wait a + little--Slavery triumphant--People at large + powerless--Necessity of severing the Slavery + question from politics--Colonization the only + hope--Abolitionism prostrate--Admissions on this + point, by Parker, Sumner, Campbell--Other dangers + to be averted--Election of Speaker Banks a Free + Trade triumph--Neutrality necessary--Liberia the + colored man's hope. + + +FROM what has been said, the dullest intellect can not fail, now, to +perceive the _rationale_ of the Kansas-Nebraska movement. The political +influence which these Territories will give to the South, if secured, +will be of the first importance to perfect its arrangements for future +slavery extension--whether by divisions of the larger States and +Territories, now secured to the institution, its extension into +territory hitherto considered free, or the acquisition of new territory +to be devoted to the system, so as to preserve the balance of power in +Congress. When this is done, Kansas and Nebraska, like Kentucky and +Missouri, will be of little consequence to slaveholders, compared with +the cheap and constant supply of provisions they can yield. Nothing, +therefore, will so exactly coincide with Southern interests, as a rapid +emigration of freemen into these new Territories. White free labor, +doubly productive over slave labor in grain-growing, must be multiplied +within their limits, that the cost of provisions may be reduced and the +extension of slavery and the growth of cotton suffer no interruption. +The present efforts to plant them with slavery, are indispensable to +produce sufficient excitement to fill them speedily with a free +population; and if this whole movement has been a Southern scheme to +cheapen provisions, and increase the ratio of the production of sugar +and cotton, as it most unquestionably will do, it surpasses the +statesman-like strategy which forced the people into an acquiescence in +the annexation of Texas. + +And should the anti-slavery voters succeed in gaining the political +ascendency in these Territories, and bring them as free States +triumphantly into the Union; what can they do, but turn in, as all the +rest of the Western States have done, and help to feed slaves, or those +who manufacture or who sell the products of the labor of slaves. There +is no other resource left, either to them or to the older free States, +without an entire change in almost every branch of business and of +domestic economy. Reader, look at your bills of dry goods for the year, +and what do they contain? At least three-fourths of the amount are +French, English, or American cotton fabrics, woven from slave labor +cotton. Look at your bills for groceries, and what do they contain? +Coffee, sugar, molasses, rice--from Brazil, Cuba, Louisiana, Carolina; +while only a mere fraction of them are from free labor countries. As now +employed, our dry goods' merchants and grocers constitute an immense +army of agents for the sale of fabrics and products coming, directly or +indirectly, from the hand of the slave; and all the remaining portion of +the people, free colored, as well as white, are exerting themselves, +according to their various capacities, to gain the means of purchasing +the greatest possible amount of these commodities. Nor can the country, +at present, by any possibility, pay the amount of foreign goods +consumed, but by the labor of the slaves of the planting States. This +can not be doubted for a moment. Here is the proof: + +Commerce supplied us, in 1853, with foreign articles, for consumption, +to the value of $250,420,187, and accepted, in exchange, of our +provisions, to the value of but $33,809,126; while the products of our +slave labor, manufactured and unmanufactured, paid to the amount of +$133,648,603, on the balance of this foreign debt. This, then, is the +measure of the ability of the Farmers and Planters, respectively, to +meet the payment of the necessaries and comforts of life, supplied to +the country by its foreign commerce. The farmer pays, or seems only to +pay, $33,800,000, while the planter has a broad credit, on the account, +of $133,600,000. + +This was true in 1853: is it so in 1859? The amounts are not now the +same, but the proportions have not varied materially. Reference to Table +VIII, in the Appendix, will show, that while the provisions exported, +for the three years preceding 1859, amounted to a yearly average of +$67,512,812, the value of the cotton and tobacco exported, during the +same period, amounted to an annual average of $147,079,647. + +But is this seeming productiveness of slavery real, or is it only +imaginary? Has the system such capacities, over the other industrial +interests of the nation, in the creation of wealth, as these figures +indicate? Or, are these results due to its intermediate position between +the agriculture of the country and its foreign commerce? These are +questions worthy of consideration. Were the planters left to grow their +own provisions, they would, as already intimated, be unable to produce +any cotton for export. That their present ability to export so +extensively, is in consequence of the aid they receive from the North, +is proved by facts such as these: + +In 1820, the cotton-gin had been a quarter of a century in operation, +and the culture of cotton was then nearly as well understood as at +present. The North, though furnishing the South with some live stock, +had scarcely begun to supply it with provisions, and the planters had to +grow the food, and manufacture much of the clothing for their slaves. In +that year the cotton crop equaled 109 lbs. to each slave in the Union, +of which 83 lbs. per slave were exported. In 1830 the exports of the +article had risen to 143 lbs., in 1840 to 295 lbs., and in 1853 to 337 +lbs. per slave. The total cotton crop of 1853 equaled 395 lbs. per +slave--making both the production and export of that staple, in 1853, +more than four times as large, in proportion to the slave population, as +they were in 1820.[47] Had the planters, in 1853, been able to produce +no more cotton, per slave, than in 1820, they would have grown but +359,308,472 lbs., instead of the actual crop of 1,305,152,800 lbs.; and +would not only have failed to supply any for export, but have barely +supplied the home demand, and been _minus_ the total crop of that year, +by 945,844,328 lbs. + +In this estimate, some allowance, perhaps, should be made, for the +greater fertility of the new lands, more recently brought under +cultivation; but the difference, on this account, can not be equal to +the difference in the crops of the several periods, as the lands, in the +older States, in 1820, were yet comparatively fresh and productive. + +Again, the dependence of the South upon the North, for its provisions, +may be inferred from such additional facts as these: The "Abstract of +the Census," for 1850, shows, that the production of wheat, in Florida, +Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, averaged, the year +preceding, very little more than a peck, (it was 27/100 of a bushel,) to +each person within their limits. These States must purchase flour +largely, but to what amount we can not determine. The shipments of +provisions from Cincinnati to New Orleans and other down river ports, +show that large supplies leave that city for the South; but what +proportion of them is taken for consumption by the planters, must be +left, at present, to conjecture. These shipments, as to a few of the +prominent articles, for the four years ending August 31, 1854, averaged +annually the following amounts: + + Wheat flour brls. 385,204 + Pork and Bacon lbs. 43,689,000 + Whisky gals. 8,115,360 + +Cincinnati also exports eastward, by canal, river and railroad, large +amounts of these productions. The towns and cities westward send more of +their products to the South, as their distance increases the cost of +transportation to the East. But, in the absence of full statistics, it +is not necessary to make additional statements. + +From this view of the subject, it appears that slavery is not a +self-sustaining system, independently remunerative; but that it attains +its importance to the nation and to the world, by standing as an agency, +intermediate, between the grain-growing States and our foreign commerce. +As the distillers of the West transformed the surplus grain into +whisky, that it might bear transport, so slavery takes the products of +the North, and metamorphoses them into cotton, that they may bear +export. + +It seems, indeed, when the whole of the facts brought to view are +considered, that American slavery, though of little force unaided, yet +properly sustained, is the great central power, or energizing influence, +not only of nearly all the industrial interests of our own country, but +also of those of Great Britain and much of the Continent; and that, if +stricken from existence, the whole of these interests, with the +advancing civilization of the age, would receive a shock that must +retard their progress for years to come. + +This is no exaggerated picture of the present imposing power of slavery. +It is literally true. Southern men, at an early day, believed that the +Protective Tariff would have paralyzed it--would have destroyed it. But +the abolitionists, led off by their sympathies with England, and +influenced by American politicians and editors, who advocated free +trade, were made the instruments of its overthrow. No such extended +mining and manufacturing, as the Protective system was expected to +create, has now any existence in the Union. Under it, according to the +theory of its friends, more than one hundred and sixty millions in +value, of the foreign imports for 1853, would have been produced in our +own country. But free trade is dominant: the South has triumphed in its +warfare with the North: the political power passed into its hands with +the defeat of the Father of the Protective Tariff, ten years since, in +the last effort of his friends to elevate him to the Presidency: the +slaveholding and commercial interests then gained the ascendency, and +secured the power of annexing territory at will: the nation has become +rich in commerce, and unbounded in ambition for territorial +aggrandizement: the people acquiesce in the measures of Government, and +are proud of the influence it has gained in the world: nay, more, the +peaceful aspect of the nations has been changed, and the policy of our +own country must be modified to meet the exigencies that may arise. + +One word more on the point we have been considering. With the defeat of +Mr. Clay, came the immediate annexation of Texas, and, as he predicted, +the war with Mexico. The results of these events let loose from its +attachments a mighty avalanche of emigration and of enterprise, under +the rule of the free trade policy, then adopted, which, by the golden +treasures it yields, renders that system, thus far, self-sustaining, and +able to move on, as its friends believe, with a momentum that forbids +any attempt to return again to the system of protection. Whether the +Tariff controversy is permanently settled, or not, is a question about +which we shall not speculate. It may be remarked, however, that one of +the leading parties in the North gave its adhesion to free trade many +years since, and still continues to vote with the South. The leading +abolition paper, too, ever since its origin, has advocated the Southern +free trade system; and thus, in defending the cause it has espoused, as +was said of a certain general in the Mexican war, its editors have been +digging their ditches on the wrong side of their breastworks. To say the +least, their position is a very strange one, for men who profess to +labor for the subversion of American slavery. It would be as rational to +pour oil upon a burning edifice, to extinguish the fire, as to attempt +to overthrow that system under the rule of free trade. For, whatever +differences of opinion may exist on the question of free trade, as +applied to the nations at large, there can be no question that it has +been the main element in promoting the value of slave labor in the +United States; and, consequently, of extending the system of slavery, +vastly, beyond the bounds it would otherwise have reached. But the +editors referred to, do not stand alone. More than one United States +Senator, after acquiring notoriety and position by constant clamors +against slavery at home, has not hesitated to vote for free trade at +Washington, with as hearty a good will as any friend of the extension of +slavery in the country! + +All these things together have paralyzed the advocates of the protection +of free labor, at present, as fully as the North has thereby been shorn +of its power to control the question of slavery. Indeed, from what has +been said of the present position of American slavery, in its relation +to the other industrial interests of the country, and of the world, +there is no longer any doubt that it now supplies the complement of that +_home market_, so zealously urged as essential to the prosperity of the +agricultural population of the country: and which, it was supposed, +could only be created by the multiplication of domestic manufactures. +This desideratum being gained, the great majority of the people have +nothing more to ask, but seem desirous that our foreign commerce shall +be cherished; that the cultivation of cotton and sugar shall be +extended; that the nation shall become cumulative as well as +progressive; that, as despotism is striving to spread its raven wing +over the earth, freedom must strengthen itself for the protection of the +liberties of the world; that while three millions of Africans, only, are +held to involuntary servitude for a time, to sustain the system of free +trade, the freedom of hundreds of millions is involved in the +preservation of the American Constitution; and that, as African +emancipation, in every experiment made, has thrown a dead weight upon +Anglo-Saxon progress, the colored people must wait a little, until the +general battle for the liberties of the civilized nations is gained, +before the universal elevation of the barbarous tribes can be achieved. +This work, it is true, has been commenced at various outposts in +heathendom, by the missionary, but is impeded by numberless hindrances; +and these obstacles to the progress of Christian civilization, doubtless +will continue, until the friends of civil and religious liberty shall +triumph in nominally Christian countries; and, with the wealth of the +nations at command, instead of applying it to purposes of war, shall +devote it to sweeping away the darkness of superstition and barbarism +from the earth, by extending the knowledge of science and revelation to +all the families of man. + +But we must hasten. + +There are none who will deny the truth of what is said of the present +strength and influence of slavery, however much they may have deprecated +its acquisition of power. There are none who think it practicable to +assail it, successfully, by political action, in the States where it is +already established by law. The struggle against the system, therefore, +is narrowed down to an effort to prevent its extension into territory +now free; and this contest is limited to the people who settle the +territories. The question is thus taken out of the hands of the people +at large, and they are cut off from all control of slavery both in the +States and Territories. Hence it is, that the American people are +considering the propriety of banishing this distracting question from +national politics, and demanding of their statesmen that there shall no +longer be any delay in the adoption of measures to sustain the +Constitution and laws of our glorious Union, against all its enemies, +whether domestic or foreign. + +The policy of adopting this course, may be liable to objection; but it +does not appear to arise from any disposition to prove recreant to the +cause of philanthropy, that a large portion of the people of the free +States are desirous of divorcing the slavery question from all +connection with political movements. It is because they now find +themselves wholly powerless, as did the colonizationists, forty years +since, in regard to emancipation, and are thus forced into a position of +neutrality on that subject. + +A word on this point. The friends of colonization, in the outset of that +enterprise, found themselves shut up to the necessity of creating a +Republic on the shores of Africa, as the only hope for the free colored +people--the further emancipation of the slaves, by State action, having +become impracticable. After nearly forty years of experimenting with the +free colored people, by others, colonizationists still find themselves +circumscribed in their operations, to their original design of building +up the Republic of Liberia, as the only rational hope of the elevation +of the African race--the prospects of general emancipation being a +thousand-fold more gloomy in 1859 than they were in 1817. + +Abolitionists, themselves, now admit that slavery completely controls +all national legislation. This is equivalent to admitting that all their +schemes for its overthrow have failed. Theodore Parker, of Boston, in a +sermon before his congregation, recently, is reported as having made the +following declaration: "I have been preaching to you in this city for +ten years; and beside the multitudes addressed here, I have addressed a +hundred thousand annually in excursions through the country; and in that +time the area of slavery has increased a hundred fold." Gerrit Smith, in +his late speech in Congress, said, that cotton is now the dominant +interest of the country, and sways Church, and State, and commerce, and +compels all of them to go for slavery. Mr. Sumner, in his thrice +repeated lecture, in New York, in May, 1855, declared, that, +"notwithstanding all its excess of numbers, wealth, and intelligence, +the North is now the vassal of an oligarchy, whose single inspiration +comes from slavery.". . . . . It "now dominates over the Republic, +determines its national policy, disposes of its offices, and sways all +to its absolute will." . . . . "In maintaining its power, the slave +oligarchy has applied a new test for office"--. . . . "Is he faithful to +slavery?" . . . . "With arrogant ostracism, it excludes from every +national office all who can not respond to this test." Hon. L. D. +Campbell, in a letter to the Cincinnati Convention of Colored Freemen, +January 5, 1852, said: "I regard the _present position_ of your race in +this country as infinitely worse than it was ten years ago. The States +which were _then_ preparing for gradual emancipation, are _now_ +endeavoring to extend, perpetuate, and strengthen slavery! . . . . A +vast amount of territory which was _then_ free is _now_ everlastingly +dedicated to slavery. . . . . From the lights of the past, I confess, +I see nothing to justify a promise of much to your _future prospects_." + +That these gentlemen state a great truth, as to the present position of +the slavery question, and the darkening prospects of emancipation, will +be denied by no man of intelligence and candor. Doubtless, a certain +class of politicians, because of the present dearth of political +capital, of any other kind, will continue to agitate this subject. But, +sooner or later, it must take the form we have stated, and become a +question of minor importance in politics. This result is inevitable, +because the people at large are beginning to realize their want of power +over the institution of slavery, and the futility of any measures +hitherto adopted to arrest its progress, and elevate the free colored +people on terms of equality among the whites. + +But, I am told that the North has recently achieved a great victory over +the South, in the election of Mr. Banks, as Speaker.[48] Time was when +such a result would have been considered far otherwise than a Northern +triumph. Mr. Banks is an ultra free trade man, and his sentiments will +assuredly work no ill to the commercial interests of the South. His +election provoked no threats of secession. What, then, has been gained +to the North, in the wild excitement consequent upon the controversy +relative to the Speakership? The opponents of slavery are further than +ever from accomplishing any thing practicable in checking the demand for +the great staple of the South. Cotton is King still. + +In such a crisis as this, shall the friends of the Union be rebuked, if +they determine to take a position of neutrality, in politics, on the +subject of slavery; while, at the same time, they offer to guarantee the +free colored people a Republic of their own, where they may equal other +races, and aid in redeeming a Continent from the woes it has suffered +for thousands of years! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[47] The progressive increase is indicated by the following figures: + + =1820.= =1830.= =1840.= =1853.= + Total slaves + in United States, 1,538,098 2,009,043 2,487,356 3,296,408 + Cotton exported, lbs., 127,800,000 298,459,102 743,941,061 1,111,570,370 + Average export to + each slave, lbs., 83 143 295 337 + +[48] The remarks in this chapter remain as they were in the first +edition. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE INDUSTRIAL, SOCIAL, AND MORAL CONDITION OF THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR +IN THE BRITISH COLONIES, HAYTI, AND IN THE UNITED STATES; AND THE +INFLUENCE THEY HAVE EXERTED ON PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN RELATION TO SLAVERY, +AND TO THEIR OWN PROSPECTS OF EQUALITY WITH THE WHITES. + + Effects of opposition to Colonization on + Liberia--Its effects on free colored people--Their + social and moral condition--Abolition testimony on + the subject--American Missionary Association--Its + failure in Canada--Degradation of West India free + colored people--American and Foreign Anti-Slavery + Society--Its testimony on the dismal condition of + West India free negroes--London Times on same + subject--Mr. Bigelow on same subject--Effect of + results in West Indies on Emancipation--Opinion of + Southern Planters--Economical failure of West + India Emancipation--Ruinous to British + Commerce--Similar results in Hayti--Extent of + diminution of exports from West Indies resulting + from Emancipation--Results favorable to American + Planter--Moral condition of Hayti--Later facts in + reference to the West Indies--Negro free labor a + failure--Necessity of education to render freedom + of value--Franklin's opinion + confirmed--Colonization essential to promote + Emancipation. + + +We have noticed the social and moral condition of the free colored +people, from the days of Franklin, to the projection of colonization. We +have also glanced at the main facts in relation to the abolition warfare +upon colonization, and its success in paralyzing the enterprise. This +subject demands a more extended notice. The most serious injury from +this hostility, sustained by the cause of colonization, was the +prejudice created, in the minds of the more intelligent free colored +men, against emigration to Liberia. The Colonization Society had +expressed its belief in the natural equality of the blacks and whites; +and that there were a sufficient number of educated, upright, free +colored men, in the United States, to establish and sustain a Republic +on the coast of Africa, "whose citizens, rising rapidly in the scale of +existence, under the stimulants to noble effort by which they would be +surrounded, might soon become equal to the people of Europe, or of +European origin--so long their masters and oppressors." These were the +sentiments of the first Report of the Colonization Society, and often +repeated since. Its appeals were made to the moral and intelligent of +the free colored people; and, with their co-operation, the success of +its scheme was considered certain. But the very persons needed to lead +the enterprise, were, mostly, persuaded to reject the proffered aid, and +the society was left to prosecute its plans with such materials as +offered. In consequence of this opposition, it was greatly embarrassed, +and made less progress in its work of African redemption, than it must +have done under other circumstances. Had three-fourths of its emigrants +been the enlightened, free colored men of the country, a dozen Liberias +might now gird the coast of Africa, where but one exists; and the slave +trader be entirely excluded from its shores. Doubtless, a wise +Providence has governed here, as in other human affairs, and may have +permitted this result, to show how speedily even semi-civilized men can +be elevated under American Protestant free institutions. The great body +of emigrants to Liberia, and nearly all the leading men who have sprung +up in the colony, and contributed most to the formation of the Republic, +went out from the very midst of slavery; and yet, what encouraging +results! It has been a sad mistake to oppose colonization, and thus to +retard Africa's redemption! + +But how has it fared with the free colored people elsewhere? The answer +to this question will be the solution of the inquiry, What has +abolitionism accomplished by its hostility to colonization, and what is +the condition of the free colored people, whose interests it volunteered +to promote, and whose destinies it attempted to control? + +The abolitionists themselves shall answer this question. The colored +people shall see what kind of commendations their tutors give them, and +what the world is to think of them, on the testimony of their particular +friends. + +The concentration of a colored population in Canada, is the work of +American abolitionists. _The American Missionary Association_, is their +organ for the spread of a gospel untainted, it is claimed, by contact +with slavery. Out of four stations under its care in Canada, at the +opening of 1853, but one school, that of Miss Lyon, remained at its +close. All the others were abandoned, and all the missionaries had asked +to be released,[49] as we are informed by its Seventh Annual Report, +chiefly for the reasons stated in the following extract, page 49: + +"The number of missionaries and teachers in Canada, with which the year +commenced, has been greatly reduced. Early in the year, Mr. Kirkland +wrote to the committee, that the opposition to white missionaries, +manifested by the colored people of Canada, had so greatly increased, by +the interested misrepresentations of ignorant colored men, pretending to +be ministers of the gospel, that he thought his own and his wife's +labors, and the funds of the association, could be better employed +elsewhere." + +This Mission seems never to have been in a prosperous condition. Passing +over to the Eleventh Annual Report, 1857, it is found that the +Association had then but one missionary, the Rev. David Hotchkiss, in +that field. In relation to his prospects, the Report says: + +"It has, however, happened to him, as it frequently did to Paul and his +fellow-laborers, that his faithfulness and his success have been the +occasion of stirring up certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, so that +at one time it was thought by some lookers-on that his life was in +danger, and that he might be compelled to leave the scene of his present +labors." He had succeeded, however, in gathering a church of 28 members, +but "on the 21st of June, the house in which the little church worshiped +was burned to the ground. This was undoubtedly the work of an +incendiary, as there had been no fire in it for more than two weeks. +Threats now were freely used against Mr. Hotchkiss and the church, but +he continued his labors, and procured another house, and had it fitted +up for worship. On the 24th of August, this also was burned down. They +have since had to meet in private houses, and much doubt has been felt +relative to ultimate duty. At later dates, however, the opposition was +more quiet, and hopes revived. This field is emphatically a hard one, +and requires much faith and patience from those who labor there."[50] + +On the 30th of August, 1858, Mr. Hotchkiss writes: "My wife's school is +in a prosperous condition. She has had nearly forty scholars, and they +learn well. There are numbers who can not come to school for want of +suitable clothing. They are nearly naked."[51] + +On a late occasion it is remarked, that "this society seems to meet with +the trouble which accompanies the efforts of other missionary societies +in their endeavors to 'to seek and to save that which was lost.' They +say they find it 'extremely difficult to win the confidence of the +colored people of Canada.'"[52] + +But we have a picture of a different kind to present, and one that +proves the capacity of the free colored people for improvement--not when +running at large and uncared for, but when subjected to wholesome +restraint. This is as essential to the progress of the blacks as the +whites, while they are in the course of intellectual, moral and +industrial training: + +"Some years ago the Rev. William King, a slave owner in Louisiana, +manumitted his slaves and removed them to Canada. They now, with others, +occupy a tract of land at Buxton and the vicinity, called the Elgin +Block, where Mr. King is stationed as a Presbyterian missionary. + +"A recent general meeting there was attended by Lord Althorp, son of +Earl Spencer, and J. W. Probyn, Esq., both members of the British +Parliament, who made addresses. The whole educational and moral +machinery is worked by the presiding genius of the Rev. W. King, to whom +the entire settlement are under felt and acknowledged obligations. He +teaches them agriculture and industry. He superintends their education, +and preaches on the Lord's day. He regards the experiment as highly +successful."[53] + +It is not our purpose to multiply testimony on this subject, but simply +to afford an index to the condition of the colored people, as described +by abolition pens, best known to the public. We turn, therefore, from +the British colonies in the North, to her possessions in the Tropics. + +West India emancipation, under the guidance of English abolitionists, +has always been viewed as the grand experiment, which was to convince +the world of the capacity of the colored man to rise, side by side, with +the white man. We shall let the friends of the system, and the public +documents of the British Government, testify as to its results, both +morally and economically. Opening, again, the Seventh Annual Report of +the _American Missionary Association_, page 30, where it speaks of their +moral condition, we find it written: + +"One of our missionaries, in giving a description of the moral condition +of the people of Jamaica, after speaking of the licentiousness which +they received as a legacy from those who denied them the pure joys of +holy wedlock, and trampled upon and scourged chastity, as if it were a +fiend to be driven out from among men--that enduring legacy, which, with +its foul, pestilential influence, still blights, like the mildew of +death, every thing in society that should be lovely, virtuous, and of +good report; and alluding to their intemperance, in which they have +followed the example set by the governor in his palace, the bishop in +his robes, statesmen and judges, lawyers and doctors, planters and +overseers, and even professedly Christian ministers; and the deceit and +falsehood which oppression and wrong always engender, says: 'It must not +be forgotten that we are following in the wake of the accursed system of +_slavery_--a system that _unmakes man_, by warring upon his conscience, +and crushing his spirit, leaving naught but the shattered wrecks of +humanity behind it. If we may but gather up some of these floating +fragments, from which the image of God is well nigh effaced, and pilot +them safely into that better land, we shall not have labored in vain. +But we may _hope to do more_. The chief fruit of our labors is to be +sought in the _future_, rather than in the _present_.' It should be +remembered, too, (continues the Report,) that there is but a small part +of the population yet brought within the reach of the influence of +enlightened Christian teachers, while the great mass by whom they are +surrounded are but little removed from actual heathenism." Another +missionary, page 33, says, it is the opinion of all intelligent +Christian men, that "nothing save the furnishing of the people with +ample means of education and religious instruction will save them from +relapsing into a state of barbarism." And another, page 36, in speaking +of certain cases of discipline, for the highest form of crime, under the +seventh commandment, says: "There is _nothing_ in public sentiment to +save the youth of Jamaica in this respect." + +The missions of this Association, in Jamaica, differ scarcely a shade +from those among the actual heathen. On this point, the Report, near its +close, says: + +"For most of the adult population of Jamaica, the unhappy victims of +long years of oppression and degradation, our missionaries have great +fear. Yet for even these there may be hope, even though with trembling. +But it is around the youth of the island that their brightest hopes and +anticipations cluster; from them they expect to gather their principal +sheaves for the great Lord of the harvest." + +The _American Missionary_, a monthly paper, and organ of this +Association, for July, 1855, has the following quotation from the +letters of the missionaries, recently received. It is given, as +abolition testimony, in further confirmation of the moral condition of +the colored people of Jamaica: + +"From the number of churches and chapels in the island, Jamaica ought +certainly to be called a Christian land. The people may be called a +church-going people. There are chapels and places of worship enough, at +least in this part of the island, to supply the people if every station +of our mission were given up. And there is no lack of ministers and +preachers. As far as I am acquainted, almost the entire adult population +profess to have a hope of eternal life, and I think the larger part are +connected with churches. In view of such facts some have been led to +say, 'The spiritual condition of the population is very satisfactory.' +But there is another class of facts that is perfectly astounding. With +all this array of the externals of religion, one broad, deep wave of +moral death rolls over the land. A man may be a drunkard, a liar, a +Sabbath-breaker, a profane man, a fornicator, an adulterer, and such +like--and be known to be such--and go to chapel, and hold up his head +there, and feel no disgrace from these things, because they are so +common as to create a public sentiment in his favor. He may go to the +communion table, and cherish a hope of heaven, and not have his hope +disturbed. I might tell of persons guilty of some, if not all, these +things, ministering in holy things." + +What motives can prompt the American Missionary Association to cast such +imputations upon the missions of the English and Scotch Churches, in +Jamaica, we leave to be determined by the parties interested. Few, +indeed, will believe that the English and Scotch Churches would, for a +moment, tolerate such a condition of things, in their mission stations, +as is here represented. + +Next we turn to the Annual Report of the American and Foreign +Anti-Slavery Society, 1853, which discourses thus, in its own language, +and in quotations which it indorses:[54] + +"The friends of emancipation in the United States have been +disappointed in some respects at the results in the West Indies, because +they expected too much. A nation of slaves can not at once be converted +into a nation of intelligent, industrious, and moral freemen." . . . . +"It is not too much, even now, to say of the people of Jamaica, . . . . +their condition is exceedingly degraded, their morals woefully corrupt. +But this must, by no means, be understood to be of universal +application. With respect to those who have been brought under a +healthful educational and religious influence, _it is not true_. But as +respects the great mass, whose humanity has been ground out of them by +cruel oppression--whom no good Samaritan hand has yet reached--how could +it be otherwise? We wish to turn the tables; to supplant oppression by +righteousness, insult by compassion and brotherly kindness, hatred and +contempt by love and winning meekness, till we allure these wretched +ones to the hope and enjoyment of manhood and virtue."[55] . . . . "The +means of education and religious instruction are better enjoyed, +although but little appreciated and improved by the great mass of the +people. It is also true, that the moral sense of the people is becoming +somewhat enlightened. . . . . But while this is true, yet their moral +condition is very far from being what it ought to be. . . . . It is +exceedingly dark and distressing. Licentiousness prevails to a most +alarming extent among the people. . . . . The almost universal +prevalence of intemperance is another prolific source of the moral +darkness and degradation of the people. The great mass, among all +classes of the inhabitants, from the governor in his palace to the +peasant in his hut--from the bishop in his gown to the beggar in his +rags--are all slaves to their cups."[56] + +This is the language of American abolitionists, going out under the +sanction of their Annual Reports. Lest it may be considered as too +highly colored, we add the following from the _London Times_, of near +the same date. In speaking of the results of emancipation, in Jamaica, +it says: + +"The negro has not acquired, with his freedom, any habits of industry or +morality. His independence is but little better than that of an +uncaptured brute. Having accepted few of the restraints of civilization, +he is amenable to few of its necessities; and the wants of his nature +are so easily satisfied, that at the present rate of wages, he is called +upon for nothing but fitful or desultory exertion. The blacks, +therefore, instead of becoming intelligent husbandmen, have become +vagrants and squatters, and it is now apprehended that with the failure +of cultivation in the island will come the failure of its resources for +instructing or controlling its population. So imminent does this +consummation appear, that memorials have been signed by classes of +colonial society hitherto standing aloof from politics, and not only the +bench and the bar, but the bishop, clergy, and ministers of all +denominations in the island, without exception, have recorded their +conviction, that, in the absence of timely relief, the religious and +educational institutions of the island must be abandoned, and the masses +of the population retrogade to barbarism." + +One of the editors of the _New York Evening Post_, Mr. Bigelow, a few +years since, spent a winter in Jamaica, and continues to watch, with +anxious solicitude, as an anti-slavery man, the developments taking +place among its colored population. In reviewing the returns published +by the Jamaica House of Assembly, in 1853, in reference to the ruinous +decline in the agriculture of the island, and stating the enormous +quantity of lands thrown out of cultivation, since 1848, the _Post_ +says: + +"This decline has been going on from year to year, daily becoming more +alarming, until at length the island has reached what would appear to be +the last profound of distress and misery, . . . . when thousands of +people do not know, when they rise in the morning, whence or in what +manner they are to procure bread for the day." + +We must examine, more closely, the economical results of emancipation, +in the West Indies, before we can judge of the effects, upon the trade +and commerce of the world, which would result from general emancipation +in the United States. We do this, not to afford an argument in behalf of +the perpetuation of slavery, because its abolition might injuriously +affect the interests of trade and commerce; but because the whole of +these results have long been well known to the American planter, and +serve as conclusive arguments, with him, against emancipation. He +believes that, in tropical cultivation, African free labor is worthless; +that the liberation of the slaves in this country, must, necessarily, be +followed with results similar to what has occurred in the West Indies; +and, for this reason, as well as on account of the profitable character +of slavery, he refuses to give freedom to his slaves. We repeat, we do +not cite the fact of the failure, economically, of free labor in +Jamaica, as an argument for the perpetuation of slavery. Not at all. We +allude to the fact, only to show that emancipation has greatly reduced +the commerce of the colonies, and that the logic of this result +militates against the colored man's prospects of advancement in the +scale of political and social equality. But to the facts: + +The British planters, up to 1806, had received from the slave traders an +uninterrupted supply of laborers, and had rapidly extended their +cultivation as commerce increased its demands for their products. Let us +take the results in Jamaica as an example of the whole of the British +West India islands. She had increased her exports of sugar from a yearly +average of 123,979,000 lbs. in 1772-3, to 234,700,000 lbs. in 1805-6. No +diminution of exports had occurred, as has been asserted by some +anti-slavery writers, before the prohibition of the slave trade. The +increase was progressive and undisturbed, except so far as affected by +seasons, more or less favorable. But no sooner was her supply of slaves +cut off, by the act of 1806, which took effect in 1808, than the exports +of Jamaica began to diminish, until her sugar had fallen off from 1822 +to 1832, to an annual average of 131,129,000 lbs., or nearly to what +they had been sixty years before. It was not until 1833 that the +Emancipation Act was passed; so that this decline in the exports of +Jamaica, took place under all the rigors of West India slavery. The +exports of rum, coffee, and cotton, were diminished in nearly the same +ratio. + +To arrest this ruinous decline in the commercial prosperity of the +islands, emancipation was adopted in 1833 and perfected in 1838. This +policy was pursued under the plea, that free labor is doubly as +productive as slave labor; and, that the negroes, liberated, would labor +twice as well as when enslaved. But what was the result? Ten years after +final emancipation was effected, the exports of sugar from Jamaica were +only 67,539,200 lbs. a year, instead of 234,700,000 lbs., as in 1805-6. +The exports of coffee, during the same year, were reduced to 5,684,921 +lbs., instead of 23,625,377 lbs., as in 1805-6; and the extinction of +the cultivation of cotton, for export, had become almost complete, +though in 1800, it had nearly equaled that of the United States. These +are no fancy sketches, drawn for effect, but sober realities, attested +by the public documents of the British government.[57] The Jamaica +negro, ignorant and destitute of forethought, disappointed the English +philanthropists. + +In Hayti, emancipation had been productive of results, fully as +disastrous to its commerce, as it had been to that of Jamaica. There was +an almost total abandonment of the production of sugar, soon after +freedom was declared. This took place in 1793. In 1790 the island +exported 163,318,810 lbs. of sugar. But in 1801 its export was reduced +to 18,534,112 lbs., in 1818, to 5,443,765 lbs., and in 1825 to 2,020 +lbs.;[58] since which time its export has nearly ceased. Indeed, it is +asserted, that, "at this moment there is not one pound of sugar exported +from the island, and all that is used is imported from the United +States."[59] + +The exports of coffee, from Hayti, in 1790, were 76,835,219 lbs.; and of +cotton, 7,004,274 lbs. But the exports of the former article, in 1801, +were reduced to 43,420,270 lbs., and the latter to 474,118 lbs.[60] The +exports of coffee have varied, annually, since that period, from thirty +to forty million pounds; and the cotton exported has rarely much +exceeded one million pounds.[61] At present, "with the exception of +Gonaives, there is not a pound of cotton produced, and only a very +limited quanity there, barely sufficient for consumption; and instead of +exporting indigo, as formerly, they import all they use from the United +States."[62] + +According to the authorities before cited, the deficit of free labor +tropical cultivation, as compared with that of slave labor, while +sustained by the slave trade, including the British West Indies and +Hayti, stands as follows:--a startling result, truly, to those who +expected emancipation to work well for commerce, and supersede the +necessity of employing slave labor: + + +_Contrast of Slave Labor and Free Labor Exports from the West Indies._ + + SLAVE LABOR. + _lbs. _lbs. _lbs. + _Years._ Sugar._ Coffee._ Cotton._ + British West Indies, 1807, 636,025,643 31,610,764 17,000,000[63] + Hayti, 1790, 163,318,810 76,835,219 7,286,126 + ----------- ----------- ---------- + Total 809,344,453 108,245,983 24,286,126 + + FREE LABOR. + _lbs. _lbs. _lbs. + _Years._ Sugar._ Coffee._ Cotton._ + British West Indies, 1848, 313,306,112 6,770,792 427,529[64] + Hayti 1848, very little. 34,114,717[C] 1,591,454[65] + ----------- ---------- --------- + Total 313,306,112 40,885,509 2,018,983 + + Free Labor Deficit 496,038,341 67,360,474 22,267,143 + +To understand the bearing which this decrease of production, by free +labor, has upon the interests of the African race, it must be +remembered, that the consumption of cotton and sugar has not diminished, +but increased, vastly; and that for every bale of cotton, or hogshead of +sugar, that the free labor production is diminished, an equal amount of +slave labor cotton and sugar is demanded to supply its place; and, more +than this, for every additional bale or hogshead required by their +increased consumption, an additional one must be furnished by slave +labor, because the world will not dispense with their use. As no +material change has occurred, for several years, in the commercial +condition of the islands, it is not necessary to bring this statement +down to a later date than 1848. The causes operating to encourage the +American planters, in extending their cultivation of cotton and sugar, +can now be understood. + +In relation to the moral condition of Hayti, we need say but little. It +is known that a great majority of the children of the island are born +out of wedlock, and that the Christian Sabbath is the principal market +day in the towns. The _American and Foreign Christian Union_, a +missionary paper of New York, after quoting the report of one of the +missionaries in Hayti, who represents his success as encouraging, thus +remarks: "This letter closes with some singular incidents not suitable +for publication, showing the deplorable state of community there, both +morally and socially. There seems to be a mixture of African barbarism +with the sensuous civilization of France. . . . . That dark land needs +the light which begins to dawn thereon." + +Thus matters stood when the second edition of this work went to press. +An opportunity is now afforded, of embracing the results of emancipation +to a later date, and of forming a better judgment of the effects of that +policy on the question of freedom in the United States. For, if the +negro, with full liberty, in the West Indies, has proved himself +unreliable in voluntary labor, the experiment of freeing him here will +not be attempted by our slaveholders. + +Much has been said, recently, about British emancipation, and the +returning commercial prosperity of her tropical islands. The American +Missionary Association[66] gives currency to the assertion, that "they +yield more produce than they ever did during the existence of slavery." +It is said, also, in the _Edinburgh Review_, that existing facts "show +that slavery was bearing our colonies down to ruin with awful speed; +that had it lasted but another half century, they must have sunk beyond +recovery. On the other hand, that now, under freedom and free trade, +they are growing day by day more rich and prosperous; with spreading +trade, with improving agriculture, with a more educated, industrious and +virtuous people; while the comfort of the quondam slaves is increased +beyond the power of words to portray."[67] + +Now all this seems very encouraging; but how such language can be used, +without its being considered as flatly contradicting well known facts, +and what the American Missionary Association, Mr. Bigelow, and others, +have heretofore said, will seem very mysterious to the reader. And yet, +the assertions quoted would seem to be proved, by taking the aggregate +production of the whole British West India islands and Mauritius, as the +index to their commercial prosperity. But if the islands be taken +separately, and all the facts considered, a widely different conclusion +would be formed, by every candid man, than that the improvement is due +to the increased industry of the negroes. On this subject the facts can +be drawn from authorities which would scorn to conceal the truth with +the design of sustaining a theory of the philanthropist. This question +is placed in its true light by the _London Economist_, July 16, 1859, in +which it is shown that the apparent industrial advancement of the +islands is due to the importation of immigrants from India, China, and +Africa, by the "coolie traffic," and not to the improved industry of the +emancipated negroes. Says the _Economist_: + +"We find one of the Emigration Commissioners, Mr. Murdock,[68] in an +interesting memorandum on this subject, giving us the following +comparison between the islands which have been recently supplied with +immigrants, and those which have not: + + _Sugar, pounds. The _Sugar, pounds. + _Number of three years before the last three + Immigrants._ Immigration._ years._ + + Mauritius 209,490 217,200,256 469,812,784 + British Guiana 24,946 173,626,208 250,715,584 + Trinidad 11,981 91,110,768 150,579,072 + +"With these are contrasted the results in Jamaica and Antigua, where +there has been very little immigration:-- + + _Sugar, pounds. _Sugar, pounds. The last + The three years after three years._ + apprenticeship._[69] + + Jamaica 202,973,568 139,369,776 + Antigua 63,824,656 70,302,736 + +Here, now, is presented the key to the mystery overhanging the British +West Indies. Men, high in station, have asserted that West India +emancipation has been an economic success; while others, equally +honorable, have maintained the opposite view. Both have presented +figures, averred to be true, that seemed to sustain their declarations. +This apparent contradiction is thus explained. The first take the +aggregate production in the whole of the islands, which, they say, +exceeds that during the existence of slavery;[70] the second take the +production in Jamaica alone, as representing the whole; and, thus, the +startling fact appears, that the sugar crop of the last three years in +Jamaica, has fallen 63,603,000 lbs., below what it was during the first +three years of freedom. This argues badly for the free negroes; but it +must be the legitimate fruits of emancipation, as no exterior force has +been brought into that island to interfere, materially, with its +workings. In Mauritius, Trinidad, and British Guiana, it will be seen +that the production has greatly increased; but from a very different +cause than any improvement in the industry of the blacks who had +received their freedom--the increase in Mauritius having been more than +double what it had been when the production depended upon them. The +sugar crop, in this island, for the three years preceding the +introduction of immigrant labor, was but 217,200,000 lbs.; while, during +the last three years, by the aid of 210,000 immigrants, it has been run +up to 469,812,000 lbs. + +Taking all these facts into consideration, it is apparent that West +India emancipation has been a failure, economically considered. The +production in Jamaica, when it has depended upon the labor of the free +blacks alone, has materially declined in some of the islands, since the +abandonment of slavery, and is not so great now as it was during the +first years of freedom; and, so far is it from being equal to what it +was while slavery prevailed, and especially while the slave trade was +continued, that it now falls short of the production of that period by +an immense amount. In no way, therefore, can it be claimed, that the +cultivation of the British West India islands is on the increase, except +by resorting to the pious fraud of crediting the products of the +immigrant labor to the account of emancipation--a resort to which no +conscientious Christian man will have recourse, even to sustain a +philanthropic theory. + +But the Island of Barbadoes is an exception. It is said to have suffered +no diminution in its production since emancipation, and that this result +was attained without the aid of immigrant labor. The _London Economist_ +must be permitted to explain this phenomenon; and must also be allowed +to give its views on the subject of the effects of emancipation, after +the lapse of a quarter of a century from the date of the passage of the +Emancipation Act: + +"We are no believers in Mr. Carlyle's gospel of the 'beneficent whip' as +the bearer of salvation to tropical indolence. But we can not for a +moment doubt that the first result of emancipation was, in most of the +islands, to substitute for the worst kind of moral and political evil, +one of a less fatal but still of a very pernicious kind. The negroes had +been treated as mere machines for raising sugar and coffee. They were +suddenly liberated from that mechanical drudgery; they became free +beings--but without the discipline needful to use freedom well, and +unfortunately with a larger amount of practical freedom than the +laboring class of any Northern or temperate climate could by any +possibility enjoy. They suddenly found themselves, in most of the +islands, in a position in many respects analagous to that of a people +possessed of a moderate property in England, who can supply their +principal wants without any positive labor, and have no ambition to rise +into any higher sphere than that into which they were born. The only +difference was, that the negroes in most of the West India islands +wanted vastly less than such people as these in civilized +States,--wanted nothing in fact, but the plantains they could grow +almost without labor, and the huts which they could build on any waste +mountain land without paying rent for it. The consequence naturally was, +that when the spur of physical tyranny was removed, there was no +sufficient substitute for it, in most of the islands, in the wholesome +hardships of natural exigencies. The really beneficent 'whip' of hunger +and cold was not substituted for the human cruelty from which they had +escaped. In Barbadoes alone, perhaps, the pressure of a dense +population, with the absence of any waste mountain lands on which the +negroes could squat, rent free, was an efficient substitute for the +terrors of slavery. And, consequently, in Barbadoes alone, has the +Emancipation Act produced unalloyed and conspicuous good. The natural +spur of competition for the means of living, took the place there of the +artificial spur of slavery, and the slow, indolent temperament of the +African race was thus quickened into a voluntary industry essential to +its moral discipline, and most favorable to its intellectual culture." + +In further commenting on the figures quoted, the _Economist_ remarks: + +"These results, do not of course, necessarily represent in any degree +the fresh spur to diligence on the part of the old population, caused by +the new labor. In islands like Trinidad, where the amount of unredeemed +land suited for such production is almost unlimited, the new labor +introduced cannot for a long time press on the old labor at all. But +wherever the amount of land fitted for this kind of culture is nearly +exhausted, the presence of the new competition will soon be felt. And, +in any case, it is only through this gradual supply of the labor market +that we can hope to bring the wholesome spur of necessity to act +eventually on the laboring classes. Englishmen, indeed, may well think +that at times the good influences of this competitive jostling for +employment are overrated and its evil underrated. But this is far from +true of the negro race. To their slow and unambitious temperament, +influences of this kind are almost unalloyed good, as the great +superiority in the population of Barbadoes to that of the other islands +sufficiently shows." + +The _Economist_, in further discussing this question, favors the +introduction of a permanent class of laborers, not only that the +cultivation may be increased, but because there is "no doubt at all that +if a larger supply of labor could be attained in the West Indies, +without any very great incidental evils, the benefit experienced even by +the planters would be by no means so great as that of the negro +population themselves;" and thinks that "the philanthropic party, in +their tenderness for the emancipated Africans, are sometimes not a +little blind to the advantages of stern industrial necessities;" and +that, "what the accident of population and soil has done for Barbadoes, +it cannot be doubted that a stream of immigration, if properly +conducted, might do in some degree for the other islands." + +Lest it should be thought that the _Economist_ stands alone in its +representations in relation to the failure of negro free labor in +Jamaica, we quote a statement of the Colonial Minister, which recently +appeared in the _New York Tribune_, and was thence transferred to the +_American Missionary_, February, 1859: + +"The Colonial Minister says: 'Jamaica is now the only important sugar +producing colony which exports a considerable smaller quantity of sugar +than was exported in the time of slavery, while some such colonies since +the passage of the Emancipation Act have largely increased their +product.'" + +Time is thus casting light upon the question of the capacity of the +African race for voluntary labor. Jamaica included 311,692 negroes, at +the time of emancipation, out of the 660,000 who received their freedom +in the whole of the West Indian islands. This was but little less than +half of the whole number. It was a fair field to test the question of +the willingness of the free negro to work. But what is the result? We +have it admitted by both the _Economist_ and the Colonial Minister, that +there has been a vast falling off in the exports from Jamaica, and that +a spur of some kind must be applied to secure their adopting habits of +industry. The spur of the "whip" having been thrown away, the remedy +proposed is to press them into a corner, by immigration from India and +China, so that the securing of bread shall become the great necessity +with them, and they be compelled to labor or starve, as has been the +case in Barbadoes. This is the opinion of the _Economist_, always +opposed to slavery, but now convinced that the "slow, indolent +temperament of the African race" needs such a "spur" to quicken it "into +a voluntary industry essential to its moral discipline, and most +favorable to its intellectual culture." + +The West India emancipation experiments have demonstrated the truth of a +few principles that the world should fully understand. It must now be +admitted that mere personal liberty, even connected with the stimulus of +wages, is insufficient to secure the industry of an ignorant population. +It is intelligence, alone, that can be acted upon by such motives. +Intelligence, then, must precede voluntary industry. And, hereafter, +that man, or nation, may find it difficult to command respect, or +succeed in being esteemed wise, who will not, along with exertions to +extend personal freedom to man, intimately blend with their efforts +adequate means for intellectual and moral improvement. The results of +West India emancipation, it must be further noticed, fully confirm the +opinions of Franklin, that freedom, to unenlightened slaves, must be +accompanied with the means of intellectual and moral elevation, +otherwise it may be productive of serious evils to themselves and to +society. It also sustains the views entertained by Southern +slaveholders, that emancipation, unaccompanied by the colonization of +the slaves, could be of little value to the blacks, while it would +entail a ruinous burden upon the whites. These facts must not be +overlooked in the projection of plans for emancipation, as none can +receive the sanction of Southern men, which does not embrace in it the +removal of the colored people. With the example of West India +emancipation before them, and the results of which have been closely +watched by them, it can not be expected that Southern statesmen will +ever risk the liberation of their slaves, except on these conditions. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[49] Mr. Wilson, the Missionary at St. Catharines, still remained there, +but not under the care of the Association. + +[50] 11th Annual Report, pages 36, 37. + +[51] _American Missionary_, October, 1858. + +[52] _African Repository_, October, 1859. + +[53] _African Repository_, January, 1858. + +[54] Page 170. + +[55] Extract from the report of a missionary, quoted in the Report, page +172. + +[56] Extract from the report of another missionary, page 171, of the +Report. + +[57] The average exports from the Island of Jamaica, omitting cotton, +during the three epochs referred to--that of the slave trade, of slavery +alone, and of freedom--for periods of five years, during the first two, +and for the three years separately, in the last, will give a full view +of this point: + + _Years of Exports._ _lbs. Sugar._ _P. Rum. lbs._ _Coffee._ + Annual average, 1803 to 1807,[A] 211,139,200 50,426 23,625,377 + Annual average, 1829 to 1833,[A] 152,564,800 35,505 17,645,602 + Annual average, 1839 to 1843,[A] 67,924,800 14,185 7,412,498 + Annual exports, 1846,[B] 57,956,800 14,395 6,047,150 + Annual exports, 1847,[B] 77,686,400 18,077 6,421,122 + Annual exports, 1848.[B] 67,539,200 20,194 5,684,921 + +[A] _Blackwood's Magazine_ 1848, p. 225.] + +[B] _Littel's Living Age_, 1850, No. 309, p. 125.--_Letter of Mr. +Bigelow_. + +[58] Macgregor, London ed., 1847. + +[59] _De Bow's Review_, August, 1855. + +[60] Macgregor, London ed., 1847. + +[61] Ibid. + +[62] _De Bow's Review_, 1855. + +[63] 1800. + +[64] 1840. + +[65] 1847. + +[66] American Missionary Association's Report, 1857, p. 32. + +[67] The West Indies as they were and are--_Edinburgh Review_, April, +1859.--The article said to be by Mr. C. Buxton. + +[68] The statement was made at a meeting which met to consider the evils +of the Chinese and coolie system of immigration into the West Indies and +Mauritius. It is not stated whether the amounts given are the whole +production or only the exports. + +[69] The reader will remember that the Emancipation Act, of 1833, left +the West India blacks in the relation of apprentices to their masters, +but that the system worked so badly that total emancipation was declared +in 1838. + +[70] They must refer to slavery in its later years, after the +suppression of the slave trade. Previous to that event, the production +of Jamaica was more than seventy-five per cent. greater than at present. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Moral condition of the free colored people in + United States--What have they gained by refusing + to accept Colonization?--Abolition testimony on + the subject--Gerrit Smith--New York Tribune--Their + moral condition as indicated by proportions in + Penitentiaries--Census Reports--Native whites, + foreign born, and free colored, in + Penitentiaries--But little improvement in + Massachusetts in seventy years--Contrasts of Ohio + with New England--Antagonism of Abolitionism to + free negroes. + + +In turning to the condition of our own free colored people, who rejected +homes in Liberia, we approach a most important subject. They have been +under the guardianship of their abolition friends, ever since that +period, and have cherished feelings of determined hostility to +colonization. What have they gained by this hostility? What has been +accomplished for them by their abolition friends, or what have they done +for themselves? Those who took refuge in Liberia have built up a +Republic of their own; and with the view of encouraging them to laudable +effort, have been recognized as an independent nation, by five of the +great governments of the earth. But what has been the progress of those +who remained behind, in the vain hope of rising to an equality with the +whites, and of assisting in abolishing American slavery? + +We offer no opinion, here, of our own, as to the present social and +moral condition of the free colored people in the North. What it was at +the time of the founding of Liberia, has already been shown. On this +subject we might quote largely from the proceedings of the Conventions +of the colored people, and the writings of their editors, so as to +produce a dark picture indeed; but this would be cruel, as their voices +are but the wailings of sensitive and benevolent hearts, while weeping +over the moral desolations that, for ages, have overwhelmed their +people. Nor shall we multiply testimony on the subject; but in this, as +in the case of Canada and the West Indies, allow the abolitionists to +speak of their own schemes. The Hon. Gerrit Smith, in his letter to +Governor Hunt, of New York, in 1852, while speaking of his ineffectual +efforts, for fifteen years past, to prevail upon the free colored people +to betake themselves to mechanical and agricultural pursuits, says: + +"Suppose, moreover, that during all these fifteen years, they had been +quitting the cities, _where the mass of them rot, both physically and +morally_, and had gone into the country to become farmers and +mechanics--suppose, I say, all this--and who would have the hardihood to +affirm that the Colonization Society lives upon the malignity of the +whites--but it is true that it lives upon _the voluntary degradation of +the blacks_. I do not say that the colored people are more debased than +the white people would be if persecuted, oppressed and outraged as are +the colored people. But I do say that they are debased, deeply debased; +and that to recover themselves they must become heroes, self-denying +heroes, capable of achieving a great moral victory--a two-fold +victory--a victory over themselves and a victory over their enemies." + +The _New York Tribune_, September 22, 1855, in noticing the movements of +the colored people of New York, to secure to themselves equal suffrage, +thus gives utterance to its views of their moral condition: + +"Most earnestly desiring the enfranchisement of the Afric-American race, +we would gladly wean them, at the cost of some additional ill-will, from +the sterile path of political agitation. They can help win their rights +if they will, but not by jawing for them. One negro on a farm which he +has cleared or bought patiently hewing out a modest, toilsome +independence, is worth more to the cause of equal suffrage than three in +an Ethiopian (or any other) convention, clamoring against white +oppression with all the fire of a Spartacus. It is not logical +conviction of the justice of their claims that is needed, but a +prevalent belief that they would form a wholesome and desirable element +of the body politic. Their color exposes them to much unjust and +damaging prejudice; but if their degradation were but skin-deep, they +might easily overcome it. . . . . Of course, we understand that the evil +we contemplate is complex and retroactive--that the political degradation +of the blacks is a cause as well as a consequence of their moral +debasement. Had they never been enslaved, they would not now be so +abject in soul; had they not been so abject, they could not have been +enslaved. Our aborigines might have been crushed into slavery by +overwhelming force; but they could never have been made to live in it. +The black man who feels insulted in that he is called a 'nigger,' +therein attests the degradation of his race more forcibly than does the +blackguard at whom he takes offense; for negro is no further a term of +opprobrium than the character of the blacks has made it so. . . . . If +the blacks of to-day were all or mainly such men as Samuel R. Ward or +Frederick Douglass, nobody would consider 'negro' an invidious or +reproachful designation. + +"The blacks of our State ought to enjoy the common rights of man; but +they stand greatly in need of the spirit in which those rights have been +won by other races. They will never win them as white men's barbers, +waiters, ostlers and boot blacks; that is to say, the tardy and +ungracious concession of the right of suffrage, which they may +ultimately wrench from a reluctant community, will leave them still the +political as well as social inferiors of the whites--excluded from all +honorable office, and admitted to white men's tables only as waiters and +plate-washers--unless they shall meantime have wrought out, through +toil, privation and suffering, an intellectual and essential +enfranchisement. At present, white men dread to be known as friendly to +the black, because of the never-ending, still-beginning importunities to +help this or that negro object of charity or philanthrophy to which such +a reputation inevitably subjects them. Nine-tenths of the free blacks +have no idea of setting themselves to work except as the hirelings and +servitors of white men; no idea of building a church, or accomplishing +any other serious enterprise, except through beggary of the whites. As a +class, the blacks are indolent, improvident, servile and licentious; and +their inveterate habit of appealing to white benevolence or compassion +whenever they realize a want or encounter a difficulty, is eminently +baneful and enervating. If they could never more obtain a dollar until +they shall have earned it, many of them would suffer, and some perhaps +starve; but, on the whole, they would do better and improve faster than +may now be reasonably expected." + +In tracing the causes which led to the organization of the American +Colonization Society, the statistics of the penitentiaries down to 1827, +were given, as affording an index to the moral condition of the free +colored people at that period. The facts of a similar kind, for 1850, +are added here, to indicate their present moral condition. The +statistics are compiled from the Compendium of the Census of the United +States, for 1850, and published in 1854. + + +_Tabular Statement of the number of the native and foreign white +population, the colored population, the number of each class in the +Penitentiaries, the proportion of the convicts to the whole number of +each class, the proportion of colored convicts over the foreign and also +over the native whites, in the four States named, for the year 1850:_ + + _Classes, etc._ _Mass._ _N. York._ _Penn._ _Ohio._ + + NATIVE WHITES, 819,044 2,388,830 1,953,276 1,732,698 + In the Penitentiary, 264 835 205 291 + Being 1 out of 3,102 2,860 9,528 5,954 + + FOREIGN WHITES, 163,598 655,224 303,105 218,099 + In the Penitentiary, 125 545 123 71 + Being 1 out of 1,308 1,202 2,464 3,077 + + COLORED POPULATION, 9,064 49,069 53,626 25,279 + In the Penitentiary, 47 257 109 44 + Being 1 out of 192 190 492 574 + + Colored convicts over + foreign, 6.8 times 6.3 times 5 times 5.3 times + + Colored convicts over + native whites, 16.1 times 15 times 19.3 times 10.3 times + +It appears from these figures, that the amount of crime among the +colored people of Massachusetts, in 1850, was 6 8/10 times greater than +the amount among the foreign born population of that State, and that +the amount, in the four States named, among the free colored people, +averages _five-and-three-quarters_ times more, in proportion to their +numbers, than it does among the foreign population, and over _fifteen_ +times more than it does among the native whites. It will be instructive, +also, to note the _moral condition_ of the free colored people in +Massachusetts, the great center of abolitionism, where they have enjoyed +equal rights ever since 1780. Strange to say, there is nearly three +times as much among them, in that State, as exists among those of Ohio! +More than this will be useful to note, as it regards the direction of +the _emigration_ of the free colored people. Massachusetts, in 1850, had +but 2,687 colored persons born out of the State, while Ohio had 12,662 +born out of her limits. Take another fact: the increase, _per cent._, of +the colored population, in the whole New England States, was, during the +ten years, from 1840 to 1850, but 1 71/100, while in Ohio, it was, +during that time, 45 76/100. + +There is another point worthy of notice. Though the New England +abolition States have offered equal political rights to the colored man, +it has afforded him little temptation to emigrate into their bounds. On +the contrary, several of these States have been diminishing their free +colored population, for many years past, and none of them can have had +accessions of colored immigrants; as is abundantly proved by the fact, +that their additions, of this class of persons, have not exceeded the +natural increase of the resident colored population.[71] Another fact is +equally as instructive. It will be noted, that, in Ohio, the largest +increase of the free colored population, is in the anti-abolition +counties--the abolition counties, often, having increased very little, +indeed, between 1840 and 1850. But the most curious fact is, that the +largest majorities for the abolition candidate for governor, in 1855, +were in the counties having the fewest colored people, while the largest +majorities against him, were in those having the largest numbers of free +negroes and mullatoes.[72] From these facts, both in regard to New +England and Ohio, one of two conclusions may be logically deduced: +Either the colored people find so little sympathy from the +abolitionists, that they will not live among them; or else their +presence, in any community, in large numbers, tends to cure the whites +of all tendencies toward practical abolitionism! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[71] See Table IV, Appendix. + +[72] See Table V, Appendix. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Disappointment of English and American Abolitionists--Their failure +attributed to the inherent evils of Slavery--Their want of +discrimination--The differences in the system in the British Colonies +and in the United States--Colored people of United States vastly in +advance of all others--Success of the Gospel among the Slaves--_Democratic +Review_ on African civilization--Vexation of Abolitionists at their +failure--Their apology not to be accepted--Liberia attests its +falsity--The barrier to the colored man's elevation removable only by +Colonization--Colored men begin to see it--Chambers, of Edinburgh--His +testimony on the crushing effects of New England's treatment of colored +people--Charges Abolitionists with insincerity--Approves +Colonization--Abolition violence rebuked by an English clergyman. + + +The condition of the free colored people can now be understood. The +results, in their case, are vastly different from what was anticipated, +when British philanthropists succeeded in West India emancipation. They +are very different, also, from what was expected by American +abolitionists: so different, indeed, that their disappointment is fully +manifested, in the extracts made from their published documents. As an +apology for the failure, it seems to be their aim to create the belief, +that the dreadful moral depravation, existing in the West Indies, is +wholly owing to the demoralizing tendencies of slavery. They speak of +this effect as resulting from laws inherent in the system, which have no +exceptions, and must be equally as active in the United States as in the +British colonies. But in their zeal to cast odium on slavery, they prove +too much--for, if this be true, it follows, that the slave population of +the United States must be equally debased with that of Jamaica, and as +much disqualified to discharge the duties of freemen, as both have been +subjected to the operations of the same system. This is not all. The +logic of the argument would extend even to our free colored people, and +include them, according to the American Missionary Association, in the +dire effects of "that enduring legacy which, with its foul, pestilential +influences, still blights, like the mildew of death, every thing in +society that should be lovely, virtuous, and of good report." Now, were +it believed, generally, that the colored people of the United States are +equally as degraded as those of Jamaica, upon what grounds could any one +advocate the admission of the blacks to equal social and political +privileges with the whites? Certainly, no Christian family or community +would willingly admit such men to terms of social or political equality! +This, we repeat, is the logical conclusion from the Reports of the +American Missionary Association and the American and Foreign +Anti-Slavery Society--a conclusion, too, the more certain, as it makes +no exceptions between the condition of the colored people under the +slavery of Jamaica and under that of the United States. + +But in this, as in much connected with slavery, abolitionists have taken +too limited a view of the subject. They have not properly discriminated +between the effects of the original barbarism of the negroes, and those +produced by the more or less favorable influences to which they were +afterward subjected under slavery. This point deserves special notice. +According to the best authorities, the colored people of Jamaica, for +nearly three hundred years, were entirely without the gospel; and it +gained a permanent footing among them, only at a few points, at their +emancipation, twenty-five years ago; so that, when liberty reached them, +the great mass of the Africans, in the British West Indies, were +heathen.[73] Let us understand the reason of this. Slavery is not an +element of human progress, under which the mind necessarily becomes +enlightened; but Christianity is the _primary_ element of progress, and +can elevate the savage, whether in bondage or in freedom, if its +principles are taught him in his youth. The slavery of Jamaica began +with savage men. For three hundred years, its slaves were destitute of +the gospel, and their barbarism was left to perpetuate itself. But in +the United States, the Africans were brought under the influence of +Christianity, on their first introduction, over two hundred and thirty +years since, and have continued to enjoy its teachings, in a greater or +less degree, to the present moment. The disappearance from among our +colored people, of the savage condition of the human mind--the +incapacity to comprehend religious truths--and its continued existence +among those of Jamaica, can now be understood. The opportunities enjoyed +by the former, for advancement, over the latter, have been _six_ to +_one_. With these facts before the mind, it is not difficult to perceive +that the colored population of Jamaica can not but still labor under +the disadvantages of hereditary barbarism and involuntary servitude, +with the superadded misfortune of being inadequately supplied with +Christian instruction, along with their recent acquisition of freedom. +But while all this must be admitted, of the colored people of Jamaica, +it is not true of those of our own country; for, long since, they have +cast off the heathenism of their fathers, and have become enlightened in +a very encouraging degree. Hence it is, that the colored people of the +United States, both bond and free, have made vastly greater progress, +than those of the British West Indies, in their knowledge of moral +duties and the requirements of the gospel; and hence, too, it is, that +Gerrit Smith is right, in asserting that the demoralized condition of +the great mass of the free colored people, in our cities, is +inexcusable, and deserving of the utmost reprobation, because it is +_voluntary_--they knowing their duty but abandoning themselves to +degrading habits. + +This brings us to another point of great moment. It will be denied by +but few--and by none maintaining the natural equality of the races--that +the free colored people of the United States are sufficiently +enlightened, to be elevated by education, in an encouraging degree, +where proper restraints from vice, and encouragements to virtue prevail. +A large portion, even, of the slave population, are similarly +enlightened. We speak not of the state of the morals of either class. + +As the public are not well informed, in relation to the extent to which +the religious instruction of the slaves at the South prevails, the +following information will prove interesting, and show that a good work +has long been in progress, and has been producing its fruits: + +"The South Carolina Methodist Conference have a missionary committee +devoted entirely to promoting the religious instruction of the slave +population, which has been in existence twenty-six years. The Report[74] +of the last year shows a greater degree of activity than is generally +known. They have twenty-six missionary stations in which thirty-two +missionaries are employed. The Report affirms that public opinion in +South Carolina is decidedly in favor of the religious instruction of +slaves, and that it has become far more general and systematic than +formerly. It also claims a great degree of success to have attended the +labors of the missionaries." + +The Report of the Missionary Board, of the Louisiana Conference, of the +Methodist Episcopal Church, 1855, says:[75] + +"It is stated upon good authority, that the number of colored members in +the Church South, exceeds that of the entire membership of all the +Protestant missions in the world. What an enterprise is this committed +to our care! The position we, of the Methodist Church South, have taken +for the African, has, to a great extent, cut us off from the sympathy of +the Christian Church throughout the world; and it behooves us to make +good this position in the sight of God, of angels, of men, of churches, +and to our own consciences, by presenting before the throne of His glory +multitudes of the souls of these benighted ones abandoned to our care, +as the seals of our ministry. Already Lousiana promises to be one vast +plantation. Let us--we must gird ourselves for this Heaven-born +enterprise of supplying the pure gospel to the slave. The great question +is, How can the greatest number be preached to?--The building roadside +chapels is as yet the best solution of it. In some cases planters build +so as to accommodate adjoining plantations, and by this means the +preacher addresses three hundred or more slaves, instead of one hundred +or less. Economy of this kind is absolutely essential where the labor of +the missionary is so much needed and demanded. + +"On the Lafourche and Bayou Black Missionwork, several chapels are in +process of erection, upon a plan which enables the slave, as his master, +to make an offering towards building a house of God. Instead of money, +the hands subscribe labor. Timber is plenty; many of the servants are +carpenters. Upon many of the plantations are saw mills. Here is much +material; what hindereth that we should build a church on every tenth +plantation? Let us maintain our policy steadily. Time and diligence are +required to effect substantial good, especially in this department of +labor. Let us continue to ask for buildings adapted to the worship of +God, and set apart; to urge, when practicable, the preaching to blacks +in the presence of their masters, their overseers, and the neighbors +generally." + +"One of the effects of the great revival among colored people has been +the establishment of a regular system of prayer-meetings for their +benefit. Meetings are held every night during the week at the tobacco +factories, the proprietors of which have been kind enough to place those +edifices at the disposal of the colored brethren. The owners of the +several factories preside over these meetings, and the most absolute +good conduct is exhibited."[76] + +"In Newbern, N. C., the slaves have a large church of their own, which +is well attended. They pay a salary of $500 per annum to their white +minister. They have likewise a negro preacher in their employ, whom they +purchased from his master.[77] + +And Newbern in this respect is not isolated. For in nearly every town of +any size in the Southern States, the colored people have their churches, +and what is more than is always known at the North, _they sustain their +churches and pay their ministers_,[78] + +"_Resolved_, that the religious instruction of our _colored population_ +be affectionately and earnestly commended to the ministry and eldership +of our churches generally, as opening to us a field of most obligatory +and interesting Christian effort, in which we are called to labor more +faithfully and fully, by our regard for our social interests, as well as +by the higher considerations of duty to God and the souls of our fellow +men.[79] + +The following extracts are copied from the _New York Observer_, of the +present year: + +The Presbytery of Roanoke, Virginia, (O. S.) has addressed a Pastoral +letter, on the instruction of the colored people, to the churches under +its care, and ordered the same to be read in all the churches of the +Presbytery, in those that are vacant, as well as where there are pastors +or stated supplies. It commences by saying: "Among the important +interests of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, which have claimed +our special attention since the organization of the Presbytery in April +last,--that the work of the Lord may be vigorously and efficiently +carried forward within our bounds,--_the religious instruction of the +colored people_, is hardly to be placed second to any other." After +speaking of the obstacles and encouragements to the work, it gives the +following statistics: + +"In the Presbytery of Charleston, S. C., 1637 out of 2889 members, or +considerably over one-half, are colored. In the whole Synod of South +Carolina, 5,009 out of 13,074, are colored members. The Presbyteries of +Mississippi and Central Mississippi, of Tuscaloosa and South Alabama, of +Georgia, of Concord, and Fayetteville, also show many churches with +large proportions of colored communicants, from one-third to one-seventh +of the whole. Our own Presbytery reports 276 out of 1737 members. In the +whole of the above mentioned bodies, there are 9,076 colored, out of +33,667 communicants. Among the churches of these Presbyteries, we find +twenty with an aggregate colored membership of 3,600, or an average of +130 to each. We find also, such large figures as these, 260, 333, 356, +525! These facts speak for themselves and forbid discouragement." + +Speaking of the obligations to instruct this class, the letter says: + +"But these people are _among_ us, at our doors, in our own fields, and +around our firesides! If they need instruction, then the command of our +Lord, and every obligation of benevolence, call us to the work of +teaching them, with all industry, the doctrines of Christ. The _first +and kindest_ outgoings of our Christian compassion should be toward +them. They are not only near us, but are also entirely _dependent_ upon +us. As to all means of securing religious privileges for themselves, and +as to energy and self-directing power, they are but children,--forced to +look to their masters for every supply. From this arises an obligation, +at once imperative, and of most solemn and momentous significance to us, +to make thorough provision for their religious instruction, to the full +extent that we are able to provide it for ourselves. This obligation +acquires great additional force when it is further considered, that +besides proximity and dependence, they are indeed _members of our_ +'_households_.' As the three hundred and eighteen 'trained servants' of +Abraham were 'born in his own house;' i. e., were born and bred as +members of his _household_, so are our servants. Of course no argument +is needed, to show that every man is bound by high and sacred +obligations, for the discharge of which he must give account, to provide +his _family_ suitably, or to the extent of his ability, with the means +of grace and salvation. + +After dwelling on the duties of the ministry, the letter goes on: + +"But the work of Christianizing our colored population can never be +accomplished by the labors of the ministry alone, unaided by the hearty +co-operation of families, by carrying on a system of _home instruction_. +_We must begin with the children._ For if the children of our servants +be left to themselves during their early years, this neglect must of +necessity beget two enormous evils. Evil habits will be rapidly acquired +and strengthened; since if children are not learning good, they will be +learning what is bad. And having thus grown up both ignorant and +vicious, they will have no inclination to go to the Lord's house; or if +they should go, their minds will be found so dark, so entirely +unacquainted with the rudimental language and truths of the gospel, that +much of the preaching must at first prove unintelligible, unprofitable +at the time, and so uninteresting as to discourage further attendance. +In every regard, therefore, masters are bound to see that religious +instruction is provided at home for their people, especially for the +young. + +"If there be no other to undertake the work, (the mistress, or the +children of the family,) the master is bound to deny himself and +discharge the duty. It is for him to see that the thing is properly +done; for the whole responsibility rests on him at last. It usually, +however, devolves upon the mistress, or upon the younger members of the +family, where there are children qualified for it, to perform this +service. Some of our young men, and, _to their praise be it spoken_, +still more of our young women, have willingly given themselves to this +self-denying labor; in aid of their parents, or as a duty which they +themselves owe to Christ their Redeemer, and to their fellow creatures. +We take this occasion, gladly, to bid all these 'God speed' in their +work of love. Co-workers together with us, we praise you for this. We +bid you take courage. Let no dullness, indifference, or neglect, weary +out your patience. You are laboring for Christ, and for precious souls. +You are doing a work the importance of which _eternity_ will fully +reveal. You will be blessed, too, in your deed even now. This labor will +prove to you an important means of grace. You will have something to +pray for, and will enjoy the pleasing consciousness, that you are not +idlers in the Lord's vineyard. You will be winning stars for your crowns +of rejoicing through eternity. Grant that it will cost you much +self-denial. Can you, notwithstanding, consent to see these immortal +beings growing up in ignorance and vice, at your very doors? + +"The methods of carrying on the home instruction are various, and we are +abundantly supplied with the needful facilities. We need not name the +reading of the Bible; and judiciously selected sermons, to be read to +the adults when they cannot attend preaching, should not be omitted. +Catechetical instruction, by means of such excellent aids as our own +'Catechism for young children,' and 'Jones' Catechism of Scripture +doctrine and practice,' will of course be resorted to; together with +teaching them _hymns_ and _singing with them_. The reading to them, for +variety, such engaging and instructive stories as are found in the +'Children's column' of some of our best religious papers; and suitable +Sabbath school, or other juvenile books, such as 'The Peep of Day,' +'Line upon Line,' etc., will, in many cases, prove an excellent aid, in +imbuing their minds with religious truth. _Masters should not spare +expense or trouble_, to provide liberally these various helps to those +who take this work in hand, to aid and encourage them to the utmost in +their self-denying toil. + +"Brethren, the time is propitious to urge your attention to this +important duty. A deep and constantly increasing interest in the work, +is felt throughout the South. Just at this time, also, extensively +throughout portions of our territory, an unusual awakening has been +showing itself among the colored people. It becomes us, and it is of +vital importance on every account, by judicious instruction, both to +guide the movement, and to improve the opportunity. + +"We commend this whole great interest to the Divine blessing; and, under +God, to your conscientious reflection, to devise the proper ways; and to +your faithful Christian zeal, to accomplish whatever your wisdom may +devise and approve." + +The _Mobile Daily Tribune_, in referring to the religious training of +the slaves, says:[80] + +"Few persons are aware of the efforts that are continually in progress, +in a quiet way, in the various Southern States, for the moral and +religious improvement of the negroes--of the number of clergymen of good +families, accomplished education, and often of a high degree of talent, +who devote their whole time and energies to this work; or of the many +laymen--almost invariably slaveholders themselves--who sustain them by +their purses and by their assistance as catechists, Sunday school +teachers, and the like. These men do not make platform speeches, or talk +in public on the subject of their 'mission,' or theorize about the +'planes' on which they stand: they are too busy for this, but they work +on quietly in labor and self-denial, looking for a sort of reward very +different from the applause bestowed upon stump agitators. Their work is +a much less noisy one, but its results will be far more momentous. + +"We have very limited information on this subject, for the very reasons +just mentioned, but enough to give some idea of the zeal with which +these labors are prosecuted by the various Christian denominations. +Thus, among the Old School Presbyterians it is stated that about one +hundred ministers are engaged in the religious instruction of the +negroes exclusively. In South Carolina alone there are forty-five +churches or chapels of the Episcopal Church, appropriated exclusively to +negroes; thirteen clergymen devote to them their whole time, and +twenty-seven a portion of it; and one hundred and fifty persons of the +same faith are engaged in imparting to them catechetical instruction. +There are other States which would furnish similar statistics if they +could be obtained. + +"It is in view of such facts as these, that one of our cotemporaries, +(the _Philadelphia Inquirer_,) though not free from a certain degree of +anti-slavery proclivity, makes the following candid admission: + +"'The introduction of African slavery into the colonies of North +America, though doubtless brought about by wicked means, may in the end +accomplish great good to Africa; a good, perhaps, to be effected in no +other way. Hundreds and thousands have already been saved, temporally +and spiritually, who otherwise must have perished. Through these and +their descendants it is that civilization and Christianity have been +sent back to the perishing millions of Africa.'" + +The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist +Episcopal Church South, 1859, says: + +"In our colored missions great good has been accomplished by the labors +of the self-sacrificing and zealous missionaries. + +"This seems to be at home our most appropriate field of labor. By our +position we have direct access to those for whom these missions are +established. Our duty and obligation in regard to them are evident. +Increased facilities are afforded us, and open doors invite our entrance +and full occupancy. The real value of these missions is often overlooked +or forgotten by _Church census-takers_ and statistic-reporters of our +benevolent associations. We can but repeat that this field, which seems +almost, by common consent, to be left for our occupancy, is one of the +most important and promising in the history of missions. At home even +its very humility obscures, and abroad a mistaken philanthropy +repudiates its claims. But still the fact exists; and when we look at +the large number of faithful, pious, and self-sacrificing missionaries +engaged in the work, the wide field of their labors, and the happy +thousands who have been savingly converted to God through their +instrumentality, we can but perceive the propriety and justice of +assigning to these missions the prominence we have. Indeed, the subject +assumes an importance beyond the conception even of those more directly +engaged in this great work, when it is remembered that these missions +absolutely number more converts to Christianity, according to statistics +given, than all the members of all other missionary societies combined." + +The Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in +their Report for 1859, says: + +"It is gratifying that so much has been done for the evangelization of +this people. In addition to the missions presented in our report, +thousands of this people are served by preachers in charge of circuits +and stations. But still a great work remains to be accomplished among +the negroes within your limits. New missions are needed, and increased +attention to the work in this department generally demanded. Heaven +devolves an immense responsibility upon us with reference to these sable +sons of Ham. Providence has thrown them in our midst, not merely to be +our household and agricultural servants, but to be served by us with the +blessed gospel of the Son of God. Let us then, in the name of Him who +made it a special sign of his Messiahship that the poor had the gospel +preached unto them--let us in his name go forth, bearing the bread of +life to these poor among us, and opening to them all the sources of +consolation and encouragement afforded by the religion of Jesus." + +The Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in their +Report for 1859, say: + +"At the last Conference, Gideon W. Cottingham and David W. Fly were +appointed Conference African missionaries, whose duties were to travel +throughout the Conference, visit the planters in person, and organize +missions in regions unsupplied. They report an extensive field open, and +truly white unto the harvest, and have succeeded in organizing several +important missions. All the planters, questioned upon the subject, were +willing to give the missionary access to their servants, to preach and +catechize, not only on the Sabbath, but during the week. And this +willingness was not confined to the professors alone, but the deepest +interest was displayed by many who make no pretensions to religion +whatever. An interest shown not merely by giving the missionary access +to their servants, but by their pledging their prompt support. The +servants themselves receive the word with the utmost eagerness. They are +hungering for the bread of life; our tables are loaded. Shall not these +starving souls be fed? Cases of appalling destitution are found: numbers +who heard for the first time the word of life listened eagerly to the +wonders it unfolded. The Greeks are truly at our doors, heathens growing +up in our midst, revival fire flames around them, a polar frost within +their hearts. God help the Church to take care of these perishing souls! +Our anniversaries are usually scenes of unmingled joy. With our sheaves +in our hands, we come from the harvest field, and though sad that so +little has been done, yet rejoicing that we have the privilege of laying +any pledge of devotion upon the altar." + +The Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in their +Report for 1859, say: + +"We are cheered to see a growing interest among our planters and +slave-owners in our _domestic missions_. Still that interest is not what +the importance of the subject demands. While few are willing to bar +their servants all gospel privileges, there is a great want in many +places of suitable houses for public worship. Too many masters think +that to permit the missionary to come on the plantation, and preach in +the gin, or mill, or elsewhere, as circumstances may dictate, is their +only duty, especially if the missionary gets his bread. None of the +attendant circumstances of a neat church, and suitable Sunday apparel, +etc., to cheer and gladden the heart on the holy Sabbath, and cause its +grateful thanksgiving to go up as clouds of incense before Him, are +thought necessary by many masters. + +"Notwithstanding, we are cheered by a brightening prospect. Christian +masters are building churches for their servants. Owners in many places +are adopting the wise policy of erecting their churches so as to bring +two, three, or more plantations together for preaching. This plan is so +consonant with the gospel economy, and so advantageous every way, that +it must become the uniform practice of all our missionary operations +among the slaves. Our late Conference wisely adopted a resolution, +encouraging the building of churches for the accommodation of several +plantations together, wherever it can be done." + +The South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in +their Report for 1859, say: + +"Meanwhile the increasing claims of the destitute colored population +must not be ignored. New fields are opening before us, the claims of +which are pressed with an earnestness which nothing but deeply-felt +necessity could dictate. And the question is pressed upon us, What shall +we do? Must not the contributions of the Church be more liberal and more +systematic? Must not the friends of the enterprise become more zealous? +Will not the wealthy patrons of our society, whose people are served, +contribute a sum equal in the aggregate to the salary of the +missionaries who serve their people? This done, and every claim urged +upon your Board shall be honored. + +"This is wondrous work! God loves it, honors it, blesses it! He has +crowned it with success. The old negro has abandoned his legendary +rites, and has sought and found favor with God through Jesus Christ. The +catechumens have received into their hearts the gracious instructions +given by the missionary, and scores of them are converted annually, and +become worthy members of the Church. Here lies the most inviting field +of labor. To instruct these children of Ham in the plan of salvation, to +preoccupy their minds with "the truth as it is in Jesus," to see them +renounce the superstitions of their forefathers, and embrace salvation's +plan, would make an angel's heart rejoice." + +Failing in securing the Reports of the Baptists at the South, we are +unable to exhibit in detail, their operations among the slave +population. The same failure has also occurred in reference to the +Cumberland Presbyterians, and some of the other denominations at the +South. The statistics, taken from the _Southern Baptist Register_, will +indicate the extent of their success. The following statement made up +from the Annual Reports of the Churches named, or from the _Register_, +shows the extent to which the slave population, in the entire South, +have been brought under the influence of the gospel, and led to profess +their faith in the Saviour: + + Methodist Episcopal Church South, 188,000 + Methodist Episcopal Church North,[81] in Va. and Md., 15,000 + Missionary and Anti-Missionary Baptist, 175,000 + General Assembly Presbyterian, (O. S.,) 12,000 + General Assembly Presbyterian, (N. S.,) estimated 6,000 + Cumberland Presbyterians, 20,000 + Protestant Episcopal Church, estimated 7,000 + Christian Church, 10,000 + All other denominations, 20,000 + ------- + Total 453,000 + +The remark has been made, in two of the reports quoted, that the number +of slaves brought into the Christian Church, as a consequence of the +introduction of the African race into the United States, exceeds all the +converts made, throughout the heathen world, by the whole missionary +force employed by Protestant Christendom. Newcomb's Encyclopedia of +Missions, 1856, gives the whole number of converts in the Protestant +Christian missions in Asia, Africa, Pacific islands, West Indies, and +North American Indians at 211,389; but more recent estimates make the +number approximate 250,000: thus showing that the number of African +converts in the Southern States, is almost double the whole number of +heathen converts. It is well enough to observe here, that these facts +are not given to prove that slavery should be adopted as a means of +converting the heathen, but to call attention to the mode in which +Divine Providence is working for the salvation of the African race. + +Our opinion as to the advancement of the free colored people of the +United States, in general intelligence, does not stand alone. It is +sustained by high authority, not of the abolition school. The +_Democratic Review_, of 1852,[82] when discussing the question of their +ability to conquer and civilize Africa, says: + +"The negro race has, among its freemen in this country, a mass of men +who are eminently fitted for deeds of daring. They have generally been +engaged in employments which give a good deal of leisure, and stimulus +toward improvement of the mind. They have associated much more freely +with the cultivated and intelligent white than even with their own color +of the same humble station; and on such terms as to enable them to +acquire much of his spirit, and knowledge, and valor. The free blacks +among us are not only confident and well informed, but they have almost +all seen something of the world. They are pre-eminently locomotive and +perambulating. In rail roads, and hotels, and stages, and steamers, they +have been placed incessantly in contact with the news, the views, the +motives, and the ideas of the day. Compare the free black with ordinary +white men without advantages, and he stands well. Add to this +cultivation, that the negro body is strong and healthy, and the negro +mind keen and bright, though not profound nor philosophical, and you +have at once a formidable warrior, with a little discipline and +knowledge of weapons. There is no doubt that the picked American free +blacks, would be five times, ten times as efficient in the field of +battle as the same number of native Africans." + +Why is it then, that the efforts for the moral elevation of the free +colored people, have been so unsuccessful? Before answering this +question, it is necessary to call attention to the fact, that +abolitionists seem to be sadly disappointed in their expectations, as to +the progress of the free colored people. Their vexation at the +stubborness of the negroes, and the consequent failure of their +measures, is very clearly manifested in the complaining language, used +by Gerrit Smith, toward the colored people of the eastern cities, as +well as by the contempt expressed by the American Missionary +Association, for the colored preachers of Canada. They had found an +apology, for their want of success in the United States, in the presence +and influence of colonizationists; but no such excuse can be made for +their want of success in Canada and the West Indies. Having failed in +their anticipations, now they would fain shelter themselves under the +pretense, that a people once subjected to slavery, even when liberated, +can not be elevated in a single generation; that the case of adults, +raised in bondage, like heathen of similar age, is hopeless, and their +children, only, can make such progress as will repay the missionary for +his toil. But they will not be allowed to escape the censure due to +their want of discrimination and foresight, by any such plea; as the +success of the Republic of Liberia, conducted from infancy to +independence, almost wholly by liberated slaves, and those who were born +and raised in the midst of slavery, attests the falsity of their +assumption. + +But to return. Why have the efforts for the elevation of the free +colored people, not been more successful? On this point our remarks may +be limited to our own free colored people. The barrier to their progress +here, exists not so much in their want of capacity, as in the absence of +the incitements to virtuous action, which are constantly stimulating the +white man to press onward and upward in the formation of character and +the acquisition of knowledge. There is no position in church or state, +to which the poorest white boy, in the common school, may not aspire. +There is no post of honor, in the gift of his country, that is legally +beyond his reach. But such encouragements to noble effort, do not and +cannot reach the colored man, and he remains with us a depressed and +disheartened being. Persuading him to remain in this hopeless condition, +has been the great error of the abolitionists. They accepted Jefferson's +views in relation to emancipation, but rejected his opinions as to the +necessity of separating the races; and thus overlooked the teachings of +history, that two races, differing so widely as to prevent their +amalgamation by marriage, can never live together, in the same +community, but as superiors and inferiors--the inferior remaining +subordinate to the superior. The encouraging hopes held out to the +colored people, that this law would be inoperative upon them, has led +only to disappointment. Happily, this delusion is nearly at an end; and +some of them are beginning to act on their own judgments. They find +themselves so scattered and peeled, that there is not another half a +million of men in the world, so enlightened, who are accomplishing so +little for their social and moral advancement. They perceive that they +are nothing but branches, wrenched from the great African _banyan_, not +yet planted in genial soil, and affording neither shelter nor food to +the beasts of the forest or the fowls of the air--their roots unfixed in +the earth, and their tender shoots withering as they hang pendent from +their boughs. + +That this is no exaggerated picture of the discouragements surrounding +our free colored people, is fully confirmed by the testimony of +impartial witnesses. Chambers, of Edinburgh, who recently made the tour +of the United States, investigated this point very carefully. His +opinions on the subject have been published, and are so discriminating +and truthful, that we must quote the main portion of them. In speaking +of the agitation of the question of slavery, he says: + +"For a number of years, as is well known, there has been much angry +discussion on the subject between the Northern and Southern States; and +at times the contention has been so great, as to lead to mutual threats +of a dismemberment of the Union. A stranger has no little difficulty in +understanding how much of this war of words is real, and how much is +merely an explosion of _bunkum_. . . . . I repeat, it is difficult to +understand what is the genuine public feeling on this entangled +question; for with all the demonstrations in favor of freedom in the +North, there does not appear in that quarter to be any practical +relaxation of the usages which condemn persons of African descent to an +inferior social status. There seems, in short, to be a fixed notion +throughout the whole of the States, whether slave or free, that the +colored is by nature a subordinate race; and that, in no circumstances, +can it be considered equal to the white. Apart from commercial views, +this opinion lies at the root of American slavery; and the question +would need to be argued less on political and philanthropic than on +physiological grounds. . . . . I was not a little surprised to find, +when speaking a kind word for at least a very unfortunate, if not +brilliant race, that the people of the Northern States, though +repudiating slavery, did not think more favorably of the negro character +than those further South. Throughout Massachusetts, and other New +England States, likewise in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, etc., +there is a rigorous separation of the white and black races. . . . . The +people of England, who see a negro only as a wandering curiosity, are +not at all aware of the repugnance generally entertained toward persons +of color in the United States: it appeared to amount to an absolute +monomania. As for an alliance with one of the race, no matter how faint +the shade of color, it would inevitably lead to a loss of caste, as +fatal to social position and family ties as any that occurs in the +Brahminical system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +"Glad to have had an opportunity of calling attention to many cheering +and commendable features in the social system of the Americans, I +consider it not less my duty to say, that in their general conduct +toward the colored race, a wrong is done which can not be alluded to +except in terms of the deepest sorrow and reproach. I can not think +without shame of the pious and polished New Englanders adding to their +offenses on this score the guilt of hypocrisy. Affecting to weep over +the sufferings of imaginary dark-skinned heroes and heroines; +denouncing, in well-studied platform oratory, the horrid sin of reducing +human beings to the abject condition of chattels; bitterly scornful of +Southern planters for hard-hearted selfishness and depravity; fanatical +on the subject of abolition; wholly frantic at the spectacle of fugitive +slaves seized and carried back to their owners--these very persons are +daily surrounded by manumitted slaves, or their educated descendants, +yet shrink from them as if the touch were pollution, and look as if they +would expire at the bare idea of inviting one of them to their house or +table. Until all this is changed, the Northern abolitionists place +themselves in a false position, and do damage to the cause they espouse. +If they think that negroes are MEN, let them give the world an evidence +of their sincerity, by moving the reversal of all those social and +political arrangements which now, in the free States, exclude persons of +color, not only from the common courtesies of life, but from the +privileges and honors of citizens. I say, until this is done, the uproar +about abolition is a delusion and a snare. . . . . + +"While lamenting the unsatisfactory condition, present and prospective, +of the colored population, it is gratifying to consider the energetic +measures that have been adopted by the African Colonization Society, to +transplant, with their own consent, free negroes from America to +Liberia. Viewing these endeavors as, at all events, a means of +encouraging emancipation, checking the slave trade, and, at the same +time, of introducing Christianity and civilized usages into Africa, they +appear to have been deserving of more encouragement than they have had +the good fortune to receive. Successful only in a moderate degree, the +operations of this society are not likely to make a deep impression on +the numbers of the colored population; and the question of their +disposal still remains unsettled." + +That the Christian churches of the South are pursuing the true policy +for the moral welfare of the slave population, will be admitted by every +right minded man. The present chapter cannot be more appropriately +closed, than by quoting the language of Rev. J. Waddington, of England, +at a meeting in behalf of the American Missionary Association, held in +Boston, July, 1859. The speakers had been very violent in their +denunciations of slavery, and when Mr. Waddington came to speak, he thus +rebuked their unchristian spirit: + +"I have," said Mr. Waddington, "a strong conviction, that freedom can +never come but of vital Christianity. It is not born of the intellect, +it is not the product of the conscience; it can never be the result of +the sword. It was with extreme horror that I heard the assertion made +last night, that it must be through a baptism of blood that freedom must +come. Never! never! The sword can destroy, it can never create. What do +we want for freedom? Expansion of the heart. That we should honor other +men; that we should be concerned for other men. What is it that causes +slavery and oppression? Selfishness, intense, self-destroying +selfishness if you will. Nothing can exorcise that selfishness but the +constraining love of Christ. The gospel alone, by the Spirit of God, can +waken freedom in men, in families, in nations." + +Mr. Waddington, also remarked, that "every thing in America was +extremely wonderful and surprising to him; and nothing more surprised +him than the burning words with which his ministerial friends pelted +each other; yet he had no doubt they were the kindest men in the world. +He thought it was not intended that any harm should be done, but only +that the cause of truth should be advanced."[83] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[73] Rev. Mr. Phillippo, for twenty years a missionary in Jamaica, in +his "Jamaica, its Past and Present Condition." + +[74] _New York Evangelist_, 1858. + +[75] _New York Observer_, March, 1856. + +[76] _Lynchburgh_ (Va.) _Courier_, quoted by _African Repository_, +January, 1858. + +[77] _Southern Monitor_, quoted by _African Repository_, January, 1858. + +[78] _Express_--Ibid. + +[79] Synod of Virginia, quoted by _African Repository_, 1858. + +[80] Quoted in _African Repository_, April, 1858. + +[81] The Methodist Episcopal Church North, in 1858, had a total of +22,326 of colored members, in all the States. + +[82] Page 102. + +[83] _American Missionary_, July, 1859. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Failure of free colored people in attaining an + equality with the whites--Their failure also in + checking Slavery--Have they not aided in its + extension? Yes--Facts in proof of this + view--Abolitionists bad Philosophers--Colored + men's influence destructive of their + hopes--Summary manner in which England acts in + their removal--Lord Mansfield's + decision--Granville Sharp's labors and their + results--Colored immigration into + Canada--Information supplied by Major + Lachlan--Demoralized condition of the blacks as + indicated by the crimes they committed--Elgin + Association--Public meeting protesting against its + organization--Negro meeting at Toronto--Memorial + of municipal council--Negro riot at St. + Catherines--Col. Prince and the Negroes--Later + cases of presentation by Grand Jury--Opinion of + the Judge--Darkening prospects of the colored + race--Views of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher--Their + accuracy--The lesson they teach. + + +BUT little progress, it will be seen, has been made, by the free colored +people, toward an approximation of equality with the whites. Have they +succeeded better in aiding in the abolition of slavery? They have not, +as is abundantly demonstrated by the triumph of the institution. This is +an important point for consideration, as the principal object +influencing them to remain in the country, was, that they might assist +in the liberation of their brethren from bondage. But their agency in +the attempts made to abolish the institution having failed, a more +important question arises, as to whether the free colored people, by +refusing to emigrate, may not have contributed to the advancement of +slavery? An affirmative answer must be given to this inquiry. Nor is a +protracted discussion necessary to prove the assertion. + +One of the objections urged with the greatest force against +colonization, is, its tendency, as is alleged, to increase the value of +slaves by diminishing their numbers. "Jay's Inquiry," 1835, presents +this objection at length; and the Report of the "Anti-Slavery Society of +Canada," 1853, sums it up in a single proposition thus: + +"The first effect of beginning to reduce the number of slaves, by +colonization, would be to increase the market value of those left +behind, and thereby increase the difficulty of setting them free." + +The practical effect of this doctrine, is to discourage all +emancipations; to render eternal the bondage of each individual slave, +unless all can be liberated; to prevent the benevolence of one master +from freeing his slaves, lest his more selfish neighbor should be +thereby enriched; and to leave the whole system intact, until its total +abolition can be effected. Such philanthropy would leave every +individual, of suffering millions, to groan out a miserable existence, +because it could not at once effect the deliverance of the whole. This +objection to colonization can be founded only in prejudice, or is +designed to mislead the ignorant. The advocates of this doctrine do not +practice it, or they would not promote the escape of fugitives to +Canada. + +But abolitionists object not only to the colonization of liberated +slaves, as tending to perpetuate slavery; they are equally hostile to +the colonization of the free colored people, for the same reason. The +"American Reform Tract and Book Society," the organ of the +abolitionists, for the publication of anti-slavery works, has issued a +Tract on "Colonization," in which this objection is stated as follows: + +"The Society perpetuates slavery, by removing the free laborer, and +thereby increasing the demand for, and the value of, slave labor." + +The projectors and advocates of such views may be good philanthropists, +but they are bad philosophers. We have seen that the power of American +slavery lies in the demand for its products; and that the whole country, +North of the sugar and cotton States, is actively employed in the +production of provisions for the support of the planter and his slaves, +and in consuming the products of slave labor. This is the constant +vocation of the whites. And how is it with the blacks? Are they +competing with the slaves, in the cultivation of sugar and cotton, or +are they also supporting the system, by consuming its products? The +latitudes in which they reside, and the pursuits in which they are +engaged, will answer this question. + +The census of 1850, shows but 40,900 free colored persons in the nine +sugar and cotton States, including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, +Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, +while 393,500 are living in the other States. North Carolina is omitted, +because it is more of a tobacco and wool-growing, than cotton-producing +State. + +Of the free colored persons in the first-named States, 19,260 are in the +cities and larger towns; while, of the remainder, a considerable number +may be in the villages, or in the families of the whites. From these +facts it is apparent, that less than 20,000 of the entire free colored +population (omitting those of North Carolina,) are in a position to +compete with slave labor, while all the remainder, numbering over +412,800, are engaged, either directly or indirectly, in supporting the +institution. Even the fugitives escaping to Canada, from having been +producers necessarily become consumers of slave-grown products; and, +worse still, under the Reciprocity Treaty, they must also become growers +of provisions for the planters who continue to hold their brothers, +sisters, wives and children, in bondage. + +These are the practical results of the policy of the abolitionists. +Verily, they, also, have dug their ditches on the wrong side of their +breastworks, and afforded the enemy an easy entrance into their +fortress. But, "Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind. And +if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."[84] + +But we are not yet prepared to estimate the full extent of the +influence, for ill, exerted by the free colored people upon public +sentiment. The picture of their degraded moral condition, drawn by the +abolitionists, is a dark one indeed, and calculated to do but little +toward promoting emancipation, or in placing themselves in a position of +equality with the whites. According to their testimony, the condition of +the slave, under the restraints of Christian masters, must be vastly +more favorable to moral progress, than that of the majority of those who +have received their freedom. While they have all the animal appetites +and passions fully developed, they seem to remain, intellectually, +child-like, with neither the courage nor the foresight enabling them to +seize upon fields of enterprise that would lead to wealth and fame. Look +at the facts upon this point. They were offered a home and government of +their own in Africa, with the control of extensive tropical cultivation; +but they rejected the boon, and refused to leave the land of their +birth, in the vain belief that they could, by remaining here, assist in +wrenching the chains from the slaves of the South. They expected great +aid, too, in their work, from the moral effect of West Indian +emancipation; but that has failed in the results anticipated, and the +free colored laborer is about to be superseded there by imported coolie +labor from abroad. They expected, also, that the emigrants and fugitives +to Canada, rising into respectability under British laws, would do the +race much honor, and show the value of emancipation; but even there the +hope has not been realized, and it will be no uncommon thing should the +Government set its face against them as most unwelcome visitors. A few +scraps of history will be of service, in illustrating the feeling of the +subjects of the British North American colonies, in relation to the +inroads made upon them by the free colored people. + +In 1833, an English military officer, thus wrote: + +"There is a settlement of negroes a few miles from Halifax, Nova Scotia, +at Hammond's Plains. Any one would have imagined that the Government +would have taken warning from the trouble and expense it incurred by +granting protection to those who emigrated from the States during the +Revolution; 1200 of whom were removed to Sierra Leone in 1792 by their +own request. Again when 600 of the insurgent negroes--the Maroons of +Jamaica--were transported to Nova Scotia in 1796, and received every +possible encouragement to become good subjects, by being granted a +settlement at Preston, and being employed upon the fortifications at +Halifax; yet they, too, soon became discontented, and being unwilling to +earn a livelihood by labor, were, in 1800, removed to the same colony, +after costing the island of Jamaica more than $225,000, and a large +additional expense to the Province, _i. e._ Nova Scotia. Notwithstanding +which, when the runaway slaves were received on board the fleet, off the +Chesapeake, during the late war, permission was granted to them to form +a settlement at Hammond's Plains, where the same system of discontent +arose--many of the settlers professing that they would prefer their +former well-fed life of slavery, in a more congenial climate, and +earnestly petitioning to be removed, were sent to Trinidad in 1821. Some +few of those who remained are good servants and farmers, disposing of +the produce of their lands in the Halifax market; but the majority are +idle, roving, and dirty vagabonds."[85] + +Thus it appears, that as late as 1821, the policy of the British +colonies of North America, was to remove the fugitive negroes from their +territories. The 1200 exported from Halifax, in 1792, were fugitive +slaves who had joined the English during the American Revolutionary war, +and had been promised lands in Nova Scotia; but the Government having +failed to meet its pledge, and the climate proving unfavorable, they +sought refuge in Africa. These shipments of the colored people, from the +British colonies at the North to those of the Tropics, was in accordance +with the plan that England had adopted at home, in reference to the same +class of persons--that of removing a people who were a public burden, to +where they could be self-supporting. This is a matter of some interest, +and is deserving of notice in this connection. On the 22d of May, 1772, +Lord Mansfield decided the memorable Somerset case, and pronounced it +unlawful to hold a slave in Great Britain. The close of that decision +reads thus: + +"Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or +accident which gave rise to it, has been forgotten; and tracing the +subject to natural principles, the claim of slavery never can be +supported. The power claimed was never in use here, or acknowledged by +the law. Upon the whole, we can not say the cause returned is sufficient +by the law; therefore the man must be discharged." + +Previous to this date, many slaves had been introduced into English +families, and, on running away, the fugitives had been delivered up to +their masters, by order of the Court of King's Bench, under Lord +Mansfield; but now the poor African, no longer hunted as a beast of +prey, in the streets of London, slept under his roof, miserable as it +might be, in perfect security.[86] + +To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement. By the +decision, about 400 negroes were thrown upon their own resources. They +flocked to Mr. Sharp as their patron; but considering their numbers, and +his limited means, it was impossible for him to afford them adequate +relief. To those thus emancipated, others, discharged from the army and +navy, were afterward added, who, by their improvidence, were reduced to +extreme distress. After much reflection, Mr. Sharp determined to +colonize them in Africa; but this benevolent scheme could not be +executed at once, and the blacks--indigent, unemployed, despised, +forlorn, vicious--became such nuisances, as to make it necessary they +should be sent somewhere, and no longer suffered to infest the streets +of London.[87] Private benevolence could not be sufficiently enlisted in +their behalf, and fifteen years passed away, when Government, anxious to +remove what it regarded as injurious, at last came to the aid of Mr. +Sharp, and supplied the means of their transportation and support. In +April, 1787, these colored people, numbering over 400, were put on +shipboard for Africa, and in the following month were landed in Sierra +Leone.[88] + +But to return to Canada. We have at hand a flood of information, to +enable us to present a true picture of the colored population of that +Province, and to discern the feelings entertained toward them by the +white inhabitants. On the 27th April, 1841, the Assistant Secretary to +Government, addressed MAJOR ROBERT LACHLAN, Chairman of the Quarter +Sessions for the Western District, requesting information relating to +the colored immigrants in that quarter. Major Lachlan replied at length +to the inquiries made, and kept a record of his Report. This volume he +has had the goodness to place in our hands, from which to make such +extracts as may be necessary to a true understanding of this question. + +The Major entered the public service of the British Government in 1805, +and was connected with the army in India for twenty years. Having +retired from that service, he settled in Canada in 1835, with the +intention of devoting himself to agriculture; but he was again called +into public life, as sheriff, magistrate, colonel of militia, Chairman +of the Quarter Sessions, and Associate Judge at the Assizes. In 1857 he +removed to Cincinnati, where he now resides. A true Briton, he is an +enemy of the system of slavery; but having been a close observer of the +workings of society, under various circumstances, systems of law, +degrees of intelligence, and moral conditions, he is opposed to placing +two races, so widely diverse as the blacks and whites, upon terms of +legal equality; not that he is opposed to the elevation of the colored +man, but because he is convinced that, in his present state of ignorance +and degradation, the two races cannot dwell together in peace and +harmony. This opinion, it will be seen, was the outgrowth of his +experience and observation in Canada, and not the result of a prejudice +against the African race. The Western District, the field of his +official labors, is the main point toward which nearly all the +emigration from the States is directed; and the Major had, thus, the +best of opportunities for studying this question. Besides the facts of +an official nature, in the volume from which we quote, it has a large +amount of documentary testimony, from other sources, from which liberal +extracts have also been made. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[84] Matthew's Gospel, xv: 14. + +[85] "A Subaltern's Furlough," by Lt. Coke, 45th Regiment, being a +description of scenes in various parts of America, in 1833. + +[86] Clarkson's History of the Slave Trade. + +[87] Wadstrom, page 220. + +[88] Memoirs of Granville Sharp. + + + + _To the Honorable S. B. Harrison, Secretary, etc., etc._ + + COLCHESTER, 28th _May_, 1841. + + "SIR:--I have to apologize for being thus late in + acknowledging the receipt of Mr. Assistant + Secretary Hopkirk's letter of the 27th ult., + requesting me to furnish Government with such + information as I might be able to afford, + 'respecting the colored people settled in the + Western District;'[89] and beg to assure you that + the delay has neither arisen from indifference to + the task, nor indisposition to comply with the + wishes of Government upon the subject--being one + upon which I have long and anxiously bent my most + serious reflections,--but owing to bad health, and + want of leisure, coupled with the difficulty I + have experienced, (without entering into an + extended correspondence,) in arriving at any thing + like a correct account of the gradual _increase_ + of these people, or even a fair estimate of their + present numbers. I trust, therefore, that should + the particulars furnished by me upon these heads, + be found more meager and defective than might be + expected, it will either be assigned to these + causes, or to others which may be given in the + course of the following remarks: and if these + remarks, themselves, be found to be drawn up with + more of loose unmethodical freedom than official + conciseness, I trust that that feature will rather + be regarded in their favor than otherwise. + + "The exact period at which the colored people + began to make their appearance in the Western + District, _as settlers_, I have not been able to + ascertain to my satisfaction; but it is generally + believed to have been about the time of the War + with the Americans, in 1812. Before then, however, + there had been a few scattered about, who, + generally speaking, had, prior to the passing of + the Emancipation Bill, been slaves to different + individuals in the District. From 1813 to 1821, + the increase was very trifling; and they were + generally content to hire themselves out as + domestic or farm servants; but about the latter + period the desire of several gentlemen residing + near Sandwich and Amherstburgh to place settlers + on their lands, induced them, in the absence of + better, to resort to the unfortunate, impolitic + expedient of leasing out or selling small portions + of land to colored people on such inviting + conditions as not only speedily allowed many of + those who had already settled in the country to + undertake 'farming on their own account,' but + encouraged many more to escape from their American + masters, to try their fortunes in this now + far-famed 'land of liberty and promise.' The + stream having thus begun to flow, the secret + workings of the humane, but not unexceptionable + abolitionist societies, existing in the American + States, speedily widened and deepened the channel + of approach, until a flood of colored immigrants, + of the very worst classes, has been progressively + introduced into the District, which had, last + year, reached an aggregate of about 1500 souls, + and which threatens to be doubled in the course of + a very short time, unless it be within the power + of the Government to counteract it;--but which, + _if suffered to roll on unchecked_, will sooner or + later lead to the most serious, if not most + lamentable consequences. + + "From my making so strong an observation at the + very threshold of my remarks, it will be readily + perceived that my opinion of these unfortunate + people is unfavorable. I am therefore anxious, + before proceeding further, to shield myself from + the imputation of either groundless antipathy or + pre-indisposition toward men of color, and to have + it thoroughly understood that, as far as I can + judge of my own feelings, _they_ are the very + reverse, having not only been warmly in favor of + the poor enslaved negro, but having for near + twenty years of my life been surrounded by free + colored people, and retained my favorable leaning + toward even the African race, till some time after + my arrival in this Province. Unfortunately, + however, for this pre-disposition, as well as for + the character of this ill-fated race, my attention + was shortly after directed by particular + circumstances to the quiet study of their + disposition and habits, and ended in a thorough + conviction that without a radical change they + would ere long, like the snake in the bosom of the + husbandman, prove a curse, instead of a benefit to + the country which fosters and protects them. + + "The first time that I had occasion to express + myself thus strongly on the subject, in an + official way, was less than two years after my + arrival in the District, while holding the office + of sheriff,--when, in corresponding with Mr. + Secretary Joseph, during the troubles in January, + 1838, I, in a postscript to a letter in which I + expressed unwillingness to call in aid from other + quarters, while our own population were allowed to + remain inactive, was led to add the following + remarkable words: 'My vote has been equally + decided against employing the colored people, + except on a similar emergency;--in fact, though a + cordial friend to the emancipation of the poor + African, I regard the rapidly increasing + population rising round us, as destined to be a + bitter curse to the District; and do not think our + employing them as our _defenders_ at all likely to + retard the progress of such an event;'--an opinion + which all my subsequent observation and + experience, whether as a private individual, as + Sheriff of the District, as a local Magistrate, as + Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, or as an anxious + friend to pure British immigration, have only the + more strongly confirmed." + + After these preliminary remarks, the Records of + Major Lachlan, proceed to the details of the + various points upon which he was required by + Government to report. Much of this, though the + whole is interesting, must be omitted in our + extracts. In speaking of the several townships to + which the colored immigration was directed, he + says of Amherstburgh: + + "That place may now be regarded as the Western + rendezvous of the colored race,--being the point + to which all the idle and worthless, as well as + the well disposed, first direct their steps, + before dispersing over other parts of the + District,--a distinction of which it unfortunately + bears too evident marks in the great number of + petty crimes committed by or brought home to these + people,--to the great trouble of the investigating + local magistrates, and the still greater annoyance + of the inhabitants generally,--arising from the + constant nightly depredations committed on their + orchards, barns, granaries, sheep-folds, fowl-yards, + and even cellars." . . . . "In Gosfield, I am given + to understand their general character is rather + above par; . . . . while in the next adjoining + township of Mersea, so much are they disliked by + the inhabitants, that they are, in a manner, + proscribed by general consent--a colored man being + there scarcely suffered to travel along the + highroads unmolested. + + "The first thing that forcibly struck me, in these + people, was a total absence of that modest and + unpresuming demeanor which I had been some how led + to expect, and the assumption, instead, of a 'free + and easy' independence of manner as well as + language toward all white inhabitants, except + their immediate employers, together with an + apparent utter indifference to being hired on + reasonable average wages, though, as already + stated, seemingly without any visible means of a + livelihood, and their also, at all times, + estimating the value of their labor on a par, if + not above that of the white man. And I had + scarcely recovered from my surprise, at such + conduct, as a private individual, when, as a + magistrate, I was still more astonished at the + great amount of not only petty offenses, but of + crime of the most atrocious dye, perpetrated by so + small a body of strangers compared with the great + bulk of the white population: and such still + continuing to be the unabating case, Session after + Session, Assize after Assize, it at length became + so appalling to my feelings, that on being placed + in the chair of the Quarter Sessions, I could not + refrain from more than once pointing to it in + strong language in my charges to the Grand Juries. + In July last year, for instance, I was led, in + connection with a particular case of larceny, to + observe . . . . 'The case itself will, I trust, + involve no difficulty so far as the Grand Jury is + concerned; but it affords the magistrates another + opportunity of lamenting that there should so + speedily be furnished no less than five additional + instances of the rapid increase of crime in this + (hitherto in that respect highly fortunate) + District, arising solely from the recent great + influx of colored people into it from the + neighboring United States,--and who unfortunately + not only furnish the major part of the crime + perpetrated in the District, but also thereby a + very great portion of its rapidly increasing + debt,--from the expense attending their + maintenance in jail before trial, as well as after + conviction! . . . . + + "In spite of these solemn admonitions, a large + proportion of the criminals tried at the ensuing + September Assizes were colored people; and among + them were two aggravated cases of rape and arson; + the former wantonly perpetrated on a respectable + farmer's wife, in this township, to whom the + wretch was a perfect stranger; the latter + recklessly committed at a merchant's store in the + vicinity of Sandwich, for the mere purpose of + opening a hole through which to convey away his + plunder. And, notwithstanding 'the general jail + delivery' that then took place, the greater part + of the crimes brought before the following mouth's + Quarter Sessions (chiefly larceny and assaults) + were furnished by the same people!--a circumstance + of so alarming and distressing a character, that I + was again led to comment upon it in my charge to + the Grand Jury in the following terms. 'Having + disposed of the law relating to these offenses, I + arrive at a very painful part of nay observations, + in once more calling the particular attention of + the Grand Jury, as well as the public at large, to + the remarkable and appalling circumstance that + among a population of near 20,000 souls, + inhabiting this District, the greater portion of + the crime perpetrated therein should be committed + by less than 2,000 refugees from a life of _abject + slavery_, to a land of _liberty, protection and + comfort_,--and from whom, therefore, if there be + such generous feelings as thankfulness and + gratitude, a far different line of conduct might + reasonably be expected. I allude to the alarming + increase of crime still perpetrated by the colored + settlers, and who, in spite of the late numerous, + harrowing, _convicted examples_, unhappily furnish + _the whole of the offenses now likely to be + brought before you_!'. . . . . + + "But, sir, the wide spreading current of crime + among this unfortunate race was not to be easily + arrested;--and I had long become so persuaded that + it must sooner or later force itself upon the + notice of the Legislature, that on feeling it my + duty to draw the attention of my brother + magistrates to the embarrassed state of the + District finances, and to the greater portion of + its expenses arising from this disreputable + source, I was led, in framing the report of a + special committee (of which I was chairman) + appointed to investigate our pecuniary + difficulties, to advert once more to the great + undue proportion of our expenses arising from + crime committed by so small a number of colored + people, compared with the great body of the + inhabitants, in the following strong but + indisputable language: 'It is with pain and regret + that your committee, in conclusion, feel bound to + recur to the great additional burthen thrown upon + the District, as well as the undeserved stigma + cast upon the general character of its population, + whether native or immigrant British, by the late + great influx of colored people of the worst + description from the neighboring States--a great + portion of whom appear to have no visible means of + gaining a livelihood,--and who, therefore, not + only furnish a large proportion of the basest + crimes perpetrated in the country, such as murder, + rape, arson, burglary, and larceny, besides every + other description of minor offense,--untraceable + to the _color_ of the perpetrators in a + miscellaneous published calendar; but also, + besides the constant trouble they entail upon + magistrates who happen to reside in their + neighborhood, produce a large portion of the debt + incurred by the District, from the great number + committed to and subsisted in prison, etc.; and + they would with all respect for the liberty of the + subject, and the sincerest good will toward their + African brethren generally,--whom they would wish + to regard with every kindly feeling, venture to + suggest, for the consideration of Government, + whether any legislative check can possibly be + placed upon the rapid importation of the most + worthless of this unfortunate race, such, as the + good among themselves candidly lament, has of late + inundated this devoted section of the Province, to + the great detriment of the claims of the poor + emigrant from the mother country upon our + consideration, the great additional and almost + uncontrollable increase of crime, and the + proportionate demoralization of principle among + the inhabitants of the country.' . . . . . . + + "Notwithstanding all these strenuous endeavors, + added to the most serious and impressive + admonitions to various criminals after conviction + and sentence, no apparent change for the better + occurred; for at the Quarter Sessions of last + January, the usual preponderance of negro crime + struck me so forcibly as again to draw from me, in + my charge to the Grand Jury, the following + observations: 'I am extremely sorry to be unable + to congratulate you or the country on a light + calendar, the matters to be brought before you + embracing no less than three cases of larceny, and + one of enticing soldiers to desert, besides + several arising from that ever prolific source, + assaults, etc. I cannot, however, pass the former + by altogether without once more emphatically + remarking, that it is as much to the disgrace of + the free colored settlers in our District, as it + is creditable to the rest of our population, that + the greater part of the culprits to be brought + before us are still men of color: and I lament + this the more, as I was somewhat in hopes that the + earnest admonitions that I had more than once felt + it my duty to address to that race, would have + been attended with some good effect.'. . . . . + + "In spite of all these reiterated, anxious + endeavors, the amount of crime exhibited in the + Calendar of the following Quarter Sessions, in + April last, consisted solely (I think) of five + cases of larceny, perpetrated by negroes; and at + the late Assizes, held on the 20th instant, out of + five criminal cases, one of enticing soldiers to + desert, and two of theft, were, as usual, + committed by men of color!!! + + "Having thus completed a painful retrospect of the + appalling amount of crime committed by the colored + population in the District at large, compared with + the general mass of the white population, I now + consider it my duty to advert more particularly to + what has been passing more immediately under my + own observation in the township of Colchester." + +The record from which we quote, has, under this head, the statement of +the township collector, as to the moral and social condition of the +colored people of the township, in which he says, "that, in addition to +the black women there were fourteen yellow ones, and fifteen _white_ +ones--that they run together like beasts, and that he did not suppose +one third of them were married; and further, that they would be a curse +to this part of Canada, unless there is something done to put a stop to +their settling among the white people.' + +In referring to the enlistment of the blacks as soldiers, to the +prejudice of the legitimate prospects of the deserving European +emigrants, the record says: "With regard to continuing to employ the +colored race to discharge--in some instances exclusively, as is now the +case at Chatham--the duties of regular soldiers, in such times as these, +_in a country peopled by BRITONS_, I regard it as not only impolitic in +the extreme, but even _dangerous_ also,--besides throwing a stigma of +degradation on the honorable profession of which I was for twenty-four +years of my life a devoted member. And I even put it to yourself, sir, +what would have been your feelings, if, amid the great political +excitement prevalent during the late Kent election,[90] there had been a +serious disturbance and some unthinking magistrate had called in '_the +aid of the military_' to quell it, and blood had been shed!--for the +thing was within possibility, and for some time gave me much uneasiness. +Had such been the case,--what would have been the appalling, and +probable, nay, almost _certain_ result,--if I may judge from the well +known feelings of the white population generally,--_that that +unfortunate company would have been instantly turned upon, by men of all +parties, and massacred on the spot with their own weapons!_" . . . . . +"Allow me, therefore, at all events briefly to remark, that before any +thing can be accomplished connected with the moral and religious +improvement of the negro settlers, they must be rescued from the hands +of the utterly ignorant and uneducated, yet conceited coxcombs of their +own color, who assume to themselves the grave character and holy office +of ministers and preachers of the gospel, and lead their still more +ignorant followers into all the extravagancies of 'Love Feasts' and +'Camp Meetings,' without at all comprehending their import, and at the +same time utterly neglecting all other essentials!--an object well +deserving of the most serious and anxious consideration of an +enlightened Government, as far as those who are already settled in the +country are concerned; while it would be a most sound and politic +measure to take every lawful step to discourage as much as possible, if +we can not altogether _prevent_ the further introduction of so +objectionable and deleterious a class of settlers into a BRITISH +_colony_. ". . . . "Perhaps one of the wisest measures that could be +devised--(since our friends, the American abolitionists, will insist on +peopling Canada with run-away negro slaves)--will be to throw every +possible obstacle in the way of the sadly deteriorating _amalgamation of +color_ already in progress, by Government allotting, at least, a +distinct and separate location to all negro settlers, except those who +choose to occupy the humble but useful station of farm and domestic +servants; and even, if possible, purchasing back at the public expense, +on almost any terms, whatever scattered landed property they may have +elsewhere acquired in different parts of the Province." + +The Report of Major Lachlan is very extensive, and embraces many topics +connected with the question of negro immigration into Canada. His +response to Government led to further investigation, and to some +legislative action in the Canadian Parliament. The latest recorded +communications upon the subject, from his pen, are dated November 9th, +1849, and June 4th, 1850, from which it appears that up to that date, +there had been no abatement of the hostile feeling of the whites toward +the blacks, nor any improvement in the social and moral condition of the +blacks themselves. + +In 1849, the Elgin Association went into operation. Its object was to +concentrate the colored people at one point, and thus have them in a +more favorable position for intellectual and moral culture. A large body +of land was purchased in the Township of Raleigh, and offered for sale +in small lots to colored settlers. The measure was strongly opposed, and +called out expressions of sentiment adverse to it, from the people at +large. A public meeting, held in Chatham, August 18, 1849, thus +expressed itself: + +"The Imperial Parliament of Great Britain has forever banished slavery +from the Empire. In common with all good men, we rejoice at the +consummation of this immortal act; and we hope, that all other nations +may follow the example. Every member of the human family is entitled to +certain rights and privileges, and no where on earth are they better +secured, enjoyed, or more highly valued, than in Canada. Nature, +however, has divided the same great family into distinct species, for +good and wise purposes, and it is no less our interest, than it is our +duty, to follow her dictates and obey her laws. Believing this to be a +sound and correct principle, as well as a moral and a Christian duty, it +is with alarm we witness the fast increasing emigration, and settlement +among us of the African race; and with pain and regret, do we view the +establishment of an association, the avowed object of which is to +encourage the settlement in old, well-established communities, of a race +of people which is destined by nature to be distinct and separate from +us. It is also with a feeling of deep resentment that we look upon the +selection of the Township of Raleigh, in this District, as the first +portion of our beloved country, which is to be cursed, with a systematic +organization for setting the laws of nature at defiance. Do communities +in other portions of Canada, feel that the presence of the negro among +them is an annoyance? Do they feel that the increase of the colored +people among them, and amalgamation its necessary and hideous attendant, +is an evil which requires to be checked? With what a feeling of horror, +would the people of any of the old settled townships of the eastern +portion of this Province, look upon a measure which had for its avowed +object, the effect of introducing several hundreds of Africans, into the +very heart of their neighborhood, their families interspersing +themselves among them, upon every vacant lot of land, their children +mingling in their schools, and all claiming to be admitted not only to +political, but to social privileges? and when we reflect, too, that many +of them must from necessity, be the very worst species of that neglected +race; the fugitives from justice; how much more revolting must the +scheme appear? How then can you adopt such a measure? We beseech our +fellow subjects to pause before they embark in such an enterprise, and +ask themselves, 'whether they are doing by us as they would wish us to +do unto them.' . . . . Surely our natural position is irksome enough +without submitting to a measure, which not only holds out a premium for +filling up our district with a race of people, upon whom we can not look +without a feeling of repulsion, and who, having been brought up in a +state of bondage and servility, are totally ignorant both of their +social and political duties; but at the same time makes it the common +receptable into which all other portions of the Province are to void the +devotees of misery and crime. Look at your prisons and your +penitentiary, and behold the fearful preponderance of their black over +their white inmates in proportion to the population of each. . . . . We +have no desire to show hostility toward the colored people, no desire to +banish them from the Province. On the contrary, we are willing to assist +in any well-devised scheme for their moral and social advancement. Our +only desire is, that they shall be separated from the whites, and that +no encouragement shall hereafter be given to the migration of the +colored man from the United States, or any where else. The idea that we +have brought the curse upon ourselves, through the establishment of +slavery by our ancestors, is false. As Canadians, we have yet to learn +that we ought to be made a vicarious atonement for European sins. + +"Canadians: The hour has arrived when we should arouse from our +lethargy; when we should gather ourselves together in our might, and +resist the onward progress of an evil which threatens to entail upon +future generations a thousand curses. Now is the day. A few short years +will put it beyond our power. Thousands and tens of thousands of +American negroes, with the aid of the abolition societies in the States, +and with the countenance given them by our philanthropic institutions, +will continue to pour into Canada, if resistance is not offered. Many of +you who live at a distance from this frontier, have no conception either +of the number or the character of these emigrants, or of their poisonous +effect upon the moral and social habits of a community. You listen with +active sympathy to every thing narrated of the sufferings of the poor +African; your feelings are enlisted, and your purse strings unloosed, +and this often by the hypocritical declamation of some self-styled +philanthropist. Under such influences many of you, in our large cities +and towns, form yourselves into societies, and, without reflection, you +supply funds for the support of schemes prejudicial to the best +interests of our country. Against such proceedings, and especially +against any and every attempt to settle any township in this District +with negroes, we solemnly protest, and we call upon our countrymen, in +all parts of the Province, to assist in our opposition. + +"Fellow Christians: Let us forever maintain the sacred dogma, that all +men have equal, natural, and inalienable rights. Let us do every thing +in our power, consistent with international polity and justice, to +abolish the accursed system of slavery in the neighboring Republic. But +let us not, through a mistaken zeal to abate the evil of another land, +entail upon ourselves a misery which every enlightened lover of his +country must mourn. Let the slaves of the United States be free, but let +it be in their own country. Let us not countenance their further +introduction among us; in a word, let the people of the United States +bear the burthen of their own sins. + +"What has already been done, can not now be avoided; but it is not too +late to do justice to ourselves, and retrieve the errors of the past. +Let a suitable place be provided by the Government, to which the colored +people may be removed, and separated from the whites, and in this scheme +we will cordially join. We owe it to them, but how much more do we owe +it to ourselves? But we implore you that you will not, either by your +counsel, or your pecuniary aid, assist those who have projected the +association for the settlement of a horde of ignorant slaves in the town +of Raleigh. It is one of the oldest and most densely settled townships, +in the very center of our new and promising District of Kent, and we +feel that this scheme, if carried into operation, will have the effect +of hanging like a dead weight upn our rising prosperity. What is our +case to-day, to-morrow may be yours; join us then, in endeavoring to put +a stop to what is not only a general evil, but in this case an act of +unwarrantable injustice; and when the time may come when you shall be +similarly situated to us, we have no doubt that, like us, you will cry +out, and your appeal shall not be in vain." + +On the 3d of September, 1849, the colored people of Toronto, Canada, +held a meeting, in which they responded at length to the foregoing +address. The spirit of the meeting can be divined from the following +resolutions, which were unanimously passed: + +"1st. _Resolved_, That we, as a portion of the inhabitants of Canada, +conceive it to be our imperative duty to give an expression of sentiment +in reference to the proceedings of the late meeting held at Chatham, +denying the right of the colored people to settle where they please. + +"2d. _Resolved_, That we spurn with contempt and burning indignation, +any attempt, on the part of any person, or persons, to thrust us from +the general bulk of society, and place us in a separate and distinct +classification, such as is expressly implied in an address issued from +the late meeting above alluded to. + +"3d. _Resolved_, That the principle of selfishness, as exemplified in +the originators of the resolutions and address, we detest, as we do +similar ones emanating from a similar source; and we can clearly see the +workings of a corrupt and depraved heart, arranged in hostility to the +heaven-born principle of _liberty_, in its broadest and most +unrestricted sense." + +On the 9th of October, 1849, the Municipal Council of the Western +District, adopted a Memorial to His Excellency, the Governor General, +protesting against the proposed Elgin Association, in which the +following language occurs: + +. . . . . "Clandestine petitions have been got up, principally, if not +wholly, signed by colored people, in order to mislead Government and the +Elgin Association. These petitions do not embody the sentiments or +feelings of the respectable, intelligent, and industrious yeomanry of +the Western District. We can assure your Excellency that any such +statement is false, that there is but one feeling, and that is of +disgust and hatred, that they, the negroes, should be allowed to settle +in any township where there is a white settlement. Our language is +strong; but when we look at the expressions used at a late meeting held +by the colored people of Toronto, openly avowing the propriety of +amalgamation, and stating that it must, and will, and shall continue, we +cannot avoid so doing. . . . . . The increased immigration of foreign +negroes into this part of the Province is truly alarming. We cannot omit +mentioning some facts for the corroboration of what we have stated. The +negroes, who form at least one-third of the inhabitants of the township +of Colchester, attended the township meeting for the election of parish +and township officers, and insisted upon their right to vote, which was +denied them by every individual white man at the meeting. The +consequence was, that the Chairman of the meeting was prosecuted and +thrown into heavy costs, which costs were paid by subscription from +white inhabitants. In the same township of Colchester, as well as in +many others, the inhabitants have not been able to get schools in many +school sections, in consequence of the negroes insisting on their right +of sending their children to such schools. No white man will ever act +with them in any public capacity; this fact is so glaring, that no +sheriff in this Province would dare to summons colored men to do jury +duty. That such things have been done in other quarters of the British +dominions we are well aware of, but we are convinced that the Canadians +will never tolerate such conduct." + +A Toronto paper of December 24, 1847, says: "The white inhabitants are +fast leaving the vicinity of the proposed colored settlement, for the +United States." + +The _St. Catharines Journal_, June, 1852, under the head of "the fruits +of having colored companies and colored settlements," says: "On the +occasion of the June muster of the militia, a pretty large turn out took +place at St. Catharines. We regret exceedingly that the day did not pass +over without a serious riot. It seems that on the parade ground some +insult was offered to the colored company, which was very properly +restrained by Colonel Clark, and others. If the affair had ended here, +it would have been fortunate; but the bad feeling exhibited on the +parade ground was renewed, by some evil-minded person, and the colored +population, becoming roused to madness, they proceeded to wreak their +vengeance on a company in Stinson's tavern, after which a general melee +took place, in which several men were wounded, and it is likely some +will die of the injuries received. The colored village is a ruin, and +much more like a place having been beseiged by an enemy than any thing +else. This is the reward which the colored men have received for their +loyalty, and the readiness with which they turned out to train, and no +doubt would if the country required their services. This is a most +painful occurrence, and must have been originated by some very ignorant +persons. How any man possessing the common feelings of humanity, to say +nothing of loyalty, could needlessly offer insult to so many men, so +cheerfully turning out in obedience to the laws of the country, exceeds +belief, if it were not a matter of fact. Too much credit cannot be given +to those worthy citizens who used their best efforts to restrain the +excitement, and prevented any further blood-shedding." + +But here we have testimony of a later date. Hon. Colonel Prince, member +of the Canadian Parliament in 1857, had resided among the colored people +of the Western District; and, like other humane men, had sympathized +with them, at the outset, and shown them many favors. Time and +observation changed his views, and, in the course of his parliamentary +duties, we find him taking a stand adverse to the further increase of +the negro population in Canada. Hear him, as reported at the time: + +"On the order of the day for the third reading of the emigrants' law +amendment bill being called, Hon. Col. Prince said he was wishful to +move a rider to the measure. The black people who infested the land were +the greatest curse to the Province. The lives of the people of the West +were made wretched by the inundation of these animals, and many of the +largest farmers in the county of Kent have been compelled to leave their +beautiful farms, because of the pestilential swarthy swarms.--What were +these wretches fit for? Nothing. They cooked our victuals and shampooned +us; but who would not rather that these duties should be performed by +white men? The blacks were a worthless, useless, thriftless set of +beings--they were too indolent, lazy and ignorant to work, too proud to +be taught; and not only that, if the criminal calendars of the country +were examined, it would be found that they were a majority of the +criminals. They were so detestable that unless some method were adopted +of preventing their influx into this country by the "underground rail +road," the people of the West would be obliged to drive them out by open +violence. The bill before the House imposed a capitation tax upon +emigrants from Europe, and the object of his motion was to levy a +similar tax upon blacks who came hither from the States. He now moved, +seconded by Mr. Patton, that a capitation tax of 5_s_ for adults, and +3_s_ 9_d_ for children above one year and under fourteen years of age, +be levied on persons of color emigrating to Canada from any foreign +country. + +"Ought not the Western men to be protected from the rascalities and +villainies of the black wretches? He found these men with fire and food, +and lodging when they were in need; and he would be bound to say that +the black men of the county of Essex would speak well of him in this +respect. But he could not admit them as being equal to white men; and, +after a long and close observation of human nature, he had come to the +conclusion that the black man was born to and intended for slavery, and +that he was fit for nothing else. [Sensation.] Honorable gentlemen might +try to groan him down, but he was not to be moved by mawkish sentiment, +and he was persuaded that they might as well try to change the spots of +the leopard as to make the black a good citizen. He had told black men +so, and the lazy rascals had shrugged their shoulders and wished they +had never ran away from their "good old massa" in Kentucky. If there was +any thing unchristian in what he had proposed, he could not see it, and +he feared that he was not born a Christian." + +The _Windsor Herald_, of July 3d, 1857, contains the proceedings of an +indignation meeting, held by the colored people of Toronto, at which +they denounced Colonel Prince in unmeasured terms of reproach. The same +paper contains the reply of the Colonel, copied from the _Toronto +Colonist_, and it is given entire, as a specimen of the spicy times they +have, in Canada, over the negro question. The editor remarks, in +relation to the reply of Colonel Prince, that it has given general +satisfaction in his neighborhood. It is as follows: + +"DEAR SIR:--Your valuable paper of yesterday has afforded me a rich +treat and not a little fun in the report of an indignation meeting of +'the colored citizens' of Toronto, held for the purpose of censuring me. +Perhaps I ought not to notice their proceedings--perhaps it would be +more becoming in me to allow them to pass at once into the oblivion +which awaits them; but as it is the fashion in this country not +unfrequently to assume that to be true which appears in print against an +individual, unless he flatly denies the accusation, I shall, at least, +for once, condescend to notice these absurd proceedings. They deal in +generalities, and so shall I. Of the colored citizens of Toronto I know +little or nothing; no doubt, some are respectable enough in their way, +and perform the inferior duties belonging to their station tolerably +well. Here they are kept in order--in their proper place--but their +'proceedings' are evidence of their natural conceit, their vanity, and +their ignorance; and in them the cloven foot appears, and evinces what +they would do, if they could. I believe that in this city, as in some +others of our Province, they are looked upon as necessary evils, and +only submitted to because white servants are so scarce. But I now deal +with these fellows as a body, and I pronounce them to be, as such, the +_greatest curse_ ever inflicted upon the two magnificent western +counties which I have the honor to represent in the Legislative Council +of this Province! and few men have had the experience of them that I +have. Among the many _estimable_ qualities they possess, a systematic +habit of _lying_ is not the least prominent; and the 'colored citizens' +aforesaid seem to partake of that quality in an eminent degree, because +in their famous _Resolutions_ they roundly assert that during the +Rebellion 'I walked arm and arm with colored men'--that 'I owe my +election to the votes of colored men'--and that I have 'accumulated much +earthly gains,' as a lawyer, among 'colored clients.' All Lies! Lies! +Lies! from beginning to end. I admit that one company of blacks did +belong to my contingent battalion, but they made the very worst of +soldiers, and were, comparatively speaking, unsusceptible of drill or +discipline, and were conspicuous for one act only--a stupid sentry shot +the son of one of our oldest colonels, under a mistaken notion that he +was thereby doing his duty. But I certainly never did myself the honor +of 'walking arm in arm' with any of the colored gentlemen of that +distinguished corps. Then, as to my election. Few, very few blacks voted +for me. _I never canvassed them_, and hence, I suppose, they supported, +as a body, my opponent. They took compassion upon '_a monument of +injured innocence_,' and they sustained the monument for a while, upon +the pedestal their influence erected. But the monument fell, and the +fall proved that such influence was merely ephemeral, and it sank into +insignificant nothingness, as it should, and I hope ever will do; or God +help this noble land. Poor Blackies! Be not so bold or so conceited, or +so insolent hereafter, I do beseech you. + +"Then how rich I have become among my 'colored clients!' I assert, +without the fear of contradiction, that I have been the friend--the +steady friend of our western 'Darkies' for more than twenty years; and +amidst difficulties and troubles innumerable, (for they are a litigious +race,) I have been their adviser, and I never made twenty pounds out of +them in that long period! The fact is that the poor creatures had never +the ability to pay a lawyer's fee. + +"It has been my misfortune, and the misfortune of my family, to live +among those blacks, (and they have lived _upon_ us,) for twenty-four +years. I have employed _hundreds_ of them, and, with the exception of +one, (named Richard Hunter,) not one has ever done for us a week's +honest labor. I have taken them into my service, have fed and clothed +them, year after year, on their arrival from the States, and in return I +have generally found them rogues and thieves, and a graceless, +worthless, thriftless, lying set of vagabonds. That is my very plain and +very simple description of the darkies as a body, and it would be +indorsed by all the western white men with very few exceptions. + +"I have had scores of their George Washingtons, Thomas Jeffersons, James +Madisons, as well as their Dinahs, and Gleniras, and Lavinias, in my +service, and I understand them thoroughly, and I include the whole batch +(old Richard Hunter excepted) in the category above described. To +conclude, you 'Gentlemen of color,' East and West, and especially you +'colored citizens of Toronto,' I thank you for having given me an +opportunity to publish my opinion of your race. Call another indignation +meeting, and there make greater fools of yourselves than you did at the +last, and then 'to supper with what appetite you may.' + + "Believe me to remain, + Mr. Editor, + Yours very faithfully, + =JOHN PRINCE.= + Toronto, 26th June, 1857." + +It is impracticable to extract the whole of the important facts referred +to in Maj. Lachlan's Report, as it would make a volume of itself. In +many places he takes occasion to urge the necessity of education for the +colored people, as the only possible means of their elevation; and also +presses upon the attention of the better classes of that race, the duty +of co-operating with the magistrates in their efforts for the +suppression of crime, as well as the advantages to be derived from the +formation of associations for their intellectual and moral advancement. +On the 23d of May, 1847, he addressed the Right Honorable, the Earl of +Elgin, the Governor of Canada, on the subject of the causes checking the +prosperity of the Western District, the fourth one of which he states to +be "the unfortunate influx into its leading townships of swarms of +run-away negro slaves, of the worst description, from the American +States." After referring to the facts contained in his report of 1841, a +portion of which are presented in the preceding pages, he says: "I shall +therefore rest content with stating, in connection with these extracts, +the simple fact, that on the Province gradually recovering from the +shock given to immigration by the late rebellion, and the stream of +British settlers beginning once more to flow toward the Province, a +considerable number of emigrants of the laboring classes made their way +to the Western District, and for some time wandered about in search of +employment; but with the exception of those who had come to join +relations and friends, and a few others, the greater portion, finding +themselves unable to obtain work, from the ground which they naturally +expected to occupy being already monopolized by negroes, and there being +no public works of any kind on which they could be engaged, became +completely disheartened, and were ultimately forced to disperse +themselves elsewhere; and, most generally, found a refuge in the +neighboring States of Michigan and Ohio. And such, it may be added, has +ever since continued to be the case; while, on the other hand, the +influx of negroes has been greatly on the increase. . . . . Far, +however, be it for me to suppose it possible to abridge for one moment +that noble constitutional principle--that slavery and _British Rule_ and +_British feeling are incompatible_; but still I consider it no trifling +evil that any part of an essentially _British_ colony should be thereby +exposed to be made the receptable of the worst portion of the lowest +grade of the human race, from every part of the American Union, to the +evident serious injury of its own inhabitants, and equally serious +prejudice to the claims of more congenial settlers." + +This statement shows, very clearly, how the negro immigration into +Canada operates injuriously to its prosperity by repelling the white +immigrants. + +What was true of the colored population of the "Western District of +Canada, in 1841, while Major Lachlan filled the chair of the Quarter +Sessions, seems to be equally true in 1859. The _Essex Advocate_, +contains the following extract from the Presentment of the Grand Jury, +at the Essex Assizes, November 17, 1859, in reference to the jail: "We +are sorry to state to your Lordship the great prevalence of the colored +race among its occupants, and beg to call attention to an accompanying +document from the Municipal Council and inhabitants of the Township of +Anderdon, which we recommend to your Lordship's serious consideration. + +"'_To the Grand Jury of the County of Essex, in Inquest assembled_: We, +the undersigned inhabitants of the Township of Anderdon, respectfully +wish to call the attention of the Grand Inquest of the County of Essex +to the fearful state of crime in our township. That there exists +organized bands of thieves, too lazy to work, who nightly plunder our +property! That nearly all of us, more or less, have suffered losses; and +that for the last two years the stealing of sheep has been most +alarming, one individual having had nine stolen within that period. We +likewise beg to call your attention to the fact, that seven colored +persons are committed to stand trial at the present assizes on the +charge of sheep stealing, and that a warrant is out against the eighth, +all from the Town of Anderdon. We beg distinctly to be understood, that +although we are aware that nine-tenths of the crimes committed in the +County of Essex, according to the population, are so committed by the +colored people, yet we willingly extend the hand of fellowship and +kindness to the emancipated slave, whom Great Britain has granted an +asylum to in Canada We therefore hope the Grand Jury of the County of +Essex will lay the statement of our case before his Lordship, the Judge +at the present assizes, that some measure may be taken by the Government +to protect us and our property, or persons of capital will be driven +from the country.'" + +We find it stated in the _Cincinnati Daily Commercial_, that the "Court, +in alluding to this presentment, remarked that 'he was not surprised at +finding prejudice existing against them (the negroes) among the +respectable portion of the people, for they were indolent, shiftless and +dishonest, and unworthy of the sympathy that some mistaken parties +extended to them; they would not work when opportunity was presented, +but preferred subsisting by thieving from respectable farmers, and +begging from those benevolently inclined.'" + +In September, 1859, Mr. Stanley, a government agent from the West +Indies, visited Canada with the view of inducing the colored people of +that Province to emigrate to Jamaica. The _Windsor Herald_, in noticing +the movement, gives the details of the arguments presented, at the +meeting in Windsor, to influence them to accept the offer. To men of +intelligence and foresight, the reasons would have been convincing; but +upon the minds of the colored people, they seem to have had scarcely any +weight whatever--only one man entering his name, as an emigrant, at the +close of the lecture. They were assured that in Jamaica they could +obtain employment at remunerative salaries, and in three years become +owners of property, besides possessing all the advantages of British +subjects. Only a stipulated number were called for at the present time, +they were told, but if the experiment proved successful, the gates would +be thrown open for a general emigration. The Governor of the Island +guaranteed them occupations on their arrival, or a certain stipend until +such were found, and also their passage thither gratis. Four hundred +emigrants were wanted to commence the experiment, and if they succeeded +in getting the number required, they designed starting for Jamaica in +the space of a month. + +The indisposition of the colored people to accept the liberal offer of +the authorites of Jamaica, created some surprise among the whites; but +the mystery was explained when the agent visited Chatham, and made +similar offers to the colored people of that town. As already stated, in +the Preface to this work, they not only rejected the offered boon with +contempt, but gave as their reason, that events would shortly transpire +in the United States, which would demand their aid in behalf of their +fellow countrymen there.[91] This was thirteen days before the Harper's +Ferry outbreak, and Chatham was the town in which John Brown and his +associates concocted their insurrectionary movement. The chief reason +why the Jamaica emigration scheme was rejected, must have been the +determination of the blacks of Canada to co-operate in the Brown +insurrection. + +Here, now, are all the results of the Canada experiment, as presented +by the official action of its civil officers and public men. Need it be +said, that the prospects of the African race have only been rendered the +more dark and gloomy, by the conduct of the free colored men of that +Province. And when we couple the results there with those of the West +Indies, it must be obvious to all, that what has been attempted for the +colored race is wholly impracticable; that in its present state of +advancement from barbarism, the attainment of civil and social equality, +with the enlightened white races, is utterly impossible. + +It would appear, then, that philanthropists have committed a grave error +in their policy, and the sooner they retrace their steps the better for +the colored people. The error to which we refer, is this: they found a +small portion of colored men, whose intelligence and moral character +equaled that of the average of the white population; and, considering it +a great hardship that such men should be doomed to a degraded condition, +they attempted to raise them up to the civil and social position which +their merits would entitle them to occupy. But in attempting to secure +equal rights to the enlightened negro, the philanthropists claimed the +same privilege for the whole of that race. In this they failed to +recognize the great truth, that free government is not adapted to men in +a condition of ignorance and moral degradation. By taking such broad +ground--by securing the largest amount of liberty for a great mass of +the most degraded of humanity--they have altogether failed in convincing +the world, that freedom is a boon worth the bestowal upon the African in +his present condition. The intelligent colored man, who could have been +lifted up to a suitable hight, and maintained his position, if he had +been taken alone, could not be elevated at all when the whole race were +fastened to his skirts. And this mistake was a very natural one for men +who think but superficially. Despotic government is repugnant to +enlightened men: hence, in rejecting it for themselves, they repudiate +it as a form of rule for all others. This decision, plausible as it may +appear, is not consistent with the philosophy of human nature as it now +is; nor is it in accordance with the sentiments of the profound +statesmen who framed the American Constitution. They held that only men +of intelligence and moral principle were capable of self-government; +and, hence, they excluded from citizenship the barbarous and +semi-barbarous Indians and Africans, who were around them and in their +midst. + +In discussing the results of emancipation in the United States, in a +preceding chapter, it is stated that one principal cause, operating to +check the further liberation of the slaves, at an early day in our +history, was, that freedom had proved itself of little value to the +colored man, while the measure had greatly increased the burdens of the +whites; and that until he should make such progress as would prove that +freedom was the best condition for the race, while intermingled with the +whites, any further movements toward general emancipation were not to be +expected. This view is now indorsed by some of the most prominent +abolitionists. Listen to the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher on this subject. In +his sermon in reference to the Harper's Ferry affair, he says: + +"If we would benefit the African at the South, we must _begin at home_. +This is to some men the most disagreeable part of the doctrine of +emancipation. It is very easy to labor for the emancipation of beings a +thousand miles off; but when it comes to the practical application of +justice and humanity to those about us, it is not so easy. The truths of +God respecting the rights and dignities of men, are just as important to +free colored men, as to enslaved colored men. It may seem strange for me +to say that the lever with which to lift the load of Georgia is in New +York; but it is. I do not believe the whole free North can tolerate +grinding injustice toward the poor, and inhumanity toward the laboring +classes, without exerting an influence unfavorable to justice and +humanity in the South. No one can fail to see the inconsistency between +our treatment of those among us, who are in the lower walks of life, and +our professions of sympathy for the Southern slaves. How are the free +colored people treated at the North? They are almost without education, +with but little sympathy for their ignorance. They are refused the +common rights of citizenship which the whites enjoy. They can not even +ride in the cars of our city rail roads. They are snuffed at in the +house of God, or tolerated with ill-disguised disgust. Can the black man +be a mason in New York? Let him be employed as a journeyman, and every +Irish lover of liberty that carries the hod or trowel, would leave at +once, or compel him to leave! Can the black man be a carpenter? There is +scarcely a carpenter's shop in New York in which a journeyman would +continue to work, if a black man was employed in it. Can the black man +engage in the common industries of life? There is scarcely one in which +he can engage. He is crowded down, down, down through the most menial +callings, to the bottom of society. We tax them and then refuse to allow +their children to go to our public schools. We tax them and then refuse +to sit by them in God's house. We heap upon them moral obloquy more +atrocious than that which the master heaps upon the slave. And +notwithstanding all this, we lift ourselves up to talk to the Southern +people about the rights and liberties of the human soul, and especially +the African soul! It is true that slavery is cruel. But it is not at all +certain that there is not more love to the race in the South than in the +North. . . . . . Whenever we are prepared to show toward the lowest, the +poorest, and the most despised, an unaffected kindness, such as led +Christ, though the Lord of glory, to lay aside his dignities and take on +himself the form of a servant, and to undergo an ignominious death, that +he might rescue men from ignorance and bondage--whenever we are prepared +to do such things as these, we may be sure that the example at the North +will not be unfelt at the South. Every effort that is made in Brooklyn +to establish churches for the free colored people, and to encourage them +to educate themselves and become independent, is a step toward +emancipation in the South. The degradation of the free colored men in +the North will fortify slavery in the South!" + +We think we may safely guarantee, that whenever Northern abolitionists +shall carry out Mr. Beecher's scheme, of spending their time and money +for the moral and intellectual culture of the free colored people, the +South will at once emancipate every slave within her limits; because we +will then be in the midst of the millenium. Intelligent free colored men +will agree with us in opinion, as they have tested them upon this +subject. + +One point more remains to be noticed:--the influence which the results +in Canada and Jamaica have exerted upon the prospects of the free +colored man in the United States. We mean, of course, his prospects for +securing the civil and social equality to which he has been aspiring. +His own want of progress has been the main cause of checking the +extension of emancipation. This is now admitted even by Rev. H. W. +Beecher, himself. Then, again, the fact that much less advancement has +been made by the negroes in the British Provinces, than by those in the +United States, operates still more powerfully in preventing any further +liberation of the slaves. These two causes, combined, have dealt a +death-blow to the hope of emancipation, in the South, by any moral +influence coming from that quarter; and has, in fact, put back that +cause, so far as the moral power of the negro is concerned, to a period +hopelessly distant. Loyal Britons may urge upon us the duty of +emancipation as strongly as they please; but so long as they denounce +the influx of colored men as a curse to Canada, just so long they will +fail in persuading Americans that an increase of free negroes will be a +blessing to the United States. The moral power of the free negro, in +promoting emancipation, is at an end; but how is it with his prospects +of success in the employment of force? The Harper's Ferry movement is +pronounced, by anti-slavery men themselves, as the work of a madman; and +no other attempt of that kind can be more successful, as none but the +insane and the ignorant will ever enlist in such an enterprise. The +power of the free colored people in promoting emancipation, say what +they will, is now at an end. + +But these are not all the results of the movements noticed. They have +not only rendered the free colored people powerless in emancipation, but +have acted most injuriously upon themselves, as a class, in both the +free and the slave States. In the Northwestern free States, every new +Constitution framed, and every old one amended, with perhaps one +exception, exclude the free negroes from the privileges of citizenship. +In the slave States, generally, efforts are making not only to prevent +farther emancipations, but to drive out the free colored population from +their territories. + +Thus, at this moment, stands the question of the capacity of the free +colored people of the United States, to influence public opinion in +favor of emancipation. And where are their champions who kindled the +flame which is now extinguished? Many of them are in their graves; and +the Harper's Ferry act, but applied the match that exploded the existing +organizations. One chieftain--always truthful, ever in earnest--is, +alas, in the lunatic asylum; another--whose zeal overcomes his judgment, +at times--backs down from the position he had taken, that rifles were +better than bibles in the conflict with slavery; another--coveting not +the martyr's crown, yet a little--has left his editorial chair, to put +the line dividing English and American territory between himself and +danger; another--whose life could not well be spared, as he, doubtless, +thought--after helping to organize the conspiracy at Chatham, in +Canada, immediately set out to explore Africa: perhaps to select a home +for the Virginia slaves, and be ready to receive them when Brown should +set them free. These forces can never be re-combined. As for others, so +far as politicians are concerned, the colored race have nothing to hope. +The battle for free territory, in the sense in which they design to be +understood, is a contest to keep the blacks and whites entirely +separate. It is a determination to carry out the policy of Jefferson, by +separating the races where it can be accomplished--a policy that will be +adhered to in the free States, and which the Canadians would gladly +adopt, if the mother country would permit them to carry out their +wishes. + +Free colored men of the United States! "in the days of adversity +consider." Are not the signs of the times indicative of the necessity of +a change of policy? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[89] The testimony here offered is the more important, as the Western +District is the center of emigration from the United States. + +[90] The Hon. Mr. Harrison was one of the candidates at the time alluded +to. + +[91] See the resolution copied into the Preface to the present edition. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE MORAL RELATIONS OF PERSONS HOLDING THE _PER SE_ DOCTRINE, ON THE +SUBJECT OF SLAVERY, TO THE PURCHASE AND CONSUMPTION OF SLAVE LABOR +PRODUCTS. + + Moral relations of Slavery--Relations of the + consumer of Slave labor products to the + system--Grand error of all Anti-Slavery + effort--Law of _particeps criminis_--Daniel + O'Connell--_Malum in se_ doctrine--Inconsistency + of those who hold it--English + Emancipationists--Their commercial + argument--Differences between the position of + Great Britain and the United States--Preaching + versus practice by Abolitionists--Cause of their + want of influence over the Slaveholder--Necessity + of examining the question--Each man to be judged + by his own standard--Classification of opinions in + the United States, in regard to the morality of + Slavery--Three Views--A case in + illustration--Apology of _per se_ men for using + Slave grown products insufficient--Law relating to + "confusion of goods"--_Per se_ men _participes + criminis_ with Slaveholders--Taking Slave grown + products under _protest_ absurd--World's Christian + Evangelical Alliance--Amount of Slave labor Cotton + in England at that moment--Pharisaical + conduct--The Scotchman taking his wife under + protest--Anecdote--American Cotton more acceptable + to Englishmen than Republican principles--Secret + of England's policy toward American Slavery--The + case of robbery again cited, and the English + Satirized--A contrast--Causes of the want of moral + power of Abolitionists--Slaveholders no cause to + cringe--Other results--Effect of the adoption of + the _per se_ doctrine by ecclesiastical + bodies--Slaves thus left in all their moral + destitution--Inconsistency of _per se_ men + denouncing others--What the Bible says of similar + conduct. + + +HAVING noticed the political and economical relations of slavery, it may +be expected that we shall say something of its moral relations. In +attempting this, we choose not to traverse that interminable labyrinth, +without a thread, which includes the moral character of the system, as +it respects the relation between the master and the slave. The only +aspect in which we care to consider it, is in the moral relations which +the consumers of slave labor products sustain to slavery: and even on +this, we shall offer no opinion, our aim being only to promote inquiry. + +This view of the question is not an unimportant one. It includes the +germ of the grand error in nearly all anti-slavery effort; and to which, +chiefly, is to be attributed its want of moral power over the conscience +of the slaveholder. The abolition movement, was designed to create a +public sentiment, in the United States, that should be equally as potent +in forcing emancipation, as was the public opinion of Great Britain. But +why have not the Americans been as successful as the English? This is an +inquiry of great importance. When the Anti-Slavery Convention, which +met, December 6, 1833, in Philadelphia, declared, as a part of its +creed: "That there is no difference in principle, between the African +slave trade, and American slavery," it meant to be understood as +teaching, that the person who purchased slaves imported from Africa, or +who held their offspring as slaves, was _particeps criminis_--partaker +in the crime--with the slave trader, on the principle that he who +receives stolen property, knowing it be such, is equally guilty with the +thief. + +On this point Daniel O'Connell was very explicit, when, in a public +assembly, he used this language: "When an American comes into society, +he will be asked, 'are you one of the thieves, or are you an honest man? +If you are an honest man, then you have given liberty to your slaves; if +you are among the thieves, the sooner you take the outside of the house, +the better.'" + +The error just referred to was this: they based their opposition to +slavery on the principle, that it was _malum in se_--a sin in +itself--like the slave trade, robbery and murder; and, at the same time, +continued to use the products of the labor of the slave as though they +had been obtained from the labor of freemen. But this seeming +inconsistency was not the only reason why they failed to create such a +public sentiment as would procure the emancipation of our slaves. The +English emancipationists began their work like philosophers--addressing +themselves, respectfully to the power that could grant their requests. +Beside the moral argument, which declared slavery a crime, the English +philanthropists labored to convince Parliament, that emancipation would +be advantageous to the commerce of the nation. The commercial value of +the Islands had been reduced one-third, as a result of the abolition of +the slave trade. Emancipation, it was argued, would more than restore +their former prosperity, as the labor of freemen was twice as productive +as that of slaves. But American abolitionists commenced their crusade +against slavery, by charging those who sustained it, and who alone, held +the power to manumit, with crimes of the blackest dye. This placed the +parties in instant antagonism, causing all the arguments on human +rights, and the sinfulness of slavery, to fall without effect upon the +ears of angry men. The error on this point, consisted in failing to +discriminate between the sources of the power over emancipation in +England and in the United States. With Great Britain, the power was in +Parliament. The masters, in the West Indies, had no voice in the +question. It was the voters in England alone who controlled the +elections, and, consequently, controlled Parliament. But the condition +of things in the United States is the reverse of what it was in England. +With us, the power of emancipation is in the States, not in Congress. +The slaveholders elect the members to the State Legislatures; and they +choose none but such as agree with them in opinion. It matters not, +therefore, what public sentiment may be at the North, as it has no power +over the Legislatures of the South. Here, then, is the difference: with +us the slaveholder controls the question of emancipation, while in +England the consent of the master was not necessary to the execution of +that work. + +Our anti-slavery men seem to have fallen into their errors of policy, by +following the lead of those of England, who manifested a total ignorance +of the relations existing between our General Government and the State +Governments. On the abolition platform, slaveholders found themselves +placed in the same category with slave traders and thieves. They were +told that all laws, giving them power over the slave, were void in the +sight of heaven; and that their appropriation of the fruits of the labor +of the slave, without giving him compensation, was robbery. Had the +preaching of these principles produced conviction, it must have promoted +emancipation. But, unfortunately, while these doctrines were held up to +the gaze of slaveholders, in the one hand of the exhorter, they beheld +his other hand stretched out, from beneath his cloak of seeming +sanctity, to clutch the products of the very robbery he was professing +to condemn! Take a fact in proof of this view of the subject. + +At the date of the declarations of Daniel O'Connell, on behalf of the +English, and by the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Convention, on the part of +Americans, the British manufacturers were purchasing, annually, about +300,000,000 lbs. of cotton, from the very men denounced as equally +criminal with slave traders and thieves; and the people of the United +States were almost wholly dependent upon slave labor for their supplies +of cotton and groceries. It is no matter for wonder, therefore, that +slaveholders, should treat, as fiction, the doctrine that slave labor +products are the fruits of robbery, so long as they are purchased +without scruple, by all classes of men, in Europe and America. The +pecuniary argument for emancipation, that free labor is more profitable +than slave labor, was also urged here, but was treated as the greatest +absurdity. The masters had, before their eyes, the evidence of the +falsity of the assertion, that, if emancipated, the slaves would be +doubly profitable as free laborers. The reverse was admitted, on all +hands, to be true in relation to our colored people. + +But this question, of the moral relations which the consumers of slave +labor products sustain to slavery, is one of too important a nature to +be passed over without a closer examination; and, beside, it is involved +in less obscurity than the morality of the relation existing between the +master and the slave. Its consideration, too, affords an opportunity of +discriminating between the different opinions entertained on the broad +question of the morality of the institution, and enables us to judge of +the consistency and conscientiousness of every man, by the standard +which he himself adopts. + +The prevalent opinions, as to the morality of the institution of +slavery, in the United States, may be classified under three heads: 1. +That it is justified by Scripture example and precept. 2. That it is a +great civil and social evil, resulting from ignorance and degradation, +like despotic systems of government, and may be tolerated until its +subjects are sufficiently enlightened to render it safe to grant them +equal rights. 3. That it is _malum in se_, like robbery and murder, and +can not be sustained, for a moment, without sin; and, like sin, should +be immediately abandoned. + +Those who consider slavery sanctioned by the Bible, conceive that they +can, consistently with their creed, not only hold slaves, and use the +products of slave labor, without doing violence to their consciences, +but may adopt measures to perpetuate the system. Those who consider +slavery merely a great civil and social evil, a despotism that may +engender oppression, or may not, are of opinion that they may purchase +and use its products, or interchange their own for those of the +slaveholder, as free governments hold commercial and diplomatic +intercourse with despotic ones, without being responsible for the moral +evils connected with the system, But the position of those who believe +slavery _malum in se_, like the slave trade, robbery and murder, is a +very different one from either of the other classes, as it regards the +purchase and use of slave labor products. Let us illustrate this by a +case in point. + +A company of men hold a number of their fellow men in bondage under the +laws of the commonwealth in which they live, so that they can compel +them to work their plantations, and raise horses, cattle, hogs, and +cotton. These products of the labor of the oppressed, are appropriated +by the oppressors to their own use, and taken into the markets for sale. +Another company proceed to a community of freemen, on the coast of +Africa, who have labored voluntarily during the year, seize their +persons, bind them, convey away their horses, cattle, hogs, and cotton, +and take the property to market. The first association represents the +slaveholders; the second a band of robbers. The commodities of both +parties, are openly offered for sale, and every one knows how the +property of each was obtained. Those who believe the _per se_ doctrine, +place both these associations in the same moral category, and call them +robbers. Judged by this rule, the first band are the more criminal, as +they have deprived their victims of personal liberty, forced them into +servitude, and then "despoiled them of the fruits of their labor."[92] +The second band have only deprived their victims of liberty, while they +robbed them; and thus have committed but two crimes, while the first +have perpetrated three. These parties attempt to negotiate the sale of +their cotton, say in London. The first company dispose of their cargo +without difficulty--no one manifesting the slightest scruple at +purchasing the products of slave labor. But the second company are not +so fortunate. As soon as their true character is ascertained, the police +drag its members to Court, where they are sentenced to Bridewell. In +vain do these robbers quote the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Convention, +and Daniel O'Connell, to prove that their cotton was obtained by means +no more criminal than that of the slaveholders, and that, therefore, +judgment ought to be reversed. The Court will not entertain such a +plea, and they have to endure the penalty of the law. Now, why this +difference, if slavery be _malum in se_? And if the receiver of stolen +property is _particeps criminis_ with the thief, why is it, that the +Englishman, who should receive and sell the cotton of the robbers, would +run the risk of being sent to prison with them, while if he acted as +agent of the slaveholders, he would be treated as an honorable man? If +the master has no moral right to hold his slaves, in what respect can +the products of their labor differ from the property acquired by +robbery? And if the property be the fruits of robbery, how can any one +use it, without violating conscience? + +We have met with the following sage exposition of the question, in +justification of the use of slave labor products, by those who believe +the _per se_ doctrine: The master owns the lands, gives his skill and +intelligence to direct the labor, and feeds and clothes the slaves. The +slaves, therefore, are entitled only to a part of the proceeds of their +labor, while the master is also justly entitled to a part of the crop. +When brought into the market, the purchaser can not know what part +belongs, rightfully, to the master, and what to his slaves, as the whole +is offered in bulk. He may, therefore, purchase the whole, innocently, +and throw the sinfulness of the transaction upon the master, who sells +what belongs to others. But if the _per se_ doctrine be true, this +apology for the purchaser is not a justification. Where a "confusion of +goods" has been made by one of the owners, so that they can not be +separated, he who "confused" them can have no advantage, in law, from +his own wrong, but the goods are awarded to the innocent party. On this +well known principle of law, this most equitable rule, the master +forfeits his right in the property, and the purchaser, knowing the +facts, becomes a party in his guilt. But aside from this, the "confusion +of goods," by the master, can give him no moral right to dispose of the +interest of his slaves therein for his own benefit; and the persons +purchasing such property, acquire no moral right to its possession and +use. These are sound, logical views. The argument offered, in +justification of those who hold that slavery is _malum in se_, is the +strongest that can be made. It is apparent, then, from a fair analysis +of their own principles, that they are _participes criminis_ with +slaveholders. + +Again, if the laws regulating the institution of slavery, be morally +null and void, and not binding on the conscience, then the slaves have a +moral right to the proceeds of their labor. This right can not be +alienated by any act of the master, but attaches to the property +wherever it may be taken, and to whomsoever it may be sold. This +principle, in law, is also well established. The recent decision on the +"Gardiner fraud," confirms it; the Court asserting, that the money paid +out of the Treasury of the United States, under such circumstances, +continued its character as the money and property of the United States, +and may be followed into the hands of those who cashed the orders of +Gardiner, and subsequently drew the money, but who are not the true +owners of the said fund; and decreeing that the amount of funds, thus +obtained, be collected off the estate of said Gardiner, and off those +who drew funds from the treasury, on his orders. + +These principles of law are so well understood, by every man of +intelligence, that we can not conceive how those advocating the _per se_ +doctrines, if sincere, can continue in the constant use of slave grown +products, without a perpetual violation of conscience and of all moral +law. Taking them under _protest_, against the slavery which produced +them, is ridiculous. Refusing to fellowship the slaveholder, while +eagerly appropriating the products of the labor of the slave, which he +brings in his hand, is contemptible. The most noted case of the kind, is +that of the British Committee, who had charge of the preliminary +arrangements for the admission of members to the World's Christian +Evangelical Alliance. One of the rules it adopted, but which the +Alliance afterward modified, excluded all American clergymen, suspected +of a want of orthodoxy on the _per se_ doctrine, from seats in that +body. Their language, to American clergymen, was virtually, "Stand +aside, I am holier than thou;" while, at the same moment, their +parishioners, the manufacturers, had about completed the purchase of +624,000,000 lbs. of cotton, for the consumption of their mills, during +the year; the bales of which, piled together, would have reached +mountain-high, displaying, mostly, the brands, "New Orleans," "Mobile," +"Charleston." + +As not a word was said, by the Committee, against the Englishmen who +were buying and manufacturing American cotton, the case may be viewed as +one in which the fruits of robbery were taken under _protest_ against +the robbers themselves. To all intelligent men, the conduct of the +people of Britain, in protesting against slavery, as a system of +robbery, while continuing to purchase such enormous quantities of the +cotton produced by slaves, appears as Pharasaical as the conduct of the +_conscientious_ Scotchman, in early times, in Eastern Pennsylvania, who +married his wife under protest against the constitution and laws of the +Government, and especially, against the authority, power, and right of +the magistrate who had just tied the knot.[93] + +Such pliable consciences, doubtless, are very convenient in cases of +emergency. But as they relax when selfish ends are to be subserved, and +retain their rigidity only when judging the conduct of others, the +inference is, that the persons possessing them are either hypocritical, +or else, as was acknowledged by Parson D., in similar circumstances, +they have mistaken their _prejudices_ for their _consciences_. + +So far as Britain is concerned, she is, manifestly, much more willing to +receive American slave labor cotton for her factories, than American +republican principles for her people. And why so? The profits derived by +her, from the purchase and manufacture of slave labor cotton, constitute +so large a portion of the means of her prosperity, that the Government +could not sustain itself were the supplies of this article cut off. It +is easy to divine, therefore, why the people of England are boundless in +their denunciation of American slavery, while not a single remonstrance +goes up to the throne, against the importation of American cotton. +Should she exclude it, the act would render her unable to pay the +interest on her national debt; and many a declaimer against slavery, +losing his income, would have to go supperless to bed. + +Let us contrast the conduct of a pagan government with that of Great +Britain. When the Emperor of China became fully convinced of his +inability to resist the prowess of the British arms, in the famous +"Opium War," efforts were made to induce him to legalize the traffic in +opium, by levying a duty on its import, that should yield him a heavy +profit. This he refused to do, and recorded his decision in these +memorable words: + +"It is true, I can not prevent the introduction of the flowing poison. +Gain-seeking and corrupt men will, for profit and sensuality, defeat my +wishes, but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and +misery of my people."[94] + +Let us revert a moment to the case of robbery, before cited, in further +illustration of this subject. The prisoners serve out their term in +Bridewell, and, after a year or two, again visit London with a cargo of +cotton. The police recognize them, and they are a second time arraigned +before the court for trial. The judge demands why they should have dared +to revisit the soil of England, to offer for sale the products of their +robbery. The prisoners assure his honor that they have neither outraged +the public sentiment of the kingdom, nor violated its laws. "While in +your prison, sir," they go on to say, "we became instructed in the +morals of British economics. Anxious to atone for our former fault, and +to restore ourselves to the confidence and respect of the pious subjects +of your most gracious Queen, no sooner were we released from prison, +than we hastened to the African coast, from whence our former cargo was +obtained, and seizing the self-same men whom we had formerly robbed, we +bore them off, bodily, to the soil of Texas. They resisted sturdily, it +is true, but we mastered them. We touched none of the fruits of their +previous labors. Their cotton we left in the fields, to be drenched by +the rains or drifted by the winds; because, to have brought it into your +markets would have subjected us, anew, to a place in your dungeons. In +Texas, we brought our prisoners under the control of the laws, which +there give us power to hold them as slaves. Stimulated to labor, under +the lash of the overseer, they have produced a crop of cotton, which is +now offered in your markets as a lawful article of commerce. We are not +subjects of your Government, and, therefore, not indictable under your +laws against slave trading. Your honor, will perceive, then, that our +moral relations are changed. We come now to your shores, not as dealers +in stolen property, but as slaveholders, with the products of slave +labor. We are aware that _bunkum_ speakers, at your public assemblies, +denounce the slaveholder as a thief, and his appropriation of the fruits +of the labor of his slaves, as robbery. We comprehend the motives +prompting such utterances. We come not to attend meetings of +Ecclesiastical Conventions, representing the republican principles of +America, to unsettle the doctrines upon which the throne of your kingdom +is based. But we come as cotton planters, to supply your looms with +cotton, that British commerce may not be abridged, and England, the +great civilizer of the world, may not be forced to slack her pace in the +performance of her mission. This is our character and position; and your +honor will at once see that it is your duty, and the interest of your +Government, to treat us as gentlemen and your most faithful allies." The +judge at once admits the justice of their plea, rebukes the police, +apologizes to the prisoners, assures them that they have violated no law +of the realm; and that, though the public sentiment of the nation +denounces the slaveholder as a thief, yet the public necessity demands a +full supply of cotton from the planter. He then orders their immediate +discharge, and invites them to partake of the hospitalities of his house +during their stay in London. + +This is a fair example of British consistency, on the subject of +slavery, so far as the supply of cotton is concerned. The English +manufacturers are under the absolute necessity of procuring it; but as +free labor is incapable of increasing its production, slave labor must +be made to remedy the defect. + +The reason can now be clearly comprehended, why abolitionists have had +so little moral power over the conscience of the slaveholder. Their +practice has been inconsistent with their precepts; or, at least, their +conduct has been liable to this construction. Nor do we perceive how +they can exert a more potent influence, in the future, unless their +energies are directed to efforts such as will relieve them from a +position so inconsistent with their professions, as that of constantly +purchasing products which they, themselves, declare to be the fruits of +robbery. While, therefore, things remain as they are, with the world so +largely dependent upon slave labor, how can it be otherwise, than that +the system will continue to flourish? And while its products are used by +all classes, of every sentiment, and country, nearly, how can the +slaveholder be brought to see any thing, in the practice of the world, +to alarm his conscience, and make him cringe, before his fellow-men, as +a guilty robber? + +But, has nothing worse occurred from the advocacy of the _per se_ +doctrine, than an exhibition of inconsistency on the part of +abolitionists, and the perpetuation of slavery resulting from their +conduct? This has occurred. Three highly respectable religious +denominations, now limited to the North, had once many flourishing +congregations in the South. On the adoption of the _per se_ doctrine, by +their respective Synods, their congregations became disturbed, were soon +after broken up, or the ministers in charge had to seek other fields of +labor. Their system of religious instruction, for the family, being +quite thorough, the slaves were deriving much advantage from the +influence of these bodies. But when they resolved to withhold the gospel +from the master, unless he would emancipate, they also withdrew the +means of grace from the slave; and, so far as they were concerned, left +him to perish eternally! Whether this course was proper, or whether it +would have been better to have passed by the morality of the legal +relation, in the creation of which the master had no agency, and +considered him, under Providence, as the moral guardian of the slave, +bound to discharge a guardian's duty to an immortal being, we shall not +undertake to determine. Attention is called to the facts, merely to show +the practical effects of the action of these churches upon the slave, +and what the _per se_ doctrine has done in depriving him of the gospel. + +Another remark, and we have done with this topic. Nothing is more +common, in certain circles, than denunciations of the Christian men and +ministers, who refuse to adopt the _per se_ principle. We leave others +to judge whether these censures are merited. One thing is certain: those +who believe that slavery is a great civil and social evil, entailed upon +the country, and are extending the gospel to both master and slave, with +the hope of removing it peacefully, can not be reproached with acting +inconsistently with their principles; while those who declare slavery +_malum in se_, and refuse to fellowship the Christian slaveholder, +because they consider him a robber, but yet use the products of slave +labor, may fairly be classified, on their own principles, with the +hypocritical people of Israel, who were thus reproached by the Most +High: "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou +shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth? . . . . . When thou sawest a +thief, then thou consentedst with him."[95] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[92] This is the phrase, nearly verbatim, used by Mr. Sumner in his +speech on the Fugitive Slave Bill. Language, a little more to the point, +is used in "The Friendly Remonstrance of the People of Scotland, on the +Subject of Slavery," published in the _American Missionary_, September, +1855. In depicting slavery it speaks of it as a system "which robs its +victims of the fruits of their toil." + +[93] An anecdote, illustrative of the pliability of some consciences, of +this apparently rigid class, where interest or inclination demands it, +has often been told by the late Governor Morrow, of Ohio. An old Scotch +"Cameronian," in Eastern Pennsylvania, became a widower, shortly after +the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. He refused to +acknowledge either the National or State Government, but pronounced them +both unlawful, unrighteous, and ungodly. Soon he began to feel the want +of a wife, to care for his motherless children. The consent of a woman +in his own Church was gained, because to take any other would have been +like an Israelite marrying a daughter of the land of Canaan. On this +point, as in refusing to swear allegiance to Government, he was +controlled by conscience. But now a practical difficulty presented +itself. There was no minister of his Church in the country--and those of +other denominations, in his judgment, had no Divine warrant for +exercising the functions of the sacred office. He repudiated the whole +of them. But how to get married, that was the problem. He tried to +persuade his intended to agree to a marriage contract, before witnesses, +which could be confirmed whenever a proper minister should arrive from +Scotland. But his "lady-love" would not consent to the plan. She must be +married "like other folk," or not at all--because "people would talk +so." The Scotchman for want of a wife, like Great Britain for want of +cotton, saw very plainly that his children must suffer; and so he +resolved to get married at all hazards, as England buys her cotton, but +so as not to violate conscience. Proceeding with his intended to a +magistrate's office, the ceremony was soon performed, and they twain +pronounced "one flesh." But no sooner had he "kissed the bride," the +sealing act of the contract at that day, than the good Cameronian drew a +written document from his pocket, which he read aloud before the officer +and witnesses; and in which he entered his solemn protest against the +authority of the Government of the United States, against that of the +State of Pennsylvania, and especially against the power, right, and +lawfulness of the acts of the magistrate who had just married him. This +done, he went his way, rejoicing that he had secured a wife without +recognizing the lawfulness of ungodly governments, or violating his +conscience. + +[94] _National Intelligencer_, 1854. + +[95] Psalm 1: 16, 18. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +IN concluding our labors, there is little need of extended observation. +The work of emancipation, in our country, was checked, and the extension +of slavery promoted:--first, by the neglect of the free colored people +to improve the advantages afforded them; second, by the increasing value +imparted to slave labor; third, by the mistaken policy into which the +English and American abolitionists have fallen. Whatever reasons might +now be offered for emancipation, from an improvement of our free colored +people, is far more than counterbalanced by its failure in the West +Indies, and the constantly increasing value of the labor of the slave. +If, when the planters had only a moiety of the markets for cotton, the +value of slavery was such as to arrest emancipation, how must the +obstacles be increased, now, when they have the monopoly of the markets +of the world? And, besides all this, a more deadly blow, than has been +given by all other causes combined, is now levelled at negro freedom +from a quarter the least suspected. The failure of the Canadian +immigrants to improve the privileges afforded them under British law, +proves, conclusively, that the true laws of progress for the African +race, do not consist in a mere escape from slavery. + +We propose not to speak of remedies for slavery. That we leave to +others. Thus far this very perplexing question, has baffled all human +wisdom. Either some radical defect must have existed, in the measures +devised for its removal, or the time has not yet come for successfully +assailing the institution. Our work is completed, in the delineation we +have given of its varied relations to our agricultural, commercial, and +social interests. As the monopoly of the culture of cotton, imparts to +slavery its economical value, the system will continue as long as this +monopoly is maintained. Slave labor products have now become necessities +of human life, to the extent of more than half the commercial articles +supplied to the Christian world. Even free labor, itself, is made +largely subservient to slavery, and vitally interested in its +perpetuation and extension. + +Can this condition of things be changed? It may be reasonably doubted, +whether any thing efficient can be speedily accomplished: not because +there is lack of territory where freemen may be employed in tropical +cultivation, as all Western and Central Africa, nearly, is adapted to +this purpose; not because intelligent free labor, under proper +incentives, is less productive than slave labor; but because freemen, +whose constitutions are adapted to tropical climates, will not avail +themselves of the opportunity offered for commencing such an enterprise. + +KING COTTON cares not whether he employs slaves or freemen. It is the +_cotton_, not the _slaves_, upon which his throne is based. Let freemen +do his work as well, and he will not object to the change. The efforts +of his most powerful ally, Great Britain, to promote that object, have +already cost her people many hundreds of millions of dollars, with total +failure as a reward for her zeal; and she is now compelled to resort to +the expedient of employing the slave labor of Africa, to meet the +necessities of her manufacturers. One-sixth of the colored people of the +United States are free; but they shun the cotton regions, and have been +instructed to detest emigration to Liberia. Their improvement has not +been such as was anticipated; and their more rapid advancement can not +be expected, while they remain in the country. The free colored people +of the British West Indies, can no longer be relied on to furnish +tropical products, for they are resting contented in a state of almost +savage indolence; and the introduction of coolie labor has become +indispensable as a means of saving the Islands from ruin, as well as of +forcing the negro into habits of industry. Hayti is not in a more +promising condition; and even if it were, its population and territory +are too limited to enable it to meet the increasing demand. HIS MAJESTY, +KING COTTON, therefore, is forced to continue the employment of his +slaves; and, by their toil, is riding on, conquering and to conquer! He +receives no check from the cries of the oppressed, while the citizens of +the world are dragging forward his chariot, and shouting aloud his +praise! + +KING COTTON is a profound statesman, and knows what measures will best +sustain his throne. He is an acute mental philosopher, acquainted with +the secret springs of human action, and accurately perceives who can +best promote his aims. He has no evidence that colored men can grow his +cotton, except in the capacity of slaves. Thus far, all experiments made +to increase the production of cotton, by emancipating the slaves +employed in its cultivation, have been a total failure. It is his +policy, therefore, to defeat all schemes of emancipation. To do this, he +stirs up such agitations as lure his enemies into measures that will do +him no injury. The venal politician is always at his call, and assumes +the form of saint or sinner, as the service may demand. Nor does he +overlook the enthusiast, engaged in Quixotic endeavors for the relief of +suffering humanity, but influences him to advocate measures which tend +to tighten, instead of loosing the bands of slavery. Or, if he can not +be seduced into the support of such schemes, he is beguiled into efforts +that waste his strength on objects the most impracticable; so that +slavery receives no damage from the exuberance of his philanthropy. But +should such a one, perceiving the futility of his labors, and the evils +of his course, make an attempt to avert the consequences; while he is +doing this, some new recruit, pushed forward into his former place, +charges him with lukewarmness, or pro-slavery sentiments, destroys his +influence with the public, keeps alive the delusions, and sustains the +supremacy of KING COTTON in the world. + +In speaking of the economical connections of slavery, with the other +material interests of the world, we have called it a _tripartite +alliance_. It is more than this. It is _quadruple_. Its structure +includes four parties, arranged thus: The Western Agriculturists; the +Southern Planters; the English Manufacturers; and the American +Abolitionists! By this arrangement, the abolitionists do not stand in +direct contact with slavery; they imagine, therefore, that they have +clean hands and pure hearts, so far as sustaining the system is +concerned. But they, no less than their allies, aid in promoting the +interests of slavery. Their sympathies are with England on the slavery +question, and they very naturally incline to agree with her on other +points. She advocates _Free Trade_, as essential to her manufactures and +commerce; and they do the same, not waiting to inquire into its bearings +upon _American slavery_. We refer now to the people, not to their +leaders, whose integrity we choose not to indorse. The free trade and +protective systems, in their bearings upon slavery, are so well +understood, that no man of general reading, especially an editor, or +member of Congress, who professes anti-slavery sentiments, at the same +time advocating free trade, will ever convince men of intelligence, +pretend what he may, that he is not either woefully perverted in his +judgment, or emphatically, a "dough-face" in disguise! England, we were +about to say, is in alliance with the cotton planter, to whose +prosperity free trade is indispensable. Abolitionism is in alliance with +England. All three of these parties, then, agree in their support of the +free trade policy. It needed but the aid of the Western farmer, +therefore, to give permanency to this principle. His adhesion has been +given, the _quadruple alliance_ has been perfected, and slavery and free +trade _nationalized_! + +Slavery, thus intrenched in the midst of such powerful allies, and +without competition in tropical cultivation, has become the sole +reliance of KING COTTON. Lest the sources of his aggrandisement should +be assailed, we can well imagine him as being engaged constantly, in +devising new questions of agitation, to divert the public from all +attempts to abandon free trade and restore the protective policy. He now +finds an ample source of security, in this respect, in agitating the +question of slavery extension. This exciting topic, as we have said, +serves to keep politicians of the abolition school at the North in his +constant employ. But for the agitation of this subject, few of these men +would succeed in obtaining the suffrages of the people. Wedded to +England's free trade policy, their votes in Congress, on all questions +affecting the tariff, are always in perfect harmony with Southern +interests, and work no mischief to the system of slavery. If Kansas +comes into the Union as a slave State, he is secure in the political +power it will give him in Congress; but if it is received as a free +State, it will still be tributary to him, as a source from whence to +draw provisions to feed his slaves. Nor does it matter much which way +the controversy is decided, so long as all agree not to disturb slavery +in the States where it is already established by law. Could KING COTTON +be assured that this position will not be abandoned, he would care +little about slavery in Kansas; but he knows full well that the public +sentiment in the North is adverse to the system, and that the present +race of politicians may readily be displaced by others who will pledge +themselves to its overthrow in all the States of the Union, Hence he +wills to retain the power over the question in his own hands. + +The crisis now upon the country, as a consequence of slavery having +become dominant, demands that the highest wisdom should be brought to +the management of national affairs. Slavery, nationalized, can now be +managed only as a national concern. It can now be abolished only with +the consent of those who sustain it. Their assent can be gained only by +employing other agents to meet the wants it now supplies. It must be +superseded, then, if at all, by means that will not injuriously affect +the interests of commerce and agriculture, to which it is now so +important an auxiliary. None other will be accepted, for a moment, by +the slaveholder. To supply the existing demand for tropical products, +except by the present mode, is impossible. To make the change, is not +the work of a day, nor of a generation. Should the influx of foreigners +continue, such a change may, one day, be possible. But to effect the +transition from slavery to freedom, on principles that will be +acceptable to the parties who control the question; to devise and +successfully sustain such measures as will produce this result; must be +left to statesmen of broader views and loftier conceptions than are to +be found among those at present engaged in this great controversy. + +Take a more particular view of this subject, in the light of the +commercial operations of the United States, for the year 1859, as best +indicating the relations of the North and the South, and their mutual +dependence upon each other. The total value of the imports of foreign +commodities, including specie, was $338,768,130.[96] Of this $20,895,077 +were re-exported, leaving for home consumption, $317,873,053--an amount +more than eleven times greater than the whole foreign commerce of Great +Britain one hundred and fifty-six years ago, and more than four times +greater than her exports eighty-six years ago.[97] + +Let us inquire how this immense foreign commerce is sustained; how these +$317,873,000 of foreign imports are paid for by the American people; and +how far the Northern and Southern States respectively have contributed +to its payment. More than one-half the amount, or $161,434,923, was paid +in raw cotton, and more than one-third of the remainder, or $57,502,305, +in the precious metals; leaving less than $100,000,000 to be paid in the +other productions of the country. More than one-third of this remainder +was paid in cotton fabrics, tobacco, and rice; while the products of the +forest, of the sea, and of various minor manufactures, swelled up our +credits, so that the exports of breadstuffs and provisions, needed to +liquidate the debt, only amounted to a little over $38,000,000.[98] Of +this amount the exports, from the Northern States, of wheat and wheat +flour, made up only $15,262,769, and the corn and corn meal but +$2,206,396. "King Hay," so much lauded for his magnitude and money +value, never once ventured on board a merchant vessel, to seek a foreign +land, so as to aid in paying for the commodities which we imported.[99] +In a word, the products of the forest and of agriculture, exported by +the free States, amounted in value to about $45,300,000; while the same +classes of products, supplied for export by the Slave States, amounted +to more than $193,400,000.[100] + +The economical relations of the North and the South can now be +understood more clearly than they could be from the statistics referred +to in the body of this work. The facts, in relation to the commerce of +the United States, for 1859, were not accessible until after the +stereotyping had been completed; and they are only crowded in here by +omitting two or three pages of remarks of another kind, but of less +importance, which closed the volume. By consulting Table XII, and two or +three of the others, which contain similar facts, covering the +commercial operations of the country since the year 1821, the whole +question of the relations of the North and the South can be fully +comprehended. It will be seen that the exports of tobacco, which are +mainly from the South, have equaled in value considerably more than +one-third the amount of that of breadstuffs and provisions; and that, in +the same period, the exports of cotton have exceeded in value those of +breadstuffs and provisions to the amount of $1,421,482,261.[101] Here, +now, a just conception can be formed of the importance of cotton to the +commerce of the country, as compared with our other productions. The +amount exported, of that article, in the last thirty-nine years, has +exceeded in value the exports of breadstuffs and provisions to the +extent of _fourteen hundred and twenty-one millions of dollars_! Verily, +Cotton is King! + +Another point needs consideration. It is a fact, not to be questioned, +that the productions of the Northern States amount to an immense sum, +above those of the Southern States, when valued in dollars and cents; +but the proportion of the products of the former; exported to foreign +countries, is very insignificant, indeed, when compared with the value +of the exports from the latter.[102] And, yet, the North is acquiring +wealth with amazing rapidity. This fact could not exist, unless the +Northern people produce more than they consume--unless they have a +surplus to sell, after supplying their own wants. They must, therefore, +find a permanent and profitable market, somewhere, for the surplus +products that yield them their wealth. As that market is not in Europe, +it must be in the Southern States. But the extent to which the South +receive their supplies from the North, cannot be determined by any data +now in the possession of the public. It must, however, be very large in +amount, and, if withheld, would greatly embarrass the Southern people, +by lessening their ability to export as largely as hitherto. So, on the +other hand, if the Northern people were deprived of the markets afforded +by the South, they would find so little demand elsewhere for their +products, that it would have a ruinous effect upon their prosperity. All +that can be safely said upon this subject is, that the interests of both +sections of the country are so intimately connected, so firmly blended +together, that a dissolution of the Union would be destructive to all +the economical interests of both the North and the South. Cut off from +the South all that the North supplies to the planters, in such articles +as agricultural implements, furniture, clothing, provisions, horses, and +mules, and cotton culture would at once have to be abandoned to a great +extent. But would the South alone be the sufferer? Could the Northern +agriculturist, manufacturer, and mechanic, remain prosperous, and +continue to accumulate wealth, without a market for their products? +Could Northern merchants dwell in their palaces, and roll in luxury, +with a foreign commerce contracted to one-third of its present extent, +and a domestic demand for merchandize reduced to one-half its present +amount? Certainly not. + +And if the mere necessity of self supply, of food and clothing, such as +existed in 1820, would now be disastrous to the South, and react +destructively upon the North, what would be the effect of emancipation +upon the country at large? What would be the effect of releasing from +restraint three and a half millions of negroes, to bask in idleness, +under the genial sunshine of the South, or to emigrate hither and +thither, at will, with none to control their actions? It is too late to +insist that free labor would be more profitable than slave labor, when +negroes are to be the operatives: Jamaica has solved that problem. It is +too late to claim that white labor could be made to take the place of +black labor, while the negroes remain upon the ground: Canada, and the +Northern States, demonstrate that the two races cannot be made to labor +together peacefully and upon terms of equality. Nothing is more certain, +therefore, than that emancipation would inevitably place the Southern +States in a similar position to that of Jamaica. On this point take a +fact or two. + +The _Colonial Standard_,[103] of the 13th January, 1859, in speaking of +the present industrial condition of that Island, says, that there are +not more than twenty thousand laborers who employ themselves in sugar +cultivation for wages. This will seem astonishing to those who expected +so much from emancipation, when it is stated that the black population +of Jamaica, when liberated from slavery, numbered three hundred and +eleven thousand, six hundred and ninety two; and that the exports of +sugar from the Island, in 1805, before the slave trade was prohibited, +amounted to 237,751,150 lbs.;[104] while, in 1859, the exports of that +staple commodity, only amounted to 44,800,000 lbs.[105] It will thus be +seen that the exports of sugar from Jamaica is now less than one-fifth +of what it was in the prosperous days of slavery; and so it must be as +to cotton, in the South, were emancipation forced upon this country. And +what would be the condition of our foreign commerce, and what the effect +upon the country, generally, were the exports of the South diminished to +less than one-fifth of their present amount? Would the lands of the +Northern farmers still continue to advance in price, if the markets for +the surplus products of the soil no longer existed? Would those of the +Southern planters rise in value, in the event of emancipation, to an +equality with the lands at the North, when no laborers could be found to +till the soil? No man entitled to the name of statesman--no man of +practical common sense--could imagine that such a result would follow +the liberation of the slaves in the Southern States. Under the +philanthropic legislation of Great Britain, no such result followed the +passage of the act for the abolition of slavery in her colonies; but, on +the contrary, the value of their real estate soon became reduced to a +most ruinous extent; and such must inevitably be the result under the +adoption of similar measures in the United States. This is the +conviction of the men of the South, and they will act upon their own +judgment. + +There are strong indications that the views presented in the first +edition of this work, and reported in the subsequent issues, are rapidly +becoming the views of intelligent and unprejudiced men everywhere. At a +late date in the British Parliament, Lord Brougham made a strong +anti-American cotton and anti-American slavery speech. The _London +Times_, thus "takes the backbone all out of his argument, and leaves +him nothing but his sophistries to stand on," thus: + +"Lord Brougham and the veterans of the old Anti-Slavery Society do not +share our delight at this great increase in the employment of our home +population. Their minds are still seared by those horrible stories which +were burnt in upon them in their youth, when England was not only a +slave-owning, but even a slave-trading State. Their remorse is so great +that the ghost of a black man is always before them. They are benevolent +and excellent people; but if a black man happened to have broken his +shin, and a white man were in danger of drowning, we much fear that a +real anti-slavery zealot would bind up the black man's leg before he +would draw the white man out of the water. It is not an inconsistency, +therefore, that while we see only cause of congratulation in this +wonderful increase of trade, Lord Brougham sees in it the exaggeration +of an evil he never ceases to deplore. + +"We, and such as we, who are content to look upon society as Providence +allows it to exist--to mend it when we can, but not to distress +ourselves immoderately for evils which are not of our creation--we see +only the free and intelligent English families who thrive upon the wages +which these cotton bales produce. Lord Brougham sees only the black +laborers who, on the other side of the Atlantic, pick the cotton pods in +slavery. Lord Brougham deplores that in this tremendous exportation of a +thousand millions of pounds of cotton, the lion's share of the profits +goes to the United States, and has been produced by slave labor. Instead +of twenty-three millions, the United States now send us eight hundred +and thirty millions, and this is all cultivated by slaves. It is very +sad that this should be so, but we do not see our way to a remedy. There +seems to be rather a chance of its becoming worse. + +"If France, who is already moving onwards in a restless, purblind state, +should open her eyes wide, should give herself fair-play, by accepting +our coals, iron, and machinery, and, under the stimulus of a wholesome +competition, should take to manufacturing upon a large scale, even these +three millions of slaves will not be enough. France will be competing +with us in the foreign cotton markets, stimulating still further the +produce of Georgia and South Carolina. The jump which the consumption of +cotton in England has just made is but a single leap, which may be +repeated indefinitely. There are a thousand millions of mankind on the +globe, all of whom can be most comfortably clad in cotton. Every year +new tribes and new nations are added to the category of cotton-wearers. +There is every reason to believe that the supply of this universal +necessity will, for many years yet to come, fail to keep pace with the +demand, and in the interest of that large class of our countrymen to +whom cotton is bread, we must continue to hope that the United States +will be able to supply us in years to come with twice as much as we +bought of them in years past. 'Let us raise up another market,' says the +anti-slavery people. So say we all. . . . . . + +"But even Lord Brougham would not ask us to believe that there is any +proximate hope that the free cotton raised in Africa will, within any +reasonable time, drive out of culture the slave-grown cotton of America. +If this be so, of what use can it be to make irritating speeches in the +House of Lords against a state of things by which we are content to +profit? Lord Brougham and Lord Grey are not men of such illogical minds +as to be incapable of understanding that it is the demand of the English +manufacturers which stimulates the produce of slave-grown American +cotton. They are, neither of them, we apprehend, so reckless or so +wicked as to close our factories and to throw some two millions of our +manufacturing population out of bread. Why, then, these inconsequent and +these irritating denunciations? Let us create new fields of produce of +we can; but, meanwile, it is neither just nor dignified to buy the raw +material from the Americans, and to revile them for producing it." + +We have said that the more popular belief, in reference to the moral +character of slavery, now prevailing throughout the world, ranks it as +identical in principle with despotic forms of government. Here arises a +question of importance. Can despotism be acknowledged by Christians as a +lawful form of government? Those who hold the view of slavery under +consideration, answer in the affirmative. The necessity of civil +government, they say, is denied by none. Society can not exist in its +absence. Republicanism can be sustained only where the majority are +intelligent and moral. In no other condition can free government be +maintained. Hence, despotism establishes itself, of necessity, more or +less absolutely, over an ignorant or depraved people; obtaining the +acquiescence of the enlightened, by offering them security to person and +property. Few nations, indeed, possess moral elevation sufficient to +maintain republicanism. Many have tried it, have failed, and relapsed +into despotism. Republican nations, therefore, must forego all +intercourse with despotic governments, or acknowledge them to be lawful. +This can be done, it is claimed, without being accountable for moral +evils connected with their administration. Elevated examples of such +recognitions are on record. Christ paid tribute to Caesar; and Paul, by +appealing to Caesar's tribunal, admitted the validity of the despotic +government of Rome, with its thirty millions of slaves. To deny the +lawfulness of despotism, and yet hold intercourse with such governments, +is as inconsistent as to hold the _per se_ doctrine, in regard to +slavery, and still continue to use its products. + +How far masters in general escape the commission of sin, in the +treatment of their slaves, or whether any are free from guilt, is not +the point at issue, in this view of slavery. The mere possession of +power over the slave, under the sanction of law, is held not to be +sinful; but, like despotism, may be used for the good of the governed. +That Southern masters are laboring for the good of the slave, to an +encouraging extent, is apparent from the missionary efforts they are +sustaining among the slave population. And when it is considered that +the African race, under American slavery, have made much greater +progress than they have ever done in any other part of the world; and +that the elevating influences are now greatly increased among them; it +is to be expected that dispassionate men will be disposed to leave the +present condition of things undisturbed, rather than to rush madly into +the adoption of measures that may prove fatal to the existence of the +Union. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[96] See Table XII, in Appendix. + +[97] See Speech of Edmund Burke, in Appendix. + +[98] See Table VIII, in Appendix. + +[99] It has been denied that "Cotton is King," and claimed that Hay is +entitled to that royal appellation; because its estimated value exceeds +that of Cotton. The imperial character of Cotton rests upon the fact, +that it enters so largely into the manufactures, trade, and commerce of +the world, while hay is only in demand at home. + +[100] See Table XII, in Appendix, for the statistics on this subject. + +[101] See Table VIII, in Appendix. + +[102] See Table XII. + +[103] This paper is published at Kingston, Jamaica, and in confirmation +of the views of the _London Economist_, quoted in the body of the work, +the following extract is copied from its columns: + +"Barbadoes, we all know, is prosperous because she possesses a native +population almost as dense as that of China, with a very limited extent +of superficial soil. In Barbadoes, therefore, population presses on the +means of subsistence, in the same way, if not to the same extent, as in +England, and the people are industrious from necessity. Trinidad and +British Guiana, on the other hand, have taken steps to produce this +pressure artificially, by large importations of foreign labor. The +former colony, by the importation of eleven thousand coolies, has +trebled her crops since 1854, while the latter has doubled hers by the +introduction of twenty-three thousand immigrants. + +"While Jamaica is the single instance of retrogression, she affords also +the solitary example of non-immigration. + +"Mauritius, by importing something like one hundred and seventy thousand +laborers, has increased her exports of sugar from 70,000,000 lbs. in +1844, to 250,000,000 lbs. in 1858. Jamaica, by depending wholly on +native labor, has fallen from an export of 69,000 hhds. in 1848, to one +of 28,000 hhds. in 1859. + +"It is believed that there are not at this moment above twenty thousand +laborers who employ themselves in sugar cultivation for wages." + +[104] Martin's British Colonies. See also Ethiopia, by the author, page +132, for full details on this question. + +[105] The hhd. of sugar, as in Martin's tables, is here estimated at +1,600 lbs. See foot note on page 222. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +EARLY MOVEMENTS IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION. + + +SENTIMENTS have been quoted from the proceedings of the public meetings +held by the fathers of the Revolution, which, when taken in connection +with the language of the Declaration of Independence, seem to favor the +opinion that it was their purpose to extend to the colored people all +the privileges to be secured by that struggle. An examination of the +historical records, leads to the conclusion, that no such intention +existed on the part of the statesmen and patriots of that day. The +opinions expressed, with scarcely an exception, show that they viewed +the slave trade and slavery as productive of evils to the colonies, and +calculated to retard their prosperity, if not to prevent their +acquisition of independence. The question of negro slavery was one of +little moment, indeed, in the estimation of the colonists, when compared +with the objects at which they aimed; and the resolutions adopted, which +bound them not to import any more slaves, or purchase any imported by +others, was a blow aimed at the commerce of the mother country, and +designed to compel Parliament to repeal its obnoxious laws. But the +resolutions themselves must be given, as best calculated to demonstrate +what were the designs of those by whom they were adopted. Before doing +this, however, it is necessary to ascertain what were the relations +which the North American Colonies bore to the commerce of the British +Empire, and why it was, that the refusal any longer to purchase imported +slaves would be so ruinous to Great Britain, and her other colonies. +When this is done, and not till then, can the full meaning of the +resolutions be determined. Such were the links connecting these colonies +with England--with the West Indies--and with the African slave trade, +conducted by British merchants--that more than one-half of the commerce +of the mother country was directly or indirectly under their control. +The facts on this subject are extracted from the debates in the British +Parliament, and especially from the speech of Hon. EDMUND BURKE, on his +resolutions, of March 22d, 1775, for conciliation with America.[106] He +said:-- + +"I have in my hand two accounts; one, a comparative statement of the +export trade of England to its colonies, as it stood in the year 1704, +and as it stood in the year 1772. The other, a state of the export trade +of this country to its colonies alone, as it stood in 1772, compared +with the whole trade of England to all parts of the world, (the colonies +included,) in the year 1704. They are from good vouchers; the latter +period from the accounts on your own table, the earlier, from an +original manuscript of Davenant, who first established the Inspector +General's Office, which has been, ever since his time, so abundant a +source of Parliamentary information. + +"The export trade to the colonies, consists of three great branches. The +African, which, terminating almost wholly in the colonies, must be put +to the account of their commerce; the West Indian, and the North +American. All these are so interwoven, that the attempt to separate them +would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole; and if not entirely +destroy, would very much depreciate the value of all the parts. I, +therefore, consider these three denominations to be, what in effect they +are, one trade. + +"The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at the beginning +of this century, that is, in the year 1704, stood thus: + + "Exports to North America and the West Indies $2,416,325 + To Africa 433,325 + ---------- + $2,849,650 + +"In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year, between the highest +and lowest of those lately laid on your table, the account was as +follows: + + "To North America and the West Indies $23,958,670 + To Africa 4,331,990 + To which, if you add the export trade from + Scotland, which had, in 1704, no existence 1,820,000 + ----------- + $30,110,660 + +"From a little over two millions and three quarters, it has grown to +over thirty millions.[107] It has increased no less than twelve fold. +This is the state of the colony trade, as compared with itself at these +two periods, within this century; and this is matter for meditation. But +this is not all. Examine my second account. See how the export trade to +the colonies alone, in 1772, stood in the other point of view, that is, +as compared to the whole trade of England, in 1704. + + "The whole trade of England, including that + to the colonies, in 1704 $32,545,000 + Export to the colonies alone, in 1772 30,120,000 + ----------- + Difference $2,425,000 + +"The trade with America alone, is now within less than two millions and +a half of being equal to what this great commercial nation, England, +carried on at the beginning of this century with the whole world! If I +had taken the largest year of those on your table, it would rather have +exceeded. But, it will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural +protuberance, that has drawn the juices from the rest of the body? The +reverse. It is the very food that has nourished every other part into +its present magnitude. Our general trade has been greatly augmented; and +augmented more or less in almost every part to which it ever extended; +but with this material difference, that of the thirty-two millions and a +half, which, in the beginning of the century, constituted the whole mass +of our export commerce, the colony trade was but one-twelfth part; it is +now considerably more than a third of the whole--[which is $80,000,000.] +This is the relative proportion of the importance of the colonies at +these two periods; and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating +them, must have this proportion as its basis; or it is a reasoning, +weak, rotten, and sophistical." + +It is easy to perceive, from what is said by Mr. Burke, the +embarrassments that must fall upon the mother country, in the event of a +rebellion in the North American colonies. Take another illustration of +this point. More than one-third of the exports of Great Britain were +made to North America, the West Indies, and Africa. They stood thus +during the three years ending at Christmas, 1773: + + Annual average exports to North America $17,500,000 + To the West Indies 6,500,000 + To Africa 3,500,000 + ---------- + Total value of exports $27,500,000 + +But this is not all. The total value of the exports of Great Britain to +all the world, at this date, was $80,000,000. These exports were made +up, in part, of colonial products, tobacco, rice, sugar, etc., to the +amount of $15,000,000;--$5,000,000 to foreign countries, and $10,000,000 +to Ireland,--which, when added to the $27,500,000, paid for by the +colonies, exhibits them as sustaining more than one-half of the commerce +of the mother country.[108] + +The immediate cause of the alarm which led to the examination of this +subject by the Hon. Edmund Burke, and others, of the British Parliament, +was the adoption, by the North American colonies, of the policy of +non-importation and non-consumption of all English products, whether +from the mother country, or any of her colonies; and the non-exportation +of any North American products to Great Britain, the West Indies, or any +of the dependencies of the crown. This agreement was adopted as a +measure of retaliation upon Parliament, for the passage of the Boston +Port Bill, which ordered the closing of Boston harbor to all commerce. +The measure was first proposed at a meeting of the citizens of Boston, +held on May 13, 1774. It was soon seconded by all the principal cities, +towns, and counties, throughout the colonies; and when the Continental +Congress met at Philadelphia, the terms of the league were drawn up and +adopted, October 20, 1774, and went into operation. + +A few extracts from memorials to Parliament, praying that the +difficulties with North America might be adjusted, and the threatened +evils averted, will show how the slave trade was then interwoven with +the commerce and national prosperity of Great Britain, and to what +extent the American league could affect that prosperity. + +In the House of Commons, January 23, 1775: "Mr. Burke then presented a +petition of the Master, Wardens, and Commonalty, of the Society of +Merchants Venturers of the city of Bristol, under their common seal; +which was read, setting forth, That a very beneficial and increasing +trade to the British colonies in America, has been carried on from the +port of Bristol, highly to the advantage of the kingdom in general, and +of the said city in particular; and that the exports from the said port +to America, consist of almost every species of British manufactures, +besides East India goods, and other articles of commerce; and the +returns are made not only in many valuable and useful commodities from +thence, but also, by a circuitous trade, carried on with Ireland, and +most parts of Europe, to the great emolument of the merchant, and +improvement of his Majesty's revenue; and that the merchants of the said +port are also deeply engaged in the trade to the West India islands, +which, by the exchange of their produce with America, for provisions, +lumber, and other stores, are thereby almost wholly maintained, and +consequently, become dependent upon North America for support; and that +the trade to Africa, which is carried on from the said port to a very +considerable extent, is also dependent upon the flourishing state of the +West India islands, and America; and that these different branches of +commerce give employment not only to a very numerous body of artists and +manufacturers, but also to a great number of ships, and many thousand +seamen, by which means a very capital increase is made to the naval +strength of Great Britain. . . . . . The passing certain acts of +Parliament, and other measures lately adopted, caused such a great +uneasiness in the minds of the inhabitants of America, as to make the +merchants apprehensive of the most alarming consequences, and which, if +not speedily remedied, must involve them in utter ruin. And the +petitioners, as merchants deeply interested in measures which so +materially affect the commerce of this kingdom, and not less concerned +as Englishmen, in every thing that relates to the general welfare, +cannot look without emotion on the many thousands of miserable objects, +who, by the total stop put to the export trade of America, will be +discharged from their manufactories for want of employment, and must be +reduced to great distress."[109] + +January 26, 1775. A petition of the merchants and tradesmen of the port +of Liverpool, was presented to the House, and read, setting forth: "That +an extensive and most important trade has been long carried on, from +said town to the continent and islands of America; and that the exports +from thence infinitely exceed in value the imports from America, from +whence an immense debt arises, and remains due to the British merchant; +and that every article which the laborer, manufacturer, or more +ingenious artist, can furnish for use, convenience, or luxury, makes a +part in these exports, for the consumption of the American; and that +those demands, as important in amount as various in quality, have for +many seasons been so constant, regular, and diffusive, that they are now +become essential to the flourishing state of all their manufactures, and +of consequence to every ndividual in these kingdoms; and that the bread +of thousands in Great Britain, principally and immediately depends upon +this branch of commerce, of which a temporary interruption will reduce +the hand of industry to idleness and want, and a longer cessation of it +would sink the now opulent trader in indigence and ruin; and that at +this particular season of the year, the petitioners have been accustomed +to send to North America many ships wholly laden with the products of +Britain; but by the unhappy differences at present subsisting, from +whatever source they flow, the trade to these parts is entirely at a +stand; and that the present loss, though great, is nothing, when +compared with the dreadful mischiefs which will certainly ensue, if some +effectual remedy is not speedily applied to this spreading malady, which +must otherwise involve the West India islands, and the trade to Africa, +in the complicated ruin; but that the petitioners can still, with +pleasing hopes, look up to the British Parliament, from whom they trust +that these unhappy divisions will speedily be healed, mutual confidence +and credit restored, and the trade of Britain again flourishing with +undecaying vigor."[110] + +March 16, 1775. To the question "From what places do the sugar colonies +draw food for subsistence?" the answer, given before Parliament, was, in +part, as follows: "I confine myself at present to necessary food. +Ireland furnishes a large quantity of salted beef, pork, butter, and +herrings, but no grain. North America supplies all the rest, both corn +and provisions. North America is truly the granary of the West Indies; +from whence they draw the great quantities of flour and biscuit for the +use of one class of people, and of Indian corn for the support of all +the others; for the support, not of man only, but of every animal . . . +. . . North America also furnishes the West Indies with rice . . . . . . +North America not only furnishes the West Indies with bread, but with +meat, with sheep, with poultry, and some live cattle; but the demand for +these is infinitely short of the demand for the salted beef, pork, and +fish. Salted fish, (if the expression may be permitted in contrast with +bread,) is the meat of all the lower ranks in Barbadoes and the Leeward +Islands. It is the meat of all the slaves in the West Indies. Nor is it +disdained by persons in better condition. The North American colonies +also furnishes the sugar colonies with salt from Turks' Island, Sal +Tortuga, and Anguilla; although these islands are themselves a part of +the West Indies. The testimony which some experience has enabled me to +bear, you will find confirmed, Sir, by official accounts. The same +accounts will distinguish the source of the principal, the great supply +of corn and provisions. They will fix it precisely in the middle +colonies of North America; in those colonies who have made a public +agreement in their Congress, to withhold all their supplies after the +tenth of next September. How far that agreement may be precipitated in +its execution, may be retarded or frustrated, it is for the wisdom of +Parliament to consider: but if it is persisted in, I am well founded to +say, that nothing will save Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands from the +dreadful consequences of absolute famine. I repeat, the famine will not +be prevented. The distress will fall upon them suddenly; they will be +overwhelmed with it, before they can turn themselves about to look for +relief. What a scene! when rapine, stimulated by hunger, has broken down +all screens, confounded the rich with the poor, and leveled the freeman +with his slave! The distress will be sudden. The body of the people do +not look forward to distant events; if they should do this, they will +put their trust in the wisdom of Parliament. Suppose them to be less +confident in the wisdom of Parliament, they are destitute of the means +of purchasing an extraordinary stock. Suppose them possessed of the +means; a very extraordinary stock is not to be found at market. There is +a plain reason in the nature of the thing, which prevents any +extraordinary stock at market, and which would forbid the planter from +laying it in, if there was; it is, that the objects of it are +perishable. In those climates, the flour will not keep over six or eight +weeks; the Indian corn decays in three months; and all the North +American provisions are fit only for present use."[111] + +To the question, what are the advantages of the sugar colonies to Great +Britain? it was answered: "The advantage is not that the profits all +centre here; it is, that it creates, in the course of attaining those +profits, a commerce and navigation in which multitudes of your people, +and millions of your money are employed; it is that the support which +the sugar colonies received in one shape, they give in another. In +proportion to their dependence on North America, and upon Ireland, they +enable North America and Ireland to trade with Great Britain. By their +dependence upon Great Britain for hands to push the culture of the +sugar-cane, they uphold the trade of Great Britain to Africa. A trade +which in the pursuit of negroes, as the principal, if not the only +intention of the adventurer, brings home ivory and gold as secondary +objects. In proportion as the sugar colonies consume, or cause to be +consumed, among their neighbors, Asiatic commodities, they increase the +trade of the English East India Company. In this light I see the India +goods which are carried to the coast of Guinea.[112] + +To the question, what proportion of land in the Leeward Islands, being +applied to raising provisions, would supply the negroes with provisions, +on an estate of two hundred hogsheads, for instance? it was answered: +"The native products of the Islands are very uncertain; all so, but +Guinea corn; therefore, much more land would be applied to this purpose +than would be necessary to raise the supply for the regular constant +consumption. They must provide against accidents, such as hurricanes, +excess of wet weather, or of dry weather, the climate being very +uncertain; it is, therefore, impossible to answer this question +precisely; but this I can say, that if they were obliged to raise their +own food, that their food then must be their principal object, and sugar +only a secondary object; it would be but the trifle, which provisions +are now."[113] + +The testimony in reference to Jamaica, was very similar to that quoted +in relation to Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands; except that as +Jamaica had more unimproved land, and greater diversity of soil and +climate, it might, in time, stand prepared to meet the shock. But as the +emergency was likely to be sudden and unexpected, much suffering must +ensue in the outset of the non-intercourse policy. + +It is only necessary to add a few remarks, from the speech of Mr. +Glover, in summing up the testimony. He said: "From this ground see what +is put in hazard; not merely a monied profit, but our bulwark of +defense, our power in offense--the acts and industry of our Nation. +Instead of thousands and tens of thousands of families in comfort, a +navigation extensive and enlarging, the value and rents of lands yearly +rising, wealth abounding, and at hand for further improvements, see or +foresee, that this third of our whole commerce, that sole basis of our +Empire, and this third in itself the best, once lost, carries with it a +proportion of our national faculties, our treasure, our public revenue, +and the value of land, succeeded in its fall by a multiplication of +taxes to reinstate that revenue, an increasing burden on every +increasing estate, decreasing by the reduced demand of its produce for +the support of Manufactures, and menaced with a heavier calamity +still--the diminution of our Marine, of our seamen, of our general +population, by the emigration of useful subjects, strengthening that +very country you wish to humble, and weakening this in the sight of +rival powers, who wish to humble us. + +"To recapitulate the heads of that material evidence delivered before +you, would be tedious in me, unnecessary in itself. Leaving it, +therefore, to its own powerful impression, I here add only, in a general +mode of my own, that of the inhabitants of those Islands, above four +hundred thousand are blacks, from whose labor the immense riches there, +so distinctly proved at your bar, are derived, with such immense +advantage to these kingdoms. How far these multitudes, if their +intercourse with North America is stopped, may be exposed to famine, you +have heard. One-half in Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, say one +hundred thousand negroes, in value at least twenty millions of dollars, +possibly, it grieves me to say probably, may perish. The remainder must +divert to provisions the culture of the produce so valuable to Great +Britain. The same must be the practice in great part throughout Jamaica +and the new settled acquisitions. They may feel a distress just short of +destruction, but must divert for subsistence so much labor as, in +proportion, will shorten their rich product."[114] + +The North American colonies could not have devised a measure so alarming +to Great Britain, and so well calculated to force Parliament into the +repeal of her obnoxious laws, as this policy of non-intercourse. It +would deprive the West Indies of their ordinary supplies of provisions, +and force them to suspend their usual cultivation, to produce their own +food. It would cause not only the cessation of imports from Great +Britain into the West Indies, on account of the inability of its people +to pay, but would, at once, check all demand for slaves, both in the +sugar Islands and in North America--thus creating a loss, in the +African trade alone, of three and a half millions of dollars, and +putting in peril one-half of the commerce of England. + +We are now prepared to introduce the resolutions, passed by the North +American colonies, on the subject of the slave trade and slavery. It is +not considered necessary to burden our pages with a repetition of the +whole of the accompanying resolutions. They embraced every item of +foreign commodities, excepting in a few instances where medicines, +saltpetre, and other necessaries, were exempted from the prohibition. In +a few counties, though they condemned the slave trade, they excepted +negroes, and desired to retain the privilege of procuring them. This was +in the early part of the movement. When the Continental Congress came to +act upon it, no such exemption was made. + +On May 17, 1774, the citizens of Providence, Rhode Island, met and +acquiesced in the Boston resolutions. Their proceedings closed with this +declaration: "Whereas, the inhabitants of America are engaged in the +preservation of their rights and liberties; and as personal liberty is +an essential part of the natural rights of mankind, the deputies of the +town are directed to use their endeavors to obtain an act of the General +Assembly, prohibiting the importation of negro slaves in this colony; +and that all negroes born in the colony should be free at a certain +age." + +Prince George county, Virginia, June 1774, responded to Boston, and +added this resolution: "_Resolved_, That the African trade is injurious +to this colony, obstructs the population of it by freemen, prevents +manufacturers and other useful emigrants from Europe from settling among +us, and occasions an annual balance of trade against the colony."[115] + +Culpepper County, Virginia, July 7, 1774 acquiesced in the +non-intercourse policy, and added this resolution: "_Resolved_, That the +importing slaves and convict servants, is injurious to this colony, as +it obstructs the population of it with freemen and useful manufacturers, +and that we will not buy such slave or convict hereafter to be +imported."[116] + +The Provincial Convention, at Charleston, South Carolina, July 6, 7, 8, +1774, resolved to acquiesce in the Boston non-intercourse measures, and +the merchants agreed not to import goods or slaves, until the grievances +were redressed.[117] + +Nansemond County Virginia, July 11, 1774, gave full assent to the Boston +measures, and also "_Resolved_, That the African trade is injurious to +this colony, obstructs the population of it by freemen, prevents +manufacturers and other useful emigrants from Europe from settling among +us, and occasions an annual increase of the balance of trade against the +colony ."[118] + +Caroline County, Virginia, July 14, 1774, cordially acceded to the +Boston policy, and also "_Resolved_, That the African trade is injurious +to this colony, obstructs our population by freemen, manufacturers, and +others, who would emigrate from Europe and settle here, and occasions a +balance of trade against the country that ought to be associated +against."[119] + +Surry County, Virginia, July 6, 1774, decided to sustain the Bostonians +and also "_Resolved_, That as the population of this colony, with +freemen and useful manufacturers, is greatly obstructed by the +importation of slaves and convict servants, we will not purchase any +such slaves or servants, hereafter to be imported."[120] + +Fairfax County, Virginia, July 18, 1774, took ground strongly with +Boston, and further "_Resolved_, That it is the opinion of this meeting, +that during our present difficulties and distress, no slaves ought to be +imported into any of the British colonies on the continent; and we take +this opportunity of declaring our most earnest wishes to see an entire +stop forever put so such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade."[121] + +Hanover county, Virginia, July 20, 1774, sustained the Boston +resolutions, and also "_Resolved_, That the African trade for slaves, we +consider as most dangerous to virtue and the welfare of this country; we +therefore most earnestly wish to see it totally discouraged."[122] + +Prince Ann County, Virginia, July 27, 1784, adopted the Boston policy, +most distinctly, and also "_Resolved_, That our Burgesses be instructed +to oppose the importation of slaves and convicts as injurious to this +colony, by preventing the population of it by freemen and useful +manufacturers."[123] + +The Virginia Convention of Delegates, which met at Williamsburgh, August +1, 1774, fully indorsed the non-intercourse policy, medicines excepted, +and in their resolutions declared: "We will neither ourselves import, +nor purchase any slave or slaves imported by any other person, after the +first day of November next, either from Africa, the West Indies, or any +other place."[124] + +The North Carolina Convention of Delegates, which met at Newbern, August +24, 1774, fully indorsed the non-intercourse policy, and also passed +this among their other resolutions: "_Resolved_, That we will not import +any slave or slaves, or purchase any slave or slaves, imported or +brought into this Province by others, from any part of the world, after +the first day of November next."[125] + +And, finally, the Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia, Sept. +5, 1774, in passing its non-importation, non-exportation, and +non-consumption Agreement, included the following as the second article +of that document: + +"That we will neither import nor purchase any slave imported after the +first day of December next; after which time we will wholly discontinue +the slave trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will +we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manfactures to those +who are concerned in it."[126] + +To afford a clear view of the reasons which prompted the colonies to +adopt such stringent measures to compel Parliament to repeal its +oppressive acts, it is only necessary to quote the very brief summary of +grievances of which they complained, as drawn up by the Pennsylvania +Convention, which met in Philadelphia, July 15, 1774: + +"The legislative authority claimed by Parliament over these colonies, +consists of two heads: first, a general power of internal legislation; +and, secondly, a power of regulating our trade; both, she contends, are +unlimited. Under the first may be included, among other powers, those of +forbidding us to worship our Creator in the manner we think most +acceptable to him--imposing taxes on us--collecting them by their own +officers--enforcing the collection by Admiralty Courts, or Courts +Martial--abolishing trials by jury--establishing a standing army among +us in time of peace, without consent of our Assemblies--paying them with +our money--seizing our young men for recruits--changing constitutions of +government--stopping the press--declaring any action, even a meeting of +the smallest number, to consider of peaceable modes to obtain redress of +grievances, high treason--taking colonists to Great Britain to be +tried--exempting 'murderers' of colonists from punishment, by carrying +them to England, to answer indictments found in the colonies--shutting +up our ports--prohibiting us from slitting iron to build our houses, +making hats to cover our heads, or clothing to cover the rest of our +bodies, etc."[127] + +It was in the midst of grievances such as these, and of efforts of +redress such as the adoption of the Non-Intercourse Agreement was +expected to afford, that the resolutions against the slave trade and +slavery were passed. What, then, was their true import? Did the patriots +of the Revolution contemplate the enfranchisement of the negro, in the +event of securing their own independence? Did their views of free +institutions include the idea that barbarism and civilization could +coalesce and co-exist in harmony and safety? Or did they not hold, as a +great fundamental truth, that a high degree of intelligence and moral +principle was essential to the success of free government? And was it +not on this very principle, that they opposed the further introduction +of negroes from Africa, and afterwards, by a special clause in the +Constitution, excluded the Indians from citizenship? + +The resolutions which have been quoted, have given rise to much +discussion, and have often been misrepresented. By severing them from +their connection with the circumstances under which they were adopted, +and associating them with the phrase in the Declaration of Independence, +that "all men are created equal," the impression has been made that the +negroes were to be included in the rights therein claimed. But as they +have not been made participants in the benefits of the Revolution, it +has been argued that the nation has broken its covenant engagements, and +must expect that the judgments of Heaven will be poured out upon her. + +Now, what are the facts? The colonists were aiming at a high degree of +mental and moral culture, and were desirous of developing the resources +of the country, by encouraging the influx of freemen from Europe, and +especially of mechanics and manufacturers. They were anxiously looking +forward to the time when they could cast off the yoke of oppression +which the mother country had forced upon their necks. The multiplication +of the negro population was considered as a barrier to the success of +their measures, and as most dangerous to virtue and the welfare of the +country. It was increasing the indebtedness of the citizens to foreign +merchants, and augmenting the balance of trade against the colonies. But +there was no settled policy in reference to the future disposition of +the colored population. Feelings of pity were manifested toward them, +and some expressed themselves in favor of emancipation. The Continental +Congress, in addition to its action in the Non-Intercourse Agreement, +_Resolved_, April 6, 1776, "That no slaves be imported into any of the +thirteen United Colonies."[128] The Delaware Convention, August 27, +1776, adopted, as the 26th article of its Constitution, that "No person +hereafter imported into this State from Africa, ought to be held in +slavery on any pretense whatever; and no negro, Indian, or mulatto slave +ought to be brought into this State, for sale, from any part of the +world."[129] + +There was more of meaning in this action, than the resolution, standing +alone, would seem to indicate. On the 11th of July, preceding, Gen. +Washington wrote to the Massachusetts Assembly, that the enemy had +excited the slaves and savages to arms against him;[130] and on November +7th, 1775, Lord Dunmore had issued a proclamation, declaring the +emancipation of all slaves "that were able and willing to bear arms, +they joining his Majesty's troops, as soon as may be, for the more +speedy reducing the colonists to their duty to his Majesty's crown and +dignity."[131] + +Previous to the commencement of hostilities, the resolutions of the +colonists, adverse to the slave trade and slavery, were designed to +operate against British commerce; but, after that event, the measures +adopted had reference, mainly, to the prevention of the increase of a +population that had been, and might continue to be, employed against the +liberties of the colonies. That such a course formed a part of the +policy of Great Britain, is beyond dispute; and that she considered the +prosecution of the slave trade as necessary to her purposes, was clearly +indicated by the Earl of Dartmouth, who declared, as a sufficient reason +for turning a deaf ear to the remonstrances of the colonists against the +further importation of slaves, that "Negroes cannot become +republicans--they will be a power in our hands to restrain the unruly +colonists." That such motives prompted England to prosecute the +introduction of slaves into the colonies, was fully believed by American +statesmen; and their views were expressed, by Mr. Jefferson, in a clause +in the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, but which was +afterward omitted. + +That the emancipation of the negroes was not contemplated, by those in +general, who voted for the resolutions quoted, is evident from the +subsequent action of Virginia, where the greater portion of the meetings +were held. They could not have intended to enfranchise men, whom they +declared to be obstacles in the way of public prosperity, and as +dangerous to the virtues of the people. Nor could the signers of the +Declaration of Independence have designed to include the Indians and +negroes in the assertion that all men are created equal, because these +same men, in afterwards adopting the Constitution, deliberately +excluded the Indians from citizenship, and forever fixed the negro in a +condition of servitude, under that Constitution, by including him, as a +slave, in the article fixing the ratio of Congressional representation +on the basis of five negroes equaling three white men. The phrase--"all +men are created equal"--could, therefore, have meant nothing more than +the declaration of a general principle, asserting the equality of the +colonists, before God, with those who claimed it as a divine right to +lord it over them. The Indians were men as well as the negroes. Both +were within the territory over which the United Colonies claimed +jurisdiction. The exclusion of both from citizenship under the +Constitution, is conclusive that neither were intended to be embraced in +the Declaration of Independence. + +That the colonists were determined, at any sacrifice, to achieve their +own liberties, even at the sacrifice of their slave property, seems to +have been the opinion of intelligent Englishmen. Burke, in his speech +already quoted, thus dissipates the hopes of those who expected to find +less resistance at the South than at the North. + +"There is, however, a circumstance attending the [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. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank +and privilege. 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, among them, like something that is more noble +and liberal. I do not mean, sir, to commend the peculiar morality of +this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it; but I +can not 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. Such +were all the ancient commonwealths; such were our Gothic ancestors; such +in our days were the Poles; and such will be all masters of slaves, who +are not slaves themselves. In such a people the haughtiness of +domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and +renders it invincible." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[106] See American Archives, vol i. folio 1749. + +[107] His estimates are in pounds sterling. It is here, for sake of +uniformity, reduced to dollars, the pound being estimated at five +dollars. + +[108] Investigations before the Committee on the Petition of the West +India Planters. See American Archives, vol i. folio 1736. + +[109] American Archives, vol. i. folio 1519. + +[110] American Archives, vol. i. folio 1531. + +[111] Testimony of Geo. Walker, Esq, American Archives, vol. i. folios +1723-24. + +[112] Testimony of Geo. Walker, Esq, American Archives, vol. i. folios +1728-29, + +[113] Testimony of Geo. Walker, Esq, American Archives, vol. i. folio +1730. + +[114] American Archives, vol i. folio 1737. + +[115] American Archives, vol. i. folio 494. + +[116] American Archives, vol. i. folio 523. + +[117] American Archives, vol. i. folio 525. + +[118] American Archives, vol. i. folio 530. + +[119] American Archives, vol. i. folio 541. + +[120] American Archives, vol. i. folio 593. + +[121] American Archives, vol. i. folio 600. + +[122] American Archives, vol. i. folio 616. + +[123] American Archives, vol. i. folio 641. + +[124] American Archives, vol. i. folio 687. + +[125] American Archives, vol. i. folio 735. + +[126] American Archives, vol. i. folio 914. + +[127] American Archives, vol i. folio 573. + +[128] American Archives, 4th series, vol. iii. folio 11. + +[129] American Archives, 5th series, vol. i. folio 1178. + +[130] American Archives, 5th series, vol. i. folio 192. + +[131] American Archives, 4th series, vol. iii. folio 1385. + + + + +FREE COLORED POPULATION. + + +WHEN the author was carefully collating the facts from the Record of +MAJOR LACHLAN, in reference to the fugitive slaves in Canada, he was not +aware that he should be so fortunate as to obtain, from other sources, +any testimony in their support. Canada has all along been a sealed book +to the public of the States, so far as the condition of blacks, who had +escaped thither, were concerned. Since the completion of the +stereotyping of the volume, and just as it was about ready for the +press, the _New York Herald_, of January 5, reached us. It embraces a +detailed report on this important subject, which was prepared by a +special agent, who visited the settlements he describes. It is very +interesting to find, that the opinions and predictions of Major Lachlan, +made in 1841 to 1850, as to the results of colored immigration into +Canada, should be so fully sustained and fulfilled, by a report upon the +actual facts in 1859. + +It may be remarked, here, that we believe a crisis has arrived in the +history of the free colored people of the United States, which demands +the most calm and serious consideration; and we would remind the more +intelligent colored men, that the honor of conducting their fellow-men +in the road to a high civilization, will be as great as are the honors +heaped upon the few of the white race, who have been the master spirits +in bringing up their fellow-men to the pinnacle of greatness upon which +they now stand. More than one field, for the accomplishment of this +object, now presents itself; and, as the darkest hour is said to be that +which immediately proceeds the dawn of day; it may be hoped that the +lowering clouds now overshadowing their prospects, will soon be +dissipated by a brighter sun, that shall reveal the highway of their +deliverance. + +But to the extracts from the _Herald_. After giving a detailed account +of the whole subject of negro immigration into Canada, together with the +particulars of the results of the several attempts at founding +settlements for the refugees, the _Herald's_ reporter sums up the whole +matter thus: + + +"THE SOCIAL AND MORAL EFFECT OF THE IMPORTATION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES INTO +CANADA. + +"While, as we have seen, the British abolitionists in Canada are +laboring with the republican abolitionists of America to entice away the +slave property of the South, and to foment a servile insurrection in the +Southern States, and a disruption of the Union, there are men of sense +and of honor among our neighbors over the borders, who deplore this +interference of their countrymen in the affairs of the republic, and +appreciate the terrible catastrophe to which, if persevered in, it must +eventually lead. I conversed with a prominent abolitionist in Chatham, +holding a public position of trust and honor, who told me that the first +suggestion of the Harper's Ferry attack was made to Brown by British +abolitionists in Chatham, and who assured me that he had himself +subscribed money to aid Brown in raising men for the service in Ohio and +elsewhere in the States. In reply to some questions I put to him, he +stated that he and his associates on the other side looked with +expectation and hope to the day, not far distant, when a disruption of +the Union would take place; for that, in that case, the British +abolitionists would join the republican abolitionists of America in open +warfare upon the slaveholding States. When I reminded him that the +patriotic men of the North would raise a barrier of brave hearts, +through which such traitors would find it difficult to reach the +Southern States, he replied--'Oh, we have often talked over and +calculated upon that; but you forget that we should have the negroes of +the South to help us in their own homes against their oppressors, with +the knife and the fire-brand.' + +"I conversed on the other hand with conservative, high-minded men, who +expressed the most serious apprehension that the bold and unjustifiable +association of Canadian abolitionists with the negro stealers and +insurrectionists of America would eventually plunge the two countries +into war. + +"We have seen that the immigration of fugitive slaves into Canada is +unattended by any social or moral good to the negro. It is injurious, +also, to the white citizens of Canada, inasmuch as it depresses the +value of their property, diminishes their personal comfort and safety, +and destroys the peace and good order of the community. Mr. Sheriff +Mercer, of Kent county, assured me that the criminal statistics of that +county prove that nine-tenths of the offenses against the laws are +committed by colored persons. The same proportion holds good in Essex +county, and the fact is the more startling when it is remembered that +the blacks do not at present number more than one-fourth of the whole +population. + +"In the township of Anderdon, Essex county, this fall, nearly every +sheep belonging to the white farmers has been stolen. The fact was +presented in the return of the Grand Jury of the county, and some twelve +negro families, men, women and children, were committed to jail on the +charge of sheep stealing. The cases of petit larceny are incredibly +numerous in every township containing negro settlements, and it is a +fact that frequently the criminal calendars would be bare of a +prosecution but for the negro prisoners. + +"The offenses of the blacks are not wholly confined to those of a light +character. Occasionally some horrible crime startles the community, and +is almost invariably attended by a savage ferocity peculiar to the +vicious negro. If a murder is committed by a black, it is generally of +an aggravated and brutal nature. The offense of rape is unfortunately +peculiarly prevalent among the negroes. Nearly every assize is marked by +a charge of this character. A prominent lawyer of the Province, who has +held the position of public prosecutor, told me that his greatest dread +was of this offense, for that experience had taught him that no white +woman was safe at all times, from assault, and those who were rearing +daughters in that part of Canada, might well tremble at the danger by +which they are threatened. He told me that he never saw a really brutal +look on the human face until he beheld the countenances of the negroes +charged with the crime of rape. When the lust comes over them they are +worse than the wild beast of the forest. Last year, in broad daylight, a +respectable white woman, while walking in the public road within the +town of Chatham, was knocked down by a black savage and violated. This +year, near Windsor, the wife of a wealthy farmer, while driving alone +in a wagon, was stopped by a negro in broad daylight, dragged out into +the road, and criminally assaulted in a most inhuman manner. It was +impossible to hear the recital of these now common crimes without a +shudder. + +"The fugitive slaves go into Canada as beggars, and the mass of them +commit larceny and lay in jail until they become lowered and debased, +and ready for worse crimes. Nor does there seem at present a prospect of +education doing much to better their condition, for they do not appear +anxious to avail themselves of school privileges as a general rule. The +worse class of blacks are too poor and too indolent to clothe their +children in the winter, and their services are wanted at home in the +summer. The better class affect airs as soon as they become tolerably +well to do, and refuse to send their little ones to any but white +schools. In Windsor there are two public colored schools, but the +negroes of that place choose to refuse to allow their children to attend +these institutions, and sent them to the schools for whites. They were +not admitted, and two of the black residents, named Jones and Green, +tested the question at law, to try whether the trustees or teachers had +a right to exclude their children. It was decided that the trustees had +such power, when separate schools were provided for colored persons. + +"That property is seriously depreciated in all neighborhoods in which +the negroes settle is a well known fact. Mr. S. S. Macdonnel, a resident +of Windsor, and a gentleman of high social and political position, is +the owner of a large amount of real estate in that place. The Bowyer +farm, a large tract of land belonging to him, was partitioned into lots +some few years since, and sold at auction. Some of the lots were bid in +by negroes of means, among others, by a mulatto named De Baptiste, +residing in Detroit. As soon as the white purchasers found that negroes +were among the buyers, they threw up their lots, and since then the +value of the property has been much depressed. In several instances Mr. +Macdonnel paid premiums to the negroes to give up their purchases, where +they had happened to buy in the midst of white citizens. At a subsequent +sale of another property, cut up into very fine building lots, by the +same gentleman, one of the conditions of sale announced was, that no bid +should be received from colored persons. De Baptiste attended and bid in +a lot. When his bid was refused, he endeavored to break up the auction +in a row, by the aid of other negroes, and failing in this, brought an +action at law against Mr. Macdonnel. This Mr. M. prepared to defend, but +it was never pressed to a trial. These incidents, together with the +attempt of the Windsor negroes to force their children into the schools +for whites, illustrate the impudent assumption of the black, as soon as +he becomes independent, and the deeply seated antipathy of the whites in +Canada to their dark skinned neighbors. At the same time it is +observable that the 'free negro' in Canada--that is, the black who was +free in the States--endeavors to hold his head above the 'fugitive,' and +has a profound contempt for the escaped slave. + +"As I desired to obtain the views of intelligent Canadians upon the +important questions before me, I requested a prominent and wealthy +citizen of Windsor to favor me with a written statement of his +observations on the effect of the negro immigration and received the +following hastily prepared and brief communication, in reply. The +opinions expressed are from one of the most accomplished gentlemen in +the Province, and are worthy of serious consideration, although the +public position he occupies renders it proper that I should not make +public use of his name:-- + + + "'WINDSOR, Dec. 23, 1859. + + "'MY DEAR SIR--In reply to your request, I beg to + say that I would cheerfully give you my views at + length upon the important topics discussed at our + interview, did not my pressing engagements just + now occupy too much of my time to make it possible + that I should do more than hastily sketch down + such thoughts as occur to me in the few moments I + can devote to the subject. + + "'The constant immigration of fugitives from + slavery into the two western counties of the + Province of Canada, Kent and Essex, has become a + matter for serious consideration to the landed + proprietors in those counties, both as it effects + the value and salability of real estate, and as + rendering the locality an undesirable place of + abode. + + "'It is certain that ever since large numbers of + fugitive slaves have, by means of the organization + known here and in the States as "the Underground + Railroad," and of such associations as the Dawn + and Elgin Institutes and the Refugee Home Society, + been annually introduced into these two counties, + no settlers from the old country, from the States, + or from the eastern part of Canada, have taken up + lands there. And there is every reason to assign + the fact of there being a large colored + population, and that population constantly on the + increase, as the chief cause why these counties do + not draw a portion at least of the many seeking + Western homes. + + "'Kent and Essex have been justly styled "the + Garden of Upper Canada." The soil in most parts of + the counties cannot be excelled in richness and + fertility, and the climate is mild and delightful. + There are thousands of acres open for sale at a + moderate price, but it now seldom happens that a + lot of wild land is taken up by a new comer. The + farmer who has achieved the clearing of the land + that years ago was settled upon may wish to extend + his possessions for the sake of his sons who are + growing up, by the acquisition of an adjoining or + neighboring piece of wild land; but seldom or + never is the uncleared forest intruded upon now by + the encampment of emigrant families. + + "'It may be broadly asserted, first, in general, + that the existence of a large colored population + in Kent and Essex has prevented many white + settlers from locating there who otherwise would + have made a home in one of those counties; and, + secondly, that in particular instances it + constantly occurs that the sale of a lot of land + is injuriously affected by reason of the near + settlement of colored people. + + "'Next, as to the general feeling of the gentry + and farmers who live in the midst of this + population: All regard it with dissatisfaction, + and with a foreboding--an uncomfortable + anticipation for the future, as they behold the + annual inpouring of a people with whom they have + few or no sympathies in common, many of whose + characteristics are obnoxious and bad, and who + have to make a commencement here, in the + development of their better nature, should they + possess any, from perhaps the lowest point to + which the human mind can be degraded, + intellectually and morally. + + "'There is undoubtedly hardly a well thinking + person whose heart is not touched with a feeling + of pity for the unfortunates who present + themselves as paupers, in the name of liberty, to + become denizens of our country. And it would, + doubtless, be a great moral spectacle to witness + these escaped slaves, as they are sometimes + pictured by professional philanthropists, + rendering themselves happy in their freedom, + acquiring property, surrounding themselves with + the comforts, if not the elegancies of life, and + advancing themselves intellectually, socially and + politically. But, alas for human nature! If the + negro is really fitted by the Creator to enjoy + freedom as we enjoy it, the habits of mind and of + action, however baneful they may be, that have + been long exercised, are not to be suddenly broken + or changed; and the slave who was idle, and lying, + and thievish in the South, will not obtain + opposite qualities forthwith by crossing the line + that makes him free. + + "'This is not said in a spirit of malevolence + toward the colored people that are here and are + brought here, but as presenting their case as it + really is, and as explaining the position in which + residents of these counties are placed, or will be + placed, if this continuous flow from the slave + States is poured in by means of the organizations + and societies formed for that purpose in many of + the Northern States of America, and fostered and + aided by many indiscreet men in our own country. + + "'The main argument in favor of the free school + system is, that it is a benefit to all to be + surrounded by an intelligent and moral community, + and for such a benefit every property holder + should be glad to contribute his quota. Is there, + then, any need of asking the question, if the + people of these counties desire the sort of + population that comes to them from the Southern + States? + + "'What is the condition of the negroes on their + arrival here? What their progress in the + acquisition of property and knowledge, and their + conduct as citizens? + + "'There are very few indeed who arrive here with + sufficient means at once to acquire a farm, or to + enter into business of any kind. The great mass of + them may be called paupers, claiming aid from the + societies through whose agency they are brought + out. Some of these societies hold large tracts of + land, which they sub-divide and sell to new comers + upon long time, but with conditions as to + clearing, residence, etc., that are difficult of + observance. I believe there is much trouble in + carrying out this plan, arising in some measure + from the peculiarities of negro character--a want + of constancy or steadiness of purpose, as well as + from a feeling of distrust as to their having the + land secured to them. If the land is not purchased + from any of these societies, a parcel of ten or + fifteen colored families get together and purchase + and settle upon some other spot. + + "While there are instances of colored men + accumulating property here, the great mass of them + fail even in securing a living without charity or + crime. They have but little forethought for the + future, and care only to live lazily in the + present. The criminal records of the county show + that nine-tenths of the offenses are committed by + the colored population, and I think the experience + of every citizen who resides near a settlement + will testify to their depredating habits. + + "'I have given you thus hurriedly and + disconnectedly my views on these subjects. They + are important enough to demand more time and + consideration in their discussion, but I believe + the opinions I have advanced you will find shared + in by a large proportion of the residents of the + Province. I am, my dear sir, faithfully yours.' + ----- -----. + +"In addition to the testimony of the writer of the above communication, +my views upon the subject under examination were confirmed by the +valuable opinion of the Hon. Colonel Prince, the representative of the +county in the Provincial Parliament for a long term of years. Colonel +Prince has bestowed much consideration upon the negro question, and he +has practical experience of the condition and conduct of the colored +population. In June, 1858, in the course of a debate in the Legislative +Council, Col. Prince was reported to have spoken as follows: + +"'In the county of Essex the greatest curse that befell them was the +swarm of blacks that infested that county. They were perfectly inundated +with them. Some of the finest farmers of the county of Kent had actually +left their beautiful farms, so as not to be near this terrible nuisance. +If they looked over the criminal calendars of the country they would see +that the majority of names were those of colored people. They were a +useless, worthless, thriftless set of people, too lazy and indolent to +work, and too proud to be taught. . . . . Were the blacks to swarm the +country and annoy them with their rascalities? Honorable gentlemen might +speak feelingly for the negroes, but they had never lived among them as +he had done. Notwithstanding all that he said about them, they would +say, if asked on the subject, that they had no better friend than Col. +Prince. But there was no use in trying to get the white man to live with +them. It was a thing they would not do. There was a great sympathy +always expressed for the black man who escaped from the slave life; but +he had lived with them twenty-five years, and had come to the conclusion +that the black man was born for servitude, and was not fit for any thing +else. He might listen to the morbid philanthropy of honorable gentlemen +in favor of the negro; but they might as well try to change the spots of +the leopard as to change the character of the blacks. They would still +retain their idle and thievish propensities.' + +"While Col. Prince claims that he was very inaccurately reported, and +that he never said one word in favor of slavery, which he professes to +abhor with a holy horror, he yet adheres to the opinion that the colored +race is not fit to live and mix in freedom with the whites. He deplores +deeply the action of such of his countrymen as improperly interfere in +the affairs of the States, and condemns the lawless running off of +slaves from the South, and the attempts to raise servile insurrection in +the slaveholding States. As a constitutional British gentleman, he +reveres the laws, and believes that where they are bad, or where the +constitution of a country is unwise, the remedy lies in the power of the +people by legal means. He sees the evil effect, morally and socially, of +the influx of fugitive slaves into Canada, and would shut them out if he +could. He knows that the negroes form an enormous portion of the +criminals of his county, and the county of Kent, and he is doubly +annoyed that men who come from servitude to freedom should abuse their +privileges as the negroes do. He admits that every distinct attempt to +make a settlement of negroes self-supporting and prosperous, has failed, +and he believes that the negro is not yet fit for self-government, and +requires over him a guiding, if not a master's hand. + +Col. Prince is a gentleman of the old school--hale, hearty and +whole-souled--and does not fear to express the sentiments he entertains. + +"The lessons taught by an examination into the action of the Canadian +abolitionists, and of the condition and prospects of the fugitive slaves +in the Province, should be made useful to the American people. The +history of the past proves that Great Britain would gladly destroy the +Union of the States, which makes the American republic a leading power +among nations. As in days past she sought to accomplish this object +through the instrumentality of traitors and of the foes of the Union, so +now she seeks aid in her designs from the republican abolition enemies +of the confederacy in our own States. The intrigues of the British +emissaries in Canada should stay the hand of every man who fancies that +in helping to rob the South of its slaves he is performing an act of +humanity; for they should teach him that he is but helping on the +designs of those who look eagerly to the slavery agitation and the +sectional passions engendered thereby, to accomplish a disruption of the +Union, and encompass the failure of our experiment of free +government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +"Let our merchants and our farmers carefully consider these facts, and +then reflect upon what they are required by the abolition agitators to +do. To what end are the systematized negro stealing of the North, the +attempts to incite insurrection at the South, and their natural results, +a dissolution of the Union, to lead? Are we to render New York and the +other free States subject to the same deplorable evils as afflict the +western counties of Canada? Are our Northern farmers willing to have the +value of their lands depreciated, and to subject their crops and stock +to constant depredations by inviting here the same class of neighbors +that at present deplete whole Canadian townships of their sheep? Unless +we desire to accomplish such results, why, under a mistaken idea of +charity to the negro, do we take him from a life of usefulness and +content at the South to plant him in freedom and suffering at the North? +Why do we consent to help forward, directly or indirectly, an agitation +that can only incite a disruption of the Union and bring upon us the +very evils we deplore?" + + + + +IMPORTANT DECISIONS. + + +Since the volume was in type, the Supreme Court of Ohio has made a +decision of great importance to the free colored people. We copy from +the _Law Journal_, December, 1859: + + +"NEGROES AND THE COMMON SCHOOLS. + +"The Supreme Court of Ohio, on Tuesday, on a question before them +involving the right of _colored_ children to be admitted into the Common +Schools of the State, decided that the law of the State interfered with +no right of colored children on the subject, and that they were not, +therefore, entitled of _right_ to the admission demanded. The following +is the reported statement of the case: + +"'Enos Van Camp _vs._ Board of Equalization of incorporated village of +Logan, Hocking County, Ohio. Error to District Court of Hocking County. + +"'Peck J. held: + +"'1. That the statute of March 14, 1853, 'to provide for the +reorganization, supervision, and maintenance of Common Schools, is a law +of _classification_ and not of _exclusion_, providing for the education +of _all_ youths within the prescribed ages, and that the words 'white' +and 'colored,' as used in said act, are used in their popular and +ordinary signification. + +"'2. That children of three-eighths African and five-eighths white +blood, but who are distinctly colored, and generally treated and +regarded as colored children by the community where they reside, are +not, _as of right_, entitled to admission into the Common Schools, set +apart under said act, for the instruction of white youths. + +"'Brinkherhoff, C. J., and Sutliff, J., dissented.'" + + + + +(From the Cincinnati Gazette.) + +MASSACHUSETTS BLACK MILITIA. + + +Last Wednesday a bill passed by the Massachusetts Legislature +authorizing colored persons to join military organizations, was vetoed +by Gov. Banks, on the ground that he believed the chapter in the bill +relating to the militia, in which the word "white" was stricken out, to +be unconstitutional. In this opinion he is sustained by the Supreme +Court and by the Attorney General. + +The matter was discussed in the House at some length, and the veto +sustained by a vote of 146 to 6. + +A new chapter was then introduced on leave, and it being precisely the +same as the other, except that the word "white" was restored, it passed +the House with but one negative vote. + +Under a suspension of the rules the new bill was then sent to the +Senate, where, after debate, it was passed by a vote of 11 to 15. + +The Governor signed the new bill, and the Legislature adjourned _sine +die_. + + + + +SOUTH-SIDE VIEWS. + + +REV. Dr. Fuller, of Baltimore, has written a long letter to Hon. Edward +Everett, in regard to the present state of things as regards slavery. We +subjoin two or three specimens:--_Cincinnati Gazette._ + +"In June, 1845, there assembled in Charleston a body of men, +representing almost all the wisdom and wealth of South Carolina. There +were present, also, delegates from Georgia, and I believe from other +States. It was a meeting of the association for the improvement, moral +and religious, of the slave population. The venerable Judge Huger +presided. Having been appointed to address that large and noble +audience, I did not hesitate to speak my whole mind: appealing to +masters to imitate the Antonines and other magnanimous Roman Emperors, +to become the guardians of their slaves, to have laws enacted protecting +them in their relations as husbands and wives and parents; to recognize +the rights which the Gospel asserts for servants as well as masters. In +a word, I pressed upon them the solemn obligations which their power +over these human beings imposed upon them--obligations only the more +sacred, because their power was so irresponsible. + +"That august assembly not only honored me with their attention, but +expressed their approval, the presiding officer concurring most +emphatically in the views submitted. + +"I need scarcely tell you that no such address would be regarded as wise +or prudent at this time. It is not that masters are less engaged in +seeking to promote the moral and religious well-being of their servants; +but measures which once could have been adopted most beneficially would +now only expose master and servant to the baneful influence of fanatical +intermeddling. + +"If any thing is certain, it is that the Gospel does not recognise +hatred, abuse, violence and blood as the means by which good is to be +done. The Gospel is a system of love. It assails no established social +relations, but it infuses love into the hearts of those who are bound +together, and thus unites them in affection." + +Again he says: + +"I think I speak accurately when I say, that hitherto every sacrifice +for the emancipation of slaves has been made by Southern men; and many +hundred thousand dollars have been expended in such liberations. The +North has wasted large sums for abolition books and lectures; for +addresses calculated to inflame the imaginations of women and children, +and to mislead multitudes of men--most excellent and pious--but utterly +ignorant as to the condition of things at the South. We now find, +indeed, that money has been contributed even for the purchase of deadly +weapons to be employed against the South, and to enlist the most +ferocious passions in secret crusades, compared with which an open +invasion by foreign enemies would be a blessing. I believe, however, +that not one cent has yet been given to set on foot--or even encourage +when proposed--any plausible enterprise for the benefit of the slave." + + * * * * * + +"I do now believe that the guardianship of a kind master is at this time +a great blessing to the African. If emancipation is ever to take place, +it will be gradually, and under the mild, but resistless influence of +the Gospel. Whether slavery be an evil or not, we at the South did not +bring these Africans here--we protested against their introduction. The +true friend of the African is at the South, and thousands of hearts +there are seeking to know what can be done for the race. There must be +some limits to human responsibility, and a man in New England has no +more right to interfere with the institutions of Virginia, than he has +to interfere with those of England or France. All such interference +will be repelled by the master, but it will prove injurious to the +slave. Dr. Channing was regarded as a leading abolitionist in his day, +but could that noble man now rise up, he would stand aghast at the +madness which is rife everywhere on this subject. 'One great principle, +which we should lay down as immovably true, is, that if a good work +cannot be carried on by the calm, self-controlled, benevolent spirit of +Christianity, then the time for doing it has not yet come.' Such was his +language, when opposing slavery. Were he now living, the delirious +spirit of the day would denounce him, as it denounced Mr. Webster, and +now denounces you and every true patriot. Nay, even Mr. Beecher is +abused as not truculent enough. + +"Jesus saw slavery all around him. Did he seek to employ force? He said +'All power in heaven and earth is given unto me, therefore, go teach, go +preach the Gospel.'" + + + + +COLORED PEOPLE EMIGRATING FROM LOUISIANA TO HAYTI. + + +The _New Orleans Picayune_ notices that a vessel cleared from that port +on the previous day, having on board eighty-one free colored persons, +emigrating to Hayti. The _Picayune_ says: + +"These people are all from the Opelousas parishes, and all +cultivators--well versed in farming, and in all the mechanical arts +connected with a farm. Among them are brickmakers, blacksmiths, +wheelwrights, carpenters, etc. Some of them are proficient weavers, who +have long been employed making the stuff called Attakapas cottonade, so +favorably known in the market. They take along with them the necessary +machinery for that trade, and all sorts of agricultural and mechanical +implements. + +"These eighty-one persons--twenty-four adults and fifty-seven children +and youths--compose fourteen families, or rather households, for they +are all related, and the eighty-one may be called one family. They are +all in easy circumstances, some even rich, one family being worth as +much as $50,000. They were all land owners in this State, and have sold +out their property with the intention of investing their capital in +Hayti."-- + + _Cincinnati Commercial_, January, 1860. + + + + +THE COOLIE TRAFFIC. + + +It may be well to put upon record one of those extreme cases of hardship +and cruelty which necessarily accompany the transportation of laborers +to the West Indies, whether under the name of the slave trade, or coolie +immigration. The China correspondent of the _New York Journal of +Commerce_, of a recent date, says: The Flora Temple, an English vessel, +had made all arrangements to secure a full cargo of coolies. They were +cheated, inveigled, or stolen, and either taken directly to the ship or +else confined in the barracoons in Macao till the ship was ready to +sail for Havanna--the crew numbering fifty, and the coolies eight +hundred and fifty. The vessel sailed October 8, 1859, when the coolies +soon learned their destiny, and resolved to avert it at all hazards. On +the morning of the 11th, without weapons of any kind, they rushed upon +the guard and killed him. The noise brought the captain and his brother +on deck, fully armed with revolvers, who by rapid firing and resolutely +pressing forward, drove the miserable wretches below; where, without +light and air, they were locked and barred like felons, in a space too +limited to permit their living during the long voyage before them. Think +of eight hundred and fifty human beings all full grown men, pressed into +this contracted, rayless, airless dungeon, in which they were to be +deported from China to Havana, all the long way over the China sea, the +Indian ocean, and the Atlantic! + +On the 14th, the vessel struck upon an unknown reef, a gale of wind in +the meantime blowing, and the sea running high. Every effort was made to +save the ship by the officers and crew; the poor coolies, battened down +beneath the decks, being allowed no chance to aid in saving the ship or +themselves. Although the yards were "braced around" and the ship "hove +aback," she struck first slightly, and then soon after several times +with a tremendous crash, the breakers running alongside very high. +Pieces of her timbers and planking floated up on her port side, and +after some more heavy thumps she remained apparently immovable. The +water rapidly increased in the hold till it reached the "between-decks," +where the eight hundred and fifty coolies were confined. + +While this was going on, indeed, almost immediately after the ship first +struck, the officers and crew very naturally became afraid of the +coolies for the treatment they had received, and the captain ordered the +boats to be lowered, not to save the coolies in whole or in part, but to +preserve himself and crew. These boats, even under favorable +circumstances, were not more than sufficient for the officers and crew, +showing that no provision had been made for the poor coolies in case of +disaster. The boats passed safely through the breakers, leaving the ship +almost without motion, all her masts standing, her back broken, and the +sea making a clear break over her starboard and quarter. + +When the boats left the ship, and steered away, without making an effort +to save the eight hundred and fifty coolies, or allowing them to do any +thing themselves, with their last look toward the ship they saw that the +coolies had escaped from their prison through doors which the concussion +had made for them, and stood clustering together, helpless and +despairing, upon the decks, and gazing upon the abyss which was opening +its jaws to receive them. My friend assures me that he knows these poor +creatures were completely imprisoned all the night these terrible +occurences were going on, the hatches being "battened down," and made as +secure as a jail door under lock and bars. + +The ship was three hundred miles from land when it struck, and after +fourteen days of toil and struggle, one of the boats only succeeded in +reaching Towron, in Cochin-China. The three other boats were never heard +of. Here the French fleet was lying; and the admiral at once sent one of +his vessels to the fatal scene of the disaster, where some of the wreck +was to be seen; but not a _single coolie_! Every one of the _eight +hundred and fifty_ had perished. + + + + +TABLE I. + +FACTS IN RELATION TO COTTON--ITS GROWTH, MANUFACTURE, AND INFLUENCE ON +COMMERCE, SLAVERY, EMANCIPATION, ETC., CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. + + + | Great Britain Annual Import | United States' Annual | + YEARS. | and Consumption of Cotton, | Exports Cotton to Great | + | from earliest dates to | Britain and Europe | + | 1858, in lbs. | generally. | + --------|-----------------------------|--------------------------| + 1641 | Cotton manufacture first | | + | named in English history. | | + | | | + | TOTAL IMPORTS. | | + 1697 | 1,976,359 | | + 1701 | 1,985,868 | | + 1700 |} | | + to |} 1,170,881 | | + 1705 |} | | + 1710 | 715,008 | | + 1720 | 1,972,805 | | + 1730 | 1,545,472 | | + 1741 | 1,645,031 | 1747-48, 7 bags of | + 1751 | 2,976,610 | Cotton were shipped from | + 1764 | 3,870,392 | Charleston, S. C., to | + 1771 |} | England. | + to |} 6,766,613 | | + 1775 |} | 1770, 2,000 lbs. shipped | + 1781 | 5,198,778 | from Charleston. | + 1782 | 11,828,039 | | + 1783 | 9,735,663 | | + 1784 | 11,482,083 | 71 bags shipped and | + 1785 | 18,400,384 | seized in England, on | + 1786 | 19,475,020 | the ground that America | + 1787 | 23,250,268 | could not produce so | + 1788 | 20,467,436 | much. | + 1789 | 32,576,023 | | + 1790 | 31,447,605 | | + 1791 | 28,706,675 | lbs. 189,316 | + 1792 | 34,907,497 | 138,328 | + 1793 | 19,040,929 | 500,000 | + 1794 | 24,358,567 | 1,601,760 | + 1795 | 26,401,340 | 6,276,300 | + 1796 | 23,126,357 | 6,100,000 | + 1797 | 23,354,371 | 3,800,000 | + 1798 | 31,880,641 | 9,330,000 | + 1799 | 43,379,278 | 9,500,000 | + 1800 | 56,010,732 | 17,789,803 | + 1801 | 56,004,305 | 20,900,000 | + 1802 | 60,345,600 | 27,500,000 | + 1803 | 53,812,284 | 41,900,000 | + 1804 | 61,867,329 | 38,900,000 | + 1805 | 59,682,406 | 40,330,000 | + 1806 | 58,176,283 | 37,500,000 | + 1807 | 74,925,306 | 66,200,000 | + 1808 | 43,605,982 | 12,000,000 | + 1809 | 92,812,282 | 53,200,000 | + 1810 | 132,488,935 | 93,900,000 | + 1811 | 91,576,535 | 62,200,000 | + 1812 | 63,025,936 | 29,000,000 | + 1813 | 50,966,000 | 19,400,000 | + 1814 | 73,728,000 | 17,800,000 | + + + ================================================================== + Great Britain's sources of Cotton supplies other than the | + United States, with total Cotton crop of United States at | + intervals. | + | + -----------------------------------------------------------------| + Previous to 1791 Great Britain obtained her supplies of Cotton | + from the West Indies and South America, and the countries | + around the eastern parts of the Mediterranean. From that date | + she began to receive supplies from the U. S. | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + 1786. _Imports_ by Great Britain from-- | + Br. W. Indies, lbs. 5,800,000 | + Fr. and Spanish Colonies 5,500,000 | + Dutch do. 1,600,000 | + Portuguese do. 2,000,000 | + Turkey and Smyrna, 5,000,000 | + 1789. Cotton crop of United States, 1,000,000 lbs. | + 1791. _Imports_ by Great Britain from-- | + Br. West Indies, lbs. 12,000,000 | + Brazil, 20,000,000 | + 1794. Cotton crop of the U. S., 8,000,000 lbs. | + 1796. Cotton crop of the U. S., 10,000,000 lbs. | + 1798. India, the first imports from, 1,622,000 lbs. | + 1799. Cotton crop of the U. S., 20,000,000 lbs. | + 1800. _Exports_ from-- | + India, lbs. 30,000,000 | + West Indies, 17,000,000 | + Brazil, 24,000,000 | + Elsewhere, 7,000,000 | + | + 1806. Cotton crop of the U. S., 80,000,000 lbs. | + | + | + | + | + | + 1812. War declared between the United States and Great Britain. | + | + | + + + ================================================================== + Dates of Inventions promoting the growth and manufacture of + Cotton, and of movements to elevate the African race. + + + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + Previous to the invention of the machinery named below, all + carding, spinning, and weaving of wool and cotton had been done + by the use of the hand-cards, one-spindle wheels, and common + hand-looms. The work, for a long period, was performed in + families; but the improved machinery propelled by steam power, + has so reduced the cost of cotton manufactures, that all + household manufacturing has long since been abandoned, and the + monopoly yielded to capitalists, who now fill the world with + their cheap fabrics. + + + 1762. Carding machine invented. + 1767. Spinning Jenny invented. + 1769. Spinning Roller-frame invented. + " Cotton first planted in the United States. + " Watt's Steam Engine patented. + 1775. Mule Jenny invented. + 1776. Virginia forbids foreign slave trade. + 1780. Emancipation by Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. + 1781. Muslins first made in England. + 1784. Emancipation by Connecticut and Rhode Island. + 1785. Watts' Engine improved and applied to cotton machinery. + First cotton mill erected, 1783. + 1785. New York Abolition Society organized. + 1786. Carding and spinning machines erected in Massachusetts. + 1787. Power Loom invented. + " First Cotton mill erected in Beverly, Massachusetts. + " Pennsylvania Abolition Society formed. + " Slavery excluded from N. W. Territory, including Ohio, + Indiana, Illinois, &c. + 1789. Franklin issues an appeal for aid to instruct the free + blacks. + 1792. Emancipation by New Hampshire. + 1793. Cotton Gin invented. + 1799. Emancipation by New York. + 1804. Do. New Jersey. + 1800. Cotton consumed in the United States, 200,000 lbs. + 1801. United States exported to-- + France, lbs. 750,000 + England 19,000,000 + 1803. Louisiana Territory acquired, including the region + between the Mississippi river (upper and lower) and + the Mexican line. + 1805. United States export to France, 4,500,000 lbs. + 1807. Fulton started his steamboat. + 1808. Slave trade prohibited by United States and England. + 1808. Cotton manufacture established in Boston. + 1810. Cotton consumed in United States, 4,000,000 lbs. + 1812. Two-thirds of steam engines in Great Britain employed in + cotton spinning, etc. + 1813. United States export to France, 10,250,000 lbs. + + + ================================================================== + | Great Britain Annual Import | United States' Annual | + YEARS. | and Consumption of Cotton, | Exports Cotton to Great | + | from earliest times to | Britain and Europe | + | 1858, in lbs. | generally. | + --------|-----------------------------|--------------------------| + 1815 | 96,200,000 | 83,000,000 | + 1816 | 97,310,000 | 81,800,000 | + 1817 | 126,240,000 | 95,660,000 | + | | | + | Total Consumption. | | + 1818 | 109,902,000 | 92,500,000 | + 1819 | 109,518,000 | 88,000,000 | + 1820 | 120,265,000 | 127,800,000 | + 1821 | 129,029,000 | 124,893,405 | + 1822 | 145,493,000 | 144,675,095 | + 1823 | 154,146,000 | 173,723,270 | + 1824 | 165,174,000 | 142,369,663 | + 1825 | 166,831,000 | 176,449,907 | + 1826 | 150,213,000 | 204,535,415 | + 1827 | 197,200,000 | 294,310,115 | + 1828 | 217,860,000 | 210,590,463 | + 1829 | 219,200,000 | 264,837,186 | + 1830 | 247,600,000 | 298,459,102 | + 1831 | 262,700,000 | 276,979,784 | + 1832 | 276,900,000 | 322,215,122 | + 1833 | 287,000,000 | 324,698,604 | + 1834 | 303,000,000 | 384,717,907 | + 1835 | 326,407,692 | 387,358,992 | + 1836 | 363,684,232 | 423,631,307 | + 1837 | 367,564,752 | 444,211,537 | + 1838 | 477,206,108 | 595,952,297 | + 1839 | 445,744,000 | 413,624,212 | + 1840 | 517,254,400 | 743,941,061 | + 1841 | 460,387,200 | 530,204,100 | + 1842 | 477,339,200 | 584,717,017 | + 1843 | 555,214,400 | 792,297,106 | + 1844 | 570,731,200 | 663,633,455 | + 1845 | 626,496,000 | 872,905,996 | + 1846 | 624,000,000 | 547,558,055 | + 1847 | 442,416,000 | 527,219,958 | + 1848 | 602,160,000 | 814,274,431 | + 1849 | 624,000,000 | 1,026,602,269 | + 1850 | 606,000,000 | 635,381,604 | + 1851 | 648,000,000 | 927,237,089 | + 1852 | 817,998,048 | 1,093,230,639 | + 1853 | 746,376,848 | 1,111,570,370 | + 1854 | 761,646,704 | 987,833,106 | + 1855 | 775,814,112 | 1,008,424,601 | + 1856 | 877,225,440 | 1,351,431,827 | + 1857 | 837,406,300 | 1,048,282,475 | + 1858 | 884,733,696 | 1,118,624,012 | + 1859 | | 1,372,755,006 | + | | | + | | | + | | | + | | | + | | | + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + ================================================================== + Great Britain's sources of Cotton supplies other than the | + United States, with total Cotton crop of United States at | + intervals. | + | + -----------------------------------------------------------------| + 1815. Peace proclaimed between the United States and Great | + Britain. | + 1818. Cotton crop of the U. S., 125,000,000 lbs. | + 1821. _Exports_ from-- | + West Indies, lbs. 9,000,000 | + Brazil, 28,000,000 | + India, 50,000,000 | + Turkey and Egypt, 5,500,000 | + Elsewhere, 6,000,000 | + 1822. Cotton crop of the U. S., 210,000,000 lbs. | + 1828. Cotton crop of the U. S., 325,000,000 lbs. | + _Imports_ by Great Britain from West Indies,-- | + 1829. lbs. 4,640,414 | + 1830, 3,449,249 | + 1831, 2,401,685 | + 1834, 2,296,525 | + 1832. _Imports_ by Great Britain from-- | + Brazil, lbs. 20,109,560 | + Turkey and Egypt, 9,113,890 | + East Indies and Mauritius 5,178,625 | + British West Indies. 1,708,764 | + Elsewhere, 964,933 | + 1838. _Imports_ by Great Britain from-- | + Brazil, lbs. 24,464,505 | + East Indies and Mauritius 40,230,064 | + British West Indies, 928,425 | + 1840. _Imports_ by Great Britain from-- | + British West Indies, lbs. 427,529 | + 1841. _Imports_ by Great Britain from India, 1835 to 1839, | + annual average, 57,600,000 lbs. | + _Imports_ by Great Britain, 1840 to 1844, during the Chinese | + war, 92,800,000 lbs. | + 1845. Do. from Egypt, 32,537,600 lbs. | + 1848. _Imports_ by Great Britain from-- | + West Indies and Demarara, lbs. 3,155,600 | + Brazil and Portuguese Colonies 40,080,400 | + East Indies, 91,004,800 | + _Imports_ by Great Britain from-- | + 1849. East Indies, lbs. 72,800,000 | + 1850. Do. 123,200,000 | + 1852. Do. 84,022,432 | + 1853. Do. 180,431,496 | + 1854. Do. 119,835,968 | + 1855. Do. 145,218,976 | + 1856. _Imports_ by Great Britain from-- | + British East Indies, lbs. 180,496,624 | + Brazil, 21,830,704 | + Egypt, 34,399,008 | + 1857. _Imports_ from-- | + Brazil, lbs. 29,910,832 | + Egypt, 24,532,256 | + 1858. _Imports_ from Brazil, lbs. 18,617,872 | + Do. Egypt, 38,232,320 | + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + ================================================================== + Dates of Inventions promoting the growth and manufacture of + Cotton, and of movements to elevate the African race. + + + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + 1815. Power Loom first used in United States. + 1816. First steamboat crossed the British Channel. + 1816. Power Loom brought into general use in England. + 1817. Colonization Society organized. + 1819. Florida annexed. + 1820. Slave trade declared piracy by Congress. + 1820. Emigrants to Liberia first sent. + 1821. Benjamin Lundy published his "Genius of Universal + Emancipation." + 1823. United States export to France, 25,000,000 lbs. + 1824. Do. do. do. 40,500,000 lbs. + 1825. New York and Erie Canal opened. + Production and manufacture of cotton now greatly above the + consumption, and prices fell so as to produce general distress + and stagnation, which continued with more or less intensity + throughout 1828 and 1829. The fall of prices was about 55 + per cent.--_Encyc. Amer._ + 1826. Creek Indians removed from Georgia. + 1829. Emancipation in Mexico. + 1830. United States export to France, 75,000,000 lbs. + 1831. Slave Insurrection in Virginia. + 1832. Garrison declares war against the Colonization Society. + 1832. Ohio Canal completed. + 1833. Cotton consumption in France, 72,767,551 lbs. + 1834. Emancipation in West Indies, commenced. + 1834. Birney deserted the Colonization Society. + 1835. United States export to France, 100,330,000 lbs. + 1836. Gerrit Smith repudiates the Colonization Society. + 1836. Cherokee and Choctaw Indians removed from Georgia, + Mississippi, and Alabama. + 1837. American Anti-Slavery Society had an income of $36,000, + and 70 agents commissioned. + 1838. Colonization Society had an income of only $10,900. + 1840. Cotton consumed in the United States, 106,000,000 lbs. + 1844. Value of cotton goods imported into the United States + $13,286,830. + 1845. Texas annexed. + 1846. Mexican War. + 1847. Gold discovered in California. + 1848. New Mexico and California annexed. + 1849. United States export to France, 151,340,000 lbs. + Do. Other Continental countries, 128,800,000 lbs. + 1850. Cotton consumed in United States, 256,000,000 lbs. + 1851. Value of United States cotton fabrics, $61,869,184. + 1853. Value of cottons imported, $27,675,000. + 1853. United States export to England, 768,596,498 lbs. + 1853. Do. do. Continent, 335,271,064 lbs. + 1855. United States export to Great Britain and North American + Colonies, 672,409,874 lbs. + 1855. Do. do. Continent, 322,905,056 lbs. + 1855. Value of Cottons imported, $21,655,624. + The remaining statistics of this column can be found in the + other Tables. + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + +NOTE.--Our commercial year ends June 30: that of England January 1. This +will explain any seeming discrepancy in the imports by her from us, and +our exports to her. + +N. B.--In 1781 Great Britain commenced re-exporting a portion of her +imports of Cotton to the Continent; but the amount did not reach a +million of pounds, except in one year, until 1810, when it rose to over +eight millions. The next year, however, it fell to a million and a +quarter, and only rose, from near that amount, to six millions in 1814 +and 1815. From 1818, her _consumption_, only, of cotton, is given, as +best representing her relations to slave labor for that commodity. After +this date her exports of cotton gradually enlarged, until, in 1853, they +reached over one hundred and forty-seven millions of pounds. Of this, +over eighty-two millions were derived from the United States, and over +fifty-nine millions from India. That is to say, of her imports of +180,431,000 lbs. in 1853, from India, she re-exported 59,000,000. + +We are enabled to add, for our second edition, that the imports of +Cotton into Great Britain, from India, for 1854, amounted to 119,835,968 +lbs., of which 66,405,920 lbs. were re-exported; and that her imports +from the same for 1855 amounted to 145,218,976 lbs., of which 66,210,704 +lbs. were re-exported; thus leaving, for the former year, but 53,430,048 +lbs., and for the latter but 79,008,272 lbs. of East India Cotton for +consumption in England. The present condition of cotton supplies from +India up to 1859, will be seen in the extracts from the _London +Economist_. + + + + +TABLE II. + + TABULAR STATEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, + DOMESTIC ANIMALS, ETC., EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED + STATES: THE TOTAL VALUE OF PRODUCTS AND ANIMALS + RAISED IN THE COUNTRY; AND THE VALUE OF THE + PORTION THEREOF LEFT FOR HOME CONSUMPTION AND USE, + FOR THE YEAR 1853. See Patent Office Report; + Abstract of Census; Rep. Com. Nav., etc. + + ======================================================================== + | Value of | Total Value | Value of + | Exports. | of Products | portion left + | | and Animals. | for home + | | | consumption. + -------------------|--------------|--------------------|---------------- + Cattle, and their | | | + products, | $3,076,897 | Catt. $400,000,000 | $396,923,103 + Horses and Mules, | 246,731 | 300,000,000 | 299,753,269 + Sheep and Wool, | 44,375 | Sheep, 46,000,000 | 45,955,625 + Hogs and their | | | + products, | 6,202,324 | Hogs, 160,000,000 | 153,797,676 + Indian Corn and | | | + Meal, | 2,084,051 | Corn, 240,000,000 | 237,915,949 + Wheat Flour and | | | + Biscuit, | 19,591,817 | Wheat, 100,000,000 | 80,408,183 + Rye Meal, | 34,186 | Rye, 12,600,000 | 12,565,814 + Other Grains, and | | | + Peas and Beans, | 165,824 | 54,144,874 | 53,979,050 + Potatoes, | 152,569 | 42,400,00 | 42,247,431 + Apples, | 107,283 |(1850) 7,723,326 | 7,616,043 + Hay, averaged at | | | + $10 per ton, | |(1850) 138,385,790 | 138,385,790 + Hemp, | 18,195 | 4,272,500 | 4,254,305 + Sugar--Cane and | | | + maple, etc., | 427,216 |(1850) 36,900,000 | 36,472,784 + Rice, | 1,657,658 | 8,750,000 | 7,092,342 + |--------------|--------------------|---------------- + Totals, | $33,809,126 | $ 1,551,176,490 |$1,517,367,364 + |==============|====================|================ + Cotton, | $109,456,404 | $128,000,000 | $18,543,596 + Tobacco, and its | | | + products, | 11,319,319 | 19,900,000 | 8,580,681 + |--------------|--------------------|---------------- + Totals, | $120,775,723 | $147,900,000 | $27,124,277 + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +NOTE.--This table is left as it was in the first edition. As the census +tables supply a portion of its materials, a new statement cannot be made +until after 1860. + + + + +TABLE III. + + TOTAL IMPORTS OF THE MORE PROMINENT ARTICLES OF + GROCERIES, FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1853; + SPECIFYING ALSO, THE RE-EXPORTS, AND THE + PROPORTIONS FROM SLAVE-LABOR COUNTRIES. See Report + on Commerce and Navigation. + + + ======================================================================= + Coffee, Imported, | Value, $15,525,954 | lbs. 199,049,823 + " Re-Exported, | 1,163,875 | " 13,349,319 + " Slave-Labor | | + production, | 12,059,476 | " 156,108,569 + | | + Sugar, Imported, | $15,093,003 | " 464,427,281 + " Re-Exported, | 819,439 | " 18,981,601 + " Slave-Labor | | + production, | 14,810,091 | " 459,743,322 + | | + Molasses, Imported, | $3,684,888 | gals. 31,886,100 + " Re-Exported, | 97,880 | " 488,666 + " Slave-Labor | | + production, | 3,607,160 | " 31,325,735 + | | + Tobacco, etc., Imported, | $4,175,238 | + " Re-Exported, | 312,733 | + " Slave-Labor | | + production, | 3,674,402 | + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NOTE.--A part of the modifications necessary in this table to adopt it +to 1859, can be inferred from some of the tables which follow. + + + + +TABLE IV. + + FREE COLORED AND SLAVE POPULATION, OF THE STATES + NAMED, IN THE PERIODS OF TEN YEARS, FROM 1790 TO + 1850, WITH THE RATIO OF INCREASE OR DECREASE PER + CENT. PER ANNUM, OF THE FORMER. + + =========================================================================== + STATES AND CLASSES.| 1790. | 1800. | 1810. | 1820. | 1830. | 1840. | 1850. + -------------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|------- + PENNSYLVANIA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 6,537 | 14,561| 22,492| 30,202| 37,930| 47,854| 53,626 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| 12.27| 5.44| 3.42| 2.55| 2.61| 1.20 + Slaves | 3,737 | 1,706| 795| 211| 403| 64| ...... + MASSACHUSETTS. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 5,463| 6,452| 6,737| 6,740| 7,048| 8,669| 9,064 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| 1.81| .44| .004| .45| 2.29| .45 + Slaves | ......| ......| ......| ......| ......| ......| ...... + NEW YORK. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 4,654| 10,374| 25,333| 29,279| 44,870| 50,027| 49,069 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| 12.29| 14.41| 1.55| 5.32| 1.14| [a].19 + Slaves | 21,324| 20,343| 15,017| 10,088| 75| 4| ...... + NEW JERSEY. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 2,762| 4,402| 7,843| 12,460| 18,303| 21,044| 23,810 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| 5.93| 7.81| 5.88| 4.68| 1.49| 1.31 + Slaves | 11,423| 12,422| 10,851| 7,557| 2,254| 674| 236 + RHODE ISLAND. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 3,469| 3,304| 3,609| 3,554| 3,561| 3,238| 3,670 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| [a].47| .92| [a].15| .01| [a]90| 1.33 + Slaves | 952| 381| 108| 48| 17| 5| ...... + VERMONT. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 225| 557| 750| 903| 881| 730| 718 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| 11.84| 3.46| 2.04| [a].24|[a]1.71| [a]16 + Slaves | 17| ......| ......| ......| ......| ......| ...... + + =========================================================================== + STATES AND CLASSES.| 1790. | 1800. | 1810. | 1820. | 1830. | 1840. | 1850. + -------------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|------- + MAINE. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 538| 818| 969| 929| 1,190| 1,355| 1,356 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| 5.20| 1.84| [a].41| 2.80| 1.38| .007 + Slaves | ......| ......| ......| ......| 2| ......| ...... + NEW HAMPSHIRE. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 630| 856| 970| 786| 604| 537| 520 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| 3.58| 1.33|[a]1.89|[a]2.31|[a]1.10| [a].31 + Slaves | 158| 8| ......| ......| 3| 1| ...... + CONNECTICUT. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 2,801| 5,330| 6,453| 7,844| 8,047| 8,105| 7,693 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| 9.02| 2.10| 2.15| .25| .07| [a].50 + Slaves | 2,759| 951| 310| 97| 25| 17| ...... + OHIO. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| 337| 1,899| 4,723| 9,568| 17,342| 25,279 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| ......| 46.35| 14.87| 10.25| 8.12| 4.57 + Slaves | ......| ......| ......| ......| 6| 3| ...... + INDIANA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| 163| 393| 1,230| 3,629| 7,165| 11,262 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| ......| 14.11| 21.29| 19.50| 9.74| 5.75 + Slaves | ......| 135| 237| 190| 3| 3| ...... + DELAWARE. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 3,899| 8,268| 13,163| 12,958| 15,855| 16,919| 18,073 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| 11.20| 5.88| [a].13| 2.23| .67| .68 + Slaves | 8,887| 6,153| 4,177| 4,509| 3,292| 2,605| 2,290 + MARYLAND. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 8,043| 19,587| 33,927| 39,730| 52,938| 62,078| 74,723 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| 14.35| 7.32| 1.71| 3.32| 1.72| 2.03 + Slaves |103,036|105,635|111,502|107,397|102,994| 89,737| 90,368 + VIRGINIA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 12,766| 20,124| 30,570| 36,889| 47,348| 49,852| 54,333 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| 5.76| 5.99| 2.06| 2.83| .52| .89 + Slaves |293,427|345,796|392,518|425,153|469,757|449,087|472,528 + + + ========================================================================== + STATES AND CLASSES.| 1790. | 1800. | 1810. | 1820. | 1830. | 1840. | 1850. + -------------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|------- + NORTH CAROLINA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 4,975| 7,043| 10,266| 14,612| 19,543| 22,732| 27,463 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| 4.15| 4.57| 4.23| 3.37| 1.63| 2.08 + Slaves |100,572|133,296|168,824|205,017|245,601|245,817|288,548 + SOUTH CAROLINA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 1,801| 3,185| 4,554| 6,826| 7,921| 8,276| 8,960 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| 7.68| 4.29| 4.98| 1.60| .44| .82 + Slaves |107,094|146,151|196,365|258,475|315,401|327,038|584,984 + GEORGIA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 398| 1,019| 1,801| 1,763| 2,486| 2,753| 2,931 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| 15.60| 7.67| [a].21| 4.10| 1.07| .64 + Slaves | 22,264| 59,404|105,218|149,654|217,531|280,944|381,682 + TENNESSEE. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 361| 309| 1,317| 2,727| 4,555| 5,524| 6,422 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......|[a]1.44| 32.62| 10.70| 6.70| 2.12| 1.62 + Slaves | 3,417| 13,584| 44,535| 80,107|141,603|183,050|239,459 + MISSISSIPPI. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| 182| 240| 458| 519| 1,366| 930 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| ......| 3.18| 9.08| 1.33| 16.31|[a]3.19 + Slaves | ......| 3,489| 17,088| 32,814| 65,659|195,211|309,878 + ALABAMA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| ......| ......| 517| 1,572| 2,039| 2,265 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| ......| ......| ......| 17.53| 2.97| 1.10 + Slaves | ......| ......| ......| 41,879|117,549|252,532|342,844 + MISSOURI. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| ......| 607| 347| 596| 1,574| 2,618 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| ......| ......|[a]4.28| 6.39| 17.66| 6.63 + Slaves | ......| ......| 3,011| 10,222| 25,091| 58,240| 87,422 + KENTUCKY. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | 114| 741| 1,713| 2,759| 4,917| 7,317| 10,011 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| 55.00| 13.11| 6.10| 7.82| 4.88| 3.68 + Slaves | 11,830| 40,343| 80,561|126,732|165,213|182,258|210,981 + + + =========================================================================== + STATES AND CLASSES.| 1790. | 1800. | 1810. | 1820. | 1830. | 1840. | 1850. + -------------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|------- + LOUISIANA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| ......| 7,585| 10,476| 16,710| 25,502| 17,462 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| ......| ......| 3.81| 5.95| 5.26|[a]3.15 + Slaves | ......| ......| 34,660| 69,064|109,588|168,452|244,809 + ILLINOIS. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| ......| 613| 457| 1,637| 3,598| 5,436 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| ......| ......|[a]2.54| 25.82| 11.97| 5.10 + Slaves | ......| ......| 168| 917| 747| 331| ...... + FLORIDA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| ......| ......| ......| 844| 817| 932 + Increase or | | | | | | | + decrease per | | | | | | | + cent. per annum | ......| ......| ......| ......| ...... [a].31| 1.40 + Slaves | ......| ......| ......| ......| 15,501| 25,717| 39,310 + ARKANSAS. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| ......| ......| 59| 141| 465| 608 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| ......| ......| ......| 13.89| 2.29| 1.10 + Slaves | ......| ......| ......| 1,617| 4,576| 19,935| 47,100 + MICHIGAN. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| ......| 120| 174| 261| 707| 2,583 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| ......| ......| 4.50| 5.00| 17.08| 25.53 + Slaves | ......| ......| 24| ......| 32| ......| ...... + DISTRICT OF | | | | | | | + COLUMBIA. | | | | | | | + Free Colored | ......| 783| 2,549| 4,048| 6,152| 8,361| 10,059 + Increase per cent. | | | | | | | + per annum | ......| ......| 22.55| 5.88| 5.19| 3.59| 2.03 + Slaves | ......| 3,244| 5,395| 6,377| 6,119| 4,694| 3,687 + --------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +FOOTNOTE: + +[a] DECREASE. + + + + +TABLE V. + +INFLUENCE OF THE COLORED POPULATION ON PUBLIC SENTIMENT. + + TABLE SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF THE FREE COLORED + POPULATION IN THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN PORTIONS + OF THE STATE OF OHIO, BY COUNTIES, AS PRESENTED BY + THE CENSUS OF 1840 AND 1850, TOGETHER WITH THE + POPULAR VOTE FOR AND AGAINST THE ABOLITION + CANDIDATE, HON. S. P. CHASE, AT THE ELECTION FOR + GOVERNOR, OCTOBER, 1855. + + + ================================================= + SOUTHERN COUNTIES. | MR. CHASE. || + -------------------------------|---------------|| + COUNTIES. | 1840. | 1850. | FOR |AGAINST|| + ---------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|| + Hamilton, | 2,576| 3,600| 4,516| 18,764|| + Clermont, | 122| 412| 2,434| 2,879|| + Brown, | 614| 863| 1,571| 2,129|| + Adams, | 63| 55| 1,139| 1,629|| + Scioto, | 206| 211| 1,042| 1,497|| + Lawrence, | 148| 326| 1,092| 1,067|| + Gallia, | 799| 1,198| 344| 1,972|| + Meigs, | 28| 52| 1,515| 1,504|| + Jackson, | 315| 391| 714| 906|| + Pike, | 329| 618| 641| 1,156|| + Highland, | 786| 896| 1,209| 2,599|| + Clinton, | 377| 598| 1,640| 964|| + Warren, | 341| 602| 2,306| 1,821|| + Butler, | 254| 367| 1,960| 3,235|| + Preble, | 88| 77| 1,567| 1,326|| + Montgomery, | 376| 249| 2,746| 3,830|| + Greene, | 344| 654| 1,953| 1,357|| + Fayette, | 239| 291| 909| 757|| + Ross, | 1,195| 1,906| 2,160| 2,255|| + Vinton, | [a]| 107| 722| 901|| + Hocking, | 46| 117| 927| 1,199|| + Pickaway, | 333| 412| 1,521| 1,862|| + Fairfield, | 342| 280| 2,474| 2,726|| + Perry, | 47| 29| 1,772| 1,540|| + Athens, | 55| 106| 1,634| 1,072|| + Washington, | 269| 390| 2,212| 1,774|| + Morgan, | 68| 90| 1,776| 1,235|| + Noble, | [a]| [b]| 1,361| 1,030|| + Monroe, | 13| 69| 1,451| 1,901|| + Belmont, | 742| 778| 1,755| 2,856|| + Guernsey, | 190| 168| 1,893| 1,491|| + Muskingum, | 562| 631| 2,551| 3,204|| + Franklin, | 805| 1,607| 2,487| 4,033|| + Madison, | 97| 78| 562| 1,012|| + Clarke, | 20| 323| 1,866| 1,404|| + Miami, | 211| 602| 1,787| 1,977|| + Darke, | 200| 248| 1,685| 1,829|| + Champaigne, | 328| 494| 1,353| 1,463|| + Union, | 78| 128| 1,222| 829|| + Delaware, | 76| 135| 1,602| 1,504|| + Licking, | 140| 128| 2,021| 3,252|| + Harrison, | 163| 287| 1,712| 1,259|| + Jefferson, | 497| 665| 2,156| 1,654|| + Shelby, | 262| 407| 955| 1,286|| + |-------|-------|-------|-------|| + Total, South, | 14,924| 21,745| 72,915| 95,941|| + ------------------------------------------------- + + =============================================== + NORTHERN COUNTIES. | MR. CHASE. + -------------------------------|--------------- + COUNTIES. | 1840. | 1850. | FOR |AGAINST + ---------------|-------|-------|-------|------- + Ashtabula, | 17| 43| 3,772| 1,156 + Lake, | 21| 38| 1,640| 521 + Geauga, | 3| 7| 1,816| 486 + Cuyahoga, | 121| 359| 3,965| 3,545 + Trumbull, | 70| 65| 3,109| 1,505 + Portage, | 39| 58| 2,660| 1,871 + Summit, | 42| 121| 2,242| 1,326 + Medina, | 13| 35| 2,032| 1,526 + Lorain, | 62| 264| 2,693| 919 + Huron, | 106| 39| 2,295| 1,411 + Erie, | 97| 202| 1,564| 1,191 + Seneca, | 65| 151| 2,332| 1,976 + Sandusky, | 41| 47| 1,382| 1,509 + Ottawa, | 5| 1| 369| 406 + Lucas, | 54| 139| 1,618| 1,156 + Fulton, | [a]| 1| 715| 453 + Williams, | 2| 0| 890| 878 + Defiance, | [a]| 19| 592| 626 + Henry, | 6| 0| 440| 511 + Wood, | 32| 18| 1,099| 636 + Paulding, | 0| 1| 362| 115 + Putnam, | [a]| 11| 528| 858 + Hancock, | 8| 26| 1,238| 1,359 + Vanwert, | 0| 47| 602| 483 + Allen, | 23| 27| 1,235| 929 + Wyandott, | [a]| 49| 1,143| 1,106 + Crawford, | 5| 10| 1,449| 1,753 + Richland, | 65| 67| 2,220| 2,329 + Ashland, | [a]| 3| 1,580| 1,660 + Wayne, | 41| 28| 2,421| 2,585 + Starke, | 204| 159| 3,343| 3,044 + Mahoning, | [a]| 90| 1,592| 1,552 + Columbiana, | 417| 182| 3,118| 2,170 + Carroll, | 49| 52| 1,502| 1,082 + Tuscarawas, | 71| 89| 2,552| 2,179 + Coshocton, | 38| 44| 2,064| 2,014 + Holmes, | 3| 5| 1,194| 1,675 + Knox, | 63| 62| 2,166| 2,135 + Morrow, | [a]| 18| 1,631| 1,371 + Marion, | 52| 21| 1,220| 1,184 + Hardin, | 4| 14| 903| 725 + Logan, | 407| 536| 1,424| 1,119 + Mercer, | 204| 399| 492| 968 + Auglaise, | [a]| 87| 643| 1,286 + |-------|-------|-------|------- + Total, North, | 2,450| 3,524| 73,877| 59,319 + ----------------------------------------------- + +FOOTNOTES: + +[a] Not organized in 1840. + +[b] Not organized in 1850. + + + + +TABLE VI. + + TOTAL COTTON CROP OF THE UNITED STATES, WITH THE + AMOUNTS EXPORTED, THE CONSUMPTION OF THE UNITED + STATES, NORTH OF VIRGINIA, AND THE STOCK ON HAND, + SEPTEMBER 1, OF EACH YEAR, FROM 1840 TO 1859, IN + POUNDS.--_London Economist_, 1859. + + + ======================================================================= + | | EXPORTS TO VARIOUS PLACES. | + YEARS.| TOTAL CROP. |-------------------------------------------------| + | | | | OTHER | | + | | ENGLAND. | FRANCE. | POINTS. | TOTAL. | + ------|-------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------------| + 1840 | 871,134,000|498,716,400|178,986,000| 72,698,800| 750,401,200| + 1841 | 653,978,000|343,496,800|139,510,400| 42,303,600| 525,290,800| + 1842 | 673,429,600|374,252,400|159,251,600| 52,594,800| 586,098,800| + 1843 | 551,550,000|587,884,400|138,455,600| 77,714,800| 804,052,000| + 1844 | 812,163,600|480,999,200|113,074,000| 57,722,800| 651,796,000| + 1845 | 957,801,200|575,722,400|143,742,800|114,037,200| 433,502,400| + 1846 | 840,214,800|440,497,600|143,881,200| 81,888,000| 666,716,800| + 1847 | 711,460,400|332,363,600| 96,594,400| 67,530,800| 496,488,800| + 1848 | 939,053,600|529,706,000|111,668,800|101,929,600|1,743,304,400| + 1849 |1,091,437,600|615,160,400|147,303,600|128,672,400| 891,141,600| + 1850 | 838,682,400|422,708,400|115,850,800| 77,502,800| 636,062,000| + 1851 | 942,102,800|565,306,000|120,534,200|107,634,800| 795,484,000| + 1852 |1,206,011,600|667,499,600|168,550,000|141,408,800| 977,458,400| + 1853 |1,305,152,800|694,744,000|170,691,200|145,924,800|1,011,360,000| + 1854 |1,172,010,800|641,500,000|149,623,200|136,536,000| 927,659,200| + 1855 |1,138,935,600|619,886,400|163,972,400|113,824,000| 897,683,600| + 1856 |1,411,138,000|768,554,400|192,254,800|221,033,200|1,181,842,400| + 1857 |1,175,807,600|571,548,000|165,342,800|164,172,000| 901,062,800| + 1858 |1,245,584,800|723,986,400|153,600,800|158,594,800|1,036,181,000| + 1859 |1,606,800,000|...........|...........|...........|1,208,561,200| + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + ======================================== + |CONSUMPTION OF | + YEARS.|U. S. NORTH OF | STOCK ON HAND + | VIRGINIA. | 1ST SEPTEMBER. + ------|---------------|----------------- + 1840 | 118,077,200 | 23,376,800 + 1841 | 118,915,200 | 28,991,600 + 1842 | 107,140,000 | 12,722,800 + 1843 | 130,051,600 | 37,794,400 + 1844 | 138,697,600 | 63,908,800 + 1845 | 155,602,400 | 39,368,000 + 1846 | 169,038,800 | 42,848,800 + 1847 | 171,186,800 | 85,934,800 + 1848 | 212,708,800 | 68,587,200 + 1849 | 207,215,600 | 61,901,200 + 1850 | 195,107,600 | 67,172,000 + 1851 | 161,643,200 | 51,321,600 + 1852 | 241,211,600 | 36,470,400 + 1853 | 268,403,600 | 54,257,200 + 1854 | 244,228,400 | 27,120,600 + 1855 | 237,433,600 | 28,667,200 + 1856 | 261,091,600 | 25,668,400 + 1857 | 280,855,200 | 17,703,200 + 1858 | 184,692,800 | 40,410,000 + 1859 | 304,087,200 | .......... + ---------------------------------------- + + +[Illustration: Right Index] Consumption for Virginia and South of that +State, for 1859, is estimated at 66,973,600 lbs. The _crop_ year closes, +August 31st. + + + + +TABLE VII. + + STATEMENT OF THE VALUE OF COTTON MANUFACTURES, OF + FOREIGN PRODUCTION, WHICH WERE IMPORTED INTO THE + UNITED STATES; AND THE VALUE OF THE COTTON GOODS + MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES, AND EXPORTED, + DURING THE YEARS STATED--THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30. + + =================================================================== + | FOREIGN | DOMESTIC || | FOREIGN | DOMESTIC + YEARS.| IMPORTS. | EXPORTS. ||YEARS.| IMPORTS. | EXPORTS. + ------|-------------|------------||------|-------------|----------- + 1840. | $ 6,504,484 | $3,549,607 ||1850. | $20,108,719 | $4,734,424 + 1841. | 11,757,036 | 3,122,546 ||1851. | 22,164,442 | 7,241,205 + 1842. | 9,578,515 | 2,970,690 ||1852. | 19,689,496 | 7,672,151 + 1843. | 2,958,796 | 3,223,550 ||1853. | 27,731,313 | 8,768,894 + 1844. | 13,641,478 | 2,898,780 ||1854. | 33,949,503 | 5,535,516 + 1845. | 13,863,282 | 4,327,928 ||1855. | 17,757,112 | 5,857,181 + 1846. | 13,530,625 | 3,545,481 ||1856. | 25,917,999 | 6,967,309 + 1847. | 15,192,875 | 4,082,523 ||1857. | 28,685,726 | 6,115,177 + 1848. | 18,421,589 | 5,718,205 ||1858. | 17,965,130 | 5,651,504 + 1849. | 15,754,841 | 4,933,129 ||1859. | 26,026,140 | 8,316,222 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NOTE. Of the goods imported, a part were re-exported, and the remainder +was used in the United States. The re-exports stood as follows, +beginning with 1840:--$1,103,489--$929,056--$836,892--$314,040--$404,648 +--$502,553--$673,203--$486,135--$1,216,172--$571,082--$427,107--$677,940 +--$977,030--$1,254,363--$1,468,179--$2,012,554--$1,580,495--$570,802-- +$390,988.--_Congress Report on Finances._ + + + STATEMENT SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF COFFEE IMPORTED + INTO THE UNITED STATES ANNUALLY, WITH THE AMOUNT + TAKEN FOR CONSUMPTION, DURING THE YEARS 1850 TO + 1858, INCLUSIVE--THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31. + + =============================================== + YEARS.| RECEIPTS. | CONSUMPTION. + ------|--------------------|------------------- + 1850. | lbs. 152,580,310 | lbs. 134,539,736 + 1851. | 216,043,870 | 181,225,700 + 1852. | 205,542,855 | 204,991,595 + 1853. | 193,112,300 | 175,687,790 + 1854. | 182,473,853 | 179,481,083 + 1855. | 283,214,533 | 210,378,287 + 1856. | 230,913,150 | 218,225,490 + 1857. | 217,871,839 | 172,565,934 + 1858. | 227,656,186 | 251,255,099 + ----------------------------------------------- + +NOTE. The New York _Shipping and Commercial List_, to which we are +indebted for these statements, says, that it includes the quantity +withdrawn from our markets, and forwarded inland to Canada and the +British Provinces; the amount of which is not ascertained, but will not +vary greatly from 2,230,000 lbs., for the last year. + + + + +TABLE VIII. + + STATEMENT EXHIBITING THE VALUE OF THE EXPORTS FROM + THE UNITED STATES, OF BREADSTUFFS AND PROVISIONS; + THE AMOUNT AND VALUE OF COTTON EXPORTED, WITH THE + AVERAGE COST, IN CENTS, PER POUND; AND THE AMOUNT + OF TOBACCO EXPORTED, FROM 1821 TO 1859 INCLUSIVE: + THE YEAR FROM 1821 TO 1842 ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, + AND FROM 1844 TO 1859 ENDING JUNE 30,--THE YEAR + 1843 INCLUDING ONLY NINE MONTHS. + + =========================================================================== + | | COTTON. |AVERAGE | + |BREADSTUFFS |------------------------------|COST PER | + | AND | | | lb. IN | TOBACCO + YEARS.|PROVISIONS. | POUNDS. | VALUE. | CENTS. |UNMANUFACTURED. + -----|------------|---------------|--------------|---------|--------------- + 1821 | $12,341,901| 124,893,405| $20,157,484| 16.2 | $5,648,962 + 1822 | 13,886,856| 144,675,095| 24,035,058| 16.6 | 6,222,838 + 1823 | 13,767,847| 173,723,270| 20,445,520| 11.8 | 6,282,672 + 1824 | 15,059,484| 142,369,663| 21,947,401| 15.4 | 4,855,566 + 1825 | 11,634,449| 176,449,907| 36,846,649| 20.9 | 6,115,623 + 1826 | 11,303,496| 204,535,415| 25,025,214| 12.2 | 5,347,208 + 1827 | 11,685,556| 294,310,115| 29,359,545| 10 | 6,577,123 + 1828 | 11,461,144| 210,590,463| 22,487,229| 10.7 | 5,269,960 + 1829 | 13,131,858| 264,837,186| 26,575,311| 10 | 4,982,974 + 1830 | 12,075,430| 298,459,102| 29,674,883| 9.9 | 5,586,365 + 1831 | 17,538,227| 276,979,784| 25,289,492| 9.1 | 4,892,388 + 1832 | 12,424,703| 322,215,122| 31,724,682| 9.8 | 5,999,769 + 1833 | 14,209,128| 324,698,604| 36,191,105| 11.1 | 5,755,968 + 1834 | 11,524,024| 384,717,907| 49,448,402| 12.8 | 6,595,305 + 1835 | 12,009,399| 387,358,992| 64,961,302| 16.8 | 8,250,577 + 1836 | 10,614,130| 423,631,307| 71,284,925| 16.8 | 10,058,640 + 1837 | 9,588,359| 444,211,537| 63,240,102| 14.2 | 5,795,647 + 1838 | 9,636,650| 595,952,297| 61,566,811| 10.3 | 7,392,029 + 1839 | 14,147,779| 413,624,212| 61,238,982| 14.8 | 9,832,943 + 1840 | 19,067,535| 743,941,061| 63,870,307| 8.5 | 9,883,957 + 1841 | 17,196,102| 530,204,100| 54,330,341| 10.2 | 12,576,703 + 1842 | 16,902,876| 584,717,017| 47,593,464| 8.1 | 9,540,755 + 1843 | 11,204,123| 792,297,106| 49,119,806| 6.2 | 4,650,979 + 1844 | 17,970,135| 663,633,455| 54,063,501| 8.1 | 8,397,255 + 1845 | 16,743,421| 872,905,996| 51,739,643| 5.92 | 7,469,819 + 1846 | 27,701,121| 547,558,055| 42,767,341| 7.81 | 8,478,270 + 1847 | 68,701,921| 527,219,958| 53,415,848| 10.34 | 7,242,086 + 1848 | 37,472,751| 814,274,431| 61,998,294| 7.61 | 7,551,122 + 1849 | 38,155,507| 1,026,602,269| 66,396,967| 6.4 | 5,804,207 + 1850 | 26,051,373| 635,381,604| 71,984,616| 11.3 | 9,951,023 + 1851 | 21,948,651| 927,237,089| 112,315,317| 12.11 | 9,219,251 + 1852 | 25,857,027| 1,093,230,639| 87,965,732| 8.05 | 10,031,283 + 1853 | 32,985,322| 1,111,570,370| 109,456,404| 9.85 | 11,319,319 + 1854 | 65,941,323| 987,833,106| 93,596,220| 9.47 | 10,016,046 + 1855 | 38,895,348| 1,008,424,601| 88,143,844| 8.74 | 14,712,468 + 1856 | 77,187,301| 1,351,431,701| 128,382,351| 9.49 | 12,221,843 + 1857 | 74,667,852| 1,048,282,475| 131,575,859| 12.55 | 20,662,772 + 1858 | 50,683,285| 1,118,624,012| 131,386,661| 11.70 | 17,009,767 + 1859 | 38,171,881| 1,372,755,006| 161,434,923| 11.75 | 21,074,038 + |------------|---------------|--------------| |--------------- + |$961,545,275|$23,366,357,434|$2,383,027,536| |$339,274,520 + --------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NOTE. The articles exported which are not included above, are as +follows, for 1859:--product of the sea, $4,462,974; product of the +forest, $14,489,406; cotton piece goods, manufactured tobacco, spirits, +seeds, hemp, and various other articles, $31,579,008. The value of the +manufactured tobacco, exported in 1859, and included in the last item, +was over $3,334,401, which, added to the $21,074,038, of unmanufactured +included above, makes the total exports of tobacco for that year amount +to $24,408,439. + + + + +TABLE IX. + + STATEMENT EXHIBITING THE VALUE OF FOREIGN GOODS + IMPORTED AND TAKEN FOR CONSUMPTION, IN THE UNITED + STATES; THE VALUE OF DOMESTIC PRODUCE OF THE + UNITED STATES EXPORTED, EXCLUSIVE OF SPECIE; THE + VALUE OF SPECIE AND BULLION IMPORTED, AND THE + VALUE OF SPECIE AND BULLION EXPORTED, FROM 1821 TO + 1859 INCLUSIVE: THE YEAR FROM 1821 TO 1842 ENDING + SEPTEMBER 30, AND FROM 1844 TO 1859 ENDING JUNE + 30,--THE YEAR 1843 INCLUDING ONLY NINE MONTHS. + + ===================================================================== + |IMPORTS ENTERED |DOMESTIC PRODUCE | + |FOR CONSUMPTION,|EXPORTED, | SPECIE AND BULLION. + YEARS.|EXCLUSIVE OF |EXCLUSIVE OF |--------------------------- + |SPECIE. |SPECIE. | IMPORTED. | EXPORTED. + ------|----------------|-----------------|-------------|------------- + 1821 | $43,696,405 | $43,671,894 | $8,064,890 | $10,477,969 + 1822 | 68,367,425 | 49,874,079 | 3,369,846 | 10,810,180 + 1823 | 51,308,936 | 47,155,408 | 5,097,896 | 6,372,987 + 1824 | 53,846,567 | 50,649,500 | 8,379,835 | 7,014,552 + 1825 | 66,375,722 | 66,944,745 | 6,150,765 | 8,787,659 + 1826 | 57,652,577 | 52,449,855 | 6,880,966 | 4,704,533 + 1827 | 54,901,108 | 57,878,117 | 8,151,130 | 8,014,880 + 1828 | 66,975,475 | 49,976,632 | 7,489,741 | 8,243,476 + 1829 | 54,741,571 | 55,087,307 | 7,403,612 | 4,924,020 + 1830 | 49,575,009 | 58,524,878 | 8,155,964 | 2,178,773 + 1831 | 82,808,110 | 59,218,583 | 7,305,945 | 9,014,931 + 1832 | 75,327,688 | 61,726,529 | 5,907,504 | 5,656,340 + 1833 | 83,470,067 | 69,950,856 | 7,070,368 | 2,611,701 + 1834 | 86,973,147 | 80,623,662 | 17,911,632 | 2,076,758 + 1835 | 122,007,974 | 100,459,481 | 13,131,447 | 6,477,775 + 1836 | 158,811,392 | 106,570,942 | 13,400,881 | 4,324,336 + 1837 | 113,310,571 | 94,280,895 | 10,516,414 | 5,976,249 + 1838 | 86,552,598 | 95,560,880 | 17,747,116 | 3,508,046 + 1839 | 145,870,816 | 101,625,533 | 8,595,176 | 8,776,743 + 1840 | 86,250,335 | 111,660,561 | 8,882,813 | 8,417,014 + 1841 | 114,776,309 | 103,636,236 | 4,988,633 | 10,034,332 + 1842 | 87,996,318 | 91,798,242 | 4,087,016 | 4,813,539 + 1843 | 37,294,129 | 77,686,354 | 22,390,559 | 1,520,791 + 1844 | 96,390,548 | 99,531,774 | 5,830,429 | 5,454,214 + 1845 | 105,599,541 | 98,455,330 | 4,070,242 | 8,606,495 + 1846 | 110,048,859 | 101,718,042 | 3,777,732 | 3,905,268 + 1847 | 116,257,595 | 150,574,844 | 24,121,289 | 1,907,024 + 1848 | 140,651,902 | 130,203,709 | 6,360,224 | 15,841,616 + 1849 | 132,565,168 | 131,710,081 | 6,651,240 | 5,404,648 + 1850 | 164,032,033 | 134,900,233 | 4,628,792 | 7,522,994 + 1851 | 200,476,219 | 178,620,138 | 5,453,592 | 29,472,752 + 1852 | 195,072,695 | 154,931,147 | 5,505,044 | 42,674,135 + 1853 | 251,071,358 | 189,869,162 | 4,201,382 | 27,486,875 + 1854 | 275,955,893 | 215,156,304 | 6,958,184 | 41,436,456 + 1855 | 231,650,340 | 192,751,135 | 3,659,812 | 56,247,343 + 1856 | 295,650,938 | 266,438,051 | 4,207,632 | 45,745,485 + 1857 | 333,511,295 | 278,906,713 | 12,461,799 | 69,136,922 + 1858 | 242,678,413 | 251,351,033 | 19,274,496 | 52,633,147 + 1859 | 324,258,159 | 278,392,080 | 7,434,789 | 63,887,411 + |----------------|-----------------|-------------|------------- + |$5,064,761,199 |$4,540,620,945 |$332,476,827 | $522,100,369 + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NOTE. There is usually re-exported from twenty to thirty million dollars +worth of the foreign articles imported. In 1859 the re-exports were to +the value of $14,509,971; in 1858 they were $30,886,142; in 1857 they +were $23,975,617; and in 1856, but $16,378,578. By adding the re-exports +to the imports entered for consumption, the product will show the whole +amount of the imports. The above figures are from the Congressional +Report on Finances, 1857-8, and the Report on Commerce and Navigation, +1859. + + + + +TABLE X. + + STATEMENT SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF CANE SUGAR + CONSUMED IN THE UNITED STATES, ANNUALLY, WITH THE + PROPORTIONS THAT ARE DOMESTIC OR FOREIGN, DURING + THE YEARS STATED--THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31. + + + ---------------------------------------------------------------- + -------|------------------|------------------|------------------ + YEARS. | FOREIGN. | DOMESTIC. | TOTAL. + -------|------------------|------------------|------------------ + 1850. | lbs. 319,420,800 | lbs. 283,183,040 | lbs. 603,603,840 + 1851. | 406,530,880 | 240,661,120 | 646,206,400 + 1852. | 440,289,920 | 265,796,160 | 706,086,080 + 1853. | 449,366,400 | 386,128,960 | 835,495,360 + 1854. | 337,912,960 | 522,954,560 | 863,067,520 + 1855. | 431,432,960 | 304,731,520 | 846,164,480 + 1856. | 594,254,080 | 276,568,320 | 848,422,400 + 1857. | 541,553,600 | 87,360,000 | 628,913,600 + 1858. | 548,257,920 | 310,740,160 | 870,222,080 + -------|------------------|------------------|------------------ + + + STATEMENT SHOWING THE AMOUNT, IN GALLONS, OF + MOLASSES CONSUMED IN THE UNITED STATES, ANNUALLY, + WITH THE PROPORTIONS WHICH ARE FOREIGN OR + DOMESTIC, DURING THE YEARS STATED--THE YEAR ENDING + DECEMBER 31. + + ---------------------------------------------------------------- + -------|------------------|------------------|------------------ + YEARS. | FOREIGN. | DOMESTIC. | TOTAL. + -------|------------------|------------------|------------------ + 1850. | Gals. 24,806,949 | Gals. 12,202,300 | Gals. 37,019,249 + 1851. | 33,238,278 | 10,709,740 | 43,948,018 + 1852. | 29,417,511 | 18,840,000 | 48,258,511 + 1853. | 28,576,821 | 26,930,000 | 55,536,821 + 1854. | 24,437,019 | 32,053,000 | 56,493,019 + 1855. | 23,533,423 | 24,251,207 | 47,266,085 + 1856. | 23,014,878 | 16,584,000 | 39,608,878 + 1857. | 23,266,404 | 5,242,380 | 28,508,784 + 1858. | 24,795,374 | 20,373,790 | 45,169,164 + -------|------------------|------------------|------------------ + +NOTE. The above table is taken from the _Shipping and Commercial List, +and New York Price Current_, January 22, 1859. The sources of supply are +the same as when the first edition went to press, and the proportions +from slave labor and free labor countries respectively, has undergone +very little change. The year ends December 31st, while the Congressional +fiscal year ends June 30th. + +The value of imports of Sugar, for the year ending June 30, 1858, from a +few principal countries, stood thus: Cuba, $15,555,409; Porto Rico, +$3,584,503; British West Indies, $386,546; British Guiana, $255,481; +British Honduras, $26; Hayti, $851; San Domingo, $5,529. + + + + +TABLE XI. + + COTTON IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM VARIOUS + COUNTRIES, QUANTITY RE-EXPORTED, AND STOCK ON HAND + DECEMBER 31, FOR A SERIES OF YEARS, IN POUNDS. BY + DEDUCTING THE EXPORTS AND THE STOCK ON HAND AT THE + END OF EACH YEAR FROM THE WHOLE IMPORTS, THE + REMAINDER IS THE QUANTITY TAKEN FOR CONSUMPTION. + + + ========================================================================== + WEST + FROM FROM FROM INDIES + | UNITED | FROM |MEDITER- | EAST | AND | OTHER | + YEARS.| STATES. | BRAZIL. | RANEAN. | INDIES. | GUIANA. |COUNTRIES.| + ------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+--------------------+ + 1840.|487,856,504|14,779,171 | 8,324,937| 77,011,839| 866,157|3,649,402 | + 1841.|358,240,964|16,671,348 | 9,097,180| 97,388,153|1,533,197|5,061,513 | + 1842.|414,030,779|15,222,828 | 4,489,017| 92,972,609| 593,603|4,441,250 | + 1843.|574,738,520|18,675,123 | 9,674,076| 65,709,729|1,260,444|3,135,224 | + 1844.|517,218,662|21,084,744 |12,406,327| 88,639,776|1,707,194|5,054,641 | + 1845.|626,650,412|20,157,633 |14,614,699| 58,437,426|1,394,447| 725,336 | + 1846.|401,949,393|14,746,321 |14,278,447| 34,540,143|1,201,857|1,140,113 | + 1847.|364,599,291|19,966,922 | 4,814,268| 83,934,614| 793,933| 598,587 | + 1848.|600,247,488|19,971,378 | 7,231,861| 84,101,961| 640,437| 827,036 | + 1849.|634,504,050|30,738,133 |17,369,843| 70,838,515| 944,307|1,074,164 | + 1850.|493,153,112|30,299,982 |18,931,414|118,872,742| 228,913|2,090,698 | + 1851.|596,638,962|19,339,104 |16,950,525|122,626,976| 446,529|1,377,653 | + 1852.|765,630,544|26,506,144 |48,058,640| 84,922,432| 703,696|3,960,992 | + 1853.|658,451,796|24,190,628 |28,353,575|181,848,160| 350,428|2,084,162 | + 1854.|722,151,346|19,703,600 |23,503,003|119,836,009| 409,110|1,730,081 | + 1855.|681,629,424|24,577,952 |32,904,153|145,179,216| 468,452|6,992,755 | + 1856.|780,040,016|21,830,704 |34,616,848|180,496,624| 462,784|6,439,328 | + 1857.|654,758,048|29,910,832 |24,882,144|250,338,144|1,443,568|7,986,160 | + 1858.|732,403,840|16,466,800 |34,867,840|138,253,360| 9,862,272 | + -----+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+--------------------+ + + ============================================= + | TOTAL | AMOUNT | STOCKS, + YEARS.| IMPORTED. | EXPORTED. |DECEMBER 31. + ------+-------------+-----------+------------+ + 1840.| 592,488,010| 38,673,229|233,600,000 + 1841.| 487,992,355| 37,673,586|247,760,000 + 1842.| 531,750,086| 45,251,248|269,760,000 + 1843.| 673,193,116| 39,620,000|368,280,000 + 1844.| 646,111,304| 47,222,560|414,760,000 + 1845.| 721,979,953| 42,916,384|478,160,000 + 1846.| 467,856,274| 65,930,704|263,520,000 + 1847.| 474,707,615| 74,954,320|204,760,000 + 1848.| 713,020,161| 74,019,792|239,440,000 + 1849.| 755,469,012| 98,893,536|263,760,000 + 1850.| 663,576,861|102,469,696|248,960,000 + 1851.| 757,379,749|111,980,400|237,600,000 + 1852.| 929,782,448|111,894,303|322,960,000 + 1853.| 895,278,749|148,596,680|327,000,000 + 1854.| 887,333,149|123,326,112|282,520,000 + 1855.| 891,751,952|124,368,100|226,600,000 + 1856.|1,023,886,304|146,660,864|197,080,000 + 1857.| 969,318,896|131,928,720|217,040,000 + 1858.| 931,847,056|153,035,680|184,782,000 + -----+-------------+-----------+----------- + + + +AVERAGE WEEKLY CONSUMPTION OF COTTON IN EUROPE, FOR A SERIES OF YEARS, +IN POUNDS.[135] + + + ================================================================== + COUNTRIES. | 1850. | 1851. | 1852. | 1853. | + ---------------------|----------|----------|----------|----------| + France | 2,830,800| 2,869,200| 4,230,000| 3,607,200| + Belgium | 453,600| 446,000| 653,600| 615,200| + Holland | 415,200| 415,200| 546,000| 469,200| + Germany | 661,200| 846,000| 976,800| 1,107,600| + Trieste | 915,200| 884,400| 1,038,400| 792,400| + Genoa, Naples, etc. | 223,200| 238,400| 376,800| 392,000| + Spain | 592,400| 707,200| 730,400| 653,600| + Russia, Norway, etc. | 1,169,200| 1,169,200| 1,622,800| 1,600,000| + |----------|----------|----------|----------| + Total on Continent | 7,260,800| 7,575,600|10,174,800| 9,237,200| + Add Great Britain |11,650,000|12,795,200|14,316,000|14,545,200| + |----------|----------|----------|----------| + Total weekly | | | | | + European Consumption |18,910,800|20,370,800|24,490,800|23,882,400| + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + ============================================================================ + COUNTRIES. | 1854. | 1855. | 1856. | 1857. | 1858. + ---------------------|----------|----------|----------|----------|---------- + France | 3,400,000| 3,684,400| 4,046,000| 3,438,400| + Belgium | 538,400| 484,400| 615,200| 438,400| + Holland | 661,200| 684,400| 761,200| 753,200| + Germany | 1,592,400| 822,800| 1,900,000| 444,800| + Trieste | 715,200| 651,200| 746,000| 576,800| + Genoa, Naples, etc. | 322,800| 439,400| 846,000| 692,000| + Spain | 715,200| 876,800| 938,400| 692,000| + Russia, Norway, etc. | 1,030,800| 961,600| 1,769,200| 1,538,400| + |----------|----------|----------|----------|---------- + Total on Continent | 8,976,000| 9,414,000|11,622,000| 9,786,000| + Add Great Britain |15,131,600|16,161,200|16,794,800|15,626,000|16,533,200 + |----------|----------|----------|----------|---------- + Total weekly | | | | | + European Consumption |24,107,600|25,575,200|28,416,800|25,412,000| + ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +FOOTNOTE: + +[135] The _London Economist_, from which we copy, observes, that the +figures in this table differ slightly from some other estimates, as must +be the case in all computations that are not official, but that from +examination it has reason to think them as near the truth as any +practical object can require. The quantities consumed in each country +include the direct imports from the producing countries, as well as the +indirect imports, chiefly from England. The consumption on the +Continent, for 1858, was not known. January 15, 1859, the date of +publication of the _Economist_. The bales are estimated at 400 lbs. +each. + + + + +TABLE XII. + + SUMMARY STATEMENT OF THE VALUE OF EXPORTS OF THE + GROWTH, PRODUCE, AND MANUFACTURE OF THE UNITED + STATES, FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1859; THE + PRODUCTIONS OF THE NORTH AND OF THE SOUTH, + RESPECTIVELY, BEING PLACED IN OPPOSITE COLUMNS; + AND THE ARTICLES OF A MIXED ORIGIN BEING STATED + SEPARATELY.--_Report on Com. and Nav._, 1859. + + + ============================================================================== + EXPORTS OF THE NORTH. | EXPORTS OF THE SOUTH. + | + PRODUCT OF THE FOREST. | PRODUCT OF THE FOREST. + | + Wood and its products, $7,829,666 | Wood and its products, $2,210,884 + Ashes, pot and pearl, 643,861 | Tar and pitch 141,058 + Ginseng, 54,204 | Rosin and turpentine, 2,248,381 + Skins and furs, 1,361,352 | Spirits of turpentine, 1,306,035 + | + PRODUCT OF AGRICULTURE. | PRODUCT OF AGRICULTURE. + | + Animals and their products, 15,262,769 | Animals and their products, 287,048 + Wheat and wheat flour, 15,113,455 | Wheat and wheat flour, 2,169,328 + Indian corn and meal, 2,206,396 | Indian corn and meal, 110,976 + Other grains, biscuit, and | Biscuit or ship bread, 12,864 + vegetables, 2,226,585 | Rice, 2,207,148 + Hemp, and Clover seed, 546,060 | Cotton, 161,434,923 + Flax seed, 8,177 | Tobacco, in leaf, 21,074,038 + Hops, 53,016 | Brown sugar, 196,935 + ----------- | ------------ + $45,305,541 | $193,399,618 + + +ARTICLES OF MIXED ORIGIN. + + Refined sugar, wax, chocolate, molasses, $ 550,937 + Spirituous liquors, ale, porter, beer, cider, vinegar, linseed oil, 1,370,787 + Household furniture, carriages, rail-road cars, etc. 1,722,797 + Hats, fur, silk, palm leaf, saddlery, trunks, valises, 317,727 + Tobacco, manufactured and snuff, 3,402,491 + Gunpowder, leather, boots, shoes, cables, cordage, 2,011,931 + Salt, lead, iron and its manufactures, 5,744,952 + Copper and brass, and manufactures of, 1,048,246 + Drugs and medicines, candles and soap, 1,933,973 + Cotton fabrics of all kinds, 8,316,222 + Other products of manufactures and mechanics, 3,852,910 + Coal and ice, 818,117 + Products not enumerated, 4,132,857 + Gold and silver, in coin and bullion, 57,502,305 + Products of the sea, being oil, fish, whalebone, etc. 4,462,974 + ------------ + $97,189,226 + Add Northern exports, 45,305,541 + Add Southern exports, 193,399,618 + ------------ + Total exports, $335,894,385 + ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +EXPLANATORY NOTE.--The whole of the exports from the ports of Delaware, +Baltimore, and New Orleans, are placed in the column of Northern +exports, because there is no means of determining what proportion of +them were from free or slave States, and it has been thought best to +give this advantage to the North. Taking into the account only the +heavier amounts, the exports from these ports foot up $11,287,898; of +which near one-half consisted of provisions and lumber. The total +imports for the year were $338,768,130. Of this $20,895,077 were +re-exported, which, added to the domestic exports, makes the total +exports $356,789,462, thus leaving a balance in our favor of +$18,021,332. + +[Illustration] + + + + +LIBERTY AND SLAVERY: + +OR, + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. + +BY + +ALBERT TAYLOR BLEDSOE, LL. D., + +PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. + + +LIBERTY AND SLAVERY: + +OR, + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +THIS work has, for the most part, been thought out for several years, +and various portions of it reduced to writing. Though we have long +cherished the design of preparing it for the press, yet other +engagements, conspiring with a spirit of procrastination, have hitherto +induced us to defer the execution of this design. Nor should we have +prosecuted it, as we have done, during a large portion of our last +summer vacation, and the leisure moments of the first two months of the +present session of the University, but for the solicitation of two +intelligent and highly-esteemed friends. In submitting the work, as it +now is, to the judgment of the truth-loving and impartial reader, we beg +leave to offer one or two preliminary remarks. + +We have deemed it wise and proper to notice only the more decent, +respectable, and celebrated among the abolitionists of the North. Those +scurrilous writers, who deal in wholesale abuse of Southern character, +we have deemed unworthy of notice. Their writings are, no doubt, adapted +to the taste of their readers; but as it is certain that no educated +gentleman will tolerate them, so we would not raise a finger to promote +their downfall, nor to arrest their course toward the oblivion which so +inevitably awaits them. + +In replying to the others, we are conscious that we have often used +strong language; for which, however, we have no apology to offer. We +have dealt with their arguments and positions rather than with their +motives and characters. If, in pursuing this course, we have often +spoken strongly, we merely beg the reader to consider whether we have +not also spoken justly. We have certainly not spoken without +provocation. For even these men--the very lights and ornaments of +abolitionism--have seldom condescended to argue the great question of +Liberty and Slavery with us as with equals. On the contrary, they +habitually address us as if nothing but a purblind ignorance of the very +first elements of moral science could shield our minds against the force +of their irresistible arguments. In the overflowing exuberance of their +philanthropy, they take pity of our most lamentable moral darkness, and +graciously condescend to teach us the very A B C of ethical philosophy! +Hence, if we have deemed it a duty to lay bare their pompous inanities, +showing them to be no oracles, and to strip their pitiful sophisms of +the guise of a profound philosophy, we trust that no impartial reader +will take offense at such vindication of the South against her accusers +and despisers. + +In this vindication, we have been careful throughout to distinguish +between the abolitionists, our accusers, and the great body of the +people of the North. Against these we have said nothing, and we could +say nothing; since for these we entertain the most profound respect. We +have only assailed those by whom we have been assailed; and we have held +each and every man responsible only for what he himself has said and +done. We should, indeed, despise ourselves if we could be guilty of the +monstrous injustice of denouncing a whole people on account of the +sayings and doings of a portion of them. We had infinitely rather suffer +such injustice--as we have so long done--than practice it toward others. + +We cannot flatter ourselves, of course, that the following work is +without errors. But these, whatever else may be thought of them, are not +the errors of haste and inconsideration. For if we have felt deeply on +the subject here discussed, we have also thought long, and patiently +endeavored to guard our minds against fallacy. How far this effort has +proved successful, it is the province of the candid and impartial reader +alone to decide. If our arguments and views are unsound, we hope he will +reject them. On the contrary, if they are correct and well-grounded, we +hope he will concur with us in the conclusion, that the institution of +slavery, as it exists among us at the South, is founded in political +justice, is in accordance with the will of GOD and the designs of his +providence, and is conducive to the highest, purest, best interests of +mankind. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE NATURE OF CIVIL LIBERTY. + + The commonly-received definition of Civil + Liberty.--Examination of the commonly-received + definition of Civil Liberty.--No good law ever + limits or abridges the Natural Liberty of + Mankind.--The distinction between Rights and + Liberty.--The Relation between the State of Nature + and Civil Society.--Inherent and Inalienable + Rights.--Conclusion of the First Chapter. + + +FEW subjects, if any, more forcibly demand our attention, by their +intrinsic grandeur and importance, than the great doctrine of human +liberty. Correct views concerning this are, indeed, so intimately +connected with the most profound interests, as well as with the most +exalted aspirations, of the human race, that any material departure +therefrom must be fraught with evil to the living, as well as to +millions yet unborn. They are so inseparably interwoven with all that is +great and good and glorious in the destiny of man, that whosoever aims +to form or to propagate such views should proceed with the utmost care, +and, laying aside all prejudice and passion, be guided by the voice of +reason alone. + +Hence it is to be regretted--deeply regretted--that the doctrine of +liberty has so often been discussed with so little apparent care, with +so little moral earnestness, with so little real energetic searching and +longing after truth. Though its transcendent importance demands the best +exertion of all our powers, yet has it been, for the most part, a theme +for passionate declamation, rather than of severe analysis or of +protracted and patient investigation. In the warm praises of the +philosopher, no less than in the glowing inspirations of the poet, it +often stands before us as a vague and ill-defined _something_ which all +men are required to worship, but which no man is bound to understand. It +would seem, indeed, as if it were a mighty something not to be clearly +seen, but only to be deeply felt. And felt it has been, too, by the +ignorant as well as by the learned, by the simple as well as by the +wise: felt as a fire in the blood, as a fever in the brain, and as a +phantom in the imagination, rather than as a form of light and beauty in +the intelligence. How often have the powers of darkness surrounded its +throne, and desolation marked its path! How often from the altars of +this _unknown idol_ has the blood of human victims streamed! Even here, +in this glorious land of ours, how often do the _too-religious_ +Americans seem to become deaf to the most appalling lessons of the past, +while engaged in the frantic worship of this their tutelary deity! At +this very moment, the highly favored land in which we live is convulsed +from its centre to its circumference, by the agitations of these pious +devotees of freedom; and how long ere scenes like those which called +forth the celebrated exclamation of Madame Roland--"O Liberty, what +crimes are perpetrated in thy name!" may be enacted among us, it is not +possible for human sagacity or foresight to determine. + +If no one would talk about liberty except those who had taken the pains +to understand it, then would a perfect calm be restored, and peace once +more bless a happy people. But there are so many who imagine they +understand liberty as Falstaff knew the true prince, namely, by +instinct, that all hope of such a consummation must be deferred until it +may be shown that their instinct is a blind guide, and its oracles are +false. Hence the necessity of a close study and of a clear analysis of +the nature and conditions of civil liberty, in order to a distinct +delineation of the great idol, which all men are so ready to worship, +but which so few are willing to take the pains to understand. In the +prosecution of such an inquiry, we intend to consult neither the +pecuniary interests of the South nor the prejudices of the North; but +calmly and immovably proceed to discuss, upon purely scientific +principles, this great problem of our social existence and national +prosperity, upon the solution of which the hopes and destinies of +mankind in no inconsiderable measure depend. We intend no appeal to +passion or to sordid interest, but only to the reason of the wise and +good. And if justice, or mercy, or truth, be found at war with the +institution of slavery, then, in the name of God, let slavery perish. +But however guilty, still let it be tried, condemned, and executed +according to law, and not extinguished by a despotic and lawless power +more terrific than itself. + + +Sec. I. _The commonly-received definition of civil liberty._ + +"Civil liberty," says Blackstone, "is no other than natural liberty so +far restrained as is necessary and expedient for the general advantage." +This definition seems to have been borrowed from Locke, who says that, +when a man enters into civil society, "he is to part with so much of his +_natural liberty_, in providing for himself, as the good, prosperity, +and safety of the society shall require." So, likewise, say Paley, +Berlamaqui, Rutherforth, and a host of others. Indeed, among jurists and +philosophers, such seems to be the commonly-received definition of civil +liberty. It seems to have become a political maxim that civil liberty is +no other than a certain portion of our natural liberty, which has been +carved therefrom, and secured to us by the protection of the laws. + +But is this a sound maxim? Has it been deduced from the nature of +things, or is it merely a plausible show of words? Is it truth--solid +and imperishable truth--or merely one of those fair semblances of truth, +which, through the too hasty sanction of great names, have obtained a +currency among men? The question is not what Blackstone, or Locke, or +Paley may have thought, but what is truth? Let us examine this point, +then, in order that our decision may be founded, not upon the authority +of man, but, if possible, in the wisdom of God. + + +Sec. II. _Examination of the commonly-received definition of civil +liberty._ + +Before we can determine whether such be the origin of civil liberty, we +must first ascertain the character of that natural liberty out of which +it is supposed to be reserved. What, then, is natural liberty? What is +the nature of the material out of which our civil liberty is supposed to +be fashioned by the art of the political sculptor? It is thus defined by +Locke: "To understand political power right, and derive it from its +original, we must consider what state all men are naturally in; and that +is a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of +their possessions and persons as they think fit, _within the bounds of +the law of nature_, without asking leave or depending upon the will of +any other man."[136] In perfect accordance with this definition, +Blackstone says: "This natural liberty consists in a power of acting as +one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the laws of +nature, being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of +God to man at his creation, when he endowed him with the faculty of +free-will." Such, according to Locke and Blackstone, is that natural +liberty, which is limited and abridged, as they suppose, when we enter +into the bonds of civil society. + +Now mark its features: it is the gift of God to man at his creation; the +very top and flower of his existence; that by which he is distinguished +from the lower animals and raised to the rank of moral and accountable +beings. Shall we sacrifice this divine gift, then, in order to secure +the blessings of civil society? Shall we abridge or mutilate the image +of God, stamped upon the soul at its creation, by which we are capable +of knowing and obeying his law, in order to secure the aid and +protection of man? Shall we barter away any portion of this our glorious +birthright for any poor boon of man's devising? Yes, we are told--and +why? Because, says Blackstone, "Legal obedience and conformity is +infinitely more valuable than _the wild and savage liberty which is +sacrificed to obtain it_." + +But how is this? _Now_ this natural liberty is a thing of light, and +_now_ it is a power of darkness. Now it is the gift of God, that moves +within a sphere of light, and breathes an atmosphere of love; and anon, +it is a wild and savage thing that carries terror in its train. It would +be an angel of light, if it were not a power of darkness; and it would +be a power of darkness, if it were not an angel of light. But as it is, +it is both by turns, and neither long, but runs through its Protean +changes, according to the exigencies of the flowing discourse of the +learned author. Surely such inconsistency, so glaring and so portentous, +and all exhibited on one and the same page, is no evidence that the +genius of the great commentator was as steady and profound as it was +elegant and classical. + +The source of this vacillation is obvious. With Locke, he defines +natural liberty to be a power of acting as one thinks fit, _within the +limits prescribed by the law of nature_; but he soon loses sight of +this all-important limitation, from which natural liberty derives its +form and beauty. Hence it becomes in his mind a power to act as one +pleases, without the restraint or control of any law whatever, either +human or divine. The sovereign will and pleasure of the individual +becomes the only rule of conduct, and lawless anarchy the condition +which it legitimates. Thus, having loosed the bonds and marred the +beauty of natural liberty, he was prepared to see it, now become so +"wild and savage," offered up as a sacrifice on the altar of civil +liberty. + +This, too, was the great fundamental error of Hobbes. What Blackstone +thus did through inadvertency, was knowingly and designedly done by the +philosopher of Malmesbury. In a state of nature, says he, all men have a +right to do as they please. Each individual may set up a right to all +things, and consequently to the same things. In other words, in such a +state there is no law, exept that of force. The strong arm of power is +the supreme arbiter of all things. Robbery and outrage and murder are as +lawful as their opposites. That is to say, there is no such thing as a +law of nature; and consequently all things are, in a state of nature, +equally allowable. Thus it was that Hobbes delighted to legitimate the +horrors of a state of nature, as it is called, in order that mankind +might, without a feeling of indignation or regret, see the wild and +ferocious liberty of such a state sacrificed to despotic power. Thus it +was that he endeavoured to recommend the "Leviathan," by contrasting it +with the huger monster called Natural Liberty. + +This view of the state of nature, by which all law and the great +Fountain of all law are shut out of the world, was perfectly agreeable +to the atheistical philosophy of Hobbes. From one who had extinguished +the light of nature, and given dominion to the powers of darkness, no +better could have been expected; but is it not deplorable that a +Christian jurist should, even for a moment, have forgotten the great +central light of his own system, and drawn his arguments from such an +abyss of darkness? + +Blackstone has thus lost sight of truth, not only in regard to his +general propositions, but also in regard to particular instances. "The +law," says he, "which restrains a man from doing mischief to his +fellow-citizens diminishes the natural liberty of mankind." Now, is this +true? The doing of mischief is contrary to the law of nature, and hence, +according to the definition of Blackstone himself, the perpetration of +it is not an exercise of any natural right. As no man possesses a +natural right to do mischief, so the law which forbids it does not +diminish the natural liberty of mankind. The law which forbids mischief +is a restraint not upon the _natural liberty_, but upon the _natural +tyranny_, of man. + +Blackstone is by no means alone in the error to which we have alluded. +By one of the clearest thinkers and most beautiful writers of the +present age,[137] it is argued, "that as government implies restraint, +it is evident we give up a certain portion of our liberty by entering +into it." This argument would be valid, no doubt, if there were nothing +in the world beside liberty to be restrained; but the evil passions of +men, from which proceed so many frightful tyrannies and wrongs, are not +to be identified with their rights or liberties. As government implies +restraint, it is evident that something is restrained when we enter into +it; but it does not follow that this something must be our natural +liberty. The argument in question proceeds on the notion that government +can restrain nothing, unless it restrain the natural liberty of mankind; +whereas, we have seen, the law which forbids the perpetration of +mischief, or any other wrong, is a restriction, not upon the _liberty_, +but upon the _tyranny_, of the human will. It sets a bound and limit, +not to any right conferred on us by the Author of nature, but upon the +evil thoughts and deeds of which we are the sole and exclusive +originators. Such a law, indeed, so far from restraining the natural +liberty of man, recognizes his natural rights, and secures his freedom, +by protecting the weak against the injustice and oppression of the +strong. The way in which these authors show that natural liberty is, and +of right ought to be, abridged by the laws of society, is, by +identifying this natural freedom, not with a power to act as God wills, +but with a power in conformity with our own sovereign will and pleasure. +The same thing is expressly done by Paley.[138] "To do what we will," +says he, "is natural liberty." Starting from this definition, it is no +wonder that he should have supposed that natural liberty is restrained +by civil government. In like manner, Burke first says, "That the effect +of liberty to individuals is, _that they may do what they please_;" and +then concludes, that in order to "secure some liberty," we make "a +surrender in trust of the whole of it."[139] Thus the natural rights of +mankind are first caricatured, and then sacrificed. + +If there be no God, if there be no difference between right and wrong, +if there be no moral law in the universe, then indeed would men possess +a natural right to do mischief or to act as they please. Then indeed +should we be fettered by no law in a state of nature, and liberty +therein would be coextensive with power. Right would give place to +might, and the least restraint, even from the best laws, would impair +our natural freedom. But we subscribe to no such philosophy. That +learned authors, that distinguished jurists, that celebrated +philosophers, that pious divines, should thus deliberately include the +enjoyment of our natural rights and the indulgence of our evil passions +in one and the same definition of liberty, is, it seems to us, matter of +the most profound astonishment and regret. It is to confound the source +of all tyranny with the fountain of all freedom. It is to put darkness +for light, and light for darkness. And it is to inflame the minds of men +with the idea that they are struggling and contending for liberty, when, +in reality, they may be only struggling and contending for the +gratification of their malignant passions. Such an offense against all +clear thinking, such an outrage against all sound political ethics, +becomes the more amazing when we reflect on the greatness of the authors +by whom it is committed, and the stupendous magnitude of the interests +involved in their discussions. + +Should we, then, exhibit the fundamental law of society, and the natural +liberty of mankind, as antagonistic principles? Is not this the way to +prepare the human mind, at all times so passionately, not to say so +madly, fond of freedom, for a repetition of those tremendous conflicts +and struggles beneath which the foundations of society have so often +trembled, and some of its best institutions been laid in the dust? In +one word, is it not high time to raise the inquiry, Whether there be, in +reality, any such opposition as is usually supposed to exist between the +law of the land and the natural rights of mankind? Whether such +opposition be real or imaginary? Whether it exists in the nature of +things, or only in the imagination of political theorists? + + +Sec. III. _No good law ever limits or abridges the natural liberty of +mankind_ + +By the two great leaders of opposite schools, Locke and Burke, it is +contended that when we enter into society the natural rights of +self-defense is surrendered to the government. If any natural right, +then, be limited or abridged by the laws of society, we may suppose the +right of self-defense to be so; for this is the instance which is always +selected to illustrate and confirm the reality of such a surrender of +our natural liberty. It has, indeed, become a sort of maxim, that when +we put on the bonds of civil society, we give up the natural right of +self-defense. + +But what does this maxim mean? Does it mean that we transfer the right +to repel force by force? If so, the proposition is not true; for this +right is as fully possessed by every individual after he has entered +into society as it could have been in a state of nature. If he is +assailed, or threatened with immediate personal danger, the law of the +land does not require him to wait upon the strong but slow arm of +government for protection. On the contrary, it permits him to protect +himself, to repel force by force, in so far as this may be necessary to +guard against injury to himself; and the law of nature allows no more. +Indeed, if there be any difference, the law of the land allows a man to +go further in the defense of self than he is permitted to go by the law +of God. Hence, in this sense, the maxim under consideration is not true; +and no man's natural liberty is abridged by the State. + +Does this maxim mean, then, that in a state of nature every man has a +right to redress his own wrongs by the _subsequent_ punishment of the +offender, which right the citizen has transferred to the government? It +is clear that this must be the meaning, if it have any correct meaning +at all. But neither in this sense is the maxim or proposition true. The +right to punish an offender must rest upon the one or the other of two +grounds: either upon the ground that the offender deserves punishment, +or that his punishment is necessary to prevent similar offenses. Now, +upon neither of these grounds has any man, even in a state of nature, +the right to punish an offense committed against himself. + +First, he has no right to punish such an offense on the ground that it +deserves punishment. No man has, or ever had, the right to wield the +awful attribute of retributive justice; that is, to inflict so much pain +for so much guilt or moral turpitude. This is the prerogative of God +alone. To his eye, all secrets are known, and all degrees of guilt +perfectly apparent; and to him alone belongs the vengeance which is due +for moral ill-desert. His law extends over the state of nature as well +as over the state of civil society, and calls all men to account for +their evil deeds. It is evident that, in so far as the intrinsic demerit +of actions is concerned, it makes no difference whether they be punished +here or hereafter. And beside, if the individual had possessed such a +right in a state of nature, he has not transferred it to society; for +society neither has nor claims any such right. Blackstone but utters the +voice of the law when he says: "The end or final cause of human +punishment is not by way of atonement or expiation, for that must be +left to the just determination of the supreme Being, but a precaution +against future offenses of the same kind." The exercise of retributive +justice belongs exclusively to the infallible Ruler of the world, and +not to frail, erring man, who himself so greatly stands in need of +mercy. Hence, the right to punish a transgressor on the ground that such +punishment is deserved, has not been transferred from the individual to +civil society: first, because he had no such natural right to transfer; +and, secondly, because society possesses no such right. + +In the second place, if we consider the other ground of punishment, it +will likewise appear that the right to punish never belonged to the +individual, and consequently could not have been transferred by him to +society. For, by the law of nature, the individual has no right to +punish an offense against himself _in order to prevent further offences +of the same kind_. If the object of human punishment be, as indeed it +is, to prevent the commission of crime, by holding up examples of terror +to evil-doers, then, it is evidently no more the natural right of the +party injured to redress the wrong, than it is the right of others. All +men are interested in the prevention of wrongs, and hence all men should +unite to redress them. All men are endowed by their Creator with a sense +of justice, in order to impel them to secure its claims, and throw the +shield of its protection around the weak and oppressed. + +The prevention of wrong, then, is clearly the natural duty, and +consequently the natural right, of all men. + +This duty should be discharged by others, rather than by the party +aggrieved. For it is contrary to the law of nature itself, as both Locke +and Burke agree, that any man should be "judge in his own case;" that +any man should, by an _ex post facto_ decision, determine the amount of +punishment due to his enemy, and proceed to inflict it upon him. Such a +course, indeed, so far from preventing offenses, would inevitably +promote them; instead of redressing injuries, would only add wrong to +wrong; and instead of introducing order, would only make confusion worse +confounded, and turn the moral world quite upside down. + +On no ground, then, upon which the right to punish may be conceived to +rest, does it appear that it was ever possessed, or could ever have been +possessed, by the individual. And if the individual never possessed such +a right, it is clear that he has never transferred it to society. Hence, +this view of the origin of government, however plausible at first sight, +or however generally received, has no real foundation in the nature of +things. It is purely a creature of the imagination of theorists; one of +the phantoms of that manifold, monstrous, phantom deity called Liberty, +which has been so often invoked by the _pseudo_ philanthropists and +reckless reformers of the present day to subvert not only the law of +capital punishment, but also other institutions and laws which have +received the sanction of both God and man. + +The simple truth is, that we are all bound by the law of nature and the +law of God to love our neighbor as ourselves. Hence it is the duty of +every man, in a state of nature, to do all in his power to protect the +rights and promote the interests of his fellow-men. It is the duty of +all men to consult together, and concert measures for the general good. +Right here it is, then, that the law of man, the constitution of civil +society, comes into contact with the law of God and rests upon it. Thus, +civil society arises, not from a surrender of individual rights, but +from a right originally possessed by all; nay, from a solemn duty +originally imposed upon all by God himself--a duty which must be +performed, whether the individual gives his consent or not. The very law +of nature itself requires, as we have seen, not only the punishment of +the offender, but also that he be punished acccording to a +pre-established law, and by the decision of an impartial tribunal. And +in the enactment of such law, as well as in the administration, the +collective wisdom of society, or its agents, moves in obedience to the +law of God, and not in pursuance of rights derived from the individual. + + +Sec. IV. _The distinction between rights and liberty._ + +In the foregoing discussion we have, in conformity to the custom of +others, used the terms _rights_ and _liberty_ as words of precisely the +same import. But, instead of being convertible terms, there seems to be +a very clear difference in their signification. If a man be taken, for +example, and without cause thrown into prison, this deprives him of his +_liberty_, but not of his _right_, to go where he pleases. The right +still exists; and his not being allowed to enjoy this right, is +precisely what constitutes the oppression in the case supposed. If there +were no right still subsisting, then there would be no oppression. +Hence, as the _right_ exists, while the _liberty_ is extinguished, it is +evident they are distinct from each other. The liberty of a man in such +a case, as in all others, would consist in an opportunity to enjoy his +right, or in a state in which it might be enjoyed if he so pleased. + +This distinction between rights and liberty is all-important to a clear +and satisfactory discussion of the doctrine of human freedom. The great +champions of that freedom, from a Locke down to a Hall, firmly and +passionately grasping the natural rights of man, and confounding these +with his liberty, have looked upon society as the restrainer, and not as +the author, of that liberty. On the other hand, the great advocates of +despotic power, from a Hobbes down to a Whewell, seeing that there can +be no genuine liberty--that is, no secure enjoyment of one's rights--in +a state of nature, have ascribed, not only our liberty, but all our +existing rights also, to the State. + +But the error of Locke is a noble and generous sentiment when compared +with the odious dogma of Hobbes and Whewell. These learned authors +contend that we derive all our existing rights from society. Do we, +then, live and move and breathe and think and worship God only by rights +derived from the State? No, certainly. We have these rights from a +higher source. God gave them, and all the powers of earth combined +cannot take them away. But as for our liberty, this we freely own is, +for the most part, due to the sacred bonds of civil society. Let us +render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things +that are God's. + + +Sec. V. _The relation between the state of nature and of civil society._ + +Herein, then, consists the true relation between the _natural_ and the +_social_ states. Civil society does not abridge our natural rights, but +secures and protects them. She does not assume our right of +self-defense,--she simply discharges the duty imposed by God to defend +us. The original right is in those who compose the body politic, and not +in any individual. Hence, civil society does not impair our natural +liberty, as actually existing in a state of nature, or as it might +therein exist; for, in such a state, there would be no real liberty, no +real enjoyment of natural rights. + +Mr. Locke, as we have seen, defines the state of nature to be one of +"perfect freedom." Why, then, should we leave it? "If man, in the state +of nature, be so free," says he, "why will he part with his freedom? To +which it is obvious to answer," he continues, "that though, in the state +of nature, he hath such a right, _yet the enjoyment of it is very +uncertain_, and constantly exposed to the invasion of others; for all +being kings as much as he, every man his equal, and the greater part not +strict observers of equity and justice, the enjoyment of the property he +has in this state is very unsafe, very insecure. This makes him willing +to quit a condition which, _however free, is full of fears and continual +dangers_; and it is not without reason that he seeks out, and is willing +to join in society with, others who are already united, or have a mind +to unite, _for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties, and +estates_, which I call by the general name _property_."[140] What! can +that be a state of perfect freedom which is subject to fears and +perpetual dangers? In one word, can a reign of terror be the reign of +liberty? It is evident, we think, that Locke has been betrayed into no +little inaccuracy and confusion of thought from not having distinguished +between rights and liberty. + +The truth seems to be that, in a state of nature, we would possess +rights, but we could not enjoy them. That is to say, notwithstanding all +our rights, we should be destitute of freedom or liberty. Society +interposes the strong arm of the law to protect our rights, to secure +us in the enjoyment of them. She delivers us from the alarms, the +dangers, and the violence of the natural state. Hence, under God, she is +the mother of our peace and joy, by whose sovereign rule anarchy is +abolished and liberty established. Liberty and social law can never be +dissevered. Liberty, robed in law, and radiant with love, is one of the +best gifts of God to man. But liberty, despoiled of law, is a wild, +dark, fierce spirit of licentiousness, which tends "to uproar the +universal peace." + +Hence it is a frightful error to regard the civil state or government as +antagonistic to the natural liberty of mankind; for this is, indeed, the +author of the very liberty we enjoy. Good government it is that +restrains the elements of tyranny and oppression, and introduces liberty +into the world. Good government it is that shuts out the reign of +anarchy, and secures the dominion of equity and goodness. He who would +spurn the restraints of law, then, by which pride, and envy, and hatred, +and malice, ambition, and revenge are kept within the sacred bounds of +eternal justice,--he, we say, is not the friend of human liberty. He +would open the flood-gates of tyranny and oppression; he would mar the +harmony and extinguish the light of the world. Let no such man be +trusted. + +If the foregoing remarks be just, it would follow that the state of +nature, as it is called, would be one of the most unnatural states in +the world. We may conceive it to exist, for the sake of illustration or +argument; but if it should actually exist, it would be at war with the +law of nature itself. For this requires, as we have seen, that men +should unite together, and frame such laws as the general good demands. + +Not only the law, but the very necessities of nature, enjoin the +institution of civil government. God himself has thus laid the +foundations of civil society deep in the nature of man. It is an +ordinance of Heaven, which no human decree can reverse or annul. It is +not a thing of compacts, bound together by promises and paper, but is +itself a law of nature as irreversible as any other. Compacts may give +it one form or another, but in one form or another it must exist. It is +no accidental or artificial thing, which may be made or unmade, which +may be set up or pulled down, at the mere will and pleasure of man. It +is a decree of God; the spontaneous and irresistible working of that +nature, which, in all climates, through all ages, and under all +circumstances, manifests itself in social organizations. + + +Sec. VI. _Inherent and inalienable rights._ + +Much has been said about inherent and inalienable rights, which is +either unintelligible or rests upon no solid foundation. "The +inalienable rights of men" is a phrase often brandished by certain +reformers, who aim to bring about "the immediate abolition of slavery." +Yet, in the light of the foregoing discussion, it may be clearly shown +that the doctrine of inalienable rights, if properly handled, will not +touch the institution of slavery. + +An inalienable right is either one which the possessor of it himself +cannot alienate or transfer, or it is one which society has not the +power to take from him. According to the import of the terms, the first +would seem to be what is meant by an inalienable right; but in this +sense it is not pretended that the right to either life or liberty has +been transferred to society or alienated by the individual. And if, as +we have endeavored to show, the right, or power, or authority of society +is not derived from a transfer of individual rights, then it is clear +that neither the right to life nor liberty is transferred to society. +That is, if no rights are transferred, than these particular rights are +still untransferred, and, if you please, untransferable. Be it conceded, +then, that the individual has never transferred his right to life or +liberty to society. + +But it is not in the above sense that the abolitionist uses the +expression, _inalienable rights_. According to his view, an inalienable +right is one of which society itself cannot, without doing wrong, +deprive the individual, or deny the enjoyment of it to him. This is +evidently his meaning; for he complains of the injustice of society, or +civil government, in depriving a certain portion of its subjects of +civil freedom, and consigning them to a state of servitude. "Such an +act," says he, "is wrong, because it is a violation of the inalienable +rights of all men." But let us see if his complaint be just or well +founded. + +It is pretended by no one that society has the right to deprive any +subject of either life or liberty, _without good and sufficient cause or +reason_. On the contrary, it is on all hands agreed that it is only for +good and sufficient reasons that society can deprive any portion of its +subjects of either life or liberty. Nor can it be denied, on the other +side, that a man may be deprived of either, or both, by a preordained +law, in case there be a good and sufficient reason for the enactment of +such law. For the crime of murder, the law of the land deprives the +criminal of life: _a fortiori_, might it deprive him of liberty. In the +infliction of such a penalty, the law seeks, as we have seen, not to +deal out so much pain for so much guilt, nor even to deal out pain for +guilt at all, but simply to protect the members of society, and _secure +the general good_. The general good is the sole and sufficient +consideration which justifies the State in taking either the life or the +liberty of its subjects. + +Hence, if we would determine in any case whether society is justified in +depriving any of its members of civil freedom by law, we must first +ascertain whether the general good demands the enactment of such a law. +If it does, then such a law is just and good--as perfectly just and good +as any other law which, for the same reason or on the same ground, takes +away the life or liberty of its subjects. All this talk about the +inalienable rights of men may have a very admirable meaning, if one will +only be at the pains to search it out; but is it not evident that, when +searched to the bottom, it has just nothing at all to do with the great +question of slavery? But more of this hereafter.[141] + +This great problem, as we have seen, is to be decided, not by an appeal +to the inalienable rights of men, but simply and solely by a reference +to the general good. It is to be decided, not by the aid of abstractions +alone; a little good sense and _practical sagacity_ should be allowed to +assist in its determination. There are inalienable rights, we +admit--inalienable both because the individual cannot transfer them, and +because society can never rightfully deprive any man of their enjoyment. +But life and liberty are _not_ "among these." There are inalienable +rights, we admit, but then such abstractions are the edge-tools of +political science, with which it is dangerous for either men or children +to play. They may inflict deep wounds on the cause of humanity; they can +throw no light on the great problem of slavery. + +One thing seems to be clear and fixed; and that is, that the rights of +the individual are subordinate to those of the community. _An +inalienable right is a right coupled with a duty; a duty with which no +other obligation can interfere._ But, as we have seen, it is the _duty_, +and consequently, the _right_, of society to make such laws as the +general good demands. This inalienable right is conferred, and its +exercise enjoined, by the Creator and Governor of the universe. All +individual rights are subordinate to this inherent, universal, and +inalienable right. It should be observed, however, that in the exercise +of this paramount right, this supreme authority, no society possesses +the power to contravene the principles of justice. In other words, it +should be observed that no unjust law can ever promote the public good. +Every law, then, which is not unjust, and which the public good demands, +should be enacted by society. + +But we have already seen and shall still more fully see, that the law +which ordains slavery is not unjust in itself, or, in other words, that +it interferes with none of the inalienable rights of man. Hence, if it +be shown that the public good, and especially the good of the slave, +demands such a law, then the question of slavery will be settled. We +purpose to show this before we have done with the present discussion. +And if, in the prosecution of this inquiry, we should be so fortunate as +to throw only one steady ray of light on the great question of slavery, +by which the very depths of society have been so fearfully convulsed, we +shall be more than rewarded for all the labor which, with no little +solicitude, we have felt constrained to bestow upon an attempt at its +solution. + + +Sec. VII. _Conclusion of the first chapter._ + +In conclusion, we shall merely add that if the foregoing remarks be +just, it follows that the great problem of political philosophy is not +precisely such as it is often taken to be by statesmen and historians. +This problem, according to Mackintosh and Macaulay, consists in finding +such an adjustment of the antagonistic principles of public order and +private liberty, that neither shall overthrow or subvert the other, but +each be confined within its own appropriate limits. Whereas, if we are +not mistaken, these are not _antagonistic_, but _co-ordinate_, +principles. The very law which institutes public order is that which +introduces private liberty, since no secure enjoyment of one's rights +can exist where public order is not maintained. And, on the other hand, +unless private liberty be introduced, public order cannot be +maintained, or at least such public order as should be established; +for, if there be not private liberty, if there be no secure enjoyment of +one's rights, then the highest and purest elements of our nature would +have to be extinguished, or else exist in perpetual conflict with the +surrounding despotism. As license is not liberty, so despotism is not +order, nor even friendly to that enlightened, wholesome order, by which +the good of the public and the individual are at the same time +introduced and secured. In other words, what is taken from the one of +these principles is not given to the other; on the contrary, every +additional element of strength and beauty which is imparted to the one +is an accession of strength and beauty to the other. Private liberty, +indeed, lives and moves and has its very being in the bosom of public +order. On the other hand, that public order alone which cherishes the +true liberty of the individual is strong in the approbation of God and +in the moral sentiments of mankind. All else is weakness, and death, and +decay. + +The true problem, then, is, not how the conflicting claims of these two +principles may be adjusted, (for there is no conflict between them,) but +how a real public order, whose claims are identical with those of +private liberty, may be introduced and maintained. The practical +solution of this problem, for the heterogeneous population of the South +imperatively demands, as we shall endeavor to show, the institution of +slavery; and that without such an institution it would be impossible to +maintain either a sound public order or a decent private liberty. We +shall endeavor to show, that the very laws or institution which is +supposed by fanatical declaimers to shut out liberty from the Negro race +among us, really shuts out the most frightful _license_ and disorder +from society. In one word, we shall endeavor to show that in preaching +up liberty _to and for_ the slaves of the South, the abolitionist is +"casting pearls before swine," that can neither comprehend the nature, +nor enjoy the blessings, of the freedom which is so officiously thrust +upon them. And if the Negro race should be moved by their fiery appeals, +it would only be to rend and tear in pieces the fair fabric of American +liberty, which, with all its shortcomings and defects, is by far the +most beautiful ever yet conceived or constructed by the genius of man. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[136] Locke on Civil Government, chap. ii. + +[137] Robert Hall. + +[138] Political Philosophy, chap. v. + +[139] Reflections on the Revolution in France. + +[140] Locke on Civil Government, chap. ix. + +[141] Chap. ii. Sec. x. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ARGUMENTS AND POSITIONS OF ABOLITIONISTS. + + The first fallacy of the Abolitionist.--The second + fallacy of the Abolitionist.--The third fallacy of + the Abolitionist.--The fourth fallacy of the + Abolitionist.--The fifth fallacy of the + Abolitionist.--The sixth fallacy of the + Abolitionist.--The seventh fallacy of the + Abolitionist.--The eighth fallacy of the + Abolitionist.--The ninth fallacy of the + Abolitionist.--The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, + thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth + fallacies of the Abolitionist; or his seven + arguments against the right of a man to hold + property in his fellow-man.--The seventeenth + fallacy of the Abolitionist; or, the Argument from + the Declaration of Independence. + + +HAVING in the preceding chapter discussed and defined the nature of +civil liberty, as well as laid down some of the political conditions on +which its existence depends, we shall now proceed to examine the +question of slavery. In the prosecution of this inquiry, we shall, in +the first place, consider the arguments and positions of the advocates +of immediate abolition; and, in the second, point out the reasons and +grounds on which the institution of slavery is based and its justice +vindicated. The first branch of the investigation, or that relating to +the arguments and positions of the abolitionist, will occupy the +remainder of the present chapter. + +It is insisted by abolitionists that the institution of slavery is, in +all cases and under all circumstances, morally wrong, or a violation of +the law of God. Such is precisely the ground assumed by the one side and +denied by the other. + +Thus says Dr. Wayland: "I have wished to make it clear that slavery, or +the holding of men in bondage, and 'obliging them to labor for our +benefit, without their contract or consent,' is always and everywhere, +or, as you well express it, _semper et ubique_, a moral wrong, a +violation of the obligations under which we are created to our +fellow-men, and a transgression of the law of our Creator." + +Dr. Fuller likewise: "The simple question is, Whether it _is +necessarily, and amid all circumstances, a crime to hold men in a +condition where they labor for another without their consent or +contract_? and in settling this matter all impertinences must be +retrenched." + +In one word, Dr. Wayland insists that slavery is condemned by the law of +God, by the moral law of the universe. We purpose to examine the +arguments which he has advanced in favor of this position. We select his +arguments for examination, because, as a writer on moral and political +science, he stands so high in the northern portion of the Union. His +work on these subjects has indeed long since passed the fiftieth +thousand; a degree of success which, in his own estimation, authorizes +him to issue his letters on slavery over the signature of "THE AUTHOR OF +THE MORAL SCIENCE." But the very fact that his popularity is so great, +and that he is _the_ author of _the_ Moral Science, is a reason why his +arguments on a question of such magnitude should be subjected to a +severe analysis and searching scrutiny, in order that, under the +sanction of so imposing a name, no error may be propagated and no +mischief done. + +Hence we shall hold Dr. Wayland amenable to all the laws of logic. +Especially shall we require him to adhere to the point he has undertaken +to discuss, and to retrench all irrelevancies. If, after having +subjected his arguments to such a process, it shall be found that every +position which is assumed on the subject is directly contradicted by +himself, we shall not make haste to introduce anarchy into the Southern +States, in order to make it answer to the anarchy in his views of civil +and political freedom. But whether this be the case or not, it is not +for us to determine; we shall simply proceed to examine, and permit the +impartial reader to decide for himself. + + +Sec. I. _The first fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +The abolitionists do not hold their passions in subjection to reason. +This is not merely the judgment of a Southern man: it is the opinion of +the more decent and respectable abolitionists themselves. Thus says Dr. +Channing, censuring the conduct of the abolitionists: "They have done +wrong, I believe; nor is their wrong to be winked at because done +fanatically or with good intentions; for how much mischief may be +wrought with good designs! They have fallen into the common error of +enthusiasts--that of exaggerating their object, of feeling as if no evil +existed but that which they opposed, and as if no guilt could be +compared with that of countenancing or upholding it."[142] In like +manner, Dr. Wayland says: "I unite with you and the lamented Dr Channing +in the opinion that the tone of the abolitionists at the North has been +frequently, I fear I must say generally, 'fierce, bitter, and abusive.' +The abolitionist press has, I believe, from the beginning, too commonly +indulged in _exaggerated statement_, in violent denunciation, and in +coarse and lacerating invective. At our late Missionary Convention in +Philadelphia, I heard many things from men who claim to be the exclusive +friends of the slave, which pained me more than I can express. It seemed +to me that the spirit which many of them manifested was very different +from the spirit of Christ. I also cheerfully bear testimony to the +general courtesy, the Christian urbanity, and the calmness under +provocation which, in a remarkable degree, characterized the conduct of +the members from the South." + +In the flood of sophisms which the abolitionists usually pour out in +their explosions of passion, none is more common than what is +technically termed by logicians the _ignoratio elenchi_, or a mistaking +of the point in dispute. Nor is this fallacy peculiar to the more vulgar +sort of abolitionists. It glares from the pages of Dr. Wayland, no less +than from the writings of the most fierce, bitter, and vindictive of his +associates in the cause of abolitionism. Thus, in one of his letters to +Dr. Fuller, he says: "To present this subject in a simple light. Let us +suppose that your family and mine were neighbors. We, our wives and +children, are all human beings in the sense that I have described, and, +in consequence of that common nature, and by the will of our common +Creator, are subject to the law, _Thou shalt love thy neighbor as +thyself_. Suppose that I should set fire to your house, shoot you as you +came out of it, and seizing your wife and children, 'oblige them to +labor for my benefit without their contract or consent.' Suppose, +moreover, aware that I could not thus oblige them, unless they were +inferior in intellect to myself, I should forbid them to read, and thus +consign them to intellectual and moral imbecility. Suppose I should +measure out to them the knowledge of God on the same principle. Suppose +I should exercise this dominion over them and their children as long as +I lived, and then do all in my power to render it certain that my +children should exercise it after me. _The question before us I suppose +to be simply this: Would I, in so doing, act at variance with the +relations existing between us as creatures of God?_ Would I, in other +words, violate the supreme law of my Creator, Thou shalt love thy +neighbor as thyself? or that other, Whatsoever ye would that men should +do unto you, do ye even so unto them? I do not see how any intelligent +creature can give more than one answer to this question. Then I think +that every intelligent creature must affirm that do this is wrong, or, +in the other form of expression, that it is a great moral evil. Can we +conceive of any greater?" + +It was surely very kind in Dr. Wayland to undertake, with so much pains, +to instruct us poor, benighted sons of the South in regard to the +difference between right and wrong. We would fain give him full credit +for all the kindly feeling he so freely professes for his "Southern +brethren;" but if he really thinks that the question, whether arson, and +murder, and cruelty are offenses against the "supreme law of the +Creator," is still open for discussion among us, then we beg leave to +inform him that he labors under a slight hallucination. If he had never +written a word, we should have known, perhaps, that it is wrong for a +man to set fire to his neighbor's house, and shoot him as he came out, +and reduce his wife and children to a state of ignorance, degradation, +and slavery. Nay, if we should find his house already burnt, and himself +already shot, we should hardly feel justified in treating his wife and +children in so cruel a manner. Not even if they were "guilty of a skin," +or ever so degraded, should we deem ourselves justified in reducing them +to a state of servitude. This is NOT "the question before us." We are +quite satisfied on all such points. The precept, too, Thou shalt love +thy neighbor as thyself, was not altogether unknown in the Southern +States before his letters were written. A committee of very amiable +philanthropists came all the way from England, as the agents of some +abolition society there, and told us all that the law of God requires us +to love our neighbor as ourselves. In this benevolent work of +enlightenment they were, if we mistake not, several months in advance of +Dr. Wayland. We no longer need to be enlightened on such points. Being +sufficiently instructed, we admit that we should love our neighbor as +ourselves, and also that arson, murder, and so forth are violations of +this law. But we want to know whether, _semper et ubique_, the +institution of slavery is morally wrong. _This is the question_, and to +this we intend to hold the author. + + +Sec. II. _The second fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +Lest we should be suspected of misrepresentation, we shall state the +position of Dr. Wayland in his own words. In regard to the institution +of slavery, he says: "I do not see that it does not sanction the whole +system of the slave-trade. _If I have a right to a thing after I have +gotten it, I have a natural right to the means necessary for getting +it._ If this be so, I should be as much justified in sending a vessel to +Africa, murdering a part of the inhabitants of a village, and making +slaves of the rest, as I should be in hunting a herd of wild animals, +and either slaying them or subjecting them to the yoke." + +Now mark the principle on which this most wonderful argument is based: +"If I have a right to a thing after I have gotten it, I have a natural +right to the means for getting it." That is to say, If I have the right +to a slave, now that I have got him, then I may rightfully use all +necessary means to reduce other men to slavery! I may shoot, burn, or +murder, if by this means I can only get slaves! Was any consequence ever +more wildly drawn? Was any _non sequitur_ ever more glaring? + +Let us see how this argument would apply to other things. If I have a +right to a watch after I have gotten it, no matter how, then I have a +right to use the means necessary to get watches; I may steal them from +my neighbors! Or, if I have a right to a wife, provided I can get one, +then may I shoot my friend and marry his widow! Such is the argument of +one who seeks to enlighten the South and reform its institutions! + + +Sec. III. _The third fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +Nearly allied to the foregoing argument is that of the same author, in +which he deduces from the right of slavery, supposing it to exist, +another retinue of monstrous rights. "This right also," says Dr. +Wayland, referring to the right to hold slaves, "as I have shown, +involves the right to use all the means necessary to its establishment +and perpetuity, and, _of course, the right to crush his intellectual and +social nature_, and to stupefy his conscience, in so far as may be +necessary to enable me to enjoy this right with the least possible +peril." This is a compound fallacy, a many-sided error. But we will +consider only two phases of its absurdity. + +In the first place, if the slaveholder should reason in this way, no one +would be more ready than the author himself to condemn his logic. If any +slaveholder should say, That because I have a right to my slaves, +therefore I have the right to crush the intellectual and moral nature of +men, in order to _establish_ and perpetuate their bondage,--he would be +among the first to cry out against such reasoning. This is evident from +the fact that he everywhere commends those slaveholders who deem it +their duty, as a return for the service of their slaves, to promote both +their temporal and eternal good. He everywhere insists that such is the +duty of slaveholders; and if such be their duty, they surely have no +right to violate it, by crushing the intellectual and moral nature of +those whom they are bound to elevate in the scale of being. If the +slaveholder, then, should adopt such an argument, his logic would be +very justly chargeable by Dr. Wayland with evidencing not so much the +existence of a clear head as of a bad heart. + +In the second place, the above argument overlooks the fact that the +Southern statesman vindicates the institution of slavery on the ground +that it finds the Negro race already so degraded as to unfit it for a +state of freedom. He does not argue that it is right to seize those who, +by the possession of cultivated intellects and pure morals, are fit for +freedom, and debase them in order to prepare them for social bondage. He +does not imagine that it is ever right to shoot, burn, or corrupt, in +order to reduce any portion of the enlightened universe to a state of +servitude. He merely insists that those only who are already unfit for a +higher and nobler state than one of slavery, should be held by society +in such a state. This position, although it is so prominently set forth +by every advocate of slavery at the South, is almost invariably +overlooked by the Northern abolitionists. They talk, and reason, and +declaim, indeed, just as if we had caught a bevy of black angels as they +were winging their way to some island of purity and bliss here upon +earth, and reduced them from their heavenly state, by the most +diabolical cruelties and oppressions, to one of degradation, misery, and +servitude. They forget that Africa is not yet a paradise, and that +Southern servitude is not quite a hell. They forget--in the heat and +haste of their argument they forget--that the institution of slavery is +designed by the South not for the enlightened and the free, but only for +the ignorant and the debased. They need to be constantly reminded that +the institution of slavery is not the mother, but the daughter, of +ignorance and degradation. It is, indeed, the legitimate offspring of +that intellectual and moral debasement which, for so many thousand +years, has been accumulating and growing upon the African race. And if +the abolitionists at the North will only invent some method by which all +this frightful mass of degradation may be blotted out _at once_, then +will we most cheerfully consent to "the _immediate_ abolition of +slavery." On this point, however, we need not dwell, as we shall have +occasion to recur to it again when we come to consider the grounds and +reasons on which the institution of slavery is vindicated. + +Having argued that the right of slavery, if it exist, implies the right +to shoot and murder an enlightened neighbor, with a view to reduce his +wife and children to a state of servitude, as well as to crush their +intellectual and moral nature in order to keep them in such a state, the +author adds, "If I err in making these inferences, I _err innocently_." +We have no doubt of the most perfect and entire innocence of the author. +But we would remind him that innocence, however perfect or _childlike_, +is not the only quality which a great reformer should possess. + + +Sec. IV. _The fourth fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +He is often guilty of a _petitio principii_, in taking it for granted +that the institution of slavery is an injury to the slave, which is the +very point in dispute. Thus says Dr. Wayland: "If it be asked when, +[slavery must be abandoned,] I ask again, when shall a man begin to +cease doing wrong? Is not the answer _immediately_? If a man is injuring +us, do we doubt as to the _time when_ he ought to cease? There is, then, +no doubt in respect to the time when we ought to cease inflicting injury +upon others."[143] Here it is assumed that slavery is an _injury_ to the +slave: but this is the very point which is denied, and which he should +have discussed. If a state of slavery be a greater injury to the slave +than a state of freedom would be, then are we willing to admit that it +should be abolished. But even in that case, not _immediately_, unless it +could be shown that the remedy would not be worse than the evil. If, on +the whole, the institution of slavery be a curse to the slave, we say +let it be abolished; not suddenly, however, as if by a whirlwind, but by +the counsels of wise, cautious, and far-seeing statesmen, who, capable +of looking both before and after, can comprehend in their plans of +reform all the diversified and highly-complicated interests of society. + +"But it may be said," continues the author, "immediate abolition would +be the greatest possible injury to the slaves themselves. They are not +competent to self-government." True: this is the very thing which may +be, and which is, said by every Southern statesman in his advocacy of +the institution of slavery. Let us see the author's reply. "This is a +question of fact," says he, "_which is not in the province of moral +philosophy to decide_. It very likely may be so. So far as I know, the +facts are not sufficiently known to warrant a full opinion on the +subject. We will, therefore, suppose it to be the case, and ask, What is +the duty of masters _under these circumstances_?" In the discussion of +this question, the author comes to the conclusion that a master may hold +his slaves in bondage, provided his intentions be good, and with a view +to set them at liberty as soon as they shall be qualified for such a +state. + +Moral philosophy, then, it seems, when it closes its eyes upon facts, +pronounces that slavery should be _immediately_ abolished; but if it +consider facts, which, instead of being denied, are admitted to be "very +likely" true, it decides against its immediate abolition! Or, rather, +moral philosophy looks at the fact that slavery is an _injury_, in order +to see that it should be forthwith abolished; but closes its eyes upon +the fact that its abolition may be a still greater injury, lest this +foregone conclusion should be called in question! Has moral philosophy, +then, an eye only for the facts which lie one side of the question it +proposes to decide? + +Slavery is an _injury_, says Dr. Wayland, and therefore it should be +_immediately_ abolished. But its abolition would be a still greater +injury, replies the objector. This may be true, says Dr. Wayland: it is +highly probable; but then this question of injury is one of fact, which +it is not in the province of moral philosophy to decide! So much for the +consistency and even-handed justice of the author. + +The position assumed by him, that questions of fact are not within the +province of moral philosophy, is one of so great importance that it +deserves a separate and distinct notice. Though seldom openly avowed, +yet is it so often tacitly assumed in the arguments and declamations of +abolitionists, that it shall be more fully considered in the following +section. + + +Sec. V. _The fifth fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +"Suppose that A has a right to use the body of B according to his--that +is, A's--will. Now if this be true, it is true universally; and hence, A +has the control over the body of B, and B has control over the body of +C, C of D, &c., and Z again over the body of A: that is, every separate +will has the right of control over some other body besides its own, and +has no right of control over its own body or intellect."[144] Now, if +men were cut out of pasteboard, all exactly alike, and distinguished +from each other only by the letters of the alphabet, then the reasoning +of the author would be excellent. But it happens that men are not cut +out of pasteboard. They are distinguished by differences of character, +by diverse habits and propensities, which render the reasonings of the +political philosopher rather more difficult than if he had merely to +deal with or arrange the letters of the alphabet. In one, for example, +the intellectual and moral part is almost wholly eclipsed by the brute; +while, in another, reason and religion have gained the ascendency, so as +to maintain a steady empire over the whole man. The first, as the author +himself admits, is incompetent to self-government, and should, +therefore, be held by the law of society in a state of servitude. But +does it follow that "if this be true, it is true _universally_?" Because +one man who can not govern himself may be governed by another, does it +follow that every man should be governed by others? Does it follow that +the one who has acquired and maintained the most perfect +self-government, should be subjected to the control of him who is wholly +incompetent to control himself? Yes, certainly, if the reasoning of Dr. +Wayland be true; but, according to every sound principle of political +ethics, the answer is, emphatically, No! + +There is a difference between a Hottentot and a Newton. The first should +no more be condemned to astronomical calculations and discoveries, than +the last should be required to follow a plough. Such differences, +however, are overlooked by much of the reasoning of the abolitionist. In +regard to the question of fact, whether a man is really a man and not a +mere thing, he is profoundly versed. He can discourse most eloquently +upon this subject: he can prove, by most irrefragable arguments, that a +Hottentot is a man as well as a Newton. But as to the differences among +men, such nice distinctions are beneath his philosophy! It is true that +one may be sunk so low in the scale of being that civil freedom would be +a curse to him; yet, whether this be so or not, is a question of fact +which his philosophy does not stoop to decide. He merely wishes to know +what rights A can possibly have, either by the law of God or man, which +do not equally belong to B? And if A would feel it an injury to be +placed under the control of B, then, "there is no doubt" that it is +equally wrong to place B under the control of A? In plain English, if it +would be injurious and wrong to subject a Newton to the will of a +Hottentot, then it would be equally injurious and wrong to subject a +Hottentot to the will of a Newton! Such is the inevitable consequence of +his very profound political principles! Nay, such is the identical +consequence which he draws from his own principles! + +If questions of fact are not within the province of the moral +philosopher, then the moral philosopher has no business with the science +of political ethics. This is not a pure, it is a mixed science. Facts +can no more be overlooked by the political architect, than magnitude can +be disregarded by the mathematician. The man, the political dreamer, who +pays no attention to them, may be fit, for aught we know, to frame a +government out of moonshine for the inhabitants of Utopia; but, if we +might choose our own teachers in political wisdom, we should decidedly +prefer those who have an eye for facts as well as abstractions. If we +may borrow a figure from Mr. Macaulay, the legislator who sees no +difference among men, but proposes the same kind of government for all, +acts about as wisely as a tailor who should measure the Apollo Belvidere +to cut clothes for all his customers--for the pigmies as well as for the +giants. + + +Sec. VI. _The sixth fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +It is asserted by Dr. Wayland that the institution of slavery is +condemned as "a violation of the plainest dictates of natural justice," +by "the natural conscience of man, from at least as far back as the time +of Aristotle." If any one should infer that Aristotle himself condemned +the institution of slavery, he would be grossly deceived; for it is +known to every one who has read the Politics of Aristotle that he is, +under certain circumstances, a strenuous advocate of the natural +justice, as well as of the political wisdom, of slavery. Hence we shall +suppose that Dr. Wayland does not mean to include Aristotle in his broad +assertion, but only those who came after him. Even in this sense, or to +this extent, his positive assertion is so diametrically opposed to the +plainest facts of history, that it is difficult to conceive how he could +have persuaded himself of its truth. It is certain that, on other +occasions, he was perfectly aware of the fact that the natural +conscience of man, from the time of Aristotle down to that of the +Christian era, was in favor of the institution of slavery; for as often +as it has served his purpose to assert this fact, he has not hesitated +to do so. Thus, "the universal existence of slavery at the time of +Christ," says he, "took its origin from the moral darkness of the age. +The immortality of the soul was unknown. Out of the Hebrew nation not a +man on earth had any true conception of the character of the Deity or of +our relations and obligations to him. The law of universal love to man +had never been heard of."[145] No wonder he here argues that _slavery +received the universal sanction of the heathen world_, since so great +was the moral darkness in which they were involved. This darkness was so +great, if we may believe the author, that the men of one nation esteemed +those of another "as by nature foes, whom they had a right" not only "to +subdue or enslave," but also to murder "whenever and in what manner +soever they were able."[146] The sweeping assertion, that such was the +moral darkness of the heathen world, is wide of the truth; for, at the +time of Christ, no civilized nation "esteemed it right to murder or +enslave, whenever and in what manner soever they were able," the people +of other nations. There were some ideas of natural justice, even then, +among men; and if there were not, why does Dr. Wayland appeal to their +ideas of natural justice as one argument against slavery? If the heathen +world "esteemed it right" to make slaves, how can it be said that its +conscience condemned slavery? Is it not evident that Dr. Wayland is +capable of asserting either the one thing or its opposite, just as it +may happen to serve the purpose of his anti-slavery argument? Whether +facts lie within the province of moral philosophy or not, it is certain, +we think, that the moral philosopher who may be pleased to set facts at +naught has no right to substitute fictions in their stead. + + +Sec. VII. _The seventh fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," is the rule of action which, +in the estimation of abolitionists, should at once and forever decide +every good man against the institution of slavery. But when we consider +the stupendous interests involved in the question, and especially those +of an intellectual and moral nature, we dare not permit ourselves to be +carried away by any form of mere words. We _must_ pause and investigate. +The fact that the dexterous brandishing of the beautiful precept in +question has made, and will no doubt continue to make, its thousands of +converts or victims, is a reason why its real import should be the more +closely examined and the more clearly defined. The havoc it makes among +those whose philanthropy is stronger than their judgment--or, if you +please, whose judgment is weaker than their philanthropy--flows not from +the divine precept itself, but only from human interpretations thereof. +And it should ever be borne in mind that he is the real enemy of the +great cause of philanthropy who, by absurd or overstrained applications +of this sublime precept, lessens that profound respect to which it is so +justly entitled from every portion of the rational universe. + +It is repeatedly affirmed by Dr. Wayland that every slaveholder lives in +the habitual and open violation of the precept which requires us to love +our neighbor as ourselves. "The moral precepts of the Bible," says he, +"are diametrically opposed to slavery. These are, 'Thou shalt love thy +neighbor as thyself,' and 'All things whatsoever ye would that men +should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.' Now, were this precept +obeyed," he continues, "it is manifest that slavery could not in fact +exist for a single instant. The principle of the precept is absolutely +subversive of the principle of slavery." If strong assertion were +argument, we should no doubt be overwhelmed by the irresistible logic of +Dr. Wayland. But the assertion of no man can be accepted as sound +argument. We want to know the very meaning of the words of the great +Teacher, and to be guided by _that_, rather than by the fallible +authority of an earthly oracle. What, then, is the meaning, the real +meaning, of his inspired words? + +Do they mean that whatsoever we might, in any relation of life, desire +for ourselves, we should be willing to grant to others in the like +relation or condition? This interpretation, we are aware, has been put +upon the words by a very celebrated divine. If we may believe that +divine, we cannot do as we would be done by, unless, when we desire the +estate of another, we forthwith transfer our estate to him! If a poor +man, for example, should happen to covet the estate of his rich +neighbor, then he is bound by this golden rule of benevolence to give +his little all to him, without regard to the necessities or wants of his +own family! But this interpretation, though seriously propounded by a +man of undoubted genius and piety, has not, so far as we know, made the +slightest possible impression on the plain good sense of mankind. Even +among his most enthusiastic admirers, it has merely excited a +good-natured smile at what they could not but regard as the strange +hallucination of a benevolent heart. + +_A wrong desire in one relation of life is not a reason for a wrong act +in another relation thereof._ A man may desire the estate, he may desire +the man-servant, or the maid-servant, or the wife of his neighbor, but +this is no reason why he should abandon his own man-servant, or his +maid-servant, or his wife to the will of another. The criminal who +trembles at the bar of justice may desire both judge and jury to acquit +him, but this is no reason why, if acting in the capacity of either +judge or juror, he should bring in a verdict of acquittal in favor of +one justly accused of crime. If we would apply the rule in question +aright, we should consider, not what we might wish or desire if placed +in the situation of another, but what we _ought_ to wish or desire. + +If a man were a child, he might wish to be exempt from the wholesome +restraint of his parents; but this, as every one will admit, is no +reason why he should abandon his own children to themselves. In like +manner, if he were a slave, he might most vehemently desire freedom; but +this is no reason why he should set his slaves at liberty. The whole +question of right turns upon what he _ought_ to wish or desire if placed +in such a condition. If he were an intelligent, cultivated, civilized +man,--in one word, if he were fit for freedom,--then his desire for +liberty would be a rational desire, would be such a feeling as he +_ought_ to cherish; and hence, he should be willing to extend the same +blessing to all other intelligent, cultivated, civilized men, to all +such as are prepared for its enjoyment. Such is the sentiment which he +should entertain, and such is precisely the sentiment entertained at the +South. No one here proposes to reduce any one to slavery, much less +those who are qualified for freedom; and hence the inquiry so often +propounded by Dr. Wayland and other abolitionists, how we would like to +be subjected to bondage, is a grand impertinence. We should like it as +little as themselves; and in this respect we shall do as we would be +done by. + +But suppose we were veritable slaves--slaves in character and in +disposition as well as in fact--and as unfit for freedom as the Africans +of the South--what _ought_ we then to wish or desire? Ought we to desire +freedom? We answer, no; because on that supposition freedom would be a +curse and not a blessing. Dr. Wayland himself admits that "it is very +likely" freedom would be "the greatest possible injury" to the slaves of +the South. Hence, we cannot perceive that if we were such as they, we +ought to desire so great an evil to ourselves. It would indeed be to +desire "the greatest possible injury" to ourselves; and though, as +ignorant and blind slaves, we might cherish so foolish a desire, +especially if instigated by abolitionists, yet this is no reason why, as +enlightened citizens, we should be willing to inflict the same great +evil upon others. _A foolish desire, we repeat, in one relation of life, +is not a good reason for a foolish or injurious act in another relation +thereof._ + +The precept which requires us to do as we would be done by, was intended +to enlighten the conscience. It is used by abolitionists to hoodwink and +deceive the conscience. This precept directs us to conceive ourselves +placed in the condition of others, in order that we may the more clearly +perceive what is due to them. The abolitionist employs it to convince us +that, because we desire liberty for ourselves, we should extend it to +all men, even to those who are not qualified for its enjoyment, and to +whom it would prove "the greatest possible injury." He employs it not +to show us what is due to others, but to persuade us to injure them! He +may deceive himself; but so long as we believe what even he admits as +highly probable--namely, that the "abolition of slavery would be the +greatest possible injury to the slaves themselves"--we shall never use +the divine precept as an instrument of delusion and of wrong. What! +inflict the greatest injury on our neighbor, and that, too, out of pure +Christian charity? + +But we need not argue with the abolitionist upon his own admissions. We +have infinitely stronger ground to stand on. The precept, "Thou shalt +love thy neighbor as thyself," is to be found in the Old Testament as +well as in the New. Thus, in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, it is +said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" and no greater love +than this is any where inculcated in the New Testament. Yet in the +twenty-fifth chapter of the same book, it is written, "Of the children +of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of +their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and +they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance +for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they +shall be your bondmen forever." This language is too plain for +controversy. In regard to this very passage, in which the Hebrews are +commanded to enter upon and take possession of the land of the +Canaanites, Dr. Wayland himself is constrained to admit--"The authority +to take them as slaves seems to be a part of this original, peculiar, +and I may perhaps say, anomalous grant."[147] Now, if the principle of +slavery, and the principle of the precept, Thou shalt love thy neighbor +as thyself, be as Dr. Wayland boldly asserts, _always and everywhere_ at +war with each other, how has it happened that both principles are so +clearly and so unequivocally embodied in one and the same code by the +Supreme Ruler of the world? Has this discrepancy escaped the eye of +Omniscience, and remained in the code of laws from heaven, to be +detected and exposed by "the author of the Moral Science"? + +We do not mean that Dr. Wayland sees any discrepancy among the +principles of the divine legislation. It is true he sees there the +precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and also this +injunction, "Thou shalt buy them for a possession," and "They shall be +your bondmen forever;" but although this looks very "anomalous" to him, +he dare not pronounce it absurd or self-contradictory. It is true, he +declares, that slavery is condemned _always and everywhere_ by "the +plainest dictates of natural justice;" but yet, although, according to +his own admission,[148] it was instituted by Heaven, he has found out a +method to save the character of the Almighty from the disgrace of such a +law. He says, "I know the word '_shalt_' is used when speaking of this +subject, but it is clearly used as _prophetic_, and not as _mandatory_." +Ay, the words "thou shalt" are used in regard to the buying and holding +of slaves, just as they are used in the commands which precede and +follow this injunction. There is no change in the form of the +expression. There is not, in any way, the slightest intimation that the +Lawgiver is about to prophesy; all seems to be a series of commands, and +is clothed in the same language of authority--"_thou shalt_." Yet in one +particular instance, and in one instance only, this language seems +"clearly" _prophetic_ to Dr. Wayland, and not _mandatory_. Now, I submit +to the candid and impartial reader, if this be not egregious trifling +with the word of God. + +Dr. Wayland forgets that he had himself admitted that the very passage +in question clothed the Hebrews with "the authority to take +slaves."[149] He now, in the face of his own admission, declares that +this language "is clearly prophetic," and tells what _would_ or what +_might_ be, and not what _should_ or what _must_ be." The poor Hebrews, +however, when they took slaves by the authority of a "_thou shalt_" from +the Lord, never imagined that they were merely fulfilling a prophecy, +and committing an abominable sin. + +This is clear to Dr. Wayland, if we may trust the last expression of his +opinion. But it is to be regretted, that either the clearness of his +perceptions, or the confidence of his assertions, is so often +disproportioned to the evidence before him. Thus, he says with the most +admirable modesty, "It _seems to me_ that the soul is the most important +part of a human being;"[150] and yet he peremptorily and positively +declares that the very strongest language of authority ever found in +Scripture "is _clearly_ used as prophetic and not mandatory!" He may, +however, well reserve the tone of dogmatic authority for such +propositions, since, if they may not be carried by assertion, they must +be left wholly without the least shadow of support. But one would +suppose that strength of assertion in such cases required for its +unembarrassed utterance no little strength of countenance. + +"If any one doubts," says Dr. Wayland, "respecting the bearing of the +Scripture precept upon this case, a few plain questions may throw +additional light upon the subject."[151] Now, if we mistake not, the few +plain questions which he deems so unanswerable may be answered with the +most perfect ease. "Would the master be willing," he asks, "that another +person should subject him to slavery, for the same reasons and on the +same grounds that he holds his slave in bondage?" We answer, No. If any +man should undertake to subject Southern masters to slavery, on the +ground that they are intellectually and morally sunk so low as to be +unfit for freedom or self-control, we should certainly not like the +compliment. It may argue a very great degree of self-complacency in us, +but yet the plain fact is, that we really do believe ourselves competent +to govern ourselves, and to manage our affairs, without the aid of +masters. And as we are not willing to be made slaves of, especially on +any such humiliating grounds, so we are not willing to see any other +nation or race of men, whom we may deem qualified for the glorious +condition of freedom, subjected to servitude. + +"Would the gospel allow us," he also asks, "if it were in our power, to +reduce our fellow-citizens of our own color to slavery?" Certainly not. +Nor do we propose to reduce any one, either white or black, to a state +of slavery. It is amazing to see with what an air of confidence such +questions are propounded. Dr. Channing, no less than Dr. Wayland, seems +to think they must carry home irresistible conviction to the heart and +conscience of every man who is not irremediably blinded by the +detestable institution of slavery. "Now, let every reader," says he, +"ask himself this plain question: Could I, can I, be rightfully seized +and made an article of property?" And we, too, say, Let every reader ask +himself this plain question, and then, if he please, answer it in the +negative. But what, then, should follow? Why, if you please, he should +refuse to seize any other man or to make him an article of property. He +should be opposed to the crime of kidnapping. But if, from such an +answer, he should conclude that the institution of slavery is +"everywhere and always wrong," then surely, after what has been said, +not another word is needed to expose the ineffable weakness and futility +of the conclusion. + +This golden rule, this divine precept, requires us to conceive ourselves +placed in the condition of our slaves, and then to ask ourselves, How +should we be treated by the master? in order to obtain a clear and +impartial view of our duty to them. This it requires of us; and this we +can most cheerfully perform. We can conceive that we are poor, helpless, +dependent beings, possessing the passions of men and the intellects of +children. We can conceive that we are by nature idle, improvident, and, +without a protector and friend to guide and control us, utterly unable +to take care of ourselves. And, having conceived all this, if we ask +ourselves, How should we be treated by the masters whom the law has +placed over us, what is the response? Is it that they should turn us +loose to shift for ourselves? Is it that they should abandon us to +ourselves, only to fall a prey to indolence, and to the legion of vices +and crimes which ever follow in its train? Is it that they should set us +free, and expose us, without protection, to the merciless impositions of +the worst portions of a stronger and more sagacious race? Is it, in one +word, that we should be free from the dominion of men, who, as a general +thing, are humane and wise in their management of us, only to become the +victims--the most debased and helpless victims--of every evil way? We +answer, No! Even the spirit of abolitionism itself has, in the person of +Dr. Wayland, declared that such treatment would, in all probability, be +the greatest of calamities. We feel sure it would be an infinite and +remediless curse. And as we believe that, if we were in the condition of +slaves, such treatment would be so great and so withering a curse, so we +cannot, out of a feeling of love, proceed to inflict this curse upon our +slaves. On the contrary, _we would do as we so clearly see we ought to +be done by_, if our conditions were changed. + +Is it not amazing, as well as melancholy, that learned divines, who +undertake to instruct the benighted South in the great principles of +duty, should entertain such superficial and erroneous views of the +first, great, and all-comprehending precept of the gospel? If their +interpretation of this precept were correct, then the child might be set +free from the authority of the father, and the criminal from the +sentence of the judge. All justice would be extinguished, all order +overthrown, and boundless confusion introduced into the affairs of men. +Yet, with unspeakable self-complacency, they come with such miserable +interpretations of the plainest truths to instruct those whom they +conceive to be blinded by custom and the institution of slavery to the +clearest light of heaven. They tell us, "Thou shouldst love thy neighbor +as thyself;" and they reiterate these words in our ears, just as if we +had never heard them before. If this is all they have to say, why then +we would remind them that the _meaning_ of the precept is the precept. +It is not a mere _sound_, it is _sense_, which these glorious words are +intended to convey. And if they can only repeat the words for us, why +then they might just as well send a host of free negroes with good, +strong lungs to be our instructors in moral science. + + +Sec. VIII. _The eighth fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +An argument is drawn from the divine attributes against the institution +of slavery. One would suppose that a declaration from God himself is +some little evidence as to what is agreeable to his attributes; but it +seems that moral philosophers have, now-a-days, found out a better +method of arriving at what is implied by his perfections. Dr. Wayland is +one of those who, setting aside the word of God, appeal to his +attributes in favor of the immediate and universal abolition of slavery. +If slavery were abolished, says he, "the laborer would then work in +conformity with the conditions which God has appointed, whereas he now +works at variance with them; in the one case, we should be attempting to +accumulate property under the blessing of God, whereas now we are +attempting to do it under _his special and peculiar malediction_. How +can we expect to prosper, when there is not, as Mr. Jefferson remarks, +'an attribute of the Almighty that can be appealed to in our +favor'?"[152] If we may rely upon his own words, rather than upon the +confident assertions of Dr. Wayland, we need not fear the curse of God +upon the slaveholder. The readiness with which Dr. Wayland points the +thunders of the divine wrath at our heads, is better evidence of the +passions of his own heart than of the perfections of the Almighty. + +Again he says: "If Jefferson trembled for his country when he remembered +that God is just, and declared that, 'in case of insurrection, the +Almighty has no attribute that can take part with us in the contest,' +surely it becomes a _disciple of Jesus Christ_ to pause and reflect." +Now let it be borne in mind that all this proceeds from a man, from a +professed disciple of Jesus Christ, who, in various places, has truly, +as well as emphatically, said, "_The duty of slaves_ is also explicitly +made known in the Bible. They are bound to _obedience_, _fidelity_, +_submission_, and respect to their masters,"[153] etc., etc. + +Such, then, according to Dr. Wayland himself, is the clear and +unequivocal teaching of revelation. And such being the case, shall the +_real_ "disciple of Jesus Christ" be made to believe, on the authority +of Mr. Jefferson or of any other man, that the Almighty has no attribute +which could induce him to take sides with his own law? If, instead of +submission to that law, there should be rebellion,--and not only +rebellion, but bloodshed and murder,--shall we believe that the +Almighty, the supreme Ruler of heaven and earth, would look on well +pleased? Since such is the express declaration of God himself respecting +the duty of slaves, it surely becomes a disciple of Christ to pause and +reflect whether he will follow his voice or the voice of man. + +We owe at least one benefit to the Northern abolitionists. Ere the +subject of slavery was agitated by them, there were many loose, floating +notions among us, as well as among themselves, respecting the nature of +liberty, which were at variance with the institution of slavery. But +since this agitation began, we have looked more narrowly into the +grounds of slavery, as well as into the character of the arguments by +which it is assailed, and we have found the first as solid as adamant, +the last as unsubstantial as moonshine. If Mr. Jefferson had lived till +the present day, there can be no doubt, we think, that he would have +been on the same side of this great question with the Calhouns, the +Clays, and the Websters of the country. We have known many who, at one +time, fully concurred with Mr. Jefferson on this subject, but are now +firm believers in the perfect justice and humanity of negro slavery. + + +Sec. IX. _The ninth fallacy of the abolitionist._ + +We have already seen that the abolitionist argues the question of +slavery as if Southerners were proposing to catch freemen and reduce +them to bondage. He habitually overlooks the fact, that slavery results, +not from the action of the individual, but from an ordinance of the +State. He forgets that it is a civil institution, and proceeds to argue +as if it were founded in individual wrong. And even when he rises--as he +sometimes does--to a contemplation of the real question in dispute, he +generally takes a most narrow and one-sided view of the subject. For he +generally takes it for granted that the legislation which ordains the +institution of slavery is _intended_ solely and exclusively for the +benefit of the master, without the least regard to the interests of the +slave. + +Thus says Dr. Wayland: "Domestic slavery proceeds upon the principle +that the master has a right to control the actions--physical and +intellectual--of the slave for his own (that is, the master's) +individual benefit,"[154] etc. And again: "It supposes that the Creator +intended one human being to govern the physical, intellectual, and moral +actions of as many other human beings as, by purchase, he can bring +within his physical power; and that _one human being may thus acquire a +right to sacrifice the happiness of any number of other human beings, +for the purpose of promoting his own_."[155] Now, surely, if this +representation be just, then the institution of slavery should be held +in infinite abhorrence by every man in Christendom. + +But we can assure Dr. Wayland that, however ignorant or heathenish he +may be pleased to consider the people of the Southern States, we are not +so utterly lost to all reverence for the Creator as to suppose, even for +a moment, that he _intended any one human being to possess the right of +sacrificing the happiness of his fellow-men to his own_. We can assure +him that we are not quite so dead to every sentiment of political +justice, as to imagine that any legislation which intends to benefit the +one at the expense of the many is otherwise than unequal and iniquitous +in the extreme. There is some little sense of justice left among us yet; +and hence we approve of no institution or law which proceeds on the +monstrous principle that any one man has, or can have, the "_right to +sacrifice the happiness of any number of other human beings for the +purpose of promoting his own_." We recognize no such right. It is as +vehemently abhorred and condemned by us as it can be abhorred and +condemned by the author himself. + +In thus taking it for granted, as Dr. Wayland so coolly does, that the +institution in question is "intended" to sacrifice the happiness of the +slaves to the selfish interest of the master, he incontinently begs the +whole question. Let him establish this point, and the whole controversy +will be at an end. But let him not hope to establish any thing, or to +satisfy any one, by assuming the very point in dispute, and then proceed +to demolish what every man at the South condemns no less than himself. +Surely, no one who has looked at both sides of this great question can +be ignorant that the legislation of the South proceeds on the principle +that slavery is beneficial, not to the master only, but also and +_especially_ to the slave. Surely, no one who has either an eye or an +ear for facts can be ignorant that the institution of slavery is based +on the ground, or principle, that it is beneficial, not only to the +parts, but also to the whole, of the society in which it exists. This +ground, or principle, is set forth in every defense of slavery by the +writers and speakers of the South; it is so clearly and so unequivocally +set forth, that he who runs may read. Why, then, is it overlooked by Dr. +Wayland? Why is he pleased to imagine that he is combating Southern +principles, when, in reality, he is merely combating the monstrous +figment, the distorted conception of his own brain,--namely, the right +of one man to sacrifice the happiness of multitudes to his own will and +pleasure? Is it because facts do not lie within the province of the +moral philosopher? Is it because fiction alone is worthy of his +attention? Or is it because a blind, partisan zeal has so far taken +possession of his very understanding, that he finds it impossible to +speak of the institution of slavery, except in the language of the +grossest misrepresentation? + + +Sec. X. _The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, +and sixteenth fallacies of the abolitionist; or his seven arguments +against the right of a man to hold property in his fellow-man._ + +"This claim of property in a human being," says Dr. Channing, "is +altogether false, groundless. No such right of man in man can exist. A +human being cannot be justly owned." The only difficulty in maintaining +this position is, according to Dr. Channing, "on account of its +exceeding obviousness. It is too plain for proof. To defend it is like +trying to confirm a self-evident truth," etc., etc. Yet he advances no +less than seven "arguments," as he calls them, in order to establish +this self-evident position. We shall examine these seven arguments, and +see if his great confidence be not built on a mere abuse of words. + +"The consciousness of our humanity," says he, "involves the persuasion +that we cannot be owned as a tree or a brute." This, as every body +knows, is one of the hackneyed commonplaces of the abolitionist. He +never ceases to declaim about the injustice of slavery, because it +regards, as he is pleased to assert, a man as a mere thing or a brute. +Now, once for all, we freely admit that it were monstrously unjust to +regard or treat a man otherwise than as a man. We freely admit that a +human being "can not be owned as a tree or a brute." + +A tree may be _absolutely_ owned. That is to say, the owner of a tree +may do what he pleases with his own, provided he do no harm or injury +with it. He may cut it down; and, if he please, he may beat it as long +as he has the power to raise an arm. He may work it into a house or into +a piece of furniture, or he may lay it on the fire, and reduce it to +ashes. He may, we repeat, do just exactly what he pleases with his own, +if his own be such a thing as a tree, _for a tree has no rights_. + +It is far otherwise with a brute. The owner of a horse, for example, may +not do what he pleases with his own. Here his property is not +_absolute_; it is _limited_. He may not beat his horse without mercy, +"for a good man is merciful to his beast." He may not cut his horse to +pieces, or burn him on the fire. For the horse has rights, which the +owner himself is bound to respect. The horse has a right to food and +kind treatment, and the owner who refuses these is a tyrant. Nay, the +very worm that crawls beneath our feet has his rights as well as the +monarch on his throne; and just in so far as these rights are +disregarded by a man is that man a tyrant. + +Hence even the brute may not be regarded or treated as a mere thing or a +tree. He can be owned and treated no otherwise than as a brute. The +horse, for example, may not be left, like a tree, without food and care; +but he may be saddled and rode as a horse; or he may be hitched to the +plough, and compelled to do his master's work. + +In like manner, a man cannot be owned or treated as a horse. He cannot +be saddled or rode, nor hitched to the plough and be made to do the work +of a horse. On the contrary, he should be treated as a man, and required +to perform only the work of a man. The right to such work is all the +ownership which any one man can rightfully have in another; and this is +all which any slaveholder of the South needs to claim. + +The real question is, _Can one man have a right to the personal service +or obedience of another without his consent?_ We do not intend to let +the abolitionist throw dust in our eyes, and shout victory amid a clamor +of words. We intend to hold him to the point. Whether he be a learned +divine, or a distinguished senator, we intend he shall speak to the +point, or else his argument shall be judged, not according to the +eloquent noise it makes or the excitement it produces, but according to +the _sense_ it contains. + +_Can a man, then, have a right to the labor or obedience of another +without his consent?_ Give us this right, and it is all we ask. We lay +no claim to the soul of the slave. We grant to the abolitionist, even +more freely than he can assert, that the "soul of the slave is his own." +Or, rather, we grant that his soul belongs exclusively to the God who +gave it. The master may use him not as a tree or a brute, but only as a +rational, accountable, and immortal being may be used. He may not +command him to do any thing which is wrong; and if he should so far +forget himself as to require such service of his slave, he would himself +be guilty of the act. If he should require his slave to violate any law +of the land, he would be held not as a _particeps criminis_ merely, but +as a criminal in the first degree. In like manner, if he should require +him to violate the law of God, he would be guilty--far more guilty than +the slave himself--in the sight of heaven. These are truths which are +just as well understood at the South as they are at the North. + +The master, we repeat, lays no claim to the soul of the slave. He +demands no spiritual service of him, he exacts no divine honors. With +his own soul he is fully permitted to serve his own God. With this soul +he may follow the solemn injunction of the Most High, "Servants, obey +your masters;" or he may listen to the voice of the tempter, "Servants, +fly from your masters." Those only who instigate him to violate the law +of God, whether at the North or at the South, are the men who seek to +deprive him of his rights and to exercise an infamous dominion over his +soul. + +Since, then, the master claims only a right to the labor and lawful +obedience of the slave, and no right whatever to his soul, it follows +that the argument, which Dr. Channing regards as the strongest of his +seven, has no real foundation. Since the master claims to have no +property in the "rational, moral, and immortal" part of his being, so +all the arguments, or rather all the empty declamation, based on the +false supposition of such claim, falls to the ground. So the passionate +appeals, proceeding on the supposition of such a monstrous claim, and +addressed to the religious sensibilities of the multitude, are only +calculated to deceive and mislead their judgment. It is a mere thing of +words; and, though "full of sound and fury," it signifies nothing. "The +traffic in human souls," which figures so largely in the speeches of the +divines and demagogues, and which so fiercely stirs up the most +unhallowed passions of their hearers, _is merely the transfer of a right +to labor_. + +Does any one doubt whether such a right may exist? The master certainly +has a right to the labor of his apprentice for a specified period of +time, though he has no right to his soul even for a moment. The father, +too, has a right to the personal service and obedience of his child +until he reach the age of twenty-one; but no one ever supposed that he +owned the soul of his child, or might sell it, if he pleased, to +another. Though he may not sell the soul of his child, it is universally +admitted that he may, for good and sufficient reasons, transfer his +right to the labor and obedience of his child. Why, then, should it be +thought impossible that such a right to service may exist for life? If +it may exist for one period, why not for a longer, and even for life? +If the good of both parties and the good of the whole community require +such a relation and such a right to exist, why should it be deemed so +unjust, so iniquitous, so monstrous? This whole controversy turns, we +repeat, not upon any consideration of abstract rights, but solely upon +the highest good of all--upon the highest good of the slave as well as +upon that of the community. + +"It is plain," says Dr. Channing, in his first argument, "that if any +one may be held as property, then any other man may be so held." This +sophism has been already sufficiently refuted. It proceeds on the +supposition that if one man, however incapable of self-government, may +be placed under the control of another, then all men may be placed under +the control of others! It proceeds on the idea that all men should be +placed in precisely the same condition, subjected to precisely the same +authority, and required to perform precisely the same kind of labor. In +one word, it sees no difference and makes no distinction between a Negro +and a Newton. But as an overstrained and false idea of equality lies at +the foundation of this argument, so it will pass under review again, +when we come to consider the great demonstration which the abolitionist +is accustomed to deduce from the axiom that "all men are created equal." + +The third argument of Dr. Channing is, like the first, "founded on the +essential equality of men." Hence, like the first, it may be postponed +until we come to consider the true meaning and the real political +significancy of the natural equality of all men. We shall barely remark, +in passing, that two arguments cannot be made out of one by merely +changing the mode of expression. + +The second argument of the author is as follows: "A man cannot be seized +and held as property, because he has rights. . . . A being having rights +cannot justly be made property, _for this claim over him virtually +annuls all his rights_." This argument, it is obvious, is based on the +arbitrary idea which the author has been pleased to attach to the term +_property_. If it proves any thing, it would prove that a horse could +not be held as property, for a horse certainly has rights. But, as we +have seen, a limited property, or a right to the labor of a man, does +not deny or annul all his rights, nor necessarily any one of them. This +argument needs no further refutation. For we acknowledge that the slave +has rights; and the limited or qualified property which the master +claims in him, extending merely to his personal human labor and his +lawful obedience, touches not one of these rights. + +The fourth argument of Dr. Channing is identical with the second. "That +a human being," says he, "cannot be justly held as property, is apparent +from _the very nature of property_. Property is an exclusive right. It +shuts out all claim but that of the possessor. What one man owns cannot +belong to another." The only difference between the two arguments is +this: in one the "_nature of_ property" is said "to annul all rights;" +and in the other it is said "to exclude all rights!" Both are based on +the same idea of property, and both arrive at the same conclusion, with +only a very slight difference in the mode of expression! + +And both are equally unsound. True; "what one man owns cannot belong to +another." But may not one man have a right to the labor of another, as a +father to the labor of his son, or a master to the labor of his +apprentice; and yet that other a right to food and raiment, as well as +to other things? May not one have a right to the service of another, +without annulling or excluding all the rights of that other? This +argument proceeds, it is evident, on the false supposition that if any +being be held as property, then he has no rights; a supposition which, +if true, would exclude and annul the right of property in every living +creature. + +Dr. Channing's fifth argument is deduced from "the universal indignation +excited toward _a man_ who makes another his slave." "Our laws," says +he, "know no higher crime than that of reducing a man to slavery. To +steal or to buy an African on his own shores is piracy." "To steal a +man," we reply, is one thing; and, by the authority of the law of the +land, to require him to do certain labor, is, one would think, quite +another. The first may be as high a crime as any known to our laws; the +last is recognized by our laws themselves. Is it not wonderful that Dr. +Channing could not see so plain a distinction, so broad and so glaring a +difference? The father of his country held slaves; _he did not commit +the crime of man-stealing_. + +The sixth argument of Dr. Channing, "against the right of property in +man," is "drawn from a very obvious principle of moral science. It is a +plain truth, universally received, that every right supposes or involves +a corresponding obligation. If, then, a man has a right to another's +person or powers, the latter is under obligation to give himself up as +a chattel to the former." Most assuredly, if one man has a right to the +service or obedience of another, then that other is under obligation to +render that service or obedience to him. But is such an obligation +absurd? Is it inconsistent with the inherent, the inalienable, the +universal rights of man that the "servant should obey his master?" If +so, then we fear the rights of man were far better understood by Dr. +Channing than by the Creator of the world and the Author of revelation. + +Such are the seven arguments adduced by Dr. Channing to show that no man +can rightfully hold property in his fellow-man. But before we quit this +branch of the subject, we shall advert to a passage in the address of +the Hon. Charles Sumner, before the people of New York, at the +Metropolitan Theatre, May 9, 1855. "I desire to present this argument," +says he, "on grounds above all controversy, impeachment, or suspicion, +even from slave-masters themselves. Not on triumphant story, not even on +indisputable facts, do I now accuse slavery, but on its character, as +revealed in its own simple definition of itself. Out of its own mouth do +I condemn it." Well, and why does he condemn it? Because, "by the law of +slavery, man, created in the image of God, is _divested of his human +character_ and declared to be a _mere_ chattel. That the statement may +not seem to be put forward without precise authority, I quote the law of +two different slave States." That is the accusation. It is to be proved +by the law of slavery itself. It is to be proved beyond "all +controversy," by an appeal to "indisputable facts." Now let us have the +facts: here they are. "The law of another polished slave State, says Mr. +Sumner, "gives this definition: 'Slaves shall be delivered, sold, taken, +reputed, and adjudged in law to be chattels personal, in the hands of +their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, and +assignees, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever.'" + +Now, _mark_; the learned Senator undertook to prove, beyond all doubt +and controversy, that slavery _divests the slave of his human +character_, and declares him to be a _mere_ chattel. But he merely +proves that it declares him to be a "chattel personal." He merely proves +that the law of a Southern State regards the slave, not as real estate +or landed property, but as a "chattel personal." Does this divest him of +his human character? Does this make him a _mere_ chattel? May the +slave, in consequence of such law, be treated as a brute or a tree? May +he be cut in pieces or worked to death at the will and pleasure of the +master? + +"We think that a learned Senator, especially when he undertakes to +demonstrate, should distinguish between declaring a man to be "a chattel +personal," and a _mere_ chattel. No one doubts that a man is a thing; +but is he therefore a _mere_ thing, or nothing more than a thing? In +like manner, no one doubts that a man is an animal; does it follow, +therefore, that he is a _mere_ animal, or nothing but an animal? It is +clear, that to declare a man may be held as a "chattel personal," is a +very different thing from declaring that he is a _mere_ chattel. So much +for his honor's "precise authority." + +In what part of the law, then, is the slave "divested of his human +character?" In no part whatever. If it had declared him to be a _mere_ +thing, or a _mere_ chattel, or a _mere_ animal, it would have denied his +human character, we admit; but the law in question has done no such +thing. Nor is any such declaration contained in the other law quoted by +the learned Senator from the code of Louisiana. It is _merely_ by the +interpolation of this little word _mere_, that the Senator of +Massachusetts has made the law of South Carolina divest an immortal +being of his "human character." He is welcome to all the applause which +this may have gained for him in the "Metropolitan Theatre." + +The learned Senator adduces another authority. "A careful writer," says +he, "Judge Stroud, in a work of juridical as well as philanthropic +merit, thus sums up the laws: 'The cardinal principle of slavery--that +the slave is not to be ranked among _sentient_[156] beings, but among +things--as an article of property--a chattel personal--obtains as +undoubted law in all these (the slave) States.'" We thus learn from this +very "careful writer" that slaves among us are "not ranked among +_sentient_ beings," and that this is "the cardinal principle of +slavery." No, they are not fed, nor clothed, nor treated as sentient +beings! They are left without food and raiment, just as if they were +stocks and stones! They are not talked to, nor reasoned with, as if they +were rational animals, but only driven about, like dumb brutes beneath +the lash! No, no, not the lash, for that would recognize them as +"sentient beings!" They are only thrown about like stones, or boxed up +like chattels; they are not set, like men, over the lower animals, +required to do the work of men; the precise work which, of all others, +in the grand and diversified economy of _human_ industry, they are the +best qualified to perform! So far, indeed, is this from being "the +cardinal principle of slavery," that it is no principle of slavery at +all. It bears not the most distant likeness or approximation to any +principle of slavery, with which we of the South have any the most +remote acquaintance. + +That man may, in certain cases, be held as property, is a truth +recognized by a higher authority than that of senators and divines. It +is, as we have seen, recognized by the word of God himself. In that +word, the slave is called the "possession"[157] of the master, and even +"his money."[158] Now, is not this language as strong, if not stronger, +than that adduced from the code of South Carolina? It certainly calls +the "bondman" his master's "money." Why, then, did not the Senator from +Massachusetts denounce this language, as divesting "a man of his human +character," and declaring him to be _mere_ money? Why did he not proceed +to condemn the legislation of Heaven, as well as of the South, out of +its own mouth? Most assuredly, if his principles be correct, then is he +bound to pronounce the law of God itself manifestly unjust and +iniquitous. For that law as clearly recognizes the right of property in +man as it could possibly be recognized in words. But it nowhere commits +the flagrant solecism of supposing that this right of the master annuls +or excludes all the rights of the slave. On the contrary, the rights of +the slave are recognized, as well as those of the master. For, according +to the law of God, though "a possession," and an "inheritance," and "a +bondman forever," yet is the slave, nevertheless, a man; and, as a man, +is he protected in his rights; in his rights, not as defined by +abolitionists, but as recognized by the word of God. + + +Sec. XI. _The seventeenth fallacy of the abolitionist; or the argument from +the Declaration of Independence._ + +This argument is regarded by the abolitionists as one of their great +strongholds; and no doubt it is so in effect, for who can bear a +superior? Lucifer himself, who fell from heaven because he could not +acknowledge a superior, seduced our first parents by the suggestion that +in throwing off the yoke of subjection, they should become "as gods." We +need not wonder, then, if it should be found, that an appeal to the +absolute equality of all men is the most ready way to effect the ruin of +States. We can surely conceive of none better adapted to subvert all +order among us of the South, involving the two races in a servile war, +and the one or the other in utter extinction. Hence we shall examine +this argument from the equality of all men, or rather this appeal to all +men's abhorrence of inferiority. This appeal is usually based on the +Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: +that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator +with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and +the pursuit of happiness." We do not mean to play upon these words; we +intend to take them exactly as they are understood by our opponents. As +they are not found in a metaphysical document or discussion, so it would +be unfair to suppose--as is sometimes done--that they inculcate the wild +dream of Helvetius, that all men are created with equal natural +capacities of mind. They occur in a declaration of independence; and as +the subject is the doctrine of human rights, so we suppose they mean to +declare that all men are created equal with respect to natural rights. + +Nor do we assert that there is no truth in this celebrated proposition +or maxim; for we believe that, if rightly understood, it contains most +important and precious truth. It is not on this account, however, the +less dangerous as a maxim of political philosophy. Nay, falsehood is +only then the more dangerous, when it is so blended with truth that its +existence is not suspected by its victims. Hence the unspeakable +importance of dissecting this pretended maxim, and separating the +precious truth it contains from the pernicious falsehood by which its +followers are deceived. Its truth is certainly very far from being +self-evident, or rather its truth is self-evident to some, while its +falsehood is equally self-evident to others, according to the side from +which it is viewed. We shall endeavor to throw some light both upon its +truth and its falsehood, and, if possible, draw the line which divides +them from each other. + +This maxim does not mean, then, that all men have, by nature, an equal +right to political power or to posts of honor. No doubt the words are +often understood in this sense by those who, without reflection, merely +echo the Declaration of Independence; but, in this sense, they are +utterly untenable. If all men had, by nature, an equal right to any of +the offices of government, how could such rights be adjusted? How could +such a conflict be reconciled? It is clear that all men could not be +President of the United States; and if all men had an equal natural +right to that office, no one man could be elevated to it without a wrong +to all the rest. In such case, all men should have, at least, an equal +chance to occupy the presidential chair. Such equal chance could not +result from the right of all men to offer themselves as candidates for +the office; for, at the bar of public opinion, vast multitudes would not +have the least shadow of a chance. The only way to effect such an object +would be by resorting to the lot. We might thus determine who, among so +many equally just claimants, should actually possess the power of the +supreme magistrate. This, it must be confessed, would be to recognize in +deed, as well as in word, the equal rights of all men. But what more +absurd than such an equality of rights? It is not without example in +history; but it is to be hoped that such example will never be copied. +The democracy of Athens, it is well known, was, at one time, so far +carried away by the idea of equal rights, that her generals and orators +and poets were elected by the lot. This was an equality, not in theory +merely, but in practice. Though the lives and fortunes of mankind were +thus intrusted to the most ignorant and depraved, or to the most wise +and virtuous, as the lot might determine, yet this policy was based on +an equality of rights. It is scarcely necessary to add that this idea of +equality prevailed, not in the better days of the Athenian democracy, +but only during its imbecility and corruption. + +If all men, then, have not a natural right to fill an office of +government, who has this right? Who has the natural right, for example, +to occupy the office of President of the United States? Certainly some +men have no such right. The man, for example, who has no capacity to +govern himself, but needs a guardian, has no right to superintend the +affairs of a great nation. Though a citizen, he has no more right to +exercise such power or authority than if he were a Hottentot, or an +African, or an ape. Hence, in bidding such a one to stand aside and +keep aloof from such high office, no right is infringed and no injury +done. Nay, right is secured, and injury prevented. + +Who has such a right, then?--such natural right, or right according to +the law of nature or reason? The man, we answer, who, all things +considered, is the best qualified to discharge the duties of the office. +The man who, by his superior wisdom, and virtue, and statesmanship, +would use the power of such office more effectually for the good of the +whole people than would any other man. If there be one such man, and +only one, he of _natural right_ should be our President. And all the +laws framed to regulate the election of President are, or should be, +only so many means designed to secure the services of that man, if +possible, and thereby secure the rights of all against the possession of +power by the unworthy or the less worthy. This object, it is true, is +not always attained, these means are not always successful; but this is +only one of the manifold imperfections which necessarily attach to all +human institutions; one of the melancholy instances in which natural and +legal right run in different channels. All that can be hoped, indeed, +either in the construction or in the administration of human laws, is an +approximation, more or less close, to the great principles of natural +justice. + +What is thus so clearly true in regard to the office of President, is +equally true in regard to all the other offices of government. It is +contrary to reason, to natural right, to justice, that either fools, or +knaves, or demagogues should occupy seats in Congress; yet all of these +classes are sometimes seen there, and by the law of the land are +entitled to their seats. Here, again, that which is right and fit in +itself is different from that which exists under the law. + +The same remarks, it is evident, are applicable to governors, to judges, +to sheriffs, to constables, and to justices of the peace. In every +instance, he who is best qualified to discharge the duties of an office, +and who would do so with greatest advantage to all concerned, has the +natural right thereto. And no man who would fill any office, or exercise +any power so as to injure the community, has any right to such office or +power. + +There is precisely the same limitation to the exercise of the elective +franchise. Those only should be permitted to exercise this power who are +qualified to do so with advantage to the community; and all laws which +regulate or limit the possession of this power should have in view, not +the equal rights of all men, but solely and exclusively the public good. +It is on this principle that foreigners are not allowed to vote as soon +as they land upon our shores, and that native Americans can do so only +after they have reached a certain age. And if the public good required +that any class of men, such as free blacks or slaves, for example, +should be excluded from the privilege altogether, then no doubt can +remain the law excluding them would be just. It might not be equal, but +would be _just_. Indeed, in the high and holy sense of the word, it +would be equal; for, if it excluded some from a privilege or power which +it conferred upon others, this is because they were not included within +the condition on which alone it should be extended to any. Such is not +an equality of rights and power, it is true; but it is an equality of +justice, like that which reigns in the divine government itself. In the +light of that justice, it is clear that no man, and no class of men, can +have a natural right to exercise a power which, if intrusted to them, +would be wielded for harm, and not for good. + +This great truth, when stripped of the manifold sophistications of a +false logic, is so clear and unquestionable, that it has not failed to +secure the approbation of abolitionists themselves. Thus, after all his +wild extravagancies about inherent, inalienable, and equal rights, Dr. +Channing has, in one of his calmer moods, recognized this great +fundamental truth. "The slave," says he, "cannot rightfully, and should +not, be owned by the individual. But, like every citizen, _he is subject +to the community_, AND THE COMMUNITY HAS A RIGHT AND IS BOUND TO +CONTINUE ALL SUCH RESTRAINTS AS ITS OWN SAFETY AND THE WELL-BEING OF THE +SLAVE DEMANDS." Now this is all we ask in regard to the question of +equal rights. All we ask is, that each and every individual may be in +such wise and so far restrained as the public good demands and no +further. All we ask is, as may be seen from the first chapter of this +Essay, that the right of the individual, whether real or imaginary, may +be held in subjection to the undoubted right of the community to protect +itself and to secure its own highest good. This solemn right, so +inseparably linked to a sacred duty, is paramount to the rights and +powers of the individual. Nay, as we have already seen,[159] the +individual can have no right that conflicts with this; because it is +his _duty_ to co-operate in the establishment of the general good. +Surely he can have no right which is adverse to duty. Indeed, if for the +general good, he would not cheerfully lay down both liberty and life, +then both may be rightfully taken from him. We have, it is true, +inherent and _inalienable rights_, but among these is neither liberty +nor life. For these, upon our country's altar, may be sacrificed; but +conscience, truth, honor may not be touched by man. + +Has the community, then, after all, the right to compel "a man," a +"rational and immortal being," to work? Let Dr. Channing answer: "If he +(the slave) cannot be induced to work by rational and natural motives, +_he should be obliged to labor, on the same principle on which the +vagrant in other communities is confined and compelled to earn his +bread_." Now, if a man be "confined, and compelled" to work in his +confinement, what becomes of his "inalienable right to liberty?" We +think there must be a slight mistake somewhere. Perhaps it is in the +Declaration of Independence itself. Nay, is it not evident, indeed, that +if all men have an inalienable right to liberty," then is this sacred +right trampled in the dust by every government on earth? Is it not as +really disregarded by the enlightened Commonwealth of Massachusetts, +which "confines and compels" vagrants to earn their bread, as it is by +the Legislature of Virginia, which has taken the wise precaution to +prevent the rise of a swarm of vagrants more destructive than the +locusts of Egypt? The plain truth is, that although this notion of the +"inalienable right" of all to liberty may sound very well in a +declaration of independence, and may be most admirably adapted to stir +up the passions of men and produce fatal commotions in a commonwealth, +yet no wise nation ever has been or ever will be guided by it in the +construction of her laws. It may be a brand of discord in the hands of +the abolitionist and the demagogue. It will never be an element of +light, or power, or wisdom, in the bosom of the statesman. + +"The gift of liberty," continues Dr. Channing, "would be a mere name, +and worse than nominal, were he (the slave) to be let loose on society +under circumstances driving him to commit crimes, for which he would be +condemned to severer bondage than he had escaped." If then, after all, +liberty may be worse than a mere name, is it not a pity that all men +should have an "inalienable right" to it? If it may be a curse, is it +not a pity that all men should be required to embrace it, and to be even +ready to die for it, as an invaluable blessing? We trust that "no man," +that "no rational and immortal being," will ever be so ungrateful as to +complain of those who have withheld from him that which is "worse than +nominal," and a curse. For if such, and such only, be his inalienable +birthright, were it not most wisely exchanged for a mess of pottage? The +vagrant, then, should not be consulted whether he will work or not. He +should be "confined and compelled" to work, says Dr. Channing. Nor +should the idle and the vicious, those who cannot be induced to work by +rational motives, be asked whether they will remain pests to society, or +whether they will eat their bread in the sweat of their brow. "For they, +too," says Dr. Channing, "should be compelled to work." But how? "The +slave should not have an owner," says Dr. Channing, "but he should have +a guardian. He needs authority, to supply the lack of that discretion +which he has not yet attained; but it should be the authority of a +friend, an official authority, conferred by the State, and for which +there should be responsibility to the State." Now, if all this be true, +is not the doctrine of equal rights, as held by Dr. Channing, a mere +dream? If one man may have "a guardian," "an official authority," +appointed by the State, to compel him to work, why may not another be +placed under the same authority, and subjected to the same servitude? +Are not all equal? Have not all men an equal right to liberty and to a +choice of the pursuits of happiness? Let these questions be answered by +the admirers of Dr. Channing; and it will be found that they have +overthrown all the plausible logic, and blown away all the splendid +rhetoric, which has been reared, on the ground of equal rights, against +the institution of slavery at the South. + +We are agreed, then, that men may be compelled to work. We are also +agreed that, for this purpose, the slaves of the South should be placed +under guardians and friends by the authority of the State. Dr. Channing +thinks, however, that the owner is not the best guardian or the best +friend whom the State could place over the slave. On the contrary, he +thinks his best friend and guardian would be an official overseer, bound +to him by no ties of interest, and by no peculiar feelings of affection. +In all this, we think Dr. Channing greatly mistaken; and mistaken +because he is an utter stranger to the feelings usually called forth by +the relation of master and slave. But, be this as it may, since such are +the concessions made by Dr. Channing, it is no longer necessary to +debate the question of slavery with him, on the high ground of abstract +inalienable rights. It is brought down to one of practical utility, of +public expediency. + +And such being the nature of the question, we, as free citizens of the +South, claim the right to settle the matter for ourselves. We claim the +right to appoint such guardians and friends for this class of our +population as we believe will be most advantageous to them, as well as +to the whole community. We claim the right to impose such restraints, +and such only, as the well-being of our own society seems to us to +demand. This claim may be denied. The North may claim the right to think +for us in regard to this question of expediency. But it cannot be denied +that if liberty may be a curse, then no man can, in such case, have a +right to it as a blessing. + +If liberty would be an equal blessing to all men, then, we freely admit, +all men would have an equal right to liberty. But to concede, as Dr. +Channing does, that it were a curse to some men and yet contend that all +men have an equal right to its enjoyment, is sheer absurdity and +nonsense. But Dr. Channing, as we have seen, sometimes speaks a better +sense. Thus, he has even said, "It would be cruelty, not kindness, to +the latter (to the slave) to give him a freedom which he is unprepared +to understand or enjoy. It would be cruelty to strike the fetters from a +man whose first steps would infallibly lead him to a precipice." So far, +then, according to the author himself, are all men from having an +"inalienable right" to liberty, that some men have no right to it at +all. + +In like manner, Dr. Wayland, by his own admission, has overthrown all +his most confident deductions from the notion of equal rights. He, too, +quotes the Declaration of Independence, and adds, "That the equality +here spoken of is not of the means of happiness, but in the right to use +them as one wills, is too evident to need illustration." If this be the +meaning, then the meaning is not so evidently true. On the contrary, the +vaunted maxim in question, as understood by Dr. Wayland, appears to be +pure and unmixed error. Power, for example, is one means of happiness; +and so great a means, too, that without it all other means would be of +no avail. But has any man a right to use this means of happiness as he +wills? Most assuredly not. He has no right to use the power he may +possess, nor any other means of happiness, as he will, but only as +lawful authority has willed. If it be a power conferred by man, for +example, such as that of a chief magistrate, or of a senator, or of a +judge, he may use it no otherwise than as the law of the land permits, +or in pursuance of the objects for which it was conferred. In like +manner, if it proceed from the Almighty, it may be used only in +conformity with his law. So far, then, is it from being true that all +men possess an equal right to use the means of happiness as they please, +that no man ever has, or ever will, possess any such right at all. And +if such be the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, then the +Declaration of Independence is too evidently erroneous to need any +further refutation. Unless, indeed, man may put forth a declaration of +independence which shall annul and destroy the immutable obligations of +the moral law, and erect _one's will_ as the rule of right. But is an +equal exemption from the restraints of that law liberty, or is it +universal anarchy and confusion? + +It were much nearer the truth to say that all men have an equal right, +not to act as "one wills," but to have their wills restrained by law. No +greater want is known to man, indeed, than the restraints of law and +government. Hence, all men have an equal right to these, but not to the +same restraints, to the same laws and governments. All have an equal +right to that government which is the best for them. But the same +government is not the best for all. A despotism is best for some; a +limited monarchy is best for others; while, for a third people, a +representative republic is the best form of government. + +This proposition is too plain for controversy. It has received the +sanction of all the great teachers of political wisdom, from an +Aristotle down to a Montesquieu, and from a Montesquieu down to a Burke. +It has become, indeed, one of the commonplaces of political ethics; and, +however strange the conjunction, it is often found in the very works +which are loudest in proclaiming the universal equality of human rights. +Thus, for example, says Dr. Wayland: "The best form of government for +any people _is the best that its present moral condition renders +practicable. A people may be so entirely surrendered to the influence of +passion, and so feebly influenced by moral restraints, that a +government which relied upon moral restraint could not exist for a day_. +In this case, a subordinate and inferior principle remains--_the +principle of fear, and the only resort is to a government of force_ or a +military despotism. And such do we see to be the fact." What, then, +becomes of the equal and inalienable right of all men to freedom? Has it +vanished with the occasion which gave it birth? + +But this is not all. "Anarchy," continues Wayland, "always ends in this +form of government. [A military despotism.] After this has been +established, and habits of subordination have been formed, while the +moral restraints are too feeble for self-government, an hereditary +government, which addresses itself to the imagination, and strengthens +itself by the influence of domestic connections, may be as good a form +as a people can sustain. As they advance in intellectual and moral +cultivation, it may advantageously become more and more elective, and, +in a suitable moral condition, it may be wholly so. For beings who are +willing to govern themselves by moral principles, there can be no doubt +that a government relying upon moral principle is the true form of +government. There is no reason why a man should be oppressed by taxation +and subjected to fear who is willing to govern himself by the law of +reciprocity. It is surely better for an intelligent and moral being to +do right from his own will, than _to pay another to force him to do +right_. And yet, as it is better that he should do right than wrong, +even though he be forced to do it, it is well that he should pay others +to force him, if there be no other way of insuring his good conduct. God +has rendered the blessing of freedom inseparable from moral restraint to +the individual; and hence it is vain for a people to expect to be free +unless they are first willing to be virtuous." Again, "There is no +self-sustaining power in any form of social organization. The only +self-sustaining power is in individual virtue. + +"And the form of a government will always adjust itself to the moral +condition of a people. A virtuous people will, by their own moral power, +frown away oppression, and, under any form of constitution, become +essentially free. A people surrendered up to their own licentious +passions must be held in subjection by force; for every one will find +that force alone can protect him from his neighbors; and he will submit +to be oppressed, if he can only be protected. Thus, in the feudal ages, +the small independent landholders frequently made themselves slaves of +one powerful chief to shield themselves from the incessant oppression of +twenty." + +Now all this is excellent sense. One might almost imagine that the +author had been reading Aristotle, or Montesquieu, or Burke. It is +certain he was not thinking of equal rights. It is equally certain that +his eyes were turned away from the South; for he could see how even +"independent landholders" might rightfully make slaves of themselves. +After such concessions, one would think that all this clamor about +inherent and _inalienable_ rights ought to cease. + +In a certain sense, or to a certain extent, all men have equal rights. +All men have an equal right to the air and light of heaven; to the same +air and the same light. In like manner, all men have an equal right to +food and raiment, though not to the same food and raiment. That is, all +men have an equal right to food and raiment, provided they will earn +them. And if they will not earn them, choosing to remain idle, +improvident, or nuisances to society, then they should be placed under a +government of force, and compelled to earn them. + +Again, all men have an equal right to serve God according to the +dictates of their own consciences. The poorest slave on earth possesses +this right--this inherent and inalienable right; and he possesses it as +completely as the proudest monarch on his throne. He may choose his own +religion, and worship his own God according to his own conscience, +provided always he seek not in such service to interfere with the rights +of others. But neither the slave nor the freeman has any right to +murder, or instigate others to murder, the master, even though he should +be ever so firmly persuaded that such is a part of his religious duty. +He has, however, the most absolute and perfect right to worship the +Creator of all men in all ways not inconsistent with the moral law. And +wo be to the man by whom such right is denied or set at naught! Such a +one we have never known; but whosoever he may be, or wheresoever he may +be found, let all the abolitionists, we say, hunt him down. He is not +fit to be a man, much less a Christian master. + +But, it will be said, the slave has also a right to religious +instruction, as well as to food and raiment. So plain a proposition no +one doubts. But is this right regarded at the South? No more, we fear, +than in many other portions of the so-called Christian world. Our +children, too, and our poor, destitute neighbors, often suffer, we fear, +the same wrong at our remiss hands and from our cold hearts. Though we +have done much and would fain do more, yet, the truth must be confessed, +this sacred and imperious claim has not been fully met by us. + +It may be otherwise at the North. There, children and poor neighbors, +too, may all be trained and taught to the full extent of the moral law. +This godlike work may be fully done by our Christian brethren of the +North. They certainly have a large surplus of benevolence to bestow on +us. But if this glorious work has not been fully done by them, then let +him who is without sin cast the first stone. This simple thought, +perhaps, might call in doubt their right to rail at us, at least with +such malignant bitterness and gall. This simple thought, perhaps, might +save us many a pitiless pelting of philanthropy. + +But here lies the difference--here lies our peculiar sin and shame. This +great, primordial right is, with us, denied by law. The slave shall not +be taught to read. Oh! that he might be taught! What floods of sympathy, +what thunderings and lightnings of philanthropy, would then be spared +the world! But why, we ask, should the slave be taught to read? That he +might read the Bible, and feed on the food of eternal life, is the +reply; and the reply is good. + +Ah! if the slave would only read his Bible, and drink its very spirit +in, we should rejoice at the change; for he would then be a better and a +happier man. He would then know his duty, and the high ground on which +his duty rests. He would then see, in the words of Dr. Wayland, "_That +the duty of slaves is explicitly made known in the Bible_. They are +bound to obedience, fidelity, submission, and respect to their +masters--not only to the good and kind, but also to the unkind and +froward; not, however, on the ground of duty to man, but _on the ground +of duty to God_." But, with all, we have some little glimpse of our +dangers, as well as some little sense of our duties. + +The tempter is not asleep. His eye is still, as ever of old, fixed on +the forbidden tree; and thither he will point his hapless victims. Like +certain senators, and demagogues, and doctors of divinity, he will +preach from the Declaration of Independence rather than from the Bible. +He will teach, not that submission, but that _resistance_, is a duty. To +every evil passion his inflammatory and murder-instigating appeals will +be made. Stung by these appeals and maddened, the poor African, it is to +be feared, would have no better notions of equality and freedom, and no +better views of duty to God or man, than his teachers themselves have. +Such, then, being the state of things, ask us not to prepare the slave +for his own utter undoing. Ask us not--O most kind and benevolent +Christian teacher!--ask us not to lay the train beneath our feet, that +_you_ may no longer hold the blazing torch in vain! + +Let that torch be extinguished. Let all incendiary publications be +destroyed. Let no conspiracies, no insurrections, and no murders be +instigated. Let the pure precepts of the gospel and its sublime lessons +of peace be everywhere set forth and inculcated. In one word, let it be +seen that in reality the eternal good of the slave is aimed at, and, by +the co-operation of all, may be secured, and then may we be asked to +teach him to read. But until then we shall refuse to head a conspiracy +against the good order, the security, the morals, and against the very +lives, of both the white and the black men of the South. + +We might point out other respects in which men are essentially equal, or +_have equal rights_. But our object is not to write a treatise on the +philosophy of politics. It is merely to expose the errors of those who +push the idea of equality to an extreme, and thereby unwisely deny the +great differences that exist among men. For if the scheme or the +political principles of the abolitionists be correct, then there is no +difference among men, not even among the different races of men, that is +worthy the attention of the statesman. + +There is one difference, we admit, which the abolitionists have +discovered between the master and the slave at the South. Whether this +discovery be entirely original with them, or whether they received hints +of it from others, it is clear that they are now fully in possession of +it. The dazzling idea of equality itself has not been able to exclude it +from their visions. For, in spite of this idea, they have discovered +that between the Southern master and slave there is a difference of +color! Hence, as if this were the only difference, in their political +harangues, whether from the stump or from the pulpit, they seldom fail +to rebuke the Southern statesman in the words of the poet: "He finds his +fellow guilty of a skin not colored like his own;" and "for such worthy +cause dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey." Shame and confusion +seize the man, we say, who thus dooms and devotes his fellow-man, +because he finds him "guilty of a skin!" If his sensibilities were only +as soft as his philosophy is shallow, he would certainly cry, "Down with +the institution of slavery!" For how could he tolerate an institution +which has no other foundation than a difference of color? Indeed, if +such were the only difference between the two races among us, we should +ourselves unite with Mr. Seward of New York, and most "affectionately +advise all men to be born white." For thus, the only difference having +been abolished, all men would be equal in fact, and consequently +entitled to become equal in political rights, and power, and position. +But if such be not the only difference between the white and the black +man of the South, then neither philosophy nor paint can establish an +equality between them. + +Every man, we admit, is a man. But this profound aphorism is not the +only one to which the political architect should give heed. An equality +of conditions, of political powers and privileges, which has no solid +basis in an equality of capacity or fitness, is one of the wildest and +most impracticable of all Utopian dreams. If in the divine government +such an equality should prevail, it is evident that all order would be +overthrown, all justice extinguished, and utter confusion would reign. +In like manner, if in human government such equality should exist, it +would be only for a moment Indeed, to aim at an equality of conditions, +or of rights and powers except by first aming at an equality of +intelligence and virtue, is not to reform--it is to demolish--the +governments of society. It is, indeed, to war against the eternal order +of divine Providence itself in which an immutable justice ever regins. +"It is this aiming after an equality," says Aristotle, "which is the +cause of seditions." But though seditions it may have stirred up, and +fierce passions kindled, yet has it never led its poor deluded victims +to the boon after which they have so fondly panted. + +Equality is not liberty. "The French," said Napoleon, "love equality: +they care little for liberty." Equality is plain, simple, easily +understood. Liberty is complex, and exceedingly difficult of +comprehension. The most illiterate peasant may, at a glance, grasp the +idea of equality; the most profound statesman may not, without much care +and thought, comprehend the nature of liberty. Hence it is that +equality, and not liberty, so readily seizes the mind of the multitude, +and so mightily inflames its passions. The French are not the only +people who care but little for liberty, while they are crazy for +equality. The same blind passion, it is to be feared, is possible even +in this enlightened portion of the globe. Even here, perhaps, a man may +rant and rave about equality, while, really, he may know but little +more, and consequently care but little more, about that complicated and +beautiful structure called civil liberty, than a horse does about the +mechanism of the heavens. + +Thus, for example, a Senator[160] of the United States declares that the +democratic principle is "Equality of natural rights, guaranteed and +secured to all by the laws of a just, popular government. For one, I +desire to see that principle applied to every subject of legislation, no +matter what that subject may be--to the great question involved in the +resolution now before the Senate, and to every other question." Again, +this principle is "the element and guarantee of liberty." + +Apply this principle, then, to every subject, to every question, and see +what kind of government would be the result. All men have an equal right +to freedom from restraint, and consequently all are made equally free. +All have an equal right to the elective franchise, and to every +political power and privilege. But suppose the government is designed +for a State in which a large majority of the population is without the +character, or disposition, or habits, or experience of freemen? No +matter: the equal rights of all are natural; and hence they should be +applied in all cases, and to every possible "subject of legislation." +The principle of equality should reign everywhere, and mold every +institution. Surely, after what has been said, no comment is necessary +on a scheme so wild, on a dream so visionary. "As distant as heaven is +from earth," says Montesquieu, "so is the true spirit of equality from +that of extreme equality." And just so distant is the Senator in +question, with all his adherents, from the true idea of civil and +political freedom. + +The Senator thinks the conduct of Virginia "singular enough," because, +in presenting a bill of rights to Congress, she omitted the provision of +"her own bill of rights," "that all men are born[161] equally free and +independent." We think she acted wisely. For, in truth and in deed, all +men are born absolutely dependent and utterly devoid of freedom. What +right, we ask, has the new born infant? Has he the right to go where he +pleases? He has no power to go at all; and hence he has no more a right +to go than he has to fly. Has he the right to think for himself? The +power of thought is as yet wholly undeveloped. Has he the right to +worship God according to his own conscience? He has no idea of God, nor +of the duties due to him. The plain truth is, that no human being +possesses a right until the power or capacity on which the enjoyment of +that right depends is suitably developed or acquired. The child, for +instance, has no right to think for himself, or to worship God according +to the dictates of conscience, until his intellectual and moral powers +are suitably developed. He is certainly not born with such rights. Nor +has he any right to go where he pleases, or attempt to do so, until he +has learned to walk. Nor has he the right then, for, according to the +laws of all civilized nations, he is subject to the control of the +parent until he reaches the lawful age of freedom. The truth is, that +all men are born not equally free and independent, but equally without +freedom and without independence. "All men are born equal," says +Montesquieu; but he does not say they "are born equally free and +independent." The first proposition is true: the last is diametrically +opposed to the truth. + +Another Senator[162] seems to entertain the same passion for the +principle of equality. In his speech on the Compromise Bill of 1850, he +says that "a statesman or a founder of States" should adopt as an axiom +the declaration, "That all men are created equal, and have inalienable +rights of life, liberty, and choice of pursuits of happiness." Let us +suppose, then, that this distinguished statesman is himself about to +establish a constitution for the people of Mississippi or Louisiana, in +which there are more blacks than whites. As they all have a natural and +"inalienable right" to liberty, of course he would make them all free. +But would he confer upon all, upon black as well as upon white, the +power of the elective franchise? Most certainly. For he has said, "We of +New York are guilty of slavery still by withholding the _right of +suffrage_ from the race we have emancipated." Surely, if he had to found +a State himself, he would not thus be guilty of slavery--of the one +odious thing which his soul abhors. All would then be invested with the +right of suffrage. A black legislature would be the consequence. The +laws passed by such a body would, we fear, be no better than the +constitution provided by the Senator--by the statesman--from New York. + +"All men are born equal," says Montesquieu; but in the hands of such a +thinker no danger need be apprehended from such an axiom. For having +drank deeply of the true spirit of law, he was, in matters of +government, ever ready to sacrifice abstract perfection to concrete +utility. Neither the principle of equality, nor any other, would he +apply in all cases or to every subject. He was no dreamer. He was a +profound thinker and a real statesman. "Though real equality," says he, +"be the very soul of a democracy, _it is so difficult to establish, that +an extreme exactness in this respect is not always convenient_." + +Again, he says: "All inequalities in democracies ought to be derived +from the nature of the government, and even from the principle of +equality. For example, it may be apprehended that people who are obliged +to live by labor would be too much impoverished by public employment, or +neglect the duties of attending to it; that artisans would grow +insolent; and that _too great a number of freemen would overpower the +ancient citizens_. IN THIS CASE, THE EQUALITY IN A DEMOCRACY MAY BE +SUPPRESSED FOR THE GOOD OF THE STATE." + +Thus to give all men equal power where the majority is ignorant and +depraved, would be indeed to establish equality, but not liberty. On the +contrary, it would be to establish the most odious despotism on +earth,--the reign of ignorance, passion, prejudice, and brutality. It +would be to establish a mere nominal equality, and a real inequality. +For, as Montesquieu says, by introducing "too great a number of +freemen," the "ancient citizens" would be oppressed. In such case, the +principle of equality, even in a democracy, should be "suppressed for +the good of the State." It should be suppressed, in order to shut out a +still greater and more tremendous inequality. The legislator, then, who +aims to introduce an extreme equality, or to apply the principle of +equality to every question, would really bring about the most frightful +of all inequalities, especially in a commonwealth where the majority are +ignorant and depraved. + +Hence the principle of equality is merely a standard toward which an +approximation may be made--an approximation always limited and +controlled by the public good. This principle should be applied, not to +every question, but only to such as the general good permits. For this +good it "may be suppressed." Nay, it must be suppressed, if, without +such suppression, the public order may not be sustained; for, as we have +abundantly seen, it is only in the bosom of an enlightened public order +that liberty can live, or move, or have its being. Thus, as Montesquieu +advises, we deduce an inequality from the very principle of equality +itself; since, if such inequality be not deduced and established by law, +a still more terrific inequality would be forced upon us. Blind passion +would dictate the laws, and brute force would reign, while innocence and +virtue would be trampled in the dust. Such is the inequality to which +the honorable senators would invite us; and that, too, by an appeal to +our love of equality! If we decline the invitation, this is not because +we are the enemies, but because we are the friends, of human freedom. It +is not because we love equality less, but liberty more. + +The legislators of the North may, if they please, choose the principle +of equality as the very "element and guarantee" of their liberty; and, +to make that liberty perfect, they may apply it to every possible +"subject of legislation," and to "every question" under the sun. But, if +we may be permitted to choose for ourselves, we should beg to be +delivered from such an extreme equality. We should reject it as the very +worst "element," and the very surest "guarantee" of an unbounded +licentiousness and an intolerable oppression. As the "element and +guarantee" of freedom for ourselves, and for our posterity, we should +decidedly prefer the principle of an enlightened public order. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[142] Channing's Works, vol. ii. p. 126. + +[143] Elements of Moral Science, Part ii. chap. i. sec. 11. + +[144] Moral Science, Part ii. chap. i. sec. 2. + +[145] Letters on Slavery, p. 89. + +[146] Ibid, p. 92. + +[147] Letters, p. 50. + +[148] Letters, p. 50. + +[149] Letters, p. 50. + +[150] Letters, p. 113. + +[151] Moral Science, Part ii. chap. i. sec. 2. + +[152] Letters, p. 119, 120. + +[153] Moral Science Part ii. chap. i. sec. 2. + +[154] Moral Science, Part ii. chap. i. sec. 2. + +[155] Ibid. + +[156] The _Italics_ are our own. + +[157] Lev. chap. xxv. + +[158] Exod. chap. xxi. + +[159] In the first chapter. + +[160] Mr. Chase, of Ohio. + +[161] "By nature," in the Original Bill of Rights. + +[162] Mr. Seward, of New York. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. + +The Argument from the Old Testament.--The Argument from the New +Testament. + + +IN discussing the arguments of the abolitionists, it was scarcely +possible to avoid intimating, to a certain extent, the grounds on which +we intend to vindicate the institution of slavery, as it exists among us +at the South. But these grounds are entitled to a more distinct +enunciation and to a more ample illustration. In the prosecution of this +object we shall first advert to the argument from revelation; and, if we +mistake not, it will be found that in the foregoing discussion we have +been vindicating against aspersion not only the peculiar institution of +the Southern States, but also the very legislation of Heaven itself. + + +Sec. I. _The argument from the Old Testament._ + +The ground is taken by Dr. Wayland and other abolitionists, that slavery +is always and everywhere, _semper et ubique_, morally wrong, and should, +therefore, be instantly and universally swept away. We point to slavery +among the Hebrews, and say, There is an instance in which it was not +wrong, because there it received the sanction of the Almighty. Dr. +Wayland chooses to overlook or evade the bearing of that case upon his +fundamental position; and the means by which he seeks to evade its force +is one of the grossest fallacies ever invented by the brain of man. + +Let the reader examine and judge for himself. Here it is: "Let us reduce +this argument to a syllogism, and it will stand thus: Whatever God +sanctioned among the Hebrews he sanctions for all men and at all times. +God sanctioned slavery among the Hebrews; therefore God sanctions +slavery for all men and at all times." + +Now I venture to affirm that no man at the South has ever put forth so +absurd an argument in favor of slavery,--not only in favor of slavery +for the negro race so long as they may remain unfit for freedom, but in +favor of slavery for all men and for all times. If such an argument +proved any thing, it would, indeed, prove that the white man of the +South, no less than the black, might be subjected to bondage. But no one +here argues in favor of the subjection of the white man, either South or +North, to a state of servitude. No one here contends for the subjection +to slavery of any portion of the civilized world. We only contend for +slavery in certain cases; in opposition to the thesis of the +abolitionist, we assert that it is not always and everywhere wrong. For +the truth of this assertion we rely upon the express authority of God +himself. We affirm that since slavery has been ordained by him, it +cannot be always and everywhere wrong. And how does the abolitionist +attempt to meet this reply? Why, by a little legerdemain, he converts +this reply from an argument against his position, that slavery is always +and everywhere wrong, into an argument in favor of the monstrous dogma +that it is always and everywhere right! If we should contend that, in +some cases, it is right to take the life of a man, he might just as +fairly insist that we are in favor of having every man on earth put to +death! Was any fallacy ever more glaring? was any misrepresentation ever +more flagrant? + +Indeed we should have supposed that Dr. Wayland might have seen that his +representation is not a fair one, if he had not assured us of the +contrary. We should have supposed that he might have distinguished +between an argument in favor of slavery for the lowest grade of the +ignorant and debased, and an argument in favor of slavery for all men +and all times, if he had not assured us that he possesses no capacity to +make it. For after having twisted the plea of the most enlightened +statesmen of the South into an argument in favor of the universal +subjection of mankind to slavery, he coolly adds, "I believe that in +these words I express the argument correctly. If I do not, it is solely +because I do not know how to state it more correctly." Is it possible +Dr. Wayland could not distinguish between the principle of slavery for +some men and the principle of slavery for all men? between the +proposition that the ignorant, the idle, and the debased may be +subjected to servitude, and the idea that all men, even the most +enlightened and free, may be reduced to bondage? If he had not +positively declared that he possessed no such capacity, we should most +certainly have entertained a different opinion. + +It will not be denied, we presume, that the very best men, whose lives +are recorded in the Old Testament, were the owners and holders of +slaves. "I grant at once," says Dr. Wayland, "that the Hebrews held +slaves from the time of the conquest of Canaan, and that Abraham and the +patriarchs held them many centuries before. I grant also that Moses +enacted laws with special reference to that relation. . . . . I wonder +that any should have had the hardihood to deny so plain a matter of +record. I should almost as soon deny the delivery of the ten +commandments to Moses." + +Now, is it not wonderful that directly in the face of "so plain a matter +of record," a pious Presbyterian pastor should have been arraigned by +abolitionists, not for holding slaves, but for daring to be so far a +freeman as to express his convictions on the subject of slavery? Most +abolitionists must have found themselves a little embarrassed in such a +proceeding. For _there_ was the fact, staring them in the face, that +Abraham himself, "the friend of God" and the "father of the faithful," +was the owner and holder of more than a thousand slaves. How, then, +could these professing Christians proceed to condemn and excommunicate a +poor brother for having merely approved what Abraham had practiced? Of +all the good men of old, Abraham was the most eminent. The sublimity of +his faith and the fervor of his piety has, by the unerring voice of +inspiration itself, been held up as a model for the imitation of all +future ages. How, then, could a parcel of poor common saints presume, +without blushing, to cry and condemn one of their number because he was +no better than "Father Abraham?" This was the difficulty; and, but for a +very happy discovery, it must have been an exceedingly perplexing one. +But "Necessity is the mother of invention." On this trying occasion she +conceived the happy thought that the plain matter of record "was all a +mistake;" that Abraham never owned a slave; that, on the contrary, he +was "a prince," and the "men whom he bought with his money" were "his +subjects" merely! If, then, we poor sinners of the South should be +driven to the utmost extremity,--all honest arguments and pleas failing +us,--may we not escape the unutterable horrors of civil war, by calling +our masters princes, and our slaves subjects? + +We shall conclude this topic with the pointed and powerful words of Dr. +Fuller, in his reply to Dr. Wayland: "Abraham," says he, "was 'the +friend of God,' and walked with God in the closest and most endearing +intercourse; nor can any thing be more exquisitely touching than those +words, 'Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?' It is the +language of a friend who feels that concealment would wrong the +confidential intimacy existing. The love of this venerable servant of +God in his promptness to immolate his son has been the theme of apostles +and preachers for ages; and such was his faith, that all who believe are +called 'the children of faithful Abraham.' This Abraham, you admit, held +slaves. Who is surprised that Whitefield, with this single fact before +him, could not believe slavery to be a sin? Yet if your definition of +slavery be correct, holy Abraham lived all his life in the commission of +one of the most aggravated crimes against God and man which can be +conceived. His life was spent in outraging the rights of hundreds of +human beings, as moral, intellectual, immortal, fallen creatures, and in +violating their relations as parents and children, and husbands and +wives. And God not only connived at this appalling iniquity, but, in the +covenant of circumcision made with Abraham, expressly mentions it, and +confirms the patriarch in it, speaking of those 'bought with his money,' +and requiring him to circumcise them. Why, at the very first blush, +every Christian will cry out against this statement. To this, however, +you must come, or yield your position; and this is only the first +utterly incredible and monstrous corollary involved in the assertion +that slavery is essentially and always 'a sin of appalling magnitude.'" + +Slavery among the Hebrews, however, was not left merely to a tacit or +implied sanction. It was thus sanctioned by the express legislation of +the Most High: "Both thy bondmen and thy bond-maids, which thou shalt +have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye +buy bondmen and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers +that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families +that are with you, which they begat in your land; and they shall be your +possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children +after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen +forever."[163] Now these words are so perfectly explicit, that there is +no getting around them. Even Dr. Wayland, as we have seen, admits that +the authority to take slaves _seems_ to be a part of "this original, +peculiar," and perhaps "anomalous grant." No wonder it appeared +_peculiar_ and _anomalous_. The only wonder is, that it did not appear +impious and absurd. So it has appeared to some of his co-agitators, who, +because they could not agree with Moses, have denied his mission as an +inspired teacher, and joined the ranks of infidelity. + +Dr. Channing makes very light of this and other passages of Scripture. +He sets aside this whole argument from revelation with a few bold +strokes of the pen. "In this age of the world," says he, "and amid the +light which has been thrown on the true interpretation of the +Scriptures, such reasoning hardly deserves notice." Now, even if not for +our benefit, we think there are two reasons why such passages as the +above were worthy of Dr. Channing's notice. In the first place, if he +had condescended to throw the light in his possession on such passages, +he might have saved Dr. Wayland, as well as other of his admirers, from +the necessity of making the very awkward admission that the Almighty had +authorized his chosen people to buy slaves, and hold them as "bondmen +forever." He might have enabled them to see through the great +difficulty, that God has authorized his people to commit "a sin of +apalling magnitude," to perpetrate as "great a crime as can be +conceived;" which seems so clearly to be the case, if their views of +slavery be correct. Secondly, he might have enabled his followers to +espouse the cause of abolition without deserting, as so many of them +have openly done, the armies of the living God. For these two reasons, +if for no other, we think Dr. Channing owed it to the honor of his cause +to notice the passages of Scripture bearing on the subject of slavery. + +The Mosaic Institutes not only recognize slavery as lawful; they contain +a multitude of minute directions for its regulation. We need not refer +to all of them; it will be sufficient for our purpose if we only notice +those which establish some of the leading characteristics of slavery +among the people of God. + +1. Slaves were regarded as property. They were, as we have seen, called +a "possession" and an "inheritance."[164] They were even called the +"money" of the master. Thus, it is said, "if a man smite his servant or +his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be +punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be +punished, for he is his money."[165] In one of the ten commandments this +right of property is recognized: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's +house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor _his_ man-servant, +nor _his_ maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is +thy neighbor's." + +2. They might be sold. This is taken for granted in all those passages +in which, for particular reasons, the master is forbidden to sell his +slaves. Thus it is declared: "Thou shalt not make merchandise of her, +because thou hast humbled her." And still more explicitly: "If a man +sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the +men-servants do. If she please not her master who hath betrothed her to +himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her to a strange +nation, he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with +her.[166] + +3. The slavery thus expressly sanctioned was hereditary and perpetual: +"Ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to +inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever." Even +the Hebrew servant might, by his own consent, become in certain cases a +slave for life: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve; +and in the seventh shall he go out free for nothing. If he came in by +himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife +shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have +borne him sons or daughters, the wife and the children shall be her +master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall +plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go +out free: then his master shall bring him unto the judges: he shall also +bring him to the door or unto the door-post, and his master shall bore +his ear through with an awl, and _he shall serve him forever_." + +Now it is evident, we think, that the legislator of the Hebrews was not +inspired with the sentiments of an abolitionist. The principles of his +legislation are, indeed, so diametrically opposed to the political +notions of the abolitionist, that the latter is sadly perplexed to +dispose of them. While some deny the authority of these principles +altogether, and of the very book which contains them, others are +content to evade their force by certain ingenious devices of their own. +We shall now proceed to examine some of the more remarkable of these +cunningly-devised fables. + +It is admitted by the inventors of these devices, that God expressly +permitted his chosen people to buy and hold slaves. Yet Dr. Wayland, by +whom this admission is made, has endeavored to weaken the force of it by +alleging that God has been pleased to enlighten our race progressively. +If, he argues, the institution of slavery among His people appears so +very "peculiar and anomalous," this is because he did not choose to make +known his whole mind on the subject. He withheld a portion of it from +his people, and allowed them, by express grant, to hold slaves until the +fuller revelation of his will should blaze upon the world. Such is, +perhaps, the most plausible defense which an abolitionist could possibly +set up against the light of revelation. + +But to what does it amount? If the views of Dr. Wayland and his +followers, respecting slavery, be correct, it amounts to this: The +Almighty has said to his people, you may commit "a sin of appalling +magnitude;" you may perpetrate "as great an evil as can be conceived;" +you may persist in a practice which consists in "outraging the rights" +of your fellow-men, and in "crushing their intellectual and moral" +nature. They have a natural, inherent, and inalienable right to liberty +as well as yourselves, but yet you may make slaves of them, and they may +be your bondmen forever. In one word, _you_, my chosen people, may +degrade "rational, accountable, and immortal beings" to the "rank of +brutes." Such, if we may believe Dr. Wayland, is the first stage in the +divine enlightenment of the human race! It consists in making known a +part of God's mind, not against the monstrous iniquity of slavery, but +in its favor! It is the utterance, not of a partial truth, but of a +monstrous falsehood! It is the revelation of his will, not against sin, +but in favor of as great a sin "as can be conceived." Now, we may +fearlessly ask if the cause which is reduced to the necessity of +resorting to such a defense may not be pronounced desperate indeed, and +unspeakably forlorn? + +It is alleged that polygamy and divorce, as well as slavery, are +permitted and regulated in the Old Testament. This, we reply, proves, in +regard to polygamy and divorce, exactly what it proves in regard to +slavery,--namely, that neither is in itself sinful, that neither is +_always_ and _everywhere_ sinful. In other words, it proves that +neither polygamy nor divorce, as permitted in the Old Testament, is +"_malum in se_," is inconsistent with the eternal and unchangeable +principles of right. They are forbidden in the New Testament, not +because they are in themselves absolutely and immutably wrong, but +because they are inconsistent with the best interests of society; +especially in civilized and Christian communities. If they had been +wrong in themselves, they never could have been permitted by a holy God, +who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, except with inifinite +abhorrence. + +Again, it is contended by Dr. Wayland that "Moses intended to abolish +slavery," because he forbade the Jews "to deliver up a fugitive slave." +The words are these: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant +that is escaped from his master unto thee: "He shall dwell with thee, +even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of the gates +where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him."[167] "This +precept, I think," says Dr. Wayland, "clearly shows that Moses intended +to abolish slavery. How could slavery long continue in a country where +every one was forbidden to deliver up a fugitive slave? How different +would be the condition of slaves, and how soon would slavery itself +cease, were this the law of compulsory bondage among us!" + +The above passage of Scripture is a precious morsel with those who are +opposed to a fugitive slave law. A petition from Albany, New York, from +the enlightened seat of empire of the Empire State itself, signed, if we +recollect right, by one hundred and fifty persons, was presented to the +United States Senate by Mr. Seward, praying that no bill in relation to +fugitive slaves might be passed, which should not contain that passage. +Whether Mr. Seward was enlightened by his constituents, or whether he +made the discovery for himself, it is certain that he holds an act for +the reclamation of fugitive slaves to be "contrary to the divine law." +It is certain that he agrees with his constituents, who, in the petition +referred to, pronounced every such act "immoral," and contrary to the +law of God. But let us look at this passage a little, and see if these +abolitionists, who thus plant themselves so confidently upon "a higher +law," even upon "the divine law" itself, be not as hasty and rash in +their interpretation of this law as they are accustomed to be in their +judgment respecting the most universal and long-established institutions +of human society. + +In the first place, if their interpretation be correct, we are at once +met by a very serious difficulty. For we are required to believe that +one passage of Scripture grants an "authority to take slaves," while +another passage is designed to annul this authority. We are required to +believe that, in one portion of the divine law, the right of the master +to hold his slaves as "bondmen" is recognized, while another part of the +same law denies the existence of such right. In fine, we are required to +believe that the legislator of the Jews intended, in one and the same +code, both to establish and to abolish slavery; that with one hand he +struck down the very right and institution which he had set up with the +other. How Dr. Channing and Mr. Sumner would have disposed of this +difficulty we know full well, for they carry within their own bosoms a +higher law than this higher law itself. But how Dr. Wayland, as an +enlightened member of the good old orthodox Baptist Church, with whom +the Scripture is really and in truth the inspired word of God, would +have disposed of it, we are at some loss to conceive. + +We labor under no such difficulty. The words in question do not relate +to slaves owned by Hebrew masters. They relate to those slaves only who +should escape from heathen masters, and seek an asylum among the people +of God. "The first inquiry of course is," says a learned divine,[168] +"in regard to those very words, 'Where does his master live?' Among the +Hebrews, or among foreigners? The language of the passage fully develops +this and answers the question. 'He has escaped from his master unto the +Hebrews; (the text says--_thee_, _i. e._ Israel;) _he shall dwell with +thee, even among you . . . in one of thy gates_.' Of course, then, he is +an _immigrant_, and did _not dwell among them_ before his flight. If he +had been a Hebrew servant, belonging to a Hebrew, the whole face of the +thing would be changed. Restoration, or restitution, if we may judge by +the tenor of other property-laws among the Hebrews, would have surely +been enjoined. But, be that as it may, the language of the text puts it +beyond a doubt that the servant is a _foreigner_, and has fled from a +_heathen master_. This entirely changes the complexion of the case. The +Hebrews were God's chosen people, and were the only nation on earth +which worshiped the only living and true God. . . . . In case a slave +escaped from them (the heathen) and came to the Hebrews, two things were +to be taken into consideration, according to the views of the Jewish +legislator. The first was that the treatment of slaves among the heathen +was far more severe and rigorous than it could lawfully be under the +Mosaic law. The heathen master possessed the power of life and death, of +scourging or imprisoning, or putting to excessive toil, even to any +extent that he pleased. Not so among the Hebrews. _Humanity_ pleaded +there for the protection of the fugitive. The second and most important +consideration was, that only among the Hebrews could the fugitive slave +come to the knowledge and worship of the only living and true God." + +Now this view of the passage in question harmonizes one portion of +Scripture with another, and removes every difficulty. It shows, too, how +greatly the abolitionists have deceived themselves in their rash and +blind appeal to "the divine law" in question. "The reason of the law," +says my Lord Coke, "is the law." It is applicable to those cases, and to +those cases only, which come within the reason of the law. Hence, if it +be a fact, and if our Northern brethren really believe that we are sunk +in the darkness of heathen idolatry, while the light of the true +religion is with them alone, why, then, we admit that the reason and +principle of the divine law in question is in their favor. Then we admit +that the return of our fugitive slaves is "contrary to the divine law." +But if we are not heathen idolaters, if the God of the Hebrews be also +the God of Southern masters, then the Northern States do not violate the +precept in question--they only discharge a solemn constitutional +obligation--in delivering up our "fugitives from labor." + + +Sec. II. _The argument from the New Testament._ + +The New Testament, as Dr. Wayland remarks, was given, "not to one +people, but to the whole race; not for one period, but for all time." +Its lessons are, therefore, of universal and perpetual obligation. If, +then, the Almighty had undertaken to enlighten the human race by +degrees, with respect to the great sin of slavery, is it not wonderful +that, in the very last revelation of his will, he has uttered not a +single syllable in disapprobation thereof? Is it not wonderful, that he +should have completed the revelation of his will,--that he should have +set his seal to the last word he will ever say to man respecting his +duties, and yet not one word about the great obligation of the master to +emancipate his slaves, nor about the "appalling sin" of slavery? Such +silence must, indeed, appear exceedingly peculiar and anomalous to the +abolitionist. It would have been otherwise had he written the New +Testament. He would, no doubt, have inserted at least one little precept +against the sin of slavery. + +As it is, however, the most profound silence reigns through the whole +word of God with respect to the sinfulness of slavery. "It must be +granted," says Dr. Wayland, "that the New Testament contains no +_precept_ prohibitory of slavery." Marvellous as such silence must needs +be to the abolitionist, it cannot be more so to him than his attempts to +account for it are to others. Let us briefly examine these attempts: + +"You may give your child," says Dr. Wayland, "if he were approaching to +years of discretion, permission to do an act, while you inculcate upon +him principles which forbid it, for the sake of teaching him to be +governed by principles, rather than by any direct enactment. In such +case you would expect him to obey the principle, and not avail himself +of the permission." Now we fearlessly ask every reader whose moral sense +has not been perverted by false logic, if such a proceeding would not be +infinitely unworthy of the Father of mercies? According to Dr. Wayland's +view, he beholds his children living and dying in the practice of an +abominable sin, and looks on without the slightest note of admonition or +warning. Nay, he gives them permission to continue in the practice of +this frightful enormity, to which they are already bound by the triple +tie of habit, interest, and feeling! Though he gives them line upon +line, and precept upon precept, in order to detach them from other sins, +he yet gives them permission to live and die in this awful sin! And why? +To teach them, forsooth, not to follow his permission, but to be guided +by his principles! Even the guilty Eli remonstrated with his sons. Yet +if, instead of doing this, he had given them permission to practice the +very sins they were bent upon, he might have been, for all that, as pure +and faithful as the Father of mercies himself is represented to be in +the writings of Dr. Wayland. Such are the miserable straits, and such +the impious sophisms, to which even divines are reduced, when, on the +supposition that slavery is a sin, they undertake to vindicate or defend +the word which they themselves are ordained to preach! + +Another reason, scarcely less remarkable than the one already noticed, +is assigned for the omission of all precepts against slavery. "It was no +part of the scheme of the gospel revelation," we are told by Dr. +Wayland, (who quotes from Archbishop Whately,) "to lay down any thing +approaching to a complete system of _moral precepts_--to enumerate every +thing that is _enjoined_ or _forbidden_ by our religion." If this method +of teaching had been adopted, "the New Testament would," says Dr. +Wayland, "have formed a library in itself, more voluminous than the laws +of the realm of Great Britain." Now, all this is very true; and hence +the necessity of leaving many points of duty to the enlightened +conscience, and to the application of the more general precepts of the +gospel. But how has it happened that slavery is passed over in silence? +Because, we are told; "every thing" could not be noticed. If, indeed, +slavery be so great a sin, would it not have been easier for the divine +teacher to say, Let it be abolished, than to lay down so many minute +precepts for its regulation? Would this have tended to swell the gospel +into a vast library, or to abridge its teachings? Surely, when Dr. +Wayland sets up such a plea, he must have forgotten that the New +Testament, though it cannot notice "every thing," contains a multitude +of rules to regulate the conduct of the master and the slave. Otherwise +he could scarcely have imagined that it was from an aversion to +minuteness, or from an impossibility to forbid every evil, that the sin +of slavery is passed over in silence. + +He must also have forgotten another thing. He must have forgotten the +colors in which he had painted the evils of slavery. If we may rely upon +these, then slavery is no trifling offense. It is, on the contrary, a +stupendous sin, overspreading the earth, and crushing the +faculties--both intellectual and moral--of millions of human beings +beneath its odious and terrific influence. Now, if this be so, then +would it have been too much to expect that at least one little word +might have been directed against so great, so tremendous an evil? The +method of the gospel may be comprehensive, if you please; it may teach +by great principles rather than by minute precepts. Still, it is +certain that St. Paul could give directions about his cloak; and he +could spend many words in private salutations. In regard to the great +social evil of the age, however, and beneath which a large majority of +even the civilized world were crushed to the earth, he said nothing, +lest he should become too minute,--lest his epistles should swell into +too large a volume! Such is one of Dr. Wayland's defences of the gospel. +We shall offer no remark; we shall let it speak for itself. + +A third reason for the silence in question is the alleged ease with +which precepts may be evaded. "A simple precept or prohibition," says +Dr. Wayland, "is, of all things, the easiest to be evaded. Lord Eldon +used to say, that 'no man in England could construct an act of +Parliament through which he could not drive a coach-and-four.' We find +this to have been illustrated by the case of the Jews in the time of our +Saviour. The Pharisees, who prided themselves on their strict obedience +to the _letter_, violated the _spirit_ of every precept of the Mosaic +code." + +Now, in reply to this most extraordinary passage, we have several +remarks to offer. In the first place, perhaps every one is not so good a +driver as Lord Eldon. It is certain, that acts of Parliament have been +passed, through which the most slippery of rogues have not been able to +make their escape. They have been caught, tried, and condemned for their +offenses, in spite of all their ingenuity and evasion. + +Secondly, a "principle" is just as easily evaded as a "precept;" and, in +most cases, it is far more so. The great principle of the New Testament, +which our author deems so applicable to the subject of slavery, is this: +"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Now, if this be the great +principle intended to enlighten us respecting the sin of slavery, we +confess it has been most completely evaded by every slave State in the +Union. We have, indeed, so entirely deceived ourselves in regard to its +true import, that it seems to us to have not the most remote application +to such a subject. If any one will give our remarks on this great +"principle" a candid examination, we think he will admit that we have +deceived ourselves on very plausible, if not on unanswerable, grounds. +If slavery be a sin,--_always and everywhere_ a monstrous +iniquity,--then we should have been far more thoroughly enlightened with +respect to its true nature, and found evasion far more difficult, if +the New Testament had explicitly declared it to be such, and commanded +all masters everywhere to emancipate their slaves. We could have driven +a coach-and-four neither through, nor around, any such express +prohibition. It is indeed only in consequence of the default, or +omission, of such precept or command, that the abolitionist appeals to +what he calls the principles of the gospel. If he had only one such +precept,--if he had only one such precise and pointed prohibition, he +might then, and he _would_, most triumphantly defy evasion. He would +say, There is _the word_; and none but the obstinate gainsayers, or +unbelievers, would dare reply. But as it is, he is compelled to lose +himself in vague generalities, and pretend to a certainty which nowhere +exists, except in his own heated mind. This pretense, indeed, that an +express precept, prohibitory of slavery, is not the most direct way to +reveal its true nature, because a precept is so much more easily evaded +than a principle, is merely one of the desperate expedients of a forlorn +and hopeless cause. If the abolitionist would maintain that cause, or +vindicate his principles, it will be found that he must retire, and hide +himself from the light of revelation. + +Thirdly, the above passage seems to present a very strange view of the +Divine proceedings. According to that view, it appears that the Almighty +tried the method of teaching by precept in the Old Testament, and the +experiment failed. For precepts may be so easily evaded, that every one +in the Mosaic code was violated by the Pharisees. Hence, the method of +teaching by precept was laid aside in the New Testament, and the better +method of teaching by principle was adopted. Such is the conclusion to +which we must come, if we adopt the reasoning of Dr. Wayland. But we +cannot adopt his reasoning; since we should then have to believe that +the experiment made in the Old Testament proved a failure, and that its +Divine Author, having grown wiser by experience, improved upon his +former method. + +The truth is, that the method of the one Testament is the same as that +of the other. In both, the method of teaching by precept is adopted; by +precepts of greater and of lesser generality. Dr. Wayland's principle is +merely a general or comprehensive precept; and his precept is merely a +specific or limited principle. The distinction he makes between them, +and the use he makes of this distinction, only reflect discredit upon +the wisdom and consistency of the Divine Author of revelation. + +A third account which Dr. Wayland gives of the silence of the New +Testament respecting the sin of slavery, is as follows: "If this form of +wrong had been singled out from all the others, and had alone been +treated preceptively, the whole system would have been vitiated. We +should have been authorized to inquire why were not similar precepts in +other cases delivered? and if they were not delivered, we should have +been at liberty to conclude that they were intentionally omitted, and +that the acts which they would have forbidden are innocent." Very well. +But idolatry, polygamy, divorce, is each and every one singled out, and +forbidden by precept, in the New Testament. Slavery alone is passed over +in silence. Hence, according to the principle of Dr. Wayland himself, we +are at liberty to conclude that a precept forbidding slavery was +"intentionally omitted," and that slavery itself "is innocent." + +Each one of these reasons is not only exceedingly weak in itself, but it +is inconsistent with the others. For if a precept forbidding slavery +were purposely omitted, in order to teach mankind to be governed by +principle and to disregard permissions, then the omission could not have +arisen from a love of brevity. Were it not, indeed, just as easy to give +a precept forbidding, as to give one permitting, the existence of +slavery? Again, if a great and world-devouring sin, such as the +abolitionists hold slavery to be, has been left unnoticed, lest its +condemnation should impliedly sanction other sins, then is it not worse +than puerile to suppose that the omission was made for the sake of +brevity, or to teach mankind that the permissions of the Most High may +in certain cases be treated with contempt, may be set at naught, and +despised as utterly inconsistent, as diametrically opposed to the +principles and purity of his law? + +If the abolitionist is so completely lost in his attempts to meet the +argument from the silence of Scripture, he finds it still more difficult +to cope with that from its express precepts and injunctions. _Servants, +obey your masters_, is one of the most explicit precepts of the New +Testament. This precept just as certainly exists therein as does the +great principle of love itself. "The obedience thus enjoined is placed," +says Dr. Wayland, "not on the ground of duty to man, but on the ground +of duty to God." We accept the interpretation. It cannot for one moment +disturb the line of our argument. It is merely the shadow of an attempt +at an evasion. All the obligations of the New Testament are, indeed, +placed on the same high ground. The obligation of the slave to obey his +master could be placed upon no higher, no more sacred, no more +impregnable, ground. + +Rights and obligations are correlative. That is, every right implies a +corresponding obligation, and every obligation implies a corresponding +right. Hence, as the slave is under an obligation to obey the master, so +the master has a right to his obedience. Nor is this obligation +weakened, or this right disturbed, by the fact that the first is imposed +by the word of God, and rests on the immutable ground of duty to him. +If, by the divine law, the obedience of the slave is due to the master, +then, by the same law, the master has a right to his obedience. + +Most assuredly, the master is neither "a robber," nor "a murderer," nor +"a manstealer," merely because he claims of the slave that which God +himself commands the slave to render. All these epithets may be, as they +have been, hurled at us by the abolitionist. His anathemas may thunder. +But it is some consolation to reflect, that, as he was not consulted in +the construction of the moral code of the universe, so, it is to be +hoped, he will not be called upon to take part in its execution. + +The most enlightened abolitionists are sadly puzzled by the precept in +question; and, from the manner in which they sometimes speak of it, we +have reason to fear it holds no very high place in their respect. Thus, +says the Hon. Charles Sumner, "Seeking to be brief, I shall not +undertake to reconcile texts of the Old Testament, which, whatever may +be their import, are all absorbed in the New; nor shall I stop to +consider the precise interpretation of the oft-quoted phrase, _Servants, +obey your masters_; nor seek to weigh any such imperfect injunction in +the scales against those grand commandments on which hang all the law +and the prophets."[169] Now this is a very significant passage. The +orator, its learned author, will not stop to consider the texts of the +Old Testament bearing on the subject of slavery, because they are all +merged in the New! Nor will he stop to consider any "such _imperfect +injunction_" as those contained in the New, because they are all +swallowed up and lost in the grand commandment, "Thou shalt love thy +neighbor as thyself!" + +If he had bestowed a little more attention on this grand commandment +itself, he might have seen, as we have shown, that it in no wise +conflicts with the precept which enjoins servants to obey their masters. +He might have seen that it is not at all necessary to "weigh" the one of +those precepts "in the scales against" the other, or to brand either of +them as imperfect. For he might have seen a perfect harmony between +them. It is no matter of surprise, however, that an abolitionist should +find imperfections in the moral code of the New Testament. + +It is certainly no wonder that Mr. Sumner should have seen imperfections +therein. For he has, in direct opposition to the plainest terms of the +gospel, discovered that it is the first duty of the slave to fly from +his master. In his speech delivered in the Senate of the United States, +we find among various other quotations, a verse from Sarah W. Morton, in +which she exhorts the slave to fly from bondage. Having produced this +quotation "as part of the testimony of the times," and pronounced it "a +truthful homage to the inalienable rights" of the slave, Mr. Sumner was +in no mood to appreciate the divine precept, "Servants, obey your +masters." Having declared fugitive slaves to be "the heroes of the age," +he had not, as we may suppose, any very decided taste for the +commonplace Scriptural duties of submission and obedience. Nay, he +spurns at and rejects such duties as utterly inconsistent with the +"inalienable rights of man." He appeals from the oracles of eternal +truth to "the testimony of the times." He appeals from Christ and his +apostles to Sarah W. Morton. And yet, although he thus takes ground +directly against the plainest precepts of the gospel, and even ventures +to brand some of them as "imperfect," he has the hardihood to rebuke +those who find therein, not what it really contains, but only a +reflection of themselves! + +The precept in question is not an isolated injunction of the New +Testament. It does not stand alone. It is surrounded by other +injunctions, equally authoritative, equally explicit, equally +unequivocal. Thus, in Eph. vi. 5: "Servants, be obedient to them that +are your masters according to the flesh." Precisely the same doctrine +was preached to the Colossians: (iii. 22:) "Servants, obey in all +things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as +men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God." Again, in St. +Paul's Epistle to Timothy, he writes: "Let as many servants as are under +the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of +God and his doctrine be not blasphemed." Likewise, in Tit. ii. 9, 10, we +read: "Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to +please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but +showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our +Saviour in all things." And in 1 Pet. ii. 18, it is written: "Servants, +be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and +gentle, but also to the froward." Yet, in the face of these passages, +Mr. Sumner declares that it is the duty of slaves to fly from bondage, +and thereby place themselves among "the heroes of the age." He does not +attempt to interpret or explain these precepts; he merely sets them +aside, or passes them by with silent contempt, as "imperfect." Indeed, +if his doctrines be true, they are not only imperfect--they are +radically wrong and infamously vicious. Thus, the issue which Mr. Sumner +has made up is not with the slaveholders of the South; it is with the +word of God itself. The contradiction is direct, plain, palpable, and +without even the decency of a pretended disguise. We shall leave Mr. +Sumner to settle this issue and controversy with the Divine Author of +revelation. + +In the mean time, we shall barely remind the reader of what that Divine +Author has said in regard to those who counsel and advise slaves to +disobey their masters, or fly from bondage. "They that have believing +masters," says the great Apostle to the Gentiles, "let them not despise +them because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they +are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach +and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome +words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine +which is according to godliness, _he is proud, knowing nothing_." Mr. +Sumner congratulates himself that he has stripped "from slavery the +apology of Christianity." Let servants "count their own masters worthy +of all honor," and "do them service," says St. Paul. "Let servants +disobey their masters," says Mr. Sumner, "and cease to do them service." +"These things teach and exhort," says St. Paul. "These things denounce +and abhor," says Mr. Sumner. "If any man teach otherwise," says St. +Paul, "he is proud, knowing nothing." "I teach otherwise," says Mr. +Sumner. And is it by such conflict that he strips from slavery the +sanction of Christianity? If the sheer _ipse dixit_ of Mr. Sumner be +sufficient to annihilate the authority of the New Testament, which he +professes to revere as divine, then, indeed, has he stripped the +sanction of Christianity from the relation of master and slave. +Otherwise, he has not even stripped from his own doctrines the burning +words of her condemnation. + +Dr. Wayland avoids a direct conflict with the teachings of the gospel. +He is less bold, and more circumspect, than the Senator from +Massachusetts. He has honestly and fairly quoted most of the texts +bearing on the subject of slavery. He shows them no disrespect. He +pronounces none of them imperfect. But with this array of texts before +him he proceeds to say: "Now, I do not see that the scope of these +passages can be misunderstood." Nor can we. It would seem, indeed, +impossible for the ingenuity of man to misunderstand the words, quoted +by Dr. Wayland himself, "Servants, _obey_ in all things your masters +according to the flesh." Dr. Wayland does not misunderstand them. For he +has said, in his Moral Science: "The _duty of slaves_ is explicitly made +known in the Bible. They are bound to obedience, fidelity, submission, +and respect to their masters, not only to the good and kind, but also to +the unkind and froward." But when he comes to reason about these words, +which he finds it so impossible for any one to misunderstand, he is not +without a very ingenious method to evade their plain import and to +escape from their influence. Let the reader hear, and determine for +himself. + +"I do not see," says Dr. Wayland, "that the scope of these passages can +be misunderstood. They teach patience, meekness, fidelity, and +charity--duties which are obligatory on Christians toward all men, and, +of course, toward masters. These duties are obligatory on us toward +enemies, because an enemy, like every other man, is a moral creature of +God." True. But is this all? Patience, meekness, fidelity, +charity--duties due to all men! But what has become of the word +_obedience_? This occupies a prominent--nay, the most prominent--place +in the teachings of St. Paul. It occupies no place at all in the +reasonings of Dr. Wayland. It is simply dropped out by him, or +overlooked; and this was well done, for this word _obedience_ is an +exceedingly inconvenient one for the abolitionist. If Dr. Wayland had +retained it in his argument, he could not have added, "duties which are +obligatory on Christians toward all men, and, of course, toward +masters." Christians are not bound to obey all men. But slaves are bound +to obey "their own masters." It is precisely upon this injunction to +obedience that the whole argument turns. And it is precisely this +injunction to obedience which Dr. Wayland leaves out in his argument. He +does not, and he cannot, misunderstand the word. But he can just drop it +out, and, in consequence, proceed to argue as if nothing more were +required of slaves than is required of all Christian men! + +The only portion of Scripture which Mr. Sumner condescends to notice is +the Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon. He introduces the discussion of +this epistle with the remark that, "In the support of slavery, it is the +habit to pervert texts and to invent authority. Even St. Paul is vouched +for a wrong which his Christian life rebukes."[170] Now we intend to +examine who it is that really perverts texts of Scripture, and invents +authority. We intend to show, as in the clear light of noonday, that it +is the conduct of Mr. Sumner and other abolitionists, and not that of +the slaveholder, which is rebuked by the life and writings of the great +apostle. + +The epistle in question was written to a slaveholder, who, if the +doctrine of Mr. Sumner be true, lived in the habitual practice of "a +wrong so transcendent, so loathsome, so direful," that it "must be +encountered _wherever it can be reached_, and the battle must be +continued, without truce or compromise, until the field is entirely +won." Is there any thing like this in the Epistle to Philemon? Is there +any thing like it in any of the epistles of St. Paul? Is there anywhere +in his writings the slightest hint that slavery is a sin at all, or that +the act of holding slaves is in the least degree inconsistent with the +most exalted Christian purity of life? We may safely answer these +questions in the negative. The very epistle before us is from "Paul, a +prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon, _our +dearly-beloved, and fellow-laborer_." The inspired writer then proceeds +in these words: "I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my +prayers. Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord +Jesus, and toward all saints; that the communication of thy faith may +become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in +you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, +because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother." + +Now if, instead of leaving out this portion of the epistle, Mr. Sumner +had pronounced it in the hearing of his audience, the suspicion might +have arisen in some of their minds that the slaveholder may not, after +all, be so vile a wretch. It might even have occurred to some, perhaps, +that the Christian character of Philemon, the slaveholder, might +possibly have been as good as that of those by whom all slaveholders are +excommunicated and consigned to perdition. It might have been supposed +that a Christian man may possibly hold slaves without being as bad as +robbers, or cut-throats, or murderers. We do not say that Mr. Sumner +shrunk from the reading of this portion of the epistle in the hearing of +his audience, lest it should seem to rebuke the violence and the +uncharitableness of his own sentiments, as well as those of his brother +abolitionists at the North. We do say, however, that Mr. Sumner had no +sort of use for this passage. It could in no way favor the impression +his oration was designed to make. It breathes, indeed, a spirit of +good-will toward the Christian master as different from that which +pervades the speeches of the honorable Senator, as the pure charity of +Heaven is from the dire malignity of earth. + +"It might be shown," says Mr. Sumner, "that the present epistle, when +truly interpreted, is a protest against slavery, and a voice for +freedom." If, instead of merely asserting that this "might be done," the +accomplished orator had actually done it, he would have achieved far +more for the cause of abolitionism than has been effected by all the +splendors of his showy rhetoric. He has, indeed, as we shall presently +see, made some attempt to show that the Epistle to Philemon is an +emancipation document. When we come to examine this most extraordinary +attempt, we shall perceive that Mr. Sumner's power "to pervert texts and +to invent authority," has not been wholly held in reserve for what +"might be done." If his view of this portion of Scripture be not very +profound, it certainly makes up in originality what it lacks in depth. +If it should fail to instruct, it will at least amuse the reader. It +shall be noticed in due time. + +The next point that claims our attention is the intimation that St. +Paul's "real judgment of slavery" may be inferred "from his +condemnation, on another occasion, of 'manstealers,' or, according to +the original text, slave-traders, in company with murderers of fathers +and murderers of mothers." Were we disposed to enter into the exegesis +of the passage thus referred to, we might easily show that Mr. Sumner is +grossly at fault in his Greek. We might show that something far more +enormous than even trading in slaves is aimed at by the condemnation of +the apostle. But we have not undertaken to defend "manstealers," nor +"slave-traders," in any form or shape. Hence, we shall dismiss this +point with the opinion of Macknight, who thinks the persons thus +condemned in company with murderers of fathers and mothers, are "they +who make war for the inhuman purpose of selling the vanquished as +slaves, as is the practice of the African princes." To take any free +man, whether white or black, by force, and sell him into bondage, is +manstealing. To make war for such a purpose, were, we admit, wholesale +murder and manstealing combined. This view of the passage in question +agrees with that of the great abolitionist, Mr. Barnes, who holds that +"the _essential_ idea of the term" in question, "is _that of converting +a free man into a slave_" . . . . the "changing of a freeman into a slave, +especially by traffic, subjection, etc." Now, as we of the South, +against whom Mr. Sumner is pleased to inveigh, propose to make no such +changes of freemen into slaves, much less to wage war for any such +purpose, we may dismiss his gross perversion of the text in question. He +may apply the condemnation of the apostle to us now, if it so please the +benignity of his Christian charity, but it will not, we assure him, +enter into our consciences, until we shall not only become +"slave-traders," but also, with a view to the gain of such odious +traffic, make war upon freemen. + +We have undertaken to defend, as we have said, neither "slave-traders," +nor "manstealers." We leave them both to the tender mercies of Mr. +Sumner. But we have undertaken to defend slavery, that is, _the_ slavery +of the South, and to vindicate the character of Southern masters against +the aspersions of their calumniators. And in this vindication we shrink +not from St. Paul's "real judgment of slavery." Nay, we desire, above +all things, to have his real judgment. His judgment, we mean, not of +manstealers or of murderers, but of slavery and slaveholders. We have +just seen "his real judgment" respecting the character of one +slaveholder. We have seen it in the very epistle Mr. Sumner is +discussing. Why, then, does he fly from St. Paul's opinion of the +slaveholder to what he has said of the manstealer and the murderer? We +would gather an author's opinion of slavery from what he has said of +slavery itself, or of the slaveholder. But this does not seem to suit +Mr. Sumner's purpose quite so well. Entirely disregarding the apostle's +opinion of the slaveholder contained in the passage right before him, as +well as elsewhere, Mr. Sumner infers his "real judgment of slavery" from +what he has said of manstealers and murderers! He might just as well +have inferred St. Paul's opinion of Philemon from what he has, "on +another occasion," said of Judas Iscariot. + +Mr. Sumner contents himself with "calling attention to two things, +apparent on the face" of the epistle itself; and which, in his opinion, +are "in themselves an all-sufficient response." The first of these +things is, says he: "While it appears that Onesimus had been in some way +the servant of Philemon, it does not appear that he had ever been held +as a slave, much less as a chattel." It does not appear that Onesimus +was the slave of Philemon, is the position of the celebrated senatorial +abolitionist. We cannot argue this position with him, however, since he +has not deigned to give any reasons for it, but chosen to let it rest +upon his assertion merely. We shall, therefore, have to argue the point +with Mr. Albert Barnes, and other abolitionists, who have been pleased +to attempt to bolster up so novel, so original, and so bold an +interpretation of Scripture with exegetical reasons and arguments. + +In looking into these reasons and arguments,--if reasons and arguments +they may be called,--we are at a loss to conceive on what principle +their authors have proceeded. The most plausible conjecture we can make +is, that it was deemed sufficient to show that it is possible, by a bold +stroke of interpretation, to call in question the fact that Onesimus was +the slave of Philemon; since, if this may only be questioned by the +learned, then the unlearned need not trouble themselves with the +Scripture, but simply proceed with the work of abolitionism. Then may +they cry, "Who shall decide when doctors disagree?"[171] and give all +such disputings to the wind. Such seems to us to have been the principle +on which the assertion of Mr. Sumner and Mr. Barnes has proceeded; +evincing, as it does, an utter, total, and reckless disregard of the +plainest teachings of inspiration. But let the candid reader hear, and +then determine for himself. + +The Greek word [Greek: doulos], applied to Onesimus, means, according to +Mr. Barnes, either a slave, or a hired servant, or an apprentice. It is +not denied that it means a _slave_. "The word," says Mr. Barnes himself, +"is that which is commonly applied to a slave." Indeed, to assert that +the Greek word [Greek: doulos] does not mean _slave_, were only a little +less glaringly absurd than to affirm that no such meaning belongs to the +English term _slave_ itself. If it were necessary, this point might be +most fully, clearly, and conclusively established; but since is is not +denied, no such work of supererogation is required at our hands. + +But it is insisted, that the word in question has a more extensive +signification than the English term _slave_. "Thus," says Mr. Barnes, +"it is so extensive in its signification as to be applicable to any +species of servitude, whether voluntary or involuntary." Again: "All +that is necessairly implied by it is, that he was, in some way, the +servant of Philemon--whether _hired or bought cannot be shown_." Once +more, he says: "The word denotes _servant_ of any kind, and it should +never be assumed that those to whom it was applied were slaves." Thus, +according to Mr. Barnes, the word in question denotes a slave, or a +hired servant, or, as he has elsewhere said, an apprentice. It denotes +"servant of _any_ kind," whether "voluntary or involuntary." + +Such is the positive assertion of Mr. Barnes. But where is the proof? +Where is the authority on which it rests? Surely, if this word is +applied to hired servants, either in the Greek classics or in the New +Testament, Mr. Barnes, or Mr. Sumner, or some other learned +abolitionist, should refer us to the passage where it is so used. We +have Mr. Barnes' assertion, again and again repeated, in his very +elaborate Notes on the Epistle to Philemon; but not the shadow of an +authority for any such use of the word. But stop: in making this +assertion, he refers us to his "Notes on Eph. vi 5, and 1 Tim. vi." +Perhaps we may find his authority by the help of one of these +references. We turn, then, to Eph. vi. 5; and we find the following +note: "Servants. [Greek: Hoi douloi]. The word here used denotes one who +is bound to render service to another, whether that service be free or +voluntary, and may denote, therefore, either a slave, or one who binds +himself to render service to another. _It is often used in these senses +in the New Testament, just as it is elsewhere._"[172] Why, then, if it +is so often used to denote a hired servant, or an apprentice, or a +voluntary servant of any kind, in the New Testament, is not at least one +such instance of its use produced by Mr. Barnes? He must have been aware +that one such authority from the New Testament was worth more than his +bare assertion, though it were a hundred times repeated. Yet no such +authority is adduced or referred to; he merely supports his assertion in +the one place by his assertion in the other? + +Let us look, in the next place, to his other reference, which is to 1 +Tim. vi. 1. Here, again, we find not the shadow of an authority that the +word in question is applicable to "hired servants," or "apprentices." We +simply meet the oft-repeated assertion of the author, that it is +applicable to _any_ species of servitude. He refers from assertion to +assertion, and nowhere gives a single authority to the point in +question. If we may believe him, such authorities are abundant, even in +the New Testament; yet he leaves the whole matter to rest upon his own +naked assertion! Yea, as Greek scholars, he would have us to believe +that [Greek: doulos] may mean a "hired servant," just as well as a +slave; and he would have us to believe this, too, not upon the usage of +Greek writers, but upon his mere assertion! We look for other evidence; +and we intend to pin him down to proof, ere we follow him in questions +of such momentous import as the one we have in hand. + +Why is it, then, we ask the candid reader, if the term in question mean +"a hired servant," as well as a slave, that no such application of the +word is given? If such applications be as abundant as our author asserts +they are, why not refer us to a single instance, that our utter +ignorance may be at least relieved by one little ray of light? Why +refer us from assertion to assertion, if authorities may be so +plentifully had? We cannot conceive, unless the object be to deceive the +unwary, or those who may be willingly deceived. An assertion merely, +bolstered up with a "See note," here or there, may be enough for such; +but if, after all, there be nothing but assertion on assertion piled, we +shall not let it pass for proof. Especially, if such assertion be at war +with truth, we shall track its author, and, if possible, efface his +footprints from the immaculate word of God. + +If the term [Greek: doulos] signifies "a hired servant," or "an +apprentice," it is certainly a most extraordinary circumstance that the +best lexicographers of the Greek language have not made the discovery. +This were the more wonderful, if, as Mr. Barnes asserts, the word "is +often used in these senses" by Greek writers. We have several Greek +lexicons before us, and in not one of them is there any such meaning +given to the word. Thus, in Donnegan, for example, we find: "[Greek: +doulos], a slave, a servant, as opposed to [Greek: despotes], a master." +But we do not find from him that it is ever applied to hired servants or +apprentices. In like manner, Liddell and Scott have "[Greek: doulos], a +_slave_, _bondman_, strictly one born so, opposed to [Greek: +andrapodon]." But they do not lay down "a hired servant," or "an +apprentice," as one of its significations. If such, indeed, be found +among the meanings of the word, these celebrated lexicographers were as +ignorant of the fact as ourselves. Stephens also, as any one may see by +referring to his "Thesaurus, Ling. Graec., Tom I. art. [Greek: Doulos]," +was equally ignorant of any such use of the term in question. Is it not +a pity, then, that, since such knowledge rested with Mr. Barnes, and +since, according to his own statement, proofs of its accuracy were so +abundant, he should have withheld all the evidence in his possession, +and left so important a point to stand or fall with his bare assertion? +Even if the rights of mankind had not been in question, the interests of +Greek literature were, one would think, sufficient to have induced him +to enlighten our best lexicographers with respect to the use of the word +under consideration. Such, an achievement would, we can assure him, have +detracted nothing from his reputation for scholarship. + +But how stands the word in the New Testament? It is certain that, +however "often it may be applied" to hired servants in the New +Testament, Mr. Barnes has not condescended to adduce a single +application of the kind. This is not all. Those who have examined every +text of the New Testament in which the word [Greek: doulos] occurs, and +compiled lexicons especially for the elucidation of the sacred volume, +have found no such instance of its application. + +Thus, Schleusner, in his Lexicon of the New Testament, tells us that it +means slave as opposed to, [Greek: eleutheros], _freeman_. His own words +are: [Greek: Doulos, ou, ho], (1) proprie: _servus, minister, homo non +liber nec sui juris_, et opponitur [Greek: to eleutheros]. Matt. viii. +9; xiii. 27, 28; 1 Cor. vii. 21, 22; xii. 13; [Greek: eite douloi, eite +eleutheroi]. Tit. ii. 9." + +We next appeal to Robinson's Lexicon of the New Testament. We there find +these words: "[Greek: doulos, ou, ho], _a bondman, slave, servant, pr. +by birth_; diff. from [Greek: andrapodon], 'one enslaved in war,' comp. +Xen. An., iv. 1, 12," etc. Now if, as Mr. Barnes asserts, the word in +question is so often applied to hired servants in the New Testament, is +it not passing strange that neither Schleusner nor Robinson should have +discovered any such application of it? So far, indeed, is Dr. Robinson +from having made any such discovery, that he expressly declares that the +[Greek: doulos] "WAS NEVER A HIRED SERVANT; _the latter being called_ +[Greek: misthios, misthotos]." "In a family," continues the same high +authority, "the [Greek: doulos] was _bound to serve, a slave_, and was +the property of his master, 'a living possession,' as Aristotle calls +him." + +"The Greek [Greek: doulos]," says Dr. Smith, in his Dictionary of +Antiquities, "like the Latin _servus_, corresponds to the usual meaning +of our word slave. . . . . Aristotle (Polit. i. 3.) says that a complete +household is that which consists of slaves and freemen, ([Greek: oikia +de teleios ek doulon kai eleutheron],) and he defines a slave to be a +living working-tool and possession. ([Greek: Ho doulos empsychon, +organon], Ethic. Nicim. viii. 13; [Greek: ho doulos ktema ti empsychon], +Pol. i. 4.) Thus Aristotle himself defines the [Greek: doulos] to be, +not a "servant of any kind," but a slave; and we presume that he +understood the force of this Greek word at least as well as Mr. Barnes +or Mr. Sumner. And Dr. Robinson, as we have just seen, declares that it +never means a hired servant. + +Indeed, all this is so well understood by Greek scholars, that Dr. +Macknight does not hesitate to render the term [Greek: doulos], applied +to Onesimus in the Epistle to Philemon, by the English word _slave_. He +has not even added a footnote, as is customary with him when he deems +any other translation of a word than that given by himself at all worthy +of notice. In like manner, Moses Stuart just proceeds to call Onesimus +"the slave of Philemon," as if there could be no ground for doubt on so +plain a point. Such is the testimony of these two great Biblical +critics, who devoted their lives in great measure to the study of the +language, literature, and interpretation of the Epistles of the New +Testament. + +Now, it should be observed, that not one of the authorities quoted by us +had any motive "to pervert texts," or "to invent authorities," "in +support of slavery." Neither Donnegan, nor Liddell and Scott, nor +Stephens, nor Schleusner, nor Robinson, nor Smith, nor Macknight, nor +Stuart, could possibly have had any such motive. If they were not all +perfectly unbiassed witnesses, it is certain they had no bias in favor +of slavery. It is, indeed, the abolitionist, and not the slaveholder, +who, in this case, "has perverted texts;" and if he has not "invented +authorities," it is because his attempts to do so have proved abortive. + +Beside the clear and unequivocal import of the word applied to Onesimus, +it is evident, from other considerations, that he was the slave of +Philemon. To dwell upon all of these would, we fear, be more tedious +than profitable to the reader. Hence we shall confine our attention to a +single circumstance, which will, we think, be sufficient for any candid +or impartial inquirer after truth. Among the arguments used by St. Paul +to induce Philemon to receive his fugitive slave kindly, we find this: +"For perhaps he therefore departed _for a season_, that thou shouldest +receive him _forever_." This verse is thus paraphrased by Macknight: "To +mitigate thy resentment, consider, that _perhaps also for this reason he +was separated_ from thee _for a little while_, (so [Greek: pros horan] +signified, 1 Thess. ii. 17, note 2,) _that thou mightest have him_ thy +slave _for life_." Dr. Macknight also adds, in a footnote: "By telling +Philemon that he would now have Onesimus forever, the apostle intimates +to him his firm persuasion that Onesimus would never any more run away +from him." Such seems to be the plain, obvious import of the apostle's +argument. No one, it is believed, who had no set purpose to subserve, or +no foregone conclusion to support, would view this argument in any other +light. Perhaps he was separated for a while as a slave, that "thou +mightest have him forever," or for life. How have him? Surely, one +would think, as a slave, or in the same capacity from which he was +separated for a while. The argument requires this; the opposition of the +words, and the force of the passage, imperatively require it. But yet, +if we may believe Mr. Barnes, the meaning of St. Paul is, that perhaps +Onesimus was separated for a while _as a servant_, that Philemon might +never receive him again as a servant, but forever as a Christian +brother! Lest we should be suspected of misrepresentation, we shall give +his own words. "The meaning is," says he, "that it was possible that +this was permitted in the providence of God, _in order_ that Onesimus +might be brought under the influence of the gospel, and be far more +serviceable to Philemon as a Christian than he could have been in his +former relation to him." + +In the twelfth verse of the epistle, St. Paul says: "Whom I have sent +again," or, as Macknight more accurately renders the words, "Him I have +sent back," ([Greek: hon anepempsa].) Here we see the great apostle +_actually sending back a fugitive slave to his master_. That act of St. +Paul is not, and cannot be, denied. The words are too plain for denial. +Onesimus "_I have sent back_." Surely it cannot be otherwise than a most +unpleasant spectacle to abolitionist eyes thus to see Paul, the +aged--perhaps the most venerable and glorious hero whose life is upon +record--assume such an attitude toward the institution of slavery. Had +he dealt with slavery as he always dealt with every thing which he +regarded as sin; had he assumed toward it an attitude of stern and +uncompromising hostility, and had his words been thunderbolts of +denunciation, then indeed would he have been a hero after the very +hearts of the abolitionists. But, as it is, they have to _apologize_ for +the great apostle, and try, as best they may, to deliver him from his +_very equivocal position_! But if they are true apostles, and not false, +then, we fear, the best apology for his conduct is that he had never +read the Declaration of Independence, nor breathed the air of Boston. + +This point, however, we shall not decide. We shall examine their +apologies, and let the candid reader decide for himself. St. Paul, it is +not denied, sent back Onesimus. But, says Mr. Barnes, he did not +_compel_ or _urge_ him to go. He did not send him back against his will. +Onesimus, no doubt, desired to return, and St. Paul was moved to send +him by his own request. Now, in the first place, this apology is built +on sheer assumption. There is not the slightest evidence that Onesimus +requested St. Paul to send him back to his master. "There may have been +many reasons," says Mr. Barnes, "why Onesimus desired to return to +Colosse, and no one can prove that he did not express that desire to St. +Paul, and that his 'sending' him was not in consequence of such +request." True; even if Onesimus had felt no such desire, and had +expressed no such desire to St. Paul, it would have been impossible, in +the very nature of things, for any one to prove such negatives, unless +he had been expressly informed on the subject by the writer of the +epistle. But is it not truly wonderful, that any one should, without the +least particle or shadow of evidence, be pleased to imagine a series of +propositions, and then call upon the opposite party to disprove them? Is +not such proceeding the very stuff that dreams are made of? + +No doubt there may have been reasons why Onesimus should desire to +return to his master. There were certainly reasons, and reasons of +tremendous force, too, why he should have desired no such thing. The +fact that Philemon, whom he had offended by running away, had, according +to law, the power of life and death over him, is one of the reasons why +he should have dreaded to return. Hence, unless required by the apostle +to return, he _may_ have desired no such thing, and no one can prove +that an expression of such desire on his part was the ground of the +apostle's action. It is certain, that he who affirms should prove. + +In the second place, if St. Paul were an abolitionist at heart, he +should have avoided the appearance of so great an evil. He should not, +for a moment, have permitted himself to stand before the world in the +simple and unexplained attitude of one who had sent back a fugitive +slave to his master. No honest abolitionist would permit himself to +appear in such a light. He would scorn to occupy such a position. Hence, +we repeat, if St. Paul were an abolitionist at heart, he should have let +it be known that, in sending Onesimus back, he was moved, not originally +by the principles of his own heart, but by the desire and request of the +fugitive himself. By such a course, he would have delivered himself from +a false position, and spared his friends among the abolitionists the +necessity of making awkward apologies for his conduct. + +Thirdly, the positions of Mr. Barnes are not merely sheer assumptions; +they are perfectly gratuitous. For it is easy to explain the +determination of St. Paul to send Onesimus back, without having recourse +to the supposition that Onesimus desired him to do so. Such +determination was, indeed, the natural and necessary result of the well +known principles of the great apostle. He had repeatedly, and most +emphatically, inculcated the principle, that it is the duty of slaves to +"obey their masters," and to "count them worthy of all honor." This duty +Onesimus had clearly violated in running away from his master. If St. +Paul, then, had not taught Onesimus a different doctrine from that which +he had taught the churches, he must have felt that he had done wrong in +absconding from Philemon, and desired to repair the wrong by returning +to him. "It is," says Mr. Barnes, "by no means necessary to suppose that +Paul felt that Onesimus was under _obligation_ to return." But we must +suppose this, unless we suppose that Paul felt that Onesimus was under +no obligation to obey the precepts which he himself had delivered for +the guidance and direction of all Christian servants. + +We shall now briefly notice a few other of Mr. Barnes' arguments, and +then dismiss this branch of the subject. "If St. Paul sent back +Onesimus," says he, "this was, doubtless, at his own request; for there +is not the slightest evidence that he _compelled_ him, or even urged +him, to go." We might just as well conclude that St. Paul first required +Onesimus to return, because there is not the slightest evidence that +Onesimus made any such request. + +"Paul," says Mr. Barnes, "had no power to send Onesimus back to his +master unless he chose to go." This is very true. But still Onesimus may +have chosen to go, just because St. Paul, his greatest benefactor and +friend, had told him it was his duty to do so. He may have chosen to go, +just because the apostle had told him it is the duty of servants not to +run away from their masters, but to obey them, and count them worthy of +all honor. It is also true, that "there is not the slightest evidence +that he _compelled_ him, or even _urged_ him, to go." It is, on the +other hand, equally true, that there is not the slightest evidence that +any thing more than a bare expression of the apostle's opinion, or a +reiteration of his well-known sentiments, was necessary to induce him to +return. + +"The language is just as would have been used," says our author, "on +the supposition, either that he requested him to go and bear a letter to +Colosse, or that Onesimus desired to go, and that Paul sent him +agreeably to his request. Compare Phil. ii. 25: 'Yet I suppose it +necessary _to send_ Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor,' +etc.; Col. iv. 7, 8: 'All my estate shall Tychicus declare unto you, who +is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow-servant in the +Lord: whom I have _sent_ unto you for the same purpose, that he might +know your estate.' But Epaphroditus and Tychicus were not sent against +their own will,--nor is there any more reason to think that Onesimus +was." Now there is not the least evidence that either Epaphroditus or +Tychicus _requested_ the apostle to _send_ them as he did; and, so far +as appears from his statements, the whole thing originated with himself. +It is simply said that he _sent_ them. It is true, they were "not sent +against their own will," for they were ready and willing to obey his +directions. We have good reason, as we have seen, to believe that +precisely the same thing was true in regard to the sending of Onesimus. + +But there is another case of _sending_ which Mr. Barnes has overlooked. +It is recorded in the same chapter of the same epistle which speaks of +the sending of Epaphroditus. We shall adduce it, for it is a case +directly in point. "But ye know the proof of him, (_i. e._ of Timothy,) +that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. +Him, therefore, I hope to _send_ presently, so soon as I shall see how +it will go with me." Now, here the apostle proposes to send Timothy, not +so soon as Timothy should request to be sent, but so soon as he should +see how it would go with himself as a prisoner at Rome. "As a son with +the father," so Timothy, after his conversion, served with the great +apostle, and, not against his own will, but most cheerfully, obeyed his +directions. And in precisely the same ineffably endearing relation did +Onesimus stand to the apostle. As a recent convert,--as a sincere and +humble Christian,--he naturally looked to his great inspired teacher for +advice, and was, no doubt, with more than filial affection, ready to +obey. + +Hence, we insist that Paul was responsible for the return of Onesimus to +his master. He might have prevented his return, had he so desired; for +he tells us so himself, (ver. 13.) But he chose to send him back. And +why? Because Onesimus requested? The apostle says not so. "I would have +retained him with me," says he to Philemon, "that in thy stead he might +have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. BUT WITHOUT THY MIND +WOULD I DO NOTHING." Nay, whatever may have been his own desires, or +those of Onesimus, he would do nothing without the mind of Philemon. +Such is the reason which the apostle assigns for his own conduct, for +his own determination not to retain the fugitive slave. + +"What the apostle wrote to Philemon on this occasion is," says Dr. +Macknight, "highly worthy of notice; namely, that although he had great +need of an affectionate, honest servant to minister to him in his bonds, +such as Onesimus was, who had expressed a great inclination to stay with +him; and although, if Onesimus had remained with him, he would only have +discharged the duty which Philemon himself owed to his spiritual father, +yet the apostle would by no means detain Onesimus without Philemon's +leave, because it belonged to him to dispose of his own slave in the way +he thought proper. Such was the apostle's regard to justice, and to the +rights of mankind!" + +According to Mr. Barnes, however, the apostle was governed in this +transaction, not by a regard to principle or the rights of mankind, but +by a regard for the feelings of the master! Just listen, for one moment, +to his marvellous discourse: "It is probable," says he, "that _if_ +Onesimus had proposed to return, it would have been easy for Paul to +have retained him with him. He might have represented his own want of a +friend. He might have appealed to his gratitude on account of his +efforts for his conversion. He might have shown him that he was under no +moral obligation to go back. He might have refused to give him this +letter, and might have so represented to him the dangers of the way, and +the probability of a harsh reception, as effectually to have dissuaded +him from such a purpose. But, in that case, it is clear that this might +have caused hard feeling in the bosom of Philemon, and rather than do +that, he preferred to let him return to his master, and to plead for him +that he might have a kind reception. It is, therefore, by no means +necessary to suppose that Paul felt that Onesimus was under _obligation_ +to return, or that he was disposed to _compel_ him, or that Onesimus was +not inclined to return voluntarily; but all the circumstances of the +case are met by the supposition that, if Paul had retained him, Philemon +might conceive that he had injured _him_." + +Alas! that so much truth should have been suppressed; and that, too, by +the most glorious champion of truth the world has ever seen. He tells +not his "son Onesimus" that he is under no moral obligation to return to +his master. On the contrary, he leaves him ignorant of his rights--of +his inherent, sacred, and eternal rights. He sees him blindly put off +"the hero," and put on "the brute" again. And why? Because, forsooth, if +he should only speak, _he might cause hard feeling in the bosom of his +master_! Should he retain Onesimus, his son, he would not injure +Philemon at all. But then Philemon "might _conceive_" that he had +injured him. Ah! when will abolitionist again suppress such mighty +truth, lest he disturb some _fancied_ right, or absurd feeling ruffle? +When the volcano of his mind suppress and keep its furious fires in, +lest he consume some petty despot's despicable sway; or else, at least, +touch his tender sensibilities with momentary pain? "_Fiat justitia, +ruat coelum_," is a favorite maxim with other abolitionists. But St. +Paul, it seems, could not assume quite so lofty a tone. He could not +say, "Let justice be done, though the heavens should fall." He could not +even say, "Let justice be done," though the feelings of Philemon should +be hurt. + +It is evident, we think, that St. Paul needs to be defended against Mr. +Barnes' defenses of him, and vindicated against his apologies. If, +indeed, he were so pitiful a pleader of "the innocent cause" as Mr. +Barnes would have us to believe he is, then, we ask if those +abolitionists are not in the right who despise both the apostle and his +doctrine? No other abolitionist, it is certain, will ever imitate his +example, as that example is represented by Mr. Barnes. No other +abolitionist will ever suppress the great truths--as he conceives them +to be--with which his soul is on fire, and which, in his view, lie at +the foundation of human happiness, lest he should "cause hard feelings" +in the bosom of a slaveholder. + +It may be said, perhaps, that the remarks and apology of Mr. Barnes do +not proceed on the supposition that Onesimus was a slave. If so, the +answer is at hand. For surely Mr. Barnes cannot think it would have been +dishonorable in the apostle to advise, or even to urge, "a hired +servant," or "an apprentice," to return and fulfill his contract. It is +evident that, although Mr. Barnes would have the reader to believe that +Onesimus was merely a hired servant or an apprentice, he soon forgets +his own interpretation, and proceeds to reason just as if he himself +regarded him as a slave. This, if possible, will soon appear still more +evident. + +The apostle did not, according to Mr. Barnes, wholly conceal his +abolition sentiments. He made them known to Philemon. Yes, we are +gravely told, the letter which Onesimus carried in his pocket, as he +wended his way back from Rome to Colosse, was and is an emancipation +document! This great discovery is, we believe, due to the abolitionists +of the present day. It was first made by Mr. Barnes, or Dr. Channing, or +some other learned emancipationist, and after them by Mr. Sumner. +Indeed, the discovery that it appears from the face of the epistle +itself that it is an emancipation document, is the second of the two +"conclusive things" which, in Mr. Sumner's opinion, constitute "an +all-sufficient response" to anti-abolitionists. + +Now supposing St. Paul to have been an abolitionist, such a disclosure +of his views would, we admit, afford some little relief to our minds. +For it would show that, although he did not provoke opposition by +proclaiming the truth to the churches and to the world, he could at +least run the risk of hurting the feelings of a slaveholder. But let us +look into this great discovery, and see if the apostle has, in reality, +whispered any such words of emancipation in the ear of Philemon. + +In his note to the sixteenth verse of the epistle, Mr. Barnes says: "Not +now as a servant. The adverb rendered 'not now,' ([Greek: _ouketi_]) +means _no more_, _no further_, _no longer_." So let it be. We doubt not +that such is its meaning. Hence, we need not examine Mr. Barnes' +numerous authorities, to show that such is the force of the adverb in +question. He has, we admit, most abundantly established his point that +[Greek: _ouketi_] means _no longer_. But then this is a point which no +anti-abolitionist has the least occasion to deny. We find precisely the +same rendition in Macknight, and we are perfectly willing to abide by +his translation. If Mr. Barnes had spared himself the trouble of +producing these authorities, and adduced only one to show that [Greek: +_doulos_] means _a hired servant_, or _an apprentice_, his labor would +have been bestowed where it is needed. + +As the passage stands, then, St. Paul exhorts Philemon to receive +Onesimus, "no longer as a servant." Now this, we admit, is perfectly +correct _as far as it goes_. "It (_i. e._ this adverb) implies," says +Mr. Barnes, "that he had been in this condition, _but was not to be +now_." He was _no longer_ to be a servant! Over this view of the +passage, Mr. Sumner goes into quite a paroxysm of triumphant joy. +"Secondly," says he, "in charging Onesimus with this epistle to +Philemon, the apostle announces him as 'not now a servant, but above a +servant,--a brother beloved;' and he enjoins upon his correspondent the +hospitality due only to a freeman, saying expressly, 'If thou count me, +therefore, as a partner, _receive him as myself_;' ay, sir, not as +slave, not even as servant, but as a brother beloved, even as the +apostle himself. Thus with apostolic pen wrote Paul to his disciple +Philemon. Beyond all doubt, in these words of gentleness, benediction, +and EMANCIPATION,[173] dropping with celestial, soul-awakening power, +there can be no justification for a conspiracy, which, beginning with +the treachery of Iscariot, and the temptation of pieces of silver, seeks +by fraud, brutality, and violence, through officers of the law armed to +the teeth like pirates, and amid soldiers who degrade their uniform, to +hurl a fellow-man back into the lash-resounding den of American slavery; +and if any one can thus pervert this beneficent example, allow me to say +that he gives too much occasion to doubt his intelligence or his +sincerity." + +Now in regard to the spirit of this passage we have at present nothing +to say. The sudden transition from the apostle's "words of blessing and +benediction," to Mr. Sumner's words of railing and vituperation, we +shall pass by unnoticed. Upon these the reader may make his own +comments. It is our object simply to comment on the words of the great +apostle. And, in the first place, we venture to suggest that there are +several very serious difficulties in the way of Mr. Barnes' and Mr. +Sumner's interpretation of the passage in question. + +Let us, for the sake of argument, concede to these gentlemen that +Onesimus was merely the hired servant, or apprentice, of Philemon. What +then follows? If they are not in error, it clearly and unequivocally +follows that St. Paul's "words of emancipation" were intended, not for +slaves merely, but for hired servants and apprentices! For servants of +any and every desrciption! Mr. Sumner expressly tells us that he was to +return, "not as a slave, _not even as a servant_, but as a brother +beloved." Now such a scheme of emancipation would, it seems to us, suit +the people of Boston as little as it would those of Richmond. It would +abolish every kind of "servitude, whether voluntary or involuntary," and +release all hired servants, as well as apprentices, from the obligation +of their contracts. Such is one of the difficulties in their way. It may +not detract from the "sincerity," it certainly reflects no credit on the +"intelligence," of Mr. Sumner, to be guilty of such an oversight. + +There is another very grave difficulty in the way of these gentlemen. +St. Paul writes that the servant Onesimus, who had been unprofitable to +Philemon in times past, would now be profitable to him. But how +profitable? As a servant? No! he was no longer to serve him at all. His +"emancipation" was announced! He was to be received, not as a slave, not +even as a servant, but _only_ as a brother beloved! Philemon was, +indeed, to extend to him the hospitalities due to a freeman, even such +as were due to the apostle himself? Now, for aught we know, it may have +been very agreeable to the feelings of Philemon, to have his former +servant thus unceremoniously "emancipated," and quartered upon him as "a +gentleman of elegant leisure;" but how this could have been so +_profitable_ to him is more than we can conceive. + +It must be admitted, we think, that in a worldly point of view, all the +profits would have been on the side of Onesimus. "But," says Mr. Barnes, +"he would now be more profitable as a Christian brother." It is true, +Onesimus had not been very profitable as a Christian brother before he +ran away, for he had not been a Christian brother at all. But if he were +sent back by the apostle, because he would be profitable merely as a +Christian brother, we cannot see why any other Christian brother would +not have answered the purpose just as well as Onesimus. If such, indeed, +were the apostle's object, he might have conferred a still greater +benefit upon Philemon by sending several Christian brethren to live with +him, and to feast upon his good things. + +Thirdly, the supposition that St. Paul thus announced the emancipation +of Onesimus, is as inconsistent with the whole scope and design of the +passage, as it is with the character of the apostle. If he would do +nothing without the consent of Philemon, not even retain his servant to +minister to himself while in prison, much less would he declare him +emancipated, and introduce him to his former master as a freeman. We +submit to the candid reader, we submit to every one who has the least +perception of the character and spirit of the apostle, if such an +interpretation of his words be not simply ridiculous. + +It is certain that such an interpretation is peculiar to abolitionists. +"Men," says Mr. Sumner, "are prone to find in uncertain, disconnected +texts, a confirmation of their own personal prejudices or +prepossessions. And I,"--he continues, "who am no divine, but only a +simple layman--make bold to say, that whosoever finds in the gospel any +sanction of slavery, finds there merely a reflection of himself." He +must have been a very simple layman indeed, if he did not perceive how +very easily his words might have been retorted. We venture to affirm +that no one, except an abolitionist, has ever found the slightest +tincture of abolitionism in the writings of the great apostle to the +Gentiles. + +The plain truth is, that Philemon is exhorted to receive Onesimus "no +longer as a slave ONLY, but above a slave,--a brother beloved." Such is +the translation of Macknight, and such, too, is the concurrent voice of +every commentator to whom we have access. Pool, Clarke, Scott, Benson, +Doddridge--all unite in the interpretation that Onesimus was, in the +heaven-inspired and soul-subduing words of the loving apostle, commended +to his master, not as a slave _merely_, but also as a Christian brother. +The great fact--the "words of emancipation," which Mr. Sumner sees so +clearly on "the face of the epistle,"--they cannot see at all. Neither +sign nor shadow of any such thing can they perceive. It is a sheer +reflection of the abolitionist himself. Thus, the Old Testament is not +only merged in the New, but the New itself is merged in Mr. Charles +Sumner, of Massachusetts. + +We shall notice one passage more of Scripture. The seventh chapter of +the Epistle to the Corinthians begins thus: "Now concerning the things +whereof ye wrote unto me;" and it proceeds to notice, among other +things, the relation of master and slave. This passage was designed to +correct the disorders among the Christian slaves at Corinth, who, +agreeably to the doctrine of the false teacher, _claimed their liberty, +on pretense that, as brethren in Christ, they were on an equality with +their Christian masters_." Here, then, St. Paul met abolitionism face +to face. And how did he proceed? Did he favor the false teacher? Did he +recognize the claim of the discontented Christian slaves? Did he even +once hint that they were entitled to their freedom, on the ground that +all men are equal, or on any other ground whatever? His own words will +furnish the best answer to these questions. + +"Let every man," says he, "abide in the same calling wherein he was +called. Art thou called, being a servant? _care not for it._" Thus, were +Christian slaves exhorted to continue in that condition of life in which +they were when converted to Christianity. This will not be denied. It is +too plain for controversy. It is even admitted by Mr. Barnes himself. In +the devout contemplation of this passage Chrysostom exclaims: "Hast thou +been called, being a slave? Care not for it. Continue to be a slave. +Hast thou been called, being in uncircumcision? Remain uncircumcised. +Being circumcised, didst thou become a believer? Continue circumcised. +For these are no hindrances to piety. Thou are called, being a slave; +another, with an unbelieving wife; another, being circumcised. +[Astonishing! Where has he put slavery?] As circumcision profits not, +and uncircumcision does no harm, so neither doth slavery nor yet +liberty." + +"The great argument" against slavery is, according to Dr. Channing and +other abolitionists, drawn from the immortality of the soul. "Into every +human being," says he, "God has breathed an immortal spirit, more +precious than the whole outward creation. No earthly nor celestial +language can exaggerate the worth of a human being." The powers of this +immortal spirit, he concludes, "reduce to insignificance all outward +distinctions." Yea, according to St. Paul himself, they reduce to utter +insignificance all outward distinctions, and especially the distinction +between liberty and slavery. "Art thou called," says he, "being a slave? +care not for it." Art thou, indeed, the Lord's freeman and _as such_ +destined to reign on a throne of glory forever? Oh, then, care not for +the paltry distinctions of the passing world! + +Now, whom shall the Christian teacher take for his model?--St. Paul, or +Dr. Channing? Shall he seek to make men contented with the condition in +which God has placed them, or shall he stir up discontent, and inflame +the restless passions of men? Shall he himself, like the great apostle, +be content to preach the doctrines of eternal life to a perishing +world; or shall he make politics his calling, and inveigh against the +domestic relations of society? Shall he exhort men not to continue in +the condition of life in which God has placed them, but to take his +providence out of his hands, and, _in [Greek: ]direct opposition to his +word_, assert their rights? In one word, shall he preach the gospel of +Christ and his apostles, or shall he preach the gospel of the +abolitionist? + +"Art thou called, being a servant? care not for it; but if thou mayest +be made free, use it rather." The Greek runs thus: [Greek: _all' ei kai +dunasai eleutheros genesthai, mallon chresai_],--literally, "but even if +thou canst become free, rather make use of." Make use of what? The Greek +verb is left without a case. How, then, shall this be applied? To what +does the ambiguous _it_ of our translation refer? "One and all of the +native Greek commentators in the early ages," says Stuart, "and many +expositors in modern times, say that the word to be supplied is [Greek: +_douleia_], i. e. _slavery, bondage_. The reason which they give for it +is, that this is the only construction which can support the proposition +the apostle is laboring to establish, viz.: 'Let every man abide in +_statu quo_.' Even De Wette, (who, for his high liberty notions, was +banished from Germany,) in his commentary on this passage, seems plainly +to accede to the force of this reasoning; and with him many others have +agreed. No man can look at the simple continuity of logic in the passage +without feeling that there is force in the appeal." Yet the fact should +not be concealed, that Stuart himself is "not satisfied with this +exegesis of the passage;" which, according to his own statement, was the +universal interpretation from "the early ages" down to the sixteenth +century. This change, says he, "seems to have been the spontaneous +prompting of the spirit of liberty, that beat high" in the bosom of its +author. + +Now have we not some reason to distrust an interpretation which comes +not exactly from Heaven, but from a spirit beating high in the human +breast? _That_ is certainly not an unerring spirit. We have already seen +what it can do with the Scriptures. But whether it has erred in this +instance, or not, it is certain that it should never be permitted to +beat so very high in any human breast as to annul the teachings of the +apostle, or to make him contradict himself. This has been too often +done. We too frequently hear those who admit that St. Paul exhorts +"slaves to continue in slavery," still contend that "if they may be +made free," they should move heaven and earth to attain so desirable an +object. They "should continue in that state," and yet exert all their +power to escape therefrom! + +Conybeare and Howson, who are acknowledged to be among the best +commentators of the Epistles of St. Paul, have restored "the continuity +of his logic." They translate his words thus: "Nay, though thou have +power to gain thy freedom, seek rather to remain content." This +translation certainly possesses the advantage that it makes the doctrine +of St. Paul perfectly consistent with itself. + +But let us return to the point in regard to which there is no +controversy. It is on all sides agreed, that St. Paul no less than three +times exhorts every man to continue in the condition in which Providence +has placed him. "And this rule," says he, "ordain I in all the +churches." Yet--would any man believe it possible?--the very +quintessence of abolitionism itself has been extracted from this passage +of his writings! Let us consider for a moment the wonderful alchemy by +which this has been effected. + +We find in this passage the words: "Be not ye the servants of men." +These words are taken from the connection in which they stand, +dissevered from the words which precede and follow them, and then made +to teach that slaves should not submit to the authority of their +masters, should not continue in their present condition. It is certain +that no one but an abolitionist, who has lost all respect for revelation +except when it happens to square with his own notions, could thus make +the apostle so directly and so flatly contradict himself and all his +teaching. Different interpretations have been given to the words just +quoted; but until abolitionism set its cloven foot upon the Bible, such +violence had not been done to its sacred pages. + +Conybeare and Howson suppose that the words in question are intended to +caution the Corinthians against "their servile adherence to party +leaders." Bloomfield, in like manner, says: "The best commentators are +agreed," that they are "to be taken figuratively, in the sense, 'do not +be blindly followers of men, conforming to their opinions,' etc." It is +certain that Rosenmueller, Grotius, and we know not how many more, have +all concurred in this interpretation. But be the meaning what it may, +_it is not_ an exhortation to slaves to burst their bonds in sunder, +unless the apostle has, in one and the same breath, taught +diametrically opposite doctrines. + +Yet, in direct opposition to the plain words of the apostle, and to the +concurrent voice of commentators and critics, is he made to teach that +slaves should throw off the authority of their masters! Lest such a +thing should be deemed impossible, we quote the words of the author by +whom this outrage has been perpetrated. "The command of the 23d verse," +says he, "'be not ye the servants of men,' is equally plain. There are +no such commands uttered in regard to the relations of husband and wife, +parent and child, as are here given in regard to slavery. _No one is +thus urged to dissolve the marriage relation. No such commands are given +to relieve children from obedience to their parents_," etc.[174] Nor is +any such command, we repeat, given to relieve slaves from obedience to +their masters, or to dissolve the relation between them. + +If such violence to Scripture had been done by an obscure scribbler, or +by an infidel quoting the word of God merely for a purpose, it would not +have been matter of such profound astonishment. But is it not +unspeakably shocking that a Christian man, nay, that a Christian +minister and doctor of divinity, should thus set at naught the clearest, +the most unequivocal, and the most universally received teachings of the +gospel? If he had merely accused the Christian man of the South, as he +has so often done in his two stupid volumes on slavery, of the crimes of +"swindling," of "theft," of "robbing," and of "manstealing," we could +have borne with him well; and, as we have hitherto done, continued to +pass by his labors with silent contempt. But we have deemed it important +to show in what manner, and to what extent, the spirit of abolitionism +can wrest the pure word of God to its antichristian purpose. + +We shall conclude the argument from scripture with the following just +and impressive testimony of the Princeton Review: "The mass of the pious +and thinking people in this country are neither abolitionists nor the +advocates of slavery. They stand where they ever have stood--on the +broad Scriptural foundation; maintaining the obligation of all men, in +their several places and relations, to act on the law of love, and to +promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of others by every means in +their power. They stand aloof from the abolitionists for various +reasons. In the first place, they disapprove of their principles. The +leading characteristic doctrine of this sect is that slaveholding is in +all cases a sin, and should, therefore, under all circumstances, be +immediately abandoned. _As nothing can be plainer than that slaveholders +were admitted to the Christian church by the inspired apostles, the +advocates of this doctrine are brought into direct collision with the +Scriptures. This leads to one of the most dangerous evils connected with +the whole system, viz., a disregard of the authority of the word of God, +a setting up a different and higher standard of truth and duty, and a +proud and confident wresting of Scripture to suit their own purposes._ +THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION FURNISHES NO EXAMPLES OF MORE WILLFUL AND +VIOLENT PERVERSIONS OF THE SACRED TEXT THAN ARE TO BE FOUND IN THE +WRITINGS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS. THEY SEEM TO CONSIDER THEMSELVES ABOVE +THE SCRIPTURES; AND WHEN THEY PUT THEMSELVES ABOVE THE LAW OF GOD, IT IS +NOT WONDERFUL THAT THEY SHOULD DISREGARD THE LAWS OF MEN. Significant +manifestations of the result of this disposition to consider their own +light a surer guide than the word of God, are visible in the anarchical +opinions about human governments, civil and ecclesiastical, and on the +rights of women, which have found appropriate advocates in the abolition +publications. Let these principles be carried out, and there is an end +to all social subordination, to all security for life and property, to +all guarantee for public or domestic virtue. If our women are to be +emancipated from subjection to the law which God has imposed upon them, +if they are to quit the retirement of domestic life, where they preside +in stillness over the character and destiny of society; if they are to +come forth in the liberty of men, to be our agents, our public +lecturers, our committee-men, our rulers; if, in studied insult to the +authority of God, we are to renounce in the marriage contract all claim +to obedience, we shall soon have a country over which the genius of Mary +Wolstonecraft would delight to preside, but from which all order and all +virtue would speedily be banished. There is no form of human excellence +before which we bow with profounder deference than that which appears in +a delicate woman, adorned with the inward graces and devoted to the +peculiar duties of her sex; and there is no deformity of human +character from which we turn with deeper loathing than from a woman +forgetful of her nature, and clamorous for the vocation and rights of +men. It would not be fair to object to the abolitionists the disgusting +and disorganizing opinions of even some of their leading advocates and +publications, did they not continue to patronize those publications, and +were not these opinions the legitimate consequences of their own +principles. Their women do but apply their own method of dealing with +Scripture to another case. This no inconsiderable portion of the party +have candor enough to acknowledge, and are therefore prepared to abide +the result." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[163] Lev. xxv. 44, 45, 56. + +[164] Lev. xxv. 44, 45, 46. + +[165] Exod. xxi. 20, 21. + +[166] Exod. xxi. 7, 8. + +[167] Deut. xxiii. 15, 16. + +[168] Moses Stewart, a divine of Massachusetts, who had devoted a long +and laborious life to the interpretation of Scripture, and who was by no +means a friend to the institution of slavery. + +[169] Speech in the Metropolitan Theatre, 1855. + +[170] Speech at the Metropolitan Theatre, 1855. + +[171] Fools may hope to escape responsibility by such a cry. But if +there be any truth in moral science, than every man should examine and +decide, or else forbear to act. + +[172] The Italics are ours. + +[173] The emphasis is ours. + +[174] Elliott on Slavery, vol. i. p. 205. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ARGUMENT FROM THE PUBLIC GOOD. + + The Question--Emancipation in the British + Colonies--The manner in which Emancipation has + ruined the British Colonies--The great benefit + supposed, by American Abolitionists, to result to + the freed Negroes from the British Act of + Emancipation--The Consequences of Abolition to the + South--Elevation of the Blacks by Southern + Slavery. + + +WE have not shunned the abstractions of the abolitionist. We have, on +the contrary, examined all his arguments, even the most abstract, and +endeavored to show that they either rest on false assumptions, or +consist in false deductions. While engaged in this analysis of his +errors, we have more than once had occasion to remind him that the great +practical problem of slavery is to be determined, if determined at all, +not by an appeal to abstractions, but simply by a consideration of the +public good. It is under this point of view, or with reference to the +highest good of the governed, that we now proceed to consider the +institution of slavery. + +The way is open and clear for this view of the subject. For we have +seen, we trust, that slavery is condemned neither by any principle of +natural justice, nor by any precept of divine revelation. On the other +hand, if we mistake not, it has been most clearly shown that the +doctrines and practices of the abolitionist are at war with the most +explicit words of God, as well as with the most unquestionable +principles of political ethics. Hence, without the least disrespect to +the eternal principles of right, we may now proceed to subject his +doctrines to the only remaining test of political truth, namely, _to the +test of experience_. Having examined the internal qualities of the tree +and found them bad, we may now proceed to inquire if "its fruits" be not +poison. And if the sober lessons of history, if the infallible records +of experience, be found in perfect harmony with the conclusions of +reason and of revelation, then shall we not be triply justified in +pronouncing abolitionism a social and a moral curse? + + +Sec. I. _The Question._ + +Here, at the outset, we may throw aside a mass of useless verbiage, with +which our inquiry is usually encumbered. We are eternally told that +Kentucky has fallen behind Ohio, and Virginia behind Pennsylvania, +because their energies have been crippled, and their prosperity +over-clouded, by the institution of slavery. Now, it is of no importance +to our argument that we should either deny the fact, or the explanation +which is given of it by abolitionists. If the question were, whether +slavery should be introduced among us, or into any non-slaveholding +State, then such facts and explanations would be worthy of our notice. +Then such an appeal to experience would be relevant to the point in +dispute. But such is not the question. We are not called upon to decide +whether slavery shall be established in our midst or not. This question +has been decided for us. Slavery--as every body knows--was forced upon +the colonies by the arbitrary and despotic rule of Great Britain, and +that, too, against the earnest remonstrances of our ancestors. The thing +has been done. The past is beyond our control. It is fixed and +unalterable. The only inquiry which remains for us now is, whether the +slavery which was thus forced upon our ancestors shall be continued, or +whether it shall be abolished? The question is not what Virginia, or +Kentucky, or any other slave State, _might_ have been, but what they +would be in case slavery were abolished. If abolitionists would speak to +the point, then let them show us some country in which slavery has been +abolished, and we will abide by the experiment. Fortunately for us, we +need not look far for such an experiment;--an experiment which has been +made, not upon mere chattels or brutes, but upon the social and moral +well-being of more than a million of human beings. We refer, of course, +to the emancipation of the slaves in the British colonies. This work, as +every one knows, was the great vaunted achievement of British +abolitionists. Here, then, we may see their philosophy--if philosophy it +may be called--"teaching by example." Here we may see and taste the +fruits of abolitionism, ere we conclude to grow them upon our own soil. + + +Sec. II. _Emancipation in the British Colonies._ + +It is scarcely in the power of human language to describe the +enthusiastic delight with which the abolitionists, both in England and +in America, were inspired by the spectacle of West India Emancipation. +We might easily adduce a hundred illustrations of the almost frantic joy +with which it intoxicated their brains. We shall, however, for the sake +of brevity, confine our attention to a single example,--which will, at +the same time, serve to show, not only how wild the abolitionist himself +was, but also how indignant he became that others were not equally +disposed to part with their sober senses. "The prevalent state of +feeling," said Dr. Channing in 1840, "in the free States in regard to +slavery is indifference--an indifference strengthened by the notion of +great difficulties attending the subject. The fact is painful, but the +truth should be spoken. The majority of the people, even yet, care +little about the matter. A painful proof of this insensibility was +furnished about a year and a half ago, when the English West Indies were +emancipated. An event surpassing this in moral grandeur is not recorded +in history. In one day, probably seven hundred thousand of human beings +were rescued from bondage to full, unqualified freedom. The +consciousness of wrongs, in so many breasts, was exchanged into +rapturous, grateful joy. What shouts of thanksgiving broke forth from +those liberated crowds! What new sanctity and strength were added to the +domestic ties! What new hopes opened on future generations! The crowning +glory of this day was the fact that the work of emancipation was wholly +due to the principles of Christianity. The West Indies were freed, not +by force, or human policy, but by the reverence of a great people for +justice and humanity. The men who began and carried on this cause were +Christian philanthropists; and they prevailed by spreading their own +spirit through a nation. In this respect, the emancipation of the West +Indies was a grander work than the redemption of the Israelites from +bondage. This was accomplished by force, by outward miracles, by the +violence of the elements. That was achieved by love, by moral power, by +God, working, not in the stormy seas, but in the depths of the human +heart. And how was this day of emancipation--one of the most blessed +days that ever dawned upon the earth--received in this country? While in +distant England a thrill of gratitude and joy pervaded thousands and +millions, we, the neighbors of the West Indies, and who boast of our +love of liberty, saw the sun of that day rise and set with hardly a +thought of the scenes on which it was pouring its joyful light. The +greater part of our newspapers did not refer to the event. The great +majority of the people had forgotten it. Such was the testimony we gave +to our concern for the poor slave; and is it from discussions of slavery +among such a people that the country is to be overturned?" + +Such were the glowing expectations of the abolitionists. It now remains +to be seen whether they were true prophets, or merely "blind leaders of +the blind." Be that as it may, for the present we cannot agree with Dr. +Channing, that the good people of the free States were insincere in +boasting of their "love of liberty," because they did not go into +raptures over so fearful an experiment before they had some little time +to see how it would work. They did, no doubt, most truly and profoundly +love liberty. But then they had some reason to suspect, perhaps, that +liberty may be one thing, and abolitionism quite another. Liberty, they +knew, was a thing of light and love; but as for abolitionism, it was, +for all they knew, a demon of destruction. Hence they would wait, and +see. We do well to rejoice at once, exclaims Dr. Channing. If a +man-child is born into the world, says he, do we wait to read his future +life ere we rejoice at his birth? Ah, no! But then, perhaps, this +offspring of abolitionism is no man-child at all. It may, for aught we +know, be an abortion of night and darkness merely. Hence, we shall wait, +and mark his future course, ere we rend the air with shouts that he is +born at last. + +This man-child, or this monster, is now seventeen years and four months +old. His character is developed, and fixed for life. We may now read +his history, written by impartial men, and determine for ourselves, +whether it justifies the bright and boundless hopes of the +abolitionists, or the "cold indifference," nay, the suspicions and the +fears, of the good people of the free States. + +We shall begin with Jamaica, which is by far the largest and most +valuable of the British West Indies. The very first year after the +complete emancipation of the slaves of this island, its prosperity began +to manifest symptoms of decay. As long as it was possible, however, to +find or invent an explanation of these fearful signs, the abolitionists +remained absolutely blind to the real course of events. In 1839, the +first year of complete emancipation, it appeared that the crop of sugar +exported from the island had fallen off no less than eight thousand four +hundred and sixty-six hogsheads. But, then, it was discovered that the +hogsheads had been larger this year than the preceding! It is true, +there was not exactly any proof that larger hogsheads had been used all +over the island, but it was rumored; and the rumor was, of course, +eagerly swallowed by the abolitionists. + +And besides, it was quite certain that the free negroes had eaten more +sugar than while they were slaves, which helped mightily to account for +the great diminution in the exports of the article. No one could deny +this. It is certain, that if the free negroes only devoured sugar as +eagerly as such floating conjectures were gulped down by the +abolitionists, the whole phenomenon needed no other cause for its +perfect explanation. It never once occured, however, to these reasoners +to imagine that the decrease in the amount of rum exported from another +island _might_ be owing to the circumstance that the free blacks had +swallowed a little more of that article as well as of sugar. On the +contrary, this fact was held up as a most conclusive and triumphant +proof that the free negroes had not only become temperate themselves, +but also so virtuous that they scorned to produce such an article to +poison their fellow-men. The English abolitionists who rejoiced at such +a reflection were, it must be confessed, standing on rather delicate +ground. For if such an inference proved any thing, it proved that the +blacks of the island in question had, at one single bound, passed from +the depths of degradation to an exaltation of virtue far above their +emancipators, the English people themselves; since these, as every +reader of history knows, not only enforced the culture of opium in +India, but also absolutely compelled the poor Chinese to receive it at +the mouth of the cannon! + +It also appears that, for 1839, the amount of coffee exported had fallen +off 38,554 cwt., or about one third of the whole amount of the preceding +year. "The coffee is a very uncertain crop," said a noted English +emancipationist, in view of this startling fact, "and the deficiency, on +the comparison of these two years, is not greater, I believe, than has +often occurred before." This is true, for a drought or a hurricane had +before created quite as great a deficiency. But while the fact is true, +it only proves that the first year of emancipation was no worse on the +coffee crop than a drought or a hurricane. + +"We should also remember," says this zealous abolitionist, "that, both +in sugar and coffee, the profit to the planter may be increased by the +saving of expense, even where the produce is diminished." Such a thing, +we admit, is possible; it _may_ be true. But _in point of fact_, as we +shall soon see, the expense was increased, while the crop was +diminished. + +But after every possible explanation, even Dr. Channing and Mr. Gurney +were bound to admit "that some decrease has taken place in both the +articles, in connection with the change of system." They also admitted +that "so far as this decrease of produce is connected with the change of +system, _it is obviously to be traced to a corresponding decrease in the +quantity of labor_." + +May we not suppose, then, that here the ingenuity of man is at an end, +and the truth begins to be allowed to make its appearance? By no means. +For here "comes the critical question,"--says Mr. Gurney, "the real +turning point. To what is this decrease in the quantity of labor owing? +I answer deliberately but without reserve, '_Mainly_ to causes which +class under slavery and not under freedom.' It is, for the most part, +the result of those impolitic attempts to force the labor of freemen +which have disgusted the peasantry, and have led to the desertion of +many of the estates." + +Now suppose this were the case, is it not the business, is it not the +duty, of the legislator to consider the passions, the prejudices, and +the habits of those for whom he legislates? Indeed, if he overlook +these, is he not a reckless experimenter rather than a wise statesman? +If he legislates, not for man as he _is_, but for man as he _ought to +be_, is he not a political dreamer rather than a sound philosopher? + +The abolitionist not only closed his eyes on every appearance of decline +in the prosperity of the West Indies, he also seized with avidity every +indication of the successful operation of his scheme, and magnified it +both to himself and to the world. He made haste, in particular, to paint +in the most glowing colors the rising prosperity of Jamaica.[175] His +narrative was hailed with eager delight by abolitionists in all parts of +the civilized world. It is a pity, we admit, to spoil so fine a story, +or to put a damper on so much enthusiasm. But the truth, especially in a +case like the present, should be told. While, then, to the enchanted +imagination of the abolitionist, the wonderful industry of the freed +negroes and the exuberant bounty of nature were concurring to bring +about a paradise in the island of Jamaica, the dark stream of +emancipation was, in reality, undermining its prosperity and glory. We +shall now proceed to adduce the evidence of this melancholy fact, which +has in a few short years become so abundant and so overwhelming, that +even the most blind and obstinate must feel its force. + +After describing the immense sources of wealth to be found in Jamaica, +an intelligent eye-witness says: "Such are some of the natural resources +of this dilapidated and poverty-stricken country. Capable as it is of +producing almost every thing, and actually producing nothing which might +not become a staple with a proper application of capital and skill, its +inhabitants are miserably poor, and daily sinking deeper into the utter +helplessness of abject want. + + "'Magnas inter opes inops.' + +"Shipping has deserted her ports; her magnificent plantations of sugar +and coffee are running to weeds; her private dwellings are falling to +decay; the comforts and luxuries which belong to industrial prosperity +have been cut off, one by one, from her inhabitants; and the day, I +think, is at hand when there will be none left to represent the wealth, +intelligence, and hospitality for which the Jamaica planter was once +distinguished."[176] + +"It is impossible," says Mr. Carey, "to read Mr. Bigelow's volume, +without arriving at the conclusion that the freedom granted to the negro +has had little effect except that of enabling him to live at the expense +of the planter so long as any thing remained. Sixteen years of freedom +did not appear to its author to have 'advanced the dignity of labor or +of the laboring classes one particle,' while it had ruined the +proprietors of the land, and thus great damage had been done to the one +class without benefit of any kind to the other. + +From a statistical table, published in August, 1853, it appears, says +one of our northern journals, that, since 1846, "the number of sugar +estates on the island that have been totally abandoned amounts to one +hundred and sixty-eight, and the number partially abandoned to +sixty-three; the value of which two hundred and thirty-one estates was +assessed, in 1841, at L1,655,140, or nearly eight millions and a half of +dollars. Within the same period two hundred and twenty-three +coffee-plantations have been totally, and twenty partially, abandoned, +the assessed value of which was, in 1841, L500,000, or two millions and +a half of dollars; and of cattle-pens, (grazing farms,) one hundred and +twenty-two have been totally, and ten partially, abandoned, the value of +which was a million and a half of dollars. The aggregate value of these +six hundred and six estates, which have been thus ruined and abandoned +in the island of Jamaica, within the last seven or eight years, amounted +by the regular assessments, ten years since, to the sum of nearly two +and a half millions of pounds sterling, or twelve and a half millions of +dollars."[177] + +In relation to Jamaica, another witness says: "The marks of decay +abound. Neglected fields, crumbling houses, fragmentary fences, +noiseless machinery--these are common sights, and soon become familiar +to observation. I sometimes rode for miles in succession over fertile +ground, which used to be cultivated, and which is now lying waste. So +rapidly has cultivation retrograded, and the wild luxuriance of nature +replaced the conveniences of art, that parties still inhabiting these +desolated districts have sometimes, in the strong language of a speaker +at Kingston, 'to seek about the bush to find the entrance into their +houses.' + +"The towns present a spectacle no less gloomy. A great part of Kingston +was destroyed, some years ago, by an extensive conflagration: yet +multitudes of the houses which escaped that visitation are standing +empty, though the population is little, if at all, diminished. The +explanation is obvious. Persons who have nothing, and can no longer keep +up their domestic establishments, take refuge in the abodes of others, +where some means of subsistence are still left; and in the absence of +any discernible trade or occupation, the lives of crowded thousands +appear to be preserved from day to day by a species of miracle. The most +busy thoroughfares of former times have now almost the quietude of a +Sabbath. + +"'The finest land in the world,' says Mr. Bigelow, 'may be had at any +price, and almost for the asking.' Labor 'receives no compensation, and +the product of labor does not seem to know how to find the way to +market.'"[178] + +From the report made in 1849, and signed by various missionaries, the +moral and religious state of the island appears no less gloomy than its +scenes of poverty and distress. The following extract from that report +we copy from Mr. Carey's "Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign:"-- + +"Missionary efforts in Jamaica are beset at the present time with many +and great discouragements. Societies at home have withdrawn or +diminished the amount of assistance afforded by them to chapels and +schools throughout this island. The prostrate condition of its +agriculture and commerce disables its own population from doing as much +as formerly for maintaining the worship of God and the tuition of the +young, and induces numbers of negro laborers to retire from estates +which have been thrown up, to seek the means of subsistence in the +mountains, where they are removed in general from moral training and +superintendence. The consequences of this state of matters are very +disastrous. Not a few missionaries and teachers--often struggling with +difficulties which they could not overcome--have returned to Europe, and +others are preparing to follow them. Chapels and schools are abandoned, +or they have passed into the hands of very incompetent instructors." + +We cannot dwell upon each of the West India Islands. Some of these have +not suffered so much as others; but while some, from well-known causes, +have been partially exempt from the evils of emancipation, all have +suffered to a fearful extent. This, as we shall now show, is most amply +established by English authorities. + +Mr. Bigelow, whose "Notes on Jamaica in 1850" we have noticed, is an +American writer; a Northern man; and, it is said, by no means a friend +to the institution of slavery. It is certain that Mr. Robert Baird, from +whom we shall now quote, is not only a subject of Great Britain, but +also a most enthusiastic advocate of "the glorious Act of British +Emancipation." But although he admires that act, yet, on visiting the +West Indies for his health, he could not fail to be struck with the +appalling scenes of distress there exhibited. In describing these, his +object is not to reflect shame on the misguided philanthropy of Great +Britain; but only to urge the adoption of other measures, in order to +rescue the West Indies from the utter ruin and desolation which must +otherwise soon overtake them. We might easily adduce many impressive +extracts from his work; but, for the sake of brevity, we shall confine +our attention to one or two passages. + +"Hope," says Mr. Baird, "delights to brighten the prospects of the +future; and thus it is that the British West Indian planter goes on from +year to year, struggling against his downward progress, and still hoping +that something may yet turn up to retrieve his ruined fortunes. But all +do not struggle on. Many have given in, and many more can and will +confirm the statement of a venerable friend of my own--a gentleman high +in office in one of the islands above-mentioned--who, when showing me +his own estate and sugar-works, assured me, that for above a quarter of +a century they had yielded him nearly L2000 per annum; and that now, +despite all his efforts and improvements, (which were many,) he could +scarcely manage to make the cultivation pay itself. Instances of this +kind might be multiplied till the reader was tired, and even heart-sick, +of such details. But what need of such? Is it not notorious? Has it not +been proved by the numerous failures that have taken place of late years +among our most extensive West Indian merchants? Are not the reports of +almost all the governors of our colonial possessions filled with +statements to the effect that great depreciation of property has taken +place in all and each of our West Indian colonies, and that great has +been the distress consequent thereupon? These governors are, of course, +all of them imbued, to some extent, with the ministerial policy--at +least it is reasonable to assume that they are so. At all events, +whether they are so or not, their position almost necessitates their +doing their utmost to carry out, with success, the ministerial views and +general policy. To embody the substance of the answer given by a +talented lieutenant-governor, in my own hearing, to an address which set +forth, somewhat strongly, the ruined prospects and wasted fortunes of +the colonists under his government: 'It must, or it ought to be, the +object and the desire of every governor or lieutenant-governor in the +British West Indian Islands, to disappoint and stultify, if he can, the +prognostications of coming ruin with which the addresses he receives +from time to time are continually charged?' Yet what say these +governors? Do not the reports of one and all of them confirm the above +statement as to the deplorable state of distress to which the West +Indian planters in the British colonies are reduced?"[179] + +Again, he says: "That the British West Indian colonists have been loudly +complaining that they are ruined, is a fact so generally acknowledged, +that the very loudness and frequency of the complaint has been made a +reason for disregarding or undervaluing the grounds of it. That the West +Indians are always grumbling is an observation often heard; and, no +doubt, it is very true that they are so. But let any one who thinks that +the extent and clamor of the complaint exceeds the magnitude of the +distress which has called it forth, go to the West Indies and judge for +himself. Let him see with his own eyes the neglected and abandoned +estates,--the uncultivated fields, fast hurrying back into a state of +nature, with all the speed of tropical luxuriance--the dismantled and +silent machinery, the crumbling walls, and deserted mansions, which are +familiar sights in most of the British West Indian colonies. Let him, +then, transport himself to the Spanish islands of Porto Rico and Cuba, +and witness the life and activity which in these slave colonies prevail. +Let him observe for himself the activity of the slavers--the +improvements daily making in the cultivation of the fields and in the +processes carried on at the Ingenios or sugar-mills--and _the general +indescribable air of thriving and prosperity which surrounds the +whole_,--and then let him come back to England and say, if he honestly +can, that the British West Indian planters and proprietors are +grumblers, who complain without adequate cause."[180] + +Great Britain has shown no little solicitude to ascertain the real state +of things in her West India colonies. For this purpose, she appointed, +in 1842, a select committee, consisting of some of the most prominent +members of Parliament, with Lord Stanley at their head. In 1848, another +committee was appointed by her, with Lord George Bentinck as its +chairman, to inquire into the condition of her Majesty's East and West +India possessions and the Mauritius, and to consider whether any +measures could be adopted for their relief. The report of both +committees show, beyond all doubt, that unexampled distress existed in +the colonies. The report of 1848 declares: "That many estates in the +British West India colonies have been already abandoned, that many more +are in the course of abandonment, and that from this cause a very +serious diminution is to be apprehended in the total amount of +production. That the first effect of this diminution will be an increase +in the price of sugar, and the ultimate effect a greater extension to +the growth of sugar in slave countries, and a greater impetus to slavery +and the slave-trade." From the same report, we also learn that the +prosperity of the Mauritius, no less than that of the West India +Islands, had suffered a fearful blight, in consequence of the "glorious +act of emancipation." + +A third commission was appointed, in 1850, to inquire into the condition +and prospects of British Guiana. Lord Stanley, in his second letter to +Mr. Gladstone, the Secretary of the British colonies, has furnished us +with the following extracts from the report of this committee:-- + +"Of Guiana generally they say--'It would be but a melancholy task to +dwell upon the misery and ruin which so alarming a change must have +occasioned to the proprietary body; but your commissioners feel +themselves called upon to notice the effects which this wholsale +abandonment of property has produced upon the colony at large. Where +whole districts are fast relapsing into bush, and occasional patches of +provisions around the huts of village settlers are all that remain to +tell of once flourishing estates, it is not to be wondered at that the +most ordinary marks of civilization are rapidly disappearing, and that +in many districts of the colony all travelling communication by land +will soon become utterly impracticable.' + +"Of the Abary district:--'Your commission find that the line of road is +nearly impassable, and that a long succession of formerly cultivated +estates presents now a series of pestilent swamps, overrun with bush, +and productive of malignant fevers.' + +"Nor are matters," says Lord Stanley, "much better further south. + +"'Proceeding still lower down, your commissioners find that the public +roads and bridges are in such a condition that the few estates still +remaining on the upper west bank of Mahaica Creek are completely cut +off, save in the very dry season; and that with regard to the whole +district, unless something be done very shortly, travelling by land will +entirely cease. In such a state of things it cannot be wondered at that +the herdsman has a formidable enemy to encounter in the jaguar and other +beasts of prey, and that the keeping of cattle is attended with +considerable loss from the depredations committed by these animals.' + +"It may be worth noticing," continues Lord Stanley, "that this +district--now overrun with wild beasts of the forest--was formerly the +very garden of the colony. The estates touched one another along the +whole line of the road, leaving no interval of uncleared land. + +"The east coast, which is next mentioned by the commissioners, is better +off. Properties, once of immense value, had there been bought at nominal +prices; and the one railroad of Guiana passing through that tract, a +comparatively industrious population--composed of former laborers on the +line--enabled the planters still to work these to some profit. Even of +this favored spot, however, they report that it 'feels most severely the +want of continuous labor.' + +"The commissioners next visit the east bank of the Demerara River, thus +described:-- + +"'Proceeding up the east bank of the river Demerara, the generally +prevailing features of ruin and distress are everywhere perceptible. +Roads and bridges almost impassable are fearfully significant exponents +of the condition of the plantations which they traverse; and Canal No. +3, once covered with plantains and coffee, presents now a scene of +almost total desolation.' + +"Crossing to the west side, they find prospects somewhat brighter: 'A +few estates, are still 'keeping up a cultivation worthy of better +times.' But this prosperous neighborhood is not extensive, and the next +picture presented to our notice is less agreeable:-- + +"'Ascending the river still higher, your commissioners learn that the +district between Hobaboe Creek and "Stricken Heuvel" contained, in 1829, +eight sugar and five coffee and plantain estates, and now there remain +but three in sugar, and four partially cultivated with plantains, by +petty settlers; while the roads, with one or two exceptions, are in a +state of utter abandonment. Here, as on the opposite bank of the river, +hordes of squatters have located themselves, who avoid all communication +with Europeans, and have seemingly given themselves up altogether to the +rude pleasures of a completely savage life.' + +"The west coast of Demerara--the only part of the country which still +remains unvisited--is described as showing _only_ a diminution of fifty +per cent. upon its produce of sugar; and with this fact the evidence +concludes as to one of the three sections into which the colony is +divided. Does Demerara stand alone in its misfortunes? + +"Again hear the report:--'If the present state of the county of Demerara +affords cause for deep apprehension, your commissioners find that +Essequibo has retrograded to a still more alarming extent. In fact, +unless a large and speedy supply of labor be obtained to cultivate the +deserted fields of this once flourishing district, there is great reason +to fear that it will relapse into total abandonment.' + +"Describing another portion of the colony--they say of one district, +'Unless a fresh supply of labor be very soon obtained, there is every +reason to fear that it will become completely abandoned.' Of a second, +'speedy immigration alone can save this island from total ruin.' 'The +prostrate condition of this once beautiful part of the coast,' are the +words which begin another paragraph, describing another tract of +country. Of a fourth, 'the proprietors on this coast seem to be keeping +up a hopeless struggle against approaching ruin.' Again, 'the once +famous Arabian coast, so long the boast of the colony, presents now but +a mournful picture of departed prosperity. Here were formerly situated +some of the finest estates in the country, and a large resident body of +proprietors lived in the district, and freely expended their incomes on +the spot whence they derived them.' Once more, 'the lower part of the +coast, after passing Devonshire Castle, to the river Pomeroon, presents +a scene of almost total desolation.' Such is Essequibo! + +"Berbice," says Lord Stanley, "has fared no better. Its rural population +amounts to 18,000. Of these, 12,000 have withdrawn from the estates, and +mostly from the neighborhood of the white man, to enjoy a savage freedom +of ignorance and idleness, beyond the reach of example and sometimes of +control. But on the condition of the negro I shall dwell more at length +hereafter; at present it is the state of property with which I have to +do. What are the districts which together form the county of Berbice? +The Corentyne coast--the Canje Creek--east and west banks of the Berbice +River--and the west coast, where, however, cotton was formerly the chief +article produced. To each of these respectively the following passages, +quoted in order, apply:-- + +"'The abandoned plantations on this coast,[181] which, if capital and +labor could be procured, might easily be made very productive, are +either wholly deserted, or else appropriated by hordes of squatters, who +of course are unable to keep up at their own expense the public roads +and bridges; and consequently all communication by land between the +Corentyne and New Amsterdam is nearly at an end. The roads are +impassable for horses or carriages, while for foot passengers they are +extremely dangerous. The number of villages in this deserted region must +be upward of 2500, and as the country abounds with fish and game, they +have no difficulty in making a subsistence. In fact, the Corentyne coast +is fast relapsing into a state of nature.' + +"'Canje Creek was formerly considered a flourishing district of the +county, and numbered on its east bank seven sugar and three coffee +estates, and on its west bank eight estates, of which two were in sugar +and six in coffee, making a total of eighteen plantations. The coffee +cultivation has long since been entirely abandoned, and of the sugar +estates but eight still now remain. They are suffering severely for want +of labor, and being supported principally by African and Coolie +immigrants, it is much to be feared that if the latter leave and claim +their return passages to India, a great part of the district will +become abandoned.' + +"Under present circumstances, so gloomy is the condition of affairs +here,[182] that the two gentlemen whom your commissioners have examined +with respect to this district, both concur in predicting "its slow but +sure approximation to the condition in which civilized man first found +it."' + +"'A district[183] that in 1829 gave employment to 3635 registered +slaves, but at the present moment there are not more than 600 laborers +at work on the few estates still in cultivation, although it is +estimated there are upward of 2000 people idling in villages of their +own. The roads are in many parts several feet under water and perfect +swamps, while in some places the bridges are wanting altogether. In fact +the whole district is fast becoming a total wilderness, with the +exception of the one or two estates which yet continue to struggle on, +and which are hardly accessible now but by water.' + +"'Except in some of the best villages,[184] they care not for back or +front dams to keep off the water; their side-lines are disregarded, and +consequently the drainage is gone, while in many instances the public +road is so completely flooded that canoes have to be used as a means of +transit. The Africans are unhappily following the example of the Creoles +in this district, and buying land on which they settle in contented +idleness; and your commissioners cannot view instances like these +without the deepest alarm, for if this pernicious habit of squatting is +allowed to extend to the immigrants also, there is no hope for the +colony.'"[185] + +We might fill a volume with extracts to the same effect. We might in +like manner point to other regions, especially to Guatemala, to the +British colony on the southern coast of Africa, and to the island of +Hayti, in all of which emancipation has been followed by precisely +similar results. But we must hasten to consider how it is that +emancipation has wrought all this ruin and desolation. In the mean time, +we shall conclude this section in the ever-memorable words of Alison, +the historian: "The negroes," says he, "who, in a state of slavery, were +comfortable and prosperous beyond any peasantry in the world, and +rapidly approaching the condition of the most opulent serfs of Europe, +_have been by the act of emancipation irretrievably consigned to a state +of barbarism_." + + +Sec. III. _The manner in which emancipation has ruined the British +Colonies._ + +By the act of emancipation, Great Britain paralyzed the right arm of her +colonial industry. The laborer would not work except occasionally, and +the planter was ruined. The morals of the negro disappeared with his +industry, and he speedily retraced his steps toward his original +barbarism. All this had been clearly foretold. "Emancipation," says Dr. +Channing in 1840, "was resisted on the ground that the slave, if +restored to his rights, _would fall into idleness and vagrancy, and even +relapse into barbarism_." + +This was predicted by the West Indian planters, who certainly had a good +opportunity to know something of the character of the negro, whether +bond or free. But who could suppose for a moment that an enlightened +abolitionist would listen to slaveholders? His response was, that "their +unhappy position as slaveholders had robbed them of their reason and +blunted their moral sense." Precisely the same thing had been foretold +by the Calhouns and the Clays of this country. But they, too, were +unfortunately slaveholders, and, consequently, so completely "sunk in +moral darkness," that their testimony was not entitled to credit. The +calmest, the profoundest, the wisest statesman of Great Britain likewise +forewarned the agitators of the desolation and the woes they were about +to bring upon the West Indies. But the madness of the day would confide +in no wisdom except its own, and listen to no testimony except to the +clamor of fanatics. Hence the frightful experiment was made, and, as we +have seen, the prediction of the anti-abolitionist has been fulfilled to +the very letter. + +The cause of this downward tendency in the British colonies is now +perfectly apparent to all who have eyes to see. On this point, the two +committees above referred to both concur in the same conclusion. The +committee of 1842 declare, "that the principal causes of this diminished +production, and consequent distress, are the great difficulty which has +been experienced by the planters in obtaining _steady_ and _continuous_ +labor, and the high rate of remuneration which they give for even the +_broken_ and _indifferent_ work which they are able to procure." + +The cry of the abolitionist has been changed. At first--even before the +experiment was more than a year old--he insisted that the industry of +the freed black was working wonders in the British colonies. In the West +Indies, in particular, he assured us that the freed negro would do "an +infinity of work for wages."[186] Though he had been on the islands, and +had had an opportunity to see for himself, he boasted that "the old +notion that the negro is, by constitution, a lazy creature, who will do +no work at all except by compulsion, _is now forever exploded_."[187] He +even declared, that the free negro "understands his interest as well as +a Yankee."[188] These confident statements, made by an eye-witness, were +hailed by the abolitionists as conclusive proof that the experiment was +working admirably. "The great truth has come out," says Dr. Channing, +"that the hopes of the most sanguine advocates of emancipation have been +realized--if not surpassed--by the West Indies." What! the negro become +idle, indeed! "He is more likely," says the enchanted doctor, "to fall +into the civilized man's cupidity than into the filth and sloth of the +savage." But all these magnificent boasts were quite premature. A few +short years have sufficed to demonstrate that the deluded authors of +them, who had so lamentably failed to predict the future, could not even +read the present. + +Their boasts are now exploded. Their former hopes are blasted; and their +cry is changed. The song now is,--"Well, suppose the negroes will not +work: they are FREE! They can now do as they list, and there is no man +to hinder." Ah, yes! they can now, at their own sweet will, stretch +themselves "under their gracefully-waving groves," and be lulled to +sleep amid the sound of waterfalls and the song of birds. + +Such, precisely, is the paradise for which the negro sighs, except that +he does not care for the waterfalls and the birds. But it should be +remarked, that when sinful man was driven from the only Paradise that +earth has ever seen, he was doomed to eat his bread in the sweat of his +brow. This doom he cannot reverse. Let him make of life--as the Haytien +negroes do--"one long day of unprofitable ease,"[189] and he may dream +of Paradise, or the abolitionists may dream for him. But while he +dreams, the laws of nature are sternly at their work. Indolence benumbs +his feeble intellect, and inflames his passions. Poverty and want are +creeping on him. Temptation is surrounding him; and vice, with all her +motley train, is winding fast her deadly coils around his very soul, and +making him the devil's slave, to do his work upon the earth. Thus, the +blossoms of his paradise are _fine words_, and its fruits are _death_. + +"If but two hours' labor per day," says Theodore Parker, "are necessary +for the support of each colored man, I know not why he should toil +longer." You know not, then, why the colored man should work more than +two hours a day? Neither does the colored man himself. You know not why +he should have any higher or nobler aim in life than to supply his few, +pressing, animal wants? Neither does he. You know not why he should +think of the future, or provide for the necessities of old age? Neither +does he. You know not why he should take thought for seasons of +sickness? Neither does he; and hence his child often dies under his own +eyes, for the want of medical attendance. You know not that the colored +man, who begins with working only two hours a day, will soon end with +ceasing from all regular employment, and live, in the midst of filth, by +stealing or other nefarious means? In one word, you know not why the +colored man should not live like the brute, in and for the present +merely--blotting out all the future from his plans of life? If, indeed, +you really know none of these things, then we beg you will excuse us, if +_we_ do not know why you should assume to teach our senators wisdom;--if +we do not know why the cobbler should not stick to his last, and all +such preachers to their pulpits.[190] + +Abolitionism is decidedly progressive. The time was when Dr. Channing +thought that men should work, and that, if they would not labor from +rational motives, they should be compelled to labor.[191] The time was, +when even abolitionists looked upon labor with respect, and regarded it +as merely an obedience to the very first law of nature, or merely a +compliance with the very first condition of all economic, social, and +moral well-being. But the times are changed. The exigencies of +abolitionism now require that _manual labor, and the gross material +wealth_ it produces, should be sneeringly spoken of, and great swelling +eulogies pronounced on the infinite value of the negro's freedom. For +this is all he has; and for this, all else has been sacrificed. Thus, +since abolitionists themselves have been made to see that the freed +negro--the pet and idol of their hearts--will not work from rational +motives, then the principles of political economy, and the affairs of +the world, all must be adjusted to the course _he_ may be pleased to +take. + +In this connection we shall notice a passage from Montesquieu, which is +exactly in point. He is often quoted by the abolitionists, but seldom +fairly. It is true, he is exceedingly hostile to slavery _in general_, +and very justly pours ridicule and contempt on some of the arguments +used in favor of the institution. But yet, with all his enthusiastic +love of liberty,--nay, with his ardent passion for equality,--he saw far +too deeply into the true "Spirit of Laws" not to perceive that slavery +is, in certain cases, founded on the great principles of political +justice. It is precisely in those cases in which a race or a people will +not work without being compelled to do so, that he justifies the +institution in question. Though warmly and zealously opposed to slavery, +yet he was not bent on sacrificing the good of society to abstractions +or to prejudice. Hence, he could say: "But as all men are born equal, +slavery must be accounted unnatural, THOUGH IN SOME COUNTRIES IT BE +FOUNDED ON NATURAL REASON; and a wide difference ought to be made +betwixt such countries, and those in which natural reason rejects it, as +in Europe, where it has been happily abolished."[192] Now, if we inquire +in what countries, or under what circumstances, he considered slavery +founded on natural reason, we may find his answer in a preceding portion +of the same page. It is in those "countries," says he, "where the excess +of heat enervates the body, and renders men so slothful and dispirited, +that nothing but the fear of chastisement can oblige them to perform any +laborious duty," etc. Such, as we have seen, is precisely the case with +the African race in its present condition. + +"Natural slavery, then," he continues, "is to be limited to some +particular parts of the world."[193] And again: "Bad laws have made lazy +men--they have been reduced to slavery because of their laziness." The +first portion of this remark--that bad laws have made lazy men--is not +applicable to the African race. For they were made lazy, not by bad +laws, but by the depravity of human nature, in connection and +co-operation with long, long centuries of brutal ignorance and the most +savage modes of life. But, be the cause of this laziness what it may, it +is sufficient, according to the principles of this great advocate of +human freedom and equality, to justify the servitude in which the +providence of God has placed the African. + +No doubt it is very hard on lazy men that they should be compelled to +work. It is for this reason that Montesquieu calls such slavery "the +most cruel that is to be found among men;" by which he evidently means +that it is the most cruel, though necessary, because those on whom it is +imposed are least inclined to work. If he had only had greater +experience of negro slavery, the hardship would have seemed far less to +him. For though the negro is naturally lazy, and too improvident to work +for himself, he will often labor for a master with a right good will, +and with a loyal devotion to his interests. He is, indeed, often +prepared, and made ready for labor, because he feels that, in his +master, he has a protector and a friend. + +But whether labor be a heavy burden or a light, it must be borne. The +good of the lazy race, and the good of the society into which they have +been thrown, both require them to bear this burden, which is, after all +and at the worst, far lighter than that of a vagabond life. "Nature +cries aloud," says the abolitionist, "for freedom." Nature, we reply, +demands that man shall work, and her decree must be fulfilled. For ruin, +as we have seen, is the bitter fruit of disobedience to her will. + +It is now high time that we should notice some of the exalted eulogies +bestowed by abolitionists upon freedom; and also _the kind of freedom_ +on which these high praises have been so eloquently lavished. This, +accordingly, we shall proceed to do in the following section. + + +Sec. IV. _The great benefit supposed by American abolitionists to result to +the freed negroes from the British act of emancipation._ + +We have, in the preceding sections, abundantly seen that the freed +colored subjects of the British crown are fast relapsing into the most +irretrievable barbarism, while the once flourishing colonies themselves +present the most appalling scenes of desolation and distress. Surely it +is no wonder that the hurrahing of the English people has ceased. "At +the present moment," says the London Times for December 1st, 1852, "if +there is one thing in the world that the British public do not like to +talk about, or _even to think about_, it is the condition of the race +for whom this great effort was made." Not so with the abolitionists of +this country. They still keep up the annual celebration of that great +event, the act of emancipation, by which, in the language of one of +their number, more than half a million of human beings were "turned from +brutes into freemen!" + +It is the freedom of the negro which they celebrate. Let us look, then, +for a few moments, into the mysteries of this celebration, and see, if +we may, the nature of the praises they pour forth in honor of freedom, +and _the kind of freedom on which_ they are so passionately bestowed. + +We shall not quote from the more insane of the fraternity of +abolitionists, for their wild, raving nonsense would, indeed, be +unworthy of serious refutation. We shall simply notice the language of +Dr. Channing, the scholar-like and the eloquent, though visionary, +advocate of British emancipation. Even as early as 1842, in an address +delivered on the anniversary of that event, he burst into the following +strain of impassioned eulogy: "Emancipation works well, far better than +could have been anticipated. _To me it could hardly have worked +otherwise than well._ It banished _slavery_, that wrong and curse not to +be borne. It gave _freedom_, the dear birthright of humanity; and had it +done nothing more, I should have found in it cause for joy. Freedom, +simple freedom, is 'in my estimation just, far prized above all price.' +_I do not stop to ask if the emancipated are better fed and clothed than +formerly._ THEY ARE FREE; AND THAT ONE WORD CONTAINS A WORLD OF +GOOD,[194] unknown to the most pampered slave." And again, he says, +"Nature cries aloud for freedom as our proper good, our birthright and +our end, and resents nothing so much as its loss." + +In these high-sounding praises, which hold up personal freedom as "our +proper good," as "our end," it is assumed that man was made for liberty, +and not liberty for man. It is, indeed, one of the fundamental errors of +the abolitionist to regard freedom as a great substantive good, or as in +itself a blessing, and not merely as a relative good. It may be, and +indeed often is, an unspeakable benefit, but then it is so only as a +means to an end. The end of our existence, the _proper good_, is the +improvement of our intellectual and moral powers, the perfecting of our +rational and immortal natures. When freedom subserves this end, it is a +good; when it defeats this end, it is an evil. Hence there may be a +world of evil as well as a world of good in "this one word." + +The wise man adapts the means to the end. It were the very hight of +folly to sacrifice the end to the means. No man gives personal freedom +to his child because he deems it always and in all cases a good. His +heart teaches him a better doctrine when the highest good of his child +is concerned. Should we not be permitted, then, to have something of the +same feeling in regard to those whom Providence has placed under our +care, especially since, having the passions of men, with only the +intellects of children, they stand in utmost need of guidance and +direction? + +As it is their duty to labor, so the law which compels them to do so is +not oppressive. It deprives them of the enjoyment of no right, unless, +indeed, they may be supposed to have a right to violate their duty. +Hence, in compelling the colored population of the South to work, the +law does not deprive them of liberty, in the true sense of the word; +that is, _it does not deprive them of the enjoyment of any natural +right_. It merely requires them to perform a natural duty. + +This cannot be denied. It has been, as we have shown, admitted both by +Dr. Wayland and Dr. Channing.[195] But while the _end_ is approved, the +_means_ are not liked. Few of the abolitionists are disposed to offer +any substitute for our method. They are satisfied merely to pull down +and destroy, without the least thought or care in regard to +consequences. Dr. Channing has, however, been pleased to propose another +method, for securing the industry of the black and the prosperity of the +State. Let us then, for a moment, look at this scheme. + +The black man, says he, should not be owned. He should work, but not +under the control of a master. His overseer should be appointed by the +State, and be amenable to the State for the proper exercise of his +authority. Now, if this learned and eloquent orator had only looked one +inch beneath the surface of his own scheme, he would have seen that it +is fraught with the most insuperable difficulties, and that its +execution must needs be attended with the most ruinous consequences. + +Emancipate the blacks, then, and let the State undertake to work them. +In the first place, we must ignore every principle of political economy, +and consent to the wildest and most reckless of experiments, ere we can +agree that the State should superintend and carry on the agricultural +interests of the country. But suppose this difficulty out of the way, on +what land would the State cause _its slaves_ to be worked? It would +scarcely take possession of the plantations now under improvements; and, +setting aside the owners, proceed to cultivate the land. But it must +either do this, or else leave these plantations to become worthless for +the want of laborers, and open new ones for the benefit of the State! In +no point of view could a more utterly chimerical or foolish scheme be +well conceived. If we may not be allowed to adhere to our own plan, we +beg that some substitute may be proposed which is not fraught with such +inevitable destruction to the whole South. Otherwise, we shall fear +that these self-styled friends of humanity are more bent on carrying out +their own designs than they are on promoting our good. + +But what is meant by the freedom of the emancipated slaves, on which so +many exalted eulogies have been pronounced? Its first element, it is +plain, is a freedom from labor[196]--freedom from the very first law of +nature. In one word, its sum and substance is a power on the part of the +freed black to act pretty much as he pleases. Now, before we expend +oceans of enthusiasm on such a freedom, would it not be well to see +_how_ he would be pleased to act? + +Dr. Channing has told us, we are aware, of the "indomitable love of +liberty," which had been infused into the breast of "fierce barbarians" +by their native wildernesses.[197] But we are no great admirers of a +liberty which knows no law except its own will, and seeks no end except +the gratification of passion.[198] Hence, we have no very great respect +for the liberty of fierce barbarians. It would make a hell on earth. "My +maxim," exclaims Dr. Channing, "is anything but slavery!" Even slavery, +we cry, before a freedom such as his! + +This kind of freedom, it should be remembered, was born in France and +cradled in the revolution. May it never be forgotten that the "Friends +of the Blacks" at Boston had their exact prototypes in "_les Amis des +Noirs_" of Paris. Of this last society Robespierre was the ruling +spirit, and Brissot the orator. By the dark machinations of the +one,[199] and the fiery eloquence of the other, the French people--_la +grande nation_--were induced, in 1791, to proclaim the principle of +equality to and for the free blacks of St. Domingo. This beautiful +island, then the brightest and most precious jewel in the crown of +France, thus became the first of the West Indies in which the dreadful +experiment of a forced equality was tried. The authors of that +experiment were solemnly warned of the horrors into which it would +inevitably plunge both the whites and the blacks of the island. Yet, +firm and immovable as death, Robespierre sternly replied, then "Perish +the colonies rather than sacrifice one iota of our principles!"[200] The +magnificent colony of St. Domingo did not quite perish, it is true; but +yet, as every one, except the philanthropic "Ami des Noirs" of the +present day, still remembers with a thrill of horror, the entire white +population soon melted, like successive flakes of snow, in the furnace +of that freedom which a Robespierre had kindled. + + +The atrocities of this awful massacre have had, as the historian has +said,[201] no parallel in the annals of human crime. "The negroes," says +Alison, "marched with spiked infants on their spears instead of colors; +they sawed asunder the male prisoners, and violated the females on the +dead bodies of their husbands." The work of death, thus completed with +such outbursts of unutterable brutality, constituted and closed the +first act in the grand drama of Haytien freedom. + +But equality was not yet established. The colored men, or mulattoes, +beheld, with an eye burning with jealousy, the superior power and +ascendency of the blacks. Hence arose the horrors of a civil war. +Equality had been proclaimed, and anarchy produced. In this frightful +chaos, the ambitious mulattoes, whose insatiable desire of equality had +first disturbed the peace of the island, perished miserably beneath the +vengeance of the very slaves whom they had themselves roused from +subjection and elevated into irresistible power. Thus ended the second +act of the horrible drama. + +This bloody discord, this wild chaos of disgusting brutalities, of +course terminated not in freedom, but in a military despotism. With the +subsequent wars and fearful destruction of human life our present +inquiry has nothing to do. We must confine our attention to the point +before us, namely, the kind of freedom achieved by the blacks of St. +Domingo. We have witnessed the two great manifestations of that freedom; +we shall now look at its closing scene. This we shall, for obvious +reasons, present in the language of an English author. + +"An independent negro state," says he, "was thus established in Hayti; +but the people have not derived all the benefits which they sanguinely +expected. Released from their compulsory toil, they have not yet learned +to subject themselves to the restraints of regular industry. The first +absolute rulers made the most extraordinary efforts to overcome the +indolence which soon began to display itself. The _Code Rural_ directed +that the laborer should fix himself on a certain estate, which he was +never afterward to quit without a passport from the government. His +hours of labor and rest were fixed by statute. The whip, at first +permitted, was ultimately prohibited; but as every military officer was +allowed to chastise with a thick cane, and almost every proprietor held +a commission, the laborer was not much relieved. By these means Mr. +Mackenzie supposes that the produce of 1806 was raised to about a third +of that of 1789. But such violent regulations could not continue to be +enforced amid the succeeding agitations, and under a republican +_regime_. Almost all traces of laborious culture were soon obliterated; +large tracts, which had been one entire sugar garden, presented now only +a few scattered plantations."[202] + +Thus the lands were divided out among the officers of the army, while +the privates were compelled to cultivate the soil under their former +military commanders, clothed with more than "a little brief authority." +No better could have been expected except by fools or fanatics. The +blacks might preach equality, it is true, but yet, like the more +enlightened ruffians of Paris, they would of course take good care not +to practice what they had preached. Hence, by all the horrors of their +bloody resolution, they only effected a change of masters. The white man +had disappeared, and the black man, one of their own race and color, had +assumed his place and his authority. And of all masters, it is well +known, the naturally servile are the most cruel. "The earth," says +Solomon, "cannot bear a servant when he reigneth."[203] + + "The sensual and the dark rebel in vain: + Slaves by their own compulsion, in mad game + They burst their manacles, to wear the _name_ + Of Freedom, graven on a heavier chain." + + COLERIDGE. + +Thus "the world of good" they sought was found, most literally, in "the +word;" for the word, the name of freedom, was all they had achieved--at +least of good. Poverty, want, disease, and crime, were the substantial +fruits of their boasted freedom. + +In 1789, the sugar exported was 672,000,000 pounds; in 1806, it was +47,516,531 pounds; in 1825, it was 2020 pounds; in 1832, it was 0 +pounds. If history had not spoken, we might have safely inferred, from +this astounding decline of industry, that the morals of the people had +suffered a fearful deterioration. But we are not left to inference. We +are informed, by the best authorities,[204] that their "morals are +exceedingly bad;" and that under the reign of liberty, as it is called, +their condition has, in all respects, become far worse than it was +before. "There appears every reason to apprehend," says James Franklin, +"that it will recede into irrecoverable insignificance, poverty, and +disorder."[205] + +Mr. T. Babington Macaulay has, we are aware, put forth certain notions +on the subject of liberty, which are exactly in accordance with the +views and the spirit of the abolitionists, as well as with the +cut-throat philosophy of the Parisian philanthropists of the revolution. +As these notions are found in one of his juvenile productions, and +illustrated by "a pretty story" out of Ariosto, we should not deem it +worth while to notice them, if they had not been retained in the latest +edition of his Miscellanies. But for this circumstance, we should pass +them by as the rhetorical flourish of a young man who, in his most +mature productions, is often more brillant than profound. + +"Ariosto," says he, "tells a pretty story of a fairy, who, by some +mysterious law of her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons +in the form of a foul and poisonous snake. Those who injured her during +the period of her disguise were forever excluded from participation in +the blessings which she bestowed. But to those who, in spite of her +loathsome aspect, pitied and protected her, she afterward revealed +herself in the beautiful and celestial form which was natural to her, +accompanied their steps, granted all their wishes, filled their houses +with wealth, made them happy in love, and victorious in war. Such a +spirit is Liberty. At times she takes the form of a hateful reptile. She +grovels, she hisses, she stings. But wo to those who in disgust shall +venture to crush her! And happy are those who, having dared to receive +her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by +her in the time of her beauty and her glory." + +For aught we know, all this may be very fine poetry, and may deserve the +place which it has found in some of our books on rhetoric. But yet this +beautiful passage will--like the fairy whose charms it celebrates--be so +surely transformed into a hateful snake or venomous toad, that it should +not be swallowed without an antidote. Robespierre, Danton, Marat, +Barriere, and the black Dessalines, took this hateful, hissing, +stinging, maddening reptile to their bosoms, and they are welcome to its +rewards. But they mistook the thing: it was not liberty transformed; it +was tyranny unbound, the very scourge of hell, and Satan's chief +instrument of torture to a guilty world. It was neither more nor less +than Sin, despising GOD, and warring against his image on the earth. + +We do not doubt--nay, we firmly believe--that in the veritable history +of the universe, _analogous_ changes have taken place. But then these +awful changes were not mere fairy tales. They are recorded in the word +of God. When Lucifer, the great bearer of light, himself was _free_, he +sought equality with God, and thence became a hateful, hissing serpent +in the dust. But he was not fully cursed, until "by devilish art" he +reached "the organs of man's fancy," and with them forged the grand +illusion that equality alone is freedom. + +For even sinless, happy Eve was made to feel herself oppressed, until, +with keen desire of equality with gods, "forth reaching to the fruit, +she plucked, she ate:"-- + + "Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat, + Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo, + That all was lost." + +How much easier, then, to effect the ruin of poor, fallen man, by +stirring up this fierce desire of equality with discontented thoughts +and vain hopes of unattainable good! It is this dark desire, and not +liberty, which, in its rage, becomes the "poisonous snake;" and, though +decked in fine, allegoric, glowing garb, it is still the loathsome +thing, the "false worm," that turned God's Paradise itself into a +blighted world. + +If Mr. Macaulay had only distinguished between liberty and license, +than which no two things in the universe are more diametrically opposed +to each other, his passion for fine rhetoric would not have betrayed him +into so absurd a conceit respecting the diverse forms of freedom. +Liberty is--as we have seen--the bright emanation of reason in the form +of law; license is the triumph of blind passion over all law and order. +Hence, if we would have liberty, the great deep of human passion must be +restrained. For this purpose, as Mr. Burke has said, there must be power +somewhere; and if there be not moral power within, there must be +physical power without. Otherwise, the restraints will be too weak; the +safeguards of liberty will give way, and the passions of men will burst +into anarchy, the most frightful of all the forms of tyranny. Shall we +call this liberty? Shall we seek the secure enjoyment of natural rights +in a wild reign of lawless terror? As well might we seek the pure light +of heaven in the bottomless pit. It is, indeed, a most horrible +desecration of the sacred name of liberty, to apply it either to the +butcheries and brutalities of the French Revolution, or to the more +diabolical massacres of St. Domingo. If such were freedom, it would, in +sober truth, be more fitly symbolized by ten thousand hissing serpents +than by a single poisonous snake; and by all on earth, as in heaven, it +should be abhorred. Hence, those pretended friends and advocates of +freedom, who would thus fain transmute her form divine into such +horribly distorted shapes, are with her enemies confederate in dark, +misguided league. + + +Sec. V. _The consequences of abolition to the South._ + +"We have had experience enough in our own colonies," says the +_Prospective Review_, for November, 1852, "not to wish to see the +experiment tried elsewhere on a larger scale." Now this, though it comes +to us from across the Atlantic, really sounds like the voice of genuine +philanthropy. Nor do we wish to see the experiment, which has brought +down such wide-spread ruin on all the great interests of St. Domingo and +the British colonies, tried in this prosperous and now beautiful land of +ours. It requires no prophet to foresee the awful consequences of such +an experiment on the lives, the liberties, the fortunes, and the morals, +of the people of the Southern States. Let us briefly notice some of +these consequences. + +Consider, in the first place, the vast amount of property which would be +destroyed by the madness of such an experiment. According to the +estimate of Mr. Clay, "the total value of the slave property in the +United States is twelve hundred millions of dollars," all of which the +people of the South are expected to sacrifice on the altar of +abolitionism. It only moves the indignation of the abolitionist that we +should for one moment hesitate. "I see," he exclaims, "in the +immenseness of the value of the slaves, the enormous amount of the +robbery committed on them. I see 'twelve hundred millions of dollars' +seized, extorted by unrighteous force."[206] But, unfortunately, his +passions are so furious, that his mind no sooner comes into contact with +any branch of the subject of slavery, than instantly, as if by a flash +of lightning, his opinion is formed, and he begins to declaim and +denounce as if reason should have nothing to do with the question. He +does not even allow himself time for a single moment's serious +reflection. Nay, resenting the opinion of the most sagacious of our +statesmen as an insult to his understanding, he deems it beneath his +dignity even to make an attempt to look beneath the surface of the great +problem on which he condescends to pour the illuminations of his genius. +Ere we accept his oracles as inspired, we beg leave to think a little, +and consider their intrinsic value. + +Twelve hundred millions of dollars extorted by unrighteous force! What +enormous robbery! Now, let it be borne in mind, that this is the +language of a man who, as we have seen, has--in one of his lucid +intervals--admitted that _it is right to apply force_ to compel those to +work who will not labor from rational motives. Such is precisely the +application of the force which now moves his righteous indignation! + +This force, so justly applied, has created this enormous value of twelve +hundred millions of dollars. It has neither seized, nor extorted this +vast amount from others; it has simply created it out of that which, but +for such force, would have been utterly valueless. And if experience +teaches any thing, then, no sooner shall this force be withdrawn, than +the great value in question will disappear. It will not be restored; it +will be annihilated. The slaves--now worth so many hundred millions of +dollars--would become worthless to themselves, and nuisances to +society. No free State in the Union would be willing to receive +them--or a considerable portion of them--into her dominions. They would +be regarded as pests, and, if possible, everywhere expelled from the +empires of freemen. + +Our lands, like those of the British West Indies, would become almost +valueless for the want of laborers to cultivate them. The most beautiful +garden-spots of the sunny South would, in the course of a few years, be +turned into a jungle, with only here and there a forlorn plantation. +Poverty and distress, bankruptcy and ruin, would everywhere be seen. In +one word, the condition of the Southern States would, in all material +respects, be like that of the once flourishing British colonies in which +the fatal experiment of emancipation has been tried. + +Such are some of the fearful consequences of emancipation. But these are +not all. The ties that would be severed, and the sympathies crushed, by +emancipation, are not at all understood by abolitionists. They are, +indeed, utter strangers to the moral power which these ties and +sympathies now exert for the good of the inferior race. "Our patriarchal +scheme of domestic servitude," says Governor Hammond, "is indeed well +calculated to awaken the higher and finer feelings of our nature. It is +not wanting in its enthusiasm and its poetry. The relations of the most +beloved and honored chiefs, and the most faithful and admiring subjects, +which, from the time of Homer, have been the theme of song, are frigid +and unfelt, compared with those existing between the master and his +slaves; who served his father, and rocked his cradle, or have been born +in his household, and look forward to serve his children; who have been +through life the props of his fortune, and the objects of his care; who +have partaken of his griefs, and looked to him for comfort in their own; +whose sickness he has so frequently watched over and relieved; whose +holidays he has so often made joyous by his bounties and his presence; +for whose welfare, when absent, his anxious solicitude never ceases, and +whose hearty and affectionate greetings never fail to welcome him home. +In this cold, calculating, ambitious world of ours, there are few ties +more heart-felt, or of more benignant influence, than those which +mutually bind the master and the slave, under our ancient system, handed +down from the father of Israel." + +Let the slaves be emancipated then, and, in one or two generations, the +white people of the South would care as little for the freed blacks +among us, as the same class of persons are now cared for by the white +people of the North. The prejudice of race would be restored with +unmitigated violence. The blacks are contented in servitude, so long as +they find themselves excluded from none of the privileges of the +condition to which they belong; but let them be delivered from the +authority of their masters, and they will feel their rigid exclusion +from the society of the whites and all participation in their +government. They would become clamorous for "their inalienable rights." +Three millions of freed blacks, thus circumstanced, would furnish the +elements of the most horrible civil war the world has ever witnessed. + +These elements would soon burst in fury on the land. There was no civil +war in Jamaica, it is true, after the slaves were emancipated; but this +was because the power of Great Britain was over the two parties, and +held them in subjection. It would be far otherwise here. For here there +would be no power to check--while there would be infernal agencies at +work to promote--civil discord and strife. As Robespierre caused it to +be proclaimed to the free blacks of St. Domingo that they were naturally +entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizens; as Mr. Seward +proclaimed the same doctrine to the free blacks of New York; so there +would be kind benefactors enough to propagate the same sentiments among +our colored population. They would be instigated, in every possible way, +to claim their natural equality with the whites; and, by every +diabolical art, their bad passions would be inflamed. If the object of +such agitators were merely to stir up scenes of strife and blood, it +might be easily attained; but if it were to force the blacks into a +social and political equality with the whites, it would most certainly +and forever fail. For the government of these Southern States was, by +our fathers, founded on the VIRTUE and the INTELLIGENCE of the people, +and there we intend it shall stand. The African has neither part nor lot +in the matter. + +We cannot suppose, for a moment, that abolitionists would be in the +slightest degree moved by the awful consequences of emancipation. +Poverty, ruin, death, are very small items with these sublime +philanthropists. They scarcely enter into their calculations. The +dangers of a civil war--though the most fearful the world has ever +seen--lie quite beneath the range of their humanity. + +Indeed, we should expect our argument from the consequences of +emancipation to be met by a thorough-going abolitionist with the +words,--"Perish the Southern States rather than sacrifice one iota of +our principles!" We ask them not to sacrifice their principles to us; +nor do we intend that they shall sacrifice us to their principles. For +if perish we must, it shall be as a sacrifice to our own principles, and +not to theirs. + + NOTE.--It has not fallen within the scope of our + design to consider the effects of emancipation, + and of the consequent destruction of so large an + amount of property, on the condition and + prosperity of the world. Otherwise it might easily + have been shown that every civilized portion of + the globe would feel the shock. This point has + been very happily, though briefly, illustrated by + Governor Hammond, in his "Letters on Slavery." + + Nor has it formed any part of our purpose, in the + following section, to discuss the influence of + American slavery on the future destiny and + civilization of Africa. This subject has been ably + discussed by various writers; and especially by an + accomplished divine, the Rev. William N. + Pendleton, in a discourse published in the + "Virginian Colonizationist," for September, 1854. + + +Sec. VI. _Elevation of the Blacks by Southern slavery._ + +The abolitionists, with the most singular unanimity, perseveringly +assert that Southern slavery degrades its subjects "into brutes." +This assertion fills us with amazement. If it were possible, we +would suppose, in a judgment of charity, that its authors knew +nothing of the history of Africa or of the condition of our slaves. +But such ignorance is not possible. On the other hand, we find it +equally impossible tobelieve that so many men and women--the very lights +of abolitionism--could knowingly utter so palpable a falsehood. Thus we +are forced to the conclusion, that the authors of this charge are so +completely carried away by a blind hatred of slavery, that they do not +care to keep their words within the sacred bounds of eternal truth. This +seems to be the simple, melancholy fact. The great question with them +seems to be, not what is true or what is false, but what will most +speedily effect the destruction of Southern slavery. Any thing that +seems to answer this purpose is blindly and furiously wielded by them. +The Edinburgh Review, in a high-wrought eulogy on an American authoress, +says that she assails slavery with arrows "poisoned by truth." Her +words, it is true, are dipped in flaming poison; but _that_ poison is +not truth. The truth is never poison. + +The native African could not be degraded. Of the fifty millions of +inhabitants of the continent of Africa, it is estimated that forty +millions were slaves. The master had the power of life and death over +the slave; and, in fact, his slaves were often fed, and killed, and +eaten, just as we do with oxen and sheep in this country. Nay, the hind +and fore-quarters of men, women, and children, might there be seen hung +on the shambles and exposed for sale! Their women were beasts of burden; +and, when young, they were regarded as a great delicacy by the palate of +their pampered masters. A warrior would sometimes take a score of young +females along with him, in order to enrich his feasts and regale his +appetite. He delighted in such delicacies. As to his religion, it was +even worse than his morals; or rather, his religion was a mass of the +most disgusting immoralities. His notion of a God, and the obscene acts +by which that notion was worshiped, are too shocking to be mentioned. +The vilest slave that ever breathed the air of a Christian land could +not begin to conceive the horrid iniquities of such a life. And yet, in +the face of all this, we are told--yea, we are perseveringly and +eternally told--that "the African has been degraded into a brute" by +American slavery! Indeed, if such creatures ever reach the level of +simple brutality at all, is it not evident they must be elevated, and +not degraded, to it? + +The very persons who make the above charge know better. Their own +writings furnish the most incontestable proof that they know better. A +writer in the Edinburgh Review,[207] for example, has not only asserted +that "slavery degrades its subjects into brutes," but he has the +audacity to declare, in regard to slavery in the United States, that "we +do not believe that such oppression is to be found in any other part of +the world, civilized or uncivilized. We do not believe that such +oppression ever existed before." Yet even this unprincipled writer has, +in the very article containing this declaration, shown that he knows +better. He has shown that he knows that the African has been elevated +and improved by his servitude in the United States. We shall proceed to +convict him out of his own mouth. + +"The African slave-trade was frightful," says he; "but its prey were +savages, accustomed to suffering and misery, and to endure them with +patience almost amounting to apathy. The victims of the American +slave-trade have been bred in a highly-cultivated community. Their +dispositions have been softened, their intellects sharpened, and their +sensibilities excited, by society, by Christianity, and by all the +ameliorating but enervating influences of civilization. The savage +submits to be enslaved himself, or have his wife or his child carried +off by his enemies, as merely a calamity. His misery is not embittered +by indignation. He suffers only what--if he could--he would inflict. He +cannot imagine a state of society in which there shall not be masters +and slaves, kidnapping and man-selling, coffles and slave-traders, or in +which any class shall be exempt from misfortunes which appear to him to +be incidental to humanity." + +Thus, according to this very sagacious, honest, consistent writer, it +matters little what you do with the native African: he has no moral +sense; he feels no wrong; he suffers only what he would inflict. But +when you come to deal with the American slave, or, as this writer calls +him, "the civilized Virginian," it is quite another thing! His +dispositions have been softened, his intellect sharpened, and his +sensibilities roused to a new life, by society and by Christianity! And +yet, according to this very writer, this highly civilized Virginian is +the man who, by American slavery, has been degraded from the native +African into a brute! We dismiss his lawless savage, and his equally +lawless pen, from our further consideration. + +We proceed, in like manner, to condemn Dr. Channing out of his own +mouth. He has repeatedly asserted that slavery among us degrades its +subjects into brutes. Now hear him on the other side of this question. + +"The European race," says he, "have manifested more courage, enterprise, +invention; but in the dispositions which Christianity particularly +honors, how inferior are they to the African? When I cast my eyes over +our Southern region,--the land of bowie-knives, lynch-law, and duels, of +'chivalry,' 'honor,' and revenge; and when I consider that Christianity +is declared to be a spirit of charity, 'which seeketh not its own, is +not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and endureth all things,' and is +also declared to be 'the wisdom from above,' which is 'first pure, then +peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good +fruits;' can I hesitate in deciding to which of the races in that land +Christianity is most adapted, and in which its noblest disciples are +most likely to be reared?"[208] + +It was by casting his eyes over "our Southern region" that Dr. Channing +concluded "that we are holding in bondage one of the best races of the +human family." If he had cast them over the appallingly dark region of +Africa, he would have been compelled, in spite of the wonder-working +power of his imagination, to pronounce it one of the very worst and most +degraded races upon earth. If, as he imagines, this race among us is now +nearer to the kingdom of heaven than we ourselves are, how dare he +assert--as he so often has done--that our slavery has "degraded them +into brutes?" If, indeed, they had not been elevated--both physically +and morally--by their servitude in America, it would have been beyond +the power of even Dr. Channing to pronounce such a eulogy upon them. We +say, then, that he knew better when he asserted that we have degraded +them into brutes. He spoke, not from his better knowledge and his +conscience, but from blind, unreflecting passion. For he knew--if he +knew any thing--that the blacks have been elevated and improved by their +contact with the whites of this enlightened portion of the globe. + +The truth is, the abolitionist can make the slave a brute or a saint, +just as it may happen to suit the exigency of his argument. If slavery +degrades its subjects into brutes, then one would suppose that slaves +are brutes. But the moment you speak of selling a slave, he is no longer +a brute,--he is a civilized man, with all the most tender affections, +with all the most generous emotions. If the object be to excite +indignation against slavery, then it always transforms its subjects into +brutes; but if it be to excite indignation against the slaveholder, then +he holds, not brutes, but a George Harris--or an Eliza--or an Uncle +Tom--in bondage. Any thing, and every thing, except fair and impartial +statement, are the materials with which he works. + +No fact is plainer than that the blacks have been elevated and improved +by their servitude in this country. We cannot possibly conceive, indeed, +how Divine Providence could have placed them in a better school of +correction. If the abolitionists can conceive a better method for their +enlightenment and religious improvement, we should rejoice to see them +carry their plan into execution. They need not seek to rend asunder our +Union, on account of the three millions of blacks among us, while there +are fifty millions of the same race on the continent of Africa, calling +aloud for their sympathy, and appealing to their Christian benevolence. +Let them look to that continent. Let them rouse the real, active, +self-sacrificing benevolence of the whole Christian world in behalf of +that most degraded portion of the human family; and, after all, if they +will show us on the continent of Africa, or elsewhere, three millions of +blacks in as good a condition--physically and morally--as our slaves, +then will we most cheerfully admit that all other Christian nations, +combined, have accomplished as much for the African race, as has been +done by the Southern States of the Union. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[175] Life of Joseph John Gurney, vol. ii. p. 214. + +[176] Bigelow's Notes on Jamaica in 1850, as quoted in Carey's "Slave +Trade, Foreign and Domestic." + +[177] Quoted by Mr. Carey. + +[178] Carey's Slave Trade. + +[179] "The West Indies and North America," by Robt. Baird, A. M., p. +145. + +[180] "The West Indies and North America," by Robt. Baird, A. M., p. +143. + +[181] The Corentyne. + +[182] East bank of the Berbice River. + +[183] West bank of the Berbice River. + +[184] West coast of Berbice River. + +[185] Quoted in Carey's Slave Trade. + +[186] Gurney's Letters on the West Indies. + +[187] Ibid. + +[188] Ibid. + +[189] Dr. Channing. + +[190] We moot a higher question: Is he fit for the pulpit,--for that +great conservative power by which religion, and morals, and freedom, +must be maintained among us? "I do not believe," he declares, in one of +his sermons, "the miraculous origin of the Hebrew church, or the +Buddhist church, or of the Christian church, nor the miraculous +character of Jesus. I take not the Bible for my master--nor yet the +church--nor even Jesus of Nazareth for my master. . . . . . He is my best +historic ideal of human greatness; not without errors--not without the +stain of his times, and I presume, of course, not without sins; for men +without sins exist in the dreams of girls." Thus, the truth of all +miracles is denied; and the faith of the Christian world, in regard to +the sinless character of Jesus, is set down by this very modest _divine_ +as the dream of girls! Yet he believes that half a million of men were, +by the British act of emancipation, turned from slaves into freemen! +That is to say, he does not believe in the miracles of the gospel; he +only believes in the miracles of abolitionism. Hence, we ask, is he fit +for the pulpit,--for the sacred desk,--for any holy thing? + +[191] See extract, p. 156. + +[192] Spirit of Laws, vol. i. book xv. chap. vii. + +[193] Spirit of Laws, vol. i. book xv. chap. viii. + +[194] The emphasis is ours. + +[195] See pages 155, and 159, 160. + +[196] See chap. i. Sec. 2. + +[197] Works, vol. v. p. 63. + +[198] See chap. i. Sec. 2. + +[199] We have in the above remark done Boston some injustice. For New +York has furnished the Robespierre, and Massachusetts only the Brissot, +of "les Amis des Noirs" in America. + +[200] This reply is sometimes attributed to Robespierre and sometimes to +Brissot; it is probable that in substance it was made by both of these +bloody compeers in the cause of abolitionism. + +[201] See Alison's History of Europe, vol. ii. p. 241. + +[202] Encyclopaedia of Geo. vol. iii. pp. 302, 303. + +[203] Prov. xxx. 22. + +[204] Encyc. of Geo., vol. iii. p. 303. Mackenzie's St. Domingo, vol. +ii. pp. 260, 321. + +[205] Franklin's Present State of Hayti, etc., p. 265. + +[206] Dr. Channing's Works, vol. v. p. 47. + +[207] April No., 1855. + +[208] Dr. Channing's Works, vol. vi. p. 50, 51. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. + + Mr. Seward's Attack on the Constitution of his + Country--The Attack of Mr. Sumner on the + Constitution of his Country--The Right of Trial by + Jury not impaired by the Fugitive Slave Law--The + Duty of the Citizen in regard to the Constitution + of the United States. + + +WE have, under our present Union, advanced in prosperity and greatness +beyond all former example in the history of nations. We no sooner begin +to reason from the past to the future, than we are lost in amazement at +the prospect before us. We behold the United States, and that too at no +very distant period, the first power among the nations of the earth. But +such reasoning is not always to be relied on. Whether, in the present +instance, it points to a reality, or to a magnificent dream merely, will +of course depend on the wisdom, the integrity, and the moderation, of +our rulers. + +It cannot be disguised that the Union, with all its unspeakable +advantages and blessings, is in danger. It is the Fugitive Slave Law +against which the waves of abolitionism have dashed with their utmost +force and raged with an almost boundless fury. On the other hand, it is +precisely the Fugitive Slave Law--that great constitutional guarantee of +our rights--which the people of the South are, as one man, the most +inflexibly determined to maintain. We are prepared, and we shall +accordingly proceed, to show that, in this fearful conflict, the great +leaders of abolitionism--the Chases, the Sewards, and the Sumners, of +the day--are waging a fierce, bitter, and relentless warfare against the +Constitution of their country. + + +Sec. I. _Mr. Seward's attack on the Constitution of his country._ + +There is one thing which Mr. Seward's reasoning overlooks,--namely, that +he has taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. +We shall not lose sight of this fact, nor permit him to obscure it by +his special pleadings and mystifications; since it serves to show that +while, in the name of a "higher law," he denounces the Constitution of +his country, he at the same time commits a most flagrant outrage against +that higher law itself. + +The clause of the Constitution which Mr. Seward denounces is as follows: +"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws +thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or +regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall +be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may +be due." This clause, as Mr. Seward contemptuously says, is "from the +Constitution of the United States in 1787." He knows of only one other +compact like this "in diplomatic history;" and that was made between +despotic powers "in the year of grace 902, in the period called the Dark +Ages." But whether this compact made by the fathers of the Republic, or +the sayings and doings of Mr. Seward in regard to it, are the more +worthy of the Dark Ages, it is not for him alone to determine. + +"The law of nature," says he, "disavows such compacts; the law of +nature, written on the hearts and consciences of freemen, repudiates +them." If this be so, then it certainly follows that in founding States +no such compacts should be formed. For, as Mr. Seward says, "when we are +founding States, all these laws must be brought to the standard of the +laws of God, and must be tried by that standard, and must stand or fall +by it." This is true, we repeat; but the Senator who uttered this truth +was _not_ founding States or forming a constitution. He was living and +acting under a constitution already formed, and one which he had taken +an oath to support. If, in the construction of this instrument, our +fathers really followed "as precedents the abuses of tyrants and +robbers," then the course of the Senator in question was plain: _he +should have suffered martyrdom rather than take an oath to support it_. +For the law of nature, it is clear, permits no man first to take an oath +to support such compacts, and then repudiate them. If they are at war +with his conscience, then, in the name of all that is sacred, let him +repudiate them, but, by all means, without having first placed himself +under the necessity of repudiating, at the same time, the obligation of +his oath. + +There is a question among casuists, whether an oath extorted by force +can bind a man to act in opposition to his conscience. But this was not +Mr. Seward's case. His oath was not extorted. If he had refused to take +it, he would have lost nothing _except an office_. + +"There was deep philosophy," says he, "in the confession of an eminent +English judge. When he had condemned a young woman to death, under the +late sanguinary code of his country, for her first theft, she fell down +dead at his feet. 'I seem to myself,' said he, 'to have been pronouncing +sentence, not against the prisoner, but against the law itself.'" Ay, +there was something better than "deep philosophy" in that English judge; +there was stern integrity; for, though he felt the law to be hard and +cruel, yet, having taken an oath to support it, he hardly felt himself +at liberty to dispense with the obligation of his oath. We commend his +example to the Senator from New York. + +But who is this Senator, or any other politician of the present day, +that he should presume to pass so sweeping and so peremptory a sentence +of condemnation on a compact made by the fathers of the Republic and +ratified by the people of the United States? For our part, if we wished +to find "the higher law," we should look neither into the Dark Ages nor +into his conscience. We had infinitely rather look into the great souls +of those by whom the Constitution was framed, and by every one of whom +the very compact which Mr. Seward pronounces so infamous was cordially +sanctioned. + +"Your Constitution and laws," exclaims Mr. Seward, "convert hospitality +to the refugee from the most degrading oppression on earth into a crime, +but all mankind except you esteem that hospitality a virtue." Not +content with thus denouncing the "Constitution and laws," he has +elsewhere exhorted the people to an open resistance to their execution. +"It is," says he, in a speech at a mass-meeting in Ohio, "written in the +Constitution of the the United States," and "in violation to divine +law,[209] that we shall surrender the fugitive slave who takes refuge at +our fireside from his relentless pursuer." He then and there exhorts the +people to resist the execution of this clear, this unequivocal, this +_acknowledged_, mandate of the Constitution! "Extend," says he, a +"cordial welcome _to the fugitive who lays his weary limbs at your +door_, and DEFEND HIM AS YOU WOULD YOUR HOUSEHOLD GODS." + +We shall not trust ourselves to characterize such conduct. In the calm, +judicial language of the Chancellor of his own State such proceeding of +Mr. Seward will find its most fitting rebuke. "Independent, however," +says Chancellor Walworth, "_of any legislation on this subject either by +the individual States or by Congress_, if the person whose services are +claimed is in fact a fugitive from servitude under the laws of another +State, _the constitutional provision is imperative that he shall be +delivered up to his master upon claim made_." Thus far, Mr. Seward +concurs with the chancellor in opinion; but the latter continues--"and +any state officer or private citizen, who owes allegiance to the United +States, and has taken the usual oath to support the Constitution +thereof, cannot, WITHOUT INCURRING THE MORAL GUILT OF PERJURY, do any +act to deprive the master of his right of recaption, when there is no +real doubt that the person whose services are claimed is in fact the +slave of the claimant."[210] Yet, regardless of the question whether the +fugitive is a slave or not, the life and labors of Mr. Seward are, in a +great measure, dedicated to a subversion of the constitutional clause +and right under consideration. He counsels open resistance! Yea, he +exhorts the people to protect and defend fugitive slaves _as such_, and +though they had confessed themselves to have fled from servitude! But we +doubt not that "the law of nature, written on the hearts and consciences +of freemen," will reverse this advice of his, and reaffirm the decision +of the chancellor of his own State. Nay, wherever there exists a freeman +with a real heart and conscience, there that decision already stands +affirmed. + +As Mr. Seward's arguments are more fully elaborated by Mr. Sumner, of +Massachusetts, so they will pass under review when we come to examine +the speech of that Senator. In the mean time, we beg leave to lay before +the reader a few living examples of the manner in which the law of +nature, as written on the hearts and consciences of freemen, has +expressed itself in regard to the points above considered. + +"I recognize, indeed," says the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, of Boston, "a power +above all human law-makers and a code above all earthly constitutions! +And whenever I perceive a clear conflict of jurisdiction and authority +between the Constitution of my country and the laws of my God, my course +is clear. I shall resign my office, whatever it may be, and renounce all +connection with public service of any sort. Never, never, sir, will I +put myself under the necessity of calling upon God to witness my promise +to support a constitution, any part of which I consider to be +inconsistent with his commands. + +"But it is a libel upon the Constitution of the United States--and, what +is worse, sir, it is a libel upon the great and good men who framed, +adopted, and ratified it; it is a libel upon Washington and Franklin, +and Hamilton and Madison, upon John Adams, and John Jay, and Rufus King; +it is a libel upon them all, and upon the whole American people of 1789, +who sustained them in their noble work, and upon all who, from that time +to this, generation after generation, in any capacity,--national, +municipal, or state,--have lifted their hands to heaven in attestation +of their allegiance to the government of their country;--it is a gross +libel upon every one of them, to assert or insinuate that there is any +such inconsistency! Let us not do such dishonor to the fathers of the +Republic and the framers of the Constitution." + +Mr. Ashman, of Massachusetts, after reciting the clause in the +Constitution which demands the restoration of fugitive slaves, proceeds +as follows: "This reads very plainly, and admits of no doubt but that, +so far as fugitive slaves are concerned, the Constitution fully +recognizes the right to reclaim them from within the limits of the free +States. It is the Constitution which we have all sworn to support, and +which I hope we all mean to support; and I have no mental reservation +excluding any of its clauses from the sanction of that oath. It is too +late now to complain that such a provision is there. Our fathers, who +formed that entire instrument, placed it there, and left it to us as an +inheritance; and nothing but an amendment of the Constitution, or a +violation of our oaths, can tear it out. And, however much we may abhor +slavery, there is no way for honorable, honest--nay, conscientious--men, +who desire to live under our laws and our Constitution, but to abide by +it in its spirit." + +In like manner, the Hon. S. A. Douglas, of Illinois, declares: "All I +have to say on that subject is this, that the Constitution provides that +a fugitive from service in one State, escaping into another, 'shall be +delivered up.' The Constitution also provides that no man shall be a +Senator unless he takes an oath to support the Constitution. Then, I +ask, how does a man acquire a right on this floor to speak, except by +taking an oath to support and sustain the Constitution of the United +States? And when he takes that oath, I do not understand that he has a +right to have a mental reservation, or entertain any secret equivocation +that he excepts that clause which relates to the surrender of fugitives +from service. I know not how a man reconciles it to his conscience to +take that oath to support the Constitution, when he believes that +Constitution is in violation of the law of God. If a man thus believes, +and takes the oath, he commits perfidy to his God in order that he may +enjoy the temporary honors of a seat upon this floor. In this point of +view, it is simply a question of whether Senators will be true to their +oaths and true to the Constitution under which we live." + + +Sec. II. _The attack of Mr. Sumner on the Constitution of his country._ + +If we have not noticed the arguments of Mr. Chase, of Ohio, it is +because they are reproduced in the celebrated speech of Mr. Sumner, and +because he has so fully indorsed the history and logic of this speech as +to make it his own. Hence, in replying to the one of these Senators, we +at the same time virtually reply to the other. + +We select the speech of Mr. Sumner for examination, because it is +generally considered the more powerful of the two. It is, indeed, the +most elaborate speech ever made in the Senate of the United States, or +elsewhere, on the subject of the Fugitive Slave Law. Even Mr. Weller +found it "so handsomely embellished with poetry, both Latin and English, +so full of classical allusions and rhetorical flourishes," as to make it +more palatable than he supposed an abolition speech could possibly be +made. As to the abolitionists themselves, they seem to know no bounds in +their enthusiastic admiration of this sublime effort of their champion. +We should not wonder, indeed, if many a female reformer had gone into +hysterics over an oration which has received such violent bursts of +applause from grave and dignified Senators. "By this effort," says Mr. +Hale, he has placed "himself side by side with the first orators of +antiquity, and as far ahead of any living American orator as freedom is +ahead of slavery. I believe that he has formed to-day a new era in the +history of the politics and of the eloquence of the country; and that in +future generations the young men of this nation will be stimulated to +effort by the record of what an American Senator has this day done," +etc. + +We have no doubt that young men may attempt to imitate the speech in +question; but, as they grow older, it is to be hoped that their taste +will improve. The speech in question will make a "new era" in the +tactics of abolitionism, and that is all. We shall see this when we come +to examine this wonderful oration, which so completely ravished _three +Senators_, and called forth such wild shouts of applause from the whole +empire of abolitionism. + +Mr. Chase seems almost equally delighted with this marvellous effort. +"I avow my conviction, now and here," says he, "that, logically and +historically, his argument is impregnable--entirely impregnable." +. . . . . . "In my judgment," he continues, "the speech of my friend +from Massachusetts will make a NEW ERA in American history." Indeed, Mr. +Sumner himself does not seem altogether dissatisfied with this effort, +if we may judge from the manner in which it is referred to in his other +speeches. We do not blame him for this. We can see no reason why he +should be the only abolitionist in the universe who is not enraptured +with his oration. But when he so "fearlessly asserts" that his speech +"has never been answered," we beg leave to assure him that it _may_ be +refuted with the most perfect ease. For, indeed, its history is half +fiction, and its logic wholly false: the first containing just enough of +truth to deceive, and the last just enough of plansibility to convince +those who are waiting, and watching, and longing to be convinced. + +The first thing which strikes the mind, on reading the speech of Mr. +Sumner, is the strange logical incoherency of its structure. Its parts +are so loosely hung together, and appear so distressingly disjointed, +that one is frequently at a loss to perceive the design of the oration. +Its avowed object is to procure a repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law of +1850; but no one would ever imagine or suspect such a thing from the +title of the speech, which is as follows: "Freedom, national; Slavery, +sectional." It is difficult, at first view, to perceive what logical +connection this title, or proposition, has with the repeal of the +Fugitive Slave Law. But if there be little or no logical connection +between these things, we shall soon see how the choice of such a title +and topic of discourse opens the way for the rhetorician to make a most +powerful appeal to the passions and to the prejudices of his readers. We +say, of his readers, because it is evident that the speech was made for +Buncombe, and not for the Senate of the United States. + +Mr. Sumner deems it necessary to refute the position that slavery is a +national institution, in order to set the world right with respect to +the relations of the Federal Government to slavery. "The relations of +the Government of the United States," says he,--"I speak of the National +Government--to slavery, _though plain and obvious, are constantly +misunderstood_." Indeed, nothing in history seems more remarkable than +the amount of ignorance and stupidity which prevailed in the world +before the appearance of the abolitionists, except the wonderful +illuminations which accompanied their advent. "A popular belief at this +moment," continues Mr. Sumner, "makes slavery a national institution, +and, of course, renders its support a national duty. The extravagance of +this error can hardly be surpassed." In truth, it is so exceedingly +extravagant, that we doubt if it really exists. It is certain, that we +have no acquaintance, either historically or personally, with those who +have fallen into so wild an absurdity. + +It is true, there is "a popular belief"--nay, there is a deep-rooted +national conviction--that the Government of the United States is bound +to protect the institution of slavery, in so far as this may be done by +the passage of a Fugitive Slave Law. This national conviction has spoken +out in the laws of Congress; it has been ratified and confirmed by the +judicial opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as +by the decisions of the Supreme Courts of the three great +non-slaveholding States of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. +But no one, so far as we know, has ever deduced this obligation to +protect slavery, in this respect, from the absurd notion that "it is a +national institution." No such deduction is to be found in any of the +arguments of counsel before the courts above-mentioned, nor in the +opinions of the courts themselves. We shrewdly suspect that it is to be +found nowhere except in the fertile imagination of Mr. Sumner. + +We concede that slavery is _not_ "a national institution." In combating +this position, Mr. Sumner is merely beating the air. We know that +slavery is not national; it is local, being confined to certain States, +and exclusively established by local or State laws. Hence, Mr. Sumner +may fire off as much splendid rhetoric as he pleases at his men of +straw. "Slavery national!" he indignantly exclaims: "Sir, this is all a +mistake and absurdity, fit to take a place in some new collection of +'Vulgar Errors' by some other Sir Thomas Browne, with the ancient but +exploded stories that the toad has a stone in its head and that +ostriches digest iron." These may be very fine embellishments; they +certainly have nothing to do with the point in controversy. The question +is not whether slavery is a national institution, but whether the +National Government does not recognize slavery as a local institution, +and is not pledged to protect the master's right to reclaim the fugitive +from his service. This is the question, and by its relevancy to this +question the rhetoric of Mr. Sumner must be tried. + +We do not say it has no such relevancy. Mr. Sumner beats the air, it is +true, but he does not beat the air in vain. His declamation may have no +logical bearing on the point in dispute, but, if you watch it closely, +you will always find that it is most skillfully adapted to bring the +prejudices and passions of the reader to bear on that point. Though he +may not be much of a logician, yet, it must be admitted, he is "skillful +of fence." We should do him great injustice as an antagonist, at least +before the tribunal of human passion, if we should suppose that it is +merely for the abstract glory of setting up a man of straw, and then +knocking it down, that he has mustered all the powers of his logic and +unfurled all the splendors of his rhetoric. He has a design in all this, +which we shall now proceed to expose. + +Here are two distinct questions. First, Is slavery a national +institution? Secondly, Has Congress the power to pass a Fugitive Slave +Law? These two questions are, we repeat, perfectly distinct; and hence, +if Mr. Sumner wished to discuss them fairly and honestly, he should have +argued each one by itself. We agree with him in regard to the first; we +dissent _toto coelo_ from him in regard to the last. But he has not +chosen to keep them separate, or to discuss each one by itself. On the +contrary, he has, as we have seen, connected them together as premiss +and conclusion, and he keeps them together through the first portion of +his speech. Most assuredly Mr. Sumner knows that one of the very best +ways in the world to cause a truth or proposition to be rejected is to +bind it up with a manifest error or absurdity. Yet the proposition for +which we contend--that Congress has the power to support slavery by the +passage of a Fugitive Slave Law--is bound up by him with the monstrous +absurdity that "slavery is a national institution;" and both are +denounced together as if both were equally absurd. One instance, out of +many, of this unfair mode of proceeding, we shall now lay before our +readers. + +"The Constitution contains no power," says he, "to make a king or to +support kingly rule. With similar reason it may be said that it contains +no power to make a slave, or to support a system of slavery. The absence +of all such power is hardly more clear in one case than in the other. +But, if there be no such power, all national legislation upholding +slavery must be unconstitutional and void." + +Thus covertly, and in company with the supposed power of Congress to +make slaves or to institute slavery, Mr. Sumner denounces the power of +Congress to enact a Fugitive Slave Law! He not only denounces it, but +treats it as absurd in the extreme; just as absurd, indeed, as it would +be to assert that Congress had power "to support kingly rule!" We can +listen to the arguments of Mr. Sumner; but we cannot accept his mere +opinion as authority that the power of Congress to enact such a law is +so glaringly unconstitutional, is so monstrously absurd; for, however +passionately that opinion may be declaimed, we cannot forget that a +Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the Congress of 1793, received the +signature of George Washington, and, finally, the judicial sanction of +the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Sumner is but a man. + +This advantage of mixing up with a glaring falsehood the idea he wishes +to be rejected is not the only one which Mr. Sumner derives from his man +of straw. By combating the position--"the popular belief," as he calls +it--that "slavery is a national institution," he lays open a wide field +for his peculiar powers of declamation. He calls up all the +fathers--North and South--to bear witness against slavery, in order to +show that it is not a national institution. He quotes colleges, and +churches, and patriots, against slavery. Not content with this, he pours +down furious invectives of his own, with a view to render slavery as +odious as possible. But, since the simple question is, _What saith the +Constitution_--why this fierce crusade against slavery? In deciding this +very question, namely, the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law +of 1793, a high judicial authority has said that "the abstract +proposition of the justice or injustice of slavery is wholly irrelevant +here, and, I apprehend, ought not to have the slightest influence upon +any member of this court."[211] + +It ought not to have--and it did not have--the slightest influence on +the highest judicial tribunal of New York, in which the above opinion +was delivered. Much as the author of that opinion (Mr. Senator Bishop) +abhorred slavery, he did not permit such an influence to reach his +judgment. It would have contaminated his judicial integrity. But +although before a judicial tribunal, about to decide on the +constitutionality of a Fugitive Slave Law, the abstract proposition of +the justice or injustice of slavery is out of place, yet at the bar of +passion and prejudice it is well calculated, as Mr. Sumner must know, to +exert a tremendous influence. Hence, if he can only get up the horror of +his readers against slavery before he comes to the real question, +namely, the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law, he knows that +his victory will be more than half gained. But we admonish him that +passion and prejudice can only give a temporary eclat to his argument. + +So much for the unfairness of Mr. Sumner. If we should notice all such +instances of artful design in his speech, we should have no space for +his logic. To this we would now invite the attention of the reader, in +order to see if it be really "impregnable." + +As we have already intimated, Mr. Sumner does not, like Mr. Seward, +openly denounce the Constitution of his country. On the contrary, he +professes the most profound respect for every part of that instrument, +not even excepting the clause which demands the restoration of the +fugitive from labor. But an examination of his argument, both +_historical_ and _logical_, will enable us, we trust, to estimate this +profession at its real intrinsic worth. + +We shall begin with his argument from history. In the examination of +this argument, we beg to excuse ourselves from any further notice of all +that vast array of historical proofs to show that "freedom is national +and slavery sectional."[212] We shall consider those proofs alone which +relate to the real point in controversy, namely, Has Congress the power +to pass a Fugitive Slave Law? + +Mr. Sumner argues, from the well-known sentiments of the framers of the +Constitution with respect to slavery, that they intended to confer no +such power on Congress. Thus, after quoting the sentiments of Gouverneur +Morris, of Elbridge Gerry, of Roger Sherman, and James Madison, he adds: +"In the face of these unequivocal statements, it is absurd to suppose +that they consented _unanimously_ to any provision by which the National +Government, the work of their own hands, could be made the most +offensive instrument of slavery." Such is the historical argument of Mr. +Sumner. Let us see what it is worth. + +Elbridge Gerry had said: "We ought to be careful NOT _to give any +sanction to slavery_;"--language repeatedly quoted, and underscored as +above, by Mr. Sumner. It is absurd, he concludes, to suppose that a man +who could use such language had the least intention to confer a power on +Congress to support slavery by the passage of a Fugitive Slave Law. This +is one branch of his historical argument. It may appear perfectly +conclusive to Mr. Sumner, and "entirely impregnable" to Mr. Chase; but, +after all, it is not quite so invulnerable as they imagine. Mr. Sumner +stopped his historical researches at a most convenient point for his +argument. If he had only read a little further, he would have discovered +that this same identical Elbridge Gerry was in the Congress of 1793, and +VOTED FOR the Fugitive Slave Law then passed! + +It fares no better with the historical argument to prove the opinion or +intention of Roger Sherman. He had declared, it is true, that he was +opposed to any clause in the Constitution "acknowledging men to be +property." But we should not, with Mr. Sumner, infer from this that he +never intended that Congress should possess a power to legislate in +reference to slavery. For, unfortunately for such a conclusion, however +confidently it may be drawn, or however dogmatically asserted, Roger +Sherman himself was in the Senate of 1793, and was actually on the +committee which reported the Fugitive Slave Law of that session! Thus, +although the premiss of Mr. Sumner's argument is a historical fact, yet +its conclusion comes directly into conflict with another historical +fact! + +We cannot, in the same way, refute the argument from the language of +Gouverneur Morris, who said "that he never would concur in upholding +domestic slavery," because he was not in the Congress of 1793. But +Robert Morris was there, and, although he helped to frame the +Constitution in 1787, he uttered not a syllable against the +constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law. Indeed, this law passed the +Senate by resolution simply, _the yeas and nays not having been called +for_! + +The words of Mr. Madison, who "thought it wrong to admit in the +Constitution the idea that there could be property in man," are four or +five times quoted in Mr. Sumner's speech. As we have already seen,[213] +there cannot be, in the strict sense of the terms, "property in man;" +for the soul is the man, and no one, except God, can own the soul. Hence +Mr. Madison acted wisely, we think, in wishing to exclude such an +expression from the Constitution, inasmuch as it would have been +misunderstood by Northern men, and only shocked their feelings without +answering any good purpose. + +When we say that slaves are property, we merely mean that their masters +have a right to their service or labor. This idea is recognized in the +Constitution, and _this right is secured_. We ask no more. As Mr. +Madison, and the whole South, had the _thing_, he did not care to +wrangle about the _name_. We are told, again and again, that the word +_slave_ does not appear in the Constitution. Be it so. We care not, +since our slaves are there recognized as "persons held to service" by +those to whom "such service is due." It is repeated without end that the +"Constitution acts on slaves as _persons_, and not as property." +Granted; and if Northern men will, according to the mandate of the +Constitution, only deliver up our fugitive servants, we care not whether +they restore them as persons or as property. If we may only reclaim them +as persons, and regain their service, we are perfectly satisfied. We +utterly despise all such verbal quibbling. + +Mr. Madison was above it. He acted wisely, we repeat, in refusing to +shock the mind of any one, by insisting upon a mere word, and upon a +word, too, which might not have conveyed a correct idea of his own +views. But that Mr. Madison could, as he undersood the terms, regard +slaves as property, we have the most incontestable evidence. For in the +Convention of Virginia, called to ratify the Constitution of the United +States, he said, "Another clause secures us that _property_ which we now +possess. At present, if any slave elopes to any of those States where +slaves are free, he becomes emancipated by their laws, for the laws of +the States are uncharitable to one another in this respect." He then +quotes the provision from the Constitution relative to fugitives from +labor, and adds: "This clause was expressly inserted to enable _owners_ +of slaves to reclaim them." So much for Mr. Sumner's main argument from +the language of the members of the Convention of 1787. + +Arguing from the sentiments of that convention with respect to slavery, +he concludes that nothing could have been further from their intentions +than to confer upon Congress the power to pass a uniform Fugitive Slave +Law. He boldly asserts, that if a proposition to confer such a power +upon Congress had "been distinctly made it would have been distinctly +denied." "But no person in the convention," he says, "_not one of the +reckless partisans of slavery, was so audacious as to make the +proposition_." Now we shall show that the above statement of his is +diametrically opposed to the truth. We shall show that the members of +the convention in question were perfectly willing to confer such a power +upon Congress. + +The reason why they were so is obvious to any one who has a real +knowledge of the times about whose history Mr. Sumner so confidently +declaims. This reason is well stated in the language of the Chancellor +of New York whom we have already quoted. "The provision," says he, "as +to persons escaping from servitude in one State into another, appears by +their journal to have been adopted by a unanimous vote of the +convention. At that time the existence of involuntary servitude, or the +relation of master and servant, was known to and recognized by the laws +of every State in the Union except Massachusetts, and _the legal right +of recaption by the master existed in all_, AS A PART OF THE CUSTOMARY +OR COMMON LAW OF THE WHOLE CONFEDERACY." Hence, instead of shocking the +convention, a clause recognizing such right would have been merely +declaratory of the "customary or common law," which then universally +prevailed. The "history of the times" confirms this view, and furnishes +no evidence against it. + +Mr. Sumner tries to make a different impression. He lays great stress on +the fact that it was not until late in the convention that the first +clause relative to the surrender of fugitive slaves was introduced. But +this fact agrees more perfectly with our view than with his. There was +no haste about the introduction of such a provision, because it was well +known that, whenever it should be introduced, it would pass in the +affirmative without difficulty. And, in fact, when it was introduced, it +"WAS UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED." This single fact speaks volumes. + +Let us now attend, for a moment, to Mr. Sumner's historical proofs. He +quotes the following passage from the Madison Papers:--"Gen. (Charles +Cotesworth) Pinckney was not satisfied with it. He seemed to wish some +provision should be included in favor of property in slaves." "But," by +way of comment, Mr. Sumner adds, "he made no proposition. Unwilling to +shock the convention, and uncertain in his own mind, he only _seemed_ +to wish such a provision." Now, a bare abstract proposition to recognize +property in men is one thing, and a clause to secure the return of +fugitive slaves is quite another. The first, it is probable, would have +been rejected by the convention; the last was actually and unanimously +adopted by it. + +Mr. Sumner's next proof is decidedly against him. Here it is "Mr. Butler +and Mr. Charles Pinckney, both from South Carolina, now moved openly to +require 'fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like +criminals.' . . . . . . Mr. Wilson, of Pennsylvania, at once objected: +'This would oblige the executive of the State to do it at the public +expense.' Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, saw no more propriety in the +public seizing and surrendering a slave or servant than a horse! Under +the pressure of these objections the offensive proposition was quietly +withdrawn." + +Now mark the character of these objections. It is objected, not that it +is wrong to deliver up fugitive slaves, but only that they should not be +"delivered up like criminals;" that is, by a demand on the executive of +the State to which they may have fled. And this objection is based on +the ground that such a requisition would oblige the public to deliver +them up at its own expense. Mr. Sherman insists, not that it is wrong to +surrender fugitive slaves or fugitive horses, but only that the +executive, or public, should not be called upon to surrender them. +Surely, if these gentlemen had been so violently opposed to the +restoration of fugitive slaves, here was a fair occasion for them to +speak out; and as honest, outspoken men they would, no doubt, have made +their sentiments known. But there is, in fact, not a syllable of such a +sentiment uttered. There is not the slightest symptom of the existence +of any such feeling in their minds. If any such existed, we must insist +that Mr. Sumner has discovered it by instinct, and not by his researches +in history. + +The statement that "under the pressure of these objections the offensive +propositon was _quietly withdrawn_" is not true. It was not quietly +withdrawn; on the contrary, it was withdrawn with the assurance that it +would be again introduced. "Mr. Butler withdrew his proposition," says +Mr. Madison, "_in order that some particular provision might be made_, +apart from this article."[214] Accordingly, the very next day he +introduced a provision, which, as Mr. Madison declares, "was expressly +inserted to enable owners of slaves to reclaim them." + +These glosses of Mr. Sumner on the history of the times will appear +important, if we view them in connection with his design. This design is +to bring into doubt the idea that slaves are embraced in the clause of +the Constitution which requires fugitives from service or labor to be +delivered up. We should not suspect this design from the hints here +thrown out, if it were not afterward more fully disclosed. "On the next +day," says Mr. Sumner, "August 29th, profiting by the suggestions +already made, Mr. Butler moved a proposition, substantially like that +now found in the Constitution, _not directly for the surrender of_ +'_fugitive slaves_,' as originally proposed, but as 'fugitives from +service or labor,' which, without debate or opposition of any kind, was +unanimously adopted." Was it then unanimously adopted because it was a +clause for the surrender of "fugitives from service or labor" only, and +not for the surrender of fugitive slaves? + +Such appears to be the insinuation of Mr. Sumner. Be this as it may, it +is certain that he has afterward said that it may be questioned whether +"the language employed" in this clause "can be judicially regarded as +justly applicable to fugitive slaves, _which is often and earnestly +denied_.". . . . "_Still further_," he says, in italics, "_to the courts +of each State must belong the determination of the question, to which +class of persons, according to just rules of interpretation, the phrase +'persons held to service or labor' is strictly applicable._" + +Mr. Sumner doubts, then, whether this provision, after all, refers to +"fugitive slaves." Now, although he has said much in regard to "the +effrontery of the Southern members of the convention" that formed the +Constitution, we may safely defy him, or any other man, to point to any +thing in their conduct which approximates to such audacity. What! the +clause in question not designed to embrace fugitive slaves? Mr. Butler, +even before he introduced the clause, declared, as we have seen, that +such would be its design. It was so understood by every member of the +convention; for there was not a man there who possessed the capacity to +misunderstand so plain a matter; and it has been so understood by every +man, of all parties and all factions, from that day down to the present. +Not one of the hired advocates who have been employed, in different +States, to argue against the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave +Law, has ever had the unblushing effrontery to contend that the clause +in question is not applicable to fugitive slaves. Nay, more, until Mr. +Sumner appeared, the frantic zeal of no abolitionist had ever so +completely besotted his intellect as to permit him to take such ground. +By Dr. Channing, by Mr. Seward, and by Mr. Chase, such application of +the words in question is unhesitatingly admitted; and hence we dismiss +Mr. Sumner's discovery with the contempt it deserves. + +But to return. "The provision," says Mr. Sumner, "which showed itself +thus tardily, and was so slightly noticed in the National Convention, +was neglected in most of the contemporaneous discussions before the +people." No wonder; for it was merely declaratory of the "customary or +common law" of that day. "In the Conventions of South Carolina, North +Carolina, and Virginia," he admits, "it was commended as securing +important rights, though on this point there was a difference of +opinion. In the Virginia Convention, an eminent character,--Mr. George +Mason,--with others, expressly declared that there was 'no security of +property coming within this section.'" + +Now, we shall not stickle about the fact that Mr. Sumner has not given +the very words of Mr. Mason, since he has given them in substance. But +yet he has given them in such a way, and in such a connection, as to +make a false impression. The words of Mr. Mason, taken in their proper +connection, are as follows: "We have no security for the property of +that kind (slaves) which we already have. There is no clause in this +Constitution to secure it, _for they may lay such a tax as will amount +to manumission_." This shows his position, not as it is misrepresented +by Mr. Sumner, but as it stands in his own words. If slave property may +be rendered worthless by the taxation of Congress, how could it be +secured by a clause which enables the owner to reclaim it? It would not +be worth reclaiming. Such was the argument and true position of Mr. +George Mason. + +"Massachusetts," continues Mr. Sumner, "while exhibiting peculiar +sensitiveness at any responsibility for slavery, seemed to view it with +unconcern." If Massachusetts had only believed that the clause was +intended to confer on Congress the power to pass a Fugitive Slave Law, +into what flames of indignation would her sensitiveness have burst! So +Mr. Sumner would have us to believe. But let us listen, for a moment, to +the sober voice of history. + +It was only about four years after the government went into operation +that Congress actually exercised the power in question, and _passed a +Fugitive Slave Law_. Where was Massachusetts then! Did she burst into +flames of indignation? Her only voice, in reply, was as distinctly and +as emphatically pronounced in favor of that law as was the voice of +Virginia itself. With a single exception, her whole delegation in +Congress,[215] with Fisher Ames at their head, voted for the Fugitive +Slave Law of 1793! Not a whisper of disapprobation was heard from their +constituents. As Mr. Sumner himself says, the passage of that act "drew +little attention." Hence he would have us to believe that Massachusetts +would have been stirred from her depths if the convention had conferred +such a power upon Congress, and yet that she was not moved at all when +Congress proceeded, as he maintains, to _usurp_ and exercise that power! + +This is not all. Every member from the free States, with the exception +of five, recorded his vote in favor of the same law.[216] In the Senate, +as we have already said, it was passed by resolution, and not by a +recorded vote. No one, in either branch of Congress, uttered a syllable +against the constitutionality of the law, though many of the most +distinguished members of the very convention which framed the +Constitution itself were there. Not to mention others, there were James +Madison, and Roger Sherman, and Elbridge Gerry, and Rufus King, and +Caleb Strong, and Robert Morris, and Oliver Elsworth; and yet from not +one of these illustrious framers of the Constitution was a syllable +uttered against the constitutionality of the law in question. Nay, the +law was supported and enacted by themselves. What, then, in the face of +these indubitable facts, becomes of all Mr. Sumner's far-fetched +arguments from "the literature of the age" and from his multitudinous +voices against slavery? It is absurd, says Mr. Sumner, to suppose that +such men intended to confer any power upon Congress to pass a Fugitive +Slave Law. It is a _fact_, we reply, that as members of Congress they +proceeded, without hesitation or doubt, to exercise that very power. It +"dishonors the memory of the fathers," says Mr. Sumner, to suppose they +intended that Congress should possess such a power. How, then, will he +vindicate the memory of the fathers against the imputation of his own +doctrine that they, as members of Congress, must have knowingly usurped +the power which, as members of the convention, they had intended not to +confer? + +One more of Mr. Sumner's historical arguments, and we are done with this +branch of the subject. He deems it the most conclusive of all. It is +founded on the arrangement of certain clauses of the Constitution, and +is, we believe, perfectly original. We must refer the reader to the +speech itself if he desire to see this very curious argument, since we +cannot spare the room to give it a full and fair statement. + +Nor is this at all necessary to our purpose, inasmuch as we intend to +notice only one thing about this argument, namely, the wonderful effect +it produces on the mind of its inventor. "The framers of the +Constitution," says he, "were wise and careful men, who had a reason for +what they did, and who understood the language which they employed." We +can readily believe all this. Nor can we doubt that they "had a design +in the peculiar arrangement" of the clauses adopted by them. That +design, however, we feel quite sure, is different from the one +attributed to them by Mr. Sumner. But let us suppose he is right, and +then see what would follow. + +The design attributed to them by Mr. Sumner was to make every one see, +beyond the possibility of a mistake, that the Constitution confers no +power on Congress to pass a Fugitive Slave Law. "They not only decline +all addition of any such power to the compact," says he, "but, _to +render misapprehension impossible,--to make assurance doubly sure,--to +exclude any contrary conclusion_, they punctiliously arrange," etc. Now, +if such were the case, then we ask if design of so easy accomplishment +were ever followed by failure so wonderful? + +They failed, in the first place, "to exclude a contrary conclusion" from +the Supreme Courts of Massachusetts, of New York, and of Pennsylvania, +all of which tribunals have decided that they _did_ confer such a power +upon Congress. In the second place, although those wise men labored to +make "misapprehension impossible," yet, according to Mr. Sumner, the +Supreme Court of the United States has entirely misapprehended them. So +far from seeing that the power in question is not granted to Congress, +this high tribunal decides that it is clearly and unquestionably +granted. This is not all. The most marvellous failure is yet to come. +For, after all their pains to make the whole world see their meaning, +these wise men did not see it themselves, but went away, many of them, +and, in the Congress of 1793, helped to pass a Fugitive Slave Law! + +It is to be feared, indeed, that the failure would have been absolutely +total but for the wonderful sagacity of a few abolitionists. For the +design imputed to the framers of the Constitution, and which they took +so much pains to disclose, had remained profoundly concealed from nearly +all men, not excepting themselves, until it was detected by Messrs. +Sumner, Chase, and company. But these have, at last, discovered it, and +now see it as in a flood of light. Indeed, they see it with such +transcendent clearness, with such marvellous perspicacity of vision, as +to atone for the stupidity and blindness of the rest of mankind. + +So much for Mr. Sumner's historical argument. His logical argument is, +if possible, still more illogical than his historical. In regard to +this, however, we shall be exceedingly brief, as we are sick of his +sophisms, and long to be delivered from the pursuit of them. + +He encounters, at the outset, "a difficulty" in the legislation of the +Congress of 1793 and in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United +States." But "on examination," says he, "this difficulty will +disappear." Perhaps difficulty so great never vanished so suddenly from +before any other man. + +The authority of the Congress of 1793, though it contained so many of +the most distinguished framers of the Constitution, is annihilated by a +few bold strokes of Mr. Sumner's pen. One short paragraph, containing +two ineffably weak arguments, does the business. + +The first of these arguments is as follows: "The act of 1793 proceeded +from a Congress that had already recognized the United States Bank, +chartered by a previous Congress, which, though sanctioned by the +Supreme Court, has been since in high quarters pronounced +unconstitutional. If it erred as to the bank, it may have erred also as +to fugitives from labor." We cannot conceive why such an argument should +have been propounded, unless it were to excite a prejudice against the +Congress of 1793 in the minds of those who may be opposed to a National +Bank. For if we look at its conclusion we shall see that it merely aims +to establish a point which no one would deny. It merely aims to prove +that, as the Congress of 1793 was composed of fallible men, "so it may +have erred!" We admit the conclusion, and therefore pass by the inherent +weaknesses in the structure of the argument. + +His second argument is this: "But the very act contains a capital +error[217] on this very subject, so declared by the Supreme Court, in +pretending to vest a portion of the judicial power of the nation in +state officers. _This error takes from the act all authority as an +interpretation of the Constitution_. I DISMISS IT." This passage, +considered as an argument, is simply ridiculous. How many of the best +laws ever enacted by man have, in the midst of much that is as clear as +noonday, been found to contain an error! Should all, therefore, have +been blindly rejected? As soon as the error has been detected, has any +enlightened tribunal on earth ever said, "I dismiss" the whole? + +By such a process we might have made as short work with Mr. Sumner's +speech. If, after pointing out one error therein, we had dismissed the +whole speech as worthless, we should have imitated his reasoning, and in +our conclusion have come much nearer to the truth. If we should say, +indeed, that because the sun has a spot on its surface it is therefore a +great ball of darkness, our argument would be exactly like that of Mr. +Sumner. But that great luminary would not refuse to shine in obedience +to our contemptible logic. In like manner, the authority of the +illustrious Congress of 1793, in which there were so many profound +statesmen and pure patriots, will not be the less resplendent because +Mr. Charles Sumner has, with Titanic audacity and Lilliputian weakness, +assailed it with one of the most pitiful of all the pitiful sophisms +that ever were invented by man. + +In regard to the decision of the Supreme Court he says: "Whatever maybe +the influence of this judgment as a rule to the judiciary, it can not +arrest our duty as legislators. And here I adopt, with entire assent, +the language of President Jackson, in his memorable veto, in 1832, of +the Bank of the United States." He then quotes this language, in which +he italicizes the following sentence: "_Each public officer, who takes +an oath to support the Constitution, swears that he will support it as +he understands it, and not as it is understood by others._" With these +authoritative words of Andrew Jackson," says he, "I dismiss this topic. +The early legislation of Congress and the decisions of the Supreme Court +can not stand in our way. I advance to the argument." We shall let him +advance. + +But we must say a few words in conclusion. Mr. Sumner swears to support +the Constitution as he understands it; but how is it supported by him? +Is it supported by him at all or in any way? Let us see. The clause +respecting "persons held to service or labor," says he, imposes an +obligation, not upon "the National Government, but upon the States." Is +he then in favor of the States passing any law, or doing any act, by +which fugitive slaves may be delivered up? "Never," he replies. +Massachusetts will never do any such thing by his advice or consent. +Surely, then, he will speak a kind word to the good people of +Massachusetts, and advise them to do nothing in violation of this solemn +compact of the Constitution. If he will do nothing to support the +compact, surely he will do nothing to break it down. He will not permit +us to indulge any such charitable hope. For it is his _avowed_ object, +by speech-making and by agitation, to create such a "public opinion" as +"shall blast with contempt, indignation, and abhorrence, all who, _in +whatever form_, or _under whatever name_, undertake to be agents"[218] +in reclaiming fugitive slaves. Yea, upon the very officers of the law +themselves, who, for this purpose, act under and by authority of the +supreme laws of the land, he pours down scorn and derision. Even these, +though in the discharge of an official duty, are--if it be in the power +of Mr. Sumner--to be blasted with abhorrence, indignation, and contempt! + +The Constitution declares that the fugitive slave "shall be delivered +up." He shall NOT "be delivered up," says Mr. Sumner; and, in order to +make his words good, he means to create a "public opinion," which no +Southern master dare encounter. Nay, he rejoices to believe that such +public opinion is, in some localities, already created and prepared for +open resistance to the Constitution of the United States. "There are +many," says he, "who will never shrink at any cost, and, notwithstanding +all the atrocious penalties of this bill, from efforts to save a +wandering fellow-man from bondage. They will offer him the shelter of +their houses, and, IF NEED BE, WILL PROTECT HIS LIBERTY BY FORCE."[219] +Horrible words! Words tending directly to a conflict in which the +brightest hopes of humanity must perish, and the glory of the Republic +be extinguished in oceans of blood. + +In the face of such things, we are imperiously constrained to doubt Mr. +Sumner's regard for the obligation of the oath which binds him to +support the Constitution of his country. It is certain that he can +rejoice in the breach of this obligation by others. A certain judge in +Vermont, who, like every other State officer, had taken an oath to +support the Constitution of the United States, just set Constitution, +laws, evidence, all at defiance, and boldly declared that the fugitive +should _not_ be delivered up, "_unless the master could show a bill of +sale from the Almighty_." This deed, which, in the language of +Chancellor Walworth, is stamped with "the moral guilt of perjury," +appears heroic to Mr. Sumner, by whom it is related with evident +delight. It would seem, indeed, as if the moral sensibility of an +abolitionist of his stamp is all drawn to a single point of his +conscience, so that it can feel absolutely nothing except slavery. It +seems dead to the obligation of an oath, to the moral guilt of perjury. +Nay, it seems to rejoice in the very bravery of its perpetration, +provided it only enables a fugitive slave to effect his escape. + +Perhaps Mr. Sumner would seek to justify himself by declaring that the +language _fugitive from services_ does not include fugitive slaves. If +so, we reply that the Vermont judge, whose infamous decision he +approves, had no such fine pretext. It is Mr. Sumner, as we have seen, +who first suggested this most excellent method of reconciling conscience +with treachery to the Constitution. Though he professes the most +profound respect for that instrument, he deliberately sets to work to +undermine one of its most clear and unequivocal mandates. He does not, +like Mr. Seward, openly smite the Constitution with his hand, or +contemptuously kick it with his foot. _He betrays it with a kiss._ + +Mr. Sumner admires the conduct of the Vermont judge; but he can heap the +most frantic abuse on the acts of the best men America has produced. +Though they be the deliberate public acts of a Clay, or a Calhoun, or a +Webster, or a GEORGE WASHINGTON, his language is not the less violent, +nor his raving vituperation the less malignant. In regard to the +Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, he says: "And still further, as if to do a +deed which should 'make heaven weep, all earth amazed,' this same +Congress, in disregard of all the cherished safeguards of freedom, has +passed a most cruel, unchristian, devilish act." The great difficulty +under which Mr. Sumner labors, and which all the energy of his soul +struggles to surmount, is to find language violent enough in which to +denounce this "foul enactment," this "detestable and heaven-defying +bill," this "monster act," which "sets at naught the best principles of +the Constitution and the very laws of God!" + +Now, this bill, let it be remembered, is liable to no objection which +may not be urged against the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. It will not be +denied, indeed, that if the one of these laws be unconstitutional so +also is the other, and that both must stand or fall together. Let it +also be borne in mind that, as the one received the support of a Clay, +and a Calhoun, and a Webster, so the other received the sanction and the +signature of George Washington. Yet, in the face of these facts, Mr. +Sumner does not moderate his rage. They only seem to increase the +intensity and the fury of his wrath. "The soul sickens," he cries, "in +the contemplation of this legalized outrage. In the dreary annals of the +past there are many acts of shame--there are many ordinances of +monarchs, and laws which have become a byword and a hissing to the +nations. But when we consider the country and the age, I ask fearlessly, +what act of shame, what ordinance of monarch, what law, can compare in +atrocity with this enactment of an American Congress?" + +Not content with pouring floods of abuse on the law itself, Mr. Sumner +proceeds to consign to infamy its authors and all who have given it +their support. For, after furnishing examples of what he deems among the +most atrocious transactions of the past, he adds: "I would not +exaggerate. I wish to keep within bounds; but _I think no person can +doubt_ that the condemnation affixed to all these transactions and to +their authors must be the lot hereafter of the Fugitive Slave Bill, and +of every one, according to the measure of his influence, who gave it his +support. Into the immortal catalogue of national crimes this law has now +passed, drawing with it, by an inexorable necessity, its authors also, +and chiefly him who, as President of the United States, set his name to +the bill, and breathed into it that final breath without which it would +have no life. Other Presidents may be forgotten, but the name signed to +the Fugitive Slave Bill can never be forgotten. There are depths of +infamy, as there are hights of fame. I regret to say what I must, but +truth compels me. Better far for him had he never been born; better for +his memory, and for the name of his children, had he never been +President!" + +If neither Mr. Fillmore nor George Washington swore to support the +Constitution as Mr. Sumner understands it, we beg him to consider that +_his opinion was not known_ when they took the oath of office. Mr. +Fillmore had, at that time, no better guide to go by than the decisions +of the most enlightened judicial tribunals of his country, with the +Supreme Court of the United States at their head. He was not so far +raised above other men, nor possessed of so wonderful an insight into +the Constitution, as Mr. Sumner; for he could understand it no better +than its framers. Hence he was, no doubt, so conscious of his own +fallibility that he could hardly look upon modesty as a crime, or upon a +deference to the judicial tribunals of his country as infamous. We +trust, therefore, that his good name will survive, and that his children +will not blush to own it. It is certain that the American people will +never believe, on the bare authority of Mr. Sumner, that, in his course +regarding the Fugitive Slave Law, he planted his feet in the very +"depths of infamy," when they can so clearly see that he merely trod in +the footsteps of George Washington. + +If what a man lacks in reason he could only make up in rage, then, after +all, it would have to be concluded that Mr. Sumner is a very respectable +Senator; for, surely, the violence of his denunciations is almost as +remarkable as the weakness of his logic. Fortunately, however, it can +hurt no one except himself or those whom he represents. Certainly, the +brightest names in the galaxy of American statesmen are not to be swept +away by the filthy torrent of his invectives. The Clays, the Calhouns, +the Websters, and the Washingtons of America, are, indeed, as far above +the impotent rage of this Senator as the very stars of heaven are beyond +his arm.[220] + + +Sec. III. _The right of Trial by Jury not impaired by the Fugitive Slave +Law._ + +It is alleged that the power to enact such a law does not reside in +Congress, because no such power has been "expressly delegated," and +because it is not "necessary and proper" to carry any expressly +delegated authority into effect. We should have replied to this +argument; but it has been urged before every tribunal in which the great +question under consideration has been tried, and everywhere refuted. By +Mr. Justice Nelson, in the Supreme Court of New York,[221] by Mr. +Senator Bishop, in the Court of Errors in the same State,[222] and by +Mr. Justice Story, in the Supreme Court of the United States, it has +been so clearly, so powerfully, and so triumphantly demolished as to +leave nothing more to be desired on the subject. And besides, it has +been our object not so much to refute arguments against the law in +question, or to establish that which has been so long established,[223] +as to show on what slender grounds, and yet with what unbounded +confidence, the greatest champions of abolitionism are accustomed to +oppose the Constitution, the laws, the judicial decisions, and the +uniform practice, of the whole government under which we live. + +In pursuance of this design, there is another sophism of theirs, which +it now devolves upon us to examine. We allude to the argument that the +Fugitive Slave Law is unconstitutional, because it denies the right of +trial by jury. + +Is this still an open question? In the biography of Mr. Justice Story, +published by his son, it is said: "The argument that the Act of 1793 was +unconstitutional, because it did not provide for a trial by jury +according to the requisitions of the sixth article in the amendment to +the Constitution, having been suggested to my father on his return from +Washington, he replied that this question was not argued by counsel nor +considered by the court, and that he should still consider it an open +one." Mr. Sumner adduces this "distinct statement that the necessity of +trial by jury was not before the court;" and adds, "So that, in the +estimation of the judge himself, it was still an open question." + +In the case here referred to--Prigg _v._ The Commonwealth of +Pennsylvania, reported in XVI. Peters--it is true that the question of +trial by jury was not argued by counsel nor considered by the court. But +if the greater includes the less, then this question was embraced in the +decision; for, in that case, Prigg had seized the fugitive slave without +process, and carried her away without any certificate from magistrate or +judge in the State of Pennsylvania. The court declared that he had a +right to do so under and by virtue of the Constitution of the United +States. Most assuredly, if he had a constitutional right to such +proceeding, then, in such cases, the Constitution dispenses with the +necessity of trial by jury. + +It was urged by counsel that such summary method of reclaiming fugitive +slaves was unconstitutional; but the court decided otherwise. It was +insisted by Mr. Hambly, just as it is now insisted by Mr. Sumner and +others, that such arrest was unconstitutional, because it was made by +the mere will of the party, and not, as the Constitution requires, "by +due process of law." Thus the point was presented by the record, argued +by the counsel, and overruled by the court. + +In overruling this argument the court says: "The owner must, therefore, +have the right to seize and repossess the slave which the local laws of +his own State confer upon him as property; and we all know that this +right of seizure and recaption is universally acknowledged in all the +slaveholding States. Indeed, this is no more than a mere affirmance of +the principles of the common law applicable to this very subject." Then, +after a quotation from Blackstone, the court adds: "Upon this ground, we +have not the slightest hesitation in holding that, under and in virtue +of the Constitution, the owner of a slave is clothed with entire +authority in every State in the Union to seize and recapture his slave +whenever he can do it without any breach of the peace or any illegal +violence." + +In accordance with this opinion of the court--delivered by Mr. Justice +Story--Mr. Chief Justice Taney says: the master "has a right, peaceably, +to take possession of him, and carry him away, without any certificate +or warrant from a judge of the District or Circuit Court of the United +States, or from any magistrate of the State; and whosoever resists or +obstructs him is a wrong-doer; and every State law which proposes, +directly or indirectly, to authorize such resistance or obstruction, is +null and void, and affords no justification to the individual or the +officer of the State who acts under it. This right of the master being +given by the Constitution of the United States, neither Congress nor a +State Legislature can by any law or regulation impair it or restrict +it.[224] + +Hence it would have been well if Mr. Sumner and the son of Judge Story +had looked into this decision again before they proclaimed the opinion +that the right of trial by jury is, in such cases, still an open +question. Mr. Justice Story himself must, on reflection, have seen that +the off-hand expression attributed to him was erroneous. His more +deliberate opinion is recorded, not only in the case of Prigg, but also +in his "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States." "It is +obvious," says he, "that these provisions for the arrest and removal of +fugitives of both classes contemplate summary ministerial proceedings, +and not the ordinary courts of judicial investigations to ascertain +whether the complaint be well-founded or the claim of ownership be +established beyond all legal controversy. In cases of suspected crimes +the guilt or innocence of the party is to be made out at his trial, and +not upon the preliminary inquiry whether he shall be delivered up. All +that would seem in such cases to be necessary is that there should be +_prima facie_ evidence before the executive authority to satisfy its +judgment that there is probable cause to believe the party guilty, such +as, upon an ordinary warrant, would justify his commitment for trial. +And in the cases of fugitive slaves there would seem to be the same +necessity of requiring only _prima facie_ proofs of ownership, without +putting the party to a formal assertion of his rights by a suit at the +common law."[225] + +But, since the abolitionists will discuss this point, then let it be +considered an open question, and let them produce their arguments. The +first we shall notice is from Mr. Sumner, who again reasons from the +sentiments of the fathers. "At the close of the National Convention," +says he, "Elbridge Gerry refused to sign the Constitution, because, +among other things, it established 'a tribunal _without juries_, a Star +Chamber as to civil cases.' Many united in his opposition, and, on the +recommendation of the First Congress, this additional safeguard was +adopted as an amendment." Thus, according to Mr. Sumner, Elbridge Gerry +was the father of the clause in the Constitution which guarantees the +right of trial by jury. Yet Elbridge Gerry never dreamed of applying +this clause to the case of fugitive slaves; for, as we have already +seen, he voted for the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, in which such +application of it is denied. Nor did any other member of that Congress +propose the right of trial by jury in such cases. + +No doubt there would have been opposition to the act of 1793 if any +member of Congress had supposed, for a moment, that it denied the right +of trial by jury to the fugitive slave. It does no such thing. It leaves +that right unimpaired; and if any slave in the Union, whether fugitive +or otherwise, desire such trial, it is secured to him by the +Constitution and laws of the country. But he cannot have such trial +where or in what State he chooses. If he lives in Richmond, he may have +a trial by jury there; but he cannot escape to Boston, and there demand +this as a right. The fugitive from labor, like the fugitive from +justice, has a right to a trial by jury, but neither can claim to have +this trial in any part of the world he pleases. The latter must be tried +in "the vicinage" where the offense is alleged to have been committed, +because there the witnesses are to be found. He has no right to flee +from these and require them to follow him with their testimony. As he +has a constitutional right to be tried in the vicinage of the alleged +offense, so has the commonwealth a right to insist on his trial there. +In like manner, and for a similar reason, if the colored man wishes to +assert his freedom under the law, he may appeal to a jury of the +country; but this must be done in the State under whose laws he is +claimed as a slave and where the witnesses reside. He cannot fly to a +distant State, and there demand a kind of trial which neither the +Constitution, nor the laws, nor public expediency, secures to him. If he +assert this right at all, he must assert it in conformity with the +_undoubted right of the other party_, which is to be sued in this, as in +all other personal actions, in the place where he resides. + +In the face of these considerations, it is no wonder that the Congress +of 1793 were so unanimous in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law. Though +this law did not provide for a jury trial, yet its authors all knew that +such trial was not denied to the fugitive slave, if he had a mind to +claim it. Hence the law was passed by that Congress, without even an +allusion to this modern abolition objection to its constitutionality. +Among all the members of that body who had taken part in framing the +Constitution of the United States,[226] not one was found to hint at +such an objection. This objection is of more recent origin, if not of +less respectable parentage. + +An amendment to the law in question, allowing a trial by jury to the +fugitive slave in a distant State, would indeed be a virtual denial of +the constitutional right of the master. Either because the jury could +not agree, or because distant testimony might be demanded, the trial +would probably be continued, and put off, until the expense, the loss of +time, and the worriment of vexatious proceedings, would be more than the +slave is worth. The language of Mr. Chief Justice Taney, in relation to +an action for damages by the master, is peculiarly applicable to such a +trial by jury. The master "_would be compelled_," says he, "_to +encounter the costs and expenses of a suit, prosecuted at a distance +from his own home, and to sacrifice perhaps the value of his property +in endeavoring_ to obtain compensation." This is not the kind of +remedy, says he, the Constitution "intended to give. The delivery of the +property itself--its PROMPT AND IMMEDIATE DELIVERY--_is plainly +required, and was intended to be secured_." Such prompt and immediate +delivery was a part of "the customary or common law" at the time the +Constitution was adopted, and its framers, no doubt, intended that this +practice should be enforced by the clause in question, as appears from +the fact that so many of them concurred in the Act of 1793. + +But if such right to a prompt and immediate delivery be guaranteed by +the Constitution itself, then, with all due submission, we would ask, +what power has Congress to limit or abridge this right? If under and by +virtue of the Constitution this right to a prompt and immediate delivery +be secured, then what power has Congress to say there shall _not_ be a +prompt or immediate delivery? "This right of the master," says Mr. Chief +Justice Taney, "being given by the Constitution of the United States, +NEITHER CONGRESS NOR A STATE LEGISLATURE CAN BY ANY LAW OR REGULATION +IMPAIR IT OR RESTRICT IT." If this be sound doctrine,--and such we hold +it to be,--then Congress has no constitutional power to impair or +restrict the right in question, by giving the fugitive slave a trial by +jury in the State to which he may have fled. This would not be to give a +"prompt and immediate delivery," such as the Supreme Court declares the +master is entitled to by the Constitution itself; it would be either to +give no delivery at all, or else one attended with such delays, +vexations, and costs, as would materially impair, if not wholly +annihilate, the right in question. + +It is right and proper, we think, that questions arising exclusively +under our own laws should be tried in our own States and by our own +tribunals. Hence we shall never consent, unless constrained by the +judicial decision of the Supreme Court of the Union, to have such +questions tried in States whose people and whose juries may, perhaps, be +hostile to our interests and to our domestic institutions. For we are +SOVEREIGN as well as they. + +Only conceive such a trial by jury in a Northern State, with such an +advocate for the fugitive slave as Mr. Chase, or Mr. Sumner, or some +other flaming abolitionist! There sits the fugitive slave,--"one of the +heroes of the age," as Mr. Sumner calls him, and the very embodiment of +persecuted innocence. On the other hand is the master,--the vile +"slave-hunter," as Mr. Sumner delights to represent him, and whom, if +possible, he is determined "to blast with contempt, indignation, and +abhorrence." The trial begins. The advocate appeals to the prejudices +and the passions of the jury. He denounces slavery--about which neither +he nor the jury know any thing--as the epitome of all earthly wrongs, as +the sum and substance of all human woes. Now, suppose that on the jury +there is _only one man_, who, like the Vermont judge, requires "a bill +of sale from the Almighty" before he will deliver up a fugitive slave; +or who, like Mr. Seward, sets his own private opinion above the +Constitution of his country; or who, like Mr. Sumner, has merely sworn +to support the supreme law as he understands it; and who, at the same +time, possesses his capacity to understand it just exactly as he +pleases: then what chance would the master have for a verdict? Just none +at all. For that one man, however clear the master's evidence, would +hang the jury, and the cause would have to be tried over again. + +But suppose the whole twelve jurors should decide according to the law +and the evidence, and give a verdict in favor of the claimant; would his +rights then be secured? Very far from it. For there is the eager crowd, +which never fails to flock to such trials, and which the inflammatory +eloquence of the advocate has now wrought into a frenzy. Cannot such +crowd, think you, furnish a mob to effect by force what every member of +the jury had refused to accomplish by falsehood? If the master--if the +abhorred "slave-hunter"--should escape from such a crowd with a sound +body only, and without his property, he ought, we think, to deem himself +exceedingly fortunate. + +Mr. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, has advocated a trial by jury in such +cases. He was, no doubt, perfectly sincere in the belief expressed by +him, that under such a provision more fugitive slaves would be reclaimed +than under the law as it now stands. But it is equally certain that +neither Mr. Seward nor Mr. Chase was of this opinion when the one +proposed, and the other voted for, a trial by jury in such cases. +Neither of these Senators, we think we may confidently affirm, intended +to aid the master in reclaiming his fugitive slaves. + +"At any rate, sir," says Mr. Winthrop, "I shall vote for the amendment +offered by the Senator from New Jersey, as right and just in itself, +whatever may be its effects." That is to say, whatever may be the +effect of a jury trial in such cases, he means to vote for it _as right +and just in itself_! Whether this were a burst of passion merely, or the +deliberate conviction of the author of it, we are not able to determine, +but we shall trust it was the former. For surely such an opinion, if +deliberately entertained, is creditable neither to a Senator nor to a +jurist. Neither this, nor any other mode of trial, is "right in itself;" +and when right at all, it is only so as a means to an end. It is only +right when it subserves the great end of justice; and if it fail to +answer this end it is then worse than worthless. Hence the statesman who +declares that, "_whatever may be the effects_" of a particular mode of +trial, he will nevertheless support it "as right and just in itself," +thereby announces that he is prepared to sacrifice the end to the +means,--a sentiment which, we venture to affirm, is more worthy of a +fanatical declaimer than of the high-minded and accomplished Senator by +whom it was uttered. + +The great objection urged against the Fugitive Slave Law is that under +it a freeman may be seized and reduced to slavery. This law, as well as +every other, may, no doubt, be grossly abused, and made a cover for evil +deeds. But is there no remedy for such evil deeds. Is there no +protection for the free blacks of the North, except by a denial of the +clear and unquestionable constitutional rights of the South? If not, +then we should be willing to submit; but there is a remedy against such +foul abuse of the law of Congress in question, and, as we conceive, a +most ample remedy. + +The master may recapture his fugitive slave. This is his constitutional +right. But, in the language of the Supreme Court of New York, already +quoted, if a villain, under cover of a pretended right, proceeds to +carry off a freeman, he does so "_at his peril, and would be answerable +like any other trespasser or kidnapper_." He must be caught, however, +before he can be punished. Let him be caught, let the crime be proved +upon him, and we would most heartily concur in the law by which he +should himself be doomed to slavery for life in the penitentiary. + +The Fugitive Slave Law is not the only one liable to abuse. The innocent +may be, and often have been, arrested for crime; but this is no reason +why the law of arrest should be abolished, or even impaired in its +operation. Nay, innocent persons have often been maliciously prosecuted; +yet no one, on this account, ever dreamed of throwing obstacles in the +way of prosecution for crime. The innocent have been made the victims +of perjury; but who imagines that all swearing in courts of justice +should therefore be abolished? Such evils and such crimes are sought to +be remedied by separate legislation, and not by undermining the laws of +which they are the abuses. In like manner, though we wish to see the +free blacks of the North protected, and would most cheerfully lend a +helping hand for that purpose, yet, at the same time, we would maintain +our own constitutional rights inviolate. The villain who, under cover of +the law made for the protection of our rights, should seek to invade the +rights of Northern freemen, is as much abhorred by us as by any +abolitionists on earth. Nor, on the other hand, have we any sympathy +with those who, under cover of a law _to be made_ for the protection of +the free blacks of the North, seek to invade the rights of the South. We +have no sympathy with either class of kidnappers. + +Is it not wonderful that, while the abolitionists of the North create +and keep up so great a clamor about the danger their free blacks are in, +they do so little, and ask so little, either by legislation or +otherwise, in order to protect them, except in such manner, or by such +legislation, as shall aim a deadly blow at the rights and interests of +the South? If they really wish to protect their free blacks, and if the +laws are not already sufficient for that purpose, we are more than +willing to assist in the passage of more efficient ones. But we are not +willing to abandon the great right which the Constitution spreads, like +an impenetrable shield, over Southern property to the amount of sixteen +hundred millions of dollars. + +The complaint in regard to the want of protection for the free blacks of +the North is without just foundation. In the case of Jack _v._ Martin, +decided in the Court of Errors of New York, we find the following +language, which is here exactly in point:--"It was contended on the +argument of this cause, with great zeal and earnestness, that, under the +law of the United States, a freeman might be dragged from his family and +home into captivity. This is supposing an extreme case, as I believe it +is not pretended any such ever has occurred, or that any complaint of +that character has ever been made; at all events, I cannot regard it as +a very potent argument. The same position might as well be taken in the +case of a fugitive from justice. It might be assumed that he was an +innocent man, and entitled to be tried by a jury of the State where he +was arrested, to ascertain whether he had violated the laws of the State +from which he fled; whereas the fact is, the executive of this State +would feel bound to deliver up the most exalted individual in this +State, (however well satisfied he might be of his innocence,) if a +requisition was made upon him by the executive of another State." + +In the same case, when before the Supreme Court of New York, the court +said: "In the case under review, the proceedings are before a magistrate +of our own State, presumed to possess a sympathy with his +fellow-citizens, and _where, upon the supposition that a freeman is +arrested, he may readily procure the evidence of his freedom_. If the +magistrate should finally err in granting the certificate, _the party +can still resort to the protection of the national judiciary. The +proceedings by which his rights have been invaded being under a law of +Congress, the remedy for error or injustice belongs peculiarly to that +high tribunal._ UNDER THEIR AMPLE SHIELD, THE APPREHENSION OF CAPTIVITY +AND OPPRESSION CAN NOT BE ALARMING." + +It is evident that when this opinion was pronounced by the Supreme Court +of New York, it had not fathomed the depths of some men's capacity of +being alarmed by apprehensions of captivity and oppression. The +abolitionists will, whether or no, be most dreadfully alarmed. But the +danger consists, not in the want of laws and courts to punish the +kidnapper, but in the want of somebody to catch him. If he does all the +mischief ascribed to him by the abolitionists, is it not wonderful that +he is not caught by them? Rumor, with her thousand tongues, is clamorous +about his evil deeds; and fanatical credulity, with her ten thousand +ears, gives heed to the reports of rumor. But yet, somehow or other, the +abolitionists, with all their fiery, restless zeal, never succeed in +laying their hands on the offender himself. He must, indeed, be a most +adroit, a most cunning, a most wonderful rogue. He boldly goes into a +community in which so many are all eye, all ear, and all tongue, in +regard to the black man's rights; he there steals a free negro, who +himself has the power to tell when, where, and how, he became free; and +yet, in open day, and amid ten thousand flaming guardians of +freedom,[227] he escapes with perfect impunity! Is he not a most +marvelous proper rogue? But perhaps the reason the abolitionists do not +lay hands on him is that he is an imaginary being, who, though +intangible and invisible, will yet serve just as well to create an alarm +and keep up a great excitement as if he were a real personage. + + +Sec. IV. _The duty of the Citizen in regard to the Constitution of the +United States._ + +The Constitution, it is agreed on all sides, is "the supreme law of the +land,"--of every State in the Union. The first duty of the citizen in +regard to the Constitution is, then, to respect and obey each and every +one of its provisions. If he repudiates or sets at naught this or that +provision thereof, because it does not happen to agree with his own +views or feelings, he does not respect the Constitution at all; he makes +his own will and pleasure the supreme law. The true principle of loyalty +resides not in his bosom. We may apply to him, and to the supreme law of +the land, the language of an inspired apostle, that "whosoever shall +keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." +He is guilty of all, because, by his willful disobedience in the one +instance, he sets at naught the authority by which the whole was +ordained and established. + +In opposing the Fugitive Slave Law, it is forgotten by the abolitionists +that, if no such law existed, the master would have, under the +Constitution itself, the same right to reclaim his fugitive from labor, +and to reclaim him in the same summary manner; for, as we have seen, the +Supreme Court of the United States has decided that by virtue of the +Constitution alone the master has a right to pursue and reclaim his +fugitive slave, without even a writ or legal process. Hence, in opposing +the Fugitive Slave Law because it allows a summary proceeding in such +cases, the abolitionists really make war on the Constitution. The +battery which they open against the Constitution is merely masked behind +the Fugitive Slave Law; and thus the nature of their attack is concealed +from the eyes of their non-legal followers. + +But, says Mr. Chase, of Ohio, I do not agree with the Supreme Court of +the United States. I oppose not the Constitution, but the decision of +the Supreme Court. "A decision of the Supreme Court," says he, "cannot +alter the Constitution." This is very true; but then, on the other +hand, it is equally true that neither can his opinion alter the +Constitution. But here the question arises, which is the rule of conduct +for the true and loyal citizen,--the decision of the Supreme Court of +the United States, or the opinion of Governor Chase? We decidedly prefer +the former. "Sir," says Mr. Chase, "when gentlemen from the slave States +ask us to support the Constitution, I fear they mean only their +_construction_ of the Constitution." We mean not so. We mean neither +_our_ nor _his_ construction of the Constitution, but that construction +only which has been given to it by the highest judicial tribunal in the +land, by the supreme and final arbiter in all such conflicts of opinion. + +But Mr. Chase opposes argument as well as opinion to the decision of the +Supreme Court in regard to slavery. "What more natural," says he, "than +that gentlemen from the slave States, in view of the questions likely to +come before the Supreme Court, should desire that a majority of its +members might have interests like those which they would desire to +maintain! _Certain it is that some care has been taken to secure such a +constitution of the court, and not without success._" If Mr. Chase, or +any other abolitionist, should insinuate that the decision in question +is owing to such an unfair constitution of the Supreme Court, the answer +is as easy and triumphant as the accusation would be infamous and vile; +for, as is well known, the very decision which is so obnoxious to his +sentiments was delivered by the great jurist of Massachusetts, Mr. +Justice Story, and was concurred in by the other Northern members of the +Court. This is not all. How did it happen that substantially the same +decision has been rendered by the Supreme Courts of New York, +Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania? Were these high tribunals also +constituted with reference to the peculiar interests of the South? + +The question is not whether the decision of the Supreme Court, or the +opinion of Mr. Chase, the more perfectly reflects the Constitution. Even +if he were infallible, as the Supreme Court certainly is not, we, the +people of the United States, have not agreed that he shall decide such +questions for us. And besides, it would be difficult, perhaps, to +persuade the people that he is, for the determination of such questions, +any more happily constituted than the Supreme Court itself, with all the +manifold imperfections of its Southern members. But, however this may +be, it is certain that until the people shall be so persuaded, and +shall agree to abide by his opinions, it is the duty of the good citizen +to follow the decisions of the great judicial tribunal provided by the +Constitution of his country. + +If you, good citizen of the North, have a right to set up your opinion +in opposition to such decisions, then I have the same right, and so has +every other member of the commonwealth. Thus, as many constructions of +the Constitution would necessarily result as there are individual +opinions in the land. Law and order would be at an end; a chaos of +conflicting elements would prevail, and every man would do that which +seemed right in his own eyes. The only escape from such anarchy is a +just and loyal confidence in the judicial tribunals of the land--is a +subjection of the intense egotism of the individual to the will of the +nation, as expressed in the Constitution and expounded by the +constitutional authorities. Hence, we mean to support the Constitution, +not as _we_ understand it nor as _you_ understand it, but as it is +understood by the Supreme Court of the United States. Such, it seems to +us, is the only wise course--nay, is the imperative duty--of every +citizen who does not intend to disorganize the fundamental law and +revolutionize the government of his country. + +It may be supposed, perhaps, by those who have reflected little on the +subject, that the controversy respecting the Fugitive Slave Law is +merely about the value of a few slaves. It is, in our opinion, far +otherwise; it is a great constitutional question; and hence the deep +interest which it has excited throughout the nation, as well as in the +Senate of the United States. It is a question, as it appears to us, +whether the Constitution or the abolitionists shall rule the country. +The Fugitive Slave Law is, as we have seen, surrounded by the strongest +possible evidences of its constitutionality; and hence, if this may be +swept away as unconstitutional by the passions of a mad faction, then +may every other legal defence be leveled before like storms, and all +security annihilated. Hence, as the friends of law and order, we intend +to take our stand right here, and defend this Act, which, although +despised and abhorred by a faction, has received the sanction of the +fathers, as well as of the great judicial tribunals, of the land. + +We are asked to repeal this law--ay, by the most violent agitator of the +North we are asked to repeal this law--for "_the sake of tranquillity +and peace_!" But how can this bring peace? Suppose this law were +repealed; would tranquillity be restored? We have not forgotten--nor can +we be so easily made to forget--that this very agitator himself has +declared, that slavery is "a wrong so transcendent" that no truce is to +be allowed to it so long as it occupies a single foot of ground in the +United States. Is it not, then, a delusive prospect of peace which is +offered to us in exchange for the law in question? + +Nor can we forget what other agitators have uttered respecting the +abolition of slavery in the Southern States. "Slavery," said Mr. Seward, +at a mass-meeting in Ohio, "can be limited to its present bounds; it can +be ameliorated. It can be--and it _must_ be--ABOLISHED, and you and I +can and _must_ do it." Does this look like peace, if the Fugitive Slave +Law were only out of the way? Mr. Seward, from his place in the Senate +of the United States, tells us how we must act among the people of the +North, if, in reclaiming our fugitive slaves, we would not disturb their +peace. But he had already exhorted the people of the North to "extend a +cordial welcome" to our fugitive slaves, and to "defend them as they +would their household gods." What, then, does he mean by peace? + +This outcry, indeed, that the peace of the country is disturbed by the +Fugitive Slave Law, is as great a delusion as ever was attempted to be +palmed off on any people. If this law were repealed to-morrow, would +agitation cease? Would the abolitionists of the North cease to proclaim +that their doors are open, and their hospitality is ready, to receive +the poor benighted blacks? (the blacks of the South, we mean; for we +have never heard of their open doors, or cordial hospitality, for the +poor free blacks of their own neighborhood.) But we have heard--from Dr. +Channing himself--of "a convention at the North, of highly respected +men, preparing and publishing an address to the slaves, in which they +are exhorted to fly from bondage, and to _feel no scruple in seizing and +using horse or boat which may facilitate their escape_." Now, if the +Fugitive Slave Law were repealed, would all such proceedings cease? Or +if, under the Constitution as expounded by the Supreme Courts of the +Union and of New York, and without any such law to back him, the master +should seek to reclaim his property, would he be welcomed, or hooted and +resisted, by the defenders of the fugitive from service? Let these +things be considered, and it will be evident, we think, that the repeal +of the law in question would only invite further aggressions, and from +this prostrate outpost the real enemies of the peace of the country +would march, if possible, over every other defense of the Constitution. + +Hence, although we most ardently desire harmony and concord for the +States of the Union, we shall never seek it by a surrender of the +Constitution or the decisions of the Supreme Court. If it cannot be +found under these, it cannot be found at all. Mr. Chase assures us, +indeed, that just so long as the rule laid down by the Supreme Court in +the case of Prigg prevails, we must "encounter difficulties, and serious +difficulties."[228] If it must be so, then so be it. If the question be +whether the decisions of the Supreme Court, or the dictation of +demagogues, shall rule our destinies, then is our stand taken and our +purpose immovably fixed. + +We have a right to peace under the decisions of that august tribunal. It +is neither right nor proper--it is contrary to every principle of +natural justice--that either party to this great controversy should +decide for itself. Hence, if the abolitionists will not submit to the +decisions of the Supreme Court, we shall most assuredly refuse +submission to their arrogant dictation. We can, from our inmost hearts, +respect the feelings of those of our Northern brethren who may choose to +remain passive in this matter, and leave us--by such aid as the law may +afford--to reclaim our own fugitives from labor. For such we have only +words of kindness and feelings of fraternal love. But as for those--and +especially for those in high places--who counsel resistance to the laws +and to the Constitution of the Republic, we hold them guilty of a high +misdemeanor, and we shall ever treat them as disturbers of the public +peace, nay, as enemies of the independence, the perpetuity, the +greatness, and the glory of the Union under which, by the blessing of +Almighty God, we have hitherto so wonderfully prospered. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[209] On this point, see page 176. + +[210] XIV. Wendell, Jack v. Martin, p. 528 + +[211] XIV. Wendell's Reports, Jack _v._ Martin. + +[212] In asserting that freedom is national, Mr. Sumner may perhaps mean +that it is the duty of the National Government to exclude slavery from +all its territories, and to admit no new State in which there are +slaves. If this be his meaning, we should reply, that it is as foreign +from the merits of the Fugitive Slave Law, which he proposed to discuss, +as it is from the truth. The National Government has, indeed, no more +power to exclude, than it has to ordain, slavery; for slavery or no +slavery is a question which belongs wholly and exclusively to the +sovereign people of each and every State or territory. With our whole +hearts we respond to the inspiring words of the President's Message: "If +the friends of the Constitution are to have another struggle, its +enemies could not present a more acceptable issue than that of a State, +whose Constitution clearly embraces a republican form of government, +being excluded from the Union because its domestic institutions may not, +in all respects, comport with the ideas of what is wise and expedient +entertained in some other State." + +[213] Chap. ii Sec. x. + +[214] Madison Papers, p. 1448. + +[215] One member seems to have been absent from the House. + +[216] Annals of Congress; 2d Congress, 1791-1793, p. 861. + +[217] This error was by no means a capital one. + +[218] Speech in the Senate, in 1855. + +[219] Speech in Boston, October 3d, 1850. + +[220] Mr. Sumner has a great deal to say, in his speech, about "the +memory of the fathers." When their sentiments agree with his own, or +only seem to him to do so, then they are "the demi-gods of history." But +only let these demi-gods cross his path or come into contact with his +fanatical notions, and instantly they sink into sordid knaves. The +framers of the Constitution of the United States, says he, made "a +compromise, which _cannot be mentioned without shame_. It was that +_hateful bargain_ by which Congress was restrained until 1808 from the +prohibition of the foreign slave trade, thus securing, down to that +period, _toleration for crime_." . . . . "The effrontery of slaveholders +was matched by _the sordidness of the Eastern members_." . . . . "The +bargain was struck, and at this price the Southern States gained the +detestable indulgence. At a subsequent day, Congress branded the slave +trade as piracy, and thus, by solemn legislative act, adjudged this +compromise to be _felonious and wicked_." + +But for this compromise, as every one who has read the history of the +times perfectly well knows, no union could have been formed, and the +slave trade might have been carried on to the present day. By this +compromise, then, the Convention did not tolerate crime nor the slave +trade; they merely formed the Union, and, in forming it, _gained the +power to abolish the slave trade in twenty years_. The gain of this +power, which Congress had not before possessed, was considered by them +as a great gain to the cause of humanity. If the Eastern members, from a +blind and frantic hatred of slavery, had blasted all prospects of a +union, and at the same time put the slave trade beyond their power +forever, they would have imitated the wisdom of the abolitionists, who +always promote the cause they seek to demolish. + +If any one will read the history of the times, he will see that "the +fathers," the framers of the Constitution, were, in making this very +compromise, governed by the purest, the most patriotic, and the most +humane, of motives. He who accuses them of corruption shows himself +corrupt; especially if, like Mr. Sumner, he can laud them on one page as +demi-gods, and on the very next denounce them as sordid knaves, who, for +the sake of filthy lucre, could enter into a "felonious and wicked" +bargain. Yet the very man who accuses them of having made so infamous +and corrupt a bargain in regard to the slave trade can and does most +eloquently declaim against the monstrous injustice of supposing them +capable of the least act in favor of slavery! + +[221] XII. Wendell, p. 314. + +[222] XIV. Wendell, p. 530; XVI. Peters, p. 608. + +[223] Indeed, if we had produced all the arguments in favor of the +constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law, it would have carried us +far beyond our limits, and swelled this single chapter into a volume. + +[224] This decision of the Supreme Court, which authorizes the master to +seize his fugitive slave _without process_, (see his speech, Appendix to +Congressional Globe, vol. xxii., part 2, p. 1587,) is exceedingly +offensive to Mr. Chase of Ohio; and no wonder, since the Legislature of +his own State has passed a law, making it a penitentiary offense in the +master who should thus prosecute his constitutional right as declared by +this decision. But, in regard to this point, the Supreme Court of the +United States does not stand alone. The Supreme Court of New York, in +the case of Jack _v._ Martin, had previously said: "Whether the owner or +agent might have made the arrest in the first instance without any +process, we will not stop to examine; authorities of deserved +respectability and weight have held the affirmative. 2 Pick. 11, 5 Serg. +& Rawle, 62, and the case of Glen _v._ Hodges, in this court, before +referred to, (in 9 Johnson,) seem to countenance the same conclusion. It +would indeed appear to follow as a necessary consequence, from _the +undoubted position, that under this clause of the Constitution the right +and title of the owner to the service of the slave is as entire and +perfect within the jurisdiction of the State to which he has fled as it +was in the one from which he escaped. Such seizure would be at the peril +of the party_; AND IF A FREEMAN WAS TAKEN, HE WOULD BE ANSWERABLE LIKE +ANY OTHER TRESPASSER OR KIDNAPPER." + +[225] Story on Constitution, vol. iii. book iii., chap. xl. + +[226] The framers of the Constitution in that Congress were:--"John +Langdon and Nicholas Gilmer, of New Hampshire; Caleb Strong and Elbridge +Gerry, of Massachusetts; Roger Sherman and Oliver Elsworth, of +Connecticut; Rufus King, of New York; Robert Morris and Thomas +Fitzsimmons, of Pennsylvania; George Reid and Richard Basset, of +Delaware; Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey; Pierce Butler, of South +Carolina; Hugh Williamson, of North Carolina; William Few and Abraham +Baldwin, of Georgia; and last, but not least, James Madison, of +Virginia." Yet from not one of these framers of the Constitution--from +not one of these illustrious guardians of freedom--was a syllable heard +in regard to the right of trial by jury in connection with the Fugitive +Slave Law then passed. The more pity it is, no doubt, the abolitionist +will think, that neither Mr. Chase, nor Mr. Sumner, nor Mr. Seward, was +there to enlighten them on the subject of trial by jury and to save the +country from the infamy of such an Act. Alas! for the poor, blind +fathers! + +[227] This crime of kidnapping, says Mr. Chase, of Ohio, is "not +unfrequent" in his section of country; that is, about Cincinnati. + +[228] Appendix to Congressional Globe, vol. xxii., part ii., p. 1587. + + + + +THE + +BIBLE ARGUMENT: + +OR, + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF DIVINE REVELATION. + +BY + +THORNTON STRINGFELLOW, D. D., + +OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. + + + + +THE BIBLE ARGUMENT: + +OR, + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF DIVINE REVELATION. + + +CIRCUMSTANCES exist among the inhabitants of these United States, which +make it proper that the Scriptures should be carefully examined by +Christians in reference to the institution of slavery, which exists in +several of the States, with the approbation of those who profess +unlimited subjection to God's revealed will. + +It is branded by one portion of people, who take their rule of moral +rectitude from the Scriptures, as a great sin; nay, the greatest of sins +that exist in the nation. And they hold the obligation to exterminate +it, to be paramount to all others. + +If slavery be thus sinful, it behooves all Christians who are involved +in the sin, to repent in dust and ashes, and wash their hands of it, +without consulting with flesh and blood. Sin in the sight of God is +something which God in his word makes known to be wrong, either by +preceptive prohibition, by principles of moral fitness, or examples of +inspired men, contained in the sacred volume. When these furnish no law +to condemn human conduct, there is no transgression. Christians should +produce a "thus saith the Lord," both for what they condemn as sinful, +and for what they approve as lawful, in the sight of heaven. + +It is to be hoped, that on a question of such vital importance as this +to the peace and safety of our common country, as well as to the welfare +of the church, we shall be seen cleaving to the Bible, and taking all +our decisions about this matter, from its inspired pages. With men from +the North, I have observed for many years a palpable ignorance of the +Divine will, in reference to the institution of slavery. I have seen but +a few who made the Bible their study, that had obtained a knowledge of +what it did revea on this subject. Of late their denunciation of +slavery as a sin, is loud and long. + +I propose, therefore, to examine the sacred volume briefly, and if I am +not greatly mistaken, I shall be able to make it appear that the +institution of slavery has received, in the first place, + +1st. The sanction of the Almighty in the Patriarchal age. + +2d. That it was incorporated into the only National Constitution which +ever emanated from God. + +3d. That its legality was recognized, and its relative duties regulated, +by Jesus Christ in his kingdom; and + +4th. That it is full of mercy. + +Before I proceed further, it is necessary that the terms used to +designate the thing, be defined. It is not a name, but a thing, that is +denounced as sinful; because it is supposed to be contrary to, and +prohibited by the Scriptures. + +Our translators have used the term servant, to designate a state in +which persons were serving, leaving us to gather the _relation_ between +the party served, and the party rendering the service, from other terms. +The term slave, signifies with us, a definite state, condition, or +relation, which state, condition, or relation, is precisely that one +which is denounced as sinful. This state, condition, or relation, is +that in which one human being is held without his consent, by another, +as property;[229] to be bought, sold, and transferred, together with +increase, as property forever. Now, this precise thing, is denounced by +a portion of the people of these United States, as the greatest +individual and national sin that is among us, and is thought to be so +hateful in the sight of God, as to subject the nation to ruinous +judgments, if it be not removed. Now, I propose to show from the +Scriptures, that this state, condition, or relation, did exist in the +_patriarchal age_, and that the persons most extensively involved in the +sin, if it be a sin, are the very persons who have been singled out by +the Almighty, as the objects of his special regard--whose character and +conduct he has caused to be held up as _models_ for future generations. +Before we conclude slavery to be a thing hateful to God, and a great sin +in his sight, it is proper that we should search the records he has +given us, with care, to see in what light he has looked upon it, and +find the warrant for concluding, that we shall honor him by efforts to +abolish it; which efforts, in their consequences, may involve the +indiscriminate slaughter of the innocent and the guilty, the master and +the servant. We all believe him to be a Being who is the same yesterday, +to-day, and forever. + +The first recorded language which was ever uttered in relation to +slavery, is the inspired language of Noah. In God's stead he says, +"Cursed be Canaan;" "a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren." +"Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." "God +shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and +Canaan shall be his servant."--Gen. ix: 25, 26, 27. Here, language is +used, showing the _favor_ which God would exercise to the posterity of +Shem and Japheth, while they were holding the posterity of Ham in a +state of _abject bondage_. May it not be said in truth, that God decreed +this institution before it existed; and has he not connected its +_existence_ with prophetic tokens of special favor, to those who should +be slave owners or masters? He is the same God now, that he was when he +gave these views of his moral character to the world; and unless the +posterity of Shem and Japheth, from whom have sprung the Jews, and all +the nations of Europe and America, and a great part of Asia, (the +African race that is in them excepted,)--I say, unless they are all +dead, as well as the Canaanites or Africans, who descended from Ham, +then it is quite possible that his favor may now be found with one class +of men who are holding another class in bondage. Be this as it may, God +_decreed slavery_--and shows in that decree, tokens of good-will to the +master. The sacred records occupy but a short space from this inspired +ray on this subject, until they bring to our notice, a man that is held +up as a model, in all that adorns human nature, and as one that God +delighted to honor. This man is Abraham, honored in the sacred records, +with the appellation, "Father" of the "faithful." Abraham was a native +of Ur, of the Chaldees. From thence the Lord called him to go to a +country which he would show him; and he obeyed, not knowing whither he +went. He stopped for a time at Haran, where his father died. From thence +he "took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their +substance that they had gathered, and the souls they had gotten in +Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan."--Gen. xii: 5. + +All the ancient Jewish writers of note, and Christian commentators +agree, that by the "souls they had gotten in Haran," as our translators +render it, are meant their slaves, or those persons they had bought with +their money in Haran. In a few years after their arrival in Canaan, Lot +with all he had was taken captive. So soon as Abraham heard it, he armed +three hundred and eighteen slaves that were born in his house, and +retook him. How great must have been the entire slave family, to produce +at this period of Abraham's life, such a number of young slaves able to +bear arms.--Gen. xiv: 14. + +Abraham is constantly held up in the sacred story, as the subject of +great distinction among the princes and sovereigns of the countries in +which he sojourned. This distinction was on account of his great wealth. +When he proposed to buy a burying-ground at Sarah's death, of the +children of Heth, he stood up and spoke with great humility of himself +as "a stranger and sojourner among them," (Gen. xxiii: 4,) desirous to +obtain a burying-ground. But in what light do they look upon him? "Hear +us, my Lord, thou art a mighty prince among us."--Gen. xxiii: 6. Such is +the light in which they viewed him. What gave a man such distinction +among such a people? Not moral qualities, but great wealth, and its +inseparable concomitant, power. When the famine drove Abraham to Egypt, +he received the highest honors of the reigning sovereign. This honor at +Pharaoh's court, was called forth by the visible tokens of immense +wealth. In Genesis xii: 15, 16, we have the honor that was shown to him, +mentioned, _with a list of his property_, which is given in these words, +in the 16th verse: "He had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and +men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels." The +_amount_ of his flocks may be inferred from the _number of slaves_ +employed in tending them. They were those he brought from Ur of the +Chaldees, of whom the three hundred and eighteen were born; those gotten +in Haran, where he dwelt for a short time, and those which he inherited +from his father, who died in Haran. When Abraham _went up_ from Egypt, +it is stated in Genesis xiii: 2, that he was "_very rich_," not only in +_flocks_ and _slaves_, but in "_silver_ and _gold_" also. + +After the destruction of Sodom, we see him sojourning in the kingdom of +Gerar. Here he received from the sovereign of the country, the honors of +equality; and Abimelech, the king, (as Pharoah had done before him,) +seeks Sarah for a wife, under the idea that she was Abraham's sister. +When his mistake was discovered, he made Abraham a large present. Reason +will tell us, that in selecting the items of this present, Abimelech was +governed by the visible indications of Abraham's preference in the +articles of wealth--and that above all, he would present him with +nothing which Abraham's sense of moral obligation would not allow him to +own. Abimelech's present is thus described in Genesis xx: 14, 16, "And +Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and women-servants, +and a thousand pieces of silver, and gave them unto Abraham." This +present discloses to us what constituted the most highly prized items of +wealth, among these eastern sovereigns in Abraham's day. + +God had promised Abraham's seed the land of Canaan, and that in his seed +all the nations of the earth should be blessed. He reached the age of +eighty-five, and his wife the age of seventy-five, while as yet, they +had no child. At this period, Sarah's anxiety for the promised seed, in +connection with her age, induced her to propose a female slave of the +Egyptian stock, as a secondary wife, from which to obtain the promised +seed. This alliance soon puffed the slave with pride, and she became +insolent to her mistress--the mistress complained to Abraham, the +master. Abraham ordered Sarah to exercise her authority. Sarah did so, +and pushed it to severity, and the slave absconded. The divine oracles +inform us, that the angel of God found this run-away bond-woman in the +wilderness; and if God had commissioned this angel to improve this +opportunity of teaching the world how much he abhorred slavery, he took +a bad plan to acomplish it. For, instead of repeating a homily upon +doing to others as we "would they should do unto us," and heaping +reproach upon Sarah, as a hypocrite, and Abraham as a tyrant, and +giving Hagar direction how she might get into Egypt, from whence +(according to abolitionism) she had been unrighteously sold into +bondage, the angel addressed her as "Hagar, Sarah's maid," Gen. xvi: 1, +9; (thereby recognizing the relation of master and slave,) and asks her, +"whither wilt thou go?" and she said "I flee from the face of my +mistress." Quite a wonder she honored Sarah so much as to call her +mistress; but she knew nothing of abolition, and God by his angel did +not become her teacher. + +We have now arrived at what may be called an _abuse_ of the institution, +in which one person is the property of another, and under their control, +and subject to their authority without their consent; and if the Bible +be the book, which proposes to furnish the case which leaves it without +doubt that God abhors the institution, here we are to look for it. What, +therefore, is the doctrine in relation to slavery, in a case in which a +rigid exercise of its arbitrary authority is called forth upon a +helpless female; who might use a strong plea for protection, upon the +ground of being the master's wife. In the face of this case, which is +hedged around with aggravations as if God designed by it to awaken all +the sympathy and all the abhorrence of that portion of mankind, who +claim to have more mercy than God himself--but I say, in view of this +strong case, what is the doctrine taught? Is it that God abhors the +institution of slavery; that it is a reproach to good men; that the +evils of the institution can no longer be winked at among saints; that +Abraham's character must not be transmitted to posterity, with this +stain upon it; that Sarah must no longer be allowed to live a stranger +to the abhorrence God has for such conduct as she has been guilty of to +this poor helpless female? I say, what is the doctrine taught? Is it so +plain that it can be easily understood? and does God teach that she is a +bond-woman or slave, and that she is to recognize Sarah as her mistress, +and not her equal--that she must return and submit herself unreservedly +to Sarah's authority? Judge for yourself, reader, by the angel's answer: +"And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return unto thy mistress, and +submit thyself under her hands."--Gen. xvi: 9. + +But, says the spirit of abolition, with which the Bible has to contend, +you are building your house upon the sand, for these were nothing but +hired servants; and their servitude designates no such state, +condition, or relation, as that, in which one person is made the +property of another, to be bought, sold, or transferred forever. To +this, we have two answers in reference to the subject, _before giving +the law_. In the first place, the term servant, in the schedules of +property among the patriarchs, _does designate_ the state, condition, or +relation in which one person is the legal property of another, as in +Gen. xxiv: 35, 36. Here Abraham's servant, who had been sent by his +master to get a wife for his son Isaac, in order to prevail with the +woman and her family, states, that the man for whom he sought a bride, +was the son of a man whom God had greatly blessed with riches; which he +goes on to enumerate thus, in the 35th verse: "He hath given him flocks, +and herds, and silver, and gold, and men-servants, and maid-servants, +and camels, and asses;" then in verse 36th, he states the disposition +his master had made of his estate: "My master's wife bare a son to my +master when she was old, and unto him he hath given all that he hath." +Here, servants are enumerated with silver and gold as part of the +patrimony. And, reader, bear it in mind; as if to rebuke the doctrine of +abolition, servants are not only inventoried as property, but as +property which _God had given to Abraham_. After the death of Abraham, +we have a view of Isaac at Gerar, when he had come into the possession +of this estate; and this is the description given of him: "And the man +waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great; for +he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and _great store +of servants_."--Gen. xxvi: 13, 14. This state in which servants are made +chattels, he received as an inheritance from his father, and passed to +his son Jacob. + +Again, in Genesis xvii, we are informed of a covenant God entered into +with Abraham; in which he stipulates to be a God to him and his _seed_, +(not his servants,) and to give to his _seed_ the land of Canaan for an +everlasting possession. He expressly stipulates, that Abraham shall put +the token of this covenant upon every servant born in his house, and +upon every servant _bought with his money of any stranger_.--Gen. xvii: +12, 13. Here again servants are property. Again, more than four hundred +years afterward, we find the _seed_ of Abraham, on leaving Egypt, +directed to celebrate the rite, that was ordained as a memorial of their +deliverance, viz: the Passover, at which time the same institution which +makes _property_ of _men_ and _women_, is recognized, and the _servant +bought with money_, is given the privilege of partaking, upon the ground +of his being circumcised _by his master_, while the hired servant, over +whom the master had no such control, is excluded until he _voluntarily_ +submits to circumcision; showing clearly that the institution of +involuntary slavery then carried with it a right, on the part of the +master, _to choose_ a religion _for the servant_ who was his money, as +Abraham did, by God's direction, when he imposed circumcision on those +he had bought with his money,--when he was circumcised himself, with +Ishmael his son, who was the only individual beside himself, on whom he +had a right to impose it, except the bond-servants bought of the +stranger with his money, and their children born in his house. The next +notice we have of servants as property, is from God himself, when +clothed with all the visible tokens of his presence and glory, on the +top of Sinai, when he proclaimed his law to the millions that surrounded +its base: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not +covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, +nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's."--Ex. xx: +17. Here is a patriarchal catalogue of property, having God for its +author, the wife among the rest, who was then purchased, as Jacob +purchased his two, by fourteen years' service. Here the term servant, as +used by the Almighty, under the circumstances of the case could not be +understood by these millions, as meaning any thing but property, because +the night they left Egypt, a few weeks before, Moses, by Divine +authority, recognized their servants as property, which they had bought +with their money. + +2d. In addition to the evidence from the context of these, and various +other places, to prove the term servant to be identical in the import of +its essential particulars with the term slave among us, there is +unquestionable evidence, that _in the patriarchal age_, there are two +distinct states of servitude alluded to, and which are indicated by two +distinct terms, or by the same term, and an adjective to explain. + +These two terms are first, servant or bond-servant; second, hireling or +hired servant; the first indicating involuntary servitude; the second, +voluntary servitude for stipulated wages, and a specified time. Although +this admits of the clearest proof _under the law_, yet it admits of +proof before the law was given. On the night the Israelites left Egypt, +which was before the law was given, Moses, in designating the +qualifications necessary for the Passover, uses this language,--Exod. +xii: 44, 45: "Every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou +hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner and an +hired servant shall not eat thereof." This language carries to the human +mind, with irresistible force, the idea of _two distinct states_--one a +state of _freedom_, the other a state of _bondage_: in one of which, a +person is serving with his consent for wages; in the other of which a +person is serving without his _consent_, according to his master's +pleasure. + +Again, in Job iii, Job expresses the strong desire he had been made by +his afflictions to feel, that he had died in his infancy. "For now," +says he, "should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: +then had I been at rest. There (meaning the grave) the wicked cease from +troubling, and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest +together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and the +great are there, and the servant is free from his master."--Job iii: 11, +13, 17, 18, 19. Now, I ask any common-sense man to account for the +expression in this connection, "there the servant is free from his +master." Afflictions are referred to, arising out of _states_ or +_conditions_, from which _ordinarily_ nothing but _death_ brings relief. +_Death_ puts an end to afflictions of body that are incurable, as he +took his own to be, and therefore he desired it. + +The troubles brought on good men by a wicked persecuting world, last for +life; but in _death_ the wicked cease from troubling,--_death_ ends that +_relation_ or _state_ out of which such troubles grow. The prisoners of +the oppressors, in that age, stood in a _relation_ to their _oppressor_, +which led the oppressed to expect they would hear the voice of the +_oppressor_ until _death_. But _death_ broke the _relation_, and was +desired, because in the grave they would hear his voice no more. + +All the distresses growing out of inequalities in human condition; as +wealth and power on one side, and poverty and weakness on the other, +were terminated by death; the grave brought both to a level: the small +and the great are there, and there, (that is, in the grave,) he adds, +the servant is free from his master; made so, evidently, by _death_. The +_relation_, or _state_ out of which his oppression had arisen, being +destroyed by _death_, he would be freed from them, because he would, by +_death_, be freed from his master who inflicted them. This view of the +case, and this only, will account for the use of such language. But upon +a supposition that a _state_ or _relation_ among men is referred to, +that is _voluntary_, such as that between a _hired servant_ and his +_employer_, that can be _dissolved_ at the pleasure of the _servant_, +the language is without meaning, and perfectly unwarranted; while such a +_relation_ as that of _involuntary_ and _hereditary_ servitude, where +the master had _unlimited power_ over his servant, and in an age when +cruelty was common, there is the greatest propriety in making the +servant or slave, a _companion with himself, in affliction_, as well as +the oppressed and afflicted, in every class where _death alone_ +dissolved the _state_ or _condition_, out of which their afflictions +grew. Beyond all doubt, this language refers to a state of _hereditary +bondage_, from the afflictions of which, _ordinarily_, nothing in that +day brought relief but _death_. + +Again, in chapter 7th, he goes on to defend himself in his eager desire +for death, in an address to God. He says, it is natural for a servant to +desire the shadow, and a hireling his wages: "As the servant earnestly +desireth the shadow, and as the hireling looketh for the reward of his +work," so it is with me, should be supplied.--Job vii: 2. Now, with the +previous light shed upon the use and meaning of these terms in the +_patriarchal Scriptures_, can any man of candor bring himself to believe +that two states or conditions are not here referred to, in one of which, +the highest reward after toil is mere rest; in the other of which, the +reward was wages? And how appropriate is the language in reference to +these two states. + +The _slave_ is represented as earnestly desiring the _shadow_, because +his condition allowed him no prospect of any thing more desirable; but +the _hireling_ as looking for the _reward of his work_, because _that_ +will be an equivalent for his fatigue. + +So Job looked at _death_, as being to his _body_ as the servant's +_shade_, therefore he desired it; and like the _hireling's wages_, +because _beyond the grave_, he hoped to reap the fruit of his doings. +Again, Job (xxxi:) finding himself the subject of suspicion (see from +verse 1 to 30) as to the rectitude of his past life, clears himself of +various sins, in the most solemn manner, as unchastity, injustice in his +dealings, adultery, contempt of his servants, unkindness to the poor, +covetousness, the pride of wealth, etc. And in the 13th, 14th, and 15th +verses he thus expresses himself: "If I did despise the cause of my +man-servant, or my maid-servant, when they contended with me, what then +shall I do when God rises up? And when he visiteth, what shall I answer +him? Did not he that made me in the womb, make him? And did not one +fashion us in the womb?" Taking this language in connection with the +language employed by Moses, in reference to the institution of +involuntary servitude in _that age_, and especially in connection with +the language which Moses employs _after the law was given_, and what +else can be understood, than a reference to a class of duties that slave +owners felt themselves above stooping to notice or perform, but which, +nevertheless, it was the duty of the righteous man to discharge: for +whatever proud and wicked men might think of a poor servant that stood +in his estate, on an equality with brutes, yet, says Job, he that made +me, made them, and if I despise their reasonable causes of complaint, +for injuries which they are made to suffer, and for the redress of which +I only can be appealed to, then what shall I do, and how shall I fare, +when I carry my causes of complaint to him who is my master, and to whom +only I can go for relief? When he visiteth me for despising _their +cause_, what shall I answer him for _despising mine_? He means that he +would feel self-condemned, and would be forced to admit the justice of +the retaliation. But on the supposition that allusion is had to _hired +servants_, who were _voluntarily_ working for _wages_ agreed upon, and +who were the _subjects of rights_ for the _protection of which_, their +appeal would be to "the judges in the gate," as much as any other class +of men, then there is no point in the statement. For _doing that_ which +can be _demanded as a legal right_, gives us no claim to the character +of _merciful benefactors_. Job himself was a great slaveholder, and, +like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, won no small portion of his claims to +character with God and men from the manner in which he discharged his +duty to his slaves. Once more: the conduct of Joseph in Egypt, _as +Pharaoh's counsellor_, under all the circumstances, proves him a friend +to absolute slavery, as a form of government better adapted to the state +of the world at that time, than the one which existed in Egypt; for +certain it is, that he peaceably effected a change in the fundamental +law, by which a _state, condition, or relation_, between Pharaoh and the +Egyptians was established, which answers to the one now denounced as +sinful in the sight of God. Being warned of God, he gathered up all the +surplus grain in the years of plenty, and sold it out in the years of +famine, until he gathered up all the money; and when money failed, the +Egyptians came and said, "Give us bread;" and Joseph said, "Give your +cattle, and I will give for your cattle, if money fail." When that year +was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said, "There is not +aught left in sight of my Lord, but our bodies and our lands. Buy us and +our lands for bread." And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for +Pharoah. + +So the land became Pharoah's, and as for the people, he removed them to +cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to the other end +thereof. Then Joseph said unto the people, "Behold! I have bought you +this day, and your land for Pharoah; and they said, "we will be +Pharoah's servants."--See Gen. xlvii: 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25. Having +thus changed the fundamental law, and created a state of entire +_dependence_ and _hereditary bondage_, he enacted in his sovereign +pleasure, that they should give Pharoah one part, and take the other +four parts of the productions of the earth to themselves. How far the +hand of God was in this overthrow of liberty, I will not decide; but +from the fact that he has singled out the greatest slaveholders of that +age, as the objects of his special favor, it would seem that the +institution was one furnishing great opportunities to exercise grace and +glorify God, as it still does, where its duties are faithfully +discharged. + +I have been tedious on this first proposition, but I hope the importance +of the subject to Christians as well as to statesmen will be my apology. +I have written it, not for victory over an adversary, or to support +error or falsehood, but to gather up God's will in reference to holding +men and women in _bondage, in the patriarchal age_. And it is clear, in +the first place, that God decreed this state before it existed. Second. +It is clear that the highest manifestations of good-will which he ever +gave to mortal man, was given to Abraham, in that covenant in which he +required him to circumcise all his _male servants, which he had bought +with his money_, and that were _born of them_ in his house. Third. It is +certain that he gave _these servants_ as _property_ to Isaac. Fourth. It +is certain that, as the owner of _these slaves_, Isaac received similar +tokens of God's favor. Fifth. It is certain that Jacob, who inherited +from Isaac his father, received like tokens of divine favor. Sixth. It +is certain, from a fair construction of language, that Job, who is held +up by God himself as a model of human perfection, was a great +slaveholder. Seventh. It is certain, when God showed honor, and came +down to bless Jacob's posterity, in taking them by the hand to lead them +out of Egypt, _they were the owners of slaves that were bought with +money, and treated as property_; _which slaves_ were allowed of God to +unite in celebrating the divine goodness to their _masters_, while +_hired servants_ were excluded. Eighth. It is certain that God +interposed to give Joseph the power in Egypt, which he used, to create a +state, or condition, among the Egyptians, which _substantially agrees_ +with _patriarchal_ and _modern slavery_. Ninth. It is certain, that in +reference to this institution in Abraham's family, and the surrounding +nations, for five hundred years, it is never censured in any +communication made from God to men. Tenth. It is certain, when God put a +_period_ to _that dispensation_, he _recognised slaves as property on +Mount Sinai_. If, therefore, it has become sinful since, it cannot be +from the _nature of the thing_, but from the _sovereign pleasure of God +in its prohibition_. We will therefore proceed to our second +proposition, which is-- + +Second.--That it was incorporated in the only national constitution +emanating from the Almighty. By common consent, that portion of time +stretching from Noah, until the law was given to Abraham's posterity, at +Mount Sinai, is called the patriarchal age; _this is the period we have +reviewed_, in relation to this subject. From the giving of the law until +the coming of Christ, is called the Mosaic or legal dispensation. From +the coming of Christ to the end of time, is called the Gospel +dispensation. The legal dispensation _is the period of time, we propose +now to examine_, in reference to the institution of involuntary and +hereditary slavery; in order to ascertain, whether, during this period, +_it existed at all_, and _if it did exist_, whether with the _divine +sanction_, or in _violation of the divine will_. This dispensation is +called the legal dispensation, because it was the pleasure of God to +take Abraham's posterity by miraculous power, then numbering near three +millions of souls, and give them a written constitution of government, a +country to dwell in, and a covenant of special protection and favor, for +their obedience to his law until the coming of Christ. The laws which he +gave them emanated from his sovereign pleasure, and were designed, in +the first place, to make himself known in his essential perfections; +second, in his moral character; third, in his relation to man; and +fourth, to make known those principles of action by the exercise of +which man attains his highest moral elevation, viz: supreme love to God, +and love to others as to ourselves. + +All the law is nothing but a preceptive exemplification of these two +principles; consequently, the existence of a precept in the law, utterly +irreconcilable with these principles, would destroy all claims upon us +for an acknowledgment of its divine original. Jesus Christ himself has +put his finger upon these two principles of human conduct, (Deut. vi: +5--Levit. xix: 18,) revealed in the law of Moses, and decided, that on +them hang all the law and the prophets. + +The Apostle Paul decides in reference to the relative duties of men, +that whether written out in preceptive form in the law or not, they are +all comprehended in this saying, viz: "thou shalt love thy neighbor as +thyself." With these views to guide us, as to the acknowledged design of +the law, viz: that of revealing the eternal principles of moral +rectitude, by which human conduct is to be measured, so that sin may +abound, or be made apparent, and righteousness be ascertained or known, +we may safely conclude, that the institution of slavery, which legalizes +the holding one person in bondage as property forever by another, if it +be morally wrong, or at war with the principle which requires us to love +God supremely, and our neighbor as ourself, will, if noticed at all in +the law, be noticed, for the purpose of being condemned as sinful. And +if the modern views of abilitionists be correct, we may expect to find +the institution marked with such tokens of divine displeasure, as will +throw all other sins into the shade, as comparatively small, when laid +by the side of this monster. What, then, is true? Has God ingrafted +hereditary slavery upon the constitution of government he condescended +to give to his chosen people--that people, among whom he promised to +dwell, and that he required to be holy? I answer, he has. It is clear +and explicit. He enacts, first, that his chosen people may take their +money, go into the slave markets of the surrounding nations, (the seven +devoted nations excepted,) and purchase men-servants and women-servants, +and give them, and their increase, to their children and their +children's children, forever; and worse still for the refined humanity +of our age--he guarantees to the foreign slaveholder perfect protection, +while he comes in among the Israelites, for the purpose of dwelling, +and raising and selling slaves, who should be acclimated and accustomed +to the habits and institutions of the country. And worse still for the +sublimated humanity of the present age, God passes with the right to buy +and possess, the right to govern, by a severity which knows no bounds +but the master's discretion. And if worse can be, for the morbid +humanity we censure, he enacts that his own people may sell themselves +and their families for limited periods, with the privilege of extending +the time at the end of the sixth year to the fiftieth year or jubilee, +if they prefer bondage to freedom. Such is the precise character of two +institutions, found in the constitution of the Jewish commonwealth, +emanating directly from Almighty God. For the fifteen hundred years, +during which these laws were in force, God raised up a succession of +prophets to reprove that people for the various sins into which they +fell; yet there is not a reproof uttered against the institution of +_involuntary slavery_, for any species of abuse that ever grew out of +it. A severe judgment is pronounced by Jeremiah, (chapter xxxiv: see +from the 8th to the 22d verse,) for an abuse or violation of the law, +concerning the _voluntary_ servitude of Hebrews; but the prophet pens it +with caution, as if to show that it had no reference to any abuse that +had taken place under the system of _involuntary slavery_, which existed +by law among that people; the sin consisted in making hereditary +bond-men and bond-women of Hebrews, which was positively forbidden by +the law, and not for buying and holding one of another nation in +hereditary bondage, which was as positively allowed by the law. And +really, in view of what is passing in our country, and elsewhere, among +men who profess to reverence the Bible, it would seem that these must be +dreams of a distempered brain, and not the solemn truths of that sacred +book. + +Well, I will now proceed to make them good to the letter, see Levit. +xxv: 44, 45, 46; "Thy bond-men and thy bond-maids which thou shalt have, +shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy +bond-men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that +do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that +are with you, which they begat in your land. And they shall be your +possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children +after you, to inherit them for a possession they shall be your bond-men +forever." I ask any candid man, if the words of this institution could +be more explicit? It is from God himself; it authorizes that people, to +whom he had become _king and law-giver_, to purchase men and women as +property; to hold them and their posterity in bondage; and to will them +to their children as a possession forever; and more, it allows _foreign +slaveholders_ to _settle_ and _live among them_; to _breed slaves_ and +_sell them_. Now, it is important to a correct understanding of this +subject, to connect with the right to _buy_ and _possess_, as property, +the amount of authority _to govern_, which is granted by the +_law-giver_; this amount of authority is implied, in the first place, in +the law which prohibits the exercise of rigid authority upon the +Hebrews, who are allowed to sell themselves for limited times. "If thy +brother be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not _compel +him_ to serve as a _bond servant_, but as a _hired servant_, and as a +_sojourner_ he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee until the year +of jubilee--_they shall not be sold as bond-men_; thou _shalt not rule +over them with rigor_."--Levit. xxv: 39, 40, 41, 42, 43. It will be +evident to all, that here are _two states_ of servitude; in reference to +_one_ of which, _rigid_ or _compulsory_ authority, is _prohibited_, and +that its _exercise is authorised in the other_. + +Second.--In the criminal code, that conduct is punished with death, when +done to a _freeman_, which is not punishable at all, when done _by a +master to a slave_, for the express reason, that the slave is the +_master's money_. "He that smiteth a man so that he die, shall surely be +put to death."--Exod. xxi: 20, 21. "If a man smite his servant or his +maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely +punished; notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be +punished, for he is his money."--Exod. xxi: 20. Here is precisely the +same crime: smiting a man so that he die; if it be a freeman, he shall +surely be put to death, whether the man die under his hand, or live a +day or two after; but if it be a servant, and the master continued the +rod until the servant died under his hand, then it must be evident that +such a chastisement could not be necessary for any purpose of wholesome +or reasonable authority, and therefore he may by punished, but not with +death. But if the death did not take place for a day or two, then it is +to be _presumed_, that the master only aimed to use the rod, so far as +was necessary to produce subordination, and for this, the law which +allowed him to lay out his money in the slave, would protect him +against all punishment. This is the common-sense principle which has +been adopted substantially in civilized countries, where involuntary +slavery has been instituted, from that day until this. Now, here are +laws that authorize the holding of men and women in bondage, and +chastising them with the rod, with a severity that terminates in death. +And he who believes the Bible to be of divine authority, believes these +laws were given by the Holy Ghost to Moses. I understand modern +abolition sentiments to be sentiments of marked hatred against such +laws; to be sentiments which would hold God himself in abhorrence, if he +were to give such laws his sanction; but he has given them his sanction; +therefore, they must be in harmony with his moral character. Again, the +divine Law-giver, in guarding the property right in slaves among his +chosen people, sanctions principles which may work the separation of man +and wife, father and children. Surely, my reader will conclude, if I +make this good, I shall force a part of the saints of the present day to +blaspheme the God of Israel. All I can say is, truth is mighty, and I +hope it will bring us all to say, let God be true, in settling the true +principles of humanity, and every man a liar who says slavery was +inconsistent with it, in the days of the Mosaic law. Now for the proof: +"If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee, and in the +seventh he shall go out free for nothing; if he came in by himself, he +shall go out by himself; if he were married, then his wife shall go out +with him; if his master have given him a wife (one of his bond-maids) +and she have borne him sons and daughters, the wife and her children +shall be her master's and he shall go out by himself."--Exod. xxi: 2, 3, +4. Now, the God of Israel gives this man the option of being separated +by the master, from his wife and children, or becoming himself a servant +forever, with a mark of the fact, like our cattle, in the ear, that can +be seen wherever he goes; for it is enacted, "If the servant shall +plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go +out free, then his master shall bring him unto the judges, (in open +court,) he shall also bring him unto the door, or unto the door post, +(so that all in the court-house, and those in the yard may be witnesses, +and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall +serve him forever." It is useless to spend more time in gathering up +what is written in the Scriptures on this subject, from the giving of +the law until the coming of Christ. + +Here is the authority, from God himself, to hold men and women, and +their increase, in slavery, and to transmit them as property forever; +here is plenary power to govern them, whatever measure of severity it +may require; provided only, that _to govern_, be the object in +exercising it. Here is power given to the master, to separate man and +wife, parent and child, by denying ingress to his premises, sooner than +compel him to free or sell the mother, that the marriage relation might +be honored. The _preference_ is given of God to _enslaving the father_ +rather than _freeing the mother and children_. + +Under every view we are allowed to take of the subject, the conviction +is forced upon the mind, that from Abraham's day, until the coming of +Christ, (a period of two thousand years,) this institution found favor +with God. No marks of his displeasure are found resting upon it. It +must, therefore, in its moral nature, be in harmony with those moral +principles which he requires to be exercised by the law of Moses, and +which are the principles that secure harmony and happiness to the +universe, viz: supreme love to God, and the love of our neighbor as +ourself.--Deut. vi: 5.--Levit. xix: 18. To suppose that God has laid +down these fundamental principles of moral rectitude in his law, as the +soul that must inhabit every preceptive requirement of that law, and yet +to suppose he created relations among the Israelites, and prescribed +relative duties growing out of these relations, that are hostile to the +spirit of the law, is to suppose what will never bring great honor or +glory to our Maker. But if I understand that spirit which is now warring +against slavery, this is the position which the spirit of God forces it +to occupy, viz: that God has ordained slavery, and yet slavery is the +greatest of sins. Such was the state of the case when Jesus Christ made +his appearance. We propose-- + +Third. To show that Jesus Christ recognized this institution as one that +was lawful among men, and regulated its relative duties. + +Having shown from the Scriptures, that slavery existed with Abraham and +the patriarchs, with divine approbation, and having shown from the same +source, that the Almighty incorporated it in the law, as an institution +among Abraham's seed, until the coming of Christ, our precise object now +is, to ascertain whether _Jesus Christ has abolished it_, or _recognized +it_ as a _lawful relation_, existing among men, and prescribed duties +which belong to it, as he has other relative duties; such as those +between husband and wife, parent and child, magistrate and subject. + +And first, I may take it for granted, without proof, that he has not +abolished it by commandment, for none pretend to this. This, by the way, +is a singular circumstance, that Jesus Christ should put a system of +measures into operation, which have for their object the subjugation of +all men to him as a law-giver--kings, legislators, and private citizens +in all nations; at a time, too, when hereditary slavery existed in all; +and after it had been incorporated for fifteen hundred years into the +Jewish constitution, immediately given by God himself. I say, it is +passing strange, that under such circumstances, Jesus should fail to +prohibit its further existence, if it was his intention to abolish it. +Such an omission or oversight cannot be charged upon any other +legislator the world has ever seen. But, says the abolitionist, he has +introduced new moral principles, which will extinguish it as an +unavoidable consequence, without a direct prohibitory command. What are +they? "Do to others as you would they should do to you." Taking these +words of Christ to be a body, inclosing a moral soul in them, what soul, +I ask, is it? + +The same embodied in these words of Moses, Levit. xix: 18; "thou shalt +love thy neighbor as thyself;" or is it another? It cannot be another, +but it must be the very same, because Jesus says, there are but two +principles in being in God's moral government, _one_ including all that +is _due to God_, the _other_ all that is _due to men_. + +If, therefore, doing to others as we would they should do to us, means +precisely what loving our neighbor as ourself means, then Jesus has +added no new moral principle above those in the law of Moses, to +prohibit slavery, for in his law is found this principle, and slavery +also. + +The very God that said to them, they should love him supremely, and +their neighbors as themselves, said to them also, "of the heathen that +are round about you, thou shalt buy bond-men and bond-women, and they +shall be your possession, and ye shall take them as an inheritance for +your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be +your bond-men forever." Now, to suppose that Jesus Christ left his +disciples to find out, without a revelation, that slavery must be +abolished, as a natural consequence from the fact, that when God +established the relation of master and servant under the law, he said to +the master and servant, each of you must love the other as yourself, is, +to say the least, making Jesus to presume largely upon the intensity of +their intellect, that they would be able to spy out a discrepancy in the +law of Moses, which God himself never saw. Again: if "do to others as ye +would they should do to you," is to abolish slavery, it will for the +same reason, level all inequalities in human condition. It is not to be +admitted, then, that Jesus Christ introduced any new moral principle +that must, of necessity, abolish slavery. The principle relied on to +prove it, stands boldly out to view in the code of Moses, as the _soul_, +that must _regulate_, and _control_, the _relation_ of _master and +servant_, and therefore cannot abolish it. + +Why a master cannot do to a servant, or a servant to a master, as he +would have them do to him, as soon as a wife to a husband or a husband +to a wife, I am utterly at a loss to know. The wife is "subject to her +husband in all things" by divine precept. He is her "head," and God +"suffers her not to usurp authority over him." Now, why in such a +relation as this, we can do to others _as we_ would they should do to +us, any sooner than in a relation, securing to us what is just and equal +as servants, and due respect and faithful service rendered with good +will to us as masters, I am at a loss to conceive. I affirm then, first, +(and no man denies,) that Jesus Christ has not abolished slavery by a +prohibitory command: and second, I affirm, he has introduced no new +moral principle which can work its destruction, under the gospel +dispensation; and that the principle relied on for this purpose, is a +fundamental principle of the Mosaic law, under which slavery was +instituted by Jehovah himself: and third, with this absence of positive +prohibition, and this absence of principle, to work its ruin, I affirm, +that in all the Roman provinces, where churches were planted by the +apostles, hereditary slavery existed, as it did among the Jews, and as +it does now among us, (which admits of proof from history that no man +will dispute who knows any thing of the matter,) and that in instructing +such churches, the Holy Ghost by the apostles, has recognized the +institution, as one _legally existing_ among them, to be perpetuated in +the church, and that its duties are prescribed. + +Now for the proof: To the church planted at Ephesus the capital of the +lesser Asia, Paul ordains by letter, subordination in the fear of +God,--first between wife and husband; second, child and parent; third, +servant and master; _all, as states, or conditions, existing among the +members_. + +The relative duties of each state are pointed out; those between the +servant and master in these words: "Servants be obedient to them who are +your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in +singleness of your heart as unto Christ; not with eye service as men +pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the +heart, with good-will, doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, +knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he +receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters do the +same things to them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master is +also in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him." Here, by +the Roman law, the servant was property, and the control of the master +unlimited, as we shall presently prove. + +To the church at Colosse, a city of Phrygia, in the lesser Asia,--Paul +in his letter to them, recognizes the three relations of wives and +husbands, parents and children, servants and masters, as relations +existing among the members; (here the Roman law was the same;) and to +the servants and masters he thus writes: "Servants obey in all things +your masters, according to the flesh: not with eye service, as men +pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God: and whatsoever you +do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men; knowing that of the +Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the +Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong he has +done; and there is no respect of persons with God. Masters give unto +your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a +master in heaven." + +The same Apostle writes a letter to the church at Corinth;--a very +important city, formerly called the eye of Greece, either from its +location, or intelligence, or both, and consequently, an important +point, for radiating light in all directions, in reference to subjects +connected with the cause of Jesus Christ; and particularly, in the +bearing of its practical precepts on civil society, and the political +structure of nations. Under the direction of the Holy Ghost, he +instructs the church, that, on this particular subject, _one general +principle_ was ordained of God, applicable alike in all countries and +at all stages of the church's future history, and that it was this: "_as +the Lord has called every one, so let him walk_." "Let every man abide +in the same calling wherein he is called." "Let every man wherein he is +called, therein abide with God."--1 Cor. vii: 17, 20, 24. "_And so +ordain I in all churches_;" vii: 17. The Apostle thus explains his +meaning: + +"Is any man called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised." + +"Is any man called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised." + +"Art thou called, being a servant? Care not for it, but if thou mayest +be made free, use it rather;" vii: 18, 21. Here, by the Roman law, +slaves were property,--yet Paul ordains, in this, and all other +churches, that Christianity gave them no title to freedom, but on the +contrary, required them not to care for being slaves, or in other words, +to be contented with their _state_, or _relation_, unless they could be +_made free_, in a lawful way. + +Again, we have a letter by Peter, who is the Apostle of the +circumcision--addressed especially to the Jews, who were scattered +through various provinces of the Roman empire; comprising those +provinces especially, which were the theater of their dispersion, under +the Assyrians and Babylonians. Here, for the space of seven hundred and +fifty years, they had resided, during which time those revolutions were +in progress which terminated the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and +Macedonian empires, and transferred imperial power to Rome. These +revolutionary scenes of violence left one half the human race (within +the range of their influence,) in abject bondage to the other half. This +was the state of things in these provinces addressed by Peter, when he +wrote. The chances of war, we may reasonably conclude, had assigned a +full share of bondage to this people, who were despised of all nations. +In view of their enslaved condition to the Gentiles; knowing, as Peter +did, their seditious character; foreseeing, from the prediction of the +Saviour, the destined bondage of those who were then free in Israel, +which was soon to take place, as it did, in the fall of Jerusalem, when +all the males of seventeen, were sent to work in the mines of Egypt, as +slaves to the State, and all the males under, amounting to upwards of +ninety-seven thousand, were sold into domestic bondage;--I say, in view +of these things, Peter was moved by the Holy Ghost to write to them, +and his solicitude for such of them as were in slavery, is very +conspicuous in his letter; (read carefully from 1 Peter, 2d chapter, +from the 13th verse to the end;) but it is not the solicitude of an +abolitionist. He thus addresses them: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you." +He thus instructs them: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for +the Lord's sake." "For so is the will of God." "Servants, be subject to +your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to +the froward."--1 Peter ii: 11, 13, 15, 18. What an important document is +this! enjoining political subjection to _governments of every form_, and +Christian subjection on the part of servants to their masters, whether +good or bad; for the purpose of showing forth to advantage, the _glory +of the gospel_, and putting to silence the ignorance of foolish men, who +might think it seditious. + +By "every ordinance of man," as the context will show, is meant +governmental regulations or laws, as was that of the Romans for +enslaving their prisoners taken in war, instead of destroying their +lives. + +When such enslaved persons came into the church of Christ let them (says +Peter) "be subject to their masters with all fear," whether such masters +be good or bad. It is worthy of remark, that he says much to secure +civil subordination to the State, and hearty and cheerful obedience to +the masters, on the part of servants; yet he says nothing to masters in +the whole letter. It would seem from this, that danger to the cause of +Christ was on the side of _insubordination among the servants_, and a +_want of humility with inferiors_, rather than _haughtiness among +superiors_ in the church. + +Gibbon, in his Rome, vol. 1, pages 25, 26, 27, shows, from standard +authorities, that Rome at this time swayed its scepter over one hundred +and twenty millions of souls; that in every province, and in every +family, _absolute slavery existed_; that it was at least fifty years +later than the date of Peter's letters, before the absolute power of +life and death over the slave was _taken from the master_, and +_committed to the magistrate_; that about sixty millions of souls were +held as property in this abject condition; that the price of a slave was +four times that of an ox; that their punishments were very sanguinary; +that in the second century, when their condition began to improve a +little, emancipation was prohibited, except for great personal merit, +or some public service rendered to the State; and that it was not until +the third or fourth generation after freedom was obtained, that the +descendants of a slave could share in the honors of the State. This is +the _state, condition_, or _relation_ among the _members of the +apostolic churches_, whether among _Gentiles_ or _Jews_; which the Holy +Ghost, by Paul for the Gentiles, and Peter for the Jews, recognizes as +lawful; the mutual duties of which he prescribes in the language above. +Now, I ask, can any man in his proper senses, from these premises, bring +himself to conclude that slavery is _abolished by Jesus Christ_, or that +obligations are imposed by him upon his disciples that are subversive of +the institution? Knowing as we do from cotemporary historians, that the +institution of slavery existed at the time and to the extent stated by +Gibbon--what sort of a soul a man must have, who, with these facts +before him, will conceal the truth on this subject, and hold Jesus +Christ responsible for a scheme of treason that would, if carried out, +have brought the life of every human being on earth at the time, into +the most imminent peril, and that must have worked the destruction of +half the human race? + +At Rome, the authoritative centre of that vast theater upon which the +glories of the cross were to be won, a church was planted. Paul wrote a +long letter to them. On this subject it is full of instruction. + +Abolition sentiments had not dared to show themselves so near the +imperial sword. To warn the church against their treasonable tendency, +was therefore unnecessary. Instead, therefore, of special precepts upon +the subject of relative duties between master and servant, he lays down +a system of practical morality, in the 12th chapter of his letter, which +must commend itself equally to the king on his throne, and the slave in +his hovel; for while its practical operation leaves the subject of +earthly government to the discretion of man, it secures the exercise of +sentiments and feelings that must exterminate every thing inconsistent +with doing to others as we would they should do unto us: a system of +principles that will give moral strength to governments; peace, +security, and good-will to individuals; and glory to God in the highest. +And in the 13th chapter, from the 1st to the end of the 7th verse, he +recognizes human government as an ordinance of God, which the followers +of Christ are to obey, honor, and support; not only from dread of +punishment, but _for conscience sake_; which I believe abolitionism +refuses most positively to do, to such governments as _from the force of +circumstances_ even _permit_ slavery. + +Again. But we are furnished with additional light, and if we are not +greatly mistaken, with light which arose out of circumstances analogous +to those which are threatening at the present moment to overthrow the +peace of society, and deluge this nation with blood. To Titus whom Paul +left in Crete, to set in order the things that were wanting, he writes a +letter, in which he warns him of false teachers, that were to be dreaded +on account of their doctrine. While they professed "to know God," that +is, to know his will under the gospel dispensation, "in works they +denied him;" that is, they did, and required others to do, what was +contrary to his will under the gospel dispensation. "They were +abominable," that is, to the Church and State, "and disobedient," that +is, to the authority of the apostles, and the civil authority of the +land. Titus, he then exhorts, "to speak the things that become sound +doctrine;" that is, that the members of the church observe the law of +the land, and obey the civil magistrate; that "servants be obedient to +their own masters, and please them well in all things," not "answering +again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may +adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things," _in that which +subjects the ecclesiastical to the civil authority in particular_. +"These things speak, and exhort and rebuke with all authority; let no +man despise thee. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and +powers, to obey magistrates."--Titus i: 16, and ii: from 1 to 10, and +iii: 1. The context shows that a doctrine was taught by these wicked +men, which tended in its influence on servants, to bring the gospel of +Christ into contempt in Church and State, because of its seditions and +insubordinate character. + +But at Ephesus, the capital of the lesser Asia, where Paul had labored +with great success for three years--a point of great importance to the +gospel cause--the Apostle left Timothy for the purpose of watching +against the false teachers, and particularly against the abolitionists. +In addition to a letter which he had addressed to this church +previously, in which the mutual duty of master and servant is taught, +and which has already been referred to, he further instructs Timothy by +letter on the same subject: "Let as many servants as are under the yoke +count their masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his +doctrine be not blasphemed."--1 Tim. vi: 1. These were unbelieving +masters, as the next verse will show. In this church at Ephesus, the +circumstances existed, which are brought to light by Paul's letter to +Timothy, that must silence every cavil, which men, who do not know God's +will on this subject, may start until time ends. In an age filled with +literary men, who are employed in transmitting historically, to future +generations, the structure of society in the Roman Empire; that would +put it in our power at this distant day, to know the state or condition +of a slave in the Roman Empire, as well as if we had lived at the time, +and to know beyond question, that his condition was precisely that one, +which is now denounced as sinful: in such an age, and in such +circumstances, Jesus Christ causes his will to be published to the +world; and it is this, that if a Christian slave have an unbelieving +master, who acknowledges no allegiance to Christ, this believing slave +must count his master worthy of all honor, according to what the Apostle +teaches the Romans, "Render, therefore, to all their dues, tribute to +whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom is due, fear to whom fear, +honor to whom honor."--Rom. xiii: 7. Now, honor is enjoined of God in +the Scriptures, from children to parents--from husbands to wives--from +subjects to magistrates and rulers, and here by Jesus Christ, from +Christian slaves to unbelieving masters, who held them as property by +law, with power over their very lives. And the command is remarkable. +While we are commanded to honor father and mother, without adding to the +precept "all honor," here a Christian servant is bound to render to his +unbelieving master "all honor." Why is this? Because in the one case +nature moves in the direction of the command; but in the other, against +it. Nature being subjected to the law of grace, might be disposed to +obey reluctantly; hence the amplitude of the command. But what purpose +was to be answered by this devotion of the slave? The Apostle answers, +"that the name of God and his doctrine (of subordination to the +law-making power) be not blasphemed," as they certainly would by a +contrary course on the part of the servant, for the most obvious reason +in the world; while the sword would have been drawn against the gospel, +and a war of extermination waged against its propagators, in every +province of the Roman Empire, for there was slavery in all; and so it +would be now. + +But, says the caviler, these directions are given to Christian slaves +whose masters did not acknowledge the authority of Christ to govern +them; and are therefore defective as proof, that he approves of one +Christian man holding another in bondage. Very well, we will see. In the +next verse, (1 Timothy vi: 2,) he says, "and they that have believing +masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren, but +rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers +of the benefit." Here is a great change; instead of a command to a +believing slave to render to a believing master _all honor_, and thereby +making that believing master in _honor_ equal to an unbelieving master, +here is rather an exhortation to the slave _not to despise him, because +he is a believer_. Now, I ask, why the circumstance of a master becoming +a believer in Christ, should become the cause of his believing slave +despising him while that slave was supposed to acquiesce in the duty of +rendering all honor to that master before he became a believer? I +answer, _precisely_, and _only, because_ there were _abolition teachers_ +among them, who _taught otherwise_, and consented not to wholesome +words, _even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ_.--1 Timothy vii: 3; and +"to the doctrine which is according to godliness," taught in the 8th +verse, viz: having food and raiment, servants should therewith be +content; for the pronoun us, in the 8th verse of this connection, means +_especially_ the _servants he was instructing_, as well as Christians in +general. These men taught, that godliness abolished slavery, that it +gave the title of freedom to the slave, and that so soon as a man +professed to be subject to Christ, and refused to liberate his slaves, +he was a hypocrite, and deserved not the countenance of any who bore the +Christian name. Such men, the Apostle says, are "proud, (just as they +are now,) knowing nothing," (that is, on this subject,) but "doating +about questions, and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, +railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, +and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such +withdraw thyself."--1 Tim. vi: 4, 5. + +Such were the bitter fruits which abolition sentiments produced in the +Apostolic day, and such precisely are the fruits they produce now. + +Now, I say, here is the case made out, which certainly would call forth +the command from Christ, to abolish slavery, if he ever intended to +abolish it. Both the servant and the master were one in Christ Jesus. +Both were members of the same church, both were under unlimited and +voluntary obedience to the same divine law-giver. + +No political objection existed at the time against their obedience to +him on the subject of slavery; and what is the will, not of Paul, but of +the Lord Jesus Christ, immediately in person, upon the case thus made +out? Does he say to the master, having put yourself under my government, +you must no longer hold your brother in bondage? Does he say to the +slave, if your master does not release you, you must go and talk to him +privately, about this trespass upon your rights under the law of my +kingdom; and if he does not hear you, you must take two or three with +you; and if he does not hear them then you must tell it to the church, +and have him expelled from my flock, as a wolf in sheep's clothing? I +say, what does the Lord Jesus say to this poor believing slave, +concerning a master who held unlimited power over his person and life, +under the Roman law? He tells him that the very circumstance of his +master's being a brother, constitutes the reason why he should be more +ready to do him service; for in addition to the circumstance of his +being a brother who would be benefited by his service, he would as a +brother give him what was just and equal in return, and "forbear +threatening," much less abusing his authority over him, for that he (the +master) also had a master in heaven, who was no respecter of persons. It +is taken for granted, on all hands pretty generally, that Jesus Christ +has at least been silent, or that he has not personally spoken on the +subject of slavery. Once for all, I deny it. Paul, after stating that a +slave was to honor an unbelieving master, in the 1st verse of the 6th +chapter, says, in the 2d verse, that to a believing master, he is the +rather to do service, because he who partakes of the benefit is his +brother. He then says, if any man teach otherwise, (as all abolitionists +then did, and now do,) and consent not to wholesome words, "even the +words of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, if our Lord Jesus Christ uttered +such words, how dare we say he has been silent? If he has been silent, +how dare the Apostle say these are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, +if the Lord Jesus Christ never spoke them? "Where, or when, or on what +occasion he spoke them, we are not informed; but certain it is, that +Paul has borne false witness, or that Jesus Christ has uttered the words +that impose an obligation on servants, who are abject slaves, to render +service with good-will from the heart, to believing masters, and to +account their unbelieving masters as worthy of all honor, that the name +of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. Jesus Christ revealed to Paul +the doctrine which Paul has settled throughout the Gentile world, (and +by consequence, the Jewish world also,) on the subject of slavery, so +far as it affects his kingdom. As we have seen, it is clear and full. + +From the great importance of the subject, involving the personal liberty +of half the human race at that time, and a large portion of them at all +times since, it is not to be wondered at, that Paul would carry the +question to the Saviour, and plead for a decisive expression of his +will, that would forever do away the necessity of inferring any thing by +reasoning from the premises laid down in the former dispensation; or in +the patriarchal age; and at Ephesus, if not at Crete, the issue is +fairly made, between Paul on the one side, and certain abolition +teachers on the other, when, in addition to the official intelligence +ordinarily given to the apostles by the Holy Ghost, to guide them into +all truth, he affirms, that the doctrine of perfect civil subordination, +on the part of hereditary slaves to their masters, whether believers or +unbelievers, was one which he, Paul, taught in the words of the Lord +Jesus Christ himself. + +The Scriptures we have adduced from the New Testament, to prove the +recognition of hereditary slavery by the Saviour, as a lawful relation +in the sight of God, lose much of their force from the use of a word by +the translators, which by time, has lost much of its original meaning; +that is, the word _servant_. Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, says: +"Servant is one of the few words, which by time has acquired a softer +signification than its original, knave, degenerated into cheat. While +_servant_, which signified originally, a person preserved from death by +the conqueror, and reserved for slavery, signifies only an obedient +attendant." Now, all history will prove that the servants of the New +Testament addressed by the apostles, in their letters to the several +churches throughout the Roman Empire, were such as were perserved from +death by the conqueror, and taken into slavery. This was their +condition, and it is a fact well known to all men acquainted with +history. Had the word which designates their condition, in our +translation, lost none of its original meaning, a common man could not +have fallen into a mistake as to the condition indicated. But to waive +this fact we are furnished with all the evidence that can be desired. +The Saviour appeared in an age of learning--the enslaved condition of +half the Roman Empire, at the time, is a fact embodied with all the +historical records--the constitution God gave the Jews, was in harmony +with the Roman regulations on the subject of slavery. In this state of +things, Jesus ordered his gospel to be preached in all the world, and to +every creature. It was done as he directed; and masters and servants, +and persons in all conditions, were brought by the gospel to obey the +Saviour. Churches were constituted. We have examined the letters written +to the churches, composd of these materials. The result is, that each +member is furnished with a law to regulate the duties of his civil +station--from the highest to the lowest. + +We will remark, in closing under this head, that we have shown from the +text of the sacred volume, that when God entered into covenant with +Abraham, it was with him as a slaveholder; that when he took his +posterity by the hand in Egypt, five hundred years afterward to confirm +the promise made to Abraham, it was done with them as slaveholders; that +when he gave them a constitution of government, he gave them the right +to perpetuate hereditary slavery; and that he did not for the fifteen +hundred years of their national existence, express disapprobation toward +the institution. + +We have also shown from authentic history that the institution of +slavery existed in every family, and in every province of the Roman +Empire, at the time the gospel was published to them. + +We have also shown from the New Testament, that all the churches are +recognized as composed of masters and servants; and that they are +instructed by Christ how to discharge their relative duties; and finally +that in reference to the question which was then started, whether +Christianity did not abolish the institution, or the right of one +Christian to hold another Christian in bondage, we have shown, that "the +words of our Lord Jesus Christ" are, that so far from this being the +case, it adds to the obligation of the servant to render service with +good-will to his master, and that gospel fellowship is not to be +entertained with persons who will not consent to it! + +I propose, in the fourth place, to show that the institution of slavery +is full of mercy. I shall say but a few words on this subject. Authentic +history warrants this conclusion, that for a long period of time, it was +this institution alone which furnished a motive for sparing the +prisoner's life. The chances of war, when the earth was filled with +small tribes of men, who had a passion for it, brought to decision, +almost daily, conflicts, where nothing but this institution interposed +an inducement to save the vanquished. The same was true in the enlarged +schemes of conquest, which brought the four great universal empires of +the Scriptures to the zenith of their power. + +The same is true in the history of Africa, as far back as we can trace +it. It is only sober truth to say, that the institution of slavery has +saved from the sword more lives, including their increase, than all the +souls who now inhabit this globe. + +The souls thus conquered and subjected to masters, who feared not God +nor regarded men, in the days of Abraham, Job, and the patriarchs, were +surely brought under great obligations to the mercy of God, in allowing +such men as these to purchase them, and keep them in their families. + +The institution when engrafted on the Jewish constitution, was designed +principally, not to enlarge the number, but to ameliorate the condition +of the slaves in the neighboring nations. + +Under the gospel, it has brought within the range of gospel influence, +millions of Ham's descendant's among ourselves, who but for this +institution, would have sunk down to eternal ruin; knowing not God, and +strangers to the gospel. In their bondage here on earth, they have been +much better provided for, and great multitudes of them have been made +the freemen of the Lord Jesus Christ, and left this world rejoicing in +hope of the glory of God. The elements of an empire, which I hope will +lead Ethiopia very soon to stretch out her hands to God, is the fruit of +the institution here. An officious meddling with the institution, from +feeling and sentiments unknown to the Bible, may lead to the +extermination of the slave race among us, who, taken as a whole, are +utterly unprepared for a higher civil state; but benefit them, it +cannot. Their condition, _as a class_, is now better than that of any +other equal number of laborers on earth, and is daily improving. + +If the Bible is allowed to awaken the spirit, and control the +philanthropy which works their good, the day is not far distant when +the highest wishes of saints will be gratified, in having conferred on +them all that the spirit of good-will can bestow. This spirit which was +kindling into life, has received a great check among us of late, by that +trait which the Apostle Peter reproves and shames in his officious +countrymen, when he says: "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or +as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busy-body in other men's +matters." Our citizens have been murdered--our property has been stolen, +(if the receiver is as bad as the thief,)--our lives have been put in +jeopardy--our characters traduced--and attempts made to force political +slavery upon us in the place of domestic, by strangers who have no right +to meddle with our matters. Instead of meditating generous things to our +slaves, as a return for gospel subordination, we have to put on our +armor to suppress a rebellious spirit, engendered by "false doctrine," +propagated by men "of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth," who +teach them that the gain of freedom to the slave, is the only proof of +godliness in the master. From such, Paul says we must withdraw +ourselves; and if we fail to do it, and to rebuke them with all the +authority which "the words of our Lord Jesus Christ" confer, we shall be +wanting in duty to them, to ourselves, and to the world. + + THORNTON STRINGFELLOW. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[229] The property in slaves in the United States is their _service or +labor_. The Constitution guarantees this property to its owner, both in +apprentices and slaves. And the Supreme Court has decided, Judge Baldwin +presiding, that all the means "necessary and proper" to secure this +property, may be constitutionally used by the master, in the absence of +all statute law. The Roman law made the slave of that law, to be, not a +_personal chattel_, held to service or labor only, as is the American +apprentice or slave, but to be a _mere thing_; and guaranteed to the +master the right to do with that _mere thing_, just as he pleased. To +cut it up, for instance, as the master sometimes did, to feed fishes. + +Abolitionists are guilty of the inexcusable wickedness of holding up +this ancient Roman slavery, as a model of American slavery; although +they know that the personal rights of apprentices and slaves, are as +well defined and secured, by judicial decisions and statute laws, as the +rights of husband and wife, parent and child. + + + + +AN EXAMINATION + +OF ELDER GALUSHA'S REPLY TO DR. RICHARD FULLER OF SOUTH CAROLINA. + + +AFTER my essay on slavery was published in the _Herald_,[230] I sent a +copy of it to a prominent abolition gentleman in New York, accompanied +by a friendly letter. + +This gentleman I selected as a correspondent, because of his high +standing, intellectual attainments, and unquestioned piety. I frankly +avowed to him my readiness to abandon slavery, so soon as I was +convinced by the Bible that it was sinful, and requested him, "if the +Bible contained precepts, and settled principles of conduct, in direct +opposition to those portions of it upon which I relied, as furnishing +the mind of the Almighty upon the subject of slavery, that he would +furnish me with the knowledge of the fact." To this letter I received a +friendly reply, accompanied by a printed communication containing the +result of a prayerful effort which he had previously made, for the +purpose of furnishing the very information to a friend at the South, +which I sought to obtain at his hands. + +It may be owing to my prejudices, or a want of intellect, that I fail to +be convinced, by those portions of the Bible to which he refers, to +prove that slavery is sinful. But as the support of truth is _my +object_, and as I wish to have the answer of a good conscience toward +God in this matter, I herewith publish, for the information of all into +whose hands my first essay may have fallen, every passage in the Bible +to which this distinguished brother refers me for "precepts and settled +principles of conduct, in direct opposition to those portions of it upon +which I relied, as furnishing the mind of the Almighty upon the subject +of slavery." + +1st. His reference to the sacred volume is this: "God hath made of one +blood all nations of men." This is a Scripture truth which I believe; +yet God decreed that Canaan should be a servant of servants to his +brother--that is, an abject slave in his posterity. This God effected +eight hundred years afterward, in the days of Joshua, when the +Gibeonites were subjected to prepetual bondage, and made hewers of wood +and drawers of water.--Joshua ix: 23. + +Again, God ordained, as law-giver to Israel, that their captives taken +in war should be enslaved.--Deut. xx: 10 to 15. + +Again, God enacted that the Israelites should buy slaves of the heathen +nations around them, and will them and their increase as property to +their children forever.--Levit. xxv: 44, 45, 46. All these nations were +_made of one blood_. Yet God ordained that some should be "chattel" +slaves to others, and gave his special aid to effect it. In view of this +incontrovertible fact, how can I believe this passage disproves the +lawfulness of slavery in the sight of God? How can any sane man believe +it, who believes the Bible? + +2d. His second Scripture reference to disprove the lawfulness of +slavery in the sight of God, is this: "God has said a man is better than +a sheep." This is a Scripture truth which I fully believe--and I have no +doubt, if we could ascertain what the Israelites had to pay for those +slaves they bought with their money according to God's law, in Levit. +xxv: 44, that we should find they had to pay more for them than they +paid for sheep, for the reason assigned by the Saviour; that is, that a +servant man is better than a sheep; for when he is done plowing, or +feeding cattle, and comes in from the field, he will, at his master's +bidding, prepare him his meal, and wait upon him till he eats it, while +the master feels under no obligation even to thank him for it because he +has done no more than his duty.--Luke xvii: 7, 8, 9. This, and other +important duties, which the people of God bought their slaves to perform +for them, by the permission of their Maker, were duties which sheep +could not perform. But I cannot see what there is in it to blot out from +the Bible a relation which God created, in which he made one man to be a +slave to another. + +3d. His third Scripture reference to prove the unlawfulness of slavery +in the sight of God, is this: "God commands children to obey their +parents, and wives to obey their husbands." This, I believe to be the +will of Christ to Christian children and Christian wives--whether they +are bond or free. But it is equally true that Christ ordains that +Christianity shall not abolish slavery.--1 Cor. vii: 17, 21, and that he +commands servants to obey their masters and to count them worthy of all +honor.--1 Tim. vi: 1, 2. It is also true, that God allowed Jewish +masters to use the rod to make them do it--and to use it with the +severity requisite to accomplish the object.--Exod. xxi: 20,21. It is +equally true, that Jesus Christ ordains that a Christian servant shall +receive for the wrong he hath done.--Col. iii: 25. My correspondent +admits, without qualification, that if they are property, it is right. +But the Bible says, they were property.--Levit. xxv: 44, 45, 46. + +The above reference, reader, _enjoins_ the _duty_ of two _relations_, +which God ordained, but does not _abolish_ a third _relation_ which _God +has ordained_; as the Scripture will prove, to which I have referred +you, under the first reference made by my correspondent. + +4th. His fourth Scripture reference is, to the _intention_ of Abraham to +give his estate to a servant, in order to prove that servant was not a +slave. "What," he says, "property inherit property?" I answer, yes. Two +years ago, in my county, William Hansbrough gave to his slaves his +estate, worth forty or fifty thousand dollars. In the last five or six +years, over two hundred slaves, within a few miles of me, belonging to +various masters, have inherited portions of their masters' estates. + +To render slaves valuable, the Romans qualified them for the learned +professions, and all the various arts. They were teachers, doctors, +authors, mechanics, etc. So with us, tradesmen of every kind are to be +found among our slaves. Some of them are undertakers--some farmers--some +overseers, or stewards--some housekeepers--some merchants--some +teamsters, and some money-lenders, who give their masters a portion of +their income, and keep the balance. Nearly all of them have an income of +their own--and was it not for the seditious spirit of the North, we +would educate our slaves generally, and so fit them earlier for a more +improved condition, and higher moral elevation. + +But will all this, when duly certified, prove they are not slaves? No. +Neither will Abraham's _intention_ to give one of his servants his +estate, prove that he was not a slave. Who had higher claims upon +Abraham, before he had a child, than this faithful slave, born in his +house, reared by his hand, devoted to his interest, and faithful in +every trust? + +5th. His fifth reference, my correspondent says, "forever sets the +question at rest." It is this: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master, +the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee--he shall dwell +with thee, even in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy +gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him." + +This my distinguished correspondent says, "forever puts the question at +rest." My reader, I hope, will ask himself what question it puts to +rest. He will please to remember, that it is brought to put this +question to rest, "Is slavery sinful in the sight of God?" the Bible +being judge--or "did God ever allow one man to hold property in +another?" + +My correspondent admits this to be the question at issue. He asks, "What +is slavery?" And thus answers: "It is the principle involved in holding +man as property." "This," he says: "is the point at issue." He says, "if +it be right to hold man as property, it is right to treat him as +property," etc. Now, conceding all in the argument, that can be demanded +for this law about run-away slaves, yet it does not prove that slavery +or holding property in man is sinful--because it is a part and parcel of +the Mosaic law, given to Israel in the wilderness by the same God, who +in the same wilderness enacted "that of the heathen that were round +about them, they should buy bond-men and bond-women--also of the +strangers that dwelt among them should they buy, and they should pass as +an inheritance to their children after them, to possess them as bond-men +forever."--Levit. xxv: 44. + +How can I admit that a prohibition to deliver up a run-away slave, under +the law of Moses, is proof that there was no slavery allowed under that +law? Here is the law from God himself,--Levit. xxv: 44, authorizing the +Israelites to buy slaves and transmit them and their increase as a +possession to their posterity forever--and to make slaves of their +captives taken in war.--Deut. xx: 10-15. Suppose, for argument's sake, I +admit that God prohibited the delivery back of one of _these slaves_, +when he fled from his master--would that prove that he was not a slave +before he fled? Would that prove that he did not remain legally a slave +in the sight of God, according to his own law, until he fled? The +passage proves the very reverse of that which it is brought to prove. It +proves that the slave is recognized by God himself as a slave, until he +fled to the Israelites. My correspondent's exposition of this law seems +based upon the idea that God, who had held fellowship with slavery among +his people for five hundred years, and who had just given them a formal +statute to legalize the purchase of slaves from the heathen, and to +enslave their captives taken in war, was, nevertheless, desirous to +abolish the institution. But, as if afraid to march directly up to his +object, he was disposed to undermine what he was unwilling to attempt to +overthrow. + +Upon the principle that man is prone to think God is altogether such an +one as himself, we may account for such an interpretation at the present +time, by men north of Mason & Dixon's line. Our brethren there have held +fellowship with this institution, by the constitutional oath they have +taken to protect us in this property. Unable, constitutionally, to +overthrow the institution, they see, or think they see, a sanction in +the law of God to undermine it, by opening their gates and letting our +run-away slaves "dwell among them where it liketh them best." If I could +be astonished at any thing in this controversy, it would be to see +sensible men engaged in the study of that part of the Bible which +relates to the rights of property, as established by the Almighty +himself, giving in to the idea that the Judge of the world, acting in +the character of a national law-giver, would legalize a property right +in slaves, _as he did_--give full power to the master to govern--secure +the increase as an inheritance to posterity for all time to come--and +then add a clause to legalize a fraud upon the unsuspecting purchaser. +For what better is it, under this interpretation? + +With respect to slaves purchased of the heathen, or enslaved by war, the +law passed a clear title to them and their increase forever. With +respect to the hired servants of the Hebrews, the law secured to the +master a right to their service until the Sabbatic year or +Jubilee--unless they were bought back by a near kinsman at a stated +price in money when owned by a heathen master. But these legal rights, +under these laws of heaven's King, by this interpretation, are all +canceled--for the pecuniary loss, there is no redress--and for the +insult no remedy, whenever a "liketh him best" man can induce the slave +to run away. And worse still, the community of masters thus insulted and +swindled, according to this interpretation, are bound to show respect +and afford protection to the villains who practice it. Who can believe +all this? I judge our Northern brethren will say, the Lord deliver us +from such legislation as this. So say we. What, then, does this run-away +law mean? It means that the God of Israel ordained his people to be an +asylum for the slave who fled from heathen cruelty to them for +protection; it is the law of nations--but surrendered under the +Constitution by these States, who agreed to deliver them up. See, says +God, ye oppress not the stranger. Thou shalt neither _vex_ a stranger, +nor _oppress_ him.--Exod. xxii: 21. + +His 6th reference to the Bible is this: "Do to others as ye would they +should do to you." I have shown in the essay, that these words of our +Saviour, embody the same moral principle, which is embodied by Moses in +Levit. xix: 18, in these words, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." In this +we can not be mistaken, because Jesus says there are but two such +principles in God's moral government--_one_ of supreme love of +God--_another_ of love to our neighbor as ourself. To the everlasting +confusion of the argument from moral precepts, to overthrow the +positive institution of slavery, this moral precept was given to +regulate the mutual duties of this very relation, which God by law +ordained for the Jewish commonwealth. + +How can that which regulates the _duty_, overthrow the _relation_ +itself? + +His 7th reference is, "They which are accounted to rule over the +Gentiles, exercise lordship over them, but so it shall not be among +you." + +Turn to the passage, reader, in Mark x: 42; and try your ingenuity at +expounding, and see if you can destroy one _relation_ that has been +created among men, because the _authority_ given in another relation was +_abused_. The Saviour refers to the _abuse_ of State _authority_, as a +warning to those who should be clothed with _authority_ in his kingdom, +not to _abuse_ it, but to connect the use of it with humility. But how +official humility in the kingdom of Christ, is to rob States of the +right to make their own laws, dissolve the relation of slavery +recognized by the Saviour as a lawful relation, and overthrow the right +of property in slaves as settled by God himself, I know not. Paul, in +drawing the character of those who oppose slavery, in his letter to +Timothy, says, (vi: 4,) they are "proud, knowing nothing;" he means, +that they were puffed with a conceit of their superior sanctity, while +they were deplorably ignorant of the will of Christ on this subject. Is +it not great pride that leads a man to think he is better than the +Saviour? Jesus held fellowship with, and enjoined subjection to +governments, which sanctioned slavery in its worst form--but +abolitionists refuse fellowship for governments which have mitigated all +its rigors. + +God established the relation by law, and bestowed the highest +manifestations of his favor upon slaveholders; and has caused it to be +written as with a sunbeam in the Scriptures. Yet such saints would be +refused the ordinary tokens of Christian fellowship among abolitionists. +If Abraham were on earth, they could not let him, consistently, occupy +their pulpits, to tell of the things God has prepared for them that love +him. Job himself would be unfit for their communion. Joseph would be +placed on a level with pirates. Not a single church planted by the +apostles would make a fit home for our abolition brethren, (for they all +had masters and slaves.) The apostles and their ministerial associates +could not occupy their pulpits, for they fraternized with slavery, and +upheld State authority upon the subject. Now, I ask, with due respect +for all parties, can sentiments which lead to such results as these be +held by any man, _in the absence of pride_ of no ordinary character, +whether he be sensible of it or not? + +Again, whatever of intellect we may have--can that something which +prompts to results like these be _Bible knowledge_? + +Reference the 8th is favorable in _sound_ if not in _sense_. It is in +these words, "Neither be ye called _masters_, for one is your _master_, +even Christ." I am free to confess, it is difficult to repress the +spirit which the prophet felt when he witnessed the zeal of his deluded +countrymen, at Mount Carmel. I think a sensible man ought to know +better, than to refer me to such a passage, to prove slavery unlawful; +yet my correspondent is a sensible man. However, I will balance it by an +equal authority, for dissolving another relation. "Call no man _father_ +upon earth, for one is your _father_ in heaven." + +When the last abolishes the _relation_ between _parent and child_, the +first will abolish the _relation_ between _master and servant_. + +The 9th reference to prove slavery unlawful in the sight of God, is +this: "He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his +hand, he shall surely be put to death." Wonderful! + +I suppose that no State has ever established domestic slavery, which did +not find such a law necessary. It is this institution which makes such a +law needful. Unless slavery exists, there would be no motive to steal a +man. And, the danger is greater in a slave State than a free one. +Virginia has such a law, and so have all the States of North America. + +Will these laws prove four thousand years hence that slavery did not +exist in the United States? No--but why not! Because the statute will +still exist, which authorizes us to buy bond-men and bond-women with our +money, and give them and their increase as an inheritance to our +children, forever. So the Mosaic statute still exists, which authorized +the Jews to do the same thing, and God is its author. + +Reference the 10th is: "Rob not the poor because he is poor. Let the +oppressed go free; break every yoke; deliver him that is spoiled out of +the hand of the oppressor. What doth the Lord require of thee but to do +justly, love mercy, walk humbly with thy God. He that oppresseth the +poor reproacheth his Maker." This _sounds_ very well, reader, yet I +propose to make every man who reads me, _confess_, that these Scriptures +will not condemn slavery. Answer me this question: Are these, and such +like passages, in the Old Testament, from whence they are all taken, +intended to reprove and condemn that people, for doing what God, in his +law gave them a right to do? I know you must answer, they were not; +consequently, you confess they do not condemn slavery; because God gave +them the right, by law, to purchase slaves of the heathen.--Levit. xxv: +44. And to make slaves of their captives taken in war.--Deut. xx: 14. +The moral precepts of the Old or New Testament cannot make that wrong +which God ordained to be his will, as he has slavery. + +The 11th reference of my distinguished correspondent to the sacred +volume, to prove that slavery is contrary to the will of Jesus Christ +and sinful, is in these words: "Masters, give unto your servants that +which is just and equal." The argument of my correspondent is this, that +slavery is a relation, in which rights based upon _justice_ cannot +exist. + +I answer, God ordained, after man sinned, that he, "should eat bread +(that is, _have food and raiment_) in the sweat of his face." + +He has since ordained, that some should be slaves to others, (as we have +proved under the first reference.) _Therefore_, when food and raiment +are withheld from him in slavery, it is _unjust_. + +God has ordained food and raiment, as wages for the sweat of the face. +Christ has ordained that with these, whether in slavery or freedom, his +disciples shall be content. + +The relation of master and slave, says Gibbon, existed in every province +and in every family of the Roman Empire. Jesus ordains in the 13th +chapter of Romans, from the 1st to the end of the 7th verse, and in 1 +Peter, 2d chapter, 13th, 14th, and 15th verses, that the _legislative +authority_, which created the relation, should be obeyed and honored by +his disciples. But while he thus _legalises_ the _relation_ of master +and slave as established by the civil law, he proceeds to prescribe the +mutual duties which the parties, when they come into his kingdom, must +perform to each other. + +The reference of my correspondent to disprove the _relation_, is a part +of what Jesus has prescribed on this subject to _regulate_ the _duties_ +of the relation, and is itself proof that the relation existed--that +its legality was recognized--and its duties prescribed by the Son of God +through the Holy Ghost given to the apostles. + +The 12th reference is, "Let as many servants as are under the yoke, +count their masters worthy of all honor. And they that have believing +masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather +do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the +benefit." If my reader will turn to my remarks, in my first essay upon +this Scripture, he will cease to wonder that it fails to convince me +that slavery is sinful. I should think the wonder would be, that any man +ever quoted it for such a purpose. + +And lastly. My correspondent informs me that the Greek word "doulos," +translated servant, means hired servant and not slave. + +I reply, that the primary meaning of this Greek word, is in a singular +state of preservation. God, as if foreseeing and providing for this +controversy, has caused, in his providence, that its meaning in Greek +dictionaries shall be thus given, "the opposite of free." Now, readers, +what is the _opposite_ of _free_? Is it a state somewhere _between_ +freedom and slavery? If freedom, as a condition, has an opposite, that +opposite state is indicated by this very word "doulos." So says every +Greek lexicographer. I ask, if this is not wonderful, that the Holy +Ghost has used a term, so incapable of deceiving, and yet that that term +should be brought forward for the purpose of deception. Another +remarkable fact is this: the English word servant, originally meant +precisely the same thing as the Greek word "doulos;" that is, says Dr. +Johnson in his Dictionary, it meant formerly a captive taken in war, and +reserved for slavery. These are two remarkable facts in the providence +of God. But, reader, I will give you a Bible key, by which to decide for +yourself, without foreign aid, whether _servant_, when it denotes a +relation in society, where the other side of that relation is _master_, +means _hired servant_. "Every man's servant that is bought for money +shall eat thereof; but a hired servant shall not eat thereof."--Exod. +xii; 44, 45. Here are two classes of servants alluded to--one was +allowed to eat the Passover the night Israel left Egypt; the other not. +What was the difference in these two classes? Were they both hired +servants? If so, it should read, "Every hired servant that is bought for +money shall eat thereof; but a hired servant that is bought for money, +shall not eat thereof." My reader, why has the Holy Ghost, in presiding +over the inspired pen, been thus particular? Is it too much to say, it +was to provide against the delusion of the nineteenth century, which +learned men would be practicing upon unlearned men, as well as +themselves, on the subject of slavery? Who, with the Bible and their +learning, would not be able to discover, that a servant bought with +money was a slave; and that a hired servant was a free man? Again, +Levit. xxv: 44, 45, and 46; "Thy bond-servants shall be of the heathen +that are round about you, and of the children of the strangers that do +sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy. And they shall be your +possession, and ye shall take them as an inheritance, for your children +after you, to inherit them for a possession, they shall be your bond-men +forever." + +Reader, were these hired servants? If so, they hired themselves for a +long time. And what is very singular, they hired their posterity for all +time to come. And what is still more singular, the wages were paid, not +to the servant, but to a former owner or master. And what is still +stranger, they hired themselves and their posterity to be an inheritance +to their master and his posterity forever! Yet, reader, I am told by my +distinguished correspondent, that servant in the Scriptures, when used +to designate a relation, means only hired servant. Again, I ask, were +the enslaved captives in Deut. xx: 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, hired +servants? + +One of the greatest and best of men ever raised at the North, (I mean +Luther Rice,) once told me when I quoted the law of God for the purchase +of slaves from the heathen, (in order to silence his argument about +"doulos," and hired servant,) I say he told me positively, there was no +such law. When I opened the Bible and showed it to him, his shame was +very visible. (And I hope he is not the only great and good man, that +God will put to shame for being ignorant of his word.) But he never +opened his mouth to me about slavery again while he lived. + +If my reader does no _better_ than he did, at least let him not fight +against God for establishing the institution of "chattel" slavery in his +kingdom, nor against me for believing he did do it. But, reader, if you +have the hardihood to insist that these were hired servants, and not +slaves after all, then, I answer, that ours are hired servants, too, +and not slaves; and so the dispute ends favorably to the South, and it +is lawful for us, according to abolition admissions, to hold them to +servitude. For ours, we paid money to a former owner; so did the Jews +for theirs. The increase of ours passes as an inheritance to our +children, so did the increase of the Jewish servants pass as an +inheritance to their children, to be an inheritance forever. And all +this took place by the direction of God to his chosen people. + +My correspondent thinks with Mr. Jefferson, that Jehovah has no +attributes that will harmonize with slavery; and that all men are born +free and equal. Now, I say let him throw away his Bible as Mr. Jefferson +did his, and then they will be fit companions. But never disgrace the +Bible by making Mr. Jefferson its expounder, nor Mr. Jefferson by +deriving his sentiments from it. Mr. Jefferson did not bow to the +authority of the Bible, and on this subject I do not bow to him. How can +any man, who believes the Bible, admit for a moment that God intended to +teach mankind by the Bible, that all are born free and equal? + +Men who engage in this controversy ought to look into the Bible, and see +what is in it about slavery. I do not know how to account for such men +saying, as my correspondent does, that the slave of the Mosaic law, +purchased of the heathen, was a hired servant; and that both he and the +Hebrew hired servant of the same law, had a passport from God to run +away from their masters with impunity, to prove which is the object of +one of his quotations. Again, New Testament _servants_ and _masters_ are +not the servants and masters of the Mosaic law, but the servants and +masters of the Roman Empire. To go to the law of Moses to find out the +statutes of the Roman Empire, is folly. Yet on this subject the +difference is not great, and so far as humanity (in the abolition sense +of it) is concerned, is in favor of the Roman law. + +The laws of each made slaves to be property, and allowed them to be +bought and sold. See Gibbon's Rome, vol. i: pp. 25, 26, and Levit. xxv: +44, 45, 46. The laws of each allowed prisoners taken in war to be +enslaved. See Gibbon as above, and Deut. xx: 10-15. The difference was +this: the Roman law allowed _men_ taken in battle to be enslaved--the +Jewish law required the _men_ taken in battle to be put to death, and to +enslave their wives and children. In the case of the Midianites, the +mercy of enslaving some of the women was denied them because they had +enticed the Israelites into sin, and subjected them to a heavy judgment +under Balaam's counsel, and for a reason not assigned, the mercy of +slavery was denied to the male children in this special case. See +Numbers xxxi: 15, 16, 17. + +The first letter to Timothy, while at Ephesus, if rightly understood, +would do much to stay the hands of men, who have more zeal than +knowledge on this subject. See again what I have written in my first +essay on this letter. In addition to what I have there said, I would +state, that the "_other doctrine_," 1 Tim. i: 3, which Paul says, must +not be taught, I take to be a principle tantamount to this, that Jesus +Christ proposed to subordinate the civil to ecclesiastical authority. + +The doctrine which was "_according to godliness_," 1 Tim, vi: 3, I take +to be a principle which subordinated the church, or Christ in his +members, to civil governments, or "the powers that be." One principle +was seditious, and when consummated must end in the man of sin. The +other principle was practically a quiet submission to government, as an +ordinance of God in the hands of men. + +The abolitionists, at Ephesus, in attempting to interfere with the +relations of slavery, and to unsettle the rights of property, acted upon +a principle, which statesmen must see, would in the end, subject the +whole frame-work of government to the supervision of the church, and +terminate in the man of sin, or a pretended successor of Christ, sitting +in the temple of God, and claiming a right to reign over, and control +the civil governments of the world. The Apostle, therefore, chapter ii: +1, to render the doctrine of subordination to the State a very prominent +doctrine, and to cause the knowledge of it to spread among all who +attended their worship, orders that the very first thing done by the +church should be, that of making supplication, prayers, and +intercessions, and giving God thanks for all men that were placed in +authority, by the State, for the administration of civil government. He +assigns the reason for this injunction, "that we may lead a quiet and +peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." + +My correspondent complains, that abolitionists at the North are not safe +when they come among us. They are much safer than the saints of Ephesus +would have been in the Apostolic day, if Paul would have allowed the +seditious doctrine to be propagated which our Northern brethren think it +such a merit to preach, when it subjects them to no risk. How can they +expect, in the nature of things, to lead a quiet and peaceable life when +they come among us? They are _organized_ to overthrow our +sovereignty--to put our lives in peril, and to trample upon Bible +principles, by which the rights of property are to be settled. + +Questions and strifes of words characterized the disputes of the +abolitionists at Ephesus about slavery. It is amusing and painful to see +the questions and strifes of words in the piece of my correspondent. +Many of these questions are about our property right in slaves. The +_substance of them_ is this: that the present title is not good, because +the original title grew out of violence and injustice. But, reader, our +original title was obtained in the same way which God in his law +authorized his people to obtain theirs. They obtained their slaves by +purchase of those who made them captives in the hazards of war, or by +conquest with their own sword. My correspondent speaks at one time as if +ours were stolen in the first instance; but, as if forgetting that, in +another place he says, that so great is the hazard attending the wars of +Africa, that one life is lost for every two that are taken captive and +sold into slavery. If this is stealing, it has at least the merit of +being more manly than some that is practiced among us. + +A case seems to have been preserved by the Holy Ghost, as if to rebuke +this abolition doctrine about property rights. It is the case of the +King of Ammon, a heathen, on the one side, and Jephtha, who "obtained a +good report by faith," on the other. It is consoling to us that we +occupy the ground Jephtha did--and we may well suspect the correctness +of the other side, because it is the ground occupied by Ammon. The case +is this: A heathen is seen menacing Israel. Jephtha is selected by his +countrymen to conduct the controversy. He sends a message to his +menacing neighbor, to know why he had come out against him. He returned +for answer, that it was because Israel held property to which they had +no right. Jephtha answered, they had had it in possession for three +hundred years. Ammon replied, they had no right to it, because it was +obtained in the first instance by violence. Jephtha replied, that it was +held by the same sort of a title as that by which Ammon held his +possessions--that is to say, whatever Ammon's god Chemosh enabled him to +take in war, he considered to be his of right; and that Israel's God +had assisted them to take this property, and they considered the title +to be such an one as Ammon was bound to acknowledge. + +Ammon stickled for the _eternal_ principle of righteousness, and +contended that it had been violated in the first instance. But, reader, +in the appeal made to the sword, God vindicated Israel's title.--Judges +xi: 12-32. + +And if at the present time, we take ground with Ammon about the rights +of property, I will not say how much work we may have to do, nor who +will prove the rightful owner of my correspondent's domicil; but certain +I am, that by his Ammonitish principle of settling the rights of +property, he will be ousted. + +Reader, in looking over the printed reply of my correspondent to his +Southern friend, which occupies ten columns of a large newspaper, to see +if I had overlooked any Scripture, I find I have omitted to notice one +reference to the sacred volume, which was made by him, for the general +purpose of showing that the Scriptures abound with moral principles, and +call into exercise moral feelings inconsistent with slavery. It is this: +"Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my +brethren, you have done it unto me." The design of the Saviour, in the +parable from which these words are taken, in Matt. xxv, is, to impress +strongly upon the human mind, that _character_, deficient in _correct +moral feeling_, will prove fatal to human hopes in a coming day. + +But, reader, will you stop and ask yourself, "What is correct moral +feeling?" Is it abhorrence and hatred to the will and pleasure of God? +Certainly not. Then it is not abhorrence and hatred of slavery, which +seems to be a cardinal virtue at the North. It has been the will and +pleasure of God to institute slavery by a law of his own, in that +kingdom over which he immediately presided; and to give it his sanction +when instituted by the laws of men. The most elevated morality is +enjoined under both Testaments, upon the parties in this relation. There +is nothing in the relation inconsistent with its exercise. + +My reader will remember that the subject in dispute is, whether +involuntary and hereditary slavery was ever lawful in the sight of God, +the Bible being judge. + +1. I have shown by the Bible, that God decreed this relation between the +posterity of Canaan, and the posterity of Shem and Japheth. + +2. I have shown that God executed this decree by aiding the posterity +of Shem, (at a time when "they were holiness to the Lord,") to enslave +the posterity of Canaan in the days of Joshua. + +3. I have shown that when God ratified the covenant of promise with +Abraham, he recognized Abraham as the owner of slaves he had bought with +his money of the stranger, and recorded his approbation of the relation, +by commanding Abraham to circumcise them. + +4. I have shown that when he took Abraham's posterity by the hand in +Egypt, five hundred years afterward, he publicly approbated the same +relation, by permitting every slave they had bought with their money to +eat the Passover, while he refused the same privilege to their _hired +servants_. + +5. I have shown that God, as their national law-giver, ordained by +express statute, that they should buy slaves of the nations around them, +(the seven devoted nations excepted,) and that these slaves and their +increase should be a perpetual inheritance to their children. + +6. I have shown that God ordained slavery by law for their captives +taken in war, while he guaranteed a successful issue to their wars, so +long as they obeyed him. + +7. I have shown that when Jesus ordered his gospel to be published +through the world, the relation of master and slave existed by law in +every province and family of the Roman Empire, as it had done in the +Jewish commonwealth for fifteen hundred years. + +8. I have shown that Jesus ordained, that the legislative authority, +which created this relation in that empire, should be obeyed and honored +as an ordinance of God, as all government is declared to be. + +9. I have shown that Jesus has prescribed the mutual duties of this +relation in his kingdom. + +10. And lastly, I have shown, that in an attempt by his professed +followers to disturb this relation in the Apostolic churches, Jesus +orders that fellowship shall be disclaimed with all such disciples, as +seditious persons--whose conduct was not only dangerous to the State, +but destructive to the true character of the gospel dispensation. + +This being the case, as will appear by the recorded language of the +Bible, to which we have referred you, reader, of what use is it to argue +against it from moral requirements? + +They regulate the duties of this and all other lawful relations among +men--but they cannot abolish any relation, ordained or sanctioned of +God, as is slavery. + +I would be understood as referring for proof of this summary, to my +first as well as my present essay. + +When I first wrote, I did suppose the Scriptures had been examined by +leading men in the opposition, and that prejudice had blinded their +eyes. I am now of a different opinion. What will be the effect of this +discussion, I will not venture to predict, knowing human nature as well +as I do. But men who are capable of exercising candor must see, that it +is not against an institution unknown to the Bible, or declared by its +author to be sinful, that the North is waging war. + +Their hostility must be transferred from us to God, who established +slavery by law in that kingdom over which he condescended to preside; +and to Jesus, who recognized it as a relation established in Israel by +his Father, and in the Roman government by men, which he bound his +followers to obey and honor. + +In defending the institution as one which has the sanction of our Maker, +I have done what I considered, under the peculiar circumstances of our +common country, to be a Christian duty. I have set down naught in +malice. I have used no sophistry. I have brought to the investigation of +the subject, common sense. I have not relied on powers of argument, +learning, or ingenuity. These would neither put the subject into the +Bible nor take it out. It is a Bible question. I have met it fairly, and +fully, according to the acknowledged principles of the abolitionists. I +have placed before my reader what is in the Bible, to prove that slavery +has the sanction of God, and is not sinful. I have placed before him +what I suppose to be the quintessence of all that can be gleaned from +the Bible to disprove it. + +I have made a few plain reflections to aid the understanding of my +reader. What I have written was designed for those who reverence the +Bible as their counsellor--who take it for rules of conduct, and +devotional sentiments. + +I now commit it to God for his blessing, with a fervent desire, that if +I have mistaken his will in any thing, he will not suffer my error to +mislead another. + + THORNTON STRINGFELLOW. + + + [The following letter, in substance, was written + to a brother in Kentucky, who solicited a copy of + my slavery pamphlet, as well as my opinion on the + movement in that State, on the subject of + emancipation.] + +DEAR BROTHER:-- + +I received your letter, and the slavery pamphlet which you requested me +to send you, I herewith inclose. + +When I published the first essay in that pamphlet, I intended to invite +a discussion with Elder Galusha, of New York; and when I received Mr. +Galusha's letter to Dr. Fuller, I still expected a discussion. But after +manifesting, on his part, great pleasure in the outset, for the +opportunity tendered him by a Southern man, to discuss this subject, he +ultimately declined it. This being the case, I did not at that time +present as full a view of the subject as the Scriptures furnish. I have +since thought of supplying this deficiency; and the condition of things +in Kentucky furnishes a fit opportunity for saying to you, what I said +to a brother in Pennsylvania, who, like yourself, requested me to send +him a copy of my pamphlet. + +I do not know that I could add any thing, beyond what I said to him, +that would be useful to you. To this brother I said, among other things, +that Dr. Wayland (in his discussion with Dr. Fuller,) relied principally +upon _two arguments_, used by all the intelligent abolitionists, to +overthrow the weight of Scriptural authority in support of slavery. The +first of these arguments is designed to neutralize the sanction given to +slavery by the law of Moses; and the second is designed to neutralize +the sanction given to slavery by the New Testament. + +The Dr. frankly admits, that the law of Moses did establish slavery in +the Jewish commonwealth; and he admits with equal frankness, that it was +incorporated as an element in the gospel church. For the purpose, +however, of destroying the sanction thus given to the legality of the +relation under the _law of Moses_, he assumes two things in relation to +it, which are expressly contradicted by the law. He assumes, in the +first place, that the Almighty, under the law, gave a _special +permission_ to the Israelites to enslave the seven devoted nations, as a +punishment for their sins. He then _assumes_, in the second place, that +this _special permission_ to enslave the seven nations, prohibited, by +_implication_, the enslaving of all other nations. The conclusion which +the Dr. draws from the above assumptions is this--that a _special +permission_ under the law, to enslave a particular people, as a +punishment for their sins, is not a _general permission_ under the +gospel, to enslave all, or any other people. The premises here assumed, +and from which this conclusion is drawn, are precisely the reverse of +what is recorded in the Bible. + +The Bible statement is this: that the Israelites under the law, so far +from being permitted or required to enslave the seven nations, as a +punishment for their sins, were expressly commanded to _destroy them +utterly_. Here is the proof--Deut. vii: 1 and 2: "When the Lord thy God +shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and +hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittities, and the +Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, +and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier +than thou; and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, +thou shalt smite them, _and utterly destroy them_, thou shalt make no +covenant with then, nor show mercy unto them." And again, in Deut. xx: +16 and 17: "But the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth +give thee for an inheritance, _thou shalt save alive nothing that +breatheth_. But thou shalt _utterly destroy them_, namely, the +Hittities, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the +Hivites, and the Jebusites, _as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee_." +This law was _delivered_ by Moses, and was _executed_ by Joshua some +years afterward, to the letter. + +Here is the proof of it, Josh. xi: 14 to 20 inclusive: "And all the +spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a +prey unto themselves; _but every man they smote with the edge of the +sword until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe_." + +"_As the Lord commanded Moses_ his servant; so did Moses command Joshua, +and _so did Joshua_; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord +commanded Moses. So Joshua took all that land, the hills and all the +south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley and the plain, +and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same. Even from the +mount Halak that goeth up to Sier, even unto Baalgad, in the valley of +Lebanon, under mount Hermon, and all their kings he took, and smote +them, and slew them. Joshua made war a long time with all these kings. +There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, _save +the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon_, all others they took in battle. +For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come +against Israel in the battle, _that he might destroy them utterly_, and +that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, _as the +Lord commanded Moses_." In this account of their _destruction_, the +Gibeonites, who deceived Joshua, are excepted, and the reason given is, +that Joshua in their case, failed to ask counsel at the mouth of the +Lord. Here is the proof: "And the men took of them victuals, and asked +not counsel of the mouth of the Lord."--Josh. ix: 14. This counsel +Joshua was expressly commanded to ask, when he was ordained some time +before, to be the _executor_ of God's _legislative will_, by Moses. Here +is the proof--Numb. xxvii: 18-23: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take +thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thy +hand upon him; and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the +congregation; and give him a charge in their sight. And thou shalt put +some of thine honor upon him, that all the congregation of the children +of Israel may be obedient. _And he shall stand before Eleazar the +priest, who shall ask counsel for him, after the judgment of Urim before +the Lord: at his word shall they go out, and at his word shall they come +in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, even all the +congregation._ And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and he took +Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the +congregation. And he laid his hands upon him, _and gave him a charge, as +the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses_." These scriptures furnish a +palpable contradiction of the first assumption, that is--that the Lord +gave a _special permission to enslave_ the seven nations. The Lord +ordered that they should be destroyed utterly. + +As to the second assumption, so far from the Israelites being prohibited +_by implication_, from enslaving the subjects of other nations, they +were expressly authorized by the law _to make slaves by war, of any +other nation_. Here is the proof--Deut. xx: 10 to 17 inclusive: "When +thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace +unto it. And it shall be if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto +thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein, +shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it +will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou +shalt besiege it. And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thy +hands, then shalt thou smite every male thereof with the edge of the +sword. _But the women and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that +is in the city_, even all the spoils thereof, shalt thou take unto +thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord +thy God hath given thee. _Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which +are very far off from thee which are not of the cities of these nations. +But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee +for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth. But +thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, +the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as +the Lord thy God hath commanded thee._" They were authorized also by the +law, to purchase slaves with money of any nation except the seven. Here +is the proof--Levit. xxv: 44, 45, and 46: "Both thy bond-men and thy +bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are +round about you; (that is, round about the country given them of God, +which was the country of the seven nations they were soon to occupy;) of +them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of +the strangers that do sojourn among you, (that is, the mixed multitude +of strangers which come up with them from Egypt, mentioned in Exod. xii: +38,) of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, +which they begat in your land; and they shall be your possession. And ye +shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to +inherit them for a possession, they shall be your bond-men forever." + +Now, let it be noted that this first law, of Deut. xx: above referred +to, which authorized them to make slaves by war of any other nation, was +executed _for the first time_, under the direction of Moses himself, +when thirty-two thousand of the Midianites were enslaved. These slaves +were not of the seven nations. + +And it is worthy of further remark, that of each half, into which the +Lord had these slaves divided, he claimed for his portion, one slave of +every five hundred for the priests, and one slave of every fifty for the +Levites. These slaves he gave to the priests and Levites, who were his +representatives to be their property forever.--Numb. xxxi. These +scriptures palpably contradict the Dr.'s second assumption--that is, +that they were _prohibited by implication_ from enslaving the subjects +of any other nation. The Dr.'s assumptions being the antipodes of truth, +they cannot furnish a conclusion that is warranted by the truth. + +The conclusion authorized by the truth, is this: that the making of +slaves by war, and the purchase of slaves with money, was legalized by +the Almighty in the Jewish commonwealth, as regards the subject of _all +nations except the seven_. + +The second argument of the Dr.'s, as I remarked, is designed to +neutralize the sanction given to slavery in the New Testament. + +The Dr. frankly admits that slavery was sanctioned by the Apostles in +the Apostolic churches. But to neutralize this sanction, he resorts to +two more assumptions, not only without proof, but palpably contradicted +by the Old and New Testament text. The first assumption is this--_that +polygamy and divorce were both sins under the law of Moses, although +sanctioned by the law_. And the second assumption is, that polygamy and +divorce are _known to be sins under the gospel_, not by any gospel +teaching or prohibition, but by the general principles of morality. From +these premises the conclusion is drawn, that although slavery was +sanctioned in the Apostolic church, yet it was a sin, because, like +polygamy and divorce, it was contrary to the principles of the moral +law. The premises from which this conclusion is drawn, are at issue with +the word of God, and therefore the conclusion must be false. The first +thing here assumed is, that polygamy and divorce, although sanctioned by +the law of Moses, were both sins under that law. Now, so far from this +being true, as to _polygamy_, it is a fact that polygamy was not only +sanctioned, when men chose to practice it, but it was expressly enjoined +by the law in certain cases, and a most humiliating penalty annexed to +the breach of the command.--Deut. xxv: 5-9. As sin is defined by the +Holy Ghost to be a transgression of the law, it is impossible that +_polygamy_ could have been a sin under the law, unless it was a sin to +obey the law, and an act of righteousness to transgress it. That +_polygamy_ was a sin under the law, therefore, is palpably false. + +As to _divorce_, the Almighty gave it the full and explicit sanction of +his authority, in the law of Moses, for various causes.--Deut. xxiv: 1. +For those causes, therefore, divorce could not have been a sin under +the law, unless human conduct, in exact accordance with the law of God, +was sinful. The first thing assumed by the Dr., therefore, that polygamy +and divorce were both sins, under the law, is proved to be false. They +were lawful, and therefore, could not be sinful. + +The Dr.'s second assumption (with respect to polygamy and divorce,) is +this, that they are _known_ under the gospel to be sins, not by the +prohibitory _precepts_ of the gospel, but by the general _principles_ of +morality. This assumption is certainly a very astonishing one--for Jesus +Christ in one breath has uttered language as perfectly subversive of all +authority for polygamy and divorce in his kingdom, as light is +subversive of darkness. The Pharisees, ever desirous of exposing him to +the prejudices and passions of the people, "asked him in the presence of +great multitudes, who came with him from Galilee into the coasts of +Judea beyond Jordan," whether he admitted, with Moses, the legality of +divorce for every cause. Their object was to provoke him to the exercise +of legislative authority; to whom he promptly replied, that God made man +at the beginning, male and female, and ordained that the male and female +by marriage, should be one flesh. And for satisfactory reasons, had +sanctioned divorce among Abraham's seed; and then adds, as a law-giver, +"But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, (except for +fornication,) and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and if a +woman put away her husband, and marry again, she committeth adultery." +Here polygamy and divorce die together. The law of Christ is, that +_neither_ party shall put the other away--that _either_ party, taking +another companion, while the first companion lives, is guilty of +adultery--consequently, polygamy and divorce are prohibited forever, +unless this law is violated--and that violation is declared to be +adultery, which excludes from his kingdom.--1 Cor. vi: 9. After the +church was organized, the Holy Ghost, by Paul, _commands_, let not the +wife depart from her husband, but, and if she depart let her remain +unmarried--and let not the husband put away his wife.--1 Cor. vii: 10. +Here _divorce_ is prohibited by _both parties_; a second marriage +according to Christ, would be adultery, while the first companion lives; +consequently, _polygamy_ is prohibited also. + +This second assumption, therefore, that polygamy and divorce are known +to be sins by _moral principles_ and _not by prohibitory precepts_, is +swept away by the words of Christ, and the teaching of the Holy Ghost. +These unauthorized and dangerous assumptions are the foundation, upon +which the abolition structure is made to rest by the distinguished Dr. +Wayland. + +The facts with respect to polygamy and divorce, warrant precisely the +opposite conclusion; that is, that if slavery under the gospel is +sinful, then its sinfulness would have been made known by the gospel, as +has been done with respect to polygamy and divorce. All three, polygamy, +divorce and slavery, were _sanctioned_ by the law of Moses. But under +the gospel, slavery has been _sanctioned_ in the church, while polygamy +and divorce have been _excluded_ from the church. It is manifest, +therefore, that under the gospel, polygamy and divorce have been made +sins, _by prohibition_, while slavery remains lawful because +_sanctioned_ and _continued_. The _lawfulness_ of slavery under the +gospel, rests upon the sovereign pleasure of Christ, in _permitting it_; +and the _sinfulness_ of polygamy and divorce, upon his sovereign +pleasure in _prohibiting_ their continuance. The law of Christ gives to +the relation of slavery its full sanction. _That law_ is to be found, +first, in the _admission_, _by the apostles_, of slaveholders and their +slaves into the gospel church; second, in the _positive injunction_ by +the Holy Ghost, of obedience on the part of Christian slaves in this +relation, to their believing masters; third, in the _absence_ of any +injunction upon the believing master, under any circumstances, to +dissolve this relation; fourth, in the _absence_ of any instruction from +Christ or the apostles, that the relation is sinful; and lastly, in the +_injunction_ of the Holy Ghost, delivered by Paul, _to withdraw_ from +all such as teach that this relation is sinful. Human conduct in exact +accordance with the law of Christ thus proclaimed, and thus expounded by +the Holy Ghost, in the conduct and teaching of the apostles, cannot be +sinful. + +There are other portions of God's word, in the light of which we may add +to our stock of knowledge on this subject. For instance, the Almighty by +Moses legalized marriage between female slaves and Abraham's male +descendants. But under this law the wife remained a slave still. If she +belonged to the husband, then this law gave freedom to her children; but +if she belonged to another man, then her children, though born in lawful +wedlock, were hereditary slaves.--Exod. xxi: 4. Again, if a man marries +his own slave, then he lost the right to sell her--if he divorced her, +then she gained her freedom.--Deut. xxi: 10 to 14, inclusive. Again, +there was a law from God which granted rights to Abraham's sons under a +matrimonial contract; for a violation of the rights conferred by this +law, a _free woman, and her seducer_, forfeited their lives, Deut. xxii: +23 and 24; also 13 to 21, inclusive. But for the same offense, _a slave_ +only exposed herself to stripes, and her _seducer_ to the penalty of a +sheep.--Levit. xix: 20 to 22, inclusive. Again, there was a law which +guarded his people, whether free or bond, from personal violence. If in +vindictiveness, a man with an unlawful weapon, maimed his own slave by +knocking out his eye, or his tooth, the slave was to be free for this +wanton act of personal violence, as a penalty upon the master.--Exod. +xxi: 26 to 27, inclusive. But for the same offense, committed against a +free person, the offender had to pay an eye for an eye, and a tooth for +a tooth, as the penalty.--Levit. xxiv: 19, 20, and Exod. xxi: 24 and 25, +inclusive. Again, there was a law to guard the personal safety of the +community against dangerous stock. If an ox, known to be dangerous, was +suffered to run at large and kill a person, if the person so killed _was +free_, then the owner forfeited his _life_ for his neglect,--Exod. xxi: +29. But if the person so killed _was a slave_, then the offender was +fined thirty shekels of silver.--Exod. xxi: 32. In some things, slaves +among the Israelites, as among us, were invested with privileges above +hired servants--they were privileged to eat the Passover, but hired +servants were not, Exod. xii: 44, 45; and such as were owned by the +priests and Levites were privileged to eat of the holy things of their +masters, but hired servants dare not taste them.--Levit. xxii: 10, 11. +These are statutes from the Creator of man. They are certainly +predicated upon a view of things, in the Divine mind, that is _somewhat +different_ from that which makes an abolitionist; and, to say the least, +they deserve consideration with all men who worship the God of the +Bible, and not the God of their own imagination. They show very clearly, +that our Creator is the _author_ of social, moral, and political +inequality among men. That so far from the Scriptures teaching, as +abolitionists do, that all men have ever had a divine right to freedom +and equality, they show, _in so many words_, that marriages were +sanctioned of God as lawful, in which _he enacted_, that the children of +free men should be born hereditary slaves. They show also, that he +guarded the chastity of the free by the price of life, and the chastity +of the slave by the rod. They show, that in the judgment of God, the +life of a free man in the days of Moses, was too sacred for commutation, +while a fine of thirty shekels of silver was sufficient to expiate for +the death of a slave. As I said in my first essay, so I say now, this is +a controversy between abolitionists and their Maker. I see not how, with +their present views and in their present temper, they can stop short of +blasphemy against that Being who enacted these laws. + +Of late years, some obscure passages (which have no allusion whatever to +the subject) have been brought forward to show, that God _hated +slavery_, although the work of his own hands. Once for all, I challenge +proof, that in the Old Testament or the New, _any reproof was ever +uttered against involuntary slavery, or against any abuse of its +authority_. Upon abolition principles, this is perfectly unaccountable, +and of itself, is an unanswerable argument that the _relation_ is not +sinful. + +The opinion has been announced also of late, that slavery among the Jews +was felt to be an evil, and, by degrees, that they abolished it. To +ascertain the correctness of this opinion, let the following +consideration be weighed: After centuries of cruel _national bondage_ +practiced upon Abraham's seed in Egypt, they were brought in godly +contrition to pour out "the effectual fervent prayer" of a righteous +people, to the Almighty for mercy, and were answered by a covenant God, +who sent Moses to deliver them from their bondage--but let it be +remembered, that when this deliverance from bondage to the nation of +Egypt was vouchsafed to them, they were extensive domestic slave owners. +God had not by his providential dealings, nor in any other way, shown +them the sin of domestic slavery--for they held on to their slaves, and +brought them out as their property into the wilderness. And it is worthy +of further remark, that the Lord, _before they left Egypt_, recognized +these slaves _as property_, which they had bought with their money, and +that he secured to these slaves privileges above hired servants, _simply +because they were slaves_.--Exod. xii: 44, 45. And let it be noticed +further, that the first law passed by the Almighty after proclaiming the +ten commandments or moral constitution of the nation, was a law to +regulate property rights in hereditary slaves, and to regulate property +rights in Jewish hired servants for a term of years.--Exod. xxi: 1 to 6, +inclusive. And let it be considered further, that when the Israelites +were subjected to a cruel captivity in Babylon, more than eight hundred +years after this, they were still extensive slave owners; that when +humbled and brought to repentance for their sins, and the Lord restored +them to their own land again, that he brought them back to their old +homes as slave owners. Although greatly impoverished by a seventy years' +captivity in a foreign land, yet the slaves which they brought up from +Babylon bore a proportion of nearly one slave for every five free +persons that returned, or about one slave for every family.--Ezra ii: +64, 65. Now, can we, in the face of these facts, believe they were tired +of slavery when they came out of Egypt? It had then existed five hundred +years. Or can we believe they were tired of it when they came up from +Babylon? It had then existed among them fourteen hundred years. Or can +we believe that God put them into these schools of affliction in Egypt +and Babylon to teach them, (and all others through them,) the sinfulness +of slavery, and yet, that he brought them out without giving them the +first hint that involuntary slavery was a sin? And let it be further +considered, that it was the business of the prophets which the Lord +raised up, _to make known to them the sins for which his judgments were +sent upon them_. The sins which he charged upon them in all his +visitation are upon record. Let any man find involuntary slavery in any +of God's indictments against them, and I will retract all I have ever +written. + +In my original essay, I said nothing of Paul's letter to Philemon, +concerning Onesimus, a run-away slave, converted by Paul's preaching at +Rome; and who was returned by the Apostle, with a most affectionate +letter to his master, entreating the master to receive him again, and to +forgive him. O, how immeasurably different Paul's conduct to this slave +and his master, from the conduct of our abolition brethren! Which are we +to think is guided by the Spirit of God? It is _impossible_ that both +can be guided by that Spirit, unless sweet water and bitter can come +from the same fountain. This letter, itself, is sufficient to teach any +man, capable of being taught in the ordinary way, that slavery is not, +_in the sight of God, what it is in the sight of the abolitionists_. + +I had prepared the argument furnished by this letter for my original +essay; I afterward struck it out, because at that time, so little had +the Bible been examined at the North in reference to slavery, that the +abolitionists very generally thought that this was the only scripture +which Southern slaveholders could find, giving any countenance to their +views of slavery. To test the correctness of this opinion, therefore, I +determined to make no allusion to it at that time. + +Now, my dear sir, if from the evidence contained in the Bible to prove +slavery a lawful relation among God's people under every dispensation, +the assertion is still made, in the very face of this evidence, that +slavery has _ever been_ the greatest sin--_everywhere, and under all +circumstances_--can you, or can any sane man bring himself to believe, +that the mind capable of such a decision, is not capable of trampling +the word of God under foot upon any subject? + +If it were not known to be the fact, we could not admit that a +Bible-reading man could bring himself to believe, with Dr. Wayland, that +a thing made lawful by the God of heaven, was, notwithstanding, the +greatest sin--and that Moses under the law, and Jesus Christ under the +gospel, had sanctioned and regulated in practice, the greatest known sin +on earth--and that Jesus had left his church to find out as best they +might, that the law of God which established slavery under the Old +Testament, and the precepts of the Holy Ghost which regulate the mutual +duty of master and slave under the New Testament, were laws and +precepts, to sanction and regulate among the people of God the greatest +sin which was ever perpetrated. + +It is by no means strange that it should have taken seventeen centuries +to make such discoveries as the above, and it is worthy of note, that +these discoveries were made at last by men who did not appear to know, +at the time they made them, what was in the Bible on the subject of +slavery, and who now appear unwilling that the teachings of the Bible +should be spread before the people--this last I take to be the case, +because I have been unable to get the Northern press to give it +publicity. + +Many anti-slavery men into whose hands my essays chanced to fall, have +frankly confessed to me, that in their Bible reading, they had +overlooked the plain teaching of the Holy Ghost, by taking what they +read in the Bible about masters and servants, to have reference to hired +servants and their employers. + +You ask me for my opinion about the emancipation movement in the State +of Kentucky. I hold that the emancipation of hereditary slaves by a +State is not commanded, or in any way required by the Bible. The Old +Testament and the New, sanction slavery, but under no circumstances +enjoin its abolition, even among saints. Now, if religion, or the duty +we owe our Creator, was inconsistent with slavery, then this could not +be so. If pure religion, therefore, did not require its abolition under +the law of Moses, nor in the church of Christ--we may safely infer, that +our political, moral and social relations do not require it in a State; +unless a State requires higher moral, social, and religious qualities in +its subjects, than a gospel church. + +Masters have been left by the Almighty, both under the patriarchal, +legal, and gospel dispensations, to their individual discretion on the +subject of emancipation. + +The principle of justice inculcated by the Bible, refuses to sanction, +it seems to me, such an outrage upon the rights of men, as would be +perpetrated by any sovereign State, which, to-day, makes a thing to be +property, and to-morrow, takes it from the lawful owners, _without +political necessity or pecuniary compensation_. Now, if it be morally +right for a majority of the people (and that majority possibly a meagre +one, who may not own a slave) to take, without necessity or +compensation, the property in slaves held by a minority, (and that +minority a large one,) then it would be morally right for a majority, +without property, to take any thing else that may be lawfully owned by +the prudent and care-taking portion of the citizens. + +As for intelligent philanthropy, it shudders at the infliction of +certain ruin upon a whole race of helpless beings. If emancipation by +law is philanthropic in Kentucky, it is, for the same reasons, +philanthropic in every State in the Union. But nothing in the future is +more certain, than that such emancipation would begin to work the +degradation and final ruin of the slave race, from the day of its +consummation. + +Break the master's sympathy, which is inseparably connected with his +property right in his slave, and that moment the slave race is placed +upon a common level with all other competitors for the rewards of merit; +but as the slaves are inferior in the qualities which give success among +competitors in our country, extreme poverty would be their lot; and for +the want of means to rear families, they would multiply slowly, and die +out by inches, degraded by vice and crime, unpitied by honest and +virtuous men, and heart-broken by sufferings without a parallel. + +So long as States let masters alone on this subject, good men among +them, both in the church and out of it, will struggle on, as experience +may dictate and justify, for the benefit of the slave race. And should +the time ever come, when emancipation in its consequences, will comport +with the moral, social, and political obligations of Christianity, then +Christian masters will invest their slaves with freedom, and then will +the good-will of those follow the descendants of Ham, who, without any +agency of their own, have been made in this land of liberty, their +providential guardians. + + Yours, with affection, + THORNTON STRINGFELLOW. + + [It is or ought to be known to all men, that + African slavery in the United States originated + in, and is perpetuated by a social and political + necessity, and that its continuance is demanded + equally by the highest interests of both races. + All writers on public law, from Drs. Channing and + Wayland, among the abolitionists, up to the + highest authorities on national law, admit the + necessity and propriety of slavery in a social + body, whenever men will not provide for their own + wants, and yield obedience to the law which guards + the rights of others. The guardianship and control + of the black race, by the white, in this Union, is + an indispensable Christian duty, to which we must + as yet look, if we would secure the well-being of + both races.] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[230] These letters were first published in the _Religious Herald_, +Richmond. + + + + +STATISTICAL VIEW OF SLAVERY. + + +To satisfy the conscientiousness of Christians, I published in the +_Herald_, some years past, Bible evidence, to prove slavery a lawful +relation among men. In a late communication you[231] refer to _this +essay_, and express a wish that it should be republished. Many have +expressed a similar wish. + +Some who admit the _legality_ of slavery in the sight of God, question +the _expediency of its expansion_. It is believed by them to be an +element that is hostile to the best interests of society, and therefore, +great efforts have been, and are now being made, to exclude it from all +the new States and Territories which may hereafter be organized upon our +soil. + +While the _expediency_ of its _expansion_ or _continuance_, are +questions with which I have not heretofore meddled, yet I hold their +_investigation_ to be within the legitimate range of Christian duty. + +If unquestionable _facts_ and _experience_ warrant the _conclusion_, +that while slavery is lawful, yet its _continuance_ or _expansion_ among +us is _inexpedient_, then let us act accordingly. + +Being _prompted_ by your request, I propose to examine _facts_, which +are admitted the world over, as evidence of prosperity and happiness +in a community, and to compare the evidence thus furnished in +different sections of our country, where the experiment of freedom, +and the experiment of slavery have been fully and fairly upon trial +since the commencement of our colonial existence, that we may see, +if possible, what is true on this subject. This seems to be the +_unerring_ method of coming at the truth. And if it shall appear, by +such a comparison--fairly made--between States of equal age, where +slavery and freedom have had a fair opportunity to produce their +legitimate results, that in all the elements of prosperity, slaveholding +States suffer nothing in the comparison--but that, in almost every +particular, are decidedly in advance of the non-slaveholding States, +why then we are bound to let the testimony of these facts control our +judgment. + +Every man and woman in the United States should not only be willing, but +desirous to know, what is the matter-of-fact evidence on this +all-absorbing question. It is but lately that any method existed, of +coming at _undisputed_ facts, which would throw light upon this subject. +The Congress of the United States seeing this, thought proper to order +that such facts as tend to demonstrate the relative prosperity of the +different States of the Union, in religion--in morals--in the +acquisition of wealth--in the increase of native population--in the +prolongation of life--in the diminution of crime, etc., etc., should be +ascertained, under oath, by competent and responsible agents, and that +these facts should be published at the national expense for the benefit +of the people: so that the people could, understandingly, apply the +corrective for evils that might be found to exist in one locality, and +profit by a knowledge of the greater prosperity that might be found to +exist in another locality. + +Up to that time, the non-slaveholding States affirmed, and the +slaveholding States tacitly admitted, that by this test, the +slaveholding States must suffer in the comparison, in some important +items. The facts which belong to the subject, are now before the world, +in the census of 1850. + +It is my purpose to compare some of the most important of these facts, +which have a bearing on this subject. I shall take for the most part, +the six New England States, on one side, and the five old slave States, +(extending from, and including Maryland and Georgia,) on the other side, +for the comparison. + +I select _these States_, not because they are the richest, (for they are +not,) but because they all lie on the Atlantic side of the +Union--because they were settled at or near the same time--because they +have (within a fraction) an equal free population--and because it has +been constantly affirmed, and almost universally admitted, that the +advantages of freedom, and the disadvantages of slavery, have been more +perfectly developed in these two sections, than they have been anywhere +else in the United States. There have been no controlling circumstances +at any time, since their first settlement, to neutralize the advantages +of freedom on the one side, or to modify the evils of slavery on the +other. Their mutual tendencies, without let or hindrance, have been in +full and free operation for more than two centuries. This is surely a +length of time quite sufficient to test the question now in controversy +between the North and the South, as to the evils of slavery. + +The first facts I shall examine are those which throw light on the +progress made in each of these two localities in religion. Of all the +evils ascribed to slavery by the free men of the North, none equals, in +their estimation, its deleterious tendency upon _religion_ and _morals_. +Indeed, such is the _moral character_, ascribed by many at the North, +who call themselves Christians, to a Southern slaveholder, that no +degree of personal piety, of which he can be the subject, will bring +them to admit that he is any thing but a God-abhorred miscreant, utterly +unfit for the association of honorable men, much less Christian men. + +In the outset of this examination, let me remark, that it is just and +proper, in a comparative estimate of the tendency of freedom and slavery +upon religion and morals, in these two sections of our country, that due +allowance be made for the moral and religious character of the materials +by which these two sections were originally settled. New England was +settled by Puritans, who were remarkable for orthodox sentiments in +religion--for high-toned religious conscientiousness, and a rigid +personal piety; while these five slave States were either settled, or +received character from Cavaliers, who rather scoffed at pure religion, +and were highly tinged with infidelity. + +The stream does not, in its flow onward, carry with more certainty the +characteristics of the fountain, than does progressive society, +_generally_, the moral, social, and religious characteristics of its +origin. The five slave States, in this comparison originated in a people +of loose morals--strongly tinged with infidelity--and subjected, also, +in their onward progress, to all the evil tendencies (if any there be) +that are ascribed to slavery. + +At the end of more than two centuries, we are comparing the progress +which these five slave States have made in religion, with the progress +made by six non-slaveholding States, whose subjects, when originally +organized into communities, were in advance, in personal piety and +religious conscientiousness, of any communities that had then been +founded since the days of the apostles--and that have been, in their +onward progress, from that time until this, free from all the supposed +evils of slavery. If infidelity and slavery be antagonistic elements, +almost, if not altogether, too strong for moral control in a community, +it certainly ought not to seem strange, that with this original odds +against them, these five old slave States should be found very far +behind their more highly favoured Northern neighbors in religious +attainments. + +Religion being, at present, the subject of comparison, it may be +appropriate to remark further, that the _Christian religion_ is +propagated by God's blessing upon the observance of his laws. + +The fundamental law of God, _for its propagation_ requires the gospel to +be preached to every creature; because, in the divine plan, faith in the +gospel was to make men Christians. The gospel was to be made the _power +of God_ unto salvation, to every one that _believeth_. _This faith_ was +to be originated by hearing the gospel, for "faith comes by hearing." +All those efforts, therefore, in a community, which manifests the +greatest solicitude on the part of the people, that the gospel should be +_heard_, is credible evidence that the people who make these efforts, +are the friends of Christ, and well-wishers to his cause. Now, all those +_means_ which are most likely to secure the ear of the people, are left +by Christ to the _discretion_ of his friends. They may use the +market-place--the highways--the forests--or _any other place_, which in +their judgment is most likely to get the ear of the people when the +gospel is proclaimed. By common consent, however, within the limits of +Christian civilization, they have agreed that suitable houses, in which +the people can meet to hear the gospel, are the most suitable and proper +means for securing the audience of the people, and as a consequence, the +transforming power of the gospel upon the hearts and lives of those who +hear. + +With these views to guide us in estimating the value of the facts to be +examined, we proceed to disclosures made by the census of 1850. We there +learn that the free population of New England is two million seven +hundred and twenty-eight thousand and sixteen; and that the free +population of these five slave States is two million seven hundred and +thirty thousand two hundred and fourteen; an excess of only two thousand +one hundred and ninety-eight. This fraction we will drop out, and speak +of them as equals. New England, then, with an equal population, has +erected four thousand six hundred and seven churches; these five slave +States have erected eight thousand and eighty-one churches. These New +England churches will accommodate one million eight hundred and +ninety-three thousand four hundred and fifty hearers; the churches of +the five slave States will accommodate two million eight hundred and +ninety-six thousand four hundred and seventy-two hearers. Thus we see +that these slave States, with an equal free population, have erected +nearly double the number of churches, and furnished accommodation for +upwards of a million more persons, to hear the gospel, than can be +accommodated in New England. In New England, nine hundred and +thirty-four thousand, five hundred and sixty-six of its population +(which is nearly one-third) are excluded from a seat in houses built for +the purpose of enabling people to hear the gospel; while in these five +Southern States, there is room enough for every hearer that could be +crowded into the churches of New England, and then enough left to +accommodate more than a million of slaves. + +Including slaves, these five Southern States have a population of seven +hundred and twenty thousand four hundred and ten more than New England; +yet while there are seven hundred and twenty thousand four hundred and +ten persons less in New England to provide for, there are two hundred +thousand more persons in New England who can't find a seat in the house +of God to hear the gospel, than there are in these five slave States. + +The next fact set forth in the census, which I will examine, is equally +_suggestive_. These four thousand six hundred and seven churches in New +England are valued at nineteen million three hundred and sixty-two +thousand six hundred and thirty-four dollars. These eight thousand and +eighty-one churches in the five slave States are valued at eleven +million one hundred and forty-nine thousand one hundred and eighteen +dollars. Here is an immense expenditure in New England to erect +churches; yet we see that those New England churches, when erected, will +seat one million three thousand and twenty-two persons less than those +erected by the slave States, at a cost of eight million one hundred and +thirteen thousand five hundred and sixteen dollars less money. What +prompted to such an expenditure as this? Was it worldly pride? or was it +godly humility? Does it exhibit the evidence of humility, and a desire +to glorify God, by a provision that shall enable _all the people_ to +hear the gospel? or does it exhibit the evidence of pride, that seeks to +glorify the wealthy contributors, who occupy these costly temples to the +exclusion of the humble poor? We must all draw our own conclusions. A +mite, given to God from a right spirit, was declared by the Saviour to +be more than all the costly gifts of wealthy pride, which were cast into +the offerings of God. The Saviour informed the messenger of John the +Baptist, that _one of the signs_ by which to decide the _presence_ of +the Messiah, was to be found in the fact that the poor had the gospel +preached to them. When we exclude the poor, we may safely conclude we +exclude Christ. + +It is legitimate to conclude, therefore, that all the arrangements found +among a people, which palpably defeat the preaching of the gospel to the +poor, are arrangements which throw a shade of deep suspicion upon the +character of those who make them. _Costly palaces_ were never built for +the poor; they are neither suitable nor proper to secure the preaching +of the gospel to every creature. + +There is still another fact revealed in the census, that furnishes +material for reflection when the effects of slavery upon religion are +being tried. The six New England States were originally settled by +_orthodox_ Christians--by men who manifested a very high regard for the +interests of pure religion; the five slave States, by men who scoffed at +religion, and who were subjected, also, to the so-called curse of +slavery; yet, at the end of over two hundred years, we have to deduct +from the four thousand six hundred and seven churches built up by New +England orthodoxy and freedom, the _astonishing number_ of two hundred +and two Unitarian, and two hundred and eighty-five Universalist +churches--while from the five slave States, we have to deduct from the +eight thousand and eighty-one churches which they have built, only one +Unitarian, and seven Universalist churches. New England regards these +four hundred and eighty-seven churches, which she has built, to be the +product of _blind guides_, that are _leaders of the blind_. Is it not +strange (she herself being judge) that New England orthodoxy and +personal freedom should beget this vast amount of infidelity; while +slaveholders and slavery have begotten so little of it in the same +length of time? Is there nothing in all this to render the correctness +of Northern views questionable, as to the deleterious tendency of +slavery? The facts, however, are given to the world in the census of +1850. All are left to draw from these facts their own conclusions. One +of these conclusions must be, that there is something else in the world +to corrupt religion and morals, besides slaveholders and slavery. + +It is not improper to refer to some historical facts in this connection, +which are not in the census, but which, nevertheless, we all know to +exist. There are _isms_ at the North whose name is Legion. According to +the universal standard of _orthodoxy_, we are compelled to exclude the +_subjects_ of these isms from the pale of Christianity. What the +relative proportion is, North and South, of such of these isms as have +been nurtured into _organized_ existence, we have no certain means of +knowing--and I do not wish to do injustice, or to be offensive, in +statements which are not susceptible of proof by facts and figures--yet, +I suppose that in the five slave States, a man might wear himself out in +travel, and never find one of these isms with an _organized_ existence. +To find a single individual, would be doing more than most men have +done, with whom I am acquainted. But how is it in New England? The soil +seems to suit them--they grow up like Jonah's gourd. Some are warring +with great zeal against the social, and some against the religious +institutions of society. Why is this? The institution of slavery has not +produced, at the North, the moral obliquity, out of which they grow--a +reverence for the Bible has not produced it. How is their existence, +then, to be accounted for at the North, under institutions, whose +tendency is supposed to be so favorable to moral and religious +prosperity? And how is their utter absence to be accounted for at the +South, where the institution of slavery is supposed to be so fatal to +morality, religion and virtue? I will leave it for others to explain +this fact. It is a mysterious fact, according to the modes of reasoning +at the North. It is assumed by the North, that slavery tends to produce +social, moral, and religious evils. This assumption is flatly +contradicted by the facts of the census. These facts can never be +explained by the _New England theory_. There was an _ancient theory_, +held by men who were righteous in their own eyes, that no good thing +could come out of Nazareth. By that theory Christ himself was condemned. +It is not wonderful, therefore, that his friends should share the same +fate. + +The next disclosure of the census, which we will compare, are those +which relate to the social prosperity of a people. Are they wealthy? are +they healthy? are they in conditions to raise families, etc.? + +These questions indicate the _elements_ which belong to the item now to +be examined. States are made up of families. Wealth is a blessing in +those States which have it so distributed, as to give the greatest +number of homes to the families which compose them. Wealth, so +distributed in States, as to diminish the number of homes, is a curse to +the families which compose them. Home is the nursery and shield of +virtue. No right-minded man or woman, who had the means, could ever +consent to have a family without a home; and no State should make wealth +her boast, whose families are extensively without homes. + +New England has five hundred and eighteen thousand five hundred and +thirty-two families, and four hundred and forty-seven thousand seven +hundred and eighty-nine dwellings. The five slave States have five +hundred and six thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight families, and four +hundred and ninety-six thousand three hundred and sixty-nine dwellings. +Here we see the astonishing fact, that with an equal population, New +England has eleven thousand five hundred and sixty-four more families +than these five slave States, and that these five slave States have +forty-eight thousand five hundred and eighty more dwellings than New +England--so that New England actually has seventy thousand seven hundred +and forty-three families without a home. In New England one family in +every _seven_ is without a home, while in these five old slave States +only one family in every _fifty-two_ is without a home. + +According to the average number of persons composing a family, New +England has three hundred and seventy-three thousand seven hundred of +her people thrown upon the world without a place to call home. + +It is truly painful to think of the effects upon morals and virtue, +which must flow from this state of things; and it is a pleasure to a +philanthropic heart to think of the superior condition of the +slaveholding people, who so generally have homes, where parents can +throw the shield of protection around their offspring, and guard them +against the dangers and demoralizing tendencies of an unprotected +condition. + +There is another class of facts, equally astonishing, disclosed by the +census, and which belong to the comparison we are now making, between +States which were organized originally by Puritan orthodoxy and New +England freedom on one side, and by infidel slaveholders and slavery on +the other. They are facts which relate to natural increase in a State. +One of the boasts of Northern freemen is the _increase_ of their +population. With such a climate as New England, it was to be expected +that the people would increase faster, and live longer, than in the +climate of these five slave States. It is well known that a large +portion of the population of these five Southern States have a fatal +climate to contend with, and that everywhere else on the globe, under +similar circumstances, a diminished increase of births, and an increased +amount of deaths has been the result. But the census, as if disregarding +climate, and slavery, and the universal experience of all ages, +testifies that there is twenty-seven per cent. more of births, and +thirty-three per cent. less of deaths in the five old slave States, than +there is in the six New England States. + +New England, with an equal population, and eleven thousand five hundred +and sixty-four more families, has sixteen thousand five hundred and +thirty-four less annual births, and ten thousand one hundred and +fifty-two more annual deaths, than these five sickly old Southern slave +States. The annual births in New England are sixty-one thousand one +hundred and forty-eight; and in the five slave States seventy-seven +thousand six hundred and eighty-three. In New England the annual deaths +are forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty-eight; in the five slave +States thirty-two thousand two hundred and sixteen. + +In New England the ratio of births is one to forty-four; in the five +slave States one to thirty-five. In New England the ratio of deaths is +one to sixty-four; in the five slave States it is one to eighty-five. + +The slaves are not in this estimate of births and deaths; they are in +the census, however, and that shows that they multiply considerably +faster, and are less liable to die than the freemen of New England. + +Here are facts which contradict all history and all experience. In a +sickly Southern climate, among slaveholders, people actually multiply +faster, and die slower, than they do among freemen without slavery, in +one of the purest and healthiest Northern climates in the world. How is +this to be accounted for? Why do people multiply rapidly? Is it because +they live in a healthy climate? Why do they die rapidly? Is it because +they live in a sickly climate? Our census contradicts both suppositions. +Where, then, does the cause lie? Will excluding slavery from a +community cause them to multiply more rapidly and die slower? The +census says, No! + +The census testifies that the proportion of births is twenty-seven per +cent. greater, and the proportion of deaths thirty-three per cent. less, +among slaveholders, in a community where slavery has existed for more +than two hundred years, under all the disadvantages of a sickly climate, +than among free men in the pure climate of New England. A man, in his +right mind, will demand an explanation of these astonishing facts. They +are easily explained. The census discloses a degree of _poverty_ in New +England, which scatters seventy thousand families to the four winds of +heaven, and _feeds_ (as we shall presently see) the _poor-house_, with +one hundred and thirty-five per cent. more of paupers than is found in +these slave States. This is no condition of things to increase births, +or diminish deaths, unless brothels give _increase_, and squalid poverty +the requisite sympathy and aid, to recover the sick and dying, from the +period of infancy to that of old age. + +We proceed to compare other facts, which have a bearing upon the +relative merits of different institutions in securing social prosperity. + +In every country there is a class to be found in such utter destitution, +that they must either be supported by charity, or perish of want. This +destitution arises, generally, from oppressive exactions or excessive +vice, and is evidence of the tendency of social institutions, and the +superiority of one over another, in securing the greatest amount of +individual prosperity and comfort. + +With these views to aid us, we will compare some facts belonging to New +England and these five old slave States. With an equal population, New +England has thirty-three thousand four hundred and thirty-one paupers; +these five slave States have fourteen thousand two hundred and +twenty-one. Here is an excess of paupers in New England, notwithstanding +her boasted prosperity, of one hundred and thirty-five per cent. over +these five slave States. And if to these _continual paupers_ we were to +add the number (as given in State returns) that are partially aided in +New England, the addition would be awful. But I suppose New England will +strive to wipe off this stain of regular pauperism, by throwing the +blame of it upon the _foreigners_ among them. It should be remembered, +however, as an offset to this, that these foreigners are all from +non-slaveholding countries. From their infancy they have shared the +blessings of freedom and free institutions; therefore they ought to be +admitted, as homogeneous materials, in the social organizations of New +England, which we are now comparing with Southern slaveholding +communities. + +But as foreign paupers are distinguished in the census from native born +citizens, we will now (in the comparison) exclude them in both sections. +The number of paupers will then be, for New England, eighteen thousand +nine hundred and sixty-six; for the five slave States, eleven thousand +seven hundred and twenty-eight--leaving to New England, which is +considered the model section of the world in all that is lovely in +religious and social prosperity, seven thousand two hundred and +thirty-eight more of her native sons in the poor-house, (or nearly +seventy per cent.,) than are to be found in this condition in an equal +population in these five Southern States. + +The ratio of New England's _native sons_ in the poor-house is one to one +hundred and forty-three; of these five slave States one to two hundred +and thirty-four. The ratio of New England's _entire population_ in the +poor-house is one to eighty-one; the ratio of the entire population of +these five slave States is one to one hundred and seventy-one. + +The Saviour asks if a good tree can bring forth evil fruit, or an evil +tree good fruit. Here is an exhibition of the _fruit_ borne by _New +England freedom_ and _Southern slavery_. The Saviour gives every man a +right to judge the tree by the fruit, and declares such to be righteous +judgment. + +There is another item in the census which throws much light on the +comparative comfort and happiness of the people in these two localities. +It is neither physical destitution, criminal degradation, nor mental +suffering; but it is an effect which is known to flow from one, or the +other, or all three of these _conditions_ as causes; therefore it is an +important item in determining the amount of destitution, degradation, +and suffering, which exist in a community. + +When we see effects which are known to flow from certain causes--the +causes may be concealed--yet we know that they exist by the effects we +see. With these remarks I proceed to state a fact disclosed in the +census, as it exists in New England, and as it exists in these five old +slave States. + +In New England, with an equal population, we find that three thousand +eight hundred and twenty-nine of her white children have been crushed by +sufferings _of some sort_, to the condition of insanity, while in these +five old slave States there are only two thousand three hundred and +twenty-six of her white children who have been called to suffer, in +their earthly pilgrimage, a degree of anguish beyond mental endurance. +Here is a difference of more than sixty per cent. in favor of these five +States, as to conditions of suffering that are beyond endurance among +men. Very poor evidence this, of the superior happiness and comfort of +New England. + +But while her white children are called to suffer over sixty per cent. +more of these crushing sorrows than those of these five States, how is +it with her black children in freedom, compared with the family here in +slavery, from which the most of them have fled, that they might enjoy +the blessings of liberty? It is exceedingly interesting to see the +benefits and blessings which New England freedom and Puritan sympathy +have conferred upon them. + +Here are the facts of the census upon this subject: + +Among the free negroes of New England, one is deaf or dumb for every +three thousand and five; while among the slaves of these States there is +only one for every six thousand five hundred and fifty-two. In New +England one free negro is blind for every eight hundred and seventy; +while in these States there is only one blind slave for every two +thousand six hundred and forty-five. In New England there is one free +negro insane or an idiot for every nine hundred and eighty; while in +these States there is but one slave for every three thousand and eighty. + +Can any man bring himself to believe, with these facts before him, that +freedom in New England has proved a blessing to this race of people, or +that slavery is to them a curse in the Southern States? In +non-slaveholding States, _money_ will be the _master of poverty_. These +facts enumerated show the fruits of such a relation the world over. The +slave of money, while nominally free, has none to care for him at those +periods, and in those conditions of his life, when he is not able to +render service or labor. Childhood, old age, and sickness, are +conditions which make sympathy indispensable. Nominal freedom, combined +with poverty, can not secure it in those conditions, because it can not +render service or labor. The slave of the South enjoys this sympathy in +all conditions from birth till death. There is a spontaneous heart-felt +flow of it, to soothe his sorrows, to supply his wants, and smooth his +passage to the grave. Interest, honor, humanity, public opinion, and the +law, all _combine_ to awaken it, and to promote its activity. + +Many facts of the character here examined have been disclosed in State +statistics, and others in the Federal census; some of which I shall +hereafter notice, that show with the most unquestionable certainty, that +freedom to this race, in our country, is a curse. + +The facts which we have now examined, if they prove any thing, prove +that religion has prospered more among slaveholders at the South, than +it has among free men in New England. Slaveholders have made a much more +extensive and suitable provision for the people of all classes to hear +the gospel, than has been made by the freemen of New England. +Slaveholders have almost entirely frowned down the attempts of +blind-guides to corrupt the gospel, or mislead the people. Among them +organized bodies to overthrow the moral, social, and religious +institutions of society, are unknown. + +If the facts already examined prove any thing, they prove that wealth, +among slaveholders, is much more equally distributed--so that very few, +compared with New England, are without homes. + +The facts examined prove also, beyond question, that the unbearable +miseries which have their source in the heartless exactions of excessive +wealth, or extreme poverty, are more than sixty per cent. greater in New +England than in these States, and that one hundred and thirty-five per +cent. more of New England's toiling millions have to bear the +degradation of the poor-house, or die of want, than are to be found in +this condition in these five slave States. + +The facts we have examined, prove also, that under all the disadvantages +of climate, the natural increase of the slave States is sixty per cent. +greater than it is in New England--twenty-seven per cent. of it by +increased annual births, and thirty-three per cent. of it by diminished +annual deaths. These are the most astonishing facts ever presented to +the world. They speak a language that ought to be read and studied by +all men. In the present state of our country, they ought to be +prayerfully pondered and not disregarded. + +But notwithstanding all this, the aggregate wealth of New England is a +source of exultation and pride among her sons. They believe, with a +blind and stubborn tenacity, that slavery tends to poverty, and freedom +to wealth. + +It cannot be denied that the aggregate earnings of the toiling +millions--when _hoarded_ by a _few_--may grow faster than it will when +these millions are allowed to take from it a daily supply, equal to +their reasonable wants. And it cannot be denied that New England has +great aggregate wealth. + +The facts of the census show, however, that it is very unequally divided +among her people. The question now to be tried is, whether the _few_ in +New England have _hoarded_ this wealth, and can now _show it_, or +whether they have squandered it upon their lusts, and are unable to +_show it_. + +This last and prominent boast of increased aggregate wealth in New +England, over that accumulated by slaveholders, we will now test by the +census of 1850. This is the standard adopted by our National Legislature +for its decision. + +Before we examine the facts, however, let a few reflections which belong +to the subject be weighed. + +The people of these five slave States are now, and ever have been, an +agricultural people. The people of the New England States are a +commercial and manufacturing people. New England has, in proportion to +numbers, the richest and most extensive commerce in the world. In +manufacturing skill and enterprise, they have no superiors on the globe. +They have ever reproached the South for investing their income in +slavelabor, in preference to commerce and manufactures. It has been the +settled conviction among nations, that investments in commerce and +manufactures give the greatest, and those in agriculture the smallest +profits. It is the settled conviction of the non-slaveholding States +that investments in slave labor, for agricultural purposes, is the worst +of all investments, and tends greatly to lessen its profits. This has +been proclaimed to the South so long by our Northern neighbors, that +many here have been brought to believe it, and to regret the existence +of slavery among us on that account, if on no other. With these +observations we turn to the census. + +The census of 1850 tells us that New England, with a population now +numbering two million seven hundred, and twenty-eight thousand and +sixteen, with all the advantages of a commercial and manufacturing +investment, and with the most energetic and enterprising free men on +earth, to give that investment its greatest productiveness, has +accumulated wealth, in something over two hundred years, to the amount +of one billion three million four hundred and sixty-six thousand one +hundred and eighty-one dollars; while these five slave States, with an +equal population, have, in the same time, accumulated wealth to the +amount of one billion four hundred and twenty million nine hundred and +eighty-nine thousand five hundred and seventy-three dollars. + +Here we see the indisputable fact that these five agricultural States, +with slavery, have accumulated an excess of aggregate wealth over the +amount accumulated in New England in the same time, of four hundred and +seventeen million five hundred and twenty-three thousand three hundred +and two dollars--so that the property belonging to New England, if +equally divided, would give to each citizen but three hundred and +sixty-seven dollars, while that belonging to the five slave States, if +equally divided, would give to each citizen the sum of five hundred and +twenty dollars--a difference in favor of each citizen in these five +slave States of one hundred and fifty-three dollars. + +I am aware, however, of an opinion that some other non-slaveholding +States, have been much more successful in the accumulation of wealth, +than the six New England States, and that New York, Pennsylvania, and +Ohio, are of this favored number. Lest a design to deceive, by +concealing this supposed fact, should be attributed to the writer, we +will see what the census says as to these three more favored States. By +the census of 1850 we learn that New York, instead of being able to +divide three hundred and sixty-seven dollars with her citizens, as New +England could with hers, is only able to divide two hundred and +thirty-one dollars; Pennsylvania two hundred and fourteen, and Ohio two +hundred and nineteen. These several averages among freemen at the North, +and in New England, stand against the average of five hundred and twenty +dollars, which these five old impoverished Southern slave States could +divide with their citizens. + +These facts must astonish our Northern neighbors, so long accustomed to +believe that slavery was the fruitful source of poverty, with all its +imagined evils; and these facts will astonish many at the South, so +long accustomed to hear it affirmed that slavery had produced these +evils, and while they were without the means of knowing, of course they +feared that it was so. + +That every thing may appear, however, which will throw additional light +on the subject, I will state that Massachusetts, which is the _richest_ +non-slaveholding State, could divide with each of her citizens five +hundred and forty-eight dollars. But on the other hand, South Carolina +could divide one thousand and one dollars, Louisiana eight hundred and +six dollars, Mississippi seven hundred and two dollars, and Georgia six +hundred and thirty-eight dollars, with their citizens. + +Rhode Island, which is the next _richest_ non-slaveholding State to that +of Massachusetts, could divide with her citizens five hundred and +twenty-six dollars; one other non-slaveholding State (Connecticut) could +divide with her citizens three hundred and twenty-one dollars. After +this, the next _highest_ non-slaveholding State could divide two hundred +and eighty; the next highest two hundred and thirty-one; the next +highest two hundred and twenty-eight; the next highest two hundred and +nineteen; the next highest two hundred and fourteen dollars. After this, +the division ranges, among the non-slaveholding States, from one hundred +and sixty-six down to one hundred and thirty-four dollars--which last +sum is the amount that the so-called rich and prosperous Illinois could +divide with her population. + +In the slaveholding States that are _less wealthy_ than South Carolina, +Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia, already noticed; Alabama could +divide with her citizens five hundred and eleven dollars; Maryland four +hundred and twenty-three; Virginia four hundred and three; Kentucky +three hundred and seventy-seven; and North Carolina three hundred and +sixty-seven. All these States are much _richer_ than the _third richest_ +non-slaveholding State of the Union, viz: Connecticut. After this, +Tennessee could divide two hundred and forty-eight dollars, and +Missouri, which is the poorest of all the slave States, one hundred and +sixty-six dollars. + +We will now give the _general average_ of the _non-slaveholding States_, +(California excepted, which in 1850 had not had time to exhibit any +fixed character,) and then the _general average_ of the _slaveholding +States_ of the _whole Union_. + +The population of all the free States is thirteen million two hundred +and fourteen thousand three hundred and eighty; the free population of +all the slave States is six million three hundred and twelve thousand +eight hundred and ninety-nine. These thirteen million two hundred and +fourteen thousand three hundred and eighty of freemen have accumulated +an aggregate of property estimated at three billion one hundred and +eighty-six million six hundred and eighty-three thousand eight hundred +and twenty four dollars; while these six million three hundred and +twelve thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine of slaveholders have +accumulated an aggregate of two billion seven hundred and seventy-five +million one hundred and twenty-one thousand, six hundred and forty-four +dollars' worth of property. + +Here we see that a population of Northern freemen, one hundred and nine +_per cent._ greater than the number of Southern freemen in the slave +States, have accumulated but sixteen _per cent._ _more_ of property. + +In a division of the property accumulated by all the non-slaveholding +States, it will give to each citizen two hundred and thirty-three +dollars; while all accumulated by the various slave States, will give to +each citizen four hundred and thirty-nine dollars--nearly double. Were +we to give the slaves an equal share with the whites, in an average +division of aggregate wealth, the slaveholding States, with their slaves +included, would then be able to give each person two hundred and +ninety-one dollars instead of two hundred and thirty-three dollars, +which is all the free States have to divide with their people. + +Is it possible, with these facts before us, to believe that slavery +tends to poverty. Such is the testimony of the census on the relative +wealth of these two sections of our country. It proves that slavery, as +an agricultural investment, is more profitable than an investment in +commerce and manufactures. The facts which have been reviewed prove with +equal clearness, that where slavery exists, the white race, and the +black, have prospered more in their religious, social and moral +condition, than either race has prospered, where slavery has been +excluded. We see that an increased amount of poverty and wretchedness +has to be borne in New England by both races. Ecclesiastical statistics +will show an increased amount of prosperity in religion that is +overwhelming. + +Such is the prostration of moral restraint at the North, that, in their +cities, standing armies are necessary to guard the persons and property +of unoffending citizens, and to execute the laws upon reckless +offenders. This state of things is unknown in the slave States. + +The census shows that slavery has been a blessing to the white race in +these slave States. They have prospered more in religion, they have more +homes, are wealthier, multiply faster, and live longer than in New +England, and they are exempt from the curse of organized infidelity and +lawless violence. + +A comparison of the slave's condition at the South, with that of his own +race in freedom at the South, shows with equal clearness, that slavery, +in these States, has been, and now is, a blessing to this race of people +in all the essentials of human happiness and comfort. Our slaves all +have homes, are bountifully provided for in health, cared for and kindly +nursed in childhood, sickness, and old age; multiply faster, live +longer, are free from all the corroding ills of poverty and anxious +care, labor moderately, enjoy the blessings of the gospel, and let alone +by wicked men, are contented and happy. + +Ex-Governor Smith, a few years past, in his message to the Legislature +of this State, showed, if I remember correctly, that seven-tenths more +of crime was chargeable to free negroes than to the whites and slaves. +By the census of 1850, the ratio of whites in the Penitentiary of +Virginia, for ten years, was one to twenty-three thousand and three, +while the ratio for the free negroes was one to three thousand and one. +For the same length of time, in the Penitentiary of Massachusetts, the +average of whites was one to seven thousand five hundred and +eighty-seven, instead of one to twenty-three thousand and three, as in +Virginia; and in Massachusetts the average of free negroes in the +Penitentiary, for this length of time, was one to two hundred and fifty, +instead of one to three thousand and one, as in Virginia. Here we see +that for an average of ten years, two hundred and fifty free negroes at +the North, commit annually as much crime as twenty-three thousand and +three white persons at the South; and that two hundred and fifty free +negroes, in a non-slaveholding State, commit annually as much crime as +three thousand and one free negroes in a slaveholding State. We see, +also, that seven thousand five hundred and eighty-seven white persons at +the North, commit annually as much crime as twenty-three thousand and +three white persons commit at the South. In the cities, criminal +degradation at the North is from three to five times greater with the +whites than at the South, and from ten to ninety-three times greater +with the free negroes at the North, than with the whites at the South, +and about twelve times greater than with the free negroes at the South. + +The Federal census, and the State records, show not very far from this +proportion of criminal degradation, chargeable to this race of people +when invested with _the freedom of New England_. Can we, with these +facts before us, think that freedom to this race, in our country, is a +blessing to them? + +In Africa, the condition of the aborigines in freedom is now, and ever +has been, as much below that of their enslaved sons in these States, as +the condition of a brute, is beneath that of a man. Slavery is becoming, +to this people, so manifestly a blessing in our country, that fugitives +from labor are constantly returning to their masters again, after +tasting the blessings, or rather the awful curse to them, of freedom in +non-slaveholding States; and while I write, those who are lawfully free +in this State, are praying our Legislature for a law that will allow +them to become slaves. + +But before I dismiss the subject of wealth entirely, let me remark, that +while the census testifies that an agricultural people, with African +slave labor, increases wealth faster than free labor, employed in +agriculture, manufactures and commerce, yet reason demands that it +should be satisfactorily accounted for. It is well known that laboring +freemen at the North are more skillful, work longer in a day, labor +harder while at it, live on cheaper food, and less of it, than laborers +at the South. + +How, then, is it to be accounted for that the aggregate increase of +wealth is less with them than it is with Southern slaveholders? Among +many reasons that might be assigned, I will mention three. The first is, +that half the people at the North (this is ascertained to be about the +amount) live in villages, towns and cities. The second reason is, that +the cost of living in cities (as has been ascertained) is about double +what it is in the country--to this _cost_ we must _add_, for the +_imprudent_ indulgences of _pride_ and _fashion_; and to _this_ we must +_add_, for a thousand _indulgences_, in violation of _moral propriety_, +all of which are almost unknown in country life. The third reason is to +be found in the great amount of pauperism and crime produced by city +life. In the city of New York, for instance, according to the American +Almanac, there were received in 1847, at the principal alms-houses of +the city, twenty-eight thousand six hundred and ninety-two persons, and +_out-door relief_ was given _from the public funds_ to thirty-four +thousand five hundred and seventy-two more--making in all seventy-three +thousand two hundred and sixty-four persons, or one out of every five, +in the city of New York, dependent, more or less, on _public charity_. +The total cost of this, to the city, was three hundred and nineteen +thousand two hundred and ninety-three dollars and eighty-eight cents. In +1849, in the Mayor's message, the estimate for the same thing is four +hundred thousand dollars. In Massachusetts, according to the report of +the Secretary of State in 1848, the number of constant and occasional +paupers, in the _whole State_, was one to every twenty of the whole +population. The proportion in the cities, I suppose, would equal New +York, which, as we have seen, is one to five. To this _public burden_ in +cities, we must add an immense _unknown amount_ of _private charity_, +which is not needed in country life. + +_Crime_ in Northern cities keeps pace with _pauperism_. In _Boston_, +according to official State reports a few years past, one person out of +every fourteen males, and one out of every twenty-eight females, was +arraigned for criminal offenses. According to the census of 1850, there +were in the _State_ of Massachusetts, in a population of nine hundred +and ninety-four thousand five hundred and fourteen, the number of seven +thousand two hundred and fifty convictions for crime. In Virginia, the +same year, in a population of one million four hundred and twenty-one +thousand six hundred and sixty-one, there were one hundred and seven +convictions for crime. + +In the _State_ of New York the proportion of crime is about the same as +in Massachusetts. In the _city_ of New York, in 1848 or 1849, there were +sentenced to the _State Prison_ one hundred and nineteen men and +seventeen women; to the _Penitentiary_ seven hundred men and one hundred +and seventy women; to the _City Prison_ one hundred and sixty-two men +and sixty-seven women--making a total of one thousand two hundred and +thirty-five criminals. Here is an amount of crime in a single city, that +equals all in the fifteen slave States together. In the _State_ of New +York, according to the census of 1850, there was, in a population of +three million and ninety-seven thousand three hundred and four, the +number of ten thousand two hundred and seventy-nine convictions for +crime; while in South Carolina, in a population of six hundred and +sixty-eight thousand five hundred and seven, (which is considerably over +one-fifth) there were only forty-six convictions for crime. + +To live in cities filled with such an amount of poverty and criminal +degradation, as the census discloses, at the North, standing armies of +policemen, firemen, etc., are absolutely necessary to secure the people +against lawless violence. Now subtract from the products of labor the +_cost_ of city life--the cost of vain and criminal indulgences, the +_support_ of _paupers_, and the _machinery_ to guard innocence and +punish crime--and the wonder ceases that wealth accumulates slowly--the +wonder is that it accumulates at all. What is accumulated, must be +principally from commerce and manufactures. The system of abandoning the +country and congregating in cities, tends directly to concentrate wealth +into the hands of a few, and to diffuse poverty and crime among the +masses of the people. + +These facts of poverty and crime at the North, which are exhibited by +the census, will help to explain the seeming mystery that the South +multiplies by natural increase faster than the North. In 1845, according +to her statistical report, Massachusetts had seven-eighths of her +marriageable young women working in factories under male overseers. The +census of 1840 shows that, with fewer adults, Virginia had one hundred +thousand more children than Massachusetts. In the census of 1850 the +proportion in favor of Virginia is still greater. + +Pauperism, in Massachusetts and New York, according to the State census, +increased between 1836 and 1848 ten times faster than wealth or +population. + +In the slaveholding States there is less than a tenth of the people in +cities--pauperism is almost unknown--the people are on farms--the style +of living is less costly by half, but greatly superior in quality and +comfort--according to the census, there is but little crime--almost all +have homes--the amount of agricultural labor does not fluctuate--the +farms are not cultivated by the spade and hoe, but are large enough to +justify a system of enlarged agricultural operations by the aid of horse +power. The result is that more is saved, and the proceeds more equally +distributed between capital and labor, or the rich and the poor. + +The South did not seek or desire the responsibility, and the onerous +burden, of civilizing and christianizing these degraded savages; but +God, in his mysterious providence, brought it about. He allowed England, +and her Puritan sons at the North, from the love of gain, to become the +willing instruments, to force African slaves upon the Cavaliers of the +South. These Cavaliers were a noble race of men. They remonstrated +against this outrage to the last. They preferred indented labor from the +mother country, which they were securing as they needed it. A descendant +of theirs, in drafting the Declaration of Independence, made this +outrage one of the prominent causes for dissolving all political +connection with the mother country. But God intended (as we now see) to +bless these savages, by forcing us against our wills, to become their +masters and guardians; and he has abundantly blessed us, also, (as we +now see) for allowing his word to be our counselor in this relation. We +were forced by his word to admit the relation to be lawful, and he +enabled us to admit and feel the great responsibility devolved upon us +as their divinely appointed protectors. + +The North, after pocketing the price of these savages, refused to bear +any part of the burden of training and elevating them; and finally, with +France and England, turned them loose by emancipation, and ignored the +word of God in justification of the deed, by declaring that to hold them +in slavery was sinful. The result is, that the portion they held of this +degraded race, is immersed in poverty, wretchedness and crime, without a +parallel in civilized communities, and are less in number now, than the +original importations from Africa, (so says the Superintendent of the +census;) while the portion held by us is in high comfort, regularly +improving in morals and intellect, and multiplying more rapidly than the +white race at the North. It does seem, from the facts of the census, +that this (so-called) philanthropy has been a curse to _both races, at +the North, and in the West Indies_, and that it is displeasing in the +sight of God. The census exhibits unmistakable evidence that, without a +change, the emancipated portion of the race, _in these localities_, will +ultimately perish, and that this catastrophe is to be hastened by +poverty and criminal degradation. The census shows that those who are +_responsible_ for this deed are subjected _in our country_, by annual +_births_ and _deaths_, to a _decrease_ of sixty per cent., and to a much +_heavier per cent._ than this, _of poverty and crime_. + +But while these are the results to both races at the North, prosperity, +unequaled in the annals of the world, has attended us (as the census +shows) in almost every thing we have put our hands to, both for this +life and that which is to come. The _satisfaction_ is ours, also, of +_knowing_ that these degraded outcasts, which were thrown upon our +hands, have not only been _cared for_, but _elevated in the scale of +being_, and brought to share largely in the blessings of intellectual, +social, and religious culture. + +But for their _enslaved condition_ here, they would have remained until +this hour in their _original degradation_. + +_In view of all the facts compared_, I would ask all who feel interested +in the great question now agitating our country, to let these facts be +their guide and counselor in deciding the issue. Are the people of the +North warranted from these facts, in believing they would honor God and +benefit men by overthrowing the institution of slavery, if they could. + +These facts testify plainly, that where African slavery has existed in +our country for more than two hundred years, the social and religious +condition of men has improved more rapidly than it has under the best +arrangements of exclusive freedom. + +These facts show that, with the advantages of the best location and +climate upon the globe, and a high degree of moral, religious, and +social intelligence to commence with, those communities at the North who +excluded this element from their organizations, are actually behind +slaveholding communities, in religion, in wealth, in the increase of +their race, and in the comforts of their condition. If this be so, (and +the census testifies that it is,) what will justify the North in efforts +to involve both sections of our country in civil war and disunion, +because slavery exists in one section of it? And if the institution of +African slavery has certainly improved the condition of both races in +our country, (and the census testifies that it has,) why should they +hazard all the blessings vouchsafed to the North and the South sooner +than suffer its expansion over new territory? + +The expansion of African slavery (according to the test by which we are +now trying it) has never yet done injury in this Union. In Texas +slaveholders were called to organize a State, (not in this Union at the +time,) which in 1850 had a population of two hundred and twelve thousand +five hundred and ninety-two. The individuals composing it originally, +were the most lawless set of adventurers that ever lived. Did slavery +disqualify slaveholders from organizing a social body, even out of these +materials, that could secure the highest results in human progress? What +is now the social, moral, and religious complexion of Texas? In the +essentials of prosperity it is ahead, under equal circumstances, of any +portion of the Union. Slaveholders, in the providence of God, had to +organize States on the Gulf of Mexico, and on the banks of the +Mississippi, after the acquisition of Louisiana from France, and Florida +from Spain. The original materials (numbering upwards of seventy +thousand) of which these States were composed, had been trained under +the most pernicious system of morals that ever existed among a civilized +people. The result in this case, also, will testify that slavery does +not paralyze communities in the accumulation of wealth, or in the +correction of moral, social, and religious evils. The census shows that +in all these items these new slave States which have been added to our +Union, have greatly outstripped their non-slaveholding equals in age. +The temples of the Lord are now seen studding these slaveholding +localities over, and are vocal with his praise--the moral majesty of the +law is a paramount power. The amount of paupers and criminals, in some +of them, is less than one-seventieth part that is chargeable to some of +their twin sisters of equal age, (who are free[232]) nurseries of +literature and science are multiplying rapidly, and promising the +highest results--prosperity, in these slaveholding communities, in +crowning the efforts of good men to arrest vice, to promote virtue, to +diminish want, to create plenty, and to arrange the elements of progress +for the highest social, moral, and religious results. + +There is another historical fact which deserves to be weighed, in making +up a judgment on the expansion of slavery. Within the present century, +the colonies of Mexico and South America, in imitation of our example, +threw off the colonial yoke, and established independent governments. +All of these States, except one, preferred the non-slaveholding model, +and _excluded_ the element of _slavery_: that one, which is Brazil, +preferred the model adopted by the Southern States of this Union, and +_retained_ African _slavery_. + +All of those States, which _excluded slavery_, have been visited, in +rapid succession, with _insurrection, revolution, and fearful anarchy_; +while Brazil has enjoyed tranquillity, from the commencement of her +independent political existence until the present hour. This remarkable +fact has occurred, too, in a State where the slaves are two to one of +the other race. The slaves in the United States are one to two of the +other race. Is not this fact, like all those examined, _God's +providential voice_? and does He not, in these facts, speak a language +that we can _read and understand_? + +Now, shall we, in view of these facts, rebel against the teachings of +His providence, as it is now made known to us in the census, and claim +for ourselves more wisdom than he has displayed, in _allowing such +results_ to be the product of _slaveholding communities_? + +We cannot put an end to African slavery, if we would--and we ought not, +if we could--until God opens a door to _make its termination a blessing, +and not a curse_. When He does that, slavery in this Union will end. + + With Christian affection, yours, + THORNTON STRINGFELLOW. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[231] This letter was addressed to ELDER JAMES FIFE. + +[232] Texas and Michigan; see also, Arkansas and Indiana, Florida and +Wisconsin. + + + + +SLAVERY + +IN THE LIGHT OF SOCIAL ETHICS. + +BY + +CHANCELLOR HARPER, + +OF SOUTH CAROLINA. + + + + +SLAVERY + +IN + +THE LIGHT OF SOCIAL ETHICS. + + +INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON SOCIAL LIFE. + + Necessity of Investigation--Vindicators of + Slavery--Slavery a means of + Civilization--Prejudices of + Abolitionism--Discussion of the Declaration of + Independence--Rights of + Society--Self-Preservation--The greatest good to + the greatest number--Ambiguity in moral + Investigation--Influence of Slavery on + Civilization--The Slavery of England's + Civilization--How Slavery retards the evils of + Civilization--Servitude Inevitable--Abuses of + Slavery and of Free Labor--Social ties, master and + slave--Intellectual advancement--Morals of + Slavery, and of Free Labor--Marriage relation and + licentiousness--Virtues of Slavery--Security from + Evils--Insecurity of Free Labor--Menial + occupations necessary--Utopianism--Slavery and the + servitude of Civilization contrasted--The African + an inferior variety of the human race--Elevating + influence of Slavery on the slave, on the master, + on statesmen--Duties of master--Elevation of + female character--Necessity of Slavery in tropical + climates--Examples from history--Southern + States--Insurrections impossible--Military + strength of Slavery--Advantageous consequences of + the increase of slaves--Destructive consequences + of Emancipation to our country, and to the + world--Kakistocracy--White + emigration--Amalgamation--Deplorable results of + Fanaticism. + + +THE institution of domestic slavery exists over far the greater portion +of the inhabited earth. Until within a very few centuries, it may be +said to have existed over the whole earth--at least in all those +portions of it which had made any advances toward civilization. We might +safely conclude then, that it is deeply founded in the nature of man and +the exigencies of human society. Yet, in the few countries in which it +has been abolished--claiming, perhaps justly, to be furthest advanced in +civilization and intelligence, but which have had the smallest +opportunity of observing its true character and effects--it is +denounced as the most intolerable of social and political evils. Its +existence, and every hour of its continuance, is regarded as the crime +of the communities in which it is found. Even by those in the countries +alluded to, who regard it with the most indulgence or the least +abhorrence--who attribute no criminality to the present generation--who +found it in existence, and have not yet been able to devise the means of +abolishing it,--it is pronounced a misfortune and a curse injurious and +dangerous always, and which must be finally fatal to the societies which +admit it. This is no longer regarded as a subject of argument and +investigation. The opinions referred to are assumed as settled, or the +truth of them as self-evident. If any voice is raised among ourselves to +extenuate or to vindicate, it is unheard. The judgment is made up. We +can have no hearing before the tribunal of the civilized world. Yet, on +this very account, it is more important that we, the inhabitants of the +slaveholding States of America, insulated as we are, by this +institution, and cut off, in some degree, from the communion and +sympathies of the world by which we are surrounded, or with which we +have intercourse, and exposed continually to their animadversions and +attacks, should thoroughly understand this subject, and our strength and +weakness in relation to it. If it be thus criminal, dangerous, and +fatal; and if it be possible to devise means of freeing ourselves from +it, we ought at once to set about the employing of those means. It would +be the most wretched and imbecile fatuity, to shut our eyes to the +impending dangers and horrors, and "drive darkling down the current of +our fate," till we are overwhelmed in the final destruction. If we are +tyrants, cruel, unjust, oppressive, let us humble ourselves and repent +in the sight of heaven, that the foul stain may be cleansed, and we +enabled to stand erect as having common claims to humanity with our +fellow-men. + +But if we are nothing of all this; if we commit no injustice or cruelty; +if the maintenance of our institutions be essential to our prosperity, +our character, our safety, and the safety of all that is dear to us, let +us enlighten our minds and fortify our hearts to defend them. + +It is a somewhat singular evidence of the indisposition of the rest of +the world to hear any thing more on this subject, that perhaps the most +profound, original, and truly philosophical treatise, which has +appeared within the time of my recollection,[233] seems not to have +attracted the slightest attention out of the limits of the slaveholding +States themselves. If truth, reason, and conclusive argument, propounded +with admirable temper and perfect candor, might be supposed to have an +effect on the minds of men, we should think this work would have put an +end to agitation on the subject. The author has rendered inappreciable +service to the South in enlightening them on the subject of their own +institutions, and turning back that monstrous tide of folly and madness +which, if it had rolled on, would have involved his own great State +along with the rest of the slaveholding States in a common ruin. But +beyond these, he seems to have produced no effect whatever. The +denouncers of slavery, with whose production the press groans, seems to +be unaware of his existence--unaware that there is a reason to be +encountered or argument to be answered. They assume that the truth is +known and settled, and only requires to be enforced by denunciation. + +Another vindicator of the South has appeared in an individual who is +among those that have done honor to American literature.[234] With +conclusive argument, and great force of expression, he has defended +slavery from the charge of injustice or immorality, and shown clearly +the unspeakable cruelty and mischief which must result from any scheme +of abolition. He does not live among slaveholders, and it can not be +said of him, as of others, that his mind is warped by interest, or his +moral sense blunted by habit and familiarity with abuse. These +circumstances, it might be supposed, would have secured him hearing and +consideration. He seems to be equally unheeded, and the work of +denunciation, disdaining argument, still goes on. + +President Dew has shown that the institution of slavery is a principal +cause of civilization. Perhaps nothing can be more evident than that it +is the sole cause. If any thing can be predicated as universally true of +uncultivated man, it is that he will not labor beyond what is absolutely +necessary to maintain his existence. Labor is pain to those who are +unaccustomed to it, and the nature of man is averse to pain. Even with +all the training, the helps, and motives of civilization, we find that +this aversion can not be overcome in many individuals of the most +cultivated societies. The coercion of slavery alone is adequate to form +man to habits of labor. Without it, there can be no accumulation of +property, no providence for the future, no tastes for comfort or +elegancies, which are the characteristics and essentials of +civilization. He who has obtained the command of another's labor, first +begins to accumulate and provide for the future, and the foundations of +civilization are laid. We find confirmed by experience that which is so +evident in theory. Since the existence of man upon the earth, with no +exception whatever, either of ancient or modern times, every society +which has attained civilization, has advanced to it through this +process. + +Will those who regard slavery as immoral, or crime in itself, tell us +that man was not intended for civilization, but to roam the earth as a +biped brute? That he was not to raise his eyes to Heaven, or be +conformed in his nobler faculties to the image of his Maker? Or will +they say that the Judge of all the earth has done wrong in ordaining the +means by which alone that end can be obtained? It is true that the +Creator can make the wickedness as well as the wrath of man to praise +him, and bring forth the most benevolent results from the most atrocious +actions. But in such cases, it is the motive of the actor alone which +condemns the action. The act itself is good, if it promotes the good +purposes of God, and would be approved by him, if that result only were +intended. Do they not blaspheme the providence of God who denounce as +wickedness and outrage, that which is rendered indispensable to his +purposes in the government of the world? Or at what stage of the +progress of society will they say that slavery ceases to be necessary, +and its very existence becomes sin and crime? I am aware that such +argument would have little effect on those with whom it would be +degrading to contend--who pervert the inspired writings--which in some +parts expressly sanction slavery, and throughout indicate most clearly +that it is a civil institution, with which religion has no concern--with +a shallowness and presumption not less flagrant and shameless than his, +who would justify murder from the text, "and Phineas arose and executed +judgment." + +There seems to be something in this subject which blunts the +preceptions, and darkens and confuses the understandings and moral +feelings of men. Tell them that, of necessity, in every civilized +society, there must be an infinite variety of conditions and +employments, from the most eminent and intellectual, to the most servile +and laborious; that the negro race, from their temperament and capacity, +are peculiarly suited to the situation which they occupy, and not less +happy in it than any corresponding class to be found in the world; prove +incontestably that no scheme of emancipation could be carried into +effect without the most intolerable mischiefs and calamities to both +master and slave, or without probably throwing a large and fertile +portion of the earth's surface out of the pale of civilization--and you +have done nothing. They reply, that whatever may be the consequence, you +are bound to do _right_; that man has a right to himself, and man cannot +have property in man; that if the negro race be naturally inferior in +mind and character, they are not less entitled to the rights of +humanity; that if they are happy in their condition, it affords but the +stronger evidence of their degradation, and renders them still more +objects of commiseration. They repeat, as the fundamental maxim of our +civil policy, that all men are born free and equal, and quote from our +Declaration of Independence, "that men are endowed by their Creator with +certain inalienable _rights_, among which are life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness." + +It is not the first time that I have had occasion to observe that men +may repeat with the utmost confidence, some maxim or sentimental phrase, +as self-evident or admitted truth, which is either palpably false, or to +which, upon examination, it will be found that they attach no definite +idea. Notwithstanding our respect for the important document which +declared our independence, yet if any thing be found in it, and +especially in what may be regarded rather as its ornament than its +substance--false, sophistical or unmeaning, that respect should not +screen it from the freest examination. + +_All men are born free and equal._ Is it not palpably nearer the truth +to say that no man was ever born free, and that no two men were ever +born equal? Man is born in a state of the most helpless dependence on +others. He continues subject to the absolute control of others, and +remains without many of the civil and all of the political privileges of +his society, until the period which the laws have fixed as that at which +he is supposed to have attained the maturity of his faculties. Then +inequality is further developed, and becomes infinite in every society, +and under whatever form of government. Wealth and poverty, fame or +obscurity, strength or weakness, knowledge or ignorance, ease or labor, +power or subjection, mark the endless diversity in the condition of men. + +But we have not arrived at the profundity of the maxim. This inequality +is, in a great measure, the result of abuses in the institutions of +society. They do not speak of what exists, but of what ought to exist. +Every one should be left at liberty to obtain all the advantages of +society which he can compass, by the free exertion of his faculties, +unimpeded by civil restraints. It may be said that this would not remedy +the evils of society which are complained of. The inequalities to which +I have referred, with the misery resulting from them, would exist in +fact under the freest and most popular form of government that man could +devise. But what is the foundation of the bold dogma so confidently +announced? Females are human and rational beings. They may be found of +better faculties, and better qualified to exercise political privileges, +and to attain the distinctions of society, than many men; yet who +complains of the order of society by which they are excluded from them? +For I do not speak of the few who would desecrate them; do violence to +the nature which their Creator has impressed upon them; drag them from +the position which they necessarily occupy for the existence of +civilized society, and in which they constitute its blessing and +ornament--the only position which they have ever occupied in any human +society--to place them in a situation in which they would be alike +miserable and degraded. Low as we descend in combating the theories of +presumptuous dogmatists, it cannot be necessary to stoop to this. A +youth of eighteen may have powers which cast into the shade those of any +of his more advanced cotemporaries. He may be capable of serving or +saving his country, and if not permitted to do so now, the occasion may +have been lost forever. But he can exercise no political privilege, or +aspire to any political distinction. It is said that, of necessity, +society must exclude from some civil and political privileges those who +are unfitted to exercise them, by infirmity, unsuitableness of +character, or defect of discretion; that of necessity there must be some +general rule on the subject, and that any rule which can be devised will +operate with hardship and injustice on individuals. This is all that can +be said, and all that need be said. It is saying, in other words, that +the privileges in question are no matter of natural right, but to be +settled by convention, as the good and safety of society may require. If +society should disfranchise individuals convicted of infamous crimes, +would this be an invasion of natural right? Yet this would not be +justified on the score of their moral guilt, but that the good of +society required or would be promoted by it. We admit the existence of a +moral law, binding on societies as on individuals. Society must act in +good faith. No man, or body of men, has a right to inflict pain or +privation on others, unless with a view, after full and impartial +deliberation, to prevent a greater evil. If this deliberation be had, +and the decision made in good faith, there can be no imputation of moral +guilt. Has any politician contended that the very existence of +governments in which there are orders privileged by law, constitutes a +violation of morality; that their continuance is a crime, which men are +bound to put an end to, without any consideration of the good or evil to +result from the change? Yet this is the natural inference from the dogma +of the natural equality of men as applied to our institution of +slavery--an equality not to be invaded without injustice and wrong, and +requiring to be restored instantly, unqualifiedly, and without reference +to consequences. + +This is sufficiently common-place, but we are sometimes driven to +common-place. It is no less a false and shallow, than a presumptuous +philosophy, which theorizes on the affairs of men as a problem to be +solved by some unerring rule of human reason, without reference to the +designs of a superior intelligence, so far as he has been placed to +indicate them, in their creation and destiny. Man is born to subjection. +Not only during infancy is he dependent, and under the control of +others; at all ages, it is the very bias of his nature, that the strong +and the wise should control the weak and the ignorant. So it has been +since the days of Nimrod. The existence of some form of slavery in all +ages and countries, is proof enough of this. He is born to subjection as +he is born in sin and ignorance. To make any considerable progress in +knowledge, the continued efforts of successive generations, and the +diligent training and unwearied exertions of the individual, are +requisite. To make progress in moral virtue, not less time and effort, +aided by superior help, are necessary; and it is only by the matured +exercise of his knowledge and his virtue, that he can attain to civil +freedom. Of all things, the existence of civil liberty is most the +result of artificial institution. The proclivity of the natural man is +to domineer or to be subservient. A noble result, indeed, but in the +attaining of which, as in the instances of knowledge and virtue, the +Creator, for his own purposes, has set a limit beyond which we cannot +go. + +But he who is most advanced in knowledge, is most sensible of his own +ignorance, and how much must forever be unknown to man in his present +condition. As I have heard it expressed, the further you extend the +circle of light, the wider is the horizon of darkness. He who has made +the greatest progress in moral purity, is most sensible of the +depravity, not only of the world around him, but of his own heart, and +the imperfection of his best motives; and this he knows that men must +feel and lament so long as they continue men. So when the greatest +progress in civil liberty has been made, the enlightened lover of +liberty will know that there must remain much inequality, much +injustice, much _slavery_, which no human wisdom or virtue will ever be +able wholly to prevent or redress. As I have before had the honor to say +to this Society, the condition of our whole existence is but to struggle +with evils--to compare them--to choose between them, and, so far as we +can, to mitigate them. To say that there is evil in any institution, is +only to say that it is human. + +And can we doubt but that this long discipline and laborious process, by +which men are required to work out the elevation and improvement of +their individual nature and their social condition, is imposed for a +great and benevolent end? Our faculties are not adequate to the solution +of the mystery, why it should be so; but the truth is clear, that the +world was not intended for the seat of universal knowledge, or goodness, +or happiness, or freedom. + +_Man has been endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable rights, +among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness._ What is +meant by the _inalienable_ right of liberty? Has any one who has used +the words ever asked himself this question? Does it mean that a man has +no right to alienate his own liberty--to sell himself and his posterity +for slaves? This would seem to be the more obvious meaning. When the +word _right_ is used, it has reference to some law which sanctions it, +and would be violated by its invasion. It must refer either to the +general law of morality, or the law of the country--the law of God or +the law of man. If the law of any country permitted it, it would of +course be absurd to say that the law of that country was violated by +such alienation. If it have any meaning in this respect, it must mean +that though the law of the country permitted it, the man would be guilty +of an immoral act who should thus alienate his liberty. A fit question +for schoolmen to discuss, and the consequences resulting from its +decision as important as from any of theirs. Yet who will say that the +man pressed by famine, and in prospect of death, would be criminal for +such an act? Self-preservation, as is truly said, is the first law of +nature. High and peculiar characters, by elaborate cultivation, may be +taught to prefer death to slavery, but it would be folly to prescribe +this as a duty to the mass of mankind. + +If any rational meaning can be attributed to the sentence I have quoted, +it is this:--That the society, or the individuals who exercise the +powers of government, are guilty of a violation of the law of God or of +morality, when, by any law or public act, they deprive men of life or +liberty, or restrain them in the pursuit of happiness. Yet every +government does, and of necessity must, deprive men of life and liberty +for offenses against society. Restrain them in the pursuit of happiness! +Why all the laws of society are intended for nothing else but to +restrain men from the pursuit of happiness, according to their own ideas +of happiness or advantage--which the phrase must mean if it means any +thing. And by what right does society punish by the loss of life or +liberty? Not on account of the moral guilt of the criminal--not by +impiously and arrogantly assuming the prerogative of the Almighty, to +dispense justice or suffering, according to moral desert. It is for its +own protection--it is the right of self-defense. If there existed the +blackest moral turpitude, which by its example or consequences, could be +of no evil to society, government would have nothing to do with that. If +an action, the most harmless in its moral character, could be dangerous +to the security of society, society would have the perfect right to +punish it. If the possession of a black skin would be otherwise +dangerous to society, society has the same right to protect itself by +disfranchising the possessor of civil privilege, and to continue the +disability to his posterity, if the same danger would be incurred by its +removal. Society inflicts these forfeitures for the security of the +lives of its members; it inflicts them for the security of their +property, the great essential of civilization; it inflicts them also for +the protection of its political institutions, the forcible attempt to +overturn which, has always been justly regarded as the greatest crime; +and who has questioned its right so to inflict? "Man can not have +property in man"--a phrase as full of meaning as, "who slays fat oxen +should himself be fat." Certainly he may, if the laws of society allow +it, and if it be on sufficient grounds, neither he nor society do wrong. + +And is it by this--as we must call it, however recommended to our higher +feelings by its associations--well-sounding, but unmeaning verbiage of +natural equality and inalienable rights, that our lives are to be put in +jeopardy, our property destroyed, and our political institutions +overturned or endangered? If a people had on its borders a tribe of +barbarians, whom no treaties or faith could bind, and by whose attacks +they were constantly endangered, against whom they could devise no +security, but that they should be exterminated or enslaved; would they +not have the right to enslave them, and keep them in slavery so long as +the same danger would be incurred by their manumission? If a civilized +man and a savage were by chance placed together on a desolate island, +and the former, by the superior power of civilization, would reduce the +latter to subjection, would he not have the same right? Would this not +be the strictest self-defense? I do not now consider, how far we can +make out a similar case to justify our enslaving of the negroes. I speak +to those who contend for inalienable rights, and that the existence of +slavery always, and under all circumstances, involves injustice and +crime. + +As I have said, we acknowledge the existence of a moral law. It is not +necessary for us to resort to the theory which resolves all right into +force. The existence of such a law is imprinted on the hearts of all +human beings. But though its existence be acknowledged, the mind of man +has hitherto been tasked in vain to discover an unerring standard of +morality. It is a common and undoubted maxim of morality, that you shall +not do evil that good may come. You shall not do injustice or commit an +invasion of the rights of others, for the sake of a greater ulterior +good. But what is injustice, and what are the rights of others? And why +are we not to commit the one or invade the other? It is because it +inflicts pain or suffering, present or prospective, or cuts them off +from enjoyment which they might otherwise attain. The Creator has +sufficiently revealed to us that _happiness_ is the great end of +existence, the sole object of all animated and sentient beings. To this +he has directed their aspirations and efforts, and we feel that we +thwart his benevolent purposes when we destroy or impede that happiness. +This is the only _natural_ right of man. All other rights result from +the conventions of society, and these, to be sure, we are not to invade, +whatever good may appear to us likely to follow. Yet are we in no +instance to inflict pain or suffering, or disturb enjoyment, for the +sake of producing a greater good? Is the madman not to be restrained who +would bring destruction on himself or others? Is pain not to be +inflicted on the child, when it is the only means by which he can be +effectually instructed to provide for his own future happiness? Is the +surgeon guilty of wrong who amputates a limb to preserve life? Is not +the object of all penal legislation, to inflict suffering for the sake +of greater good to be secured to society? + +By what right is it that man exercises dominion over the beasts of the +field; subdues them to painful labor, or deprives them of life for his +sustenance or enjoyment? They are not rational beings. No, but they are +the creatures of God, sentient beings, capable of suffering and +enjoyment, and entitled to enjoy according to the measure of their +capacities. Does not the voice of nature inform every one, that he is +guilty of wrong when he inflicts on them pain without necessity or +object? If their existence be limited to the present life, it affords +the stronger argument for affording them the brief enjoyment of which it +is capable. It is because the greater good is effected; not only to man +but to the inferior animals themselves. The care of man gives the boon +of existence to myriads who would never otherwise have enjoyed it, and +the enjoyment of their existence is better provided for while it lasts. +It belongs to the being of superior faculties to judge of the relations +which shall subsist between himself and inferior animals, and the use he +shall make of them; and he may justly consider himself, who has the +greater capacity of enjoyment, in the first instance. Yet he must do +this conscientiously, and no doubt, moral guilt has been incurred by the +infliction of pain on these animals, with no adequate benefit to be +expected. I do no disparagement to the dignity of human nature, even in +its humblest form, when I say that on the very same foundation, with the +difference only of circumstance and degree, rests the right of the +civilized and cultivated man, over the savage and ignorant. It is the +order of nature and of God, that the being of superior faculties and +knowledge, and therefore of superior power, should control and dispose +of those who are inferior. It is as much in the order of nature, that +men should enslave each other, as that other animals should prey upon +each other. I admit that he does this under the highest moral +responsibility, and is most guilty if he wantonly inflicts misery or +privation on beings more capable of enjoyment or suffering than brutes, +without necessity or any view to the greater good which is to result. If +we conceive of society existing without government, and that one man by +his superior strength, courage or wisdom, could obtain the mastery of +his fellows, he would have a perfect right to do so. He would be morally +responsible for the use of his power, and guilty if he failed to direct +them so as to promote their happiness as well as his own. Moralists have +denounced the injustice and cruelty which have been practiced towards +our aboriginal Indians, by which they have been driven from their native +seats and exterminated, and no doubt with much justice. No doubt, much +fraud and injustice has been practiced in the circumstances and the +manner of their removal. Yet who has contended that civilized man had no +moral right to possess himself of the country? That he was bound to +leave this wide and fertile continent, which is capable of sustaining +uncounted myriads of a civilized race, to a few roving and ignorant +barbarians? Yet if any thing is certain, it is certain that there were +no means by which he could possess the country, without exterminating or +enslaving them. Savage and civilized man cannot live together, and the +savage can be tamed only by being enslaved or by having slaves. By +enslaving alone could he have preserved them.[235] And who shall take +upon himself to decide that the more benevolent course, and more +pleasing to God, was pursued towards them, or that it would not have +been better that they had been enslaved generally, as they were in +particular instances? It is a refined philosophy, and utterly false in +its application to general nature, or the mass of human kind, which +teaches that existence is not the greatest of all boons, and worthy of +being preserved even under the most adverse circumstances. The strongest +instinct of all animated beings sufficiently proclaims this. When the +last red man shall have vanished from our forests, the sole remaining +traces of his blood will be found among our enslaved population.[236] +The African slave trade has given, and will give, the boon of existence +to millions and millions in our country, who would otherwise never have +enjoyed it, and the enjoyment of their existence is better provided for +while it lasts. Or if, for the rights of man over inferior animals, we +are referred to revelation, which pronounces--"ye shall have dominion +over the beasts of the field, and over the fowls of the air," we refer +to the same, which declares not the less explicitly-- + +"Both the bond-men and bond-maids which thou shalt have, shall be of the +heathen that are among you. Of them shall you buy bond-men and +bond-maids." + +"Moreover of the children of strangers that do sojourn among you, of +them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they +begot in your land, and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take +them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them by +possession. They shall be your bond-men forever." + +In moral investigations, ambiguity is often occasioned by confounding +the intrinsic nature of an action, as determined by its consequence, +with the motives of the actor, involving moral guilt or innocence. If +poison be given with a view to destroy another, and it cures him of +disease, the poisoner is guilty, but the act is beneficent in its +results. If medicine be given with a view to heal, and it happens to +kill, he who administered it is innocent, but the act is a noxious one. +If they who begun and prosecuted the slave trade, practiced horrible +cruelties and inflicted much suffering--as no doubt they did, though +these have been much exaggerated--for merely selfish purposes, and with +no view to future good, they were morally most guilty. So far as +unnecessary cruelty was practiced, the motive and the act were alike +bad. But if we could be sure that the entire effect of the trade has +been to produce more happiness than would otherwise have existed, we +must pronounce it good, and that it has happened in the ordering of +God's providence, to whom evil cannot be imputed. Moral guilt has not +been imputed to Las Casas, and if the importation of African slaves into +America, had the effect of preventing more suffering than it inflicted, +it was good, both in the motive and the result. I freely admit that, it +is hardly possible to justify morally, those who begun and carried on +the slave trade. No speculation of future good to be brought about, +could compensate the enormous amount of evil it occasioned. + +If we should refer to the common moral sense of mankind, as determined +by their conduct in all ages and countries, for a standard of morality, +it would seem to be in favor of slavery. The will of God, as determined +by utility, would be an infallible standard, if we had an unerring +measure of utility. The utilitarian philosophy, as it is commonly +understood, referring only to the animal wants and employments, and +physical condition of man, is utterly false and degrading. If a +sufficiently extended definition be given to utility, so as to include +every thing that may be a source of enjoyment or suffering, it is for +the most part useless. How can you compare the pleasures resulting from +the exercise of the understanding, the taste and the imagination, with +the animal enjoyments of the senses--the gratification derived from a +fine poem with that from a rich banquet? How are we to weigh the pains +and enjoyments of one man highly cultivated and of great sensibility, +against those of many men of blunter capacity for enjoyment or +suffering? And if we could determine with certainty in what utility +consists, we are so short-sighted with respect to consequences--the +remote results of our best considered actions are so often wide of our +anticipations, or contrary to them, that we should still be very much in +the dark. But though we cannot arrive at absolute certainty with respect +to the utility of actions, it is always fairly matter of argument. +Though an imperfect standard, it is the best we have, and perhaps the +Creator did not intend that we should arrive at perfect certainty with +regard to the morality of many actions. If, after the most careful +examination of consequences that we are able to make, with due distrust +of ourselves, we impartially, and in good faith, decide for that which +appears likely to produce the greatest good, we are free from moral +guilt. And I would impress most earnestly, that with our imperfect and +limited faculties, and short-sighted as we are to the future, we can +rarely, very rarely indeed, be justified in producing considerable +present evil or suffering, in the expectation of remote future good--if +indeed this can ever be justified. + +In considering this subject, I shall not regard it in the first instance +in reference to the present position of the slaveholding States, or the +difficulties which lie in the way of their emancipating their slaves, +but as a naked, abstract question--whether it is better that the +institution of praedial and domestic slavery should, or should not, +exist in civilized society. And though some of my remarks may seem to +have such a tendency, let me not be understood as taking upon myself to +determine that it is better that it should exist. God forbid that the +responsibility of deciding such a question should ever be thrown on me +or my countrymen. But this I will say, and not without confidence, that +it is in the power of no human intellect to establish the contrary +proposition--that it is better it should not exist. This is probably +known but to one being, and concealed from human sagacity. + +There have existed in various ages, and we now see existing in the +world, people in every stage of civilization, from the most barbarous to +the most refined. Man, as I have said, is not born to civilization. He +is born rude and ignorant. But it will be, I suppose, admitted that it +is the design of his Creator that he should attain to civilization: that +religion should be known, that the comforts and elegancies of life +should be enjoyed, that letters and arts should be cultivated; in short, +that there should be the greatest possible development of moral and +intellectual excellence. It can hardly be necessary to say any thing of +those who have extolled the superior virtues and enjoyments of savage +life--a life of physical wants and sufferings, of continual insecurity, +of furious passions and depraved vices. Those who have praised savage +life, are those who have known nothing of it, or who have become savages +themselves. But as I have said, so far as reason or universal experience +instruct us, the institution of slavery is an essential process in +emerging from savage life. It must then produce good, and promote the +designs of the Creator. + +I add further, _that slavery anticipates the benefits of civilization, +and retards the evils of civilization_. The former part of this +proposition has been so fully established by a writer of great power of +thought--though I fear his practical conclusions will be found of +little value--that it is hardly necessary to urge it.[237] Property--the +accumulation of capital, as it is commonly called--is the first element +of civilization. But to accumulate, or to use capital to any +considerable extent, the combination of labor is necessary. In early +stages of society, when people are thinly scattered over an extensive +territory, the labor necessary to extensive works cannot be commanded. +Men are independent of each other. Having the command of abundance of +land, no one will submit to be employed in the service of his neighbor. +No one, therefore, can employ more capital than he can use with his own +hands, or those of his family, nor have an income much beyond the +necessaries of life. There can, therefore, be little leisure for +intellectual pursuits, or means of acquiring the comforts or elegancies +of life. It is hardly necessary to say, however, that if a man has the +command of slaves, he may combine labor, and use capital to any required +extent, and therefore accumulate wealth. He shows that no colonies have +been successfully planted without some sort of slavery. So we find the +fact to be. It is only in the slaveholding States of our Confederacy, +that wealth can be acquired by agriculture--which is the general +employment of our whole country. Among us, we know that there is no one, +however humble his beginning, who, with persevering industry, +intelligence, and orderly and virtuous habits, may not attain to +considerable opulence. So far as wealth has been accumulated in the +States which do not possess slaves, it has been in cities by the +pursuits of commerce, or lately, by manufactures. But the products of +slave labor furnish more than two-thirds of the materials of our foreign +commerce, which the industry of those States is employed in transporting +and exchanging; and among the slaveholding States is to be found the +great market for all the productions of their industry, of whatever +kind. The prosperity of those States, therefore, and the civilization of +their cities, have been for the most part created by the existence of +slavery. Even in the cities, but for a class of population, which our +institutions have marked as servile, it would be scarcely possible to +preserve the ordinary habitudes of civilized life, by commanding the +necessary menial and domestic service. + +Every stage of human society, from the most barbarous to the most +refined, has its own peculiar evils to mark it as the condition of +mortality; and perhaps there is none but omnipotence who can say in +which the scale of good or evil most preponderates. We need say nothing +of the evils of savage life. There is a state of society elevated +somewhat above it, which is to be found in some of the more thinly +peopled portions of our own country--the rudest agricultural +state--which is thus characterized by the author to whom I have +referred: "The American of the back woods has often been described to +the English as grossly ignorant, dirty, unsocial, delighting in rum and +tobacco, attached to nothing but his rifle, adventurous, restless, more +than half savage. Deprived of social enjoyments or excitements, he has +recourse to those of savage life, and becomes (for in this respect the +Americans degenerate) unfit for society." This is no very inviting +picture, which, though exaggerated, we know not to be without likeness. +The evils of such a state, I suppose, will hardly be thought compensated +by unbounded freedom, perfect equality, and ample means of subsistence. + +But let us take another stage in the progress--which to many will appear +to offer all that is desirable in existence, and realize another Utopia. +Let us suppose a state of society in which all shall have property, and +there shall be no great inequality of property--in which society shall +be so much condensed as to afford the means of social intercourse, +without being crowded, so as to create difficulty in obtaining the means +of subsistence--in which every family that chooses may have as much land +as will employ its own hands, while others may employ their industry in +forming such products as it may be desirable to exchange with them. +Schools are generally established, and the rudiments of education +universally diffused. Religion is taught, and every village has its +church, neat, though humble, lifting its spire to heaven. Here is a +situation apparently the most favorable to happiness. I say +_apparently_, for the greatest source of human misery is not in external +circumstances, but in men themselves--in their depraved inclinations, +their wayward passions and perverse wills. Here is room for all the +petty competition, the envy, hatred, malice and dissimulation that +torture the heart in what may be supposed the most sophisticated states +of society; and though less marked and offensive, there may be much of +the licentiousness. + +But apart from this, in such a condition of society, if there is little +suffering, there is little high enjoyment. The even flow of life forbids +the high excitement which is necessary for it. If there is little vice, +there is little place for the eminent virtues, which employ themselves +in controlling the disorders and remedying the evils of society, which, +like war and revolution, call forth the highest powers of man, whether +for good or for evil. If there is little misery, there is little room +for benevolence. Useful public institutions we may suppose to be +created, but not such as are merely ornamental. Elegant arts can be +little cultivated, for there are no means to reward the artists; nor the +higher literature, for no one will have leisure or means to cultivate it +for its own sake. Those who acquire what may be called liberal +education, will do so in order to employ it as the means of their own +subsistence or advancement in a profession, and literature itself will +partake of the sordidness of trade. In short, it is plain that in such a +state of society, the moral and intellectual faculties cannot be +cultivated to their highest perfection. + +But whether that which I have described be the most desirable state of +society or no, it is certain that it can not continue. Mutation and +progress is the condition of human affairs. Though retarded for a time +by extraneous or accidental circumstances, the wheel must roll on. The +tendency of population is to become crowded, increasing the difficulty +of obtaining subsistence. There will be some without any property except +the capacity for labor. This they must sell to those who have the means +of employing them, thereby swelling the amount of their capital, and +increasing inequality. The process still goes on. The number of laborers +increases until there is a difficulty in obtaining employment. Then +competition is established. The remuneration of the laborer becomes +gradually less and less; a larger and larger proportion of the product +of his labor goes to swell the fortune of the capitalist; inequality +becomes still greater and more invidious, until the process ends in the +establishment of just such a state of things, as the same author +describes as now existing in England. After a most imposing picture of +her greatness and resources; of her superabounding capital, and all +pervading industry and enterprise; of her public institutions for +purposes of art, learning and benevolence; her public improvements, by +which intercourse is facilitated, and the convenience of man subserved; +the conveniences and luxuries of life enjoyed by those who are in +possession of fortune, or have profitable employments; of all, in short, +that places her at the head of modern civilization, he proceeds to give +the reverse of the picture. And here I shall use his own words: "The +laboring class compose the bulk of the people; the great body of the +people; the vast majority of the people--these are the terms by which +English writers and speakers usually describe those whose only property +is their labor." + +"Of comprehensive words, the two most frequently used in English +politics, are distress and pauperism. After these, of expressions +applied to the state of the poor, the most common are vice and misery, +wretchedness, sufferings, ignorance, degradation, discontent, depravity, +drunkenness, and the increase of crime; with many more of the like +nature." + +He goes on to give the details of this inequality and wretchedness, in +terms calculated to sicken and appal one to whom the picture is new. +That he has painted strongly we may suppose; but there is ample +corroborating testimony, if such were needed, that the representation is +substantially just. Where so much misery exists, there must of course be +much discontent, and many have been disposed to trace the sources of the +former in vicious legislation, or the structure of government; and the +author gives the various schemes, sometimes contradictory, sometimes +ludicrous, which projectors have devised as a remedy for all this evil +to which flesh is heir. That ill-judged legislation may have sometimes +aggravated the general suffering, or that its extremity may be mitigated +by the well-directed efforts of the wise and virtuous, there can be no +doubt. One purpose for which it has been permitted to exist is, that it +may call forth such efforts, and awaken powers and virtues which would +otherwise have slumbered for want of object. But remedy there is none, +unless it be to abandon their civilization. This inequality, this vice, +this misery, this _slavery_, is the price of England's civilization. +They suffer the lot of humanity. But perhaps we may be permitted humbly +to hope, that great, intense and widely spread as this misery +undoubtedly is in reality, it may yet be less so than in appearance. We +can estimate but very, very imperfectly the good and evil of individual +condition, as of different states of society. Some unexpected solace +arises to alleviate the severest calamity. Wonderful is the power of +custom, in making the hardest condition tolerable; the most generally +wretched life has circumstances of mitigation, and moments of vivid +enjoyment, of which the more seemingly happy can scarcely conceive; +though the lives of individuals be shortened, the aggregate of existence +is increased; even the various forms of death accelerated by want, +familiarized to the contemplation, like death to the soldier on the +field of battle, may become scarcely more formidable than what we are +accustomed to regard as nature's ordinary outlets of existence. If we +could perfectly analyze the enjoyments and sufferings of the most happy, +and the most miserable man, we should perhaps be startled to find the +difference so much less than our previous impressions had led us to +conceive. But it is not for us to assume the province of omniscience. +The particular theory of the author quoted, seems to be founded on an +assumption of this sort--that there is a certain stage in the progress, +when there is a certain balance between the demand for labor, and the +supply of it, which is more desirable than any other--when the territory +is so thickly peopled that all can not own land and cultivate the soil +for themselves, but a portion will be compelled to sell their labor to +others; still leaving, however, the wages of labor high, and the laborer +independent. It is plain, however, that this would in like manner +partake of the good and the evil of other states of society. There would +be less of equality and less rudeness, than in the early stages; less +civilization, and less suffering, than in the latter. + +It is the competition for employment, which is the source of this misery +of society, that gives rise to all excellence in art and knowledge. When +the demand for labor exceeds the supply, the services of the most +ordinarily qualified laborer will be eagerly retained. When the supply +begins to exceed, and competition is established, higher and higher +qualifications will be required, until at length when it becomes very +intense, none but the most consummately skillful can be sure to be +employed. Nothing but necessity can drive men to the exertions which are +necessary so to qualify themselves. But it is not in arts, merely +mechanical alone, that this superior excellence will be required. It +will be extended to every intellectual employment; and though this may +not be the effect in the instance of every individual, yet it will fix +the habits and character of the society, and prescribe everywhere, and +in every department, the highest possible standard of attainment. + +But how is it that the existence of slavery, as with us, will retard the +evils of civilization? Very obviously. It is the intense competition of +civilized life, that gives rise to the excessive cheapness of labor, and +the excessive cheapness of labor is the cause of the evils in question. +Slave labor can never be so cheap as what is called free labor. +Political economists have established as the natural standard of wages +in a fully peopled country, the value of the laborer's existence. I +shall not stop to inquire into the precise truth of this proposition. It +certainly approximates the truth. Where competition is intense, men will +labor for a bare subsistence, and less than a competent subsistence. The +employer of free laborers obtains their services during the time of +their health and vigor, without the charge of rearing them from infancy, +or supporting them in sickness or old age. This charge is imposed on the +employer of slave labor, who, therefore, pays higher wages, and cuts off +the principal source of misery--the wants and sufferings of infancy, +sickness, and old age. Laborers too will be less skillful, and perform +less work--enhancing the price of that sort of labor. The poor laws of +England are an attempt--but an awkward and empirical attempt--to supply +the place of that which we should suppose the feelings of every human +heart would declare to be a natural obligation--that he who has received +the benefit of the laborer's services during his health and vigor, +should maintain him when he becomes unable to provide for his own +support. They answer their purpose, however, very imperfectly, and are +unjustly and unequally imposed. There is no attempt to apportion the +burden according to the benefit received--and perhaps there could be +none. This is one of the evils of their condition. + +In periods of commercial revulsion and distress, like the present, the +distress, in countries of free labor, falls principally on the laborers. +In those of slave labor, it falls almost exclusively on the employer. In +the former, when a business becomes unprofitable, the employer dismisses +his laborers or lowers their wages. But with us, it is the very period +at which we are least able to dismiss our laborers; and if we would not +suffer a further loss, we can not reduce their wages. To receive the +benefit of the services of which they are capable, we must provide for +maintaining their health and vigor. In point of fact, we know that this +is accounted among the necessary expenses of management. If the income +of every planter of the Southern States were permanently reduced +one-half, or even much more than that, it would not take one jot from +the support and comforts of the slaves. And this can never be materially +altered, until they shall become so unprofitable that slavery must be of +necessity abandoned. It is probable that the accumulation of individual +wealth will never be carried to quite so great an extent in a +slaveholding country, as in one of free labor; but a consequence will +be, that there will be less inequality and less suffering. + +_Servitude_ is the condition of civilization. It was decreed, when the +command was given, "be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, +and subdue it," and when it was added, "in the sweat of thy face shalt +thou eat bread." And what human being shall arrogate to himself the +authority to pronounce that our form of it is worse in itself, or more +displeasing to God, than that which exists elsewhere? Shall it be said +that the servitude of other countries grows out of the exigency of their +circumstances, and therefore society is not responsible for it? But if +we know that in the progress of things it is to come, would it not seem +the part of wisdom and foresight, to make provision for it, and thereby, +if we can, mitigate the severity of its evils? But the fact is not so. +Let any one who doubts, read the book to which I have several times +referred, and he may be satisfied that it was forced upon us by the +extremest exigency of circumstances, in a struggle for very existence. +Without it, it is doubtful whether a white man would be now existing on +this continent--certain, that if there were, they would be in a state of +the utmost destitution, weakness, and misery. It was forced on us by +necessity, and further fastened upon us by the superior authority of the +mother country. I, for one, neither deprecate nor resent the gift. Nor +did we institute slavery. The Africans brought to us had been, speaking +in the general, slaves in their own country, and only underwent a change +of masters. In the countries of Europe, and the States of our +Confederacy, in which slavery has ceased to exist, it was abolished by +positive legislation. If the order of nature has been departed from, and +a forced and artificial state of things introduced, it has been, as the +experience of all the world declares, by them and not by us. + +That there are great evils in a society where slavery exists, and that +the institution is liable to great abuse, I have already said. To say +otherwise, would be to say that they were not human. But the whole of +human life is a system of evils and compensations. We have no reason to +believe that the compensations with us are fewer, or smaller in +proportion to the evils, than those of any other condition of society. +Tell me of an evil or abuse; of an instance of cruelty, oppression, +licentiousness, crime or suffering, and I will point out, and often in +five fold degree, an equivalent evil or abuse in countries where slavery +does not exist. + +Let us examine without blenching, the actual and alleged evils of +slavery, and the array of horrors which many suppose to be its universal +concomitants. It is said that the slave is out of the protection of the +law; that if the law purports to protect him in life and limb, it is but +imperfectly executed; that he is still subject to excessive labor, +degrading blows, or any other sort of torture, which a master pampered +and brutalized by the exercise of arbitrary power, may think proper to +inflict; he is cut off from the opportunity of intellectual, moral, or +religious improvement, and even positive enactments are directed against +his acquiring the rudiments of knowledge; he is cut off forever from the +hope of raising his condition in society, whatever may be his merit, +talents, or virtues, and therefore deprived of the strongest incentive +to useful and praiseworthy exertion; his physical degradation begets a +corresponding moral degradation: he is without moral principle, and +addicted to the lowest vices, particularly theft and falsehood; if +marriage be not disallowed, it is little better than a state of +concubinage, from which results general licentiousness, and the want of +chastity among females--this indeed is not protected by law, but is +subject to the outrages of brutal lust; both sexes are liable to have +their dearest affections violated; to be sold like brutes; husbands to +be torn from wives, children from parents;--this is the picture commonly +presented by the denouncers of slavery. + +It is a somewhat singular fact that when there existed in our State no +law for punishing the murder of a slave, other than a pecuniary fine, +there were, I will venture to say, at least ten murders of freemen, for +one murder of a slave. Yet it is supposed they are all less protected, +or less secure than their masters. Why they are protected by their very +situation in society, and therefore less need the protection of law. +With any other person than their master, it is hardly possible for them +to come into such sort of collision as usually gives rise to furious and +revengeful passions; they offer no temptation to the murderer for gain; +against the master himself, they have the security of his own interest, +and by his superintendence and authority, they are protected from the +revengeful passions of each other. I am by no means sure that the cause +of humanity has been served by the change in jurisprudence, which has +placed their murder on the same footing with that of a freeman. The +change was made in subserviency to the opinions and clamor of others who +were utterly incompetent to form an opinion on the subject; and a wise +act is seldom the result of legislation in this spirit. From the fact +which I have stated, it is plain that they less need protection. Juries +are, therefore, less willing to convict, and it may sometimes happen +that the guilty will escape all punishment. _Security_ is one of the +compensations of their humble position. We challenge the comparison, +that with us there have been fewer murders of slaves, than of parents, +children, apprentices, and other murders, cruel and unnatural, in +society where slavery does not exist. + +But short of life or limb, various cruelties may be practiced as the +passions of the master may dictate. To this the same reply has been +often given--that they are secured by the master's interest. If the +state of slavey is to exist at all, the master must have, and ought to +have, such power of punishment as will compel them to perform the duties +of their station. And is not this for their advantage as well as his? No +human being can be contented, who does not perform the duties of his +station. Has the master any temptation to go beyond this? If he inflicts +on him such punishment as will permanently impair his strength, he +inflicts a loss on himself, and so if he requires of him excessive +labor. Compare the labor required of the slave, with those of the free +agricultural or manufacturing laborer in Europe, or even in the more +thickly peopled portions of the non-slaveholding States of our +Confederacy--though these last are no fair subjects of comparison--they +enjoying, as I have said, in a great degree, the advantages of slavery +along with those of an early and simple state of society. Read the +English Parliamentary reports, on the condition of the manufacturing +operatives, and the children employed in factories. And such is the +impotence of man to remedy the evils which the condition of his +existence has imposed on him, that it is much to be doubted whether the +attempts by legislation to improve their situation, will not aggravate +its evils. They resort to this excessive labor as a choice of evils. If +so, the amount of their compensation will be lessened also with the +diminished labor; for this is a matter which legislation can not +regulate. Is it the part of benevolence then to cut them off even from +this miserable liberty of choice? Yet would these evils exist in the +same degree, if the laborers were the _property_ of the master--having a +direct interest in preserving their lives, their health and strength? +Who but a driveling fanatic has thought of the necessity of protecting +domestic animals from the cruelty of their owners? And yet are not great +and wanton cruelties practiced on these animals? Compare the whole of +the cruelties inflicted on slaves throughout our Southern country, with +those elsewhere, inflicted by ignorant and depraved portions of the +community, on those whom the relations of society put into their +power--of brutal husbands on their wives; of brutal parents--subdued +against the strongest instincts of nature to that brutality by the +extremity of their misery--on their children; of brutal masters on +apprentices. And if it should be asked, are not similar cruelties +inflicted, and miseries endured, in your society? I answer, in no +comparable degree. The class in question are placed under the control of +others, who are interested to restrain their excesses of cruelty or +rage. Wives are protected from their husbands, and children from their +parents. And this is no inconsiderable compensation of the evils of our +system; and would so appear, if we could form any conception of the +immense amount of misery which is elsewhere thus inflicted. The other +class of society, more elevated in their position, are also (speaking of +course in the general) more elevated in character, and more responsible +to public opinion. + +But besides the interest of their master, there is another security +against cruelty. The relation of master and slave, when there is no +mischievous interference between them, is, as the experience of all the +world declares, naturally one of kindness. As to the fact, we should be +held interested witnesses, but we appeal to universal nature. Is it not +natural that a man should be attached to that which is _his own_, and +which has contributed to his convenience, his enjoyment, or his vanity? +This is felt even toward animals and inanimate objects. How much more +toward a being of superior intelligence and usefulness, who can +appreciate our feelings towards him, and return them? Is it not natural +that we should be interested in that which is dependent on us for +protection and support? Do not men everywhere contract kind feelings +toward their dependents? Is it not natural that men should be more +attached to those whom they have long known,--whom, perhaps, they have +reared or been associated with from infancy--than to one with whom their +connection has been casual and temporary? What is there in our +atmosphere or institutions, to produce a perversion of the general +feelings of nature? To be sure, in this as in all other relations, there +is frequent cause of offense or excitement--on one side, for some +omission of duty, on the other, on account of reproof or punishment +inflicted. But this is common to the relation of parent and child; and I +will venture to say, that if punishment be justly inflicted--and there +is no temptation to inflict it unjustly--it is as little likely to +occasion permanent estrangement or resentment as in that case. Slaves +are perpetual children. It is not the common nature of man, unless it be +depraved by his own misery, to delight in witnessing pain. It is more +grateful to behold contented and cheerful beings, than sullen and +wretched ones. That men are sometimes wayward, depraved and brutal, we +know. That atrocious and brutal cruelties have been perpetrated on +slaves, and on those who were not slaves, by such wretches, we also +know. But that the institution of slavery has a natural tendency to form +such a character, that such crimes are more common, or more aggravated +than in other states of society, or produce among us less surprise and +horror, we utterly deny, and challenge the comparison. Indeed, I have +little hesitation in saying, that if full evidence could be obtained, +the comparison would result in our favor, and that the tendency of +slavery is rather to humanize than to brutalize. + +The accounts of travelers in oriental countries, give a very favorable +representation of the kindly relations which exist between the master +and slave; the latter being often the friend, and sometimes the heir of +the former. Generally, however, especially if they be English +travelers--if they say any thing which may seem to give a favorable +complexion to slavery, they think it necessary to enter their protest, +that they shall not be taken to give any sanction to slavery as it +exists in America. Yet human nature is the same in all countries. There +are very obvious reasons why in those countries there should be a nearer +approach to equality in their manners. The master and slave are often of +cognate races, and therefore tend more to assimilate. There is, in fact, +less inequality in mind and character, where the master is but +imperfectly civilized. Less labor is exacted, because the master has +fewer motives to accumulate. But is it an injury to a human being, that +regular, if not excessive labor, should be required of him? The primeval +curse, with the usual benignity of providential contrivance, has been +turned into the solace of an existence that would be much more +intolerable without it. If they labor less, they are much more subject +to the outrages of capricious passions. If it were put to the choice of +any human being, would he prefer to be the slave of a civilized man, or +of a barbarian or semi-barbarian? But if the general tendency of the +institution in those countries is to create kindly relations, can it be +imagined why it should operate differently in this? It is true, as +suggested by President Dew--with the exception of the ties of close +consanguinity, it forms one of the most intimate relations of society. +And it will be more and more so, the longer it continues to exist. The +harshest features of slavery were created by those who were strangers to +slavery--who supposed that it consisted in keeping savages in subjection +by violence and terror. The severest laws to be found on our statute +book, were enacted by such, and such are still found to be the severest +masters. As society becomes settled, and the wandering habits of our +countrymen altered, there will be a larger and larger proportion of +those who were reared by the owner, or derived to him from his +ancestors, and who therefore will be more and more intimately regarded, +as forming a portion of his family. + +It is true that the slave is driven to labor by stripes; and if the +object of punishment be to produce obedience or reformation, with the +least permanent injury, it is the best method of punishment. But is it +not intolerable, that a being formed in the image of his Maker, should +be degraded by _blows_? This is one of the perversions of mind and +feeling, to which I shall have occasion again to refer. Such punishment +would be degrading to a freeman, who had the thoughts and aspirations of +a freeman. In general, it is not degrading to a slave, nor is it felt +to be so. The evil is the bodily pain. Is it degrading to a child? Or if +in any particular instance it would be so felt, it is sure not to be +inflicted--unless in those rare cases which constitute the startling and +eccentric evils, from which no society is exempt, and against which no +institution of society can provide. + +_The slave is cut off from the means of intellectual, moral, and +religious improvement, and in consequence his moral character becomes +depraved, and he addicted to degrading vices._ The slave receives such +instruction as qualifies him to discharge the duties of his particular +station. The Creator did not intend that every individual human being +should be highly cultivated, morally and intellectually, for, as we have +seen, he has imposed conditions on society which would render this +impossible. There must be general mediocrity, or the highest cultivation +must exist along with ignorance, vice, and degradation. But is there in +the aggregate of society, less opportunity for intellectual and moral +cultivation, on account of the existence of slavery? We must estimate +institutions from their aggregate of good or evil. I refer to the views +which I have before expressed to this society. It is by the existence of +slavery, exempting so large a portion of our citizens from the necessity +of bodily labor, that we have a greater proportion than any other +people, who have leisure for intellectual pursuits, and the means of +attaining a liberal education. If we throw away this opportunity, we +shall be morally responsible for the neglect or abuse of our advantages, +and shall most unquestionably pay the penalty. But the blame will rest +on ourselves, and not on the character of our institutions. + +I add further, notwithstanding that _equality_ seems to be the passion +of the day, if, as Providence has evidently decreed, there can be but a +certain portion of intellectual excellence in any community, it is +better that it should be _unequally_ divided. It is better that a part +should be fully and highly cultivated, and the rest utterly ignorant. To +constitute a society, a variety of offices must be discharged, from +those requiring but the lowest degree of intellectual power, to those +requiring the very highest, and it should seem that the endowments ought +to be apportioned according to the exigencies of the situation. In the +course of human affairs, there arise difficulties which can only be +comprehended or surmounted by the strongest native power of intellect, +strengthened by the most assiduous exercise, and enriched with the most +extended knowledge--and even these are sometimes found inadequate to the +exigency. The first want of society is--leaders. Who shall estimate the +value to Athens, of Solon, Aristides, Themistocles, Cymon, or Pericles? +If society have not leaders qualified, as I have said, they will have +those who will lead them blindly to their loss and ruin. Men of no great +native power of intellect, and of imperfect and superficial knowledge, +are the most mischievous of all--none are so busy, meddling, confident, +presumptuous, and intolerant. The whole of society receives the benefit +of the exertions of a mind of extraordinary endowments. Of all +communities, one of the least desirable, would be that in which +imperfect, superficial, half-education should be universal. The first +care of a State which regards its own safety, prosperity, and honor, +should be, that when minds of extraordinary power appear, to whatever +department of knowledge, art or science, their exertions may be +directed, the means should be provided for their most consummate +cultivation. Next to this, that education should be as widely extended +as possible. + +Odium has been cast upon our legislation, on account of its forbidding +the elements of education to be communicated to slaves. But, in truth, +what injury is done to them by this? He who works during the day with +his hands, does not read in intervals of leisure for his amusement, or +the improvement of his mind--or the exceptions are so very rare, as +scarcely to need the being provided for. Of the many slaves whom I have +known capable of reading, I have never known one to read any thing but +the Bible, and this task they impose on themselves as matter of duty. Of +all methods of religious instruction, however, this, of reading for +themselves, would be the most inefficient--their comprehension is +defective, and the employment is to them an unusual and laborious one. +There are but very few who do not enjoy other means more effectual for +religious instruction. There is no place of worship opened for the white +population, from which they are excluded. I believe it a mistake, to say +that the instructions there given are not adapted to their +comprehension, or calculated to improve them. If they are given as they +ought to be--practically, and without pretension, and are such as are +generally intelligible to the free part of the audience, comprehending +all grades of intellectual capacity,--they will not be unintelligible to +slaves. I doubt whether this be not better than instruction, addressed +specially to themselves--which they might look upon as a devise of the +master's, to make them more obedient and profitable to himself. Their +minds, generally, show a strong religious tendency, and they are fond of +assuming the office of religious instructors to each other; and perhaps +their religious notions are not much more extravagant than those of a +large portion of the free population of our country. I am not sure that +there is a much smaller proportion of them, than of the free population, +who make some sort of religious profession. It is certainly the master's +_interest_ that they should have proper religious sentiments, and if he +fails in his duty toward them, we may be sure that the consequences will +be visited not upon them, but upon him. + +If there were any chance of their elevating their rank and condition in +society, it might be matter of hardship, that they should be debarred +those rudiments of knowledge which open the way to further attainments. +But this they know can not be, and that further attainments would be +useless to them. Of the evil of this, I shall speak hereafter. A +knowledge of reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic, is +convenient and important to the free laborer, who is the transactor of +his own affairs, and the guardian of his own interests--but of what use +would they be to the slave? These alone do not elevate the mind or +character, if such elevation were desirable. + +If we estimate their morals according to that which should be the +standard of a free man's morality, then I grant they are degraded in +morals--though by no means to the extent which those who are +unacquainted with the institution seem to suppose. We justly suppose, +that the Creator will require of man the performance of the duties of +the station in which his providence has placed him, and the cultivation +of the virtues which are adapted to their performance; that he will make +allowance for all imperfection of knowledge, and the absence of the +usual helps and motives which lead to self-correction and improvement. +The degradation of morals relate principally to loose notions of +honesty, leading to petty thefts; to falsehood and to licentious +intercourse between the sexes. Though with respect even to these, I +protest against the opinion which seems to be elsewhere entertained, +that they are universal, or that slaves, in respect to them, might not +well bear a comparison with the lowest laborious class of other +countries. But certainly there is much dishonesty leading to petty +thefts. It leads, however, to nothing else. They have no contracts or +dealings which might be a temptation to fraud, nor do I know that their +characters have any tendency that way. They are restrained by the +constant, vigilant, and interested superintendence which is exercised +over them, from the commission of offenses of greater magnitude--even if +they were disposed to them--which I am satisfied they are not. Nothing +is so rarely heard of, as an atrocious crime committed by a slave; +especially since they have worn off the savage character which their +progenitors brought with them from Africa. Their offenses are confined +to petty depredations, principally for the gratification of their +appetites, and these for reasons already given, are chiefly confined to +the property of their owner, which is most exposed to them. They could +make no use of a considerable booty, if they should obtain it. It is +plain that this is a less evil to society in its consequences and +example, than if committed by a freeman, who is master of his own time +and actions. With reference to society then, the offense is less in +itself--and may we not hope that it is less in the sight of God? A slave +has no hope that by a course of integrity, he can materially elevate his +condition in society, nor can his offense materially depress it, or +affect his means of support, or that of his family. Compared to the +freeman, he has no character to establish or to lose. He has not been +exercised to self-government, and being without intellectual resources, +can less resist the solicitations of appetite. Theft in a freeman is a +crime; in a slave, it is a vice. I recollect to have heard it said, in +reference to some question of a slave's theft which was agitated in a +Court, "Courts of Justice have no more to do with a slave's stealing, +than with his lying--that is a matter for the domestic forum." It was +truly said--the theft of a slave is no offense against society. Compare +all the evils resulting from this, with the enormous amount of vice, +crime, and depravity, which in an European, or one of our Northern +cities, disgusts the moral feelings, and render life and property +insecure. So with respect to his falsehood. I have never heard or +observed, that slaves have any peculiar proclivity to falsehood, unless +it be in denying or concealing their own offenses, or those of their +fellows. I have never heard of falsehood told by a slave for a +malicious purpose. Lies of vanity are sometimes told, as among the weak +and ignorant of other conditions. Falsehood is not attributed to an +individual charged with an offense before a Court of Justice, who pleads +_not guilty_--and certainly the strong temptation to escape punishment, +in the highest degree extenuates, if it does not excuse, falsehood told +by a _slave_. If the object be to screen a a fellow slave, the act bears +some semblance of fidelity, and perhaps truth could not be told without +breach of confidence. I know not how to characterize the falsehood of a +slave. + +It has often been said by the denouncers of slavery, that marriage does +not exist among slaves. It is difficult to understand this, unless +willful falsehood were intended. We know that marriages are contracted; +may be, and often are, solemnized with the forms usual among other +classes of society, and often faithfully adhered to during life. The law +has not provided for making those marriages indissoluble, nor could it +do so. If a man abandons his wife, being without property, and being +both property themselves, he cannot be required to maintain her. If he +abandons his wife, and lives in a state of concubinage with another, the +law cannot punish him for bigamy. It may perhaps be meant that the +chastity of wives is not protected by law from the outrages of violence. +I answer, as with respect to their lives, that they are protected by +manners, and their position. Who ever heard of such outrages being +offered? At least as seldom, I will venture to say, as in other +communities of different forms of polity. One reason doubtless may be, +that often there is no disposition to resist. Another reason also may +be, that there is little temptation to such violence, as there is so +large a proportion of this class of females who set little value on +chastity, and afford easy gratification to the hot passions of men. It +might be supposed, from the representations of some writers, that a +slaveholding country was one wide stew for the indulgence of unbridled +lust. Particular instances of intemperate and shameless debauchery are +related, which may perhaps be true, and it is left to be inferred that +this is the universal state of manners. Brutes and shameless debauchees +there are in every country; we know that if such things are related as +general or characteristic, the representation is false. Who would argue +from the existence of a Col. Chartres in England, or of some individuals +who might, perhaps, be named in other portions of this country, of the +horrid dissoluteness of manners occasioned by the want of the +institution of slavery? Yet the argument might be urged quite as fairly, +and really it seems to me with a little more justice--for there such +depravity is attended with much more pernicious consequences. Yet let us +not deny or extenuate the truth. It is true that in this respect the +morals of this class are very loose, (by no means so universally so as +is often supposed,) and that the passions of men of the superior caste, +tempt and find gratification in the easy chastity of the females. This +is evil, and to be remedied, if we can do so, without the introduction +of greater evil. But evil is incident to every condition of society, and +as I have said, we have only to consider in which institution it most +predominates. + +Compare these prostitutes of our country, (if it is not injustice to +call them so,) and their condition with those of other countries--the +seventy thousand prostitutes of London, or of Paris, or the ten thousand +of New York, or our other Northern cities. Take the picture given of the +first from the author whom I have before quoted. "The laws and customs +of England conspire to sink this class of English women into a state of +vice and misery below that which necessarily belongs to their condition. +Hence their extreme degradation, their troopers' oaths, their love of +gin, their desperate recklessness, and the shortness of their miserable +lives. + +"English women of this class, or rather girls, for few of them live to +be women, die like sheep with the rot; so fast that soon there would be +none left, if a fresh supply were not obtained equal to the number of +deaths. But a fresh supply is always obtained without the least trouble; +seduction easily keeps pace with prostitution or mortality. Those that +die are, like factory children that die, instantly succeeded by new +competitors for misery and death." There is no hour of a summer's or a +winter's night, in which there may not be found in the streets a ghastly +wretch, expiring under the double tortures of disease and famine. Though +less aggravated in its features, the picture of prostitution in New York +or Philadelphia would be of like character. + +In such communities, the unmarried woman who becomes a mother, is an +outcast from society--and though sentimentalists lament the hardship of +the case, it is justly and necessarily so. She is cut off from the hope +of useful and profitable employment, and driven by necessity to further +vice. Her misery, and the hopelessness of retrieving, render her +desperate, until she sinks into every depth of depravity, and is +prepared for every crime that can contaminate and infest society. She +has given birth to a human being, who, if it be so unfortunate as to +survive its miserable infancy, is commonly educated to a like course of +vice, depravity, and crime. + +Compare with this the female slave under similar circumstances. She is +not a less useful member of society than before. If shame be attached to +her conduct, it is such shame as would be elsewhere felt for a venial +impropriety. She has not impaired her means of support, nor materially +impaired her character, or lowered her station in society; she has done +no great injury to herself, or any other human being. Her offspring is +not a burden but an acquisition to her owner; his support is provided +for, and he is brought up to usefulness; if the fruit of intercourse +with a freeman, his condition is, perhaps, raised somewhat above that of +his mother. Under these circumstances, with imperfect knowledge, tempted +by the strongest of human passions--unrestrained by the motives which +operate to restrain, but are so often found insufficient to restrain the +conduct of females elsewhere, can it be matter of surprise that she +should so often yield to the temptation? Is not the evil less in itself, +and in reference to society--much less in the sight of God and man? As +was said of theft--the want of chastity, which among females of other +countries is sometimes vice, sometimes crime--among the free of our own, +much more aggravated; among slaves, hardly deserves a harsher term than +that of weakness. I have heard of complaint made by a free prostitute, +of the greater countenance and indulgence shown by society toward +colored persons of her profession, (always regarded as of an inferior +and servile class, though individually free,) than to those of her own +complexion. The former readily obtain employment; are even admitted into +families, and treated with some degree of kindness and familiarity, +while any approach to intercourse with the latter is shunned as +contamination. The distinction is habitually made, and it is founded on +the unerring instinct of nature. The colored prostitute is, in fact, a +far less contaminated and depraved being. Still many, in spite of +temptation, do preserve a perfectly virtuous conduct, and I imagine it +hardly ever entered into the mind of one of these, that she was likely +to be forced from it by authority or violence. + +It may be asked, if we have no prostitutes from the free class of +society among ourselves. I answer, in no assignable proportion. With +general truth, it might be said, that there are none. When such a case +occurs, it is among the rare evils of society. And apart from other and +better reasons, which we believe to exist, it is plain that it must be +so, from the comparative absence of temptation. Our brothels, +comparatively very few--and these should not be permitted to exist at +all--are filled, for the most part, by importations from the cities of +our confederate States, where slavery does not exist. In return for the +benefits which they receive from our slavery, along with tariffs, +libels, opinions, moral, religious, or political--they furnish us also +with a supply of thieves and prostitutes. Never, but in a single +instance, have I heard of an imputation on the general purity of +manners, among the free females of the slaveholding States. Such an +imputation, however, and made in coarse terms, we have never heard +here--_here_ where divorce was never known--where no court was ever +polluted by an action for criminal conversation with a wife--where it is +related rather as matter of tradition, not unmingled with wonder, that a +Carolinian woman of education and family, proved false to her conjugal +faith--an imputation deserving only of such reply as self-respect would +forbid us to give, if respect for the author of it did not. And can it +be doubted, that this purity is caused by, and is a compensation for the +evils resulting from the existence of an enslaved class of more relaxed +morals? + +It is mostly the warm passions of youth, which give rise to licentious +intercourse. But I do not hesitate to say, that the intercourse which +takes place with enslaved females, is less depraving in its effects, +than when it is carried on with females of their own caste. In the first +place, as like attracts like, that which is unlike repels; and though +the strength of passion be sufficient to overcome the repulsion, still +the attraction is less. He feels that he is connecting himself with one +of an inferior and servile caste, and that there is something of +degradation in the act. The intercourse is generally casual; he does not +make her habitually an associate, and is less likely to receive any +taint from her habits and manners. He is less liable to those +extraordinary fascinations, with which worthless women sometimes +entangle their victims, to the utter destruction of all principle, worth +and vigor of character. The female of his own race offers greater +allurements. The haunts of vice often present a show of elegance, and +various luxury tempts the senses. They are made an habitual resort, and +their inmates associates, till the general character receives a taint +from the corrupted atmosphere. Not only the practice is licentious, but +the understanding is sophisticated; the moral feelings are bewildered, +and the boundaries of virtue and vice are confused. Where such +licentiousness very extensively prevails, society is rotten to the +heart. + +But is it a small compensation for the evils attending the relation of +the sexes among the enslaved class, that they have universally the +opportunity of indulging in the first instinct of nature, by forming +matrimonial connections? What painful restraint--what constant effort to +struggle against the strongest impulses are habitually practiced +elsewhere, and by other classes? And they must be practiced, unless +greater evils would be encountered. On the one side, all the evils of +vice, with the miseries to which it leads--on the other, a marriage +cursed and made hateful by want--the sufferings of children, and +agonizing apprehensions concerning their future fate. Is it a small good +that the slave is free from all this? He knows that his own subsistance +is secure, and that his children will be in as good a condition as +himself. To a refined and intellectual nature, it may not be difficult +to practice the restraint of which I have spoken. But the reasoning from +such to the great mass of mankind, is most fallacious. To these, the +supply of their natural and physical wants, and the indulgence of the +natural domestic affections, must, for the most part, afford the +greatest good of which they are capable. To the evils which sometimes +attend their matrimonial connections, arising from their looser +morality, slaves, for obvious reasons, are comparatively insensible. I +am no apologist of vice, nor would I extenuate the conduct of the +profligate and unfeeling, who would violate the sanctity of even these +engagements, and occasion the pain which such violations no doubt do +often inflict. Yet such is the truth, and we can not make it otherwise. +We know that a woman's having been before a mother, is very seldom +indeed an objection to her being made a wife. I know perfectly well how +this will be regarded by a class of reasoners or declaimers, as imposing +a character of deeper horror on the whole system; but still, I will say, +that if they are to be exposed to the evil, it is mercy that the +sensibility to it should be blunted. Is it no compensation also for the +vices incident to slavery, that they are, to a great degree, secured +against the temptation to greater crimes, and more atrocious vices, and +the miseries which attend them; against their own disposition to +indolence, and the profligacy which is its common result? + +But if they are subject to the vices, they have also the virtues of +slaves. Fidelity--often proof against all temptation--even death +itself--an eminently cheerful and social temper--what the Bible imposes +as a duty, but which might seem an equivocal virtue in the code of +modern morality--submission to constituted authority, and a disposition +to be attached to, as well as to respect those, whom they are taught to +regard as superiors. They may have all the knowledge which will make +them useful in the station in which God has been pleased to place them, +and may cultivate the virtues which will render them acceptable to him. +But what has the slave of any country to do with heroic virtues, liberal +knowledge, or elegant accomplishments? It is for the master; arising out +of his situation--imposed on him as duty--dangerous and disgraceful if +neglected--to compensate for this, by his own more assidious +cultivation, of the more generous virtues, and liberal attainments. + +It has been supposed one of the great evils of slavery, that it affords +the slave no opportunity of raising himself to a higher rank in society, +and that he has, therefore, no inducement to meritorious exertion, or +the cultivation of his faculties. The indolence and carelessnes of the +slave, and the less productive quality of his neighbor, are traced to +the want of such excitement. The first compensation for this +disadvantage, is his security. If he can rise no higher, he is just in +the same degree secured against the chances of falling lower. It has +been sometimes made a question whether it were better for man to be +freed from the perturbations of hope and fear, or to be exposed to their +vicissitudes. But I suppose there could be little question with respect +to a situation, in which the fears must greatly predominate over the +hopes. And such, I apprehend, to be the condition of the laboring poor +in countries where slavery does not exist. If not exposed to present +suffering, there is continual apprehension for the future--for +themselves--for their children--of sickness and want, if not of actual +starvation. They expect to improve their circumstances! Would any person +of ordinary candor, say that there is one in a hundred of them, who +does not well know, that with all the exertion he can make, it is out of +his power materially to improve his circumstances? I speak not so much +of menial servants, who are generally of a superior class, as of +agricultural and manufacturing laborers. They labor with no such view. +It is the instinctive struggle to preserve existence, and when the +superior efficiency of their labor over that of our slaves is pointed +out, as being animated by a free man's hopes, might it not well be +replied--it is because they labor under a sterner compulsion. The laws +interpose no obstacles to their raising their condition in society. 'Tis +a great boon--but as to the great mass, they know that they never will +be able to raise it--and it should seem not very important in effect, +whether it be the interdict of law, or imposed by the circumstances of +the society. One in a thousand is successful. But does his success +compensate for the sufferings of the many who are tantalized, baffled, +and tortured in vain attempts to attain a like result? If the individual +be conscious of intellectual power, the suffering is greater. Even where +success is apparently attained, he sometimes gains it but to die--or +with all capacity to enjoy it exhausted--worn out in the struggle with +fortune. If it be true that the African is an inferior variety of the +human race, of less elevated character, and more limited intellect, is +it not desirable that the inferior laboring class should be made up of +such, who will conform to their condition without painful aspirations +and vain struggles? + +The slave is certainly liable to be sold. But, perhaps, it may be +questioned, whether this is a greater evil than the liability of the +laborer, in fully peopled countries, to be dismissed by his employer, +with the uncertainty of being able to obtain employment, or the means of +subsistence elsewhere. With us, the employer can not dismiss his laborer +without providing him with another employer. His means of subsistence +are secure, and this is a compensation for much. He is also liable to be +separated from wife and child--though not more frequently, that I am +aware of, than the exigency of their condition compels the separation of +families among the labering poor elsewhere--but from native character +and temperament, the separation is much less severely felt. And it is +one of the compensations, that he may sustain these relations, without +suffering a still severer penalty for the indulgence. + +The love of liberty is a noble passion--to have the free, uncontrolled +disposition of ourselves, our words and actions. But alas! it is one in +which we know that a large portion of the human race can never be +gratified. It is mockery, to say that the laborer any where has such +disposition of himself--though there may be an approach to it in some +peculiar, and those, perhaps, not the most desirable, states of society. +But unless he be properly disciplined and prepared for its enjoyment, it +is the most fatal boon that could be conferred--fatal to himself and +others. If slaves have less freedom of action than other laborers, which +I by no means admit, they are saved in a great degree from the +responsibility of self-government, and the evils springing from their +own perverse wills. Those who have looked most closely into life, and +know how great a portion of human misery is derived from these +sources--the undecided and wavering purpose--producing ineffectual +exertion, or indolence with its thousand attendant evils--the wayward +conduct--intemperance or profligacy--will most appreciate this benefit. +The line of a slave's duty is marked out with precision, and he has no +choice but to follow it. He is saved the double difficulty, first of +determining the proper course for himself, and then of summoning up the +energy which will sustain him in pursuing it. + +If some superior power should impose on the laborious poor of any other +country--this as their unalterable condition--you shall be saved from +the torturing anxiety concerning your own future support, and that of +your children, which now pursues you through life, and haunts you in +death--you shall be under the necessity of regular and healthful, though +not excessive labor--in return, you shall have the ample supply of your +natural wants--you may follow the instinct of nature in becoming +parents, without apprehending that this supply will fail yourselves or +your children--you shall be supported and relieved in sickness, and in +old age, wear out the remains of existence among familiar scenes and +accustomed associates, without being driven to beg, or to resort to the +hard and miserable charity of a work-house--you shall of necessity be +temperate, and shall have neither the temptation nor opportunity to +commit great crimes, or practice the more destructive vices--how +inappreciable would the boon be thought! And is not this a very near +approach to the condition of our slaves? The evils of their situation +they but lightly feel, and would hardly feel at all, if they were not +seduously instructed into sensibility. Certain it is, that if their fate +were at the absolute disposal of a council of the most enlightened +philanthropists in Christendom, with unlimited resources, they could +place them in no situation so favorable to themselves, as that which +they at present occupy. But whatever good there may be, or whatever +mitigation of evil, it is worse than valueless, because it is the result +of _slavery_. + +I am aware, that however often answered, it is likely to be repeated +again and again--how can that institution be tolerable, by which a large +class of society is cut off from the hope of improvement in knowledge; +to whom blows are not degrading; theft no more than a fault; falsehood +and the want of chastity almost venial, and in which a husband or parent +looks with comparative indifference, on that which, to a freeman, would +be the dishonor of a wife or child? + +But why not, if it produces the greatest aggregate of good? Sin and +ignorance are only evils, because they lead to misery. It is not our +institution, but the institution of nature, that in the progress of +society a portion of it should be exposed to want, and the misery which +it brings, and therefore involved in ignorance, vice, and depravity. In +anticipating some of the good, we also anticipate a portion of the evil +of civilization. But we have it in a mitigated form. The want and the +misery are unknown; the ignorance is less a misfortune, because the +being is not the guardian of himself, and partly on account of that +involuntary ignorance, the vice is less vice--less hurtful to man, and +less displeasing to God. + +There is something in this word _slavery_ which seems to partake of the +qualities of the insane root, and distempers the minds of men. That +which would be true in relation to one predicament, they misapply to +another, to which it has no application at all. Some of the virtues of a +freeman would be the vices of slaves. To submit to a blow, would be +degrading to a freeman, because he is the protector of himself. It is +not degrading to a slave--neither is it to a priest or woman. And is it +a misfortune that it should be so? The freeman of other countries is +compelled to submit to indignities hardly more endurable than +blows--indignities to make the sensitive feelings shrink, and the proud +heart swell; and this very name of freeman gives them double rancor. If +when a man is born in Europe, it were certainly foreseen that he was +destined to a life of painful labor--to obscurity, contempt, and +privation--would it not be mercy that he should be reared in ignorance +and apathy, and trained to the endurance of the evils he must encounter? +It is not certainly foreseen as to any individual, but it is foreseen as +to the great mass of those born of the laboring poor; and it is for the +mass, not for the exception, that the institutions of society are to +provide. Is it not better that the character and intellect of the +individual should be suited to the station which he is to occupy? Would +you do a benefit to the horse or the ox, by giving him a cultivated +understanding or fine feelings? So far as the mere laborer has the +pride, the knowledge, or the aspirations of a freeman, he is unfitted +for his situation, and must doubly feel its infelicity. If there are +sordid, servile, and laborious offices to be performed, is it not better +that there should be sordid, servile, and laborious beings to perform +them? If there were infallible marks by which individuals of inferior +intellect, and inferior character, could be selected at their +birth--would not the interests of society be served, and would not some +sort of fitness seem to require, that they should be selected for the +inferior and servile offices? And if this race be generally marked by +such inferiority, is it not fit that they should fill them? + +I am well aware that those whose aspirations are after a state of +society from which evil shall be banished, and who look in life for that +which life will never afford, contemplate that all the offices of life +may be performed without contempt or degradation--all be regarded as +equally liberal, or equally respected.[238] But theorists cannot control +nature and bend her to their views, and the inequality of which I have +before spoken is deeply founded in nature. The offices which employ +knowledge and intellect, will always be regarded as more liberal than +those which require the labor of the hands. When there is competition +for employment, he who gives it bestows a favor, and it will be so +received. He will assume superiority from the power of dismissing his +laborers, and from fear of this, the latter will practice deference, +often amounting to servility. Such in time will become the established +relation between the employer and the employed, the rich and the poor. +If want be accompanied with sordidness and squalor, though it be +pitied, the pity will be mixed with some degree of contempt. If it lead +to misery, and misery to vice, there will be disgust and aversion. + +What is the essential character of _slavery_, and in what does it differ +from the _servitude_ of other countries? If I should venture on a +definition, I should say that where a man is compelled to labor at the +will of another, and to give him much the greater portion of the product +of his labor, there _slavery_ exists; and it is immaterial by what sort +of compulsion the will of the laborer is subdued. It is what no human +being would do without some sort of compulsion. He can not be compelled +to labor by blows.[239] No--but what difference does it make, if you can +inflict any other sort of torture which will be equally effectual in +subduing the will? if you can starve him, or alarm him for the +subsistence of himself or his family?[240] And is it not under this +compulsion that the _freeman_ labors? I do not mean in every particular +case, but in the general. Will any one be hardy enough to say that he is +at his own disposal, or has the government of himself? True, he may +change his employer if he is dissatisfied with his conduct toward him; +but this is a privilege he would in the majority of cases gladly +abandon, and render the connection between them indissoluble. There is +far less of the interest and attachment in his relation to his employer, +which so often exists between the master and the slave, and mitigates +the condition of the latter. An intelligent English traveler has +characterized as the most miserable and degraded of all beings, "a +masterless slave." And is not the condition of the laboring poor of +other countries too often that of masterless slaves! Take the following +description of a _free_ laborer, no doubt highly colored, quoted by the +author to whom I have before referred. + +"What is that defective being, with calfless legs and stooping +shoulders, weak in body and mind, inert, pusillanimous and stupid, whose +premature wrinkles and furtive glance, tell of misery and degradation? +That is an English peasant or pauper, for the words are synonymous. His +sire was a pauper, and his mother's milk wanted nourishment. From +infancy his food has been bad, as well as insufficient; and he now feels +the pains of unsatisfied hunger nearly whenever he is awake. But half +clothed, and never supplied with more warmth than suffices to cook his +scanty meals, cold and wet come to him, and stay by him with the +weather. He is married, of course; for to this he would have been driven +by the poor laws, even if he had been, as he never was, sufficiently +comfortable and prudent to dread the burden of a family. But though +instinct and the overseer have given him a wife, he has not tasted the +highest joys of husband and father. His partner and his little ones +being like himself, often hungry, seldom warm, sometimes sick without +aid, and always sorrowful without hope, are greedy, selfish, and vexing; +so, to use his own expression, he hates the sight of them, and resorts +to his hovel, only because a hedge affords less shelter from the wind +and rain. Compelled by parish law to support his family, which means to +join them in consuming an allowance from the parish, he frequently +conspires with his wife to get that allowance increased, or prevent its +being diminished. This brings beggary, trickery, and quarrelling, and +ends in settled craft. Though he have the inclination, he wants the +courage to become, like more energetic men of his class, a poacher or +smuggler on a large scale, but he pilfers occasionally, and teaches his +children to lie and steal. His subdued and slavish manner toward his +great neighbors, shows that they treat him with suspicion and harshness. +Consequently, he at once dreads and hates them; but he will never harm +them by violent means. Too degraded to be desperate, he is only +thoroughly depraved. His miserable career will be short; rheumatism and +asthma are conducting him to the work-house; where he will breathe his +last without one pleasant recollection, and so make room for another +wretch, who may live and die in the same way." And this description, or +some other not much less revolting, is applied to "the bulk of the +people, the great body of the people." Take the following description of +the condition of childhood, which has justly been called eloquent.[241] + +"The children of the very poor have no young times; it makes the very +heart bleed, to overhear the casual street talk between a poor woman and +her little girl, a woman of the better sort of poor, in a condition +rather above the squalid beings we have been contemplating. It is not +of toys, of nursery books, of summer holidays, (fitting that age,) of +the promised sight or play; of praised sufficiency at school. It is of +mangling and clear starching; of price of coals, or of potatoes. The +questions of the child, that should be the very outpourings of curiosity +in idleness, are marked with forecast and melancholy providence. It has +come to be a woman, before it was a child. It has learnt to go to +market; it chaffers, it haggles, it envies, it murmurs; it is knowing, +acute, sharpened; it never prattles." Imagine such a description applied +to the children of negro slaves, the most vacant of human beings, whose +life is a holiday. + +And this people, to whom these horrors are familiar, are those who fill +the world with clamor, concerning the injustice and cruelty of slavery. +I speak in no invidious spirit. Neither the laws nor the government of +England are to be reproached with the evils which are inseparable from +the state of their society--as little, undoubtedly, are we to be +reproached with the existence of our slavery. Including the whole of the +United States--and for reasons already given, the whole ought to be +included, as receiving in no unequal degree the benefit--may we not say +justly that we have less slavery, and more mitigated slavery, than any +other country in the civilized world? + +That they are called free, undoubtedly aggravates the sufferings of the +slaves of other regions. They see the enormous inequality which exists, +and feel their own misery, and can hardly conceive otherwise, than that +there is some injustice in the institutions of society to occasion +these. They regard the apparently more fortunate class as oppressors, +and it adds bitterness that they should be of the same name and race. +They feel indignity more acutely, and more of discontent and evil +passion is excited; they feel that it is mockery that calls them free. +Men do not so much hate and envy those who are separated from them by a +wide distance, and some apparently impassable barrier, as those who +approach nearer to their own condition, and with whom they habitually +bring themselves into comparison. The slave with us is not tantalized +with the name of freedom, to which his whole condition gives the lie, +and would do so if he were emancipated to-morrow. The African slave sees +that nature herself has marked him as a separate--and if left to +himself, I have no doubt he would feel it to be an inferior--race, and +interposed a barrier almost insuperable to his becoming a member of the +same society, standing on the same footing of right and privilege with +his master. + +That the African negro is an inferior variety of the human race, is, I +think, now generally admitted, and his distinguishing characteristics +are such as peculiarly mark him out for the situation which he occupies +among us. And these are no less marked in their original country, than +as we have daily occasion to observe them. The most remarkable is their +indifference to personal liberty. In this they have followed their +instincts since we have any knowledge of their continent, by enslaving +each other; but contrary to the experience of every race, the possession +of slaves has no material effect in raising the character, and promoting +the civilization of the master. Another trait is the want of domestic +affections, and insensibility to the ties of kindred. In the travels of +the Landers, after speaking of a single exception, in the person of a +woman who betrayed some transient emotion in passing by the country from +which she had been torn as a slave, the authors add: "that Africans, +generally speaking, betray the most perfect indifference on losing their +liberty, and being deprived of their relatives, while love of country is +equally a stranger to their breasts, as social tenderness or domestic +affection." "Marriage is celebrated by the natives as unconcernedly as +possible; a man thinks as little of taking a wife, as of cutting an ear +of corn--affection is altogether out of the question." They are, +however, very submissive to authority, and seem to entertain great +reverence for chiefs, priests, and masters. No greater indignity can be +offered an individual, than to throw opprobrium on his parents. On this +point of their character I think I have remarked, that, contrary to the +instinct of nature in other races, they entertain less regard for +children than for parents, to whose authority they have been accustomed +to submit. Their character is thus summed up by the travellers quoted: +"The few opportunities we have had of studying their characters, induce +us to believe that they are a simple, honest, inoffensive, but weak, +timid, and cowardly race. They seem to have no social tenderness, very +few of those amiable private virtues which could win our affections, and +none of those public qualities that claim respect or command admiration. +The love of country is not strong enough in their bosoms to incite them +to defend it against a despicable foe; and of the active energy, noble +sentiments, and contempt of danger which distinguishes the North +American tribes and other savages, no traces are to be found among this +slothful people. Regardless of the past, as reckless of the future, the +present alone influences their actions. In this respect, they approach +nearer to the nature of the brute creation, than perhaps any other +people on the face of the globe." Let me ask if this people do not +furnish the very material out of which slaves ought to be made, and +whether it be not an improving of their condition to make them the +slaves of civilized masters? There is a variety in the character of the +tribes. Some are brutally and savagely ferocious and bloody, whom it +would be mercy to enslave. From the travelers' account, it seems not +unlikely that the negro race is tending to extermination, being daily +encroached on and overrun by the superior Arab race. It may be, that +when they shall have been lost from their native seats, they may be +found numerous, and in no unhappy condition, on the continent to which +they have been transplanted. + +The opinion which connects form and features with character and +intellectual power, is one so deeply impressed on the human mind, that +perhaps there is scarcely any man who does not almost daily act upon it, +and in some measure verify its truth. Yet in spite of this intimation of +nature, and though the anatomist and physiologist may tell them that the +races differ in every bone and muscle, and in the proportion of brain +and nerves, yet there are some who, with a most bigoted and fanatical +determination to free themselves from what they have prejudged to be +prejudice, will still maintain that this physiognomy, evidently tending +to that of the brute, when compared to that of the Caucasian race, may +be enlightened by as much thought, and animated by as lofty sentiment. +We who have the best opportunity of judging, are pronounced to be +incompetent to do so, and to be blinded by our interest and +prejudices--often by those who have no opportunity at all--and we are to +be taught to distrust or disbelieve that which we daily observe, and +familiarly know, on such authority. Our prejudices are spoken of. But +the truth is, that, until very lately, since circumstances have +compelled us to think for ourselves, we took our opinions on this +subject, as on every other, ready formed from the country of our origin. +And so deeply rooted were they, that we adhered to them, as most men +will do to deeply rooted opinions, even against the evidence of our own +observation, and our own senses. If the inferiority exists, it is +attributed to the apathy and degradation produced by slavery. Though of +the hundreds of thousand scattered over other countries, where the laws +impose no disability upon them, none has given evidence of an approach +to even mediocrity of intellectual excellence; this, too, is attributed +to the slavery of a portion of their race. They are regarded as a +servile caste, and degraded by opinion, and thus every generous effort +is repressed. Yet though this should be the general effect, this very +estimation is calculated to produce the contrary effect in particular +instances. It is observed by Bacon, with respect to deformed persons and +eunuchs, that though in general there is something of perversity in the +character, the disadvantage often leads to extraordinary displays of +virtue and excellence. "Whoever hath any thing fixed in his person that +doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself, to rescue +and deliver himself from scorn." So it would be with them, if they were +capable of European aspirations--genius, if they possessed it, would be +doubly fired with noble rage to rescue itself from this scorn. Of +course, I do not mean to say that there may not be found among them some +of superior capacity to many white persons; but that great intellectual +powers are, perhaps, never found among them, and that in general their +capacity is very limited, and their feelings animal and coarse--fitting +them peculiarly to discharge the lower, and merely mechanical offices of +society. + +And why should it not be so? We have among domestic animals infinite +varieties, distinguished by various degrees of sagacity, courage, +strength, swiftness, and other qualities. And it may be observed, that +this is no objection to their being derived from a common origin, which +we suppose them to have had. Yet these accidental qualities, as they may +be termed, however acquired in the first instance, we know that they +transmit unimpaired to their posterity for an indefinite succession of +generations. It is most important that these varieties should be +preserved, and that each should be applied to the purposes for which it +is best adapted. No philo-zoost, I believe, has suggested it as +desirable that these varieties should be melted down into one equal, +undistinguished race of curs or road horses. + +Slavery, as it is said in an eloquent article published in a Southern +periodical work,[242] to which I am indebted for other ideas, "has done +more to elevate a degraded race in the scale of humanity; to tame the +savage; to civilize the barbarous; to soften the ferocious; to enlighten +the ignorant, and to spread the blessings of Christianity among the +heathen, than all the missionaries that philanthropy and religion have +ever sent forth."[243] Yet unquestionable as this is, and though human +ingenuity and thought may be tasked in vain to devise any other means by +which these blessings could have been conferred, yet a sort of +sensibility which would be only mawkish and contemptible, if it were not +mischievous, affects still to weep over the wrongs of "injured Africa." +Can there be a doubt of the immense benefit which has been conferred on +the race, by transplanting them from their native, dark, and barbarous +regions, to the American continent and islands? There, three-fourths of +the race are in a state of the most deplorable personal slavery. And +those who are not, are in a scarcely less deplorable condition of +political slavery, to barbarous chiefs--who value neither life nor any +other human right, or enthralled by priests to the most abject and +atrocious superstitions. Take the following testimony of one of the few +disinterested observers, who has had an opportunity of observing them in +both situations.[244] "The wild savage is the child of passion, unaided +by one ray of religion or morality to direct his course, in consequence +of which his existence is stained with every crime that can debase human +nature to a level with the brute creation. Who can say that the slaves +in our colonies are such? Are they not, by comparison with their still +savage brethren, enlightened beings? Is not the West Indian negro, +therefore, greatly indebted to his master for making him what he is--for +having raised him from the state of debasement in which he was born, and +placed him in a scale of civilized society? How can he repay him? He is +possessed of nothing--the only return in his power is his servitude. The +man who has seen the wild African, roaming in his native woods, and the +well fed, happy looking negro of the West Indies, may, perhaps, be able +to judge of their comparative happiness; the former, I strongly suspect, +would be glad to change his state of boasted freedom, starvation, and +disease, to become the slave of sinners, and the commiseration of +saints."[245] It was a useful and beneficent work, approaching the +heroic, to tame the wild horse, and subdue him to the use of man; how +much more to tame the nobler animal that is capable of reason, and +subdue him to usefulness? + +We believe that the tendency of slavery is to elevate the character of +the master. No doubt the character--especially of youth--has sometimes +received a taint and premature knowledge of vice, from the contact and +association with ignorant and servile beings of gross manners and +morals. Yet still we believe that the entire tendency is to inspire +disgust and aversion toward their peculiar vices. It was not without a +knowledge of nature, that the Spartans exhibited the vices of slaves by +way of negative example to their children. We flatter ourselves that the +view of this degradation, mitigated as it is, has the effect of making +probity more strict, the pride of character more high, the sense of +honor more strong, than is commonly found where this institution does +not exist. Whatever may be the prevailing faults or vices of the masters +of slaves, they have not commonly been understood to be those of +dishonesty, cowardice, meanness, or falsehood. And so most +unquestionably it ought to be. Our institutions would indeed be +intolerable in the sight of God and man, if, condemning one portion of +society to hopeless ignorance and comparative degradation, they should +make no atonement by elevating the other class by higher virtues, and +more liberal attainments--if, besides degraded slaves, there should be +ignorant, ignoble, and degraded freemen. There is a broad and well +marked line, beyond which no slavish vice should be regarded with the +least toleration or allowance. One class is cut off from all interest in +the State--that abstraction so potent to the feelings of a generous +nature. The other must make compensation by increased assiduity and +devotion to its honor and welfare. The love of wealth--so laudable when +kept within proper limits, so base and mischievous when it exceeds +them--so infectious in its example--an infection to which I fear we +have been too much exposed--should be pursued by no arts in any degree +equivocal, or at any risk of injustice to others. So surely as there is +a just and wise governor of the universe, who punishes the sins of +nations and communities, as well as of individuals, so surely shall we +suffer punishment, if we are indifferent to that moral and intellectual +cultivation of which the means are furnished to us, and to which we are +called and incited by our situation. + +I would to heaven I could express, as I feel, the conviction how +necessary this cultivation is, not only to our prosperity and +consideration, but to our safety and very existence. We, the +slaveholding States, are in a hopeless minority in our own confederated +Republic--to say nothing of the great confederacy of civilized States. +It is admitted, I believe, not only by slaveholders, but by others, that +we have sent to our common councils more than our due share of talent, +high character and eloquence.[246] Yet in spite of all these most +strenuously exerted, measures have been sometimes adopted which we +believed to be dangerous and injurious to us, and threatening to be +fatal. What would be our situation, if, instead of these, we were only +represented by ignorant and groveling men, incapable of raising their +views beyond a job or petty office, and incapable of commanding bearing +or consideration? May I be permitted to advert--by no means +invidiously--to the late contest carried on by South Carolina against +Federal authority, and so happily terminated by the moderation which +prevailed in our public counsels. I have often reflected, what one +circumstance, more than any other, contributed to the successful issue +of a contest, apparently so hopeless, in which one weak and divided +State was arrayed against the whole force of the confederacy--unsustained, +and uncountenanced, even by those who had a common interest with her. It +seemed to me to be, that we had for leaders an unusual number of men of +great intellectual power, co-operating cordially and in good faith, and +commanding respect and confidence at home and abroad, by elevated and +honorable character. It was from these that we--the followers at +home--caught hope and confidence in the gloomiest aspect of our affairs. +These, by their eloquence and the largeness of their views, at least +shook the faith of the dominant majority in the wisdom and justice of +their measures--or the practicability of carrying them into successful +effect; and by their bearing and well known character, satisfied them +that South Carolina would do all that she had pledged herself to do. +Without these, how different might have been the result? And who shall +say what at this day would have been the aspect of the now flourishing +fields and cities of South Carolina? Or rather, without these, it is +probable the contest would never have been begun; but that, without even +the animation of a struggle, we should have sunk silently into a +hopeless and degrading subjection. While I have memory--in the extremity +of age--in sickness--under all the reverses and calamities of life--I +shall have one source of pride and consolation--that of having been +associated--according to my humbler position--with the noble spirits who +stood prepared to devote themselves for Liberty--the Constitution--the +Union. May such character and such talent never be wanting to South +Carolina. + +I am sure that it is unnecessary to say to an assembly like this, that +the conduct of the master to his slave should be distinguished by the +utmost humanity. That we should indeed regard them as wards and +dependents on our kindness, for whose well-being in every way we are +deeply responsible. This is no less the dictate of wisdom and just +policy, than of right feeling. It is wise with respect to the services +to be expected from them. I have never heard of an owner whose conduct +in their management was distinguished by undue severity, whose slaves +were not in a great degree worthless to him. A cheerful and kindly +demeanor, with the expression of interest in themselves and their +affairs, is, perhaps, calculated to have a better effect on them, than +what might be esteemed more substantial favors and indulgences. +Throughout nature, attachment is the reward of attachment. It is wise, +too, in relation to the civilized world around us, to avoid giving +occasion to the odium which is so industriously excited against +ourselves and our institutions. For this reason, public opinion should, +if possible, bear even more strongly and indignantly than it does at +present, on masters who practice any wanton cruelty on their slaves. The +miscreant who is guilty of this, not only violates the law of God and of +humanity, but as far as in him lies, by bringing odium upon, endangers +the institutions of his country, and the safety of his countrymen. He +casts a shade upon the character of every individual of his +fellow-citizens, and does every one of them a personal injury. So of him +who indulges in any odious excess of intemperate or licentious passion. +It is detached instances of this sort, of which the existence is, +perhaps, hardly known among ourselves, that, collected with pertinacious +and malevolent industry, affords the most formidable weapons to the +mischievous zealots, who array them as being characteristic of our +general manners and state of society. + +I would by no means be understood to intimate, that a vigorous, as well +as just government, should not be exercised over slaves. This is part of +our duty toward them, no less obligatory than any other duty, and no +less necessary toward their well-being than to ours. I believe that at +least as much injury has been done and suffering inflicted by weak and +injudicious indulgence, as by inordinate severity. He whose business is +to labor, should be made to labor, and that with due diligence, and +should be vigorously restrained from excess or vice. This is no less +necessary to his happiness than to his usefulness. The master who +neglects this, not only makes his slaves unprofitable to himself, but +discontented and wretched--a nuisance to his neighbors and to society. + +I have said that the tendency of our institution is to elevate the +female character, as well as that of the other sex, and for similar +reasons. In other states of society, there is no well-defined limit to +separate virtue and vice. There are degrees of vice, from the most +flagrant and odious, to that which scarcely incurs the censure of +society. Many individuals occupy an unequivocal position and as society +becomes accustomed to this, there will be a less peremptory requirement +of purity in female manners and conduct, and often the whole of the +society will be in a tainted and uncertain condition with respect to +female virtue. Here, there is that certain and marked line, above which +there is no toleration or allowance for any approach to license of +manners or conduct, and she who falls below it, will fall far below even +the slave. How many will incur this penalty? + +And permit me to say, that this elevation of the female character is no +less important and essential to us, than the moral and intellectual +cultivation of the other sex. It would indeed be intolerable, if, when +one class of the society is necessarily degraded in this respect, no +compensation were made by the superior elevation and purity of the +other. Not only essential purity of conduct, but the utmost purity of +manners, and I will add, though it may incur the formidable charge of +affectation or prudery,--a greater severity of decorum than is required +elsewhere, is necessary among us. Always should be strenuously resisted +the attempts which have been sometimes made to introduce among us the +freedom of foreign European, and especially of continental manners. This +freedom, the remotest in the world from that which sometimes springs +from simplicity of manners, is calculated and commonly intended to +confound the outward distinctions of virtue and vice. It is to prepare +the way for licentiousness--to produce this effect--that if those who +are clothed with the outward color and garb of vice, may be well +received by society, those who are actually guilty may hope to be so +too. It may be said, that there is often perfect purity where there is +very great freedom of manners. And, I have no doubt, this may be true in +particular instances, but it is never true of any _society_ in which +this is the general state of manners. What guards can there be to +purity, when every thing that _may possibly_ be done innocently, is +habitually practiced; when there can be no impropriety which is not +vice. And what must be the depth of the depravity when there is a +departure from that which they admit as principle. Besides, things which +may perhaps be practiced innocently where they are familiar, produce a +moral dilaceration in the course of their being introduced where they +are new. Let us say, we will not have the manners of South Carolina +changed. + +I have before said that free labor is cheaper than the labor of slaves, +and so far as it is so the condition of the free laborer is worse. But +I think President Dew has sufficiently shown that this is only true of +Northern countries. It is matter of familiar remark that the tendency of +warm climates is to relax the human constitution and indispose to labor. +The earth yields abundantly--in some regions almost spontaneously--under +the influence of the sun, and the means of supporting life are obtained +with but slight exertion; and men will use no greater exertion than is +necessary to the purpose. This very luxuriance of vegetation, where no +other cause concurs, renders the air less salubrious, and even when +positive malady does not exist, the health is habitually impaired. +Indolence renders the constitution more liable to these effects of the +atmosphere, and these again aggravate the indolence. Nothing but the +coercion of slavery can overcome the repugnance to labor under these +circumstances, and by subduing the soil, improve and render wholesome +the climate. + +It is worthy of remark, that there does not now exist on the face of the +earth, a people in a tropical climate, or one approaching to it, where +slavery does not exist, that is in a state of high civilization, or +exhibits the energies which mark the progress toward it. Mexico and the +South American Republics,[247] starting on their new career of +independence, and having gone through a farce of abolishing slavery, +are rapidly degenerating, even from semi-barbarism. The only portion of +the South American continent which seems to be making any favorable +progress, in spite of a weak and arbitrary civil government, is Brazil, +in which slavery has been retained. Cuba, of the same race with the +continental republics, is daily and rapidly advancing in industry and +civilization; and this is owing exclusively to her slaves. St. Domingo +is struck out of the map of civilized existence, and the British West +Indies will shortly be so. On the other continent, Spain and Portugal +are degenerate, and their rapid progress is downward. Their southern +coast is infested by disease, arising from causes which industry might +readily overcome, but that industry they will never exert. Greece is +still barbarous, and scantily peopled. The work of an English physician, +distinguished by strong sense and power of observation,[248] gives a +most affecting picture of the condition of Italy,--especially south of +the Appenines. With the decay of industry, the climate has degenerated +toward the condition from which it was first rescued by the labor of +slaves. There is poison in every man's veins, affecting the very springs +of life, dulling or extinguishing, with the energies of the body, all +energy of mind, and often exhibiting itself in the most appalling forms +of disease. From year to year the pestilential atmosphere creeps +forward, narrowing the circles within which it is possible to sustain +human life. With disease and misery, industry still more rapidly decays, +and if the process goes on, it seems that Italy too will soon be ready +for another experiment in colonization. + +Yet once it was not so, when Italy was possessed by the masters of +slaves; when Rome contained her millions, and Italy was a garden; when +their iron energies of body corresponded with the energies of mind which +made them conquerors in every climate and on every soil; rolled the tide +of conquest, not as in later times, from the South to the North; +extended their laws and their civilization, and created them lords of +the earth. + + "What conflux issuing forth or entering in; + Praetors, pro-consuls to their provinces, + Hasting, or on return in robes of state. + Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power, + Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings: + Or embassies from regions far remote, + In various habits, on the Appian road, + Or on th' Emilian; some from furthest South, + Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, + Meroe, Nilotic isle, and more to West, + The realms of Bocchus to the Blackmoor sea; + From th' Asian kings, and Parthian among these; + From India and the golden Chersonese, + And utmost India's isle, Taprobona, + Dusk faces, with white silken turbans wreathed; + From Gallia, Gades, and the British West; + Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, North + Beyond Danubius to the Tauric Pool! + All nations now to Rome obedience pay." + +Such was, and such is, the picture of Italy. Greece presents a contrast +not less striking. What is the cause of the great change? Many causes, +no doubt, have occurred; but though + + "War, famine, pestilence, and flood and fire, + Have dealt upon the seven-hilled city's pride," + +I will venture to say that nothing has dealt upon it more heavily than +the loss of domestic slavery. Is not this evident? If they had slaves, +with an energetic civil government, would the deadly miasma be permitted +to overspread the Campagna, and invade Rome herself? Would not the soil +be cultivated, and the wastes reclaimed? A late traveller[249] mentions +a canal, cut for miles through rock and mountain, for the purpose of +carrying off the waters of the lake of Celano, on which thirty thousand +Roman slaves were employed for eleven years, and which remains almost +perfect to the present day. This, the government of Naples was ten years +in repairing with an hundred workmen. The imperishable works of Rome +which remain to the present day were, for the most part, executed by +slaves. How different would be the condition of Naples, if for her +wretched lazzaroni were substituted negro slaves, employed in rendering +productive the plains whose fertility now serves only to infect the air! + +To us, on whom this institution is fastened, and who could not shake it +off, even if we desired to do so, the great republics of antiquity offer +instruction of inestimable value. They teach us that slavery is +compatible with the freedom, stability, and long duration of civil +government, with denseness of population, great power, and the highest +civilization. And in what respect does this modern Europe, which claims +to give opinions to the world, so far excel them--notwithstanding the +immense advantages of the Christian religion and the discovery of the +art of printing? They are not more free, nor have performed more +glorious actions, nor displayed more exalted virtue. In the higher +departments of intellect--in all that relates to taste and +imagination--they will hardly venture to claim equality. Where they have +gone beyond them in the results of mechanical philosophy, or discoveries +which contribute to the wants and enjoyments of physical life, they have +done so by the help of means with which they were furnished by the +Grecian mind--the mother of civilization--and only pursued a little +further the tract which that had always pointed out. In the development +of intellectual power, they will hardly bear comparison. Those noble +republics in the pride of their strength and greatness, may have +anticipated for themselves--as some of their poets did for them--an +everlasting duration and predominance. But they could not have +anticipated, that when they had fallen under barbarous arms, that when +arts and civilization were lost, and the whole earth in darkness--the +first light should break from their tombs--that in a renewed world, +unconnected with them by ties of locality, language or descent, they +should still be held the models of all that is profound in science, or +elegant in literature, or all that is great in character, or elevated in +imagination. And perhaps when England herself, who now leads the war +with which we are on all sides threatened, shall have fulfilled her +mission, and like the other glorious things of the earth, shall have +passed away; when she shall have diffused her noble race and noble +language, her laws, her literature, and her civilization, over all +quarters of the earth, and shall perhaps be overrun by some Northern +horde--sunk into an ignoble and anarchical democracy,[250] or subdued to +the dominion of some Caesar,--demagogue and despot,--then, in Southern +regions, there may be found many republics, triumphing in Grecian arts +and civilization, and worthy of British descent and Roman institutions. + +If, after a time, when the mind and almost the memory of the republic +were lost, Romans degenerated, they furnish conclusive evidence that +this was owing not to their domestic, but to their political slavery. +The same thing is observed over all the Eastern monarchies; and so it +must be, wherever property is insecure, and it is dangerous for a man to +rise himself to such eminence by intellectual or moral excellence, as +would give him influence over his society. So it is in Egypt; and the +other regions bordering the Mediterranean, which once comprehended the +civilization of the world, where Carthage, Tyre, and Phoenicia +flourished. In short, the uncontradicted experience of the world is, +that in the Southern States where good government and predial and +domestic slavery are found, there are prosperity and greatness; where +either of these conditions is wanting, degeneracy and barbarism. The +former, however, is equally essential in all climates and under all +institutions. And can we suppose it to be the design of the Creator, +that these regions, constituting half of the earth's surface, and the +more fertile half, and more capable of sustaining life, should be +abandoned forever to depopulation and barbarism? Certain it is that they +will never be reclaimed by the labor of freemen. In our own country, +look at the lower valley of the Mississippi, which is capable of being +made a far greater Egypt. In our own State, there are extensive tracts +of the most fertile soil, which are capable of being made to swarm with +life. These are at present pestilential swamps, and valueless, because +there is abundance of other fertile soil in more favorable situations, +which demand all and more than all the labor which our country can +supply. Are these regions of fertility to be abandoned at once and +forever to the alligator and tortoise--with here and there perhaps a +miserable, shivering, crouching _free_ black savage? Does not the finger +of heaven itself seem to point to a race of men--not to be enslaved by +us, but already enslaved, and who will be in every way benefited by the +change of masters--to whom such climate is not uncongenial, who, though +disposed to indolence, are yet patient and capable of labor, on whose +whole features, mind and character, nature has indelibly +written--slave;--and indicate that we should avail ourselves of these in +fulfilling the first great command to subdue and replenish the earth. + +It is true that this labor will be dearer than that of Northern +countries, where, under the name of freedom, they obtain cheaper and +perhaps better slaves. Yet it is the best we can have, and this too has +its compensation. We see it compensated at present by the superior value +of our agricultural products. And this superior value they must probably +always have. The Southern climate admits of a greater variety of +productions. Whatever is produced in Northern climates, the same thing, +or something equivalent, may be produced in the Southern. But the +Northern have no equivalent for the products of Southern climates. The +consequence will be, that the products of Southern regions will be +demanded all over the civilized world. The agricultural products of +Northern regions are chiefly for their own consumption. They must +therefore apply themselves to the manufacturing of articles of luxury, +elegance, convenience, or necessity,--which requires cheap labor--for +the purpose of exchanging them with their Southern neighbors. Thus +nature herself indicates that agriculture should be the predominating +employment in Southern countries, and manufactures in Northern. Commerce +is necessary to both--but less indispensable to the Southern, which +produce within themselves a greater variety of things desirable to life. +They will therefore have somewhat less of the commercial spirit. We must +avail ourselves of such labor as we can command. The slave must labor, +and is inured to it; while the necessity of energy in his government, of +watchfulness, and of preparation and power to suppress insurrection, +added to the moral force derived from the habit of command, may help to +prevent the degeneracy of the master. + +The task of keeping down insurrection is commonly supposed by those who +are strangers to our institutions, to be a very formidable one. Even +among ourselves, accustomed as we have been to take our opinions on this +as on every other subject, ready formed from those whom we regarded as +instructors, in the teeth of our own observation and experience, fears +have been entertained which are absolutely ludicrous. We have been +supposed to be nightly reposing over a mine, which may at any instant +explode to our destruction. The first thought of a foreigner sojourning +in one of our cities, who is awaked by any nightly alarm, is of servile +insurrection and massacre. Yet if any thing is certain in human affairs, +it is certain and from the most obvious considerations, that we are more +secure in this respect than any civilived and fully peopled society upon +the face of the earth. In every such society, there is a much larger +proportion than with us, of persons who have more to gain than to lose +by the overthrow of government, and the embroiling of social order. It +is in such a state of things that those who were before at the bottom of +society, rise to the surface. From causes already considered, they are +peculiarly apt to consider their sufferings the result of injustice and +misgovernment, and to be rancorous and embittered accordingly. They have +every excitement, therefore, of resentful passion, and every temptation +which the hope of increased opulence, or power or consideration can hold +out, to urge them to innovation and revolt. Supposing the same +disposition to exist in equal degree among our slaves, what are their +comparative means or prospect of gratifying it? The poor of other +countries are called free. They have, at least, no one interested to +exercise a daily and nightly superintendence and control over their +conduct and actions. Emissaries of their class may traverse, unchecked, +every portion of the country, for the purpose of organizing +insurrection. From their greater intelligence, they have greater means +of communicating with each other. They may procure and secrete arms. It +is not alone the ignorant, or those who are commonly called the poor, +that will be tempted to revolution. There will be many disappointed men, +and men of desperate fortune--men perhaps of talent and daring--to +combine them and direct their energies. Even those in the higher ranks +of society who contemplate no such result, will contribute to it, by +declaiming on their hardships and rights. + +With us, it is almost physically impossible that there should be any +very extensive combination among the slaves. It is absolutely impossible +that they should procure and conceal efficient arms. Their emissaries +traversing the country, would carry their commissions on their +foreheads. If we suppose among them an individual of sufficient talent +and energy to qualify him for a revolutionary leader, he could not be so +extensively known as to command the confidence, which would be necessary +to enable him to combine and direct them. Of the class of freemen, there +would be no individual so poor or degraded (with the exception perhaps +of here and there a reckless and desperate outlaw and felon) who would +not have much to lose by the success of such an attempt; every one, +therefore, would be vigilant and active to detect and suppress it. Of +all impossible things, one of the most impossible would be a successful +insurrecction of our slaves, originating with themselves. + +Attempts at insurrection have indeed been made--excited, as we believe, +by the agitation of the abolitionists and declaimers on slavery; but +these have been in every instance promptly suppressed. We fear not to +compare the riots, disorder, revolt and bloodshed, which have been +committed in our own, with those of any other civilized communities, +during the same lapse of time. And let it be observed under what +extraordinary circumstances our peace has been preserved. For the last +half century, one half of our population has been admonished in terms +the most calculated to madden and excite, that they are the victims of +the most grinding and cruel injustice and oppression. We know that these +exhortations continually reach them, through a thousand channels which +we cannot detect, as if carried by the birds of the air--and what human +being, especially when unfavorably distinguished by outward +circumstances, is not ready to give credit when he is told that he is +the victim of injustice and oppression? In effect, if not in terms, they +have been continually exhorted to insurrection. The master has been +painted as a criminal, tyrant and robber, justly obnoxious to the +vengeance of God and man, and they have been assured of the countenance +and sympathy, if not of the active assistance, of all the rest of the +world. We ourselves have in some measure pleaded guilty to the +impeachment. It is not long since a great majority of our free +population, servile to the opinions of those whose opinions they had +been accustomed to follow, would have admitted slavery to be a great +evil, unjust and indefensible in principle, and only to be vindicated by +the stern necessity which was imposed upon us. Thus stimulated by every +motive and passion which ordinarily actuate human beings--not as to a +criminal enterprise, but as to something generous and heroic--what has +been the result? A few imbecile and uncombined plots--in every instance +detected before they broke out into action, and which perhaps if +undetected would never have broken into action. One or two sudden, +unpremeditated attempts, frantic in their character, if not prompted by +actual insanity, and these instantly crushed. As it is, we are not less +assured of safety, order, and internal peace, than any other people; and +but for the pertinacious and fanatical agitations of the subject, would +be much more so. + +This experience of security, however, should admonish us of the folly +and wickedness of those who have sometimes taken upon themselves to +supersede the regular course of law, and by rash and violent acts to +punish supposed disturbers of the peace of society. This can admit of no +justification or palliation whatever. Burke, I think, somewhere remarked +something to this effect,--that when society is in the last stage of +depravity--when all parties are alike corrupt, and alike wicked and +unjustifiable in their measures and objects, a good man may content +himself with standing neuter, a sad and disheartened spectator of the +conflict between the rival vices. But are we in this wretched condition? +It is fearful to see with what avidity the worst and most dangerous +characters of society seize on the occasion of obtaining the countenance +of better men, for the purpose of throwing off the restraints of law. It +is always these who are most zealous and forward in constituting +themselves the protectors of the public peace. To such men--men without +reputation, or principle, or stake in society--disorder is the natural +element. In that, desperate fortunes and the want of all moral principle +and moral feeling constitute power. They are eager to avenge themselves +upon society. Anarchy is not so much the absence of government, as the +government of the worst--not aristocracy, but kakistocracy--a state of +things, which to the honor of our nature, has seldom obtained among men, +and which perhaps was only fully exemplified during the worst times of +the French Revolution, when that horrid hell burnt with its most lurid +flame. In such a state of things, to be accused is to be condemned--to +protect the innocent is to be guilty; and what perhaps is the worst +effect, even men of better nature, to whom their own deeds are +abhorrent, are goaded by terror to be forward and emulous in deeds of +guilt and violence. The scenes of lawless violence which have been acted +in some portions of our country, rare and restricted as they have been, +have done more to tarnish its reputation than a thousand libels. They +have done more to discredit, and if any thing could, to endanger, not +only our domestic, but our republican institutions, than the +abolitionists themselves. Men can never be permanently and effectually +disgraced but by themselves, and rarely endangered but by their own +injudicious conduct, giving advantage to the enemy. Better, far better, +would it be to encounter the dangers with which we are supposed to be +threatened, than to employ such means for averting them. But the truth +is, that in relation to this matter, so far as respects actual +insurrection, when alarm is once excited, danger is absolutely at an +end. Society can then employ legitimate and more effectual measures for +its own protection. The very commission of such deeds is proof that they +are unnecessary. Let those who attempt them, then, or make any +demonstration toward them, understand that they will meet only the +discountenance and abhorrence of all good men, and the just punishment +of the laws they have dared to outrage. + +It has commonly been supposed, that this institution will prove a source +of weakness in relation to military defense against a foreign country. I +will venture to say that in a slaveholding community, a larger military +force may be maintained permanently in the field, than in any State +where there are not slaves. It is plain that almost the whole of the +able bodied free male population, making half of the entire able bodied +male population, may be maintained in the field, and this without taking +in any material degree from the labor and resources of the country. In +general, the labor of our country is performed by slaves. In other +countries, it is their laborers that form the material of their armies. +What proportion of these can be taken away without fatally crippling +their industry and resources? In the war of the Revolution, though the +strength of our State was wasted and paralyzed by the unfortunate +divisions which existed among ourselves, yet it may be said with general +truth, that every citizen was in the field, and acquired much of the +qualities of the soldier. + +It is true that this advantage will be attended with its compensating +evils and disadvantages; to which we must learn to submit, if we are +determined on the maintenance of our institutions. We are, as yet, +hardly at all aware how little the maxims and practices of modern +civilized governments will apply to us. Standing armies, as they are +elsewhere constituted, we cannot have; for we have not, and for +generations cannot have, the materials out of which they are to be +formed. If we should be involved in serious wars, I have no doubt but +that some sort of conscription, requiring the service of all citizens +for a considerable term, will be necessary. Like the people of Athens, +it will be necessary that every citizen should be a soldier, and +qualified to discharge efficiently the duties of a soldier. It may seem +a melancholy consideration, that an army so made up should be opposed to +the disciplined mercenaries of foreign nations. But we must learn to +know our true situation. But may we not hope, that made up of superior +materials, of men having home and country to defend; inspired by higher +pride of character, of greater intelligence, and trained by an +effective, though honorable discipline, such an army will be more than a +match for mercenaries. The efficiency of an army is determined by the +qualities of its officers, and may we not expect to have a greater +proportion of men better qualified for officers, and possessing the true +spirit of military command. And let it be recollected that if there were +otherwise reason to apprehend danger from insurrection, there will be +the greatest security when there is the largest force on foot within the +country. Then it is that any such attempt would be most instantly and +effectually crushed. + +And, perhaps, a wise foresight should induce our State to provide, that +it should have within itself such military knowledge and skill as may be +sufficient to organize, discipline, and command armies, by establishing +a military academy or school of discipline. The school of the militia +will not do for this. From the general opinion of our weakness, if our +country should at any time come into hostile collision, we shall be +selected for the point of attack; making us, according to Mr. Adam's +anticipation, the Flanders of the United States. Come from what quarter +it may, the storm will fall upon us. It is known that lately, when there +was apprehension of hostility with France, the scheme was instantly +devised of invading the Southern States and organizing insurrection. In +a popular English periodical work, I have seen the plan suggested by an +officer of high rank and reputation in the British army, of invading the +Southern States at various points and operating by the same means. He is +said to be a gallant officer, and certainly had no conception that he +was devising atrocious crime, as alien to the true spirit of civilized +warfare, as the poisoning of streams and fountains. But the folly of +such schemes is no less evident than their wickedness. Apart from the +consideration of that which experience has most fully proved to be +true--that in general their attachment and fidelity to their masters is +not to be shaken, and that from sympathy with the feelings of those by +whom they are surrounded, and from whom they derive their impressions, +they contract no less terror and aversion toward an invading enemy; it +is manifest that this recourse would be an hundred fold more available +to us than to such an enemy. They are already in our possession, and we +might at will arm and organize them in any number that we might think +proper. The Helots were a regular constituent part of the Spartan +armies. Thoroughly acquainted with their characters, and accustomed to +command them, we might use any strictness of discipline which would be +necessary to render them effective, and from their habits of +subordination already formed, this would be a task of less difficulty. +Though morally most timid, they are by no means wanting in physical +strength of nerve. They are excitable by praise; and directed by those +in whom they have confidence, would rush fearlessly and unquestioning +upon any sort of danger. With white officers and accompanied by a strong +white cavalry, there are no troops in the world from whom there would be +so little reason to apprehend insubordination or mutiny. + +This, I admit, might be a dangerous resource, and one not to be resorted +to but in great extremity. But I am supposing the case of our being +driven to extremity. It might be dangerous to disband such an army, and +reduce them with the habits of soldiers, to their former condition of +laborers. It might be found necessary, when once embodied, to keep them +so, and subject to military discipline--a permanent standing army. This +in time of peace would be expensive, if not dangerous. Or if at any time +we should be engaged in hostilities with our neighbors, and it were +thought advisable to send such an army abroad to conquer settlements for +themselves, the invaded regions might have occasion to think that the +scourge of God was again let loose to afflict the earth. + +President Dew has very fully shown how utterly vain are the fears of +those, who, though there may be no danger for the present, yet apprehend +great danger for the future, when the number of slaves shall be greatly +increased. He has shown that the larger and more condensed society +becomes, the easier it will be to maintain subordination, supposing the +relative number of the different classes to remain the same--or even if +there should be a very disproportionate increase of the enslaved class. +Of all vain things, the vainest and that in which man most shows his +impotence and folly, is the taking upon himself to provide for a very +distant future--at all events by any material sacrifice of the present. +Though experience has shown that revolutions and political +movements--unless when they have been conducted with the most guarded +caution and moderation--have generally terminated in results just the +opposite of what was expected from them, the angry ape will still play +his fantastic tricks, and put in motion machinery, the action of which +he no more comprehends or foresees than he comprehends the mysteries of +infinity. The insect that is borne upon the current will fancy that he +directs its course. Besides the fear of insurrection and servile war, +there is also alarm lest, when their numbers shall be greatly increased, +their labor will become utterly unprofitable, so that it will be equally +difficult for the master to retain and support them, or to get rid of +them. But at what age of the world is this likely to happen? At present, +it may be said that almost the whole of the Southern portion of this +continent is to be subdued to cultivation; and in the order of +Providence, this is the task allotted to them. For this purpose, more +labor will be required for generations to come than they will be able to +supply. When that task is accomplished, there will be many objects to +which their labor may be directed. + +At present they are employed in accumulating individual wealth, and this +in one way, to wit, as agricultural laborers--and this is, perhaps, the +most useful purpose to which their labor can be applied. The effect of +slavery has not been to counteract the tendency to dispersion, which +seems epidemical among our countrymen, invited by the unbounded extent +of fertile and unexhausted soil, though it counteracts many of the evils +of dispersion. All the customary trades, professions and employments, +except the agricultural, require a condensed population for their +profitable exercise. The agriculturist who can command no labor but that +of his own hands, or that of his family, must remain comparatively poor +and rude. He who acquires wealth by the labor of slaves, has the means +of improvement for himself and his children. He may have a more extended +intercourse, and consequently means of information and refinement, and +may seek education for his children where it may be found. I say, what +is obviously true, that he has the _means_ of obtaining those +advantages; but I say nothing to palliate or excuse the conduct of him +who, having such means, neglects to avail himself of them. + +I believe it to be true, that in consequence of our dispersion, though +individual wealth is acquired, the face of the country is less adorned +and improved by useful and ornamental public works, than in other +societies of more condensed population, where there is less wealth. But +this is an effect of that which constitutes perhaps our most conspicuous +advantage. Where population is condensed, they must have the evils of +condensed population, and among these is the difficulty of finding +profitable employment for capital. He who has accumulated even an +inconsiderable sum, is often puzzled to know what use to make of it. +Ingenuity is therefore tasked to cast about for every enterprise which +may afford a chance of profitable investment. Works useful and +ornamental to the country, are thus undertaken and accomplished, and +though the proprietors may fail of profit, the community no less +receives the benefit. Among us, there is no such difficulty. A safe and +profitable method of investment is offered to every one who has capital +to dispose of, which is further recommended to his feelings by the sense +of independence and the comparative leisure which the employment affords +to the proprietor engaged in it. It is for this reason that few of our +citizens engage in the pursuits of commerce. Though these may be more +profitable, they are also more hazardous and more laborious. + +When the demand for agricultural labor shall be fully supplied, then of +course the labor of slaves will be directed to other employment and +enterprises. Already it begins to be found, that in some instances it +may be used as profitably in works of public improvement. As it becomes +cheaper and cheaper, it will be applied to more various purposes and +combined in larger masses. It may be commanded and combined with more +facility than any other sort of labor; and the laborer, kept in stricter +subordination, will be less dangerous to the security of society than in +any other country, which is crowded and overstocked with a class of what +are called free laborers. Let it be remembered that all the great and +enduring monuments of human art and industry--the wonders of Egypt--the +everlasting works of Rome--were created by the labor of slaves. There +will come a stage in our progress when we shall have facilities for +executing works as great as any of these--more useful than the +pyramids--not less magnificent than the sea of Moeris. What the end of +all is to be; what mutations lie hid in the womb of the distant future; +to what convulsions our societies may be exposed--whether the master, +finding it impossible to live with his slaves, may not be compelled to +abandon the country to them--of all this it were presumptuous and vain +to speculate. + +I have hitherto, as I proposed, considered it as a naked, abstract +question of the comparative good and evil of the institution of slavery. +Very far different indeed is the practical question presented to us, +when it is proposed to get rid of an institution which has interwoven +itself with every fibre of the body politic; which has formed the habits +of our society, and is consecrated by the usage of generations. If this +be not a vicious prescription, which the laws of God forbid to ripen +into right, it has a just claim to be respected by all tribunals of man. +If the negroes were now free, and it were proposed to enslave them, then +it would be incumbent on those who proposed the measure to show clearly +that their liberty was incompatible with the public security. When it is +proposed to innovate on the established state of things, the burden is +on those who propose the innovation, to show that advantage will be +gained from it. There is no reform, however necessary, wholesome or +moderate, which will not be accompanied with some degree of +inconvenience, risk or suffering. Those who acquiesce in the state of +things which they found existing, can hardly be thought criminal. But +most deeply criminal are they who give rise to the enormous evil with +which great revolutions in society are always attended, without the +fullest assurance of the greater good to be ultimately obtained. But if +it can be made to appear, even probably, that no good will be obtained, +but that the results will be evil and calamitous as the process, what +can justify such innovations? No human being can be so mischievous--if +acting consciously, none can be so wicked as those who, finding evil in +existing institutions, run blindly upon change, unforeseeing and +reckless of consequences, and leaving it to chance or fate to determine +whether the end shall be improvement, or greater and more intolerable +evil. Certainly the instincts of nature prompt to resist intolerable +oppression. For this resistance no rule can be prescribed, but it must +be left to the instincts of nature. To justify it, however, the +insurrectionists should at least have a reasonable probability of +success, and be assured that their condition will be improved by +success. But most extraordinary is it, when those who complain and +clamor are not those who are supposed to feel the oppression, but +persons at a distance from them, and who can hardly at all appreciate +the good or the evil of their situation. It is the unalterable condition +of humanity, that men must achieve civil liberty for themselves. The +assistance of allies has sometimes enabled nations to repel the attacks +of foreign power, never to conquer liberty against their own internal +government. + +In one thing I concur with the abolitionsts; that if emancipation is to +be brought about, it is better that it should be immediate and total. +But let us suppose it to be brought about in any manner, and then +inquire what would be the effects. + +The first and most obvious effect, would be to put an end to the +cultivation of our great Southern staple. And this would be equally the +result, if we suppose the emancipated negroes to be in no way +distinguished from the free laborers of other countries, and that their +labor would be equally effective. In that case, they would soon cease to +be laborers for hire, but would scatter themselves over our unbounded +territory, to become independent land owners themselves. The cultivation +of the soil on an extensive scale, can only be carried on where there +are slaves, or in countries superabounding with free labor. No such +operations are carried on in any portions of our own country where there +are not slaves. Such are carried on in England, where there is an +overflowing population and intense competition for employment. And our +institutions seem suited to the exigencies of our respective situations. +There, a much greater number of laborers is required at one season of +the year than at another, and the farmer may enlarge or diminish the +quantity of labor he employs, as circumstances may require. Here, about +the same quantity of labor is required at every season, and the planter +suffers no inconvenience from retaining his laborers throughout the +year. Imagine an extensive rice or cotton plantation cultivated by free +laborers, who might perhaps _strike_ for an increase of wages, at a +season when the neglect of a few days would insure the destruction of +the whole crop. Even if it were possible to procure laborers at all, +what planter would venture to carry on his operations under such +circumstances? I need hardly say that these staples can not be produced +to any extent where the proprietor of the soil cultivates it with his +own hands. He can do little more than produce the necessary food for +himself and his family. + +And what would be the effect of putting an end to the cultivation of +these staples, and thus annihilating, at a blow, two-thirds or +three-fourths of our foreign commerce? Can any sane mind contemplate +such a result without terror? I speak not of the utter poverty and +misery to which we ourselves would be reduced, and the desolation which +would overspread our own portion of the country. Our slavery has not +only given existence to millions of slaves within our own territories, +it has given the means of subsistence, and therefore existence, to +millions of freemen in our confederate States; enabling them to send +forth their swarms to overspread the plains and forests of the West, and +appear as the harbingers of civilization. The products of the industry +of those States are in general similar to those of the civilized world, +and are little demanded in their markets. By exchanging them for ours, +which are everywhere sought for, the people of these States are enabled +to acquire all the products of art and industry, all that contributes to +convenience or luxury, or gratifies the taste or the intellect, which +the rest of the world can supply. Not only on our own continent, but on +the other, it has given existence to hundreds of thousands, and the +means of comfortable subsistence to millions. A distinguished citizen of +our own State, than whom none can be better qualified to form an +opinion, has lately stated that our great staple, cotton, has +contributed more than any thing else of later times to the progress of +civilization. By enabling the poor to obtain cheap and becoming +clothing, it has inspired a taste for comfort, the first stimulus to +civilization. Does not _self-defense_, then, demand of us steadily to +resist the abrogation of that which is productive of so much good? It is +more than self-defense. It is to defend millions of human beings, who +are far removed from us, from the intensest suffering, if not from being +struck out of existence. It is the defense of human civilization. + +But this is but a small part of the evil which would be occasioned. +After President Dew, it is unnecessary to say a single word on the +practicability of colonizing our slaves. The two races, so widely +separated from each other by the impress of nature, must remain together +in the same country. Whether it be accounted the result of prejudice or +reason, it is certain that the two races will not be blended together so +as to form a homogenous population. To one who knows any thing of the +nature of man and human society, it would be unnecessary to argue that +this state of things can not continue; but that one race must be driven +out by the other, or exterminated, or again enslaved. I have argued on +the supposition that the emancipated negroes would be as efficient as +other free laborers. But whatever theorists, who know nothing of the +matter, may think proper to assume, we well know that this would not be +so. We know that nothing but the coercion of slavery can overcome their +propensity to indolence, and that not one in ten would be an efficient +laborer. Even if this disposition were not grounded in their nature, it +would be a result of their position. I have somewhere seen it observed, +that to be degraded by opinion, is a thousand fold worse, so far as the +feelings of the individuals are concerned, than to be degraded by the +laws. _They_ would be thus degraded, and this feeling is incompatible +with habits of order and industry. Half our population would at once be +paupers. Let an inhabitant of New-York or Philadelphia conceive of the +situation of their respective States, if one-half of their population +consisted of free negroes. The tie which now connects them, being +broken, the different races would be estranged from each other, and +hostility would grow up between them. Having the command of their own +time and actions, they could more effectually combine insurrection, and +provide the means of rendering it formidable. Released from the vigilant +superintendence which now restrains them, they would infallibly be led +from petty to greater crimes, until all life and property would be +rendered insecure. Aggression would beget retaliation, until open +war--and that a war of extermination--were established. From the still +remaining superiority of the white race, it is probable that they would +be the victors, and if they did not exterminate, they must again reduce +the others to slavery--when they could be no longer fit to be either +slaves or freemen. It is not only in self-defense, in defense of our +country and of all that is dear to us, but in defense of the slaves +themselves, that we refuse to emancipate them. + +If we suppose them to have political privileges, and to be admitted to +the elective franchise, still worse results may be expected.[251] It is +hardly necessary to add any thing to what has been said by Mr. Paulding +on this subject who has treated it fully. It is already known, that if +there be a class unfavorably distinguished by any peculiarity from the +rest of society, this distinction forms a tie which binds them to act +in concert, and they exercise more than their due share of political +power and influence--and still more, as they are of inferior character +and looser moral principle. Such a class form the very material for +demogogues to work with. Other parties court them, and concede to them. +So it would be with the free blacks in the case supposed. They would be +used by unprincipled politicians, of irregular ambition, for the +advancement of their schemes, until they should give them political +power and importance beyond even their own intentions. They would be +courted by excited parties in their contests with each other. At some +time, they may perhaps attain political ascendancy, and this is more +probable, as we may suppose that there will have been a great emigration +of whites from the country. Imagine the government of such legislators. +Imagine then the sort of laws that will be passed, to confound the +invidious distinction which has been so long assumed over them, and, if +possible, to obliterate the very memory of it. These will be resisted. +The blacks will be tempted to avenge themselves by oppression and +proscription of the white race, for their long superiority. Thus matters +will go on, until universal anarchy, or kakistocracy, the government of +the worst, is fully established. I am persuaded that if the spirit of +evil should devise to send abroad upon the earth all possible misery, +discord, horror, and atrocity, he could contrive no scheme so effectual +as the emancipation of negro slaves within our country. + +The most feasible scheme of emancipation, and that which I verily +believe would involve the least danger and sacrifice, would be that the +_entire_ white population should emigrate, and abandon the country to +their slaves. Here would be triumph to philanthropy. This wide and +fertile region would be again restored to ancient barbarism--to the +worst of all barbarism--barbarism corrupted and depraved by intercourse +with civilization. And this is the consummation to be wished, upon a +_speculation_, that in some distant future age, they may become so +enlightened and improved, as to be capable of sustaining a position +among the civilized races of the earth. But I believe moralists allow +men to defend their homes and their country, even at the expense of the +lives and liberties of others. + +Will any philanthropist say that the evils, of which I have spoken, +would be brought about only by the obduracy, prejudices, and overweening +self-estimation of the whites in refusing to blend the races by +marriage, and so create a homogenous population?[252] But what, if it be +not prejudice, but truth, and nature, and right reason, and just moral +feeling? As I have before said, throughout the whole of nature, like +attracts like, and that which is unlike repels. What is it that makes so +unspeakably loathsome, crimes not to be named, and hardly alluded to? +Even among the nations of Europe, so nearly homogenous, there are some +peculiarities of form and feature, mind and character, which may be +generally distinguished by those accustomed to observe them. Though the +exceptions are numerous, I will venture to say that not in one instance +in a hundred, is the man of sound and unsophisticated tastes and +propensities so likely to be attracted by the female of a foreign stock, +as by one of his own, who is more nearly conformed to himself. +Shakspeare spoke the language of nature, when he made the senate and +people of Venice attribute to the effect of witchcraft, Desdemona's +passion for Othello--though, as Coleridge has said, we are to conceive +of him not as a negro, but as a high bred Moorish chief. + +If the negro race, as I have contended, be inferior to our own in mind +and character, marked by inferiority of form and features, then ours +would suffer deterioration from such intermixture. What would be thought +of the moral conduct of the parent who should voluntarily transmit +disease, or fatuity, or deformity to his offspring? If man be the most +perfect work of the Creator, and the civilized European man the most +perfect variety of the human race, is he not criminal who would +desecrate and deface God's fairest work; estranging it further from the +image of himself, and conforming it more nearly to that of the brute? I +have heard it said, as if it afforded an argument, that the African is +as well satisfied of the superiority of his own complexion, form, and +features, as we can be of ours. If this were true, as it is not, would +any one be so recreant to his own civilization, as to say that his +opinion ought to weigh against ours--that there is no universal standard +of truth, and grace, and beauty--that the Hottentot Venus may perchance +possess as great perfection of form as the Medicean? It is true, the +licentious passions of men overcome the natural repugnance, and find +transient gratification in intercourse with females of the other race. +But this is a very different thing from making her the associate of +life, the companion of the bosom and the hearth. Him who would +contemplate such an alliance for himself, or regard it with patience, +when proposed for a son, or daughter, or sister, we should esteem a +degraded wretch--with justice, certainly, if he were found among +ourselves--and the estimate would not be very different if he were found +in Europe. It is not only in defense of ourselves, of our country, and +of our own generation, that we refuse to emancipate our slaves, but to +defend our posterity and race from degeneracy and degradation. + +Are we not justified then in regarding as criminals, the fanatical +agitators whose efforts are intended to bring about the evils I have +described? It is sometimes said that their zeal is generous and +disinterested, and that their motives may be praised, though their +conduct be condemned. But I have little faith in the good motives of +those who pursue bad ends. It is not for us to scrutinize the hearts of +men, and we can only judge of them by the tendency of their actions. +There is much truth in what was said by Coleridge. "I have never known a +trader in philanthropy who was not wrong in heart somehow or other. +Individuals so distinguished, are usually unhappy in their family +relations--men not benevolent or beneficent to individuals, but almost +hostile to them, yet lavishing money and labor and time on the race--the +abstract notion." The prurient love of notoriety actuates some. There is +much luxury in sentiment, especially if it can be indulged at the +expense of others, and if there be added some share of envy or +malignity, the temptation to indulgence is almost irresistible. But +certainly they may be justly regarded as criminal, who obstinately shut +their eyes and close their ears to all instruction with respect to the +true nature of their actions. + +It must be manifest to every man of sane mind that it is impossible for +them to achieve ultimate success; even if every individual in our +country, out of the limits of the slaveholding States, were united in +their purposes. They can not have even the miserable triumph of St. +Domingo--of advancing through scenes of atrocity, blood and massacre, to +the restoration of barbarism. They may agitate and perplex the world for +a time. They may excite to desperate attempts and particular acts of +cruelty and horror, but these will always be suppressed or avenged at +the expense of the objects of their truculent philanthropy. But short of +this, they can hardly be aware of the extent of the mischief they +perpetrate. As I have said, their opinions, by means to us inscrutable, +do very generally reach our slave population. What human being, if +unfavorably distinguished by outward circumstances, is not ready to +believe when he is told that he is the victim of injustice? Is it not +cruelty to make men restless and dissatisfied in their condition, when +no effort of theirs can alter it? The greatest injury is done to their +characters, as well as to their happiness. Even if no such feelings or +designs should be entertained or conceived by the slave, they will be +attributed to him by the master, and all his conduct scanned with a +severe and jealous scrutiny. Thus distrust and aversion are established, +where, but for mischievous interference, there would be confidence and +good-will, and a sterner control is exercised over the slave who thus +becomes the victim of his cruel advocates.[253] + +An effect is sometimes produced on the minds of slaveholders, by the +publications of the self-styled philanthropists, and their judgments +staggered and consciences alarmed. It is natural that the oppressed +should hate the oppressor. It is still more natural that the oppressor +should hate his victim. Convince the master that he is doing injustice +to his slave, and he at once begins to regard him with distrust and +malignity. It is a part of the constitution of the human mind, that when +circumstances of necessity or temptation induce men to continue in the +practice of what they believe to be wrong, they become desperate and +reckless of the degree of wrong. I have formerly heard of a master who +accounted for his practicing much severity upon his slaves, and exacting +from them an unusual degree of labor, by saying that the thing (slavery) +was altogether wrong, and therefore it was well to make the greatest +possible advantage out of it. This agitation occasions some slaveholders +to hang more loosely on their country. Regarding the institution as of +questionable character, condemned by the general opinion of the world, +and one which must shortly come to an end, they hold themselves in +readiness to make their escape from the evil which they anticipate. Some +sell their slaves to new masters (always a misfortune to the slave) and +remove themselves to other societies, of manners and habits uncongenial +to their own. And though we may suppose that it is only the weak and the +timid who are liable to be thus affected, still it is no less an injury +and public misfortune. Society is kept in an unquiet and restless state, +and every sort of improvement is retarded. + +Some projectors suggest the education of slaves, with a view to prepare +them for freedom--as if there were any method of a man's being educated +to freedom, but by himself. The truth is, however, that supposing that +they are shortly to be emancipated, and that they have the capacities of +any other race, they are undergoing the very best education which it is +possible to give. They are in the course of being taught habits of +regular and patient industry, and this is the first lesson which is +required. I suppose that their most zealous advocates would not desire +that they should be placed in the high places of society immediately +upon their emancipation, but that they should begin their course of +freedom as laborers, and raise themselves afterward as their capacities +and characters might enable them. But how little would what are commonly +called the rudiments of education, add to their qualifications as +laborers? But for the agitation which exists, however, their education +would be carried further than this. There is a constant tendency in our +society to extend the sphere of their employments, and consequently to +give them the information which is necessary to the discharge of those +employments. And this, for the most obvious reason, it promotes the +master's interest. How much would it add to the value of a slave, that +he should be capable of being employed as a clerk, or be able to make +calculations as a mechanic? In consequence, however, of the fanatical +spirit which has been excited, it has been thought necessary to repress +this tendency by legislation, and to prevent their acquiring the +knowledge of which they might make a dangerous use. If this spirit were +put down, and we restored to the consciousness of security, this would +be no longer necessary, and the process of which I have spoken would be +accelerated. Whenever indications of superior capacity appeared in a +slave, it would be cultivated; gradual improvement would take place, +until they might be engaged in as various employments as they were among +the ancients--perhaps even liberal ones. Thus, if in the adorable +providence of God, at a time and in a manner which we can neither +foresee nor conjecture, they are to be rendered capable of freedom and +to enjoy it, they would be prepared for it in the best and most +effectual, because in the most natural and gradual manner. But +fanaticism hurries to its effect at once. I have heard it said, God does +good, but it is by imperceptible degrees; the devil is permitted to do +evil, and he does it in a hurry. The beneficent processes of nature are +not apparent to the senses. You cannot see the plant grow, or the flower +expand. The volcano, the earthquake, and the hurricane, do their work of +desolation in a moment. Such would be the desolation, if the schemes of +fanatics were permitted to have effect. They do all that in them lies to +thwart the beneficent purposes of providence. The whole tendency of +their efforts is to aggravate present suffering, and to cut off the +chance of future improvement, and in all their bearings and results, +have produced, and are likely to produce, nothing but "pure, unmixed, +dephlegmated, defecated evil." + +If Wilberforce or Clarkson were living, and it were inquired of them +"can you be sure that you have promoted the happiness of a single human +being?" I imagine that, if they considered conscientiously, they would +find it difficult to answer in the affirmative. If it were asked "can +you be sure that you have not been the cause of suffering, misery and +death to thousands,"--when we recollect that they probably stimulated +the exertions of the _amis des noirs_ in France, and that through the +efforts of these the horrors of St. Domingo were perpetrated--I think +they must hesitate long to return a decided negative. It might seem +cruel, if we could, to convince a man who has devoted his life to what +he esteemed a good and generous purpose, that he has been doing only +evil--that he has been worshiping a horrid fiend, in the place of the +true God. But fanaticism is in no danger of being convinced.[254] It is +one of the mysteries of our nature, and of the divine government, how +utterly disproportioned to each other are the powers of doing evil and +of doing good. The poorest and most abject instrument, that is utterly +imbecile for any purpose of good, seems sometimes endowed with almost +the powers of omnipotence for mischief. A mole may inundate a +province--a spark from a forge may conflagrate a city--a whisper may +separate friends--a rumor may convulse an empire--but when we would do +benefit to our race or country, the purest and most chastened motives, +the most patient thought and labor, with the humblest self-distrust, are +hardly sufficient to assure us that the results may not disappoint our +expectations, and that we may not do evil instead of good. But are we +therefore to refrain from efforts to benefit our race and country? By no +means: but these motives, this labor and self-distrust are the only +conditions upon which we are permitted to hope for success. Very +different indeed is the course of those whose precipitate and ignorant +zeal would overturn the fundamental institutions of society, uproar its +peace and endanger its security, in pursuit of a distant and shadowy +good, of which they themselves have formed no definite conception--whose +atrocious philosophy would sacrifice a generation--and more than one +generation--for any hypothesis. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[233] President Dew's Review of the Virginia Debates on the subject of +Slavery. + +[234] Paulding on Slavery. + +[235] I refer to President Dew on this subject. + +[236] It is not uncommon, especially in Charleston, to see slaves, after +many descents and having mingled their blood with the Africans, +possessing Indian hair and features. + +[237] The author of "England and America." We do, however, most +indignantly repudiate his conclusion, that we are bound to submit to a +tariff of protection, as an expedient for retaining our slaves, "the +force of the whole Union being required to preserve slavery, to keep +down the slaves." + +[238] Fourierites, Socialists. + +[239] The Irish levee and rail-road laborers are driven by blows. + +[240] English papers propose _this_ for the West India negroes. + +[241] Essays of Elia. + +[242] _Southern Literary Messenger_, for January, 1835. _Note to +Blackstone's Commentaries._. + +[243] See Missionary reports, statistics; also, Prof. Christy's +Ethiopia.--_Editor._ + +[244] Journal of an officer employed in the expedition, under the +command of Captain Owen, on the Western coast of Africa, 1822. + +[245] The slaves of the "Wanderer" were returned to Africa against their +wills.--_Editor._ + +[246] In relation to the Missouri Controversy, J. Q. Adams +said:--_Editor._ + +"There is now every appearance that the slave question will be carried +by the superior ability of the slavery party. For this much is certain, +that if institutions are to be judged by their results in the +composition of the councils of the Union, the slaveholders are much more +ably represented than the simple freemen."--_Life of J. Q. Adams, by +Josiah Quincy, p. 98._" + +"Never, since human sentiment and human conduct were influenced by human +speech, was there a theme for eloquence like the free side of this +question, now before the Congress of the Union. By what fatality does it +happen that all the most eloquent orators are on its slavish +side?"--_Ibid. p. 103._ + +"In the progress of this affair the distinctive character of the +inhabitants of the several great divisions of this Union has been shown +more in relief than perhaps in any national transaction since the +establishment of the Constitution. It is, perhaps, accidental that the +combination of talent and influence has been the greatest on the slave +side."--_Ibid. p. 118._ + +[247] The author of England and America thus speaks of the Colombian +Republic: + +"During some years, this colony has been an independent state; but the +people dispersed over this vast and fertile plain, have almost ceased to +cultivate the good land at their disposal; they subsist principally, +many of them entirely, on the flesh of wild cattle; they have lost most +of the arts of civilized life; not a few of them are in a state of +deplorable misery; and if they should continue, as it seems probable +they will, to retrograde as at present, the beautiful pampas of Buenos +Ayres will soon be fit for another experiment in colonization. Slaves, +black or yellow, would have cultivated those plains, would have kept +together, would have been made to assist each other; would, by keeping +together and assisting each other, have raised a surplus produce +exchangeable in distant markets; would have kept their masters together +for the sake of markets; would, by combination of labor, have preserved +among their masters the arts and habits of civilized life." Yet this +writer, the whole practical effect of whose work, whatever he may have +thought or intended, is to show the absolute necessity, and immense +benefits of slavery, finds it necessary to add, I suppose in deference +to the general sentiment of his countrymen, "that slavery might have +done all this, seems not more plain, than that so much good would have +been bought too dear, if its price had been slavery." Well may we say +that the word makes men mad. + +[248] Johnson on Change of Air. + +[249] Eight days in the Abruzzi.--_Blackwood's Magazine_, November, +1835. + +[250] I do not use the word democracy in the Athenian sense, but to +describe the government in which the slave and his master have an equal +voice in public affairs. + +[251] Example of St. Domingo. + +[252] Effects in Mexico and South American republics among the mongrel +races. See Prof. Christy's Ethiopia. + +[253] On the abolition of slavery, Mr. Adams observed: "It is the only +part of European democracy which will find no favor in the United +States. It may aggravate the condition of slaves in the South, but the +result of the Missouri question, and the attitude of parties, have +silenced most of the declaimers on the subject. This state of things is +not to continue forever. It is possible that the danger of the abolition +doctrines, when brought home to Southern statesmen, may teach them the +value of the Union, as the only means which can maintain their system of +slavery."--Life of J. Q. Adams, page 177.--_Editor._ + +[254] Invariably true. + + +[Illustration] + + + + +SLAVERY + +IN THE LIGHT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE. + +BY + +J. H. HAMMOND, + +OF SOUTH CAROLINA. + + + + +SLAVERY + +IN + +THE LIGHT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE. + + +LETTER I. + + Statement of the Question--Slave Trade increased + by the efforts made to suppress it--Title to + Slaves, to Lands--Abstract Ideas--Is Slavery + Sin?--Argument from the Old Testament--Argument + from the New Testament--The "Higher + Law"--Political Influence of Slavery--Free Labor + Police--In war, Slavery is Strength--Code of + Honor--Mercantile Credit--Religion and + Education--Licentiousness and Purity--Economy of + Slave Labor, and of Free Labor--Responsibility of + Power--Kindness and Cruelty--Curtailment of + Privileges--Punishment of Slaves, children and + soldiers--Police of Slavery--Condition of + Slaves--Condition of Free Laborers in + England--Slavery a necessary condition of human + Society--Moral Suasion of the + Abolitionists--Coolie Labor--Results of + Emancipation in the West Indies--Revival of the + Slave Trade by Emancipationists--Results of + Emancipation in the United States--Radicalism of + the present Age. + + + SILVER BLUFF, (SO. CA.,) JANUARY 28, 1845. + +SIR: I received, a short time ago, a letter from the Rev. Willoughby M. +Dickinson, dated at your residence, "Playford Hall, near Ipswich, 26th +November, 1844," in which was inclosed a copy of your Circular Letter, +addressed to professing Christians in our Northern States, having no +concern with slavery, and to others there. I presume that Mr. +Dickinson's letter was written with your knowledge, and the document +inclosed with your consent and approbation. I therefore feel that there +is no impropriety in my addressing my reply directly to yourself, +especially as there is nothing in Mr. Dickinson's communication +requiring serious notice. Having abundant leisure, it will be a +recreation to devote a portion of it to an examination and free +discussion of the question of slavery as it exists in our Southern +States: and since you have thrown down the gauntlet to me, I do not +hesitate to take it up. + +Familiar as you have been with the discussions of this subject in all +its aspects, and under all the excitements it has occasioned for sixty +years past, I may not be able to present much that will be new to you. +Nor ought I to indulge the hope of materially affecting the opinions you +have so long cherished, and so zealously promulgated. Still, time and +experience have developed facts, constantly furnishing fresh tests to +opinions formed sixty years since, and continually placing this great +question in points of view, which could scarcely occur to the most +consummate intellect even a quarter of a century ago: and which may not +have occurred yet to those whose previous convictions, prejudices, and +habits of thought, have thoroughly and permanently biased them to one +fixed way of looking at the matter: while there are peculiarities in the +operation of every social system, and special local as well as moral +causes materially affecting it, which no one, placed at the distance you +are from us, can fully comprehend or properly appreciate. Besides, it +may be possibly, a novelty to you to encounter one who conscientiously +believes the domestic slavery of these States to be not only an +inexorable necessity for the present, but a moral and humane +institution, productive of the greatest political and social advantages, +and who is disposed, as I am, to defend it on these grounds. + +I do not propose, however, to defend the African slave trade. That is no +longer a question. Doubtless great evils arise from it as it has been, +and is now conducted: unnecessary wars and cruel kidnapping in Africa: +the most shocking barbarities in the middle passage: and perhaps a less +humane system of slavery in countries continually supplied with fresh +laborers at a cheap rate. The evils of it, however, it may be fairly +presumed, are greatly exaggerated. And if I might judge of the truth of +transactions stated as occurring in this trade, by that of those +reported as transpiring among us, I should not hesitate to say, that a +large proportion of the stories in circulation are unfounded, and most +of the remainder highly colored. + +On the passage of the Act of Parliament prohibiting this trade to +British subjects rests, what you esteem, the glory of your life. It +required twenty years of arduous agitation, and the intervening +extraordinary political events, to convince your countrymen, and among +the rest your pious king, of the expediency of the measure: and it is +but just to say, that no one individual rendered more esessential +service to the cause than you did. In reflecting on the subject, you can +not but often ask yourself: What, after all, has been accomplished; how +much human suffering has been averted; how many human beings have been +rescued from transatlantic slavery? And on the answers you can give +these questions, must in a great measure, I presume, depend the +happiness of your life. In framing them, how frequently must you be +reminded of the remark of Mr. Grosvenor, in one of the early debates +upon the subject, which I believe you have yourself recorded, "that he +had twenty objections to the abolition of the slave trade: the first +was, _that it was impossible_--the rest he need not give." Can you say +to yourself, or to the world, that this _first_ objection of Mr. +Grosvenor has been yet confuted? It was estimated at the commencement of +your agitation in 1787, that forty-five thousand Africans were annually +transported to America and the West Indies. And the mortality of the +middle passage, computed by some at five, is now admitted not to have +exceeded nine per cent. Notwithstanding your Act of Parliament, the +previous abolition by the United States, and that all the powers in the +world have subsequently prohibited this trade--some of the greatest of +them declaring it piracy, and covering the African seas with armed +vessels to prevent it--Sir Thomas Fowel Buxton, a coadjutor of yours, +declared in 1840, that the number of Africans now annually sold into +slavery beyond the sea, amounts, at the very least, to one hundred and +fifty thousand souls; while the mortality of the middle passage has +increased, in consequence of the measures taken to suppress the trade, +to twenty-five or thirty per cent. And of the one hundred and fifty +thousand slaves who have been captured and liberated by British +men-of-war, since the passage of your Act, Judge Jay, an American +abolitionist, asserts that one hundred thousand, or two-thirds, have +perished between their capture and liberation. Does it not really seem +that Mr. Grosvenor was a prophet? That though nearly all the +"impossibilities" of 1787 have vanished, and become as familiar _facts_ +as our household customs, under the magic influence of steam, cotton, +and universal peace, yet this wonderful prophecy still stands, defying +time and the energy and genius of mankind. Thousands of valuable lives, +and fifty millions of pounds sterling, have been thrown away by your +government in fruitless attempts to overturn it. I hope you have not +lived too long for your own happiness, though you have been spared to +see that in spite of all your toils and those of your fellow laborers, +and the accomplishment of all that human agency could do, the African +slave trade has increased three-fold under your own eyes--more rapidly, +perhaps, than any other ancient branch of commerce--and that your +efforts to suppress it, have affected _nothing more_ than a +three-fold increase of its horrors. There is a God who rules this +world--all-powerful--far-seeing: He does not permit his creatures to +foil his designs. It is he who, for his all-wise, though to us often +inscrutable purposes, throws "impossibilities" in the way of our fondest +hopes and most strenuous exertions. Can you doubt this? + +Experience having settled the point, that this trade _can not be +abolished by the use of force_, and that blockading squadrons serve only +to make it more profitable and more cruel, I am surprised that the +attempt is persisted in, unless it serves as a cloak to other purposes. +It would be far better than it now is, for the African, if the trade was +free from all restrictions, and left to the mitigation and decay which +time and competition would surely bring about. If kidnapping, both +secretly, and by war made for the purpose, could be by any means +prevented in Africa, the next greatest blessing you could bestow upon +that country would be to transport its actual slaves in comfortable +vessels across the Atlantic. Though they might be perpetual bondsmen, +still they would emerge from darkness into light--from barbarism into +civilization--from idolatry to Christianity--in short from death to +life. + +But let us leave the African slave trade, which has so signally defeated +the _philanthropy_ of the world, and turn to American slavery, to which +you have now directed your attention, and against which a crusade has +been preached as enthusiastic and ferocious as that of Peter the +Hermit--destined, I believe, to be about as successful. And here let me +say, there is a vast difference between the two, though you may not +acknowledge it. The wisdom of ages has concurred in the justice and +expediency of establishing rights by prescriptive use, however tortuous +in their origin they may have been. You would deem a man insane, whose +keen sense of equity would lead him to denounce your right to the lands +you hold, and which perhaps you inherited from a long line of ancestry, +because your title was derived from a Saxon or Norman conqueror, and +your lands were originally wrested by violence from the vanquished +Britons. And so would the New England abolitionists regard any one who +would insist that he should restore his farm to the descendants of the +slaughtered red men, to whom God had as clearly given it as he gave life +and freedom to the kidnapped African. That time does not consecrate +wrong, is a fallacy which all history exposes; and which the best and +wisest men of all ages and professions of religious faith have +practically denied. The means, therefore, whatever they may have been, +by which the African race now in this country have been reduced to +slavery, cannot affect us, since they are our property, as your land is +yours, by inheritance or purchase and prescriptive right. You will say +that man cannot hold _property in man_. The answer is, that he can and +_actually does_ hold property in his fellow all the world over, in a +variety of forms, and _has always done so_. I will show presently his +authority for doing it. + +If you were to ask me whether I am an advocate of slavery in the +abstract, I should probably answer, that I am not, according to my +understanding of the question. I do not like to deal in abstractions. It +seldom leads to any useful ends. There are few universal truths. I do +not now remember any single moral truth universally acknowledged. We +have no assurance that it is given to our finite understanding to +comprehend abstract moral truth. Apart from revelation and the inspired +writings, what ideas should we have even of God, salvation, and +immortality? Let the heathen answer. Justice itself is impalpable as an +abstraction, and abstract liberty the merest phantasy that ever amused +the imagination. This world was made for man, and man for the world as +it is. We ourselves, our relations with one another and with all matter, +are real, not ideal. I might say that I am no more in favor of slavery +in the abstract, than I am of poverty, disease, deformity, idiocy, or +any other inequality in the condition of the human family; that I love +perfection, and think I should enjoy a millennium such as God has +promised. But what would it amount to? A pledge that I would join you to +set about eradicating those apparently inevitable evils of our nature, +in equalizing the condition of all mankind, consummating the perfection +of our race, and introducing the millennium? By no means. To effect +these things, belongs exclusively to a higher power. And it would be +well for us to leave the Almighty to perfect his own works and fulfill +his own covenants. Especially, as the history of the past shows how +entirely futile all human efforts have proved, when made for the purpose +of aiding him in carrying out even his revealed designs, and how +invariably he has accomplished them by unconscious instruments, and in +the face of human expectation. Nay more, that every attempt which has +been made by fallible man to extort from the world obedience to his +"abstract" notions of right and wrong, has been invariably attended with +calamities dire, and extended just in proportion to the breadth and +vigor of the movement. On slavery in the abstract, then, it would not be +amiss to have as little as possible to say. Let us contemplate it as it +is. And thus contemplating it, the first question we have to ask +ourselves is, whether it is contrary to the will of God, as revealed to +us in his Holy Scriptures--the only certain means given us to ascertain +his will. If it is, then slavery is a sin. And I admit at once that +every man is bound to set his face against it, and to emancipate his +slaves, should he hold any. + +Let us open these Holy Scriptures. In the twentieth chapter of Exodus, +seventeenth verse, I find the following words: "Thou shalt not covet thy +neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his +man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any +thing that is thy neighbor's"--which is the tenth of those commandments +that declare the essential principles of the great moral law delivered +to Moses by God himself. Now, discarding all technical and verbal +quibbling as wholly unworthy to be used in interpreting the word of God, +what is the plain meaning, undoubted intent, and true spirit of this +commandment? Does it not emphatically and explicitly forbid you to +disturb your neighbor in the enjoyment of his property; and more +especially of that which is here specifically mentioned as being +lawfully, and by this commandment made sacredly his? Prominent in the +catalogue stands his "man-servant and his maid-servant," who are thus +distinctly _consecrated as his property_, and guaranteed to him for his +exclusive benefit, in the most solemn manner. You attempt to avert the +otherwise irresistible conclusion, that slavery was thus ordained by +God, by declaring that the word "slave" is not used here, and is not to +be found in the Bible, And I have seen many learned dissertations on +this point from abolition pens. It is well known that both the Hebrew +and Greek words translated "servant" in the Scriptures, means also, and +most usually, "slave." The use of the one word, instead of the other, +was a mere matter of taste with the translators of the Bible, as it has +been with all the commentators and religions writers, the latter of whom +have, I believe, for the most part, adopted the term "slave," or used +both terms indiscriminately. If, then, these Hebrew and Greek words +include the idea of both systems of servitude, the conditional and +unconditional, they should, as the major includes the minor proposition, +be always translated "slaves," unless the sense of the whole text +forbids it. The real question, then is, what idea is intended to be +conveyed by the words used in the commandment quoted? And it is clear to +my mind, that as no limitation is affixed to them, and the express +intention was to secure to mankind the peaceful enjoyment of every +species of property, that the terms "men-servants and maid-servants" +include all classes of servants, and establish a lawful, exclusive, and +indefeasible interest equally in the "Hebrew brother who shall go out in +the seventh year," and "the yearly hired servant," and "those purchased +from the heathen round about," who were to be "bond-men forever," _as +the property of their fellow-man_. + +You cannot deny that there were among the Hebrews "bond-men forever." +You cannot deny that God especially authorized his chosen people to +purchase "bond-men forever" from the heathen, as recorded in the +twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus, and that they are there designated by +the very Hebrew word used in the tenth commandment. Nor can you deny +that a "BOND-MAN FOREVER" is a "SLAVE;" yet you endeavor to hang an +argument of immortal consequence upon the wretched subterfuge, that the +precise word "slave" is not to be found in the _translation_ of the +Bible. As if the translators were canonical expounders of the Holy +Scriptures, and _their words_, not _God's meaning_, must be regarded as +his revelation. + +It is vain to look to Christ or any of his apostles to justify such +blasphemous perversions of the word of God. Although slavery in its most +revolting form was everywhere visible around them, no visionary notions +of piety or philanthropy ever tempted them to gainsay the LAW, even to +mitigate the cruel severity of the existing system. On the contrary, +regarding slavery as an _established_, as well as _inevitable condition +of human society_, they never hinted at such a thing as its termination +on earth, any more than that "the poor may cease out of the land," +which God affirms to Moses shall never be: and they exhort "all servants +under the yoke" to "count their masters as worthy of all honor:" "to +obey them in all things according to the flesh; not with eye-service as +men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God;" "not only the +good and gentle, but also the froward:" "for what glory is it if when ye +are buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently? but if when ye +do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently, this is acceptable to +God." St. Paul actually apprehended a run-away slave, and sent him to +his master! Instead of deriving from the gospel any sanction for the +work you have undertaken, it would be difficult to imagine sentiments +and conduct more strikingly in contrast, than those of the apostles and +the abolitionists. + +It is impossible, therefore, to suppose that slavery is contrary to the +will of God. It is equally absurd to say that American slavery differs +in form or principle from that of the chosen people. _We accept the +Bible terms as the definition of our slavery, and its precepts as the +guide of our conduct._ We desire nothing more. Even the right to +"buffet," which is esteemed so shocking, finds its express license in +the gospel. 1 Peter ii. 20. Nay, what is more, God directs the Hebrews +to "bore holes in the ears of their brothers" to _mark_ them, when under +certain circumstances they become _perpetual slaves_. Exodus xxi. 6. + +I think, then, I may safely conclude, and I firmly believe, that +American slavery is not only not a sin, but especially commanded by God +through Moses, and approved by Christ through his apostles. And here I +might close its defense; for what God ordains, and Christ sanctifies, +should surely command the respect and toleration of man. But I fear +there has grown up in our time a transcendental religion, which is +throwing even transcendental philosophy into the shade--a religion too +pure and elevated for the Bible; which seeks to erect among men a higher +standard of morals than the Almighty has revealed, or our Saviour +preached; and which is probably destined to do more to impede the +extension of God's kingdom on earth than all the infidels who have ever +lived. Error is error. It is as dangerous to deviate to the right hand +as to the left. And when men, professing to be holy men, and who are by +numbers so regarded, declare those things to be sinful which our Creator +has expressly authorized and instituted, they do more to destroy his +authority among mankind than the most wicked can effect, by proclaiming +that to be innocent which he has forbidden. To this self-righteous and +self-exalted class belong all the abolitionists whose writings I have +read. With them it is no end of the argument to prove your propositions +by the text of the Bible, interpreted according to its plain and +palpable meaning, and as understood by all mankind for three thousand +years before their time. They are more ingenious at construing and +interpolating to accommodate it to their new-fangled and ethereal code +of morals, than ever were Voltaire and Hume in picking it to pieces, to +free the world from what they considered a delusion. When the +abolitionists proclaim "man-stealing" to be a sin, and show me that it +is so written down by God, I admit them to be right, and shudder at the +idea of such a crime. But when I show them that to hold "bond-men +forever" is ordained by God, _they deny the Bible, and set up in its +place a law of their own making_. I must then cease to reason with them +on this branch of the question. Our religion differs as widely as our +manners. The great Judge in our day of final account must decide between +us. + +Turning from the consideration of slaveholding in its relations to man +as an accountable being, let us examine it in its influence on his +political and social state. Though, being foreigners to us, you are in +no wise entitled to interfere with the civil institutions of this +country, it has become quite common for your countrymen to decry slavery +as an enormous political evil to us, and even to declare that our +Northern States ought to withdraw from the Confedracy rather than +continue to be contaminated by it. The American abolitionists appear to +concur fully in these sentiments, and a portion, at least, of them are +incessantly threatening to dissolve the Union. Nor should I be at all +surprised if they succeed. It would not be difficult, in my opinion, to +conjecture which region, the North or South, would suffer most by such +an event. For one, I should not object, by any means, to cast my lot in +a confederacy of States whose citizens might all be slaveholders. + +I indorse without reserve the much abused sentiment of Governor +M'Duffie, that "slavery is the corner-stone of our republican edifice;" +while I repudiate, as ridiculously absurd, that much lauded but nowhere +accredited dogma of Mr. Jefferson, that "all men are born equal."[255] +No society has ever yet existed, and I have already incidentally quoted +the highest authority to show that none ever will exist, without a +natural variety of classes. The most marked of these must, in a country +like ours, be the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant. It +will scarcely be disputed that the very poor have less leisure to +prepare themselves for the proper discharge of public duties than the +rich; and that the ignorant are wholly unfit for them at all. In all +countries save ours, these two classes, or the poor rather, who are +presumed to be necessarily ignorant, are by law expressly excluded from +all participation in the management of public affairs. In a Republican +Government this can not be done. Universal suffrage, though not +essential in theory, seems to be in fact a necessary appendage to a +republican system. Where universal suffrage obtains, it is obvious that +the government is in the hands of a numerical majority; and it is hardly +necessary to say that in every part of the world more than half the +people are ignorant and poor. Though no one can look upon poverty as a +crime, and we do not here generally regard it as any objection to a man +in his individual capacity, still it must be admitted that it is a +wretched and insecure government which is administered by its most +ignorant citizens, and those who have the least at stake under it. +Though intelligence and wealth have great influence here, as everywhere, +in keeping in check reckless and unenlightened numbers, yet it is +evident to close observers, if not to all, that these are rapidly +usurping all power in the non-slaveholding States, and threaten a +fearful crisis in republican institutions there at no remote period. In +the slaveholding States, however, nearly one-half of the whole +population, and those the poorest and most ignorant, have no political +influence whatever, because they are slaves. Of the other half, a large +proportion are both educated and independent in their circumstances, +while those who unfortunately are not so, being still elevated far above +the mass, are higher toned and more deeply interested in preserving a +stable and well-ordered government, than the same class in any other +country. Hence, slavery is truly the "corner-stone" and foundation of +every well-designed and durable "republican edifice." + +With us every citizen is concerned in the maintenance of order, and in +promoting honesty and industry among those of the lowest class who are +our slaves; and our habitual vigilance renders standing armies, whether +of soldiers or policemen, entirely unnecessary. Small guards in our +cities, and occasional patrols in the country, insure us a repose and +security known no where else. You can not be ignorant that, excepting +the United States, there is no country in the world whose existing +government would not be overturned in a month, but for its standing +armies, maintained at an enormous and destructive cost to those whom +they are destined to overawe--so rampant and combative is the spirit of +discontent wherever nominal free labor prevails, with its extensive +privileges and its dismal servitude. Nor will it be long before the +"_free States_" of this Union will be compelled to introduce the same +expensive machinery, to preserve order among their "free and equal" +citizens. Already has Philadelphia organized a permanent battalion for +this purpose; New York, Boston and Cincinnati will soon follow her +example; and then the smaller towns and densely populated counties. The +intervention of their militia to repress violations of the peace is +becoming a daily affair. A strong government, after some of the old +fashions--though probably with a new name--sustained by the force of +armed mercenaries, is the ultimate destiny of the non-slaveholding +section of this confederacy, and one which may not be very distant. + +It is a great mistake to suppose, as is generally done abroad, that in +case of war slavery would be a source of weakness. It did not weaken +Rome, nor Athens, nor Sparta, though their slaves were comparatively far +more numerous than ours, of the same color for the most part with +themselves, and large numbers of them familiar with the use of arms. I +have no apprehension that our slaves would seize such an opportunity to +revolt. The present generation of them, born among us, would never think +of such a thing at any time, unless instigated to it by others. Against +such instigations we are always on our guard. In time of war we should +be more watchful and better prepared to put down insurrections than at +any other periods. Should any foreign nation be so lost to every +sentiment of civilized humanity, as to attempt to erect among us the +standard of revolt, or to invade us with black troops, for the base and +barbarous purpose of stirring up servile war, their efforts would be +signally rebuked. Our slaves could not be easily seduced, nor would any +thing delight them more than to assist in stripping Cuffee of his +regimentals to put him in the cotton-field, which would be the fate of +most black invaders, without any very prolix form of "apprenticeship." +If, as I am satisfied would be the case, our slaves remained peaceful on +our plantations, and cultivated them in time of war under the +superintendence of a limited number of our citizens, it is obvious that +we could put forth more strength in such an emergency, at less +sacrifice, than any other people of the same numbers. And thus we should +in every point of view, "out of this nettle danger, pluck the flower +safety." + +How far slavery may be an advantage or disadvantage to those not owning +slaves, yet united with us in political association, is a question for +their sole consideration. It is true that our representation in Congress +is increased by it. But so are our taxes; and the non-slaveholding +States, being the majority, divide among themselves far the greater +portion of the amount levied by the Federal Government. And I doubt not +that, when it comes to a close calculation, they will not be slow in +finding out that the balance of profit arising from the connection is +vastly in their favor. + +In a social point of view the abolitionists pronounce slavery to be a +monstrous evil. If it was so, it would be our own peculiar concern, and +superfluous benevolence in them to lament over it. Seeing their bitter +hostility to us, they might leave us to cope with our own calamities. +But they make war upon us out of excess of charity, and attempt to +purify by covering us with calumny. You have read and assisted to +circulate a great deal about affrays, duels and murders, occurring here, +and all attributed to the terrible demoralization of slavery. Not a +single event of this sort takes place among us, but it is caught up by +the abolitionists, and paraded over the world, with endless comments, +variations and exaggerations. You should not take what reaches you as a +mere sample, and infer that there is a vast deal more you never hear. +You hear all, and more than all, the truth. + +It is true that the point of honor is recognized throughout the slave +region, and that disputes of certain classes are frequently referred for +adjustment, to the "trial by combat." It would not be appropriate for me +to enter, in this letter, into a defense of the practice of duelling, +nor to maintain at length, that it does not tarnish the character of a +people to acknowledge a standard of honor. Whatever evils may arise from +it, however, they can not be attributed to slavery, since the same +custom prevails both in France and England. Few of your Prime Ministers, +of the last half century even, have escaped the contagion, I believe. +The affrays, of which so much is said, and in which rifles, bowie-knives +and pistols are so prominent, occur mostly in the frontier States of the +South-West. They are naturally incidental to the condition of society, +as it exists in many sections of these recently settled countries, and +will as naturally cease in due time. Adventurers from the older States, +and from Europe, as desperate in character as they are in fortune, +congregate in these wild regions, jostling one another and often forcing +the peaceable and honest into rencontres in self-defense. Slavery has +nothing to do with these things. Stability and peace are the first +desires of every slaveholder, and the true tendency of the system. It +could not possibly exist amid the eternal anarchy and civil broils of +the ancient Spanish dominions in America. And for this very reason, +domestic slavery has ceased there. So far from encouraging strife, such +scenes of riot and bloodshed, as have within the last few years +disgraced our Northern cities, and as you have lately witnessed in +Birmingham and Bristol and Wales, not only never have occurred, but I +will venture to say, never will occur in our slaveholding States. The +only thing that can create a mob (as you might call it) here, is the +appearance of an abolitionist, whom the people assemble to chastise. And +this is no more of a mob, than a rally of shepherds to chase a wolf out +of their pastures would be one. + +But we are swindlers and repudiators? Pennsylvania is not a slave State. +A majority of the States which have failed to meet their obligations +punctually are non-slaveholding; and two-thirds of the debt said to be +repudiated is owed by these States. Many of the States of this Union are +heavily encumbered with debt--none so hopelessly as England. +Pennsylvania owes $22 for each inhabitant--England $222, counting her +paupers in. Nor has there been any repudiation definite and final, of a +lawful debt, that I am aware of. A few States have failed to pay some +installments of interest. The extraordinary financial difficulties which +occurred a few years ago will account for it. Time will set all things +right again. Every dollar of both principal and interest, owed by any +State, North or South, will be ultimately paid, _unless the abolition of +slavery overwhelms us all in one common ruin_. But have no other nations +failed to pay? When were the French Assignats redeemed? How much +interest did your National Bank pay on its immense circulation, from +1797 to 1821, during which period that circulation was inconvertible, +and for the time _repudiated_? How much of your national debt has been +incurred for money borrowed to meet the interest on it, thus avoiding +delinquency in detail, by insuring inevitable bankruptcy and repudiation +in the end? And what sort of operation was that by which your present +Ministry recently expunged a handsome amount of that debt, by +substituting, through a process just not compulsory, one species of +security for another? I am well aware that the faults of others do not +excuse our own, but when failings are charged to slavery, which are +shown to occur to equal extent where it does not exist, surely slavery +must be acquitted of the accusation. + +It is roundly asserted, that we are not so well educated nor so +religious here as elsewhere. I will not go into tedious statistical +statements on these subjects. Nor have I, to tell the truth, much +confidence in the details of what are commonly set forth as statistics. +As to education, you will probably admit that slaveholders should have +more leisure for mental culture than most people. And I believe it is +charged against them, that they are peculiarly fond of power, and +ambitious of honors. If this be so, as all the power and honors of this +country are won mainly by intellectual superiority, it might be fairly +presumed, that slaveholders would not be neglectful of education. In +proof of the accuracy of this presumption, I point you to the facts, +that our Presidential chair has been occupied for forty-four out of +fifty-six years, by slaveholders; that another has been recently elected +to fill it for four more, over an opponent who was a slaveholder also; +and that in the Federal Offices and both Houses of Congress, +considerably more than a due proportion of those acknowledged to stand +in the first rank are from the South. In this arena, the intellects of +the free and slave States meet in full and fair competition. Nature +must have been unusually bountiful to us, or we have been at least +reasonably assiduous in the cultivation of such gifts as she has +bestowed--unless indeed you refer our superiority to moral qualities, +which I am sure _you_ will not. More wealthy we are not; nor would mere +wealth avail in such rivalry. + +The piety of the South is inobtrusive. We think it proves but little, +though it is a confident thing for a man to claim that he stands higher +in the estimation of his Creator, and is less a sinner than his +neighbor. If vociferation is to carry the question of religion, the +North, and probably the Scotch, have it. Our sects are few, harmonious, +pretty much united among themselves, and pursue their avocations in +humble peace. In fact, our professors of religion seem to think--whether +correctly or not--that it is their duty "to do good in secret," and to +carry their holy comforts to the heart of each individual, without +reference to class _or color_, for his special enjoyment, and not with a +view to exhibit their zeal before the world. So far as numbers are +concerned, I believe our clergymen, when called on to make a showing, +have never had occasion to blush, if comparisons were drawn between the +free and slave States. And although our presses do not teem with +controversial pamphlets, nor our pulpits shake with excommunicating +thunders, the daily walk of our religious communicants furnishes, +apparently, as little food for gossip as is to be found in most other +regions. It may be regarded as a mark of our want of excitability--though +that is a quality accredited to us in an eminent degree--that few of the +remarkable religious _Isms_ of the present day have taken root among us. +We have been so irreverent as to laugh at Mormonism and Millerism, which +have created such commotions further North; and modern prophets have no +honor in our country. Shakers, Rappists, Dunkers, Socialists, +Fourrierists, and the like, keep themselves afar off. Even Puseyism has +not yet moved us. You may attribute this to our domestic slavery if you +choose. I believe you would do so justly. There is no material here for +such characters to operate upon. + +But your grand charge is, that licentiousness in intercourse between the +sexes, is a prominent trait of our social system, and that it +necessarily arises from slavery. This is a favorite theme with the +abolitionists, male and female. Folios have been written on it. It is a +common observation, that there is no subject on which ladies of eminent +virtue so much delight to dwell, and on which in especial learned old +maids, like Miss Martineau, linger with such an insatiable relish. They +expose it in the slave States with the most minute observance and +endless iteration. Miss Martineau, with peculiar gusto, relates a series +of scandalous stories, which would have made Boccacio jealous of her +pen, but which are so ridiculously false as to leave no doubt, that some +wicked wag, knowing she would write a book, has furnished her +materials--a game too often played on tourists in this country. The +constant recurrence of the female abolitionists to this topic, and their +bitterness in regard to it, cannot fail to suggest to even the most +charitable mind, that + + "Such rage without betrays the fires within." + +Nor are their immaculate coadjutors of the other sex, though perhaps +less specific in their charges, less violent in their denunciations. But +recently in your island, a clergyman has, at a public meeting, +stigmatized the whole slave region as a "brothel." Do these people thus +cast stones, being "without sin?" Or do they only + + "Compound for sins they are inclined to + By damning those they have no mind to." + +Alas that David and Solomon should be allowed to repose in peace--that +Leo should be almost canonized, and Luther more than sainted--that in +our own day courtezans should be formally licensed in Paris, and +tenements in London rented for years to women of the town for the +benefit of the church, with the knowledge of the bishop--and the poor +slave States of America alone pounced upon, and offered up as a +holocaust on the altar of immaculateness, to atone for the abuse of +natural instinct by all mankind; and if not actually consumed, at least +exposed, anathematized and held up to scorn, by those who + + "Write, + Or with a rival's or an eunuch's spite." + +But I do not intend to admit that this charge is just or true. Without +meaning to profess uncommon modesty, I will say that I wish the topic +could be avoided. I am of opinion, and I doubt not every right-minded +man will concur, that the public exposure and discussion of this vice, +even to rebuke, invariably does more harm than good; and that if it +cannot be checked by instilling pure and virtuous sentiments, it is far +worse than useless to attempt to do it, by exhibiting its deformities. I +may not, however, pass it over; nor ought I to feel any delicacy in +examining a question, to which the slaveholder is invited and challenged +by clergymen and virgins. So far from allowing, then, that +licentiousness pervades this region, I broadly assert, and I refer to +the records of our courts, to the public press, and to the knowledge of +all who have ever lived here, that among our white population there are +fewer cases of divorce, separation, crim. con., seduction, rape and +bastardy, than among any other five millions of people on the civilized +earth. And this fact I believe will be conceded by the abolitionists of +this country themselves. I am almost willing to refer it to them and +submit to their decision on it. I would not hesitate to do so, if I +thought them capable of an impartial judgment on any matter where +slavery is in question. But it is said, that the licentiousness consists +in the constant intercourse between white males and colored females. One +of your heavy charges against us has been, that we regard and treat +those people as brutes; you now charge us with habitually taking them to +our bosoms. I will not comment on the inconsistency of these +accusations. I will not deny that some intercourse of the sort does take +place. Its character and extent, however, are grossly and atrociously +exaggerated. No authority, divine or human, has yet been found +sufficient to arrest all such irregularities among men. But it is a +known fact, that they are perpetrated here, for the most part, in the +cities. Very few mulattoes are reared on our plantations. In the cities, +a large proportion of the inhabitants do not own slaves. A still larger +proportion are natives of the North, or foreigners. They should share, +and justly, too, an equal part in this sin with the slaveholders. Facts +cannot be ascertained, or I doubt not, it would appear that they are the +chief offenders. If the truth be otherwise, then persons from abroad +have stronger prejudices against the African race than we have. Be this +as it may, it is well known, that this intercourse is regarded in our +society as highly disreputable. If carried on habitually, it seriously +affects a man's standing, so far as it is known; and he who takes a +colored mistress--with rare and extraordinary exceptions--loses caste at +once. You will say that _one_ exception should damn our whole country. +How much less criminal is it to take a white mistress? In your eyes it +should be at least an equal offense. Yet look around you at home, from +the cottage to the throne, and count how many mistresses are kept in +unblushing notoriety, without loss of caste. Such cases are nearly +unknown here, and down even to the lowest walks of life, it is almost +invariably fatal to a man's position and prospects to keep a mistress +openly, whether white or black. What Miss Martineau relates of a young +man's purchasing a colored concubine from a lady, and avowing his +designs, is too absurd even for contradiction. No person would dare to +allude to such a subject, in such a manner, to any decent female in this +country. + +After all, however, the number of the mixed breed, in proportion to that +of the black, is infinitely small, and out of the towns next to nothing. +And when it is considered that the African race has been among us for +two hundred years, and that those of the mixed breed continually +intermarry--often rearing large families--it is a decided proof of our +continence, that so few comparatively are to be found. Our misfortunes +are two-fold. From the prolific propagation of these mongrels among +themselves, we are liable to be charged by tourists with delinquencies +where none have been committed, while, where one has been, it cannot be +concealed. Color marks indelibly the offense, and reveals it to every +eye. Conceive that, even in your virtuous and polished country, if every +bastard, through all the circles of your social system, was thus branded +by nature and known to all, what shocking developments might there not +be! How little indignation might your saints have to spare for the +licentiousness of the slave region. But I have done with this disgusting +topic. And I think I may justly conclude, after all the scandalous +charges which tea-table gossip, and long-gowned hypocrisy have brought +against the slaveholders, that a people whose men are proverbially +brave, intellectual and hospitable, and whose women are unaffectedly +chaste, devoted to domestic life, and happy in it, can neither be +degraded nor demoralized, whatever their institutions may be. My decided +opinion is, that our system of slavery contributes largely to the +development and culture of those high and noble qualities. + +In an economical point of view--which I will not omit--slavery presents +some difficulties. As a general rule, I agree it must be admitted, that +free labor is cheaper than slave labor. It is a fallacy to suppose that +ours is _unpaid labor_. The slave himself must be paid for, and thus +his labor is all purchased at once, and for no trifling sum. His price +was, in the first place, paid mostly to your countrymen, and assisted in +building up some of those colossal English fortunes, since illustrated +by patents of nobility, and splendid piles of architecture, stained and +cemented, if you like the expression, with the blood of kidnapped +innocents; but loaded with no heavier curses than abolition and its +begotten fanaticisms have brought upon your land--some of them +fulfilled, some yet to be. But besides the first cost of the slave, he +must be fed and clothed, well fed and well clothed, if not for +humanity's sake, that he may do good work, retain health and life, and +rear a family to supply his place. When old or sick, he is a clear +expense, and so is the helpless portion of his family. No poor law +provides for him when unable to work, or brings up his children for our +service when we need them. These are all heavy charges on slave labor. +Hence, in all countries where the denseness of the population has +reduced it to a matter of perfect certainty, that labor can be obtained, +whenever wanted, and the laborer be forced, by sheer necessity, to hire +for the smallest pittance that will keep soul and body together, and +rags upon his back while in actual employment--dependent at all other +times on alms or poor rates--in all such countries it is found cheaper +to pay this pittance, than to clothe, feed, nurse, support through +childhood, and pension in old age, a race of slaves. Indeed, the +advantage is so great as speedily to compensate for the loss of the +value of the slave. And I have no hesitation in saying, that if I could +cultivate my lands on these terms, I would, without a word, resign my +slaves, provided they could be properly disposed of. But the question +is, whether free or slave labor is cheapest to us in this country, at +this time, situated as we are. And it is decided at once by the fact +that we can not avail ourselves of any other than slave labor. We +neither have, nor can we procure, other labor to any extent, or on any +thing like the terms mentioned. We must, therefore, content ourselves +with our dear labor, under the consoling reflection that what is lost to +us, is gained to humanity; and that, inasmuch as our slave costs us more +than your free men costs you, by so much is he better off. You will +promptly say, emancipate your slaves, and then you will have free labor +on suitable terms. That might be if there were five hundred where there +now is one, and the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was as +densely populated as your Island. But until that comes to pass, no labor +can be procured in America on the terms you have it. + +While I thus freely admit that to the individual proprietor slave labor +is dearer than free, I do not mean to admit as equally clear that it is +dearer to the community and to the State. Though it is certain that the +slave is a far greater consumer than your laborer, the year round, yet +your pauper system is costly and wasteful. Supported by your community +at large, it is not administered by your hired agents with that +interested care and economy--not to speak of humanity--which mark the +management of ours, by each proprietor, for his own non-effectives; and +is both more expensive to those who pay, and less beneficial to those +who receive its bounties. Besides this, slavery is rapidly filling up +our country with a hardy and healthy race, peculiarly adapted to our +climate and productions, and conferring signal political and social +advantages on us as a people, to which I have already referred. + +I have yet to reply to the main ground on which you and your coadjutors +rely for the overthrow of our system of slavery. Failing in all your +attempts to prove that it is sinful in its nature, immoral in its +effects, a political evil, and profitless to those who maintain it, you +appeal to the sympathies of mankind, and attempt to arouse the world +against us by the most shocking charges of tyranny and cruelty. You +begin by a vehement denunciation of "the irresponsible power of one man +over his fellow men." The question of the responsibility of power is a +vast one. It is the great political question of modern times. Whole +nations divide off upon it and establish different fundamental systems +of government. That "responsibility," which to one set of millions seems +amply sufficient to check the government, to the support of which they +devote their lives and fortunes, appears to another set of millions a +mere mockery of restraint. And accordingly as the opinions of these +millions differ, they honor each other with the epithets of "serfs" or +"anarchists." It is ridiculous to introduce such an idea as this into +the discussion of a mere domestic institution; but since you have +introduced it, I deny that the power of the slaveholder in America is +"irresponsible." He is responsible to God. He is responsible to the +world--a responsibility which abolitionists do not intend to allow him +to evade--and in acknowledgment of which, I write you this letter. He +is responsible to the community in which he lives, and to the laws under +which he enjoys his civil rights. Those laws do not permit him to kill, +to maim, or to punish beyond certain limits, or to overtask, or to +refuse to feed and clothe his slave. In short, they forbid him to be +tyrannical or cruel. If any of these laws have grown obsolete, it is +because they are so seldom violated, that they are forgotten. You have +disinterred one of them, from a compilation by some Judge Stroud of +Philadelphia, to stigmatize its inadequate penalties for killing, +maiming, etc. Your object appears to be--you can have no other--to +produce the impression, that it must be often violated on account of its +insufficiency. You say as much, and that it marks our estimate of the +slave. You forget to state that this law was enacted by _Englishmen_, +and only indicates _their_ opinion of the reparation due for these +offenses. Ours is proved by the fact, though perhaps unknown to Judge +Stroud or yourself, that we have essentially altered this law; and the +murder of a slave has for many years been punishable with death in this +State. And so it is, I believe, in most or all of the slave States. You +seem well aware, however, that laws have been recently passed in all +these States, making it penal to teach slaves to read. Do you know what +occasioned their passage, and renders their stringent enforcement +necessary? I can tell you. It was the abolition agitation. If the slave +is not allowed to read his Bible, the sin rests upon the abolitionists; +for they stand prepared to furnish him with a key to it, which would +make it, not a book of hope, and love, and peace, but of despair, hatred +and blood; which would convert the reader, not into a Christian, but a +demon. To preserve him from such a horrid destiny, it is a sacred duty +which we owe to our slaves, not less than to ourselves, to interpose the +most decisive means. If the Catholics deem it wrong to trust the Bible +to the hands of ignorance, shall we be excommunicated because we will +not give it, and with it the corrupt and fatal commentaries of the +abolitionists, to our slaves? Allow our slaves to read your writings, +stimulating them to cut our throats! Can you believe us to be such +unspeakable fools? + +I do not know that I can subscribe in full to the sentiment so often +quoted by the abolitionists, and by Mr. Dickinson in his letter to me: +"_Homo sum humani nihil a me alienum puto_," as translated and +practically illustrated by them. Such a doctrine would give wide +authority to every one for the most dangerous intermeddling with the +affairs of others. It will do in poetry--perhaps in some sorts of +philosophy--but the attempt to make it a household maxim, and introduce +it into the daily walks of life, has caused many a "homo" a broken +crown; and probably will continue to do it. Still, though a slaveholder, +I freely acknowledge my obligations as a man; and that I am bound to +treat humanely the fellow-creatures whom God has intrusted to my charge. +I feel, therefore, somewhat sensitive under the accusation of cruelty, +and disposed to defend myself and fellow-slaveholders against it. It is +certainly the interest of all, and I am convinced that it is also the +desire of every one of us, to treat our slaves with proper kindness. It +is necessary to our deriving the greatest amount of profit from them. Of +this we are all satisfied. And you snatch from us the only consolation +we Americans could derive from the opprobrious imputation of being +wholly devoted to making money, which your disinterested and +gold-despising countrymen delight to cast upon us, when you nevertheless +declare that we are ready to sacrifice it for the pleasure of being +inhuman. You remember that Mr. Pitt could not get over the idea that +self-interest would insure kind treatment to slaves, until you told him +your woful stories of the middle passage. Mr. Pitt was right in the +first instance, and erred, under your tuition, in not perceiving the +difference between a temporary and permanent ownership of them. +Slaveholders are no more perfect than other men. They have passions. +Some of them, as you may suppose, do not at all times restrain them. +Neither do husbands, parents and friends. And in each of these +relations, as serious suffering as frequently arises from uncontrolled +passions, as ever does in that of master and slave, and with as little +chance of indemnity. Yet you would not on that account break them up. I +have no hesitation in saying that our slaveholders are kind masters, as +men usually are kind husbands, parents and friends--as a general rule, +kinder. A bad master--he who overworks his slaves, provides ill for +them, or treats them with undue severity--loses the esteem and respect +of his fellow-citizens to as great an extent as he would for the +violation of any of his social and most of his moral obligations. What +the most perfect plan of management would be, is a problem hard to +solve. From the commencement of slavery in this country, this subject +has occupied the minds of all slaveholders, as much as the improvement +of the general condition of mankind has those of the most ardent +philanthropists; and the greatest progressive amelioration of the system +has been effected. You yourself acknowledge that in the early part of +your career you were exceedingly anxious for the _immediate_ abolition +of the slave trade, lest those engaged in it should so mitigate its +evils as to destroy the force of your arguments and facts. The +improvement you then _dreaded_ has gone on steadily here, and would +doubtless have taken place in the slave trade, but for the measures +adopted to suppress it. + +Of late years we have not only been annoyed, but greatly embarrassed in +this matter, by the abolitionists. We have been compelled to curtail +some privileges; we have been debarred from granting new ones. In the +face of discussions which aim at loosening all ties between master and +slave, we have in some measure to abandon our efforts to attach them to +us, and control them through their affections and pride. We have to rely +more and more on the power of fear. We must, in all our intercourse with +them, assert and maintain strict mastery, and impress it on them that +they are slaves. This is painful to us, and certainly no present +advantage to them. But it is the direct consequence of the abolition +agitation. We are determined to continue masters, and to do so we have +to draw the rein tighter and tighter day by day to be assured that we +hold them in complete check. How far this process will go on, depends +wholly and solely on the abolitionists. When they desist, we can relax. +We may not before. I do not mean by all this to say that we are in a +state of actual alarm and fear of our slaves; but under existing +circumstances we should be ineffably stupid not to increase our +vigilance and strengthen our hands. You see some of the fruits of your +labors. I speak freely and candidly--not as a colonist, who, though a +slaveholder, has a master; but as a free white man, holding, under God, +and resolved to hold, my fate in my own hands; and I assure you that my +sentiments, and feelings, and determinations, are those of every +slaveholder in this country. + +The research and ingenuity of the abolitionists, aided by the invention +of run-away slaves--in which faculty, so far as improvizing falsehood +goes, the African race is without a rival--have succeeded in shocking +the world with a small number of pretended instances of our barbarity. +The only wonder is, that considering the extent of our country, the +variety of our population, its fluctuating character, and the publicity +of all our transactions, the number of cases is so small. It speaks well +for us. Yet of these, many are false, all highly colored, some occurring +half a century, most of them many years ago; and no doubt a large +proportion of them perpetrated by foreigners. With a few rare +exceptions, the emigrant Scotch and English are the worst masters among +us, and next to them our Northern fellow-citizens. Slaveholders born and +bred here are always more humane to slaves, and those who have grown up +to a large inheritance of them, the most so of any--showing clearly that +the effect of the system is to foster kindly feelings. I do not mean so +much to impute innate inhumanity to foreigners, as to show that they +come here with false notions of the treatment usual and necessary for +slaves, and that newly acquired power here, as everywhere else, is apt +to be abused. I cannot enter into a detailed examination of the cases +stated by the abolitionists. It would be disgusting, and of little +avail. I know nothing of them. I have seen nothing like them, though +born and bred here, and have rarely heard of any thing at all to be +compared to them. Permit me to say that I think most of _your_ facts +must have been drawn from the West Indies, where undoubtedly slaves were +treated much more harshly than with us. This was owing to a variety of +causes, which might, if necessary, be stated. One was, that they had at +first to deal more extensively with barbarians fresh from the wilds of +Africa; another, and a leading one, the absenteeism of proprietors. +Agents are always more unfeeling than owners, whether placed over West +Indian or American slaves, or Irish tenantry. We feel this evil greatly +even here. You describe the use of _thumb screws_, as one mode of +punishment among us. I doubt if a thumb screw can be found in America. I +never saw or heard of one in this country. Stocks are rarely used by +private individuals, and confinement still more seldom, though both are +common punishments for whites, all the world over. I think they should +be more frequently resorted to with slaves, as substitutes for flogging, +which I consider the most injurious and least efficacious mode of +punishing them for serious offenses. It is not degrading, and unless +excessive, occasions little pain. You may be a little astonished, after +all the flourishes that have been made about "cart whips," etc., when I +say flogging is not the most degrading punishment in the world. It may +be so to a white man in most countries, but how is it to the white boy? +That necessary coadjutor of the schoolmaster, the "birch," is never +thought to have rendered infamous the unfortunate victim of pedagogue +ire; nor did Solomon in his wisdom dream that he was counseling parents +to debase their offspring, when he exhorted them not to spoil the child +by sparing the rod. Pardon me for recurring to the now exploded ethics +of the Bible. Custom, which, you will perhaps agree, makes most things +in this world good or evil, has removed all infamy from the punishment +of the lash to the slave. Your blood boils at the recital of stripes +inflicted on a man; and you think you should be frenzied to see your own +child flogged. Yet see how completely this is ideal, arising from the +fashions of society. You doubtless submitted to the rod yourself, in +other years, when the smart was perhaps as severe as it would be now; +and you have never been guilty of the folly of revenging yourself on the +Preceptor, who, in the plenitude of his "irresponsible power," thought +proper to chastise your son. So it is with the negro, and the negro +father. + +As to chains and irons, they are rarely used; never, I believe, except +in cases of running away. You will admit that if we pretend to own +slaves, they must not be permitted to abscond whenever they see fit; and +that if nothing else will prevent it, these means must be resorted to. +See the inhumanity necessarily arising from slavery, you will exclaim. +Are such restraints imposed on no other class of people, giving no more +offense? Look to your army and navy. If your seamen, impressed from +their peaceful occupations, and your soldiers, recruited at the +gin-shops--both of them as much kidnapped as the most unsuspecting +victim of the slave trade, and doomed to a far more wretched fate--if +these men manifest a propensity to desert, the heaviest manacles are +their mildest punishment. It is most commonly death, after summary +trial. But armies and navies, you say, are indispensable, and must be +kept up at every sacrifice. I answer, that they are no more +indispensable than slavery is to us--and to _you_; for you have enough +of it in your country, though the form and name differ from ours. + +Depend upon it that many things, and in regard to our slaves, most +things which appear revolting at a distance, and to slight reflection, +would, on a nearer view and impartial comparison with the customs and +conduct of the rest of mankind, strike you in a very different light. +Remember that on our estates we dispense with the whole machinery of +public police and public courts of justice. Thus we try, decide, and +execute the sentences, in thousands of cases, which in other countries +would go into the courts. Hence, most of the acts of our alleged +cruelty, which have any foundation in truth. Whether our patriarchal +mode of administering justice is less humane than the Assizes, can only +be determined by careful inquiry and comparison. But this is never done +by the abolitionists. All our punishments are the outrages of +"irresponsible power." If a man steals a pig in England, he is +transported--torn from wife, children, parents, and sent to the +antipodes, infamous, and an outcast forever, though probably he took +from the superabundance of his neighbor to save the lives of his +famishing little ones. If one of our well fed negroes, merely for the +sake of fresh meat, steals a pig, he gets perhaps forty stripes. If one +of your cottagers breaks into another's house, he is hung for burglary. +If a slave does the same here, a few lashes, or it may be, a few hours +in the stocks, settles the matter. Are our courts or yours the most +humane? If slavery were not in question, you would doubtless say ours is +mistaken lenity. Perhaps it often is; and slaves too lightly dealt with +sometimes grow daring. Occasionally, though rarely, and almost always in +consequence of excessive indulgence, an individual rebels. This is the +highest crime he can commit. It is treason. It strikes at the root of +our whole system. His life is justly forfeited, though it is never +intentionally taken, unless after trial in our public courts. Sometimes, +however, in capturing, or in self-defense, he is unfortunately killed. A +legal investigation always follows. But, terminate as it may, the +abolitionists raise a hue and cry, and another "shocking case" is held +up to the indignation of the world by tender-hearted male and female +philanthropists, who would have thought all right had the master's +throat been cut, and would have triumphed in it. + +I cannot go into a detailed comparison between the penalties inflicted +on a slave in our patriarchal courts, and those of the Courts of +Sessions, to which freemen are sentenced in all civilized nations; but I +know well that if there is any fault in our criminal code, it is that of +excessive mildness. + +Perhaps a few general facts will best illustrate the treatment this race +receives at our hands. It is acknowledged that it increases at least as +rapidly as the white. I believe it is an established law, that +population thrives in proportion to its comforts. But when it is +considered that these people are not recruited by immigration from +abroad, as the whites are, and that they are usually settled on our +richest and least healthy lands, the fact of their equal comparative +increase and greater longevity, outweighs a thousand abolition +falsehoods, in favor of the leniency and providence of our management of +them. It is also admitted that there are incomparably fewer cases of +insanity and suicide among them than among the whites. The fact is, that +among the slaves of the African race these things are almost wholly +unknown. However frequent suicide may have been among those brought from +Africa, I can say that in my time I cannot remember to have known or +heard of a single instance of deliberate self-destruction, and but of +one of suicide at all. As to insanity, I have seen but one permanent +case of it, and that twenty years ago. It cannot be doubted that among +three millions of people there must be some insane and some suicides; +but I will venture to say that more cases of both occur annually among +every hundred thousand of the population of Great Britain, than among +all our slaves. Can it be possible, then, that they exist in that state +of abject misery, goaded by constant injuries, outraged in their +affections, and worn down with hardships, which the abolitionists +depict, and so many ignorant and thoughtless persons religiously +believe? + +With regard to the separation of husbands and wives, parents and +children, nothing can be more untrue than the inferences drawn from what +is so constantly harped on by abolitionists. Some painful instances +perhaps may occur. Very few that can be prevented. It is, and it always +has been, an object of prime consideration with our slaveholders, to +keep families together. Negroes are themselves both perverse and +comparatively indifferent about this matter. It is a singular trait, +that they almost invariably prefer forming connections with slaves +belonging to other masters, and at some distance. It is, therefore, +impossible to prevent separations sometimes, by the removal of one +owner, his death, or failure, and dispersion of his property. In all +such cases, however, every reasonable effort is made to keep the parties +together, if they desire it. And the negroes forming these connections, +knowing the chances of their premature dissolution, rarely complain more +than we all do of the inevitable strokes of fate. Sometimes it happens +that a negro prefers to give up his family rather than separate from his +master. I have known such instances. As to willfully selling off a +husband, or wife, or child, I believe it is rarely, very rarely done, +except when some offense has been committed demanding "transportation." +At sales of estates, and even at sheriff's sales, they are always, if +possible, sold in families. On the whole, notwithstanding the migratory +character of our population, I believe there are more families among our +slaves, who have lived and died together without losing a single member +from their circle, except by the process of nature, and in the enjoyment +of constant, uninterrupted communion, than have flourished in the same +space of time, and among the same number of civilized people in modern +times. And to sum up all, if pleasure is correctly defined to be the +absence of pain--which, so far as the great body of mankind is +concerned, is undoubtedly its true definition--I believe our slaves are +the happiest three millions of human beings on whom the sun shines. Into +their Eden is coming Satan in the guise of an abolitionist. + +As regards their religious condition, it is well known that a majority +of the communicants of the Methodist and Baptist churches of the South +are colored. Almost everywhere they have precisely the same +opportunities of attending worship that the whites have, and, beside +special occasions for themselves exclusively, which they prefer. In many +places not so accessible to clergymen in ordinary, missionaries are +sent, and mainly supported by their masters, for the particular benefit +of the slaves. There are none I imagine who may not, if they like, hear +the gospel preached at least once a month--most of them twice a month, +and very many every week. In our thinly settled country the whites fare +no better. But in addition to this, on plantations of any size, the +slaves who have joined the church are formed into a class, at the head +of which is placed one of their number, acting as deacon or leader, who +is also sometimes a licensed preacher. This class assembles for +religious exercises weekly, semi-weekly, or oftener, if the members +choose. In some parts, also, Sunday schools for blacks are established, +and Bible classes are orally instructed by discreet and pious persons. +Now where will you find a laboring population possessed of greater +religious advantages than these? Not in London, I am sure, where it is +known that your churches, chapels, and religions meeting-houses, of all +sorts, can not contain one-half of the inhabitants. + +I have admitted, without hesitation, what it would be untrue and +profitless to deny, that slaveholders are responsible to the world for +the humane treatment of the fellow-beings whom God has placed in their +hands. I think it would be only fair for you to admit, what is equally +undeniable, that every man in independent circumstances, all the world +over, and every government, is to the same extent responsible to the +whole human family, for the condition of the poor and laboring classes +in their own country, and around them, wherever they may be placed, to +whom God has denied the advantages he has given themselves. If so, it +would naturally seem the duty of true humanity and rational philanthropy +to devote their time and labor, their thoughts, writings and charity, +first to the objects placed as it were under their own immediate charge. +And it must be regarded as a clear evasion and skillful neglect of this +cardinal duty, to pass from those whose destitute situation they can +plainly see, minutely examine, and efficiently relieve, to inquire after +the condition of others in no way intrusted to their care, to exaggerate +evils of which they can not be cognizant, to expend all their sympathies +and exhaust all their energies on these remote objects of their +unnatural, not to say dangerous, benevolence; and finally, to +calumniate, denounce, and endeavor to excite the indignation of the +world against their unoffending fellow-creatures for not hastening, +under their dictation, to redress wrongs which are stoutly and +truthfully denied, while they themselves go but little further in +alleviating those chargeable on them than openly and unblushingly to +acknowledge them. There may be indeed a sort of merit in doing so much +as to make such an acknowledgment, but it must be very modest if it +expects appreciation. + +Now I affirm, that in Great Britain the poor and laboring classes of +your own race and color, not only your fellow-beings, but your +_fellow-citizens_, are more miserable and degraded, morally and +physically, than our slaves; to be elevated to the actual condition of +whom, would be to these, _your fellow-citizens_, a most glorious act of +_emancipation_. And I also affirm, that the poor and laboring classes of +our older free States would not be in a much more enviable condition, +but for our slavery. One of their own Senators has declared in the +United States Senate, "that the repeal of the Tariff would reduce New +England to a howling wilderness." And the American Tariff is neither +more or less than a system by which the slave States are plundered for +the benefit of those States which do not tolerate slavery. + +To prove what I say of Great Britain to be true, I make the following +extracts from the Reports of Commissioners appointed by Parliament, and +published by order of the House of Commons. I can make but few and short +ones. But similar quotations might be made to any extent, and I defy you +to deny that these specimens exhibit the real condition of your +operatives in every branch of your industry. There is of course a +variety in their sufferings. But the same incredible amount of toil, +frightful destitution, and utter want of morals, characterize the lot of +every class of them. + +_Collieries_--"I wish to call the attention of the Board to the pits +about Brampton. The seams are so thin that several of them have only two +feet headway to all the working. They are worked altogether by boys from +eight to twelve years of age, on all-fours, with a dog belt and chain. +The passages being neither ironed nor wooded, and often an inch or two +thick with mud. In Mr. Barnes' pit these poor boys have to drag the +barrows with one hundred weight of coal or slack sixty times a day sixty +yards, and the empty barrows back, without once straightening their +backs, unless they chose to stand under the shaft, and run the risk of +having their heads broken by a falling coal."--Report on Mines, 1842, p. +71. "In Shropshire the seams are no more than eighteen or twenty +inches."--Ibid, p. 67. "At the Booth pit," says Mr. Scriven, "I walked, +rode, and crept eighteen hundred yards to one of the nearest +faces."--Ibid. "Chokedamp, firedamp, wild fire, sulphur and water, at +all times menace instant death to the laborers in these mines." "Robert +North, aged 16: Went into the pit at seven years of age, to fill up +skips. I drew about twelve months. When I drew by the girdle and chain +my skin was broken, and the blood ran down. I durst not say any thing. +If we said any thing, the butty, and the reeve, who works under him, +would take a stick and beat us."--Ibid. "The usual punishment for theft +is to place the culprit's head between the legs of one of the biggest +boys, and each boy in the pit--sometimes there are twenty--inflicts +twelve lashes on the back and rump with a cat."--Ibid. "Instances occur +in which children are taken into these mines to work as early as four +years of age, sometimes at five, not unfrequently at six and seven, +while from eight to nine is the ordinary age at which these employments +commence."--Ibid. "The wages paid at these mines is from two dollar +fifty cents to seven dollars fifty cents per month for laborers, +according to age and ability, and out of this they must support +themselves. They work twelve hours a day."--Ibid. + +_In Calico Printing._--"It is by no means uncommon in all the districts +for children five or six years old to be kept at work fourteen to +sixteen hours consecutively."--Report on Children, 1842, p. 59. + +I could furnish extracts similar to these in regard to every branch of +your manufactures, but I will not multiply them. Every body knows that +your operatives habitually labor from twelve to sixteen hours, men, +women, and children, and the men occasionally twenty hours per day. In +lace-making, says the last quoted report, children sometimes commence +work at two years of age. + +_Destitution._--It is stated by your Commissioners that forty thousand +persons in Liverpool, and fifteen thousand in Manchester, live in +cellars; while twenty-two thousand in England pass the night in barns, +tents, or the open air. "There have been found such occurrences as +seven, eight, and ten persons in one cottage, I cannot say for one day, +but for whole days, without a morsel of food. They have remained on +their beds of straw for two successive days, under the impression that +in a recumbent posture the pangs of hunger were less felt."--Lord +Brougham's Speech, 11th July, 1842. A volume of frightful scenes might +be quoted to corroborate the inferences to be necessarily drawn from the +facts here stated. I will not add more, but pass on to the important +inquiry as to + +_Morals and Education._--"Elizabeth Barrett, aged 14: I always work +without stockings, shoes, or trowsers. I wear nothing but a shift. I +have to go up to the headings with the men. _They are all naked there._ +I am got used to that."--Report on Mines. "As to illicit sexual +intercourse it seems to prevail universally, and from an early period of +life." "The evidence might have been doubled, which attest the early +commencement of sexual and promiscuous intercourse among boys and +girls." "A lower condition of morals, in the fullest sense of the term, +could not, I think, be found. I do not mean by this that there are many +more prominent vices among them, but that moral feelings and sentiments +do not exist. _They have no morals._" "Their appearance, manners, and +moral natures--so far as the word _moral_ can be applied to them--are in +accordance with their half-civilized condition."--Report on Children. +"More than half a dozen instances occurred in Manchester, where a man, +his wife, and his wife's grown-up-sister, habitually occupied the same +bed."--Report on Sanitary Condition. "Robert Crucilow, aged 16: I don't +know any thing of Moses--never heard of France. I don't know what +America is. Never heard of Scotland or Ireland. Can't tell how many +weeks there are in a year. There are twelve pence in a shilling, and +twenty shillings in a pound. There are eight pints in a gallon of +ale."--Report on Mines. "Ann Eggly, aged 18: I walk about and get fresh +air on Sundays. I never go to church or chapel. I never heard of Christ +at all."--Ibid. Others: "The Lord sent Adam and Eve on earth to save +sinners." "I don't know who made the world; I never heard about God." "I +don't know Jesus Christ--I never saw him--but I have seen Foster who +prays about him." "Employer: You have expressed surprise at Thomas +Mitchel's not hearing of God. I judge there are few colliers here about +that have."--Ibid. I will quote no more. It is shocking beyond endurance +to turn over your records, in which the condition of your laboring +classes is but too faithfully depicted. Could our slaves but see it, +they would join us in lynching the abolitionists, which, by the by, they +would not now be loth to do. We never think of imposing on them such +labor, either in amount or kind. We never put them to _any work_, under +ten, more generally at twelve years of age, and then the very lightest. +Destitution is absolutely unknown--never did a slave starve in America; +while in moral sentiments and feelings, in religious information, and +even in general intelligence, they are infinitely the superiors of your +operatives. When you look around you, how dare you talk to us before the +world of slavery? For the condition of your wretched laborers, you, and +every Briton who is not one of them, are responsible before God and man. +If you are really humane, philanthropic, and charitable, here are +objects for you. Relieve them. Emancipate them. Raise them from the +condition of brutes, to the level of human beings--of American slaves, +at least. Do not for an instant suppose that the _name_ of being +freemen is the slightest comfort to them, situated as they are, or that +the bombastic boast that "whoever touches British soil stands redeemed, +regenerated, and disenthralled," can meet with any thing but the +ridicule and contempt of mankind, while that soil swarms, both on and +under its surface, with the most abject and degraded wretches that ever +bowed beneath the oppressor's yoke. + +I have said that slavery is an established and inevitable condition to +human society. I do not speak of the _name_, but the _fact_. The Marquis +of Normanby has lately declared your operatives to be "_in effect +slaves_." Can it be denied? Probably, for such philanthropists as your +abolitionists care nothing for facts. They deal in terms and fictions. +It is the _word_ "slavery" which shocks their tender sensibilities; and +their imaginations associate it with "hydras and chimeras dire." The +thing itself, in its most hideous reality, passes daily under their view +unheeded--a familiar face, touching no chord of shame, sympathy or +indignation. Yet so brutalizing is your iron bondage that the English +operative is a by-word through the world. When favoring fortune enables +him to escape his prison-house, both in Europe and America he is +shunned. "With all the skill which fourteen hours of daily labor from +the tenderest age has ground into him, his discontent, which habit has +made second nature, and his depraved propensities, running riot when +freed from his wonted fetters, prevent his employment whenever it is not +a matter of necessity. If we derived no other benefit from African +slavery in the Southern States than that it deterred your _freedmen_ +from coming hither, I should regard it an inestimable blessing. + +And how unaccountable is that philanthropy, which closes its eyes upon +such a state of things as you have at home, and turns its blurred vision +to our affairs beyond the Atlantic, meddling with matters which no way +concern them--presiding, as you have lately done, at meetings to +denounce the "iniquity of our laws" and "the atrocity of our practices," +and to sympathize with infamous wretches imprisoned here for violating +decrees promulgated both by God and man? Is this doing the work of "your +Father which is in heaven," or is it seeking only "that you may have +glory of man?" Do you remember the denunciation of our Saviour, "Woe +unto you, Scribes and Pharisees; hypocrites! for ye make clean the +outside of the cup and platter, but within they are full of extortion +and excess." + +But after all, supposing that every thing you say of slavery be true, +and its abolition a matter of the last necessity, how do you expect to +effect emancipation, and what do you calculate will be the result of its +accomplishment? As to the means to be used, the abolitionists, I +believe, affect to differ, a large proportion of them pretending that +their sole purpose is to apply "moral suasion" to the slaveholders +themselves. As a matter of curiosity, I should like to know what their +idea of this "moral suasion" is. Their discourses--yours is no +exception--are all tirades, the exordium, argument and peroration, +turning on the epithets "tyrants," "thieves," "murderers," addressed to +us. They revile us as "atrocious monsters," "violators of the laws of +nature, God and man," our homes the abode of every iniquity, our land a +"brothel." We retort, that they are "incendiaries" and "assassins." +Delightful argument! Sweet, potent "moral suasion!" What slave has it +freed--what proselyte can it ever make? But if your course was wholly +different--if you distilled nectar from your lips, and discoursed +sweetest music, could you reasonably indulge the hope of accomplishing +your object by such means? Nay, supposing that we were all convinced, +and thought of slavery precisely as you do, at what era of "moral +suasion" do you imagine you could prevail on us to give up a thousand +millions of dollars in the value of our slaves, and a thousand millions +of dollars more in the depreciation of our lands, in consequence of the +want of laborers to cultivate them? Consider: were ever any people, +civilized or savage, persuaded by any argument, human or divine, to +surrender voluntarily two thousand millions of dollars? Would you think +of asking five millions of Englishmen to contribute, either at once or +gradually, four hundred and fifty millions of pounds sterling to the +cause of philanthropy, even if the purpose to be accomplished was not of +doubtful goodness? If you are prepared to undertake such a scheme, try +it at home. Collect your fund--return us the money for our slaves, and +do with them as you like. Be all the glory yours, fairly and honestly +won. But you see the absurdity of such an idea. Away, then, with your +pretended "moral suasion." You know it is mere nonsense. The +abolitionists have no faith in it themselves. Those who expect to +accomplish any thing count on means altogether different. They aim, +first, to alarm us: that failing, to compel us by force to emancipate +our slaves, at our own risk and cost. To these purposes they obviously +direct all their energies. Our Northern liberty-men endeavored to +disseminate their destructive doctrine among our slaves, and excite them +to insurrection. But we have put an end to that, and stricken terror +into them. They dare not show their faces here. Then they declared they +would dissolve the Union. Let them do it. The North would repent it far +more than the South. We are not alarmed at the idea. We are well content +to give up the Union sooner than sacrifice two thousand millions of +dollars, and with them all the rights we prize. You may take it for +granted that it is impossible to persuade or alarm us into emancipation, +or to making the first step toward it. Nothing, then, is left to try, +but sheer force. If the abolitionists are prepared to expend their own +treasure and shed their own blood as freely as they ask us to do ours, +let them come. We do not court the conflict; but we will not and we +cannot shrink from it. If they are not ready to go so far; if, as I +expect, their philanthropy recoils from it; if they are looking only for +_cheap_ glory, let them turn their thoughts elsewhere, and leave us in +peace. Be the sin, the danger and the evils of slavery all our own. We +compel, we ask none to share them with us. + +I am well aware that a notable scheme has been set on foot to achieve +abolition by making what is by courtesy called "free" labor so much +cheaper than slave labor as to force the abandonment of the latter. +Though we are beginning to _manufacture with slaves_, I do not think you +will attempt to pinch your operatives closer in Great Britain. You +cannot curtail the rags with which they vainly attempt to cover their +nakedness, nor reduce the porridge which barely, and not always, keeps +those who have employment from perishing of famine. When you can do +this, we will consider whether our slaves may not dispense with a pound +or two of bacon per week, or a few garments annually. Your aim, however, +is to cheapen labor in the tropics. The idea of doing this by exporting +your "bold yeomanry" is, I presume, given up. Cromwell tried it when he +_sold_ the captured followers of Charles into _West Indian slavery_, +where they speedily found graves. Nor have your recent experiments on +British and even Dutch constitutions succeeded better. Have you still +faith in carrying thither your coolies from Hindostan? Doubtless that +once wild robber race, whose highest eulogium was that they did not +murder merely for the love of blood, have been tamed down, and are +perhaps "keen for immigration," for since your civilization has reached +it, plunder has grown scarce in Guzerat. But what is the result of the +experiment thus far? Have the coolies, ceasing to handle arms, learned +to handle spades, and proved hardy and profitable laborers? On the +contrary, broken in spirit and stricken with disease at home, the +wretched victims whom you have hitherto kidnapped for a bounty, confined +in depots, put under hatches and carried across the ocean--forced into +"voluntary immigration," have done little but lie down and die on the +_pseudo_ soil of freedom. At the end of five years two-thirds, in some +colonies a larger proportion, are no more! Humane and pious contrivance! +To alleviate the fancied sufferings of the accursed posterity of Ham, +you sacrifice by a cruel death two-thirds of the children of the blessed +Shem--and demand the applause of Christians--the blessing of heaven! If +this "experiment" is to go on, in God's name try your hand upon the +Thugs. That other species of "immigration" to which you are resorting I +will consider presently. + +But what do you calculate will be the result of emancipation, by +whatever means accomplished? You will probably point me, by way of +answer, to the West Indies--doubtless to Antigua, the great boast of +abolition. Admitting that it has succeeded there--which I will do for +the sake of the argument--do you know the reason of it? The true and +only causes of whatever success has attended it in Antigua are, that the +population was before crowded, and all or nearly all the arable land in +cultivation. The emancipated negroes could not, many of them, get away +if they desired; and knew not where to go, in case they did. They had, +practically, no alternative but to remain on the spot; and remaining, +they must work on the terms of the proprietors, or perish--the strong +arm of the mother country forbidding all hope of seizing the land for +themselves. The proprietors, well knowing that they could thus command +labor for the merest necessities of life, which was much cheaper than +maintaining the non-effective as well as effective slaves in a style +which decency and interest, if not humanity, required, willingly +accepted half their value, and at once realized far more than the +interest on the other half in the diminution of their expenses, and the +reduced comforts of the _freemen_. One of your most illustrious judges, +who was also a profound and philosophical historian, has said "that +villeinage was not abolished, but went into decay in England." This was +the process. This has been the process wherever (the name of) villeinage +or slavery has been successfully abandoned. Slavery, in fact, "went into +decay" in Antigua. I have admitted that, under similar circumstances, it +might profitably cease here--that is, profitably to the individual +proprietors. Give me half the value of my slaves, and compel them to +remain and labor on my plantation, at ten to eleven cents a day, as they +do in Antigua, supporting themselves and families, and you shall have +them to-morrow, and if you like dub them "free." Not to stickle, I would +surrender them without price. No--I recall my words: My humanity revolts +at the idea. I am attached to my slaves, and would not have act or part +in reducing them to such a condition. I deny, however, that Antigua, as +a community, is, or ever will be, as _prosperous_ under present +circumstances, as she was before abolition, though fully ripe for it. +The fact is well known. The reason is that the African, if not a +distinct, is an inferior race, and never will effect, as it never has +effected, as much in any other condition as in that of slavery. + +I know of no _slaveholder_ who has visited the West Indies since slavery +was abolished, and published _his_ views of it. All our facts and +opinions come through the friends of the experiment, or at least those +not opposed to it. Taking these, even without allowance, to be true as +stated, I do not see where the abolitionists find cause for exultation. +The tables of exports, which are the best evidences of the condition of +a people, exhibit a woful falling off--excused, it is true, by +unprecedented droughts and hurricanes, to which their free labor seems +unaccountably more subject than slave labor used to be. I will not go +into detail. It is well known that a large proportion of British +legislation and expenditure, and that proportion still constantly +increasing, is most anxiously devoted to repairing the monstrous error +of emancipation. You are actually galvanizing your expiring colonies. +The truth, deduced from all the facts, was thus pithily stated by the +_London Quarterly Review_, as long ago as 1840: "None of the benefits +anticipated by mistaken good intentions have been realized, while every +evil wished for by knaves and foreesen by the wise has been painfully +verified. The wild rashness of fanaticism has made the emancipation of +the slaves equivalent to the loss of one-half of the West Indies, and +yet put back the chance of negro civilization."--Art. Ld. Dudley's +Letters. Such are the _real fruits_ of your never-to-be-too-much-glorified +abolition, and the valuable dividend of your twenty millions of pounds +sterling invested therein. + +If any further proof was wanted of the utter and well-known, though not +yet openly avowed, failure of West Indian emancipation, it would be +furnished by the startling fact, that THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE HAS BEEN +ACTUALLY REVIVED UNDER THE AUSPICES AND PROTECTION OF THE BRITISH +GOVERNMENT. Under the specious guise of "immigration," they are +replenishing those Islands with slaves from the coast of Africa. Your +colony of Sierra Leone, founded on that coast to prevent the slave +trade, and peopled, by the bye, in the first instance, by negroes stolen +from these States during the Revolutionary War, is the depot to which +captives taken from slavers by your armed vessels are transported. I +might say returned, since nearly half the Africans carried across the +Atlantic are understood to be embarked in this vicinity. The wretched +survivors, who are there set at liberty, are immediately seduced to +"immigrate" to the West Indies. The business is systematically carried +on by black "delegates," sent expressly from the West Indies, where, on +arrival, the "immigrants" are _sold into slavery_ for twenty-one years, +under conditions ridiculously trivial and wickedly void, since few or +none will ever be able to derive any advantage from them. The whole +prime of life thus passed in bondage, it is contemplated, and doubtless +it will be carried into effect, to turn them out in their old age to +shift for themselves, and to supply their places with fresh and vigorous +"immigrants." Was ever a system of slavery so barbarous devised before? +Can you think of comparing it with ours? Even your own religious +missionaries at Sierra Leone denounce it "as worse than the slave state +in Africa." And your black delegates, fearful of the influence of these +missionaries, as well as on account of the inadequate supply of +captives, are now preparing to procure the able-bodied and comparatively +industrious Kroomen of the interior, by _purchasing from their headmen_ +the privilege of inveigling them to the West India market! So ends the +magnificent farce--perhaps I should say tragedy, of West India +abolition! I will not harrow your feelings by asking you to review the +labors of your life and tell me what you and your brother enthusiasts +have accomplished for "injured Africa," but while agreeing with Lord +Stowell, that "villeinage decayed," and admitting that slavery might do +so also, I think I am fully justified by passed and passing events in +saying, as Mr. Grosvenor said of the slave trade, that its _abolition_ +is "impossible." + +Yon are greatly mistaken, however, if you think that the consequences of +emancipation here would be similar and no more injurious than those +which followed from it in your little sea-girt West India Islands, where +nearly all were blacks. The system of slavery is not in "decay" with us. +It flourishes in full and growing vigor. Our country is boundless in +extent. Dotted here and there with villages and fields, it is, for the +most part, covered with immense forests and swamps of almost unknown +size. In such a country, with a people so restless as ours, +communicating of course some of that spirit to their domestics, can you +conceive that any thing short of the power of the master over the slave, +could confine the African race, notoriously idle and improvident, to +labor on our plantations? Break this bond, but for a day, and these +plantations will be solitudes. The negro loves change, novelty, and +sensual excitements of all kinds, _when awake_. "Reason and order," of +which Mr. Wilberforce said "liberty was the child," do not characterize +him. Released from his present obligations, his first impulse would be +to go somewhere. And here no natural boundaries would restrain him. At +first they would all seek the towns, and rapidly accumulate in squalid +groups upon their outskirts. Driven thence by the "armed police," which +would immediately spring into existence, they would scatter in all +directions. Some bodies of them might wander toward the "free" States, +or to the Western wilderness, marking their tracks by their depredations +and their corpses. Many would roam wild in our "big woods." Many more +would seek the recesses of our swamps for secure covert. Few, very few +of them, could be prevailed on to do a stroke of work, none to labor +continuously, while a head of cattle, sheep or swine could be found in +our ranges, or an ear of corn nodded in our abandoned fields. These +exhausted, our folds and poultry yards, barns and store-houses, would +become their prey. Finally, our scattered dwellings would be plundered, +perhaps fired, and the inmates murdered. How long do you suppose that we +could bear these things? How long would it be before we should sleep +with rifles at our bedsides, and never move without one in our hands? +This work once begun, let the story of our British ancestors and the +aborigines of this country tell the sequel. Far more rapid, however, +would be the catastrophe. "Ere many moons went by," the African race +would be exterminated, or reduced again to slavery, their ranks +recruited, after your example, by fresh "emigrants" from their +fatherland. + +Is timely preparation and gradual emancipation suggested to avert these +horrible consequences? I thought your experience in the West Indies had, +at least, done so much as to explode that idea. If it failed there, much +more would it fail here, where the two races, approximating to equality +in numbers, are daily and hourly in the closest contact. Give room for +but a single spark of real jealousy to be kindled between them, and the +explosion would be instantaneous and universal. It is the most fatal of +all fallacies, to suppose that these two races can exist together, after +any length of time, or any process of preparation, on terms at all +approaching to equality. Of this, both of them are finally and fixedly +convinced. They differ essentially, in all the leading traits which +characterize the varieties of the human species, and color draws an +indelible and insuperable line of separation between them. Every scheme +founded upon the idea that they can remain together on the same soil, +beyond the briefest period, in any other relation than precisely that +which now subsists between them, is not only preposterous, but fraught +with deepest danger. If there was no alternative but to try the +"experiment" here, reason and humility dictate that the sufferings of +"gradualism" should be saved, and the catastrophe of "immediate +abolition" enacted as rapidly as possible. Are you impatient for the +performance to commence? Do you long to gloat over the scenes I have +suggested, but could not hold the pen to portray? In your long life many +such have passed under your review. You know that _they_ are not +"_impossible_." Can they be to your taste? Do you believe that in +laboring to bring them about, the abolitionists are doing the will of +God? No! God is not there. It is the work of Satan. The arch-fiend, +under specious guises, has found his way into their souls, and with +false appeals to philanthropy, and foul insinuations to ambition, +instigates them to rush headlong to the accomplishment of his diabolical +designs. + +We live in a wonderful age. The events of the last three quarters of a +century appear to have revolutionized the human mind. Enterprise and +ambition are only limited in their purposes by the horizon of the +imagination. It is the transcendental era. In philosophy, religion, +government, science, arts, commerce, nothing that has been is to be +allowed to be. Conservatism, in any form, is scoffed at. The slightest +taint of it is fatal. Where will all this end? If you can tolerate one +ancient maxim, let it be that the best criterion of the future is the +past. That, if any thing, will give a clue. And, looking back only +through your time, what was the earliest feat of this same +transcendentalism? The rays of the new moral Drummond Light were first +concentrated to a focus at Paris, to illuminate the universe. In a +twinkling it consumed the political, religious and social systems of +France. It could not be extinguished there until literally drowned in +blood. And then, from its ashes arose that supernatural man, who, for +twenty years, kept affrighted Europe in convulsions. Since that time, +its scattered beams, refracted by broader surfaces, have, nevertheless, +continued to scathe wherever they have fallen. What political structure, +what religious creed, but has felt the galvanic shock, and even now +trembles to its foundations? Mankind, still horror-stricken by the +catastrophe of France, have shrunk from rash experiments upon social +systems. But they have been practicing in the East, around the +Mediterranean, and through the West India Islands. And growing +confident, a portion of them seem desperately bent on kindling the +all-devouring flame in the bosom of our land. Let it once again blaze up +to heaven, and another cycle of blood and devastation will dawn upon the +world. For our own sake, and for the sake of those infatuated men who +are madly driving on the conflagration; for the sake of human nature, we +are called on to strain every nerve to arrest it. And be assured our +efforts will be bounded only with our being. Nor do I doubt that five +millions of people, brave, intelligent, united, and prepared to hazard +every thing, will, in such a cause, with the blessing of God, sustain +themselves. At all events, come what may, it is ours to meet it. + +We are well aware of the light estimation in which the abolitionists, +and those who are taught by them, profess to hold us. We have seen the +attempt of a portion of the Free Church of Scotland to reject our alms +on the ground that we are "slave-drivers," after sending missionaries +to solicit them. And we have seen Mr. O'Connell, the "irresponsible +master" of millions of ragged serfs, from whom, poverty stricken as they +are, he contrives to wring a splendid privy purse, throw back with +contumely, the "tribute" of his own countrymen from this land of +"miscreants." These people may exhaust their slang, and make blackguards +of themselves, but they cannot defile us. And as for the suggestion to +exclude slaveholders from your London clubs, we scout it. Many of us, +indeed, do go to London, and we have seen your breed of gawky lords, +both there and here, but it never entered into our conceptions to look +on them as better than ourselves. The American slaveholders, +collectively or individually, ask no favors of any man or race who tread +the earth. In none of the attributes of men, mental or physical, do they +acknowledge or fear superiority elsewhere. They stand in the broadest +light of the knowledge, civilization and improvement of the age, as much +favored of heaven as any of the sons of Adam. Exacting nothing undue, +they yield nothing but justice and courtesy, even to royal blood. They +cannot be flattered, duped, nor bullied out of their rights or their +propriety. They smile with contempt at scurrility and vaporing beyond +the seas, and they turn their backs upon it where it is "irresponsible;" +but insolence that ventures to look them in the face, will never fail to +be chastised. + +I think I may trust you will not regard this letter as intrusive. I +should never have entertained an idea of writing it, had you not opened +the correspondence. If you think any thing in it harsh, review your +own--which I regret that I lost soon after it was received--and you will +probably find that you have taken your revenge beforehand. If you have +not, transfer an equitable share of what you deem severe, to the account +of the abolitionists at large. They have accumulated against the +slaveholders a balance of invective, which, with all our efforts, we +shall not be able to liquidate much short of the era in which your +national debt will be paid. At all events, I have no desire to offend +you personally, and, with the best wishes for your continued health, I +have the honor to be, + + Your obedient servant, + J. H. HAMMOND. + +THOS. CLARKSON, Esq. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[255] On this subject, J. Q. Adams, in his letter to the citizens of +Bangor, Maine, July 4th, 1843, said: "It is only as _immortal_ beings +that all mankind can in any sense be said to be born equal; and when the +Declaration of Independence affirms as a self-evident truth that all men +are born equal, it is precisely the same as if the affirmation had been +that all men are born with immortal souls."--Life of J. Q. Adams, page +395.--_Editor._ + + + + +LETTER II. + + Ignorance of Abolitionists--Arguments of + Abolitionists refuted--Abolitionism leads to + Infidelity--Law of Force a law of Love--Wages of + Slaves and of hired labor--Results of emancipation + to the world--Falsehoods of Abolitionists--English + estimate of our Northern citizens--British + interference in the politics of our + country--Sensitiveness of the Southern + People--Rise and progress of Fanaticism. + + + SILVER BLUFF, S. C., March 24, 1845. + +SIR--In my letter to you of the 28th January--which I trust you have +received ere this--I mentioned that I had lost your circular letter soon +after it had come to hand. It was, I am glad to say, only mislaid, and +has within a few days been recovered. A second perusal of it induces me +to resume my pen. Unwilling to trust my recollections from a single +reading, I did not, in my last communication, attempt to follow the +course of your argument, and meet directly the points made and the terms +used. I thought it better to take a general view of the subject, which +could not fail to traverse your most material charges. I am well aware, +however, that for fear of being tedious, I omitted many interesting +topics altogether, and abstained from a complete discussion of some of +those introduced. I do not propose now to _exhaust_ the subject; which +it would require volumes to do; but without waiting to learn--which I +may never do--your opinion of what I have already said, I sit down to +supply some of the deficiencies of my letter of January, and, with your +circular before me, to reply to such parts of it as have not been fully +answered. + +It is, I perceive, addressed, among others, to "such as have never +visited the Southern States" of this confederacy, and professes to +enlighten their ignorance of the actual "condition of the poor slave in +their own country." I can not help thinking you would have displayed +prudence in confining the circulation of your letter altogether to such +persons. You might then have indulged with impunity in giving, as you +have done, a picture of slavery, drawn from your own excited +imagination, or from those impure fountains, the Martineaus, Marryatts, +Trollopes, and Dickenses, who have profited by catering, at our expense, +to the jealous sensibilities and debauched tastes of your countrymen. +Admitting that you are familiar with the history of slavery, and the +past discussions of it, as I did, I now think rather broadly, in my +former letter, what can _you know_ of the true _condition_ of the "poor +slave" here? I am not aware that you have ever visited this country, or +even the West Indies. Can you suppose, that because you have devoted +your life to the investigation of the subject--commencing it under the +influence of an enthusiasm, so melancholy at first, and so volcanic +afterwards, as to be nothing short of hallucination--pursuing it as men +of _one idea_ do every thing, with the single purpose of establishing +your own view of it--gathering your information from discharged seamen, +disappointed speculators, factious politicians, visionary reformers and +scurrilous tourists--opening your ears to every species of complaint, +exaggeration and falsehood, that interested ingenuity could invent, and +never for a moment questioning the truth of any thing that could make +for your cause--can you suppose that all this has qualified you, living +the while in England, to form or approximate toward the formation of a +correct opinion of the condition of slaves among us? I know the power of +self-delusion. I have not the least doubt, that you think yourself the +very best informed man alive on this subject, and that many think so +likewise. So far as facts go, even after deducting from your list a +great deal that is not fact, I will not deny that, probably, your +collection is the most extensive in existence. But as to the _truth_ in +regard to slavery, there is not an adult in this region but knows more +of it than you do. _Truth_ and _fact_ are, you are aware, by no means +synonymous terms. Ninety-nine facts may constitute a falsehood: the +hundredth, added or alone, gives the truth. With all your knowledge of +facts, I undertake to say that you are entirely and grossly ignorant of +the real condition of our slaves. And from all that I can see, you are +equally ignorant of the essential principles of human association +revealed in history, both sacred and profane, on which slavery rests, +and which will perpetuate it forever in some form or other. However you +may declaim against it; however powerfully you may array atrocious +incidents; whatever appeals you may make to the heated imaginations and +tender sensibilities of mankind, believe me, your total blindness to the +_whole truth_, which alone constitutes _the truth_, incapacitates you +from ever making an impression on the sober reason and sound common +sense of the world. You may seduce thousands--you can convince no one. +Whenever and wherever you or the advocates of your cause can arouse the +passions of the weak-minded and the ignorant, and bringing to bear with +them the interests of the vicious and unprincipled, overwhelm common +sense and reason--as God sometimes permits to be done--you may triumph. +Such a triumph we have witnessed in Great Britain. But I trust it is far +distant here; nor can it, from its nature, be extensive or enduring. +Other classes of reformers, animated by the same spirit as the +abolitionists, attack the institution of marriage, and even the +established relations of parent and child. And they collect instances of +barbarous cruelty and shocking degradation, which rival, if they do not +throw into the shade, your slavery statistics. But the rights of +marriage and parental authority rests upon truths as obvious as they are +unchangeable--coming home to every human being,--self-impressed forever +on the individual mind, and can not be shaken until the whole man is +corrupted, nor subverted until civilized society becomes a putrid mass. +Domestic slavery is not so universally understood, nor can it make such +a direct appeal to individuals or society beyond its pale. Here, +prejudice and passion have room to sport at the expense of others. They +may be excited and urged to dangerous action, remote from the victims +they mark out. They may, as they have done, effect great mischief, but +they can not be made to maintain, in the long run, dominion over reason +and common sense, nor ultimately put down what God has ordained. + +You deny, however, that slavery is sanctioned by God, and your chief +argument is, that when he gave to Adam dominion over the fruits of the +earth and the animal creation, he stopped there. "He never gave him any +further right over his fellow-men." You restrict the descendants of Adam +to a very short list of rights and powers, duties and responsibities, if +you limit them solely to those conferred and enjoined in the first +chapter of Genesis. It is very obvious that in this narrative of the +Creation, Moses did not have it in view to record any part of the law +intended for the government of man in his social or political state. Eve +was not yet created; the expulsion had not yet taken place; Cain was +unborn; and no allusion whatever is made to the manifold decrees of God +to which these events gave rise. The only serious answer this argument +deserves, is to say, what is so manifestly true, that God's not +expressly giving to Adam "any right over his fellow-men" by no means +excluded him from conferring that right on his descendants; which he in +fact did. We know that Abraham, the chosen one of God, exercised it and +held property in his fellow-man, even anterior to the period when +property in land was acknowledged. We might infer that God had +authorized it. But we are not reduced to inference or conjecture. At the +hazard of fatiguing you by repetition, I will again refer you to the +ordinances of the Scriptures. Innumerable instances might be quoted +where God has given and commanded men to assume dominion over their +fellow-men. But one will suffice. In the twenty-fifth chapter of +Leviticus, you will find _domestic slavery--precisely such as is +maintained at this day in these States--ordained and established by God, +in language which I defy you to pervert so as to leave a doubt on any +honest mind that this institution was founded by him, and decreed to be +perpetual_. I quote the words: + +Leviticus xxv. 44-46: "Both thy bond-men and thy bond-maids which thou +shalt have, shall be of the heathen [Africans] that are round about you: +of _them ye shall buy bond-men and bond-maids_. + +"Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, +of them shall ye buy, _and of their families that are with you which +they begat in your land_ [descendants of Africans?] and they shall be +your possession. + +"_And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, +to inherit them for a possession._ THEY SHALL BE YOUR BOND-MEN FOREVER." + +What human legislature could make a decree more full and explicit than +this? What court of law or chancery could defeat a title to a slave +couched in terms so clear and complete as these? And this is the _law of +God_, whom you pretend to worship, while you denounce and traduce us for +respecting it. + +It seems scarcely credible, but the fact is so, that you deny this law +so plainly written, and in the face of it have the hardihood to declare +that "though slavery is not _specifically_, yet it is _virtually_, +_forbidden_ in the Scriptures, because all the crimes which necessarily +arises out of slavery, and which can arise from no other source, are +reprobated there and threatened with divine vengeance." Such an unworthy +subterfuge is scarcely entitled to consideration. But its gross +absurdity may be exposed in few words. I do not know what crimes you +particularly allude to as arising from slavery. But you will perhaps +admit--not because they are denounced in the decalogue, which the +abolitionists respect only so far as they choose, but because it is the +_immediate interest_ of most men to admit--that disobedience to parents, +adultery, and stealing, are crimes. Yet these crimes "necessarily arise +from" the relations of parent and child, marriage, and the possession of +private property; at least they "can arise from no other sources." Then, +according to your argument, it is "virtually forbidden" to marry, to +beget children, and to hold private property! Nay, it is forbidden to +live, since murder can only be perpetrated on living subjects. You add +that "in the same way the gladiatorial shows of old, and other barbarous +customs, were not specifically forbidden in the New Testament, and yet +Christianity was the sole means of their suppression." This is very +true. But these shows and barbarous customs thus suppressed were not +_authorised by God_. They were not ordained and commanded by God for the +benefit of his chosen people and mankind, as the purchase and holding of +bond-men and bond-maids were. Had they been they would never have been +"suppressed by Christianity" any more than slavery can be by your party. +Although Christ came "not to destroy but fulfill the law," he +nevertheless did formally abrogate some of the ordinances promulgated by +Moses, and all such as were at war with his mission of "peace and +good-will on earth." He "specifically" annuls, for instance, one +"barbarous custom" sanctioned by those ordinances, where he says, "ye +have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a +tooth; but I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall +smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Now, in the +time of Christ, it was usual for masters to put their slaves to death on +the slightest provocation. They even killed and cut them up to feed +their fishes. He was undoubtedly aware of these things, as well as of +the law and commandment I have quoted. He could only have been +restrained from denouncing them, as he did the "_lex talionis_," because +he knew that in despite of these barbarities the institution of slavery +was at the bottom a sound and wholesome, as well as lawful one. Certain +it is, that in his wisdom and purity he did not see proper to interfere +with it. In your wisdom, however, you make the sacrilegious attempt to +overthrow it. + +You quote the denunciation of Tyre and Sidon, and say that "the chief +reason given by the prophet Joel for their destruction, was, that they +were notorious beyond all others for carrying on the slave trade." I am +afraid you think we have no Bibles in the slave States, or that we are +unable to read them. I can not otherwise account for your making this +reference, unless indeed your own reading is confined to an expurgated +edition, prepared for the use of abolitionists, in which every thing +relating to slavery that militates against their view of it is left out. +The prophet Joel denounces the Tyrians and Sidonians, because "the +children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto +the Grecians." And what is the divine vengeance for this "notorious +slave trading?" Hear it. "And I will sell your sons and daughters into +the hands of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the +Sabeans, to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken it." Do you call +this a condemnation of slave trading? The prophet makes God himself a +participator in the crime, if that be one. "The Lord hath spoken it," he +says, that the Tyrians and Sidonians shall be _sold into slavery to +strangers_. Their real offense was, in enslaving the chosen people; and +their sentence was a repetition of the old command, to make slaves of +the heathen round about. + +I have dwelt upon your scriptural argument, because you profess to +believe the Bible; because a large proportion of the abolitionists +profess to do the same, and to act under its sanction; because your +circular is addressed in part to "professing Christians;" and because it +is from that class mainly that you expect to seduce converts to your +anti-christian, I may say, infidel doctrines. It would be wholly +unnecessary to answer you, to any one who reads the Scriptures for +himself, and construes them according to any other formula than that +which the abolitionists are wickedly endeavoring to impose upon the +world. The scriptural sanction of slavery is in fact so palpable, and so +strong, that both wings of your party are beginning to acknowledge it. +The more sensible and moderate admit, as the organ of the Free Church of +Scotland, the _North British Review_, has lately done, that they "_are +precluded by the statements and conduct of the Apostles from regarding +mere slaveholding as essentially sinful_," while the desperate and +reckless, who are bent on keeping up the agitation at every hazard, +declare, as has been done in the _Anti-Slavery Record_, "If our inquiry +turns out in favor of slavery, IT IS THE BIBLE THAT MUST FALL, AND NOT +THE RIGHTS OF HUMAN NATURE." You can not, I am satisfied, much longer +maintain before the world the Christian platform from which to wage war +upon our institutions. Driven from it, you must abandon the contest, or, +repudiating REVELATION, rush into the horrors of NATURAL RELIGION. + +You next complain that our slaves are kept in bondage by the "law of +force." In what country or condition of mankind do you see human affairs +regulated merely by the law of love? Unless I am greatly mistaken, you +will, if you look over the world, find nearly all certain and permanent +rights, civil, social, and I may even add religious, resting on and +ultimately secured by the "law of force." The power of majorities--of +aristocracies--of kings--nay of priests, for the most part, and of +property, resolves itself at last into "force," and could not otherwise +be long maintained. Thus, in every turn of your argument against our +system of slavery, you advance, whether conscious of it or not, radical +and revolutionary doctrines calculated to change the whole face of the +world, to overthrow all government, disorganize society, and reduce man +to a state of nature--red with blood, and shrouded once more in barbaric +ignorance. But you greatly err, if you suppose, because we rely on force +in the last resort to maintain our supremacy over our slaves, that ours +is a stern and unfeeling domination, at all to be compared in +hard-hearted severity to that exercised, not over the mere laborer only, +but by the higher over each lower order, wherever the British sway is +acknowledged. You say, that if those you address were "to spend one day +in the South, they would return home with impressions against slavery +never to be erased." But the fact is universally the reverse. I have +known numerous instances, and I never knew a single one, where there was +no other cause of offense, and no object to promote by falsehood, that +individuals from the non-slaveholding States did not, after residing +among us long enough to understand the subject, "return home" _to defend +our slavery_. It is matter of regret that you have never tried the +experiment yourself. I do not doubt you would have been converted, for I +give you credit for an honest though perverted mind. You would have seen +how weak and futile is all abstract reasoning about this matter, and +that, as a building may not be less elegant in its proportions, or +tasteful in its ornaments, or virtuous in its uses, for being based upon +granite, so a system of human government, though founded on force, may +develope and cultivate the tenderest and purest sentiments of the human +heart. And our patriarchal scheme of domestic servitude is indeed well +calculated to awaken the higher and finer feelings of our nature. It is +not wanting in its enthusiasm and its poetry. The relations of the most +beloved and honored chief, and the most faithful and admiring subjects, +which, from the time of Homer, have been the theme of song, are frigid +and unfelt compared with those existing between the master and his +slaves--who served his father, and rocked his cradle, or have been born +in his household, and look forward to serve his children--who have been +through life the props of his fortune, and the objects of his care--who +have partaken of his griefs, and looked to him for comfort in their +own--whose sickness he has so frequently watched over and +relieved--whose holidays he has so often made joyous by his bounties and +his presence; for whose welfare, when absent, his anxious solicitude +never ceases, and whose hearty and affectionate greetings never fail to +welcome him home. In this cold, calculating, ambitious world of ours, +there are few ties more heartfelt, or of more benignant influence, than +those which mutually bind the master and the slave, under our ancient +system, handed down from the father of Israel. The unholy purpose of the +abolitionists is, to destroy by defiling it; to infuse into it the gall +and bitterness which rankle in their own envenomed bosoms; to poison the +minds of the master and the servant; turn love to hatred, array _"force" +against force_, and hurl all + + "With hideous rain and combustion, down + To bottomless perdition." + +You think it a great "crime" that we do not pay our slaves "wages," and +on this account pronounce us "robbers." In my former letter, I showed +that the labor of our slaves was not without great cost to us, and that +in fact they themselves receive more in return for it than your +hirelings do for theirs. For what purpose do men labor, but to support +themselves and their families in what comfort they are able? The efforts +of mere physical labor seldom suffice to provide more than a livelihood. +And it is a well known and shocking fact, that while few operatives in +Great Britain succeed in securing a comfortable living, the greater part +drag out a miserable existence, and sink at last under absolute want. +Of what avail is it that you go through the form of paying them a +pittance of what you call "wages," when you do not, in return for their +services, allow them what alone they ask--and have a just right to +demand--enough to feed, clothe and lodge them, in health and sickness, +with reasonable comfort. Though we do not give "wages" _in money_, we do +this for _our slaves_, and they are therefore better rewarded than +_yours_. It is the prevailing vice and error of the age, and one from +which the abolitionists, with all their saintly pretensions, are far +from being free, to bring every thing to the standard of money. You make +gold and silver the great test of happiness. The American slave must be +wretched indeed, because he is not compensated for his services _in +cash_. It is altogether praiseworthy to pay the laborer a shilling a +day, and let him starve on it. To supply all his wants abundantly, and +at all times, yet withhold from him _money_, is among "the most +reprobated crimes." The fact can not be denied, that the mere laborer is +now, and always has been, everywhere that barbarism has ceased, +enslaved. Among the innovations of modern times, following "the decay of +villeinage," has been the creation of a new system of slavery. The +primitive and patriarchal, which may also be called the sacred and +natural system, in which the laborer is under the personal control of a +fellow-being endowed with the sentiments and sympathies of humanity, +exists among us. It has been almost everywhere else superseded by the +modern _artificial money power system_, in which man--his thews and +sinews, his hopes and affections, his very being, are all subjected to +the dominion of _capital_--a monster without a heart--cold, stern, +arithmetical--sticking to the bond--taking ever "the pound of +flesh"--working up human life with engines, and retailing it out by +weight and measure. His name of old was "Mammon, the least erected +spirit that fell from heaven." And it is to extend his empire that you +and your deluded coadjutors dedicate your lives. You are stirring up +mankind to overthrow our heaven-ordained system of servitude, surrounded +by innumerable checks, designed and planted deep in the human heart by +God and nature, to substitute the absolute rule of this "spirit +reprobate," whose proper place was hell. + +You charge us with looking on our slaves "as chattels or brutes," and +enter into a somewhat elaborate argument to prove that they have "human +forms," "talk," and even "think." Now the fact is, that however you may +indulge in this strain for effect, it is the abolitionists, and not the +slaveholders, who, practically, and in the most important point of view, +regard our slaves as "chattels or brutes." In your calculations of the +consequences of emancipation, you pass over entirely those which must +prove most serious, and which arise from the fact of their being +_persons_. + +You appear to think that we might abstain from the use of them as +readily as if they were machines to be laid aside, or cattle that might +be turned out to find pasturage for themselves. I have heretofore +glanced at some of the results that would follow from breaking the bonds +of so many _human beings_, now peacefully and happily linked into our +social system. The tragic horrors, the decay and ruin that would for +years, perhaps for ages, brood over our land, if it could be +accomplished, I will not attempt to portray. But do you fancy the blight +would, in such an event, come to us alone? The diminution of the sugar +crop of the West Indies affected Great Britain only, and there chiefly +the poor. It was a matter of no moment to capital, that labor should +have one comfort less. Yet it has forced a reduction of the British duty +on sugar. Who can estimate the consequences that must follow the +annihilation of the cotton crop of the slaveholding States? I do not +undervalue the importance of other articles of commerce, but no calamity +could befall the world at all comparable to the sudden loss of two +millions of bales of cotton annually. From the deserts of Africa to the +Siberian wilds--from Greenland to the Chinese wall,--there is not a spot +of earth but would feel the sensation. The factories of Europe would +fall with a concussion that would shake down castles, palaces, and even +thrones; while the "purse-proud, elbowing insolence" of our Northern +monopolist would soon disappear forever under the smooth speech of the +pedlar, scourging our frontiers for a livelihood, or the bluff vulgarity +of the South Sea whaler, following the harpoon amid storms and shoals. +Doubtless the abolitionists think we could grow cotton without slaves, +or that at worst the reduction of the crop would be moderate and +temporary. Such gross delusions show how profoundly ignorant they are of +our condition here. + +You declare that "the character of the people of the South has long been +that of _hardened infidels_, who fear not God, and have no regard for +religion." I will not repeat what I said in my former letter on this +point. I only notice it to ask you how you could possibly reconcile it +to your profession of a Christian spirit, to make such a malicious +charge--to defile your soul with such a calumny against an unoffending +people? + + "You are old; + Nature in you stands on the very verge + Of her confine. You should be ruled and led + By some discretion." + +May God forgive you. + +Akin to this, is the wanton and furious assault made on us by Mr. +Macaulay, in his late speech on the sugar duties, in the House of +Commons, which has just reached me. His denunciations are wholly without +measure, and, among other things, he asserts "that slavery in the United +States wears its worst form; that, boasting of our civilization and +freedom, and frequenting Christian churches, we breed up slaves, nay, +beget children for slaves, and sell them at so much a-head." Mr. +Macaulay is a reviewer, and he knows that he is "nothing if not +critical." The practice of his trade has given him the command of all +the slashing and vituperative phrases of our language, and the turn of +his mind leads him to the habitual use of them. He is an author, and as +no copy-right law secures for him from this country a consideration for +his writings, he is not only independent of us, but naturally hates +every thing American. He is the representative of Edinburgh; it is his +cue to decry our slavery, and in doing so he may safely indulge the +malignity of his temper, his indignation against us, and his capacity +for railing. He has suffered once, for being in advance of his time in +favor of abolition, and he does not intend that it shall be forgotten, +or his claim passed over, to any crumb which may now be thrown to the +vociferators in the cause. If he does not know that the statements he +has made respecting the slaveholders of this country are vile and +atrocious falsehoods, it is because he does not think it worth his while +to be sure he speaks the truth, so that he speaks to his own purpose. + + "Hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane caveto." + +Such exhibitions as he has made, may draw the applause of a British +House of Commons, but among the sound and high-minded thinkers of the +world they can only excite contempt and disgust. + +But you are not content with depriving us of all religious feelings. You +assert that our slavery has also "demoralized the Northern States," and +charge upon it not only every common violation of good order there, but +the "Mormon murders," the "Philadelphia riots," and all "the +exterminating wars against the Indians." I wonder that you did not +increase the list by adding that it had caused the recent inundation of +the Mississippi, and the hurricane in the West Indies--perhaps the +insurrection of Rebecca, and the war in Scinde. You refer to the law +prohibiting the transmission of abolition publications through the mail, +as proof of general corruption! You could not do so, however, without +noticing the late detected espionage over the British post office by a +minister of state. It is true, as you say, it "occasioned a general +outburst of national feeling"--from the opposition; and a "Parliamentary +inquiry was instituted"--that is, moved, but treated quite cavalierly. +At all events, though the fact was admitted, Sir James Graham yet +retains the Home Department. For one, I do not undertake to condemn him. +Such things are not against the laws and usages of your country. I do +not know fully what reasons of state may have influenced him and +justified his conduct. But I do know that there is a vast difference in +point of "national morality" between the discretionary power residing in +your government to open any letter in the public post office, and a +well-defined and limited law to prevent the circulation of certain +specified incendiary writings by means of the United States mail. + +Having now referred to every thing like argument on the subject of +slavery, that is worthy of notice in your letter, permit me to remark on +its tone and style, and very extraordinary bearing upon other +institutions of this country. You commence by addressing certain classes +of our people, as belonging to "a nation whose character is _now so low_ +in the estimation of the civilized world;" and throughout you maintain +this tone. Did the Americans who were "under your roof last summer" +inform you that such language would be gratifying to their +fellow-citizens "having no practical concern with slaveholding?" Or do +the infamous libels on America, which you read in our abolition papers, +induce you to believe that all that class of people are, like the +abolitionists themselves, totally destitute of patriotism or pride of +country? Let me tell you that you are grossly deceived. And although +your stock-brokers and other speculators, who have been bitten in +American ventures, may have raised a stunning "cry" against us in +England, there is a vast body of people here besides slaveholders, who +justly + + "Deem their own land of every land the pride, + Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside," + +and who _know_ that at this moment we rank among the first powers of the +world--a position which we not only claim, but are always ready and able +to maintain. + +The style you assume in addressing your Northern friends, is in perfect +keeping with your apparent estimation of them. Though I should be the +last, perhaps, to criticise mere style, I could not but be struck with +the extremely simple manner of your letter. You seem to have thought you +were writing a tract for benighted heathen, and telling wonders never +before suggested to their imagination, and so far above their untutored +comprehension as to require to be related in the primitive language of +"the child's own book." This is sufficiently amusing; and would be more +so, but for the coarse and bitter epithets you continually apply to the +poor slaveholders--epithets which appear to be stereotyped for the use +of abolitionists, and which form a large and material part of all their +arguments. + +But, perhaps, the most extraordinary part of your letter is your bold +denunciation of "_the shameful compromises_" of our Constitution, and +your earnest recommendation to those you address to overthrow or +revolutionize it. In so many words you say to them, "_you must either +separate yourselves_ from all political connection with the South, and +make your own laws; or if you do not choose such a separation, you must +break up _the political ascendency which the Southern have had for so +long a time over the Northern States_. The italics in this, as in all +other quotations, are your own. It is well for those who circulate your +letter here, that the Constitution you denounce requires an overt act to +constitute treason. It may be tolerated for an American by birth, to use +on his own soil the freedom of speaking and writing which is guaranteed +him, and abuse our Constitution, our Union, and our people. But that a +foreigner should use such seditious language, in a circular letter +addressed to a portion of the American people, is a presumption well +calculated to excite the indignation of all. The party known in this +country as the abolition party has long since avowed the sentiments you +express, and adopted the policy you enjoin. At the recent presidential +election, they gave over 62,000 votes for their own candidate, and held +the balance of power in two of the largest States--wanting but little of +doing it in several others. In the last four years their vote has +quadrupled. Should the infatuation continue, and their vote increase in +the same ratio for the next four years, it will be as large as the vote +of the _actual slaveholders_ of the Union. Such a prospect is, +doubtless, extremely gratifying to you. It gives hope of a contest on +such terms as may insure the downfall of slavery or our Constitution. +The South venerates the Constitution, and is prepared to stand by it +forever, _such as it came from the hands of our fathers_; to risk every +thing to defend and maintain it _in its integrity_. But the South is +under no such delusion as to believe that it derives any _peculiar_ +protection from the Union. On the contrary, it is well known we incur +_peculiar danger_, and that we bear far more than our porportion of the +burdens. The apprehension is also fast fading away that any of the +dreadful consequences commonly predicted will necessarily result from a +separation of the States. And _come what may_, we are firmly resolved +that OUR SYSTEM OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY SHALL STAND. The fate of the Union, +then--but, thank God, not of republican government--rests mainly in the +hands of the people to whom your letter is addressed--the "professing +Christians of the Northern States having no concern with slaveholding," +and whom with incendiary zeal you are endeavoring to stir up to +strife--without which fanaticism can neither live, move, nor have any +being. + +We have often been taunted for our sensitiveness in regard to the +discussion of slavery. Do not suppose it is because we have any doubts +of our rights, or scruples about asserting them. There was a time when +such doubts and scruples were entertained. Our ancestors opposed the +introduction of slaves into this country, and a feeling adverse to it +was handed down from them. The enthusiastic love of liberty fostered by +our Revolution strengthened this feeling. And before the commencement of +the abolition agitation here, it was the common sentiment that it was +desirable to get rid of slavery. Many thought it our duty to do so. When +that agitation arose, we were driven to a close examination of the +subject in all its bearings, and the result has been an _universal +conviction_ that in holding slaves we violate no law of God,--inflict no +injustice on any of his creatures--while the terrible consequences of +emancipation to all parties and the world at large, clearly revealed to +us, make us shudder at the bare thought of it. The slaveholders are, +therefore, indebted to the abolitionists for perfect ease of conscience, +and the satisfaction of a settled and unanimous determination in +reference to this matter. And could their agitation cease now, I +believe, after all, the good would preponderate over the evil of it in +this country. On the contrary, however, it is urged on with frantic +violence, and the abolitionists, reasoning in the abstract, as if it +were a mere moral or metaphysical speculation, or a minor question in +politics, profess to be surprised at our exasperation. In their +ignorance and recklessness, they seem to be unable to comprehend our +feelings or position. The subversion of our rights, the destruction of +our property, the disturbance of our peace and the peace of the world, +are matters which do not appear to arrest their consideration. When +revolutionary France proclaimed "hatred to kings and unity to the +republic," and inscribed on her banners "France risen against tyrants," +she professed to be only worshiping "abstract rights." And if there can +be such things, perhaps she was. Yet all Europe _rose_ to put her +sublime theories down. They declared her an enemy to the common peace; +that her doctrines alone violated the "law of neighborhood," and, as Mr. +Burke said, justly entitled them to anticipate the "damnum nondum +factum" of the civil law. Danton, Barrere, and the rest were apparently +astonished that umbrage should be taken. The parallel between them and +the abolitionists holds good in all respects. + +The rise and progress of this fanaticism is one of the phenomena of the +age in which we live. I do not intend to repeat what I have already +said, or to trace its career more minutely at present. But the +legislation of Great Britain will make it historical, and doubtless you +must feel some curiosity to know how it will figure on the page of the +annalist. I think I can tell you. Though I have accorded and do accord +to you and your party, great influence in bringing about the +parliamentary action of your country, you must not expect to go down to +posterity as the only cause of it. Though _you_ trace the progenitors of +abolition from 1516, through a long stream with divers branches, down +to the period of its triumph in your country, it has not escaped +contemporaries, and will not escape posterity, that England, without +much effort, sustained the storm of its scoffs and threats, until the +moment arrived when she thought her colonies fully supplied with +Africans; and declared against the slave trade, only when she deemed it +unnecessary to her, and when her colonies, full of slaves, would have +great advantages over others not so well provided. Nor did she agree to +West India emancipation, until, discovering the error of her previous +calculation, it became an object to have slaves free throughout the +Western world, and, on the ruins of the sugar and cotton-growers of +America and the Islands, to build up her great slave empire in the East; +while her indefatigable exertions, still continued, to engraft the right +of search upon the law of nations, on the plea of putting an end to the +forever increasing slave trade, are well understood to have chiefly in +view the complete establishment of her supremacy at sea.[256] Nor must +you flatter yourself that your party will derive historic dignity from +the names of the illustrious British statesmen who have acted with it. +Their country's ends were theirs. They have stooped to use you, as the +most illustrious men will sometimes use the vilest instruments, to +accomplish their own purposes. A few philanthropic common places and +rhetorical flourishes, "in the abstract," have secured them your "sweet +voices," and your influence over the tribe of mawkish sentimentalists. +Wilberforce may have been yours, but what was he besides, but a wealthy +county member? You must, therefore, expect to stand on your own merits +alone before posterity, or rather that portion of it that may be curious +to trace the history of the delusions which, from time to time, pass +over the surface of human affairs, and who may trouble themselves to +look through the ramifications of transcendentalism, in this era of +extravagances. And how do you expect to appear in their eyes? As +Christians, piously endeavoring to enforce the will of God, and carry +out the principles of Christianity? Certainly not, since you deny or +pervert the Scriptures in the doctrines you advance; and in your +conduct, furnish a glaring contrast to the examples of Christ and the +apostles. As philanthropists, devoting yourselves to the cause of +humanity, relieving the needy, comforting the afflicted, creating peace +and gladness and plenty round about you? Certainly not, since you turn +from the needy, the afflicted; from strife, sorrow and starvation which +surround you; close your eyes and hands upon them; shut out from your +thoughts and feelings the human misery which is real, tangible, and +within your reach, to indulge your morbid imagination in conjuring up +woes and wants among a strange people in distant lands, and offering +them succor in the shape of costless denunciations of their best +friends, or by scattering among them "firebrands, arrows and death." +Such folly and madness, such wild mockery and base imposture, can never +win for you, in the sober judgment of future times, the name of +philanthropists. Will you even be regarded as worthy citizens? Scarcely, +when the purposes you have in view, can only be achieved by +revolutionizing governments and overturning social systems, and when you +do not hesitate, zealously and earnestly, to recommend such measures. Be +assured, then, that posterity will not regard the abolitionists as +Christians, philanthropists, or virtuous citizens. It will, I have no +doubt, look upon the mass of the party as silly enthusiasts, led away by +designing characters, as is the case with all parties that break from +the great, acknowledged ties which bind civilized man in fellowship. The +leaders themselves will be regarded as _mere ambitious men_; not taking +rank with those whose ambition is "eagle-winged and sky-aspiring," but +belonging to that mean and selfish class, who are instigated by +"rival-hating envy," and whose base thirst is for _notoriety_; who cloak +their designs under vile and impious hypocrisies, and, unable to shine +in higher spheres, devote themselves to fanaticism, as a trade. And it +will be perceived that, even in that, they shunned the highest walk. +Religious fanaticism was an old established vocation, in which something +brilliant was required to attract attention. They could not be George +Foxes, nor Joanna Southcotes, nor even Joe Smiths. But the dullest +pretender could discourse a jumble of pious bigotry, natural rights, and +driveling philanthropy. And, addressing himself to aged folly and +youthful vanity, to ancient women, to ill-gotten wealth, to the +reckless of all classes, who love excitement and change, offer each the +cheapest and the safest glory in the market. Hence, their numbers; and, +from number and clamor, what impression they have made on the world. + +Such, I am persuaded, is the light in which the abolitionists will be +viewed by the posterity their history may reach. Unless, indeed--which +God forbid--circumstances should so favor as to enable them to produce a +convulsion which may elevate them higher on the "bad eminence" where +they have placed themselves. + + I have the honor to be + Your obedient servant, + J. H. HAMMOND. + +THOMAS CLARKSON, Esq. + + +NOTE.--The foregoing Letters were not originally intended for +publication. In preparing them for the press, they have been revised. +The alterations and corrections made, however, have been mostly verbal. +Had the writer felt at liberty to condense the two letters into one, and +bring up the history of abolition to the period of publication, he might +have presented a more concise and perfect argument, and illustrated his +views more forcibly, by reference to facts recently developed. For +example, since writing the first, the letter of Mr. Clarkson, as +President of the British Anti-Slavery Society, to Sir Robert Peel, +denouncing the whole scheme of "Immigration," has reached him; and after +he had forwarded the last, he saw it stated, that Mr. Clarkson had, as +late as the first part of April, addressed the Earl of Aberdeen, and +declared, that all efforts to suppress the African slave trade had fully +failed. It may be confidently expected, that it will be ere long +announced from the same quarter, that the "experiment" of West India +emancipation has also proved a complete abortion. + +Should the terms which have been applied to the abolitionists appear to +any as unduly severe, let it be remembered, that the direct aim of these +people is to destroy us by the most shocking of all processes; and that, +having a large portion of the civilized world for their audience, they +daily and systematically heap upon us the vilest calumnies and most +unmitigated abuse. Clergymen lay aside their Bibles, and females unsex +themselves, to carry on this horrid warfare against slave holders. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[256] On these points, let me recommend you to consult a very able Essay +on the Slave Trade and Right of Search, by M. Jollivet, recently +published; and as you say, since writing your Circular Letter, that you +"burn to try your hand on another little Essay, if a subject could be +found," I propose to you to "try" to answer this question, put by M. +Jollivet to England: "_Pourquoi sa philanthropie n'a pas daigne, jusqu' +a present, doubler le cap de Bonne-Esperance?_" + +[Illustration] + + + + +SLAVERY + +IN THE LIGHT OF ETHNOLOGY. + +BY + +S. A. CARTWRIGHT, M.D. + +OF LOUISIANA. + + + + +SLAVERY + +IN + +THE LIGHT OF ETHNOLOGY. + + +PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEGRO CONSTITUTION, ELICITED BY QUESTIONS PROPOUNDED +BY DR. C. R. HALL, OF TORQUAY, ENGLAND, THROUGH PROF. JACKSON, OF +MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL COLLEGE, BOSTON, TO SAML. A. CARTWRIGHT, M.D., NEW +ORLEANS. + + [Reprinted from the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal.] + + +To PROF. JACKSON, Boston:-- + +_Dear Sir:_--The paper of mine, alluded to by your London correspondent, +Dr. Hall, which he saw in the medical work you mention, is not, as he +supposes, "_The Report on the diseases and physical peculiarities of the +Negro race_," the physicians of Louisiana, in convention assembled, +appointed me to make; but only some additional observations intended for +students and those persons whose want of knowledge of Comparative +Anatomy prevented them from understanding the Report. The Appendix, +intended for students, was published in the _Charleston_ (South +Carolina) _Medical Journal_, and also in the work you mention, under the +caption of the original Report to the Medical Convention, and _the +Report itself was omitted_ by the editors of those works under the +erroneous impression, that the Appendix for students contained the +substance of that paper; whereas it does so only in the sense that the +four first rules contain the substance of the arithmetic. No wonder your +intelligent correspondent should not find, in the Appendix of the +Report, the information he was seeking, and hence the questions he asks +you to refer to me for solution. I herewith beg leave to send you a copy +of the "_Report on the diseases and physical peculiarities of the Negro +race_," which the Louisiana physicians appointed me to make to the State +Medical Society. In that paper your correspondent will find most of the +questions he asks already answered. + +I thank you for the opportunity thus afforded me of supplying an +omission in the Southern works above alluded to, of a paper, very +imperfect and defective, it is true, yet embodying in a small space the +results of the experience and observation of a Southern practitioner, +extending through a period of active service of a third of a century's +duration, and which had the honor to meet with the approbation of the +physicians generally of the South. To the few questions not answered +therein I propose to reply, and at the same time to extend my remarks on +that branch of the subject more directly connected with the particular +object of your correspondent's investigations. + +To the question, "Is not Phthisis very common among the slaves of the +slave States and unknown among the native Africans at home?" I reply in +the negative, that Phthisis, so far from being common among the slaves +of the slave States, is very seldom met with. As to the native Africans +at home, little or nothing is known of their diseases. They have no +science or literature among them, and never had. The word Consumption, +is applied to two very different diseases among negroes. The Cachexia +Africana, Dirt-eating of the English, and Mal d'Estomac of the French, +commonly called Negro Consumption, is a very different malady from +Phthisis Pulmonalis, properly so called. The Cachexia Africana, like +other spanoemic states of the system, may run into Phthisis, or become +complicated with it. Dr. Hall asks, in what does the peculiarity of +Negro Consumption consist? It consists in being an anoematosis and not a +tuberculosis. Not having seen my Report, he may have inferred that it +was a tubercular disease--whereas it is an erythism of mind connected +with spanoemia. Negroes, however, are sometimes, though rarely, +afflicted with tubercula pulmonum, or Phthisis, properly so called, +which has some peculiarities. With them it is more palpably a secondary +disease than it appears to be among white people. European physicians +are just beginning to see and acknowledge the truth taught by our Rush +in the last century, that what is called Phthisis Pulmonalis is not a +primary, but a secondary disease; the tubercles of the lungs not being a +cause, but an effect of the primary or original vice of blood origin, or +as he called it, general debility. For half a century the attention of +the medical profession has been directed to the special and ultimate +results of Phthisis, instead of the primary condition of the system +causing the formation of tubercles. The new knowledge, derived from the +stethoscope, by detecting those abnormal deposits of abortive nutrition, +called tubercles, has been received for more than its worth, and has +greatly served to keep up the delusion of treating effects instead of +causes. The tubercular deposits, revealed by auscultation, are not only +the effects of abortive nutrition, but the latter is itself the effect +of some derangement in the digestive and respiratory functions, +vitiating the nutritive fluids, and producing what Rush called general +debility. The defect in the respiratory organs arises from the fact, +long overlooked, that in a great many persons, particularly the +Anglo-Saxons, the lungs are inadequate to the task of depurating the +superabundant blood, which is thrown upon them at the age of maturity, +unless aided by an occasional blood-letting, active and abundant +exercise of the muscles in the open air, and a nutritious diet, as +advised by the American Hippocrates, Benjamin Rush. White children +sometimes have Phthisis, but here, as everywhere, it is a rare complaint +before maturity (twenty-one in the male and eighteen in the female.) The +lymphatic and nervous temperament predominating until then, secures them +against this fell destroyer of the master race of men. Phthisis is, par +excellence, a disease of the sanguineous temperament, fair complexion, +red or flaxen hair, blue eyes, large blood vessels, and a bony +encasement too small to admit the full and free expansion of the lungs, +enlarged by the superabundant blood, which is determined to those organs +during that first half-score of years immediately succeeding puberty. +Well-formed chests offer no impediment to its inroads, if the volume of +blood be out of proportion to the expansibility and capacity of the +pulmonary organs. Hence it is most apt to occur precisely at, and +immediately following, that period of life known as matureness, when the +sanguineous system becomes fully developed and gains the mastery, so to +speak, over the lymphatic and nervous systems. With negroes, the +sanguineous never gains the mastery over the lymphatic and nervous +systems. Their digestive powers, like children, are strong, and their +secretions and excretions copious, excepting the urine, which is rather +scant. At the age of maturity they do not become dyspeptic and feeble +with softening and attenuation of the muscles, as among those white +people suffering the ills of a defective system of physical education, +and a want of a wholesome, nutritious diet. + +Your correspondent asks, "_Do the slaves consume much sugar, or take rum +in intoxicating quantities?_" + +They do not consume much sugar, but are occasionally supplied with +molasses. Their diet consists principally of pickled pork and corn +bread, rice, hominy, beans, peas, potatoes, yams, pumpkins and turnips. +Soups, tea, coffee and slops, are seldom used by those in health, and +they object to all such articles of diet, as making them weak. They +prefer the fattest pork to the lean. In the Atlantic States salted fish +is substituted for or alternated with pork--the shad, mackerel and +herring, principally the latter. In Cuba pickled beef is used, but they +prefer pork. Their diet is of the most nutritious kind, and they will +not labor with much effect on any other than a strong, rich diet. With +very few exceptions, they do not take rum or other intoxicating drinks, +except as a medicine, or in holiday times. Something equivalent to the +"_Maine Liquor Law_," (which you can explain to your correspondent,) has +long been in practical operation on all well regulated Southern +plantations. The experience of two centuries testifies to the advantages +of restraining the black population, _by arbitrary power_, from the free +use of intoxicating poisons. Man has no better natural right to poison +himself or his neighbor, than to maim, wound or kill himself or his +neighbor. In regard to intoxicating drinks, the negroes of the South are +under wiser laws than any other people in the Union--those of Maine +excepted. But these wise unwritten laws do not so well protect those +negroes who reside in or near towns and villages, and are not under +proper discipline. The Melanic race have a much stronger propensity to +indulge in the intemperate use of ardent spirits than white people. They +appear to have a natural fondness for alcoholic drinks and tobacco. They +need no schooling, as the fair skin races do, to acquire a fondness for +either. Nearly all chew tobacco or smoke, and are not sickened and +disgusted with the taste of that weed as white men always are when they +first begin to use it. As an instance of their natural love for ardent +spirits, I was called to a number of negro children, who found a bottle +of whisky under a bed, and drank it all without dilution, although it +was the first they had ever tasted. It contained arsenic, and had been +placed where they found it by the father of some of the children, with a +view of poisoning a supposed enemy. But with that want of forethought, +so characteristic of the negro race, he did not think of the greater +probability of his own children finding and drinking the poison than the +enemy he intended it for. + +I am asked, "_If I have determined by my own observation the facts in +regard to the darker color of the secretions, the flesh, the membranes +and the blood of the negro than the white man--or is the statement made +on the authority of others?_" + +The statement is made on the authority of some of the most distinguished +anatomists and physiologists of the last century, confirmed by my own +repeated observations. The authorities to which I particularly refer are +Malpighi, Stubner, Meckel, Pechlin, Albinus, Soemmering, Virey and Ebel. +Almost every year of my professional life, except a few years when +abroad, I have made post mortem examinations of negroes, who have died +of various diseases, and I have invariably found the darker color +pervading the flesh and the membranes to be very evident in all those +who died of acute diseases. Chronic ailments have a tendency to destroy +the coloring matter, and generally cause the mucous surfaces to be paler +and whiter than in the white race. + +I now come to the main and important question--the last of the series, +and the most important of all, viz: "_How is it ascertained that negroes +consume less oxygen than white people?_" + +I answer, by the spirometer. I have delayed my reply to make some +further experiments on this branch of the subject. The result is, that +the expansibility of the lungs is considerably less in the black than +the white race of similar size, age and habit. A white boy expelled from +his lungs a larger volume of air than a negro half a head taller and +three inches larger around the chest. The deficiency in the negro may be +safely estimated at 20 per cent, according to a number of observations I +have made at different times. Thus, 174 being the mean bulk of air +receivable by the lungs of a white person of five feet in height, 140 +cubic inches are given out by a negro of the same stature. It must be +remembered, however, that great variations occur in the bulk of air +which can be expelled from the chest, depending much upon the age, size, +health and habits of each individual. But, as a general rule, it may be +safely stated, that a white man, of the same age and size, who has been +bred to labor, is, in comparison to the negro, extra capacious. To judge +the negro by spirometrical observations made on the white man, would +indicate, in the former a morbid condition when none existed. But I am +free to confess that this is a subject open to further observations. My +estimate may be under or over the exact difference of the capacity of +the two races for the consumption of oxygen. + +The question is also answered _anatomically_, by the comparatively +larger size of the liver, and the smaller size of the lungs; and +_physiologically_, by the _roule_ the liver performs in the negro's +economy being greater, and that of the lungs and kidneys less, than in +the white man. But I have not the honor to be the first to call +attention to the difference in the pulmonary apparatus of the negro and +the white man, and to the fact of the deficiency in the renal secretion. +The honor is due to Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United +States. In his Notes on Virginia, Mr. Jefferson suggested that there was +a difference in the pulmonary apparatus of negroes, and that they do not +extricate as much caloric from the air by respiration, and +consesequently consume less oxygen. He also called attention to the fact +of the defective action of the kidneys. He remarks, "To our reproach be +it said, that although the negro race has been under our eye for a +century and a half, it has not been considered as a subject of natural +history." Another half century has passed away, and nothing has yet been +done to acquire a knowledge of the diseases and physical peculiarities +of a people, constituting nearly a moiety of the population of fifteen +States of the American confederacy, and whose labor, in cultivating a +single plant, which no other operatives but themselves can cultivate +without sacrificing ease, comfort, health and life, affords a cheap +material, in sufficient abundance, to clothe the naked of the whole +world. Even the little scientific knowledge heretofore acquired +concerning them, has been so far forgotten, that when I enumerated a few +of their anatomical and physical peculiarities, well known to the +medical men of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, I was supposed +by some of my cotemporaries in the South to be broaching novelties and +advancing speculations wild and crude. But I would not be understood as +underrating the editors of the _Charleston Medical Journal_ and some +other Southern writers, for mistaking anatomical facts for wild +speculations, and condemning them as such in their editorial apologies +for not publishing the same. The fault lies not with them, but in that +system of education which seems intended to keep physicians, divines, +and all other classes of men in Egyptian darkness of every thing +pertaining to the philosophy of the negro constitution. It is only the +country and village practitioners of the Southern States (among +professional men,) who appear to know any thing at all about the +peculiar nature of negroes--having derived their knowledge, not from +books or schools, but in the field of experience. It is the latter class +of medical men, by far the most numerous in the South, who have with +great unanimity sustained my feeble efforts to make the negro's peculiar +nature known, and the important fact that he consumes less oxygen than +the white man. Until his defective haematosis be made an element in +calculating the best means for improving the negro's condition, our +Northern people ought not to wonder at finding their colored population, +born to freedom by the side of the church and school-house door, in a +lower species of degradation, after trying for half a century or more to +elevate them, than an equal number of slaves any where to be found in +the South. "Will not a lover of natural history," says Mr. Jefferson, +"one who views the gradations in all the races of animals with the eye +of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep those of the department of man +as distinct as nature formed them?" But no effort has since been made to +draw the distinctions between the black and the white races by the knife +of the anatomist, but much false logic has been introduced into our +books and schools, to argue down the distinctions which nature has made. +It is to anatomy and physiology we should look, when vindicating the +liberty of human nature, to see that its dignity and best interest be +preserved. "Among the Romans," says Mr. Jefferson, "emancipation +required but one effort, but with us a second is necessary, unknown to +history." This second belongs properly to natural history; the +difference in the last not being artificial, as among the Romans, or the +present Britons, requiring only an act of legislation or a revolution to +efface forever, but natural, which no human laws or governmental changes +can ever obliterate. The framers of our Constitution were aware of these +facts, and built the Constitution upon the basis of natural distinctions +or physical differences in the two races composing the American +population. A very important difference between the two will be found in +the fact of the greater amount of oxygen consumed by the one than the +other. If the Constitution be worth defending, surely the great truths +of natural history, on which it rests as a basis, are worth being made +known and regarded by our statesmen. That negroes consume less oxygen +than the white race, is proved by their motions being proverbially much +slower, and their want of muscular and mental activity. But to +comprehend fully the weight of this proof of their defective haematosis, +it is necessary to bear in mind one of the great leading truths +disclosed by comparative anatomy. Cuvier was the first to demonstrate +beyond a doubt that muscular energy and activity are in direct +proportion to the development and activity of the pulmonary organs. In +his 29th lesson, vol. vii, p. 17, D'Anatomie Comparee, he says, "_Dans +les animaux vertebres cette quantite de respiration fait connaitre +presque par un calcul mathematique la nature particuliere de chaque +class_." In the preceding page he says,--"That the relations observed in +the different animals, between the quantity of their respiration and the +energy of their motive force, is one of the finest demonstrations that +comparative anatomy can furnish to physiology, and at the same time one +of the best applications of comparative anatomy to natural history." The +slower motions of the owl prove to the natural historian that it +consumes less oxygen than the eagle. By the same physiological principle +he can tell that the herring is the most active among fish, and the +flounder the slowest, by merely seeing the gills of each: those of the +herring being very large, prove that it consumes much oxygen and is very +active; while the flounder, with its small gills, consumes but little, +and is very slow in its motions as a necessary consequence. Hence the +habitual slower motions of the negro than the white man, is a positive +proof that he consumes less oxygen. The slow gait of the negro is an +important element to be taken into consideration in studying his nature. +I have the authority of one of the very best observers of mankind, that +this element in the negro's economy is particularly worthy of being +studied. It is no less an authority than the father of his country, the +first President of the United States, the illustrious Washington. +Washington knew better, perhaps, than any other man what the white man +could do; his power of endurance and strength of wind under a given +speed of motion. Yet he found that all his observations on the white +race were inapplicable to negroes. To know what they could do, and to +ascertain their power of endurance and strength of wind, new +observations had to be made, and he made them accordingly. He made them +on his own negroes. He saw they did not move like the soldiers he had +been accustomed to command. Their motions were much slower, and they +performed their tasks in a more dilatory manner; the amount of labor +they could perform in a given time, with ease and comfort to themselves, +could not be told by his knowledge of what white men could do. He +therefore noted the gait or movements natural to negroes, and made +observations himself of how much they could effect in a given time, +under the slow motions or gait natural to them. He did this to enable +him to judge of what would be a reasonable service to expect from them, +and to know when they loitered and when they performed their duty. Those +persons unacquainted with the important truth that negroes are naturally +slower in their motions than white people, judging the former by the +latter, often attempt to drive them into the same brisk motions. But a +day's experience ought to be enough to teach them that every attempt to +drive negroes to the performance of tasks equal to what the white +laborer would voluntarily impose upon himself, is an actual loss to the +master; who, instead of getting more service out of them, actually gets +less, and soon none, if such a course be persisted in; because they +become disabled in body and indisposed in mind to perform any service at +all. Every master or overseer, although he may know nothing of the law +above mentioned, discovered by Cuvier, may soon learn from experience +the important fact, that there is no other alternative than to let their +negroes assume, _by their own instincts_, the natural gait or movement +peculiar to them, and then, like Washington, observe what can be +effected in a given time by that given gait or movement, and to ask for +nor expect more. In vol. ii, pages 511 to 512, (Washington's Writings, +published by Jared Sparks) are recorded a few of the observations made +by the father of his country on his own slaves, as an illustration of +the preceding remarks. It is to be regretted that Mr. Sparks, out of +deference to a modern species of idolatry (all fanaticism is idolatry,) +which has taken deep root in Great Britain and despotic Europe, and has +from thence been transplanted into our republic, particularly in the +Northern portion of it, should have suppressed so much of the valuable +observations of Washington on the negro race, as only to publish a small +fragment of the extensive knowledge his comprehensive mind had stored +up on this important subject, well known to his neighbors. The fragment +informs us, that on a certain day he visited his plantations, and found +that certain negro slaves there mentioned, by the names of George, Tom +and Mike, had only hewed a certain number of feet--whereupon Washington +sat down and observed their motions, letting them proceed their own +way," and ascertained how many feet each hewed in one hour and a +quarter. He also made observations on his sawyers at the same time and +in the same manner. From the data thus acquired he ascertained, in the +short space of an hour and a quarter, how many feet would be a day's +work for hewing, and how many for sawing, under their usual slow gait or +movement. This hewing and sawing were of poplar. "What may be the +difference, therefore," says Washington, "between the working of this +wood and other, some future observations must make known." But Mr. +Sparks, out of deference to the new school of idolatry, having its head +quarters in Exeter Hall, omitted, almost entirely, the publication of +any more observations on the subject. It is no less idolatry to set up +an anti-scriptural dogma and to make it a rule of action, than to +worship a block or a graven image in the place of the true God. The true +God has said in the Pentateuch, the most authentic books of the Bible, +"_And of the heathen shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids_ [slaves] _and +your children shall inherit them after you, and they shall be your +bondmen_ [slaves] _forever._" Leviticus, chap. xxv, verses 44, 45, 46. +But the Dogma or Negro god of Exeter Hall says that "_negro slavery is +sin_," and that it is contrary to the moral sense or conscience. +Medicine was anciently called the divine art; to be entitled to hold +that appellation, ought it not to lend its aid to arrest in this happy +republic the progress of idolatry, which is only another name for +fanaticism? And will your learned correspondent help to arrest it in +England? Or will he, like Prichard, Todd, and others, make science bow +to the policy of his government?--To build up India at the expense of +our Union? The subject of his investigations, tubercular disease, if +properly studied, leads directly to that species of knowledge, enabling +him to determine on physiological principles, which is the best system +of ethics, that taught in the Bible, _to enslave the Canaanite_, or that +taught in Exeter Hall, _to set him free_? It will lead him to the +discovery, that the negro, or Canaanitish race, consume less oxygen +than the white, and that as a necessary consequence of the deficient +aeration of the blood in the lungs, a hebetude of mind and body is the +inevitable physiological effect; thus making it a mercy and a blessing +to negroes to have persons in authority set over them, to provide for +and take care of them. Under the dogma or new commandment to free the +Canaanite, practically exercised in Van Dieman's Land and at the Cape of +Good Hope, the poor negro race have become nearly annihilated. Whereas +under that system of ethics taught in the Bible and made a rule of +action in the Southern States, the descendants of Canaan are more +rapidly increasing in numbers, and have more of the comforts and +pleasures of life, and more morality and Christianity among them than +any others of the same race on any other portion of the globe. They are +daily bought and sold, and inherited as property, as the Scriptures said +they should be. Whereas in all those countries and places in which they +are set free, in obedience to the dogma that "slavery is sin," they +rapidly degenerate into barbarism, as they are doing in the West Indies, +or become extinct as in Van Dieman's Land. The physiological fact that +negroes consume less oxygen indicates the superior wisdom of the +precepts taught in the Bible regarding those people, to any promulgated +from Exeter Hall. Experience also proves the former to be the best. You +hear of the poor negroes, or colored people, as you call them, being +beaten with many stripes by their masters and overseers. But owing to +the fact that they consume less oxygen than white people, and the other +physical differences founded on difference of structure, they beat one +another, when free from the white man's authority, with ten stripes +where they would get one from him. They are as much in slavery in Boston +as in New Orleans. They suffer more from corporeal or other punishments +in the cellars and dark lanes and alleys of Boston, New York and +Philadelphia, by the cruel tyranny practiced by the strong over the weak +and helpless, than an equal number in Southern slavery. In slavery the +stripes fall upon the evil disposed, vicious, buck negro fellows. But +when removed from the white man's authority, the latter make them fall +on helpless women and children, the weak and the infirm. Good conduct, +so far from being a protection, invites aggression. + +But what connection have these observations, you may say, with the +subject of Dr. Hall's inquiries, and what light do they throw on +tubercular disease? They show that there exists an intimate connection +between the amount of oxygen consumed in the lungs and the phenomena of +body and mind. They point to a people whose respiratory apparatus is so +defective, that they have not sufficient industry and mental energy to +provide for themselves, or resolution sufficiently strong to prevent +them, when in freedom, from being subjected to the arbitrary, capricious +will of the drunken and vicious of their own color, who may happen to +have greater physical strength and more cunning; they show that Phthisis +is a disease of the master race, and not of the slave race--that it is +the bane of that master race of men, known by an active haematosis; by +the brain receiving a larger quantity of aerated blood than it is +entitled to; by the strong development of the circulating system; by the +energy of intellect; by the strength and activity of the muscular +system; the vivid imagination; the irritable, mobile, ardent and +inflammatory temperament, and the indomitable will and love of freedom. +Whereas the negro constitution, being the opposite of all this, is not +subject to Phthisis, although it partakes of what is called the +scrofulous diathesis. In the negro constitution, as the Frenchman would +say, "_l'arbre arteriel cede sa prominance a l'arbre veineuse_," +spreading coldness, languor and want of energy over the entire system. +The white fluids, or lymphatic temperament, predominating, they are not +so liable as the fair race, to inflammatory diseases of the lungs, or +any other organ; but from the superabundant viscidities and mucosities +of their mucous surfaces, they are more liable to engorgements and +pulmonary congestions than any other race of men. In proof of which I +beg leave to refer your correspondent to a standard work entitled +"Observations sur les Maladies des Negres, par M. Dazille. Paris, 1776." + +Pneumonia, without subjective symptoms, is very common among them. +Diphtheretic affections, so common among white children, are very rare +among negroes. Intercurrent Pneumonia is more common among them than any +other class of people. It is met with in Typhoid fevers, Rheumatism and +hepatic derangements, to which they are very liable in the cold season. +The local malady requires a different treatment, to correspond with the +general disorder. Bad, vicious, ungovernable negroes are subject, to +what might properly be termed, Scorbutic Pneumonia--a blood disease, +requiring anti-scorbutics. Scorbutic negroes are always vicious or +worthless. A course of anti-scorbutics will reform their morals, and +make good negroes out of worthless ones. They are liable to suffocative +orthopnoea after measles, and die unless bled and purged. But purgatives +are injurious in almost all their other affections involving the +respiratory organs, except such as act especially on the liver. They +check expectoration, says Dazille, and lay the foundations of those +effusions and depots of matter so often mistaken for genuine Phthisis. +Auscultation cannot well be made available with them. The nose pleads to +the eye and touch to form the diagnosis, without calling into +requisition the ear. A single examination by auscultation, in persons +abounding with so much phlegm, is not sufficient to arrive at a correct +diagnosis. Repeated examinations in various postures are too tedious in +execution, and too offensive to the auscultator, to come into general +use in diagnosing the diseases of the Melanic race. This valuable mode +of exploration, so useful in many cases, as practiced by experts, has of +late years been carried to a ridiculous extreme, in being made to +deceive and delude more practitioners than it enlightens, from the haste +and inexperience of those who practice it. With negroes it is +unnecessary, except in some rare instances. Their diseases, like their +passions, have each its peculiar expression stamped in the countenance. +They are like young children in this respect. They cannot disguise their +countenance like white people. An intelligent and observant observer can +tell from their countenance when they are plotting mischief, or have +committed some crime; when they are satisfied or dissatisfied; when in +pleasure or in pain; when troubled or disturbed in mind; or when telling +a falsehood instead of the truth. An observant physician has only to +bring the old science of prosoposcopia, so much used by Hippocrates in +forming his diagnosis, to bear upon negroes, to be able, by a little +experience, to ascertain the most of them at a glance by the expression +of their countenance. + +They are very subject to fevers, attended with an obstructed circulation +of air and blood in the pulmonary organs. Their abundant mucosities +often prevent the ingress of air into the air cells, bloating their lips +and cheeks, which are coated with a tenacious saliva. A cessation of +digestion from too full a meal, or some hepatic or other derangement, is +soon attended with such a copious exudation of mucosities, filling the +air cells and tracheal passages, as to cause apoplexy, which with them +is only another name for asphyxia. The head has nothing to do with it. +So abundant are the mucosities in negroes, that those in the best health +have a whitish, pasty mucus, of considerable thickness on the tongue, +leading a physician not acquainted with them to suppose that they were +dyspeptic, or otherwise indisposed. The lungs of the white man are the +main outlets for the elimination of carbonic acid formed in the tissues. +Negroes, however, by an instinctive habit of covering their mouth, nose, +head and face with a blanket, or some other covering, when they sleep, +throw upon the liver an additional duty to perform, in the excretion of +carbonic acid. Any cause, obstructing the action of the liver, quickly +produces with them a grave malady, the retention of carbonic acid in the +blood soon poisoning them. + +Hence with white people a moderate degree of hepatic obstruction, by a +residence in swampy districts, is often found beneficial in diminishing +the exalted sensibility and irritability of phthisical patients. Viscous +engorgements of the lungs destroy more negroes than all other diseases +combined. They are distinguished from inflammatory affections by the +pyrexial symptoms not being strongly marked, or marked at all--by the +puffy or bloated appearance of the face and lips--by the slavering +mouth--the highly charged tongue--and by the torpor of mind and body. In +a word, all the symptoms point to a deficient aeration of the blood, or +a kind of half way asphyxia. A torpid state of the system, listlessness +and inactivity almost approaching to asphyxia from the diminished +quantity of oxygen consumed by the lungs of the negro, form a striking +contrast with the energetic, active, restless, persevering Anglo-Saxon, +with a tendency to phlogosis and phthisis pulmonalis, from the surplus +quantity of oxygen consumed by his lungs. Blistering the nape of the +neck, so irritating in nearly all of the diseases of the Saxon race, is +almost a sovereign remedy or specific for a large proportion of the +complaints that negroes are subject to; because most of them arise from +defective respiratory action. Hence whipping the lungs to increased +action by the application of blisters over the origin of the respiratory +nerves, a remedy so inexpedient and so often contra-indicated in most of +the maladies of the white man, has a magic charm about it in the +treatment of those of the negro. The magic effect of a blister to that +part of the Ethiopian's body, in a large class of his ailments, although +well known to most of the planters and overseers of the Southern +States, is scarcely known at all to the medical profession beyond those +boundaries. Even here, where that portion of the profession who have had +much experience in the treatment of their diseases, and are aware of the +simple fact itself, do not profit by it in many cases where it is +indicated; because they do not perceive the indication clearly, so long +as the rationale of the remedy remains unexplained. + +Your asking for the proofs of my assertion, "that the negro consumes +less oxygen than the white man," has led me into a new, extensive and +unexplored field of science, where the rationale of that and many other +important facts may be found springing up spontaneously. We have medical +schools in abundance teaching the art of curing the ailments, and even +the most insignificant sores, incident to the half-starved, oppressed +pauper population of Europe--a population we have not got, never had and +never can have, so long as we have negro slaves to work in the cane, +cotton and rice fields, where the white man, from the physiological laws +governing his economy, _can not labor and live_: but where the negro +thrives, luxuriates and enjoys existence more than any laboring +peasantry to be found on the continent of Europe; yet we have no schools +or any chair in our numerous institutions of medical learning to teach +the art of curing and preventing the diseases peculiar to our immense +population of negro slaves, or to make them more efficient and valuable, +docile and manageable; comfortable, happy and contented by still further +improving their condition, which can only be done by studying their +nature, and not by the North and South bandying epithets--not by the +quackery which prescribes the same remedy, the liberty elixir, for all +constitutions. The two races, the Anglo-Saxon and the negro, have +antipodal constitutions. The former abounds with red blood, even +penetrating the capillaries and the veins, flushing the face and +illuminating the countenance; the skin white; lips thin; nose high; hair +auburn, flaxen, red or black; beard thick and heavy; eyes brilliant; +will strong and unconquerable; mind and muscles full of energy and +activity. The latter, with molasses blood sluggishly circulating and +scarcely penetrating the capillaries; skin ebony, and the mucous +membranes and muscles partaking of the darker hue pervading the blood +and the cutis; lips thick and protuberant; nose broad and flat; scalp +covered with a coarse, crispy wool in thick naps; beard wanting or +consisting of a few scattering woolly naps, in the "_bucks_," +provincially so called; mind and body dull and slothful; will weak, +wanting or subdued. The study of such opposite organizations, the one +prone to Phthisis and the other not, can not fail to throw some light on +tubercular disease, the subject of your correspondent, Dr. Hall's +present investigation. In contrasting the typical white man, having an +excess of red blood and a liability to inflammatory and tuberculous +complaints and disorders of the digestive system, with the typical +negro, deficient aerated blood, and abounding in mucosites, having an +active liver and a strong digestion, and a proclivity strongly marked to +fall into congestions, or cold humid engorgements approaching asphyxia, +I hope he will be able to find in this unpolished communication +something useful. + + I have the honor to be, with great respect, + SAML. A. CARTWRIGHT, M.D. + +_New Orleans, July 19th, 1852._ + + + + +APPENDIX. + +NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PROGNATHOUS SPECIES OF MANKIND. + + +It is not intended by the use of the term Prognathous to call in +question the black man's humanity or the unity of the human races as a +_genus_, but to prove that the species of the genus homo are not a +unity, but a plurality, each essentially different from the others--one +of them being so unlike the other two--the oval-headed Caucasian and the +pyramidal-headed Mongolian--as to be actually prognathous, like the +brute creation; not that the negro is a brute, or half man and half +brute, but a genuine human being, anatomically constructed, about the +head and face, more like the monkey tribes and the lower order of +animals than any other species of the genus man. Prognathous is a +technical term derived from _pro_, before, and _gnathos_, the jaws, +indicating that the muzzle or mouth is anterior to the brain. The lower +animals, according to Cuvier, are distinguished from the European and +Mongol man by the mouth and face projecting further forward in the +profile than the brain. He expresses the rule thus: _face anterior, +cranium posterior_. The typical negroes of adult age, when tried by this +rule, are proved to belong to a different species from the man of Europe +or Asia, because the head and face are anatomically constructed more +after the fashion of the simiadiae and the brute creation than the +Caucasian and Mongolian species of mankind, their mouth and jaws +projecting beyond the forehead containing the anterior lobes of the +brain. Moreover, their faces are proportionally larger than their +crania, instead of smaller, as in the other two species of the genus +man. Young monkeys and young negroes, however, are not prognathous like +their parents, but become so as they grow older. The head of the infant +ourang outang is like that of a well formed Caucasian child in the +projection and hight of the forehead and the convexity of the vertea. +The brain appears to be larger than it really is, because the face, at +birth, has not attained its proportional size. The face of the Caucasian +infant is a little under its proportional size when compared with the +cranium. In the infant negro and ourang outang it is greatly so. +Although so much smaller in infancy than the cranium, the face of the +young monkey ultimately outgrows the cranium; so, also, does the face of +the young negro, whereas in the Caucasian, the face always continues to +be smaller than the cranium. The superfices of the face at puberty +exceeds that of the hairy scalp both in the negro and the monkey, while +it is always less in the white man. Young monkeys and young negroes are +superior to white children of the same age in memory and other +intellectual faculties. The white infant comes into the world with its +brain inclosed by fifteen disunited bony plates--the occipital bone +being divided into four parts, the sphenoid into three, the frontal into +two, each of the two temporals into two, which, with the two parietals, +make fifteen plates in all--the vomer and ethmoid not being ossified at +birth. The bones of the head are not only disunited, but are more or +less overlapped at birth, in consequence of the largeness of the +Caucasian child's head and the smallness of its mother's pelvis, giving +the head an elongated form, and an irregular, knotty feel to the touch. +The negro infant, however, is born with a small, hard, smooth, round +head like a gourd. Instead of the frontal and temporal bones being +divided into six plates, as in the white child, they form but one bone +in the negro infant. The head is not only smaller than that of the white +child, but the pelvis of the negress is wider than that of the white +woman--its greater obliquity also favors parturition and prevents +miscarriage. + +Negro children and white children are alike at birth in one remarkable +particular--they are both born _white_, and so much alike, as far as +color is concerned, as scarcely to be distinguished from each other. In +a very short time, however, the skin of the negro infant begins to +darken and continues to grow darker until it becomes of a shining black +color, provided the child be healthy. The skin will become black whether +exposed to the air and light or not. The blackness is not of as deep a +shade during the first years of life, as afterward. The black color is +not so deep in the female as in the male, nor in the feeble, sickly +negro as in the robust and healthy. Blackness is a characteristic of the +prognathous species of the genus homo, but all the varieties of all the +prognathous species are not equally black. Nor are the individuals of +the same family or variety equally so. The lighter shades of color, +when not derived from admixture with Mongolian or Caucasian blood, +indicate degeneration in the prognathous species. The Hottentots, +Bushmen and aborigines of Australia are inferior in mind and body to the +typical African of Guinea and the Niger. + +The typical negroes themselves are more or less superior or inferior to +one another precisely as they approximate to or recede from the typical +standard in color and form, due allowance being made for age and sex. +The standard is an oily, shining black, and as far as the conformation +of the head and face is concerned and the relative proportion of nervous +matter outside of the cranium to the quantity of cerebral matter within +it, is found between the simiadiae[257] and the Caucasian. Thus, in the +typical negro, a perpendicular line, let fall from the forehead, cuts +off a large portion of the face, throwing the mouth, the thick lips, and +the projecting teeth anterior to the cranium, but not the entire face, +as in the lower animals and monkey tribes. When all, or a greater part +of the face is thrown anterior to the line, the negro approximates the +monkey anatomically more than he does the true Caucasian; and when +little or none of the face is anterior to the line, he approximates that +mythical being of Dr. Van Evrie, a _black white man_, and almost ceases +to be a negro. The black man occasionally seen in Africa, called the +_Bature Dutu_, with high nose, thin lips, and long straight hair, is not +a negro at all, but a Moor tanned by the climate--because his children, +not exposed to the sun, do not become black like himself. The typical +negro's nervous system is modeled a little different from the Caucasian +and somewhat like the ourang outang. The medullary spinal cord is larger +and more developed than in the white man, but less so than in the monkey +tribes. The occipital foramen, giving exit to the spinal cord, is a +third longer, says Cuvier, in proportion to its breadth, than in the +Caucasian, and is so oblique as to form an angle of 30 deg. with the +horizon, yet not so oblique as in the simiadae, but sufficiently so to +throw the head somewhat backward and the face upward in the erect +position. Hence, from the obliquity of the head and the pelvis, the +negro walks steadier with a weight on his head, as a pail of water for +instance, than without it; whereas, the white man, with a weight on his +head, has great difficulty in maintaining his centre of gravity, owing +to the occipital foramen forming no angle with the cranium, the pelvis, +the spine, or the thighs--all forming a straight line from the crown of +the head to the sole of the foot without any of the obliquities seen in +the negro's knees, thighs, pelvis and head--and still more evident in +the ourang outang. + +The nerves of organic life are larger in the prognathous species of +mankind than in the Caucasian species, but not so well developed as in +the simiadiae. The brain is about a tenth smaller in the prognathous man +than in the Frenchman, as proved by actual measurement of skulls by the +French savans, Palisot and Virey. Hence, from the small brain and the +larger nerves, the digestion of the prognathous species is better than +that of the Caucasian, and its animal appetites stronger, approaching +the simiadiae but stopping short of their beastiality. The nostrils of +the prognathous species of mankind open higher up than they do in the +white or olive species, but not so high up as in the monkey tribes. In +the gibbon, for instance, they open between the orbits. Although the +typical negro's nostrils open high up, yet owing to the nasal bones +being short and flat, there is no projection or prominence formed +between his orbits by the bones of the nose, as in the Caucasian +species. The nostrils, however, are much wider, about as wide from wing +to wing, as the white man's mouth from corner to corner, and the +internal bones, called the turbinated, on which the olfactory nerves are +spread, are larger and project nearer to the opening of the nostrils +than in the white man. Hence the negro approximates the lower animals in +his sense of smell, and can detect snakes by that sense alone. All the +senses are more acute, but less delicate and discriminating, than the +white man's. He has a good ear for melody but not for harmony, a keen +taste and relish for food but less discriminating between the different +kinds of esculent substances than the Caucasian. His lips are immensely +thicker than any of the white race, his nose broader and flatter, his +chin smaller and more retreating, his foot flatter, broader, larger, and +the heel longer, while he has scarcely any calves at all to his legs +when compared to an equally healthy and muscular white man. He does not +walk flat on his feet but on the outer sides, in consequence of the sole +of the foot having a direction inwards, from the legs and thighs being +arched outwards and the knees bent. The verb, from which his Hebrew name +is derived, points out this flexed position of the knees, and also +clearly expresses the servile type of his mind. Ham, the father of +Canaan, when translated into plain English, reads that a black man was +the father of the slave or knee-bending species of mankind. + +The blackness of the prognathous race, known in the world's history as +Canaanites, Cushites, Ethiopians, black men or negroes, is not confined +to the skin, but pervades, in a greater or less degree, the whole inward +man down to the bones themselves, giving the flesh and the blood, the +membranes and every organ and part of the body, except the bones, a +darker hue than in the white race. Who knows but what Canaan's mother +may have been a genuine Cushite, as black inside as out, and that Cush, +which means blackness, was the mark put upon Cain? Whatever may have +been the mark set upon Cain, the negro, in all ages of the world, has +carried with him a mark equally efficient in preventing him from being +slain--the mark of blackness. The wild Arabs and hostile American +Indians invariably catch the black wanderer and make a slave of him +instead of killing him, as they do the white man. + +Nich. Pechlin, in a work written last century entitled "De cute +Athiopum," Albinus, in another work, entitled "De sede et causa coloris +Athiop," as also the great German anatomists, Meiners, Ebel, and +Soemmering, all bear witness to the fact that the muscles, blood, +membranes, and all the internal organs of the body, (the bones alone +excepted,) are of a darker hue in the negro than in the white man. They +estimate the difference in color to be equal to that which exists +between the hare and the rabbit. Who ever doubts the fact, or has none +of those old and impartial authorities at hand--impartial because they +were written before England adopted the policy of pressing religion and +science in her service to place white American republican freemen and +Guinea negroes upon the same platform--has only to look into the mouth +of the first healthy typical negro he meets to be convinced of the +truth, that the entire membraneous lining of the inside of the cheeks, +lips and gums is of a much darker color than in the white man. + +The negro, however, must be healthy and in good condition--sickness, +hard usage and chronic ailments, particularly that cachexia, improperly +called consumption, speedily extracts the coloring matter out of the +mucous membranes, leaving them paler and whiter than in the Caucasian. +The bleaching process of bad health or degeneration begins in the +blood, membranes and muscles, and finally extracts so much of the +coloring pigment out of the skin, as to give it a dull ashy appearance, +sometimes extracting the whole of it, converting the negro into the +albino. Albinoism or cucosis does not necessarily imply hybridism. It +occurs among the pure Africans from any cause producing a degeneration +of the species. Hybridism, however, is the most prolific source of that +degeneration. Sometimes the degeneration shows itself by white spots, +like the petals of flowers, covering different parts of the skin. The +Mexicans are subject to a similar degeneration, only that the spots and +stripes are black instead of white. It is called the pinto with them. +Even the pigment of the iris and the coloring matter of the albino's +hair is absorbed, giving it a silvery white appearance, and converting +him into a clairvoyant at night. According to Professors Brown, Seidy +and Gibbs, the negro's hair is not tubular, like the white man's, but it +is eccentrically elliptical, with flattened edges, the coloring matter +residing in the epidermis, and not in tubes. In the place of a tube, the +shaft of each hair is surrounded with a scaly covering like sheep's +wool, and, like wool, is capable of being felted. True hair does not +possess that property. The degeneration called albinoism has a +remarkable influence upon the hair, destroying its coarse, nappy, wooly +appearance, and converting it into fine, long, soft, silky, curly +threads. Often, the whole external skin, so remarkably void of hair in +the healthy negro, becomes covered with a very fine, silky down, +scarcely perceptible to the naked eye, when transformed into the albino. + +Mr. Bowen, the celebrated Baptist missionary, [see his work entitled +Central Africa and Missionary Labors from 1849 to 1856, by T. J. Bowen, +Charleston, Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1857,] met with a +great many cases of leucosis in Soudan or Negroland, back of Liberia, +and erroneously concluded that these people had very little, if any +negro blood in them, and would be better subjects for missionary labors +than the blacks of the same country. They are, however, nothing but +_white_ black men, a degeneration of the negro proper, and are even less +capable of perpetuating themselves than the hybrids or mulattoes. Mr. +Bowen is at a loss to account for the depopulation, which he verifies +has been going on in Soudan the last fifty years, threatening to leave +the country, at no distant time, bare of inhabitants, unless roads be +constructed by the Christians of the Southern States for commercial +intercourse, and double exertions made to civilize and Christianize the +waning population of Central Africa before it entirely disappears. The +good missionary, though sent out from Georgia, was evidently taught in +that British school which assumes that there is only a single species in +the genus homo, in opposition to the Bible, that clearly designates +three. That school quotes the references in the sacred volume, implying +unity in the genus--a unity which no one denies--to disprove the +existence of distinct species, and upon this fallacy builds the theory +that negro, Indian and white men are beings exactly alike, because they +are human beings. _Ergo_, the liberty so beneficial to the white man, +would be equally so to the negro--disregarding as a fable those words of +the Bible expressly declaring that the latter _shall be servant of +servants_ to the former--words which would not have been there if that +kind of subordination called slavery was not the normal condition of the +race of Ham. To expect to civilize or Christianize the negro without the +intervention of slavery is to expect an impossibility. + +Mr. Bowen's experience and natural good sense occasionally got the +better of his theoretical views. Thus, at page 90, we find him +confessing that "the native African negroes ought to have masters in +obedience to the demands of natural justice." At page 149 he lets us +into the secret of the depopulating process which has been going on in +Central Africa the last fifty years. While standing among some negroes +in Ikata, a town in Central Africa, a capricious mulatto chief sent some +officers among the company, who singled out a poor fellow who had +offended the chief by saying that as he let a white man into town, he +might let in a Dahomey man also, and presented him with an empty bag +with the message: "_The king says you must send me your head._" The Rev. +missionary, who was present at the beheading, made no comment further +than to state the fact. But he might have added that the blood of that +negro, and millions of others, will be required at the hands of Victoria +Regina and the United States for having officiously destroyed the value +of negro property in Africa by breaking up the only trade that ever +protected the native Africans against the butcheries, cruelties and +oppressions of their mulatto, Moorish and Mahommedan tyrants. It is +these butcheries and cruelties, and the little care taken of the black +man in Africa, the last fifty years, since he became valueless through +British and American philanthropy, that lie at the root of the +depopulating process which is going on in the dark land of the Niger. +Empty bags are now filled with heads instead of cowries. Mr. Bowen was +surprised to see so few black men in Soudan, where, half a century ago, +he says they were so numerous. But he rather regards it as a fortunate +circumstance, as he has no hope of Christianizing the typical negro, +except through slavery to Christian masters--and that idea is abhorrent +to the school in which he was taught; but he has more hope from the +mixed races, and these, he confesses, can not be effectually +Christianized until civilized. He deplores the bad example of the black +race, among them, their polygamy, etc., as greatly in the way of +civilizing the mulattoes. But he has overlooked the important fact, as +many do, that the existence of the hybrids themselves depends upon the +existence of the typical Africans. The extinction of the latter must, of +necessity, be soon followed by the extinction of the former, as they can +not, for any length of time, propagate among themselves. + +Mr. Bowen inferred that the negroes of Central Africa, although +diminishing in numbers, are rising higher in the scale of humanity, from +the very small circumstance that they do not emit from their bodies so +strong and so offensive an odor as the negro slaves of Georgia and the +Carolinas do, nor are their skins of so deep a black. This is a good +illustration of the important truth, that all the danger of the slavery +question lies in the ignorance of Scripture and the natural history of +the negro. A little acquaintance with the negro's natural history would +prove to Mr. Bowen that the strong odor emitted by the negro, like the +deep pigment of the skin, is an indication of high health, happiness, +and good treatment, while its deficiency is a sure sign of unhappiness, +disease, bad treatment, or degeneration. The skin of a happy, healthy +negro is not only blacker and more oily than an unhappy, unhealthy one, +but emits the strongest odor when the body is warmed by exercise and the +soul is filled with the most pleasurable emotions. In the dance called +_patting juber_, the odor emitted from the men, intoxicated with +pleasure, is often so powerful as to throw the negro women into +paroxysms of unconsciousness, vulgo hysterics. On another point of much +importance there is no practical difference between the Rev. missionary +and that clear-headed, bold, and eccentric old Methodist, Dr. McFarlane. +Both believe that the Bible can do ignorant, sensual savages no good; +both believe that nothing but compulsatory power can restrain +uncivilized barbarians from polygamy, inebriety, and other sinful +practices. + +The good missionary, however, believes in the possibility of civilizing +the inferior races by the money and means of the Christian nations +lavishly bestowed, after which he thinks it will be no difficult matter +to convert them to Christianity. Whereas the venerable Methodist +believes in the impossibility of civilizing them, and therefore +concludes that the Written Word was not intended for those inferior +races who can not read it. When the philosophy of the prognathous +species of mankind is better understood, it will be seen how they, the +lowest of the human species, can be made partakers, equally with the +highest, in the blessings and benefits of the Written Word of God. The +plantation laws against polygamy, intoxicating drinks, and other +besetting sins of the negro race in the savage state, are gradually and +silently converting the African barbarian into a moral, rational, and +civilized being, thereby rendering the heart a fit tabernacle for the +reception of Gospel truths. The prejudices of many, perhaps the majority +of the Southern people, against educating the negroes they hold in +subjection, arise from some vague and indefinite fears of its +consequences, suggested by the abolition and British theories built on +the false assumption that the negro is a white man with a black skin. If +such an assumption had the smallest degree of truth in it, the more +profound the ignorance and the deeper sunk in barbarism the slaves were +kept, the better it would be for them and their masters. But experience +proves that masters and overseers have nothing at all to fear from +civilized and intelligent negroes, and no trouble whatever in managing +them--that all the trouble, insubordination and danger arise from the +uncivilized, immoral, rude, and grossly ignorant portion of the servile +race. It is not the ignorant semi-barbarian that the master or overseer +intrusts with his keys, his money, his horse or his gun, but the most +intelligent of the plantation--one whose intellect and morals have +undergone the best training. An educated negro, one whose intellect and +morals have been cultivated, is worth double the price of the wild, +uncultivated, black barbarian of Cuba and will do twice as much work, +do it better and with less trouble. + +The prejudice against educating the negroes may also be traced to the +neglect of American divines in making themselves acquainted with Hebrew +literature. What little the most of them know of the meaning of the +untranslated terms occurring in the Bible, and the signification of the +verbs from which they are derived, is mostly gathered from British +commentators and glossary-makers, who have blinked the facts that +disprove the Exeter Hall dogma, that negro slavery is sin against God. +Hence, even in the South, the important Biblical truth, that the white +man derives his authority to govern the negro from the Great Jehovah, is +seldom proclaimed from the pulpit. If it were proclaimed, the master +race would see deeper into their responsibilities, and look closer into +the duties they owe to the people whom God has given them as an +inheritance, and their children after them, so long as time shall last. +That man has no faith in the Scriptures who believes that education +could defeat God's purposes, in subjecting the black man to the +government of the white. On the contrary, experience proves its +advantages, to both parties. Aside and apart from Scripture authority, +natural history reveals most of the same facts, in regard to the negro +that the Bible does. It proves the existence of at least three distinct +species of the genus man, differing in their instincts, form, habits and +color. The white species having qualities denied to the black--one with +a free and the other with a servile mind--one a thinking and reflective +being, the other a creature of feeling and imitation, almost void of +reflective faculties, and consequently unable to provide for and take +care of himself. The relation of master and slave would naturally spring +up between two such different species of men, even if there was no +Scripture authority to support it. The relation thus established, being +natural, would be drawn closer together, instead of severed, by the +inferior imitating the superior in all his ways, or in other words, +acquiring an education. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[257] Monkey tribes.--_Editor._ + + + + +ON THE CAUCASIANS AND THE AFRICANS. + + + SEVERAL years ago we published some original and + ingenious views of Dr. Cartwright, of New Orleans, + upon the subject of negroes and their + characteristics. The matter is more elaborately + treated by him in the following paper:--_De Bows + Review._ + + +THE Nilotic monuments furnish numerous portraits of the negro races, +represented as slaves, sixteen hundred years before the Christian era. +Although repeatedly drawn from their native barbarism and carried among +civilized nations, they soon forget what they learn and relapse into +barbarism. If the inherent potency of the prognathous type of mankind +had been greater than it actually is, sufficiently great to give it the +independence of character that the American Indian possesses, the world +would have been in a great measure deprived of cotton and sugar. The red +man is unavailable as a laborer in the cane or cotton field, or any +where else, owing to the unalterable ethnical laws of his character. The +white man can not endure toil under the burning sun of the cane and +cotton field, and live to enjoy the fruits of his labor. The African +will starve rather than engage in a regular system of agricultural +labor, unless impelled by the stronger will of the white man. When thus +impelled, experience proves that he is much happier, during the hours of +labor in the sunny fields, than when dozing in his native woods and +jungles. He is also eminently qualified for a number of employments, +which the instincts of the white man regard as degrading. If the white +man be forced by necessity into employments abhorrent to his instincts, +it tends to weaken or destroy that sentiment or principle of honor or +duty, which is the mainspring of heroic actions, from the beginning of +historical times to the present, and is the basis of every thing great +and noble in all grades of white society. + +The importance of having these particular employments, regarded as +servile and degrading by the white man, attended to by the black race, +whose instincts are not repugnant to them, will be at once apparent to +all those who deem the sentiment of honor or duty as worth cultivating +in the human breast. It is utterly unknown to the prognathous race of +mankind, and has no place in their language. When the language is given +to them they can not comprehend its meaning, or form a conception of +what is meant by it. Every white man, who has not been degraded, had +rather be engaged in the most laborious employments, than to serve as a +lacquey or body servant to another white man or being like himself. +Whereas, there is no office which the negro or mulatto covets more than +that of being a body servant to a real gentleman. There is no office +which gives him such a high opinion of himself, and it is utterly +impossible for him to attach the idea of degradation to it. Those +identical offices which the white man instinctively abhors, are the most +greedily sought for by negroes and mulattoes, whether slave or free, in +preference to all other employments. North or South, free or slave, they +are ever at the elbow, behind the table, in hotels and steamboats; ever +ready, with brush in hand, to brush the coat or black the shoes, or to +perform any menial service which may be required, and to hold out the +open palm for the dime. The innate love to act as body servant or +lacquey is too strongly developed in the negro race to be concealed. It +admirably qualifies them for waiters and house servants, as their strong +muscles, hardy frames, and the positive pleasure that labor in a hot sun +confers on them, abundantly qualify them for agricultural employment in +a hot climate. + +Hence, the primordial cell germ of the Nigritians has no more potency +than what is sufficient to form a being with physical power, when its +dynamism becomes exhausted, dropping the creature in the wilderness with +the mental organization too imperfect to enable him to extricate himself +from barbarism. If Nature had intended the prognathous race for +barbarism as the end and object of their creation, they would have been +like lions and tigers, fierce and untamable. So far from being like +ferocious beasts, they are endowed with a will so weak, passions so +easily subdued, and dispositions so gentle and affectionate, as readily +to fall under subjection to the wild Arab, or any other race of men. +Hence they are led about in gangs of an hundred or more by a single +individual, even by an old man, or a cripple, if he be of the white race +and possessed of a strong will. The Nigritian has such little command +over his own muscles, from the weakness of his will, as almost to +starve, when a little exertion and forethought would procure him an +abundance. Although he has exaggerated appetites and exaggerated +senses, calling loudly for their gratification, his will is too weak to +command his muscles to engage in such kinds of labor as would readily +procure the fruits to gratify them. Like an animal in a state of +hibernation, waiting for the external aid of spring to warm it into life +and power, so does the negro continue to doze out a vegeto-animal +existence in the wilderness, unable to extricate himself therefrom--his +own will being too feeble to call forth the requisite muscular exertion. +His muscles not being exercised, the respiration is imperfect, and the +blood is imperfectly vitalized. Torpidity of body and hebetude of mind +are the effects thereof, which disappear under bodily labor, because +that expands the lungs, vitalizes the blood, and wakes him up to a sense +of pleasure and happiness unknown to him in the vegeto-animal or +hibernating state. Nothing but will is wanting to transform the torpid, +unhappy tenant of the wilderness into a rational and happy thing--the +happiest being on earth, as far as sensual pleasures are concerned. + +The white man has an exaggerated will, more than he has use for; because +it frequently drives his own muscles beyond their physical capacity of +endurance. The will is not a faculty confined within the periphery of +the body. It can not, like the imagination, travel to immeasurable +distances from the body, and in an instant of time go and return from +Aldabran, or beyond the boundaries of the solar system. Its flight is +confined to the world and to limits more or less restricted--the less +restricted in some than in others. The will has two powers--direct and +indirect. It is the direct motive power of the muscular system. It +indirectly exerts a dynamic force upon surrounding objects when +associated with knowledge. It gives to knowledge its power. Every thing +that is made was made by the Infinite Will associated with infinite +knowledge. The will of man is but a spark of the Infinite Will, and its +power is only circumscribed by his knowledge. A man possessing a +knowledge of the negro character can govern an hundred, a thousand, or +ten thousand of the prognathous race by his will alone, easier than one +ignorant of that character can govern a single individual of that race +by the whip or a club. However disinclined to labor the negroes may be, +they can not help themselves; they are obliged to move and to exercise +their muscles when the white man, acquainted with their character, +_wills_ that they should do so. They can not resist that will, so far as +labor of body is concerned. If they resist, it is from some other cause +than that connected with their daily labor. They have an instinctive +feeling of obedience to the stronger will of the white man, requiring +nothing more than moderate labor. So far, their instincts compel +obedience to will as one of his rights. Beyond that, they will resist +his will and be refractory, if he encroaches on what they regard as +their rights, viz: the right to hold property in him as he does in them, +and to disburse that property to them in the shape of meat, bread and +vegetables, clothing, fuel and house-room, and attention to their +comforts when sick, old, infirm, and unable to labor; to hold property +in him as a conservator of the peace among themselves, and a protector +against trespassers from abroad, whether black or white; to hold +property in him as impartial judge and an honest jury to try them for +offenses, and a merciful executioner to punish them for violations of +the usages of the plantation or locality. + +With those rights acceded to them, no other compulsion is necessary to +make them perform their daily tasks than _his will be done_. It is not +the whip, as many suppose, which calls forth those muscular exertions, +the result of which is sugar, cotton, breadstuffs, rice, and tobacco. +These are products of the white man's will, acting through the muscles +of the prognathous race in our Southern States. If that will were +withdrawn, and the plantations handed over as a gracious gift to the +laborers, agricultural labor would cease for the want of that spiritual +power called the will, to move those machines--the muscles. They would +cease to move here, as they have in Hayti. If the prognathous race were +expelled the land, and their place supplied with double their number of +white men, agricultural labor in the South would also cease, as far as +sugar and cotton are concerned, for the want of muscles that could +endure exercise in the smothering heat of a cane or cotton field. Half +the white laborers of Illinois are prostrated with fevers from a few +days' work in stripping blades in a Northern corn field, owing to the +confinement of the air by the close proximity of the plants. Cane and +cotton plants form a denser foliage than corn--a thick jungle, where the +white man pants for breath, and is overpowered by the heat of the sun at +one time of day, and chilled by the dews and moisture of the plants at +another. Negroes glory in a close, hot atmosphere; they instinctively +cover their head and faces with a blanket at night, and prefer laying +with their heads to the fire, instead of their feet. This ethnical +peculiarity is in harmony with their efficiency as laborers in hot, +damp, close, suffocating atmosphere--where instead of suffering and +dying, as the white man would, they are healthier, happier, and more +prolific than in their native Africa--producing, under the white man's +will, a great variety of agricultural products, besides upward of three +millions of bales of cotton, and three hundred thousand hogsheads of +sugar. Thus proving that subjection to his will is normal to them, +because, under the influence of his will, they enjoy life more than in +any other condition, rapidly increase in numbers, and steadily rise in +the scale of humanity. + +The power of a stronger will over a weaker, or the power of one living +creature to act on and influence another, is an ordinance of nature, +which has its parallel in the inorganic kingdom, where ponderous bodies, +widely separated in space, influence one another so much as to keep up a +constant interplay of action and reaction throughout nature's vast +realms. The same ordinance which keeps the spheres in their orbits and +holds the satellites in subordination to the planets, is the ordinance +that subjects the negro race to the empire of the white man's will. From +that ordinance the snake derives its power to charm the bird, and the +magician his power to amuse the curious, to astonish the vulgar, and to +confound the wisdom of the wise. Under that ordinance, our four millions +of negroes are as unalterably bound to obey the white man's will, as the +four satellites of Jupiter the superior magnetism of that planet. If +individual masters, by releasing individual negroes from the power of +their will, can not make them free or release them from subordination to +the instinctive public sentiment or will of the aggregate white +population, which as rigidly excludes them, in the so-called free +States, from the drawing room and parlor as it does pots and kettles and +other kinds of kitchen furniture. The subjugation of equals by artifice +or force is tyrrany or slavery; but there is no such thing in the United +States, because equals are on a perfect equality here. The subordination +of the Nigritian to the Caucasian would never have been imagined to be a +condition similar to European slavery, if any regard had been paid to +ethnology. Subordination of the inferior race to the superior is a +normal, and not a forced condition. Chains and standing armies are the +implements used to force the obedience of equals to equals--of one white +man to another. Whereas, the obedience of the Nigritian to the Caucasian +is _spontaneous_ because it is normal for the weaker will to yield +obedience to the stronger. The ordinance which subjects the negro to the +empire of the white man's will, was plainly written on the heavens +during our Revolutionary war. It was then that the power of the united +will of the American people rose to its highest degree of intensity. + +Every colony was a slaveholding colony excepting one; yet the people, +particularly that portion of them residing in districts where the black +population was greatest, hastened to meet in the battle-field the +powerful British armies in front of them, and the interminable hosts of +Indian warriors in the wilderness behind them, leaving their wives and +children, their old men and cripples, for seven long years, _to their +negroes to take care of_. Did the slaves, many of whom were savages +recently imported from Africa, butcher them, as white or Indian slaves +surely would have done, and fly to the enemy's standard for the liberty, +land, money, rum, savage luxuries and ample protection so abundantly +promised and secured to all who would desert their master's families? +History answers that not one in a thousand joined their masters' +enemies; but, on the contrary, they continued quietly their daily +labors, even in those districts where they outnumbered the white +population ten to one. They not only produced sufficient breadstuffs to +supply the families of their masters, but a surplus of flour, pork, and +beef was sent up from the slaveholding districts of Virginia to +Washington's starving army in Pennsylvania. [See Botta's History.] These +agricultural products were created by savages, naturally so indolent in +their native Africa, as to prefer to live on ant eggs and caterpillars +rather than labor for a subsistence; but for years in succession they +continued to labor in the midst of their masters' enemies--dropping +their hoes when they saw the red coats, running to tell their mistress, +and to conduct her and the children through by-paths to avoid the +British troopers, and when the enemy were out of sight returning to +their work again. The sole cause of their industry and fidelity is due +to the spiritual influence of the white race over the black. + +The empire of the white man's will over the prognathous race is not +absolute, however. It can not force exercise beyond a certain speed; +neither the will nor physical force can drive negroes, for a number of +days in succession, beyond a very moderate daily labor--about one-third +less than the white man voluntarily imposes on himself. If force be used +to make them do more, they invariably do less and less, until they fall +into a state of impassivity, in which they are more plague than +profit--worthless as laborers, insensible and indifferent to punishment, +or even to life; or, in other words, they fall into the disease which I +have named Dysesthaesia Ethiopica, characterized by hebetude of mind and +insensibility of body, caused by over working and bad treatment. Some +knowledge of the ethnology of the prognathous race is absolutely +necessary for the prevention and cure of this malady in all its various +forms and stages. Dirt eating, or Cachexia Africana, is another disease, +like Dysesthaesia Ethiopica, growing out of ethnical elements peculiar to +the prognathous race. The ethnical elements assimilating the negro to +the mule, although giving rise to the last named disease, are of vast +importance to the prognathous race, because they guarantee to that race +an ample protection against the abuses of arbitrary power. A white man, +like a blooded horse, can be worked to death. Not so the negro, whose +ethnical elements, like the mule, restricts the limits of arbitrary +power over him. + +Among the four millions of the prognathous race in the United States, it +will be difficult, if not impossible, to find a single individual negro, +whom the white man, armed with arbitrary power, has ever been able to +make hurt himself at work. It is beyond the power of the white man to +drive the negro into this long continued and excessive muscular +exertions such as the white laborers of Europe often impose upon +themselves to satisfy a greedy boss, under fear of losing their places, +and thereby starving themselves and families. Throughout England, +nothing is more common than decrepitude, premature old age, and a +frightful list of diseases, caused by long continued and excessive +muscular exertion. Whereas, all America can scarcely furnish an example +of the kind among the prognathous race. The white men of America have +performed many prodigies, but they have never yet been able to make a +negro overwork himself. + +There are other elements peculiar to the Nigritian, on which the +disease, called negro consumption, or Cachexia Africana, depends. But +these belong to that class which subject the negro to the white man's +spiritual empire over him. When that spiritual empire is not maintained +in all its entirety, or in other words, when the negro is badly +governed, he is apt to fall under the spiritual influence of the artful +and designing of his own color, and Cachexia Africana, or consumption, +is the consequence. Better throw medicine to the dogs, than give it to a +negro patient impressed with the belief that he has walked over poison +specially laid for him, or been in some other way tricked or conjured. +He will surely die, unless treated in accordance with his ethnological +peculiarities, and the hallucination expelled. + +There never has been an insurrection of the prognathous race against +their masters; and from the nature of the ethnical elements of that +race, there never can be. Hayti is no exception, it will be seen, when +the true history of the so-called insurrection of that island is +written. There have been neighborhood disturbances and bloodshed, caused +by fanaticism, and by mischievous white men getting among them and +infusing their will into them, or mesmerizing them. But, fortunately, +there is an ethnological law of their nature which estops the evil +influence of such characters by limiting their influence strictly to +personal acquaintances. The prognathous tribes in every place and +country are jealous and suspicious of all strangers, black or white, and +have ever been so. + +Prior to the emancipation act in the British West Indies, the famous +Exeter Hall Junto sent out a number of emissaries of the East India +Company to Jamaica, in the garb of missionaries. After remaining a year +or two in the assumed character of Christian ministers, they began to +preach insurrectionary doctrines, and caused a number of so-called +insurrections to break out simultaneously in different parts of the +island. The insurgents in every neighborhood were confined to the +personal acquaintances of the Exeter Hall miscreants, who succeeded in +infusing their will only into those who had listened to their incendiary +harangues. This was proved upon them by the genuine missionaries, who +had long been on the island, and had gathered into their various +churches a vast number of converts. For, in no instance, did a single +convert, or any other negro, join in the numerous insurrectionary +movements who had not been personally addressed by the wolves in sheep's +clothing. The Christian missionaries, particularly the Methodists, +Baptist, Moravians, and Catholics, were very exact in collecting the +evidence of this most important ethnological truth, in consequence of +some of the planters, at the first outbreak, having confounded them with +the Exeter Hall incendiaries. + +The planters finally left the Christian missionaries and their flocks +undisturbed, but proceeded to expel the false missionaries, to hang +their converts, and to burn down their chapels. The event proved that +they were wrong in not hanging the white incendiaries; because they went +home to England, preached a crusade--traveling all over the United +Kingdom--proclaiming, as they went, that they had left God's houses in +flames throughout Jamaica, and God's people hanging like dogs from the +trees in that sinful island. This so inflamed public sentiment in Great +Britain against the planters, as to unite all parties in loud calls for +the immediate passage of the emancipation act. There is good reason to +believe that the English ministry, in view of the probable effect of +that measure on the United States, and the encouragement it would afford +to the culture of sugar and other tropical products in the East Indies +and Mauritius, had previously determined to make negro freedom a leading +measure in British policy, well knowing that its effect would be to +Africanize the sugar and cotton growing regions of America. The +ethnology of the prognathous race does not stop at proving that +subordination to the white race is its normal condition. It goes +further, and proves that social and political equality is abnormal to +it, whether educated or not. Neither negroes nor mulattoes know how to +use power when given to them. They always use it capriciously and +tyrannically. Tschudi, a Swiss naturalist, [see Tschudi's Travels in +Peru, London, 1848,] says, "that in Lima and Peru generally, the free +negroes are a plague to society. Dishonesty seems to be a part of their +very nature. Free born negroes, admitted into the houses of wealthy +families, and have received, in early life, a good education, and +treated with kindness and liberality, do not differ from their +uneducated brother." + +Tschudi is mistaken in supposing that dishonesty is too deeply rooted in +the negro character to be removed. They are dishonest when in the +abnormal condition without a master. They are also dishonest when in a +state of subordination, called slavery, badly provided for and not +properly disciplined and governed. But when properly disciplined, +instructed, and governed, and their animal wants provided for, it would +be difficult to find a more honest, faithful, and trustworthy people +than they are. When made contented and happy, as they always should be, +they reflect their master in their thoughts, morals, and religion, or at +least they are desirous of being like him. They imitate him in every +thing, as far as their imitative faculties, which are very strong, will +carry them. They take a pride in his wealth, or in any thing which +distinguishes him, as if they formed a part of himself, as they really +do, being under the influence of his will, and in some measure +assimilated, in their spiritual nature, to him--loving him with all the +warm and devoted affection which children manifest to their parents. He +is sure of their love and friendship, although all the world may forsake +him. But to create and maintain this happy relation, he must govern them +with strict reference to their ethnological peculiarities. He must treat +them as inferiors, not as equals, as they are not satisfied with +equality, and will despise a master who attempts to raise any one or +more of them to an equality with himself; because they become jealous +and suspicious that their master's favorites will exercise a sinister +influence over him against them. + +Impartiality of treatment in every particular, down to a hat or pair of +shoes, is what they all regard as one of their dearest rights. Hence, +any special favors or gifts to one, is an offense to all the rest. They +also regard as a right, when punished, not to be punished in anger, but +with cool deliberation. They will run from an angry or enraged master or +overseer, armed with a gun or a pistol. They regard all overseers who +come into the field armed with deadly weapons as cowards, and all +cowards have great difficulty in governing them. It is not physical +force which keeps them in subjection, but the spiritual force of the +white man's will. One unarmed brave man can manage a thousand by the +moral force of his will alone, much better than an hundred cowards with +guns in their hands. They also require as a right when punished, to be +punished with a switch or a whip, and not with a stick or the fist. In +this particular the ethnical law of their nature is different from all +other races of men. It is exactly the reverse of that of the American +Indian. The Indian will murder any man who strikes him with a switch, a +cowhide, or a whip, twenty years afterward, if he gets an opportunity; +but readily forgets blows, however severe, inflicted on him with the +fist, a cudgel, or a tomahawk. A remarkable ethnological peculiarity of +the prognathous race is, that any deserved punishment, inflicted on them +with a switch, cowhide, or whip, puts them into good humor with +themselves and the executioner of the punishment, provided he manifest +satisfaction by regarding the offense as atoned for. + +The negro requires government in every thing, the most minute. The +Indian, on the contrary, submits to government in nothing whatever. Mr. +Jefferson was the first to notice this ethnical law of the red man. [See +his letter to Gilmer, June 7, 1816, vol. iv, page 279, Jefferson's +Correspondence.] "Every man with them," (the Indians,) says Mr. +Jefferson, "is perfectly free to follow his own inclinations; but if, in +doing this, he violates the rights of another, he is punished by the +disesteem of society or tomahawked. Their leaders conduct them by the +influence of their characters only; and they follow or not, as they +please, him of whose character, for wisdom or war, they have the highest +opinion, but, of all things, they least think of subjecting themselves +to the will of one man." Whereas the black man requires government even +in his meat and drink, his clothing, and hours of repose. Unless under +the government of one man to prescribe rules of conduct to guide him, he +will eat too much meat and not enough of bread and vegetables; he will +not dress to suit the season, or kind of labor he is engaged in, nor +retire to rest in due time to get sufficient sleep, but sit up and doze +by the fire nearly all night. Nor will the women undress the children +and put them regularly to bed. Nature is no law unto them. They let +their children suffer and die, or unmercifully abuse them, unless the +white man or woman prescribe rules in the nursery for them to go by. +Whenever the white woman superintends the nursery, whether the climate +be cold or hot, they increase faster than any other people on the globe; +but on large plantations, remote from her influence, the negro +population invariably diminishes, unless the overseer take upon himself +those duties in the lying-in and nursery department, which on small +estates are attended to by the mistress. She often sits up at night with +sick children and administers to their wants, when their own mothers are +nodding by them, and would be sound asleep if it were not for her +presence. The care that white women bestow on the nursery, is one of the +principal causes why three hundred thousand Africans, originally +imported into the territory of the United States have increased to four +millions, while in the British West Indies the number imported, +exceeded, by several millions, the actual population. It is also the +cause why the small proprietors of negro property in Maryland, Virginia, +Kentucky, and Missouri are able to supply the loss on the large Southern +plantations, which are cut off from the happy influence of the presiding +genius over civilization, morality, and population--the white woman. + +The prognathous race require government also in their religious +exercises, or they degenerate into fanatical saturnalia. A discreet +white man or woman should always be present to regulate their religious +meetings. + +Here the investigation into the ethnology of the prognathous race must +close, at least, for the present, leaving the most interesting part, +Fetichism, the indigenous religion of the African tribes, untouched. It +is the key to the negro character, which is difficult to learn from mere +experience. Those who are not accustomed to them have great trouble and +difficulty in managing negroes; and in consequence thereof treat them +badly. If their ethnology was better and more generally understood, +their value would be greatly increased, and their condition, as a +laboring class, would be more enviable, compared to the European +peasants, than it already is. + + + + +SLAVERY + +IN THE + +LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW. + +BY + +E. N. ELLIOTT, L.L.D., + +OF MISSISSIPPI. + + + + +SLAVERY + +IN THE + +LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW. + + +THERE are some who deny the unity of the human race; with such we have +no controversy, but it is a part of our religious belief, that "God made +of one blood all nations that dwell on the face of the earth;" and on +this we would base one of our arguments for the subordination of a part +of the human family. It is not necessary to the vindication of our +cause, or of truth, to deny the authority, or to fritter away the +evident meaning of any part of the word of God, as is done by most of +the abolitionists. It is sufficient for our purpose that we have shown +that the negro is an inferior variety of the human race; that he is +inferior in his physical structure, and in his mental and moral +organization. This orgnization incapacitates him for emerging, by his +own will and power, from barbarism, and achieving civilization and +refinement. History teaches the same lesson. We find Africa to-day, just +as it was three thousand years ago. When God created man he said to him, +"Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and +have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, +and over every living thing that moveth on the face of the earth." And +again, upon the re-creation after the flood, he repeated the command, in +almost the same words, to Noah and his sons. This command shows that God +had a purpose with regard to the physical world, in placing man upon it, +and that man has a mission to fulfill in subduing it, and acquiring a +control, not only over animate but also over inanimate nature. Indeed, +the one is essential to the other. Man can not control and subdue the +inferior animals, until he has acquired some control over the powers of +nature. Place him in the forest naked and unarmed, and many of the +animals are his superiors; but endow his mind with a knowledge of +nature's laws, and thus enable him to make them subservient to his +purposes, and he becomes irresistible; a god on earth. In fulfilling +this command, man elevates his nature as he increases his knowledge, and +thereby extends his powers. God requires that every part of the human +family shall fulfill this great command, and contribute their part in +rendering subservient to human use, all the faculties of nature. Nay, +even where the one talent is misimproved, he takes it away and gives it +to him, who has ten talents. It is on this principle that it is right +and in accordance with the ordinance of God, to dispossess of their +lands, mines, waterpowers, harbors, etc., a savage nation, possessing, +but not improving them, and convert them to the uses of the world of +mankind. This is the warrant for the conflict of civilization with +barbarism. Not to go back to former times, it is this precept which has +converted the former howling wilderness of this Western World, into an +earthly paradise, affording an ample subsistence to happy millions of +the most enlightened of the human family. It is this that causes effete +dynasties and nations to disappear from the face of the world, and their +places to be supplied by those full of life and energy. It is this that +is rolling back and blotting out the mongrel races of the New World, to +make room for the onward march of a higher civilization. + +The manifest destiny men are not so far wrong after all; but instead of +destiny, it is the purpose and ordinance of God. Upon this principle has +England acted in reference to India, Australia, China, and in almost +every region of the globe. It is upon this principle that Europe is now +controlling the destinies of the Old World, as the United States, if +they are true to themselves, will control the destinies of the New. This +has governed us in requiring that Japan should open her ports to the +commerce, and her coal mines to the navies of the world; that she should +enrol herself in the brotherhood of nations, and perform her part in the +great drama of life. It is upon this principle that England, France, and +the United States, are requiring the same thing of China; and it is upon +this principle that the vagrant is arrested in your streets and sent to +the work-house. + +These principles are clearly enunciated, and ably defended by J. Q. +Adams in his celebrated speech on the Chinese question, delivered in +1841. It is true, that he applies them to the rights of commerce only; +but by legitimate deduction, they are as applicable to the rights of +labor, as to the rights of commerce. Although nations and races have +always acted on these principles, yet at the time of the delivery of +this speech, so startling were the positions assumed by Mr. Adams, that +but few could be found who were prepared to defend them, yet none were +able to controvert them. Their general adoption at the present day only +shows what history has so long taught, that master minds are generally +in advance of their age. + +In the "Memoir of J. Q. Adams," by Josiah Quincy, we have a report of +this speech. Speaking of the Chinese war, Mr. Adams says, "that by the +law of nations is to be understood, not one code of laws, binding alike +on all nations of the earth, but a system of rules, varying according to +the condition and character of the nations concerned. There is a law of +nations among Christian communities, which is the law recognized by the +Constitution of the United States, as obligatory upon them in their +intercourse with European States and colonies. But we have a different +law of nations regulating our intercourse with the Indian tribes on this +continent; another between us and the woolly-headed nations of Africa; +another with the Barbary powers; another with the flowery land, or +Celestial empire." Then, reasoning on the rights of property, +established by labor, by occupation, by compact, he maintains "that the +right of exchange, barter--in other words, of commerce--necessarily +follows; that a state of nature among men is a state of peace; the +pursuit of happiness, man's natural right; that is the duty of all men +to contribute, as much as is in their power, to one another's happiness, +and that there is no other way by which they can so well contribute to +the comfort and well-being of one another, as by commerce, or the mutual +exchange of equivalents." These views and principles he thus +illustrates: + +"The duty of commercial intercourse between nations, is laid down in +terms sufficiently positive by Vattel, but he afterwards qualifies it by +a restriction, which, unless itself restricted, annuls it altogether. He +says that, although the general duty of commercial intercourse is +incumbent upon nations, yet every nation may exclude any particular +branch or article of trade, which it may deem injurious to its +interests. This can not be denied. But then a nation may multiply these +particular exclusions, until they become general, and equivalent to a +total interdict of commerce; and this, time out of mind, has been the +inflexible policy of the Chinese empire. So says Vattel, without +affixing any note of censure upon it. Yet it is manifestly incompatible +with the position which he had previously laid down, that commercial +intercourse between nations is a moral obligation upon them all." + +The same doctrine, with regard to the duties of _individuals_ in a +community, that is here advanced by Mr. Adams with regard to _races_ and +_nations_, is thus set forth in Blackstone's Commentaries, book iv, +chap. xxxiii: "_There is not a more necessary, or more certain maxim, in +the frame and constitution of society, than that every individual must +contribute his share, in order to the well-being of the community._" + +The first principle laid down by Mr. Adams is, that the same code of +international law does not apply to all nations alike, but that it +varies with the condition and character of the people; that one code of +laws applies to the enlightened and Christian nations of Europe, but an +entirely different one to the pagan, woolly-headed, barbarians of +Africa. What would be just and right with regard to the African, would +be eminently unjust towards the European. Though it would be a great +wrong to reduce the European to a condition of servitude, it does not +follow that it would be equally wrong to enslave the African. If all the +human races were alike, one code of international laws would apply to +the whole, but so long as the African continues to be an inferior race, +they must be treated as such. + +But again, Mr. Adams clearly lays down the principle that no nation or +race can be permitted, in any way, to isolate itself from the community +of nations, but is morally bound to contribute all in its power to the +well-being of the whole race, at the same time that it secures its own. +If it possesses territory which it occupies, but does not improve, it +must yield it to the claims of civiilization. If it has productions +valuable to the world, it is morally bound to exchange them. If it has +ports, harbors, coal mines, or other facilities for commerce and +manufactures, it must allow other nations to participate in its +advantages. If it has a superabundant supply of labor, it must be +rendered available. If, then, it is right that civilization and progress +should appropriate the hunting grounds of the Indian race; if it is +right that China and Japan should be required to open their ports to the +commerce of the world, it must be equally right that the great store +house of labor in Africa should be opened for the benefit of the human +race. In the Western World, a vast continent of fertile land and +propitious climate, was possessed, not improved, by a sparse hunter +race; but the law of God and of nations required that the earth should +be subdued and replenished, and now God has enlarged Japheth, and he +dwells in these tents of Shem. China, Japan, and other regions of Asia, +are inhabited by teeming millions, rich in the productions of art, yet +scarcely able to obtain a meagre sustenance, and rigidly excluding all +intercourse with the outer world, but at the demands of commerce the +barriers are broken down, and they, in common with other nations, are +benefited by the change. Africa has long possessed a superabundant +population of indolent, degraded, pagan savages, useless to the world +and to themselves. Numberless efforts have been made to elevate them in +the scale of existence, in their own country, but all in vain. Even when +partially civilized, under the control of the white man, they soon +relapse into barbarism, if emancipated from this control. But a colony +of them, some two hundred years since, were imported into the Western +World, and placed subordinate to the white race; and now, if we are to +believe the abolitionists, they have improved so rapidly as to have +become equal, if not superior, to the white race. Certainly they are far +superior to their ancestors, or their brethren in Africa. At the same +time, they have conferred an equal benefit on the world. They supply a +demand for labor which can not otherwise be met, and their products not +only clothe the civilized world, but also are the life-blood of its +commerce. + +It is not necessary to the discussion of this topic, that we should show +_what_ are the laws of nations, applicable to the different races +enumerated by Mr. Adams; though it is manifest to the most casual +observer, that the laws applicable to them are radically different. What +would be thought of a minister at the court of St. James, who should +propose to carry out with Great Britain, the same course of policy we +pursue towards the Indian tribes; or of the English minister at our +capital, who would exact from us the concessions required of the rajahs +of India, or the chiefs of Australia? The radical difference is this: +among civilized and Christian nations, the law recognizes a perfect +equality, and requires an entire reciprocity; but between an elevated +and a degraded or inferior race, this inequality is recognized, and an +influence and a superiority is accorded to the one, which is denied to +the other. This is well illustrated by our present intercourse with +Mexico, and should we establish a protectorate over that unhappy +country, for their good and our own, it would be in strict accordance +with these principles. With some nations we have diplomatic intercourse, +on terms of perfect equality and reciprocity; others we treat as +inferiors, and assume over them some degree of control, while we +nevertheless recognize them as legitimate governments. But there are +other nations or races, with whom we form no diplomatic relations, and +whose governments we do not recognize. In this latter class are included +most of the inhabitants of Africa, and of Hayti; or in other words, the +_negro race_. The reason is, that those nations performing their duties +to the human race, according to the ordinance of God, are to be +recognized as not needing our assistance, or requiring our guardianship; +those fulfilling only in part, should be considered in a state of +tutelage, but those that fulfill none, or but few of these duties, +require to be made subservient to the superior races, in order that they +may fulfill the great ends of their existence. This subordination has +existed in all times, among all nations, and with all races. But as soon +as any race became so developed as no longer to require it, it ceased to +exist. In this way, and in this alone,--except by the deportation of the +slaves--has slavery ever ceased to exist, in any community; nor can it +be otherwise in the future. Emancipation in name, is not always freedom +in reality. The free blacks of our Northern States and the West Indies, +are, as a mass, more abject slaves than any on our Southern plantations. +Nor is it possible for them to acquire a more elevated position, until +they shall have acquired the requisite qualifications for that position. + +At the present time, with the exception of serfdom, peonage, and +political slavery, this subordination is confined to the negro race. Why +is this so? Manifestly because they have shown themselves incapable, in +their own land, of emerging from barbarism, achieving civilization and +refinement, performing their duties to the human race, and becoming +entitled to a position as equals among the nations of the earth. Until +such improvement takes place as shall entitle them to this exalted +position, their own happiness and well-being, their duties to the human +race, the claims of civilization, the progress of society, the law of +nations, and the ordinance of God, require that they should be placed in +a subordinate position to a superior race. Experience also shows us +that this is their normal and natural position. In their native land +they still are what they have always been, a pagan, savage, servile +race, fulfilling their duties neither to themselves, to God, nor to the +human race; but under the tutelage of a superior race, they are elevated +in the scale of existence, improved mentally, morally, and physically, +and are thus enabled to do their part in contributing to the well-being +of the human race. But so far as our experience goes, this development +is not permanent, but is liable to retrogression as soon as the +influence of the superior race is removed. Like the electro-magnet, +whose power is lost the moment it is insulated from the vivifying power +of electricity, so the servile race loses its power when removed from +the control of a superior intellect. The example of our own free blacks, +those emancipated in the West Indies, Sierra Leone, and even Liberia, +are conclusive on this point. + +It becomes us not to speculate too curiously concerning God's plan in +governing the world, much less to strive to thwart his purposes with our +puny arms; he will work out his purposes of good to the human race, in +his own good time and way, whether it meets our views or not. But from +the revelation of his purpose concerning the descendants of the three +progenitors of the human race after the flood, it is manifest that the +children of Ham were to be a servile race; as their final +disinthrallment is nowhere spoken of, it is exceedingly improbable that +slavery will cease to exist till the end of time. It is true that +Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands to God; but this is being +fulfilled on a grander scale than ever before has been witnessed, even +in our midst, in this Western World, where God has enlarged Japheth, +where he dwells in the tents of Shem, and where Cainan is his servant. + +PORT GIBSON, MISSISSIPPI, _February 22, 1860_. + + + + +DECISION + +OF THE + +SUPREME COURT + +OF THE UNITED STATES + +IN THE + +DRED SCOTT CASE. + + + + +DRED SCOTT DECISION. + + +SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, + +DECEMBER TERM, 1856. + + +DRED SCOTT + +_versus_ + +JOHN F. A. SANDFORD. + + +DRED SCOTT, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR, _v._ JOHN F. A. SANDFORD. + + +THIS case was brought up, by writ of error, from the Circuit Court of +the United States for the district of Missouri. + +It was an action of trespass _vi et armis_ instituted in the Circuit +Court by Scott against Sandford. + +Prior to the institution of the present suit, an action was brought by +Scott for his freedom in the Circuit Court of St. Louis county, (State +court,) where there was a verdict and judgment in his favor. On a writ +of error to the Supreme Court of the State, the judgment below was +reversed, and the case remanded to the Circuit Court, where it was +continued to await the decision of the case now in question. + +The declaration of Scott contained three counts: one, that Sandford had +assaulted the plaintiff; one, that he had assaulted Harriet Scott, his +wife; and one, that he had assaulted Eliza Scott and Lizzie Scott, his +children. + +Sandford appeared, and filed the following plea: + + DRED SCOTT } + _v._ } _Plea to the Jurisdiction of the Court._ + JOHN F. A. SANDFORD. } + + APRIL TERM, 1854. + +And the said John F. A. Sandford, in his own proper person, comes and +says that this court ought not to have or take further cognizance of the +action aforesaid, because he says that said cause of action, and each +and every of them, (if any such have accrued to the said Dred Scott,) +accrued to the said Dred Scott out of the jurisdiction of this court, +and exclusively within the jurisdiction of the courts of the State of +Missouri, for that, to wit: the said plaintiff, Dred Scott, is not a +citizen of the State of Missouri, as alleged in his declaration, because +he is a negro of African descent; his ancestors were of pure African +blood, and were brought into this country and sold as negro slaves, and +this the said Sandford is ready to verify. Wherefore, he prays judgment +whether this court can or will take further cognizance of the action +aforesaid. + + JOHN F. A. SANDFORD. + + * * * * * + +To this plea there was a demurrer in the usual form, which was argued in +April, 1854, when the court gave judgment that the demurrer should be +sustained. + +In May, 1854, the defendant, in pursuance of an agreement between +counsel, and with the leave of the court, pleaded in bar of the action: + +1. Not guilty. + +2. That the plaintiff was a negro slave, the lawful property of the +defendant, and, as such, the defendant gently laid his hands upon him, +and thereby had only restrained him, as the defendant had a right to do. + +3. That with respect to the wife and daughters of the plaintiff, in the +second and third counts of the declaration mentioned, the defendant had, +as to them, only acted in the same manner, and in virtue of the same +legal right. + +In the first of these pleas, the plaintiff joined issue; and to the +second and third, filed replications alleging that the defendant, of his +own wrong and without the cause in his second and third pleas alleged, +committed the trespasses, etc. + +The counsel then filed the following agreed statement of facts, viz: + +In the year 1834, the plaintiff was a negro slave belonging to Dr. +Emerson, who was a surgeon in the army of the United States. In that +year, 1834, said Dr. Emerson took the plaintiff from the State of +Missouri to the military post at Rock Island, in the State of Illinois, +and held him there as a slave until the month of April or May, 1836. At +the time last mentioned, said Dr. Emerson removed the plaintiff from +said military post at Rock Island to the military post at Fort Snelling, +situate on the west bank of the Mississippi river, in the Territory +known as Upper Louisiana, acquired by the United States of France, and +situate north of the latitude of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes +north, and north of the State of Missouri. Said Dr. Emerson held the +plaintiff in slavery at said Fort Snelling, from said last-mentioned +date until the year 1838. + +In the year 1835, Harriet, who is named in the second count of the +plaintiff's declaration, was the negro slave of Major Taliaferro, who +belonged to the army of the United States. In that year, 1835, said +Major Taliaferro took said Harriet to said Fort Snelling, a military +post, situated as hereinbefore stated, and kept her there as a slave +until the year 1836, and then sold and delivered her as a slave at said +Fort Snelling unto the said Dr. Emerson hereinbefore named. Said Dr. +Emerson held said Harriet in slavery at said Fort Snelling until the +year 1838. + +In the year 1836, the plaintiff and said Harriet at said Fort Snelling, +with the consent of said Dr. Emerson, who then claimed to be their +master and owner, intermarried, and took each other for husband and +wife. Eliza and Lizzie, named in the third count of the plaintiff's +declaration, are the fruit of that marriage. Eliza is about fourteen +years old, and was born on board the steamboat Gipsey, north of the +north line of the State of Missouri, and upon the river Mississippi. +Lizzie is about seven years old, and was born in the State of Missouri, +at the military post called Jefferson Barracks. + +In the year 1838, said Dr. Emerson removed the plaintiff and said +Harriet and their said daughter Eliza, from said Fort Snelling to the +State of Missouri, where they have ever since resided. + +Before the commencement of this suit, said Dr. Emerson sold and conveyed +the plaintiff, said Harriet, Eliza, and Lizzie, to the defendant, as +slaves, and the defendant has ever since claimed to hold them and each +of them as slaves. + +At the times mentioned in the plaintiff's declaration, the defendant, +claiming to be owner as aforesaid, laid his hands upon said plaintiff, +Harriet, Eliza, and Lizzie, and imprisoned them, doing in this respect, +however, no more than what he might lawfully do if they were of right +his slaves at such times. + +Further proof may be given on the trial for either party. + +It is agreed that Dred Scott brought suit for his freedom in the Circuit +Court of St. Louis county; that there was a verdict and judgment in his +favor; that on a writ of error to the Supreme Court, the judgment below +was reversed, and the same remanded to the Circuit Court, where it has +been continued to await the decision of this case. + +In May, 1854, the cause went before a jury, who found the following +verdict, viz: "As to the first issue joined in this case, we of the jury +find the defendant not guilty; and as to the issue secondly above +joined, we of the jury find that before and at the time when, etc., in +the first count mentioned, the said Dred Scott was a negro slave, the +lawful property of the defendant; and as to the issue thirdly above +joined, we, the jury, find that before and at the time when, etc., in +the second and third counts mentioned, the said Harriet, wife of said +Dred Scott, and Eliza and Lizzie, the daughters of the said Dred Scott, +were negro slaves, the lawful property of the defendant." + +Whereupon, the court gave judgment for the defendant. + +After an ineffectual motion for a new trial, the plaintiff filed the +following bill of exceptions. + +On the trial of this cause by the jury, the plaintiff, to maintain the +issues on his part, read to the jury the following agreed statement of +facts, (see agreement above.) No further testimony was given to the jury +by either party. Thereupon the plaintiff moved the court to give to the +jury the following instruction, viz: + +"That, upon the facts agreed to by the parties, they ought to find for +the plaintiff. The court refused to give such instruction to the jury, +and the plaintiff, to such refusal, then and there duly excepted." + +The court then gave the following instruction to the jury, on motion of +the defendant: + +"The jury are instructed, that upon the facts in this case, the law is +with the defendant." The plaintiff excepted to this instruction. + +Upon these exceptions, the case came up to this court. + +It was argued at December term, 1855, and ordered to be reargued at the +present term. + + * * * * * + +It was now argued by Mr. Blair and Mr. G. F. Curtis for the plaintiff in +error, and by Mr. Geyer and Mr. Johnson for the defendant in error. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Chief Justice Taney delivered the opinion of the court. + +This case has been twice argued. After the argument of the last term, +differences of opinion were found to exist among the members of the +court; and as the questions in controversy are of the highest +importance, and the court was at that time much pressed by the ordinary +business of the term, it was deemed advisable to continue the case, and +direct a reargument on some of the points, in order that we might have +an opportunity of giving to the whole subject a more deliberate +consideration. It has accordingly been again argued by counsel, and +considered by the court; and I now proceed to deliver its opinion. + +There are two leading questions presented by the record: + +1. Had the Circuit Court of the United States jurisdiction to hear and +determine the case between these parties? And + +2. If it had jurisdiction, is the judgment it has given erroneous or +not? + +The plaintiff in error, who was also the plaintiff in the court below, +was, with his wife and children, held as slaves by the defendant, in the +State of Missouri; and he brought this action in the Circuit Court of +the United States for that district, to assert the title of himself and +his family to freedom. + +The declaration is in the form usually adopted in that State to try +questions of this description, and contains the averment necessary to +give the court jurisdiction; that he and the defendant are citizens of +different States; that is, that he is a citizen of Missouri, and the +defendant a citizen of New York. + +The defendant pleaded in abatement to the jurisdiction of the court, +that the plaintiff was not a citizen of the State of Missouri, as +alleged in his declaration, being a negro of African descent, whose +ancestors were of pure African blood, and who were brought into this +country and sold as slaves. + +To this plea the plaintiff demurred, and the defendant joined in +demurrer. The court overruled the plea, and gave judgment that the +defendant should answer over. And he therefore put in sundry pleas in +bar, upon which issues were joined; and at the trial the verdict and +judgment were in his favor. Whereupon the plaintiff brought this writ of +error. + +Before we speak of the pleas in bar, it will be proper to dispose of the +questions which have arisen on the plea in abatement. + +That plea denies the right of the plaintiff to sue in a court of the +United States, for the reasons therein stated. + +If the question raised by it is legally before us, and the court should +be of opinion that the facts stated in it disqualify the plaintiff from +becoming a citizen, in the sense in which that word is used in the +Constitution of the United States, then the judgment of the Circuit +Court is erroneous and must be reversed. + +It is suggested, however, that this plea is not before us; and that as +the judgment in the court below on this plea was in favor of the +plaintiff, he does not seek to reverse it, or bring it before the court +for revision by his writ of error; and also that the defendant waived +this defense by pleading over, and thereby admitted the jurisdiction of +the court. + +But in making this objection, we think the peculiar and limited +jurisdiction of courts of the United States has not been adverted to. +This peculiar and limited jurisdiction, has made it necessary, in these +courts, to adopt different rules and principles of pleading, so far as +jurisdiction is concerned, from those which regulate courts of common +law in England, and in the different States of the Union which have +adopted the common-law rules. + +In these last-mentioned courts, where their character and rank are +analagous to that of a Circuit Court of the United States; in other +words, where they are what the law terms courts of general jurisdiction; +they are presumed to have jurisdiction, unless the contrary appears. No +averment in the pleadings of the plaintiff is necessary, in order to +give jurisdiction. If the defendant objects to it, he must plead it +specially, and unless the fact on which he relies is found to be true by +a jury, or admitted to be true by the plaintiff, the jurisdiction can +not be disputed in an appellate court. + +Now, it is not necessary to inquire whether in courts of that +description a party who pleads over in bar, when a plea to the +jurisdiction has been ruled against him, does or does not waive his +plea; nor whether upon a judgment in his favor on the pleas in bar, and +a writ of error brought by the plaintiff, the question upon the plea in +abatement would be open for revision in the appellate court. Cases that +may have been decided in such courts, or rules that may have been laid +down by common-law pleaders, can have no influence in the decision in +this court. Because, under the Constitution and laws of the United +States, the rules which govern the pleadings in its courts, in questions +of jurisdiction, stand on different principles and are regulated by +different laws. + +This difference arises, as we have said, from the peculiar character of +the Government of the United States. For although it is sovereign and +supreme in its appropriate sphere of action, yet it does not possess all +the powers which usually belong to the sovereignty of a nation. Certain +specified powers, enumerated in the Constitution, have been conferred +upon it; and neither the legislative, executive, nor judicial +departments of the Government can lawfully exercise any authority beyond +the limits marked out by the Constitution. And in regulating the +judicial department, the cases in which the courts of the United States +shall have jurisdiction are particularly and specifically enumerated and +defined; and they are not authorized to take cognizance of any case +which does not come within the description therein specified. Hence, +when a plaintiff sues in a court of the United States, it is necessary +that he should show, in his pleadings, that the suit he brings is within +the jurisdiction of the court, and that he is entitled to sue there. And +if he omits to do this, and should, by any oversight of the Circuit +Court, obtain a judgment in his favor, the judgment would be reversed in +the appellate court for want of jurisdiction in the court below. The +jurisdiction would not be presumed, as in the case of a common-law +English or State court, unless the contrary appeared. But the record, +when it comes before the appellate court, must show, affirmatively, that +the inferior court had authority, under the Constitution, to hear and +determine the case. And if the plaintiff claims a right to sue in a +Circuit Court of the United States, under that provision of the +Constitution which gives jurisdiction in controversies between citizens +of different States, he must distinctly aver in his pleadings that they +are citizens of different States; and he can not maintain his suit +without showing that fact in the pleadings. + +This point was decided in the case of Bingham _v._ Cabot, (in 3 Dall., +382,) and ever since adhered to by the court. And in Jackson _v._ Ashton +(8 Pet., 148,) it was held that the objection to which it was open could +not be waived by the opposite party, because consent of parties could +not give jurisdiction. + +It is needless to accumulate cases on this subject. Those already +referred to, and the cases of Capron _v._ Van Noorden, (in 2 Cr. 126.,) +and Montalet _v._ Murray, (4 Cr., 46,) are sufficient to show the rule +of which we have spoken. The case of Capron _v._ Van Noorden strikingly +illustrates the difference between a common-law court and a court of the +United States. + +If, however, the fact of citizenship is avered in the declaration, and +the defendant does not deny it, and put it in issue by plea in +abatement, he can not offer evidence at the trial to disprove it, and +consequently can not avail himself of the objection in the appellate +court, unless the defect should be apparent in some other part of the +record. For if there is no plea in abatement, and the want of +jurisdiction does not appear in any other part of the transcript brought +up by the writ of error, the undisputed averment of citizenship in the +declaration must be taken in this court to be true. In this case, the +citizenship is averred, but it is denied by the defendant in the manner +required by the rules of pleading, and the fact upon which the denial is +based is admitted by the demurrer. And, if the plea and demurrer, and +judgment of the court below upon it, are before us upon this record, the +question to be decided is, whether the facts stated in the plea are +sufficient to show that the plaintiff is not entitled to sue as a +citizen in a court of the United States. + +We think they are before us. The plea in abatement and the judgment of +the court upon it, are a part of the judicial proceedings in the Circuit +Court, and are there recorded as such; and a writ of error always brings +up to the superior court the whole record of the proceedings in the +court below. And in the case of the United States _v._ Smith, (11 +Wheat., 172,) this court said, that the case being brought up by writ of +error, the whole record was under the consideration of this court. And +this being the case in the present instance, the plea in abatement is +necessarily under consideration; and it becomes, therefore, our duty to +decide whether the facts stated in the plea are or are not sufficient to +show that the plaintiff is not entitled to sue as a citizen in a court +of the United States. + +This is certainly a very serious question, and one that now for the +first time has been brought for decision before this court. But it is +brought here by those who have a right to bring it, and it is our duty +to meet it and decide it. + +The question is simply this: Can a negro whose ancestors were imported +into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political +community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the +United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights and +privileges and immunities guaranteed to the citizen? One of which rights +is the privilege of suing in a court of the United States in the cases +specified in the Constitution. + +It will be observed, that the plea applies to that class of persons only +whose ancestors were negroes of the African race, and imported into this +country, and sold and held as slaves. The only matter in issue before +the court, therefore, is, whether the descendants of such slaves, when +they shall be emancipated, or who are born of parents who had become +free before their birth, are citizens of a State, in the sense in which +the word citizen is used in the Constitution of the United States. And +this being the only matter in dispute on the pleadings, the court must +be understood as speaking in this opinion of that class only, that is, +of those persons who are the descendants of Africans who were imported +into this country, and sold as slaves. + +The situation of this population was altogether unlike that of the +Indian race. The latter, it is true, formed no part of the colonial +communities, and never amalgamated with them in social connections or in +government. But although they were uncivilized, they were yet a free and +independent people, associated together in nations or tribes, and +governed by their own laws. Many of these political communities were +situated in territories to which the white race claimed the ultimate +right of dominion. But that claim was acknowledged to be subject to the +right of the Indians to occupy it as long as they thought proper, and +neither the English nor colonial Governments claimed or exercised any +dominion over the tribe or nation by whom it was occupied, nor claimed +the right to the possession of the territory, until the tribe or nation +consented to cede it. These Indian Governments were regarded and +treated as foreign Governments, as much so as if an ocean had separated +the red man from the white; and their freedom has constantly been +acknowledged, from the time of the first emigration to the English +colonies to the present day, by the different Governments which +succeeded each other. Treaties have been negotiated with them, and their +alliance sought for in war; and the people who compose these Indian +political communities have always been treated as foreigners not living +under our Government. It is true that the course of events has brought +the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States under +subjection to the white race; and it has been found necessary, for their +sake as well as our own, to regard them as in a state of pupilage, and +to legislate to a certain extent over them and the territory they +occupy. But they may, without doubt, like the subjects of any other +foreign Government, be naturalized by the authority of Congress, and +become citizens of a State, and of the United States; and if an +individual should leave his nation or tribe, and take up his abode among +the white population, he would be entitled to all the rights and +privileges which would belong to an emigrant from any other foreign +people. + +We proceed to examine the case as presented by the pleadings. + +The words "people of the United States" and "citizens" are synonymous +terms, and mean the same thing. They both describe the political body +who, according to our republican institutions, form the sovereignty, and +who hold the power and conduct the Government through their +representatives. They are what we familiarly call the "sovereign +people," and every citizen is one of this people, and a constituent +member of this sovereignty. The question before us is, whether the class +of persons described in the plea in abatement compose a portion of this +people, and are constituent members of this sovereignty? We think they +are not, and that they are not included, and were not intended to be +included, under the word "citizens" in the Constitution, and can +therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument +provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the +contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and +inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the dominant race, +and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their +authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held +the power and the government might choose to grant them. + +It is not the province of the court to decide upon the justice or +injustice, the policy or impolicy, of these laws. The decision of that +question belonged to the political or law-making power; to those who +formed the sovereignty and framed the Constitution. The duty of the +court is, to interpret the instrument they have framed, with the best +lights we can obtain on the subject, and to administer it as we find it, +according to its true intent and meaning when it was adopted. + +In discussing this question, we must not confound the rights of +citizenship which a State may confer within its own limits, and the +rights of citizenship as a member of the Union. It does not by any means +follow, because he has all the rights and privileges of a citizen of a +State, that he must be a citizen of the United States. He may have all +the rights and privileges of the citizen of a State, and yet not be +entitled to the rights and privileges of a citizen in any other State. +For, previous to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, +every State had the undoubted right to confer on whomsoever it pleased +the character of citizen, and to endow him with all its rights. But this +character of course was confined to the boundaries of the State, and +gave him no rights or privileges in other States beyond those secured to +him by the laws of nations and the comity of States. Nor have the +several States surrendered the power of conferring these rights and +privileges by adopting the Constitution of the United States. Each State +may still confer them upon an alien, or any one it thinks proper, or +upon any class or description of persons; yet he would not be a citizen +in the sense in which that word is used in the Constitution of the +United States, nor entitled to sue as such in one of its courts, nor to +the privileges and immunities of a citizen in the other States. The +rights which he would acquire would be restricted to the State which +gave them. The Constitution has conferred on Congress the right to +establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and this right is evidently +exclusive, and has always been held by this court to be so. +Consequently, no State, since the adoption of the Constitution, can by +naturalizing an alien invest him with the rights and privileges secured +to a citizen of a State under the Federal Government, although, so far +as the State alone was concerned, he would undoubtedly be entitled to +the rights of a citizen, and clothed with all the rights and immunities +which the Constitution and laws of the State attached to that +character. + +It is very clear, therefore, that no State can, by any act or law of its +own, passed since the adoption of the Constitution, introduce a new +member into the political community created by the Constitution of the +United States. It cannot make him a member of this community by making +him a member of its own. And for the same reason it cannot introduce any +person or description of persons, who were not intended to be embraced +in this new political family, which the Constitution brought into +existence, but were intended to be excluded from it. + +The question then arises, whether the provisions of the Constitution, in +relation to the personal rights and privileges to which the citizen of a +State should be entitled, embraced the negro African race, at that time +in this country, or who might afterward be imported, who had then or +should afterward be made free in any State; and to put it in the power +of a single State to make him a citizen of the United States, and endue +him with the full rights of citizenship in every other State without +their consent? Does the Constitution of the United States act upon him +whenever he shall be made free under the laws of a State, and raised +there to the rank of a citizen, and immediately clothe him with all the +privileges of a citizen in every other State, and in its own courts? + +The court think the affirmative of these propositions cannot be +maintained. And if it cannot, the plaintiff in error could not be a +citizen of the State of Missouri, within the meaning of the Constitution +of the United States, and, consequently, was not entitled to sue in its +courts. + +It is true, every person, and every class and description of persons, +who were at the time of the adoption of the Constitution recognized as +citizens in the several States, became also citizens of this new +political body; but none other; it was formed by them, and for them and +their posterity, but for no one else. And the personal rights and +privileges guaranteed to citizens of this new sovereignty were intended +to embrace those only who were then members of the several State +communities, or who should afterward by birthright or otherwise become +members, according to the provisions of the Constitution and the +principles on which it was founded. It was the union of those who were +at that time members of distinct and separate political communities into +one political family, whose power, for certain specified purposes, was +to extend over the whole territory of the United States. And it gave to +each citizen rights and privileges outside of his State which he did not +before possess, and placed him in every other State upon a perfect +equality with its own citizens as to rights of person and rights of +property; it made him a citizen of the United States. + +It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine who were citizens of the +several States when the Constitution was adopted. And in order to do +this, we must recur to the governments and institutions of the thirteen +colonies, when they separated from Great Britain and formed new +sovereignities, and took their places in the family of independent +nations. We must inquire who, at that time, were recognized as the +people or citizens of a State, whose rights and liberties had been +outraged by the English Government; and who declared their independence, +and assumed the powers of Government to defend their rights by force of +arms. + +In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, +and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that +neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their +descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged +as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general +words used in that memorable instrument. + +It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in +relation to that unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized and +enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of +Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed +and adopted. But the public history of every European nation displays it +in a manner too plain to be mistaken. + +They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an +inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, +either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they +had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the +negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. +He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of +merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This +opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of +the white race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in +politics, which no one thought of disputing, or supposed to be open to +dispute; and men in every grade and position in society daily and +habitually acted upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in +matters of public concern, without doubting for a moment the correctness +of this opinion. + +And in no nation was this opinion more firmly fixed or more uniformly +acted upon than by the English Government and English people. They not +only seized them on the coast of Africa, and sold them or held them in +slavery for their own use; but they took them as ordinary articles of +merchandise to every country where they could make a profit on them, and +were far more extensively engaged in this commerce, than any other +nation in the world. + +The opinion thus entertained and acted upon in England was naturally +impressed upon the colonies they founded on this side of the Atlantic. +And, accordingly, a negro of the African race was regarded by them as an +article of property, and held, and bought and sold as such, in every one +of the thirteen colonies which united in the Declaration of +Independence, and afterward formed the Constitution of the United +States. The slaves were more or less numerous in the different colonies, +as slave labor was found more or less profitable. But no one seems to +have doubted the correctness of the prevailing opinion of the time. + +The legislation of the different colonies furnishes positive and +indisputable proof of this fact. + +It would be tedious, in this opinion, to enumerate the various laws they +passed upon this subject. It will be sufficient, as a sample of the +legislation which then generally prevailed throughout the British +colonies, to give the laws of two of them; one being still a large +slaveholding State, and the other the first State in which slavery +ceased to exist. + +The province of Maryland, in 1717, (chap, xiii, s. 5,) passed a law +declaring "that if any free negro or mulatto intermarry with any white +woman, or if any white man shall intermarry with any negro or mulatto +woman, such negro or mulatto shall become a slave during life, excepting +mulattoes born of white women, who, for such intermarriage, shall only +become servants for seven years, to be disposed of as the justices of +the county court, where such marriage so happens, shall think fit; to be +applied by them toward the support of a public school within the said +county. And any white man or white woman who shall intermarry as +aforesaid, with any negro or mulatto, such white man or white woman +shall become servants during the term of seven years, and shall be +disposed of by the justices as aforesaid, and be applied to the uses +aforesaid." + +The other colonial law to which we refer was passed by Massachusetts in +1705, (chap, vi.) It is entitled "An act for the better preventing of a +spurious and mixed issue," etc.; and it provides, that "if any negro or +mulatto shall presume to smite or strike any person of the English or +other Christian nation, such negro or mulatto shall be severely whipped, +at the discretion of the justices before whom the offender shall be +convicted." + +And "that none of her Majesty's English or Scottish subjects, nor of any +other Christian nation, within this province, shall contract matrimony +with any negro or mulatto; nor shall any person, duly authorized to +solemnize marriage, presume to join any such in marriage, on pain of +forfeiting the sum of fifty pounds; one moiety thereof to her Majesty, +for and toward the support of the Government within this province, and +the other moiety to him or them that shall inform and sue for the same +in any of her Majesty's courts of record within the province, by bill, +plaint, or information." + +We give both of these laws in the words used by the respective +legislative bodies, because the language in which they are framed, as +well as the provisions contained in them, show, too plainly to be +misunderstood, the degraded condition of this unhappy race. They were +still in force when the Revolution began, and are a faithful index to +the state of feeling toward the class of persons of whom they speak, and +of the position they occupied throughout the thirteen colonies, in the +eyes and thoughts of the men who framed the Declaration of Independence +and established the State Constitutions and Governments. They show that +a perpetual and impassable barrier was intended to be erected between +the white race and the one which they had reduced to slavery, and +governed as subjects with absolute and despotic power, and which they +then looked upon as so far below them in the scale of created beings, +that intermarriages between white persons and negroes or mulattoes were +regarded as unnatural and immoral, and punished as crimes, not only in +the parties, but in the person who joined them in marriage. And no +distinction in this respect was made between the free negro or mulatto +and the slave, but this stigma, of the deepest degradation, was fixed +upon the whole race. + +We refer to these historical facts for the purpose of showing the fixed +opinions concerning that race, upon which the statesmen of that day +spoke and acted. It is necessary to do this, in order to determine +whether the general terms used in the Constitution of the United States, +as to the rights of man and the rights of the people, was intended to +include them, or to give to them or their posterity the benefit of any +of its provisions. + +The language of the Declaration of Independence is equally conclusive: + +It begins by declaring "that when in the course of human events it +becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which +have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the +earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and +nature's God entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind +requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the +separation." + +It then proceeds to say: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that +all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with +certain unalienable rights; that among them is life, liberty, and the +pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are +instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the +governed." + +The general words above quoted would seem to embrace the whole human +family, and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day would +be so understood. But it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved +African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the +people who framed and adopted this declaration; for if the language, as +understood in that day, would embrace them, the conduct of the +distinguished men who framed the Declaration of Independence would have +been utterly and flagrantly inconsistent with the principles they +asserted; and instead of the sympathy of mankind, to which they so +confidently appealed, they would have deserved and received universal +rebuke and reprobation. + +Yet the men who framed this declaration were great men--high in literary +acquirements--high in their sense of honor, and incapable of asserting +principles inconsistent with those on which they were acting. They +perfectly understood the meaning of the language they used, and how it +would be understood by others; and they knew that it would not in any +part of the civilized world be supposed to embrace the negro race, which +by common consent, had been excluded from civilized Governments and the +family of nations, and doomed to slavery. They spoke and acted according +to the then established doctrines and principles, and in the ordinary +language of the day, and no one misunderstood them. The unhappy black +race were separated from the white by indelible marks, and laws long +before established, and were never thought of or spoken of except as +property, and when the claims of the owner or the profit of the trader +were supposed to need protection. + +This state of public opinion had undergone no change when the +Constitution was adopted, as is equally evident from its provisions and +language. + +The brief preamble sets forth by whom it was formed, for what purposes, +and for whose benefit and protection. It declares that it is formed by +the _people_ of the United States; that is to say, by those who were +members of the different political communities in the several States; +and its great object is declared to be to secure the blessings of +liberty to themselves and their posterity. It speaks in general terms of +the _people_ of the United States, and of _citizens_ of the several +States, when it is providing for the exercise of the powers granted or +the privileges secured to the citizen. It does not define what +description of persons are intended to be included under these terms, or +who shall be regarded as a citizen and one of the people. It uses them +as terms so well understood, that no further description or definition +was necessary. + +But there are two clauses in the Constitution which point directly and +specifically to the negro race as a separate class of persons, and show +clearly that they were not regarded as a portion of the people or +citizens of the Government then formed. + +One of these clauses reserves to each of the thirteen States the right +to import slaves until the year 1808, if it thinks proper. And the +importation which it thus sanctions was unquestionably of persons of the +race of which we are speaking, as the traffic in slaves in the United +States had always been confined to them. And by the other provision the +States pledge themselves to each other to maintain the right of property +of the master, by delivering up to him any slave who may have escaped +from his service, and be found within their respective territories. By +the first above-mentioned clause, therefore, the right to purchase and +hold this property is directly sanctioned and authorized for twenty +years by the people who framed the Constitution. And by the second, they +pledge themselves to maintain and uphold the right of the master in the +manner specified, as long as the Government they then formed should +endure. And these two provisions show, conclusively, that neither the +description of persons therein referred to, nor their descendants, were +embraced in any of the other provisions of the Constitution; for +certainly these two clauses were not intended to confer on them or their +posterity the blessings of liberty, or any of the personal rights so +carefully provided for the citizen. + +No one of that race had ever migrated to the United States voluntarily; +all of them had been brought here as articles of merchandise. The number +that had been emancipated at that time were but few in comparison with +those held in slavery; and they were identified in the public mind with +the race to which they belonged, and regarded as a part of the slave +population rather than the free. It is obvious that they were not even +in the minds of the framers of the Constitution when they were +conferring special rights and privileges upon the citizens of a State in +every other part of the Union. + +Indeed, when we look to the condition of this race in the several States +at the time, it is impossible to believe that these rights and +privileges were intended to be extended to them. + +It is very true, that in that portion of the Union where the labor of +the negro race was found to be unsuited to the climate and unprofitable +to the master, but few slaves were held at the time of the Declaration +of Independence; and when the Constitution was adopted, it had entirely +worn out in one of them, and measures had been taken for its gradual +abolition in several others. But this change had not been produced by +any change of opinion in relation to this race; but because it was +discovered, from experience, that slave labor was unsuited to the +climate and productions of these States: for some of the States, where +it had ceased or nearly ceased to exist, were actively engaged in the +slave trade, procuring cargoes on the coast of Africa, and transporting +them for sale to those parts of the Union where their labor was found to +be profitable, and suited to the climate and productions. And this +traffic was openly carried on, and fortunes accumulated by it, without +reproach from the people of the States where they resided. And it can +hardly be supposed that, in the States where it was then countenanced in +its worst form--that is, in the seizure and transportation--the people +could have regarded those who were emancipated as entitled to equal +rights with themselves. + +And we may here again refer, in support of this proposition, to the +plain and unequivocal language of the laws of the several States, some +passed after the Declaration of Independence and before the Constitution +was adopted, and some since the Government went into operation. + +We need not refer, on this point, particularly to the laws of the +present slaveholding States. Their statute books are full of provisions +in relation to this class, in the same spirit with the Maryland law +which we have before quoted. They have continued to treat them as an +inferior class, and to subject them to strict police regulations, +drawing a broad line of distinction between the citizen and the slave +races, and legislating in relation to them upon the same principle which +prevailed at the time of the Declaration of Independence. As relates to +these States, it is too plain for argument, that they have never been +regarded as a part of the people or citizens of the State, nor supposed +to possess any political rights which the dominant race might not +withhold or grant at their pleasure. And as long ago as 1822, the Court +of Appeals of Kentucky decided that free negroes and mulattoes were not +citizens within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States; +and the correctness of this decision is recognized, and the same +doctrine affirmed, in 1 Meig's Tenn. Reports, 331. + +And if we turn to the legislation of the States where slavery had worn +out, or measures taken for its speedy abolition, we shall find the same +opinions and principles equally fixed and equally acted upon. + +Thus, Massachusetts, in 1786, passed a law similar to the colonial one +of which we have spoken. The law of 1786, like the law of 1705, forbids +the marriage of any white person with any negro, Indian, or mulatto, and +inflicts a penalty of fifty pounds upon any one who shall join them in +marriage; and declares all such marriages absolutely null and void, and +degrades thus the unhappy issue of the marriage by fixing upon it the +stain of bastardy. And this mark of degradation was renewed and again +impressed upon the race, in the careful and deliberate preparation of +their revised code, published in 1836. This code forbids any person from +joining in marriage any white person with any Indian, negro, or mulatto, +and subjects the party who shall offend in this respect, to +imprisonment, not exceeding six months in the common jail, or to hard +labor, and to a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred +dollars; and like the law of 1786, it declares the marriage to be +absolutely null and void. It will be seen that the punishment is +increased by the code upon the person who shall marry them, by adding +imprisonment to a pecuniary penalty. + +So, too, in Connecticut. We refer more particularly to the legislation +of this State, because it was not only among the first to put an end to +slavery within its own territory, but was the first to fix a mark of +reprobation upon the African slave trade. The law last mentioned was +passed in October, 1788, about nine months after the State had ratified +and adopted the present Constitution of the Unitied States; and by that +law it prohibited its own citizens, under severe penalties, from +engaging in the trade, and declared all policies of insurance on the +vessel or cargo made in the State to be null and void. But up to the +time of the adoption of the Constitution, there is nothing in the +legislation of the State indicating any change of opinion as to the +relative rights and position of the white and black races in this +country, or indicating that it meant to place the latter, when free, +upon a level with its citizens. And certainly nothing which would have +led the slaveholding States to suppose that Connecticut designed to +claim for them, under the new Constitution, the equal rights and +privileges and rank of citizens in every other State. + +The first step taken by Connecticut upon this subject was as early as +1774, when it passed an act forbidding the further importation of slaves +into the State. But the section containing the prohibition is introduced +by the following preamble: + +"And whereas the increase of slaves in this State is injurious to the +poor, and inconvenient." + +This recital would appear to have been carefully introduced, in order to +prevent any misunderstanding of the motive which induced the Legislature +to pass the law, and places it distinctly upon the interest and +convenience of the white population--excluding the inference that it +might have been intended in any degree for the benefit of the other. + +And in the act of 1784, by which the issue of slaves, born after the +time therein mentioned, were to be free at a certain age, the section is +again introduced by a preamble assigning a similar motive for the act. +It is in these words: + +"Whereas sound policy requires that the abolition of slavery should be +effected as soon as may be consistent with the rights of individuals, +and the public safety and welfare"--showing that the right of property +in the master was to be protected, and that the measure was one of +policy, and to prevent the injury and inconvenience, to the whites, of a +slave population in the State. + +And still further pursuing its legislation, we find that in the same +statute passed in 1774, which prohibited the further importation of +slaves into the State, there is also a provision by which any negro, +Indian, or mulatto servant, who was found wandering out of the town or +place to which he belonged, without a written pass such as is therein +described, was made liable to be seized by any one, and taken before the +next authority to be examined and delivered up to his master--who was +required to pay the charge which had accrued thereby. And a subsequent +section of the same law provides, that if any free negro shall travel +without such pass, and shall be stopped, seized, or taken up, he shall +pay all charges arising thereby. And this law was in full operation when +the Constitution of the United States was adopted, and was not repealed +till 1797. So that up to that time free negroes and mulattoes were +associated with servants and slaves in the police regulations +established by the laws of the State. + +And again, in 1833, Connecticut passed another law, which made it penal +to set up or establish any school in that State for the instruction of +persons of the African race not inhabitants of the State, or to instruct +or teach in any such school or institution, or board or harbor for that +purpose, any such person, without the previous consent in writing of the +civil authority of the town in which such school or institution might +be. + +And it appears by the case of Crandall _v._ the State, reported in 10 +Conn. Rep., 340, that upon an information filed against Prudence +Crandall for a violation of this law, one of the points raised in the +defense was, that the law was a violation of the Constitution of the +United States; and that the persons instructed, although of the African +race, were citizens of other States, and therefore entitled to the +rights and privileges of citizens in the State of Connecticut. But Chief +Justice Dagget, before whom the case was tried, held, that persons of +that description were not citizens of a State, within the meaning of the +word citizen in the Constitution of the United States, and were not +therefore entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens in other +States. + +The case was carried up to the Supreme Court of Errors of the State, and +the question fully argued there. But the case went off upon another +point, and no opinion was expressed on this question. + +We have made this particular examination into the legislative and +judicial action of Connecticut, because, from the early hostility it +displayed to the slave trade on the coast of Africa, we may expect to +find the laws of that State as lenient and favorable to the subject race +as those of any other State in the Union; and if we find that at the +time the Constitution was adopted, they were not even there raised to +the rank of citizens, but were still held and treated as property, and +the laws relating to them passed with reference altogether to the +interest and convenience of the white race, we shall hardly find them +elevated to a higher rank any where else. + +A brief notice of the laws of two other States, and we shall pass on to +other considerations. + +By the laws of New Hampshire, collected and finally passed in 1815, no +one was permitted to be enrolled in the militia of the State but free +white citizens; and the same provision is found in a subsequent +collection of the laws, made in 1855. Nothing could more strongly mark +the entire repudiation of the African race. The alien is excluded, +because, being born in a foreign country, he can not be a member of the +community until he is naturalized. But why are the African race, born in +the State, not permitted to share in one of the highest duties of a +citizen? The answer is obvious; he is not, by the institutions and laws +of the State, numbered among its people. He forms no part of the +sovereignty of the State, and is not therefore called on to uphold and +defend it. + +Again, in 1822, Rhode Island, in its revised code, passed a law +forbidding persons who were authorized to join persons in marriage, from +joining in marriage any white person with any negro, Indian, or +mulatto, under the penalty of two hundred dollars, and declaring all +such marriages absolutely null and void; and the same law was again +re-enacted in its revised code of 1844. So that, down to the +last-mentioned period, the strongest mark of inferiority and degradation +was fastened upon the African race in that State. + +It would be impossible to enumerate and compress in the space usually +allotted to an opinion of a court, the various laws, marking the +condition of this race, which were passed from time to time after the +Revolution, and before and since the adoption of the Constitution of the +United States. In addition to those already referred to, it is +sufficient to say, that Chancellor Kent, whose accuracy and research no +one will question, states in the sixth edition of his Commentaries +(published in 1846, 2 vols., 258, note _b_,) that in no part of the +country except Maine, did the African race, in point of fact, +participate equally with the whites in the exercise of civil and +political rights. + +The legislation of the States therefore shows, in a manner not to be +mistaken, the inferior and subject condition of that race at the time +the Constitution was adopted, and long afterward, throughout the +thirteen States by which that instrument was framed; and it is hardly +consistent with the respect due to these States, to suppose that they +regarded at that time, as fellow citizens and members of the +sovereignty, a class of beings whom they had thus stigmatized; whom, as +we are bound, out of respect to the State sovereignties, to assume they +had deemed it just and necessary thus to stigmatize, and upon whom they +had impressed such deep and enduring marks of inferiority and +degradation; or that when they met in convention to form the +Constitution, they looked upon them as a portion of their constituents, +or designed to include them in the provisions so carefully inserted for +the security and protection of the liberties and rights of their +citizens. It cannot be supposed that they intended to secure to them +rights, and privileges, and rank, in the new political body throughout +the Union, which every one of them denied within the limits of its own +dominion. More especially, it can not be believed that the large +slaveholding States regarded them as included in the word citizens, or +would have consented to a Constitution which might compel them to +receive them in that character from another State. For if they were so +received, and entitled to the privileges and immunities to citizens, it +would exempt them from the operation of the special laws and from the +police regulations which they considered to be necessary for their own +safety. It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognized +as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to enter every +other State whenever they pleased, singly or in companies, without pass +or passport, and without obstruction, to sojourn there as long as they +pleased, to go where they pleased at every hour of the day or night +without molestation, unless they committed some violation of law for +which a white man would be punished; and it would give them the full +liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which +its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political +affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went. And all of this +would be done in the face of the subject race of the same color, both +free and slaves, and inevitably producing discontent and insubordination +among them, and endangering the peace and safety of the State. + +It is impossible, it would seem, to believe that the great men of the +slaveholding States, who took so large a share in framing the +Constitution of the United States, and exercised so much influence in +procuring its adoption, could have been so forgetful or regardless of +their own safety and the safety of those who trusted and confided in +them. + +Besides, this want of foresight and care would have been utterly +inconsistent with the caution displayed in providing for the admission +of new members into this political family. For, when they gave to the +citizens of each State the privileges and immunities of citizens in the +several States, they at the same time took from the several States the +power of naturalization, and confined that power exclusively to the +Federal Government. No State was willing to permit another State to +determine who should or should not be admitted as one of its citizens, +and entitled to demand equal rights and privileges with their own +people, within their own territories. The right of naturalization was +therefore, with one accord, surrendered by the States, and confided to +the Federal Government. And this power granted to Congress to establish +an uniform rule of _naturalization_ is, by the well understood meaning +of the word, confined to persons born in a foreign country, under a +foreign Government. It is not a power to raise to the rank of a citizen +any one born in the United States, who, from birth or parentage, by the +laws of the country, belongs to an inferior and subordinate class. And +when we find the States guarding themselves from the indiscreet or +improper admission by other States of emigrants from other countries, by +giving the power exclusively to Congress, we can not fail to see that +they could never have left with the States a much more important +power--that is, the power of transforming into citizens a numerous class +of persons, who in that character would be much more dangerous to the +peace and safety of a large portion of the Union, than the few +foreigners one of the States might improperly naturalize + +The Constitution upon its adoption obviously took from the States all +power by any subsequent legislation to introduce as a citizen into the +political family of the United States any one, no matter where he was +born, or what might be his character or condition; and it gave to +Congress the power to confer this character upon those only who were +born outside of the dominions of the United States. And no law of a +State, therefore, passed since the Constitution was adopted, can give +any right of citizenship outside of its own territory. + +A clause similar to the one in the Constitution, in relation to the +rights and immunities of citizens of one State in the other States, was +contained in the articles of Confederation. But there is a difference of +language, which is worthy of note. The provision in the Articles of +Confederation was "that the _free inhabitants_ of each of the States, +paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice, excepted, should be +entitled to all the privileges and immunities of free citizens in the +several States." + +It will be observed, that under this Confederation, each State had the +right to decide for itself, and in its own tribunals, whom it would +acknowledge as a free inhabitant of another State. The term _free +inhabitant_, in the generality of its terms, would certainly include one +of the African race who had been manumitted. But no example, we think, +can be found of his admission to all the privileges of citizenship in +any State of the Union after these articles were formed, and while they +continued in force. And, notwithstanding the generality of the words +"free inhabitants," it is very clear that, according to their accepted +meaning in that day, they did not include the African race, whether free +or not: for the fifth section of the ninth article provides that +Congress should have the power "to agree upon the number of land forces +to be raised, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota in +proportion to the number of _white_ inhabitants in such State, which +requisition should be binding." + +Words could hardly have been used which more strongly mark the line of +distinction between the citizen and the subject; the free and the +subjugated races. The latter were not even counted when the inhabitants +of a State were to be embodied in proportion to its numbers for the +general defense. And it can not for a moment be supposed, that a class +of persons thus separated and rejected from those who formed the +sovereignty of the States, were yet intended to be included under the +words "free inhabitants," in the preceding article, to whom privileges +and immunities were so carefully secured in every State. + +But although this clause of the articles of Confederation is the same in +principle with that inserted in the Constitution, yet the comprehensive +word _inhabitant_, which might be construed to include an emancipated +slave, is omitted; and the privilege is confined to _citizens_ of the +State. And this alteration in words would hardly have been made, unless +a different meaning was intended to be conveyed, or a possible doubt +removed. The just and fair inference is, that as this privilege was +about to be placed under the protection of the General Government, and +the words expounded by its tribunals, and all power in relation to it +taken from the State and its courts, it was deemed prudent to describe +with precision and caution the persons to whom this high privilege was +given--and the word _citizen_ was on that account substituted for the +words _free inhabitant_. The word citizen excluded, and no doubt +intended to exclude, foreigners who had not become citizens of some one +of the States when the Constitution was adopted; and also every +description of persons who were not fully recognized as citizens in the +several States. This, upon any fair construction of the instruments to +which we have referred, was evidently the object and purpose of this +change of words. + +To all this mass of proof we have still to add, that Congress has +repeatedly legislated upon the same construction of the Constitution +that we have given. Three laws, two of which were passed almost +immediately after the Government went into operation, will be abundantly +sufficient to show this. The two first are particularly worthy of +notice, because many of the men who assisted in framing the +Constitution, and took an active part in procuring its adoption, were +then in the halls of legislation, and certainly understood what they +meant when they used the words "people of the United States" and +"citizen" in that well-considered instrument. + +The first of these acts is the naturalization law, which was passed at +the second session of the first Congress, March 26, 1790, and confines +the right of becoming citizens "_to aliens being free white persons_." + +Now, the Constitution does not limit the power of Congress in this +respect to white persons. And they may, if they think proper, authorize +the naturalization of any one of any color, who was born under +allegiance to another Government. But the language of the law above +quoted, shows that citizenship at that time was perfectly understood to +be confined to the white race; and that they alone constituted the +sovereignty in the Government. + +Congress might, as we before said, have authorized the naturalization of +Indians, because they were aliens and foreigners. But, in their then +untutored and savage state, no one would have thought of admitting them +as citizens in a civilized community. And, moreover, the atrocities they +had but recently committed, when they were the allies of Great Britain +in the Revolutionary war, were yet fresh in the recollection of the +people of the United States, and they were even then guarding themselves +against the threatened renewal of Indian hostilities. No one supposed +then that any Indian would ask for, or was capable of enjoying the +privileges of an American citizen, and the word white was not used with +any particular reference to them. + +Neither was it used with any reference to the African race imported into +or born in this country; because Congress had no power to naturalize +them, and therefore there was no necessity for using particular words to +exclude them. + +It would seem to have been used merely because it followed out the line +of division which the Constitution has drawn between the citizen race, +who formed and held the Government, and the African race, which they +held in subjection and slavery, and governed at their own pleasure. + +Another of the early laws of which we have spoken, is the first militia +law, which was passed in 1792, at the first session of the second +Congress. The language of this law is equally plain and significant +with the one just mentioned. It directs that every "free able-bodied +white male citizen" shall be enrolled in the militia. The word _white_ +is evidently used to exclude the African race, and the word "citizen" to +exclude unnaturalized foreigners; the latter forming no part of the +sovereignty, owing it no allegiance, and therefore under no obligation +to defend it. The African race, however, born in the country, did owe +allegiance to the Government, whether they were slaves or free; but it +is repudiated, and rejected from the duties and obligations of +citizenship in marked language. + +The third act to which we have alluded is even still more decisive; it +was passed as late as 1813, (2 Stat., 809,) and it provides: "that from +and after the termination of the war in which the United States are now +engaged with Great Britain, it shall not be lawful to employ, on board +of any public or private vessels of the United States, any person or +persons except citizens of the United States, _or_ persons of color, +natives of the United States." + +Here the line of distinction is drawn in express words. Persons of +color, in the judgment of Congress, were not included in the word +citizens, and they are described as another and different class of +persons, and authorized to be employed, if born in the United States. + +And even as late as 1820, (chap. civ, sec. 8,) in the charter to the +city of Washington, the corporation is authorized "to restrain and +prohibit the nightly and other disorderly meetings of slaves, free +negroes, and mulattoes," thus associating them together in its +legislation; and after prescribing the punishment that may be inflicted +on the slaves, proceeds in the following words: "And to punish such free +negroes and mulattoes by penalties not exceeding twenty dollars for any +one offense; and in case of the inability of any such free negro or +mulatto to pay any such penalty and cost thereon, to cause him or her to +be confined to labor for any time not exceeding six calendar months." +And in a subsequent part of the same section, the act authorizes the +corporation "to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which free +negroes and mulattoes may reside in the city." + +This law, like the laws of the States, shows that this class of persons +were governed by special legislation directed expressly to them, and +always connected with provisions for the government of slaves, and not +with those for the government of free white citizens. And after such an +uniform course of legislation as we have stated; by the colonies, by the +States, and by Congress, running through a period of more than a +century, it would seem that to call persons thus marked and stigmatized, +"citizens" of the United States, "fellow-citizens," a constituent part +of the sovereignty, would be an abuse of terms, and not calculated to +exalt the character of an American citizen in the eyes of other nations. + +The conduct of the Executive Department of the Government has been in +perfect harmony upon this subject with this course of legislation. The +question was brought officially before the late William Wirt, when he +was Attorney General of the United States, in 1821, and he decided that +the words "citizens of the United States" were used in the acts of +Congress in the same sense as in the Constitution; and that free persons +of color were not citizens, within the meaning of the Constitution and +laws; and this opinion has been confirmed by that of the late Attorney +General, Caleb Cushing, in a recent case, and acted upon by the +Secretary of State, who refused to grant passports to them as "citizens +of the United States." + +But it is said that a person may be a citizen, and entitled to that +character, although he does not possess all the rights which may belong +to other citizens; as, for example, the right to vote, or to hold +particular offices; and that yet, when he goes into another State, he is +entitled to be recognized there as a citizen, although the State may +measure his rights by the rights which it allows to persons of a like +character or class resident in the State, and refuse to him the full +rights of citizenship. + +This argument overlooks the language of the provision in the +Constitution of which we are speaking. + +Undoubtedly, a person may be a citizen, that is, a member of the +community who form the sovereignty, although he exercises no share of +the political power, and is incapacitated from holding particular +office. Women and minors, who form a part of the political family, can +not vote; and when a property qualification is required to vote or hold +a particular office, those who have not the necessary qualification can +not vote or hold the office, yet they are citizens. + +So, too, a person may be entitled to vote by the law of the State, who +is not a citizen even of the State itself. And in some of the States of +the Union foreigners not naturalized are allowed to vote. And the State +may give the right to free negroes and mulattoes, but that does not make +them citizens of the State, and still less of the United States. And the +provision in the Constitution giving privileges and immunities in other +States, does not apply to them. + +Neither does it apply to a person who, being the citizen of a State, +migrates to another State. For then he becomes subject to the laws of +the State in which he lives, and he is no longer a citizen of the State +from which he removed. And the State in which he resides may then, +unquestionably, determine his _status_ or condition, and place him among +the class of persons who are not recognized as citizens, but belong to +an inferior and subject race; and may deny him the privileges and +immunities enjoyed by its citizens. + +But so far as mere rights of persons are concerned, the provision in +question is confined to citizens of a State who are temporarily in +another State without taking up their residence there. It gives them no +political rights in the State, as to voting or holding office, or in any +other respect. For a citizen of one State has no right to participate in +the government of another. But if he ranks as a citizen in the State to +which he belongs, within the meaning of the Constitution of the United +States, then, whenever he goes into another State, the Constitution +clothes him, as to the rights of person, with all the privileges and +immunities which belong to citizens of the State. And if persons of the +African race are citizens of a State, and of the United States, they +would be entitled to all these privileges and immunities in every State, +and the State could not restrict them; for they would hold these +privileges and immunities under the paramount authority of the Federal +Government, and its courts would be bound to maintain and enforce them, +the Constitution and laws of the State to the contrary notwithstanding. +And if the States could limit or restrict them, or place the party in an +inferior grade, this clause of the Constitution would be unmeaning, and +could have no operation; and would give no rights to the citizen when in +another State. He would have none but what the State itself chose to +allow him. This is evidently not the construction or meaning of the +clause in question. It guaranties rights, to the citizen, and the State +can not withhold them. And these rights are of a character and would +lead to consequences which make it absolutely certain that the African +race were not included under the name of citizens of a State, and were +not in the contemplation of the framers of the Constitution when these +privileges and immunities were provided for the protection of the +citizen in other States. + +The case of Legrand _v._ Darnall (2 Peters, 664) has been referred to +for the purpose of showing that this court has decided that the +descendant of a slave may sue as a citizen in a court of the United +States; but the case itself shows that the question did not arise and +could not have arisen in the case. + +It appears from the report, that Darnell was born in Maryland, and was +the son of a white man by one of his slaves, and his father executed +certain instruments to manumit him, and devised to him some landed +property in the State. This property Darnall afterward sold to Legrand, +the appellant, who gave his notes for the purchase-money. But becoming +afterward apprehensive that the appellee had not been emancipated +according to the laws of Maryland, he refused to pay the notes until he +could be better satisfied as to Darnell's right to convey. Darnall, in +the mean time, had taken up his residence in Pennsylvania, and brought +suit on the notes, and recovered judgment in the Circuit Court for the +district of Maryland. + +The whole proceeding, as appears by the report, was an amicable one; +Legrand being perfectly willing to pay the money, if he could obtain a +title, and Darnall not wishing him to pay unless he could make him a +good one. In point of fact, the whole proceeding was under the direction +of the counsel who argued the case for the appellee, who was the mutual +friend of the parties, and confided in by both of them, and whose only +object was to have the rights of both parties established by judicial +decision in the most speedy and least expensive manner. + +Legrand, therefore, raised no objection to the jurisdiction of the court +in the suit at law, because he was himself anxious to obtain the +judgment of the court upon his title. Consequently, there was nothing in +the record before the court to show that Darnall was of African descent, +and the usual judgment and award of execution was entered. And Legrand +thereupon filed his bill on the equity side of the Circuit Court, +stating that Darnall was born a slave, and had not been legally +emancipated, and could not therefore take the land devised to him, nor +make Legrand a good title; and praying an injunction to restrain Darnall +from proceeding to execution on the judgment, which was granted. +Darnall answered, averring in his answer that he was a free man, and +capable of conveying a good title. Testimony was taken on this point, +and at the hearing the Circuit Court was of opinion that Darnall was a +free man and his title good, and dissolved the injunction and dismissed +the bill; and that decree was affirmed here, upon the appeal of Legrand. + +Now, it is difficult to imagine how any question about the citizenship +of Darnall, or his right to sue in that character, can be supposed to +have risen or been decided in that case. The fact that he was of African +descent was first brought before the court upon the bill in equity. The +suit at law had then passed into judgment and award of execution, and +the Circuit Court, as a court of law, had no longer any authority over +it. It was a valid and legal judgment, which the court that rendered it +had not the power to reverse or set aside. And unless it had +jurisdiction as a court of equity to restrain him from using its process +as a court of law, Darnall, if he thought proper, would have been at +liberty to proceed on his judgment, and compel the payment of the money, +although the allegations in the bill were true, and he was incapable of +making a title. No other court could have enjoined him, for certainly no +State equity court could interfere in that way with the judgment of a +Circuit Court of the United States. + +But the Circuit Court as a court of equity certainly had equity +jurisdiction over its own judgment as a court of law, without regard to +the character of the parties; and had not only the right, but it was its +duty--no matter who were the parties in the judgment--to prevent them +from proceeding to enforce it by execution, if the court was satisfied +that the money was not justly and equitably due. The ability of Darnall +to convey did not depend upon his citizenship, but upon his title to +freedon. And if he was free, he could hold and convey property, by the +laws of Maryland, although he was not a citizen. But if he was by law +still a slave, he could not. It was therefore the duty of the court, +sitting as a court of equity in the latter case, to prevent him from +using its process, as a court of common law, to compel the payment of +the purchase-money, when it was evident that the purchaser must lose the +land. But if he was free and could make a title, it was equally the duty +of the court not to suffer Legrand to keep the land, and refuse the +payment of the money, upon the ground that Darnall was incapable of +suing or being sued as a citizen in a court of the United States. The +character or citizenship of the parties had no connection with the +question of jurisdiction, and the matter in dispute had no relation to +the citizenship of Darnall. Nor is such a question alluded to in the +opinion of the Court. + +Beside, we are by no means prepared to say that there are not many +cases, civil as well as criminal, in which a Circuit Court of the United +States may exercise jurisdiction, although one of the African race is a +party; that broad question is not before the court. The question with +which we are now dealing is, whether a person of the African race can be +a citizen of the United States, and become thereby entitled to a special +privilege, by virtue of his title to that character, and which, under +the Constitution, no one but a citizen can claim. It is manifest that +the case of Legrand and Darnall has no bearing on that question, and can +have no application to the case now before the court. + +This case, however, strikingly illustrates the consequences that would +follow the construction of the Constitution which would give the power +contended for to a State. It would in effect give it also to an +individual. For if the father of young Darnall had manumitted him in his +lifetime, and sent him to reside in a State which recognized him as a +citizen, he might have visited and sojourned in Maryland when he +pleased, and as long as he pleased, as a citizen of the United States; +and the State officers and tribunals would be compelled, by the +paramount authority of the Constitution, to receive him and treat him as +one of its citizens, exempt from the laws and police of the State in +relation to a person of that description, and allow him to enjoy all the +rights and privileges of citizenship without respect to the laws of +Maryland, although such laws were deemed by it absolutely essential to +its own safety. + +The only two provisions which point to them and include them, treat them +as property, and make it the duty of the Government to protect it; no +other power, in relation to this race, is to be found in the +Constitution; and as it is a Government of special, delegated, powers, +no authority beyond these two provisions can be constitutionally +exercised. The Government of the United States had no right to interfere +for any other purpose but that of protecting the rights of the owner, +leaving it altogether with the several States to deal with this race, +whether emancipated or not, as each State may think justice, humanity, +and the interests and safety of society, require. The States evidently +intended to reserve this power exclusively to themselves. + +No one, we presume, supposes that any change in public opinion or +feeling, in relation to this unfortunate race, in the civilized nations +of Europe or in this country, should induce the court to give to the +words of the Constitution a more liberal construction in their favor +than they were intended to bear when the instrument was framed and +adopted. Such an argument would be altogether inadmissible in any +tribunal called on to interpret it. If any of its provisions are deemed +unjust, there is a mode prescribed in the instrument itself, by which it +may be amended; but while it remains unaltered, it must be construed now +as it was understood at the time of its adoption. It is not only the +same in words, but the same in meaning, and delegates the same powers to +the Government, and reserves and secures the same rights and privileges +to citizens; and as long as it continues to exist in its present form, +it speaks not only in the same words, but with the same meaning and +intent with which it spoke when it came from the hands of its framers, +and was voted on and adopted by the people of the United States. Any +other rule of construction would abrogate the judicial character of this +court, and make it the mere reflex of the popular opinion or passion of +the day. This court was not created by the Constitution for such +purposes. Higher and graver trusts have been confided to it, and it must +not falter in the path of duty. + +What the construction was at that time, we think can hardly admit of +doubt. We have the language of the Declaration of Independence and of +the Articles of Confederation, in addition to the plain words of the +Constitution itself; we have the legislation of the different States, +before, about the time, and since, the Constitution was adopted; we have +the legislation of Congress, from the time of its adoption to a recent +period; and we have the constant and uniform action of the Executive +Department, all concurring together, and leading to the same result. And +if any thing in relation to the construction of the Constitution can be +regarded as settled, it is that which we now give to the word "citizen" +and the word "people." + +And upon a full and careful consideration of the subject, the court is +of opinion, that, upon the facts stated in the plea in abatement, Dred +Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the meaning of the +Constitution of the United States, and not entitled as such to sue in +its courts; and, consequently, that the Circuit Court had no +jurisdiction of the case, and that the judgment on the plea in abatement +is erroneous. + +We are aware that doubts are entertained by some of the members of the +court, whether the plea in abatement is legally before the court upon +this writ of error: but if that plea is regarded as waived, or out of +the case upon any other ground, yet the question as to the jurisdiction +of the Circuit Court is presented on the face of the bill of exception +itself, taken by the plaintiff at the trial; for he admits that he and +his wife were born slaves, but endeavors to make out his title to +freedom and citizenship by showing that they were taken by their owner +to certain places, hereinafter mentioned, where slavery could not by law +exist, and that they thereby became free, and upon their return to +Missouri became citizens of that State. + +Now, if the removal, of which he speaks, did not give them their +freedom, then by his own admission he is still a slave, and whatever +opinions may be entertained in favor of the citizenship of a free person +of the African race, no one supposes that a slave is a citizen of the +State or of the United States. If, therefore, the acts done by his owner +did not make them free persons, he is still a slave, and certainly +incapable of suing in the character of a citizen. + +The principle of law is too well settled to be disputed, that a court +can give no judgment for either party, where it has no jurisdiction; and +if, upon the showing of Scott himself, it appeared that he was still a +slave, the case ought to have been dismissed, and the judgment against +him and in favor of the defendant for costs, is, like that on the plea +in abatement, erroneous, and the suit ought to have been dismissed by +the Circuit Court for want of jurisdiction in that court. + +But, before we proceed to examine this part of the case, it may be +proper to notice an objection taken to the judicial authority of this +court to decide it; and it has been said, that as this court has decided +against the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court on the plea in abatement, +it has no right to examine any question presented by the exception; and +that any thing that it may say upon that part of the case will be extra +judicial, and mere orbita dicta. + +This is a manifest mistake; there can be no doubt as to the jurisdiction +of this court to revise the judgment of a Circuit Court, and to reverse +it for any error apparent on the record, whether it be the error of +giving judgment in a case over which it had no jurisdiction, or any +other material error; and this, too, whether there is a plea in +abatement or not. + +The objection appears to have arisen from confounding writs of error to +a State court, with writs of error to a Circuit Court of the United +States. Undoubtedly, upon a writ of error to a State court, unless the +record shows a case that gives jurisdiction, the case must be dismissed +for want of jurisdiction in _this court_. And if it is dismissed on that +ground, we have no right to examine and decide upon any question +presented by the bill of exceptions, or any other part of the record. +But writs of error to a State Court, and to a Circuit Court of the +United States, are regulated by different laws, and stand upon entirely +different principles. And in a writ of error to a Circuit Court of the +United States, the whole record is before this court for examination and +decision; and if the sum in controversy is large enough to give +jurisdiction, it is not only the right, but it is the judicial duty of +the court, to examine the whole case as presented by the record; and if +it appears upon its face that any material error or errors have been +committed by the court below, it is the duty of this court to reverse +the judgment, and remand the case. And certainly an error in passing a +judgment upon the merits in favor of either party, in a case which it +was not authorized to try, and over which it had no jurisdiction, is as +grave an error as a court can commit. + +The plea in abatement is not a plea to the jurisdiction of this court, +but to the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court. And it appears by the +record before us, that the Circuit Court committed an error, in deciding +that it had jurisdiction, upon the facts in the case, admitted by the +pleadings. It is the duty of the appellate tribunal to correct this +error; but that could not be done by dismissing the case for want of +jurisdiction here--for that would leave the erroneous judgment in full +force, and the injured party without remedy. And the appellate court +therefore exercises the power for which alone appellate courts are +constituted, by reversing the judgment of the court below for this +error. It exercises its proper and appropriate jurisdiction over the +judgment and proceedings of the Circuit Court, as they appear upon the +record brought up by the writ of error. + +The correction of one error in the court below does not deprive the +appellate court of the power of examining further into the record, and +correcting any other material errors which may have been committed by +the inferior court. There is certainly no rule of law--nor any +practice--nor any decision of a court--which even questions this power +in the appellate tribunal. On the contrary, it is the daily practice of +this court, and of all appellate courts where they reverse the judgment +of an inferior court for error, to correct by its opinions whatever +errors may appear on the record material to the case; and they have +always held it to be their duty to do so where the silence of the court +might lead to misconstruction or future controversy, and the point has +been relied on by either side, and argued before the court. + +In the case before us, we have already decided that the Circuit Court +erred in deciding that it had jurisdiction upon the facts admitted by +the pleadings. And it appears that, in the further progress of the case, +it acted upon the erroneous principle it had decided on the pleadings, +and gave judgment for the defendant, where, upon the facts admitted in +the exception, it had no jurisdiction. + +We are at a loss to understand upon what principle of law, applicable to +appellate jurisdiction, it can be supposed that this court has not +judicial authority to correct the last-mentioned error, because they had +before corrected the former; or by what process of reasoning it can be +made out, that the error of an inferior court in actually pronouncing +judgment for one of the parties, in a case in which it had no +jurisdiction, cannot be looked into or corrected by this court, because +we have decided a similar question presented in the pleadings. The last +point is distinctly presented by the facts contained in the plaintiff's +own bill of exceptions, which he himself brings here by this writ of +error. It was the point which chiefly occupied the attention of the +counsel on both sides in the argument--and the judgment which this court +must render upon both errors is precisely the same. It must, in each of +them, exercise jurisdiction over the judgment, and reverse it for the +errors committed by the court below; and issue a mandate to the Circuit +Court to conform its judgment to the opinion pronounced by this court, +by dismissing the case for want of jurisdiction in the Circuit Court. +This is the constant and invariable practice of this court, where it +reverses a judgment for want of jurisdiction in the Circuit Court. + +It can scarcely be necessary to pursue such a question further. The want +of jurisdiction in the court below may appear on the record without any +plea in abatement. This is familiarly the case where a court of chancery +has exercised jurisdiction in a case where the plaintiff had a plain and +adequate remedy at law, and it so appears by the transcript when brought +here by appeal. So also where it appears that a court of admiralty has +exercised jurisdiction in a case belonging exclusively to a court of +common law. In these cases there is no plea in abatement. And for the +same reason, and upon the same principles, where the defect of +jurisdiction is patent on the record, this court is bound to reverse the +judgment, although the defendant has not pleaded in abatement to the +jurisdiction of the inferior court. + +The cases of Jackson _v._ Ashton and of Capron _v._ Van Noorden, to +which we have referred in a previous part of this opinion, are directly +in point. In the last-mentioned case, Capron brought an action against +Van Noorden in a Circuit Court of the United States, without showing, by +the usual averments of citizenship, that the court had jurisdiction. +There was no plea in abatement put in, and the parties went to trial +upon the merits. The court gave judgment in favor of the defendant with +costs. The plaintiff thereupon brought his writ of error, and this court +reversed the judgment given in favor of the defendant, and remanded the +case with directions to dismiss it, because it did not appear by the +transcript that the Circuit Court had jurisdiction. + +The case before us still more strongly imposes upon this court the duty +of examining whether the court below has not committed an error, in +taking jurisdiction and giving a judgment for costs in favor of the +defendant; for in Capron _v._ Van Noorden the judgment was reversed, +because it did _not appear_ that the parties were citizens of different +States. They might or might not be. But in this case it _does appear_ +that the plaintiff was born a slave; and if the facts upon which he +relies have not made him free, then it appears affirmatively on the +record that he is not a citizen, and consequently his suit against +Sandford was not a suit between citizens of different States, and the +court had no authority to pass any judgment between the parties. The +suit ought, in this view of it, to have been dismissed by the Circuit +Court, and its judgment in favor of Sandford is erroneous, and must be +reversed. + +It is true that the result either way, by dismissal or by a judgment for +the defendant, makes very little, if any, difference in a pecuniary or +personal point of view to either party. But the fact that the result +would be very nearly the same to the parties in either form of judgment, +would not justify this court in sanctioning an error in the judgment +which is patent on the record, and which, if sanctioned, might be drawn +into precedent, and lead to serious mischief and injustice in some +future suit. + +We proceed, therefore, to inquire whether the facts relied on by the +plaintiff entitled him to his freedom. + +The case, as he himself states it, on the record brought here by his +writ of error, is this: + +The plaintiff was a negro slave, belonging to Dr. Emerson, who was a +surgeon in the army of the United States. In the year 1834, he took the +plaintiff from the State of Missouri to the military post at Rock +Island, in the State of Illinois, and held him there as a slave until +the month of April or May, 1836. At the time last-mentioned, said Dr. +Emerson removed the plaintiff from said miltary post at Rock Island to +the military post at Fort Snelling, situate on the west bank of the +Mississippi river, in the territory known as Upper Louisiana, acquired +by the United States of France, and situate north of the latitude of +thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north, and north of the State of +Missouri. Said Dr. Emerson held the plaintiff in slavery at said Fort +Sneling, from said last-mentioned date until the year 1838. + +In the year 1835, Harriet, who is named in the second count of the +plaintiff's declaration, was the negro slave of Major Taliaferro, who +belonged to the army of the United States. In that year, 1835, said +Major Taliaferro took said Harriet to said Fort Snelling, a military +post, situated as hereinbefore stated, and kept her there as a slave +until the year 1836, and then sold and delivered her as a slave, at said +Fort Snelling, unto the said Dr. Emerson hereinbefore named. Said Dr. +Emerson held said Harriet in slavery at said Fort Snelling until the +year 1838. + +In the year 1836, the plaintiff and Harriet intermarried, at Fort +Snelling, with the consent of Dr. Emerson, who then claimed to be their +master and owner. Eliza and Lizzie, named in the third count of the +plaintiff's declaration, are the fruit of that marriage. Eliza is about +fourteen years old, and was born on board the steamboat Gipsey, north of +the north line of the State of Missouri, and upon the river Mississippi. +Lizzie is about seven years old, and was born in the State of Missouri, +at the military post called Jefferson Barracks. + +In the year 1838, said Dr. Emerson removed the plaintiff and said +Harriet, and their said daughter Eliza, from said Fort Snelling to the +State of Missouri, where they have ever since resided. + +Before the commencement of this suit, said Dr. Emerson sold and conveyed +the plaintiff, and Harriet, Eliza, and Lizzie, to the defendant, as +slaves, and the defendant has ever since claimed to hold them, and each +of them, as slaves. + +In considering this part of the controversy, two questions arise: 1. Was +he, together with his family, free in Missouri by reason of the stay in +the territory of the United States hereinbefore mentioned? And, 2. If +they were not, is Scott himself free by reason of his removal to Rock +Island, in the State of Illinois, as stated in the above admissions? + +We proceed to examine the first question. + +The act of Congress, upon which the plaintiff relies, declares that +slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, +shall be forever prohibited in all that part of the territory ceded by +France, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six +degrees thirty minutes north latitude, and not included within the +limits of Missouri. And the difficulty which meets us at the threshold +of this part of the inquiry is, whether Congress was authorized to pass +this law under any of the powers granted to it by the Constitution; for +if the authority is not given by that instrument, it is the duty of this +court to declare it void and inoperative, and incapable of conferring +freedom upon any one who is held as a slave under the laws of any one of +the States. + +The counsel for the plaintiff has laid much stress upon that article in +the Constitution which confers on Congress the power "to dispose of and +make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other +property belonging to the United States;" but, in the judgment of the +court, that provision has no bearing on the present controversy, and the +power there given, whatever it may be, is confined, and was intended to +be confined, to the territory which at that time belonged to, or was +claimed by, the United States, and was within their boundaries as +settled by the treaty with Great Britain, and can have no influence upon +a territory afterward acquired from a foreign Government. It was a +special provision for a known and particular territory, and to meet a +present emergency, and nothing more. + +A brief summary of the history of the times, as well as the careful and +measured terms in which the article is framed, will show the correctness +of this proposition. + +It will be remembered that, from the commencement of the Revolutionary +war, serious difficulties existed between the States, in relation to the +disposition of large and unsettled territories which were included in +the chartered limits of some of the States. And some of the other +States, and more especially Maryland, which had no unsettled lands, +insisted that as the unoccupied lands, if wrested from Great Britain, +would owe their preservation to the common purse and the common sword, +the money arising from them ought to be applied in just proportion among +the several States to pay the expenses of the war, and ought not to be +appropriated to the use of the State in whose chartered limits they +might happen to lie, to the exclusion of the other States, by whose +combined efforts and common expense the territory was defended and +preserved against the claim of the British Government. + +These difficulties caused much uneasiness during the war, while the +issue was in some degree doubtful, and the future boundaries of the +United States yet to be defined by treaty, if we achieved our +independence. + +The majority of the Congress of the Confederation obviously concurred in +opinion with the State of Maryland, and desired to obtain from the +States which claimed it a cession of this territory, in order that +Congress might raise money on this security to carry on the war. This +appears by the resolution passed on the 6th of September, 1780, strongly +urging the States to cede these lands to the United States, both for the +sake of peace and union among themselves, and to maintain the public +credit; and this was followed by the resolution of October 10th, 1780, +by which Congress pledged itself, that if the lands were ceded, as +recommended by the resolution above mentioned, they should be disposed +of for the common benefit of the United States, and be settled and +formed into distinct republican States, which should become members of +the Federal Union, and have the same rights of sovereignty, and freedom, +and independence, as other States. + +But these difficulties became much more serious after peace took place, +and the boundaries of the United States were established. Every State, +at that time, felt severely the pressure of its war debt; but in +Virginia, and some other States, there were large territories of +unsettled lands, the sale of which would enable them to discharge their +obligations without much inconvenience while other States, which had no +such resource, saw before them many years of heavy and burdensome +taxation; and the latter insisted, for the reasons before stated, that +these unsettled lands should be treated as the common property of the +States, and the proceeds applied to their common benefit. + +The letters from the statesmen of that day will show how much this +controversy occupied their thoughts, and the dangers that were +apprehended from it. It was the disturbing element of the time, and +fears were entertained that it might dissolve the Confederation by which +the States were then united. + +These fears and dangers were, however, at once removed, when the State +of Virginia, in 1784, voluntarily ceded to the United States the immense +tract of country lying northwest of the river Ohio, and which was within +the acknowledged limits of the State. The only object of the State, in +making this cession, was to put an end to the threatening and exciting +controversy, and to enable the Congress of that time to dispose of the +lands, and appropriate the proceeds as a common fund for the common +benefit of the States. It was not ceded because it was inconvenient to +the State to hold and govern it, nor from any expectation that it could +be better or more conveniently governed by the United States. + +The example of Virginia was soon afterward followed by other States, +and, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, all of the States +similarly situated, had ceded their unappropriated lands, except North +Carolina and Georgia. The main object for which the cessions were +desired and made, was on account of their money value, and to put an end +to a dangerous controversy, as to who was justly entitled to the +proceeds when the land should be sold. It is necessary to bring this +part of the history of these cessions thus distinctly into view, because +it will enable us the better to comprehend the phraseology of the +article in the Constitution, so often referred to in the argument. + +Undoubtedly the powers of sovereignty and the eminent domain were ceded +with the land. This was essential, in order to make it effectual, and to +accomplish its objects. But it must be remembered that, at that time, +there was no Government of the United States in existence with +enumerated and limited powers; what was then called the United States, +were thirteen separate, sovereign, independent States, which had entered +into a league or confederation for their mutual protection and +advantage, and the Congress of the United States was composed of the +representatives of these separate sovereignties, meeting together, as +equals, to discuss and decide on certain measures which the States, by +the Articles of Confederation, had agreed to submit to their decision. +But this Confederation had none of the attributes of sovereignty in +legislative, executive, or judicial power. It was little more than a +congress of ambassadors, authorized to represent separate nations, in +matters in which they had a common concern. + +It was this congress that accepted the cession from Virginia. They had +no power to accept it under the Articles of Confederation. But they had +an undoubted right, as independent sovereignties, to accept any cession +of territory for their common benefit, which all of them assented to; +and it is equally clear, that as their common property, and having no +superior to control them, they had the right to exercise absolute +dominion over it, subject only to the restrictions which Virginia had +imposed in her act of cession. There was, at we have said, no Government +of the United States then in existence with special enumerated and +limited powers. The territory belonged to sovereignties, who, subject to +the limitations above mentioned, had a right to establish any form of +Government they pleased, by compact or treaty among themselves, and to +regulate rights of person and rights of property in the territory, as +they might deem proper. It was by a Congress, representing the authority +of these several and separate sovereignties, and acting under their +authority and command (but not from any authority derived from the +Articles of Confederation,) that the instrument usually called the +ordinance of 1787 was adopted; regulating in much detail the principles +and the laws by which this territory should be governed; and among other +provisions, slavery is prohibited in it. We do not question the power of +the States, by agreement among themselves, to pass this ordinance, nor +its obligatory force in the territory, while the confederation or league +of the States in their separate sovereign character continued to exist. + +This was the state of things when the Constitution of the United States +was formed. The territory ceded by Virginia, belonged to the several +confederated States as common property, and they had united in +establishing in it a system of government and jurisprudence, in order to +prepare it for admission as States, according to the terms of cession. +They were about to dissolve this federative Union, and to surrender a +portion of their independent sovereignty to a new Government, which, for +certain purposes, would make the people of the several States one +people, and which was to be supreme and controlling, within its sphere +of action throughout the United States; but this Government was to be +carefully limited in its powers, and to exercise no authority beyond +those expressly granted by the Constitution, or necessarily to be +implied from the language of the instrument, and the objects it was +intended to accomplish; and as this league of States would, upon the +adoption of the new Government, cease to have any power over the +territory, and the ordinance they had agreed upon be incapable of +execution and a mere nullity, it was obvious that some provision was +necessary to give the new Government sufficient power to enable it to +carry into effect the objects for which it was ceded, and the compacts +and agreements which the States had made with each other in the exercise +of their powers of sovereignty. It was necessary that the lands should +be sold to pay the war debt; that a Government and system of +jurisprudence should be maintained in it, to protect the citizens of the +United States who should migrate to the territory, in their rights of +person and of property. It was also necessary that the new Government, +about to be adopted, should be authorized to maintain the claim of the +United States to the unappropriated lands of North Carolina and Georgia, +which had not then been ceded, but the cession of which was confidently +anticipated upon some terms that would be arranged between the General +Government and these two States. And, moreover, there were many articles +of value besides this property in land, such as arms, military stores, +munitions, and ships of war, which were the common property of the +States, when acting in their independent characters as confederates, +which neither the new Government nor any one else would have a right to +take possession of, or control, without authority from them; and it was +to place these things under the guardianship and protection of the new +Government, and to clothe it with the necessary powers, that the clause +was inserted in the Constitution which gives Congress the power "to +dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the +territory or other property belonging to the United States." It was +intended for a specific purpose, to provide for the things we have +mentioned. It was to transfer to the new Government the property then +held in common by the States, and to give to that Government power to +apply it to the objects for which it had been destined by mutual +agreement among the States before their league was dissolved. It applied +only to the property which the States held in common at that time, and +has no reference whatever to any territory or other property which the +new sovereignty might afterward itself acquire. + +The language used in the clause, the arrangement and combination of the +powers, and the somewhat unusual phraseology it uses, when it speaks of +the political power to be exercised in the government of the territory, +all indicate the design and meaning of the clause to be such as we have +mentioned. It does not speak of _any_ territory, nor of _Territories_, +but uses language which, according to its legitimate meaning, points to +a particular thing. The power is given in relation only to _the_ +territory of the United States--that is, to a territory then in +existence, and then known or claimed as the territory of the United +States. It begins its enumeration of powers by that of disposing, in +other words, making sale of the lands, or raising money from them, +which, as we have already said, was the main object of the cession, and +which is accordingly the first thing provided for in the article. It +then gives the power which was necessarily associated with the +disposition and sale of the lands--that is, the power of making needful +rules and regulations respecting the territory. And whatever +construction may now be given to these words, every one, we think, must +admit that they are not the words usually employed by statesmen in +giving supreme power of legislation. They are certainly very unlike the +words used in the power granted to legislate over territory which the +new Government might afterwards itself obtain by cession from a State, +either for its seat of Government, or for forts, magazines, arsenals, +dock yards, and other needful buildings. And the same power of making +needful rules respecting the territory is, in precisely the same +language, applied to the _other_ property belonging to the United +States--associating the power over the territory in this respect with +the power over movable or personal property--that is, the ships, arms, +and munitions of war, which then belonged in common to the State +sovereignties. And it will hardly be said, that this power, in relation +to the last-mentioned objects, was deemed necessary to be thus specially +given to the new Government, in order to authorize it to make needful +rules and regulations respecting the ships it might itself build, or +arms and munitions of war it might itself manufacture or provide for the +public service. + +No one, it is believed, would think a moment of deriving the power of +Congress to make needful rules and regulations in relation to property +of this kind from this clause of the Constitution. Nor can it, upon any +fair construction, be applied to any property, but that which the new +Government was about to receive from the confederated States. And if +this be true as to this property, it must be equally true and limited as +to the territory, which is so carefully and precisely coupled with +it--and like it referred to as property in the power granted. The +concluding words of the clause appear to render this construction +irresistible; for, after the provisions we have mentioned, it proceeds +to say, "that nothing in the Constitution shall be so construed as to +prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State." + +Now, as we have before said, all of the States, except North Carolina +and Georgia, had made the cession before the Constitution was adopted, +according to the resolution of Congress of October 10, 1780. The claims +of other States, that the unappropriated lands in these two States +should be applied to the common benefit, in like manner, was still +insisted on, but refused by the States. And this member of the clause in +question evidently applies to them, and can apply to nothing else. It +was to exclude the conclusion that either party, by adopting the +Constitution, would surrender what they deem their rights. And when the +latter provision relates so obviously to the unappropriated lands not +yet ceded by the States, and the first clause makes provision for those +then actually ceded, it is impossible, by any just rule of construction, +to make the first provision general, and extend to all territories, +which the Federal Goverenment might in any way afterwards acquire, when +the latter is plainly and unequivocally confined to a particular +territory; which was a part of the same controversy, and involved in the +same dispute, and depended upon the same principles. The union of the +two provisions in the same clause shows that they were kindred subjects; +and that the whole clause is local, and relates only to lands, within +the limits of the United States, which had been or then were claimed by +a State; and that no other territory was in the mind of the framers of +the Constitution, or intended to be embraced in it. Upon any other +construction it would be impossible to account for the insertion of the +last provision in the place where it is found, or to comprehend why, or +for what object, it was associated with the previous provision. + +This view of the subject is confirmed by the manner in which the present +Government of the United States dealt with the subject as soon as it +came into existence. It must be borne in mind that the same States that +formed the Confederation also formed and adopted the new Government, to +which so large a portion of their former sovereign powers were +surrendered. It must also be borne in mind that all of these same States +which had then ratified the new Constitution were represented in the +Congress which passed the first law for the government of this +territory; and many of the members of that legislative body had been +deputies from the States under the confederation--had united in adopting +the ordinance of 1787, and assisted in forming the new Government under +which they were then acting, and whose powers they were then exercising. +And it is obvious from the law they passed to carry into effect the +principles and provisions of the ordinance, that they regarded it as the +act of the States done in the exercise of their legitimate powers at the +time. The new Government took the territory as it found it, and in the +condition in which it was transferred, and did not attempt to undo any +thing that that had been done. And, among the earliest laws passed under +the new Government, is one reviving the ordinance of 1787, which had +become inoperative and a nullity upon the adoption of the Constitution. +This law introduces no new form or principles for its government, but +recites, in the preamble, that it is passed in order that this ordinance +may continue to have full effect, and proceeds to make only those rules +and regulations which were needful to adapt it to the new Government, +into whose hands the power had fallen. It appears, therefore, that this +Congress regarded the purposes to which the land in this Territory was +to be applied, and the form of government and principles of +jurisprudence which were to prevail there, while it remained in the +territorial state, as already determined on by the States when they had +full power and right to make the decision; and that the new Government, +having received it in this condition, ought to carry substantially into +effect the plans and principles which had been previously adopted by the +States, and which, no doubt, the States anticipated when they +surrendered their power to the new Government. And if we regard this +clause of the Constitution as pointing to this Territory, with a +Territorial Government already established in it, which had been ceded +to the States for the purposes hereinbefore mentioned--every word in it +is perfectly appropriate and easily understood, and the provisions it +contains are in perfect harmony with the objects for which it was ceded, +and with the condition of its government as a Territory at the time. We +can, then, easily account for the manner in which the first Congress +legislated on the subject--and can also understand why this power over +the Territory was associated in the same clause with the other property +of the United States, and subjected to the like power of making needful +rules and regulations. But if the clause is construed in the expanded +sense contended for, so as to embrace any territory acquired from a +foreign nation by the present Government, and to give it in such +territory a despotic and unlimited power over persons and property, such +as the confederated States might exercise in their common property, it +would be difficult to account for the phraseology used, when compared +with other grants of power--and also for its association with the other +provisions in the same clause. + +The Constitution has always been remarkable for the felicity of its +arrangement of different subjects, and the perspicuity and +appropriateness of the language it uses. But if this clause is construed +to extend to territory acquired by the present Government from a foreign +nation, outside of the limits of any charter from the British Government +to a colony, it would be difficult to say, why it was deemed necessary +to give the Government the power to sell any vacant lands belonging to +the sovereignity which might be found within it; and if this was +necessary, why the grant of this power should precede the power to +legislate over it and establish a Government there; and still more +difficult to say, why it was deemed necessary so specially and +particularly to grant the power to make needful rules and regulations in +relation to any personal or movable property it might acquire there. For +the words, _other property_, necessarily, by every known rule of +interpretation, must mean property of a different description from +territory or land. And the difficulty would perhaps be insurmountable in +endeavoring to account for the last member of the sentence, which +provides that "nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to +prejudice any claims of the United States or any particular State," or +to say how any particular State could have claims in or to a territory +ceded by a foreign Government, or to account for associating this +provision with the preceding provisions of the clause, with which it +would appear to have no connection. + +The words "needful rules and regulations" would seem, also, to have been +cautiously used for some definite object. They are not the words usually +employed by statesmen, when they mean to give the powers of sovereignty, +or to establish a Government, or to authorize its establishment. Thus, +in the law to renew and keep alive the ordinance of 1787, and to +re-establish the Government, the title of the law is: "An act to provide +for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio." And in +the Constitution, when granting the power to legislate over the +territory that may be selected for the seat of Government independently +of a State, it does not say Congress shall have power "to make all +needful rules and regulations respecting the territory;" but it declares +that "Congress shall have power to exercise exclusive legislation in all +cases whatsoever over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as +may, by cession of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, +become the seat of the Government of the United States. + +The words "rules and regulations" are usually employed in the +Constitution in speaking of some particular specified power which it +means to confer on the Government, and not, as we have seen, when +granting general powers of legislation. As, for example, in the peculiar +power to Congress "to make rules for the government and regulation of +the land and naval forces, or the particular and specific power to +regulate commerce;" "to establish an uniform _rule_ of naturalization;" +"to coin money and _regulate_ the value thereof." And to construe the +words of which we are speaking as a general and unlimited grant of +sovereignty over territories which the Government might afterward +acquire, is to use them in a sense and for a purpose for which they were +not used in any other part of the instrument. But if confined to a +particular Territory, in which a Government and laws had already been +established, but which would require some alterations to adapt it to the +new Government, the words are peculiarly applicable and appropriate for +that purpose. + +The necessity of this special provision in relation to property and the +rights or property held in common by the confederated States, is +illustrated by the first clause of the sixth article. This clause +provides that "all debts, contracts, and engagements entered into before +the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United +States under this Government as under the Confederation." This +provision, like the one under consideration, was indispensable if the +new Constitution was adopted. The new Government was not a mere change +in a dynasty, or in a form of government, leaving the nation or +sovereignty the same, and clothed with all the rights, and bound by all +the obligations of the preceding one. But when the present United States +came into existence under the new Government, it was a new political +body, and a new nation, then for the first time taking its place in the +family of nations. It took nothing by succession from the Confederation. +It had no right, as its successor, to any property or rights of property +which it had acquired, and was not liable for any of its obligations. It +was evidently viewed in this light by the framers of the Constitution. +And as the several States would cease to exist in their former +confederated character upon the adoption of the Constitution, and could +not, in that character, again assemble together, special provisions were +indispensable to transfer to the new Government the property and rights +which at that time they held in common; and at the same time to +authorize it to lay taxes and appropriate money to pay the common debt +which they had contracted; and this power could only be given to it by +special provisions in the Constitution. The clause in relation to the +territory and other property of the United States provided for the +first, and the clause last quoted provides for the other. They have no +connection with the general powers and rights of sovereignty delegated +to the new Government, and can neither enlarge nor diminish them. They +were inserted to meet a present emergency, and not to regulate its +powers as a Government. + +Indeed, a similar provision was deemed necessary, in relation to +treaties made by the Confederation; and when in the clause next +succeeding the one of which we have last spoken, it is declared that +treaties shall be the supreme law of the land, care is taken to include, +by express words, the treaties made by the confederated States. The +language is: "and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the +authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land." + +Whether, therefore, we take the particular clause in question, by +itself, or in connection with the other provisions of the Constitution, +we think it clear, that it applies only to the particular territory of +which we have spoken, and cannot, by any just rule of interpretation, be +extended to territory which the new Government might afterward obtain +from a foreign nation. Consequently, the power which Congress may have +lawfully exercised in this Territory, while it remained under a +Territorial Government, and which may have been sanctioned by judicial +decision, can furnish no justification and no argument to support a +similar exercise of power over territory afterward acquired by the +Federal Government. We put aside, therefore, any argument, drawn from +precedents, showing the extent of the power which the General Government +exercised over slavery in this Territory, as altogether inapplicable to +the case before us. + +But the case of the American and Ocean Insurance Companies _v._ Canter +(1 Pet., 511) has been quoted as establishing a different construction +of this clause of the Constitution. There is, however, not the slightest +conflict between the opinion now given and the one referred to; and it +is only by taking a single sentence out of the latter and separating it +from the context, that even an appearance of conflict can be shown. We +need not comment on such a mode of expounding an opinion of the court. +Indeed it most commonly misrepresents instead of expounding it. And this +is fully exemplified in the case referred to, where, if one sentence is +taken by itself, the opinion would appear to be in direct conflict with +that now given; but the words which immediately follow that sentence +show that the court did not mean to decide the point, but merely +affirmed the power of Congress to establish a Government in the +Territory, leaving it an open question, whether that power was derived +from this clause in the Constitution, or was to be necessarily inferred +from a power to acquire territory by cession from a foreign Government. +The opinion on this part of the case is short, and we give the whole of +it to show how well the selection of a single sentence is calculated to +mislead. + +The passage referred to is in page 542, in which the court, in speaking +of the power of Congress to establish a Territorial Government in +Florida until it should become a State, uses the following language: + +"In the mean time Florida continues to be a Territory of the United +States, governed by that clause of the Constitution which empowers +Congress to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the +territory or other property of the United States. Perhaps the power of +governing a Territory belonging to the United States, which has not, by +becoming a State, acquired the means of self-government, may result, +necessarily, from the facts that it is not within the jurisdiction of +any particular State, and is within the power and jurisdiction of the +United States. The right to govern may be the inevitable consequence of +the right to acquire territory. _Whichever may be the source from which +the power is derived, the possession of it is unquestionable._" + +It is thus clear, from the whole opinion on this point, that the court +did not mean to decide whether the power was derived from the clause in +the Constitution, or was the necessary consequence of the right to +acquire. They do decide that the power in Congress is unquestionable, +and in this we entirely concur, and nothing will be found in this +opinion to the contrary. The power stands firmly on the latter +alternative put by the court--that is, as "_the inevitable consequence +of the right to acquire territory_." + +And what still more clearly demonstrates that the court did not mean to +decide the question, but leave it open for future consideration, is the +fact that the case was decided in the Circuit Court by Mr. Justice +Johnson, and his decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court. His opinion +at the circuit is given in full in a note to the case, and in that +opinion he states, in explicit terms, that the clause of the +Constitution applies only to the territory then within the limits of the +United States, and not to Florida, which had been acquired by cession +from Spain. This part of his opinion will be found in the note in page +517 of the report. But he does not dissent from the opinion of the +Supreme Court; thereby showing that, in his judgment, as well as that of +the court, the case before them did not call for a decision on that +particular point, and the court abstained from deciding it. And in a +part of its opinion subsequent to the passage we have quoted, where the +court speak of the legislative power of Congress in Florida, they still +speak with the same reserve. And in page 546, speaking of the power of +Congress to authorize the Territorial Legislature to establish courts +there, the court say: "They are legislative courts, created in virtue of +the general right of sovereignty which exists in the Government, or in +virtue of that clause which enables Congress to make all needful rules +and regulations respecting the territory belonging to the United +States." + +It has been said that the construction given to this clause is new, and +now for the first time brought forward. The case of which we are +speaking, and which has been so much discussed, shows that the fact is +otherwise. It shows that precisely the same question came before Mr. +Justice Johnson, at his circuit, thirty years ago--was fully considered +by him, and the same construction given to the clause in the +Constitution which is now given by this court. And that upon an appeal +from his decision the same question was brought before this court, but +was not decided because a decision upon it was not required by the case +before the court. + +There is another sentence in the opinion which has been commented on, +which even in a still more striking manner shows how one may mislead or +be misled by taking out a single sentence from the opinion of a court, +and leaving out of view what precedes and follows. It is in page 546, +near the close of the opinion, in which the court say: "In legislating +for them," (the territories of the United States,) "Congress exercises +the combined powers of the General and of a State Government." And it is +said, that as a State may unquestionably prohibit slavery within its +territory, this sentence decides in effect that Congress may do the same +in a territory of the United States, exercising there the powers of a +State, as well as the power of the General Government. + +The examination of this passage in the case referred to, would be more +appropriate when we come to consider in another part of this opinion +what power Congress can constitutionally exercise in a Territory, over +the rights of person or rights of property of a citizen. But, as it is +in the same case with the passage we have before commented on, we +dispose of it now, as it will save the court from the necessity of +referring again to the case. And it will be seen upon reading the page +in which this sentence is found, that it has no reference whatever to +the power of Congress over rights of person or rights of property--but +relates altogether to the power of establishing judicial tribunals to +administer the laws constitutionally passed, and defining the +jurisdiction they may exercise. + +The law of Congress establishing a Territorial Government in Florida, +provided that the Legislature of the Territory should have legislative +powers over "all rightful objects of legislation; but no law should be +valid which was inconsistent with the laws and Constitution of the +United States." + +Under the power thus conferred, the Legislature of Florida passed an +act, erecting a tribunal at Key West to decide cases of salvage. And in +the case of which we are speaking, the question arose whether the +Territorial Legislature could be authorized by Congress to establish +such a tribunal, with such powers; and one of the parties among other +objections, insisted that Congress could not under the Constitution +authorize the Legislature of the Territory to establish such a tribunal +with such powers, but that it must be established by Congress itself; +and that a sale of cargo made under its order, to pay salvors, was void, +as made without legal authority, and passed no property to the +purchaser. + +It is in disposing of this objection that the sentence relied on occurs, +and the court begin that part of the opinion by stating with great +precision the point which they are about to decide. + +They say: "It has been contended that by the Constitution of the United +States, the judicial power of the United States extends to all cases of +admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; and that the whole of the judicial +power must be vested 'in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts +as Congress shall from time to time ordain and establish.' Hence it has +been argued that Congress can not vest admiralty jurisdiction in courts +created by the Territorial Legislature." + +And after thus clearly stating the point before them, and which they +were about to decide, they proceed to show that these Territorial +tribunals were not constitutional courts, but merely legislative, and +that Congress might, therefore, delegate the power to the Territorial +Government to establish the court in question; and they conclude that +part of the opinion in the following words: "Although admiralty +jurisdiction can be exercised in the States in those courts only which +are established in pursuance of the third article of the Constitution, +the same limitation does not extend to the Territories. In legislating +for them, Congress exercises the combined powers of the General and +State Governments." + +Thus it will be seen by these quotations from the opinion, that the +court, after stating the question it was about to decide in a manner too +plain to be misunderstood, proceeded to decide it, and announced, as the +opinion of the tribunal, that in organizing the judicial department of +the Government in a Territory of the United States, Congress does not +act under, and is not restricted by, the third article in the +Constitution, and is not bound, in a Territory, to ordain and establish +courts in which the judges hold their offices during good behaviour, but +may exercise the discretionary power which a State exercises in +establishing its judicial department, and regulating the jurisdiction of +its courts, and may authorize the Territorial Government to establish, +or may itself establish, courts in which the judges hold their offices +for a term of years only; and may vest in them judicial power upon +subjects confided to the judiciary of the United States. And in doing +this, Congress undoubtedly exercises the combined power of the General +and a State Government. It exercises the discretionary power of a State +Government in authorizing the establishment of a court in which the +judges hold their appointments for a term of years only, and not during +good behaviour; and it exercises the power of the General Government in +investing that court with admiralty jurisdiction, over which the General +Government had exclusive jurisdiction in the Territory. + +No one, we presume, will question the correctness of that opinion; nor +is there any thing in conflict with it in the opinion now given. The +point decided in the case cited has no relation to the question now +before the court. That depended on the construction of the third article +of the Constitution, in relation to the judiciary of the United States, +and the power which Congress might exercise in a Territory in organizing +the judicial department of the Government. The case before us depends +upon other and different provisions of the Constitution, altogether +separate and apart from the one above mentioned. The question as to +what courts Congress may ordain or establish in a Territory to +administer laws which the Constitution authorizes it to pass, and what +laws it is or is not authorized by the Constitution to pass, are widely +different--are regulated by different and separate articles of the +Constitution, and stand upon different principles. And we are satisfied +that no one who reads attentively the page in Peters' Reports to which +we have referred, can suppose that the attention of the court was drawn +for a moment to the question now before this court, or that it meant in +that case to say that Congress had a right to prohibit a citizen of the +United States from taking any property which he lawfully held into a +Territory of the United States. + +This brings us to examine by what provision of the Constitution the +present Federal Government, under its delegated and restricted powers, +is authorized to acquire territory outside of the original limits of the +United States, and what powers it may exercise therein over the person +or property of a citizen of the United States, while it remains a +Territory, and until it shall be admitted as one of the States of the +Union. + +There is certainly no power given by the Constitution to the Federal +Government to establish or maintain colonies bordering on the United +States or at a distance, to be ruled and governed at its own pleasure; +nor to enlarge its territorial limits in any way, except by the +admission of new States. That power is plainly given; and if a new State +is admitted, it needs no further legislation from Congress, because the +Constitution itself defines the relative rights and powers, and duties +of the State, and the citizens of the State, and the Federal Government. +But no power is given to acquire a Territory to be held and governed +permanently in that character. + +And indeed the power exercised by Congress to acquire territory and +establish a Government there, according to its own unlimited discretion, +was viewed with great jealousy by the leading statesmen of the day. And +in the Federalist, (No. 38,) written by Mr. Madison, he speaks of the +acquisition of the Northwestern Territory by the confederated States, by +the cession from Virginia, and the establishment of a Government there, +as an exercise of power not warranted by the Articles of Confederation, +and dangerous to the liberties of the people. And he urges the adoption +of the Constitution as a security and safeguard against such an exercise +of power. + +We do not mean, however, to question the power of Congress in this +respect. The power to expand the territory of the United States by the +admission of new States is plainly given; and in the construction of +this power by all the departments of the Government, it has been held to +authorize the acquisition of territory, not fit for admission at the +time, but to be admitted as soon as its population and situation would +entitle it to admission. It is acquired to become a State, and not to be +held as a colony and governed by Congress with absolute authority; and +as the propriety of admitting a new State is committed to the sound +discretion of Congress, the power to acquire territory for that purpose, +to be held by the United States until it is in a suitable condition to +become a State upon an equal footing with the other States, must rest +upon the same discretion. It is a question for the political department +of the Government, and not the judicial; and whatever the political +department of the Government shall recognize as within the limits of the +United States, the judicial department is also bound to recognize, and +to administer in it the laws of the United States, so far as they apply, +and to maintain in the Territory the authority and rights of the +Government, and also the personal rights and rights of property of +individual citizens, as secured by the Constitution. All we mean to say +on this point is, that, as there is no express regulation in the +Constitution defining the power which the General Government may +exercise over the person or property of a citizen in a Territory thus +acquired, the court must necessarily look to the provisions and +principles of the Constitution, and its distribution of powers, for the +rules and principles by which its decision must be governed. + +Taking this rule to guide us, it may be safely assumed that citizens of +the United States who migrate to a Territory belonging to the people of +the United States, cannot be ruled as mere colonists, dependent upon the +will of the General Government, and to be governed by any laws it may +think proper to impose. The principle upon which our Government rests, +and upon which alone they continue to exist, is the union of States, +sovereign and independent within their own limits in their internal and +domestic concerns, and bound together as one people by a General +Government, possessing certain enumerated and restricted powers, +delegated to it by the people of the several States, and exercising +supreme authority within the scope of the powers granted to it, +throughout the dominion of the United States. A power, therefore, in the +General Government to obtain and hold colonies and dependent +territories, over which they might legislate without restriction, would +be inconsistent with its own existence in its present form. Whatever it +acquires, it acquires for the benefit of the people of the several +States who created it. It is their trustee acting for them, and charged +with the duty of promoting the interests of the whole people of the +whole Union in the exercise of the powers specifically granted. + +At the time when the Territory in question was obtained by cession from +France, it contained no population fit to be associated together and +admitted as a State; and it therefore was absolutely necessary to hold +possession of it, as a Territory belonging to the United States, until +it was settled and inhabited by a civilized community capable of +self-government, and in a condition to be admitted on equal terms with +the other States as a member of the Union. But, as we have before said, +it was acquired by the General Government, as the representative and +trustee of the people of the United States, and it must therefore be +held in that character for their common and equal benefit; for it was +the people of the several States, acting through their agent and +representative, the Federal Government, who in fact acquired the +Territory in question, and the Government holds it for their common use +until it shall be associated with the other States as a member of the +Union. + +But until that time arrives, it is undoubtedly necessary that some +Government should be established in order to organize society, and to +protect the inhabitants in their persons and property; and as the people +of the United States could act in this matter only through the +Government which represented them, and through which they spoke and +acted when the Territory was obtained, it was not only within the scope +of its powers, but it was its duty to pass such laws and establish such +a Government as would enable those by whose authority they acted to reap +the advantages anticipated from its acquisition, and to gather there a +population which would enable it to assume the position to which it was +destined among the States of the Union. The power to acquire necessarily +carries with it the power to preserve and apply to the purposes for +which it was acquired. The form of government to be established +necessarily rested in the discretion of Congress. It was their duty to +establish the one that would be best suited for the protection and +security of the citizens of the United States, and other inhabitants who +might be authorized to take up their abode there, and that must always +depend upon the existing condition of the Territory, as to the number +and character of its inhabitants, and their situation in the Territory. +In some cases a Government, consisting of persons appointed by the +Federal Government, would best subserve the interests of the Territory, +when the inhabitants were few and scattered, and new to one another. In +other instances, it would be more advisable to commit the powers of +self-government to the people who had settled in the Territory, as being +the most competent to determine what was best for their own interests. +But some form of civil authority would be absolutely necessary to +organize and preserve civilized society, and prepare it to become a +State; and what is the best form must always depend on the condition of +the territory at the time, and the choice of the mode must depend upon +the exercise of a discretionary power by Congress, acting within the +scope of its constitutional authority, and not infringing upon the +rights of person or rights of property of the citizen who might go there +to reside, or for any other lawful purpose. It was acquired by the +exercise of this discretion, and it must be held and governed in like +manner, until it is fitted to be a State. + +But the power of Congress over the person or property of a citizen can +never be a mere discretionary power under our Constitution and form of +Government. The powers of the Government and the rights and privileges +of the citizen are regulated and plainly defined by the Constitution +itself. And when the Territory becomes a part of the United States, the +Federal Government enters into possession in the character impressed +upon it by those who created it. It enters upon it with its powers over +the citizen strictly defined, and limited by the Constitution, from +which it derives its own existence, and by virtue of which alone it +continues to exist and act as a Government and sovereignty. It has no +power of any kind beyond it; and it cannot, when it enters a Territory +of the United States, put off its character, and assume discretionary or +despotic powers which the Constitution has denied to it. It cannot +create for itself a new character separated from the citizens of the +United States, and the duties it owes them under the provisions of the +Constitution. The Territory being a part of the United States, the +Government and the citizen both enter it under the authority of the +Constiution, with their respective rights defined and marked out; and +the Federal Government can exercise no power over his person or +property, beyond what that instrument confers, nor lawfully deny any +right which it has reserved. + +A reference to a few of the provisions of the Constitution will +illustrate this proposition. + +For example, no one, we presume, will contend that Congress can make any +law in a Territory respecting the establishment of religion, or the free +exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or +the right of the people of the Territory peacably to assemble, and to +petition the Government for the redress of grievances. + +Nor can Congress deny to the people the right to keep and bear arms, nor +the right to trial by jury, nor compel any one to be a witness against +himself in a criminal proceeding. + +These powers, and others, in relation to rights of person, which it is +not necessary here to enumerate, are, in express and positive terms, +denied to the General Government; and the rights of private property +have been guarded with equal care. Thus the rights of property are +united with the rights of person, and placed on the same ground by the +fifth amendment to the Constitution, which provides that no person shall +be deprived of life, liberty, and property, without due process of law. +And an act of Congress which deprives a citizen of the United States of +his liberty or property, merely because he came himself or brought his +property into a particular Territory of the United States, and who had +committed no offense against the laws, could hardly be dignified with +the name of due process of law. + +So, too, it will hardly be contended that Congress could by law quarter +a soldier in a house in a Territory without the consent of the owner, in +time of peace; nor in time of war, but in a manner prescribed by law. +Nor could they by law forfeit the property of a citizen in a Territory +who was convicted of treason, for a longer period than the life of the +person convicted; nor take private property for public use without just +compensation. + +The powers over person and property of which we speak are not only not +granted to Congress, but are in express terms denied, and they are +forbidden to exercise them. And this prohibition is not confined to the +States, but the words are general, and extend to the whole territory +over which the Constitution gives it power to legislate, including those +portions of it remaining under Territorial Government, as well as that +covered by States. It is a total absence of power everywhere within the +dominion of the United States, and places the citizens of a Territory, +so far as these rights are concerned, on the same footing with citizens +of the States, and guards them as firmly and plainly against any inroads +which the General Government might attempt, under the plea of implied or +incidental powers. And if Congress itself cannot do this--if it is +beyond the powers conferred on the Federal Government--it will be +admitted, we presume, that it could not authorize a Territorial +Government to exercise them. It could confer no power on any local +Government, established by its authority, to violate the provisions of +the Constitution. + +It seems, however, to be supposed, that there is a difference between +property in a slave and other property, and that different rules may be +applied to it in expounding the Constitution of the United States. And +the laws and usages of nations, and the writings of eminent jurists upon +the relation of master and slave and their mutual rights and duties, and +the powers which Governments may exercise over it, have been dwelt upon +in the argument. + +But in considering the question before us, it must be borne in mind that +there is no law of nations standing between the people of the United +States and their Government, and interfering with their relation to each +other. The powers of the Government, and the rights of the citizen under +it, are positive and practical regulations plainly written down. The +people of the United States have delegated to it certain enumerated +powers, and forbidden it to exercise others. It has no power over the +person or property of a citizen but what the citizens of the United +States have granted. And no laws or usages of other nations, or +reasoning of statesmen or jurists upon the relations of master and +slave, can enlarge the powers of the Government, or take from the +citizens the rights they have reserved. And if the Constitution +recognizes the right of property of the master in a slave, and makes no +distinction between that description of property and other property +owned by a citizen, no tribunal, acting under the authority of the +United States, whether it be legislative, executive, or judicial, has a +right to draw such a distinction, or deny to it the benefit of the +provisions and guarantees which have been provided for the protection of +private property against the encroachments of the Government. + +Now, as we have already said in an earlier part of this opinion, upon a +different point, the right of property in a slave is distinctly and +expressly affirmed in the Constitution. The right to traffic in it, like +an ordinary article of merchandise and property, was guaranteed to the +citizens of the United States, in every State that might desire it, for +twenty years. And the Government in express terms is pledged to protect +it in all future time, if the slave escapes from his owner. This is done +in plain words--too plain to be misunderstood. And no word can be found +in the Constitution which gives Congress a greater power over +slave-property, or which entitles property of that kind to less +protection than property of any other description. The only power +conferred is the power coupled with the duty of guarding and protecting +the owner in his rights. + +Upon these considerations, it is the opinion of the court that the act +of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property +of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line +therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Constitution, and is +therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his +family, were made free by being carried into this territory; even if +they had been carried there by the owner, with the intention of becoming +a permanent resident. + +We have so far examined the case, as it stands under the Constitution of +the United States, and the powers thereby delegated to the Federal +Government. + +But there is another point in the case which depends on State power and +State law. And it is contended, on the part of the plaintiff, that he is +made free by being taken to Rock Island, in the State of Illinois, +independently of his residence in the territory of the United States; +and being so made free, he was not again reduced to a state of slavery +by being brought back to Missouri. + +Our notice of this part of the case will be very brief; for the +principle on which it depends was decided in this court, upon much +consideration in the case of Strader et al. _v._ Graham, reported in +10th Howard, 82. In that case, the slaves had been taken from Kentucky +to Ohio, with the consent of the owner, and afterward brought back to +Kentucky. And this court held that their _status_ or condition, as free +or slave, depended upon the laws of Kentucky, when they were brought +back into that State, and not of Ohio; and that this court had no +jurisdiction to revise the judgment of a State court upon its own laws. +This was the point directly before the court, and the decision that this +court had not jurisdiction turned upon it, as will be seen by the report +of the case. + +So in this case. As Scott was a slave when taken into the State of +Illinois by his owner, and was there held as such, and brought back in +that character, his _status_, as free or slave, depended on the laws of +Missouri, and not of Illinois. + +It has, however, been urged in the argument, that by the laws of +Missouri he was free on his return, and that this case, therefore, can +not be governed by the case of Strader et al. _v._ Graham, where it +appeared, by the laws of Kentucky, that the plaintiffs continued to be +slaves on their return from Ohio. But whatever doubts or opinions may, +at one time, have been entertained upon this subject, we are satisfied, +upon a careful examination of all the cases decided in the State courts +of Missouri referred to, that it is now firmly settled by the decisions +of the highest court in the State, that Scott and his family upon their +return were not free, but were, by the laws of Missouri, the property of +the defendant; and that the Circuit Court of the United States had no +jurisdiction, when, by the laws of the State, the plaintiff was a slave, +and not a citizen. + +Moreover, the plaintiff, it appears, brought a similar action against +the defendant in the State Court of Missouri, claiming the freedom of +himself and his family upon the same grounds and the same evidence upon +which he relies in the case before the court. The case was carried +before the Supreme Court of the State; was fully argued there; and that +court decided that neither the plaintiff nor his family were entitled to +freedom, and were still the slaves of the defendant; and reversed the +judgment of the inferior State court, which had given a different +decision. If the plaintiff supposed that this judgment of the Supreme +Court of the State was erroneous, and that this court had jurisdiction +to revise and reverse it, the only mode by which he could legally bring +it before this court was by writ of error directed to the Supreme Court +of the State, requiring it to transmit the record to this court. If +this had been done, it is too plain for argument that the writ must have +been dismissed for want of jurisdiction in this court. The case of +Strader and others _v._ Graham is directly in point; and, indeed, +independent of any decision, the language of the 25th section of the act +of 1789 is too clear and precise to admit of controversy. + +But the plaintiff did not pursue the mode prescribed by law for bringing +the judgment of a State court before this court for revision, but +suffered the case to be remanded to the inferior State court, where it +is still continued, and is, by agreement of parties, to await the +judgment of this court on the point. All of this appears on the record +before us, and by the printed report of the case. + +And while the case is yet open and pending in the inferior State court, +the plaintiff goes into the Circuit Court of the United States, upon the +same case and the same evidence, and against the same party, and +proceeds to judgment, and then brings here the same case from the +Circuit Court, which the law would not have permitted him to bring +directly from the State court. And if this court takes jurisdiction in +this form, the result, so far as the rights of the respective parties +are concerned, is in every respect substantially the same as if it had +in open violation of law entertained jurisdiction over the judgment of +the State court upon a writ of error, and revised and reversed its +judgment upon the ground that its opinion upon the question of law was +erroneous. It would ill become this court to sanction such an attempt to +evade the law, or to exercise an appellate power in this circuitous way, +which it is forbidden to exercise in the direct and regular and +invariable forms of judicial proceedings. + +Upon the whole, therefore, it is the judgment of this court, that it +appears by the record before us that the plaintiff in error is not a +citizen of Missouri, in the sense in which that word is used in the +Constitution; and that the Circuit Court of the United States, for that +reason, had no jurisdiction in the case, and could give no judgment in +it. Its judgment for the defendant must, consequently, be reversed, and +a mandate issued, directing the suit to be dismissed for want of +jurisdiction + + + + +POINTS DECIDED. + + +I. + +1. Upon a writ of error to a Circuit Court of the United States, the +transcript of the record of all the proceedings in the case is brought +before this court, and is open to its inspection and revision. + +2. When a plea to the jurisdiction, in abatement, is overruled by the +court upon demurrer, and the defendant pleads in bar, and upon these +pleas the final judgment of the court is in his favor--if the plaintiff +brings a writ of error, the judgment of the court upon the plea in +abatement is before this court, although it was in favor of the +plaintiff--and if the court erred in overruling it, the judgment must be +reversed, and a mandate issued to the Circuit Court to dismiss the case +for want of jurisdiction. + +3. In the Circuit Courts of the United States, the record must show that +the case is one in which by the Constitution and laws of the United +States, the court had jurisdiction--and if this does not appear, and the +court gives judgment either for plaintiff or defendant, it is error, and +the judgment must be reversed by this court--and the parties cannot by +consent waive the objection to the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court. + +4. A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were brought to +this country and sold as slaves, is not a "citizen" within the meaning +of the Constitution of the United States. + +5. When the Constitution was adopted, they were not regarded in any of +the States as members of the community which constituted the State, and +were not numbered among its "people or citizens." Consequently, the +special rights and immunities guaranteed to citizens do not apply to +them. And not being "citizens" within the meaning of the Constitution, +they are not entitled to sue in that character in a court of the United +States, and the Circuit Court has not jurisdiction in such a suit. + +6. The only two clauses in the Constitution which point to this race, +treat them as persons whom it was morally lawful to deal in as articles +of property and to hold as slaves. + +7. Since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, no State +can by any subsequent law make a foreigner or any other description of +persons citizens of the United States, nor entitle them to the rights +and privileges secured to citizens by that instrument. + +8. A State, by its laws passed since the adoption of the Constitution, +may put a foreigner or any other description of persons upon a footing +with its own citizens, as to all the rights and privileges enjoyed by +them within its dominion, and by its laws. But that will not make him a +citizen of the United States, nor entitle him to sue in its courts, nor +to any of the privileges and immunities of a citizen in another State. + +9. The change in public opinion and feeling in relation to the African +race, which has taken place since the adoption of the Constitution, +cannot change its construction and meaning, and it must be construed and +administered now according to its true meaning and intention when it was +formed and adopted. + +10. The plaintiff having admitted, by his demurrer to the plea in +abatement, that his ancestors were imported from Africa and sold as +slaves, he is not a citizen of the State of Missouri according to the +Constitution of the United States, and was not entitled to sue in that +character in the Circuit Court. + +11. This being the case, the judgment of the court below, in favor of +the plaintiff on the plea in abatement, was erroneous. + + +II. + +1. But if the plea in abatement is not brought up by this writ of error, +the objection to the citizenship of the plaintiff is still apparent on +the record, as he himself, in making out his case, states that he is of +African descent, was born a slave, and claims that he and his family +became entitled to freedom by being taken by their owner to reside in a +territory where slavery is prohibited by act of Congress--and that, in +addition to this claim, he himself became entitled to freedom by being +taken to Rock Island, in the State of Illinois--and being free when he +was brought back to Missouri, he was by the laws of that State a +citizen. + +2. If, therefore, the facts he states do not give him or his family a +right to freedom, the plaintiff is still a slave, and not entitled to +sue as a "citizen," and the judgment of the Circuit Court was erroneous +on that ground also, without any reference to the plea in abatement. + +3. The Circuit Court can give no judgment for plaintiff or defendant in +a case where it has not jurisdiction, no matter whether there be a plea +in abatement or not. And unless it appears upon the face of the record, +when brought here by writ of error, that the Circuit Court had +jurisdiction, the judgment must be reversed. + +The case of Capron _v._ Van Noorden (2 Cranch, 126) examined, and the +principles thereby decided, reaffirmed. + +4. When the record, as brought here by writ of error, does not show that +the Circuit Court had jurisdiction, this court has jurisdiction to +revise and correct the error, like any other error in the court below. +It does not and cannot dismiss the case for want of jurisdiction here; +for that would leave the erroneous judgment of the court below in full +force, and the party injured without remedy. But it must reverse the +judgment, and, as in any other case of reversal, send a mandate to the +Circuit Court to conform its judgment to the opinion of this court. + +5. The difference of the jurisdiction in this court in the cases of +writs of error to State courts and to Circuit Courts of the United +States, pointed out; and the mistakes made as to the jurisdiction of +this court in the latter case, by confounding it with its limited +jurisdiction in the former. + +6. If the court reverses a judgment upon the ground that it appears by a +particular part of the record that the Circuit Court had not +jurisdiction, it does not take away the jurisdiction of this court to +examine into and correct, by a reversal of the judgment, any other +errors, either as to the jurisdiction or any other matter, where it +appears from other parts of the record that the Circuit Court had fallen +into error. On the contrary, it is the daily and familiar practice of +this court to reverse on several grounds, where more than one error +appears to have been committed. And the error of a Circuit Court in its +jurisdiction stands on the same ground, and is to be treated in the same +manner as any other error upon which its judgment is founded. + +7. The decision, therefore, that the judgment of the Circuit Court upon +the plea in abatement is erroneous, is no reason why the alleged error +apparent in the exception should not also be examined, and the judgment +reversed on that ground also, if it discloses a want of jurisdiction in +the Circuit Court. + +It is often the duty of this court, after having decided that a +particular decision of the Circuit Court was erroneous, to examine into +other alleged errors, and to correct them if they are found to exist. +And this has been uniformly done by this court, when the questions are +in any degree connected with the controversy, and the silence of the +court might create doubts which would lead to further and useless +litigation. + + +III. + +1. The facts upon which the plaintiff relies did not give him his +freedom, and make him a citizen of Missouri. + +2. The clause in the Constitution authorizing Congress to make all +needful rules and regulations for the government of the territory and +other property of the United States, applies only to territory within +the chartered limits of some one of the States when they were colonies +of Great Britain, and which was surrendered by the British Government to +the old Confederation of the States, in the treaty of peace. It does not +apply to territory acquired by the present Federal Government, by treaty +or conquest, from a foreign nation. + +The case of the American and Ocean Insurance Companies _v._ Canter (1 +Peters, 511) referred to and examined, showing that the decision in this +case is not in conflict with that opinion, and that the court did not, +in the case referred to, decide upon the construction of the clause of +the Constitution above mentioned, because the case before them did not +make it necessary to decide the question. + +3. The United States, under the present Constitution, cannot acquire +territory to be held as a colony, to be governed at its will and +pleasure. But it may acquire territory which, at the time, has not a +population that fits it to become a State, and may govern it as a +Territory until it has a population which, in the judgment of Congress, +entitles it to be admitted as a State of the Union. + +4. During the time it remains a Territory, Congress may legislate over +it within the scope of its constitutional powers in relation to citizens +of the United States--and may establish a Territorial Government--and +the form of this local Government must be regulated by the discretion of +Congress, but with powers not exceeding those which Congress itself, by +the Constitution, is authorized to exercise over citizens of the United +States, in respect to their rights of persons or rights of property. + + +IV. + +1. The territory thus acquired, is acquired by the people of the United +States for their common and equal benefit, through their agent and +trustee, the Federal Government. Congress can exercise no power over the +rights of person or property of a citizen in the Territory which is +prohibited by the Constitution. The Government and the citizen, whenever +the Territory is open to settlement, both enter it with their respective +rights defined and limited by the Constitution. + +2. Congress has no right to prohibit the citizens of any particular +State or States from taking up their home there, while it permits +citizens of other States to do so. Nor has it a right to give privileges +to one class of citizens which it refuses to another. The territory is +acquired for their equal and common benefit--and if open to any, it must +be open to all upon equal and the same terms. + +3. Every citizen has a right to take with him into the Territory any +article of property which the Constitution of the United States +recognizes as property. + +4. The Constitution of the United States recognizes slaves as property, +and pledges the Federal Government to protect it. And Congress cannot +exercise any more authority over property of that description than it +may constitutionally exercise over property of any other kind. + +5. The act of Congress, therefore, prohibiting a citizen of the United +States from taking with him his slaves when he removes to the Territory +in question to reside, is an exercise of authority over private property +which is not warranted by the Constitution--and the removal of the +plaintiff, by his owner, to that Territory, gave him no title to +freedom. + + +V. + +1. The plaintiff himself acquired no title to freedom by being taken, by +his owner, to Rock Island, in Illinois, and brought back to Missouri. +This court has heretofore decided that the _status_ or condition of a +person of African descent depended on the laws of the State in which he +resided. + +2. It has been settled by the decisions of the highest court in +Missouri, that by the laws of that State, a slave does not become +entitled to his freedom, where the owner takes him to reside in a State +where slavery is not permitted, and afterwards brings him back to +Missouri. + +Conclusion. It follows that it is apparent upon the record that the +court below erred in its judgment on the plea in abatement, and also +erred in giving judgment for the defendant, when the exception shows +that the plaintiff was not a citizen of the United States. And as the +Circuit Court had no jurisdiction, either in the case stated in the plea +in abatement, or in the one stated in the exception, its judgment in +favor of the defendant is erroneous, and must be reversed. + + + + +THE + +FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. + +BY + +REV. CHARLES HODGE, D.D. + +OF NEW JERSEY. + + + + +THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. + + + NOTE.--We have affixed, by way of comment to "the + decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott + case," the following able paper from the pen of + Prof. Hodge. It lucidly explains the source and + sanction of Civil Government, and deduces + therefrom the duties and responsibilities of the + governed.--ED. + + * * * * * + + Alleged Immorality of the Law answered--Duty of + Obedience--Government a Divine Institution--The + Warrant of Government is not the consent of the + governed--Infidel Doctrines--Deductions from this + Doctrine--Decision of the Supreme + Court--Objections answered--Conscience and the + Law--Duty of Executive Officers--Duty of Private + Citizens--Objections answered--Right of + Revolution--Summary application of these + principles to the Fugitive Slave Law--Conclusion. + + +THERE is no more obvious duty, at the present time, resting on American +Christians, ministers and people, than to endeavor to promote kind +feelings between the South and the North. All fierce addresses to the +passions, on either side, are fratricidal. It is an offense against the +gospel, against our common country, and against God. Every one should +endeavor to diffuse right principles, and thus secure right feeling and +action, under the blessing of God in every part of the land. If the +South has no such grounds of complaint as would justify them before God +and the human race, whose trustees in one important sense they are, in +dissolving the Union, how is it with the North? Are they justifiable in +the violent resistance to the fugitive slave bill, which has been +threatened or attempted? This opposition in a great measure has been +confined to the abolitionists as a party, and as such they are a small +minority of the people. They have never included in their ranks either +the controlling intellect or moral feeling at the North. Their +fundamental principle is anti-scriptural and therefore irreligious. +They assume that slaveholding is sinful. This doctrine is the life of +the sect. It has no power over those who reject that principle, and +therefore it has not gained ascendency over those whose faith is +governed by the word of God. + +We have ever maintained that the proper method of opposing this party, +and of counteracting its pernicious influence, was to exhibit clearly +the falsehood of its one idea, viz: that slaveholding is a sin against +God. The discussion has now taken a new turn. It is assumed that the +fugitiue slave law of the last Congress, (1850) is unconstitutional, or +if not contrary to the Constitution, contrary to the law of God. Under +this impression many who have never been regarded as abolitionists, have +entered their protest against the law, and some in their haste have +inferred from its supposed unconstitutionality or immorality that it +ought to be openly resisted. It is obvious that the proper method of +dealing with the subject in this new aspect, is to demonstrate that the +law in question is according to the Constitution of the land; that it is +not inconsistent with the divine law; or, admitting its +unconstitutionality or immorality, that the resistance recommended is +none the less a sin against God. We do not propose to discuss either of +the two former of these propositions. The constitutionality of the law +may safely be left in the hands of the constituted authorities. It is +enough for us that there is no flagrant and manifest inconsistency +between the law and the constitution; that the first legal authorities +in the land pronounce them perfectly consistent; and that there is no +difference in principle between the present law and that of 1793 on the +same subject, in which the whole country has acquiesced for more than +half a century. We would also say that after having read some of the +most labored disquisitions designed to prove that the fugitive slave +bill subverts the fundamental principles of our federal compact, we have +been unable to discover the least force in the arguments adduced. + +As to the immorality of the law, so far as we can discover, the whole +stress of the argument in the affirmative rests on two assumptions. +First, that the law of God in Deuteronomy, expressly forbids the +restoration of a fugitive slave to his owner; and secondly, that slavery +itself being sinful, it must be wrong to enforce the claims of the +master to the service of the slave. As to the former of these +assumptions, we would simply remark, that the venerable Prof. Stuart in +his recent work, "Conscience and the Constitution," has clearly proved +that the law in Deuteronomy has no application to the present case. The +thing there forbidden is the restoration of a slave who had fled from a +heathen master and taken refuge among the worshipers of the true God. +Such a man was not to be forced back into heathenism. This is the +obvious meaning and spirit of the command. That it has no reference to +slaves who had escaped from Hebrew masters, and fled from one tribe or +city to another, is plain from the simple fact that the Hebrew laws +recognized slavery. It would be a perfect contradiction if the law +authorized the purchase and holding of slaves, and yet forbid the +enforcing the right of possession. There could be no such thing as +slavery, in such a land as Palestine, if the slave could recover his +liberty by simply moving from one tribe to another over an imaginary +line, or even from the house of his master to that of his next neighbor. +Besides, how inconsistent is it in the abolitionists in one breath to +maintain that the laws of Moses did not recognize slavery, and in the +next, that the laws about the restoration of slaves referred to the +slaves of Hebrew masters. According to their doctrine, there could be +among the Israelites no slaves to restore. They must admit either that +the law of God allowed the Hebrews to hold slaves, and then there is an +end to their arguments against the sinfulness of slaveholding; or +acknowledge that the law representing the restoration of slaves referred +only to fugitives from the heathen, and then there is an end to their +argument from this enactment against the law under consideration. + +The way in which abolitionists treat the Scriptures makes it evident +that the command in Deuteronomy is urged not so much out of regard to +the authority of the word of God, as an argumentum ad hominem. Wherever +the Scriptures either in the Old or New Testament recognize the +lawfulness of holding slaves, they are tortured without mercy to force +from them a different response; and where, as in this case, they appear +to favor the other side of the question, abolitionists quote them rather +to silence those who make them the rule of their faith, than as the +ground of their own convictions. Were there no such law as that in +Deuteronomy in existence, or were there a plain injunction to restore a +fugitive from service to his Hebrew master, it is plain from their +principles that they would none the less fiercely condemn the law under +consideration. Their opposition is not founded on the scriptural +command. It rests on the assumption that the master's claim is +iniquitous and ought not to be enforced.[258] Their objections are not +to the mode of delivery, but to the delivery itself. Why else quote the +law in Deuteronomy, which apparently forbids such surrender of the +fugitive to his master? It is clear that no effective enactment could be +framed on this subject which would not meet with the same opposition. We +are convinced, by reading the discussions on this subject, that the +immorality attributed to the fugitive slave law resolves itself into the +assumed immorality of slaveholding. No man would object to restoring an +apprentice to his master; and no one would quote Scripture or search for +arguments to prove it sinful to restore a fugitive slave, if he believed +slaveholding to be lawful in the sight of God. This being the case, we +feel satisfied that the mass of people at the North, whose conscience +and action are ultimately determined by the teachings of the Bible, will +soon settle down into the conviction that the law in question is not in +conflict with the law of God. + +But suppose the reverse to be the fact; suppose it clearly made out that +the law passed by Congress in reference to fugitive slaves is contrary +to the Constitution or to the law of God, what is to be done? What is +the duty of the people under such circumstances? The answers given to +this question are very different, and some of them so portentous that +the public mind has been aroused and directed to the consideration of +the nature of civil government and of the grounds and limits of the +obedience due to the laws of the land. As this is a subject not merely +of general interest at this time, but of permanent importance, we +purpose to devote to its discussion the few following pages. + +Our design is to state in few words in what sense government is a divine +institution, and to draw from that doctrine the principles which must +determine the nature and limits of the obedience which is due the laws +of the land. + +That the Bible, when it asserts that all power is of God, or the powers +that be are ordained of God, does not teach that any one form of civil +government has been divinely appointed as universally obligatory, is +plain because the Scriptures contain no such prescription. There are no +directions given as to the form which civil governments shall assume. +All the divine commands on this subject, are as applicable under one +form as another. The direction is general; obey the powers that be. The +propsition is unlimited; all power is of God; i. e., government, +whatever its form, is of God. He has ordained it. The most pointed +scriptural injunctions on this subject were given during the usurped or +tyrannical reign of military despots. It is plain that the sacred +writers did not, in such passages, mean to teach that a military +despotism was the form of government which God had ordained as of +perpetual and universal obligation. As the Bible enjoins no one form, so +the people of God in all ages, under the guidance of his Spirit, have +lived with a good conscience, under all the diversities of organization +of which human government is susceptible. + +Again, as no one form of government is prescribed, so neither has God +determined preceptively who are to exercise civil power. He has not +said that such power must be hereditary, and descend on the principle of +primogeniture. He has not determined whether it shall be confined to +males to the exclusion of females; or whether all offices shall be +elective. These are not matters of divine appointment, and are not +included in the proposition that all power is of God. Neither is it +included in this proposition that government is in such a sense ordained +of God that the people have no control in the matter. The doctrine of +the Bible is not inconsistent with the right of the people, as we shall +endeavor to show in the sequel, to determine their own form of +government and to select their own rulers. + +When it is said government is of God, we understand the Scriptures to +mean, first, that it is a divine institution and not a mere social +compact. It does not belong to the category of voluntary associations +such as men form for literary, benevolent, or commercial purposes. It is +not optional with men whether government shall exist. It is a divine +appointment, in the same sense as marriage and the church are divine +institutions. The former of these is not a mere civil contract, nor is +the church as a visible spiritual community a mere voluntary society. +Men are under obligation to recognize its existence, to join its ranks +and submit to its laws. In like manner it is the will of God that civil +government should exist. Men are bound by his authority to have civil +rulers for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that +do well. This is the scriptural doctrine, as opposed to the deistical +theory of a social compact as the ultimate ground of all human +governments. + +It follows from this view of the subject that obedience to the laws of +the land is a religious duty, and that disobedience is of the specific +nature of sin; this is a principle of vast importance. It is true that +the law of God is so broad that it binds a man to every thing that is +right, and forbids every thing that is wrong; and consequently that +every violation even of a voluntary engagement is of the nature of an +offense against God. Still there is a wide difference between +disobedience to an obligation voluntarily assumed, and which has no +other sanction than our own engagement, and disregard of an obligation +directly imposed of God. St. Peter recognizes this distinction when he +said to Annanias, Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God. All lying is +sinful, but lying to God is a higher crime than lying to men. There is +greater irreverence and contempt of the divine presence and authority, +and a violation of an obligation of a higher order. Every man feels that +the marriage vows have a sacred character which could not belong to +them, if marriage was merely a civil contract. In like manner the divine +institution of government elevates it into the sphere of religion, and +adds a new and higher sanction to the obligations which it imposes. +There is a specific difference, more easily felt than described, between +what is religious and what is merely moral; between disobedience to man +and resistance to an ordinance of God. + +A third point included in the scriptural doctrine on this subject is, +that the actual existence of any government creates the obligation of +obedience. That is, the obligation does not rest either on the origin or +the nature of the government, or on the mode in which it is +administered. It may be legitimate or revolutionary, despotic or +constitutional, just or unjust, so long as it exists it is to be +recognized and obeyed within its proper sphere. The powers that be are +ordained of God in such sense that the possession of power is to be +referred to his providence. It is not by chance, nor through the +uncontrolled agency of men, but by divine ordination that any government +exists. The declaration of the apostle just quoted was uttered under the +reign of Nero. It is as true of his authority as of that of the Queen of +England, or that of our own President, that it was of God. He made Nero +Emperor. He required all within the limits of the Roman empire to +recognize and obey him so long as he was allowed to occupy the throne. +It was not necessary for the early Christians to sit in judgment on the +title of every new emperor, whenever the pretorian guards chose to put +down one and put up another; neither are God's people now in various +parts of the world called upon to discuss the titles and adjudicate the +claims of their rulers. The possession of civil power is a providential +fact, and is to be regarded as such. This does not imply that God +approves of every government which he allows to exist. He permits +oppressive rulers to bear sway, just as he permits famine or pestilence +to execute his vengeance. A good government is a blessing, a bad +government is a judgment; but the one as much as the other is ordained +of God, and is to be obeyed not only for fear but also for conscience +sake. + +A fourth principle involved in the proposition that all power is of God +is, that the magistrate is invested with a divine right. He represents +God. His authority is derived from Him. There is a sense in which he +represents the people and derives from them his power; but in a far +higher sense he is the minister of God. To resist him is to resist God, +and "they that resist shall receive unto themselves damnation." Thus +saith the Scriptures. It need hardly be remarked that this principle +relates to the nature, and not to the extent, of the power of the +magistrate. It is as true of the lowest as of the highest; of a justice +of the peace as of the President of the United States; of a +constitutional monarch as of an absolute sovereign. The principle is +that the authority of rulers is divine, and not human, in its origin. +They exercise the power which belongs to them of divine right. The +reader, we trust, will not confound this doctrine with the old doctrine +of "the divine right of kings." The two things are as different as day +and night. We are not for reviving a defunct theory of civil government; +a theory which perished, at least among Anglo-Saxons, at the expulsion +of James II. from the throne of England. That monarch took it with him +into exile, and it lies entombed with the last of the Stuarts. According +to that theory God had established the monarchical form of government as +universally obligatory. There could not consistently with his law be any +other. The people had no more right to renounce that form of government +than the children of a family have to resolve themselves into a +democracy. In the second place, it assumed that God had determined the +law of succession as well as the form of government. The people could +not change the one any more than the other; or any more than children +could change their father, or a wife her husband. And thirdly, as a +necessary consequence of these principles, it inculcated in all cases +the duty of passive obedience. The king holding his office immediately +from God, held it entirely independent of the will of the people, and +his responsibility was to God alone. He could not forfeit his throne by +any injustice however flagrant. The people, if in any case they could +not obey, were obliged to submit; resistance or revolution was treason +against God. We have already remarked that the scriptural doctrine is +opposed to every one of these principles. The Bible does not prescribe +any one form of government; it does not determine who shall be +depositories of civil power; and it clearly recognizes the right of +revolution. In asserting, therefore, the divine right of rulers, we are +not asserting any doctrine repudiated by our forefathers, or +inconsistent with civil liberty in its widest rational extent. + +Such, as we understand it, is the true nature of civil government. It is +a divine institution and not a mere voluntary compact. Obedience to the +magistrate and laws is a religious duty; and disobedience is a sin +against God. This is true of all forms of government. Men living under +the Turkish Sultan are bound to recognize his authority, as much as the +subjects of a constitutional monarch, or the fellow-citizens of an +elective president, are bound to recognize their respective rulers. All +power is of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God, in such +sense that all magistrates are to be regarded as his ministers, acting +in his name and with his authority, each within his legitimate sphere; +beyond which he ceases to be a magistrate. + +That this is the doctrine of the Scriptures on this subject can hardly +be doubted. The Bible never refers to the consent of the governed, the +superiority of the rulers, or to the general principles of expediency, +as the ground of our obligation to the higher powers. The obedience +which slaves owe their masters, children their parents, wives their +husbands, people their rulers, is always made to rest on the divine will +as its ultimate foundation. It is part of the service which we owe to +God. We are required to act, in all these relations, not as +men-pleasers, but as the servants of God. All such obedience terminates +on our Master who is in heaven. This gives the sublimity of spiritual +freedom even to the service of a slave. It is not in the power of man to +reduce to bondage those who serve God, in all the service they render +their fellow-men. The will of God, therefore, is the foundation of our +obligation to obey the laws of the land. His will, however, is not an +arbitrary determination; it is the expression of infinite intelligence +and love. There is the most perfect agreement between all the precepts +of the Bible and the highest dictates of reason. There is no command in +the word of God of permanent and universal obligation, which may not be +shown to be in accordance with the laws of our own higher nature. This +is one of the strongest collateral arguments in favor of the divine +origin of the Scriptures. In appealing therefore to the Bible in support +of the doctrine here advanced, we are not, on the one hand appealing to +an arbitrary standard, a mere statute book, a collection of laws which +create the obligations they enforce; nor, on the other hand, to "the +reason and nature of things" in the abstract, which after all is only +our own reason; but we are appealing to the infinite intelligence of a +personal God, whose will, because of his infinite excellence, is +necessarily the ultimate ground and rule of all moral obligation. This, +however, being the case, whatever the Bible declares to be right is +found to be in accordance with the constitution of nature and our own +reason. All that the Scriptures, for example, teach of the subordination +of children to their parents, of wives to their husbands, has not its +foundation, but its confirmation, in the very nature of the relation of +the parties. Any violation of the precepts of the Bible, on these +points, is found to be a violation of the laws of nature, and certainly +destructive. In like manner it is clear from the social nature of man, +from the dependence of men upon each other, from the impossibility of +attaining the end of our being in this world, otherwise than in society +and under an ordered government, that it is the will of God that such +society should exist. The design of God in this matter is as plain as in +the constitution of the universe. We might as well maintain that the +laws of nature are the result of chance, or that marriage and parental +authority have no other foundation than human law, as to assert that +civil government has no firmer foundation than the will of man or the +quicksands of expediency. By creating men social beings, and making it +necessary for them to live in society, God has made his will as thus +revealed the foundation of all civil government. + +This doctrine is but one aspect of the comprehensive doctrine of Theism, +a doctrine which teaches the existence of a personal God, a Spirit +infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, +justice, holiness, goodness, and truth; a God who is everywhere present +upholding and governing all his creatures and all their actions. The +universe is not a machine left to go of itself. God did not at first +create matter and impress upon it certain laws and then leave it to +their blind operation. He is everywhere present in the material world, +not superseding secondary causes, but so upholding and guiding their +operations, that the intelligence evinced is the omnipresent +intelligence of God, and the power exercised is the _potestas ordinata_ +of the Great First Cause. He is no less supreme in his control of +intelligent agents. They indeed are free, but not independent. They are +governed in a manner consistent with their nature; yet God turns them as +the rivers of waters are turned. All events depending on human agency +are under his control. God is in history. Neither chance nor blind +necessity determine the concatenation or issues of things. Nor is the +world in the hands of its inhabitants. God has not launched our globe on +the ocean of space and left its multitudinous crew to direct its course +without his interference. He is at the helm. His breath fills the sails. +His wisdom and power are pledged for the prosperity of the voyage. +Nothing happens, even to the falling of a sparrow, which is not ordered +by him. He works all things after the counsel of his will. It is by him +that kings reign and princes decree justice. He puts down one, and +raises up another. As he leads out the stars by night, marshaling them +as a host, calling each one by its name, so does he order all human +events. He raises up nations and appoints the bounds of their +habitation. He founds the empires of the earth and determines their form +and their duration. This doctrine of God's universal providence is the +foundation of all religion. If this doctrine be not true, we are without +God in the world. But if it is true, it involves a vast deal. God is +everywhere in nature and in history. Every thing is a revelation of his +presence and power. We are always in contact with him. Every thing has a +voice, which speaks of his goodness or his wrath; fruitful seasons +proclaim his goodness, famine and pestilence declare his displeasure. +Nothing is by chance. The existence of any particular form of government +is as much his work, as the rising of the sun or falling of the rain. It +is something he has ordained for some wise purpose, and it is to be +regarded as his work. If all events are under God's control, if it is by +him that kings reign, then the actual possession of power is as much a +revelation of his will that it should be obeyed, as the possession of +wisdom or goodness is a manifestation of his will that those endowed +with those gifts, should be reverenced and loved. It follows, therefore, +from the universal providence of God, that "the powers that be are +ordained of God." We have no more right to refuse obedience to an +actually existing government because it is not to our taste, or because +we do not approve of its measures, than a child has the right to refuse +to recognize a wayward parent; or a wife a capricious husband. + +The religious character of our civil duties flows also from the +comprehensive doctrine that the will of God is the ground of all moral +obligation. To seek that ground either in "the reason and nature of +things," or in expediency, is to banish God from the moral world, as +effectually as the mechanical theory of the universe banishes him from +the physical universe and from history. Our allegiance on that +hypothesis is not to God but to reason or to society. This theory of +morals therefore, changes the nature of religion and of moral +obligation. It modifies and degrades all religious sentiment and +exercises; it changes the very nature of sin, of repentance and +obedience, and gives us, what is a perfect solecism, a religion without +God. According to the Bible, our obligation to obey the laws of the land +is not founded on the fact that the good of society requires such +obedience, or that it is a dictate of reason, but on the authority of +God. It is part of the service which we owe to him. This must be so if +the doctrine is true that God is our moral governor, to whom we are +responsible for all our acts, and whose will is both the ground and the +rule of all our obligations. + +We need not, however, dwell longer on this subject. Although it has long +been common to look upon civil government as a human institution, and to +represent the consent of the governed as the only ground of the +obligation of obedience, yet this doctrine is so notoriously of infidel +origin, and so obviously in conflict with the teachings of the Bible, +that it can have no hold on the convictions of a Christian people. It is +no more true of the state than it is of the family, or of the church. +All are of divine institution. All have their foundation in his will. +The duties belonging to each are enjoined by him and are enforced by his +authority. Marriage is indeed a voluntary covenant. The parties select +each other, and the state may make laws regulating the mode in which the +contract shall be ratified; and determining its civil effects. It is, +however, none the less an ordinance of God. The vows it includes are +made to God; its sanction is found in his law; and its violation is not +a mere breach of contract or disobedience to the civil law, but a sin +against God. So with regard to the church, it is in one sense a +voluntary society. No man can be forced by other men to join its +communion. If done at all it must be done with his own consent, yet +every man is under the strongest moral obligation to enter its fold. And +when enrolled in the number of its members his obligation to obedience +does not rest on his consent; it does not cease should that consent be +withdrawn. It rests on the authority of the church as a divine +institution. This is an authority no man can throw off. It presses him +everywhere and at all times with the weight of a moral obligation. In a +sense analogous to this the state is a divine institution. Men are bound +to organize themselves into a civil government. Their obligation to obey +its laws does not rest upon their compact in this case, any more than in +the others above referred to. It is enjoined by God. It is a religious +duty, and disobedience is a direct offense against him. The people have +indeed the right to determine the form of the government under which +they are to live, and to modify it from time to time to suit their +changing condition. So, though to a less extent, or within narrower +limits, they have a right to modify the form of their ecclesiastical +governments, a right which every church has exercised, but the ground +and nature of the obligation to obedience remains unchanged. This is not +a matter of mere theory. It is of primary practical importance and has +an all-pervading influence on national character. Every thing indeed +connected with this subject depends on the answer to the question, Why +are we obliged to obey the laws? If we answer because we made them; or +because we assent to them, or framed the government which enacts them; +or because the good of society enjoins obedience, or reason dictates it, +then the state is a human institution; it has no religious sanction; it +is founded on the sand; it ceases to have a hold on the conscience and +to commend itself as a revelation of God to be reverenced and obeyed as +a manifestation of his presence and will. But, on the other hand, if we +place the state in the same category with the family and the church, and +regard it as an institution of God, then we elevate it into a higher +sphere; we invest it with religious sanctions and it become pervaded by +a divine presence and authority, which immeasurably strengthens, while +it elevates its power. Obedience for conscience' sake is as different +from obedience from fear, or from voluntary consent, or regard to human +authority, as the divine from the human. + +Such being, as we conceive, the true doctrine concerning the nature of +the state, it is well to inquire into the necessary deductions from this +doctrine. If government be a divine institution, and obedience to the +laws a matter resting on the authority of God, it might seem to follow +that in no case could human laws be disregarded with a good conscience. +This, as we have seen, is in fact the conclusion drawn from these +premises by the advocates of the doctrine "of passive obedience." The +command, however, to be subject to the higher powers is not more +unlimited in its statement than the command, "children obey your parents +in all things." From this latter command no one draws the conclusion +that unlimited obedience is due from children to their parents. The true +inference doubtless is, in both cases, that obedience is the rule, and +disobedience the exception. If in any instance a child refuse compliance +with the requisition of the parent, or a citizen with the law of the +land, he must be prepared to justify such disobedience at the bar of +God. Even divine laws may in some cases be dispensed with. Those which +indeed are founded on the nature of God, such as the command to love Him +and our neighbor, are necessarily immutable. But those which are founded +on the present constitution of things, though permanent as general rules +of action, may on adequate grounds, be violated without sin. The +commands, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Remember the +sabbath day to keep it holy, are all of permanent authority; and yet +there may be justifiable homicide, and men may profane the sabbath and +be blameless. In like manner the command to obey the laws, is a divine +injunction, and yet there are cases in which disobedience is a duty. It +becomes then of importance to determine what these cases are; or to +ascertain the principles which limit the obedience which we owe to the +state. It follows from the divine institution of government that its +power is limited by the design of God in its institution, and by the +moral law. The family, the church and the state are all divine +institutions, designed for specific purposes. Each has its own sphere, +and the authority belonging to each is necessarily confined within its +own province. The father appears in his household as its divinely +appointed head. By the command of God all the members of that household +are required to yield him reverence and obedience. But he can not carry +his parental authority into the church or the state; nor can he appear +in his family as a magistrate or church officer. The obedience due to +him is that which belongs to a father, and not to a civil or +ecclesiastical officer, and his children are not required to obey him +in either of those capacities. In like manner the officers of the +church have within their sphere a divine right to rule, but they can not +claim civil authority on the ground of the general command to the people +to obey those who have the care of souls. Heb. xiii: 17. As the church +officer loses his power when he enters the forum; so does the civil +magistrate when he enters the church. His right to rule is a right which +belongs to him as representing God in the state--he has no commission to +represent God either in the family or the church; and therefore, he is +entitled to no obedience if he claims an authority which does not belong +to him. This is a very obvious principle, and is of wide application. It +not only limits the authority of civil officers to civil affairs, but +limits the extent due to the obedience to be rendered even in civil +matters to the officers of the state. A justice of the peace has no +claim to the obedience due to a governor of a state; nor a governor of a +state to that which belongs to the President of the Union; nor the +President of the Union to that which may be rightfully claimed by an +absolute sovereign. A military commander has no authority over the +community as a civil magistrate, nor can he exercise such authority even +over his subordinates. This principle applies in all its force to the +law-making power. The legislature can not exercise any power which does +not belong to them. They can not act as judges or magistrates unless +such authority has been actually committed to them. They are to be +obeyed as legislators; and in any other capacity their decisions or +commands do not bind the conscience. And still further, their +legislative enactments have authority only when made in the exercise of +their legitimate powers. In other words, an unconstitutional law is no +law. If our Congress, for example, were to pass a bill creating an order +of nobility, or an established church, or to change the religion of the +land, or to enforce a sumptuary code, it would have no more virtue and +be entitled to no more deference than a similar enactment intended to +bind the whole country passed by a town council. This we presume will +not be denied. God has committed unlimited power to no man and to no set +of men, and the limitation which he has assigned to the power conferred, +is to be found in the design for which it was given. That design is +determined in the case of the family, the church and the state, by the +nature of these institutions, by the general precepts of the Bible, or +by the providence of God determining the peculiar constitution under +which these organizations are called to act. The power of a parent was +greater under the old dispensation than it is now; the legitimate +authority of the church is greater under some modes of organization than +under others; and the power of the state as represented in its +constituted authorities is far more extensive in some countries than in +others. The theory of the British government is that the parliament is +the whole state in convention, and therefore it exercises powers which +do not belong to our Congress, which represents the state only for +certain specified purposes. These diversities, however, do not alter the +general principle, which is, that rulers are to be obeyed in the +exercise of their legitimate authority; that their commmands or +requirements beyond their appropriate spheres are void of all binding +force. This is a principle which no one can dispute. + +A second principle is no less plain. No human authority can make it +obligatory on us to commit sin. If all power is of God it can not be +legitimately used against God. This is a dictate of natural conscience, +and is authenticated by the clearest teachings of the word of God. The +apostles when commanded to abstain from preaching Christ refused to +obey, and said: "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto +you more than unto God, judge ye." No human law could make it binding on +the ministers of the gospel, in our day, to withhold the message of +salvation from their fellow-men. It requires no argument to prove that +men can not make it right to worship idols, to blaspheme God, to deny +Christ. It is sheer fanaticism thus to exalt the power of the government +above the authority of God. This would be to bring back upon us some of +the worst doctrines of the middle ages as to the power of the pope and +of earthly sovereigns. Good men in all ages of the world have always +acted on the principle that human laws can not bind the conscience when +they are in conflict with the law of God. Daniel openly, in the sight of +his enemies, prayed to the God of heaven in despite of the prohibition +of his sovereign. Shadrach, Mesheck and Abednego refused to bow down, at +the command of the king, to the golden image. The early Christians +disregarded all those laws of Pagan Rome requiring them to do homage to +false gods. Protestants with equal unanimity refused to submit to the +laws of their papal sovereigns enjoining the profession of Romish +errors. That these men were right no man, with an enlightened +conscience, can deny; but they were right only on the principle that the +power of the state and of the magistrate is limited by the law of God. +It follows then from the divine institution of government, that its +power to bind the conscience to obedience is limited by the design of +its appointment and the moral law. All its power being from God, it must +be subordinate to him. This is a doctrine which, however, for a time and +in words, it may be denied, is too plain and too important not to be +generally recognized. It is a principle too which should at all times be +publicly avowed. The very sanctity of human laws requires it. Their real +power and authority lie in their having a divine sanction. To claim for +them binding force when destitute of such sanction, is to set up a mere +semblance for a reality, a suit of armor with no living man within. The +stability of human government and the authority of civil laws require +that they should be kept within the sphere where they repose on God, and +are pervaded by his presence and power. Without him nothing human can +stand. All power is of God; and if of God, divine; and if divine, in +accordance with his holy law. + +But who are the judges of the application of these principles? Who is to +determine whether a particular law is unconstitutional or immoral? So +far as the mere constitutionality of a law is concerned, it may be +remarked, that there is in most states, as in our own, for example, a +regular judicial tribunal to which every legislative enactment can be +submitted, and the question of its conformity to the constitution +authoritatively decided. In all ordinary cases, that is, in all cases +not involving some great principle or some question of conscience, such +decisions must be held to be final, and to bind all concerned not only +to submission but obedience. A law thus sanctioned becomes instinct with +all the power of the state, and further opposition brings the recusants +into conflict with the government; a conflict in which no man for light +reasons can with a good conscience engage. Still it can not be denied, +and ought not to be concealed, that the ultimate decision must be +referred to his own judgment. This is a necessary deduction from the +doctrine that obedience to law is a religious duty. It is a primary +principle that the right of private judgment extends over all questions +of faith and morals. No human power can come between God and the +conscience. Every man must answer for his own sins, and therefore every +man must have the right to determine for himself what is sin. As he can +not transfer his responsibility, he can not transfer his right of +judgment. This principle has received the sanction of good men in every +age of the world. Daniel judged for himself of the binding force of the +command not to worship the true God. So did the apostles when they +continued to preach Christ, in opposition to all the constituted +authorities. The laws passed by Pagan Rome requiring the worship of +idols had the sanction of all the authorities of the empire, yet on the +ground of their private judgment the Christians refused to obey them. +Protestants in like manner refused to obey the laws of Papal Rome, +though sustained by all the authority both of the church and state. In +all these cases the right of private judgment can not be disputed. Even +where no question of religion or morality is directly concerned, this +right is undeniable. Does any one now condemn Hampden for refusing to +pay "ship-money?" Does any American condemn our ancestors for resisting +the stamp-act, though the authorities of St. Stephen's and Westminster +united in pronouncing the imposition constitutional? However this +principle may be regarded when stated in the abstract, every individual +instinctively acts upon it in his own case. Whenever a command is issued +by one in authority over us, we immediately and almost unconsciously +determine for ourselves, first, whether he had a right to give the +order; and secondly, whether it can with a good conscience be obeyed. If +this decision is clearly in the negative, we at once determine to refuse +obedience on our own responsibility. Let any man test this point by an +appeal to his own consciousness. Let him suppose the President of the +United States to order him to turn Romanist or Pagan; or Congress to +pass a bill requiring him to blaspheme God; or a military superior to +command him to commit treason or murder--does not his conscience tell +him he would on the instant refuse? Would he, or could he wait until the +constitutionality of such requisitions had been submitted to the courts? +or if the courts should decide against him, would that at all alter the +case? Men must be strangely oblivious of the relation of the soul to +God, the instinctive sense which we possess of our allegiance to him, +and of the self-evidencing power with which his voice reaches the reason +and the conscience, to question the necessity which every man is under +to decide all questions touching his duty to God for himself. + +It may indeed be thought that this doctrine is subversive of the +authority of government. A moment's reflection is sufficient to dispel +this apprehension. The power of laws rests on two foundations, fear and +conscience. Both are left by this doctrine in their integrity. The +former, because the man refuses obedience at his peril. His private +conviction that the law is unconstitutional or immoral does not abrogate +it, or impede its operation. If arraigned for its violation, he may +plead in his justification his objections to the authority of the law. +If these objections are found valid by the competent authorities, he is +acquitted; if otherwise, he suffers the penalty. What more can the state +ask? All the power the state, as such, can give its laws, lies in their +penalty. A single decision by the ultimate authority in favor of a law, +is a revelation to the whole body of the people that it can not be +violated with impunity. The sword of justice hangs over every +transgressor. The motive of fear in securing obedience, is therefore, as +operative under this view of the subject, as it can be under any other. +What, however, is of far more consequence, the power of conscience is +left in full force. Obedience to the law is a religious duty, enjoined +by the word of God and enforced by conscience. If, in any case, it be +withheld, it is under a sense of responsibility to God; and under the +conviction that if this conscientious objection be feigned, it +aggravates the guilt of disobedience as a sin against God an hundred +fold; and if it be mistaken, it affords no palliation of the offense. +Paul was guilty in persecuting the church, though he thought he was +doing God service. And the man, who by a perverted conscience, is led to +refuse obedience to a righteous law, stands without excuse at the bar of +God. The moral sanction of civil laws, which gives them their chief +power, and without which they must ultimately become inoperative, cannot +possibly extend further than this. For what is that moral sanction? It +is a conviction that our duty to God requires our obedience; but how can +we feel that duty to God requires us to do what God forbids? In other +words, a law which we regard as immoral, can not present itself to the +conscience as having divine authority. Conscience, therefore, is on the +side of the law wherever and whenever this is possible from the nature +of the case. It is a contradiction to say that conscience enforces what +conscience condemns. This then is all the support which the laws of the +land can possibly derive from our moral convictions. The allegiance of +conscience is to God. It enforces obedience to all human laws consistent +with that allegiance; further than this it can not by possibility go. +And as the decisions of conscience are, by the constitution of our +nature, determined by our own apprehensions of the moral law, and not by +authority, it follows of necessity that every man must judge for +himself, and on his own responsibility, whether any given law of man +conflicts with the law of God or not. + +We would further remark on this point that the lives and property of men +have no greater protection than that which, on this theory, is secured +for the laws of the state. The law of God says: Thou shalt not kill. Yet +every man does, and must judge when and how far this law binds his +conscience. It is admitted, on all hands, that there are cases in which +its obligation ceases. What those cases are each man determines for +himself, but under his two fold responsibility to his country and to +God. If, through passion or any other cause, he errs as to what +constitutes justifiable homicide, he must bear the penalty attached to +murder, by the law of God and man. It is precisely so in the case before +us. God has commanded us to obey the magistrate as his minister and +representative. If we err in our judgment as to the cases in which the +command ceases to be binding, we fall into the hands of justice, both +human and divine. Can more than this be necessary? Can any thing be +gained by trying to make God require us to break his own commands? Can +conscience be made to sanction the violation of the moral law? Is not +this the way to destroy all moral distinctions, and to prostrate the +authority of conscience, and with it the very foundation of civil +government? Is not all history full of the dreadful consequences of the +doctrine that human laws can make sin obligatory, and that those in +authority can judge for the people what is sin? What more than this is +needed to justify all the persecutions for righteousness' sake since the +world began? What hope could there be, on this ground, for the +preservation of religion or virtue, in any nation on the earth? If the +principle be once established, that the people are bound to obey all +human laws, or that they are not to judge for themselves when their duty +to God requires them to refuse such obedience, then there is not only an +end of all civil and religious liberty, but the very nature of civil +government, as a divine institution, is destroyed. It becomes first +atheistical, and then diabolical. Then the massacre of St. +Bartholomew's, the decrees of the French National Assembly, and the laws +of Pagan Rome against Christians, and of its Papal successor against +Protestants, were entitled to reverent obedience. Then, too, may any +infidel party which gains the ascendency in a state, as has happened of +late in Switzerland, render it morally obligatory upon all ministers to +close their churches, and on the people to renounce the gospel. This is +not an age or state of the world in which to advance such doctrines. +There are too many evidences of the gathering powers of evil, to render +it expedient to exalt the authority of man above that of God, or +emancipate men from subjection to their Master in heaven, that they may +become more obedient to their masters on earth. We are advocating the +cause of civil government, of the stability and authority of human laws, +when we make every thing rest on the authority of God, and when we limit +every human power by subordinating it to him. We hold, therefore, that +it is not only one of the plainest principles of morals, that no immoral +law can bind the conscience, and that every man must judge of its +character for himself, and on his own responsibility; but that this +doctrine is essential to all religious liberty, and to the religious +sanction of civil government. If you deny this principle, you thereby +deny that government is a divine institution, and denying that, you +deprive it of its vital energy, and send it tottering to a dishonored +grave. + +But here the great practical question arises, What is to be done when +the law of the land comes into conflict with the law of God--or, which +is to us the same thing, with our convictions of what that law demands? +In answer to this question we would remark, in the first place, that in +most cases, the majority of the people have nothing to do, except +peaceably to use their influence to have the law repealed. The mass of +the people have nothing actively to do with the laws. Very few +enactments of the government touch one in a thousand in the population. +We may think a protective tariff not only inexpedient, but unequal and +therefore unjust. But we have nothing to do with it. We are not +responsible for it, and are not called upon to enforce it. The remark +applies even to laws of a higher character, such, _e. g._ as a law +proclaiming an unjust war; forbidding the introduction of the Bible into +public schools; requiring homage or sanction to be given to idolatrous +services by public officers, etc., etc. Such laws do not touch the mass +of the people. They do not require them either to do or abstain from +doing, any thing which conscience forbids or enjoins; and therefore +their duty in the premises may be limited to the use of legitimate means +to have laws of which they disapprove repealed. + +In the second place, those executive officers who are called upon to +carry into effect a law which requires them to do what their conscience +condemns, must resign their office, if they would do their duty to God. +Some years since, General Maitland (if we remember the name correctly) +of the Madras Presidency, in India, resigned a lucrative and honorable +post, because he could not conscientiously give the sanction to the +Hindoo idolatry required by the British authorities. And within the last +few months, we have seen hundreds of Hessian officers throw up their +commissions rather than trample on the constitution of their country. On +the same principles the non-conformists in the time of Charles II. and +the ministers of the Free Church of Scotland, in our day, gave up their +stipends and their positions, because they could not with a good +conscience carry into effect the law of the land. It is not intended +that an executive officer should, in all cases, resign his post rather +than execute a law which in his private judgment he may regard as +unconstitutional or unjust. The responsibility attaches to those who +make, and not to those who execute the laws. It is only when the act, +which the officer is called upon to perform, involves personal +criminality, that he is called upon to decline its execution. Thus in +the case of war; a military officer is not the proper judge of its +justice. That is not a question between him and the enemy, but between +his government and the hostile nation. On the supposition that war +itself is not sinful, the act which the military officer is called upon +to perform is not criminal, and he may with a good conscience carry out +the commands of his government, whatever may be his private opinion of +the justice of the war. All such cases no doubt are more or less +complicated, and must be decided each on its own merits. The general +principle, however, appears plain, that it is only when the act required +of an executive officer involves personal criminality, that he is called +upon to resign. This is a case that often occurs. In Romish countries, +as Malta, for example, British officers have been required to do homage +to the host, and on their refusal have been cashiered. An instance of +this kind occurred a few years ago, and produced a profound sensation in +England. This was clearly a case of great injustice. The command was an +unrighteous one. The duty of the officer was to resign rather than obey. +Had the military authorities taken a fair view of the question, they +must have decided that the command to bow to the host, was not +obligatory, because _ultra vires_. But if such an order was insisted +upon, the conscientious Protestant must resign his commission. + +The next question is, What is the duty of private citizens in the case +supposed, _i. e._, when the civil law either forbids them to do what God +commands, or commands them to do what God forbids? We answer, their duty +is not obedience, but submission. These are different things. A law +consists of two parts, the precept and the penalty. We obey the one, and +submit to the other. When we are required by the law to do what our +conscience pronounces to be sinful, we can not obey the precept, but we +are bound to submit without resistance to the penalty. We are not +authorized to abrogate the law, nor forcibly to resist its execution, no +matter how great its injustice or cruelty. On this principle holy men +have acted in all ages. The apostles did not obey the precept of the +Jewish laws forbidding them to preach Christ, but neither did they +resist the execution of the penalty attached to the violation of those +laws. Thus it was with all the martyrs; they would not offer incense to +idols, but refused not to be led to the stake. Had Cranmer, on the +ground of the iniquity of the law condemning him to death, killed the +officers who came to carry it into effect, he would have been guilty of +murder. Here is the great difference which is often overlooked. The +right of self-defense is appealed to as justifying resistance even to +death, against all attempts to deprive us of our liberty. We have this +right in reference to unauthorized individuals, but not in reference to +the officers of the law. Had men without authority entered Cranmer's +house, and attempted to take his life, his resistance, even if attended +with the loss of life, would have been justifiable. But no man has the +right to resist the execution of the law. What could be more iniquitous +than the laws condemning men to death for the worship of God. Yet to +these laws Christians and Protestants yielded unresisting submission. +This is an obvious duty, flowing from the divine institution of +government. There is no power but of God, and the powers that be are +ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power resisteth the +ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves +damnation. Thus Paul reasoned. If the power is of God, it can not be +rightfully resisted; it must be obeyed or submitted to. Are wicked, +tyrannical, Pagan powers of God? Certainly they are. Does not he order +all things? Does any man become a king without God's permission granted +in mercy or in judgment? Was not Nero to be recognized as emperor? Would +it not be a sin to refuse submission to Nicholas of Russia, or to the +Sultan of Turkey? Are rulers to be obeyed only for their goodness? Is it +only kind and reasonable masters, parents, or husbands, who are to be +recognized as such? It is no doubt true, that in no case is unlimited +authority granted to men; and that obedience to the precepts of our +superiors is limited by the nature of their office, and by the moral +law; but this leaves their authority untouched, and the obligation to +submission where we can not obey, unimpaired. + +Have we then got back to the old doctrine of "passive obedience" by +another route? Not at all. The scriptural rule above recited relates to +individuals. It prescribes the duty of submission even to unjust and +wicked laws, on the part of men in their separate capacity; but it does +not deny the right of revolution as existing in the community. What the +Scriptures forbid, is that any man should undertake to resist the law. +They do not forbid either change in the laws or change in the +government. There is an obvious difference between these two things, +viz: the right of resistance on the part of individuals, and the right +of revolution on the part of the people. This latter right we argue from +the divine institution of government itself. God has revealed his will +that government should exist, but he has not prescribed the form which +it shall assume. In other words, he has commanded men to organize such +government, but has left the form to be determined by themselves. This +is a necessary inference. It follows from the mere silence of Scripture +and nature on this subject, that it is left free to the determination of +those to whom the general command is given. In the next place, this +right is to be inferred from the design of civil government. That design +is the welfare of the people. It is the promotion of their physical and +moral improvement; the security of life and property; the punishment of +evil doers, and the praise of those who do well. If such is the end +which God designs government to answer, it must be his will that it +should be made to accomplish that purpose, and consequently that it may +be changed from time to time, so as to secure that end. No one form of +government is adapted to all states of society, any more than one suit +of clothes is proper to all stages of life. The end for which clothing +is designed, supposes the right to adapt it to that end. In like manner +the end government is intended to answer, supposes the right to modify +it whenever such modification is necessary. If God commands men to +accomplish certain ends, and does not prescribe the means, he does +thereby leave the choice of the means to their discretion. And any +institution which fails to accomplish the end intended by it, if it has +not a divine sanction as to its form, may lawfully be so changed as to +suit the purpose for which it was appointed. We hold, therefore, that +the people have, by divine right, the authority to change, not only +their rulers, but their form of government, whenever the one or the +other, instead of promoting the well-being of the community, is unjust +or injurious. This is a right which, like all other prerogatives, may be +exercised unwisely, capriciously, or even unjustly, but still it is not +to be denied. It has been recognized and exercised in all ages of the +world, and with the sanction of the best of men. It is as unavoidable +and healthful as the changes in the body to adapt it to the increasing +vigor of the mind, in its progress from infancy to age. The progress of +society depends on the exercise of this right. It is impossible that its +powers should be developed, if it were to be forever wrapt up in its +swaddling clothes, or coffined as a mummy. The early Christians +submitted quietly to the unjust laws of their Pagan oppressors, until +the mass of the community became Christians, and then they +revolutionized the government. Protestants acted in the same way with +their papal rulers. So did our forefathers, and so may any people whose +form of government no longer answers the end for which God has commanded +civil government to be instituted. The Quakers are now a minority in all +the countries in which they exist, and furnish an edifying example of +submission to the laws which they can not conscientiously obey. But +should they come, in any political society, to be the controlling +power, it is plain they would have the right to conduct it on their own +principles. + +The right of revolution therefore is really embedded in the right to +serve God. A government which interferes with that service, which +commands what God forbids, or forbids what he commands, we are bound by +our duty to him to change as soon as we have the power. If this is not +so, then God has subjected his people to the necessity of always +submitting to punishment for obeying his commands, and has cut them off +from the only means which can insure their peaceful and secure enjoyment +of the liberty to do his will. No one, however, in our land, or of the +race to which we belong, will be disposed to question the right of the +people to change their form of government. Our history forbids all +diversity of sentiment on this subject. We are only concerned to show +that the scriptural doctrine of civil government is perfectly consistent +with that right; or rather that the right is one of the logical +deductions from that doctrine. + +We have thus endeavored to prove that government is a divine +institution; that obedience to the laws is a religious duty; that such +obedience is due in all cases in which it can be rendered with a good +conscience; that when obedience can not be yielded without sinning +against God, then our duty as individuals is quietly to submit to the +infliction of the penalty attached to disobedience; and that the right +of resistance or of revolution rests only in the body of people for +whose benefit government is instituted. + +The application of these principles to the case of the fugitive slave +law is so obvious, as hardly to justify remark. The great body of the +people regard that law as consistent with the constitution of the +country and the law of God. Their duty, therefore, in the premises, +whether they think it wise or unwise, is perfectly plain. Those who take +the opposite view of the law, having in the great majority of cases, +nothing to do with enforcing it, are in no measure responsible for it. +Their duty is limited to the use of peaceable and constitutional means +to get it repealed. A large part of the people of this country thought +the acquisition of Louisiana; the admission of Texas into the Union by a +simple resolution; the late Mexican war; were either unjust or +unconstitutional, but there was no resistance to these measures. None +was made, and none would have been justifiable. So in the present case, +as the people generally are not called upon either to do, or to forbear +from doing, any thing their conscience forbids, all resistance to the +operation of this law on their part must be without excuse. With regard +to the executive officers, whose province it is to carry the law into +effect, though some of them may disapprove of it as unwise, harsh, or +oppressive, still they are bound to execute it, unless they believe the +specific act which they are called upon to perform involves personal +criminality, and then their duty is the resignation of their office, and +not resistance to the law. There is the most obvious difference between +an officer being called upon, for example, to execute a decision of a +court, which in his private opinion he thinks unjust, and his being +called upon to blaspheme, or commit murder. The latter involves personal +guilt, the former does not. He is not the judge of the equity or +propriety of the decision which he is required to carry into effect. It +is evident that the wheels of society would be stopped, if every officer +of the government, and every minister of justice should feel that he is +authorized to sit in judgment on the wisdom or righteousness of any law +he was called upon to execute. He is responsible for his own acts, and +not for the judgments of others, and therefore when the execution of a +law or of a command of a superior does not require him to sin, he is +free to obey. + +Again, in those cases in which we, as private individuals, may be called +upon to assist in carrying the fugitive slave law into effect, if we can +not obey, we must do as the Quakers have long done with regard to our +military laws, _i. e._ quietly submit. We have no right to resist, or in +any way to impede the operation of the law. Whatever sin there is in it, +does not rest on us, any more than the sin of our military system rests +on the Quakers.[259] + +And finally as regards the fugitives themselves, their obvious duty is +submission. To them the law must appear just as the laws of the Pagans +against Christians, or of Romanists against Protestants, appeared to +those who suffered from them. And the duty in both cases is the same. +Had the martyrs put to death the officers of the law, they would in the +sight of God and man have been guilty of murder. And any one who teaches +fugitive slaves to resort to violence even to the sacrifice of life, in +resisting the law in question, it seems to us, is guilty of exciting men +to murder. As before remarked, the principle of self-defense does not +apply in this case. Is there no difference between a man who kills an +assassin who attempts his life on the highway, and the man who, though +knowing himself to be innocent of the crime for which he has been +condemned to die, should kill the officers of justice? The former is a +case of justifiable homicide, the other is a case of murder. The +officers of justice are not the offenders. They are not the persons +responsible for the law or the decision. That responsibility rests on +the government. Private vengeance can not reach the state. And if it +could, such vengeance is not the remedy ordained by God for such evils. +They are to be submitted to, until the government can be changed. How +did our Lord act when he was condemned by an oppressive judgment, and +with wicked hands crucified and slain? Did he kill the Roman soldiers? +Has not he left us an example that we should follow his steps: who did +no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, +reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed +himself unto him that judgeth righteously. On this principle did all his +holy martyrs act; and on this principle are we bound to act in +submitting to the laws of the land, even when we deem them oppressive or +unjust. + +The principles advocated in this paper appear to us so elementary, that +we feel disposed to apologize for presenting them in such a formal +manner. But every generation has to learn the alphabet for itself. And +the mass of men are so occupied with other matters, that they do not +give themselves time to discriminate. Their judgments are dictated, in +many cases, by their feelings, or their circumstances. One man simply +looks to the hardship of forcing a slave back to bondage, and he +impulsively counsels resistance unto blood. Another looks to the evils +which follow from resistance to law, and he asserts that human laws are +in all cases to be obeyed. Both are obviously wrong. Both would +overthrow all government. The one by justifying every man's taking the +law into his own hands; and the other by destroying the authority of +God, which is the only foundation on which human government can rest. It +is only by acting on the direction of the Divine Wisdom incarnate: +"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things +that are God's," that these destructive extremes are to be avoided. +Government is a divine institution; obedience to the laws is commanded +by God; and yet like all other divine commands of the same class, there +are cases in which it ceases to be obligation. Of these cases every one +must judge for himself on his own responsibility to God and man; but +when he cannot obey, his duty is to submit. The divinely appointed +remedy for unjust or oppressive legislation is not private or tumultuous +opposition, but the repeal of unrighteous enactments, or the +reorganization of the government. + +What, however, we have had most at heart in the preparation of this +article, is the exhibition of the great principle that all authority +reposes on God; that all our obligations terminate on him; that +government is not a mere voluntary compact, and obedience to law an +obligation which rests on the consent of the governed. We regard this as +a matter of primary importance. The character of men and of communities +depends, to a great extent on their faith. The theory of morals which +they adopt determines their moral charactcter. If they assume that +expediency is the rule of duty, that a thing is right because it +produces happiness, or wrong because it produces misery, that this +tendency is not merely the test between right and wrong, but the ground +of the distinction, then, the specific idea of moral excellence and +obligation is lost. All questions of duty are merged into a calculation +of profit and loss. There is no sense of God; reason or society takes +his place, and an irreligious, calculating cast of character is the +inevitable result. This is counteracted, in individuals and the +community by various causes, for neither the character of a man nor that +of a society is determined by any one opinion; but its injurious +influence may nevertheless be most manifest and deplorable. No man can +fail to see the deteriorating influence of this theory of morals on +public character both in this country and in England. If we would make +men religious and moral, instead of merely cute, let us place God before +them; let us teach them that his will is the ground of their +obligations; that they are responsible to him for all their acts; that +their allegiance as moral agents is not to reason or to society, but to +the heart-searching God; that the obligation to obey the laws of the +land does not rest on their consent to them, but to the fact government +is of God; that those who resist the magistrate, resist the ordinance of +God, and that they who resist, shall receive unto themselves damnation. +This is the only doctrine which can give stablity either to morals or to +government. Man's allegiance is not to reason in the abstract, nor to +society, but to a personal God, who has power to destroy both soul and +body in hell. This is a law revealed in the constitution of our nature, +as well as by the lips of Christ. And to no other sovereign can the soul +yield rational obedience. We might as well attempt to substitute some +mechanical contrivance of our own, for the law of gravitation, as a +means of keeping the planets in their orbits, as to expect to govern men +by any thing else than the fear of an Infinite God. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[258] In the _New York Independent_ for January 2, 1851, there is a +sermon delivered by Rev. Richard S. Storrs, Jr., of Brooklyn, Dec. 12, +1850, in which his opposition to the fugitive slave bill is expressly +placed on the injustice of slavery. He argues the matter almost +exclusively on that ground. "To what," he asks, "am I required to send +this man [the slave] back? To a system which . . . no man can contemplate +without shuddering." Again, "Why shall I send the man to this unjust +bondage? The fact that he has suffered it so long already is a reason +why I should NOT. . . . . Why shall I not HELP him, in his struggle for +the rights which God gave him indelibly, when he made him a man? There +is nothing to prevent, but the simple requirement of my equals in the +State; the parchment of the law, which they have written." This is an +argument against the Constitution and not against the fugitive slave +law. It is an open refusal to comply with one of the stipulations of our +national compact. If it has any force, it is in favor of the dissolution +of the Union. Nay, if the argument is sound it makes the dissolution of +the Union inevitable and obligatory. It should, therefore, in all +fairness be presented in that light, and not as an argument against the +law of Congress. Let it be understood that the ground now assumed is +that the Constitution can not be complied with. Let it be seen that the +moralists of our day have discovered that the compact framed by our +fathers, which all our public men in the general and state governments +have sworn to support, under which we have lived sixty years, and whose +fruits we have so abundantly enjoyed, is an immoral compact, and must be +repudiated out of duty to God. This is the real doctrine constantly +presented in the abolition prints; and if properly understood we should +soon see to what extent it commends itself to the judgment and +conscience of the people. + +[259] The doctrine that the executive officers of a government are not +the responsible judges of the justice of its decisions, is perfectly +consistent with the principle advanced above, viz: that every man has +the right to judge for himself whether any law or command is obligatory. +This latter principle relates to acts for which we are personally +responsible. If a military officer is commanded to commit treason or +murder, he is bound to refuse; because those acts are morally wrong. But +if commanded to lead an army against an enemy he is bound to obey, for +that is not morally wrong. He is the judge of his own act, but not of +the act of the government in declaring the war. So a sheriff, if he +thinks all capital punishment a violation of God's law, he can not carry +a sentence of death into effect, because the act itself is sinful in his +view. But he is not the judge of the justice of any particular sentence +he is called on to execute. He may judge of his own part of the +transaction: but he is not responsible for the act of the judge and the +jury. + + + + +THE BIBLE ARGUMENT ON SLAVERY. + + BY CHARLES HODGE, D.D., + OF PRINCETON, N. J. + + NOTE.--This Essay of Dr. Hodge, was designed by + the Editor, to follow that of Dr. Stringfellow, + but the copy was not received until the + stereotyping had progressed nearly to the close of + the volume. PUBLISHER. + + * * * * * + + Infatuation of the Abolitionists--Necessity of + Correct Opinions--Statement of the + Question--Slavery as Treated by Christ and his + Apostles--Slaveholding not Sinful--Answer to this + Argument--Dr. Channing's Answer--Admissions--Reply + to the Abolition Argument--Mr. Birney's + Admissions--Argument from the Old + Testament--Polygamy and Divorce--Inalienable + Rights. + + +EVERY one must be sensible that a very great change has, within a few +years, been produced in the feelings, if not in the opinions of the +public in relation to slavery. It is now the most exciting topic of +discussion. Nor is the excitement in society confined to discussion +alone. Designs and plans, of the most reprehensible character, are +boldly avowed and defended. What has produced this lamentable state of +things? No doubt many circumstances have combined in its production. We +think, however, that all impartial observers must acknowledge, that by +far the most prominent cause is the conduct of the abolitionists. . . . . +Nor is it by argument that the abolitionists have produced the present +unhappy excitement. Argument has not been the characteristic of their +publications. Denunciations of slaveholding, as manstealing, robbery, +piracy, and worse than murder; consequent vituperation of slaveholders +as knowingly guilty of the worst of crimes; passionate appeals to the +feelings of the inhabitants of the Northern States; gross exaggerations +of the moral and physical condition of the slaves, have formed the +staple of their addresses to the public.[260] We do not mean to say +that there has been no calm and Christian discussion of the subject. We +mean merely to state what has, to the best of our knowledge, been the +predominent character of the anti-slavery publications. There is one +circumstance which renders the error and guilt of this course of conduct +chargeable, in a great measure, on the abolitionists as a body, and even +upon those of their number who have pursued a different course. We refer +to the fact that they have upheld the most extreme publications, and +made common cause with the most reckless declaimers. The wildest ravings +of the _Liberator_ have been constantly lauded; agents have been +commissioned whose great distinction was a talent for eloquent +vituperation; coincidence of opinion as to the single point of immediate +emancipation has been sufficient to unite men of the most discordant +character. There is in this conduct such a strange want of adaptation +between the means and the end which they profess to have in view, as to +stagger the faith of most persons in the sincerity of their professions, +who do not consider the extremes to which even good men may be carried, +when they allow one subject to take exclusive possession of their minds. +We do not doubt their sincerity, but we marvel at their delusion. They +seem to have been led by the mere impulse of feeling, and a blind +imitation of their predecessors in England, to a course of measures, +which, though rational under one set of circumstances, is the hight of +infatuation under another. The English abolitionists addressed +themselves to a community, which, though it owned no slaves, had the +power to abolish slavery, and was therefore responsible for its +continuance. Their object was to rouse that community to immediate +action. For this purpose they addressed themselves to the feelings of +the people; they portrayed in the strongest colors the misery of the +slaves; they dilated on the gratuitous crime of which England was guilty +in perpetuating slavery, and did all they could to excite the passions +of the public. This was the course most likely to succeed, and it did +succeed. Suppose, however, that the British parliament had no power over +the subject; that it rested entirely with the colonial Assemblies to +decide whether slavery should be abolished or not. Does any man believe +the abolitionists would have gained their object? Did they in fact make +converts of the planters? Did they even pretend that such was their +design? Every one knows that their conduct produced a state of almost +frantic excitement in the West India Islands; that so far from the +public feeling in England producing a moral impression upon the planters +favorable to the condition of the slaves, its effect was directly the +reverse. It excited them to drive away the missionaries, to tear down +the chapels, to manifest a determination to rivet still more firmly the +chains on their helpless captives, and to resist to the utmost all +attempts for their emancipation or even improvement. All this was +natural, though it was all, under the circumstances, of no avail, except +to rouse the spirit of the mother country, and to endanger the result of +the experiment of emancipation, by exasperating the feelings of the +slaves. Precisely similar has been the result of the efforts of the +American abolitionists as regards the slaveholders of America. They have +produced a state of alarming exasperation at the South, injurious to the +slave and dangerous to the country, while they have failed to enlist the +feelings of the North. This failure has resulted, not so much from +diversity of opinion on the abstract question of slavery; or from want +of sympathy among Northern men in the cause of human rights, as from the +fact, that the common sense of the public has been shocked by the +incongruity and folly of hoping to effect the abolition of slavery in +one country, by addressing the people of another. We do not expect to +abolish despotism in Russia, by getting up indignation meetings in New +York. Yet for all the purposes of legislation on this subject, Russia is +not more a foreign country to us than South Carolina. The idea of +inducing the Southern slaveholder to emancipate his slaves by +denunciation, is about as rational as to expect the sovereigns of Europe +to grant free institutions, by calling them tyrants and robbers. Could +we send our denunciations of despotism among the subjects of those +monarchs, and rouse the people to a sense of their wrongs and a +determination to redress them, there would be some prospect of success. +But our Northern abolitionists disclaim, with great earnestness, all +intention of allowing their appeals to reach the ears of the slaves. It +is, therefore, not to be wondered at, that the course pursued by the +anti-slavery societies, should produce exasperation at the South, +without conciliating sympathy at the North. The impolicy of their +conduct is so obvious, that men who agree with them as to all their +leading principles, not only stand aloof from their measures, but +unhesitatingly condemn their conduct. This is the case with Dr. +Channing. Although his book was written rather to repress the feeling of +opposition to these societies, than to encourage it, yet he fully admits +the justice of the principal charges brought against them. We extract a +few passages on the subject. "The abolitionists have done wrong, I +believe; nor is their wrong to be winked at, because done fanatically, +or with good intentions; for how much mischief may be wrought with good +designs! They have fallen into the common error of enthusiasts, that of +exaggerating their object, of feeling as if no evil existed but that +which they opposed, and as if no guilt could be compared with that of +countenancing and upholding it. The tone of their newspapers, as far as +I have seen them, has often been fierce, bitter, and abusive." p. 133. +"Another objection to their movements is, that they have sought to +accomplish their object by a system of agitation; that is, by a system +of affiliated societies gathered, and held together, and extended, by +passionate eloquence." "The abolitionists might have formed an +association; but it should have been an elective one. Men of strong +principles, judiciousness, sobriety, should have been carefully sought +as members. Much good might have been accomplished by the co-operation +of such philanthropists. Instead of this, the abolitionists sent forth +their orators, some of them transported with fiery zeal, to sound the +alarm against slavery through the land, to gather together young and +old, pupils from schools, females hardly arrived at years of discretion, +the ignorant, the excitable, the impetuous, and to organize these into +associations for the battle against oppression. Very unhappily they +preached their doctrine to the colored people, and collected these into +societies.[261] To this mixed and excitable multitude, minute, +heartrending descriptions of slavery were given in the piercing tones of +passion; and slaveholders were held up as monsters of cruelty and +crime." p. 136. "The abolitionists often speak of Luther's vehemence as +a model to future reformers. But who, that has read history, does not +know that Luther's reformation was accompanied by tremendous miseries +and crimes, and that its progress was soon arrested? and is there not +reason to fear, that the fierce, bitter, persecuting spirit, which he +breathed into the work, not only tarnished its glory, but limited its +power? One great principle which we should lay down as immovably true, +is, that if a good work can not be carried on by the calm, +self-controlled, benevolent spirit of Christianity, then the time for +doing it has not come. God asks not the aid of our vices. He can +overrule them for good, but they are not to be chosen instruments of +human happiness." p. 138. "The adoption of the common system of +agitation by the abolitionists has proved signally unsuccessful. From +the beginning it created alarm in the considerate, and strengthened the +sympathies of the free States with the slaveholder. It made converts of +a few individuals, but alienated multitudes. Its influence at the South +has been evil without mixture.[262] It has stirred up bitter passions +and a fierce fanaticism, which have shut every ear and every heart +against its arguments and persuasions. These effects are the more to be +deplored, because the hope of freedom to the slaves lies chiefly in the +dispositions of his master. The abolitionist indeed proposed to convert +the slaveholders; and for this end he approached them with vituperation, +and exhausted on them the vocabulary of abuse! And he has reaped as he +sowed." p. 142. + +Unmixed good or evil, however, in such a world as ours, is a very rare +thing. Though the course pursued by the abolitionists has produced a +great preponderance of mischief, it may incidentally occasion no little +good. It has rendered it incumbent on every man to endeavor to obtain, +and, as far as he can, to communicate definite opinions and correct +principles on the whole subject. The community are very apt to sink down +into indifference to a state of things of long continuance, and to +content themselves with vague impressions as to right and wrong on +important points, when there is no call for immediate action. From this +state the abolitionists have effectually roused the public mind. The +subject of slavery is no longer one on which men are allowed to be of no +mind at all. The question is brought up before all of our public bodies, +civil and religious. Almost every ecclesiastical society has in some +way been called to express an opinion on the subject; and these calls +are constantly repeated. Under these circumstances, it is the duty of +all in their appropriate sphere, to seek for truth, and to utter it in +love. + +"The first question," says Dr. Channing, "to be proposed by a rational +being, is not what is profitable, but what is right. Duty must be +primary, prominent, most conspicuous, among the objects of human thought +and pursuit. If we cast it down from its supremacy, if we inquire first +for our interests and then for our duties we shall certainly err. We can +never see the right clearly and fully, but by making it our first +concern. . . . Right is the supreme good, and includes all other goods. +In seeking and adhering to it, we secure our true and only happiness. +All prosperity, not founded on it, is built on sand. If human affairs +are controlled, as we believe, by almighty rectitude and impartial +goodness, then to hope for happiness from wrong doing is as insane as to +seek health and prosperity by rebelling against the laws of nature, by +sowing our seed on the ocean, or making poison our common food. There is +but one unfailing good; and that is, fidelity to the everlasting law +written on the heart, and re-written and re-published in God's word. + +"Whoever places this faith in the everlasting law of rectitude must, of +course, regard the question of slavery, first, and chiefly, as a moral +question. All other considerations will weigh little with him compared +with its moral character and moral influences. The following remarks, +therefore, are designed to aid the reader in forming a just moral +judgment of slavery. Great truths, inalienable rights, everlasting +duties, these will form the chief subjects of this discussion. There are +times when the assertion of great principles is the best service a man +can render society. The present is a moment of bewildering excitement, +when men's minds are stormed and darkened by strong passions and fierce +conflicts; and also a moment of absorbing worldliness, when the moral +law is made to bow to expediency, and its high and strict requirements +are decried or dismissed as metaphysical abstractions, or impracticable +theories. At such a season to utter great principles without passion, +and in the spirit of unfeigned and universal good will, and to engrave +them deeply and durably on men's minds, is to do more for the world, +than to open mines of wealth, or to frame the most successful schemes of +policy." + +No man can refuse assent to these principles. The great question, +therefore, in relation to slavery is, what is right? What are the moral +principles which should control our opinions and conduct in regard to +it? Before attempting an answer to this question, it is proper to +remark, that we recognize no authoritative rule of truth and duty but +the word of God. Plausible as may be the arguments deduced from general +principles to prove a thing to be true or false, right and wrong, there +is almost always room for doubt and honest diversity of opinion. Clear +as we may think the arguments against despotism, there ever have been +thousands of enlightened and good men, who honestly believe it to be of +all forms of government the best and most acceptable to God. Unless we +can approach the consciences of men, clothed with some more imposing +authority than that of our own opinions and arguments, we shall gain +little permanent influence. Men are too nearly upon a par as to their +powers of reasoning, and ability to discover truth, to make the +conclusions of one mind an authoritative rule for others. It is our +object, therefore, not to discuss the subject of slavery upon abstract +principles, but to ascertain the scriptural rule of judgment and conduct +in relation to it. We do not intend to enter upon any minute or extended +examination of scriptural passages, because all that we wish to assume, +as to the meaning of the word of God, is so generally admitted as to +render the labored proof of it unnecessary. + +It is on all hands acknowledged that, at the time of the advent of Jesus +Christ, slavery in its worst forms prevailed over the whole world. The +Saviour found it around him in Judea; the apostles met with it in Asia, +Greece and Italy. How did they treat it? Not by the denunciation of +slaveholding as necessarily and universally sinful. Not by declaring +that all slaveholders were men-stealers and robbers, and consequently to +be excluded from the church and the kingdom of heaven. Not by insisting +on immediate emancipation. Not by appeals to the passions of men on the +evils of slavery, or by the adoption of a system of universal agitation. +On the contrary, it was by teaching the true nature, dignity, equality +and destiny of men; by inculcating the principles of justice and love; +and by leaving these principles to produce their legitimate effects in +ameliorating the condition of all classes of society. We need not stop +to prove that such was the course pursued by our Saviour and his +apostles, because the fact is in general acknowledged, and various +reasons are assigned, by the abolitionists and others, to account for +it. The subject is hardly alluded to by Christ in any of his personal +instructions. The apostles refer to it, not to pronounce upon it as a +question of morals, put to prescribe the relative duties of masters and +slaves. They caution those slaves who have believing or Christian +masters, not to despise them because they were on a perfect religious +equality with them, but to consider the fact that their masters were +their brethren, as an additional reason for obedience. It is remarkable +that there is not even an exhortation to masters to liberate their +slaves, much less is it urged as an imperative and immediate duty. They +are commanded to be kind, merciful and just; and to remember that they +have a Master in heaven. Paul represents this relation as of +comparatively little account: "Let every man abide in the same calling +wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant (or slave), care +not for it; though, should the opportunity of freedom be presented, +embrace it. These external relations, however, are of little importance, +for every Christian is a freeman in the highest and best sense of the +word, and at the same time is under the strongest bonds to Christ," 1 +Cor. vii: 20-22. It is not worth while to shut our eyes to these facts. +They will remain, whether we refuse to see them and be instructed by +them or not. If we are wiser, better, more courageous than Christ and +his apostles, let us say so; but it will do no good, under a paroxysm of +benevolence, to attempt to tear the Bible to pieces, or to exhort, by +violent exegesis, a meaning foreign to its obvious sense. Whatever +inferences may be fairly deducible from the fact, the fact itself can +not be denied that Christ and his inspired followers did treat the +subject of slavery in the manner stated above. This being the case, we +ought carefully to consider their conduct in this respect, and inquire +what lessons that conduct should teach us. + +We think no one will deny that the plan adopted by the Saviour and his +immediate followers must be the correct plan, and therefore obligatory +upon us, unless it can be shown that their circumstances were so +different from ours, as to make the rule of duty different in the two +cases. The obligation to point out and establish this difference, rests +of course upon those who have adopted a course diametrically the reverse +of that which Christ pursued. They have not acquitted themselves of +this obligation. They do not seem to have felt it necessary to +reconcile their conduct with his; nor does it appear to have occurred to +them, that their violent denunciations of slaveholding and of +slaveholders is an indirect reflection on his wisdom, virtue, or +courage. If the present course of the abolitionists is right, then the +course of Christ and the apostles were wrong. For the circumstances of +the two cases are, as far as we can see, in all essential particulars, +the same. They appeared as teachers of morality and religion, not as +politicians. The same is the fact with our abolitionists. They found +slavery authorized by the laws of the land. So do we. They were called +upon to receive into the communion of the Christian Church, both slave +owners and slaves. So are we. They instructed these different classes of +persons as to their respective duties. So do we. Where then is the +difference between the two cases? If we are right in insisting that +slaveholding is one of the greatest of all sins; that it should be +immediately and universally abandoned as a condition of church +communion, or admission into heaven, how comes it that Christ and his +apostles did not pursue the same course? We see no way of escape from +the conclusion that the conduct of the modern abolitionists, being +directly opposed to that of the authors of our religion, must be wrong +and ought to be modified or abandoned. + +An equally obvious deduction from the fact above referred to, is, that +slaveholding is not necessarily sinful. The assumption of the contrary +is the great reason why the modern abolitionists have adopted their +peculiar course. They argue thus: slaveholding is under all +circumstances sinful, it must, therefore, under all circumstances, and +at all hazards, be immediately abandoned. This reasoning is perfectly +conclusive. If there is error any where, it is in the premises, and not +in the deduction. It requires no argument to show that sin ought to be +at once abandoned. Every thing, therefore, is conceded which the +abolitionists need require, when it is granted that slaveholding is in +itself a crime. But how can this assumption be reconciled with the +conduct of Christ and the apostles? Did they shut their eyes to the +enormities of a great offence against God and man? Did they temporize +with a henious evil, because it was common and popular? Did they abstain +from even exhorting masters to emancipate their slaves, though an +imperative duty, from fear of consequences? Did they admit the +perpetrators of the greatest crimes to the Christian communion? Who +will undertake to charge the blessed Redeemer and his inspired followers +with such connivance at sin, and such fellowship with iniquity? Were +drunkards, murderers, liars, and adulterers thus treated? Were they +passed over without even an exhortation to forsake their sins? Were they +recognized as Christians? It can not be that slaveholding belongs to the +same category with these crimes; and to assert the contrary, is to +assert that Christ is the minister of sin. + +This is a point of so much importance, lying as it does at the very +foundation of the whole subject, that it deserves to be attentively +considered. The grand mistake, as we apprehend, of those who maintain +that slaveholding is itself a crime, is, that they do not discriminate +between slaveholding in itself considered, and its accessories at any +particular time or place. Because masters may treat their slaves +unjustly, or governments make oppressive laws in relation to them, is no +more a valid argument against the lawfulness of slaveholding, than the +abuse of parental authority, or the unjust political laws of certain +states, is an argument against the lawfulness of the parental relation, +or of civil government. This confusion of points so widely distinct, +appears to us to run through almost all the popular publications on +slavery, and to vitiate their arguments. Mr. Jay, for example, quotes +the second article of the constitution of the American Anti-Slavery +Society, which declares that "slaveholding is a heinous crime in the +sight of God," and then, to justify this declaration, makes large +citations from the laws of the several Southern States, to show what the +system of slavery is in this country, and concludes by saying, "This is +the system which the American Anti-Slavery Society declares to be +sinful, and ought therefore to be immediately abolished." There is, +however, no necessary connection between his premises and conclusion. We +may admit all those laws which forbid the instruction of slaves; which +interfere with their marital or parental rights; which subject them to +the insults and oppression of the whites, to be in the highest degree +unjust, without at all admitting that slaveholding itself is a crime. +Slavery may exist without any one of these concomitants. In pronouncing +on the moral character of an act, it is obviously necessary to have a +clear idea of what it is; yet how few of those who denounce slavery, +have any well-defined conception of its nature. They have a confused +idea of chains and whips, of degradation and misery, of ignorance and +vice, and to this complex conception they apply the name slavery, and +denounce it as the aggregate of all moral and physical evil. Do such +persons suppose that slavery, as it existed in the family of Abraham, +was such as their imaginations thus picture to themselves? Might not +that patriarch have had men purchased with his silver who were well +clothed, well instructed, well compensated for their labor, and in all +respects treated with parental kindness? Neither inadequate +remuneration, physical discomfort, intellectual ignorance, moral +degradation, is essential to the condition of a slave. Yet if all these +ideas are removed from the commonly received notion of slavery, how +little will remain. All the ideas which necessarily enter into the +definition of slavery are deprivation of personal liberty, obligation of +service at the discretion of another, and the transferable character of +the authority and claim of service of the master.[263] The manner in +which men are brought into this condition; its continuance, and the +means adopted for securing the authority and claim of masters, are all +incidental and variable. They may be reasonable or unreasonable, just or +unjust, at different times and places. The question, therefore, which +the abolitionists have undertaken to decide, is not whether the laws +enacted in the slaveholding States in relation to this subject are just +or not, but whether slaveholding, in itself considered, is a crime. The +confusion of these two points has not only brought the abolitionists +into conflict with the Scriptures, but it has, as a necessary +consequence, prevented their gaining the confidence of the North, or +power over the conscience of the South. When Southern Christians are +told that they are guilty of a heinous crime, worse than piracy, +robbery, or murder, because they hold slaves, when they know that Christ +and his apostles never denounced slaveholding as a crime, never called +upon men to renounce it as a condition of admission into the church, +they are shocked and offended, without being convinced. They are sure +that their accusers can not be wiser or better than their divine Master, +and their consciences are untouched by denunciations which they know, +if well founded, must affect not them only, but the authors of the +religion of the Bible. + +The argument from the conduct of Christ and his immediate followers, +seems to us decisive on the point, that slaveholding, in itself +considered, is not a crime. Let us see how this argument has been +answered. In the able "Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky, +proposing a plan for the instruction and emancipation of their slaves, +by a committee of the Synod of Kentucky," there is a strong and extended +argument to prove the sinfulness of slavery, _as it exists among us_, to +which we have little to object. When, however, the distinguished +draughter of that address comes to answer the objection, "God's word +sanctions slavery, and it can not, therefore, be sinful," he forgets the +essential limitation of the proposition which he had undertaken to +establish, and proceeds to prove that the Bible condemns slaveholding, +and not merely the kind or system of slavery which prevails in this +country. The argument drawn from the Scriptures, he says, needs no +elaborate reply. If the Bible sanctions slavery, it sanctions the kind +of slavery which then prevailed; the atrocious system which authorized +masters to starve their slaves, to torture them, to beat them, to put +them to death, and to throw them into their fish ponds. And he justly +asks, whether a man could insult the God of heaven worse than by saying +he does not disapprove of such a system? Dr. Channing presents strongly +the same view, and says, that an infidel would be laboring in his +vocation in asserting that the Bible does not condemn slavery. These +gentlemen, however, are far too clear-sighted not to discover, on a +moment's reflection, that they have allowed their benevolent feelings to +blind them to the real point at issue. No one denies that the Bible +condemns all injustice, cruelty, oppression, and violence. And just so +far as the laws then existing authorized these crimes, the Bible +condemned them. But what stronger argument can be presented, to prove +that the sacred writers did not regard slaveholding as in itself sinful, +than that while they condemn all unjust or unkind treatment (even +threatening), on the part of masters towards their slaves, they did not +condemn slavery itself? While they required the master to treat his +slave according to the law of love, they did not command him to set him +free. The very atrocity, therefore, of the system which then prevailed, +instead of weakening the argument, gives it tenfold strength. Then, if +ever, when the institution was so fearfully abused, we might expect to +hear the interpreters of the divine will, saying that a system which +leads to such results is the concentrated essence of all crimes, and +must be instantly abandoned, on pain of eternal condemnation. This, +however, they did not say, and we can not now force them to say it. They +treated the subject precisely as they did the cruel despotism of the +Roman emperors. The licentiousness, the injustice, the rapine and +murders of those wicked men, they condemned with the full force of +divine authority; but the mere extent of their power, though so liable +to abuse, they left unnoticed. + +Another answer to the argument in question is, that "The New Testament +does condemn slaveholding, as _practiced among us_, in the most explicit +terms furnished by the language in which the sacred penman wrote." This +assertion is supported by saying that God has condemned slavery, because +he has specified the parts which compose it and condemned them, one by +one, in the most ample and unequivocal form.[264] It is to be remarked +that the saving clause "slaveholding _as it exists among us_," is +introduced into the statement, though it seems to be lost sight of in +the illustration and confirmation of it which follow. We readily admit, +that if God does condemn all the parts of which slavery consists, he +condemns slavery itself. But the draughter of the address has made no +attempt to prove that this is actually done in the sacred Scriptures. +That many of the attributes of the system as established by law in this +country, are condemned, is indeed very plain; but that slaveholding in +itself is condemned, has not been and can not be proved. The writer, +indeed, says, "The Greek language had a word corresponding exactly, in +signification, with our word servant, but it had none which answered +precisely to our term slave. How then was an apostle writing in Greek, +to condemn our slavery? How can we expect to find in Scripture, the +words 'slavery is sinful,' when the language in which it is written +contained no term which expressed the meaning of our word slavery?" Does +the gentleman mean to say the Greek language could not express the idea +that slaveholding is sinful? Could not the apostles have communicated +the thought that it was the duty of masters to set their slaves free? +Were they obliged from paucity of words to admit slaveholders into the +Church? We have no doubt the writer himself could, with all ease, pen a +declaration in the Greek language void of all ambiguity, proclaiming +freedom to every slave upon earth, and denouncing the vengeance of +heaven upon every man who dared to hold a fellow creature in bondage. It +is not words we care for. We want evidence that the sacred writers +taught that it was incumbent on every slaveholder, as a matter of duty, +to emancipate his slaves (which no Roman or Greek law forbade), and that +his refusing to do so was a heinous crime in the sight of God. The Greek +language must be poor indeed if it can not convey such ideas. + +Another answer is given by Dr. Channing. "Slavery," he says, "in the age +of the apostle, had so penetrated society, was so intimately interwoven +with it, and the materials of servile war were so abundant, that a +religion, preaching freedom to its victims, would have armed against +itself the whole power of the State. Of consequence Paul did not assail +it. He satisfied himself with spreading principles, which, however +slowly, could not but work its destruction." To the same effect, Dr. +Wayland says, "The gospel was designed, not for one race or one time, +but for all men and for all times. It looked not at the abolition of +this form of evil for that age alone, but for its universal abolition. +Hence the important object of its author was to gain it a lodgment in +every part of the known world; so that, by its universal diffusion among +all classes of society, it might quietly and peacefully modify and +subdue the evil passions of men; and thus, without violence, work a +revolution in the whole mass of mankind. In this manner alone could its +object, a universal moral revolution, be accomplished. For if it had +forbidden the _evil_ without subduing the _principle_, if it had +proclaimed the unlawfulness of slavery, and taught slaves to _resist_ +the oppression of their masters, it would instantly have arrayed the two +parties in deadly hostility throughout the civilized world; its +announcement would have been the signal of a servile war; and the very +name of the Christian religion would have been forgotten amidst the +agitations of universal bloodshed. The fact, under these circumstances, +that the gospel does not forbid slavery, affords no reason to suppose +that it does not mean to prohibit it, much less does it afford ground +for belief that Jesus Christ intended to authorize it."[265] + +Before considering the force of this reasoning, it may be well to notice +one or two important admissions contained in these extracts. First, +then, it is admitted by these distinguished moralists, that the apostles +did not preach a religion proclaiming freedom to slaves; that Paul did +not assail slavery; that the gospel did not proclaim the unlawfulness of +slaveholding; it did not forbid it. This is going the whole length that +we have gone in our statement of the conduct of Christ and his apostles, +Secondly, these writers admit that the course adopted by the authors of +our religion was the only wise and proper one. Paul satisfied himself, +says Dr. Channing, with spreading principles, which, however slowly, +could not but work its destruction. Dr. Wayland says, that if the +apostles had pursued the opposite plan of denouncing slavery as a crime, +the Christian religion would have been ruined; its very name would have +been forgotten. Then how can the course of the modern abolitionists, +under circumstances so nearly similar, or even that of these reverend +gentlemen themselves be right? Why do not they content themselves with +doing what Christ and his apostles did? Why must they proclaim the +unlawfulness of slavery? Is human nature so much altered, that a course, +which would have produced universal bloodshed, and led to the very +destruction of the Christian religion, in one age, wise and Christian in +another? + +Let us, however, consider the force of the argument as stated above. It +amounts to this: Christ and his apostles thought slaveholding a great +crime, but they abstained from saying so, for fear of the consequences. +The very statement of the argument, in its naked form, is its +refutation. These holy men did not refrain from condemning sin from a +regard to consequences. They did not hesitate to array against the +religion which they taught, the strongest passions of men. Nor did they +content themselves with denouncing the general principles of evil; they +condemned its special manifestations. They did not simply forbid +intemperate sensual indulgence, and leave it to their hearers to decide +what did or what did not come under that name. They declared that no +fornicator, no adulterer, no drunkard could be admitted into the kingdom +of heaven. They did not hesitate, even when a little band, a hundred and +twenty souls, to place themselves in direct and irreconcilable +opposition to the whole polity, civil and religious, of the Jewish +State. It will hardly be maintained that slavery was, at that time, +more intimately interwoven with the institutions of society than +idolatry was. It entered into the arrangements of every family; of every +city and province, and of the whole Roman empire. The emperor was the +Pontifex Maximus; every department of the State, civil and military, was +pervaded by it. It was so united with the fabric of the government that +it could not be removed without effecting a revolution in all its parts. +The apostles knew this. They knew that to denounce polytheism, was to +array against them the whole power of the State. Their divine Master had +distinctly apprized them of the result. He told them that it would set +the father against the son, and the son against the father; the mother +against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; and that a +man's enemies should be those of his own household. He said that he came +not to bring peace, but a sword, and that such would be the opposition +to his followers, that whosoever killed them, would think he did God +service. Yet in view of these certain consequences, the apostles did +denounce idolatry, not merely in principle, but by name. The result was +precisely what Christ had foretold. The Romans, tolerant of every other +religion, bent the whole force of their wisdom and arms to extirpate +Christianity. The scenes of bloodshed, which century after century +followed the introduction of the gospel, did not induce the followers of +Christ to keep back or modify the truth. They adhered to their +declaration, that idolatry was a heinous crime. And they were right. We +expect similar conduct of our missionaries. We do not expect them to +refrain from denouncing the institutions of the heathen, as sinful, +because they are popular, or intimately interwoven with society. The +Jesuits, who adopted this plan, forfeited the confidence of Christendom, +without making converts of the heathen. It is, therefore, perfectly +evident that the authors of our religion were not withheld by these +considerations, from declaring slavery to be unlawful. If they did +abstain from this declaration, as is admitted, it must have been because +they did not consider it as in itself a crime. No other solution of +their conduct is consistent with their truth or fidelity. + +Another answer to the argument from Scripture is given by Dr. Channing +and others. It is said that it proves too much; that it makes the Bible +sanction despotism, even the despotism of Nero. Our reply to this +objection shall be very brief. We have already pointed out the fallacy +of confounding slaveholding itself with the particular system of slavery +prevalent at the time of Christ, and shown that the recognition of +slaveholders as Christians, though irreconcilable with the assumption +that slavery is a heinous crime, gives no manner of sanction to the +atrocious laws and customs of that age, in relation to that subject. +Because the apostles admitted the masters of slaves to the communion of +the church, it would be a strange inference that they would have given +this testimony to the Christian character of the master who oppressed, +starved, or murdered his slaves. Such a master would have been rejected +as an oppressor, or murderer, however, not as a slaveholder. In like +manner, the declaration that government is an ordinance of God, that +magistrates are to be obeyed within the sphere of their lawful +authority; that resistance to them, when in the exercise of that +authority, is sinful,[266] gives no sanction to the oppression of the +Roman emperors, or to the petty vexations of provincial officers. The +argument urged from Scripture in favor of passive submission, is not so +exactly parallel with the argument for slavery, as Dr. Channing +supposes. They agree in some points, but they differ in others. The +former is founded upon a false interpretation of Rom. xiii: 1-3; it +supposes that passage to mean what it does not mean, whereas the latter +is founded upon the sense which Dr. C. and other opponents of slavery, +admit to be the true sense. This must be allowed to alter the case +materially. Again, the argument for the lawfulness of slaveholding, is +not founded on the mere injunction, "Slaves, obey your masters," +analagous to the command, "Let every soul be subject to the higher +powers," but on the fact that the apostles did not condemn slavery; that +they did not require emancipation, and that they recognized slaveholders +as Christian brethren. To make Dr. Channing's argument of any force, it +must be shown that Paul not only enjoined obedience to a despotic +monarch, but that he recognized Nero as a Christian. When this is done, +then we shall admit that our argument is fairly met, and that it is just +as true that he sanctioned the conduct of Nero, as that he acknowledged +the lawfulness of slavery. + +The two cases, however, are analogous as to one important point. The +fact that Paul enjoins obedience under a despotic government, is a valid +argument to prove, not that he sanctioned the conduct of the reigning +Roman emperor, but that he did not consider the possession of despotic +power a crime. The argument of Dr. C. would be far stronger, and the two +cases more exactly parallel, had one of the emperors become a penitent +believer during the apostolic age, and been admitted to the Christian +church by inspired men, notwithstanding the fact that he retained his +office and authority. But even without this latter decisive +circumstance, we acknowledge that the mere holding of despotic power is +proved not to be a crime by the fact that the apostles enjoined +obedience to those who exercised it. Thus far the arguments are +analogous; and they prove that both political despotism and domestic +slavery, belong in morals to the _adiaphora_, to things indifferent. +They may be expedient or inexpedient, right or wrong, according to +circumstances. Belonging to the same class, they should be treated in +the same way. Neither is to be denounced as necessarily sinful, and to +be abolished immediately under all circumstances and at all hazards. +Both should be left to the operation of those general principles of the +gospel, which have peacefully ameliorated political institutions, and +destroyed domestic slavery throughout the greater part of Christendom. + +The truth on this subject is so obvious that it sometimes escapes +unconsciously from the lips of the most strenuous abolitionists. Mr. +Birney says: "He would have retained the power and authority of an +emperor; yet his oppressions, his cruelties would have ceased; the very +temper that prompted them, would have been suppressed; his power would +have been put forth for good and not for evil."[267] Here every thing is +conceded. The possession of despotic power is thus admitted not to be a +crime, even when it extends over millions of men, and subjects their +lives as well as their property and services to the will of an +individual. What becomes then of the arguments and denunciations of +slaveholding, which is despotism on a small scale? Would Mr. Birney +continue in the deliberate practice of a crime worse than robbery, +piracy, or murder? When he penned the above sentiment, he must have seen +that neither by the law of God nor of reason is it necessarily sinful to +sustain the relation of master over our fellow creatures; that if this +unlimited authority be used for the good of those over whom it extends +and for the glory of God, its possessor may be one of the best and most +useful of men. It is the abuse of this power for base and selfish +purposes which constitutes criminality, and not its simple possession. +He may say that the tendency to abuse absolute power is so great that it +ought never to be confided to the hands of men. This, as a general rule, +is no doubt true, and establishes the inexpediency of all despotic +governments, whether for the state or the family. But it leaves the +morality of the question just where it was, and where it was seen to be, +when Mr. Birney said he could with a good conscience be a Roman emperor, +_i. e._ the master of millions of slaves. + +The consideration of the Old Testament economy leads us to the same +conclusion on this subject. It is not denied that slavery was tolerated +among the ancient people of God. Abraham had servants in his family who +were "bought with his money," Gen. xvii: 13. "Abimeleck took sheep and +oxen and men servants and maid servants and gave them unto Abraham." +Moses, finding this institution among the Hebrews and all surrounding +nations, did not abolish it. He enacted laws directing how slaves were +to be treated, on what conditions they were to be liberated, under what +circumstances they might and might not be sold; he recognizes the +distinction between slaves and hired servants, (Deut. xv: 18); he speaks +of the way by which these bondmen might be procured; as by war, by +purchase, by the right of creditorship, by the sentence of a judge, by +birth; but not by seizing on those who were free, an offense punished by +death.[268] The fact that the Mosaic institutions recognized the +lawfulness of slavery is a point too plain to need proof, and is almost +universally admitted. Our argument from this acknowledged fact is, that +if God allowed slavery to exist, if he directed how slaves might be +lawfully acquired, and how they were to be treated, it is in vain to +contend that slaveholding is a sin, and yet profess reverence for the +Scriptures. Every one must feel that if perjury, murder, or idolatry had +been thus authorized, it would bring the Mosaic institutions into +conflict with the eternal principles of morals, and that our faith in +the divine origin of one or the other must be given up. + +Dr. Channing says, of this argument also, that it proves too much. "If +usages, sanctioned under the Old Testament and not forbidden under the +New, are right, then our moral code will undergo a sad deterioration. +Polygamy was allowed to the Israelites, was the practice of the holiest +men, and was common and licensed in the age of the apostles. But the +apostles no where condemn it, nor was the renunciation of it made an +essential condition of admission into the Christian Church." To this we +answer, that so far as polygamy and divorce were permitted under the old +dispensation, they were lawful, and became so by that permission; and +they ceased to be lawful when the permission was withdrawn, and a new +law given. That Christ did give a new law on this subject is abundantly +evident.[269] With regard to divorce, it is as explicit as language can +make it; and with regard to polygamy it is so plain as to have secured +the assent of every portion of the Christian churches in all ages. The +very fact that there has been no diversity of opinion or practice among +Christians with regard to polygamy, is itself decisive evidence that the +will of Christ was clearly revealed on the subject. The temptation to +continue the practice was as strong, both from the passions of men, and +the sanction of prior ages, as in regard to slavery. Yet we find no +traces of the toleration of polygamy in the Christian church, though +slavery long continued to prevail. There is no evidence that the +apostles admitted to the fellowship of Christians, those who were guilty +of this infraction of the law of marriage. It is indeed possible that in +cases where the converts had already more than one wife, the connection +was not broken off. It is evident this must have occasioned great evil. +It would lead to the breaking up of families, the separation of parents +and children, as well as husbands and wives. Under these circumstances +the connection may have been allowed to continue. It is however very +doubtful whether even this was permitted. It is remarkable that among +the numerous cases of conscience connected with marriage, submitted to +the apostles, this never occurs. + +Dr. Channing uses language much too strong when he says that polygamy +was common and licensed in the days of the apostles. It was contrary +both to Roman and Grecian laws and usages until the most degenerate +periods of the history of those nations. It was very far from being +customary among the Jews, though it might have been allowed. It is +probable that it was, therefore, comparatively extremely rare in the +apostolic age. This accounts for the fact that scarcely any notice is +taken of, the practice in the New Testament. Wherever marriage is spoken +of, it seems to be taken for granted, as a well understood fact, that it +was a contract for life between one man and one woman; compare Rom. vii: +2, 3. 1 Cor. vii: 1, 2, 39. It is further to be remarked on this +subject, that marriage is a positive institution. If God had ordained +that every man should have two or more wives, instead of one, polygamy +would have been lawful. But slaveholding is denounced as a _malum in +se_; as essentially unjust and wicked. This being the case, it could at +no period of the world receive the divine sanction, much less could it +have continued in the Christian church under the direction of inspired +men, when there was nothing to prevent its immediate abolition. The +answer then of Dr. Channing is unsatisfactory, first, because polygamy +does not belong to the same category in morals as that to which +slaveholding is affirmed to belong; and secondly, because it was so +plainly prohibited by Christ and his apostles as to secure the assent of +all Christians in all ages of the church. + +It is, however, argued that slavery must be sinful because it interferes +with the inalienable rights of men. We have already remarked, that +slavery, in itself considered, is a state of bondage, and nothing more. +It is the condition of an individual who is deprived of his personal +liberty, and is obliged to labor for another, who has the right to +transfer this claim of service, at pleasure. That this condition +involves the loss of many of the rights which are commonly and properly +called natural, because belonging to men, as men, is readily admitted. +It is, however, incumbent on those who maintain that slavery is, on this +account, necessarily sinful, to show that it is criminal, under all +circumstances, to deprive any set of men of a portion of their natural +rights. That this broad proposition can not be maintained is evident. +The very constitution of society supposes the forfeiture of a greater or +less amount of these rights, according to its peculiar organization. +That it is not only the privilege, but the duty of men to live together +in a regularly organized society, is evident from the nature which God +has given us; from the impossibility of every man living by and for +himself, and from the express declarations of the word of God. The +object of the formation of society is the promotion of human virtue and +happiness; and the form in which it should be organized, is that which +will best secure the attainment of this object. As, however, the +condition of men is so very various, it is impossible that the same form +should be equally conducive to happiness and virtue under all +circumstances. No one form, therefore, is prescribed in the Bible, or is +universally obligatory. The question which form is, under given +circumstances, to be adopted, is one of great practical difficulty, and +must be left to the decision of those who have the power to decide, on +their own responsibility. The question, however, does not depend upon +the degree in which these several forms may encroach upon the natural +rights of men. In the patriarchal age, the most natural, the most +feasible, and perhaps the most beneficial form of government was by the +head of the family. His power by the law of nature, and the necessity of +the case, extended without any other limit than the general principles +of morals, over his children, and in the absence of other regular +authority, would not terminate when the children arrived at a particular +age, but be continued during life. He was the natural umpire between his +adult offspring, he was their lawgiver and leader. His authority would +naturally extend over his more remote descendants, as they continued to +increase, and on his death, might devolve on the next oldest of the +family. There is surely nothing in this mode of constituting society +which is necessarily immoral. If found to be conducive to the general +good, it might be indefinitely continued. It would not suffice to render +its abrogation obligatory, to say that all men are born free and equal; +that the youth of twenty-one had as good a right to have a voice in the +affairs of the family as the aged patriarch; that the right of +self-government is indefeasible, etc. Unless it could be shown that the +great end of society was not attainable by this mode of organization, +and that it would be more securely promoted by some other, it would be +an immorality to require or to effect the change. And if a change +became, in the course of time, obviously desirable, its nature and +extent would be questions to be determined by the peculiar circumstances +of the case, and not by the rule of abstract rights. Under some +circumstances it might be requisite to confine the legislative power to +a single individual; under others to the hands of a few; and under +others to commit it to the whole community. It would be absurd to +maintain, on the ground of the natural equality of men, that a horde of +ignorant and vicious savages, should be organized as a pure democracy, +if experience taught that such a form of government was destructive to +themselves and others. These different modes of constituting civil +society are not necessarily either just or unjust, but become the one or +the other according to circumstances; and their morality is not +determined by the degree in which they encroach upon the natural rights +of men, but on the degree in which they promote or retard the progress +of human happiness and virtue. In this country we believe that the +general good requires us to deprive the whole female sex of the right of +self-government. They have no voice in the formation of the laws which +dispose of their persons and property. When married, we despoil them +almost entirely of a legal existence, and deny them some of the most +essential rights of property. We treat all minors much in the same way, +depriving them of many personal and almost all political rights, and +that too though they may be far more competent to exercise them aright +than many adults. We, moreover, decide that a majority of one may make +laws for the whole community, no matter whether the numerical majority +have more wisdom or virtue than the minority or not. Our plea for all +this is, that the good of the whole is thereby most effectually +promoted. This plea, if made out, justifies the case. In England and +France they believe that the good of the whole requires that the right +of governing, instead of being restricted, to all adult males, as we +arbitrarily determine, should be confined to that portion of the male +population who hold a given amount of property. In Prussia and Russia, +they believe with equal confidence, that public security and happiness +demand that all power should be in the hands of the king. If they are +right in their opinion, they are right in their practice. The principle +that social and political organizations are designed for the general +good, of course requires they should be allowed to change, as the +progress of society may demand. It is very possible that the feudal +system may have been well adapted to the state of Europe in the middle +ages. The change in the condition of the world, however, has gradually +obliterated almost all its features. The villein has become the +independent farmer; the lord of the manor, the simple landlord; and the +sovereign leige, in whom, according to the fiction of the system, the +fee of the whole country vested, has become a constitutional monarch. It +may be that another series of changes may convert the tenant into an +owner, the lord into a rich commoner, and the monarch into a president. +Though these changes have resulted in giving the people the enjoyment of +a larger amount of their rights than they formerly possessed, it is not +hence to be inferred that they ought centuries ago to have been +introduced suddenly or by violence. Christianity "operates as +alterative." It was never designed to tear up the institutions of +society by the roots. It produces equality not by prostrating trees of +all sizes to the ground, but by securing to all the opportunity of +growing, and by causing all to grow, until the original disparity is no +longer perceptible. All attempts, by human wisdom, to frame society, of +a sudden, after a pattern cut by the rule of abstract rights, have +failed; and whether they had failed or not, they can never be urged as a +matter of moral obligation. It is not enough, therefore, in order to +prove the sinfulness of slaveholding, to show that it interferes with +the natural rights of a portion of the community. It is in this respect +analagous to all other social institutions. They are all of them +encroachments on human rights, from the freest democracy to the most +absolute despotism. + +It is further to be remarked, that all these rights suppose +corresponding duties, and where there is an incompetence for the duty, +the claim to exercise the right ceases. No man can justly claim the +exercise of any right to the injury of the community of which he is a +member. It is because females and minors are judged (though for +different reasons), incompetent to the proper discharge of the duties of +citizenship, that they are deprived of the right of suffrage. It is on +the same principle that a large portion of the inhabitants of France and +England are deprived of the same privilege. As it is acknowledged that +the slaves may be justly deprived of political rights, on the ground of +their incompetency to exercise them without injury to the community, it +must be admitted, by parity of reason, that they may be justly deprived +of personal freedom, if incompetent to exercise it with safety to +society. If this be so, then slavery is a question of circumstances, and +not a _malum in se_. It must be borne in mind that the object of these +remarks is not to prove that the American, the British, or the Russian +form of society, is expedient or otherwise; much less to show that the +slaves in this country are actually unfit for freedom, but simply to +prove that the mere fact that slaveholding interferes with natural +rights, is not enough to justify the conclusion that it is necessarily +and universally sinful. + +Another very common and plausible argument on this subject is, that a +man can not be made a matter of property. He can not be degraded into a +brute or chattel, without the grossest violation of duty and propriety; +and that as slavery confers this right of property in human beings, it +must, from its very nature, be a crime. We acknowledge the correctness +of the principle on which this argument is founded, but deny that it is +applicable to the case in hand. We admit that it is not only an +enormity, but an impossibility, that a man should be made a thing, as +distinguished from a rational and moral being. It is not within the +compass of human law to alter the nature of God's creatures. A man must +be regarded and treated as a rational being, even in his greatest +degradation. That he is, in some countries and under some institutions, +deprived of many of the rights and privileges of such a being, does not +alter his nature. He must be viewed as a man under the most atrocious +system of slavery that ever existed. Men do not arraign and try on +evidence, and punish on conviction, either things or brutes. Yet slaves +are under a regular system of laws which, however unjust they may be, +recognize their character as accountable beings. When it is inferred +from the fact that the slave is called the property of his master, that +he is thereby degraded from his rank as a human being, the argument +rests on the vagueness of the term _property_. Property is the right of +possession and use, and must of necessity vary according to the nature +of the objects to which it attaches. A man has property in his wife, in +his children, in his domestic animals, in his fields and in his forests. +That is, he has the right to the possession and use of these several +objects, according to their nature. He has no more right to use a brute +as a log of wood, in virtue of the right of property, than he has to use +a man as a brute. There are general principles of rectitude, obligatory +on all men, which require them to treat all the creatures of God +according to the nature which he has given them. The man who should burn +his horse because he was his property, would find no justification in +that plea, either before God or man. When, therefore, it is said that +one man is the property of another, it can only mean that the one has a +right to use the other _as a man_, but not as a brute, or as a thing. He +has no right to treat him as he may lawfully treat his ox, or a tree. He +can convert his person to no use to which a human being may not, by the +laws of God and nature, be properly applied. When this idea of property +comes to be analyzed, it is found to be nothing more than a claim of +service either for life or for a term of years. This claim is +transferable, and is of the nature of property, and is consequently +liable for the debts of the owner, and subject to his disposal by will +or otherwise. It is probable that the slave is called the property of +his master in the statute books, for the same reason that children are +called the servants of the parents, or that wives are said to be the +same person with their husbands, and to have no separate existence of +their own. These are mere technicalities, designed to facilitate certain +legal processes. Calling a child a servant, does not alter his relation +to his father; and a wife is still a woman, though the courts may rule +her out of existence. In like manner, where the law declares, that a +slave shall be deemed and adjudged to be a chattel personal in the hands +of his master, it does not alter his nature, nor does it confer on the +master any right to use him in a manner inconsistent with that nature. +As there are certain moral principles which direct how brutes are to be +used by those to whom they belong, so there are fixed principles which +determine how a man may be used. These legal enactments, therefore, are +not intended to legislate away the nature of the slave, as a human +being; they serve to facilitate the transfer of the master's claim of +service, and to render that claim the more readily liable for his debts. +The transfer of authority and claim of service from one master to +another, is, in principle, analagous to transfer of subjects from one +sovereign to another. This is a matter of frequent occurrence. By the +treaty of Vienna, for example, a large part of the inhabitants of +central Europe changed masters. Nearly half of Saxony was transferred to +Prussia; Belgium was annexed to Holland. In like manner, Louisiana was +transferred from France to the United States. In none of these cases +were the people consulted. Yet in all, a claim of service more or less +extended, was made over from one power to another. There was a change of +masters. The mere transferable character of the master's claim to the +slave, does not convert the latter into a thing, or degrade him from his +rank as a human being. Nor does the fact that he is bound to serve for +life, produce this effect. It is only property in his time for life, +instead of for a term of years. The nature of the relation is not +determined by the period of its continuance. + +It has, however, been argued that the slave is the property of his +master, not only in the sense admitted above, but in the sense assumed +in the objection, because his children are under the same obligation of +service as the parent. The hereditary character of slavery, however, +does not arise out of the idea of the slave as a chattel or thing, a +mere matter of property, it depends on the organization of society. In +England one man is born a peer, another a commoner; in Russia one man is +born a noble, another a serf; here, one is born a free citizen, another +a disfranchised outcast (the free colored man), and a third a slave. +These forms of society, as before remarked, are not necessarily, or in +themselves, either just or unjust; but become the one or the other, +according to circumstances. Under a state of things in which the best +interests of the community would be promoted by the British or Russian +organization, they would be just and acceptable to God; but under +circumstances in which they would be injurious, they would be unjust. It +is absolutely necessary, however, to discriminate between an +organization essentially vicious, and one which, being in itself +indifferent, may be right or wrong, according to circumstances. On the +same principle, therefore, that a human being in England is deprived, by +the mere accident of birth, of the right of suffrage, and in Russia has +the small portion of liberty which belongs to a commoner, or the still +smaller belonging to a serf, in this country one class is by birth +invested with all the rights of citizenship, another (females) is +deprived all political and many personal rights, and a third of even +their personal liberty. Whether this organization be right or wrong, is +not now the question. We are simply showing that the fact that the +children of slaves become by birth slaves, is not to be referred to the +idea of the master's property in the body and soul of the parent, but +results from the form of society, and is analagous to other social +institutions, as far as the principle is concerned, that children take +the rank, or the political or social condition of the parent. + +We prefer being chargeable with the sin of wearisome repetition, to +leaving any room for the misapprehension of our meaning. We, therefore, +again remark that we are discussing the mere abstract morality of these +forms of social organization, and not their expediency. We have in view +the vindication of the character of the inspired writings and inspired +men from the charge of having overlooked the blackest of human crimes, +and of having recognized the worst of human beings as Christians. We +say, therefore, that an institution which deprives a certain portion of +the community of their personal liberty, places them under obligation of +service to another portion, is no more necessarily sinful than one which +invests an individual with despotic power (such as Mr. Birney would +consent to hold); or than one which limits the right of government to a +small portion of the people, or restricts it to the male part of the +community. However inexpedient, under certain circumstances, any one of +these arrangements may be, they are not necessarily immoral, nor do they +become such, from the fact that the accident of birth determines the +relation in which one part of the community is to stand to the other. In +ancient Egypt, as in modern India, birth decided the position and +profession of every individual. One was born a priest, another a +merchant, another a laborer, another a soldier. As there must always be +these classes, it is no more necessarily immoral, to have them all +determined by hereditary descent, than it was among the Israelites to +have all the officers of religion from generation to generation thus +determined; or that birth should determine the individual who is to fill +a throne, or occupy a seat in parliament. + +Again, Dr. Wayland argues, if the right to hold slaves be conceded, +"there is of course conceded all other rights necessary to insure its +possession. Hence, inasmuch as the slave can be held in this condition +only while he remains in the lowest state of mental imbecility, it +supposes the master to have the right to control his intellectual +development just as far as may be necessary to secure entire +subjection."[270] He reasons in the same way, to show that the religious +knowledge and even eternal happiness of the slave are as a matter of +right conceded to the power of the master, if the right of slaveholding +is admitted. The utmost force that can be allowed to this argument is, +that the right to hold slaves includes the right to exercise all +_proper_ means to insure its possession. It is in this respect on a par +with all other rights of the same kind. The right of parents to the +service of their children, of husbands to the obedience of their wives, +of masters over their apprentices, of creditors over their debtors, of +rulers over their subjects, all suppose the right to adopt proper means +for their secure enjoyment. They, however, give no sanction to the +employment of any and every means which cruelty, suspicion, or jealousy +may choose to deem necessary, nor of any which would be productive of +greater general evil than the forfeiture of the rights themselves. +According to the ancient law even among the Jews, the power of life and +death was granted to the parent; we concede only the power of +correction. The old law gave the same power to the husband over the +wife. The Roman law confided the person and even life of the debtor to +the mercy of the creditor. According to the reasoning of Dr. Wayland, +all these laws must be sanctioned if the rights which they were deemed +necessary to secure, are acknowledged. It is clear, however, that the +most unrighteous means may be adopted to secure a proper end, under the +plea of necessity. The justice of the plea must be made out on its own +grounds, and can not be assumed on the mere admission of the propriety +of the end aimed at. Whether the slaves of this country may be safely +admitted to the enjoyments of personal liberty, is a matter of dispute; +but that they could not, consistently with the public welfare, be +intrusted with the exercise of political power, is in on all hands +admitted. It is, then, the acknowledged right of the state to govern +them by laws in the formation of which they have no voice. But it is the +universal plea of the depositaries of irresponsible power, sustained too +by almost universal experience, that men can be brought to submit to +political despotism only by being kept in ignorance and poverty. Dr. +Wayland, then, if he concedes the right of the state to legislate for +the slaves, must, according to his own reasoning, acknowledge the right +to adopt all the means necessary for the security of this irresponsible +power, and of consequence, that the state has the right to keep the +blacks in the lowest state of degradation. If he denies the validity of +this argument in favor of political despotism, he must renounce his own +against the lawfulness of domestic slavery. Dr. Wayland himself would +admit the right of the Emperor of Russia to exercise a degree of power +over his present half civilized subjects, which could not be maintained +over an enlightened people, though he would be loth to acknowledge his +right to adopt all the means necessary to keep them in their present +condition. The acknowledgment, therefore, of the right to hold slaves, +does not involve the acknowledgment of the right to adopt measures +adapted and intended to perpetuate their present mental and physical +degradation. + +We have entered much more at length into the abstract argument on this +subject than we intended. It was our purpose to confine our remarks to +the scriptural view of the question. But the consideration of the +objections derived from the general principles of morals, rendered it +necessary to enlarge our plan. As it appears to us too clear to admit of +either denial or doubt, that the Scriptures do sanction slaveholding; +that under the old dispensation it was expressly permitted by divine +command, and under the New Testament is nowhere forbidden or denounced, +but on the contrary, acknowledged to be consistent with the Christian +character and profession (that is, consistent with justice, mercy, +holiness, love to God and love to man), to declare it to be a heinous +crime, is a direct impeachment of the word of God. We, therefore, felt +it incumbent upon us to prove, that the sacred Scriptures are not in +conflict with the first principles of morals; that what they sanction is +not the blackest and basest of all offenses in the sight of God. To do +this, it was necessary to show what slavery is, to distinguish between +the relation itself, and the various cruel or unjust laws which may be +made either to bring men into it, or to secure its continuance; to show +that it no more follows from the admission that the Scriptures sanction +the right of slaveholding, that it, therefore, sanctions all the +oppressive slave laws of any community, than it follows from the +admission of the propriety of parental, conjugal, or political +relations, that it sanctions all the conflicting codes by which these +relations have at different periods and in different countries been +regulated. + +We have had another motive in the preparation of this article. The +assumption that slaveholding is itself a crime, is not only an error, +but it is an error fraught with evil consequences. It not merely brings +its advocates into conflict with the Scriptures, but it does much to +retard the progress of freedom; it embitters and divides the members of +the community, and distracts the Christian church. Its operation in +retarding the progress of freedom is obvious and manifold. In the first +place, it directs the battery of the enemies of slavery to the wrong +point. It might be easy for them to establish the injustice or cruelty +of certain slave laws, where it is not in their power to establish the +sinfulness of slavery itself.[271] They, therefore, waste their +strength. Nor is this the least evil. They promote the cause of their +opponents. If they do not discriminate between slaveholding and the +slave laws, it gives the slaveholder not merely an excuse but an +occasion and a reason for making no such distinction. He is thus led to +feel the same conviction in the propriety of the one that he does in +that of the other. His mind and conscience may be satisfied that the +mere act of holding slaves is not a crime. This is the point, however, +to which the abolitionist directs his attention. He examines their +arguments, and becomes convinced of their inconclusiveness, and is not +only thus rendered impervious to their attacks, but is exasperated by +what he considers their unmerited abuse. In the mean time his attention +is withdrawn from far more important points;--the manner in which he +treats his slaves, and the laws enacted for the security of his +possession. These are points on which his judgment might be much more +readily convinced of error, and his conscience of sin. + +In the second place, besides fortifying the position and strengthening +the purpose of the slaveholder, the error in question divides and +weakens the friends of freedom. To secure any valuable result by public +sentiment, you must satisfy the public mind and rouse the public +conscience. Their passions had better be allowed to rest in peace. As +the anti-slavery societies declare it to be their object to convince +their fellow-citizens that slaveholding is necessarily a heinous crime +in the sight of God, we consider their attempt as desperate, so long as +the Bible is regarded as the rule of right and wrong. They can hardly +secure either the verdict of the public mind or of the public conscience +in behalf of this proposition. Their success hitherto has not been very +encouraging, and is certainly not very flattering, if Dr. Channing's +account of the class of persons to whom they have principally addressed +their arguments, is correct. The tendency of their exertions, be their +success great or small, is not to unite, but to divide. They do not +carry the judgment or conscience of the people with them. They form, +therefore, a class by themselves. Thousands who earnestly desire to see +the South convinced of the injustice and consequent impolicy of their +slave laws, and under this conviction, of their own accord, adopting +those principles which the Bible enjoins, and which tend to produce +universal intelligence, virtue, liberty and equality, without violence +and sudden change, and which thus secure private and public prosperity, +stand aloof from the abolitionists, not merely because they disapprove +of their spirit and mode of action, but because they do not admit their +fundamental principle. + +In the third place, the error in question prevents the adoption of the +most effectual means of extinguishing slavery. These means are not the +opinions or feelings of the non-slaveholding States, nor the +denunciations of the holders of slaves, but the improvement, +intellectual and moral, of the slaves themselves. Slavery has but two +natural and peaceful modes of death. The one is the increase of the +slave population until it reaches the point of being unproductive. When +the number of slaves becomes so great that the master can not profitably +employ them, he manumits them in self-defense. This point would probably +have been reached long ago, in many of the Southern States, had not the +boundless extent of the south-western section of the Union presented a +constant demand for the surplus hands. Many planters in Virginia and +Maryland, whose principles or feelings revolt at the idea of selling +their slaves to the South, find that their servants are gradually +reducing them to poverty, by consuming more than they produce. The +number, however, of slaveholders who entertain these scruples is +comparatively small. And as the demand for slave labor in the still +unoccupied regions of the extreme south-west is so great, and is likely +to be so long continued, it is hopeless to think of slavery dying out by +becoming a public burden. The other natural and peaceful mode of +extinction, is the gradual elevation of the slaves in knowledge, virtue, +and property to the point at which it is no longer desirable or possible +to keep them in bondage.[272] Their chains thus gradually relax, until +they fall off entirely. It is in this way that Christianity has +abolished both political and domestic bondage, whenever it has had free +scope. It enjoins a fair compensation for labor; it insists on the moral +and intellectual improvement of all classes of men; it condemns all +infractions of marital or parental rights; in short, it requires not +only that free scope should be allowed to human improvement, but that +all suitable means should be employed for the attainment of that end. +The feudal system, as before remarked, has, in a great measure, been +thus outgrown in all the European states. The third estate, formerly +hardly recognized as having an existence, is becoming the controlling +power in most of those ancient communities. The gradual improvement of +the people rendered it impossible, and undesirable to deprive them of +their just share in the government. And it is precisely in those +countries where this improvement is most advanced that the feudal +institutions are the most completely obliterated, and the general +prosperity the greatest. In like manner the gospel method of +extinguishing slavery is by improving the condition of the slave. The +grand question is, How is this to be done? The abolitionist answers, by +immediate emancipation. Perhaps he is right, perhaps he is wrong; but +whether right or wrong, it is not the practical question for the North. +Among a community which have the power to emancipate, it would be +perfectly proper to urge that measure on the ground of its being the +best means of promoting the great object of the advancement of human +happiness and virtue. But the error of the abolitionists is, that they +urge this measure from the wrong quarter, and upon the wrong ground. +They insist upon immediate abolition because slavery is a sin, and its +extinction a duty. If, however, slaveholding is not in itself sinful, +its abolition is not necessarily a duty. The question of duty depends +upon the effects of the measure, about which men may honestly differ. +Those who believe that it would advance the general good, are bound to +promote it; while those who believe the reverse, are equally bound to +resist it. The abolitionists, by insisting upon one means of +improvement, and that on untenable ground, are most effectually working +against the adoption of any other means, by destroying the disposition +and power to employ them. It is in this way that the error to which we +have referred throughout this article, is operating most +disadvantageously for the cause of human liberty and happiness. The fact +is, that the great duty of the South is not emancipation; but +improvement.[273] The former is obligatory only as a means to an end, +and, therefore, only under circumstances where it would promote that +end. In like manner the great duty of despotic governments is not the +immediate granting of free institutions, but the constant and assiduous +cultivation of the best interests (knowledge, virtue, and happiness) of +the people. Where free institutions would conduce to this object, they +would be granted, and just so far and so fast as this becomes apparent. + +Again, the opinion that slaveholding is itself a crime, must operate to +produce the disunion of the States, and the division of all the +ecclesiastical societies in this country. The feelings of the people may +be excited violently for a time, but the transport soon passes away. But +if the conscience is enlisted in the cause, and becomes the controlling +principle, the alienation between the North and the South must become +permanent. The opposition to Southern institutions will become calm, +constant, and unappeasable. Just so far as this opinion operates, it +will lead those who entertain it to submit to any sacrifices to carry it +out, and give it effect. We shall become two nations in feeling, which +must soon render us two nations in fact. With regard to the church, its +operation will be more summary. If slaveholding is a heinous crime, +slaveholders must be excluded from the church. Several of our +judicatories have already taken this position. Should the General +Assembly adopt it, the church is ipso facto, divided. If the opinion in +question is correct, it must be maintained, whatever are the +consequences. We are no advocates of expediency in morals. We have no +more right to teach error in order to prevent evil, than we have a right +to do evil to promote good. On the other hand, if the opinion is +incorrect, its evil consequences render it a duty to prove and exhibit +its unsoundness. It is under the deep impression that the primary +assumption of the abolitionists is an error, that its adoption tends to +the distraction of the country, and the division of the church; and that +it will lead to the longer continuance and greater severity of slavery, +that we have felt constrained to do what little we could towards its +correction. + +We have little apprehension that any one can so far mistake our object, +or the purport of our remarks, as to suppose either that we regard +slavery as a desirable institution, or that we approve of the slave laws +of the Southern States. So far from this being the case, the extinction +of slavery, and the amelioration of those laws are as sincerely desired +by us, as by any of the abolitionists. The question is not about the +continuance of slavery, and of the present system, but about the proper +method of effecting the removal of the evil. We maintain, that it is not +by denouncing slaveholding as a sin, or by universal agitation at the +North, but by the improvement of the slaves. It no more follows that +because the master has a right to hold slaves, he has a right to keep +them in a state of degradation in order to perpetuate their bondage, +than that the Emperor of Russia has a right to keep his subjects in +ignorance and poverty, in order to secure the permanence and quiet +possession of his power. We hold it to be the grand principle of the +gospel, that every man is bound to promote the moral, intellectual, and +physical improvement of his fellow men. Their civil or political +relations are in themselves matters of indifference. Monarchy, +aristocracy, democracy, domestic slavery, are right or wrong as they +are, for the time being, conducive to this great end, or the reverse. +They are not objects to which the improvement of society is to be +sacrificed; nor are they strait-jackets to be placed upon the public +body to prevent its free development. We think, therefore, that the +true method for Christians to treat this subject, is to follow the +example of Christ and his apostles in relation both to despotism and +slavery. Let them enforce as moral duties the great principles of +justice and mercy, and all the specific commands and precepts of the +Scriptures. If any set of men have servants, bond or free, to whom they +refuse a proper compensation for their labor, they violate a moral duty +and an express command of Scripture. What that compensation should be, +depends upon a variety of circumstances. In some cases the slaveholder +would be glad to compound for the support of his slaves by giving the +third or the half of the proceeds of his estate. Yet this at the North +would be regarded as a full remuneration for the mere labor of +production. Under other circumstances, however, a mere support, would be +very inadequate compensation; and when inadequate, it is unjust. If the +compensation be more than a support, the surplus is the property of the +laborer, and can not morally, whatever the laws may be, be taken from +him. The right to accumulate property is an incident to the right of +reward for labor. And we believe there are few slaveholding countries in +which the right is not practically acknowledged, since we hear so +frequently of slaves purchasing their own freedom. It is very common for +a certain moderate task[274] to be assigned as a day's work, which may +be regarded as the compensation rendered by the slave for his support. +The residue of the day is at his own disposal, and may be employed for +his own profit. We are not now, however, concerned about details. The +principle that "the laborer is worthy of his hire" and should enjoy it, +is a plain principle of morals and command of the Bible, and can not be +violated with impunity. + +Again, if any man has servants or others whom he forbids to marry, or +whom he separates after marriage, he breaks as clearly a revealed law as +any written on the pages of inspiration, or on the human heart. If he +interferes unnecessarily with the authority of parents over their +children, he again brings himself into collision with his Maker. If any +man has under his charge, children, apprentices, servants, or slaves, +and does not teach them, or cause them to be taught, the will of God; +if he deliberately opposes their intellectual, moral, or religious +improvement, he makes himself a transgressor. That many of the laws of +the slaveholding States are opposed to these simple principles of +morals, we fully believe; and we do not doubt that they are sinful and +ought to be rescinded. If it be asked what would be the consequence of +thus acting on the principles of the gospel, of following the example +and obeying the precepts of Christ? We answer, the gradual elevation of +the slaves in intelligence, virtue, and wealth; the peaceable and speedy +extinction of slavery; the improvement in general prosperity of all +classes of society, and the consequent increase in the sum of human +happiness and virtue. This has been the result of acting on these +principles in all past ages; and just in proportion as they have been +faithfully observed. The degradation of most eastern nations, and of +Italy, Spain and Ireland, are not more striking examples of the +consequences of their violation, than Scotland, England, and the +non-slaveholding States are of the benefits, of their being even +imperfectly obeyed. Men can not alter the laws of God. It would be as +easy for them to arrest the action of the force of gravity, as to +prevent the systematic violation of the principles of morals being +productive of evil. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[260] See Cheever's "God against Slavery," and Wendell Phillips' Speech +on Harper's Ferry, &c., &c.--ED. + +[261] Their object, evidently, has been to prevent the free people of +color from emigrating to Liberia, and to retain them in this country as +a cat's paw to work out their own designs.--ED. + +[262] But for this, a large proportion of our slaves, instead of being +instructed orally, would have been taught to read the Scriptures for +themselves.--ED. + +[263] Paley's definition is still more simple, "I define," he says, +"slavery to be an obligation to labor for the benefit of the master, +without the contract or consent of the servant." Moral Philosophy, book +iii, ch. 3. + +[264] Address, etc., p. 20. + +[265] Elements of Moral Science, p. 225. + +[266] It need hardly be remarked, that the command to obey magistrates, +as given in Rom. xiii: 1-3, is subject to the limitation stated above. +They are to be obeyed as magistrates; precisely as parents are to be +obeyed as parents, husbands as husbands. The command of obedience is +expressed as generally, in the last two cases, as in the first. A +magistrate beyond the limits of his lawful authority (whatever that may +be), has, in virtue of this text, no more claim to obedience, than a +parent who, on the strength of the passage "Children, obey your parents +in all things," should command his son to obey him as a monarch or a +pope. + +[267] Quoted by Pres. Young, p. 45, of the Address, etc. + +[268] On the manner in which slaves were acquired, compare Deut. xx: 14. +xxi: 10, 11. Ex. xxii: 3. Neh. v: 4, 5. Gen. xiv: 14. xv: 3. xvii: 23. +Num. xxxi: 18, 35. Deut. xxv: 44, 46. + +As to the manner in which they were to be treated, see Lev. xxv: 39-53. +Ex. xx: 10. xxii: 2-8. Deut. xxv: 4-6, etc. etc. + +[269] "The word of Christ, (Matt. xix; 9), may be construed by an easy +implication to prohibit polygamy: for if 'whoever putteth away his wife, +and _marrieth_ another committeth adultery' he who marrieth another +_without_ putting away the first, is no less guilty of adultery: because +the adultery does not consist in the repudiation of the first wife, +(for, however unjust and cruel that may be, it is not adultery), but in +entering into a second marriage during the legal existence and +obligation of the first. The several passages in St. Paul's writings, +which speak of marriage, always suppose it to signify the union of one +man with one woman."--PALEY'S Moral Phil., book iii, chap. 6. + +[270] Elements of Moral Science, p. 221. + +[271] Clarkson and Wilberforce were anxious, to have the slave trade +speedily abolished, lest the force of their arguments should be weakened +by its amelioration.--ED. + +[272] If the negro is susceptible of this degree of improvement, he +ought _then_ to be free.--ED. + +[273] Abolition has impeded this improvement.--ED. + +[274] We heard the late Dr. Wisner, after his long visit to the South, +say, that the usual task of a slave in South Carolina and Georgia, was +about the third of a day's work for a Northern laborer. + + + + + +THE + +EDUCATION, LABOR, AND WEALTH OF THE SOUTH. + +BY SAMUEL A. CARTWRIGHT, M.D., + +OF LOUISIANA. + + + NOTE.--This article of Dr. Cartwright's was + designed by the Editor to follow "Cotton is King," + but the copy was not received until the + stereotyping had progressed nearly to + completion.--PUBLISHER. + + * * * * * + + It has long been a favorite argument of the + abolitionists to assert that slave labor is + unproductive, that the prevalence of slavery tends + to diminish not only the productions of a country, + but also the value of the lands. On this ground, + appeals are constantly made to the + non-slaveholders of the South, to induce them to + abolish slavery; assigning as a reason, that their + lands would rise in value so as to more than + compensate the loss of the slaves. + + That we may be able to ascertain how much truth + there is in this assertion, let us refer to + _figures_ and _facts_. The following deductions + from the Report of the Auditor of Public Accounts + of the State of Louisiana, speak in a language too + plain to be misunderstood by any one, and prove + conclusively, that, so far at least as the slave + States are concerned, a dense slave population + gives the highest value and greatest + productiveness to every species of property. + Similar deductions might he drawn from the + Auditors' Reports of every slave State in the + Union EDITOR. + + 1. _Annual Report of the Auditor of Public + Accounts of the State of Louisiana._ Baton Rouge, + 1859. + + 2. _Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public + Education._ Baton Rouge, 1859. + + 3. _Les Lois concernant, les Ecoles Publique dons + l'Etat de la Louisiane_, 1849. + + 4. _Agricultural Productions of Louisiana._ By + Edward J. Forstal, New Orleans, 1845. + + 5. _Address of the Commissioners for the Raising + the Endowment of the University of the South._ New + Orleans, 1859. + + +IT is much easier to acquire knowledge from things cognizable to the +senses than from books. American civilization is founded upon the laws +of nature and upon moral virue. "Honesty is the best policy," says +Washington, its founder. The laws of nature are discovered by +observation and experience. A practical direction is given to them by +that species of knowedge, which is derived from handling the objects of +sense and working upon the materials the earth produces. Moral virtue +puts a bridle on the evil passions of the heart, and, at the same time, +infuses into it an invincible courage in demanding what is right. A +knowledge of nature enables its possessor to bridle the natural forces +of air, earth, fire, and water--to hold the reins and drive ahead. With +its rail-roads and telegraphs, American civilization is waging war with +time and space, and, by its moral power and Christian example, with sin +and evil. With its labor-saving machiney, its thirty millions do more +work for God and man than three hundred millions of such people as +inhabit Asia, Africa, Central, and South America, and Mexico. Its thirty +millions are equal to any hundred millions of most of the governments of +Europe. It is far ahead of the most enlightened nations of Europe, +because its people are in the possession of all the blessings and +comforts that heaven, through nature's laws, accord to earth's +inhabitants, while three-fourths of the two hundred and fifty millions +of Europe are writhing in an artificially created purgatory--deprived of +all the good things of earth. Whoever would catch up with the annals of +American progress, fall into line with American policy, and get within +the influence of the guiding spirit of American policy, must not depend +upon libraries for information, or he will be left far behind the age in +which he lives; must look to the statistics of the churches, to the +reports of legislative and commercial bodies, and to the monthly reviews +recording the principal transactions of the busy world around him. If he +wants to keep pace with the exploits of mankind under European +civilization, in cutting one another's throats, sacking cities, +destroying commerce, and laying waste the smiling fields of agriculture, +the daily press will give the required information; but he can not rely +upon it for these statistical details and stubborn facts which tell what +the Caucasian in America, aided by his black man, Friday, is doing for +Christianity, for liberty, for civilization, and for the good of the +world. Some of these details are regarded as too dry and uninteresting, +and others too long for admission in the daily press. Much is written +and said about the benefits of education. The rudiments are alike +important in both kinds of civilization, American and European. But +after acquiring the rudimentary knowledge, the paths of education in the +two hemispheres diverge from each other at right angles. The further the +American travels in the labyrinths of that system of education, so +fashionable in Europe, purposely designed to bury active minds in the +rubbish of past ages, or tangle them in metaphysical abstractions and +hide from them the beauty of truth and the matter-of-fact world around +them, the less he is qualified to appreciate the blessings and benefits +of republican institutions, and the more apt he is to be found in +opposition to American policy. By hard studies on subjects of no +practical importance, physical or moral, the European system of +education drives independence out of the mind, and virtue out of the +heart, as a pre-requisite qualification for obedience to governments +resting upon diplomacy, falsehood, artificial and unnatural distinctions +among men. But in the United States, the various State governments being +founded on moral truths and nature's laws, and not on the opinions of a +privileged order, our system of education should be in harmony with our +system of government; our youth should be taught to love virtue for +virtue's sake; to study nature, bow to her truths, and to give all the +homage that the crowned heads receive in Europe, to nature and to truth. +Our government sets up no religious creed or standard of morals, but +leaves every one perfectly free in religion and morals, to be governed +by the Bible as _he understands it_, provided he does not trespass upon +the rights of others. The principal books in our libraries give little +or no aid in qualifying our youth for public office or to direct the +legislation or policy of a government resting upon natural laws. The +practical operation of our system is scarcely anywhere else recorded +than in church history, gospel triumph, legislative reports, reviews, +and pamphlets. There the facts may be found, but they are isolated and +disconnected, teaching nothing; but could be made a most potent means, +not only of instruction in the practical operation of our system of +government, but of developing the human faculties, if introduced into +our schools. They are full of objects for comparison. By comparison the +mind is taught the difference between things; comparisons are at the +bottom of all useful and practical knowledge. "They are suggestive," +says Prof. Agassiz, "of further comparisons. When the objects of nature +are the subjects of comparison, the mind is insensibly led to make new +inquiries, is filled with delight at every step of progress it makes in +nature's ever young and blooming fields, and study becomes a pleasure. +No American knows what a good country he has got until he visits Europe +and draws comparisons between the condition of the laboring classes +there and those at home. Even in London, about half the people have +neither church-room nor school-room." + +The _Annual Report of the Auditor of Public accounts of the State of +Louisiana_ abounds with objects which have only to be compared in their +various relations to one another to give the mind a clear perception of +the operation and practical working of some of the most important +natural laws and moral truths lying at the bottom of American +civilization and progress. Without comparisons they are like +hieroglyphical characters telling nothing. Comparisons will decipher +them and make them speak a language full of instruction, which every one +can understand. + +The more thorough the education in European colleges, or in American +schools on a similar model, the more there will be to _unlearn_ before +American institutions can be understood or their value appreciated, and +the less will the American citizen be qualified to vote understandingly +at the polls. The reason is, that the system of education which directs +the policy of goverments founded upon artificial distinctions, is from +necessity inimical to a government founded upon natural distinctions and +moral truth. Education on the British model has set the North against +the South, and has waylaid every step of American progress, from the +acquisition of Louisiana to the last foot of land acquired from Mexico +or the Indians, and it now stands across the path of the all-conquering +march of American civilization into Cuba, Central America, and Mexico. +The vicious system of education founded upon the European model has +almost reconquered Massachusetts and several other Northern States, +converting them, in many essential particulars, into British provinces. +The people of the North are virtuous and democratic at heart; but they +have been turned against their own country and the sentiments which +experience teaches to be truths, the obvious benefits of negro slavery, +for instance, by an education essentially monarchical. To sustain +itself, American policy should have its own schools, to guide and direct +it. Heretofore it has been guided and directed almost entirely by the +light and knowledge derived from the great school of experience, in +which the democratic masses are taught without the aid of other books +than the Bible and hymn book. In that school they learned that the negro +was not a white man with a black skin, but a different being, intended +by nature to occupy a subordinate place in society; that school made +known that the only place which nature has qualified him to fill was the +place of a servant. That place was accordingly assigned him in the new +order of civilization called American civilization, founded upon moral +virtue and natural distinctions, and not upon artifice and fraud; upon +nature's laws and God's truths, and not upon the fallacies of human +reason, as that of Europe. They had not even the assistance of book +education to tell them that the white man bore the name of Japheth in +the Bible, and the negro that of Canaan; and that the negro's servile +nature was expressed in his Hebrew name. American theologians had not +paid sufficient attention to the Hebrew, and could not inform the +American reader that both the Hebrew Bible and its Greek translation, +called the Septuagint, plainly, and in direct terms, recognize two +classes or races of mankind, one having a black skin, and the other +being fair or white; and that, besides these two races, it recognizes a +third race under the term Shem, a name which has no reference to color; +but as the other two were plainly designated as _whites_ and _blacks_, +the inference is, that the third class was red or yellow, or of an +intermediate color. In the Septuagint (the Bible which our Saviour +quotes), _AEthiop_ is the term used to designate the sons of Ham, a term +synonymous with the Latin word _niger_, from which the Spanish word +_negro_ is derived. The Bible tells in unmistakable terms that Japheth, +or the white race, was to be _enlarged_. The discovery of the western +hemisphere opened a wide field for the _enlargement_ of the white race, +pent up for thousands of years in a little corner of the eastern +hemisphere. The new hemisphere was found to be inhabited by nomads of +the race of Shem, neither white nor black. The historical fact is, that +the white race is every year _enlarging_ itself by dispossessing the +nomadic sons of Shem, found on the American continent, of their tents, +and dwelling in them; and that the black race are its servants. Thus +literally, in accordance with the prophecy, "_Japheth will be enlarged, +he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan_ (the negro) _shall be +his servant_." The prophecy is not fulfilled, but only in process of +fulfillment. It clearly points to a new order of civilization, in a +wider world for enlargement than the old, in which the black race was to +serve the white. The will of God that such a new order of civilization +should be established, in which the negro and white man should mutually +aid each other, and supply each other's deficiencies, is not only +revealed in Hebrew words, written thousands of years ago, but revealed +also in the laws of nature, and revealed by _Ethiop nowhere else but in +our slaveholding States, stretching forth her arms to God_. American +civilization, founded upon revealed truth and nature's laws, puts the +negro in his natural position, that of subordination to the white man. + +The observation and experience of those who founded a government resting +on the basis of moral truth and natural, instead of artificial +distinctions, revealed to them the necessity of consigning to the negro +an inferior position, in order to carry out that democratic principle +which demands a place for every thing, and every thing in its place. +What are called the free States have provided no place for the poor +negro. He is an outcast and a wanderer, hurtful instead of helpful to +society. Mexico, Central and South America, in catching at the shadow, +lost the substance of republicanism. Republican government has utterly +failed with them, because they fell into the error of supposing that all +men of all races are naturally equal to one another. The white race in +those countries, acting upon that error, emancipated the inferior negro +race, and amalgamated with that and with the Indian race. This disregard +of the distinctions made by nature, between the white, black, and Indian +races, was fatal to American civilization in those countries. + +Mr. Jefferson never meant to say that negroes were equal to white men; +but that white men, whether born in England or America were equal to one +another. Our fathers contended for their own equality among Englishmen, +which not being granted to them, they declared their independence. But +scarcely had their swords won that independence, when the governing +classes of Great Britain began to teach the rising generation, through +the medium of books, schools, and colleges, that the democratic +doctrine, which declared all white men equal to one another, _included +negroes_. Thus making the learned world believe that democracy and negro +slavery are incompatible--that there can be no such thing as a +democracy, or a government where the people rule, so long as black +people are held in slavery. The schools not only taught the doctrine +that negro slavery is anti-republican, but that it is a moral, social +and political evil, and soon it was denounced from the pulpit as _sin +against God_! + +Under the influence of such an education, imported from Europe, the +American people, even in the South, began to regard negro slavery as an +evil--not from any thing they saw, but from what they had been taught. +Thence all manner of experiments were made with the negro to make his +condition better out of slavery than in it. All of which proving a +failure, the South took issue with Old and New England on the question +of negro slavery being an evil, social, political, or moral, and called +for the proof. No proof could be given except that drawn from England, +from hearsay evidence, and from theoretical teaching of that system of +education designed to support European despotisms, and to destroy +American republicanism. This has opened the eyes of the South to the +necessity of establishing schools and colleges of its own to uphold +American civilization. The address of the commissioners for the raising +of the endowment of the University of the South commends it to the +attention of the American people, not as a sectional or Southern +university, but as an American university, to be the house and home of +the spirit of American civilization--a dwelling-place not lighted with +fox-fire tapers or artificial lights to disguise nature, as the +institutions of learning in Europe are, but with the light inherent in +nature's truths and in the revealed word of God, honestly translated and +interpreted. Some schools to aid American civilization have already been +established, but there is a sad outcry for the proper kind of school +books; those of Old and New England being rotten to the core with +abolitionism and with that false democracy which would make the rising +generation believe that the heroes of the American Revolution fought for +ruining the negro by giving him liberty, fought to annul God's decrees, +which made him a servant of servants, instead of fighting for the +principle asserting their own equality with the lords of England and the +crowned heads of Europe. Fortunately the work before us, the _Report of +the Auditor of the Public Accounts of Louisiana_, will answer very well +to supply the want of a proper kind of school book to indoctrinate +beginners in the mysteries of the political institutions of their own +country, and at the same time to discipline and expand their minds. It +is only one of the numerous books of its class, which might be +advantageously pressed into the service of the schools for a similar +purpose. The statistics of the United States Census, and De Bow's +_Industrial Resources_, and the _Minutes of the Progress of the +American Churches_, would prove a very good beginning of a high school +and college library. Comparisons being the basis of all useful and +practical knowledge, in the works just referred to, and in the auditor's +report and others of its class, will be found ample materials for +comparison. Comparison will infuse a soul into the dry bones of the +facts and figures of our religious and political institutions, and make +them declare the hidden truths of nature which lie at the bottom of +American republicanism, Christianity, prosperity, and progress. The task +of comparing will be highly instructive to the youthful mind, and at the +same time agreeable and interesting. As an example, here is the way a +beginning is recommended, for a comparison in secular affairs. + +LESSON NO. 1.--Let Lesson No. 1 consist in comparing the counties (or +parishes, as they are called in Louisiana) having the largest white +population and the fewest negroes, with those counties having the +heaviest negro population and the fewest white people. + +There are five parishes, or counties, found in the report of the auditor +of public accounts, in which the white population exceeds the negro +slaves three to one. Let these parishes be compared with five others in +which the slave population exceeds the white seven to one. + +Table I, represents the first class of parishes, and Table II, the +second. Thus: + + TABLE I. + + Total acres of /-------------Population---------------\ + land owned. Whites. Slaves. Free Negroes. + Calcasieu, 35,486 2,367 947 280 + Livingston, 60,885 3,998 1,297 7 + Sabine, 85,446[275] 3,585 1,409 --- + Vermillion, 73,654 3,260 1,378 19 + Winn, 43,406 4,314 1,007 38 + ------- ------ ------ --- + 298,877 17,524 6,038 343 + 17,524 + ------ + Total whites and slaves, 23,562 + 343 + ------ + Aggregate population, 23,905 + + + TABLE II. + + Total acres of /-------------Population---------------\ + land owned. Whites. Slaves. Free Negroes. + Carroll, 246,582 2,409 9,529 --- + Concordia, 318,395 1,384 11,908 11 + Madison, 304,494 1,293 9,863 --- + Tensas, 323,797 1,255 13,285 328 + W. Feliciana, 230,966 1,985 10,450 68 + --------- ------ ------ --- + 1,224,234 8,326 55,035 407 + 8,326 + ------ + Total whites and slaves, 63,361 + 407 + ------ + Aggregate population, 63,768 + +It will be seen from the above, that the white population of the +parishes in table I exceeds the slaves nearly three to one; while, in +the parishes in table II, the slaves exceed the whites nearly seven to +one. + +If the land were divided equally among the aggregate population, each +inhabitant of the parishes in table I would have 12 acres, and each +inhabitant of the parishes in table II would have 22 acres. Here lesson +1 ends, by proving that there is not as great a demand for land, by +nearly one half, where the population consists of one white man and +seven negroes. By referring to a map of Louisiana, it will be seen that +the territorial extent of the parishes in table I is much greater than +those in table II. Hence it is not for the want of territory, that a +population consisting of three whites to one negro, owns less land by +nearly one half, than a population consisting of seven negroes to one +white man. + +LESSON NO. 2.--Lesson No. I requires the value of the land per acre, in +tables I and II, to be ascertained and compared, with a view of solving +the important problem: "_Which gives the most value to land, a dense +white population with a few negroes, or a dense slave population with a +few white people?_" + +By referring to the report of the auditor of accounts of Louisiana, it +will be seen that the assessed value of the lands of the parishes in +table I amounts to $1,642,073, or $5 49 per acre; while that of table II +amounts to $23,446,654, or $16 46 per acre. A population consisting of +seven negro slaves to one white man, makes land three times as valuable +as a population of three white men to one negro. The comparison drawn in +this lesson, puts a soul in the dry bones of the facts and figures +contained in the report of the auditor of public accounts, and makes +them tell what it is which gives value to Southern land. + +LESSON NO. 3.--Let this lesson be devoted to drawing comparisons to +ascertain: "_Which pays the most taxes to the State, five parishes +containing 17,524 whites with a few negroes, or five parishes containing +less than half the whites (8,326) with a great many negroes?_" By +referring to the report of the auditor it will be seen, that the 17,524 +whites of the five parishes in table I pay the State only $25,487,93, or +less than $1 50 each, while the 8,326 whites in the five parishes in +table II pay the State $169,900 per annum, or upward of $20 each. The +aggregate population of the parishes in table I pay only $1 06 each, +while the aggregate population of the parishes in table II pay $2 66 +each. Every three whites and twenty negroes pay the State $61 18. By +making a calculation it will appear that it will require forty-three +whites and fifteen negroes of the parishes in table I, to pay the State +as much as three whites and twenty negroes pay in the parishes in table +II. + +COROLLARY.--Three white men with twenty negroes, financially considered, +are worth as much to the State as forty-three white men with fifteen +negroes. + +This strange truth meets a steady explanation in the fact found in +Lesson No. 2, that in those parishes where every three white inhabitants +own twenty negroes, the land is more than three times as valuable as in +the parishes, where every forty-three of the white population possess +only fifteen negroes. + +LESSON NO. 4.--In the last lesson the truth was brought out that +forty-three white men and fifteen negroes are worth no more to the +State, financially considered, than three white men and twenty negroes. +Let this lesson examine the question: "_Whether forty-three white men in +command of fifteen negroes are worth AS MUCH to the State, +agriculturally and commercially considered, as three white men in +command of twenty negroes?_" This is a bold question and requires some +calculations. In making the calculations to base the comparisons upon, +sugar will be estimated at $60 per hogshead; molasses at $7 per barrel; +corn at $1 per bushel, and cotton at $40 dollars per bale. At these +rates the value of the agricultural productions in the five parishes, +where the white population is nearly three times as great as the negro, +amounts to $446,550, in a population of 17,524 whites, 6,038 negro +slaves, and 343 free negroes--the aggregate population 23,905, which +gives to each inhabitant $18 68. + +The value of the agricultural productions in the five parishes, viz: +Carroll, Concordia, Madison, Tensas, and West Feliciana, where the negro +slaves are nearly seven times as numerous as the white population, +amounts to $8,854,770. In other words, 55,035 negroes under the command +of 8,326 whites, in an aggregate population of 63,768 (407 being added +for free negroes), produced $8,854,770 worth of agricultural products in +one year, estimating cotton at $40 per bale, sugar $60 per hogshead, and +corn at $1 a bushel; this amount divided by the aggregate population +gives each individual, black and white, old and young, $138 87. Three +whites in command of twenty negroes produce $3,194 worth of agricultral +products. This lesson was to solve the question whether forty-three +white men in command of fifteen negroes are worth as much to the State, +agriculturally and commercially considered, as three white men in +command of twenty negroes? It has been proved that in those five +parishes where the whites nearly treble the negroes, each inhabitant +only produces $18 68. This would give to forty-three white and fifteen +negroes only $1,081 70 as their share of the value of the agricultural +productions--whereas, the share of three whites and twenty negroes, in +those parishes where the negro population is nearly seven to one of the +white, has been ascertained to be $3,194. The student of political +economy is now prepared to solve another question: "What number of +inhabitants are required in those parishes where labor is isolated or +disassociated, to produce as much as three white and twenty negroes +produce in those parishes where labor is associated? The answer is 171; +viz: 113 whites and 58 negroes. The question is proved to be correctly +solved by multiplying 171 by $18.68 which gives $1,394 25, the exact +amount and a quarter over, that twenty negroes and three whites produce +in those parishes where labor is associated, or where the slave +population is nearly seven times more numerous than the white. + +LESSON NO. 5.--Let two more lots of parishes be compared; one in which +the white population is not quite double that of the negro slaves, and +the other in which the negro slaves are not quite double the number of +the whites. + + +TABLE III. + +_Parishes where whites exceed negroes less than two to one._ + + Whites. Slaves. Free negroes. Val. ag. prod.' 58. + + Caldwell, 2,607 1,830 8 $121,920 + St. Tammany, 2,588 1,945 -- 67,170 + Union, 7,191 4,154 5 691,641 + Washington, 2,910 1,551 10 47,532 + Jackson, 5,220 3,803 1 702,742 + ------ ------ -- ---------- + 20,516 13,283 24 $1,631,005 + +Dividing the total value of the agricultural products by the aggregate +population, gives $48 22 to each individual, as the average in five +parishes, where the negro slaves are somewhat more than half the whole +population. This is a considerable improvement on the five parishes in +table I, where the whites exceed the negroes nearly three to one, the +average to each inhabitant being only $18 68, instead of $48 22. + + +TABLE IV. + +_Parishes where negroes exceed whites less than two to one._ + + Whites. Slaves. Free negroes. Val. ag. prod. '58. + + Claiborne, 4,618 7,003 58 $857,675 + De Soto, 4,459 7,301 29 739,945 + Morehouse, 3,620 5,468 14 785,370 + Nachitoches, 5,987 7,939 775 1,120,718 + Caddo, 4,073 5,978 44 1,056,130 + Bossier, 3,646 7,195 11 1,155,010 + ------ ------ --- --------- + 26,403 40,784 931 5,674,848 + +The total value of the agricultural productions, divided by the +aggregate population, 68,168, gives to each inhabitant $83 25. In table +II the aggregate population was 63,768, nearly seven negroes to one +white man; the value of the agricultural products divided, gave each +$138 07, instead of $83 25. The parishes of table II, with an aggregate +population of 63,768, seven sixths of whom were slaves, produced +$8,854,770 worth of agricultural products; whereas, the parishes of +table IV, containing a population of 68,168, the slaves being less than +double the number of whites, produced three millions less of +agricultural products than a smaller aggregate population produced in +those parishes where the negroes outnumbered the whites nearly seven to +one. + +The report of the auditor of public accounts for the year 1859, does not +contain the necessary data for making comparisons in the parishes on the +lower stem of the Mississippi river, by reason of crevasses and other +disastrous causes. The valuable pamphlet of Edward J. Forstale, on the +agricultural products of Louisiana, will supply that deficiency, though +of a much older date. It appears from Mr. Forstale, that, so far back as +1844, "on well conducted estates, the average value of sugar and +molasses, per slave, was $237 50, estimating sugar at 4 cents, and +molasses at 15 cents," while the general average in the sugar district, +per slave, was, in the year 1844, only $150 31, from which he deducted +$75 for expenses. By examining his Monograph, it will be seen that the +great bulk of the sugar and molasses was produced in those parishes +having the heaviest negro population in proportion to the white. Thus, +St. Martin's, with a total population more than three times as large as +St. Charles, and with a negro population more than twice as numerous, +produced, in 1844, only 5,000 hogsheads, while St. Charles produced +upward of 12,000. The white population of St. Charles is only 883, while +that of the slaves is 3,769. The white population of St. Martin is +6,400, and the negro population 8,200. Assumption and Ascension are +adjoining parishes. Assumption contains more than three thousand whites, +and three hundred slaves over and above the population of Ascension. It +has more land than Ascension, yet it pays $2,200 less taxes on lands +than Ascension, and its gross taxes are $1,500 less than Ascension. The +value of its agricultural products is likewise less. + +These lessons by comparison might be indefinitely extended, by dropping +the report of the auditor of public accounts of Louisiana, and taking up +the statistics of the churches, and the last United States census. The +statistics of the American churches prove that the slaveholding States +contain more Christian communicants, in proportion to the population, +including black and white, than the non-slaveholding--South Carolina +more than Massachusetts, Virginia more than Pennsylvania, Kentucky more +than Ohio. The report proves that in the cotton and sugar region, the +white people who have few or no negroes, are poor and helpless, but when +supplied with seven times their own number of negroes, they are the +richest and most powerful agricultural people on the earth. The census +will prove that the landed property of those who are thus supplied with +from three to seven times their own number of negroes, if sold at its +assessed value, and the proceeds of sales divided equally among all the +inhabitants, black and white, each individual would have a larger sum +than any Pennsylvanian, New Yorker, or New Englander, would have, if the +land in the richest counties were sold at its assessed value, and the +proceeds of sales divided equally among the inhabitants of the said +county. For instance, if the land in some of the richest counties of +Pennsylvania, say Adams, Berks, Centre, Chester, and Washington, were +all sold, and the proceeds divided among the inhabitants, each +individual would have only about half as much as each negro and white +man would have, if the lands of Carroll, Madison, Concordia, and Tensas, +where the negroes outnumber the whites seven to one, were all sold, and +the proceeds equally divided among blacks and whites. + +Comparisons, instituted upon the data furnished by the United States +census, will show that what Virginia wants _is more negroes_, and what +Pennsylvania wants is _more white laborers_. In some counties in +Pennsylvania, Cambria and Carbon for instance, the land, if sold and +proceeds divided, would not give each inhabitant $75 a piece, the most +of the land being uncultivated for want of laborers. Ohio, Wyoming, and +Nicholas counties, in Virginia, with an aggregate population exceeding +thirty thousand, have only 222 negro slaves. The land, if sold and +divided, would not give each inhabitant one hundred dollars. In Accomac, +Albemarle, York, Prince Edward, and Prince George, the negro population +is about equal to the white. The land, if sold and equally divided, +would give each individual from $150 to $220, which is nearly as much as +the inhabitants of the best counties of Pennsylvania would have from the +proceeds of sales of these lands. Land, per acre, is cheaper in Virginia +than in Pennsylvania, because much the largest portion of the Virginia +lands are unimproved for the want of laborers, while the largest portion +of the Pennsylvania lands are under cultivation. The cotton States and +Louisiana are sucking the life-blood out of Virginia by draining that +noble old State of her agricultural laborers. The high price of negroes +is ruining Virginia. In Sussex, Southampton, Northampton, and many other +counties, which send most negroes to the cotton States, the inhabitants +have lost more in the fall in the price of their land, than they have +gained in the high price they got for their negroes. The land, if sold +and divided, would give each individual only fifty-seven dollars, less +than three dollars an acre. Oxford is Great Britain's eye, or rather the +telescope which is used to see afar off, to direct British policy. Mr. +Jefferson saw the importance of a university of the first class, to be +used as a telescope to look into the distance, to direct Virginia, or +what ought to be the same thing, American policy, as Oxford directs +British policy. Hence he devoted the latter years of his life to +establishing an institution for that very purpose. + +Long before the West India emancipation act was passed, it was known by +the learned graduates and fellows of Oxford, that negroes would not work +as free laborers; and that their emancipation would ruin the British +West Indies. British policy, however, to build up India, imperatively +demanded the sacrifice to be made, as Russian policy demanded the +sacrifice of Moscow. The African race furnished the only laborers, who +could compete with the Mongolian race in producing the rich products of +tropical agriculture. Great Britain had a hundred and fifty millions of +the bronze and yellow-skin Asiatics under her command, and only wanted +the black-skin Africans out of the way, to monopolize tropical +agriculture. To carry out the British policy of becoming, not only +mistress of the seas, but mistress of the boundless wealth of tropical +and tropicoid climates, the learned graduates of Oxford and Cambridge +raised a hue and cry against the inhumanity of the _middle passage_. So +little truth was there in it, that when the committee of the United +States Senate, appointed to consider the causes of the mortality +prevailing on emigrant ships from Europe to this country, and the means +for the better protection of the health of the passengers, did me the +honor in 1854 to request my views on the subject, I replied (see +"_Report of the Select Committee of U. S. Senate on the Sickness and +Mortality on Emigrant Ships_," pages 119-144--Washington, 1854), +recommending certain rules to be adopted to preserve the health and +ameliorate the condition of emigrants on shipboard, which appeared to me +to be the best. But, subsequently, a little volume fell into my hands +containing the rules of the African slave-traders, half a century ago, +which were so much better than those I had recommended, I called the +attention of the chairman of the Senate's committee, the Hon. Hamilton +Fish, to them, advising him by all means to adopt the African +slave-traders' rules, if he had any regard for the health and comfort of +the European emigrants. In the latter part of the last century no one +pretended, as now, that the negro lost any thing by exchanging slavery +in Africa for the more benign system of slavery in America. But it was +the imaginary sufferings on the middle passage, which brought humanity +with her eyes shut to lend to British policy a helping hand to close +Africa and prevent her sable sons from exchanging their barbarous +masters for civilized ones. America consented to that policy. The +Southern tobacco-planters, believing they had as many negroes as the +cultivation of tobacco required, had petitioned the king before the +Revolution, to close the African slave trade. He did not do it. After +the Revolution it was not only closed, but declared to be piracy, by the +federal government. The policy which closed it may have been good policy +or bad at that time. It soon gave the non-slaveholding States the +ascendency in the Union. The question, whether they shall retain that +ascendency, will depend very much upon whether they continue to abuse +the power they acquired over the South by cutting off the supply of +Southern laborers. Having ascertained that the negro would not work as a +free man, the next move of British policy was, to set those free who +were already in America. All parties in England, some by one artifice +and some by another, were ultimately led to promote the British policy +of negro abolitionism. From England it was brought over to the United +States, took root and grew so rapidly as soon to become a most +disturbing element in both church and state. We had no colleges at the +North, and scarcely any churches which knew the advantages humanity and +Christianity derived from the mutual aid the black and white races +afford each other. The most of them are and were virtually European +colleges located in America. This has enabled those learned men in Great +Britain, who guide and direct British policy, to make a nose of wax of +the great body of the educated classes in the United States. The +prominence given to the Latin language, to the neglect of the Greek and +Hebrew, in our schools and colleges, has greatly tended to fill the +heads of the students with monarchical ideas, and to prevent them from +understanding and appreciating the institutions of their own country. +The study of Homer and the Greek classics favors genuine republicanism, +by fostering a high-toned moral virtue, and by creating a love for +nature and for political institutions founded upon her laws; while the +study of Virgil, and other Latin text-books, used in our schools and +colleges, has a strong tendency to lead to a sickly sentimental +admiration for nominal instead of real freedom, and for governments +founded upon usurpations and artificial distinctions, as that of the +Caesars was, and as that of Great Britain is. There is as much difference +between Homer and Virgil as between nature and art. The Latin, being a +derivative language, and of very little use, would long since have been +banished from the schools, but for the aid monarchy derives from its +binding men of letters, as Virgil bound the Muses, to the footstool of +thrones, to flatter the frail humanity thereon with the incense of +divine honors. Homer's Muses, like true Americans, pay no higher honors +to the diadem on the king's head than to the gaudy plumage of the +peacock's tail. Young America would derive great advantages from an +intimate acquaintance with Homer. He wrote in a language which gives to +all the arts and sciences their technical terms. Hence, the previous +study of the Greek makes the acquaintance of the various sciences +comparatively easy to the learner. The Greek and Hebrew being original +languages, can be acquired in much less time than the Latin, which is a +derivative language. It is to be hoped that the great University of the +South, about to be established on the cool and salubrious plateau of the +Cumberland Mountains, if it does not banish Latin, will at least give a +greater degree of prominence to the Greek and Hebrew, the two languages +in which the Scriptures were originally written. By comparing "_The +Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Education_, 1859, with +"_Les Lois concernant les Ecoles Publique dans l'Etat de la Louisiane_, +1849," it will be perceived, that the New England system of public +education is not adapted to Louisiana and the South. The laws are +excellent, if the system itself was in conformity to the spirit of our +political institutions. After ten years' trial, we learn from the Report +of the Superintendent, that they can not be carried out, as no laws can +be, which are theoretical, burdensome, troublesome, expensive, and void +of practical benefits. If a law were passed by the State of Louisiana +appropriating three hundred thousand dollars per annum to furnishing +every family with a loaf of bread every day, it could not be executed. +More than half the families would not accept the bread. The Report of +the Superintendent of Public Education proves that more than half the +families in Louisiana will not accept of the mental food the State +offers to their children. Some parishes will not receive any of it. +Tensas, for instance, which is taxed $16,000 for the support of public +schools, has "not a single public school," says the Report, "in it, yet +nearly every planter has a school in his own house." The truth is, that +government does more harm than good by interfering with the domestic +concerns of our people. If let alone, they would not need governmental +aid in furnishing food for either the body or the mind. The South would +have been far ahead in education, manufactures, and internal +improvements, if the federal government had not interfered, to shut out +the only kind of laborers who can labor in the cane and cotton field and +live. The system of public education, all admit, has failed in the +country, but, it is asserted, has succeeded very well in New Orleans. If +the tree be judged by its fruits it is poisonous instead of salutary, to +republican institutions, in our great cities. If the boys whom it has +taught to read novels, had been put to trades, they could not have been +driven away from the polls after they had grown to be men. There has +been virtually no election in New Orleans, and in many of our large +cities, for the last five or six years; whether from fear or +indifference, it proves that the system of education is defective. +America wants a University to raise the standard of morals, manners, and +learning, so high, that every individual will be as secure from personal +violence at the sacred ballot-box, as at the church altar. America wants +schools to raise the standard of moral virtue so high, that every +American citizen, naturalized or native, may confidently rely upon +government putting forth its whole power to protect him in all the +rights and privileges of an American citizen, both at home and abroad. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[275] Report of 1857, for the land in this parish. + + + + +CONCLUDING REMARKS. + +BY THE EDITOR. + + +HAVING thus finished our labors, and embodied in this work a range of +discussion on slavery, occupying the whole ground, we have a word to say +to those who are engaged in fomenting these mad schemes of the +abolitionists. We ask you candidly and dispassionately to compare the +spirit, tone, and style of argument in the work before you, with the +writings and speeches of the anti-slavery propagandists, such as +Cheever, Channing, Wendell Phillips, and _Sherman's protege_. In +unsparing and vituperative denunciation they certainly excel; but are +they not filled with the most gross exaggerations and misrepresentations, +not to say willful falsehoods. Nowhere do you find that Christian candor +and fairness of argument, that should characterize the search after +truth, but in their stead only positive assertions, and inflammatory +appeals to the most vindictive passions of human nature. + +In this crusade of the North against the South, there is a most +unwarrantable and impertinent interference with the concerns of others, +that ought to be most sternly rebuked; and it is one of the encouraging +signs of the times, that the Southern people are at last roused from +their inaction, and are vigorously engaged in adopting means of +self-protection. Many, however, in the North are engaged in this crusade +in order to divert attention from their own plague-spot--AGRARIANISM. We +all recollect the Patroon of Albany and the Van Rensellaer mobs,--the +Fourerism and Socialism of the free States, and the ever-active +antagonism of labor and capital. They are like the fleeing burglar, who, +more loudly than his pursuers, cries stop thief! For the time perhaps +they have succeeded in hounding on the rabble in full cry after the +South, and in diverting attention from themselves. But how will they +fare in the end? It is said of a certain animal, that when once it has +tasted human blood it never relinquishes the chase; so when the mob +shall have tasted the sweets of plunder and rapine in their raids upon +the South, will they spare the hoarded millions of the money-princes and +nabobs of the North? Are there not thousands of needy and thriftless +adventurers, or of starving and vicious poor, in the free States and +cities of the North, who look with ill-concealed envy, or with gloating +rapacity, on the prosperity and wealth of the aristocrats, as they term +them, of the spindle and loom, and of the counting-house? Ye +capitalists, ye merchant princes, ye master manufacturers, you may +excite to frenzy your Jacobin clubs, you may demoralize their minds of +all ideas of right and wrong, but remember! the gullotine is suspended +over your own necks!! The agrarian doctrines will ere long be applied to +yourselves, for with whatsoever measure ye mete, it shall be measured to +you again. + +Ye who profess to be the ministers of the Prince of peace, yet are +engaged in preaching Sharp's rifles, or Brown's pikes; who teach that +murder is no crime, if committed by a slave upon his best friend, his +master; that midnight incendiarism is meritorious; that the breach of +every command in the decalogue is commendable, if perpetrated under the +guise of abolition philanthropy; who claim to possess a "higher law" +than the law of God; in fine, who preach every thing except Jesus +Christ, and him crucified; how shall you escape the sentence of holy +writ: "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him +all the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take +away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away +his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the +things which are written in this book." + +Ye politicians, who, for the sake of place, power, and the spoils of +office, are engaged in alienating the feelings of both sections of our +Union; in producing division in our national councils; whose course is +fast bringing about the dissolution of our Union; to whose skirts will +cling the blood of the martyrs of liberty, so vainly shed? + +Ye people of the North, our brothers by blood, by political +associations, by a community of interest; why will ye be led away by a +cruel and misguided philanthropy, or by designing demagogues? why will +ye strive to inflict the most irreparable injury upon the objects of +your misplaced sympathy? reduce to ruins this fair fabric of liberty, +and this happy land to desolation? Your own leaders acknowledge that, +hitherto, your agitation, far from bettering the condition of the +slaves, has only made it worse; and in some respects this is true. So +long as you confine yourselves to making or hearing abolition speeches, +or forming among yourselves anti-slavery societies; so long as you +confine the agitation to yourselves, you neither injure nor benefit the +slaves; your exuberant philanthropy escapes through the safety-valve in +the shape of gas. But when you attempt to circulate among them +incendiary documents, intended to render them unhappy, and discontented +with their lot, it becomes our duty to protect them against your +machinations. This is the sole reason why most, if not all the slave +States, have forbidden the slaves to be taught to read. But for your +interference, most of our slaves would now have been able to read the +word of God for themselves, instead of being dependent, as they now are, +on that _oral_ instruction, which is now so generally afforded them. +When emissaries come among them, to give them _oral_ instruction +different from that contained in the word of God, instead of abridging +the privileges of the slave, we deal directly with the emissary, and +justly, too; for we are acting not only in self-defense, but we are +guarding this dependent race, committed by God to our care, from those +malign influences which would work evil, not only to us, but to +themselves, also. Could you succeed in your efforts--which you will find +to be impossible--as the red republicans did in St. Domingo, or as the +English abolitionists did in Jamaica and Barbadoes, so far from having +bettered the condition of the blacks, you would have inflicted on them +an irreparable injury. But of this you will soon have an opportunity of +satisfying yourselves. We have among us a few hundred thousand of this +race, who have been emancipated through a mistaken philanthropy, and +who, though not injurious, are almost useless to us; these we have +concluded to colonize among you, that your lecturers, while lauding the +black man as being far superior to the white race, may never be in want +of a specimen of the genuine article, to point to, as a proof of the +truth of their arguments. Some of the slave States--and most, if not all +of them, will pursue the same policy--have already passed laws for the +removal of the free blacks from their borders, but allowing them the +option of remaining, by choosing their masters, and returning to a state +of servitude; and strange as you may think it, many have already done +so, in preference to going among their friends, the abolitionists. This +is done, not so much because we wish to be rid of this heterogeneous +element of our population, for at worst, they are, _with us_, only a +kind of harmless dead weight, but because we wish to send them North as +missionaries, to convert the abolitionists and free soilers. If we may +judge from the census and votes in the different counties in Ohio, the +experiment will be entirely successful, as those counties having the +largest black population, voted, in 1859, against the anti-slavery +ticket; whilst those which voted for it, possess but a meagre black +population. Is this because an intimate acquaintance with the negro, +convinces the community that freedom is not the normal or proper +condition for him; or is it because he prefers to reside amongst those +who make least pretensions of friendship for him? The anti-slavery men +may take either horn of the dilemma. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. 8 + + + COTTON IS KING. + + Preface to the Third Edition. 19 + Preface to the Second Edition. 26 + Preface to the First Edition. 31 + + + CHAPTER I. + + INTRODUCTORY STATEMENTS. + + Character of the Slavery controversy in the United + States; In Great Britain; Its influence in + modifying the policy of Anti-Slavery men in + America; Course of the Churches; Political Parties; + Result, COTTON IS KING; Necessity of reviewing the + policy in relation to the African race; Topics + embraced in the discussion. 33 + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE EARLY MOVEMENTS ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY; THE + CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY TOOK + ITS RISE; THE RELATIONS IT SUSTAINED TO SLAVERY AND TO + THE SCHEMES PROJECTED FOR ITS ABOLITION; THE ORIGIN OF + THE ELEMENTS WHICH HAVE GIVEN TO AMERICAN SLAVERY ITS + COMMERCIAL VALUE AND CONSEQUENT POWERS OF EXPANSION; + AND THE FUTILITY OF THE MEANS USED TO PREVENT THE + EXTENSION OF THE INSTITUTION. + + Emancipation in the United States begun; First + Abolition Society organized; Progress of + Emancipation; First Cotton Mill; Exclusion of + Slavery from N. W. Territory; Elements of Slavery + expansion; Cotton Gin invented; Suppression of the + Slave Trade; Cotton Manufactures commenced in + Boston; Franklin's Appeal; Condition of the Free + Colored People; Boston Prison-Discipline Society; + Darkening Prospects of the Colored People. 35 + + + CHAPTER III. + + State of public opinion in relation to colored + population; Southern views of Emancipation; + Influence of Jefferson's opinions; He opposed + Emancipation except connected with Colonization; + Negro equality not contemplated by the Fathers of + the Revolution; This proved by the resolutions of + their conventions; The true objects of the + opposition to the slave trade; Motives of British + Statesmen in forcing Slavery on the colonies; + Absurdity of supposing negro equality was + contemplated. 41 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + Dismal condition of Africa; Hopes of Wilberforce + disappointed; Organization of the American + Colonization Society; Its necessity, objects, and + policy; Public sentiment in its favor; Opposition + developes itself; Wm. Lloyd Garrison, James G. + Birney, Gerrit Smith; Effects of opposition; + Stimulants to Slavery; Exports of Cotton; England + sustaining American Slavery; Failure of the Niger + Expedition; Strength of Slavery; Political action; + Its failure; Its fruits. 48 + + + CHAPTER V. + + THE RELATIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY TO THE INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS + OF OUR COUNTRY; TO THE DEMANDS OF COMMERCE; AND TO THE PRESENT + POLITICAL CRISIS. + + Present condition of Slavery; Not an isolated + system; Its relations to other industrial + interests; To manufactures, commerce, trade, human + comfort; Its benevolent aspect; The reverse + picture; Immense value of tropical possessions to + Great Britain; England's attempted monopoly of + Manufactures; Her dependence on American Planters; + Cotton Planters attempt to monopolize Cotton + markets; _Fusion_ of these parties; Free Trade + essential to their success; Influence on + agriculture, mechanics; Exports of Cotton, Tobacco, + etc.; Increased production of Provisions; Their + extent; New markets needed. 55 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + Foresight of Great Britain; Hon. George Thompson's + predictions; Their failure; England's dependence on + Slave labor; Blackwood's Magazine; London + Economist; McCullough; Her exports of cotton goods; + Neglect to improve the proper moment for + Emancipation; Admission of Gerrit Smith; _Cotton_, + its exports, its value, extent of crop, and cost of + our cotton fabrics; _Provissions_, their value, + their export, their consumption; _Groceries_, + source of their supplies, cost of amount consumed; + Our total indebtedness to Slave labor; How far Free + labor sustains Slave labor. 61 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + Economical relations of Slavery further considered; + System unprofitable in grain growing, but + profitable in culture of Cotton; Antagonism of + Farmer and Planter; "Protection," and "Free Trade" + controversy; Congressional Debates on the Subject; + Mr. Clay; Position of the South; "Free Trade," + considered indispensable to its prosperity. 67 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + Tariff controversy continued; Mr. Hayne; Mr. + Carter; Mr. Govan; Mr. Martindale; Mr. Buchanan; + Sugar Planters invoked to aid Free Trade; The West + also invoked; Its pecuniary embarrassments for want + of markets; Henry Baldwin; Remarks on the views of + the parties; State of the world; Dread of the + protective policy by the Planters; Their schemes to + avert its consequences, and promote Free Trade. 73 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + Character of the Tariff controversy; Peculiar + condition of the people; Efforts to enlist the West + in the interests of the South; Mr. McDuffie; Mr. + Hamilton; Mr Rankin; Mr. Garnett; Mr. Cuthbert; the + West still shut out from market; Mr. Wickliffe; Mr. + Benton; Tariff of 1828 obnoxious to the South; + Georgia Resolutions; Mr. Hamilton; Argument to + Sugar Planters. 79 + + + CHAPTER X. + + Tariff controversy continued; Tariff of 1832; The + crisis; _Secession_ threatened; Compromise finally + adopted; Debates; Mr. Hayne; Mr. McDuffie; Mr. + Clay; Adjustment of the subject. 86 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + Results of the contest on Protection and Free + Trade; More or less favorable to all; Increased + consumption of Cotton at home; Capital invested in + Cotton and Woolen factories; Markets thus afforded + to the Farmer; South successful in securing the + monopoly of the Cotton markets; Failure of Cotton + cultivation in other countries; Diminished prices + destroyed Household Manufacturing; Increasing + demand for Cotton; Strange Providences; First + efforts to extend Slavery; Indian lands acquired; + No danger of over-production; Abolition movements + served to unite the South; Annexation of territory + thought essential to its security; Increase of + provisions necessary to its success; Temperance + cause favorable to this result; The West ready to + supply the Planters; It is greatly stimulated to + effort by Southern markets; _Tripartite Alliance_ + of Western Farmers, Southern Planters, and English + Manufacturers; The East competing; The West has a + choice of markets; Slavery extension necessary to + Western progress; Increased price of Provisions; + More grain growing needed; Nebraska and Kansas + needed to raise food; The Planters stimulated by + increasing demand for Cotton; Aspect of the + Provision question; California gold changed the + expected results of legislation; Reciprocity Treaty + favorable to Planters; Extended cultivation of + Provisions in the Far West essential to Planters; + Present aspect of the Cotton question favorable to + Planters; London _Economist's_ statistics and + remarks; Our Planters must extend the culture of + Cotton to prevent its increased growth elsewhere. 91 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + Consideration of foreign cultivation of Cotton + further considered; Facts and opinions stated by + the London _Economist_; Consumption of Cotton + tending to extend the production; India affords the + only field of competition with the United States; + Its vast inferiority; Imports from India dependent + upon price; Free Labor and Slave Labor can not be + united on the same field; Supply of the United + States therefore limited by natural increase of + slaves; Limited supply of labor tends to renewal of + slave trade; Cotton production in India the only + obstacle which Great Britain can interpose against + American Planters; Africa, too, to be made + subservient to this object; Parliamentary + proceedings on this subject; Successful Cotton + culture in Africa; Slavery to be permanently + established by this policy; Opinions of the + _American Missionary_; Remarks showing the position + of the Cotton question in its relations to slavery; + Great Britain building up slavery in Africa to + break it down in America. 100 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + Rationale of the Kansas-Nebraska movement; Western + agriculturists merely feeders of Slaves; Dry goods + and groceries nearly all of Slave labor origin; + Value of Imports; How paid for; Planters pay for + more than three-fourths; Slavery intermediate + between Commerce and Agriculture; Slavery not + self-sustaining; Supplies from the North essential + to its success; Proximate extent of these supplies; + Slavery, the central power of the industrial + interests, depending on Manufactures and Commerce; + Abolitionists contributing to this result; + Protection prostrate; Free Trade dominant; The + South triumphant; Country ambitious of territorial + aggrandizement; The world's peace disturbed; Our + policy needs modifying to meet contingencies; + Defeat of Mr. Clay; War with Mexico; Results + unfavorable to renewal of Protective policy; + Dominant political party at the North gives its + adhesion to Free Trade; Leading Abolition paper + does the same; Ditches on the wrong side of + breastworks; Inconsistency; Free Trade the main + element in extending Slavery; Abolition United + States Senators' voting with the South; North thus + shorn of its power; _Home Market_ supplied by + Slavery; People acquiesce; Despotism and Freedom; + Preservation of the Union paramount; Colored people + must wait a little; Slavery triumphant; People at + large powerless; Necessity of severing the Slavery + question from politics; Colonisation the only hope; + Abolitionism prostrate; Admissions on this point, + by Parker, Sumner, Campbell; Other dangers to be + averted; Election of Speaker Banks a Free Trade + Triumph; Neutrality necessary; Liberia the colored + man's hope. 123 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + THE INDUSTRIAL, SOCIAL, AND MORAL CONDITION OF THE FREE + PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE BRITISH COLONIES, HAYTI, AND IN + THE UNITED STATES; AND THE INFLUENCE THEY HAVE EXERTED + ON PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN RELATION TO SLAVERY, AND TO THEIR + OWN PROSPECTS OF EQUALITY WITH THE WHITES. + + Effects of opposition to Colonization on Liberia; + Its effects on free colored people; Their social + and moral condition; Abolition testimony on the + subject; American Missionary Association; Its + failure in Canada; Degradation of West India free + colored people; American and Foreign Anti-Slavery + Society; Its testimony on the dismal condition of + West India free negroes; London _Times_ on same + subject; Mr. Bigelow on same subject; Effect of + results in West Indies on Emancipation; Opinion of + Southern Planters; Economical failure of West India + Emancipation; Ruinous to British Commerce; Similar + results in Hayti; Extent of diminution of exports + from West Indies resulting from Emancipation; + Results favorable to American Planter; Moral + condition of Hayti; Later facts in reference to the + West Indies; Negro free labor a failure; necessity + of education to render freedom of value; Franklin's + opinion confirmed; Colonization essential to + promote Emancipation. 132 + + + CHAPTER XV. + + Moral condition of the free colored people in + United States; What have they gained by refusing to + accept Colonization? Abolition testimony on the + subject; Gerrit Smith; New York _Tribune_; Their + moral condition as indicated by proportions in + Penitentiaries; Census Reports; Native whites, + foreign born, and free colored, in Penitentiaries; + But little improvement in Massachusetts in seventy + years; Contrasts of Ohio with New England; + Antagonism of Abolitionism to free negroes. 149 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + Disappointment of English and American + Abolitionists; Their failure attributed to the + inherent evils of Slavery; Their want of + discrimination; The differences in the system in + the British Colonies and in the United States; + Colored people of United States vastly in advance + of all others; Success of the Gospel among the + Slaves; _Democratic Review_ on African + civilization; Vexation of Abolitionists at their + failure; Their apology not to be accepted; Liberia + attests its falsity; The barrier to the colored + man's elevation removable only by Colonization; + Colored men begin to see it; Chambers, of + Edinburgh; His testimony on the crushing effects of + New England's treatment of colored people; Charges + Abolitionists with insincerity; Approves + Colonization; Abolition violence rebuked by an + English clergyman. 154 + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + Failure of free colored people in attaining an + equality with the whites; Their failure also in + checking Slavery; Have they not aided in its + extension? Yes; Facts in proof of this view; + Abolitionists bad Philosophers; Colored men's + influence destructive of their hopes; Summary + manner in which England acts in their removal; Lord + Mansfield's decision; Granville Sharp's labors and + their results; Colored immigration into Canada; + Information supplied by Major Lachlan; Demoralized + condition of the blacks as indicated by the crimes + they committed; Elgin Association; Public meeting + protesting against its organization; Negro meeting + at Toronto; Memorial of municipal council; Negro + riot at St. Catherine's; Col. Prince and the + Negroes; Later cases of presentation by Grand Jury; + Opinion of the Judge; Darkening prospects of the + colored race; Views of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher; + Their accuracy; The lesson they teach. 172 + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + THE MORAL RELATIONS OF PERSONS HOLDING THE "PER SE" + DOCTRINE ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY, TO THE PURCHASE + AND CONSUMPTION OF SLAVE LABOR PRODUCTS. + + Moral relations of Slavery; Relations of the + consumer of Slave labor products to the system; + Grand error of all Anti-Slavery effort: Law of + _particeps criminis_; Daniel O'Connell; _Malum in + se_ doctrine; Inconsistency of those who hold it; + English Emancipationists; Their commercial + argument; Differences between the position of Great + Britain and the United States; Preaching versus + practice by Abolitionists; Cause of their want of + influence over the Slaveholder; Necessity of + examining the question; Each man to be judged by + his own standard; Classification of opinions in the + United States, in regard to the morality of + Slavery; Three Views; A case in illustration; + Apology of _per se_ men for using Slave grown + products insufficient; Law relating to "confusion + of goods;" _per se_ men _participes criminis_ with + Slaveholder; Taking Slave grown products under + _protest_ absurd; World's Christian Evangelical + Alliance; Amount of Slave labor Cotton in England + at that moment; Pharisaical conduct; The Scotchman + taking his wife under protest; Anecdote; American + Cotton more acceptable to Englishmen than + Republican principles; Secret of England's policy + toward American Slavery; The case of robbery again + cited, and the English Satirized; A contrast; + Causes of the want of moral power of Abolitionists; + Slaveholder no cause to cringe; Other results; + Effect of the adoption of the _per se_ doctrine by + ecclesiastical bodies; Slaves thus left in all + their moral destitution; Inconsistency of _per se_ + men denouncing others; What the Bible says of + similar conduct. 203 + + + Conclusion. 215 + + + +APPENDIX. + + + Early movements in the American Colonies on the Slavery + question. 227 + Free colored population in Canada. 239 + Important decisions relating to Negroes in Common Schools. 245 + Massachusetts Black Militia. 246 + South Side Views. 246 + Colored people emigrating from Louisiana to Hayti. 248 + The Coolie Traffic. 248 + + + TABLE I.--Cotton, its influence on Commerce, Manufactures, + Slavery, Emancipation, etc., from its earliest use in + England to present date; Sources of its supplies; Dates + of inventions increasing its use; Dates of movements + designed to favor the blacks; Dates of occurrences + antagonistic to their hopes. 250 + + TABLE II.--Tabular statement of Agricultural products and + products of Animals exported; Total value of products of + Animals and Agriculture raised in the United States; Value + of amount left for consumption and use; Value of Cotton + exported, of total crop, and of amount left for consumption; + Do. of Tobacco, and its products. 254 + + TABLE. III.--Total imports of more important Groceries for + 1853; Re-exports of do.; Proportion from Slave labor + countries. 254 + + TABLE IV.--Free colored and Slave population of United + States; Diminution of free colored population in New + England; Rapid increase in Ohio, etc. 255 + + TABLE. V.--Influence of colored population on public + sentiment in Ohio; Vote for and against Abolition + candidate for Governor, by counties. 259 + + TABLE VI.--Total Cotton crop of United States, with the + amounts exported, the consumption of the United States, + North of Virginia, and the Stock on hand, September 1, + of each year, from 1840 to 1859, inclusive. 260 + + TABLE VII.--Statement of the value of Cotton Manufactures, + of Foreign Production, which were imported into the United + States; And the value of the Cotton goods Manufactured in + the United States, and exported, during the years stated; + Also a statement showing the amount of Coffee imported into + the United States annually, with the amount taken for + consumption, during the years 1850 to 1858, inclusive. 261 + + TABLE VIII.--Statement exhibiting the value of the exports + from the United States of breadstuffs and provisions; The + amount and value of Cotton exported, with the average + cost per pound; and the amount of Tobacco exported from + 1821 to 1859 inclusive. 262 + + TABLE IX.--Statement exhibiting the value of Foreign goods + imported and taken for consumption in the United States; + The value of Domestic produce of the United States exported, + exclusive of Specie; The value of Specie and bullion + imported, and the value of Specie and bullion exported, + from 1821 to 1859 inclusive. 263 + + TABLE X.--Statement showing the amount of Cane Sugar and + Molasses consumed in the United States annually, with + the proportions that are Domestic and Foreign, for 1850 + to 1858, inclusive. 264 + + TABLE XI.--Cotton imported into Great Britain from various + countries, quantity re-exported, and Stock on hand, + December 31, from 1840 to 1858, inclusive; Also, average + Weekly consumption of Cotton in Europe, from 1850 to 1858, + inclusive. 266 + + TABLE XII.--Cotton is King, Summary statement of the value + of exports of the growth, produce, and manufacture of the + United States, for the year ending June 30, 1859; The + productions of the North and of the South, respectively, + being placed in opposite columns; and the articles of a + mixed origin being stated separately. 267 + + + +LIBERTY AND SLAVERY: OR, SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF MORAL AND POLITICAL +PHILOSOPHY. + + + Introduction. 271 + + + CHAPTER I. + + THE NATURE OF CIVIL LIBERTY. + + The commonly-received definition of Civil Liberty; + Examination of the commonly-received definition of + Civil Liberty; No good law over limits or abridges + the Natural Liberty of Mankind; The distinction + between Rights and Liberty; The Relation between + the State of Nature and Civil Society; Inherent and + Inalienable Rights; Conclusion of the First + Chapter. 273 + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE ARGUMENTS AND POSITIONS OF ABOLITIONISTS. + + The first fallacy of the Abolitionists; The second + fallacy of the Abolitionists; The third fallacy of + the Abolitionists; The fourth fallacy of the + Abolitionists; The fifth fallacy of the + Abolitionists; The sixth fallacy of the + Abolitionists; The seventh fallacy of the + Abolitionists; The eighth fallacy of the + Abolitionists; The ninth fallacy of the + Abolitionists; The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, + thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth + fallacies of the Abolitionists; or their seven + arguments against the right of a man to hold + property in his fellow-man; The seventeenth fallacy + of the Abolitionists; or, the Argument from the + Declaration of Independence. 290 + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE ARGUMENT FROM THE SCRIPTURES. + + The Argument from the Old Testament; The Argument + from the New Testament. 337 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE ARGUMENT FROM THE PUBLIC GOOD. + + The Question; Emancipation in the British Colonies; + The manner in which Emancipation has ruined the + British Colonies; The great benefit supposed, by + American Abolitionists, to result to the freed + Negroes from the British Act of Emancipation; The + Consequences of Abolition in the South; Elevation + of the Blacks by Southern Slavery. 380 + + + CHAPTER V. + + THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. + + Mr. Seward's Attack on the Constitution of his + Country; The Attack of Mr. Sumner on the + Constitution of his Country; The Right of Trial by + Jury not impaired by the Fugitive Slave Law; The + Duty of the Citizen in regard to the Constitution + of the United States. 380 + + +THE BIBLE ARGUMENT: OR, SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF DIVINE REVELATION. + + + 1. Including a full investigation of the Scripture texts + upon this subject. 461 + + + 2. Statistical view of Slavery, contrasting the relative + condition of the North and South, in the light of the + Statistics of the United States census. 522 + + + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF SOCIAL ETHICS. + + +INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON SOCIAL LIFE. + + Necessity of Investigation; Vindicators of Slavery; + Slavery a means of Civilization; Prejudices of + Abolitionism; Discussion of the Declaration of + Independence; Rights of Society; Self-preservation; + The greatest good to the greatest number; Ambiguity + in moral Investigation; Influence of Slavery on + Civilization; The Slavery of England's + Civilization; How Slavery retards the evils of + Civilization; Servitude Inevitable; Abuses of + Slavery and of Free Labor; Social ties, master and + slave; Intellectual advancement; Morals of Slavery, + and of Free Labor; Marriage relation and + licentiousness; Virtues of Slavery; Security from + Evils; Insecurity of Free Labor; Menial occupations + necessary; Utopianism; Slavery and the servitude of + Civilization contrasted; The African an inferior + variety of the human race; Elevating influence of + Slavery on the slave, on the master, on statesmen; + Duties of master; Elevation of female character; + Necessity of Slavery in tropical climates; Examples + from history; Southern States; Insurrections + impossible; Military strength of Slavery + Advantageous consequences of the increase of + slaves; Destructive consequences of Emancipation to + our country, and to the world; Kakistocracy; White + emigration; Amalgamation; Deplorable results of + Fanaticism. 549 + + + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE. + + Statement of the Question; Slave Trade increased by + the efforts made to suppress it; Title to Slaves, + to Lands; Abstract Ideas; Is Slavery Sin? Argument + from the Old Testament; Argument from the New + Testament; The "Higher Law;" Political Influence of + Slavery; Free Labor Police; In war, Slavery is + Strength; Code of Honor: Mercantile Credit; + Religion and Education; Licentiousness and Purity; + Economy of Slave Labor, and of Free Labor; + Responsibility of Power; Kindness and Cruelty; + Curtailment of Privileges; Punishment of Slaves, + children and soldiers; Police of Slavery; Condition + of Slaves; Condition of Free Laborers in England; + Slavery a necessary condition of Human Society; + Moral Suasion of the Abolitionists; Coolie Labor; + Results of Emancipation in the West Indies; Revival + of the Slave Trade by Emancipationists; Results of + Emancipation in the United States; Radicalism of + the present Age. 629 + + + Ignorance of Abolitionists; Argument of + Abolitionists refuted; Abolitionism leads to + Infidelity; Law of Force a law of Love; Wages of + Slaves and of hired labor; Results of emancipation + to the world; Falsehoods of Abolitionists; English + estimate of our Northern citizens; British + interference in the politics of our country; + Sensitiveness of the Southern People; Rise and + progress of Fanaticism. 671 + + +SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF ETHNOLOGY. + + Philosphy of the Negro constitution, elicited by + questions propounded by Dr. C. R. Hall, of Torquay, + England, through Prof. Jackson of Massachusetts + Medical College, Boston, to Samuel A. Cartwright, + M. D. New Orleans. 691 + + + Natural history of the prognathous species of + mankind. 707 + + + On the Caucasians and the Africans. 717 + + + + SLAVERY IN THE LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW. 731 + + + DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE + DRED SCOTT CASE. 741 + + + THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. + + Alleged Immorality of the Law answered; Duty of + Obedience; Government a Divine Institution; The + Warrant of Government is not the consent of the + governed; Infidel Doctrines; Deductions from this + Doctrine; Decision of The Supreme Court; Objections + answered; Conscience and the Law; Duty of Executive + Officers; Duty of Private Citizens; Objections + answered; Right of Revolution; Summary application + of these principles to the Fugitive Slave Law; + Conclusion. 807 + + + THE BIBLE ARGUMENT ON SLAVERY. + + Infatuation of the Abolitionists; Necessity of + Correct Opinions; Statement of the Question; + Slavery as Treated by Christ and his Apostles; + Slaveholding not Sinful; Answer to this Argument; + Dr. Channing's Answer; Admissions; Reply to the + Abolition Argument; Mr. Birney's Admissions; + Argument from the Old Testament; Polygamy and + Divorce; Inalienable Rights. 837 + + + THE EDUCATION, LABOR, AND WEALTH OF THE SOUTH. 875 + + +CONCLUDING REMARKS. 893 + + + + +PAPERS PRINTED IN AUGUSTA, GEORGIA. + + + +SOUTHERN FIELD AND FIRESIDE, + +A LITERARY AND AGRICULTURAL PAPER, + +=PUBLISHED WEEKLY, IN AUGUSTA, GEORGIA.= + + Dr. D. 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It will be, in all respects, a first class +paper--on a scale of expenditure more liberal than has yet been +attempted in the South, and designed to rival, in its merits, the most +distinguished of the North. + +TERMS.--_Two dollars per annum, in advance._ + +A special appeal is made to the ladies of the South for their patronage +and good wishes. + +This paper will be entirely silent on politics. + +On matters pertaining to their respective departments, address the +Editors. On matters of business generally, + + Address, JAMES GARDNER. + + _Augusta Georgia_, 1860. + + + + +THE + +AUGUSTA EVENING DISPATCH, + +PUBLISHED DAILY AND WEEKLY, BY + +S. A. ATKINSON. + +DAILY, per annum $4--WEEKLY, per annum $1.50; to clubs of five or more, +$1. + +=CHEAPEST PAPER IN THE SOUTH.= + +It contains the latest general news; reliable commercial news; all the +telegraphic news, a summary of congressional news; in short, it is made +up of news from all quarters, derived from the mails, the wires, and +through a large number of special correspondents. + +The Telegraphic and Mail facilities of Augusta give it material +advantage as a distributing point for the LATEST NEWS; and as an evening +paper furnishes news to Georgia and the adjoining States twelve hours in +advance of any other medium. + + +=THE WEEKLY DISPATCH= + +Is issued every Tuesday; contains 36 columns of reading matter; and in +addition to the Commercial and General News of the day and the Prices +Current in Augusta, it contains an attractive variety of pleasing +Miscellany, Tales, Sketches, Poetry, etc. The WEEKLY DISPATCH is +emphatically a + +=SOUTHERN PLANTER'S HOME NEWSPAPER.= + +Specimen copies sent when desired. Address + + S. A. ATKINSON, Prop., Augusta, Ga. + + +SOUTHERN MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL: + +DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE SCIENCE OF MEDICINE. + +Published monthly, in numbers of eighty pages each, handsomely bound in +paper, at $3 a year, in advance. + + ADDRESS, W. S. JONES, AUGUSTA, GA. + + + + +CHRONICLE AND SENTINEL, + +AUGUSTA, GA. + + +THE WEEKLY CHRONICLE AND SENTINEL (a mammoth sheet, thirty three by +forty-seven inches--the largest paper in the State) is published every +Wednesday throughout the year, at TWO DOLLARS per annum for a single +copy, in advance; three copies, $5; six copies, $10; ten copies, $15. + +The CHRONICLE AND SENTINEL is strictly conservative, Union-loving, and +law-abiding in principle. Particular attention is devoted to the +Commercial and News Departments of the paper; and its ample size affords +facilities for complete and early details of all the interesting + +POLITICAL, COMMERCIAL, AND GENERAL FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE + +of the day, with an agreeable variety of miscellaneous reading. + +=THE COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT= + +embraces the latest reports by Telegraph and Mail from all the leading +markets of this country and Europe; together with a carefully-corrected +"Prices Current" and Weekly Report of the + +AUGUSTA COTTON, GRAIN, FLOUR, BACON, PRODUCE, AND GROCERY MARKET. + +The latest intelligence received by Telegraph, up to 2 o'clock, P. M., +Tuesday, may be found under the Telegraph head. As an advertising +medium, + +=THE WEEKLY CHRONICLE AND SENTINEL= + +offers superior inducements, having a very extended circulation +throughout the cotton and grain-growing sections of Georgia, Alabama, +Mississippi, and Tennessee. + +THE DAILY CHRONICLE AND SENTINEL + +is published every morning (except Monday), its columns being kept open +to the latest moment prior to the departure of the interior mails, for +the reception of news by Telegraph. Its reputation as a _reliable_ and +_correct_ Commercial Journal is well and favorably known. It will be +mailed to subscribers at SIX DOLLARS per annum, in advance. ADDRESS, + + W. S. JONES, AUGUSTA, GA. + + + + +THE CONSTITUTIONALIST, + +PUBLISHED AT AUGUSTA, GA., + +=AND DEVOTED TO POLITICS, COMMERCE AND NEWS;= + +ITS ISSUES ARE DAILY, TRI-WEEKLY AND WEEKLY. + + +In politics, it is Democratic. In its spirit and aims, Conservative. In +its commercial tables and statements, accurate and reliable. In its news +department, prompt, industrious, truthful. In its telegraphic +arrangements, its facilities are unsurpassed. They are, in all respects, +fully up to the requirements of the day. + +THE CONSTITUTIONALIST belongs emphatically to the school of State Rights +and Strict Construction. Its principles are those of the Democratic +Party, as set forth by the National Convention at Cincinnati. It is the +advocate of the sovereignty of the State and the union of the States; +but not one without the other. It is for the equal rights of the States, +and of each section. + +For the South it claims equality in the Union, or independence out of +it. + +A uniform, firm, and consistent course for the thirty-seven years of its +existence, is a guarantee of fidelity to its principles. + + TERMS.--Daily, $6.00. Tri-Weekly, $4.00. Weekly, $2.00. + + CASH, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. + + =PAPER STOPPED AT THE END OF THE TIME PAID FOR.= + + JAMES GARDNER, Proprietor. + + +SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR; + + =A Monthly Journal, devoted exclusively to the Improvement of + Southern Agriculture, Horticulture, Stock-Breeding, + Poultry, General Farm Economy, etc.= + +The CULTIVATOR contains a much greater amount of reading matter than any +other Agricultural Journal of the South--embracing, in addition to all +the current agricultural topics of the day, valuable original +contributions from many of the most intelligent and practical Planters, +Farmers, and Horticulturists in every section of the South and +South-west. + +D. REDMOND AND C. W. HOWARD, EDITORS. + +TERMS: + +One copy, one year, $1; six copies, $5; twenty-five copies, $20; one +hundred copies, $75: always in advance. + + ADDRESS, W. S. 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