Part 2
Some may say, perhaps, better let them perish then, than remain in slavery. As the slaves do not say so themselves, I do not, for one, feel warranted in saying it for them. They may, in the designs of Providence, have an important mission to perform,--that mission being, for aught we know, to carry back from their long sojourn in a land of bondage the seeds of civilization to benighted Africa, the home of their fathers. Whatever may be their ultimate fate, I do not feel warranted in hastening and deciding it by exterminating them, or, in other words, dissolving the tie that binds them to those whose duty and interest it is to protect them. A heavy burden lies upon the backs of the masters, which they cannot throw off at will, and with which we are not burdened. They have a sad and perplexing duty to perform, and why should we, by our interference, increase those burdens which we can do nothing to lighten? All such interference is a positive injury to the slave, and insulting to those with whom we have formed a copartnership, and with whom we must live as one family, so long as we continue to be a free people.
One who has a true respect for the colored man and a just regard for his interests, will not, I think, wish to see him placed in a false position, such as he occupies in the free States, hanging for a short time upon the skirts of a community which disowns him, and then sinking into the grave leaving no trace behind. For the negro there is, socially, no hope in the free States, and those who flatter him with such a prospect do him a most grievous wrong. A few of partly African descent and possessed of considerable intellectual endowments have been thus deceived, as they will no doubt have occasion to realize most fully.
As lovers of their race how can they wish to see it occupy its present position in the free States? If they would improve its condition, why not lead out a colony to its native land, where it can live and not die, where it can be relieved from the destroying influence of the Anglo-Saxon, and stand up on its own ground, conscious of no superior, feeling its own dignity, and with ample opportunity for the development of all the faculties with which it has been endowed. Such a work would be worthy of the best intellect and the highest powers that have been bestowed on either black or white; but those of the colored race who are content with delivering anti-slavery lectures, or writing for anti-slavery papers, so far from elevating their race are engaged in a work which can end only in ruin, to the blacks certainly, in the loss of life and entire extinction, and to the whites in the loss it may be of a Union which no art can restore to its original beauty and perfection when once destroyed. As the true friend of the negro, I would not flatter him with delusive hopes and false expectations that can never be realized as has been too often and constantly done by very excellent men, and with the very best intentions; but, I would endeavor, as far as possible, to tell him the truth, however unpalatable, in the full belief that in the end such truth will operate for the best interest of all, black and white, bond and free.
The diversities and repulsions of race which have been ordained, no doubt, for some wise purpose, are intended, perhaps, only for this state of existence. Another life may present a new order of things in which no such distinctions exist. Men have been created to differ from each other physically, morally, and intellectually, but still all are equal before the Creator of all, entitled to an equal share in his bounty, and to the enjoyments of life best suited to the genius and capacity of each. In another world the genius and capacity of all may be alike, all finding happiness in the society of all--and in a mutual pursuit of the same objects, whether of knowledge or of taste, of study or of worship.
It is much to be hoped that this subject will ere long be treated in a very different manner from what it has been for the last fifteen or twenty years. It is simply a question of races, and all the violent and bitter harangues that have been uttered have advanced not one step towards ameliorating the condition of the slave, or solving the problem of negro slavery in this country. Such harangues have only served to stir up strife and jealousy, to set one portion of the people against another portion, array in opposition members of the same family, and finally, when acting upon such fiery spirits and undisciplined minds as that of John Brown, to bring us to the brink of civil and servile war.
In offering the above suggestions, it may be proper to say, that I have done so with entire respect for the personal character and motives of many of those who have been prominent in promoting and bringing upon us the present state of things. I have the best reason to know that some of them have acted from a high sense of duty, and such no doubt is the case with those colored men to whom I have referred. I yield to no one in my regard and sympathy for the colored man, wherever he may be found, and would therefore see him placed in a true position, not in a false and impossible one.
Those who have been so long agitating this subject, however honestly, may still have done so under a mistaken sense of duty, and the time has now come when the subject should be viewed in every aspect and in all its relations, so that, if possible, we can know the ground whereon we stand. No attempt, however humble, to throw light on a subject of such momentous importance should be discouraged, and I cannot therefore feel that any apology is due from me for laying before the community some considerations which may present the subject, to many, in a somewhat new light. If it is true that the two races can never co-exist, in a state of freedom, it is a truth of the utmost importance, and should, therefore, be fully known and understood by all.[2] If that proposition is not true, its fallacy can no doubt be shown, or at any rate demonstrated by the lapse of time. In my judgment, time has, thus far, proved and confirmed it. The reader will judge from his own experience and observation, and the evidence here presented, how far my conclusion is a just and reasonable one.
When we consider that the slave is supported from birth until he can labor, and from the time when he can no longer work until he dies, and also that at best his services are not worth more than one-third as much as those of free labor, it is very easy to see that he is the best paid laborer in the world, as it is certainly true that a more happy and contented laboring population is not to be found among civilized or uncivilized nations. With rare exceptions, the relation of master and slave in our Southern States is a very happy one, at least to the slave. Kindness and indulgence are the rule, while cruelty and harsh treatment are the exception. Our Northern patience would no doubt soon be exhausted, were we compelled to deal with and provide for a similar class of laborers.
At the same time, the slave is subject to occasional hardships. This is the fate of all, under whatever social system they may live. In some form or other, all men are called on to pay for the privileges they enjoy, nor could it be expected that the slave would be an exception to this general rule. If the marriage bond could be legalized and rendered more sacred, and families not allowed to be separated by sale, many cases of hardship would be prevented. This is a matter for the serious consideration of the slaveholder, if he would manifest to the world a desire to place the dependent race in the best possible condition, consistent with its safety.
Of the possibility of such reforms, they are the best judges, however, who have the burden upon them, and are best acquainted with the wants and capacities of the African race. It is easy for those at a distance to give advice, in regard to a social system, the practical working of which they are quite ignorant of, but those who are born and bred under such system can only know the difficulties that lie in the way of reform, especially when those difficulties are aggravated by interference from abroad.
Slavery may finally come to an end in the United States, by the operation of natural causes, such as the rapid increase and constant encroachment of free labor, and the fact that slave labor is so expensive and tends so greatly to the impoverishing of the soil. As Slavery dies out, the colored race will disappear from the scene forever. It is not for us, I think, to hasten that time by revolution and servile insurrection, to put torches and pikes into the hands of such a population to be used against the whites, in re-enacting all the horrors of a St. Domingo massacre, and at the same time sealing its own fate as suddenly and as rapidly as the dew disappears before the rising sun.
Public sentiment has undergone a marked change in England, on the subject of Slavery, within the last few years. The Anti-Slavery sentiment, like an epidemic, swept over the whole length and breadth of Great Britain, and in its course swept away Slavery in the British West Indies. The natural and inevitable re-action has already taken place in England, and happy will it be for us if it comes in this country before it is too late. That such a re-action is already taking place in the United States, hastened by the foray of John Brown, there is great reason to believe.
The following extracts from the London Times are very significant:--
EFFECT OF EMANCIPATION ON THE AFRICAN RACE.--There is no blinking the truth. Years of bitter experience; years of hope deferred; of self-devotion unrequited; of poverty; of humiliation; of prayers unanswered; of sufferings derided; of insults unresented; of contumely patiently endured,--have convinced us of the truth. It must be spoken out loudly and energetically, despite the wild mockings of "howling cant." The freed West India slave will not till the soil for wages; the free son of the ex-slave is as obstinate as his sire. He will not cultivate lands which he has not bought for his own. Yams, mangoes, and plantains--these satisfy his wants; he cares not for yours. Cotton, sugar and coffee, and tobacco--he cares but little for them. And what matters it to him that the Englishman has sunk his thousands and tens of thousands on mills, machinery and plants, which now totter on the languishing estate that for years has only returned beggary and debt. He eats his yams, and sniggers at "Buckra."
We know not why this should be, but it is so. The negro has been bought with a price--the price of English taxation and English toil. He has been redeemed from bondage by the sweat and travail of some millions of hard-working Englishmen. Twenty millions of pounds sterling--one hundred millions of dollars--have been distilled from the brains and muscles of the free English laborer, of every degree, to fashion the West Indian negro into a "free and independent laborer." "Free and independent" enough he has become, God knows; but laborer he is not; and, so far as we can see, never will be. He will sing hymns and quote texts; but honest, steady industry he not only detests but despises. We wish to Heaven that some people in England--neither Government people nor parsons nor clergymen, but some just-minded, honest-hearted and clear-sighted men--would go out to some of the islands (say Jamaica, Dominica, or Antigua)--not for a month or three months, but for a year--would watch the precious _protege_ of English philanthropy, the freed negro, in his daily habits; would watch him as he lazily plants his little squatting; would see him as he proudly rejects agricultural or domestic services, or accepts it only at wages ludicrously disproportionate to the value of his work. We wish, too, they would watch him while, with a hide thicker than that of a hippopotamus, and a body to which fervid heat is a comfort rather than an annoyance, he droningly lounges over the prescribed task on which the intrepid Englishman, uninured to the burning sun, consumes his impatient energy, and too often sacrifices his life. We wish they would go out and view the negro in all the blazonry of his idleness, his pride, his ingratitude, contemptuously sneering at the industry of that race which made him free, and then come home and teach the memorable lesson of their experience to the fanatics who have perverted him into what he is.
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The Abolitionists in America would have the population of the Southern States turned into a mixed race, whites, blacks, and mulattoes being on terms of equality, and constantly intermarrying; but if one thing more than another has tended to give to the Anglo-Saxon race in the New World the victory over the Spanish, it is that it has kept itself apart from the red and negro races, and lodged power constantly in the hands of men of European origin. It has been fully proved, not only on the American continent, but in our own colonies, that the enforced equality of European and African tends, not to the elevation of the black, but the degradation of the white man. We cannot find any sympathy for those who would try, in the United States, the plan of a half-caste Republic, and we trust that the Federal Government and the right-thinking part of the community will protect the South from the repetition of such outrages as that at Harper's Ferry.
Our own race is boastful as well as intolerant and aggressive. This is especially true of the New England type, and hence it is that we are prone to regard ourselves in many, if not all respects, superior to the people of the South. In some respects, undoubtedly, we have the advantage of those who have been born and educated under a very different social system; but, on the other hand, according to the law of compensation, we lack much that is valuable in the Southern character and mental constitution.
The nature of our climate and more especially of our institutions, has given to our English blood a new and most powerful stimulus, so that we develope an immense amount of intellectual energy and activity, which constantly seeks vent, and which constantly tends to run into some extreme or excess. Having lived for many years in a state of great material prosperity, we are prone to wax fat and kick. We have known no real evils, no invasion from without, or civil war within, and for want of any real danger we conjure up those that are imaginary. We torment ourselves with evils which have no existence but in our own brain. I think it was Judge Marshall who speaks of those imaginary evils, which as they are without cause, are also without remedy.
The Southern mind is less active and more conservative, sometimes erratic, but generally disposed to take a common sense and rational view of things, and is, in some respects, more reliable than our own. It forms an admirable check in our political system, and preserves us from a natural tendency to run into the extreme of radicalism, and that spirit of agrarianism which has destroyed all former Republics.
The constant tendency in a Republic is to remove all constitutional checks intended for the security of individual rights, and reduce everything to the rule of the majority. It is obvious that the Senate of the United States and the Supreme Court, though intended as checks upon popular impulse and outbreaks, are yet but very imperfect barriers when opposed to what is termed the will of the people. It requires but a few years to change the political character of the Senate so that it shall reflect the prevailing sentiments of the day, and the same is true of the Supreme Court. In some of our States the judges are already elected from year to year, and must become to a greater or less extent political partizans. When these checks are removed and the rights of the individual are dependant on the bare will of the majority, then we have a pure democracy, which is pure despotism, and a despotism so dreadful that it soon gives way to despotism of a milder form in the person of a military Dictator. We have no landed aristocracy which, in England, stands between the people and the throne, keeping each from encroaching upon the other, nor any real check in our system of government, unless it is the fixed fact of a large number of States, whose population is naturally and necessarily conservative, and which stands like a rock against the surging waves of popular excitement of agrarianism and radicalism from whatever quarter they may come. The assertion that Slavery was the corner-stone of American liberty, made some years ago by a statesman from South Carolina, was looked upon with amazement as a most absurd paradox, but time may show that it contained a truth which we have as yet failed to see and comprehend.
The Southern character is more impulsive, but also more open and genial than our own. If it shows a hasty spark, it is also soon cold and rational again. It is not brooding and intolerant, nor easily led away into excesses, such as too often befall us of a more Northern clime. One prominent cause for such difference is, no doubt, to be found in the fact that, while we, at the North, live in towns and cities where men are in a constant state of action and reaction upon each other, and the masses can be suddenly and extensively roused and excited, the Southern Planters live remote from each other, and, in many cases, in almost entire seclusion. Such a population is less in danger from these moral epidemics that from time to time sweep over communities, because it is sparse, and therefore not so much exposed to exciting causes; thus, while it loses many good influences which flow from a more compact society, escaping also many serious evils to which the latter is subject. It is not France, but Paris, the great centre of population, the seat of all that is luxurious and refined, of science and of art, of everything in short which can serve to adorn and embellish social life; it is this Paris alone that makes and unmakes kings and emperors, that overthrows one dynasty during the night and sets up another the next morning, and then gives the law to the nation which stands looking on. Some editor or some orator touches that sympathetic telegraphic chord which passes through each individual of this vast living mass, and in an instant, as it were, the gutters run with blood, a ferocious mob rushes through every avenue, seeking vengeance for wrongs, which, if they have no existence, in fact, exist not the less really in the excited and inflamed imagination. Then comes a satiety of blood, then a re-action, and then a state of things too often far worse than the first. Our own city of New York is considered by many to have become incapable of intelligent self-government, and to exhibit those evils which, especially under a government like our own, flow from the collection of a very large population at one point. A sparse and widely scattered population, which is also by necessity highly consecutive, may supply the very check we most need and which is not to be found in paper constitutions, courts or senates.
In the gradual progress of time, free labor will doubtless overrun the more Northern Slave States, bringing fertility to the soil, and improving in many respects the condition of the white race, though fraught with ruin to all of African descent. My sympathies are with the latter as well as the former, and I cannot wish to see our swelling, aggressive, Northern Anglo-Saxon tide, overflowing the Southern States, sweeping away perhaps the most conservative and useful element in our republican system, and at the same time utterly destroying in its course that helpless race which, in the providence of God, has been cast upon our shores. There is room enough for us all to live together in peace and harmony. The two races can co-exist in their present relative condition, but in no other way. This is the great lesson of history, experience, statistics, and the observation of every day.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Our English common law is said to be the perfection of human wisdom. It is founded in right, and its object is to ascertain and establish the right. The sources from which it is drawn have been thus enumerated. "The law of nature; the revealed law of God; Christianity, morality, and religion; common sense, legal reason, justice, natural equity, humanity."
[2] Since the above was written, I find that the same theory is advanced by Mr. Buckle, in his History of Civilization, a very obvious theory, it would seem, and the result of the most common observation, viz: that where two distinct races come together there can be no amalgamation, but the inferior must die out in presence of the superior.