The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-29 00:00:00

SATURDAY EVENING,

(From the North American and UnmiteedSitna
meeting
Gazctte.)
Some weeks ago there was a et
London 1
of the International Statistical Congress. Prince
present.
One of the members of
was a coloured man from
Albert presided, and the American this Minister was
assembly, also present, Lord
Canada, Mr.
Dallas to that fact. Mr. Dallas made no reply.
Canada, and in the course of hteheapttreoncteieodningos
Brougham publicly called the
ord
erioefncteheenpabrolepdriehtiimes,
onfothdeoupblts,eetosnjdudthgee.
he had sufficient reasons for remaining silent—that
and it is only just to him to believe that
Hiscorrectlyoea esixo pn,
he did what, under the circumstances, was right to
do. Had there been no such reasons, however, the
objects of the society, the character of the assembly,
the presence of the dusky member from Canada,
and the speech of Lord Brougham, all afforded a
scene, an audience, and an opportunity for telling
some truths about slavery worth telling to the
English people. Let us suppose that no rules of
etiquette, no fears of compromising official dignity
by exciting what, perhaps, might have become an
unseemly discussion, had interfered, would it not
have produced a good effect on the minds of the
cultivated persons present arid on the public opinion
of England and America, had Mr. Dallas made
1 something like the following speech ?
" Mr. Chairman, —I am a guest of this learned
society, rather than a participator in its proceed-
ings. I came here to look on and listen, not to
speak. The remarks, however, of the noble lord
who has just addressed you, induce me to crave for
a few moments the attention of this meeting. His
lordship has called on me to notice the fact. that
a man of African race is here present, received
and treated as an associate by the eminent gentle-
men around me. I will not assume, I will not
suppose, that Lord Brougham intended anything
offensive to me, or to the country I have the honour
to represent, by what he said. His fame is so
widely spread in Europe and America that all the
world knows him to be opposed to slavery. He is
opposed to it, I feel sure, not as an enemy to the
United States, but as a philosopher and statesman,
on what he deems just and reasonable grounds, and
1 he no doubt meant to say by his pointed allusion
to me : ' Behold, Mr. Dallas, behold, men of Ame-
rica,- here, in England, the foremost nation of
the world, is a negro received as a companion and
an equal, in a circle composed of some of the
brightest names of their country in social rank, in
literature and science. Why, then, do you make
him a slave ?' I must believe that the person re-
ferred to, finding himself, as I do, in such distin-
guished society, has qualities which render him in
some degree worthy of his companions. It very
often happens in my country that men of his race
possess estimable virtues, and are remarkable for
truth, honesty, and fidelity; it sometimes happens
that, under favourable circumstances, they make
considerable progress, and acquire knowledge which
does not imply mental powers of a high order. But
we have some acquaintance at home with negroes.
There are 4,000,000 of them in our Southern States,
and I can assert with confidence that our experi-
ence is like that of all other countries of all other
ages recorded by history, and that examples even
of the moderate endowments and attainments I
have mentioned are the exception, not the rule.
The race is not gifted with the force of charac-
ter or intellect that fits it to originate or sustain
a native, independent civilisation. It does not pro-
duce artists, poets, and philosophers—not even sol-
diers, orators, lawyers, and statesmen. There are no
negro Shakspeares, Raphaels, or Bacons ; no Marl-
borough or Wellington, no Pitt, Fox, Mansfield,
or Brougham, with black skin and woolly hair,
either in the past or present. Even in the hum-
bler spheres of business and industry the negro
is disqualified by nature to conduct the commerce,
the manufactures, or the mechanic arts of a civi-
lised community. All these require for their manage-
ment mental powers which the negro does not
possess. As a general rule, he is fit only for manual
labour which requires but little thought, and to
achieve in this valuable results he must be directed
by superior intelligence. He has, therefore, occu-
pied, wherever he has been associated with the
white race, the position of a servile class or caste.
He occupies this position in America in the North
as well as in the South, the mental and inferior
offices of society are assigned to him, or rather he
falls into them naturally by the operation of laws
which no social or political arrangements are strong
enough to alter or resist. But in our Southern
States we make him a slave. I know that this
word has an unpleasant sound to an English ear.
There arc many in America, also, who do not like
it. Nevertheless, slavery exists there and must
exist in some form or
.other, for many years to
come—perhaps for ever—by reason of the natural
laws of race to which I have alluded. We have
4,000,000 negroes in our South, very different in-
deed, with few exceptions, from him to whose pre-
sence here my attention has been called. They
constitute, in fact, a vast mass of ignorance and
barbarism, which cannot govern itself, either for
their good or ours, and which, therefore, we must
govern. We, the superior race, have the right, by
reason of our superiority, to govern them for our
own safety and interest, not, neglecting, at the
same time, their wellbeing. Thus justified, and for
the purpose of accomplishing these objects, we
have established slavery as a system of govern-
-66 meat for the negro race, wherever it exists in such
84 numbers as to make slavery necessary, or, ti speak
,49
,o 4 with more philosophical as well as historical ac-
,7B curacy, slavery has arisen naturally from the con-
,,-
' tact of the two races. It furnishes, without ex-
pense to Government, an efficient magistracy and
police to maintain order and subordination ; it
enforces industry and temperance, without poor-
houses or prisons ; it promotes the happiness of the
negro by connecting the interest of the master
with the health and strength, the cheer-
fulness and contentment of the slave. Slavery,
therefore, with us means care, guidance, just con-
trol, and protection for the negro ; it means also
security, order, enterprise, wealth, and progress for
ourselves. The presence of the negro race in vast
numbers among us renders slavery a necessity, not
a choice. It would not have been our choice, for
we are quite English in our love of liberty. Being
a necessity, we have used it, not cruelly or oppres-
sively, but in a manner worthy a people that is
proud to number Alfred and Hampden among its
ancestors, and regards Magna Charta and the com-
mon law as its ricest inheritance. The theoretical
harshness of the system is modiffed and softened in
practice by the character of those who apply it.
'F he negro has been confided by Providence to the
care and keeping of the magnanimous Saxon race,
of that race which has built up in this island such a
splendid edifice of knowledge, liberty, wealth, and
power, which has based its mighty and beneficent
civilization on the eternal maxims of truth, justice,
and humanity, and which has erected on the same
secure foundations on an empire in the West,. the
giant proportions of which are as yet faintly traced
by the hand of time. These two great branches of
this noble family I humbly hope and trust and be-
lieve are destined to inherit the earth. May they
grow and prosper and be united in friendship as in
blood, and may they rule in the East and in the
West for the good of the world. The-care of the
negro has been thus confided to us in America as a
trust. We have power over him.; we are therefore
responsible for his welfare. I will not not speak of
the perils and difficulties that accompany this trust,
or of the evils and calamities it brings with it. We
know these well enough at home, and those present
may know something of them too from many
popular works in the current literature of the
day. Nor will I deny shortcomings in the per-
formance of our duty. Irresponsibl power is ever
liable to abuse, and mercenary motives are not the
best protection for helpless weakness. In proof of
this, if proof were needed, I might point to Ireland
and India, cases where an inferior race has been
subjected to the power of England, of whom Eng-
land has been and is the trustee. I refer to them
in no invidious spirit, for I believe that all here pre-
sent will agree with me that in the government of
each of these dependencies there has been much to
deplore and much to condemn. So it has been with
our treatment of the negroes. Nevertheless we are
not ashamed of slavery. We do not apologise for
it ;we justify it by pointing to its results. Such is
the necessary imperfection of all human institutions
that in speaking of a system that operates on large
classes of men we must be satisfied with general
effects, though particular cases of hardship are to
regretted, and, if possible, remedied. Slavery is
an outgrowth of Africa, which with Africa has
been transported to our shores. There is nothing
excellent or desirable in the nature of either, but
the presence of the one has made the other neces-
sary. Without Africa we should not have lied
slavery, but having both we must make the best of
them,-disarm them, so far as we can, of their mis-
chievous tendencies, convert them, if we can, into
instruments of good. The justification of ',slavery
lies in the evils it has prevented and the -benefits it
has confer' ed, not on us alone, hut on the world.
It has made of the negroes an orderly and indus-
trious labouring class, well fed, well clothed, on 1 he
whole kindly treated. Of the suffering that is caused
by want, by excessive toil, by unrestrained vice,
(aind
urebly pessutnhiashmnaennyt inflictediabouring 1)cyl-astshe in law,
Europe. they ei iff
1r or
d deprived.a loifytlslle protection,and dull ,some restraint
them-
selves, and d e sat s:h.rs3.t.i etelle y
paupers through indo'cr - •
speedily into Afrier lYolllsd becomec helpless
While slavery ;7:ice and license, and relapse
An barbarism, wretched
the shelter of -
providing Jrf his wants and supplyincr to hit' 1
ell' to the social fabric under
they now live and thrive.
thus a benefit to the negro by
Iftb°llr time intelligent
guidance it • I I
requires, y mestias

82,041
1,650

of that labour vast tracts of fertile land have been
cultivated that would else have remained a wilder-
derness, and made to contribute to the comfort and

accommodation of man. I need not enumerate all

the products of slave labour which freight so largely
the commerce of all nations, which employ therefore
so much capital and industry and supply so many
wants and luxuries, I will mention only cotton, that
wonderful plant, which, in some of its forms, enters
every household, however high or however humble,
in Europe and America. How much of comfort,
cleanliness, and refinement has it given to the poor ;
) how much of these, and of elegance and beauty too,
has it furnished to the rich ? Cotton is the basis of

the wealth and prosperity of our Southern States,
and enters largely as an element of the growing
power of the North. But an article of such universal
use becomes necessarily a part of the foundation of
general commerce and of the wealth of nations. If
it has enriched us, has it not enriched England too,
and in ampler measure P Look at your newspapers,

and the -daily reports of your Markets ; at your
statistics of commerce and manufactures, and see

what a lordly and commanding part cotton plays in
your affairs. It gives to us who grow it, who have
the responsibility, the risks and the evils of the
system of labour that produces it, an annual income
of less than 200,000,000 dols. ; it gives t® you who
manufacture it, who send it abroad in your ships
over all the world, a yearly profit of many hundred
millions of pounds sterling. Some of the richest
towns and counties in England owe their wealth to

cotton. It affords food andemployment to many thou
sands of Englishmen who else would want both ; it
furnishes profit on many millions of English capital;
it had helped, therefore, in no small degree, to erect
the towering structure of English manufactures and
commerce. By creating a home market and a supply
of manure cotton has also latgely promoted the
growth of English agriculture,and has thus supported
the splendour of many a noble home as well as the
comfort of the farmhouse and the cottage. This
wondrous growth .of population, industry, and
wealth, thus produced by cotton, must be sustained
by it. Take away from beneath the massy fabric
the delicate fibres of this little plant, and I have
the authority of your own leading journal for say-
ing that the power and prosperity of England, the
order of society, and the stability of the Throne
itself would be in danger. I say this from no
envious or grudging sentiment. You are welcome
to our cotton—nay, it is a matter of business; you
pay for it. If you make more out of it than we do
it is a' fair reward of your ingenuity, skill, and
statesmanship. I allude to the subject merely to
remind you that cotton is the result of slave labour;
that without slavery that labour would be ineffi-
cient and unproductive ; that, therefore, the hoes of
our slave gangs on the Mississippi are building up
the edifice of English wealth and power, as the
trowl of the stonemason erects the walls of a
palace ; that if slavery be an evil, we in America
bear all the brunt of it, and receive a part only of
the gain ; and that if it be a wrong and a crime,
England shares with us the guilt, for she does as
much to sustain it as we do. It may be said, more-
over, that the origin of slavery belongs to the colo-
nial period of our history. England landed the
first negro on our shores, and planted there anin-
stitution which has struck its roots so deeply, and
bears such tempting and golden, though also bitter
fruits, that it seems to be part of our destiny for
ever. If slavery be a crime, therefore, England is
particeps criminis, and it does not lie in her mouth
to reproach us with it, more especially as she
enjoys its abundant harvest, bearing herself none
of the heat and burden of the day. In one of the
noblest dramas of your—l mean of our, greatest
poet, a guilty king tries to pray but cannot.
"Forgive me my foul murder—
That cannot be, since I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardoned, and retain the offence I "
If we are guilty, so is England; and both to her
penitence for her share of the crime, and to her con-
demnation of our share, the mills of Manchester are
an answer. It would ill become me, however, in
such a presence as this, when attempting to justify
slavery, to confine my argument to the mere mate-
rial view of the question, momentous as that really
is—to say that slavery is a source of wealth to us,
and to the world ; that it maintains social peace
and order in a large portion of our country, and
that it secures also the physical well-being of the
subject race. The reply is obvious, that being, as
we are, the guardians of the negro, we are bound
to look to something higher than our own selfish
good or his bodily needs, and to provide for his
moral and intellectual improvement. At least, we
may fairly be required to show that slavery is no
bar to such improvement. It would be a sad thing
indeed, if true, that these 4,000,000 negroes of ours
are well fed and clothed only that they may toil
for our mercenary advantage, and at the same time
by our laws and our practice are intentionally kept
in a state of mental and moral degradation. I ad-
mit that no temporal good to them or to us could
_justify- such tyranny. And herein lies the difficulty
of the case, felt in America more deeply than any-
where, because to us it seems well-nigh hopeless.
But the evil arises from the nature of the negro,
and not from slavery. He makes no spontaneous
moral or intellectual progress, whether a slave or
free; he never has made any in his native regions.
He has never risen, at any period of his history,
even to the low grade of Chinese civilisation. He
acquires no arts, he builds no cities or ships, he in-
vents no machinery, he paints no pictures, he writes
no books, he forms no organised communities, he
makes no laws, he cannot appreciate truth
or beauty, and he is a fetich worshipper at all
times and all places if left to himself. He is
naturally a savage and a heathen, and may enjoy
in Africa such happiness as belongs to that condi-
tion. But in that conditian he cannot remain when
he forms part of a civilised community. We cannot
permit him to remain in it, both for his own
sake and for ours. What, then, are we to do ? He
cannot raise himself to our level—he cannot take
care of himself amid the energetic struggles of a
superior race. He would sink to lower depths
than his original barbarism, and our 4,000,000 of
his race would become a dangerous and intolerable
mass of ignorance, degradation, and pauperism. He
must, therefore, be governed, guided, cared for ;
and slavery, which gives him a governor and care-
taker, does not depress but elevates him. It sup-
plies the want of his nature—a directing mind.
Without slavery he would fall into a state far worse
for him—that of a slave without a master. In con-
tact or competition with the white race he would
be everybody's slave, and no one would be bound
by duty or induced by interest to support or pro-
tect him. Our slaves in America are not without
religious instruction, and the arts of industry
which they are taught, and association with the
white race, ale an education, imperfect indeed, but
superior to that of Africa, and without slavery
they would get none at all. They have been ele
vated by this education. The race now with us is
superior to its brethren in Africa, to its ancestors
who first landed on our shores. This is well known,
and is made manifest whenever the native African
is brought to our country, as ho sometimes is, in
captured slave-ships. I have said that I could not
but believe the " coloured gentleman" from Canada
to possess talents and education which makes him
a very rare exception to the general character of
his race, else he would not be found in such good
company. What fortunate circumstances in his
history have produced such a result I do not know.
I would not venture to assert that slavery encou-
rages, or even permits, such a development of
mind as he, no doubt, exhibits ; for I have never
seen a negro, slave or free, whom I considered
worthy to be a member of this learned society,
or the companion of the cultivated and distin-
guished gentlemen around me. Nevertheless it is
true that negroes do often, as slaves, rise to em-
ployments which require thought and skill, and
which imply integrity. Many can read and write ;
they become mechanics, sometimes book-keepers,
and are frequently intrusted with the management
of farms and plantations, and with the direction
and control of their fellow-labourers. Slavery,
therefore, if it depresses, also elevates. It elevates
the mass, and works well on the whole. That it is
the best possible system, as now constituted and
administered, by which to govern the large and
increasing numbers of the negro race in America I
will not affirm. Time and experience may improve
it. But it is that which we now think the best,
though we are not entirely satisfied with it, for it
produces evil as well as good. We would gladly
exchange it for a better system, did we know of
one; but the interests at stake are too important
for experiment or rash innovation. We therefore
maintain slavery, not because we do not love
liberty, but because we believe the negro unfit for
it, and because we believe slavery in some form, or
the complete subordination of the black to the
white race, in harmony with natural laws, and
essential to the social security, and to the wealth,
progress, arid power of our country. For all these
reasons a system of caste has grawn lip In the
North and South of the United States similar to
that which prevailed for so many centuries in the
.grand and noble civilization of ancient India,
founded on inequality of race, the black having
beenhere, ac with us the servi!e and lowest.
With this system the exclusiveness of caste has
beenintroduced. It is not the custom in the
,
United States for white and black to meet on terms
of ( quality ; and this arises, not from hatred or
contempt of the negdesp icable, but from the
who is neither hateful nor
the pride of race. 1 his feel-
ing is by no means inconsistent with mutual re-
spect and affection between individuals of the two
races, for such sentiments are very common, more
especially butween master and slave, and throw a
softening vc.,41 over the, Wisher features of the xela-