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

MR. DAL LAS

AND LORD BROUGHAM.

(From the .Y.7rlA American and United Stales Gaulle.)
Some weels...si ago there was a meeting in London
of the Interreational Statistical Congress. Prince
Albert preside d, and the Americau Minister was
present, was a coloured man from
present. One. of the members of this scientific
assembly, also _
Canada, and in /he course of the proceedings Lord
lrougham pubtcly called the attention of Mr.
_Alias to that fact. Mr. Dallas made no reply.
His experience enabled him, no doubt, to judge
correctly of the proprieties of the place and the
occasion, and it is only just to him to believe that
he had sufficient reasons for remaining silent—that
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 and on the public opinion
of England and America, had Mr. Dallas made
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
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 whi@la
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 arty, a civi-
lised community. All these require for thei anage-
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
11 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 are 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-
ment for the negro race, wherever it exists in such
numbers as to make slavery necessary, or, to speak
with more philosophical as well as historical ac-
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.
The negro has been confided by Providence to the
care and keeping of the magnanimous Saxou 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-
formancei
asbtlep
rtooteacbtuits
ne,
faonrdhmeleprlceesns awr
lof our duty. Irresponsible power is ever
befis vs e. s airne
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yeamknote
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 allh ere pre-
sentin
will agree with me that the
government of
each of these dependencies there has been much to
deplore and much to condemn. So
our treatment of the negroesit has been with
NeverthelessdNe we are
not ashamed of slavery.We o 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 had
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 conferred, not on us alone, but on the world.
It has made of the negroes an orderly and indus-
trious labouring. class, well fed; well clothed, on the
whole kindly treated. Of the suffering that is caused
by want, by excessive toil, by unrestrained vice,
and by punishment inflicted by the law, they en-
dure less than any labouring class in Europe. If
deprived of the protection and wholesome restraint
afforded by slavery they would become helpless
paupers through indolence and license, and relapse
speedily into African barbarism, wretched them-
selves, and destructive to the social fabric under
the shelter of which they now live and thrive.
While slavery is thus a benefit to the negro by
providing for his wants and supplying to his
labour the intelligent guidance it requires, by means