The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-07 00:00:00

MR. JOHNSON ON THE NEGRO,

Ur. Johnson has once again been speaking. The
Freedman's Aid Union waited upon him with an address,
expressing the gratification of the society at the abolition
of slavery throughout the Union, and their hope that Mr.
Johnson's mission in this country might be in every sense
successful. His Excellency, in replying, said, slavery was
inconsistent with the happiness of people and nations. It
had no foundation in morality and less in Christianity.
A. slave could hardly be said to be half a man.
If his body did not dwindle, his mind dwindled,
and his heart became ossified, and the same
Influence, more or less, was brought to bear injuriously
upon the master. Of course there were exceptions to be
found in'every country where there were classes of servitude
and of masters. He thought he was not mistaken in
saying that but for the invention of the cotton jenny
(an invention of a Northerner, they must remember),
which incalculably increased the wealth of the
South, and from its having afterwards become a
topic of political controversy, slavery would not
have been abolished with the occurrence of that dire
calamity through which they had just passed. But the
increase of the wealth of the South gave to the labour
of the slave a value which it did not before possess, and
the master at last thought that his real worth was in
the man he thought he had the right to control.
The masters in the South then did what most of them
thought they had a right to do—seceded from the
Union ; but for what purpose ? For the purpose
of perpetuating slavery, and establishing a government
which they wished to call free, which had foundation
on slavery, and which therefore was certain to fall to
destruction. It would be almost impossible for those
present to realise the sadness of the struggle ; reading the
accounts would give them but little knowledge of its actual
results. Let them travel through the South and see the
ravages of the war, the desolation of the homes, the
badges of mourning which were to be found in every house-
hold ; the refined woman obliged to resort to labour for
the purpose of supporting herself and her children ; and
then, having done that, let them look at the graves,
the millions of graves which were to be found in
every Southern State. He thanked God that none were
to be found in any of the Northern States. He was a
Southerner, and lived in a State where the slave popula-
tion outnumbered at one time the whites, and where at
the beginning of the late war they numbered some
75,000, in addition to the free blacks, who were some
80,000. Their domestic and agricultural servants were all
slaves, and he had been brought into connection with hun-
dreds and thousands of them. He had defended over and
over again those who supposed themselves entitled
to freedom. From the experience he bad had of them
he believed they were as capable of receiving education as
the whites, but, of course there were differences amongst
all classes of people. Every lawyer could not be a Mans-
field, nor every member of the House of Commons a
Wilberforce. He concluded as follows: " I know I can
assure you that during my residence amongst you—happy
from the first, getting happier every day, and never more
happy than now—l shall so conduct the duties of my
mission as to satisfy you that in heart, soul, and mind, I
feel upon the great subject which has interested you pre-
cisely as you do."!