Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1847-03-12

recognise some OF tnem who stand with u.s.
whom=I cordially take by the hand as friends
in this crisis. But refer to gentlemen who
delivered studied pieces of defamation against
our domestic Institutions, who thus invoked
the Word of God-who spoke with the fervid
zeal of Crusader bent on rescuing the South
from the grasp of the heathenish STAKEHOLDER
who read to us an act of southern Legisla-
ture preventing the slaves from being taught
to read and write, and said, ''the eye of the in
tellect was put out by this system" And here
would remark, that this act of Assembly
was rendered necessary on account of Just
such movements as this, calculated to put mis-
chief In the minds of the slave, and making
rigid laws Indispensable. And would furth-
er remark, that gentlemen are laboring under
false impressions as to the moral condition of
our elaves-many of whom are instructed, and
many of whom are not kept in such religious
ignorance as not to be able to compete, with
much success, in their biblical knowledge,
with some who, in high places deplore their
degradation.
But it is said that these efforts are made to
benefit the negro. hold, Mr.. Chairman, that
the black and ach,te races cannot coerist under
the same government upon an equal footing
challenge any body to controrert it: +! will
not 90 into my own country for proof of this,
|
claim to be, and no doubt many are, actuated
in reference to this matter by pure and disin-
terested motives. Slavery is technically a.
polished there, but servitude EXISTS and when
the legislator, clad in the garb of philanthropy.
takes the negro to the hall of legislation, tears
his chains from him, and bids him go and be
free, he practically stops him at the door and
tells him, When you go to the theatre remem-
Der you are black man, and take your seat
in an humble place; when you go to church
to worship God, remember your color, and sat
not with the white man, your liberator, but
your superior Dare not intrude at the same
table will us. And when you die and are TO
be buried, your grave yards and ours are to be
separate do not say this in spirit of de-
nunciation of the North; far from it; and in
every State it may not be true; but it sustalns
me in the proposition laid down, that the
black and white races cannot coexist under the
same government upon an equal footing. The
right of suffrage is rarely given to them in the
North, and in the State in which my friend
t near me in part represents, (New York } when
the attempt was recently made to give him
, this right, the proposition was rejected with
t scorn, by one hundred thousand majority.
But say, if you attempt to liberate these
slaves in our country, in our limited territory,
YOU can do them no good, and you do the
s whites essential harm. | have seen lately
/ summary of curious facts prepared by gen.
tleman who looks into statistics, and these
facts indicate clearly that in this country,
0 when you liberate these slaves they are more
0 degraded than when they are slaves, and COM
] nit more crime Diffusion will come nearer
: promoting ultimate peaceful emancipation than
; any movement that can be made. And COM
: ing to the South, southern gentlemen will bear
: me out, that the crime committed in the South
l is by the free negro, not by the slave. And
: although we have in our midst some free nc
groes of the best character, yet they do not re-
: ceive from the white man either the same pro-
II lection or sympathy that the slave does, whose
/, master protects him both from principal and
: interest.
Il The following will serve TO show how
: slightly, if at all, the moral condition of the
O colored man is improved in the States where
e he is emancipated; and if this be the picture
l. where the blacks are so few in numbers, what
y can be expected if our slaves are to be comm
/, ed to their present territorial limits, and nun.
J. bering more than three millions, and then e.
l. mancipated J
h In Massachusetts there is one free negro tc
s seventy -four of the white population, and ye
= one-sirh of the convicts are free negroes. In
=" Connecticut there is one free negro to thirty
e four of the white population, and yet one
re third of the convicts are free negroes. In n
l. York there is one free negro to thirty-fve o.
: the white population, and yet ene-foruth o.
n the convicts are free negroes. In New jersey
g there is one free negro to thirteen OF the whit
it population, and yet one-third of the prisoner.
Is are free negroes. In Pennsylvania there is on,
1t free negro to thirty -four of the white popula
at ton, and one-third of the prisoners are fret
s. negroes.
But gentlemen say they want to elevate thu
is white man of the South save us, sir, from
D the elevation to result from turning loose three
n millions of slaves in our midst Mr.. Chairman
Y, let us take care of ourselves. We know oul
10 responsibility to God and man, and we will &C
- in view of it,
he Gentlemen say the South is dwarfed tina
her energies are depressed, her moral charac
/? ter injured, and the days of her glory past
IN Well, the South, the slayeholding South gave
! lli =