The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1849-04-24

VI anu udLlSc CHuidCLCItSltCS ne uUdi
cause of this phenomenon must be look cd for
either in that primitive doom upon Canaan by
which he was sentenced TO be "a servant Of
servants unto his brethren or it is to be found
in some high and renovating function which
| the American slave is yet to fulfill in-the re-
detnption of the continent from which he came.
Besides this physical immutabiity of the nc.
gro, as race amongst us, he has in associa-
-, ton with it another popularity, scarcely less
striking or significant than it is: and that is his
! extraordinary aptitude to possess himself, as if
by intuition, Of all the tastes and social habits
and mechanical arts and domestic intelligence
and civlizationof his master. You may pick
up wild negro in Dahomy, and bring him to
Virginia. with his feltshes and his con urng
rod, and his sharpened cannibal teeth, and his
unintelligible tongue, and give him there
no other instruction but what he can catch
| from his fellow slave at their common work,
and in few years he will be civilized man.
| And if he is not, his American child in the first
generation will be. This is true Of no other
savage man upon earth. Look at our own red
man-as uncivilized almost as if centuries of
effort was not expended upon hisimprov ement
Look at this very African himself in his own
| country, amongst the most inca pa Bile of all sa
wages for selfelevation, but wonderfully capa
bic of helping himself up by the hands and as.
sistance Of others.
| In this connection, it may be stated, as one
| Of group Of facts, mutually bearing upon and
| illustrating another. that the climate of
Africa is too fatal to the white man ever to be.
come the place of his safe and permanent a
bodc. This, our experience at Liberia, and the
missionary experience Of our religious societies
at other points, very fully establish 1t is OBJ
vious, therefore, from this, that whatever is
done for the moral improve ment Of that conti-
! ncn!, must be done by those whose entire ply.
steal nature is suited to its baleful and burning
sun. 1t must, IN other words, be done by the
black man himself And here, in the absolute
necessity of conhding this high mission to him,
or of leaving Africa to her solitary woe. we
find not improba bic solution Of SO much that
is peculiar and otherwise mysterious in his cir
| cumstances and position amongst ourselves
Here, in the light Of this necessity, we see,
most probably, why is it that his perfect iden-
tity has been protected by natural laws, which
rendered his incorporation with us, and, consc-
sequentIy, his disappearance as distinct race,
absolutely impossible. Here, too, we ha, G, as
probably, the reason Of his extra ordinary capa-
city to take upon himself the knowledge and
the arts OF his master. Here. too, perhaps. the
reason Of his presence Nth as, amongst whom
the habits of private intercourse are trecr, and
the rudments of learning more pervasive and
univ ersal than amongst any other people in
the world; and here, also, may be the reason,
why he was bound hand and foot, with the
, iron chain of personal bondage, that thus he
mig hit be fastened to the spot Of his trials and
his training until all things were ready for his
final deI,verance and departure.
| l offer you, Mr.. Chairman, no hypothesis up
: on these facts. They are such, however, I'M
r doubtedly, to encourage the hope that our
r country may become to Africa. to others,
the nursery and storchouse of its civilization
' and its freedom; that though it has trodden up
] on portion Of her children, and harncssed
r them for long years to the yoke of its labors
! yet that even thus it has been unconsciously
but bencficently preparing the means by which
$ the smitings Of this very portion may be con.
verted into the uplifting Ct a continent, and
the superstition and cannibalism and tears OF
] its sunken millions be wiped away. The facts
, also such as to surround this whole subject
: OF slavery with new motives to forbearance
r and new in unctions against the folly and tie
wickedncs of all unauthorized intermcdHiing
t with it.
: When I look, Mr. Chairman, beyond the
, forms of legislation, and consider who the real
2 parties arc to the controversy before us-that
they not individuals rushing into alterca
+ ton with one another, under the fercencss OF
! igno5lc passions, excited for ignoble obj ects,
! but powerful and independent States, consti-
: tutcd into one for certain great ends of mutual
r protection and advantage, and bound there
e fore, upon the first great Jaw Of governments
as we'll as Of persons-the law Of sell. preserva-
j.. ment as never to cndangcr ovcrwhelm it,
=. when consider, sir, who the parties are-what
= their relative obligatjons-"hut their rcclpro.
/ cal Experimentation infinitely exceeding eve.
, rything else is the interest of eacl, in the mu
. tual Justice and fidelity Of all-how amazing
: their prosperity-how exalted their rcnown-
e how renovating their example upon the hopes
e and liberties Of the worId-how inspiring the
h thought that their republican banner not only
T.. waves over an empire unparalleled in all its
-. elements Of happiness and freedom and power,
s but is yet to wave, by its influence, over the
! ilimitab bic empire of reborn and self.govcrning
man:-when | consider all this. sir, cannot
, be otherwise than chcercd with the conviction
9 that all will be we'll; that parties so situated
will never profane their story nor their honor
through al act Of deliberate wrong by either
on the other; and that 1.-THE spirit Of amity and
f of mutual Difference and concession" which !.
} nitcd them at first, will triumph over all trou-
bles, dispose Alright Of all contests and thus
continue TO harmonize and unite them forever
In such brotherhood Of parties, when diff.
culties arise there isno cxpediency upon which
to settle them but that Of justice; no benefit
, to be sought in the settlement but the benefit
+ of all. So thinking and feeling habtually, l
, a nost hesitate to ask of any possible ad Just.
mcnt of the difficulty before us, what will our
part, our southern part, of its history be? Will
it be history of disappointment, mortifica-
ton, lndgnlty, ana wrong! And your part
of its history-wll it be the short and the stern
one of power-power-unc and unrelent-
ing power? 1t is said Of one Of the very worst
Of the Roman emperors, that he lamented with
great bitterness that his reign had never been
distinguished by the occurrence Of any remark
able calamity, and had no other or better re-.
cord by which TO be transmitted to posterity
than the dull and monotonous one of it's pros
perty and peace. He dreaded lest it should
fade from the history Of the world, and be lost
to the gaze and the animadversion of man. Sir,
if you will only push on the controversy which
now disturbs us, from angrier 10 angrier tone,
If you will only settle it here, with deliberate
indignity and wrong to one Of the parties it in
wolves, you will soon Intervene with the rich.
est and purest national happiness which it was
ever allowed uny people on earth to enjoy, a
memorial of national sorrow, whitening and
crushing enough to have satisfied the monster
wish and the monster heart Of CAligula him.
self. .
But. Mr.. Chairman, when pass by the COL
ective parties in this case, and recall tho par.
ticular ones; when see that my own State is
as deeply implicated in the trouble and the
danger of it as any other, and shares, TO tho
full, with all Of her southern colleagues, in the
most painful apprehcnsions Of its issues: when