Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1851-10-01
LETTER FROM J. H. b. LATROBE, ESQ
OCEAN HOUSE, NEWPORT, r. I.,)
.4ugltSt 90, 1851.

yesterday, with Mr.. J, w. Coleman and yourself,
with Victor Hego's letter to Mrs. Chapman, of Ju-
ly 9th 1851 the subject of slavery in the Unit
ed States, before us commit them to paper at
your request
The letter of M. Hugo is characteristic 1t has
been translated, to do justice to the terse and
eplgramatic style of the author. Argument it does
not pretend to-; and while you feel that it is cal
culated to produce wrong impressions, and obtain
an influence to which it is not entitled, it is diff
cult to find any salient point on which to hang the
true view of the subject.
The best way, perhaps, will be to consider the
letter as the expression of strong sympathy on
the part of the writer, in the labors of lady, en-
gagged in promoting the cause of Ant-slavery,-
or, to use more accurate definition, Modern Abo
ition in the United States. Indeed, Victor Hugo
begins by saying, that he has been desired ssto lift
up his voice - and so he does.
Victor Hugo says that he agrees with Mrs. Chap
man in thinking that, ':wthin time, not distant,
the United States will repudiate slavery with hor
ror." 1t is not unreasonable to suppose, there
fore, that he would be glad have the reputation
take place at once.
Let us suppose now, that his expectations were
realized The country would then present the
spectacle of two free races, of different cOlOrs,
with equal rights, as citizens, under the law.
But there would be some things which the law
could not give. 1t cosd give political, but not So
cia position. 1t could empower the emancipated
slaves to hold property and vote, which has area-
remove the prejudice which the whole population
entertain against their race. 1t could not change
those physical characteristics, which affect asso
citation with them, either as regards their appear
ance or otherwise. 1t could not induce fathers to
give their daughters to them in marriage, or re-
concile the daughters to receive them as husbands.
nor could this mpotency of the law be of present
duration only. As already said some of the States
have done for the negro race, all that legislation
could effect, and this too, generations since. But
hoo L., L.. ofo~
pect of such change, as would better their social
condition in any of the particulars we have mcn-
toned.
We may fairly assume then, that the emancipa
ton of the whole slave population of the United
States, gradually, would present the spectacle
of tive free and distinct races, whose difference OF
color was an inseperable barrier to their amalga
nation by intermarriage now, or within any pro-
bable period of the future. Whether the emanci- |
patton of the slaves, which would prevent color
from being the badge of servitude, would promote
intermarriage, and the gradual absorption, in ma !
ny generations of sene into the other, must OF
course be a matter of speculation. That those in
termarriages are now repugnant to the general
feeling of entire country, is fact, and such
may be dealt with. The future is conjecture
wholly,-about which one mans opinion may be
entitled to as much consideration another S.
But we may fairly suppose that the white genera
tios, which have seen slavery, must first die out,
before the prejudces, originating from that condi-
tion. can be oblterated.
This point is dwet upon because of its import
1t lies at the root of the questions involved
II emanci pation, present gradual, is to produce
ana!gamaton by ntermarriage between the white
and black races of the United States, as they will
then stand related and affected toward each other,
we give up the case. belief to this effect is the
only apology for modern Abolition.
But we do not believe So and repeat again, that
the two races in such event, would remain sepa-
rate and distinct, while they continued to occupy
the same land. On the truth of this position our
argument rests. Of this each one must judge for
himself. The reasons of the faith are differences
drawn from existing facts.
Having made the whole colored race free, it is |
not to be supposed that Victor Hugo's sympathy
with what he calls ''the august cause of slavery,
would cease. On the contrary, natural curiosi-
ty would interest him in the subsequent condition |
of the new-made free-men. 1t might have been
well, if Victor Hugo, before expressing the strong
opinions of his letters on the 9th July, had consid-
cred what would be the probable condition of the
emaneinated slaves. He does not appear, from
any thing that his letter contains, to have
done so.
Had Victor Hugo reflected, he would have found
that all history teaches butone lesson the point,
which is, thattwo races, which cannot anna gamate |
by lntermarrlage, can exist in the same land only
in the relation of Master and Slave, or, both
nominally free in that of the oPpressor and the
oppressed.
The instances are striking and numerous. The |
Moor, superior in learning to the Spaniard, but
not amalgamatng with him, was expelled from |
the land, or remained i-treated INTERIOR
The Saxons and the Normans were in continual
strife, until lntermarrlages amagamated them as
one people. Our own country, in its Indian his
tory, presents another instance of the truth of the
dogma. In Mexico the Spaniards and the Indians |
amalgamated, and formed one people: but what
people! In the old United States, it is true that
some of the best blood of the land noble in spirit,
efo Avs bril- ionf in folap
down from an Indian maternal ancestry to the
present day but yet, the Indian in our country
will soon be a memory only. There was an ex-
perience therefore to which Victor Hugo might
have referred touching future probabilities,
should modern Abolition, whose advocate he is, be
triumphant in the end. 1t is, perhaps, pity that
he did not push his enquiries further indiffer
ent cause, we think, would have lost the weight
of great name but humanity might have been
none the worse on that account.
Nor is History in this respect, without the con-
frmation Of every days experience in our own
country.
In the city of New York, where negro may be
a voter, he is not permitted to drive dray or
cart. | am not aware whether this is by law, or
is the effect of combination among white COM
petitors but the inference is the same in either
case. In Philadelphia, he has again and again been
made the subject of attack by Infatuated
popuIace. In Cincinnati, to protect him from
such attack, it has been necessary to parade can
non in the streets Boston and Hartford have
both witnessed scenes of violence when the negro
was the victim-and yet all these cities IN free
States, where the negro has enjoyed for years
nearly or quite all the rights which law could give
to him. What hope is there for different future
for the black man in these respects' What pros
pect is there of present change for the benefit,
of either of those now free or the whole race,
should general emancipation take place? None
under the canopy of heaven A more barren pre-
sent, more hopeless future than that of the free
colored people of the United States cannot exist
America is the white mans home, and his exclu-
sivey God hath SO appointed it.
During the year 1850, the total migration to
the United States from all foreign countries can
hardly have been less than four hundred thousand
nersons persons of class that at once enter into