The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-04-22

be frugal, temperate industrious. and studious
He should abjure all ignoble ease, luxury, or
pleasure and concentrate his efforts on the I'M
provement of his family and his people. He
should earn money, that he may send his chill
dren to school and to the best schools: supply
his house with books and all available means of
knowledge, cultivate the refinement OF man
ners, which will help to gain hun admission
into intelligent society, inform himself OF all
his duties and fulfil them and of all his rights
and claim them-by no means forgetting the
| right of suffrage. Whenever any cOlored child
| evinceS talent his whole circle Of acquaintance
| should take an interest in him He should he
| educated for business. for any such mechanical
trade AZ requires educated labor, for the pro-
LESSONS or for any department of life which
he can I'LL with honor to himself and with ad-
vantage to his fellows
A condition, at present, nearly or quite as
| Indispensable to the elevation of the COlUrcd
| people, is the formation of communities by
themselves. Scattered, or rather sprinkled, as
they now are, among the whites, mostly en-
| gagged in occupations which are considered
! however unjustly) to be subordinate and ser
vile the spirit of selfrelance and of an ambi-
ton for advancement is killed out At least
it is not noJn'ished, and, ike anything else
without nourishment it will not grow With
out chance 10 rise 70 Offices and stations of
honor trust or emolument they must be far,
very far, above the average Of common men, to
| qualify themselves for the discharge of duties
from whose honorable, or lucrative performance
they are debarred. Bat did they constitute "a
community by themselves, such, for instance.
as New England or an Ohio township, then
they would rise from domestic labor and mere
| chance-Seryice. from being ditchcrs and delivers.
INTO farmers mechanics, artisans shop keepers,
printers, editors or professional men Town
| officers, Justices of the peace, and candidates
| for those State offices which towns are author
lied to elect, would be sought and found among
themselves The supply would follow the de-
mand. The whites themselves. with all their
education, and their opportunities for improve
ment by iISsociating more or less with the most
| intelligent men, would never be able to carry
on the affairs even of IA municipal corporation,
| without some practice and training. They
must go through with Il period of pupiIagc, by
| observing the manner in which business is con-
Quoted, with view to conducting it themselves
How difficult then, for the colored population,
in their present isolated and weakened c0ndi-
ton. ever to rise, as n body. above II very low
level of improvement. How painfully Uncertain
are debarred from the opportunity and the am
bition of making great progress, they are de-
barred, also, from its possibility; and even
what progress they do make must be, with
some extraordinary exceptions. in tie rear of
those among whom they live, and without any
chance to pass by or Oyertakc them in the
march OF improvement, We may condemn
the iniquity Of this degradation as yehcmcntly
Is we please; but inIquty is Il fact which Il
wise man takes INTO account as much aS any
other fact, and in laying his.plans for future
action he recognises until he can remove it,
On these accounts, have looked with great
interest upon the colored settlements or colo
MES, in Canada, in which the whites do not
Obtrude, and thrust aside the blacks and seize
upon all the posts of honor and all the eligible
and lucrative branches of business As mem
bers Of such communities, the blacks will be !
compelled to think for themselves to act indie !
pendently, and to qualify themselves and their
children for the various Offices and occupations
which an independent community necessitates.
Their minds will be forced into practical chan
nels, they cannot run to Il master or an employ
er every hour, to learn the order or the forms
OF business or how to execute work They must
Judge they must forcsec, they must adapt
means to ends. They must outgrow that most
unnatural OF relations, although it still exists
throughout the greater part Of the word) that
relation, | mean, in which one man furnishes
muscles and another man brains. They must
be brains unto themselves. Under such an un-
natural relation, both the muscles and the
brains are likely to be very poor articles But the
blacks will never DE able to do these things for
themselves, until they set themselves to doing
them A man might as well expect to learn
to swim without gong into the water
As one OF the consequence of these ndepend-
ent Canadian communities lately saw, with
exceeding pleasure, that some cOlored people
had been returned as jurors; because recog-
nlsed germ OF independence of progress, and
of self-government
Even to conduct the business of IA society or
a public assembly, Iyceum debating club,
or temperance mceting-is something. 1t
tries the wings 1t may only prepare to fly
low; but even eagles fly low at first
II is obvious, however that even the manage
ment OF public meetings, or of the affairs of
town, is not enough. The colored people must
open Their eyes 10 II grander vision They
must qualify themselves for the responsibilities
OF el-goyemmcnt--to fill the various Offices,
judicial, legislative, and executive, of IA State
For THIS purpose, they must, of course, have
50 much freedom from admixture with the
whites rs will give them a fair chance in all
the competitions for eligible and honorable sta
tons.
And here, this topic indissolubly connects
itself with another namely the conditions and
prospects of the slaves of this country, and the
duty of the free colorcd population towards
them.
That slavery is to continue always, it would
be the gr0sscst atheism TO affirm A belief in
the existence of just Governor of the Universe,
includes belief in the final and utter aboli-
ton OF slavery. But even this faith leaves the
means and the period of emancipation unsettled
Now, there are three modes of emancipation
The irst il special and individual, AS the eman-
clPa''on OF their slaves by patriotic and Chris
t'h men, who see both the impety and impol.
ICY OIL holding their iellow-beings in bondage,
ana tne accommodation Of the slave by es-
| cape from his chains
suppose, now, there were "A. prosperous and
independent community of blacks in jamaica
| or III any other of the West India Islands. Of
| lerIng the equality and the dignity of free in.
situations To Whumsocyer Of their African breth-
rem would emlgratc thither would not numer-
ons ot the more benevolent and conscientious
OF the Shareholders give freedom to their slaves.
with the expectation and perhaps the means of
| their becoming citizens of such a Government
and rising mt once to the dignity of freemcn
| Not only so, but with such Il people in our
ncighborhood, would not thousands and thou.
sands OF the most healthy, intelligent and val
liable slaves exercise that "inaenablc right TO
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
which they. are authorized by the law of Ma
ture and Of Natures God at any moment to
enforce, by scltemancipation-that is, escape
II the last census is to be relied ON, about IA
thousand slaves escaped during the year that
proceeded ITS being taken. | have no doubt this
Is II great eXoggeration for many slaves who