The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-06-09
Delivered April I'd, 1853.


Delivered april I'd, 1853.
CONTINUED
There is--we know it-an eternal war be-
tween freedom and slavery-between intelli.
gence and brute force! As intelligence rises,
the other sinks, and the masters have every
where been compelled to act upon this maxim,
or, upon the stall lOOrSs one, TO misdrect intel
ligence to Over-educate it, to dssipate and to
corrupt it. Otherwise, the right of property in
man is not secure. Nor have we in the United
States, been able to escape from the same dl-
lemma. Tho existence of slavery here as 1t is,
depends upon keeping the negro as near T.
animal functions as possible Our shareholders
have not yet dared to attempt to clear the
chasm of real, heart and-head-improvingin intel
lgence, and to land on the shores Of that
Machiavelian system which prevails in some
parts of Europe, and which educates men to be
the meanest of slavcs-thOse which 81 kiss the
rod that gives them blows" Our slavery is
patriarchal yet it has not yet become refined
| thank our Southern brethren that they have
left to most Of the negroes their minds blank,
and their hearts still simple
These considerations will show us why free
colored persons are regarded as so very dan
gerOus in the South, and / know it must be
agonizng to the many thousand kind Southern
hearts and heads 10 see themselves impelled
to q course Of action which they must regard
as inevitable to their own safety and (which
their slaves remain uneducated and through
which they must be cruel to the free The laws
now proposed in Virginia and other States in
Guiding one or two Northern States for the
forcible expulsion of the free blacks are sad but
faithful commentaries upon the truth that the
necessities Of oppression demand, in every cline
and in every age, the same un ust means to
preserve its existence, and that free and en-
Hghtened America s not to be an exception
Is it not strange, however, kind friends, that
before the same Legislature (lllinOis) are two
propositions flowing from the same strain of
mind !--one to exclude free blacks, the other to
admit them, as slaves, with their masters !
=. No invidiousncss dictates these words.
feel, deeply, the inherent difficulties of Southern
Legislators. | state but facts which would
gladly change if could, but which stubbornly
cross my path, and upon which must expa-
tiate, to redeem those general axioms of migra-
ton which the history of the world demon.
strates to be correct. 1t cannot be improper to
inquire, with the proper spirit, into the causes
that have prevented the fuller development Of
the negro in our land | do not deny on the
contrary assert it M a fact, that much has
been done for the negro in the United States
and that he is now far superior being to what
he was when we took him from Africa It is
only in a comparative view that the discrepan
cy appears, and mars the general result of
mans migration. The very contact of two
races improved the inferior one. The negro is
capable of progress, for he has much improved
in the three hundred and fifty years he has
been with us; and if his improvement do not
stand a comparison with us, twill, considering
his position, well compare with the improve
ments Of our own race some ten to twelve cen
turtles ago. Nor is it so very iar-fetched to sup
pose that rs in the white man, so might in the
negrO-had he been irec---a change of climate
and country have developed other qualities of
mind and body, such as he never exhibited at
home
We never give due credit to labor for its
tolls. Those who accumulate it's proceeds claim
Tor themselves always too, the credit for them
The slave especially, is n victim in this matter
His labor is directed and absorbed by his mas
ter This is said to DO tho great advantage of
our slave labor system Under such system |
OF labor, its products are concentrated by one
will, and directed to common purpose. The |
individuality of the lahorer IL almost entirely |
extinct Consumption and production are reeu. |
lated by the master, and not the individual la |
borer's wants or desires Slavery is kind of
socalsm-lt resembles in somo respects the
labor systems which sOcialistic writer's prescribe
TO Europe as panacea for all its social ills
The excellence OF their system is said to consist
In the general principle that by it, production
and consumption may be concentrated and
mcthodzed-thc first thereby increased, the
latter dlminlshed-Nnd that through such n
system, man may, with little labor have in
creased comforts, and more time for mental i'm
proVement and social enjoyment. They conf
IDENTITY predict, from its adoption, the rcgenera.
ton of Europe
Slavery ~ compulsory socialism! 1t is labor
associated by force 1t h tho bee. hive of 30.
cialism-exemplhed in some of its aspects al
least; and surely IN Its hives the drones are not
missing 1t has, admit, proved vastly pro
duetiUe, and it has consumed but little. Ir
sixty years the products of these slave pta
ianSterieS have, in cotton alone, amounted Il
Sl,7ll 69l,77 exclusive of the large amour
consumed here. In 1851, the exports of cottol
alone were Sll2 3l53l7. Besides this, Their
are millions of tobacco, sugar, corn, etc etc
Their exports exceed ours fifty per cent n
least What farms has it not cleared Ell
wood Fisher startled many people by the ex
hibts he made of Southern production and con
sumption, in his lecture, "Noyfh and South
Ii did not startlc me. ! was prepared for tn
fact that labor associated by force slavery
must, as n mere matter of dollars and cents, b
highly productive. IL is no longer conjectur
what immense results n similar system, organ
lied upon voluntary and free principles, woul
produce, if it could be so organized
The whole matter may be briefly summe,
up in this Forced socialism slavery can exis
only over men in the lowest state of mind
free socialism (Fourierism) can only exist wher
man occupies the highest scale of moral an,
Intellectual goodness. To the first, mind is no
necessary in those who toil-in the latter min,
must haze complete mastery over the body
b1t IN both systems We may take it 10 be al
ADMITTED Tact, the net proceeds exceed those o
our indiHduahzel labor system. The Shaker
ana the R"pp'tos may, in part, be proofs il
point
The defects of the socialistic slapelabor sys
tenn are obviously tho almost total absence O
the contributions of the master in labor IA IN,
general stock, and what ia worse in the lnxu
rious OUTLAWS Of that same master Were ,hes,
defects not the inevitable accompaniments q
slavery, who doubts that the Southern master
would outvie the tabled wealth Of Croesus nm,
that we Northern men would have but Ettl
r II. o