Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-01-22

| thiscan De shown, IL ls unphll0s0phical to inter
from it IN essential incapacity.
But all doubts of the capacity of the African
race for self government, aud Of their improvabil.
| ty under favorable circumstances seem to me to
| be removed by what we witness at the presen,
day, both in our own country and on the coast OF
that continent. Notwithstanding the disadvanta-
ges of their condition in this country, specimens
of intellectual abity-the talent of writing and
speaking-capacity for business-for the ingen nj.
Gus and mechanical arts-for accounts-for the
ord nary branches of academical learning. have
been exhibited by our colored brethren, which
would do no discredit to Anglo-Saxons Paul
| Cutter, well recollected in New England, was n
person of great energy. His father was an At
rican slave, his mother an Indian of the Elizabeth
| islands, in Massachusetts. have already alIu-
| ded 10 the extraordinary attainmeEts of Alder
| amman. man of better manners or more res
| pectabIe appearance [ never saw. The learned
blacksmith of Alabama, now in Liberia, has at
tanned celebrity scarcely inferior to that of his
white brother, known by the same designation
| frequently attended the examinations at school
in Cambridge at which Beverly Williams was a
pupil. Two youths from Georgia and son of NV
own were his fellow pupils. Beverly was a born
slave in Mississippi, and apparently of pure Afri-
can blood; he was one of the best scholars per
hnps the best Latin scholar in his class.
These are indications of intellectual ability af-
On the coast of Africa as it appears to me. the
success of Liberia, the creation of this society,"
ought to put 20 rest all doubts this question:
The affairs of that interesting settlement under
great difficulties and acknowledgements, have been
mana ged with discretion, an energy, and,
must say, all things considered with success
which authorize the most favorable differences
the capacity of the colored races for gov
eminent. 1t is about thirty years since tho settle
TeI,s. =.
its progress will compare very favofably with that
of Virginia or Plymouth after an equal length of
time. They have established well-organized
constitution of republican government. 1t is adj
mlnistered with ability; the courts of Justice are
modelled after our own-they have schools and
churches; the soil is titled the country is Explored
the natives civilized; the slave trade is ban
ished; friendly intercourse is maintai ned with
foreign powers, aud England and France have
acknowledged their independent sovereignty
Would handful of Angl Americans, from the
humbIest classes of society, have done better than
this!
The truth is, Mr. President, and with this |
conclude an influence has been, is, and trust
ever will be at work, through the agency of tho
colony of Liberia, and through other similar
agencies, | trust hereafter to be established
abundantly competent to effect this great undet-
taking, and that is the sovereign power of
only Irresistible power. Military force is some-
times resisted and subdued; commercial enter
prise becomes bankrupt; State policy is outwit-
ted; but in the long run, pure, manly-rather lot
me say heavenly-love can never fail. 1t is the
moral sentiment. principally under the guidance
and impulse of religious zeal. that has civilized
the world.
Arms, and craft, and mammon seize their OPP
portunity and mnge in the work, but cannot kill
vi+o1tt Mat, rol
with ourselves, susceptible of the moral senti-
ments, it would be an afiront to your discern
ment to argue. Sir, / read last year in the news
papers anecdote, which seemed to put this
point in so beautiful and affecting n light, that
with your permission, | will repeat it.
citizen of Rapides in Louisiana, with his SER
vant started for California, hoping to improve his
not prosperous circumstances by sharing the gold
en- harvest of that region. For n while they
were successful but the health of the master at
length failed. What, in that distant region under
constitution torbddng slavery, and in that now
. and scarcely organized society, what was the
conduct of the slave! Priest and Levite, as the
master lay i'll of typhus foyer, came and look
ed on him and passed by the other side
But the faithful servant tended, watched, pro-
tected his stricken master; by day and by
night his panion, nurse and friend =
| At length the master died. What then was the
conduct of the slave as he stood in those lonely
wastes by the remains of him whom living he
had served. He dug his decent grave in the
golden sands gathered up the fruits of their Joint
labors; those he consid cred the sacred property
OF his masters family; toiled few more weeks
under the burning sun--a California summer
to accu uate the means of paying his passage
to the States, and then returned to the family
ais master in Louisiana cannot vouch for the
truth Of the story. have heard of tales which
| if not true were we'll invented. This, sir, is TOO
| good TO be invented; believe, | know it must be-
true. And such fact proves for the
| by the African race of the moral sentiments by
which tho land other fathers is be civilized than
volumes of argument Sir, that master and that
lave ought to live in marble aud brass. If person
SO humble myself, soon to pass away and DO
forgotten, dare promise it, would say their mo-
mory shall never perish. D fortunah amlA j!
!. 81 quid nt cdaah possint; nulta dies aqSan.
memoir r0s er5nset Sco.~ There is moral veal tn
in that incident beyo nd thessaasures of Califor-
MIA If all the gold she has Al cd
to the indomitabe industry of the udventu~-
rer and all that sie yet locks from the cupidity
OF man in the virg in chambers of hor snow clad
slerras were all molten into an ingot, it would not
buy the moral worth of that scene.
Sir, lenve you to make the application | have
told you. You'll Jew it we'll before how Africa
is to be civilized, and who are to do the work :;
and what romans but to bid God speed to the UNI
deraking