The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-05-21


sionary Union; The Norwalk Calamity and the
Intelligence; Speech Of Captain Hill at the recent
Cuban Anniversary Meeting; Court Proceedings;
Poetical illusions; Financial and Commercial Re-
views; General News Paragraphs, &c.
The Free Blacks-Northern Philanthropy vs..
Northern Legislaiion-Thc Colonization
Question.
The future destiny Of the free colored popu-
lation Of the United States is one of the most
perplexing, although one Of the most important
questions of this age. 1t is abundantly mani
fest that in this country their position must I'M
changeably be that of distinct and inferior
caste with which it is impossible that the white
race can ever amalgamate. 1t is equally evil
dent that the amelioration of the degraded con-
dition of the free blacks OF the North within the
limits of this Union, always impracticable, has
at length become almost utterly hopeless. The
pressure of our European immigration is fast
filling up even the more mental employments
heretofore the conceded prerogatives of the CO
lored man. If there were nothing else arrayed
against him than the overwhelming competition
of the European laborer his prospects in the
North would be bad enough but this compe-
tition is only one of the incidental disadvan-
tages of his marked and prescribed race.
The black mans first and unconquerable diff
fculty is the stamp of inferiority and servitude
with which his Creator has marked him in his
physical and mental organization. All the laws
of society from which he suffers are but the in
evitable contingencies of this first nhexible law
ofnature. From time immemorial he has been the
slave of some higher type of the human family
or but naked barbarian in state Of social and
political independence. The very highest adj
vances in the scale of intelligence which he has
made have resulted from the Southern insti-
tuition of slavery. The only promising attempt
at selfgovernment with which the black man
stands credited in history is the republic of
Liberia, established and conducted by liberated
slaves from our Southern States. And it has
been doubted whether Liberia would continue
to prosper as an independent State beyond the
present generation were all supplies Of regene-
ration cut off from this country. If we are not
mistaken, it was the opinion of Mr.. Calhoun
that the success of Liberia was entirely arti-
fetal and delusive. for that the decease of the
existing colonists from the South, and the
failure to supply the vacuum for even a few
years, would result in the rapid blending Of
the people of the said republic with the wild
African savages by whom they are surrounded.
But. whether the experiment might result thus
or otherwise. experience has satisfactorily
+ba ri I'D info af fba
race. and that the only advances above bar
barism which they have ever achieved have
been under the servitude or subsection of the
white races.
Now, from this view of the subject. we would
conclude that the most eligible, appropriate.
and humane disposition of the black man which
has yet been made is that of the peculiar in
sttution of the South" under which he is the
unconditional servant and dependent of his
master. And herein, to some extent the Afri
can has solved the problem of manifest desti-
N.Y. for himself Contrast the comparatively
enviable condition of the slaves even of the rice
plantations of South Carolina with that of the
free black barbarians Of the black despot Of
Hayti, or even with that of her Britannia Ma
jesty's lately emacipated free colored subjects
Of Jamaica. and the testimony of all history
will be affirmed in the practical illustration Of
the decree of servitude which attaches to the
children of Ham.
Our Northern philanthropists. however, have
hit upon an expedient which must be success
full in lifting the African to all the benefits of
white society, or which can only fail in the
bloody determination of the African race from
this continent. 1t is the immediate emancipa-
ton of all the slaves of the South, the imme-
privileges with the whites, and the blending
of whites and blacks together upon the
platform of the French jacobins of Liberty,
equality and fraternity" To this end the
agitation of the slavery question is to be re-
vived; to this end the free-soilers are co-ope-
rating with the more virulent abolitionists in
the reorganization of their forces for resisting
any further extensions Of the area of Southern
slavery; and to this end the underground rail
roads to Canada. for the benefit Of fugitive
slaves. are kept open. with their connecting
stations from Mason and Dixon's line to the st.
Lawrence and Lake Erie. To this end also,
Mrs. Harriet Beechcr Stowe. Fred. Douglass,
the Black Swan, the Duchess of Sutherland,
the ladies of the Stafford House petition, and
George Thompson and Company are zealously
working in the common cause night and day.
And when the occasion shall arrive for practical
political action we may expect to find all these
piebald elements Of abolitionism banded toge-
Their in yet another crusade against the infdels
of the South.
In the meantime. the condition of our free
colored population is more fitting subject for
Northern philanthropy than Southern slavery;
enlarged by the addition of three millions of
slaves something should first be done in the
way of philanthropy for that unfortunate class