The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-06-02
WASHINGTON, ID. C..
REPORTED for the National Era
LECTURE ON MIGRATION,
Applying tho Principles OF previous Lecture on the
same subject to the Black K ace in America.
Delivered April I'd, 1853.
BY CHR. REEMLIN.

feel it, a difficult, and, fear, thankless task.
| undertake it only upon your special request,
and relying upon your kndest indulgence.
We may when we reflect upon the history
of our own race, readily yield it to be a true
maxim, that laboring population is the only
reliable basis of a nations wealth and power
and that therefore, to whatever quarter the
laboring millions migrate, to that quarter, too,
will migrate the rule over man politically,
commercially, and financially but cur pride
ut once revolts at the same idea, when it forces
us to admit that we are indebted in any man.
ner for our national wealth and greatness to
the black race.
We approach all questions connected with
the latter race with peculiar feelings of preju-
dice and of evil apprehensions We feel sen.
sitve about it, as if its discussion menaced our
dearest interests. 1t stands in our minds as
the ever-present only, cloud in our political
horizon. 1t is the dark spectre that haunts
us in our brightest dreams of anticipated ia.
ture progress. We would gladly get clear Of
this population, and all its fancied or real
evils; and 80 overwhelming is this desire, that
the dread Of future evil has made us forget all
the benefits this race has conferred upon Amer.
lea in the past. We think only Of what q
happy radiance it would be to loee this popula-
ton but wo little think of the many comforts it
creates; nor do we want to meet the losses
which would follow the radiance. 1--WE are
like the fox, who demanded TO be washed with
ont wetting his skin"
The books of travel and the dsquisite edi-
torials Of learned Europeans have magniied
our apprehensions. They always present the
negro slave when they want to paint the dark
side of America picture Nor have we been
wanting Of the proper stimulants to our fears
at home. A crisis could not be a very
dark one in our Union, if portion Of the in.
gradients thercunto were not manufactured
out Of African blood. The foreshadowed ter
rors would, We think, long ago have broken
over our devoted heads, il they had not been
spirited away, again and again, by the kind
inteTposition Of the magic of some "Compro-
mise We even now breathe freer, deeper,
having passed by similar process through n
fearful crisis" but not 30 free and so deep as
to make IA approach this question with that
open and fearless brow with which we meet
our foreign and other domestic questions
Why we should have this anxious solictude on
this question OF race, and why we should so
courageOusly march forward to our manifest
destiny" and be 50 reckless on almost every
other public question, are questions which will
receive an answer when that destiny shall be
reached, and when the consequences Of our pres
ent impetuous steps shall be fully developed
Providence ever hides from nations the results
of fav0rite national measures and a nations
ruin hardly ever comes from the quarter where
most it is dreaded nor do those things produce
permanent national happiness which promise
the greatest present success. In Europe they
eat the bitter or sweet fruit of seeds planted by
wise or unwise, but generally well-intentioncd
hands, thousands Of years ago. We are, in al
most every national sense, but the sewers in a
new field, of which the harvest is to succeeding
ages May we use n worlds experience, to
SOW deeper, and to bring better harvests In
the negroes case however, this liz not 50. We
are at the beg inning of the end, and the sickle
OF lime will soon garner away into the historic
granaries this deeply -colOred episode Of Ameri-
can history.
The negroes are in our eyes a race of slaves.
This colors our whole judgment We associate
with them ignorance, brutality, and deceit
and we regret their presence. Our books oil |
paint the devil black, and we cannot shake off |
the conviction that the future OF these black
children Of Africa is the PandOra's box for our
country. If God has any " future punishment
in store for our land, whence else can we anti
cipate the blows to come hardest than from
thence We have transferred part of our
hatred Of all darkness to this same race
Such habitual feelings are, feel it, serious
impediment5 to fair contemplation of this
question Can we not, for a few moments at
least discard all these feelings! Can we not
use our common sense, and examine into and
decide upon the whole matter, without pas.
sion, without fear and without prejudice?
think we can Did not the same God create
the black man and the white man Is not
our and their destiny beyond this life the
same? Or is there in the realms of truth and
Justice heaven for the blacks and one also
for the whites Has not the Creator Of this
earth and Of it's varied climates created pur-
posely various races Of men, so that they
might, through their mgratiOns, act and react
upon each other, so as to enable oil ultimately
to reach without the necessity of hating each
other common destiny7 Or does our exclu-
son go 30 far rs to exclude the negro from our
Utopas and our Millonniums, in which even
the lion and tho lamb are not forgotten Is
there any necessity for "crisis " in this mat
ter Can il not like all other matters be
permitted TO run its natural and easy course Of
cause and effect Have all these "COmpro-
misses been anything else than the natural re-
suits, forced upon our statesmen, and where
they have not been such, have they can they,
remain compromises beyond the brief hour of
temporary excitement?
If we put these questions to ourselves, we
will find our hearts warmed up by the sun of
beney0ence, and our heads cleared of the fogs
Of prejudice Faith in God and confidence in
ourselves will enable us to inquire properly into
all the difficulties Of the subject and to probe
tearleSsly it's dangers.
What then, is the history and tho extent of
this black race in America
As to its history, it is easily told They have
no history Of their own. What little history
there IS of them was written by white men ;
and woe unto people who suffer their con-
querors to be their historians Their native
land is still the same land Of mystery, of fable,
and Of marvel, that it was three thousand
years ago perhaps moro So Oar race has Il
history and therefore a progress; but of the
black race we say the hardest we can say,
when we say, IL stands still
Our history of the creation, propagation, and
extens on Of man over earth, obviously does
not suit the negro and our physiology seems
equally at fault. We take him TO have come
"Defonnsd, unfinished, sent before hi. time
Into this breathing world Of ours, scarce half
made up
The dogs bark mt him rs he halts by them
Is 1t not clear to all that Africa must have
been the cradle Of his race, and il could not
have been that Of ours Ii we venture to
Africa, 1t IL our grave and what else have
America and Europe and Asia furnished 10
the black man, except very unhospitabe
graves The interior OF Africa il his unds-
puted home. There only he thrives and multi
plies. Everywhere else he remains a stranger
Do not in mockery name to me the empire
Hayti, as proof that such is not the fact in
America
Three hundred and fifty years ago, eleven
years after the first white man migrated to
America, the first black man was imported
from Africa. More than forty millions of adult