The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-06-16

/" Hon. A. r. Sellers defended the majority
report. He was satisfied that there were no
free negroes in the State, who would willingly
go into Slavery, and then what social aud
political shock would the withdrawal of 90 200
iaborers produce. If such bill was to be
passed, it should be entitled bill to appreci-
ate slave labor, and to deprive the poor man,
who does not own a negro, from tilling his
land Such a thing would offend public SEN
timent. This was Shareholders Convention,
by whatever name it might be called and the
adoption of such proposition aoould shock the
moral and Christian sense, and damn foreUer
those loho adopted 1T.
Mr. Duke said he was not welded to the
proposition of the gentleman from Worcester,
but he wanted some legislation. In the county
where he lived, the free negroes would not
work, and it was the wish of the people, that
if they will not work they may go into Sla-
very"
1t is worthy of especial remark, that Balti-
more sent no delegate this shareholders or
anti-free negro Convention, although that city
contains more than third of all the free ne
groes in the State. 1t is also to be noted, that
the resolutions which were finally adopted ad-
NIT that the free negroes by their industry are
of great service to the small farmers, who have
no slaves, and that any attempt to expel them
| from the State, or to sell them into Slavery,
would arouse the indignant opposition of this
class. The following extracts from the pre-
amble to the resolutions reported by the COM
mittee, is clear admission of this important
| fact:
! The existence of so large number of free
! blacks in the midst of slaveholding State, is
believed to be of itself an evil; and this evil is
readily perceived to be greater when it is con-
/ sidered that portion of them are idle, vicious,
and unproductive. This, however, is not the
case with the majority of them and their re-
moval would, as the committee believe, be far
greater than all evils the people of Maryland
ever suffered from them. In the city of Balti-
more, it is estimated that there are more than
Is, 900 of them, employed chiefly as domestic
servants or as laborers in various departments Of
| industry. In many of the rural districts of the
State, where labor is by no means abundant,
! they furnish large supply of agricultural labor
and it is unquestionable that quite a large por
ton of our soil could not be titled without their
aid. In some districts, they supply almost all
the labor demanded by the farmers.
Their removal from the State would deduct
nearly so per cent from the household and
agricultural labor furnished by people of this
State would produce great discomfort and in
convenience to the great body of householders ;
would break up the business and destroy the
property of large numbers of landowners and
land-renters-a class whose interests are emit
tied to as much consideration as those of any
other portion of our citizens-would be harsh
and oppressive to those people themselves ;
would violate public sentiment, which is gen
orally not only just, but kindly, and would prob
| ably lead to other evils which the committee
| forbear to mention. We are satisfied that such
measure could not receive the legislative
sanction, and would not be tolerated by the
great body of the people of Maryland even with
| that sanction. The committee, therefore, can
! not recommend their expulsion from the State.
Still more unwilling should they be to favor any
measure which looked to their being deprived
| of the right to freedom which they have ac-
! quired by the indulgence of our laws and the
! tenderness. of their masters, whether wise or
/ unwise, or which they have inherited as birth
! right"
! These are important admissions, and, by
/ proving the good character and real galue of
the free-negro population, they expose the sor-
did cruelty of those who propose to sell or expel
them from the State. There can be no doubt
that the real object of the proposition to enslave
them is, not to insure public tranquility, but to
legalize kidnapping for the basest purposes of
gain. In addition to this, the free negroes Of
] Maryla~d own a large amount of real and per-
sSssSl s.sobe-tas CT Iie C1nventonwerescarI
ried out, would be thrown upon the market in
! quantities so far beyond the demand as to
make the sales merely nominal. The plumber
would of course fall to the lot of the disinter-
ested patriots nearest at hand. Thus, this ne
tarious scheme, which has so signally and dis
gracefully failed, is on par, in moral point
Of view, with the kindred proposition of the
pirates in the Gulf States to reopen the Afri-
can slave trade.
The effect of this Shareholders Convention
has been to expose the weakness of that inter
est IN Maryland; and we therefore congratulate
the friends of Freedom upon its assemblape.
1t was intended as a bold aggression upon the
rights OF freemen, but its authors have had
neither the courage nor the power to consum
mate It, 1t is another Illustration of the .'irre
presslble conflict between Freedom and Sla-
very, and its result will be chronicled AMONG a
long series of defeats which the latter is doomed
TO meet with IN coming years, before its final
overthrow.