The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-12-29

| stroke OF magic converted the negroes of we
British West Indies into polished, refined, moral,
and intellectual beings. Neither did emancipation
| work these miracles iustantsneously upon our
own race, and yet it is among the earliest and
most powerful of the causes of all the civilization
and refinement that we possess. do say, how
ever that the negro race in the tropics have mace
marvellous advance, considering the shortspace
of time they have possessed the boon OF freedom
Who that has read of the horrible barbarities
| inflicted by the brutal negroes who massacred
the entire white population OF st. Domingo,
and has lived to behold the moderation and
magnanimity with which Geffrard deposed the
| tyraut Faustin and restored the Republic, can
doubt that such is the case2 / contend, how
ever that what emancipation has done for the
British West Indies in redeeming them from the
atrophy of Slavery to partial prosperity, or what
the Haytens have been able to do, emerging
through blood and the most awful convulsions
from condition the most abject. and brutal, TO
a position far more respectable than that OF most
of the Spanish American States, is no measure
of what could be accomplished by our freed men,
should they be permitted, under our protection
and guidance, to plant themselves in the tropics
They would bear with them a knowledge of our
| civilization and government; they would carry
habits of industry acquired among US, and a
morality and religion not possessed by any of
the people of those countries and If we should
accord TO them free homesteads, withheld from
should at once impart independence with their
freedom, elevate them in character, and assure
their prosperity. The Emperor of Russia, with
| wisdom learned in the stern school of adversely,
finding that his millions of serfs could not defend
/ bis empire against a few thousand men animated
by the ardor of freedom, has led the way for us
| in this reform, and not only has given his serfs
liberty, but forced his reluctant mobiles to give
fthem homesteads also, that they may soar at
once to the full stature of men whom the law can
/ no longer enslave, nor want reduce to subservi-
ency. Wise and gracious Prince, he has built
his throne in the hearts of grateful millions,
| fortress more impregnable than Sebastopol. The
nobility still resist the execution of this great
measure of inspired wisdom. They have not the
sense to see that it is the only thing which can
! save them from the humiliation of defeat by for
eign foes, or the sure, if long delayed, resent
ment of those whom they have despoiled of their
manhood, without depriving them of the strength
which enables them to destroy. They are like
the senseless oligarchy Of our Southern States,
who weaken their country by filling it with
/ degraded race, and who, in trampling down free
/ dom, have obliterated from the hearts of their
/ bondmen the principle which humanizes the
! heart, leaving the brutal vgor and the quench-
/ less passions, which will one day bring swift de-
struction on all, unless wise policy shall pre-
/ vail.
Our task is not more difficult than that of the
] young Alexander. Shall we approve ourselves
! less courageous than he2 His ancestors have
! often sunk under the steel of the assassin, when
! their policy conhicted with that of the selfish
/ nobility; indeed, the assassins steel is a COM
! mon weapon in the hands of the cunning and
! cowardice which forever preside over the coun-
sells of oligarchy. Kings and commoners have
alike felt its edge, and hearts that throbbed for
the oppressed have been known to stain with the
red drops of life the palace walls, the Senate's
] nOOr the ductV plajn of distant lands lint
who find daggers for every heart in this land
that loves liberty The hope of Russia may be
swept away for it lives only with one life; but
here, its votaries are like the unnumbered leaves
of our forests.
have spoken of this plan of colonizing our
slaves as a means of enabling them to attain a
higher position and greater comfort and happi-
ness but this is not the only object, or even the
/ chief one, to be attained by this grand move
ment. Mr. Jefferson did not so regard it. He
was not unmindful of the interests of this de-
pendent race, and was animated in all he said
and did by sincere desire for their elevation
: and Improvement. He recognised their claim to
/ the rights of manhood, and desired to place them
| in position where, the legal status of freemen
being conceded to them, they could not be sunk
into social inferiority by the pressure of differ
ent race, stronger than themselves, and in whom
mature, habit, and opinion" had engrafted an
ineradicable .antipathy. Hence he favored the
separation of the races for the sake of the negro,
but still more for the sake of his own Our
! physical and moral characters" our happiness
and safety" to use his own impressive words,
! demand that this shall be done, /" or worse will
| follow" if not accomplished "by the generous
! energies of our own minds then it will be
| brought about by the bloody process of st. Do
mingo" He knew full well that the chief evils
of Slavery do not fall on the slave; up to GER
tain point, it is undeniable that the slaves in this
country are improved by a mild subsection to a
! cultivated and enlightened race Who does not
know that the negroes in the United States are
! superior to what they were when brought from
/ their native juBgles, and who does not know that
the interest of the master alone, if no higher mo-
/ tive, insures, in the main, gentle and humane
! treatment to the slave? Men generally do not
destroy their property by bad treatment; and,
! apart from this the mass of slave owners at the
South are animated by the highest and purest
motives in their kindness to their dependents.
But q man does not live by bread alone" and the
slave is denied every aspiration in this world
that scars beyond the wants of his physical ma
ture-this is its condemnation--but the institu-
ton deals more harshly still with the great mass
of our own race. To them it denies bread even,
for it closes upon them the door by which this
bread is to be won. 1t Injuries them fatally, by
monopolizing and degrading all the industrial
occupations, which elsewhere supply the wants
of an independent yeomanry, puts education
within their reach, and makes improvement pos
sible Let me read you the sickenng descrip-
ton which Senator Hammond, the orator of the
South Carolina oligarchy, gives of the mass Of
non-slaveholders of his own State. He says:
They obtain precarous subsistence by occasional jobs
by hunting by fishing, by laundering fields folds, and,
Often by what is its effects worse trading with
slaves, and leading them to plumber for their benefit"
Hear, also, this vivid sketch of the fatal infu-
ence of this system upon the state and county
in which he lives, from Senator Clay, of Ala
bama:
.In traversng that county he will discover numerous
farm houses the abode of Industrious and intelligent
freeen occupied by slaves tenantess, deserted,
dapidaied; he viii observe fields once fertile now I'M
fenced Abandoned and covered with those evil haTbmgcrs
fox tail and broom sedge; he will the growing on
the moudcrng walls OF once thrifty villages and will find
that only master Grasps the whole domain that once
furnished homes for dozen white families"
You have no need to inquire further to find
where the pressure of Slavery falls the heaviest.
1t is upon the non-slaveholding masses, men
born with no inheritance except their right to
labor with their naked hands, and despoiled Of
their right by the existence of an institution
which makes labor disreputable-makes peri
manent employment impossible, places education
beyond their reach, and reduces them to the
necessity of eking out existence on poor land
rented of some rich Shareholder of which the
rent consumes all but the merest necessaries OF
life There is something in the very nature of
Slavery which limits the demand for labor to
the supply which it affords. 1t is averse to the
creation of large Cities which multiply and dit
versify employments. 1t favors that kind of agri-
culture which spreads over vast surface, and
whose rude labors do not require skill. A large
| city has wants unknown to the habits of coun-
try life, and the skill which belongs only to the
ANDY rkedDy a IS