The Kenosha telegraph and tribune. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1859-1860, 1859-09-01
What Shall be Done With the I'm.
creasimg Slave Population


creasing Slave Population
Recent statistical facts go to show th,,t the
negro population is rapidly gaining Cd the white
population in many of the slaveho'din States
In some OF the States the nun erical nr.nonde-
rance Of the colored population very Justly ex-
cites apprehension for tie safety Of the white
race. The negro element is constantly being
difused in a more rapid ratio than the white
and the period viii come, when the cOlored race
VIII lar outnuUber the white in considerable
portion OF thcs Union. The question very nat
uraliy arises, What shall be done 2 Is the
country not cherishing an element, which will
one Gay prove disaStrousi Can a race, howev-
or degraded, be kept in Servitude, after it has
the conscious power Of freeing itself from OPP
pressionf Tho problem is not new one ; it
has been solved again and again in past ages,
and in y manner that BODIES the most fearful con-
sequences to the country. The American people
must shut their ears to the warnings Of history.
and stultify themselves with the belief that hui
man nature is not the same now as in the times
OF the nations of old. The world has never vet
known long period Of enslavement of any con-
siderable number of people, which has not n
the end resulted in bloody massacre, unless OBJ
waited by voluntary emancipation.
The dangers to be apprehended from the in.
crease Of the slave population of this country
were foreseen by that most profound of all Amer.
lean statesmen, Thomas Jefferson. No man
ever weighed the probable consequences of the
continuance of this element in our American
institutions more thoughtfully than he Among
his many Rdmonitions we quote few on the
subject Of emancipation he says:
" The day is not far distant when the public
mind must bear it and adopt il, or worse will
follow. Nothing is more certainly written in
the book Of fate, than that these people (the ne
groes) are to be free nor is it less certain that
the two races, equally free, cannot live in the
same Government. Nature. habits, opinion.
have drawn indeble lines of distinction be-
tween them. 1t is still in our power TO direct
the process of emancipation and deportation,
and in such slow-degree as that the evil will |
wear OF insensibly, and their place be pGri passu
filed up with free white laborers."
Again, in q letter written to Mr.. Sparks. he
says
"Our happiness and safety, is to provide an |
asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the
whole OF that population from among us, and |
dependent people, in some country and climate
friendly to human life and happiness"
And still further; as an earnest expression
of his belief in the ultimate emancipation of the
slave population, Mr. Jefferson writes as fol-
lows:
yet the hour Of emancipation is advancing |
in the march of time. DiH come and, whether |
brought on by the generous energies of our own |
IL H. H. n
excited and conducted by the power of our pre- |
sent enemy, if once stationed permanently
within our own country, and offering asylum
and arms to the oppressed, is q leaf of our his
tory not yet turned over"
Such were the warnings of Jefferson, and the
time for the realisation eff the evils which he
predicted is rapidly approaching. Prudence
and safety demand that the evils, if possible,
should be averted. What, then, is the appro-
pirate remedy The plan proposed by Senator
Dooittle, Of this State, in Congress, at the last
session, meets the case probably better than any
measure now before the people. 1t is precisely
in accordance with the views expressed by JEFF
ferson, and adapted to the present emergency.
The resolution offered by Senator Dooltte in
the Senate of the United States is as follows: -
" RcSOlDed, That the Committee on Foreign
Relations inquire into the e1pediency of acqui-
ring by treaty in Yucatsn, Central South
America, the rights and privileges of settle
ment and of citizenship for the benefit of such
persons of color, of African descent, as may
voluntarily desire to emigrate from the United
States, and form themselves into colony or
colonies, under the laws of the State or States
TO which they emigrate the United States, in
consideration Of the Commercial, advantages of
free trade with such colony or colonies, maxim
and securing the necessary and proper engage
ments to maintain them in the enjoyment of the
rights and privileges acquired by such treaty or
treaties"
This seems to offer practical solution to the
the question, what shall be done with the negroes
if they are emancipated7 One of the objections
frequently made to the emancipation of the slave
population. is that the negroes are not wanted
here if freed. Colonization in accordance with
the foregoing resolution, offers free homes to
the colored man; and then we may proclaim, in
the broadcast sense, free homes for ALL