The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-03-24


men of this country, as the only possible mode
by which we could rid ourselves of this great
difficulty, without going through the bloody
scenes of st. Domingo in the Southern slave
States; and when the honorable Senator from
Ohio says that desire, or that the party with
which l act desire, that the scenes of St. Do
mingo shall be re-enacted in the Gulf States OF
this Union, and that we desire to reduce those
States to the condition of Hayti and Jamaica,
he does us great injustice. 1t is I'd avert Just
that calamity, and to prevent that very result,
that to-day advocate this proposition; for
believe the time has ripened for the execution
of the plan originated by Jefferson in his day,
agreed in by Madison and Monroe and all the
earlier and better statesmen of the Republic,
both North and South.
What shall we do? That is the question.
l ask honorable Senators who doubt the propri-
ETY. of this proposition which have introduced,
what will you do? You know that 1T is fact,
that very many of the non-slayeholding States
of this Union, by their laws, and even by their
Constitutions, refuse to allow the emancipated
colored man to find shelter within their iuris-
diction-a measure of harshness in which
cannot sympathize, while, at the same time,
almost all the slaveholding States have made
stringent enactments to prevent their emanci-
patton, unless they shall be, at the Same time,
removed beyond their jurisdiction; and in
some Of the Southern States, the proposition is
to-day being entertained, and it is beginning to
find more and more favor, to reduce to servi-
tude those who are now free. The proposition
has been made in North Carolina, Maryland,
and Virginia 1t has lately been made in the
State of Missouri, coupled with a proposition
to confscate their property. Very probably it
is entertained in other slaveholding States.
/ ask, in Heavens name, what are you to do
with these people? In the late Constitution
which was framed in Kansas, and which the
Administration was so anxious to press through
Congress, it was declared that free negroes
should not be permitted to live in Kansas.
The Constitution of the State of Oregon de-
clares the same thing, that they shall not only
permitted to have any rights whatever, nor any
standing in court. The slaveholding States
are making these enactments. What is to be
done with them? That is the question. 1t is
not a question that confines itself peculiarly to
the slave States. 1t is a question that concerns
the free States as well as the slave States. 1t
is no sectional question. 1t is a national ques-
ton, in which all have a common and equal in
terest.
ask, and repeat, in Gods name, what will
you do with them? l ask you, gentlemen on
the other side of the Chamber, what will you do
with the free negroes that are now inhabiting
the States of this Union? Will you put them
to the sword Humanity would shrink from
that. Will you bring them to the auction block ?
That is the question. 1t is seriously proposed
in several States Of this Union, though l trust
that no such enactment will ever be carried into
effect in any State. But, Mr.. President, sure
as fate, in the language of Mr.. Jefferson, sure
as mathematician facts and figures do not lie
on this subject-you have got to meet this ques-
ton you cannot postpone it any longer, if you
try; the day is coming on; it is already press
ing upon you. What will you do with them
You must meet it. The census returns Of the
volving decade it is fixing it as sure as fate,
and you must come to it.
refer, of course, with no disrespect whatever
to any of the States of this Union; but I refer
to the census simply for the purpose of stating
facts as they appear. If you look at the State
of South Carolina, you will find that, in 1910,
there were 2l4,OO0 white people to 1000
slaves in 1920, 237, 900 whites, 25S, 900 slaves
in 1880, 257 900 whites 3l5 900 slaves in 1910,
299 900 whites, 327 900 slaves; in 1850, 274, 900
whites, $4,000 slaves. What do these figures
show? Where does it tend? Where do these
mighty resistless currents in human affairs con-
stantly flow? They flow to but one result; and
men may try to avoid the question as long as
they please, but the time is coming, and is
pressing on, when the enormous preponderance
of the slave population, in some of the States of
this Union, will be so great that they must be
removed from those States, or they will be Afri-
canized-the very result of which you speak.
You charge upon me a desire to make Hayti
of South Carolina or Louisiana. No, sir; never.
would open the outlet, and the only outlet, by
which you can escape it, and to which you must
come, as sure as fate, unless you do. You are
not SO much wiser than Jefferson or Washing
their, day. 1t has been approaching ever since
1t is gathering strength and volume and come
it will.
What will you do with them? You are hold
ing the wolf by the ears. You cannot hold on
ing strength every day and every hour, while
you are growing weaker. What will you do
with him? That is the question. You cannot
blink it out of sight. / tell you, Mr.. President
it is a question above all other questions of our
day. In considering the well-being of the
American nation, We must meet it. You must
make an outlet for these people, or you must be
Africanized in those States where they are in
creasing in such ratio, compared with the in
crease of the whites. This may be speaking
plainly, but l have no concealments on any
subject. | speak openly, freely; make clean
breast of it. If you look at the census of Ala
bama, it tells the same story. So of Georgia
and Louisiana, though not to so great a degree
in the State of Louisiana, for the reason that
there is a large city in that State, and the in
crease of black population in proportion to the
increase of the whites has not been so marked.
The serious question now arises, as this pop
ulation must, in the course of human events,
flow towards the tropics, and into the tropics,
just as certain as the revolutions of the earth,
just as certain that water finds its level-shall
the Government of the United States seize upon
the tropical regions Of this continent, and plant
them there as slaves, or shall we suffer them to
go, who are now or may be hereafter emanci-
pated, from within our present jurisdiction, to
take up their abode among the free people of
their own color who are already within the
tropics?
Mr.. President, this subject is one to which /
have given no little though hit during my brief ex-
perience in political life. took part in the great
contest which brought Texas into the Union. /
went for the annexation of Texas / did so in
the most perfect good faith. did so because j
believed that Texas was an independent State
its independence had been acknowledged by
Great Britain and by France; because its peo-
pie went out from among us, and were of us, and
desired with one voice to be reannexed to the
Union. went for the annexation of Texas also
for another reason. That reason / now feel
called upon to state. 1t was a reason which
was proclaimed through the whole length and
breadth of the land. Every man in Congress
who spoke on that subject mentioned it. Every
man from the North or the South who spoke Of
the annexation of Texas, and in its relations to
the existence of Slavery in this country, advo-
Gated the same idea or kept silence. refer to
the reason advanced by Mr.. Walker in his eel.