Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-02-01
TERRITORIAL POLICY.
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party, indicated alike Dy It's ueClaTdtloS anu iIo
acts Its members are moving on with an accelera-
ted velocity. While the more moderate OF them
now occupy the ground of the Abolitionists twenty
wears ago most of them are far in advance OF that
position Ought we to stand still until all the States
are as thoroughly abolitionizcd as Massachusetts
now isy If not what can be done to arrest the
mischief? l propose, then, seriously, to conSiuer
this question, -,
Tn INV Judgment there arc two modes in which
il can and ought to be met. The first is under the
Constitution; the second may he outside of it.
If abolitionsm be popular deluSion, can 1t not
be dispellcd by proper efforts? Truth can over
come error but to enable it to do so 1t must be
properly presented to the human mind. As the
antislavery party have acquired their present as
tendency by vigorous and widely extended efforts,
fthey are to be ovcrthrown it is only by decided and
perseyering exertions on the other side There are,
in nv opinion sufficient conservative elements IN
the free States for this purpose, if they can only be
properly arraycd in opposition 1t is necessary that
the discussion should be widely extended and also,
directed to the merits of the question involved
The constitutional argument is sufficient Tor the IN
telgent and honest; but if it be said, for example
merely, that slavery existing in the southern
States is great wrong and great evil, yet that I'M
der the Constitution the people of the North have
no right to interfere with it, the party so defending
will in the end lose ground because masses OF men
when excited by real or imaginary wrongs Will IN
time break mere legal restraints which they re-
gard as uninSt an criminal. They hold that where
there is will there is way" and will find some
mode of action But in this the real issue is,
whether or not the negro is the equal of the white
man physically, intellectually, and morally? Though
usually evaded in the discussion, this Is the real
question which lies at tbs foundation of the cOnro
verSy If the people of the northern States should
regard the negro as being the equal of the white
man, then they will continue to feel sympathy for
him in slavery and can be excited to efforts for his
liberation IT. on the contrary, he be different in
material respects from the white man, and also in
ferior then his case must be decided on Its own
merits and not from any supposed analogy to that
of the white man. 1t is not, as the AboltionStS in
their Stiffness assert, mere question OF color or
prejudice against black skin. If the negro were
in fact in all other respects like the white man, his
blackness would have been of no more consequence
than the difference between black and red hair or
light and dark eyes The feeling against him grows
out of the fact that he is in all respects different
from the white man and inferior. When put the
question to any one that | may meet here the
chances are that he will at agree with me, IN
private conversation. and admit, in the language
used some time ago by the Senator from Illinois,
Mr. TrumbulL that OmnipOtcnce has made DIFF
ference between the white man and the negro and
yet it is this very opposite view in favor of negro
equality which gives its main force and vitality to
the anti-Slavery movement. When, sir, some twelve
years ago l. in dscu sion, threw out suggestions
about the difference of races, | was denounced as
one who attributed injustice to God Almighty in al
legng that lie had made the negroes inferior. Will
any Senator the other side of this Chamber tell
me why it is that Providence brings half the chill
drcn that are born in New England into the world
with constitutions so feeble that they cannot live
until they are twenty-one years of age? Or will
they upon their views of His justice, explain why
it is that in the same family one brother is provided
with good constitution and strong intellect while
second has from his birth the seeds of debility and
incurable disease, and third is mentally mbecile
or perhaps idiotic? Would the injustice to the
feeble be greater il they were black men: Are we
to refuse to believe the facts which nature slant
ly presents to us, because they do not harmonic
with our ideas of the justice of the Creator? The
Bible itself does not explain to us why it is that,
while ten talents given to one man, to another
but single talent is given. For the inequality Of
the negro Providence is responsible, lie is for
the entire creation which surrounds us. When hu-
man laws are in accordance with the system of ma
ture they are wise; but if in opposition to it, they
are productive only of mischief The question is
significantly asked in the Scripture, "Can the Eth
opian change his skin or the leopard his spots -
The ancients expressed their opinions on this sub
ject in the fable which represented black man as
having been killed in an effort to wash him white.
There is no middle ground which can be main
tanned this question. If the negro be Your equal
why do you exclude him from your parlors If he
be unequal, your whole argument has in fact lost its
foundation and fails. If it once be admitted that
the negro is Inferior then the entire cdifce of ADO
itionsm fills to the ground because it is intimate
~ interviewer WITH and owes its vitality to- the or
postc belief When preset boldly on this issue,
the Abolitionsts Of late are trying to evade it. 1t
is singular and striking fact that when this issue
has been made in the free States directly, and dis
cussed before the people, they havcdccdcd the point
against the negro. Such was the case in Connect
cut and New York on the question of suffrage and
also in the States of Illinois and Indiana the pro-
position to exclude free negroes from those States
In the contest too in Illinois, in the year 1853,
which resulted in the triumph of the distinguished
Senntor from Illinois, Mr.. Douglas, thu; was the
leading issue. Had that Senator contented himself
with simply saying that slavery was an evil which
his constituents had no constitutional right to inter
fere with, do not believe he would have been sue
ccssful But he understood the question, went at
once into the merits of it. and carried the into
the enemys ranks. And his opponent early in the
contest began to cover and shrink from his blows
and tried in vain to evade the ISSUE The American
people understand the negro, and where direct APP
peal Is made to them they truly respond. Though
the story of Dean Swift in which, in a certain coun-
try he represents the horse as being greatly supe-
ror to the man, is ingenious one, yet it msleads
nobody amongst US, because horses are so common
that their qualities understood So the
of the Abotonists, in which they represent the ne
gro as being equal and even superior to the white
man, deceive no one familiar with the negro. In
southern Ohio, for example, where free negroes are
quite common, there is little or no abolitionsm :;
while in the northern part, in which the negro is
seldom seen, antisavery carries everything before
it. European writers know little or nothing of the
negro and hence professors, preachers and 9TH
mere bookmen Of the North are easily led astray
by European and American Aboltionists; but the
people of the country, who are accustomed to look
at facts, not so readily imposed on. thorough
investigation of the subject shows the negro to be
inferior, and hence the principles which apply to
white men cannot be extended to him. No farmer
assumes that what is advantageous to the hog, for
example, is necessarily so to the sheep To deter
mine, therefore, what is to be done with the negro,
you must study the negro himself Remember, | do
not undertake to decide how or when the negro
race became different from the white. They may,