Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-12-26
Questions for the AboIitionists.

In MS well known pamphiet entitled
"Conscience and the Constitution" witt
remarkes on the speech Of Hon. Danie
Webster in the L. S. Senate on the sub.
ject of Slavery. the late Prof. Steuart, o.
Andover, asks the abolitionists some hard
questions which it is high time they were
prepared to answer. He said
"What shall we do? 1t is a fair ques-
ton, and | would to God could ans wer
it, to my own or your satisfaction. 1t
is immeasurably the most difficult prob
lem ever before this great nation. Uni
versal and immediate emancipation would
be little short of insanity. The blacks
themselves would be the first and most
miserable victims. Stealing, robbery,
rapine. and other evils would inevitably
follow in the train of liberation, and
thousands of ignorant and starving men
would seek their sustenance in preyine
upon their former masters and upon the
community. They could not oil be hiyeC
at the prices which they would demand
am, l think, pretty fully aware o
the great difficulties that lie in the way
Suppose the black population were made
free; then what is to be done with them
after this, especially in those States OF
parts of States where they are more nu-
merous than whites; how are they to live
and prosper? They have no money to
buy land; and if they could by it, Or have
| it given to them, most Of them are too
ignorant and shiftless, and adverse to la
Dor, to manage land with any success
Few of them are arti6cers; and but few
such could find employment. What
then, | ask the AbolitionistS, { and l insist
upon some plain and direct answer)-
what is to be done with such a popua,
ton? If you say: Let their masters
pay them for past labor, and furnish
them with means of living l ask again
How long would these wages more OF
less last them? As body, they woul(
never do any more work, until this sun
was expended. Then what next? Thei
masters have been, in the cases suppose,
already impoverished by dividing anon.
them their property. These cannot, witt
their habits, carry on plantations at the
expenses of hired labor. 1t would re-
duce them speedily to absolute poverty
I And hen, what is the next step, either
for them or the free blacks? insist up
on it. now, that the Abolitionists shall
give a sober, rational, practical answer tt
these questions. This would be worth
ten thousand times more than all their
outcrics about the sin of bondage, and
their demands of immediate aud univcr-
sal emancipation.
In such a great movement, where the
very frame work of the Government and
the State is to be taken to pieces and re-
ceive new shape, there must be fore
sight and caution and prudence. One
would be apt to think when he hears the
clamor for the negroes on all sides, that
the Fights and interests of the white pop
III alton are matters of little OF no con,
sidcration or importance. But this mus
not be so. At all events, if this move
ment should be successful. and the blacks
be all liberated at once it will not be Ion!
before the fair provinces of ths Soutl
would be desolate waste: and the black
wonl,l be by far the greatest suffers
Graladl freedom is the only possibl
practical measure. Three millions Q
people cannot be disposed Of and pro
vided for, by an Abolition diatribe an
decree on paper. In northern closet
we can sit down, and coolly legislate 70
the South on matters that must tear il
pieces the very framework of their so
ciety. We are not affected by any o
their proposed measures, and then W.
cooly wonder why they are so concerne"
about them. Is this prudence, is 1t JUS
tice, is it kindness, is it loving our neigh
Dor as ourselves.