The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-04-05
BURLINGTON, SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 49,

tneir services, without reference 10 tne1r Owl
wishes, eoercing obedience with the lash whel
found necessary. Afterwards they will b
compelled to consult the will and wishes of th,
employed, and to pay them probably stipulated
wages with which the servants will provide hi
own suppliea Noinjury is inflicted on society, nj
change is wrought on it's organization. and nt
change is made in the political condition of th.
emancipated. They will have acquired no po
litical rights or franchises. They will have &C
quired simply the right to enjoy as they choose
the proceeds Of their own labor. But If you
confer this right on fifteen hundred more ne
gIoes now slaves in this District, We are gravely
warned by Senators, in most eloquent and pa
thetic strains, that We will thus inaugurate 9
war of determination between the white and
black race Yes, If you confer on these fifteen
hundred poor negroes the right now enjoyed by
more than eleven thousond Of their colored
brethren now living in the District, allow them
to collect and use the wages of their own labor,
you will incte spirit of Wholesale murdeI!-
Rather than pay them just compensation for
their services, their former masters, who have
lived on the proceeds Of their unpaid toll, will
take down their rifles and shoot them! war
OF determination ia to arise! Sir, have under
stood that it was murder now in this District to
kill a coiored man; that 80 far from justifying
vi
who are now free, you regard it az a very grave
offense against society to shed his blood, and
would arrest, indict, try and hang the felon who
would perpetrate it in a single case inquire
it it is not also felony now in Marylands ]
inquire of the Senator from Maryland, who pre-
diets war of determination Immediately on the
liberation OF the slaves in this district, why it
has not heretofore commenced: and if it would
not be murder to shoot or otherwise maiciously
destroy the life of a free negro of his own State
under the laws of Maryland as they now exist?
Mr.. KENNEDY. If the honorable Senator
desires an answer, I will say in a very few words
that there is now a bitter antipathy between the
laboring white people and the free blacks, and
that it has been go strong heretofore in the
State of Maryland that we have had great diff
Guilty in restraining the passage of what We con-
slider inhuman laws. The antipathy is very
strong between the two classes of people, and
do not know how far they might be excited to
deeds OF violence, if the proportion of free
blacks that now exists was greatly increased,
M. HARLAN. am very much obliged to
the Senator for his explanation; and vet beg
leave very respectfully to differ from him in re-
lation to the fact which he has stated In my
opinion, these feelings are not excited by the
laboring men. l see laboring white men stand
ing side by side with laboring negroes in the
District seeking for jobs, for employment
Mr.. KENNEDY. The Senator will allow me
to say right here that l employ both classes,
and one of the troubles that have is to restrain
that very feeling. Ispeak from experience.
Mr.. HARLAN. I am inclined to think that
any improper results which might grow out Of
this prejudice could be readily controlled by
that part of the community enjoying high social
and official position, like the Senator from Ma
rylaud and the Senator from Kentucky and the
Senator from Delaware, who nave spoken to-
day. What is the inference to be drawn by the
less rejecting from this statement made in this
discussion. They declare, eff you liberate the
slaves. allow them to become free, the free white
people will rise and exterminate them :" and, ia
not the inference legitimate that it would, in
the opinion of the speaker, be proper for this
to be done? Is it not indirectly saying to every
laboring white man of Maryland, ''you may
murder Unfortunately those that come in con-
tact with your interests, in competition with
you in the various ayOcations Of life 2" You
say to them, ''you will do o." you say to this
entire population in this District, ''you will
arise and murder the free colored people if we
get few more free !" and this statement thus
far has not been accompanied even with SO much
as regret at the supposed existence of such
vindictveness. Sir, the Shareholders of Mary
land control its legislation those that hold
slaves in nearly all the Slave States control the
legislation of those States, and they control, to
a fearful extent, the opinion of the masses and
they can as readily give to public opinion the
right as the wrong direction they can as readi-
ly conform it to the plain principles of chris.
tianized humanity as to degrade it to the stand.
ard which controls the policy of communities
in savage condition.
Why, sir, know people not many hundred
miles from my own home that are to-day en-
gagged in war of determination. The Chippe-
was and the Sioux never meet each other on the
plains, but to murder and massacre each other.
war Of determination with all the yindictive.
ness and atrocities common to savage life, is in
progress They meet ouly to imbrue their hands
in their brothers blood.
Mr.. KENNEDY. Will the honorable Sena-
tor allow me to make to him single statement
in further answer to the question he put Just
now
Mr.. HARLAN, Certainly
Mr.. KENNEDY. One of the worst riots we
have had in Baltimore for many years, arose
from the fact that free negroes we're employed
in the ship-yards as calkers They came in COM
petition with class of men who had before
done work of that sort, who determined to drive
them out of those yards, and from that cause
riot ensued. do not even now
know whether single free negro is allowed to
work in the ship-yards. There is a feeling
against them on the part of class of people
who regard them as interfering with their ex-
elusive privilege to do work OF that sort them
selves.
Mr.. HARLAN. And in that see an expla.
nation OF the suggestion ] made. OF course
the Senator'S knowledge of facts existing in his
own State, and in the metropolis of that State,
is better than mine. / will not dispute the truth
of his statement; but he winds it up by saying
that even now he does not know that ''free
negro" is permitted to work in the yards of
that city; and why? Because the owners of
the slaves cultivate this prejudice for the pur.
pose OF driving out the free negroes who come
in competition with their own slave hands, so
frequently hired out for wages to be placed in
their owners pockets
Mr.. KENNEDY. The slave interest of the
State of Maryland, l may be allowed to say, is
a very small one--seventeen thousand altogeth-
er. That interest does not prevail anywhere in
Maryland except in the tlde-water counties-
The Senator is entirely mistaken in supposng
that it prevails in Maryland. IL is in minority
Mr.. HARLAN. As to the fact, of course
the Senator's knowledge is more perfect than
mine could be. have in my hand, however, a
statement furnished me by the Senator from
Massachusetts,, which gives the number Of slaves
in Maryland as eighty-seven thousand one hun
dred aud eighty
Mr.. KENNEDY. Yes, sir.
Mr.. HARLAN. l know the institution is 90.
ing down in Maryland; It is sinking under the
quiet influence Of femigra.ion from the free States
and enlightened public opinion; but even in Ma.
ryland the slaveholding portion Of the comnuni.
ty controls its legislation, controls public opinion,
and stimulates and sustains the savage doctrines
which we have heard advanced on this floor from
their Senator's use the word with respect; bu,
Illustrate it with the example have just cited
As have said, among the savages on our west
ern plains. wars of determination are going on
day by day; these tribes are melting away by this
yindictve and savage strife, which they keep uI
between belligerent tribes. Now, ia it possible
that Senators will teach the Senate and the coun
try and the Christian world that the people o.
Maryland are not elevated in civilization above
the condition of the Chippewas and Sioux; thai
there, too, We have hundreds of thousands Of saw
ages with white skins who will Immediately com
mence Q war Of exterminatiou-- on whom Oh
men with whom they have lived their live
through, men who were born with them on tn,
same soil, men who were brought up with then
under the same roof, who played with them il
childhood on the same grounds; who did not &C
company them to the same schools for they hay,
hpeu lad tha oC pxo1