The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-04-01


verse, with her spokes now inserted in
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and into
the great West and the great Northwest
the rim of whose wheel now runs with
frightful, crushing velocity from that Pas
samaquoddy to that Rio Grande.
Hence, wherever q gentleman from
Massachusetts, rises upon the floor, intro.
ducing bill like this, if l do not look
upon him as god or demi-god, l look
Upon him as power sure to dictate the
legislation of the House, and to have q
vast control over the country.
1t is decreed i'll all probability, as was
decreed in the case of the coniscation bill,
that the emancipation or land occupation
bill shall pass this House. 1t is written
it is ordained, it is Massachusetts, thun.
derbolt. There flashes now in the fiery,
furious furnace of this bolt, "deleado est
Carthago." Ay, not that Carthage is to
be destroyed, but "delenda est Africa, -
Africa is to be destroyed also. Slavery is
to be abolished, and with it the African.
listen. l tremble before the decree
| hear now from the steeples, the spires,
pulpits of Massachusetts, what l have
often heard in the Moslem East from the
minarets of the mosque the cry 90 forth,
"La Wahom fla Allah 10 Mohamn,ed,
rasu1 Atlah." God is great, and Massa-
chusetts is his prophet. Laughter.]
A superior race is now, under the de-
cree of the bill, to come in contact with
an inferior race the African is to be met
with the white man the poor, humble
son OF Africa, is to come into competition
and conflict with the astute Massachusetts
white taskmaster. Slavery, therefore, in
this conflict Of races, is not only to be
abolished but the slave is to be abolished
also. Two races, the superior and inferi-
or, cannot live in equality. What was
the fate of the Wampanoags and of the
Pequods before the Puritan in Massachu-
sets, is to be the fate of the negro slave
whenever he comes in contact with the
white man.
know the spirit of Massachusetts.
know her memorable, unappeasable, de-
moniac energy. | know that what she
DEGREES she will execute, as when she Or
dered the burning of the witches at Sa.
lem, or the scourging of the Quakers, or
exile OF the Baptsts to the Rocky shores
OF the Narragansett, or to the mountain
Businesses and glens of New Hampshire,
where my maternal Baptist ancestors were
banished. Hence when, as now, she de-
crees on the African, | tremble for three
millions of hitherto happy human beings,
now doomed to determination.
If the census of this city could be taken
of the original slaves who were here when
emancipation was decreed in this District,
thirty per cent. Of them would be found
in their graves. Look at the miserable
assemblages of emancipated Africans in
this city, huddled five or six families in a
little room, literally rotting with disease,
under your decree of emancipation -
Look how the race is being exterminated
in your Freedmen's camps on the bank of
the Mississippi, the great Father of Wa
tiers See what spectacle is there pre-
sented. Death is cutting down hundreds,
thousands, and tens of thousands, as sell.
dom were cut down mortal men before
Death, then, is the doomed decree to the
African.
Mr.. Speaker, the abolition of slavery
Is "fxed fact" fact accomplished. |
must accept it, | cannot close my eyes
to 1T any more than upon the sun, Or upon
the sunshine, or upon the tornado or the
storm. What is written is written, aud
| must read it, and should be blind if |
did not see. that Slavery is abolished, and
the African, too, with it, | cannot help
it; | cannot avoid it. Massachusetts has
ordained it, and the country accepts it,
and, if not as wise man, at least as a
public man, must abide by aud act upon
it. When the Border States voted upon
the floor of this House at an early period
Of the session, and by their vote organized
this House, 1t was written, it was decreed,
irrepealably decreed, that slavery is abvl.
ished, and there was no help for it.
| know, sir, it is said that the States of
Missouri and Kentucky are in good de-
gree under military government. | do
not apprehend that all of the gentlemen
who voted for the organization of the
House inteuded to carry out this decree.
| know that the honorable gentleman from
Kentucky MIR. Clay who bears an hon
ored name-ciarem ct UeneraLae nomen-
intended no such things but, ueverthe-
less, it is the decree, decree written out,
and he one of the writer's. l h,,ow the
people Of Maryland and Of Delaware. i
they had been aitoVed to cote, Intended no
such decree and l know that At Is said
those two States are better represented by
the honorable gentlen,aa from Ohio (Mr.
Schenck, the Chairman Of the Commutee
on Military Affairs, than by their repre-
Sentatives here.
But when these representatives. are ac-
cepted and recognized by that people, ac-
quiesced in by that people, and, if not ac-
qpiesced in By that people, defended aud
protected by the military power, | must
accept all that as an accomplished fact,
and irrepealable, a fact which is to be