Year: 1863

those who ascribe the design to elevate him
to an equality, do but cast discredit upon
their own understanding and insult upon
the peoplu Of the State He cannot be
equal until the majority so decide, and when
they shall have arrived at the point at which
equality would be tolerated, the emancipa-
ton Of 1900 slaves when there are already
$4,000 free negroes could make it none the
more or less probable.


Were the discussion of such question ad-
missible, upon an occasion like the present,
| conceive that it would not be difficult to
shew, that the evil to be apprehended, is
not from the prevalence Of the doctrine of
emancipation and separation, but that, if it
ever shall come, it will be the result Of the
teaching and practice Of those, who. in def
ance Of the ordination Of Providence III the
dispersion Of mankind, will continue distinct
races in juxtaposition and communication
with one another, until the choice between
determination and absorption shall be the
only alternative.


l pass now to the consideration of the
rights of the master. Under the usage of
this State, confirmed by positive enactments,
he has to his slave, right, not absolute,
but qualified only, and therefore, even more
than in things by nature the subject of do
minion, he holds his right subordinate to
the requirements OF the public good.


That this right is conditional is sufficient
ly attested by the statutory provisions reg
ulating the relation. The master is pro-
hibited from dealing with him as an abso-
lutte article of merchandise He cannot
alien him beyond the jurisdiction of the
State, which, regarding him as a man, ex-
tends over him the protection of the law,
and by prohibitory enactments, regulating
his sale, restricts his value to the limit of
the hone-market. thus studiously prevent
ing the State from being subjected to the
policy of slave propagation for expectation
and removing the inducement to an indefi-
mite extension Ofthe system.


This restriction on alienation-the judicial
denial of the right of the free negro to hold
his fellow in bondage-the criminal respOn-
sibility of the slave-all shew that under
our laws he is regarded as something diff
fered from mere chattel and that the ma
ture OF the rights modified by the attribute
of humanity


Ia the pure sense of the term, he is not
property. His condition is the legal deter
mination of the status of a person, and in
this sense, emancipation is no destruction Of
a right Of property, but the abrogation Of u
municipal custom, upon the sanction of
which alone, the right ofthe master depend
| ed


But still there is Il right, IN the nature of
right of property, and, to the extent to
which it is recognized by our laws, is as
sacred and inviolable as his right to anv
article absolutely proprietary. lie cannot
be deprived Of it without compensation.
! need not argue concerning the value of
the labor to the owner The considerations
already presented in reference to the interest
Of the State are applicable to that Of the
master.


| only offer to each STAKEHOLDER for solu-
ton, the question, whether, economically
considered, it is not cheaper to hire labor
than to support his family of slaves,
subject to the risk Of sickness and other
casualties and liabilities incident to owner
ship.


Most of the slave owners in this State are
landowners also, and if it be true that the
abrogatiOn Of the institution will increase
the material prosperity of the State, sub
init to him, whether the value of his land
may not be augmented to an extent
much greater than the price of his slaves


will not dwell upon the interest of the
master as affected by the fugitive nature OF
the property. Against destruction by fire,
insurance offices provide-against the stray
ing of cattle, good fences are a sufficient
security, but there is no insurance or safe
guard against the loss of slave determined
to assert his right to freedom.


There arc but two modes by which the
extinction Of slavery can be accomplished
BY direct emancipation or by the enactment
Of law operative on after born issue, leav-
ing the present psopcrty of the master unaf
fectod


The former would of course, be upon
compcnsation-the latter depriving him of
no right, no compensation would be proper.


Compensation, if rendered, must probably
come from the National Government. There
is no likelihood that the State will tender il.
though, | believe, that if she were to pay
the home valuation for every slave within
her limits, the sum expended would be more
than reimbursed by the increased value OF
the land


The State contains an area of somewhat
more than 1000 square miles and 300, 900
acres. OF these, according to the last CEN
sus, G37, 900 are improved, so that an adj
vance of one dollar per acre on the improved
land alone, would more than pay the value
of all the slaves, manumited and for life,
young and old, able-bodied and decrepit, at
800 per head. -. b ..,e.-.
The Government, in this rebellion, founded upon
and made effective by slavery finds emancipation an
object worthy of its attention, especially in the Bor.
States, where there exists an element Of discomfort
ment and sympathy with secession, kept alive by
this institution. The Administration do no act
towards its suppression, but il must look carefully
lest, by possibility, slavery may be damaged by it,
The horse ofthcrcbel may be seized--his house may
be OccuPied--hisliia, sveasnay be 1eps and it ex
cites comparatively little Oommissration, bal let


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