George Washington Flowers 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 FAMILY OF 
 COLONEL FLOWERS 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/essayonnaturalhiOOnott 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NATURAl HISTORY OF MAlll, 
 
 VIEWED IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 NEGEO SLAYERY: 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 SOUTHERN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, 
 
 14TH DECEMBER, 1850. 
 
 BY JOSIAH C. NOTT, M. D. 
 
 DADZ, THOMPSO.V & CO. PRIKTKRS. 
 
 185L 
 
AN ESSAY. 
 
 When we reflect on the remarkable advance made in 
 other departments of science, and the many curious histori- 
 cal discoveries brought to light by antiquarian researches, 
 even in the last ten years, it is not to be wondered at, that 
 the Natural History of Man — one of the most interesting 
 and important of all subjects — should at last take up the 
 line of march, and assume its proper rank. Heretofore it 
 has been confined very much to theologians and naturalists, 
 and kept from the vulgar gaze, for the very obvious reason 
 that it was supposed to involve questions of no less magni- 
 tude than the authenticity of the Bible, and the stability of 
 the Christian Religion. A more wholesome spirit of inves- 
 tigation now, however, is beginning to prevail. The more 
 enhghtened feel assured that there can be no discrepancies 
 between the Scriptures, properly interpreted, and the well- 
 established truths of science ; that the words and works of 
 the Almighty cannot contradict each other, and that any ap- 
 parent discordance must arise solely from false interpreta- 
 tions. 
 
 However unsettled and wavering opinions may have been 
 respecting many points in the Natural History of Man, the 
 curious facts which experience has been forcing upon ns 
 year after year, in this country particularly, as to the deep- 
 rooted intellectual and physical differences seen around us, 
 in the White, Red, and Black Races, are too obvious and 
 too important in their bearings, to be longer overlooked ; 
 and are now forcing themselves upon the attention of states- 
 men, and making their way into legislative halls. These 
 investigations are assuming a peculiar interest in our coun- 
 try, from their connection with certain absorbing political 
 questions now deeply agitating the American people, and 
 shaking the very existence of our Government to its founda- 
 tions; and knowing that I have been engaged in the study 
 
4 
 
 of the Natural History of Mankind, I have been requested to 
 prepare and lay before yon in a condensed form, an abstract 
 of those facts and deductions, which have a practical bearing 
 on the great issues now pending between the North and 
 South. 
 
 I have complied with this request, because I do not think 
 that any man, who is called upon in a time like this, when 
 the Republic is in danger, has a right to withhold any infor- 
 mation which might contribute in the remotest degree to- 
 wards enlightening the public mind. "I have the more readi- 
 ly consented, because 1 have long been convinced, that the 
 views I have been promulgating for the last ten years, con- 
 tained the only appeal, which could be made Avith any possi- 
 ble chance of success, to our Northern brethren. They 
 have been told again and again, that the Constitution guar- 
 anteed to the South her slaves ; that this institution could 
 not be eradicated without bringing desolation upon the South, 
 and ruin to the North ; that the negroes themselves were 
 happier here than tliey could be under any other circumstan- 
 ces ; that all experiments to improve the condition of this 
 race by emancipation, had failed ; that we did not ask to in- 
 terfere with the rights, or institutions, of the North, but only 
 asked to be allowed to manage our own affairs, in our own 
 way : but to these, and kindred arguments, our Northern 
 brethren have turned a deaf ear, and have continued to heap 
 injury and insult upon us. They have treated Slavery as 
 an abstract question — as a thing above all Law and Consti- 
 tution — to be decided upon broad principles of justice ac- 
 cording to the dictates of that highei* law, conscience. 
 
 I, therefore, as a last appeal, attempted to satisfy them, 
 that they were guided by a mistaken and false philanthropy; 
 that the same God who had permitted Slavery to exist by 
 His Word, had stamped the Negro Race with permanent in- 
 ferioriiy, and that all attempts to elevate it above its" proper 
 ^ grade, must eventuate in failure. But ignorance and fanati- 
 >^ 'i eism will not hearken to reason. The signs of the times 
 eannot be mistaken. There is a great convulsion before us, 
 the end of which God alone can see, and it is time that we 
 should arouse from our lethargy, and prepare for the crisis. 
 Let us take counsel together, without passion and without 
 prejudice, and determine what we shall do to be saved. The 
 lessons of Jamaica and Hayti are before us. 
 
5 
 
 In all I have written horctofuic about the Races, I have 
 attempted as iniicli as possible to confine myself to the sci- 
 entific view of the subject, hoping that the facts once made 
 out would i^radually find their practical application through 
 others ; but the crisis is hastening with a rapidity that no 
 one could have dreamed of at the opening of the Mexican 
 war, and I now proj)ose to pass over the intricacies of sci- 
 ence — all the difficulties of antiquarian research — and to lay 
 before you a few results of investigation, which are very gen- 
 erally admitted amongst men of science, and which are am- 
 ply sufficient for our present purpose. 
 
 For obvious reasons, I would gladly have avoided colli- , 
 sions with sects whose religious opinions are entitled to re- 
 spect, but the very nature of the subject forbid it ; for when 
 I took what I believe to be the only true and tenable ground, 
 that the White, Red and Black Races are not descended 
 from one pair, I came at once in contact with the very 
 ground-work of their faith. Nothing had occurred for cen- 
 turies to throw doubt, in the minds of Christians, over what 
 seemed to be the teachings of Holy Writ, touching the ^inity 
 of the human family, and it never occurred to them that any 
 other construction could be put upon its language. W^ithout 
 stopping to inquire what new lights recent scientific re- 
 searches had developed, or what was the character of these 
 investigators, bulls were at once thundered against me : I ' 
 was called an mfidel — an enemy to religion, morality, law, 
 &c. All this disturbed my equanimity but little, for I felt 
 that I was right ; that the facts developing were of incalcu- 
 lable importance in determining the future destiny of Races, 
 and I was convinced that truths so clear, if held up boldly 
 to the public eye, must, after a time, be received — and I 
 was willing to abide my time with patience."* I now have the 
 satisfaction of seeing that the doctrine of Diversity of Races 
 is taking hold upon the public mind even faster than I had 
 hoped. Apart from the clergy, the naturalists every where 
 are endorsing the opinions for which I am contending. Prof, 
 Agassiz, the greatest naturalist living, is now delivering a 
 course of public lectures in Boston in support of Diversity of 
 Races. I)rs. Morton and Pickering, the leading writers on 
 this subject in America, are openly taking the same side, to 
 say nothing of a large number of others not so well known 
 to fame. The Christian Examiner, a very able periodical 
 
6 
 
 in Boston, has been publishing some of the leading papers of 
 M. Agassiz. The Democratic and Whig Reviews, publish- 
 ed in New York ; the Southern Quarterly, in Charleston ; the 
 Commercial Review, in New Orleans, and a host of other pe- 
 riodicals and journals, are publishing articles freely on this 
 . side. ]\Iany learned divines, in this country, and in Europe, 
 regard this as an open question ; and all who have paid any 
 attention to the subject admit, at least, that the White and 
 Black Races were as distinct 3000 years ago as they now 
 are : and I hazard the assertion, that no subject of equal 
 magnitude, and which had such a load of prejudice to carry, 
 ever made such rapid progress as this has in the last five years. 
 
 The Bible was clearly intended, not as a book of science, 
 but to teach mankind their duties towards each other, and 
 towards their Maker ; and the inspiration which guided the 
 human beings who wrote it, though full, for all purposes in- 
 tended, stopped very far short of Omniscience, It certainly 
 will not be questioned that these writers gave no evidence 
 whatever, of any scientific or geographical knowledge be- 
 yond that of their profane cotemporaries. They regarded 
 the earth as an extended plain, and spoke of its " sides and 
 ends ;" they knew nothing of its extent beyond that border- 
 ing on the Mediterranean Sea; they knew nothing of South- 
 ern Africa, Northern and Eastern Asia, the greater part of 
 Europe, the whole of America, Australia, <fec.: in a word, 
 of nine-tenths of the inhabited globe. Even as late as the 
 time of Christ, and for several centuries after, geographical 
 knowledge extended little beyond the confines of the Roman 
 Empire, and it can hardly be supposed that those writers 
 knew any thing of Races whose countries loere unknown to 
 them. That many of these countries — and probably all — 
 were populated, as far back as the time of Moses, by the 
 same many-colored races which we now find in them, is 
 abundantly proved, and will be conceded. 
 
 The wonderful truths of Astronomy and Geology, which 
 were regarded as heresies ; and whose promulgators, as ene- 
 mies to religion and morality, might have slept in darkness, 
 and still the practical ends of society might have been carried 
 out without the aid of their light. Not so with the Natural 
 History of Man : it mingles with the very elements of hu- 
 man progress, and involves tiie existence of civilization. 
 Witliout Aipwinii this subject in its \\'iiJt^st range, including 
 
7 
 
 the Asiatic hordes now pouring across the Pacific into our 
 country, and other Races, let us narrow it down to our do- 
 niestic circle ; let us examine into the relative positions of 
 the White and Black Races here, and ask what li^ht does 
 experience throw upon their destiny. 
 
 Here we are in the year 1850, the owners of three mil- 
 lions of Negro Slaves, and without any agency of ours ; the 
 mother country and the original colonies bequeathed them 
 to us. When the Constitution was formed, this institution 
 was recognized, and Slave States entered the Confederacy 
 as equals, with Constitutional guarantees for their property, 
 and would have formed the copartnership on no other terms. 
 All experience proves that the Negroes cannot be emancipa- 
 ted without bringing want, misery and barbarism upon them. 
 It is clear, too, that these Negroes cannot be liberated with- 
 out destroying the prosperity, happiness and political power 
 of the Southern States ; and yet we are scoffed at and insult- 
 ed, as outside barbarians, for perpetuating this institution, 
 though no one has ever proposed a scheme by which these 
 slaves can be emancipated, with safety to the Whites, and 
 with benefit to them. Such conduct is unjust — is insulting, 
 and not to be tolerated by men worthy of liberty. 
 
 Few persons realize the fact taught by history, that it is 
 infinitely more difficult to destroy, or alter great political or 
 social institutions, than to create them. 
 
 W^ere the question now an open one, (though we are satisfi- 
 ed that the Negroes are in an infinitely better condition here - 
 than in Africa, or any where else) and the proposition were 
 made to any Slave State, to introduce Negroes from Africa, 
 it would find no favor in any quarter. This is exemplified 
 by the opposition which new States are making every day 
 to Negro Slavery. But when a scheme is called for, by 
 which three miUions can be liberated, the whole question is 
 changed ; difficulties spring up, for which no human sagacity 
 has yet been able to propose a remedy. 
 
 All Constitutions and all Laws are restrictions upon hu- 
 man liberty; but as human nature is constituted, they are 
 necessary evils. Every member of society is compelled, for 
 the benefit of himself and others, to sacrifice a portion of 
 his time, his labor, and his property, and to regulate his ac- 
 tions, to some extent, by prescribed rules: to secure a por- 
 tion of liberty, he must give up a part ; and circumstances 
 
s 
 
 beyond the control of a o^eneration, usually control the parti- 
 tion of good and evil. There must necessarily exist in eve- 
 ry country, the two classes of the governors and the govern- 
 ed. Forms of Government are not abstractions emanatins: 
 from leading minds, but are the creatures of circumstances ; 
 and we find in every country widely different institutions, 
 and modes of thought. Nations differ as much from each 
 other in these things, as they do in the physical types of 
 their people, and the one is just as inexplicable to us as the 
 other. Good and evil are every ^vhere sown broad cast to- 
 gether, though in different proportions, and it is seldom 
 that we can pluck out tares without taking wheat along with 
 them. liook at England — now the greatest nation of the 
 earth — whose institutions have best stood the test of time, 
 and brought the most happiness to her people. Her church 
 system is a mockery on Christianity, and a moral wrong — 
 her nobility is a wrong — her law of primogeniture is a wrong 
 — her system of taxation is a wrong, <fec., and her people 
 have struggled in vain against them : yet how can these 
 wrongs be extirpated, without destroying the w^hole fabric, 
 and planting anarchy and desolation on its ruins ? They are 
 vital organs of the body politic. 
 
 Look at the mighty and bloody struggles which France 
 has been making for more than half a century to throw off 
 the evils which have been incorporated in her institutions — 
 which have become a part of her nature, and which never 
 can be changed till she becomes a conquered nation, and 
 new elements are set in motion. 
 
 China and India have their peculiar institutions, which 
 have existed (because they have not been molested by other 
 races) for several thousand years ; and I might thus go on 
 and review the world's history, but the facts are self-evident 
 when stated. The same train of reasoning applies clearly 
 to our Southern States : Negro Slavery has been planted 
 here by our forefathers ; this institution has grown up with 
 us from our infancy ; it has become a part of our very being; 
 our national prosperity and domestic happiness are insepara- 
 ble from it. The fate of the master and servant are indis- 
 solubly united ; and even admitting that Negro Slavery is an 
 evil, it is one not to be rashly touched, but must be left to 
 that God who, through a succession of miracles, led the Is- 
 raelites out from their bondage m Egypt. 
 
9 
 
 The time of deliverauce for the Neg^ro Slaves, if a better 
 destiny awaits them, has not yet come ; nor will the Lord 
 call forth a Moses from the ranks of the Sewards and Geo. 
 Thompsons. His chosen people were afflicted with much 
 longer and more cruel bondage than have been our blacks, 
 and had to abide the fullness of time. 
 
 The question of Unity of Races is still one of dispute, 
 and although I have again and again publicly avowed my 
 belief that all the inhabitants of the earth are not descended 
 from one pair, yet it is not a part of my present purpose here, 
 to insist upon this point. This opinion, whether true or false, 
 comes into collision with the relioious convictions of those 
 who are entitled to my full respect, and as it is not necessary 
 to the establishment of those practical conclusions to which 
 I wish to lead you, I should prefer not to prejudice our cause 
 by it. My desire here is to deal solely with those results 
 which hare been established by sciei^tific investigators ; which 
 are conceded by all well-informed parties, and to lay before 
 you facts which will enable you to judge fairly for yourselves. 
 
 When we cast our eyes over the broad surface of our 
 globe, we are struck by the fact that each grand division has 
 its animals, its birds, its plants, its fossils, <fec., w^hich have 
 not originated from a common centre, but which have been 
 created, we are told by all the naturalists of our day in the 
 localities where they are now found. The varieties of men 
 alone, it is still contended by some naturalists, form an ex- 
 ception to this general law. No matter by what hy})othesis 
 the Diversity of Varieties in the human family may be ex- 
 plained, the fact remains, that the White, the Black, the 
 Yellow, the Red Races, <fcc., according to the earliest re- 
 cords of history, and monumental records, existed with their 
 present types several thousand years ago. This much will 
 not be denied by any authority, and it is not important to 
 our present object to carry these distinct types farther back. 
 We may leave out speculative points, and deal with facts ; 
 and the only rational mode of judging the future is by our 
 knowledge of the past : for the laws of nature operate 
 through ages with wonderful uniformity. We repeat, then, 
 that not only do the histories of Rome, Greece and other 
 early nations, show that different Races existed more than 
 two thousand years a^ro, but that we have had brought to 
 light in the last five years, portraits of the different Asiatic 
 
10 
 
 and African Races, vvliose dates unfjuestionably reach back 
 four thousand years. This is not an opinion confined to sci- 
 entific investigators alone, but is avowed by those theologians 
 of all denominations who are now turning- their attention to 
 the study of Egyptian Antiquities. 
 
 If these llaces have really been distinct for so many ages> 
 
 * the next i>oint of inquiry is, whether there are any known 
 climatic, or other physical agencies, that can transform one 
 type into another, as the White man into the Negro, Mon- 
 gol, or Indian ? This idea, though very generally received 
 at one time, is now abandoned by all modern naturalists, 
 from Pritchard down to the Rev. Dr. Bachman. 
 
 A new hypothesis sprung up from the ruins of the old one, 
 equally untenable, but which is still held on to by a few who 
 are determined not to yield to any proof. This party tell 
 us that when the Almighty created man, he planted in him 
 a certain organic law which predisposed him, under certain 
 unknown infiuences, to change type, and run into what has 
 been termed congenital or accidental varieties, which may 
 continue to propagate and be perpetuated. An example 
 will illustrate this more clearly to you : It is assumed, that 
 our continent was peopled from the old world by White, 
 Mongol, or other Races ; and it is again assumed^ that in 
 obedience to this hidden law, at some subsequent period, 
 these congenital or accidental varieties began to spring up ; 
 little genuine Indians were born from the White, or Mongol 
 parents ; and in the course of time, multiplied, overspread 
 the whole continent, and rooted out entirely the original type. 
 Although all this is bare assumption, without an example in 
 history to prove it, and a strong chain of facts to refute it, 
 yet this is (apart from the Bible) the sole ground on which 
 the Unity of the Races reposes. All the recent advocates 
 of Unity of Races, of any authority, from Prichard to Bach- 
 man, agree substantially on this j^oint. Dr. Bachman, who 
 
 ^ is better posted up in the natural history part of this contro- 
 versy than his confreres, tells us that these ^^per?nanent varie- 
 ties^^ occurred soon after the creation, and long before the 
 dawn of history. He does not pretend that any of the new 
 types, as the Negro, Mongol, Malay, Indians, Australians, 
 &c., (supposing the Caucasian to be the original type) have 
 f prung up within the last three or four thousand years. He 
 knows enough about history, and the monuments of Egypt 
 to krop him out of such l>lurid(M > us lliose. 
 
11 
 
 • While it IS conceded, even by liii advucute- ui llnity of 
 Races, that Iiistory affords no example of tlie transformation 
 of one type of men into another, they arc compelled to con- 
 cede on the other hand that we have numerous well-authen- 
 ticated examples, of permanence of type under the most ojh- 
 fosite climatic influences. Kaccs have removed from their 
 original abodes to distant lands where they have been sub- 
 jected to the most opposite climates, modes of life, diet, &,c., 
 and yet have remained nnciianged in type for hundreds of 
 years. We all know that climate produces very decided ef- 
 fects on men and animals, but there is a limit to its influence. * 
 We see the fair-skinned Germans, Englishmen, &:c., tanned 
 and emaciated by Southern climates, but their children for 
 generations continue to be born fair, and they never approxi- 
 mate the type of Indians or other dark Races. Nor can the 
 iiorse be changed into the ass or zebra. 
 
 The Jews, whose blood has been kept purer than any other 
 Race — who have consequently preserved better their origin- 
 al type — v/ho are more widely scattered, and whose iiistory 
 is best known, aftbrd the most striking illustration of the 
 truth of my assertion. It shoukl be borne in mind, however, 
 that this race has not escaped adulteration, and that every 
 individual professing the Jewish religion and following their 
 customs, is not necessarily of pure blood, and we thus have 
 a satisfactory explanation for the varieties of faces seen 
 amongst them ; but wherever a well-marked Jewish face is 
 presented to us, we never for a moment think of doubting 
 that it has been handed dovv^n in a direct line from father 
 Abraham, who lived about three thousand five hundred years 
 ago, and we never see the Jewish lineaments, except where 
 we have every reason to believe tlrere is Jeicish blood. Has 
 it ever occured to any man to call in question these facts .'^ 
 This people have been scattering and wandering over the 
 habitable globe since the ca])tivity of the Ten Tribes, now 
 more than twenty-five hundred years, and yet, though fairer 
 in the North and darker in the South than in their native 
 land, are every where unmistakable Israelites. We see 
 them distinctly portrayed on Egyptian monuments three 
 thousand years ago, with the identical features they now pre- 
 sent, through more than one hundred generations, and which 
 they doubtless received from their venerable progenitor. 
 The juost remarkable well-authenticated exainple of perma- 
 
12 
 
 neiice of type on record, perhaps, is that of the White Jews 
 of Malabar, in India, who have been Uving among the dark- 
 skinned, small-headed Hindoos for at least fifteen hundred 
 years, without approximating in the slightest degree the type 
 of the native Race. This fact is now beyond controversy. 
 
 Another striking example may be found in that peculiar 
 and mysterious race, the Gypsies : they have been scattered 
 for at least four hundred and fifty years, (nearly twenty gen- 
 erations) through all climates, and amongst all nations ; ex- 
 posed to want, misery and suflering, in every shape ; subject- 
 ed, in the highest degree, to all those physical causes which 
 are said to change Races : yet, like the Jews, retaining their 
 pecuhar type, habits, customs, and even peculiar language. 
 Unlike the Jews, they have never taken part in the march of 
 civilization, but have every where kept themselves isolated, 
 and their blood almost pure. Like the Hindoos, (of which 
 they are a tribe) they have much smaller heads than the He- 
 brews, and other White Races, and their lives and charac- 
 ters have been the result of an inferior organization, which 
 they received from the Almighty. Intellectual activity and 
 progression belong to the very nature of the Jewish Race; 
 intellectual quietude and dislike belong to the Hindoo Races. 
 
 The noble Magyars, who played such an important part 
 in the recent Hungarian struggle, might be cited as another 
 example of preservation of type. They belong to the great 
 Tartar subdivision of the Caucasian family, and detached 
 themselves about the year 880, A. D. (one thousand years 
 ago) from their Asiatic connections, advjxncing into Europe 
 under their cliief, Arphad. There are now in Hungary three 
 millions, five hundred thousand, of this race; and we here 
 see them still preserving their original type in one of the 
 finest portions of Europe, where the fairest ski«s of Teuton- 
 ic type flourish in perfection. 
 
 But it does not enter into our present design to enumerate 
 a tithe of the examples of permanence of type, with which 
 history abounds. The point is conceded, and these are quite 
 sufficient. You have ample evidence around you at home. 
 The Red men of America, who Iiave had this continent to 
 themselves for hundreds, and probably thousands, of years, 
 preserve (with a few exceptions, which can be accounted for 
 by immigrations, &c.) substantially one complexion, and one 
 type, from the Arctic to Cape Horn. No influence of cli- 
 
13 
 
 mate on tlicm is any whcie obscvvabie. And who, during* 
 the eight or ten generations that the Whites and Blacks have 
 been in this conntry, has ever seen a child or adult approxi- 
 mate the Aboriginal type, or expects that such an approxi- 
 mation ever will occur ? What may have taken place, under 
 the special providence of God, as Dr. Bachman suggests, 
 far back in the night of time, before the earliest dawn of his- 
 tory, we may leave to his speculations, and those of his ami- 
 able compeer. Dr. Smyth. Our design here, is to treat this 
 subject in a plain, practical manner; to jnd^-e the future by 
 what we knoit) of the past. Certainly any sensible man will 
 concede, that we must expect, that the same laws of nature 
 which have been operating for the last few thousand years, 
 will continue to operate for the coming thousand, unless the 
 existing creation is destroyed, and a new one put in its place. 
 In plain English, we must take it for granted, that the Ne- 
 gro will preserve for ages to come, the same physical type 
 which we know characterized him ages ago. Dr. Bachman, 
 who has left no stone unturned to find an argument in favor 
 of Unity of Races, tells us, that the Negro is a ''^permanent 
 foariety,''^ that he is " incapable of self-government," and that 
 no causes exist which can bring a perinanent mrieiy hack to 
 its original type : once a Negro, always a Negro, unless the 
 Race branches off into entirely new types, which there is 
 £o reason to expect. 
 
 The point being settled, then, that the physical characterT- 
 istics of the Races of men are widely and permanently dif- 
 ferent, it wof ld seem to follow as a corrollary, that there are 
 also differences or grades in their moral and intellectual fac^- 
 ulties, since these ikcnlties are dependent on certain organir- 
 zations. Every tree brings forth fruit in obedience to this 
 law. The Creator, when he called these Races into being; 
 when he stamped upon them different colors, different fornix 
 stioijs of brain. Sec, stamped upon the Negro at the same 
 time intellectual inferiority, which cannot be changed, until 
 his whole organization is changed. The various species of 
 the horse kind, the cat kind, and every genus, have faculties 
 and instincts peculiar to each, and we never talk of changing 
 these. The same holds in M ankind : From the remotest 
 epoch recorded in history — from the remotest glimmering of 
 tradition — what are generirally termed the Caucasian Races, 
 have been the repositories of civilization, aud have been 
 
14 
 
 steadily piisliing it on from ago to age, and from nation to 
 nation. Tliongli there have been times when these Races 
 have been phmged in ignorance and barbarism, 3/et it is no 
 less certain that these well-constriicted brains were but shim- 
 bering, and ready to rouse up at the call of civilization. 
 Commence at Ancient Egyi)t, where we reach our first 
 knowledge of civilization, dating back far beyond the time 
 at which tlie Book of Genesis was written : let ns trace it 
 on from this point around tlie Mediterranean, wliere ignor- 
 ance and barbarism reigned, to the pillars of Hercules. Mo- 
 ses, who Holy Writ tells us, was "learned in all the wisdom 
 of the Egyptians," carried it to Judea, which afterwards 
 formed a part of the great Assyrian Empire, and civilization ; 
 follow it on through Phoenicia, Greece, Italy, Gaul, Germa- 
 ny, Spain, Britain, <fcc., where it found rude and barbarous 
 people, and see how prom])t!y they responded to the call. 
 These Races, which Nature's God designed for the rulers of 
 the world, were endowed with the physical and moral char- 
 acters which were necessary to receive the spa.rk, and to feed 
 the fire which was destined to roll on. But when this cur- 
 rent of civilization, which had been widening and deepening 
 as it ran through the Caucasian Races, crossed the Atlantic 
 and was brought to the Aborigines of America, they recoil- 
 ed from its very contact ; and no effort on the part of the 
 Whites has ever been able to tame them. They obeyed the 
 laws of their organization. 
 
 Let us, on the other hand, take a glance at the history of 
 African Race^. The population of that continent is estima- 
 ted at little short of one hundred milhons, of which, fifty-five 
 miUions are Negro Races ; and yet, except in the Barbary 
 States, Egypt, Abyssinia, Nubia, &c., which are populated 
 by other Races, not a monument, not a record, not even a 
 tradition exists, to mark the l)irth or death of civilization. 
 This whole continent, south of the great Desert of Sahara, 
 is a perfect blank in the world's history. ' The Negro Races 
 were in close commercial iiirimacy with ancient Egy})t and 
 Carthage, in their palmiest days; they have continued their 
 intercourse with Egyj)t and the Barbary States, down to the 
 present day ; they have had missionaries sent to them for 
 centuries, and colonies established among them: in short, 
 they have had every facility and (nery temptation held oui 
 which a people could asi{, Hud still the Hrst step towards civ- 
 
15 
 
 ilization is not made. / No Ne«,a-o Race has ever yet invented 
 an alphabet, however rude, or possessed tlie semblance of 
 literature. What does all this mean ? Can any rational 
 being believe that any time or efforts can civilize a people 
 embracing so many millions, and who have resisted all ex* 
 ternal impulses for more than two thousand years ^ 
 
 A capital error — wliich has been received without reflec- 
 tion, or investigation, and which has misled many of the 
 most enlightened and zealous philanthropists of the past and 
 the present — is the idea that cultivation, through a series of 
 generations, can expand the defective brains, develope the 
 intellectual faculties of the Negro Races, and thus raise 
 them hi/ degrees to the full standard of excellence which be- 
 longs to the Caucasian Races : that they can, in a word, be 
 fully civilized, and fitted for self-government, in its highest 
 and most complicated forms; that a black King, Lords and 
 Commons, could wield the mighty machinery of the British 
 Empire! A greater dehision never entered the mind of a 
 sane man ; and how it ever got into vogue, with all history, 
 all science, and all connnon sense against it, would be diffi- 
 cult to divine. Aijsurd rej^^igus op^ijxifins alone can explain it. 
 
 I would ask any man who has a pair of eyes, and a sane 
 mind, to look around him at home, and see what education 
 can, and what it cannot do. Have white boys of the educa- 
 ted class larger brains than the opposite class ? Are the 
 children of the educated class more susceptible of cultiva- 
 tion than the opposite? Have the Kings and Nobility of 
 England, and other countries, better formed heads — are they 
 more intellectual ? Are their children more susceptible of 
 cultivation than the lower classes ? So far from the Nobili- 
 ty possessing more intellect than the low er classes, is not the 
 fact notorious that leading minds are constantly springing 
 up from the sons of the hardy agriculturists, mechanics, &c. f 
 The heads of the Ancient Germans (the progenitors of the 
 Anglo-Saxon Race) were, in the time of Caesar, when they 
 were barbarians, as large and well formed as those of their 
 descendants of the present day, and required no *' expan- 
 sion." The wild Circasians of the mountains, and the 
 wandering Arabs of the Desert, we know, have as finely 
 formed heads as any in the world, though they have been 
 uncultivated for ages. Baron Larrey, who dissected them 
 frequently during Napoleon's Egyptian CampaigUj says the 
 
16 
 
 Arabs have the finest heads he ever saw. No one will deny 
 that the brains of these Races require no development by 
 education through successive generations. Their brains are 
 already full grown, and ready to receive the highest intellect- 
 ual cultivation. They are only kept down by the unfavora- 
 ble circumstances under which they are placed. Look around 
 . you, again, at the Negro Races : their physical type is pecu- 
 liar ; their grade of intellect is greatly inferior ; they are ut- 
 terly wanting in moral and physical energy. Education — 
 though it may improve the individual to a hmited extent, by 
 giving him new ideas — cannot change his organization ; can- 
 not expand his brain ; cannot produce an improvement in 
 the individual, which will extend its influence to his children : 
 in short, can do nothing towards transforming an inferior 
 into a superior race, and thus overturn a fixed law of nature. 
 
 Some of the Aboriginal Tribes of America, as the Tolte- 
 cans, while isolated from all external aids, have achieved a 
 semi-civiHzation. The Mongols, Hindoos, &c., under simi- 
 lar circumstances, have gone a step farther ; but the Negroes, 
 when left to themselves, have risen but little above the beasts 
 of the field. No pure-blooded Negro has ever risen above 
 the grade of mediocrity in the Whites. The notorious Tous- 
 saint Louverture, of Hayti, is the most remarkable Negro in 
 history, and though showing extraordinary powers, for a Ne- 
 gro, would have left no name as a White man, and was a 
 brute in morals. He was unquestionably dark, but I have 
 not been able to get any accurate information about his pedS- 
 gyee and precise race. 
 
 It has been asserted, that no White Race in a state of 
 barbarism has ever achieved civilization, till the impulse 
 came from without ; till it was brought to them. They had 
 no power to create it : Greece, Rome, Gaul, Germany, Spain^ 
 Britain, &c., have been cited as examples, and even if we 
 grant the assertion which is not proven, it will not be denied 
 that they received the boon with open arms, when it was 
 once laid before them. And where, let me ask, has any 
 White Race of antiquity had profiered to them such advan- 
 tages for making a successful beginning, as the Aborigines 
 of America, or the Negroes of Hayti. Why have the In^ 
 dians, unlike those barbarous White Races, melted away or 
 fled before the contact of civilization, as if there was poison 
 in its very breath .^ In Hayti, a large portion of the Mulat- 
 
17 
 
 toes and Negroes were educated ; they possessed, one of the 
 most beautiful and fertile countries in the world, and admi- 
 rably suited to their constitutions ; they were well-versed in 
 agriculture, the mechanic arts, navigation, and had already 
 a rich commerce at their doors ; and yet they have been 
 steadily retrograding, till they have sunk into hopeless bar- 
 barism. Look at the condition of the Free Negroes in our 
 Free States ! Although a large proportion of them are edu- 
 cated, not one has yet risen up to vindicate his race against 
 the charge of inferiority. The nearest advance this race 
 has ever made to civilization has been in Slavery, where it 
 has been restrained in its evil propensities, and led, like 
 children, in the right path. Negroes are creatures to be gui- 
 ded by imitation, or restrained by kindness or force ; and as 
 soon as left alone, like children, they follow their instincts 
 and impulses, which soon lead them back into their natural 
 savage state. 
 
 I might go on and extend these reflections indefinitely, by 
 adding illustrations from other races, as the Mongols, who 
 we know in China have preserved their peculiar physical 
 type, peculiar institutions, peculiar writing characters, lan- 
 guage, literat«ire, &c., for five thousand years ; but this 
 would lead beyond our prescribed limits. I could show, as 
 before stated, that the Caucasian, Mongol, African, and even 
 American Races presented, several thousand years ago, the 
 same types and grades in the social scale, which they still 
 preserve. 
 
 If, then, the Negro Races stand at the lowest point in the 
 scale of human beings, and we know of no moral or physir 
 cal agencies which can redeem them from their degradation, 
 k is clear that they are incapable of self-government, and 
 that any attempt to improve their condition is warring 
 against an immutable law of nature. 
 
 This brings us to the great practical questions, what is to 
 be the fate of the three millions of Negro slaves now in our 
 Southern States? And what is to be our destiny, which is 
 indissolubly linked with theirs ? Here w^e have stood with 
 our arms folded year after year, suffering aggression after 
 aggression from the North, till the cordon is now drawn 
 around us ; and looking calmly at the growth of evils which 
 er6 long must inevitably end in bloodshed. There are afir 
 palling if sue^ before us which niust be met, and the reml^ 
 
18 
 
 of which no. human wisdom can forctclh The slaves double 
 by natural increase every thirty years, and this ratio would 
 give us fifty millions, in little more than a century ; a rapidi-* 
 ty of increase which no scheme of philanthropy ever yet 
 proposed by emancipationists could keep pace with. The 
 Northern Abolitionists are acting under the influence of 
 ignorance and fanaticism, and there may, therefore, be some 
 palliation for their oflences ; but for us of the South, who are 
 familiar with the black races and know how impracticable 
 all proposed schemes of emancipation are, there can be no 
 excuse for our supineness. y We could not educate the mil- 
 lions of slaves amongst us, for they w ould be unfit for slave- 
 ry, and dangerous to us, while they would still be unfit for 
 liberty : and admitting that cultivation could improve their 
 intelligence, a century would be but a beginning in the work 
 of regeneration. Many centuries would elapse, admitting 
 its possibility, before the work could be completed; and it is 
 expecting too much of human nature, to suppose that one 
 Race will sacrifice itself during so many generations, for the 
 sole benefit of another. 
 
 Well, suppose the slaves to be educated as far as practica- 
 ble, and prepared for emancipation, what then could be done 
 with them f The Free States are jjassing laws every where 
 to protect themselves against the influx of Free Negroes, 
 and very soon the barrier aroimd us wall be complete. It is 
 clear, that the three millions of slaves^ now at the South, 
 could not be turned loose upon us. Would a single man in 
 Alabama vote to turn loose the three hundred thousand Ne- 
 groes within her borders, upon any terms which could be pro- 
 posed ? 
 
 It is evident, then, that if the Negroes in the Slave States 
 are permitted to exist at all on this continent, it can be no 
 where but in Slave Stales, and no where hut in Slavery, with 
 all their fearful increase. Can any one deny this assertion ? 
 The number which would escape to Free States, would be 
 too small to eflTect materially the result, and the time is fast 
 approaching when all the Free States wiU pass prohibitory 
 laws against this population ; for they know, as well as we 
 do, that a large Free Negro population — which is an indo- 
 lent," improvident, vicious, non-producing class — could not be 
 tolerated. It is, therefore, evident, that we should have to 
 provide for the evil at home, however incurable, or look to 
 Liberia as a safety valve. 
 
19 
 
 It has been seriously siui'gested by some, and by Sir (Jhas» 
 Lyell, amongst others, tliat the Negroes should be gradually 
 educated and emancipated at home, and allowed to amalga- 
 mate with the Whites ; and thus be absorbed and become a 
 part of our flesh and bone, and a part of our civilization. 
 This proposition is not only insulting and revolting to us, but 
 is overruled by other objections, v There is no doubt that the 
 intellectual grade of the Negro Races may be greatly improv- 
 ed by crossing them with the Whites, but it must not be for- 
 gotten, on the other hand, that the White Races would be 
 dragged dawn by tiie adulteration, and then* civilization de- 
 stroyed. We see now how difficult it is for the purest Races 
 of the earth to maintain anything like rational governments; 
 -and what would become of our institutions, in the hands of 
 Mulattoes? A great aim of philanthropy should be, to keep 
 the ruling Races of the world as pure and as wise as possi- 
 ble, for it is only through them that the others can be made 
 prosperous and happy. Look at Hayti, where the Mulatto 
 caste governed feebly for a time : their movement was con- 
 iitantly retrograde, until finally, dragged down by the pure 
 blacks, they were exterminated, or driven away. That 
 beautiful island is now plunged into a perfectly savage state, 
 and I am credibly informed by an eye-witness that he, on 
 two occasions, saw the Negroes roasting and eating Domini- 
 . c^n prisoners on the road side ! 
 
 It being certain, then, (accumulating witii the rapidity we 
 have stated) thai the slaves of the Southern States must have 
 an outlet at no very distant day, in some direction — let us 
 revert to the proposed colonization in Africa. This is a 
 scheme which has occupied the serious attention, and met 
 with the full approval, of all the leading men of the North, 
 and not a few of those at the South ; and though fully con- 
 vinced of its impracticability, I shall be glad to see the ex- 
 periment now making with Free Negroes fairly carried out, 
 as I am convinced it will serve to prove the correctness of 
 the views I have advanced. 
 
 It is utterly inconceivable to my mind, how so many mm. 
 of intelligence could be led to favor a scheme so impractica- 
 ble, with the history of the two Races open before them. 
 There Africa stands with her fifty millions of blacks, and 
 there she has stood for the last five thousand years, with 
 this people occupying the same countries, without one step 
 
20 
 
 towards civilization; and all the experiments in the United 
 States, the West Indies, &:c., have failed. The boon has 
 been presented to them in every possible shape, and they 
 have never been able to grasp it. Is not the delusion the 
 more extraordinary, when we see sensible men in this coun- 
 try and Europe fostering, with confident hopes, the Republic 
 of Liberia — while they laugh at the absurdity of the French 
 nation, one of the most intellectual in the world, in attempt- 
 ing to make a RepubUcan, or any other rational form of 
 Government ! 
 
 It is far from my feelings, or design, to misrepresent the 
 facts connected with this scheme of colonization, for it has 
 been approved by many of the wisest and best men of our 
 country ; but still I fear we have been grossly deceived, not 
 only by bad, but by well-meaning men, at home, as well as 
 in Africa. Letters and statements are published from liibe- 
 ria ; speeches are made before the Colonization Society in 
 Washington, and published in the National Intelligencer, 
 giving the most poetic accounts of the intelligence, morality 
 and refinement of the Black Colonists, and the rapid pro- 
 gress of civiHzation in Liberia. I have good reason to be- 
 lieve that these statements are utterly untrue, and a moment's 
 reflection would bring any thinking man to the same conclu- 
 cion. Can any one believe that such a change would come 
 over four or five thousand ignorant, stupid, and for the most 
 part, vicious Free Negroes, in a few years? "The first set- 
 tlement was made by Free Negroes from the United States, 
 imder the auspices of the Americaii Colonization Society, in 
 the year 1820," and this class there, -ks the same as we see it 
 around us here, every day ; and we know full well the nature 
 of the material on which these mighty changes are to be 
 wrought. Some of them have made their way back to the 
 United States in disgust, and contradict the statements given.. 
 A lamented friend, who died in Mobile a few years ago, (Dr. 
 Mechlin) and who lived in Liberia five years-^a part of which 
 time he was Governor of that Colony — told me that he re*- 
 garded the experiment as a failure, and that he saw no hope 
 of ever rendering the Negro Race fit for self-government ; 
 and no one who knew this gentleman ever doubted his honr 
 esty or intelligence. 
 
 The Colony, so far, has only been held together by the 
 fostering care of the Colonization Society^ and support of 
 
21 
 
 foreign Governments. It is governed too directly by the 
 White Agents of the Society, and by the White blood cours- 
 ing through the veins of the Mulatto leaders amongst the 
 Colonists. President Roberts, who was once a blacksmith 
 in Petersburg, Virginia, 1 am informed by those who know 
 him well, is three-fourths White blood, with florid complex- 
 ion, red hair, and disagreeable expression of countenance. 
 He is represented as " a keen, shrewd, designing fellow, who 
 is turning matters in Liberia to his own account." Most of 
 the other leading men are also Mulattoes. The Colonists . 
 have had many difficulties to contend with, but if the history 
 of Races teaches any thing, the delusion will probably not 
 last much longer. 
 
 Slavery is already virtually abolished in the District of Co- 
 lumbia. In consequence of the incessant agitation in Con- 
 gress, ^ind the growth of the Abolition party, this species of 
 property has become insecure — and the slave owners, from 
 prudential motives, have been ridding themselves of their 
 slaves, who are now reduced to but a handful. Even in 
 Baltimore, by the Census of 1840, out of twenty thousand 
 Negroes, there were but three thousand slaves, and this 
 drain is going on in all the frontier Slave States, while the 
 slaves are emptied into the Gulf States. Few realize the 
 rapidity with which this process is going on. In Alabama, 
 there were in 1820 but forty-one thousand slaves ; in 1830, 
 they had increased to one hundred and seventeen thousand ; 
 in 1840, the number had reached two hundred and fiftj-thr/^iQ 
 thousand ! and it remains to see what the census of 1850 
 will show. How long will it be before Alabama must pass 
 and enforce laws against the farther introduction of slaves ? 
 The slaves double in thirty years, by natural increase, and 
 iviih the immigration, our children will see around them in 
 this short period, at least one million. All the Cotton and 
 Sugar States will be in the same crowded condition, and 
 each will be passing laws for its own protection. Kentucky 
 is already agitating the question of Abolition within her own 
 borders, and it requires no prophet's eye to see that emanci- 
 pation is inevitable in all the farming States, where White 
 labor can be advantageously used. 
 
 These reflections aflfbrd ample field for sober considera- 
 tion. Wliat disposition God, in his providence, will eventu- 
 •elly make of these BlacVis, cannot be foretold; but it is om 
 
22 
 
 lUity to provide for our own liappiness and theirs, as long, as 
 we can. In dealing Avitli this question, it will not do to be 
 guided by abstract notions of liberty and slavery. We can 
 only judge the future by the past ; and as experience proves 
 that the Negro is better off in slavery at the South, than in 
 freedom elsewhere, it is the part of philanthropy to keep him 
 there, as we keep our children in subjection for their own 
 good. 
 
 Let us now^ take a retrospect of the ground we have pass- 
 •cd over, and present, in a condensed form, tlie conclusions 
 which may be deduced : 
 
 .1st. It is conceded on all hands, that the Negroes have 
 existed, with their present physical types, for at least four 
 -thousand years ; that there is no evidence that they have any 
 where during this time achieved civilization ; that they have 
 always shown inferior intelligence, and occupied the lowest 
 grade in the scale of nations; and that they have always 
 been the slaves of petty princes in Africa, by whom, and 
 their parents, they have been sold to slavery in foreign nations. 
 
 2d. There is no example on record,. to prove that climate, 
 or any combination of known external agencies, can change 
 a White Race into Negroes, or vice versa. This opinion, as 
 far as I know, (and few books on the subject have escaped 
 me) is sustained by every naturalist of repute of the pres- 
 ent day. 
 
 3d. Though often asserted, there is not an atom of proof 
 in the world's history, to show that a Race can be changed 
 -by cultivation, and raised in intelligence, from the lowest to 
 t the highest grade. The Negro, the Mongol, and Caucasian 
 Races have maintained their relative grades, we Jcnoiv, from 
 ithe Christian era to the present time, through all vicissitudes. 
 > . 4th.- From the past history of the Negroes, not a single 
 i?faetior argument can be drawn to encourage the belief that 
 t jithe slaves of -the United States can be colonized in Africa, 
 or elsewhero, with a prospect of improving their condition ; 
 .while there is ample reason to believe that it would bring 
 i • incalculable evils upon them. 
 
 5th. That the slaves now^ in our Southern States must 
 continue, with all their increase, to exist here as slaves, or 
 be driven off to die of want and misery elsewhere. 
 
 These are stubborn facts, which cannot be gainsaid, and 
 whose importance to the people of the United States cannot 
 
25 
 
 he overei*tiinated. Knowing how utterly us?(^*les;5 it is- to lioW 
 up to iVorthern demagogues and fanatics, the Constitution, 
 as a shield against their unceasing attacks upon our institu- 
 tions, I have presented these facts in various shapes, again 
 and again, hoping that if they were not Avilling to he bound 
 by the terms of the Federal Compact — ^vere not willing to 
 listen to the claims of justice — they would at lea^t hearken 
 to these appeals, when sustained by the voice of humanity. 
 Though they may view slavery as an abstract wrong, they 
 cannot denjj w ith reason, that here, it is a practical blessing 
 to the jNegro. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, let me conjure you to ponder well- 
 on the plain facts I have given you, and ask yourselves, 
 what bright hope does the future hold outf Have we not 
 arrived at a crisis in our affairs w hen it becomes us to break 
 dowrt aU old party barriers, and to meet and take counsei 
 together, and provide for the common danger which stands 
 before us like the sun at noon-day. The cordon of Free ^ 
 States around us is now completed ; our domain is but a 
 fraction of the territory of the United States; the political 
 and fanatical feelings of the Free States, and the prejudices 
 of the whole civilized w orld are arrayed against us ; without 
 having violated the laws of God, the laws of our country, 
 or the laws of humanity, we are looked upon as an outlaw^ed 
 and disgraced people, awaiting the execution of the sentence 
 which is pronounced against us. The time is long passed 
 when we were regarded as equals in the Confederacy, and 
 the so-called Union meetings at the North are not dictated 
 by veneration for the Constitution, by any feeling of broth- 
 erly love, or by any desire to elevate us in the respect of 
 mankind. We are simply tolerated, from pecuniary consid- 
 erations. 
 
 I am no politician, and did not come here to stimulate party 
 strife; nor did I come to propose remedies for past wrongs, 
 or for the dangers which stand before us. I would leave 
 these to wiser and more experienced heads than mine. I 
 came to lay before you im|X)rtant facts draw n from the phy- 
 sical history of Races, which liave been lost sight of in the 
 discussions on Slavery, and to draw your attention to dan- 
 gers which are ripening, and ought to be anticipated. I 
 came to show, that, whatever blame may attach to our an- 
 re?tors for establishing this institution here, the perpetuaiioH 
 
24 
 
 of s^lavery is no sin ; that we could not, as philanthropists, 
 get clear of it if we would, and that we are entitled to the 
 full respect of the Chnstian world. But I will say, that if 
 any man wishes to find the strongest of all arguments for a 
 severance of this Union, and for the formation of a Southern 
 Confederacy, he may deduce it from the chain of facts I 
 have detailed. We have no friends, no sympathisers, no 
 protectors on earth ; and if the North goes on in the course 
 she has been steadily pursuing for the last fifteen years, the 
 South, ere long, will be compelled to protect herself, and to 
 carve an outlet for her Negroes with the sword, from the 
 territory which has been plundered from her. There is a 
 higher law than the consciences of Seward and Thompson — 
 the law of self-preservation. We now pay tribute to the 
 sword which overhangs and threatens us ; and the time, I 
 fear, is not far distant, when we shall need a purse and 
 sword of our own, to protect ourselves against foreign and 
 domestic enemies. 
 
 We should not be lulled into false security by that delu- 
 sive word. Compromise — or by hosannas sung to an unjust 
 Government. The Constitution, itself — the Missouri line — 
 the Tarifi!* of 1842, were all compromises between the North 
 and the South, and how have these compromises been re- 
 spected ^ 
 
 Let it be remembered, too, that the "Omnibus Bill" — 
 which is but a mockery, under the name of Compromise — • 
 was passed by Southern^ and not by Northern votes, as " the 
 best bargain they could get." It is openly claimed by Mr. 
 Clay, and his Freesoil party, that this Compromise takes 
 away from the South every foot of conquered territory. 
 The Legislature of Vermont has already declared Iverself 
 against the Compromise; the Governor of Ohio is already 
 out for repeal ; the Sewards, the Hales, the Giddings, the 
 Phillips, the George Thompsons, are in the field, urging on 
 their mad Schemes, and backed by all the religious sects of 
 the North. I ask where, in the world's history, did such a 
 volcano of fanaticism ever cease to burn, till quenched by 
 blood ? 
 
 The last safeguard of the Slave States — the right of se- 
 cession — is now denied by the Government. One set of 
 States claim the power to decide on the reserved rights of 
 f^he^r States, and to enforce this decision at the mouth 
 
25 
 
 the cannon. Does any man here believe that the South wKi 
 jield this point without a struggle ? 
 
 A deep feeling oi* distrust towards the North now pervades 
 the whole South — and the most confiding must admit, that 
 doubt and uncertainty enshroud the future. I may be w rong, 
 and pray Heaven that I am, but my solemn conviction is. 
 that events are fast ripening, which must end in blood; and 
 under this conviction, I would say to this Association, that 1 
 think one of their most prominent objects should be, to urge 
 upon the Legislature, the establishment of a Military School 
 — a better organization of the Militia — a provision for all 
 the munitions of war, (fee. It is an old maxim, that, the 
 best way to maintain peace, is to be prepared for war. 
 
 Yes, my friends, disguise it as you will, our situation b 
 full of appalling dangers, and we should awake to them. 
 Truly and eloquently has that mad fanatic, George Thomp- 
 son, exclaimed: 
 
 " A voice has spoken in the ear of this mighty nation, and 
 " has said, 
 
 ' Sleep no more ! 
 Slavery has murdered sleep.' 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to enter upon historical details. 
 " Most, if not all, of you have been living witnesses of the 
 " progress of the cause. Some of you have been conspicu- 
 " ous actors in the sublime drama which is still unfolding its 
 " scenes, deepening in interest as they advance in the stage 
 of the civilized world. 
 The question is up — the contest is begun — the combat 
 " thickens — the battle becomes grand — it will be grander 
 still — it will be the greatest and grandest ever fought on 
 " earth, and its consequences the mosv; momentous and far- 
 *' reaching of any that have ever followed from a war of 
 principles since the world began. 
 
 Slavery! it is the theme of every newspaper. It is tlie 
 topic of debate in every legislative hall. It lengthens the 
 " sittings of Congress. It allows your Senators but two 
 " hours' rest at night. It mixes with your soil. It deter- 
 mines your boundary lines. It is that word in every new 
 Constitution which causes the mightiest intellects in the 
 land to grapple with each other, in passionate and unyield- 
 ing conflict. It is the pivot upon which every election 
 " turns. It decides the complexion of every ticket placed \u 
 4 
 
26 
 
 ^' tlifi ballot-box. It is tbe test of membersbi]) in Churches. 
 " It is the cause of divisions in communities. It leads to 
 ^' new combinations of political parties. It makes and un- 
 " makes Bishops. It changes Whigs into Democrats, and 
 
 both into Freesoilers. It is the interpreter of the tables 
 ^' of stone given to Moses, and of the precepts to brotherly 
 
 love uttered by Jesus. It meets the Priest on the steps of 
 " the Altar — the Preacher on the stairs of the Pulpit — tbe 
 " Merchant on the busy Exchange — and the New England 
 
 Farmer, when a hungry, naked wanderer asks in the name 
 ^' of it and humanity for shelter for the night. 
 
 " Is it nothing, my friends, that all this has been brought, 
 
 to jmss in twenty years ? Is it nothing that an obsolete 
 ^' and buried Christianity has been exhumed, and sent forth, 
 ^' like a refining fire, to purify this land from the curse of 
 
 slavery." 
 
 Yes, the evil-doers are up and at work night and day, and 
 it is time for us of the South to arouse from our long and 
 chilling slumber. The spirit of Liberty, the spirit of i"hi- 
 lartthropy, the spirit of Christianity, aye, and the ghosts of 
 the murdered Whites of St. Domingo rise up — shake their 
 gory locks at you — and bid you, " Sleep no inoreJ''' 
 
 Note. — For an extension of these views, see my ''Two Lectures on tlie Bibli. 
 eal and Physical History of Man," and several articles in the Southern Quarterly 
 
 D 
 
Date Due 
 
CALL NUMBER 
 
 Vol. 
 
 Date (for periodical) 
 
 
 Copy No. 
 
 1 SEP ^2 
 
 1970 
 
 3 N916S 
 
 o703''36