E 453 .B63 Copy 1 LETTER OF HON. MOKTGOMERY BLAIR, POSTMASTER GENERAL, TO THE MEETING HELD AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE, ■\\y ^X NEW YORK, MARCH 6, 1862 WASHINGTON: PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 1862. t Jj (j ^7^ \ /. •-K LETTER DISUNION, IN FORM OR SUBSTANCE, ADVOCATED BY FRIENDS OF EMAN- CIPATION, WILL CONTINUE TO HELP SLAVERY— SPEEDY EMANCI- PATION CERTAIN FROM CAUSES NOW IN OPERATION EXPLAINED— RELATION OF PARTIES AT THE SOUTH TO SLAVERY— NOT A SLAVE- HOLDERS' REBELLION IN ITS ORIGIN-NON-SLAVEHOLDERS FIGHTING FOR RACE, NOT SLAVERY— WORKING MEN NORTH AND SOUTH AGREE AS TO CONDITIONS OF EMANCIPATION— IMMEDIATE REMOVAL OF BLACKS NOT NECESSARY-RECOGNITION OF THEIR ACTUAL STATUS IN THE COUNTRY ONLY NECESSARY TO GIVE THEM LIBERTY AND THE WHITES FRATERNITY. Washington, District of Columbia, March 2, 1862. Gentlemen : I have the honor to acknowledge your favor of yester- day, inviting me to attend a meeting of the citizens of New York, at the Cooper Institute, on tlie 6th instant, and requesting my views on the subject of the call. I shall not be able to attend the meeting, nor have I the leisure to write out my views upon the subject with the care demanded by the nature of it, but I will offer some thoughts for your consideration. I do not concur in the proposition that certain States have been *' recently overturned and wholly subverted as members of the Federal Union," upon which the call is based. This is, in substance, what the confederates themselves claim ; and the fact that secession is main- tained by the authors of this call, for a diiferent purpose, does not make it more constitutional, or prevent them from being actual aiders and abettors of the confederates. No one who knows my political career will suspect that my con- demnation of this doctrine is influenced by any indisposition to put an end to slavery. I have left no opportunity unimproved to strike at it, and have never been restrained from doing so by personal considera- tions. But I have never believed that the abolition of slavery, or any other great reform, could or ought to be effected except by lawful and constitutional modes. The people have never sanctioned, and never will sanction, any other ; omd the friends of a cause ivill especially avoid all questionable grounds ivlien, as in the present instance, nothing else can long j^ostjjone their success. There are two distinct interests in slavery, the political and property interests, held by distinct classes. The rebellion originated with the political class. The property class, which generally belonged to the Whig organization, had lost no property in the region where the re- bellion broke out, and were prosperous. It was the Democratic organ- ization, which did not represent the slaveholders as a class, which hatched the rebellion. Their defeat in the late political struggle, and in the present rebellion, extinguishes at once and forever the political interest of slavery. The election of Mr. Lincoln put an end to the hopes of Jejff. Davis, Wise, et id omne genus, for the Presidency of the Union, and hence the rebellion. It extinguished slavery as a power to control the Federal Government, and it was the capacity of slavery to subserve this purpose alone which has given it vitality, for morally and economically it is indefensible. With the extinction of its political power, there is no motive to induce any politician to uphold it. No man ever defended such an institution except for pay, and nothing short of the power of the Government could provide sufficient gratification to ambition to pay for such service ; and therefore Mr. Toombs said, with perfect truth, that the institution could only be maintained in the Union by the possession of the Government. That has been wrested from it, and the pay is on the side of justice and truth. Can any man who respects popular intelligence think it necessary, with such advantages on the side of justice and truth, to violate the great charter of our liberties to insure their triumph? tSuch an act, in my judgment, so far from advancing the cause in whose name it is performed, would surely be disastrous, and result in bringing our opponents into power in the name of the Constitution. It is not merely a question of constitutional law or slavery with which we have to deal in '•' securing permanent peace." The problem before us is the practical one of dealing with the relations of masses of two different races in the same community. The calamities now upon us have been brought about, as I have already said, not by the grievances of the class claiming property in slaves, but by the jealousy of caste awakened by the secessionists in the non-slaveholders. In considering the means of securing the peace of the country hereafter, it is, therefore, this jealousy of race which is chiefly to be considered. Emancipation alone would not remove it. It was by proclaiming to the laboring whites, who fill the armies of rebellion, u that the election of Mr. Lincoln involved emancipation, equality of the negroes with them, and consequently amalgamation, that their jealousy was stimulated to the lighting point. Nor is this jealousy the fruit of mere ignorance and bad passion, as some suppose, or confined to the white people of the South. On the contrary, it belongs to all races, and, like all popular instincts, proceeds from the highest wisdom. It is, in fact, the instinct of self-preservation which revolts at hybridism. Nor does this instinct militate against the natural law, that all men are created equal, if another law of nature, equally obvious, is obeyed. We have but to restore the subject race to the same, or to a region similar to that from which it was brought by violence, to make it operative ; and such a separation of races Avas the condition which the immortal author of the Declaration himself declared to be indispensable to give it practical effect. A theorist, not living in a community where diverse races are brought in contact in masses may stifle the voice of nature in his own bosom, and from a determination to live up to a mistaken view of the doctrine, go so far as to extend social intercourse to individuals of the subject race. But few even of such persons would pursue their theories so far as amalgamation and other legitimate con- sequences of their logic. Indeed, for the most part, such persons in our country, like the leading spirits in Exeter Hall, are so far removed, by tlieir circumstances, from any practical equality with working people of any race that they have little sympathy for them, and nothing to apprehend for themselves from the theory of equality. Not so with the white working man in a community where there are many negroes. In such circumstances, the distinction of caste is the only protection of the race from hybridism and consequent extinction. That this jealousy of caste is the instinct of the highest wisdom, and is fraught with the greatest good, is abundantly attested by its effects on our own race, in which it is stronger than in any other. We con- quer and hold our conquests by it. The difficult question with wliich we have to deal is, then, the ques- tion of race, and I do not think it is disposed of, or that our difficulties will be lessened by emancipation by Congress, even if such an act was constitutional. It would certainly add to the exasperation of the non- slaveholding whites of the South, and might unite them against the Government, and, if so, they would be unconquerable. As matters stand, we can put down the rebellion, because the people of the natural strongholds of the southern country are with us. It is chiefly in the low lands accessible from the ocean and navigable rivers and bays that treason is rampant. The mountain fastnesses, where alone a guerrilla 6 war can be sustained, are now held by Union men, and they are more numerous and more robust, intelligent, and independent than the rebels. It is chiefly the more degraded class of non-slaveholders, who live in the midst of slavery, who are now engaged against the Government, But the non-slaveholders of the mountain and high land regions, while for the Union, are not free from the jealousy of caste, and the policy I object to would, if adopted^ I apprehend, array them against us. Nor would we succeed in our object if they were finally subdued and exterminated, if we left the negroes on the soil ; for other whites would take the country, and hold it against the negroes, and reduce them again to slavery, or exterminate them. I am morally certain, indeed, that to free the slaves of the South, without removing them, would result in the massacre of them. A general massacre was on the eve of taking place in the State of Ten- nessee, in 1856, upon a rising of some of them on the Cumberland ; and I have been assured by Hon. Andrew Johnson, who was then Governor of the State, that nothing but his prompt calling out of the militia prevented it. But this antagonism of race, which has led to our present calamities, and might lead to yet greater, if it continues to be ignored, will deliver us from slavery in the easiest, speediest, and best manner, if we recog- nize it as it is — the real cause of trouble ^nd invincible, and deal with it rationally. We have but to propose to let the white race have the lands intended for them by the Creator, to turn the fierce spirit aroused by the seces- sionists to destroy the Union to the support of it, and at the same time to break up the slave system by which the most fertile lands of the temperate zone are monopolized and wasted. That is the result which the logic of the census shows is being worked out, and which no political management can prevent being worked out. The essence of the contest is, whether the white race shall have these lands, or whether they shall be held by the black race, in the name of a few whites. The blacks could never hold thqm as their own, for we have seen how quickly that race has disappeared when emancipated. Experience proves, what might have been inferred from their histor}'^, that it has not maintained and cannot maintain itself in the temperate zone, in contact and in competition with the race to which that region belongs. It is only when dependent that it can exist there. But this servile relation is mis- chievous, and the community so constituted does not flourish and keep pace with the spirit of the age. It has scarcely the claim to the immense area of land it occupies which the aborigines had; for though the Indians occupied larger space, with fewer inhabitants, they did not waste the land as the slave system does. No political management or sentiraentalism can prevent the natural resolution of such a system, in the end, any more than sucli means could avail to preserve the Indian possession and dominion. The rebellion, like the Indian outbreaks, is but a vain attempt to stem the tide of civilization and progress. The treachery, falsehood, and cruelty perpetrated to maintain negro possession, scarcely less than that of the savages, marks the real nature of the contest. Nevertheless, I believe it might have been averted if we had adopted Mr. Jefferson's counsels, and made provision for the separation of the races, providing suitable homes for the blacks, as we have for the Indians. It is essen- tial still, in order to abridge the conflict of arms, and to fraternize the people when that is past, to follow Mr. Jefferson's advice. This most benevolent and sagacious statesman predicted all the evils which it has been our misfortune to witness, unless we should avert them by this, the only means which, after the most anxious thought, he could suggest. No statesman of our day has given the subject so much thought as he did, or possesses the knowledge or ability to treat it so wisely. Let us, then, listen to his counsels. By doing so we shall establish a fraternity among the working men of the white race throughout the Union, which has never existed, and give real freedom to the black race, which cannot otherAvise exist. Nor is it necessary to the restoration of harmony and prosperity to the Union that this policy should be actually and completely put in force. It is only necessary that it should be adopted by the Government, and that it be made known to the people that it is adopted, to extinguish hostility in the hearts of the masses of the fSouth toward the people of the North, and secure their cooperation in putting an end to slavery. No greater mistake was ever made than in supposing that the masses of the people of the South favor slavery. I have already stated that they did not take up arms to defend it, and explained the real motives of their action. The fact that they oppose emancipation in their midst is the only foundation for the contrary opinion. But the masses of the North are equally opposed to it, if the four millions of slaves are to be transported to their midst. The prohibitory laws against their coming, existing in all the States subject to such invasion, proves this. On the other hand, the intense hostility which is universally known to be felt by the non-slaveholders of the South toward all negroes expresses their real hostility to slavery, and it is the natural form of expression under the circumstances. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 8 llilll 011 899 229 5. It needs, therefore, but the assurance which would he given by pro- viding homes for the blacks elsewhere, that they are to be regarded as sojourners when emancipated, as, in point of fact, they are and ever will be, to insure the cooperation of the non-slaveholders in their eman- cipation. Nor would they require immediate, universal, or involuntary transportation, or that any injustice whatever be done to the blacks. The more enterprising would soon emigrate, and multitudes of less energy would follow, if such success attended the pioneers as the care with which the Government should foster so important an object would doubtless insure; and with such facilities, it would require but few generations to put the temperate regions of America in the exclusive occupation of the white race, and remove the only obstacle to a per- petual union of the States. With great respect, I am, your obedient servant, M. BLAIR. To the Committee of Invitation, &c. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 01 1 899 229 5 ^t^ ^^