YINDIOATION" 
 
 CAPACITY OF THE NEGBO RACE 
 
 ielf-dotemnmt, aito Cibifijeb. progress, 
 
 DEMONSTRATED BY HISTORICAL EVENTS 
 
 HAYTIAN REVOLUTION ; 
 
 SUBSEQUENT ACTS OP THAT PEOPLE SINCE THEIR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 LECTURE BY REV. JAS. THEO. HOLLY. 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE AFRIC-AMERICAN PRINTING CO., 
 
 JOHN P. ANTHONY, Agent. 
 
 NEW HAVEN : 
 
 WILLIAM H. STANLEY, PRINTER. 
 1857. 
 
DIEU MA PATRIE ET MON EPEE 
 
 EliPERQIR 01 HAITI 
 
 Cofi*yF4dfot swM/j-r c7 
 
VINDICATION 
 
 CAPACITY OF THE IE&RO RACE 
 
 ietf-dfl&OTmeitf, mib <Ori%h Ijrojjresfl, 
 
 DEMONSTRATED BY HISTORICAL EVENTS 
 
 HAYTIAN REVOLUTION-, 
 
 SUBSEQUENT ACTS OF THAT PEOPLE SINCE THEIR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 LECTURE BY REV. JAS. THEO. HOLLY. 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE AFRIC-AMERICAN PRINTING CO., 
 
 JOHN P. ANTHONY, Agent. 
 
 NEW HAVEN : * 
 WILLIAM H. STANLEY, PRINTER. 
 
 1857. 
 
'H 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1857, 
 
 By JAMES THEODORE HOLLY, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. 
 
 ' 
 
 
 <y 
 
*0 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 To EEV. WILLIAM C. MUNROE, 
 
 RECTOR OF ST. MATTHEWS CHURCH, DETROIT, MICHIGAN. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sir : — Permit me the honor of inscribing this work to you. 
 It is a lecture that I prepared and delivered before a Literary Society of Colored 
 Young Men, in the City of New Haven, Ci, after my return from Hayti, in the 
 autumn of 1855 ; and subsequently repeated in Ohio, Michigan, and Canada 
 "West, during the summer of 1856. 
 
 I have permitted it to be published at the request of the Afric-American 
 Printing Company, an association for the publication of negro literature, organ- 
 ized in connection with the Board of Publication, which forms a constituent part 
 of the National Emigration Convention, over which you so ably presided, at its 
 sessions, held in Cleveland, Ohio, in the years 1854-6. 
 
 I dedicate this work to you, in token of my appreciation of the life-long ser- 
 vices you have so sacredly devoted to the cause of our oppressed race ; the ardor 
 of which devotion has not yet abated, although the evening of your life has far 
 advanced in the deepening shadows of the approaching night of physical death. 
 
 And as the ground-work of this skeleton treatise is based in the events of 
 Haytian History, it becomes peculiarly appropriate that I should thus dedicate 
 it to one who has spent three of the most valuable years of his life as a mission- 
 ary of the cross in that island ; who there deposited the slumbering ashes of his 
 own bosom companion a willing sacrifice to her constancy and devotion 5 and who 
 yet desires to consume the remainder of his own flickering lamp of life by the 
 resumption of those labors in that island, under more favorable and better auspi- 
 ces, in the service of Christ and his church. 
 
 Finally, I dedicate this work to you as a filial token of gratitude, for that 
 guidance which under God, I have received from your fatherly teachings ; by 
 which I have been awakened to higher inspirations, of our most holy religion ; 
 aroused to deeper emotions of human liberty and quicker pulsations of the univer- 
 sal brotherhood of man ; and thereby animated with a more consecrated devotion 
 to the service of my suffering race than might otherwise have fallen to my lot. 
 
 Deign, therefore, I beseech you, to accept this dedication as the spontaneous 
 offering of a grateful and dutiful heart. 
 I have the honor to remain, 
 Rev. and Dear Sir, 
 
 Your most Devoted Friend and Servant, 
 
 In the cause of God and Humanity. 
 .JAMES THEODORE HOLLY, Sector of St. Luke's Church. 
 
 New Haven, Conn., August 1st, 1857. 
 
LECTURE. 
 
 The task that I propose to myself in the present lecture, is 
 an earnest attempt to defend the inherent capabilities of the 
 negro race, for self-government and civilized progress. For 
 this purpose, I will examine the events of Haytian History, 
 from the commencement of their revolution down to the pre- 
 sent period, so far as the same may contribute to illustrate 
 the points I propose to prove and defend. Permit me, how- 
 ever, to add, in extenuation of this last comprehensive pro- 
 position, that I must, necessarily, review these events hastily, 
 in order to crowd them within the compass of an ordinary 
 lecture. 
 
 REASONS FOR ASSUMING SUCH A TASK. 
 
 Notwithstanding the remarkable progress of philanthropic 
 ideas and humanitarian feelings, during the last half century, 
 among almost every nation and people throughout the habit- 
 able globe ; yet the great mass of the Caucasian race still 
 deem the negro as entirely destitute of those qualities, on 
 which they selfishly predicate their own superiority. 
 
 And we may add to this overwhelming class that cherish 
 such self-complacent ideas of themselves, to the great preju- 
 dice of the negro, a large quota also of that small portion of 
 the white race, who profess to believe the truths, " That Gfod 
 is no respecter of persons ;" and that " He has made of one 
 blood, all the nations that dwell upon the face of the earth." 
 Yes, I say, we may add a large number of the noisy agita- 
 tors of the present day, who would persuade themselves and 
 the world, that they are really christian philanthropists, to 
 that overwhelming crowd who openly traduce the negro ; be- 
 cause too many of those pseudo-humanitarians have lurking 
 
in their heart of hearts, a secret infidelity in regard to the 
 real equality of the black man, which is ever ready to man- 
 ifest its concealed sting, when the full and unequivocal rec- 
 ognition of the negro, in all respects, is pressed home upon 
 their hearts. 
 
 Hence, between this downright prejudice against this 
 long abused race, which is flauntingly maintained by myriads 
 of their oppressors on the one hand ; and this woeful distrust 
 of his natural equality, among those who claim to be his 
 friends, on the other ; no earnest and fearless efforts are put 
 forth to vindicate their character, by even the few who may 
 really acknowledge this equality of the races. They are 
 overawed by the overpowering influence of the contrary sen- 
 timent. This sentiment unnerves their hands and palsies 
 their tongue ; and no pen is wielded or voice heard, among 
 that race of men, which fearlessly and boldly places the 
 negro side by side with the white man, as his equal in all 
 respects. But to the contrary, every thing is done by the 
 enemies of the negro race to vilify and debase them. And 
 the result is, that many of the race themselves, are almost 
 persuaded that they are a brood of inferior beings. 
 
 It is then, to attempt a fearless but truthful vindication of 
 this race, with which I am identified — however feeble and 
 immature that effort may be — that I now proceed to set forth 
 the following address : 
 
 I wish, by the undoubted facts of history, to cast back the 
 vile aspersions and foul calumnies that have been heaped 
 upon my race for the last four centuries, by our unprinci- 
 pled oppressors ; whose base interest, at the expense of our 
 blood and our bones, have made them reiterate, from gene- 
 ration to generation, during the long march of ages, every 
 thing that would prop up the impious dogma of our natural 
 and inherent inferiority. 
 
 AN ADDITIONAL REASON FOR THE PRESENT TASK. 
 
 But this is not all. I wish hereby to contribute my influ 
 
fc 
 
 once — however small that influence — to effect a grandeur and 
 dearer object to our race than even this truthful vindication 
 of them before the world. I wish to do all in my power to 
 inflame the latent embers of self-respect, that the cruelty 
 and injustice of our oppressors, have nearly extinguished in 
 our bosoms, during the midnight chill of centuries, that we 
 have clanked the galling chains of slavery. To this end, I 
 • wish to remind my oppressed brethren, that dark and dismal 
 as this horrid night has been, and sorrowful as the general 
 reflections are, in regard to our race ; yet, notwithstanding 
 these discouraging considerations, there are still some proud 
 historic recollections, linked indissolubly with the most im- 
 portant events of the past and present century, which break 
 the general monotony, and remove some of the gloom that 
 hang over the dark historic period of African slavery, and the 
 accursed traffic in which it was cradled. 
 
 THE REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF HAYTI, 
 
 THE BASIS OF THIS ARGUMENT. 
 
 These recollections are to be found in the history of the 
 heroic events of the Revolution of Hayti. 
 
 This revolution is one of the noblest, grandest, and most 
 justifiable outbursts against tyrannical oppression that is re- 
 corded on the pages of the world's history. 
 
 A race of almost dehumanized men — made so by an 
 oppressive slavery of three centuries— arose from their slum- 
 ber of ages, and redressed their own unparalled wrongs with 
 a terrible hand in the name of Grod and humanity. 
 
 In this terrible struggle for liberty, the Lord of Hosts di- 
 rected their arms to be the instruments of His judgment on 
 their oppressors, as the recompense of His violated law of 
 love between man and his fellow, which these tyrants of the 
 new world had been guilty of, in the centuries of blood, 
 wrong, and oppression, which they had perpetrated on the 
 negro race in that isle of the Carribean Sea. 
 
 But aside from this great providential and religious view 
 
of this great movement, that we are always bound to seek 
 for, in all human affairs, to see how they square with the 
 mind of Grod, more especially if they relate to the destinies 
 of nations and people ; — the Haytian Revolution is also the 
 grandest political event of this or any other age. In weighty 
 causes, and wondrous and momentous features, it surpasses 
 the American revolution, in an incomparable degree. The 
 revolution of this country was only the revolt of a people 
 already comparatively free, independent, and highly enlight- 
 ened. Their greatest grievance was the imposition of three 
 pence per pound tax on tea, by the mother country, without their 
 consent. But the Haytian revolution was a revolt of an un- 
 educated and menial class of slaves, against their tyrannical 
 ^oppressors, who not only imposed an absolute tax on their 
 unrequited labor, but also usurped their very bodies ; and 
 who would have been prompted by the brazen infidelity of 
 the age then rampant, to dispute with the Almighty, the pos- 
 session of the souls of these poor creatures, could such brazen 
 effrontery have been of any avail, to have wrung more ill-got- 
 ten gain out of their victims to add to their worldly goods. 
 
 These oppressors, against whom the negro insurgents of 
 Hayti had to contend, were not only the government of a 
 far distant mother country, as in the case of the American 
 revolution ; but unlike and more fearful than this revolt, the 
 colonial government of Hayti was also thrown in the balance 
 against the negro revolters. The American revolters had 
 their colonial government in their own hands, as well as their 
 individual liberty at the commencement of the revolution 
 The black insurgents of Hayti had yet to grasp both their 
 personal liberty and the control of their colonial government, 
 by the might of their own right hands, when their heroic 
 struggle began. 
 
 The obstacles to surmount, and the difficulties to contend 
 against, in the American revolution, when compared to those 
 of the Haytian, were, (to use a homely but classic phrase,) 
 but a " tempest in a teapot," compared to the dark and lurid 
 thunder storm of the dissolving heavens. 
 
 4 
 
Never before, in all the annals of the world's history, did a 
 nation of abject and chattel slaves arise in the terriffic might 
 of their resuscitated manhood, and regenerate, redeem, and 
 disenthrall themselves : by taking their station at one gigan- 
 tic bound, as an independent nation, among the sovereignties 
 of the world. 
 
 It is, therefore, the unparalelled incidents that led to this 
 wonderful event, that I now intend to review rapidly, in order 
 to demonstrate thereby, the capacity of the negro race for 
 self-government and civilized progress, to the fullest extent 
 and in the highest sense of these terms. 
 
 PRELIMINARY INCIDENTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 I shall proceed to develop the first evidence of the compe- * 
 tency of the negro race for self-government, amid the histor- 
 ical incidents that preceded their terrible and bloody 
 revolution ; and in the events of that heroic struggle itself. 
 
 When the cosmopolitan ideas of " Liberty, Fraternity, and 
 Equality," which swayed the mighty minds of France, to- 
 ward the close of the 18th century, reached the colony of St. 
 Domingo, through the Massaic club, composed of wealthy 
 colonial planters, organized in the French capitol ; all classes 
 in that island, except the black slave and the free colored 
 man, were instantly wrought up to the greatest effervescence, 
 and swayed with the deepest emotions, by the startling doc- 
 trines of the equal political rights of all men, which were 
 then so boldly enunciated in the face of the tyrannical des- 
 potisms and the immemorial assumptions of the feudal 
 aristocracies of the old world. 
 
 The colonial dignitaries, the military officers, and other 
 agents of the government of France, then resident in St. 
 Domingo, the rich planters and the poor whites, (these latter 
 called in the parlance of that colony u Les petits blancs,) 
 were all from first to last, swayed with the intensest and the 
 most indescribable feelings, at the promulgation of these 
 bold and radical theories. 
 
 I 
 
All were in a perfect fever to realize and enjoy the price- 
 less boon of political and social privileges that these revolu- 
 tionary ideas held out before them. And in their impatience 
 to grasp these precious prerogatives, they momentarily forgot 
 their colonial dependance on France, and spontaneously came 
 together in a general assembly, at a small town of St. Domin- 
 go, called St. Marc ; and proceeded to deliberate seriously 
 about taking upon themselves all the attributes of national 
 sovereignty and independence. 
 
 And when they had deliberately matured plans to suit 
 themselves, they did not hesitate to send representatives to 
 propose them to the national government of France, for its 
 acknowledgment and acquiescence in their desires. 
 
 Such was the radical consequence to which the various 
 classes of while colonists in St. Domingo seized upon, and 
 carried the cosmopolitan theories of the French philosophers 
 and political agitators of the last century. 
 /But from all this excitement and enthusiasm, I have already 
 excepted the black and colored inhabitants of that island. 
 
 The white colonists of St. Domingo, like our liberty loving 
 and democratic fellow citizens of the United States, never 
 meant to include this despised race, in their glowing dreams 
 of " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." 
 
 Like our model Republicans, they looked upon this hated 
 race of beings, as placed so far down the scale of humanity, 
 that when the " Rights of man" were spoken of, they did not 
 imagine that the most distant reference was thereby made to 
 the negro ; or any one through whose veins his tainted blood 
 sent its crimsoned tide. 
 
 And so blind were they to the fact that the " Rights of 
 Man" could be so construed as to recognise the humanity of 
 that oppressed race ; that when the National assembly of 
 France, swayed by the just representations of the " Friends 
 of the Blacks" was led to extend equal political rights to the 
 free men of color in St. Domingo, at the same time that this 
 National body ratified the doings of the General Colonial 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 assembly of St. Marc : these same colonists who had been so 
 loud in their hurrahs for the Rights of Man, now ceased their 
 clamors for liberty in the face of this just national decree, 
 and sullenly resolved " To die rather than share equal politi- 
 cal rights with a bastard race." Such was the insulting 
 term that this colonial assembly then applied to the free men 
 of color, in whose veins coursed the blood of the proud plant- 
 er, commingled with that of the lowly negress. 
 
 THE SELF-POSSESSION OF THE BLACKS ; 
 
 AN EVIDENCE OP THEIR CAPACITY FOR SELF-GOYERNMENT. 
 
 The exceptional part which the blacks played in the moving 
 drama that was then being enacted in St. Domingo, by their 
 stern self-possession amid the furious excitement of the 
 whites, is one of the strongest proofs that can be adduced to 
 substantiate the capabilities of the negro race for self-gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 The careless reserve of the seemingly dehumanized black 
 slave, who continued to toil and delve on, in the monotonous 
 round of plantation labor, under a crue2 task master, in a 
 manner so entirely heedless of the furious hurrahs for freedom 
 and independence ; the planting of Liberty poles, surmounted 
 by the cap of Liberty ; and the erection of statues to the 
 goddess of Liberty, which was going on around him : this 
 apparent indifference and carelessness to the surging waves 
 of freedom that were then awakening the despotisms of 
 earth from their slumber of ages, showed that the slave un- 
 derstood and appreciated the difficulties of his position. He 
 felt that the hour of destiny, appointed by the Almighty, had 
 not yet tolled its summons for him to arise, and avenge the 
 wrong of ages. 
 
 He therefore remained heedless of the effervescence of lib- 
 erty that bubbled over in the bosom of the white man ; and 
 continued at his sullen labors, biding his time for deliverance. 
 A.nd in this judicious reserve on the part of the blacks, we 
 have one of the strongest traits of self-government. 
 
11 
 
 When we look upon this characteristic of cool, self-posses- 
 sion, we cannot hut regard it as afmost a miracle under the 
 circumstances. We cannot see what magic power could keep 
 such a warm blooded race of men in such an ice hound spell 
 of cold indifference, when every other class of men in that 
 colony was flush with the excitement of liberty ; and the 
 whole island was rocked to its center, with the deafening 
 surges of Equality, that echoed from ten thousand throats. 
 
 One would have supposed, that at the very first sound of 
 freedom, the 500,000 bondmen in that island, whose ancestry 
 for three centuries had worn the yoke of slavery ; would 
 have raised up, at once, in their overwhelming numerical 
 power and physical stalwartness, and cried out LIBERTY ! 
 with a voice so powerful as to have cleft asunder the bowels 
 of the earth, and buried slavery and every negro hater and 
 oppressor who might dare oppose their just rights, in one 
 common grave. 
 
 But as I have said, they did no such thing ; they had a 
 conscious faith in the ultimate designs of Grod ; and they 
 silently waited, trusting to the workings of His over-ruling 
 Providence to bring about the final day of their deliverance. 
 In doing so, I claim they have given an evidence of their 
 ability to govern themselves, that ought to silence all pro- 
 slavery calumniators of my race at once, and forever, by its 
 powerful and undying refutation of their slanders. 
 
 And let no one dare to rob them of this glorious trait of 
 character, either by alledging that they remained thus indif- 
 ferent, because they were too ignorant to appreciate the bless- 
 ings of liberty : or by saying, that if they understood the 
 import of these clamors for the " Rights of Man," they were 
 thus quiet, because they were too cowardly to strike for their 
 disenthralment. 
 
 The charge that they were thus ignorant of the priceless 
 boon of freedom, is refuted by the antecedent history of the 
 servile insurrections, which never ceased to rack that island 
 from 1522 down to the era of negro independence. The 
 
12 
 
 negro insurgents, Polydore, Macandel, and Padrejan, who had 
 at various times, led on Uheir enslaved brethren to daring 
 deeds, in order to regain their Grod-given liberty, brand that 
 assertion as a libel on the negro character, that says, he was 
 too cowardly to strike for the inheritance of its precious boon. 
 
 And the desperate resolution to be free, that the Maroon 
 negroes of the island maintained for 85 years, by their valorous 
 struggles, in their wild mountain fastnesses, against the con- 
 centrated and combined operations of the French and Spanish 
 authorities then in that colony ; and which finally compelled 
 these authorities to conclude a treaty with the intrepid Maroon 
 chief, Santiago, and thereby acknowledge their freedom for- 
 ever thereafter : this fact I say, proves him to be a base cal- 
 umniator, who shall dare to say that a keen appreciation of 
 liberty existed not in the bosom of the negroes of St. Domingo. 
 
 But again, as to the plea of cowardice, in order to account 
 for the fact of their cool self-possession amidst the first convul- 
 sive throes of Revolutionary liberty, permit me to add in refuta- 
 tion of this fallacy, that if the daring incidents of antecedent 
 insurrections do not sufficiently refute this correlative charge 
 also ; then the daring deeds of dreadless heroism performed by 
 a Toussaint, a Dessalines, a Rigaud, and a Christophe, in the 
 subsequent terrible, but necessary revolution of the negroes ; 
 in which black troops gathered from the plantations of slavery, 
 met the best appointed armies of France, and at various 
 times, those of England and Spain also : and proved their 
 equal valor and prowess with these best disciplined armies of 
 Europe — this dreadless heroism, evinced by the blacks, I say, 
 is sufficient to nail the infamous imputation of cowardice to 
 the wall, at once and forever. 
 
 Hence nothing shall rob them of the immaculate glory of 
 exhibiting a stern self-possession, in that feverish hour of ex- 
 citement, when every body around them were crying out 
 Liberty. And in this judicious self-control at this critical 
 juncture, when their destiny hung on the decision of the hour, 
 we have a brilliant illustration of the capacity of the race 
 for self-government. 
 
 I 
 
13 
 
 SIMILAR EVIDENCE ON THE PART OF THE FREE MEN OF COLOR. 
 
 But additional and still stronger evidence of this fact 
 crowd upon us, when we see that the free men of color re- 
 mained entirely passive during the first stage of this revolu- 
 tionary effervescence. This class of men, as a general thing, 
 was educated and wealthy ; and they were burthened with 
 duties by the State, without being invested with correspond- 
 ing political privileges. From such unjust exactions they 
 had every reason to seek a speedy deliverance. And this 
 great tumult that now swept over the island, offered them a 
 propitious opportunity to agitate with the rest of the free men 
 of the colony for the removal of their political disabilities. 
 
 They had greater cause to agitate than the whites, because 
 they suffered under heavier burdens than that class. Never- 
 theless, in the first great outbreak of the water-floods of lib- 
 erty — tempting as the occasion was, and difficult as restraint 
 must have been ; yet the free men of color also possessed 
 their souls in patience, and awaited a more propitious oppor- 
 tunity. Certainly no one will attempt to stigmatise the calm 
 judgment of these men in this awful crisis of suspense, as 
 the result of ignorance of the blessings of freedom, when it 
 is known that many of this class were educated in the sem- 
 inaries of France, under her most brilliant professors ; and 
 that they were also patrons of that prodigy of literature, the 
 Encyclopedia of France. 
 
 Neither can they stigmatize this class of men as cowards, 
 as it is also known that they were the voluntary com- 
 peers of the Revolutionary heroes of the United States ; and 
 who, under the banners of France, mingled their sable 
 blood with the Saxon and the French in the heroic battle of 
 Savannah. 
 
 Then this calm indifference of the men of color in this 
 crisis, notwithstanding the blood of three excitable races 
 mingled in their veins with that of the African, viz : that of 
 the French, the Spanish, and the Indian ; and notwithstand- 
 
14 
 
 ing, they had glorious recollections of their services- in the 
 cause of American Independence, inciting them on — this calm 
 indifference, on their part, I say, notwithstanding these excit- 
 ing causes, is another grand and striking illustration of the 
 conservative characteristics of the negro race, that demon- 
 strate their capacity for self-government. 
 
 THE OPPORTUNE MOVEMENT OF THE FREE COLORED MEN. 
 
 The tumultuous events of this excitement among the 
 white colonists rolled onward, and brought the auspicious 
 hour of negro destiny in that island nearer and nearer, when 
 Providence designed that he should play his part in the great 
 drama of freedom that was then being enacted. Of course 
 the propitious moment for the free men of color to "begin to 
 move would present itself prior to that for the movement of 
 the negro slaves. 
 
 The opportunity for the men of color presented itself when 
 the general colonial assembly of St. Marc's (already re- 
 ferred to) sent deputies to France, to present the result of its 
 deliberations to the National Assembly; and to ask that 
 august body to confer on the colony the right of self-govern- 
 ment. 
 
 At this time, therefore, when the affairs of the colony 
 were about to undergo examination in the supreme legisla- 
 ture of the mother country, the free men of color seized upon 
 the occasion to send deputies to France also, men of their own 
 caste, to represent their grievances and make their wishes 
 known to the National Assembly. This discreet discernment 
 of such an opportune moment to make such a movement di- 
 vested of every other consideration, shows a people who 
 understand themselves, what they want, and how to seek it. 
 
 But when we proceed to consider the most approved man- 
 ner in which the representations were made to the National 
 Assembly, by the colored delegates in behalf of their caste, 
 in the colony of St. Domingo, and the influences they brought 
 to bear upon that body, as exhibited hereafter : we shall 
 
15 
 
 perceive thereby that they showed such an intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the secret springs of governmental machinery, 
 as demonstrated at once their capacity to govern them- 
 selves. 
 
 This deputation first drew up a statement in behalf of their 
 caste in the colony, of such a stirring nature as would be cer- 
 tain to command the national sympathy in their cause, when 
 presented to the National Assembly. But previously to pre- 
 senting it to that assembly, they took the wise precaution to 
 wait upon the honorable president of that august body, in 
 order to enlist and commit him in their favor, as the first step- 
 ing stone to secure the success of their object before the 
 Supreme Legislature. 
 
 They prevailed in their mission to the President of the As- 
 sembly ; and succeeded in obtaining this very emphatic 
 assurance from him : " No part of the nation shall vainly re- 
 claim their rights before the assembly of the representatives 
 of the French people." 
 
 Having accomplished this important step, the colored dep- 
 uties next began to operate through the Abolition Society of 
 Paris, called u Les Amis des Noirs" upon such of the mem- 
 bers of the assembly as were affiliated with this society, and 
 thus already indirectly pledged to favor such a project as 
 theirs, asking simple justice for their race. They were again 
 successful, and Charles De Lameth, one of the zealous pat- 
 rons of that society, and an active member of the National 
 Assembly, was engaged to argue their cause before the Su- 
 preme Legislature of the nation, although strange to say, he 
 was himself a colonial slaveholder at that time. 
 
 And at the appointed moment in the National Assembly, 
 this remarkable man felt prompted to utter these astounding- 
 words in behalf of this oppressed and disfranchised class of 
 the colony : "I am one of the greatest proprietors of St. Do- 
 mingo ; yet I declare to you, that sooner than lose sight of prin- 
 ciples so sacred to justice and humanity, I would prefer to 
 lose all that I possess. I declare myself in favor of admitting 
 
16 
 
 the men of color to the rights of citizenship ; and in favor of 
 the freedom of the blacks." 
 
 Now let us for a moment stop and reflect on the measures 
 resorted to by the colored deputies of St. Domingo, in Paris, 
 who, by their wise stratagems, had brought their cause step 
 by step to such an eventful and auspicious crisis as this. 
 
 Could there have been surer measures concocted for the 
 success of their plans, than thus committing the president of 
 the assembly to their cause in the first place ; and afterwards 
 pressing a liberty-loving slaveholder into their service, to 
 thunder their measures through the National Assembly, by 
 such a bold declaration ? 
 
 Who among the old fogies of Tammany Hall — that junta 
 of scheming politicians who govern this country by pulling 
 the wires of party, and thereby making every official of the 
 nation, from the President of the United States down to the 
 Commissioners for Street Sweeping in the City of New York, 
 dance as so many puppets at their bidding — I repeat it — who 
 among these all powerful but venal politicians of old Tam- 
 many, could have surpassed these tactics of those much abused 
 men of color, who thus swayed the secret springs of the Na- 
 tional Assembly of France ? And who, after this convincing 
 proof to the contrary, shall dare to say that the negro race is 
 not capable of self-government ? 
 
 But to return to the thread of our narrative. When the 
 secret springs had been thus secured in their behalf, they had 
 nothing to fear from the popular heart of the nation, already 
 keenly alive to the sentiments of Liberty, Equality, and Fra- 
 ternity ; because the simple justice of their demands would 
 commend them to the people as soon as they were publicly 
 made known in France. 
 
 In order to make the very best impression on the popular 
 heart of the nation, their petition demanding simple justice 
 to their caste was accompanied with a statement very care- 
 fully drawn up. 
 
 In this statement they showed that their caste in the col- 
 
17 
 
 ony of St. Domingo possessed one-third of the real estate, 
 and one-fourth of the personal effects of the island. They 
 also set forth the advantages of their position in the political 
 and social affairs of St. Domingo, as a balance of power in 
 the hand of the imperial government of France, against the 
 high pretensions of the haughty planters on the one hand, 
 and the seditious spirit of the poor whites on the other. And, 
 as an additional consideration, hy 'way of capping the cli- 
 max, they offered in the name, and in behalf of the free men 
 of color in the colony, six millions of francs as a loyal contri- 
 bution to the wants and financial exigencies of the National 
 Treasury, to be employed in liquidating the debt of their com- 
 mon country. 
 
 Thus, if neither their wire-working maneuvers, the justice 
 of their cause, or the conservative influence which their 
 position gave them in the colony, had not been enough to 
 secure the end which they sought ; then the tempting glitter 
 of so much cash, could not be resisted, when its ponderous 
 weight was also thrown in the scale of justice. They suc- 
 ceeded, as a matter of course, in accomplishing their pur- 
 pose ; and the National Assembly of France promulgated a 
 decree on the 8th of March, 1790, securing equal political 
 rights to the men of color. 
 
 The very success of this movement, and the means by 
 which its success was effected, the opportune moment when 
 it was commenced, and the immense odds that were against 
 those that sought its accomplishment — all these things must 
 hereafter be emblazoned on the historic page as an everlast- 
 ing tribute to the genius of the negro race, and remain an 
 ineffaceable evidence of their capacity for self-government ; 
 that may be triumphantly adduced and proudly pointed at in 
 this and every succeeding generation of the world, until the 
 latest syllable of recorded time. 
 
18 
 
 THE CRISIS PRODUCED IN THE COLONY BY THIS DECREE. 
 
 THE MEN OF COLOR ON THE SIDE OF LIBERTY, LAW, AND ORDER. 
 
 It was when this decree was made known in the colony of 
 St. Domingo, that the General Assembly of the colony, then 
 sitting at St. Marc's, expressed the malignant sentiments of 
 the white colonists, in a resolution that I have already quoted, 
 viz : they resolved that they would ' ' Rather die, than share 
 equal political rights with a "bastard race." 
 
 Vincent Oje, a man of color, and one of the delegates to 
 Paris, in behalf of his caste, anticipated a venomous feeling 
 of this kind against his race, on the part of the white colo- 
 nists, when these decrees should be made known to them. 
 He however, resolved to do whatever was within his power, 
 to allay this rancorous feeling. He did not therefore hasten 
 home to the colony immediately after the decree was pro- 
 mulgated. He delayed, in order to allow time for their mo- 
 mentary excitement as expressed in the resolution above, to 
 cool off, by a more calm reflection on their sober second 
 thought. , He also tarried in France, to secure a higher polit- 
 ical end, by which he would be personally prepared to return 
 to St. Domingo, to make the most favorable impression in 
 behalf of his race, and the objects of that decree, on the 
 minds of the white colonists. 
 
 To this end he succeeds in getting the appointment of 
 Commissioner of France, from the French government, to 
 superintend the execution of the decree of the 8th of March, 
 1790, in the island of St. Domingo. 
 
 Certainly, he might hope, that being invested with the 
 sacred dignity of France, his person, his race, (thus honored 
 through him by that imperial government,) and the National 
 decree itself, with which he was charged, would now be res- 
 pected. 
 
 But not content with accumulating the national honors of 
 France ; fearing lest the pro-Slavery colonists would disregard 
 these high prerogatives, by looking upon them as having been 
 
19 
 
 obtained through the fanatical " Friends of the Blacks" at 
 Paris, by those partisans exerting an undue influence on the 
 National Government : he further proceeds to gather addi- 
 tional honors, by ingratiating himself into the favor of a po- 
 tentate of Holland— the Prince of Limbourg ; from whom he 
 received the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and the order of the 
 Lion. Thus he wished to demonstrate to the infatuated col- 
 onists, who regarded his race as beneath their consideration, 
 that he could not only obtain titles and reputation in France, 
 by means of ardent friends, but that over and above these, 
 and beyond the boundaries of France, he could also command 
 an European celebrity. 
 
 This was indeed a splendid course of conduct on his part ; 
 and by thus gathering around him and centering within him- 
 self these commanding prestiges of respect, he demonstrated 
 his thorough knowledge of one of the most important secrets 
 in the art of governing ; and so far made another noble vin- 
 dication of the capacity of the negro race for self-govern- 
 ment. 
 
 But as we proceed to consider the manner that he after- 
 wards undertook to prosecute his high National Commission 
 in promulgating in St. Domingo, the decree of the 8th of 
 March, 1790, we shall see additional evidence of the same 
 master skill crowd upon us. 
 
 He had now delayed his return from Europe in order to 
 allow time for the allaying of hasty excitement, and for 
 the purpose of making the most favorable advent to the 
 island. 
 
 He comes a commissioned envoy of the French nation, and 
 an honored chevalier of Europe. Nevertheless, with that 
 prudent foresight which anticipates all possible emergencies, 
 he landed in St. Domingo in a cautious and unostentatious 
 manner, so as not to provoke any forcible demonstration 
 against him. Having landed, he gathered around him a suite 
 of 200 men for his personal escort, which his station justified 
 him in having as his cortege ; and which might also serve 
 
20 
 
 the very convenient purpose of a body guard to defend him 
 against any attempt at a cowardly assassination from any 
 lawless or ruthless desperadoes of oppression in the colony. 
 
 At the head of this body of men, he at once proceeded to 
 place himself in communication with the Colonial Assembly? 
 then in session ; to inform it officially of his commission and 
 the national decree which he bore ; and to require that as- 
 sembly, as the legislative authority of the island, to enforce 
 its observance, by enacting an ordinance in accordance with 
 the same. 
 
 In this communication of Oje, being aware of their pro- 
 slavery prejudices, he endeavored to conciliate them by a 
 peace offering. That peace offering was the sanctioning of 
 Negro Slavery ; for he stated to the assembly that the decree 
 did not refer to the blacks in servitude ; neither did the men 
 of color, said he, desire to acknowledge their equality. 
 
 This specific assurance on the part of Oje, although it 
 does not speak much for his high sense of justice, when ab- 
 stractly considered ; yet it shows as much wisdom and tact 
 in the science of government, as is evinced by the sapient or 
 sap headed legislators of this country, who make similar 
 compromises as a peace offering to the prejudice and injustice 
 of the oligarchic despots of this nation. 
 
 Oje, however, failed to make the desired impression on the 
 infatuated colonists, either by his National and European 
 dignities, or by his peace offering of 500,000 of his blacker 
 brethren. He fell beneath the malignant hate of the slave- 
 holding colonists, after defending himself with his little band 
 of followers, against the overwhelming odds of these sanguin- 
 ary tigers, with a manly heroism, only equalled by the Spar- 
 tans at the pass of Thermopylae, and thus has cut for himself 
 an enduring niche among the heroes in the temple of fame. 
 
 He was captured ; and after a mock trial, illustrative of 
 pro-slavery justice ; something similar, for instance, to our 
 Fugitive Slave Law trials in Boston, Philadelphia, and Cin- 
 cinnati— (though more merciful in its penalty than these) — ■ 
 
21 
 
 this mock court of St. Domingo condemned Vincent Oje and 
 his brave lieutenant, Jean Chevanne, with their surviving 
 compatriots, to be broken alive on the wheel. 
 
 We forget the error of the head committed by this right 
 hearted, noble, and generous man, towards his more unfor- 
 tunate brethren, in order to weep over his ignoble and un- 
 worthy fate, received at the hands of those monsters of cruelty 
 in St. Domingo. 
 
 I cannot better close this notice of Oje, than by repeating 
 the concluding lines from a Poem dedicated to him, by that 
 distinguished man of color, our own fellow countryman, Prof. 
 Greorge B. Vashon, of McG-rawville College : 
 
 " Sad was your fate, heroic band, 
 Yet mourn we not, for yours the stand 
 Which will secure to you a fame, 
 That never dieth, and a name 
 That will, in coming ages be 
 A signal word for Liberty. 
 Upon the Slave's o'erclouded sky, 
 
 Your gallant actions traced the bow, 
 Which whispered of deliverance nigh — 
 
 The need of one decisive blow. 
 Thy coming fame, Oje ! is sure ; 
 Thy name with that of L'Ouverture, 
 And the noble souls that stood 
 With both of you, in times of blood, 
 Will live to be the tyrant's fear — 
 Will live, the sinking soul to cheer !" 
 
 THE HOUR OF DESTINY FOR THE BLACKS. 
 
 This untimely death of the great leader of the men of 
 color, served only to develop how plentifully the race was 
 supplied with sagacious characters, capable of performing 
 daring deeds — it served to show how well the race was sup- 
 plied with the material out of which great leaders are made, 
 at any moment, and for any exigency. 
 
 Now came the hour for the patient, delving black slave to 
 begin to move. He has manfully bided his time, whilst the 
 white colonists were rampant in pursuit of high political pre- 
 
22 
 
 rogatives ; and he has remained quiet, whilst his brother — 
 the freed man of color, has carried his cause demanding 
 equal political rights, triumphantly through the National 
 Assembly of France. 
 
 But most intolerable of all, he has been perfectly still, 
 whilst his more fortunate brethren have offered even to strike 
 hands with the vile oppressor in keeping the iron yoke on his 
 neck. 
 
 Nevertheless, he has lived to see both of these classes foiled 
 by the over-ruling hand of Providence, from interpreting the 
 words " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," to suit their own 
 selfish and narrow notions. He finds these two parties now 
 at open hostilities with one another. He sees, on one hand, 
 the despicable colonists inviting foreign aid into the island, 
 to resist the execution of the National decree and to prop up 
 their unhallowed cause by the dread alternative of treason 
 and rebellion. Whilst on the other hand, he beholds the men 
 of color fighting on the side of the nation, law, and order, 
 against the white colonists. Amid this general commotion 
 his pulsations grow quick, and he feels that the hour of des- 
 tiny is coming for even him to strike. 
 
 Yet he still possesses his soul in patience until the destined 
 moment. At last he hears that France now vacillates in 
 carrying out the tardy measure of justice that her National 
 Legislature had enacted. The mother country, that had so 
 nobly commenced the work of justice, by the national decree, 
 enfranchising the free men of color, now begins to recede 
 from the high position she had assumed, in order to favor the 
 frenzied prejudice of the infatuated colonists. The negro 
 slave had hoped that by this national act of justice to the 
 free man of color, that a permanent step had been taken to- 
 wards universal emancipation, and consequently his own 
 eventual disenthralment. With this hope he was willing to 
 continue quietly to wear his galling chains, rejoicing in the 
 newly acquired boon of his more fortunate brethren, as the 
 earnest and pledge of his own future deliverance, by a sim- 
 
23 
 
 liar aot of national justice. Thus the way seemed already 
 paved for a peaceful termination of his servitude. 
 
 But, I repeat it again, the toiling black slave at last hears 
 that the National Government of France vacillates in her 
 judgment, quails before the storm of pro-slavery invectives, 
 hurled by the insensate bigots of St. Domingo against the men 
 of color, and finally, she recedes from her high position by the 
 National Assembly repealing the decree of the 8th of March, 
 1790. Thus the slaves dawning ray of hope and liberty is 
 extinguished, and there is nothing ahead but the impenetra- 
 ble gloom of eternal slavery. 
 
 This, then, is the ominous moment reserved for the chain- 
 ed bondmen to strike ; and he rises now from his slumber of 
 degredation in the terrific power of brute force. Bouckman, 
 (called by a Haytian historian the Spartacus of his race,) was 
 raised up as the leader of the insurgents, who directed their fury 
 in the desperate struggle for liberty and revenge, until the work 
 of devastation and death was spread throughout the island to 
 the most frightful extent. He continued to ride on the storm 
 of revolution in its hurricane march, with a fury that became 
 intensified as it progressed, until the colonists, by some for- 
 tuitous circumstances, were enabled to wreak their ven- 
 geance on this negro hero. 
 
 But when this first hero of the slaves was captured and 
 executed by their oppressors, like Oje, the first hero of the 
 free men of color ; the capacity of the race to furnish leaders 
 equal to any emergency, was again demonstrated. 
 
 A triumvirate of negro and mulatto chieftains now suc- 
 ceeded these two martyred heroes. 
 
 Jean Francois, Biassou, and Jeannot, now appeared upon 
 the stage of action, and directed the arms of the exasperated 
 insurgents against a faithless nation, the cruel colonists and 
 their English allies, whose aid these colonists had invited, in 
 their treasonable resistance to the National decree, which Oje 
 came from France to promulgate in the name of the nation. 
 
 In order to contend against such overwhelming odds effect- 
 
24 
 
 ually, and for the purpose of obtaining the necessary supply 
 of arms and ammunition, the insurgents went over, for a time, 
 to the service of Spain. This government had always regard- 
 ed the French as usurpers in the island ; and the Spaniards 
 were therefore glad of any prospect of expelling the French 
 colonists entirely from St. Domingo. Hence they gladly ac- 
 cepted the proffered service of the blacks as a means to effect 
 this end. 
 
 However, we have no reason to regard the Spanish govern- 
 ment as being more favorably disposed towards the blacks 
 than that of France. "We may rather conclude that Spain 
 was willing to use the blacks to subserve her end, and after- 
 wards would doubtless have endeavored to reduce them to a 
 state of slavery again. 
 
 Nevertheless the black slaves and free men of color went 
 over to the cause of Spain, and used her to subserve their 
 purpose in driving France not only to re-enact her previous 
 decree in relation to the men of color ; but also to proclaim 
 the immediate emancipation of the blacks, and to invest them 
 with equal political rights. For this purpose, three National 
 Commissioners of France were sent to the island, bearing 
 these decrees of the Supreme Grovernment. 
 
 When this glorious result was thus triumphantly effected, 
 they left the service of Spain and returned to the cause of 
 France again. 
 
 During the struggles that took place while the insurgents 
 were in the cause of Spain, the three leaders who headed 
 them when they united with the Spaniards, .were shifted, by 
 the fortunes of war, from their chieftainship, and replaced 
 by Toussaint and Rigaud — one a black, and the other a 
 mulatto, when they returned to the service of France. 
 
 These two leaders, at the head of their respective castes 
 in the service of France, fighting on the side of liberty, law, 
 and order, compelled the turbulent and treasonable colonists 
 to respect these last national decrees ; drove their English 
 allies from the colony, and extinguished the Spanish domin- 
 
25 
 
 ion therein, and thus reduced the whole island io the subjec- 
 tion of France. 
 
 "When we duly consider this shrewd movement of the 
 blacks in thus pressing Spain in their service at that critical 
 moment, when every thing depended upon the decision of 
 the hour, by which they were enabled to accomplish such a 
 glorious result, we have thereby presented another strong and 
 convincing proof of the capacity of the negro to adopt suit- 
 able means to accomplish great ends ; and it therefore de- 
 monstrates in the most powerful manner, his ability for self- 
 government. 
 
 THE AUSPICIOUS DAWN OF NEGRO RULE. 
 
 Toussaint, by his acute genius and daring prowess, made 
 himself the most efficient instrument in accomplishing these 
 important results, contemplated by the three French Com- 
 missioners, who brought the last decrees of the National 
 Assembly of France, proclaiming liberty throughout the 
 island to all the inhabitants thereof; and thus, like another 
 "Washington, proved himself the regenerator and savior of his 
 country. 
 
 On this account, therefore, he was solemnly invested with 
 the executive authority of the colony ; and their labors having 
 been thus brought to such a satisfactory and auspicious re- 
 sult, two of the Commissioners returned home to France. 
 
 No man was more competent to sway the civil destinies of 
 these enfranchised bondmen than he who had preserved such 
 an unbounded control over them as their military chieftain, 
 and led them on to glorious deeds amid the fortunes of war- 
 fare recently waged in that island. And no one else could 
 hold that responsible position of an official mediator between 
 them and the government of France, with so great a surety 
 and pledge of their continued freedom, as Toussaint L'Ouver- 
 ture. And there was no other man, in fine, that these right- 
 fully jealous freemen would have permitted to carry out 
 such stringent measures in the island, so nearly verging to 
 
26 
 
 serfdom, which were so necessary at that time in order to 
 restore industry, hut one of their own caste whose unreserved 
 devotion to the cause of their freedom, placed him heyond 
 the suspicion of any treacherous design to re-enslave them. 
 
 Hence, hy these eminent characteristics possessed by Tou- 
 ssaint in a super excellent degree, he was the very man for 
 the hour ; and the only one fitted for the governorship of the 
 colony calculated to preserve the interests of all concerned. 
 
 The leading Commissioners of France, then in the island, 
 duly recognized this fact, and did not dispute with him the 
 claim to this responsible position. Thus had the genius of 
 Toussaint developed itself to meet an emergency that no 
 other man in the world was so peculiarly prepared to fulfil ; 
 and thereby he has added another inextinguishable proof of 
 the capacity of the negro for self-government. 
 
 But if the combination of causes, which thus pointed him 
 out as the only man that could safely undertake the fulfill- 
 ment of the gubernatorial duties, are such manifest proofs of 
 negro capacity ; then the manner in which we shall see that 
 he afterwards discharged the duties of that official station, 
 goes still further to magnify the self-evident fact of negro 
 capability. 
 
 The means that he adapted to heal the internecine dissen- 
 sions that threatened civil turmoil ; and the manner that he 
 successfully counteracted the machinations of the ambitious 
 General Hedouville, a French Commissioner that remained 
 in the colony, who desired to overthrow Toussaint, showed 
 that the negro chieftain was no tyro in the secret of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 He also established commercial relations between that 
 island and foreign nations ; and he is said to be the first states- 
 man of modern times, who promulgated the doctrine of free 
 trade and reduced it to practice. He also desired to secure 
 a constitutional government to St. Domingo, and for this pur- 
 pose he assembled around him a select council of the most 
 eminent men in the colony, who drew up a form of constitu- 
 
27 
 
 tion under his supervision and approval, and which he trans- 
 mitted, with a commendatory letter to Napoleon Bonaparte, 
 then First Consul of France, in order to obtain the sanction 
 of the imperial government. 
 
 But that great had man did not even acknowledge its 
 receipt to Toussaint ; but in his mad ambition he silently- 
 meditated when he should safely dislodge the negro chief 
 from his responsible position, as the necessary prelude to the 
 re-enslavement of his sable brethren, whose freedom was 
 secure against his nefarious designs, so long as Toussaint 
 stood at the helm of affairs in the colony* 
 
 But decidedly the crowning act of Toussaint L'Ouverture's 
 statesmanship, was the enactment of the Rural Code, by the 
 operation of which, he was successful in restoring industrial 
 prosperity to the island, which had been sadly ruined by the 
 late events of sanguinary warfare. He effectually solved the 
 problem of immediate emancipation and unimpaired indus- 
 try, by having the emancipated slaves produce thereafter, as 
 much of the usual staple productions of the country, as was 
 produced under the horrible regime of slavery ; nevertheless, 
 the lash was entirely abolished, and a system of wages adopt- 
 ed, instead of the uncompensated toil of the lacerated and 
 delving bondman. 
 
 In fact, the island reached the highest degree of prosper- 
 ity that it ever attained, under the negro governorship of 
 Toussaint. 
 
 The rural code, by which so much was accomplished, in- 
 stead of being the horrible nightmare of despotism' — worse 
 than slavery, that some of the pro-slavery calumniators of 
 negro freedom and rule would have us believe ; was, in fact, 
 nothing more than a prudent government regulation of labor — 
 a regulation which made labor the first necessity of a people 
 in a state of freedom, — a regulation which struck a death 
 blow at idleness, the parent of poverty and all the vices — a 
 regulation, in fine, which might be adopted with advantage 
 in every civilized country in the world, and thereby extin- 
 
28 
 
 guish two-thirds of the pauperism, vagrancy, and crime, that 
 curse these nations of the earth ; and thus lessen the need 
 for poor-houses, police officers, and prisons, that are now sus- 
 tained at such an enormous expense, for the relief of the poor 
 and the correction of felons. 
 
 This Haytian Code compelled every vagabond or loafer 
 about the towns and cities, who had no visible means of an 
 honest livelihood, to find an employer and work to do in the 
 rural districts. And if no private employer could be found, 
 then the government employed such on its rural estates, until 
 they had found a private employer. The hours and days of 
 labor were prescribed by this code, and the terms of agree- 
 ment and compensation between employer and employed 
 were also determined by its provisions. Thus, there could be 
 no private imposition on the laborers ; and, as a further secu- 
 rity against such a spirit, the government maintained rural 
 magistrates and a rural police, whose duty it was to see to 
 the faithful execution of the law on both sides. 
 
 By the arrangement of this excellent and celebrated code, 
 every body in the commonwealth was sure of work and com- 
 pensation for the same, either from private employers or from 
 the government. No body need fear being starved for want 
 of work to support themselves, as is often the case among the 
 laborers of Europe, and is fast coming to pass in the densely 
 populated communities of this country, where labor is left to 
 take care of itself under the private exploitation of mercenary 
 capitalists. Under this code nobody need fear being exploit- 
 ed on by such unprincipled and usurious men, who willingly 
 take advantage of the poor to pay them starvation prices for 
 their labor ; because, against such, the law of Toussaint 
 secured to each laborer a living compensation. 
 
 By the operation of this code, towns and cities were cleared 
 of all those idle persons who calculate to live by their wits, 
 and who commit nine-tenths of all the crimes that afflict 
 civilized society. All such were compelled to be engaged at 
 active industrial labors, and thus rendered a help to them- 
 selves and a blessing to the community at large. 
 
29 
 
 By this industrial regulation, every thing flourished in the 
 island in an unprecedented degree ; and the negro genius of 
 Toussaint, by a bold and straight-forward provision for the 
 regulation and protection of his emancipated brethren, affect- 
 ed that high degree of prosperity in Hayti, which all the 
 wisdom of the British nation has not been able to accomplish 
 in her emancipated West India colonies, in consequence of 
 her miserable shuffling in establishing Coolie and Chinese 
 apprenticeship — that semi-system of slavery — in order to 
 gratify the prejudices of her pro-slavery colonial planters ; and 
 because of the baneful influence of absentee landlordism, 
 which seems to be an inseparable incident of the British sys- 
 tem of property. 
 
 Thus did the negro government of St. Domingo, show more 
 paternal solicitude for the well being of her free citizens, 
 than they ever could have enjoyed under the capricious des- 
 potism of individual masters who might pretend to care for 
 them ; and thus did it more truly subserve the purposes of a 
 government than any or all of the similar organizations of 
 civilization, whose only care and object seem to be the pro- 
 tection of the feudal .rights of property in the hands of the 
 wealthy few ; leaving the honest labor of the many unpro- 
 tected, and the poor laborer left to starve, or to become a 
 criminal, to be punished either by incarceration in the jails, 
 prisons and dungeons provided for common felons ; or execu- 
 ted on the gallows as the greatest of malefactors. 
 
 The genius of Toussaint by towering so far above the com- 
 mon ideas of this age in relation to the true purposes of gov- 
 ernment ; and by carrying out his bold problem with such 
 eminent success, has thereby emblazoned on the historic page 
 of the world's statemanship a fame more enduring than Pitt, 
 who laid the foundation of a perpetual fund to liquidate the 
 national debt of England. 
 
 I say Toussaint has carved for himself a more enduring 
 fame, because his scheme was more useful to mankind. The 
 negro statesman devised a plan that comprehended in its 
 
30 
 
 scope the well being of the masses of humanity. But Pitt 
 only laid a scheme whereby the few hereditary paupers pen- 
 sioned on a whole nation, with the absurd right to govern it, 
 might still continue to plunge their country deeper and deeper 
 into debt, to subserve their own extravagant purposes ; and 
 then provide for the payment of the same out of the blood 
 and sweat, and bones of the delving operatives and colliers 
 of Great Britain. Thus, then Toussaint by the evident supe- 
 riority of his statesmanship, has left on the pages of the 
 world's statute book, an enduring and irrefutable testimony 
 of the capacity of the negro for self-government, and the loft- 
 iest achievements in national statesmanship. 
 
 And Toussaint showed that he had not mistaken his posi- 
 tion by proving himself equal to that trying emergency when 
 that demigod of the historian Abbott, Napoleon Bonaparte, 
 first Consul of France, conceived the infernal design of re- 
 enslaving the heroic blacks of St. Domingo ; and who for 
 the execution of this nefarious purpose sent the flower of the 
 French Army, and a naval fleet of fifty-six vessels under 
 command of General L eel ere, the husband of Pauline, the 
 voluptuous and abandoned sister of Napoleon. 
 
 When this formidable expedition arrived on the coast of 
 St. Domingo, the Commander found Toussaint and his heroic I 
 compeers ready to defend their Grod given liberty against 
 even the terrors of the godless First Consul of France. 
 "Wheresoever these minions of slavery and despotism made 
 their sacrilegous advances, devastation and death reigned un- 
 der the exasperated genius of Toussaint. 
 
 He made that bold resolution and unalterable determina- 
 tion, which, in ancient times, would have entitled him to be 
 deified among the gods ; that resolution was to reduce the 
 fair eden-like Isle of Hispaniola to a desolate waste like 
 Sahara ; and suffer every black to be immolated in a manly 
 defense of his liberty, rather than the infernal and accursed 
 system of negro slavery should again be established on that 
 soil. He considered it far better, that his sable countrymen 
 should be dead freemen than living slaves. 
 
3i 
 
 The French veterans grew pale at the terrible manner that 
 the blacks set to work to execute this resolution. Leclerc 
 found it impossible to execute his design by force ; and he 
 was only able to win the reconciliation of the exasperated 
 blacks to the govenment of France, by abandoning his hos- 
 tilities and pledging himself to respect their freedom thereaf- 
 ter. It was then that the brave Negro Generals of Toussaint 
 went over in the service of Leclerc ; and it was then, that 
 the Negro Chieftain himself, resigned his post to the Governor 
 General appointed by Napoleon, and went into the shades of 
 domestic retirement, at his home in Ennery. 
 
 Thus did Toussaint, by his firm resolution to execute his 
 purpose, by his devotion to liberty and the cause of his race, so 
 consistently maintained under all ciroumstances, more than 
 deify himself ; he proved himself more than a patriot ; he 
 showed himself to be the unswerving friend and servant of 
 God and humanity. 
 
 Now, with the illustrious traits of character of this bril- 
 liant negro before us, who will dare to say that the race who 
 can thus produce such a a noble specimen of a hero and 
 statesman, is incapable of self-government. Let such a vile 
 slanderer, if there any longer remains such, hide his diminu- 
 tive head in the presence of his illustrious negro superior ! 
 
 I know it may be said that, after all Toussaint was found 
 wanting in the necessary qualities to meet, and triumph in, 
 the last emergency, when he was finally beguiled, and sent 
 to perish in the dungeons of France, a victim of the perfid- 
 ious machinations of the heartless Napoleon. 
 
 On this point I will frankly own that Toussaint was defi- 
 cient in those qualities by which his antagonist finally suc- 
 ceeded in getting him in his power. 
 
 So long as manly skill and shrewdness — so long as bold and 
 open tactics and honorable stratagems were resorted to, the 
 black had proved himself, in every respect, the equal of the 
 white man. But the negro's heart had not yet descended to 
 that infamous depth of subtle depravity, that could justify 
 
32 
 
 him in solemnly and publicly taking an oath, with the con- 
 cealed, Jesuitical purpose, of thereby gaining an opportunity 
 to deliberately violate the same. He had no conception, 
 therefore, that the white man from whom he had learned all 
 that he knew of true — religion I repeat it — he had no concep- 
 tion that the white man, bad as he was, slaveholder as he 
 was — that even he was really so debased, vile, and depraved, 
 as to be capable of such a double-dyed act of villainy, as 
 breaking an oath solemnly sealed by invoking the name of 
 the Eternal (rod of Ages. 
 
 Hence, when the Captain General, Leclerc, said to Tous- 
 saint, in presence of the French and Black Generals, uplifting 
 his hand and jewelled sword to heaven : "I swear before the 
 face of the Supreme Being, to respect the liberty of the peo- 
 ple of St. Domingo." Toussaint believed in the sincerity of 
 this solemn oath of the white man. He threw down his 
 arms, and went to end the remainder of his days in the 
 bosom of his family. This was, indeed, a sad mistake for 
 him, to place so much confidence in the word of the white 
 man. As the result of this first error, he easily fell into an- 
 other equally treacherous. He was invited by General Bru- 
 net, another minion of Napoleon, in St. Domingo, to partake 
 of the social hospitalities of his home ; but, Toussaint, in- 
 stead of finding the domestic civilities that he expected, was 
 bound in chains, sent on board the Hero, a vessel already 
 held in readiness for the consummation of the vile deed, in 
 which he was carried a prisoner to France. 
 
 That magnanimous man bitterly repented at his leisure, 
 his too great confidence in the word of the white man, in the 
 cold dark dungeons of the castle of Joux. And the depth 
 of this repentance was intensified by a compulsory fast order- 
 ed by that would-be great and magnanimous man, Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, who denied him food, and starved him to death. 
 
 Great God ! how the blood runs chill, in contemplating the 
 ignoble end of the illustrious negro chieftain and statesman, 
 by such base and perfidious means ! 
 
33 
 
 A BLOODY INTERLUDE FINALLY ESTABLISHES NEGRO 
 SOVEREIGNTY. 
 
 But if the godlike Toussaint had thus proved himself de« 
 ficient in those mean and unhallowed qualities that proved 
 his sad overthrow, nevertheless, the race again proved itself 
 equal to the emergency, by producing other leaders to fill up 
 the gap now left open. 
 
 The negro generals, who had gone over to the service of 
 France, on the solemn assurances and protestations of Leclerc, 
 soon learned to imitate this new lesson of treachery, and 
 accordingly deserted his cause, and took up arms against 
 France again. 
 
 And, if afterwards, the heroic but sanguinary black chief, 
 Dessalines, who had previously massacred 500 innocent whites 
 (if any of these treacherous colonists can be called innocent) 
 at Mirebalais ; 700 more at Verettes, and several hundred 
 others at La Riviere — I say again, if we now see him resume 
 his work of slaughter and death, and hang 500 French prison- 
 ers on gibbets erected in sight of the very camp of General 
 Hochambeau, we may see in this the bitter fruit of the 
 treachery of the whites, in this dreadful reaction of the 
 blacks.* These were the roots springing up, which Tous- 
 saint spoke of so sorrowfully on the ship's deck, as he was 
 borne away a prisoner to France, from the coast of St. Domin- 
 go. The captive hero, on this occasion, compared himself to 
 a tree, saying : " They have cut down in me the trunk of the 
 tree ; but the roots are many and deep." The furious Des- 
 salines was, therefore, one of the foremost and firmest of these 
 roots left in St. Domingo by the fallen chief, Toussaint, who 
 soon sprang up into a verdant and luxurious growth of san- 
 guinary deeds, by which the independence of his Island home 
 was baptized in a Sea of Blood. 
 
 Finally, if we see Dessalines with red hot shot, prepared 
 
 * General Leclerc had now fallen a victim to the ravages of yellow fever, and 
 Rochambeau had succeeded to the supreme command of the invading forces. 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 to sink ths squadron of general Rochambeau, as it departed 
 from France, although the negro chief had solemnly stipu- 
 lated to allow it to sail from the harbor unmolested, we find 
 in this determination of the blood-thirsty man, how well he 
 had learned the lesson of treachery and perfidy from the ex- 
 ample of the white man. 
 
 Thus, if shocking depravity in perfidiousness and covenant 
 breaking, is needed as another evidence of the negro's equal- 
 ity with the white man, in order to prove his ability to govern 
 himself, then the implacable black chief, Dessalines, fur- 
 nishes us with that proof. 
 
 I think, however, we may thank Grod, that the last act of 
 destruction contemplated by Dessalines was not consumma- 
 ted, in consequence of an English fleet taking Rochambeau 
 and his squadron as prisoners of war in the harbor of Port- 
 au-Prince ; and thus, by this providential interposition, saved 
 the race from a stigma on the pages of history, as foul as that 
 which darkens the moral character of their antagonists. 
 
 Having now arrived at the epoch when the banners of 
 negro independence waved triumphantly over the Q,ueen of 
 the Antilles ; if we look back at the trials and tribulations 
 through which they came up to this point of National regen- 
 eration, we have presented to us, in the hardy endurance and 
 perseverance manifested by them, in the steady pursuit of 
 Liberty and Independence, the overwhelming evidence of 
 their ability to govern themselves. For fourteen long and soul- 
 trying years — twice the period of the revolutionary struggle 
 of this country — they battled manfully for freedom. It was 
 on the 8th of March, 1790, as we have seen, that the immor- 
 tal man of color, Vincent Oje, obtained a decree from the 
 National Assembly guaranteeing equal political privileges to 
 the free men of color in the island. And, after a continued 
 sanguinary struggle dating from that time, the never-to-be- 
 forgotten self-emancipated black slave, Jean Jacque Dessa- 
 lines, on the 1st of January, 1804, proclaimed negro free- 
 dom and independence throughout the island of St. Domingo, 
 
35 
 
 That freedom and independence are written in the world's 
 history in the ineffaceable characters of blood ; and its crim- 
 soned letters will ever testify of the determination and of the 
 ability of the negro to be free, throughout the everlasting 
 succession of ages. 
 
 EVIDENCES OF SELF-GO VERNMENT SINCE 1804. 
 
 I will now proceed to give a hasty synopsis of the eviden- 
 ces that the Hay tians have continued to manifest since their 
 independence in demonstration of the Negroes' ability to gov- 
 ern themselves. 
 
 Dessalines the Liberator of his country was chosen as a 
 matter of course the first Ruler of Hayti. During his ad- 
 ministration, the efficient organization of an army of 60,000 
 men to defend the country against invaders — the erection of 
 immense fortifications, and the effort to unite and consolidate 
 the Spanish part of the Island in one government with the 
 French portion over which he presided, showed that he un- 
 derstood the precautionary measures necessary to preserve 
 the freedom and independence of his country ; and so far 
 he kept up the character of the race for capacity in self-gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 In the succeeding administrations of the rival chiefs, Chris- 
 tophe and Petion, we have indeed the sorrowful evidence of 
 division, between the blacks and the men of color or mulat- 
 toes, the seeds of which was planted in the days of slavery. 
 Nevertheless in that mutual good understanding that existed 
 between them by which it was agreed to unite together when- 
 ever a foreign foe invaded the island ; and in the contemp- 
 tuous manner that both chiefs rejected the perfidious over- 
 tures of Bonaparte, we have still the evidence of that con- 
 servative good sense which fully exhibits the negroes ability 
 to take care of himself. 
 
 In the next administration of Boyer where we find these 
 divisions in the French part of the island happily healed ; and 
 the Spanish colony also united in one government with the 
 
86 
 
 Frenoh, as Dessalines ardently desired in his time ; we have 
 the most astonishing evidence of the perfection the Black 
 race could make in the art of self-government, during the 
 short period of twenty years independence. 
 
 After Boyer's administration there were some slight mani- 
 festations of disorder, arising from the smouldering feud be- 
 tween the blacks and men of color that the ancient regime of 
 slavery had created among them ; the baneful influence of 
 which the work of freedom and independence has not yet had 
 time to entirely efface. In this disorder we find the Spanish 
 part of the island secede and set up a separate nationality. — 
 But we find every thing in the French part soon settling down 
 into order again, under the vigorous sceptre of the present 
 ruler, Faustin I. 
 
 And in his known sentiments to harmonize all classes of 
 his people, and to unite the whole island under one strong 
 government, to secure which end he has exerted every influ- 
 ence within his power, we have the continued evidence of 
 those large and extended views of national policy among the 
 rulers of Hayti, that proves their ability to govern themselves 
 in a manner that will compare favorably with the statesman- 
 ship of any existing government of modern civilization. 
 
 Here we shall rest the evidence in proof of the competency 
 of the negro race for self-government which we have drawn 
 out to rather a protracted length for the space assigned to a 
 single Lecture ; and turn our attention now to some of the 
 evidences of civilized progress evinced by that people. "We 
 shall be brief in the elucidation of this point, because ^as 
 their ample competency to govern themselves, has now been 
 firmly established from the highest point of view, this fact of 
 itself demonstrates that the soundest elements of civilized 
 progress are inherent among such a people. Nevertheless it 
 will be well to particularize some of the proofs on this point 
 also. 
 
37 
 
 EVIDENCES OP CIVILIZED PROGRESS. 
 
 NATIONAL ENTERPRISE. 
 
 Under the administration of Dessalines aside from the 
 Military preparations we have noticed ; he continued the 
 Code Rural of Toussaint as the law of the land, thereby 
 demonstrating that the negro in independence could carry for- 
 ward measures of industry for his own benefit as well as for 
 the whites when he governed for and in the name of France ; 
 for such was the case during the Governor Generalship of 
 Toussaint. He also established schools in nearly every dis- 
 trict of his dominions, and the people seeing what advantage 
 was possessed by those who had received instruction, attach- 
 ed great importance to its acquisition ; and as the result in a 
 short time there were but few who did not learn to read and 
 write. 
 
 In the constitution that he promulgated, it was declared 
 that he who was not a good father, a good husband, and 
 above all a good soldier, was unworthy to be called a Haytian 
 citizen. It was not permitted fathers to disinherit their chil- 
 dren ; and every person was required by law to exercise some 
 mechanical art or handicraft. 
 
 Thus fundamental measures were taken to make educa- 
 tion, well regulated families and the mechanic arts, those 
 three pillars of civilization, the basis of Haytian Society.— 
 And in this fact where such high necessities were recognized 
 and appreciated, we have the most undoubted evidence of 
 civilized progress. 
 
 The overthrow of the government of Dessalines, by the 
 spontaneous uprising of the people in their majesty, when it 
 had become a merciless and tyrannical despotism, may also be 
 noted here as another evidence of progress in political freedom 
 of thought that made the race scorn to be tyrannized over by 
 an oppressive master, whether that master was a cruel white 
 tyrant, or a merciless negro despot. 
 
 Passing on to the two-fold government of Petion and Chris- 
 tophe, we not only discover the same military vigilance kept 
 
38 
 
 up by the construction of the tremendous fortification called 
 the Citadel Henry that was erected by Christophe, under the 
 direction of European Engineers, mounting 300 cannons ; — 
 but we also find both of these chiefs introducing teachers 
 from Europe in their respective dominions ; and establishing 
 the Lancasterian system of schools. 
 
 "We discover also during their administration, Protestant 
 Missionaries availing themselves of the tolerant provision in 
 regard to religious worship that had been maintained in the 
 fundamental laws of the country since the days of Dessalines. 
 These Missionaries commenced their work of evangelization 
 with the approbation of the negro and mulatto chieftains ; — 
 and Christophe went so far as to import a cargo of Bibles 
 for gratuitous distribution among his people. 
 
 Thus do we find that progress continued to make its steady 
 steps of advancement among these people, notwithstanding 
 the political divisions that had now taken place among them. 
 
 The succeeding administration of General Jean Pierre 
 Boyer, under whom these divisions were happily healed, was 
 fraught with stupendous projects of advancement. 
 
 The whole of the laws of the island were codified and made 
 simple, under six different heads, viz : The Code Rural, the 
 Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Criminal Code, and the 
 Code of Civil and Criminal procedure, regulating the practice 
 in the several courts of the island. Thus, by this codification 
 of her laws, did Hayti execute over thirty years ago, that 
 which the States of this Union are just arousing to the ne- 
 cessity of doing Boyer also set on foot a project of emigra- 
 tion, for the purpose of inducing the colored people of the 
 United States to remove to Hayti, in order to replenish and 
 accelerate the growth of the Hay tian population. This project 
 resulted in the removal of 6,000 colored people to that island 
 from this country. 
 
 In addition to this important movement, various enterprises 
 were undertaken by men of public spirit, during this ad- 
 ministration, to promote industry among the people of Hayti. 
 
39 
 
 A company was formed to carry on a mahogany saw mill, 
 which expended $20,000 in the purchase of the necessary 
 machinery from France. The mill was erected at St. Marc's. 
 Judge Lespinasse, chief justice of the Court of Cassation, was 
 President of the Company ; and it was under the special 
 patronage of General Boyer, the President of the Repub- 
 lic. 
 
 Another company was also formed, under the presidency 
 of Senator Jorge, for tanning purposes, and expended $10,000 
 in preparations for carrying on the business. A saw mill 
 was also erected at Port-au-Prince, by a private individual, 
 at the cost of $15,000. 
 
 Thus were the most vigorous efforts of progress manifested 
 during the administration of Boyer. 
 
 In the subsequent administration of Gruerrier, Pierrot, and 
 Riviere, which followed each other in quick and rather chaotic 
 succession, the work of industrial progress did not abate. 
 Two steamers were purchased by the government, a model 
 agricultural farm was established under a scientific director 
 from France ; and English architects, carpenters, and stone 
 masons were hired to come in the country to improve the style 
 of building. 
 
 Finally, we also discover the same evidences of gradual 
 progress, when we come down to the present administration 
 of Faustin I. A navy of about twenty armed vessels has been 
 created. Thirteen steam sugar mills have been erected. The 
 system of education improved and extended. And a house 
 of industry erected at Port-au-Prince, for the purpose of in- 
 structing boys in the mechanic arts. 
 
 And here let me add, that during the whole period of these 
 successive administrations, that we have thus summarily 
 passed under review, a thrifty commercial trade has been 
 maintained between that island and the maratime nations of 
 Europe and America, amounting in the aggregate, to several 
 millions of dollars per annum. 
 
 Hence, these evidences of educational and industrial devel- 
 
40 
 
 opment, expanding continually as years roll onward, we re- 
 gard as the most irrefragable proof of true civilized progress 
 on the part of the Haytian people. 
 
 STABILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 But in addition to these facts, we may adduce the general 
 stability of the government they have maintained, as another 
 evidence of civilized progress. There have been but eight 
 rulers in Hayti since 1804, counting separately, Christophe 
 and Petion, who ruled cotemporaneously. This is a period 
 of fifty-three years down to the present time. And in the 
 United States, since 1809, there have been ten different 
 chief magistrates — a period of forty-eight years. Thus, this 
 country has had two more rulers than Hayti, within a period 
 five years less than the Haytian sovereignty. 
 
 The fact is, there is no nation in North America, but the 
 United States, nor any in South America, except Brazil, that 
 can pretend to compare with Hayti, in respect to general sta- 
 bility of government. The Spanish Republics of America 
 will have as many different rulers in eight years as Hayti has 
 had in a half century. 
 
 And the colonial dependencies of European nations change 
 governors at least three times as often as that negro nation 
 has done. This political stability, therefore, on the part of 
 the Haytians, indicates a vast remove from Barbarism. It 
 is far ahead of the anarchy of some so-called civilized nations. 
 And, it therefore indicates a high degree of civilization and 
 progress. 
 
 Some exceptions might be taken, by the over scrupulous 
 partizan of popular institutions, at the tendency manifested 
 to vacillate between a Republican and Monarchial form of 
 government, that has constantly been exhibited in Hayti, since 
 the days of Dessalines. 
 
 The desire for Republican institutions has its rise in the 
 Cosmopolitan ideas and example of France, at the time of 
 the Haytian Revolution. The proximate example of the 
 
41 
 
 United States may also influence this desire for republicanism 
 to some extent. 
 
 On the other hand, Monarchy is an ancient traditionary 
 predilection of the race derived from Africa, which ancient 
 continent maintains that form of government in common with 
 the rest of the old world. The gorgeous splendor and au- 
 gust prestige of aristrocratic rank and title, always attendant 
 on this form of government, hold an imperious sway over the 
 minds of this race of men who have such a keen appreciation 
 of the beautiful. With these monarchical instincts on the 
 one hand, and those powerful republican influencies on the 
 other, Hayti has continually oscillated between a republican 
 and a monarchial form of government. But be it ever re- 
 membered to her credit, this oscillation has not unsettled the 
 permanent stability of her national administration, as the 
 facts previously adduced, abundantly prove. 
 
 Permit me, however, to urge with due deference to the re- 
 publican ideas which surround me, that it matters not in the 
 eternal principles of morality, what the form of government 
 may be, so long as the ruling powers of a nation maintain the 
 inviolability of personal liberty, exact justice and political 
 equality among all of its honest citizens and subjects. If 
 these things are not so maintained, a republic is as great, nay 
 a greater despotism that an autocracy. 
 
 If there is but one despot to oppress the people, then there 
 is but one neck to be severed in order to rid the earth of such 
 a loathesome pest. But if the petty despots are numbered 
 by the millions ; then woe to that preseribed class that may 
 fall under their tyranny, for it will need more axes and more 
 executioners than can be supplied, in order to get this count- 
 less brood out of the way. 
 
 A popular despotism therefore, whose rulers are composed 
 of political gamblers for the spoils of office and burglarious 
 plunderers of the public treasury that tyranizcs over any class 
 of its citizens and subject, is less tolerable than a monarchical 
 or an aristocatic despotism, even though its rulers are a bs- 
 6 
 
42 
 
 reditary class of blood-titled paupers pensioned from genera- 
 tion to generation, on the public bounty of the nation. Among 
 this latter class of rulers there is not to be found such a des- 
 perate and reckless set of lawless adventurers as will be 
 found among the former. And should such monsters present 
 themselves, they are in a more tangible shape to be got at 
 and disposed of in a government of the few, than in that of 
 the many. Hence the sacred purposes of government in se- 
 curing the welfare of the whole people will always be more 
 nearly arrived at in the one than in the other. 
 
 The Haytian people when governed by the crowned and 
 imperial Dessalines testified their love of liberty, by destroy- 
 ing the tyrant when he violated the constitution and over- 
 stepped the laws of his country. 
 
 The American people under a republican form of govern- 
 ment manifest their want of a love of true liberty, when 
 they permit a vagabond set of politicians, whose character 
 for rowdyism disgraces the nation, to enact such an odious 
 law as the Fugitive Slave bill, violating the writ of Habeas 
 Corpus, and other sacred guarantees of the Constitution ;— 
 and then tamely submit to this high handed outrage, because 
 such unprincipled scoundrels voted in their insane revelry, 
 that it must be the Supreme law of the land. 
 
 If there was one-half of the real love of liberty among even 
 the people of the professedly free northern states, as there 
 is among the negroes of Hayti, every one of their national 
 representatives who voted for that infamous bill, or who 
 would not vote instantaneously for its repeal, would be tried 
 for his life, condemned and publicly executed as accessory to 
 man stealing. Thus would a free people, determined to 
 preserve their liberties, rid themselves of a brood of petty 
 tyrants who seek to impose their unhallowed partizan caprices 
 upon the country, as the supreme law of the land, over-riding 
 even the Higher Law of God. And thus in time would they 
 exhibit an equally jealous regard for their rights, as the Hay- 
 tians did, when they rid themselves of the tyrant Dessalines. 
 
43 
 
 If such was the real love of liberty among the northern 
 people of this vain-glorious Republic, we should soon annihi- 
 late that morally spineless class of politicians, who need de- 
 cision of character, when they get to "Washington, to legislate 
 for freedom. All such as were thus morally destitute of 
 spinal vertebrae to resist the aggressions of the slave power, 
 in the National Halls of legislation, would also soon be physi- 
 cally deficient in their cervical vertebrae, when they returned 
 home, to meet the extreme penalty of an outraged and indig- 
 nant constituency. 
 
 But such a determined spirit of liberty does not exist here, 
 and honest men must submit therefore with lamb-like pa- 
 tience to this republican despotism of irresponsible political 
 partizans who violate every just principle of law, because 
 these unrighteous decrees are perpetrated in the name of the 
 sovereign people. 
 
 Hence there is far more security for personal liberty and 
 the general welfare of the governed, among the monarchical 
 negroes of Hayti where the rulers are held individually res- 
 ponsible for their public acts, than exists in this bastard de- 
 mocracy. 
 
 The single necked despot is soon reached by the keen 
 avenging axe of liberty, for any acts of despotism among the 
 Haytian blacks ; but here its dull and blunted edge lays use- 
 less ; for it might be hurled in vain and fall powerless among 
 a nameless crowd of millions. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 But our historical investigations are at an end, and we must 
 hasten to bring our reflections to a conclusion. I have now 
 fulfilled my design in vindicating the capacity of the negro 
 race for self-government and civilized progress against the 
 unjust aspersions of our unprincipled oppressors, by boldly 
 examining the facts of Haytian history and deducing legiti- 
 mate conclusions therefrom. I have summoned the sable 
 heroes and statesmen of that independent isle of the Carib- 
 
44 
 
 Bean Sea, and tried them by the high standard of modern 
 civilization, fearlessly comparing them with the most illus- 
 trious men of the most enlightened nations of the earth ; — 
 and in this examination and comparison the negro race has 
 not fell one whit behind their contemporaries. And in this 
 investigation I have made no allowance for the negroes just 
 emerging from a barbarous condition and out of the brutish 
 ignorance of West Indian slavery. I have been careful not 
 to make such an allowance, for fear that instead of proving 
 negro equality only, I should prove negro superiority. I shun 
 the point of making this allowance to the negro, as it might 
 reverse the case of the question entirely, that I have been 
 combatting and instead of disproving his alledged inferiority 
 only, would on the other hand, go farther, and establish his 
 superiority. Therefore as it is my design to banish the words 
 "superiority" and "inferiority" from the vocabulary of the 
 World, when applied to the natural capacity of races of men, 
 I claim no allowance for them on the score of their condition 
 and circumstances. 
 
 Having now presented the preceding array of facts and 
 arguments to establish, before the world, the negro's equality 
 with the white man in carrying forward the great principles 
 of self-government and civilized progress ; I would now have 
 these facts exert their legitimate influence over the minds of 
 my race, in this country, in producing that most desirable 
 object of arousing them to a full consciousness of their own 
 inherent dignity ; and thereby increasing among them that 
 self-respect, which shall urge them on to the performance of 
 those great deeds which the age and the race now demand at 
 their hands. 
 
 Our brethren of Hayti, who stand in the vanguard of the 
 race, have already made a name, and a fame for us, that is 
 as imperishable as the world's history. They exercise sove- 
 reign authority over an island, that in natural advantages, is 
 the Eden of America, and the garden spot of the world. 
 Her rich resources invite the capacity of 10,000,000 human 
 
45 
 
 beings to adequately use them. It becomes then an impor- 
 tant question for the negro race in America to well consider 
 the weighty responsibility that the present exigency devolves 
 upon them, to contribute to the continued advancement of 
 this negro nationality of the New World until its glory and 
 renown shall overspread and cover the whole earth, and re- 
 deem and regenerate by its influence in the future, the be- 
 nighted Fatherland of the race in Africa. 
 
 Here in this black nationality of the New World, erect- 
 ed under such glorious auspices, is the stand point that 
 must be occupied, and the lever that must be exerted, 
 to regenerate and disenthrall the oppression and igno- 
 rance of the race, throughout the world. We must not 
 overlook this practical vantage ground which Providence has 
 raised up for us out of the depths of the sea, for any man- 
 made and Utopian scheme that is prematurely forced upon 
 us, to send us across the ocean, to rummage the graves of our 
 ancestors, in fruitless, and ill-directed efforts at the wrong end 
 of human progress. Civilization and Christianity is passing 
 from the East to the West ; and its pristine splendor will only 
 be rekindled in the ancient nations of the Old World, after it 
 has belted the globe in'.its westward course, and revisited the 
 Orient again. The Serpentine trial of civilization and Chris- 
 tianity, like the ancient philosophic symbol of eternity, must 
 coil backward to its fountain head. God, therefore in per- 
 mitting the accursed slave traffic to transplant so many mil- 
 lions of the race, to the New World, and educing therefrom 
 such a negro nationality as Hayti, indicates thereby, that we 
 have a work now to do here in the Western World, which in his 
 own good time shall shed its orient beams upon the Fatherland 
 of the race. Let us see to it, that we meet the exigency now 
 imposed upon us, as nobly on our part at this time as the Hay- 
 tians met theirs at the opening of the present century. And 
 in seeking to perform this duty, it may well be a question 
 with us, whether it is not our duty, to go and indentify our 
 destiny with our heroic brethren in that independent isle of 
 
46 
 
 the Carribean Sea, carrying with us such of the arts, sciences 
 and genius of modern civilization, as we may gain from this 
 hardy and enterprising Anglo-American race, in order to add to 
 Haytian advancement ; rather than to indolently remain 
 here, asking for political rights, which, if granted a social pro- 
 scription stronger than conventional legislation will ever render 
 nugatory and of no avail for the manly elevation and general 
 well-being of the race. If one powerful and civilized negro sov- 
 ereignty can be developed to the summit of national grandeur 
 in the West Indies, where the keys to the commerce of both 
 hemispheres can be held ; this fact will solve all questions 
 respecti ng the negro, whether they be those of slavery, preju- 
 dice or proscription, and wheresoever on the face of the globe 
 such questions shall present themselves for a satisfactory so- 
 lution. 
 
 A concentration and combination of the negro race, of the 
 Western Hemisphere in Hayti, can produce just such a na- 
 tional development. The duty to do so, is therefore incumbent 
 on them. And the responsibility of leading off in this gigan- 
 tic enterprise. Providence seems to have made our peculiar 
 task by the eligibility of our situation in this country, as a 
 point for gaining an easy access to that island. Then let us 
 boldly enlist in this high pathway of duty, while the watch- 
 words that shall cheer and inspire us in our noble and glori- 
 ous undertaking, shall be the soul-stirring anthem of GOD 
 and HUMANITY. 
 
wsmtiswmrt. 
 
 AFRIC-AMERICAN PRINTING COMPANY. 
 
 This is an association formed for the purpose of publishing Negro Literature. 
 It is formed under the auspices of the National Emigration Convention, of the 
 colored people of the United States and Canada, and under the special patronage 
 of the Board of Publication, created by that Convention, for publishing the Afric- 
 American Repository. This company, in pursuing its object, intend primarily 
 to publish the literary productions of colored authors ; and incidentally to publish 
 the writings of any other class of authors, when the same shall be deemed 
 serviceable to the great cause of humanity. 
 
 It is hoped that the efforts of this company will be so well sustained by the 
 public, that its objects will continually augment, until a complete set of measures 
 shall be introduced among the colored people of the United States and of the 
 American Continent, and carried out in practical operation among them, until 
 this oppressed race shall be completely redeemed from and elevated above all of 
 their political and social disabilities. 
 
 As to what such a train of measures should be, it is not material now to spec- 
 ulate upon. It is sufficient to announce the programme of the practical measure 
 already set on foot by the company ; and if this is sustained, as it is hoped it will 
 be, time will decide what may be done in the future. 
 
 PROGRAMME OF THE COMPANY'S PUBLICATION. 
 I. 
 
 A Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro race for Self-Government and 
 Civilized Progress ; as demonstrated by events of Haytian History : a Lecture, 
 by Rev. James Theodore Holly. Published in pamphlet form, embellished by 
 a fine steel engraving of Faustin I, Emperor of Hayti. Price 38 cents. This 
 work is already issued from the press. 
 
 II. 
 
 Hayti ; Past, Present, and Future : a synoptical review of the History of 
 Hayti, and the religious and industrial wants of that nation, in five lectures, by 
 the same author. 
 
 This work will be issued from the press, January 1st, 1858, embellished with a 
 fine steel engraving of Toussaint L'Ouverture. 
 
48 
 
 in. 
 
 An Essay on the Abolition of Slavery, and the means of extirpating the preju- 
 dice of the whites against the negro race. Translated from the French of Victor 
 Schcalcher, the distinguished abolitionist of France. This work will be published 
 about May 1st, 1858. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The first number of the Afric- American Repository, a quarterly compendium 
 of Negro Literature. This periodical will be issued from the press, July, 1858. 
 This periodical, which was to have been issued July, 1857, has been delayed one 
 year, in order to establish it upon a sounder basis. 
 
 Further publications of the company, and more minute information of its op- 
 erations, will be advertised, as necessity may require from time to time hereafter. 
 
 Communications relating to the business of the company, and all orders for 
 its publications, should be addressed to its general Agent, 
 
 JOHN P. ANTHONY, New Haven, Conn. 
 August 1st, 1857. 
 
010 073 460 6 
 
 Conservation Resources 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS # N 
 
 010 073 460 6