LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011898 9715 /^ 
 
 peRm&life* 
 

 SLAYERY. 
 
S L A Y E R Y 
 
 j/l; baker 
 
 AUTHOR OP "EXPORTS AND IMPORTS," "MEN AND THINGS," &o. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 JOHN A. NORTON, 
 
 I860. 
 
 OOP y ^ 
 

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SLAYERY. 
 
 The recent attempt of John Brown to incite an insurrection 
 at Harper's Ferry has created no Uttle excitement throughout 
 the country. Strange and desperate as tlie movement was, it 
 seems to have been the natural and necessary result of the long 
 twenty years' war, waged in the free States upon the institutions 
 of the South, the culminating point, it is to be hojjed, in a 
 reform based on no sound principle, and Avhich, like an epidemic, 
 has swept over the land, fruitful only in bitter words, harsh re- 
 crimination, sectional hostility, and ending, like the last act of a 
 tragedy, in violence and murder. 
 
 The scene that has been enacted at Harper's Ferry will perhaps 
 have the effect to open the eyes of the nation, so that they can see 
 fully the yawning gulf, the brink of which they have at last reached, 
 and lead them to examine the ground on which they stand ; inquire 
 what they have been doing, and what good cause can be served by 
 a course of action which has led to such fatal results. Many lives 
 have been sacrificed. A whole family has been ruined, and an old 
 man has been led out to suffer the last and most terrible infliction of 
 the law. He has been but an instrument in the hands of others, 
 who have acted, with the exception of some political leaders, from 
 honest convictions. 
 
 The time has now come, however, for them to inquire, and for all 
 to inquire with the utmost seriousness, if these convictions of duty 
 have been just and commendable, or if they have been mistaken, 
 and therefore to be condemned. Zeal without knowledge is a 
 dangerous weapon, as all history has proved, and it is incumbent 
 upon all, not only to do right, but to think right. It is an old 
 maxim that ignorance of the law excuses no man, and it is equally 
 true that we are not at liberty to follow our blind impulses, but are 
 bound to inform ourselves, and to knoiv whether a particular course 
 of action, however well intended, is such as will not defeat the very 
 
purposes we have in view, while it brings misery and ruin to 
 thousands of our fellow beings. 
 
 Liberty has been in all ages of the world a most fruitful theme 
 for the poet and the orator, and still its true nature and conditions 
 are Ijut imperfectly understood. Constitutional liberty, such as that 
 of England and the United States, is possible only to a race that has 
 a physical temperament that fits it for self-control or self-govern- 
 ment, and to such a race only is it a blessing. But few such races 
 have been known in history. One of them was the Grecian, and 
 afterwards the Roman, but both became degenerated, and lost the 
 capacity of self-government. 
 
 In modern times the English nation has exhibited the same ca- 
 pacity, which belongs also to ourselves, who are of the same blood. 
 No other people have those constitutional traits which fit them for 
 self-government, which is but another name for self-restraint. The 
 Frenchman is volatile, fickle, and fond of glory, and less free to-day 
 than he was under Louis the Sixteenth. He has a government 
 which answers to his wants and his genius, which exactly represents 
 his condition, and contributes, therefore, most to his happiness. 
 Should he, in the course of centuries, become changed in his physical 
 and mental constitution, he will find, necessarily, a government that 
 corresponds to the progress he has made. Governments are but the 
 agents and representatives of the people. They reflect very nearly 
 the condition of the governed, and change to meet the changes of 
 those they represent. No mortal power can prevent any people 
 from taking and enjoying that degree of freedom they are capa- 
 ble of enjoying, and which would, therefore, contribute to their hap- 
 piness. What is true of France, is true of the other European 
 nations, and of all nations ; so that we never deceive ourselves more 
 completely than when we talk of political liberty as something 
 equally applicable to all, and attainable by all. 
 
 Such liberty the Anglo-Saxon finds contributing to his happiness ; 
 but it may be the greatest curse, as it has often proved to those who 
 have different blood in their veins, who liave not the same capacity 
 of self-control, and who enjoy, therefore, as much, if not more, 
 under governments suited to their peculiar temperaments. An 
 Italian Republic exists only in the dreams of Mazzini and Garibaldi, 
 and yet if the sum of human happiness could be measured, there 
 may be as much happiness in Italy, and perhaps more than is to be 
 found in the two nations that are able to live under a constitutional 
 government. 
 
 It often hap))ens, that among those nations which require a strong 
 
government, we find a larger amount of social freedom, than among 
 those who ai*e politically more free. A man is more free to express 
 an opinion in Paris, upon any matter of science or religion, or 
 other topic, excepting politics, than he is in Boston. He stands less 
 in awe of his neighbors, feels less the pressure of public opinion, 
 than do we, on whom government bears lightly, but who are, to a 
 corresponding extent, the slaves of Public Sentiment. Where laws 
 bear lightest, Public Opinion takes their place, and becomes, often, 
 a dreadful tyrant, as is seen frequently in our western States, and 
 on the borders of civilization. On the other hand, where there 
 exists the least political freedom, we find the largest social liberty, 
 as though one was incompatible with the other, which is probably 
 the case, and for the reason that man must be governed to a 
 certain extent in some way, and if he becomes politically more 
 free, be becomes by necessity, socially, more enslaved. » 
 
 We shall find, if we look at the different nations of the world, 
 that each enjoys that degree of liberty, either political or social, 
 which most contributes to its happiness. If this were not the case 
 with* any nation, it is certain that its condition would be changed at 
 once, to correspond to its wants and capacities. No government, 
 however despotic, could for a moment prevent such a result ; nor is 
 it at all safe to judge of the real condition of a nation, by the ex- 
 cited harangues of such enthusiasts as Kossuth and Mazzini. 
 
 As fast as a people become capable of self-control or self-govern- 
 ment, just so fast the government becomes modified to meet their 
 wants ; for they are in fact the government, and rulers are but 
 their representatives. 
 
 This view of liberty will be considered, I am aware, by many 
 as very heretical and not at all in accordance with the facts of 
 history or the nature of man. To some it will, no doubt, appear 
 new as well as strange, and vei'y doubtful. That what we 
 call constitutional liberty, however, depends mainly upon the pe- 
 culiar physical and moral temperament of a people, I cannot 
 doubt. Self-government is constitutional in more senses than one* 
 Such at least is the result of my reflections upon the subject. 
 The lesson I learn from history is, that no amount of physical or 
 mental culture can materially change the peculiar temperament 
 which belongs to each race. A nation may be educated to excel 
 in all the arts and all the sciences, in oratory, philosophy, poetry, 
 music, and painting, but not in the art of self-government, which 
 implies a natural gift bestowed upon a very small portion of the 
 human race. To judge of a people in this . respect we must also 
 
G 
 
 witness their capacity at homo, and not be deceived by what hap- 
 pens to individuals or small communities when thrown into the 
 midst of a self-controlling or self-governing race. Such is the case 
 with our German population which constitutes an intelligent, useful, 
 law-abiding portion of our citizens, and to all appearance capable of 
 exercising the functions of self-government. But we must con- 
 sider that they exist here surrounded and entirely controlled by 
 our own people, and in some parts of the Union have been born 
 and brought up under our institutions. If we wish to know the 
 capacity of their race for self-government, we must go to Germany, 
 and if possible find it thei'e. The German race comes nearest to 
 our own and excels it in some respects, though wanting the neces- 
 sary political elements with which we are gifted. For many years 
 the profoundest scholai's and the greatest musical composers have 
 been found in Germany, which has also produced in Goethe and 
 Schillei', names worthy to rank with the greatest of modern times. 
 We come from the same Stock and the same northern hive, but 
 have pursued different courses, and have not now the same blood in 
 our veins. One race takes naturally to politics, for which it has 
 an aptitude and capacity, the other as naturally to music and 
 painting, to science and philosophy. In the lapse of centuries, 
 the physical constitution of both may change. The English may 
 lose by admixture the peculiar qualities of blood which now dis- 
 tinguish them, and so lose their capacity of self-control. They may 
 become degenerated, like the Romans, by the enervating influence 
 of luxury, and like that nation lose their constitutional liberty. So 
 on the other hand, Germany may, in the progi'ess of time, undergo 
 changes equally great and in precisely the opposite direction. A 
 union of the different races of that vast kingdom may produce a 
 new result. A new race may arise which shall excel the present race 
 of Englishmen, in the capacity of self-government. The present 
 English race is the work of centuries, and contains the blood of 
 Saxons, Danes, and Normans, blended in due proportion for the 
 production of a certain result, and such a result as can nowhere 
 else be witnessed. 
 
 If the theory of human liberty, which I iiave thus so briefly and 
 imperfectly suggested, is the true one, and is supported by the facts 
 of history, then it will furnish us with a key to unlock some of those 
 hard problems in human life and destiny which have so puzzled 
 mankind, and which have resisted all attempts at solution. 
 
 If we regard all nations as moving on in the sphere designed by 
 Providence, each seeking and finding its hai)piuess in its own way, 
 
— some less capable ol" self-restraint than otliers, some enjoying a 
 high degree of political liberty, and some, on the other hand, in 
 possession of a high degree of social freedom ; their happiness de- 
 pendent not so mnch on the peculiar forms of their government as 
 upon its adaptation to their peculiar wants and capacities, — we shall 
 be relieved of much of that commiseration and misplaced sympathy 
 which we have bestowed upon others, and which was, perhaps, more 
 needed by ourselves. Viewed in the light I have suggested, and 
 also in connection with the great facts, moral and physical, of which 
 I am about to speak more particularly, the problem of negro slavery 
 in the United States is not one so difficult of solution as has been 
 generally sup{)Osed. The recent outbreak in Virginia brings home 
 to us, with i-enewed and redoubled force, the question, What must 
 become of the millions of slaves in our Southern States, could they 
 be set free by some such movement as that of John Brown, urged 
 on by those who have been for many years engaged in agitating the 
 subject ? 
 
 This is the important matter for our consideration, or rather it 
 should have been the matter to have been considered many years 
 ago. This is the pi-oblem which should have been solved by those 
 who have been so long dealing in such extravagant language and 
 " glittering generalities " about the natural rights of man. They 
 should have informed us what is to become of those millions, sud- 
 denly let loose from restraint and thrown upon their own resources, 
 no longer to be protected by the white race, but to be met by com- 
 petition, by undying prejudice, extreme social hardship, and the 
 " irrepressible conflict " of incompatible races. 
 
 Those of us who have attained to middle age have been taught 
 by experience that no portion of those millions could exist for any 
 length of time on the soil of Massachusetts. But for the occasional 
 emigration from the South, a negi'O would now be a sight as rare 
 in this State as that of a wild Indian, hardly a remnant being left 
 of the families which we knew in our boyhood. 
 
 From statistics gathered by the late Dr. Jesse Chickering, it ap- 
 pears that the blacks die in Massachusetts in a ratio of three to 
 one as compared with the whites. This state of things is the result 
 of both moral and physical causes. The depressing influence of 
 extreme social hardship, which no philanthropy can alleviate, ac- 
 counts in a great measure for this unequal mortality ; while physical 
 causes operate, perhaps, still more to the same effect. Of the latter, 
 we may lei ^ ething from a paper read a few years since before 
 
8 
 
 the Boston Society of Natural History, by Dr. Sntnucl Kneeland, 
 Jr., from which the Ibllowiiijj; is an extract: — 
 
 " Tlje muhitlo is often triumphantly appealed to as a proof that 
 hybrid races are prolific without end. Every physician who has 
 seen much practice among the mulattoes knows that, in the first 
 place, they arc fin- less prolific than the blacks or whites, — the statis- 
 tics of New York State and city confirm this fact of daily observa- 
 tion ; and, in the second place, when they are prolific, the progeny 
 is frail, disc;\sed, short-lived, rarely arriving at robust manhood or 
 maturity. Physicians need not be told of the compax'atively enormous 
 amount of scrofulous and deteriorated constitutions found among 
 those hybrids. 
 
 "The Colonization Journal furnishes some statistics with regard 
 to the colored population of New York city, which must prove pain- 
 fully interesting to all reflecting people. The late census showed 
 that, while other classes of our population in all parts of the country 
 were increasing in an enormous ratio, the colored were decrea.sing. 
 In the State of New York, in 1840, there were fifty thousand; in 
 1850, only forty-seven thousand. In New York city, in 1840, 
 there were eighteen thousand ; in 1850, seventeen thousand. Ac- 
 cording to the New York City Inspector's report for the four months, 
 ending with October, 1853 : — 
 
 1. The whites present marriages, 2,230 
 
 The colored " " 26 
 
 2. The whites " births, 6,780 
 
 The colored " '« 70 
 
 3. The whites " deaths about 6,000 
 
 (exclusive of 2,lo2 among 116,000 newly-arrived 
 emigrants, and others imacclimated.) 
 The colored exhibit deaths, 160 
 
 giving a ratio of deaths among acclimated whites to colored persons 
 of thirty-seven to one ; while the births are ninety-seven whites to 
 one colored. The ratio of whites to colored, is as follows : — 
 Marriages, 140 to 1 ; births, 97 to 1 ; deaths, 37 to 1. According 
 to the ratio of the population, the marriages among the whites, 
 during tliis lime, are three times greater than among the colored ; 
 the number of births among the whites is twice as great. In deaths, 
 the colored exceed the white not only according to ratio of popula- 
 tion, Ijut show one hundred and sixty-five deaths to seventy-six 
 births, or seven deaths to three births, — more than two to one. 
 
 " The same is true of Boston, as far as the census returns will 
 enable us to judge. In Shattuck's census of 1845, it appears that 
 
in that year there were one lumdred and forty-six less eolored per- 
 sons in Boston than in 1840 ; the total number being 1842. From 
 the same work, the deaths are given ibr a period of fifty years, from 
 1725 to 1775, showing the mortality among the blacks to have 
 been twice that among the whites. Of late years, Boston, prob- 
 ably, does not differ from itself in former times, nor from New 
 York at present. In the compendium of the United States census 
 for 1850, p. 64, it is said that the ' declining ratio of the increase 
 of the free colored in every section is notable. In New England, 
 the increase is now almost nothing;' in the south-west and the 
 Southern states, the increase is much reduced ; it is only in the 
 north-west that there is any increase, ' indicating a large emigration 
 to that quarter.' What must become of the black population at 
 this rate in a few years ? What are the causes of this decay ? 
 They do not disregard the laws of social and physical well-being 
 any more than, if they do as much as, the whites. It seems to me 
 one of the necessary consequences of attempts to mix races ; the 
 hybrids cease to be prolific ; the race must die out as mulatto : it 
 must either keep black unmixed, or become extinct. Nobody 
 doubts that a mixed offspring may be produced by intermarriage of 
 different races, — the Griquas, the Papuas, the Cafuses of Brazil, 
 so elaborately enumerated by Prichard, sufhciently prove this. 
 The question is, whether they would be pei-pctuated if strictly 
 confined to intermarriage among themselves ? From the facts in 
 the case of mulattoes, we say unquestionably not. The same is 
 true, as far as has been observed, of the mixture of the white and 
 red races, in Mexico, Central and South America. The well-known 
 infrequency of mixed offspring between the European and Aus- 
 tralian races, led the Colonial government to official inquiries, and 
 to the result, that, in thirty-one districts, numbering fifteen thousand 
 inhabitants, the half-breeds did not exceed two hundred, though the 
 connection of the two races was very intimate. 
 
 " If any one wishes to be convinced of the infei'iority and tendency 
 to disease in the mulatto race, even with the assistance of the pure 
 blood of the black and white race, he need only witness what I did 
 recently, viz. : the disembarkation from a steamboat of a colored 
 pic-nic party, of both sexes, of all ages, from the infant in arms 
 to the aged, and of all hues, from the darkest black to a color 
 approaching white. There was no old midatto, though there were 
 several old negroes ; many fine-looking mulattoes of both sexes, 
 evidently the first offspring from the pure races ; then came the 
 youths and children, and here could be read the sad truth at a 
 2 
 
10 
 
 irlance. The little blacks were agile and healtiiy-looking ; tlic little 
 imilattoes, youtlis and young women, farther removed from the pure 
 stocks were sickly, leeble, thin, with frightful scars and skin 
 diseases, and scrofula stamped on every feature and every visible 
 l)art of the body. Here was hybridity of human races, under the 
 most favorable circumstances of worldly condition and social 
 position." 
 
 Such arc the results of an unfavorable climate and the mixture 
 of the blood of two races that can never intermarry. The union of 
 such races produces the results described by Dr. Kneeland. Similar 
 results are observed when the two races differ less and where mar- 
 riage is possible, as for instance in Mexico and Central America, which 
 are in ruins from the union of the Spanish and native blood. 
 Union of ditlerent races is, on the other hand, often highly beneficial, 
 our own blood l)eing a fortunate result of such a union, but such 
 races must be similar and not like those of Europe, Africa, and the 
 natives of this coinitry, wholly dissimilar or repugnant. At the 
 South, the free black would suffer less from the effects of climate ; 
 but much more from the extreme prejudice existing there towards 
 the black, when he assumes the position of an equal. To suppose 
 he could exist under such a state of things is to ignore all experience, 
 and the observation of every day. In Jamaica, the English Gov- 
 ernment have troops to protect the freed slaves from the encroach- 
 ments of their old masters ; but there it is stated, on the authority 
 of the London Times, that the blacks are not only falling below^ the 
 point of civilization attained during their servitude, but in many 
 cases actually returning to their native barbarism, and the worship 
 of idols. We have no such standing army here, but the slave, when 
 free, must be left to the tender mercies of his former master. What 
 would be the fate of the slave is as certain as is the fate of the 
 North American Indian, the difference being that the Indian flies 
 from civilization, which destroys him, while the imitative and mild- 
 tempered African clings to civilization which as certainly destroys 
 him. How far he may rise in the scale of civilization if left to 
 himself, whether the African is a self-sustaining and progressive 
 race, oi- whether it will lose, when left to itself, Avhat has been 
 gained, and fall Itack in a state of barbarism, are (juestions not set- 
 tled as yet by experiment. The attempt is making in Liberia, and 
 it is to be hopeil successfully, to solve this question in favor of the 
 negro; but sullicieut time has not yet elapsed, nor is the testimony 
 which comes from the West Indies by any means such as could 
 bo wished. 
 
11 
 
 From some of our Western States the colored man has been 
 entirely excluded. This is a wise provision, and a merciful one, to 
 the blacks, who come into the free States only to drag out a few 
 years in some menial employment, and then disappear with their 
 families, if they have any, leaving no trace behind. If history and 
 experience teach us anything, it is this, that two races constituted 
 like the Anglo-Saxon and the African, can never co-exist in a state 
 of equality, which means competition. So long as the inferior 
 race is in a dependent condition, and can claim supjwrt and protec- 
 tion from the white, it remains, with rare exceptions, contented and 
 happy, the great burden of such a relation falling, in fact, upon the 
 master, and not upon the slave. The moment that relation is 
 changed, the negro thrown upon his own resources, and exposed to 
 the withering and blasting effects of that ineradicable antipathy 
 which exists towards all of African descent, that moment his fate 
 is sealed ; he perishes like the autumn leaves when comes a killing 
 frost, and, in course of a very few generations, not a vestige re- 
 mains to show that he has ever existed. 
 
 This is a truth which experience and observation have taught us, 
 and which could not have been taught in the same manner to Mr. 
 Jefferson, and other founders of our government, whose opinions 
 are quoted in favor of the abolition of slavery. That slavery was 
 an evil, they knew, and we know it also, but that the evil is mainly 
 to the white, and that the black could never co-exist with his master 
 in a state of freedom, they did not know, because the experiment 
 had not been tried. Sufficient time has now elapsed to settle that 
 question, and in a manner which would seem to leave but small 
 chance for doubt to a rational mind. 
 
 Such, I suppose, to be the immutable law of Providence, regula- 
 ting the intercourse of those races which he has made, and given 
 to one a white skin, and to the other a dark one. The Creator of 
 all things could, doubtless, have made all white, or all black, but, 
 for some purpose which we cannot fathom, he has chosen not to do so. 
 He has created some races near akin to each other, and some 
 entirely incompatible and repugnant, and it is not for us to say that 
 he has done wrong. If possible, we should ascertain what are the 
 laws, physical and moral, which he has established, and then we shall 
 ■do well to acquiesce in them as being right, without attempting to 
 repeal or improve upon them, or to set up in opposition our own 
 notions about what we call abstract right. Right is not an abstrac- 
 tion, but a reality, and, to find out what it is, we have to consult our 
 experience, observation, revelation, expediency, divine laws and 
 
12 
 
 human Jawx ■„„i 
 
 ofProvwl ? '" '-''^''"g if for them Ti ' "^ ^« "ot, for 
 
 Parfij Afncan descenf nn-^ grievous wrono- a r 
 
13 
 
 pjrulmd, conscious of no superior, feeling its own dignity, and with 
 ample opportunity for the development of all the faculties with 
 which it has been endowed. Such a work would be worthy of 
 the best intellect and the highest powers that have been bestowed 
 on either black or white ; but those of the colored race who are con^ 
 tent with delivering nnti-slavery lectures, or writing for anti-slavery 
 papers, so far from elevating their race are engaged in a work 
 which can end only in ruin, to the blacks cei-tainly, in the loss of 
 life and entire extinction, and lo the Avhites in the loss it may be of 
 a Union which no aft can restore to its original beauty and per- 
 fection when once destroyed. As the true friend of the negro, I 
 would not flatter him with delusive hopes and false expectations that 
 can never be realized as has been too often and constantly done 
 by very excellent men, and with the very best intentions ; but, I 
 would endeavor, as far as possible, to tell him the truth, however 
 unpalatable, in the full belief that in the end such truth will operate 
 for the best interest of all, black and white, bond and free. 
 
 The diversities and repulsions of race which have been ordained, 
 no doubt, for some wise purpose, are intended, perhaps, only for 
 this state of existence. Another life may present a new order of 
 things in which no such distinctions exist. Men have been created 
 to differ from each other physically, morally, and intellectually, but 
 still all are equal before the Creator of all, entitled to an equal 
 share in his bounty, and to the enjoyments of life best suited to 
 the genius and capacity of each. In another world the genius and 
 capacity of all may be alike, all finding happiness in the society of 
 all — and in a mutual pursuit of the same objects, whether of knowl- 
 edge or of taste, of study or of worship. 
 
 It is much to be hoped that this subject will ere long be treated 
 in a very diffei'ent manner from what it has been for the last fifteen 
 or twenty years. It is simply a question of races, and all the vio^ 
 lent and bitter harangues that have been uttered have advanced not 
 one step towards ameliorating the condition of the slave, or solving 
 the problem of negro slavery in this country. Such harangues have 
 only served to stir up strife and jealousy, to set one portion of the 
 people against another portion, array in opposition members of the 
 same family, and finally, when acting upon such fiery spirits and 
 undisciplined minds as that of John Brown, to bring us to the 
 brink of civil and servile war. 
 
 In offering the above suggestions, it may be proper to say, that I 
 have done so with entire respect for the personal character and mo- 
 tives of many of those who have been prominent in promoting and 
 
14 
 
 "mt Jia.s now come when th. . • "''"^'^^^^n sense of duty anri 
 n" '"' "''«-™n '« stand. N^ ° ' '^ P°^^'We, we can kmw tbl 
 
 ri«. eaderwm j„j from his "J ' '"'°''"' ""^ ""nfl^ed i 
 
 ■iSE?--:::rri:;;: r- 
 
 ■ -•'-•-£ trir-"--"= 
 
 * "—re.;:,-- •—. .u.Si*"" r"- » -» 
 
 ■■ •■"■ '-"'Z'.z:- — "-"i t'sr 
 
15 
 
 At th(? same time, the slave is subject to occasional hardships. 
 This is tlie fate of all, under whatever social system they may live. 
 In some form or other, all men are called on to pay for the privi- 
 leges they enjoy, nor could it be expected that the slave w^ould be 
 an exception to this general rule. If the marriage bond could be 
 legalized and rendei'ed more sacred, and families not allowed to be 
 separated by sale, many cases of hardship would be prevented. 
 This is a matter for the serious consideration of the slaveholder, if 
 he would manifest to the world a desire to place the dependent race 
 in the best possible condition, consistent with its safety. 
 
 Of the possibility of such reforms, they are the best judges, how- 
 ever, who have the burden upon them, and are best acquainted with 
 the wants and capacities of the African race. It is easy for those 
 at a distance to give advice, in regard to a social system, the practi- 
 cal working of which they are quite ignorant of, but those who are 
 born and bred under such system can only know the difficulties that 
 lie in the way of reform, especially when those difficulties are aggi'a- 
 vated by interference from abroad. 
 
 Slavery may finally come to an end in the United States, by the 
 operation of natural causes, such as the rapid increase and constant 
 encroachment of free labor, and the fact that slave labor is so ex- 
 pensive and tends so greatly to the impoverishing of the soil. As 
 Slavery dies out, the colored race will disappear from the scene for- 
 ever. It is not for us, I think, to hasten that time by revolution and 
 servile insurrection, to put torches and pikes into the hands of such 
 a population to be used against the whites, in re-enacting all the 
 horrors of a St. Domingo massacre, and at the same time sealing its 
 own fate as suddenly and as rapidly as the dew disappears before 
 the rising sun. 
 
 Public sentiment has undergone a marked change in England, 
 on the subject of Slavery, within the last few years. The Anti- 
 Slavery sentiment, like an epidemic, swept over the whole length 
 and breadth of Great Britain, and in its course swept away Slavery 
 in the British West Indies. The natural and inevitable re-action 
 has already taken place in England, and happy will it be for us if 
 it comes in this country before it is too late. That such a i-e-action 
 is already taking place in the United States, hastened by the foray 
 of John Brown, there is great reason to believe. 
 
 The following extracts from the London Times are very sig- 
 nificant : — 
 
 Effect of Emancipation on the African Race. — There is no blinking 
 the truth. Years of bitter experience ; years of hope deferred ; of self- 
 
devotion unrt>quitcd • of ^ 
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 «"«P<» it oniv a, „ ^ ""'">' "^i"'" agrieul,,,,^ " ,"' ''"'" «<i"atting. 
 
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17 
 
 man. We cannot find any sympathy for those who would try, in the United 
 States, the plan of a half-caste Republic, and we trust that the Federal 
 Government and the right-thinking part of the community will protect the 
 South from the repetition of such outrages as that at Harper's Ferry. 
 
 Our own race is boastful as well as intolerant and aggressive. 
 This is especially true of the New England type, and hence it is 
 that we are prone to regard ourselves in many, if not all respects, 
 superior to the people of the South. In some respects, undoubtedly, 
 we have the advantage of those who have been born and educated 
 under a very different social system ; but, on the other hand, ac- 
 cording to the law of compensation, we lack much that is valuable 
 in the Southern character and mental constitution. 
 
 The nature of our climate and more especially of our institutions 
 has given to our English blood a new and most powerful stimulus, 
 so that we develope an immense amount of intellectual energy and 
 activity, which constantly seeks vent, and which constantly tends 
 to run into some extreme or excess. Having lived for many years 
 in a state of great material prosperity, we are prone to wax fat 
 and kick. We have known no real evils, no invasion from with- 
 out, or civil war within, and for want of any real danger we 
 conjure up those that are imaginary. We torment ourselves with 
 evils which have no existence but in our own brain. I think it 
 was Judge Marshall who speaks of those imaginary evils, which as 
 they are without cause, are also without remedy. 
 
 The Southern mind is less active and more conservative, some- 
 times erratic, but generally disposed to take a common sense and ra- 
 tional view of things, and is, in some respects, more reliable than our 
 own. It forms an admirable check in our political system, and 
 preserves us from a natural tendency to run into the extreme of 
 radicalism, and that spirit of agrarianism which has destroyed all 
 former Republics. 
 
 The constant tendency in a Republic is to remove all constitu- 
 tional checks intended for the security of individual rights, and 
 reduce everything to the rule of the majority. It is obvious that 
 the Senate of the United States and the Supreme Court, though 
 intended as checks upon popular impulse and outbreaks, are yet 
 but very imperfect barriers when opposed to what is termed the 
 will of the people. It requires but a few years to change the 
 political character of the Senate so that it shall reflect the prevail- 
 ing sentiments of the day, and the same is true of the Supreme 
 Court. In some of our States the judges are already elected from 
 year to year, and must become to a greater or less extent political 
 3 
 
18 
 
 partizans. When these checks are removed and the rights of the 
 individual are dependant on the bare will of the majority, then we 
 have a pure democracy, which is pure despotism, and a despotism 
 so dreadful that it soon gives way to despotism of a milder form 
 in the person of a military Dictator. We have no landed aris- 
 tocracy which, in England, stands between the people and the 
 throne, keeping each from encroaching upon the other, nor any 
 real check in our system of government, unless it is the fixed fact 
 of a large number of States, whose population is naturally and 
 necessarily conservative, and which stands like a rock against the 
 surging waves of popular excitement of agrarianism and radicalism 
 from whatever quarter they may come. The assertion that Slavery 
 was the corner-stone of American liberty, made some years ago by 
 a statesman from South Carolina, was looked upon with amaze- 
 ment as a most absurd paradox, but time may show that it con- 
 tained a truth which we have as yet failed to see and comprehend. 
 
 The Southern character is more impulsive, but also more open 
 and genial than our own. If it shows a hasty spark, it is also 
 soon cold and rational again. It is not brooding and intolerant, 
 nor easily led away into excesses, such as too often befall us of a 
 more Northern clime. One prominent cause for such difference is, 
 no doubt, to be found in the fact that, while we, at the North, 
 live in towns and cities where men are in a constant state of action 
 and reaction upon each other, and the masses can be suddenly 
 and extensively roused and excited, the Southern Planters live re- 
 mote from each other, and, in many cases, in almost entire seclusion. 
 Such a population is less in danger from these moral epidemics 
 that from time to time sweep over communities, because it is sparse, 
 and therefore not so much exposed to exciting causes ; thus, while it 
 loses many good influences which flow from a more compact society, 
 escaping also many serious evils to which the latter is subject. It 
 is not France, but Paris, the great centre of population, the seat of 
 all that is luxurious and refined, of science and of art, of every- 
 thing in short which can serve to adorn and embellish social 
 life ; it is this Paris alone that makes and unmakes kings and 
 emperors, that overthrows one dynasty during the night and sets 
 u]) another the next morning, and then gives the law to the nation 
 which stands looking on. Some editor or some orator touches that 
 sympathetic telegraphic chord which passes through each individual 
 of this vast living mass, and in an instant, as it were, the gutters 
 run with blood, a ferocious mob rushes through every avenue, seek- 
 ing vengeance for wrongs, which, if they have no existence, in fact, 
 
19 
 
 exist not the less really in the excited and inflamed imagination. 
 Then comes a satiety of blood, then a re-action, and then a state of 
 things too often far worse tlian the first. Our own city of New 
 York is considered by many to have become incaj)able of intelli- 
 gent self-government, and to exhibit those evils which, especially 
 under a government like our own, flow from the collection of a 
 very large population at one point. A sparse and widely scattered 
 population, which is also by necessity highly consecutive, may 
 supply the very check we most need and which is not to be found 
 in paper constitutions, courts or senates. 
 
 In the gradual progress of time, free labor will doubtless overrun 
 the more Northern Slave States, bringing fertility to the soil, and 
 improving in many respects the condition of the white race, though 
 fraught with ruin to all of African descent. My sympathies are 
 with the latter as well as the former, and I cannot wish to 
 see our swelling, aggressive, Northern Anglo-Saxon tide, over- 
 flowing the Southern States, sweeping away perhaps the most 
 conservative and useful element in our republican system, and 
 at the same time utterly destroying in its course that helpless 
 race which, in the providence of God, has been cast upon 
 our shores. There is room enough for us all to live together in 
 peace and harmonj^ The two races can co-exist in their present 
 relative condition, but in no other way. This is the great lesson 
 of history, experience, statistics, and the observation of every day. 
 
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