&g 
 
 * 
 
 "U 
 
 UUvt ^<mc^ 
 
 oT 
 
 
 CUj ^ 
 
 fu,r 
 
 ^u l« A 
 
E 446 
 .M66 
 Copy 1 
 
 THE 
 
 OLIVE BRANCH; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 CHARLES MINER. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 1856. 
 
THE 
 
 OLIVE BRANCH 
 
 OK, 
 
 THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY 
 
 EY 
 
 CHARLES JOINER. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 1856. 
 

 Piinted by T K & P G Collins 
 

 Jtbicafai, 
 
 WITH PROFOCN'D VENERATION AND RESPECT, TO 
 
 ROGER B. TANEY, 
 
 CHIEF-JUSTICE OF THE UXITED STATES, 
 AND 
 
 TO HIS ASSOCIATE JUSTICES, 
 
 ir 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Introductory Address delivered at "West Chester, 
 Pennsylvania, at a celebration of the Declaration of 
 Independence, July 4, 1821, immediately succeeding 
 the excitement growing out of the admission of Mis- 
 souri, is republished, to show the sentiments of the 
 author then, which he has ever sincerely cherished, 
 without variableness or shadow of turning, and as 
 giving him some claim to a dispassionate hearing at 
 the West and South on the delicate and exciting 
 question of slavery. 
 
 He may be permitted to add, with pride, that the 
 late venerated Chief-Justice Marshall caused the pub- 
 lication of the Address in a Richmond paper, with a 
 commendatory introduction ; and, among other nume- 
 rous testimonials of approval, he received a flattering 
 notice from the then President of Princeton College, 
 to whom he was personally a stranger. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 [After the seventh toast, the President called on Mr. Miner 
 for a volunteer, who prefaced the sentiment by the following 
 observations, which, by request, he has furnished for publi- 
 cation.] 
 
 Mr. President: — 
 
 I shall obey your call with pleasure ; and, if it 
 will not too much interrupt the flow of hilarity 
 which prevails, I will offer you some reasons for 
 the sentiment which I give. 
 
 It cannot have escaped you, that, in the dis- 
 cussions growing out of the Missouri controversy, 
 a dissolution of the Union has been adverted to 
 by zealous partisans on both sides of the ques- 
 tion. 
 
8 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 I confess to you, sir, that I cannot hear this 
 subject spoken of without feelings of horror and 
 dismay. 
 
 It sounds in my ear like a proposition of fratri- 
 cide. Such a measure, it is manifest, could not be 
 effected without the most desolating civil wars; 
 and, should it be accomplished, would be followed 
 by eternal contests between the neighboring tribes, 
 (for they would no longer deserve the name of 
 states or nations.) Standing armies, oppressive 
 taxes, the violation of public rights and private 
 security, and, finally, the subjugation of the whole 
 by some military adventurer, would be the inevi- 
 table result. 
 
 I tremble to look down this dark abyss of misery 
 and ruin. Despotism throughout the earth would 
 exult at the issue, while wise and patriotic men, 
 to the latest generations, would hold our name in 
 pity and in scorn. 
 
 I do not make these remarks because I appre- 
 hend that on any side there is a disposition de- 
 liberately to bring about a separation. The man 
 who should propose it would be driven by public 
 indignation from society. 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 9 
 
 But rash and ambitious men, in moments of 
 great excitement, inflamed by passion and reck- 
 less of consequences, may hereafter attempt the 
 measure if the minds of the people are not ef- 
 fectually guarded against it. 
 
 The union of the States should be considered 
 like freedom of conscience or the right of self- 
 defence, — not for a moment to be brought in 
 question. 
 
 The law of our union should be impressed 
 upon our children as of the most sacred and 
 paramount obligation. Habit is more powerful 
 than law. Sentiment is more operative than 
 reason. 
 
 I think, therefore, that law and reason should 
 be fortified by habit and sentiment; and the doc- 
 trine should be inculcated in our schools, from 
 the press, and in our public assemblies, so that 
 successive generations may grow up with the im- 
 pression indelibly fixed in their minds that the 
 union of the States is the fundamental law on 
 which our freedom is based, and the only sure 
 foundation of our prosperity and glory. 
 
 I shall not attempt formally to reason this 
 
10 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 matter, but I beg leave to repeat to you an old 
 story : — 
 
 An Indian sachem, finding his life drawing to 
 a close, called his children around him, and, 
 holding out a bundle of rods bound firmly 
 together, told his sons to break them. Each 
 tried in his turn, but was unable. He then 
 separated them, and broke each rod himself with 
 ease. "Thus," said he, "will it be with you, my 
 children. In union you will find safety; divided, 
 your enemies w T ill easily overpower you. These 
 rods, firmly united, the efforts of strong men 
 could not break; but, when separated, a feeble 
 old man could destroy them." 
 
 After the late collision, in which w r e differed 
 so widely and so warmly from our Southern 
 friends, it may possibly be thought that some- 
 thing of prejudice against them may remain in 
 our breasts. 
 
 Throughout Pennsylvania, I am bold to say 
 that, whatever difference of opinion may exist on 
 some subjects, there is no other general sentiment 
 prevailing toward them than that of entire good 
 will. 
 
THE EVIL AND THE EEMEDY. 11 
 
 We are not only bound to the South by cords 
 of interest, bat by the stronger ties of affection. 
 We not only find a satisfaction in the productive- 
 ness of her rice, sugar, cotton, and tobacco plan- 
 tations, which contribute so largely to the national 
 resources, but we participate in the pride of her 
 chivalric character and exult in the triumphs of 
 her eloquence and her arms. Her history and 
 the fame of her heroes are the objects of our 
 respect and veneration. The Southern are a high- 
 spirited, mercurial people, distinguished by quick- 
 ness of perception, rapidity of thought, and celerity 
 of movement. Nice in their notions of honor, jeal- 
 ous of their rights, quick as lightning they flash 
 when in collision; but, like the flint, they show a 
 hasty spark, and straight are cold again. Withal 
 they are frank, generous, brave, and hospitable, 
 and, in truth, combine within themselves all the 
 elements of a noble character. 
 
 Their fathers and our fathers fought many a 
 well-contested field, side by side, for independence. 
 Our Wayne and the gallant soldiers of the Penn- 
 sylvania line gathered laurels, which shall be ever 
 green, in the same bloody conflicts which im- 
 
12 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 mortalizecl Monroe, Lee, Morgan, Pickens, Camp- 
 bell, Pinckney, Sumpter, and Marion. 
 
 And what Pennsylvania!! — nay, what Ameri- 
 can — is not proud to claim Laurens as his country- 
 man? What bosom so cold as not to throb with 
 rapture when the historian portrays the eloquence 
 of Henry and of Randolph ? American litera- 
 ture exhibits, with conscious pride, the works 
 of Ramsey, Marshall, and of Wirt. And while 
 older nations boast of their heroes and states- 
 men, we may point to a phalanx in Virginia, 
 with Washington at their head, and boldly chal- 
 lenge a competition. 
 
 Southern statesmen, soldiers, and orators crowd 
 so fast on the recollection that it is impossible to 
 name them; but their fame is our common inherit- 
 ance. And while the memorials of our nation 
 shall endure, it will not be forgotten that at York- 
 town, in Virginia, Cornwallis surrendered a nume- 
 rous and well-appointed army to Washington and 
 his comrades in arms; or that at New-Orleans 
 Pakenham and his vaunted veterans were signally 
 overthrown by Jackson and his gallant followers, 
 our brethren of the West and South. 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 13 
 
 As the result of these views, I beg leave to give 
 you 
 
 " The United States and the citizens of the South. May our 
 Union be everlasting as our hills, and may mutual good-will, 
 freedom, and prosperity, like our rivers, flow through the land 
 in perpetual streams." 
 
 Deeply impressed with the magnitude of the 
 subject, I approach the practical point aimed at 
 (in these letters) with all the solemnity of feeling 
 its importance is calculated to inspire. 
 
 It has for many years occupied my most anxious 
 thoughts, — sometimes the prospect gilded by hope, 
 and not unfrequently overcast by clouds darkening 
 to the hue of despair. 
 
 The voice of history audibly on every page tells 
 us of and repeats to us the dire calamities of civil 
 war; the inveterateness of hatred between those 
 who, once friends, had become enemies; the excita- 
 bility of the human temperament to deeds of retali- 
 ation and vengeance for real or imagined wrongs. 
 
 I am among those who apprehend, with inex- 
 pressible dread, that the dismemberment of this 
 Union would give a death-blow to the last hope of 
 
14 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 man's maintaining a government formed on the basis 
 of justice, liberty, and equality, — where citizens of 
 all religious persuasions, sects, or denominations, 
 and of every shade of political opinion and creed, 
 obedient to the laws, might enjoy the utmost free- 
 dom consistent with the freedom of their fellows, 
 each family sitting under its own vine and fig- 
 tree, with none to molest or make them afraid. 
 
 Treating of the vexed question of slavery, it is 
 but just to myself, and respectful to the public, 
 that I should declare what have been and are my 
 sentiments upon the subject. 
 
 I hold that slavery is recognised by the Consti- 
 tution. That there are certain concessions made 
 to it in that instrument inalienably obligatory, ex- 
 cept with the consent of the States where it exists. 
 That slavery can have a being only by local law, 
 and within the limits of the States where it is esta- 
 blished; but, being at variance with natural law, 
 that it cannot be established de novo anywhere, 
 and can have no existence, rightfully, where it does 
 not now prevail. That within those States neither 
 the General Government, nor the other State Go- 
 vernments, nor individuals, have any right to inter- 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 15 
 
 fere any more than with any other of their strictly 
 municipal or social regulations. That, at the 
 time of framing the Constitution, slavery was 
 universally regarded as an evil present existing, 
 to be kept within well-understood bounds. That, 
 within the territories and all places under the 
 jurisdiction of the general government, absolute 
 power exists over it in Congress, accompanied 
 with a duty, springing from the principles of 
 eternal and unchangeable justice and the de- 
 mands of sound policy, to abolish it and to prevent 
 its extension. That the three-fifths rule, admit- 
 ting the representation for slaves, is in the bond ; 
 and, however onerous now regarded, not to be dis- 
 turbed, as I would not shatter a china vase because 
 a speck on the enamel defaced its beauty. That 
 the rendition of "persons held to service" escaping, 
 being in the bond, ought to be fulfilled, but in a 
 manner not to shock the moral sensibilities of the 
 community. 
 
 I am free to confess that the experiment of the 
 Fugitive Slave Law, — to which, in a moment of 
 alarm, (and I regret it,) I gave my assent, — the 
 frequent inhuman manner of its enforcement, 
 
16 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 wringing the heart with anguish, — the scenes in 
 Boston and elsewhere, — the new doctrines since 
 avowed, springing out of the concession, — fill my 
 mind with apprehension. The repeal of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise, the irritating and most ex- 
 ceptionable conduct of certain members of Con- 
 gress while on its passage, — a repeal which any 
 person predicting five years before would have 
 subjected him to be denounced as an idiot, an in- 
 cendiary, or a madman, — the unexampled outrages 
 in Kansas, and the growing excitements in all 
 parts of the Union, (sounding like the moan of 
 the storm-demon along the base of the mountains,) 
 — lead me to believe that a crisis has arrived when 
 the slave-question must be met — met on both sides 
 by the sober-minded, the wise, the prudent, the 
 true conservative friends of the Constitution, the 
 friends of this glorious Union, and of the great 
 principles of religious and civil liberty contended 
 for by our fathers. 
 
 Look at Mexico; run your eye over all South 
 America; turn to Africa; scan Asia; examine 
 Europe : is there aught in the whole vast scope of 
 vision to lead one sensible and good man to desire 
 
THE EVIL AXD THE REMEDY. 17 
 
 an exchange, but rather to deprecate, curb, and 
 restrain every rash footstep that would lead to 
 revolution, anarchy, and civil war? In the midst 
 of a stormy ocean, shall we break the ship in 
 pieces, each of the crew depending upon a chance 
 plank for safety when the sea is covered with 
 wrecks ? 
 
 One step farther at Boston, and a platoon of 
 regular soldiers might have poured a volley of 
 death into the crowded street; and who so pre- 
 scient as to aver that civil war, in all its horrors, 
 may not have ensued? An obscure smith, avenging 
 the insult of a tax-gatherer to his daughter, set all 
 England in a blaze. The "king, who was deter- 
 mined to try it," and his prime minister, North, 
 had, or thought they had, law on their side, and 
 were persuaded, we are to suppose, they were right. 
 And so were those persuaded who had direction of 
 the military when Burns was arrested. But the 
 Adamses, Hancock, Warren, and others, differed 
 from the king; and thousands of patriots, pure as 
 they, with equally honest convictions, believe the 
 recent measures in train equally despotic in their 
 present aspect, and deem them not less fraught 
 
18 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 with danger to freedom and all that can make life 
 desirable. 
 
 When Stringfellow attempted to throttle and 
 chastise Governor Reeder, if equally-excited friends 
 had rushed in to his rescue, who so wise in fore- 
 sight as to aver that civil war would not then 
 have ensued ? 
 
 It seems to me we are marching over a maga- 
 zine of powder, above which is erected a temple 
 surpassing in beauty and exceeding in splendor 
 that famed one of Ephesus, and which, I should 
 fondly hope, in all our land there is no Eratos- 
 tratus base enough willingly to set fire to, yet 
 that is liable to be exploded by the passionate or 
 thoughtless rashness of excited and inconsiderate 
 partisans on either side. The recent event at 
 South Carolina College, in Columbia, is a melan- 
 choly exemplification of the bewildering power of 
 excited passion in uncorrupted youth, learned, 
 polished in manners, and, when free from excite- 
 ment, amiable to endearment, moving in the ele- 
 vated walks of refined society. 
 
 The opinion formerly entertained, that slavery 
 was an element of weakness, I am aware is dis- 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 19 
 
 carded, and that it is now regarded as a power of 
 great potency, capable of almost instant aggre- 
 gation and discipline, by means of which the North 
 may be governed at will. 
 
 A gentleman holding slaves, of high worth and 
 habitually amiable deportment, said, in the pre- 
 sence of the writer, in a free discussion of the 
 matter, in reply to a remark by a Northern man 
 "that slaves rendered the South comparatively 
 weak," " How mistaken ! So far otherwise," said 
 he, not vauntingly, but as expressing his clear con- 
 victions, "you lie at our mercy. These fellows, 
 taught to seize a mad horse by the head, know 
 nothing but obedience. We could place an army 
 in the field before you could begin the slow process 
 of rallying your militia." From the Rev. Mr. 
 Breckenridge's letter it seems manifest he enter- 
 tains the same opinion. It may be so. I hope the 
 experiment may never be tried. 
 
 With the terror excited by the Southampton at- 
 tempt at insurrection; with the scenes of St. Do- 
 mingo fresh in recollection, few who reflect and 
 are cautious in expressing their opinions, I think, 
 will say "there is no domestic danger." 
 
20 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 For my single self, I confess the principal cause 
 of fear is in an 
 
 INVADING FOREIGN ENEMY. 
 
 An army of 150,000 men, 20,000 of them 
 black regiments, trained and disciplined in the 
 West Indies, all arrayed with revolt-inciting "ban- 
 ners," would be indeed "terrible." Those who 
 look at the atrocities of the French revolution 
 while Robespierre and Danton ruled, — or the bar- 
 barities of the French in the war of 1756, when the 
 savages, armed with tomahawk and scalping-knife 
 by that refined nation, were set ferociously on our 
 defenceless frontiers, — or the blood-freezing enormi- 
 ties of the civilized Briton, playing the same death- 
 march to the slaughter of unresisting innocence, 
 with variations of increased cruelty, so late as the 
 war of the Revolution, — can hardly affect to doubt 
 that if interest, or passion, or policy, instigated the 
 measure, they, either one or both combined, would 
 renew the like sanguinary and cruel conflicts with 
 the aid of their African allies. 
 
 All this appears too horrible to be thought of. 
 To speak of it seems almost like treason. "Are 
 
THE EVIL AXD THE REMEDY. 21 
 
 they dogs, that they should do this thing?" And 
 yet what are they now doing? Where are the 
 legions of France and England at this hour, and 
 what, in the name of heaven and humanity, are they 
 about? How many lives have they already sacri- 
 ficed of their own and the Russians, on the cold, 
 lifeless pretence of policy, to preserve the balance 
 of power, forsooth, which oceans of blood have 
 never yet been able to establish ! 
 
 If it be a possible — nay, more, a probable — 
 danger, would it not be folly allied to weakness 
 not to take early, instant, effective measures to 
 disarm it? 
 
 A remark presses to my pen : — It is sometimes 
 asked, "What has the North to do with slavery?" 
 We answer, " It has to do with the already great 
 and growing slave representation and its rapidly 
 approaching overshadowing influence in the Senate 
 and the General Government." The militia of 
 the North, every man of them, are constitutionally 
 bound to march at the call of the President to 
 Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, or elsewhere, to put 
 down an insurrection of slaves. 
 
 Nor is the danger to be disregarded arising from 
 
22 THE OLIVE BRANCHJ OR, 
 
 the increasing mulatto, quadroon, and mustee popu- 
 lation accumulating in the South, — many of them 
 free, and a portion, not inconsiderable, partially 
 educated, while some are even versed in classical 
 literature and proficients in scientific attainments. 
 On all these, however fair in complexion, polished 
 in manners, or refined in taste, the ban of social 
 outlawry is irrevocably passed. Their depression 
 in the social scale, instead of humbling the mind 
 to passive acquiescence in their doomed position, 
 must kindle into intensest activity the spirit of 
 ambition, while bitterest hatred, smothered under 
 assumed respect, gathers daily strength in the 
 proud breast which pants for an opportunity to 
 revenge. With astonishing inconsistency, as it 
 appears to me, and lack of foresight, the South is 
 breeding and bringing up precisely the sort of men 
 to take the initiative in an attempt at revolution 
 and to lead in the field of battle, while super- 
 abundant materials of strong arms and willine 
 hearts, it is manifest to a distant observer, lie 
 amply before and all around them. Is it not 
 natural to suppose "I bide my time" is the whisper 
 of multitudes of those ostracized — the neither white 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 23 
 
 nor black, neither citizens nor slaves? If not, all 
 the teachings of history, of reason and experience, 
 are false. 
 
 The powder is scattered far and wide — the 
 seeds of threatening destruction. Accident, the 
 self-igniting slow-match, time and chance, all, un- 
 foreseen, may light the torch. Then will be the 
 call for a leader, — how important a material to 
 success in any enterprise is manifest from the 
 records of earliest time. It has grown into an 
 apothegm that "deer led by a lion are more to be 
 dreaded than lions led by a deer." What were 
 the armies of Macedon without Alexander ? of the 
 Eastern Empire without Belisarius? of France 
 without Napoleon? of England, in the Peninsular 
 campaign, without Wellington? 
 
 And what statesman is there, North or South, 
 the calibre of whose mind could carry his thoughts 
 beyond the engrossing questions that occupy the 
 buzzing insect-politicians that feed and fatten on 
 the public offal, — whether John Doe or Richard Roe 
 should occupy the White House or be sent minister 
 to England, — that is not fully aware of the well- 
 disciplined companies and regiments of blacks that 
 
24 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 parade, march, and countermarch, in the West 
 India Islands and elsewhere, prepared and des- 
 tined, in case of a desperate struggle and vengeful 
 war, to find employment in checking the rising 
 glories and humbling the proud boast of this 
 envied, dreaded, and therefore hated, republic? 
 
 Regarding the danger certain, more or less 
 remote, so also do I consider a preventive or 
 remedy imperiously demanded by the "common 
 welfare." 
 
 Who shall propose it? 
 
 Shall each one, waiting for another, sit down 
 in silence and despair until the number of slaves 
 has swelled to the portentous amount of ten 
 millions? How long, even with the present 
 decennial ratio of increase, before there might 
 be counted a million able to bear arms? 
 
 The thought is appalling! 
 
 There is another source of danger, too probable 
 and important to be omitted. I refer to that 
 which might arise from famine. The extreme 
 South, depending mainly on their cotton and 
 sugar crops, seems specially exposed to the danger 
 of want of food for their laborers. A frost, (the 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 25 
 
 extreme severity of the passing winter, bearing 
 its icy terrors far into Southern plains hitherto 
 deemed beyond the reach of danger, cannot fail, 
 methinks, to awaken inquietude in many a manly 
 breast little accustomed to fear,) the rot, the army- 
 worm, in multitudes, like the swarming grasshop- 
 pers that are spreading desolation all over Oregon 
 and Utah, would assuredly be attended with distress 
 to all, and possibly entail extreme suffering upon 
 the more numerous dependent class, who have, it is 
 supposed, neither the means nor the prospective 
 care to provide for the supposed contingency. 
 The suffering in Ireland from the loss of the po- 
 tato-crop, — the continued distress in Madeira from 
 the grape-failure, — the entire loss of the wheat- 
 crop in extensive districts in New York and some 
 Western States, which may become general, arising 
 from the sudden advent of a mere tiny yellow fly, 
 — all tend to show by what an " attenuated thread" 
 we hold the means of life. "Hunger,'' says the 
 old proverb, "will break through stone walls;" 
 while every possible effort would be made by 
 their masters, both from humanity and interest, 
 to obtain relief for laborers. Yet, suffering them- 
 
26 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 selves, their accustomed income cut off, it seems 
 evident the evil might become so intense — as in 
 European cities in time of scarcity — as to break 
 down all the mounds of authority; and, the dykes 
 once broken, who could stay the inundation? 
 
 Is the danger absolutely fanciful, indicated in 
 the Virginia debates, that a portion of this Union 
 may, by an unwise policy and an untoward series 
 of events, become a great negrodom empire, — a 
 sable despotism like Hayti, — the terror of all 
 around them? 
 
 My proposition, submitted with all due defer- 
 ence, is this: — 
 
 TJiat one hundred millions of dollars be appro- 
 priated for the gradual but certain extinguishment 
 of slavery in the seven States named, to wit: — 
 
 Delaware, Maryland, 
 
 Virginia, Kentucky, 
 
 Tennessee, Missouri, 
 Arkansas. 
 
 The public revenue is, happily, abundant. The 
 fact has been again and again stated — and I do not 
 learn that any man affects to doubt it — that our 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 27 
 
 government authorized the offer of one hundred 
 and fifty millions of dollars to purchase Cuba. 
 
 Now, I assume that, instead of augmenting the 
 number of slaves and slave States, it would be wiser 
 to lessen both, if it can be fairly accomplished 
 with the consent of those principally interested. 
 
 I cast about for some ground of division that 
 should be satisfactory, and come to the conclusion 
 that as, in constituting Congress, (Senate and 
 House,) a federal and popular combined basis had 
 worked well, I would introduce it here. Multiply 
 the whole number of slaves in those States by 
 sixty,— to wit: 1,150,008 x GO = 69,003,480, which, 
 divided by the number in each State, would give 
 each, on the popular basis, as follows: — 
 
 Delaware 132,000 
 
 Maryland 5,422,000 
 
 Virginia 28,351,080 
 
 Kentucky 12,658,860 
 
 Tennessee 18,367,540 
 
 Missouri 5,245,320 
 
 Arkansas 2,826,00 
 
 69,003,480 
 
 Leaving a balance of 30,996,520 
 
 100,000,000 
 
28 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 Now the federal number, as must be obvious, is 
 found by dividing that balance by seven : — 
 
 7)30,996,520(4,428,074. 
 
 Hence, Delaware would receive 132,000 
 
 4,428,074 
 
 4,560,074 
 
 Maryland 5,422,080 
 
 4,428,074 
 
 9,850,154 
 
 Virginia 28,351,680 
 
 4,428,074 
 
 32,779,754 
 
 Kentucky 12,658,860 
 
 4,428,074 
 
 17,086,934 
 
 Tennessee 14,367,540 
 
 4,428,074 
 
 18,795,614 
 
 Missouri 5,245,320 
 
 4,428,074 
 
 9,673.394 
 
 Arkansas 2,826,000 
 
 4,428,074 
 
 7,254,074 
 
 100,000,000 
 
 For this sum it is proposed a stock be issued by 
 the General Government of fifty millions of dol- 
 
THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 29 
 
 lars, bearing an interest of five per cent., pay- 
 able semi-annually, irredeemable for twenty years. 
 A further stock of fifty millions, bearing an interest 
 for the first five years of two per cent., the second 
 five years of three per cent., the third five years 
 of four per cent., and thereafter five per cent., 
 redeemable at pleasure. 
 
 To be delivered respectively to the States, or 
 either of them which shall pass laws, in the nature 
 of irrevocable contracts with the Federal Govern- 
 ment, that no person born on or after the fourth of 
 July, 1876, shall be a slave; and that after that 
 day slavery shall cease to exist within the limits 
 of the same, respectively. 
 
 And what would be the consequence? The 
 stock so appropriated would be felt throughout 
 this whole community of States only in its benefi- 
 cence, in the confidence and harmony it would 
 create and restore. It would bless those that 
 give and those that take. In the States re- 
 ceiving it there would be no sudden disruption 
 of existing ties. Business would flow on in its 
 accustomed channels, only stimulated into greater 
 healthful activity by abundant means. As the 
 
30 THE OLIYE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 Middle and Eastern States rose rapidly into opu- 
 lence from the increased activity given to trade 
 and industry by the capital distributed among 
 them of Federal stock, under the funding system. 
 
 Twenty years, (the time allotted by the Consti- 
 tution to terminate the slave-trade,) though it may 
 seem long in a man's life, is yet a brief period in 
 that of a nation. 
 
 The certainty that slavery would cease to exist 
 in these States would lead thousands and tens of 
 thousands of wholesome, moral, intelligent emi- 
 grants to hasten thither to a more southern aspect 
 and genial clime, — 
 
 " Where summer first unfolds her robes, 
 And where she longest tarries/' 
 
 hastening to partake of the productive soil, the 
 lovely climate, long the object of envy and desire, 
 but which mothers were reluctant to remove to 
 when their children must be brought up amid the 
 degraded African race. 
 
 Lands — cultivated farms, or wild — rising in value 
 to an amount enriching each State fourfold more 
 than the stock received. 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 31 
 
 Railroads, schools, colleges, manufactories, mills, 
 science, arts, education, every thing desirable to 
 improve and adorn life, would receive an imme- 
 diate and healthful impetus, quickened by the 
 inspiring influence of assured freedom. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind that this plan of com- 
 promise is founded on the principle suggested in 
 Mr. King's proposition in the Senate: — 
 
 "The interposition of the Federal Government, 
 and the application of public lands to accomplish 
 the end; thus substituting stock in money instead 
 of land." Approved by the distinguished Vir- 
 ginian, Mr. Brodnax. 
 
 And, in regard to the post nati, justified by that 
 eminent statesman, Mr. Rives. And that "some- 
 thing should he </<>ne" concurred in by the "whole 
 State of Virginia. Again and again it is pressed 
 on every intelligent citizen, who desires to com- 
 prehend the actual state of the case, to read the 
 proceedings and debates in the Virginia Assembly 
 immediately subsecpient to the Southampton in- 
 surrection. 
 
 Virginia! Virginia! charming Virginia! It 
 
32 THE OLIVE branch; or, 
 
 would require the imagination of a poet to paint 
 the instant and progressive advance which would 
 render perfect the wishes and hopes of thy noble 
 sons, whose fathers have gone down to the grave 
 darkling almost in despair, knowing the evil, but 
 seeing no remedy. Arise! Like Paul, shake the 
 benumbing viper from your hand ! You have but to 
 ivill it, and you are free, prosperous, and soon again 
 to be foremost in the rank of States. 
 
 Accompanying this great and healing measure, 
 equally desirable to us and more important than 
 the union of England and Scotland to them, 
 should be the immediate repeal of the Fugitive 
 Slave Law, so painfully, so dangerously irritating. 
 But, as the Federal Government is bound to see 
 that the Constitutional injunction be carried into 
 effect, an arrangement should be made that a 
 person escaping should be reclaimed as fugitives 
 from justice now are, — by the application of the 
 Governor of the State whence he fled to that of 
 the State that harbors him; and, on failure of 
 being delivered up, the General Government should 
 pay to the claimant one-half, or something more, 
 
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 33 
 
 of his assessed value, the amount to be charged 
 to the State so failing; the matter to be adjusted 
 in the final settlement of accounts between 
 them. 
 
 Slavery confined to those States whose pro- 
 ductions of cotton, rice, and sugar are supposed 
 to require their labor, all danger to them from 
 within or without would cease, and the utmost 
 degree of prosperity they are capable of would 
 ensue. 
 
 Receiving from the seven States who were in 
 a gradual train of winding up their concern with 
 them, the cotton and sugar plantations would be 
 supplied on moderate terms, and there could be no 
 motive hence to urge the reopening of the slave- 
 trade in the annexation of Cuba. 
 
 The jarring notes of discord throughout the land 
 would cease, so desirable everywhere, not least 
 desirable among our Christian friends. 
 
 There are fifteen million persons in the free 
 States. The sum to be paid, even if assessed on 
 them, would not come to seven dollars each, — not 
 thirty-five cents a year. The revenue from im- 
 
34 THE OLIVE BRANCH; OR, 
 
 ported silks alone would pay the interest and 
 redeem the stock within the twenty years. 
 
 An important consideration remains to be noted. 
 The power and application of steam have brought 
 Africa to our doors. 
 
 There should forthwith, from two to four — more 
 if necessary — large steamers be placed by Govern- 
 ment at the disposal of the Colonization Society; 
 five per cent., more or less, should be reserved, to 
 be expended by the Colonization Society under the 
 supervision of the President; the healthful high- 
 lands of Africa should be explored and purchased, 
 the colored race be aided home, encouraged, de- 
 fended; while their commerce would, like the full 
 breasts of the Roman daughter, return to our 
 merchants a revenue ample to repay every ex- 
 pense incurred. Civilization, knowledge, Chris- 
 tianity, would go in their train; and that fine 
 country, so susceptible of improvement, so long a 
 "Paradise lost," would, under Providence, by our 
 and their instrumentality, become a "Paradise 
 regained." 
 
 Oh, what a glorious theme ! 
 
THE EVIL AND THE EEMEDY. 35 
 
 Oh, from the sacred altar, " a coal like that which 
 touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire," to kindle 
 the eloquence of our clergy everywhere, and of 
 every denomination, to plead for it. 
 
 All which is respectfully submitted by 
 
 Charles Miner. 
 
 WlLKES-BAitRf:, Pa., March 17, 1856. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LB"** ?L C0NGRE - 
 

\ 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 HI mil m m inn i™ " " " 
 
 011 837 407 1 W