E 44 8 Xl7 .'j:,c ■ ».--■■-■■ -» .R. Class. Book. ^^ I x^ A ^®:iii®iii D'ELIVERED BEFORE THE VERMONT COLONIZATION SOCIETY, iWlont)ielfet% on wages', and lot him fake care of himself, than to engage to feed and clothe him coniti)rfably, for ail the work, that in such circum- ptances there is probability of his doing tjie year round. And every one knows, that few in the whole population are really effijctive men, or women, that do actually labour to any profit besides subsisting themselves. When from the products of these, is to be deducted the support of the aged, the sick, and the unproductive children on a plan- tation, what I pray you can remain for a luxurious master, and his extravagant household ? It must require good economy, on the best of land under such circumstances, to bring the year about, and not draw upon the future for present expenses. But when we consider the indolence and wastefulness of dependants, who are sure of sup- port, and add to this the ignorance and recklessness of those who hove no interest but that of a slave, embarrassment in property be- comes almost certain, and a matter of course to the master. This reasoning is fully substantiated by well known facts in the British West Indies. After all the overworking, exacted by the lash of the cctrL-ichip and to such extent, as to waste away the population, instead o\' permitting it to increase, the planters have been scarcely able to keep themselves from ruin even with a protecting duty, which goes to secure the sale of their sugars in Great Britain in preference to others. Strange to tell, in a climate, wliich requires but httle, and whcr J the masters furnieh almost no clothing, and whore incessant toil is exacted, with the exception of one hour and nn hair, from m;ii rise till sunset, amounting- lo no less tlian ten lionrs, ancl soinelimuii to twelve and fourteen, during j^ix days in tiie werk, tlie year round, yet the planters cannot live, as they are in the Iialiit of iivinrr, with- out the bounty of government, to the amomit of one nullion two hun- dred thousand pounds annually, on sugar alone, and on rollec, twen- ty-eight shillings per hundred weigiit. {Srr Ch. Ohs. pmum. ml. JVeg. S. ajvp. 1825, p. 826.) They cannot bring their articles into market in competition wiih the rest of the world, but after shortening tiie days of their field ne- groes by excessive overworking which wear them out quickly, they think it a great hardship that the way is not open for liiem, to got new recruits from Africa to supply the was 'o of death. If these facts, which are stated on the authority of parliamentary invosti'M- tion, are not sufficient to prove the unprofitableness of the slave sys- tem, as it actually exists, nothing can prove it. And in the United States nothing but the continual opening of new fields for the tn>- ployrnent of the surplus population of this class which our local situa- tion is adapted to produce in the rich bottom lands of the southwest, has hitherto prevented the cry of bankruptcy from reaching to the ultimate regions of the north, in so loud and terrific a note, as noth- ing but the alarm of insurrection, and general massacre could c.x- eeed. If it be objected to this statement that there is a willingness to re- tain the slave system, unprofitable and ruinous as it is, at the soutii, and great excitement is produced by every attempt to investigate the subject, I answer, that people ia embarrassed circumstances, and not knowing the true cause are easily excited, while, as yet they arc un- wiHing to abandon the course of long established business. Nor can they at once. But there are some who do see the evils, and the dis- profit of this system. The discussions of the subject in the public prints in the year 1825, in which several writers in the slave-holding states took an active part, manifestly show that thinking men both at the north and south have but one opinion. The greatest light however comes to us through the medium of the Englisii press, in their free discussions of their own systems of colonial slavery, and the remarks of travellers that visit the United States. It is from this source that many disqlosurea appear, which it would be hardly prudent for a northern man to make and whicli a southern man v.-oiil-l hot make.''' Perhaps tlie time is gone by, i:i which it was nccersaiy that the enormities of the slave system, should be brought to the light of day: and even allusions to them except for the support of argument we trust may shortly cease, by the common consent of all people ; when not only individuals, but state legislatures, and the national government shall make adequate appropriations to remove from us the burden under which our common country groans. ]\Ia- lyland set a noble example last March, when her legislature author- ized the American Colonization Society to draw one thousand dol- lars a year from her treasury to transport free persons of colour with- in that state to Liberia. I shall now proceed to the second argument, and t^liow, thai sound jtolicy requires the c > :trcd popul:Uion to be removed from Ihis country. It was the same year that our fathers landed at Plymouth, 1620, when for the first time, slaves to the nunfuor of about forty, were brouglit to the ancient colony at Jamestown, in Virginia. It was a mistaken policy to admit them, and to think of cultivating the vir- olicy ; and that would be lor the United States to buy of the slave holders tlic wliole amount of this alledged property, which by the original confederation of the states, and the constitution of the government, was admitted to be such, and which in that " day which tried mens souls" could not safely have been denied, or refused. But now, since the government is firmly established and the principles of right acknowledged with respect to the man of colour as well as the white, that may be redeemed with money, which was then conceded for the sake of political safety ; and the whole republic, like one great brotherhood on whom the smiles of prosperity rest, may deal righteously with that unfortunate race, as they have at If ngth eougiit to redress, though at a late period, the wrongs of the surviving revolutionary soldiers. It is a national con- cern. And may 1 not be permitted to suggest, that it would bo sound policy for the legislature of every state, immediately to make provision lor the removal of every coloured person within its limits, who is willing to go to Africa, and to declare as did the state of New- York, that all of them born after a certain period shall be free; and finally that the United States in a short scries of years, should purchase and remove, at the national charge, the whole of those whom it once consented to have kept in bondage .' Does not national jus- tice, national consistency and national safety require it .' The inter- est of individuals too, who hold slaves, will shortly require it accor- ding to the preceding statements, unless like the British governuicnt, with respect to the West Indies, we consent in one form or another to pay a bounty for slave grown produce. The argument from poli- cy will receive additional strength, while we consider as proposed — Thirdhj — The ari^^imcnlfrom righteousness. Here, it will be taken for granted that any thing which is morally wrong cannot be politically right. We know, we feel that there is ONE who " rules among the inhabitants of the earth, as well as in the armies of heaven," that hears the sighs of the captive, and sees the tears and stripes of the oppressed. If it were satisfactorily proved, that the master has an equal right to the services of the man of colour bought with his money, or raised 11 upon his eslato, as he has to the services of n. iioTsc or an ox ncquir- ed in hke manner, yet were it incumbent on liim in each cusc to kIiow an equivalent rendered for such service, and liio authority by wliicli he claims it. In the case of the brute the full equivalent, wlicrc no al)U8c in in- flicted, is the care and protection and sensitive comfort, furnished to the animal, and the authority is the special grant of the supremo ruler. Where every thing is as it should be, it proves a matter of nuitual accommodation, and it can be hardly determined, especially in liicse northern climates, which is most the servant, tlie man, vr the domcu- tic animal which he feeds and shelters, and ])ruvidos for in the dcptiis of winter, when if left to itself it would inevitably perisJi. But the case is different with the man who is a slave, though of the lowest grade of common intellect. He is possessed of a nature competent to provide for itself; and if there may be many cases in which slaves are not competent to pro- vide for themselves, though of adult age, these cases are wholly ad- ventitious, and would cease to exist, in the climate, to which they were originally adapted if not where they now arc. Tlie equivalent for service therefore is not the protection and subsistence afforded. Besides, the fact in many cases is, that no protection, and no subsist- ence is afforded, except that which the wretched man furinshes him- self, by spending one day in seven, and that too, the proper time of holy rest, in laboring on his provision grounds or attending the mark- et. Because the six days toil every week, under the lash of the driv- er or other stimulant equally cruel must needs be exacted, for which he receives absolutely no compensation. Tel! me not, that v>-hile in the vigor of life, he is paying the expenses of his ciiildhood, and lay- ing up support for old age. Tell me not, tiiat this is as much as many freemen do, who have no patrimonial estate. Be it so. Yet the free man all along has the enjoyment of the sweet ciiaritics of life ; and though always poor, may attain elevation, in the intellectu- al and moral scale of being, which stamps a worth upon his charac- ter, and ensures respect from his fellows, that can never be attained by him who is shut out from mental improvement, and exists under the degrading conviction, that he is a mere drudge, a chattel, a slave. There is no country under heaven, where this state of things, is so incongruous, and oppressive as in our own. For here every 12 citizen may aspire to better his condition, or seek whliout impediment the highest place for which he is quahfied. If this state of things, in comparison with other countries, be not known generally to the ignorant slave, thus heightening his misery by the contrast, yet it is seen by tiiousands whose bosoms are not steeled to the sufferings of others, and it fills them with pangs of re- gret, for they know it is unrighteous. The argument therefore from this source, goes to show that their relations to us, should be changed as soon as possible. And since it is morally impossible, that they should be raised to a participation of equality with us, they must be removed from us. Righteousness requires this, e\'en could there be assurance of the kindest treatment hereafter. But if an equivalent for service were rendered, as alleilged, in the first purchase money, the inquiry arises, whether it were rendered to the rightful claimant ? Was it paid to the slave himself, or to Jiis family or his kindred ? Ah no. He was torn from his family, liig kindred, and country, in the mid?t of alarm, and terror, conflagration and blood, occasioned for the very purpose of kidnapping, stealing and carrying off the defenceless. The purchase money was paid perhaps at the pubUc market, as for any other commodity which had several limes changed masters ; perhaps it was paid to the man who fitted out the ship and furnished it with manacles and fetters and chains to go on this expedition of robbery. And his agents in this nefarious traffic paid it to the manstealer in Africa, wlio headed the ruffiaji band tliat attacked and burnt the peaceful village. And thus it is that the purchase money, the equivalent for a life of servitude, the earnings of the slave, are advanced beforehand, to pay the price of robbery and manstcaling and murder, and all the korrors of the ?/uV/- ille pa^sdge, and the sufVorings of human beings crammed into the hold of a slave ship ! This is the manner in wliich slaves have been acquired, these three hundred years in the West Indies, and two hundred in North America ! And this is the tenure by which they were holden, at the formation of our national government. But as the knowledge of christian truth and civil rights advanced, and the consciences of men, who retained some traces of humanity, began to smite them, behold, the Jesuits were employed to find out from scripture, a title to the elave, which should prove as valid as the divine ri^hl of hin^s. They found it written, "cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants ^hall Ije be to his brethren." (Gen. ix. 25.) 1:; WiLliouI, stopping tv) inquire whetlior Caaaan or li.d dusceii.lat.te inhabited Africa or not, they concludod thtit none roiild bo more tru-' ly styled, "servant of servants," most nl.joct of nil servants, than the African rlaves. Thus they no( only justify, but applaud th« abominable system, as fnlfdling the prophecies of Noah, and the de- crees of the Almighty. So inig-ht the Jews bo justified and api-laiirl- ed for crucifying the Saviour. Bo might wo justify and applaud th-; foulest crimes that ever disgraced humanity. Bat again, they foui!