o • i " /S A* J^ . o " • - *<>^ L .P*-.!^-.*-?, ,**\'J^t.V fP^.C^,*' °o At. -, "^ * • » 1 • ' ^' >^ - • * o ^x^ %.^" **./ .'^'^r a5> ^^ \ 'WW.' ^"% -.IP/ /%. •-!^** ^^^% %.** ■*-./ **'\ S^cJfe^? Jk. FL ON THE AC^ AFIICIN IPFRENIICS SYHE READ AT THE SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONVENTIUxN, t HENRY HUGHES, i \§^ ^ OF MK. HEMKY HUGHES, OF MSSSISSIPFI. RExiD BEFORE THE SOUTHERN CONVENTION AT VICKSBURG, MAY 10, 1859, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE AFRICAN APPRENTICE SYSTEM. Pending the discussion of the resolutions of Mr. Spratt, of South CaroUna, in favor of the repealing of the laws of Congress prohibiting the African Slave Trade, by Mr. Henry Hughes, of' Mississippi, read the following Eeport. Mr. President : At the last meeting of the Southern Convention, the following resolution was adopted : "Resolved, That a committee of s^ven be appointed to report to the next Convention — "1. Whether, since the adoption of the Federal Con- stitution, the peculiar labor system of the Unit 3d States South has progressed. 2 "2. '■^Vhether the relations of * master to servant' is now identical with that originally contemplated by the Constitution. ^'3. Wjiether, if th3 labor sj'stem has essentially pro- gressed, and the relation of master and servant is not i le.itical with thg oiijinil ralation, will the elevation of African Apprentices^ into what may bs called War- ranteeism, instead of fc^lavery, be, after a term and pro- gress of twenty years, the elevation of the Apprentices into a labor-system contomplited by the Conststution." As chairman of the Committee, appointed in pursu- ance of this resolution, the undersigned begs leave to submit the following Feport and Resolutions : When the Constitution of the Unit3d States was formed, our negro-labor sj'stsm, was ia theory and prac- tice, Slavery ; its ultimate abolition was generally ex- pected ; the Constitution itself bears evidence of this, and so do the public debates and private correspondence. The general belief was, that the spirit of the Great Revolution would make the servants as free and inde- pendent of the masters, as it had made the masters free and independent of the King. Nor was this all : thero can be no kind of doubt that out* labor-system was, at the formation of the Constitution, a system of inhumanity and injustice. On this point all testimony ig concurrent. One error of the Revolutionary times, however, was as extraordinary as evil. The people and the people's statesmen knew truly two relations of servant to mas- tar, and therefore, deemed that only two labor-sys- tems Were possible. One was Slavery and the other free labor, consequently, while negro slavery was truly deemed to be inhuman and unjust, free labor was deem- ,ed to be its only substitute. Progress from slave labor was deemed a progress into free labor, and the destruc- tion of one system the construction of the other; hence the negro, when no longer a slave w.is to be a free hire- ling. It never occurred to the great Revolution's great lialnkers that bct^voen freedom at one oxtrcme, and idn- very attha othGr. the goldsn rnsan is libartv, that liber- ty IS the order of slavery Avithout its tyranny, and tlio immunity of freedom without its license, that in short, liberty is freedom inside of order. It never occurred to the tliinkers of the Revokition th : t there was a third labor-system, that this, whi'e not free labor and not slavery, combined all of their effects and none of their defects, and bore to them the relation which liberty bears to freedom on the one hand and slavery on the other. The Revolution's error, therefore, was that it knew slave labor and free labor, but ignoied hberty labor. The three labor-sj'stems, possible in civihzation, are however so distinct that every citizen can appre- ciate their essential differences. But since power to be economized must first bo systematized, what is a system? A system is nothing more than power acting in order. The States' economic power is the masters' and servants'. Hence, if they act in order, the action will be nothing more than their association, adaptation, and regulation, for these are the elements of order. And as of these ele- ments the chief is association, each labor-system will be characterized by the character of its associates and their association. In free labor — 1. The nature of the association of master and servant or capitalist and laborer, is not public but private. The association in law is not a pubhc but a private relation. 2. The motive to the association is desire. This is desire of either subsistence or bettered condition. 3. The origin of the association is a private contract. 4. The sanction of the association is government en- forcement or civil damages. 5. The continuance of the association is not warranted or systematic. The labor-movement is as the labor- motive, and this is desire. But in civihzation, desire of subsistence or of bettered condition, is not and cannot be systeniizcJ. Hence, imperfect association, imperfect adaptation, and imperfect regulation are essential imper- fections of free labor. The laborers work as long as they please and not as long as they ought. 6. The value of the association is the private contract or labor-obligation. This value measures the master's interest in the servant's existence and progress. The more valuable the labor-obligation, the greater the mas- ter's interest in the laborer. The labor-obligations how- ever are for short terms and not capitahzed or made ne- gotiable like other valuable obligations, but are for terms not systematic but accidentallj^ short or long. The labor- obligations are of course less valuable because not capit- alized or made negotiable. They also are less valuable because virtually terminable at the desire of the laborer, because the sanction of the obligation is civil damages, and laborers are not systematically responsible in civil damages, since the laborers are not the class who have but the class who have not. 7. The interests in the association are antagonistic. The servant's interest is the highest wages, and the mas- ter's the lowest wages. The two are in competition against each other. So too, the servant's treatment is proportioned to the master's interest, the master's interest is proportioned to the servant's value, and the servant's value is proportioned to the term of service, but this is variable and not systematic. In free labor therefore, the master takes systematic interest in the servant's existence and progress, or his subsistence, security,* health, educa- tion, enjoyment, morahty and religion. Such is the rule. 8. The numbers of the association tend not to suffi- ciency but to deficiency or superficiency. As a rule, there is in free labor always either a surplus or a scarcity of laborers. The cause is that the labor-obligations are not capitahzed or negotiable, and therefore cannot be transferred from one to another capitahst, and according to those laws of demand and supply, which realize the highest appreciation and therefore the best treatment of the laborer. In free labor therefore, the laborers must have the desire to go, the knowledge to go and the abil- ity, before they go to where most in demand. But the desire, knowledge and ability of the laboring class^ are proverbially not" systematic. Hence the free labor circu- lation is essentially not systematic, and either a scant or surplus population is the rule or reahzation. 9. The distribution of the association is not publicly but privately adjudicated. The adjudicator of wages is not a disinterested third person. Sometimes the masters and sometimes the servants decree what shall be the wages : if labor is deficient, the servants ; but if superfi- cient, the masters. 10. The wages of the association are decidedly just, underjust, or overjust. Justice is not the rule of distri- bution. Interest distributes. Hence the wages of the association are accidentally at, under or above the stand- ard of subsistence ; if under the standard, the reahzation is either unhealthy criminal want or mortal want ; but if over the standard, either waste, idleness or accumulation, accidentally. Such are the peculiarities of free labor. Slave labor resembles, in many essentials, free labor. The pecuharities of slavery are these : 1. The nature of the association of master and servant is Mke that of free labor — not pubhc but private. The master's relation, therefore, is not that of a public officer with public powers, rights, duties and responsibihties for pubhc purposes, but that of a private citizen to a private subject. The slave's master, therefore, is not a magis- trate, because not a responsible deputy of the State's just and regulated powers. 2. The motive to the association is not as in free labor — desire, but fear. Desire is the hireling's, but fear is the slave's labor-motive. The free system is voluntary labor; the fekve system la compiilt-ory labor: one's es- sence is competition, iind the other's is c )mpulsion. 3. The origin of the association is not as in free labor, a private contract, but a public custom. According to custom, slaves are such l)y captivity, nativity or purchase. 4. The sanction of the association is not as in free labor, the public power, but the private power. The mas- ter's private power was slavery's hideous peculiarity, and produced all its horrors. At the formation of the Con- stitution, our negro labor-system was slavery, and the master's powers were sovereign, irresistible, unlimited, and irresponsible. There might perhaps have been some statutes prohibiting the wanton slaughter of slaves, but such prohibitions were rather for the sake of public mor- als than the slave's protection. 5. The value of the association is the laborer himself, and not, as in free labor, the private contract or labor- obligation. In the free system, the labor-obligation is property ; but in the slave system, the laborer himself is f)roperty. The man himself is a negotiable chattel ; his soul is ignored ; he is a brute ; he can be sheared like a sheep, branded like a mule, yoked like an ox, hobbled like a horse, marked like a hog, and maimed like a cur ; he can be butchered like a beef, skinned Hke a buck, or scalded like a shoat ; he can be hurled into a fishpond to fatten and flavor lampreys, or smeared with tar and set on fire to light ungodly dances. 6. The continuance of the association is systematic. This is slavery's eminent advantage over free labor. The hireling's association is a variable, whose functions are climates, soils, idiosyncrasies, race, education, morahty, and religion. The free laborer thus works when he pleases, as long as he pleases, for whom he pleases, and for what he pleases. But the slave works not as he pleases, but as his master pleases. The slaves thus are economically so continuous, adaptable and regular, that strikes and idleness are virtually eliminated. Indeed, slavery is nothing more than labor obeying unchecked, unregulated, and irresponsible capital. 7. The interests of the association are sometimes an- tagonistic, as in free labor, and sometimes syntagonistic or harmonious. For instance, if there is such a superfi- ciency of slaves and such a deficiency of subsistence, that the subsistence is worth more than the slave, then his interest is antagonistic to his master's. Such in Africa is regularly the case. There a slight surplus of subsistees makes a great scarcity of subsistence. It, therefore, is economically the direct interest of the headman to kill the subsistee and save the subsistence. Hence, slaves in Africa are sometimes slaughtered by the thousand. As life is cheap and living dear, the slaughter is a savage saving. But if there should be such a demand for Afri- can labor that the subsistee would always be worth more than the subsistence, then the destruction, or even the discomfort of the slave in Africa would be against the owner's interest, and the slave's treatment would be proportioned to the slave's improved value. To Africa, therefore, the most sublime philanthrophy will be such a United States' demand for Africans as will make them worth on their own coasts not five but five hundred dollars. When Africans in Africa are worth five hundred dollars, then butcher chieftains, savage calculators, black and bloody economists will not cut three throats to save one barrel of rice, nor spill blood to punish the spilling of oil. Cannibalism would be economically suppressed; for if captives were worth five hundred dollars, their flesh would be worth about three dollars per pound. But even chieftains or wealthy headmen couUi not afford to eat meat worth three dollars per pound, and thus captives would be sold to the traders instead of being slain for the feasters, and would be cot- ton-pickers and christians instead of chops, cutlets and steaks. Regular human sacrifices also would cease, for even our wea thv churches could not afford regular of- 8 ferings so costly. It also is utterly impossible that ftluvvs Y/ortli five hundred dollars could be slaughtered at the master's grave. But more than all, if men in Africa were worth five himdred dollars, there would be a powerful check to th? chieftains' petty wars. Not even a savage headman would willingly risk in battle soldiers worth five hundred dollars each, and the breed- ing of slaves in peace would be more profitable than the capture of slaves in war. Indeed peace would be proportioned to its value, for such at last is the princi- ple which will ultimately solve the world peace-prob- lem. Hence, in Africa, as elsewhere, to increase the master's interest, or the slave's value is to abolish canni- balism, capricious killing, human sacrifices, caprici- ous murder, and x^etty wars. The formula is, that man's suffering, or in short savageism, is universally pro- portioned to man's value; the discomfort is directly as the depreciation, and the depreciation is diversely as the demand for laborers. Hence, the less demand, the more discomfort; the less worth, the more woe. For in every community are but two classes; one are those wdio have, and these are the capitalists; and the other those who have not, and these are the laborers. But their only possible means of subsistence are wages, and the wages of laborers are and must be proportioned to the demand for laborers. The laws prohibiting the slave trade have therefore been the curse of Africa, be- cause they have checked the demand and so depreciated laborers, that in Africa a stalwart man may now be bought for five dollars ! A human life worth five dol- lars ! ! Can it then be wondered that negroes in Africa are butchered like hogs when negroes are worth no more than hogs. Africans therefore must be econo- mized before either civilized or christianized. They, when worth three hundred dollars in Ashantee, will cease to be savages; when worth five hundred, they will cease to be heathens; and when worth seven hundred, they will be ahno.st equals of the eiihght- ened American neorro. 8., The numbers of the association accidentally tend to sufficiency, deficiency and superficiency. If the supply, of slaves is from captivity, the tendency is superficiency ; if from nativity, to deficiency ; and if from purchase, to sufficiency. , 9. The distribution of the association is not in free labor, 1 6t public but private. In slavery, the master distributes; but in free labor, the master sometimes, Sometimes the servant and sometimes both concurrently. . 10. The wages of the association arc accidentally just or nnderjust. Such are the ten peculiarities of slavery, the system opposite to free labor. The third, or composite labor-system, embodiesall of the efiects and none of the defects of the other two. It bearo to them the same relation which economic liberty bears to economic freedom on one extreme, and econo- mic liberty on the other. It therefore is not free labor, and not slave labor; but is liberty and labor. It in- deed is a system of so many felicities tha^ the more pa- triots, philanthropists and benign philosophers con.-ider) the more they will applaud it. And as the composite liow is virtually the negro labor-system of the United States, ?outh and therefore familiar to us all ; its happy peculiariities may soon be noted, for they are not less distinct than delighti*ul. 1. The nature of the association is not private, like that of free and slave labor, but public. The servants' relation to the master, therefore, is not that of hirelings to the hirer, nor that of slaves to the owner, but that of magistrates. This has been jutlici dly decided. By ju- dicial decision the master is not a private but a public person. The State to whom economic allegiance for the subsistence of all is as well due as political allegi- 10 ance for the security of all, associates, adapts and re- gulates the master's powers, rights, duties and respon sibilities. And as a magistrate is nothing more than one having, for public purposes public powers, rights duties and responsibilities, the master in the United States South, is a special subordinate magistrate, quali- fied for the conservation and administration of special public economy, special public peace, and special public health. 2. The motive to the association is not desire as in free, nor fear as in slave labor, but duty. The law of this duty is that everybody ought to work. Such is the law of nature. But both the free and labor systems realize a su plus of laborers, and are therefore against the law of nature, because the surplus , laborers are ne- cessarily unemp'oyed. and cannot do their natural duty. Hence, in civilization the three kin-s of labor are — vol- untary labor, whose motive is desire; compulsory labor, whose motive is fear; and perfunctury labor, who^e mo- tive is duty. The origin of the association is not a private contract as in free, nor a public custom as in slave labor, hut a naturjxl law. This is God's favorite statute, that every- body ought to work. The law is, in short, the assis- tance of all for the existence and progress of all. In this obligation of all to work, the obligor is the State and the obhgee the worker. The labor-obligation is the laborer's economic alle-giance. As this oblig tion is valuable to the State, in order to realize its highest appreciaton, and therefore its best con.-ervation and ad- ministration makes negotiable 6y transferrable the obli- gition. It thus is capitalized, and therefore subjected to the laws of capital. Then the State entrusts to the masters these capitalized labor-obhgations. Thus the masters are the !>tate's deputies, public officers or magis- trates to administer in responsibility to the State the public powers and duties transferred to them. 11 4. The sanction of the association is not as in slave labor — the private po^Ye^, but as in free labor — tlie pub- lic power. The master is a magistrate of limit d ju- risdiction. All punishment therefore must be magiste- rial. It must be begun in 1 .w, oontinued in law, and ended in law. The rule of the master's power is jus- tice. The State's jurisdiction is over high crimes and misdemeanors, and the master's over petty offences only. 5. The continuance of the association is systematic. In this system, as ii^ free labor, what is owned is the lubor-obligation. It, in this' system however, is syste- matically owned, aQd therefore may ba systematically administered ; but jn free labor is irregularly owmed, and therefore irregularly adrain'stered. Free labor, tlierefore, can never grow cotton, because only systema- tic labor can cultivate a syjsteniatic crop. England at length recognizes this simple principle, and now by means not of free laborers, but of pawns and slaves, has recently and alarmingly succeeded at Cape Coast Cas- tle, to cultivate cotton. G. The value of the association is not the laborer himself, as in slavery, bat the labor-obligation as in free labor. The value owned characterizes each system. In s-avery the value is in the laborer himself, qut ii^ the other two systems is in lh3 labor obliguti n. 7. The interests in the association are systematically syntagonistic, and not as in slave labor, sometimes an- obligatic and sometimes antagonistic. The master's in- terest in the labor-obligation is continuous, 8. The n ambers of the association tend to systematic sufficiency, and not as in free and slave labor, to defi- ciency and superficiency, accidentally. The only possi- ble method realizes this systematic sufficiency of popur lation. This method is the capitalization of the laborr obligations. When labor-obligations are capital, they cir^ (culate according to the laws of capital and hoek the hifj;l.ir est appreciation, hiysteniatic sufficieiic}- of i)opulatioii, This method is the capitalization of the labor obligations- When labor obHgations are capital, they circulate accord- ing to the laws of capital, and seek tlie highest apprecia- tion. Systematic sufficiency of population, however, is perfection; superficiency is the starvation of laborers, and deficiency, the waste of capital 9. The distribution of the association is publicly adjudi- cated, and not as in free labor, privately adjudicated by the masters only, the servants only, or by both concurrently^ nor as in slavery, by the masters only. The rule of the public distribution is justice, the ngent of tho distribution is the State, and the act of distribution is the ordinance jof work and wages. This ordinance is that regulating fhe negroes' hours of service, holidaj^s, and food, raiment"; habitation and peculium, and the other elements of their wages. As justice is the rule of distribution, the Avages distributed can never vary below the standard of subsist- ence. The State, which is the organ of justice, fixes the standard of subsistence, and the memljcrs of subsistees are locally adjusted accordingly. 10. The wages of tho association are systematically just, and not as in free and slave labor, accidentally just, under-just or over-just. But what is this third labor system? What is this com- posite system which warrants so many excellencies, which has tlie freedom of free labor Avithout its license, and the order of slaA^er}" Avithout its tyranny? If not free labor find not slave labor, Avhat is it ? It is order applied to the 'States Avorking forever. It is liberty labor. It is Avar- ranted association, ada])tation, and regulation. It is the labor system of the United States South, it s wakrantee- ISM. The labor system of the United States South, began in slavery, and progressed. This progress Avas from a sys- tem which the Constitution contemplated and disapproA'- ed. From the system contemjtlatcd by the Constitution, 13 our negro labor lias progressed to a S3\stein in wliicli no^^' the negro virtually has all the rights justly clue him. We may safely challenge any jurist to point out a single fundamental right now due, and not enjoyed by our mis. called slaves. " They have not, it is true, some peculiar franchises. This privation, however, is due to two facts, one temporary, and the other eternal. The abolition agr itation is the temporary fact. It justly disqualifies the negroes to enjoy certain rights of education, assemblage, and locomotion. The eternal fact is the Diversity of llaces. This fact necessitates caste for the puiit}^ and progress of races. But if the purity and i)rogress of races is the States sublimest duty, negroes must never be citizens, because pohtical amalgamation realizes sexual amalgamation. But the blood amalgamation of a superi- or and inferior race is degenerative, whicli is detestable, pernicious and danmable. Caste against ethnical incest and for the purity and progress of races, ought therefore to be the eternal fact, and negroes are never lo be citi- zens, for the Republic is Caucasian. In law, the difference between slave labor and our sys- tem as it was, and warrantee, or ours as it is, are as es- sential as indisputable. Slighter difierences under the Iloman law, distinguished from the slaves, the great la- boring class of Coloiti. Thus the learned and authorita- tive Guizot, says : — " The name of Coloni was in fact borne b}' the greater part of the agricultural population of the empire ; Colo- ni, riistid, originarii, adscrq^tii, inqtilirH, trihutarii, censiti, all these words meant one and the same social state, a special class inhabiting the rural districts, and de- voiing themselves to agricultural labors." " Men of this class were not slaves ; they even differ- ed ESSENTIALLY FROM THEM, and that in numerous charac- teristics." — '•Not only did the Roman law distinguish the bond laborers from the slaves, l)ut it often formally qualifies u the first by the iiameb' of /w?/, freehoru!' 4. Guizot't) Civilization, 37. In tjhe Ijest faith therefore, and Lti the strictest law, a .slight progress abolishes the legal status of the slave, and advances hi/n into a class of associate laborers, Avho, in 1^0 possible way are slaves, hii|t in essentials, differ from slaves. Some, however, may deny that our labor system has so fi;apidly progressed as to be jHow pure warranteeism. Even that mi\j be gi-anted, l)ut still if within the next jtweiiity yeai's, our negro labor system shall have progress- ed into Avarranteeism, this will be a progress into a sys- ,tem not contemplated by the Constitution. Wherefore, the negro labor syste;m of the United States ;South either is now wan anteesim, or hy progress may be- ,come such. If the S3^stem now is waVranteeism, it now is lawful to procure the immigration ,of Africans to be warrantees. But if our system naw is not .warranteeism, then African apprentices may be introduced, and as their terms of service expire, our S3^stem i^^ay progress into warranteeism. The apprentice's eleyation in warranteer ism, will be against neither the letter nor spirit of the United States Constitution and laws, becaus.e n,eyer con- templated, and therefore, never prohibited. Our States now have the right to procure the inmn'grar tion of African apprentices or contract laborers. These apprentices may, without a violation of the United States Constitution or statutes, be elevated int43 our labor sys- tem ; or African warrantees may be procured to immi- grate, wlienever any State shall enact this organic law : — - Be it enacted . That hereafter, our negro labor S3^stel,v shall be held, taken, and adjudged to be warranteeisiij, }.\^ •which the masters shall be magistrates, property in man shall be abolished, lal)or obligations shall be capitalized, .caste shall be maintained for the progress and purity of races,' the negroes never shall be citizens, the rule of the ^distribution as of the system shall be justice, the agent 15 of the distribution shall be the State, and the act of dis- tribution shall be the ordinance of work and wages. The adoption of the following resolution is therefore recommended : kesolvea, That a committee of five be appointed to ad- dress our State Legislatures in favor of the African Labor Supply. 54 W c^/ ^•N JL* o' •♦ >W^ /nV L«a *^ a\ >-• VNERT BOOKBINDING CranMlle Pi "'' t^*^ **.*« y^^'.^. ,*-^'' .-Jiii-i./^* .">