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M E M O 1 11
ON SLAVERY,
READ BEFORE THE
SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING,
OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
AT ITS ANNfJAL MEETING AT COLUAIBIA.
1837.
BY CHANCELLOR HARPER.
CHARLESTON:
PUBLISHED BY JAMES S. BURGErJ.
1838,
E. C. COUNCELL'S PlllNT.
ERRATA.
Page 6, 23d line from bottom for " equality" read inequulUy.
Page 6, 20th line from bottom, for "make" read mark.
Page 6, 9th " " for " would" read could.
Page 16, 16th " from top, for " labour" read labourer.
Page 17, 12th " from top, for " animate" read alleviate.
Page 26, 5th " from bottom, for " our" read one.
Page 43, 11th " from top, for " rich" read zoeak.
Page 45, 20th " from bottom, for " there" read then.
Page 49, 16th " from bottom, for " severe" read more.
Page 49, 14th " from bottom, for "necessary" read unnecessary.
Page 49, 17th " from top, for " horrid flame" read lurid flame.
Page 53, 20th " from top, for " Meotic Sea," read Sea of Moeris
Page 58, 26th " from bottom, for " prevalent" read pi-urient.
Page 59, 15th " from bottom, for " undoing" read undergoing.
Page 60, 22d " from bottom, for "fierce" read pure.
Page 60, 22d " from bottom, for •' defeated" read defecated.
Page 61, 5th " from bottom, for "uproot" read uproar.
MEMOIR.
The institution of domestic slavery exists over far the greater por-
tion of the inhabited earth. Until within a very few centuries, it may
be said to have existed over the whole earth — at least in all those por-
tions of it which had made any advances towards civilization. We
might safely conclude then that it is deeply founded in the nature of
man and the exigencies of human society. Yet, in the few countries
in which it has been abolished — claiming, perhaps justly, to be far-
thest advanced in civilization and intelligence, but which have had the
smallest opportunity of observing its true character and eflects — it is
denounced as the most intolerable of social and political evils. Its
existence, and every hour of its continuance, is regarded as the crime
of the communities in which it is found. Even by those in the coun-
tries alluded to, who regard it with the most indulgence or the least ab-
liorrence — who attribute no criminality to the present generation — who
found it in existence, and have not yet been able to devise the means
of abolishing it, it is pronounced a misfortune and a curse injurious
and dangerous always, and which must be finally fatal to the socie-
ties which admit it. This is no longer regarded as a subject of ar-
gument and investigation. The opinions referred to are assumed as
settled, or the truth of them as self-evident. If any voice is raised
among ourselves to extenuate or to vindicate, it is unheard. The
judgment is made up. We can have no hearing before the tribunal
of the civilized world.
Yet, on this very account, it is more important that we, the inhab-
itants of the slave holding States of America, insulated as we are, by
this institution, and cut off, in some degree, from the communion and
sympathies of tiie world by which we are surrounded, oi' with which
we have intercourse, and exposed continually to their animadversions
and attacks, should thoroughly vmderstand this subject and our
strength and weakness in relation to it. If it be thus criminal, dan-
gerous and fatal ; and if it be possible to devise means of freeing our-
selves from it, we ought at once to set about the employing of those
means. It would be the most wretched and imbecile fatuity, to shut
our eyes to the impending dangers and horrors, and " drive darkling
down tlie current of our fate," till we are overwhelmed in the final
destruction. If we are tyrants, cruel, unjust, oppressive, let us hum-
ble ourselves and repent in the siglit of Heaven, that the foul stain
may be cleansed, and we enabled to stand erect as having common
claims to humanity with our fellow men.
But if we are nothing of all this ; if we commit no injustice or
cruelty ; if the maintenance of our institutions be essential to our
prosperity, our character, our safety, and the safety of all that is dear
to us, let us enlighten our minds and fortify our hearts to defend them.
It is a somewhat singular evidence of the indisposition of the rest o
the world to hear any thing more on this subject, that perhaps the most
profound, original and truly philosophical treatise, which has appeared
within the time of my recollection.* seems not to have attracted the
slightest attention out of the limits of the slave holding States them-
selves. If truth, reason and conclusive argument, propounded with
admirable temper and perfect candour, might be supposed to have an
effect on the minds of men, we should think this work would have
put an end to agitation on the subject. The author has rendered in-
appreciable service to the South in enlightening them on the subject
of their own institutions, and turning back thatinonstrous tide of follv
and m^-idness which, if it had rolled on, would have involved his own
great Stale along with the rest of the slave holding States in a com-
mon ruin. But beyond these, he seems to have produced no effect
whatever. The denouncers of Slavery, with whose productions the
press groans, seem to be unaware of his existence — unaware tliat
there is reason to be encountered, or argument to be answered. They
assume that the truth is known and settled, and only requires to be
enforced by denunciation.
Another vindicator of the South has appeared in an individual who
is among those that have done honour to American literature. t With
conckisive argument, and great force of expression he has defended
Slavery from the charge of injustice or immorahty, and shewn clearly
the unspeakable cruelty and mischief which must result from any
scheme of abolition. He does not live among slave holders, and it
cannot be said of him as of others, that his mind is warped by inter-
est, or his moral sense blunted by habit and familiarity with abuse.
These circumstances, it might be supposed, would have secured hnn
hearing and consideration. He seems to be equally unheeded, and
the work of denunciation disdaining argument, still goes on.
President Dew has shewn that the institution of Slavery is a prin-
cipal cause of civilization. Perhaps nothing can be more evident
than that it is the sole cause. If any thing can be ])redicated as uni-
versally true of uncultivated man, it is that he will not Jabour be-
yond what is absolutely necessary to maintain his existence. I^abour
is pain to those who are unaccustomed to it, and the nature of man
"President Dew's Review of tlie Virginia Dcliatos on tlie subject of Slavery.
tPaulding on Slavery.
5
is averse to p;iin. Even with all the training', tlie lielps and motives
of civilization, we faid that this aversion cannot be overcome in many
individnals of the most cultivated societies. The coercion of Slavery
alouo is adequate to form man to habits of labour. Without it, there
can be no accumulation of property, no providence for the future,
no taste for comforts or elegancies, which are the characteristics and
essentials of civilization. He who has obtained the command of ano-
ther's labour, first begins to accumulate and provide for the future, and
the foundations of civilization are laid. We find confirmed by
experience that which is so evident in theory. Since the existence of
man upon the earth, with no exception whatever, either of ancient or
modern times, every society which has attained civilization, has ad-
vanced to it through this process.
Will those who regard Slaveiy as immoral, or crime in itself, tell us
that man was not intended for civilization, but to roam the earth as a
biped brute ] That he was not to raise his eyes to Heaven, or be
conformed in his nobler faculties to the image of his Maker 1 Or will
they say that the Judge of all the earth has done wrong in ordaining
the means by which alone that end can be attained ? It is true
that the Creator can make the wickedness as well as the wrath of
man to praise him, and bring forth tlie most benevolent results from
the most atrocious actions. But in such cases, it is the motive of the
actor alone which condemns the action. The act itself is good, if it
promotes the good purposes of God, and would he approved by him,
if that result only were intended. Do they not blaspheme the provi-
dence of God who denounce as wickedness and outrage, that which
is rendered indispensable to his pur))oses in the government of the
world 1 Or at what stage of the progress of society will they say that
Slavery ceases to be necessary, and its very existeiice becomes sin and
crime t I am aware that such argument would have little clicct on
those with whom it would be degrading to contend — who j>ervert
the inspired writings — which in some parts expressly sanction Slavery,
and throughout indicate most clearly that it is a civil institution, with
which religion has no concern — with a shallowness and presumption
not less flagrant and shameless than his, who would justify murder
from the text, " and Phineas arose and executed judgment."
There seems to be something in this subject, which blunts the per-
ceptions, and darkens and confuses the understandings and moral
feelings of men. Tell them th.at, of necessity, in every civilized
society, there must be an infinite variety of conditions and employ-
ments, from the most eminentiand intellectual, to the most servile and
laborious ; that the negro race, from their temperament and capacity,
are peculiarly suited to the situation which tliey occupy, and not less
happy in it than any corresponding clas-s to be found in the worl.d ; prove
incontestably that no scheme of emancipation could be carried into
efiect without the most intolerable mischiefs and calamities to both
master and slave, or without probably throwing a large and fertile
portion of the earth's surface out of the pale of civilization — and you
have done nothing-. They reply, that whatever may be the consequence,
you are bound to do riglU ; that man has a right to himself, and ma»
cannot have a property in man ; that if the negro race be naturally
inferior in mind and character, they are not less entitled to the rights of
humanity ; that if they are happy in their condition, it affords but the
stronger evidence of their degradation, and renders them still more
objects of commiseration. They repeat, as the fundamental maxim
of our civil policy, that all men are born free and equal, and quote
from our Declaration of Independence, "that men are endowed by
their Cieator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
It is not the first time that I have had occasion to obseiTe that men
may repeat with the utmost confidence, some maxim or sentimental
phrase, as self-evident or admitted truth, which is either palpably false
or to which, upon examination, it will be found that they attach no
definite idea. Notwithstanding our respect for the important document
which declared our independence, yet if any thing be found in it, and
especially in'what may be regarded rather as its ornament than its
substance — false, sophistical or unmeaning, that respect should not
screen it from the freest examination.
All men are born free and equal. Is it not palpably nearer the truth
to say that no man was ever born free, and that no two men were ever
born equal 1 Man is bom in a state of the most helpless dependence
on others. He continues subject to the absolute control of others, and
remains without many of the civil, and all of the political privileges
of his society, until the period which the laws have fixed, as that at
which he is supposed to attain the maturity of his faculties. Then
equality is further developed, and becomes infinite in every society,
and under whatever form of government. Wealth and poverty, fame
or obscurity, strength or weakness, knowledge or ignorance, ease or
labor, power or subjection, make the endless diversity in the condition
of men.
But we have not arrived at the profundity of the maxim. This
inequahty is iu a great measure the result of abuses in the institutions
of society. They do not speak of what exists, but of what ought to
exist. Every one should be left at liberty to obtain all the advantages
of society which he can compass, by the free exertion of his faculties,
unimpeded by civil restraints. It may be said that this would not
remedy the evils of society which are complained of The inequali-
ties to which I have referred, with the misery resulting from them,
would exist in fact under the freest and most popular form of govern-
ment that man would devise. But what is the foundation of the bold
dogma so confidently announced ] Females are human and rational
beings. They may be found of better faculties and better qualified to
exercise political privileges and to attain the distinctions of society
than many men; yet who complains of the order of society by which
they are excluded from them 1 For I do not speak of the few who
would desecrate them ; do violence to the nature which their Creator
has impressed upon them ; drag them from the position which they
necessarily occuj)y for the existence of civilized society, and in which
they constitute its blessing and ornament — the only position which
they have ever occupied in any human society — to place them in a
situation in which they woidd be alike miserable and degraded. Lo\^
as we descend in combatting the theories of presumptuous dogmatists,
it cannot be necessary to stoop to this. A youth of eighteen may
have powers which cast into the shade those of any of his more
advanced cotemporaries. He may be capable of serving or saving
his country, and if not permitted to do so now, the occasion may
have been lost forever. But he can exercise no political privilege or
aspire to any political distinction. It is said that of necessity, society
inust exclude from some civil and political privileges those who are
unfitted to exercise them, by infirmity, unsuitableness of character, or
defect of discretion ; that of necessity there must be some general rule on
the subject, and that any rule which can be devised will operate with
hardship and injustice on individuals. This is all that can be said and
all that need be said. It is saying, in other words, that the privileges
in question are no matter of natural right, but to be settled by conven-
tion, as the good and safety of society may require. If society should
disfranchise individuals convicted of infamous crimes, would this be
an invasion of natural right 1 Yet this Avould not be justified on the
score of their moral guilt, but that the good of society required, or
would be promoted by it. We admit the existence of a moral law,
binding on societies as on individuals. Society must act in good
faith. No man or body of men has a right to inflict pain or pri-
vation on others, unless with a view, after full and impartial delibera-
tion, to prevent a greater evil. If this deliberation be had, and the
decision made in good faith, there can be no imputation of moral guilt.
Has any politician contended that the very existence of governments
in which there are orders privileged by law, constitutes a violation of
morality ; that their continuance is a crime, which men are bound to
put an end to without any consideration of the good or evil to result
from the change 1 Yet this is the natural inference from the dogma
of the natural equality of men as applied to our institution of slavery —
an equality not to be invaded without injustice and wrong, and requir-
ing to be restored instantly, unqualifiedly, and without reference to
consequences.
This is sufficiently common-place, but we are sometimes driven to
common-place. It is no less a false and shallow than a presumptu-
ous philosophy, which theorizes on the affairs of men as of a problem to
be solved by some unerring rule of human reason, without reference
to the designs of a superior intelligence, so far as he has been pleased
to indicate them, in their creation and destiny. Man is born to sub-
jection. Not only during infancy is he dependant and under the
control of others ; at all ages, it is the very bias of his nature, that
the strong and tlie wise should control the weak and the ignorant.
So it has been since the days of Ninu-od. The existence of some
form of Slavery in all ages and countries, is proof enough of this.
He is born to subjection as he is born in sin and ignorance. To
make any considerable progress in knowledge, the continued eft'orts
of successive generaLi(in.<, and tUc diliyeiit training and imvvearied
exertions of the individual arc requisite. To make progress in moral
virtue, not less time and ctVort, aided by superior help, are necessary ;
and it is only by the matured exercise of his knowledge and his vir-
tue, that he can attaiu to civil freedom. Of all things, the existence
of civil liberty is most the result of artificial institution. The procli-
vity of the natural man is to domineer or to be subservient. A noble
result indeed, but in the attaining of which, as in the instances of
knowledge and virtue, the Creator, for his own purposes, has set a
limit beyond which he we cannot go.
But he who is most advanced in knowledge, is most sensible of his
own ignorance, and how much must forever be unknown to man in
his present condition. As I have heard it expressed, the further you
extend the circle of light, the wider is the horizon of darkness. He
who has made the greatest progress in moral purity, is most sensible
of the depravity, not only of the world around him, but of his own
heart and the imperfection of his best motives, and this he knows
that men must feel and lament so long as they continue men. So
when the greatest progress in civil liberty has been made, the enlight-
ened lover of liberty will know that there must remain much inequal-
ity, much injustice, much Slavery, which no human wisdom or virtue
will ever be able wholly to prevent or redress. As I have before had
the honor to say to this Society, the condition of our whole existence
is but to struggle with evils — to compare them — to choose between
them, and so far as we can, to mitigate them. To say that there is
evil iu any institution, is only to say that it is human.
And can we doubt but that this long discipline and laborious pro-
cess, by which men are required to Avork out the elevation and im-
provement of their individual nature and their social condition, is
imposed for a great and benevolent end ? Our faculties arc not ade-
quate to the solution of the mystery, why it should be so ; but the
truth is clear, that the world was not intended for the seat of univer-
sal knowledge or goodness or happiness or freedom.
Man has hceii endowed by his CreatOKwith certain inalienahle rights,
among tvhich are life, liberty and tlie pursuit of hapjiiness. What is
meant by the inalienahle right of liberty % Has any one who has
used the words ever asked himself this question % Does it mean
that a man has no right to alienate his own liberty — to sell himself
and his posterity for slaves ? This would seem to be the more obvious
meaning. When the word right is used, it has reference to some law
which sanctions it, and would be violated by its invasion. It must
refer either to the general law of morality or the law of the country —
the law of God or the law of man. If the law of any country per-
mitted it, it would of course be absurd to say that the law of that
country was violated by such alienation. If it have any meaning in
this respect, it must mean that though the law of the country permit-
led it, the man would be guilty of an immoral act who should thus
alienate his liberty. A lit question for schoolmen to discuss, and the
consequences resulting from ils decision as important as from t\\\y of
theirs. Yet who will say that the mtn pressed by famine and in
pz'ospect of death, would be criminal for such an act 1 Self-preser-
vation as is tridy said, is the first law of nature. High and peculiar
characters, by elaborate cultivation, may be taught to i)refer death to
Slavery, but it would be folly to prescribe this as a duty to the mass of
mankind.
If any rational meaning can be attributed to the sentence I have
quoted, it is this : — That the society, or the individuals who exercise
the powers of government, are guilty of a violation of the law of God
or of morality, when by any law or public act, they deprive men of
life or liberty, or restrain them in the pursuit of happiness. Yet every
government does, and of necessity must, deprive men of life and lib-
erty for offences against society. Restrain them in the pursuit of hap-
piness ! Why all the la^vs of society are intended for nothing else
but to restrain men from the pursuit of happiness, according to their
own ideas of happiness or advantage — which the phrase must mean
if it means any thing. And by what right does society punish by the
loss of hfe or liberty ? Not on account of the moral guilt of the crim-
inal — not liy impiously and arrogantly assuming the i)rerogative of
the Almighty, to dispense justice or suftering, according to moral
desert. It is for iis own protection — it is the right of self-defence. If
there existed the blackest moral turpitude, which by its example or
consequences, could be of no evil to society, government would have
nothing to do Avitli that. If an action, the most harmless in its moral
character, could be dangerous to the security of society, society would
have the perfect right to punish it. If the possession of a black skin
would be otherwise dangerous to society, society has the same right to
protect itself by disfranchising the possessor of civil privileges, and
to continue the disability to his posterity, if the same danger would
be incurred by its removal. Society inflicts these forfeitures for the
security of the lives of its members ; it inflicts them for the security of
their property, the great essential of civilization ; it inflicts them also
for the protection of its political institutions; the forcible attempt to
overturn which, has always been justly regarded as the greatest crime;
and who has questioned its right so to inflict 1 " Man cannot have
property in man" — a ])hrase as full of meaning as, " who slays fat
oxen should himself be fat." Certainly he may, if tlie laws of society
allow it, and if it be on sulficient grounds, neither he nor society do
wrong.
And is it by this — as we must call it, however recommended to our
higher feelings by its associations — well-sounding, but unmeaning ver-
biage of natural equality and inalienable riglits, that our lives are to
be put in jeopardy, our property destroyed, and our political institu-
tions overturned or endangered ? If a people had on its borders a tribe
of barbarians, whom no treaties or faith could bind, and by whose
attacks they were constantly endangered, against whom they could
devise no security, but that they should be exterminated or enslaved ;
would they not have tlu; right to enslave them, and keep them in slavery
so long as the same danger would be incurred by their manumission '?
2
10
If a civilized man and a savage were by chance placed together on a
desolate island, and the former, by the superior power of civilization,
would reduce the latter to subjection, would he not have the same
right 1 Woidd this not be the strictest self-defence ] I do not now
consider, how far we can make out a similar case to justify our ensla-
ving of the negroes. I speak to those who contend for inalienable
rights, and that the existence of slavery always, and under all circum-
stances, involves injustice and crime.
As I have said, we acknowledge the existence of a moral law. It
is not necessary for us to resort to the theoiy which resolves all right
into f o rce. The existence of such a law is imprinted on the hearts of
all human beings. But though its existence be acknowledged, the
mind of man lias hitherto been tasked in vain to discover an unerring
standard of morality. It is a common and undoubted maxim of mo-
rality, that you shall not do evil that good may come. You shall not
do injustice or commit an invasion of the rights of others, for the sake
of a greater ulterior good. But what is injustice, and what are the
rights of others ] And why are we not to commit the one or invade
the others 1 It is because it inflicts pain or suffering, present or pros-
pective, or cuts them ofl" from enjoyment which they might other-
wise attain. The Creator has sufficiently revealed to us that happi-
ness is the great end of existence, the sole object of all animated
and sentient beings. To this he has directed their aspirations and
efforts, and we feel that we thwart his benevolent purposes when we
destroy or impede that happiness. This is the only natural right of
man. All other rights result from the conventions of society, and
these, to be sure, we are not to invade, Avhatever good may appear to
us likely to follow. Yet are we in no instance to inflict pain or suffer-
ing, or disturb enjoyment for the sake of producing a greater good %
Is the madman not to be restrained who would bring destruction on
himself or others % Is pain not to be inflicted on the child, when it is
the only means by which he can be eflectually instructed to provide for
his own future Imppiness % Is the surgeon guilty of wrong who am-
putates a limb to preserve life ] Is it not the object of all penal legis-
lation, to inflict suffering for the sake of greater good to be secured to
society %
By what right is it that man exercises dominion over the beasts of
the field; subdues them to painful labour, or deprives them of life
for his sustenance or enjoyment? They are not rational beings.
No, but they are the creatures of God, sentient beings, capable of
suffering and enjoyment, and entitled to enjoy according to the mea-
sure of their capacities. Does not the voice of nature inform every
one, that he is guilty of wrong when he inflicts on them pain without
necessity or object % If their existence be limited to the present life,
it affords the stronger argimient for affording them the brief enjoy-
ment of which it is capable, ll is because the greater good is effected;
not only to man but to the inferior animals themselves. The care of
man gives the boon of existence to myriads who would never other-
wise have enjoyed it, and the enjoyment of their existence is better
11
provided for while it lasts. It belongs to the being of superior facul-
ties to judge of the relations wliich shall subsist between himself
and inferior animals, and the use he shall make of them ; and he may
justly consider himself, who has the greater capacity of enjoyment,
in the fii'st instance. Yet he must do this conscientiously, and no
doubt, moral guilt has been incurred by the infliction of pain on these
animals, with no adequate benefit to be expected. I do no dispa-
ragement to the dignity of human nature, even in its humblest form,
when I say that on the very same foundation, with the diflerence only
of circumstance and degree, rests tlie right of the civilized and culti-
vated man, over the savage and ignorant. It is the order of nature
and of Goil, that the being of superior faculties and knowledge, and
therefore of superior power, should control and dispose of those who
are inferior. It is as much in the order of nature, that men should
enslave each other, as that other animals should prey upon each other.
I admit that he does this under the highest moral responsibility,
and is most guilty if he wantonly inflicts misery or privation on
beings more capable of enjoyment or sufiering than brutes, with-
out necessity or any view to the greater good which is to result.
If we conceive of society existing without government, and that
one man by his superior strength, courage or wisdom, could ob-
tain the mastery of his fellows, he would have a perfect right to do so.
He would be morally responsible for the use of his power, and guilty
if he failed to direct them so as to promote their happiness as well
as his own. Moralists have denounced the injustice and cruelty which
have been practiced towards our aboriginal Indians, by which they
liave been driven from their native seats and exterminated, and no
doubt with much justice. No doubt, much fraud and injustice has been
practised in the circumstances and the manner of their removal. Yet
who has contended that civilized man had no moral right to possess
himself of the country 1 That he was bound to leave this wide and
fertile continent, which is capable of sustaining uncounted myriads of
a civilized race, to a few roving and ignorant barbarians 1 Yet if any
thing is certain, it is certain that there were no means by which he
could possess the country, without exterminating or enslaving them.
Savage and civilized man cannot live together, and the savage can
only be tamed by being enslaved or by having slaves. By enslaving
alone could he have preserved tliem.* And who shall take upon liim-
self to decide that the more benevolent course and more pleasing to
God, was pursued towards them, or that it would not have been better
that they had been enslaved generally, as they were in particular
instances "? It is a refined philosophy, and utterly false in its applica-
tion to general nature, or the mass of human kind, which teaches that
existence is not the greatest of all boons, and worthy of being pre-
served even under the most adverse circumstances. The strongest
instinct of all animated beings sufficiently proclaims this. When the
last red man shall have vanished from our forests, the sole remaining
* I refer to President Dew on this subject.
12
traces of ]iis blood will be found among our enslaved population*
The African slave trade has given, and will give the boon of existence
to millions and millions in our country, who would otherwise never
have enjoyed it, and the enjoyment of their existence is better provided
for while it lasts. Or if, for th.e rights of man over inferior animals,
we arc referred to revelation, which pronounces — " ye shall have do-
minion over the beasts of the held, and over the fowls of the air," we
refer to the same which declares not the less explicitly —
" Both tlie bondmen and bondmaids which thou shalt have, shall
be of the Jieathenthat are among you. Of them shall you buy bond-
men and bondmaids."
" Moreover of the children of strangers that do sojourn among you,
of them shall ye buy, and of their tamilies that are with you, which
they begot in your land, and they shall be your possession. And ye
shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit
them by possession. They shall be your bondmen forever."
In moral investigations, ami^iguity is often occasioned by confound-
ing the intrinsic nature of an action, as determined by its consequence,
with the motives of the actor, involving moral guilt or innocence.
If poison be given with a view to destroy another, and it cures him of
disease, the poisoner is guilty, but the act is beneficent in its results.
If medicine be given with a view to heal, and it happens to kill, he
who administered it is innocent, but the act is a noxious one. If they
who begun and prosecuted the slave trade, practised horrible cruelties
and inflicted much suffering — as no doubt they did, though these have
been much exaggerated — for merely selfish purposes, and with no view
to future good, they were morally most guilty. So far as unnecessary
cruelty was practised, the motive and tlie act were alike bad. But
if we could be sure that the entire cfiectof the trade has been to pro-
duce more happiness than Avould otherwise have existed, we must
pronounce it good, and that it has happened in the 'ordering of God's
providence, to Avhom evil cannot be imputed. Moral guilt has not
been imputed to Las Casas, and if the importation of African slaves
into America, had the effect of preventing more suffering than it in-
flicted, it was good, both in the motive and the result. I freely admit
that, it is hardly possible to justify morally, those who begun and car-
ried on the slave trade. No speculation of future good to be brought
about could compensate the enormous amount of evil it occasioned.
If we should refer to the common moral sense of mankind, as de-
termined by their conduct in all ages and countries, for a standard of
morality, it would seem to be in favor of Slavery. The will of God,
as determined by utility, would be an infallible standard, if we had
an unerring measure of utihty. The Utilitarian Philosophy, as it is
commonly understood, referring oidy to the animal wants and en-
]>loyments, and physical condition of man, is utterly false and degra-
ding. If a sufficiently extended definition be given to utility, so as to
* It is not uiicommon, especially in Charleston, to see slaves, after many descents
and having mingled tlieir blood with the Africans, possessing Indian liair and features.
13
include every thing that may be a source of enjoyment or suffering, it
is for the most part useless. How can you compare the pleasures
resulting from the exercise of the understanrling, the taste and the
imagination, Avith the animal enjoynionts of the senses — the gratifica-
tion derived from a line poem with that from a rich lianquet < How
are we to weigh the pains and enjoyments of one man highly cultiva-
ted and of great sensibility, against those of many men of blunter ca-
pacity for enjoyment or sufl'ering 1 And if we could determine with
certainty in what utility consists, we are so short sighted with respect
to consequences — the remote results of our best considered actions,
are so often wide of our anticipations, or contrary to them, that we
should still be very much in the dark. But though we cannot arrive
at absolute certainty with respect to the utility of actions, it is always
fairly matter of argument. Though an imperfect standard, it is the
best we have, and perhaps the Creator did not intend that we should
arrive at perfect certainty with regard to the morality of many actions.
If after the most careful examination of consequences that we are
able to make, with due distrust of ourselves, we impartially, and in
good faith, decide for that whicli appears likely to produce the great-
est good, we are free fiom moral guilt. And I would impress most
earnestly, that with our imperfect and limited faculties, and short
sighted as we are to the future, we can rarely, very rarely indeed, be
justified in producing considerable present evil or suffering, in the ex-
pectation of remote future good — if indeed this can ever be justified.
In considering this subject, I shall not regard it in the first instance
in reference to the present position of the Slave-Holding States, or the
difficulties which lie in the way of their emancipating their Slaves, but
as a naked, abstract question — whether it is better that the institution
of praedial and domestic Slavery should, or should uot exist in civi-
lized society. And though some of my remarks may seem to have
such a tendency, let me not be understood as taking upon myself to
determine that it is better that it should exist. God forbid that the
responsibility of deciding such a question should ever be thrown on
me or my countrymen. But this I m ill say, and not without confi-
dence, that it is in the power of no human intellect to establish the
contrary proposition — that it is better it should not exist. This is
probably known but to one being, and concealed from human sagacity.
There have existed in various ages, and we now see existing in the
world, people in every stage of civilization, from the most barbarous
to the most refined. Man, as I have said, is not born to civilization.
He is born rude and ignorant. But it will be, I suppose, admitted
that it is the design of his Creator that he should attain to civilization :
That religion should be known, that the comforts and elegancies of
life should be enjoyed, that letters and arts should be cultivated, in
short, that there should be the greatest possible developement of mo-
ral and intellectual excellence. It can hardly be necessary to say
any thing of those who ha\e extolled the superior virtues and enjoy-
ments of savage life — a life of physical wants and sufferings, of con-
tinual insecurity, of furious passions and depraved vices. Those who
14
have praised savage life, are those who have known nothing of it, or
who have become savages themselves. But as I have said, so far as
reason or universal experience instruct us, the institution of Slavery is
an essential process in emerging from savage life. It must then pro-
duce good, and promote the designs of the Creator.
I add further, that Slavery anticipates the henejits of civilization, and,
retards the evils of CIV iUzation. The former part of this proposition
has been so fully established by a writer of great power of thought —
though I fear his practical conclusions will be found of little vahic —
that it is hardly necessary to urge it.* Property — the accumulation
of capital, as it is commonly called, is the first element of civUization.
But to accumulate, or to use capital to any considerable extent, the
combination of labor is necessary. In early si ages of society, when
people are thinly scattered over an extensive teriitory, the labor neces-
sary to extensive works, cannot be commanded. Men are indepen-
dent of each other. Having the command of abundance of land,
no one will submit to be employed in the service of his neighbor. No
one, therefore, can employ more capital than he can use with his own
hands, or those of his family, nor have an income much beyond the
necessaries of life. There can, therefore, be little leisure for intellec-
tual pursuits, or means of acquiring the comforts or elegancies of life.
It is hardly necessary to say however, that if a man has the command
of slaves, he may combine labor, and use capital to any required ex-
tent, and therefore accumulate wealth. He shows that no colonies
have been successfully planted without some sort of Slavery. So we
find the fact to be. It is only in the Slave-Holding States of our con-
federacy, that wealth can be acquired by agriculture — which is the
general employment of our whole country. Among us, we know that
there is no one, however humble his beginning, Avho with persevering
industry, intelligence, and orderly and virtuous habits, may not attain
to considerable opulence. So far as wealth has been accumulated in
the States which do not possess Slaves, it has been in cities by the pur-
suits of commerce, or lately, by manufactures. But the products of Slave
labor furnish more than two-tbirds of the materials of our foreign com-
merce, which the industry of those States is employed in transporting
and exchanging ; and among the Slave-Holding States is to be found
the great market for all the productions of their industry, of whatever
kind. The prosperity of those States, therefore, and the civilization
of their cities, have been for the most part created by the existence of
Slavery. Even in the cities, but for a class of population, which our
institutions have marked as servile, it would be scarcely possible to
preserve the ordinary habitudes of civilized life, by commanding the
necessary menial and domestic service.
Every stage of human society, from the most barbarous to the most
refined, has its oAvn peculiar evils to mark it as the condition of mor-
*Tlie author of " Eugland and America" Wc do,' iTowcver, most indignantly
repudiate his conclusion, that we are bound to submit to a tariff of protection, as
an expedient for retaining our Slaves "the force of the whole Union, being required
to preserve Slavery, to keep down the Slaves."
15
tality ; and perhaps there is none but omnipotence who can say in
which the scale of good or evil most preponderates. We need say
nothing of the evils of savage life. There is a state of society eleva-
ted somewhat above it, which is to be found in some of the more thinly
peopled portions of our own country — the rudest agriculttiral state —
Avhich is thus characterized by the author to whom 1 have referred.
" The American of tiie backwoods has often been described to the
English as grossly ignorant, dirty, unsocial, delighting in rum and to-
bacco, attached to nothing but his rifle, adventurous, restless, more
than half savage. Deprived of social enjoyments or excitements, he
has recourse to those of savage life, and becomes (for in this respect
the Americans degenerate) unfit for society." This is no very inviting
picture, which though exaggerated, we know not to be without like-
ness. The evils of such a State, I suppose, will hardly be thought
compensated by unbounded freedom, perfect equality, and ample
means of subsistence.
But let us take another stage in the progress — which to many will
appear to ofter all that is desirable in existence, and realize another
Utopia. Let us suppose a state of society in which all shall have
})roperty, and there shall be no great inequality of property — in which
society shall be so much condensed as to aftbrd the means of social in-
tercourse, w itliout being crowded, so as to create difficulty in obtaining
the means of subsistence — in which every family that chooses may
have as much land as will employ its own hands, while others may
employ their industry in forming such products as it may be desirable
to exchange with them. Schools are generally established, and the
rudiments of education universally diftused. Religion is taught, and
every village has its church, neat thou«h humble, lifting its spire to
Heaven. Here is a situation apparently the most favorable to happi-
ness. I say apparently, for the greatest source of human misery is not
in external circumstances, but in men themselves — in their depraved
inclinations, their wayward passions and pei-verse wills. Here is room
for all the petty competition, the envy, hatred, malice and dissimula-
tion, that torture the heart in what may be supposed the most sophisti-
cated states of society ; and though less marked and offensive, there
may be much of the licentiousness.
But apart from this, in such a condition of society, if there is little
suffering, there is little high enjoyment. The even flow of life forbids
the high excitement which is necessary for it. If there is little vice,
there is little place for the eminent virtues, which employ themselves in
controlling the disorders and remedying the evils of society, which
like war and revolution, call forth the highest powers of man, whether
for good or for evil. If there is little misery, there is little room for
benevolence. Useful public institutions we may suppose to be crea-
ted, but not such as are merely ornamental. Elegant arts can be little
cultivated, for there are no means to reward the artists nor the higher
literature, for no one will have leisure or means to cultivate it for its
own sake. Those who acquire what may be called liberal education,
will do so in order to employ it as the means of their own subsistence
16
or advancement in a profession, and literature itself will partake of
the sordidness of trade. In short, it is plain that in such a state of
societj, the moral and intellectual faculties cannot be cultivated to
their highest perfection.
But whether that which I have described be the most desirable state
of society or no, it is certain that it cannot continue. Mutation and
progress is the condition of human atfairs. Though retarded for a
time by extraneous or accidental circumstances, the wheel must roll on.
The tendency of population is to become crowded, increasing the dif-
ficulty of obtaining subsistence. There will be some without any
property except the capacity for labor. This they must sell to those
who have the means of employing them, thereby swelling the amount
of their capital, and increasing inequality. The process still goes on.
The number of laborers increases until there is a difficulty in obtain-
ing employment. Then competition is established. The remunera-
tio.i of the labor becomes gradually less and less ; a larger and larger
proportion of the product of his labor goes to swell the fortune of the
capitalist ; inequality becomes still greater and more invidious, until
the process encls in the establishment of such a state of things, as the
same author describes as now existing in England. After a most im-
posing picture of her greatness and resources; of her superabounding
capital, and all-pervading industry and enterprize ; of her public in-
stitutions for purposes of art, learning and benevolence ; her public
improvements, by which intercourse is facilitated, and the convenience
of man subserved ; the conveniences and luxuries of life enjoyed
by those who are in possession of fortune, or have profitable employ-
ments; of all, in short, that places her at the head of modern civili-
zation, he proceeds to give the reverse of the picture. And here I
shall use his own words. "The laboring class compose the bulk of
the people; the great body of the people; the vast majority of the
people — these are the terms by v/hich English writers and speakers
usually describe those whose only property is their labor."
" Of comprehensive words, the two most frequently used in Englisfi
politics, are distress and pauperism. After these, of expressions ap-
plied to the state of the poor, the most common ai-e vice and misery,
wretchedness, sufferings, ignorance, degradation, discontent, depravity,
drunkenness, and the increase of crime; with many more of the like
nature."
He goes on to give the details of this inequality and wretchedness,
in terms calculated to sicken and appal one to whom the picture is
new. That he has painted strongly we may suppose; but there is
ample corroborating testimony, if such were needed, that the repre-
.sentation is substantially just. Where so much misery exists, there
must of course be mucli discontent, and many have been disposed to
trace the sources of the former in vicious legislation, or the structure of
government ; and the author gives the various schemes, sometimes
contradictory, sometimes ludicrous, which projectors have devised as
a remedy for all this evil to which flesh is heir. That ill judged legis-
lation may have sometimes aggravated the general suffering, or that
17
its extremity may be mitigated by the well directed eftbrts of the wise
and virtuous, there can be no doubt. One purpose for whicii it has
been permitted to exist is, that it may call forth such efforts, and awa-
ken powers and virtues wliich would otherwise have slumbered for
want of object. But remedy there is none, unless it be to abandon
their civilization. This inequality, this vice, this misery, this Slavery,
is the price of England's civilization. They suifer the lot of humanity.
But perhaps we may be permitted humbly to hope, that great, intense
and widely spread as this misery undoubtedly is in reality, it may yet
be less so than in appearance. Wc can estimate but very, very im-
perfectly the good and evil of individual condition, as of ditlerent
states of society. Some unexpected solace arises to animate the seve-
rest calamity. Wonderful is the power of custom, in making the
hardest condition tolerable ; the most generally wretched life, has cir-
cumstances of mitigation, and moments of vivid enjoyment, of which
the more seemingly happy can scarcely conceive; though the lives of
individuals bg shortened, the aggregate of existence is increased ; even
the various forms of death accelerated by want, familiarized to the
contemplation, like death to the soldier on the field of battle, may
become scarcely more formidable, than what we are accustomed to
regard as nature's ordinary outlets of existence. If we could per-
fectly analyze the enjoyments and sutferings of the most happy, and
the most miserable man, we should perhaps be startled to find the
difference so much less than our previous impressions had led us to
conceive. But it is not for us to assume the province of omniscience.
The particular theory of the author quoted, seems to be founded on
an assumption of this sort — that there is a certain stage in the pro-
gress, when there is a certain balance between the demand for labor,
and the supply of it, which is more desirable tiian any other — when
the territory is so thickly peopled that all cannot own land and culti-
vate the soil for themselves, but a portion will be compelled to sell their
labor to others; still leaving, however, the wages of labor hifih, and
the laborer independent. It is plain, however, that this would in like
manner partake of the good and the evil of other states of society.
There would be less of equality and less rudeness, than in the early
stages ; less civilization, and less suftering, than in the latter.
It is the competition for employment, which is the source of this
misery of society, that gives rise to all excellence in art and
knowledge. When the demand for labor exceeds the supply, the
services of the most ordinarily qualified laborer will be eagerly
retained. When the supply begins to exceed, and competition
is established, higher and higher qualifications will be required, until
at length when it becomes very intense, none but the most consum-
mately skilful can be sure to be employed. Nothing but necessity
can drive men to the exertions which are necessary so to qualify them-
selves. But it is not in arts, merely mechanical alone, that this supe-
rior excellence will be required. It will be extended to every intellectual
employment; and though this may not be the eftect in the instance of
3
18
every individual, yet it will fix the liabits and character of the society,
and prescribe every where, and in every department, the highest pos-
sible standard of attainnieiit.
But how is it that the existence of Slavery as with us, will retard the
evils of civilization 'i Very obviously. It is the intense competition
of civilized life, that gives rise to the excessive clieapness of labor, and
the excessive cheapness of labor is the cause of the evils in question.
Slave labor can never be so cheap as what is called free labor. Politi-
cal economists have established as the natural standard of wages in a
fully peopled country, the value of the laborer's subsistence. J shall
not stop Jo inquire into the precise truth of this proposition. It cer-
tainly approximates the truth. Whei-e competition is intense, men
will labor for a bare subsistence, and less than a competent sub-
sistence. The employer of free laborers obtains their services
during the time of their health and vigor, without the charge
of rearing them from infancy, or supporting them in sickness
or old age. This charge is imposed on the employer of Slave
labor, who, therefore, pays higher wages, and cuts off the principal
source of misery — the wants and sutferiags of infancy, sickness, and
old age. Laborers too will be less skilful, and perform less work —
enhancing the price of that sort of labor. The poor laws of England
are an attempt — but an awkward and empirical attempt — to supply
the place of that which we should suppose the feelings of every human
heart would declare to be a natural obligation — that he who has re-
ceived the benefit of the laborer's services during his health and vigor,
should maintain him when lie becomes unable to provide for his own
suppoxt. They answer their purpose, however, very imperfectly, and
are unjustly, and unequally imposed. There is no attempt to appor-
tion the burden according to the benefit received — and perhaps there
oould be none. This is one of the evils of their condition.
In periods of commercial revulsion and distress, like the present,
the distress, in countries of free labor, falls principally on the laborers.
In those of Slave labor, it falls almost exclusively on the employer.
In the former, when a business becomes unprofitable, the employer
dismisses his laborers or lowers their wages. But with us, it is the
very period at which we are least able to dismiss our laborers ; and if
we would not suifer a further loss, we cannot reduce their wages. To
receive the benefit of the services of which they are capable, we must
provide for maintaining their health and vigor. In point of fact, we
know that this is accounted among the necessary expenses of manaffn-
ment. If the income of every planter of the Southern States, m. e
permanently reduced one half, or even much more than that, it wo id
not take one jot from the support and comforts of the Slaves. And
this can never be materially altered, until they shall become so unpr j-
fitable that Slavery must be of necessity abandoned. It is probable
that the accumulation of individual wealth will never be carried to
([uite so great an extent in a Slave-Holding country, as in one of free
labor ; but a consequence will be, that there will be less inequality and
less sufi'eruig.
19
Servitude is the condition of civilization. It was decreed, when the
command was given, " be fruitful, and multiply and replemsh the
earth, and subdue it," and when it was added, " in the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread." And what luiman being shall arrogate to
himself tlic authority to pronounce tliat our form of it is worse m itself,
or more displeasing to God than tliat wliich exists elsewhere ] Shall
it be said that the servitude of other coimtries grows out of the exi-
gency of their circurastances,'and therefore society is not responsible
for it ? But if we know that in the progress of things it is to come,
would it not seem the part of wisdom and foresight, to make provision
for it, and thereby, if we can, mitigate the severity of its evils '? But the
fact is not so. Let any one who doubts, read the book to which I
hiive several times referred, and he may be satisfied that it was forced
upon us by the extremest exigency of circumstances, in a struggle for
very existence. Without it, it is doubtful whether a white man would
be now existing on this continent— certain, that if there were, they
would be in a state of the utmost destitution, weakness and misery.
It was forced on us by necessity, and further fastened upon us, by the
superior authority of the mother country. I, for one, neitlier deprecate
nor resent the gift. Nor did we institute Slavery. The Atricans
brought to us had been, speaking in the general, slaves in their own
country, and only underwent a change of masters. In the countries
of Europe, and the States of our Confederacy, in which Slavery has
ceased to exist, it was abolished by positive legislation. If the order
of nature has been departed from, and a forced and artificial state of
things introduced, it has been, as the experience of all the world de-
clares, by them and not by us.
That there are great evils in a society where slavery exists, and
that the institution ^is liable to great abuse, I have already said. To
say otherwise, would be to say'that they were not human. But the
whole of human life is a system of evils and compensations. We
have no reason to believe that the compensations with us are fewer,
or smaller in proportion to the evils, than those of any other condition
of society. Tell me of an evil or abuse ; of an instance of cruelty,
oppression, licentiousness, crime or suffering, and I will point out,
and often in five fold degree, an equivalent evil or abuse in countries
where Slavery does not exist?
Let us examine Avithout blenching, the actual and alleged evils of
Slavery, and the array of horrors which many suppose to be its uni-
versal concomitants. It is said that the Slave is out of the protection
of the law ; that if the law purports to protect him in life and limb,
it is but imperfectly executed; that he is still subject to excessive la-
bor, degi-ading blows, or any other sort of torture, which a master
pampered and brutalized by the exercise of arbitrary power, may
think proper to inflict; he is cut off from the opportunity of intellec-
tual, moral, or religious improvement, and even positive enactments
are directed against his acquiring tlic rudiments of knowledge ; he is
cut off forever from the hope of raising his condition in society,
whatever may be his merit, talents, or virtues, and therefore depri-
-20
ved of the strongest incentive to useful and praiseworthy exertion ',
his physical degradation begets a corresponding moral degradation j
he is without moral principle, and addicted to the lowest vices, parti-
cularly theft and falsehood; if marriage be not disallowed, it is little
better than a state of concubinage, from which results general licen-
tiousness, and the want of chastity amongfemales — this indeed is not
protected by law, but is subject to the outrages of brutal lust ; both
Bexes are liable to have their dearest affections violated ; to be sold
like brutes; husbands to be torn from wives, children from pai-ents ; —
this is the picture commonly presented by the denouncers of Slavery.
It is a somewhat singular fact, that when there existed in our State
no law for punishing the murder of a slave, other than a pecuniary
fine, there were, I will venture to say, at least ten murders of free-
men, for one murder of a slave. Yet it is supposed they are less
protected, or less secure than their masters. Why they ai'e protected
by their very situation in society, and therefore less need the protec-
tion of law. With any other person than their master, it is hardly
possible for them to come into such sort of collision as usually gives
rise to furious and revengeful passions ; they offer no temptation to
the murderer for gain ; against the master himself, they have the secu-
rity of his own interest, and by his superintendence and authority, they
are protected from the revengeful passions of each other. I am by no
means sure that the cause of humanity has been served by the change
in jurisprudence, which has placed their murder on the same footing
with that of a freeman. The change was made in subserviency to the
opinions and clamor of others, who were utterly incompetent to form
an opinion on the subject ; and a wise act is seldom the result of le-
gislation in this spirit. From the fact which I have stated, it is plain
that they less need protection Juries are, therefore, less willing to
convict, and it may sometimes happen that the guilty will escape all
punishment. Hecuritij is one of the compensations of their humble
position. We challenge the comparison, that with us there have been
fewer murders of Slaves, than of parents, children, apprentices, and
other murders, cruel and unnatural, in society where Slavery does
not exist.
But short of life or limb, various cruelties may be practised as the
passions of the master may dictate. To this the same reply has beerl
often given — that they are secured by the master's interest. If the
state of Slavery is to exist at all, the master must have, and ought to
have, such power of punishment as will compel them to perform the
duties of their station. And is not this for their advantage as well
as his ? No human being can be contented, who does not perform
the duties of his station. Has the master any temptation to go be-
yond this % If he inflicts on him such punishment as will perma-
nently impair his strength, he inflicts a loss on himself, and so if he
requires of him excessive labor. Compare the labor required of the
Slave, with those of the free agricultural, or manufacturing laborer
in Europe, or even in the more thickly peopled portions of the non-
Slave-Holding States of our Confederacy — though these last are uo^
21
fair subjects of comparison — they enjoying, as I have saitl, in a great
degi-ee, the advantages of Slavery along.with those of an early and
simple state of society, Kead the English Parliamentary reports,
on the condition of the manufacturing operatives, and the children
employed in factories. And such is the impotence of man to reme-
dy the evils which the condition of his existence has imposed on him,
that it is much to be doubted whether the attempts by legislation to
improve their situation, will not aggravate its evils. They resort to
this excessive labor as a choice of evils. If so, the amount of their
compensation will be lessened also with the diminished labor ; for
this is a matter which legislation cannot regulate. Is it the part of
benevolence then to cut them off' even from this miserable liberty of
choice ? Yet would these evils exist in the same degree, if the labo-
rers were the property of the master — having a direct interest in pre-
serving their lives, their health and strength 1 Who but a drivelling
fanatic, has thought of the necessity of protecting domestic animals
from the cruelty of their owners 1 And yet are not great and wan-
ton cruelties practised on these animals % Compare the whole of
the cruelties inflicted on Slaves throughout our Southern country,
with those elsewhere, inflicted by ignorant and depraved portions of
the community, on those whom the relations of society put into their
power — of brutal husbands on their wives ; of brutal parents — sub-
dued against the strongest instincts of nature to that brutality by the
extremity of their misery — on their children; of brutal maste:r ~n
apprentices. And if it should be asked, are not similar cruelties in-
flicted, and miseries endured in your society % I answer in no com-
parable degree. The class in question are placed under the control
of others, who are interested to restrain their excesses of cruelty or
rage. Wives are protected fiom their husbands, and children from
their parents. And this is no inconsiderable compensation of the
evils of our system ; and would so appear, if we could form any
conception of the immense amount of misery which is elsewhere thus
inflicted. The other class of society, more elevated in their position,
are also (speaking of course in the general) more elevated in charac-
ter, and more responsible to public opinion.
But besides the interest of their master, there is another security
against cruelty. The relation of Master and Slave, when there is no
mischievous interference between them, is as the experience of all
the world declares, naturally one of kindness. As to the fact, we
should be held interested witnesses, but we appeal to universal na-
ture. Is it not natural that a man should be attached to that which is
This ovm, and which has contributed to his convenience, his enjoyment,
or his vanity ? This is felt even towards animals, and inanimate ob-
jects. How much more towards a being of superior intelligence and
usefulness, who can appreciate our feelings towards him, and return
them ] Is it not natural that we should be interested in that which is
dependant onus for protection and support? Do not men every
where contract kind feelings towards their dependants % Is it not
natural that men should be more attached to those -vvhom they have
22
long known — whom, perhaps, they have reared or been associated
with from infancy — than to one with whom their connexion has been
casual and temporary 1 What is there in our atmosphere or institu-
tions, to produce a perversion of the general feeHngs of nature 1 To
be sure, in this as in all other relations, there is frequent cause of of-
fence or excitement — on one side, for some omission of duty, on the
other, on account of reproof or punishment inflicted. But this is
common to the relation of j^arent and child; and I will venture to
say that if punishment be justly inflicted — and there is no temptation
to inflict it unjustly — it is as little likely to occasion permanent es-
trangement or resentment as in that case. Slaves are perpetual chil-
dren. It is not the common nature of man, unless it be depraved by
his own misery, to delight in witnessing pain. It is more grateful to
behold contented and cheerful beings, than sullen and wretched ones.
That men are sometimes wayward, depraved and brutal, we know.
That atrocious and brutal cruelties have been perpetrated on Slaves,
and on those who were not Slaves, by such wretches, we also know.
But that the institution of Slavery has a natural tendency to form
such a character, that such crimes are more common, or more aggra-
vated than in other states of society, or produce among us less sur-
prise and horror,*\ve utterly deny, and challenge the comparison.
Indeed I have little hesitation in saying, that if full evidence could be
obtained, the comparison would result in our favor, and that the ten-
dency of Slavery is rather to humanize than to brutalize.
The accounts of travellers in oriental countries, give a very favora-
ble representation of the kindly relations which exist between the
Master and Slave ; the latter being often the friend, and sometimes the
heir of the fomier. Generally, however, especially if they be English
travellers — if they say any thing which may seem to give a favorable
complexion to Slavery, they think it necessary to enter their protest,
that they shall not be taken to give any sanction to Slavery as it exists
in America. Yet human nature is the same in all countries. There
ai*e very obvious reasons why in those countries there should be a
nearer approach to equality in their manners. The master and Slave
are often of cognate races, and therefore tend more to assimilate.
There is in fact less inequality in mind and character, where the mas-
ter is but imperfectly civilized. Less labor is exacted, because the
master has fewer motives to accumulate. But is it an injury to a
human being, that regular, if not excessive labor should be required
of him ] The primeval curse, with the usual benignity of providen-
tial contrivance, has been turned into the solace of an existence that
Avould be much more intolerable without it. If they labor less, they
are much more subject to the outrages of capricious passion. If it
were put to tlie choice of any human being, would he prefer to be the
Slave of a civilized man, or of a barbarian or semi-barbarian 1 But
if the general tendency of the institution in those countries is to cre-
ate kindly relations, can it be imagined why it should operate diffe-
rently in^this ] It is true, as suggested by President Dew — with the
exception of the ties of close consanguinity, it forms one' of the most
2»
intimate relations of society. AnJ it will be more and more so, the
longer it continues to exist. The harshest features of Slavery were
created by those who were strangers to Slavery — who supposed that
it consisted in keeping savages in subjection by violence and terror.
The severest laws to be found on our statute book, were enacted by
such, and such are still found to be the severest masters. As society
becomes settled, and the wandering habits of our countrymen altered,
there will be a larger and larger proportion of those who were reared
by the owner, or derived to him from his ancestors, and who there-
fore will 1)0 more and more intimately regarded, as forming a portion
of his family.
It is true that the Slave is driven to labor by stripes ; and if the ob-
ject of punishment be to produce obedience or reformation, with the
least permanent injury, it is the best method of punishment. But is it
not intolerable, that a being formed in the image of his B'laker, should
be degraded by hloios ? This is one of the perversions of mind and
feeling, to which I shall have occasion again to refer. Such punish-
ment would be degrading to a freeman, who had the thoughts and
aspirations of a freeman. In general it is not degrading to a Slave,
nor is it felt to be so. The evil is the bodily pain. Is it degi'ading to
a child ] Or if in any particular instance it would be so felt, it is sure
not to be inflicted — unless in those rare cases which constitute the
startling and eccentric evils, from which no society is exempt, and
against which no institutions of society can provide.
The ^ilave is cut off from the means of intellectual, moral, and reli-
gious improvement, and in consequence his moral character becomes
depraved, and he addicted to degrading vices. The Slave receives
such instruction as qualifies him to discharge the duties of his particu-
lar station. The Creator did not intend that every individual human
being should be highly cultivated, morally and intellectually, for as we
have seen, he has imposed conditions on society which would render
this impossible. There must be general mediocrity, or the highest
cultivation must exist along with ignorance, vice, and degi-adation. But
is there in the aggregate of society, less opportunity for intellectual
and moral cultivation, on account of the existence of Slavery 1 We
must estimate institutions from their aggregate of good or evil. I
refer to the views which I have before expressed to this society. It is
by the existence of Slavery, exempting so Jarge a portion of our citi-
zens from the necessity of bodily labor, that we have a greater propor-
tion than any other people, who have leisure for intellectual pursuits,
and the means of attaining a liberal education. If we throw away
this opportunity, we shall be morally responsible for the neglect or
abuse of our advantages, and shall most unquestionably pay the pe-
nalty. But the blame will rest on ourselves, and not on the character
of our institutions.
I add further, notwithstanding ihdX equality seem^ to be the passion
of the day, if, as Providence has evidently decreed, there can be but
a certain portion of intellectual excellence in any community, it is
better that it should be unequally divided. It is better that a part
24
should be fully, and higldy cultivated, and the rest utterly ignorant.
To constitute a society, a variety of offices must be discharged, from
those requiring but the lowest degree of intellectual power, to those
requiring the very highest, and it should seem that the endowments
ought to be apportioned according to the exigencies of the situation.
In the course of human affairs, there arise difficulties which can only
be comprehended, or surmounted by the strongest native power of
intellect, strengthened by the most assiduous exercise, and enriched
with tlie most extended knowledge — and even these are sometimes
found inadequate to the exigency. The first want of society is —
leaders. Who shall estimate the value to Athens, of Solon, Aris-
tides, TKemistocles, Cymon, or Pericles ] If society have not lea-
ders qualified as I have said, they will have those who will lead them
blindly to their loss and ruin. Men of no great native power of in-
tellect, and of imperfect and superficial knowledge, are the most
mischievous of all — none are so busy, meddling, confident, presump-
tuous, and intolerant. The whole of society receives the benefit of
the exertions of a mind of extraordinary endowments. Of all com-
munities, one of the least desirable, would be that in which imperfect,
superficial, half-education should be universal. The first care of a
State which regards its own safety, prosperity and honor, should be,
that when minds of extraordinary power appear, to whatever depart-
ment of knowledge, art or science, their exertions may be directed,
the means should be provided of their most consummate cu.ltivation.
Next to this, that education should be as widely extended as possible.
Odium has been cast upon our legislation, on account of its for-
bidding the elements of echication to be communicated to Slaves.
But in truth what injury is done to them by this 1 He who works
during the day with his hands, does not read in intervals of leisure
for his amusement, or the improvement of his mind — or the excep-
tions are so very rare, as scarcely to need the being provided for. Of
the many Slaves whom I have known capable of reading, I have
never known one to read any thing but the Bible, and this task they
impose on themselves as matter of duty. Of all methods of reli-
gious instruction, however, this, of reading for themselves would be
the most inefficient — their comprehension is defective, and the em-
ployment is to them an imusual and laborious one. There are but
very few who do not enjoy other means, more effectual for religious
instruction. There is no place of worship opened for the white
pop"^"tion, from which they are excluded. I believe it a mistake, to
say liiai the instructions there given are not adapted to their compre-
hension, or calculated to improve them. If they are given as they
ought to be — practically, and without pretension, aiid are such as are
generally intelligible to the free part of the audience, comprehending
all grades of intellectual capacity, they will not be unintelligible to
Slaves. I doubt whether this be not better than instruction, addressed
specially to themselves — which they might look upon as a device of
the master's, to make them more obedient and profitable to himself.
Their minds, generally, shew a strong religious tendency, and they
&r6 foiul of assuming llie office of religioils ihsttuctel's loeacli othfer',
and perhaps their religious notions are not much mf)re extravagant
than those of a large portion of the fi-ee population of our countryt
I am ilot sure that there is a much smaller pioportion of them, than of
the free population, who make some sort of l-eligious profession. It
is ceitainly the master's interest that they should havepropeV religious
sentiments, and if he fails in his duty towards them, we may be sure
that the consequences will be visited not upon them, but upon him.
If there were any chartce of their elevating their rank and condition
in society, it might be matter of liaidship, tliat they should be de^
barred those rudiments of knowledge which open the way to fuither
attainments. But this they know cannot be, and that fuither attain-
ments would be useless to them. Of the evil of this, I shall speak
hereafter; A knowledge of reading, writing, and the elements of
arithmetic, is Convenient and important to the free laborer, who is
the transactor of his own affairs, and the guardian of his own inte-
l-e<5t;s — but of wh-it use would they be to the slave 1 These al<me do
not elevate the mind or character, if such elevation were desiral)le.
If we estimate their morals act^ording to that which should be the
standard of a free man's morality, then I grant they are degiaded in
morals — though by no means to the extent wiiich those who are un-
acquainted with the institution seem to suppose. We justly suppo?e>
that the Creator will require of man; the performance of the duties of
the station in which his Providence has placed him, and the cultivition
of the virtues which are adapted to their performance; that he will
make allov/ance for all imperfection of knowledge, and the absence of
the usual helps and motives whicli lead to self correction and improve-
ment The degi-udatioti of morals relates principally to loo?e noliors
of honesty, leading to petty thefts ; to falsehood and to licenticus in*
tercourse between the sexes. Though with resj-ect even to these, I
protest against the opinion which seems to be elsewhere enteitaincd,
that tliey arc universal, or that slaves, in respect to them, might not
Well bear a comparison with the lowest laborious class of other coun^
tries. But certainly there is much dishonesty leading to petty thefts.
It leads, however, to nothing else. They have no contracts or dea-*
lings which might be a temptation to fraud, nor do I know that their
characters have any tendency that way. They are restrained by the
constant, vijrilant, and interested superintendence which is exerc sad
over them, from the commission of otfences of greater magnitude— 'cven
ifthev were disposed to them — which I am satisfied they are not.
Notliinor is so rarely heard of, as an atrocious crime c<nnmitted by a
slave ; especially since they have worn off the savage character which
their progenitors brought with them fiom Africa. Their offences are
confined to petty depredations, principally for the gratification of their
appetites, and these for reasons already given, are chiefly confined to
the property of their owner, which is most exposed to theniv They
could make no use of a considerable booty, if they should obtain it,
It is plain that this is a less evil to society in its consequences and
example, than if committed by a freeman, whg iw master of his owa
4
3C
time and actions. "With reference to society tiien, tiie oftence is les*
in itself — rind may we not hope that it is less in the sight of God. A
slave has no hope that hy a course of integrity, he can materially ele-
vate his condition in society, nor csin iiis offence materially depress it,
or aff.^ct his means of support, or that of his family. Compared to
the freeman, he has no character to establish or to lose. He has not
been exercised to self-government, and being without intelieclual re-
sources, can less resist the solicitations of appetite. Theft in a free-
mnn is a crime; in a slave, it is a vice. I recollect to have heard it
said, in reference to some (]i?estion of a slave's theft which was agi-
tated in a Court, " Courts of Justice have no more to do with a slave's
stealing, than with his lying — that is a matter for the domestic forum."
It was truly said — the theft of a slave is no offence against society^
Compare ail the evils resulting from this, with the enormous amount
of vice, crime and depravity, which in an European, or one of our
Northern cities, disgusts the moral feelings, and. render life and pro-
perty insecure. So with respect to his fdsehood. I have never heard
or observed, that slaves have any peculiar proclivity to falsehood, un-
l3ss it he ill denying, or concealinof their own offences, or those of
their fellows. I have never heard of falsehood told by a slave for a
in dicious purpose. Lies of vanity are sometimes told, as amony the
weak and igimrant of other conditions. Falsehood is not attributed
to an individud charged with an offence before a Court of" Justice, who
pleaJs nift guiltij — - md certainly the strong temptation to escape puu-
ishmen% in the highest degree extenuates, if it does not excuse, false-
hood told by a slain'. If the object be to screen a fellow slave, the act
bears some semblance of hdelity, and perhaps truth could not be told
without breach of confidence. 1 know not how to characterize the
falsehood of a slave.
it has often been said by the denouncers of Slavery, that marriage
does not exist among slavt's. It isclilhcult to understand this, unless
wilful falsehdod were intended. We know timt marriages are con-
tracted ; may be, and often are, solemnized with the forms usual
amoanf other classes of society, and often faithfully adhered to du-
ring life. The law has not provided for makins" those marriages in-
dissoluble, nor coidd it do so- If a man abandons his wife, being
without property, and being both property themselves, he cannot be
FRijuired to maintain her. If he abandons his wife, and lives in a state
of co.icidiinaire with another, the law cannot punish him for bigamy.
It mav perhaps be meant that the chastity of wives is not protected
by law from the outrages of violence. I answer, as with respect to
their lives, that they are protected by manners, and their position.
Who ever heard of such outrages being offered ? At least as seldom,
I will ven'ure to say, as in other communities of different forms of
polity* Our reason doubtless may be, that often there is no disposi-
tio 1 to resist. Another reason also may be, that there is little tempta
tion to such violence, as there is so large a proportion of this class of
familes who set little value on chastity, and afford easy gi-atification to
tlte bot pasatous of men. It migUt U: supposed, from tiie i-cpreseat^
tions of some \rritGrs, that a slave-holding country were oor wide
stew for the indulgiiiice of unbridled lust. Particular instan:;es of in-
temperate and sliam^less dshauchery are related, \vh':cli may per-
haps be true, and it is left to be inferred that this is the universal state
of m.inners. Brutes and shameless debauchees there are in every
country; w^ know th:it if such things are related as general or cha-
racteristic, the re|)resent:iti()n is false. Who would argue from the
existence of a Col. Chartres in England, or of some individuals who
might, perhaps, be named in other portions of this country, of the
horrid dissoluteness of manners occasiuned by the want of the insti-
tution of Slavery. Yet the argument might be urged quite as fairl}',
and really it seems to me with a little more justice — for there such
depravity is attended with much more pernicious consequences. Yet
let us not deny or extenuate the truth. It is true that in this respect
the morals of this class arc very loose, (by no means so universally so
as is often supposed,) and that the passions of men of the superior
caste, tempt and lind gratification in the easy chastity of the females.
This is evil, and to be remedied, if we can do so, without the intro-
duction of greater evil. But evil is incident to every condition of so-
ciety, and as I have said, we have only to consider in which institution
it most predominates.
Compare these prostitutes of our country, (if it is not injustice to
call them so,) and their condition with those of other countries — the
seventy thousand prostitutes of London, or of Paris, or the ten thou-
sand of New- York, or our other Aorthern cities. Take the pic'ure
given of the first from the author whom I have before quoted. " The
laws and customs of England, conspire to sink this class of English
women into a state of vice and misery, below that which necessarily
belongs to their condition. Hence, their extreme degradation, their
troopers' oaths, their love of <rin, their <lesperate recklessness, and
the shortness of then- miserable lives."
" English women of this class, or rather ffirls, for few of them live
to be women, die like sheep with the rot ; so fast that soon there would
be none lefr, if a fresh supply wcn^ not obtained equ.d to the number
of deaths. But a fresh supply is always obtained without the least
trouble : seduction easily keeps pace with prostitution or moitality.
Those that die are, like factory children that die, instantly succeeded
by new competitors for misery and death," There is no hour of a
summer's or a wiiUer's night, i:i which there may not be found in the
streets a gh is:lv wretch, expiring under the double tortures of disease
and fimiiie. Thongli less aggravated in its features, the picture of
prostitution in New-York or Philadelphia would be oflike character.
In such communities, the unmarried woman who becomes a mo-
ther, is an outc ist from soci'-ty — ind though sentimentalists lament
the hardship of the case, it is justly and necessarily so. She is cut off
from the hope of useful and profii able employment, and driven by ne-
cessity to further vice, ijcr misery, and the hopelessness of retriev-
ing, render her desperate, u)itil slic siidis in o every depth of depravity,
aad is prepared for every crime that cuu coutamiuate aud iuf«»( 89ei««'
9B
ty. She has given birth to a human being, who, if it be so unfortu-
nate as to survive its miserable infVincy, is commonly educated to a
like course of vice, depravity and crime.
Compare with this tije female slave under similar circumstances.
She is not a less useful member of society than before. If shame
be attached to her conduct, it is such shame as would be elsewhere
felt for a venial impropriety. She has not impaired her means of
support, nor materially impaired her character, or lowered her station
in society ; she has done no great injury to herself, or any other hu-
man being. Her oflspring is not a burden, but an acquisition to her
owner; bis support is provided for, and he is brought up to usefulness j
if the IVuit of intercourse with a freeman, his condition is, perhaps,
raised somewhat above that of his mother. Under these circum-
stances, with imperfect knowledge, tempted by the strongest of hu-
man passions — unrestrained by the motives which operate to restrain,
but are so often found insufficient to restrain the conduct of females
elsewhere, can it be matter of surprise that she should so often yield
to the temptation 1 Is not the evil less in itself, and in reference to
society-— much less in the sight of God and man. As was said of
th, t — the want of chastity, which among females of other countries,
is sometimes vice, sometimes crime — among the free of our own, much
more aggravated ; among slaves, hardly deserves a harsher turn than
tha' of weakness, I have heard of complaint made by a free pros-
titute, of the greater countenance and indulgence shewn by society
towards colored persons of her profession, (always regarded as of an
inferior and servile class, though individually free,) than to those of
her own complexion. The former readily obtain employment; are
even admitted into families, and treated with some degree of kindness
and familiarity, while any approach to intercourse with the latter is
shuinied as contamination. The distinction is habitually made, and
it is foinided on the unerring instinct of nature. The colored prosti-
tute is, in foct, a far less contaminated and depraved being. Still
many, in spile of temptation, do preserve a perfectly virtuous conduct,
and I imagine it barilly ever entered into the mind of one of these,
that she was likely to be forced from it by authority or violence.
It may be asked, if we have no prostitutes from the free class of
society among ourselves. I answer in no assignable proportion. "With
general truth, it might be said, that there are none. When such a
case occurs, it is among the rare evils of society. And apart from
other and better reasons, which we believe to exist, it is plain that it
must be so, from the comparative absence of temptation. Our
brtjtbels, comparatively very few — -and these should not be permitted to
exisi; at all — are filled, for the most part, by importation from the cities
of our confederate States,^ where Slavery does not exist. In return
for the benefits which they receive from oiu- Slavery, along with tariffs,
bbels, opinions moral, religious, or political--»they furnish us also
with a supply of thieves and prostitutes. Never, but in a single in-
stance, have I heard of an imputation on the general purity of man-
«ers, among tiie free females of the slave-holding States, Such aa
a)
imputation, however, antl made in coarse terms, we have never heard
},ere — Jure when^ divorce was never kno'.vn — where no Court was ever
polluted hv an action for criminal conversation with a wife — where it
is related rather as matter of tradition, not unmingled with wonder,
that a Carolinian woman of education and family, proved false to her
conjugal faith — an imputation descrvinir only of such reply as self-re-
spect would forbid us to jrive, if respect for the author of it did not.
And can it be doubted, that this purity is caused by, and is a com-
pensation for the evils resulting from the existence of an enslaved class
of more relaxed morals?
It is mostly the warm passions of youth, which give rise to licen-
tious intercourse. But 1 do not hesitate to say, that the intercourse
which takes place with enslaved females, is less depraving in its eflects,
than when it is carried on with females of their own caste. In the first
place, as like attracts like, that which is unlike repels ; and though the
strength of passion be sufficient to overcome the repulsion, still the at-
traction is less. He feels that he is connecting himself with one of an
inferior and servile caste, and that there is something of degradation in
the act. The intercourse is generally casual ; he does not make her
habitually an associate, and is less likely to receive any taint from her
habits and manners. He is less liable to those cxtraordinaiy fascina-
tions, Avith which worthless women sometimes entangle their victims,
to the utter destruction of all })rinciple, worth and vigor of character,
The female of his own race offers greater allurements. The haunrs
of vice often present a sliew of elegance, and various luxury tempts
the senses. They are made an habitual resort, and their inmates as-
sociates, till the general character receives a taint from the corrupted
atmosphere. Not only the practice is licentious, but the understanding
is sophisticated ; the moral feelings are bewildered, and the boundaries
of virtue and vice confused. Where such licentiousness \ery exten--
sively prevails, society is rotten to the heart.
But is it a small compensatioji for the evils attending the relation of
the sexes among the enslaved class, that they have "universally the
opportunity of indulg-ng the first instinct ofnatm-e, bv forming matri-
nmnial connexions 1 What painful restraint — what constant eftbrt to
struggle against the strongest impulses, are habitually practised else^
where, and by other classes 'i And they must be practised, unless
greater evils would he encountered. On the one side, all the evils of
vice, with the miseries to which it leads — on the other, a marriao-e
cursed and made hateful by want— the sufl'erings of children, and
agonizmg apprehensions concerning their fiiture fate. Is it a small
good, that the slave is free from all this ] He knows that his own
subsistence is secure, and that his children will be in as good a condi,
tion as himself To a refined and intellectual nature, it may not be
dithcuh topra tise the restraint of which I have spoken. But the
reasoning from such to the great mass of mankind, is most fallacious,
lo these, the supply of their natural and physical wants, and the in-
dulgence of the natural domestic afibc tions, must, for the most part.
Bttord the greatest good pf wlUch thej are capable To the evils
30
which sometimes attend tiieir matrimonial connexions, aiisino- from
their looser morality, slaves, for cbri )us reasons, are comparatively
insensible. I am no apologist of vice, nor would I extenuate the
conduct of the profligate and unfeeling, who would violate the sanctity
of even these engagements, and occasion the pain which such violations
no doubt do often inflict. Yet such is the truth, and we cannot make
it otherwise. We know, that a woman's having been before a mother,
is very seldom indeed an oijjection to her being made a wife. I
know perfectly well how this will be regarded by a class of reasoners
or declaimers, as imposing a character of deeper horror on the whole
system ; but still, I will say, that if they are to be exposed to tiie evil,
it is mercy that the sensibility to it should be bluirted. Is it no com-
pensation also for the vices incident to Slavery, that they are, to a
great degree, secured against the temptation to greater crimes, and
more atrocious vices, and the miseries which attend them ; a"-aiiist
their own disposhion to indolence, and the profligacy which is its com-
mon result 1
But if they are subject to the vices, they have also the virtues of
slaves. Fidelity— often proof against all temptation — even death it-
self — an eminently cheerful and social temper — what the Bible im-
poses as a duty, but which might seem an equivocal viitue in the cade
of modern morality — -submission to constituted authorilv, and a dis-
position to be attached to, as well as to respect those whom they are
taught to regard as suj>eriors. They may have all the knowledge
which will make.them useful in the station in which God has been
pleased to place them, and may cultivate the virtues which will render
them acceptable to him. But what has the slave of any country^o
do with heroic virtues, liberal knowledge, or elegant accoinplishmerM ?
Jt is for the master ; arising out of his situation — imposed on him as
jduty — dangerous and disgraceful if neglected— to compensate for
this, by his own more assiduous cultivation, of the more generous vir-
tues, and liberal attainments.
It has been supposed one of the great evils of Slavery, that it af-
fords tiie slave no opportunity of raising himself to a higher rank in
society, and that he has, therefore, no inducement to meritorious exer-
tion, or the cultivation of his faculties. The indolence and careless-
ness of the slave, and the less productive quality of his lab^r,* ai'e
traced to the want of such excitement. The first compensation for
this disadvantage, is his security. If he can rise no higher, he is just
in the same degree secured against the chanCes of falling lower. It
has been sometimes made a q^uestion whether it were better for man
to be freed from the perturbations of ho|)e and fvar, or to be exposed to
their vicissitudes. But I suppose there could be little question with
respect to a situation, in which the fears must greatly predominate over
the hopes. And such, I apprehend, to be the condition of the laboring
poor in countries where Slavery do-^^s not exist. If not exposed to
present sufterinir, there is continual apprehension for the future — for
themselves — for^their children— -of sickness and want, if not of actual
starvatiotj. They expect to improve theii- circumstaaces ! WquIU
any person ot onlinary candor, say that there is one in a hundred oi
them, who does not well knovr, that with all tiie exertion lie can makCi
it is out of his power materially to improve his circumstances ? I
speak not so much of menial servants, who are j>;cnerally of a snpe-
rior class, as of the agricultural and nKinufacturing laborers. They
labor with no such view. It is the instinctive strusgle to preserve
existence, and when the superior efficiency of their labor over that of
oiy slaves is pointed oUtj as being animated by a free man's hopes,
might it not well be replied— it is because they labor under a sterner
compulsion. The laws interpose no obstacle to their raising their
condition in society. ''J'is a great boon — but as to the great mass, they
know that they never will be able to raise it — and it should seem not
very important in effect, whether it be the interdict of law, or imposed
by the circumstances of the society. One in a thousand is successful.
But does iiis success compensate for the sutierinas of the many who
are tantalized, baffled, and tortured in vain attempts to attfpn a like
result ? If the individual be conscious of intellectual power, the suffer-
ing is greater. Even where success is apparently attained, he some-
times gains it but to die — or with all capacity to enjoy it exhausted — -
Worn out inathe struggle with fortune. If it be true that the African is
an inferior variety of the human race, of less elevated character, and
more limited intellect, is it not desirable that the inferior laboring class
should be made up of such, who will conform to their condition v.itli^
out painful aspirations, and vain struggles 1
The slave is certainly liable to be sold. But, ])erhaps, it may be
questioned, whether this is a greater evil than the liability of the laborer,
in fully peopled countries, to be dismissed by his employer, with the
Uncertainty of being able to obtain em[»loyment, or the means of sub-
sistence elsewhere. " With us, the employer cannot dismiss his laborer
with(»ut providing liim with another employer. His means of subsis-^
tence are secure, and this is a compensation for much. lie is also
liable to be separated from wife or child — thoujjh not moi-e fre<(uentlyf
that I am aware of, than the exigency of their condiion compels the
separation of families among the laboring poor elsewhere — but fronf
native character and temperament, the separation is much less severe«
ly felt. And it is one of the compensations, that he may s!'stain these
relations without suffering a still severer penalty for the indulgence.
The love of liberty is a noble passion — to have the free, uncontrolled
disposition of ourselves, oUr words and actions. But alasf it is one
in which we know that a large portion of the human race can never be
gratified. It is mockery, to say that the laborer any where has suclJ
disposition of himself — though there may be an approach to it in some
peculiar, and those, perhaps, not the most desirable, states of society.
But unless he be properly disciplined and prepared for its enjoyment,
it is the most fatal boon that could be conferred^— fatal to himself and
others; If slaves have less freedom of action than other laliorers,
which I by no means admit, they are saved in a great degree from the
responsibility of self-govenunent, and the evils "springing from their
own penefse wills. Those who have looked most closeif iiitA Iifc}
Hiid know how threat a portion of litiman misery is derived" from these
sources — the undecided and waverinjr purpose — producinir ineffectual
exertion, or indolence with its thousand attendant evils-^the wayward
conduct— intemperance or protlioacy---will most appreciate this bene^
tit. The line of a slave's duty is marked out with precision, and he
has no choice but to follow it. He is saved the double ditficulty, fir.'<t
of determining the proper course for himself, and then of summoning
Up the energy which will sustain him in pursuing it;
If some superior power sholdd impose on the laborious poor of any
other country- — this as their unalterable condition^-you shall be saved
from the torturing anxiety concerning- your own future support, and
that of youi' children, which now pursues you through life, and
haunts you in death— you shall be under the necessity of regular and
healthful, though not excessive lab{)r"---in return, you shall have the
ample supply of your natin-al Wants-^you may f(jllow the instinct of
nature in becoming parents, without apprehending that this supply
will fail yourselves or yoUr children — yoU shall be supj)orted and re-
lieved in sickness, and in old age, Wear out the remains of existence
among familiar scenes and accustomed associates, without being
driven to beg, or to resort to the hard and miserable charity of a work
house— you shall of necessity be temperate, and shall have neither the
temptation nor opportunity to commit great crimes, or practice the
more destructive vices — how inappreciable would the boon be thought !
And is not this a very near a|)proach to the condition of our slaves ]
The evils of their situation they but lightly feel, and would hardly feel
at all, if they were not sedulously instructed into sensibility. Certain
it is, that if their fate were at the absolute disposal of a council of the
most enlightened philanthropists in Christendom, with unlimited re-*
sources, they could place them in no situation so favorable to them^
selves, as that which they at present occupy. But whatever good
there mav be, or whatever mitigation of evil, it is worse than valueless^
because it is the result of SUivary,
I am aware, that however often answered, it is likely to be repeated
aimin and again— how can that institution be tolerable, by which a
large class of society is cut oft' from the hope of improvement in
knowledge; to whom blows are not degrading ; theft no more than a
fixuh; falsehood and the want of chastity almost venial, and in which
a husband or parent looks with comparative indiftcrence, on that
which, to a freeman, would be the dishonoi of a wife or child '(
But why not, if it produces the greatest aggregate of good 1 Sin
and ignorance are only evils because they lead to misery. It is not
our institution, but the institution of nature, that in the progress of
society a portion of it should be exposed to want, and the misery
which it brings, and therefore involved in ignorance, vice, and depr<i-
vity. In anticipatinv some of the good, we also anticipate a portion
of the evil of civilization. But we have it in a mitigated form. The
want and the misery are unknown; the ignorance is less a misfortune,
03
Vecause tlie being in not tlie guardian of himself, and partly on ac-
count of that involuntary ignorance, the vice is less vice — less hurtful
to man, and less displeasing to God.
There is something in this word tSlaveri/ which seems to partake of
the qualities of the insane root, and distempers the minds of men.
That which would be true in relation to one predicament, they mis-
apply to another, to which it has no application at all. Some of the
virtues of a freeman would be the vices of slaves. To submit to a
blow, would be degrading to a freeman, because he is the protector of
himself. It is not degrading to a slave — neither is it to a priest or a
woman. And is it a misfortune that it should be so 1 The freeman
of other countries is compelled to submit to indignities hardly more
endurable than blows — indignities to make the sensitive feelings
shrink, and the proud heart swell ; and this very name of freeman,
gives them double rancour. If when a man is born in Europe, it
v/ere certainly foreseen that lie was destined to a life of painful la-
bor — to obscurity, contempt and privation — would it not be mercy that
he should be reared in ignorance and apathy, and trained to the en-
durance of the evils he must encounter? It is not certainly foreseen
as to any individual, but it is foreseen as to the great mass of those
born of the laboring poor ; and it is for the mass, not for the excep-
tion, that the institutions of society are to provide. Is it not better
that the character and intellect of the individual should be suited to
the station which he is to occupy ? Would you do a benefit to the
horse or the ox, by giving him a cultivated understanding or fine
feelings 1 So far as the mere laborer has the pride, the knowledge, or
the aspirations of a freeman, he is unfitted for his situation, and must
doubly feel its infelicity. If there arc sordid, servile, and laborious
offices to be performed, is it not better that there should be sordid, ser-
vile, and laborious beings to perform them 1 If there were infallible
marks by which individuals of inferior intellect, and inferior charac-
ter, could be selected at their birth — would not the interests of society
be served, and would not some sort of fitness seem to require, that they
should be selected for the inferior and servile ofiices ? And if this race
be generally marked by such inferiority, is it not fit that they should fill
them l
I am well aware that those whose aspirations are after a state of
society from which evil shall be banished, and who look in life for that
which life will never afford, contenq)lalc that all the offices of life
may be performed without conlv-mpt or degradation — all be regarded
as cujually liberal, or e(|ually respected. I5ut tlieorists cannot control
jiature and bend her to their views, and the inequality of which I
have before spoken is deeply founded in nature. The oftlces which
employ knowledge and intellect, will ahvays be regaided as more libe-
ral than those which only require the labor of the hands. When there
is competition for euq)loyment, he who gives it bestows a favor, and it
will be so received. He will assume; superiority from the power of
dismissing his laborers, and from fear of this, the latter will practise
deference^ often amounting to ser\ iluy. Such in time will become the
34
established relation between the enii)l()yer and the employed, the rich
and the poor. If want be accoin])aiiied with sordidness and squalor,
though it be pitied, the pity will be mixed with some degree of con-
tempt. If it lead to misery, and misery to vice, there will be disgust
and aversion.
What is the essential character of Slavery, and in what does it
dift'er from the servitude of other countries ? If I should venture on
a delinition, I should say that where a man is compelled to labor at
the will of another, and to give him much the greater portion of the pro-
duct of his laboi", there Slavery exists; and it is immaterial by what
sort of compulsion the will <if the laborer is subdued. It is what no
liuman being would do without some sort <jf compulsion. He cannot
be compelled to labor by blows. No — but what difference does it
make, if you can inflict any other sort of torture which will be equally
effectual in subduing the will 1 if you can starve him, or alarm him
for the subsistence of himself or his family '( And is it not under this
compulsion that the freeman labors % I do not mean in every parti-
cular case, but in the general. Will any one be hardy enough to say
that he is at his own disposal, or has the government of himself ? True,
lie may chaiige his employer if he is dissatisfied with his conduct to-
wards him ; but this is a privilege he would in the majority of cases
gladly abandon, and render the connexion between them indissoluble.
There is far less of the interest and attachment in his relation to his
employer, which so often exists between the master and the slave, and
mitigates the condition of the latter. An intelligent English traveller
has characterized as the most miserable and degraded of all beings,
" a masterless slave." And is not the condition of the laboring poor
of other countries too often that of masterless slaves % Take the fol-
lowing description of a free laborer, no doubt highly colored, quoted
by the author to whom I have before referred.
"What is that defective being, with callless legs and stooping shoul-
ders, weak in body and mind, inert, pusillanimous and stupid, whose
premature wrinkles and furtive glance, tell of misery and degradation ?
That is an English peasant or pauper, for the words are synonimous.
His sire was a pauper, and his mother's milk wanted nourishment.
From infancy his food has been bad, as well as insujfficient ; and he
now feels the pains of unsatisfied hunger nearly whenever he is awake.
But half clothed, and never supplied with more warmth than suffices
to cook his scanty meals, cold and wet come to him, and stay by him
with the weather. He is married of course ; for to this he would
have been driven by the poor laws, even if he had been, as he never
was, sufficiently comfortable and prudent to dread the burden of a
family. But though instinct, and the overseer have given him a wife,
he has not tasted tlie highest joys of husband and father. His part-
ner and his little ones being like himself, often hungry, seldom warm,
sometimes sick without aid, and always sorrov.ful without hope, are
greedy, selfish, and vexhig; so, to use his OAvn expression, he hates
the sight of them, and resorts to his hovel, only because a hedg^e af-
fords les.- shelter IVoni Ihr wind and rain, (/itni|)ell<'d by pari.^h lawM(»
support his family, wliicii means to join them in consmningan allow-
ance from the ])aVif-h, he frequently conspires with his wife to get that
allowance increased, or prevent its heing- diminished. This brings
beggary, trickery and (juarrelling, and ends in settled craft. Though
Ije iiave the inclination, he wants the courage to become, like more
energetic men of his class, a poacher or smuggler on a large scale,
bvit he pilfers occasionally, and teaches his children to lie and steal.
His subdued and slavish manner towards his great neighbors, shews
that they treat him with suspicion and harshness. Consequently, he
at once dreads and liates them ; but he will never harm them by vio-
lent means. Too degraded to be desperate, he is only thoroughly
depraved. His miserable career will be short ; rheumatism and asth-
ma arc conducting him to the work house ; where he will breathe las
last without one pleasant recollection, and so make room for another
wretch, who nmy live and die in the same way." And this description
or some other, not much less revolting, is applied to "the bulk of the
people, the great body of the people." Take the following description
of the condition of childhood, which has justly been called eloquent.*
"The children of the very poor have no young times ; it makes the
very heart bleed, to over-hear the casual street talk between a poor
woman and her little girl, a woman of the better sort of poor, in a
condition rather above die squalid beisigs we have been contemida-
tino-. It is not of toys, of nursery books, of summer holidays (fitting
that age) of the promised sight or play ; of praised sufficiency at
school. It is of mangling and clearstarching; of the price of coals,
or of potatoes. The questions of the child, that should be the very
outpourings of curiosity in idleness, are marked with forecast and
melanchofy providence. It has come to be a woman, before it was a
child. It has learnt to go to market ; it chaffers, it haggles, it envies,
it murmers ; it is knowing, acute, sharpened ; it never prattles." Ima-
gine such a description applied to the children of negro slaves, the
most vacant of human beings, Avhose life is a holiday.
And this people, to whom these horrors arc familiar, are those who
fill the world with clamor, conctjrning the injustice and cruelty of
slavery. I speak in no invidious spirit. Neitlier the laws nor the
government of England are to bo reproached with the evils which are
inseparable from the state of their society — as little, undoubtedly, are
we to be reproached with the existence of our Slavery. Including the
whole of the United States— and for reasons already given, the whole
ou«vht to be included, as receiving in no unequal degree the lieneht—
may we not say justly diat we have less Slavery, and more mitigated
Slavery, than any other country in the civilized world (■
That they arc called fr(>e, undoubtedly aggravates the suilerings of
the slaves of other regions. They see the enormous inequality winch
exists, and feel their own misery, and can hardly conceive otherwise,
than that there is some injustice in the institutions of society to occa-
sion tlvfise. They regard the apparently more fortunate class as op-
Essays of Elia.
3G
pressors, ami it acids bitterness, tliat thcj should be of tlie same nanre
and race. They feel indignity more acutely, and more of discontent
and evil passion is excited ; they feel that it is mockery that calls them
free. Men do not so much hate and envy those who are separated
from them by a wide distance, and some apparently impassible barrier,
as those who approach nearer to their own condition, and with whom
they habitually bring themselves into comparison. The slave with us
is liot tantalized with the name of freedom, to which his whole condi-
tion gives the lie, and would do so if he were emancipated to-morrow.
The African slave sees that nature herself has marked him as a sepc-
rate — and if left to himself, I have no doubt he would feel it to be an
inferior — race, and interposed a barrier almost insuperable to his be-
coming a member of the same society, standing on the same footing
of right and privilege with his master.
That the African negro is an inferior variety of the haman race, is-,
I think,, now generally admitted, and his distinguishing characteristics
are such as peculiarly mark him out for tlie situation which he occu-
pies among us. And these are no less marked in their original coun-
try, than as .we have daily occasion to observe them. Tlie most
remarkable is their indifference to personal liberty. In this they have
followed their instincts siiice we have any knowledge of their continent,
by enslaving each other; but contrary to the cxjierience of every other
race, the possession of slaves has no material eftect in raising the
character, and promoting the civilization of the master. Another trait
is the want of domestic aftections, and insensibility to tlic tics of kin-
dred. In the travels of the Landers, after speaking of a single ex-
ception, in the person of a woman who betrayed some ti-ansient emo-
tion in passing by the country from which slie had been torn as a slave,
the authors add : " that Africans, generally speaking, betray the
most perfect indifference on losing their liberty, and being de])rived of
tlieir relatives, while love of country is equally a stranger to their
breasts, as social tenderness or domestic affection." " Blarriage is
celebrated by the nations as unconcernedly as possible ; a man thinks
as little of taking a wife, as of cutting an ear of co-rn — affection is
altogether out of the question." Tliey are, however, very submissive
to authority, and seem to. entertain great rt;vercnce for chiefs, priests,
and masters. No greater indignity cair be ofl'ered an individual, than
to throw approbrium on his parents. On this point of their character,
I think I have remarked, that, contrary to the instir.ct of nature in
other races, they entertain less regard for ehiklren than for parents,
to whose authority they have been accustomed to submit. Their
character is thus summed up by the travellers quoted, " the few op-
portunities we have had of studying their characters, induce us to
iielieve that they are a simple, honest, inoffensive, but weak, timid,
and cowardly race. They seem to have no social tenderness, very
few of those amiable pri\ ate virtues which could win our affections,
and none of those public (pialities that claim respect or command ad-
miration. The love of country is not strong enough in their bosoms
to incite them to defend it against a despicable foe ; and of the actire
:J7
cncrcy, nnblc sentiment?, and contempt of clanger wliicli distiniruisbes
the North American tribes and otlier savages, no traces are to he
found among this slothful people. Regardless of the past, as reckless
of the future, the present alone iniliiciiees their aefions. In this re-
spect, they approach nearer to the nature of the brute creation, than
perhaps any other people on the face of the globe." Let me ask if
this people do not furnish the very material out of which slaves ought
to be made, and whether it be not an improving of their condition to
make them the slaves of civilized masters. There is a variety in the
character of the tribes. Some arc brutally, and savagely ferocious
and bloody, whom it would be mercy to enslave. From the travellers'
account, it seems not unlikely that the negro race is tending to exter-
mination, being daily encroached on, and overrun by the superior
Arab race. It may be, that when they shall have been lost fronj their
native seats, they may be found numerous, and in no unhappy condi-
tion, on the contiucnt to which they have been transplanted.
The opinion which connects form and features with character and
intellectual power, is one so deeply impressed on the human mind,
that perhaps there is scarcely any man who does not almost daily act
upon it, and in some measure verify its truth. Yet in spite of this
intimation of nature, and though the anatomist and physiologist may
tell them that the races difter in every bone and muscle, and in the
proportion of brain and nerves, yet there are some, who with a most
bigoted and fanatical determination to free themselves from what they
have prejudged to be prejudice, will still maintain that tliis physiog-
nomy, evidently tending to that of the brute when compared to that
of the Caucasian race, may be enlightened by as much thought, and
animated by as lofty sentiment, Wc who have the best opportunity
of judging, are pronouiiccd to be incompetent to do so, and to be
blinded by our interest and prejudices — often by those who have no
opportunity at all — and we are to be taught to distrust or disbelieve
that which we daily observe, and familiarly know, on such authority.
Our prejudices are spoken of. But the truth is, that, until very lately,
since circumstances have compelled us to think for ourselves, wc
took our opinions on this subject, as on every other, ready formed from
the country of our origin. And so deeply rooted were they, that we
adhered to them, as most men will do to deeply rooted opinions, even
against the evidence of our own observation, and our own senses.
If the inferiority exists, it is attributed to the apathy and degradation
produced by Slavery. Though of the hundreds of thousand scattered
over other countries, where the laws impose no diability upon them,
none has given evidence of an approach to even mediocrity of intel-
lectual excellence, this too is attributed to the Slavery of a portion of
their race. Tiiey are regarded as a scrvde caste, and degraded by
opinion, and thus every generous efl'ort is repressed. Yet tliough this
should be the general effect, this very estimation is calculated to
produce the contrary efllect.in particular instances. It is observed by
Bacon, widi respect to deformed persons and eunuchs, that tiiough in
general there is something of perversity in the character, the disad-
38
vantan^e often lends to extraordinary displays of virtue and excel-
lence. "Whosoever hath any thing fixed in his person that doth
induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself, to rescue and
deliver himself from scorn." So it would be with them, if they were
capable of European aspirations — genius, if they possessed it, would
be doubly ilrcd wilh noble rage to rescue itself from this scorn. Of
course, I do not mean to say that there may not be found among them
some of superior capacity to many white persons ; but that great
intellectual powers are, perhaps, never found among them, and that
in general their capacity is very limited, and their feelings animal and
coarse — fitting them peculiarly to discharge the lower, and merely me-
chanical offices of society.
And why sliould it not be so ] We have among domestic animals
infinite varieties, distinguished by various degrees of sagacity, con-
rage, strength, swiftness, and other qualities. And it may be observed,
that this is no objection to their being derived from a common origin,
which we su])pose them to have had. Yet these accidental qualities,
as they may be termed, liowever acquired in the first instance, we
know that they transmit unimpaired to their posterity for an indefinite
succession of generations. It is most important that these varieties
should be preserved, and that each should be applied to the purposes
for which it is best adapted. No i)liilo-zoost, I believe, has sug-
gested it as desirable that these varieties should be melted down into
one equal, undistinguished race of curs or road horses.
Slavery, as it is said in an eloquent article published in a Southern
periodical work,* to which I am indeljted for other ideas, " has done
more to elevate a degraded race in the scale of humanity ; to tame the
savage ; to civilize tlie barbarous ; to soften the ferocious ; to enlighten
the ignorant, and to spread the blessings of Christianity among the
hcatiien, than ;dl the missionaries that philanthropy and religion have
ever sent forth." Yet unquestionable as this is, and though human
ingenuity and thought may be tasked in vain to devise any other
means by which these blessings covdd have been conferred, yet a sort
of sensibility which would be only mawkish and contemptible, if it
were not mischievous, aflects still to weep over the wrongs of " injured
Africa." Can there be a dou])t of the immense benefit which has
been conferred on the race, by transplanting them from their native,
dark, and barbarous regions, to the American Continent and Islands 1
There, three-fourths of the race are in a state of the most deplorable
personal Slavery. And those who arc not, are in a scarcely less de-
plorable condition of political Slavery, to barbarous chiefs — who value
neither life nor any other human right, or enthralled by priests to the
most abject and atrocious superstitions. Take tlie following testimony
of one of the few disinterested observers, who has had an opportunity
of observing them in both situations.! " The wild savage is the child
* Southern Literary Messenger, for Januury, 1S35. Note to Blackstonc's Com-
mentaries.
t.Tonrnal of an oflicer employed in the expedition, luuler the connnand of Capt.
Owen, on tlie Western Coast of Africa, 182i?.
V)F passion, iiiiaiilca l.y one ray of religion or rnorahly to direct lurf
course, in consequence of wliieli his existence is stained with every
crime that can debase human nature lo alevel with the biute creation.
Who can say that the shivcs in our cok)nies arc such 1 Are they not,
by comparison with their still savage brethren, enUghtencd beings ?
Is not the West Indian negro, therefore, greatly indebted to his mas-
ter for making him what he is— for having raised him from the state
of debasement' in which he was born, and placed him in a scale of
civilized society] How can he repay him? He is possessed of
nothing — the only return in his power is his servitude. The man who
has seen the wild African, roamhig hi his native woods, and the well
fed, happy looking negro of the West Indies, may, perhaps, be alile to
judge of their comparative happiness : the former I strongly suspect
would be glad to change his state of boasted freedom, starvation and
disease, to become the slave of sinners, and the commiseration of
saints." It was a useful and benificent work, ajjproachiiig the heroic,
to tame the wild horse, and subdue him to the use of man ; how much
more to tame the nobler animal that is capable of reason, and subdue
him to usefulness ?
We believe that the tendency of Slavery is to elevate the character
of the master. No doubt the character — especially of youth — has
sometimes received a taint and premature knowledge of vice, from
the contact and association with ignorant and servile beings of gross
manners and morals. Yet still we believe that the entire tendency is to
inspire disgust and aversion towards their peculiar vices. It was not
without a knowledge of nature, that the Spartans exhibited the vices of
slaves by way of negative example to their children. We flatter our-
selves that the view of this degradation, mitigated as it is, has the eflect
of making probity more strict, the pride of character more high, the
sense of honor more strong, than is commonly found where this insti-
tution does not exist. Whatever may be the prevailing faults or vices
of the masters of slaves, they have not commonly been understood to
be those of dishonesty, cowardice, meanness or falsehood. And so
most unquestionably it ought to be. Our institutions would indeed l)e
intolerable in the sight of God and man, if, condemning one portion
of society to hopeless ignorance and comparative degradation, they
should make no atonement by elevating the other class by higlicr
virtues, and more liberal attainments — if, besides degraded slaves,
there should be ignorant, ignoble, and degraded freemen. There is a
broad and well marked line, beyond which no slavish vice should be
regarded with the least toleration <jr allowance. One class is cut off
from all interest in the State — that abstraction so potent to the feelings
of a generous nature. The other must make compensation by in-
creased assiduity, and devotion to its honor and welfare. The love of
wealth — so laudable when kept within proper limits, so base and mis-
chievous when it exceeds thein — so infectious in its example — an in-
fection to which I fear we have been too much exposed — should be
pursued by no arts in any degree ecpiivocal, or at any risk of in-
justice to others. So surely us there is a just and wise governor of
^
40
the universe, who punishes the sins of nations and communities, as well
as of individuals, so surely shall wc sufter ])unishmcnt, if we are indif-
ferent to that moral and intellectual cultivation of which the means
are furnished to us, and to which we are called and incited by our
situation.
I would to heaven I could express, as I feel, the conviction how
necessary this cultivation is, not only to our prosperity and considera-
tion, but to our safety and very existence. We, the slave-holding
States, arc in a hopeless minority in our own confederated republic —
to say nothing of the great confederacy of civilized States. It is ad-
mitted, I believe, not only by slave-holders, but by others, that we have
sent to our common councils more than our due share of talent, Jiigh
character and eloquence. Yet in spite of all these most strenuously
exerted, measures have been sometimes adopted which we believed to
be dangerous and injurious to us, and threatening to be fatal. What
would be our situation, if, instead of these, we were only represented
by ignorant and grovclhng men, incapable of raising their views
beyond a job or petty office, and incapable of commanding hearing
or consideration. May I be permitted to advert — by no means invi-
diously — to the late contest carried on by South-Carolina against
Federal authority, and so happily terminated by the moderation
which prevailed in our pubhc counsels. I have often reflected, what
one circumstance, more than any other, contributed to the successful
issue of a contest, apparently so hopeless, in which one weak and
divided state was arrayed against the whole force of the Confederacy —
unsustained, and uncountenanced, even by those who had a common
interest with her. It seemed to me to be, that we had for leaders an
unusual number of men of great intellectual power, co-operating cor-
dially and in good faith, and commanding respect and confidence at
liome and abroad, by elevated and honorable character. It was from
these that we — the followers at home — caught hope and confidence in
the gloomiest aspect of our aftairs. These, by their eloquence and
the largeness of their views, at least shook the faith of the dominant
majority in the wisdom and justice of their measures — or the practi-
cability of carrying them into successful eftect, and by their bearing
and wdl known character, satisfied them that South-Carolina would
do all that she had pledged herself to do. AVithout these, how differ-
ent miaht have been the result 1 And who shall say what at this day
would liavc been the aspect of the now flourishing fields and cities of
South-Carohna'^ Or rather without these, it is probable the contest
would never have been begun ; but that without even the animation of
a struggle, we should have sunk silently into a hopeless and degradirig
subjection. While I have memory — in the extremity of age— m
sickness — under all the reverses and calamities of life — I shall have
one source of pride and consolation — that of having been associated —
according to my humbler poshion— v»'ith the noble spirits who stood
prepared" to devote tliemselvcs for liiberty — the Constitution — the
Union. May such character and such talent, never be wanting to
South-Carolina.
J
41
I am sure tliat it is unnecessary to say to an assembly like this, that
the conduct of the master to his slave should be distinguished by the
utmost humanity. That we should indeed regard them as wards and
dependants on our kindness, for whose well being in every way we
are deeply responsible. This is no less the dictate of wisdom and
just policy, than of right feehng. It is wise with respect to the ser-
vices to be expected from them. I have never heard of an owner
whose conduct in their management was distinguished by undue
severity, whose slaves were not in a great degree worthless to him. A
cheerful and kindly demeanor, Avitli the expression of interest in them-
selves and their alfairs, is, perhaps, calculated to have a better effect
on them, than what might be esteemed more substantial favors and
indulgencies. Throughout nature, attachment is the reward of attach-
ment. It is wise too in relation to the civilized world around us, to
avoid giving occasion to the odium which is so industriously excited
against ourselves and our institutions. For this reason, public opinion
.should, if possible, bear even more strongly and indignantly than it
does at pi'esent, on masters who practise any wanton cruelty ou their
slaves. The miscreant who is guilty of this, not only violates the law
of God and of humanity, but as far as in him lies, by bringing odium
upon, endangers the institutio)is of his country, and the safety of his
countrymen. He casts a shade upon the character of every indivi-
dual of his fellow-citizens, and does every one of them a personal
injury. So of him who indulges in any odious excess of intemperate
or licentious passion. It is detached instances of this sort, of which
the existence is, perhaps, hardly known among ourselves, that, collec-
ted with pertinacious and malevolent industry, affords the most formi-
dable weapons to the mischievous zealots, who array them as being
characteristic of our general manners and state of society.
I would by no means be understood to intimate, that a visorous, as
well as just government, should not be exercised over slaves. This is
part of our duty towards them, no less obligatory than any other duty,
and no less necessary towards their well being than to ours. I believe
that at least as much injury has been done and suffering inflicted by
weak and injudicious indulgence, as by inordinate severity. He whose
business is to labor, should be made to labor, and that with due dili-
gence, and should be vigorously restrained from excess or vice. This
is no less necessary to his happiness than to his usefulness. The
master who neglects this, not only makes his slaves unprofitable to
himself, but discontented and wretched — a nuisance to his neiuhbors
and to society.
I have said that the tendency of our institution is to elevate the
female character, as well as that of the other sex, and for similar rea-
sons. In other states of society, there is no well defined limit to sepe-
ratc virtue and vice. There are degrees of vice from the most flagrant
and odious, to that which scarcely incurs the censure of society.
Many individuals occupy an unequivocal position; and as society be-
comes accustomed to this, there will be a less peremptory requirement
of purity in female manners and conduct ; and ofren the whole of the
6
42
society will be in a tainted and uncertain condition with respect to
female virtue, Here, there is that certain and marked line, above
which there is no toleration or allowance for any approach to license
of manners or conduct, and she who falls below it, will fall far be-
low even the slave. How many will incur this penalty?
And permit me to say that this elevation of the female character is
no less important and essential to us, than the moral and intellectual
cultivation of the other sex. It would indeed be intolerable, if, when
one class of the society is necessarily degraded in this respect, no
compensation were made by the supeiior elevation and purity of the
other. Not only essential purity of conduct, but the utmost purity of
manners, and I will add, though it may incur the formidable charge
of affectation or prudery, — a greater severity of decorum than is re-
quired elsewhere, is necessary among us. Always should be strenu-
ously resisted the attempts which have been sometimes made to in-
troduce among us the freedom of foreign European, and especially
of continental manners. This freedom, the remotest in the world
from that which sometimes springs from simplicity of manners is cal-
culated and commonly intended to confound the outward distinctions
of virtue and vice. It is to prepare the way for licentiousness — to
produce this effect — that if those who are clothed with the outward
color and garb of vice, may be well received by society, those who
are actually guilty may hope to be so too. It may be said, that there
is often perfect purity where there is very great freedom of manners.
And, I have no doubt, this may be true in particular instances, bvit it
is never true of any socictj/ in which this is the general state of man-
ners. What guards can there be to purity, when every thing that 7nay
^ossfiZy be done innocently, is habitually practised; when there can
be no impropriety which is not vice. And what must be the depth
of the depravity when there is a departure from that which they ad-
mit as principle. Besides, things which may perhaps be practised
innocently where they are familiar, produce a moral dilaceration in
the course of their being introduced where they are new. Let us
say, we will not have the manners of South-Carolina changed.
I have before said that that free labor is cheaper than the labor of
slaves, and so far as it is so, the condition of the free laborer is worse.
But I think President Dew has sufficiently shown that this is only true
of Northern countries. It is matter of familiar remark that the ten-
dency of warm climates is to relax the human constitution and mdis-
pose to labor. The earth yields abundantly — in some regions almost
spontaneously — under the influence of the sun, and the means of sup-
porting life are obtained with but slight exertion; and men will use no
greater exertion than is necessary to the purpose. This very luxu-
riance of vegetation, where no other cause concurs, renders the air
less salubrious, and even when positive malady does not exist, the
health is habitually impaired. Indolence renders the constitution
more liable to these effects of the atmosphere, and these again aggra-
vate the indolence. N(jthiug but the coercion of slavery can over-
43
come the repugnance to laboi- nndcr these circumstances, and by sub-
duiug the soil, improve and render wholesome the climate.
It is worthy of remark that there does not now exist on the face of
the earth, a people in a tropical climate, or one approaching to it,
wliere slavery does not exist, that is in a state of high civilization, or
exhibits the energies which mark the progress towards it. Mexico
and the South American republics,* starting ou their new career of
independence, and having gone through a farce of abolishing slavery,
are rapidly degenerating, even from semi-barbarism. The only por-
tion of the South American continent which seems to be making any
favorable progress, in spite of a rich and arbitrary civil government, is
Brazil, in which slavery has been retained. Cuba, of die same I'ace
with the continental republics, is dally and rapidly advancing in in-
dustry and civilization; and this is owing exclusively to her slaves.
St. Domingo is struck out of the map of civilized existence, and the
British West Indies will shortly be so. On the other continent, Spain
and Portugal are degenerate, and their rapid progress is downward.
Their southern coast is infested by disease, arising from causes which
industry might readily overcome, but that industry they will never ex-
ert. Greece is still barbarous and scantily peopled. The work of
an English physician distinguished by strong sense and power of ob-
servation,* gives a most affecting picture of the condition of Italy, —
especially south of the Appenines. With the decay of industry, the
climate has degenerated towards the condition from which it was first
rescued by the labor of slaves. There is poison in every man's veins,
affecting the very springs of life, dulling or extinguishing, with the
energies of the body, all energy of mind, and often exhibiting itself
in the most appalling forms of disease. From year to year the pes-
tilential atmosphere creeps forward, narrowing the circles within
which it is possible to sustain human life. With disease and misery,
industry still more rapidly decays, and if the process goes on, it seems
* The author of England and America thus speaks of the Colomhian republic :
" During some j-ears, this colony has been an independent state ; but the people
dispersed over this vast and fertile plains, have almost ceased to cultivate tlie good
land at their disposal; they subsist principally, many of them entirely on the flesh
of wild cattle; they have lost most of the arts of civilized hfe ; not a few of them are
in a state of deplorable misery; and if they should continue, as it seems probable
they will, to retrograde as at present, the beautiful pampas of Buenos Ayres will
soon be fit for another experiment in colonization. Slaves, black or yellow,
would have cultivated those plains, would have kept together, would have been
made to assist each other ; would, by keeping together and assisting each other,
have raised a surplus produce exchangeable in distant markets ; would have'
kept their masters together for the sake of markets; would, by combination of
labor, have preserved among their masters the arts and habits of civilized life."
Yet this writer, the whole practical eflect of whose work, whatever he may have
thought or intended, is to show the absolute necessity, and immense benefits of
slavery, finds it necessary to add, I suppose, in deference to the general sentiment
of his countrymen, " that slavery might have done all) this, seems not more plain,
than that so much good would have been bought too dear, if its price had been sla-
very." Well may we say that the word makes men mad.
t Johnson on Change of Air.
44
that Italy too will soon 1)C ready for another experiment in coloniza-
tion.
Yet once it was not so, when Italy was possessed by the masters of
slaves; when Rome contained her millions, and Italy was a garden ;
when their iron energies of body corresponded with the energies of
mind which made them conquerors in every climate and on every
soil; rolled the tide of conquest, not as in later times, from the South
to the North; extended their laws and their civilization, and created
them Lords of the earth.
"What conflux issuing forth or entering in ;
Praetors, pro-consuls to their provinces,
Hasting, or on return in robes of state.
Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power,
Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings ;
Or embassies from regions far remote,
In various habits, on the Appian road,
Or on th' Emilian ; some from farthest South,
Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,
Meroe, Nilotic isle, and more to West,
The realms of Bocclnis to the Blackmoor sea ;
From th' Asian kings, and Parthian among these ;
From India and the golden Chersonese,
And utmost Indias isle, Taprobona,
Dusk fiices, with white silken turbans wreathed ;
From Gallia, Gades and the British West ;
Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, North
Beyond Danubius to the Tauric Pool!
All nations now to Rome obedience pay."
Snch was and such is the picture of Italy. Greece presents a
contrast not less striking. What is the cause of the great change 1
Many causes, no doubt, have occurred ; but though
"War, famine, jDestilence and flood and Are
Have dealt uiiou the seven-hilled city's pride,"
I will venture to say that nothing has dealt upon it more lieavily
than the loss of domestic slavery. Is not tliis evident 1 If they had
slaves, with an energetic civil government, would the deadly miasma
be permitted to overspread the Campagna and invade Rome herself]
Would not the soil be cultivated, and the wastes reclaimed] A late
traveller* mentions a canal, cut for miles through rock and mountain,
for the purpose of carrying off the waters of the lake of Celano, on
which thirty thousand Roman slaves were employed for eleven years,
and which remains almost perfect to the present day. This, the gov-
ernment of Naples was ten years in repairing with an hundred work-
men. The imperishable works of Rome which remain to the pre-
sent day were for the most part executed by slaves. How difterent
would be the condition of Naples, if for her wretched lazzaroni were
substituted negro slaves, employed in rendering productive the plains
whose fertility now serves only to infect the air!
* Eight days in the Abnizzi. — Blackwood's Magazine, November, 1835.
To us, on whom tliis instituliou is fastened, and who could nol shake
it off, even if we desired to do so, the great republics of antiquity of-
fer instruction of inestimable value. They teach us that slavery is
compatible with the freedom, stability and long duration of civil gov-
ernment, with denseness of population, great power, and the highest
civilization. And in what respect does this modern Europe, which
claims to give opinions to the world, so far excel them — notwithstand-
incr the immense advantages of the christian religion and the discov-
ery of the art of printing?- They are not more free, nor have per-
formed more glorious actions, nor displayed more exalted virtue. In
the higher departments of intellect — in all that relates to taste and
imagination — they will hardly venture to claim equality. Where they
liave gone beyond them in the results of mechanical philosophy, or
discoveries which contribute to the wants and enjoyments of physical
life, they have done so by the help of means with which they were
furnished by the Grecian mind — the mother of civilization — and only
pursued a little further the tract which that had always pointed out.
Ln the development of intellectual power, they will hardly bear com-
parison. Those noble republics in the pride of their strength and
greatness, may have anticipated for themselves — as some of their po-
ets did for them, an everlasting duration and predominance. But
they could not have anticipated, that when they had fallen under bar-
barous arms, tliat when arts and civilization were lost, and the whole
earth in darkness — the first light should break from their tombs — that
in a renewed world, unconnected with them by ties of locality, lan-
guage or descent, they should still be held the models of all that is
profound in science, or elegant in literature, or all that is great in
character, or elevated in imagination. And perhaps when England
herself, wdio now leads the war with which we arc on all sides threat-
ened, shall have fulfilled her mission, and like the other glorious things
of the earth, shall have passed aw^ay; when she shall have diffused her
noble race and noble language, her laws, her literature and her civili-
zation, over all quarters of the earth, and shall perhaps be overrun by
some Northern horde — sunk into an ignoble and anarchical demo-
cracy,* or subdued to the dominion of some Caesar, — demagogue
and despot, — there, in Southern regions, there may be found many
republics, triumphing in Grecian arts and civilization, and worthy of
British descent and Roman institutions.
If after a time, when the mind and almost the memory of the re-
public were lost, Romans degenerated, they furnish conclusive evi-
dence that this was owing not to their domestic, but to their political
slavery. The same thing is observed over all the eastern monarchies;
and so it must be, wherever property is insecure, and it is dangerous
for a man to raise himself to such eminence by intellectual or mo-
ral excellence, as would give him influence over his society. So it is
in Egypt; and the other regions bordering the Mediterranean which
once comprehended the civilization of the world, where Carthage,
* I do not use the word democracy in the Athenian sense, but to describe the
government in which the slave and his master have an equal voice iu pubUc aftairs.
40
Tyre and Plicenecia flourished. In short, the uncontradicted expe-
rience of the world is, that in Southern States where good govern-
ment and predial and domestic slavery are found, there are prosper-
ity and greatness; where either of these conditions is wanting, degen-
eracy and barbarism. Tlie former however is equally essential in all
climates and under all institutions. And can we suppose it to be the
design of the creator, that these regions, constituting half of the
earth's surface, and the more fertile half and more capable of sustain-
ing life, should be abandoned forever to depopulation and bai-barism?
Certain it is that they will never be reclaimed by the labour of free-
men. In our own country, look at the lower valley of the Mississip-
pi, which is capable of being made a far greater Egypt. In our own
state, there are extensive tracts of the most fertile soil, which are ca-
pable of being made to swarm with life. These are at i)resent pesti-
lential swamps, and valueless, because there is abundance of other fer-
tile soil in more favorable situations, which demand all and more than
all the labour which our country can supply. Are these regions of
fertility to be abandoned at once and forever to the alligator and tor-
toise — with here and there perhaps a miserable, shivering, crouching
free black savage? Does not the finger of heaven itself seem to point
to a race of men — not to be enslaved by us but already enslaved, and
who will be in every way benefitted by the change of masters — to
whom such climate is not uncongenial, who though disposed to indo-
lence are yet patient and capable of labor, on whose whole features,
mind and character, nature has indelibly written — slave; — and indi-
cate that we should avail ourselves of these in fulfilling the first great
command to subdue and replenish the earth.
It is true that this labor will be dearer than that of northern coun-
tries, where under the name of freedom, they obtain cheaper and
perhaps better slaves. Yet it is the best we can have, and this too
has its compensation. We see it compensated at present bj the su-
perior value of our agricultural pi^oducts. And this superior va-
lue they must probably always have. The Southern climate ad-
mits of a greater variety of productions. Whatever is produced in
Northern cUmates, the same thing, or something equivalent, may be
produced in the Southern. But the Northern have no equivalent for
the products of Southern climates. The consequence will be, that the
products of Southern regions will be demanded all over the civilized
world. The agricultural products of Northern regions are chiefly
for their own consumption. They must therefore apply themselves
to the manufacturing of articles of luxury, elegance, convenience or
necessity, — which requires cheap labor — for the purpose of exchang-
ing them with their Southern neighbors. Thus nature herself indi-
cates that agriculture should be tlie predominating employment in
Southern countries, and manufactures in Northern. Commerce is ne-
cessary to both — but less indispensable to the Southern, which pro-
duce within themselves a greater variety of things desirable to life.
They will therefore have somewhat less of the commercial spirit. We
must avail ourselves of such labor as we can command. Tiie slave
must labour and is inured to it; v\^hile the necessity of energy in his
47
government, of watclifulncss, and of preparation and power to sti[>-
press insurrection, added to the moral ftjrcc derived from the habit of
command, may help to prevent the degeneracy of the master.
Tlie task of keeping down insurrection is commonly supposed, by
those who are strangers to our institutions, to be a very formidable
one. Even among ourselves; accustomed as we have been to take
our opinions on this as on every other subject, ready formed from
those whom we regarded as instructors, in the teeth of our own ob-
servation and experience , fears have been entertained which are abso-
lutely ludicrous. We have been supposed to be nightly reposing over
a mine, which may at any instant explode to our destruction. The
first thought of a foreigner sojourning in one of our cities, who is
awakened by any nightly alarm, is of servile insurrection and mas-
sacre. Yet if any thing is certain in human aft'airs, it is certain and
from the most obvious considerations, that we are more secure in this
respect than any civilized and fully peopled society upon the face of
the earth. In every such society, there is a much larger proportion
than with us, of persons who have more to gain than to lose by the
overthrow of government, and the embroiling of social order. It is in
such a state of things that those who were before at the bottom of society,
rise to the surface. From causes already considered, they are pecu-
liarly apt to consider their sufferings the result of injustice and mis-
government, and to be rancorous and embittered accordingly. They
have every excitement therefore of resentful passion, and every temp-
tation which tlie hope of increased opulence, or power or considera-
tion can hold out, to urge them to innovation and revolt. Supposing
the same disposition to exist in equal degree among our slaves, what
are their comparative means or prospect of gratifying iti The poor
of other countries are called free. They have, at least, no one interest-
ed to exercise a daily and nightly superintendence and control over
their conduct and actions. Emissaries of their class may traverse,
unchecked, every portion of the country, for the purpose of organizing
insurrection. From their greater intelligence, they have greater means
of communicating with each other. They may procure and secrete
arms. It is not alone the ignorant, or those who are commonly call-
ed the poor, that will be tempted to revolution. There will be many
disappointed men and men of desperate fortune — men perhaps of ta-
lent and daring — to combine them and direct their energies. Even
those in the higher ranks of society who contemplate no such result,
will contribute to it, by declaiming on their hardships and rights.
With us, it is almost physically impossible, that there should be any
very extensive combination among the slaves. It is absolutely impos-
sible that they should procure and conceal efficient arms. Their em-
issaries traversing the country, would carry their commission on their
foreheads. If we suppose amcMig them an individual of sufficient ta-
lent and energy to quaJify hinr for a revolutionary leader, he could not
be so extensively known as to command tlie confidence, which would
be necessary to enable him to combine and direct them. Of the class
of freemen, there would be no individual so poor or degraded (with
48
the exception perhaps of here and there a reckless and desperate out-
Jaw and felon) who woidd not have much to lose by the success of such
an attempt; every one therefore would be vigilant and active to de-
tect and suppress it. Of all impossible things, one of the most im-
possible would be a successful insurrection of our slaves, originating
with themselves.
Attempts at insurrection have indeed been made — excited, as we
believe, by tlie agitation of the abolitionists and declaimers on slavery;
but these have been in every instance promptly suppressed. We fear
not to compare the riots, disorder, revolt and bloodshed which hav-
been committed in our own, with those of any other civilized commu-
nities, during the same lapse of time. And let it be observed under
Avhat extraordinary circumstances our peace has been preserved. For
the last half century, one half of our population has been admonish-
ed in terms the most calculated to madden and excite, that they
are the victims of the most grinding and cruel injustice and oppres-
sion. We know that these exhortations continually reach them,
through a thousand channels which we cannot detect, as if carried by
the birds of the air — and what human being, especially when unfa-
vorably distinguished by outward circumstances, is not ready to give
credit when he is told that he is the victim of injustice and oppression?
In effect, if not in terms, they have been continually exhorted to in-
surrection. The master has been painted a criminal, tyrant and rob-
ber, justly obnoxious to the vengeance of Grod and man, and they have
been assured of the countenance and sympathy, if not of the active
assistance of all the rest of the world. We ourselves liave in some
measure pleaded guilty to the impeachment. It is not long since a
great majority of our free population, servile to the opinions of those
whose opinions they had been accustomed to follow, would have ad-
mitted slavery to be a great evil, vxnjust and indefensible in principle,
and only to be vindicated by the stern necessity which was imposed
upon us. Thus stimulated by every motive and jiassion which ordi-
narily actuate human beings — not as to a criminal enterprize, but as
to something generous and heroic — what has been the result] A few
imbecile and uncombined plots — in every instance detected before
they broke out into action, and which perhaps if undetected would
never have broken into action. One or two sudden, unpremeditated
attempts, frantic in their character, if not prompted by actual insan-
ity, and these instantly crushed. As It is, we are not less assured of
safety, order and internal peace than any other people; and but for the
pertinacious and fanatical agitation of the subject, would be much
more so.
This experience of security however should admonish us of the
folly and wickedness of those who have sometimes taken upon them-
selves to supersede the regular course of law, and by rash and violent
acts to punish supposed disturbers of the peace of society. This can
admit of no justification or palliation whatever. Burke I think some-
where remarks something to this effect, — that when society is in the
last stage of depravity — when all parties are alike corrupt and alike
49
tvickeduiid luijustifuible in their measures and objects, a good man
may content liimself with standing neuter, a sad and disheartened
spectator of the conflict b'itween the rival vices. But are we in this
wretched condition? It is fearful to see with what avidity the worst
and most dangerous characters of society seize on the occasion of ob-
taining the countenance of better men, for the purpose of throwing off
the restraints of law. It is alway? these who are most zealous and
forward in constituting themselves the protectors of the public peace.
To such men — men without re| utdti >n or principle or stake in soci-
ety — disorder is the natural element. In that, desperate fortunes and
the want of all moral principle and moral feeling constitute power.
They are eager to avenge themselves upon society. Anarchy is not
so much the absence of government as the government of the worst —
not aristocracy but kakistocrac}' — a state of things, which to the honor
of our nature, has seldom obtained amongst men, and which perhaps
was only fully exemplified during the worst times of the French re-
volution, when that horrid hell burnt with its most horrid flame. In
such a state of things, to be accused is to be condemned — to protect
the innocent is to be guilty; and what perhaps is the worst eflcct, even
men of better nature, to whom their own deeds are abhorrent, are
goaded by terror to be forward and emulous in deeds of guilt and vi-
olence. The scenes of lawless violence which have been acted in
some portions of our country, rare and restricted as they have been,
have done more to tarnish its reputation than a thousand libels. Thry
have done more to discredit, and if any thing cuuld, to endanger, not
only our domestic, l)Ut our republican institutions, than the abolition-
ists themselves. Men can never be permanently and elFectually dis-
graced but by themselves, and rarely endangered but by their own in-
judicious conduct, giving advantage t^ the enemy. Better, far better,
would it be to encounter the dangers with which we are supposed to
be threatened, than to employ such means for averting them. But
the truth is, that in relation to this matter, so far as respects actual in-
surrection, when alarm is once excited, danger is absolutely at an end.
Society can then employ legitimate and severe effectual measures for
its own protection. The very commission of such deeds, is proof
that they are necessary. Let those who attempt them then, or make
any demonstration towards them, understand that they will meet only
the discountenance and abhorrence of all good men, and the just
punishment of the laws they have dared to outrage.
It has commonly been supposed, that this institution will prove a
source of weakness in relation to military defence against a foreign
enemy. I will venture to say that in a slave holding community, a
larger military force may be maintained permanently in the field,
than in any State where there are not slaves. It is plain that almost
the whole of the able bodied fiee male population, making half of the
entire able bodied male population, maybe maintained in the field,
and this without taking in any material degi-ee from the labour and
resources of the countij. In general the labor of our country is per-
formed by slaves. In other countries, it is their laborers that form
7
50
the material of their armies. What proportion of these can be taken
away without fatally cripplinor their industry and resources'? In the
war of the revolution, though the strength of our state was wasted
and paralyzed by the unfortunate divisions which existed among our-
selves, yet it iTiay be said with general truth, that every citizen was in
the fiel-l and acquired much of the qualities of the soldier.
■- It is true that liiis advantage will ba attended with its compensating
evils and disadvantages; to which we must learn to submit, if we are
determined on the maintenance of our institutions. We are, as yet,
hardly at all aware how little the mixims and practices of modern civ-
ilized governments will apply to us. Standing armies, as they are
elsewhere constituted, we cannot have; for wo have not, and f<ir gen-
eiations cannot have the materials out of which they are to be form-
ed. If we should be involved in serious wars, I have no doubt but
that some sort of ci)nscri])tion, requiring the services i-f all cilizens
for a considerable term, will be necessary. Like the people of
Athens, it will be necessary that every citizen should be a soldier, and
qualified to discharge efficiently the duties of a soldier. It may seem
a melancholy consideration, that an army so made up should be op-
posed to the disciplined mercenaries of foreign nations. But we must
learn to know our tiue situation. But may we not hope, that made
up of superior materials, of men having home and country to defend;
inspired by higher pride of character, of greater intelligence and
trained by an eftective, though honorable discipline, such an army
will be more than a match for mercenaries. The efficiency of an ar-
my is determined by the qualities of its officers, and may we not ex-
pect to have a greater proportion of men better (jualified for officers,
and possessing the true spirit of military command. And let it be
recollected that if there were otherwise reason to apprehend danger
from insurrection, there will be*the greatest security when there is
the largest force on foot within the country. Then it is that any such
attempt Would be most instantly and crt'ectually crushed.
And perhaps a wise foresight should induce our State to provide,
that it should have within itself such military knowledge and skill as
may be sufficient to organize, disc pline and command armies, by es-
tablishing a military academy or school of discipline. Tlic school
of the mihtia will not do for this. From the general opinion of our
weakness, if our country should at any time come info hostile colli-
sion, we shall be selected for the point < f attack ; making us, accord-
ing to Mr, Adams' anticipation, the Flanders of the United States,
Come from what quarter it may, the storm will fall upon us. It is
known that lately when there was apprehension of hostility with
France, the scheme was inslan'ly devised of invading the Southern
States and organizing insurrection. In a popular English periodi-
cal work, I have seenthe ])lan suggested by an officer of high rank
and reputation in the British army, of invading the Southern States at
various points and operating by the same means. He is said to be a
gallant officer, and certainly had no conception that he was devising
atrocious crime, as alien to the true spirit of civilized warfare, as the
81
poisoning of streams and fountains. But the folly of such schemes
is no less evident than tlieir wickedness. Apart from the considera*
tion of that whicli experience has most fully proved to he true — that
in aeneral their attachment and fidelity to their masters is not to bo
shaken, and that from sympathy with tlie feelings of those by whom
they are surrounded, and from whom they derive their impressions,
they contract no less terror and aversion towards an invading enemy;
it is manifest that this recourse would be an hundied fold more avail-
able to us than to such an enemy. They are already in our posses-
sion, and we might at will arm and organize them in any number that
we might tliink proper. The Helots were a regular constituent part
of the Spartan armies. Tlioroughly acquainted with their characters
and accustomed to command them, we might use any stiictness of
discipline wliich would he necessary to render them eflective, and
from their hahits of subordination already formed, this would be a
task of less difficulty. Thoigh morally most timid, they are by nrt
means wanting in physical strength of nerve. They are excitable by
praise; and directed by those in whom they have confidetice, would
rush fearlessly and unquestioning upon any sort of danger. With
white officers and accompanied by a strong white cavalry, there are
no troops in tlie world from wh(»m there would be so little reason to
apprehend insu'.jorliuation or mutiny.
This I admit might be a dangerous resource, and one not to be re-
sorted to but ill great extremity. But I am supposing the case of our
beitig driven to extremity. It might be dangerous to disband such an
army, and reduce them with the liabits of soldiers, to their former
condition of laborers, it might be found necessary, when once embo-
died to keep them so, and subject to military discipline — a permanent
standing arniy. This in time of peace would be expensive, if not
dangerous. Or if at any time we should be engag d in hostilities
with our neiijhbors, and it were thought advisable to send such an
army abroad to conquer settlements for themselves, the invaded re-
gions might have occasion to think that the scourge of God was again
let loose to afflict the earth.
President Dew has very fully shown how utterly vain are the fears
of those, who though there may be no danger for the present, yet ap-
prehend great danger for the future, when the number of slaves shall
be greatly increased. He has shown that the large and more con-
densed the society becomes, the easier it will be to maintain subordi-
nation, supposing the relative numbers of the different classes to re-
main the same — or even if there should he a very disproportionate in-
crease of the enslaved class. Of all vain things, the vainest and that
in which man most shows his impotence and folly, is the taking upon
himself to provide for a very distant future — at all events by any ma-
terial sacrifice of tlie present. Though experience has shown that
revoliiticns and j-.oliiica! movements — unless when they have baen
conducted with the most guarded caution and moderation — have gen-
erally terminated in results just the opposite of what was e.^pected
from them, the angry ape will still play his fantastic tricks, and put in
52
motion machinery, the action of which he no more comprehends or
foresees than he comprehends the mysteries of infinity. The insect
that is borne upon the current, will fancy that he directs its course. Be-
sides the fear of insurrection and servile war, theie is also alarm lest
when their numbers shall be greatly increased, their labor will become
utterly unprofitable, so that it will be equally difficult for the master to
retain and support them, or to get rid of them. But at what age of tiie
world is this likely to happen] At present, it may be said that almost
the whole of the Southern portion of this continent is to be subdued
to cultivation; and in the oraer of providence, this is the task allotted
to them. For this purpose, more labour will be required for genera-
tions to come than they will be able to supply. When that task is
accomplished, there will he many objects to which their labour may
be directed.
At pre33nt they are employed in accumulating individuil wealth,
and this in one way, to wit, as agricultural labourers — and this is
perhaps the most useful purpose to which their labour can be ap-
plied. The eftect of slavery has not been to counteract the tendency
to dispersion, which seems epidemical among our countrymen, invi-
ted by the unbounded extent of fertile and unexhausted soil, th(»ugh
it counteracts many of the evils of dispersion. All the customary
trades, professions and employments, except the agricultural, require
a condensed population for iheir profitable exercise. The agricultu-
rist who can command no labor but that of his own hands or that of
his family, must remain comparatively poor and rude. He who ac-
quires wealth by the labor of slaves, has the means of imi>rovement
for himself and his children. He may have a more extended inter-
course, and consequently means of information aiid refinement, and
may seek education for his children where it may be found. I say,
what is obviously true, that he has the metnis of obtaining those ad-
vantages; but I say nothing to palliate or excuse the conduct of him,
who having such means neglects to avail himself of them.
I believe it to be true, that in consequence of our dispersion, thousrh
individual wealth is acquired, tlie face of the country is less adorned
and improved by useful and ornamental public works, than in other
societies of more condensed population, where there is less wealth.
But this is an effect of that, which constitutes perhaps our most conspi-
cuous advantage. Where popidation is condensed, they must have
the evils of condensed population, and among these is the difficulty
of finding profitable employment for capital He who has accumu-
lated even an inconsiderable sum, is often puzzled to know what use
to make of it. Ingenuity is therefore tasked to cast about for every
enterprise which may affoid a chance of profitable investment. Works
useful and ornamental to the country, are thus undertaken and accom-
plished, and though the proprietors may fail of profit, the comnmni-
ty no less receives the beneiit. Among us, there is no such difficul-
ty. A sale and profitable method of investment is offered to every one
v/ho has capital to dispose of, whicli is further recommended to his
ieelincrs hv the sense of independence and the comparative leisure.
53
which the employment affords to the proprietor engaged in it. It is^
for this reason that ^ew ot our citizens engage in the pursuits of
commeice. Thougli tliesemay be more profitable, they are also more
hazardous and more hd)orious.
When tlie demand for agricultural labour shall be fully supplied,
then of course the labour (jf shives will be directed to otliei- employ-
ments and ei.terprises. Already it begins to be found, ihat in some
instances it may* be used as prohtably in works of public improve-
ment. As it becomes cheaper and c heaper, it will be applied to more
various purposes and combined in larger masses. It may be com-
manded and combined with more faciUty than any otiicr sort of la-
bour; and the labouier. kept in stricter subordination, will be les3
dangerous to the security of society than in any other country, which
is crowded ;md overstocked with a class of what are called free labor-
ers. Let it be remembered that all the great and enduring monu-
ments of hunvc-n art and industry — the wonders of Egypt — the ever-
lasting works of Rome — were created by the labor of slaves. There
•will come a stage in our progress when we shall have facilities for
executing works as great as any of these — more usefid than the py-
ramids—not less magnificent than the I\[e(-tic sea. What the end of
all is to be; what mutations lie hid in the womb of the distant future;
to what convulsions our societies nriy beexp.xed — whether the mas-
ter, finding it impossible to live with his slaves, may not be compell-
ed to abandon the country to them — of all this it were presumptuous
and vain to speculate.
I have hitherto, as I proposed, considered it as a naked, abstract
question of the comparative good and evil of the institution of slave-
ry. Very far different indeed is the practical question presented to
us, when it is pniposed to get rid of an institution wliich has interwo-
ven itself with every fibre of the body politic; which has formed the
habits of owr society, and is consecrated by the usage of genera-
tions. If this be not a vicious presciiptiim, which the laws of God
forbid to ripen into right, it has a just claim to be respected by all Iri-
bunals of man. If the negroes were now free and it were proposed
to enslave tliem, then it would be incumbent on those who proposed
the measure to show clearly that their liberty was incompatible with
the public security. When it is proposed to innovate on the estab-
lished state of things, the bu»-den is on those who propose the inno-
vation, to show that advantage will be gained from it. There is no
reform, however necessary, wholesome or moderate, which will not
be accompanied with some degree of inconvenience, risque or suffer-
ing. Those who acquiesce in the state of things which they found
existing, can hardly be thought criminal. But most deeply criminal
are they who give rise to the enormous evil with which great revolu-
tions in society are always attended, without tl e fullest assurance of
the greater good to be ultimately obtampd. But if it can be made to
appear, even probably, that no good will be obtained, but that the re-
sults will be evil and calamitous as tiie process, what can justify such
innovations'? No human hcing can be so mischievous— if acting con-
54
sciously, none can be so wicked, as those who finding evil in existing
institutions, rush blindly upon change, unforcsecmg and reckle.-s of
consequences, and leaving it to < hance or fate to determine whetlier
the end shall be improvement, or greater and more intolerable evil.
Certainly the instiiicls of nature prompt to rewist nitolerable oppres-
sion For this resistance nr) lule can be piescribed, but t must he
left to the instincts of nature. To justify it however, the insurrec-
tionists should at leisthave a reasonable probability of success, and
be assured that theit condition will l>e improved by success. But
most extraordiiiary is it. when those who complain and clamot, are
not those who are supposed to feel the oppression, but persons at a
distance from them, and who can hardly at all appreciate the good or
evil of their situation. It is the unalterable condition of humanity,
that men must achieve civil liberty for themselves. The assistance
of allies h;is sometimes enabled nations to repel the attacks of for-
eign power; never to conquei liberty as t:gainst their own internal
government.
In one th ng I concur with the abolitionists; that if emancipation
is to be brought about, it i~ belter that it should be immediate and to-
tal. But let us suppose it to be brought about in any manner, and
then enquire what would be the effects.
The first and most obvious effect, would be to put an end to the cul-
tivation of our great southern staple. And this would be equally tl e
result, if we suppose the emancipHied negroes to be in no way dis-
tinguished from the free laborers of other countries, and that their la-
bour would be equally effective. In that case, they would soon cease
to be laborers for hire, but w.mld scatter the n-ielves overour unboun-
ded territory, to become independent land owners themselves. The
cultivation of the soil on an extensive scale, can only be carried on
where there are slaves, or in countries superabounding with free la-
bour. No such operations are cariied on in any portions of our own
country when? there are not slaves Such are carried on in England,
where there is an overflowing population and intense compftition
for employment. And our institutions seem suited to the exigences
of our respective situations. There, a ranch greater number of labour-
ers is required atone season of the year than at another, and the Far-
mer may enlarge or dnninish the quantity of labour he employs, as
circumstance> may require. Here, about the same quantity of labour
is required at every season, and the j)lanter suffers no inconvenience
from retaining his labourers throughout the year. Imagine an ex-
tensive rice or c .ttoa ulantation cultivated by free laborers, who
might perhaps 5^/7'^e for an increase of wages, at a season when the
neglect of a iew days would insure the destruction of the whole
crop. Even if it were possible to procure laborers at all, what plan-
ter would venure to carry on his operaiions under such circumstan-
ces? I need hardly say that these staples cannot be produced to any
extent where the proprietor of the soil cultivates it with his own
hands. He can do little more than producu the necessary food for
himself and his family.
55
And what would he the effect of putting an end to the cultivation
of these sta])Ies, and thus anTiihilatino- at a blow, two thirds rr three
f -urths of our fonign commerce? Can any sane mind contemplate
such a result without terror? I speak iiot of the utter poverty and
niisery to vvhicli we ourselves would be reduced, and the desolation
which would overspread our own portion of the counlrv. (Jur sla-
very has not only given existence to mdlions of slaves within our own
territories, it has given the meai.s of snb^istence and therefore exist-
ence to millions of fr^^emen in our ctmfederate States; enablingthem
to send forth theii- swarms, to overspread the plains and forests^of the
West and appear as the harbingers of civilization. The jn. -ducts of
the industry of those States are in general similar to tlnse of the
civilized world, and are little demanded in their markets. By ex-
chanfring iht m for ours, vvhicli are eveiy where sought for, the peo-
pie of the>e States are enabled to acquire all the products of art and
industry, all that contributes to convenience or luxury, orrrrntiHes the
taste or the inteleci, whicli th • rest of the world can sup[)ly. Not
only on our own continent, but on the other, it has given existence to
hundreds of thousands, and the means of comfortable subsistence to
millions. A distiiifjni^hed citizen of oui own state, than whom none
can be better qualified to form an oyrlnion, has lately stated that our
great stajjle, cotton, lias contributed more than any thing else of later
times to the pro,rress ..f civilization. By enabling the poor to obtain
cheip and becoming clothing, it has inspired a taste f)r comfort, tho
first stimulus to civilization. Does nnt self defence then demand of
us, steadily to resist the abiogation of that which is productive of so
much good? It is more than self defence. It is to defend millions of
human beings, who are far removed from us, from the intensest siif-
fering, if no; from being struck out of existence. It is the defence
of human civilization.
But this is but a small part of the evil which would be occasioned.
After President Dew, it is unnecessary to say a single word on the
practicability of colonizing our slaves. The two races, so widely sep-
erated from each other by the impress of ufjture. must remain togeth-
er in the same countiy. Whether it be accounted the result of°pre-
judice or reason, it is certain thnt the tw.. races will not be blended to-
gether soasto f -rm a h<miogenous population. To rme who knows
any thing of the nature of man and human society, it would be un-
i.ecessary to aiguo that this state of things cai'not continue; but
that one race must be driven out by the other, or exterminated, or
again enslaved. I have argued on the supposition that the emancipa-
ted negroes would be as efficient as other free laborers But what-
ever theorists, who know nothing of the matter, may think proper to
assume, we well know that t'lis would not be so. We know that
nothing but the coercion of slavery can overcome their propensity to
indolence, and that not one in ten would be an efficient laborer.
Even if this disposition were not grounded in their nature, it would
be a result of their position. I liave somewhere seen it observed, that
to be degraded by oi)inion, is a thousand fold worse, so far as the feel-
56
ings of ihe individual are concerned, than to be degraded by llie iaWs.
T'//,e_y would be thus de'jraded, and this feelinw is incompatible with
habits of order and industry. Half our population would at once be
paupers. Lst an inhabitant of New York or Philadelphia conceive
of the situation of ih^ir respective l?*tates, if one half of iheir popu-
lation consisted of free negroes. The tie which now connects them
being broken, the ditt'erent races would be estranged from each other,
and hostility would grow up between them. Having the comman 1 of
their own time and actions, they could more etfectually combii.e in-
surrecion and provide the means of rendering it formidable. Re-
leased from the vigilant superintendance which now restrains them,
they would infallibly be led from petty to greater crimes, until all life
and property would be rendered insecure. Aggression would beget
retaliation, until open war — and that a war of extermination were es-
tablished. From the still remaining superiority of the white race, it is
probable that they would be the victors, and if they did not extermi-
nate, they must again reduce the others to slavery — when they could
be no lonofer fit to be either slaves or freemen. It is not only in self
defence, in defence of our country and of all that is dear to us, but in
defence of the slaves themselves that we refuse to emancipate them.
If we suppose them to have political privileges, and to be admitted
to the elective franchise, still worse results may be expected. It is
hardly necessary to add any thing to whathas beensaid by Mr. Pauld-
ing on this subject, who has treated it fully. It is already known, that
if there be a class unfavorably distinguished by any peculiarity from
the rest of society, this distinction forms a tie which binds them to act
in concert, and they exerci e more than their due share of political
power and influence — and still more, as they arc of inferior character
and looser moral principle. Such a class fotm the very material for
demagogues to work with. Other parties court them and concede to
them. So it would be withthe free blacks in the case supposed. They
would be used bv unprincipled politicians, of irregular ambition, for
the advancement of their schemes, until they should give them politi-
cal power and importance beyond even their own intentions. They
would be courted by excited parties in their contests with each other.
At some time, they may perhaps attain political ascendency, and this
is more probable, as we may suppose that there will have been a great
emiirration of whites from the country. Imagine the government of
such legislators. Imagine then the sort of laws that will be passed, to
confound the invidious distinction which has been so long assumed
over ihem, and if possible to obliterate the every memory of it. These
will be resisted. The blacks will be tempted to avenge themselves by
oppression and proscription of the white race, for their long superior-
ity. Thus matters will go on, until universal anarchy, or kakisto-
cracy. the government of the worst, is fully established. I am per-
suaded that if the spirit of evil should devise to send abroad upon the
earth all possible misery, discord, horror and atrocity, he could con-
trive no scheme so effectual as the emancipation of negro slaves with-
in our country.
57
The most feasible scheme of emancipation, and that which I verily
believe would involve the least danger and sacrifice, would be that the
ejifirc white population should emigrate, and abandon the country to
their slaves. Here would be triumph to philanthrophy. This wide
and fertde region would l)e again restored to ancient barbarism — to
the worst of all barbarism — barbarism corrupted and depraved by in-
tercourse with civilization. And this is tiie consummation to be wish-
ed, upon a spi-vulatJun, that in some distant future age, they may be-
come so enlightened anil improved, as to be capable of sustaining a
position among the civilized races of the earth. But I believe mo-
ralists allow men to defend their homes and their country, even at the
expense of the lives and liberties of others.
Will any philanthropist say that the evils, of which I have spoken,
would be brought about on!}' by the obduracy, prejudices and over-
weaning sL'lf estimation of tlis whites i)i refusing to blend the races by
marriagj, and socreite an homogenous population. But what if it
be not prejudice, but truth, and nature, and right reason, and just mo-
ral feeling] As 1 have before said, throughout the whole of nature,
like attrasts like, and that which is unlike repels. What is it that makes
so unspeakably loarhsoms, crimes not to be named, and hardly allu-
ded to'^ Even amouifthe tiations of Europe, so nearly homogenous,
there aresom^ peculiarities of form and feature, mind and character,
which m ly be generally distinguished by those accustomed to observe
them. Thougli the exceptions are immerous, I will venture to sav
that not in one instance in a hundred, is the man of sound and unso-
phisticated tastes and propensiiies so likely to be attracted by the fe-
male (.>"a foreign stock, as by one «)f his own, who is more nearly con-
formed to himself. Sliakspeare spoke the language of nature,
when he made tlie senate and people of Venice attribute to the effect
of witchcraft, Desdemona's passion for Othello — though, as Cole-
ridge has said, we are to conceive of him not as a negro, but as a
high bred, Moorish Chief.
If the negro race, as 1 have contended, be inferior to our own in
mind and cliaracter. m irkeJ by inferiority of form and features, then
ours would suffer deteriora!:ion from such intermixture. What would
be thouglit of the moral conduct of the parent who should voluntarily
transmit disease, or fatuity, or deformity to his oftspringi If man be
the most perfect work of the creator, and the civilized European man
the most perfect variety of the human race, is he not criminal who
would desecrate and .leface God's fairest work; estranginsr it further
from the image of himself, and conforming it more nearly to that of
the brute. I have heard it said, as if it afforded an argument, that
the African is as well satisfied of the superiority of his own complex-
ion, form and features, as we can be of ours. If this were true, as it
is not, would any one be so recreant to his own civilization, as to say
that his opinion ought to wei»h against ours — that there is no univer-
sal standard of truth and grace and beauty — that the Hottentot Venuf5
may perchance possess as great perfection of form as the Medicean?
It is true, the Jicemious passioni* of men overcome the natural repug-
68
nance, and find transient gratification in intercourse with females of
the other race. But this is a very ditFerent thing from making her
the associate of life, the companion of the bosom and the hearth. Him
who would contemplate duch an alliance for himself, or regard it with
patience, when proposed for a son or daughter or sister, we should
esteem a degraded wretch — with justice, ccrtaiidy, if he were found
among ourselves — and the estimate would not be very difl^'erent if he
were found in Europe. It is not only in defence of ourselves, of our
country and of our own generation, that we refuse to emancipate our
slaves, but to defend our posterity and race from degeneracy and de-
gradation.
Are we not justified then in regarding as criminals, the fanatical
agitators whose efforts are intended to bring about the evils I have
described. It is sometimes said that their zeal is generous and dissin-
terested, and that their motives may be praised, though their conduct
be condemned. But I have little faith in the good motives of those
who pursue bad ends. It is not for us to scrutinize the hearts of men,
and we can only judge of them by the tendency of their actions.
There is much truth in what was said by Coleridge. "I have never
known a trader in philanthropy who was not wrong in heart somehow
or other. Individuals so distinguished, are usually unhappy in their
family relations— men not benevolent or beneficent to individuals, but
almost hostile to them, yet lavishing money and labor and time on
the race — the abstract notion," The prevalent love of notoriety ac-
tuates some. There is much luxury in sentiment, especially if it can
be indu gcd at the expense of others, and if there be added some
share of envy or malignity, the temptation to indulgence is almost
irresistible. But certainly they may be justly regarded as criminal,
who obstinately shut their eyes and close their ears to all instruction
with respect to the true nature of their actions.
It must be manifest to every man of sane mind that it is impossible
for them to achieve ultimate success; even if every individual in our
country, out of the limits of the slave holding states, were united in
their purposes. They cannot have even the miserable tiiumph of
St. Domingo — of advancing through scenes of atrocity, blood and
massacre, to the restoration of barbarism. They may agitate and
perplex the world for a time. They may excite to desperate attempts
and particular acts of cruelty and horror, but these will always be
suppressed or avenged at the expense of the objects of their trucu-
lent philanthi-opy. But short of this, they can hardly be aware of
the extent of the mischief they perpetrate. As I have said, their
opinions, by means to us inscrutable, do very generally reach our
slave population. What human being, if unfavorably distinguished
by outward circumstances, is not ready to believe when he is told that
he is the victim of injustice? Is it not cruelty to make men restless
and dissatisfied in their condition, when no effort of theirs can alter
it"? The greatest injury is done to their characters, as well as to their
happiness. Even if no such feelings or designs should he entertain-
ed or conceived by the slave, they will be attributed to him by the mas-
69
ter, and all his conduct scanned with a severe and jealous scrutiny.
Thus distrust and aversion are established, where, but for mischievous
interference, there would be confidence and good will, and a sterner
control is exercised over the slave who thus becomes the victim of his
cruel advocates.
An effect is sometimes produced on the minds of slave holders, by
the publications of the self styled philanthropists, and their judgments
staggered and consciences alarmed. It is natural that the oppressed
should hate the oppressor. It is still more natural that the opjiressor
should hate his victim. Convince the master that he is doing injus-
tice to his slave, and he at once begins to regard him with distrust
and malignity. It is a part of the constitution of the human mind,
that when circumstances of necessity or temptation induce men to
continue in the practice of what they believe to be wrong, they be-
come desperate and reckless of the degree of wrong. I have foitner-
ly heard of a master who accounted for his practising much severity
upon his slaves, and exacting from them an unusual degree of labor,
by saying that the thing (slavery) was altogether wrong, and therefore
it was well to make the greatest possible advantage out of it. This
agitation occasions some slave holders to hang more loosely on their
country. Regarding the institution as of questionable character,
condemned by the general opinion of the world, and one which must
shortly come to an end, they hold themselves in readiness to make
their escape from the evil which they anticipate. Some sell their
slaves to new masters (always a misfortune to the slave) and remove
themselves to other societies, of manners and habits uncongenial to
their own. And though we may suppose that it is only the weak and
the timid who are liable to be thus affected, still it is no less an injury
and public misfortune. Society is kept in an unquiet and restless
state, and every sort of improvement is retarded.
Some projectors suggest the education of slaves, with a view to pre-
pare them for freedom — as if tiiere were any method of a man's
being educated to freedom, but by hiniself. The truth is however,
that supposing that they are shortly to be emancipated, and that they
have the capacities of any other race, they are undoing the very best
education which it possible to give. They are in the course of be-
ing taught habits of regular and patient industry, and this is the first
lesson which is required. I suppose, that their most zealous advo-
cates would not desire that they should be placed in the high places
of society immediately upon their emancipation, but that they should
begin their course of freedom as laborers, and raise themselves after-
wards as their capacities and characters might enable them. But
how little would what are commonly called the rudiments of educa-
tion, add to their qualifications as laborers] But for the agitation
which exists however, their education would be carried further than
this. There is a constant tendency in our society to extend the sphere
ot their employments, and consequently to give them tlie information
which is necessary to the discharge of those employments. And this
for the most obvious reason, it promotes the master's interest. How
60
much would it add to the value of a slave, that he should be capable
of being employed as a clt;rk, or be able to make calculations as a
mechanic? In consi'(iuence, however, of tlie fai.aiical spirit which
has been excited, it his been tliougiit necessary to repress this ten-
dencv by legislation, and to prevent their acqniring tii • kn(j\\ ledgr of
which t'ley might mike a dangerous use. If th.ssph-it were put down,
and wv restored to the coascioiisness of secin-it\, this would be no
longer necessary, and tha process of which I have sp(tken would be
accelerated. Wlie;iever indications of supeiior ca;jaciiy appeared in
a slave, it would be cultivated; gradual improvement would take
place, until they might be engagiid in as various employments as they
were amon<j tlie ancients — perhaps even liberal ones. Thus, if in the
adorable providence of God, at a time and in a manner which we
can neither foresee nor conjecture, they are to be rendered capable of
freedom and to enjoy it, they would be prepared for ii. in the best "and
most effectual, because in the most natural and gradual manner. But
fanaticism hurries to its eflect at once. 1 have heard it said, Gcd does
good, but it is by imperceptible degrees; the Devil is permilted to do
evil, and he does it in a hurry. The beneficent processes of nature
are not apparent to the senses. Yon connot see the plant irrow or the
flower expand. The volcano, the earthquake and the hurricane do
their work of desolation in a moment. Such would l.e the desola-
tion, if the schemes of fanatics were permitted to liave effect. They
do all that in them lies to thwart the benificent purposes of providence.
The whole tendency of their, efforts is to aggravate present suffering
and to cut off the cliance of future improvement, and in all their
bearings and results, have produced, and are likely to produce, noth-
ing but "fierce, umnixed, dephlegmated, defeated evil."
If Wilberforce or Clarkson were living, and it were enquired of
them "can you be sure that you have promoted the happiness of a
single human being!" 1 imagine that, if they considered conscien-
tiously, they would find it difficult lo answer in the affirmative. - If it
were asked "can you be sure tliatyou have not been the cause of suf-
fering, misery and death to thousands," — when we lecollect that they
probably stimulated the exeitions of the amis dcs jioirs in France and
that through the efforts of these, the horrors of >t. Domingo were
perpetrated. I think tliey must hesitate long to return a decided neg-
ative. It might seem cruel, if we could, to convince a man who has
devoted his life to what he esteemed a good and generous purpose,
that he has been doing only evil — that he has been worshipping a hor-
rid fiend, in the place of the true God. But fanaticism is in no dan-
ger of being convinced, it is one of the mysteries of our nature, and
of the divine government, how utterly disproportioned to each other,
are the powers of doinsf evil and of doing good. The poorest and
most abject instrument, that is utterly imbecile for any purpose of
good, seems sometimes endowed v/ith almost the powers of omnipo-
tence for mischief A mole may inundate a province — a spark from
aforge may conflagrate a city — a whisper may seperate friends, a ru-
mor may convulse an empire — but when we would do benefit to our
61
race or country, the purest and most chastened motives, the most pa-
tient thought and labor, with the humblest self distrust, are hardly
sufficient to assure us that the results m ly not disappoint our expecta-
tations, and that we may not do evil instead of good. But are we
therefore to refrain from eftbrts to benefit our race and country f By
no means: but these motWes, this labour and self distrust are the on-
ly conditions upon which we are permitted to hope for success. Very
different indeed is the course of those, whose precipitate and ignorant
zeal would overturn the fundamental institutions of society, uproot its
peace and endanger its security, in pursuit of a distant and shadowy
good, of which they themselves have formed no definite conception—
whose atrocious philosophy would sacrifice a generation — and more
than one generation — for any hypothesis.
54
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