This sense of danger to their political and social well-being arising
from the threatened presence of negroes in large numbers was felt by
the whites of the free states even after two years of civil war had
wrought its changes in sentiment, and Mr. Lincoln's first Proclamation
of Emancipation had been given to the world. In his message to
Congress in December, 1862, the President, in urging his plan for
national aid to facilitate emancipation and deportation, endeavored to
meet and allay these fears. He said:
"But it is dreaded that the freed people will swarm forth and cover
the whole land. Are they not already in the land? Will liberation
make them more numerous? Equally distributed among the whites of the
whole country, and there would be but one colored to seven whites.
Could the one in any way disturb the seven?...
"But why should emancipation South send the free people North?
People of any color seldom run unless there be something to run
from. Heretofore colored people to some extent have fled North from
bondage and now perhaps from both bondage and destitution. But if
gradual emancipation and deportation be adopted they will have
neither to flee from.... And in any event cannot the North decide
for itself whether to receive them?"[254]
These appealing words of Mr. Lincoln show that in the very hour when
the inspiring vision of emancipation was being held up before the
people of the free states, they were balancing the satisfaction of its
achievement with the dangers to their peace which might follow any
substantial increase in their negro population.
"Cannot the North decide for itself whether to receive them?" were the
reassuring words of Mr. Lincoln. Virginia had no such alternative.
-----
Footnote 233:
_History of Slavery in Virginia_, Ballagh, p. 132.
Footnote 234:
_Congressional Globe_, 31st Congress. 1st Session. App. 1678.
Footnote 235:
_Proceedings of Peace Convention_, Crittenden, p. 139.
Footnote 236:
_Democracy in America_, de Tocqueville, Vol. II, p. 214.
Footnote 237:
_Idem_, p. 238.
Footnote 238:
_Democracy in America_, de Tocqueville, Vol. II, p. 245.
Footnote 239:
_The Negro Problem, Abraham Lincoln's Solution_, Pickett, p. 446.
Footnote 240:
_General Sherman's Letters Home_, Howe, _Scribner's Magazine_,
April, 1909, p. 400.
Footnote 241:
_The Negro Problem, Abraham Lincoln's Solution_, Pickett, p. 449.
Footnote 242:
_Abraham Lincoln, Speeches, Letters and State Papers_, N. & H., Vol.
I, p. 458.
Footnote 243:
_Idem_, p. 457.
Footnote 244:
_William Lloyd Garrison_, by his children, Vol. I, p. 321.
Footnote 245:
_William Lloyd Garrison_, by his children, Vol. I, p. 253.
Footnote 246:
_Slavery and Abolition_, Hart, p. 83.
Footnote 247:
_Idem_, p. 83.
Footnote 248:
_History of Negro Race in America_, Williams, Vol. II, pp. 111-119.
Footnote 249:
_History of Negro Race in America_, Williams, Vol. II, pp. 119-122.
Footnote 250:
_Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, Wilson, Vol. II, p.
185.
Footnote 251:
_History of Negro Race in America_, Williams, Vol. II, p. 123.
Footnote 252:
_Illinois Convention Journal_, 1862, p. 1098.
Footnote 253:
_The Organic and Other General Laws of Oregon_, 1843-72, pp. 97-98.
Footnote 254:
_Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, Vol. VI, pp. 140-141.