It may be asked, have not all enslaved people a right to freedom? To
which it may be answered that _rights_ are connected with _duties_; or,
to go back to the other definition, the will and the understanding of
a man, the strength of the one and the capacity of the other, combined
together, constitute the measure of his rights, inasmuch as they are
the measure of the sphere which he fills.
Freedom involves certain responsibilities, which, if a man can not
meet, he is not free. Besides, _Freedom_ is a relative thing--a thing
of degrees. How much of external restraint must be thrown off to
constitute _Freedom_? No one can say; it can not be defined by specific
limits.
If we go to talking of _abstract rights_, we shall discourse very
vaguely and to little purpose. The phrase itself is unmeaning; for
rights can be considered only as pertaining to _persons_. Thus they can
not be abstract at all.
Nor will it do to assume the position of the equality of all men,
and to reason from it on this subject. Men are not equal. They are
not born so; they do not become so; they can not be made equal.
Neither in physical endowments, in stature, nor in the gifts of
intellect are they upon an equality. The influence of some over
others results from laws as fixed and as imperative as the laws of
gravitation, of magnetic attraction, or any other laws of nature. The
power of truth over the mind, the force of courage and decision of
character in action, the influence which belongs to superior wisdom
and goodness--these give preeminence to individuals in all forms of
social organization. A civilized people hold ascendency over the
less civilized; the particular nature of which ascendency will be
determined by the circumstances attendant on the contact of the two,
and their characteristics respectively. The sullen Indian, feeling
the superiority of the white man, flies from before it, or is crushed
beneath it; the tractable negro acknowledges its sway, and yields
himself contentedly thereto.
Men can not associate with children without holding them to obedience;
and children expect such control. If they do not find it, they regard
their weak elders slightingly enough. Tinctured with love and kindness,
this control is a delightful bond of affinity, blending the solicitude
of mature years with the tenderest affections of childhood.
What other principle can hold in respect to the intercourse of
different classes of men brought into association, no matter by
what means, in one community, the disparity between the two being
as great as that between childhood and maturity? The two elements
of civilization and primitive rudeness entering together into the
social organization, the control of the superior element must take
the permanent form of an institution; the relations of the two must
be fixed upon a firm basis. Otherwise how could there be a permanent
organization?
If the inferior race should remain in a mass to themselves, it would
be in a position antagonistic to the superior, and must perish. Like
the Helots of Sparta, they might be slaves to the community; but only
so when the community was the only personality, the citizens living in
common, and merging each his individual character in that of the State.
Upon reflection it will be seen that personal servitude to particular
masters would constitute the only mode by which the interests of the
two races could be harmonized; by which the inferior might be diffused
through the other, so as to come most beneficially in contact with it,
by which, in short, the safety of the inferior might be secured, and a
domestic relationship be established in place of implacable hostility.
This, however, presupposes docility in the inferior race.
The authority of a parent over the child is as absolute as that of the
master over the slave, so far as the power to enforce obedience goes.
The first, however, is mingled with parental affection, which gives
assurance of kindness and the tenderest care. But it may be abused, and
often it is.
There is no such assurance that the authority of the master will be
tempered and regulated by kindness and solicitude. Hence in due time
come the evils of the relation--the master forgetting the obligations
of his position, and looking upon his servants as so many chattels fit
only to minister to his avarice or his pleasure.
A further analogy may be stated: that as the control of parental
authority, proper over the child, would be improper after the child has
become a man, so the condition of servitude, rightly to be regarded as
one of tutelage, and proper only in that view, must after a time cease
to be just--because incompatible with progress after a certain point.
It can not be supposed that any race of men, the most humble in the
grade of civilization, are destined to be always slaves.