THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY IS THE ENEMY OF IMMEDIATE ABOLITION.
It follows, as a necessary consequence, that a Society which is not
hostile to slavery, which apologises for the system and for
slaveholders, which recognises slaves as rightful property,[N] and which
confessedly increases their value, is _the enemy of immediate
abolition_. This, I am aware, in the present corrupt state of public
sentiment, will not generally be deemed an objectionable feature; but I
regard it with inexpressible abhorrence and dismay.
Since the deception practised upon our first parents by the old serpent,
there has not been a more fatal delusion in the minds of men than that
of the gradual abolition of slavery. _Gradual_ abolition! do its
supporters really know what they talk about? Gradually abstaining from
what? From sins the most flagrant, from conduct the most cruel, from
acts the most oppressive! Do colonizationists mean, that slave-dealers
shall purchase or sell a few victims less this year than they did the
last? that slave-owners shall liberate one, two or three out of every
hundred slaves during the same period? that slave-drivers shall apply
the lash to the scarred and bleeding backs of their victims somewhat
less frequently? Surely not--I respect their intelligence too much to
believe that they mean any such thing. But if any of the slaves should
be exempted from sale or purchase, why not all? if justice require the
liberation of the few, why not of the many? if it be right for a driver
to inflict a number of lashes, how many shall be given? Do
colonizationists mean that the practice of separating the husband from
the wife, the wife from the husband, or children from their parents,
shall come to an end by an almost imperceptible process? or that the
slaves shall be defrauded of their just remuneration, less and less
every month or every year? or that they shall be under the absolute,
irresponsible control of their masters? Oh no! I place a higher value
upon their good sense, humanity and morality than this! Well, then, they
would immediately break up the slave traffic--they would put aside the
whip--they would have the marriage relations preserved inviolate--they
would not separate families--they would not steal the wages of the
slaves, nor deprive them of personal liberty! This is
abolition--_immediate abolition_. It is simply declaring that slave
owners are bound to fulfil--now, without any reluctance or delays--the
golden rule, namely, to do as they would be done by; and that, as the
right to be free is inherent and inalienable in the slaves, there ought
now to be a disposition on the part of the people to break their
fetters. All the horrid spectres which are conjured up, on this subject,
arise from a confusion of the brain, as much as from a corruption of the
heart.
I utterly reject, as delusive and dangerous in the extreme, every plea
which justifies a procrastinated and an indefinite emancipation, or
which concedes to a slave owner the right to hold his slaves as
_property_ for any limited period, or which contends for the gradual
preparation of the slaves for freedom; believing all such pretexts to be
a fatal departure from the high road of justice into the bogs of
expediency, a surrender of the great principles of equity, an
indefensible prolongation of the curse of slavery, a concession which
places the guilt upon any but those who incur it, and directly
calculated to perpetuate the thraldom of our species.
Immediate abolition does not mean that the slaves shall immediately
exercise the right of suffrage, or be eligible to any office, or be
emancipated from law, or be free from the benevolent restraints of
guardianship. We contend for the immediate personal freedom of the
slaves, for their exemption from punishment except where law has been
violated, for their employment and reward as free laborers, for their
exclusive right to their own bodies and those of their own children, for
their instruction and subsequent admission to all the trusts, offices,
honors and emoluments of intelligent freemen. Emancipation will increase
and not destroy the value of their labor; it will also increase the
demand for it. Holding out the stimulus of good treatment and an
adequate reward, it will induce the slaves to toil with a hundred fold
more assiduity and faithfulness. Who is so blind as not to perceive the
peaceful and beneficial results of such a change? The slaves, if freed,
will come under the watchful cognizance of law; they will not be idle,
but _avariciously_ industrious; they will not rush through the country,
firing dwellings and murdering the inhabitants; for freedom is all they
ask--all they desire--the obtainment of which will transform them from
enemies into friends, from nuisances into blessings, from a corrupt,
suffering and degraded, into a comparatively virtuous, happy and
elevated population.
Nor does immediate abolition mean that any compulsory power, other than
moral, should be used in breaking the fetters of slavery. It calls for
no bloodshed, or physical interference; it jealously regards the welfare
of the planters; it simply demands an entire revolution in public
sentiment, which will lead to better conduct, to contrition for past
crimes, to a love instead of a fear of justice, to a reparation of
wrongs, to a healing of breaches, to a suppression of revengeful
feelings, to a quiet, improving, prosperous state of society!
Now see with what earnestness and inveteracy the friends of the
Colonization Society oppose immediate abolition!
'It appears, indeed, to be the only feasible mode by which we
can remove that stigma as well as _danger_ from among us. Their
sudden and entire freedom would be a fearful, and perhaps
dreadful experiment, destructive of all the ends of liberty, for
which their condition would unfit them, and which they would
doubtless greatly abuse. Even their release, at apparently
proper intervals, but uncontrolled as to their future habits and
location, would be a very hazardous charity. Their gradual
emancipation, therefore, under the advantages of a free
government, formed, in their native land, by their own hands,
offering all the rewards usual to industry and economy, and
affording the means of enjoying, in comfort, a reputable and
free existence, is the only rational scheme of relieving them
from the bondage of their present condition.' * * * 'To
eradicate or remove the evil _immediately_, is impossible; nor
can any law of conscience govern necessity.'--[Af. Rep. vol. i.
pp. 89, 258.]
'Vaunt not over us, dear brethren of the north, we inherited the
evil from our forefathers, and we really do not think you do
your brethren any good, or that you serve the interests of the
people of color, when you recommend and enforce premature
schemes of emancipation.' * * * 'The operation, we were aware,
must be--and, for the interests of our country, ought to be
gradual.' * * * 'According to one, (that rash class which,
without a due estimate of the fatal consequence, would forthwith
issue a decree of general, immediate, and indiscriminate
emancipation,) it was a scheme of the slaveholder to perpetuate
slavery.'--[Idem, vol. ii. pp. 12, 254, 336.]
'Slavery, in its mildest form, is an evil of the darkest
character. Cruel and unnatural in its origin, no plea can be
urged in justification of its continuance, but the plea of
necessity--not that necessity which arises from our habits, our
prejudices, or our wants; but the necessity which requires us to
submit to existing evils, rather than substitute, by their
removal, others of a more serious and destructive character. It
was this which produced the recognition of slavery in the
constitution of our country; it is this which has justified its
continuance to the present day; and it is in this only that we
can find a palliation for the rigors of our laws, which might
otherwise be considered as the cruel enactments of a dark and
dismal despotism. There have not, I am aware, been found wanting
individuals to deny both the existence and the obligations of
such a necessity. There are men, actuated in some instances, by
a blind and mistaken enthusiasm, and in others, by a spirit of
mischievous intent, loudly calling on us, in the names of
justice and humanity, for the immediate and unqualified
emancipation of our slaves. To men of this description, it is in
vain to point out the inevitable effects of such a course, as
well on the objects of their real or pretended solicitude, as on
the community in which they exist. It is in vain to assure them,
that while the preservation of the latter would require a policy
even more rigorous than pertains to slavery itself, the
short-lived and nominal freedom of the former must end in their
ultimate and utter extinction. All this is of no consequence.
Provided slavery be abolished in name, it matters not what
horrors may be substituted in its room.' * * * 'The scope of the
Society is large enough, but it is in no wise mingled or
confounded with the broad sweeping views of _a few fanatics_ in
America, who would urge us on to the sudden and total abolition
of slavery.'--[Af. Rep. vol. iii. pp. 15, 197.]
'What is to be done? Immediate and universal emancipation will
find few, if any advocates, among judicious and reflecting men.'
* * * 'There is a portion of our brethren, who have been
laboring for many years, with the most benevolent intentions,
but, as I conceive, with erroneous views, in the cause of
abolition.' * * * 'The Colonization Society, as such, have
renounced wholly the name and the characteristics of
abolitionists.' * * * 'INTO THEIR ACCOUNTS THE SUBJECT OF
EMANCIPATION DOES NOT ENTER AT ALL.' * * * 'Here, that race is
in every form a curse, and if the system, so long contended for
by the uncompromising abolitionist, could prevail, its effect
would be to spread discord and devastation from one end of the
Union to the other.'--[Idem, vol. iv. pp. 202, 303, 306, 363.]
'With a writer in the Southern Review we say, "the situation of
the people of these States was not of their own choosing. When
they came to the inheritance, it was subject to this mighty
incumbrance, and it would be criminal in them to ruin or waste
the estate, to get rid of the burden at once." With this writer
we add also, in the language of Capt. Hall, that the
"slaveholders ought not (immediately) to disentangle themselves
from the obligations which have devolved upon them, as the
masters of slaves." We believe that a master _may_ sustain his
relation to the slave, with as little criminality as the slave
sustains his relation to the master. But we feel little sympathy
for those who, in the language of Mr Harrison of Virginia,
"still look upon their slaves in the light in which most men
regarded them when the slave trade was legitimate. Of those,
wherever they are, who hold their slaves with that same
sentiment which impelled the kidnapper when he forcibly bore
them off, I know not how morality can distinguish them from the
original wrong-doers, pirates by nature, and pirates by
civilized law." That the system of slavery must exist
temporarily in this country, we as firmly believe, as that for
its existence a single moment, there can be offered justly no
plea but necessity. Were the very spirit of angelic charity to
pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our land,
it would by no means require that all the slaves should be
instantaneously liberated.'--[Af. Rep. vol. v. p. 329.]
'The long established habits of the South, the attachments which
are frequently found subsisting between the proprietor and his
servants, together with the difficulty of substituting at once
white for slave labor, and the derangement which would ensue in
the domestic concerns of life, would not merely make general
emancipation at once inexpedient, but the attempt would denote
the extremity of madness and folly, and convulse this government
to its centre.'--[Idem, vol. vi. p. 291.]
'The Society, meeting the objections of the _abolition
enthusiast_, in a like spirit of mildness and forbearance,
assures him of their equal devotion to the pure principles of
liberty and the powerful claims of humanity. We know, say they,
and we deplore the evil of slavery as the deadliest curse to our
common country. We see, and we lament its demoralizing effects
upon the children of our affections, from the budding innocence
of infancy, to the full maturity of manhood. But, we have not,
we do not, and _we will not_ interfere with this delicate, this
important subject. There are rights to be respected, prejudices
to be conciliated, fears to be quelled, and safety to be
observed in all our operations. And we protest, _most solemnly
protest_, against the adoption of your views, as alike
destructive of the ends of justice, of policy, and of humanity.
No wild dream of the wildest enthusiast was ever more
extravagant than that of turning loose upon society two millions
of blacks, idle and therefore worthless, vicious and therefore
dangerous, ignorant and therefore incapable of appreciating and
enjoying the blessings of freedom. Could _your_ wishes be
realized, your gratulation would be quickly changed into
mourning, your joy into grief, and your labor of love into
visits of mercy to our jails and our penitentiaries, to the
abodes of vice and the haunts of poverty. Come, ye
abolitionists, away with your _wild enthusiasm_, your _misguided
philanthropy_.'--[African Repository, vol. vii. p. 101.]
'The Colonization Society is removing the greatest obstacles in
the way of emancipation; but none, we think, who is acquainted
with the circumstances and condition of our southern States,
_and who has any conscience or humanity_, would deem it
expedient or christian to dissolve instantaneously all the ties
which unite masters and slaves.'--[Idem, vol. vii. p. 186.]
'It is not right that men should be free, when their freedom
will prove injurious to themselves and others.' * * 'He has
encountered determined opposition from several individuals, who
are so reckless and fanatical as to require the instantaneous
remedying of an acknowledged evil, which may be remedied
gradually, with safety, but which cannot be remedied immediately
without jeopardizing all the interests of all parties
concerned.'--[Idem, p. 202, 280.]
'He was quite sure that in the Northern States, there was no
opinion generally prevailing, that immediate, absolute, and
universal emancipation was desirable. There might be, said Mr
Storrs, some who are actuated by pure motives and benevolent
views, who considered it practicable; but he might say with
confidence, that very few, if any, believed that it would be
truly humane or expedient to turn loose upon the community more
than a million of persons, totally destitute of the means of
subsistence, and altogether unprepared in every moral point of
view, to enjoy or estimate their new privileges. Such a
cotemporaneous emancipation of the colored population of the
Southern States could only bring a common calamity on all the
States, and the most severe misery on those who were to be thus
thrown upon society, under the most abject, helpless and
deplorable circumstances.'--[Speech of Hon. Mr Storrs.--Twelfth
Annual Report.]
'The condition of a slave suddenly emancipated, and thrown upon
his own resources, is very far from being improved; and, however
laudable the feeling which leads to such emancipation, its
policy and propriety are at least questionable.'--[Report of the
Pennsylvania Colonization Society.]
'We may, therefore, fairly conclude the object of immediate
universal emancipation wholly unattainable, or, if attainable,
at too high a price.'--[Mathew Carey's Essays.]
'Observation has fully convinced them that emancipation has
often proved injurious to both: consequently laws have been
enacted in several of the States to discourage, if not to
prevent it. The public safety and interest, as well as
individual happiness, seemed to require of legislatures the
adoption of such a measure. For, it appeared highly probable
that the manumitted would not only be poor and wretched, but
likewise a public nuisance; and perhaps at some future day, form
the nucleus of rebellion among those unhappy persons still in
slavery.'--[A colonization advocate in the Middletown
(Connecticut) Gazette.]
'To our mind, it is clearly the doctrine of the Bible, that
there may be circumstances, in which the immediate and universal
emancipation of slaves is not a duty. Demanding instantaneous
and universal emancipation, and denouncing every instance of
_holding_ slaves as a crime, is not the way to bring it to pass.
If such a course proceeds from a right spirit, it is from a
right spirit misinformed.'--[Vermont Chronicle.]
'When the writer visited England from the colonies, he was
constantly astonished to find the Wilberforceans, or saints, as
they were called, influenced by the _wildest enthusiasm_ upon
the sublime theory of liberty; urging _immediate emancipation_
of the slave, and yet totally uninformed as to its destructive
consequences to their future welfare, in their present
uneducated condition, without some provision being made to so
enlighten them that they may be enabled to estimate religions
obligations and distinguish between right and wrong; otherwise
it would be indispensable to have strong military posts and
constant martial law to preserve order, and prevent a murderous
anarchy and lawless confusion. It is not anticipated that this
state of things could ever be consummated in the United States;
but it may afford a very salutary lesson in guiding our
consideration of similar occurrences that may take place.'
--[From a colonization pamphlet, entitled 'Remarks upon a plan
for the total abolition of slavery in the United States. By a
Citizen of New-York.']
'We do not wish to be understood, as sanctioning the measures
now pursued with respect to the subject of slavery, by some
misguided enthusiasts in the northern and eastern sections of
the United States. Were the measures they advocate with so much
heat, to be adopted, a heavier curse could hardly fall upon our
country. Their operation, we feel fully satisfied, would work
the ruin of those, whom these imprudent advocates of instant and
total emancipation, wish primarily to benefit. We have always
regarded these advocates for the instantaneous abolition of
slavery, in all cases, as doing more injury to our colored
population than any other class of men in the community. The
slaves of this country cannot be at once emancipated. It is
folly, it is madness to talk of it. From the very nature of the
case, in justice to that deeply injured class, in justice to
ourselves, the work must be gradual.' * * * 'We cannot doubt the
ultimate success of the American Colonization Society. And
however much some of the clamorous advocates of instant,
immediate abolition may vent their rage against this noble
institution, it will prosper, it will flourish. Our intelligent
community are beginning to see that the American Colonization
Society presents _the only door of hope_ to the
republic.'--[Western Luminary.]
'But _what_ shall be done? Some--and their motives and
philanthropic zeal are worthy of all honor--plead for immediate
emancipation. But Mr Ladd had seen enough to know that _that_
would be a curse to all parties. He acknowledged a difficulty
here; _but it is a difficulty that often occurs in morals_. When
we have gone far in a wrong road, it often happens that we
cannot in a moment put ourselves in the right one. One penalty
of such a sin is, that it clings to us, and cannot be shaken off
at once with all its bitter consequences by a mere
volition.'--[Speech of William Ladd, Esq.]
'The warmest friend to the abolition of slavery, while he
deplores the existence of the evil, must admit the necessity of
cautious and gradual measures to remove it. The inhabitants of
the South cannot, and ought not, suddenly to emancipate their
slaves, to remain among them free. Such a measure would be no
blessing to the slaves, but the very madness of self-destruction
to the whites. In the South, the horrid scenes that would too
certainly follow the liberation of their slaves, are present to
every imagination, to stifle the calls of justice and humanity.
A fell spirit of avarice is thus invigorated and almost
justified, by the plea of necessity.'--[First Annual Report of
the New Jersey Col. Soc.]
'The impropriety and impolicy of manumitting slaves, _in any
case_, in our country, one would suppose, must be apparent to
all. It is not a little astonishing that individuals acquainted
with the facts, and the evils brought upon society by the free
black population, should persist in declaring that duty and
humanity call upon us to give the slaves their freedom. It
really appears to me that there is entirely too much "namby
pamby sentimentality" and affected feeling exhibited respecting
the condition of slaves. Do these individuals believe that
benevolence and humanity command us to turn loose upon society a
set of persons who confessedly only serve to swell the amount of
crime, while they add nothing to the industry, to the wealth, or
the strength of the country? Because abstractedly considered,
man has no right to hold his fellow man in bondage, shall we
give up our liberty, and the peace of society, in order that
this principle may not be violated? The fact is, _the negroes
are happier when kept in bondage_. In their master they find a
willing and efficient protector, to guard them from injury and
insult, to attend to them when sick and in distress, and to
provide for their comfort and support, when old age overtakes
them. When in health, they are well fed and clothed, and by no
means, in common cases, are they hardly worked.'--[A warm
advocate of African Colonization in the Alexandria Gazette.]
'But there are other difficulties in the way of immediate
emancipation. We believe that no one, who has taken charge of an
infant, and made a cripple of him, either in his feet, his
hands, or his mind, so that when he is of mature age, he is
unable to take care of himself, has a right to turn him out of
doors, to perish or destroy himself, and call it, giving him his
liberty. After having reduced him to this condition, he is bound
to afford him the support and protection, which he has rendered
necessary.
'This appears to us to be the true relation of the southern
planters to their slaves. Not that the southern planters have
generally been guilty of personal cruelty; but such has been the
general result of the system acted upon, and such the relation
growing out of it. The slaves have grown up, under the eye of
their masters, unable to take care of themselves; and their
masters, for whose comfort and convenience this has been done,
are bound to provide for them.
'Nor do we think that the exhortation, to "do right and trust
Providence," applies at all to this case; for the very question
is, "what is right?" Would it be right for the slave merchant,
in the midst of the Atlantic, to knock the manacles from his
prisoners and throw them overboard, and call this, giving them
their liberty and trusting Providence with the result? But how
else could he reduce the doctrine of immediate and complete
emancipation to practice?'--[Vermont Chronicle.]
The miserable sophistry contained in the foregoing extracts scarcely
needs a serious refutation. 'To say that immediate emancipation will
only increase the wretchedness of the slaves, and that we must pursue a
system of _gradual_ abolition, is to present to us the double paradox,
that we must continue to do evil, in order to cure the evil which we are
doing; and that we must continue to be unjust, and to do evil, that good
may come.' The fatal error of _gradualists_ lies here: They talk as if
the friends of abolition contended only for the emancipation of the
slaves, without specifying or caring what should be done with or for
them! as if the planters were invoked to cease from one kind of villany,
only to practise another! as if the manumitted slaves must necessarily
be driven out from society into the wilderness, like wild beasts! This
is talking nonsense: it is a gross perversion of reason and common
sense. Abolitionists have never said, that mere manumission would be
doing justice to the slaves: they insist upon a remuneration for years
of unrequited toil, upon their employment as free laborers, upon their
immediate and coefficient instruction, and upon the exercise of a
benevolent supervision over them on the part of their employers. They
declare, in the first place, that to break the fetters of the slaves,
and turn them loose upon the country, without the preservative
restraints of law, and destitute of occupation, would leave the work of
justice only half done; and, secondly, that it is absurd to suppose that
the planters would be wholly independent of the labor of the blacks--for
they could no more dispense with it next week, were emancipation to take
place, than they can to-day. The very ground which they assume for their
opposition to slavery,--that it necessarily prevents the improvement of
its victims,--shows that they contemplate the establishment of schools
for the education of the slaves, and the furnishing of productive
employment, immediately upon their liberation. If this were done, none
of the horrors which are now so feelingly depicted, as the attendants of
a sudden abolition, would ensue.
But we are gravely told that education must _precede_ emancipation. The
logic of this plea is, that intellectual superiority justly gives one
man an oppressive control over another! Where would such a detestable
principle lead but to practices the most atrocious, and results the most
disastrous, if carried out among ourselves? Tell us, ye hair-splitting
sophists, the exact quantum of knowledge which is necessary to
constitute a freeman. If every dunce should be a slave, your servitude
is inevitable; and richly do you deserve the lash for your obtuseness.
Our white population, too, would furnish blockheads enough to satisfy
all the classical kidnappers in the land.
The reason why the slaves are so ignorant, is because they are held in
bondage; and the reason why they are held in bondage, is because they
are so ignorant! They ought not to be freed until they are educated; and
they ought not be educated, because on the acquisition of knowledge they
would burst their fetters! Fine logic, indeed! How men, who make any
pretensions to honesty or common sense, can advance a paradox like this,
is truly inexplicable. 'I never met with a man yet,' says an able writer
in Kentucky, 'who impliedly admits the enslaving of human beings as
consistent with the exercise of christian duties, who could talk or
write ten minutes on the subject, without expressing nonsense, or
contradicting himself, or advancing heresy which would expose him to
censure on any other subject.' In this connexion, I make the following
extract from the Report of the _Dublin Negro's Friend Society_, of which
WILBERFORCE is President, and CLARKSON Vice President:
'They do not recognize the false principle, that education, as a
preparation for freedom, must precede emancipation; or that an
amelioration of the slaves' condition should be a substitute for
it: on the contrary, THEY INSIST UPON UNPROCRASTINATED
EMANCIPATION, as a right which is unrighteously withheld, and
the restoration of which is, in their opinion, the first and
most indispensable step to all improvement, and absolutely
essential to the application of the only remedy for that moral
debasement, in which slavery has sunk its victims.'
I cannot portray the absurdity of the doctrine of gradual abolition, and
the danger and folly of attempting to mitigate the system of slavery,
more strikingly, than by presenting the following eloquent extracts from
a speech of the Rev. Dr. Thomson of Edinburgh, one of the most learned
and able divines in Great Britain, whose sudden death was recorded in
the newspapers a few months since:
'The word _immediate_ may no doubt be considered as a strong
word; but you will observe that it is used as contrasted with
the word _gradual_. And were I to criticise the term _gradual_
as certain opponents have treated the term _immediate_, I could
easily, by the help of a little quibbling, bring you to the
conclusion, that as hitherto employed it means that the
abolition is never to take place, and that, by putting it into
their petition, they are to be understood as deprecating rather
than asking the emancipation of the slaves. "_Immediate_," they
argue, "evanishes as soon as you utter it; it is gone before
your petition reaches parliament." How absurd! If I should say
to my servant while engaged in work, "You must go to the south
side of the town with a message for me _immediately_," is it
indeed implied in the order I have given him, that he could not
fulfil it, unless he set off without his hat, without his coat,
without his shoes, without those habiliments which are requisite
for his appearing decently in the streets of Edinburgh, and
executing the task that I had assigned him? The meaning of the
word as used by us is perfectly clear, and cannot be
misapprehended by any one: it is not to be made a subject of
metaphysical animadversion: it is to be considered and
understood under the direction of common sense, and especially
as modified and expounded by those statements with which it is
associated both in our resolutions and in the petition; and
viewed in that light, _immediate abolition_ is not merely an
intelligible phrase, but one that does not warrant a particle of
the alarm which some have affected to take at it, and is not
liable to any one of those objections which some have been
pleased to make to it.
'To say that we will come out of the sin by degrees--that we
will only forsake it slowly, and step by step--that we will
pause and hesitate and look well about us before we consent to
abandon its gains and its pleasures--that we will allow another
age to pass by ere we throw off the load of iniquity that is
lying so heavy upon us, lest certain secularities should be
injuriously affected--and that we will postpone the duty of
"doing justly and loving mercy," till we have removed every
petty difficulty out of the way, and got all the conflicting
interests that are involved in the measure reconciled and
satisfied;--to say this, is to trample on the demands of moral
obligation, and to disregard the voice which speaks to as from
heaven. The path of duty is plain before us; and we have nothing
to do but to enter it at once, and to walk in it without turning
to the right hand or to the left. Our concern is not with the
result that may follow our obedience to the divine will. Our
great and primary concern is to obey that will. God reigns over
his universe in the exercise of infinite perfection: he commands
us to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke; and
submitting, without procrastination, and without any attempts at
compromise, to that command, we may be assured that he will take
care of all the effects that can be produced by compliance with
his authority, and give demonstration to the truth that
obedience to his behests is our grand and only security for a
prosperous lot.
'We are by no means indifferent to the expediency of the case.
On the contrary, we think ourselves prepared to prove, by fair
reasoning and by ascertained fact, that the expediency of the
thing is all on our side; that immediate abolition is the only
secure and proper way of attaining the object which we all
profess to have in view; that to defer the measure to a distant
period, and to admit the propriety of getting at it by a course
of mitigation, is the surest mode of frustrating every hope we
might otherwise entertain, and giving over the slaves to
interminable bondage.' * * *
'I do not deny, Sir, that the evils of practical slavery may be
lessened. By parliamentary enactments, by colonial arrangements,
by appeals to the judgment and feelings of planters, and by
various other means, a certain degree of melioration _may_ be
secured. But I say, in the first place, that, with all that you
can accomplish, or reasonably expect, of mitigation, you cannot
alter the nature of slavery itself. With every improvement you
have superinduced upon it, you have not made it less debasing,
less cruel, less destructive, in its essential character. The
black man is still the _property_ of the white man. And that one
circumstance not only implies in it the transgression of
inalienable right and everlasting justice, but is the fruitful
and necessary source of numberless mischiefs, the very thought
of which harrows up the soul, and the infliction of which no
superintendence of any government can either prevent or control.
Mitigate and keep down the evil as much as you can, still it is
there in all its native virulence, and still it will do its
malignant work in spite of you. The improvements you have made
are merely superficial. You have not reached the seat and vital
spring of the mischief. You have only concealed in some measure,
and for a time, its inherent enormity. Its essence remains
unchanged and untouched, and is ready to unfold itself whenever
a convenient season arrives, notwithstanding all your
precaution, and all you vigilance, in those manifold acts of
injustice and inhumanity, which are its genuine and its
invariable fruits. You may white-wash the sepulchre,--you may
put upon it every adornment that fancy can suggest,--you may
cover it over with all the flowers and evergreens that the
garden or the fields can furnish, so that it will appear
beautiful outwardly unto men. But it is a sepulchre still,--full
of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Disguise slavery as
you will,--put into the cup all the pleasing and palatable
ingredients which you can discover in the wide range of nature
and of art,--still it is a bitter, bitter draught, from which
the understanding and the heart of every man, in whom nature
works unsophisticated and unbiassed, recoils with unutterable
aversion and abhorrence. Why, Sir, slavery is the very Upas tree
of the moral world, beneath whose pestiferous shade all
intellect languishes, and all virtue dies. And if you would get
quit of the evil, you must go more thoroughly and effectually to
work than you can ever do by any or by all of those palliatives,
which are included under the term "mitigation." The foul
sepulchre must be taken away. The cup of oppression must be
dashed to pieces on the ground. The pestiferous tree must be cut
down and eradicated; it must be, root and branch of it, cast
into the consuming fire, and its ashes scattered to the four
winds of heaven. It is thus you must deal with slavery. You must
annihilate it,--annihilate it now,--and annihilate it for ever.
'Get your mitigation. I say in the second place, that you are
thereby, in all probability farther away than ever from your
object. It is not to the Government or the Parliament at home
that you are to look--neither is it to the legislatures and
planters abroad that you are to look--for accomplishing the
abolition of negro slavery. Sad experience shows that, if left
to themselves, they will do nothing efficient in this great
cause. It is to the sentiments of the people at large that you
are to look, to the spread of intellectual light, to the
prevalence of moral feeling, to the progress, in short, of
public opinion, which, when resting on right principles and
moving in a right direction, must in this free and Christian
country prove irresistible. But observe, Sir, the public mind
will not be sufficiently affected by the statement of abstract
truths, however just, or by reasonings on the tendencies of a
system, however accurate. It must be more or less influenced by
what is visible, or by what is easily known and understood of
the actual atrocities which accompany slavery, wherever it is
left to its own proper operation. Let it be seen in its native
vileness and cruelty, as exhibited when not interfered with by
the hand of authority, and it excites universal and unqualified
detestation. But let its harsher asperities be rubbed off; take
away the more prominent parts of its iniquity; see that it look
somewhat smoother and milder than it did before; make such
regulations as ought, if faithfully executed, to check its
grosser acts of injustice and oppression; give it the appearance
of its being put under the humanizing sway of religious
education and instruction; do all this, and you produce one
effect at least,--you modify the indignation of a great number
of the community; you render slavery much less obnoxious; you
enable its advocates and supporters to say in reply to your
denunciations of its wickedness, "O, the slaves are now
comfortable and happy; they do not suffer what they did; they
are protected and well treated," and in proof of all this, they
point to what are called "mitigations." But mark me, Sir; under
these mitigations, slavery still exists, ready at every
convenient season to break forth in all its countless forms of
inhumanity; meanwhile the public feeling in a great measure
subsides; and when the public feeling--such an important and
indispensable element in our attempts to procure abolition--is
allowed to subside, tell me, Sir, when, and where, and by what
means it is again to be roused into activity. I must say, for
one, that though I sympathize with my sable brethren, when I
hear of them being spared even one lash of the cart-whip; yet
when I take a more enlarged view of their condition--when I
consider the nature of that system under which they are placed,
and when I look forward to their deliverance, and the means by
which alone it is to be effected, I am tempted, and almost if
not altogether persuaded, to deprecate that insidious thing
termed "mitigation," because it directly tends to perpetuate the
mighty evil, which will by and by throw off the improvements by
which it is glossed over as quite unnatural to it, will
ultimately grow up again into all its former dreadfulness, and
continue to wither and crush beneath it, all that is excellent
and glorious in man.
'But if our rulers and legislators will undertake to emancipate
the slaves, and do it as it ought to be done, immediately, I beg
those who set themselves against such a measure, to point out
the danger, and to prove it. The _onus_ lies upon _them_. And
what evidence do they give us? Where is it to be found? In what
circumstance shall we discover it? From what principles and
probabilities shall we infer it? We must not have mere
hypothesis--mere allegations--mere fancied horrors, dressed up
in frightful language. We must have proof to substantiate, in
some good measure, their theory of rebellion, warfare, and
blood. If any such thing exists, let them produce it' * * * 'But
if you push me, and still urge the argument of insurrection and
bloodshed, for which you are far more indebted to fancy than to
fact, as I have shown you, then I say, be it so. I repeat that
maxim, taken from a heathen book, but pervading the whole Book
of God, _Fiat justitia_--_ruat caelum_. Righteousness, Sir, is
the pillar of the universe. Break down that pillar, and the
universe falls into ruin and desolation. But preserve it, and
though the fair fabric may sustain partial dilapidations, it may
be rebuilt and repaired--it _will_ be rebuilt, and repaired, and
restored to all its pristine strength, and magnificence, and
beauty. If there must be violence, let it even come, for it will
soon pass away--let it come and rage its little hour, since it
is to be succeeded by lasting freedom, and prosperity and
happiness. Give me the hurricane rather than the pestilence.
Give me the hurricane, with its thunder, and its lightning, and
its tempest;--give me the hurricane, with its partial and
temporary devastations, awful though they be;--give me the
hurricane, with its purifying, healthful, salutary
effects;--give me that hurricane, infinitely rather than the
noisome pestilence, whose path is never crossed, whose silence
is never disturbed, whose progress is never arrested, by one
sweeping blast from the heavens; which walks peacefully and
sullenly through the length and breadth of the land, breathing
poison into every heart, and carrying havoc into every home,
enervating all that is strong, defacing all that is beautiful,
and casting its blight over the fairest and happiest scenes of
human life--and which, from day to day, and from year to year,
with intolerant and interminable malignity, sends its thousands
and its tens of thousands of hapless victims into the
ever-yawning and never-satisfied grave!'
It is said, by way of extenuation, that the present owners of slaves are
not responsible for the origin of this system. I do not arraign them for
the crimes _of their ancestors_, but for the constant perpetration and
extension of similar crimes. The plea that the evil of slavery was
entailed upon them, shall avail them nothing: in its length and breadth
it means that the robberies of one generation justify the robberies of
another! that the inheritance of stolen property converts it into an
honest acquisition! that the atrocious conduct of their fathers
exonerates them from all accountability, thus presenting the strange
anomaly of a race of men incapable of incurring guilt, though daily
practising the vilest deeds! Scarcely any one denies that blame attaches
somewhere: the present generation throws it upon the past--the past,
upon its predecessor--and thus it is cast, like a ball, from one to
another, down to the first importers of the Africans! 'Can that be
_innocence_ in the temperate zone, which is the _acme of all guilt_ near
the equator? Can that be _honesty_ in one meridian of longitude, which,
at one hundred degrees east, is the _climax of injustice_?' Sixty
thousand infants, the offspring of slave-parents, are annually born in
this country, and doomed to remediless bondage. Is it not as atrocious a
crime to kidnap these, as to kidnap a similar number on the coast of
Africa?
It is said, moreover, that we ought to legislate prospectively, on this
subject; that the fetters of the present generation of slaves cannot be
broken; and that our single aim should be, to obtain the freedom of
their offspring, by fixing a definite period after which none shall be
born slaves. But this is inconsistent, inhuman and unjust. The following
extracts from the speech of the Rev. Dr. Thomson are conclusive on this
point:
'In the first place, it amounts to an indirect sanction of the
continued slavery of all who are now alive, and of all who may
be born before the period fixed upon. This is a renunciation of
the great moral principles upon which the demand for abolition
proceeds. It consigns more than 800,000 human beings to bondage
and oppression, while their title to freedom is both
indisputable and acknowledged. And it is not merely an
inconsistency on the part of the petitioners, and a violation of
the duty which they owe to such a multitude of their fellow-men,
but it weakens or surrenders the great argument by which they
enforce their application for the extinction of colonial
slavery.
'Besides, it is vain to expect that the planters will acquiesce
in such a prospective measure, any more than in the liberation
of the existing slaves, for the progeny of the existing slaves
must be considered by them as much a part of their property as
these slaves themselves. And they would regard it equally unjust
to deprive them of what is hereafter to be produced from their
own slave stock, as it would be to deprive a farmer, by an
anticipating law of all the foals and of all the calves that
might be produced in his stable and in his cow-house, after a
given specified date.
'We must be true to our own maxims, which are taken from the
word of God; and ask for all that we are entitled to have on the
ground of justice and humanity, and be contented with nothing
less.
'In the second place, the plan objected to is not merely an
acquiescence in the continuance of crime, it is a violation of
the best feelings of our nature. For, let any man but reflect on
the circumstance of children being born to slavery, merely
because they came into the world the last hour of December 1830,
instead of the first hour of January 1, 1831--and of children in
the same family, brothers and sisters--some of them destined to
bondage for life, and others gifted with freedom, for no other
reason than that the former were born before, and the latter
after, a particular day of a particular year--and of parents
being unjustly and inhumanly flogged in the very sight of their
offspring arbitrarily made free, while they are as arbitrarily
kept slaves--let any man but reflect on those things, and unless
the sensibilities of his heart be paralysed even to deadness, he
must surely revolt at such a cruel and cold blooded allotment in
the fortune of those little ones, and be satisfied with nothing
short of the emancipation of the whole community, without a
single exception.
'In the third place, supposing all children born after January
1, 1831, were declared free, how are they to be educated? That
they may be prepared for the enjoyment of that liberty with
which you have invested them, they must undergo a particular and
appropriate training. So say the _gradualists_. Very well; under
whom are they to get this training? Are they to be separated
from their parents? Is that dearest of natural ties to be broken
asunder? Is this necessary for your plan? And are not you thus
endeavoring to cure one species of wickedness by the
instrumentality of another? But if they are to be left with
their parents and brought up under their care, then either they
will be imbued with the faults and degeneracies that are
characteristic of slavery, and consequently be as unfit for
freedom as those who have not been disenthralled: or they will
be well nurtured and well instructed by their parents, and this
implies a confession that their parents themselves are
sufficiently prepared for liberty, and that there is no good
reason for withholding from them, the boon that is bestowed upon
their children.
'Whatever view, in short, we take of the question, the
prospective plan is full of difficulty or contradictions, and we
are made more sensible than ever that there is nothing left for
us, but to take the consistent, honest, uncompromising course of
demanding the abolition of slavery with respect to the present,
as well as to every future generation of the negroes in our
colonies.'
We are told that 'it is not right that men should be free, when their
freedom will prove injurious to themselves and others.' This has been
the plea of tyrants in all ages. If the immediate emancipation of the
slaves would prove a curse, it follows that slavery is a blessing; and
that it cannot be unjust, but benevolent, to defraud the laborer of his
hire, to rank him as a beast, and to deprive him of his liberty. But
this, every one must see, is at war with common sense, and avowedly
doing evil that good may come. This plea must mean, either that a state
of slavery is more favorable to the growth of virtue and the
dispensation of knowledge than a state of freedom--(a glaring
absurdity)--or that an immediate compliance with the demands of justice
would be most unjust--(a gross contradiction.)
It is boldly asserted by some colonizationists, that '_the negroes are
happier when kept in bondage_,' and that 'the condition of the great
mass of emancipated Africans is one in comparison with which the
condition of the slaves is _enviable_.' What is the inference? Why,
either that slavery is not oppression--(another paradox)--or that real
benevolence demands the return of the free people of color to their
former state of servitude. Every kidnapper, therefore, is a true
philanthropist! Our legislature should immediately offer a bounty for
the body of every free colored person! The colored population of
Massachusetts, at $200 for each man, woman and child, would bring at
least _one million three hundred thousand dollars_. This sum would
seasonably replenish our exhausted treasury. The whole free colored
population of the United States, at the same price, (which is a low
estimate,) would be worth _sixty-five millions of dollars_!! Think how
many churches this would build, schools and colleges establish,
beneficiaries educate, missionaries support, bibles and tracts
circulate, railroads and canals complete, &c. &c. &c.!!!
The Secretary of the Colonization Society assures us, (vide the African
Repository, vol. v. p. 330,) that '_were the very spirit of angelic
charity to pervade and fill the hearts of all the slaveholders in our
land, it would by no means require that all the slaves should be
instantaneously liberated_'!!--i. e. should the slaveholders become
instantaneously metamorphosed into angels, they would still hold the
rational creatures of God as their _property_, and yet commit no sin!
Think, for one moment, of an angel in the capacity of a
man-stealer--feeding his victims upon a peck of corn per week, or three
bushels of corn and a few herrings every 'quarter-day,' as a
compensation for their severe labor--flourishing a cowskin over their
heads, and applying it frequently to their naked bodies! Think of him
selling parents from children, and children from parents, at private
sale or public auction!
Many slaveholders are giving up their slaves from conscientious motives;
they cannot, they dare not longer keep them in servitude; they believe
that the law of God has a higher claim upon their obedience than the
laws of their native State. Now suppose all the owners of slaves in our
land should be suddenly and simultaneously convicted of sin, and moved
to repentance in a similar manner, and should say to their slaves, 'God
forbid that we should longer call you our property, or place you on a
level with our cattle, or defraud you of your just dues, or sell you or
your wives or children to others, or deny you the means of instruction,
or lacerate your bodies! henceforth you are free--but you want
employment, and we need laborers--go and work as freemen, and be paid as
freemen!'--suppose, I say, a case like this should happen, and a troop
of _gradualists_ should surround these penitent oppressors, and cry,
'Were the very spirit of angelic charity to pervade and fill your
hearts, it would by no means require that all your slaves should be
instantaneously liberated--your throats will be cut, your houses
pillaged, and desolation will stalk through the land, if you carry your
mad purpose into effect--emancipate by a slow, imperceptible
process!'--how would this advice sound? What should be their reply?
Clearly this: 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto
men more than unto God, judge ye.' Here would be presented a strange
spectacle indeed--one party confessing and resolving to forsake their
sins, and another urging them to disregard the admonitions of
conscience, and to leave off sinning by degrees! To be sure, a few, a
very few, would be _generously_ allowed to reform _instanter_!
Those who prophesy evil, and only evil, concerning immediate abolition,
absolutely disregard the nature and constitution of man, as also his
inalienable rights, and annihilate or reverse the causes and effects of
human action. They are continually fearful lest the slaves, in
consequence of their grievous wrongs and intolerable sufferings, should
attempt to gain their freedom by revolution; and yet they affect to be
equally fearful lest a general emancipation should produce the same
disastrous consequences. How absurd! They _know_ that oppression must
cause rebellion; and yet they pretend that a removal of the cause will
produce a bloody effect! This is to suppose an effect without a cause,
and, of course, is a contradiction in terms. Bestow upon the slaves
personal freedom, and all motives for insurrection are destroyed. Treat
them like rational beings, and you may surely expect rational treatment
in return: treat them like beasts, and they will behave in a beastly
manner.
Besides, precedent and experience make the ground of abolitionists
invulnerable. In no single instance where their principles have been
adopted, has the result been disastrous or violent, but beneficial and
peaceful even beyond their most sanguine expectations. The immediate
abolition of slavery in Mexico, in Colombia, and in St. Domingo,[O] was
eminently preservative and useful in its effects. The manumitted slaves
(numbering more than two thousand,) who were settled in Nova Scotia, at
the close of our revolutionary war, by the British government, 'led a
harmless life,' says Clarkson, 'and gained the character of an
industrious and honest people from their white neighbors.' A large
number who were located at Trinidad, as free laborers, at the close of
our last war, 'are now,' according to the same authority, 'earning their
own livelihood, and with so much industry and good conduct, that the
calumnies originally spread against them have entirely died away.'
According to the Anti-Slavery Reporter for January, 1832, three thousand
prize negroes at the Cape of Good Hope had received their freedom--four
hundred in one day; 'but not the least difficulty or disorder occurred:
servants found masters, masters hired servants--all gained homes, and at
night scarcely an idler was to be seen.'
These and many other similar facts show conclusively the safety of
immediate abolition. Gradualists can present, in abatement of them,
nothing but groundless apprehensions and criminal distrust. The argument
is irresistible.
FOOTNOTES:
[N] The slaves, they say, are their _property_. Once admit this, and all
your arguments for interference are vain, and all your plans for
amelioration are fruitless. The whole question may be said to hang upon
this point. If the slaves are not property, then slavery is at an end.
The slaveholders see this most clearly; they see that while you allow
these slaves to be their _property_, you act inconsistently and
oppressively in intermeddling, as you propose to do, with what is theirs
as much as any other of their goods and chattels: you must proceed,
therefore, in your measures for amelioration, as you call it, with
'hesitating steps and slow;' and there is nothing you can do for
restraining punishment, for regulating labor, for enforcing manumission,
for introducing education and Christianity, which will not be met with
the remonstrance, undeniably just by your own concessions, that you are
encroaching on the sacred rights of property,--the slaveholders see all
this, and they can employ it to paralyse and defeat all your efforts to
get at emancipation, and to prepare for it. It is on this account, that
I wish it settled in your minds, as a fixed and immutable principle,
that there is and can be no property of man in man. Adopt this
principle, and give it that ascendency over your minds to which it is
entitled;--and slavery is swept away.--_Speech of Rev. Dr Thomson of
Edinburgh._
[O] The history of the Revolution in St Domingo is not generally
understood in this country. The result of the instantaneous emancipation
of the slaves, in that island, by an act of the Conventional Assembly of
France in the month of February, 1794, settles the controversy between
the _immediatists_ and _gradualists_. 'After this public act of
emancipation,' says Colonel Malenfant, who was resident in the island at
the time, 'the negroes _remained quiet_ both in the South and in the
West, and _they continued to work upon all the plantations_.' 'Upon
those estates which were abandoned, _they continued their labors_, where
there were any, even inferior agents, to guide them; and on those
estates, where no white men were left to direct them, they betook
themselves to the planting of provisions; but upon _all the plantations_
where the whites resided, the blacks _continued to labor as quietly as
before_.' 'On the Plantation Gourad, consisting of more than four
hundred and fifty laborers, _not a single negro refused to work_; and
yet this plantation was thought to be under the worst discipline and the
slaves the most idle of any in the plain.' General Lacroix, who
published his 'Memoirs for a History of St Domingo,' at Paris, in 1819,
uses these remarkable words: 'The colony marched, _as by enchantment_,
towards its ancient splendor; _cultivation prospered_; every day
produced perceptible proofs of its progress. The city of the Cape and
the plantations of the North rose up again visibly to the eye.' General
Vincent, who was a general of a brigade of artillery in St Domingo, and
a proprietor of estates in that island, at the same period, declared to
the Directory of France, that 'every thing was _going on well in St
Domingo_. The proprietors were in peaceable possession of their estates;
cultivation was making rapid progress; _the blacks were industrious, and
beyond example happy_.' So much for the horrible concomitants of a
general emancipation! So much for the predicted indolence of the
liberated slaves! Let confusion of face cover all abolition alarmists in
view of these historical facts! This peaceful and prosperous state of
affairs continued from 1794, to the invasion of the island by Leclerc in
1802. The attempt of Bonaparte to reduce the island to its original
servitude was the sole cause of that sanguinary conflict which ended in
the total extirpation of the French from its soil.--[Vide Clarkson's
'Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in
the British Colonies,' &c.]