I am now brought, in the _second_ place, to the PRACTICABILITY of the
Enterprise. And here the way is easy. In showing its necessity, I have
already demonstrated its practicability; for the former includes the
latter, as the greater includes the less. Whatever is necessary must be
practicable. By a decree which is a proverb of tyranny, the Israelites
were compelled to make bricks without straw; but it is not according
to the ways of a benevolent Providence that man should be constrained
to do what cannot be done. Besides, the Antislavery Enterprise is
right; and the right is always practicable.
I know well the little faith of the world in the triumph of principles,
and I readily imagine the despair with which our object is regarded;
but not on this account am I disheartened. That exuberant writer,
Sir Thomas Browne, breaks into ecstatic wish for some new difficulty
in Christian belief, that his faith may have a new victory; and an
eminent enthusiast went so far as to say, “I believe because it is
impossible,”--_Credo quia impossibile_. No such exalted faith is now
required. Here is no impossibility; nor is there any difficulty which
will not yield to faithful, well-directed endeavor. If to any timid
soul the Enterprise seems impossible because it is too beautiful, then
do I say at once that it is too beautiful not to be possible.
Descending from these summits, let me show plainly the object it
seeks to accomplish; and here you will see and confess its complete
practicability. While discountenancing all prejudice of color and
every establishment of caste, the Antislavery Enterprise--at least so
far as I may speak for it--does not undertake to change human nature,
or to force any individual into relations of life for which he is not
morally, intellectually, and socially adapted; nor does it necessarily
assume that a race, degraded for long generations under the iron
heel of bondage, can be taught at once all the political duties of
an American citizen. But, Sir, it does confidently assume, against
all question, contradiction, or assault whatever, _that every man is
entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and, with
equal confidence, it asserts that every individual who wears the human
form, whether black or white, should be recognized at once as man_.
When this is done, I know not what other trials may be in wait for the
unhappy African; but this I do know, that the Antislavery Enterprise
will then have triumphed, and the institution of Slavery, _as defined
by existing law_, will no longer shock mankind.
In this work, the first essential, practical requisite is, that
the question shall be openly and frankly confronted. Do not put it
aside. Do not blink it out of sight. Do not dodge it. Approach it.
Study it. Ponder it. Deal with it. Let it rest in the illumination of
speech, conversation, and the press. Let it fill the thoughts of the
statesman and the prayers of the pulpit. When Slavery is thus regarded,
its true character will be recognized, _as a hateful assemblage of
unquestionable wrongs under sanction of existing law_, and good men
will be moved to apply the remedy. Already even its zealots admit that
its “abuses” should be removed. This is their word, not mine. Alas!
alas! Sir, it is these very “abuses” that constitute its component
parts, without which it would not exist,--even as the scourges in a
bundle with the axe constituted the dread fasces of the Roman lictor.
Take away these, and the whole embodied outrage disappears. Surely
that central assumption--more deadly than axe itself--by which man is
changed into a chattel, may be abandoned; and is not this practicable?
The associate scourges by which that transcendent “abuse” is surrounded
may, one by one, be subtracted. The “abuse” which substitutes
concubinage for marriage, the “abuse” which annuls the parental
relation, the “abuse” which closes the portals of knowledge, the
“abuse” which tyrannically usurps all the labor of another, now upheld
by positive law, may by positive law be abolished. To say that this is
not practicable, in the nineteenth century, is a scandal upon mankind,
and just in proportion as these “abuses” cease to have the sanction
of law will the institution of Slavery cease to exist. The African,
whatever may be then his condition, will no longer be the _slave_ over
whose wrongs and sorrows the world throbs at times fiercely indignant,
and at times painfully sad, while with outstretched arms he sends forth
the piteous cry, “Am I not a man and a brother?”
In pressing forward to this result, the inquiry is often presented, To
what extent, if any, shall compensation be allowed to slave-masters?
Clearly, if the point be determined by _absolute justice_, not the
masters, but the slaves, are entitled to compensation; for it is
the slaves who, throughout weary generations, have been deprived of
the fruits of their toil, all constantly enriching their masters.
Besides, it seems hardly reasonable to pay for the relinquishment
of disgusting “abuses,” which, in their aggregation, constitute the
bundle of Slavery. Pray, Sir, by what tariff, price-current, or
principle of equation, shall their several values be estimated? What
sum shall be counted out as the proper price for the abandonment of
that pretension--more indecent than the _jus primæ noctis_ of the
feudal age--which leaves woman, whether in the arms of master or slave,
always a concubine? What bribe shall be proffered for restoration of
God-given paternal rights? What money shall be paid for taking off the
padlock by which souls are fastened down in darkness? How much for a
quit-claim to labor now meanly exacted by the strong from the weak?
And what compensation shall be awarded for the egregious assumption,
condemned by reason and abhorred by piety, which changes man into a
thing? I put these questions without undertaking to pass upon them.
Shrinking instinctively from any recognition of _rights founded
on wrongs_, I find myself shrinking also from any austere verdict
which shall deny any means necessary to the great consummation. Our
fathers, under Washington, did not hesitate, by Act of Congress, to
appropriate largely for the ransom of white fellow-citizens enslaved
by Algerine corsairs; and, following this example, I am disposed to
consider the question of compensation as one of expediency, to be
determined by the exigency of the hour and the constitutional powers
of the Government,--though such is my desire to see the disappearance
of Slavery, that I could not hesitate to build a Bridge of Gold, if
necessary, for the retreating fiend.
The _Practicability_ of the Antislavery Enterprise is constantly
questioned, often so superficially as to be answered at once. I shall
not take time to consider the allegation, founded on assumptions
of economy, which audaciously assumes that Slave Labor is more
advantageous than Free Labor, that Slavery is more profitable
than Freedom, for this is all exploded by official tables of the
census,--nor that other futile argument, that the slaves are not
prepared for Freedom, and therefore should not be precipitated into
this condition, for this is no better than the ancient Greek folly,
where the anxious mother would not allow her son to enter the water
until he had learned to swim.
* * * * *
As against the Necessity of the Antislavery Enterprise there were
two chief objections, so also against its Practicability there are
two,--the first founded on alleged danger to the master, and the second
on alleged damage to the slave himself.
* * * * *
1. The first objection, founded on alleged _danger to the master_,
most generally takes the extravagant form, that the slave, if released
from his present condition, would “cut his master’s throat.” Here is
a blatant paradox, which can pass for reason only among those who
have lost their reason. With absurdity having no parallel except in
the defences of Slavery, it assumes that the African, when treated
justly, will show a vindictiveness he does not exhibit when treated
unjustly,--that, when elevated by the blessings of Freedom, he will
develop an appetite for blood never manifested when crushed by the
curse of bondage. At present, the slave sees his wife ravished from
his arms,--sees his infant swept away to the auction-block,--sees the
heavenly gates of knowledge shut upon him,--sees his industry and
all its fruits unjustly snatched by another,--sees himself and his
offspring doomed to servitude from which there is no redemption; and
still his master sleeps secure. Will the master sleep less secure when
the slave no longer smarts under these revolting atrocities? I will
not trifle with your intelligence, or with the quick-passing hour, by
arguing this question.
There is a lofty example, brightening the historic page, by which the
seal of experience is affixed to the conclusion of reason; and you
would hardly pardon me, if I failed to adduce it. By a single Act of
Parliament the slaves of the British West Indies were changed at once
to freedmen; and this great transition was accomplished absolutely
without personal danger of any kind to the master. And yet the chance
of danger there was greater far than among us. In our broad country
the slaves are overshadowed by a more than sixfold white population.
Only in two States, South Carolina and Mississippi, do the slaves
outnumber the whites, and there not greatly, while in the entire Slave
States the whites outnumber the slaves by millions. It was otherwise
in the British West Indies, where the whites were overshadowed by
a more than sixfold population. The slaves were 800,000, while the
whites numbered only 131,000, distributed in different proportions
on the different islands. And this disproportion has since increased
rather than diminished, always without danger to the whites. In
Jamaica, the largest of these possessions, there are now upwards of
400,000 Africans, and only 15,000 whites; in Barbadoes, the next
largest, 120,000 Africans, and only 16,000 whites; in St. Lucia, 24,000
Africans, and only 900 whites; in Tobago, 14,000 Africans, and only 160
whites; in Montserrat, 7,000 Africans, and only 150 whites; and in the
Grenadines, upwards of 6,000 Africans, and only about 60 whites.[11]
And yet the authorities in all these places attest the good behavior
of the Africans. Sir Lionel Smith, Governor of Jamaica, in a speech to
the Assembly, declares that their conduct “amply proves how well they
have deserved the boon of Freedom”;[12] the Governor of the Leeward
Islands dwells on “the peculiarly rare instances of the commission
of grave or sanguinary crimes amongst the emancipated population of
these islands”;[13] and the Queen of England, in a speech from the
throne, has announced that the complete and final emancipation of the
Africans had “taken place without any disturbance of public order and
tranquillity.”[14] In this example I find new confirmation of the rule,
that the highest safety is in doing right; and thus do I dismiss the
objection founded on alleged danger to the master.
* * * * *
2. I am now brought to the second objection, founded on alleged _damage
to the slave_. It is common among partisans of Slavery to assert that
our Enterprise has actually retarded the cause it seeks to promote; and
this paradoxical accusation, which might naturally show itself among
the rank weeds of the South, is cherished here on our Northern soil
among those who look for any fig-leaf with which to cover indifference
or tergiversation.
This peculiar form of complaint is an old device, instinctively
employed on other occasions, until it ceases to be even plausible.
Thus, throughout all time, has every good cause been encountered. The
Saviour was nailed to the cross with a crown of thorns on his head,
as a disturber of that peace on earth which he came to declare. The
Disciples, while preaching the Gospel of forgiveness and good-will,
were stoned as preachers of sedition and discord. The Reformers, who
sought to establish a higher piety and faith, were burnt at the stake
as blasphemers and infidels. Patriots, in all ages, striving for their
country’s good, have been doomed to the scaffold or to exile, even
as their country’s enemies. Those brave Englishmen, who, at home,
under the lead of Edmund Burke, espoused the cause of our fathers,
shared the same illogical impeachment, which was touched to the quick
by that orator statesman, when, after exposing its essential vice, in
“attributing the ill effect of ill-judged conduct to the arguments
which had been used to dissuade us from it,” he denounced it as
“absurd, but very common in modern practice, and very wicked.”[15] Ay,
Sir, it is common in modern practice. In England it has vainly renewed
itself with special frequency against Bible Societies,--against the
friends of education,--against the patrons of vaccination,--against
the partisans of peace,--all of whom have been openly arraigned as
provoking and increasing the very evils, whether of infidelity,
ignorance, disease, or war, which they benignly seek to check. To
bring an instance precisely applicable to our own,--Wilberforce, when
conducting the Antislavery Enterprise of England, first against the
Slave-Trade, and then against Slavery itself, was told that those
efforts, by which his name is now consecrated forevermore, tended to
increase the hardships of the slave, even to the extent of riveting
anew his chains. Such are precedents for the imputation to which our
Enterprise is exposed; and such, also, are precedents by which I
exhibit the fallacy of the imputation.
Sir, I do not doubt that the Enterprise produces heat and irritation,
amounting often to inflammation, among slave-masters, which to
superficial minds seems inconsistent with success, but which the
careful observer will recognize at once as the natural and not
unhealthy effort of a diseased body to purge itself of existing
impurities; and just in proportion to the malignity of the concealed
poison will be the extent of inflammation. A distemper like Slavery
cannot be ejected like a splinter. It is too much to expect that men
thus tortured should reason calmly, that patients thus suffering should
comprehend the true nature of their case and kindly acknowledge the
beneficent cure; but not on this account can it be suspended. Nor,
when we consider the character of Slavery, can it be expected that men
who sustain it will be tranquil. Conscience has its voice, and will be
heard in awful warning hurrying to and fro in the midnight hour. Its
outcry is more natural than silence.
In the face of this complaint, I assert that the Antislavery Enterprise
has already accomplished incalculable good. Even now it sweeps the
national heart, compelling it to emotions of transforming power. All
are touched,--the young, the middle-aged, the old. There is a new glow
at the household hearth. Mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters are
aroused to take part in the great battle. There is a new aspiration for
justice on earth, awakening not merely a sentiment against Slavery,
such as prevailed with our fathers, but a deep, undying conviction of
its wrong, and a determination to leave no effort unattempted for its
removal. With the sympathies of all Christendom as allies, already it
encompasses the slave-masters by a _moral blockade_, invisible to the
eye, but more potent than navies, from which there can be no escape
except in final capitulation. Thus it has created the irresistible
influence which itself constitutes the beginning of success.
Already are signs of change. In common speech, as well as in writing,
among slave-masters, the bondman is no longer called _slave_, but
_servant_,--thus, by soft substitution, concealing and condemning the
true relation. Newspapers, even in the land of bondage, blush at the
hunt of men by bloodhounds,--thus protesting against an unquestionable
incident of Slavery. Other signs appear in the added comfort of the
slave,--in the enlarged attention to his wants,--in the experiments
now beginning, by which the slave is enabled to share in the profits
of his labor, and thus finally secure his freedom,--and, above all, in
the consciousness among slave-masters that they dwell now, as never
before, under the keen observation of an ever-wakeful Public Opinion,
quickened by an ever-wakeful Public Press. Nor is this all. Only lately
propositions were introduced into the Legislatures of different States,
and countenanced by Governors, to mitigate the existing Law of Slavery;
and almost while speaking, I have received drafts of two different
memorials, one to the Legislature of Virginia, and the other to that
of North Carolina, asking for the slave three things, which it will be
monstrous to refuse, but which, if conceded, will take from Slavery its
existing character: I mean, _first_, the protection of the marriage
relation; _secondly_, the protection of the parental relation; and,
_thirdly_, the privilege of knowledge. Grant these, and the girdled
Upas tree soon must die. Sir, amidst these tokens of present success,
and the auguries of the future, I am not disturbed by complaints of
seeming damage. “Though it consume our own dwelling, who does not
venerate fire, without which human life can hardly exist on earth?”
says the Hindoo proverb; and the time is even now at hand, when the
Antislavery Enterprise, which is the very fire of Freedom, with all its
incidental excesses and excitements, will be hailed with similar regard.