The abolition writers and speakers are properly divided into two
classes: those who agitate and advocate the subject as a successful
means of advancing their own personal and ambitious hopes; sometimes
with
“One eye turned to God, condemning moral evil;
The other downward, winking at the devil!”
Thus, one seeks office, another distinction or fame. Small
considerations often stimulate the conduct of such men.
But we have evidence that another class zealously labour to abolish
slavery from the world, because they think its existence a stain on the
human character, and that the laws of God make it the duty of every man
to “cry aloud and spare not,” until it shall cease.
Our author had no secondary views alluring him on to toil; no new
purpose; no new summit to gain. What he thought darkness he hated,
because he loved the light; what he thought wicked, to his soul was
awful and abhorred, because, even in life, he was ever peering into the
confines of heaven. Ardour was cultivated into zeal, and zeal into
enthusiasm.
In its eagerness to accomplish its object in behalf of liberty, the mind
is often prepared to subvert without reflection—to destroy without care.
Hence, even the religious may sometimes “record that they have a zeal of
God, but not according to knowledge.” “For they being ignorant of God’s
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” _Rom._ x.
They are convinced that they alone are right. But, “Can a man be
profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?
_Is it_ any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or _is
it_ gain, that thou makest thy ways perfect.” _Job_ xxii. 2, 3.
“Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion
thereof in the earth?” Answer thou, Why “leaveth the ostrich her eggs in
the earth, and warmeth them in the dust? Why forgetteth she that the
foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them?”
“Why is she hardened against her young ones, as though they were not
hers?” “Why is her labour in vain without fear?”
“Why feedeth the fish upon its fellow, which forgetteth and devoureth
its young?”
“Who looketh on the proud and bringeth him low? and treadeth down the
wicked in their place? hiding them in the dust, and binding their faces
in secret?”
Who hardeneth the heart of Pharaoh? and multiplies signs and wonders
before the children of men? Who is he who “hath mercy on whom he will?”
Why was Esau hated or Jacob loved before they were born?
Wilt thou say, “Why doth he find fault? for who hath resisted his will.”
See _Rom._ ix. 19.
Or wilt thou rather say, “Behold I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I
will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not
answer thee: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.” _Job_ xl. 4.
* * * * *
There are in these volumes several other essays, under different titles,
on the same subject; but in most instances, although the language is
varied, the same arguments exert their power on the mind of the writer.
Aided by the common sympathy of the people among whom he lived, and the
conscientious operations of his own mind, his judgment on the decision
of the question of right and wrong became unchangeably fixed; while the
evidence forced upon him by the only class of facts in relation to the
subject which his education and associations in society enabled him to
comprehend, became daily more imposing, more exciting in their review,
more lucid in their exposing an image of deformity, the most wicked of
the offspring of evil. Filled with horror, yet as if allured by an evil
charm, his mind seems to have had no power to banish from its sight its
horrid vision. Nor is it singular that it should, to some extent, become
the _one idea_—his leading chain of thought. To him, the proofs of his
doctrine became a blaze of light, so piercingly brilliant that nothing
of a contrary bearing was worthy of belief or consideration.
The following extracts will perhaps sufficiently develop the state to
which his mind had arrived on this subject of his study. Vol. vi. p. 38,
he says—“My maxim is, Any thing but slavery!”
Page 50. “The history of West India emancipation teaches us that we are
holding in bondage one of the best races of the human family. The negro
is among the mildest and gentlest of men. He is singularly susceptible
of improvement from abroad. His children, it is said, receive more
rapidly than ours the elements of knowledge.”
Page 51. “A short residence among the negroes in the West Indies
impressed me with their capacity for improvement; on all sides, I heard
of their religious tendencies, the noblest of human nature. I saw, too,
on the plantation where I resided, a gracefulness and dignity of form
and motion rare in my own native New England. And that is the race which
has been selected to be trodden down and confounded with the brute.”
If slavery in the West Indies has thus elevated the African tribes above
the majority of the people of New England, we will not ask the question,
whether the doctor’s disciples propose the experiment on their
countrymen. But there is, nevertheless, abundant proof that slavery to
the white races does necessarily, and from philosophical causes, have
the most direct tendency to elevate the moral, mental, and physical
ability of the African; in fact, of any other race of men sunk equally
low in degradation and ruin.
If the negro slaves of the West Indies exhibit moral, mental, and
physical merit in advance of most of Dr. Channing’s countrymen, who were
never in slavery, we beg to know how it is accounted for; what are the
causes that have operated to produce it? For we believe no sane man, who
knows any thing of the African savage in his native state, whether bond
or free, will so much as give a hint that they are as elevated in any
respect as are _his_ countrymen, the people of New England. Will the
fact then be acknowledged, that slavery, however bad, does yet
constitutionally amend and elevate the African savage!
* * * * *
At the moment the foregoing paragraphs were placed on paper, there
happened to be present a Northern gentleman, who very justly entertained
the most elevated regard for the personal character of Dr. Channing, to
whom they were read. His views seemed to be that the extracts from
Channing were _garbled_, and the deductions consequent thereon unjustly
severe.
We war not with Dr. Channing, nor his character. He no longer liveth.
But his works live, and new editions crowd upon the public attention, as
if his disciples were anxious to saturate the whole world with his
errors, as well as to make known his many virtues. We do not design to
garble; and therefore requote the extract more fully, from vol. vi. pp.
50, 51:
“The history of the West India emancipation teaches us that we are
holding in bondage one of the best races of the human family. The negro
is among the mildest, gentlest of men. He is singularly susceptible of
improvement from abroad. His children, it is said, receive more rapidly
than ours the elements of knowledge. How far he can originate
improvements, time only can teach. His nature is affectionate, easily
touched; and hence he is more open to religious impression than the
white man. The European race have manifested more courage, enterprise,
invention; but in the dispositions which Christianity particularly
honours, how inferior are they to the African! When I cast my eyes over
our Southern region, the land of bowie-knives, Lynch-law, and duels, of
‘chivalry, honour,’ and revenge; and when I consider that Christianity
is declared to be a spirit of charity, ‘which seeketh not its own, is
not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and endureth all things,’ and is
declared to be ‘the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good
fruits,’—can I hesitate in deciding to which of the races in that land
Christianity is most adapted, in which its noblest disciples are most
likely to be reared.”
Pp. 52, 53. “Could the withering influence of slavery be withdrawn, the
Southern character, though less consistent, less based on principle,
might be more attractive and lofty than that of the North. The South is
proud of calling itself Anglo-Saxon. Judging from character, I should
say that this name belongs much more to the North, the country of
steady, persevering, unconquerable energy. Our Southern brethren remind
me more of the Normans. They seem to have in their veins the burning
blood of that pirate race.”
“Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I
uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew
not.” _Job_ xlii. 3.
* * * * *
Will the disciples of Dr. Channing account for the curious facts
developed by the census of 1850, as follows?—
“A writer in the New York Observer calls attention to some curious facts
derived from the census of the United States. These facts show that
there is a remarkable prevalence of idiocy and insanity among the free
blacks over the whites, and especially over the slaves. In the State of
Maine, every fourteenth coloured person is an idiot or a lunatic. And
though there is a gradual improvement in the condition of the coloured
race as we proceed West and South, yet it is evident that the Free
States are the principal abodes of idiocy and lunacy among them.
“In Ohio, there are just ten coloured persons, who are idiots or
lunatics, where there is one in Kentucky. And in Louisiana, where a
large majority of the population is coloured, and four-fifths of them
are slaves, there is but one of these unfortunates to 4309 who are sane.
The proportions in other States, according to the census of 1850, are as
follow:—In Massachusetts, 1 in 43; Connecticut, 1 in 185; New York, 1 in
257; Pennsylvania, 1 in 256; Maryland, 1 in 1074; Virginia, 1 in 1309;
North Carolina, 1 in 1215; South Carolina, 1 in 2440; Ohio, 1 in 105;
Kentucky, 1 in 1053. This is certainly a curious calculation, and
indicates that diseases of the brain are far more rare among the slaves
than among the free _of the coloured race_.”
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