FEELING IN THE SOUTH--1835
Not stronger than the proceedings of a great non-partisan public
meeting, or than the action of religious bodies, but going more into
detail as to public opinion in the South and the effect upon it of
Abolition agitation, is the evidence of a quiet observer, Professor E.
A. Andrews, who, in July, 1835, had been sent out as the agent of "The
Boston Union for the Relief and Improvement of the Colored Race." His
reports from both Northern and Southern States, consisting of letters
from various points, constitute a book, "Slavery and the Domestic Slave
Trade," Boston, 1836.
July 17, 1835, from Baltimore, Professor Andrews reports that a resident
clergyman, who appears to have his entire confidence, says, among other
things, "that a disposition to emancipate their slaves is very prevalent
among the slave-holders of this State, could they see any way to do so
consistently with the true interest of the slave, but that it is their
universal belief that no means of doing this is now presented except
that of colonizing them in Africa."
From the same city, July 17, 1835, he writes, p. 53: "In this city there
appears to be no strong attachment to slavery and no wish to perpetuate
it."
Again, on p. 95: "There is but one sentiment amongst those with whom I
have conversed in this city, respecting the possibility of the white and
colored races living peaceably together in freedom, nor during my
residence at the South and my subsequent intercourse with the Southern
people, _did I ever meet with one who believed it possible for the two
races to continue together after emancipation_.... When the slaves of
the South are liberated they form an integral part of the population of
the country, and must influence its destiny for ages--perhaps forever."
From Fredericksburg, Virginia, Professor Andrews writes:
Since I entered the slave-holding country I have seen but one man
who did not deprecate wholly and absolutely the direct interference
of Northern Abolitionists with the institutions of the South. "I
was an Abolitionist," has been the language of numbers of those
with whom I have conversed; "I was an Abolitionist, _and was
laboring earnestly to bring about a prospective system of
emancipation. I even saw, as I believed, the certain and complete
success of the friends of the colored race at no distant period,
when these Northern Abolitionists interfered, and by their
extravagant and impracticable schemes frustrated all our hopes....
Our people have become exasperated, the friends of the slaves
alarmed_, etc....[31] Equally united are they in the opinion that
the servitude of the slaves is far more rigorous now than it would
have been had there been no interference with them. _In proportion
to the danger of revolt and insurrection, have been_ the severity
of the enactments for controlling them and the diligence with which
the laws have been executed."
[31] "Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade," Andrews, pp. 156-57.
From a private letter, written at Greenville, Alabama, August 30, 1835,
by a distinguished lawyer, John W. Womack, to his brother, we quote:
The anti-slavery societies in the Northern and Middle States are
doing all they can to destroy our domestic harmony by sending among
us pamphlets, tracts, and newspapers--for the purpose of exciting
dissatisfaction and insurrection among our slaves.... Meetings have
been held in Mobile, in Montgomery, in Greensboro, and in
Tuscaloosa, and in different parts of all the Southern States. At
these meetings resolutions have been adopted, disclaiming (_sic_)
and denying the right of the Northern people to interfere in any
manner in our internal domestic concerns.... It is my solemn
opinion that this question (to wit, slavery) will ultimately bring
about a dissolution of the Union of the States.
It should be remembered that in 1832 the massacre in Santo Domingo of
all the whites by the blacks was fresh in mind. It had occurred in
1814--after manumission--and had produced, especially in the minds of
statesmen and of all observers of the many signs of antagonism between
the two races, a profound and lasting impression.
The fear that the races, both free, could not live together was in the
mind of Thomas Jefferson, of Henry Clay, and of every other Southern
emancipationist. And deportation, its expense, and the want of a home to
which to send the negro--here was a stumbling-block in the way of
Southern emancipation.
Indeed, the incompatibility of the races was an appalling thought in the
minds of Southerners for the whole thirty years of anti-slavery
agitation. It was even with Abraham Lincoln, and weighed upon his mind
when, at last, in 1862, military necessity placed upon his shoulders the
responsibility of emancipating the Southern slaves. Serious as was the
responsibility, the question was not new to him. When Mr. Lincoln said,
in his celebrated Springfield speech in 1858, "I believe this government
cannot endure permanently half slave and half free," and added that he
did not expect the government to fail, he certainly expected that
emancipation in the South was coming; and, of course, he thought over
what the consequences might be.
In that same debate with Douglas, in his speech at Charleston, Illinois,
Mr. Lincoln said: "There is a physical difference between the white and
black races, which, I believe, will forever forbid the two races living
together on terms of social and political equality."
In his memorial address on Henry Clay, in 1852, he had said: "If, as the
friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our
countrymen shall by some means succeed in freeing our land from the
dangerous presence of slavery, and at the same time in restoring a
captive people to their long lost father-land, ... it will, indeed, be a
glorious consummation. And if to such a contribution the efforts of Mr.
Clay shall have contributed ... none of his labors will have been more
valuable to his country and his kind."
In his famous emancipation proclamation he promised "that the effort to
colonize persons of African descent upon this continent or elsewhere,
with the consent of the government existing there, will be continued."
It must have been with a heavy heart that the great President announced
the failure of all his efforts to find a home outside of America for the
freedmen, _when he informed Congress in his December message, 1862, that
all in vain he had asked permission to send the negroes, when freed, to
the British, the Danish, and the French West Indies; and that the
Spanish-American countries in Central America had also refused his
request_. He could find no places except Hayti and Liberia. He even made
the futile experiment of sending a ship-load to a little island off
Hayti.[32] Hume, in "The Abolitionists," tells us that Mr. Lincoln for a
time _considered setting Texas apart as a home for the negroes_--so much
was he disturbed by this trouble.
[32] Within perhaps a year Mr. Lincoln was compelled to bring these
negroes home; they were starving.