An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans Part 12

GARRICK.

So much excitement prevails with regard to these two societies at present, that it will be difficult to present a view of them which will be perfectly satisfactory to all. I shall say what appears to me to be candid and true, without any anxiety as to whom it may please, and whom it may displease. I need not say that I have a decided predilection, because it has been sufficiently betrayed in the preceding pages; and I allude to it for the sake of perfect sincerity, rather than from any idea that my opinion is important.

The American Colonization Society was organized a little more than sixteen years ago at the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, chosen as the most central place in the Union. Auxiliary inst.i.tutions have since been formed in almost every part of the country; and nearly all the distinguished men belong to it. The doing away of slavery in the United States, by gradually removing all the blacks to Africa, has been generally supposed to be its object. The project at first excited some jealousy in the Southern States; and the Society, in order to allay this, were anxious to make all possible concessions to slave-owners, in their Addresses, Reports, &c. In Mr. Clay's speech, printed in the first Annual Report of the Society, he said, "It is far from the intention of this Society to affect, in _any manner_, the tenure by which a certain species of property is held. I am myself a slaveholder, and I consider that kind of property as inviolable as any other in the country. I would resist encroachment upon it as soon, and with as much firmness, as I would upon any other property that I hold. Nor am I prepared to go as far as the gentleman who has just spoken, (Mr. Mercer) in saying that I would emanc.i.p.ate my slaves, if the means were provided of sending them from the country."

At the same meeting Mr. Randolph said, "He thought it necessary, being himself a slaveholder, to show that so far from being in the _smallest degree_ connected with the abolition of slavery, the proposed Society _would prove one of the greatest securities to enable the master to keep in possession his own property_."

In Mr. Clay's speech, in the second Annual Report, he declares: "It is not proposed to deliberate upon, or consider at all, any question of emanc.i.p.ation, or any that is _connected_ with the abolition of slavery.

On this condition alone gentlemen from the South and West can be expected to co-operate. On this condition only, I have myself attended."

In the seventh Annual Report it is said, "An effort for the benefit of the blacks, in which all parts of the country can unite, of course must not have the abolition of slavery for its immediate object; _nor may it aim directly at the instruction of the blacks_."

Mr. Archer, of Virginia, fifteenth Annual Report, says: "The object of the Society, if I understand it aright, involves no intrusion on property, _nor even upon prejudice_."

In the speech of James S. Green, Esq. he says: "This Society have ever disavowed, and they do yet disavow that their object is the emanc.i.p.ation of slaves. They have no _wish_ if they _could_ to interfere in the smallest degree with what they deem the most interesting and fearful subject which can be pressed upon the American public. There is no people that treat their slaves with so much kindness and so little cruelty."

In almost every address delivered before the Society, similar expressions occur. On the propriety of discussing the evils of slavery, without bitterness and without fear, good men may differ in opinion; though I think the time is fast coming, when they will all agree. But by a.s.suming the ground implied in the above remarks, the Colonization Society have fallen into the habit of glossing over the enormities of the slave system; at least, it so appears to me. In their const.i.tution they have pledged themselves not to speak, write, or do anything to offend the Southerners; and as there is no possible way of making the truth pleasant to those who do not love it, the Society must perforce keep the truth out of sight. In many of their publications, I have thought I discovered a lurking tendency to palliate slavery; or, at least to make the best of it. They often bring to my mind the words of Hamlet:

"Forgive me this my virtue; For in the fatness of these pursy times, Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg; Yea, curb and woo, for leave to do him good."

Thus in an Address delivered March, 1833, we are told, "It ought never to be forgotten that the slave-trade between Africa and America, had its origin in a compa.s.sionate endeavor to relieve, by the subst.i.tution of negro labor, the toils endured by native Indians. It was the _simulated form of mercy_ that piloted the first slave-s.h.i.+p across the Atlantic."

I am aware that Las Cases used this argument; but it was less unbecoming in him than it is in a philanthropist of the present day. The speaker does indeed say that "the 'infinite of agonies' and the infinite of crime, since suffered and committed, proves that mercy cannot exist in opposition to justice." I can hardly realize what sort of a conscience it must be, that needed the demonstration.

The plain truth was, the Spaniards were in a hurry for gold; they overworked the native Indians, who were inconsiderate enough to die in very inconvenient numbers; but the gold must be had, and that quickly; and so the Africans were forced to come and die in company with the Indians. And in the nineteenth century, we are told it is our duty not to forget that this was a "simulated form of mercy!" A _dis_simulated form would have been the better expression.

If we may believe slave-owners, the whole system, from beginning to end, is a matter of mercy. They have described the Middle Pa.s.sage, with its gags, fetters, and thumb-screws, as "the happiest period of a negro's life;" they say they do the slaves a great charity in bringing them from barbarous Africa to a civilized and Christian country; and on the plantation, under the whip of the driver, the negroes are so happy, that a West India planter publicly declared he could not look upon them, without wis.h.i.+ng to be himself a slave.

In the speech above referred to, we are told, that as to any political interference, "the slave States are _foreign_ States. We can alienate their feelings until they become foreign enemies; or, on the other hand, we can conciliate them until they become allies and auxiliaries in the sacred cause of emanc.i.p.ation."

But so long as the South insist that slavery is _unavoidable_, and say they will not tolerate any schemes _tending_ to its abolition--and so long as the North take the _necessity_ of slavery for an unalterable truth, and put down any discussions, however mild and candid, which tend to show that it _may_ be done away with safety--so long as we thus strengthen each other's hands in evil, what remote hope is there of emanc.i.p.ation? If by political interference is meant _hostile_ interference, or even a desire to promote insurrection, I should at once p.r.o.nounce it to be most wicked; but if by political interference is meant the liberty to investigate this subject, as other subjects are investigated--to inquire into what has been done, and what may be done--I say it is our sacred duty to do it. To enlighten public opinion is the best way that has yet been discovered for the removal of national evils; and slavery is certainly a _national_ evil.

The Southern States, according to their own evidence, are impoverished by it; a great amount of wretchedness and crime inevitably follows in its train; the prosperity of the North is continually checked by it; it promotes feelings of rivalry between the States; it separates our interests; makes our councils discordant; threatens the destruction of our government; and disgraces us in the eyes of the world. I have often heard Americans who have been abroad, declare that nothing embarra.s.sed them so much as being questioned about our slaves; and that nothing was so mortifying as to have the pictures of runaway negroes pointed at in the newspapers of this republic. La Fayette, with all his admiration for our inst.i.tutions, can never speak of the subject without regret and shame.

Now a common evil certainly implies a common right to remedy; and where is the remedy to be found, if the South in all their speeches and writings repeat that slavery _must_ exist--if the Colonization Society re-echo, in all their Addresses and Reports, that there is no help for the evil, and it is very wicked to hint that there is--and if public opinion here brands every body as a fanatic and madman, who wishes to _inquire_ what can be done? The supineness of New-England on this subject, reminds me of the man who being asked to work at the pump, because the vessel was going down, answered, "I am only a pa.s.senger."

An error often and urgently repeated is apt to receive the sanction of truth; and so it is in this case. The public take it for granted that slavery is a "lamentable _necessity_." Nevertheless there _is_ a way to effect its cure, if we all join sincerely, earnestly, and kindly in the work; but if we expend our energies in palliating the evil, or mourning over its hopelessness, or quarrelling about who is the most to blame for it, the vessel,--crew, pa.s.sengers, and all,--will go down together.

I object to the Colonization Society, because it tends to put public opinion asleep, on a subject where it needs to be wide awake.

The address above alluded to, does indeed inform us of one thing which we are at liberty to do: "We must _go_ to the master and _adjure_ him, by all the sacred rights of humanity, by all the laws of natural justice, by his dread responsibilities,--which, in the economy of Providence, are always co-extensive and commensurate with power,--to _raise the slave_ out of his abyss of degradation, to give him a partic.i.p.ation in the benefits of mortal existence, and to make him a member of the _intellectual_ and moral world, from which he, and his fathers, for so many generations, have been exiled." The practical _utility_ of such a plan needs no comment. Slave-owners will smile when they read it.

I will for a moment glance at what many suppose is still the intention of the Colonization Society, viz., gradually to remove all the blacks in the United States. The Society has been in operation more than fifteen years, during which it has transported between two and three thousand _free_ people of color. There are in the United States two million of slaves and three hundred thousand free blacks; and their numbers are increasing at the rate of seventy thousand annually. While the Society have removed less than three thousand,--five hundred thousand have been born. While one hundred and fifty _free_ blacks have been sent to Africa in a _year_, two hundred _slaves_ have been born in a _day_. To keep the evil just where it is, seventy thousand a year must be transported. How many s.h.i.+ps, and how many millions of money, would it require to do this?

It would cost three million five hundred thousand dollars a year, to provide for the safety of our Southern brethren in this way! To use the language of Mr. Hayne, it would "bankrupt the treasury of the world"

to execute the scheme. And if such a great number could be removed annually, how would the poor fellows subsist? Famines have already been produced even by the few that have been sent. What would be the result of landing several thousand dest.i.tute beings, even on the most fertile of our own cultivated sh.o.r.es?

And why _should_ they be removed? Labor is greatly needed, and we are glad to give good wages for it. We encourage emigration from all parts of the world; why is it not good policy, as well as good feeling, to improve the colored people, and pay them for the use of their faculties?

For centuries to come, the means of sustenance in this vast country must be much greater than the population; then why should we drive away people, whose services may be most useful? If the moral cultivation of negroes received the attention it ought, thousands and thousands would at the present moment be gladly taken up in families, factories, &c.

And, like other men, they ought to be allowed to fit themselves for more important usefulness, as far and as fast as they can.

There will, in all human probability, never be any decrease in the black population of the United States. Here they are, and here they must remain, in very large numbers, do what we will. We may at once agree to live together in mutual good-will, and perform a mutual use to each other--or we may go on, increasing tyranny on one side, and jealousy and revenge on the other, until the fearful elements complete their work of destruction, and something better than this sinful republic rises on the ruins. Oh, how earnestly do I wish that we may choose the holier and safer path!

To transport the blacks in such annual numbers as has. .h.i.therto been done, cannot have any beneficial effect upon the present state of things. It is Dame Partington with her pail mopping up the rus.h.i.+ng waters of the Atlantic! So far as this gradual removal _has_ any effect, it tends to keep up the price of slaves in the market, and thus perpetuate the system. A writer in the Kentucky Luminary, speaking of colonization, uses the following argument: "None are obliged to follow our example; and those who do not, _will find the value of their negroes increased by the departure of ours_."

If the value of slaves is kept up, it will be a strong temptation to smuggle in the commodity; and thus while one vessel carries them out from America, another will be bringing them in from Africa. This would be like dipping up the water of Chesapeake Bay into barrels, conveying it across the Atlantic, and emptying it into the Mediterranean: the Chesapeake would remain as full as ever, and by the time the vessel returned, wind and waves would have brought the _same_ water back again.

Slave-owners have never yet, in any part of the world, been known to favor, as a body, any scheme, which could ultimately _tend_ to abolish slavery; yet in this country, they belong to the Colonization Society in large numbers, and agree to pour from their State treasuries into its funds. Individuals object to it, it is true; but the scheme is very generally favored in the slave States.

The following extract from Mr. Wood's speech in the Legislature of Virginia, will show upon what ground the owners of slaves are willing to sanction any schemes of benevolence. The "Colonization Society may be a part of the grand system of the Ruler of the Universe, to provide for the transfer of negroes to their _mother_ country. Their introduction into this land may have been one of the inscrutable ways of Providence to confer blessings upon that race--it may have been decreed that they shall be the means of conveying to the minds of their benighted countrymen, the blessing of religious and civil liberty. But I fear there is little ground to believe the means have yet been created to effect so glorious a result, or that the present race of slaves are to be benefited by such a removal. _I shall trust that many of them may be carried to the south-western States as slaves._ Should this door be closed, how can Virginia get rid of so large a number as are now annually deported to the different States and Territories where slaves are wanted? Can the gentleman show us how from _twelve thousand to twenty thousand_ can be _annually_ carried to Liberia?"

Yet notwithstanding such numbers of mothers and children are yearly sent from a single State, "separately or in lots," to supply the demands of the internal _slave-trade_, Mr. Hayne, speaking of _freeing_ these people and sending them away, says: "It is wholly irreconcilable with our notions of humanity to _tear asunder the tender ties_, which they had formed among us to gratify the feelings of a false philanthropy!"

As for the _removal_ of blacks from this country, the real fact is this; the slave States are very desirous to get rid of their troublesome _surplus_ of colored population, and they are willing that we should help to pay for the transportation. A double purpose is served by this; for the active benevolence which is eager to work in the cause, is thus turned into a harmless and convenient channel. Neither the planters nor the Colonization Society, seem to ask what _right_ we have to remove people from the places where they have been born and brought up,--where they have a home, which, however miserable, is still their home,--and where their relatives and acquaintances all reside. Africa is no more their native country than England is ours,[AF]--nay, it is less so, because there is no community of language or habits;--besides, we cannot say to them, as Gilpin said to his horse, "'Twas for _your_ pleasure you came here, you shall go back for mine."

[Footnote AF: At the close of the last war, General Jackson issued a proclamation to the colored people of the South, in which he says: "I knew that you _loved the land of your nativity_, and that, like ourselves, you had to defend all that is dear to man. But you surpa.s.s my hopes. I have found in you, united to those qualities, that n.o.ble enthusiasm which impels to great deeds."]

In the Virginia debate of 1832, it was agreed that very few of the free colored people would be _willing_ to go to Africa; and this is proved by several pet.i.tions from them, praying for leave to remain. One of the Virginian legislators said, "either _moral_ or _physical_ force must be used to compel them to go;" some of them advised immediate coercion; others recommended persuasion first, until their numbers were thinned, and coercion afterward. I believe the resolution finally pa.s.sed the House without any proviso of this sort; and I mention it merely to show that it was generally supposed the colored people would be unwilling to go.

The planters are resolved to drive the free blacks away; and it is another evil of the Colonization Society that their funds and their influence co-operate with them in this project. They do not indeed thrust the free negroes off, at the point of the bayonet; but they make their _laws_ and _customs_ so very unequal and oppressive, that the poor fellows are surrounded by raging fires on every side, and must leap into the Atlantic for safety. In slave ethics I suppose this is called "_moral_ force." If the slave population is left to its own natural increase, the crisis will soon come; for labor will be so very cheap that slavery will not be for the interest of the whites. Why should we r.e.t.a.r.d this crisis?

In the next place, many of the Colonizationists (I do not suppose it applies to all) are averse to giving the blacks a good education; and they are not friendly to the establishment of schools and colleges for that purpose. Now I would ask any candid person why colored children should _not_ be educated? Some say, it will raise them above their situation; I answer, it will raise them _in_ their situation--not _above_ it. When a High School for white girls was first talked of in this city, several of the wealthy cla.s.s objected to it; because, said they, "if everybody is educated, we shall have no servants." This argument is based on selfishness, and therefore cannot stand. If carried into operation, the welfare of many would be sacrificed to the convenience of a few. We might as well protest against the sunlight, for the benefit of lamp-oil merchants. Of all monopolies, a monopoly of _knowledge_ is the worst. Let it be as active as the ocean--as free as the wind--as universal as the sunbeams! Lord Brougham said very wisely, "If the higher cla.s.ses are afraid of being left in the rear, they likewise must hasten onward."

With our firm belief in the natural inferiority of negroes, it is strange we should be so much afraid that knowledge will elevate them quite too high for our convenience. In the march of improvement, we are several centuries in advance; and if, with this obstacle at the very beginning, they can outstrip us, why then, in the name of justice, let them go ahead! Nay, give them three cheers as they pa.s.s. If any nation, or any cla.s.s of men, can obtain intellectual pre-eminence, it is a sure sign they deserve it; and by this republican rule the condition of the world will be regulated as surely as the waters find their level.

Besides, like all selfish policy, this is not _true_ policy. The more useful knowledge a person has, the better he fulfils his duties in _any_ station; and there is no kind of knowledge, high or low, which may not be brought into _use_.

But it has been said, that information will make the blacks discontented; because, if ever so learned, they will not be allowed to sit at the white man's table, or marry the white man's daughter.

In relation to this question, I would ask, "Is there anybody so high, that they do not see others above them?" The working cla.s.ses of this country have no social communication with the aristocracy. Every day of my life I see people who can dress better, and live in better houses, than I can afford. There are many individuals who would not choose to make my acquaintance, because I am not of their _caste_--but I should speak a great untruth, if I said this made me discontented. They have their path and I have mine; I am happy in my own way, and am willing they should be happy in theirs. If asked whether what little knowledge I have produces discontent, I should answer, that it made me happier, infinitely happier, than I could be without it.

Under every form of government, there will be distinct cla.s.ses of society, which have only occasional and transient communication with each other; and the colored people, whether educated or not, will form one of these cla.s.ses. By giving them means of information, we increase their happiness, and make them better members of society. I have often heard it said that there was a disproportionate number of crimes committed by the colored people in this State. The same thing is true of the first generation of Irish emigrants; but we universally attribute it to their ignorance, and agree that the only remedy is to give their children as good an education as possible. If the policy is wise in one instance, why would it not be so in the other!

As for the possibility of social intercourse between the different colored races, _I_ have not the slightest objection to it, provided they were equally virtuous, and equally intelligent; but I do not wish to war with the prejudices of others; I am willing that all, who consult their consciences, should keep them as long as ever they can. One thing is certain, the blacks will never come into your houses, unless you _ask_ them; and you need not ask them unless you choose. They are very far from being intrusive in this respect.

With regard to marrying your daughters, I believe the feeling in opposition to such unions is quite as strong among the colored cla.s.s, as it is among white people. While the prejudice exists, such instances must be exceedingly rare, because the consequence is degradation in society. Believe me, you may safely trust to any thing that depends on the pride and selfishness of unregenerated human nature.

Perhaps, a hundred years hence, some negro Rothschild may come from Hayti, with his seventy _million_ of pounds, and persuade some white woman to _sacrifice_ herself to him.--Stranger things than this do happen every year.--But before that century has pa.s.sed away, I apprehend there will be a sufficient number of well-informed and elegant colored women in the world, to meet the demands of colored patricians. Let the sons and daughters of Africa _both_ be educated, and then they will be fit for each other. They will not be forced to make war upon their white neighbors for wives: nor will they, if they have intelligent women of their own, see any thing so very desirable in the project. Shall we keep this cla.s.s of people in everlasting degradation, for fear one of their descendants _may_ marry our great-great-great-great-grandchild?

While the prejudice exists, such unions cannot take place; and when the prejudice is melted away, they will cease to be a degradation, and of course cease to be an evil.

My third and greatest objection to the Colonization Society is, that its members write and speak, both in public and private, as if the prejudice against skins darker colored than our own, was a fixed and unalterable law of our nature, which cannot possibly be changed. The very _existence_ of the Society is owing to this prejudice: for if we could make all the colored people white, or if they could be viewed as impartially as if they were white, what would be left for the Colonization Society to do? Under such circ.u.mstances, they would have a fair chance to rise in their moral and intellectual character, and we should be glad to have them remain among us, to give their energies for our money, as the Irish, the Dutch, and people from all parts of the world are now doing.

I am aware that some of the Colonizationists make large professions on this subject; but nevertheless we are constantly told by this Society, that people of color must be removed, not only because they are in our way, but because they _must_ always be in a state of degradation here--that they never _can_ have all the rights and privileges of citizens--and all this is because the _prejudice_ is so great.

"The managers consider it clear that causes exist and are operating to prevent their (the blacks) improvement and elevation to any considerable extent as a cla.s.s, in this country, which are fixed, not only beyond the control of the friends of humanity, but of any human power.

_Christianity will not_ do for them _here_, what it will do for them in _Africa_. This is not the fault of the colored man, nor Christianity but _an ordination of Providence_, and no more to be changed than the laws of Nature!"--_Last Annual Report of American Colonization Society._

"The habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society--prejudices which neither _refinement_, nor _argument_, nor _education_, NOR RELIGION ITSELF, can subdue--mark the people of color, whether bond or free, as the subjects of degradation _inevitable_ and _incurable_. The African _in this country_ belongs _by birth_ to the very lowest station in society; and from that station HE CAN NEVER RISE, be his _talents, his enterprise, his virtues, what they may_. They const.i.tute a cla.s.s by themselves--a cla.s.s out of which _no individual can be elevated_, and below which none can be depressed."--_African Repository_, vol. iv, pp. 118, 119.