Address to the Non-Slaveholders of the South Part 7

[15] Except one month by General Harrison.

Of 21 Secretaries of State, appointed up to 5th March, 1849, only six have been taken from the free States.

For 37 years out of 60, the chair of the House of Representatives has been filled and its Committees appointed by slaveholders.

Of the Judges of the Supreme Court, 18 have been taken from the slave, and but 14 from the free States.

In 1842, the United States were represented at foreign Courts by 19 Ministers and Charges d'Affaires. Of these fat Offices, no less than 13 were a.s.signed to slaveholders!

Surely, surely, if the South be wanting in every element of prosperity--if ignorance, barbarity and poverty be her characteristics, it is not because she has not exercised her due influence in the general government, or received her share of its honors and emoluments.

PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE.

If, fellow-citizens, with all the natural and political advantages we have enumerated, your progress is still downward, and has been so, compared with the other sections of the country, since the first organization of the Government, what are the antic.i.p.ations of the distant future, which sober reflection authorizes you to form? The causes which now r.e.t.a.r.d the increase of your population must continue to operate, so long as slavery lasts. Emigrants from the North, and from foreign countries, will, as at present, avoid your borders, within which no attractions will be found for virtue and industry. On the other hand, many of the young and enterprising among you will flee from the la.s.situde, the anarchy, the wretchedness engendered by slavery, and seek their fortunes in lands where law affords protection, and where labor is honored and rewarded.

In the meantime, especially in the cotton States, the slaves will continue to increase in a ratio far beyond the whites, and will at length acquire a fearful preponderance.

At the first census, in every slave State there was a very large majority of whites--now, the slaves out-number the whites in South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana, and the next census will unquestionably add Florida and Alabama, and probably Georgia, to the number of negro States.

And think you that this is the country, and this the age, in which the republican maxim that the MAJORITY must govern, can be long and barbarously reversed? Think you that the majority of the PEOPLE in the cotton States, cheered and encouraged as they will be by the sympathy of the world, and the example of the West Indies, will forever tamely submit to be beasts of burden for a few lordly planters? And remember, we pray you, that the number and physical strength of the negroes will increase in a much greater ratio than that of their masters.

In 1790 the whites in N. Carolina were to the slaves as 2.80 to 1, now as 1.97 to 1 " S. Carolina, " 1.31 to 1, " .79 to 1 " Georgia, " 1.76 to 1, " 1.44 to 1 " Tennessee, " 13.35 to 1, " 3.49 to 1 " Kentucky, " 5.16 to 1, " 3.23 to 1

Maryland and Virginia, the great breeding States, have reduced their stock within the last few years, having been tempted, by high prices, to s.h.i.+p off thousands and tens of thousands to the markets of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. But these markets are already glutted, and human flesh has fallen in value from 50 to 75 per cent. Nor is it probable that the great staple of Virginia and Maryland will hereafter afford a bounty on its production. In these States slave labor is unprofitable, and the bondman is of but little value, save as an article of exportation. The cotton cultivation in the East Indies, by cheapening the article, will close the markets in the South, and thus it guarantees the abolition of slavery in the breeding States. When it shall be found no longer profitable to raise slaves for the market, the stock on hand will be driven South and sold for what it may fetch, and free labor subst.i.tuted in its place. This process will be attended with results disastrous to the cotton States. To Virginia and Maryland, it will open a new era of industry, prosperity and wealth; and the industrious poor, the "mean whites" of the South, will remove within their borders, thus leaving the slaveholders more defenceless than ever. But while the white population of the South will be thus diminished, its number of slaves will be increased by the addition of the stock from the breeding States.

And what, fellow-citizens, will be the condition of such of _you_ as shall then remain in the slave States? The change to which we have referred will necessarily aggravate every present evil. Ignorance, vice, idleness, lawless violence, dread of insurrection, anarchy, and a haughty and vindictive aristocracy will all combine with augmented energy in crus.h.i.+ng _you_ to the earth. And from what quarter do you look for redemption? Think you your planting n.o.bility will ever grant freedom to their serfs, from sentiments of piety or patriotism? Remember that your clergy of all sects and ranks, many of them "Christian brokers in the trade of blood," unite in bestowing their benediction on the system as a _Christian_ inst.i.tution, and in teaching the slaveholders that they wield the whip as European monarchs the sceptre, "by the grace of G.o.d."

Do you trust to their patriotism? Remember that the beautiful and affecting contrast between the prosperity of the North and the desolation of the South, already presented to you, was drawn by W. G.

Preston, of _hanging_ notoriety. No, fellow-citizens, your great slaveholders have no idea of surrendering the personal importance and the political influence they derive from their slaves. Your Calhouns, Footes, and Prestons, all go for everlasting slavery.

Unquestionably there are many of the smaller slaveholders who would embrace abolition sentiments, were they permitted to examine the subject; but at present they are kept in ignorance. If then the fetters of the slave are not to be broken by the master, by whom is he to be liberated? In the course of time, a hostile army, invited by the weakness or the arrogance of the South, may land on your sh.o.r.es. Then, indeed, emanc.i.p.ation will be given, but the gift may be bathed in the blood of yourselves and of your children. Or the People--for they will be THE PEOPLE--may resolve to be free, and you and all you hold dear may be sacrificed in the contest.

Suffer us, fellow-citizens, to show you "a more excellent way." We seek the welfare of all, the rich and the poor, the bond and the free. While we repudiate all acknowledgment of property in human beings, we rejoice in the honest, lawful prosperity of the planter. Let not, we beseech you, the freedom of the slave proceed from the armed invader of your soil, nor from his own torch and dagger--but from _your_ peaceful and const.i.tutional interference in his behalf.

In breaking the chains which bind the slave, be a.s.sured you will be delivering yourselves from a grievous thraldom. Ponder well, we implore you, the following suggestions.

Without your co-operation, the slaveholders, much as they despise you, are powerless. To you they look for agents, and stewards, for overseers, and drivers, and patrols. To you they look for votes to elevate them to office, and to you they too often look for aid to enforce their Lynch laws. Feel then your own power; claim your rights, and exert them for the deliverance of the slave, and consequently for your own happiness and prosperity.

Let then your first demand be for LIBERTY OF SPEECH. Your Const.i.tution and laws guarantee to you this right in the most solemn and explicit terms; and yet you have permitted a few slaveholders to rob you of it.

Resume it at once. Be not afraid to speak openly of your wrongs, and of the true cause of them. Dread not the Lynch clubs. Their power depends wholly on opinion. The slaveholders are not strong enough to execute their own sentences, if _you_ resist them. They shrank, in Charleston, from prohibiting the sale of d.i.c.kens' Notes, because they believed the people were determined to read them. Had the same curiosity been felt in Petersburg, to read the article on Bible Slavery in Breckenridge's Magazine, the slaveholders there would not have dared to purloin them from the post-office and burn them in the street. In the one place they strained at a gnat, in the other they swallowed a camel. Be a.s.sured, your bullies are timid bullies; not that they are wanting in individual courage, but because they are aware that their authority rests, not on their physical strength, but on _your_ habits of deference and obedience. Speak then boldly, and without disguise; and be a.s.sured that no sooner will your tongues be loosed on the forbidden subject, than you will be surprised to find what a coincidence of thought exists in relation to it. Discussion once commenced, the enemies of slavery will multiply faster with you than they do elsewhere for the obvious reason, that with you there is no dispute about _facts_. You all know and daily witness the blighting influence of the curse which overspreads your land; and believe us, that just in proportion as your courage rises, will the arrogance of your oppressors sink.

By conversing freely among yourselves, and proclaiming your hostility to slavery in public meetings, you will create an influence that will soon reach the PRESS. The bands with which the slaveholders have bound this Leviathan will then be snapped asunder. Once establish a FREE PRESS, and the fate of slavery is sealed. Such a press will advocate your rights, will encourage education and industry, will point out the true cause of the depravation of morals, the prevalence of violence, and the depression of the public welfare.

Having gained the liberty of speech and of the press, you will go on, conquering and to conquer. Political action on your part will lead to new triumphs. The State legislatures and the public offices will no longer be the exclusive patrimony of the holders of slaves. Having once obtained a footing in your legislative halls, you will have secured in a quiet, peaceable, const.i.tutional mode, the downfall of slavery, the recovery of your rights, and the prosperity and happiness of your country.

Think us not extravagantly sanguine. The very horror manifested by the slaveholders of the means we recommend, is evidence of their efficacy.

We advise you to exercise freedom of speech. Have they not endeavored to bully you into silence by the threat, that "the question of slavery is not and shall not be open to discussion;" and that the moment any private individual talks about the means of terminating slavery, "_that moment his tongue shall be cut out and cast upon a dunghill_?"

Promote a free press. Is not the wisdom of the recommendation verified by the proclamation made of "_instant death_" to the abolition editors in the slave States, if "_they avow their opinions_?"

Your Const.i.tutions have indeed been rendered by the slaveholders "blurred and obliterated parchments;" be it your care to restore them to their pristine beauty, and to make them fair and legible charters of the rights of man.

But we doubt not, fellow-citizens, that although you give your cordial a.s.sent to all we have said respecting the practical influence of slavery, you have, nevertheless, some misgivings about the effect of _immediate_ emanc.i.p.ation. Shut up as you are in darkness on this subject, threatened with death if you talk or write about it; while the utmost pains are taken to prevent books or papers, which might enlighten you, from falling into your hands, it would be wonderful indeed, were you at once prepared to admit the safety and policy of instant and unconditional emanc.i.p.ation. You are a.s.sured, and probably believe, that ma.s.sacre, and conflagration, and universal ruin would ensue on "letting loose the negroes;" but you are kept in ignorance of the fact, that in various parts of the world, negroes have been let loose, and in no one instance have such consequences followed; and you are not permitted to learn, in discussion, the _reasons_ why such consequences never have followed, and never will follow the immediate abolition of slavery. What think you would be the fate of the man who should attempt to deliver a lecture in Charleston or Mobile on the safety of emanc.i.p.ation? Yet such a lecture might be delivered with perfect safety, were the lecturer to be accompanied by one or two hundred of _your_ number, declaring their determination to maintain freedom of speech and to protect the lecturer.

From such a lecture you would learn, with astonishment, that the atrocities in St. Domingo, so constantly used by the slaveholders to intimidate the refractory, arose from a civil war, which the planters, by their own folly and wickedness, kindled between themselves and the _free_ blacks, and were wholly independent of the subsequent act of the French Government manumitting the slaves. You would also hear, perhaps for the first time, of the peaceful abolition of slavery in Mexico and South America. You would listen, with a surprise almost bordering on incredulity, to accounts of the glorious, wonderful success, attending the emanc.i.p.ation of 800,000 slaves in the British Colonies, without the loss of a single life. You would learn that in these colonies, among the liberated slaves, ten, twenty, thirty times as numerous as the whites, a degree of tranquility and good order and security is enjoyed, utterly unknown in any Southern or Western slave State. The complaints (grossly exaggerated, if they reach you through the medium of a pro-slavery press) of the want of labor and the diminution of production, arise not from the idleness, but the _industry_ of the enfranchised slaves. Their wives and children, no longer toiling under the lash, are now engaged in the occupations of the family and of the school; while many of the fathers and husbands have become landholders, and raise their own food, and also articles for the market. Substantial and honest prosperity is gradually taking the place of that wealth, which, as in all other slave countries, was concentrated in the hands of a few, and was extorted from the labor of a wretched, degraded and dangerous population.

If you admit the greatest happiness of the greatest number to be the true test of national prosperity, then, beyond all controversy, the British West Indies are now infinitely more prosperous than at any previous period of their history.

Despots and aristocrats have, in all ages, been afraid of "turning loose" the PEOPLE, no matter of what hue was their complexion. You have seen that your own McDuffie does not scruple to intimate, that, were not the Southern laborers already shackled, an order of n.o.bility would be required to keep them in subjection; and a shudder seizes Chancellor Harper, when he reflects that the Northern allies of the slaveholders are democrats and agrarians.

A glorious career opens before you. In the place of your present contempt, and degradation, and misery, honor, and wealth, and happiness court your acceptance. By abolis.h.i.+ng slavery you will become the architects of your own fortune, and of your country's greatness. The times are propitious for the great achievement. You will be cheered by the approbation of your own consciences, and by the plaudits of mankind.

The inst.i.tution which oppresses you is suffering from the decrepitude of age, and is the scorn and loathing of the world. Out of the slave region, patriots and philanthropists, and Christians of every name and sect abhor and execrate it. Do you pant for liberty and equality, more substantial than such as is now found only in your obliterated and tattered bills of right? Do you ask that your children may be rescued from the ignorance and irreligion to which they are now doomed, and that avenues may be opened for you and for them to honest and profitable employment? Unite then, we beseech you, with one heart and one mind, for the legal, const.i.tutional abolition of slavery. The enemy is waxing faint and losing his courage. He is terrified by the echo of his own threats, and the very proposal to dissolve the Union and leave him to his fate, throws him into paroxysms. The North, so long submissive to his mandates, and awed by his insolence, laughs at his impotent rage; and all his hopes now rest upon a few profligate politicians whom he purchases with his votes, while their baseness excites his contempt, and their principles his fears. Now is the time, fellow-citizens, to a.s.sail the foe. Up--quit yourselves like men: and may Almighty G.o.d direct and bless your efforts!