Slavery and the remedy; or, Principles and suggestions for a remedial code

Front matter

SLAVERY

AND

THE REMEDY;

Introduction

"We meet Slavery as a fact, not as a proposal. We have to do with slaveholding, not with slave-making. "We seek not what should be done if there were no slaves, but what is right and best now that there are more than three millions. "We seek the right method, and the best method in existing circumstances.

Admitting the evil of Slavery, and the imperious demand for a Remedial Code, but denying slaveholding as a crime per se, and immediate abolition as the remedy ; — asserting that the African race is fixed, and must be provided for chiefly on our soil, and yet approving heartily colonization in Africa ; — claiming that the climate and productions of the South, and the original and actual condition of the enslaved race, forbid the methods of the North and the Anglo-Saxon race ; — turning the question from mere abolition and mere slavery, to the well-being of a people providentially on our hands ; — and, lastly, fixing the responsibility upon each slaveholding State, separately, and denying it to the United States, — a remedy is sought suited to the peculiar case, — a Remedial Code, at least an experiment of relief and benefit, which wisely and successfully made by any single State, might lead the whole sisterhood in her train.

A Christian State, philanthropic, patriarchal, is bound to abolish just so much of Slavery as is injurious, and no more ; to retain

4 INTRODUCTION.

just so much as is beneficial, and no less. The Christian patriarch and Christian philanthropist need not be at variance, if they will but unite in the simple attempt to promote the well-being of the slaves in and with the well-being of the whole people.

The leading point to be kept in view in a Remedial Code, i3 to preserve the essential quality of Slavery without the evils which are not of its essence : in other words, to secure the two counterparts, the being "held to labor," and the being held to maintain labor, without the evils which now attach to both masters and slaves, and to the whole community directly or remotely connected. A Remedial Code must aim at the following purposes : —

1. To provide for the slaves, as a mass, something better than freedom ; — such advantages and securities as shall compensate their being held to labor ; so that a considerate slave might prefer the price of freedom, to freedom purchased by its price ; and the whole mass of slaves have an interest in the continued institution.

2. To provide for the masters something better than " Slavery as it is ; " a more available labor in return for the " rations " and privileges of the laborer ; better service with less difficulties and fears : so that a considerate master might prefer the Remedial to the existing code ; and the whole body of masters find their interest in aiding and sustaining it.

3. To provide for the free blacks and those becoming free something better than the present condition of their class ; satisfactory to themselves, and at the same time harmless and helpful to the well-being of both masters and slaves.

4. Incidental, but of immeasurable importance, — to satisfy the conscience and philanthropy of the country, not merely by the "juste milieu," — the "happy medium" between evil extremes, — but to give full scope to the truest benevolence, the most

INTRODUCTION. 5

faithful duty, the most earnest Christian charity ; in which the South, taking the indispensable lead, shall welcome with the whole heart the aid of the North.

The writer is deeply sensible of the difficulties in devising and executing such a code and with such results. But are there not greater difficulties in either other alternative ?

If Slavery be retained " as it is," can it be without difficulties and woes, without fears and anxieties, which must despoil it of its essential quality of useful labor, of valuable service ?

If Slavery be abolished, can it be without impracticable difficulties ; whether at the South in providing for the well-being of both races in their new relations, or at the North when the tide of freed slaves shall come in like a flood.

But without comparison, such a code can be attempted and accomplished only in a Christian country and by a Christian people. To a Christian country and a Christian people, we make our appeal. The sense of responsibility, the benevolent intention, the reliance on infinite strength, must be supposed in order to the sincere attempt, and successful execution. But these supposed, then all difficulties are provided for, if the attempt be right and

wise If a Remedial Code be the true obedience to the

golden rule ; if Christian good will, if the love of our neighbor as ourselves, require not emancipation but amelioration, who shall dare discourage or forbid ? Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible to him who believeth. No attempt within the warrant of Christianity is to be thought impossible. Trust and try. Attempt what God requires, and " account him faithful who has promised." If the work linger and seem every day more and more impossible, are we not then at the very point for Christian faith ; for " hope against hope," in Him " who calleth those things that be not as though they were." Who shall dare to say that the Christian Patriarchs of the South, and the Christian

6 INTRODUCTION.

Philanthropists of the North, will not unite in seeking the aid of Heaven, and in Heaven's strength prevail, — fixing their eye, amidst the darkness and the storm, upon the only and sufficient encouragement; — The things which are impossible with

MEN ARE POSSIBLE WITH GOD.

Waeeham, Mass., Dec. 1855.

Chapter I. Admissions, Denials, Distinctions

Pag«

Slavery an Evil. — Mutual Bondage. — Slave-holding not a Crime. —

Slave-holding and Slave-making distinguished. — Crime denned,

whether with Bond or Free. — Principle of dealing with stolen Goods

or stolen Men. — Misnomers. — Fallacies. — Distinctions in order to

a Remedy H

Chapter II. The Problem Of Africa In America

Impossibility of Removal, requiring a Remedy. — Results of Colonization for one third of a Century. — Comparison of emigration from the British Isles. — The proper work of the Colonization Society. — Room demanded for Africa in America 16

Chapter III

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS OF THE SOUTH. — ORIGINAL AND ACTUAL CONDITION OF THE ENSLAVED RACE.

Methods of the North and the Anglo-Saxon Race forbidden by Climate and Productions. — Mr. "Webster's Speech at Rochester. — Forbidden by Barbarism at Emigration, and actual state. — Probable Results if African Emigration had been free. — The sense of the North shown in the ** Black Codes." — Comparison of Rome and Carthage 19

Chapter IV. The Question Turned To Well-being

Not Pro-Slavery nor Anti-Slavery, but Well-being. — Good Bonds retained, bad Bonds removed. — Competition of European Labor. — Things not Words. — Wrong of enslaving changes not the Question. The Repentant Pirate. — The Common Doom and its Purpose. — Bonds make Free. — Presumptuous Franchises 23

8 CONTENTS.

Chapter V. American Experiments With Barbarism

Page.

Comparison of the Africo- American with the aboriginal African. — The race improved by Slavery, evils notwithstanding. — Dr. Channing's testimony. — Rev. Mr. Payne's. — Rev. Mr. Miller's. — Liberia a witness. — Comparison of the Africo- American with the aboriginal American. — Increase and Improvement contrasted with Deterioration and Extermination. — False Explanation. — Conclusion from American Experiments with Barbarism 29

Chapter VI. European Experiments With Serfdom

Assumptions of the Nineteenth Century. — Its Wisdom from Centuries preceding. — European Experiments suggesting Prevention. — Misery of the Masses. — Paradox of Freedom. — Presumptuous Franchises. — Law of mutual Interdependence from Job and the Prophets. — European Experiments. — France before and since 1789. — Ireland. — Sir Robert Peel's statement of the Ulster Experiment. — England. — Blackstone on imperfect application of Remedy. — Conclusion therefrom 39

Chapter VII. The Responsibility

Sense of Responsibility assumed. — Responsibility to God. — No Atheistical Wisdom for social Well-Being. — Limits. — Mad Astronomers and Philanthropists. — Christian Equalization by Inequality. — Individual Responsibility. — Responsibility of the State to the great Overruler. — Outside Responsibilities 43

Chapter VIII. Irresponsibility Of The United States

Irresponsibility for the Constitution. — Not Man's Device, in 1787, but God's Ordinance, progressing for a thousand Years. — Wittenagemot.

— Magna Charta. — Declaration of Rights. — Virginia. — Plymouth.

— Royal Charters and State Claims. — Many New Englands. — Growing Unity. — Natural and artificial Bonds 48

CONTENTS. 9

CHAPTER IX. UNION BY SEPARATION. > Page

United because separate. — Early Advantages of France, Holland, and Spain. — How overcome. — Examples at Louisburg and Fort du Quesne. — The French. "War and Conquest of Canada. — Error of 1781 acknowledged by cotemporaneous Symbols. — Impossibilities since. — Impossibilities now. — Dissolution of the Union impossible. — Separation only by War ; Peace only by Union 55

Chapter X. The Law Of Equal Forces

Equilibrium of North and South. — Necessary Impotence and Irresponsibility. — Results of Equilibrium hitherto and hereafter. — Equal Impotence of North and South. — Union not hindered or forbidden thereby. — False Views of Domination and Subserviency. — Scope for Northern Philanthropy. — Illustration from the Cotton Gin 62

Chapter XI. Advantages Of State Supremacy

Acknowledged Impotence, the strongest Appeal of the North to the South. — Slaveholding States alone competent. — Advantage of single Responsibility, beginning on a small scale and extending by successful Experiment. — Examples in Mechanical Improvements. — Steam Navigation. — Erie Canal and the Empire State. — Political Progress.

— Revolution of 1688.— Birth of the Union, 1690. — Capture of Louisburg. — Washington and Virginia. — Patrick Henry. — Constitutional Convention. — Individual Influence. — Jay, Hamilton, and Madison. — Moral like physical Forces. — Impotence the Reservoir of Safety and of Power 67

Chapter XII. The Common Territories And Free Soil

Political Right affirmed. — Partnership and Dividends. — Surplus Revenue. — Surplus Lands. — Letter of the Constitution. — Impotence of the North in the Strife of Equal Forces. — Impotence of the South as well as the North. — Fugitive Slave Law. — The Better " Cordon."

— The true Desideratum. — Northern Views. — Territorial Commis-

10 CONTENTS.

Page, sion and Experiment. — " The Higher Law," and its true Application. — Comparison of the " Law of Nations " and the Law of Ocean and Shore 75

Chapter XIII. Suggestions For A Remedial Code

Section I. — Mutual Bonds of Labor and Capital. — Essential quality of Slavery to be maintained. — Mutual Dependence requiring Mutual Bonds. — Labor to be secured to the Slave and to the Master. — Modes of securing voluntary Labor. — Modes of enforcement 87

Section 2. — Marriage and the Domestic Relations. — Laws of Marriage and Divorce, and related Vices, the same for Bond as Free. — Slavery in aid. — Reference to Jamaica. — Advantages to Masters. — Provision for Difficulties. — Southern Propositions and Views 92

Section 3. — Sales and Emigration. — Inconveniences to Sellers. — How provided for. — To Buyers. — Compensations. — Necessary Emigration 94

Section 4. — Slaves to be capable of holding Property. — Master's Claim undisturbed. — Present Methods of acquiring, holding and transmitting, legalized. — New Methods of earning and investing 98

Section 5. — Education and Religious Worship. — Claims of the Slave.

— No just Education but Religious. — Religious, how given. — With and without public Provision. — Religious Worship 102

Section 6. — Protection of the Laws. Judicial Provisions and Methods. — General Laws to be applicable to Bond as well as free. — Special Exceptions. — Special Laws and Repeals. — Slave Officers and Courts.

— Mr. Steele. — Mr. McDonough 104

Section 7. — Franchises and Freedom. — Franchises of Slaves as Slaves.

— Personal Freedom. — How obtained, and its Franchises. — How limited. — Resorts 108

Section 8. — Methods for the Free. — Registration. — Liberty of Settlement and Employment. — Aids to Property. — Accustomed Employments commended. — Way to Rise. — Opportunities. — Colored

Communities. — Liberia 110

Conclusion 115

Postscript. — The Contest for " Speaker " illustrating Chapter X 117

SLAVERY AND THE REMEDY.

Chapter I. Admissions, Denials, Distinctions

I begin with the admission that slavery is an evil requiring a remedy ; an evil both to the master and the slave. Without denying the larger share to the slave, the master's chains are scarcely less galling, and his sighs for relief are perhaps the more earnest of the two. " Our oppressed brethren at the South " are white as well as black. The slaves need to be released from the actual evils of their bondage to their masters, and the masters need to be released from the actual evils of their bondage to their slaves. No doubt slavery is an evil, imperiously demanding a remedy at once the best and the earliest possible — this year if you can ; this day, this instant, if you can. If the slaves can be transformed into an industrious and thriving peasantry, and the masters into industrious and thriving proprietors, the sooner the better. Nothing can be more desirable than a code truly remedial; nothing can be more the absolute duty of a Christian state than to devise, enact, and execute such a code as speedily as possible.

Admitting, then, most distinctly, slavery as an evil requiring the earliest possible remedy, I deny it as a crime ; as " a sin per se " at this present instant, before the earliest possible remedy. Slavery is an evil ; and, of necessity, it is a sin to make a slave, or to make one's self a slave ; but it does not follow that it is a sin to hold a slave. You are not responsible for an evil any further than you can prevent or cure it. You are not guilty for being a slave when you cannot help it by any right method ; neither are you guilty for being a slaveholder when you cannot help that by any right method. The entering voluntarily into slavery is a crime ; the bringing men into slavery is a crime. So is entering voluntarily into poverty, or bringing others into poverty, a crime ; but it is not, therefore, a crime to be poor, or to have poor neighbors. So it is with sickness and broken bones. It is a crime to make yourself or another man sick, to break your own or another man's bones ; but not to be sick, or have broken bones, or to be surrounded by the diseased and maimed until by all right methods you can make them whole and sound. It is not more a crime to be a slave until you can become rightly and advantageously free, or to hold other men in slavery until you can rightly and advantageously set them free from whatever galling bonds.

Expanding this common sense only on one side ; slave-holding, until slave-freeing can be accomplished rightly and advantageously, is not, cannot be a crime ; is not, cannot be a sin. It is wrong to enslave ; but slaves being found upon our hands, we are responsible, not for the enslaving, which occurred without our knowledge, and before our existence, but for remedying the evil as soon as we can.

To apply this to the opprobrious comparison of holding stolen goods : To steal is a crime ; to hold stolen goods from the owners for yourself is a crime. The partaker is as bad as the thief. But it is not a crime, but a virtue, to hold stolen goods in careful trust, in safe keeping, for the owner, to avail the utmost for his benefit. * * * A stolen looking glass ! a stolen watch ! What ! as soon as you know it, as quick as thought and muscle can act, are you to dash them on the pavement from the third loft, and glory in the speed with which you clear yourself of the guilt of holding stolen goods ? Far better hold them a day, a week, a year, ten years, if need be, in order to restore them most advantageously to the rightful owner. * * *

A stolen man ! found on your hands ! in your house ! What shall you do? The goods are delicate, and may be injured or destroyed by over haste. Beware lest you kill or maim him in your hurry. File gently ; do not hew, lest in loosing his chains you mutilate or destroy. Do not toss him headlong from the uppermost window at the hazard of every bone in his body. Take time rather to lead him deliberately down stairs, through safe passages, that at least he may have a fair escape with life and limb as he goes from your hands, or you may incur a graver guilt than that of holding a stolen man.

Of course I deny the duty of immediate emancipation on the part of those to whom the question belongs ; i. e., without such provisions and arrangements as require time — as must fit themselves gradually to the people concerned. " Institutions are not made, but grow." If I could persuade the legislatures of the slaveholding States to abolish slavery January 1, 1856, I would not do it. If I were autocrat, I would not decree it. I believe there is a more excellent way than immediate and unconditional emancipation. Sat cito, si sat bene. Soon enough, if well enough : too soon, if not well done.

In truth, immediate emancipation is impossible : however claimed in theory, it cannot be practically adopted. Every proposal and attempt carries in itself the principle of a necessary and righteous delay. Be it longer or shorter, there is an interval in which the master may and must remain a master — in which the slave may and must remain a slave. There is no ultra-abolitionist so utterly lost to all common sense as to deny that the individual master may delay, in order to such legal arrangements as shall secure and make advantageous the boon he confers ; or that the State may take time to give form and scope to the enactments by which it undertakes to emancipate. There is an interval — be it longer or shorter, whether till to-morrow noon, January 1, or some more distant period — needful for a good and permanent result, as Christian discretion may decide. The crime is, the disobeying the rules for the interval, and deferring or neglecting the good and permanent result.

I do not forget the popular phrases assumed as establishing criminality, such as " the holding human beings as property ; " " retaining the earnings of the slave ; " but to me they seem to make the arguments in which they stand the merest fallacies — arguments from misnomers, as if they were true names ; from words used in a peculiar, as if they had been used in the ordinary sense. "To insure life " is the most guilty presumption if the term be employed in its ordmary and not in its technical sense. " To sell the time" of a minor is arrogance and oppression if you take the words in any but the peculiar meaning which custom has settled, and then it may be as kind to him and his friends as it is just in you. " To hold human beings as property " is a crime when the terms are understood in the ordinary sense instead of that which custom has settled ; and then it may be as right as it is unavoidable. The charge is a mere criminatio verborum without regard to the essential qualities of the act condemned, which, in the circumstances and for the time, may be a duty. Undoubtedly it is a sin to " hold men as property" without regard to the nature and relations of the goods, and then the sin lies in the criminal disregard. So it is folly to hold glass as property without due regard to the nature and relations of glass ; but the folly lies in the disregard to its brittleness, and to the hard substances which expose it to be broken. It is both folly and crime to hold human beings " as property " without regard to physical, intellectual, social, and moral qualities and relations ; but the folly and wickedness lie in that criminal disregard. So far is the idea of property, in its limited and peculiar sense, from being the essential quality of the sin, that the sin would be substantially the same if those attributes of men were not regarded among your free neighbors up to your power. If the African population were free you would hold your relation to them sinfully if you did not regard them in all their qualities and relations as men.

The condemnation for " withholding the earnings of the slave " is equally fallacious. " The slave does all the work, the master takes all the pay ! " Does he indeed ? Whence, then, another plea? viz., that free labor is more profitable than slave labor, because, forsooth, the slave gets & greater share of the pay than the freeman — more pay for less labor : his own maintenance, with that of his children and parents, and security for the future to boot! In truth, if the needs of the slave are duly cared for, the master does not " withhold the earnings of the slave." The capitalist, employing labor on such terms as custom authorizes, and the laws of capital require, — the only terms on which capital can for any length of time pay labor, — is, in respect to withholding earnings, precisely on the same footing as the slaveholder, with the exception that the merciful slaveholder has the worst of the bargain.

No doubt the capitalist, southern or northern, may withhold from labor its rightful earnings ; and in either case let the judgment be according to the fault. But when the slave is provided for according to his wants and his master's means, then his earnings are not withheld, but bestowed just as truly as are paid the wages of the northern laborer.

Do we then make light of slavery, or become the advocates and upholders of every evil in connection with it ? Alas, if we do ! Let not the reader condemn us for these necessary distinctions until he has heard us through.

Chapter II. The Problem Of Africa In America

The evil of slavery admitted, the next preliminary in order to a remedial code must be the settled fact of an Africo-American population. The African race is established, and must be provided for chiefly on our soil. The evil is to be remedied ; it cannot be removed. The problem of Africa in America is the problem to be 6olved.

The difficulties which beset the actual case are such that the theory of removal is undoubtedly the simplest and easiest. Yet, if only a theory utterly impracticable, it leaves the question of a remedial code on the spot to our earnest and determined, if indeed still our reluctant consideration.

That the African race cannot be removed, seems to me so plain as to supersede argument ; as to need only to be asserted ; all assumptions and projects to the contrary notwithstanding. Be it for good or evil, for weal or woe, the African race has become too numerous to be removed — cannot be removed from America to Africa so rapidly as to equal the natural increase, much less to exceed it. Nothing but some criminal check put in the way — some principle of decay and decrease introduced, added to compulsory and unmerciful transportation, can remove the one half of the natural increase. The evil must be remedied, not removed. The sooner this point is settled the better.

This assertion, needing no argument, might find argument in the facts which meet the writer as he repeats from an article published in 1820. " The Colonization Society is a noble institution, and in behalf of Africa we have no doubt will effect much ; but it will and must leave us an increasing black population. It is immensely important that we duly consider the subject, and enter without delay upon the best measures for reforming and improving a population which we must retain." More than one third of a century has passed, and how stands the assumption that needs no argument ? The population which we began to remove has since then doubled its numbers — increasing very nearly in the same proportion as the white race, with all their advantages of a multitudinous immigration added to the natural increase.

Let the most favorable view be taken. Let it be supposed that the prosperity of Liberia shall become such as to make it the great point of attraction for the colored race ; that open space shall be found for the multitudes eager to emigrate, and that, whether by public aids or private means, emigration becomes as easy as a large European and American commerce has made that from the British Isles, what then can you expect ? " The British Islands in the year 1792 contained a population of fifteen and a half millions. At the present moment the population is probably not less than thirty millions." *

The largest emigration which the world ever saw, finding room in every quarter of the globe, and borne on the wings of a universal commerce over every sea, has but doubled the population from which it has flowed. If America could send to Africa with equal facilities, and in the same proportion, she would but increase the number of her Africo- Americans, and at the end of sixty years would find the race doubled on her hands. It is time to awake from the dream of removing^ to the earnest and determined work of remedying the evil.

All this is said in utmost friendship for the Colonization Society. Though it cannot remove or lessen the African population of this country, there are purposes which it is fitted to accomplish, and in its proper sphere it is worthy of all praise and cooperation. It may improve Africo- Americans by the responsibilities and privileges of Liberia on the one hand, and on the other by showing that ' the welfare of the African, like the European race, must be found not in the wealth or station of a favored few, but in the protected industry of the many. It may establish a civilized and Christian commonwealth on the coast of Africa, which shall aid in the abolition of the slave trade, and in extending civilization and Christianity

* See Blackwood's Magazine, March, 1845, and New York Observer, March 10.

2* over that wide continent. If it succeed in these high purposes, it is impossible to estimate its worth ; and even though it were utterly to fail, the attempt will not have been in vain.

It belongs to this chapter to demand room for the African race — room for their necessary increase and for their prosperous spread ; for an African as well as an American emigration ; a Southern West, suited to the Southern East, as well as a Northern West, suited to the Northern East. In a word, the territorial West cannot be disregarded in providing for the welfare of the African race. Their welfare is not to be secured by limiting them to their present boundaries, but by giving them the same room for expansion and improvement as the white race.

How this can be done in regard to the present slaves, or even the present free blacks, is a question not now requiring to be answered. We only demand at present, as a necessary condition of their well-being, room for expansion in connection with the white population of the South — a belt of both races from the Atlantic to the Pacific, now that both are to be considered as equally settled in the land.

The great southern statesman was right, not only in view of the welfare of the masters, but of the slaves, in claiming that the African race shall not be shut up within its present limits — that the South shall have an emigrating West for all its people as well as the North. All that can be required on the other hand is, that the emigration from the South shall carry with it no element of misery which a wise benevolence can cast off.

Chapter III. Climate And Productions ; Original And Actual Condition

The African race being considered as established, and to be provided for, chiefly on our soil, it must next be claimed that in our care for them we regard the climate and productions of the South, and the original and actual condition of the race.

As to climate and productions, this postulate is, of course, less and less needful, as we approach the line where the differences vanish. Applying ourselves to the comparison at distant points — to South Carolina and Massachusetts, for instance — it may be asserted, as impossible to establish northern equality at the South, under provisions and laws of nature which produce inequality ; which would have produced it if social equality had existed at first, and which would reproduce and maintain it over any enactments to the contrary. Mr. Webster stated the case at Rochester in 1843, bringing the West Indies into comparison with New York. The nature of the crops, the production in one climate of what is wanted in all climates, and therefore requiring to be exchanged for the necessaries of life, destine them to commercial purposes, and not to immediate use. There must be cultivation and disposal on a large scale, with capital and proprietorship on the one hand, and employment and dependence, in a word, with service, on the other. If the South had been settled like the North, chiefly by one race ; and had it begun its agriculture on the same scale of small proprietorship, the nature of the case would at length have brought to pass, in degree, the distinction which now prevails — capital and proprietorship on the one hand, and dependent service on the other ; of masters and servants. This distinction will not vanish by any change in the institution of slavery, and' any method of relief must regard it as unchangeable. Even if the African race could become sole possessors of the soil, by an equal subdivision, and with the energy and skill of the European race, the consequence would not be northern equality, but southern inequality. The smaller number would become proprietors, and the larger number dependent laborers, and the distinction would obtain among them of masters to be honored, and servants to honor, as in degree in all lands, and the special necessity in the culture and disposal of southern productions. Even the North does not, cannot carry its equalizing principle through society, but makes and shows like distinctions in proportion as it becomes in like circumstances ; i. e., wherever capital and proprietorship have scope*, as in the great commercial and manufacturing arrangements.