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THE LAWS or RACE, 
 
 AS CONNECTED WITH 
 
 Inhrj, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE LAW OF THE TERRITORIES," "RUSTIC 
 RHYMES," ETC. 
 
 "Seal up the mouth of outrage for awhile. 
 Till wo can clear these ambiguities, 
 And show their spring, their head, their true descent." 
 Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 WILLIS p. HAZARD, 724 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 18 60. 
 
 Co 
 
 PJ 
 
 i. 
 

 
 
§0Uii^Mis, 
 
 Race, 7 
 
 Mr. Dallas and Lord Brougham, . . 53 
 
RACE. 
 
 Black spirits and. -v\^liitf>. 
 
 Red. spirits and gra;^^ ; 
 Alingle, mingle, iningle, 
 
 Yoix tliat nningle mav." 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
 The attention of government, the debates of 
 Congress, the public press, and the thoughts of 
 the people, have been almost exclusively occupied, 
 for the last five or six years, by questions of law 
 and policy, arising out of the all-absorbing topic of 
 slavery. To understand that subject, however, we 
 must go deeper. Slavery does not rest on the 
 Constitution or laws as a basis, but they on it. It 
 is not the creature, but the director of our policy. 
 It is a permanent, commanding flict in our country, 
 and may not be disregarded. To manage it rightly, 
 is the great problem of our politics, for it has power 
 over us and our destiny. Slavery has a nature of 
 its own, according to which we must shape our 
 measures, if we would be safe and prosper. 
 
 What is that nature ? The subject is usually 
 discussed as if the question involved was slavery 
 
in the abstract ; and much is said about its injus- 
 tice, its cruelty, its inexpediency. The obvious 
 truth, that slavery implies a slave and a master, 
 seems to be generally overlooked. Here the negro 
 is the slave, and the white man the master, each of 
 them strongly marked and contrasted, in their men- 
 tal, moral, and physical qualities. These qualities 
 must control the character of any relations between 
 the parties. To understand slavery, therefore, we 
 must study the nature of the white man and of the 
 negro. Out of the principles of their respective 
 organizations, we may be sure, slavery has grown 
 and by them will be controlled, do what we may. 
 Those principles were impressed upon each by Di- 
 vine will, and the consequences that flow from 
 them have the same source. As in the tumult of 
 the ocean, in the countless variety of vegetable 
 and animal life covering the earth, unity displays 
 itself in diversity, and law reigns amid apparent 
 confusion, so in the rush and strife and com- 
 plexity of human affairs, the truth that was from 
 the beginning, presides over and directs the storm. 
 This controlling truth, this causa causaus,\^ ^^q can 
 find it out, will afford a clue to guide us through 
 the labyrhith of what is called the slavery question, 
 and direct our efforts to definite and attainable 
 ends. Obedience to its behests is the only path 
 of safety. 
 
9 
 
 The researches of ingenious men, during the pre- 
 sent age, have produced results which are gradually 
 leading the educated mind of Europe and this coun- 
 try to the conclusion, that most of the difficult and 
 complicated social and political questions which 
 agitate the world, if not all of them, resolve them- 
 selves into the question of race. The science of 
 ethnology is yet in its infancy. Much ground is 
 unexplored, and some hypotheses wait for induc- 
 tive demonstration. The origin of man and of spe- 
 cies, the definite classification of the branches of 
 the human family, the laws by which they mingle 
 or refuse to mingle, and other questions, remain 
 open for investigation and discovery. 
 
 But some progress has been made. The strata 
 of the earth have been examined, the anatomy and 
 physical structure of races of men and animals, 
 have been studied and compared, the antique mon- 
 uments of pre-historic eras, the earliest written re- 
 cords, the religions and the laws, the languages, 
 literature and art, the manners and customs of na- 
 tions, have been investigated, and all these inqui- 
 ries, intellectual, moral and physical, have resulted 
 in the discovery of certain truths of great practi- 
 cal importance ; of commanding importance, indeed, 
 to us, as a nation. Those ethnical principles which 
 concern the present topic, and seem now established 
 as scientific truths, may be thus stated. 
 
10 
 
 Men are divided into certain distinct races, or 
 species, and these again into snb-species or perma- 
 nent varieties, also distinct. These species refuse 
 to amalgamate, the hybrids being more or less un- 
 prolific with each other, and exhibiting a constant 
 tendency to return to the pure race ; so that the 
 separation of the races is preserved, and the crea- 
 tion of a new race impossible. 
 
 These races are distinguished by clearly defined 
 and different organic physical structure, and also 
 by different mental and moral traits, more espe- 
 cially by iner^uality of mental and moral force, and 
 have been so distinguished, without change, in all 
 ages. 
 
 These races have originated, or been distributed, 
 in certain zones of climate favorable to their na- 
 ture, and do not thrive, and flourish, and maintain 
 themselves, in other portions of the earth.* 
 
 Of these races, the white is the highest in the 
 scale, the black the lowest. The average size of 
 the brain of the white, is 92 cubic inches, of the 
 negro 83, of the Hottentot and Australian TS.f 
 The white alone possesses the intellectual and moral 
 energy which creates that development of free 
 
 * Grobineau, sur I'megalite des Races liumain. The Races 
 of Men, by Robert Knox. Types of Mankind, by Nott and 
 Gllddon. 
 
 f Types of Mankind^, by Nott and Gliddou, p. 454. 
 
11 
 
 government, industry, science, literature, and the 
 arts, which we call civilization. The black can 
 neither originate, maintain, nor comprehend civiliza- 
 tion. He is by nature a barbarian. When in con- 
 tact with the white race, he naturally and willingly 
 yields to it, and becomes its servant. The two races 
 have exhibited these characteristics in all ages. 
 
 Various causes have brought together in this 
 country, all the races ; the white, the yellow, and 
 the black ; Teutonic, Celt, Mongol, and Negro. The 
 qualities of each, are so many forces which are to 
 act upon our destiny, according to their own respec- 
 tive laws of being. As the present discussion re- 
 lates only to the subject of slavery, if the conclu- 
 sions of ethnical science above stated be correct, 
 these three consequences logically follow : 
 
 The white race must of necessity, by reason of 
 its superiority, govern the negro, wherever the two 
 live together. 
 
 The two races can never amalgamate, and form 
 a new species of man, but must remain forever dis- 
 tinct; though mulattoes and other grades always 
 exist, because constantly renewed. 
 
 Each race has a tendency to occupy exclusively 
 that portion of the country suited to its nature. 
 
 These truths, if they be truths, are worth atten- 
 tion. They must rule our politics and our destiny, 
 either hy the constitution or over it, either with the 
 
12 
 
 Union or without it, and no wit or force of man is 
 strong enough to resist them. They are the higher 
 law, to which we must submit on pain of destruc- 
 tion, just as we must submit to the laws of steam 
 and electricity, of wduds and weaves, of earth and 
 iron, of acid and alkali ; and as Lord Bacon says, 
 by submitting, govern, and direct them to our 
 advantage. 
 
 It is therefore a matter of serious interest, to dis- 
 cover how far our constitution or laws, and the 
 governing public opinion of the people, agree with 
 this higher law, — these controlling principles and 
 qualities of race, which form the plan of human or- 
 ganization. The object of this essay is to show 
 that they do agree. 
 
 It is not surprising, that what is called the slavery 
 question, but which ought to be called the negro 
 question, absorbs so largely the attention of our 
 people, for in it are involved, not merely their tem- 
 poral interests, but all those questions of religionand 
 morals, which in every age, have most deeply stirred 
 the thoughts, and touched the feelings of men. Sla- 
 very is apparently a violent contradiction of our 
 position and pretensions as a free and Christian 
 people. We proclaim liberty, in our constitution 
 and our laws, as the foundation-principle of our 
 government, yet we deny to four millions of men, 
 
13 
 
 under our control, all civil rights whatever. The 
 constitution was not made for them we say, they 
 are not part of our people, they are not even men, 
 they are property. We are professors of Chris- 
 tianity, we have schools, we have churches, we have 
 the bible, we have the benign scheme of Christian 
 morality, which teaches the law of love as the rule 
 of conduct, and which sanctifies the domestic rela- 
 tions, the fountain source of social happiness. 
 Nevertheless our schools, our churches, the bible 
 and the sacredness of home, its ties and its joys, arc 
 for ourselves, and not for the negro. We darken 
 his mind with ignorance, we make him an instru- 
 ment of gain, a beast of burden, and deliver him up 
 without protection, to the callousness of cupidity, 
 the recklessness of passion, the brutality of lust. 
 We do this with forethought and design, we do it 
 by law; we, who are not Austrians, Russians, or 
 Turks, but Saxon men, transplanted Englishmen, 
 who have brought with us magna charta and the 
 common law, who are republicans and democrats, 
 and who assert, wdth sincerity and truth too, our 
 love of freedom and our reverence for human rights ! 
 Surely this is a strange anomaly. The world 
 has a right to ask us, we ought to ask ourselves, 
 why do we this thing ? The answer is, because we 
 cannot do otherwise. We have brought the negro 
 to our shores, and therefore slavery with him. He 
 
14 
 
 cannot participate in our liberty, our constitution, 
 our churches, and our schools. We cannot, if we 
 would, make him a partner in our civilization. Sla- 
 very is the necessary result of his nature and of 
 our nature. 
 
 The difference and natural inequality of the two 
 races, white and black, therefore govern what is 
 called the slavery question, and all the constitu- 
 tional and sectional questions dependent on it. The 
 negro is the inferior, — born for subordination and 
 servitude, which has been his lot in all ages, when 
 brought within the sphere of the white race. The 
 Saxon, the highest type of the white race, will not 
 live with the negro on terms of equality, — on any 
 other terms than those of marked and recognized 
 inequality. This is the relation between them 
 wherever they do live together. What position of 
 inequality the negro shall hold, is for the Saxon to 
 determine, an^l his judgment must be guided by his 
 interest, his safety, his pride, and also by his sense 
 of justice and benevolence. But he must be the 
 judge, he who lives with the negro, not another 
 who does not. The Saxon man in the South lives 
 alongside of the negro. The latter is so strong in 
 numbers, that he is a dangerous companion, unless 
 his obedience and subjection can be rendered cer- 
 tain. The negro is the laborer, and his labor is the 
 basis on whicli is oroctcd llio wliolo fnltric nf the 
 
15 
 
 wealth and prosperity of tlie Saxon. The negro is 
 by nature indolent and improvident. The motives 
 which stimulate other races to industry, have weak 
 influence over him. Without some system of com- 
 pulsion he will not work. He is also ignorant ; the 
 animal predominates in his character over the in- 
 tellectual and moral, his mind is weak, his passions 
 are strong, he therefore requires restraint and guid- 
 ance, both for his own good, and that of the su- 
 perior race, for otherwise he would sink into helpless, 
 hopeless vice, idleness, and misery. The Saxon, 
 to whose control the negro has been committed, has 
 determined that slavery is the plan of government 
 which suits him better than any other. It fur- 
 nishes a system of police, watchfulness, and re- 
 straint which secures obedience, industry, order, 
 and temperance on the part of the negro, by which 
 the safety and prosperity of the white race are 
 maintained and promoted ; it secures also, the physi- 
 cal well-being of the negro, by giving to his master 
 an interest in that well-being. The labor of the 
 slave is the source of wealth ; labor comes of health 
 and strength ; health and strength of sufficient 
 food, raiment, shelter, and regular, but not exces- 
 sive, work. The Saxon residing in the South with 
 the negro, has chosen this system for his govern- 
 ment. He claims the right to choose it or any 
 other, and he claims this right by prerogative of 
 
16 
 
 race, by the decree of nature, which made him 
 superior to the negro, in force of mind and charac- 
 ter, and therefore his ruler. He will not relinquish 
 this claim. He cannot if he would. His right to 
 it runs in his veins, beats in his breast, and is 
 founded on immemorial usage, from the earliest 
 periods of recorded history. He will resist whilst 
 he can, any power that shall attempt to interfere 
 with that right, or dictate to him how he shall use 
 it. 
 
 On the other hand, this same Saxon or Teu- 
 tonic man, is a lover of liberty. His is the only 
 race that does love it, and has been able to acquire 
 and keep it. He loves instinctively, personal 
 liberty, power over himself, freedom from the will 
 of another. He loves also political liberty; that 
 is to say, a share of political power, so that he 
 may consent to any control to which he does sub- 
 mit, and form himself a part of the government he 
 obeys. To such a man, slavery in the abstract is 
 revolting; but his love of liberty is, in part, love 
 of power. He sympathizes, therefore, with the 
 oppressed, provided he be not the oppressor, and 
 would gladly break all chains of bondage, except 
 those which he imposes. These characteristics of 
 the Saxon, his practical ability and faculty for ab- 
 stract thought; his passion for conquest and power, 
 and his love of liberty, truth, and justice, whilst 
 
17 
 
 they make him a colonizer and a ruler, also render 
 his rule beneficent. Churches, charities, law, order, 
 industry, wealth, arts, and letters, follow his foot- 
 steps. He is not a destroyer, but a builder; and 
 although he will be a master where he can, he is 
 a kind master, and his authority is a shelter and a 
 protection. 
 
 Out of these relative qualities of the negro and 
 the Tue tonic races, and more especially of the 
 Saxon, the highest type of the latter, grows the 
 apparently anomalous fact that slavery exists in 
 this country; that it is sanctioned and protected 
 by the laws and the constitution, and by public 
 opinion. These qualities also explain the differ- 
 ence of sentiment between North and South on 
 the subject of slavery. The Saxon loves power; 
 his is the conquering, colonizing race. Wherever 
 he goes,— to India, to China, to Australia, or Ame- 
 rica, — he subdues and governs the weaker and lower 
 races. In the South, he is in contact with the 
 negro, the weakest and lowest of all. He must 
 therefore control the negro. In the North, the 
 aborigines having withered and vanished before 
 him, because they would neither submit to him 
 nor be civilized by him, the Saxon finds no race 
 inferior to his own, or so inferior, that he can as- 
 sume any marked and positive dominion over it, 
 or so numerous as to require any laws to insure 
 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 his superiority. Now, at least, Saxon, Celt, and 
 German, live together harmoniously, though, per- 
 haps, this is only because as yet the Saxon prac- 
 tically predominates and governs. But a question 
 has arisen between the Saxon of the North and the 
 negro of the South, as to which shall possess and 
 cultivate vast regions of unoccupied fertile land, 
 the property of the whole white race of this coun- 
 try, represented by its government. True to his 
 instincts of conqueror, colonizer, founder, the Saxon 
 of the North claims this land for himself; he claims 
 that he, and not the negro, shall occupy and till 
 it, live on it and by it. Moved by the same in- 
 herent spirit, the Saxon of the South makes a simi- 
 lar demand. He will possess this region of pro- 
 mise, he says, and take with him his subject race, 
 his serfs and vassals, to work it, not for themselves, 
 but for him; and to give plausibility to his claim, 
 he calls them, not citizens, not people, not even 
 men, but property. Why may not he, as well as 
 the northern man, go to the new territories with 
 his property? To this the northern Saxon replies, 
 that these negroes are not property, but men, and 
 bring with them human influences, not of the 
 highest order; but, whether property or not, they 
 will occupy the land and consume its produce, both 
 and all of which lie wants for his own race. Let 
 the southern Saxon go, therefore, to the territories, 
 
19 
 
 if he will, but leave his negroes behind him ; or let 
 him take them to regions where the white man 
 cannot work, — to climates congenial to the negro. 
 
 The claim of the southern man meets another 
 obstacle in the North. The Saxon is a lover of 
 justice, of humanity, above all, of freedom. He 
 loves these in the abstract; he loves them, too, as 
 the foundation of wealth, and order, and improve- 
 ment; but he loves them and their results for him- 
 self, for his own race. He therefore hates slavery, 
 unless he is the master, and he is not by choice a 
 master. He prefers that all classes where he 
 dwells shall enjoy liberty, equal rights, the means 
 and opportunities of civilization and progress. In 
 the South he is a master, and there he maintains 
 and defends slavery, only because the negro is in 
 the South. In the North there is no race which he 
 is willing to enslave, and therefore his love of 
 liberty and its blessings, acting without check, he 
 is averse to slavery. As the citizen of a northern 
 State, he has banished slavery, and made the negro 
 free, because he cannot be a competitor or an 
 enemy; because slavery, as a legal institution, is 
 not necessary. The land and its fruits, and in- 
 dustry and its rewards, are in the hands of the 
 superior race. 
 
 But the Saxon is not merely a northern man, he 
 is a citizen of the United States. In that capacity 
 
20 
 
 he is a slaveholder and a master. In that capacity- 
 he shares in the wealth that slavery produces, and 
 true to his love of power and of wealth, he is will- 
 ing enough thus to be a master ; he is willing that 
 his race in the South shall hold the negro in bond- 
 age. He would do the same thing now in the North, 
 as he once did, were the negro race a large and 
 firmly established part of the population. But the 
 Saxon can work in the north, and he wants all the 
 land and all the work for himself. Therefore he 
 has driven the negro from his borders, not indeed 
 by force, but by opinion ; by the pressure of ener- 
 getic competition — a struggle in which the negro is 
 too weak to engage. This the Saxon will do wher- 
 ever he can find work for his hands and land to 
 till, in a climate that permits him to work. The 
 silent, irresistible operation of this principle, almost 
 complete in the free states, is going on also through- 
 out the northern slave States, where the negro is 
 disappearing, not so rapidly as the Indian, but 
 steadily and surely, before the conquering indus- 
 try of the white race. The same spirit is indicated 
 by laws passed from time to time in northern 
 States, prohibiting the residence of the negro with- 
 in their limits. He is not made a slave in the North 
 for obvious reasons before intimated. The negro 
 population is so small, that no extraordinary pre- 
 cautions are necessary to render it safe. Neither 
 
21 
 
 is slavery necessary to keep it in that place of 
 social inferiority, which the pride of the superior 
 race requires. Circumstances and natural laws do 
 this, without the aid of the legislature. Moreover, 
 the vast majority of the whites are themselves la- 
 boring men ; they cannot therefore own slaves. 
 Ruling as they do the law-making power, they 
 would not permit the rich to own slaves — for this 
 toiling and governing class, will endure no compe- 
 tition in its industry by the negro. Neither do the 
 rich desire to have him for a slave, because the 
 free, intelligent industry of their own race is far 
 more productive and profitable, and brings with it 
 to the employer, no responsibility, no duties, and 
 no danger. 
 
 But though the negro in the North is not a slave, 
 he is made an outcast and a pariah. There is no 
 place for him in northern society, no aspirations or 
 hopes to stimulate him, none of the prizes of life, 
 wealth, power, respectability, are held out to him, 
 to nerve his efforts and elevate his desires. He is 
 governed and protected in all his rights, wholly by 
 the white race, without his participation. He is 
 excluded from office, from the hustings, from the 
 court-house, from the exchange, from every intel- 
 lectual calling or pursuit, not by legal enactment, 
 but by his own incapacity, and by opinion; by the 
 feeling of caste and race, that is to say, by divine 
 
90 
 
 laws, which are stronger than any the legislature 
 can make. He has no civil or political power what- 
 ever, by which to protect himself, and he may not 
 lay a finger on one of those three wonderful boxes, 
 the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box, 
 which contain the instruments and weapons by 
 which freemen defend their rights. They are for 
 the white race only. A negro governor, legislator, 
 judge, magistrate or juryman does not exist, could 
 not by possibility exist, in the whole North ; this 
 race is not only excluded from all political and civil 
 place and power, but the avenues to social rank 
 and respectability are closed against him ; or rather 
 they are too steep and difficult for him to climb. 
 He is not a land owner, a manufacturer, a merchant. 
 There is no legal obstacle ; but land, machinery 
 and ships are things he cannot manage. There are 
 no black attorneys-at-law, physicians, authors or 
 capitalists in the North. The law opens to the 
 negro these spheres of activity, as widely as to 
 the white man, but they are far beyond the negro's 
 wildest dreams, because beyond his talents. He 
 is thus pushed down by a superior moral and intel- 
 lectual force, which he can neither comprehend nor 
 resist, into those pursuits which the Saxon, and 
 even the Celt, avoids if he can, — into labors which 
 require the least strength of mind or body, which 
 yield the least profit, and are menial and degrad- 
 
9.q 
 
 ing. The spirit of caste drives the negro out of 
 churches, theatres, hotels, rail-cars, steamboats, or 
 assigns to him, in them, a place apart. It drives 
 him into the cellars, dens, and alleys of towns, into 
 hovels in the country ; and it does all this without 
 laws, without concert or design, without unkind- 
 ness or cruelty, but unconsciously, simply because 
 it cannot help doing it, obeying thus instinctive im- 
 pulse, and the immutable, eternal laws by which 
 the races of men are kept apart, and are preserved 
 through countless ages without change. These 
 laws are divine. They execute themselves in spite 
 of party combinations or fanatical legislatures, or 
 philanthropic enthusiasts, or visionary dreamers 
 about human perfectability and the rights of man. 
 These laws have destined the Saxon to command, 
 the negro to obey, and we see, therefore, that with- 
 out law or by law, the Saxon is the master and the 
 negro the servant, both in the North and in the 
 South. 
 
 Such is the state of facts and opinion produced 
 by the natural laws of race, on this fearful subject 
 of slavery. These opinions and facts, being trans- 
 lated into the language of parties and politicians, 
 mean simply, what every newspaper tells us, that 
 the South claims an equal right with the North to 
 possess the territories, which are the common pro- 
 perty of both ; that the North claims the right to 
 
24 
 
 exclude slaveiy, in other words, the negro race, 
 from those territories, but at the same time declares 
 that it will respect and maintain slavery in the 
 States where it already exists, so long as they 
 choose to keep it. 
 
 These are the opinions of the great majority of 
 the people, to whatever party they may belong. 
 It is impossible for them to have any other opinions. 
 There are in the North some abolitionists, carried 
 away by the enthusiasm of a dominating idea, who 
 dream of emancipation ; and there are also some 
 slavery propagandists, who have not yet escaped 
 the influence of party passion and discipline, but 
 every indication of popular feeling, shows that the 
 great masses of the North will obey the instincts 
 of their race, maintain its supremacy and dominion 
 over the negro, and keep liberty and land, and 
 wealth and power for themselves, exclusively, 
 whether in the North or the South. 
 
 If such 1)0 the sentiment of the northern people, 
 that sentiment must rule the government. It will 
 control the movements of parties, defeat the schemes 
 of politicians, and break through all factitious com- 
 binations which seek to restrain it. We have seen 
 the power of this controlling spirit of race showed 
 itself when the issue was joined between North and 
 South, as to which should possess the territory of 
 
25 
 
 Kansas ; how, by instant and passionate creation, 
 the Republican party arose ; how the northern 
 Democracy immediately abandoned the South. 
 When the North is united on any question, it must 
 govern the country. All elements of strength and 
 command are in the North, because the North is 
 inhabited exclusively by the superior race. Hence 
 its more rapid progress in population, wealth, and 
 the arts of civilization. These have never flourished 
 in Africa, and the South is partly African. The 
 seeds of improvement cannot there strike deep 
 roots and grow to healthy, fruitful plants, as they 
 do in the North, because the sub-soil of society is 
 barren. 
 
 Refinement, luxury, culture there may be in the 
 South, among the few, but these do not constitute 
 civilization. They are some only of its flowers 
 and fruits, and even they, can have but a feeble 
 and evanescent growth and life, unless sustained 
 and enriched by the intelligence, morality, energy, 
 aspirations, diversified occupation and exciting emu- 
 lation of a superior race, filling all the avenues of 
 industry and enterprise. The negro is unequal to 
 such labors, struggles or hopes, and a civilization 
 founded on him, must be sickly and ephemeral. 
 So we are taught by history, so by ethnology, and 
 the comparative statistics of the North and the 
 Soitth of our country, tell the same story, and in 
 
26 
 
 most emphatic language. The North, therefore, 
 must govern on all questions that arise between 
 North and South, for the decree of nature herself 
 
 '■'■ Grants unto dwellers with the pine, 
 Dominion o'er the palm and vine." 
 
 We have seen how the opinions of the North, in 
 relation to slavery, are the result of the laws of 
 race. Are these opinions just and wise, and what is 
 the policy which the North should endeavor to 
 carry out ? Perhaps the same laws of race can 
 afford warnings and lessons to guide us. 
 
 The contest between the white and the dark, the 
 superior and inferior races of mankind, is not pecu- 
 liar to this age or to our country. It fills the pages 
 of history, and is going on at this moment all over 
 the world ; in India, China, Syria, Turkey, Africa, 
 and America, North and South. The white brings 
 his force of intellect and will, his knowledge and 
 arts. The dark man has on his side his numbers, 
 the climate, and the wealth he produces ; wealth to 
 allure, the climate to enervate or destroy ; numbers 
 which can neither be civilized nor permanently 
 conquered, but which can corrupt the blood and de- 
 base the morals of the higher race. With these he 
 maintains his ground. Saxon nor Celt can colo- 
 nize the tropics. The English have not done it in 
 India or Africa, nor the French in Algiers. The 
 
27 
 
 law of nature, which assigns certain races to appro- 
 priate zones of climate, protects and executes it- 
 self 
 
 The types of races, at least in their primary 
 classification, are permanent. They never change, 
 and different species do not mingle, so as to consti- 
 tute a new race ; although those nearly allied, as 
 the varieties of the white, may form a people partly 
 of mixed blood, yet the tendency is to separation, 
 as may be seen now in the nations of Europe. 
 The division between white and black is more 
 strictly maintained. The mixed breeds are weak 
 in constitution and unfruitful with each other, and 
 return more speedily to whichever parent stock is 
 favored by the climate and numbers. In our 
 southern States, that is to say, in the cotton states, 
 or extreme South, the negro has found a congenial 
 climate, and obtained a permanent foothold. He 
 can multiply, without fresh blood from his native 
 regions. He can ivorlz in the South, but the white 
 man cannot. He cannot, like the negro, live and 
 grow there ; and would degenerate, and ere long 
 disappear by natural causes, unless his numbers 
 were kept up by emigration from the North, to 
 which he belongs. All influences favor the in- 
 crease and ultimate ascendency of the black race 
 in our extreme South and the countries around the 
 Gulf of Mexico. The slave trade favors it; the 
 
28 
 
 demand for cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar, and other 
 Southern produce, favors it, by encouraging the 
 growth of negro population. The negro multiplies, 
 the white man dwindles and decays. If not a 
 planter, he becomes "poor white trash." Even 
 now, slavery can be maintained where it exists, 
 only by foreign power in alliance with the resident 
 white race, which, as the causes above mentioned 
 continue to operate with greater force, will become 
 more and more dependent on such support. In a 
 society so constituted, there can be virtually two 
 classes only, masters and slaves, the latter a con- 
 stant source of dread, either in peace or war, un- 
 improvable and essentially barbarous. There can 
 be no educated, wealthy middle class, no skilled 
 mechanics, no intelligent, trustworthy laborers, no 
 " bone and sinew," and sooner or later, from causes 
 external or internal, the negroes will revolt and take- 
 possession of the country. Were slavery abolished, 
 the same result would be brought about, more gradu- 
 ally and peaceably. The land would not pay. It 
 would be abandoned by the rich and enterprising, and 
 Africa with barbarism would speedily become su- 
 preme. In either case, this seems to be the probable 
 fate of those regions, which events may hasten or 
 retard. Nothing but cotton keeps the white race in 
 our Southern States now. They are not a desira- 
 ble residence. The climate is unhealthy, and the 
 
29 
 
 conveniences and pleasures of civilization are want- 
 ing. The rich lead a nomadic life, spending most 
 of the year in Europe or the North. They, as well 
 as those who are obliged to remain, are bound to 
 the country only by cotton. Meanwhile the cot- 
 ton land is becoming exhausted. Worn-out plan- 
 tations multiply. Even at present prices, cotton 
 can be made profitable only on new, or the small 
 area of permanently fertile soils. Should the price 
 ever fidl much below the present, by reason of sup- 
 plies from other regions, a result by no means im- 
 probable, then the South would be abandoned to 
 the negro. Should the spirit of revolt ever be so 
 diffused among the slaves as to destroy the feeling 
 of security, also not improbable, the same effect 
 would be produced. Confidence in the safety of 
 life and property, is essential to society. All facts, 
 all tendencies, all causes, therefore, point in one 
 direction, — the ultimate ascendency of the black 
 race, in that portion of the country favorable to its 
 nature. 
 
 Neither is this effect so far in the future, as to be 
 beyond the scope of our politics. The negro in- 
 creases in the South with tropical luxuriance. His 
 growth is stimulated by the value of his labor and 
 by importations of fresh blood from its native 
 source. We have now four uiillions, a formidable 
 number, which settles the question as to the per- 
 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 manent establishment of the race in our country. 
 But the child is now born that will see thirty-six 
 millions in the Southern States, more by four mil- 
 lions than our present entire population. Thirty- 
 six millions in seventy-eight years, with perhaps 
 Hayti, Cuba, Jamaica, and other islands in the 
 West Indies, by that time in the hands of the 
 same race. Can this mass of barbarism be go- 
 verned at all, whether in slavery or freedom, by 
 white men, who would be willing to live in the 
 midst of it ? The mere figures answer the ques- 
 tion, and oppress the mind by the terrible future. 
 But eighty years is too far off for the vision of our 
 politicians, who look only to the next election ; or 
 of the majority of our people indeed, engrossed as 
 they are by the interests of the passing hour. Let 
 us take a shorter period, then. In fifty years we 
 shall have sixteen millions ; or if that be too re- 
 mote for the grasp of our attorney-at-law states- 
 manship, let us look only twenty-five years ahead. 
 Our four millions will then be eight. Is even this 
 a manageable number ? We have trouble enough 
 now with four. They are constantly bringing us 
 to the verge of disunion. They absorb the public 
 mind, and the thoughts and the time of government, 
 by the dangers they evoke. They have produced 
 sectional animosity and strife, where peace and 
 good will should reign. They have thrown the ad- 
 
ol 
 
 ministration of the law throughout the South, into 
 lynch-law committees, and have forbidden any 
 Northern man to go there, unless he leaves his in- 
 dependence, and freedom of thought and speech 
 behind him. They have destroyed all industry but 
 their own, and made the South dependent upon for- 
 eign supplies, for every article which human ingenu- 
 ity has invented for the comfort and accommodation 
 of man. They must be sentinelled and watched, 
 to protect society from horrors worse than war. 
 They inspire terror during peace, and in case of 
 invasion, would be more fearful than the enemy. 
 By means of their weakness they control our po- 
 litics ; they conquer us by abject submission ; they 
 overwhelm us by mere prolific growth ; they have 
 manacled our hands and feet with fetters of gold, 
 and, nominally slaves, they are really the masters 
 of our destiny. Our four millions have done all 
 this. What then may we expect of them, when 
 they are eight, sixteen, thirty-six millions ? Will 
 they not say, or rather, will not the eternal laws 
 of nature say through them, this land of rice and 
 cotton, of swamps and malaria, is ours, because we 
 alone can live and work in it. It belongs to us by 
 right divine. It is our Africa of the New World, 
 in it we will rule and revel ? 
 
 Meanwhile, however, alongside of this new Africa, 
 separated only by indistinct and shifting bound- 
 
32 
 
 aries, its close neighbor, forever, is a new Europe, 
 a vast region, where the white man can live and 
 work, and which he is filling up with the rapidly 
 increasing millions of his race ; a race born to rule, 
 born for liberty, voluntary labor, intellectual pro- 
 gress, the arts, religion and civilization — the only 
 historic race. New Africa is united to this new 
 Europe by political ties, and by other stronger 
 ties which bind together the, as yet, dominant races 
 of each. The two together form a nation, a people, 
 with common interests and hopes, and so far as 
 they can achieve it, a common destiny. Now what 
 is the plain duty of this nation of white men, gov- 
 erning by right of intellectual superiority, the black 
 race established among them; what is its duty as a 
 nation, as a united people, to themselves and to the 
 negro ? If there be any truth in ethnical science, 
 any warning in the lessons of history, a more seri- 
 ous question never was presented for the considera- 
 tion of a government, whetlier we regard the 
 present, or the rapidly approaching future. 
 
 The negro race, in mind and character, is weak 
 and imperfectly developed, belongs to a lower 
 order of man. Slavery has no other justification, 
 excuse or apology, than this. If this be not true, 
 American slavery is a monstrous wickedness, 
 against which every christian should preach a cru- 
 sade till, at whatever cost or sacrifice, it be ban- 
 
33 
 
 ished from the land. Is it not, then, the obvious 
 diit}^ of the nation which holds the negro in subjec- 
 tion, to prevent the growth of a race which is in- 
 capable of liberty or civilization, which is just so 
 much heathenism and barbarism wherever it exists; 
 of a population which forms no part of the people, 
 which is alien and hostile, and thus a source, not 
 of strength but of weakness ; of a race which can 
 be enslaved, which must be held in subjection by 
 some system equivalent to slavery, and which, 
 from natural causes, increases so rapidly, as to 
 threaten, at no distant day, to escape all control, 
 and to banish, exterminate, or bring down to its 
 own level, where it is planted and luxuriates, the 
 superior race by which it is now governed ? Surely 
 no argument is necessary to prove that a nation 
 must be happier, wiser, richer, more powerful and 
 more glorious, where the whole people are of the 
 strongest, m6st intellectual and most moral race of 
 mankind, than where any portion of the people are 
 degraded by nature, and incapable of progress or 
 civilization. Barbarism is barbarism, whether in 
 Africa or America; and a country inhabited by 
 barbarians cannot be civilized. Just in proportion 
 to the number of its barbarians, is it wanting in the 
 elements of civilization, and just in that proportion, 
 too, is it weak and liable to overthrow, from dan- 
 gers within and without. The history of the world. 
 
34 
 
 from the dim annals of the most distant past, to the 
 journalism of the present hour, proves this. AVhat 
 destroyed the civilization of ancient India, Egypt, 
 and Persia, but the gradual predominance of the 
 dark races of the South, favored by climate, over 
 the white race of the North, which founded that 
 civilization and maintained it, so long as the race 
 could maintain its ascendency. 
 
 To the same cause, the admixture and degrada- 
 tion of blood, has been attributed with every sem- 
 blance of reason, the decay of Grecian and Roman 
 power, art, literature and philosophy ; all of which 
 sprang from the intellect of the northern race, and 
 dechned as that race melted away before the dark 
 races of the South, aided by a climate suited to 
 their nature.* What does modern Europe show, 
 but the energetic conflict of the superior races with 
 each other, growing stronger from conflict, and 
 evolving letters, arts, liberty, government, wealth 
 and history, from their heroic struggles and labors, 
 as the golden harvest rises out of the ploughed and 
 harrowed soil, wherever those races fill the country, 
 as they do in France, England, Germany and all the 
 north. During the same period, the south of Europe, 
 Italy, Spain, Turkey and Greece, has been growing 
 weaker and weaker, until, at length, all these na- 
 
 * Grobincau, sur rinegalite des Races humaiue, vol. 2. 
 
35 
 
 tions are in reality governed by the stronger races, 
 represented by what are called the " Great Powers," 
 and are maintained by them in nominal, sickly, fee- 
 ble, fictitious nationalities and independence, only 
 because those Great Powers are jealous of each 
 other. If we look to the East, the picture is still 
 more sombre, because the predominant race is dark- 
 er. Over India, Persia, Syria, Egypt, the seats of 
 antique civilization, the fountain-sources of modern 
 philosophy, poetry and religion, has settled the 
 thick shades of ignorance and barbarism. Liberty, 
 literature, art and government, have died out, be- 
 cause the onl}^ race whose mind spontaneously pro- 
 duces these fruits, has died out. The movements 
 of their people, whether in peace or war, are un- 
 known ; they are not worth recording, and there is 
 no one to record them. Like the fights of the wild 
 beasts of the jungle, or the migrations of birds or 
 bufQiloes ; like the quarrels of savage tribes in Africa 
 or North America, governed not by ideas but by 
 animal needs or instincts, what these races of hu- 
 man animals do, forms no part of history. They 
 can give us no knowledge or wisdom, and their 
 actions and habits are interesting only as scientific 
 facts, to the physiologist, to the ethnologist, to the 
 student of that mysterious creature, man, who pre- 
 sents such varied aspects in his manifold nature. 
 If we look to our side of the Atlantic, the same 
 
36 
 
 story is told by the West Indies, and Central and 
 South America, all of them colonized by the white 
 race, which, in all, has proved too weak for the cli- 
 mate, the aboriginal Indian and the negro, and is 
 receding before them. The mongrel population, 
 arising from these, cannot maintain free govern- 
 ment, can scarcely keep up a waning and feeble 
 civilization, and makes no progress in industry, 
 wealth, letters or the arts. It is rapidly going back 
 to the original type of the country, or to the negro, 
 who finds there a congenial home. 
 
 These are the teachings of history, and also of 
 the passing hour. Shall we heed them and en- 
 deavor to check the extension of Africa in our 
 country, with its barbarism and its weakness, with 
 the moral blight and manifold curses of slavery that 
 accompany it, or shall we give it scope and encour- 
 agement to grow and spread, wherever reckless 
 cupidity may choose to take it ? Shall we keep 
 our broad stretches of fertile land for the Saxon, 
 that he may found thereon an empire of liberty, 
 Christianity and intellectual culture, to endure and 
 flourish for ages, or shall we plant them with the 
 negro race, and devote them to ignorance, slavery, 
 fetichism and barbarism ? This is the question 
 which events have at length put fliirly and squarely 
 to us. We, the white race, who own this country, 
 who are the natural masters of the negro, who 
 
37 
 
 have, therefore, the right and the power to decide 
 the question, are now called on to decide it, in our 
 national, corporate character, as a people and a 
 government. Can any one doubt how we shall de- 
 cide it ? To doubt is to deny our history since the 
 dawn of civilization, to deny all the marking quali- 
 ties of our race. We will decide it if we can, as a 
 united people ; but if we cannot, if cotton and sla- 
 very and the negro, have already weakened our 
 Southern brethren by their spells and enchantments, 
 so that the South cannot decide according to the 
 traditions and impulses of our race, then we of the 
 North, will still decide it, as by right we may, — by 
 right of reason, of race, and of law. 
 
 The policy, therefore, of restraining the growth of 
 the negro race within those limits of climate, where 
 he alone can work and thrive, is indicated by the 
 qualities of that race, and accords also with the 
 dominant characteristics of the white. These cha- 
 racteristics have from the beginning, ruled the con- 
 duct of government, which has uniformly permitted 
 or excluded the negro under the name of slavery, 
 according to the conditions of climate. Wherever 
 the Saxon could work, he has claimed the soil for 
 himself alone. Wherever he could not work, he 
 has, either in his individual or national character 
 of slaveholder, taken or allowed the negro to be 
 taken, to work for him. Natural laws would have 
 
 4 
 
38 
 
 brought about this result without the aid of the 
 legislature, for these laws confine each race to its 
 appropriate portion of the earth. The climate in 
 which the negro can work and thrive repels the 
 white, whilst the negro is excluded from the North, 
 both by the climate and by the competition of the 
 more intellectual and energetic race. If all the 
 laws of the Northern States prohibiting slavery 
 were at once repealed, this state of things would 
 remain unaltered. The negro is not only disap- 
 pearing from those States where he is free, but also 
 from those where slavery is still permitted, and 
 where the climate allows the white man to obtain 
 a footing as a laborer. The question, which race 
 shall possess the national territories, has for another 
 reason ceased to be of practical importance, and 
 cannot much longer be kept alive, even as a theme 
 for party agitation. There are no territories now 
 belonging to the government, from which the white 
 race is excluded by the climate ; there are none 
 therefore in which the negro can be planted and 
 grow. Neither laws nor party conventions, • nor 
 Supreme Court decrees can put him, or keep him 
 there, against the higher law of nature. 
 
 There are, however, two other modes by which 
 the growth and extension of the negro may be 
 stimulated, that present more serious difficulties. 
 
39 
 
 One is the ucqiiisition of new land in a climate 
 suited to his nature ; the other is fresh importations 
 from Africa. The indications are plain enough, that 
 this terrible and protean slavery question will soon 
 assume these shapes, and present these two issues 
 to the nation ; — further annexation of tropical terri- 
 tory, and the revival of the slave trade. The one 
 is a necessary consequence of the other, for the 
 land is worthless without negroes to till it, they 
 alone being able to till it. The negroes we now 
 have are all needed for the land we now possess, as 
 their price proves. If we get more land therefore, 
 we must have more negroes, just as a farmer, when 
 he buys more acres, must increase his force. 
 
 Unfortunately, these two projects appeal directly 
 to the ruling passions and marking traits of the 
 Saxon ; — his love of conquest and adventure, his love 
 of colonizing and founding, his love of material pros- 
 perity and profitable industry, his love of supre- 
 macy and control. These qualities have sent him 
 all over the world in quest of land to subdue and 
 cultivate and possess, and have encircled the earth 
 with his drumbeat and his canvas, his language, 
 his laws, and his arts. Tempting, indeed, are the 
 fertile regions in and around the Gulf of Mexico, 
 rich in the productions for which the markets of the 
 world open their hungry mouths, and occupied now 
 by a weak, effete, mongrel, withered race, who 
 
40 
 
 cannot govern them, or cnltivate them, or bring ont 
 of their soil a tithe of its wealth, or defend them 
 against an invader. They invite us by their allur- 
 ing looks, by their syren smiles, by their bewitch- 
 ing beauty, and say to our valor, our enterprise, 
 our daring, mounting ambition ; — come and take us 
 and our delights ; we belong not to the weak, but 
 to the strong and bold. 'Tis the old story ; the 
 Cleopatra of the South, the '' serpent of the Nile," 
 entangling the sensual, brave, athletic and conquer- 
 ing northern Anthony, in her silken meshes of dalli- 
 ance, lapping him in luxury and sloth, kissing away 
 his manhood, courage, glory, power, and " pro- 
 vinces." 
 
 " The barjije she sat in, like a burnished throne, 
 
 Burned on the water ; the poop was beaten gold, 
 
 Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that 
 
 The winds were love-sick with them ; the oars were silver, 
 
 Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made 
 
 The water which they beat to follow faster, 
 
 As amorous of their strokes." 
 
 So sits the queen of the Antilles, and her charm- 
 ing sisters in their ambrosial summer sea. From 
 them all, 
 
 " A strange, invisible perfume hits the sense," 
 
 from them and the adjacent shores, redolent of 
 
41 
 
 orange groves, of sugar and cotton and tobacco, 
 promising land, ease, wealth, and power, to enter- 
 prise and courage, whilst Africa offers her dusky 
 millions of docile laborers, feebly and inefficiently 
 protected now, by repealable laws. 
 
 Indications are not wanting, to show the force of 
 this temptation. Reiterated and exaggerated com- 
 plaints of injuries and insults offered to us by the 
 weak and decaying governments who possess this 
 El Dorado, are ostentatiously paraded in presidential 
 messages, as pretexts for invasion. Fillibustering 
 expeditions for the same purpose, are connived at 
 by our government, and eagerly supported by 
 Southern opinion. Northern capital sends slave- 
 ships to Africa, and cargoes of captured negroes 
 are landed on our southern shores, without punish- 
 ment, and with scarcely the mockery of trial. The 
 natural laws of trade, by which demand creates 
 supply, favor this influence of the characteristics 
 of our people. All these causes and tendencies 
 prove, that the tropics are the natural home of 
 the dark race, to which it is led by irresistible laws, 
 and which it is destined to fill and occupy. Afri- 
 cans and Chinese are brought now by annually 
 increasing thousands to the West Indies. St. Do- 
 mingo is already under the dominion of the negro, 
 and but for the European governments which own 
 them, Cuba, and the other islands of the same 
 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 group, would speedily fall under his power, as they 
 are now almost exclusively occupied by his race. 
 In Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and Central America, 
 the Spanish blood of the conquerors is rapidly run- 
 ning out, and the mixed breeds are resolving them- 
 selves into the native Indian or the negro. The 
 white race cannot colonize these regions, cannot 
 build up in them an enduring, Christian, European 
 civilization. It can hold them only as provinces, 
 governing their inhabitants as a subject people, by 
 military power, as England holds and governs In- 
 dia, and France Algiers. 
 
 Now what is our duty and our policy as a na- 
 tion, — as a government ? What is the duty of the 
 Northern States, who can, if they choose, control 
 the government, as to these inseparably connected 
 questions — the annexation of tropical territory, and 
 the revival of the slave trade ? Shall we yield to 
 the allurements of this garden of Armida, and send 
 thither our own race, to have its blood corrupted 
 by amalgamation, and its energies weakened by 
 the climate, finally to be exterminated by the 
 negro, or sink to his level? Shall we permit our 
 love of power and of gain to become rapacity and 
 cruelty ? Shall we degrade our souls and blemish 
 our name, by wars of conquest on lying pretexts 
 against weak neighbors, or by hunting negroes in 
 Africa, trafficking with savage slave-captors and stir- 
 
43 
 
 ring up strife between barbarous tribes, to obtain 
 supplies for our markets ? Such things have been 
 done ere now in the world, and by Saxons ; nay, 
 are doing at this moment. They accord but too 
 well with the domineering, encroaching, grasping 
 spirit of the race; and the temper of our people, 
 their passionate love of money and of territory, jus- 
 tifies alarm. At present, there is strife between the 
 North and the South ; but it has been caused chiefly, 
 almost wholly, by the bold attempt to plant the 
 negro where the Saxon alone should dwell, and b}'' 
 the acts of violence and aggression which accom- 
 panied that attempt. When the quarrel on this 
 subject ceases, as it soon will, should the South point 
 to Cuba, Mexico, and Central America, and speak 
 of cotton, sugar, tobacco, and coffee ; of acquisition, 
 expansion, wealth, and dominion to the northern 
 man. the song will be a music to which Saxon ears 
 always have listened, and always will listen, with 
 delight. The eloquence of the South can veil even 
 the repulsive features of the slave-trade. Slavery, 
 we may be told, nay, we are told, is a blessing to 
 the negro. It educates, christianizes, elevates him. 
 The horrors of the middle passage are caused by 
 the law. Legalize the traffic, and the slave-ship 
 will become as comfortable as any other. Why not, 
 then, permit African as well as Irish emigration? 
 Dressed in this garb, the slave-trade may offer. 
 
44 
 
 especially to the eyes of self-interest, willing to be 
 convinced, the aspect of a Christian mission, to 
 rescue Africa from barbarism and idolatry. 
 
 Such are the dangers to which the tendencies of 
 race are leading us. We should resist them while 
 we may. The revival of the slave-trade would, by 
 the infusion of fresh barbarism, lower the character 
 of our negro population, multiply its numbers, which 
 already increase too rapidly, add to the perils of 
 servile war, and degrade our moral sentiment and 
 self-respect, by a loathsome traffic, condemned by 
 the enlightened Jiumanity of the civiHzed world. It 
 would also hasten the period of African domination 
 in the South. 
 
 We can get the coveted territories only by war; 
 war not merely with the people who possess them, 
 but probablj^ also with European nations, already 
 jealous of our increasing power. When got, they 
 would invite aggression, present vulnerable points, 
 and could be held only by a large military force. 
 A standing arm^^ therefore, and foreign wars, 
 would be the results of such an acquisition. 
 
 The people of these territories, though weak and 
 inferior to ourselves, are nevertheless within the 
 pale of civilized. Christian nations. They are, 
 therefore, under the protection of the law of na- 
 tions. Without a gross violation of that law, we 
 could not, by whatever process they might be an- 
 
45 ^ 
 
 nexed, disregard the rights of these people. We 
 could not govern them as a subject race, — as England 
 governs India, — as we govern our negroes. These 
 people would participate, therefore, in our liberty, 
 our constitution, and our laws. These mongrel, de- 
 caying, ignorant, morally and intellectually inferior 
 races, would thus become our fellow-citizens, would 
 share in the government of our country, and in- 
 fluence or control, by their votes, the interests, the 
 will, and the destiny of the North — of the Saxon. 
 The laws of race prohibit such a partnership. It 
 would break the Union. The Saxon would not live 
 with Mexicans, Indians, half-breeds, and worn-out 
 Spaniards, on terms of equality, or share their des- 
 tiny, or permit them to partake in his authority 
 over his own country. According to our constitution, 
 acquired territories must become States. Whether 
 political power were granted to the original inhabi- 
 tants or withheld, and the supremacy given to the 
 conquering race, the contest between South and 
 North would be revived with tenfold bitterness. 
 Conflicting interests and claims would again create 
 a struggle for power, and the result would be, sepa- 
 ration, and a Southern confederacy, or, more pro- 
 bably, another failure added to the list of abortive 
 Southern Republics. The warnings and lessons 
 offered, therefore, by the laws of race, plainly indi- 
 cate, that neither by the acquisition of new terri- 
 
^ 46 
 
 tory, nor by the revival of the slave-trade, would 
 it be wise to encoara2;e the growth of the nearro 
 under our government, nor to increase his influence 
 over our fate. 
 
 Another question of great importance is, how 
 shall we govern the negro ? That we must govern 
 him is plain, as already stated, because of his attri- 
 butes and of ours. Accordingly we do govern him, 
 wholly without his consent or participation, both in 
 the North and the South. Bat in the South we 
 make him a slave. Is this wise, is it morally right?" 
 In the North, he is refused political liberty or power 
 over public affairs, and the reason is, that he is 
 unfit — permanently and naturally unfit — to exercise 
 that power. In the South, he is deprived of per- 
 sonal liberty, or power over himself. This is a 
 great wrong, unless it be true that he is unable to 
 exercise this power also, for his own good and the 
 good of society. On the inherent, unalterable 
 qualities of the negro, hinges the whole question of 
 slavery. Fortunately for our justification, unfortu- 
 nately for our country, all the researches of science, 
 all the annals of the past, and all the facts of the 
 present hour, prove that the negro is fit for servi- 
 tude, that he requires guidance and protection, 
 naturally seeks them, and renders in return, labor 
 and obedience. Servitude arises from the relation 
 
47 
 
 of strength to weakness ; and the negro is adapted 
 to it, by his want of intellectual power, his feeble- 
 ness of will, his docility, his good nature. He is 
 submissive, and neither hates nor inspires hatred. 
 He is improvident, and incapable of forethought, 
 because in Africa, forethought was unnecessary to 
 supply his wants. He is indolent for the same 
 reason, but acquires habits of industry under the 
 control of a superior will. In his native regions, 
 his freedom was the freedom of savage hfe. He 
 did not leave his nature behind him when he came 
 here, and if released from the sustaining and direct- 
 ing power of the white race, he would return again 
 to savage life. It is remarkable, moreover, that 
 slavery exists in Africa. The black races of that 
 country differ in mental and physical qualities and 
 force. The stronger enslave the weaker, and those 
 races that are slaves there, are those which have 
 been brought here. The internal evidence of the 
 negro's nature, showing him to be fit for slavery, 
 is corroborated by the fact, that he has been, in all 
 ages, contented and submissive in slavery. This 
 is true of no other race. The Mongol, the North 
 American Indian, cannot be enslaved ; they would 
 resist. The aborigines, of South America and the 
 West Indies, withered and perished under slavery. 
 It suits only the negro, who lives and labors, thrives 
 and increases, under its protecting care. 
 
48 
 
 Slavery is servitude established by law ; servi- 
 tude during life, for one who cannot aspire to a 
 higher lot ; servitude of a race, fitted by nature for 
 that lot. It provides for the negro the guidance 
 and support through life that he needs, and ex- 
 presses the relation which his nature bears to that 
 of the white man. Slavery, moreover, performs 
 the duty of magistrates, police, prisons, poor-houses 
 and hospitals, for the negro race in the South, with- 
 out expense to government, and far more efficiently 
 than any government could perform them. Slavery 
 is not in itself a good thing ; on the contrary, it is 
 an evil thing, and bears fruit according to its na- 
 ture. But we have the negro, and therefore we 
 must have slavery. Our system of slavery, doubt- 
 less, is far from perfect. Its chief defects arise 
 from the predominance given to the mercenary ele- 
 ment of the relation over the benevolent, in the 
 laws of the Southern States. These laws declare, 
 that a slave is a mere chattel, and the Supreme 
 Court of the United States has declared so too. 
 
 But the laws of nature say, servitude is the 
 natural relation between the negro and the white 
 race ; that a slave is a man, and not a thing, and, 
 therefore, entitled to justice and humanity; that he 
 has rights which impose duties on the master, and 
 that the dominant race, having power over the ne- 
 gro, is responsible for his well-being. The laws of 
 
40 
 
 the South, and the decision in the case of Dred 
 Scott, contradict these truths ; but they are affirm- 
 ed by the general sentiment and practice of the 
 Southern people, and by the Constitution, which 
 correctly describes a slave as a ^'^ person held to ser- 
 vice or labor," using this language emphatically, as 
 is well known, for the express purpose of denying 
 that slaves are property ; a doctrine worthy only 
 of slave-traders and African tribes, from whom it 
 was derived. 
 
 Servitude is the natural position of the negro, 
 and slavery j)laces him in that position. It is the 
 system which the Southern Saxon has adopted for 
 governing the large and increasing numbers of the 
 black race with which he lives, — which he must go- 
 vern for his own safety and prosperity. With all 
 its defects, evils and dangers, it does, in fact, ac- 
 complish its object. Southern society is protected 
 from either the violence, or the pauperism, or vice, 
 of the negro race, whilst that race is also protected 
 by slavery, and maintained in a condition superior 
 to that of its brethren in the North, or in Africa. 
 The negro is worth our care, not only because of 
 his own good qualities, but because he has power 
 over us, which we cannot get rid of. Under all pos- 
 sible circumstances, and for all future time, the ne- 
 gro will be our companion, and form part of our 
 population. Upon him depend the wealth and pros- 
 
 5 
 
50 
 
 perity of the South, for what would become of these 
 without cotton ? The manufactures and commerce 
 of Europe and of the North, are sustained also by 
 cotton and other Southern produce, the result, 
 either exclusively or chiefly, of negro labor. 
 
 The question, therefore, of how to govern the 
 negro, is of interest to us and to the world. If it 
 be true, that slavery or servitude established and 
 regulated by law, accords with his nature and with 
 ours, — is a benefit to him and to us, — then slavery 
 harmonizes with those]obligations of morality which 
 neither men nor nations may disobey with impu- 
 nity, and it is our duty, as a nation, to maintain 
 slavery, and, if possible, ameliorate and improve it. 
 It is the duty also of the North, to the men of their 
 own race in the South, heartily and cordially to 
 support and^ assist them, in their difficult task of 
 governing a subject race, whose increasing numbers 
 threaten, at no distant day, to break down all bar- 
 riers of Testraint. They, the men of the South, 
 have this task imposed on them, and are engaged 
 in fronting its dangers, enduring its evils, and are 
 responsible for its results. They, therefore, should 
 have^ control over slavery, to keep it, to alter and 
 amend it, or,^to abolish it, as they think fit. 
 
 It has been shown before, that the public opinion 
 of the northern people, on the subject of slavery, 
 arises, necessarily, from the respective characteris- 
 
51 
 
 tics of the negro and the Saxon races. The same 
 characteristics or organic laws, dictate a line of 
 policy in harmony with that sentiment, and shoAV 
 that our government ought to prevent the exten- 
 sion of the negro into any territories now possessed 
 by the nation, which afford a home and sphere of 
 useful labor to the white race ; that the growth of 
 the negro should not be encouraged, either by the 
 acquisition of new territory, or by importations 
 from Africa, and that the supremacy of the superior 
 race, in the Southern States, should be supported, 
 by maintaining slavery in those States, so far as 
 the action of the general government is necessary 
 for that object. 
 
 It is satisfactory to find that the principles thus 
 disclosed by the philosophy of race, are also in the 
 Constitution. The reason is, that it necessarily 
 grew out of and was controlled by those principles. 
 By the powers it grants and the duties it imposes, 
 the government has authority to rule and regulate 
 the national territories, to make war and treaties, 
 to prohibit the slave-trade, to suppress domestic 
 insurrection, and to cause fugitives from " service 
 or labor" to be returned to those " to whom such 
 service or labor may be due." These provisions 
 cover the whole ground, as if inspired by prophetic 
 wisdom. They are sufficient for the security of 
 the South, and for all the wise and just plans or 
 
52 
 
 purposes of the North. Let us abide by the Con- 
 stitution, and so deal with the negro and with 
 slavery, as to reap what of good they produce, 
 diminish their evils and dangers, and postpone, as 
 far as we can, the dark day of disunion and Southern 
 decline, if that day be indeed approaching. 
 
MR. DALLAS AND LORD BROUGHAM.* 
 
 Are tliese things necessities ? 
 Tlien let ns meet tliem like necessities." 
 
 Henry IV., Pakt II. 
 
 Some weeks ago, there was a meeting in London 
 of the International Statistical Congress. Prince 
 Albert presided, and the American Minister was 
 present. One of the members of this scientific 
 assembly, also present, was a colored man from 
 Canada; and in the course of the proceedings, Lord 
 Brougham pubhcly called the attention of Mr. Dal- 
 las to that fact. Mr. Dallas made no reply. His 
 experience enabled him, no doubt, to judge cor- 
 rectly of the proprieties of his place and the occa- 
 sion, and it is only just to him to believe, that he 
 had sufficient reasons for remaining silent; that he 
 did what, under the circumstances, was right to do. 
 
 * This Essay was written for the North American and 
 United States Gazette, and published in that journal, August 
 18, 1860. The author re-prints the article here, because the 
 topics discussed in it are pertinent to tlie argument of the 
 foregoing Essay. 
 5* 
 
64 
 
 Had there been no such reasons, however, the ob- 
 jects of the Society, the character of the assembly, 
 the presence of the dusky member from Canada, 
 and the speech of Lord Brougham, all afforded a 
 scene, an audience and an opportunity for telling 
 some truths about slavery, worth telling to the 
 English people. Let us suppose that no rules of 
 etiquette, no fears of compromising official dignity 
 by exciting what perhaps might have become an 
 unseemly discussion, had interfered, would it not 
 have produced a good effect on the minds of the 
 cultivated persons present, and on the public opin- 
 ion of England and America, had Mr. Dallas made 
 something like the following 
 
 Mr. Chairman: — 
 
 I am a guest of this learned Society, rather than 
 a participator in its proceedings. I came here to 
 look on and listen, not to speak. The remarks, 
 however, of the noble Lord who has just addressed 
 you, induce me to crave for a few moments the 
 attention of this meeting. His Lordship has called 
 on me to notice the flict, that a man of the African 
 race is here present, received and treated as an as- 
 sociate, by the eminent gentlemen around me. I 
 
55 
 
 will not assume, I will not suppose that Lord 
 Brougham intended anything ofTensive to me or to 
 the country I have the honor to represent, by what 
 he said. His fame is so widely spread in Europe 
 and in America, that all the world knows him to 
 be opposed to slavery. He is opposed to it, I feel 
 sure, not as an enemy to the United States, but as 
 a philosopher and statesman, on what he deems 
 just and reasonable grounds, and he no doubt meant 
 to say, by his pointed allusion to me, — " Behold, 
 Mr. Dallas, behold men of America, here in Eng- 
 land, the foremost nation of the world, is a negro, 
 received as a companion and an equal, in a circle, 
 composed of some of the brightest names of their 
 country, in social rank, in literature and science ! 
 Why, then, do you make him a slave ?" 
 
 I must believe that the person referred to, find- 
 ing him as I do, in such distinguished society, has 
 qualities which render him in some degree worthy 
 of his companions. It very often happens in my 
 country, that men of his race possess estimable vir- 
 tues, and are remarkable for truth, honesty, and 
 fidelity ; it sometimes happens that, under fiivor- 
 able circumstances, they make considerable intel- 
 lectual progress, and acquire knowledge, which does 
 not imply mental powers of a high order. But we 
 have some acquaintance at home with negroes. 
 There are four millions of them in our Southern 
 
56 
 
 States ; and I can assert with confidence, that our 
 experience is hke that of all other countries, of all 
 other ages recorded by history, and that examples 
 even of the moderate endowments and attainments 
 I have mentioned, are the exceptions, not the rule. 
 The race is not gifted with the force of character 
 or intellect that fits it to originate or sustain a na- 
 tive, independent civilization. It does not produce 
 artists, poets, and philosophers — not even soldiers, 
 orators, lawyers, and statesmen. There are no 
 negro Shakspeares, Raphaels, or Bacons ; no Marl- 
 borough or Wellington, no Pitt, Fox, Mansfield, or 
 Brougham, with black skin and woolly hair, either 
 in the past or the present. Even in the humbler 
 spheres of business and industry, the negro is dis- 
 qualified by nature to conduct the commerce, the 
 manufactures, or the mechanic arts of a civilized 
 community. All these require for their manage- 
 ment, mental powers which the negro does not 
 possess. As a general rule, he is fit only for manual 
 labor that requires but little thought; and to achieve 
 in this, valuable results, he must be directed by su- 
 perior intelligence. He has therefore occupied, 
 wherever he has been associated with the white 
 race, the position of a servile class or caste. He 
 occupies this position in America. In the North 
 as well as in the South, the menial and inferior 
 offices of society are assigned to him, or rather, he 
 
57 
 
 falls into them naturally by the operation of laws, 
 which no social or political arrangements, are strong 
 enough to alter or resist. 
 
 But in our Southern States we mnke him a slave. 
 I know that this w-ord has an unpleasant sound to 
 an English ear. There are many in America, also, 
 who do not like it. Nevertheless, slavery exists 
 there, and must exist in some form or other for 
 many years to come, perhaps forever, by reason of 
 the natural laws of race to which I have alluded. 
 We have four millions of negroes in our South, very 
 different, indeed, with few exceptions, from him to 
 whose presence here my attention has been called. 
 They constitute, in fact, a vast mass of ignorance 
 and barbarism, which cannot govern itself, either 
 for their good or ours — which, therefore, we must 
 govern. We, the superior race, have the right, by 
 reason of our superiority, to govern them for our own 
 safety and interest, not neglecting at the same time 
 their well-being. Thus justified, and for the pur- 
 pose of accomplishing these objects, we have estab- 
 lished slavery as a system of government for the 
 negro race, wherever it exists in such numbers as to 
 make slavery necessary; or to speak with more 
 philosophical as well as historical accuracy, slavery 
 has arisen naturally from the contact of the two 
 races. It furnishes, without expense to govern- 
 ment, an efficient magistracy and police to main- 
 
58 
 
 tain order and subordination; it enforces industry 
 and temperance, without poor-houses or prisons; it 
 promotes the happiness of the negro, by connect- 
 ing the interest of the master with the health and 
 strength, the cheerfulness and contentment of the 
 slave. Slavery, therefore, with us, means care, 
 guidance, just control, and protection for the ne- 
 gro ; it means, also, security, order, enterprise, 
 wealth, and progress for ourselves. The presence 
 of the negro race in vast numbers among us, ren- 
 ders slavery a necessity, not a choice. It would 
 not have been our choice, — for we are quite Eng- 
 lish in our love of liberty. Being a necessity, 
 we have used it, not cruelly or oppressively, but 
 in a manner worthy a people that is proud to 
 number Alfred and Hampden among its ancestors, 
 and regards magna charta and the common law, as 
 its richest inheritance. The theoretical harshness 
 of the system is modified and softened in practice 
 by the character of those who apply it. The negro 
 has been confided by Providence to the care and 
 keeping of the magnanimous Saxon race — of that 
 race which has built up in this Island such a splendid 
 edifice of knowledge, liberty, wealth, and power; 
 which has based its mighty and beneficent civiliza- 
 tion on the eternal maxims of truth, justice, and 
 humanity, and which has erected on the same 
 secure foundations, an empire in the West, whose 
 
59 
 
 giant proportions are as yet faintly traced by the 
 hand of time. These two great branches of this 
 noble fxmily, I humbly hope, and trust, and believe, 
 are destined to inherit the earth. May they grow 
 and prosper, and be united in friendship as in blood; 
 and may they rule in the East and the West, for 
 the good of the world. 
 
 The care of the negro has been thus confided to 
 us in America, as a trust. We have power over 
 him; we are therefore responsible for his welfare. 
 I will not now speak of the perils and difficulties 
 that accompany this trust, or of the evils and cala- 
 mities it brings with it. We know these well 
 enough at home ; and those present may know 
 something of them, too, from many popular works 
 in the current literature of the day. Nor will I 
 deny short-comings in the performance of our duty. 
 Irresponsible power is ever liable to abuse, and 
 mercenary motives are not the best protection for 
 helpless weakness. In proof of this, if proof were 
 needed, I might point to Ireland and India, cases 
 where an inferior race has been subjected to the 
 power of England, of whom England has been and 
 is, the trustee. I refer to them in no invidious 
 spirit, for I believe that all here present will ngree 
 with me, that in the government of each of these 
 dependencies, there has been much to deplore, and 
 much to condemn. 
 
60 
 
 So it has been with our treatment of the negroes. 
 Nevertheless we are not ashamed of slavery. We 
 do not apologize for it ; we justify it by pointing to 
 its results. Such is the necessary imperfection of 
 all human institutions, that in speaking of a system 
 that operates on large masses of men, we must be 
 satisfied with general effects, though particular cases 
 of hardship are to be regretted, and if possible 
 remedied. Slavery is an out-growth of Africa, 
 which, with Africa, has been transported to our 
 shores. There is nothing excellent or desirable in 
 the nature of either, but the presence of the one 
 has made the other necessary. Without Africa we 
 should not have had slavery, but having both, we 
 must make the best of them ; disarm them, so far 
 as we can, of their mischievous tendencies ; convert 
 them if we can, into instruments of good. The 
 justification of slavery is in the evils it has pre- 
 vented, and the benefits it has conferred, not on us 
 alone, but on the world. It has made of the negroes, 
 an orderly and industrious laboring class, well fed, 
 well clothed, on the whole, kindly treated. Of the 
 suffering that is caused by want, by excessive toil, 
 by unrestrained vice, and by punishment inflicted 
 by the law, they endure less than any laboring 
 class in Europe. If deprived of the protection and 
 wholesome restraint afforded by slavery, they 
 would become helpless paupers through indolence 
 
Gl 
 
 and license, and relapse speedily into African bar- 
 barism; wretched themselves, and destructive to the 
 social fabric under whose shelter they now live and 
 thrive. 
 
 Whilst slavery is thus a benefit to the negro, 
 by providing for his wants and supplying to 
 his labor the intelligent guidance it requires, by 
 means of that labor, vast tracts of fertile land have 
 been cultivated, that would else have remained a 
 wilderness, and made to contribute to the comfort 
 and accommodation of man. I need not enume- 
 rate the products of slave-labor, which freight so 
 largely the commerce of all nations, which employ 
 therefore so much capital and industry, and supply 
 so many wants and luxuries. I will mention only 
 cotton, that wonderful plant, which in some of its 
 forms, enters every household, however high, or 
 however humble, in Europe and America. How 
 much of comfort, cleanliness, and refinement has it 
 given to the poor, how much of these, and of ele- 
 gance, and beauty too, has it furnished to the rich. 
 Cotton is the basis of the wealth and prosperity of 
 our Southern States, and enters largely as an ele- 
 ment of the growing power of the North. But an 
 article of such universal use becomes necessarily a 
 part of the foundation of general commerce and of 
 the wealth of nations. If it has enriched us, has 
 it not enriched England too, and in ampler measure ? 
 
62 
 
 Look at your newspapers, and the daily reports of 
 your markets ; at your statistics of commerce and 
 manufactures, and see what a lordly and command- 
 ing part, cotton plays in your affairs. It gives to 
 us who grow it, who have the responsibility, the 
 risks and the evils of the system of labor that pro- 
 duces it, an annual income of less than two hundred 
 millions of dollars ; it gives to you who manufac- 
 ture it, who send it abroad in your ships over all 
 the world, a yearly profit of many hundred millions 
 of pounds sterling. Some of the richest towns and 
 counties in England owe their wealth to cotton. It 
 affords food and employment to many thousands of 
 Encflishmen who else would want both ; it fur- 
 nishes profit on many millions of English capital ; 
 it has helped therefore, in no small degree, to erect 
 the towering structure of English manufactures 
 and commerce. By creating a home market, and 
 a supply of manure, cotton has also largely pro- 
 moted the growth of English agriculture, and has 
 thus supported the splendor of many a noble home, 
 as well as the comfort of the farm-house and the 
 cottage. This wonderous growth of population, in- 
 dustry, and wealth, thus produced by cotton, must 
 be sustained by it. Take away from beneath the 
 massy fabric, the delicate fibres of this little plant, 
 and I have the authority of your own leading jour- 
 ntil for saying, that the power and prosperity of 
 
63 
 
 England, the order of society, and the stability of 
 the throne itself, would be in danger. I say this 
 from no envious or grudging sentiment. You are 
 welcome to our cotton, — nay it is a matter of busi- 
 ness, — you pay for it. If you make more out of it 
 than we do, it is a fair reward of your ingenuity, 
 skill and statesmanship. I allude to the subject 
 merely, to remind you that cotton is the result of 
 slave labor ; that without slavery, that labor would 
 be inefficient and unproductive ; that therefore, the 
 hoes of our slave-gangs on the Mississippi, are build- 
 ing up the edifice of English wealth and power, as 
 the trowel of the stone-mason erects the walls of a 
 palace ; that if slavery be an evil, we in America 
 bear all the brunt of it, and receive a part only of 
 the gain ; and that if it be a wrong and a crime, 
 England shares with us the guilt, for she does as 
 much to sustain it as we do. 
 
 It may be said, moreover, that the origin of 
 slavery belongs to the colonial period of our his- 
 tory. England landed the first negro on our shores, 
 and planted there an institution, which has struck 
 its roots so deeply, and bears such tempting and 
 golden, though also bitter fruits, that it seems to be 
 part of our destiny forever. If slavery be a crime, 
 therefore, England is partkeps criminis, and it does 
 not lie in her mouth to reproach us with it, more 
 especially as she enjoys its abundant harvest, bear- 
 
64 
 
 ing herself none of the heat and burden of the day. 
 In one of the noblest dramas of your — I mean of 
 our greatest poet, a guilty king tries to pray, but 
 cannot ; 
 
 " Forgive me my foul murder ! 
 That cannot be, since I am still possessed 
 Of those effects for which I did the murder, 
 My crown, mine own ambition and my Queen. 
 May one be pardoned and retain the oflfence V 
 
 If we are guilty, so is England, and both to her peni- 
 tence for her share of the crime, and to her condem- 
 nation of our share, the mills of Manchester are an 
 answer. 
 
 It would ill become me, however, in such a pre- 
 sence as this, when attempting to justify slavery, 
 to confine my argument to the mere material view 
 of the question, momentous as that really is; — to say 
 that slavery is a source of wealth to us and to the 
 world, that it maintains social peace and order in a 
 large portion of our country, and that it secures 
 also the physical well-being of the subject race. 
 The reply is obvious, that being as we are, the 
 guardians of the negro, we are bound to look to 
 something higher than our own selfish good or his 
 bodily needs, and to provide for his moral and in- 
 tellectual improvement. At least, we may fairly 
 be required to show, that slavery is no bar to such 
 
65 
 
 improvement. It would be a sad thing indeed, if 
 true, that these four million negroes of ours, are 
 well fed and clothed, only that they may toil for 
 our mercenary advantage, and at the same time by 
 our laws and our practice, are intentionally kept in 
 a state of mental and moral degradation. I admit 
 that no temporal good to them or to us, could jus- 
 tify such tyranny. And herein lies the difficulty 
 of the case, felt in America more deeply than any- 
 where, because to us it seems well-nigh hopeless. 
 But the evil arises from the nature of the negro, 
 and not from slavery. He makes no spontaneous 
 moral or intellectual progress, whether a slave or 
 free ; he never has made any in his native regions. 
 He has never risen, at any period of his history, 
 even to the low grade of Chinese civilization. He 
 acquires no arts, he builds no cities or ships, he in- 
 vents no machinery, ho paints no pictures, he writes 
 no books, he forms no organized communities, he 
 makes no laws, he cannot appreciate truth or 
 beauty, and he is a fetich worshipper at all times 
 and all places, if left to himself. He is naturally a 
 savage and a heathen, and may enjoy in Africa 
 such happiness as belongs to that condition. But 
 in that condition he cannot remain, when he forms 
 part of a civilized community ; we cannot per- 
 mit him to remain in it, both for his own sake 
 and for ours. What, then, are we to do ? We 
 
 6* 
 
66 
 
 cannot raise him, he cannot raise himself to onr 
 level; he cannot take care of himself amid the 
 energetic struggles of a superior race. He would 
 sink to lower depths than his original barbarism, 
 and our four millions of his race would become 
 a dangerous and intolerable mass of ignorance, 
 degradation and pauperism. He must, therefore, 
 be governed, guided, cared for ; and slavery, which 
 gives him a governor and care-taker, does not de- 
 press, but elevates him. It supplies the want of 
 his nature, a directing mind. Without slavery, he 
 would fall into a state far worse for him, that of a 
 slave without a master. In contact or competition 
 with the white race, he vv^ould be everybody's slave, 
 and no one would be bound by duty, or induced by 
 interest, to support or protect him. Our slaves in 
 America are not without religious instruction, and 
 the arts of industry which they are taught, and as- 
 sociation with the white race, are an education, im- 
 perfect indeed, but superior to that of Africa ; and 
 without slavery they would get none at all. They 
 have been elevated by this education. The race 
 now with us is superior to its brethren in Afri- 
 ca, — to its ancestors who first landed on our shores. 
 This is well knovvm, and is made manifest whenever 
 the native African is brought to our country, as he 
 sometimes is, in captured slave ships. 
 
 I have said that I could not but believe the 
 
67 
 
 " colored gentleman" from Canada, to possess ta- 
 lents and education, whicli make him a very rare 
 exception to the general character of his race, else 
 he would not be found in' such good company. 
 What fortunate circumstances in his history have 
 produced such a result, I do not know. I would 
 not venture to assert that slavery encourages, or 
 even permits such a development of mind as he no 
 doubt exhibits, for I have never seen a negro, whe- 
 ther a slave or free, whom I considered worthy to be 
 a member of this learned society, or the companion of 
 the cultivated and distinguished gentlemen around 
 me. Nevertheless it is true, that negroes do often, as 
 slaves, rise to employments which require thought 
 and skill, and whicli imply integrity. Many can 
 read and write ; they become mechanics, sometimes 
 book-keepers, and are frequently entrusted with 
 the management of farms and plantations, and with 
 the direction and control of their fellow-laborers. 
 Slavery, therefore, if it depresses, also elevates. 
 It elevates the mass, and works well on the whole. 
 That it is the best possible system, as now consti- 
 tuted and administered, by which to govern the 
 large and increasing numbers of the negro race in 
 America, I will not affirm. Time and experience 
 may improve it. But it is that which we novv^ think 
 the best, though we are not entirely satisfied with 
 it, for it produces evil as well as good. We would 
 
68 
 
 gladly exchange it for a better system, did we 
 know of one, but the interests at stake are too im- 
 jiortant for experiment or rash innovation. We 
 therefore maintain slavery, not because we do not 
 love liberty, but because we believe the negro 
 unfit for it, and because we believe slavery, in some 
 form, or the complete subordination of the black to 
 the white race, in harmony with natural laws, and 
 essential to the social security, and to the wealth, 
 progress and power of our country. 
 
 For all these reasons, a system of caste has grown 
 up in the North as well as the South of the United 
 States, similar to that which prevailed for so many 
 centuries in the grand and noble civilization of an- 
 cient India, founded on inequality of race ; the black 
 having been there, as with us, the servile and low- 
 est. With this system, the exclusiveness of caste 
 has been introduced. It is not the custom in the 
 United States, for white and black to meet on terms 
 of equality, and this arises, not from hatred or con- 
 tempt of the negro, who is neither hateful nor des- 
 picable, but from pride of race. This feeling is by 
 no means inconsistent with mutual respect and 
 affection between individuals of the two races ; for 
 such sentiments are very common — more especially 
 between master and slave, — and throw a softening 
 veil over the harsher features of the relation. I 
 confess I nm not without this pride or prejudice, if 
 
69 
 
 you will, myself. Though I know it to be the re- 
 sult of education and association, it has the force 
 of instinct. Nevertheless, I blame not others who 
 are free from such feelings, more especially those 
 of another country, who have not been subjected 
 to the influences which have formed my sentiments 
 on this subject. I think it moreover prudent and 
 proper, that a traveller, especially if he represent 
 his own country, should conform to the customs 
 and manners of the people he visits. Were I min- 
 ister to Rome, I would, if such be the usage, kneel 
 and kiss the slipper of the Pope ; if to China, I 
 would observe all the frivolous ceremonial of its 
 court etiquette, and try to eat with chop-sticks. 
 In Uke manner, being here, minister to England, 
 and finding a negro moving in the highest circles of 
 English society, I cheerfully acquiesce, repress any 
 exhibition of repugnance or surprise, and should 
 have taken no notice of the circumstance, had not 
 my attention been publicly called to it, by the dis- 
 tinguished and noble Lord, whose remarks have in- 
 duced me to trespass thus much on the indulgence 
 of this meeting. 
 
 This is a meagre sketch of what Mr. Dallas might, 
 and could, and perhaps would have said, had he 
 deemed it right to say anything. He would have 
 filled up and enlarged the outhne, with illustrations 
 
70 
 
 drawn from the stores of his thought and knowledge, 
 and clothed it with the vesture of his graceful and 
 happy style. It is too bad that England should 
 taunt us with slavery, and all the while grow rich 
 on our cotton, and fat on our corn; the former ex- 
 clusively the product of slave labor, the latter indi- 
 rectly so, for cotton produces the English demand 
 for our corn, which makes it grow. Some of our 
 papers are indignant at the speech of Lord Brougham, 
 but this is a mistake, for resentment admits that 
 slavery is a blemish on our national character, that 
 we are insultable on that point, whereas the insti- 
 tution, if not, as some assert a positive blessing, is 
 a necessity, imposed on us by the negro race, 
 and therefore no reproach. The remark of Lord 
 Brougham was no doubt meant for an argument, 
 as he afterwards said it was, not out of place at the 
 meeting of a statistical society, and as such, it 
 should have been answered, if answered at all. If 
 a covert sneer was also intended, that maybe lightly 
 borne, if we can refute the argument. 
 
 Cecil. 
 
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