South in turn, affording a profitable market
for the production of free Northern labor.
But, Mr. President, once destroy this insti-
tution of slavery, and then indeed will there
begin an "irrepressible conflict between op-
posing and enduring forces," not such,
however, as was described by the distin-
guished speaker whose words I have quoted,
but a "conflict" between the laboring white
man of the North and the free negro. To
my mind this seems as clear as the noonday
sun shining forth in an unclouded sky. And
without elaborating this point further, let
me read to you, (for it is better than any-
thing I can say,) a brief extract from a
speech of A. H. H. Steuart, delivered before
the Central Agricultural Society of Virginia,
at Richmond, October 28th, 1859, and pub-
lished in the National Intelligencer of Novem-
ber 5th, 1859.
"But these are not the only evils," says
Mr. Steuart, "that would inure to the peo-
ple of the non-slaveholding States from such
a policy. If the Southern slaves were liber-
ated they would naturally desire to remove
from the scenes of their labor and humiliation,
and seek abodes among the people of the
North, whose sympathy had cheered them in
their bondage, and whose homes and bearts
they would reasonably infer, were open to
receive them. The three millions, (now over
four millions,) of liberated slaves, thus left
free to choose their own places of residence,
would soon scatter themselves in the North-
ern and Western States in quest of subsistence.
The better class would at once come into
competition with the laboring population of
the North in all the more simple employments
for which they were qualified; and the dray-
men. hackmen, cartmen, porters, hotel waiters,
stevedores, domestic servants, day laborers
and others of like occupations, would doubt-
less find them formidable rivals who would
supplant them or greatly reduce the profits
of their callings. Much the larger proportion,
however, from their natural aversion to labor,
would refuse to work, and with their families,
sink into the lowest depths of destitution and
wretchedness; and the jails, almshouses,
and penitentiaries of the North would be
their only refuge from starvation. They
would become an intolerable burden, and all
classes of society would rise up to expell
them. Under these circumstances, I can
readily see how the tendency to a "conflict"
between the black land the white laborer
would become "irrepressible." The white
laborer whose avocation had theretofore been
respectable, and who had been accustomed to
receive wages adequate to the support of his
family, would not tolerate the competition of
those who would degrade the dignity of labor
and underbid him in his business. The tax
payers would not submit to the burden of
maintaining an idle and thriftless population.
The landholder would not be content to have |
near his premises a class whose subsistence
would be eked out by pilfering,
"A conflict would necessarily ensue—acon-
flict of clashing interests and hostile interests
brought into immediate collision—a conflict
which must necessarily result in violence and
bloodshed? Is this picture overdrawn? I
refer those who think so to the riots that
have already occurred from these causes in
Cincinnati, Philadelphia and other cities and
townships in the non-slaveholding States.
And when it is remembered that but a few
hundred of free negroes, and these above the
average of their race, for freedom is generally
conferred on the most worthy, or acquired by
the most thrifty, have led to such outbursts
of popular indignation and violence, what
would be the consequence of having three mil-
lions of then (now over four millions) of all
ages, sizes, classes and conditions precipitated
on the non slaveholding States ?
"But the moment they are emancipated, the
present line of demarcation between the two
systems of labor will be eradicated. The
levee which confines the negro race within the
Southern States will be broken down, and a
deluge of free negro migration will pour its
desolating flood over the whole North and
West, sweeping before it the peace and hap-
piness and best interests of the people. The
Northern States will then discover when it is
too late to repair the mischief that they have
rashly and wickedly undone all that was done
for them by the wise policy of their earlier
statesmen.
" Were I a Northern man therefore, and dis-
posed to assume the championship of North-
ern interests, I would admonish my fellow-
citizens not only not to aid in the emancipation
of the slaves of the South, but to remonstrate
against it, and to resist it by all fair and
honorable means as fraught with incalculable
mischief to the free States. I would conjur
them to leave the whole subject in the hands
of those immediately concerned and of Him,
who although His purposes cannot be fathomed
by human sagacity, we know shapes the des-
tiny of nations and ordereth all things wisely
and well."
Thus spoke this statesman of Virginia words
of wisdom to his countrymen, little dreaming,
I doubt not, that before the lapse of three
short years they would be found rushing
madly on to that gulf of disorder and ruin
against which be so solemnly and eloquently
warned them. And to-day, surveying things
from the stand-point of the present, I say in
my place in this Hall that the Northern
people will discover when it is too late to re-
pair the mischief, that they have rashly and
wickedly undone all that was done for them
by. the wise policy of their earlier statesmen.
The brief remnant of time allowed me by
the indulgence of the House cannot be better
employed than by adverting to the peculiar
condition of this State in connection with this |
