great evil of free-negroism. I have here some
statistics copied this morning from the census
tables of 1860, by which it will be seen that
the free colored population of
Maine is ............ 1,327
New Hampshire " ............ 494
Vermont " ............ 409
Massachusetts " ............ 9,602
Rhode island " ........... 3,952
New York "............49,005
Maryland " ............83,942
So that the figures show that the small
State of Maryland with an area of territory
not exceeding inextent that of New Hamp-
shire, one of the smallest of the New England
States, has at this day within her limits
10,626 more free negroes than the great State
of New York and all New England put to-
gether. Add to this already redundant free
negro population 87,189 slaves proposed to
be emancipated by this Convention and turned
loose in our midst, and thousands of thriftless
idle contrabands that have come into the State
since the commencement of this unfortunate
war, and we have an array of facts which to
my mind forcibly suggest the speedy conver-
sion of the proud old State of Maryland
into a free negro colony. If the policy of
inviting free negro immigration from abroad,
which I regret to see finds advocates on this
floor, should te adopted, this result will as
surely follow as the night succeeds the day
Mr. President, upon the soil of Maryland I
was born. Her bills and her valleys, her rivers
and her mountain forests are dear to me. I
am proud of her early history. Beneath the
green turf of her silent church-yards rest the
bones of my ancestors for generations back
I wish to pass the remnant of my days among
her warm-hearted and generous people; and
when my earthly carreer is ended to sleep in
her bosom beside my kindred. And loving
her as I do, my earnest prayer to Heaven will
be that she may escape the fate-that impends
over her; and that the ruin and desolation
that has everywhere followed in the wake of
free-negroism may not sweep over her fair
fields and lovely habitations.
It is claimed by the advocates of abolition
that one result of emancipation will be that
the lands of the State will greatly appreciate
in value. I wish I could bring my mind to
such a conclusion. But with my limited vis-
ion, I can see only the contrary result What
has been the effect in Missouri under the in-
fluence of abolitionism? There, lands have
fallen as low as $5 per acre. What are your
fertile fields to you if you have not the labor
wherewith to till them and thereby turn
them to profitable account? How, nnder
such circumstances, is the owner to support
the heavy load of State and National taxes ?
The price of real estate, I insist then, wil
not be enhanced by the abolition of slavery
Certainly, if such a result ever does follow
it will not be for years to come. |
With many of the owners of real estate in
Maryland, this sudden abstraction of their
labor will involve not alone the loss of money
actually invested in slaves, but will result in
depriving them of their lands; and turn
many a man penniless upon the world who
but a little while ago was in comparatively
affluent circumstances.
The scheme proposed by the abolitionists
of Maryland, is entirely unlike any plan of
emancipation furnished by either the legisla-
tion of this country or of England. I have
already called the attention of the Conven-
tion to the course pursued by England and
the Northern States on this subject, and the
legislation adopted by the Congress of the
United States for the District of Columbia is
of too recent a elate to be overlooked by any
one when considering this question. It is
opposed, too, to the published opinions of the
President of the United States on two im-
portant points. If those who are the friends
and supporters of the President will examine
his messages on this subject, they will find
that the only plan of emancipation recom-
mended by him was one with full compensa-
tion to the owners, and one not suddenly
carried into effect, but gradually. In his
proposition to the BORDER=0 States, be fixed the
year 1900 as the limit of time, thus giving
the people in the States thirty-seven years in
which to consider and carry out his proposed
plan. Governor Bradford, in his message
to the last Legislature of Maryland, uses this
significant language: " I think the condition
of Maryland would have been improved if
she had adopted long ago a gradual system
of emancipation." In that same message,
when speaking of the interference of the mili-
tary authorities of the government with the
slaves of Maryland, he recommends the pas-
sage of such laws by the Legislature as will
enable parties aggrieved to obtain compen-
sation from the Federal Government, thereby
conceding that under the war power even the
government had no right to take the slaves
of Maryland without compensation. And
surely, if the General Government cannot
take the slaves of Maryland without compen-
sation, the State has no right to do so.
But, now, with all the lights of experience
before them, the majority of this House im-
pelled by a zeal peculiar to new converts to a
cause, unheeding and disregarding all the les-
sons taught by the past, ignoring all the
recommendations coming from the highest
authorities in the land, propose to blot out
and destroy with one stroke of the pen, a
system of domestic slavery coeval with our
existence almost as a people, ingrained into
our very social life; and all this without pro-
viding the smallest compensation for the loss
of thousands and millions of dollars invested
by the people in slaves. They propose to
tear down and destroy, not to build up, to
turn adrift upon the white population of the |
