ultimately have you with them so long as
you show a determination to perpetuate the
institution within your own States. * * *
You and I know what the lever of their
power is. Break that lever before their faces,
and they can shake you no more forever."
Now, sir, that was the purpose of his prop-
osition to the BORDER=0 States. And how was
the proposition to bo carried into effect? He
says:
"I do not speak of emancipation at once,
but of a decision at once to emancipate gradu-
ally."
No man had proposed any such mad pro-
ject as immediate emancipation, anywhere in
the civilized world, in any time of the past,
much less in the midst of the horrors of a
civil war, the possible consequences of which
no man can foretell, and at which the imagi-
nation shudders.
" I do not speak of emancipation at once,
but of a decision at once to emancipate
gradually. Room in South America for col-
onization can be obtained cheaply, and in
abundance, and when numbers shall be large
enough to lie company and encouragement
for one another, the freed people will not be
so reluctant to go."
Not only gradual emancipation, but the
removal of this population from among us.;
"this nuisance," as the gentleman from Bal-
timore city (Mr. Cushing) called it; "a nuis-
ance which the sovereignty of the State has
the right to abate," And how do you pro-
pose here to abate it? By increasing its of-
fensiveness; by letting it remain here, to the
destruction of all that is left to us from the
devastation of this war. You do not propose
to remove this population as the President
proposed. Who, but the abolitionists of the
North, has ever supposed it possible that this
population could remain upon our soil in any
other relation than that of master and slave?
The colonization scheme was based upon the
proposition that it was utterly incompatible
that any other relation than that of master
and slave could exist, while the negro re-
mained within our limits. Mr. Clay, in 1839,
speaking of the colonization society inaugurated
some twenty or more years before, said
that it was utterly impossible for the two
races to coexist, except in the relation of
master and slave. Did not the President, in
his talk at Washington with the free negroes
who waited upon him at the White House,
tell them that they could not remain in juxta-
position with the whiles here, and that they
must lockout for homes elsewhere—that they
must look to colonization, and that he would
aid them in it? And did not Congress make
an appropriation for that purpose, and were
not ships sent off with them to Hayti? Dis-
ease broke out among them the half of them
died, and a ship was sent there, and the re-
mainder of them was brought back; and so
ended this scheme of colonization. |
Not only was the emancipation proposed by
the President to be gradual; not only was
there to be connected with it the gradual re-
moval of this population, in order that we
might bring in a population that would work
regularly for wages, that would supply the
place of this unfortunate class of people; but
the President said more. In response to
some suggestions made by the BORDER=0 State
delegates: "The President acknowledged
the force of this view, and admitted that the
BORDER=0 States were entitled to expect a sub-
stantial pledge of pecuniary aid as a condi-
tion of taking into consideration a proposi-
tion so important in its relations too their so-
cial system."
That was the reasonable proposition of the
President of the United States within two
years past. Substantial aid was to be of-
fered; the slaves were to be gradually eman-
cipated, and were to be gradually removed as
they became emancipated, so that other
classes of labor might take their places. And
what was the response of the delegates from
the BORDER=0 States?
"We regard your plan as a proposition
from the nation to the States to exercise an
admitted constitutional right in a particular
manner, and yield up a valuable interest.
Before they ought to consider the proposi-
tion, it should be presented in such a tan-
gible, practical, efficient shape as to command
their confidence that its fruits are contingent
only upon their acceptance. We cannot trust
anything to the contingencies of future legis-
lation. If Congress, by proper and necessary
legislation, shall provide sufficient funds and
place them at your disposal, to be applied by
you to the payment of any of our States or
the citizens thereof who shall adopt the abol-
ishment of slavery, either gradual or imme-
diate. as they may determine and the ex-
pense of deportation and colonization of the
liberated slaves, then will our States and
people take this proposition into careful
consideration for such decision as, in their
judgment, is demanded by their interests,
their honor, and their duty to the whole
country."
And that was signed by five of the Mary-
land representatives in Congress, viz: J. W.
Crisfield, Francis Thomas, Charles B. Cal-
vert, C. L. L. Leary,and Edwin H. Webster.
That was the President's proposition, and the
response of the BORDER=0 States to it, within
two years past.
Now, look about us. The proposition here
is immediate emancipation, without compen-
sation of any sort, and without removal.
That is the proposition we have submitted to
us for our consideration, and which we are
told has been decreed by the popular voice to
be carried into effect, I think my friend
from St. Mary's (Mr. Billingsley) does not
agree in that statement. I think there is a
very broad issue between him and the gen- |
