unwise, or which they have inherited as a
birthright,'"
We have heard a great deal also about the
natural inferiority of this race. On this point
I beg leave to quote the words of Jefferson
again;
"The opinion that they are inferior," says
he, " in the faculties of reason and imagina-
tion must be hazarded with great diffidence.
To justify a general conclusion, requires
many observations, even where the subject
may be submitted to the anatomical knife, to
optical glasses, to analysis by fire or solvents,
How much more, then, where it is a faculty,
not a substance, we are examining; where
it eludes the research of all the senses; where
the conditions of its existence are various and
variously combined; where the effects of
those which are present or absent bid defiance
to calculation; let me add, too, as a circum-
stance of great tenderness, when our conclu-
sion would degrade a whole race of men from
the rank in tire scale of beings which their
Creator may perhaps have given them."—
Jefferson's Works, vol. 8, p. 386.
Again he says in alluding lo the same sub-
ject years afterwards;
"But whatever may be their degree of
talent, it is no measure of their rights. Be-
cause Sir Isaac Newton was superior to
others in understanding, he was not, there-
fore, lord of the person or property of others.
On this subject they are gaining daily in the
opinions of nations, dud hopeful advances
are making towards their re-establishment on
an equal footing with the other colors of the
human race. I pray you, therefore, to ac-
cept my thanks tor the many instances you
have enabled me to observe of respectable in-
telligence in that race of men, which cannot
fail to have effect in hastening the day of
their relief."—Jefferson's Works, vol. 5, p. 429.
Much has also been said in reference to the
evils that followed emancipation in the West
India Islands. Mr. Cochill, a French writer
of great eminence, and who had studied this
subject very thoroughly—a man, too, of for-
tune and without any political ambition, im-
partial, in his work on the Results of Eman-
cipation, and for which the French Academy
awarded the first prize of three thousand
francs, says—(quoting from Lord Stanley,
Secretary of the Colonies:)
" Upon the whole, the result of the great
experiment of emancipation, attempted upon
the collective population of the West Indies,
has surpassed the most lively hopes of even
the warmest friends of colonial prosperity.
Not only has the material prosperity of each
of the islands greatly increased, but what is
still better, there has been progress in indus-
trious habits, improvement in the social and
religious system, and development among in-
dividuals of those qualities of the heart and
mind, which are more necessary to happiness
than the material objects of life. The negroes |
are happy and satisfied. They give them-
selves to labor. They have ameliorated their
manner of living, and increased their com-
fort, and while crimes have diminished, moral
habits have been better. The number of
marriages has increased, and, under the in-
fluence of the ministers of religion, instruc-
tion has been diffused. Such are the results
of emancipation; its success has been com-
plete, as to the principal end of the measure."
"The salient facts which appear from all
inquiries are these: complete tranquillity, no
vengeance, no tumult, no incendiarism, no
civil war, a prodigious number of marriages,
schools and churches filled to overflowing,
Lastly, a growing love of prosperity."—
Cochin on Results of/ Emancipation., pp. 333,
334.
in reference to the French Colonies, the
author says, page 304 :
" But after all, under this climate which
enervates the whites, after essaying all the
races, one after another, to replace the negro
race, we are forced to return again to the lat-
ter. We find none more vigorous or sub-
missive, more capable of devotion, more ac-
cessible to Christianity, more happy to escape
its native degradation. This race of men,
like all their human species, is divided into
two classes—the diligent and the idle. Free-
dom has nothing to do with the second, whilst
it draws from the labor of the first a better
yield than servitude."
The same is the testimony in reference to
the Swedish, Dutch, and other Colonies.
I therefore place these authorities in oppo-
sition to those cited by the gentleman on the
other side.
But, Mr. President, these negroes have ac-
quired additional claims to freedom, in that
they have enlisted under the old flag, the ban-
ner of freedom, and have fought with a will
and determination unsurpassed to preserve
the very government which Southern masters
have been fighting to destroy. You can
never reduce to bondage again men who have
thus shown themselves so worthy of freedom.
They have followed this flag even at the cost
of much physical sacrifice and suffering. But
the instinct of freedom has been so strong as
to cause them to risk all and endure all in
prospect of this priceless boon. Their watch-
word now, as they rush to the deadly as-
sault, is "Fort Pillow," and when once fully
aroused, they can scarcely be restrained. Nor
is this any new development, for in the days
of the revolution, and subsequently, they
fought side by side with the bravest white
soldiers at Bunker Hill, and at New Orleans
with General Jackson.
But I sustain this article the more cheer-
fully because I believe emancipation is the
only true road to peace. If a truce was de-
clared to-morrow, the moral sense of the
North would never enforce a fugitive slave
law again. Nor would the case be bettered, |
