over 2,339,511. Yet no man can deny that
all the advantages were in favor of Virginia.
I challenge any man to come forward, upon
this floor, and prove to the contrary. Vir-
ginia had, in the first place, the finest harbor
on the continent, magnificent lands, every
variety of land, unbounded mineral resources,
and greater than all, she had the wise men
of the nation. She has been justly called the
mother of States and statesmen. She had
all the wisdom of most of the fathers of our
country. Yet, in spite of all her advantages,
where was she before this war broke out?
She had not in all her BORDER=0s a single town
that was fit to be called a city. With one of
the finest harbors for commercial purposes in
the world, with 15,000 square miles of coal
fields, and iron without limit, with the ad-
vantages of a climate far superior, and with
able men to steer her fairly and keep her
properly guided in the race, she has not to-
day within her limits a solitary city worth
calling a city Richmond, in 1860, had a
population of 37,910. while Cincinnati had a
population of 161,044. You could almost
lose Richmond in the city of Cincinnati. I
ask reasonable men, what is the cause of
this difference? I challenge them to show
that it is anything else than slavery—all
the conditions, excepting that one alone,
being in favor of Virginia over Ohio. I need
make no further comparisons whatever.
In defence of the system it is claimed, first,
that there is no other way of making the ne-
gro population available. The expression
that free negroes will not work is used on
every hand. Many men who otherwise would
have no objection to freeing them have heard
this statement so often repeated that they be-
lieve it, and are staggered by it. Is it true?
Is there anything in their nature to justify it?
and do the facts sustain it? I believe not!
The chief end of man, black or white, is to
secure his own happiness, and the best ex-
pression of temporal happiness is to be found
in its social development, in my judgment
there is no race or caste of men who are as
capable of, and appreciate as fully, the enjoy-
ment of social intercourse as the negro race.
See them at camp-meeting or any other meet-
ing in which the law allows them to assem-
ble; they find some opportunities for social
enjoyment even in slavery, and the gloom of
their dark prison-house is relieved by the
flashes of their occasional joy, their laughter
in tears; now given a strong tendency to so-
cial enjoyment, what necessarily follows hut
a desire to secure the means for that enjoy-
ment? Then they have the same rivalries,
the same fondness for display, for dress, in
short for success; there is but one road to
success; it leads through labor. No man can
show, or has shown here or anywhere that
the negro race as a race are so deficient by
nature in those natural attributes which in-
duce men to labor as to justify the wholesale |
statement that they will not work unless
driven by the lash. It is the slaveholders'
plea for brutality, and is unworthy of a free-
man .
Do the facts justify the statement? There
is a great difference in men of all races in re-
spect to work, so it is true many negroes are
lazy and avoid work as much as possible, but
I need no other evidence than my own eye-
sight to convince me that they work better
when free than they do as slaves, as I have
seen both classes at work, and being a work-
ing man myself, have long since decided that
as a mere matter of fact the free blacks at
work as contrasted with slaves at work fur-
nish another evidence of the truth that the
greatest inducement to toil, and the only re-
lief to the heavy burdens of life, is the reflec-
tion that thereby we secure our own happi-
ness and that of those around us; and fulfil
to that extent the destiny for which we were
created.
Again, what are the facts in those coun-
tries where slaves have been freed? They
tried an apprentice system in the West Indies
after slavery was abolished, and abandoned
it because the free labor system was prefera-
ble. How is it in our State where some of the
negroes who work are free ?
(The hour having expired, the hammer fell.)
On motion of Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's,
The speaker was allowed to conclude his
remarks.
Mr. PUGH proceeded: The second point
urged by slaveholders is this, that the labor
of free negroes will come in competition with
white labor. It has always occurred to me that
this cry was raised simply for the purpose of
political effect. The wonderful fund of po-
litical power which has always been held and
mercilessly wielded by this institution is not
vet exhausted, though this is probably its last
draft upon the popular credulity, its last ap-
peal to the basest prejudices of our nature.
Let me assure the gentlemen it will fail, ut-
terly fail! I know some white men who could
be insulted by such a suggestion; others, wiser
ones, in my judgment will only smile at, or
pity the folly that prompts it, recognizing
therein the last evidence of the fallen majesty
of the patriarchal institution. Mr. Stuart,
at Richmond in 1861, is the authority given
with considerable parade. Mr. Stuart, at
Richmond 1861, is poor authority for this
body.
Mr. EDELEN explained that he said Mr Stu-
art's speech was delivered at Richmond in '59.
Mr. PUGH. Well then, Mr. Stuart at Rich-
mond in 1859, developed into the traitor of
1861, is poor authority for this body. What
else but heresy could be expected from a her-
etic? What can a man who sustains this in-
fernal rebellion be supposed to know touching
the rights of white people? What patriot in
the prospect of his country's ruin seeks coun- |
