that pretence, a great many of whom are not
capable of bearing arms, and are not suited
to the purposes for which they were said to
be taken. But here we have one-half of the
negro population of the State left on our
hands almost valueless, consisting of negro
women and children, which you propose to
take' from us. You propose to abolish slavery
without payment, without making provisions
for their future condition, and tell us to look
to the General Government for compensation
for those you liberate by your State action.
Do you suppose the General Government will
pay for them? I say the Government of the
State is responsible to the citizen for both
those the General Government has taken and
these freed by this Convention. And if I live
I will be found beating at the doors of this
State government until I am ninety years of
age for payment, and if I am not paid then
I will leave the claim to my children as a
legacy to be prosecuted for all time to come.
Mr. BERRY, of Baltimore county. Do you
expect to live so long as that?
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's. I hope so.
I will continue to demand for the slaveholder
of this State what I say is but just and right
for every slave liberated by the action of this
Convention, or by the General Government.
Among the reasons assigned why slavery
should be abolished are, that it is immoral
and irreligions, and that it prevents the natu-
ral progress of the State. Why Mr. Presi-
dent, these arguments against slavery, after
the arguments and evidences which have been
offered in its support, are but the offspring of
hypocrisy, to my mind equalling the hypoc-
risy which Gloster attributed to himself,
when he said:
But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scrip-
ture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil,
And thus I clothed my naked villainy
With odd old ends stol'n forth of Holy Writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
Much has also been said about our worn-out
lands, and the difficulty of cultivating them
under this system of negro slavery. Do
gentlemen know anything about this? It is
mere speculation. They know as little about
this as they do about most of the subjects they
undertake to argue before the Convention and
the reasons they assign why slavery should be
abolished, They say that it will make room for
the while man; that we will then have emi-
gration here from the North. Well, God help
us, if we are to have such as I have seen. I
would sooner be without them. If I could I
would build a wall about us. I would live
within a shell, sooner than live and breathe
such an atmosphere as they diffuse, coming's
they would from the fetid atmosphere of the
North, with all their isms, many of which are
as black as purgatory. What? Corning hero
to diffuse their hated principles among us,
May God deliver us from them. |
Then it is said that schools would spring
up among us, and education would receive a
new impetus, instead of living, as we now
do, in a state of ignorance. Gentlemen who
state this as argument, show their igno-
rance of the laws of your own State. Since
1837, there has been in every neighborhood
in most of the counties of the State, a free
school system established. The schools
were established for the education of the
poor, and they are supported by the county.
And every facility for education is afford-
ed the youth of the counties. We have an
academy in my town, where boys who
have received instructions in the primary
schools, after they have arrived at a certain
age, can go and get a collegiate education,
for we have excellent teachers, men compe-
tent to give a collegiate education. This
system is fostered and paid for by the county,
and by contributions from the State.
Why, the teachings they receive in the
North only affords a vent to fanaticism.
They receive abolition teachings at their mo-
thers' knees, and from the pulpit. It is in-
culcated in them so strongly that it becomes
a part of their nature. They become skeptics
and fanatics. The worst sort of religion and
morals prevail there. One of their chief
denominations do not believe in the Trinity ;
I think the largest denomination among the
many they have. Had we not sooner receive
the Bible as we are taught it, than any such
teachings. We rather keep rid of them than
encourage emigration here.
Much has been said here about slave
aristocracy. In that gentlemen again show
their ignorance of our institutions, and
our civil and social relations. I know no-
thing of slave aristocracy. With us it does
not exist, and I am sure it does not exist in
any part of the State. Virtue is the true
guide to greatness with us. If a poor youth
shows himself to be meritorious, he is taken
by the hand, is educated and offered every
facilities for advancement, and if be enters
either of the professions, he generally is more
successful than men of fortunes. We offer
him the right hand of fellowship, and en-
courage him in every way to become a good
and useful citizen.
It is said that the marriage relation is not
recognized in slavery. Why, ever since the
organization of the State Government, min-
isters of the Gospel have been authorized to
marry colored persons, with the consent of
the master, and I never in my life knew that
consent to be withheld. Such marriages are
always held sacred, particularly by the mas-
ter, and nothing but pressing necessity be-
yond his control makes a slaveholder sepa-
rate either man or wife, or parent and child.
In the State of Louisiana, for years and
years, there has existed a law which pre-
vented the separation of children under fif- |
