1858.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES.           449

The eyes of slave-owners have been open to the fact that,
to emancipate at all, is to compromise the institution of Slave-
ry to that extent. They now see that what was intended as
an act of benevolence towards a faithful slave, has been per-
verted to the basest purposes by Abolitionists.

The all important question now is: How can we wipe out
the wrongs of our own acts ? We answer, that what we vol-
untarily gave as an offering to misguided humanity, we must
now legitimately reclaim as essential to our vested rights.—
The free negro never has been, and never can be, a citizen of
these United States. And the relinquishment of ownership
by one man only, places him in a state of vassalage to the
body politic, and subjects him to any disposition the good of
the State requires.

There are few, if any of your Honorable Body, who will
dispute the Soundness of these premises.

The question of jurisdiction being settled, the bare question
of duty now remains for consideration. How has this act of
emancipation effected the condition of the liberated slave ?
Has he preserved those habits of industry and sobriety, which
he possessed when set free ! Has he accumulated any addi-
tional means of support for the decline of life and security
against pauperism ? Where is the house, land and other pro-
perty his master bestowed upon him ? Does he act the part
of a good husband and a discreet parent? Is he honest, sober
and industrious ? Does he support the government that pro-
tects him, or contribute in any way to the good of the State ?
Applied to our free negro population as a class, these ques-
tions can only be answered in the negative. There may be a
few isolated exceptions.

It may be that five, ten or twenty years have fallen upon
him since he left his master's roof. How do we find him now?
Generally debased in morals, a victim to intemperance, with
none to respect him, because none can protect him from him-
self; filthy, and in rags; his property gone; he drags out a
miserable life, and fills a pauper's or a felon's grave. Not-
withstanding this sad picture of our free negro class, which we
witness every day and in every part of the State, few men have
the moral courage to stop and enquire why it is so. If it be
asked, was he not free ? We answer--yes, he was free, and
that destroyed him. He mingled with a superior race, whose
virtues and refinements he would not learn, but whose pal-
pable vices responded to his own grosser nature, and he was
engulfed by them.

His conception of freedom opposes all restraint, necessity
and labor. Indolence, his native trait, fetters him down to
want; want impels him to theft. Our penitentiary and county