Instances Of Severe Treatment On One Side, And Of
Kindness On The Other, Cannot Fairly Be Brought As Arguments For Or
Against The System; It Must Be Justified Or Condemned By The Undeviating
Law Of Moral Right As Laid Down In Divine Revelation.
Slavery existed in
1850 in 15 out of 31 States, the number of slaves being 3,204,345,
connected by sympathy and blood with 433,643 coloured persons, nominally
free, but who occupy a social position of the lowest grade.
It is probable
that this number will increase, as it has hitherto done, in a geometrical
ratio, which will give 6,000,000, in 1875, of a people dangerous from
numbers merely, but doubly, trebly so in their consciousness of
oppression, and in the passions which may incite them to a terrible
revenge. America boasts of freedom, and of such a progress as the world
has never seen before; but while the tide of the Anglo-Saxon race rolls
across her continent, and while we contemplate with pleasure a vast nation
governed by free institutions, and professing a pure faith, a hand,
faintly seen at present, but destined ere long to force itself upon the
attention of all, points to the empires of a by-gone civilisation, and
shows that they had their periods in which to rise, flourish, and decay,
and that slavery was the main cause of that decay. The exasperating
reproaches addressed to the Americans, in ignorance of the real
difficulties of dealing with the case, have done much harm in inciting
that popular clamour which hurries on reckless legislation. The problem is
one which occupies the attention of thinking and Christian men on both
sides of the Atlantic, but still remains a gigantic evil for
philanthropists to mourn over, and for politicians to correct.
An unexceptional censure ought not to be pronounced without a more
complete knowledge of the subject than can be gained from novels and
newspapers; still less ought this censure to extend to America as a whole,
for the people of the Northern States are more ardent abolitionists than
ourselves - more consistent, in fact, for they have no white slaves, no
oppressed factory children, the cry of whose wrongs ascends daily into the
ears of an avenging Judge. Still, blame must attach to them for the way
in which they place the coloured people in an inferior social position, a
rigid system of exclusiveness shutting them out from the usual places of
amusement and education. It must not be forgotten that England bequeathed
this system to her colonies, though she has nobly blotted it out from
those which still own her sway; that it is encouraged by the cotton lords
of Preston and Manchester; and that the great measure of negro
emancipation was carried, not by the violent declamation and ignorant
railings of men who sought popularity by exciting the passions of the
multitude, but by the persevering exertions and practical Christian
philanthropy of Mr. Wilberforce and his coadjutors. It is naturally to be
expected that a person writing a book on America would offer some remarks
upon this subject, and raise a voice, however feeble, against so gigantic
an evil. The conclusions which I have stated in the foregoing pages are
derived from a careful comparison and study of facts which I have learned
from eminent speakers and writers both in favour of and against the slave-
system.
CHAPTER VIII.
The hickory stick - Chawing up ruins - A forest scene - A curious questioner
- Hard and soft shells - Dangers of a ferry - The western prairies -
Nocturnal detention - The Wild West and the Father of Rivers - Breakfast in
a shed - What is an alligator? - Physiognomy, and its uses - The ladies'
parlour - A Chicago hotel, its inmates and its horrors - A water-drinking
people - The Prairie City - Progress of the West.
A bright September sun glittered upon the spires of Cincinnati as I
reluctantly bade it adieu, and set out in the early morning by the cars to
join my travelling companions, meaning to make as long a détour as
possible, or, as a "down-east" lady might say, to "make a pretty
considerable circumlocution." Fortunately I had met with some friends,
well acquainted with the country, who offered to take me round a much
larger circle than I had contemplated; and with a feeling of excitement
such as I had not before experienced, we started for the Mississippi and
the western prairies en route to Detroit.
Bishop M'Ilvaine, anxious that a very valued friend of his in England
should possess something from Ohio, had cut down a small sapling, which,
when divested of its branches and otherwise trimmed, made a very
formidable-looking bludgeon or cudgel, nearly four feet long. This being
too lengthy for my trunks was tied to my umbrella, and on this day in the
cars excited no little curiosity, several persons eyeing it, then me, as
if wondering in what relation we stood to each other. Finally they took it
up, minutely examining it, and tapping it as if to see whether anything
were therein concealed. It caused me much amusement, and, from its size,
some annoyance, till at length, wishing to leave it in my room at a
Toronto hotel while I went for a visit of a few days, the waiter brought
it down to the door, asking me "if I wished to take the cudgel?" After
this I had it shortened, and it travelled in my trunk to New York, where
it was given to a carver to be fashioned into a walking-stick; and, unless
the tradesman played a Yankee trick, and substituted another, it is now,
after surviving many dangers by sea and land, in the possession of the
gentleman for whom it was intended.
Some amusing remarks were made upon England by some of the "Buckeyes," as
the inhabitants of Ohio are called. On trying to persuade a lady to go
with me to St. Louis, I observed that it was only five hundred miles.
"Five hundred miles!" she replied; "why, you'd tumble off your paltry
island into the sea before you got so far!" Another lady, who got into the
cars at some distance from Cincinnati, could not understand the value
which we set upon ruins.
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