They Profess To
Rely Upon The Natural Progress Of Events, Which, By Quiet Change, Has
Already Banished Slavery From The
Majority of the States originally
parties to the Union; and has, within the last few years, forbidden the
future existence
Of slave States north of latitude 36 degrees 3o' - for the
gradual extinction of the system; and in the meantime they are prepared
to alleviate the lot of the slave; to refuse any extension of slavery;
and, as far as concession can obtain it, to narrow the area which it
now occupies.
"Perhaps, should these cold political views still hold possession of
the moving spirits of the country, the next practical step in advance
may be to secure to the slave a personal right to some small portion of
the day, and to the produce of his labour in that portion; - to say, in
fact, that after a stipulated number of hours' labour for his master,
the remainder of his time shall be his own. The effect of this would be
to enable him legally to accumulate property. And if, in addition, a
minimum price be fixed at which his master should be bound to allow him
to redeem himself, and savings' banks were opened to receive the
produce of his free earnings - some glimmering of daylight would dawn
upon his lot, and his condition, as a 'chattel' to be bought and sold,
would not be hopeless."
Referring to what I hereafter relate of the incident at Saratoga, I
may, at this point, remind the reader that, as late as 1862, President
Lincoln, a sincere abolitionist, could not see his way to declare the
freedom of the slave. He told a deputation from Chicago that "a Pope
once issued a Bull against an eclipse, but the eclipse came along
nevertheless." The moment I saw black soldiers in Northern uniform,
carrying Northern muskets, at the end of 1863, I made up my mind that
the North had won. In 1865 Dr. Mackay, registrar, showed me the
registry of the passage of John Brown's, corpse through New York. I
quote from memory; but if I recollect rightly, it was this: -
"CHAMPION STEAMER, UP THE ST. LAWRENCE,
"Thursday, September 4, 1851.
"Owing to the locomotive habits of the people, the hotels of America
are more extensive and more systematized than ours. One of their
features is the system of charging a fixed sum per day, which covers
all the annoying extras of English hotel bills. On entering an hotel,
you write your name and address in a book, have the number of your
bedroom placed opposite your name, and receive a key, which, when you
go out you leave in the office. The breakfast, lunch, dinner, and tea,
take place at stated hours, and are managed with great precision and
discipline.
"At the 'United States Hotel,' Saratoga, the waiters are blacks, and
are commanded by a black maitre d'hotel.
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