To Urge The Morality Of The Question With These Men,
Would Be As Successful As A Similar Appeal To Our Opium Traders; To The
Maker Of Fire-Arms Certain To Burst; Or, To Use An American Free State
Illustration - To The Successful Manufacturer Of Wooden Nutmegs.
"After hearing these statements, doubtless exaggerated, but which were
made with earnestness, and are at least partially true, I
Was not
surprised to learn, that since the forcible seizure of a slave at
Boston, some months ago, by the abolitionists of that city, many of the
Southern merchants have transferred their purchases of manufactured
goods to New York, to an extent which, were it not stated on authority,
would be beyond belief. Indeed I learn, that so strong is this anti-
abolition feeling, that where any option exists, the avowed
abolitionists are systematically avoided in business dealings. A first-
class firm in New York, having a magnificent shop in the Broadway, see
their old Southern customers pass by to a rival establishment in the
same street, the only reason being that they are known to be earnest
abolitionists, while their rival has never publicly expressed any
opinion on the question.
"This feeling, showing itself in an endless variety of shapes, is just
now most-fierce, owing to an outrage which has occurred in
Pennsylvania, in which a Mr. Gorsuch has been shot down, and his son
seriously wounded, in an attempt to seize a fugitive slave (under the
provisions of the 'fugitive slave law'), which was resisted by a rising
of the free black population, and of some white abettors.
"The 'fugitive slave law' is, indeed, simply a declaratory act. For it
is unfortunately the fact, that the Southern States gave in their
adhesion to the Federal Republic solely on condition that, while the
slave trade should cease, the institution of slavery should be
respected, and they should have the right to follow and seize fugitive
slaves in any part of the Union. The 'fugitive slave law' was the work
of the 'Union' party - a party composed of men of all shades of opinion,
who wished, by conciliation, to prevent the threatened withdrawal of
South Carolina and other slave States from the Union.
"Greatly as all just and dispassionate men must abhor slavery, every
one must admit the difficulties with which its immediate abolition is
here surrounded. The negro does not possess the cordial sympathy of the
white man. For while a small, and, politically speaking, uninfluential,
party are prepared to make every sacrifice and run all risks in order
to blot out slavery on the instant, the influential and acting leaders
of the majority, whatever their occasional language of denunciation,
and affectation of horror, are not disposed to brave the rebellion of
the South, and the possible disruption of the Republic, for the sake of
shortening the thraldom of the negro some fifty years. 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. On dinner being served, the
gong is sounded, and each guest takes his appointed place.
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