Part 1 (1/2)
The Future of the Colored Race in America.
by William Aikman.
In whatever way the present civil war in America shall result, it is certain that the future condition of the colored race in this country will be the question over-mastering all others for many years to come. It has already pushed itself into the foremost place.
However it may be true, that slavery and the negro were not the proximate causes of this war, no one who gives any candid thought to the matter can fail to recognize the fact, that back of all, this stands as the grand first occasion of it. Had there been no slavery, there would have been no war. General Jackson was only partly right when he said, that while in his day the tariff was made the pretext of secession, and that by and by slavery would take its place, but that neither would be the true motive of disunion; that a desire for a separate confederacy was the final cause. This was evidently correct, yet had slavery not stood in this country there would not have come into being that peculiar state of society which now lives in the Southern States, and which demands for its very existence that it should rule alone. Slavery has created an aristocracy, not of numbers, but of wealth and power, which bears with all the social forces. While the slave-holder are but a very small minority of the whole people, yet by the force of their wealth and the fact of their being slave owners, they hold all the political power, and indeed, sweep out of existence any opposition.
There are, with very rare exceptions throughout the whole South, but two cla.s.ses--free and slave, or we may say, slave-holders and slaves, for the non slave-holders are completely lost and absorbed in the all-controlling element which is above them; they work in with it, and are indeed a part of it. As slavery called this aristocracy into being, and created its power, so it holds it in being; anything which strikes at slavery strikes at the root of this power; to destroy slavery would be to blot it out of existence.
Around this point the whole contest is waged, and from it alone every movement is to be interpreted. In the days of South Carolina nulification the tariff was indeed the pretext of rebellion, and the true motive was a separate government and the perpetuation of the power of the dominant cla.s.s, but this power depended wholly upon the status of slavery, and so, back of all slavery was even then the thought, and to strengthen slavery the great end. In this we find the accurate explanation of the studied and persistent efforts to extend and perpetuate it, not because it is admired in itself, or because it is seen to be politically or socially beneficial, but because it is the cornerstone of a valued social state. A friend, some years ago sailing down the Potomac, was engaged in conversation with the captain of the boat, a blunt, bluff Southerner, and looking over the beautiful scenery on either side of the river, said, ”Why do you Virginians hold on to slavery? it is a thousand pities that such a country as this should be so poorly used.” ”I know it,” replied the captain, ”slavery does ruin the state; but the fact is, we like it; a man feels good when he owns twenty or fifty negroes, and can say to one go, and he goes, and to another come and he comes.” Here the whole philosophy of the social state of the South is in a nut-sh.e.l.l. To abandon slavery is to abandon a position which has been held as a tenure of n.o.bility for two hundred years. Nothing but the direst necessity will bring it about. It will never be given voluntarily up; the whole force of human nature is against it relinquishment. As well might the n.o.bility of England be expected to throw up their t.i.tles and their coronets on persuasion. Here is a case where argument has no power.
You may exhaust it, you may prove slavery to be wrong morally, wrong socially, wrong politically, you may prove it to a demonstration that it is an economic blunder of the most gigantic proportions, you may make it clear as sunlight that it is demoralizing and ruinous, but you have done absolutely nothing toward its abolishment. Here and there a truly conscientious man or woman, under the great pressure of duty, will consent to the liberation of their slaves; but the public conscience is so ethereal a thing that it can be touched by no appeals of duty or obligation, and will never force a community up to any great work, least of all to such a work as this.
The effect of emanc.i.p.ating one's slaves upon the social position of the master, has been seen over and over again; the hour when the bonds are broken and freedom is given is the hour when all the former a.s.sociations are given up; expatriation and banishment are the inevitable results. The generous, or the conscientious emanc.i.p.ator at once becomes an exile; he has sunk at once out of an aristocracy whose t.i.tular power he gave up the moment he ceased to be a slave-holder, and he cannot comfortably abide in even his old home. Here is the explanation of the vast and unexpected power put forth by this rebellion, of the unconquered will, of the enormous sacrifices endured; here is the explanation of the seeming insanity of the struggle, of the unwarrantableness of its acts, of the demoniac fierceness of its rage, and the diabolical malignity and cruelty of its method of war; it is the death struggle of a great social element, for which to be conquered is to be ruined and swept out of existence.
No man understood this so well or so soon as the great Nullifier.
He was a thinker and a philosopher, and so with great logical consistency he became the early author of the doctrine of slavery as now almost universally held at the South. He startled and shocked the men of his time by his bold positions in respect to that inst.i.tution, and was far in advance of his time in his a.s.sertions of its inherent rightfulness, and the determination not only to terminate, but to extend, strengthen and perpetuate it. He was a nullifier because a slave-holder in principle. The one grew out of, and was a part of the other. The maintenance of an oligarchy was the ultimate end, that rested on slavery, and so ”state rights”
so called, and the divine right of slavery went hand in hand.
This is strikingly evident in the history of the present war. The rapid rise, and the culmination of rebellion in act, was preceded by the new annunciation of these doctrines of Calhoun on slavery.
We remember well how strange it sounded, and how startling in the General a.s.sembly of only 1856, when slavery was declared an inst.i.tution not needing to be defended or apologized for, but to be praised and justified as truly an ordinance of G.o.d as marriage, or the filial relation. The church had known no such doctrine before, and then spued it out of her mouth, but it was gravely held and fiercely and impudently avowed. It was followed by secession as a logical consequence. It is very remarkable how rapid was the change in public sentiment. This new doctrine of the rightfulness of slavery swept over the whole Southern States in a few months, politicans philanthropists, ministers, suddenly starting up to find that they had been all along in error in thinking that slavery was an evil, and hoping that some day it would be removed, that they had been wrong in speaking of being ”opposed to slavery in the abstract,” it was abstractly not wrong, but right; they had been mistaken when regretting the circ.u.mstances which made emanc.i.p.ation ought not to be desire. This change of sentiment an doctrine was not gradual, but sudden; it went with telegraphic speed. The reason was that events were pressing upon the aristocracy of the South and threatening its destruction. Slavery had ceased to be a dominant power in the Federal legislation, and the social state which rested upon it was trembling to its foundation. There was but one thing to be done, and that was the setting up of a new government, the corner stone of which should be slavery. And this was not accidental or capricious, but simply a necessity The state of society which was sought to be maintained had its origin in slavery, and slavery could not but be put in the foremost place. Alexander Stephens understood both himself and the matter which he had in hand when he told the people, and the world that they had hitherto understand this thing. Before, they had sought to maintain their social state and only tolerate slavery, they had not seen that all depended on it; here was the true corner-stone which former builders had rejected, but which they were now making the head of the corner. The secession was a foregone conclusion long enough before it actually occurred: it was so understood throughout the South by thinking men, and the sudden spread of the new doctrine on slavery was the necessary preparation for it.
He, then who does not take slavery into the account in his thinking on this war, has not begun to get a glimpse of what it means; he who leaves it out in the settlement of it, will not advance a step.
Its origin was in slavery, its issue is to be found only as it is connected with slavery. There may be, as there has been, through the tremendous power of a vast prejudice, a thousand endeavours to avoid the issue, but events will sooner or later compel every man, whether he will or not, to look it in the face. We say prejudice for in this thing, as in all history has been the case, a name has become a well nigh boundless power. The interest of slavery has for a long course of years, and by a persistent endeavor, created a term of terrible significance, and has wielded it with prodigious force,--we mean the word ”Abolitionist.” History has known before a term made a watch word and changing a dynasty, but never was a word brandished with such effect upon a nations well being as this.
Time was when South as well as North, to be an” abolitionist,” a member of the Abolition Society,” was not only no strange thing, but a position held by the the foremost men, and without a thought that they were amendable to even the slightest censure of their a.s.sociates. Jefferson and Pickney, as well as Jay and Adams, were abolitionists in name, as well as in fact. Delaware, and Maryland, and Virginia had their Abolition Societies, and the best and greatest men were members of them. But in the course of years Slavery changed all that. The oligarchy awakened to the danger which threatened it, and at first gradually, and them by more and more open effort, these societies were a.s.sailed or suppressed, till they with the death of the great men who founded them, pa.s.sed out of existence, no one perhaps knowing precisely how. Then began the storm of abuse and anathematizing directed against all who dared to hold, or at least utter sentiments opposed to slavery. ”Abolition” and ”abolitionist” was echoed and howled till men became pale at the bare sound, and considered it the last and most dreaded terror to be called by the hated name.
But a change vastly more rapid in its movement is now taking place in an opposite direction, the significance of which we have but just begun to measure. The mind of the whole nation has been directed now for one year, with great steadiness to the contemplation of slavery from an entirely new stand-point, and divested of the cloud of prejudice which has for nearly a century, been thrown over it.
The word abolitionist has lost its secret potency.
In this line of thought the present att.i.tude of our government is of immeasurable importance. We are as likely to undervalue as to over estimate events which occur just beneath our eye. A few weeks since President Lincoln sent quietly into the houses of Congress a message of strangely straightforward character, clothed in very plain and homely garb, but of meaning not to be misunderstood, and admitting of no misconstruction. It asked that Congress should simply resolve that the government was willing to lend its aid to any State of the Union which should desire to bring slavery to an end. That was all. But that simple message marked an era in the history of the world, and will be looked upon in all future time as one of the grand events of this century. It was unlooked for, sudden, so that the country stood confounded for the moment, but the next was ready to adopt it. It quickly became the policy of the government and of the people, without, so far as we know, a single voice of moment raised against it. The people have not yet begun to understand all its great meaning. What is it? It is that the government of these United States deems slavery an evil, wishes it to cease , and will do what it can to help it to an end. It is the first time in all our history that this was true. The government has never so spoken before. Henceforth its policy is to help emanc.i.p.ation . It is a risen sun, it has brought a day whose glorious light we have not yet appreciated. Hereafter all its patronage, and power, and prestige will be thrown on the side of freedom, and no man can accurately measure the result.
The President has, by this great act of his, lifted the moral sense of the nation to a position to which years could not otherwise have brought it. It was one of those strokes of G.o.d-inspired genius which once in a century or so, changes the face of the world. Like many other acts of this truly great man, it was wonderfully timely, put forth at the moment, the fulness of time, it was not too soon, it was not too late. The sense and the thought of the people needed to be advanced up to its reception and had not wildly gone beyond the point of wisdom, the moment with a deep intuition was recognized, seized upon, and by a few words talismanic, the forming elements were crystallized. So they will remain. For all the coming time this people will look forward to the abolition of slavery. Freedom is the American watch-word, freedom for all men.
But a few weeks have gone, yet the change is wonderful already.
The atmosphere is clearer and purer. The writer of this is living in a slave state, and is able to mark the changes better than those in places more remote from the influences of slavery. While a few months since no prominent men or cla.s.s of men would venture to plant themselves openly on the platform of emanc.i.p.ation, now there is a great party forming in this state, (Delaware,) and at the coming elections in the autumn of this year, it will go into the canva.s.s with Emanc.i.p.ation for its watch-word. The stigma which slavery has succeeded in attaching to the word ”abolition” is already pa.s.sing away, and it is no longer dangerous to one's reputation to be considered an emanc.i.p.ationist.
What is true in a slave state will be as true everywhere in the land. The presidential word has brushed away a world of sophisms, and settled a thousand pleas against dealing with slavery; it has declared not only expedient, but possible, immediate emanc.i.p.ation.
The abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia following so quickly upon the message of the President, and the adoption by Congress of its recommendation, have made its words facts and demonstrations. Slavery has been abolished with a word, and in a moment, over a whole district of country --here is a fact to make the ages sing over in this land. We do not even think of the fifteen hundred or so captives set free; they are as nothing, except as occasions for the bringing into existence the momentous and glorious fact that this government is on the side of freedom, and its strength will be given to it henceforth. It is difficult to measure the import of all this, even as it is difficult to foresee the sweep of a mighty current which has just begun to rush in a new channel; that it is destined to sweep slavery from this country, no one now can have a doubt.
Hereafter the thinking on the subject of American Slavery will be only in one line--how shall it be done away? If we would have an understanding where a few weeks may advance us, we have only to remember what was the point of thought in relation to this matter.
It was, how shall slavery be kept from extending itself. We were content to let it live if it did not subjugate other lands, but the events have crowded us far beyond that, we have gotten past a thought of it, no living man fears now, or even dreams of it, it has simply gone forever out of a sane man's mind. What an advance a year has made! We have been hurried past the place of argument against slavery. We are done with all that; the books and the pamphlets, the doc.u.ments and the statistics are growing quickly obsolete, for they have done their work; we need not be careful of them for our future use. We shall not need them except as relics of a well fought field.
Those of us who have for a life time been doing what we could to hasten forward this day, who have spoken and written and suffered for it, in the new atmosphere which we breathe are like men that dream. We know that it would come, we hoped to live long enough to see the day. We see it and are glad, we did not think to see it soon, it has come so suddenly, it s.h.i.+nes so broadly and with so rich a promise that we recognize it as G.o.d's day; we see his wonder-working power moving marvellously, making--was it ever shown so before?--the wrath of man to praise him; we behold how G.o.d has taken the work into his own hand; how he has made slavery destroy itself. More than human wisdom, and beyond human guidance is here, the thick night would not have gone so wondrously had not He rolled it away, we hail the light. This is the day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.
But like all of G.o.d's gifts, it demands work and gives responsibility, responsibility and work proportionate to the boon.
He has given us a day, but it brings with it work of which perhaps we have gotten only a mere glimpse. It is well that we should endeavour to understand and appreciate what that work is, for it is no holiday that He has given us. We have asked in many a prayer that it might come, and having come we must see what is to be done, and manfully deal with it.
It is easy to talk of emanc.i.p.ation, but he has thought loosely and ill who sees no great difficulties in bringing it to a happy issue; who has not questions arise in his mind to give him pause when he contemplates a social change so vast in state of a race of twelve millions of men. Let not the reader suppose a mistake in the figures, we mean twelve millions, and not four; there are, indeed, four millions of slaves to be made free, but a change is to be wrought in the social state of the eight millions of the whites, which is only less than that of the blacks. To alter radically, to remodel the whole social fabric of a great and numerous people, to s.h.i.+ft the foundation stones, remove them, and place others in their palaces, without racking the edifice or tumbling it in a hideous ruin, is the work of no inexperienced or careless architect.
The gigantic war which has been desolating one half of this land, has been, as we have said, simply the mighty frantic effort of a social state to establish itself; of a peculiar civilization to consolidate its power. The result of the war will be the total defeat of this attempt; the very endeavor, the waging of the war has shaken its foundation, its end will remove it entirely.