John L. Carey

“ What better school could there be for such a people in which to learn the rudiments of civilization? What a happy exchange for them to leave a barbarian master in Africa, a capricious and savage despot, who would inflict death or mutilation in any fit of passion, for the judicious control of the civilized white man, at once, a master, teacher, protector, and friend! ”

“ But in a slaveholding community there is no such progression, no such variety. The mind of the community is directed to other things than labor; nay, labor falls into contempt and is looked upon as derogatory; for it is servile to labor. How can society, under such circumstances, advance in the practical arts? Its industry is confined to one pursuit, and in that there can be no excellence attained, because slave labor is not imbued with intelligence. ”

“ If the Caucasian race is destined, as would appear from the precocity of their genius and their natural quickness, and extreme aptitude to the arts, to reflect the lustre of the divine wisdom, or, to speak more properly, the divine science, shall we envy the negro, if a later but far nobler civilization await him,—to return the splendor of the divine attributes of mercy and benevolence in the practice and exhibition of all the milder and gentler virtues? It is true, the present rude lineaments of the race might seem to give little warrant for the indulgence of hopes so romantic ”

“ Cut off from the sympathies of the whites, without any part or lot in the political life of the State, forming no part of the frame work of society, he is like a parasite plant torn from the stock to which it clung. The slaveholding interest is no more; where is the slave-protecting interest to spring up?
The competition between white labor and that of the blacks, Slavery being abolished, would now assume a new appearance. The negroes would have none to befriend them ”

“ How fortunate for the future prospects of the race that their lot was taken from the dreary barrenness of savage life, in Africa, with its cruelties, its debasing superstitions, its hideous brutalities and licentiousness, to be cast in the bosom of a Christian land, amid the elements of social refinement and political freedom? Of these the African in the United States has profited much. The well bred colored man in Maryland appreciates, to the full, the character of a gentleman; the self-governing colored man at Cape Palmas understands well the operation of republican institutions. ”

“ If Slavery be regarded as the subjection of one man, by force, to the will of another, all other considerations being left out of view, it must appear to be the most cruel outrage to which humanity is liable.
But the control of one man over another, of some men over other men, of individuals over masses, may exist without implying outrage or wrong. ”

“ In the event of emancipation, if we trust to the action of our domestic policy to drive the black population into other parts of the Union, it must be borne in mind that the reactive policy of our neighbor States, both north and south, will be immediately operative to repel the influx of blacks, likely to be poured upon them from Maryland. Can it be supposed that Pennsylvania will open her arms to receive the exiles rejected from our bosom? Ohio has already raised the barrier of exclusion as against Kentucky. The slaveholding States will not take our expelled negroes. ”

“ It was a sad error of the white race, besides the moral guilt which was contracted, when they first dragged the African, contrary to his genius and inclination, from his native regions; a voluntary choice would never have led the negro into exile; the peninsula of Africa is his home, and the appropriate and destined seat of his future glory and civilization,—a civilization which, we need not fear to predict, will be as distinct in all its features from that of all other races, as his complexion and natural temperament and genius are different. ”

“ To say nothing of those relations of confidence and regard which have always marked the intercourse of the servants of our halls and fields with the gentlemen of Maryland, the exemption from labor which Slavery gave to the whole class of landholders, with wealth in the hands of many, and a fair competency to all, afforded the leisure and the means for social enjoyments to any extent which a gay and social disposition might prompt. ”

“ Civilization is expanding beyond the narrow basis of a class government. Humanity cries aloud in the name of her millions. Men are something more than machines. The object of human existence is not merely to gain, by incessant toil, the means of subsistence, that the ability to toil on may be maintained. The mass of mankind were never designed to be the drudges of a few, and to rest in that position, as the highest attainment for them. The progress of freedom is but the progress of individual development ”

“ As a general remark, then, it may be observed that whenever from circumstances of soil, climate, and production, there is need of economy, skill, and careful industry in the cultivation of the ground; wherever nature, not yielding her fruits to indolent hands, has to be overcome by sturdy efforts, by labor directed by intelligence and aided at every turn by the appliances of art which inventive genius has discovered and adapted to use—there Slavery can not permanently exist, because it is incompatible with such conditions. ”

“ The uses of Slavery are those of tutelage; in other words, Slavery is beneficial and proper only in so far as it is a species of tutelage. But a state of tutelage must have an end; the child in due time grows beyond it. So of a race in servitude—for it is as a race that we are considering the negro and his position.
The law of progress is an inherent principle in every form of social organization; it is the mark of its vitality and the main element thereof. Efforts indeed have been made, and long persevered in, to defeat this tendency to development. ”

“ The assumption of being better than other people is so full of exalted ideas, the delight of meddling in other people’s business is so fascinating, that those who have been once seized with the mania and have confirmed themselves in it, by the belief that they are discharging a duty to humanity in general, as chosen instruments, are in a bad way, and not likely to be cured. These are the extreme agitators who whirl about in the vortex of abstractions; sympathizers who would ruin the objects of their solicitude for a theory; reformers of Slavery in communities where it does not exist ”

“ I propose to treat of Slavery in the State of Maryland, believing that a fair inquiry into that subject at the present time may lead to good results. The institution itself has existed long enough in this community, and has produced consequences sufficiently marked and decisive to enable an impartial observer to form a definite opinion of its nature and tendencies. I believe that such an opinion has been formed by the general mind of the commonwealth. ”

“ The active mind, the inventive intellect, in alliance with its minister, the fashioning hand, never ceases in its efforts, as it comes in contact with the things of nature, to turn them to its purposes. The laws of nature are studied that man may act in unison with them, and through them gain the mastery. But where Slavery forms the hand of the community, the working instrument, how is it possible that intelligence should animate it to give it dexterity, delicacy of touch, variety of powers? ”

“ The world will behold in due time the disruption of that vast organization of labor by which the ruling class in Great Britain have concentrated the energies of the empire, and directed the same for so many years to the extension of British power and dominion, which was but a generalized mode of aggrandizing themselves. That system has answered great purposes, has accomplished great results. But it has generated in its progress a mass of social and political evil which now clogs its working, and is gradually impairing its inmost springs of action. ”

“ It is Slavery in Maryland which we are considering; and in Maryland the heat of the climate can not be taken into the account at all, as disqualifying free labor. The States farther south have their own responsibilities on the subject of Slavery. They will know of themselves when the system becomes productive of evil to such an extent as to call for its removal. It is not for us to judge for them, to judge them. Let each State act for itself and act only when its judgment and sense of duty dictate.
For years past our cotton growing States have been exporting their soil ”

“ If we are driven to the conclusion that Slavery in Maryland must terminate, under the operation of tendencies now at work, it becomes a matter of great importance to know something about the manner in which so extensive a change is to be accomplished. Undoubtedly it will not do to remain entirely passive on this subject. I am persuaded that the general sentiment in Maryland is fixed in the conviction that Slavery, here at least, is an evil, and that in some way or other it must be removed. ”

“ Hence that frank and cordial intercourse among friends; that courteous urbanity to strangers; that generous hospitality of heart and home to all—which have become the characteristics of the south. Long may she retain them. She need lose no good quality attendant upon her connection with Slavery, when, the more primitive and simple days of that institution having passed away, the institution itself has become decrepit, inconsistent with the progress of the age, and prolific of evils. ”

“ The history of the settlement of our own country shows no parallel to it—especially when we consider the materials with which colonization in Africa had to work. Yet the colonists, humble indeed, and unaccustomed to self-government, have acquired from their residence with an Anglo-Saxon race so much of the rudiments, forms, and habits of a self-governing people, that, when thrown upon their own exertions, they have exhibited qualities of patience, endurance and good sense, which give assurance of their capacity to do well in their new abode. ”

“ But even amid these untoward circumstances there burst forth occasionally the indications of that better destiny, to which nature herself will at last conduct them, and from which they are at present withheld, not less by the mistaken kindness of their friends, than the injustice of their oppressors: for so jealous is nature of her freedom, that she repels all interference, even of the most benevolent kind, and will suffer only that peculiar good or intelligence to be elicited, of which she has herself deposited the seeds or rudiments in the human bosom. ”

“ Maryland has no precedent to follow. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New England had none of her difficulties. They could emancipate and leave results to take care of themselves; or they might have refrained from emancipation with pretty nearly equal indifference. No strong, deeply rooted slaveholding interest could ever have grown up in those States; for the same reasons which prevent any such from fastening itself upon western Maryland and western Virginia. Slavery never could have become ingrained in the fibre and texture of the communities north of us, as it has grown into ours. ”

“ Poor unfortunates, thrust forth out of the pale of communion to maintain a separate existence, with no foundation to rest it upon, with no element of social or political life wherewith to nourish it, with nothing to cling to, nothing to be engrafted upon, an existence without entity, miserable, forlorn, who could be so unfeeling as not to commiserate their condition! ”

“ The negro race in the United States have derived great benefits from their condition of servitude. Let us have done with the wailings of weak sympathizers who know not what they would be at. No African has come as a slave to this country who was not a slave before. The exchange of masters which transferred the service of the negro from a barbarous owner in Africa to a civilized proprietor in America is likely to prove the salvation of the race. ”

“ But if the slave is separated from the master and left to stand alone, then is he not only deprived of the support which upheld him, but the very power which protected is now turned against him; the stamp of his race is upon him ”

“ We could not expect that; for Maryland at this moment will not take the free negroes of any other State.
Our condition, then, will be one of isolation, to such a degree, at least, as to throw us wholly upon our own energies. In other words, if we emancipate we must not expect to slough off the results upon other States. We must confront them ourselves; we must meet them on our own soil, and manage them as best we may. It is probable, however, that an act of prospective emancipation would induce some slaveholders to emigrate with their slaves to the south-west ”

“ Neglect, the harbinger of decay, has stamped her impress every where. Slavery, bringing with it from its African home its characteristic accompaniments, seems to have breathed over its resting places here the same desolating breath which made Sahara a desert. ”

“ The aristocracy of Great Britain hold in servitude men of their own blood, race, and complexion; elements of Anglo-Saxon hardihood; bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh; millions worthy of a better state, and capable of appreciating better things. ”

“ Freedom, in its usual acceptation, means the absence of external control. But there must be a power to control some where. If it be not in the will and understanding of the man himself, it must be in the will and understanding of some one else; if not in one or the other, after some fashion, then society perishes. In other words, men or nations who can not govern themselves must be governed. ”