The Future of the Colored Race in America
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William Aikman >> The Future of the Colored Race in America
Produced by William Fishburne (william.fishburne@verizon.net)
THE FUTURE OF THE COLORED RACE IN AMERICA.
BY WILLIAM AIKMAN, Pastor of the Hanover Street Presbyterian Church,
Wilmington, Delaware.
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 classes--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 class, 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-shell. To abandon slavery is
to abandon a position which has been held as a tenure of nobility
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
nobility of England be expected to throw up their titles 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 emancipating 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 associations are given up; expatriation and banishment are
the inevitable results. The generous, or the conscientious emancipator
at once becomes an exile; he has sunk at once out of an aristocracy
whose titular 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
institution, and was far in advance of his time in his assertions
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 Assembly of only 1856, when slavery was declared an
institution not needing to be defended or apologized for, but to
be praised and justified as truly an ordinance of God 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 circumstances which made emancipation
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
associates. 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 assailed or suppressed, till they with the
death of the great men who founded them, passed 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 attitude 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 emancipation
. 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 God-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 class of men would venture to plant
themselves openly on the platform of emancipation, 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 canvass
with Emancipation for its watch-word. The stigma which slavery has
succeeded in attaching to the word "abolition" is already passing
away, and it is no longer dangerous to one's reputation to be
considered an emancipationist.
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 emancipation.
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 documents 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 shines so broadly and with
so rich a promise that we recognize it as God'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 God 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 God'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 emancipation, 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
shift 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.
This civilization, whose basis is slavery, has chosen to risk its
existence on the issue of the war: it must accept the alternative
which it has raised, and be content to pass away.
The war will decide the question of slavery, and with it alter the
whole form of society at the South which rests upon it. But one
civilization cannot pass away and leave a vacuum; one state of
society cannot cease and have no other in its palace. It is only
changes, not new creations which take place in the social world;
one civilization gives place to another; society passes from one
state into another . We are, then, on the eve of a mighty change,
perhaps the greatest ever seen in the world before. That it can
or could take place without an awful struggle, pangs which are the
birth-thores of a nation, let no one imagine; that it will be done
in a few brief months is impossible. While we write, victories have
just been gained, the great city of the South has passed into the
hands of our army, and men begin to predict the speedy downfall of
the rebellion; but, alas, we cannot felicitate ourselves with any
such prospect. The great class which has made the war to maintain
its existence, will not consent to die thus; every element of human
nature in its fallen form is against it. It will yield to nothing
but simply irresistible force, it will die only as it is killed.
We confess, as we look over the whole ground and weigh well as we
can the origin and caused of this gigantic war, to a feeling, not
of despondency or uncertainty, for we believe that God will one day
bring it to a happy end, but of heart-sorrow and care, even as a
woman has sorrow and foreboding at the inevitable agony ere a man
is born into the world. To lift twelve millions of men to a new
better place, to open before them a good and happy future, instead
of certain prospective woe and final dissolution, is a work worth
the tears and groans of a nation, and they can well afford to be
patient till the time has come. At present let not one's heart fail
him if the horizon grows dark and hope seems at times blotted out;
let him remember well what the meaning of the strife is, that it is
no accident, but the death-struggle of a civilization two hundred
years old, and based on all the worst and strongest elements of
human nature. It can have no easy death.
Taking it for granted, then, that a great change is about to take
place in the social state of the South, and taking it for granted
that slavery on which it is based must, under the pressure of the
forces which are bearing upon it, pass sooner or later away, a point
which we are not disposed just now to consider even debatable, a
great question comes up, What shall be the future condition of the
colored race in this land? How shall the problem be solved? What
shall be done with the slave? Hasty and inconsiderate persons
may find ready answers, but it seems to us that just now there is
no question of so great intricacy, and certainly no one of equal
moment to which an American can address himself. We propose in the
remainder of this article to discuss it. It is not a subject on
which it is well to dogmatize; we have learned that there is room
for a very wide diversity of opinion; the most that any one can
hope to do is by discussion to endeavor to elicit light. After all
the Providence of God will do the work; it is for us to be abreast
of that Providence, ready to accept the trust and do the work which
it assigns us.
We have dwelt thus long on the causes, and what we consider to be
the true meaning of the war, because only by a right apprehension
of them can we be prepared to deal with this great question. Those
who are at the head of the government appreciate it most fully, and
the President in his message frankly intimates that the only true
hope of a lasting settlement of our national difficulties must be
found in the ultimate emancipation of the blacks. But aware of the
objections which must arise to the setting free of four millions
of slaves and their remaining in the country, he proposes that a
system of colonization shall be inaugurated by which they may be
removed. Emancipation with colonization in lands provided for the
freed slaves, is the scheme.
Without dealing with this proposition of the President in detail,
let us look at the state of the case, and ask, Is colonization
possible; and if possible; it is necessary, or even desirable? By
colonization we mean, of course, the removal or deportation of the
blocks to another country. We do not mean emigration; that is an
entirely different thing.
We may ask at the outset, Have we a right to send out of the
country the emancipated slaves? However it may have failed to be
his country, this is his home, and by what law of morality shall
you compel him to abandon not only his, but his father's and his
ancestor's home? It is his by a line of descent stretching, in most
cases, far back of theirs who talk so glibly of his colonization:
and after, by a great act of justice, you have raised him from
chattelhood into citizenship, and have given him a country, by what
rule of right do you propose at the same time to banish him from
it? A right-minded man will hesitate before he leaves the feelings
of four millions of hearts out of his calculations. It is, we think,
an element somewhat to be considered, and yet one utterly ignored
by the most of those who talk on this subject. If it be answered,
the colonization is to be voluntary, they only going who choose to
go, we have only to say that that is not the true meaning of the
terms, nor what is by common consent understood by it. If merely
emigration is intended, and it is made no part of the scheme of
emancipation, the case is altered radically. But of this more by
and by.