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508 DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. AUGUST, 1861 [[line across page]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread?' The free and the enslaved people of color have suffered, and are suffering, grievous wrongs at the hands of the white inhabitants--at the hands of the Church and those who minister at God's altar. Although the revolutionary patriots and statesmen asserted that all men were equal before the law, and founded the government upon that noble principle; although some of them protested against the dogma that man can hold property in man; although the Declaration of Independence asserts: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'--and although the Constitution declares that it was, among other things, ordained to 'establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves' (the people of the United States, white and colored) 'and our posterity,' yet from the foundation of the government to the present time, the free people of color have been maltreated and scorned, at the North as well as the South, and their enslaved brethren inhumanly peeled and goaded at the South, aided in the inhumanity by the North. The North has joined hands with the South in oppressing the colored man throughout the whole country. Exulting in their own freedom, the white inhabitants of this country have trampled upon the rights of the poor and the needy, and practically given the lie to the principle of equality engraven upon the corner stone of our political edifice. The world has been witness of this, and the enemies of a Republican government have taunted us with our hypocrisy or indifference 'to the opinion of mankind.' Professing to be a Christian nation, the people--we allude to the masses--have set at naught the precepts of Christianity, in their treatment of their colored brethren, forgotten the exhortations of God, and unheeded His warnings, until the patience of the Father of All appears to have been exhausted, and He has come out against us in judgment. His voice to the American people is this: 'These things hast thou done--and I kept silence; Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, Lest I tear you in peaces, [sic] and there be none to deliver!' Who is so blind as not to see that the Almighty has a controversy with this nation; that notwithstanding the war waged by the South is a most unnatural, unprovoked and diabolical war upon the government of the United States, the whole country is guilty before God for national sins, of which the chief is slaveholding--a hellish practice connived at by all the States; and that slavery is the cause of the present war. And how astonishing is it that the people, especially those in the free States, do not see and acknowledge that there can be no satisfactory or permanent peace between the Southern and Northern people until the [[italics]] cause [[/italics]] of the war--slavery--is removed, and that we can have no peace with the great Ruler of Nations until we repent of the sin of slaveholding, and the sin of treating our 'neighbors,' the free people of color, with contumely, disdain and cruelty.--How amazing that the church is so apothetic on the subject, that ministers are so dumb, that the people are so insensible to the rebukes of the civilized world, so neglectful of the lessons of history and the warnings of Scripture, and so regardless of the retributive justice of the Almighty. Our colored fellow-citizens are here by the providence of God, who has styled himself the God of the oppressed, declaring that He is no respecter of persons, that He will break the rod of the oppressor and let the oppressed go free. At the various schemes of expatriation, and at the schemers also, it may be said: 'He that sitteth in the heavens shall [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.' The colored people must remain here. It is both physically and morally impossible that four or five millions of our people can be removed from this land and planted in foreign parts. They are native Americans, and have, if there be any difference, more natural right to remain here unmolested and in the pursuit of happiness than the millions of foreigners, who under our benign laws (as it respects them) have a peaceful habitancy among us; the country needs their service; the South can hardly do without them; they love the country of their birth, cruelly and unnaturally as it has treated them; they prefer to abide here, to live and die on their native soil, and their children after them; and here they will remain, either as victims of the cupidity and tyranny of their more powerful fellow-countrymen, or by the blessings of heaven, and under the protecting care of God, as peaceful, joint participators of the privileges of a free and Christian community--the pride, prejudice and cruelty of their more favored countrymen notwithstanding. How can it be otherwise? If the slaves are emancipated, and emancipated they must be; if kindly and justly treated; if paid fair wages for their services; they will prove valuable, contented, citizens. The sooner the white inhabitants of this nation repent of the sins of slavery and caste, and begin to treat their colored fellow-citizens humanely and justly, the better will it be for all concerned. Repentance, followed by works meet for repentance, may avert the just anger of a holy God who presides over the destinies of men, and who requires the removal of iniquity, not the removal of innocent sufferers. He will be honored by the repentance of the wrong-doers, and their humane and Christian treatment of the wronged, or He will manifest His displeasure with those who refuse to do justly and love mercy, by displays of His righteous indignation and by terrible chastisements. His character, His providence, and His word justify us in coming to this conclusion. Is not the colored man our brother? our neighbor? If, then, we do not love our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen? Our Savior declared, 'On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.' Let us then treat our unoffending colored brother and neighbor as such, or look for the retributive justice of Him who hath said: 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.' [[line]] NEWS FROM ST. DOMINGO.--The news from St. Domingo is important, a bloody reaction having taken place against the invasion by Spain. According to the Kingston (Jamaica) [[italics]] Journal [[/italics]] of June 8th, Santana has succeeded in establishing a reign of terror in the Republic, similar in its features to that which prevailed in France during the first revolution. A system of the severest espionage has been inaugurated, and upon the slightest suspicion of disaffection to the new order of things, the police unceremoniously force their way into the private dwellings of the citizens.--Numerous citizens have been arrested and condemned and shot by his orders. In all parts of the country, the Dominicans, roused to a sense of the degradation that has been put upon them, are rising against the invaders, determined to defend their nationality by force of arms. Several conflicts have taken place between the Spanish troops and the populace, and much blood was spilled. The Spaniards now find the work on their hands growing warmer every day, and a reinforcement has consequently been called for from Porto Rico. Instead of 10,000 soldiers to subjugate the country, they begin to feel that 20,000 will not be too many. Besides, disease has broken out among the troops, and things generally appear to be in a deplorable condition. From this the public will see that the statements which have been made, to the effect that it is the desire of the Dominicans themselves to have their country reincorporated with the Spanish monarchy, are utterly false. The people have been most cruelly be- [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] trayed by Santana, and if the Spanish Government have a spark of honorable feeling left, they will, upon ascertaining the real state of things, immediately withdraw their troops, and leave the Dominicans to themselves.--Meanwhile, the President of Hayti and the widely roused the black population in all quarters, and pressed thousands of them to fly to the mountains, where they were organized in bands under Jn. Francois, Biasson, and other chiefs, who soon learned how to direct their energies efficiently.' Now, listen! It is very erroneous to suppose that, in a slaveholding state of society, where the free men of color, all of slave origin, among whom could be found many Africans [[italics]] 'who were not more contemned by the whites than were the lightest mulattoes,' [[/italics]] and where [[italics]] 'the prejudice against color seemed [[/italics]] people, feeling their nationality and independence threatened by this business, are making vigorous preparations for war. 3,500 citizens of Kingston have signed a memorial to Her Majesty, the Queen, on the subject of the annexation of St. Domingo to Spain.--Further advices from the Island will be looked for with deep interest. [[line]] [[bold print]] DENMARK VESEY. [[/bold print]] [[short line]] [From the Atlantic Monthly, for une, 1861.] [CONCLUDED.] The trial of the conspirators began on Wednesday, June 19th. At the request of the Intendant, Justices Kennedy and Parker summoned five freeholders (Messrs. Drayton, Heyward, Pringle, Legare, and Turnbull) to constitute a court, under the provisions of the act 'for the better ordering and governing negroes and other slaves.' The Intendant laid the case before them, with a list of prisoners and witnesses. By a vote of the Court, all spectators were excluded except the owners and counsel of the slaves concerned. No other colored person was allowed to enter the jail, and a strong guard of soldiers was kept always on duty around the building. Under these general arrangements, the trials proceeded with elaborate formality, though with some variations from ordinary usage--as was, indeed, required by the statute. For instance, the law provided that the testimony of any Indian or slave could be received, [[italics]] without oath, [[/italics]] against a slave or free colored person, although it was not valid, even under oath, against a white. But it is best to quote the official language in respect to the rules adopted. 'As the Court had been organized under a statute of a peculiar and local character, and intended for the government of a distinct class of persons in the community, they were bound to conform their proceedings to its provisions, which depart in many essential features from the principles of the Common Law and some of the settled rules of evidence. The Court, however, determined to adopt those rules, whenever they were not repugnant to nor expressly excepted by that statute, nor inconsistent with the local situation and policy of the State; and laid down for their own government the following regulations: First, that no slave should be tried except in the presence of his owner or his counsel, and that notice should be given in every case at least one day before the trial; second, that the testimony of one witness, unsupported by additional evidence or by circumstances, should lead to no conviction of a [[italics]] capital [[/italics]] nature; third, that the witnesses should be confronted with the accused and with each other in every case, except where testimony was given under a solemn pledge that the names of the witnesses should not be divulged--as they declared in some instances, that they apprehended being murdered by the blacks, if it was known that they had volunteered their evidence; fourth, that the prisoners might be represented by counsel, whenever this was requested by the owners of the slaves, or by the prisoners themselves, if free; fifth, that the statements or defences of the accused should be heard in every case, and they be permitted themselves to examine any witnesses they thought proper.' It is singular to observe how entirely these [[/column 3]]
