Viewing page 3 of 16
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
January, 1862. DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. 579 [[line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] weakened almost to dissolution, become strong.——Let her not now talk and act as if she had wrung concession from cowardice, and humility from helplessness, for from such base motives, to wring concessions and humility would be as dishonorable to her as discreditable to us. Already, her ready menace of war against us is set down to her knowledge of our present weakness, rather than to her sense of honor, or her knowledge of her own strength.——That is not true valor which offers battle to a man when his hands are tied, or assails one when fighting another; and it will add little honor to British diplomacy or to the British flag, if hereafter it shall appear that she has been moved to menace us with war, less from a sense of sacredness of the laws of nations, than from apprehension of our inability to cope with her while passing the trying ordeal of a civil war. If America is in any measure disgraced by surrendering MASON and SLIDELL, England must share equally with America that disgrace. Of the two governments, looking at all the circumstances of the case, our Government stands at this moment in a vastly more enviable position than that of England. But the subject is disposed of.——Let us have done with it, and now attend earnestly to the rebellion, and to slavery, its cause. [[line]] WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH THE SLAVES IF EMANCIPATED? [[short line]] It is curious to observe, at this juncture, when the existence of slavery is threatened by an aroused nation, when national necessity is combining with an enlightened sense of justice to put away the huge abomination forever, that the enemies of human liberty are resorting to all the old and ten thousand times refuted objections to emancipation with which they confronted the abolition movement twenty-five years ago. Like the one stated above, these pro-slavery objections have their power mainly in the slavery-engendered prejudice, which every where pervades the country. Like all other great transgressions of the law of eternal rectitude, slavery thus produces an element in the popular and depraved moral sentiment favorable to its own existence. These objections are often urged with a show of sincere solicitude for the welfare of the slaves themselves. It is said, what will you do with them? they can't take care of themselves; they would all come to the North; they would not work; they would become a burden upon the State, and a blot upon society; they'd cut their masters' throats; they would cheapen labor, and crowd out the poor white laborer from employment; their former masters would not employ them, and they would necessarily become vagrants, paupers and criminals, over-running all our alms-houses, jails and prisons. The laboring classes among the whites would come in bitter conflict with them in all the avenues of labor, and regarding them as occupying places and filling positions which should be occupied and filled by white men; a fierce war of races would be the inevitable consequence, and the black race would, of course, (being the weaker,) be exterminated. In view of this frightful, though happily somewhat contradictory picture, the question is asked, and pressed with a great show of earnestness at this momentous crisis of our nations's history, What shall be done with the four million slaves if they are emancipated? [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] This question has been answered, and can be answered in many ways. Primarily, it is a question less for man than for God——less for human intellect than for the laws of nature to solve. It assumes that nature has erred; that the law of liberty is a mistake; that freedom, though a natural want of the human soul, can only be enjoyed at the expense of human welfare, and that men are better off in slavery than they would or could be in freedom; that slavery is the natural order of human relations, and that liberty is an experiment. What shall be done with them. Our answer is, do nothing with them; mind your own business, and let them mind theirs. Your doing with them is their greatest misfortune. They have been undone by your doings, and all they now ask, and really have need of at your hands, is just to let them alone. They suffer by every interference, and succeed best by being let alone. The negro should have been let alone in Africa——let alone when the pirates and robbers offered him for sale in our Christian slave markets——(more cruel and inhuman than the Mahommedan slave markets)——let alone by courts, judges, politicians, legislators and slave-drivers——let alone altogether, and assured that they were thus to be let alone forever, and that they must now make their own way in the world, just the same as any and every other variety of the human family. As colored men, we only ask to be allowed to do with ourselves, subject only to the same great laws for the welfare of human society which apply to other men, Jews, Gentiles, Barbarian, Sythian. Let us stand upon our own legs, work with our own hands, and eat bread in the sweat of our own brows. When you, our white fellow-countrymen, have attempted to do anything for us, it has generally been to deprive us of some right, power or privilege which you yourselves would die before you would submit to have taken from you. When the planters of the West Indies used to attempt to puzzle the pure-minded WILBERFORCE with the question, How shall we get rid of slavery? his simple answer was, "quit stealing." In like manner, we answer those who are perpetually puzzling their brains with questions as to what shall be done with the negro, "let him alone and mind your own business." If you see him plowing in the open field, leveling the forest, at work with a spade, a rake, a hoe, a pick-axe, or a bill——let him alone; he has a right to work. If you see him on his way to school, with spelling book, geography and arithmetic in his hands——let him alone. Don't shut the door in his face, nor bolt your gates against him; he has a right to learn——let him alone. Don't pass laws to degrade him. If he has a ballot in his hand, and is on his way to the ballot-box to deposit his vote for the man whom he thinks will most justly and widely administer the Government which has the power of life and death over him, as well as others——let him ALONE; his right of choice as much deserves respect and protection as your own. If you see him on his way to the church, exercising religious liberty in accordance with this or that religious persuasion——let him alone. Dont meddle with him, nor trouble yourselves with any questions as to what shall be done with him. The great majority of human duties are of [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] this negative character. If men were born in need of crutches, instead of having legs, the fact would be otherwise. We should then be in need of help, and would require outside aid; but according to the wise and better arrangement of nature, our duty is done better not by hindering than by helping our fellow-men; or, in other words, the best way to help them is just to let them help themselves. We would not for one moment check the outgrowth of any benevolent concern for the future welfare of the colored race in America or elsewhere; but in the name of reason and religion, we earnestly plead for justice before all else. Benevolence with justice is harmonious and beautiful; but benevolence without justice is a mockery. Let the American people, who have thus far only kept the colored race staggering between partial philanthropy and cruel force, be induced to try what virtue there is in justice. First pure, then peaceable——first just, then generous.——The sum of the black man's misfortunes and calamities are just here: He is everywhere treated with an exception to all the general rules which should operate in the relations of other men. He is literally scourged beyond the beneficent range of truth and justice.——With all the purifying and liberalizing power of the Christian religion, teaching, as it does, meekness, gentleness, brotherly kindness, those who profess it have not yet even approached the position of treating the black man as an equal man and a brother. The few who have thus far risen to this requirement, both of reason and religion, are stigmatized as fanatics and enthusiasts. What shall be done with the negro if emancipated? Deal justly with him. He is a human being, capable of judging between good and evil, right and wrong, liberty and slavery, and is as much of a subject of law as any other man; therefore, deal justly with him. He is, like other men, sensible of the motives of reward and punishment. Give him wages for his work, and let hunger pinch him if he don't work. He knows the difference between fullness and famine, plenty and scarcity. "But will he work?" Why should he not? He is used to it, and is not afraid of it. His hands are already hardened by toil, and he has no dreams of ever getting a living by any other means than by hard work. But would you turn them all loose? Certainly! We are no better than our Creator. He has turned them loose, and why should not we? But would you let them all stay here?——Why not? What better is here than there? Will they occupy more room as freemen than as slaves? Is the presence of a black freeman less agreeable than that of a black slave? Is an object of your injustice and cruelty a more ungrateful sight than one of you justice and benevolence? You have borne the one for more than two hundred years——can't you bear the other long enough to try the experiment? "But would it be safe?" No good reason can be given as to why it would not be. There is much more reason for apprehensions from slavery than from freedom. Slavery provokes and justifies incendiarism, murder, robbery, assassination, and all manner of violence.——But why not let them go by themselves? That is a matter we would leave exclusively to themselves. Besides, when you, the American people, shall once do justice to the enslaved [[/column 3]]
Transcription Notes:
Hyphenated words at beginning and end of page written in full for clarity per Smithsonian instructions. (Following page has already been finalized and omitted "enslaved" altogether.)
