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768 DOUGLASS MONTHLY. DECEMBER, 1862 [[line across page]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] ng resistance, but of preventing resistance.——It had the same power a besieger would have, who had a mine under every bastion of the besieged, and had only to speak the word, and demonstrate on any scale he chose, the absurdity of resistance. But the inhumanity of the thing! The man would be taken out and hanged on the nearest tree, who should be found preaching to an army that it was inhuman to make use of the advantage possessed, and that humanity required a hundred thousand of their comrades should be sacraficed, to save the enemy the pain of being obliged to surrender because he could not help it. There are degrees of attempted practice on the gullibility of men, which are insolence pure, and as such be received. Of this was the cry set up by felons contcious of their weak point, and echoed by confederates not having the excuse of idiocy to palliate their acts, which ascribed 'nameless horrors' to the policy which ought to have been set in motion from the first, and must be set in motion now, though with many more difficulties to encounter. The assertion that to declare the Emancipation of the colored people by the power of law would have been attended with unjustifiable peril to the rebels, was in all cases and everywhere, unless under the pressure of mental aberration, as plain, clear, and palpable a known and conscious falsehood, as it would have been to put forward the same plea in opposition to emancipation in the West Indian Islands by Act of Parliament. There was not a man foolish enough to hint at such a reason. But it was known that England had a government and people, who would not leave an hour's life to such a gigantic silliness. The enemy sometimes serves us well, by showing what he would like, as well as what he is afraid of. What he would like is evidently that the American people would allow themselves to be trifled with by their Executive. And what he is afraid of, is the springing up from some quarter or by some means, a power which should be its own Executive, as far as safety from collusion is concerned. One thing only in the common interest.——Don't trust to traitors and bunglers, unless you wish to make mirth for the enemy.——The Bradford Advertiser. [[line]] The declaration of Southern nationality by the British ministry, is as premature as hazardous. It is very likely to come in the nick of time, to produce exactly opposite effects to the expected. It makes the war a British war in the eyes of multitudes of the concerned; and will rally every anti-British feeling, of which there inevitably are many, to turn the tables on what to a certain extent undeniably a foreign intervention, by going at once to the heart of the evil, and sending some native Garibaldi to settle accounts between the rebels and the Emancipated. What would the British ministry have done, if in turmoils of gone-by times which are only alluded to for illustration, a foreign government had sent an accredited member to announce, that Charles Edward had made a nation of the Highlanders, or Napper Tandy of the Irish, or Mr. Papineau of the Canadians. What they would have done is clear enough; they would have declared war instantly, and all England would have holla'd in their train. The Americans will be wiser in the present case; because they have a better way of replying to the false move of their opponents. This for the American part; and now for the British. If the awful example displayed in America, of what it is to leave the fate of nations to any set of men, unchecked by a popular assembly, for the six months together, (like the fabled goddess who passed half the year in heaven, and half in hell,) is not sufficient, the British will have every chance of adding experience of their own. Here without debate, without hearing anything on the other side, is an important question settled, over meat and wine, on the strength of their being four months before by the custom of parliaments question can be asked. Call you this parliamentary government, either in England or America? Both countries are likely [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] to have enough of it. Two conclusions are strongly pointed to, and will at some time be among the received truths in what call themselves free and civilized nations. One that there is no use in a cat that is to be absent six months together in the country. And the other that parliaments should be renewed piecemeal as they were brought into the world, and not made subservient to the legerdemain of a minister or anybody standing in his shoes. The world is in a state of pupillage now, as veritably as when Adam delved and Eve spun; and those are the wisest children who pay most attention to their lessons. We do not at this hour want to be taught to make coats of skins: but we have our lessons to learn, and so will our successors while the world shall last. Meantime the present object started for pursuit, is that the Americans are to emancipate their colored classes and themselves, in spite of British interference if Brittons insist on interfering, and British desertion of the good cause if Britons insist on deserting. It is true the deserters are not all; but what a long and discreditable roll they are! Is there not something in prophecy, about a plant which was carried into a foreign land? Perhaps it is under fulfilment now, and all that England has chattered about, is to be preserved by the transplantation to America.——The Bradford Advertiser. [[line]] FROM CENTRAL AMERICA. [[short line]] MR. LINCOLN's SPEECH TO THE COLORED MEN. ——THE NEGROES NOT WANTED IN CENTRAL AMERICA——A SPECULATING SCHEME. CHINANDEGA, Sep. 30, 1862. The speech of Mr. Lincoln to a Committee of negroes, which at the rate the world moves now has passed into your history many pages back, is now the subject of animated and unfavorable discussion over all Central America. Mr. Lincoln wounds, perhaps unconsciously, the sensibilities of others. To say nothing of the unfortunate negroes, who, like the eels, are "accustomed to being skinned," the President has not only injured the feelings of all Central America, but has effectually checked the little sympathy which the persistent efforts of the Seccessionists had kept alive for us in these countries. Should it be considered expedient by the people of the United States to export to some other land the laborers whom they have suffered to be brutalized under their government, the shores of Central America will offer them no asylum. These countries ostensibly belong to a white race. It is true that the Indian has never been exterminated, but was allowed to become a component part of society, and is an industrious, simple and willing laborer. He has amalgamated largely with the white race, so that there are almost no pure families in the State. The number of negroes in Central America is very small. Most of them are in Nicaragua, where they have amalgamated with the Indians, and through them with the whites. They are generally as respectable as other people. Some individuals I know and see every day are better educated and as capable as the average of Mr. Lincoln's Western friends. They "cut their own fodder" so to speak, and although they have not seen much of the world and of high life, I doubt not but they would appear as gracefully and converse as appropriately as the majority of the visitors at a White House reception, even though the "plantation manners" are no longer seen there. No doubt these people would all prefer to be white, the light complexion seems to be the most fashionable and the most profitable all over the world. It is so here. And especially here, where there is already a considerable mixture, the idea seems to be that every man shall think he is white, be as white as he can, allow his neighbor if he is black to think of something else besides that peculiarity, and let him have a fair chance with the rest. The idea of the Government here is to elevate society, to improve the people, and to assist in every laudable manner the improvement[[/column 2]] [[column 3]] of the race. During the last five years, while the Administration of James Buchanan was covering the United States, with shame, and leading the nation into the abyss of the revolution, where it still is, the Administration of President Martinez has conducted Nicaragua form the lowest point the State could reach to a position of improvement such as has not been known since 1821. The other States of Central America are are animated by the same ideas that influence Nicaragua. Then with what disgust must they have read that the United States, having reared a race of negroes too low and degraded to be allowed to remain where they are, this race should be at once shipped to Central America "protected" by the United States, and "made the equals of the best." Nicaragua has already put forth a decree forbidding such an immigration, and shutting negroes out of her limits, probably forever. Undoubtedly Costa Rica will do the same. The State of Chiriqui, to which Mr. Lincoln seems to look, has no doubt been brought to his attention by some speculators who pretend to have rights there, acquired under a charter granted to them in 1859 by the Government of Costa Rica. This speculation was made in order to sell the right thus acquired to the United States, as extensive coal mines exist in Chiriqui, which would be useful to our navy. The speculators, among whom was Thomas F. Meagher, never complied with the conditions of the charter, and to-day it has no legal existence. The territory is in dispute between Costa Rica and New Granada, both States claiming it. It is an unhealthy, rainy country, thinly inhabited. The President probably knows by this time that he has been deceived in the matter, and must hunt up some other uninhabitable part of the world to export his colored subjects to. Why not give the negroes South Carolina or Florida, where it will not require much improvement to make them "the equals of the best?"——New York Tribune. [[line]] The Future of Africa: MISCELLANIES: BY REV. ALEX. CRUMMELL, B.A. OF LIBERIA, AFRICA. [[short line]] THE UNDERSIGNED proposes to issue in a 12 mo. volume, of about 300 pages, Orations, Addresses, and other Papers, mostly prepared for National and Missionary occasions in Liberia, West Africa; and pertaining to National Life and Duty. The following is a list of the articles: 1. The English Language in Liberia. 2. The Duty of a Rising Christian State to contribute to the World's Well-being and Civilization. 3. Address on laying the Corner Stone of St. Mark's Hospital, Cape Palmas. P. S. The following names have been readily obtained, within a very few days, in the city of Philadelphia, mostly for TEN copies: Rt. Rev. A. Potter, D.D. Rev. Albert Barnes, Benjamin Coates, Esq., Rev. S H. Tyng, D. D., Mrs. Eli K. Price, of New York., Rev. J. W. Cracraft, John Welsh, Esq. John S. Crozier, Esq., Samuel Welsh, Esq., Hon. Edward Coles, Rev. T. S. Malcom, Rev. B. T. Noakes, Hon. G. W. Woodward, A. R. Cope, John Bohlen, Esq., Anthony P. Morris, W. Parker Foulke, Esq [[line]] TERMS OF DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. [[short line]] Single Copies, to American subscribers, $1 per year. " " to British " 5s. sterling. Subscriptions must be paid for invariably in advance All communications, whether on business or for publication, should be addressed to FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ROCHESTER, N. Y. [[short line]] AGENTS IN GREAT BRITAIN. We take the liberty of using names of the following gentlemen who will receive names and subscriptions for Douglass' Monthly in Great Britain: Halifax——Rev. RUSSELL LANT CARPENTER, Milto Place. Dublin——Mr. WM. WEBB, 52, High Street, and 8, Dunville Avenue, Rathmines. Derby——Dr. SPENCER T. HALL, Burton Road. Glasgow——Mr. JOHN SMITH, 173, Trongate. Leeds——Mr. ARTHUR HOLLAND, 4, Park Row; Rev D CROFTS Newcastle-on-Tyne——Mr. WALTER S. PRINGLE. [[/column 3]]
