Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[420] the plan, and combine the elements, necessary to the success of a general revolt over any considerable district of country. The success of the murderous insurrection in St. Domingo arose from its limited territory, its isolated situation, the peculiar character of both races of the islanders, one cruel, the other savage, the vastly superior number of the slaves, and the unfriendly relations existing between the Spanish and French divisions of the island. The extent of slave territory in this country has ever constituted a great element of strength to the institution; and so long as there shall be a just correspondence between the area of slavery and the number of slaves, this security will remain. In every attempt of insurrection in the United States, the plot has been confined to very few persons; and most generally in that small number some one, shocked at the proposition of murdering a kind master, mistress, or tender nursling, has disclosed the horrible design before its maturity, and thus averted the terrible calamity. Thus it has generally been, and so it will be, so long as the slaves have room enough to work, and to live comfortably and happily with their masters.

With this brief historical sketch of the institution of slavery, and the description I have given of the slave, the relation subsisting between the master and slave, we are prepared to examine the angry controversy which has arisen on this institution, which has already caused seven States to withdraw from the Confederacy, and if not soon amicably adjusted, may cause every Southern State to retire with indignant scorn from a Union prostituted of every virtue, and proposed to be continued only for the advantage of one section, the ruin of another, and the violation of the rights of humanity.

The first point arising in this dangerous controversy is from the disregard and violation, by certain Northern States, of the law and the Constitution requiring the rendition of fugitive slaves to their masters. This alone, if continued, must be fatal to the Union. But there is another point, involving still more dangerous consequences. It has been proposed by statesmen of great ability, and a sectional party has come triumphantly into power on the proposition, to confine slavery forever within its present limits. This proposition is not the result of hasty and thoughtless determination. It has been long discussed, maturely considered, and deliberately made. And yet I could hope, for the sake of law and justice, for the sake of humanity, and the civilization of the age, I could hope that the far-sighted statesman by whom this proposition has been made, and that few of the Christian men by whom it has been successfully maintained, have yet fully contemplated, and measured, the stupendous and terrible consequences which must inevitably follow the execution of this fearful design. It is admitted by those sagacious statesmen, and by all other intelligent men, that the Government of the United States has no power to abolish slavery in any State of the Confederacy; and yet here is a proposition distinctly made, and a President of the United States has been elected on an implied pledge to carry that proposition into execution, which must destroy slavery in all the States, and may destroy 4,000,000 of slaves and their increase, or drive, the white population beyond those limits. The present population of the slaveholding States is now estimated at 12,000,000 of people; of this number, near 4,000,000 are slaves. When we look back fifty years, and see the number of slaves of that time, and consider the present number, it may not be an extravagant calculation to estimate the slave population within its present limits, at the end of the next half century, at 20,000,000 of people. The natural increase of this prolific race far exceeds the increase of the white race. But its proportion to the white race, within this area, will be augmented by another process. The black race must remain forever where it is. The white man, following the native instinct of the Anglo-Saxon, as well as obeying the impulse of necessity, must emigrate as the population becomes more dense, and the means of subsistence more limited, leaving the slaves behind. Thus producing annually a greater increase of one, and a decrease of the other. And this disproportion must continue to augment year after year, in a ratio not now to be calculated, until the black race must so far preponderate, unless destroyed by want and famine, war or pestilence, as to compel their masters to abandon their homes, and leave them to the possession of their famished slaves; who, when relieved from the authority and discipline of their masters, to which alone they are indebted for their elevation as a civilized and Christian people-when the white man shall have retired, and left them to themselves — will follow their native instincts of indolence and sloth — they will fall back to the vices and barbarism from which they have been but partially redeemed, through a succession of generations and the progress of centuries. Here another Africa, with all its loathsome depravity, would be established in the heart of America. The confinement of African slavery to its present limits must either produce this result, or it must be followed by the destruction of one of the races; they never can live together in social equality, even if there should be room enough. This is the proposition of a Christian people, in the nineteenth century of the Christian religion. There is no crime or barbarity of the present day which may not claim some precedence on the records of past ages. Thus this revolting proposition, though unequalled in the number of victims it would sacrifice, and the extent of human suffering it would inflict, may find something approximating to a parallel in the history of heathen nations. The Egyptians murdered the children of the Hebrew women to prevent the increase of numbers, and the heathen people