[181]
XXVIII.
II. I am now brought, in the second place, to consider the Practicability of the Enterprise. And here the way is easy. In showing its necessity, I have already demonstrated its practicability; for the former includes the latter, as the greater includes the less. Whatever is necessary, must be practicable. By a decree which has ever been a by-word of tyranny, the Israelites were compelled to make bricks without straw; but it is not according to the ways of a benevolent Providence that man should be constrained to do what cannot be done. Besides, the Anti-Slavery Enterprise is right; and the right is always practicable. I know well the little faith which the world has in the triumph of principles, and I readily imagine the despair with which our object is regarded; but not on this account am I disheartened. That exuberant writer, Sir Thomas Browne, breaks into an ecstatic wish for some new difficulty in Christian belief, that his faith might have a new victory, and an eminent enthusiast went so far as to say that he believed because it was impossible—credo quia impossible. But no such exalted faith is now required. Here is no impossibility, nor is there any difficulty which will not yield to a faithful, well-directed endeavor. If to any timid soul the Enterprise seems impossible because it is too beautiful, then I say at once that it is too beautiful not to be possible. But descending from these summits, let me show plainly the object which it seeks to accomplish, and herein you shall see and confess its complete practicability. While discountenancing all prejudice of color and every establishment of caste, the Anti-Slavery Enterprise—at least so far as I may speak for it—does not undertake to change human nature, or to force any individual into relations of life for which he is not morally, intellectually and socially adapted; nor does it necessarily assume that a race, degraded for long generations under the iron heel of bondage, can be lifted at once into all the political privileges of an American citizen. But, sir, it does confidently assume, against all question, contradiction, or assault whatever, that every man is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and, with equal confidence, it asserts that every individual, who wears the human form, whether black or white, should at once be recognized as man. I know not when this is done, what other trials may be in wait for the unhappy African; but this I do know, that the Anti-Slavery Enterprise will then have triumphed, and the institution of Slavery, as defined by existing law, will no longer shock mankind. [182] In this work the first essential, practical requisite is, that the question shall be openly and frankly confronted. Do not put it aside. Do not blink it out of sight. Do not dodge it. Approach it. Study it. Ponder it. Deal with it. Let it rest in the illumination of speech, conversation and the press. Let it fill the thoughts of the statesman and the prayers of the pulpit. When Slavery is thus regarded, its true character will be recognized as a hateful assemblage of unquestionable wrongs under the sanction of existing law, and good men will be moved at once to apply the remedy. Already even its zealots admit that its ‘abuses’ should be removed. This is their word and not mine. Alas! alas! sir, it is these very ‘abuses’ which constitute its component parts, without which it would not exist, even as the scourges in a bundle with the axe constituted the dread fasces of the Roman lictor. Take away these, and the whole embodied outrage will disappear. Surely that central assumption—more deadly than the axe itself—by which man is changed into a chattel, may be abandoned; and is not this practicable? The associate scourges by which that transcendant ‘abuse’ is surrounded, may, one by one, be subtracted. The ‘abuse’ which substitutes concubinage for marriage—the ‘abuse’ which annuls the parental relation—the ‘abuse’ which closes the portals of knowledge—the ‘abuse’ which tyrannically usurps all the labor of another—now upheld by positive law, may by positive law be abolished. To say that this is not practicable, in the nineteenth century, would be a scandal upon mankind; and just in proportion as these ‘abuses’ cease to have the sanction of law, will the institution of Slavery cease to exist. The African, whatever may then be his condition, will no longer be the slave over whose wrongs and sorrows the world throbs at times fiercely indignant, and at times painfully sad, while with outstretched arms, he sends forth the piteous cry, ‘Am I not a man and a brother?’ In pressing forward to this result, the inquiry is often presented, to what extent, if any, shall compensation be allowed to the slave-masters? Clearly, if the point be determined by absolute justices not the masters but the slaves will be entitled to compensation; for it is the slaves, who, throughout weary generations, have been deprived of their toil, and all its fruits which went to enrich their masters. Besides, it seems hardly reasonable to pay for the relinquishment of those disgusting ‘abuses,’ which, in their aggregation, constitute the bundle of slavery. Pray, sir, by what tariff, price current, or principle of equation, shall their several values be estimated? What sum shall be counted out as the proper price for the abandonment of that pretension—more indecent than [183] the jus primae noctis of the feudal age—which leaves woman, whether in the arms of master or slave, always a concubine? What bribe shall be proffered for the restoration of God-given paternal rights? What money shall be paid for taking off the padlock by which souls are fastened down in darkness? How much for a quit-claim to labor now meanly exacted by the strong from the weak? And what compensation shall be awarded for the egregious assumption, condemned by reason and abhorred by piety, which changes a man into a thing? I put these questions without undertaking to pass upon them. Shrinking instinctively from any recognition of right founded on wrongs, I find myself shrinking also from any austere verdict, which shall deny the means necessary to the great consummation we seek. Our fathers, under Washington, did not hesitate by Act of Congress, to appropriate largely for the ransom of white fellow-citizens enslaved by Algerine corsairs; and, following this example, I am disposed to consider the question of compensation as one of expediency, to be determined by the exigency of the hour and the constitutional powers of the Government; though such is my desire to see the foul fiend of slavery in flight, that I could not hesitate to build even a Bridge of Gold, if necessary, to promote his escape. The Practicability of the Anti-Slavery Enterprise has been constantly questioned, often so superficially, as to be answered at once. I shall not take time to consider the allegation, founded on considerations of economy, which audaciously assumes that Slave Labor is more advantageous than Free Labor—that Slavery is more profitable than Freedom; for this is all exploded by the official tables of the census; nor that other futile argument, that the slaves are not prepared for Freedom, and, therefore, should not be precipitated into this condition,for that is no better than the ancient Greek folly, where the anxious mother would not allow her son to go into the water until he had first learned to swim. But, as against the Necessity of the Anti-Slavery Enterprise, there were two chief objections, so, also, against its Practicability there are two; the first, founded on its alleged danger to the master, and the second, on its alleged damage to the slave himself. 1. The first objection, founded on the alleged danger to the master, most generally takes the extravagant form, that the slave, if released from his present condition, would cut his master's throat. Here is a blatant paradox, which can pass for reason only among those who have lost their reason. With an absurdity which finds no parallel except in the defences of Slavery, it assumes that the African, when treated justly, [184] will show a vindictiveness which he does not exhibit when treated unjustly; that when elevated by the blessings of Freedom, he will develop an appetite for blood which he never manifested when crushed by the curse of bondage. At present, the slave sees his wife ravished from his arms—sees his infant swept away to the auction block—sees the heavenly gates of knowledge shut upon him—sees his industry and all its fruits unjustly snatched by another—sees himself and offspring doomed to a servitude from which there is no redemption; and still his master sleeps secure. Will the master sleep less secure, when the slave no longer smarts under these revolting atrocities? I will not trifle with your intelligence, or with the quick-passing hour, by arguing this question.
