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Title: Slavery in Maryland briefly considered

Author: John L. Carey

Release date: August 12, 2022 [eBook #68731]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: John Murphy

Credits: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY IN MARYLAND BRIEFLY CONSIDERED ***





  SLAVERY IN MARYLAND

  BRIEFLY CONSIDERED.

  By JOHN L. CAREY.

  BALTIMORE:
  PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY,
  178 MARKET STREET.
  1845.




ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and forty-five, in the clerk’s office of the District Court of
Maryland.




LETTER I.


  DODON, March 12th, 1845.

DEAR SIR,--A short time before the October election, I heard some one
say that it was your intention to devote much of your time, should
you be elected to the House of Delegates, to the subject of the black
population of our State, and to promote, if possible, measures for
their gradual emancipation. It gave me, a slaveholder and citizen of
Maryland, infinite pleasure to hear it; and it was with the deepest
regret I learned soon after that you were not returned to the house.
If I have been correctly informed, I beg leave to say I honor you for
your sentiment, and I hope you will not allow so good a resolution to
die, but will kindle it anew, and seek some other equally practical
means of bringing this subject fully and fairly before the public. It
is one that has long occupied much of my thoughts, and I have watched
anxiously for some one to show his hand in this cause. At this moment
my attention has been more distinctly called to it, by the manly,
high-minded letter of Mr. C. M. Clay, addressed to the people of
Kentucky. There is not a sentiment or a political principle expressed
by him to his fellow citizens that does not with equal force apply
to our noble little State, and every prediction applies _to us_ as
forcibly as it does to them. The time has come, there can be no doubt
of it, to take the needful steps; slaveholders themselves are anxious
for it, and will not be displeased to see the subject _fairly_ taken
into consideration. I have been a planter for five years, and have had
an opportunity of discussing these points with slaveholders of all
parties, and I do not remember a single instance in which objection
was made to the principle of emancipation; some difference, it is
true, exists as to the manner and time, but none as to the necessity.
Heretofore this whole subject has been wrapt in a mystery, as imposing
as the secrets of Free Masonry, and no one, not a member of the order
of slaveholders, has been allowed to open his mouth and say any thing
about it; it is a dangerous question--it is an exciting subject--it
is a matter that belongs to slaveholders themselves--have been the
usual and repeated injunctions laid upon all who honestly and humanely
have desired to inquire into the merits and demerits of this cause. Is
this as it should be? Is it the course that should be pursued by an
educated people, who have at command the means to defend the truth and
expose error? Certainly not. If our State is laboring under an evil,
let the cause and nature of the malady be investigated, and then let
us apply the remedy. If, on the contrary, none can be shown to exist,
at least _agitation_ will receive a check that will be grateful to all
lovers of peace and order. Firmly convinced that such a course will be
displeasing to but few, and that it may promote the general welfare of
Maryland, I beg leave to propose to you the establishment of a paper
devoted to the cause of Emancipation in our State, on the principles of
policy, humanity, and self-interest. I know no one to whom so delicate
a subject could be so safely confided as yourself. Your popularity
as an editor, your established character for sound doctrine and
moderation, are all guarantees for the judicious and successful conduct
of such an undertaking, and, for my own part, I have not the least
doubt of its ultimate success. It would be idle in me to suggest to
you any particulars on this subject; I doubt not it has passed through
your brain long since, and received a due share of your consideration.
I shall therefore conclude, by begging you to excuse the liberty I have
taken in addressing you on so slight a personal acquaintance, and by
hoping, if I am premature in what I have said, that you will impute it
solely to the strong feelings I entertain upon this interesting matter.

  With great respect, I remain
  Your obedient servant,
  R. S. STEWART.

  JOHN L. CAREY, ESQ., _Baltimore_.




LETTER II.


  BALTIMORE, March 17, 1845.

DEAR SIR,--Your letter, which reached me this morning, relates to a
subject which has, indeed, been much in my mind. Some months ago I
began to put on paper a few thoughts concerning it, in the hope that
a speedy restoration of our State’s financial affairs would leave
the way clear for a fair consideration of Slavery as it exists in
Maryland. Your letter seems to come as an intimation that the time for
considering that matter is already at hand--as such I receive it. I
will write out what I designed, and send it to you. In doing this the
occasion may be taken to refer to some suggestions in your letter,
which in the meantime will remain in my thoughts. Your favorable
regards I appreciate highly, and thank you for the kind expression of
them.

  Very truly, dear sir,
  Your obedient servant,
  JNO. L. CAREY.

  DR. R. S. STEWART,
  _Of Dodon, Anne Arundel County_.




SLAVERY IN MARYLAND.


I propose to treat of Slavery in the State of Maryland, believing
that a fair inquiry into that subject at the present time may lead
to good results. The institution itself has existed long enough in
this community, and has produced consequences sufficiently marked and
decisive to enable an impartial observer to form a definite opinion
of its nature and tendencies. I believe that such an opinion has been
formed by the general mind of the commonwealth.

Before we proceed to the particular matter in hand, it may be proper
to have an understanding upon some preliminaries. There is so much
sensitiveness with regard to Slavery; so much irritated feeling; it
has been and is the cause of so much ill-judged agitation, giving rise
to unhappy manifestations of moral and political fanaticism,--that
one needs to move very cautiously in touching upon the topic at all,
lest he do more harm than good by meddling with it. But, for my own
part, as I have no design to minister to excitement, nor to deal with
the subject as an advocate of extreme opinions, it shall be my care
to regard the question as one requiring to be practically considered
by those whom it most concerns, and to express as clearly as possible
what it is in my mind now to say about it. Not to be misunderstood is
a thing to be greatly desired by those who would treat justly such a
question as this--or indeed any serious question; but then, indeed,
one ought to have something to say worth the trouble of understanding.
Let us now hasten to get through the preliminaries.


I. _Of Slavery itself as a Social Relation._

If Slavery be regarded as the subjection of one man, by force, to the
will of another, all other considerations being left out of view, it
must appear to be the most cruel outrage to which humanity is liable.

But the control of one man over another, of some men over other men, of
individuals over masses, may exist without implying outrage or wrong.

It is as a representative that man exercises power--as the
representative of truths, principles, sentiments. Thus the officials of
a government, few in number, representing order and justice, personify
the sovereignty of the realm, and rule over millions.

The will and the understanding constitute the man; the strength and
purity of the one, the capacity of the other, form the measure of his
just influence. Sometimes it may happen, when there is need that a
nation should have the energy of action and singleness of purpose of an
individual mind, that a man shall arise capable of embodying in himself
the intellect and the will of the nation, which he will then control
with despotic sway. Such was Napoleon in the earlier period of his
career, who with some show of truth could have adopted the saying of
one of his predecessors on the throne of France, “_l’état c’est moi_.”

Slavery, if it implies the degradation of an equal, or the subjugation
by brute force of a superior--what is it but a shocking atrocity, most
monstrous to think of! When we read of the enslaving of Christians,
refined and intelligent persons, by the corsairs of Algiers, as used in
former times to happen, the mind revolts at such violations of right
and justice.

It is usual, when one speaks of Slavery, to imagine himself in
the condition of servitude, and thence to form his conceptions of
the injustice of that relation, and to express his indignation
accordingly. But this is to take a very partial view of the matter.

Freedom, in its usual acceptation, means the absence of external
control. But there must be a power to control some where. If it be not
in the will and understanding of the man himself, it must be in the
will and understanding of some one else; if not in one or the other,
after some fashion, then society perishes. In other words, men or
nations who can not govern themselves must be governed.

A perverted will or an imbecile understanding, at certain stages, works
the forfeit of freedom in the freest communities on earth. Prisons
and penitentiaries are for the one; lunatic asylums for the other.
Children, wanting the power of self-direction, are kept under control
for a period more than half as long as the average duration of human
life.

With regard to servitude, there are various degrees of it. In some
parts of Europe _serfdom_ exists, with its usages more or less
restrictive. In all the kingdoms of Europe there are subordinations
of ranks, by which some classes are constituted superior and others
are kept in subjection. There is but one principle running through
all these gradations. Control on the one hand; obedience on the
other; these are the correlatives. In whatever forms, modes, customs,
institutions or laws, these relations may be reduced to actual
operation; whether the terms to denote them be king and subject, lord
and vassal, upper classes and lower classes, or master and slave, the
ideas of command and subjugation, in some form or other, are still
presented.

The question then is of _more_ or _less_ freedom. For if _Freedom_
be used to denote a positive definite thing, or, in the slang of
metaphysics, an _abstract right_, where is the standard to be fixed
to measure it by? Shall we look to England, and take the half starved
operative as the type of this impalpable entity--the half starved
operative, with freedom only to choose whether he shall be a drudge or
a pauper, and often saved the trouble of deciding by finding himself
both? The English operative! part and parcel of the machinery which
fills the markets of the world with British manufactures--a working
anatomy of bone and muscle, animated by a vital principle instead of
steam, and thereby differing from the other works and running gear of
the mills!

The relation of master and slave implies the extremes of control on
the one hand, and obedience on the other; some intermediate forms of
which extend throughout all society. Whether the relation be proper
or not, must depend mainly on the greater or less disparity between
the two classes, and the circumstances which mark their connection. If
the masters be of one race, and the slaves of another; if they be of
different complexions; if the former be characterized by great strength
of will and capacity of understanding, while the latter are weak in
both; it is inevitable, if these two races must dwell together in one
community, that the one should occupy the position of masters and the
other that of slaves. They could not hold intercourse together on any
other terms. If the inferior race should prove fierce and intractable,
like our aboriginal Indians, they must disappear as the master power
approaches; if they are docile and gentle, like the negroes, they may
live in domestic servitude, and thrive in that condition. It may be
remarked that the negro is the only race that has ever been able to
abide in contact with the Anglo-Saxon.


II. _Of Rights._[1]

It may be asked, have not all enslaved people a right to freedom? To
which it may be answered that _rights_ are connected with _duties_; or,
to go back to the other definition, the will and the understanding of
a man, the strength of the one and the capacity of the other, combined
together, constitute the measure of his rights, inasmuch as they are
the measure of the sphere which he fills.

Freedom involves certain responsibilities, which, if a man can not
meet, he is not free. Besides, _Freedom_ is a relative thing--a thing
of degrees. How much of external restraint must be thrown off to
constitute _Freedom_? No one can say; it can not be defined by specific
limits.

If we go to talking of _abstract rights_, we shall discourse very
vaguely and to little purpose. The phrase itself is unmeaning; for
rights can be considered only as pertaining to _persons_. Thus they can
not be abstract at all.

Nor will it do to assume the position of the equality of all men,
and to reason from it on this subject. Men are not equal. They are
not born so; they do not become so; they can not be made equal.
Neither in physical endowments, in stature, nor in the gifts of
intellect are they upon an equality. The influence of some over
others results from laws as fixed and as imperative as the laws of
gravitation, of magnetic attraction, or any other laws of nature. The
power of truth over the mind, the force of courage and decision of
character in action, the influence which belongs to superior wisdom
and goodness--these give preeminence to individuals in all forms of
social organization. A civilized people hold ascendency over the
less civilized; the particular nature of which ascendency will be
determined by the circumstances attendant on the contact of the two,
and their characteristics respectively. The sullen Indian, feeling
the superiority of the white man, flies from before it, or is crushed
beneath it; the tractable negro acknowledges its sway, and yields
himself contentedly thereto.

Men can not associate with children without holding them to obedience;
and children expect such control. If they do not find it, they regard
their weak elders slightingly enough. Tinctured with love and kindness,
this control is a delightful bond of affinity, blending the solicitude
of mature years with the tenderest affections of childhood.

What other principle can hold in respect to the intercourse of
different classes of men brought into association, no matter by
what means, in one community, the disparity between the two being
as great as that between childhood and maturity? The two elements
of civilization and primitive rudeness entering together into the
social organization, the control of the superior element must take
the permanent form of an institution; the relations of the two must
be fixed upon a firm basis. Otherwise how could there be a permanent
organization?

If the inferior race should remain in a mass to themselves, it would
be in a position antagonistic to the superior, and must perish. Like
the Helots of Sparta, they might be slaves to the community; but only
so when the community was the only personality, the citizens living in
common, and merging each his individual character in that of the State.
Upon reflection it will be seen that personal servitude to particular
masters would constitute the only mode by which the interests of the
two races could be harmonized; by which the inferior might be diffused
through the other, so as to come most beneficially in contact with it,
by which, in short, the safety of the inferior might be secured, and a
domestic relationship be established in place of implacable hostility.
This, however, presupposes docility in the inferior race.

The authority of a parent over the child is as absolute as that of the
master over the slave, so far as the power to enforce obedience goes.
The first, however, is mingled with parental affection, which gives
assurance of kindness and the tenderest care. But it may be abused, and
often it is.

There is no such assurance that the authority of the master will be
tempered and regulated by kindness and solicitude. Hence in due time
come the evils of the relation--the master forgetting the obligations
of his position, and looking upon his servants as so many chattels fit
only to minister to his avarice or his pleasure.

A further analogy may be stated: that as the control of parental
authority, proper over the child, would be improper after the child has
become a man, so the condition of servitude, rightly to be regarded as
one of tutelage, and proper only in that view, must after a time cease
to be just--because incompatible with progress after a certain point.
It can not be supposed that any race of men, the most humble in the
grade of civilization, are destined to be always slaves.


III. _Of Slavery as it relates to the Negroes in the United States._

The negro race in the United States have derived great benefits from
their condition of servitude. Let us have done with the wailings of
weak sympathizers who know not what they would be at. No African
has come as a slave to this country who was not a slave before. The
exchange of masters which transferred the service of the negro from
a barbarous owner in Africa to a civilized proprietor in America is
likely to prove the salvation of the race. From time immemorial slavery
has prevailed in Africa. The characteristics of slavery there, so
terrible, so abominable that any condition of existence would seem
preferable--how utterly are they forgotten by those who delight to
dwell upon the “wrongs of the negro!” In the United States the negro
has attained the Pisgah height from which he can look forward into
a land of promise, rich in blessings. No event has happened in the
history of Africa, since her degradation, so likely to result in good
to her as the residence of Africans in this country. At this moment
the negro colonist, conveyed from Maryland to the settlement at Cape
Palmas, stands a superior being among the natives that surround him in
the land of his progenitors. Servitude in the United States has been
the school of discipline and of progress by means of which the black
man may become fit for freedom.

Here, surrounded by the elements of civilization and Christian
knowledge, the negro has imbibed largely of both. His nature is
admirably adapted to catch the hue and quality of any notable
characteristic of the superior people about him. He is imitative in
a high degree; he is quick of apprehension; docile; easy of control,
without a sense of degradation connected with his service. The
position of servitude, then, in a civilized community is adapted to
him; he improves by it.

The natives of Africa at this day are just such a people as were the
slaves first brought to America; just such a people as all the slaves
were who have come from Africa to this country. If none had been
brought to our shores; if the progenitors of the negroes now here had
remained in Africa, their descendants would have been of like pattern
with themselves; they would have been in all respects similar to the
native tribes now found in Africa, because they would have been a
portion of them.

But look at the contrast which is presented when you take one of our
Maryland men of color and compare him with a native African. They
hardly seem to belong to the same race. The colonist of Cape Palmas is
very nearly, if not altogether, as much superior to the natives on the
coast of Africa as the first settlers of America were to the aborigines.

What has caused this difference? There is but one answer. Through
the ordeal of servitude in the United States the negro has passed
into the threshold of civilization, into the portals of Christianity.
Every moment of his existence among enlightened people has been one of
progress. Like a negative body brought into connection with one fully
charged, he has been continually a recipient; imparting nothing he has
acquired from every surrounding source.

Let us reverently acknowledge the overruling power of Providence, by
whose dispensation an unrighteous traffic has been made the means of
benefit to a benighted race. Africa herself will hail, on her own
shores, the return of her children who went forth in chains, and the
still heavier bondage of ignorance and barbarism--but restored to her
as freemen; the heralds of civilization; not as Israelites, bearing
away the spoil of the Egyptians, but enriched in knowledge and virtue,
and followed by the good will of their former masters.

I have deemed it the more important to set forth these views, because
of the style of language so much in vogue when the servitude of the
negroes in this country is spoken of. How incessantly do we hear of the
“wrongs of the African,” with abundance of that sort of phraseology
which makes up so much of the cant of philanthropy.

I here say nothing of the slave trade. Let those condemn it who
will; it is not for me to utter a word in its defence. But viewing
the negroes in the United States as already here, no matter by what
means brought, there is no question at all but that, as a race, their
condition here has been a fortunate state of existence for them;
whether as compared with their condition in Africa, where they were
slaves, or as taken in connection with their moral and intellectual
state and their adaptation to service.

It is perhaps too late in the day to hope for any assuaging of that
strong feeling which prevails in some parts of the north on this
subject--a feeling so strong and inflexible, that we see ecclesiastical
organizations rent asunder by it. Yet must we deplore the prevalence
of a spirit which exhibits itself in such unlovely forms of violence;
and the more especially since there is no call for such manifestations.
The race of people in whose behalf this agitation is made have never
asked for it; nothing has done them so much harm already. It is a work
of supererogation, so far as they are concerned--one of gratuitous
injury. No thought seems to have been bestowed upon the condition in
which the colored people would be placed, if abolitionism were every
where successful. The active principle in the whole business, what
has it been but an overpowering, inexorable sentiment of anathema
and condemnation against slaveholders, who are so by the inevitable
circumstances of their position, by the necessity of a transmitted
heritage of social and political relationship? And this relationship
is one for which Paul has given precepts and thus recognised--which
Christianity has embraced as one of the varied features of social
organization, bearing with it its peculiar obligations and duties.

If it were charged that the duties imposed by this peculiar
relationship had been lost sight of; if the masters were arraigned
for cruelty and injustice in their sphere--then would there be a
charge which could be judged of according to the facts. Master and
servant--both have their respective obligations: the one to render
obedience, not with eye-service, but truly; the other to exercise his
power of direction as one acting in the sight of the great Master of
all men.

Unfortunately this view is not taken. It is deemed a crime that a man
shall be a master--though by ceasing to be so his servants might be the
chief sufferers. All circumstances, facts, conditions are lost sight
of; denunciation does not stop to discriminate; the slaves are made the
objects of sympathy whether they will or not; and with a self-assumed
superiority of righteousness, these Pharisees, who thank God that they
are not as other men, pronounce judgment of condemnation, because other
men are not as they are.

It would be well if these displays of superfluous solicitude, these
copious outpourings of random philanthropy, involved nothing more than
the waste of so much of the raw material of sentimental morality.
But the arrogance of some and the vindictiveness of others of the
abolitionists, blended with such exhibitions of phrenzy, has produced
the reaction of disgust in the minds of the southern people--the
reaction of indignation and defiance. In Virginia, the disposition
which had been manifested to hasten the extinction of Slavery in 1832
was suddenly checked. So also in Kentucky. And, more lamentable still,
the relation between master and slave, previously one of simplicity and
confidence, and of kind domestic regard, was disturbed by the infusion
of a harsher ingredient. The servant became restless and discontented;
the master suspicious. I speak of the result of this abolition movement
in Maryland. Who does not remember the old domestic relation of master
and servant, so full of kindly household sympathies? There yet remain
many specimens of that class of faithful attached servitors, whose
pride in the family name and respectability, whose identification with
the family interests, was affiliated with the strongest personal
affection for the master and his household. Many of those, we say, yet
remain; they are to be found chiefly in the old families of Maryland,
and in those parts of the State farthest removed from the abolition
excitement. In the simple minds of those people no perception ever
entered of the idea that their masters, the objects of their love
and reverence, were robbers, man-stealers, or oppressors; they had
no consciousness that they themselves were degraded by a service of
which they were proud; and as to a deprivation of rights, they would
have esteemed any rights hateful which would have compelled their
separation from the hearth and home to which their affections were
devoted. Is it not clear that in a position like this, so well adapted
to the growth of good affections, a docile, mild, yet rude and simple
people, might find the elements of improvement, might find themselves
in circumstances beautifully suited to their state? What better school
could there be for such a people in which to learn the rudiments of
civilization? What a happy exchange for them to leave a barbarian
master in Africa, a capricious and savage despot, who would inflict
death or mutilation in any fit of passion, for the judicious control
of the civilized white man, at once, a master, teacher, protector, and
friend! How fortunate for the future prospects of the race that their
lot was taken from the dreary barrenness of savage life, in Africa,
with its cruelties, its debasing superstitions, its hideous brutalities
and licentiousness, to be cast in the bosom of a Christian land, amid
the elements of social refinement and political freedom? Of these the
African in the United States has profited much. The well bred colored
man in Maryland appreciates, to the full, the character of a gentleman;
the self-governing colored man at Cape Palmas understands well the
operation of republican institutions.


IV. _How Slavery is to be regarded as an Institution: whether permanent
or not._

If it is evident, from the foregoing, that the state of servitude has
been well adapted to the condition of the negroes who were brought to
this country; if it appears beyond all doubt that they have improved in
that state; it is no less clear that the condition of Slavery is not
adapted to their continued improvement--that it is in fact incompatible
with their improvement beyond a certain point.

The uses of Slavery are those of tutelage; in other words, Slavery is
beneficial and proper only in so far as it is a species of tutelage.
But a state of tutelage must have an end; the child in due time grows
beyond it. So of a race in servitude--for it is as a race that we are
considering the negro and his position.

The law of progress is an inherent principle in every form of social
organization; it is the mark of its vitality and the main element
thereof. Efforts indeed have been made, and long persevered in, to
defeat this tendency to development. Hence the organism of castes in
Hindostan; hence the Chinese policy of prohibiting changes in the most
trivial as well as the most important things. In both instances the
mind is dwarfed, and unnatural exhibitions are produced from which
civilization turns away with disgust. Society can not be petrified in
fixed forms; stereotyped in one immovable aspect, like metal fused and
cast in a mould. It has a vital principle; it is a living organization;
it has powers of growth and expansion which must go on to their
development, or the vital force, suppressed, will generate disorder in
the system and manifest itself in the shapes of maladies and eruptions.

But what need is there of argument or illustration on so plain a
point? Is it not palpable to the perception of every one that the idea
of Slavery is utterly repugnant to the attainment by man, of his due
stature and proportions in the world, of moral and civil action? The
ascendency which superior intelligence gives may be used to control
the less enlightened, if it is found that control is necessary to the
latter, from the circumstances of their position and their inability to
govern themselves. But the ascendency of superior intelligence should
be itself controlled by superior benevolence and justice; it should
not be made the mere instrument of selfish ends. Slavery, let it be
repeated, when right and proper, is a species of guardianship; a form
of tutelage. In this view a good thing, it becomes, like other good
things, when perverted, a pernicious evil.

I am aware that some distinguished gentlemen at the south maintain the
doctrine that Slavery, as a permanent institution, is no evil; and
they contend that, as a mode of organizing labor, it is better than
the English system which makes the operatives by the mass the slaves
of a social organization, which, cutting them off from the domestic
sympathies of their employers, leaves them to a cold isolation and to
the slender resources of a pittance, in the shape of scanty wages, and
to the poor rates, contributed by a calculating cupidity, and reduced
to the lowest minimum on this side of starvation.

It would not be to the purpose to enter into a comparison of these
two systems. It is enough to know that neither can be permanent;
because both are incompatible with the progress of mankind. There is
this, however, to be noted. The aristocracy of Great Britain hold
in servitude men of their own blood, race, and complexion; elements
of Anglo-Saxon hardihood; bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh;
millions worthy of a better state, and capable of appreciating better
things. In this republic the servile class are of a race and complexion
different from ours; just entering upon the borders of civilization,
adapted from their characteristic disposition to service, and rapidly
improving in the service of their superiors; incapable of holding any
other relation, because incapable of being harmoniously blended with
the general mass of society--a class whose condition, if liberated from
the control and protection of individual masters yet remaining in the
community, would be one of exposure to a thousand ills from which they
are now shielded. Gurth, the born thrall of Cedric the Saxon, found
shelter under his master’s roof; in sickness a master’s care; in old
age, sustenance from a master’s hand. He was one of a household sharing
in the life thereof, in its loves and fears, its attachments and
feuds, its domestic endearments, its homefelt enjoyments. The English
operative of this day has no such associations as these. There are
superiors around him; but he finds a protector in none of them. Hence
his feelings towards the wealthy and noble are apt to be characterized
by sullen dislike, or by a mean servility. As for sympathy, he may
look for that to the spinning jenny and the cotton bale, and let his
affections grow to them if they can.

The world will behold in due time the disruption of that vast
organization of labor by which the ruling class in Great Britain have
concentrated the energies of the empire, and directed the same for so
many years to the extension of British power and dominion, which was
but a generalized mode of aggrandizing themselves. That system has
answered great purposes, has accomplished great results. But it has
generated in its progress a mass of social and political evil which
now clogs its working, and is gradually impairing its inmost springs
of action. Civilization is expanding beyond the narrow basis of a
class government. Humanity cries aloud in the name of her millions.
Men are something more than machines. The object of human existence
is not merely to gain, by incessant toil, the means of subsistence,
that the ability to toil on may be maintained. The mass of mankind
were never designed to be the drudges of a few, and to rest in
that position, as the highest attainment for them. The progress of
freedom is but the progress of individual development; its results
are the results of individual activity, extended more and more to the
integers of society. Men have found that power, in whatever depository
lodged, has been used by rulers in forgetfulness of its true uses, in
forgetfulness of the general good, in a blind persuasion that it was
theirs by an inherent right, to be employed for their aggrandizement
or pleasure. Thus the Priesthood first, as the agents of heaven, and
holding intercourse with the celestial powers; then the monarch, as the
personal representative of Deity; next the highest order of men in the
State, ὁι αριστοι, as possessing the combined wisdom of the wisest; all
these have held the supreme power in succession, in the progress of
freedom, and all have perverted the functions of government. Instead
of shepherds, guarding well the flock, they have been as hirelings,
fleecing the flock. The assumption of sovereign power by the general
body of the people, is the result of continued disappointments--of
continued failures to find a depository where sovereignty might be
safely deposited and righteously and wisely administered.

It will not do for the rulers of nations nor for the masters of slaves
to regard themselves as the holders of power for their own purposes
merely--but as the holders of a trust which they are to discharge with
fidelity, and which they are to give up, when their agency as the
administrators of authority is no longer productive of good.


V. _Of Slavery in Maryland._

It is known that Slavery once existed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
New York, and the New England States. It has been abolished in those
States, while it continues to exist in Maryland, and in the States
south of the Potomac and the Ohio.

The disappearance of Slavery from certain States, and its continuance
in others, constitute a notable point of observation. Why has it
happened that Pennsylvania discarded an institution which South
Carolina cherishes? Is the question one of morality or of political
economy?

If slave labor had proved, upon the whole, profitable in Pennsylvania,
is it likely that Slavery would have been abolished in that State? Let
the same question be asked of New Jersey, New York, and New England.

There was a _beginning_ of the system in Maryland, Virginia,
the Carolinas, and Georgia. How happened it that the germ of an
institution, planted about the same time in all the colonies, took
root and increased in some of them only, while in others it did not
grow? It could not have been from the superior morality of the northern
people--because at that time there was no question about the morality
of the thing at all. Scruples against the right to hold slaves were not
entertained then; nor was the slave trade regarded as an unrighteous
traffic.

The operation of causes similar to those which produced emancipation at
the north, will bring about the abolition of Slavery in Maryland. Let
us now consider this point.

If Slavery be regarded as a matter of political economy, it will be
found, as when viewed in the light of a social relation, to require
conditions and circumstances, in order to its vindication. It is only
when the soil is uncommonly prolific, and calls for no great degree of
skill in the cultivation; or when the productions are so valuable as to
allow of large deductions for waste and bad management, that Slavery
can be said to pay for its own subsistence.

In the long run, Slavery is always unprofitable. It can be applied
only to one sort of labor--agriculture; and to that in its simplest
forms. Its tendency is to exhaust the soil without providing for its
resuscitation; because wherever Slavery is, there labor is regarded as
drudgery, and the intelligence of the community, which resides with the
masters, is not directed towards labor. Hence there are no improvements
in the modes of labor; no well regulated system of economy; no
foresight. The masters want to enjoy at once the proceeds of their
plantations, for their business is mainly to enjoy; they live for the
present; they leave all concerns of industry to their overseers, who
are not likely to carry out systematic plans for the improvement of
lands, when the owners of the estates are regardless of such things,
and would not be disposed to forego immediate profits for the future
benefit of such improvements. A thoughtful industry will wait some
years for the fruition of its hopes, stinting itself in the meantime.
It will vest in the soil the profits of the year, looking to be repaid
abundantly hereafter. But with a system of Slavery these things can
not be expected.

As a general remark, then, it may be observed that whenever from
circumstances of soil, climate, and production, there is need of
economy, skill, and careful industry in the cultivation of the ground;
wherever nature, not yielding her fruits to indolent hands, has to
be overcome by sturdy efforts, by labor directed by intelligence and
aided at every turn by the appliances of art which inventive genius has
discovered and adapted to use--there Slavery can not permanently exist,
because it is incompatible with such conditions.

In this view it may be seen how it has happened that Slavery, once
adopted in the northern States, failed to flourish there--how it was
cast out as an uncongenial element. In this same view it may be seen
also that Slavery must, by and by, cease to exist in Maryland. It
has brought sterility already upon whole districts; it rests like a
paralysing spell upon the enterprise and the active energies of the
commonwealth. Of this, more as we proceed.

In the sugar and cotton growing States the products of the soil are
so rich and abundant, that Slavery can exist in spite of the slovenly
and wasteful manner in which its agency is employed. Yet even under
these circumstances its profits are for the most part fallacious.
No portion of the United States suffered so severely under the
commercial revulsion of 1837 as the cotton and sugar growing region.
The statistics of bankruptcies in Jamaica, as exhibited in reports to
Parliament from time to time, show the same fact.

Again, the use of slave labor is deemed essential in hot climates. The
productiveness of the British West India Islands certainly was impaired
by the abolition of Slavery; nor can it be disguised that the British
government is now attempting to substitute another species of Slavery,
or Slavery under another name, in place of that which was abolished.
If the emancipated slaves had shown a willingness to work; if they had
been sufficiently advanced to appreciate freedom so far as to know
that in their own industry lay the real elements of independence--the
result of the Emancipation Act of the British Parliament would have
been different from what it has thus far appeared to be. There would
have been laborers enough; but laborers of such a sort that the white
proprietors, a handful in the general population, would have been
supplanted--and that ere now. The energy which would have impelled the
Jamaica negroes to work of their own accord; the spirit which would
have sustained them; if that energy and spirit had existed; would have
made them masters of the island.

But in the West Indies the blacks, for the most part, are scarcely
one grade beyond the natives in Africa. They are not so transfused
throughout a white population as our negroes are; they live in gangs or
communities to themselves, where they speak a gibberish dialect, and
retain their native superstitions. They are a far inferior race to the
colored people of the United States. Of course they would not work when
compulsion ceased; their highest ideas of freedom included nothing more
precious than the privilege of being idle. And it is very well for the
existing generation of whites in those islands, that the emancipated
mass preferred torpid repose to activity.

At present the planters of Jamaica are obtaining laborers from Africa,
under the name of emigrants, who, by a pleasant fiction, are entered
as volunteers in the fields. The British cruisers, when they capture
a slaver at sea, send the cargo to the West Indies, and thus benefit
the plantations, at the expense of the slave captain and owners--the
latter suffering confiscation, and the former running the risk of
being hanged. So, certain of the eagle tribe, disdaining to fish,
sit on a high tree or rock and watch the fishing hawk; and when the
latter secures his prey in his talons and is rising with it, the eagle
darts forth from his eminence and pounces upon the spoil, which he
appropriates without further ceremony to the use of his own nest.

Nevertheless, it is not my purpose to dwell on this point of the
adaptation of slave labor to hot climates. We may safely leave it
to time and to the progress of the age to determine that matter
as it ought to be determined. It is Slavery in Maryland which we
are considering; and in Maryland the heat of the climate can not
be taken into the account at all, as disqualifying free labor. The
States farther south have their own responsibilities on the subject
of Slavery. They will know of themselves when the system becomes
productive of evil to such an extent as to call for its removal. It is
not for us to judge for them, to judge them. Let each State act for
itself and act only when its judgment and sense of duty dictate.

For years past our cotton growing States have been exporting their
soil; and with that improvidence which Slavery generates, that love
of present indulgence, careless of what may follow, the south has
received in return the means of enjoyment only--nothing wherewith to
renovate the outraged ground. Such a process long continued must, in
the end, ruin the finest lands in the world. Its effects are apparent
in the Atlantic States of the south, which are losing their population,
the attraction of the new and rich lands in the south-west operating
irresistibly to draw the planters of Carolina and Georgia from their
worn out fields.

The same general observations will apply to our slaveholding sections
in Maryland, and to many parts of eastern Virginia too, if it were
necessary to pursue the investigation there. Emigration to the west
has kept pace with the impoverishment of our lands. Large tracts have
come into the hands of a few proprietors--too large to be improved,
and too much exhausted to be productive. But this is not the worst.
The traveller, as he journeys through these districts, smitten with
premature barrenness as with a curse, beholds fields, once enclosed
and subject to tillage, now abandoned and waste, and covered with
straggling pines or scrubby thickets, which are fast overgrowing the
waning vestiges of former cultivation. From swamps and undrained
morasses, malaria exhales, and like a pestilence infects the country.
The inhabitants become a sallow race; the current of life stagnates;
energy fails; the spirits droop. Over the whole region a melancholy
aspect broods. There are every where signs of dilapidation, from
the mansion of the planter with its windows half-glazed, its doors
half-hinged, its lawn trampled by domestic animals that have ingress
and egress through the broken enclosures, to the ragged roadside
house where thriftless poverty finds its abode. No neat cottages with
gardens and flowers giving life to the landscape; no beautiful villages
where cultivated taste blends with rustic simplicity, enriching
and beautifying; no flourishing towns, alive with the bustle of
industry--none of those are seen; no, nor any diversified succession of
well cultivated farms with their substantial homesteads and capacious
barns; no well-constructed bridges, no well-conditioned roads.
Neglect, the harbinger of decay, has stamped her impress every where.
Slavery, bringing with it from its African home its characteristic
accompaniments, seems to have breathed over its resting places here the
same desolating breath which made Sahara a desert.

No one who has passed from a region of free labor to a slaveholding
district can have failed to notice the contrast presented by the change.

I have been here speaking of those portions of the country where
slavery has existed for a long time, and where it has formed the
prominent feature. In some sections the natural fertility of the soil
withstands for many years the deteriorating influence of slave culture;
in other quarters, the number of slaves being small, the effects of
slavery do not become prominently characteristic.

Grain growing districts, countries where a scientific agriculture
prevails, where the mind of man as well as the hands of labor, finds
employment in the culture of the ground, the rearing of trees, the
improvement of breeds of cattle, horses, and swine, the refining of the
texture of wool, the care of the dairy--those rural districts, where
Nature, repaying the manifold appliances of judicious care, tasks her
powers of production and puts on her loveliest forms of beauty, as
though grateful to man for his attention, and seeking communion with
his better spirit--_there_ Slavery can not dwell. It is not congenial
with such scenes.

Nor, again, can Slavery find a congenial abode in those beautiful
undulating regions of green hills and swiftly flowing streams which
afford such conveniences for the arts. In those regions nature invites
the co-operation of intelligent man; she offers her powers to turn the
wheels of his complicated machinery. The rude hands of servile labor
are not adapted to take advantage of such proffers.

What are all the arts of civilized life, but so many results of
man’s conquests over material things? The active mind, the inventive
intellect, in alliance with its minister, the fashioning hand, never
ceases in its efforts, as it comes in contact with the things of
nature, to turn them to its purposes. The laws of nature are studied
that man may act in unison with them, and through them gain the
mastery. But where Slavery forms the hand of the community, the working
instrument, how is it possible that intelligence should animate it to
give it dexterity, delicacy of touch, variety of powers? No, it is not
possible. The informing principle, the vital force of a perceptive
mind, quickened by its own impulses, can not descend into the form of
Slavery to animate and direct it. There may be great intelligence in a
slaveholding community; but it is not in the working members thereof.
Thus the mind of the South, devoted to political affairs, is shrewd,
active, and powerful, and maintains an ascendency in the republic,
far beyond the physical weight and resources of that section of the
union. The south has given to the United States seven out of the ten
Presidents who have sat at the head of our public affairs. But the mind
of the south can not approach nature to deal with it, to overcome it.
It has not the appliances, the practical instrumentality. Its head is
clear; but its hand is paralytic. If its working agency were endowed
with an inherent intelligence and a self-directing will, the necessary
accompaniments of an inventive genius, it would be servile no longer.

The south, then, must be content, so long as it retains Slavery, with
the simplest modes of labor; it must expect to have every thing done
in a clumsy, slovenly manner. It may grow cotton and sugar, while
fertility remains to its soil; but it will be dependent on the north
for the most ordinary implements of husbandry, from a cotton gin to
a hoe, a spade, or sugar ladle. Let us here quote the language of a
southern man:

“My recent visit to the northern states has fully satisfied me that
the true secret of our difficulties lies in the want of energy on
the part of our capitalists, and ignorance and laziness on the part
of those who _ought_ to labor. We need never look for thrift while
we permit our immense timber forests, granite quarries and mines, to
lie idle, and supply ourselves with hewn granite, pine boards, laths,
and shingles, &c., furnished by the lazy dogs at the north--ah, worse
than this, we see our back country farmers, many of whom are too lazy
to mend a broken gate, or repair the fences, to protect their crops
from the neighboring stock, actually supplied with their axe, hoe, and
broom handles, pitchforks, rakes, &c., by the _indolent_ mountaineers
of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The time was when every old woman
in the country had her gourd, from which the country gardens were
supplied with seeds. We now find it more convenient to permit this duty
to devolve on our careful friends, the Yankees. Even our boat-oars,
and handspikes for rolling logs, are furnished, ready made, to our
hands, and what jimcrack can possibly be invented of which we are
not the purchasers? These are the drains which are impoverishing the
south--these are the true sources of all our difficulties. Need I add,
further to exemplify our excessive indolence, that the Charleston
market is supplied with fish and wild game by northern men, who come
out here as regularly as the winter comes for this purpose, and, from
our own waters and forests, often realize, in the course of one winter,
a sufficiency to purchase a small farm in New England?”

The newspapers tell us from time to time of the establishment of
manufacturing works in the south. In the western portions of North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, where the country is hilly
and water power abundant, cotton factories are beginning to spring
up. Men of enterprise from the north go thither and embark in these
undertakings, which are said, for the most part, to promise well.
In many places in Virginia, manufactures have taken root firmly. In
proportion as this movement goes on and prospers, in such proportion
will Slavery recede; in such proportion will its hold at the south be
loosened.

For let it be remembered that the blending of the mind of the
community, with the labor of the community, implies necessarily
_freedom_, to the extent of such combination.

Look at the diversified forms in which the mind of the north finds
development: behold its manifold workings. What exhibitions of
ingenuity! What variety of invention! What astonishing results!
Lowell and Patterson and Pittsburg, each a living trophy of the
achievements of man over the powers of nature, or rather of his
achievements in alliance with the powers of nature. Yet what are these
three illustrations? The number of such is innumerable. Look at the
whole state of Ohio, the growing, gigantic embodiment of practical,
intellectual energy applied to the arts of industry.

Nor can any limits be assigned to this progression, nor any
restrictions be put upon the variety of its developments. The whole
world of material things lies subject to the controlling hand of man,
when his inquiring mind has discovered the laws of nature; and what can
hold back the free spirit from its incessant investigations?

But in a slaveholding community there is no such progression, no
such variety. The mind of the community is directed to other things
than labor; nay, labor falls into contempt and is looked upon as
derogatory; for it is _servile_ to labor. How can society, under such
circumstances, advance in the practical arts? Its industry is confined
to one pursuit, and in that there can be no excellence attained,
because slave labor is not imbued with intelligence. Evidently, such a
social state can not be fitted for permanence; it is not in harmony
with the laws of social existence and progress. Things can not be in a
wholesome condition where it is discreditable to work, since with labor
is conjoined every valuable attainment, including soundness of mind and
body.

It must doubtless, sooner or later, come to pass that the soil of the
Atlantic cotton growing States, worn out by servile culture, will be
unable to sustain Slavery by the side of the competition of the rich
alluvial lands of the south western portions of the Mississippi valley.
Georgia and the Carolinas, not to mention Virginia, where Slavery must
cease at an earlier date than in the more southern States, will find it
necessary to fall upon some other occupation besides cotton growing.
They must cultivate the vine, breed silk worms, rear the olive, turn
to account their manufacturing facilities--these, or other such
things, the inhabitants there must do if they would save the land from
depopulation.

There is but one element in the agriculture of Maryland to which
Slavery is attached with any affinity; and that is the Tobacco culture.
Nor is this affinity of a very binding nature. Tobacco can be grown
very successfully by free labor, as the statistics of Ohio demonstrate.
One result of the abolition of Slavery in this particular, would be the
subdivision of large plantations into small farms.

The system of cultivation would improve under this arrangement, and
the product would be increased. I presume it would be no exaggerated
calculation to estimate that the tobacco crop of Prince George’s
county, under a system of small farms and free labor, would be of twice
its present annual value ten years hence. The enhanced value of the
land would be in about the same proportion.

If the foregoing considerations afford any illustration of the reasons
why Slavery did not continue to exist in the States north of Maryland,
a brief examination of statistics, to say nothing of other things, will
show that the system can not continue much longer to exist in Maryland.
I ask attention to the remarkable facts exhibited by the census
records of our State since 1790.[2]

In nine counties in Maryland the white population has diminished
since 1790. These are the counties: Montgomery, Prince George, St.
Mary’s, Calvert, Charles, Kent, Caroline, Talbot and Queen Anne’s.
The aggregate white population of those counties in 1790 was 73,352;
in 1840 it was 54,408. Here is a falling off of nearly 20,000; if the
account were carried to the present year the falling off would be more
than 20,000.

These nine counties include the chief slaveholding sections of the
State. In five of them taken together, viz., Montgomery, Prince George,
St. Mary’s, Calvert, and Charles, the number of slaves exceeds that of
the white population. These are chiefly the tobacco growing counties,
together with the county of Frederick.

The counties of Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Baltimore and
Baltimore City are the portions of the State in which Slavery has
existed but partially. That is to say, Allegany, with an aggregate
population of 15,704, has but 811 slaves; Washington, in a population
of 28,862, has 2,505 slaves; Frederick has 6,370 slaves to a population
of 36,703; Baltimore county, 6,533 slaves in an aggregate population of
80,256; and Baltimore city includes but 3,212 slaves in its population
of 102,513.

Now taking these four counties and Baltimore city out of the account,
it will be found that the aggregate white population of the rest of the
State has diminished since 1790. In other words the increase of our
population, which is about one hundred and fifty thousand since the
first census, has been mainly in those counties where Slavery has been
least prominent. In those portions of the State where Slavery prevails
most prominently the white population, during the last fifty years, has
diminished.

Another remarkable result exhibited by the census statistics of
Maryland since 1790, is the increase of the free colored population,
in contrast with the diminution of slaves. The slave population of
our State amounted in 1790 to 103,036; in 1810 it reached 111,502,
its maximum. Since 1810 it has fallen to 89,619. The free colored
population on the other hand, which in 1790 was only 8,043, has
increased to 61,093. In a few years it must exceed the slave
population, for the one is increasing while the other decreases--a
double process which must soon annihilate the difference of some
twenty-five thousand.

The number of manumissions reported to the commissioners of the State
Colonization Fund from 1831 to 1845, under the act of the former
year, was 2,988. This shows an average of some two hundred and more
annually. I am not sure that this number exhibits all the manumissions.
It is enough, however, to show the tendency of things. With all the
restrictions which legislation has imposed upon manumissions they still
go on. It may be taken for certain that they will go on; that nothing
can stop them. Year after year the scruples of slaveholders in some
parts of the State prompt to manumission. The death beds of many afford
the occasions for giving these scruples force. It is useless to reason
about a thing of this sort. Emancipation in Maryland must go on. In my
humble judgment it is going on too fast--and for the simple reason that
we are not making adequate preparation for the new condition of things
which must ensue.

The contrast presented by the progress of the free States, within fifty
years, and by that of the slaveholding States for the same period,
is so familiar that it would be useless to burden these pages with
statistics to illustrate it. It may be sufficient to state, in respect
to the increase of population, that in 1790 the free States, including
Massachusetts and Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Vermont, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, had a population of
1,971,455; while the slaveholding States, Delaware, Maryland, with
the District, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia,
contained 1,852,494 inhabitants. In 1840 the same free States numbered
a population of 6,761,082, and the same slaveholding States had an
entire population of 3,827,110. The former increased in a ratio more
than double as compared with the latter.

In our own State, however, where we do not grow cotton, sugar, or rice,
and where there are no new lands to present a fresh soil to the plough,
and to invite settlers from a distance, the increase of population in
our chief slaveholding counties has been nothing at all. There has
been a decrease, and a very marked one. How has this decrease happened
but by a process similar to that which rendered desolate three hundred
thousand acres in the champagne of Naples, in the days of Slavery among
the Romans--which made Italy itself almost one wilderness, reinhabited
by wild boars and other animals, before a single barbarian had crossed
the Alps!

Let us not conceal the truth from ourselves. Slavery in Maryland is
no longer compatible with progress; it is a dead weight and worse; it
has become a wasting disease, weakening the vital powers--a leprous
distilment into the life blood of the commonwealth. Yet we will have no
quacks to prescribe for our malady. It is only necessary that we should
become aware of our true condition; there are restorative energies in
abundance, rightly directed, to retrieve the State from every disorder
to which she is subject.


VII. _Emancipation in Maryland: its difficulties._

If we are driven to the conclusion that Slavery in Maryland must
terminate, under the operation of tendencies now at work, it becomes a
matter of great importance to know something about the manner in which
so extensive a change is to be accomplished. Undoubtedly it will not
do to remain entirely passive on this subject. I am persuaded that the
general sentiment in Maryland is fixed in the conviction that Slavery,
here at least, is an evil, and that in some way or other it must be
removed.

There are two main difficulties which here present themselves.

In the first place the negroes amongst us, whether emancipated or
enslaved, must remain a distinct class, a servile class, separated from
the whites by differences of color, race and civilization.

In considering Slavery where such bars of separation between the
classes are not found, one may very well imagine how the system may
be changed without confusion or disorder; how the enslaved class,
gradually admitted to the privileges of freedom, may, after a while,
become incorporated with the general body of society; how, thus, all
distinctions may be finally destroyed, and how the power, resources,
and energy of the State may be vastly increased by the addition of
so much active material to her industrial and moral forces. In Rome
the sons of freedmen were citizens. Europe could alter her system of
Slavery which existed in the middle ages, and which still exists in
Poland, Hungary and Russia; she could admit her serfs to some of the
rights of citizens, though still withholding many of those rights;
she could do this without danger, because serfs and lords were of one
complexion, and of one race. The descendant of a peasant might himself
in time become a lord.

But when a servile population, emancipated, stands marked by its
peculiarities of race and color, so that it can not be drawn into
the social and political sphere, its position inevitably becomes
hostile. In the midst of the community, but not of it; the old bond of
connection ruptured, with no basis whatever upon which a new one can be
established--what but feelings of suspicion, of distrust, of aversion
and repugnance can prevail between the two classes so far removed and
so entirely dissimilar.

Nor can any thing be done by the superior class to elevate the
condition of the other; because that would be to strengthen an adverse
power. All efforts to improve an humble population must have reference
to their ultimate admission to a participation in social and political
rights. Of course this could not be contemplated for a moment in any
community where the number of the black population might be at all
considerable. And this brings me, without dwelling farther on this
point, to the second difficulty which has to be considered by us in
Maryland, in view of future emancipation.

When it was determined to abolish Slavery in Pennsylvania, the thing
could be done easily enough, because of the small number of slaves in
that commonwealth, in comparison with the bulk of the population. The
slaves were a mere handful. They could be set free in the midst of the
general community without the danger of their forming a large class
remaining distinct from the rest of the population, to infect society
by their idleness, or to excite commotion by the rivalry of their labor
with that of the whites. It made no great difference in the social
condition of Pennsylvania, whether the negroes within her borders were
individually slaves or not. Their numbers were too small to affect the
general current of things one way or another.

But in Maryland the case is otherwise. It would be a serious business
to set free as large a slave population as we have, and leave them
floating among us with a careless disregard of the future. The black
population of Maryland is about one third of the whole population. In
1840 it amounted to 151,556; the white population numbered 316,011. In
an aggregate population, then, of 467,567 the blacks number 151,556.
Of these the slaves are about ninety thousand; the free blacks, about
sixty thousand.

The question, it may be said, relates not to the aggregate number of
the black population, but only to the slave portion. Sixty thousand
and more are free already; emancipation would affect only the ninety
thousand.

The latter number would be sufficient to make it a serious business.
But in fact the matter relates to the whole number. For emancipation
would make them all of one class as they are now of one race--would add
the ninety thousand to the sixty thousand and upwards, constituting
altogether a vast heterogeneous element in the social sphere which
could not be assimilated, and which would be too great to remain
unassimilated without great disorder.

No; the moment the interests of this race are disintegrated from those
of the whites, the two will come into collision, and the weaker must be
sacrificed. The only safety of the black is in the swallowing up of his
personality--the merging of himself and his being, in the overpowering
existence of the master race.

Why will not those who call themselves the friends of the black people
think of this?

The ninety thousand slaves of Maryland have now protectors; these
slaves constitute part and parcel of a great interest which their
masters represent. Set them free, and where will they find protectors?
They will not be able to protect themselves; for their freedom would
give them no participation in the political franchise--nor would such
participation avail them if it were given.

In the competition which arises now between slave labor and free white
labor in our slaveholding counties, the latter is obliged to give
way--because the slave and the master are of one interest, and that
the predominant interest. The laboring white man removes; or, if he
remains, he succumbs to the overpowering force, and, though conscious
of the degradation, he submits to it.

But if the slave is separated from the master and left to stand alone,
then is he not only deprived of the support which upheld him, but the
very power which protected is now turned against him; the stamp of his
race is upon him; he is isolated. Cut off from the sympathies of the
whites, without any part or lot in the political life of the State,
forming no part of the frame work of society, he is like a parasite
plant torn from the stock to which it clung. The slaveholding interest
is no more; where is the slave-protecting interest to spring up?

The competition between white labor and that of the blacks, Slavery
being abolished, would now assume a new appearance. The negroes
would have none to befriend them; every white laborer, actually or
prospectively a voter, would bring with him into the competition the
whole force of his connection with the social and political system.
Apart from this, the value of white labor would be greater than that of
negro labor, in almost any pursuit. The conflict of this competition
might be dangerous to domestic peace; it might prove suddenly
destructive to the race which sooner or later it would inevitably
overwhelm.

The danger of disturbances of tranquillity would arise from the large
mass of the black population amongst us. In the northern States the
negroes are too few to come into competition with the whites; yet even
in those States a hostile feeling is indulged towards them. Witness
the outbreaks in Philadelphia and Cincinnati a few years ago. Here in
Maryland the collision between the two classes of laborers would be
more violent than any which has yet taken place elsewhere. The influx
of foreign laborers, German and Irish, with their superior efficiency,
would add continually to the force pressing upon the negroes. Recollect
that the latter form nearly one-third of our population; and then
consider the probable fate of that multitude of defenceless beings,
aliens in the community, with an active enemy bent on rooting them out,
no sympathies in their favor, no interest to support them, but with
every prejudice of society turned against them.

Again, passing by these certain provocations of disturbance, the
presence of so large a body of free negroes in the State would render
necessary a series of restrictive laws. At this time our legislation
is thought to be very severe towards the free colored people. It is
painful to contemplate the extremes to which our police severities
might be obliged to go in the event of an act of emancipation.

I have used the term “free negroes,” to distinguish the emancipated
blacks from the slaves. But the distinction is scarcely worth a
difference so far as servitude is concerned. The emancipated negro can
not emerge from a servile condition; it is impossible that he should do
so in this country, while the distinctions of race and color remain.
If Slavery were abolished in Maryland, the negroes amongst us would
be slaves to the social system, instead of slaves to individuals; the
restrictions of the laws would be more hard than the control of a
master.

In view, then, of the real facts of our position, as it relates to
our black people, what ought to be our chief concern? To hasten
emancipation? No: that will come at any rate; it may come too soon.
The main thing is to see how we can provide for it so that the new
relations it will bring may be productive of good and not of evil to
both races.

This, then, is the great matter; the public mind should be turned
to it seriously and at once. Maryland has no precedent to follow.
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New England had none of her
difficulties. They could emancipate and leave results to take care
of themselves; or they might have refrained from emancipation with
pretty nearly equal indifference. No strong, deeply rooted slaveholding
interest could ever have grown up in those States; for the same reasons
which prevent any such from fastening itself upon western Maryland and
western Virginia. Slavery never could have become ingrained in the
fibre and texture of the communities north of us, as it has grown into
ours. Hence while the putting of it off by them was a mere rejection
of something uncongenial with the system, it will be with us a serious
alterative process to root out a constitutional malady which has crept
into the blood, and blended itself with the very springs of life.

If we should rush precipitately upon emancipation, and rest with that
as though it were every thing--let us see what would come of that. One
hundred and fifty thousand black people, deprived of the guardianship
and control of masters, the bonds of domestic relationship which
united them with the community being rent asunder, and that identity
of interest gone which secured them a definite and harmonious, though
humble sphere in the social organism--shall they be left to the mercy
of stringent laws and police restrictions, and have the life worried
out of them by the incessant fretting of petty persecutions? Poor
unfortunates, thrust forth out of the pale of communion to maintain a
separate existence, with no foundation to rest it upon, with no element
of social or political life wherewith to nourish it, with nothing to
cling to, nothing to be engrafted upon, an existence without entity,
miserable, forlorn, who could be so unfeeling as not to commiserate
their condition! Nor would it be the slowly wasting process of petty
persecutions which they would have alone to encounter. Day by day the
pressure of competition would become more and more grievous, driving
them from every avocation in which they could hope to find employment.
Forced from the city into the country, they would be compelled to seek
refuge from the country in the obscure alleys of the city. I have
alluded to the riots in Cincinnati and Philadelphia a few years ago,
the causes of which are too well known. In the city of New York, if
my information is correct, negroes are excluded from cab driving and
similar occupations. If such things are seen in communities where the
number of blacks is comparatively small, what might not be expected in
a community where the blacks are so numerous as they are in ours?

It may be here remarked that so long as Slavery remains a prominent
institution in a State, its influence upon labor, and upon the
estimation in which labor is held, has the effect of protecting the
class of free negroes to a considerable extent from the competition,
and its results, of white labor. The slaveholding interest is the
bulwark of the whole colored race; it stands between them and
destruction. Here in Baltimore there are no ordinances excluding free
negroes from particular occupations. The competition of white labor,
however, mostly Irish and German, has driven the free negroes from many
sorts of employment on Fell’s Point, especially from the wharves and
coal yards. If Slavery were abolished and the slaveholding interest
extinct, the whole force of an irresistible competition would come
directly upon the colored people, and would overwhelm them utterly.
When we are considering emancipation, therefore, we must consider
other things also, if we would be mindful of our duty as having in
charge a docile inoffensive class, whose fate depends so much upon our
conduct towards them.

One other thing remains to be here mentioned before we pass to the
next and last division of the subject. In the event of emancipation,
if we trust to the action of our domestic policy to drive the black
population into other parts of the Union, it must be borne in mind that
the reactive policy of our neighbor States, both north and south, will
be immediately operative to repel the influx of blacks, likely to be
poured upon them from Maryland. Can it be supposed that Pennsylvania
will open her arms to receive the exiles rejected from our bosom? Ohio
has already raised the barrier of exclusion as against Kentucky. The
slaveholding States will not take our expelled negroes. We could not
expect that; for Maryland at this moment will not take the free negroes
of any other State.

Our condition, then, will be one of isolation, to such a degree, at
least, as to throw us wholly upon our own energies. In other words, if
we emancipate we must not expect to slough off the results upon other
States. We must confront them ourselves; we must meet them on our own
soil, and manage them as best we may. It is probable, however, that
an act of prospective emancipation would induce some slaveholders to
emigrate with their slaves to the south-west; and in this way there
would be some diminution of the mass of the colored population.


VIII. _Colonization._

The law of 1831 which recognised COLONIZATION as a part of the
public policy of Maryland was a compromise, though generally not so
regarded now, between the emancipation tendency then operative and the
slaveholding interest. The fanatical movement of the abolitionists
checked the progress of things here; all sides, all parties, all
tendencies were united to rebuke the insolent demonstrations of that
fanaticism.

COLONIZATION proposes to convey to the western coast of Africa, and
to establish there, on territory procured for the purpose, the free
colored people of Maryland, with their own consent. To carry out this
design the Legislature of Maryland, in 1831 appropriated ten thousand
dollars annually for twenty years, and constituted the Maryland
State Colonization Society the agent in the business. Three Managers
of the fund are appointed by the State, to act in concert with the
Colonization Board. Neither the managers nor the members of the board
receive any compensation; yet no enterprise was ever prosecuted with
more energy, prudence, and success.

It is not necessary that I should go into details here to show what
colonization has achieved under the auspices of the Maryland board. The
people of Maryland are familiar with this subject. The Colonization
Journal, published semi-monthly in Baltimore, under the charge of DR.
JAMES HALL, the board’s general agent, makes known to the public all
the particulars connected with colonization, and the affairs of the
settlement in Africa. It may be sufficient at present to say that a
most propitious fortune seems to have accompanied every step of this
great undertaking. The colony was planted by some thirty or forty
emigrants; it now has a population of more than seven hundred. It is
an organized community; in its form, constitution and laws it is a
republic; the governor, appointed by the State board, is a colored
man; the other officers, elected by the people or appointed by the
Executive, are all colored men. The little commonwealth is prosperous;
it has established its influence over the neighboring tribes; and
recently GOV. RUSSWURM procured by purchase a considerable and very
important territory, lying adjacent to Cape Palmas. The colony has its
schools, its houses of worship, its military organization, its tribunal
of justice, its officers of police, its administrative functionaries.
Roads have been opened into the interior, and a trade is carried on
in rice, camwood, palm oil, and other productions of the country. The
language of an eye witness will best testify to the condition of
affairs in our Maryland colony: I quote the Rev. JOHN SEYES, a minister
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, long a resident at the old colony of
Monrovia, and recently a visiter at Cape Palmas:

“I consider the colony of Maryland in Liberia, known as the one
receiving the exclusive patronage of the Maryland State Colonization
Society of the United States, as decidedly one of the most prosperous
of the American settlements on the western coast of Africa. It could
not have been otherwise. The organization and continued energetic
labors of the board representing the society, would lead us to expect
nothing less. Soon after the colony was founded by Dr. James Hall,
now the society’s general agent in Baltimore, and the machinery of
a colonial government set in motion, the selection of a colored man
as governor was made. This was just as it should be. It was called
an experiment, but it was one of the success of which no reasonable
fears could be entertained. From the commencement, the colony has been
progressing, if not rapidly, yet steadily and onwardly. The population
is now about seven hundred, and they receive an immigration every year.
All necessary preparation is made for the reception of an expedition
before its arrival. There is a public asylum or receptacle, consisting
of a number of separate rooms, and situated in a healthful part of the
colony, into which the new-comers are generally acclimated. Meantime
frame buildings are being erected on lots laid out for them, of
suitable size to afford them a good garden spot, and by the time the
immigrant is through the fever and can begin to take care of himself,
he has a home to go into--a dry, comfortable little framed and shingled
house, where he can have all the necessaries and comforts of life, if
he will only follow up his first advantages with economy and industry.

“It is a notorious fact _that there is not a single family, of all the
colonists in Maryland in Liberia, occupying a thatched house_; all
have buildings such as I have described. Let it be understood that
there is another point of sound and wise policy in this arrangement of
incalculable advantage to the settler. His house is not _given_ to him;
by no means. He would not value it as much if it were. He is charged
with all the expenses of its erection. When he is able, he is furnished
with work, work is found him by some means, and as he earns his wages,
he receives a part to live on, and a reasonable proportion is stopped
in the hands of the society’s agent to pay the debt due for the house.
As I am not writing a treatise on colonization, reader, I can not stop
here to notice one tithe of the many points of superiority which this
plan possesses over others which have been in vogue in other places.
But that it works well, one must go to Palmas, visit the people as I
did, go to their homes, eat and drink with them, inquire into their
condition, find out their contentedness, without seeming to intend any
such thing, and then he will be satisfied.”

There is no instance of colonization, that I know of, which has
proved more successful in every respect than this. The history of the
settlement of our own country shows no parallel to it--especially
when we consider the materials with which colonization in Africa
had to work. Yet the colonists, humble indeed, and unaccustomed to
self-government, have acquired from their residence with an Anglo-Saxon
race so much of the rudiments, forms, and habits of a self-governing
people, that, when thrown upon their own exertions, they have exhibited
qualities of patience, endurance and good sense, which give assurance
of their capacity to do well in their new abode. Removed, moreover,
from their position of inferiority, and possessed with a true spirit of
freedom and with a feeling of self-respect thence arising, they behold
themselves _men_, with the power of rising to the highest stature of
humanity. This, in itself, is a great thing; it is the chief thing. A
people who can entertain such feelings and ideas have their destiny
sure and a noble one.

With the State’s annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars, and
the contributions of individuals, the board has carried on the
operations incident to colonization. The debts contracted by the
outlays necessary for the beginning of the enterprise of founding a new
commonwealth, and of sustaining it in its early days, have all been
paid off. An annual expedition with emigrants sails from Baltimore
to Cape Palmas. An enterprise is now on foot, with every prospect
of success, to start a packet vessel to run regularly between this
city and Cape Palmas. A number of colored persons are engaged in this
undertaking, and when its success is established, it will probably be
surrendered entirely into their hands. The facilities for emigration
will be much increased under this arrangement, by which a regular
communication will be kept up with the colony. The trade between the
two points, it is believed, will give abundant employment to a vessel
of considerable tonnage.

Now, if we look merely at what colonization has done in the way of
removing the colored population from Maryland, it would seem to be
an utterly hopeless project. But let us see what colonization really
proposes; and for this purpose I quote the language of Mr. LATROBE,
under whose able superintendence, as President of the Colonization
Board, the affairs of the colony have so wonderfully prospered:

“If colonization proposed by any probable means at its command, even
with the most munificent assistance of Congress, State Legislatures
and individuals, to remove the whole colored population of the United
States to Africa, it would well deserve to be considered visionary, as
idle indeed as to attempt to ladle Lake Erie dry. No means that could
be obtained would be competent to this end. But the means, scant as
they were, continued Mr. L., were ample to establish colonies on the
coast of Africa, capable of self-support and self-government--moral
and religious communities, where wealth and station would be offered
to the colored man as the incentives and rewards for labor--colonies
that would be as attractive to him as America is to the European. In
1832 the immigration to America was said to be upwards of two hundred
thousand, more than double, nearly treble the annual increase of the
entire colored population of the Union. These immigrants, with few
exceptions, came at their own expense. In point of means they were in
no way superior to the corresponding class of free colored people in
the United States--they came, because America presented attractions
which their home did not. It is in the power of colonization to invest
Africa with the same attractions for the colored immigrant, that
America presents to the white one. Where the latter has one inducement
to remove the former has ten. In Europe there are few avenues to
worldly honor which are closed to those, who, nevertheless, leave them
all behind. In America there are few, if any, avenues open to those for
whom colonization labors.

“The object of colonization, therefore,” said Mr. LATROBE, “may be
stated as the preparation of a home in Africa, for the free colored
people of the State, to which they may remove when the advantages which
it offers, and, above all, the pressure of irresistible circumstances
in this country shall excite them to emigrate.”

Rightly understood then, as to its views and purposes, colonization
may not be so impracticable a scheme after all. At any rate, whatever
it does accomplish, is so much of good achieved, practical, permanent,
substantial good. What the future may disclose to urge, nay, to compel,
the separation of the two races now dwelling together in this country,
no one can tell. But COLONIZATION looks with an anxious eye to such
a future contingency, and in the meantime it will do all it can to
prepare the way for the easy accomplishment of that consummation, if it
should become inevitable.

It is the belief of some very intelligent persons that the black
population of the United States will gradually move towards the
south-west, along with the cotton culture, and be finally absorbed in
the mixed races of Central America, and that thus Slavery will cease.
Mr. RIVES, of Virginia, advanced some such idea as this in the Senate
of the United States, a year or so ago. But it seems clear to my mind
that the white master will go as fast in that direction as the negro
laborer, and wherever both are found together, one must be a slave.
There is no spot on this continent where the negro can be put so as
to be removed from the domination of the white man; no remote spot
which the negro will reach unless the white man carries him thither.
The colored race in this country can never exert their energies in an
independent way; they are and must be under the overshadowing influence
of a controlling race.

What they may become in Africa, their native home, carrying with
them to those shores, the vigorous elements imbibed during their
apprenticeship of servitude here, other generations yet to come will
know better than we of the present. The part which the African is to
perform in the progress of civilization, and the development of the
entire character of humanity, is a problem which has begun to attract
the attention of enlightened men. Mr. KINMONT, whose discourses on the
Natural History of Man show so large and comprehensive a mind, dwells
with much interest upon the characteristics of the African race. A
portion of his remarks, so beautiful, so humane, I can not but quote:

“It is certainly a remarkable fact that the negro family of the human
species should have been naturally confined to the peninsula of Africa,
and should never have travelled beyond it from voluntary choice.
Philosophers have found a constitutional adaptation in this case to
the climate and local circumstances of this their native and allotted
home, and there can be no question that there is, and that when the
epoch of their _civilization_ arrives, in the lapse of ages, they
will display in their native land some very peculiar and interesting
traits of character, of which we, a distinct branch of the human
family, can at present form no conception. It will be--indeed it must
be--a civilization of a peculiar stamp; perhaps we might venture to
conjecture, not so much distinguished by art as a certain beautiful
nature, not so marked or adorned by science as exalted and refined
by a certain new and lovely theology;--a reflection of the light of
heaven more perfect and endearing than that which the intellects of
the Caucasian race have ever yet exhibited. There is more of the
_child_, of unsophisticated nature, in the negro race than in the
European, a circumstance, however, which must always lower them in
the estimation of a people whose natural distinction is a manly and
proud bearing, and an extreme proneness to artificial society, social
institutions. The peculiar civilization which nature designs for each
is obviously different, and they may impede, but never can promote
the improvement of each other. It was a sad error of the white race,
besides the moral guilt which was contracted, when they first dragged
the African, contrary to his genius and inclination, from his native
regions; a voluntary choice would never have led the negro into exile;
the peninsula of Africa is his home, and the appropriate and destined
seat of his future glory and civilization,--a civilization which, we
need not fear to predict, will be as distinct in all its features from
that of all other races, as his complexion and natural temperament
and genius are different. But who can doubt that here also humanity,
in its more advanced and millenial stage, will reflect, under a sweet
and mellow light, the softer attributes of the divine beneficence? If
the Caucasian race is destined, as would appear from the precocity of
their genius and their natural quickness, and extreme aptitude to the
arts, to reflect the lustre of the divine wisdom, or, to speak more
properly, the divine science, shall we envy the negro, if a later
but far nobler civilization await him,--to return the splendor of
the divine attributes of mercy and benevolence in the practice and
exhibition of all the milder and gentler virtues? It is true, the
present rude lineaments of the race might seem to give little warrant
for the indulgence of hopes so romantic; but yet those who will reflect
upon the natural constitution of the African may see some ground even
for such anticipations. Can we not read an aptitude for this species
of civilization I refer to, in that singular light-heartedness which
distinguishes the whole race,--in their natural want of solicitude
about the future, in them a vice at present, but yet the natural
basis of a virtue,--and especially in that natural talent for music
with which they are pre-eminently endowed, to say nothing of their
willingness _to serve_, the most beautiful trait of humanity, which
we, from our own innate love of dominion, and in defiance of the
Christian religion, brand with the name of _servility_, and abuse
not less to our own dishonor than their injury. But even amid these
untoward circumstances there burst forth occasionally the indications
of that better destiny, to which nature herself will at last conduct
them, and from which they are at present withheld, not less by the
mistaken kindness of their friends, than the injustice of their
oppressors: for so jealous is nature of her freedom, that she repels
all interference, even of the most benevolent kind, and will suffer
only that peculiar _good_ or intelligence to be elicited, of which she
has herself deposited the seeds or rudiments in the human bosom.”

I have in another place alluded to the consideration that the residence
of a portion of the negro race in this country may be, under the
overruling dispensation of Providence, the means of great good to the
whole race. It may be that the civilization of Africa will receive its
first quickening elements by the return of her sons from a servitude
which proved to them a school of useful acquirements. Some touch
of Caucasian energy thus infused into the African mind may be the
awakening impulse that shall arouse a whole people from the torpor of
ages.

At all events, leaving these speculations, one thing is certain,
viz. that MARYLAND is doing a good thing in promoting the work of
colonization in Africa. She is providing a home for the bondsmen of her
fields, where they may enjoy in reality the blessings of freedom which
can never be their heritage here. To what extent soever this work is
done, to such extent will positive good be done. We can not now foresee
the circumstances which may, in time, give aspect and character to
colonization; but of this we may be assured, that in proportion as the
home of the emancipated African is more and more enlarged in Africa,
and made more and more attractive, in such proportion will the way be
opened for the deliverance of Maryland from one of her most serious
embarrassments.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] This subject of “Rights,” in connection with servitude, I have
considered more fully in a little treatise entitled “Some Thoughts
concerning Domestic Slavery,” published a few years ago.

[2] See Table, Appendix.




LETTER III.


In the foregoing pages, my dear sir, I have endeavored to treat of
Slavery in Maryland as it seemed to me the subject required. A matter
so important should have a more full and thorough exposition; indeed, I
am but poorly satisfied with this attempt at one. Yet it was my purpose
to be brief, and, with that design, facts of statistics and details,
not absolutely necessary, were omitted. To those who are willing to
reflect, perhaps, the considerations here submitted, growing out of
organic social and political laws, may be to some extent suggestive,
so that their own minds may fill up the deficiencies of this imperfect
outline.

I can not hope that by any thing here said the violence of fanaticism
will be assuaged. The assumption of being better than other people is
so full of exalted ideas, the delight of meddling in other people’s
business is so fascinating, that those who have been once seized with
the mania and have confirmed themselves in it, by the belief that they
are discharging a duty to humanity in general, as chosen instruments,
are in a bad way, and not likely to be cured. These are the extreme
agitators who whirl about in the vortex of abstractions; sympathizers
who would ruin the objects of their solicitude for a theory; reformers
of Slavery in communities where it does not exist; martyrs who will
embrace any thing rather than a stake. With these, and such as these,
we of Maryland have nothing to do. They are lashing themselves into an
insane fury about a thing which does not concern them, which they do
not understand, which they can not touch without wounding us--for it is
a domestic affair and relates to our hearths and household relations.
For ourselves I have written on this subject, that it may be considered
among ourselves, with a view to such rational action as may in due time
be proper; and for our true friends at the north also and the friends
of our black people, comprising the great mass of our fellow citizens
there, who do us the justice to believe that we have sense enough to
find out our own condition, to appreciate it truly, and energy and
humanity enough to do in the premises what duty may call for.

If I had been returned to the House of Delegates on the occasion to
which you refer, my action in reference to Slavery in our State would
have been confined simply to setting forth in a report, or some such
way, the substance of the views contained in this pamphlet. It has
been apparent for some time past that a convention to amend the State
Constitution must assemble before long. That body, representing the
primary sovereignty of the people, will be the most fit to take up
the subject of Slavery. I have no doubt but it will take it up; and
of one other thing I am equally certain, viz. that the clause in the
constitution, which now makes Slavery perpetual in Maryland, will be
stricken out. Most assuredly it will be stricken out, and that for ever.

With respect to the establishment of a newspaper in Baltimore, devoted
to emancipation, I should think it, my dear sir, not advisable. The
business in hand is of a kind to require calmness of consideration
and of action. Now a newspaper, I fear, would be the instrument of
agitation; it would find its pabulum in excitement. It would be
regarded as the herald of abolition, and the whole body of ultra
fanatics at the north would seek to connect themselves with the
movement. Their contact would be deleterious in the highest degree; we
wish not for their interference in any way; we prefer to manage our own
domestic affairs; there can be no communion, in this matter, between
our knowledge and their ignorance.

I leave the subject, my dear sir, for the present, and, with it,
many things unsaid, which a full and complete discussion of such a
topic would properly embrace. I might have referred to the effects of
Slavery in connection with popular education and popular ignorance;
but the statistics on that point are not just now at hand. It may be
remarked, however, that no efficient free school system exists in any
slaveholding State. Nor can it be otherwise; because where the land
is held by slave owners, and mostly in large plantations, the white
population is too sparse to allow of compact school districts. Besides,
the planters having the means of educating their own children, either
at home or abroad, they are not likely to be much concerned about the
education of the children of their poorer neighbors. In every point of
view it will be found that the permanent continuance of negro Slavery
is incompatible with the elevation of the humble classes of white
citizens.

Again, the institution of Slavery might be regarded in its effects upon
social manners and usages. And here we should find many prepossessions
which are strong in the minds of all of us, and which grow out of the
best and most amiable features of the institution we are considering.
To say nothing of those relations of confidence and regard which have
always marked the intercourse of the servants of our halls and fields
with the gentlemen of Maryland, the exemption from labor which Slavery
gave to the whole class of landholders, with wealth in the hands of
many, and a fair competency to all, afforded the leisure and the means
for social enjoyments to any extent which a gay and social disposition
might prompt. Hence that frank and cordial intercourse among friends;
that courteous urbanity to strangers; that generous hospitality of
heart and home to all--which have become the characteristics of
the south. Long may she retain them. She need lose no good quality
attendant upon her connection with Slavery, when, the more primitive
and simple days of that institution having passed away, the institution
itself has become decrepit, inconsistent with the progress of the age,
and prolific of evils.

At some future time, if an occasion should seem to call for it, I
may resume the discussion of this subject. In matters, however, of
serious reality, and felt to be such, there is generally not need of
many words--provided those which are uttered are to the purpose. With
assurances of high respect,

  I remain, my dear sir, very truly yours,
  JNO. L. CAREY.

  DR. R. S. STEWART.


_Population of the Counties of Maryland in 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820,
1830, and 1840, as shown by the census taken in those years._


CECIL.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 3,407 |   163 | 10,055 | 13,625
   1800 | 2,103 |   373 |  6,542 |  9,018
   1810 | 2,467 |   947 |  9,652 | 13,066
   1820 | 2,342 | 1,783 | 11,821 | 16,046
   1830 | 1,705 | 2,249 | 11,478 | 15,432
   1840 | 1,346 | 2,552 | 13,464 | 17,362
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


KENT.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 5,443 |   655 |  6,748 | 12,836
   1800 | 4,474 | 1,786 |  5,511 | 11,771
   1810 | 4,249 | 1,979 |  5,222 | 11,450
   1820 | 4,071 | 2,067 |  5,315 | 11,453
   1830 | 3,191 | 2,260 |  5,050 | 10,501
   1840 | 2,741 | 2,586 |  5,513 | 10,840
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


CAROLINE.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 2,057 |   421 |  7,028 |  9,506
   1800 | 1,865 |   602 |  6,759 |  9,226
   1810 | 1,520 | 1,001 |  6,932 |  9,453
   1820 | 1,574 | 1,390 |  7,144 | 10,108
   1830 | 1,171 | 1,652 |  6,247 |  9,070
   1840 |   768 | 1,727 |  5,373 |  7,868
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


TALBOT.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 4,777 | 1,076 |  7,221 | 13,084
   1800 | 4,775 | 1,591 |  7,070 | 13,436
   1810 | 4,878 | 2,003 |  7,349 | 14,230
   1820 | 4,769 | 2,234 |  7,386 | 14,389
   1830 | 4,173 | 2,483 |  6,291 | 12,947
   1840 | 3,698 | 2,336 |  6,069 | 12,103
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


QUEEN ANNE’S.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 6,674 |   618 |  8,171 | 15,463
   1800 | 6,517 | 1,025 |  7,315 | 14,857
   1810 | 6,381 | 2,738 |  7,529 | 16,648
   1820 | 5,588 | 2,138 |  7,226 | 14,952
   1830 | 4,872 | 2,866 |  6,559 | 14,397
   1840 | 3,979 | 2,540 |  6,006 | 12,525
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


SOMERSET.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 7,070 |   268 |  8,272 | 15,610
   1800 | 7,432 |   586 |  9,340 | 17,358
   1810 | 6,975 | 1,058 |  9,162 | 17,195
   1820 | 7,241 | 1,952 | 10,386 | 19,579
   1830 | 6,556 | 2,239 | 11,371 | 20,166
   1840 | 5,385 | 2,642 | 11,477 | 19,504
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


DORCHESTER.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 5,377 |   528 | 10,010 | 15,875
   1800 | 4,566 | 2,365 |  9,415 | 16,346
   1810 | 5,032 | 2,661 | 10,415 | 18,108
   1820 | 5,168 | 2,497 | 10,094 | 17,759
   1830 | 5,001 | 3,000 | 10,685 | 18,686
   1840 | 4,232 | 3,965 | 10,612 | 18,809
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


WORCESTER.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 3,836 |   178 |  7,626 | 11,640
   1800 | 4,398 |   449 | 11,523 | 16,370
   1810 | 4,427 | 1,054 | 11,490 | 16,971
   1820 | 4,551 | 1,636 | 11,234 | 17,421
   1830 | 4,032 | 2,430 | 10,197 | 16,659
   1840 | 3,543 | 3,063 | 11,647 | 18,253
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


ALLEGANY.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 |   258 |    12 |  4,539 |  4,809
   1800 |   499 |   101 |  5,703 |  6,303
   1810 |   620 |   113 |  6,176 |  6,909
   1820 |   795 |   195 |  7,664 |  8,654
   1830 |   818 |   222 |  9,569 | 10,609
   1840 |   811 |   216 | 14,677 | 15,704
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


WASHINGTON.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 1,286 |    64 | 14,472 | 15,822
   1800 | 2,200 |   342 | 16,108 | 18,650
   1810 | 2,656 |   483 | 15,591 | 18,730
   1820 | 3,201 |   627 | 19,247 | 23,075
   1830 | 2,909 | 1,084 | 21,275 | 25,268
   1840 | 2,505 | 1,556 | 24,801 | 28,862
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


FREDERICK.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 3,641 |   213 | 26,937 | 30,791
   1800 | 4,572 |   473 | 26,478 | 31,523
   1810 | 5,671 |   783 | 27,983 | 34,437
   1820 | 6,555 | 1,777 | 32,097 | 40,459
   1830 | 6,370 | 2,716 | 36,703 | 45,789
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


BALTIMORE.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 5,877 |   604 | 18,953 | 25,434
   1800 | 6,830 | 1,536 | 24,150 | 32,516
   1810 | 6,697 | 1,537 | 21,021 | 29,255
   1820 | 6,720 | 2,163 | 24,580 | 33,463
   1830 | 6,533 | 3,098 | 30,625 | 40,256
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


BALTIMORE CITY.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 1,255 |   323 | 11,925 | 13,503
   1800 | 2,843 | 2,771 | 20,900 | 26,514
   1810 | 4,672 | 5,671 | 36,212 | 46,455
   1820 | 4,357 |10,326 | 48,055 | 62,738
   1830 | 4,120 |14,790 | 61,710 | 80,620
   1840 | 3,212 |17,980 | 81,321 |102,513
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


HARFORD.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 3,417 |   775 | 10,784 | 14,976
   1800 | 4,264 | 1,344 | 12,018 | 17,626
   1810 | 4,431 | 2,221 | 14,606 | 21,258
   1820 | 3,320 | 1,387 | 11,217 | 15,924
   1830 | 2,984 | 2,048 | 11,287 | 16,319
   1840 | 2,537 | 2,449 | 11,915 | 16,901
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


MONTGOMERY.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 6,030 |   294 | 11,679 | 18,003
   1800 | 6,288 |   262 |  8,508 | 15,058
   1810 | 7,572 |   677 |  9,731 | 17,980
   1820 | 6,396 |   922 |  9,082 | 16,400
   1830 | 6,447 | 1,266 | 12,103 | 19,816
   1840 | 5,127 | 1,240 |  8,292 | 14,659
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


PRINCE GEORGE’S.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 |11,176 |   164 | 10,004 | 21,344
   1800 |12,191 |   648 |  8,346 | 21,185
   1810 | 9,189 | 4,929 |  6,471 | 20,589
   1820 |11,285 | 1,096 |  7,835 | 20,216
   1830 |11,585 | 1,202 |  7,667 | 20,474
   1840 |10,640 | 1,080 |  7,763 | 19,483
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


SAINT MARY’S.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 6,985 |   343 |  8,216 | 15,544
   1800 | 6,399 |   622 |  6,678 | 13,699
   1810 | 6,000 |   636 |  6,158 | 12,794
   1820 | 6,048 |   894 |  6,032 | 12,974
   1830 | 6,183 | 1,179 |  6,097 | 13,459
   1840 | 5,757 | 1,413 |  6,074 | 13,244
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


CALVERT.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 | 4,305 |   136 |  4,161 | 8,502
   1800 | 4,401 |   307 |  3,889 | 8,297
   1810 | 3,937 |   388 |  3,860 | 8,005
   1820 | 3,668 |   694 |  3,716 | 8,078
   1830 | 3,899 | 1,213 |  3,788 | 8,900
   1840 | 4,401 | 1,292 |  3,402 | 9,095
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


CHARLES.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 |10,085 |   404 | 10,124 | 20,613
   1800 | 9,558 |   571 |  9,043 | 19,172
   1810 |12,435 |   412 |  7,398 | 20,245
   1820 | 9,419 |   567 |  6,514 | 16,500
   1830 |10,129 |   851 |  6,789 | 17,769
   1840 | 9,280 |   817 |  5,915 | 16,012
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------


ANNE ARUNDEL.

  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------
        |Slaves.|F. Col.| White. | Total.
   1790 |10,130 |   804 | 11,664 | 22,598
   1800 | 9,760 | 1,833 | 11,030 | 22,623
   1810 |11,693 | 2,536 | 12,439 | 26,668
   1820 |10,328 | 3,382 | 13,455 | 27,165
   1830 | 9,997 | 4,076 | 14,222 | 28,295
   1840 | 9,816 | 5,120 | 14,599 | 29,535
  ------+-------+-------+--------+--------

NOTE.--Carroll county is not included in this statement, having been
created since 1830, and the population of Baltimore and Frederick
counties, from which Carroll was taken, is not carried out in 1840,
part of their population being then included in the census of Carroll
county.




Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious errors in punctuation have been fixed.

Page 8: “l’etat c’est” changed to “l’état c’est”

Page 12: “must he fixed” changed to “must be fixed”

Page 31: The spelling of Allegany County was fixed.

Page 45: “it views and purposes” changed to “its views and purposes”



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