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I object to abolitionism, in the second place, because it is intimately connected with, and leads to amalgamation. It is now proposed to give the blacks all civil and political rights and privileges: but there are certain social rights and privileges which are essential to perfect freedom, and which men value as highly as they do the others: and by giving to the blacks the former, is giving them a right to demand the latter, which is, to sit with you at your tables, to lodge with you in your chambers, to mingle and participate in your social amusements, and to take your daughters and sisters to be their wives, and give their daughters to be your wives. And how can you withhold from them those privileges which you give to all others? If you emancipate, you must also amalgamate. You must go the whole extent of the principle of liberty and privilege, if you begin—otherwise you compromise the matter, and deceive the blacks.
I object to it, in the third place, because it is founded upon, and tends to agrarianism. That morbid and sentimental philanthropy which, at a distance, and in imagination, contemplates the difference between the slave and his master, may soon turn its compassionate eye to more proximate inequalities of life, rank and riches, and demand that the millionaries and others of less fortunes, divide with the children of poverty and want: insisting that as “all men are born free and equal,” itis no more than right, and the will of God, that they also live free and equal. And it would be quite as just and reasonable to make that a religious and political question as abolitionism.
I object to it, in the fourth place, because it would be an act of positive imhumanity to the negroes; for there is no class of beings on earth so incompetent to provide for, and take care of, themselves, as the slaves of the south. And this is natural and inevitable, from the fact of being provided for, and taken care of, from infancy till death: and, therefore, to turn them loose with no more experience than they have, would be like a parent turning his helpless children out upon the world to get along as well as they could. And look at the condition of the free blacks here in the north, where they have been free for two or three generations, and what are the facts in reference to their habits and characters? How do they live?—Your cellars, your corn houses, your poultry yards can answer that question. And go to New York, and there, in her negro population, you will see the utmost limits of moral degradation and physical
