fortunes, divide with the children of poverty and want: insisting that as “all men are born free and equal,” it is 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 inhumanity 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 destitution. And emancipate the slaves of the south, and the result would be, that while a few would resort to voluntary labor, the great mass of them would become idle and profligate, and, allured by that mistaken philanthropy which set them free, they would bend their steps northward.
And, therefore, I object to it, in the fifth place, because an influx of free negroes from the south, would have a most pernicious and disastrous influence upon the honest, industrious and virtuous poor, residing on the confines of the now slave-holding States. Those blacks, finding that they must work or starve, would, in order to get employment, work for lower wages than the white man received, who would be thrown out of employ; and pauperism, and its concomitant taxes, would rapidly increase; and for one thief you now have, you would have five or ten—and loafers, beggars and vagabonds in proportion; with your jails, and alms-houses filled to overflowing.
I object to it, in the sixth place, because its doctrines are at war with the order and constitution of God’s economy.
One of the leading doctrines of abolitionists, is the silly and ideal sentiment of perfect equality, to which they would bring all things in social life. But, in this, they are waging a hopeless war against the arrangements and dispensations of God; for there is not a single fact or analogy in either the world of matter nor the world of mind, to support this silly and ideal sentiment. There is no such thing, as absolute equality any where—nor can such a thing exist among the creatures of God any more than absolute independence. Nor is it equality, but inequality, that produces order and harmony in the universe of God.
