18 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS, for the toil of his hands, and duly protected in his rights as a Xnan,—if this be the best arrangement for him and also for the white race—then so be it. I have no objections. For one I do not wish to drive him from this land, nolens volens, whether he will or not, and whether this is best or not. The idea, that, being free, he will emigrate to the North, and here make a jar in our system of labor, which is the fear of some, seems to me not well founded. The climate is against it. The proclivities and affinities of the black man are for Southern latitudes. Left to himself, he will instinctively choose the sunny South. It is now his home. Remove slavery ; and the tendency of the blacks who are now at the North, will be to go to the Southern States, where they can find a people of their own race in much larger numbers than they can find them here. If, on the other hand, the black man cannot here, in immediate contact with the white race, realize his true and proper destiny, as, I am inclined to think, will prove the fact, though in this I may be mistaken, then the dictate of philanthropy is that we should find him a home, and furnish him with all the facilities in our power for reaching it. He must live somewhere,; and if it be a settled fact that he cannot live here to his own advantage or ours, then let us look about the world, and see what we .can do for him. Men of our race brought him here; and we their descendants have a duty to perform in giving him a home somewhere. If we cannot send him back to Africa, as I think we cannot in sufficient numbers to solve the problem, then we must seek for him a home nearer by, at some place more convenient of access, where this government could extend over him its fostering and protecting care. It would not be wonderful, if in the sequel of Providence the State of Florida, and perhaps portions of Albama, or the St&tes of Central America, should finally become the resting place and residence of this outcast and unhappy race. We are in the mere dawn of this problem; we cannot see very far into it at present; and the dictate of philanthropy is that we should make ourselves attentive students of the facts as they may be developed by Providence, and then act accordingly. The President, I perceive, is strongly inclined to
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