19 profit, and that a girdle of black states may thus be formed, by degrees, around the Caribbean sea, is probable, and perhaps desirable. But to prescribe exile, to tear an entire race from the soil of the Union—this is radically impossible. The iniquities which would be entailed by such a measure, would be greater than could be endured by the conscience of the nineteenth century. And do not delude yourselves ! Your negroes are no longer Africans, they are Americans, as much attached as the whites to the soil of the common country. They love their state, their district, and even the field which they have cultivated under the lash. The officers who have lived with the innumerable negroes who have taken refuge under the banners of your armies, have not forgotten the care with which the greater part of them have saved their wages in order to buy a little field in their neighborhood, amid their friends, near the cemetery where their fathers and children repose. This sentiment, which is very profound, and extremely general among them, is one of the best guarantees of the future prosperity of the South. The Southern planting, which can nevei’ dispense with the assistance of the negro, would ill adapt itself to the so much talked of plans for expatriation. These plans, therefore, we may be sure, are to the South only weapons of war ; they are used to day to oppose the right of suffrage; they will be used in the future to oppose all guarantees, and to keep up a state of semi-servitude: it will be demonstrated to the North that it is not worth while to put an end to the most odious abuses, since the colored race is destined some day to be removed. The South will do this; but as to believing in the real expatriation of the blacks, or as to wishing it, it is much too clearsighted for anything of the kind. It is necessary to shut out, and to shut out quickly, this prospect of expatriation ; for if an end be not put to this scheme, nothing will be done in behalf of the former slaves. What do I say ? it will be thought justifiable to do everything against them. Hypothetical expatriation has all the disadvantages of prescribed expatriation. It lets loose the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=