51 that quarter ? Did she not refuse, in the midst of New England, to grant the right of suffrage to her two thousand free negroes ? Yes, alas ! And what does this prove ? That the education of slavery has weighed upon the whole nation ; that the South (as we well know) has accomplices in the North ; that the deleterious influence of the slave policy has engendered a general corruption which cannot he cured in a moment, and that, of all social progress, the most difficult to accomplish is that which demands the sacrifice of our prejudices. Yes, alas ! Connecticut has voted in this direction, as certain Western states, not content with refusing the right of suffrage, have set the negroes outside the civil law, even interdicting them the right to live on their territory. These enormities, Mr. President, rouse my indignation, and I am far from seeking an excuse for them ; I only say that the negro question is not there, it is in the South ; it must be decided in the South ; decided in the South, it will be decided everywhere, it will be ended. The reasons thereof arc simple. First, the Northern states have not broken off their li practical relations” with the government of the Union and with Congress ; they have not, therefore, to be re-admitted. There is no room for deliberation so far as they are concerned. Then, the negroes have and will have supporters in the North which they will lack in the South. Journals, public opinion, meetings, and the healthful agitation of free countries, will not encounter there those obstacles which hitherto have not been surmounted in the heart of the cotton states. In point of fact, therefore, the question is propounded with respect to the South, and attains its full gravity only in the South. Resolved there, it will be resolved everywhere. Do you think that any of the Northern states would long persist in refusing the right of suffrage to the negroes, if the lattei’ exercised it at Charleston and New Orleans ? Ideas find their own great level, and social iniquities cannot survive isolation.
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