70 There is but one way of judging cruelties, from whatever direction they may come. It belongs, above all, to the friends of the colored race openly to reprove the crimes which sully and consequently imperil their cause. The crimes which we commit always do us more harm than those which we suffer. But, on the other hand, what a warning is at the bottom of this detestable insurrection ! How it confirms the words of Mr. Stearns ! How it proves that equality alone can cause the disappearance of the enmities of race, and the risks of social war ! Slavery abolished, there remains but one resource—equality. Whatever is not this engenders hatred and violence. With slavery, peace is possible ; with inequality without slavery, it is impossible. To give liberty and refuse equality is to do at once too much and too little. May not the cruelties of the insurrection have been called forth by the cruelties of the repression ? In this case, the latter would not be more excusable than the former. The colonists of Jamaica have made the immense mistake of stopping halfway in that work of social redemption which will forever honor England, and which was the most glorious of our age, until you surpassed it. They have maintained, if not by law, at least in fact, the greater part of the barriers which separated the whites from the men of color. Let the United States take warning ! FINIS.
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