15 Mr. President, I now propose to- submit some remarks on this hated subject of slavery. Sir, I am not frightened by a name. A wise legislator looks to things as they are; and he who would legislate for this great Republic must look to it as it is. A state of things exist here -which, perhaps, exists nowhere else; but it is here, and you must deal with it as a wise and honest man should. I do not mean in any remarks which I shall make to reproach Massachusetts, or any other State or section of the world, on the subject of the slave trade. It is true that, at least so far as South Carolina is concerned, we participated very little in it. Some few ships were fitted out in Charleston, but I doubt if a native of the State ever had any participation in it. But, sir, I reproach nobody for it. At that period in‘the history of the world, it was thought right. There was the concurrent testimony of the civilized world that, to capture the wild savage of Africa, and reduce him- to a state of subjection, to feed andclothe him, and civilize him, and Christianize him was no wrong ? I say, therefore, that I reproach no man for it. We followed only the popular sentiment which prevailed in the world. But, sir, I think we have a right to complain, and it is the only complaint on this subject I have to make, that, if others have gone before us, if we have been outstripped in finding out that this system was wrong, those persons who have been thus fortunate will let us alone until we ourselves become sufficiently enlightened to concur in their opinion. This, we think, we have the right to ask; this is all we do ask. I propose to enter into no ethnological inquiry about the unity of the races. My own opinion, my own judgmtmt is, that we are all one—probably descended.from a common ancestor; butthat is very immaterial. We find men different on the face of the earth—as different as they would be if they were not descended from a common ancestor ; but in relation to the African, no man in this House, and no man out of it, can say that there is any corner of this earth, upon which the African race are as well off, as well provided for, with more of the elements of happiness, than in the slave part of these United States. I assert it without the fear of contradiction. I know not from whence it has come ; but this I know, that the Africans were slaves in the days of the Pharaohs ; that nine out of ten of them are slaves in their native land; and that in no country of which I am aware are they received upon an equality with the white race. In confirmation of the fact which I have just stated, that nine out of ten of them are slaves in their own country, Ibeg leave to refer to an incident in Park’s travels in Africa. In the year, 1796, after having visited the interior, when he returned to the coast of Senegal, finding vessel bound for Europe, he took passage in a slaveship, bound for Cnafleston. In that ship there were one hundred am sWy Africans. Hav-’ ing been a year in their country, he understood their language, and was able to converse with them. He found that of the whole one hundred and sixty, on.y four bad been born free. The rest were slaves, if any man desires to know what is the state of slavery in Africa, let him read Park, and Lander, and the recent book of Captain Canot. Many of the negroes at the South are intelligent, although they-have not much mental culture— certainly very little that is derived from books. They are an improving people—improving in intelligence and in morals. I have no doubt that the time will come when God will work out his own problem in relation to Africa. Carlyle says, I think with some truth, that all the great events in the history of man have generally been produced by a single individual, or by but very few; that the great reformation in religion was produced by Luther; that Cromwell and his associates in England produced a wondrous change in the notions of mankind, in relation to civil and religious liberty; that a new impetus was given to this ball by the American Revolution, of which Washington was the chosen instrument of Providence to accomplish. Sir, for aught I know, it may be that, in the providence of God, in his own proper lime, a deliverance will be worked out for this race. At present they are not fit for it, but they are going on in improvement, both mentally and morally. Of one thing I am sure—when that time arrives, some more fit instrument will be used than those who have now thrust themselves into this business, prematurely, and in a manner wholly uncalled for. I doubt very much whether Parson Beecher will be a chosen instrument in the hands of God for the purpose of effecting this or any other great and beneficial change in the affairs of mankind. Sir, as I said before, I am not frightened by names. I am not alarmed by the fear that I shall be held up in some future fourth of July speech, or some college oration, of in the columns of some filthy newspaper, as the advocate of slavery. That has no terrors for me. I stand here to legislate for this country as it is. If the institution Of slavery be an evil, to whom is it an evil? Is it to the master? What injurious effect does it produce upon him ? Is he not as much of a gentleman, is he not as moral a man, is he not as pious and religious a man, is he not as distinguished for all the cardinal virtues as the people of any country or the face of the earth ? If he is not, I have not found out the fact. If it be an evil to the African, where, I ask, is his condition better? Is it imAfrica? Let Park and the travelers in that country answer the question. Is his condition better in Hayii or Jamaica? Let those who desire correct information on that point go to some fountain of truth, and they will find it. I would recommend every man who embarks in this controversy with the hope of bettering the condition of the African, to read the letter of Governor Wood, of Ohio. On his way to his consulate in South America he stopped at Jamaica. Let any man read what he says, and compare it with what he may see at the South—notwhathehas read in Mrs. Stowe’s novel—and he will find the truth of what I assert, that the condition of the African is better in our southern States than in any of those countries in which he has been emancipated. I ask, further, is his condition better in the East? Is a free negro in New England as well off as a slave who has a good master? and nine out of ten, Ibelieve I might say ninety-nine out o> a hundred, are good masters. Let the facts speak' for themselves. Look at the census. Although
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