20 to use the brush. 1 say it has noteven the poor merit of originality, but it isa stale and hackneyed reproach in the cant of all the abolition newspapers. It was made by a distinguished scholar and rhetorician on the other side of the water, who assailed the Stales of Virginia and North Carolina for what he called the domestic slave trade—a man who, though distinguished for his • felicity in picture writing, too often ihars its effect by the extravagance of the coloring which he uses—I nfcan the celebrated Macaulay. The foundation on which this rests is, that owing to the fact of the juxtaposition of these two races on our soil, slavery lias flowed from it as a necessary incident. These are circumstances of long standing, and for which we are no more responsible than those who accuse us. History proves that, so far as Virginia was concerned, tliis institution was fastened upon her against her remonstrance by Hw British Government. History also shows, mid the Senator from Massachusetts confesses. Hie complicity of his State in his speech, that tin- skive was sold to us in great part by the men of Old England and New England; and surely tbf buyer could tool have been more responsible than he who sold to him. Now, sir, out of Hm fact that these races have been standing tog» Hu-r side by side in great numbers in the relation <>f master and slave, it has followed that the happiness of both races requires that this relation should be kept up. This has been proved by the experience of the British Government itself; and if there were no such experience, it could be proved by any one who knew how to reason upon the principles of human nature. Turn them loose to-morrow side by side, and you would see Hie Hack race perishing in the fierce competition which would ensue with the superior and white race, which was dominant "around it. You would see either that, or you would see that ns stay increased in numbers,and population began m press upon themeans of sub- ■sistence, the whin man would leave the country and abandon sum-- of ihe fairest portions of tins continent to tire m eupation of the negro. We know that from th<- experiment which hasalready teen tried. I may say that human nature and the experience of Smtes around us both teach us that, although the slave would be nominally emancipated, he would in fact be in far worse ■bondage than lie was held before. He would have not one, but many masters; and instead of having some one person who was responsible for his protection, who was linked to him, as all persons are who inherit slaves, by the ties of a certain sort of family connection, he would belong ' are probably as many people outside of the slave rSiates who derive profit and existence from the : proceeds of slave labor, ns are to !>e found within is proved, loo, by the expert-1! them. On the great staple <>f slave-grown cotton, ment which-has been tried by the English Gov- j it is-now estimated that nearly, or quite, three ernment itself in the West India Islands. We million British subjects depend for their subsist- know that if a. similar- experiment were tried ' ' ‘ ' ---- ------. -* here, its effect would be to substitute barbarism to every white man, and nobody would be responsible for the treatment by which he was crushed. I say this for civilizaiion, aml that the wilderness and waste ' would begin to encroach at once upon the culti-l Vated field. We know, on die other hand, that under this I institution of slavery we can present more than three miliums of African negroes who exhibit a greater degree of progress and improvement, of happiness and virtue, than the same number of ( j that race who can be found under any other Gov- lernment or in any other clime. 1 say, then, that I we can point to all these things to prove, and to show, that the holding of these men in bondage is the necessary result of those circumstances which originated out of the action in part of Old England and of New England herself. Now, if we can show that the preservation of this relation inures to the benefit both of the white and j the black race, and that, to destroy it would effect ' a cruel injury to each, do. we not show what justifies us in holding them in that condition? Do we not give reasons which prove that it ia our duty to.do so ? By what right, then, does any man reproach us for doing that which (.laces the society of our country in the very best possible position? Sir, the statesman is not. responsible for not attaining the greatest ideal good. He is responsible for not doing the best under the circumstances; and he who has done llhat has discharged his full duty to his race and to his principles. Are we to say, we willput down any organization,social j or political, in which we find individual cases of evr injustice? What social system or institutions would stand?—what government on the face of the earth could endure’for a minute, under such a doctrine? We know that in the great scheme of creation itself, framed by an all-powerful, all-wise, and' all-good Being, evil exists. He permits it, and Why, we do not understand; but lie does not destroy the works of his creation on this account. . We know that, in any form of society which could organized,evil must exist; and to reproach a statesman or a people because in their institutions they may not have attained perfection, is to demand of them more than is possible for human nature. All that they can be required to do is what is best under the circumstances. He who demands more, and makes war upon all Governments in which more is noi effected, is an enemy of his race, and a disturbed of the peace of mankind—a man to be ranked, not with the statesmen, but with the madmen of the world. Now, sir, T ask ifboth,reason and experience do not prove that to retain these two races in that rela- ' tion on our own soil is the very best thing which jean be done for them? But, Mr. President, the fmischief of the attempt to turn these slaves loose, ' for the-net doing of At hich we-are thus reproached 'both abroad and at Imme, would not be confined Ho the two races on our soil; it would extend to 'those very countries .which hurltlfese reproaches I at. us, and to the whole civilized world . There ence. m ii ff q t I take this from the recent declaration of the Manchester Peace Society,and I have seen a similar declaration before. When we come to - add the number who depend on the other slave- grown staples, not onlyin Greaf Britain but in all Europe, and in the free Simes of our own Confederacy, we should find, I believe, that there were more depending for-their existence on the institution of slavery, and us profits, outside of our slaveholding States than within them. We
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