| George Washington.--
1st President.
April 12, 1786, to Robert Morris:
"I hope it will not be conceived, from these
observations, that it is my wish to hold the unhappy people
who are the subject of this letter in slavery. I can only
say, that there is not a man living who wishes more
sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition
of it."
Sep. 9, 1786, to John F. Mercer:
"I never mean unless some particular circumstance
should compel me to it, to possess another slave by
purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan
adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by
law."
To Sir John Sinclair, 11th December, 1796:
"The present prices of lands in Pennsylvania are
higher than they are in Maryland and Virginia, although they
are not of superior quality; (among other reasons) because
there are laws here for the gradual abolition of slavery,
which neither of the two States above mentioned have at
present, but which nothing is more certain than they must
have, and at a period not remote."
The 5th of February, 1783, Lafayette writes:
"Now, my dear General, that you are going to enjoy
some ease and quiet, permit me to propose a plan to you,
which might become greatly beneficial to the black part of
mankind. Let us unite in purchasing a small estate, where we
may try the experiment to free the negroes, and use them
only as tenants. Such an example as yours might render it a
general practice; and, if we succeed in America, I will
cheerfully devote a part of my time to render the method
fashionable in the West Indies. If it be a wild scheme, I
had rather be mad in this way, than to be thought wise in
the other task."-- Correspondence of the American
Revolution, vol. iii, p. 547.
To this letter Washington replies, April 5th, 1783:
"The scheme, my dear Marquis, which you propose as a
precedent to encourage the emancipation of the black people
in this country from that state of bondage in which they are
held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your
heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work,
but will defer going into a detail of the business till I
have the pleasure of seeing you."-- Sparks'
Washington , vol. viii., p. 441, 415.
"Mount Vernon, 10th May, 1786.
"The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is
so conspicuous upon all occasions, that I never wonder at
any fresh proofs of it; but your late purchase of an estate
in the colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the
slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your
humanity. Would to God a like spirit might diffuse itself
generally into the minds of the people of this country! but
I despair of seeing it. Some petitions were presented to the
Assembly, at its last session, for the abolition of slavery;
but they could scarcely obtain a reading. To set the slaves
afloat at once would, I really believe, be productive of
much inconvenience and mischief, but by degrees it certainly
might, and assuredly ought to be effected, and that, too, by
legislative authority."
John Adams.-- 2d
President
His sentiments on the subject of slavery are well known.
They are well summed up in the language of a letter to
Robert I. Evans, June, 1819:
"Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be
assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from
the United States.
"I have, through my whole life, held the practice of
slavery in such abhorrence, that I have never owned a negro
or any other slave; though I have lived for many years in
times when the practice was not disgraceful; when the best
men in my vicinity thought it not inconsistent with their
character; and when it has cost me thousands of dollars of
the labor and subsistence of free men, which I might have
saved by the purchase of negroes at times when they were
very cheap."-- Works of John Adams , vol., p.
380.
Thomas Jefferson,--
3d President
From Mr. Jefferson's Original Draft of the Declaration of
Independence.
He has waged cruel war against human nature itself,
violating it most sacred rights of life and liberty in the
persons of a distant people who never offended him;
captivating and carrying them into slavery in another
hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their
transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the
opprobrium of Infidel Powers, is the warfare of the
Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a
market where men should be bought and sold, he has
prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative
attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable
commerce.
From Mr. Jefferson's Minutes of Debates in 1776, on
the Declaration of Independence, published with the Madison
Papers.
The clause, too, reprobating the enslaving of the
inhabitants of Africa was struck out, in compliance to South
Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain
the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still
wished to continue it. Our northern brethren, also, I
believe, felt a little tender under those censures; for,
though their people have very few slaves themselves, yet
they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to
others.
1781. From Notes on Virginia.
There must, doubtless, be an unhappy influence on the
manners of our people, produced by the existence of slavery
among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a
perpetnal exercise of the most boisterous passions-the most
unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading
submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn
to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality
is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his
grave, he is learning to do what he sees others do. If a
parent could find no motive, either in his philanthropy or
his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of passion
towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient
one that his child is present. But generally it is not
sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches
the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle
of similar slaves, gives a loose rein to the worst of
passions; and, thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in
tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious
peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can restrain
his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And
with what execration should the statesman be loaded, who,
permitting one-half the citizens thus to trample on the
rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and
these into enemies; destroys the morals of the one part, and
the amor patrice of the other; for if a slave can
have a country in this world, it must be any other in
preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for
another; in which he must lock up the faculties of his
nature; contribute, as far as depends on his individual
endeavors, to the evanishment of the human race; or entail
his own miserable condition on the endless generations
proceeding from him. With the morals of the people, their
industry also is destroyed; for, in a warm climate, no man
will labor for himself who can make another labor for him.
This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves a very
small proportion, indeed, are even seen to labor. And can
the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have
removed their only firm basis-a conviction in the minds of
the people that these liberties are the gift of God? that
they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I
tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that
his justice cannot sleep forever; that, considering numbers,
nature, and natural means, only, a revolution of the wheel
of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible
events; that it may become probable by supernatural
interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take
side with us in such a contest. But it is impossible to be
temperate and to pursue this subject through the various
considerations of policy, of morals, of history, natural and
civil. We must be contented to hope they will force their
way into every one's mind. I think a change already
perceptible, since the origin of the present Revolution. The
spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising
from the dust, his condition mollifying, the way I hope
preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for a total
emancipation; and that this is disposed, in the order of
events, to be with the consent of the masters, rather than
by their extirpation.
And again, speaking of the negro:
Whether further observation will or will not verify the
conjecture, that nature has been less bountiful to them in
the endowments of the head, I believe that in those of the
heart she will be found to have done them justice. That
disposition to theft with which they have been branded, must
be ascribed to their situation, and not to any depravity of
the moral sense. The man in whose favor no laws of property
existed, probably feels himself less bound to respect those
made in favor of others. When arguing for ourselves, we lay
it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a
reciprocation of right; that without this, they are mere
arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in
conscience; and it is a problem which I give the master to
solve, whether the religious precepts against the violation
of property were not framed for him as well as his slave?
And whether the slave may not as justifiably take a little
from one who has taken all from him, as he may slay one who
would slay him? That a change in the relations in which a
man is placed should change his ideas of moral right or
wrong, is neither new nor peculiar to the color of the
blacks. Homer tells us it was so 2,600 years ago.
Jove fix'd it certain, that whatever day
Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.
But the slaves of which Homer speaks were whites.
Notwithstanding these conditions, which must weaken their
respect for the laws of property, we find among them
numerous instances of the most rigid integrity, and as many
as among their better instructed masters, of benevolence,
gratitude, and unshaken fidelity. The opinion that they are
inferior in the faculties of reason and imagination, must be
hazarded with great diffidence.
1786. To a Friend in France.
What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is
man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and
death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the
next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power
supported him through his trial, and inflict on his
fellow-men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more
misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to
oppose. But we must await, with patience, the workings of an
overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the
deliverance of those our suffering brethren. When the
measure of their tears shall be full, when their groans
shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a
God of Justice will awaken to their distress, and, by
diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or at
length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention
to the things of this world, and that they are not left to
the guidance of a blind fatality.
James Madison.--
4th President.
From Mr. Madison's Report of Debates in the Federal
Convention. Mr. Madison: We have seen the mere
distinction of color made, in the most enlightened period of
time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever
exercised by man over man.
Mr. Madison: And, in the third place, where slavery
exists, the republican theory becomes still more
fallacious.
Mr. MADISON THOUGHT IT WRONG TO ADMIT, IN THE
CONSTITUTION, THE IDEA THAT THERE COULD BE PROPERTY IN
MEN.
Mr. Madison to Joseph Jones.--[Extract.]
Philadelphia, Nov. 28, 1780.
Yours of the 18th came yesterday. I am glad to find the
Legislature persist in their resolution to recruit their
line of the army for the war; though without deciding on the
expediency of the mode under their consideration, would it
not be as well to liberate and make soldiers at once of the
blacks themselves, as to make them instruments for enlisting
white soldiers? It would certainly be more consonant with
the principles of liberty, which ought never to be lost
sight of in a contest for liberty.
James Monroe-- 5th
President.
Extract of a speech from Ex-President Monroe,
delivered in the Virginia State Convention for altering the
Constitution, Nov. 2d , 1829.
"What has been the leading spirit of this State,
ever since our independence was obtained? She has always
declared herself in favor of the equal rights of man. The
revolution was conducted on that principle. Yet there was at
that time a slavish population in Virginia. We hold it in
the condition in which the revolution found it, and what can
be done with this population.
"Sir, what brought us together in the revolutionary
war? It was the doctrine of equal rights. Each part of the
country encouraged and supported every other part of it.
None took
advantage of the others' distresses. And if we find that
this evil has preyed upon the vitals of the Union, and has
been prejudicial to all the States where it has existed, and
is likewise repugnant to their several State Constitutions
and Bills of Rights , why may we not expect that they
will unite with us in accomplishing its removal? If we make
the attempt, and cannot accomplish it, the effect will at
least be to abate the great number of petitions and
memorials which are continually pouring in upon the
Government. This matter is before the nation, and the
principles and consequences involved in it are of the
highest importance. But, in the meanwhile, self-preservation
demands of us union in our councils.
"What was the origin of our slave population? The
evil commenced when we were in our colonial state, but acts
were passed by our colonial Legislature, prohibiting the
importation of more slaves into the colony. These were
rejected by the Crown. We declared our independence, and the
prohibition of a further importation was among the first
acts of State sovereignty. Virginia was the first State
which instructed her delegates to declare the Colonies
independent. She braved all dangers. From Quebec to Boston,
and from Boston to Savannah, Virginia shed the blood of her
sons. No imputation, then, can be cast upon her in this
matter. She did all that was in her power to do, to
prevent the extension of slavery, and to mitigate its evils ."
The views of slavery entertained by John Quincy
Adams, 6th President of the United States ,
are too familiar to be quoted.
This Reading from the Presidents closes with Proclamations
of Gen. Jackson, 7th
President, inviting the negroes of
Louisiana to arms in 1814.
Headquarters, 7TH Military District,)
Mobile, Sept. 21, 1814. .......... )
To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Louisiana
Through a mistaken policy, you have heretofore been
deprived of a participation in the glorious struggle for
national rights in which our country is engaged. This no
longer shall exist.
As sons of freedom, you are now called upon to defend our
most inestimable blessing. As Americans, your country looks
with confidence to her adopted children for a valorous
support, as a faithful return for the advantages enjoyed
under her mild and equitable government. As fathers,
husbands, and brothers, you are summoned to rally around the
standard of the Eagle, to defend all which is dear in
existence.
Your country, although calling for your exertions, does
not wish you to engage in her cause without amply
remunerating you for services rendered. Your intelligent
minds are not to be led away by false representations. Your
love of honor would cause you to despise the man who should
attempt to deceive you. In the sencerity of a soldier and
the language of truth I address you.
To every noble-hearted, generous freeman of color,
volunteering to serve during the present contest with Great
Britain, and no longer, there will be paid the same bounty,
in money and lands, now received by the white soldiers of
the United States, viz., one hundred and twenty-four dollars
in money, and one hundred and sixty acres of land. The
non-commissioned officers and privates will also be entitled
to the same monthly pay and daily rations, and clothes,
furnished to any American soldier.
On enrolling yourselves in companies, the Major-General
commanding will select officers for your government from
your white fellow-citizens. Your non-commissioned officers
will be appointed from among yourselves.
Due regard will be paid to the feelings of freemen
soldiers. You will not, by being associated with white men
in the same corps, be exposed to improper comparisons or
unjust sarcasm. As a distinct, independent battalion or
regiment, pursuing the path of glory, you will, undivided,
received the applause and gratitude of your
countrymen.
To assure you of the sincerity of my intentions, and
anxiety to engage your invaluable services to our country, I
have communicated my wishes to the governor of Louisiana,
who is fully informed as to the manner of enrolment, and
will give you every necessary information on the subject of
this address.
.......... Andrew Jackson,
.......... Major-General Commanding.
General Jackson's Address To The "Men Of
Color," On The 18th Of December, 1814, At New
Orleans.
Soldiers : From the shores of Mobile I collected
you to arms. I invited you to share the perils and to divide
the glory of your white countrymen. I expected much from
you, for I was not uninformed of those qualities which must
render you so formidable to an invading foe. I knew that you
could endure hunger and thirst, and all the hardships of
war. I knew that you loved the land of your nativity, and
that, like ourselves, you had to defend all that is most
dear to man. But you surpass my hopes. I have found in
you, united to these qualities, that noble enthusiasm which
impels to great deeds
Soldiers : The President of the United States
shall be informed of your conduct on the present occasion,
and the voice of the representatives of the American nation
shall applaud your valor, as your general now praises your
ardor. The enemy is near: his "sails cover the
lakes:" but the brave are united, and if he finds us
contending among ourselves, it will be for the prize of
valor and fame, its noblest reward. .......... By command,
.......... Thos. L. Butler,
Aid de Camp.
(See Niles' Register, Vol. VII., p. 346.)
A Private Letter Written By General Jackson, on
the 1st of May, 1833, to Rev. A.J. Crawford.
"I have had a laborious task here; but nullification
is dead, and its actors and courtiers will only be
remembered by the people to be execrated for their wicked
designs to sever and destroy the only good government on the
globe, and that prosperity and happiness we enjoy over every
other portion of the world. Haman's gallows ought to be the
fate of all such ambitious men, who would involve the
country in civil war, and all the evils in its train, that
they might reign and ride on its whirlwinds, and direct the
storm. The free people of these United States have spoken,
and consigned these demagogues to their proper doom. Take
care of your nullifiers you have amongst you. Let them meet
the indignant frowns of every man who loves his country. The
tariff, it is now known, was a mere pretext, and disunion
and a Southern Confederacy the real object. The next pretext
will be the negro, or the slavery question."
What the FathersThought
of the Blacks as Slaves, as Soliders, and Men. Benjamin
Franklin
A reading prepared for the celebration of Washington's
birth-day at Lyceum Hall, Salem, Massachusetts, A. D. 1863.
An address to the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the
abolition of slavery, and the relief of free negroes
unlawfully held in bondage.
It is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends of
humanity, that in prosecuting the design of our association,
our endeavors have proved successful, far beyond the most
sanguine expectations.
Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of
that luminous and benign spirit of liberty which is
diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for
the continuance of the divine blessing on our labors, we
have ventured to make an important addition to our original
plan, and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and
assistance of all who can feel the tender emotions of
sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasure of
benevolence.
Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature,
that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous
care, may sometimes open a source of serious evil.
The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute
animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of
the human species. The galling chains that bind his body, do
also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the
social affections of his heart. Accustomed to move like a
mere machine, by the will of a master, reflection is
suspended; he has not the power of choice, and reason and
conscience have but little influence over his conduct,
because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is
poor and friendless, perhaps worn out by extreme labor, age,
and disease.
Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a
misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to society.
Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to
be hoped, will become a branch of our national police; but
so far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far
that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us,
and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment
and abilities.
To instruct, to advise, to qualify those who have been
restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil
liberty, to promote in them habits of industry,
to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex,
talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their
children an education calculated for their future situation
in life--these are the great outlines of the annexed plan,
which we have adopted, and which we conceive will
essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of
these our hitherto too much neglected
fellow-creatures.
.......... Signed, by order of the Society,
B. Franklin,
President.
Philadelphia, November 9, 1789.
The last public act of Franklin's life was the signing,
as President of the same society, of the following memorial
to Congress. The society was as old as 1774--the first of
the kind in the country.
"The memorial respectfully showeth,--
"That, from a regard for the happiness of mankind, an
association was formed several years since in this State, by
a number of her citizens, of various religious
denominations, for promoting the abolition of slavery, and
for the relief of those unlawfully held in bondage. A just
and acute conception of the true principles of liberty, as
it spread through the land, produced accessions to their
numbers, many friends to their cause and a legislative
co-operation with their views, which, by the blessing of
Divine Providence, have been successfully directed to the
relieving from bondage a large number of their fellow
creatures of the African race. They have also the
satisfaction to observe that, in consequence of that spirit
of philanthropy and genuine liberty which is generally
diffusing its beneficial influence, similar institutions are
forming at home and abroad.
"That mankind are all formed by the same Almighty
Being, alike objects of his care, and equally designed for
the enjoyment of happiness, the Christian religion teaches
us to believe, and the political creed of Americans fully
coincides with the position. Your memorialists, particularly
engaged in attending to the distresses arising from slavery,
believe it their indispensable duty to present this subject
to your notice. They have observed, with real satisfaction,
that many important and salutary powers are vested in you
for 'promoting the welfare and securing the blessings of
liberty to the people of the United States;' and as they
conceive that these blessings ought rightfully to be
administered, without distinction of color, to all
descriptions of people, so they indulge themselves in the
pleasing expectation, that nothing which can be done for the
relief of the unhappy objects of their care, will be either
omitted or delayed.
"From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally
the portion, and is still the birthright of all men; and
influenced by the strong ties of humanity, and the
principles of their institution, your memorialists conceive
themselves bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen
the bands of slavery, and promote a general enjoyment of the
blessings of freedom. Under these impressions, they
earnestly entreat your serious attention to the subject of
slavery, that you will be pleased to countenance the
restoration of liberty to those unhappy men, who, alone in
this land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual bondage,
and who, amidst the general joy of surrounding freemen, are
groaning in servile subjection; that you will devise means
for removing this inconsistency from the character of the
American people; that you will promote mercy and justice
towards this distressed race; and that you will step to the
very verge of the power vested in you for discouraging every
species of traffic in the persons of our fellow-men.
"Benj. FRANKLIN, President
"Philadelphia, February 3, 1790."
(Annals of Congress, vol. ii., p. 1197.)
Lafayette
said, "I would never have drawn my sword in the cause
of America, could I have conceived that thereby I was
founding a land of Slavery."
In his letter to John Adams in 1786, occur these words:
.......... "In the cause of my black brethren, I feel
myself warmly interested, and most decidedly side, so far as
respects them, against the white part of mankind. Whatever
be the complexion of the enslaved, it does not, in my
opinion, alter the complexion of the crime which the
enslaver commits-a crime much blacker than any African face.
It is to me a matter of great anxiety and concern, to find
that this trade is sometimes perpetrated under the flag of
liberty, our dear and noble stripes, to which virtue and
glory have been constant standard-bearers."
-- Life and Works of John Adams, vol. viii., p. 376.
..........
John Randolph's
will contains these words:
"I give to my slaves their freedom, to which my
conscience tells me they are justly entitled. It has long
been a matter of the deepest regret to me, that the
circumstances under which I inherited them, and the
obstacles thrown in the way by the laws of the land, have
prevented my emancipating them in my lifetime, which it is
my full intention to do, in case I can accomplish
it."
The Virginia State Convention
of 1774, resolved that :
For the most trifling reasons, and sometimes for no
conceivable reasons at all, his Majesty has rejected laws of
the most salutary tendency. The abolition of domestic
slavery is the greatest object of desire in these colonies
where it was introduced in their infant state. But, previous
to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is
necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa
. Yet our repeated attempts to effect this by
prohibitions, and by imposing duties which might amount to a
prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's
negative; thus preferring the immediate advantages of a few African
corsairs to the lasting interests of the American States,
and to the rights of human nature, deeply wounded by this
infamous practice.
John Jay,
1st Chief Justice of the United States, writes, while
minister to Spain, of the abolition of slavery:
"Till America comes into this measure, her prayers
to Heaven will be impious. This is a strong expression, but
I believe it is just. I believe that God governs the world,
and I believe it to be a maxim in His, as in our courts,
that those who ask for equity ought to do
equity."
Roger B. Taney, the
present Chief Justice of the United States, was
called upon, in 1819, to defend Rev. Jacob Gruber, a
minister of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, who was tried in the Frederick County
Court, Maryland, for "attempting to excite
insubordination and insurrection among slaves," by
preaching a sermon in which he set forth the evils of
slavery and the duties of masters. In his argument, Mr.
Taney said:
"Mr. Gruber did quote the language of our great act
of National Independence, and insisted on the principles
contained in that venerated instrument. He did rebuke those
masters who, in the exercise of power, are deaf to the calls
of humanity; and he warned them of the evils they might
bring upon themselves. He did speak with abhorrence of those
reptiles who live by trading in human flesh, and enrich
themselves by tearing the husband from the wife, the infant
from the bosom of the mother; and this I am instructed was
the head and front of his offending. Shall I content myself
with saying he had a right to do this? that there is no law
to punish him? So far is he from being the object of
punishment in any form of proceedings, that we are prepared
to maintain the same principles, and to use, if necessary,
the same language here in the temple of justice, and in the
presence of those who are the ministers of the law. A hard
necessity, indeed, compels us to endure the evils
of slavery for a time. It was imposed upon us by another
nation, while we were yet in a state of colonial vassalage.
It cannot be easily or suddenly removed. Yet while it
continues, it is a blot on our national character ,
and every real lover of freedom confidently hopes that it
will be effectually, though it will be gradually, wiped
away; and earnestly looks for the means by which this
necessary object may be best attained. And until it shall be
accomplished, until the time shall come when we can point,
without a blush to the language held in the Declaration of
Independence, every friend of humanity will seek to lighten
the galling chain of slavery, and better, to the utmost of
his power, the wretched condition of the slave. Such was Mr.
Gruber's object in that part of his sermon of which I am now
speaking. Those who have complained of him, and reproached
him, will not find it easy to answer him; unless complaints,
reproaches, and persecution shall be considered an
answer."
Alexander Hamilton
wrote to an American Tory, in 1774: .......... "The
fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false
reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of
mankind--were you once to become acquainted with these, you
could never entertain a thought that all men are not by
nature entitled to equal privileges. You would be convinced
that natural liberty is a gift of a beneficent Creator to
the whole human race; and that civil liberty is founded on
that."
And to John Jay:
"Headquarters, March 14, 1779.
"To John Jay:
"Dear Sir,--Col. Laurens, who will have the honor of
delivering you this letter, is on his way to South Carolina,
on a project which I think, from the present state of
affairs there, is a very good one and deserves every kind of
support and encouragement. This is, to raise two, three, or
four battalions of negroes, with the assistance of the
Government of that State, by contributions from the owners,
in proportion to the number they possess. If you should
think proper to enter into the subject with him, he will
give you a detail of his plan. He wishes to have it
recommended by Congress to the State; and, as an inducement,
that they should engage to take theses battalions into
Continental pay.
"It appears to me, that an expedient of this kind in
the present state of Southern affairs, is the most rational
that can be adopted, and promises very important advantages.
Indeed, I hardly see how a sufficient force can be collected
in that quarter without it; and the enemy's operations there
are growing infinitely more serious and formidable. I have
not the least doubt that the negroes will make very
excellent soldiers with proper management; and I will
venture to pronounce, that they cannot be put into better
hands than those of Mr. Laurens. He has all the zeal,
intelligence, enterprise, and every other qualification
necessary to succeed in such an undertaking. It is a maxim
with some great military judges, that, with sensible
officers, soldiers can hardly be too stupid; and, on this
principle, it is thought that the Russians would make the
best troops in the world, if they were under other officers
than their own. The King of Prussia is among the number who
maintain this doctrine, and has a very emphatic saying on
the occasion, which I do not exactly recollect. I mention
this, because I hear it frequently objected to the scheme of
embodying negroes, that they are too stupid to make
soldiers. This is so far from appearing to me a valid
objection, that I think their want of cultivation (for their
natural faculties are probably as good as ours), joined to
that habit of subordination which they acquire from a life
of servitude, will make them sooner become soldiers than our
white inhabitants. Let officers be men of sense and
sentiment; and the nearer the soldiers approach to machines,
perhaps the better.
"I foresee that this project will have to combat
much opposition from prejudice and self-interest. The
contempt we have been taught to entertain for the blacks
makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in
reason nor experience; and an unwillingness to part with
property of so valuable a kind will furnish a thousand
arguments to show the impracticability or pernicious
tendency of a scheme which requires such a sacrifice. But it
should be considered, that, if we do not make use of them in
this way, the enemy probably will; and that the best way to
counteract the temptations they will hold out will be to
offer them ourselves. An essential part of the plan is to
give them their freedom with their muskets. This will secure
their fidelity, animate their courage, and, I believe, will
have a good effect upon these who remain, by opening a door
to their emancipation. This circumstance, I confess, has no
small weight in inducing me to wish the success of the
project; for the dictates of humanity, and true policy,
equally interest me in favor of this unfortunate class of
men.
"With the truest respect and esteem,
"I am, sir, your most obed't serv't,
"ALEX. HAMILTON."
A single passage from Mr. Bancroft's History, will give a
succinct and clear account of the condition
of the army, in respect to colored soldiers, at
the time of the battle of Bunker Hill:
"Nor should history forget to record, that as in the
army at Cambridge, so also in this gallant band, the free
negroes of the Colony had their representatives. For the
right of free negroes to bear arms in the public defence
was, at that day, as little disputed in New England as their
other rights. They took their place, not in a separate
corps, but in the ranks with the white man; and their names
may be read on the pension rolls of the country, side by
side with those of other soldiers of the
Revolution."
Mr. Everett has described Peter Salem, a black man, and
once a slave, as having been among the most prominent and
meritorious characters at the battle of Bunker's Hill.
Indeed, the historical painting of that scene, by Col.
Trumbull, an eyewitness, done in 1785, gives Peter Salem,
with other black patriots, a conspicuous place. One of the
latter is thus commemorated:
"To the Honorable General Court of the
Massachusetts Bay: "The subscribers beg leave to
report to your Honorable House (which we do in justice to
the character of so brave a man), that, under our own
observation, we declare that a negro man, called Salem Poor,
of Col. Frye's regiment, Capt. Ames' company, in the late
battle at Charlestown, behaved like an experienced officer,
as well as an excellent soldier. To set forth particulars of
his conduct would be tedious. We would beg leave to say, in
the person of this said negro, centres a brave and gallant
soldier. The reward due to so great and distinguished a
character, we submit to the Congress.
"Jona. Brewer, Col.
Thomas Nixon, Lt. Col.
Wm. Prescott, Col.
Ephm. Corey, Lieut.
Joseph Baker, Lieut.
Jonas Richardson, Capt.
Eliphalet Bodwell, Segt.
Josiah Foster, Lieut.
EBENR. VARNUM, 2d Lieut.
Wm. Hudson Ballard, Capt.
William Smith, Capt.
John Morton, Sergt.[?]
Lieut. Richard Welsh.
"Cambridge, Dec. 5, 1755.
"In Counsel, Dec. 21, 1775.--Read, and sent down.
.......... "PEREZ MORTON,
"Dep'y Sec'y."
Patrick Henry was
the leading opponent, in America, of the adoption of our
present Constitution. In a debate on the question of
ratifying or rejecting it in the Virginia State Convention,
he used, in opposing it, these strangely prophetic
words-with which the reading from the Fathers closes:
"Among ten thousand implied powers which they may
assume, they may, if we be engaged in war, liberate every
one of your slaves, if they please. And this must and will
be done by men, a majority of whom have not a common
interest with you. They will, therefore, have no feeding for
your interest. It has been repeatedly said here, that the
great object of a National Government was national defence.
If you give power to the General Government to provide for
the general defence, the means must be commensurate to the
end. All the means in the possession of the people must be
given to the Government which is intrusted with the public
defence. In this State there are 236,000 blacks, and there
are many in several States; but there are few or none in the
Northern States. May Congress not say that every black
man must fight ? Did we not see a little of this last
war? We were not so hard pushed as to make emancipation
general: but acts of Assembly passed, that every slave who
would go the Army should be free. Another thing will
contribute to bring this event about: slavery is
detested--we feel its fatal effects--we deplore it with all
the pity of humanity. Let all these considerations, at some
future period, press with full force on the minds of
Congress. Let that humanity which I trust will distinguish
America, and the necessity of national defence--let all
these things operate on their minds; they will search that
paper, and see if they have power of manumission. And have
they not, sir? Have they not power to provide for the
general defence and welfare? May they not think that these
call for the abolition of slavery? May not they pronounce
all slaves free, and will they not be warranted by that
power? There is no ambiguous implication or logical
deduction. The paper speaks to the point. They have the
power, in clear, unequivocal terms, and will clearly and
certainly exercise it." |
