The Delaware abolitionist., January 01, 1848, Image 1

About The Delaware abolitionist. (Wilmington, Del.) 1847-18??

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TIE DELAWARE ABOLITIONIST.
DEVOTE» TO EMANCIPATION IN DELAWARE.
VOL. I.
WILMINGTON, DEL. JMÜARY 1, 1848.
NO.—2.
Publisheil Homi-Monthly, by tlio Dklawa
:y Society, ut the Ami-Slavery Utfi
w Eleventh slrec*. All c
l letter* reluting to buninvaa, should be punt paid,
and directed to James H. Iîrookk, Agent.
to Kaclu-r Hasset, Treasurer.
Anti-Si
Market
ird
i
for this
pupe
Donat i
I
Fwauty-five conta, strictly in adv
ce. Single
'I»
SELECTIONS.
DIFFICULTIES.
We promised two weeks ago, that we would
tell a slave-holding correspondent why it was,
that he looked only to a certain kind of opposi
tion to slavery. Our language was—" we un
derstand our friend, and will show him that
we do." We proceed accordingly.
There is no subject about which there is
more dread than slavery. We shrink from it
as something which ought not to be discussed.
The moment it is introduced in parlor, or of
fice, or store, the voice drops to a low whisper,
as if treason were lurking near; and when
mentioned in the street, men go apart, and see
that they cannot be overhead, lest they may
draw upon their heads a horrible infliction.
What it is we dread, we cannot define. It
is before us, palpable as the sun ; yet no
can clutch it. It is an airy phantom, seen by
all— -felt sensibly by all ; yet not a man of us
fix it, or tell how it walks, or how it geesi,
•*
** Who »o gross,
this palpable device ?
says-—he sees it not."'
We talk ever and always round about tl«e
subject, and qualify as we talk; and qualify
still more, if there be opposition, until the ma
jority of us stand spell-bound, unwilling to ex
press our own convictions, orafraid to hear the
utterance of another's thoughts. We fear, yet
know not what we fear.
Why all this should he, we can understand
in par*. Let us examine it.
The period between the conception and ful
filment of any great deed, is ever a time of anx
iety and alarm. No matter what it is,—
whether fair or foul,.—it disturbs the bravest
spirit, and makes it tremble. 'Lite poet says :
" Between the doing of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
That cannot !
Yet who so bold l
a hideous dream ;
Like a phantasma,
The genius, and the mortal i
council ; and the soul of mi
ruments,
Are then
Eke to a little kingdom suffers then
insurrection.''
The nature of ;
But why the exception. 'Ibis
Granted.
feeling is not confined to dreadful things , to
do good, sometimes is accounted dangerous fol
ly ; and the attempt, then, to enforce it, will
anxiety, though of a different kind.
awaken
as intense, and a fear as appalling. The very
subject of slavery proves what we say.
Independent of this, however, there
trinsic difficulties in the way. Emancipation
proposes a great change. Men that are well
off, fear injury, they that are doing poorly,
dread worse evils—from its action. None
know what is to bo the result to them ; and,
although they may see how the change will
benefit city or Sta\e, they tremble lest they
in
should be sufferers by it. And as to long es
tablished habits and usage^those in which
we are set, to which we fare attached, and
which are part and parcel
our second nature, as our vjry nature itself,—
why, they must all go, anojnew habits and
usages spring up under nevl circumstances.—
Can we conform to them ? pan we be happy
with them, or under them 1 It is an untried
state, and, whatever others'experience may be,
dread to test it. It involves a future of un
known experiment, and wo .{ling to a present
known good and evil, rathelj than plunge into
us—not so much
it.
Besides, Emancipation, wj-en proposed
the blood into hundreds of fjbeeKs from
causes. There are childrenbf tenderage, wid
, young and old, grey-loaded fathers, who
have their ail locked up in negro property.—
Their hire, schools, clothes t jeeds shelters them.
Strip them of it, and they are helplessly poor.
How can they sustain a Measure, when such
ill may befall them ?—Hjf w help dreading a
change, when these, ormgre fearful consequen
ces may happen,
pathize with them,
, starts
other
And they, and all who sym
or expedience kindred feais,
say, " we care nothing for your increase of pop
ulation and power—your promised greater pros
perity—.your railways, and universal education
—your wide spread blessings,*under freedom ;
—we are happy as w*e are jiand we do not want,
and we will not cvpjfchnnge. if we can
help it."
Now we know, as wc believe, that no inju
ry would, or could he wrought against any one
of these classes. There i6 not a
Kentucky who would not scorn him who
seek to strip children, or women, o'* old age, of
their support. We do not here look at the ques
tion of right : we take the facts simply as they
are. By law, they have a certain property in
human flesh ; that human flesh toils, and by
that toil they live. We wouid acknowledge
and undo the wrong, and iQake free the slave
and all,
in all
ild
by law ; and then give to owners,
lull and adequate compensation. For liberty's
sake, we could afford to be jeneroua Ï For the
common good, large in oilr bounty ! Nor is
there a human being, that we aro acquainted
with, in favor of emancipatioh, who would break
up old habits, or bring abiut great changes,
without seeking, in every way, to prevent evil,
inconvenience, or difficulty to any portion of
the people in the State. We know this, as do
all our friends ; but the parties to whom we
refer, da not, therefore theyjthus feel and act.
What, now is the conseqaence of all these
things—of this general d/ead—this anxiety
about the change which emancipation proposes
-—this fear of loss of property ? Why, that
good men, liko our friend, Mhose letter we quo
ted, and to which we replie! in No. 6, keep out
of view every consideration except those which
every body would admit to be controlling , if they
could be proved . This is tlje secret of their ac
tion. They want slavery destroyed as much
as we do. Their very coQrse proves it. But
they argue thus :—" If wè 6ay a word, or use
an argument, for freedom, which does not go at
once to show that its removal would make all
classes better off, pecuniary and socially, we
shall defeat ourselves, crpate unnecessary alarm,
and retard the progress of the cause,
they pass by considerations of a higher charac
ter; not that they do not feel them, and would
not act upon them, but that the presentation of
them, in their view, would do harm.
We have stated the difficulties. Next in or- *
der comes the question—How shall we remove
them 1 Of this, in
should like to-, hear from our friend—to know
candidly, from him, whether,
self,
Hence
next. Meantime, we
regards him
are right or wrong.
Coni imuilcaf ions.
For the Delaware Abolitionist.
I was somewhat, surprised at a remark of my
friend B. Webb, in the first number of the
Abolitionist, and was no little puzzled to com
prehend the position he would wish to assume.
He says he is " in favor of immediate but, not
unconditional emancipation." What condition
would he annex to the enjoyment of liberty by
the freed-man? Would he, with the coloniza
tionist, require that the colored man should be
removed to Africa, making that a condition of
his enfranchisement, that is a thing necessary
to be performed, before he should cease to be a
chattel ! Or would he, with the slave-holder
of the south, require that freed-man should leavo
the Slate, and would he refuse him liberty if
he did notcomply with his condition î I know
my mena well enough to say thnt I
fied it is neither of these. W
condition be which he would prescribe. 1 have
heard no others suggested in the case ; and the
evidently adopted by
the "modern abolitionists" to distinguish their
plan from that ot the colonizationists, which
then had and still possesses a very strong hold
upon the feelings and imaginations of the peo
ple.
saus
hat then can the
term unconditional
1 am for unconditional emancipation, such as
was decreed in Pennsylvania and other, of the
Northern States. They did not it is true de
cree liberty to all in the first instance, and here
in they erred as I think ; but so far as it was
given, it wr\s given without condition. It was
not even required that the slave should signify
his wish to he free. The master's authority
over him was made to cease by the mere opera
tion of the law, under certain defined circum
stances ;
cumstances present his own emancipation ; and
this is what I wish to see effectually done in Del
aware and in every other slave state. No con
dition annexed in the ownership of a man's
limbs, not even that of good behaviour. If the
freed-man injures his neighbor, in person or in
property, let him be punished for it as other
freemen, hut let him not be made a personal
chattel which would be the case if good be
haviour was made a condition of emancipation.
There may be some who think that the mas
ter is entitled to compensation from his freed
man for the loss of his value as property ; and
that the payment of this compensation by the
slave or some person on his behalt should be a
condition of his emancipation. But B. W.
cannot be of this number, for he says that
" every man lias a Tight to his liberty," which
is to say in other words that every one who
could the slave under these cir-