d by the home government. If both
white man and black man are worse off than they were before, what good
could have been derived from the reform, and by what right ought he to
rejoice? Mr. Trollope claims to be an anti-slavery man, but we must
confess that to our way of arguing, the ground he stands upon in this
matter is any thing but _terra firma_. Mr. Trollope was probably
thinking of those dirty West-India negroes when he made the following
comments upon a lecture delivered by Wendell Phillips:
'I have sometimes thought that there is no being so venomous, so
bloodthirsty, as a professed philanthropist; and that when the
philanthropist's ardor lies negro-ward, it then assumes the deepest
die of venom and bloodthirstiness. There are four millions of
slaves in the Southern States, none of whom have any capacity for
self-maintenance or self-control. Four millions of slaves, with the
necessities of children, with the passions of men, and the
ignorance of savages! And Mr. Phillips would emancipate these at a
blow; would, were it possible for him to do so, set them loose upon
the soil to tear their masters, destroy each other, and make such a
hell upon earth as has never even yet come from the uncontrolled
passions and unsatisfied wants of men.'
Mr. Trollope should have thought twice before he wrote thus of the
American negro. Were he a competent authority on this subject, his
opinion might be worth something; but as he never traveled in the South,
and as his knowledge of the negro is limited to a surface acquaintance
with the West-Indies, we maintain that Mr. Trollope has not only been
unjust, but ungenerous. Four millions of slaves, none of whom have any
capacity for self-maintenance or self-control! Whom are we to believe?
Mr. Trollope, who has never been on a Southern plantation, or Frederick
Law Olmsted? Mr. Pierce, who has been superintendent of the contrabands
at Fortress Monroe and at Hilton Head, officers attached to Burnside's
Division, and last and best, General David Hunter, an officer of the
regular army, who went to South-Carolina with anti-abolition
antecedents? All honor to General Hunter, who, unlike many others, has
not shut his eyes upon facts, and, like a rational being, has yielded to
the logic of events. It is strange that these authorities, all of whom
possess the confidence of the Government, should disagree with Mr.
Trollope. _None_ sel
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