. There are many of them qualified in
skilled labor in the coarser mechanic arts. The whole of this population
has been trained to diligent labor, under habits of continuous toil. It
has acquired patience in performing labor, by the discipline which
unremitting labor gives. The colored man South has not been brought up
in idleness, or with habits calculated to make him a renegade. Were he
permitted to enjoy the fruits of his industry, there can be no doubt of
his disposition and patience to toil on. In case his rebel master would
not hire him for wages, there would be enough amongst the
non-slaveholding population who would. Production in the South, under
emancipation of the slaves of rebel masters, would not materially fall
off. Give to colored men the fruits of their industry, and many of them
would soon set up for themselves. Perhaps in connection with the soil of
the South, that yields most abundantly in annual value of product, the
rest of the colored population would soon get to emulate the free
colored people of Charleston. The law of subsistence would as much
compel the South to go on without compulsory labor as it does the North,
and there are just as many reasons for it in one section as in the
other; that is, just none at all. Under emancipation, there is little
doubt that actual production could and would soon be put on the
increase, with better distribution of wealth, more widely diffused
comforts, and a broader and better public policy. The only things that
would be curtailed in their proportions would be slave-breeding,
rebel-breeding, and ruffian cultivation.

It may, perhaps, continue to be easier for a time to strike the colored
man than to strike off his shackles. There is a mean and low side of
humanity, a sort of defiled infirmity, that runs into a disposition to
strike the helpless. This is the bravery of ruffianism. There is apt to
be a shrinking away from duty, when the contest involves a conflict with
arrogant power. This is the cowardice of pusillanimity. The American
citizen has been noted for his superior bravery. He has certainly shown
himself brave in the battle-field, and more brave and determined than
any other nation in the vindication and maintenance of the natural
rights of the white man; but he is not done with the business of
disenthrallment. His language is the language of liberty. It must not,
it will not long continue to be spoken by slaves. This was the meaning
of Jefferson, when