Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/35

22 men were profoundly convinced of tte injustice of slavery; others saw it was a bad tool to work with.

Since that time the Southern idea of Slavery appears to have changed. Formerly, it was granted by the defenders of slavery that it was wtong ; but they maintained:— 1. That Americans were not responsible for the wrong, as England had imposed it upon the colonies. 2. That it was profitable to the owners of slaves. 3. That it was impossible to get rid of it. Now the ground is taken that slavery is not a wrong to the slave, but that the negro is fit for a slave, and a slave only. I pass by the arguments of the Southern clergy and the Northern clergy — whose conduct is yet more contemptible—to cite the language of the prominent secular organs of the South. The Richmond Examiner y one of the most able journals of the South, declares:—

"When we deprive the negro of that exercise of his will which the white calls liberty, we deprive him of nothing ; on the contrary, when we give him the guidance and protection of a master, we confer on him a great blessing." "To treat two creatures so utterly different as the white man and the negro man on the same system, is an effort to violate elementary laws." "The aphorisms of the Declaration of Independence" are illogical when applied to the negro. "They involve the assumption that the negro is the white man, only a little different in external appearance and education. But this assumption cannot be supported." "A law rendering perpetual the relation between the negro and his master is no wrong, but a right." "Negroes are not men, in the meaning of the Declaration of Independence." "’Haven't negroes got souls?' asks some sepulchral voice. 'Have they no souls?' That question we never answer; we know nothing about it. Non mi ricordo; they may have souls, for aught we know to the contrary; so may horses and hogs."

"We expect the institution of Slavery to exist for ever." "The production of cotton, rice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco, demand that which Slavery only can supply. And in all