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tions of it; or is their discretion so obvious that we do well to take their judgment as a guide? Is there no new path, as yet unexplored, that at least is not known to be hopeless?

There is such a course, which may be taken, too, with some rational prospect of success; for the secession of the South, followed, as it inevitably must be, by its independence, affords the first gleam of hope that has dawned in America upon the negro race. We have seen that the restoration of the Union would shut out all possibility of benefit to the slave. We have seen that the Constitution as it stands permits no hope; that both the President and the Congress have expressed their perfect willingness to add fresh props in support of slavery; that it now stands under the Constitution, so far as legislation extends, an irrevocable thing. But it must also be remembered that a restoration of the Union, were it to occur as the issue of the present war, would involve an arrangement of conditions of peace. However speedily that might happen, the cost and danger of the war to the North would have been sufficient. The policy of the Government would be to avert a fresh outbreak by every conceivable privilege. The supreme object would be to buy or bribe back the affections of the estranged partner, and efface the bitter memories of the past. Within limits, to be imposed only by a sense of shame, it is difficult to imagine any concessions too great to be granted. In all this there

is little hope for the slave. Every flaw in every link of his fetters would be welded anew. Indeed it is difficult to rise from the perusal of the evidence on this subject without the conviction that, but for the opprobrium of such an act, the Northern power would be ready, very ready, to assent to the reopening of the slave-trade, if that were demanded, as a bribe for return to the Union and to cordiality. The Abolitionists would be cast aside without a thought, but not extinguished. Ill-judged, fanatical, as the action of that party has been, there is truth at the bottom of its principles, and that cannot be extinguished. The South, therefore, would be in a condition to maintain its system, strengthened with additional powers, to wreak upon the slave, if so disposed, the rancour of defeat, whilst the old irritation would still be kept up as a sore, festering in its side. In all this the most sanguine enthusiast may abandon, without delay, any hope of advantage to the negro.

But a far different prospect is opened by another view of the future. If the Southern Confederacy maintains its independence, it will become its strongest desire to be received into the family of independent powers. It will clearly be allowable to our Government to decline to acknowledge that independence without express conditions in relation to slavery. Apart from the difficult subject of absolute emancipation (and in any rational view of the case, as necessary preliminaries to it), there

are many less striking, but really important changes, which are clearly practicable, and which would ameliorate at once the condition of the slave, lessen his degradation, and educate him for further advances into freedom. These changes could be made, too, without appreciable loss to the owner. In Cuba advantages are possessed by the negro unknown at present in America. There slavery has its rights, and amongst them the great right that any slave may demand that his value shall be appraised, and that, on providing the declared sum, he may tender it to his owner, and become a free man. And this right is no dead letter, but, on the contrary, in such active operation that, but for fresh importations from Africa, a large proportion of the black population of Cuba would become free within an early period. If such a system be in action without difficulty there, it must at least be possible in America. Again, an exchange from slavery into serfdom would involve no insuperable difficulties. To prevent

the separation of husband from wife, or parent from child; to substitute task work for unmeasured labour; to organize some means for the prevention of cruelty-in short, to end the barbarities of the present condition of slavery; all this could be done with no positive detriment to the owner, and with immeasurable advantage to the slave.

If this were proposed to the Government of a reconstructed Union, the reply may be easily predicted. We should be warned of the presump

tion of attempting to interfere in matters entirely domestic; we should be reminded of the condition of various classes at home; some allusion might be made to the Declaration of Independence possibly to Ireland; finally, the star-spangled banner would wave over the whole. Let us suppose the same suggestions to be made to the government of the new power. If made in an earnest, and yet friendly tone, the probable reply would be: “Our system, whether it be right or wrong, we have no immediate power to alter. But we desire to obtain the respect of other States, and especially of those whose goodwill is essential to our welfare, by making at once those amendments in it that are within our reach. We cannot desire a state of permanent conflict with the opinions of all the great civilized powers. We inherit a position we have not made, and cannot escape from at will; but as far as our means extend we will endeavour to respond to the suggestions of friendly powers, and to enter into accordance with the spirit of the age."

There is a ground of hope in the division of the Union, to which some attach considerable weight. It is argued that when the North becomes a foreign power, it will be impossible to prevent the escape of slaves, and that this must insure the downfall of the system. This impression is a natural one, on a cursory view of the subject, but will not bear examination. The relative position of the slave and free States will be the same.

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There is an underground railway now. fugitive-slave law has been met by personalliberty bills already. One of the most material changes that will result from a separation will be the formation of a strong government in the North. A very prominent condition of peace will doubtless be the rendition of slaves. But such a condition would then be enforced by a strong government, and demanded by a rival power. Again, the agitation against slavery, though it will continue, will cease to be a matter of party politics, and this will remove from it the main element of its power. In truth, there is but one means by which emancipation can be effected, and that is by the free will and desire of the Southerners themselves.

That this may ever come about is not so hopeless as at first may appear. The slave-owner has no particular love for slave labour; there is no pleasure in it, like that which a man enjoys in looking upon his manor. With the great majority it is simply a question of producing cotton at a cost, for labour, of so much per pound. Assume, for the sake of argument, that, including interest, maintenance, and all other items, slave labour cost threepence per pound of cleaned cotton; then if the planter be supplied with labour equally steady, at the same cost per pound, it will not concern him whether it be that of the free man or the slave. It follows from this, that if the Southerner be once relieved from that bitterness

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