human race, who have for consecutive ages dragged out a
wretched existence under a grinding political despotism, and
who are doomed to this hopeless condition by the very
qualities which unfit them for a better. It is utterly
astonishing that any enlighted American, after contemplating
all the manifold forms in which even the white race of
mankind are doomed to slavery and oppression, should suppose
it possible to reclaim the Africans from their destiny. THE
CAPACITY TO ENJOY FREEDOM IS AN ATTRIBUTE NOT TO BE
COMMUNICATED BY HUMAN POWER. IT IS AN ENDOWMENT OF GOD, AND
ONE OF THE RAREST WHICH IT HAS PLEASED HIS INSCRUTABLE WISDOM
TO BESTOW UPON THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH. IT IS CONFERRED AS
THE REWARD OF MERIT, and only upon those who are qualified to
enjoy it. Until the "Ethiopian can change his skin," it will
he vain to attempt, by any human power, to make freemen of
those whom God has doomed to be slaves, by all their
attributes.
Let not, therefore, the misguided and designing intermeddlers
who seek to destroy our peace, imagining that they are
serving the cause of God by practically arraigning the
decrees of his Providence. Indeed it would scarcely excite
surprise, if with the impious audacity of those who projected
the tower of Babel, they should attempt to scale the
battlements of Heaven, and remonstrate with the God of wisdom
for having put THE MARK OF CAIN AND THE CURSE OF HAM upon the
African race instead of the European.
The Governor then proceeds to give his views on the political bearings
of the question, and thus sums them up:--
"DOMESTIC SLAVERY, THEREFORE, INSTEAD OF BEING A POLITICAL
EVIL, IS THE CORNER STONE OF OUR REPUBLICAN EDIFICE. No
patriot who justly estimates our privileges, will tolerate
the idea of emancipation, at any period however remote, or on
any conditions of pecuniary advantage, however favorable. I
would as soon think of opening a negotiation for selling the
liberty of the State at once, as for making any stipulations
for the ultimate emancipation of our slaves. So deep is my
conviction on this subject, that if I were doomed to die
immediately after recording these sentiments, I could say in
all sincerity, and under all the sanctions of Christianity
and patriotism, GOD FORBID THAT MY DESCENDANTS, IN THE
REMOTEST GENERATIONS, SHOULD LIVE IN ANY OTHER THAN A
COMMUNITY HAVING THE INSTITUTION OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY."
The conduct of the clergy of South Carolina, may be inferred from the
following account of a great _pro_-slavery meeting, held in the city
of Charleston, to denounce in the most malignant spirit, the
abolitionists of the North:
(_From the Charleston Courier._)
GREAT AND IMPORTANT PUBLIC MEETING.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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