Here there was compulsion, both in principle and precept. In the laws
of Maryland, and elsewhere, were found abundant evidences of
compulsion in practice, and where there were no direct acts forcing
them to depart, a public sentiment had been created, which, in its
manifold operations, brought the colored man, crushed and hopeless, to
the conclusion, that it would be better for him to say farewell to
home and country, than remain a proverb and a nuisance amongst a
prejudiced and persecuting people. No colored man could justly be said
to go to Liberia, or elsewhere, with his free and unconstrained
consent, until the laws were equal, the treatment kind, prejudice
founded on complexion destroyed, and he presented himself a voluntary
agent, and asked the means to transport him to a foreign shore. As one
proof that compulsion had been openly and unblushingly advocated, he
would quote the words of Mr. Broadnax in the Virginia House of
Delegates:----
"It is idle to talk about not resorting to force; every body
must look to the introduction of force of some kind or
other--and it is in truth a question of expediency, of moral
justice, of political good faith--whether we shall fairly
delineate our whole system on the face of the bill, or leave
the acquisition of extorted consent to other processes. The
real question, the only question of magnitude to be settled,
is the great preliminary question--Do you intend to send the
free persons of color out of Virginia, or not?
"If the free negroes are willing to go, they will go--if not
willing they must be compelled to go. Some gentlemen think it
politic not now to insert this feature in the bill, though
they proclaim their readiness to resort to it when it becomes
necessary; they think that for a year or two a sufficient
number will consent to go, and then the rest can be
compelled. For my part, I deem it better to approach the
question and settle it at once, and avow it openly.
"I have already expressed it as my opinion that few, very
few, will voluntarily consent to emigrate if no COMPULSORY
measure be adopted.
"I will not express, in its full extent, the idea I entertain
of what has been done, or what enormities will be perpetrated
to induce this class of persons to leave the Slate. Who does
not know that when a free negro, by crime or otherwise, has
rendered himself obnoxious to a neighborhood, how easy it is
for a party to visit him one night, take him from his bed and
family, and apply to him the gentle admonition of a SEVERE
FLAGELLATION, to induce Kim to consent to go away I In a few
nights the dose can be repeated, perhaps increased, until, in
the language of the physician, quantum sufficit has been
administered to produce the desired operation; and the fellow
then becomes PERFECTLY WILLING to move away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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