The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United StatesDelany, Martin Robison
History
The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States
Delany, Martin Robison
African Americans
A people capable of originating and sustaining such a law as this, are
not the people to whom we are willing to entrust our liberty at
discretion.
What can we do? What shall we do? This is the great and important
question:--Shall we submit to be dragged like brutes before heartless
men, and sent into degradation and bondage?--Shall we fly, or shall we
resist? Ponder well and reflect.
A learned jurist in the United States, (Chief Justice John Gibson of
Pennsylvania,) lays down this as a fundamental right in the United
States: that "Every man's house is his castle, and he has the right to
defend it unto the taking of life, against any attempt to enter it
against his will, except for crime," by well authenticated process.
But we have no such right. It was not intended for us, any more than any
other provision of the law, intended for the protection of Americans.
The policy is against us--it is useless to contend against it.
This is the law of the land and must be obeyed; and we candidly advise
that it is useless for us to contend against it. To suppose its repeal,
is to anticipate an overthrow of the Confederative Union; and we must be
allowed an expression of opinion, when we say, that candidly we believe,
the existence of the Fugitive Slave Law _necessary_ to the continuance
of the National Compact. This Law is the foundation of the
Compromise--remove it, and the consequences are easily determined. We
say necessary to the continuance of the National Compact: certainly we
will not be understood as meaning that the enactment of such a Law was
_really_ necessary, or as favoring in the least this political
monstrosity of the THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS of the UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA--surely not at all; but we speak logically and politically,
leaving morality and right out of the question--taking our position on
the acknowledged popular, basis of American Policy; arguing from premise
to conclusion. We must abandon all vague theory, and look at _facts_ as
they really are; viewing ourselves in our true political position in the
body politic. To imagine ourselves to be included in the body politic,
except by express legislation, is at war with common sense, and contrary
to fact. Legislation, the administration of the laws of the country, and
the exercise of rights by the people, all prove to the contrary. We are
politically, not of them, but aliens to the laws and political
privileges of the country. These are truths--fixed facts, that quaint
theory and exhausted moralising, are impregnable to, and fall harmlessly
before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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