The Past and the Present Condition, and the Destiny, of the Colored Race:: A Discourse Delivered at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1848 — John Shaqi
The Past and the Present Condition, and the Destiny, of the Colored Race:: A Discourse Delivered at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1848Garnet, Henry Highland
History
The Past and the Present Condition, and the Destiny, of the Colored Race:: A Discourse Delivered at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1848
Garnet, Henry Highland
African Americans; United States -- Race relations
Nor has it been satisfied when all this was done. It has laid its
hands upon the nation’s standard, and has urged its way through
flood, and field, until that blood-stained banner waves on the halls
of the Montazumas. It claims its victories on the ensanguined plains
of Monterey, Cero Gordo, Chepultepec, Churubusco, and Beuna Vista,
and hangs out its stiffened and gory garments from the old grey
walls of Vera Cruz. These are but a part of slavery’s conquests on
this continent. It is among the things that are possible that these
triumphs are defeats in disguise. “God taketh the wise in their own
craftiness, and the counsel of the ungodly carries headlong.” I would
not dispair of the triumph of freedom in the hemisphere, were Mexico
to be annexed to this union. For one I would welcome my dark-browed
and liberty-loving brethren to our embrace. Aye! let them come with the
population of seven and a half millions. One fifth of that number are
white, and they are ultra Abolitionists. Two fifths are Indians, and
the other two fifths are of the black, and mixed races. I repeat it, I
should not dispair if they should come.
The dominions of slavery are directly between Northern and Southern
freedom--between Eastern and Western Democracy. In the East the sons of
New England are waking up at freedom’s call, among the tombs of their
fathers.
“Grey Plymouth’s Rock hath yet a tongue, and Concord is not dumb.”
The men of the North begin to appreciate the doctrine which has been
long inculcated, that in order to be free themselves, they must
emancipate the bondmen. The young lion of the West has torn the net
of voluntary servitude, and gives signs of his latent strength. “The
peculiar Institution” is doomed. President Polk sees this, and he
spares neither blood, nor treasure to save it. Mr. John C. Calhoun is
aware of it, and like some mighty Collossus, he stands astride the
dark and troubled waters of his darling system, and like a frightened
girl, appeals piteously to his brethren of the North and the South,
to come to the rescue, and save him from a humiliating downfall. His
predicament is pictured, very correctly by the gifted and devoted Bard
of Liberty, JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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