IV.
REPLY.

From the Anglo-African, November 9 and 16, 1861.

Mr. Editor:

Absence from home has prevented my notice of the rejoinder of your able correspondent, R. H. V., on the War policy. I now avail myself of a leisure hour to reply. I am one of those who believe that truth loses nothing from investigation, and it is at all times the most pleasant and agreeable feature in the honest investigation of truth to know that your opponent can properly appreciate honor, candor and gentlemanly generosity for the views of his antagonist. My friend, your correspondent R. H. V., seems largely to possess those characteristic traits of a gentleman and scholar. I am pleased to find my antagonist on this question, of that progressive class of minds, who can honorably differ with his fellows, without condescending to that hateful and disgusting virulence manifested of late among the ancient leaders of our people, in very high circles. I think among us boys, (as our more ancient leaders are wont to term us,) this practical fact of itself develops progress. My friend thinks that so far as my declamation is concerned, my arguments may do very well; but he wants facts to make it appear that my position is tenable. I am willing to submit our previous articles, respectively, to the arbitration of those who have read them, and abide their decision as to whose arguments are the most self-evident, and whose position is sustained by the greatest number of facts. I think that a careful comparison of the articles and the premises on which they are based, will prove my friend’s production quite as liberally bereft of that important auxiliary in debate (proof) as my own iridescent missive. Invidious distinctions among the colored people of this continent have done more to keep us oppressed than all other efforts of white men combined. By this rule we have ever been unable to wring from this government the acknowledgment of black genius, adequate to the successful competition of whites, in governmental power. White men have ever made us believe that the interests of black men in Mexico, Hayti, Jamaica, Canada, and even in Africa, were really as dissimilar to the interests of colored Americans, as is the difference in the respective statures of the giraffe and dormouse. All these countries offered very superior advantages to colored men of genius, long before American diplomacy and American prejudice had the power to influence them against us. But this stand-still policy, and this reasoning upon the false and prejudiced suggestions of our oppressors and misguided friends, has been the successful drawback to every well-directed plan of concentrated effort for our elevation, such as would have been adopted with successful results by any other people similarly situated. Had we obeyed the dictates of reason, and the offer of those people made to us years ago, instead of now going to California to black boots, wait at tables, and wash spittoons, our leading men might have been large contractors, land owners, and citizens to all intents and purposes; while the secondary class of our people might have filled very enviable positions in contrast to what they now fill in that country; for, you remember, that the acquisition of territory from Mexico changed none of her laws relating to her resident citizens in any part of the territory ceded to, or purchased by, the United States. What, then, kept us from joining with the English and French emigrants in California before the war?—becoming citizens under the law of Mexico, and forcing the United States, by the laws of nations, to respect that position to the present day, as she does blacker men and less cultivated than two-thirds of the colored people of the United States—who cannot even enjoy their oath against one of those fellows, black though he be, if he happen to be a Mexican? The reason is obvious; white men, seeing the result of such a measure, denied our identity of interest with the colored people favored by the laws of Mexico and California; and though Mexico entreated us to make our home with them, (as Hayti now entreats us from the same reasons,) we objected. Our leading men, reasoning upon this absurd theory of prejudiced white men, counseled us to stand still and see the salvation of God; but instead of the analogy being carried out, and we seeing our oppressors declining in strength, as did Israel, we see them day by day growing stronger; until they had made that blessed land of Freedom as odious from their accursed prejudice as any other part of the United States, and now these same leaders cease to counsel standing still, but counsel our going to California. In the name of heaven, I ask, for what should we now go there? They say, to better their condition and make a living; I say to become worse slaves and menials than us they leave behind. This is the stand-still policy I am at variance with; standing still till all advantages are lost, and we are left in the same darkness and degradation that a brilliant epoch in the history of our country has found us, and is compelled to leave us, because we refuse to get up and run with the world to the great issue to which she is tending—universal Freedom. There is no such thing as stand still in this nineteenth century; you must progress backward or forward; the world is rushing on; he or they who will not move with her, must be crushed by her onward march.

My friend says he has yet to learn that these are practically established facts; “that grasping the sword will emancipate us from prejudice and slavery.” Indeed, he asks: “Will the proposition bear questioning?” I answer, yes, in the most positive sense, because four-fifths of all the emancipations from these evils among men have been brought about by this means. The Israelites were carried away captives seven times by Pharoah, Tiglath-Pilaser, Shalmanezer, Nebuchadnezer, and finally, by Titus. These men forced them to serve as slaves and vassals, not only to themselves, but to their successors in Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, and Persia, over which empires they respectively held dominion. The Israelites groaned and prayed to God, lifting their windows towards the city of the great King three times a day—but never were released in five out of seven cases, till they grasped the sword, and like Samson, cried to God for strength to drive it to the hilt. In one of the other cases of the seven, God himself, by the use of elements more destructive and desolating than the sword, effected the purpose by a national slaughter. My comment on all these Bible transactions may be found in the writings of the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Hosea. A careful study of these inspired writers, and the chronological history of the Jews through all those years of their servitude and degradation, develops the fact that the special direction of God, by the mouth of his prophets, is decidedly at variance with my friend’s peace measures and neutral policy, in a war against the greatest moral, social, and intellectual antagonist to human progress that now curses the civilized world. Turning from sacred history to more recent dates, I am taught by the modern historian that the vassals and slaves of the entire continent of Europe, a few centuries ago, are now its free citizens—made free by the power of their own strength, contending often against fearful odds for the advancement of the cause of human suffrage. The once lowest castes of Hindostan are now the free gentoos of that empire. The slaves that built the pyramids of Egypt are now, it is true, the degraded but free Moslem of that land. The Mexicans that Cortez found in that country, working as slaves of the emperors and priesthood, are now the free population of Mexico. The slaves of England, France, and Spain, in the West Indies, are now the independent Haytians, the citizens of the Dominican Republic, and the British West Indies. Now let me ask by what special interposition of Providence, aside from the general rule of grasping the sword, have these changes been brought about? The answer comes back from the earliest antiquity, that the universal rule for Emancipation, Equality and Enfranchisement, whether it be to the Jewish slaves of antiquity, the Roman slaves, the Grecian helots, the German feudal vassals, the serfs of Russia, the Indian slaves of Mexico and Central America, or the African slaves of the West India Islands, the one, the all-prevailing influence for removing these accursed systems of tyranny and oppression is, and ever has been, an appeal to the sword, wielded by strong and energetic arms and minds, aided and guided by that Omnipotence that is ever on the side of justice, and who directs the blow so as to spread terror and dismay among the oppressors of a crushed and bleeding race, the outraged struggling victims of injustice and wrong. So will God help us if we conform to this universal rule; and cease to cling to this abstract rule of “stand still and see the salvation,” etc., which, after all, never can be applied to our case at present, for the Israelites had done what we have steadily refused to do, i. e., they had spoiled their oppressors, and were marching out of their land in rank and file. Are we willing to do likewise? Then, again, it was only when they had gone to the last extremity of human effort, and were about to turn back to slavery, and to be buried in Egypt, that Moses gave the command to stand still, etc. Now, I am willing to grant my friend the full benefit of this one isolated case in support of his theory, as far as it goes—when we have performed our part as faithfully even as those to whom it was addressed. When the slaves have raised the standard of rebellion against their masters, and have broken every yoke, and then, by some great impending danger, are about to yield and go back again to slavery, I, like Moses, rather than retrograde, would readily counsel standing still, at least for a while. When we of the North, by indefatigable exertion (and sacrifice, if required) have armed and equipped ourselves, and become proficient in all that pertains to self-defence, as men in our condition should be, and then find ourselves environed with some of the difficulties that my friend predicts would follow such a significant result, and we, like Israel, are about turning back to our present unhappy and insignificant condition, I, for one, should steadfastly counsel standing still with fixed bayonets and torn cartridges, to see the salvation of God; which I verily believe would be seen, if we followed those general rules to which I cling, notwithstanding the enemy’s prëeminence of position, superior numerical strength, &c.

I think that I am quite safe in assuming that there is no scrap of history that can be brought by analogy to prove, “that we must either succumb to the numerical preponderance of power, which our enemies may bring to bear against us, or cease to exist on the continent.” I think the history of the aborigines of this country goes but a short distance in proof of this mode of reasoning; they sunk by thousands in the very pursuits under which our race have steadily increased. Besides, there are very many reasons why they have diminished, aside from the aggressive war of extermination forced upon them by the whites; while the sword among them has slain its thousands, the introduction of rum of the most poisonous character has slain its tens of thousands. Delirium tremens, mania a potu, and a thousand other hereditary diseases more fruitful of death and the entire destruction of the human family than the sword, through the wily craft of white men have been thrust among them—then what has followed? Internal dissensions among the different tribes, by which means the sword, in the hands of brethren, has done more for their extermination than enemies of the opposite race. But our people usually drink good whiskey, or the best of brandy, and I therefore do not exactly look for the same results to them in this direction; and, with their knowledge of the deceptive character of our oppressors, I cannot think we will ever be induced by them to slay each other indiscriminately, as the Indians have. My friend speaks of world’s fairs, agricultural pursuits, arts and sciences, etc., versus momentary admiration for exhibitions of well disciplined men, well drilled in military tactics, &c. He brings wealth, education, industry, &c., against efficient military drill, well contested battles, bravery and gallant exploits in active service, etc. But he evidently does not draw his conclusions from a very careful study of his subject and the nations to whom he refers. Great Britain first made herself free, then became the governess of her numerous colonies, then became mistress of the seas, before she turned her attention to these social and civil pursuits that my friend cites us to. France had pillaged the world by her superior perfection in artillery and infantry tactics, before she was satisfied to go to work at world’s fairs and what not. But the slaves of every nation are those who challenge competition in mechanics, agriculture, and the fine arts. Why then have they not been freed by this means without an appeal to arms? My friend refers to Hayti, and says, they are not more respected though “they wielded the sword to desperation, etc.” Thank God, they are at least free and independent. Besides this, the colored planters, though they were acknowledged the most wealthy, educated, industrious, and thrifty of the Haytians, challenging competition by their industry and wealth, and commanding respect by their education and refinement, yet they never were recognized or respected at home or abroad until they grasped the sword and taught their oppressors and the world a lesson of African chivalry, versus so much mock morality, peaceful submission, etc., in this stirring age of human progress. By this means the blacks of Hayti are felt in a way that world’s fairs, &c., &c., would not have made them felt for centuries yet to come. My friend inquires how we could influence the administration more than Gen. Fremont; and whether the States could thrust upon the war department persons whom interest or necessity might dictate they should reject; or whether they could accept the services of those who are legally disqualified? He then says, if this may not be constitutionally done, would not my policy environ the administration and force that cavil I would obviate? I think I fairly met these questions in my previous article. I will again, for the esteem I have for my friend, answer him as best I can. First, no one can tell how much Gen. Fremont has or can influence the war department; the fact that Mr. Cameron visited Fremont in person, and that Fremont has made no public protest against the ruling of the cabinet, looks very suspicious that they understood each other, and were only acting up to the necessity of keeping their own counsel. Fremont evidently wields an influence that would require but a very few men of his stamp to emancipate the entire South. He may yet be commander-in-chief under our present administration. Secondly, the States have and are doing every day all that we would require them to do; i. e., they are raising troops, preparing them by all available means for the time the government will need them; and may they not as readily prepare colored as white men? Would this not be a step in the direction of enfranchisement? And after all, is it not through this medium, the recognition of our rights by the people, that we may ever hope to reach the government? As to legal disqualification, and constitutional necessity being in our way, I would refer my friend to Mr. Lincoln’s speech at Independence Hall, in this city, when he said that “after all, decisions of the Supreme Court, and our constitutional and compromise obligations are not eternal principles, but must vary with the necessities of the times, etc.” A solution of these strange words are given in the Rev. H. H. Garnet’s passports by Mr. Seward; and Mr. Lincoln’s answer to the writ of habeas corpus issued by the highest judicial authority in the country. Garnet’s passport and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus are the best of arguments against constitutional and legal restrictions, preventing the recognition of a hundred thousand men of the best muscle and determined bravery in the Federal ranks.

As to what southern emissaries may do, by throwing information into the hands of the Rebels, of our movements, etc., I have only to say that it is an abstract question that should have no weight with men willing to do their duty in a great crisis like the present; follow this rule of reasoning and we should have no army, no President, no freemen, no free-soil, nor aught else to defend. Seven years ago the serfs of Russia were hopeless slaves; the nobility had frustrated the efforts of every cabinet for the amelioration of their condition. At length a war broke out between Russia, Turkey, France and England. The Czar, driven to an extremity, proposed to place in the field 250,000 serfs. The nobility protested against it, fearing the result to themselves. The serfs opposed it because they could see no issue in the war favorable to their interest; they believed England and France to be far more favorable to their freedom than Russia. The war raged, and finally Alexander, over the heads of nobility and serfs, drafted 75,000 serfs and sent them off to the Crimea, and in less than three years from that time, nearly thirty millions of slaves are freed by the result of that policy. There was no way to dispossess these people of the influence they swayed by that one stroke of war policy; but to emancipate them was inevitable. Is not our condition analogous to theirs in many respects, and may we not by the same policy expect a similar result? I must thank my friend for two considerations of kindness toward his old, misguided, suicidal friend; first, for his anxiety “that I might receive my sight;” second; for his anxiety lest I should be lost while performing an unpleasant duty. There are two kinds of blindness mentioned in scripture, an unfortunate blindness and a wilful one; as my friend has placed me among the first class, by Moses’ law, Leviticus 19: 14, I am entitled to commiseration, and by the same law, Deut. 27: 18, he should be sorely punished for trying to lead me to wander out of the way, etc. I am somewhat fearful that my friend may be of the opposite class mentioned in the ¶ from the 37th to the 52d verse of the 12th chapter of John. If so, a solution to his unfortunate state may be found in Matthew, 15: 14.

A. M. GREEN.