as he resists the pernicious counsels of the overwhelming majority of negroes and keeps to the wise and right course which they passionately condemn; who is far more able and who has accomplished infinitely more of good than Toussaint or Douglass—he will be a great hero statesman of a great cause lost. The historian of the future that has something like Shakspeare’s genius for contrast will make his glory and that of Calhoun magnify each other by comparison.
The foregoing as to a negro State, which is the result of years of observation and reflection, had all been written for some time when I fell in with the address of Bishop Holsey, mentioned above. It is the proposition of the address that a part of the United States should be assigned to the negroes. I add an abstract from the synopsis of his views given in the address:
1. Negroes and whites “are so distinct and dissimilar in racial traits, instincts, and character, it is impossible for them to live together on equal terms of social and political relation, or on terms of equal citizenship.”
2. The general government only has power to settle the problem, and it ought to settle it.
3. Separation of the negroes and whites “is the most practicable, logical, and equitable solution of the problem.”
4. “Segregation and separation should be gradual ... and non-compulsory, so as not to injure ... labor, capital, and commerce ... where the negro is an important factor of production and consumption.”
5. The southern negroes should petition the president and congress “for suitable territory ... as ... equal citizens ... and not go out of their country to be exposed to doubtful experiment and foreign complications. Afro-Americans should remain in their own country, in the zone of greatness, and in the latitude of progress.”
6. The government should, in effecting segregation, maintain “civil order, peace, progress, and prosperity.”
7. The place for the negroes may be in the western public domain, such as a part of the Indian Territory, New Mexico, or elsewhere in the west.
8. No white person unless married to a negro, or a resident federal official, to be allowed citizenship in the negro State or Territory, but all citizens of the United States to be protected therein as in the other States.[194]