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Show 270 Henry Ward Beecher. ~ fi- -t full faith in him. The uncrowned man, I stanct to my II " • , 1 • , • ~ -- . bl · t after all ll1 Europe . And In st.tt c.,- hcro 1s tl1 no man, ' ' . . . . 1 b 1 o vn in this : that lu:; Lurmng SCL e of m an ~lup U\ •en 1 ' . . . . f 1 . _ 1" to be free has not le<l hm1 to mettc the n rrht 0 11::, pcop e ' " t . parti·ll and ca -ily over-matched reYolt. A them to prcma Ul e, ' ' ' .. . . . .. · 1 · n life rather than abtdc m se1' Jtm1r, but man may gl\'e us ow . . 1 t t lead a whole people to slaughter, wtthont he has no ng l o ' ' the strongest probabilities of success. If nations were all armed men, it would be differ ent. ~ol- • .l' n t a nation is made up of other matenals d1crs can ute. u " . · 1 . 1't i · made ur) of women, and children, bcs1Jcs armcc men , - ::, • l tl These are to be con iderccl- not merely men am you 1. ' f . l .l }- 1111ckle and bone. And a man that lenJ~ a o mu. c e, anu '- ' ' . l 1 : <rht to incite that people to n sc, unless there pcop c, ws no 110 • < • is a reasonable pro~pect that tbcy wtll conquer. . Now if the Africans in our land were intc1ligcnt; 1f they underst'o od them elves ; if they had ~cl r- govcrnm· g power; i.f they were able fir;:t to throw olf the yoke. of law::; and con. ~~tution&, and afterwards to defend and butld themselves. up m a civil state ; then they woulu have just the same n ght to assume their independence that any nation has. But docs any man believe that this is the case ? D~es an! man believe that this va. t horde of unuisciplined Afnran~, If set free, would have cohesive power enough to organize themselves into a. government, and muintnin their independence ? If there be men who believe thi~, I am not among them. I certainly think that even slascs would be malle immea:;urably better by liberty; but I do not believe they would be made better by liberty gained by in urrcction or rebellion. A. rcgt~lated liberty - a liberty possessed with the consent of then· master.'; a liberty under the la:w~ and insti tutions of the conntry; a libel'ty which should make them commnr1 bcnc~ci arics of tho e institutions and principles which make us WlSC and happy- such a liberty woulcl be a great blessing to them. Freedom with law and government i:::; a good, but without Henry Ward Beecher. 271 them it is a mischief. And anY tln ·n g tl1. at ten d s to incite among men a vague insurrectiona ry spirit, is a great and cruel wrong to them. I f, in vi.cw of the wrongs of Slavery, you say that yon do not care for the master, but only the slaYe, I r eply that you should care for both rna tcr and slave ! I f you do not care for the fate of the wrong-doing white man, 1 do care for the fate of the wrong-doing white man? But even though your sympathy were only for the slave, then fur his sake you oucrht ~o set your face against, and di countenance, any thing like 0 an 1~1 s urrectionary spiri t. L et us turn, then, from these specificatwns of THE WRONG ' YAY to some consideration relating to TilE RIGHT ' YAY. 1. I f we would benefi t the African a t the South we must beg~·n ~t home. .This i ·, to some men, the mo t dis,ag rccable }~art of the doctrme of emancipa tion. It is very easy to labor ~or the ema ncipation of being, a t l10usand miles off; but when It comes to the pra.ct~cal application of ju tice and h umanity to tho c about u , It IS not so easy. The tr uths of God r espect ing the rights and dignit ies of men arc j u~ t as i~ portant to free colored men as to cn. la vccl colored men. I t may seem strange for me to say that the lcYer with which to lift the l oa~ of Georgia is in N cw York ; but it is 0 • I do not believe the whole free North cai1 tolerate grinrling injustice to.ward~ the poor, and inhumanity towards the laborin cr classes With~ut exerting an influence unfavorable to ju tice ~'lnd lm~ mamty in the South. No one can fail to sec the inconsistency between our treatment of tho e among t us who are in the lower walks of life and our professions of sympathy for the Sou thern slaves: ~lo w are the free colored people treated at the North? [JT h<. 'y ~u·c almost without education , with but little sym pa 111 y or 1gnornncc. They a rc r efu ·cd the common r icrhts of : 1·_ I. I . b Cl l zcn:3 11 p w 11ch the whites enjoy. They cannot even ride in the cars of our city ra ilroads. They are snuffc'-Cl at in tho |
