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Show 272 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. thought or care in regard to consequences. Dr. Channing has, however, been pleased to propose another method, for securing the industry of the black and the pt'Osperity of the State. Let us then, for a moment, look at this scheme. The black man, says he, should not be owned. lie should work, but not under the control of a master. IIis overseer should be appointed by the State, aud be amenable to the State for the proper exercise of his authority. Now, if this learned and eloquent orator bad only looked one inch beneath the surface of his own scheme, he would have seen that it is fraught with the most insuperable difficulties, and that its execution must needs be attended with the most ruinous consequences. Emancipate the blacks, then, and let the State undertake to work them. In the first place, we must ignore every principle of political economy, and consent to the wildest and most reckless of experiment~, ere we can agree that the State should supet~utend and carry on the agncultural interest of the country. But suppose this difficulty out of the way, on what Jand would the State cause its slaves to be worked? It would scarcely take possession of ARGUMENT FROJ\1 THE PUBLIC OOOD. 273 the plantations now under improvement; and, setting aside the owners, proceed to cultivate the land. But it must either do this, or else leave these plantations to become worthless for the want of laborers, and open new ones for the benefit of the State ! In no point of view could a more utterly chimerical or foolish scheme be well conceived. If we may not be allowed to adhere to our own plan, we beg that some substitute may be proposed which is not fmught with such inevitable destruction to the whole South. Otherwise, we shall fca•· that these self-styled friends of humanity are more bent on carrying out their own designs than they arc on promoting our good. But what is meant by the freedom of the emancipated slaves, on which so many exalted eulogies have been pronounced? Its first element, it is plain, is a f•·ccdom from labor*frecdom from the very first law of nature. In one word, its sum and substance is a power on the part of the freed black to act pretty much as be pleases. Now, before we expend oceans of enthusiasm on such a freedom, would 1t not be well to see how he would be pleased to act? * See chap. i. ~ 2 |