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Show 102 NOTES ON purposes; tilC" ~~:n of science, tltc politi_cin.n, and the moralist all looked to Hayti for lessons of w1sdon~. rr . The result of the experiment of negro frccJ.om :tnd IIC' ol o govern men I m· th c ,·sh· nd of IInyt.i hns .l ong. s1ncc . , been. ascertained. 'Vhcthcr we look to Its soCJal, mdustn.tl, OI political condition, we find the same evidences of .dcgr~da~ tion and degeneracy. rl'he dominion of t.hc Afncan lS a blight under whicl1 religion, commerce, libcrt~·, nnd law, wither and perish. No longer elevated and gUJdcd b'y the influences of a superior race, nnd compelled to work out their own destiny, the negroes of Hayti hn.vc relapsed from the semi-civilized condition of 1800 into a state of comparative barbarism. Tho mil~ subjection of slavery has been succeeded by the wild riot und unbridled lice~se. of savage passion; enlightenment has been qucn~h.ed m 1gnorance; religion has degenerated into supcrstJtJOn; poverty and want reign where once were only abundance and contentment. In a word, the experiment of freedom and self-government among the negroes of Hayti has been a. signal and disastrous failure." But "in Hayti they had nothing to start with. A stream cannot rise above its fountn.in. '11110 race that formed the character of the Hayti ens was a worn-out, effeminate one; and, of course, the suLj ect race will be centuries in rising to anything." (Vol. ii. p. 300.) Well, then, let us take the other cxperimcnt,-that of a people trained under very different auspices,-a people whose character was formcJ by the Anglo-Saxon racc,that race of "stern, iHflcxible, energetic clements," to which "has been entrusted the destinies of the world, during its pioneer period of struggle and conflict." (Vol. ii. p. 302.) . For nearly twenty years, the negroes of Jammca. have been" free;" and,, .... .,. 'h .... .., ~hey used that freedom? Read UNCLI~ TOM'S CAlllN. 103 the statements in the Appendix (G. 1), and recollect that they ara made by a Free-Soilcr, one of tlw ed itors of the New York Evening Post,-and then read the following from the London Times of December 1st, 1852, (Appendix, K. 7) :-"At tho present moment, indeed, if there is one thing in the world thn,t the British Public do not like to talk a.bout, or even to think about, it is the condition of the race for whom this grca.t effort was made." And the following, from the same paper, as copied by the \VaRhington Union, of December 23d, 1852 :- " ~f.1HE BLACKS IN 'l'liE \VEST INDIES.-In an article in tho London Times, we find the following passage relating to the result of emancipation in the Engl-ish 'Vest Indies. The picture drawn is indeed a distressing one, but its correctness is confirmed by accounts from various quarters: "'Our legislation l1as been dictated by the presumed necessities of the African slave. After t!te emancipation act, n. largo charge was assessed upon the colony in aid of civil and religious institutions for the benefit of tho enfranchised negro, and it was hoped that these colored subjects of the British Crown would soon be assimilated to their fellowcitizens. · From all the information which teaches us, no less than from the visible probabilities of the case, 1re arc constrained to believe thn.t these hopes have been falsified. ':rho negro has not acquired ·with his freedom any habits of industry or morality. His independence is little better than that of an uncapturcd brute. Having accepted few of the restraints of civilization, ho is amenable to few of its necessities; and the wants of his nature so easily satisfied, that at the current rate of wnges he is called upon for nothing but fitful and desultory exertion. 1'he blacks, therefore, instead of becoming intelligent husbandmen, have become vagrauts and squatters, :.md it is now apprehended that with the failure of ·Cultivation in the island, will come the failuro |