THE NEGRO QUESTION. 177 



THE ^^EGKO QUESTION". 



By J. L. M. CURRY, LL. D., 



GENERAL AGENT OF THE PEABODY EDUCATION FUND AND OF THE JOHN F. SLATER EDUCATION 

 FUND ; LATE MINISTER TO SPAIN. 



THE negro question is not of recent origin. The Iliad of our 

 woes began in 1620, when negroes were first brought to the 

 colony of Virginia and sold as slaves. Slavery antedates history. 

 The traffic of Europeans in negroes existed a half century before the 

 discovery of America. The very year in which Charles V sailed 

 with a powerful expedition against Tunis to check the piracies of the 

 Barbary states, and to emancipate enslaved Christians in Africa, he 

 gave an open legal sanction to the African slave trade. When inde- 

 pendence was declared in 1776 all the colonies held slaves. Slavery, 

 said the late Senator Ingalls, disappeared from the !Northern States 

 " by the operation of social, economic, and natural laws," and " the 

 North did not finally determine to destroy this system until convinced 

 that its continuance threatened not only their industrial independ- 

 ence but their political importance." In course of years " the 

 peculiar institution " assumed a sectional character. The war be- 

 tween the States precipitated a crisis. President Lincoln began then 

 the work of emancipation. " As commander-in-chief of the army 

 and navy in time of war, I suppose I have the right to take any 

 measure which may best subdue the enemy. ... I view the measure 

 [the Proclamation] as a practical war measure according to the ad- 

 vantages or disadvantages it will offer to the suppression of the 

 rebellion." Senator Ingalls's testimony is as follows: "It may be 

 admitted that the emancipation of the slaves was not contemplated 

 by any considerable portion of the American people when the war 

 for the Union began, and it was not brought to pass until the fortunes 

 of war became desperate, and was then justified and defended upon 

 the plea of military necessity." The Southern States ratified the 

 amendments to the Constitution under penalty of otherwise re- 

 maining out of the Union and in political and military vassalage. 

 The abolition of slavery has the assent of all sane men. Apart from 

 ethical considerations, the subjection of the will, thought, or labor 

 of a mature human being to the whim, caprice, or legal right of 

 another is a gross political and economical blunder, unwise and in- 

 defensible. After emancipation came citizenship and enfranchise- 

 ment of the freedmen, and the punitive measures of reconstruction, 

 which were the outcome of hatred, revenge, desire for party ascend- 

 ency, and which no good man can now approve. No conquering 

 nation ever inflicted on a conquered people more cruel injustice than 

 the disfranchisement of the most capable citizens and the enfranchise- 



VOL. LV. — 14 



