SLAVERY. 



529 



to the armies in the field for want of transportation 

 ami system. At the North, on tlie other hand, large 

 drafts were made upon the producing classes to sup- 

 ply tuen for the armies, and yet the industry of that 

 section was maintained and its resources made 

 available for the support of the war. 



The first direct and important effect of the war 

 upon the institution of slavery was accomplished by 

 tlie Emancipation Proclamation of President Lin- 

 coln, issued Jan. 1, 1863. This proclamation, the 

 product of the disasters of the early stages of the 

 war, assureil the emancipation of all slaves that 

 8'ionld be within territory acquired by the arms of 

 the nation. The end came at last when the entire 

 territory of the seceding States was brought under 

 the military ]>ower of the United States. According 

 to the laws of war it was for the captor to determine 

 the effect of conquest upon the persons and property 

 f mnd within the conquered territory. The terms of 

 the proclamation indicated the course of military 

 action toward the slave, and in accordance with its 

 provisions tlie right of the slaves to their liberty was 

 recognized and secured by the military authority. 

 This action, while sufficient to change the status of 

 all slaves upon whom it took actual effect, could not, 

 and did not, change the local laws of the places snl>- 

 jected to the military power so as to prevent the 

 future acquisition of slaves, those laws, according to 

 tlie principles of international law everywhera re- 

 spected, remaining in force until repealed by com- 

 petent authority, and a military command was not 

 competent to change them, except for the time of 

 actual military occupancy. 



In those States that adhered to the Union and in 

 which slavery existed, the proclamation of the Presi- 

 dent and action in accordance with it could not pro- 

 duce the effect of emancipation. 



The final act that terminated the existence of 

 slavery in the United States was the Thirteenth 

 Amendment of the Constitution, adopted by two- 

 thirds of the States, that declared that neither sla- 

 very nor involuntary servitude, except as a punish- 

 ment for crime, whereof the party shall have been 

 duly convicted, shall exist within the United States 

 or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 



The estimation in which the institution of slavery 

 is entitled to be held, as a social factor, must depend 

 upon the solution of the question whether it is caj>a- 

 ble of being brought into harmony with advanced 

 social conditions. If thus capable, that fact must 

 arise from the possibility of developing the slave re- 

 lation into a condition in whii-h it will harmonize 

 with the principles upon which advanced conditions 

 of social order depend. What is implied by develop- 

 ment, as applied to that institution, cannot admit of 

 doubt. If the slave, separated as to his condition 

 by a wide interval from that of the society that sur- 

 rounds him, is found advancing so as ultimately to 

 cancel that interval, if his relations with others, 

 especially liis domestic relations, are advancing in 

 s'ability, and if the service and discipline to which 

 he is subjected are, by progressive steps, allowing to 

 its subject more favorable conditions of development, 

 then it may be affirmed that the relation is capable 

 of development in the normal sense. But if, on the 

 other hand, the slave appears to remain stationary 

 or to retrograde, and no indication appears of in- 

 creased stability and organization in his domestic 

 and other relations, and if the regimen to which he 

 is subjected grows more and more repressive, then 

 it may be affirmed that the institution, if fairly 

 represented in the instance supposed, is incapable of 

 healthful development, and that its presence in an 

 advanced community is an evil the magnitude of 

 which is measured by the extent, to which it prevails. 



Examining thn history of the institution as it 

 existed in the United States in the light of these 



principles, it is possible to place upon it its proper 

 estimation. For the purposes of such an examina- 

 tion neither the instances that exhibit slavery in the 

 most favorable light nor those that display its worst 

 features must be taken in view, but attention should 

 be given to the mass and the system as a whole. 



In the early days of slavery in this country eman- 

 cipation was quite common, but during the later 

 years of slavery the instances of that kind were very 

 rare, in part through repression by law and popular 

 sentiment in the slave States, and in part through 

 the increased value of slave property. Emancipation 

 and even removal from the State for the purpose of 

 emancipation were in some instances forbidden by 

 law. 



The inability of the slave to hold property tinder- 

 went no relaxation, but on the contrary there were 

 instances where masters were prevented by the opera- 

 tion of law from making provision for the support of 

 slaves. When it is considered how large is the 

 civilizing influence resulting from the responsi- 

 bilities attendant upon the ownership of property, it 

 will readily appear that if any amelioration of the 

 system was to be anticipated it would be in the re- 

 spect just named. 



So far from there being any indication of any in- 

 creased stability in the domestic relations among 

 the slaves, the contraiy appears. In the early days 

 of slavery in this country it was possible that gen- 

 eration after generation of slaves born in a particular 

 locality might spend their lives in that locality, and 

 thus produce the semblance of domestic stability, 

 but in later years this feature had to yield to com- 

 mercial necessity, and the slave population was in- 

 creasingly mobilized from year to year. 



In early times it was no offence against law or 

 public sentiment to instruct slaves, and especially to 

 teach them to read and write, but in later years that 

 practice was discontinued either as contrary to law 

 or to public opinion. 



Without going further, it is manifest that slavery 

 in America, although having abundant time to mani- 

 fest its tendencies, did not give indications of any 

 possibility of reaching a condition in which it would 

 l>e but a single stop for the slave to pass into fair re- 

 lation with the civilization that surrounded him. It 

 is likely to be said that the responsibility for this 

 condition of affairs is with those who, by agitating 

 the question of emancipation, forced the slave-holder 

 into a defensive attitude that entailed these disad- 

 vantages upon the slave ; that it was simply a matter 

 of self-protection to exclude the slave from contact 

 with the feelings that prompted the aggressions upon 

 the institution, and to accomplish this it was neces- 

 sary that he should be kept incapable of reading. 



But these disturbing conditions of environment 

 were the necessary consequences of the existence of 

 the slave institution in the midst of a community 

 animated by the spirit of liberty and addicted to 

 modem habits of thought. Call the aggressor by 

 what name you will, Abolitionist, or what may better 

 describe him, and after all he stands merely as the 

 type of a tendency, inherent in every healthful organ- 

 ization, to eliminate such elements as are ur suited 

 for assimilation, and impede its functional activities. 

 The very question as it regards the social quality of 

 slavery is whether it is of such a nature as to pro- 

 duce such conditions in advanced communities sur- 

 rounding it. Organisms that have any vital power 

 must act in that way. Physiological laws demon- 

 strate the principle as its acts in communities. If a 

 substance is intruded in the animal organism that 

 cannot be assimilated and that interferes with the 

 performance of function, violent and inflammatory 

 methods of elimination are set up, proportionate in 

 their energy to the vigor of the system. Commu- 

 nities of men act from the same tendencies, produ- 



