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610 The Fall of the Confederacy. 
stitution. It is remarkable that the Confederate adminis- 
tration were not troubled and awakened by the damnatory 
incongruity of prohibiting the negro slave trade whilst they 
upheld negro slavery. They registered the doom of negro 
slavery whilst they were ready to stake all that they held 
dear and precious in its defence. 
But was there a practical excuse for this incongruous 
policy? Had the Confederate administration reason for 
supposing that emancipation would ruin the country ? Was 
there any ground for the assumption that if the negroes 
were freed they would become an insupportable burden ? 
No doubt such an idea was prevalent even amongst men 
who were favourable to emancipation. Abraham Lincoln 
himself, on one occasion, suggested to a negro deputation 
that the best course for the coloured race was emigration. 
Yet it can be shown that there was no real foundation for 
this fear, and the Confederate administration had the best 
opportunity for knowing that the idea was entirely fal- 
lacious. | 
The negro question was discussed in a most unsatisfac- 
tory and illogical manner. One party exalted the negro 
above the white race, whilst the opposite party pronounced 
the negro very inferior to the white race and but little better 
than the beasts of the field. The truth lies between the 
two extremes. The negro is not more nor less than a man. 
Whether or not the African is the physical and mental 
equal of the European is not the point. Is hea man? Is he 
a creature of like passions with white men? Is he in- 
fluenced by the same motives, and is he amenable to the 
same laws? If so, if the negro is a man, he must be treated 
as a man. 
The first article in the indictment againt the emancipation 
of the negro was that he is incorrigibly idle. Is this true? 
Look at the marble palaces of New York. Look at the fac- 
tories of Lancashire. Look at the commerce in cotton. Be- 
hold, these are the products of negro labour. It is the negro 
of America who has done most to clothe the world. There- 
fore he will work, it appears. Yes, but we are told only as 
a slave. Why as a slave but not asa free man? Noone 
will assert that the negro requires the stimulus of the lash, 
for those who defended the institution of negro slavery 
denied indignantly that the negro was ill-treated. Then, 
if the negro will work for the profit of an owner, it must fol- 
low that he will toil when he is to enjoy the fruits of his 
toil. Ah the West Indies! Well, what of the West Indies ? 
