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EXCLUDED FROM DRAWING-ROOM CARS.

As to equality on railways, there is more ground for complaint, as cases are frequently reported in which colored men, who are as decent and well-behaved as the common run of white passengers, and even ministers of the Gospel, are turned out of cars, for which they have paid full fare, with a degree of roughness and violence which has excited indignation, not only at the North, but among the best men at the South. There is a plain rule of justice, which ought to be recognized and enforced, viz: that every man is entitled to what he pays for. If there be on the part of the whites an unwillingness to occupy the same cars and to sit in the same seats with the blacks, let them be separate; only let equally good cars be provided for both, if both pay for them. In Georgia I am told that this is now required by law; but the law, it would seem, does not always suffice to protect the blacks from the violence of ruffians who invade the cars, and drive them out from seats for which they have paid, and to which they are legally entitled. Here is a case for those who have framed a righteous law, to see that it is enforced. A black man's money is just as good as a white man's, and if he pays the same fare, he is entitled to the same accommodation.

Whatever inequality there may be of rights and privileges at the South, I certainly do not mean to apologize for any wrong or injustice to the colored man. I wish simply to show that the color line, of which we hear so much, is not peculiar to one section of the country; that it exists at the North as well as at the South; and that, if we would be just, we must recognize the fact, and not ascribe what we call race-prejudice to the peculiar perversity of our Southern brethren. I ask that we judge them by the same rule that we adopt for ourselves, and that we do not condemn them for the very things of which we are guilty.

WE CANNOT FIGHT AGAINST INSTINCT.

153

As a basis of comparison, I have taken the highest standard. New England is my mother, and my model of all that is good. I am proud not only of the freedom, but of the equality, that exists among these hills, where it matters not if a man be rich or poor, white or black. I am willing to give to the black man every right which I ask for myself; but I cannot compel my neighbor to invite him to his house; nor indeed do I feel at liberty myself to invite him to a company, in which there are those who would be offended by his presence. This would be rude to them, and would make all uncomfortable. A gentleman must be governed by a scrupulous delicacy, and that would dictate that he should not give pain on one side or on the other. Social intercourse cannot be regulated by law; it must be left to those natural attractions and affinities which the Almighty has planted in our breasts. That the whites should desire to keep to themselves, is not to be ascribed to arrogance; it does not even imply an assumption of superiority. It is not that one race is above the other, but that the two races are different, and that, while they may live together in the most friendly relations, each will consult its own happiness best by working along its own lines. This is a matter of instinct, which is often wiser than reason. We cannot fight against instinct, nor legislate against it; if we do, we shall find it stronger than our resolutions and our laws.

CHAPTER XII.

THE EXPATRIATION OF A WHOLE RACE.

The shadow of the African still darkens the South, casting over it a gloom, by which some are so burdened and oppressed with the foreboding of what may come hereafter, that they mildly propose, as the only remedy for the danger, to remove the race altogether. If the negro is left to multiply in the land, he may become too powerful, and so let us get rid of him while we may by his wholesale expatriation. Thus Senator Hampton of South Carolina, speaking of a movement of the negroes from some of the cotton States, says: "An extensive exodus would be an inconvenience to the South, but not an injury. We would gladly see the colored people move elsewhere, and we should be willing to suffer any reduction of representation that might result from their departure. It would deprive us of much of our labor, and make it a little harder for the present generation; but it would be the salvation. of the future. I do not wish any harm to the negroes, but I would sacrifice whatever votes we get in the Electoral College or in Congress by reason of them, if they would go off by themselves. I would gladly vote to appropriate $50,000,000 for the purchase of Cuba, or some other place for them to settle in."

WHERE SHALL THE NEGRO GO?

155

This is certainly very generous-to offer a whole race, which it is proposed to exile, all the world in which to choose a home, except the country in which they were born, and the only country that they know under the sun! But by what right do we make this startling proposal? Has the Creator given it to us thus to dispose of different portions of the earth? God has formed the world for the habitation of men-not of one race only, but of all the tribes and kindreds of mankind. Has He given to the Anglo-Saxon an exclusive right to lord it over this continent, and to expel all races but his own? First, to drive out the Indian from his forests and his hunting-grounds; and then, after having imported the African to be a slave, and kept him in bondage for eight generations, to turn him adrift, to seek a home in the West Indies, or in the pestilential swamps of South America? The descendants of the Africans who were landed at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, are as pure "native Americans" as the proud descendants of the Huguenots, who settled in South Carolina. On what ground can the latter invite the former to depart, and leave the continent to them alone?

But as this suggestion of "getting rid" of the black race is made in other quarters, and in all seriousness, it is worth considering what it implies.

You who would expatriate the negro, tell us, Where shall he go? Two generations since, it was the belief of many good people that the Africans had been brought to America to be Christianized, and were now to be returned to their native land, to be the heralds of the Gospel over the Dark Continent. The idea had been conceived in the last century by Dr. Samuel Hopkins, that brave old champion of the faith and of human liberty. In his parish at Newport (which might have been called Slave-port, from the number of cargoes of slaves that were landed there

156

COLONIZATION IN AFRICA.

from Africa), his soul was kindled with indignation; and he longed to see the day when these unhappy children of an oppressed race should be sent back to the land from which they had been torn. But he did not live to see his hope fulfilled. After his death, the project was revived by some of the best men in the country, such as Bishop Meade and Charles F. Mercer of Virginia, and Rev. Dr. Finley of New Jersey; and in 1816 a Society was organized, with the great name of Washington (Bushrod Washington) as its President. A deputation was sent to Africa to select a site for a colony, and chose the best on the western coast, with five or six hundred miles on the Atlantic, and extending three hundred miles into the interior. Instead of being all swamps and jungle, it was a high, rolling country, with hills covered with forests, and a number of navigable streams. In 1820 eighty-six colonists were sent out, and in the course of a few years it had transported ten thousand free colored people. In 1847 it was organized as an independent Republic, to which was fitly given the name of Liberia. Then, as for many years before and after, it bore the illustrious name of Henry Clay as its President. It seemed a most benign and happy project; and when, now and then, a ship sailed away, bearing a reinforcement to the colony, devout men and women gathered on her deck, and sang hymns, and offered prayers and thanksgivings, in blissful hope that the day of Africa's redemption was drawing nigh. But since the foundation of the colony, seventy years have passed, and the day does not seem to be much nearer than before. Since the war the Colonization Society has faded from the public notice so entirely that many will be surprised to learn that it is still in existence. But the visitor at Washington, as he rides down Pennsylvania avenue, will see its sign still on the corner, where it has hung so long;