The amount of property held by them is $1,600,000; their annual taxes,
$27,000; and the free blacks own slaves to the amount of $300,000 in
value.
The above statements teach us that any attempts to force the Southern
slaves away from their present relation, are in violation of the laws of
Providence concerning them. If they become free in a natural way, and
can provide for themselves, or be provided for, it is well; otherwise,
the South, and their present relation to the white race, are the bounds
of their habitation fixed for them by an all-wise God, till his purpose
concerning them as a race shall be made manifest. The people of the Free
States ought to thank God that the South is willing to keep the colored
people. Instead of inflaming our passions against the abstract
wrongfulness of holding fellow-men in bondage, we should consider that
theoretical justice to the slaves as a whole would be practical
inhumanity. The destiny of the colored race here is a dark problem. But
it is not for us to penetrate the future. When God is ready to finish
his purposes with regard to their continuance with us, He will open a
way for their liberation; in the mean time it is our duty to protect
them from their own improvidence and from the neglect and degradation
which they would suffer at the hands of the Free States.
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