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enormities which incontrovertibly bid defiance | served for calm consideration, as a matter dis not only to this clause, but to every regulation tinct from the present question. which our ingenuity can devise and our power carry into effect. Nothing can accomplish the object of this clause but an extinction of the trade itself.

ive for these enactments.

I beg pardon for dwelling so long on the argument of expediency, and on the manner in which it affects the West Indies. I have been carried away by my own feelings on some of these points into a greater length than I intend

That is

But, sir, let us see what was the motive for carrying on the trade at all. The pre-ed, especially considering how fully the subject amble of the act states it: " Whereas, has been already argued. The result of all 1 the trade to and from Africa is very ad- have said is, that there exists no impediment, no vantageous to Great Britain, and necessary for obstacle, no shadow of reasonable objection on the supplying the plantations and colonies there- the ground of pledged faith, or even on that of unto belonging with a sufficient number of ne- national expediency, to the abolition of this trade. groes at reasonable rates, and for that purpose On the contrary, all the arguments drawn from the said trade should be carried on," &c. Here, those sources plead for it, and they plead much then, we see what the Parliament had in view more loudly, and much more strongly in every when it passed this act; and I have clearly shown part of the question, for an immediate than for that not one of the occasions on which it grounded a gradual abolition. its proceedings now exists. I may then plead, I think, the very act itself as an argument for the abolition. If it is shown that, instead of being "very advantageous" to Great Britain, this trade is the most destructive that can well be imagined to her interests; that it is the ruin of our seamen; that it stops the extension of our manufactures; if it is proved, in the second place, that it is not now necessary for the "supplying our plantations with negroes;" if it is further established that this traffic was from the very beginning contrary to the first principles of justice, and consequently that a pledge for its continuance, had one been attempted to be given, must have been completely and absolutely void; where then, in this act of Parliament, is the contract to be found by which Britain is bound, as she is said to be, never to listen to her own true .nterests, and to the cries of the natives of Africa? Is it not clear that all argument, founded on the supposed pledged faith of Parliament, makes against those who employ it? I refer you to the principles which obtain in other cases. Every trade act shows undoubtedly that the Legislature is used to pay a tender regard to all classes of the community. But if for the sake of moral duty, of national honor, or even of great political advantage, it is thought right, by authority of Parliament, to alter any long-established system, Parliament is competent to do it. The Legislature will undoubtedly be careful to subject individuals to as little inconvenience as possible; and if any peculiar hardship should arise that can be distinctly stated and fairly pleaded, there will ever, I am sure, be a liberal feeling toward them in the Legislature of this country, which is the guardian of all who live under its protection. On the present occasion, the most powerful considerations call upon us to abolish the slave trade; and if we refuse to attend to them on the alleged ground of pledged faith and contract, we shall depart as widely from the practice of Parliament as from the path of moral duty. If, indeed, there is any case of hardship which comes within the proper cognizance of Parliament, and calls for the exercise of its liberality-well! But such a case must be re

The same motive justifies the suppres sion of the slave trade.

Plea of be

founded.

III. But now, sir, I come to Africa. the ground on which I rest, and here it Injustice of is that I say my right honorable friends the trade, do not carry their principles to their full extent. Why ought the slave trade to be abolished? Because it is incurable INJUSTICE! How much stronger, then, is the argument for immediate than gradual abolition! By allowing it to con tinue even for one hour, do not my right honorable friends weaken-do not they desert, their own argument of its injustice? If on the ground of injustice it ought to be abolished at last, why ought it not now? Why is injustice to be suffered to remain for a single hour? From what I hear without doors, it is evident that there is a general conviction entertained of its being far from just, and from that very conviction of its injustice some men have been led, I fear, to the supposition that the slave trade never could have been permitted to begin, but from some strong and irresistible necessity; a necessity, however, which, if it was fancied to cessity unexist at first, I have shown can not be thought by any man whatever to exist at present. This plea of necessity, thus presumed, and presumed, as I suspect, from the circumstance of injustice itself, has caused a sort of acquiescence in the continuance of this evil. Men have been led to place it in the rank of those necessary evils which are supposed to be the lot of human creatures, and to be permitted to fall upon some countries or individuals, rather than upon others, by that Being whose ways are inscrutable to us, and whose dispensations, it is conceived, we ought not to look into. The origin of evil is, indeed, a subject beyond the reach of the human understanding; and the permission of it by the Supreme Being, is a subject into which it belongs not to us to inquire. But where the evil in question is a moral evil which a man can scrutinize, and where that moral evil has its origin with ourselves, let us not imagine that we can clear our consciences by this general, not to say irreligious and impious way of laying aside the question. If we reflect at all on this subject, we must see that every necessary evil supposes that some other and greater evil would be incurred were it removed. I therefore desire to ask, what can

intercourse to convey to them the means, and to initiate them in the study of mutual destruction. We give them just enough of the forms of jus

be that greater evil which can be stated to over- | balance the one in question? I know of no evil that ever has existed, nor can imagine any evil to exist, worse than the tearing of EIGHTY THOU-tice to enable them to add the pretext of legal triSAND PERSONS annually from their native land, by a combination of the most civilized nations in the most enlightened quarter of the globe; but more especially by that nation which calls herself the most free and the most happy of them all. Even if these miserable beings were proved Guilt and dis guilty of every crime before you take trade, even if them off, of which however not a sinwere crimin. gle proof is adduced, ought we to take upon ourselves the office of executionAnd even if we condescend so far, still can we be justified in taking them, unless we have clear proof that they are criminals?

nonor of the

the slaves

als.

ers ?

and arms directly used in kidnapping.

But if we go much farther; if we ourselves English capital tempt them to sell their fellow creatures to us, we may rest assured that they will take care to provide by every method, by kidnapping, by village-breaking, by unjust wars, by iniquitous condemnations, by rendering Africa a scene of bloodshed and misery, a supply of victims increasing in proportion to our demand. Can we, then, hesitate in deciding whether the wars in Africa are their wars or ours? It was our arms in the River Cameroon, put into the hands of the trader, that furnished him with the means of pushing his trade; and I have no more doubt that they are British | nt into the hands of Africans, which promote universal war and desolation, than I can doubt their having done so in that individual in

ari

stance.

result.

als to their other modes of perpetrating the most atrocious iniquity. We give them just enough of European improvements, to enable them the more effectually to turn Africa into a ravaged wilderness. Some evidences say that the Africans are addicted to the practice of gambling; that they even sell their wives and children, and ultimately themselves. Are these, then, the legitimate sources of slavery? Shall we pretend that we can thus acquire an honest right to exact the labor of these people? Can we pretend that we have a right to carry away to distant regions men of whom we know nothing by au thentic inquiry, and of whom there is every reasonable presumption to think that those who sell them to us have no right to do so? But the evil does not stop here. I feel that there is not time for me to make all the remarks which the subject deserves, and I refrain from attempting to enumerate half the dreadful consequences of this system. Do you think nothing of the ruin and the miseries in which so many other individuals, stil remaining in Africa, are involved in consequence of carrying off so many myriads of people? Do you think nothing of their families which are left behind; of the connections which are broken; of the friendships, attachments, and relationships that are burst asunder? Do you think nothing of the miseries in consequence, that are felt from generation to generation; of the privation of that happiness which might be commu nicated to them by the introduction of civiliza. tion, and of mental and moral improvement? A happiness which you withhold from them so long as you permit the slave trade to continue. What do you yet know of the internal state of Africa? You have carried on a trade to that quarter of the globe from this civilized and enlightened country; but such a trade, that, instead of diffus

I have shown how great is the enormity of Horrors of the this evil, even on the supposition that we take only convicts and prisoners of war. But take the subject in the other way; take it on the grounds stated by the right honorable gentleman over the way; and how does it stand? Think of EIGHTY THOUSAND persons carried away out of their country, by we know not what means; for crimes imputed; for lighting either knowledge or wealth, it has been the or inconsiderable faults; for debt, perhaps; for the crime of witchcraft; or a thousand other weak and scandalous pretexts! Besides all the fraud and kidnapping, the villainies and perfidy, by which the slave trade is supplied. Reflect on these eighty thousand persons thus annually taken off! There is something in the horror of it, that surpasses all the bounds of imagination. Admitting that there exists in Africa something like to courts of justice; yet what an office of humiliation and meanness is it in us, to take upon ourselves to carry into execution the partial, the cruel, iniquitous sentences of such courts, as if we also were strangers to all religion, and to the first principles of justice.

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check to every laudable pursuit. Instead of any fair interchange of commodities; instead of conveying to them, from this highly favored land, any means of improvement, you carry with you that noxious plant by which every thing is withered and blasted; under whose shade nothing that is useful or profitable to Africa will ever flourish or take root. Long as that continent has been known to navigators, the extreme line and boundaries of its coasts is all with which Europe has yet become acquainted; while other countries in the same parallel of latitude, through a happier system of intercourse, have reaped the blessings of a mutually beneficial commerce. But as to the whole interior of that continent, you are, by your own principles of commerce, as yet entirely shut out. Africa is known to you only in its skirts. Yet even there you are able to infuse a poison that spreads its contagious effects from one end of it to the other; which penetrates to its very center, corrupting every part to which it reaches. You there subvert the

whole order of nature; you aggravate every natural barbarity, and furnish to every man living on that continent, motives for committing, under the name and pretext of commerce, acts of perpetual violence and perfidy against his neighbor.

be eager to remove the guilt

and shame of

thin perversion of her commerce.

plea, refuse to desist from bearing our part in the system which produces it. You are not sure, it is said, that other nations will give up the trade, if you should renounce it. I answer, if this trade is as criminal as it is asserted to be, or if it has in it a thousandth part of the criminality, which I and others, after thorough inves

bid that we should hesitate in determining t relinquish so iniquitous a traffic, even though it should be retained by other countries. God for bid, however, that we should fail to do our ut most toward inducing other countries to abandon a bloody commerce, which they have probably been, in a good measure, led by our example to pursue. God forbid that we should be capable of wishing to arrogate to ourselves the glory of being singular in renouncing it!

Thus, sir, has the perversion of British comEngland should merce carried misery instead of hap-tigation of the subject, charge upon it, God for piness to one whole quarter of the globe. False to the very principles of trade, misguided in our policy, and unmindful of our duty, what astonishing I had almost said, what irreparable mischief, have we brought upon that continent! How shall we hope to obtain, if it be possible, forgiveness from Heaven for those enormous evils we have committed, if we refuse to make use of those means which the mercy of Providence hath still reserved to us, for wiping away the guilt and shame with which we are now covered. If we refuse even this degree of compensation; if, knowing the miseries we have caused, we refuse even now to put a stop to them, how greatly aggravated will be the guilt of Great Britain! and what a blot will these transactions forever be in the history of this country! Shall we, then, delay to repair these injuries, and to begin rendering justice to Africa? Shall we not count the days and hours that are suffered to intervene, and to delay the accomplishment of such a work? Reflect what an immense object is before you; what an object for a nation to have in view, and to have a prospect, under the favor of Providence, of being now permitted to attain! I think the House will agree with me in cherishing the ardent wish to enter without delay upon the measures necessary for these great ends; and I am sure that the immediate abolition of the slave trade is the first, the principal, the most indispensable act of policy, of duty, and of justice, that the Legislature of this country has to take, if it is indeed their wish to secure those important objects to which I have alluded, and which we are bound to pursue by the most solemn obligations.

ought to lead

I tremble at the thought of gentlemen's indulg ing themselves in this argument; an argument as pernicious as it is futile. "We are friends,” say they, "to humanity. We are second to none of you in our zeal for the good of Africa; but the French will not abolish-the Dutch will not abolish. We wait, therefore, on prudential principles, till they join us, or set us an example." How, sir, is this enormous evil ever to be eradicated, if every nation is thus pru- England, as dentially to wait till the concurrence of t all the world shall have been obtained? the way. Let me remark, too, that there is no nation in Europe that has, on the one hand, plunged so deeply into this guilt as Britain; or that is so likely, on the other, to be looked up to as an example, if she should have the manliness to be the first in decidedly renouncing it. But, sir, does not this argument apply a thousand times more strongly in a contrary way 25 How much more justly may other nations point to us, and say, "Why should we abolish the slave trade, when Great Britain has not abolished? Britain, free as she is, just and honorable as she is, and deeply, also, involved as she is in this commerce above all nations, not only has not abolished, but has refused to abolish. She has investigated it well; There is, however, one argument set up as a she has gained the completest insight into its nauniversal answer to every thing that ture and effects; she has collected volumes of ev(1) That other can be urged on our side; whether idence on every branch of the subject. Her Senunite in abolish We address ourselves to the under-ate has deliberated-has deliberated again and

Refutation of objections.

nations will not

ing the trade.

again; and what is the result? She has gravely and solemnly determined to sanction the slave trade. She sanctions it at least for a while-her Legislature, therefore, it is plain, sees no guilt ir it, and has thus furnished us with the strongest evidence that she can furnish-of the justice unquestionably-and of the policy also, in a certain measure, and in certain cases at least, of permit

standings of our opponents, or to their hearts and consciences. It is necessary I should remove this formidable objection; for, though not often stated in distinct terms, I fear it is one which has a very wide influence. The slave trade system, it is supposed, has taken so deep root in Africa, that it is absurd to think of its being eradicated; and the abolition of that share of trade carried on by Great Britain, and es-ting this traffic to continue." pecially if her example is not followed by other powers, is likely to be of very little service. Give me leave to say, in reply to so dangerous an argument, that we ought to be extremely sure, indeed, of the assumption on which it rests, be-imagining, that by choosing to presume on their fore we venture to rely on its validity; before we decide that an evil which we ourselves contribute to inflict is incurable. and on that very

This, sir, is the argument with which we fürnish the other nations of Europe, if Other nationa we again refuse to put an end to the may be expect slave trade. Instead, therefore, of

ed to follow.

This taking an opponent's argument "in the con trary way," is one of Mr. Pitt's most characteristic modes of confuting an antagonist.

continuing it, we shall have exempted ourselves from guilt, and have transferred the whole criminality to them; let us rather reflect that, on the very principle urged against us, we shall henceforth have to answer for their crimes, as well as our own. We have strong reasons to believe that it depends upon us, whether other countries will persist in this bloody trade or not. Already we have suffered one year to pass away, and now the question is renewed, a proposition is made for gradual, with the view of preventing immediate abolition. I know the difficulty that exists in attempting to reform long-established abuses; and I know the danger arising from the argument in favor of delay, in the case of evils which, nevertheless, are thought too enormous to be borne, when considered as perpetual. But by proposing some other period than the present, by prescribing some condition, by waiting for some contingency, or by refusing to proceed till a thousand favorable circumstances unite together; perhaps until we obtain the general concurrence of Europe (a concurrence which I believe never yet took place at the commencement of any one improvement in policy or in morals), year after year escapes, and the most enormous evils go unredressed. We see this abundantly exemplified, not only in public, but in private life. Similar observations have been often applied to the case of personal reformation. If you go into the street, it is a chance but the first person who crosses you is one,

Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam." We may wait; we may delay to cross the stream before us, till it has run down; but we shall wait forever, for the river will still flow on, without being exhausted. We shall be no nearer the object which we profess to have in view, so long as the step, which alone can bring us to it, is not taken. Until the actual, the only remedy is applied, we ought neither to flatter ourselves that we have as yet thoroughly laid to heart the evil we affect to deplore; nor that there is as yet any reasonable assurance of its being brought to an

actual termination.

African race

doomed to bar barism.

It has also been occasionally urged, that there (2.) That the is something in the disposition and Can not be civ. nature of the Africans themselves ilized, but are which renders all prospect of civilization on that continent extremely unpromising. "It has been known," says Mr. Frazer, in his evidence, "that a boy has been put to death who was refused to be purchased as a slave." This single story was deemed by that gentleman a sufficient proof of the barbarity of the Africans, and of the inutility of abolishing

This line, with the remainder of the passage as referred to in the next sentence, is found in the Epistles of Horace, Book i., Epist. 2, lines 41-3:

Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam,
Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis, at ille
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum.
He who delays the hour of living well,
Stands like the rustic on a river's brink,
To see the stream run out; but on it flows,
And still shall flow with current never easing.

The West India

barbarous in some of their

laws.

the slave trade. My honorable frend, however. has told you that this boy had previously run away from his master three several times; that the master had to pay his value, according to the custom of the country, every time he was brought back; and that partly from anger at the boy for running away so frequently, and partly to prevent a still farther repetition of the same expense, he determined to put him to death. Such was the explanation of the story given in the cross-examination. This, sir, is the signal instance that has been dwelt upon of African barbarity. This African, we admit, was unenlightened, and altogether barbarous; but let us now ask, what would a civilized and enlightened West Indian, or a body of West Indians, have done in any case of a parallel planters equally nature? I will quote you, sir, a law, passed in the West Indies, in the year 1722, which, in turning over the book 1 happened just now to cast my eye upon; by which law, this very same crime of running away, is, by the Legislature of the island, by the grave and deliberate sentence of that enlightened Legislature, punished with death; and this, not in the case only of the third offense, but even in the very first instance. It is enacted, "that if any negro or other slave shall withdraw himself from his master for the term of six months; or any slave that was absent, shall not return within that time, it shall be adjudged felony, and every such person shall suffer death." There is another West India law, by which every negro's hand is armed against his fellow-negroes, by his being authorized to kill a runaway slave, and even having a reward held out to him for doing so. Let the House now contrast the two cases. Let them ask themselves which of the two exhibits the greater barbarity? Let them reflect, with a little candor and liberality, whether on the ground of any of those facts, and loose insinuations as to the sacrifices to be met with in the evidence, they can possibly reconcile to themselves the excluding of Africa from all means of civilization; whether they can possibly vote for the continuance of the slave trade upon the principle that the Africans have shown themselves to be a race of incorrigible barbarians.

the question

nations will unite in abolish

ing the trade.

While we have been

hope, therefore, we shall hear no more of the moral impossibility of civilizing the Resumption of Africans, nor have our understand whether other ings and consciences again insulted, by being called upon to sanction the slave trade, until other nations shall have set the example of abolishing it. deliberating upon the subject, one nation, not ordinarily taking the lead in politics, nor by any means remarkable for the boldness of its councils, has determined on a gradual abolition; a determination, indeed, which, since it permits for a time the existence of the slave trade, would be an unfortunate pattern for our imitation. France,

The country referred to was Denmark, which, two years after the delivery of this speech (in 1794), made a law that the slave trade should cease at the end of ten years, i. e., in 1804.

Here, as in every other branch of this extens

pleads against them; for surely, sir, the present deplorable state of Africa, especially when we reflect that her chief calamities are to be ascribed to us, calls for our generous aid, rather than justifies any despair on our part of her recovery, and still less any further repetition of our injuries.

Argument from

history as to African civiliza

the prospect of

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it is said, will take up the trade if we relinquish it. What? Is it supposed that in the presentive question, the argument of our adversaries situation of St. Domingo, of an island which used o take three fourths of all the slaves required by the colonies of France, she, of all countries, will think of taking it up? What countries remain? The Portuguese, the Dutch, and the Spaniards. Of those countries, let me declare it is my opinion that, if they see us renounce the trade after full deliberation, they will not be dis- I will not much longer fatigue the attention posed, even on principles of policy, to rush fur- of the House; but this point has imther into it. But I say more. How are they to pressed itself so deeply on my mind, furnish the capital necessary for carrying it on? that I must trouble the committee If there is any aggravation of our guilt, in this with a few additional observations. wretched business, greater than another, it is that | Are we justified, I ask, on any theory, or by any we have stooped to be the carriers of these mis- one instance to be found in the history of the erable beings from Africa to the West Indies for world, from its very beginning to this day, in all the other powers of Europe. And now, sir, forming the supposition which I am now comif we retire from the trade altogether, I ask, bating? Are we justified in supposing that the where is that fund which is to be raised at once particular practice which we encourage in Afby other nations, equal to the purchase of 30 or rica, of men's selling each other for slaves, is 40,000 slaves? A fund which, if we rate them any symptom of a barbarism that is incurable? at £40 or £50 each, can not make a capital of Are we justified in supposing that even the less than a million and a half, or two millions of practice of offering up human sacrifices proves money. From what branch of their commerce a total incapacity for civilization? I believe it is it that these European nations will draw to- will be found, and perhaps much more generally gether a fund to feed this monster? to keep alive than is supposed, that both the trade in slaves, this detestable commerce? And even if they and the still more savage custom of offering should make the attempt, will not that immense human sacrifices, obtained in former periods, chasm, which must instantly be created in the throughout many of those nations which now, other parts of their trade, from which this vast by the blessings of Providence, and by a long capital must be withdrawn in order to supply progression of improvements, are advanced the the slave trade, be filled up by yourselves? Will furthest in civilization. I believe, sir, that, if not these branches of commerce which they we will reflect an instant, we shall find that must leave, and from which they must withdraw this observation comes directly home to our own their industry and their capitals, in order to ap-selves; and that, on the same ground on which ply them to the slave trade, be then taken up by British merchants? Will you not even in this case find your capital flow into these deserted channels? Will not your capital be turned from the slave trade to that natural and innocent commerce from which they must withdraw their capitals in proportion as they take up the traffic in the flesh and blood of their fellow creatures? The committee sees, I trust, how little ground of objection to our proposition there is in this part of our adversaries' argument.

tion of Africa

ject of the measure proposed.

Having now detained the House so long, all The civiliza that I will further add shall be on that a leading ob important subject, the civilization of Africa, which I have already shown that I consider as the leading feature in this question. Grieved am I to think that there should be a single person in this country, much more that there should be a single member in the British Parliament, who can look on the present dark, uncultivated, and uncivilized state of that continent as a ground for continuing the slave trade; as a ground not only for refusing to attempt the improvement of Africa, but even for hindering and intercepting every ray of light which might otherwise break in upon her, as a ground for refusing to her the common chance and the common means with which other nations have been blessed, of emerging from their native barbarism.

we now are disposed to proscribe Africa forever, from all possibility of improvement, we ourselves might, in like manner, have been proscribed, and forever shut out from all the blessings which we now enjoy.

man sacrifices,

There was a time, sir, which it may be fit sometimes to revive in the remem- England once brance of our countrymen, when even polluted by huhuman sacrifices are said to have been and a mart of offered in this island. But I would slaves. especially observe on this day, for it is a case precisely in point, that the very practice of the slave trade once prevailed among us. Slaves, as we may read in Henry's History of Great Britain, were formerly an established article of our exports. "Great numbers," he says, "were exported like cattle from the British coast, and were to be seen exposed for sale in the Roman market." It does not distinctly appear by what means they were procured; but there was unquestionably no small resemblance, in this particular point, between the case of our ancestors and that of the present wretched natives of Africa; for the historian tells you that “adultery, witchcraft, and debt, were probably some of the chief sources of supplying the Roman marke; with British slaves; that prisoners taken in war were added to the number; and that there might be among them some unfortunate gamesters who, after having lost all their goods, at length

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