Skip to main content
Like
Create new Glog
previous
next
Email share
36 views | 0 likes | 0 reposts
Countrymen, reflect a moment on what you are about! - the Sugar colonies, the trade of which is of more advantage to this country than most who talk on the subject are aware of, will soon be lost to us. The capital employed in the culture of the colonies it is said, and I believe truly, to amount to between sixty and seventy millions, two thirds or more of which, belong to the subjects residing in this kingdom. Can England in her involved situation, owing at this moment, 240,000,000l, afford to lose so immense a sum? For the lands cannot be cultivated, nor the manufacture of sugar, &c. carried on, without the trade your ill-judged zeal wants to put an end to. Are you prepared with a fund to make up a compensation to the planters, merchants, and thousands of annuitants, whose daily bread depends on the produce of this beneficial commerce with the West India Islands? - You mistakingly treat this business as though you yourselves were not concerned in the event; short sighted must that man be who is so deluded. I have good reason to believe, that nearly one third of the commerce of this kingdom depends on the African trade, directly or collaterally. - If you give up your trade, what must become of your navy, the bulwark of England?
...And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; And that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. Abrahm Lincoln
Should not Gen. Leclerc have informed me that various charges had been brought against me? Should he not have said to me, "I gave you my word of honor and promised you the protection of the Government; to-day, as you have been found guilty, I am going to send you to that government to give an account of your conduct"? Or, "Government orders you to submit; I convey that order to you"? I have not been so treated; on the other hand, means have been employed against me which are only used against the greatest criminals. Doubtless, I owe this treatment to my color; but my color,--my color,--has it hindered me from serving my country with zeal and fidelity? Does the color of my skin impair my honor and my bravery? But even supposing that I was a criminal, and that Government had ordered my arrest, was it necessary to employ a hundred riflemen to arrest my wife and children in their own home, without regard to their sex, age, and rank; without humanity and without charity? Was it necessary to burn my houses, and to pillage and sack my possessions? No. My wife, my children, my family had no responsibility in the matter; they were not accountable to the Government; it was not lawful to arrest them... Toussaint Louverture
