BRIEFLY CONSIDERED. By JOHN L. CAREY. BALTIMORE: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY, 178 Market street . 1845. Entered , according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, in the clerk’s office of the District Court of Maryland....

Dodon , March 12th, 1845. Dear Sir ,—A short time before the October election, I heard some one say that it was your intention to devote much of your time, should you be elected to the House of Delegates, to the subject of the black population of our State, and to promote, if possible, measures for their gradual emancipation. It gave me, a slaveholder and citizen of Maryland, infinite pleasure to hear it; and it was with the deepest regret I learned soon after that you were not returned to the h

Baltimore , March 17, 1845. Dear Sir ,—Your letter, which reached me this morning, relates to a subject which has, indeed, been much in my mind. Some months ago I began to put on paper a few thoughts concerning it, in the hope that a speedy restoration of our State’s financial affairs would leave the way clear for a fair consideration of Slavery as it exists in Maryland. Your letter seems to come as an intimation that the time for considering that matter is already at hand—as such I receive it.

If Slavery be regarded as the subjection of one man, by force, to the will of another, all other considerations being left out of view, it must appear to be the most cruel outrage to which humanity is liable. But the control of one man over another, of some men over other men, of individuals over masses, may exist without implying outrage or wrong. It is as a representative that man exercises power—as the representative of truths, principles, sentiments. Thus the officials of a government, few i

It may be asked, have not all enslaved people a right to freedom? To which it may be answered that rights are connected with duties ; or, to go back to the other definition, the will and the understanding of a man, the strength of the one and the capacity of the other, combined together, constitute the measure of his rights, inasmuch as they are the measure of the sphere which he fills. Freedom involves certain responsibilities, which, if a man can not meet, he is not free. Besides, Freedom is a

The negro race in the United States have derived great benefits from their condition of servitude. Let us have done with the wailings of weak sympathizers who know not what they would be at. No African has come as a slave to this country who was not a slave before. The exchange of masters which transferred the service of the negro from a barbarous owner in Africa to a civilized proprietor in America is likely to prove the salvation of the race. From time immemorial slavery has prevailed in Afric

If it is evident, from the foregoing, that the state of servitude has been well adapted to the condition of the negroes who were brought to this country; if it appears beyond all doubt that they have improved in that state; it is no less clear that the condition of Slavery is not adapted to their continued improvement—that it is in fact incompatible with their improvement beyond a certain point. The uses of Slavery are those of tutelage; in other words, Slavery is beneficial and proper only in s

It is known that Slavery once existed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and the New England States. It has been abolished in those States, while it continues to exist in Maryland, and in the States south of the Potomac and the Ohio. The disappearance of Slavery from certain States, and its continuance in others, constitute a notable point of observation. Why has it happened that Pennsylvania discarded an institution which South Carolina cherishes? Is the question one of morality or of polit

If we are driven to the conclusion that Slavery in Maryland must terminate, under the operation of tendencies now at work, it becomes a matter of great importance to know something about the manner in which so extensive a change is to be accomplished. Undoubtedly it will not do to remain entirely passive on this subject. I am persuaded that the general sentiment in Maryland is fixed in the conviction that Slavery, here at least, is an evil, and that in some way or other it must be removed. There

The law of 1831 which recognised Colonization as a part of the public policy of Maryland was a compromise, though generally not so regarded now, between the emancipation tendency then operative and the slaveholding interest. The fanatical movement of the abolitionists checked the progress of things here; all sides, all parties, all tendencies were united to rebuke the insolent demonstrations of that fanaticism. Colonization proposes to convey to the western coast of Africa, and to establish ther

Note. —Carroll county is not included in this statement, having been created since 1830, and the population of Baltimore and Frederick counties, from which Carroll was taken, is not carried out in 1840, part of their population being then included in the census of Carroll county....