172
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1855
How could two races exist together without amalgamation? It is impossible. Well, they would produce nothing in the South; the spindles of the North would stand still; the implements of husbandry would remain here unsold, and the whole South would present nothing but a spectacle of wretchedness, if not of blood- shed and carnage. Who could derive happiness from this? It would not elevate the slave in the South. You might call him free, but he would be an object of want and wretchedness. Now, if he is sick, a doctor is provided, and he is attended to by the master because he is his owner, and it is his interest to care for him. But if free no one would take care of him. His toil would stop, and his recompense, and he would be cast into the streets. That would be his situation. Whereas it is ·the mas- ter's duty not only to improve his intelligence, but to improve his moral condition, that he may be more honest, trustworthy and faithful; and to take care of his physical condition, that he may perform the amount of labor with less inconvenience and more certainty. These are the facts. It is not love of slavery that causes it to exist in the South, but the necessity of their condition that has forced it upon them. They cannot liberate them. But we see men, when they come to close their account with the earth, anxious to benefit them, make provision to transport them to Liberia. If the same amount had been expended in building up and colonizing Liberia, which has been wasted in other ways in relation to them, it would have been better. That colony has gone on in improvement. There they can rise to the stature of men; there they are prospering and doing well, where there is no opposing race, and they are not trodden down. The slave turned loose here cannot rise to the condition of the white race, and the white race cannot sink to the condition of the black man. Hence the system of transpor- tation to Liberia is the only one that seems to loom up in the distance, by which a provision can be made for restoring these people, at some future day, to the land of their origin. Strange as it may appear, and difficult as may be the task, Providence that rules the world, that has built up and pulled down nations, though His plans are mysterious, and beyond our comprehension, can again show his power a~ in days past, in a way to meet his divine purposes. When Joseph was sold by the patriarchs to the Midianites and the Ishmaelites, and when he was transported to Egypt, no one could have divined the subse- quent wonders of Divine power. . The children of Israel remained
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