Thanksgiving sermon, delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, New Orleans, on Thursday, Nov. 29, 1860 / Page: 5 of 16
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5
are true to ourselves we shall, at this critical juncture; stand by it and work out our
destiny.
This duty is bound upon us again as the constituted guardians of the slaves themselves.
Our lot is not more implicated in theirs, than is their lot in ours , in our mutual rela-
tions we survive or perish together. The worst foes of the black race are those who
have intermeddled in their behalf. We know better than others that every attribute
of their character fits them for dependence and servitude. By nature the most affeo-
tionate and loyal of all races beneath the sun, they are also the most helpless ; and no
calamity can befall them greater than the loss of that protection they enjoy under tfiis
patriarchal system. Indeed the experiment has been grandly tried of precipitating
them upon freedom which they know not how to enjoy ; and the dismal results are
before us in statistics that astonish the world. With the fairest portions of the earth
in their possession, and with the advantage of a long discipline as cultivators of the
soil, their constitutional indolence has converted the most beautiful islands of the sea
into a howling waste. It is not too much to say that if the South should, at this moment,
surrendar every slave, the wisdom of the entire world, united in solemn council, could
not solve the question of their disposal. Their transportation to Africa, even if it
were feasible, would be but the most refined cruelty ; they must perish with starva-
vation before they could have time to relapse into their primitive barbarism. Their
residence here, in the presence of the vigorous Saxon race, would be but the signal
for their rapid extermination before they had time to waste away through listlessness, filth
and vice. Freedom would be their doom ; and equally from both they call upon us,
their providential guardians, to be protected. I know this argument will be scoffed
abroad as the hypocritical cover thrown over our own cupidity and selfishness ; but
every Southern master knows its truth and feels its power. My servant, whether
born in my house or bought with my money, stands to me in the relation of a child.
Though providentially owing me service, which, providentially, I am bound to exact,
he is, nevertheless, my brother and my friend ; and I am to him a guardian and a
father. lie leans upon me for protection, for counsel, and for blessing ; and so long
as the relation continues no power, but the power of Almighty God, shall come be-
tween him and me. Were there no argument but this, it binds upon us the providen-
tial duty of preserving the relation that we may save him from a doom worse than
death.
It is a duty which we owe, further, to the civilized world. It is a remarkable fact
that during these thirty years of unceasing warfare against slavery, and while a lying
spirit has inflamed the world against us, that world has grown more and more de-
pendent upon it for sustenance and wealth. Every tyro knows that all branches of
industry fill back upon the soil. We must come, every one of us, to the bosom of
this great mother for nourishment. In the happy partnership which has grown up in
providence between the tribes of this confederacy, ourindustry has been concentrated
upon agriculture. To the North we have cheerfully resigned all the profits arising
from manufacture and commerce. Those profits they have, for the most part, fairly
earned, and we have never begrudged them. We have sent them our sugar and
bought it back when refined ; we have sent them our cotton and bought it back when
spun into thread or woven into cloth. Almost every article we use, from the shoe-
lachet to the most elaborate and costly article of luxury, they have made and we have
bought ; and both sections have thriven by the partnership, as no people ever thrived
before since the first shining of the sun. So literally true are the words of our text,
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Palmer, B. M. (Benjamin Morgan), 1818-1902. Thanksgiving sermon, delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, New Orleans, on Thursday, Nov. 29, 1860 /, pamphlet, Date Unknown; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth498613/m1/5/?q=%22%22~1&rotate=180: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Schreiner University.