Susan B. Anthony  SPEECHES AND WRITINGS FILE  Speech during Wadsworth Campaign, 1862

S B. A.  during the Gen. Wadsworth's campaign -1862  35
Policy, alone, demands Emancipation.
Suppose we had had a government when
South-Carolina seceded, and it had resolutely
said to her, "the cause of your discontent
and final rebellion, is your pet institution
of slavery - We are resolved to remove it,-
your inhuman greed shall no longer perplex
the nation, - your 400,000 thousand slaves
are free-men; - and I, James Buchanan,
Commander in Chief of the army & navy
of the United-States, will send into
your midst 100,000 Northern Federal
Soldiers, to enforce the edict, if need be!
How many states, think you, would have
followed South Carolina? Of her
400,000 slaves, not less than 50,000 stalwart

35
freed men would have rallied to our
aid. And with such an allied force 
of grateful hearts & generous hands, what
other state would have dared to go
to the rescue of those South Carolina
tyrants? - Or if they went, what fate
awaited them, but freedom to their
slaves, and a fresh marshalling of
those only loyal men to our advancing
[hosts of freedom] - army-
None know better than the Rebels the
secret of their power. Not one , or all, the
seceded states, could, unaided & alone,
maintain slavery. Every day's reports
from the Slaves, proves the old assertion,
that they have been held in their chains

37
by fear of Federal power, rather
than that of their masters.- They
have always been thoroughly educated to
know the solemn obligations of the North,
to their oppressors, and how utterly
hopeless were all attempts at insurrection
and revolution, while the United States
army stands ready, at the first tap of
the drum, to beat them back to the plantations.
Our sham republican government,
has stood sentry over the slave
plantations of the South, from the day
of its birth- and all other civilized 
nations have silently looked on.-
    If, in the beginning, such stern Eman-
cipation policy would have most speedily, forever

38
ended the rebellion, think you, it would
prove any less effective, after our twelve
months of dress parades on the Potomac,
and guerilla passes on the Prairies?
    Do you say that immediate, and
unconditional emancipation is impracticable,
-that you like better President Lincolns
process of Gradualism  and compensation? I answer, without
the old assertion of the Abolitionists,.-
"Immediate & unconditional Emancipation"
as the duty of the Master & the right of
the Slave, is the only practical or safe
plan of emancipation.
   There is no safety in Slavery,
whether it is fixed for all time,
or for 50- 25- or 5 years. Its conditions

                         39
are over those of discord & strife. Perpetual
Slavery is perpetual War. Doubt & distrust
are the spiritual food, alike, of Master
& slave. The Stranger , within the
gates & without is a terror to both.
The interest of the one , is the injury of the
other. The friend of the slave is
the enemy of the Master. Fellowship
with the oppressor , is ostracism of the
oppressed.- This war has greatly
enlightened, even the  most benighted
of the slaves, and ushered thousands
of them into the kingdom of Freedom.
All along the Slave Coast from Fortress
Monroe, to Port-Royal , they are now
enjoying  the free earnings of their own

40
industrious hands.- In Kansas,- they
are turning the sod of the Prairies in
the knowledge that Seed time & harvest
are now for them, as for the  Anglo Saxon.
  With our armies on our Southern
frontier, from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi, & west to the Rocky Mountains,
they are serving as waggon masters,
body servants, hostlers, books, guides, general
helpers, faithful messengers, reliable inform-
ants;- every where & in every way, giving
most valuable aid & comfort to the
cause of the Union. - Generals
McLellan, Dix, Sherman, Halleck,
Burnside, may issue their poltroon
orders  & proclamations, that no Slave

41
shall be allowed to enter his Military
lines, that he will return fugitive
slaves to their Masters, - that he will
"put down Slave insurrections with
an iron hand", - that the march of
his army shall in no wise interfere
with slave property;- but still they
come- still they hail the approach
of our armies, as their evangel of
freedom. Long have they waited 
in simple faith, with hope & prayer
for the opening of their prison doors;-
Now they believe the time has come,
and with generous confidence they
seek the Federal Camps;- and, if
there is justice in Heaven, terrible

42
will be the judements on those recreant
men who have dared betray the panting
fugitive.- Can it be, that any who
march beneath our Stars & Stripes,
have done so base a deed?- Alas,
alas! it is but too true- sarcely a
days report, since the war began, but
has brought to us the name of some Officer
or soldier, of army or navy, blackened by
shameful ingratitude to the slave,
Witness:- Gen. Kelly
                  Stone
       Camp Holt,
     Gen. M. Cook
         Steele
        Quimby

43
Under your gradual emancipation scheme,
do you expect to return the thousands &
tens of thousands of slaves now within
our Military lines , back to their old Status?-
   Will those men & women who are
to day working for wages,- purchasing
their own food & clothing, learning to
read their own Bible, - paying their
own ministers to preach to them the
gospel of freedom to the black man,-
marrying & giving in marriage that no slave
tyrant may put asunder,- living serenely,
in the blest enjoyment of all the rights
& privileges sacred to humanity?- Will
they with alacrity , return to unpaid
toil for the brief term even of 10 or 20 years?

44
Will they cheerfully give their palm-
iest days to slavery, that their chil-
dren may be- free? It is worse than
folly, it is madness, to propose it.
    Insurrections, fearful & bloody
would surely follow, any & every at-
tempt to subject those heroic freed-
men to the old regime of the lash.
    And if you leave them free, think
you they will forget their Fathers & Mothers,
their brothers & Sisters, their husbands,
wives & children still in chains, & never
make one effort to rescue their loved
ones from the galling yoke: I tell
you never!! - Remember the weary
 years figurative slaves, in the north, have

45
struggled to get money to pay the
cruel price of a slave Mother,
or Father or daughter. the hundreds, who
have re-visited their old prison-
homes & spirited away the beloved
of their hearts to the land of freedom.
One brave woman, Harriet Tubman,
- the "Moses" of our day, has visited
that land of darkness seven or eight
times, & brought safely off over one
hundred of her slave friends.
The millions of slaves not now
within our military lines, know of the 
good fortune of their fellows, and live
in the faith that their day of jubilee is
 near.  Tell tham there is no longer

46
hope, that the Yankees, whom [they
looked] coming they have so long
waited, have bargained with their
masters, that they shall remain slaves
to the end of their lives, & all their
children to the age of twenty- one. & 
what do you expect ?  Ghastly despair
possesses their souls. Only deeds of 
desperation can come of such reversion
of the hearths dearest hopes. - Insurrections 
are the sure result of any attempt to
dash to earth again their almost
realized [hopes] expectations.
Immediate emancipation , with full
justice to every liberated slave, is the 
only way of safety, peace, & prosperity, to the nation.

47

Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.