Litchfield enquirer., 1830-05-06

Ol cuUudy COHIalHS tn0 speech Ot MT
 Sngitk of South Carolina, on the resolution of MT. Foot. It occupies two pages o that paper. Among other subjects discuss. ed with much ability in this speech is thai of slavery. In reply to the remarks oi MT. Webster, Mir. Smith addressed the Senate in the following language :- Tho gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. WI has compared the comforts and advantages of the people of the Free and the Slave States, and given decided pre- ference to the former. I-believe, without arrogance or ostentation, there is, to say no more, as much comfort to be found in the slave-holding States as in any other portion of the Union. There is as much industry, as much kind feelings, as much charity, as much benevolence, as much hospitality, and as much morality; and all the social virtues are as much cherished, as they were any where, either in this or any other country.
 ] am moi disposed, sir, in this desultory manner, to examine this subject in all its bearings. The occasion is not suitable one, nor viii go into the origin of fslavery in this country; ifI were to do so, might without fear or contradiction, say, that Plymouth, the place" where the pilgrims landed," was the second port at which Az rican slaves were bought and sold on our shores. once examined this subject full ly, hut at the same time fairly and fear lessly. I say, sir, will not inquire how slavery was first introduced here, but see- ing they are here, and have been crowded from all tile other States upon us to the South, I Willaddress my argument, or pre- sent my reasons, to the sober understanding of those that hear me, why they ought, and they must be, left to time, and to the dis- change, if one can be effected, to alter (I say to bctter) their condition. All tho schemes of colonization and returning them 10 their primitive country, are who'll ly visionary. These things do well enough to talk about and sometimes have a pc litical effect, or give pecuniary employment to those who have nothing else to do. But, sir, if they were now all free, and the government had nothing farther to do than merely to transport them to Africa, you might take every cent from your treasury,
 
 not pay one fourth part of the expense of their transportation-no, not one-fourth part.
 ~ Then, sirs yhas yJgst are & we te Ja9 i! asHs,Ha places with their masters they to become masters and their masters to become slaves For, be assured, the two cannot live together as equals. What other effect is such state of things to produce upon this community?
 Some mad missionaries, and sclf created with some of your raving politicians, affect to believe, that the salva- ton of this Union depends upon the ques- ton of general emancipation. But will ask, if there be an orderly, honest and peaceable citizen, either in the Northern, Southern, Eastern, or Western portion of this Union, who would calmly and deliberately give his assent to such state of things. will not believe, for moment. there is such one to be found. There fore, can scarcely believe that l ought here to make this serious question. Whenever it shall happen, that any state shall bring this subject, in any serioas form, before the public, I shall then be ready and willing to meet it., in any shape in which it may present itself, be that shapo what it may.
 We have been egregiously misrepre- sented, sir, by visionary theorists, sPecula- ting travellers, and ranting politicians i; who would impose upon the world a be- lief that the slaves of tho Southern States are starved, and miserable, and tortured, and treated like brutes. It is utterly false. They may travel from pole to pole, and traverse every region of the civilized world, and they will ind, that there is not peas an,ry on the face of the earth, that enjoys so much civil liberty, and at the same time lives so comfortably, andso bounhtuliy, as the slaves of the Southern States. The idea which has gone abroad, to the con- trary, is visionary aad fabulous. We are told, and the world is told, in the pamph- le;s and public speeches, written and utter ed by bIockheads that know nothing about ii. that we never lie down to sleep in sate- ty that we are continually in fear of hay ing our throats cut before we awake. In some of the cities, where these pretended pi,ilanthrophisis are daily tampering with and exciting the slaves to insurrections, they have occasionally had some alarms but on the plantations, and in the inferior of the States, such thing has never been heard ok Did it become necessary toi me to arm against an enemy, either foreign