The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1844-09-18

PLAN TO TEXAS, If 1T BE NOT AN
NExED
We have already stated the fact that low wages
primary consideration in the plan which Great
Britain had in view in emancpating the negroes and
that unless this essential end could be effected one
Of her grand Objects the supply of the markets of the
world, would fail of accomplishment If the wages
of other nations could be brought up to the level
which she found those of the West Indies assuming
then the same object would be effected in another
way. To abolish slavery throughout the world
would effect this, and hence the avowa that slavery
throughout the world was the object of her implaca
bic disgust As this process, however one Of very
slow operation, she finds 1t necessary to make wages
low by an artificial process. This, the vasness and
density Of her population in the East Indies will
BILE her to do, and crowd Of foreign laborers-not
white, not brought from Africa, but from Inda--n
which labor is cheaper than in any other country
where labor comes freely to market"-beng added
to the population of her principal West India islands
Tho negro population will be brought TO the neces
sity Of working for cheap wages, or of starving
Such large number of laborers from India will pro-
duce density of population, ever, as mems moral
dispositions are now, productive Of low wages. The
competition will cheaper the price Of employment,
and the negroes nominally FREQ will be scarcely, if
at ALL in better condition than they when they
were slaves There will be fearful meaning in The
question asked by the New York American with re-
spect to an importation of laborers from India into
Demsrara, Trinidad, and Jamaica, about to take
place. II the experiment be successful what is to
become Of tho negroes'' We have already said what
s~;1 IF fhev a,th
or work so cheap to give them the bare means of
subsistence. Tho paragraph to which we alude is
in the New York American of the lih September,
and among the items BY the packet ship Oxford, FIVE
days later than those by the previous arrival.
$40 900 hill Coolies (na,ives Of the hill country,
lndis) were, it is stated in the Greenock Adver-
tssr, about to be shipped from Calcutta and Bonn
bay for Demerara, Trinidad and Jamaica, with The
consent Of the Government, and under bonds from
these colonies for their good treatment The cost Of
transporting them is estimated at fl2 sterlng-(S60
per head
The very object Of this Importation is to cheaper
their labor, and with her immense Indian population
Great Britain can effect it. She can bring such
crowds Of Hindoos, used to cheap labor there, a, to
compel the negroes 10 work on her own terms
Il is natural that England should wish 10 have
sugar cheap, and il is desired by herfor which no
ono can blame her-that it should be raised in her
own domniops. Experiment has now proved to her
that her West Indian negroes cannot be induced to
work in sugar-rasing, but for wages destructive not
only Of all fair profit but Of all profit whatever upon
the capital invested. The strong inducements she is
under to remedy this state Of things, will appear in
the subsequent extract from the London Qoarterlys
The introduction Of the Coolies from India will.
in ali probability, prove effective. 1t will force
the negro to work in sugar raising, 10 some ex-
tent, at a rate of wages leaving the capitalist
fair profit. The united labors of the Coolies
and that portion of the negro population who must
join them in their empoyments a, the same wages, or
s,arvc by the introduction Of such numbers of com.
psing free laborer' may resuscita,e The production of
sugar in the British West indies. The extract refer
red 10 il a. follows;
But sugar in this county has now become one of
the neccsssrics Of life II has been rendered almost
Indispensable, among the poorest classes by Their
extensive consumption of tea and coffee
East India sugar, las we shall presently see) NAV
from all past experience, be expected, II hlthe IA
any considerable quantity to require though at an
equaized duty, price rather above than below the
sugar Of the West, even with the calculated addition
Of shilings per hundred weight for free labor the
advantages enjoyed by the East Indian in chea pness
of labor and other items Of his outlay beinu over.
balanced by the heavier Of bis inland carriage
and long voyage TO England. Now, as England con
sumss almost 20O,0O0 tons, or 4OOOOO cwts of
West India sugar yearly, advance on that sugar of
shiIlings per cwt be es mated additional cos, Of
FREQ abor,) would be Tar Of nearly 900 900 s,er
ling levied principally upon the working clauses of
our own people and yet, the duties and commercial
restrictions remaining now, would be nm adyanc
altogether unavoidable.
"Peihsp. it would be too romantic TO expect tina, a
philanthropic consideration for the remote AMI
ferpgs Of the African would lead the ms ior,y of the
lower ranks in England TO acquiesce in the payment
of this heavy charge, still less in the surrender or
Arrangement Of of their mos, imooran, d,,lv
comforts. The rise Of prices to so great an amount.
and on 30 necessary an article could not, in fact, fail
to excite loud and general demand for cheaper So
gar, and since the British possessions woold he
incapable Of satisfying this demand il could be qui
etcd only by the bssty removal Of those prohbitory
duties which now virtually exclude the sugars OF the
foreign, that r, the slave importing colonies
The diminutiop Of consumption, comrcled by
the rise OF prices, would have ocoasioned grieyous
deficiency n the revenue produced by the sugar du
ties for instance, diminution Of ope-6fth would
leave deficiency Of near 81 900 900 sterling Eu,
the income lot to the Erchequer would be bu, Too
easily supplied by the admission of the foreign slave
grown sugars a, low rate Of duty and that would
be suhcient temptation, with most Governme nts
Thus we see the strength OF national and Govern
mental necessities which impel Great Britain ,c
revive the raising Of sugar 10 her West India coooe.
which can be done, wa know, only by cheaper labo,
than that which the emapcipa,ed pegroe. furnish
and which she is now seeking to supply by imports.
tons Of free cheap laborcrs from India" of which
the wages are lower than in any other place wher,
labor cones freely TO market"
Let us remember that Great Britain has 100 900.