The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-12-16
A For the Examiner
1Eoa = llla on sladanl EnsaneirniIon.

tA For the Examiner.
1koagiits en Gradual Emancipation.
Isupposerlat the question is forever settled |
that the way to make populous and thriving
Commonwealth is not 10 introduce SLAVERY into
it. Young Ohio and Indiana in their gigantic
youth, stand too near to hale and lusty old Ken
lucky TO leave THAT debateable question.
utanother curious question springs up there
from, which is quite debateable. low long a
and thrifty people will submit quietly
to the silent and sure working of an uneco-
nomic. wasteiul, and impoverishing system
That is now precisely the question.
Taat they will stand il good while, much
longer than any reasonable man would have
dared to conjecture, old Kentucky has already
why are really worth investigating.
One undoubtedly is, the strange pertinacity
with which we hold to institutions handed down
from our ancestors, and amid which our youth
was passed, however manifestly perniciOus those
institutions may be. "Better to bear the ills we
suffer, than TO fly to those we know not Of"
is very strong feature Of human nature, and
Of no portion Of il more than of patient and
long-suffering saxon.human nature.
To this may be added the real practical diff
Guilty of changing the entire mode of cultivation
over an extensive region Of country However
cautiously aud prudently done, it is sure, some
say, TO involve a period Of serious embarrass-
ments. Nearly throughout the whole length
and breadth of the obacco-growing country, the
feeling is very strong that it is an anxious,
pains-taking, troublesome, uncertain, and very
exhausting crop. And yet not only does gen
GRAFTON of tobacco growers go on grumbling and
complaining. but still planting tobacco; but sue
cessive generations till, the virgin soil utterly
exhausted, the country is turned out to old
felds,..t ill harder population shall undertake
to restore its productiveness. Just so IL Is with
slavery. II is not only not economic, but alb
solotely ruinous, and yet most persons cleave
to II with Il strange tenaciiy. False pride, per-
haps, is somewhat at the bottom Of this. There
is something lofty and aristocratic in the pos
session of Il large retinue Of vassals. And al.
though poor gentleman, is what is rather
4
be 2enniless and houseless, than obliged to black
ones own shoes. So, broad acres and the old
homestead 60 first, and thereafter one servant af-
ter another, TO save the too gsnteel white hands
from rough contact with mother earth. False
pride. engsndered by thesystem, and then terri
bly, revenging its own wrongs upon those IN
whom, that pride has been fostered thereby!
Allied to this, but partaking of far nobler
type Of pity and compassion, is another, and, as
1t seems TO me, far more powerful cause
mean the very mistaken idea that the mother,
the wife, and the daughter will be inevitably re-
euced, by any plan Of emancipation. to the con-
dition of domestic drudges. Thus falsely i'm
pressed, how can We wonder that men who, in
the free States, start up from table, rather than
permit themselves TO be waited upon by some
fair damsel, would not rather be reduced TO alb.
solute Penury, would mot indeed rather die,
than see the refined, the delicate. and the highly
educated amongst those dearest to them upon
earth, brought down to the misera bic condition
of the meanest slave. The discomfort, of some Of
the free States, at the West, stare them in the
face. Not a few have tried il, and have come
back submitting their own necks gloomily TO
the orag-ehain Of slavery in their own farming
operations, and foregoing the glorious prospects
unfolding before their children in the free States
sooner than see their own flesh and blood re-
duced to perform those mental Offices, which
there, cannot be devolved upon Others for hire,
even at the most exhorbitant prices.
Nothing can be clearer, than that no such
disagreeable doom awaits Kentuckians un-
der the operation Of almost any conceivable
scheme of gradual emancipation. Enough of
the slaves will be left amongst US for 'hewers of
wood, and drawers of water, for more than a
generation-Probably more than enough, profita-
bly,, TO fill the gap between the csasiDg Of the full
operation of the old system and the successful
introduction Of the new.
Mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters will in
deed have more 10 do, but il will be of those
lighter and more pleasant parts Of the domestic
economy, which will be found to be quite as
agreeable as carrying the ancient load of the
old basket of keys, and quite an feminine as the
occasional use Of our unnamable instrument of
domestic economy, not unknown in those
households under the ancient regime, where
there were so many landmarks that gentle coer.
cion became indispensable to make enough Of
them Industrious to do the work of the rest.
"There you have IT," exelaims the inveterate
objector! "Did not tell you that some scheme
would be- proposed, not contemplating the re-
nova Of the liberated blacks7 Fer my part |
am decidedly in favor of gradual emancipation.
but only on condition Of the entire removal
from the soil, and that forever, of every free
black -
Thoughts upon. this question in our next.
A. C-n.