The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-03-24

in the hands Of the same faniiy-aEd those per-
sons who are now large owners OF slaves, have
more generally acquired them by purchase than
by inheritance. II The time should lie liked by
Law beyond which there should be no Increased
slavery in Kentucky, it would cause these accu-
mutations of slaves in the hands OF our people
to cease.
The advantages TO flow from system OF thls
sort will be that it will avoid many perplexing
questions likely 10 grow out Of other systems
that it will at once check the importation OF
slaves mao the State-that it viii check that
| large emigration Of useful citizens, who year by
| ye,r leave Kentucky to find home where theii
descendants may be free from the baieful effects
OF slayery-that no one being longer interested
in the increase of the enervating, sloth-engender
ing, slavery system, the energies and capital OF
the State viii be diverted into other and more
beneficial enterprises.
| II would appear tome that those persons VINO
are fayoring inaction on this subject, hoping ana
believing that moral causes will bring about
speedily enough, the end Of slavery IN the STATE
should favor scheme Of this sort, because u
possesses the very advantages, in. high degree,
for whi.h they contend. The change VIII be
gradual, and for the most part, voluntary II
will give sort Of protection TO moral causes,
allowing them TO work out their effects more
certainly and efficiently.
/ II understand what those causes are, they
include all those which tend to diminish the
i H. l.tnfa az
expectation OF slaves Now, if those causes
are allowed their full time TO work out their ef-
fects, il is to be apprehended that with the MD
dance OF this evil, viii be brought those other
evils of wom-out soils, impaired morals, and
general impoverishment. Already our more for
nmate neighbors are sending abroad their rail-
roads, and building up their commercial and
manufacturing points, with which our people
cannot successfully compete with so lame
start in iherace. We must place ourselves in
condition successfully 10 compete with them in
the establishment of these great interests or for
ever remain tributary to them in some measure.
But amongst the moral causes which have
Kept down the proportion OF slaves in our Com
monwealth, is expectation, induced by the greater
profit TO be made by the cultivation Of cotton
and sugar on the new and fertile soils Of the
vast South. That demand has been supplied al
most 10 Iepletion, and the products of the South
are daily becoming less and less valuable in the
market Every one must see that, howevermany
addresses southern men may publish, that there
can be no further extension Of the institution Of
slavery. These causes must turn the tide Of
slave population back upon US, or, at least, so
far check it. as to suspend this drain upon our
surplus negro population. This is one natural
cause, which has heretofore aided in bringing
about the extinction Of slavery in our midst, that
viii, at some distant day, tend 10 its increase.
l do not present this view Of the subject with
any idea that it is to obviate all objections to
slave emancipation; but simply as one calcula-
ted, in my judgment, to meet many difficulties
If the ffiePds of emancipation, or the enemies
of the pepetuation of slavery await the proposal
of some faultless plan, that day viii never come
when any movement ON the subject shall be
made II persons shall be found as ready TO de-
wise remedies or means Of obviating difficulties,
as 10 find and point them out, there are many
ways by which emancipation could be made en-
trely feasible. For example, many will be
found to suggest that there are great difficulties
growing out of declaration that all persons born
after particular day are bonn free, who win
advocate the proposal that persons born after that
same cay should be free at 81 years Of age,
wheRir, fact the effect is the same; if il is de
clared that the owner Of the mother shah be en-
titled to the apprenticeship Of the child
Can any one doubt that there is enough of en-
ergy, resources, and moral power in Kentucky
to carry out more burdensome schemes Of eman.
ciPatior, than any which have been suggested
Let the irends of the cause, then, rally to its
support with aspint Of determined harmony, and
already the result will have been achieved
WILBERFORcE