New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-08-05
African Mail Steamers.

and asks it to explain and Justify the recent
Report Of the Naval Committee Of the House
in favor Of establishing by Government aid
a line of most capacious and powerful Mail
Steamers between the chief Atlantic ports
Of this country and the Western Coast of
Africa. We give that Report entire in The
Tribune this morning, and ask for it the
consideration which the importance of the
subject demands.
The details of the Committees plan we
have not sufficiently considered, and hardly
feel qualified to pass judgment upon them.
We DO not know how large Steamers ought
to be built for the service in question, nor
how much they ought to cost nor what sum
should be paid by the Government for the
Mail service proposed. These are questions
Of detail, to be passed upon by legislators
and men familiar with Steamships and Com
merce. Still, our unfamiliarity with such
matters does not blind US to the gross I'M
fairness Of The Post in assuming that the
Mail Service in question is to cost the Gov
erDmert Half q Million per annum, and
that the contractors are to be permitted to
import goods free Of duty, &c. &c. when the
Committee have suggested no price for the
! Nail service, and have expressly negatived
TIE idea Of admitting goods BY these Steam
crs otherwise than upon the payment OF the
regular rates Of duty. IfThe Post had pub
Hshed the Report, its Interpretations
would have been more excusable.
That The Tribune earnestly favors the
idea of extending National aid to the speedy
and final extirpation of the Slave-Trade
by colonizing the Slave Coast Of Africa
with settlements Of civilized and Christian
lied people Of African descent, the world
well knows. We believe this Country owes
a debt to Africa whereof the payment should
no longer be postponed; we believe the bet
lei :r SS2rtiOn of the Free Blacks of America
ought to conseerate their lives to the work
Of regcnerating and civilizing the land Of
their fOrefathers; we believe that the Slave
Trade never will and never can be bro
ken up by cruisers on the coast man
ned by white men to whom the
climate is deadly; and we can hard
ly doubt that the money spent by
Christian States in vain efforts TO sup
press the execrable traffic in human
beings, if wisely applied to Colonial
ton, would have rendered the further
prosecution of that traffic impossible long
before this time. We believe that emigrantS
to Africa could do far better if they were
fifty thousand year than they can while
they are but a few hundreds. We believe
that Africa is the proper arena on which
to develop the talents and capacities of the
Black Race for SelfGOvernment effective
Industry, the Useful Arts and Social Eleva-
ton and while we shall always advocate
the extension to them in our own land of
equal rights and franchises with Whites,
We fear that Habit, Prejudice and Educa-
ton will long cODsign the greater portion of
them to seryitude and dependence among
us. We believe that an extensive, lucrative
and bcnefcent Commerce between Africa
and this Country might be speedily created
under the impulse of extensive Emigration
and regular Steam communication with our
principal ports. In short, we are on many
grounds anxious that such Steam COM
munication should be established and if
the plan of the House Committee is not
judicious, we trust it may be amended
and made right. We want to see our Navy
absorbed or superseded by Mail Steamers,
fitted to be fully armed and manned at
short notice, and regularly carrying the |
Flag, the Commerce and the Mails Of |
our Country te all accessible parts of the
earth. If our present Navy were only burnt
to the last ship we believe the Country
might have one of Mail Steamers more eff
cient at less expense, and earning the Nation
all its cost by the conveyance of Mails and
the opening Of new channels to our Com
merce. Such are the reasons which impel
US to look with favor on the proposed line of
African Mail Steamers, while we look to
Congress to make any changes in the plan
Of the enterprise or the persons to be en-
trusted with its conduct which the public
interest may require.
Filth and PesIilencc,