Weekly national intelligencer., 1850-03-02

universal confession that ii is, and was from tn
first, humbug. The progress or destiny of slavery
(which il professed to arrest and crcumscribe-
has never been, and cannot be, under the constitu
ton and social organization of this country, to any
percephble extent, controlled by such legislation
or indeed by any Federal legislation. Nor is il sub
ject to the control of any organized merely phi.
lanthropic agency. Slavery in the United States
was an accident and fell within the scope of com
mercal interest 1t has subsisied, ever since its
Introduction, upon inducements of interest. 1t
will finally disappear, through the influence of the
same inducements and through no other visible or
practical agency. Federal legislation will never
abolish it, nor increase it; it will co. under our sys-
tenn, wherever it is wanted. Where it is not want
ed, no device of craftsmanship will ever carry it.
Every one seems to overlook the fact that extern
sion of the area of slavery is neither the increase
nor the perpetuation of slavery. If we could peo-
pie New Mexico and California with slaves (which
never can be done,) we should dispeopie, to the
same extent, Maryland and Virginia, Kentucky and
Missouri, and have placed the slave in regions
where emancipation would be certain and speedy
The whole history of slavery is full of demon
stration of these principles. Nothing is more
groundless than the idea of the slave population
becoming too numerous within the territory OF
the States that now allow it. These States
have eight hundred thousand square miles and
make eight millions. Fifty to the square mile
would give forty millions. No one who observes
the progress of slavery can believe that the Uni
ted States will ever exhibit an aggregate of one
fourth of this number, let them be placed where
they may. If these views be true, OF what import
is the Wilmot proviso Suppose the whole United
States were opened to slavery, and Great Britain
besides, can any one believe that slave peasant
ry-I mean population of slaves to do the work
Of country-would or could be introduced into
either OF them? Some family servants might be
introduced and, far this class of persons was
concerned, there would be nothing in their condi-
ton to be deplored but of working population
none could exist in the presence Of the competition
of white labor. Whilst, on the other hand, the
attempt to dismiss slave labor by sudden or prema-
ture disruption, in the regions where it is profitable
and congenial, would be not less disastrous to the
black population than it would be to the white.
There is abundant illustration Of this in the recent
history fsavery on this continent. To certain ex-'
tent therefore, the relationship of slavery to society
is founded upon principles which legislation cannot
violate with impunity. 1t may very safely be left
to the operation of these principles. Nothing is
more certainly true than that the instinct charac-
terstic tendencies of Ango-Saxon associations is ad-
verse to perpetuity Of slave Institutions. Slave
ry only thrive in that association whilst socie-
ty is in its earlier stages of growth, and occupies
territorial space greatly larger than its actual popu
ation requires in other words, whilst it is anpro
vided with sufficient stock of white labor. 1t has
been computed by men Of shrewd and philosophic
observation, that slavery cannot maintain itself in
any region of the United States favorable to free
labor, when the population of such region has ar
rived at fifty to the square mile. From that stage
OF population slavery necessarily begins to dwindle,
and finally disappears. This is the experience of the
States which have already disburdened themselves
Of it and the influence of this fact is visible in those
States which approaching that stage Of popula-
ton. No mere philanthropy, therefore, no agency
sprnging out of an impulsive sentmentaity, will
ever accomplish any thing towards the extirpation
of slavery. They will accomplish little more than
the engendering of discomfort amongst the slaves
and, to that extent, embitering the 'hardships Of
servitude. Nor has Christianity any direct action
upon it through the nstrumentality Of legislative
statutes. That benign institute, always wisely alb.
staining from interference with the DEGREES of the
lawgiver, much more potently assails the evils of
human condition by the silent infusion of its spirit
into the breasts Of those who conduct the affairs Of
any generation. Whatsoever institution works OPP
preston, finds its first reform and its gradual aboli-
ton in that spirit of Christianity which corrects the
heart and enghtens the understanding spirit
that neither imporunes the Legislature, nor violent
y assas the peace and brotherhood of society. 1t
lnstrucs through precepts, not through laws, and
lifts society into condition with which inhuman-
ity, injustice and oppression are incompatible. The
reformer of any age, and more particularly of this
age of enlightenment, may confidently abide the in
huence Of these motives and much more surely
hope to see good consummation resulting from
them than from any harsh and exasperating system
of agitation. @.
Providence seems to have supplied us with, at
once, the most powerful and the safest impulses for
the disposal Of slavery, in the incentives OF personal
interest In that interest slavery originated, and
we may say, without offending the prejudces of
any one that as it respects the African, it has con-
ferred upon him blessing not meditated by man.
It brought him forth from the most brutal barbarism
known to the human race and transplanted him into
the realms of civilization, where he has become
whatsoever he is in elevation above the bestial con-
dition in which he originally lived. His fate. in
this respect, we may affirm, has been directed by
an inscrutable Providence, which has decreed no
small good to him in the midst of all his wrongs.
The same impulse Of interest," apparently under
like guidance, is conducting his posterty towards
final emancipation, which, we may readily believe,
from what we see around US, is at last, to restore
him, civilized and christianized man, back to
that shore from which his ancestor was dragged in
irons and shedding the bitterest tears. Another
century may witness him on that shore, free,
prosperous, and happy citizen of an enlightened
Republic.
II we look at the history Of slavery in our own
States, we shall find some strange and instructive
foct In he nnr;nd Immediately Drecedno he