The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1850-11-07
Correspondence OF the n. y Tribune ss
LETTERS ON NEW-MEXICo. :
Slavery and Peonaye--Slavery EAten-
sion favora Bile to Emancipation.
EAGLE Pass. Thursday, Sept. -
BY CORA MONTGOMERY.

I s BY CORA MONTGOAERy-
EAGLE Pass, Thursday, Sept, IL.
Now that the position Of New Nj exicu is
I fixed, as itmust be before this can travel to
|yonr bands from the outermost edge Of this
n,ailess frontier-tixed beyond the caprices
of ultraism-i wish few words from the
South 10 have ulterancc before your con-
gregafion of Free Soilers. Not, however,
in that spirit, now so vehement in the ascen-
dent at the South, and which a perYerse con-
fict has exasperated into standard OF sec-
tional ioyality--l mean that one-eyed deter
mination TO regard slavery as the supreme
interest Of the South, to the neglect and sgc-
rihce ofother measures ofpolicy vital 10 the
honor and agrainiizement of her sectional
weight. The words of truth and solierness
viii be fearfully in the minority at this cri-
Sis of excitement, bur they are of Immortal
birth, aud if can trace them they will live
! TO be their own witness in their day of
trial .a,5 se
New Mexico can never become strong
slave holding state, ,aat is assumed and adj
mitted on every side, but there are those
who believe that the most liberal permission
to bring slaves there would be direct and
safe assistance TO the progress of en,ancipa-
tlon. This is not the opinion of those .Who
think slavery divine institufion, hogan
with the first germs Of human law, aud faied
to end only when the last law and the last
( rnau shall expire together; bit il is the be-
lief of many of those at the south who feel
that slavery has limitations i'll its lease. and
that on this continent the term thereof Is
distinctly visible in the future.
I Why we suppose the so much dreaded,
/ so~ much talked oias'extension Of slavery
should be slow but sure poison to slavery j.
worthy the attention of the non extension
lists as it is on the side Of the leaf they
do not usually turn over, or ii they do,
read with average kindIiness. We assume
] that the anxietics OF, the non-eXteDsionIsis
are not so much TO the exact longitude and
geographical extent Of slavery as to the in
crease of lis sum total ofpersons and dnra-
| fion. That is, they would count the souls
rather than The acres it covers, in their plans
of amelioraiion, aud if the control was in
them, would prefer diminishing the aggre-
gate Of slavery hy ten ihousand souls, 10 re-
dncing the area they occupied hy ten thou
sand square miles. Without discussing the
value of this geograp phical moralty. under
certain peculiarities OF circumstances; ]
must lake il for conceded that the sincere
aim Of the non-extensioui>Is Is to modlfv
! ful aud legitimate grave, such gentle and
regular decline that all moderate and high
minded persons could attend the funeral
with consciencps void of offence toward their
brethren. t rgae.aal
! New Mexico, as have before renind-
ed you, is a aiming Sta,e--a land of silver
and other ores requiring large combinations
of labor and capital TO disinter her hidden
wealth. In these operations, cheap and
coninandahe labor, such as we'll trained
gangs of slaves would supply, would not
fail to be profitable in the earlier stages of
idevelopement, While machinery was scarce
and imperfect, and intelligent labor exorbi-
family dear, if attainable, and il is likely that
same hundreds or even some thousands of
slaves might come in, if there was no legal
disability, while the infant mining interest
was making lis first steps. If so, they would
come 10 pass out of bondage after brief ap-
premiership. During their apm enticeship
they could hardly fail to earn for their mas
ter, as much as they had cost him, bnt they
would have done this all the same il they
worked for him at the same scant wages
that he pays the native poems. The pres
ence of this peOn service, far more than
than the arid sterilty Of her mountains, for
bId the continuance Of slavery in New
Mexico. In her crude transition state,
these bare, unsuiting mountains may be
probed by the simple and direct agency OF
ignorant serf labor, and when their value
is proved, machinery and intelligent hands
to manage it will be invited in as has hap
pened in Mexico.
Not one, think, will say there are more
than ten thousand white men in New Mex
leo. The Pueblo Indians, about " HON we
have many explanations, arc the
poor, but free civilized Indians, who live
in their own puebIos or villages. and es.
cape the sert'iom or peonage that bears
down to the dust, the landiess fifty thou
sands, who, under the old Mexican system
were the worst-fed, and the worst-cIothed
slaves on this continent. There cannot be
less than fifty thousand of these subdued
peOn classes, and all are indians--the chill
dren of the soil, dsinheri,ed and ensIaved
by their Spanish conquerors The Pueblo:
are freemen-after a fashion, because the,
own their homes and can raise their own
corn, and the lack of these conditions make
the hard and hopeless feature of peonage
While the whole arabic country is held by q
few rich men, the ignorant peasant mus
accept shelter and existence on the land.
holders terlns--the meanest piftance which
will support life for he knows no avenue
to redress or Improvement.
These poems are not strong or cheerful
workers, hut they are cheaper than African
slaves. The cost of purchase and trans
porsatiou of gang of ten slaves wouid Sc
: cure whole village of poems, and afte
this first cos, the peous are less expense I,
feed and ciothe than Africans. The latte
will not live and work on the peck Of cor,
/. u week, and blanket year, of the peon
If, however, as still think would happen
southern en,igrapts persisted in bringin.
with them their old family slaves, the va
cancies they left behind would be filed h,
white lahorers. The aggregate Of slaves
: hawever they may be dispersed or concen
: trated, can only lie increased by the natura
order of births. 1t draws no recruits from
emigration, and the eases in whrh n frc,
black can be cast back into servtuie ,nak
I no perceptible difference. Every draft OF
+ the slave population Of the older State
I. opens distinctly adoor to so many whi,
y Iaborers whose influence rnust he errayp,
against the competition of slave labor.
ten thousand slaves passed from Missouri
. iGto New Mexico they would not make
: a sla,eholding State, for stilI another an
! adverse class of laborers would Immediate
! Iiy overtalauce them, but the white me,