The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-12-16


| ciple the late compromise was passed, and as
such it has been acquieseed in, by the people of
| North Carolina. 1t becomes US now to examine
! our situation, and see what is to be our future
| condition under the operation of this law
II is worse than idle for any man to distract
his mind with discussion whether slavery is an
evil or blessing. We find it an institution
existing amongst us, forming the substratum Of
our social system, which no legislation can re-
move and with which all tampering produces
more evil than good. In my judgment Proyi-
dence has permitted the barbarous African to be
brought here for wise and benefcent purposes.
Guided by the science and energy Of the white
man, the power of endurance of the negro race
has been the sole and only means, of reducing
vast regions of malarious country into cultiya-
! ton, which would otherwise forever have re-
manned wilderness and, sir, unless mistaken
! legislation interferes, when the mission of the
race is fulfilled here, the same inscrutable wis
dom may carry it to other regions similarly
situated, to subdue the earth and to replenish
| 1t.
Why then should the black race be confined
within their present limits Why not throw as
wide as possible the doors Of emgration, that
they may gradually and ithout disturbing the
Industry of the country seek climates better
adapted to their habits and constitutions, than
North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland! This
would have been the part Of wisdom, but the
| Abolitionists objected, and the General Govern
ment yielded to their objections. The Ameri-
can Government in its suicidal liberality invites
to California, the inmates of the poor ho:ses
and work shops Of Europe, the semi barbarous
inhabitan, Of China, and the Sandwich Islands,
in fact the escaped convict from Australia is n
welcome visitor there is cordial welcome to
all the world to dig gold upon the public land
except to the sober and patient aborcr Of the
South he alone is excluded
There is one view Of the slave question, to
which wish to call the attention of this Senate
and if possible, through them, of the people Of
North Carolina. | will suppose what few per-
sons believe, that the North is satisfied with the
late adjustment or compromise of the slave ques-
| ton that having excluded the slave holder from
all the benefits Of California and New Mexico,
and arrested the slave trade in the District OF
Columbia, she is contented with her triumph
and will cease all further aggressions on the
South. 1t is now settled principle that slavery
must be restricted within its present limits the
whole power of the Federal Government is here
after to be brought to bear against any expan-
sion of this institution.
Let US examine to what condition this princi-
pie will bring the South, and particularly North
Carolina, the Union loving North Carolina. We
are told by the first census taken in the United
States after the adoption Of the Constitution,
viz: 1890 that there was then in the whole
| Union 697S97 slaves; by the census OF 1910,
this number had increased to 2,4S7 1855, showing
that the law of increase for the black population
in fifty years was more than three times and
half in the same proportion in 1890, before the
close of the present century, which is now half
gone, the slave population within the Union
will amount to within fraction of nine millions
Now, sir would ask those dear lovers of the
Union who are rejoicing upon the passage of
the compromise bill, if they believe this Union
can exist with 100000 Of human beings,
penned up in slavery in the very centre of the
republic! And even supposing this vast popu
lation should continue to be quiet and orderly,
it is well worth an enquiry, what in all human
probability will be the pecuniary condition Of
the owners of these slaves? We know that the
slave cultivation is an eXhaustng and impover-
ishing one to the soil This must always ne
cessarilv be more or less the case the slave is
an admirable pioneer to clear and ditch new
lands, but even now with few exceptions, unless
upon the best cotton, rice, and sugar plantations,
{ his labor is not remuneratlve. w hat then must
it be, when the number is enormously increased,
and that increase restricted to worn and impov-
erishcd soils The time is rapidly approaching,
: and the present generation will not pass away
t before the fact will be apparent, that slave pro-
Y perry will have no transferable or commercial
: value the owners of it will see before them
! hopeless and inextrcable poverty; and their
I only safety will be in abandoning it to its fate.
Thus will be realized one of the anticipations
Of the Abolitionists, in aralling-in slavery with
in its present boundaries. The slave will be
practically free, his owner, for fear of starvation,
will abandon him but, sir, the end will not be-
yet The North, by "a combination Of agrari-
l Il .,,GI olt, h,,t -,
doing so, she will rear into terrible Importance,
in the very heart of the republic, millions of de-
7 graded and ignorant human beings, wild with
unexpected and unyalued freedom, and prepared
for any thing revenge or ambition may propose.
n In this appalling state of the country, North
Carolina will be the severest sufferer BY the
! census of 1910, sic had within her border 245,-
SIT slaves. BY the law of increase already men,
toned, this number will amount in $40 to more
than 100000. This estimate is doubtless below
what It will be, for the census tables sho'v thar
between 1890 and 1920, before the great emf
, grafton took place from North Carolina to the
South West, our slave population Increased at
+ the rate of nearly threefold in thirty years
| have said that North Carolina would be more
seriously injured by this ralling-in policy of the
Federal Government than any of the Southern
States, and this will be apparent II we would
lima has but little territory peculiarly adapted
to the profitable occupation of slave labor, much
t o. her soil is already worn down by constant
e cultivation and needs the rosusctation OF rest
t and economical and skilIful husbandry, which
n can never take place when burdened by IL su
pcrabundant population of saves.
2 In 40 years from this time, unless the law Of
population is changed IN orr case, North Caro-
lima wi contain more than 100000 slaves nearly
. al ofthem ricultural laborers drawnga scan V
support from wnrn ont and impoverished soil.
The first effect of this great increase of slaves,
will be temporary rise in the value Of land and
depression IN the value Of labor, the poor non
shareholder will be forced to emigrate, the owner
of slaves will be compelled to purchase land to
employ and feed his surplus labor until the
State becomes one vast plantation, barely pro-
ducinc enough to sustain, in the oh ap"st and
scantieSt manner, her teemng bl ok population
/ IL 1t were possible for nations to learn any
thing from history or example, we have passing
hnforp our ayes m exact rotot, of orr future